donne by him and absolutely abolish those wicked and destable customes But if hee will not within thirty days after your commonition ratify the peace according to his appointment and promise doe yee then forbid all diuine offices beesides Baptisme of infantes and pennance at the point of death to bee ministred in all his Dominions on this syde on the seas and that without any obstacle of Appeale and cause this sentence to bee most strictly obserued vntill hee shall giue condigne satisfaction And if either of yee by reason of extreme necessity cannot bee present at the execution heereof beeing a thing if it should soe happen much against our willes let then the other neuertheles doe this our command Dated at Anagnia 7. Id. Octobris Moreouer there and then hee sent other letters to Roane and Nyuers against such as detayning possessions of the Church and would not restore them whom hee commanded to bee excommunicated vnles they made within xv days full satisfaction The Pope remouing from Anagnia to Signia a citty seauen myles thence where 3. Ibidem 32. Id. Octob. hee directed his letters to all the Prelates of the Prouinces beelonging to the king of England on this syde the seas for putting the interdiction in execution vnles the king made againe to saint Thomas together with a perfect peace restitution of his possâ—ssions hee the same day at the sayd place wrote also a letter to saint Thomas in these words Wee are oppressed with greife and bitter sorrowe so often as wee recall to mynde and carrefully consider the troubles Ibid. ep 29 burdens and afflictions which for the zeale of iustice and maintenance of the Churches liberty you doe with patience and an vndaunted courage indure But in regarde you haue atcheiued the perfection of vertue you cannot bee ouercome with aduersity nor remoued from the resolution of your constancy wherin wee commend your admirable magnanimity and congratulate with you in our Lord for this your singuler patience And beecause wee haue long expected with patience and fauor our beeloued sonne in Christ Henry the famous king of England and haue often admonished him seeking sometimes by sweete and pleasing wordes otherwhiles by rough and bitter threateninges to reclayme him now if hee performeth not really as well to you as yours the peace concluded with you nor yet restore you your Churches possessions together with your depriued honors wee giue you heere ample authority to exercise your Ecclesiasticall iustice beelonging to your office notwithstanding any obstacle of Appeale vpon the persons and places subiect to your iurisdiction excepting only the king the Queene and their children wishing you euer therin to vse the wisedome and consideration beeseeming all preistly modesty Dated at Signia 3. Id. Octob. Alexander leauing Signia came to Tusculan where with longer stay hee remayned awhile which is apparant by his letters Dated there 8. Ibid. ep 68. Kalend. Decemb. wherein hee cyteth the Bishoppes of London and Salisbury to Rome for making satisfaction and this vnles the peace were absolutely in all respects concluded Hee wrote also theÌ„ by the same messinger vnto whom hee deliuered his former letters to the king of England in these words Ibid. ep 55. Vnderstanding by the letters of our reuerent brother Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury that laying asyde all disturbance and malice The Popes letters to the king of England you haue restored him to your grace and fauor wee haue conceaued therin so much the more ioy and gladnes by how much wee consider the same to bee more gratefull and acceptable to God honorable to your selfe and profitable to your soule For wee knowe the Archbishoppe soe farre to excell in Religion wisedome honesty and the vertue of fayth as wee doubte not but hee will bee faythfull and deuoted to you and your kingdome able in power and ready in mynde for your honor and augmentation and euer truly and carefully vigilant to encrease your glory and exalte your magnificence Yet beecause the offence is not remitted vnles restitution bee made of thinges wrongfully taken away allthough the Archbishop himselfe in respect of his patience and for the tender loue hee beareth you forbeareth to require the same wee neuerthelesse who couet especially your saluation ought not to bee silent therin nor yet doth it beecome your Maiestie whom God hath made soe mighty and poteÌ„t to withhould the rightes and goods beelonging to the Church of Canterbury Wherfore with all intreaty wee admonish and earnestly exhorte the clemency of your royall excellency that following the example of Zacheus who sayth in the Gospell Beehould Lord halfe of my goodes I giue to the poore and if I haue defrauded any one I restore foure-foulde you would endeauor to render to the Archbishoppe and his Church what is wrongfully taken away and speedyly to recompense the dammages and detriments they sustayned by your meanes that you may soe appease the wrath of Allmighty God wherin you haue offended him and wee forgiue you absolutely soe greate a sinne and the Archbishoppe bee for euer bound to rest most ready at your seruice and deuotion and encrease the renowne of you and your heires Moreouer that you fauorably listen to such as haue furthered and performed this peace beetweene yee not heereafter harken to them whom you knowe to haue kindled the coales of this dissention beesides that you warne and perswade your sonne to giue due satisfaction to the Archbishoppe and his Church concerning the article of his oathe omitted by him for conseruation of the priuiledge and liberty of the Church of Canterbury in such sorte as kinges and Princes of England haue heertofore sworne making him to performe what is hetherto let passe and that as well your selfe as your sonne doe freely and quietly resigne the ordinations of Churches with other matters appertayning to Ecclesiasticall persons vnto the same Archbishop and other Ecclesiasticall men That in soe doing you may offer to our Lord a worthie sacrifice of prayse aÌ„d purchasse to your selfe an eternall kingdome Thus wrote Pope Alexander to the king who added alsoe theerunto other letters to the Clergie and people of England Cod Vat. li. 5. ep 56 The meeting of S Thomas with the king at Towers admonishing them all in any case not to disturb this setled peace But how matters proceeded in the meane time beetweene the king and saint Thomas let vs heere declare out of Quadrilogus the history of saint Thomas wryting thus The king inclining to alteration yea rather denying to make restitution of the possessions taken away from the Church of Canterbury and this comming to the eare of saint Thomas by the relation of Iohn of Salisbury Quadrilogus lib. 3. cap. 3. whom together with Herbert hee sent to treate with the king The Archbishop vnderstanding that a parlee was shortly to bee held beetweene the king and a noble man called Theobald Earle of Bloys the day beefore the conference went to the king at Towers The
THE LIFE OR THE ECCLESIASTICALL HISTORIE OF S. THOMAS ARCHBISHOPE OF CANTERBVRY COLLONIAE M.DC.XXXIX TO THE MOST REVERENT FATHER IN GOD RICHARD SMYTH BISHOPE OF CHALCEDONE c. MOST Reuerent and my most honored good Lord I haue alwayes apprehended the life and Martirdome of that most excellent Prelate and vndaunted Champion S. Thomas Archbishope of Canterburie a most perfect Paterne of a good Pastor yea and of a good subiect too as one wisely discerning Gods part from Caesars and giuing to ether their owne without which there can be no Christian iustice Take his owne golden and last words for it written to King Henry his soueraigne Prepared I am not onely to die but also to suffer a thousand deathes and all torments whatsoeuer for Christ's sake Yet whether I die or liue Cod. Vat. l. 5. Epist 54. I am and shall euer be yours and what euer becomes of vs and ours God euer blesse you and your issue So that I haue iudged no tyme mispent in culling the peeces out of the most authenticall and best Authors which haue concurred to the making vp of this litle bulke or Epistolarie processe of his life and death which I hope will appeare most contentfull and satisfactorie to all and fittest to frame a right iudgment in any as not being crooked and fitted to selfe endes by artificall amplifications but furnished by knowne fact and made good by so many and so irâ—eprochable witnesses as it cannot indeed be suspected to be in any part disguised or forced by corruption or malice but to deliuer a naked truth Now amongst all those whom I duely reuerence and honor in earth I could find none to whose patronage this poore worke of myne might laye a more iust clayme then to your Lordship like as in my iudgment your Lordshipe can pretend no Patrone in Heauen to whom you may haue a more confident recourse or with whom you might haue more sympathie being considered such as he liued in this earthly habitation for Religiousnesse zeale contrie cause constancie None which comes more home to your vse in respect of your long delay in banishment and the opposition you haue found euen amongst some of your children and those domesticalls of faith In a word in reading it you will not fayle before your death to reade a great part of your owne renowned life May it I beseech almightie God be long contentfull prosperous in earth and followed out with an eternally blessed one in heauen These are and euer shall be the zealous wishes of all good men and in particular of Your Lords. most humble and deuoted seruant A. B. THE PREFACE TO THE Epistolarie and Ecclesiastical History of sainct Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury INTENDING to present vnto your viewe out of that reuerent an renowned author Cardinall Baronius the great controuersie beetweene the Church and kingdome of England wherein the cheife actors in this our disturbed nation were that mightie King Henry the second and our Metropolitane sainct Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury and in forraine countryes that most holy wise Pope Alexander the 3. and Lewes the pious king of France with many Catholicke Princes and among the Scismatickes the potent Emperour Fredericke with his idoll Octauian seeking by all meanes to intrude themselues and put their sickles into this haruest where the Diuel the father of their execrable scysme like a deepe polititian taking aduantage of their hellish discord had in this vnfortunate Iland sowed the cockle of dissention I thought best in regard this canker soe spreade it selfe through the Christian world and this history was collected out of the Epistles written by the cheifest rulers in that age to lay open briefely the state of the westerne Church and kingdomes vnited therein whereby your mindes receauing light may better discouer thinges otherwise obscured First therefore to delineate the time I must somewhat touch the raigne of Pope Adrian Alexanders predecessour who being the only man of our English nation that euer steered saint Peeters ship and was not only for his singular vertues wisedome and learning preferred to the Apostolike Sea but also himselfe the Apostle who conuerted the Norwegyans to the Christian faith I thinke it no vnnecessary digression to treate of his origine progresse and most high preferment At Abbotts Langley in the County of Hertford neere kinges Langley Nicolas Breakespeare afterwards Pope AdriaÌ„ borne in England where Edmund of Langley receaued his first breath from whom all the kinges of England and Scotland haue these many yeeres descended was borne Nicolas Breakespeare who afterwarde exalted to the gouerment of the Church of Rome and called Adrian the fourth ruled in matters of faith and Religion the whole Christian world His father was Robert Breakespeare a yonger brother of the family of Breakespeare whose place concurring with the name is seated neere Vxbridge in Middelsex now in the possession of Ashby His father saith Iohn Stowe after the death of his wife and before the departure as I conceaue of his sonne out of the realme professed a Religious life in the Monastery of saint Abbans wherein Stowe ignorantly not maliciously ran into an errour for Pope Adrians mother as shall bee afterwards showed ouerliued him It appeareth in a Counsell celebrated in Normandie by Pope Alexanders Legates with the Archbishop of Roane and Bishops of the same Prouince anno Dom. 1172. how before that time men might enter into religion leauing their wiues in the world for there was made a Canon afterwards prohibiting it And so might Robert Breakespeare in this precedent age as it is affirmed bee a Monke in saint Abbans and his wife as it is certaine ledd a retyred life vnder the Archbishop in Canterbury The name of Breakespeare beeing truly English and about the time of the Conquest inuincibly proueth they were of the Saxon not of the Norman race Breakespeare it selfe was in the raigne of king Iames the inheritable mansion of a knight and how great in forepassed dayes God knoweth But as sainct Thomas sayth in his Epistle to Gylbert Bishop of London what hath a priest a religious man to doe with these worldly flourishes I will descend to his humiliation which was his ascent first to honor then to heauen All that followeth is collected out of Card. Baronius Leauing as Abraham his countrey and kindred hee trauelled in his youth to pourchase learning and comming to Arnulate professed religion in the Monastery of saint Rufus where hee was called first to bee Prior then Abbot of the house whereupon it fortuned that for serious occasions of the Church commended to his charge hee went to the Apostolike Sea and hauing fully finished all his busines and now intending to returne Pope Eugenius of blessed memory retayned him there and by consent of his brethren Pope Eugenius Adrian Bishoppe of Alba. did consecrate him Bishop of Alba. A while after seeing his vertues and wisedome hee designed him Legate a Latere of the Apostolike Sea into
earth reioyse wherin Christes Church is founded And soe verely I thinke it was the diuine will that this Martyrs glory should neither by Pōtificall decree nor royall authority bee aduanced but bee established by the power of Christ whose honour during his life hee labored to enlarge for hee euer deliuered himselfe that hee would haue Christ's honor still preserued when hee treated with the king concerning his peace And shall not Christ againe doe the same for him God forbid that truth should not fullfill her promises Wee reade in the Actes of Apostells They receaued the holy Ghost And shall the Councell of Apostells any way contradicte the same Vndoubtedly where God is the Author in vaine is required the authority of a Superiour If any desireth to ecclipse the glory of this soe great a Martyr whosoeuer hee bee beefore wee beelieue him let him worke greater or at the least the like Mirackles otherwise hee may bee supposed to sinne against the holy Ghoste whose workes hee feareth not to detracte Thus Iohn of Salisbury to Senon Legate of the Apostolike Sea beefore Alexander had cannonized S. Thomas among the number of the holy Martyrs which this very yeere hee did Soe hee who greeuing that the Cannonization of the Martyr was delayed which God by soe many and soe greate beames of Miracles shyning from heauen had now shewed to bee diuinely established from aboue did not thinke it needefull to bee supported with humane authority according to that of the Apostle Who shall accuse against the Elect of God God it is who iustifyeth who shall then condemne Yet neuerthelesse the authority of the Church is necessary to bee required for learning the certainty of the miracles least any deceytes or impostures by stealth surprise vs. So the determination of diuine workes ought to bee gouerned by the Churches censure according to the same Apostels saying The spirits of the Prophets are subiect to the Prophets And that of saint Iohn The Churches necessary ministery in probation of Saintes Proue the spirites if they are of God Which iudgment of the Church resteth principally in her visible head whose sentence is first to bee expected in such an examination Wherfore as hath bin sayde vpon returne of the Legates after due consideration and examination had of marters related by them this very yeere in the sixt Indiction Pope Alexāder beeing at Signia with rightes of solemnityes cannonized the holy Martyr sainct Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury of which cannonization the written booke of the Vatican rehearseth in the life of Alexander these wordes Meane while when most blessed Thomas the glory of the English shyned in the brightnes of miracles and not only his freindes but also his persecutors beesought pardōne of their sinnes who seekinge these meanes of saluation continually flocked to his Church the Pope of Rome at the instance of the people and Clergy of England by Apostolicall authority cannonized the same Martyr and commanded him to bee numbred among the Saintes for on the day of the Purification of our Blessed Lady assembling together at Signia the Bishoppes and Abbottes of Campania S. Thomas Canonized hee celebrated a solemne Masse especially to his honor and ordayned that the memory of his passion should bee for euer kepte 4. Kalend. Ianuarij Wherupon the Church of the west tryumphed in marueylous greate ioy and the glorious Martyrs name increased in the duplication of his vertues soe far forth as by forraine nations of renowned hee grewe more renowned Allmighty God hath apparantly by his merittes raysed the deade giuen sight to the blinde hearing to the deafe and to the lame their limmes hee hath cleansed Leapers healed the sicke cast out diuells with many other rare miracles which God would haue miraculously wrought by him Wherupon very many of the faythfull haue for his honour and prayse to the glory of our Creator buylt Churches and endowed them with possessions and guiftes Hetherto there But let vs looke into the Apostolicall letters wrytten concerning his cannonization Alexander Bishop seruant of the seruantes of God to his beeloued children the Prior and Monkes of the Church of Canterbury salutation with Apostolicall benediction All Christian people are to reioyse for the miracles of that holy and reuerent man Thomas lately your Archbishoppe The Popes letters for the Canonization of S. Thomas but yee aboue all others ought to bee replenished with soe much the more ample ioy and exultation by how much the more yee are oftener eye wittnesses of his miracles and your Church especially deserueth to bee glorifyed with his most holy body And wee considering the renowne of his merittes wherby in his life hee was worthily famous and beeing most certaynly assured of his miracles not only by the common and publicke reporte but also by the relation of our wellbeeloued brethren Albert of the Tytell of saint Laurence in Lucina and Theodine of the tytle of saint Vitalis Preistes Cardinalles and Legates of the Apostolicall Sea and lekewise of diuers other persons haue solemnly cannonized the foresayde Archbishop in the beeginning of the fast with a greate assembly of the Clergie and Layety in the Church hauing first had deliberate counsell therof with our brethren and haue decreede that hee shall bee numbred in the Catalogue of the holy Martyrs commanding by the Apostolike authority as well your selues as all the faythfull thorough out Englād that yee celebrate euery yeere with due reuerence his feast day wherin hee finished his life with a glorious passion Moreouer beecause it nobly soe deserueth and is most expedient for yee that his holy body bee shryned with all deuoute reuerence and honor wee doe by the Apostolicall authority command your discretion that assembling together the Clergie and Layety yee doe vpon a festiuall day with a deuoute religious and solemne procession place his body worthely in some Altar or else seating it in some comely enclosure as it is beehouefull yee raise it vp on high and endeauour heereafter with your holy prayers to obtayne of our Lord his patronage for the saluation of the faythfull and peace of the vniuersall Church Fare yee well Dated at Signia 4. Id. Martij Thus to the Clergie of the Church of Canterbury There were also the same day other generall letters written to all Christian people in these wordes Generall letters for the Canonization of saint Thomas England sweetely smeelleth with the fragrant odor and vertue of signes which Allmighty God worketh by the merittes of the holy and reuerent man Thomas sometimes Archbishoppe of Canterbury and the whole Christian religion of the faythfull euery where reioyceth beecause that hee who is marueylous and glorious in his Saintes hath after his death renowned his Saint whose laudable life shyned with merittes and lastly was finished with the Martyrdome of a most noble combate And allthough no man can make doubt of his sanctity who considereth his prayse worthy conuersation and weygheth his glorious passion Our Redeemer and Sauiour