of any inherent Prerogative or by vertue of his Imperial Soveraignty or as incident to his lately recognis'd title of Supreme Head of breaking through all Acts of Parliaments relating to Religion and Ecclesiastical Affairs that now in the 32 Year of his Reign when he had been declared the Supreme Head by Act of Parliament Six Years ago when every Act of Parliament about Church Matters carried an acknowledgment of that Declaration in the front of it when a Legislative Power as to Doctrine and Ceremonies was given him by Act of Parliament yet even then when the Supremacy blaz'd like a Meteor and had so malignant an influence as to strike opposers dead when it was armed with such a Power as never any King of England enjoyed before or since yet then were Acts of Parliaments accounted so Sacred that nothing was to be ordained or defined by this new Legislative Authority contrary to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm And this very Legislative Power owing its birth to a Parliamentary Concession which qualified it with a Restriction which perhaps was not acceptable is sufficient to inform us that a Parliament can give more power and larger Prerogatives to the King even in Ecclesiastical Matters than he has by common right and that 's all the use that can be made of this Act now in our days The next Act is that of Marriages cap. 38. of this Session the Conusance of Marriage had time out of mind belonged to the Spiritual Jurisdiction which was now vested in a great measure in the King's Person the executive part he might administer by Commissioners delegated by vertue of the Stat. of 26 Hen. 8. cap. 1. as hath been said a Legislative Power was given him by 32 Hen. 8. cap. 26. But that Act did not enable him to make any binding Laws about Marriage for the Declarations Decrees Definitions Resolutions and Ordinances which he was impowered to make according to God's Word and Christ's Gospel with his Bishops and Doctors to be appointed were only in Matters of Christian Faith and the lawful Rites and Ceremonies of the same And the setling of the Degrees of Marriage not falling under either of those two Heads viz. Matters of Faith or Ceremonies it was necessary there should be an Act of Parliament to make a Regulation therein The next Act is the 34 and 35 Hen. 8. cap. 1. which prohibits the setling or using of any Books of the Old or New Testament of Tindal's Translation or comprizing any Matter of Christian Religion Articles of Faith or Holy Scripture contrary to the Doctrin set forth since Anno Dom. 1540. or to be set forth by the King prohibits the retaining any English Books or Writings concerning Matters against the Holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Altar or for Maintenance of the Anabaptists or other Books abolished by the King's Proclamation forbids any thing to be taught contrary to the King's Instructions c. under severe Penalties In which there is this farther Clause And be it farther enacted That the King's Majesty our said Soveraign Lord that now is King Henry the Eighth may at any time hereafter at his Highness liberty and pleasure change and alter this present Act and Provisions of the same or any Clause or Article therein contained as to his Highness most excellent Wisdom shall seem convenient any thing in this Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding So that a Power in the King of Changing and Altering and consequently of Suspending which in effect is Repealing Acts of Parliament concerning Matters of Religion unless given by a Parliament is not according to the Constitution of our Government nor is it a Perogative inherent in the King of common Right For if he had had such a Power in himself this Clause which no doubt was put in by the King's Order would have been vain and nugatory The Act of 35 Hen. 8. cap. 16. gives the King Authority during his Life to name Thirty two Persons viz. sixteen Spiritual and sixteen Temporal to examine all Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial and Synodal and to establish all such Laws Ecclesiastical as shall be thought by the King and them convenient to be used in all Spiritual Courts This the King could not do by Vertue of the Act of 32 Hen. 8. cap. 26. For that Act gave him a Power concerning Matters of Christian Faith and Ceremonies only Nor could the King and the Clergy settle these Canons and Constitutions without an Act of Parliament for the Laity in all Matters Ecclesiastical in all things of Spiritual Conusance were to be bound by them Nor would the Parliament trust the King and the Spiritualty to settle the Canon Law without an equal number of the Temporalty added to them The next and last Act that I shall observe in this King's Reign is the 37 Hen. 8. cap. 17. ' which Act reciting That the Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Persons have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical but by under and from the King Enacts That all Persons as well Lay as Marryed Men being Doctors of the Civil Law may lawfully execute and exercise all manner of Jurisdiction and all Censures and Coercions appertaining to or in any wise concerning the same c. any Law Constitution or Ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding What can be more purely Spiritual than exercising Ecclesiastical Censures and yet this King though he had a Personal executive Power given him in all Matters Ecclesiastical by the 26 Hen. 8. cap. 1. a Legislative Power in part by the Statutes of 31 Hen. 8. cap. 8. and 32 Hen. 8. cap. 25. and a Power of Dispensing with the Canon Law by the Statute of 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. yet thought it convenient at least to have the concurrence of his Parliament in breaking through those Ordinances and Constitutions whereby Lay-men and Marryed-men were disabled to exercise any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical or be Judge or Register in any Court commonly called Ecclesiastical Court. I cannot well deny but that the King might have dispens'd with those Canons and Constitutions by Vertue of the Statute of the 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. which impowered him to allow the Archbishop of Canterbury to grant Licences and Dispensations even in Cases not wont to be dispensed in at Rome Nay and these Constitutions whereby Lay and Married Men were disabled as aforesaid are in the Preamble of this Statute said to be utterly abolish'd frustrated and of none effect by a Statute made in the Twenty fifth Year of the Kings most Noble Reign By which seems to be meant the Nineteenth Chapter of the then Session of Parliament And yet because the Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Persons practised the contrary which might give occasion to some evil disposed Persons to think and little to regard the Proceedings and Censures Ecclesiastical made by your Highness and your Vicegerent Officials and Commissaries Judges and Visitors being also Lay and Married Men to be of
his Heirs and Successors by Commission under the Great Seal to be directed to such persons as shall be appointed requisite for the same c. This Act of Parliament having abrogated the Pope's Power here in England those places that had been exempt from ordinary Jurisdiction would naturally have fallen back within the Visitation of the Diocesan I mean such places as had been exempt by vertue of any Bulls Licences or Dispensations from Rome only if it had not been especially and expresly provided that nothing in the said Act should be taken nor expounded to the derogation or taking away of any grants or confirmations of any Liberties Priviledges or Jurisdiction of any Monasteries Abbies Priories or other Houses or places exempt which before the making of this Act have been obtained at the See of Rome and if the Visitation of them by Commission under the Great Seal had not been provided for In the next Year Ann. 26 H. 8. The Statute was made which enacts that the King our Soveraign Lord his Heirs and Successors Kings of this Realm shall be taken accepted and reputed the Only Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia and shall have and enjoy united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm as well the title and stile thereof as all Honours Dignities Preheminences Jurisdictions Priviledges Authorities Immunities Profits and Commodities to the said Dignity of Supream Head of the same Church belonging and appertaining What was then meant understood recognis'd c. by the word Supreme Head will appear by these following Considerations First that the recital of the Act shews they intended not by that recognition to invest him with any new Power For they recite that the King's Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the Supreme head of the Church of England and so is recognised by the Clergy of the Realm in their Convocations yet nevertheless for corroboration and confirmation thereof c. So that this Act so far forth as it gives or acknowledges the Title of SUPREME HEAD is but Declarative And consequently they that upon this Act ground a Translation of the Pope's Power by the Canon-law to the King utterly mistake the matter For our King 's Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not grounded upon the Canon Law but the Common Law of the Realm it was a Native of our own and not of any foreign extraction Secondly That this Supreme Head-ship of the Church consists only in his being Supreme head of that Church of England which then was called Anglicana Ecclesia and who they were appears First by the Statute of 24. Henr. 8. cap. 12. aforementioned The body Spiritual whereof of the Realm of England having Power when any Cause of the Law Divine happened to come in question or of Spiritual Learning that it was declared interpreted and shew'd by that part of the said body Politick called the Spiritualty now being usually called the English Church So that the Spiritualty are the Ecclesia Anglicana of whom the King is here declar'd the supreme head Secondly It appears by the Recognition of the Clergy who having no Authority to declare a Supreme Head in Ecclesiastical matters for the Laity did but by that Submission acknowledge themselves to be to all intents and purposes the King's Subjects and not the Pope's But Thirdly This same Parliament in this very Session tells us that the King had of right always been so It is in the third Chapt. for the payment of first-fruits to the King. The words are Wherefore his said humble and obedient Subjects as well the Lords Spiritual and Temporal as the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled c. do pray that for the more surety continuance and augmentation of his Highness Royal estate being not only now recognis'd as he always indeed hath heretofore been the only Supreme Head in Earth next and immediately under God of the Church of England but also their most assured and undoubted natural Lord and King having the whole Governance of this his Realm c. They tell him That he was not only the Supreme Head of the Church of England but their viz. the Temporalties Lord and King so that he had the Governance of the whole Realm and Subjects of the same What can be more plain than first That by Supreme Head of the Church of England was meant the Supreme Head of the Spiritualty which was necessary to be recogniz'd because they had acknowledged formerly another Supreme Head. Secondly That they gave no new Power by that word since they tell us that indeed he had always been so And Thirdly That his Supremacy consists only in a power of Governance Fourthly This title of Supreme Head does not give the King any power of dispensing with Acts of Parliament in Matters of Religion or Ecclesiastical Affairs whatsoever That power was never yielded to the Pope himself during that whole time that he was uncontroulably submitted to as Head of the Church That power they complain of in the Act of 25 H. 8. cap. 21. as an Vsurpation an Abuse a Cheat. They declare it to be in the King and themselves Fifthly Dr. Burnet in his History of the Reformation p. 142 143. First Part has these words But at the same time that they pleaded so much for the King's Supremacy and power of making Laws for restraining and coercing his Subjects it appears that they were far from vesting him with such an absolute Power as the Popes had pretended to for they thus defined the extent of the King's Power Institution of a Christian Man. To them speaking of Princes and Magistrates specially and principally it appertaineth to defend the Faith of Christ and his Religion to conserve and maintain the True Doctrine of Christ and all such as be true Preachers and setters forth thereof and to abolish Heresies Abuses and Idolatries and to punish with corporal pains such as of Malice be the occasion of the same And finally to oversee and cause that the said Bishops and Priests do execute their Pastoral Office truly and faithfully and speally in these Points which by Christ and his Apostles were given and committed to them and in case they shall be negligent in any part thereof or would not diligently execute the same to cause them to double and supply their lack and if they obstinately withstand their Prince's kind monition and will not amend their faults then and in such case to put others in their rooms and places And God hath also commanded the said Bishops and Priests to obey with all humbleness and reverence both Kings and Princes and Governors and all their Laws not being contrary to the Laws of God whatsoever they be and that not only propter iram but also propter conscientiam Thus it appears that they both limited obedience to the King's Laws with the due caution of not being contrary to the Law of God and acknowledged the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in discharge of the
little or none Effect or Force Therefore it is ordained and enacted by Authority of this present Parliament That all and singular Persons as well Lay as those that be Married being Doctors of the Civil Law c. The enacting of a thing by Parliament to silence all Doubts to give credit to the Proceedings of such Lay-men as then did actually exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by Commission or otherwise shews sufficiently that even in Matters never so Spiritual the Act of King Lords and Commons carryed a greater Authority than any Commission Dispensation or other Act whatsoever proceeding from the King solely and that at a time when the Supremacy was at the height There were many other Acts passed in this Kings Reign concerning Church men and Matters confessedly of Ecclesiastical Conusance as 21 Hen. 8. cap. 5. concerning Probates of Wills. Cap. 6. Concerning Mortuaries taken by Priests and others Cap. 13. Against Pluralities of Benefices and taking of Farms by Spiritual Men. 23 Hen. 8. Cap. 1. Abridging the Power of Ordinaries and taking away the Benefit of Clergy in some Cases Cap. 9. That no Man be cited into any Ecclesiastical Court out of the Diocess wherein he dwells unless in certain Cases Cap. 10. Concerning Feoffments and Assurances to the use of any Church or Chappel 25 Hen. 8. Cap. 14. For the punishment of Heresie and Hereticks limiting the manner of proceeding against them defining what shall be Heresie how it shall be punisht and abridging the Authority of the Bishops and the Canon Law. Cap. 16. Concerning Pluralities 26 Hen. 8. Cap. 3. For the payment of the First Fruits of all Dignities Benefices Promotions Spiritual and Tenths to the King and his Heirs abolishing the Pope's Usurpation and Authority herein Cap. 13. For abolishing the Priviledge of Sanctuary in Cases of High Treason Cap. 15. Against some Exactions of Spiritual Men within the Archdeaconry of Richmond 27 Hen. 8. Cap. 8. That the King 's Spiritual Subjects shall pay no Tenths whilst they are in their First Fruits Cap. 19. Limiting Sanctuaries and Sanctuary Persons Cap. 20. Concerning the Payment of Tythes within the City and Suburbs of London Cap. 28. For the suppressing of Monasteries Priories and Religious Houses vesting their Revenues in the King and erecting a Court of Augmentations 28 Hen. 8. Cap. 10. For extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome prescribing an Oath of Abjuration of it and Popery together with the Pope's Usurpations and excellently setting forth the King's Supremacy and Parliaments Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical Cap. 11. For the Restitution of the Profits arising during the Vacation of a Benefice to the next Incumbent Cap. 13. Compelling Spiritual Persons to reside upon their Livings Cap. 16. Releasing such as had obtain'd pretended Licences and Dispensations from the See of Rome 31 Hen. 8. Cap. 16. Enabling such as were Religious Persons to purchase Lands to sue and to be sued in all manner of Actions which they were disabled formerly to do by the Common and Canon Law. Cap. 9. Enabling the King to make Bishops by his Letters Patents and to erect new Bishopricks which he did Cap. 13. For dissolving all Monasteries and Religious Houses and vesting them in the King. Cap. 14. For abolishing diversity of Opinions in Matters of Religion most fully and exactly demonstrating the Parliaments Jurisdiction in Matters of Religion 32 Hen. 8. Cap. 7. For the true Payment of Tythes and Offerings Cap. 10. For the Punishment of incontinent Priests and Women offending with them Cap. 12. Concerning Sanctuaries and the Priviledges of Churches and Church-Yards Cap. 15. Prescribing the manner of proceeding against Hereticks and impugners of the Act for abolishing of enormous Opinions in Christians Religion Cap. 25. Dispensing with the Marriage between the King and the Lady Ann of Cleve 33 Hen. 8. Cap. 29. For enabling Religious Persons to sue and be sued Cap. 31. Severing the Bishopricks of Chester and the Isle of Man from the Jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and uniting them to the Province and Archbishoprick of York Cap. 32. Making the Church of Whitegate a Parish Church by it self and severing it from the Parish of Over All these Acts and perhaps some few not here enumerated evince beyond all possibility of contradiction that the whole Fabrick of the English Church both as to the Doctrin Discipline Ceremonies Censures Rights Jurisdictions Endowments Priviledges c. was from time to time ordered moulded governed altered improved or impaired by Authority of Parliament and not by the King in right of his meer Supremacy nor by the Clergy upon the score of any pretended Authority derived from from Christ or from the King as SUPREME HEAD on Earth That no one Pin was fastned in this Tabernacle but according to what the Legislative Body of the Kingdom prescribed and directed from time to time That this Age had no other Notion of the King's Supremacy by common right than our Fore-Fathers had before the Pope and his Faction grew upon our Constitution That many Powers and Authorities given to King Henry the Eighth by Parliament which are now either abrogated or expired as they shew that our King 's were not nor are entituled to them of common Right nor can justifie the executing any such Authority by Presidents in his Reign which were grounded upon Laws then in being but which are now of no force so they shew unquestionably that there is a greater and more Soveraign Supremacy in Matters Spiritual and Ecclesiastical in the King and both Houses of Parliament than is lodged in the King himself or in the King and Convocation It appears farther that those Temporary Powers given to that King expiring with him and the Act of 26 Hen. 8. Cap. 1. being now Repeal'd the Legal and Ancient Jurisdiction of the Crown in Matters Ecclesiastical is the same now that it was Five hundred Years ago notwithstanding any thing that pass'd in this Reign only that a new Course is now settled and that by Act of Parliament too for the Electing of Bishops and Prosecuting of Appeals Only one Thing more I shall add viz. That in Matters Spiritual as well as Temporal several Resolutions of the Judges being grounded on Temporary Acts of Parliament then in being following Judges both Ecclesiastical and Civil meeting with such Resolutions and not considering that those Acts upon which such Resolutions were made were but Temporary or Repeal'd they have made such Judgments to be Presidents to graft their Modern Opinions upon FINIS An Answer to CHAP. 4. SECT 1. Of a late BOOK Entituled the King 's Visitatorial Power Asserted By way of APPENDIX SInce the foregoing Papers were Written a late Mercenary Writer One Nathaniel Johnson Doctor in Physick has publish'd a Book Entituled The King 's Visitatorial Power Asserted in which Book he has inserted a long Section how pertinently to his main design in that Treatise may perhaps be shewn hereafter concerning the King's Supremacy and Power in Ecclesiastical Causes and