France For they ever held their Kings if not for the Head of their Church yet surely for the principall and most sound member thereof Which is the reason that the opening or Overture of their most ancient Councels under the first and second that is the Merovingian and Caroline line was ever by the power and authority and sometimes the presidencie of their Kings and Princes And my Authour quarrels very much the Monk Gratian for attributing to Isidore of Spain rather then to a Nationall Councell of France held in the yeare 829 that brave and excellent saying Principes seculi nonnunquam intra Ecclesiam potestatis adeptae culmina tenent ut per eandem potestatem disciplinam ecclesiasticam muniant God sometimes imparts secular power to Princes that live in the bosome of the Church that they might imploy this power in preserving ecclesiasticall discipline Saepe per regnum terrenum coeleste regnum proficit The Kingdome of Heaven doth many times take growth and encrease from these Kingdomes upon Earth Cognoscant principes seculi se Deo debere rationem propter Ecclesiam quam à Deo tuendam accipiunt And therefore the Great ones of the world must know that God will one day call them to an account for his Church so tenderly recommended unto them It is true indeed that these words are found in the sixth Councell of Paris lib. 2. c. 2. But it is as true that in my Book Isidore is set down in the Margent as ready to own them And both these will stand well enough considering that Isidore Scholar to Gregory the Great did flourish very neare 200 yeares before the Aera of that Councell and that that Councell by incorporating of these words unto the substance of their Canons doth put a greater lustre and authority upon them as the French Antiquary well observes And according to this doctrine are all those Capitulars or mixt Laws for matters of Church and Common-wealth of Charles the Great Ludovicus Pius Lewis the Grosse Pipine and others gathered by Lindenbrogius And a world of other Capitulaâ—s of the same nature intermingled with the Canons of the French Councells in the late edition of them by Sirmond the Jesuite In a word the very pure Acts and Constitutions of the Synods themselves were in those former times no further valid and binding then as they were confirmed by the Kings of France and entered duly upon the Records of their Palais or Westminster-Hall And yet under favour all Crowns Imperiall must give place in regard of this one flower of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to the Crown of Great Britannie For as our Prince is recorded to be the first Christian King so is he intimated to be the first that ever exercised ecclesiasticall jurisdiction being directed by Eleutherius the Pope to fetch his Laws by the advice of his Counsell from the Book of God the old and new Testament wherewith to reclaim his subjects to the Faith and Law of Christ and to the holy Church And if Father Parsons shall damne this Letter as foisted and another obscure Papist suspect it to be corrupted let the Reader content himself with these proofs in the Margent of a farre more authenticall averment and authority Sure I am that according to this advice of Eleâ—therius the British Saxon Danish and first Norman Kings have governed their Churches and Church-men by Capitulars and mixed Digests composed as it were of Common and Canon Law and promulged with the advice of the Counsell of the Kingdome as we may see in those particulars set forth by Mr. Lambard Mr Selden D. Powell and others And I do not beleeve there can be shewed any Ecclesiasticall Canons for the Government of the Church of England untill long after the Conquest which were not either originally promulged or afterwards approved and allowed by either the Monarch or some King of the Heptarchy sitting and directing in the Nationall or Provinciall Synod For all the Collections that Lindwood comments upon are as Theophrastus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rough and rugged money of a more fresh and later coinage And yet in those usurping times I have seen a Transcript of a Record Anno 1157. 3º Henr. 2. wherein when the B. of Chichester oppos'd some late Canons against the Kings Exemption of the Abbey of Battles from the Episcopall Jurisdiction it is said that the King being angry and much moved therewith should reply Tu pro Papae authoritate ab hominibus concessa contra dignitatum Regalium authoritates mihi à Deo concessas calliditate argutâ niti praecogitas Do you Sr goe about by subtilties of wit to oppose the Popes authority which is but the favour or connivence of men against the authority of my Regall dignities being the Charters and donations of God himselfe And thereupon requires reason and justice against the Bishop for this foul insolencie And it hath been alwayes as the practice so the doctrine of this Kingdome that both in every part and in the whole Laws do not make Kings but Kings Laws which they alter and change from time to time as they see occasion for the good of themselves and their Subjects And to maintain that Kings have any part of their Authority by any positive Law of Nations as this Scribbler speaks of a Jurisdiction which either is or ought to be in the Crown by the ancient Laws of the Realm and is confirmed by 1º Elis. c. 1. is accounted by that great personage an assertion of a treasonable nature But when Sr Edward Coke or any other of our reverend Sages of the Law do speak of the ancient Laws of the Realm by which this Right in ecclesiasticall causes becomes a parcell of the Kings jurisdiction and united to his Imperiall Crown they do not mean any positive or Statute-law which creates him such a Right as if a man should bestow a new Fee-simple upon the Crown as this Scribbler instanceth or any Law which declares any such Right created by any former Law but the continuall practice Judgements Sentences or as this very Report calls it Exercise of the ancient Laws of the Realm which declareth and demonstrateth by the effect that the Kings of England have had these severall flowers of ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction stuck in their Imperiall Garlands by the finger of Almighty God from the very beginning of the Christian Monarchy within this Island For so our Sententiae Iudicum and Responsa prudentum have been termed time out of mind a main and principall part of the Common Law of England And therefore having cleared this point at large I shall easily yeeld to Dr Coal that the Kings Majesty may command a greater matter of this nature then that the holy Table should be placed where the Altar stood and be railed about for the greater decencie and that although the Statute of 1º Elis. c. 1.
conceived should want a power to set the holy Table Altar-wise what can be said to that uniformity of publick order to which the piety of the times is so well enclined What say you to the good work which is now in hand Shall such a poore trifling piece of work as this discountenance these sublime intentions Non sinam non patiar non feram And thus our Coal sparkles and layes about him But surely these demonstrations were born in Thebes and not in Athens and being of the true Cadmean brood do kill and destroy one another suóque Marte cadunt subiti per mutua vulnera fratres For if the Vicar had power to transpose Tables and set up Altars without and contrary to the will of his Ordinary why should he not in the name of God demurre upon the Commands of his Superiour in matters of exteriour order and bid a Fico to your first Argument But if upon his first demurre in this kinde imperium intercidit the Empire Ecclesiasticall is at an end what shall become of the lusty blade that understood himself better then this extravagant Ordinary and of your second kinde of Argument Mary then if the Piety of the times the devotion of some judicious particulars and a good work as yet in Abeyance and pendant in the aire but ready yer long to fall upon our heads shall become the Square and Canon of our exteriour order in the Church Barbara celarent talke no more of Mood and Figure for I would not give a button for all your Syllogismes So that these Thebane Arguments that drew their first breath Vervecum in patria crassóque sub aëre are but a kinde of Sheeps head sodden in the wooll and will do the Writer of the Letter no harm at all being made of the tusks though of a Serpent indeed yet of a dead toothlesse Serpent First as touching the Reverend Ordinaries of this Land if there be any that dislike of their Callings or conceive of the same as not grounded upon Apostolicall and for all the essentiall parts thereof upon divine Right I would he were with Master Cotton in the New as unworthy of that most happy government which by the favour of God and the King all the Laitie and Clergie doe here enjoy in the old England But yet they never had or challenged unto themselves any such exorbitant power over their Clergie and over the Laws and Canons established especially over Acts of Parliaments as this Iudicious and learned Divine as he writes but indeed most injudicious and trifling Novice as he proves himselfe doth attribute unto them Did ever any Bishop covet to command his Clergie as a Generall doth his Armie in a drunken mutinie by Martiall Law And yet this is the very President he cites out of Tacitus No no Bishops have ever governed their Clergie by Canon Law and not by Cannon shot God hath appointed them to governe both the Priests and the People subjected unto them according to certaine divine and humane Lawes and that with a power of Moderation and not Domination saith a great Prelate of this Church Sitting in Synods they might heretofore judge of Canons but in their Chaires they are not to judge of Canons but according to Canons saith the Father of all the Canonists Otherwise why are the Appeals by Canon Law as ancient in the Church of God as the Canons themselves But because it is possible a Prelate may propose unto himselfe some peevish wrangling and waspish humour of his owne in stead of a Canon No ecclesiasticall Judge whatsoever is to guide himself by his own sense but by the authoritie of the Canons It is true indeed that our reverend Archbishops and Bishops shops here in England had a power in Synod to make Declaratories and Revocatories of their Common Law as they terme it to set penalties where they were wanting and aggravate them where they were deficient and to make Additaments to the constitutions of the Pope himselfe but still with this proviso that they do not overthrow the jus commune and crosse the generall Lawes of Gods Church But this power they had heretofore it being now quite taken away by King Henry the Eighth And that not for the reason some have given thereof because the state of the Clergie was then thought a suspected part to the Kingdome in their late homage to the Bishop of Rome for there were as great Royalists in those dayes as in any age sithence whatsoever but for the reasons I gave in the Chapter before that these Ecclesiastical Jurisdictiōs were the native Roses and Lilies of the Crown not first prickt in by Gardiner the Bishop but grafted and deeply rooted in the same by the first Gardener we read of from the very beginning So that the power of making and executing such Canons being ceased if the Ordinaries now command where there is no Law or former Canon in force it layes a burden and grievance upon the subject from which he may appeale as being a thing unjust and consequently of a nature whereunto obedience is no way due Nor do our reverend Bishops otherwise conceive it Whatsoever by the Laws of God the Prince or the Church is once constituted is no longer to be mooted upon but absolutely obeyed by all inferiours And what God the King and Church have directed is not to be put to deliberation but to execution And another learned man saith truly that we make not the power of the Bishops to be Princely but Fatherly and dirigible by the Lawes And Master Hooker gives the reason hereof When publike consent of the whole hath established any thing every mans judgement being thereunto compared is private howsoever his calling be to some kind of publike charge Now it is true as Dr. Coal noteth that in all doubts that may arise how to understand do and execute the things contained in our Liturgie a deciding power is left to the Bishop of the Diocese to take order by his discretion for the quieting of the same But it is as true that Coal dasheth out with an c. the main Proviso of this power So that the same Order be not contrary to any thing contained in this Booke And therefore it is untrue what he saith in the end of his Pamphlet That the Ordinary hath an Authoritie of his own as he is Ordinary to place the holy Table in one or other situation more than what is given him is case of doubt and diversity only by the foresaid Preface All which I have opened the more at large to shew the raw and indigested Crudities that this judicious Divine imposeth upon us not that I would advise any Clergy-man of what degree soever to oppose his Ordinary either in this or any other particular of so low a nature Far be it from me to do so That is a Doctrine nigro carbone notanda to
learnedly proved beside what we learn out of S. Paul out of Origen and Arnobius if you do but reade a Book that is in your Church Jewel against Harding of private Masse Artic. 3. pag. 145. And whether this name of Altar crept into the Church in a kind of complying in phrase with the people of the Jews as I have read in Chemnitius Gerardus and other sound Protestants yet such as suffer Altars to stand or that it proceeded from those Oblations made upon the Communion-tables for the use of the Priest and the poore whereof we reade in Justine Martyr Ireneus Tertullian and other ancient writers or because of our Sacrifice of praise and Thanks-giving as Archbishop Cranmer and others thought Act. Monum pag. 1211. the name being now so many yeares abolished in this Church it is fitter in my judgement that your Altar if you will needs so call it should according to the Canons stand Table-wise then your Table to trouble the poore Town of Gr. should be erected Altar-wise Lastly that your Table should stand in the higher part of the Chancell you have my assent in opinion already And so was it appointed to stand out of the Communion Orders by the Commiss for causes ecclesiasticall 1561. But that it should be there fixed is so farre from being the onely Canonicall way that it is directly against the Canon For what is the Rubrick of the Church but a Canon And the Rubrick saith It shall stand in the Body of the Church or in the Chancell where Morning prayer and Evening prayer be appointed to be said If therefore Morning prayer and Evening prayer be appointed to be said in the Body of the Church as in most Countrey-churches we see it is where shall the Table stand in that Church most Canonically And so is the Table made removeable when the Communion is to be celebrated to such a place as the Minister may be most conveniently heard by the Communicants by Qu. Elis. Injunct 1559. And so saith the Canon in force that in the time of the Communion the Table shall be placed in so good sort within the Church or Chancell as thereby the Minister may be most conveniently heard c. Canon 82. Now judge you whether this Table which like Daedalus his Engines moves and removes from place to place and that by the inward wheeles of the Church Canons be fitly resembled by you to an Altar that stirs not an ynch and supposed to be so resembled most Canonically And if you desire to know out of Eusebius St Augustine Durandus and the fifth Councell of Constantinople how long Communion-tables have stood in the midst of Churches read a Book which you are bound to reade and you shal be satisfied Jewel against Harding Of private Masse Artic. 3. pag. 145. The summe of all is this 1. You may not erect an Altar where the Canons admit only a Communion-table 2. This Table without some new Canon is not to stand Altar-wise and you at the North-end thereof but Table-wise and you must officiate on the North-side of the same by the Liturgie 3. This Table ought to be laid up decently covered in the Chancell onely as I suppose but ought not to be officiated upon either in your first or second service as you distinguish it but in that place of Church or Chancell where you may be most conveniently seen and heard of all 4. Though peradventure you be with him in Tacitus Master of your own yet are you not of other mens Eares and therefore your Parishioners must be Judges of your Audiblenes in this case and upon complaint to the Ordinary must be relieved 5. Lastly whether side soever you or your Parish shall first yeeld unto the other in these needlesse controversies shall remain in my poore judgement the more discreet grave and learned of the two And by that time you have gayned some more experience in the Cure of Soules you shall finde no such Ceremony to Christian charity Which I recommend unto you and am ever c. Now if you desire to know why I have been so tedious in stating thus the Cause with all the Circumstances thereof I answer with the Poet that it is to ease you if you please of further Tediousnesse Vi si malueris lemmata sola legas That if you be so disposed you may end the Book with this first Chapter For the true stating is the concluding of the Question we have in hand I dare here appeale without any further defence to any indifferent Reader what notorious want of Learning what disaffection to the Church what malice to Cathedrals what inclination to Puritanisme what approving of sedition what popular affectation this filia unius noctis this paper huddled up upon this occasion in one night can argue either in the Writer whosoever he be or in us that were the approvers of the same And particularly I appeale to you that have read the Libell written against it whether it hath any way answered your expectation or whether Carbonem ut ajunt pro the sauro invenistis this Coal of a sinner doth not rather appeare to have been fetcht from a Smiths forge then a sacred Altar CHAP. II. Of the Regall power in ordayning publishing and changing Ceremonies as also in all Causes Ecclesiasticall And whether that power was ever used in setling the Communion-table in form of an Altar IF Alexander was afraid to commit the proportion of his body to every ordinary statuary requiring that none but a Lysippus should effigiate the same and that Apelles himself could never set forth the outward beauty of his face but slubbered and farre short of the native vivacity how carefull ought Soveraigne Princes to be not to permit their Regall power and prerogative the very visage of their persons and majestie of their visage to be prophaned by every Bungler and to be slubbered up as here it is with a base Coal upon the walls of this ugly Pamphlet Thus it is when Coblars will be stretching up their Pia-maters above their own Shop-lasts and Chaplains to shew how ready they are at the very first call to be dealing in matters of State will be puddling in studies they do not understand Dr Coal hath here by his exquisite knowledge in the Can-none and Common or triviall law committed a kinde of merry treason in presuming to give a man a call to be a Judge who died but an Apprentice at the Law Which was more then the L. Keeper of the great Seal without his Majesties licence durst have done And mends it by and by with a kinde of sacrilege by taking away from a noble Gentleman his name given him at the Font in Baptisme Whereas had this doughty Doctour left his Littleton and kept him to his Accidence he could not have forgotten that Edvardus was his proper name Yea but though he fails in names he hits in matter and shews you deep
Mysteries of State how this question of Ceremonies doth relate unto the King and that the Statute of 1º Elis. cap. 2. which by long search and study he found in the very first leaf of his Common prayer Book was not a power personall to the Queen onely but to be continued unto her Successours and that the Kings most excellent Majesty may safely and without any danger at all command the Table to stand as the Doctour would have it and to be rayl'd about These are high matters indeed if they be well proved That they shall be to a hair For this old Lawyer and new-created Judge doth tell us that if a Fee-simple be vested in me and I passe it unto the King the Fee-simple doth passe without these words SUCCESSOURS and HEYRES as it doth to a Major a Bishop or any other meaner Corporation as you have it there at large Well said Doctour His Majesty is much beholding unto you and those about him to take speciall care of your speedy preferment You have not in most of your scribble given a Bishop any more prerogative then to the Vicar nor the King in this Allegation then to the Alderman of Grantham Peradventure not so much For by perusall of your Authour I finde the Alderman ranged in the third place but the King and the Bishop jumbled up together as in a bagge after Chesse-play and so thrown into the fourth place But I pray you good Doctour where upon earth was this power of ordering matters ecclesiasticall vested before it pass'd away as a piece of land held in Fee-simple unto his Majestie by the Statute of Imo Elis. cap. 2 Quis est tam potens cum tanto munere hoc Was it in the Pope in the people in the Clergie in the Convocation in the Parliament or peradventure was it in Abeyance Away Animal I tell thee The Power in matters ecclesiasticall is such a Fee-simple as was vested in none but God himselfe before it came by his and his onely donation to be vested in the King And being vested in the King it cannot by any power whatsoever no not by his own be devested from him The donour in this Feoffment is God and God onely the Deed a Prescription time out of mind in the Law of nature declared more especially and at large by that Statute-law which we call the Word of GOD. So that Doctour you deserve but a very simple Fee for your impertinent example of this Fee-simple But what do you merit for your next prank where you say most ignorantly and most derogatorily to his Majesties right and just prerogative that that Statute of 1º Elis c. 2. was a Confirmative of the old Law What and was it not good until it had pass'd the upper and lower house of Parliament was not God able enough the King his bright Image upon earth capable enough the Deed of Nature and Scripture strong enough but that like a Bishops Concurrent Lease it must receive a Confirmation in that great Chapter Your Authour a deep learned man in his faculty hath it otherwise and rightly It was resolved by the Judges that the said Act of the first yeare of the late Queen concerning Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction was not a statute introductory of a New Law but declaratory of the Old Parliaments are not called to confirm but to affirm and declare the Laws of God Weak and doubtfull Titles are to be confirmed such cleare and indubitate Rights as his Majestie hath to the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction are onely averred and declared by Acts of Parliament And all declarations of this kind are as the stuffe whereof they are made to last forever and no Jonas Gourds to serve a turn or two and so expire as those Probationers did which peradventure some Justice his Clerk might tell you of Yea but your meaning is that this Jurisdiction was intruth or of right ought to be by the ancient Laws of the Realme parcell of the Kings Jurisdiction and united to the Crowne Imperiall Still you are short and write nothing like a Divine I tell you man It is the Kings right by the ancient Law of God and a main parcell of the Kings jurisdiction although the Laws of the Realm had never touched upon it Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in his Oration of true Obedience saith that by the Parliaments calling of King Henry the Eighth Head of the Church there is no new invented matter wrought onely their will was to have the power pertayning to a Prince by Gods Law to be the more clearely expressed with this sounding and Emphaticall Compellation So likewise in that Book set forth by the King and Convocation called The Institution of a Christian man in the Chapter of the Sacrament of Orders it is thus written Vnto Christian Kings and Princes of right and by Gods Commandment belongeth specially and principally to conserve and maintain the true doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish all abuses heresies and Idolatries c. And John Beckinsan speaking of these particulars in hand to wit Ceremonies and Traditions not commanded by God but recommended by Clergy-men to stirre up the people to pietie and devotion saith That however they mayor ought to be maintained by the Bishops yet can they not be established as a Law otherwise then by the Authority of the supreme Magistrate And these are all Papists not Protestants who may be suspected to collogue with their Princes Nor is this Right united to the Crown of England onely as this Scribbler seems to conceive but to all other Christian Crowns and challenged by all Christian Princes accordingly For the Romane Empire one of the former Authours doth instance in Justinian that with the approbation of all the world he set forth those Laws of the most blessed Trinity the Catholick Faith of Bishops Clergie-men hereâ—icks and the like For the most ancient Kingdomes of Castile Leon Toledo and others of Spaine famous is that great work of the seven Partidas or Sections of Laws advanced by Ferdinando the third otherwise called the Saint in whose long reign of 35 yeares there was no touch of hunger or contagion but finished and compleated by his Sonne Alfonso the tenth in the first Partida or Section whereof he speaks wholy of matters pertaining to the Catholick faith which directs a man to know God by way of credence or beliefe Nor were those Volumes so composed and collected in those seven yeares imployed in that service to be afterward disputed of in Schools and Vniversities onely but for the decision of Causes and the doing of justice in all those Kingdomes and Dominions And how many Kings before this had made Laws to the same effect in those Countreys God knoweth For these Partidas were for the most part but a Collection of the ancient Laws And no otherwise have these matters been carried in the Kingdome of
is this That if all the Churches in France had been to take the pattern of their Ceremonies from King Clouys his Chappell they must have had every one of them a Hood of S. Martins to officiate over which would necessarily imply that this one Saint had a fairer Wardrobe then all the Saints in the Martyrologie put together And many yeares after King Clouys Chappell 's in France and the bordering Countreys were allowed but Portative when all the Churches had fixed Altars so as the former could not in our particular give Law to the later I will now lead you from France into Spaine to see if any Countrey can yeeld you satisfaction and let you understand that in the Kingdom of Toledo and the famous Universitie of Salamanca Services in happells are quite differing from those in Parish-churches the Mozarabique pen'd by Isidore Leander being to this very day in use in the one but the Romane Office commanded in the other Teach not the Daughter therefore against all Antiquity to jet it our before the Mother But rather give us leave to steere our selves by the Kings Laws and we shall honour as much as you the comelines and devotion of the Kings Chappell 3. Lastly I would you had not named at all the beginning of Queene Elisabeth For when the Rubrick and Common prayer was confirmed and ratified there was an Altar in that Chappel and the very old Masse officiated thereupon When the Act of Parliament was passed assented unto and printed or proclaimed the Altar was removed and the Table placed and as both parties conjecture for they were neither of them the Inigo's or Masters of the work at that time in the very room that was filled up with the former Altar And this may be for ought the one knoweth to make use of the rich Covers and ornaments which fitted that room But the other as resolute as Bacon the Carmelite enduring no Guessing or May-bees in this subject holds it for a thriftie dream and a poore conjecture Better a great deal the Chappell 's and Churches were left to their own ability to provide themselves of convenient ornaments without being any way beholding to their former Altars And if so learned a man had not delivered it I should have held this opinion to be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Pinder of another in that kinde the very dream of a shadow or the shadow of a dream that the State should throw away more rich furniture for trying of conclusions then the revenues of many Churches in the Kingdome are worth But there might be other reasons of this posture of that Table then either party hath hitherto touched What if it was to hold besides fair Candlesticks embossed Plate and Books of Silver which must have a back or wall to rest upon What if there stood in the middest thereof a massie Crucifix What if all her Chappell was thus set forth to comply with forreigne Princes and to make them beleeve she was not so farre esloigned from the Catholick Religion as was bruited abroad Were all the Churches in England to take pattern by this who might not possesse a picture in this kinde no not any of the Subjects in their private houses Let Dr Coal kindle as red as he pleaseth I dare not be too peremptory in these Assertions no more then Aristotle durst be in his morall Philosophie But I leave him to peruse my Margin a little where he shall finde two or three Frenchmen who out of the Freedome of the Nation will be sure Parler tout and to conceal nothing that ever they heard of And this is my Answer to the first Argument 2. The Queens Injunctions were se◠our for the reiglement and direction of all the Churches in this Kingdom and it is said in them that the holy Table in every Church shal be decently made and set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth there is added which he leaves out and as shal be appointed by the Visitours and if so then certainly without any ifs and ands it must stand along close by the wall because the Altars alwayes stood so that is generally and for the most part And himself affirms that placing of the Table where the Altar stood which he no where affirms terminis terminantibus but as before in the place of the Chancell where the Altar stood is the most decent situation when it is not used and for use too where the Quire is mounted up by steps c. which might have easily been done Howbeit afterwards like a curs'd Cow Quo teneam nodo he throws down all the milk he hath given for when he had desperately written before that he thought somewhat might be said why the Table should stand in that place of the Chancell where the Altar stood he saith now that if by Altar-wise is mean't that it should stand along close by the wall then he believeth not that ever it was so placed unlesse by Casualty in Countrey-churches So that confessing all this and that as he guesseth the Queenes Commissioners were content that the Altars themselves should stand in the Injunctions 1559. we have that great advantage which Tully speaks of Confitentem reum were we but sure to tie a knot upon him For he is a slippery youth Ps. Quid cùm manifestò tenetur Ch. Anguilla'st elabitur So that as the former Argument was taken from the Queens Chappell so is this from the Queens Injunctions and I confesse the more pertinent of the twayn if it had a Cube or any solidity to rest upon I answer first That though I may grant the Queens Injunctions to have been an Ecclesiasticall Law yet shall I ever hold them to have been Laws of England and not of the Medes and Persians And the Kings of England have a power from God himselfe not onely to make Laws but to alter and change Laws from time to time for the good of themselves and their Subjects as I shewed before Especially those parts of the Injunction which like trees breed the Worms in the Body of them which in a short time must needs destroy them cannot but be subject to alteration And this Injunction for Tables in the Church is clearely of that nature That the holy Table should be set in the place where the Altar stood and there commonly covered as thereto belongeth and as shal be appointed by the Visitours Which last words this false-fingerd gentlemen left out in his Quotation as I noted before So that this Injunction is but as he said of Saul the sonne of one yeare and being set forth in the end of Primo referres the placing and adorning of the Table to the Commissioners which concluded both these particulars in their Orders of Tertio That the Table should stand where the steps within the Quires and Chancells stood and should be
utterly in hibite single Priests to do either the one or the other Whereupon not many yeares after about the time of Iustinian the Emperour Hormisda◠made an absolute decree to inhibite Priests to erect any Altars in this kinde under pain of deprivation as we read in Gratian and elsewhere Which places I do not for al that presse dogmatically as conceiving the Vicar would be so absurd to dogmatize any such matter as you perceiv◠the writer of the Letter seems to excuse him no◠was that the Errour of the Germane Priests bu◠I presse it only historically to let you see that if such a Rumour had been raised in the Church as we all know the Vicars behaviour did raise in the Neighbourhood 1100 yeares ago what severitie they would have used to chastise the insolencie And no marvell if you consider well what I shall now represent unto you That the very Romans themselves in the time of their Republick would never assent that a private man should presume to erect an Altar But that which I presse for doctrine is this That a single Priest quà talis in that formality and capacitie onely as he is a Priest hath no Key given him by God or man to open the doores of any externall jurisdiction He hath a Consistory within in foro Poenitentiae in the Conscience of his Parishioners and a key given him upon his Institution to enter into it But he hath no Consistory without in foro Causae in medling with ecclesiasticall Causes unlesse he borrow a key from his Ordinary For although they be the same keys yet one of them will not open all these wards the Consistory of outward jurisdiction being not to be opened by a Key alone but as you may observe in some great mens Gates by a Key and a staffe which they usually call a Crosier This I have ever conceived to be the ancient Doctrine in this kind opposed by none but professed Puritanes They tell us indeed that the Bishops power was the poysonous Egge out of which Antichrist was hatched that it is meere tyrannie because it takes all to the Bishop and his Officers and turnes the Vicars to Soliloquies and Meditations whereas the Minister holdeth all his authoritie unto the spirituall charge of the house of God even immediately from God himselfe without dependance from King or Bishop But all learned men of the Church of England that are truly judicious Divines do adhere to that former doctrin They allow the Schoolmens double power that of order and that of jurisdiction and the subdivision of this jurisdiction to the internall and externall appropriating this last to the Bishops only They say clearly that all consecrated persons have not the power of jurisdiction They aske you roundly Who shall judge what is most comely Shall every private man Or rather such as have chiefe care and Government in the Church And for the Minister whom you would have wholly imployed they conceive that generally he is a man though better able to speak yet little or no whit apter to judge then the rest and that to give him a domineering power in matters of this nature were to bring in as many petty Popes as there are Parishes and Congregations But the written Law and speaking Law of this Kingdome are above all testimonies that can be produced the one appointing the Bishop of the Diocese onely in the Affirmative and the other excluding the particular fancy of any humourous persons in the Negative from assigning out these matters of Conveniencie in Gods service And the reason why this private Vicar should not without farther directions call the holy Table an Altar is set downe in the Letter but not touched by you and is a stronger one then your Head-piece is capable of Because the Church in her Liturgie and Canons doth call it a Table onely It seemes by you we are bound onely to pray but not to speak the words of the Canons I have been otherwise taught by learned men That where we have a Law and Canon to direct us how to call a thing we ought not to hunt after reasons and conceits to give it another Appellation And that every word hath that operation in construction of Law that wee may draw our Argument from the words as from so many Topick places Which the Writer of the Letter seems to do in this passage The Rubrick and the Canons call it nothing but a Table and therefore do not you a poore Vicar in the Countrey call it an Altar The writer doth not deny but that the name hath been long in the Church in a Metaphoricall usurpation nor would he have blam'd the Vicar if he had in a Quotation from the Fathers or a discourse in the Pulpit nam'd it an Altar in this borrowed sense but to give the usuall call of an Altar unto that Church-utensill which the Law that alwayes speaks properly never calls otherwise then by the name of a Table is justly by him disliked and by this Gallant lamentably defended For I appeale to all indifferent men that pretend to any knowledge in Divinitie If the Reading-pew the Pulpit and any other place in the Church be not as properly an Altar for prayer praise thanksgiving memory of the Passion dedicating of our selves to Gods very service and the Churches Box or Bason for that Oblation for the poore which was used in the primitive times as is our holy Table howsoever situated or disposed Or if it be the Priest onely that can offer a Sacrifice which in these spirituall Sacrifices we utterly deny what one sacrifice doth he inferre out of the Collects read by the Priest at the Communion-Table which are not as easily deduced out of the Te Deum or Benedictus said in the Quire or Reading-pew◠Is there no praying praising acknowledging or thanksgiving commemorating of the Passion and consecrating of our selves to Gods service in these two hymnes And therefore if that be enough to make an Altar and that these judicious Rabbies mean not somewhat else then for fear of our gracious King they dare speak out this man must change the Motto of his book and say Habenius Altaria we have 10000 Altars Whereas no place in all the Church doth offer unto us the body and blood of Christ in the outward forms of bread and wine beside the holy Table onely And consequently if a Name be invented to divide and sever one particular thing from another or to help us to the knowledge of a particular thing or that a name be tha◠which the Law gives the thing or that a thing cannot have two distinct and proper however it may have twentie Metaphoricall names then surely a Table ought to be the distinct and proper and so the usuall an Altar but the translatitious and borrowed and so the more unusuall appellation of that holy
utensill So that the Writer of the Letter saith no more then this If you have occasion as the Fathers had to amplisie and enlarge the excellencie of those Christian duties prayer praise thanksgiving at the time of the Eucharist especially abnegation of our selves almes-deeds and Charitie and to shew unto your people that these are the onely incense now under the Gospel which God accepts in stead of those thousands of Rams and Odours of Arabia vanished with the Law then in Gods name Fas usum tibi nominis hujus you may use the name of Altar as the ancient Fathers do But when there is no such occasion offered and that you speak only with your Neighbours and Church-wardens about preparing or adorning the Church-Vtensils what need you then tumble in your tropes and roll in your Rhetorick when the words of the Canon do far better expresse the duties enjoyn'd them by the Canon As therefore you do not in common discourse call the Church as the Puritanes in France do the Temple the Bells the holy Trumpets the Quire the Sanctuary the Font Iordan your Surplice the holy garment and your Hood the Ephod although the ancient writers ordinarily do so So when the Rubrick and Canons do call this sacred Vtensill a Table and but a Table do not you to be noted only as a Divine of great Iudgement that is of whyms and singularity correcting Magnificat in the Articles of your Bishops and most Reverend Archbishops Visitation and in the very expression of the King himself call it an Altar And surely that Vicar that will not be taught to word it neither by the Law nor the Rubrick nor the Canon nor his Bishop nor his Archbishop nor the King himself qui tot imperat Legionibus is as they were wont to call a stout Priest a very Thomas a Becket and fitter a great deal to officiate at Bethlem neere Bishopsgate then at Jerusalem Nor had the Ordinary been the wisest man in the world if having proper Officers of his own to execute all his Mandates concerning the outward Vtensills of the Church he should have directed his Commandments to the Vicar or permitted him to command without him It is not the Ordinary but the Apostles themselves that have turnd the Parsons and Vicars from being Active in this kind to their diviner Meditations It is not reason we should leave the word of God to serve Tables The Greek word is a term of Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Erasmus translates a Plea the French keep to this day an Arrest or Iudgement in Law as Budaeus was taught to enterpret the word by Paulus Aemilius the French Historiographer The meaning therefore of the Text is this Let Dr Coal find as much fault as he wil that Priests are made dull Spectatours in these affairs yet shall he never find any Order Arrest or Iudgement in the Church of God that Priests should meddle with Tables Because from the time of this Arrest and sentence pronounc't by the Apostles the Deacons have ever dealt therin as Beza himself confesseth though he hopes for otherwise it would burst his heart that they were guided therein by the Minister the Elders But these Elders are no elder then Calvin and Beza And who guided the Deacons we must learn of the Elders indeed They were the Eye saith one The Eare saith another The Ministeriall servants of the Bishop saith the third Authority Clear it is that from this time that the Apostles here Jura ministerii sacris altaribus apti In septem statuêre viris from these first Deacons to our present Archdeacons in whose office the ancient power of the Deacons is united and concentred Incumbents have been excluded from medling with the utensills of the Church or ornaments of the Altar So that the very Altar it self with the Rail about it hath been termed in the ancient Councells The Diaconie as a place belonging next after the Bishop to the care and custodie of the Deacon only Nay so far were the Ancients froÌ„ making a parish-Priest a stickler in Vestry-affairs that a Councell saith clearly That the Priest can boast of nothing he hath in generall but his bare name not able to execute his very Office without the Authority and Ministery of the Deacon And to conclude this point with a president in this very particular It was the Deacons Office Portare mark well the word against anon to move and remove the Altar and all the implements belonging thereunto saith S. Augustine And if you object that some question hath been made whether that Book be S. Augustines I answer That he that made that question concludes withall That if it was not written by S. Augustine it was by an ancienter Author then S. Augustine and is evidence good enough for matter of fact though peradventure not every where for points of doctrine And as the Archdeacon is the Eye so the Churchwarden as slight an Opinion as you conceive of him is the Hand of the Bishop and the Archdeacon too to put all Mandates in execution that may concern the Vtensills of the Church I observe our Latine Canors in force by calling him Oeconâ—mus do put him beside the scorn this companion would throw upon him by making him relate to that ancient Ecclesiasticall Office famous in the Greek and Latine Councells It is true he moves now in a lesser Orb yet with the same influence he did before At the first they were as they are now Lay-men some Domesticks or kinsmen of the Bishops who managed all things belonging to the Church being then matters of good moment and consequence according to the direction of the Bishop But because all the state of the Church consisting in those times most-what in goods and chattels arising from the devotion of the people was thus transacted in hugger mugger inter partes propinquas by parties so neare allied in references one to another that it grew very suspicious there might be foule play in the businesse that famous Councell of Chalcedon ordered peremptorily That these Church-wardens from that time forward should be Clergie-men and more esloigned from the Bishops family Yet did some continue of opinion this Canon notwithstanding that Lay-men were capable of the Office so that in a very short revolution of time it reverted to the Laity for altogether Now here in England it hath been ever held an ancient Office and much countenanced as well by the Common as the Canon Law The Church-wardens being admitted in all ages to bring their Actions at Common Law for trespasses committed upon the Church-goods wherewith they were entrusted Now that Bishop were a wise piece indeed who being complained unto against a Vicar for removing the holy Table to a place every way inconvenient would referre the examination of the Complaint to the Vicar himself rather then to his own most
some strife and contention about the naming of the Child The Commonaltie and Corruptions of the time and as I shall shew anon the Course of the Common Law name it one way the holy Scripture another way And if it were a matter de stillicidiis as Tully speaks a matter of Custome or Prescription that two or three Good-fellows might eeke it out with an Oath before a Iury of the same feather I think it would go hard with both Church and Scripture But in a matter of the most venerable Sacrament of the Christian Religion and before a Learned and Iudicious Divine as his best friend his Alter ego stiles him me thinks there should be no question but that the holy Scripture should carry it quite away and that The Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ The Supper or The Communion should be the right name and The Sacrament of the Altar the Nick-name or vulgar Appellation onely of this blessed Sacrament But a penall Law as this is was to take notice not onely of the proper name but of every Appellation whatsoever this blessed Sacrament enjoyned to be had in reverence by that Law was at that time known by and discerned A man may be known by twenty Names and yet have but one Name say the learned in our Laws The Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ as by the right name of the Altar as a thing known by saith the Statute It is so called indeed but not by the Law of God nor by the Law of Man but commonly that is by the common Errour and Popery of those times Learn Doctour learn to language this Sacrament from a Prelate of this Church from whom you may well learn as long as you live The Sacrament as you call it of the Altar Gaggers of Protestants call it so Protestants themselves do not For there hath been much alteration in this Church and State God be praised for it and all in melius and all confirm'd by Acts of Parliament sithence that Time This very Sacrament was then commonly called the Masse and allowed to be so called by Act of Parliament and in that Appellation appointed to be so sung or said all England over I hope it is not so Now. For every person that shall now say or sing Masse shall forfeit the summe of 200 Marks c. And if Dr Coal shall report of me that I have said Masse when I have onely administred the Communion I shall have against him my remedy in Law as in a cause of foul Slander And presently after this Act was reviv'd by Q. Elisabeth there was at the same Session an Addition made to the Catechisme and that likewise confirm'd by Act of Parliament whereby all the Children of this Church are punctually taught to Name our two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper So that this Iudicious Divine was very ill catechised that dares write it now The Sacrament of the Altar For the Writ directed in that Act of Parliament it doth not call it as D. Coal doth expressely falsifie the passage Sacramentum Altaris but it saith onely that it is grounded upon that Statute which was made concerning the Sacrament of the Altar Having therefore clear'd the Statute it self from naming it so the Writ will never be found guilty of such a Misnomee But how many presidents of that Writ can this great Lawyer shew in the Book of Entries However it was high time for the wisdome of the Parliament to take some quick Order in this kinde when they were resolv'd to revoke all former Laws that commanded honour to the Sacrament and yet found the unsufferable indiscretion of the Zelotes mounted to that height as to dare to term the Institution of Christ however disguis'd in this superstitious habit with those base compellations of Iack of the Box and Sacrament of the Halter on the one side and then Bakers bread Ale-cakes and Tavern-tokens on the other side Purposing therefore to keep in force one Branch of those two Laws which were by and by to be repeal'd I mean 2º H. 5. c. 7. and 25º H. 8. c. 14. which required due reverence to be performed to this Sacrament they reserved the ancient words and Additions not of the people onely but of the Common Law it self in the Indictments for Lolardy as we may see in the Book of Entries And because this Sacrament was so commonly called not onely in the Mouth of the Church but in the Mouth of the Law it self the Statute in the head of the Act and foot of the Writ gives it this Addition of Sacramentum Altaris But this Lollard Writ these threescore yeares hath had God be thanked for it no more operation in Law then the Clause against Lollards in the Sheriffs Commission And if there were any occasion to put it in force me thinks the subsequent Laws considered it ought to be issued contra formam Statuti concernentis sacrosanctum Sacramentâ—m Corporis Sanguinis Dominici admitting the variance by this matter ex post facto as men and Corporations may do in some Cases But being led by this fellow quite out of my way I wholly submit my Opinion herein to the Reverend of that Profession I make haste therefore to return to the Doctour again before he finish his Triumph over this Section attended with Princes Prelates Priests and Parliaments to confirm his Altar and his Sacrifice Whereas in very truth all his Witnesses are under Age and are not able to speak of themselves one word to his purpose Iohn Frith as you have heard speaks by Sr Thomas More Iohn Lambert by S. Austin Archbishop Cranmer by Iohn Fox Iohn Philpot by the ancient Writers B. Latimer by the Doctours who might be deceived B. Ridley by the publick Notary that drew the Articles the Writ by the Act of Parliament and the Act of Parliament by Vox populi and common Report Not one of all these that speaks of his own knowledge as a witnesse ought to do But this is some Susenbrotus Figure by which this judicious Divine useth to write in a different manner from all honest Authours to make one man still to speak what was uttered by another Thus he handleth the Writer of the Letter in that similitude of Dressers unmannerly applyed to the Altar-wise-situation of the holy Table For although the Writer saith clearly he likes that fashion he allows it and so useth it himself yet if one Prinne hath printed it I know not where or some Countrey-people said I know not what he must in most Oyster-whore language pinne it and Prinne it upon the Writer of the Letter And if one Bishop of Lincoln the Popes Delegate and one Dean of Westminister Queen Maries Commissioner shall speak irreverently of the Protestants Table by this new Figure all Bishops and Deans of those two places must untill the end of the world
Syllables For though upon perusall in cold bloud he can finde the word Boord but once and the word Table but once in all that Liturgie And he must cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Print to all England to come out and see this sublime curiosity yet will I undertake to shew unto him the word Boord twice and the word Table six times used in that Liturgie if he will but promise to shew unto me how he or I or the Writer of the Letter or the Reader of this scribble may be six pinnes the better for this doughtie observation His sixth Extravagancy goeth a little beyond his companions and lacks but a grain of a Capricheo That the Writer of the Letter deserves first to be burnt as an Heretick to the Church and then at the same instant to be drown'd as a Traâ—or to the State for using in a Kingdom these desperate expressions of Children of this Church and Common-wealth Here is fine Doctrine indeed That all Children of this Church must be â—â—tra partem Donati down-right Puritans And all that mention here any Common-wealth even Sir Thomas Smith that writ of Englands Common-wealth must be an Enemy to the Kingdome I never heard of a Church without Children unlesse it be one of a Sebaptist in Amsterdam who having baptized himself to a faith of his own making could never be seconded in that Religion And I never heard of a Kingdom without a Common-wealth unlesse it be likewise on little Yvitot in Normandy which they say is but the Countrey-house of an ancient Gentleman I had heard heretofore that the Church was the best Mother as bearing Children unto God and the Kingdom the best of Common-weales to nourish and preserve this Church and her Children But now all the Children of this Church must be printed the Brethren of dispersion And the well-wishers of the Common-wealth must be Enemies to Monarchie and Friends to confusion And this blinking Doctour can see this with half an eye I would fain have him open the other half and tell me what he sees in S. Cyprian when he lessons him about this fine Doctrine Nemo filios Ecclesiae de Ecclesia tollat Let no man presume to take the Children of the Church and thrust them into the part of Donatus As also what he can see in S. Ambrose S. Hierom S. Augustine and S. Gregory who call all Christians the Children of the Church What in so many Acts of Parliaments in so many Speaches of K. James in Parliament that mention without scruple the Common-wealth of this Kingdom Shall the Fathers learn Criticismes to speak of the Church and K. James expressions to speak of Kingdoms from this rayling Philistine For the Writer of the Letter one half is too much a quarter of an eye will serve the turn to see what he means and to see what he means not by the one and the other The Children of this Church be those in his stile that will give eare to the voice and Canons of this Church The Children of this Common-wealth are such as obey the wholesome Laws and Reiglement of this State and Kingdom But base Sycophants that slight the Canons of their Bishops and undertake to refute the Reiglement of their Princes though they hope by flattery to prey upon either are as the Writer thinks no true Children of the one or the other As this man by his allusion to Donatus the African shews clearly what he would be if he were to chuse Donatus potiùs quà m Natus No obedient Child but a domineering Father in Gods Church Howbeit the man give him his due is not infinite in his Ambition nor so malitious as he seems against the Puritanes For whereas S. Paul in his first to Timothy reckons up a long Catalogue of Graces to be blamelesse vigilant sober modest learned hospitall and I know not what the man is content the Puritanes take all these for themselves and the glorious Titles of Children of the Church and Servants of the Common-wealth so as they leave him but the first in that Chapter a desire to be a Bishop Which great pitie it were so Iudicious a Divine should not enjoy as long as he lives His seventh Extravagancy is this To conceive that none was ever scandalized at the name of the Lords Table And to charge the Writer for making this Supposition to perswade the people that questionlesse such men there are Surely there are of that kind but too many in the world Some that because it stands not Altar-wise call it a profane Table some an Oister-boord some an Oister-table and this Vicar himself if the Neighbours charg'd him rightly a Treste Nay this Iudicious Divine implies very strongly that the name and fashion of an Altar is more agreeable to the Pietie of the times and the Good work in hand Which could I believe to be true I would my self be asham'd to be such an Enemy to Piety and good works as to give it any other Appellation then that of an Altar Beside that there goeth from hand to hand a pocket Determination as said or read in one of our Vniversities to prove the lawfulnesse of bowing before the Altar The Altar I say not the Table by any means For in this short Discourse which held me but one half-houre to read over this word Altar is thundred out one hundred and five severall times and the holy Table scarce once named in the mans own expression in the whole Treatise And whether the Authour may not be suspected to be asham'd of the name of a Table I will leave you to guesse by this which followeth He saith the Rubricks of all the Greek Liturgies and more especially of those of S. Basil and S. Chrysostom the rest in truth having in a manner no Rubricks at all do require 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fieri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Courtesies or Adorations be made before the Altar or the holy Table At which Quotation you would swear the word Altar were to be found in these Rubricks up and down but the word Table scarce at all used but brought in by this Protestant Doctour to comply with our own Liturgie Whereas the clean contrary way these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are there required to be made and decently as I think before the holy Table but no mention at all in any of those Rubricks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Altar in any good or Authenticall Copy There is indeed a lame and imperfect Liturgie of S. Chrysostom set out by Erasmus one Rubrick whereof doth say that the Priest and the Deacon do make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three Reverences towards the holy Altar But beside that the complete Copies have no such Rubrick in them Erasmus translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place sanctum sacrarium the holy Chancell not the holy Altar True it is that