Schisme garded and beaten back upon the right owners shewing that our great controversy about Papall power is not a quaestion of faith but of interest and profit, not with the Church of Rome, but with the Court of Rome : wherein the true controversy doth consist, who were the first innovators, when and where these Papall innovations first began in England : with the opposition that was made against them / by John Bramhall.
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Title
Schisme garded and beaten back upon the right owners shewing that our great controversy about Papall power is not a quaestion of faith but of interest and profit, not with the Church of Rome, but with the Court of Rome : wherein the true controversy doth consist, who were the first innovators, when and where these Papall innovations first began in England : with the opposition that was made against them / by John Bramhall.
Author
Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.
Publication
Gravenhagh [Netherlands] :: Imprinted by John Ramzey,
1658.
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Subject terms
Church of England -- Controversial literature.
Anti-Catholicism.
Cite this Item
"Schisme garded and beaten back upon the right owners shewing that our great controversy about Papall power is not a quaestion of faith but of interest and profit, not with the Church of Rome, but with the Court of Rome : wherein the true controversy doth consist, who were the first innovators, when and where these Papall innovations first began in England : with the opposition that was made against them / by John Bramhall." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/a29205.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 11, 2024.
Pages
Sect I. Cap VIII.
So from his Iudiciary power I come to
Papal dispensations, the last of the grosser
Vsurpations of the Bishops of Rome. Where
I have a large Field offered me to expa∣tiate
in, if I held it so pertinēt to the present
Controversy. The Pharisees did never di∣late
their Philacteries so much as the Ro∣man
Courtiers did their dispensative power.
The Pope dispenseth with Oathes, with
Vowes, with Lawes, he looseth from
Sinnes, from Censures, from Punishments.
Is not this a strange Key, which can unlock
descriptionPage 148
both sinnes, and censures, and Punishments,
and Lawes, and Oaths, and Vowes, where
there are so many and so different wards? It
is two to one that it proveth not a right Key,
but a Picklock. Their doctrin of Dispensa∣tions
was foule enough, especially in such
cases as concern the Law of God or Nature;
as Oaths, Vowes, Leagues, Marriages,
Allegiance. For either they make the dis∣pensation
to be onely Declarative; and then
the Purchaser is meerly Cheated, who
payes his money for nothing: Or else they
make all Contracts, Leagues, promises to
be but Conditionall, If the Pope approve them,
which destroyeth all mutuall trust and hu∣mane
Society: Or thirdly they make the
Popes Dispensations, to be a taking away
of the matter of the Vow or Oath, that is,
the Promise; as if the Papall power could
recall that which is past, or make that to
be undone to day which was done yester∣day,
or that not to be promised which was
promised: Or lastly they doe dispense with
the Law of God and Nature, as they doe
indeed, what soever they pretend to the
Contrary, or all this kind of dispensations
signify nothing.
But the Practise of Dispensations was
much more foule. Witnesse their Peniten∣tiary
Taxe, wherein a man might see the
descriptionPage 149
Price of his Sin before hand, Their com∣mon
Nundination of Pardons, Their absol∣ving
Subjects from their Oaths of Allegi∣ance,
Their loosing of Princes from their
solemne Leagues, of Married people from
the Bonds of Matrimony, of Cloysterers
from their Vowes of Celibate, of all sorts
of persons from all Obligations Civill or
sacred. And whereas no Dispensation ought
to be granted without just cause, now there is no
cause at all inquired after in the Court of Rome,
but onely the Price. This is that which the
nine choise Cardinalls laid so close to the
conscience of Paul the third, How Sacred and
Venerable the Authority of the Lawes ought to be,
how unlawfull and pernicious it is to reape any
gaine from the exercise of the Keys. They in∣veigh
sadly throughout against dispēsatiōs,
and among other things that Simoniacall per∣sons
were not affraid at Rome, first to commit Si∣mony,
and presently to goe buy an Absolu∣tiō
and so reteine their Benefice. Bina Venena
juvant. Two grosse Simonies make a title
at Rome, Thankes to the Popes dispensa∣tions.
But I must contract my discourse to those
Dispensations which are intended in the
Lawes of Henry the eight, that is, the power
to dispense with English Lawes in the Exte∣riour
Court, Let him bindor loose inwardly
descriptionPage 150
whom he will, whether his Key erre or not,
we are not concerned. Secondly as he is a
Prince in his own Territories, he that hath
power to bind, hath power to loose, He that
hath power to make Lawes, hath power to
dispense with his own Lawes. Lawes are
made of Common Events. Those benigne
Circumstances which happen rarely, are
left to the dispensative Grace of the Prince.
Thirdly as he is a Bishop, whatsoever dis∣pensative
power the ancient Ecclesiasticall
Canons, or Edicts of Christian Emperours,
give to the Bishop of Rome within those
Territories which were subject to his Iu∣risdiction
by Humane right, we do not
envy him; So he suffer us to enjoy our
ancient Privileges and Immunities, freed
from his encroachments and Vsurpations.
The Chief ground of the Ancient Ecclesia∣sticall
Canon was, Let the Old Customes pre∣vaile.
A Possession or Prescription of eleven
h••ndred yeares, is a good ward both in Law
and Conscience against humane Right, and
much more against a new pretense of divine
right. For eleven hundred yeares our
Kings and Bishops enjoyed the ••ole dispen∣sative
power, with all English Lawes Ci∣vill
and Ecclesiasticall. In all which time
he is not able to give one Instance of a Pa∣pall
descriptionPage 151
Dispensation in England, nor any sha∣dow
of it when the Church was formed.
Where the Bishops of Rome had no Legi∣slative
power, no Iudiciary power in the
Exteriour Court, by necessary consequence
they could have no Dispensative power.
The first reservation of any Case in En∣gland
to the Censure and absolution of the
Pope, is supposed to have been that of Al∣bericus
the Popes Legate, in an English Sy∣nod
in the yeare 1138. Neque quisquam ei
praeter Romanum Pontificem, nisi mortis urgente
periculo, modum paenitenttae finalis injungat. Let
no man injoyn him the manner of finall Pennance
but the Bishop of Rome, except in danger of death.
But long before this, indeed from the
beginning, our own Bishops (as the most
proper Iudges, who lived upon the place
and see the nature of the Crime and the de∣gree
of the Delinquents Penitence or Im∣penitence,)
did according to equity relaxe
the rigour of Ecclesiasticall Canons; as
they did all over the Christian world, be∣fore
the Court of Rome had usurped this
gainfull Monopoly of Dispensations. In the
Lawes of Alured alone, and in the con∣joint
Lawes of Alured and Gu••thrun, we see
how many sortes of Ecclesiasticall crimes
were dispēsed withall by the sole authority
descriptionPage 152
of the King and Church of England, and
satisfaction made at home to the King, and
to the Church, and to the Party grieved, or
the Poore, without any manner of reference
at all to the Court of Rome, or to any for∣rein
Dispensation. The like we find in the
the lawes of some other Saxon Kings. There
needed no other paenitentiary taxe. Dunstan
the Arch-Bishop had Excommunicated a
great Count, He made his Peace at Rome,
and obteined the Popes Commaund for his
restitution to the bosome of the Church.
Dunstan answered, I will obey the Pope wil∣lingly
when I see him paenitent, But it is not
Gods will that he should lie in his sinne free
from Ecclesiasticall discipline to insu••t over
us. God forbid that I should relinquish the
law of Christ for the cause of any mortall
man. Roman dispensations were not in such
Request in those daies.
The Church of England dispensed with
those Nunnes, who had fled to their Nunne∣ries
not for the love of religiō, but had takē
the veile upon them meerly for feare of the
French; and this with the counseile of the
King in the daies of Lanfranke: and with
Queene Maud the wyfe of Hēry the First in
the like case, in the daies of Anselme, without
any suite to Rome for a forreine dispensatiō.
There can be nothing more pernicious
descriptionPage 153
then where the sacred Name of Law, is pro∣stituted
to avaricious ends; Where Statutes
or Canons are made like Pitfals or Traps to
catch the Subjects by their purses; where
profitable faults are cherished for private
Advantage by Mercinary Iudges, as beggers
doe their sores. The Roman Rota doth ac∣knowledge
such ordinary avaricious Dis∣pensations,
to be Odious things. The Delec∣ted
Cardinalls make them to be sacrile∣gious
things, an unlawfull selling of the
power of the Keys. Commonly they are cal∣led
Vulnera Legum, The wo••nds of the La∣wes:
And our Statutes of Provisers doe
stile them expresly the undoing and Destruc∣tion
of the Common Law of the Land. The
King, the Lords Spirituall and Temporall,
and the whole Common wealth of England,
complained of this abuse as a mighty Grie∣vance;
Of the frequent comming among them
of this infamous Messenger the Popes Non
Obstante, (that is his Dispensations) by which
Oaths, Customes, Writings, Grants, Statutes,
Rights, Privileges, were not onely weakened but
exinanited. Sometimes these Dispensative
Bulls came to legall Tryalls, and were con∣demned.
By the Law of the Land the Arch-Bishop
of Canterbury was Visiter of the Vni∣versity
of Oxford, Boniface the eyght by his
Bull dispēsed with this law, and exēpted the
descriptionPage 154
Vniversity from the Iurisdiction of the
Arch-Bishop. Whereupon there grew a
Controversy, and the Bull was decreed
voide in Parliament by two succeding
Kings, as being obtained to the Prejudice of
the Crown, the weakning of the Lawes and Cu∣stomes
of the Kingdome, (in favour of Lollards
and hereticks) and the probable Ruine of the said
Vniversity.
How the Liberties of France and the Lawes
and Customes of England doe accord
in condemning this Vsurpation wee have
seen formerly, The power of the Pope is not
absolute in France, but limit••ed and restrained by
the Canons of Ancient Councells. If it be Li∣mitted
and restrained by Ancient Canons,
then it is not Paramount above the Canons,
then it is not dispensative to give Non Ob∣stante's
to the Canons. And the Popes Legate
may not execute his Commission, before he have
promised under his Oath upon his holy Orders,
that he will not attempt any thing in the exercise
of his Legantine power to the Prejudice of the
Decrees of Generall Councells, or the Privile∣ges
of the French Church. Then he must gi∣ve
no Dispensarions against the Canons, or
Contrary to those Privileges.
Thus we have viewed all the reall dif∣ferences
between the Church of Rome and
us, concerning Papall power which our
descriptionPage 155
Lawes take notice of. There are some
other pet••y Abuses which we complain of,
but they may be all referred to one of these
four heads, The Patronage of the Church
of England, The Legislative, The Judicary,
and Dispensative powers. Other differences
are but the Opinions of particular Persons:
But where no Law is there is no Transgression.
Wee have seen evidently, that Henry the
eighth did cast no Branch of Papall power
out of England, but that which was dia∣metrally
repugnant to the Ancient Lawes
of the Land, made in the Reign of Henry
the fourth, Richard the second, Edward the
third, Edward the first, Henry the third,
Henry the second; And these Lawes ever of
Force in England, never repealed, no not
so much as in Queen Maryes time, when
all the Lawes of Henry the eigh••h and
Edward the sixth which concerned the Bi∣shop
of Rome were repealed. So that I pro∣fesse
clearly, I doe not see what advantage
Henry the eighth could make of his own La∣wes,
which he might not have made of those
anciēt lawes; except onely a gawdy title of
Head of the English Church, which survived
him not long; and the Tenths and first fruits of
the Clergy, which was so late an usurpation
of the Pope, that it was not in the nature of
things, whē those ancient lawes were made.
descriptionPage 156
And since I have mentioned the Novelty
of that upstart Vsurpation, give me leave
to let you see how it was welcommed into
England, whilest it was but yet hatching
with the shell upon the Head of it, By a
Law of Henry the fourth, about an Hun∣dred
yeares before Henry the eyghth, (so la∣te
this Mushrom began to sprout up.)For
the grievous Complaints made to the King by
his Commons in Parliament, of the horrible Mis∣chiefs
and Damnable Custome which is introdu∣ced
of new in the Church of Rome, that none
could have Provision of an Archbishoprick,
untill he had compounded with the Popes Chamber
to pay great excessive summes of money, as well
for the First fruits as other lesser Fees and
Perquisites, &c▪ The King ordeineth in
Parliament, as well to the Honour of God as
to eschew the Dammage of the Realm and perill
of soules, That whosoever shall pay such
summes should forfeit all they had, or as
much as they might forfeit. Wherein are Hen∣ry
the eights Lawes more bitter against the
Bishop of Rome, or more severe then
this is?
To conclude, we have seen the precise
time when all these Weeds did first begin
to peep out of the earth, The very first In∣troduction
to the intended Pageant, was the
spoiling of Christian Kings of the Patronage
descriptionPage 157
of the Church, which Bellarmine confesseth
that they held, Per non breve tempus, For a
long time. A long time indeed, so long as
there had been Christian Princes in the
world, from Constantine the Great to Henry
the fourth in the Empire; and yet longer
with us in Brittaine, from King Lucius to
Henry the First. The Clergy of Liege say,
Nimium effluxit tempus quo hae•• consuetudo in∣cepit,
&e. It is too long since this Custome
(of swearing fidelity to Princes) did begin.
Aud under this Custome Holy and Reverend
Bishops have yielded up their soules to God,
giving to Caesar that which was Caesars, and to
God that which was Gods. But thē rose up Po∣pe
Hildebrand otherwise called Gregory the
seventh, Fortissimus Ecclesiae Dei Vindex, The
most undaunted Vindicator of the Church of
God, Who feared not to revoke and defend the
old Holy Ecclesiasticall Lawes.With this
accordeth the Church of Liege, Hildehran.
dus Papa Author hujus Novelli Schismatis, pri∣mus
Levavit Sacerdotalem Lanceam contra
Diadema Regni &c. Pope Hildebrand the
author of this new Schisme, first lift up his Episco∣pall
Lance against the Royall diadē. And a little
after, Si utriusque Legis totam Bibliothecam &c.
If I turn over the whole Library of the old and
new Law, and all the ancient Expositors thereof
descriptionPage 158
I shall not find an Example of this Apostoli∣call
precept, onely Pope Hildebrand perfected
the Sacred Canons, when he Commanded Maud
the Marchionesse to subdue Henry the Empe∣rour,
for remission of her Sinnes.
I take no exceptions to the person of Po∣pe
Hildebrand, others have done it suffici∣ently.
Whether the Title of Antichrist
was fastened upon him justly or injustly,
I regard not. Yet it was in the time of this
Hildebrand and Paschalis his Successor, that
the Arch-bishop of Florence affirmed by re∣velatiō,
(for he protested that he knew it most
certainly) that Antichrist was to be revealed in
that age. And about this time the Walden∣ses,
(of whom St. Bernard saith that if we inqui∣re
into their Faith, nothing was more Christian, if
into their Conversation, nothing was more irre∣prehensible,)
made their Secession from the
Bishop of Rome. And not long after in
the yeare 1120. published a Booke to the
world that the great Antichrist was come;
That the present Governers of the Roman
Church, armed with both Powers Secular
and Spirituall, who under the specious
Name of the Spouse of Christ did oppose
the right way of Salvation, were Anti∣christ.
But I cannot but wonder what are those
descriptionPage 159
old holy Ecclesiasticall Lawes which Bellar∣mine
mentioneth, Those Institutions of the
Holy Fathers which Hildebrand himself pro∣fesseth
to follow, Sanctorum Patrum in∣stituta
sequen••es; Why doe they men∣tion
what they are not able to produce,
or pretend what they never can perform?
Bellarmin hath named but one poore coun∣terfeit
Canon, without Antiquity, without
Authority, without Vse, without Truth. If
Mr. Serjeant be able to help him with a re∣cruit,
it would come very seasonably: for
without some such helps, his pretended In∣stitutions
of the Fathers will be condemned
for his own Innovations, and for arrant
Vsurpations, and the Guilt of Schism will
fall upon the Roman Court.