believe that you will hardly find any Ecclesiastical Canons for the Government of the Church of England, which were not either originally promulgated, or after approved and allowed o either by the Supream Monarch of all the Saxons, or by some King or other of the several Heptarchies, directing in their National or Provincial Synods. And they enjoyed this Prerogative without any dispute after the Norman Conquest also, till by degrees the Pope in grossed it to himself (as before was shewn) and then con∣ferred it upon such as were to exercise the same under his Authority; which plainly manifests that the Act of Submission so much spoke of, was but a changing of their dependance from the Pope to the King, from an usurped to a lawful power, from one to whom they had made themselves a kind of voluntary Slaves, to him who justly chal∣lenged a natural dominion over them: And secondly, that that submission of theirs to their natural Prince, is not to be considered as a new Concession, but as the Recog∣nition only of a former power.
In the next place I do not find it to be contrary to the usage of the Primitive times. I grant indeed that when the Church was under the command of the Heathen Em∣perors, the Clergy did Assemble in their National and Provincial Synods of their own Authority; which Councils being summoned by the Metropolitans, and subscribed by the Clergy, were of sufficient power to bind all good Christians who lived within the Verge of their jurisdiction. They could not else Assemble upon any exigence of affairs but by such Authority. But it was otherwise when the Church came under the protection of Christian Princes; all Emperors and Kings from Constantine the Great (till the Pope carried all before him in the darker times) accompting it one of the principal flowers, (as indeed it was) which adorned their Diadems. I am not wil∣ling to beat on a common place. But if you please to look into the Acts of ancient Councils, you will find that all the General Councils (all which deserve to be so called, if any of them do deserve it) to have been summoned and confirmed by the Christian Emperors, that the Council of Arles was called and confirmed by the Emperor Con∣stantine, that of Sardis by Constans, that of Lampsacus by Valentinian, that of Aquileia by Theodosius, that of Thessalonica (National or Provincial all) by the Emperor Gra∣tian: That when the Western Empire fell into the hands of the French, the Councils of Akon, Mentz, Meldun, Wormes, and Colen received both life and motion from Charles the Great and his Successors in that Empire; it being evident in the Records of the Gallican Church, that the opening and confirming of all their Councils not only under the Caroline but under the Merovignean Family, was always by the power, and sometimes with the Presidence of their Kings and Princes, as you may find in the Col∣lections of Lindebrogius and Sirmondus the Jesuite; and finally that in Spain it self (though now so much obnoxious to the Papal power) the two at Bracara, and the ten first holden at Toledo, were summoned by the Writ and Mandate of the Kings thereof. Or if you be not willing to take this pains, I shall put you to a shorter and an easier search; referring you for your better information in this particular, to the learned Sermon Preached by Bishop Andrews at Hampton Court, Anno 1606. touching the Right and power of calling Assemblies, or the right use of the Trumpets. A Sermon Preached purposely at that time and place for giving satisfaction in that point to Melvin, and some leading men of the Scotish Puritans, who of late times had arrogated to themselves an unlimited power of calling and constituing their Assemblies without the Kings consent and against his will.
As for the Vessallage which the Clergy are supposed to have drawn upon themselves by this Submission, I see no fear or danger of it as long as the two Houses of Parlia∣ment are in like condition; and that the Kings of England are so tender of their own Prerogative, as not to suffer any one Body of the Subjects to give a Law unto the other without his consent. That which is most insisted on for the proof hereof, is the delegating of this power by King Henry VIII. to Sir Thomas Cromwel (afterwards Earl of Essex and Lord high Chamberlain) by the name of his Vicar General in Ecclesiastical matters; who by that name presided in the Convocation, Anno 1536. and acted other things of like nature in the years next following. And this (especially his presiding in the Convocation) is looked on both by Sanders and some Protestant Doctors, not only as a great debasing of the English Clergy (men very Learned for those times) but as deforme satis Spectaculum, a kind of Monstrosity in nature. But certainly those men forget (though I do not think my self bound to justifie all King Harries actions) that in the Council of Chalcedon, the Emperor appointed certain Noble-men to sit as Judges, whose names occurr in the first Action of that Council. The like we find