THE OBLIGATION Resulting from the OATH of SUPREMACY To Assist and Defend the Pre-eminence or Prerogative OF THE Dispensative Power BELONGING To the KING his Heirs and Successors In the asserting of that Power various Historical Passages occurring in the Usurpation after the Year 1641. are occasionally mentioned And an Account is given at large of the Progress of the Power of Dispensing as to Acts of Parliament about Religion since the Reformation and of divers Judgments of Parliaments declaring their Approbation of the Exercise of such Power and particularly in what concerns the Punishment of Disability or Incapacity Princes are Supreme over Persons not over Things This is the Supreme Power of Princes which we teach that they be Gods Ministers in their own Dominions bearing the Sword and freely to permit and publickly to Defend that which God commandeth in Faith and good Manners c. Princes may Command the Bodies of all their Subjects in time both of War and Peace c. Out of all Question where Princes may by God's Law Command all Men must obey them c. The Prince may discharge the Servant but no Man can discharge the Subject The Word of God teacheth you to obey Princes the words of men cannot loose you BISHOP BILSON of the SUPREMACY LONDON Printed for Thomas Dring at the Harrow at Chancery-Lane End in Fleetstreet William Crook at the Green Dragon without Temple-Bar and William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1687. To the Right Honorable JOHN Earl of MELFORT Viscount of Forth Lord Drummond of Rickartone c. His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Kingdom of Scotland and one of His Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council in both Kingdoms of England and Scotland c. MY LORD AS the Historian hath told us of Ireland that long ago while the Arts and Sciences were generally banish'd from the Christian World they were enthroned in Ireland and that Men were sent thither from other Parts of Christendom to be improved in Learning so I have elsewhere observ'd that in some late Conjunctures and particularly during the turbid Interval of the Exclusion men might well be sent to Scotland to learn Loyalty And I having taken occasion in the first Part of this Discourse to shew my self a just honourer of that Country and as I may say somewhat like a Benefactor to it by sending thither the notices of some pass'd great Transactions that might possibly there give more light and life to the Moral Offices of Natural Allegiance or Obedience did hold my self obliged in Common Justice to address this Part of my Work to your Lordship For as your Station here qualifies you beyond other Subjects to receive what Tribute is offer'd to your Country so your handing it thither will necessarily make it there the more acceptable And when I consider with what an incomparable Tenderness for the Monarchy and its Rights so many of the Statutes of Scotland since the Year 1660. have been adorn'd I am apt to think that any matter of Presidents or Records by me recover'd out of the Sea of time where they lay so long useless and neglected and now happening to be serviceable to those Moral Offices before-mention'd would by the so many in that Kingdom devoted to consummate Obedience and Loyalty be more valued then if I could have imported into that Realm another such Treasure as that which lay so long buried in the Ocean near the Bahama Islands and that whoever Contributed to your Loyal Country any Substantial Notions that might enrich it in the discharge of the Duties of the born and sworn Allegiance would be esteem'd there as some way sharing in the honour of Arauna in giving like a King to a King. Long may your great Master live happy in the Enjoyment of the faithful Services of so vigilant a Minister as your Lordship who by the universality of your Knowledge accompany'd with universal Charity for all Mankind have appear'd to be born as I may say for the time of his most glorious Reign the time chosen by Heaven for Mercies Triumph on Earth Nothing vulgar was to be expected from a Person of your Lordship's extraordinary intellectual and moral Endowments and in whom the Loyalty and other Virtues of your many noble Ancestors have as it were lived extraduce And the World would be unjust to you if it acknowledged not its great Expectation answer'd by your greater Performances and particularly by your having been so eminently Ministerial in the Easing both the Cares of your Prince and of all his Subjects too by the Figure you have made in promoting the Ease of his People's Consciences and in further ennobling and endearing the Name of DRUMMOND by your Lordship's Prosecuting that by the Bravery of Action which the HISTORIAN of that your Name did by Words when he transmitted to Posterity the most Christian and Statesman-like Speech of Liberty of Conscience I know extant and as spoke by a Roman-Catholick Councellor in Scotland to King Iames the Fifth I most humbly kiss your Lordship's Hands and am My Lord Your Lordships most Obedient Servant P. P. THE OBLIGATION Resulting from the Oath of Supremacy To Assist and Defend the Pre-eminence or Prerogative OF THE Dispensative Power Belonging to the KING his Heirs and Successors c. PART I A. IN this Kingdom of England so naturally of old addicted to Religion and vehemence in it as to give a Bishop of Rome cause to complain he had more trouble given him by Applications from England about it then from all the World beside and afterward to make Geneva wonder at the Sabbatarians here exceeding the Iewish strictness and to cause Barclay in his Euphoâ—…mio to say of the English Nec quicqúam in numinis cultu modicum possunt and that our several Sects thought unos se Coelestium rerum participes exortes coeteros omnes esse did you ever observe hear or read of the style of Tenderness of Conscience so much used as in the year 41. and sometime afterward B. I have not From the Date of King Charles the First 's Declaration to all His loving Subjects about that time wherein he speaks of his Care for Exemption of Tender Consciences till the Date of King Charles the Second's Declaration from Breda wherein the Liberty of Tender Consciences is Provided for the clause of easing Tender Consciences ran through the Messages Addresses and Answers that passed between King and Parliament almost as much as the Clause of proponentibus legatis did run through the Councel of Trent A. But were not their Consciences extremely erroneous who thought themselves bound then to advance Religion by War B. Aâ—… and by a Civil War as you might have added against a Prince of the tenderest Conscience imaginable for that Character he had from an Arch-bishop in his Speech in the Parliament of 40 who said Our Sovereign is I will not say above other Princes but above all Christian men that ever I knew
Religion being the same almost Verbatim with those formerly agreed on in the Spanish Treaty And he there refers to Rot. Tractationis Ratificationis Matrimonâ—… inter Dom. Carolum Regem Dom. Henret Mariam Sororem Regis Franc. 1 o Cat. in the Rolls and then in p. 71. saith Besides these general Articles of the Match these particular ones were concluded and agreed on in favour of the Roman-Catholicks the same in Substance with those of Spain and where he saith the Second is to this effect that the English Catholicks should be no more searched after or molested for their Religion But Mr. Prynne there particularly sets down only three short Articles and those comprised in about six lines and the words or molâ—…ted in the second Article are Printed in a different Character from the others as if he thereby intended them as his own Explication of the word searched A. You just now mention'd King Iames his having in the year 1622. order'd all the Popish Recusants who were in Prison on the account of their Religion to be set at liberty and you told me how he tacitly dispens'd with the Disability that Popish Physicians and Lawyers had incurr'd by Act of Parliament Was that all the favour he shew'd Roman-Catholicks B. No He allow'd them to make a very Considerable figure in the Government as you may find if you consult the Iournals of Parliament as referr'd to by Mr. Prynne p. 66. Seq of that Book For he there mentions that in the year 1624. The Commons sent a Petition to the Lords desiring their Concurrence with them in presenting it to His Majesty for removing Popish Recusants and those whose Wives were Papists from Offices of Trust which by Law they were DISABLED to execute which the Lords took into their Consideration and which Mr. Prynne saith was enter'd in their Iournal in this manner Die Jovis viz. Vicessimo die Maii 1624. The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury reported that at the meeting this Day with the Commons they Presented an humble Petition to the King desiring this House to joyn therein with them The which Petition was read in haec verba c. In short the Commons in their Petition take notice of the Growth of the Number of Popish Recusants in this Kingdom and of their insolency in all the Parts thereof and that many of them contrary to the Laws were gâ—…t into Offices and Places of Government and Authority under the King And the Prayer of the Petition is That the Lords and Gentlemen there undernamed may be removed from all His Majesty's Commissions of great Charge and Trust Commissions of Lieutenancy Oyer and Terminer and of the Peace and from all other Offices and Places of Trust. And they in their first Schedâ—…le there name 11 Lords and 18 Knights And in their second they name many Persons of Quality who were in Places of Charge and Trust in their several Counties and had marry'd Popish Wives and whose Children and Servants were bred up to Popery A. Doth any Act of Parliament disable a man from bearing Office because his Wife is a Papist or because his Children or Servants are bred up to be Papists B. Yes the Act of the Third of King Iames the First cap. 5. doth it as you will see if you consult it for 't is there Enacted That no Popish Recusant Convict nor any having a Wife being a Popish Recusant Convict shall at any time after this Session of Parliament or any Popish Recusant hereafter to be Convict or having a Wife which hereafter shall be a Recusant Convict at any time after his or her Conviction shall exercise any publick Office or Charge in the Common-wealth but shall be utterly DISABLED to exercise the same by himself or his Deputy except such Husband himself and his Children which shall be above the age of Nine years abiding with him and his Servants in Houshold shall once every Month in the least repair to some Church usual for Divine Service and there hear Divine Service and the said Husband and such his Children and Servants as are of meet Age receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and do bring up his said Children in true Religion A. Now have you set me a longing to know what the House of Lords did in the Case of that Petition about removing those disabled Persons from serving the King in those great Stations And since the Judgment of Parliament was always had in such great veneration I think if the result of the desire of the House of Commons was that the Lords had joyn'd with them in the Petition and had urged that the King could not dispense with that Act of Parliament and Pardon Disability it may make a notable President in the Case we have been discussing B. You will find that the Commons urged nothing to the prejudice of Prerogative in the Prayer of their Petition Their style there was We humbly beseech your Majesty graciously to vouchsafe that the said Lords and Gentlemen here under-named for this important Reason and for the greater Safety of your Majesty and of your Realm may be removed from all your Majesty's Commissions of great Charge and Trust Commissions of Lieutenancy c. And the important reason did refer to the great Countenance hereby given to Popery the great grief and offence to all his best affected and true loving Subjects by putting the Power of Arms into such mens hands as by former Acts of His Majesty's Councel are adjudged Persons justly to be suspected c. But to let you see what the House of Lords did hereupon Mr. Prynne tells you p. 69. That this Petition being read the House did defer the Debate thereof at this time for that the day was far spent And answer was given to the Commons who attended for the same in the Painted Chamber that the Lords will send them an Answer of this Petition hereafter when they are resolv'd thereof Whereupon Mr. Prynne concludes his account of this Transaction thus Whether any of these were displaced upon this Petition I find not in any Memorials it being certain some of them were not but continued still in these Offices of Trust. A. How have you here disappointed my Curiosity in making that ferment then in the Government about the Disability of the Papists being dispens'd with thus silently to go off through the House of Lords forbearing to joyn with the House of Commons in their Petition B. I shall here afford your Curiosity a recompence by observing it to you with allusion to some of the words of the Royal Martyr in his Answer to the 19 Propositions That the ancient equal happy well poysed and never enough commended Constitution of the Government of this Kingdom having made this Nation so famous and happy to a great degree of Envy c. and the Lords being trusted with a Iudicatory Power are an excellent Screen and Bank between the Prince and the People to assist each against any Encroachment of
shall further But I conceive it here necessary for me to acquaint your Lordship that I have been often put to it as speaking cum vulgo grosso modo and for brevity's sake to use the aforesaid Expression of Dispensing with Disability and with Disability incurr'd by Act of Parliament that is with what is generally enacted to be incurr'd and SEEMS to be alike incurr'd by all Persons who perform not what the Act enjoins and which Dispensing with Disability is frequently used in popular discourse for the pardoning it and for the liberatio à poenâ and as the Lord Chief Iustice Vaughan's Report by me so much cited mentions dispensing to have been defined by some of the Iudges But to a judgment so vastly comprehensive and profoundly penetrating as your Lordships the dispensing with Disability must easily appear to be properly meant of the preventing it and the dispensing with what might Cause it according to the style of Queen Elizabeth's Letters Patents or effect the actual incurring of what will reverâ be incurr'd by the Persons not exempted by Dispensation from the doing what the Law enjoins and which will be made to appear obvious to every man's understanding in one of the following Parts and wherein I shall have occasion to speak less cum vulgo and more closely and accurately of the Nature of Dispensing and of its effects in either forum then yet I have had And now having Named that Great Queen I shall not doubt but since the Members of the Church of England do now under our most puissant and most just Monarch find themselves as secure in the Profession of the Religion by Law establish'd as they did in her great and glorious Reign it will upon recollection of thought appear as natural to them to hold themselves obliged to shew the same tenderness for every branch of Prerogative and particularly for that of the Dispensative Power that was then so remarkable in Parliament and throughout the Realm My Lord Your Lordship 's most Obedient Servant P. P. PART II. B. I again bid you welcome and am ready to go on where we last left off and do not in the least doubt of your welcoming any thing I can say to you that may import you to know in order to your sworn assistance and defence of every Privilege belonging to the Crown And I shall frankly tell you that you and other Protestants who in a late Conjuncture did shew a more then ordinary zeal against Popery or Papal Usurpations ought to consider that you have thereby put your selves under an especial Obligation of tenderness â—…for all the rights of your Prince and of hating all popular Usurpations or diminutions thereof with an exemplary and most perfect hatred and of thereby avoiding the being judged hypocrites and factious A. I do herein most fully agree with you and that the late zeal of the same Persons against papal Usurpations and for popular ones was a scandal to the Age. I remember you once observ'd to me how tender the Protestants in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King Iames the first were of every Right and Privilege of the Crown with the most perfect tenderness while the Attaques from the Court of Rome against those Princes had made the highest Ferment in the minds of the Populace But I think there never was any Conjuncture of time here when so many of the declaimers against Popery and so many of the fautors of Plot-witnesses were so much at the same time for a Plot and no Plot and for a King and no King that is to say did so much make a stalking-horse of Popery whereby to strike at Prerogative B. But you know that the talk of Plots and Popery was before apply'd to that use You know Archbishop Laud in his Star-chamber Speech A 1637. mentions it p. 11. as the scope of the Libellers of the Faction to kindle a jealousy in Mens minds that there were some great Plots in hand to change the Religion established and to bring in I know not what Romish Superstition And the history of those times sheweth you how the Men that cry'd up Plots then did decry Prerogative And in the Conjuncture of 41. the famous Protestation of May the 5th that year begins with Out-cries of Designs of Popish Priests and Iesuits and other Papists and their PLOTS and CONSPIRACIES and the Preface of the Covenant runs on in the style of â—…loody Plots and Conspiracies But you likewise know the dismal state of Prerogative in those times then occasion'd by raising of those false Alarms of Plots And I may account it as a beneficial Providence to the Age that shortly after our last Plot-Epoche M r. Hobbs his History of the Civil-Wars coming first out in print through the License of the Press and having been reserved to the detecting then the artifices of the Demagogues that produced the Usurpations between the Years 1640. and 1660. the Book notwithstanding all the prejudice against the Author whether just or unjust being writ with so much strength and beauty of Wit as to make it fly like lightning round the Kingdom in so many Impressions did then prove to many ingenious and thinking Men an effectual Antidote against the poysons of those old Artifices then again scatter'din the Press being so destructive to Loyalty as heretofore Sir Iohn Davis in his Report of the Case of praemunire Hil. 4. Iacobi doth but right to the loyalty of Roman Catholicks and to the genius of the People of England when he saith there That the Commons of England may be an example to all other Subjects in the World in this that they have ever been TENDER and sensible of the wrongs and dishonours offer'd to their Kings and have ever contended to upheld and maintain their Honour and Soveraignty And their Faith and Loyalty hath been generally such tho every Age hath brought forth some particular Mâ—…nsters of disloyalâ—…y as no pretence of Zeal of Religion could ever withdraw the greater part of the Subjects of submit themselves to a foreign yoke no not when Popery was in its height and exaltation It is therefore no marvel that toward the latter end of the Reign of the late King the very Mobile who had been so zealous against papal usurpations and so fiery in charging ALL Papists with disloyalty did upon their discovery of the artifices of republican deluders to put an inglorious domestic yoke on the Monarchy then think themselves obliged by the universality of their loyal addresses to shew the more extraordinary zeal against any Popular Usurpations And so I account it but natural to you who are made è meliore luto to be ready to shew your most consummate zeal for every Privilege of the Crown A. It is not possible for any Man to wish me more sensible of my obligation in this point then I really am and the rather for that I find so many mens loyalty to be but a kind of loud noisy nothing or a
doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any foreign Iurisdiction Where we attribute to her Majesty the Chief Government by which Title we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all Godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in the Realm of England The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with death for hâ—…inous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars Now after the Oath of Supremacy had been enjoyn'd in the first year of her Reign and the Admonition annexed to her Injunctions was then likewise publish'd viz. A. D. 1559. and after the Parliament had by proviso 〈◊〉 the interpretation of the Oath which Parliament began the 12th of Ianuary in the 5th year of her reign and from which day all things dâ—…ne in that Session are to bear date the Articles of Religion agreed on by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the 5th year of her reign and A. D. 1562. were by the Archbishops and Bishops of both Provinces subscribed the 29th of Ianuary in that year and by the Clergy of the lower House of Convocation on the 5th of February following and to all which the Queen gave her Royal Assent And in the Articles there was by the Queens Royal Prerogative an additional Interpretation probably at the instance of the Clergy given to the interpretation in the Admonition and in the Parliaments Proviso and the which additional interpretation had in it no respect to nor mention of what being in several places of the former one might amuse the Clergy with some Fears and Iealousies namely the Duty Allegiance and Bond that were acknowledged due to Harry the 8th and Edward the 6th and the Authority that was challenged and lately used by those Princes however yet that latter Clause is qualify'd in the Admonition But for the 37th Article before-mentioned allowing the measures of the Royal Supremacy from the Prerogatives given by God in Scripture to holy Princes whereby our Clergy might seem to have brought the Prerogative into its own proper Element and theirs too the knowledge of the Scriptures being their profession our Clergy no doubt were always thankful to the Crowns Dispensative power and so exercised out of Parliament and whereby they were secured from penal disabilities either by suspension or deprivation for not taking the Oath in the sense of the Admonition Thus as things in their proper place are at rest the Queens Dispensative power and the Consciences of the Clergy by this interpretation of the Oath were so much at rest that about eight or nine years afterward the same 39 Articles that had been by the Archbishops and Bishops and Clergy of both Provinces agreed on in the year 1562. were by the said Archbishops Bishops and Clergy again agreed upon and again ratify'd by the Queen in the year 1571. the 13th year of her reign and when care was taken by the Government that that interpretation being incorporated in the body of the 39 Articles should be deem'd good in Parliament by the Statute of 13 o Eliz. c. 12. as the other interpretation in the Admonition had been by the proviso in the Act of the 5th of that Queen and probably for the same reason and as her dispensing with disability expresly in the 8th year of her reign was In the Act of the 13th of Eliz. reference was made to those Articles as agreed on by the Archbishops and Clergy and set forth by the Queens authority Anno 1562. and the Act is entituled Reformation of Disorders in the Ministers of the Church and in which it was enacted That all such as were to be ordained or permitted to preach or to be instituted into any Benefice with cure of Souls should publickly subscribe to the said Articles which shews if you mind it that tho the Parliament did well allow and approve of the said Articles yet the said Book oweth neither Confâ—…rmation nor Authority to the Act of Parliament And that Act concerning only Clergy-men tho the interpretation in the 37th Article is left to oblige the Clergy yet that in the Admonition might concern you to stick to if nothing had since happen'd whereby the dispensative power inherent in the Crown may have given your Conscience the benefit of the interpretation thus afforded to the Clergy But therefore I shall here tell you that the Canons of King Iames the â—…st Anno 1603 being confirmed for him and his Heirs and Successors are binding now however it hath been objected as the unhappiness of Queen Elizabeths Canonâ—… viz. A. 1571. A. 1584. A. 1597. wanting those formal words of Heirs and Successors to expire with her And as those words are in King Iames's Canons so are the words of enjoyning their being observ'd fuâ—…fill'd and kept not only by the Clergy but by all other Persons within this Realm as far as lawfully being Members of the Church it may concern them and tho in the first Canon there entituled The King's Supremacy over the Church of England in Causes Ecclesiastical to be maintain'd 't is order'd That all Ecclesiastical Persons shall keep and observe and as much as in them lyeth all and singular Laws and Statutes made for the restoring to the Crown of this Kingdom its ancient Iurisdiction over the state Ecclâ—…siastical yet in the next Canon entitled Impugners of the King's Supremacy censurâ—…d the measures of the King 's ecclesiastical Authority being taken from the Godly Kings among the Iews according to the 37th of the 39 Articles was an extending to the Layety the ben fit of the Interpretation obtain'd by the Clergy the which was in effect a judgment of the Convocations that the pursuance of that Interpretation of the King 's Ecclesiastical Power and the avoiding of the punishment of Disability by the use of that Power was not agaâ—…st the Law of the Land but the 5th Canon viz. Impugners of the Artiâ—…les of Religion establish'd in the Church of England censured and in which the establishment of the 39 Articles is solely referr'd to them as agreed on in Convocation in the year 1562. without any notice of the Parliament of the 13th of Eliz. having done any thing about them doth more clearly secure to you the benefit of the Interpretation the Clergy had A. You have mention'd so many things to me relating to the interpretation
leaving Aliens or Foreigners of the Reform'd Churches that were then allow'd or tolerated by the King's Majesty or that should be allow'd by him his Heirs and Successors to be secured under the Wing of Prerogative from all the Penalties in that Act was a greater President of a Parliament's deference to the Dispensative Power But here it falls in my way to ask you if the Parliament in that Act interpreting and expounding the Sulscription to the 36th Article as you before mention'd did not shew some want of tenderness to the Regal Power of interpreting B. Not in the least The King thought fit in his Legislative Capacity and with the Concurrence of the three Estates to issue forth such interpretation to the end it might be perpetuated But you will find that they were so tender of that branch of Prerogative namely of the Regal Power of interpreting out of Parliament that having referr'd to the King's Declaration of the 25th of October 1660. i. e. that concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs we spoke of before and mention'd that according to that he had granted his Commission to several Bishops and other Divines to review the Book of Common Prayer and to prepare such Alterations and Additions as they thought fit to offer and that afterwards the Convocations of both the Provinces of Canterbury and York being by His Majesty called c. His Majesty hath been pleas'd to Authorize the Presidents of the said Convocation and other the Bishops and Clergy of the same to review the Book of Common Prayer and the Book of the form and manner of the making and consecrating of Bishops Priests c. and that they should make such Additions and Alterations in the said Books as to them should seem meet and should present the same to His Majesty for his further Allowance or Confirmation and then setting forth that the same was accordingly done and that some alterations were inserted into those Books by the Convocations and by them Presented to His Majesty and all which His Majesty having consider'd hath fully approved it then follows that His Majesty hath recommended to this present Parliament that the Books of Common Prayer c. with the Alterations and Additions which have been so made and presented to His Majesty by the said Convocations be the Book which shall be appointed to be used c. in all Parish Churches and Chapels c. And it is upon the foundation of what His Majesty did as before-mention'd that the following enacting Clauses with their Sanctions and Penalties are built And you may if you will take notice of a Proviso toward the end of the Act being very tender of not hurting what King Iames by his Prerogative did in Uniting the Prebendship to the Professor of Law in Oxon for the time being and whereby that King dispens'd with the incapacity of Lay-men as to the enjoyment of such Prebendship but the Act and the Proviso takes care to perpetuate the King's Professor's enjoying the same and leaves the Prerogative at liberty to dispense with such disability in the Case In short you see how tender that Parliament was of Prerogative and tho they thought it not fit to give such loud Applauses to his late Majesty's Declaration of October the 25th A. 1660. before-mention'd wherein so much of the Dispensative Power was exerted yet you find they refer to it with respect A. I have almost forgot the particulars of the Dispensative Power therein exerted B. I shall tell you that the King having there mention'd and what the Act takes notice of his saying that he would appoint some Divines to review the Common Prayer Book and to make such Alterations as shall be thought most necessary c. it then saith Out Will and Pleasure is that none be punish'd or troubled for not using it until it be review'd and effectually reform'd He there speaks several times of Dispensing with Ceremonies that were by Law establish'd It is there likewise said Because some men otherwise Pious and Learned say They cannot conform unto the Subscription required by the Canon nor take the Oath of Canonical Obedience we are Content and it is Out Will and Pleasure so they take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that they shall receive ordination institution and induction and shall be permitted to exercise their Function and to enjoy the Profits of their Livings without the said Subscription or Oath of Canonical Obedience c. A. I see here is King Iames the First 's incapacitating Canon dispens'd with and indeed suspended B. The Declaration goeth on with taking care that None be Iudged to forfeit his Presentation or Benefice or be deprived of it upon the Statute of the 13th of Elizabeth c. 12. so he read and declare his Assent to all the Articles of Religion which only contain the Confession of the true Christian Faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments comprised in the Book of Articles in the said Statute mentioned And this Declaration had before express'd His Majesty's mindfulness of his Declaration from Bredagh and his saying We publish'd in our Declaration from Bredagh a Liberty to tender Consciences and that no man should be disquieted or call'd in Question for Differences of Opinion in Matters of Religion which do not disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offer'd us for the full granting that Indulgence Here was a Liberty of Conscience granted and publish'd and Heterodoxy about the very Articles of Religion tolerated and a throwing off of Penal Laws and for which Declaration I should have told you that Baker's History p. 703. mentions that the House of Lords order'd Thanks to be given to the Messenger who brought that gracious Declaration A. And yet you say the Declaration October 25. 1660 thus dispensing with disability incurr'd by the Canon and the 13th of Eliz and by Queen Elizabeth's Act of Uniformity was both approved and applauded by the former Parliament I have not heard of the like in the kind of it B. No doubt but the Author there referr'd to the Declaration of Octob. 25. A. 1660. for which the House of Commons so express'd their thanks however by the supposed carelessness of the Printer the Publication is said to be October 8th 1660. For the words by him cited as said by his Majesty viz. Our present Consideration and work is to gratify c. are in that Declaration p. 15. and 16. But if it were not for cloying you with other like Instances I could tell you of the like in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames the First A. I pray speak not of cloying My Patience may be soon surfeited with two or three such things as some call Presidents But this thing call'd Iudgment of Parliament carries with it so much weight as well as Veneration that you can no way more oblige me then by going on to entertain me with Instances of that
Roman Catholick Physicians and Lawyers had incurr'd by his Acts of Parliament I have told you But what if I should now tell you how afterwards he did take care as it were unâ liturâ to delete the Execution of â—…ll the Penal Laws disabling ones and others against the Roman Catholicks and that as to what he did therein the most zealous Protestants among his Bishops and the Lords Temporal and others of his Privy Council did concur with him in so doing A. I think you would tell me of that which was very strange B. As in the Happy future State of England it was with an intent to detect the Degeneracy and Vanity of the Politick and Protestant-would-be's of the Age who pretended to Advance Religion by Excluding the next Heir in p. 219. shewn that one of the general and publick Articles sent by King James the First to his Embassador in Spain in Order to the Match with the Infanta was that the Children of this Marriage shall no way be compell'd or constrain'd in point of Conscience or Religion wherefore there is no doubt that their title shall be prejudiced in case it should please God that they turn'd Catholicks and that it was afterward sent as an additional Article offer'd from England that the King of Great Britain and Prince of Wales should bind themselves by Oath for the Observance of the Articles and that the Privy Council should sign the same under their Hands and that accordingly the Articles were sign'd by Archbishop Abbot John Bishop of Lincoln Keeper of the Great Seal Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord high Treasurer of England Henry Viscount Mandevile Lord President of the Council Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Privy Seal Lewis Duke of Richmond and Lennox Lord high Steward of the Houshold James Marquess of Hamilton James Earl of Carlisle Lancelot Bishop of Winchester Oliver Viscount Grandison Arthur Baron Chichester of Belfast Lord Treasurer of Ireland Sir Thomas Edmonds Knight Treasurer of the Houshold Sir John Suckling Comptroller of the Houshold Sir George Calvert and Sir Edward Conway Principal Secretaries of State Sir Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Julius Caesar Mr. of the Rolls and for the truth of which Facts reference is there made to Mr. Prynne's Introduction to the Archbishop of Canterbury's Trial p. 43 so you may there read it in p. 44. that some private Articles were agreed on and probably were Sworn to by the same Persons that the other general ones were and of which private ones the first was in short That none of the Penal Laws against Roman Catholicks should at any time hereafter be put in Execution But you may thus see it at large viz. That particular Laws made against Roman Catholicks under which other Subjects of our Realms are not comprehended and to whose Observation all generally are not obliged as likewise general Laws under which all are equally Comprised if so be they are such as are repugnant to the Romish Religion shall not at any time hereafter by any means or chance whatsoever directly or indirectly be commanded to be put in Execution against the said Roman-Catholicks And we will cause that our Councel shall take the same Oath as far as it pertains to them and belongs to the Execution which by the hands of them and their Ministers is to be exercised The 2d was That no other Laws shall hereafter be made anew against the said Roman Catholicks but that there shall be a perpetual Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion within Private Houses throughout all our Realms and Dominions which we will have to be understood as well of our Kingdom of Scotland and Ireland as in England c. And the 4th was That we will interpose our Authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favour of the Roman-Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage and that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate the particular Laws made against the said Roman-Catholicks c. And the Conclusion there is viz. That we will interpose our Authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favour of the Roman-Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage and that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate the particular Laws made against the said Roman-Catholicks to whose observance also the rest of our Subjects and Vassals are not obliged as likewise the general Laws under which all are equally comprehended to wit â—…s to the Roman-Catholicks if they be such as is aforesaid which are repugnant to the Roman-Catholick Religion and that hereafter we will not consent that the said Parliament should ever at any time Enact or Write any other new Laws against Roman-Catholicks We accounting all and singular the preceding Articles ratified and accepted out of certain Knowledge as far as they concern us our Heirs or Successors approve ratifie applaud and promise bonâ—… fide and in the word of a King by these Presents inviolably firmly well and faithfully to keep observe and fulfill the same and to cause them to be kept observed and fulfilled without any Exception or Contradiction and do confirm the same by Oath upon the holy Evangelists notwithstanding any Opinions Sentences or Laws whatsoever to the contrary In the presence of the most Illustrious Don John de Mendoza Marquess of Inojosa and Don Charles Coloma Extraordinary Ambassadors of the Catholick King of George Calvert Knight one of our Chief Secretaries of Edward Conway Knight another of our Chief Secretaries of Francis Cottington Baronet of the Privy Councel to our Son the Prince of Francis de Corondelet Apostolical or the Pope's Prothonotary and Arch-Deacon of Cambray Dated at our Palace at Westminster the 20 day of July 1623. in the English style Jacobus Rex A Compared and true Copy George Calvert Chief Secretary The Form of the Oath which the Lords of the Councel took to the former Articles is this which followeth found among the Lord Cottington's Papers Formula Juramenti à Consiliariis Praestandi Ego N. Iuro me debitè plenéque observaturum quantum ad me spectat omnes singulos Articulos qui in tractatu Matrimonii inter Serenissimum Carolum Walliae Principem Serenissimam Dominam Doâ—…nam Mariam Hispaniarum Iâ—…fantem continentur IURO ETIAM Quod neque per me nec per Ministrum aliquem inferiorem mihi inservientem legem ullam contra quemcunque Catholicum Romanum conscriptum executioni mandabo aut mandari faciam Poenamve ullam ab earum aliqua irrogatam exigam Sed in omnibus quae ad me pertinent Ordines à Majestate sua ex ea parte constitutos fideliter observabo Thus far Mr. Prynne who verifies the Facts above-mention'd not only from my Lord Cottington's Papers but from the Mercure Francois Tom. 9. A.
publickly or privately 〈◊〉 he should be lawfully restored and releas'd of his said Suspension But shortly after the beginning of the Reign of the Royal Martyr he was again restored and was afterward again silenced and so continued till August 2. A. 1631. and then he was again restored And Mr. Dod's Life represents his Case as parallel with this before-mention'd He was in King Iames his time suspended and restored and again by the King 's particular Command disabled from Preaching and was by King Charles the First re-ennabled or restored Thus as fortis fortem amat one tender Conscienced man too loves another such and the Executive Power of the Law in re-ennabling after temporary Disability was tenderly administred by these our Princes to these Conscientious Men with respect to their real Capacity of Favour to be shew'd them A. You have here given me a taste en passant of part of the Dispensative Power as exercised in the three Realms during some Conjunctures in the Reign of King Charles the First and for which I thank you and particularly for what you told me of the Act of Parliament dispens'd with in Scotland of which I never heard before and am apt to suppose a thing of that Nature was never done before in that Realm B. I can assure you to those who know the Publick Transactions of that Kingdom the thing will not in the least seem new I can tell you that on the 26th of November A. 1593. King Iames the 6th of Scotland made an Act of State in favour of three Roman-Catholick Earls Huntly Arroll and Angus by which Act he allow'd them several Priviledges contrary to Acts of Parliament made against Roman-Catholicks And His Majesty in his Act of State expresly dispenseth with those Acts of Parliament and which Dispensation tho Queen Elizabeth importuned him to revoke and for that purpose sent the Lord Zouch as her Embassador to him he still adhered to the Act of State he had made and continued his Dispensation A. Have you this Matter of Fact out of any of the Records in England or Scotland B. I have it out of the Original Papers under the hand of Queen Elizabeth and her great Minister Burghly and the Original Instructions of the Lord Zouch when sent by her to expostulate with the King about it that were lately in my Custody and by me sent to our gracious Sovereign and I shall some other time give you a more particular account of that Dispensation A. But I beseech you did not the Protestant Divines of the Church of Scotland then cry out of the unlawfulness or inexpedience of that Dispensation B. I have read it in a learned Book of Dr. Maxwell a Scotch-man Printed A. 1644. and who was then Bishop of Killally in Ireland and had formerly been Bishop of Rosse that Mr. Robert Bruce one of the Ministers of Edenburgh and who had a great sway in the Church of Scotland was pleas'd with the King 's extending his Favour to Angus and Arroll but out of a factious Complyance with the Earl of Arguile was displeas'd at its being shewn to Huntly But that Loyal Bishop there acquiesceth in the reason of State that inclined the King to Pardon the three Earls and his thereby hindering the growth of Faction in Scotland and providing for his more easie and secure access to the Throne of England on the Death of Queen Elizabeth And so you may easily guess what sort of men in Scotland look'd with an evil eye on that Act of the Royal goodness and who did not The Bishop there had applauded the great depth of the King's Wisdom and his transcendent Goodness in the Pardoning the three Earls and mention'd that there was nothing of Religion in the Case of Bruce's Aversion against the Pardon of Huntly for that Angus and Arroll were as bigot Papists if not more then Huntly I can likewise direct you to my Lord Primate Bramhal's celebrated Book call'd A Fair warning to take heed of the Scotish Discipline where in Chap. 6. thus entituled viz. That it robs the Magistrate of his Dispensative Power he saith by way of instance When the Popish Earls of Angus Huntly and Arroll were excommunicated by the Church and forfeited for Treasonable Practices against the King it is admirable to read with what Wisdom Charity and Sweetness his Majesty did seek from time to time to reclaim them from their Errors c. and on the other side to see with what bitterness and radicated Malice they were prosecuted by the Presbyteries and their Commissioners c. sometimes threatning that they were resolv'd to pursue them to the uttermost tho it should be with the loss of all their Lives in one day c. sometimes pressing to have their Estates confiscated c. He refers there in his Margin to Ass. Edinb 1594. But any one who shall consult D'Ossat's Letters and there in the Second Book carefully read over the 37th Letter that was writ to Villeroy in the year 1596 and three years after the Date of King Iames his Act of State and observe what that great Sagacious Cardinal there refers to concerning the Circumstances of those three Earls and how all the Prudence that could be shewn by man was but little enough for the Conduct of that King in that Conjuncture in order to his removing what Impediments either from Rome or Spain or his Native Country might obstruct his Succession to the Crown of England will not wonder at his having dispens'd and continued his Dispensation as aforesaid A. I have not yet ask'd you whether the Divines of the Church of England did not lift up their voices like a Trumpet against the Dispensative Power thus exercised by their Prince as you have mention'd B. They discharged their Duties in Preaching occasionally against all growing Errors but they wanted none to mind them of the Saying Impium esse qui Regi dixerit Inique agis The Pious and Learned Author of Certain Considerations tending to Peace c. mentions how the Bishop of St. Davids in King Iames's Reign A. 1604. did in a set Speech in Convocation shew that Ministers were not in the late Archbishop's time disabled from their Ministry on the Account of Non-conformity to the Ceremonies by Law enjoyn'd and concluded his Speech with the motion of Petitioning the King That if the removal of some of the Ceremonies enjoyn'd could not be obtain'd nor yet a Coleration for them of more stay'd and temperate Carriage yet at least there might be procured a mitigation of the Penalty c. And as the Suspension or Disabling of Hildersham and Dod from their Ministerial Functions so the Restoring of them to the same without all such things done by them as the strictness of the Lawes required was in both those Princes Reigns executed by the Bishops Nor do I remember to have read of any Divine of the Church of England to have in the least look'd with an evil eye on the goodness of the
in that particular when the same tyranny was exercised there by the Power of a few ill men which at that time had spread it self over this Kingdom and therefore we had no reason to expect that we should at this season when we are doing all we can to wipe cut the memor of all that hath been done amiss by other men and we thank God have wiped it out of our own Remembrance have been our self assaulted with those rep oaches which we will likewise forget And it was goodness worthy the great Soul of a King to forget the Outrages of such who did strip their Political Father of his Power and then reproach him with his nakedness I may here likewise tell you and not mal a propos how much the patience and long-suffering of the same Prince was exercised in a late Conjuncture that so much eclipsed his Prerogative in the Case of the Earl of Danby's Pardon and when the Commons did set up against it somewhat in his Father's Answer to the 19 Propositions before mention'd that nothing but the tempest of the Age in the Parliament of 40 could have occasion'd viz. Since therefore the Power legally placed in both Houses of Parliament is more then sufficient to restrain the Power of Tyranny c. But because a Parliament so perpetuated as that was did prove more then sufficient to restrain pretended Tyranny and real just Government will a considerate man say any such thing now when the breath of Prerogative can dissolve them in a moment and in that moment all their thoughts perish and all the high-flying thoughts that would soare above Imperial Power be found dead in the Nest And I may here tell you that in the Answer of some Nonconformists to Dr. Stillingfleet's Sermon an Answer Printed in London in the year 1680. during the ferment about the Plot and wherein they desire Indulgence I think their attacquing the Service on the Gun-Powder Treason Plot in thanking God for Preserving the King and the Three Estates of the Realm assembled by saying That the late King made no scruple in his Answer to the 19 Propositions to reckon himself one of the three Estates was a thing that on recollection they will judge ought not to have been done But I am here further to tell you that though it may be consistent with our Oath in some such case as was mention'd to endeavour the altering by the Legislative Power some uncontroverted Privileges of the Crown and in such a way as I have mention'd I likewise wish you in your thoughts to make a distinction of those Privileges or Preheminences belonging to the Crown that are absolutely Essential to its Preservation and to that of the whole Realm and which are by God and the Law put as a Depositum into the hands of Kings and the removing of one of which would have the effect of taking a Stone out of an Arched Building and such as no Sovereign Princes can be without and such as our Princes have in their flourishing Reigns to the great content and happiness of their People always exercised and Rights as the late Earl of Shaftsbury said of that of the Flagg that our Princes cannot part with and Privileges that are not such and two of which former sort of Privileges and which are parts of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I account we are expresly in the Promissory Clause of that Oath Sworn to defend and assist namely of the lineal Succession to the Crown and of the King's Prerogative and of which Prerogative we have this Description in Blount's Law-Dictionary That the Prerogative of the King is generally that Power Preheminence or PRIVILEGE which the King hath over and above other Persons and above the ordinary Course of the Law in the Right of his Crown And then adds Potest Rex ei lege suae dignitatis condonare si velit etiam mortem promeritam LL. Edw. Confess cap. 18. and then saith that Spelman calls it the Lâ—…x Regiae dignitatis The Author of the Law-Dictionary had there his eye on the Law of Edward the Confessor where under the title of Misericordia Regis Pardonatio it is declared that si quispiam forisfactus which the Margin interprets rei Capitalis Reus poposcerit Regiam misericordiam pro forisfacto suo timidus mortis vel membrorum perdendorum potest Rex ei lege suae dignitatis condonare si velit etiam mortem promeritam ipse tamen malefactor rectum faciat in â—…quantumcunque poterit quibus forisfecit tradat fidejussores de pace legalitate tenenda si vero fidejussores defecerint exula bitur à Patria And I remember there is a famous Act relating to the old Privileges and Prerogatives of the Crown and to their resumption by the Crown viz. The Act of 27. H. 8. c. 24. call'd The Recontinuing of certain Liberties taken from the Crown and it begins with saying that whereas divers of the most ancient Prerogatives and Authorities of Iustice appertaining to the Imperial Crown of this Realm have been severed and taken from the same by sundry Gifts of the King 's most Noble Progenitors to the great diminution and detriment of the Royal Estate of the same and to the hinderance and great delay of Iustice and thereupon saith for Reformation whereof be it Enacted by Authority of this present Parliament that no Person or Persons c. shall have any Power or Authority to pardon or remit any Treasons Murders Man-slaughters or any kinds of Felonies nor any Accessaries to any Treasons Murders c. or any Out-laries for any such Offences aforesaid committed perpetrated done or hereafter to be committed done or divulged by or against any Person in any part of this Realm c. but that the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors shall have the whole and sole Power and Authority thereof united and knit to the Imperial Crown of this Realm as of good RIGHT and Equity it appertaineth c. and then orders all Writs in a County Palatine to be made in the King's Name c. That Statute doth give you a Prospect of great variety and use in order to the Settlement of your thoughts about some things in your Oath You there see the Natural recourse of the Royal Rivers of Prerogative to the Ocean from whence they came and when you there find that the Crown could communicate to Subjects the exercise of the Prerogative of Pardoning Murder however restrain'd by ACT of Parliament and all the dreadful Disabilities incurr'd by Out-laries for Felony and Treason you are not to wonder at any ones telling you that the King himself hath the Privilege of Pardoning a Disability incurr'd by Law for Heterodoxy in Religion and especially when you shall see the whole and sole Power of Pardoning the same united and knit to the Imperial Crown of this Realm as of GOOD RIGHT and EQUITT appertaineth And according to those words in your Oath about your defending all the
Disability of a whole third estate as to bearing secular Offices did not stand in the way of Prerogative I have read it in Fuller's Church-History that in the year 1350. the Lords and Commons in Parliament did find themselves aggrieved that the Clergy-men engrossed all secular Offices and thereupon presented the ensuing Petition to the King according to this effect insisting only in the substance thereof viz. And because that in this present Parliament it was declared to our Lord the King by all the Earls Barons and Commons of England that the Government of the Kingdâ—…m hath been performed a long time by the Men of Holy Church which are not justifyable in all Cases whereby great mischiefs and damages have happen'd in times past and more may happen in time to come in disheriting of the Crown and great prejudice of the Kingdom c. that it will please our said Lord the King that the Lay-men of the said Kingdom which are sufficient and able of Estates may be chosen for these and that no other Person be hereafter made Chancellor Treasurer Clark of the Privy-Seal Barons of the Exchequer Chamberlain of the Exchequer Comptroller and all other great Officers and Governors of the said Kingdom and that these things be now in such manner establish'd in form aforesaid that by no way it may be defeated or any thing done to the contrary in any time to come saving to our Lord the King the Election and removing of such Officers but that always they be Lay-men such as is abovesaid To this Petition the King return'd that he would ordain upon this point as it should best seem to him by the advice of his good Council In fine you see that tho the Clergy-men were thus disabled by the general Customs and Usage of the Realm and by lawful Canons and provincial Constitutions accounted by that Iudge beforemention'd to be tanta-mount to Acts of Parliament yet you â—…ee our Kings did frequently dispense with these Customs lawful Canons and Constitutions And tho the Office of Bishops renders them guardians of the Canons yet you see how tender they have been of the Regal power of Dispensing therein And as that saying of Wicliffe however censured in the Council of Constance may perhaps with a little help be reduced to Orthodoxy viz. That â—…ne should be Excommunicated by any Prelate unless he know him Excommunicated by God so with parity of reason it may be said that none should be totally disabled by any Prince from serving him unless he knew him really disabled by God and especially when he knew the contrary and that the Services of the great men of the Clergy had so often been successfully employ'd at the Helm of State and when for the honour of Clergy-mens Councel some of the most profound pieces of State-Policy our English Story hath in it are to be attributed to Clergy-mens officiating in their Princes Councels and as for Example when by the figure that Bishop Morton made at the Helm he did make up the dismal breach and united the two Houses of York and Lancaster in the Happy Marriage between Henry the 7th and the Lady Elizabeth aâ—… when Bishop Fox who was Lord Privy Seal did by his Advice lay the Foundation of a more happy Union between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland by the eldest Daughter of Henâ—…y marrying Iames of Scotland and the younger matching into France that so on their ever coming to inherit Scotland might be annex'd to the Imperial Crown of England and England not be annex'd as a Province to France and for the Consequences of which Advice both Englishmen and English and French Protestants have so much cause to say We Praise thee O God c. And I am here minded of what Fuller tells us on A. 14. H. 4. viz. It was moved in Parliament that no Weishman Bishop or other shall be Iustice Chamberlain Chancellor Treasurer Sheriff Constable of a a Castle or Keeper of Records or Lieutenant in the said Office in any part of Wales or of Councel to any English Lord notwithstanding any Patent made to the contrary Cum clausulâ non obstante licet Wallicus natus and that it was answered that the King willeth it except the Bishops and for them and others which he hath found good loyal Lieges toward him out said Lord the King will be advised by the Advice of his Councel Ex Rot. Parliamentariis in turri Lond. in hoc Anno which Citation Fuller professeth to be taken out of the Authentick Records in the Tower. There passed an Act of Parliament in the 4th year of Henry the 4th by which it is Enacted That no Welshman shall be Iustice Chamberlain Sheriff Coroner nor other Officer in any part of Wales notwithstanding any Patent to the contrary with the Clause of Non-obstante and yet without Question saith my Lord Coke 12th Rep. the King might dispense with this Statute but you see how on the Parliaments resenting the Dispensations the Act had met with and particularly in Bishops having contrary to the tenor of the Act served the Crown in Secular Employments the King particularly adhered to the exercise of his Dispensative Power in their Case It was upon the ground of this Assertion viz. Of the Crown 's being entitled to Command the Services of all Subjects that some Papists were employ'd by Queen Elizabeth in Affairs of the State notwithstanding any disability incurr'd by not taking the Oath of Supremacy And Viscount Montacute tho a Roman Catholick was as Cambden tells you sent by her as her Embassadour to the King of Spain and employ'd too about the Business of the Scots and to do right to the Protestant Religion Sir Edward Carne likewise a Roman Catholick was sent by her as her Embassador to the Pope And as to the sense of many of that Queen's most renowned Ministers of State about the Deprivation of the Nonconformist Divines disabled eo Nomine from their Ministry being Penal to the People the Author of certain Considerations tending to promote peace and good will among Protestants hath mention'd it that Eight of that Queens Privy Councellors writ a Letter in their favour to the Bishops of Canterbury and London in the close whereof 't is said viz. Now therefore we for the Discharge of our Duties being by our Vocation under her Majesty bound to be careful that the Universal Realm may be well govern'd according to the Honor and Glory of God and to the discharge of her Majesty being the Principal GOVERNOR of ALL her SUBIECTS under Almighty God do most earnestly desire your Lordships to take some charitable Considerations of these Causes that the PEOPLE of THIS Realm may not be DEPRIVED of their Pastors being Diligent Learned and Zealous tho in some Points Ceremonial they may seem doubtful only of Conscience and not of wilfulness c. Tour Lordships loving Friends William Burghly George Shrewsbury A. â—…rwick R. Leicâ—…ster C. Howard J. Crofts Chr. Hatton
while or since that Statute of the 25th of his Reign committed the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to Lay-men did or might give occasion to some Evil-dispos'd persons to think and little regard the Proceedings and Censures Ecclesiastical made by his HIGHNESSE and his Uice-gerent Officials Commissaries Iudges and Uisitors being also Lay and Married men to be of little or none effect whereby the people gathereth heart and presumption to do evil and not to have such reverence to your most Godly Injunctions and Proceedings as becometh them c. So I leave it to you to consider how the disabling of any subjects by reason of Religionary Heterodoxy to serve their Prince did or might give occasion to some evil-disposed Persons to attempt the disabling of their Prince on the same account as I bâ—…fore hinted it to you and as the popular incogitancy of the Power given by God extending to all such Persons as should be employâ—…d under the King producing the irreverence of their surmises of the incapacity of the Officials and Visitors employ'd by the Vicegerent and consequently of the incapacity of the Vicegerent himself did naturally terminate in their gathering heart and presumption to do evil and to surmise the King 's being disabled to exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and to do that which was directly repugnant to his Majesty as Supreme Head of the Church and to his Prerogative Royal his Grace being a Lay-man how you ought still to preserve a tenderness in your thoughts for that Prerogative Royal given him by God's Word of Commanding the Services of all his Subjects by what Laws or Constitutions soever de facto incapacitated And by the gradual Proceedings I have now mention'd you ought with horror to think of the incapacitating any one Subject to serve his Prince as of the first step from a Precipice A. You have provided variety of Entertainment for my Consideration and have my thanks for it But suppose I should be so Curious and Inquisitive as to ask where in God's Word that Power is given to Princes to employ such Persons as they shall think fit in their service according to the purport of that Statute B. You may likewise suppose that you would then find my Genius so inquisitive as to ask you where you have been at Church of late years For you could then go to no Church in England Scotland or Ireland without hearing St. Paul's Omnis anima spoken of Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers whether he be Apostle or Evangelist Prophet Priest Clergy or Layety whether he be of the People diffusive or representative and the like And as the well-drawn Effigies of a man seems to look on every one in the Room so hath the Picture of the Regal Power drawn by the Divines of the Church of England appear'd to cast its Eye on every one and been made as it were Vocal and saying to every one For he is the Minister of God to thee for good And the good old Book call'd God and the King that you have read over and over hath told you that the Bond of the King's Subjects Obedience to his Majesty is inviolable and cannot be dissolv'd And indeed the thing being so plain by the Law of Nature which being written in man's heart is the very same so far forth as it is yet undefaced with the Law of God reveal'd in the Word it is not tanti to raise Moot-Points about this relating to Scripture I doubt not but you remember it in my Lord Herbert's Harry the 8th that there being a Rebellion of many of the Commonalty A. 1536. and the Rebels sending the King their Grievances and one whereof was That his Grace had ill Councellors and of mean Birth among which Cromwel was not forgotten and the King sending an Answer penn'd by himself as to their Grievances he did therein upbraid them for medling in the choice of his Counsellors and command their acquiescence therein on the grounds of Nature and of his being their Natural Liege-lord A. Well Sir Let it for the present pass as a datum or concessum as you will have it that the Obedience of Subjects in serving their Prince is founded on the grounds both of Nature and Scripture And I shall moreover allow it to you that if you had an Enthusiast to deal with and such who as you said do outrage the 13th of the Romans out of the Apocalypse you might out of Brightman's Revelation of the Apocalypse shew him out of that part of Holy Scripture sufficient Authority for the King 's particularly making Cromwel his Vicegerent For he there on the 14th Chapter and the 17th and following Verses saith This Angel is Thomas Cromwel who lived in the days of Harry the 8th that most mighty King and was a man of great renown and place in our Kingdoms being the Earl of Essex and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal who came out of the Temple and being a sincere favourer of pure Religion He had a Sickle in his hand being made the King's Deputy in all Ecclesiastical Matters and it was a sharp one as with which he sets stoutly and deliberately to his work and yet he had no Crown or Diadem to grace his head withal being a Minister rather to put another Man's Power in Ure then any that wrought by his own Power and Authority And he on Verse the 18th makes the other Angel to be a Martyr viz. Tho. Cranmer and refers the meaning of the words He cryed with a great voice to him that had the Sickle to Cranmer because saith he in the days of Harry the 8th he inflamed the mind of Tho. Cromwel by his words with a desire to make a Vintage B. I thank you for diverting me with that passage of Brightman but I can refer you to another Writer of our Church whose Authority will go further with us then Brightman's and who hath recorded it that the great figure that Cromwel made both in the Church and State and his and Cranmer's acting together in concert and by joynt Councels both in Church and at the Helm of State was so highly fortunate to the Reformation You may find this observed by Archbishop Parker in his De Antiquitate Ecclesiâ—… Britannicoe p. 530. where he saith Namque profligato Papa susceptâ Ecclesioe Anglicanoe defensione curâ tutelâ Rex excelsiâ—…ing â—…ii multarum rerum usu peritum Thomam Cromwellum Vicarium suum in spiritualibus generalem designavit Hic cum Thoma Cranmero Archiepiscopo tanquam in puppi sedit clavumque Ecclesioe Anglicanoe tenuit proramque à papali littore avertit in Christianum portum reduxit A. Was Vicar-general to the King in Spirituals Cromwel's style for his Office as the Archbishop there termed it B. I am apt to think it was not I never saw any Copy of his Patent or Commission for it The Acts of Parliament in H. the 8â—…h's time style him The King's Vicegerent c. And
them had been by those Clergymen and Laymen prepared for his Royal Consideration and been by him establish'd he there declares his Power of so doing to be pursuant to his Supreme Headship of the Church of England recogniz'd quemadmodum divini atque humani juris tatio postulat and mentions the Power granted to him and his Ancestors ipso jure divino as recognized and applies to himself the words Sapientioe cap. 7. Audite Reges intelligite quoniam data est a Domino potestas vobis c. and founding his Power of making Ecclesiastical Laws on that jus Divinum he saith En vobis authoritate nostra editas leges damus c. And here I shall tell you that as my Lord Coke in Cawdry's Case calls the Act of the 24th of H. 8. beforemention'd An Act declaratory of the Ancient Law so he likewise doth the Act of the 25th of his Reign c. 21. that so much props up the Dispensative Power And I assure you that they look but at a few things in general and in that Statute in particular who think that the Dispensative Power inherent in the King lost any ground thereby and he who takes the Statute altogether will find that that Power if it seem'd in any words to go back from it self was but by such retreat to leap the further forward For if you will take a glancing view of the intent of that Statute to that end you will see that instead of that Law making it self to be the Fountain of the Dispensative Power it makes the Dispensative Power to be the very Fountain of a great part of the Common Law it self for its style gives you the figure of our Laws as either devised made and obtain'd within this Realm for the wealth of the same or such as by SUFFERANCE of your Grace and your Progenitors which is a Dispensation by way of Permission or Connivence the People of this your Realm have taken at their free Liberty by their own Consent to be used among them and have bound themselves by long use and Custom to the observance of the same c. And the King in his Legislative Capacity having with the consent of the three Estates superseded the Pope's Dispensative Power that had so long Usurp'd on the King's Laws and having provided that the Money that should be paid as Fees for Dispensations should be rais'd and moderated by their Consent obtain'd from them a Clause in the Act containing so great a deference to the Dispensative Power of the Crown as that after the Act had authorized the Archbishop of Canterbury and his Successors to grant such Dispensations Licences and Faculties as were accustomed to be had from the See of Rome and not grant any others till the King his Heirs and Successors or their Councel were first advertised thereof and determined whether they should pass It Provided that if it were thought and determin'd by the King his Heirs and Successors or their Councel that Dispensations Faculties Licences or other Writings in any such Case UNWONT shall pass that then the said Archbishop or his Commissary having Licence of His Majesty his Heirs and Successors for the same shall dispense with them accordingly and in Case of his refusing to dispense that any other two Bishops the King his Heirs and Successors should nominate should be appointed to dispense in such Cases And this Act with all the Clauses in it you find reviv'd by the 1st of Elizabeth c. 1. The Pope's rehabilitations did customarily extend to Lay-men as well as Clergy-men and that particularly in case of Heterodoxy in Religion then call'd Heresy which both by ancient usage and Acts of Parliament loaded men with various incapacities And his relaxing the incapacities that relate to Clergy-men any one may see by the Taxa Cameroe and the Fees thereby payable viz. in the Age of those who were to take Orders and were defective in some of their Members and in the Case of Clergy-mens incapacity incurr'd by irregularity But after this Act of the 25. of H. the 8th had shew'd the World the Authority the King had to rehabilitate and dispense here in his own Country both as to matters customarily dispens'd with at Rome and such as were not so and how small the Fees were for the same the bringing rehabilitations and Perinde valere's from Rome to England was like carrying Coals to New-Castle A. I was not satisfy'd with your extending the King's Power of Dispensing here as far as the Pope's reach'd and it seems you extend it further I hope you intend not to bring in here the Tax of the Apostolical Chancery and which Mr. Crashaw translating into English in the year 1625. call'd it The Rates of the Pope's Custom-house and wherein are contain'd Indulgences for Sins past present and to come and such a kind of Pardoning Power as in The historical Narration of the first Fourteen years of King James appear'd to that King so scandalous in the Case of the Draught of the Earl of Somerset's Pardon and in which Sir Robert Cotton having been desired by the Earl to find out the largest Pardon that former Presidents could shew brought him one that was made by the Pope to Cardinal Wolsey and by a fac simile after which the Draught of the Earls ran for Pardoning all manner of Felonies and Treasons committed and to be committed B. Premising to you that the Christian offices do more call on you to mind what Sins you dispense with in your self then what the Pope dispenseth with in others and that this present Pope hath spoil'd the Trade of raillery about Indulgences by spoiling the Trade of them and damning so great a number of them and that in his vast Supplies of Money toward the taking of Buda the Souls in Purgatory contributed nothing and that Sir Paul Ricaut in the Life of this Pope having done right to his Vertue in mentioning his having suppress'd an Office of the Virgin Mary and a multitude of Indulgences hath further judiciously observ'd That Wisemen at the Councel of Trent finding that the Doctrine of Indulgences was not solid did but slightly touch it and tho yet it was the CHIEF matter for which that Councel was assembled nothing was determin'd therein but only that Indulgences be used with such Moderation as was approved by the Ancient Custom of the Church that is not at all I say premising all this I shall mind you that I have said enough already to let you see that it is only the ancient Dispensative Iurisdiction of the Crown that I direct you to prop up and more particularly with respect to the Case before you While we are considering the Obligation of an Oath it were pity that the thoughts of either of us should be embarras'd with Moot-points and so without troubling you with a reference to More f. 463. where all the Power of the Pope is not given to the King by the 25th of H. the 8th but is extinct Hallywel ' s
confirm being firmum facere i. e. what was not so before you are not to think that the Parliament in 13 o Eliz. did so They Enacted what was by the Queen before authorized and as the words there are about the Articles viz. Put forth by the Queen's Authority And you may too for this purpose Consult the style of the Act 23 o Eliz. c. 1. Entituled An Act for retaining the Queen's Subjects in their due Obedience and where 't is made Treason for any to withdraw any Subjects from their Natural Obedience to her Majesty or to withdraw them for that intent from the Religion now by her Highness Authority establishâ—…d within her Dominions Thus too as to the Queen's disabling several of the Roman-Catholick Bishops and Deans by her Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the beginning of her Reign pursuant to the Act of 1 o Eliz. c. 1. for restoring to the Crown the Ancient Iurisdiction the Act of Parliament 35 o Eliz. c. 8. entituled Every Deprivation of any Bishop or Dean made in the beginning of the Queen's Reign shall be good and Archbishops Bishops and Deans made by the Queen shall be adjudged lawful begins with acknowledging that the former were justly deprived and it is therefore Declared and Enacted by Authority of this Parliament that all and every Deprivation c. and all and every Sentence of Deprivation c. had pronounced and given c. shall be adjudged deem'd and taken good and sufficient in Law c. and as to the latter viz. That all such Archbishops Bishops and Deans as were ordain'd or made by the Authority or Licence of the Queen's Majesty c. shall be taken and adjudged to be lawful c. Thâ—…y confirmed not what the Queen did in disabling the former and enabling the latter but only declared and enacted the validity of what the Queen had done And here you have again the Judgment of Parliament for approving the Queen's Power of Enabling and Disabling And here too by the way I am to tell you that you have another judgment of Parliament suitable to that in 8 o Eliz. and for the adjudging and taking to be Lawful the making and ordaining of the Archbishops and Bishops by the Authority or Licence of the Queen's Majesty c. any ambiguity or question in that behalf heretofore made to the contrary notwithstanding and which QUESTION before made in the Case I have before shew'd to be disability A. But I suppose you have read of that TWO-FOLD Subscription my Lord Coke speaks of represented as a Gravamen by some B. I have so and the last Book I read that so represents it is the Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet ' s Sermon by some Non-Conformists c. Printed A. 1680. and where in p. 29. they thus express their desires viz. That all New devised Oaths Subscriptions and Declarations together with the Canonical Oath and the Subscription in the Canons be suspended for the time to come If that be too much we shall consent our selves with a modester motion that whatsoever these Declarations be that are required to be made subscribed or sworn they may be imposed only as to the matter and end leaving the takers but free to the use of their own Expressions And this expedient we gather from the Lord Coke who hath providently as it were against such a Season laid in this Observation The form of the Subscription set down in the Canons ratify'd by King Iames was not express'd in the Act of the 13th of Eliz. 4. Inst. c. 74. And consequently if the Clergy enjoy'd this freedom till then in reference to the particulars therein contain'd what binders why they might not have the same restored in reference also to others It was the second Article enjoyn'd by that Canon to be subscribed viz. That the Book of Common-Prayer c. containeth in it nothing contrary to the Word of God and that it may lawfully be used c. at which they took so much offence and to which the Act of Parliament required not their Subscription A. I perceive then my Lord Coke doth not reflect on the form of Subscription as enjoyn'd by the 36th Canon of King Iames and by his Regal Authority out of Parliament as illegal notwithstanding what had been enacted in the 13th of Queen Elizabeth B. He doth not And he there further faith By the Statute of 13. Eliz. the Delinquent is disabled and deprived ipso facto but the Delinquent against the Canon of King James is to be proceeded withall by the Censures of the Church And I heard Wray Chief Iustice in the King's Bench Pasch. 23. El. report That where one Smith subscribed to the said 39 Articles of Religion with this addition so far forth as the same were agreeable to the Word oâ—… God that it was resolv'd by him and aâ—…l the Iudges of England that this Subscription was not according to the Statute of 13. Eliz. because this Statute required an absolute Subscription c. Besides this Subscription when any Clerk is admitted and instituted to any Benefice he is sworn to Canonical Obedience to his Diâ—…cesan But as to his saying that the Delinquent against this Canon is to be proceeded withall by the Censures of the Church I shall observe that the beginning of the Canon doth incapacitate any to be receiv'd into the Ministry who doth not subscribe the three Articles in it and that the Canon doth afterward put some temporary Disabilities on Bishops who shall Ordain Admit or License any one except he first have subscribed in manner and form there appointed and it is the Universities if offending that the Canon leaves to the Danger of the Law and His Majesty's Censure Here then you see King Iames the First did out of Parliament add a new Subscription to what was required by the Act of Parliament and did likewise out of Parliament make incapacity to be the Punishment of refusing such new Subscription And I need not tell you that that Power so exercised by that Prince out of Parliament hath been approved not only by all the Bishops of the Church of England as putting the Form of Subscription required by that Canon in execution ever since and to this day in lieu of the form required by the 13th of Eliz. but as I may say virtually and tacitly by all our Kings and Parliaments ever since who have acquiesced in the same But what if I should tell you that the Authority of the King in thus making that Canon about Subscription hath been since expresly approved in Parliament A. I should be most ready to hear it B. You may therefore please to consult the Act for Uniformity 16 o Car. 2. and in the latter end of it you will see that in a Proviso referring to the 39 Articles as agreed on by the Archbishops c. A. 1562. and particularly to the 36th therein about the Book of Consecration of Archbishops c. set forth in the time of Edward the 6th as
1624. p. 25 26 27. and on which Author he in p. 47. bestows the Character of one of the truest Historians of this latter Age and whom Mr. Prynne had before in p. 40. cited for the truth of the general Articles referring to Tom 9. p. 11. and 28. And I shall here observe to you that what Mr. Prynne hath set down as aforesaid to be the Form of the Oath took by the Lords of the Councel to the former Articles doth appear to be referr'd by him to both sorts of Articles viz. both the general and the private ones For tho toward the end of the general Articles it appear'd only that the King and Prince were to be Sworn that all the Privy Councellors should sign those Articles under their hands and that the King Subscribed those Articles and was sworn to them in the presence of those Bishops and other Privy Councellors before named yet the first of the private Articles agreeing that the Councel should take the Oath as far as pertain'd to them and belong'd to the Execution which by the hands of them and their Ministers is to be exercised that the Penal Laws should not be executed against Roman-Catholicks I account it appears according to Mr. Prynne that the Privy Councellors were Sworn to both Articles together and that by the words of IURO ETIAM c. the private Articles were referr'd to and the which will appear the more manifest if you consider that the general Articles had not one word therein for the tolerating of more Papists then those of the Infanta's Family and such who particularly belong'd to her Nor was there any thing more as to the Privy Councellors agreed to in the general Articles then their signing them And both the general and private Articles bearing the same Date it may be the rather supposed that pursuant to the first private Article containing the King's Covenant for the Privy Councel's being sworn to them that the Bishops and the other Privy Councellors might then be sworn to them as well as their having then particularly signed or subscribed the general Articles appears for so Mr. Prynne's words are p. 44. The King and the Embassadors went to the Councel-Chamber where all the Lords of the Councel seal'd and subscribed the general Articles of the Marriage c. A. But I account you are not ignorant how much it hath been observ'd that Mr. Prynne who was so voluminous a Writer did too much take his Quotations on trust and that therefore what he had as out of the Mercure Francois might not be rightly cited B. Admitting that Mr. Prynne being so infinite in his Quotations might often erre that way I shall tell you that I engaging a Learned Man of the University of Oxford to consult Mr. Prynne's Quotations out of the Mercure of which the Tomes are in the Bodleian Library he return'd me word that they exactly agreed with the Author in the places cited by Mr. Prynne A. But one would scarce think that Archbishop Abbot should swear to these private Articles for there went about a Letter of his in that Conjuncture by the warm name of his Remonstrance to His Majesty against the Match and the toleration of the Roman-Catholicks B. I grant that there did and Mr. Prynne in p. 39. and 40. sets down the Letter and he calls it A Remonstrance and the Archbishop is there brought in saying thus viz. This Toleration which you endeavour to sâ—…t up by your Proclamation cannot be done without an Act of Parliament c. But Heylin in his History of the Presbyterians represents this as a Sham-Letter and put upon the Archbishop and saith that the Archbishop could not be so ill a Statesman having been long a Privy Councellor as not to know that he who sits at Helm must steer his Course according to Wind and Weather and that there was a great difference between such Personal Indulgences as the King had granted in the Case to his Popish Subjects and any such Publick exercise of their Superstitions as the word Toleration doth import And so he giveth Judgment that Abbot was only the reputed Author of this Bastard Letter and not the natural Parent of it In the various Editions of this Letter I have observ'd no date to it and it is in that Book of Mr. Prynne before his mention of the general or private Articles and before the Match was resolv'd on by the King. And if notwithstanding that Letter the Archbishop was afterward Sworn to the Articles his altering his judgment on grounds of Reason was both commendable and exemplary and worthy of that mutual Confidence between the King and him and the other Bishops in the Councel and his Privy Councel in general and which was such that in a lawful Matter the King could stipulate for their Obedience in the first private Article as was before mention'd A. Your having shew'd me out of the Copy of the Publick Instruments found by Mr. Prynne among my Lord Cottington's Papers what concerns the Toleration hath given me much satisfaction in the truth of that Fact. For otherwise what a late Book writ for The King 's Right in dispensing with the Penal Laws directed me to in Rushworth of The Declaration touching the Pardons Suspensions and Dispensations of the Roman-Catholicks sign'd by the Lord Conway and others Aug. the 7th A. 1623. would have left the Matter to me full of doubt and mystery But I see by those Copies of Articles found among the Papers of my Lord Cottington the Toleration of Papists had been reverâ about a Fortnight before the date of that Paper sworn to by all the Privy Councellors of King Iames. And tho King Charles the First did fall as a Martyr for the Protestant Religion and was a Confessor of it in Spain as Archbishop Laud sets forth in his Star-Chamber Speech and as likewise the Earl of Bristol shews in his Learned and Loyal Apology Printed A. 1657. which if you have not read is highly worth your most serious perusal and where having spoke of the Papal Dispensation for the Marriage on the Articles formerly agreed on in point of Religion and of the Civil Letters that passed between that King then Prince and the Pope he said that those Letters were Publish'd and Translated into several Languages referring there I suppose to the Mercure Francois which tho he could not say corruptly yet strained as much as might be to his disadvantage and that it is probable that the like Letters of Compliance mâ—… have been procured in the Treaty of the Match with France wherein the Pope's Dispensation was likewise held necessary yet I shall tell you that Mr. Prynne in p. 46 47. after he had mention'd the Oath taken by the Privy Councellors saith His Majesty call'd an Assembly of Divines to Consult with what he ought to do for the discharge of his Conscâ—…ence in this regard and their Resolution was first that the Prince of Wales should promise on â—…is Oath
to perform the Conditions and that the King his Father should do the like Secondly That the Promises of Marriage should be presently made c. but that the Consummation of the Marriage should not at all be executed till the Month of May in the following year 1624. to the end that they might experimentâ—…lly see if the aforesaid Conditions required by his Holiness should be faithfully accomplish'd c. As to the first the Prince of Wales took an Oath to His Majesty to observe the foresaid Conditions and sign'd them with his Hand and he likewise swore and sign'd this by way of Over-plus to permit at all times that Any should freely propose to him the Arguments of the Catholick-Religion without giving any impediment and that he would never directly nor indirectly permit any to speak to the Infanta against the same But I shall here en passant observe to you out of the general Articles namely that in the 16th Article notwithstanding my Lord Coke's Opinion before-mention'd that a new Oath cannot be introduced nor an old one alter'd but by Act of Parliament there is a new Oath of fealty agreed to by the King to be tender'd both to Foreigners and Subjects of England who were to serve the Infanta and care taken that no Clause or word therein shall contradict the Roman Religion or Consciences of the Roman-Catholicks and that by the 24th Article for the Security that every thing that was agreed to should be fulfill'd the King and Prince were to be bound by Oath that all the Privy Councellors should sign the Agreement And I need not tell you that their being sworn to the private Articles was a new Oath A. Was nothing of the King's mind about the Suspending ALL the Penal Laws both the disabling ones and others against the Papists notify'd to his Privy Councel before the year 1623 B. Mr. Prynne there in p. 30. saith that for the hastening the Pope's Dispensation for the Match King James as the French Mercure Tom. 9. records it and as he had CREDIBLY been inform'd of from others assembling his Privy Councel together Febr. 25. 1622. made a long Oration to them which he recites at large the sum whereof was this That the Roman-Catholicks in England had sustain'd great and intolerable surcharges imposed on their Goods Bodies Consciences during Queen Elizabeth's Reign of which they hoped to be relieved in his c. That now he had maturely consider'd the Penury and Calamities of the Roman-Catholicks who were in the number of his faithful Subjects and was resolv'd to relieve them and therefore did from thenceforth take all his Roman-Catholick Subjects into his Protection permitting them the Liberty and entire Exercise of their Religion c. without any Inquisition Process or Molestation from that day forward and likewise will and ordain that they shall be restored to all their Estates Lands Fees and Seignories and re-establish'd in them Commanding all his Magistrates Iustices and other Officers whatsoever in this behalf to hold their hands and for what Cause soever it be not to attempt hereafter to grieve or molest the said Catholicks neither in publick nor private in the liberty of the exercise of their Religion upon pain of being reputed Guilty of High Treason and Disturbers of the Kingdoms peace and repose this being his will and definitive Sentence A. But still I cannot forbear wondring about what Considerations made our Divines and our Great Champions of the Church of England-Protestancy in the State as well as Church afterward thus inclinable to act their Parts about Toleration as Mr. Prynne hath mention'd B. They had cause enough to apprehend that the Hierarchy of England could not be supported without the Monarchy and that by reason of the various growth of the Potency of foreign Princes and States and of intestine Factions the Monarchy could not be then sufficiently secure without a foreign Alliance by inter-marriage and that where such Alliance was to be with the Familiâ—…s of Roman-Catholick Princes there could be no expectation of the Pope's relaxing his Laws by dispensing without our Princes doing something of that kind as to theirs I might here observe to you that we are told in The Regal Apology that the Oxford Antiquities mention'd to have been writ by Dr. Bate that A particular Toleration had a former President even in Queen Elizabeth in those Articles of Marriage which were consented to with the Duke of Anjou and if it were true that an Universal Toleration was agreed on by King James it was intuitu majoris boni The Palatinate was to be restored again and the Protestants of Germany to be re-enstated in their Possessions on that Condition But to punish being a kind of Punishment and it being irreligious to punish Men for Religion and the highest tide of Anger being naturally succeeded by the lowest ebbe of it and the thoughts of rigorous Severity in Princes toward their Subjects being like such in the Head toward the Members of the same Body and King Iames having found that the general abhorrence of the Gun-Powder-Treason had blown up the credit of those fiery Doctrines that produced it and he being then within Prospect of his end and being unwilling that the Sun of his Life should go down in his wrath and finding as appears by his long Proclamation of four sheets of Paper declaring his Pleasure concerning the Dissolving of the Parliament A. 16â—…1 that they were not the Papists who made his later breath so uneasie to him and he being of opinion that the reason of the severe Laws was much abated it may abate of our wonder that in that Conjuncture he put a Period to their Execution Mr. Prynne for this purpose in p. 14. of that Book Prints a Letter of the Lord Keeper Williams to the Iâ—…dges in the year following to acquaint them that His Majesty having resolv'd out of deep Reasons of State and in expectation of like Correspondence from foreign Princes to the Professors of our Religion to grant some Grace and Conveniency to the imprison'd Papists of this Kingdom had Commanded him to pass some Writs under the Broad Seal for that purpose and that he had accordingly done so and tells them that 't is His Majesty's Pleasure that they shall make no niceness or difficulty to extend that his Princely favour to all Papists imprison'd for any Church Recusancy whatsoever or refusing the Oath of Supremacy or hearing of Mass or any other point of Recusancy which doth touch or concern Religion only and not matters of State which shall appear to you to be totally Civil and Political A. You lately mentâ—…on'd to me that the Earl of Bristol hinted it that there was afterward somewhat of Compliance with the Pope in the Match with France of that nature as was in the Spanish Wâ—…at account doth Mr. Prynne give of that B. He tells you there p. 69. that the French Maâ—…ch was soon Concluded in the life of King James the Articles concerning
taken to the Oath tender'd to him as Sheriff on the account of several Additions alledged by him to be in the Oath that were not in the Ancient Oath in the Register and afterward Confirm'd and Appointed by the Statute of 18 Edw. the Third and all the Iudges being Consulted as to the allowance of the same tho they allow'd of his first exception namely as to his suppressing all Errors and Heresies commonly call'd LOLLARIES and being assistant to Commissaries and Ordinaries in Church-matters c. and that that Clause was fit to be omitted out of the Oath because it is appointed by Statutes that are repeal'd and was intended against the Religion now Establish'd yet as to his second Addition complain'd of the greater part of the Iudges were of opinion that an Oath in this Point may be well enjoyn'd by the King and Order of State without Parliament and that it may well be imposed on the Sheriff to take being for the publick Benefit and Execution of the Laws And as to his Fourth Addition complain'd of namely That he should Cause the Statute of Winton and the Statutes against Rogues and Vagabonds to be put in execution whereunto he excepted because the Statute of Winton was alter'd and the Statutes against Rogues and Vagabonds are appointed to be executed by the Iustices of the Peace and not by the Sheriff to this the Judges said that this Fourth Addition rests on the former reason that this Oath being appointed and continued divers years by direction of the State altho without the express Authority of any Statute Law yet may he well be continued for the publick benefit in repressing such Persons c. A. What a terrible thing was it that that Clause about suppressing Lollaries c. should continue in the Oath so long after the Reformation and that Sir Edward Coke should be the first Protestant Sheriff we have heard of whose Conscience was so delicate as to refuse to swallow that poisonous Clause B. You may too as justly say what a terrible thing is it that so many Protestants who have formerly by the frequent swallowing the Poison of Contradictory Oaths habituated themselves to the quiet concocting of all Oaths as the King of Pontus brought himself at last to digest all Poisons will yet be so ready to endeavour to compel the Consciences of others to swallow such Oaths that they believe or suspect to be poisonous a thing that hath probably tended to make so many among us to Nauseate the use of all Oaths as unlawful A. Whom do you mean by those B. The Quakers And here I shall freely tell you that Providence having permitted so numerous a Sect as that of the Quakers among us to bear their Testimony against the lawfulness of Oaths in general I shall be well content if the event of the bending the Crooked stick the contrary way as my Lord Primate's Expression was may be an universal tenderness as to Oaths as I just now described it and the want of which hath as I shew'd you at our last meeting been so scandalous to our Country and brought an opprobrium both on Protestancy and Christianity it self Alexander ab Alexandro l. 5. tells us that there was no use of Oaths among the Phrygians And tho Grotius saith in his De jure Belli Pacis that jure gentium testi injurato non creditur yet it was by Polybius observ'd that in the better and simpler Ages of the World Oaths were seldom used in Iudicatures The Athenians would not suffer Xenocrates a Person of known Probity to take his Oath at the Altar as a thing below his reputation Gellius l. 10. c. 15. saith Verba Proetoris ex edicto perpetuo de Flamine Diâ—…li de Sacerdote Vestoe adscripsi Sacerdotem Vestalem Plaminem Dialâ—…m in omni meâ jurisdictione jurare non cogam And Livy hath it that among the Romans the Flamen Dialis was not in any case allow'd to swear least at any time he should forswear which in him was held as the most hainous thing I have too somewhere read Plutarch cited for justifying to this purpose the reasonableness of their not swearing for that an Oath was a kind of torture to a free man and that it was absurd not to credit their words and for that an Oath draws after it an Imprecation or Curse in Case they should be forsworn which seems to be a detestable omination toward the Priests of God. Iosephus relates it that the Essenes Word was as sure as an Oath So great likewise was the reputation of the Christians in the Ancient times for truth in Matters asserted or promised by them that the Saying of Christianus sum did frequently pass currant for the Cautio Iuratoria And I shall always with reverence think of Bellarmine's Tutissimum and of S. Austin's Nullum Iuramentum tutum A late ingenious Writer apply'd to the Clergy's obtaining Canons for their not Marrying the Observation that they always knew what was good for themselves but I shall think it more applicable to what I read of in the Book of Mr. Ley beforementioned p. 112. that as S. Basil was very zealous in behalf of Bishops that they might not be put to swear in respect of the Peril of an Oath so he prevail'd so far as to free them from that Peril and that the Council of Challons Can. 18. was thus favorable to Presbyters and that the Triburiensian Council favour'd them with this Constitution that a Presbyter should not be compell'd to swear but instead of an Oath he should be question'd upon his Holy Consecration in verbo sacerdotis because as the reason is there rendred Our Lord forbad his Disciples to Swear And I shall tell you that if you will allow Lawyers to know what is good for themselves you will find them of all sorts of men to have the greatest aversion against being Witnesses The Iesuites too who are by all reputed wise in their Generation are by Dr. Donne in his Pseudo-Martyr p. 350. referred to as having so extraordinary an aversion against Oaths that he cites the Spongia pro Iesuit p. 79. for their out-doing the Essenes in hyperbolical Detestations of Oaths I account it for the honour of the Age that any one doth fall under the Character of bipedum nequissimus who being sued by a Quaker at Common-Law for a just Debt would obstruct such Debt by an Injunction out of Chancery till the Quaker hath there answer'd a Shamming Bill upon his Oath And as by the Clemency of His Majesty's Government Quakers there making Answer upon their Oath to Captious Bills hath been to the general Satisfaction of the compassionate Just as it were tacitly dispens'd with and as likewise their Promissory Oaths of Allegiance have been I doubt not but his express or tacit dispensing with other Loyal and Conscientious particular Persons doubting of the lawfulness or expedience of some Promissory Oaths will be as generally grateful I wish there were no greater
I shall refer you to King Iames his Proclamation of Iune the 10th in the year 1606. and where having mentioned the Religion of the Roman-Catholicks he saith We deâ—…ïre still to make it appear in the whole Course of of our Government that we are far from accounting all those Subjects Disâ—…oyal that are that way affected and that we do DISTINGUISH of such as be carry'd only with blind zeal and such as sin out of Presumption c. and therefore as after times must give us tryal of ALL mens behaviour so must all men expect that their own deserts must be the only measure of their Fortunes at our hands either one way or other and having before spoke of the Gun-Powder Treason and the Doctrines of some Priests that might encourage it and said that thereby there is sufficient Cause to justifie the Proceedings of us and our said Parliament in the making and execution of these last and all other former Statutes tending to the same end it followeth nevertheless seeing the Soveraign Care appertains to us who have the Soveraign Power of Iustice in our hand and the Supreme Dispensation of Clemency and Moderation of the Severity of our Laws is likewise as proper to us to use whensoever we shall find it reasonable the same deserving to be no less allow'd in us being in our Dominions God's Lieutenant then it is prais'd in him among whose highest titles it is that his Mercy is above all his Works c. The King in the beginning of his Proclamation having profess'd his Zeal for the Religion of the Church of England by Law Establish'd and his constant Resolution for the maintenance and defence thereof said Of which our purpose and determination beside all other our former proceedings since our Entry into this Kingdom we have given a new and certain Demonstration by such two Acts as have been passed in this Session of our Parliament both tending to prevent the Dangers and diminish the number of those who adhering to the Profession of the Church of Rome are blindly led together with the Superstition of their Religion both into some points of Doctrine which cannot consist with the Loyalty of Subjects toward their Prince and oft-times into direct actions of Conspiracies and Conjurations against the State wherein they live as hath most notoriously appear'd by the late most horrible and almost incredible Conjuration c. The two Acts there referr'd to are those that you will find in your Statute-Book Anno tertio Jacobi Regis cap. 4. An Act for the Discovering and repressing Popish Recusants and in which the Oath of Allegiance is contain'd and Cap. 5. An Act to prevent and avoid dangers by Popish Recusants and whereby Popish Recusants Convict are disabled from bearing Office. But here you see how that wise Prince so soon after so horrid a real Plot did by distinguishing in his Proclamation between the Principles of some Roman-Catholicks and others as to Loyalty and alluring the Loyal by the avow'd Dispensative Power of his Mercy and hiding them under the wings of his Mercy from the terror of his Laws and affording to all his Subjects who should afterward behave themselves well a Tabula post naufragium as to the expectance of making up their fortunes think himself obliged then to cause his Moderation to be known to all men And you may hence take occasion when you think of the many Acts in terrorem in the Statute-Book and where there is no Proportion between the Crime and the Punishment and in some that seem inflictive of Punishments in the Case where men cannot be to any but the Searcher of hearts known to be Criminal at all as for example in their owning some Problematick Points of the Christian Religion to consider that most probably the Wisdom of the Government would not have pass'd them but on the Suppoâ—…ition of the Regal Power of dispensing therein expresly or tacitly You see how the Laws commonly call'd Sangâ—…inary have been tacitly suspended and I may tell you that tho I desire to live no longer then I shall be a maintainet of the internal Communion due from all Christians to all Christians as a part of that Holiness without which no man shall see God yet I should soon withdraw from the external Communion of the Church of England if it own'd the justness of such Laws otherwise then as in terroremâ—… and if it owned the lawfulness of putting men to Death for the Profession of any Religionary Principles their liberty to prosess which was purchased for them by the Blood of their Redeemer But I need not say more now about cautioning you or any one against the taking offence at any of our Laws Laws through want of considering which of them were designedly made for terror I might here likewise as to many Acts about Trade that swell the Statute-Book apply the Consideration of the Regal Power of dispensing therein having encouraged our Ancestors to perpetuate them as Laws A. The truth is you now put me in mind how I having long ago spent much time in considering the Trade and Traffick of our Country and of other Parts of Christendom and finding that shortly after His late Majesty's Restoration one of his Ministers had in a Publick Speech intimated it to the Parliament that His Majesty had setled a Councel of Trade consisting of some of the Lords of his Privy Councel and of some Gentlemen of Quality and Experience and of some Principal Merchants of the Principal Companies I had the curiosity to look over their Iournals and their Advices and Reports to the King and there I found somewhat of the same notion with yours in one of their Reports to His Majesty For there in one of their Papers of Advice addressed to the King taking notice that what they conceived fit to be done for the advancement of the Trade of the Realm was Prohibited by divers ancient Statutes they make them imply that the thing might be done by the King's licence or dispensing and whereupon they thus go on And therefore finding this Dispensation to be your Majesty's Prerogative preserv'd entire to the Crown through so many of your Royal Progenitors we have not thought fit to touch further upon this Matter as being humbly confident that your Majesty's Subjects shall upon all occasions be indulged the like if not more ready relief and accommodation for their Trade from your Majesty's Royal Grace and Bounty only because the Observation was obvious that perhaps all former Parliaments purposely left this door open to the People by the Grace of the King to be reliev'd with those dispensations as foreseeing how difficult if not impossible or how inconvenient at least it might be altogether to restrain what those Statutes prohibited we could not omit the same in this place c. B. And you have put me in mind how a very Loyal and judicious Gentleman of that Councel of Trade and whom I look on to be as deeply study'd in the
For put the Case that the Clergy make Canons to which I never assented and I break these Canons whereupon I am Excommunicated and upon a Significavit by the Bishop my Body is taken and imprison'd by a Writ de excommunicato Capiendo now shall I lie in Prison all the days of my life and shall never be deliver'd by a Cautione admittenda unless I will come in and parere mandatis Ecclesiae which are point blank against my Conscience And he had before said A Comparatis by an Argument à minori ad majus if Property of Goods cannot be taken from me without my assent in Parliament which is the fundamental Law of the Land and so declared in the Petition of Right why then Property and Liberty of Conscience which is much greater as much as bona animi are above bona fortunae cannot be taken from me without my assent This it seems pass'd as Currant Coin for Iudgment of Parliament in behalf of Liberty of Conscience in the Conjuncture of 41 the year in which his Book was Printed and if it were so then allowable you may well think that a Prince's owning the Religion that flourish'd here in the time of Magna charta and which inspired the Virtue that produced Magna Charta and indulging some others of the same Religion to profess it without Punishment is not likely to occasion any durable ferment And what I have here referr'd to concerning the Petition of Right minds me of the great effort of Pious zeal in our famous Bishop Hall and his laudably making use of the Popularity he had among the Protestants in sending a Letter to the House of Commons April the 28th 1628. during the great ferment about that Petition and in which he gives so much fatherly and Prudent advice to the great Agonists for Property that they should consider when they were at the end of their race and then to sit down and rest He hath in it these tender Expressions Gentlemen For God's sake be wise in your well-meant zeal and our Liberties and Proprieties are sufficiently declared to be sure and legal c. let us not in suspicion of Evils that may be cast our selves into present confusion If you love your selves and your Country remit something of your own terms And since the Substance is yielded by your noble Patriots stand not too rigorously upon Points of Circumstance Pear not to trust a good King who after the strict Laws made must be trusted with the Execution c. relent or farewel welfare You may hence easily imagine how passionately that good Bishop would have been concerned if he had then seen among the Patriots any unquenchable heats about the not trusting the King with the Executive Power of Penal Laws and Laws in terrorem and such Laws as Mr. Glanvil in the ' Month after the Date of the Bishop's Letter said in a full Committee of both Houses That the Commons must and ever will acknowledge that it is in His Majesty's ABSOLUTE and undoubted Power to grant Dispensations in as I told you In God's Name often think of that great Patriotly saying of Tully so often with just Applause cited by Sir E. Coke Major haereditas venit unicuique nostrum à jure legibus quam à parentibus and you may account him a Prophane Person who despiseth his Birth-right given him by the Law. And pity any one who speaking of his Property doth not know this to be the meaning of it namely that it is the highest Right he hath or can have to any thing and which is no way depending upon another man's Courtâ—…e And consider that as you have a Property in your Chattels and Hereditaments so you have in your Religion Think often with honour of our Ancestors who by so many Acts of Parliament and lawful Canons and Constitutions since the Refoâ—…mation provided for the securing your Property in your Religion and remember how binding the very declarative Laws about it are Cast your Eye with Pleasure about the Realm and see if you can find any one who fears that any one will ever move in Parliament for leave to bring in any Bill to take away the least part of your Property in your Religion But then consider how Savage a thing it is in any to take excessive delight in the Execution of Penal Laws Ferus est qui fruitur paenâ and remember too that your Prince hath a Property in the Executive part of the Law and in distributive Justice and in shewing Mercy And when you hear any one telling you of a Snake in the grass of the Prince's dispensing with Penal Laws and that therefore there may be danger of your Prince's dispensing in Laws that are leneficial you may tell him of the notorious Non-sequitur and that you have a Property in not being punish'd and in having the benefit of the Rule as to favourable Statutes being made more so by interpretation Favores sunt â—…mpliandi and on the contrary as to Penal ones that odiosa restringi convenit And so to any such impertinent Objecter you may say that the voice or sound of his Snake and the Goose are all one But consider that since you have so much cause to depend on the glorious and consummate justice inherent in the nature of our great Monarch for his defending you in the security of all the Declaratory Acts of Parliament that maintain your very Property in your Religion both Iustice and Common Ingenuity call upon you to own his Power of Dispensing and even with disability for which I have shewn you so many clear and incontestable declarative Iudgments of Parliament and shall direct you to more when we meet again And let me tell you that you ought to have the greater tenderness for this Prerogative of our Prince for that in his Administration of it he hath in some Points shewn a greater tenderness to his Laws and People then our Princes since the Reformation have done You may remember I shew'd you how Queen Elizabeth and King Iames did by their Authority out of Parliament MAKE things Penal by Disability that were not so by any Law in being and therefore you may the less wonder when you see your Prince dispensing with it and thereby preventing the Punishment of it and sometimes and in some Cases pardoning it A. I shall carefully take notice of all these Matters wherein you have caution'd me but am here occasionally on the account of some things you said about the Interpretation and the Acquittal from Penalties in the Queen's Admonition being perpetuated by their being declared good in Parliament to ask you if you do not account that Dispensations or such Interpretations of the Prince by his own single Authority may be made to continue good in following Reigns B. I do not in the least doubt but they may and I shall hereafter evince the thing to you but shall at present out of a Manuscript Report I have of the great Case of
Now you know how much Simplicity becomes an Oath and how requisite it is that it should be conceiv'd in plain and liquid terms and taken in the Imposer's sense and without mental reservations and that you should Swear therein to no dogmatical Assertion and as to which Mr. Nye saith well in his Observations on that Oath to swear positively to any dogmatical Assertion is not required It would be a taking the Name of God in vain for if it be a certain and undoubted truth in it self and to others as are Principles of Reason and Articles of Faith an Oath is vain for it ends no strife If doubtful and a question whether true or not tho such an Oath puts it out of question that I believe so yet not that it is a truth My belief tho never so much evidenced and confirm'd doth not make a doubtful matter in it self more credible nor is one man's believing an Assertion just ground for another man to believe the same Such an Oath therefore is in vain and not a fit Medium to end such a Controversy Now how far your declaring in your Oath that no foreign Prelaâ—…e hath nor ought to have any Iurisdiction Spiritual within this Realm and the Interpretation of it pursuant to the 37th Article delivering the Plain words The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction c. may bring you within the Verge of swearing what is dogmatical I leave you to judge but shall take the liberty to tell you that when I see some of our Laws and particularly this about our Oath girdled with so many Interpretations like new tender-sided Ships I shall be apt to take little pleasure in embarquing my Conscience in such an Oath and am apt to call to mind the Censure which Mr. Milton's Character of the Long Parliament of 40. fulminates against his Countrymen and by which he so much disables our understandings as to Political Government and saith that the Sun which we want ripens Wits as well as Fruits and as Wine and Oyl are imported to us from abroad so must ripe understanding c. B. But however tho our Wine and Oyl are imported to us from abroad our Dispensations are not and we have no Occasion to send Gold to Rome for Lead And I assure you he who shall consider that the English Virtuosi were the last that did receive the yokes of the old Imperial and later Papal Power of Rome and the first that threw them off will tho we are Crasso sub aëre nati have no cause to vilifie our understandings but rather to envy their triumphs over Infallibility so call'd And perhaps when I shall have told you of another passage of the Bishop P. 59. in his Schism guarded you will think the Eyes of our Ancestors understandings did look out sharp when the two Statutes of the 25th of H. 8. and 1 o Eliz. were made and there he saith Suppose any of our Reformers have run into any Excesses or Extremes either in their Expressions or perhaps in their Actions it is a difficult thing in great changes to observe a just mean it may be out of Humane Frailty as Lycurgus out of hatred to Drunkenness cut down all the Vines about Sparta or it may be out of Policy as men use to bend a Crooked rod as much the contrary way or as expert Masters of Musick do sometimes draw up their Scholars a Note too high to bring them to a just tone what is that to us as long as we practice the Mean and maintain the Mean and guide our selves by the certain line and level of Apostolical and Primitive Tradition There is no doubt but in the framing of the Statute of 1 o Eliz. and the Oath therein regard was had to the Oath in the 35th of H. 8. c. 1. viz. I having now the veil of Darkness of the Usurped Power Authority and Iurisdiction of the See and Bishops of Rome clearly taken away from mine Eyes do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any foreign Potentate hath nor ought to have any Iurisdiction Power or Authority within this Realm neither by God's Law nor any other just Law or means c. and that I shall never consent nor agree that the aforesaid See or Bishop of Rome or their Successors shall exercise or have any manner of Authority Iurisdiction or Power within this Realm c. And this Oath remain'd the same all the rest of his Reign and all Edward the 6th's time and as to which Queen Elizabeth changed the Expression of Supreme Head and both Harry the 8th and She having their Eyes on the effect of Papal Excommunications and concern'd to have the nullity of them believed by their Subjects might seem according to the Primate's Expression to bend the crooked rod of the Papal Iurisdiction overmuch the contrary way in their Oaths that so it might come to that just straitness referr'd to according to the Primate's measures of it But after all I shall tell you that I think no Political respects can justifie the putting doubtful Expressions into an Oath or the taking of one with mental reservations of a sense different from the Common one of the words and I do therefore joyn issue with you in the Point that the Clause in the Oath That no foreign Prelate hath or ought to have any Iurisdiction c. being the very same in the 37th Article and in the Interpretation of which Article King Iames his Canons have as you said made you a sharer with the Clergy you and all others who take the Oath may be thankful for the benefit of that King having further exercised the Dispensative Power of his interpreting the whole intent of that Oath And that Interpretation of it which hath made the Coast of the Oath clear to you in this Point you will find agreeing to what he hath in our Language Publish'd to the World and dedicated to eternity For he having in his Premonition to all Christian Monarchs mention'd how he caus'd the House of Commons to Reform a Clause they had put into the Oath of Allegiance derogatory to the Pope's spiritual Power viz. That the Pope had no Power to Excommunicate him and that he was ready to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have the first Seat and be Patriarch of the West and be Primus Episcopus inter omnes Episcopos princeps Episcoporum so it be no otherwise but as Peter was Princeps Apostolorum takes occasion in his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance to let the World know his Royal judgment of the intent of the OATH of SUPREMACT and there in Confutation of the Pope's Breves and Bellarmine's Letter he saith in p. 108. that the rendring Christian Kings within their own Dominions Governors of their Church as well as of the rest of their People in being Custodes utriusque tabulae not by making new Articles of Faith c. but by
commanding Obedience to be given to the Word of God by reforming Religion according to his prescribed Will by assisting the Spiritual Power with the Temporal Sword by reforming Corruptions by procuring due Obedience to the Church by judging and cutting off all frivolous Questions and Schisms as Constantine did and finally by making decorum to be observ'd in every thing and establishing Orders to be observ'd in all indifferent things for that purpose is the ONLY intent of the Oath of Supremacy and whereby as he effectually confuted the Cardinal whose Letter charged the Oath of Supremacy as tending to this end That the Authority of the Head of the Church in England may be transferr'd from the Successor of St. Peter to the Successor of King Henry the 8th and to oppose the Primacy of the Apostolick See so at the end of his Book he shews that his design of Publishing the same was to satisfie all his good and natural Subjects and likewise Strangers about the things therein contain'd and whereby the King's Mind was publickly notify'd that in the right done to the Crown by the Oath of Supremaâ—…y as well as of Allegiance there was no wrong intended to St. Peter or his Successors A. I hope you have now put a Period to the History of the Dispensative Power of the Crown that was exercised in-the interpreting of any parts of the Oath of Supremacy or the 37th Article thereto relating You have named to me so many interpretations of the Oath that according to the wisdom of our State and the Lex Consuetudo Parliamenti making a Bill to be thrice read in each House of Parliament and then receiving the Royal Assent to be thought like Gold seven times purify'd may shew the interpretation of the Law to be so too But tho I will account any good Law to be more precious then Gold yet if like Gold it be too far extended by ductile interpretation it may be drawn to such a thinness as to lose all its weight and estimation and retain only a poor tincture and colour that will signifie little or nothing And as Pliny in his Panegyrick on Trajan said that by reason of the multitudes of sutes upon Penal Laws in Rome there was danger till Trajan's time ne Civitas fundata legibus legibus everteretur so a Law whose Obligatoriness is founded on interpretations may be endanger'd by the multitudes of them to be destroy'd and may like the Papal Laws of New Rome by the infinite interpretations of Casuists in the forum internum which is their Tribunal be brought to signifie nothing in either forum and to be only an Engine to make Perplexities You have given me here such a Genealogy of interpretations that according to the common Story of Arise Daughter c. one may say Arise Interpretation and go to thy Interpretation c. I shall therefore be glad now you have been so largely communicative of your thoughts to me about the assertory part of the Oath you will deal as frankly with me in acquainting me with what may in the Promissory part of the Oath be of importance for me to know in order to the better discharge of my Duty in the Case before me B. I shall therein be most ready to serve you when we meet next for the entire Consideration of what according to the Assertory part of the Oath you are obliged to do will I see be as great a load as both our patiences will at this time bear and therefore according to the Saying of Must is for the King I am to tell you that let our Kings make never so many interpretations one after another of this your Oath you must finding them all Consistent with one another consider them all with all due regarâ—… 〈◊〉 thank God and them when their Consciences being inclined to a tenderness for the doubting of yours they interpose their Dispensative Power of that kind And hereupon I shall tell you that in the year 1628. King Charles the First did cause the 39 Articles to be reprinted and with a Declaration before the same made by him as Supreme Governor of the Church within his Dominions that those Articles contain the true Doctrine of the Church of England and that if any Difference should arise about the external Policy concerning Injunctions Canons or other Constitutions whatsoever belonging to the Church of England the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle them c. he approving their said Ordinances c. that the Bishops and Clergy shall have licence under the Broad Seal to deliberate of and do all such things as being made plain by them and assented to him shall concern the setled Continuance of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England c. and then having respect to the Article wherein the Arminians and Antiarminians were concern'd 't is order'd that no man hereafter shall either Print or Preach to draw the Article aside any way c. But the first Canon that was afterward viz. A. 1640. made was that concerning the Regal Power which begins with taking notice that sundry Laws Ordinances and Constitutions had been formerly made for the acknowledgment and profession of the most lawful and independent Authority of our Dread Sovereign Lord the King over the state Ecclesiastical and Civil and then enjoyns them to be ALL carefully observ'd by all persons whom they Concern upon the Penalties in the said Laws and Constitutions express'd and then decrees that the Clergy shall read the following Explanation of the Regal Power and where the words A Supreme Power is given to this most excellent Order i. e. of Kings by God himself in the Scriptures which is that Kings should rule and Command in their several Dominions all persons of what Rank or Estate soever whether Ecclesiastical or Civil and that they should restrain and punish with the Temporal Sword all stubborn and wicked doers shew they had then the 37th of the 39 Articles in their eye and some other words viz. for any person or persons to set up maintain or avow respectively under any pretence whatsoever any independent Coactive Power either papal or popular c. is to undermine their great Royal Office shew they had an Eye on that 37th Article and on your Oath and where they did speak out that sense of the Clause The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction c. and of the words in the Oath that no foreign Prelate hath or ought to have any Iurisdiction c. that is that the Bishop of Rome had here no independent Coactive Iurisdiction the sense in which all considerate Persons who were Members of the Church of Rome in Harry the 8th's time and of the Church of England in Edward the 6th's time took the old Oath of Supremacy and the Members of the Church of England in Queen Elizabeth's time and ever since took the new one As for Non-conformists who think the Government of Bishops unlawful this Clause that no foreign
of a Law and dispensing to be different things B. He had an excellent Metaphysical head and his Method of writing in that Chapter Of the Several ways of the changing of Humane Laws was partly after the Example of Suarez in his Book De Legibus and who was a voluminous Writer of Metaphysicks and writing of any Subject could not recedere ab arte suâ in that Learning that is so infinitely prolifick of Artificial distinctions without Natural differences I mention'd the Bishop's but PARTLY writing after the way of Suarez for he was far from crumbling the weightier Points of the Law into the Minutiae of Metaphysicks as the other did and he in his excellent Preface doth very passionately complain of Moral Theology having been made an Art of the Schools and that what God had made plain Men have intricated and for that purpose saith There is a Rule among the Lawyers which very much relates to the Conscience of those Men who are engaged in Suits and Sentences of Law in all Countrys which are ruled by the Civil Law in quolibet Actu requiritur Citatio of this Rule Porcius brings an hundred and sixteen Ampliations and an hundred and twenty four Limitations c. And thus Suarez in his 6th Book De Legibus and the Title of which Book is The Interpretation Cessation and change of Humane Laws hath there Twenty seven Chapters concerning the same and where his first Chapter is Of the way of rightly Interpreting an Humane Law his 2d Of the Extension in them by Interpretation of them and his 3d Of the Extension to a Case not Comprehended his 4th Doubts of the Extension of Laws his 5th Of the Restriction by Interpretation his 6th Of the Ceasing of the Obligation of a Law in particular Contrary to its words his 7th Of the Excusing of a Law by Equity his 8th Of the Use of Equity without recourse to the Prince his 9th Of the Ceasing of a Law upon its Cause ceasing his 10th Of Dispensation in an Humane Law his 11th Of the Effects of Dispensation his 12th Of the Material Cause of Dispensation his 13th Of the form of Dispensation and so on in the others with much Metaphysical subtlety But the Bishop in his before-mention'd Third Book and 6th Chapter viz. Of the Interpretation Diminution and Abrogation of Humane Laws brings in but seven ways of the changing of humane Laws so that the Obligation of Conscience is also changed whereof his first is by Equity His second is by Interpretation His third by a Contrary or a ceasing reason And his fourth by Dispensation c. and of which latter he saith If we use the word improperly Dispensation can signifie a Declaration made by the Superior that the Subject in certain Cases is not obliged that the Law-giver did not intend it c. but when Dispensation signifies Properly it means an Act of mere Grace and Favour proceeding from an extrinsick Cause that is not the Nature of the thing or the merit of the Cause but either the merit of the Person or some degrees of reasonableness in the thing which not being of it self enough to procure the favour of the Law is of it self enough to make a man capable of the Favour of the Prince c. But as here in this nice distinction he is enforced to make him who doth dispensare to do that which the Canonists make the ratio nominis of it namely diversa pensare and in the Scales of Equity to weigh and interpret the degrees of the reasonableness of the thing so in his handling of the Prince's Power of interpreting he makes Equity Co-incident with it and refers to the Law in the Code viz. Inter aequitatem jusque interpositam interpretationem nobis solis oportet licet inspicere and his instances of that Power of Interpretation are referr'd to the favours shew'd by it to Persons and particularly to Solomon's absolving Abiathar from the Sentence of Death because he had formerly done worthily to the Interests of his Father David And then saith Now this Power tho it may be done by Interpretation yet when it is administred by the Prince it is most commonly by way of Pardon absolute Power and Prerogative When a Law determines that under such an Age a Person shall be UNCAPABLE of being the General of an Army the Supreme Power can declare the meaning of the Law to be unless a great excellency of Courage and maturity of Iudgment supply the want of years in which very Case Scipio Africanus said wisely when he desir'd to be employ'd in the Punick War Se sat annorum habiturum si populus Romanus voluerit Thus Tiberius put Nero into the Senate at Fifteen years of Age and so did Augustus the like to Tiberius and his Brother and the People declar'd or dispens'd with the Law in Pompey ' s Case and allow'd him a triumph before he had been Consul or Praetor And he had before said When the Law-giver interprets his Law he doth not take off the Obligation of his Law i. e. meaning the Obligation of his Law in general but declares that in such a Case it was not intended to oblige Tacitus tells of a Roman Knight who having sworn to his Wife that he would never be divorced from her was by Tiberius dispens'd with when he had taken her in the unchaste Embraces of his Son-in-Law The Emperor then declared that the Knight had only obliged himself not to be divorced unless a great Cause should intervene And thus Suarez himself in his said 10th Chapter De Dispensatione in lege humanâ makes Dispensation apply'd to signifie an act quo quis ab obligatione legis eximitur and saith quia unus modus esse potest per Interpretationem ideo potuit etiam in eâ significatione usurpari tamen in hac etiam significatione sumpta non quamcunque interpretationem legis sed illam solam quae in casu dubio per potestatem superioris datur ad liberandum subditum ab obligatione legis significat quia haec tantum est Actus administrationis potestatis ADEO Commissae Et illa tantum tollit aliquo modo onus legis quod sine tali potestate auferri non posset and so saith he 't is agreed on by all that Dispensation is an Act of Iurisdiction but 't is drawn into the Law to signifie the taking away the vinculum of the Law in particular Cases and so we generally use it A. But Metaphysicks apart I shall not trouble my self about what is what but what is my Duty by virtue of my Oath And I observe that what you cited out of the Bishop viz. That when the Power that made the Law doth interpret the Interpretation is authentical c. may render him no favourer of an Interpretation not made in Parliament by the Legislative Power B. I shall sometime at our meeting again observe to you what the Bishop hath there asserted l. 3. c. 3. that Kings
have a Legislative Power in the Affairs of Religion and the Church and where he saith that the LEAST part of this Power is to permit the free exercise of it and to remove all Impediments and to give it Advantages of free Assemblies and Competent maintenance and Publick Encouragements c. And shall then shew you what Power Circa Sacra the Church of England with great Prudence and Justice allow'd our Princes in the introducing the Reformation and which its Constitutions and Canons have since owned and from the allowance of which Power our great Church-men then knew there could be vestigia nulla retrorsum in the Case of a Prince of any other Religion coming to the Crown But I shall at present tell you that as to what I have mention'd to you out of Suarez and that Bishop altho you need neither now nor at any time to charge your memory with the subtlety of Distinctions and of the Propriè and minus Propriè when you are in eager pursuit of the substance of things you will find in both those Authors what is very substantial about the Doctrine of Dispensing and what I have cited of their rendring Dispensing and Interpreting thus Co-incident is à propos and may mind you of Princes being both empow'red and obliged in Justice in their administration of the executive Power of their Laws to declare or interpret their Religionary Penal Laws as dispensable in relation to particular times and Persons And you may therefore here call to mind that passage in the Council of Trent viz. That on Fryar Adrian ' s vociferating there about the Pope's dispensing being an Arbitrary favour Verdune the famous French Divine took him down with saying that it is a fond Perswasion that Dispensing is a mere favour for it is as good distribute Iustice as what is most so And the Priest sins if he giveth it not for it is nothing else but a right Interpretation of Law. You may very well suppose that thoughts arising from those words in the Ordination of Bishops viz. That you have your Authority not to destroy but to save not to hurt but to help c. to be so merciful as not to be remiss so to administer Discipline as not to forget Mercy c. have formerly inclined our Bishops in the Reigns of King Iames and King Charles the First to think themselves obliged to interpret and declare the Laws about Church discipline as dispensable and to dispense with them in the Cases of Mr. Hildersham and Mr. Dod as I told you at our last meeting And can you here see an Act of Parliament that thus sâ—…tleth the Ordination of Bishops and which Act not only allows but requires them thus to Interpretari dispensare in lege or in an Act of Parliament and fancy it possible for the King when as the Act of 37 o H. 8. tells you that Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Persons have no manner of Iurisdiction Ecclesiastical but by under and from His Royal Majesty not to be empow'red to exercise such Jurisdiction And I may here add that when it is declared in the Statute of 1 o Eliz. c. 2. that the Queen's Majesty may ordaâ—… such further Ceremonies and Rites as may be most for the advancement of God's Glory c. will any one wonder at the Crowns relaxing the Penal Laws about Rites and Ceremonies in the Case of particular Persons and as Edward the 6th as is known did in the Case of Bishop Hooper And if you have a mind to see an Act of Parliament that not only approves the Prince's remitting of his Penal Laws but what applauds some excess in so doing I can for that purpose direct you to the Act of 1 o Edw. 6. c. 12. in the beginning of which 't is said Nothing being more Godly more sure more to be wish'd and desired between a Prince the Supreme Head and Ruler and the Subjects whose Governor and Head he is then on the Prince's part great Clemency and Indulgency and rather too much indulgency and remission of his Royal Power and just Punishment then exact Severity and Iustice to be shew'd c. But as when we were near the end of our former Conference you rightly observ'd that many perverse People would be crying out that any lawful Dispensing with the Laws establish'd was Contradictio in adjecto so I shall now observe to you that any who to the diminishing from a Prince's Character of being just presume to insinuate it that a Prince's valuing himself on that Character and yet shewing mercy to some in releasing them from the Bonds and Penalties of some of his Laws is a Contradiction do appear to me great objects of Compassion in so erring And for this I shall refer you to the Happy future State of England where in p. 233. 't is said that He who separates Mercy from Iustice is unjust to the very name of Iustice and robbeth it of the better half of its signification leaving its teeth and claws and taking away its heart and bowels Jarchas the Indian and Chief of the Brachmans in Philostratus is brought in finding fault with Apollonius Tyaneus and others of the Greeks for that they confined and apply'd the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to those only who do no wrong to one another and telling them that they were in an error for saith he among the Chiefest Offices of Iustice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be reckon'd up And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 just and kind men are convertible terms in Aristophanes and joyn'd both together in Plutarch and Aristotle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moderation or Clemency is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a piece of justice better then all justice And you will find Mr. Gregory there cited for relating it in his Opusâ—… That the Mahumetans have another Lord's Prayer call'd by them the Prayer of Jesus the Son of Mary and that endeth thus And let not such a one bear rule over me that will have no Mercy on me for thy Mercies sake O thou most merciful A. I say Amen to that Petition and do at the same time pay my thanks to Heaven for that one doth bear rule over me in whose great Genius Iustice and Mercy do appear to the World as the same thing and whose Iustice when ever any one shall come to Paint in Story he will not need to do it in the way of a half-face to hide any defect of Mercy and wherein if any Prince be deficient his Historian will be put to do it in the way I mention'd and as Pliny tells us Appelles drawing the Face of a King who had but one Eye and intending to conceal that defect was put upon the Painting him turning his Visage a little away and so shewing but the one side of his Face and from whence Pliny makes the Invention of that