and by her own Authority removed Bishop Ridley from London Poinet from Winchester Coverdale from Exeter Scory from Chichester and Hooper from the jurisdiction of Worcester whereinto they had been regularly inthroned and in their places reinstalled Bonner Voisy Day and Heath which in the Reign of K. Edw. as before shewn had been legally and judicially dispossessed and all this done saith Heylin without so much as any shew of legal process the Hist Q. Mary p. 22. conventing of the Person whom it did concern or any satisfaction given to the Laws so strangely violated Soon after she called a Parliament in which saith Mr. Fox all Statutes made of Premunire in the time of Page 1333. King Henry VIII as also other Laws and Statutes concerning Religion decreed under K. Edw. VI. were dissolved and thereupon saith the Historian seven Bishops were all turned out at a time viz. the Archbishop Bâ—rnet vol. 2. p. 274. of York the Bishops of St. Davids Chester and Bristol for contracting Marriage and thereby breaking their Vows and defiling their Function Taylor of Lincoln Hooper of Worcester and Glocester and Harley of Hereford for Preaching and setting forth erroneous Doctrines though the Marriages the one had contracted and the Doctrines the other had Preached were both consonant to the decrees of the Convocation which even then remained unrepealed 4. That Q. Elizabeth who succeeded Q. Mary reduced all to the first and legal Settlement that was left by K. Edw. insomuch that if there were any irregularities in the proceedings or any defect of Power in compassing the same there were the same in Q. Mary's Did she by her Parliament restore the Reformation It was by the same way and method that Q. M. pull'd it down Had not she the concurrence of a Convocation No more had Q. Mary Were the Laws touching Religion made in Q. Mary's repeal'd by Q. Elizabeth So were the like Laws made in the days of Henry VIII and Edw. VI. repealed by Q. Mary In short whatsoever false steps were taken or whatever deviations were made contrary to the usual methods and proceedings of our Ancestors they were all begun and first attempted by Q. Mary and no farther nor no longer practised by Q. Elizabeth than to undo what the other thereby had done till she had put things into the same course they were in at the death of K. Edw. leaving for the Reform justified c. 6. Edit 1657. future as Dr. Heylin observes Church work to the disposing of Church-Men who by their Place and Calling are to be adjudged most proper for it 46. These things being premised I proceed to consider the Deprivations that were made thereupon Cambden gives us their number and Eliz. p. 37. their Names viz. Heath of York Bonner of London Tonstall of Durham Thirlby of Ely Bourn of Bath and Wells Christopherson of Chichester White of Winchester Watson of Lincoln Baines of Litchfield and Coventry Oglethorp of Carlisle Turbervile of Exeter Pool of Pâ—terborough Scot of Chester Pate of Worcester and Goldwell of St. Asaph I confess * L. 3. ch 12. Lond. 1625. Mason leaves out Christopherson †De Schis l. 3. p. 335. Sanders Christopherson and Pate ‖ Eliz. Hist pt 2. p. 114. Heylin Pate and Goldwell adding Morgan of St. David's to the rest but Cambden's Computation being the highest shall prevail And yet I doubt not but by discovering the voluntary Cessions or interpretative Resignations of some the illegal Titles of others the uncanonical Ordinations of many and the horrid Crimes of them all so to charge them as to bring them all under the Censure of a just Deprivation without ever being Patterns or Precedents to the deprived of our days 47. And first I find in Cambden that three of them to wit Pate Scot Lâ—co citat and Goldwell solum sponte mutarunt of their own accord gave up and quitted the Land and therewith their Churches and Cures the first according to Heylin towards the beginning the last towards the end of Hist Q. Eliz. p. 114. May the Oath not being tendred nor Deprivation to any decreed till near * Stow Q. Eliz. p. 1082. two Months after the Reason probably why Heylin leaves them out of his Catalogue of the deprived And had not or might not others in their absence have been put into their places their Bishopricks might have remained without Pastors till Death it self had taken them out of the World A Mischief so great and so injurious to Christianity that the holy Fathers in the Constantinopolitane Council taking it into their Consideration have long ago ordered such to be deprived If any Bishop say they to the great neglect of his Flâ—ck shall presume to absent himself from 1 2 Can. 16. his Bishoprick by going into a foreign Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and remain there above the space of six Months without leave from his Metropolitane and not commanded thither by his Prince we decree him alienated from his Bishoprick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that another be placed in his room Three more of them viz. Bonner Tonstal and Heath had been as before was shewn legally deprived in K. Edward's days and therefore since all things were reduced to the old Standard and resettled in the same way and by the same Authority as they had been dissettled it could not otherwise be expected but that such who had formerly been deprived should be sent back to the same state of Deprivation they had before been sentenced to Bourn Turbervile and Christopherson were Intruders and had possessed themselves of the Bishopricks belonging to Barlow Coverdale and Scory who had been legally invested in them in K. Edward's days unjustly turned out in Q. Mary's but alive in Q. Elizabeth's to take Possession of their own again Two more of them as well as many of the former were irregularly and uncanonically ordained their Ordinations being celebrated and performed without their Metropolitane his Leave Presence or Authority he at the same time though in Prison alive and undegraded Burn Hist vol. 2. p. 332 257. The ecclesiastical Canons as elsewhere hath been shewn utterly condemning and avoiding all such Ordinations that have not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Metropolitane with them These were * Vide Catal. Episc White and Baines The four remaining are Thirlby Watson Oglethorp and Pool But if it was lawfull for Q. Mary to seize upon Taylor Hooper and Harley because they had taken out Commissions from one or more of her Predecessors to hold their Bishopricks during their good Behaviour and to make it a ground of their Deprivation as certainly she did if Dr. Burnet be in Hist vol. 2. col 12. p. 257. the right why was it not as lawfull for Q. Elizabeth to lay hold upon Thirlby and on the same account seize his Bishoprick since he had taken out the like Commission in the preceding Reigns both of Henry VIII
that the Parliament never had or at least cannot now pretend to have any such Power but that when they attempt to meddle and decree in such matters they are perfectly out of their Sphere and Bounds and so far forth too that their Acts can be no otherwise accounted of than encroachments and their Penalties little less than Oppression 53. Mistaken too often they are in their own affairs but never so much as when they arrogate to themselves the full command over Religion A sad instance whereof we have in the late Rebellious Parliaments whose Ordinances though but of small continuance proved far more bloody and undoing than all the Canons that had been made since the beginning of the Reformation Hence being Masters of the Sacerdotal as well as Regal Power they in the first place fell foul upon the Bishops the Fathers and Governours of the Church and not only took away the Lives of some the Liberties of most and the Estates of all but to the everlasting scandal of Christianity they voted away * Scobel Jun. 12. 1643. the whole Order of them sacrilegiously declaring †Oct. 9. 1646. their Government to be evil in it self justly offensivâ— and burthensome to the Kingdom and a great impediment to the Reformation though a Government coeval with Christianity universally received throughout the whole Christian World and continued down to the several Provinces thereof and in Britain as well as elsewhere without the least contradiction from the Apostles days unto our own And in their room and stead set up a company of Schismatical Presbyters supporting Aug. 29. 1648. them with a new Sect of Lay-Elders the former never permitted in the Catholick Church and the latter never heard of in the World for the first fifteen hundred years after Christ Thus advanced they next quarrel the Service Book * Jan. 3. 1644. vote it out of the Church and force the Church-Wardens †Aug. 23. 1646 to turn Traditors and deliver them up to the Committees of the respective Counties to be destroyed permitting the reading thereof soon after to be ranked ‡ Cromw Let. to Judge Gatford's Pâ—t 1655. with the horrid crimes of holding or maintaining Blasphemous and Atheistical Opinions of being guilty of Cursing Swearing and Perjury of Adultery Fornication Drunkenness and such other abominable Crimes with order to the Justices of the Peace to be as carefull to suppress the reading of the same as of Ale-houses and the before-mentioned abominations though a Book eminently ministering to the best Reformation that ever happened in the Church composed by Pious and Orthodox Men who stuck not to seal their Profession with their blood the laying aside whereof in Q. Mary's Reign was declared in the ensuing Reign by the united Wisdom of the Nation in their Parliament to be to the great decay of the due Honour of God and discomfort to the Eliz 1. cap. professors of the truth of Christ's Religion And all this to trump up their beloved Directory a Form of Worship plainly accusing the Primitive Church Direct c. its Pref. of indiscretion and which may be abused by the ignorance or malice of every one that uses it liable to Heresie and Blasphemy as well as to ridiculous Indecencies Folly and Profaneness an Office that never absolves Penitents hath no Blessing no Creed no Hymns no external Adoration no Amen and in truth a form of Prayer without a form or so much as a Prayer in it the Lord's Prayer it self being left to the Caprichio and Pleasure of him that officiates Thus engaged they hurry on to the turning out all the Regular Loyal and Conformable Clergy of the Land under the notion of scandalous delinquent Ministers which upon Aug. 23. 1647. Fowlis Hist of Pret St. l. 3. c. 1. trial proved so constant and steady that Zechary Crofton one of the Chieftains of the Party thought it matter enough to boast of that among the ten thousand Clergy in the Church they had gained six hundred of them a poor pittance God wot to comply and subscribe their Covenant And then rather than be without whosoever would they consecrated making the lowest of the People Priests of the high places The Author of the Dissenters Sayings represents us with a Page 8. Catalogue of some of them and by them you may guess at the rest Godly Painful and Laborious Preachers Fulcher the Egg-Man Hobson the Taylor Gree the Felt-maker Spencer the Coachman Potter the Smith Durance the Wash-ball-maker Debman the Cooper Heath the Coller-maker Rice the Tinker and Field the Bodys-maker Neither could much better upon the outing of the other be expected since the two Vniversities those Seminaries of the Church designed for the supply of Hist Oxon. Quaer Cant. the vacancies thereof were forced to run the same risque and to undergo the same fate as the constituted Clergy of the Land had done And no question like Preachers like Doctrine So leud extravagant and vile that many of themselves being by experience made sensible thereof thought sit to complain and when it was too late seek for redress you have most noble Senators saith Mr. Edwards done worthily against Ep. Ded. part 1. Gang. Papists Prelates and scandalous Ministers but what have you done against Heresy Schism Disorder What against Seekers Anabaptists Antinomians Brownists Libertines and other Sects You have made a Reformation but with the Reformation have we not a Deformation and worse things come upon us than before You have put down the Book of Common-Prayer you have cast off the Bishops you have taken away Ceremonies you have caused the Imagies to be broken down of the Trinity Christ the Virgin Mary and the Apostles and instead thereof there are those rose up among us who throw away the Scripture ridicule the Ministery cast away the Sacraments and overthrow the Trinity deny Christ undervalue the Virgin and disown the Apostles The Sects have been growing ever since the first year of your sitting and have every year encreased more and more and if Schism and Heresy c. be let alone and rise proportionably for one year longer we shall need no Enemy from without to undo us Thus it fared with our oppressed Church in those days till her King and Priests were despised her solemn Feasts and Sabbaths forgotten and the Sanctuary abhorred and I am afraid thus it will prove again if Erastus his Demagogues and his Party ever any more happen to dictate Religion to us 64. And thus I have freely delivered my thoughts concerning this Subject insomuch that if you or others will but seriously reflect and consider what hath been offered thereon from authentick and undeniable Testimonies you may readily perceive the reason why so many of us at present refuse the Communion of the new Bishops and perform our Devotions separate by our selves under the presidency of our old ones The Communion it self was difficult if at all tollerable before the rent was
purg ad Optat. Bishop of Cirta one of the Ordainers of Majorinus thereby to find out which of the two were Traditors that the Controversy between the Caecilianists and the Donatists might be stated and ended unde pulsa atque exter sa infamia cum ingenti laude illo judicio recessit by which Judgment of theirs saith Optatus the infamous aspersions that were cast upon Cont. Par. l. 1. p. 30. Caecilian and Felix by the Donatists were wiped off to the eternal Honour of Caecilian and his adherents And thus also for the better management of the Conference between the Catholick and the Donatists Bishops Honorius the Emperor appointed Macellinus his Tribune for a Judge in the case before whom saith Possidonius the Donatists being convicted of De Vitâ Aug. their faults sententia Cognitoris notati sunt were by his Sentence declared guilty and thereupon condemned And thus might Tonstal of Duresme as well as Bonner of London or as Gardiner of Winchester have had their Cause heard had not Archbishop Gardiner refused to meddle because Burnet Part 2. lib. 1. p. 216. he was found to lye under a misprison of Treason And so properly might Voisy of Exeter been tried but for the same reason for he also was found saith Heylin to have fomented the Rebellion of the Devonshire Edw. 6. p. 100 Men And whether Day of Winchester was not in with them and for that reason also not tried by Cranmer to me it is doubtful for the Historian confesses he cannot tell us whether his Deprivation arose from Reform Par. 2. lib. 1. p. 203. the refusing to submit to the new Book or his falling into other transgressions However I cannot but observe 1. That the aforesaid Bishops enjoyed their Bishopricks notwithstanding an ipso facto Deprivation till a farther process was made aad a declaratory Sentence passed upon them 2. That Bonner who led the way unto the rest was not deprived till four months or more after the Act of Deprivation took Fox 1209. place Gardiner not till two years almost after Bonner Voisy not till Heylin p. 100. some months after the Sentence passed upon Gardiner Day Heath Tonstal Burnet lib. 2. p. 203. 216. not till some months after him so slowly was the Act at that time executed 3. That as they enjoyed their Bishopricks till their Deprivations so in all probability they enjoyed the Profits and Revenues thereof Gardiner's were not sequestered from him till within three Heyl. Edw. 6. p. 99. months of the time yea and then also his House and Servants were maintained out of his Bishoprick to the very instant that the declarary Fox p. 1218. Sentence was judiciously pronounced against him This was the Case of the deprived Bishops then and if this method had been taken in reference to our present Bishops that is had the matter for which they are deprived been debated in a Convocation of the Clergy and there concluded that the Allegiance they had sworn might lawfully be transferred without the Breach of Oath or guilt of Perjury had the Refusers of the said transferring been afterwards by a true and legal Parliament decreed to be deprived and had they upon that been Legally and Canonically evicted of such a refusal though no such time had been allowed them nor no such favour granted as in the interim to enjoy their Bishopricks and the Revenues of them nay though after all the Sanctions of the one and the Determinations of the other had seemed to them unjust there would not have been such cause as there is for a complaint So that I think we may cry out of the Injustice at least of the unprecedented Severity of the present Age and yet neither blemish nor expose the Reformation 44. Neither will they be assisted or screened by any thing that was done in Q. Elizabeth's Reign For though according to Stow there were Ann. 2. Eliz. p. 182. Eliz. p. 36. Ed. Lond. 1615. thirteen or fourteen deprived of their Bishopricks omnes qui tunc â—ederunt praeter unum Antonium Landevensem all says Cambden that were then Bishops which he reckons to be sixteen in number besides him of Landaff yet will their Deprivations be found of a quite different nature to those that have been made in our days And to make this out four things are necessary to be observed 45. First That all matters of Ecclesiastical concern were left at King Edward's death under a full and regular establishment consented and agreed thereunto by the King in his Convocation as well as by the King in his Parliament And so it is asserted to be in the Answer to the Lady Mary's Letter as cited out of Master Fox by the Author of Church-Government viz. that the Reformation as touching the Common-Prayer Book Part 5. p. 130. from the second year of his Reign and as touching other Articles of Religion from the fifth was Regular and Canonical as being the Act of the Clergy Thus was the Supemacy and Service Book established as is before shewn thus also were the Articles of Religion and in them the Tit. Art 1552. Art 31. St. 5. 6 Edw. 6. cap. 12. Marriage of the Clergy agreed upon own'd by the Parliament it self to have been so in the Act for adjudging such Marriages lawfull declaring therein that the Learned Clergy of the Realm had determined the same by the Law of God in their Convocations as well by the common assent as by the subscription of their hands 2. That no less Authority ought to be allowed to null the establishment than what was thought necessary by the standing Laws of the Land at first to make it and therefore since it had its Birth and Rise from the King and Convocation as well as from the King and Parliament and more properly from the first than from the latter the Queen had not power of her self no nor by the Parliament without the Convocation to destroy it And hence her own Clergy in Q. Elizabeth's days foreseeing the ill effect of such Power utterly disclaimed it and in their Convocation declared against it telling the Parliament in hopes to keep their Possessions but in the mean time forgetting the method whereby they came possessed that the Authority to handle and define such things which belong to Heyl. Q. Eliz. p. 113. Faith in the Sacraments and Discipline Ecclesiastical hath hitherto ever belonged and only ought to belong to the Pastor of the Church whom the Holy Spirit hath placed in the Church and not unto Lay-Men no though in Parliament as then they were assembled 3. That the Power whereby Q. Mary acted for dissolving the Reformation and for the laying aside the Bishops that asserted it was a less Authority than that by which at first it was established For no sooner was she come unto the Crown upon the death of K. Edw. VI. but and before ever a Heyl. Hist Q. Mary p. 22. Parliament was called she purely
to be alike but till then I must be allowed to cry out O Tempora O Mores and with the Poet conclude that Aetas Parentum pejor avis tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem Carm. Hor. L. 3. Od. 6. 50. I am sensible that there are two grand Mistakes in the World which minister to and hasten on these fatal Proceedings Some think there is no such thing as Schism others that though there be such a thing yet an Act of Parliament will authorize the Fact and justifie all insomuch that through the Midwifery of a Vote or two of theirs God's Altar may be turn'd or overturn'd Aaron and his Priests deposed or forced to comply and a new Erection like that of Jeroboam's though of the worst of Men made as sacred and divine as if it were done by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Voice from Heaven And from thenceforth if the Man of God happen as his Duty binds him to oppose or gainsay their Sanctions so as their Mightinesses become disobliged though he be sent of God as Aaron was though he ruleth well and laboureth in Word and Doctrine nay though he be doing the Will and Work of his Master yet a travelling Staff and a pair of ill clouted Shoes must pass for his double Reward But how contrary this is to Practice hath already been shewn and how diametrically opposite to the genuine Constitutions of this Church and State comes now to be demonstrated 51. Populus de Republica non de Ecclesia in Parliamentis antiquitus tractare consuevit Anciently saith the Author of Antiquitates Britannicae the People never meddled with Matters of religious Concern in their Parliaments De vit Cran. p. 339. but onely with Matters purely relating to the State Nay I find by the very Act of Submission it self which was in the Year 1530. That it was customary till then for the Clergy by virtue of the Authority they had in themselves without any Ratification or Confirmation from King or Parliament to make Canons declare Heresies convict and censure Criminals and to decree and do all other Matters as seemed good to them in relation to the Church and Clergy A Power thought too great to be in the hands of the Clergy whereupon saith Heylin The House of Commons aggrieved at the inequality and supereminency of the Power Ref. just part 1. S. 1. remonstrated and complained to the King that the Clergy should be permitted to act Authoritatively and Supremely in the Convocation and they in Parliament do nothing but as it was confirmed and ratified by the Royal Assent This in all probability hastened on the Submission for the Clergy soon after being met in Convocation as it is recorded in the aforesaid Book of Antiquities promised the King in verbo sacerdotis ne ullas deinceps De Vit. Warh in Synodo ferrent Ecclesiasticas leges that they would not henceforth enact or execute any Constitutions or Canons in their Synods or Convocations unless the King should cause their assembling and by his Royal Assent approve and confirm their Canons But then this only levels them with and not puts them under the Parliament it leaves indeed their Decrees and Sanctions to them to be farther guarded and secured by the addition of their civil Penalties and Inflictions but no ways subjects them to them in reference to the Validity Authenticalness or prior Establishment of them And this the learned Heylin hath elaborately and fully made out as to the two first Reigns both in reference to the points of Doctrine that were reformed and to the forms of Worship that were then enjoyned in his Book entitled The way of the Reformation of the Church of England declared and justified to whom for your farther satisfaction I refer you and the Reader 52. But not content to bring them down to their own level their next design and work was to bring them under and of this the aforementioned Antiquary complains Ecclesiasticarum legum potestate abdicata populus in Parliamento cepit de rebus divinis inconsulto Clero sancire the Submission says he being made the People in their Parliament as if the In vitâ Cranm p. 339. Submission had been made to them began to usurp upon the Church's Right and without ever consulting the Clergy to debate and agree such things as formerly were held peculiarly to the Clergy only But these saith Heylin were only tentamenta offers and undertakings only and Lib. p. cit no more And that they were so and no better nor otherwise approved of during the whole Reign of Q. Elizabeth under whom the Reformation received its full and perfect establishment will sufficiently be evidenced from the Journals of the Paliaments in her days handed down to us by Sir Simon D'Ewes And I shall give them in the order they lye in When a Bill was presented to the House of Commons for Reformation of the Common Prayer Book it was agreed upon by them that a Petition Ann. 13. p. 167. should be made to her Majesty for her License to proceed in the Bill before it be farther dealt in and to do otherwise saith the Treasure is to Page 166. meddle with matters of her Prerogative and as the Comptroller phrased it to run before the Ball. Mr. Strickland having pressed very earnestly the Reformation of the Book Page 176. of Common-Prayer and other Ceremonies was called before her Majesty's Council and commanded to forbear coming to the said House and when Page 130. the said Articles of Religion were afterwards presented to her she answered That she would have them executed by the Bishops by direction of her Highness's Regal Authority of Supremacy of the Church of England and not to have the same dealt in by the Parliament The Lord Keeper in his Speech to the Parliament by her Majesty's Command Ann. 14. p. 193. thus utters himself Because the proceedings of matters in Discipline and Doctrine do chiefly concern my Lords the Bishops both for their Understanding and Ecclesiastical Function therefore the Queens Highness looketh that they being called together in Parliament should take the chifest care to confer and consult of these matters and if in their conference they find it behoofull to have any Temporal Acts made for the amending and reforming of any of these lacks that then they will exhibit it here in Parliament to be considered upon and so gladius gladium juvabit as before time hath been used The Speaker declared to the House of Commons That it was her Majesty's pleasure That from henceforth no Bills concerning Religion shall be Page 213. preferred or received into this House unless the same should be first considered and liked by the Clergy Upon the presenting the Petition concerning the Reformation of the Discipline of the Church her Highness answered That her Majesty before Ann. 18. p. 257. the Parliament had a care to provide in that case of her own