Authority of Ecclesiastical-Courts can or does consist or subsist or who gave them the Authority they pretend to not the Pope as of Old not the Common-Law I am sure nor can possibly the Canon-Law or Statute-Law 13. Grant they have Authority It is but in Three or Four particulars Causes Testamentary Matrimonial Tythes and for neglecting to come to Divine-Service by 1 Eliz. 2. or at most but those Ten Things in 5. Eliz. 23. de excommunicato capiendo enumerated what 's this to justify their great extortions in Probates of wills and Administrations and their illegal Proving the same and keeping Men's Wills contrary to that Statute What 's this to Justify the Force of any Canons at this Day Or who made them Laws of England without a Parliament What 's this to Justify the Pilling and Polling the Church-wardens and the inferior Clergy by Procurations Articles of Visitation Oaths Arbitrarily imposed upon them both for Canonical Obedience What 's all this to their great Business in Visitations and Court-keeping namely The Money-Business And lastly what a shamefull thing it is to Impose upon the consciences of the Clergy an c Oath of canonical obedience condemn'd by Act of Parliament in condemning the canons of 1640. in 13 car 2.12 What Insolence for a Bishop to commend the observation of those Canons which the King and Parliament have condemn'd by Statute Quer. What punishment do such Incurr and for Imposing Oaths upon Church-Wardens to enquire into the breach of such late Canon's which cannot be possibly the Laws of England if made since the dayes of King Henry the 8th Their shamefull and illegal extortions are a Thousand times more sufferable and pardonable than these Arbitrary Impositions of Oaths to torture and rack men's conscienees if not to precipitate them into Purjury nay except God be more mercifull than they eternal damnation making men swear Stare mandatis Ecclesiae to obey the commands of the Church and to obey his Majesties Laws Ecclesiastical when it is not defined what or where these Ecclesiastical Laws are the wisest of them all will not cannot dare not tell nor determine I 'le bid this Arch Deacon farewell with the same complement he passes upon Mr. Hickeringil in his last words bidding him not be wiser than the Law If this D. D. had not been wiser than the Law he had not writ such a thin discourse and yet face it with a Bulky and Imbost-Title stiling it Leges Angliae If the Spiritual Court keepers were not wiser than the Law they would first prove their Courts Legal their Canons Legal their Fees Legal their Extortions and Impositions of Oaths upon the consciences of the King's Subjects Legal Nor write I this to weaken their Authority but that it may if it seem good to the King and Parliament prove Instrumental to give them a just Authority and a true face of Power and also limit their Exorbitances There 's no wise man nor good man that favours Anarchy The Kings Throne which God long preserve is establish't by Justice and Law and 't is the Peoples Happiness to be governed and guided by honest Laws not Arbitrary Canons Impositions and Methods but such as are of the right English Make and Temper enacted by King and Parliament And I dare justify That there is nothing in the Naked-Truth but what is good for the Clergy as well as the Laity if they will lay aside Prejudice and Pertinacy Pride and Covetousness Finally for I am heartily weary of the Company of this same Totnes-Arch-Deacon and with conversing thus long with such an impertinent D. D. that has not his fellow among them all for Insolence and Impudence in defaming and belying a Gentleman he never saw nor knows any harm by except perhaps from malice that never speaks well and seldom speaks true or from fame which was a lyar of old and long before ever there was an Arch-Deacon heard of in Christendom And now at length to make Mr. Hickeringil the Common odium nothing will serve but to make him a Papist a Hobbist c. when all his Enemies that know him have not effrontery to deny but that he has more Loyalty than to be a Papist more Conscience than to be a Simonist though an Arch-Deaconry of Totnes might be put into the bargain and Seal more Honour and Ingenuity than to be a Parasite more Reason than to be an Atheist more Religion than to be an Hobbist and more Honesty and Plain-dealing than to be Well-Beloved in a Dissembling Age of Sycophantry But after all this bespattering Language how inhumane it is in an Arch-Deacon and a D. D. so unmercifully to attacque Mr. Hickeringill with Pun and quibble a persecution beyond the plague of Barbers in an Itchy endeavour to be witty forsooth in despite of Nature and his Stars who have all entred sufficient Caveats against it Then for the Serious part if there be such a part in his Idle Pamphlet Is it not Quixolisme beyond the relief of Hellebore to stile his Insignificant babling Leges Angliae Make Bonefires of your Cook your Littleton your Crook Dyer Statute-Books and Common Law-Books for behold here in thrifty Querpo Leges Angliae the Laws of England price 8 d. Nor less madness is it in him or more Idle vapour than to appear thus publiquely upon the Stage as the chavalier or champion of Mother-Church in answer to Mr. Hickeringil's Naked-Truth when he only tickles over the Skirts of the business and sayes not one word in answer to the main drift and design of the Naked-Truth namely in answer or vindication of the Canons Authority to keep Eclesiastical Courts or to impose Oaths of Canonical Obedience upon the Clergy or to impose Oaths upon the Church-Wardens nor one word does he say to vindicate their unjust and unconscionable Impositions and Extortions upon the Clergy in Procurations Institutions Licenses to Preach Ordinations Inductions Sinodals Visitations c. and yet most Impudently stiles his Book An Answer to Mr. Hickeringill c. Nor does that Statute 25. Hen. 8. give any Authority to Arch-Bishops or Bishops to keep Ecclesiastical courts or jurisdiction except such as was then practis'd when the Statute was made namely Popish Courts Popish Articles of Visitation Popish Habits and Palls and to be worn by Popish Arch-Bishops and Bishops But we have none now You know Hen. 8. that made that statute liv'd and dy'd a papist as aforesaid But what is that Statute however to justify your Arch-Deacon's Courts that Spiritual creature is not Nam'd in 25. Hen. 8. Well come Mr. Arch-Deacon Friends must part I 'le even bid you far-well and shake hands with you in hopes never to meet with you again but because I am in your debt for that witless Quible Hobby War-Hawk I 'le pay you Quid Pro Quo in the same coyne namely an Anagram for your Pun and Quibble nay an Anagram as Silly if possible as your Quible War-Hawk Fra-Fulwood Anagram War-dul-Fool THus has it cost me some pains the Labour of Six dayes not Seven dayes I protest to answer the Six Months Abortive Throwes of a sibling quibbling fribling fumbling Arch-Deacon And 't is enough at least as much as is needful and more than I could well afford upon so despicable an Opponent besides a subtle Anagram franckly vouchfaf't to him and ex abundanti liberally thrown and given him into the bargain To teach his costive-wit more Sobriety than to attacque the Naked-Truth only with Impertinencies and Pun and Quibble In his next attempt when peradventure he makes a second adventure Which not I so much as the the Booksellers greedily expect from him or rather some more modest more solid and better accounted champion of the Kirk's But enough I say at present not only because I am in haste and have other more Important affairs in hand than to spend much time with such a Scribling D. D. but chiefly because the Naked-Truth is Luscious too much at a time is apt to Glut and Nauseate to eat much Honey is not good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Husband-Man with wary Hand Not with whole Sack-fulls Sowes the Land But Thriftily contrives his Gain By Handfuls Husbanding the Grain FINIS London Printed for R. Janèway in Queens-Head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row
these Words On a Rock consisting of these Sands stands our mighty Champion triumphing with his Naked Truth c. And truly if our mighty Champion stand thus Triumphing upon a Rock made of Sands It is the first Rock made of Sands that ever was seen in the World before I have seen great hills of Sands but never a Rock consisting of Sands before for lively and natural expressions and tough and sinewy Arguments 't is the very None-such of the D. D Come confess ingeniously Is there not more and better Heads then your own in this Elaborate Work Is it not the Six Months labour of a Prelatical Smectimnuus or Club-Divines Now for his Rancounter CHAP. II. Wherein very Majesterially he asserts contradictorily In defiance of the said Propositions and Rocks of Sand That Our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England was not derived from the Pope but from the Crown before the Reformation by Hen. 8. Sed quomodo probas Domine D. D First by begging the Question Petitione Printipij And asking sternly and demanding in 8 bold Questions first Dare any Protestant stand to the contrary c. So that he has got Mr. Hickeringill upon the Lock and upon the Hugg the Devonshire and Cornish Hugg Hang or Drown'd there 's no escaping yield or confess your self a Papist concluding that to say so is not more like a Hobbist than a Papist I thought I had caught a Hobby but War-Hawk To which I 'le onely say that as Seneca in his Epistles to his dear Lucillus speaking of Harpast his Wives Fool a poor ridiculous creature That if he had a desire to laugh at a Fool he need not seek far for he could find cause enough at home to laugh at himself so you Mr. quibling Archdeacon need not be at charge to keep a Jester you may find one ridiculous enough within the Corps of your own Archdeaconry Hobby-War-hawk But then he falls and grows calm and leaves this bold Italian way of Regginâ—… and comes to his proofs First Then our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not derived from the Pope but from the Crown before H. 8. because it was a known Law 25. Edw. 1. and 25. Edw. 3. long before Hen. 8. that the Church of England was founded in Episcopacy by our Kings c. and not in the Papacy 1. I always thought till now that our Church of England I know not for his Church of England was neither founded upon Episcopacy not the Papacy but on Christ the Rock of Ages 2. The Popish Episcopacy in the said two King Edwards time and the Papacy were one and the same piece the Pope the Head they the Members and derivative from him influenc'd by him and would never obey our Kings further then they list as appears by stout Robert Archbishop of Canterbury another Becket And though the Kings made bold to recommend an Archbishop or a Bishop to the Pope yet the Pope Invested and chose whom he list the greater Usurper he but who did or could help it till stout King H. 8. did behead the Pope and made himself by Parliament Head of the Church 'T is true Rome was not built in a day and neither did nor could extend its Suburbs and Commands as far as England till William the Conquerour the Pope's Champion and who fought under the Popes Banner which he sent him for the Invasion of England did with his French and Normans and all Gatherings bring with his French and Italian Troops the French and Italian Laws and the French Mode of Ecclesiastical Polity and Jurisdiction And therefore 't is rightly noted that 'till Will. the Conquerour there was no Bishops Courts or Ecclesiastical Courts but the Hundred-Courts the onely Courts of Justice in England in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal But the Pope made his Champion Will. the Conquerour and all succeeding Kings after him till H 8. set up such Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdiction as were at Rome wherein they Judged and proceeded according to the Popes Canon-Laws and he himself was the Head and Supream of those Courts and nothing more frequent then Appeals to Rome till the 24. Hâ—n 8.12 ordain'd that there should be no Appeals thither where he had emptied so much of his purse and yet could not obtain a Divorce to his liking if appeals to Rome from our Ecclesiastical-Courts then they were onely Romes Inferior Courts And was there ever any Statute made from Will. the Conquerour or rather Hen. 3. to Hen. 8. but by the consent of the Popish Clergy that is to say the consent of the Pope their Head whose Laws they obey'd in defiance of their Leige-Lords and Soveraign Kings I know there was old Tugging frequently betwixt our Kings and the Popes and sometimes the staring people cryed Now the Pope then in hopes Now the King has got is but if any stout King did as they did try for Mastery with this Whore and who should wear the Britches yet Pope Joan or Pope John or howsoever nam'd always got the better at long run Of which I will Instance in some few particulars that first occur and come to mind for I scorn to spend so many days as this D. D. with his Smec-conjoyn'd has been Months in Labour for the production of his Ridiculus mus Robert Kildwardby Archbishop of Canterbury 6. Edw. 1. Fleec't the whole Province of Canterbury namely the greatest part of the Kingdom of England by his Provincial-Visitation not by down-right plundering of the Clergy Church-wardens and the poor and rich Sinners he knew a way worth two on 't the other had been the ready way to be hang'd for Edward 1. was neither Bigot Antiq. Brit. Ec. p. 196. Fook nor Coward for He saith Mat. Parker being the Popes Creature went a visiting as some do now a days without any Commission from the King no strange thing in those days more strange in our days now that they have not as formerly a Pope to back them and whose Creatures they were in despight of the King But this crafty Robert Kildwardby play'd the Fox in his Visitation and Se donis saith the Historian non imperitando sed artificiose ut fratres sui ordinis solebant suadendo locupletavit that is He enrich'd himself and fill'd his pockets but how not by an open violent way of force and command but craftily with sleight of Hand and Tongue as the Brethren of his Order are wont to do pick'd their pockets with a parccl of fair words Why that 's better yet then the Hectoring way Come Clergy-man deliver your Purse your Purse for Procurations Visitations c. The Naked-Truth on 't was the Pope Nicholas 3d. had a Cardinals Capp at Robert's service if he would come up to the price on 't and bid like a Chapman but all the craft lay in the catching the Money to day the purchase Whereupon Kildwardby does not go in the old Road of Procurations Synodals and Vilitations that even in those times were not onely grumbled at by the Slaves
consider'd in his CHAP. III. Whose Title is That KING Henry 8. did not by renouncing the power pretended by the Pope make void the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction neither was it void before it was restored by 1 Edw. 6.2 And to prove this Negative he 's at it again with his old way of Questions but that he shews a little more warmth and wrath against Mr. Hickeringill in this Ironical Sarcasm Pray Mr. Wiseman where and by what words did H. 8. cut off as you say all these ordinary Jurisdictions Mr. Hickeringill told you enough of it in the Naked Truth which read over seriously before you answer any more such Books good Mr. D. D. He told you that when the Popes Supremacy and Head was be-headed and the King made Supreme Head of the Church as well as State and of the Spirituality as well as Temporality by Act of Parliament The same King and Parliament devis'd also and advis'd by what Laws this new face of the Church having got a new head sure it had a new face should be guided and governed Therefore the King and Parliament enact that the King shall appoint Thirty-two Commissioners not to make new Laws but compile them out of the old ones so that they were not repugnant to the Kings Prerogative nor the Laws of the Realm But that was a thing impossible for most of the Canons being forged at Rome or Licensed there and Confirmed and also they supposing the Pope Head of the Church which was against the Laws of this Land nothing could be done and the reason is already given in the former Chapter at large so that less shall need to be said to this Chapter or indeed to the remaining part of his mighty Volume or Leges Angliae And truly that King Henry 8. had so much to do to keep and secure his new acquests the Abby-Lands Monastries c. and to Counterplot the Pope and his Emissaries and on the other side the English Bishops were so consternated at the sudden and total downfal of their Brethren and Sisters the Fryers Abbots and Nuns that they were in a bodily fear lest that King thus flesh't finding the sweetness of the Booty should hunt after more Church-Lands And therefore Mr. Archdeacon needed not ask the Question Was that watchful Prince asleep no surely nor yet the watchful Bishops I fear did not sleep very quietly but were always troubled in their sleep crying out oh this fat Mannor is upon the go And these brave Walks Houses and Orchards are a departing And as dreams sometimes prove unluckily true so did these dreams for soon after was first exchanged with the two Archbishops by the Satute of 37. Henry 8.16 Sixty-nine fat and stately Mannors named in the said Statute at one time from the Archbishop of York and also a great many brave Country-houses and rich Mannors from the Archbishop of Canterbury and from Edmond Bishop of London which See was particularly named in the Statute But some may say that the Abby-Lands which the King gave in exchange were not comparable in value to the said Archbishops Lands and Mannors Who can help that if they did not like those Abby-Lands I suppose they might have let them alone Thus the King having been busied in the 24th year of his Reign with cutting off the Roman Head and all appeals to Rome then troubled with his Abby-Lands beginning with the lesser Monastries 27 Henry 8.28 those digested then the great Monastries and Nunneries 31. Henry 8.13 then the next year the brave Houses Lands and Revenues of the Templers called the Knights of the Rhodes and of St. John of Jerusalem 32. Henry 8.24 then the Free-Chantries Hospitals c. in 37. Henry 8.4 and in this his last year that sad exchange with the Archbishops and Bishop of London 37. Henry 8.16 I do not see any cause Mr. Archdeacon why any flesh alive should say that either the King or the Bishops were asleep for Thirteen years together in which time every one had work enough to be watchful The best on 't is that the man thinks he can answer all Mr. Hickeringill's Arguments in the Naked Truth with a Story which he tells p. 14. and so silly and so little quadrating with the question in controversie that it is not worth the answering nor his observation thereon namely that though the Lords of the Mannors were changed yet the Customs and Courts and Officers were not changed No were not the Customs Courts nor Officers changed God forbid for then it must still be a Custom that neither the Bishop nor the Archdeacon may lawfully Marry it will still be a Custom to excommunicate as it was of old all that did not pay the Pope the first fruits and tenths if the Customs be not changed and a thousand such exceptions could I make if it were not below me to take notice of all his idle and impertinent Whimsies and Stories obvious enough to every learned and ingenuous Reader without my remark or asterisque to expose it Nor does any body deny but that King H. 8. willing to have a Divorce from Queen Katharine from Rome and not able to obtain the same got it at home the said Statute of Appeals cutting off all Appeals to Rome and enabling the Kings Courts Spiritual and Temporal to determine the same Any Forrein Inhibitions Appeals Sentences Summons c. from the See of Rome c. to the Let or Impediment in any wise notwithstanding 24. Henry 8.12 Whence note 1. The design of the Statute is to cut off Appeals to Rome this Realm of England being an Empire of it self governed by one Supreme Head 2. Therefore no need of such Appeals when they may be with less trouble ended here within the Kings Jurisdiction in Courts Spiritual and Temporal 3. That Statute limits the cognisance of all matters cognisable in Spiritual Courts to these Three sorts namely Causes Testamentary Matrimonial or Divorces Tithes and Oblations and Obventions and if they can prove their Courts to be lawful Courts and by lawful Anthority who ever doubted but those Three things were matters and causes of Ecclesiastical cognisance but they are not content to keep themselves there and therefore the great design of the Naked Truth is not in the least to check their proceedings in those Three Particulars but their exorbitances in medling with Church Wardens the Oath of Church-Wardens exactions illegal and unconscionable in their Fees in despight of the Statutes in Probate of Wills Procurations Sequestrations Synodals Licenses to Preach Visitations c. 4. The Archbishops Bishops and Clergy in Convocation in less than Twenty years after this Statute found so little Authority in this 24. Henry 8.12 for keeping Spiritual Courts and exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction it coming in but by way of Parenthesis and not the purport and main design of the Statute that they all acknowledg and confess uno ore and 2. Phil. and Mar. that their Jurisdiction and Liberties Ecclesiastical were taken away
to let his Majesty into the Church but he will not trust him wich the Keys as who should say we will open the Church doors to your Majesty and come in and welcome whilst we continue good friends But they that keep the Keys and can open the Church-doors to let his Majesty in can also whilst they have the keeping of the Keys upon displeasure lock him out well for this very trick and for another late Scotch trick If I were a Privy-Councellour I would advise his Majesty as Head of the Church and Governour thereof to keep the Keys of the Church in his Pocket or hang them under his Girdle if it be but because this Prelatical Champion this same pittiful Archdeacon like another Pope or St. Peter will keep the Keys of the Church and will keep his Majesty from them and would fain perswade him that our Laws to use his words p. 2. of the Proeme Exclude this purely Spiritual power of the Keys from the Supremacy of our Kings except it be to see that Spiritual men do their duty therein Belike this same Archdeacon carries the Leges Angliae the Laws of England in his belly and greedy gut for I am sure he carries them there or no where he carries not these bulky Laws of England in his Brains he has no Guts in his Brains For I pray good D.D. where does our Laws exclude this purely Spiritual power of the Keys from the Supremacy of our Kings if our Kings like good King David or wise King Solomon should have a mind to be Ecclesiastes In the days even of Popery I never heard of a King shut out even from the Topping-Pulpit if he had a mind to climb so high stout King Henry the 3d. made bold to Invade the Pulpit took his Text Psal 85.10 Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other and then in his Sermon ad Clerum to the Learned Monks of the Cathedral Church of Winchester when he had a little self-end too as some Pulpiters have also had in the case namely to Cajole the said Monks to Elect his Brother Athelmar Bishop of Winchester Bak. Chron. p. 82. Paraphrasing and enlarging upon his Text and saying to use his own words To me and other Kings who are to govern the people belongs the rigour of judgement and Justice to you who are men of quiet and Religion Peace and Tranquillity And this day I hear you have for your own good been favourable to my request with many such like words I do not know whether the King had got a License to Preach from a Bishop It seems the Clergy then too would favour Kings in what was for their own good and if it were for their own good would also permit the King to take a Text and Preach in their Cathedral-Church how hard-hearted or strait-lac't soever our Archdeacon proves and will not suffer our Kings to have the Keys neither of the Church nor Pulpit I say therefore some Kings would therefore keep the Keys of the Church themselves and trust never a D. D. of you all with them no not the Pope himself But what if I prove that our Kings at their Corronations have at the same time been ordain'd Clergymen they are no more excluded then by our Laws from the power of the Keys then Mr. Archdeacon or the Pope himself What is Ordination but the ordering designing or setting a Man a part to some office if to the Ministry then there are certain significant Words to that purpose and what more significant Words for Ordination to the Priesthood or making a Man a Clergyman then those the Bishop uses to our Kings namely with Unction Anthems Prayers and Imposition of hands as is usual in the ordination of Priests with the same Hymn Come Holy Ghost Eternal God c. The Bishop saying also amongst other things Let him obtain favour of the people like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the Waters Zacharias in the Temple give him Peters Key of Discipline and Pauls Doctrine Which last clause was praetermitted in times of Popery from the Corronation of Hen. 6. Bak. Chron. 742. till Charles 1. and Charles 2d lest it should imply the King to be more a Clergyman and Ecclesiastical person then these Archdeacons could afford him but our Gracious King Charles 2d and his Father at their Corronations had the antient forms of Crowning Kings reviv'd and in the Anointing the Bishop said Let those hands be Anointed with Holy Oyl as Kings and Prophets have been Anointed and as Samuel c. Then the Archbishop and Dean of Westminster put the Coif on the Kings Head then put upon his body the Surplice saying this prayer O God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords c. And surely of old the very Pope himself look't upon our anointed Kings as Clergymen else why did the Pope make Hen. 2. his Legate De Latere here in England the usual office of the Archbishop of Canterbury usually styled Legati Nati Therefore Mr. Archdeacon you talk like an unthinking Black-coat stockt with a little superficial Learning when you say our Laws exclude the King from the Keys of the Church to which he has as good right as your D. D. Divinityship And indeed to give the Man his due he is glad afterwards to confess that Constantine and the Eminent Christian Emperours called Councels and approv'd their Canons Then by your leave dear D. D. They also for the same reason might upon occasion and if they had seen cause also disprove the same who then was Papa of old Pa-ter Pa-trum surely no other but he that is Pa-Pa I mean Pa-ter Pa-triae Into a volumn beyond mine or the Readers Patience or leisure must this Vindication swell if I should trace him in all his Extravagancies Impertinencies and nauseous Repetitions and therefore I must quit my first design and summarily contract the crazy Principles and Postulata on which his mighty Fabrick of the Laws of England is Eâ—â—â—â—ed CHAP. I. In his first Chapter after a great deal of prattle to no purpose he Sets up the Propositions suggested by Mr. Hickeringill and then he Batters them The Propositions suggested by Mr. Hickeringill are these following 1. THat before Hen. 8. All Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England was derived from the Pope as Mr. Cary. p. 6. 2. That Hen. 8. When he annex'd the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown he took it wholly away from our Ecclesiastical Ministers 3. That the Church had no Jurisdiction after Hen. 8. had annex'd it to the Crown till 1 Edw. 6.2 4. That if there be any Ecclesiastical Power in our Church it canot be executed but in the name and with the stile c. of the King according to 1 Edw. 6.2 5. That all our Ecclesiastical Power was lately founded in 1 Eliz. 1. as it Established the High-Commission-Court And that Act being repeal'd All Ecclesiastical Power was taken away with the Power of that High-Commission Then most insultingly concludes in
shall not be Excommunicated although they do not obey the King's Mandates for apprehending such as are Excommunicate Note by the way then that the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo the onely Weapon of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the onely Prop of Ecclesiastical Courts was not Common Law but long after only statute-Statute-Law and but in some Cases neither 5 Eliz. 23. The Queen finding that since the mist of Superstition was vanish't by the Sun-shine of the Gospel the People could not discern any Terrour in the Thunder of Excommunication for every petty cause and therefore that without the temporal Sword was also drawn to back it her new High-Commission-Court and consequently all other Ecclesiastical Courts that had no Weapon but the Spiritual Sword of Excommunication could strike no Awe Terror nor Reverence into the obstinate and contumacious much less into Delinquents Thirdly That the Punishment inflicted by the King alone upon those that Invaded the Clergy-mens Mannors should be held sufficient Fourthly That he would not hereafter interdict and forbid any one from selling any Meat or Drink to the Arch-bishop of York Whom the proud Prelate had Excommunicated about a Quarrel betwixt them for Precedency c. And therefore he thought thus to famish him as happened after to Jane Shore Excommunicate God deliver men from a furious Bigot and Proud Prelate when he has Power to be Mischievous or any other that comes to the King Fifthly That Magna Charta be taken off from the Church doors For you must know that the Impugners of Magna Charta were in this Synod of Rading again declared Excommunicate which the King and Parliament did dislike and would not suffer any such Sentence of Excommunication to pass except for things thought worthy and deserving the same in the Judgment of King and Parliament who were Judges also even of the timing of an Excommunication even in particulars which had like the Impugners of Magna Charta been adjudged formerly to deserve to be struck with that Thunder-clap that grew so frequent it lost its Terrour the said Arch-bishop also confesses and does acknowledge and grant that neither the King nor his Heirs nor his Kingdome of England shall receive any dammage by reason of any of the said Articles contained in the Synod of Rading Bless us what work 's here to keep the Arch-bishop and his Clergy quiet that a King and Parliament must use all the skill and Power of England which commonly 'till Hen. 8. was all too little to bind these Brats of Rome and Creatures of the Pope and Symonists to the good Behaviour and to tye up their Hands and Tongues from doing the King his Heirs and his Kingdom of England any Mischief And now Mr. Arch-deacon I have bestowed some little Pains you see to draw you a Picture in little of those times of Edward 1. that you bring to make something to the purpose of exalting your Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and Jurisdiction from the Prospect of those times and what Honour you have got to your Hierarchy by this Provocation Plume your self with but I dare say the Reader will say before I have done with you that you had done your Church as much Service in the Convocation where the men of your little ray of your Talent and Improvements would listen to your Leges Angliae with great admiration rather than thus to neglect your great imployment there by this impertinent Diversion of Writing and publishing the Laws of England in which you have no more skill nor ability than you have in undertaking to Answer the Naked Truth But to take a little further View with the Reader 's Patience of those Popish times of King Edward c. before Hen. 8. which the Arch-deacon thinks do make so much for his Turn Afflictions seldom come alone as poor John Peckham found true by sad Experience for besides that there was no help for it but the 4000 Marks must be paid or the Symonist Arch-bishop lose both Heaven and Earth King Edward also for his Wars with Scotland was as needy of Money as the Pope and he borrowed by way of Loan a whole Years Revennue of the Profits of the said Arch-bishoprick and that Loan poor John Complains being little better than a Benevolence came in a very ill time For Robert Kilwarby the late Arch-bishop and before him his Predecessor Boniface had left the Arch-bishoprick lean cadaverous forlorn delapidated and Poor the People too were exhausted by Wars and Seditions For if they had had it he could not he would not have wanted it and the Pope too resolved that if the Arch-bishop or the People had it he also could not would not want it as his Brother Pope used to say he could never want Money so long as he could hold a Pen in his hand to write to his Ass meaning England for the whole World had not I had almost said has not such Religious Zealots and Bigots that would run at all right or wrong in the Cause of Religion Religion as Hud sayes whose Honesty they all will Swear for though not a man of them knows wherefore For the subtle Italian Papists that stand near and sees within the Scenes the Lives of Popes and Cardinals c. understand the Juggle and will not give two Pence a piece for an Indulgence that here in England will go currant for a hundred pounds whilst the modest Papists at Rome smile at the known pious Frauds and the rest Laugh right out or at least in their Sleeves But to return Though the Pope Bubled poor John Peckham as aforesaid He also after he had got a little heart Papae ad exemplum does endeavour to Hector or Wheedle the King out of some Money by Texts of Holy Writ the very same that some Religious Bigots have made use of to as vile ends in our times in an insolent Letter to his Majesty written 9 Edw. 1. beginning with these very words Excellentissimo Principi ac Dom. Edvardo Spelman's Concil p. 341 342. Dei gratiâ Illustri Regi Angliae Domino Hiberniae Duci Aquitaniae c. Johannes permissione divinâ Cantuarensis Ecclesiae minister humilis c. Which see at large in Spelman and after some Complements he falls on in downright Earnest quia tamen oportet Domino magis quà m hominibus obedire ad praevaricationem Legum illarum quae divina Authoritate absque omni dubio subsistunt nullâ possumus humanâ constitutione ligari nec etiam Juramente That is in plain English the Arch-bishop told the King he would be his humble Servant and as loyal a Subject as the best but onely that he was bound to obey God rather then men and that no humane Laws no though he had Sworn to obey them Acts 5.29 should tye or oblige him to the breach of those Laws which are founded upon Divine Authority Of which he and the Pope were the Interpreters and Commentators he might as well have told the King he would be his
have lost those two main Pillars I do not see but it may be yet in great measure true what the Learned Spelman sayes was Currant of Old even to a Proverb Os Sacerdotis Oraculum esset Plebis Os Episcopi Oraculum Regis Reipublicae Both King People and Common-wealth took all for Gospel that the Bishops and Priests said and perswaded And therefore no wonder at what Mr. Archdeacon sayes p. 49. That our great Church-men had no small hand in making all our Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil and made bold to sit upon the Benches with the Judges in the Kings Palace and Court in the Councel and Parliament In the County with the Earl and Justices of the County in the Sheriffs County-Court with the Sheriff and in the Hundred-Courts with the Lords of the Hundred All true to a Tittle why who durst take them by the Lawn-sleeves and ask them what they had to do there They had as good have taken a Bear by the Tooth the stoutest Lay-man of them all Besides a Scholar was a rare Bird in those daies Ignorance is the Mother of Popish Devotion and therefore neither Lords nor Parliament-men nor Judges had any more Learning than needs must no nor skill in Laws So that the Clergy did all who sway'd the Kings Councels but they who were Lord Chancellors Lord Treasurers Lord Chief Barons Lord Chief Justices Master's of the Rolls but they Was not Nigel Bishop of Eli in H. 1. time Lord Treasurer and wonderful skilful in the Laws and Court of the Exchequer Was not Martin de Patishal Clerk and Dean of Paul's made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-bench in H. 3. time because of his skill in Law Brail So also was William de Raleigh Clerk made one of the Judges of the Kings-bench Henry de Stanton Clerk Lord Chief Justice of the Common-pleas and the Parson of Oundell in Northamptonshire made Master of the Rolls with thousands more even to our times Bract. Rot. Pat. 17. E. 2. and in man's memory was not the Bishop of Lincoln William's Lord Treasurer so also Bishop Juxton Bishop of London And Archbishop Laud did all in all with King Charles 1. And in the Case of Ship-money and the Loans and Benevolences those hard shifts that good King might well repent that ever he followed such precipitate Counsels And therefore Mr. Archdeacon it is no great Credit to you nor for your Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical to quote all the 12 Judges and their Subscriptions to vouch your Citations in your own Name and not in the Name and Stile of the King because that Opinion was subscribed by 12 Judges John Brampston L. C. J. John Finch L. C. J. Humph. Davenport L. C. B. Will Jones Jo. Dinham Ri. Hutton George Crook Tho. Trevor George Vernon Ro. Berkley Fr. Crauly Ri. Weston For they were very man of them except Hutton and Crook condemn'd by Parliament for betraying the Rights and Properties of the Kingdom in the case of Ship-money And therefore Mr. Archdeacon I except against the Judgment and Opinion of your 12 Judges very legally in the cons truction of the Statute of Edw. 6.2 Alas good men to say otherwise it was as much as their places were worth besides the Terrour of the Star-chamber and High-Commission-Court and indeed every Spiritual Court which were then as horrible as the Spanish Inquisition and so much the more cruel that by the Oath ex Officio a man was bound to accuse himself which is not required by the Inquisition of Spain And therefore some have observed that when the severe part of the Law as in Sentences Fines c. has been put to the Vote in the Star-chamber and other Courts against Offenders the Clergy-Men there who should have been Exemplary in Mercy and Charity and not for summum Jus were alwayes more rigid and fierce than the Laity As for Instance when Mr. Chambers 5 Carol. 1. said and only privately to the Privy Councel call'd thither to answer for not paying Customs That the Merchants in England were more wrung and screwed than in foreign parts And what if it had been true why may not our Laws screw them and enact bigger Customs and Excise as of Wines c. we do where 's great mischief Why for this he was to be fined in the Star-chamber for the words are not other where actionable And the Chancellour of the Exchequer he was for fining him for those words 500 l. so also voted the two Lord Chief Justices Ay but when it came to the Bishops Doctor Neal Bishop of Winchester cryes 3000 l. then also Doctor Laud Bishop of London 3000 l. At last the business was adjusted and the Fine settled 2000 l. Therefore Mr. ARchdeacon do not vapour and tell us of the opinion of the Judges when High-Commission-Court and Star-chamber were up do not we know who penn'd the Proclamation 's and who did the business and every man's business that durst st and in his way You may as well say That Atturny General Noy was a great Lawyer who doubts it does it therefore follow that Ship-money his Invention was Legal Anno Domini 1632. And the Judgment of a whole House of Commons might surely stand in Competition with the opinion of a single Archdeacon though he had some of the Judges on his side although it was that House of Commons in 1640. for not one in Ten of them were Rumpers Resolved That the Clergy in a Synod or Convocation hath no power to make Canons Vote of the House of Commons Constitutions or Laws Ecclesiastical to bind either Laiety or Clergy without a Parliament And that the Canons are against the fundamental Laws of this Realm against the Kings Prerogative Property of the Subjects the Right of Parliaments and do tend to Faction and Sedition And therefore your Doughty work and Leges Angliae which you seem to commend as the sence of a Convocation and you their Prolocutor saying p. 66. So whether it seem good to the King and his High Court of Parliament to augment or lessen it Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction or to continue it as it is we we again shall still maintain our Loyalty that 's kind and manifest our duty and chearfully submit our selves I am glad to hear it if this chearful submisson be the sence of your Brethren and that you have Mr. Archdeacon from them authentick Letters of Credence for this Manifesto But I doubt it for certainly your Brethren are better Scholars and better principled than to own such an idle and impertinent Discourse as this of yours that is throughout so loose futile and tending to such arbitrary Principles that indeed none are so fit to answer you as a Parliament if they do not think it beneath them to take notice of such a Prater that has so little Judgment as to think it possible to prove the Spiritual Courts and Jurisdiction as now practised to be Common-Law Courts much less Statute-Law-Courts which is next to be
of England as derived from the King according to the Statute of Edw. 6. or in Hen. 8's time was no lawful Jurisdiction that is Mr. Hickeringill thinks as the Papists think War hawk again Mr. Hickeringill and a Premunire too Let him even pick and chuse I see there 's no escaping yield or dye there 's no fence against a Crambee-Pun and Quibble the second assault is always irresistible And yet this Joke is not so witty as it is sharp and poynant insinuating that Mr. Hickeringill's opinion is a Popish opinion so in plain English he says before Chap. 2. Sect. 2. In these words Thus our ancient Ecclesiastical Governours and Laws depended upon the Crown and not upon the Pope by the Laws of England and in the Judgment of all the States of the Kingdom before H. 8. and so did also the execution of those Laws by those Governours in the same publick Judgment All this is true and the very Naked Truth in other words varyed And what of all this listen a little better than Mr. Hickeringill 's Popish opinion And why I pray Mr. Archdeacon why this unsanctified Epithete of Popish To vindicate in the words of the ingenious Hudribas When you at any thing would rail Then you make Popery the Scale To take the height on 't and explain To what degree it is prophane Well look to thy hits D. D. for all the corps of thy Archdeaconry together with the Extortion money in Visitations Synodals and Procurations will not be able to pay the damages that you and your Bookseller Royston are like to undergo forfeit and pay for bringing that scandalous imputation of Popery so often in your Book against Mr. Hickeringill who though he has not much Ecclesiastical Emoluments to lose thereby if the imputation be true yet he pays the King Assessments and finds Arms for above 200. l. per annum temporal estate of inheritance a third part whereof besides other mischiefs are forfeit if you can prove him a Papist and if you cannot 't is fit that on the Gallows which was set up for innocent Mordecai that wicked Haman should be hang'd thereon and the mischief which you wickedly design'd against him 't is but just it should fall upon your own Pate and that you and your Bookseller should for the Libel fall into the same Pit which you have in malice and wickedness digged for the innocent Alas you do not know Mr. Hickeringill the man you scandalize in time he 'l make you know him better I dare assure ye as he has and will do to some others such railers lyars and slanderers as your selves sure Mr. Archdeacon you do not say your Prayers you do not sure say your Litany D. D. But all your provocations cannot make Mr. Hickeringill render you railing for railing the wonted attacks of effeminate and doting old men The Author of the Naked Truth is so much against the Popes Supremacy and all other Religious Bigots that some think as does this Archdeacon that he gives the King too many even all the Keys of the Church For 't is undoubtedly true that the Crown of this Realm of England is and has been before H. 8. Imperial that is de jure not de facto thanks to the wicked Usurper the Pope and his Legates like that Paudolfus who in huffing pride set his Ecclesiastical foot upon this Imperial Crown in King John's time or like those Popes that made the Emperors themselves hold their Stirrups This ought not to have been done it was not de jure it was commonly de facto done before H. 8ths time and thus with his Quixot-chivalry he assaults the Windmills set up by his own brains like boys that set up their Shrovetide-Cocks only to throw at and busy themselves As for example Chap. 2. Sect. 3. he says the Statutes grant Consultations and Appeals into Chancery from the Spiritual Courts 'T is true but what then it only supposes that the Spiritual Courts meddle with those appealable Causes as Matrimony Tythes c. which are but very few And whereas he says the Bishops may deprive and have Statute-Law for so doing 't is false they have indeed power by 1 H. 7.4 to commit a Minister that has committed Incest or Fornication to the Gaol but for no other offence and that Statute was made upon force when the Laity durst not meddle with a Clergy-man though a muderer without consent of his Ordinary However the Clergy then were so goatish numerous and high-fed that no man could keep his wife or daughters from those lazy and bucksome Abby-Lubbers and so let the Bishops still for Incontinency send the Delinquent to Gaol but I thank you no such matter Incontinency is now as modish and fashionable a sin as ever I have known Two or Three notorious Whoremasters Ministers in Essex convict but they scap'd the Gaol and one of them a Scotch-man that had two Bastards in one year got a Pardon The sin of Adultery and Fornication is a filthy and abominable sin in all men especially in Divines but as long as it is the Mode it will sind great Patrons to countenance and abet it sweet-lips cannot forbear so sweet a sin No body denies but Procurations Synodals Robbing by the High-way Visitations and Picking of Pockets in spight of Laws Canons and Decrees of Holy-Church to the contrary in spight of Equity and Conscience in spight of Mercy Pity and Compassion has been in times of Prelacy in spight of Christs command and the Apostles command not to wrong men for filthy lucres sake has been I say an old and ancient practise and indeed in the days of Popish Prelacy and the High Commission they did what they list who durst controul or gainsay But now that Popish Prelacy and the High Commission are null'd and made void and all their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so precarious and no authority for their Procurations and Synodals no authority to call Church-Wardens and Ministers before them to a great Town and Tavern no authority for such Visitations much less to demand money for the same no authority neither to demand money in Ecclesiatim-Visitations and yet they will have six shilling and eight pence ready money and visit Twenty Churches in a day a very special Trade They will not be put off with a little Victuals Bread and Cheese or Pottage no these Ecclesiastical fellows are high fed And truly to spoil all their Courts though they had never so lawful an authority let but the people follow this following advice and you will not long be troubled with them Namely When the Minister and Church-Wardens are cited to come to a Visitation at a great Town and there is a great Tavern take no notice of it refuse to be hurried from your business your families and your homes against Law let them proceed against you as far as they dare if they excommunicate you for contempt a good Action of the case lies against them for there is neither statute-Statute-Law nor