To the extent possible under law, the Text Creation Partnership has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above, according to the terms of the CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). This waiver does not extend to any page images or other supplementary files associated with this work, which may be protected by copyright or other license restrictions. Please go to http://www.textcreationpartnership.org/ for more information.
THey do appropriate this title, to be called heads of the vniuersall Church, to [error 101]
the Pope of Rome, most blasphemouslie: for there can be no head of the vniuersal bodie but Christ: But for Princes to be called the head, that is, chiefe gouernours of the Churches in their kingdomes, they do abhorre it. Whereupon Bellarmine is so saucie as to checke and controule King Henrie the 8. because he was called the head of the English Church.
1 The heathen Emperours were not heads of the Church, being not so much as members thereof: therefore neither Christian Magistrates, which doe suc∣ceede them in that authoritie, Rhemist. annot. 1. Pet. 2. sect. 6.
Ans. 1. The argument followeth not: they were no true mēbers of the Church, therefore could not be heads, that is, haue the soueraigntie of the externall go∣uernment: for wicked kings and princes doe keepe their magistracie & gouern∣ment still: who though they be not true members of the Catholike Church, yet ought to be obeied as princes. 2. Though the metaphorical name of head agreed not vnto them, yet were they by Gods ordinance appointed to be heads & go∣uernours of his people & protectors of his Church, & should haue been, if they had not abused their authoritie. 3. Christian princes, though they haue the same authoritie, which they had, yet now exercising the sword according to Gods law, and being Nurses of the Church, may vse and retaine those princely titles in deed, to be called Patrones and defenders of the faith, & head, that is, chiefe go∣uernours and protectors of the Church: which by right had been due vnto the other, if they had vsed their authoritie as they should.
2 Christian princes are members of the Church, Ergo, not heads: for if they were heads, how could the Church stand without them, as it did in the time of persecution?
Ans. First, as though the head is not a member and part of the bodie, though a principall one: so the Prince is a member of the Church, but a principall and chiefe member, not of the inuisible Church, for so Christ is onely head, but of a particular visible Church. Secondly, we denie not but that the inuisible and spi∣ritual Church may consist without the Magistrate, but a visible, flourishing, and wel-gouerned Church cannot want a head or chiefe gouernour, that is as a wall or hedge vnto it.
TO bee head of the vniuersall Church is proper onely to Christ, and in that sense is not communicable to any creature: for he is to his Church, as the head to the naturall bodie, giuing vnto it influence of grace, spirit and life: he is therefore the onely mysticall head of the vniuersal Church: But in another sense the Prince may be said to be the head and chiefe gouernour of his kingdome, & of that particular visible Church, where he is king: We make him neither the mysticall head, which is only Christ, (farre be that blasphemie from vs) nor a mi∣nisterial head, as they make the Pope to be as Christs Vicegerent in the Church; but a politicall head, to keepe and preserue the peace of the Church, and to see
that euery member doe his office and duetie. But this name we confesse is vn∣properly giuen to the Prince, neither were we the first inuentors of it: for the pa∣pists first gaue it to Henry the 8. And there are other titles which doe sufficient∣ly expresse the office of the Prince, and may bee more safely vsed. If any man thinke it too high a name for any mortall man, and so not to be giuen to any, we will not greatly contend about it: But if any denye it to the Prince, as thereby to abridge her of her power in Ecclesiastical matters, we doe stand stiffely for it; and are bold to affirme, that with much better right is this title attributed to the ciuill Magistrate then it was to the Pope: yea, and that it hath been of old giuen in a modest and sober sense to Kings and Princes, and may with a fauourable exposition be still: and Princes also may receiue this honour and title at their subiects hands, with protestation of their Christian meaning herein.
1 This phrase, for the King to be called the head, is not vnusuall in scrip∣ture, 1. Sam. 15.17. Saul is sayd to be the head of the tribes. Psal. 18.43. Dauid the head of the nations: Isay. 9.15. The Prince or honourable man the head of the people: yea Princes are called Gods, Psal. 82.2. which is a name of greater Soueraigntie, then to be called heads. Bellarmine answereth: Princes doe rule ouer their subiects as men, not as Christians, and Kings are set ouer the people not as they are Christians, but politike persons: so the Prince is head of the kingdome, not of the Church, De pontif. Rom. lib. 1. cap. 7.
Ans. Stephen Gardiner taketh away this cauill very sufficiently, we will set one Papist against another. It is all one (sayth he) to call the Prince head of the Church of England, and head of the Realme of England: for if all English∣men be his subiects, why are they not his subiects, as they are Christians? If the wife or seruant bee subiect to the master or husband being infidels, doth their conuersion, or name of Christians make them lesse subiect,* 1.1 then they were be∣fore? Haec ille. Againe, how farre is this, I pray you, from Anabaptistrie, to say, that subiects, onely as men, not as Christians, are in subiection to Princes? for doth it not followe hereupon, that as Christians they ought to haue no superiour or Magistrate?
2 It is sufficient for vs, that this title more fitly and properly belongeth to e∣uery Prince in his owne kingdome, thē to the Pope, for the Pope can in no wise be head of the Church: he is not the mysticall head, neither dare they say so: for Christ onely is the head in that manner: neither can he be the Ministeriall head of the vniuersall Church: for the Catholike Church is a bodie mysticall, & must needes haue a mysticall head: neither is he the politicall head of any particular Church: for no Bishop can be a politicall head: because he that is the head and chiefe must haue a coactiue power, to binde his subiects to obedience: so hath not any Bishop: The Prince onely beareth the sword, and enforceth obedience. Againe, in a farre diuers sense is the Prince called the head, then the Pope was: for first the Pope challenged to be head of the vniuersal Church: but the prince is chiefe only in his owne kingdome. Secondly, the Pope would be an absolute head, to doe all vpon earth that Christ did, yea and more to, to bind and loose at
his pleasure, to depose Kings, to dispense with the word of God, to constitute and make lawes at his pleasure: in so much that one of his clawback flatterers is not ashamed to say of him, Christus & Papa vnum faciunt consistorium, & ex∣cepto peccato potest Papa, quasi omnia facere, quae potest Deus: Christ and the Pope make but one Consistorie,* 1.2 & keepe but one court; & sinne onely excepted, the Pope in a manner can doe all things that God can doe. But we doe limit the po∣wer of the Prince: who is not to impose any lawes vpon the Church, but such as are agreeable to the word of God: neither doe we make him a spirituall of∣ficer, as the Pope would be, but a ciuill gouernour, who by positiue lawes is to prouide for the peace and welfare of the Church.
Lastly, S. Peter sayth, Submit your selues to the King as the chiefe, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or most excelling:* 1.3 what is this els, but as to the head? what is it to be chiefe but to be head? But we will not much contend for the name, so they will grant vs the thing: namely, that the Prince is a commander euen in Ecclesiasticall mat∣ters, as Augustine saith: In hoc reges Deo seruiunt, si mala prohibeant, nō solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem, verumetiam, quae ad diuinam religionem. Cont. Crescon. lib. 3. cap. 5. In this Kings doe good seruice to God, if they forbid euill to be done, not onely in matters pertaining to humane societie, but in things con∣cerning religion. As for the title, to bee called head, let them cease to call their chiefe Bishop so who hath no right vnto it, and we will promise also to lay it downe, though in good sense we might vse it, though the Pope had neuer layd claime thereunto.
Fox. p. 1059
Panormi∣tan.
1. Pet. 2.13.