Englands grievances in times of popery drawn out of the canon law, decretal epistles and histories of those times : with reasons why all sober Protestants may expect no better dealing from the Roman-Catholicks, should God for their sins suffer them to fall under the Popes tyranny again / collected for the information and satisfaction of the English nation at this time.

SECT. 10.

10. He taketh upon him also to assoil Men from keeping their Oaths▪ whereby do grow Disturbances, not only of Leagues betwixt one Prince and another, but also of that Assurance which a Prince hath of his own Subjects, and which sometimes the Subjects have of th•• Prince, in Composition of Quarrels that do happen between them Bellarmine, in the Second Chapter of the Book against Barckley, saith Pontifex potest d spensare in votis & juramentis, quae Deus ipse jussit redd•• & quorum solutio est de jure divino. The Pope can give Dispensations fro•• Vows and Oaths, which God hath commanded to be fulfilled, and the keep∣ing whereof is of Divine right. And you need not wonder at this, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 you consider what he saith elsewhere. If the Pope did err (saith he) commanding Vices and prohibiting Vertues, the Church should be obliged t•• believe, that Vices are good, and Vertues are evil, unless she should si•• against Conscience.

In the year 882 Marin, or Martin, attained to the Papal Dignity of whom Platina saith, that he came to the Popedom by ill way▪ There was then one Formosus Bishop of Porto, who by the will of Pop•• John IX, had been obliged by Oath never to receive Episcopacy though it were presented unto him: But that Marin delivered hi•• from that Oath by a Dispensation, giving him leave to be forswo•• with a good Conscience.

At that time the Counts of Tusculum had such a Power at Rom•• that they made Popes such as they listed. Marin being dead, the promoted Adrian the Third to the Popedom, and after him Steph•••• the VII, to whom Formosus succeeded, who made no difficulty to r••¦ceive the Popedom against his Oath. This Formosus had but a sho••••

Reign, he had Boniface the VII for his Successor, whom Stephen the VIII succeeded, who unburied the Body of Formosus; and having arrayed him with his Priestly Robes, put him in full Synod upon the Popes Seat. Then having cut off his Fingers wherewith he gave the Blessing, he caused him to be dragged and cast into the River Tiber, declaring him a Perjured Man, and an Unlawful Pope. That Stephen for his Tyranies was taken by the Roman People and strangled in Prison.

To that Stephen, Romanus succeeded, and to him John the X; both which restored Formosus again to his good Name: For this John as∣sembled a Council at Ravenna, where all the Acts of Formosus were made valid, and his Perjury approved. But Sergius that succeeded, abrogated all that, and again unburied the Body of Formosus, with a thousand Reproaches. It is a particular stain to that Age, that in it the Pope began to authorize Perjury, and to dispense from Oaths. See the 6th Question of the 15th Cause of the Decree, which is full of such Examples. But leaving this, let us return to the Matter in hand, how Thomas Becket was discharged of his Oath, it hath been shewn before; and the Examples be many, of Subjects that have sought and obtained like Liberty at the Popes hands, in matter of their Allegiance and Duty promised by Oath. King John had taken an Oath to observe the Laws of King Henry the First, of Edward the Confessor, and the great Charter of Liberties: but he violated this Oath, and was absolved from it soon after by the Pope. And we find that Pope Ʋrban the Fourth absolved King Henry the Third from his Oath made to his Subjects, for the observation of certain Articles, called, The Provisions of Oxford, where••o he had condescended, after long trouble, for the peace and quiet of his People. Pope Clement the V also did the like to King Edward the First, touching his Oath which he had made to the Barons of this Realm. Thomas Waisingham f. 61.

Notes

• Assurance betwixt the King and his Subj••cts disturbed.
• Bellarm. lib. 4. de Pontifice cap. 5.
• Mat. Paris fol. 1322.