1381. cannot deny the truth of the assertion quod panis vinum remanent post consecrationem in naturis suis adhuc servatur Laicis antiquitus servabatur And here it is not unworthy the remembring that by the law of the 6 Articles 31. Hen. 8. cap. 14. containing in effect the body of Popery no man was to dye as an Heretick but he who denyed this Tenet all others onely as felons or men endangering the peace of the Kingdome by teaching contrary to what was publickly received By which it likewise appears in fixing th' imputation of Heresy the English looked on their home Determinations not those of any forreign Church 29. But I do not take upon me to dispute matters controversall which I leave as the proper subject to Divines it shall suffice onely to remember the Church of England having with this great deliberation reformed it self in a lawfull Synod with a care as much as was possible of reducing all things to the pattern of the first and best times was interpreted by such as would have it so to depart from the Church Catholick though for the manner they did nothing but warranted by the continuall practice of their predecessors and in the things amended had antiquity to justify their actions and therefore th' Archbishop of Canterbury in a provinciall Synod begun in S. Pauls the 3 of April 1571 and all other Bishops of the same Province gave especially in charge to all preachers to chiefly take heed that they teach nothing in their preaching which they would have the people religiously to observe and believe but that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the old Testament and the new and that which the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that doctrine So that nothing is farther off truth then to say such as reformed this Church made a New religion they having retained onely that which is truly old and Catholick as Articles of their faith 30. Thus was Religion reformed and thus by the Queen establisht in England without either motion or seeking any new way not practised by our Ancestors but using the same courses had been formerly traced out unto them for stopping profaneness and impiety when ever they peeped in the Church And certainly to my understanding there can be none that will with indifferency look upon those times but he must however he mislike the thing done approve the manner of doing it Yet the favorers of Rome ceased not to proclaim all had thus past to have been hereticall without instancing any particular as to say such a carriage was after the manneâ— of Hereticks ever condemned by the Catholick Church and by orthodox writers in former times or such a Tenet in your confession was held heresy from this place of Scripture anciently by such holy Fathers met in generall Councell and to raise stirs and commotions in the Commonwealth to excommunicate the Queen as flagitiorum serva free her subjects of their allegeance to give out we had a parliament-Parliament-religion Parliament-Gospell Parliament-Faith and this before ever the 39 Articles one main pillar of the English reformation were confirmed by Parliament 31. Upon the whole it is so absolutely false that the Church of England made a departure from the Church which is the ground and pillar of truth as I am perswaded it is impossible to prove she did make the separation from the Roman it self but that having declared in a lawfull Synod certain opinions held by some in her communion to be no articles of faith and according to the precedent of former times and the power God and nature had placed in her self redressed particular abuses crept into her the Pope and his adherents without ever examining what was the right of the Kingdom in such like cases that had from all antiquity done the same would needs interpret this a departing from the Church because he resolved to maintain as articles of faith thrust on others as such some ambiguous disputable questions the English did not think fit to admit into that number To make a departure from Christs Church is certainly a very hainous offence she never commanding ought but what is conformable to his will nor requiring her children to believe any thing as matter of faith but what is immediately contained in the word of God or by evident consequence drawn from it and as she excludes no Christians from being her children who by their own demerits deserve not to be out of the divine favour so in opposing those who endeavour to procure some tenets to be admitted for hers which cannot be deduced from that ground we do not depart from her but gainsay humane errours and conceipts which they would infer to be her commands who acknowledges them not But as St Augustine in a dispute with a Donatist utrum schismatici nos simus an vos non ego nec tu sed Christus interrogetur ut judicet Ecclesiam suam so may I whether we are the schismaticks or the Church of Rome Christ himself be the Iudge But whether divided from the other being matter of fact let the histories of former times the extraordinary proceedings of the See of Rome of late against the Queen and this Commonwealth be compared and I am confident the judgment may be referr'd to any indifferent person though of that belief who made the separation and whether this Kingdom on so high provocations did any thing would not have been parallell'd by former times had they met with the like attempts 32. Neither can the Crown in this reformation be any way said to have enterprised on the papall primacy which for ought I know it might have acknowledged so far as is exprest or deduced from holy Scripture or laid down in the ancient sacred Councells or the constant writings of the orthodox primitive Fathers and yet done what it did but to have exercised that auctority alwayes resided in it for conserving the people under it in unity and peace without being destroyed by the Canons and constitutions of others not suffering a forraign power ruine them to whom it owed protection In which it did not trench upon the rights of any but conserved its own imitating therein the Imperiall edicts of severall Princes and of those were in possession of this very diadem conformable to their Coronation oath 33. And from hence may be answered that which Rome brings as her Achilles touching the succession and visibility of the Protestants Church and doctrine in all ages since Christ for if theirs have been it is impossible to say the others have not the former adding onely more articles for a Christian to believe which the latter will not embrace as needfull so that if theirs as they so much glory have had the continuance from the Apostles these needs must which onely denies some part of that they hold Protestants says Stapleton have many things lesse then Papists they have taken away many things
AN HISTORICAL VINDICATION OF The Church of England In point of SCHISM As it stands separated from the ROMAN and was reformed 1 Elizabeth Deuteronomy 32. 7. Remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask thy father and he will shew thee thy elders and they will tell thee Jeremiah 6. 16. Ask for the old paths where is the good way and walk therein and ye shall finde rest for your souls LONDON Printed for Samuel Speed at the Rain-bow in Fleetstreet near the Inner Temple-gate 1663. To the READER I Know how easily men are drawn to believe their own observations and expressions may prove as welcome to others as they are pleasing to themselves And though few books live longer then the Authors who send them to the presse and fewer avoid an opinion they might have been as well spared as come abroad yet neither the hazard their makers run nor the little gain they reap can hinder those have a Genius that way from suffering others to be as well Masters and censurers of their thoughts as themselves This being then the venture every writer exposes himself unto the Reader may not a little marvell how I have been brought to hazard my self on the same Seas I have seen so many Shipwrackt in I shall desire him to adde this to what is already in the first chapter as my Apology Reading some times in Baronius that all things were well done in the Catholick Church had venerable antiquity for their warrant and that the Roman Church did not prescribe any thing as an holy tenet but such onely as delivered by the Apostles preserved by the Fathers were by our ancestors transmitted from them to us I cannot deny to have thought for certainly Truth is more ancient then Error this being made good and that she did commend them to us in no other degree of necessity then those former ages had done but she had much more reason on her side then I had formerly conceived her to have but in examining the assertions it seemed to me not onely otherwise but that learned Cardinall not to have ever been in this consonant to himself confessing the Catholick Church not alwayes in all things to follow the interpretations of the most holy Fathers On the other side it seemed to me somewhat hard to affirm the Papacy had incroached on the English and neither instance when where nor how Hereupon as I perused our ancient Laws and Histories I began to observe all changes in matters Ecclesiasticall reported by them in which I had sometimes speech with that learned Gentleman I mention in the first chapter whom I ever found a person of great candor integrity and a true Englishman I noted likewise how the Reformation of Religion was begun with us how cautiously our ancestors proceeded not to invade the Rights of any but to conserve their own Many years after I know not by what fate there was put into my hands as a piece not capable of answer in relation as well to the fact as reason it carried without at all my seeking after it or hearing of it a treatise of the Schisme of England carrying the name of one Philip Scot but as told me composed by a person of greater eminency dedicated to both the Universities and printed permissu superiorum truly in my judgment neither illiteratly nor immodestly writ but in reading of it I found sundry particulars some perhaps onely intimated others plainly set down I could no way assent unto as that Clement the vij did exercise no other auctority in the Church then Gregory the great had done That the Religion brought hither by Augustine varyed not from that was before the Reformation That the English made the separation from the Church of Rome That in doing so we departed from the Church Catholick I was not ignorant it might be found in the writings of some Protestants as if we departed from Rome which I conceive is to be understood in respect of the Tenets we separate from holding Articles of faith not of the manner how it was made Having gone through the book I began to look over my former notes and putting them for my own satisfaction in order found them swell farther then I expected Vrceum institui exit amphora and when they were placed together I shewed them to some very good friends to whose earnest perswasions being such as might dispose of me and mine I have in the end been forced to yield making thee partaker of that I never intended should have past farther then their eyes Yet in obeying them I shall desire to be rightly understood That as I do not in this take upon me the disputing the truth of any controversiall tenet in difference between us and the Church of Rome so I meddle not with any thing after Pius quintus came to the Papacy who first by private practises and then open excommunication of her Majesty declared himself an enemy in open hostility with this state which therefore might have greater reason to prevent his endeavours by some more sharp laws against such as were here of his inclination then had been seen formerly with which I meddle not Thus the Reader hath the truth both how I came to compose and how to print this If he find any thing in it like him he must thank the importunity of others if to misdoubt I give him in the margin what hath lead me to that I affirm if to dislike his losse will not be great either in time or cost and perhaps it may incite him to do better in the same argument and shew me my errours which proceeding from a mind hath not other intent then the discovery of truth no man shall be gladder to see and readier to acknowledge then From my House in East-Peckham the 22. May MDCLVII Roger Twysden A TABLE Of the CHAPTERS CHAP. I. AN Historicall Vindication of the Church of England in point of Schism And how it came to be entred upon fol. 1 Chap. II. Of the Britans fol. 7 Chap. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with fol. 9 Chap. IV. Of the Payments to the Papacy from England fol. 74 Chap. V. How far the Regall power did extend it self in matters Ecclesiasticall fol. 93 Chap. VI. How the Kings of England proceeded in their separation from Rome fol. 118 Chap. VII How the reformation was made under Queen Elizabeth fol. 126 Chap. VIII How Queen Elizabeth settled in this Kingdom the proceeding against Hereticks fol. 135 Chap. IX Of the farther proceeding of Queen Elizabeth in the Reformation fol. 174 AN Historical Vindication OF THE Church of England in point of SCHISM CHAP. I. 1. IT is now more than twenty yeares since defending the Church of England as it was setled 1 Eliz. for the most perfect and conformable to Antiquity of any in Europe a Gentleman whose conversation for his Learning I
very much affected tole me He was never satisfied of our agreeing with the Primitive Church in two particulars the one in denying all manner of Superiority to the Bishop of Rome to live in whose Communion the East and Western Christian did ever highly esteem The other in condemning Monastique living so far as not onely to reform them if any thing were amiss but take down the very houses themselves To the first of these I said We did not deny such a Primacy in the Pope as the Antients did acknowledge but that he by that might exercise those acts he of some years before Hen. the 8th had done and had got by encroaching on the English Church and State meerly by their tolerance which when the Kingdom took to redress and restrain him in he would needs interpret a departing from the Church yet if any made the departure it must be the Pope the Kingdom standing onely on those Rights it had ever used for its own preservation which putting in practice it was interdicted the King excommunicated by him c. To which he replyed in effect that of Henry the eighth in his book against Luther That it was very incredible the Pope could doe those acts he had sometimes exercised here by encroachment for how could he gain that power and none take notice of it That this argument could have no force if not made good by History and those of our own Nation how he had increased his Authority here Which truly I did not well see how to deny farther than that we might by one particular conclude of an other As if the Church or State had a right of denying any Clark going without License beyond Seas it must follow it might bar them from going or Appealing to Rome If none might be acknowledged for Pope without the Kings approbation it could not be denyed but the necessity of being in union with the true Pope at least in time of Schism did wholly depend on the King And so of some other 2. As for the other point of Monasteries I told him I would not take upon me to defend all that had been done in demolishing of them I knew they had nourished men of Piety and good Learning to whom the present Age was not a little beholding for what doe we know of any thing past but by their labours That divers well affected to the Reformation and yet persons of integrity are of opinion their standing might have continued to the advancement of Literature the increase of Piety and Relief of the Poor That the King when he took them down was the greatest looser by it himself Whose opinions I would not contradict yet it could not be denyed they were so far streyed from their first institution as they reteined little other than the name of what they first were 3. Upon this I began to cast with my self how I could Historically make good that I had thus asserted which in general I held most true yet had not at hand punctually every circumstance Law and History that did conduce unto it in reading therefore I began to note apart what might serve for proof any way concerning it But that Gentleman with whom I had this speech being not long after taken away I made no great progresse in it till some years after I was constreined to abide in London sequestred not onely from publique but even the private businesse of my Estate I had often no other way of spending my time but the company a book did afford insomuch as I again began to turn over our ancient Laws and Histories both printed and written whereof I had the perusal of divers of good worth whence I collected many notes and began farther to observe the question between us and the Church of Rome in that point not to be whether our Ancestors did acknowledge the Pope successor of St. Peter but what that acknowledgment did extend to Not whether he were Vicar of Christ had a power from him to teach the Word of God administer the Sacraments direct people in the spiritual wayes of heaven for so had every Bishop amongst which he was ever held by them the first Pater maximus in ecclesia as one to whom Emperours and Christians had not only allowed a primacy but had left behind them why they did it Sedis Apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum qui princeps est Episcopalis coronae Romanae dignitas civitatis sacrae etiā Synodi firmarit auctoritas saies Valentinian 445. On which grounds if he will accept it I know no reason to deny his being prime but whether they conceived his commission from Christ did extend so far as to give him an absolute authority over the Church and Clergy in England to redress reform correct amend all things in it not by advice but as having power over it with or against their own liking and farther to remove translate silence suspend all Bishops and others of the Spirituality In short to exercise all Ecclesiastique authority within this Church above any whatsoever so as all in Holy Orders one of the three Estates of the Kingdom solely and supreamly depended on him and hee on none but Christ and whether our Forefathers did ever admit him with this liberty of disposing in the English Church 4. To wade through which question there was an eye to be cast on all the times since Christ was heard of in England and therfore to be considered how Christianity stood upon the conversion of the Britans the Saxons and since the irruption of the Normans under the first of these we have but little under the second somewhat yet not much under the third the Papacy swell'd to that height some parts have been constrained to cast it off and England without his assent in that point so to reform it self as to declare no manner of speaking doing communication or holding against the Bishop of Rome or his pretensed power or authority made or given by humane Laws shall be deemed to be Heresy By which it seems those Episcopal Functions he did exercise common with other Bishops as Baptizing conferring Holy Orders c. it did not deny to be good and valid of his administration 5. But what those particulars were humane Laws had conferred upon the Papacy and by what constitutions or Canons those preheminences were given him was the thing in question and not so easie to be found because indeed gained by little and little I cannot but hold Truth more ancient than Errour every thing to be firmest upon its own bottom and all novelties in the Church to be best confuted by shewing how far they cause it to deviate from the first original I no way doubt but the Religion exercised by the Britans before Augustine came to have been very pure and holy nor that planted after from S. Gregory though perhaps with more ceremonies and commands juris positivi which this Church embraced rejected or varyed from as occasion served to be
other but in the foundation most sound most orthodox that holy man never intending such a superiority over this Church as after was claimed The Bishops of England in their condemnation of Wicliffs opinions do not at all touch upon those concerned the Popes supremacy and the Councell of Constance that did censure his affirming Non est de necessitate salutis credere Romanam Ecclesiam esse supremam inter alias Ecclesias doth it with great limitations and as but an error Error est si per Romanam Ecclesiam intelligat universalem Ecclesiam aut concilium generale aut pro quanto negaret primatum summi Pontificiis super alias Ecclesias particulares I conceive therefore the Basis of the Popes or Church of Romes authority in England to be no other then what being gained by custome was admitted with such regulations as the kingdome thought might stand with it 's own conveniency and therefore subject to those stipulations contracts with the Papacy and pragmatiques it at any time hath made or thought good to set up in opposition of extravagancies arising thence in the reformation therefore of the Church of England two things seem to be especially searcht into and a third arising from them fit to be examined 1. Whether the Kingdome of England did ever conceive any necessity jure divino of being under the Pope united to the Church and sea of Rome which drawes on the consideration how his authority hath been exercised in England under the Britons Saxons and Normans what treasure was caryed annually hence to Rome how it had been gained and how stopt 2. Whether the Prince with th' advise of his Cleargy was not ever understood to be endued with authority sufficient to cause the Church within his Dominions be by them reformed without using any act of power not legally invested in him which leads me to consider what the Royal authority in sacris is 1. In making lawes that God may be truly honoured 2 things decently performed in the Church 3. Profainesse punished questions of doubt by their Cleargy to be silenced 3. The third how our Kings did proceed especially Queen Elizabeth under whose reformation we then lived in this act of separation from the sea of Rome which carries me to shew how the Church of England was reformed by Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and Queen Elizabeth Wherein I look upon the proceedings abroad and at home against Hereticks the obligation to generall Councells and some other particulars incident to those times I do not in this at all take upon me the disputation much less the Theologicall determination of any controverted Tenet but leave that as the proper subject to Divines this being onely an historicall narration how some things came amongst us how opposed how removed by our ancestors who well understanding this Church not obliged by any forraign constitutions but as allowed by it self either finding the inconvenience in having them urged from abroad farther then their first reception heare did warrant Or that some of the Cleargy inforced opinions as articles of faith were no way to be admitted into that rank did by the same authority they were first brought in leaving the body or essence as I may say of Christian religion untouched make such a declaration in those particulars as conserved the Royall dignity in it's ancient splendour without at all invading the true legall rights of the state Ecclesiasticall yet might keep the kingdome in peace the people without distruction and the Church in Vnity CHAP. II. Of the Britans 1. I Shall not hear inquire who first planted Christian Religion amongst the Britans whether Ioseph of Arimathea Simon Zelotes S. Peter or Elutherius neither of which wants an author yet I must confess it hath ever seemed to me by their alleadging the Asian formes in celebrating Easter their differing from the rites of Rome in severall particulars of which those of most note were that of Easter and baptizing after another manner then the Romans used their often journeying to Palestina that they received the first principles of Religion from Asia And if afterward Caelestinus the Pope did send according to Prosper Germanus vice sua to reclaim them from Pelagianisme certainly th' inhabitants did not look on it as an action of one had authority though he might have a fatherly care of them as of the same profession with him as a Synod in France likewise had to whom in their distress they address themselves to which Beda attributes the help they received by Germanius and Lupus 2. After this as the Britans are not read to have yeilded any subjection to the Papacy so neither is Rome noted to have taken notice of them for Gregory the great about 590. being told certain children were de Britannia insula did not know whether the Countrey were Christian or Pagan and when Augustine came hither and demanded their obedience to the Church of Rome the Abbot of Bancor returned him answer That they were obedient to the Church of God to the Pope of Rome and to every godly Christian to love every one in his degree in charity to help them in word and deed to be the children of God and other obedience then this they did not know due to him whom he named to be Pope nor to be father of fathers 3. The Abbots name that gave this reply to Augustine seems to have been Dinooth and is in effect no other then what Geffry Monmouth hath remembred of him that being miro modo liber alibus artibus eruditus Augustino pâ—tenti ab episcopis Britonum subjectionem diversis monstravit argument ationibus ipsos ei nullam debere subjectionem to which I may adde by the testimony of Beda their not only denying his propositions sed neque illum pro Archiepiscopo habiturum respondebant And it appears by Gyraldus Cambrensis this distance between the two Churches continued long even till Henry the first induced their submission by force before which Episcopi Walliae à Menevensi Antistite sunt consecrati ipse similiter ab aliis tanquam suffraganeis est consecratus nulla penitus alii Ecclesiae facta professione vel subjectione the generality of which words must be construed to have reference as well to Rome as Canterbury for a little after he shewes that though Augustine called them to councell as a legat of the Apostolique sea yet returned they did proclaim they would not acknowledge him an Archbishop but did contemn both himself and what he had established 4. Neither were the Scots in this difference any whit behind the Britans as we may perceive by the letter of Laurentius Iustus and Mellitus to the Bishops and Abbots through Scotland in which they remember the strange perversenesse of one Dagamus a Scottish Bishop who upon occasion coming to them did not only abstain eating with them but would not take his meat in the
same house they abode yet they salute them with the honourable titles of their dearest lords and brethren A certain signe of a wide distance between the opinions of Rome then and now when men are taught not so much as bid them farewell do not submitunto it sure our first Bishops know no such rule who placed in their Calendar for Saints and holy men as well Hilda Aydon and Colman the opposers of Rome as Wilfred Agilbertus and others who stood for it CHAP. III. Of the increase of the Papall power in England under the Saxons and Normans and what oppositions it met with AFter the planting of Christian religion amongst the Saxons th' Archbishop of Canterbury became a person so eminent all England was reputed his Diocese in the colledge of Bishops London his Dean whose office it was to summon Councels Winchester his Chancellour Salisbury or as some Winchester his Precâ—tor or that begun the service by singing Worcester or rather Rochester his Chaplain and the other the carrier of his Crosse expected no lesse obedience from York then himself yielded to Rome voluntate beneficio it being th' opinion of the Church of England it was but equall ut ab eo loco mutuentur vivendi disciplinam à cujus fomite rapuerunt credendi slammam The dependence therefore of the Clergy in England being thus wholly upon th' Archbishop it will not be amisse to take a little view both of what esteem he was in the Church and how it came to be taken off and by degrees transferr'd to a forreign power 2. Upon the conversion of the Saxons here by the preaching of Augustine and his companions and a quiet peace settled under Theodore to whom all the English submitted Parochiall Churches by his encouragement began to be erected and the Bishop of Rome greatly reverenced in this nation as being the successour of Saint Peter the first bishop of the world Patriark of the West that resided in a town held to nourish the best Clerks in Christendome and the seat of the Empire insomuch as the devout Britan who seemes as I said to have received his first conversion from Asia did go to Iudea as a place of greatest sanctity so amongst the Saxons Romam adire magnae virtutis aestimabatur But as this was of their part no other then as to a great Doctour or Prelate by whose solicitude they understood the way to heaven and to a place in which religion and piety did most flourish so th' instructions thence were not as coming from one had dominion over their faith the one side not at all giving nor the other assuming other then that respect is fit to be rendred from a puisne or lesse skilfull to more ancient and learned Teachers As of late times when certain divines at Frankford 1554. differed about the Common-prayer used in England Knox and Whittingham appealed to Calvin for his opinion and receiving his 200. Epistle it so wrought in the hearts of many that they were not so stout to maintain all the parts of the Book as they were then against it And Doctor Cox and some other who stood for the use of the said Book wrote unto him excusing themselves that they put order in their Church without his counsell asked Which honour they shew'd him not as esteeming him to have any auctority of Office over them but in respect of his learning and merits 3. As these therefore carried much honour and yielded great obedience to Calvin and the Church of Geneva by them then held the purest reformed Church in Christendom so it cannot be denyed but our Auncestors the Saxons attributed no lesse to the Pope and Church of Rome who yet never invaded the rights of this as contrary to the councel of Ephesus and the Canons of the Church of England but left the Government of it to the English Prelats yet giving his best advice and assistance for increasing devotion and maintenance of the Laws Ecclesiasticall amongst them in which each side placed the superiority From whence it proceeded that however the Pope was sought to from hence he rarely sent hither any Legat. In the Councell of Calcuith held about 180. years after Augustine it is observed a tempore Sancti Augustini Pontificis sacerdos Romanus nullus in Britanniam mâ—ssus est nisi nos And Eadmerus that it was inauditum in Britannia quemlibes hominum super se vices Apostolicas gerere nisi solum Archiepiscopum Cantuariae 4. But after the Pope instead of being subject began to be esteemed above th' Ecclesiastick Canons and to pretend a power of altering and dispensing with them and what past by his advise and counsell onely was said to be by his authority he did question divers particulars had been formerly undoubtedly practic 't in this Kingdom he seeing them and not shewing any dislike at it as The receiving Investitures of Churches from Princes The calling Synods The determining causes Ecclesiasticall without Appeals to Rome The transferring Bishops c. but the removing these from England unto a forraign judicature being as well in diminution of the rights of the Crown as of this Church past not with out opposition 5. For Anselm an Italian the first great promoter of the Papal authority with us pretending he ought not be barr'd of visiting the Vicar of St. Peter causa regiminis Ecclesiae was told as well by the Bishops as lay Lords That it was a thing unheard and altogether against the use of the realme for any of the great men especially himself to presume any such thing without the Kings licence who affirmed nequaquam fidem quam sibi debebat simul Apostolicae sedis obedientiam contra suam voluntatem posse servare And the Archbishop persisting in his journy thither had not onely his Bishoprick seized into the Kings hand but the Pope being shew'd how his carriage was resented here did not afford him either Consilium or Auxilium but suffered him to live an exile all that Princes time without any considerable support or adjudging the cause in his favour Which makes it the more strange that having found by experience what he had heard before that it was the King not the Pope could help or hurt him this visit being so little to his advantage at his first presenting himself to Henry the first he should oppose that Prince in doing him homage and being invested by him a right continued unto that time from his Auncestors and by which himself had received the Archbishoprick from his brother and this on a suggestion that it was prohibited in a councell held at Rome in which he went so far as to tell the King quod nec pro redemptione capitis mei consentiam ei de iis quae praesens audivi in Romano Concilio prohiberi nisi ab eadem sede
to the King this cause seemed to him non ad plenum tractata ideoque sicut in canonibus cautum est in pristinum locum debere restitui judicavimus Deinde causam ejus juxta censuram canonicae traditionis diligenter retractandam definiendam praedicto fratri nostro Archiepiscopo Lanfranco commisimus It is certain however some writers might upon this or for â— other causes think his degradation to have been non canonice those times did not interpret this though writ with so great earnestnesse for other then advise or intercession not as of a person had an absolute power of commanding in the businesse for we never read of any proceedings upon it not Lanfrank at all ever to meddle in the case that he ever esteemed Stigand a lawfull Bishop Epist. 27 28. who in the year 1075. being in a Councell at London according to the Decrees of it removed his Episcopall Chair from Selsey to Chichester of which he died Bishop 1087. without being at all for what appears questioned or disturbed after the first grant of it Divers examples of the like nature occur too long to be repeated where the King or his chief Iustice prohibit the Papall precepts from being put in execution and it is agreed by Lawyers that not the command but the constant obedience is it which denotes a right of commanding and in cases of this nature prohibentis potior est condito one example in the negative when the thing is stood upon being of more weight then twenty by compliance in the affirmative 77. It is probable neither the King nor the Bishops would introduce any new matter of great concernment into this Church without the privity of so great a Doctor Patriarch of a See from which their auncestors had received the first principles of Christian Religion but it is manifest what past if he were acquainted with it was by their own auctority not his When Off a intended the erecting of Litchfield into an Archbishoprick he did it by a Councell at Calcuith Lambertus as what he approved not producing crebra sedis Apostolicae vetera nova edicta against it yet the thing proceeded Lucius the 2 went so far in his intentions to raise Winchester to an Archiepiscopall Chair as he sent the pall to the Bishop yet it being not approved here as the event shews that Town never yet had the honour Henry the first having in his Lawes appointed how a Bishop Presbyter Monk Deacon c. should suffer committing homicide concludes Si quis ordinatum occidat velproximum suum exeat de patria sua Romam adeat Papam consilium ejus faciat de adulterio vel fornicatione vel Nunnae concubitu similiter poeniteat Where it is observable the King ordains the Penance permits the delinquents peregrination to Rome to receive from the Pope as from a great Doctor of the Church spirituall counsell which else he was not admitted to seek for peregrina judicia modis omnibus submovemus and again ibi semper causa agatur ubi crimen admittitur 78. VVilliam the first who began his expedition against Harald by the counsell of Alexander the 2. and received a banner from him minding the deposition of th' Archbishop of Canterbury procured the Pope to send certain Ecclesiasticks hither to joyn in the action as likewise soon after for determining the question of precedency between Canterbury and York upon which there grew an opinion Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem à nullo hominum nisi à solo Papa judicari posse vel damnari nec ab aliquo cogi pro quavis calumnia cuâ—quam eo excepto contra suum velle respondere This no doubt was promoted by th' Archbishops as what exempted them from all home jurisdiction the Bishops in generall did after think in some sort to introduce and thereupon put in this petition in Parliament 18. Ed. 3. qe pleise a Roy en maintenance del estat de seint Esglise graunter ordeiner en cest Parlement qe nul Ercevesque ou Evesque â—oit desormez arreynez ne empesâ—hez devaunt ses Iusticos en cause criminele par quecunque voye de si come sur tiele cause nulle alme ne les poet juger si noun le Pape seulement But to this the answer is no other then Il est avis qe en cause de crime nul Ercevesque ou Evesque soit empesche devant les Iustices si le Roy ne le commande especialment tant qe autre remedie soit ordeinez which he did likewise confirm by Charter there registred and as Walsingham hath truly recorded 79. This opinion though new to the English questionlesse incouraged Anselme to oppose the King in many particulars and Popes to go farther as to claim Princes should not confer Investitures nor define matters of Episcopacy c. then to bestow preferments within this Kingdome at first by consent and with the limitation no Italian to succeed another then to reserve to themselves the collation of all benefices of which before To conclude this whosoever will without prejudice weigh the reformation of England by Hen. the 8. Edward the 6. and more especially Queen Elizabeth in the point of supremacy must grant these Princes did not assume to themselves any thing but such particulars as the Court of Rome had in a long series of time incroached in on the Crown and English Church If at any time our auncestors styled the Pope Princeps Episcoporum it was in no other sense then they did St. Peter Princeps Apostolorum by which what principality they intended him we cannot better understand then by the Saxon who renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apostola the Elder of the Apostles If they called him successor or Vicarius Petâ—i they were not alone appropriated to him for Petrus Blesensis and others give the Bishop of York the same titles and the Bish. of Bath who had a Church dedicated to St. Peter he bids remember quia Petri Vicarius estis So did they likewise in some sense call Kings Christs Vicars as well as Bishops If at any time they gave the Pope the title of head of the Church it was as being the first Bishop he was held to be as St. Bernard tells us in beneficam causam as they termed Oxford the fountain and mother of our Christian faith I cannot therefore but with a late writer that sayes England had a known subjection to Rome acknowledged even by our Laws ever from the conversion of our Country under St. Gregory had expressed in what particulars that subjection did consist what those Laws are and where to be found The truth is as there is no doubt our Auncestors in former times would not have joyned with the Synod of Gap in causing so disputable ambiguous a question as that the Pope is Antichrist to have been taught as the faith
of the like nature farther then is proved by the Law and the Prophets c. Yet there is one thing in my opinion very considerable what the Apostles did were such and in those places no man could deny them but these the Church of Rome holds out for confirmation of their religion are either in corners as Garnets Face in the Eare with so dark proofs as when they are looked into res tota cum contemptu dimissa est or else done in Italy or Spain where the Inquisition will suffer none but themselves to examine the fact whereas if they followed th' Apostles example they should be in England or Germany that the Protestants might say indeed a notable miracle hath been done by our Lady is manifest to all and we cannot deny it Acts iiij 16. 26. Another will have that homily at least what he takes on him to confute to contain no other then Catholick doctrine and then falls upon the Archbishop of Armach whom he conceives to have ill translated it out of the Latin in which language there is not now found any ancient copy of it insisting that though it were printed at London 1623. it was not to be heard of when he writ which was about 1631. insinuating as if more might be said if he could see the author himself For the first of these it must be said to contain Catholick Doctrine on the grounds before but if it be that the Church of Rome admits for such I am glad to understand that from him For the Primat of Ireland's translating the Latin to the disadvantage of the Romish I shall give no answer but that his English are indeed some parts of that sermon but the Latin pieces of Bertram so agreeing with them as they were undoubtedly taken out of him by which he gives a far elder testimony to that author then Oecolampadius who was no question a Catholick Doctor but being so why is he prohibited by the Roman Index why if at all permitted must it be excogitato commento For the other that it could not be had in London only eight years after it was printed I can say nothing but some men will not hear that they mislike for that Homily of which if he say any thing he speaks first set out by Iohn Day with the subscription of 15 Bishops attesting the truth of the Copy after 1623 reprinted by Henry Seal alwayes in the book of Acts and monuments c. in the life of Hen. the 8 and of late by Mr. VVhelock put into Latin and taken without any intervening transcription from the originall Saxon that he might not vary in a tittle was with his translation of it printed at Cambridge 1644. amongst divers other excellent notes of that learned man upon Beda that such as understand not the language may in that point see the doctrine of our forefathers 27. A third Doctor who cannot deny but it makes directly against Transubstantiation gives an answer I could not have expected yet in my opinion more ingenuous That it is unreasonable to produce the forcelesse auctority of these Saxon Homilies which have no warrant of truth from any other but from our selves and the margin These Homilies were never heard of but now of late amongst Protestants onely framed and printed by themselves without the warrant of any one indifferent witnesse This is I say what I could not have looked for Can any man imagine two Archbishops thirteen Bishops besides divers other personages of honour and credit could have been induced to subscribe so palpable a lye as it must be if this and the other passages by them there testified to be found in the ancient monuments of this Church were lately framed But the old books that yet remain writ above five hundred yeares since do enough vindicate the Protestants in that which I dare say no one of them who alledge it do in their hearts believe not to have been extant in them as the Archbishop first sent them to the Press 28. Of the little credit the Councell of Lateran in this point gained here I have touched before neither did Peckham's constitution sub panis specie simul dari corpus c. speak home nor was the thing ever absolutely determined with us till 1382 so that the opinion of Transubstantiation that brought so many to the stake had not with us 140 yeares prescription before Martin Luther began for in that year VVickliff having propounded quod substantia panis materialis aut vini manet post consecrationem c. the Archbishop taking it into consideration did not think fit to condemn the Tenet without farther advice with the University of Oxford where libratis singulis every saying weighed and in especiall as it seems those concerned the Eucharist he did condemn some as hereticall others as onely erroneous and farther singulos defensores eorum imposterum sententia excommunicationis innodatos fore and gave command ne quis de caetero cujuscunque status c. haereses seu errores praedictos vel corum aliquem teneat doceat praedicet seu defendat The Chancellor likewise of the Academy repeating VVickliffs opinions touching the holy communion shews they had been diligently discuss't by Doctors in Divinity and professors in the Canon Law ac tandem finaliter est compertum atque judicio omnium declaratum ipsas esse erroneas fidei orthodoxae contrarias determinationibus Ecclesiae repugnantes and then after all this search delivers the doctrine of Transubstantiation as the conclusion agreed to be held Quod per verba sacramentalia à sacerdote prolata panis vtnum in altari in verum corpus Christi sanguinem transubstantiantur seu substantialiter convertuntur sic quod post consecrationem non remanent in illo venerabili sacramento panis materialis vinum secundum suas substantias sed secundum species earundem And this I take to have been the first plenary determination of the Church of England in the case which yet how well it will be liked by such as hold the manner of conversion to be by a succession of Christs body to the substance of the bread I leave others to dispute But certainly the Archbishop not adventuring to proceed in it alone nor by his own councell by his extending what he did onely to the future both for punishment and Tenet and after long enquiry concluding the truth of it enough proves it not to have been in former times fully resolved on in this Church so that we may say of our Auncestors as the Iesuites here about some 60 yeares since did of the Fathers rem Transubstantiationis ne attigerunt And it may not here unfitly have a place that Iohn Tissington a Franciscan whom Pitseus from Baleus not Leland as he would have us think affirms to have been an assistant in this dispute at Oxford 1382 or as some