Archbishop and Legate held a Synod at Merton upon St. Barnabas's day The Pope had the year before granted to the King the Tenths of the Clergy for three years But the Clergy tho' they Honour'd the Pope much yet resolved not to part with their Money And the Archbishop held this Synod on purpose to Oppose the payment of what he had granted Upon another Legate's being sent hither Anno 1261 several Councils were this year call'd and held in Our Country The two Archbishops Assembled their Respective Clergy at London and Beverley And Boniface held another distinct Council at Lambeth and publish'd many excellent Constitutions in it But most famous in these times as of chiefest Authority afterwards was the Council Assembled by Ottobon another Legate about the Year 1268. He had two years before at the Parliament at Northampton Assembled the Clergy who met there and with Them Excommunicated all such as should adhere to Simon Montfort and his Party And now he held this Other at London with the Clergy of the whole Kingdom and therein publish'd those Notable Constitutions we still have under his Name It was now become a matter of Custom and accounted a matter of Right for the Legates Extraordinary and the Archbishop of Canterbury as Legate of Course to Summon the Clergy to Convocations Insomuch that we do not find this Great King who otherwise was sensible enough of the Encroachments that had been made and were daily making upon the Royal Authority to have been at all Offended at it Hence Peckham the Archbishop being return'd from Rome Anno 1280 the same year held a Council at Redding and therein commanded the Constitutions of the General Council of Lyons to be observed And the next year He assembled another at Lambeth in which the Orders and Constitutions establish'd by Otho and Ottobon were Confirm'd and some Others added for the better Government of the Church About ten years after the same Peckham again held another Synod at Redding in which when the King heard that They were attempting some Orders in derogation to his Authority He sent to the Archbishop and Bishops to desist And upon his Threatnings they put a stop to their Proceedings and Brake up the Council And thus have we seen what Encroachments were made towards the End of this Period upon the Prince's Authority in the Subject before Us. There were within this Period as all along after besides these National and Provincial Councils several Episcopal or Diocesan Synods Assembled for the Affairs of that particular Diocess in which they were held and some Rules were made by Them to be observed by the Clergy of that District only Such were the Constitutions of Alexander Bishop of Coventry Anno 1237 Of Walter Bishop of Worcester made in his Synod at Worcester Anno 1240 Of Walter Bishop of Norwich made in his Synod at Norwich Munday after Michaelmas Anno 1255 Of Giles Bishop of Salisbury Anno 1256 And of which it is not necessary that I should take any particular Notice on this Occasion But tho' the Affairs of the Church were in great measure handled in these several Kinds of Ecclesiastical Synods yet this did not hinder but that still Our Kings with their Great Councils did from time to time interpose in these Matters and order many things relating to Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes When Wulstan Bishop of Worcester challenged some Lands as belonging to his See which were with-held from it by the Archbishop of Tork the Cause between them was judged by William the Conquerour in his Parliament at Pendrede the Archbishop Bishops Lords and Great Men being present This was manifestly a State Assembly and by these was the Right between the two Bishops examined and determined But more properly Ecclesiastical was the Cause which William the Second examined in his Parliament at Rockingham upon Anselm's resolving to go to Rome and to receive his Pall from thence This the King vehemently opposed and declared that the Archbishop could not both preserve his fidelity to him and pay obedience to the Pope And it is observable that the referring of this cause to the Judgment of the Parliament was at Anselm's own desire who cannot be suspected of doing any thing that he thought in the least inconsistent with the Liberties of the Church The next great Controversie that arose of this kind was in the second Year of King Henry the First about the Right of Investitures This was a point much debated in those times not only here but in most of the Countries of Europe To this the King laid a claim and accounted himself to have as good a Title to it as his Father and Brother before him had Upon this occasion the Quarrel grew so high between the King and Anselm that the latter was once more sorced to leave the Kingdom But the cause was at last brought before the Parliament and there it was by mutual Consent resolved that from thenceforth no one should be invested by the King or any other lay hand to a Bishoprick or Abbey by the delivery of the Pastoral Staff or Ring but yet upon such a promotion they should do Homage to the King for it which was the other thing that Pope Urban had before insisted upon as much as upon the point of Investitute its self This matter was scarce ended when another arose about the Marriage of the Clergy And this was in like manner ended in Parliament by the Authority as well of the King and his Lords as of the Archbishops and Bishops And an order made to prohibit all such as were in any Clerical Order to cohabit with their Wives There was yet a third great Controversie remaining concerning the Primacy of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Subjection that was due from the Archbishop of York to him This also was brought before the King at Whitsontide and determined by him with his Bishops and Lords and the Authority of the See of Canterbury asserted by them And when some time after this Thurstine Archbishop of York refused to be concluded by this Decree he was in full Parliament obliged either to renounce his Bishoprick or to pay Obedience to the See of Canterbury No sooner was this King dead and Stephen placed in his Throne but in full Parliament he confirm'd the Liberties of the Church and made very ample Concessions to it In his Parliament at Northampton two years after he disposed of several Ecclesiastical Preferments And that this was the customary manner of those times may be gathered from the last Parliament of this King Which was call'd by him as well for the Affairs of the Kingdom as to make Provision for the Church of York then vacant by the death of St. William the late Bishop of it How far the Parliament still continued to meddle with Ecclesiastical Affairs under the next King's Reign the
of a Priestly Mind you have commanded your Priests to be gathered together into one Place to treat of such things as are Necessary We have according to the Purpose of your Will and the Heads which you gave to us answer'd in Our Definition as to us seem'd Good So that if those things which we have Established are also approved of as Right by your Judgment The Consent of so great a King and Lord may Confirm the Sentence of the Priests to be observed with the Greater Authority And thus have I done with the First Thing which I proposed to Consider I have shewn what Authority the Christian Prince has always been accounted to have over Ecclesiastical Synods with respect to the Assembling of them to their Proceedings whilst they are Sitting and to the Confirming or Annulling their Decrees afterwards I shall make only an Observation or two upon the whole with Respect to our present purpose and so conclude this Chapter And 1st I must take notice that whatever Privileges I have here shewn to belong to the Christian Magistrate they belong to Him as such They are not derived from any positive Laws and Constitutions but Result from that Power which every such Prince has Originally in Himself and are to be look'd upon as part of those Rights which naturally belong to Sovereign Authority Hence we find that All Princes in All wountries how different soever they have been in other Respects have yet evermore claim'd an Equal Authority in these Matters And the little Kings of Suevia and Burgundy accounted themselves to have as good a Title to Them as the Roman Emperors in their most flourishing Estate had Which being so it will follow 2dly That every Sovereign Prince has a Right to Exercise this Authority within his Dominions And that to prove this Right it is sufficient to shew That he is a Sovereign Prince and therefore ought not to be deny'd any of those Prerogatives which belong to such a Prince among which this Authority is One. 'T is true such Princes may by their own Acts limit themselves as they think fitting And these Limitations may give such Assemblies a Privilege in One Country beyond what they have in Another But then these Limitations must be plainly proved to have been made in their favour And till they are so the Prince must be accounted to have a Right to that Power which as a Prince belongs Him and is not yet proved to have been given away by Him And therefore 3dly Whereas it is now to be Enquired What the Authority of our Kings is over our Convocations We have thus far proceded towards the discovery of it that we have shewn what Power They had Originally over Them and as Christian Princes ought still to Enjoy And those who will Restrain Them with narrower Bounds must first shew how they came to lose that Power which they would take from Them and which till This shall be cleared they must be Presumed still to have a Right to CHAP. III. Of the Authority which our Own Kings have over their Convocations with Respect both to their Meeting and Acting first and to the Confirming or Annulling of their Acts after WE have now seen what Authority all Other Christian Princes have claim'd and Exercised over their Clergy from the first Conversion of the Empire to Christianity till the Prevalence of the Papal Power began to deprive Them of that Supremacy which of Right belong'd to Them Let us go on upon this Foundation to Enquire II. Whether our Own Kings have not as Great an Authority over their Convocations as any Other Princes have ever pretended to over their Councils That this of Right they Ought to have I have before observed The only Question is whether our Own particular Constitution has interposed to deprive Them of that Authority which we have already shewn did originally belong to Them And here I might justly leave it to Those who advance such Pretences to produce their Proofs and shew us upon what Grounds they do it And account the Right of our Kings to this Authority to have been sufficiently established in that common Claim which I have already proved all Christian Princes as such have ever made to the Exercise of of it But that nothing may be wanting to the clearing of this Matter beyond all reasonable Exception I shall to the General Argument I have before made use of add those particular Confirmations which our own Laws and Customs afford us of this Truth And shew that by our own Constitution the King of England has all that Power at this day over Our Convocation that ever any Christian Prince had over his Synods 1st Then if we consider His Authority as to the first thing before-mention'd viz. of Calling together of the Clergy in Convocation We are told by One of the most Eminent Professors of our Laws that it was among other Points Resolved by the Two Chief Justices and other Judges at a Committee of Lords in Parliament Trin. 8. Jac. 1. That a Convocation cannot Assemble at their onvocation without the Assent of the King And One would think such Persons should not only be very well Qualified to know what our Law is but should also be very Careful especially at such a Time and in such a Place not to deliver any thing for Law which They were not very well assured was so But because some have excepted against the Authority of this Report as a Piece that was published after the Death of the Author and in Suspected Times Tho' I cannot see what Interest any One should have to falsifie his Relation in the Instance before Us We will take his Opinion from a Book which we are sure is Authentick and lies open to no Exceptions 4. Instit. pag. 322. Where treating expresly about the Court of Convocation He affirms that the Clergy were never Assembled or Call'd together at a Convocation but by the King 's Writ And in which tho' I am sensible He has spoken a little too Generally as to matter of Fact yet in point of Law and in which only I make use of his Authority I cannot but look upon him to have been absolutely in the Right It being certain that the Clergy not only now cannot but never could be lawfully call'd together in Convocation but by the King 's â—rit or with his Consent And in assirming this I say no more than what was the joint Opinion of the whole Representative Body of the Nation as well of the Clergy in their Convocation as of the rest of the Realm in Parliament 25 Hen. 8. And from whence if from any Authority we may certainly the best take our Measure to judge Whether a thing does of Right belong to the King and is a part of his Royal Prerogative or No. For 1st As for the Clergy We are told in the Preamble to the Act of the 25 Hen. 8. chap. 19. That the Clergy of this Realm of England had acknowleged
that the Convocation of the same Clergy is always hath been and ought to be Assembled only by the King 's Writ And 2dly As for the Laity the Parliament in the same Act not only concurs in the same opinion with Them in the Preamble before-mention'd that this their Acknowledgment was according to the Truth But in the Body of the Act it self have Provided thereupon that from thenceforth They never should meet in Convocation without the King's Leave to Empower them so to do Be it enacted say They by the Authority of this present Parliament according to the said Submission and Petition of the said Clergy That They ne any of Them from henceforth shall presume to Attempt c. Nor shall Enact c in their Convocations in time Coming Which always shall be assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ And from all which it is Evident that in the Opinion both of that Parliament and of that Convocation the King not only ought to have and by Law now has the sole Authority of Calling the Clergy together in Convocation but that this is such a Power as did always of Right belong to Him and that no Convocation ever could be lawfully assembled without his Permission or against his Hence it is that not only our Present Convocations are all summoned by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishop of Each Province for that purpose but if we look back to the times preceeding this Statute we shall find the same to have been the antient manner of summoning of Them And tho' in a matter of this Nature it is not to be expected we should be able to produce the very Copies of the Writs by which our Convocations were called from the beginning yet I shall hereafter plainly prove that from the beginning they did meet by the King's Command And we have the very Writs of Summons as far back as the 9 Edw. 2 that is to say for above 200 years before this Acknowledgment of the Clergy and Act of Parliament were made Such Right have our Kings to Call their Convocations Nor is their Authority any less in all those Circumstances which I have shewed were wont to Accompany their Calling Them If we consider the Time and Place of their Meeting they are expresly limited in the Writ by which They are Summon'd And tho' Custom has of late so far prevail'd that the Convocation has generally met at the same Time that the Parliament has done and at St. Paul's Church or Chapter House in London yet have not our Kings ever been so far confined in either of these Particulars as not to have it still in their Power to call the Convocation at any other time or to any other place which they shall think sit In that antient Summons I before mention'd perhaps the most antient of any we have now remaining of the 9th of Edw. II. The Convocation was call'd to meet Febr. 9. but the Parliament sate October 16. foregoing And in the Writs of these latter times though the Convocation be call'd and its Session confin'd to that of the Parliament yet still if the King pleases he may continue the sitting of the one after the other is prorogued or even dissolv'd And for the Place it is sometimes determin'd to be St. Paul's London but for the most part is left with a Greater Latitude to be held at any other Place which the Archbishop shall judge to be more convenient for it And the same is the Case as to the Persons who are to come to the Convocation and the Choice of whom as it is still determin'd by the King 's Writ so must it be allow'd to have Originally depended upon it For having first declared in General the Reason wherefore he had resolv'd to call his Clergy together He next goes on to specifie in particular whom he required the Archbishop to summon to the Convocation That he should Order first the Bishops of his Province with the Deans and Archdeacons to come in Person and secondly the Chapters and Archdeaconries to send their several Proxies to represent them the Chapters one of their body and every Archdeaconry two to be chosen by them for that purpose I shall not need to enquire how this came to be the settled number that was to make up our Provincial Synods or Convocations Whether this manner of Choice was deriv'd from the antient manner of holding Convocations into the Parliamentary Writs or from the Parliamentary Writs of King Edward I. into the summons of Convocations which from thenceforth usually met together with the Parliament Howsoever this were thus much is evident that since the Power of Assembling the Clergy in such Convocations is seated Originally in the King so that they have no Authority to come together but what he gives them It must follow that neither can any other Persons have a just Right to come to these Assemblies than such only as are commissioned by him or are chosen by such Rules as he has preserib'd for the choise of those whom he allows to be sent to them It remains then that not only the caling of our Convocations but the determination of the Time and Place of their sitting of the Persons who are themselves to come to them and of the manner of choosing Representatives for those who are not all depend upon the Authority of the Prince and were originally deriv'd from thence And so lastly does their very sitting too For however Custom which in time becomes a kind of Law has in this as well as in some of the foregoing Circumstances so far prevail'd that when soever a Parliament is held a Convocation is call'd together with it yet is this rather a matter of Form than any effectual Summons And the King still keeps his Antient Power to all intents and purposes in his own hands and suffers them not either to sit or act but when and as often as he thinks fit so to do Nor is this to be look'd upon as any Encroachment upon the Liberties of the Clergy but as the Assertion of a Power which always did and of right ought to belong to the Prince For though it has now for some Ages been the Custom to Convene the Clergy as often as the Parliament meets yet as it is manifest that when this Custom first began they met not so much as an Ecclesiastical Synod as a part of the Parliament of the Realm So all the Use that was generally made of Them was to concur with the Other Estates in granting of Money to the King which having done they were commonly dismiss'd without entring upon any other Business The Convocation then tho' it consisted of Ecclesiastical Persons was yet assembled for a Civil End and seems rather to have been a State Convention than a Church Synod And however the King usually added a Conciliary Summons to his Parliamentary Writ and thereby not only assembled the Proctors of the Clergy under another
Character but with them many Others of the Regular Clergy who had no place in the Parliament Writ yet still the Design was in Both the same viz. That they might thereby more effectually confirm what had in Parliament been granted to the King and the Monks and Friers become engaged by their own Consent not to oppose the levying of it Now this being the true Ground of the Convocation's being call'd together with the Parliament Custom and if you will the Constitution of our Government founded thereupon does indeed give them a Right to be summon'd when the Parliament is and accordingly they are still summon'd together with it But as they have no Custom to warrant them to deliberate or enter upon Business unless the King pleases to allow them so to do so neither have they any Right in that Particular but the King is still as much at Liberty in that respect as if there had never been any such Custom established for the Calling of them In short were it still the Method as formerly it was for the Clergy to Assess themselves but much more were the Case so now as antiently it seems to have been that they were a part of the Great Council of the Nation and whose Consent was requisite to the passing of Parliamentary Acts it would then be very evident wherefore they were Called and what they had to do But this being altered and yet the Antient Summons still continued it makes some Men think it an odd Thing that the Convocation should be Called to no purpose Not considering that but for those Ends which are now ceased they never had been wont either to be summon'd to Parliament or at the same time with it and that those being determined they have a Right to nothing but a Summons and it were no great Matter whether they had a Right to that or no. And this may suffice to shew what Authority our King has by the particular Laws of our Own Constitution to assemble the Convocation and that without his Writ they neither now can nor ever could regularly come together by any other Way I proceed 2dly To enquire What Power he has to direct their Debates when they are Assembled And here we are again told by the same Person whose Authority I before alleged that the second Point agreed upon by the Chief Justices and Judges at the Committee of the Lords was That the Convocation after their Assembly cannot confer to constitute any Canons without License de l'Roy Nor is this any more than what the Statute of the 25 Hen. 8. has directly establish'd When having recited the Promise which the Clergy had in their Petition made to the King That they would never from thenceforth presume to Attempt Allege Claim or Put in Ure Enact Promulge or Execute any new Canon Constitution Ordinance Provincâ—â—â— or Other or by whatsoever Name they shall be called in Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence may by them be had to MAKE PROMULGE and EXECUTE the same and that his Majesty do give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf They thereupon Enact That ne They nor any of Them frow henceforth shall presume to Attempt Alledge Claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Orders Provincial or Synodal or any Other Canons Nor shall Enact Promulge or Execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever Name or Names they may be called in their Convocation in Time coming Unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to MAKE PROMULGE and EXECUTE such Conons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodal I have transcribed this Paragraph of that Act at large to the End it may the more evidently appear that the Intention of it was as well to Restrain the Clergy from MAKING as from PROMULGING and EXECUTING any Canons without the Assent and Licence of the King first had for their so doing And which is indeed so plain that had not the constant Practice of all following Convocations and the Opinions of the most Learned in Our Laws so expounded the Sense of it yet we could not have been easily mistaken in it For besides that it was apparently the Design of this Act to Restrâ—ain the Clergy from doing somewhat which they had been wont to do in their Convocation the Statute it self interprets its own Expressions and tells us that by presuming to Attempt c. was meant as well presuming to MAKE as to Promulge and Execute any Canons or Constitutions without the Assent and Licence of the King first had by Them so to do Whether the Convocation may not without the King 's Writ deliberate of such things as may be fit to be done by Them for the Service of the Church I shall not undertake to say Certain it is that they may not so deliberate as to come to any Authoritative Resolution upon any particular Point or to frame any Order or Constitution of what kind soever it be without the King 's Leave which is in Effect to say that they may not debate Synodically at all without it To deliberate of what might usefully be consider'd by Them and to Petition the King thereupon for Leave so to do This as it is no Attempting to make a Canon c. so does it not I conceive come within the Design of that Prohibition which this Act has laid upon them And if the King allows the Convocation to sit I do not see wherein they would transgress in framing such an Address supposing that his Commission had not before prevented all Occasion for such an Application But then still this is but asking Leave to act as a Synod And it will after all remain in the King's Breast what Answer to make to such a Request and whether he will grant them that Leave which They desire or no As therefore the Convocation cannot Meet but by the King 's Writ so neither being Met can they proceed to any Canonical Debates or Resolutions without it For by vertue of this Act they are forbid not only to Make but to Attempt that is as I understand it to do any thing that tends towards the making of any Canons without his Warrant for their Doing of it And therefore when the King sends out his Writs for the Convocation to meet he therein reserves to himself the Privilege of Naming the Subject which they are to deliberate and resolve upon For having mention'd by way of Form in the beginning of the Writ That for certain urgent Affairs of great Concern both to the Church and Kingdom He had commanded the Arch-bishop to summon the Clergy to come together to such a certain Place and at such a certain Time He thus declares what they were to do when they met Ad Tractand c. Namely That they were To Treat Consent and Conclude upon the Premises and such other Matters as should more clearly be declared to them when they came together in
in such Cases my Lord Coke delivers as certain in point of Law and from thence calls it the Court of Convocation Nor can I see what injury it would be to the Crown to allow the same power to the Convocation still that by Law may be exercised in any other Ecclesiastical Court and which must needs be inseriour in dignity to this But still the question is Whether of Right the Convocation ever had a power to judge any more than to make Canons without the King's Assent And by consequence whether though the Statute of Henry the Eighth should not have deprived them of that power yet the King's Prerogative be not against it For should this be so then whatever Laws have restored the King to his supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters will lie against this presumed Right of the Convocation too and so though that Law should not yet some others may have limited their power in this respect also And here I shall not presume to determine any thing but only offer these following Observations First That in several of the Convocations in which the persons before-mention'd were judged the Process was made either by the express Command or Leave of the King And in all of them for ought we know it may have been so And Secondly That in the Commissions by which our Convocations are now enabled to act the King gives them leave to conferr debate treat consider consult and agree of Matters and Causes as well as of Canons Orders and Constitutions and which seems to imply that they need the King's License as much to judge of the one as to deliberate about the other But be this as it will thus much I take to be out of all doubt that as by our Ancient Customs recognized by the Lords Spiritual as well as Temporal in the Great Council at Clarendon Anno 1164 It was among other things resolved that none of the Servants of the King or of such as held of him in capite might be Excommunicated without his leave And again that in Case of Appeals any person who thought himself injured might appeal from the Arch Deacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop and from him to the King by whose order the affair was finally to be determined in the Court of Arches and not be suffer'd to proceed any farther without leave of the King so in Conformity both to these Principles and to that power which I have before shewn has ever been claimed and exercised by Christian Princes in this respect I do presume that the King may not only lay a Prohibition upon the Convocation not to proceed in judgment against any person whom he shall think fit to take into his special Protection but after they have judged any one may receive an Appeal from them and order an Enquiry to be made whether they proceeded Fairly and Canonically with him and either confirm suspend or annul their Sentence as he shall find it reasonable for him to do This I am sure the ancient Emperors did and the Bishops and Councils not only submitted to it but allowed of it And if this our Kings may not do I shall be glad to be inform'd by what particular Law or Custom this Power has been taken from them And this brings me to the last point now to be consider'd 3dly What Authority our Kings have over their Convocations after they have done what they were called for That the Convocation cannot meet without the King 's Writ I have before shewn from the express Authority of an Act of Parliament And that the same Authority is required to the Dismission as to the Calling of it has been the declared opinion of our greatest Lawyers in this Case When a Question was raised by some few in the lower House of Convocation Anno 1640. Whether they might lawfully continue to sit after the Parliament was Dissolved The Arch-Bishop besought His Majesty that for their better Assurance his learned Council and some Other Persons of Honour well acquainted with the Laws of the Realm might deliver their Judgment upon it This His Majesty Graciously Approved and the Question was accordingly put to Them They answer'd as followeth under their Hands The Convocation being called by the King 's Writ under the Great Seal doth continue untill it be Dissolved by Writ or Commission under the Great Seal And accordingly we know that not only upon their Dissolution but for Every Prorogation that is made of it there is a Writ sent by the King to the Arch-Bishop and They cannot break up when they please but must continue to Sit as long as the King shall think fit to Require Them so to do Such Authority has His Majesty over their Assemblies nor has He any less over their Acts. It is I think agreed on all hands that no Acts of Convocation are of any force untill they are Confirm'd by the Royal Authority And that is all I am now concern'd to determine How far or What persons they will oblige when Confirm'd by the King without the Concurrence of the Parliament is another Question in which I am not at present concern'd to Engage But tho' of this therefore in General there be no doubt yet I cannot tell whether some Men may be willing to allow the King all that Authority which I have before shew'd Other Princes have claim'd and which I see no Reason why our Own Kings should not Enjoy It is expressly provided by the 25th of Hen. 8th That the Convocation shall not only not presume to make any Canons without the King's permission but that having made Them They shall not presume to promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodal unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to promuige and execute the same And even then it is farther Provided by the same Act That No Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be Contrariant or Repugnant to the King 's Prerogative-Royal or to the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm And from whence as they are naturally deduced so were these two Points deliver'd by the Judges before the Committee of the Lords as the Law with reference to this Matter 1. That when upon Conference the Convocation has concluded any Canons yet they cannot execute any of their Canons without the Royal Assent And 2. That they cannot execute Any after Royal Assent but with these Four Limitations 1st That they be not against the Prerogative of the King 2dly Nor against the Common-Law 3dly Nor against any Statute-Law 4thly Nor against any Custom of the Realm And this the learned Reporter tells us was but an Affirmance of what was the Law before the said Statutes as appears by the 19 Ed. 3. Title Quare non Ad 〈…〉 isit 7. Where it is held
Controversie of that Prince with Becket his Archbishop may alone suffice to shew When being angry with the Archbishop for Excommunicating one who held of him and did him service without first obtaining his leave so to do he in his Parliment at Westminster proposed to the Bishops that they should promise to observe the Ancient Laws of the Realm This they refused to do but with a Proviso put in to secure their own Liberties The King resenting this the Archbishop and Bishops in a great Council at Oxford promised that they would submit to what he required of them But when he thereupon held his Parliament at Clarendon and the particular points which they were to yield to were proposed to them Becket tho' he had at first sworn to observe them yet afterwards flew off from it and never left till he at last lost his Life in an obstinate Opposition of the King's Prerogative From this time the power both of the Pope and Clergy began very much to prevail For the King being upon this occasion forced to a dishonourable Submission and the following Princes especially King John sinking their Authority still lower the Efforts which were made by the Laity against it were for some time but very seeble Nor could the Parliament sufficiently vindicate its Power against the Encroachments that were daily made upon the Civil Jurisdiction But however both our Kings and our Parliaments began by degrees to recover their Authority and to return to their former strength tho' indeed it was not till about the End of this Period that they did so And how far they then extended their Power both over Ecclesiastical Persons and in regulating of Ecclesiastical Matters their Acts still remaining and many of them still in force too sufficiently shew and all which are so well known that I shall not need to insist more particularly upon them III PERIOD From the 23d of King Edward the First to the 25th of King Henry the Eighth In the last Period we met with a considerable Change by the Usurpation of the Pope and Weakness of our Princes made in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Supremacy We are now to account for no less a change in the Civil State If the opinion of those may be admitted who here fix the first Settlement of our Parliament upon that lasting and excellent Foundation upon which it has ever since stood and upon which it is to be hoped it shall ever continue to stand That our Kings from the beginning had their great Councils and which tho' not yet call'd by that Name were nevertheless instead of a Parliament to them has before been observed and cannot be deny'd or doubted of by any To these the most eminent Persons of the Kingdom as well Clergy as Laity were wont to be called before the time of the Norman Conquest And when by occasion thereof the Conquerour made a change in the Tenures of Lands in this Country from thenceforth all the great Men and Clergy who held of him by Baronies and ow'd him Service thereby were summon'd by him to his great Councils And with these all such others as held of him in capite were obliged to attend at them whensoever their Presence should be required and that was for the most part as often as the Prince wanted Money and expected a supply from them Thus much the Charter of King John implies and this seems to have been the true Constitution of our Parliament till about the latter end of King Henry the Third's time How a change was then made and what occasion was taken for the making of it it is not needfull for me in this place to enquire But that in the 49th Year of that King the Commons were summon'd by Writ to come to Parliament is confess'd by those who deny that they ever had any place in it before Whether they from thenceforth continued to be constantly called to these Councils or whether there was an Interruption in this new Establishment from that time till about the 18th of King Edward the First as it is hard to determine so is it not very material to my present business to enquire That which we are sure of is that in the 18th of King Edward the First they were again summon'd and so have continued ever since to be But tho' it be therefore confess'd that the Commons were constantly call'd to the Parliament from the 18th of Edward the First yet it does not appear that the Method now observed of chusing of them was so soon brought in The most ancient Authorities that are alledged for this are the Writs of the 23d of the same King and from which time accordingly some have dated the full Settlement of our present most wise and admirable Constitution And as this is the Change which seems to have been made about this time in the secular part of our Parliament so have we reason to believe that at the same time there was no less a change made in the Ecclesiastical part of it For whereas before only the Bishops and Abbots who held of the King by their Baronies were wont to be summon'd thither in the 49th of Henry 3. when the Commons began to be call'd several of the Inferiour Clergy were also call'd together with them and that for ought appears in a larger Proportion than the Laity themselves were And when in the 23d of Edward 1st the constitution of the Parliament came to be setled as now it is the Inferiour Clergy were put upon the very same foot that the Commons were in it And as with respect to the one a Writ was issued out to the Sheriff of each County to return such a certain number of Knights Citizens and Burgesses so with relation to the other a Clause was inserted into the Writ of the Bishop of every Diocese to send the Dean of his Cathedral and his Archdeacons in person and out of the Chapter and Archdeaconries to chuse such a number of Proctors as was thought sufficient to represent the Clergy of each Diocess in it 'T is true we are told that in some few Writs at the beginning this Clause was sometimes omitted By what means or upon what account they cannot tell But then as we find that when this general Clause was omitted particular Writs were sent to several of the Inferiour Clergy to come to Parliament so the same Learned Person who furnishes us with this Remark does ingenuously confess that after a diligent search of our Records it did appear to him that these Defects were soon over and that from the 6th of Edw. 3. the Clergy have continued to be as duly and constantly summon'd to Parliament as the Commons themselves have been Indeed so evident is the truth of this that our greatest Lawyers and Antiquaries do not deny the inferiour Clergy to have been once a member of the Parliament My Lord Coke has told us That many
times they have appear'd there as Spiritual Assistants to consider consult and consent Only he affirms that they never had Voices there because they were no Lords of Parliament the force of which Argument I shall leave to the House of Commons to answer In the mean time I must observe that in the case of Bird and Smith Trin. 4. Jac. 1. upon a Deprivation made of Smith by the High Commissioners for not Conforming to the Canons of the Church the Lord Chancellour having call'd Popham Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench Coke of the Common Pleas and Fleming Lord Chief Baron to his assistance it was agreed to by all the three without any Exception That the Canons of the Church made by the Convocation and King without the Parliament shall bind in matters Ecclesiastical as well as an Act of Parliament Because the Convocation of the Clergy was once a Member of the Parliament but afterwards for Convenience separated and therefore does carry its peculiar Jurisdiction along with it in the Convocation House For which reason also a Clergy-man cannot be chosen a Member of the House of Commons nor a Lay-man of the Convocation as Coke then declared had been resolved in a Conference of the two Houses 21 Hen. 8. And as concerning the other part of my Lord Coke's Assertion that the Proctors of the Clergy never had Voices in Parliament because in the Writ of Summons it is said that they were call'd Ad consentiendum his quae tunc ibidem de communi consilio dicti regni nostri contigerit ordinari it may suffice to observe that tho' this be indeed the present Form yet when both the Clergy and Commons were first called to this great Council they were both summon'd to another purpose and in words that did expresly intitle them to act in it In the 23d Edw. 1. the first Summons for ought appears that was ever regularly issued out for them they were called Ad Tractand Ordinand Faciend nobiscum cum caeteris praelatis proceribus aliis incolis Regni nostri In the 4th Edw. 3. Ad Faciend Consentiend And this continued to be the usual Form afterwards And these are the very Words that were used in the Commons Writs in the same Parliament 4 Edward 3 And which tho' alter'd about the 26th of that King into others of greater force Ad Tractand Consulend Faciend Yet that Form lasted not very long but in the 46 of the same King it again was worded Ad Faciend Consulend and so has continued to this day And a more ancient Authority than this in my Lord Coke's Account has told us that the Clergy were call'd Ad Tractand Deliberand That their names were call'd over the beginning of every Parliament that they had a Voice in it and made a part of the Commons there But because this is a point that will best be clear'd by matter of Fact we will enquire a little what the Clergy were wont heretofore to do there For as for the Forms of Summons tho' I conceive at first they were very properly drawn and do mark out to us the undoubted Rights of those to whom they were sent as they were allow'd of in those ancient times yet how little they may signifie now the Form of our Parliamentary Writs in the Praemonentes to the Bishop does alone too evidently shew In the 6 Edw. 3. after the Archbishop of Cant. and Bishop of London had declared how that the French King designing an Expedition to the Holy Land had desired our King to go along with him and that this was the cause of calling that Parliament Sir Jeffery le Scroop added by the King's Commandment that the same was called as well to redress the Breach of the Laws and Peace as for the King 's going to the Holy Land The Bishops answer'd That it did not properly appertain to them to counsel in matters of Peace and to prescribe for the punishment of Evils And so together with the Proctors of the Clergy they went apart to consult about the Matters proposed to them In the 13th of the same King the King appointing Commissioners in his stead to begin and continue the Parliament we find the Dean of York as Treasurer standing next to the Archbishop in the Commission And in the Parliament which met the Michaelmas before it being resolved to hold another upon the Octaves of Hilary the Archbishops were order'd to summon their respective Convocations to be ready to meet with it In the 18th of the same Edw. 3. at the opening of the Parliament complaint was made that sundry of all Estates were absent whereat the King did no less muse than he was thereat offended Wherefore he charged the Archbishop for his part to punish the Defaults of the Clergy and he would do the like touching the Parliament And in the same Session the Resolution being taken that the King should end the War he was engaged in either by Battle or an Honourable Peace the King agreed And in order thereunto the Clergy of Cant. granted him a Triennial Disme and the Commons two fifteens of Counties and two Dismes of Cities and Towns It was the usual custom of the Commons in those days to begin such Bills as they thought necessary to have pass'd by Petition to the King in Parliament Thus they did in this Parliament 18 Edw. 3. which being ended the Bishops and Clergy exhibited their Petitions also being in number seven whereto the King answer'd and the same comprized in the Statute for the Clergy still extant In the Preamble of which the King takes notice of the Triennial Disme granted to him by the Prelates and Procurators of the Clergy of both Provinces In the 1 Rich. 2. we again find the Clergy petitioning in like manner And in the 21st of the same King the Commons by Sir John Bussey their Speaker pray the King that forasmuch as divers Judgments were heretofore undone for that the Clergy were not present therefore they pray'd the King that the Clergy should appoint some to be their common Proctor with sufficient Authority thereunto And the Bishops thereupon appointed Sir Thomas Piercie their Proctor to assent in the name of the Clergy And by vertue whereof when the Parliament took a new Oath to the King the Bishops and Abbots themselves took it and Sir Thomas Piercie as Proctor for the Clergy was sworn to the same And when in the same Parliament Sir John Bussey offer'd the King a Subsidy from the Commons and thereupon desired his general Pardon the Clergy gave the like power to Sir William â—e Scroop of Wilts to answer for them that they late did to Sir Thomas Piercie And when finally upon the advice of Sir John Bussey the Lords were required again to swear not to alter any thing of what was done in this Parliament not only the Bishops and Temporal Lords did so but sundry
But there is another Respect under which the Clergy in Convocation may be consider'd and of which it will therefore be necessary for me to give also some Account before I go on to take any particular View of what was done by them under this Capacity I have before said that when the King Orders his Writs to be Issued out for Calling a Parliament He do's at the same time direct two Others to be sent to the Two Archbishops to Summon the Clergy of their Respective Provinces to meet together about the same time And it will be necessary for me in the first place to take notice of the difference there is between these Two kinds of Summons because that by that we shall be able the better to judge what is intended by Each of Them First then The Parliamentary-Writ is sent distinctly to every Bishop â—mmediately from the King and the Bishop is thereby Required to Summon the Clergy of his Diocess to go along with him to Parliament Whereas the Convocation-Writ is sent only to the Archbishop and He by the Bishop of London sends to the Other Bishops of his Province to meet Him with their Clergy in Convocation according to the King's Command And sometimes the Archbishop heretofore Summon'd them only by his Own Authority 2. By the Parliamentary-Writ the Bishop and Clergy of Each Diocess are to come to the place where the Parliament is intended to be Opened and upon the Day appointed for the Assembling of it By the Convocation-Writ they are call'd to the Chapter-House at Pauls or to such Other place as the Archbishop appoints and that oftentimes heretofore on some Other day than that on which the Parliament began 3. The Parliamentary-Writ Summons Them to come to Parliament there to Treat c. with the King the Rest of the Prelates and Lords and Other Inhabitants of the Realm concerning the Urgent Affairs that are there to be deliberated of with respect to the King the Realm and the State of the Church of England The Convocation-Writ calls them to consult only among Themselves and that as they shall be directed by the King when they come together 4. By the Parliamentary-Writ only the Deans Arch-deacons and Proctors of the Clergy are Summon'd But the Convocation-Writ with these call'd the Regular Dignitaries too Omnes Abbates Priores c. tam Exemptos quà m non Exemptos and so gave many a place in Convocation that had nothing to do in the Parliament 5. Lastly By the Parliamentary-Writ they were ever to meet at the very precise time the Parliament did By the Other they not only did not meet always at the same precise Time but very often at such time as no Parliament was Sitting Which was the Case of the most ancient Convocation-Writ I have 〈◊〉 met with of the 9 Edw. II. And according to which the Convocation sate Febr. 17 whereas the Parliament met the October before It is therefore as plain as any thing can well be That the Convocation of the Clergy consider'd as call'd by the Parliamentary-Writs and sitting by Vertue of Them and the Convocation consider'd as Summon'd by the Convocation-Writ and the Orders of the Archbishop consequent thereupon are in their nature and constitution two different Assemblies and which by no means ought to be Confounded together The great Question is What the nature of this Convocation as distinguish'd from the Parliamentary-Convention is and what the design of their Meeting Originally was Had these Convocations been always Assembled by the Authority of the Archbishop without any Writ from the King as oftentimes heretofore they were And had they meddled only with Ecclesiastical Matters when they met It would have been no hard matter to give a plain and certain Answer to this Enquiry Because in that Case it would have been Evident that these Convocations were no Other than Provincial Synods which the Archbishop took occasion to Assemble for the Ease of the Clergy and the Benefit of the Church at the same time that they were otherwise Required to come together for the business of the State And this Use Our Kings were wont sometimes to make of Them They referr'd Ecclesiastical Matters to them and advised with them in things pertaining to Religion But as the Form of their Summons entitles them to meet upon some urgent Affairs which concern not only the security and defence of the Church of England but of the King too and the peace and tranquility the publick Good and defence of the Kingdom So the main design Our Princes seem to have had in Assembling these Convocations either at the same time they did their Parliament or not long after was to get Money from Them That so in a much fuller Body of the Clergy than what usually came to the State-Council and consisting of such Members particularly as were most haâ—d to be dealt with the Abbots and 〈◊〉 they might either obtain a supply from the Clergy there when they had 〈◊〉 in Parliament or have that Supply confirm'd by them in Convocation which had before been Granted to Them in Parliament Nor is this any vain Conjecture but founded upon a General Observation of what was done by the Convocation when it met and which for the most part was nothing else but to confirm or make an Order for Money And even upon the very Summons themselves which were anciently sent to them and in which the Cause of their meeting was oftentimes more particularly express'd than afterwards it was wont to be I shall offer an Instance of this in that ancient Summons before mention'd 9 Edw. II. In which it is declared That those Bishops and Others of the Clergy who were Summon'd to Parliament had as far as they were concern'd unanimously yielded to a Subsidy but so that Others of the Clergy who were not Summon'd to Parliament should Meet in Convocation and Consent thereto And that for this Cause the King had sent his Writ to the Archbishop to Summon All Prelates whether Religious or Others and Others of the Clergy of his Province to meet at London post 15 Pasch. to treat and consent of the Matter aforesaid This therefore was the great Use which Our Kings were wont all along to make of their Convocations and from this it came to be the Custom to Summon them for the most part as often as the Parliament met and Generally at the same time that it did so But tho' our Convocations therefore even as Ecclesiastical Synods have by this means come to be for a long time Summon'd at the same time that the Parliament was to meet yet I do not see any Reason there is to consine them so closely to such a season as to make it absolutely necessary for the King to call the One whenever He do's the Other Indeed Custom which in such Cases ought to be allow'd its just force has prevailed so far that it may be question'd whether the Clergy thereby have not a Right to
these opinions the Civil Power was not only allow'd but desir'd to interpose with them and an Act made for the Prosecution of Hereticks Anno 1401 2 Hen. 4. But tho' by this means therefore a new subject was started to exercise the debates of our Convocations yet still the Pope ceased not to attempt upon the Crown with his wonted Usurpations To oppose which Richard the 2d call'd his Clergy together Anno 1398 and demanded of them Whether the Pope had Power to translate Bishops and dispose of Preferments as he had again that Year notoriously done Instead of giving any direct answer whereunto they cautiously reply'd That it was their opinion the King should write to the Pope to desist from such Practices for the time to come At which the King being justly offended told them That had they boldly asserted his Right he would have firmly stood by them and have protected them against the Power of the Court of Rome King Richard being deposed and King Henry being willing to ingratiate Himself with the Clergy scarce a year pass'd without a Convocation The main business of which still was to suppress the New Opinions and to prosecute the Maintainers of Them But except this there is little from this time forth to be observed to our present purpose in Them But tho' I shall not therefore need to insist any farther upon the particular View of the Convocations of these times yet a Law there is which must not be pass'd by It was made in favour of the Clergy by King Henry the Sixth Anno 1430. And the substance of it is That the Clergy in Convocation should be allow'd for Themselves and their Servants all the same Protections and Privileges which had been Granted to Members of Parliament and which by Vertue thereof they still continue to Enjoy I shall close up these Remarks with the account of one Other Convocation and that such as is not to be parallell'd in all its circumstances in any part of our History King Henry the Eighth having call'd a Parliament to Westminster Anno 1529 Commanded Warham Archbishop of Canterbury to Summon a Convocation of the Clergy to meet about the same time in St. Paul's Church London Cardinal Woolsey who as Archbishop of York had no place in the Convocation and was desirous to bring every thing within his Own Management by his Legatine Power dissolves the Convocation held at the King's Command by Warham and Orders the same Synod to Appear before himself as the Pope's Legate the next day at Westminster Where having got a sufficient Subsidy granted by Them to the King he soon dismiss'd the Assembly And thus have I given a brief Account of the most considerable Assemblies of the Clergy in Convocation during this Third Period Many there are which I have pass'd by without making any mention at all of Them And it may be sufficient here in the Close of all to say this one thing concerning Them That for the most part the Great End our Kings had in Summoning of Them was to get Money from Them as the main thing they did when they met was to consider what Measures to take and what Excuses to urge to avoid the Giving of it IV PERIOD From the 25th of King Henry the Eighth to Our Present Times We are now come to the last Part of these Reflections to the Time in which our Convocation was finally setled by Parliamentary Authority in the State in which it now stands and under which Condition I have in the foregoing Chapter consider'd the Rights of it I shall here only give a short account how it came to be thus setled and what Methods our Princes have from thenceforth taken for the Management of their Ecclesiastical Affairs and the Exercise of their Ecclesiastical Supremacy King Henry the Eighth having been a long time trifled with by the Court of Rome in the business of his Divorce and being not of a Humour to bear such an Opposition as was thereby made to his Desires Resolved at last to break off all Communication with it And in pursuance thereof pass'd an Act against Appeals to Rome and for ending Ecclesiastical Suits within his Own Realm Anno 1533. It was not long after this that Warham dying and Cranmer being made Archbishop of Canterbury the business of the Divorce which had so long been depending was finally determined by Him The news of which being got to Rome the Pope not only Annull'd the Archbishop's proceeding but Commanded the King to do it likewise And upon his Refusal to hearken to Him publish'd against Him a Sentence of Excommunication as He had before Threatned to do To prevent that Breach which this must otherwise have necessarily made between Them the French King interposed so effectually with the Pope who about this time came as far as Marseilles to Treat with Him that He offer'd new Terms of Accommodation to King Henry and the Archbishop of Paris thereupon undertook to make up the difference betwixt Them And now all things seem'd to tend to Peace The King was willing to accept of the Pope's Offers and the Pope no less desirous to gain the King The misfortune was that the Pope confined Him to so short a time that his Messenger could not get to Rome so soon as had been required And the Imperial Faction wrought so powerfully upon the Pope that he refused to enlarge it but for six days till He might see what the King would do before He proceeded to a final Sentence against Him The Quarrel therefore now being come to a heighth and the King resolved to maintain his Authority Many Laws were pass'd the next year for the better Establishment of it And because he was sufficiently aware that His chiefest opposition might be likely to arise from the Clergy He resolved to take an effectual Course with Them And of which it will be requisite to give some short Account I have before Observed what severe Laws were made by Edward the Third in his 25th 27th and 28th Years against the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome These were confirm'd by King Richard the Second in his 12th and 13th Years And because the Pope still went on nevertheless in his Practises in his 16th Year the famous Act of Praemunire was pass'd against All Bulls c. from the Court of Rome under Pain of Perpetual Banishment with the forfeiture of the Lands Tenements Goods and Chattels of those who should either procure or make use of Them But notwithstanding these Laws the Pope still proceeded in his Own way and the Clergy were always ready to assist him in it And by these means there were but very few of any Note among Them who had not upon some account or other incurr'd the Penalty before mention'd Upon this Ground therefore the King resolved to attacque Them And They being well Aware of the danger of it determined by any means to Avoid it In Order whereunto They first
agree to Offer the King a Summ of Money And in the next place by an Act of Convocation to submit Themselves to Him and Recognize his Royal Authority over Them This was that submission upon which the Act for Regulating the Convocation was drawn and in which among Other things these two Points became setled both by Parliament and Convocation First That the Clergy have no Right to meet in any Synod without the King's License testified by his Writ to the Archbishop And Secondly That being Met They cannot proceed to Act but according to his Direction Thus was the Crown after a long Invasion upon it Restored to those Rights it anciently enjoy'd and which our Kings as we have seen continued to assert till the Papal Power or Interest became too strong for Them And accordingly ever since the Convocation has continued to assemble and act according to these Measures so that I shall not need to take any more particular View of its Proceedings It is I conceive without all doubt that since the passing of this Act the Convocation has still been summon'd as often as a Parliament has been held And as long as the Clergy therein continued to assist the Government by granting of Subsidies it has generally been allow'd to sit too as often as it was necessary for that purpose tho' it has seldom done any thing besides But altho' it has t 〈…〉 efore been the General Custom for the Convocation to meet whensoever the Parliament do's yet neither since the Passing of this Act nor before have these two been accounted to have so inseparable a Relation to one another but that if the King pleased the Convocation might be held when the Parliament was not And the Parliament sit and act and yet the Convocation do neither An instance of the former of these we have within about four years after the Passing of the Convocation-Act The Archbishop by Order of the Vicar-General call'd a Convocation Anno 1537. And the Clergy accordingly both Met and Did business tho' no Parliament was held that Year As for the latter it is a matter of daily practise and has been so ever since the Reformation It is certain then that the Convocation as we now understand it that is to say as it is an Assembly of the Clergy call'd by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishops and by their Order Grounded thereupon is an Assembly altogether different from the Parliament of this Realm and evidently no Member of it The only Question is What we are to think of it when it meets together with the Parliament and has a pretension to its Assembling as well by the Bishop's Parliamentary Summons as by the Archbishops Orders When Mr. Philpot was examined before the Lords of the Council Novemb. the 6th Anno 1555 concerning the Heresie of which he was Accused One part of His Plea for himself was That they took advantage of certain things that had been spoken by him in Convocation And that for this He ought not to be call'd to account Because that House being a Member of the Parliament ought to be a place of free speech for All Men of the House by the ancient and laudable Custom of this Realm And indeed so firmly was this Notion setled in the Minds of the Clergy in those days that in the Convocation held the first year of Edw. the Sixth a Motion was made That it should be desired in the Name of the Lower House of Convocation that their House might be United to the House of Commons But the Lords Rich and Windsor told Mr. Philpot That the Convocation was No Part of the Parliament tho' by an Old Custom it was call'd together by One Writ of Summons with the Parliament To their Opinion Mr. Philpot submitmitted nor shall I pretend to enter any Plea against it Thus much is plain That the Convocation was once accounted in this Respect a Member of the Parliament And the Reason why it was accounted so was Because by this Writ of Summons the lower Clergy were Called no less than the Bishops themselves to it Now thus they continue to be summon'd still The Writ is the same it ever was Is as constantly Issued out and as expressly Worded as when they were from thence confess'd to be a part of the Parliament And therefore the Reason of the thing being the same one would think it should still inferr the same Conclusion But Logick is one thing and Law is another And all this notwithstanding the Clergy is now no Member of the Parliament Nor is there any Reason why it should be For now there being so many learned Bishops there I suppose heretofore there were no Bishops there their Presence is no longer holden necessary So my Lord Coke has learnedly determined this matter Which makes me the more wonder that the Presence of the Inferiour Clergy being no longer holden necessary it should nevertheless be holden necessary to continue their Summons and not rather be thought adviseable to Reduce the Bishop's Writ to its first Form when the Proctors of the Clergy not coming neither were they summon'd to Parliament Such then is the Case of our Present Convocation But now besides these Provincial Synods there is another sort of more select Conventions if not first introduced yet more especially made use of in this last Period And they consist of such Certain Bishops and Clergy-men as the King thinks sit to Choose and by his Commission to Authorize to meet together at such time and in such place as he therein prescribes to them To these he proposes whatsoever it be that he would have them to consult about and having so done they are to lay the Result of their Opinions according to his Direction before Him That by such Synods as these the Reformation was especially carried on is not to be deny'd They have often determined the greatest Matters And upon their Advice the Government has accordingly proceeded without ever consulting any larger Convocation concerning them But this was in some measure owing to the Necessities of those times in which a great part of the Clergy were yet engaged in the Romish Errors Enemies to the Reformation and therefore not qualified to promote so good a Work At present their business is chiefly this Either to Advise the King in such Matters as He do's not think it necessary to trouble the Convocation to meet about Or else in Matters of a greater Moment to prepare what may be sit for the King to lay before the Convocation that since they must not debate on any thing without his leave He may thereby be the better enabled to Propose what is Expedient to Them So that now then if we would know after what manner Ecclesiastical Affairs have been transacted since the time of the Reformation we shall find it to have been by some or other of these Five following Ways 1. Sometimes the King has by his Own
Convocation is called They should not only meet Formally but sit and act as the Parliament do that there should be a Session of Convocation as well as a Session of Parliament Now not to be too curious in examining the Parallel here offered betwixt these two and which were it as exact as I am confident it is not would yet no more prove their Privileges to be Equal than the Likeness of two Corporations in having a Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council would prove that therefore in despight of their several Charters they must have all the same Privileges also 1st I am not satisfied that the Convocation is of the same Power with Regard to the Church that the Parliament is in Respect of the State Because I am told by very good Lawyers that the Convocation in making Ecclesiastical Constitutions must proceed by certain Rules and cannot even with the King's consent conclude any thing contrary to the Laws or Statutes or Customs of the Realm But now the Parliament is not subject to any such limitations Its Power is Arbitrary and Uncontroulable And being joyn'd with the Royal Authority can enact what it will for the publick Good any Law Statute or Custom to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding 2. As for the Word Parliament I shall not much contend with him about it It is well known that it was a name brought in by the Normans and but late Received among Us to denote those Meetings of State which were anciently called mycel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Colloquium Concilium Synodus and the like It is more extraordinary which He tells us that as Wittena-Gemote was wont to signifie what we call a Parliament so Church-Gemote denoted what we call a Convocation And for which I am confident He will be hard put to it to bring us any Author elder than Sir Edw. Coke from whom as poor Godolphin first so has he now taken it at all Adventures Tho' were this true the Observation would amount in plain English to no more than this That as a Parliament was anciently call'd an Assembly of the Wise-men so was a Convocation call'd an Assembly of Church-men And of which if He can make any Use I shall not envy him the Honour of so weighty and critical a Remark Were it needfull in Return to these little Remarks to mention the several Differences that might be assigned between these two Assemblies I might easily enlarge them into many more particulars and of much greater Importance than Those which He has alledged To say nothing of the Convocations being multiplied according to the number of the Provinces into which the Church is divided and representing the Clergy not of the whole Church but only of One part of it whereas the Parliament is an Assembly for the whole Realm The manner of Consulting Resolving and Acting is very different in the One and in the Other The Authority of the Archbishop is much other in the Convocation than the Lord-Keepers is in the Parliament But especially the Power of the Parliament in making Laws free and unbounded whereas the Convocation is by Authority of Parliament determined both in its Principle and Power of Acting And can neither Debate effectually nor Resolve to any purpose of any thing but what is Agreeable to the Laws of the Realm and is no wise prejudicial to the Civil interests of any But to allow of the supposed Parallel between the Parliament and Convocation What will this Gentleman inferr from it Not I hope that the One should therefore â—it and act whenever the Other do's A Father for example has two Sons They are both his Children both of the same Sex both Equally Related to Him perhaps and both Equally Beloved by Him But will this Author from thence conclude That they have an Equal Right to his Estate and ought Equally to succeed in it This would be a very Agreeable conclusion to many I make no doubt but I am afraid will hardly be allow'd by the Elder Brothers to be a Just One 'T is true a Father in this Case may possibly have left them Portions alike and have made them as equal in their Fortunes as they were in their Relation to him And so perhaps Our Constitution may have made the Parliament and the Convocation But whether the Father has done this must be proved from the settlement of his Estate and not from any supposed Equality of Right in his Sons to his Affection And whether Our Constitution has given these Assemblies an Equal right to meet â—it and act must be determined by the Laws and Customs of the Realm and not be collected from imaginary Parallels and wild Inferences which have neither any Law and but very little Sense in Them 3. As for those State Maxims which he has finally added to support this Argument it will then be proper to give a Reply to them when this Author shall have shewn us that there is any thing in them to be Replied to In the mean time I must observe that whether we consider the Nature or End of the Parliament the Necessities of the Civil Affairs or the Interest which Both the Prince and People may have in the Assembling of it there must in all probability be always a much greater need of Frequent Parliaments for the benefit of the State than of Frequent Convocations for the Welfare of the Church When a National Church is once thoroughly Establish'd and neither needs any farther Laws to be made for the enforcing of its Discipline or any new Confessions to be framed for the security of its Doctrine When its Liturgy and other Offices are fix'd and stated and there is so far from being any need of altering or improving any of these that it is thought a Crime but even to suppose that it is possible to improve them or to make any Alterations but for the Worse in them I cannot imagine untill something arises to unsettle such a Constitution what a Convocation could have to meet about But this is not the Case of the Civil State which is God knows subject to many more changes than the Ecclesiastical and will oftner want to have publick Remedies applied for the redress or prevention of its publick Evils Perhaps a Prince arises who affects an Arbitrary sway and his Ministers joyn in the same designs with him and nothing less than the Authority of a Parliament can put a stop to their Attempts This therefore may make it necessary in times of Peace and Quietness for the Parliament to meet at certain times to prevent such attempts and to keep every Member of the Constitution within its due bounds And such was the Case of the last Reign It may be the Common-wealth is assaulted by its Enemies from abroad and those Enemies are countenanced by a factious discontented Party at home and it is necessary for the Parliament to meet and to raise Supplies for the Defence of the Realm against the One and to make some
new Laws for the suppression or discovery of the Others And this has been the Case of the present Government But now what Effect have all these Civil Exigencies had upon the Affairs of the Church Unless it be that an Act of Toleration has been made which our Author professes He envies not to the Dissenters or if He did I hope He would not have the Convocation pretend to Repeal it In short all he can alledge are certain disorders which either there is a sufficient provision already made against Or if there be not I doubt the Convocation will hardly be able to do any thing farther for the more effectual Redress of Them But however this I shall have Occasion more particularly to consider when I come to examine what He has said to prove the necessity which He pretends there is for the sitting of a Convocation And I must not anticipate here what will more properly as well as more fully be handled there So little is there in his first Argument which he has brought to prove that the Convocation has a Right to sit as often as the Parliament meets and has been unwarrantably deny'd by the Government so to do Let us see whether his next proof be any better Now that 2dly is no less than an Act of Parliament 8 Hen. VI. ch 1. The substance of which Statute is this That the Clergy who are called by the King 's Writ to Convocation shall fully Use and Enjoy such Liberty and Defence in Coming Tarrying and Returning as the Great Men and Commonalty of England called or to be called to the Kings Parliament do Enjoy and were wont to Enjoy or in time to come ought to Enjoy Well be this so But is there any thing in this Statute which says that the Clergy shall come to the Convocation when ever the Great Men and Commonalty of England do to the Parliament That is not pretended But what is there then in this Act to the purpose of our present Enquiry Why in the Preamble to it 't is said that The Clergy Coming to Convocation were often-times and commonly molested From whence our Author admirably concludes That therefore they did oftentimes and commonly in those days meet in Convocations That this can reasonably be inferr'd from those words I am by no means satisfied which only signifie that when the Clergy went to Convocation they were very often molested by Arrests c. but do's not at all imply that the Convocation used often to meet However let this be Granted In Henry the Sixth's time the Convocation often met therefore it met whenever the Parliament sate How do's that appear Nay but we must go farther Therefore of right it ought to meet now whenever the Parliament do's Nay but this will not yet do Therefore it ought not only formally to meet but to sit and act too as often as the Parliament assembles This our Author must mean or He alledges this act to no purpose And he who can draw this Consequence from that Act must be a mighty Man of Reason indeed and too unequal a Match for Men of ordinary Skill in Logick to deal with And yet after all this I confess is true The Convocation in those days did sit and act too for the most part as often as the Parliament met For the Clergy in those days assessed Themselves and without their sitting either as a Member of the Parliament which heretofore they were Or in a Provincial Synod which commonly met with the Parliament the King could have no supply from the Church But as for Ecclesiastical business for ought I can find they did as little with their Often-meeting then as they do with their Seldom-meeting now And were this the Case of the Convocation still were the business of its assembling principally if not only to give Money to the Government I believe instead of this Vindication of its Right to â—it we should rather have seen a Complaint against the charge and trouble of it At least I am pretty confident neither this Gentleman nor his Convocation-Friend would have been much concern'd for their Meeting or have been at all scandalized at those unwarrantable Adjournmen's they have now so tender a sense of But 3dly The Convecation says this Author is an Ecclesiastical Court. To it belongs the punishment of Heresies And in ancient times it was frequently and of necessity used for that End for without it there could be no punishment of Heresie Since the 25th of Hen VIII this is in good measure again the Case And it cannot reasonably be supposed to be in the King 's absolute Will whether it shall exercise this Jurisdiction or not This is his next Argument and should we intirely allow of it it would only prove that the King ought to permit Them to meet and act whenever any Hereticks were to be convicted by Them But would by no means shew either that they have a right even in such a Case to meet without the King's leave Or that the King ought of Right to let them sit when there is no such need of it But indeed if my Lord Coke be in the right there is a manifest mistake in the very foundation of this Argument For the Bishop of the Diocess had always Power to convict of Heresie and to proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures against Hereticks All that he was defective in was that He had no power to Imprison and for want of that could not proceed often-times to any purpose against them This Power therefore was given to the Bishop by the 2d of Hen. IV. And tho' now the Civil Penalty that was wont to be inflicted upon Hereticks be taken away yet has it been resolved that the Bishop may still proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures against Them Whether this be so or not I shall leave it to this Gentleman to enquire who possibly may be better acquainted with such matters than I am But if it be then 't is manifest there can be no need of the Convocations meeting to do that which may be as well done by the Bishops without it And these are only some lesser Arguments with which our Author design'd to skirmish before we came to his main battle But now we are to begin to look to our selves For 4thly His next Proof is taken from no less a Topick than the Parliamentary-Writ and in his Own Opinion â—s an Argument of Invincible Strength to Establish the Necessity of Convocations meeting as often as Parliaments In answer whereunto I do readily agree that when the Proemonition to the Bishop to Summon his Clergy to Parliament was first put into that Writ the Clergy thereby summon'd had as much right to meet by Vertue of it as the Bishop himself had And it is accordingly by Our best Antiquaries acknowledged that in Ancient times the Inferior Clergy were a Member of the Great Council of the Nation as well as the Bishops and Abbots But then this
unwilling to believe it tho' all the while it is apparent that by that very Insinuation they hope to make it stick the more they think they have done their Business They have Guarded themselves against being called to account for it by Men and I am Afraid they never once think what Account they must give for it to God It is by this little Artifice that this bold Writer has presumed to vent such Calumnies against the Greatest and best Men as had they really been true could hardly have been Reported without a Crime Has traduced the King as a Man of No Religion but particularly as no Friend to the Church of England The Arch-bishop as either Ignorant of the Churches Interests or too much a Courtier to trouble the King about them The Bishops as Men that value not what becomes of the Church so long as they can but keep their Honour and their Dignity in the State The Inferiour Clergy as full of Discontents and Dissatisfaction as Persons who have been ill used and resent it accordingly And lastly even the Parliament its self as a Body that has never yet done any thing in favour of Religion nor that seems at all disposed to do any thing for the Advantage of it And when such is the Case of all these what wonder if he freely declares his Apprehension of a General Conspiracy of all Sorts of Men among Us to undermine the Catholick Faith so that it is much to be feared no Order no Degree or Place among Us is wholly free from the Infection It would be endless for me to insist upon these and the like Reflections which He seems industriously to have catcht at in every Part of his Letter I shall instead of all examine the Story with which he concludes it and so take my Leave of Him There was says He a Time when the Clergy was deem'd Publick Enemies and us'd as such viz. in the Reign of Edw. 1. but it was upon a very Honourable Account because they Asserted the Laws of the Realm The King at that Time did by Commission against the ancient Laws and Customs of the Kingdom pretend to collect Money without the Assent of Parliament not from the Clergy only but from the Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Realm The Latter did too many of them submit the Clergy stoutly Resisted it So that Sir Robert Brabazon the King ' s Chief Justice pronounced openly in the King ' s Bench in terrorem that from thenceforth no Justice should be done at their Suit and that Justice should be done against Them in the King's Courts at any Man's Suit This Passage I mark'd when I first read the Institutes as a very extraordinary one 't is pag. 529. 2 Inst I suppose you will think it so too and that England was then bless'd with a Righteous Chief Justice This is the Fable and the Moral of it is not difficult King William is the Edward here meant The present Clergy are like those here mention'd deem'd Publick Enemies but upon a very Honourable Account because they Assert the Laws of the Realm that is stand up for Another Interest and are Enemies to the Present Government For this they are not only Deem'd Publick Enemies but are Used as such Some of them have been turn'd out of their Preferments Others have been Discountenanced and not Preferr'd according to their Deserts because they also have Honourably stood up for the Laws of the Realm that is for another Interest tho' they have again and again sworn Obedience to the Present Government and some of them tho' sore against their Wills even Subscribed the Association in Defence of it To say nothing of Others who were the most forward and busie of any in the Kingdom to help on the Revolution and to establish that Government they now dislike And this they have done at the same time that the Laity have too many of them submitted And will I hope shew that they are Able to defend the Government which they have established against all the Enemies of it tho' they are never so much censured and reviled by these new Patriots for their so doing Having thus accounted for this Story as related by this Gentleman and that too imperfectly from Sir Edw. Cook Whose Authority in point of History he is willing to allow of tho' He cannot Away with it in a Point of Law I shall in Justice to the Memory of that Great Prince and most worthy Judge give a true Account of this whole Matter And let this Author if He pleases make as pertinent an Application of it for me as if I am not mistaken I have done for Him King Edward the 1st having exhausted his Stores in the War of Scotland and that with Great Honour to Himself and Advantage to the Nation call'd his Parliament at St. Edmundsbury the Day after All Souls and accounted his Circumstances to Them The Laity readily Granted him a Subsidy as desired but the Clergy pretending their Fear of the Pope's Bull deny'd in any wise to assist Him Pope Boniface the VIIIth being desirous to advance the Liberties of the Church had the Year before publish'd a Constitution by which he sorbad the Clergy to pay any Taxes to their Prince without the Pope's Consent and Excommunicated as well the Receivers as Payers of such Taxes This was the Bull which these Good Men stood upon and this that Pope publishd at the particular Desire of Robert Winchelsea Arch-bishop of Canterbury and of the Rest of the Clergy of England The King tho' he were sufficiently sensible of their jugling and displeased at it nevertheless gave them time till the next Parliament to consider what they had to do and how to make some better and more satisfactory Answer to Him But in the mean time He caused all their Stores to be sealed up And the Arch-bishop to be even with Him at the same time order'd this Bull of the Pope to be publish'd in all the Churches of his Province The next Parliament being met at London the Day after Hilary the King again demands a Supply of them They persist in their Denyal and the King thereupon puts them out of his Protection And holding his Parliament with his Barons without them an Act is pass'd by which all their Goods are Confiscated to the King's Use. In this State the Clergy were when the Lord Chief Justice as my Lord Coke says Sir Robert Brabazon who was then Chief Justice not of the King's Bench but of the Common-pleas declared to the Attorneys of the Bishops and Clergy what the King and Parliament had done He bade them acquaint their Masters That from thenceforth no Justice could be done for them in the King's Court tho' they should be never so much injured but that Justice might be had against Them by any who had need and would move it to the Court. Now this was no more
hoc sicut Nos Honorem nostrum vestrum nec non Communem Regni nostri tranquilitatem diligitis nullatenus Omittatis Teste meipso xiiii Decemb. Anno Regni nostri 49. §. 2. Cl. 23. Ed. 1. M. 4. Dors. Rex venerabili in Christo R. eadem gratia Cantuariensi Arcihepiscopo totius Angliae Primati salutem Sicut lex justissima provida circumspectione sacrorum Principum Stabilita Hortatur statuit ut quod omnes tangit ab omnibus approbetur sic innuit evidenter ut communibus periculis per Remedia provisa communiter obvietur Sane satis nostis jam est ut credimus per universa mund Climata divulgatum qualiter Rex Franciae de terra nostra Vasconiae nos fraudulenter cautelose decepit eam nobis nequiter detinendo â—unc vero predictis fraude nequitia non contentus ad expugnationem Regni nostri classe maxima Bellatorum copiosa multitudine congregatis cum quibus Regnum nostrum Regni ejusdem incolas hostiliter jam invasit linguam Aâ—glicam si concepte iniquitatis proposita detestabili potestas correspondeat quod Deus avertat omnino de Terra delere proponit Quia igitur previsa jacula minus ledunt Res vestra maxime sicut ceterorum Regni ejusdem Concivium agitur in hac parte Uobis mandamus in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungentes quod die dominica proxima post festum S. Martini in hyeme proximo futurum apud Westminster personaliter intersitis PRAEMUNIENTES Priorem Capitulum Ecclesie vestre Archidiaconum totumque Clerum vestre Dioecesis facientes quod iidem Prior Archidiaconus in propriis personis suis dictum Capitulum per unum idemqon Clerus per duos Procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero habentes una Uobiscum intersint modis omnibus tunc ibidem ad Tractandum Ordinandum Faciendum Nobiscum cum ceteris Prelatis Proceribus aliis Incolis Regni nostri qualiter sit hujusmodi periculis excogitatis Maliciis obviandum Teste Rege apud Wengeham xxx die Septembris §. 3. The last Clause of this Writ as it was settled 15 Ed. 2. compared with the same as it is now 15 Ed. 2. PRAEMUNIENTES Priorem Capellanum Ecclesie vestre Cant. Archidiacon totumque Clerum vestre Diocesâ— quod iidem Prior Archidiacon in propriis Personis suis dictum Capellanum per Unum Idemque Clerus per duos Procuratores Idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capellano Clero habentes una Uobiscum intersint modis omnibus tunc ibidem ad faciendum consentiendum hiis que tunc ibidem de Communi Consilio favente Deo Ordinari contigerit super Negotiis antedictis Et hoc nullatenus Omittatis Teste meipso 13 Elizab. PRAEMONENTES Decanum Capitulum Ecclesie Uestre Cant. ac Archidiacon totumque Clerum vestre Dioeces Quod iidem Decanus Archidiacon in propriis personis suis ac dictum Capitulum per Unum Idemque Clerus per duos Procuratores Idoneos plenam sufficientem Potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero divisim habentes predictis die loco personaliter intersint ad Consentiendum His que tunc Ibidem de Communi Consilio dicti Regni nostri divina favente Clementia contigerint Ordinari Teste Meipsa III. The Forms of the Convocationwrits before and since the Reformation REX c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri A. Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati Apostolicae Sedis Legato salutem Quibusdam arduis urgentibus Negotiis Defensionem Securitatem Ecclesie Anglicanae ac Pacem Tranquillitatem Bonum Publicum Defensionem Regni nostri Subditorum nostrorum ejusdem concernentibus Uobis in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini Rogando mandamus quatenus premissis debito intuitu attentis ponderatis universos singulos Episcopos vestre Provinciae ac Decanos Praecentores Ecclesiarum Cathedralium Abbates Priores alios Electivos Exemptos non Exemptos Nec non Archidiaconos Conventus Capitula Collegia totumque Clerum cujuslibet Dioeceseos ejusdem Provinciae ad Conveniendum coram Uobis in Ecclesia S. Pauli London vel alibi prout melius expedire videritis cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito convocari faciatis Ad tractandum consentiendum concludendum super Premissis aliis que sibi clarius proponentur tunc ibidem ex parte nostra Et hoc sicut nos Statum Regni nostri Houorem Utilitatem Ecclesie predicte diligitis nullatenus Omittatis Teste Meipso §. 2. Elizabetha Dei Gratia c. Reverendissimo c. Salutem Quibus dam arduis urgentibus Negotiis Nos securitatem defensionem Ecclesiae Anglicanae ac Pacem Tranquillitatem Bonum Publicum Defensionem Regni nostri Subditorum nostrorum ejusdem concernentibus Uobis in fide dilectione quibus Nobis tenemini Rogando Mandamus quatenus premissis debito intuitu Attentis Ponderatis Universos Singulos Episcopos vestre Provinciae ac Decanos Ecclesiarum Cathedralium nec non Archidiaconos Capitula Collegia totumque Clerum cujustibet Dioecesis ejusdem Provinciae ad comparendum coram Uobis in Ecclesia Cathedrali S. Pauli London tertio die Aprilis proxime futuri vel Alibi prout melius expedire videritis cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito convocari faciatis Ad tractandum consentiendum concludendum super Premâ—ssis Aliis que sibi Clarius exponentur tunc ibidem ex parte nostra Et Hoc sicut Nos Statum Regni nostri ac Honorem Utilitatem Ecclesie predicte diligitis nullatenus Omittatis Teste meipsa apud Westm. xvi die Februarii Anuo Regni nostri tertio decimo IV. An Act concerning the Submission of the Clergy to the King's Majesty 25 H. 8. c. 19. WHere the King 's most Humble and Obedient Subjects the Clergy of this Realm of England have not only knowledged according to the Truth that the Convocations of the same Clergy are always have been and ought to be Assembled by the King 's Writ but also submitting themselves to the King's Majesty have promised in verbo Sacerdotii that They will never from henceforth presume to attempt alledge claim or put in ure or enact promulge or execute any New Canons Constitutions Ordinance Provincial or Other Or by whatsoever Name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and his Majesty do give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that Behalf Be it therefore now Enacted by Authority of this present Parliament according to the said Submission and Petition of the said Clergy that They ne Any of Them from henceforth shall presume to attempt alledge
claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons Nor shall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinance Provincial by whatsoever Name or Names they may be called in their Convocations in Time Coming which alway shall be Assembled by Authority of the King 's Writ unless the same Clergy may have the King 's most Royal Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodal upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing contrary to this and being thereof convict to suffer Imprisonment and to make fine at the King 's Will. Provided alway that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in Execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocations of the Clergy which shall be Contrariant or Repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm any thing contained in this Act to the contrary hereof notwithstanding V. The Commission sent by King Charles Ist. to the Convocation of 1640. 1. CHarles by the Grace of God c. To all whom these Presents shall come Greeting Whereas in and by One Act of Parliament made at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of King Henry VIIIth reciting that whereas the King 's Humble and Obedient Subjects the Clergy c. Reciting all verbatim as in the Extract Numb iv And lastly it is provided by the said Act that such Canons Constitutions Ordinances and Synodals Provincial which then were already made and which then were not Contrariant or Repugnant to the Laws Statutes and Customs of this Realm nor to the Damage or hurt of the King 's Prerogative-Royal should then still be used and executed as they were before the making of the said Act until such time as they should be view'd search'd or otherwise Order'd and Determin'd by the Persons mention'd in the said Act or the more Part of them according to the Tenour Form and Effect of the said Act as by the said Act amongst divers other things more fully and at large it doth and may Appear 2. Know ye that we for divers urgent and weighty Causes and Considerations us thereunto especially moving of Our especial Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion have by Vertue of our Prerogative Royal and Supreme Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical given and granted and by these Presents do Give and Grant full free and lawful Liberty Licence Power and Authority unto the most Reverend Father in God William Lord Bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan President of this present Convocation for the Province of Canterbury during this Present Parliament now assembled and to the Rest of the Bishops of the same Province and all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-deacons Chapters and Colleges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province That they the said Lord Archbishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and the Rest of the Bishops and other the said Clergy of this present Convocation within the said Province of Canterbury or the greater Number of them whereof the said President of the said Convocation to be always One Shall and may from Time to Time during the present Parliament Propose Conferr Treat Debate Consider Consult and Agree upon the Exposition or Alteration of any Canon or Canons now in force and of and upon any such Other New Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions as they the said Lord Bishop President of the said Convocation and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergy of the same Province or the Greater Number of them whereof of the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation to be One shall think necessary fit and convenient for the Honour and Service of Almighty God the Good and Quiet of the Church and the better Government thereof to be from Time to Time observ'd perform'd fulfill'd and kept as well by the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops and their Successors and the rest of the whole Clergy of the said Province of Canterbury in their several Callings Offices Functions Ministries Degrees and Administrations as also by all and every Dean of the Arches and other Judges of the said Bishops Courts Guardians of Spiritualties Chancellors Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Commissaries Officials Registers and all and every Other Ecclesiastical Officers and their Inferiour Ministers whatsoever of the same Province of Canterbury in their and every of their distinct Courts and in the Order and Manner of their and every of their Proceedings and by all other Persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being Members of the Church it may concern them And further to conferr debate treat consider consult and agree of and upon such other Points Matters Causes and Things as We from Time to Time shall deliver or cause to be deliver'd unto the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation under our Sign-manual or Privy-Signet to be debated consider'd consulted and concluded upon the said Statute or any Other Statutes Act of Parliament Proclamation Provision or Restraint heretofore had made provided or set forth or any other Cause Matter or thing whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. And we do also by these Presents give and grant unto the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and to the Rest of the Bishops of the said Province of Canterbury and unto all Deans of Cathedral Churches Arch-deacons Chapters and Colleges and the whole Clergy of every several Diocess within the said Province full free and lawful Liberty Licence Power and Authority that They the said Lord Bishop of Canterbury President of the said Convocation and the rest of the said Bishops and other the Clergy of the same Province or the greater Number of them whereof the said President of the said Convocation to be One all and every the said Canons Orders Ordinances Constitutions Matters Causes and things so by them from Time to Time conferr'd treated debated consider'd consulted and agreed upon shall and may set down in Writing in such Form as heretofore hath been accustom'd and the same so set down in writing to exhibit and deliver or cause to be exhibited and delivered unto Us to the End that we upon mature Consideration by Us to be taken thereupon may Allow Approve Confirm and Ratifie or otherwise Disallow Anhillate and make void such and so many of the said Canons Orders Ordinances and Constitutions Matters Causes and Things or Any of them so to be by force of these presents consider'd consulted and Agreed upon as we shall think fit requisite and convenient 4. Provided always that the said Canons Orders Ordinances Constitutions Matters and Things or Any of them so to be consider'd consulted and agreed upon as aforesaid be not contrary or repugnant to the Liturgy establish'd or the Rubricks in it or the xxxix Articles or any Doctrine Orders and Ceremonies
of it if they be well Observed Have therefore for Us our Heirs and lawfull Successors of our special Grace certain Knowledge and meer Motion given and by these Presents do give Our Royal Assent according to the Form of the said Statute or Act of Parliament aforesaid to All and Every of the said Canons c. But because in the Beginning of this Declaration the King alledges the Example of His Royal Father for what He did whose Pattern he proposed to follow in this Particular I cannot but observe that He did stick so closely to it as to use the very same Form almost the very same Words in confirming these Canons of 1640 that the Other had done in Ratifying of those of 1603. And from whence we may the more undoubtedly conclude That as the Consequences before drawn from the Tenour of these publick Instruments are in point of Reason plain and unavoidable so is their Authority in point of Law Certain and Indisputable and that our Kings do not only in fact Claim and Exercise such a Power as we have now seen over their Convocations but have also an apparent Right to the Exercise of it Whether our Kings may not only Confirm such and so many of the Canons c. of their Convocations as they shall judge Expedient and Refuse and Reject the Rest but may also by their supreme Authority in Ecclesiastical Matters Correct and Amend those which they do allow of I shall not undertake to say But so we are told King Henry the Eighth did and that in a Case of the strictest nature in framing the very Articles of Religion which were afterwards publish'd by his Authority Anno 1536. Thus much I believe may warrantably be asserted That as the King has Power without a Convocation to make and publish such Injunctions as he shall think the Necessities of the Church to Require and to Command the Observance of Them so may He with the Advice and Consent of His Parliament much more not only make what Ecclesiastical Laws He shall think sitting for the Discipline of the Church but make such use of the Convocation and the Resolutions agreed to in it in Order thereunto as He shall think fit And as I have shewn the French King's heretofore to have done may not only confirm or disallow but may sometimes even alter and correct what is done by Them according to His Own liking And now that I have mention'd this Convocation of King Henry the Eighth I will make a Reflection or two upon that King 's dealing with that Assembly and so conclude these Remarks It would be needless for me to observe after the account I have already given of the Act which was Pass'd but a few years before by the same King to that purpose that this Convocation was call'd by his Writ I will rather take notice that the Articles of Religion set forth by them were not only corrected by that Prince after they had been framed by the Convocation but were drawn up by Them according to the Method and Directions which He gave to them for that purpose So his Declaration to all his loving Subjects in Confirmation of these Articles informs Us. And for because we would the said Articles and Every of Them should be taken and understanden of you after such Sort Order and Degree as appertaineth accordingly We have Caused by the Assent and Agreement of our Bishops and Other learned Men the said Articles to be divided into Two sorts whereof the One part containeth such Things as be Commanded expressly by God and be Necessary to Salvation and the Other containeth such Things as have been of a long continuance for a decent Order c. tho' they be not expressly commanded of God nor necessary to our Salvation But that which I would principally observe in this Declaration is Upon what Grounds and with what Examination the King gave his Assent to those Articles I have before said and from the words now Quoted it sufficiently appears that the Articles here referr'd to did at least in one great part of Them relate to Doctrines of Faith and that in the most necessary Points of it And yet see what Liberty that King took in judging as well as correcting of what they had done He was speaking of the design he had in calling of that Convocation and from thence proceeds in these Words to declare his sense of what the Clergy had done in it Where after long and mature Deliberation had of and upon the Premises finally They have Concluded and Agreed upon the most special Points and Articles as well such as be Commanded of God and are Necessary to our Salvation as also divers Other matters touching the Honest Ceremonies and Good and Politick Orders as is aforesaid Which their Determination Debatement and Agreement forsomuch as WE THINK to have proceeded of a Good Right and true Judgment and to be Agreeable to the Laws and Ordinances of God and much profitable for the stablishment of that Charitable Concord and Unity in our Church of England which we most desire We have caused the same to be Publish'd Willing Requiring and Commanding you to Accept Repute and Take them accordingly Such a Judgment did this Prince assume to himself over those Acts of his Clergy which the most properly fall under an Ecclesiastical Determination And so little have our Princes thought Themselves obliged either to Receive Themselves or to Impose upon Others any of their Orders or Decisions but as they were finally persuaded that what they had done proceeded from a sound Judgment and would be for the Benefit of their Church and Kingdom to be Observed And now from what I have before asserted and I hope sufficiently proved to be the Rights of all Christian Princes in General and to be not only not contradicted but rather to be expressly declared by our Own Laws and Customs to be the Prerogative of our Own Kings in this Particular It will be no hard matter to give a Clear and Positive Answer to the first General Question proposed to be Resolved in all the Parts of it For first Whereas it is demanded Whether there be any Law that Commands or Permits the Sitting and Acting of the Convocation besides the Absolute free Pleasure of the Prince I Reply That if by Sitting be meant their being Summon'd at such times as the Parliament is Assembled there is a Continued Immemorial Custom which do's determine the Prince to Summon a Convocation at such Seasons and leaves it not any longer to his free and absolute Will Whether he will Summon it or no When this Custom first began or How long it has become the setled and constant Method with us to have a Convocation Call'd at the same time that the Parliament meets it matters not to our present Purpose to Enquire Sure we are that this has been the Custom ever since the 25th of Henry the Eighth And that is enough
those I shall therefore think my self concern'd in the first place to Consider Now among these not to mention the two Conferences of Austin with the British Bishops I know of none more ancient than that which was held before King Oswi and his Son at Streanshealch in the Monastery of Hilda concerning the time of Easter the form of Tonsure and as Florence of Worcester adds some other Ecclesiastical Matters Whether King Oswi by his Authority called this Synod it do's not appear this we know that He not only consented to the meeting of it but also sate with his Son in it and managed the debates of it He proposed the business for which they met and at last finally Resolved what was to be held to with Reference to the Points that had been debated And tho' the Argument that determined him to embrace St. Peter's Tradition rather than St. John's viz. that He kept the door in Heaven and therefore He durst not contradict him lest when he came thither the Apostle should Resuse him Entrance was but very mean and suitable to the Rudeness and Ignorance of those Times yet we see what Authority our Princes from the beginning had as to these matters and how considerable a part they were allow'd in their Synods But more eminent as well as more exact were the Synods held by Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury in the first of which at Herudford as the Bishops of several Provinces were assembled so did they Agree with Theodore upon many usefull Constitutions for the Government of the Church And as this Synod first setled the Discipline of the Church in these Parts so did that of Heathfield which met about seven years after establish the Faith of it It admitted of the decisions of the Five first General Councils and setled the Catholick doctrine of the Church against the several Heresies which had been condemn'd in those Councils In both these Synods it is expressly said that Theodore Presided And so he did in the next I am to take notice of which was held at Atwyford Anno 685. In which among other things St. Cuthbert was chosen Bishop of Lindisfarn and upon Easter-day was Consecrated by seven Bishops who Attended upon the King at that solemn Season By whose Authority these Councils were call'd it do's not sufficiently appear to Us but that in this last King Egfride was present we are expressly inform'd And the constant Custom of the Princes in those days will not suffer us to doubt but that it was by their Direction that their Bishops both met and acted in Them At the Council of Cloveshoe Anno 742 not only Aethelbald K. of the Mercians Presided but his Princes and Officers were present too Yet this was properly an Ecclesiastical Synod and the Matters transacted in it all Related to the Church Nor is this so much to be wonder'd at seeing in the Legatine Synods held by Gregory and Theophylact sent hither by Pope Adrian the First for that purpose Our Kings not only directed the Assembling of Them but together with their Nobles sate in Them And to testify their Consent to what was done together with their Lords as well as Bishops subscribed to the Acts of Them And these are the chief of those Ecclesiastical Synods which were held in these Times As for the many Others whose Acts remain to Us they are manifestly Civil Conventions and most of them such Assemblies of the States as were afterwards call'd by the Name of Parliaments Among these as none ought more to be consider'd so were none more plainly such than Those in which our Ancient Saxon Laws were either drawn up or publish'd And a very considerable part of which relate to the Order and Discipline of the Church Thus Ina made his Laws with the Consent of his Bishops and all his Aldermen K. Alfred collected his with the advice of all his Wise-men K. Edward the Elder and Guthrun review'd and enlarged Them as assisted by their Wise-men And tho' in the Preamble to the Laws of K. Aethelstan we find mention only made of his Archbishop and Bishops because they indeed only drew up those Laws which were more properly Ecclesiastical yet in the Close of them we are told that all these Constitutions were publish'd in one of those Synods at which not only Wulfhelm the Archbishop but all his Great and Wise-men were present that is were publish'd in one of his Great Councils by him K. Edmund compiled his Laws in the Assembly of his Wise-men as well Ecclesiasticks as Lay-men So did Edgar and Ethelred afterwards And lastly Canutus in the Preface to his Laws not only tells us that they were made with the Advice of his Wise-men to the Glory of God-Almighty the Ornament of his Kingly Majesty and the Good of the Common-wealth But precisely notes the time when he compiled them namely That they were made at Christmas in the City of Winchester where he then kept that Feast and his Nobles according to the ancient Custom attended upon him and sate in Council with him To run thro' all the other Councils of the like nature in which Constitutions have been made and Debates held concerning things relating to the Church would engage me in a needless as well as tedious Research I shall only mention a few of those of chiefest Note which together with those before spoken of may suffice to give us a right Understanding of the Nature and Quality of them At Becanceld about the Year 694 Withred King of Kent held a General Council and if the relation be true it was indeed of an extraordinary Composition There were present at it not only the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Rochester with the Lords and others of the Laity but the Abbots Abbesses Priests and Deacons of the Clergy It was called by Archbishop Brithwald at the Kings Command And not only the King and Bishops but all others of the Clerical Order subscribed to it At Berghamsted the same King about three Years after held another Council with his Bishops and Military Men and by their common Consent made several Constitutions to be added to the Laws and Customs of Kent But more remarkable is the Council at which Wulfred presided under Kenulph King of the Mercians Anno 816. At which as at that of Becanceld before not only a great number of Bishops were present but together with the King came also his Princes Dukes and Lords And all these were surrounded with the rest of the Holy Orders Abbots Priests and Deacons treating with one accord of what was usefull or necessary for the Church I insist not upon the Synods of Cloveshoe assembled by Beornulfe King of the Mercians Anno 822 824 And both which were evidently great Councils of that Nation As were also the Council of London An. 833 Of Kingstone An. 838 Of Kingsbury An. 851 Of Winchester An. 855 Of
of the Proctors of the Clergy and most of the Commons by holding up their hands affirm'd that they would do the same Now the main thing done in this Parliament and for the effectual performance whereof they were so solicitous to have such an Authority concurr as might admit of no exception was to annul the Proceedings of the Duke of Gloucester and his Adherents in the 10th and 11th years of this King and to prevent the like violence for the time to come And in the Statutes made to this purpose there is express mention therefore made of the Proctors of the Clergy consenting thereunto as in the second and twelfth Chapters of the Acts of that Parliament may morâ— fully be seen And tho' in other places they are not particularly mention'd yet since those who allow the least to them do confess that their assent was taken to what was done we must conclude that they are comprehended under the general Name of the Commons even when they are not expresly distinguish'd from them From what has been said it appears that the Inferiour Clergy were not only heretofore a part of the Parliament but did meet and act in it But now after what manner they did so does not so plainly appear It has been the opinion of some who have been very well vers'd in the Antiquities of our Country that at first the two Houses not only met in the painted Chamber at the opening of the Parliament and at such other times as the King came to it but ordinarily sat and voted together But as those who assert this are forced to confess that it was even then the custom of the several Estates to retire and consult by themselves of any difficult matters that came before them and so return again and joyntly deliver their Opinions so we are assured that they had very early their several places to meet in and their several Speakers too to manage their Debates In the 6th Edw. 3. the Parliament met about the Affairs of Scotland The Bishops and Clergy went apart by themselves the Dukes and Barons by themselves and afterwards they deliver'd their joynt Answer to the King And so they did in the 40th Year of that King When the Pope having sent hither to demand Tribute and Homage to be paid to him we are told That the Bishops went apart by themselves the other Lords by themselves and the Commons by themselves And being returned from their several places and met together they all declar'd their unanimous Resolution to oppose the Pope's Demands In the 50th of the same Edward we find mention made of the place where the Commons sat viz. the Chapter-House of the Abbot of Westminster And three Years before this upon a demand of Money made by the King to carry on his Wars the Commons sent to the Lord's House to desire a Conference with them and they presently agreed to the Proposition and went into the Chamberlain's Chamber to treat with them It is in the 51st Year of this King that we find the first express mention made of the Speaker of the House of Commons tho' there want not very probable Conjectures to prove that they had one long before That upon such times as the whole Parliament met and as long as they continued to sit together the Proctors of the Clergy met together with them is not to be doubted Their Writs summon'd them to the same place and upon the same business and we cannot doubt but that they met accordingly at the opening of every Parliament together Whether upon the division of the two Houses as the Bishops continued to sit with the one so the Proctors of the Clergy did also sit at first with the other I am not able to say But from the time that they had a distinct Prolocutor of their own we must conclude that they met distinctly And upon all the Divisions we meet with in the most ancient Rolls of Parliament the method still was for each Estate to consult together the Lords Temporal by themselves the Commons by themselves and the Bishops and Clergy by themselves And when we consider the Method that has been taken from the beginning of summoning each of these to Parliament how the Temporal Lords have their Writs particularly directed to them the Commons theirs directed to the Sheriff of each County and the Bishops and Clergy theirs joyn'd together It may seem not improbable that as they were summon'd after a distinct manner to the Parliament so they sate too And that the Bishops and Proctors of the Clergy not only occasionally consulted together but ordinarily acted as one of the three Estates of the Realm there In what place the Clergy used to meet I have not found But as their other Convocations were usually held at St. Paul's so it is not improbable but that upon these occasions they may have sate there also It was the Custom of the Parliament in the time of Henry the 8th that the Lords did not sit upon Convocation-days because then the Bishops were absent and sat with the rest of the Clergy This was in use in the 1st Year of that King And afterwards we find that certain days were appointed every Week for the Convocation to sit and on those the Lords only met and adjourned but entred not upon any publick Business Were we well assured of the Antiquity of this Custom it would go a great way towards the Confirming of what I before proposed And being joyn'd with those two Things of which we are Certain namely First That upon all Greater Debates it was the Manner of the Bishops and Clergy to go aside and Consult with One Another and then by the Archbishop or some Other of the Bishops Report their Opinion to the Other Estates And Secondly That They separately gave Subsidies to the King as also the Lords and Commons seem to have anciently done would prompt us to conclude the Constitution of our Parliament to have been Originally this That when the Three Estates met together as at the Opening of every Session they are still wont to do and are by some supposed to have always done at the first the Proxies of the Clergy as well as the Commons either came Up to the House of Lords or they all attended the King in the Painted Chamber Afterwards when they sate separately Each State met and consulted by its self Only the Bishops and Parliamentary-Abbots as they appear'd there under a double Capacity so they sate and Voted accordingly With the Clergy in Convocation as Members of that Estate on Convocation-days At Other times with the Lords in the Upper House as Members of the Baronage of England by Vertue of their Baronies And thus have I accounted for the first Original of the Convocation as it was anciently a Member of the Parliament of this Realm and is still Summon'd by the same Writ by which the Bishops are Called to Parliament at this day
its determinations Proceeds in the next place for their sakes who have No Religion at the bottom nor any Notion of a Church however for their Worldly Interest they may pretend to this or that Party by joyning Themselves to its Communion to shew What the Law of their Country says in this Case That so they may be for ever silenced in this Question and not dare to mutter any more after what this New Pythagoras shall have declared to Them And having thus engaged our attention he proceeds Oraculously to pronounce KNOW therefore says He that a Convocation is an Ecclesiastical Court or Assembly Essential to our Constitution and Establish'd by the Law of it It is the Highest of all Our Ecclesiastical Courts or Assemblies Is called and convened in Parliament time by the King 's Writ directed to the Archbishops It consists of all the Clergy of both Provinces either Personally or Representatively present In the Upper House are the Archbishops and Bishops In the Lower House or House of Commons spiritual are the Deans Arch-deacons One Proctor for Every Chapter and Two for the Clergy of Each Diocess This is the Court. The frequent sitting of this Court is One of the Chief Rights of the Church of England The Church of England is a National Church and to such it is certainly incident to have National Synods or Convocations And in like manner to those Synods to have freedom of Speech or Debate about Matters proper for their Cognizance relating to the Being or Well-being of their Body as a Church And if the Church of England have any Rights or Privileges this of Assembling Debating and Conferring is certainly One and the Chief of Them 'T is true a Convocation cannot Assemble without the Assent of the King His Writ is necessary in Order to it And his Prerogative do's Empower him to Prohibit the Clergy Assembling in Synod without his Summons But then it is as true too that the Assembling of Them is not entirely dependant on His Will nor lodged purely in the Breast of the Sovereign But it is with the Convocation as it is with the Parliament The King is intrusted with the Formal part of Summoning and Convening it but so that by the very Essence and Constitution of our Church a Convocation ought at certain times to Meet Sit and Act and the Fundamentals of our Government shew Him When and How his Power in this Respect is to be Exercised and that it ought not to be at his free Will and Pleasure To Grant therefore that the King's Writ is necessary to the Assembling of the Convocation The Question is Whether that Writ ought not to Issue whensoever a Summons goes out for a Parliament And to this we say That the Law of the Realm hath directed the King or at least His Chancellour Keeper or Other Minister having the Custody of the Great Seal to Issue forth such Writs and they can no more be Omitted than any Single Peer's Summons to Parliament Thus far our Way is plain and clear But supposing all this the Question still is Whether or no the Convocation may conferr after their Summons and Meeting without the King ' s Special License and Assent In answer to which I must acknowledge that the Common Received Opinion is in the Negative However if what has been offer'd already with regard to their Convening have any weight in it it must hold also in some degree with respect to their Conferring and Treating when met about Matters proper to their Cognizance If they are a Court and have their Jurisdiction and are a Legislature and have the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws both which they certainly are and have then the liberty of Conferring and Discussing is necessary to their very Existence c. This is the Summ of what this Author has asserted as to the point in Question and for the most part is express'd in his Own Words Let us now see Wherein we differ from One another And reduce the matter in debate between Us to as narrow a Compass as we can And 1st Tho' I will not enter upon a New Subject yet I must needs say I am by no means satisfied that the Church has either Command or Authority from God to assemble Synods or by Consequence any inherent and unalterable Right to make any such authoritative Definitions as He supposes in Them I am not Aware that either in the Old or New Testament there is so much as One single direction given for its so doing And excepting the singular Instance which we have Acts XVth I know of no Example that can with any shew of Reason be offer'd of such a Meeting And whether that were such a Synod as we are now speaking of may very justly be doubted The foundation of Synods in the Church is in my Apprehension the same as of Councils in the State The necessities of the Church when it began to be enlarged first brought in the One as Those of the Common-wealth did the Other And therefore when Men are Incorporated into Societies as well for the service of God and the salvation of their Souls as for their Civil peace and security these Assemblies are to be as much subject to the Laws of the Society and to be regulated by Them as any Other publick Assemblies of what kind soever are Nor has the Church any Inherent divine Right to set it at liberty from being Concluded by such Rules as the Governing part of every Society shall prescribe to it as to this Matter This is my Notion of these things and thus I conceive Synods are to be managed in Christian States As for those Realms in which the Civil Power is of another Persuasion natural Reason will prompt the Members of every Church to consult together the best they can how to manage the affairs of it and to Agree upon such Rules and Methods as shall seem most proper to preserve the Peace and Unity of the Church and to give the least offence that may be to the Government under which they live And what Rules are by the Common-consent of Every such Church agreed to ought to be the measure for the assembling and acting of Synods in such a Country Whether this notion will please this Author or no I cannot tell If it do's not I hope he will shew me wherein my Error lies and how I may correct it In the mean time this security I have that if I am mistaken I err with Men of as great a Judgment and as comprehensive a Knowledge in these Matters as Any can be who differ from Me. But to come to that which I am now more properly to examine That the two Convocations consider'd as a National Synod are the Highest Ecclesiastical Assembly of this Kingdom I readily Agree Nor shall I deny but that a Convocation may be said to be Essential to our Constitution But that the frequent sitting
of Convocations as understood by this Author and meant of their sitting as often as the Parliament meets is therefore One of the chief Rights of the Church or indeed any of its Rights at all unless by Accident I utterly deny When the Exigencies of the Church call for a Convocation and there is a manifest need of its Assembling then I do confess the Church has a right to its sitting And if its Circumstances be such as to Require their frequent sitting during those Circumstances it has a Right to their frequent meeting and sitting And if the Prince be sensible of this and yet will not suffer his Clergy to come together in that Case I do acknowledge that he would abuse the trust that is lodg'd in him and deny the Church a benefit which of right it ought to enjoy But as in a Well-establish'd Church it can hardly be supposed that there should be such a frequent need of Convocations so to Oblige the Clergy frequently to come together when there is no manner of Reason for their so doing would be in truth to injure the Church and oppress its Ministers In-as much as it would require them to leave their Cures and be at the trouble and charge of attending the Convocation without doing any manner of Good either to the Church or Realm by such their meeting And therefore to settle this first Point the summ of it is this That the Church has a Right to have its Convocation call'd as often as the Parliament is Assembled I agree That the Convocation thus called has a Right to sit and act whenever the Circumstances of the Church require it so to do I allow also But that the Convocation ought of Right not only to be summon'd but to meet and do business as often as the Parliament sits whether there be any need for such its meeting or no This I utterly deny And I am persuaded it would be a Burden to the Clergy rather than a Privilege to oblige them to such an Attendance This then is the first Thing wherein we differ viz. That He affirms that the Convocation ought of Right not only to be summon'd whenever the Parliament meets but Regularly and of Course to sit and act too tho' there should not be any the least Occasion for its so doing The next Question is Whether being met they may proceed to any Synodical Acts without the King 's special License first had to Authorize them so to do And here our Author tells us That if the Convocation be a Court and have a certain Jurisdiction belonging to it Or if it be a Legislature and have the Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws as it certainly both is and has then the liberty of Conferring and Discussing is necessary to its very Existence Which last Expression tho' it be hard to make any good sense of yet I readily Agree to what I take to be his meaning in it For certainly Justice will be but lamely executed and Laws be very unaccountably made if those who are to judge and determine have not the liberty of conferring and discussing Matters in Order thereunto But tho' when the Convocation therefore is to judge or make Laws They must undoubtedly be allow'd to Conferr and Discuss yet may not the Clergy be restrain'd by certain Limitations from either judging or making Laws except when the Government shall think fit to permit them so to do And if former Abuses have made it necessary for the Government to put them under such a Restriction and the Clergy have themselves consented to it and thought that all things consider'd it would be safer for them to Act by the King's direction that at the Motion of every Warm Unthinking Member of their Own Body who should throw a snare in their way and run them into such Inconveniences as they should not be able easily to get out of As in such a Case they would have no liberty to judge or make Laws without License so neither would they have any need to conferr or discuss where They had no power to conclude any thing Now this I affirm to be Our Case and I must freely own I take it to be our Happiness that it is so It being more than probable that had not the Prince had this Tie upon Us we should before this time have run our selves into yet worser divisions than we now labour under and in all appearance have exposed both Our selves and the Church for a prey to the Common Enemy of Both. So that now then to state this Other point aright The Question between us is this Whether the Laws and Customs of this Realm have not Restrain'd the Clergy from entring on any Synodical Debates in Order to the making of any Canons or Constitutions without the special License of the King first had to Warrant them so to do That the King ought never to require the Convocation to meet more than out of form in Parliament-time but when He has some Business for it to do is on all hands agreed That when they do meet They ought to have Commission sent to them to empower them to go to work and not sit idly gazing at one another is also allow'd That lastly upon those Points which they are empowred to handle they ought to have a full liberty of Conferring Discussing and Arguing That they ought to be left to speak with all Reasonable Freedom and not be either check'd in the House or call'd to any Account out of it for any thing that was said in pursuance of these Ends is readily granted The only difficulty is Whether the Convocation being Met the Clergy ought not to Confine their Debates to the subject which the King proposes to them and not wander upon any other Matters which shall chance to be started by any of their own Members and proceed to determine Synodically concerning Them Having thus reduced the subject in debate to its proper bounds I shall now proceed with all due exactness to put together the Arguments which He has brought in proof of those Points wherein we differ and to consider what may be reasonably Replied to Them And 1st That the Convocation has a Right not only to be formally summon'd but to sit and act too as often as the Parliament meets He endeavours to prove by these following Arguments 1st From the Parallel which there seems to be between the Parliament and the Convocation Each consists of two Houses and these have or should have their several Prolocutors The One of these Courts is of the same Power and Use with Regard to the Church that the Other is in Respect of the State Nay tho' they have different Names and the Word Parliament be appropriated to signifie a Temporal Legislature yet anciently the same Appellation belong'd to them both A Witena-Gemote signified what We call a Parliament and a Church Gemote what We call a Convocation And therefore One would think that whenever the
all Private Cases which are determinable in Other Courts and before some Other Judges which the Law has provided for Them And the King might as well Assemble his Parliament to try a Thief or a Felon as his Convocation to convict a Man of Heresie or Schism There are Civil Courts appointed for the One and Ecclesiastical Courts provided for the Other And if these Neglect or Refuse to do their Duty there are Shorter Ways of Applying a Remedy to it than by calling either a Parliament or Convocation for such a Purpose And such are secondly such Disorders as either the Bishop in his Diocess the Arch-bishop in his Province Or the King in the whole Church have sufficient power by their Own immediate Orders or Injunctions to redress Whether they be Occasion'd by Mens departing from the Rules and Measures already prescribed to Them Or for want of a Vigorous Execution of those Laws by which they ought to be punish'd for their so doing Indeed where the Discipline and Authority of the Church its self is defective and Irregularities both in the Clergy and Laity abound for want of a Power sufficient to suppress them a Convocation may be needful to consider How a Remedy may be provided for this Defect and the Church be enabled more successfully both to Guard the Faith and to Reform the Manners of its Members And I heartily wish our Circumstances were such that a Convocation might meet for this Purpose But I am afraid our Distemper is become too Great to be healed And that we are Uncapable of such a Discipline as above all things We the most Want And therefore 4thly And to go on with these Remarks As in such Cases as I have hitherto mentioned it is needless to Call a Convocation so would it be in Vain to Assemble it for such purposes in which there were no probable Expectation of Success or hope that any Good should be done by it This as for ought I know it may be One Great Reason why a Convocation is not called to Review some of our Publick Offices to Improve our Discipline And to Reform many Disorders in the Exercise of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so am I the rather Confirm'd in my Opinion of the little Probability there is of any Good to be yet done by a Convocation in this respect that amidst all the Reasons Offer'd by this Author to prove the necessity of holding a Convocation He has never Once given any Intimation of these matters tho he could not but know that they were look'd upon by the Government as the principal things for which a Convocation might be wanting But 5thly And to have done As there are many Cases for which it would be improper to call a Convocation so may there be some Times too in which it â—ould be altogether Unadvisable to Assemble it When Mens Passions are let loose and their Minds disorder'd When their Interests and Designs their Friends and their Parties nay their very Judgments and Principles lead them different Ways and they Agree in nothing so much as in being very Peevish and Angry with One Another When their very Reason is depraved and they judge not according to Truth or Evidence but with Respect of Persons and Every One Opposes what Another of a different Perswasion either Moves or Approves of What Good can the Prince propose to Himself or any Wise Man hope for from any Assembly that can be brought together under the unhappy Influence of These and the like Prepossessions It was the sense of this made a Wise Man in the last Age tell Charles the Vth That it appear'd by Experience and might from Reason be demonstrated that those Affairs seldom succeeded well which were to be done by Many And if such be the inconvenience to which Number alone exposes such meetings in the best times Sure I am both Reason and Experience will much more convince Us that in times of doubt and discontent this will be more likely to be the Case and that under such Circumstances there is little Good to be expected from them And this may suffice in General to shew what those Cases and those Times are in which the Prince may have Reason to think that it is either needless or improper for him to suffer his Clergy to Meet and Act in Convocation I Go on II. Secondly Upon these Principles to Examine what this Author has Offer'd to prove the Necessity or even Expediency of their present Assembling Now this He pretends to make out by these 2 Ways 1st By Proving that there is upon many Accounts an Absolute necessity that something should be done for the Defence of Religion and the Church And 2dly By shewing That what is thus necessary to be done can be done no Other Way but by a Convocation 1st That something is necessary to be done He proves from the Open Looseness of Mens Principles and Practises and that setled Contempt of Religion and the Priesthood which He says has prevail'd every where And upon this General Ground he go's on to dilate in several Particulars which must therefore he Consider'd by Us. But before I proceed any farther in this Debate I must here once for all profess that I should be far from Opposing any thing that could reasonably be proposed to be done in Order to so Good an End as the Reforming the Open Loosness of Mens Principles and Practises would certainly be I am by no means Unsensible that a Great Part of what this Author here complains is but too true Tho' whether the Loosness of Mens Principles has corrupted their Manners or the Depravity of their Manners may not rather have been at the bottom one great Cause of the Corruption of their Principles I am not able to determine And were a Convocation necessary to Vindicate the Church from being in any degree accessary to these Crimes or had it Authority sufficient to Reform this Licentiousness I would much rather joyn with this Author in Petitioning for their Sitting than Contend with Him about the Expediency of it But being fully Satisfied that the Convocation has neither Strength sufficient to Grapple with these Enormities nor is in any respect necessary to assert the Churches Innocence But especially being perswaded that should it meet for any such purpose under our present Circumstances it would only expose its Own Authority and our Religion to the Greater Contempt of Profane and Wicked Men I shall proceed with all freedom to Examine the Reasons here alledged and to Vindicate not only the King's Honour but the Churches too and shew that if the Other Ways which this Author here Rejects be not sufficient to Reclaim Mens Vices neither can it be hoped that the Convocation should be able by any Orders it can make to Reclaim Them First then Let us suppose that as he alledges Scepticism Deism and even Atheism its self is pouring in upon Us Would this Gentleman have a Convocation called to
the Loosness or rather the Licentiousness of our present Times as the Convocation That hitherto they have not done it is no Argument that they are either Unfit for or Uncapable of doing it That they are not Skill'd in Divinity may be a Good Argument to prove that they are not so well provided to dispute with Hereticks as a Convocation may be but do's by no means hinder but that they may be Able to take a much more Effectaul Way of dealing with Them And I have before shewn that to enable them to know what is Heretical it is by no means necessary that they should be nicely Skill'd in the Languages of the Bible much less that they should be Masters of all the Learned Fathers or of the History of the Primitive Church Let them stick to the Rule already Establish'd by Authority of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 1. And provide only that nothing be innovated or attempted contrary thereunto and I believe it will puzzle the Convocation to shew what could more effectually be done to support the Catholick Faith or to suppress those Heresies which now especially set themselves up in Opposition thereunto As for the Papists Objection against our Religion as meerly Parliamentary it has been often answer'd and would receive no great Strength by the adding of one new Law in defence of the Catholick Faith We cannot but remember what Endeavours the Papists themselves once made to get a Parliament for their Purpose Could they have attain'd their Ends and have got their Religion restored again by a legal Authority I believe they would hardly have thought the worse of it for being Parliamentary or have refused to let it be introduced by the Will of the Prince and the Authority of the Peers and Commons And whatsoever this Gentleman may fancy I dare say the Parliament will always think that it lies in the Breast of the King and of that High Court to determine what shall be the National Religion and have the Advantage of a Legal Establishment to support it And I would desire this Author to tell us if He can Supposing an Act were drawn up upon his Own Terms to prohibit all Persons to Write or Dispute in favour of Atheism Deism Socinianism c. Or any Books relating to Religion to be printed or sold that were not Licenced by the Archbishop of the Province and approved by the Bishop of the Diocess in which the Author Lived whose Name should evermore be set to them And were this Law enforced with suitable Penalities and care taken that those Penalties should be put in due Execution I say supposing such an Act were pass'd let this Author judge whether it would not be much more likely to put a Stop to the Presumption of such Persons than ten thousand Canons made by the Convocation tho' an Anathema were added to every one of them And now our Author has but one thing more to do and then He thinks he has clear'd his Point beyond all Exception and that is to Obviate an Objection which I perceive gives him some little Disturbance And that is supposing when the Convocation meets somebody should have the Boldness to attempt to raise a Ferment in it in Defence of Doctrines or Persons too justly liable to Censure Now in this Case he tells us It 's not to be doubted but that the Piety and Moderation and Christian Courage of the Rest would be soon Able to Suppress it and to advance the Good Ends for which they are call'd I am willing to indulge any Good Opinion of a Convocation that any one can reasonably desire and therefore shall not Oppose our Author in this Only I must Observe that all this is but a Conjecture and must be left to Time to discover when this Great Assembly shall be met and these Persons be call'd to an account by them The Proceedings of large Bodies are very Uncertain And 't is as hard to calculate before-hand how they will act when they come together as to compute at Christmas which way the Wind will sit in March A very little matter throws them into Disorder and when Men think they have made their Party so strong that nothing can Oppose them yet we know how mistaken they have oftentimes been and have seen all their Projects by some indiscernible Accident or Omission brought to nothing To conclude then It is confess'd that the Evils which this Gentleman here complains of are certainly very Great and it were much to be wish'd that some Remedy might be thought of that would effectually deliver us from them But as there is no need to Assemble a Convocation to assert the Honour and Innocency of our Church and to shew that she is no way consenting to Them so if what former Synods have done to Correct them be not sufficient as a sad Experience shews that it is not I do not see what a new Convocation could pretend to do more for the Suppression of them Were a better Discipline setled in the Church and a Vigorous Law made in Defence of our Faith and to Restrain those scandalous Attempts that are made against it this might possibly reduce our Disorders within some tolerable Bounds but any thing short of this would I fear signifie very little And when our Other Circumstances shall be so favourable as to encourage the Government to think of this I shall then readily Close in with this Gentleman and confess that it will not only be very sitting but a matter of Duty in the Prince to call a Convocation and to Require them to consider how to Restore the Honour of Religion and to suggest to his Parliament such Heads as may be proper for them to pass into an Act for the better Preservation of it in Times to come CONCLUSION AND thus have I done with the Reasoning of this Author and I hope given a sufficient Answer to Every Thing that can pretend to such a Character in his Letter It may possibly be expected that I should now take some Notice of those Reflections which he has made with a more than Ordinary Freedom upon all sorts of Persons and upon none more than upon Those who might have expected to have the least fallen under the Levities and Scurrilities of such a Piece But this is a Work of too ungrateful a Nature to be particularly pursu'd And I am sensible that in doing of it I must either say very much less than He has taken care to deserve Or very much more than I am willing to allow my self to do It is indeed very sad to consider what an Immoderate Liberty some Men indulge Themselves on these Occasions With what Readiness nay with what Satisfaction they catch at any thing that is scandalous and may help to blacken Those whom they do not Love And if they can but give it a Witty Turn or pass it off with a Little Grace as if they were sorry to speak it or
than declaring to them how the Law then stood and still is in the like Cases And in which it is Agreed that Men Attaint or Outlaw'd shall be put to answer in Any Action against them because it is to their Prejudice But in an Action brought by Them they shall not be Answered because it is to their Benefit So that if the Chief Justice committed any Fault it must be either in Obeying the Law or in declaring to their Council what Incapacities the Clergy lay under That is for acting uprightly in his Place and judging according to the Laws of the Realm which is not wont to be accounted a Crime in such Persons The truth is there is hardly a Man of those Times upon whom this Author could more unluckily have Reflected than this Sir Robert Brabazon He was made Second Justice of the Common-pleas by King Edward 1st about the 18th Year of his Reign Seven Years he served his Prince in that Station and was then for his Merits created Lord Chief Justice of that Court Anno 24. Edw. 1. In the first Year of his Son King Edw. 2. He was sworn anew into his Place And about Seven Years after had the Care of the Treasury committed to him till a Lord Treasurer should be chosen which was done about a Year after And being thus Grown Old in the Service of his two Masters and disabled to attend any Longer at his Court that he might sit down with Honour He was in Consideration of his Great Fidelity chosen into the King's Council and in that Quality ended his Life This is the Man whom this discreet Author has endeavour'd to Bespatter and this was the Crime for which he so tragically exclaims against Him And now upon the whole matter let this Gentleman freely say What he has to except against in the Conduct of this Great Prince Or whether upon a true State of this Matter He will espouse the Cause of the Archbishop and Clergy Here is a brave and war-like Prince engaged in a War of the utmost Consequence to his Country and People He carrys it on himself with Vigor and ends it with Glory He forces his Enemy not only to yield to Him but to Own his Authority and do him Homage Being Return'd with Victory He calls his Parliament and is Readily assisted by his Lay Subjects to pay his Debts and prepare himself against his Other Enemies Only his Clergy not only Refuse to contribute to the Defence of their Country but put an Indignity of the basest Nature upon their King Like the Pharisees with their Vow of Corban they first procure the Pope to pass an Order against their assisting of Him and then with a Jewish Hypocrisie look demure and pretend That truly they would Assist him with all their Hearts but the Pope has forbidden it And they dare not do it In return to this Usage the King determines no longer to afford his Protection to those who had deliver'd themselves up to Another Interest and thereupon refused to contribute any thing to the Support of the Government by which they were secured in the peaceable Enjoyment of their Own Rights and Estates And the Parliament thought his Resolution so just that they closed in with it and readily confirm'd it with their Authority This was the Case of the whole Clergy then and it is but too like the Case of some of them Now. And the Effect was that being by this means brought to a Sense of their Duty the greatest Part of them presently submitted to the King and All the next Year granted a Supply to Him And have thereby left us this Observation That the only way to deal with some Persons is to treat them as they deserve And to let them know that those are unworthy of the Protection of the Government who are Embark'd in an Interest different from it and Refuse to Contribute to the Necessities of it APPENDIX CONTAINING Some PUBLICK ACTS and Other Collections referr'd to in the Foregoing Discourse APPENDIX I. The Ancient Form of summoning an Abbot to Parliament Ex Reyner Apost Benedict p. 149. Append. Part. iii. num LXIX HEnricus Dei Gratia Rex Angliae c. N. Abbati S. Albani Quia de Avâ—samento consilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis Nos Statum Defensionem Regul nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae contingentibus quoddam Parleamentum apud Westminster tali die teneri Ordinavimus ibidem Uobiscum cum Ceteris Prelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti Regni nostti Colloquium habere tractatum Uobis in â—ide dilectione quibus Nobis tenemini firmiter injungendo Mandamus Quod consideratis dictorum negotiorum Arduitate Periculis imminentibus Personaliter intersitis Nobiscum ac cum Prelatis Magnatibus Proceribus predictis super predictis Negotiis traâ—taturi Uestrumque Consilium impensuri hoc sicut nos Honorem nostrum ac Salvationem Defensionem Regni Ecclesie predicte Expeditionemque dictorum Negotiorum diligitis nullatenus Omittatis Teste meipso The Parliament Abbots thus summon'd Ex Eod. 1. Abbas Glastoniae 2. Abbas S. Augustini Cant ' 3. Abbas S. Petri Westmonaster ' 4. Abbas S. Albani 5. Abbas S. Edmundi de Bury 6. Abbas S. Petri de Burgo 7. Abbas S. Johannis Colcestriae 8. Abbas Eveshamiae 9. Abbas Winchelcumbiae 10. Abbas Croylandiae 11. Abbas de Bello 12. Abbas Redingiae 13. Abbas Abendoniae 14. Abbas Salopiae 15. Abbas S. Petri Gloucestriae 16. Abbas Bardeneyae 17. Abbas S. Benedicti de Hulmo 18. Abbas Thorneiae 19. Abbas Ramseiae 20. Abbas Hydae 21. Abbas Maimesbiriae 22. Abbas S. Mariae Eborac ' 23. Abbas Selbeyae 24. Abbas Tavestoke 25. Prior Conventriae II. The Ancient Writs of Summons of a Bishop to Parliament Cl. 49. H. 3. M. 11. Dors. in Schedula HEnricus dei Gratia Rex Angliae Dominus Hiberniae Dux Aquitaniae venerabili in Christo Patri R. eadem Gratia Episcopo Dunelm Salutem Cum post Gravia turbationum diserimina dudum habita in Regno Charissimus Filius Edwardus Primogenitus noster prâ— pace in Regno nostro Assensuranda Firmanda Obses traditus extitisset jam sedata benedictus Deus turbatione predicta super deliberatione ejusdem salubriter providenda plena securitate tranquilitate pacis ad Honorem Dei Utilitatem totius Regni nostri firmanda totaliter complenda ut super Quibusdam al 〈…〉 is Regni nostri Negotus que sine Consilio vestro aliorum Prelatorum Magnatum nostrorum nolumus expediri cum iisdem tractatum habere nos oportet Uobis Mandamus Rogantes in fide dilectione quibus nobis tenemini quod Omni Occasione post-posita Negotiis al 〈…〉 s pretermissis sitis ad nos London in Octabis S. Hilarii proxim futur Nobiscum cum predictis Prelatis Magnatibâ—s nostris quos ibid. vocari fecimus super premissis tractatur Concilium impensur Et