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 Page  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 Page  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 Page  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 Page  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 Page  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 Page  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 Page  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 Page  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.

Page  156And 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 Page  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 Page  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 Page  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.