Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	england_n	king_n	kingdom_n	4,625	5	5.7154	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69901	England's independency upon the papal power historically and judicially stated by Sr. John Davis ... and by Sr. Edward Coke ... in two reports, selected from their greater volumes ; with a preface written by Sir John Pettus, Knight.	Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626.; Coke, Edward, Sir, 1552-1634.; Pettus, John, Sir, 1613-1690.	1674 (1674)	Wing D397; ESTC R21289	68,482	102

the Treasure and riches of the land carried away the Subjects of the Realm molested and impoverished the Benefices of Holy Church wasted and destroyed Divine service Hospitalitie Almsdeeds and other works of charitie neglected Again 27 Edw. 3. cap. 1. upon the grievous and clamorous complaint for that phrase is there used of the great men and Commons touching Citations and Provisions it is enacted That the offenders shall forfeit their lands goods and chattels and their bodies be imprisoned and ransomed at the King's will But in the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. wherein the first Law against Provisors made 25 Edw. 1. is recited there is a larger declaration of these inconveniences then in the two last Acts before mentioned For there all the Commons of the Realm do grievously complain That whereas the Holy Church of England was first founded in estate of Prelacie by the Kings and Nobilitie of that Realm and by them endowed with great possessions and revenues in lands rents and Advowsons to the end the people might be informed in Religion Hospitality might be kept and other works of Charitie might be exercised within the Realm And whereas the King and other founders of the said Prelacies were the rightfull Patrons and Adowees thereof and upon avoidance of such Ecclesiasticall promotions had power to advance thereunto their kinsmen friends and other learned men of the birth of that Realm which being so advanced became able and worthy persons to serve the King in Counsell and other places in the Commonweal The Bishop of Rome usurping the Seigniory of such possessions and Benefices did give and grant the same to Aliens which did never dwell in England and to Cardinals which might not dwell there as if he were rightfull Patron of those Benefices whereas by the Law of England he never had right to the Patronage thereof whereby in short time all the Spirituall promotions in the Realm would be ingrossed into the hands of Strangers Canonicall elections of Prelates would be abolished works of Charity would cease the founders and true patrons of Churches would be disinherited the King's Counsell would be weakened the whole Kingdome impoverished and the Laws and rights of the Realm destroyed Upon this complaint it was resolved in Parliament That these oppressions and grievances should not be suffered in any manner and therefore it was enacted That the King and his Subjects should thenceforth enjoy the rights of patronage That free elections of Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates elective should be made according to the ancient grants of the King's Progenitors and their founders That no Bulls of Provision should be put in execution but that the Provisors should be attached fined and ransomed at the King's will and withall imprisoned till they had renounced the benefits of their Bulls satisfied the partie grieved and given sureties not to commit the like offence again Now Master Lalor what think you of these things Did you believe that such Laws as these had been made against the Pope 200 250 300 years since Was King Hen. 8. the first Prince that opposed the Pope's usurped Authority Were our Protestants the first Subjects that ever complained of the Court of Rome Of what Religion think you were the propounders and enacters of these Laws Were they good Catholicks or good Subjects or what were they You will not say they were Protestants for you will not admit the Reformed Religion to be so ancient as those times neither can you say they were undutifull for they strove to uphold their liege Lord's Sovereignty Doubtless the people in those days did generally embrace the vulgar errours and superstitions of the Romish Church and in that respect were Papists as well as you but they had not learned the new doctrine of the Pope's Supremacie and transcendent authority over Kings they did not believe he had power to depose Princes and discharge Subjects of their allegeance to abrogate the fundamentall Laws of Kingdomes and to impose his Canons as binding laws upon all nations without their consents they thought it a good point of Religion to be good Subjects to honour their King to love their country and to maintain the laws and liberties thereof howsoever in other points they did erre and were miss-led with the Church of Rome So as now Master Lalor you have no excuse no evasion but your conscience must condemn you as well as the Law since the Law-makers in all Ages and all religious Papists and Protestants do condemn you unless you think your self wiser then all the Bishops that were then in England or all the Judges who in those days were learned in the Civil and Canon Laws as well as in the Common Laws of England But you being an Irish man will say perhaps these Laws were made in England and that the Irish Nation gave no particular consent thereunto onely there was an implicite consent wrapt and folded up in generall terms given in the Statute of 10 Hen. 7. cap. 22. whereby all Statutes made in England are established and made of force in Ireland Assuredly though the first Parliament held in Ireland was after the first Law against Provisors made in England yet have there been as many particular Laws made in Ireland against Provisions Citations Bulls and Breves of the Court of Rome as are to be found in all the Parliament-Rolls in England What will you say if in the self-same Parliament of 10 Hen. 7. cap. 5. a special Law were made enacting authorizing and confirming in this Realm all the Statutes of England made against Provisors if before this the like Law were made 32 Hen. 6. cap. 4. and again 28 Hen. 6. cap. 30. the like and before that the like Law were made 40 Edw. 3. cap. 13. in the famous Parliament of Kilkenny if a Statute of the same nature were made 7 Edw. 4. cap. 2. and a severer Law then all these 16 Edw. 4. cap. 4. That such as purchase any Bulls of Provision in the Court of Rome as soon as they have published or executed the same to the hurt of any incumbent should be adjudged traitors Which Act if it be not repealed by the Statute of Queen Mary may terrifie Master Lalor more then all the Acts which are before remembred But let us ascend yet higher to see when the Pope's Usurpation which caused all these complaints began in England with what successe it was continued and by what degrees it rose to that height that it well-nigh over-topp'd the Crown whereby it will appear whether he had gained a circle by prescription by a long and quiet possession before the making of these Laws The first encroachment of the Bishop of Rome upon the liberties of the Crown of England was made in the time of King William the Conqueror For before that time the Pope's Writ did not run in England his Bulls of Excommunication and Provision came not thither no Citation no Appeals were made from thence to the Court of

Subjects to live that perswaded his Subjects that he was no lawfull King and practised with them within the heart of this Realm to withdraw them from their Allegeance and Loyalty to their Sovereign the same being crimen laesae Majestatis by the ancient Laws of this Realm BY this and by all the Records of the Indictments it appeareth that these Jesuites and Priests are not condemned and executed for their Priesthood and Profession but for their treasonable and damnable Perswasions and Practices against the Crowns and Dignities of Monarchs and absolute Princes who hold their Kingdoms and Dominions by lawful Succession and by inherent Birth-right and descent of inheritance according to the fundamental Laws of this Realm immediately of Almighty God and are not Tenants of their Kingdomes as they would have it at the will and pleasure of any forrein Potentate whatsoever Now albeit the proceedings and process in the Ecclesiastical Courts be in the name of the Bishops c. it followeth not therefore that either the Court is not the King 's or the Law whereby they proceed is not the King's Law For taking one example for many every Leet or View of Frank-pledge holden by a Subject is kept in the Lord's name and yet it is the King's Court and all the proceedings therein are directed by the King's Laws and many subjects in England have and hold Courts of Record and other Courts and yet all their proceedings be according to the King's Laws and the Customes of the Realm Observe good Reader seeing that the determination of Heresies Schisms and Errours in Religion Ordering Examination Admission Institution and Deprivation of men of the Church which do concern God's true Religion and Service of right of Matrimony Divorces and general Bastardy whereupon depend the strength of mens Discents and Inheritances of probate of Testaments and letters of Administration without which no debt or dutie due to any dead man can be recovered by the Common Law Mortuaries Pensions Procurations Reparations of Churches Simony Incest Adultery Fornication and Incontinency and some others doth not belong to the Common Law how necessary it was for administration of Justice that his Majestie 's Progenitors Kings of this Realm did by publick authority authorize Ecclesiasticall Courts under them to determine those great and important Causes Ecclesiastical exempted from the Jurisdiction of the Common Law by the King's Laws Ecclesiastical Which was done originally for two causes 1. That Justice should be administred under the Kings of this Realm within their own Kingdome to all their Subjects and in all Causes 2. That the Kings of England should be furnished upon all occasions either forrein or domestical with learned Professors as well of the Ecclesiasticall as Temporall Laws THus hath it appeared as well by the ancient Common Laws of this Realm by the Resolutions and Judgements of the Judges and Sages of the Laws of England in all succession of ages as by Authority of many Acts of Parliament ancient and of latter times That the Kingdome of England is an absolute Monarchy and that the King is the onely Supreme Governour as well over Ecclesiasticall persons and in Ecclesiastical causes as Temporal within this Realm to the due observation of which Laws both the King and the Subject are sworn I have herein cited the very words and texts of the Laws Resolutions Judgements and Acts of Parliament all publick and in print without any inference argument or amplification and have particularly quoted the books years leaves chapters and such like certain references as every man may at his pleasure see and reade the Authorities herein cited This Case is reported in the English and Latine tongues as some other Writers of the Law have done to the end that my dear Countrymen may be acquainted with the Laws of this Realm their own Birth-right and inheritance and with such evidences as of right belong to the same assuring my self that no wise or true-hearted English-man that hath been perswaded before he was instructed will refuse to be instructed in the truth which he may see with his own eyes lest he should be disswaded from errour wherewith blindfold he hath been deceived For miserable is his case and worthy of pity that hath been perswaded before he was instructed and now will refuse to be instructed because he will not be perswaded FINIS Of what quality and credit Robert Lalor was His apprehension and first examination His first inditement and conviction His second examination His confession or acknowledgement The Inditement of Lalor upon the stat of 16 Ric. 2. The true cause of making the Statute of 16 R. 2. and other Statutes against Provisors The Statute of Praemunire made at the prayer of the Commons The effect of the Statute of 16 R. 2. c. 5. The effect of the Statute of 38 Edw. 3. cap. 1. The Statute of 27 Ed. 3. cap. 1. The Statute of 25 Edw. 3. reciting the Statute of 25 Ed. 1. These Laws made by such as did professe the Romish Religion Laws against Provisors made in Ireland When the Pope began first to usurp upon the liberties of the Cr●wn of England A comparison of the spiritual Monarchy of the Church with the temporal Monarchies of the world The Pope had no jurisdiction in England in the time of the Britans The first usurpation of the Pope upon the Crown began in the time of King William the Conquerour By sending Legates into England In the time of William Rufus the Pope attempted to draw Appeals to Rome but prevailed not In the time of K. Henry the first the Pope usurpeth the donation of Bishoprikks c. Histor Jornalensis M S. in Archiv Rob. Cotton Eq. Aur. In the time of King Stephen the Pope gained Appeals to the Court of Rome In the time of K. Henry 2. the Pope claimed exemption of Clerks from the Secular power A brief of Th. Becket's troubles or rather treasons The Constitutions of Claringdon Four points of jurisdiction usurped upon the crown of England by the Pope before the reign of K. John The cause of the quarrell between K. John and the Pope When Canonical election began first in England King John's round and Kingly Letter to the Pope The Pope curseth the King and interdicteth the Realm King Edw. 1. opp●seth the Pope's Vsurpation E. 2. suffereth the Pope to usurp again E. 3. resisteth the Vsurpation of the Pope King Rich. 2. The Evidence against Lalor Lalor's Confession publickly read When the distinction of Ecclesiasticall Spirituall causes from Civil and Temporal causes began in the world Caudrey's Case The objections of the Counsell of the Plaintif 1. 2. 3. 4. The resolutions of the Court to the 1. and 2. To the 3. To the 4. What causes belong to the Ecclesiasticall Court. see Circumspectè agatis 13 E. 1. W. 2. 13 E. 1. cap. 5. versus finem Artic. cleri 9 E. 2. 15 E. 3. c. 6.31 E. 3. cap. 11.2 H. 5. c. 7.1 H. 7. cap. 4.23 H. 8. cap.

I think is obvious to every man and as clear that whilst all Christendom are in Arms and Confusions onely the Pope sits quiet and smiles to see what work he makes among us resolving if not prevented to tire every man out of his Religion that shall withdraw not onely a total but even the least part of Obedience to his Chair And thus many poor souls are captivated especially those of our Nation for whom this is intended some being perswaded to acknowledge the Doctrines of the Church of Rome but not the Power of the Court of Rome and when they are plausibly got into the first they do not consider how insensibly and inevitably they are ensnar'd into the other For certainly the distinction of the Church and Court of Rome is so ridiculous that it is a mere Irap for weak unknowing and unresolved persons for surely the Pope will never be perswaded to resign his Temporalties to those Princes from whom his Predecessors usurpt them to take upon him meerly the duty of the Church So that when one of them perswades you to turn to the Church of Rome it is but to make you to turn or be subject to the Court of Rome and its Cardinalls who are but a Combination of Temporall Princes and to all its temporall Impositions to maintain such Princes under the title of the Pope and shrowded under the Canopy of Ecclesiasticks and Piety The truth is the Questions about Religion are purposely rais'd and infus'd to intoxicate other mens brains for the Court of Rome do but laugh at the things call'd Merit Idolatry Supererogation c. whilst many of their zealous Agents here I perswade my self out of pure Piety are ready to die upon the spot in the defence of those Tenents whereas poor souls they might see if they would that that Court is onely to imploy them under the shrowds of Piety to bring in Grist to the Mill by money and usurping other mens territories so as the ancient and important question why we should not give unto the King the things that are the King 's is quite laid aside and the question is almost now why we should not give to the Pope the things that are the King 's and subjugate this Kingdome to their Principalities And thus by deceiving even their own Agents with a pretence of driving on Piety which is onely Sovereignty even many of the Papists themselves are innocently betray'd and so are become betrayers of others But to return to the Historicall part After Henry the VIII had cast off the Dominion of the Papal Court Edward the VI. succeeded in whose Minority his Councell were so wise though many of them of the Roman Church that the resolution of Henry the VIII was re-assum'd in casting off the Pope's Power and a Foundation laid for establishing a Church here by a Form of Discipline and Doctrine free from the Power and Errours of the Papal Court and Church and though some Interruption was given by Queen Mary yet what was wanting by King Edward's short Reign was compleated by Queen Elizabeth who in her very first year by the full Consent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament by example of many of her Predecessors did enact That no forrein Potentate or person should exercise any power within any of her Dominions and all Ecclesiasticall Jurisdiction should be annext to the Crown And in the 5. year of her Reign in particular it was enacted That whoever shall acknowledge any Jurisdiction of the Bishop or See of Rome within any of her Dominions should be guilty of a Praemunire they and their accessaries And that the Principles of the Doctrine and Discipline of our Reformed Church might the better be known the frame of it made in Edward the VI. his time was confirmed with some few alterations and 39 Articles established as a Foundation and Standard of our Doctrine and Discipline distinct from that of the Court as also reformed from that of the Church of Rome But since her time even to this whilst we have thought our selves secure from the Papal Authority their Religion hath slily crept in and incroacht among us and besides their many known ways they have a particular art of incouraging and fomenting all publick and private Differences and Discontents pursuant to their secret Instructions for the advancement of the Papal Dominion Now as it is impossible for the art of Physick to reduce the 4 Humors of a man's Body into one so no arts of Policy can reduce the temper of men into one Persuasion of Religion So that herein the wisdom of our Counsellors is discerned in contriving that their number may not come near the balance of the staple or establisht interest of this Kingdom both as to Church and State wherein we are to shew our selves like our predecessors true English-men and not to Italianate our selves to the Dependency of any other State And that this may be the more charitably perform'd they may be distinguisht into Actives and Passives By Actives I mean such as make it their whole business to pervert and captivate our Subjects to be subject to the Pope under the notion of Religion and by Passives I mean such as live innocently among us and there is lesse caution and strictness requisite to those who are passive in respect barely of their Religion then to those who are active in promoting it And therefore many ancient Laws have been made long before Henry the VIII entituled Statutes of Praemunire which word in English is to fortify a place before enemies come or to provide against any onset by them And all those Laws are intended against the Pope's Spirituall or Temporall Invasions upon us and those Laws do impose Penalties on such as shall any ways endeavour to assist him in such Invasions so that being forewarn'd as some would have the word from praemonere we may the better be fore-armed for prevention of all their future attempts upon us which is heartily wisht by MY LORD February 18.1673 4. Your Lordship 's most humble Servant John Pettus Hill 4. Jacobi The Case of Praemunire OR The Conviction and Attainder of Robert Lalor Priest being endited upon the Statute of 16. Rich. 2. cap. 5. THIS Robert Lalor being a Native of this Kingdome received his Orders of Priesthood above thirty years since at the hands of one Richard Brady to whom the Pope had given the title of Bishop of Kilmore in Vlster and for the space of twenty years together his authority and credit was not mean within the Province of Leimster He had also made his name known in the Court of Rome and held intelligence with the Cardinall who was Protector of this Nation by means whereof he obtained the title and jurisdiction of Vicar-general of the See Apostolick within the Archbishoprick of Dublin and the Bishopricks of Kildare and Fernes This pretended jurisdiction extending wel-nigh over all the Province of Leimster he exercised boldly and securely many years together untill

times when both the Prince and people of England did for the most part acknowledge the Pope to be the thirteenth Apostle and onely oracle in matters of Religion and did follow his doctrine in most of those points wherein we now dissent from him 1. For the first Point we did purposely forbear to proceed against him upon any later Law to the end that such as were ignorant might be informed that long before King Henr. 8. was born divers Laws were made against the Usurpation of the Bishop of Rome upon the rights of the Crown of England well-nigh as sharp and as severe as any Statutes which have been made in later times and that therefore we made choice to proceed upon a Law made more then 200 years past when the King the Lords and Commons which made the Laws and the Judges which did interpret the Laws did for the most part follow the same opinions in Religion which were taught and held in the Court of Rome 2. For the second Point the causes that moved and almost enforced the English Nation to make this and other Statutes of the same nature were of the greatest importance that could possibly arise in any State For these Laws were made to uphold and maintain the Sovereignty of the King the Liberty of the people the Common Law and the Commonweal which otherwise had been undermined and utterly ruined by the Usurpation of the Bishop of Rome For albeit the Kings of England were absolute Emperours within their Dominions and had under them as learned a Prelacy and Clergy as valiant and prudent a Nobility as free and wealthy a Commonalty as any was then in Christendom yet if we look into the stories and records of these two Imperial Kingdoms we shall find that if these Laws of Provision and Praemunire had not been made they had lost the name of Imperial and of Kingdoms too and had been long since made Tributary Provinces to the Bishop of Rome or rather part of S. Peter's Patrimony in demesne Our Kings had had their Scepters wrested out of their hands their Crowns spurned off from their heads their necks trod upon they had been made Lacquays or Footmen to the Bishop of Rome as some of the Emperours and French Kings were our Prelates had been made his Chaplains and Clerks our Nobility his Vassals and Servants our Commons his Slaves and Villains if these Acts of manumission had not freed them In a word before the making of these Laws the flourishing Crown and Commonwealth of England was in extream danger to have been brought into most miserable servitude and slavery under colour of Religion and devotion to the See of Rome And this was not onely seen and felt by the King and much repined at and protested against by the Nobility but the Commons the general multitude of the Subjects did exclaim and cry out upon it For the Commons of England m●y be an example unto all other Subjects in the world in this that they have ever been tender and sensible of the wrongs and dishonours offered unto their Kings and have ever contended to uphold and maintain their honour and Sovereignty And their faith and loyaltie hath been generally such though every Age hath brought forth some particular monsters of disloyaltie as no pretence of zeal or religion could ever withdraw the greater part of the Subjects to submit themselves to a forrein yoke no not when Popery was in her height and exaltation whereof this Act and divers others of the same kind are clear and manifest testimonies For this Act of 16 Rich. 2. was made at the prayer of the Commons which prayer they make not for themselves neither shew they their own self love therein as in other Bills which contain their Grievances but their love and zeal to the King and his Crown When after the Norman Conquest they importuned their Kings for the Great Charter they sought their own Liberties and in other Bills preferred commonly by the Commons against Shriefs Escheators Purveyors or the like they seek their own profit and ease but here their Petition is to the King to make a Law for the defence and maintenance of his own honour They complain That by Bulls and Processes from Rome the King is deprived of that Jurisdiction which belongs of right to his Imperial Crown That the King doth lose the service and counsel of his Prelates and learned men by translations made by the Bishop of Rome That the King's Laws are defeated at his will the Treasure of the Realm is exhausted and exported to enrich his Court And that by those means the Crown of England which hath ever been free and subject unto none but immediately unto God should be submitted unto the Bishop of Rome to the utter destruction of the King and the whole Realm which God defend say they and thereupon out of their exceeding zeal and fervency they offer to live and die with the King in defence of the liberties of the Crown And lastly they pray and require the King by way of justice to examine all the Lords in Parliament what they thought of these manifest wrongs and usurpations and whether they would stand with the King in defence of his Royall liberties or no. Which the King did according to their Petition and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal did all answer that these Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome were against the liberties of the Crown and that they were all bound by their allegeance to stand with the King and to maintain his honour and Prerogative And thereupon it was enacted with a full consent of the three Estates That such as should purchase in the Court of Rome or elsewhere any Bulls or Processes or other things which might touch the King in his Crown and dignitie Royall and such as should bring them into the Realm and such as should receive them publish them or execute them they their Notaries Proctors Maintainors and Counsellors should be all out of the King's protection their lands and goods forfeited to the King their bodies attached if they might be found or else processe of Pramunire facias to be awarded against them Upon these motives and with this affection and zeal of the people was the Statute of 16 Rich. 2. made whereupon we have framed our Inditement Now let us look higher and see whether the former Laws made by King Edw. 1. and King Edw. 3. against the Usurpation of the Bishop of Rome were not grounded upon the like cause and reason The Statute of 38 Edw. 3. cap. 1. expressing the mischiefs that did arise by Breves of Citation which drew the bodies of the people and by Bulls of Provision and Reservation of Ecclesiasticall Benefices which drew the wealth of the Realm to the Court of Rome doth declare that by these means the ancient Laws Customes and Franchises of the Realm were confounded the Crown of our Sovereign Lord the King diminished and his person falsely defamed

Rome Our Archbishops did not purchase their Palls there neither had the Pope the Investiture of any of our Bishopricks For it is to be observed that as under the Temporal Monarchy of Rome Britany was one of the last Provinces that was wone and one of the first that was lost again so under the Spiritual Monarchy of the Pope of Rome England was one of the last Countries of Christendom that received his yoke and was again one of the first that did reject and cast it off And truly as in this so in divers other points the course of this Spiritual Monarchy of the Pope may be aptly compared with the course of the Temporal Monarchies of the world For as the Temporal Monarchies were first raised by intrusion upon other Princes and Commonweals so did this Spiritual Prince as they now style him grow to his greatness by usurping upon other States and Churches As the Temporal Monarchies following the course of the Sun did rise in the East and settle in the West so did the Hierarchy or government of the Church Of the four Temporal Monarchies the first two were in Asia the latter two in Europe but the Roman Monarchy did surpass and suppress them all So were there four great Patriarchs or Ecclesiastical Hierarchies two in the East and two in the West but the Roman Patriarch exalted himself and usurped a Supremacy above them all And as the rising of the Roman Empire was most opposed by the State of Carthage in Africa aemula Romae Carthago so the Council of Carthage and the African Bishops did first forbid Appeals to Rome and opposed the Supremacy of the Pope And doth not Daniel's Image whose head was of gold and legs and feet of iron and clay represent this Spiritual Monarchy as well as the Temporal whereas the first Bishops of Rome were golden Priests though they had but wooden Chalices and that the Popes of later times have been for the most part worldly and earthly-minded And as the Northern Nations first revolted from the Roman Monarchy and at last brake it in pieces have not the North and North-west Nations first fallen away from the Papacy and are they not like in the end to bring it to ruine But to return to our purpose The Bishop of Rome before the first Norman Conquest had no jurisdiction in the Realm of England neither in the time of the Britans nor in the time of the Saxons Eleutherius the Pope within less then 200 years after Christ writes to Lucius the British King and calls him God's Vicar within his Kingdom which title he would not have given to that King if himself under pretence of being God's Vicar-generall in earth had claimed jurisdiction overall Christian Kingdoms Pelagius the Monk of Bangor about the year 400 being cited to Rome refused to appear upon the Pope's citation affirming that Britain was neither within his Diocese nor his Province After that about the year 600 Augustine the Monk was sent by Gregory the Great into England to convert the Saxons to Christian Religion the British Bishops then remaining in Wales regarded not his Commission nor his doctrine as not owing any duty nor having any dependency on the Court of Rome but still retained their ceremonies and traditions which they received from the East Church upon the first plantation of the Faith in that Island being divers and contrary to those of the Church of Rome which Augustine did endeavour to impose upon them The like doth Beda write of the Irish Priests and Bishops For in the year 660. he reporteth that a Convocation of the Clergy being called by King Oswif there rose a disputation between Colman one of our Irish Saints then present in that Synod and Wilfrid a Saxon Priest touching the observation of Easter wherein the British and Irish Churches did then differ from the Church of Rome Colman for the celebration of Easter used in Ireland affirmed it was the same quod beatus Evangel●st● Joannes discipulus specialiter à Domino dilectus in omnibus quibus praeerat Ecclesiis eelebrâsse legitur On the other part Wilfrid alledged that all the Churches of Christendom did then celebrate Easter after the Roman manner except the Churches of the Britans and Picts qui contra totum orbem said he stulto labore pugnant Whereunto Colman replied Miror quare stultum laborem appellas in quo tanti Apostoli qui super pectus Domini recumbere dignus fuit exempla sectamur Numquid reverendissimum patrem nostrum Columbam ejus successores viros à Deo dilectos divinis paginis contraria sapuisse aut egisse credendum est In this disputation or dialogue two things may be observed first that at this time the authority of the Bishop of Rome was of no estimation in these Islands next that the Primitive Churches of Britany and Ireland were instituted according to the form and discipline of the East Churches and not of the West and planted by the Disciples of John and not of Peter Thus much for the time of the Britans For the Saxons though King Ina gave the Peter-pence to the Pope partly as Almes and partly in recompence of a house erected in Rome for entertainment of English pilgrims yet it is certain that Alfred and Athelstane Edgar and Edmund Canutus and Edward the Confessor and divers other Kings of the Saxon race did give all the Bishopricks in England per annulum baculum without any other ceremony as the Emperour and the French King and other Christian Princes were wont to doe They made also several Laws for the government of the Church Among others Saint Edward begins his Laws with this protestation that it is his Princely charge ut populum Domini super omnia sanctam Ecclesiam regat gubernet Aud King Edgar in his Oration to his English Clergy Ego saith he Constantinis vos Petri gladium habetis jungamus dextras gladium gladio copulemus ut ejiciantur extra castra leprosi purgetur sanctuarium Domini So as the Kings of England with their own Clergy did govern the Church and therein sought no aid of the Court of Rome And the troth is that though the Pope had then long hands yet he did not extend them so far as England because they were full of business nearer home in drawing the Emperour and the French King under his yoke But upon the Conquest made by the Norman he apprehended the first occasion to usurp upon the Liberties of the Crown of England For the Conquerour came in with the Pope's Banner and under it wone the battel which got him the garland and therefore the Pope presumed he might boldly pluck some flowers from it being partly gained by his countenance and blessing Hereupon he sent two Legates into England which were admitted and received by the Conquerour With them he called a Synod of the Clergy and deposed old Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury because he had