Keimåelia 'ekklåesiastika, The historical and miscellaneous tracts of the Reverend and learned Peter Heylyn, D.D. now collected into one volume ... : and an account of the life of the author, never before published : with an exact table to the whole.

The Way of the REFORMATION OF THE Church of England, DECLARED and JUSTIFIED, &c.

THE INTRODUCTION, Shewing the Occasion, Method, and Design of the whole discourse.

My dear Hierophilus,

YOUR company is always very pleasing to me; but you are never better welcome han when you bring your doubts and scruples along with you; for by that means you put me to the studying of some point or other, whereby I benefit my self, if not profit you. And I remember at the time of your last being with me, you seemed much scandalized for the Church of England, telling me you were well assured that her Doctrine was most true and orthodox, her Government con∣form to the Word of God, and the best ages of the Church; and that her publick Liturgie was an Extract of the Primitive Forms; nothing in all the whole composure but what did tend to edification and Increase of piety. But for all this, you were unsatisfied (as you said) in the ways and means by which this Church proceeded in her Reformation; alleding, that you had heard it many times objected by some Partisans of the Church of Rome, that our Religion was meer Parlia∣mentarian, not regulated by Synodical Meetings, or the Authority of Councels, as in elder times; or as D. Harding said long since in his Answer unto B. Jewel, That we had a Parliament Religion, a Parliament Faith, and a Parliament Gospel: To which Scultinguis and some others after added, that we had none but Parliament Bishops, and a Parlia∣ment Clergy; that you were apt enough to think that the Papists made not all this noise without some ground for it, in regard you have observed some Parliaments in these latter days so mainly bent to catch at all occasions, whereby no manifest their powers in Ecclesiastical matters, especially in constituting the new Assembly of Divines and others. And finally, that you were heartily ashamed, that being so often choaked with these Objections, you neither knew how to traverse the ••ndictment, nor plead Not guilty to the Bill. Some other doubts you said you had, relating to the King the Pope, and the Protestant Churches, either too little or too much look'd after in our Reformation; but you were loth to trouble me with too much at once. And thereupon you did in∣treat me to bethink my self of some fit Plaister for the sore which did oft afflict you, religiously affirming that your desires proceeded not from curiosity, or an itch of know∣ledge, or out of any disaffection to the Power of Parliaments; but meerly from an ho∣nest zeal to the Church of England, whose credit and prosperity you did far prefer be∣fore your life, or whatsoever in this world could be dear unto you: Adding withal, that if I would take this pains for your satisfaction, and help you out of these perplexi∣ties which you were involved in, I should not only do good service to the Church it self, but to many a wavering member of it, whom these objections had much stagger∣ed

in their Resolutions. In fine, that you desired also to be informed how far the Par∣liaments had been interessed in these alterations of Religion, which hapned in the Reigns of K. Hen. VIII. K. Edw. VI. and Q. Elizabeth? What ground there was for all this clamour of the Papists? And whether the Houses, or either of them, have exercised of old any such Authority in matters of Ecclesiastical or Spiritual nature, as some of late have ascribed unto them? Which though it be a dangerous and invidi∣ous Subject (as the times now are) yet for your sake, and for the truth's, and for the honour of Parliaments, which seem to suffer much in the Popish calumny, I shall un∣dertake it; premising first, that I intend not to say any thing to the point of Right, whether or not the Parliament may lawfully meddle in such matters as concern Religion; but shall apply my self wholly unto matters of Fact, as they relate unto the Reformation here by law established. And for my method in this business, I shall first lay down by way of preamble, the form of calling of the Convocation of the Clergy here in England, that we may see by what Authority they proceed in their Constitutions, and then de∣clare what was acted by the Clergy in that Reformation: In which, I shall begin with the ejection of the Pope, and setling the Supremacy in the Crown Imperial of this Realm; descending next to the Translation of the Scriptures into the English tongue, the Reformation of the Church in Doctrinals and forms of Worship, and to proceed unto the Power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy, and the direction of the people in the exercise of their Religion; concluding with an Answer to all such Ob∣jections (by what part soever they be made) as are most material. And in the can∣vassing of these points, I doubt not but it will appear unto you, that till these late busie and unfortunate times, in which every man intrudeth on the Priestly Function, the Parliaments did nothing at all either in making Canons, or in matters Doctrinal, or in Translation of the Scriptures: Next, that That little which they did in reference to the Forms and Times of Worship, was no more than the inflicting of some temporal or legal penalties on such as did neglect the one, or not conform unto the other, having been first digested and agreed upon in the Clergy way: And finally, that those Kings and Princes before remembred, by whose Authority the Parliaments did that little in those Forms and Times, did not act any thing in that kind themselves, but what was war∣ranted unto them by the Word of God, and the example of such godly and religious Emperors and other Christian Kings and Princes as flourished in the happiest times of Christianity. This is the sum of my design, which I shall follow in the order before laid down; assuring you that when you shall acquaint me with your other scruples, I will endeavour what I can for your satisfaction.

1. Of calling or assembling the Convocation of the Clergy, and the Authority thereof when convened together.

AND in this we are first to know, that anciently the Arch-bishop of the several Provinces of Canterbury and York were vested with a power of Convocating the Clergy of their several and respective Provinces, when, and as often as they thought it necessary for the Churches peace. And of this power they did make Use upon all extraordinary and emergent cases, either as Metropolitans and Primates in their seve∣ral Provinces, or as Legati nati to the Popes of Rome: But ordinarily, and of common course, especially after the first passing of the Acts or Statutes of Praemuniri, they did restrain that power to the good pleasure of the Kings, under whom they lived, and used it not but as the necessities and occasions of these Kings, or the distresses of the Church did require it of them; and when it was required of them, the Writ or Pre∣cept of the King was in this form following. Rex, &c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri N. Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo totius Angliae Primati & Apostolicae, sedis Legato salutem. Quibusdam ardius & urgentibus negotiis defensionem & securitatem Ecclesiae Anglicanae, ac pacem, tranquillitatem, & bonum publicum, & defensionem Regni nostri, & subditorum nostrorum ejusdem concernentibus, Ʋobis in Fide & dilectione, quibus nobis tenemini, rogando mandamus, quatenus praemissis debito intuito attentis & ponderatis universos & singulos Epis∣copos vestrae Provinciae, ac Decanos & Priores Ecclesiarum Cathedralium, Abbates, Priores & alios Electivos, exemptos & non exemptos, nec non Archidiaconos, Conventus, Capitula, & Collegia totum{que} Clerum cujuslibet Dioceseos ejusdem Provinciae, ad conveniendum coram vobis in Ecclesia Sancti Pauli London. vel alibi, prout melius expedire videritis, cum omni celeritate accommoda modo debito Convocari faciatis; Ad tractandum, consentiendum & concludendum super praemissis & aliis quae sibi clarius proponentur, tunc & ibidem ex parte

nostra. Et hoc sicut nos & statum Regni nostri, ac honorem & utilitatem Ecclesiae praedictae diligitis, nullatenus omittatis. Teste meipso, &c. These are the very words of the an∣tient Writs, and are still retained in these of later times; but that the Title of Legatus sedis Apostolicae then used in the Arch-bishops style, was laid aside, together with the Pope himself; and that there is no mention in them of Abbots, Priors, and Convents, as being now not extant in the Church of England. And in this Writ you may ob∣serve; first, that the calling of the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury to a Synodical Assembly, belonged to the Arch-bishop of that Province only (the like to him of York also within the Sphere or Verge of his Jurisdiction.) Secondly, that the nominating of the time and place for this Assembly was left to the Arch-bishops plea∣sure, as seemed best unto him; though for the most part, and with reference unto themselves and the other Prelates, who were bound to attend the service of the King in Parliament,they caused these Meetings to be held at the time and place, at, and to which the Parliament was, or had been called by the Kings Authority. Thirdly, That from the word Convocari, used in the Writ, the Synodical Meetings of the Clergy were named Convocations. And fourthly, That the Clergy thus assembled in Convocation, had not only a power of treating on, and consenting unto such things as should be there propounded on the Kings behalf, but a power also of concluding or not concluding on the same as they saw occasion: Not that they were restrained only to such points as the King propounded, or were proposed in his behalf to their consideration; but that they were to handle his business with their own, wherein they had full power when once met together.

In the next place we must behold what the Arch-bishop did in pursuance of the Kings command, for calling the Clergy of his Province to a Convocation, who on the receipt of the King's Writ, presently issued out his Mandate to the Bishop of London (Dean by his place of the whole Colledge of Bishops of that Province) requiring him immediately, on the sight hereof (and of the King's Writ incorporated and included in it) to cite and summon all the Bishops, and other Prelates, Deans, Arch-Deacons, and capitular Bodies, with the whole Clergy of that Province, that they the said Bi∣shops, Deans, Arch-Deacons, in their own persons, the Capitular Bodies by one Pro∣curator, and the Clergy of each Diocess by two, do appear before him at the time and place by him appointed; and that those Procurators shouldbe furnished with sufficient powers by those which sent them, not only to treat upon such points as should be pro∣pounded, touching the peace of the Church, and defence and welfare of the Realm of England, and to give their counsel in the same; sed ad consentiendum iis quae ibidem ex communi deliberatione ad honorem Dei & Ecclesiae in praemissis contigerent concorditer ordinari, but also to consent both in their own names, and in the names of those who sent them, unto all such things, as by mature deliberation and consent should be there ordained. Which Mandate being received by the B. of London, the several Bishops cited accor∣dingly, and intimation given by those Bishops unto their Arch Deacons for summon∣ing the Clergy to make choice of their Procurators; as also the Chapters, or capitular Bodies, to do the like: The next work is to proceed to the choice of those Procurators. Which choice being made, the said Chapters under their common seals, and the said Clergy in a publick Writing subscribed by them, do bind themselves sub Hypotheca omnium bonorum suorum, under the pawn and forfeiture of al their goods moveable and immoveable, (I speak the very words of these publick Instruments) se ratum, gratum & acceptum habere quicquid dicti Procuratores sui nomine & vice suis fecerint, &c. To stand to and perform whatsoever their said Procurators, in their name and stead, shall do, determine and consent to. The like is also done in the Province of York; but that the Arch-bishop thereof sends out the Summons in his own name to the Suffragan Bi∣shops, the Province being small, and the Suffragans not above three in number. Fi∣nally, as the Convocations of the Clergy in their several Provinces were called by the Arch-bishops only, the Kings Writ thereunto requiring and authorizing; so by the same powers were they also dissolved again; when they had done the business, they were called about, or did desire to be dismissed to their own affairs. At which time by special Writ or Mandates to the said Arch-bishops, expressing the calling and assembling of the Convocation by vertue of the former Precept; it is declared, That on certain ur∣gent causes and considerations moving his Majesty thereunto, he thought fit with the ad∣vice of his Privy Councel, that the same should be again dissolved: Et ideo vobis manda∣mus quod eandem praesentem Convocationem hac instanti die debito modo sine ulla dilatione dissolvatis, sive dissolvi faciatis, prout convenit; and therefore did command them to

dissolve it, or cause the same to be dissolved in the accustomed manner, without delay. Which Writ received, and not before, the Convocation was dissolved accordingly: and so it holds in Law and practcie to this very day.

I have the longer staid on these publick Forms, partly because not obvious unto every eye; but especially to let you see by what Authority the Clergy are to be assem∣bled in their Convocations, and what it is which makes their Canons and Conclusions binding unto all those which send them thither, or intrust them there. Their calling by the Kings Authority makes their meeting lawful, which else were liable to excep∣tions and disputes in Law, and possibly might render them obnoxious to some grie∣vous penalties; and so would their continuance too, after the Writ was issed for their Dissolution. As on the contrary their breaking or dissolving of their own accord, would make them guilty of contempt, and consequently subject to the Kings displea∣sure; for being called by the Kings Writ, they are to continue till dissolved by the Kings Writ also, notwithstanding the dissolving of the Parliament, with which sometimes it might be summoned. And so it was resolved in terminis, by the chief Judges of the Realm, and others of his Majesties Counsel Learned, May 10. anno 1640. at such time as the Convocations did continue sitting, the Parliament being most unhappily dissolved on the Tuesday before, subscribed by Finch, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, Manchester then Lord Privy Seal, Littleton chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Banks Atturney General, Whitfield and Heath his Majesties Sergeants, Authority enough for the poor Clergy to proceed on, though much condemned and maligned for obedience to it. [Now as they have the Kings Authority not only for their Meeting, but continuance also; so also have they all the power of the whole National Clergy of England, to make good whatsoever they conclude upon: The Arch-Bishops, Deans, Arch-Deacons, acting in their own capacities, the Procurators in the name, and by the power committed to them, both by he Chapters or capitular Bodies, and the Diocesan Clergy of both Pro∣vinces. And this they did by virtue of that power and trust alone, without any rati∣fication or confirmation from King or Parliament, until the 25th. year of King Henry the VIII. At which time they bound themselves by a Synodical Act (whereof more hereafter) not to enact, promulge, or execute any Canons, Constitutions, or Ordinances Provincial in their Convocations for time coming, unless the Kings Highness by his Royal Assent command them to make promulge, and execute the same accordingly. Before this time they acted absolutely in their Convocations, of their own Authority, the Kings Assent neither concurring nor required; and by this sole Authority, which they had in themselves, they did not only make Canons, declare Heresie, convict and censure per∣sons suspected of Heresie, in which the subjects of all sorts (whose Votes were tacitely included in the suffrages of their Pastors and spiritual Fathers) were concerned alike. But also to conclude, the Clergy whom they represented in the point of Property, im∣posing on them what they pleased, and levying it by Canons of their own enacting. And they enjoyed this power to the very day in which they tendred the submission, which before we spake of. For by this self-authority (if I may so call it) they im∣posed and levied that great Subsidy of 120000 l. (an infinite sum as the Standard of the times then was) granted unto K. Henry VIII. anno 1530. to free them from the fear and danger of the Praemuniri. By this the Benefit of the Chapter called Similiter in the old Provincial, extended formerly to the University of Oxon only, was made communicable the same year unto Cambridge also. By this Crome, Latimer, Bilney, and divers others, were in the year next following impeached of Heresie. By this the Will and Testament of William Tracie of Toddington was condemned as scandalous and here∣tical, and his body taken up and burnt not many days before the passing of the Act of Submission, anno 1532.

But this power being thought too great or inconsistent at least with the Kings De∣sign touching his divorce, the Clergy were reduced unto such a straight by the degrees and steps which you find in the following Section, as to submit their power unto that of the King, and to promise in verbo sacerdotii, that they would do and Enact nothig in their Convocations without his consent. And to the gaining of this point, he was pressed the rather, in regard of a Remonstraence then presented to Him by the House of Commons, in which they shewed themselves aggrieved, that the Clergy of this Realm should act Authoritatively, and supremely in the Convocations, and they in Parliament do nothing, but as it was confirmed and ratified by the Royal Assent. Which not∣withstanding, though this Submission brought down the Convocation to the same Level with the Houses of Parliament; yet being made unto the King in his single person,

and not as in conjunction with his House of Parliament, it neither brought the Con∣vocation under the command of Parliaments, nor rendred them obnoxious to the power thereof. That which they did in former times of their self-authority (in matters which concerned the Church) without the Kings consent co-operating and concur∣ring with them, the same they did and might do in the times succeeding, the Kings Authority and Consent being superadded, without the help and midwifery of an Act of Parliament, though sometimes that Authority was made Use of also, for binding of the subject under Temporal and Legal penalties, to yield obedience and conformity to the Churches Orders. Which being the true state of the present business, it makes the clamour of the Papists the more unreasonable; but then withal, it makes it the more easily answered. Temporal punishments inflicted on the refractory and disobedi∣ent in a Temporal Court, may add some strength unto the Decrees and Constitutions of the Church, but hey take none from it: Or if they did, the Religion of the Church of Rome, the whole Mass of Popery, as it was received and settled here in Qu. Maries Reign, would have a sorry crutch to stand upon, and might as justly bear the name of a Parliament-Faith, as the reformed Religion of the Church of England. It is true indeed, that had those Convocations which were active in that Reformation, being either called or summoned by the King in Parliament, or by the Houses separately, or conve∣nedly without the King: Or had the Members of the same been nominated and im∣powered by the House alone, and intermixt with a considerable number of the Lords and Commons; (which being by the way, the Case of this New Assembly, I do not see how any thing which they agree on can bind the Clergy, otherwise than im∣posed by a strong hand, and against their privileges.) Or finally, had the conclusions or results thereof been of no effect, but as reported to, and confirmed in Parliament, the Papists might have had some ground for so gross a calumny, in calling the Reli∣gion which is now established by the name of a Parliament-Religion, and a Parliament-Gospel. But so it is not in the Case which is now before us, the said Submission not∣withstanding. For being the Body being still the same, privileged with the same free∣dom of debate and determination; and which is more, the Procurators of the Clergy invested with the same power and Trust which before they had: There was no alterati∣on made by the said Submission, in the whole constitution and composure of it, but only the addition of a greater and more excellent power. Nor was there any thing done here in that Reformation, but either by the Clergy in their Convocations, and in their Convocations rightly called and Canonically constituted, or with the councel and advice of the Heads thereof in more private conferences, the Parliaments of these times contributing very little towards it, but acquiescing in the Wisdom of the Sove∣reign Prince, and in the piety and zeal of the Ghostly Fathers. This is the ground∣work or foundation of the following Building. I now time I should proceed to the Superstructures, beginning first with the Ejection of the Pope, and vesting the Supremacy in the Regal Crown.

2. Of the Ejection of the Pope, and vesting the Supremacy in the Regal Crown.

AND first, beginning with the Ejection of the Pope and his Authority that led the way unto the Reformation of Religion, which did after follow: It was first voted and decreed in the Convocation, before ever it became the subject of an Act of Par∣liament. For in the year 1530. 22 Hen. 8. the Clergy being caught in a premunire, were willing to redeem their danger by a sum of money; and to that end, the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury bestowed upon the King the sum of 100000 l. to be paid by equal portions in the same year following; but the King would not so be satis∣fied, unless they would acknowledge him for the supream Head on earth for the Church of England; which, though it was hard meat, and would not easily down amongst amongst them, yet it passed at last. For, being throughly debated in a Synodical way, both in the upper and lower Houses of Convocation, they did, in sine, agree upon this ex∣pression. Cujus Ecclesiae, (sc. Anglicanae) Singularem protectorem, unicum & Supremum Dominum; & (quantum per Christi leges licet) Supremum caput, ipsius Majestatem recog∣noscimus. To this they all consented and subscribed their Hands, and afterwards in∣corporated it into the publik Act or Instrument, which was presented to the King in the Name of his Clergy, for the redeeming of their errour, and the grant of their money, which as it doth at large appear in the Records and Acts of the Convocation; so it is touched

upon in a Historical way in the Antiq. Britan. Mason de Minist. Anglic. and other Au∣thors, by whom it also doth appear, that what was thus concluded on by the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury, was also ratified and confirmed by the Convocation of the Province of York (according to the usual custom) save that they did not buy their par∣don at so dear a rate. This was the leading Card to the Game that followed. For on this ground were built the Statutes, prohibiting all Appeals to Rome, and for deter∣mining all Ecclesiastical suits and controversies within the Kingdoms, 24 H. 8. c. 12. That for the manner of electing and consecrating of Arch-Bishops and Bishops, 25 H. 8. c. 20. and the prohibiting the payment of all Impositions to the Court of Rome; and for obtaining all such dispensations from the See of Canterbury, which formerly were procured from the Popes of Rome, 25 H. 8. c. 21. Which last is builkt expresly upon this foundation: That the King is the only supream Head of the Church of England, and was so recognized by the Pre∣lates and Clergy, representing the said Church in their Convocation. And on the very same foundation was the Statute raised, 26 H. 8. c. 1. wherein the King is declared to be the supream Head of the Church of England, and to have all honour and preheminences which were annexed unto that Title, as by the Act it self doth at full appear: Which Act being made (I speak it from the Act it self) only for corroboration and confirmation of that which had been done in the Convocation, did afterwards draw on the Statute for the Tenths and first fruits, as the point incident to the Headship or supream Authority, 26 H. 8. c. 3.

The second step to the Ejection of the Pope, was the submission of the Clergy, to the said King Henry, whom they had recognizanced for their supream Head. And this was first concluded on in the Convocation, before it was proposed or agitated in the Houses of Parliament, and was commended only to the care of the Parliament, that is might have the force of a Law by a civil Sanction. The whole debate, with all the Traverses and emergent difficulties which appeared therein, are specified at large in the Records of Convocation, Anno 1532. But being you have not opportunity to consult those Re∣cords, I shall prove it by the Act of Parliament, called commonly The Act of submission of the Clergy; but bearing this Title in the Abridgment of the Statutes set out by Poulton, That the Clergy in their Convocations shall enact no constitutions without the Kings assent. In which it is premised for granted, that the Clergy of the Realm of England, had not only acknowledged, according to the truth, that the Convocation of the same Celrgy, is, always hath been, and ought to be assembled always by the Kings Writ; but also submit∣ting themselves to the Kings Majesty, had promised, in verbo Sacerdotis. That they would never from henceforth presume to attempt, alleadge, claim, or put in ure, enact, promulge, or execute any new Canons, Constitutions, Ordinances provincial, or other; or by whatsoever o∣ther name they shall be called in the Convocation, unless the Kings most Royal Assent may to them be had, to make, promulge, and execute the same; and that his Majesty do giv his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf.

Upon which ground-work of the Clergies, the Parliament shortly after built this su∣perstructure to the same effect, viz.

That none of the said Clergy from henceforth should presume to attempt, alleadge, claim or put in ure, any Constitutions, or Ordinances Provincial, or Synodals, or any other Canons; norshall enact, promulge, or execute any such Canons, Constitutions, or Ordinances Provincial, (by whatsoever names or names they may be called) in their Convocations in time coming (which always shall be assembled by the Kings Writ) unless the same Clergy may have the Kings most Royal Assent and Licence to make, promulge, and execute such Canons, Constitutions, and Ordinances Provincial, or Synodical, upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this Act, and thereof convicted to suffer Imprisonment, and make Fine at the Kings Will, 25 H. 8. c. 19.

So that the Statute in effect, is no more than this, An Act to bind the Clergy to per∣form their promise, to keep them fast unto their word for the time to come, that no new Canon should be made in the times succeeding in the favour of the Pope, or by his Authority, or to the diminution of the Kings Royal Prerogative, or contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England, as many Papal Constitutions were in the former Ages: Which Statute I desire you nto take notice of, because it is the Rule and Measure of the Churches power in making Canons, Constitutions, or whatsoever else you shall please to call them in their Convocations.

The third and final Act, conducing to the Popes Ejection, was an Act of Parlia∣ment, 28 H. 8 c. 10. entituled, An Act extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome. By which it was enacted, That if any person should extol the Authority of the Bishop of

Rome, he should incur the penalty of a preamunire; that every Officer, both Ecclesiastioal and Lay, should be Sworn to renounce the said Bishop and his Authority, and to resist it to his power, and to repute any Oath formerly taken in maintenance of the said Bishop, or his Autho∣rity, to be void; and finally, that the refusal of the said Oath should be judged High Treason. But this was also usher'd in by the determination first, and after by the practice of all the Clergy. For in the year 1534. which was two years before the passing of this Act, the King had sent this Proposition to be agitated in both Ʋniversities, and in the great∣est and most famous Monasteries of the Kingdom; that is to say, An aliquid authoritatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano, de jure competat, plusquam alii cuicunque Episcopo extero? By whom it was determined Negatively, that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of Right in the Kingdom of England, than any other forreign Bishop. Which being testified & returned under the hands and seals respectively (the Originals whereof are still remaining in the Library of Sr. Robert Cotton) was a good preamble to the Bishops, and the rest of the Clergy assembled in their Convocation, to conclude the like. And so accordingly they did, and made an Instrument thereof subscribed by the hands of all the Bishops, and others of the Clergy, and afterwards confirmed the same by their corporal Oaths. The copies of which Oaths and Instrument you shall find in Foxes Acts and Monumets, Vol. 2. fol. 1203. and fol. 1210, 1211. of the E∣dition of John Day, Anno 1570. And this was semblably the ground of a following Statute, 35 H. 8. c. 1. wherein another Oath was devised and ratified, to be imposed upon the Subject, for the more clear asserting of the Kings Supremacy, and the utter exclusion fo the Popes for ever; which Statutes, though they were all repealed by an Act of Parliament, 1 and 2 d. of Phil. and Mary, c. 1. yet were they all revived in 1 Elize. save that the name of supream Head was changed unto that of the supream Governour, and certain clauses altered in the Oath of Supremacy. Where (by the way) you must take notice that the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy, are not intro∣ductory of any new Right that was not in the Crown before; but only declaratory of an old, as our best Lawyers tell us, and the Statute of the 26 of H. 8. c. 1. doth clearly intimate. So that in the Ejection of the Pope of Rome, which was the firt and great∣est steptowards the work of Reformation, the Parliament did nothing, for ought it ap∣pears, but what was done before in the Convocation, and did no more than fortifie the Results of Holy Church, by the addition and corroboration of the Secular Power.

3. Of the Translation of the Scriptures, and permitting them to be read in the English Tongue.

THE second step towards the work of Reformation (and indeed one of the most especial parts thereof) was the Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue, and the permitting all sorts of people to peruse the same, as that which visibly did tend to the discovery of the errours and corruptions in the Church of Rome, and the intolerable pride and tyranny of the Roman Prelates, upon which grounds it had been formerly translated into English by the hand of Wickliff, and after, on the spread∣ing of Luthers Doctrine, by the pains of Tindal, a stout and active man in K. Henries days, but not so well befriended as the work deserved; especially considering that it hapned in such a time when many Printed Pamphlets did disturb the State (and some of them of Tindals making) which seemed to tend unto sedition, and the change of Government. Which being remonstrated to the King, he caused divers of his Bi∣shops, together with sundry of the Learned'st and most eminent Divines of all the Kingdom to come before him; whom he required freely and plainly to declare, as well what their opinion was of the aforesaid Pamphlets, as what they did think fit to be done concerning the Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue: And they upon mature advice and deliberation, unanimously condemned the aforesaid Books of Heresie and Blasphemy (no smaller crime:) then for translating of the Scriptures into the English tongue, they agreed all with one assent, that it depended wholly on the will and pleasure of the Sovereign Prince, who might do therein as he conceived to be most agreeable to his occasions, but that with reference to the present estate of things, it was more expedient to explain the Scripture to the people by the way of Sermons, than to permit it to be read promiscuously by all sorts of men; yet so, that hopes were to be given unto the Laily, that if they did renounce their errours, and pre∣sently deliver to the hands of his Majesties Officers all such Books and Bibles (which they conceived to be translated with great fraud and falshood) and any of them had in

keeping, his Majesty would cause a true and catholike Translation of it to be published in convenient time, for the use of his Subjects.

This was the sum and substance of the present Conference, which you shall find laid down at large in the Registers of Arch-Bishop Warham.

And according to this advice, the King sets out a Proclamation, not only prohi∣biting the buying, reading, or translating of any the aforesaid Books; but straitly charging all his Subjects which had any of the Books of Scripture, either of the Old Testament, or of the New, in the English Tongue, to bring them in without delay: But for the other part, of giving hopes unto the people of a true Translation, if they delivered in the false (or that at least, which was pretended to be false,) I find no word at all in the Proclamation. That was a work reserved unto better times, or left to be solicited by the Bishops themselves, and other Learned men who had given the counsel; by whom (indeed) the people were kept up in hope that all should be accom∣plished unto their desires.

And so indeed it proved at last. For in the Convocation of the year 1536. the Authority of the Pope being abrogated, and Cranmer fully settled in the See of Canter∣bury, the Clergy did agree upon a form of Petition to be presented to the King, That he would graciously indulge unto his Subjects of the Laity the reading of the Bible in the English Tongue, and that a new Translation of it might be forthwith made for that end and purpose.

According to which godly motion, his Majesty did not only give Order for a new Translation, which afterwards He authorized to be read both in publique and private; but in the interim he permitted CROMWEL, his Vicar General, to set out an In∣junction for providing the whole Bible both in Latine and English, after the Translation then in Use, (which was called commonly by the name of Matthews Bible, but was no other than that of Tindal somewhat altered) to be kept in every Parish-Church throughout the Kingdom, for every one that would repair thereunto, and caused this mark or character of Authority to be set upon them in red Letters, Set forth with the Kings most gracious Licence; which you may see in Fox his Acts and Monuments, p. 1248. and 1363.

Afterwards when the new Translation, so often promised, and so long expected, was compleat and finished, Printed at London by the Kings Authority, and countenanced by a grave and pious Preface of Arch-Bishop Cranmer; the King sets out a Proclamation dated May 6. Anno 1541. Commanding all the Curates and Parishioners throughout the Kingdom, who were not already furnished with Bibles so authorized and transla∣ted, as is before said, to provide themselves before All-hallowtide next following, and to cause the Bible, so provided, to be placed conveniently in their several and re∣spective Churches, straitly requiring all his Bishops, and other Ordinaries, to take spe∣cial care to see his said commands put in execution.

And therewithal came out Instructions from the King, to be published by the Clergy in their several Parishes, the better to possess the people with the Kings good affection towards them in suffering them to have the benefit of such Heavenly Treasure; and to direct them in a course by which they might enjoy the same to their greater comfort, the reformation of their lives, and the peace and quiet of the Church. Which Pro∣clamation and Instructions are still preserved in that most admirable Treasury of Sir Robert Cotton.

And unto these Commands of so great a Prince, both Bishops, Priests, and People, did apply themselves with such chearful reverence, that Bonner (even that bloody But∣cher, as he after proved caused six of them to be chained in several places of St. Paul's Church in London, for all that were so well inclined to resort unto, for their edification and instruction; the Book being very chargeable, because very large, and therefore called commonly (for distinctions sake) The Bible of the greater Volum.

Thus have we seen the Scriptures faithfully translated into the English Tongue, the Bible publickly set up in all Parish-Churches, that every one which would; might per∣use the same, and leave permitted to all people to buy them for their private Uses, and read them to themselves, or before their Families; and all this brought about by no other means than by the Kings Authority only, grounded on the advice and judgment of the Convocation.

But long it was not (I confess) before the Parliament put in for a share, and claimed some interest in the work; but whether for the better, or the worse, I leave you to judge. For in the year 1542. the King being then in agitation of a League with

Charles the Emperour, He caused a complaint to be made unto him in this Court of Parliament, That the Liberty granted to the people in having in their hands the Books of the Old and New Testament, had been much abused by many false glosses and interpretations which were made upon them, tending to the seducing of the people, especially of the younger sort, and the raising of sedition within the Realm.

And thereupon it was enacted by the Authority of the Parliament (on whom He was content to cast the envy of an Act so contrary to his former gracious Proclamations) That all manner of Books of the Old and New Testament, of the crafty, false and untrue Translation of Tindal, be forthwith abolished, and forbidden to be used and kept. As also, that all other Bibles not being of Tindals Translation, in which were found any Preambles or Annotations, other than the Quotations or Summaries of the Chapters should be purged of the said Preambles and Annotations, either by cutting them out, or blotting them in such wise, that they might not be perceived or read. And finally, That the Bible be not read openly in any Church, but by the leave of the King, or of the Ordinary of the place; nor privately by any Women, Artificers, Apprentices, Journey-men, Husband-men, Labourers, or by any of the Ser∣vants of Yeomen, or under, with several pains to those who should do the contrary.

This is the substance of the Statute of the 34 and 35 Hen. 8. c. 1. Which though it shews that there was somewhat done in Parliament, in a matter which concern'd Reli∣gion, (which howsoever if you mark it, was rather the adding of the penalties, than giving any resolution or decision of the points in question) yet I presume the Papists will not use this for an Argument, that we have either a Parliament-Religion, or a Parlia∣ment Gospel; or that we stand indebted to the Parliament for the Use of the Scriptures in the English Tongue, which is so principal a part of the Reformation. Nor did the Parliament speed so prosperously in the undertaking (which the wise King permitted them to have a hand in, for the foresaid ends,) or found so general an obedience in it from the common people, as would have been expected in these Times on the like oc∣casion; but that the King was fain to quicken and give life to the Acts thereof, by his Proclamation, Anno 1546. which you shall find in Fox his Book, fo. 1427.

To drive this Nail a little further: The terrour of this Statute dying with H. 8. or being repealed by that of K. Ed. 6. c. 22. the Bible was again made publique; and not only suffered to be read by particular persons, either privatly, or in the Church; but ordered to be read over yearly in the Congregation, as a part of the Liturgie, or Divine Service: Which how far it relates to the Court of Parliament we shall see anon: But for the publishing thereof in Print for the Use of the people, for the comfort and edification of private persons, that was done only by the King, at least in his Name, and by His Authority. And so it also stood in Q. Elizabeth's time, the translation of the Bible being again reviewed by some of the most learned Bishops, appointed there∣unto by the Queens Commission (from whence it had the name of the Bishops Bible) and upon that review, Reprinted by her sole Commandement, and by her sole Autho∣rity left free and open to the Use of her well-affected and religious subjects. Nor did the Parliament do any thing in all Her Reign with reference to the Scriptures in the English Tongue, otherwise than at the reading of them, in that Tongue, in the Con∣gregation, is to be reckoned for a part of the English Liturgy, whereof more here∣after.

In the translation of them into Welch, or British, somewhat indeed was done which doth look this way. It being ordered in the Parliament, 5. Eliz. c. 28. That the B. B. of Hereford, St. Davids, Bangor, Landaff, and St. Asaph, should take care amongst them for translating the whole Bible, with the Book of Common Prayer, into the Welch or Brittish Tongue, on pain of forfeiting 40 l. a piece in default hereof. And to incourage them thereun∣to, it was Enacted that one Book of either sort being so translated and imprinted, should be provided and bought for every Cathedral Church, as also for all Parish-Churches and Chappels of Ease, where the said tongue is commonly used; the Ministers to pay the one half of the price, and the Parishioners the other.

But then you must observe withal, that it had been before determined in the Con∣vocation of the self-same year, Anno 2562. That the Common-Prayer of the Church ought to be celebrated in a tongue which was understood by the people (as you may see in the Book of Articles of Religion, Art. 24. which came out that year) and consequently, as well in the Welch or Brittish, as in any other. Which care, had it been taken for Ireland also, as it was for Wales, no question but that people had been more generally civiliz'd, and made conformable in all points to the English Government, long before this time. And for the new Translation of K. James his time, to shew that the

Translation of Scripture is no work of Parliament, as it was principally occasioned by some passages in the Conference at Hampton Court, without recourse unto the Parlia∣ment, so was it done only by such men as the King appointed, and by His Authority alone imprinted, published and imposed, care being taken by the Canon of the year, 1603. That one of them should be provided for each several Church, at the charge of the Parish. No flying in this case to an Act of Parliament, either to Authorize the doing of it, or to impose it being done.

4. Of the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine.

NExt let us look upon the method used in former Times in the reforming of the Church, whether in points of Doctrine, or in forms of Worship, and we shall find it still the same. The Clergy did the work as to them seemed best, never advising with the Parliament, but upon the post-fact, and in most cases not at all. And first for Doctrinals, there was but little done in K. Henries time, but that which was acted by the Clergy only in their Convocation, and so commended to the people by the Kings sole Authority, the matter being never brought within the cognizance of the two Houses of Parliament. For in the year 1536. being the year, in which the Popes Authority was for ever banished, there were some Articles agreed on in the Convocation, and re∣presented to the King, under the hands of the Bishops, Abbots, Priors, and inferior Clergy usually called unto those Meetings; the Original whereof being in Sir Robert Cotton's Library I have often seen: Which being approved of by the King, were forth∣with published under the Title of Articles devised by the Kings Highness, to stable Chri∣stian quietness and unity amongst the people. In which it is to be observed: First, that those Articles make mention of three Sacraments only, that is to say, of Baptisme, Penance, and the Sacrament of the Altar. And secondly, That in the Declaration of the Doctrine of Justication, Images, honouring of the Saints departed; as also concerning many of the Ceremonies, and the fire of Purgatory, they differ'd very much from those Opinions which had been formerly received in the Church of Rome; as you may partly see by that Extract of them, which occurs in Fox his Acts and Monuments, Vol. 2. fol. 1246.

For the confirming of which Book, and recommending it to the use of the people, His Majesty was pleased in the Injunctions of the year 1536. to give command to all Deans, Parsons, Vicars, and Curates, so to open and declare in their Sermons, and o∣ther Collations, the said Articles unto them which be under their Cure, that they might plainly know and discern, which of them be necessary to be believed and ob∣served for their salvation, and which do only concern the decent and politique Order of the Church. And this he did upon this ground, that the said Articles had been concluded and condescended upon by the Prelates and Clergy of the Realm in their Convoca∣tion; as appeareth in the very words of the Injunction: For which, see Fox his Acts and Monuments, fol. 1247. I find not any thing in Parliament which relates to this, either to countenance the work, or to require obedience and conformity from the hand of the people. And to say truth, neither the King nor Clergy did account it necessary, but thought their own Authority sufficient to go through with it; though certainly it was more necessary at that time, than in any since: The power and reputation of the Clergy being under foot, the King scarce setled in the Supremacy so lately recognized unto him; and therefore the Authority of the Parliament of more Use than afterward, in Times well ballanced and established.

'Tis true, that in some other year of that Princes Reign, we find some Use and men∣tion of an Act of Parliament in matters which concerned Religion; but it was only in such Times when the hopes of Reformation were in the Wane, and the Work went retrogade. For in the year 1539. being the 31. H. 8. When the Lord Comwels power began to decline, and the King was in a necessity of compliance with His Neigh∣bouring Princes, there passed an Act of Parliament, commonly called the Statute of the six Articles (or the Whip with six strings.) In which it was Enacted, That whoso∣ever by word or writing should Preach, Teach, or publish, that in the blessed Sacraments of the Altar, under form of Bread and Wine, there is not really the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, conceived of the Virgin Mary, (or affirm otherwise thereof than was maintained and taught in the Church of Rome) should be adjudged an Heretick, and suffer death by burning, and forfeit all his Lands and Goods, as in case of High Treason.

Secondly: That whosoever should Teach or Preach, that the Communion of the blessed Sacrament (in both kinds) is necessary for the health of mans soul, and ought to be main∣tained.

Thirdly: Or that any man ofter the Order of Priesthood received, might Marry, or contract Matrimony.

Fourthly: Or that any Woman which had vowed and professed Chastity, might contract Marriage.

Fifthly: Or that private Masses were not lawful and laudable, or agreable to the Word of God.

Or sixthly: That auricular Confession was not necessary and expedient to be used in the Church of God, should suffer death, and forfeit Lands and Goods as a Felon, 31 H. 8. c. 14.

The rigour of which terrible Statute was shortly after mitigated in the said King's Reign, 32 H. 8. c. 10. and 35 H. 8. c. 5. and the whole Statute absolutely repealed by Act of Parliament, 1 E. 6. c. 12. But then it is to be observed first, that this Parlia∣ment of K. H. 8. did not determine any thing in those six points of Doctrine which are therein recited; but only took upon them to devise a course for the suppressing of the contrary Opinions, by adding by the secular Power, the punishment of Death, and forfeiture of Lands and Goods, unto the censures of the Church, which were grown weak, if not unvalid; and consequently, by degrees became neglected ever since the said K. Henry took the Headship on Him, and exercised the same by a Lay Vicar General.

And secondly, you must observe, that it appeareth evidently by the Act it self, that at the same time the King had called a Synod and Convocation of all the Arch-Bishops, Bishops, and other Learned men of the Clergy, that the Articles were first deliberately and ad∣visedly debated, argued and reasoned, by the said Arch-Bishops, Bishops, and other Learned men of the Clergy, and their opinions in the same declared and made known, before the matter came in Parliament.

And finally, That being brought into the Parliament, there was not any thing de∣clared and passed as doctrinal, but by the assent of the Lords Spiritual, and other Learned men of the Clergy, as by the Act it self doth at large appear.

Finally, Whatsoever may be drawn from thence, can be only this, That K. Hen. did make use of his Court of Parliament for the establishing and confirming of some points of Popery, which seemed to be in danger of a Reformation. And this com∣pared with the Statute of the 34. and 35. prohibiting the reading of the Bible by most sorts of people, doth clearly shew that the Parliaments of those times did rather hinder and retard the work of Reformation, in some especial parts thereof, than give any fur∣therance to the same.

But to proceed: There was another point of Reformation begun in the Lord Crom∣wels time, but not produced, nor brought to perfection till after his decease; and then too, not without the Midwifery of an Act of Parliament. For in the year 1537. the Bishops and others of the Clergy of the Convocation, had composed a Book entitu∣led, The Institution of a Christian Man; which being subscribed by all their hands, was by them presented to the King, by His most excellent judgment to be allowed of, or condemned. This Book, containing the chief Heads of Christian Religion, was forth∣with Printed and exposed to publick view. But some things not being clearly expli∣cated, or otherwise subject to exception, he caused it to be reviewed, and to that end, as Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Engl. (I speak the very words of the Act of Parl. 32. H. 8. c. 26.) appointed the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces, and also a great number of the best, learned, honestest, and most vertuous sort of the Doctors of Divinity, men of discretion, judgment, and good disposition, to be called together; to the intent, that according to the very Gospel and Law of God, without any partial respect or affection to the Papistical sort, or any other Sect or Sects whatsoever, they should declare by writing, and publish, as well the principal Articles and points of our Faith and Belief; with the Declaration, true un∣derstanding and observation of such other expedient points, as by them, with his Graces advice, counsel, and consent, shall be thought needful and expedient; as also for the lawful Rights, Ceremonies, and observation of Gods Service within this Realm.

This was in the year 1540. at what time the Parliament was also sitting, of which the King was pleased to make this special use, That whereas the work which was in hand (I use again the words of the Statute) required ripe and mature deliberation, and was not rashly to be defined and set forth, and so not fit to be restrained to the

present Session, an Act was passed to this effect, That all Determinations, Declarations, Decrees, Definitions, and Ordinances, as according to God's Word, and Christ's Gospel, should at any time hereafter be set forth by the said Arch-Bishops and Bishops, and Doctors in Divi∣nity, now appointed, or hereafter to be appointed by his Royal Majesty, or else by the whole Clergy of England, in, and upon the matter of Christ's Religion, and the Christian Faith, and the lawful Rights, Ceremonies, and Observations of the same, by his Majesties advice and confirmation under the great Seal of England, shall be by all his Graces Subjects fully believed, obeyed, observed, and performed, to all purposes and intents, upon the pains and penalties therein to be comprized, as if the same had been in express words and sentences plainly and fully made, set forth, declared, and contained in the said Act, 32 H. 8. c. 26. where note, That the two Houses of Parliament were so far from medling in the matter which was then in hand, that they did not so much as require to see the Determinations and Decrees of those Learned men whom his Majesty had then Assembled, before they passed the pre∣sent Act, to bind the Subject fully to believe, observe, and perform the same; but left it wholly to the judgment and discretion of the King and Clergy, and trusted them besides, with the ordaining and inflicting of such pains and penalties on disobedient and unconformable persons as to them seemed meet.

This ground-work laid, the work went forwards in good order, and at last being brought unto as much perfection as the said Arch-Bishops, Bishops, and other Learned men would give it, without the co-operation and concurrence of the Royal assent; it was presented once again to the Kings consideration, who very carefully perused it, and altered many things with his own hand; as appears by the Book it self still extant in the famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton; and having so altered and corrected it in some passages, returned it to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, who bestowed some fur∣ther pains upon it; to the end, that being to come forth in the King's Name, and by his Authority, there might be nothing in the same which might be justly repre∣hended.

The business being in this forwardness, the King declares in Parliament, Anno 1544. being the 34 year of his Reign, his zeal and care, not only to suppress all such Books and Writings as were noysome and pestilent, and tended to the seducing of his Sub∣jects; but also to ordain and establish a certain Form of pure and sincere Teaching a∣greable to God's Word, and the true Doctrine of the Catholick and Apostolick Church, whereunto men may have recourse for the decision of some such controversies, as have in Times past, and yet do happen to arise.

And for a preparatory thereunto, that so it might come forth with the greater cre∣dit, he caused an Act to pass in Parliament for the abolishing of all Books and Wri∣tings, comprizing any matters of Christian Religion, contrary to that Doctrine, which since the year 1540. is, or any time during the King's life, shall be set forth by his Highness, and for the punishment of all such (and that too, with most grievous pains) which should preach, teach, maintain, or defend any matter or thing contrary to the Book of Doctrine, which was then in readiness, 34, 35 H. 8. c. 1. Which done, he caused the said Book to be Imprinted in the year next following, under the Title of A necessary Doctrine for all sorts of People; prefixing a Preface thereto in his Royal Name, to all his faithful and loving Subjects, that they might know the better in those dan∣gerous Times, what to believe in point of Doctrine, and how they were to carry and behave themselves in points of Practice.

Which Statute, as it is the greatest Evidence which those Times afford to shew, that both, or either of the Houses of Parliament had any thing to do in matters which concerned Religion; so it entitles them to no more (if at all to any thing) then that they did make way to a Book of Doctrine, which was before digested by the Clergy only, revised after, and corrected by the Kings own hand; and finally, perused and perfected by the Metropolitan.

And more then so, (besides, that being but one Swallow, it can make no Summer) it is acknowledged and confessed in the Act it self (if Poulton understand it rightly in his Abridgment) That recourse must be had to the Catholick and Apostolick Church, for the decision of Controversies. Which as it gives the Clergy the decisive power, so it left nothing to the Houses, but to assist and aid them with the Temporal Sword, when the Spiritual Word could not do the deed, the point thereof being blunted, and the edge abated.

Next, let us look upon the time of K. Ed. 6. and we shall find the Articles and Do∣ctrine of the Church (excepting such as were contained in the Book of Common-Prayer)

to be composed, confirmed, and setled in no other way then by the Clergy only in their Convocation, the Kings Authority co-operating and concurring with them.

For, in the Synod held in London, Anno 1552. the Clergy did compose and agree upon a Book of Articles, containing the chief Heads of the Christian Faith; especially, with reference to such Points of Controversie, as were in difference between the Refor∣mators of the Church of England and the Church of Rome, and other Opponents what∣soever, which after were approved and published by the Kings Authority.

They were in number 41. and were published by this following Title; that is to say, Articuli de quibus in Synodo London, Anno 1552. ad tollendum opinionum dissentionem & consensum verae Religionis firmandum, inter Episcopos & alios Eruditis viros Convenerat, Regia authoritate in lucem Editi. And it is worth our observation, that though the Parliament was held at the very time, and that the Parliament passed several Acts which concerned Church-matters; as viz. An Act for Ʋniformity of Divine Service, and for the Confirmation of the Book of Ordination, 5 and 6 Edw. 6. c. 1. An Act declaring which days only shall be kept for Holy days, and which for Fasting days, C. 3. against striking or drawing weapon, either in the Church or Church-yard, C. 4. And finally, another Act for the legitimating of the Marriages of Priests and Ministers, C. 12. Yet nei∣ther in this Parliament, nor in that which followed, is there so much as the least syl∣lable which reflecteth this way, or medleth any thing at all with the book of Articles. Where, by the way, if you behold the lawfulness of Priests Marriages as a matter Do∣ctrinal; or think we owe that point of Doctrine, and the indulgence granted to the Clergy in it, to the care and goodness of the Parliament, you may please to know, that the point had been before determined in the Convocation, and stands determined by and for the Clergy in the 31 of those Articles; and that the Parliament looked not on it as a point of Doctrine; but as it was a matter practical, conducing to the benefit and im∣provement of the Common-wealth. Or if it did, yet was the Statute built on no other ground-work, than the Resolution of the Clergy, the Marriage of Priests being be∣fore determined to be most lawful (I use the very words of the Act it self) and according to the Word of God, by the Learned Clergy of this realm in their Convocations, as well by the common assent, as by subscriptions of their hands, 5, 6. Edw. 6. chap. 12.

And for the time of Q. Elizabeth, it is most manifest, that they had no other body of Doctrine in the first part of her Reign, then only the said Articles of K. Edward's Book; and that which was delivered in the Book of Homilies of the said Kings time: In which the Parliament had as little to do, as you have seen they had in the Book of Articles.

But in the Convocation of the year, 1562. being the fifth of the Q. Reign, the Bishops and Clergy taking into consideration the said book of Articles, and altering what they thought most fitting, to make it more conducible to the use of the Church, and the edification of the people, presented it unto the Queen, who caused it to be pub∣lished with this Name and Title, viz. Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Arch-Bishops, and Bishops of both Provinces, and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London, Anno 1562. for the avoiding of diversity of Opinions, and for the establishing of Consent tou∣ching true Religion; put forth by the Queens Authority.

Of any thing done, or pretended to be done, by the power of the Parliament, either in the way of Approbation, or of Confirmation, not one word occurs either in any of the Printed Books, or the Publick Registers.

At last, indeed in the 13th. of the said Queens Reign (which was 8 years full after the passing of those Articles) comes out a Statute for the Redressing of disorders in the Ministers of holy Church: In which it was enacted, That all such as were Ordained Priests or Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments, after any other form then that appointed to be used in the Church of England; all such as were to be Ordained, or permitted to Preach, or to be instituted into any Benefice with Cure of souls, should publickly subscribe to the said Articles, and testifie their assent unto them. Which shews (if you observe it well) that though the Parliament did well allow of, and approve the said Book of Articles, yet the said Book owes neither confirmation nor authority, to the Act of Parliament. So that the wonder is the greater, that that most insolent scoff which is put upon us by the Church of Rome, in calling our Religion by the name Parliamentaria-Religio, should pass so long without controle; unless, perhaps, it was in reference to our Forms of Worship, of which I am to speak in the next place.

But first we must make answer unto some Objections which are made against us, both from Law and Practice. For Practice; first, it is alledged by some out of Bi∣shop Jewel, in his Answer to the Cavil of Dr. Harding, to be no strange matter to see Ecclesiastical Causes debated in Parliament; and that it is apparent by the Laws of King Ina, King Alfred, King Edward, &c. That our Godly Fore-fathers, the Princes and Peers of this Realm, never vouchsafed to treat of matters touching the Common State, before all Controversies of Religion, and Causes Ecclesiastical had been conclu∣ded, Def. of the Apol. part 6. chap. 2. sect. 1.

But the answer unto this is easie: For first, if our Religion may be called Parliamen∣tarian, because it hath received confirmation and debate in Parliament, then the Reli∣gion of our Fore-fathers, even Papistry it self (concerning which so many Acts of Parliament were made in K. Hen. 8. and Q. Maries time) must be called Parliamen∣tarian also.

And secondly, it is most certain, that in the Parliaments or Common-Councils (call them which you will) both of King Inas time, and the rest of the Saxon Kings which B. Jewel speaks of; not only Bishops, Abbots, and the higher part of the Clergy, but the whole Body of the Clergy generally had their Votes and Suffrages, either in person, or by proxie. Concerning which, take this for the leading Case: That in the Parlia∣ment or Common-Council in K. Ethelberts time, who first of all the Saxon Kings, re∣ceived the Gospel, the Clergy were convened in as full a manner, as the Lay-Subjects of that Prince: Convocati Communi Concilio tam Cleri, quam Populi, saith Sir H. Spelman in his Collection of the Councils, Anno 605. p. 118. And for the Parliament of King Ina, which leads the way in Bishop Jewel, it was (saith the same Sr. H. Spelman, p. 630. Communi Concilium Episcoporum, Procerum, Comitum, nec non omnium Sapientum, Seniorum, Populorumque totius Regni; Where, doubtless, Sapientes and Seniores (and you know what Seniores signifieth in the Ecclesiastical notion) must be some body else then those which after are expressed by the name of Populi, which shews the falshood and absurdity of the collection made by Mr. Pryn, in the Epistle to his Book against Dr. Cousins, viz. That the Parliament (as it is now constituted) hath an ancient genuine, just and lawful Prerogative, to establish true Religion in our Church, and to abolish and sup∣press all false, new, and counterfeit Doctrines whatsoever. Unless he means upon the post fact, after the Church hath done her part, in determining what was true, what false, what new, what ancient; and finally, what Doctrines might be counted counterfeit, and what sincere. And as for Law, 'tis true indeed, that by the Statute, 1 Eliz. cap. 1. The Court of Parliament hath power to determine and judge of Heresie; which at first sight seems somewhat strange; but on the second view, you will easily find that this relates only to new and emergent Heresies, not formerly declared for such in any of the first four General Councils, nor in any other General Cuncil, adjudging by ex∣press words of holy Scripture; as also that in such new Heresies, the following words restrain this power to the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation, as being best able to instruct the Parliament what they are to do, and where they are to make use of the se∣cular sword for cutting off a desperate Heretick from the Church of CHRIST, or rather from the Body of all Christian people.

5. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship, and the Times appointed thereunto.

THIS Rub removed, we now proceed unto a view of such Forms of Worships as have been setled in this Church, since the first dawning of the day of Reformation, in which our Parliaments have indeed done somewhat, though it be not much. The first point which was altered in the publick Liturgies, was, that the Creed, the Pater-noster, and the Ten Commandements, were ordered to be said in the English Tongue; to the intent, the people might be perfect in them, and learn them without book, as our Phrase is. The next, the setting forth and using of the English Letany, on such days and times, in which it was accustomably to be read, as a part of the Service. But neither of these two was done by Parliament; nay, (to say truth) the Parliament did nothing in them. All which was done in either of them, was only by the King's Au∣thority, by vertue of the Headship or Supremacy, which by way of recognition was vested in him by the Clergy, either co-operating and concurring with them in their Convocations, or else directed and assisted by such learned Prelates, with whom he did advise in matters which concerned the Church, and did relate to Reformation. By

virtue of which Headship or Supremacy he ordained the first; and to that end, caused certain Articles or Injunctions to be published by the Lord Cromwel, then his Viear Ge∣neral, Anno 1536. And by the same did he give order for the second, I mean, for the saying of the Letany in the English Tongue, by his own Royal Proclamation, Anno 1545. For which, consult the Acts and Monuments, fol. 1248, 1312. But these were only preparations to a greater work which was reserved unto the times of K. Edw. 6. In the beginning of whose Reign there passed a Statute for the administring the Sacra∣ment in both kinds to any person that should devoutly and humbly desire the same, 1 E. 6. c. 1. In which it is to be observed, that though the Statute do declare, that the ministring of the same in both kinds to the people was more agreeable to the first Institution of the said Sacrament, and to the common usage of the primitive Times. Yet Mr. Fox assures us (and we may take his word) that they did build that Declaration, and con∣sequently the Act which was raised upon it, upon the judgment and opinion of the best lear∣ned men, whose resolution and advice they followed in it, fol. 1489. And for the Form by which the said most blessed Sacrament was to be delivered to the common people, it was commended to the care of the most grave and learned Bishops, and others, assem∣by the King at His Castle of Windsor; who upon long, wise, learned and deliberate advice did finally agree (saith Fox) upon one godly and uniform zOrder for receiving of the same, according to the right rule of Scriptures, and the first use of the primitive Church, fol. 1491. Which Order, as it was set forth in Print, Anno 1548. with a Proclamation in the name of the King, to give Authority thereunto amongst the people, so was it recom∣mended by special Letters writ unto every Bishop, severally from the Lords of the Council to see the same put in execution: A copy of which Letters you may find in Fox, fol. 1491. as afore is said.

Hitherto nothing done by Parliament in the Forms of Worship, but in the following year there was. For the Protector and the rest of the Kings Council being fully bent for a Reformation, thought it expedient that one uniform, quiet and godly Order should be had throughout the Realm, for Officiating God's divine Service. And to that end (I use the words of the Act it self) appointed the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops, and other learned men of the Realm to meet together, requiring them, that having as well eye and respect to the most pure and sincere Chri∣stian Religion, taught in Scriptures, as to the usages in the Primitive Church, they should draw and make one convenient and meet Order, Rite and fashion of Common Prayer, and Administration of Sacraments, to be had and used in this his Majesties Realm of England. Well, what did they being thus assembled? that the Statute tells us: Where it is said, that by the aid of the Holy Ghost (I pray you mark this well) and with one uniform agree∣ment they did conclude upon and set forth an Order, which they delivered to the Kings High∣ness, in a Book entituled, The Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the use of the Church of England. All this was done before the Parliament did any thing. But what was

done by them at at last? Why first, considering the most godly travel of the King's Highness, and the Lord Protector and others of his Highness Council, in gathering together the said B. and learned men. Secondly: The Godly Prayers, Orders, Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned. Thirdly: The motive and inducements which in∣clined the aforesaid learned men to alter those things which were altered, and to re∣tain those things which were retained: And finally, taking into consideration the honour of God, and the great quietness which by the grace of God would ensue upon it; they gave his Majesty most hearty and lowly thanks for the same, and most hum∣bly prayed him, that it might be ordained by his Majesty, with the assent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, and by Authority of the same, that the said Form of Common-Prayer, and no other, after the Feast of Pentecost next following, should be used in all his Majesties Dominions, with several penalties to such, as either should deprave or neglect the same.

2 and 3. E. 6. cap. 1. So far the very words of the Act it self. By which it evidently appeareth, that the two Houses of Parliament did nothing in the present business, but impose that Form upon the people; which by the learned and religious Clergy-men (whom the K. appointed thereunto) was agreed upon, and made it penal unto such as either should deprave the same, or neglect to use it. And thus doth Poulton (no mean Lawyer) understand the Statute, who therefore gives no other title to it in his Abridgement publish'd in the year 1612. than this, The penalty for not using uniformity of Service, and Ministration of the Sacrament. So then the making of one uniform Order of celebrating divine Service, was the work of the Clergy, the making

of the Penalties, was the work of the Parliament. Where let me tell yu by the way, that the men who were employed in this weighty business (whose names deserve to be continued in perpetual memory) were Thomas Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, George Day Bishop of Chichester, Thomas Goodrich B. of Ely, and Lord Chancellour; John Ship Bishop of Hereford, Henry Holbeck Bishop of Lincoln, Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester, translated afterwards to London, Thomas Thirlby Bishop of Westminster, Dr. May Dean of St. Pauls, Dr. Taylor (then Dean, afterwards) Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Hains Dean of Exeter, Dr. Robertson afterwards Dean of Durham, Dr. Redman Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, and Dr. Cox then Almoner to the King, after∣ward Dean of Westminster, and at last Bishop of Ely; men famous in their generations, and the honour of the Age they lived in. And so much for the first Liturgy of King Edwards Reign; in which you see how little was done by Authority or power of Par∣liament, so little, that if it had been less, it had been just nothing. But some excep∣tions being taken against the Liturgy by some of the preciser sort at home, and by Calvin abroad, the Book was brought under a review: And though it had been framed at first (if the Parliament which said so erred not) by the ayd of the Holy Ghost himself; yet to comply with the curiosity of the Ministers and mistakes of the people, rather than for any other weighty cause, As the Statutes 5 and 6 Ed. 6. cap. 1. it was thought expedient by the King, with the assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled, that the said Order of Common Service should be faithfully and godly per∣used, explained, and made fully perfect.

Perused and explained; by whom? Why, questionless by those who made it; or else, by those (if they were not the same men) who were appointed by the King to draw up and compose a Form of Ordination for the Use of the Church. And this Assent of theirs (for it was no more) was the only part that was ever acted by the Parliament, in matter of this present nature; save that a Statute passed in the former Parliament 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. unto this effect, that such form and manner of making and consecra∣ting Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and other Ministers of the Church (which before I spake of) as by six Prelates, and six other men of this Realm, learned in Gods Laws, by the King to be appointed and assigned, shall be devised to that purpose, and set forth under the great Seal, shall be lawfully used and exercised, and none other. Where note, that the King only was to nominate and appoint the men, the Bishops and other learned men were to make the Book; and that the Parliament in a blind obedience, or at the least upon a charitable confidence in the integrity of the men so nominated, did confirm that Book, before any of their Members had ever seen it, though afterwards indeed, in the following Parliament, this Book, together with the Book of Common-prayer, so Printed and explained, obtained a more formal confirmation, as to the use thereof throughout the Kingdom, but in no other respect; for which see the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c. 1. (As for the time of Q. Elizabeth, when the Common-prayer book now in use (being the same almost with the last of King Edward) was to be brought again into the Church, from whence it was cast out in Queen Maries Reign; it was committed to the care of some learned men; that is to say, to M. Whitehead (once Chaplain to Q. Anne Bullen) Dr. Parker, after Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, Dr. Grindal, after Bishop of London, Dr. Cox, after Bishop of Ely, Dr. Pilkington, after Bishop of Durham; Dr. May, Dean of Saint Pauls, Dr. Bill, Provost of Eaton, after Dean of Westminster, and Sir Tho. Smith. By whom being altered in some few passages which the Statute points to, 1 Eliz. c. 21. it was presented to the Parliament, and by the Parliament received and established without more ado, or troubling any Committee of both or either Houses to consider of it, for ought appears in their Records. All that the Parliament did in it, being to put it into the condition in which it stood before in Kings Edwards Reign, partly by repealing the Repeal of King Edw. Statutes, made in the first of Q. Mary, c. 2. and partly by the adding of some farther penalties on such as did deprave the Book, or neglect to use it, or wilfully did absent themselves from their Parish-Churches. And for the Alterations made in King James his time, being small in the Rubrick only; and for the additions of the Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany, the Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue, and the Doctrine of the Sacraments at the end of the Catechisme, which were not in the Book before, they were never referred unto the Parliament, but were done only by Authority of the Kings Commission, and stand in force by virtue only of His Proclamation, which you may find before the Book; the charge of buying the said Book so explained and al∣tered, being laid upon the several and respective Parishes, by no other Authority than

that of the eightieth Canon, made in Convocation, Anno 1603. The like may also be affirmed of the Forms of Prayer for the Inauguration-day of our Kings and Queens, the Prayer-books for the fifth of November, and the fifth of August, and those which have been used in all publick Fasts: All which, without the help of Parliaments, have been composed by the Bishops, and imposed by the King.

Now unto this discourse of the Forms of Worship, I shall subjoyn a word or two of the times of Worship; that is to say, the Holy-days observed in the Church of Eng∣land; and so observed, that they do owe that observation chiefly to the Churches power. For whereas it was found in the former times, that the number of the Holy-days was grown so great, that they became a burthen to the common people, and a great hinderance to the thrift and manufactures of the Kingdom; there was a Canon made in the Convocation, An. 1536. For cutting off of many superstitious and super∣fluous Holy-days, and the reducing them into the number in which they now stand (save that St. George's day, and Mary Magdalens day, and all the Festivals of the blessed Virgin had their place amongst them) according to which Canon, there went out a Monitory from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, to all the Suffragans of his Province, re∣spectively to see the same observed in their several Diocesses, which is still extant on Record. But being the Authority of the Church was then in the wane, it was thought necessary to confirm their Acts, and see execution done upon it by the Kings Injun∣ction; which did accordingly come forth with this Form or preamble; That the abo∣lishing of the said Holy-days, was decreed, ordained, and established by the Kings Highness Authority, as Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England, with the common consent and assent of the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation lawfully Assembled and Congregate. Of which see Fox his Acts and Monuments, fol. 1246, 1247. Afterwards in the year 1541. the King perceiving with what difficulty the people were induced to leave off those Holy-days, to which they had been so long accustomed, published his Proclamation of the twenty-third of July, for the abolishing of such Holy-days (a∣mongst other things) as were prohibited before by his Injunctions; both built upon the same foundation, namely, the resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation.

And so it stood until the Reign of King E. 6. at which time the Reformation of the publick Liturgie drew after it by consequence an alteration in the present business, no days being to be kept or accounted Holy, but those for which the Church had set a∣part a peculiar office, and not all those neither: For, whereas there are several and pe∣culiar offices for the day of the Conversion of St. Paul, and the day of St. Barnabas, the Apostles; neither of these are kept as Holy-days, nor reckoned or esteemed as such in the Act of Parliament, wherein the names and number of the Holy-days is precisely specified, which makes some think the Act of Parliament to have had an over-ruling power on the Common-prayer-Book; but it is not so, there being a specification of the Holy-days in the Book it self, with this direction, These to be observed for Holy-days, and none other; in which the Feasts of the Conversion of St. Paul, and the Apostle Barnabas are omitted plainly, and upon which specification the Stat. 5 & 6. Ed. 6. cap. 3. which concerns the Holy-days, seems most expresly to be built. And for the Offices on those days in the Common-prayer Book, you may please to know that every Holy-day consisteth of two special parts, that is to say, rest or cessation from bodily labour, and celebration of Divine or Religious duties; and that the days before remembred are so far kept holy, as to have still their proper and peculiar Offices, which is ob∣served in all the Cathedrals of this Kingdom, and the Chappels Royal, where the Service is read every day; and in most Parish Churches also, as oft as either of them falls upon a Sunday, though the people be not in those days injoined to rest from bo∣dily labour, no more than on the Coronation-day, or the Fifth of November, which yet are reckoned by the people for a kind of Holy-days. Put all which hath been said together, and the sum is this: That the proceedings of this Church in the Reforma∣tion were not meerly Regal (as it is objected by some Puritans) much less that they were Parliamentarian in so great a work, as the Papists falsly charge upon us, the Par∣liaments for the most part doing little in it, but that they were directed in a justifiable way, the work being done Synodically, by the Clergy only, according to the usage of the Primitive times, the King concurring with them, and corroborating what they had resolved on, either by his own single Act in his letters Patent, Proclamations and In∣junctions, or by some publick Act of State, as in times, and by Acts of Parliament.

6. Of the power of making Canons, for the well ordering of the Clergy, and the directing of the People in the publick Duties of Religion.

WE are now come to the last part of this design, unto the power of making Ca∣nons, in which the Parliament of England have had less to do than in either of the other which are gone before. Concerning which, I must desire you to remem∣ber that the Clergy, who had power before to make such Canons and Constitutions in their Convocation as to them seemed meet, promised the King in verbo Sacerdotij, not to Enact or Execute and new Canons, but by his Majesties Royal Assent, and by his Authority first obtained in that behalf; which is thus briefly touched upon in the Ant. Brit. in the life of William Warham, Arch Bishop of Canterbury, Clerus in verbe Sacerdotij sidem Regi dedit, ne ullas deinceps in Synodo ferrent Ecclesiasticas leges, nisi & Synodus au∣thoritate Regia congregata, & constitutiones in Synodis publicatae eadem authoritate ratae essent. Upon which ground I doubt not but I might securely raise this proposition, That whatsoever the Clergy did, or might do lawfully before the act of Submission in their Convocation of their own power, without the Kings Authority and consent con∣curring, the same they can, and may do still, since the act of their Submission; the Kings Authority and consent co-operating with them in their Councils, and giving confirmation to their Constitutions, as was said before. Further, it doth appear by the asoresaid Act, 25 H. 8. c. 19. That all such Canons, Constitutions, Ordinances, and Synodals Provincial, as were made before the said Submission, which be not con∣trary or repugnant to the Laws, Statutes, and Customs of this Realm, nor to the da∣mage or hurt of the Kings Prerogative Royal, were to be used and executed as in for∣mer times. "And by the Statute 26 H. 8. c. 1. of the Kings Supremacy, that (accor∣ding to the Recognition made in Convocation) our said Soveraign Lord, his Heirs and Successors, Kings of this Realm, shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, reform, order, correct, &c. all such Errours, Heresies, Abuses Offences, Contempts, and Enormities whatsoever they be, &.c as may be most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christs Religion, and for the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this Realm, and the confirmation of the same. So that you see these several ways of ordering matters for the publick weal and governance of the Church: First, by such ancient Canons and Constitutions, as being made in former times, are still in force: Secondly, by such new Canons as are, or shall be made in Con∣vocation, with and by the Kings consent: And thirdly, By the Authority of the So∣vereign Prince, according to the Precedents laid down in the Book of God, and the best ages of the Church, concerning which you must remember what was said be∣fore, viz. That the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy are Declaratory of an old power only, not Introductory of a new; which said, we shall the better see whether the Parliament have had any thing to do either in making Canons, or pre∣scribing Orders for the regulating of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters, and un∣to whom the same doth of right belong according to the Laws of the Realm of England.

And first, King Henry being restored to his Headship of Supremacy (call it which you will) did not conceive himself so absolute in it (though at the first much enamou∣red of it) as not sometimes to take his Convocation with him, but at all times to be advised by his Prelates, when he had any thing to do that concerned the Church; for which there had been no provision made by the ancient Canons, grounding most times, his Edicts and Injunctions Royal, upon their advice and resolution. For on this ground, I mean the judgement and conclusions of his Convocation, did he set out the Injunctions of the year 1536. for the abolishing of superstitious Holy-days, the exterminating of the Popes Authority, the publishing of the Book of Articles, which be∣fore we spake of num. 8. by all Parsons, Vicars, and Curates; for preaching down the use of Images, Reliques, Pilgrimages, and superstitious Miracles; for rehearsing openly in the Church, in the English tongue, the Creed, the Pater noster, and the Ten Com∣mandments; for the due and reverend ministring of the Sacraments and Sacramen∣tals; for providing English Bibles to be set in every Church for the use of the people; for the regular and sober life of Clergy-men, and the relief of the poor. And on the other side, the King proceeded sometimes only by the advice of his Prelates, as in the injunctions of the year 1538. for quarterly Sermons in each Parish; for admitting none

to Preach but men sufficiently Licenced; for keeping a Register-book of Christnings, Weddings, and Burials; for the due paying of Tythes, as had been accustomed; for the abolishing of the commemoration of St. Thomas Becket; for singing a Parce nobis Domine, instead of Ora pro nobis, and the like to these. And of this sort were the In∣junctions which came out in some years succeeding, for the taking away of Images and Reliques, with all the Ornaments of the same; and all the Monumens and writings of feigned Miracles, and for restraint of offering or setting up Lights in any Churches, but only to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, in which he was directed chiefly by Arch-Bishop Cranmer; as also those for eating of white meats in the time of Lent, the abolishing the Fast on St. Marks day, and the ridiculous (but superstitious) sports ac∣customably used on the days of St. Clement, St. Katherine and St. Nicholas. All which and more was done in the said Kings Reign without help of Parliament. For which I shall refer you to the Acts and Mon. fol. 1385, 1425, 1441. The like may also be af∣firmed of the Injunctions published in the name of K. E. 6. An. 1547. and printed also then for the Use of the Subjects: And of the several Letters missive which went forth in his Name, prohibiting the bearing of Candles on Candlemas-day; of Ashes in Lent, and of Palms on Palm-sunday; for the taking down of all the Images through∣out the Kingdom; for administring the Communion in both kinds, dated March 13, 1548. for abrogating of private Masses, June 24, 1549. for bringing in all Missals, Graduals, Processionals, Legends, and Ordinals about the latter end of December of the same year; for taking down of Altars, and setting up Tables instead thereof, An. 1550. and the like to these: All which particulars you have in Foxes Book of Acts and Mon. in King Edwards life, which whether they were done of the Kings meer mo∣tion, or by advice of his Council, or by consultation with his Bishops (for there is little left upon Record of the Convocations of that time, more than the Articles of the year 1552) certain I am that there was nothing done, nor yet pretended to be done in all these particulars by the Authority of Parliament.

Thus also in Q. Elizabeths time, before the new Bishops were well settled, and the Queen assured of the affections of her Clergy, she went that way to work in the Re∣formation, which not only her two Predecessors, but all the Godly Kings and Princes in the Jewish State, and many of the Christian Emperours in the Primitive times had done before her, in the well ordering of the Church and People committed to their care and government by Almighty God; and to that end she published her Injunctions, An. 1559. A Book of Orders, An. 1561. Another of Advertisements, An. 1562. All tending unto Reformation unto the building up of the new Jerusalem, with the advice and counsel of the Metropolitan, and some other Godly Prelates, who were then a∣about her, by whom they were agreed on and subscribed unto, before they were pre∣sented to her, without the least concurrence of her Court of Parliament. But when the times were better settled, and the first difficulties of her Reign passed over, she left Church-work to the disposing of Church-men, who by their place and calling were most proper for it; and they being met in Convocation, and thereto Authorised as the Laws required, did make and publish several Books of Canons, as viz. 1571. An. 1584. An. 1597. Which being confirmed by the Queen under the broad Seal of Eng∣land, were in force of Laws to all intents and purposes which they were first made; but being confirmed without those formal words, Her Heirs and Successors, are not binding now, but expired together with the Queen. No Act of Parliament required to confirm them then, nor never required ever since, on the like occasion. A fuller evidence whereof we cannot have, than in the Canons of year, 1603. being the first year of King James, made by the Clergy, only in the Convocation, and confirmed only by the King; for though the old Canons were in force, which had been made before the submission of the Clergy, as before I shewed you, which served in all these wavering and unsettled times, for the perpetual standing rule of the Churches Government; yet many new emergent cases did require new rules, and whilst there is a possibility of Mali mores; there will be a necessity of bonae Leges. Now in the confirmation of these Canons we shall find it thus, That the Clergy being met in their Convocation, accor∣ding to the Tenour and effect of his Majesties Writ, his Majesty was pleased by virtue of his Prerogative Royal and Supream Authority in causes Ecclesiastical, to give and grant unto them by his Letters Patents, dated April 12. and June 25. full, free, and lawful liberty, licence, power and authority, to convene, treat, debate, consider, con∣sult, and agree upon such Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, as they should think necessary, fit and convenient for the honour and service of Almighty

God, the good and quiet of the Church, and the better government thereof from time to time, &c. to be kept by all persons within this Realm, as far as lawfully, being members of the Church, it may concern them; which being agreed on by the Clergy, and by them presented to the King, humbly requiring him to give his Royal assent un∣to them, according to the Statute made in the 25 of K. H. 8. and by his Majesties Pre∣rogative and Supream Authority in Ecclesiastical causes to ratifie and confirm the same, his Majesty was graciously pleased to confirm and ratifie them by his Letters Patents, for himself, his Heirs, and lawful Successors, straightly commanding and requiring all his loving Subjects, diligently to observe, execute, and keep the same in all points, wherein they do or may concern all or any of them. No running to the Parliament to confirm these Canons, nor any question made till this present, by temperate and knowing men, that there wanted any Act for their confirmation which the law could give them.

7. An Answer to the main Objections of either Party.

BUT against this, all which hath been said before, it will be objected, That being the Bishops of the Church are fully and wholly Parliamentarian, and have no more Authority and Jurisdiction, nisi à Parliamentis derivatum, but that which is con∣ferred upon them by the power of Parliaments, as both Sanders and Schultingius do expresly say, whatsoever they shall do or conclude upon, either in Convocation, or in more private conferences, may be called Parliamentarian also. And this last calumny they build on the several Statutes 24 H. 8. c. 12. touching the manner of Electing and Consecrating Arch-Bishops and Bishops, that of the 1 E. 6. c. 2. appointing how they shall be chosen, and what Seals they shall use; these of 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. & 5. & 6 E. 6. for Authorizing of the Book of Ordination. But chiefly that of the 8 Eliz. c. 1. for making good all Acts since 1 Eliz. in Consecrating any Arch Bishop or bishop within this Realm. To give a general answer to each several cavil, you may please to know, that the Bi∣shops as they now stand in the Church of England, derive their Calling, together with their Authority and power in Spiritual matters, from no other hands than those of Christ and his Apostles, their Temporal honours and possessions, from the bounty and affection only of our Kings and Princes, their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in causes Matri∣monial, Testamentary, and the like, for which no action lieth at the common Law, from continual usage and prescription; and ratified and continued unto them in the Magna Charta of this Realm, and owe no more unto the Parliament than all sort of Subjects do besides, whose Fortunes and Estates have been occasionally and collate∣rally confirmed in Parliament. And as for the particular Statutes which are touched upon, that of the 24 H. 8. doth only constitute and ordain a way by which they might be chose and consecrated, without recourse to Tome for a confirmation, which for∣merly had put the Prelates to great charge and trouble; but for the form and manner of their Consecration, the Statute leaves it to those Rites and Ceremonies wherewith before it was performed; and therefore Sanders doth not stick to affirm, that all the Bishops which were made in King Henries days were Lawfully and Canonically or∣dained and consecrated, the Bishops of that time, not only being acknowledged in Queen Maries days for lawful and Canonical Bishops, but called on to assist at the Con∣secration of such other Bishops (Cardinal Pool himself for one) as were promoted in her Reign, whereof see Masons Book de Minist. Ang. l. c. Next for the Statute, 1 E. 6. cap. 2. besides that it is satisfied in part by the former Answer, as it relates to their Ca∣nonical Consecrations, it was repealed in Terminis in the first of Queen Maries Reign, and never stood in force nor practice to this day. That of the Authorizing of the Book of Ordination in two several Parliaments of that King, the one à parte ante, and the other à parte post, as before I told you, might indeed seem somewhat to the pur∣pose, if any thing were wanting in it which had been used in the formula's of the Pri∣mitive times; or if the Book had been composed in Parliament, or by Parliament∣men, or otherwise received more Authority from them, then that it might be lawfully used and exercised throughout the Kingdom. But it is plain, that none of these things were objected in Queen Maries days, when the Papists stood most upon their points, the Ordinal being not called in because it had too much of the Parliament, but be∣cause it had too little of the Pope, and relished too strongly of the Primitive piety. And for the Statute of 8 of Q. Elizabeth, which is chiefly stood on, all that was done therein was no more than this, and on this occasion; A question had been made by captious

and unquiet men, and amongst the rest by Dr. Bonner, sometimes Bishop of London, whether the Bishops of those times were lawfully ordained or not; the reason of the doubt being this (which I marvel Mason did not see) because the book of Ordination which was annulled and abrogated in the first of Queen Mary, had not been yet re∣stored and revived by any legal Act of Queen Elizabeths time; which Cause being brought before the Parliament in the 8th year of her Reign, the Parliament took no∣tice first, that their not restoring of that Book to the former power in terms significant and express, was but Casus omissus; and then declare, that by the Statute 5 and 6 E. 6. it had been added to the Book of Common-prayer and Administration of the Sacra∣ments as a member of it, at least as an Appendant to it; and therefore by the Statute 1 Eliz. c. 2. was restored again, together with the said Book of Common-prayer, in∣tentionally at the least, if not in Terminis. But being the words in the said Statute were not clear enough to remove all doubts, they therefore did revive now, and did accor∣dingly Enact, That whatsoever had been done by virtue of that Ordination, should be good in Law; This is the total of the Statute, and this shews rather in my judgment, that the Bishops of the Queens first times had too little of the Parliament in them, than that they were conceived to have had too much. And so I come to your last Objection, which concerns the Parliament, whose entertaining all occasions to manisest their power in Ecclesiastical matters, doth seem to you to make that groundless slander of the Papists the more fair and plausible.

'Tis true indeed, that many Members of both Houses in these latter Times, have been very ready to embrace all businesses which are offered to them, out of a probable hope of drawing the managery of all Affairs, as well Ecclesiastical as Civil, into their own hands. And some there are, who being they cannot hope to have their sancies Authorized in a regular way, do put them upon such designs, as neither can consist with the nature of Parliaments, nor the Authority of the King, nor with the privileges of the Clergy; nor, to say truth, with the esteem and reputation of the Church of Christ And this hath been a practice even as old as Wickliffe, who in the time of K. R. 2. addressed his Petition to the Parliament (as we read in Walsingham) for the Reforma∣tion of the Clergy, the rooting out of many false and erroneous Tenets, and for esta∣blishing of his own Doctrines (who though he had some Wheat, had more Tears by odds) in the Church of England. And lest he might be thought to have gone a way, as dangerous and unjustifiable, as it was strange and new, he laid it down for a posi∣tion. That the Parliament or Temporal Lords (where by the way this ascribes no Authority or power at all to the House of Commons) might lawfully examine and re∣form the Disorders and Corruptions of the Church, and a discovery of the errors and corruptions of it, devest her of all Tithes and Temporal endowments, till she were re∣formed. But for all this, and (more than this) for all he was so strongly backed by the Duke of Lancaster, neither his Petition nor his Position found any welcome in the Parliament, further than that it made them cast many a longing eye on the Churches patrimony; or produced any other effect towards the work of Reformation, which he chiefly aimed at, than that it hath since served for a precedent to Penry, Pryn, and such like troublesome and unquiet spirits, to disturb the Church, and set on foot those dreams and dotages, which otherwise they durst not publish. And to say truth, as long as the Clergy were in power, and had Authority in Convocation to do what they would in matters which concerned Religion, those of the Parliament conceived it neither safe nor fitting to intermeddle in such business as concerned the Clergy, for fear of being questioned for it at the Churches Bar. But when that Power was lessened (though it were not lost) by the submission of the Clergy to K. H. 8. and by the Act of the Supremacy which ensued upon it; then did the Parliaments begin to intrench upon the Churches Rights, to offer at, and entertain such businesses as formerly were held peculiar to the Clergy only; next, to dispute their Charters and reverse their privi∣leges; and finally, to impose some hard Laws upon them. And of these notable in∣croachments, Matthew Parker thus complains in the life of Cranmer, Qua Ecclesiasticarum legum potestate abdicata, populus in Parliamento coepit de rebus divinis inconsulto Clero San∣cire, tum absentis Cleri privilegia sensim detrahere, jura{que} duriora quibus Clerus invitus tene∣retur, Constituere. But these were only tentamenta, offers and undertakings only, and no more than so. Neither the Parliaments of K. Edward, or Q. Elizabeths time knew what it was to make Committees for Religion, or thought it fit that Ʋzzah should sup∣port the Ark, though he saw it tottering. That was a work belonging to the Levites only, none of the other Tribes were to meddle with it. But as the Puritan Faction

grew more strong and active, so they applyed themselves more openly to the Houses of Parliament, but specially to the House of Commons; putting all power into their hands, as well in Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Causes, as in matters Temporal. This, amongst others, confidently affirmed by Mr. Pryn, in the Epistle to his Book called Anti-Arminianism, where he avers, That all our Bishops, our Ministers, our Sacraments, our Consecration, our Articles of Religion, our Homilies, Common-prayer Book; yea, and all the Religion of the Church, is no other way publickly received, supported, or established amongst us, but by Acts of Parliament. And this not only since the time of the Reformation, but, That Religion and Church affairs were determined, ratified, declared, and ordered by Act of Parliament, and no ways else, even then when Popery and Church men had the greatest sway. Which strange assertion falling from the pen of so great a Scribe, was forthwith chear∣fully received amongst our Pharisees, who hoped to have the highest places, not only in the Synagogue, but the Court of Sanhedrim, advancing the Authority of Parlia∣ments to so high a pitch, that by degrees they fastened on them, both an infallibility of judgment, and an omniotency of power. Nor can it be denied (to deal truly with you) but that they met with many apt Scholars in that House, who either out of a desire to bring all the grist to their own Mill, or willing to enlarge the great power of Parliaments, by making new precedents for Posterity, or out of faction, or affection, or what else you please, began to put their Rules in practice, and draw all matters whatsoever within the cognizance of that Court: In which their embracements were at last so general, and that humour in the House so prevalent; that one being once de∣manded what they did amongst them, returned this answer, That they were making a new Creed: Another being heard to say, That he could not be quiet in his Conscience, till the holy Text should be confirmed by an Act of theirs: Which passages, if they be not true and real, (as I have them from an honest hand) I assure you they are bitter jests. But this, although indeed it be the sickness and disease of the present Times, and little to the honour of the Court of Parliament, can be no prejudice at all to the way and means of the Reformation; amongst sober and discerning men, the Doctrine of the Church being settled, the Liturgy published and confirmed, the Canons authorized and exe∣cuted, when no such humour was predominant, nor no such power pretended to, by both or either of the Houses of Parliament.

But here perhaps it will be said that we are fallen into Charybdis by avoiding Scylla, and that endeavouring to stop the mouth of this Popish Calumny, we have set open a wide gap to another no less scandalous of the Presbyterians; who being as professed Enemies of the Kings as the Popes Supremacy, and noting that strong influence which the King hath had in Ecclesiastical affairs since the first attempts for Reformation, have charg'd it as reproachfully on the Church of England, and the Religion here establish∣ed; that it is Regal at the best if not Parliamentarian, and may be called a Regal Faith, and a Regal Gospel. But the Answer unto this is easie. For first the Kings intended by the Objectors, did not act much in order to the Reformation (as ap∣pears by that which hath been said) but either by the advice and co-operation of the whole Clergy of the Realm in their Convocations, or by the Counsel and consent of the Bishops and most eminent Church men in particular Conferences: which made it properly the work of the Clergy only, the Kings no otherwise than as it was propoun∣ed by him, or finally confirmed by the Civil Sanction. And secondly, had they done more in it than they did, they had been warranted so to do by the Word of God; who hath committed unto Kings and Sovereign Princes a Supreme or Supereminent power, not only in all matters of a Temporal or Secular nature, but in such as do concern Re∣ligion and the Church of Christ. And so St. Augustine hath resolved it in his third Book against Cresconius. In hoc Reges sicut iis divinitus praecipitur: (pray you note that well) Deo serviunt in quantum Reges sunt, si in suo Regno bona jubeant, mala prohibeant, non solum quae pertinent ad humanum societatem, verum etiam ad Divinam Religionem. Which words of his seemed so significant and convincing unto Hart the Jesuite, that being shewed the Tractate writ by Dr. Nowel against Dorman the Priest, in the begin∣ning of Q. Elizabeths time, and finding how the case was stated by that Reverend person, he did ingenously confess that there was no Authority ascribed to the Kings of england in Ecclesiastical affairs, but what was warranted unto them by that place of Augustine. The like affimed by him that calleth himself Franciscus de S. Clara, though a Jesuite too (that you mjay see how much more candid and ingenuous the Jesuits are in this point than the Presbyterians) in his Examen of the Articles of the Church of England. But hereof you may give me opportunity to speak more hereafter,

when you propose the Doubts which you say you have, relating to the King, the Pope, and the Churches Protestant, and therefore I shall say no more of it at the present time.

SECT. II. The manner of the Reformation of the Church of England declared and justified.

HItherto I had gone in order to your satisfaction, and communicated my concep∣tions in writing to you, when I received your Letter of the 4th. of January, in which you signified the high contentment I had given you, in condescending to your weakness, (as you pleased to call it) and freeing you from those doubts which lay heaviest on you. And therewithal you did request me to give you leave to propound those other scruples which were yet behind, relating to the King, the Pope and the Protestant-Churches, either too little or too much looked after in the Reformation. And first you say it is cvomplained of by some Zelots of the Church of rome, that the Pope was very hardly and unjustly dealt with, in being deprived of the Supremacy so long enjoyed and exercised by his Predecessors, and that it was an Innovation no less strange than dangerous to settle it upon the King. 2. That the Church of England ought not to have proceeded to a Reformation without the Pope, considered either as the Patriarch of the Weftern world, or the Apostle in particular of the English Nation. 3. That if a Reformation had been found so necessary, it ought to have been done by a General Council, at least with the consent and co-operation of the Sister-Churches, especially of those who were engaged at the same time in the same designs. 4. That in the carrying on of the Reformation, the Church proceeded very unadvisedly, in letting the people have the Scriptures and the publique Liturgy in the vulgar tongue, the dangerous consequents whereof are now grown too visible. 5. That the pro∣ceedings in the point of the Common-prayer Book were meerly Regal, the body of the Clergy not consulted with, or consenting to it; and consequently not so Regular as we fain would have it. And 6. That in the power of making Canons, and deter∣mining matters of the Faith, the Clergy have so fettered and intangled themselves by the Act of Submission, that they can neither meet, deliberate, conclude nor execute, but as they are enabled by the Kings Authority, which is a Vassalage inconsistent with their native Liberties, and not agreeable to the usage of the Primitive times. These are the points in which you now desire to have satisfaction, and you shall have it in the best way I am able to do it, that so you may be freed hereafter from such troubles and Disputants, as I perceive have laboured to perplex your thoughts, and make you less affectionate than formerly to the Church your Mother.

1. That the Church of England did not Innovate in the Ejection of the Pope, and settling the Supremacy in the Royal Crown.

And in this point you are to know that it hath been, and still is the general and con∣stant judgment of the greatest Lawyers of this Kingdom, that the vesting of the Supre∣macy in the Crown Imperial of this Realm, was not Introductory of any new Right or Power which was not in the Crown before, but Declaratory of an old, which had been anciently and originally inherent in it, though of late Times usurped by the Popes of Rome, and in Abeyance at that time, as our Lawyers phrase it. And they have so resolved it upon very good reasons; the principal managery of affairs which concern Religion, being a flower inseparably annexed to the Regal Diadem, not proper and peculiar only to the Kings of England, but to all Kings and Princes in the Church of God, and by them exercised and enjoyed accordingly in their times and places. For who, I pray you, were the men in the Jewish Church who destroyed the Idols of that people, cut down the Groves, demolished the high places, and brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent, when abused to Idolatry? Were they not the godly Kings and Princes only which sway'd the Scepter of that Kingdom? And though 'tis possible enough that they might do it by the counsel and advice of the High-Priests of that

Nation, or of some of the more godly Priests and Levites (who had a zeal unto the Law of the most high God) yet we find nothing of it in the holy Scripture; the merit of these Reformations which were made occasionally in that faulty Church, being as∣cribed unto their Kings, and none but them. Had they done any thing in this which belonged not to their place and calling, or by so doing had intrenched on the Office of the Priests and Levits, that God who punished Ʋzzab for attempting to support the Ark when he saw it tottering, and smote Osias with a Leprosie, for burning Incense in the Temple (things which the Priests and Levites only were to meddle in) would not have suffered those good Kings to have gone unpunished, or at least uncensured, how good soever their intentions and pretences were. Nay on the contrary, when any thing was amiss in the Church of Jewry, the Kings, and not the Priests were ad∣monished of it, and reproved for it by the Prophets; which sheweth that they were trusted with the Reformation, and none else but they. Is it not also said of david, that he distributed the Priests and Levites into several Classes, allotted to them the particu∣lar times of their Ministration, and designed them unto several Offices in the publick Service? Josephus adding to these passages of the Holy Writ, That he composed Hymns and Songs to the Lord his God, and made them to be sung in the Congregation, as an especial part of the publick Liturgy, Of which, although it may be said that he composed those Songs and Hymns by vertue of his Prophetical Spirit, yet he imposed them on the Church, appointed Singing-men to sing them, and prescribed Vestments also to these Singing-men, by no other power than the regal only: None of the Priests consulted in it, for ought yet appears.

The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by the Christian Emperors, not only in their calling Councils, and many times assisting at them, or presiding in them by themselves, or their Deputies, or Commissioners; but also in confirming the Acts thereof. He that consults the Code and Novelles in the Civil Laws, will find the best Princes to have been most active in things which did concern Religion, in regulating matters of the Church, and setting out their Imperial Edicts for suppressing of Here∣ticks. Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia? What hath the Emperor to do in matters which concern the Church? is one of the chief Brand-marks which Optatus sets upon the Donatists. And though some Christians of the East have in the way of scorn had the name of Melchites (men of the Kings Religion, as the word doth intimate) because they adhered unto those Doctrines which the Emperors, agreeable to former Coun∣cils, had confirmed and ratified; yet the best was, that none but Sectaries and Here∣ticks put that name upon them. Neither the men, nor the Religion was a jot the worse. Nor did they only deal in matters of Exterior Order, but even in Doctrinals, matters intrinsecal to the Faith; for which their Enoticon set out by the Emperor Zeno for settling differences in Religion, may be proof sufficient.

The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by Charles the Great, when he at∣tained the Western Empire, as the Capitulars published in his Name, and in the names of his Successors, do most clearly evidence; and not much less enjoyed and practised by the Kings of England in the elder times, though more obnoxious to the power of the Pope of Rome, by reason of his Apostleship (if I may so call it:) the Christian Faith being first preached unto the English Saxons, by such as he employed in that Holy work. The instances whereof dispersed in several places of our English Histories, and other Monuments and Records which concern this Church, are hand∣somely summed up together by Sir Edward Cook, in the fifth part of his Reports, if I well remember; but I am sure in Cawdries Case, entituled De Jure Regis Ecclesiastico. And though Parsons (the Jesuite) in his Answer unto that Report, hath took much pains to vindicate the Popes Supremacy in this Kingdom, from the first planting of the Gospel among the Saxons; yet all he hath effected by it, proves no more than this, That the Popes, by permission of some weak Princes, did exercise a kind of concurrent juris∣diction here with the Kings themselves, but came not to the full and entire Supremacy, till they had brought all other Kings and Princes of the Western Empire; nay, even the Emperors themselves under their command. So that when the Supremacy was recognized by the Clergy in their Convocation to K. H. 8. it was only the restoring of him to his pro∣per and original power, invaded by the Popes of these latter Ages; though possibly the Title of Supream Head seemed to have somewhat in it of an Innovation. At which Title, when the Papists generally, and Calvin in his Comment on the Prophet Amos, did seem to be much scandalized, it was with much wisdom changed by Q. Elizabeth, into that of Supream Governour, which is still in use. And when that also would not

down with some queasie stomacks, the Queen her self by her Injunctions, published in the first year of her Reign, and the Clergy in their book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation about five years after, did declare and signifie, That there was no Autho∣rity in sacred matters contained under that Title, but that only Prerogative which had been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself; that is, That they should rule all Estates and degrees committed to their charge by God, whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal, and to restrain, with the Civil Sword, the stubborn and evil doers; as also to exclude thereby the Bishop of Rome from having any jurisdiction in the Realm of England, Artic. 37. Lay this unto the rest before, and tell me (if you can) what hath been acted by the Kings of England in the Reformation of Religion, but what is warranted unto them by the practice and example of the most godly Kings of Jewry, seconded by the most godly Emperours in the Christian Church, and by the usage also of their own Predecessors in this Kingdom, till Papal Usurpation carried all before it. And being that all the Popes pretended to in this Realm was but Usurpation, it was no Wrong to take that from him which he had no Right to, and to restore it at the last to the proper Owner. Neither prescription on the one side, nor discontinuance on the other, change the case at all; that noted Maxim of our Lawyers, that no prescription binds the King (or Nullum tempus occurrit Regi, as their own words are) being as good against the Pope, as against the Subject.

This leads me to the second part of this Dispute, the dispossessing of the Pope of that Supream Power, so long enjoyed and exercised in this Realm by his Predecessors. To which we say, that though the pretensions of the Pope were antient, yet they were not primitive; and therefore we may answer in our Saviours words, Ab initio non fuit sic, it was not so from the beginning. For it is evident enough in the course of story, that the Pope neither claimed nor exercised any such Supremacy within this Kingdom in the first Ages of this Church, nor in many after; till by gaining from the King the Investiture of Bishops under Henry the First, the exemption of the Clergy from the Courts of Justice under Henry the Second, and the submission of King John to the See of Rome, they found themselves of strength sufficient to make good their Plea. And though by the like artifices, seconded by some Texts of Scripture, which the ignorance of those times incouraged them to abuse as they pleased, they had attained the like Supremacy in France, Spain, and Germany, and all the Churches of the West: Yet his Incroachments were opposed, and his Authority disputed upon all occasions, especially as the light of Letters did begin to shine. Insomuch as it was not only determined essentially in the Council of Constance (one of the Imperial Cities of High germany) that the Council was above the Pope; and his Authority much curbed by the Pragmatick Sanction, which thence took beginning: But Gerson the learned Chancellor of Paris, wrote a full Discourse, entituled, De auferibilitate Papae, touching the total abroga∣ting of the Papal Office; which certainly he had never done in case the Papal Office had been found essential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ. Ac∣cording to the Position of that learned man, The greatest Princes in these times did look upon the Pope and the Papal power as an Excrescence at the best in the body mysti∣cal, subject and fit to be pared off as occasion served; though on self ends, Reasons of State, and to serve their several turns by him as their needs required, they did and do permit him to continue in his former greatness. For Lewis the 11th King of France, in a Council of his own Bishops, held at Lions, cited Pope Julius the 2d. to appear before him; and Laustrech Governour of Millaine under Francis the 1st, conceived the Popes Authority to be so unnecessary (yea, even in Italy it self) that taking a displea∣sure against Leo the 10th. he outed him of all his jurisdiction within that Dukedom. anno 1528. and so disposed of all Ecclesiastical affairs; ut praefecto sacris Bigorrano Episcopo omnia sine Romani Pontificis authoritate administrarentur, as Thuanus hath it, that the Church there was supreamly governed by the Bishop of Bigor (a Bishop of the Church of France) without the intermedling of the Pope at all. The like we find to have been done about six years after, by Charles the Fifth, Emperor and King of Spain, who being no less displeased with Pope Clement the 7th. Abolished the Papal power and jurisdiction out of all the Churches of his Kingdoms in Spain. Which though it held but for a while (till the breach was closed) yet left he an example by it (as my Author noteth) Ecclesiasticam disciplinam citra Romani nominis autoritatem posse conser∣vari, that there was no necessity of a Pope at all. And when K. Henry the 8th. follow∣ing these examples, had banished the Popes Authority out of his Dominions, Religion still remaining here as before it did (the Popes Supremacy not being at the time an

Article of the Churistian Faith, as it hath since been made by Pope Pius the 4th.) that Act of his was much commended by most knowing men, in that without more altera∣tion in the face of the Church, Romanae sedis exuisset obsequium (saith the Author of the Tridentine History) he had freed himself and all his Subjects from so great a Vassalage. Now as K. Henry the 8th. was not the first Christian Prince, who did de facto abrogate the Popes Authority; so was he not the last that thought it might be abrogated if oc∣casion were. For to say nothing of King Edward the 6th. and Queen Elizabeth, two of his Successors, who followed his example in it; We find it to have been resolved on by K. Henry the 4th. of France, who questionless had made the Arch-Bishop of Bourges, the Patriarch of the Gallicane Church, and totally withdrawn it from acknowledging of the Authority of the See of Rome, had not Pope Clement the 8th. (much against his will) by the continual solicitations of Cardinal D' Ossat, admitted him to a formal Reconciliation, on his last falling off to Popery. How near the Signeury of Venice was to have done the like, anno 1608. the History of the Interdict, or of the Quarrels be∣twixt that State and Pope Paul the 5th. doth most plainly shew. This makes it evi∣dent, that in the judgment and esteem of most Christian Princes (in other things of the Religion of the Church of Rome) the Popes Supremacy was looked upon as an in∣croachment; and therefore might be abrogated upon better reasons, than it had for∣merly been admitted in their several Kingdoms. By consequence the doing of it here in England, is neither so injurious or unjust as your Zelots make it.

2. That the Church of England might proceed to a Reformation without the Approbation of the Pope or Church of Rome.

But here you say it will be replied, that though the Pope be not considered as the Supream Head or Universal Pastor of the Church; with reference whereunto his super∣eminent jurisdiction was disputed in the former times; yet it cannot be denied with reason, but that he is the Patriarch of these Western Churches, and the Apostle in particular of the English Nation. In these respects no Reformation of the Church to be made without him; especially considering that the Church of England at that time was a Member of the Church of Rome, and therefore to act nothing in that kind but by consent of the whole; according to that known Maxim of the Schools, Turpis est pars ea quae totisuo non cohaereat. This though it be a Triple Cord, will be easily broken. For first, the Pope is not the Patriarch of the West. One of the Patriarchs of the West we shall easily grant him; but that he is the Patriarch we will by no means yield. To tell you why we dare not yield it, I must put you in mind of these particulars. 1. That all Bishops in respect of their Office or Episcopality are of equal power, whe∣ther they be of Rome or Rhegium, of Constantinople or Engubium, of Alexandria or of Tanais, as S. Hierom hath it, Potentia divitiarum & paupertatis humilitas vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit. A plentiful Revenue, and a sorry Competency makes not (saith he) one bishop higher than another in regard of his Office, though possibly of more esteem and reputation in the eyes of men. 2. That in respect to Polity and external order, the Bishops antiently were disposed of into Sub et supra, according to the platform of the Roman Empire, agreeable to the good old Rule which we find mentioned, though not made in the general Councel of Chalcedon, that is to say, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. The government of the Church is to be sitted and accommodated to the Civil State. 3. That the Roman Empire was divided antiently into 14 Juridical Circuits, which they called Diocesses, reckoning the Praefecture of rome for one of the number; six the of which, that is to say the Diocesses of Italy, Africk, Spain, Britain, Gaul, and Illyricum occidentale, besides the Praefecture of the City, were under the command of the Western Emperors, after the Empire was divided into East and West. 4. That in the Praefecture of the City of Rome were contained no more than the Pro∣vinces of Latium, Tuscia, Picenum, Suburbicarium, Samnum, Apulia, and Calabria, Bru∣tium and Lucania, in the main land of Italy, together with the Islands of Sicilie, Corsica, and Sardinia. 5. That every Province having several Cities, there was (agreeable to this model) a Bishop placed in every City a Metropolitan in the chief City of each Province, who had a superintendence over all the Bishops; and in each Diocess a Pri∣mate ruling in chief over the Metropolitans of the several Provinces. And 6. Though at first only the three Primates or Arch-Bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, commonly and in vulgar speech had the name of Patriarchs, by reason of the wealth and greatness of those Cities (the greatest of the Roman Empire, and the chief of

Europe, Asia, and Africa) to which the Bishops of Hierusalem and Constantinople were after added; yet were they all of equal power among themselves, and shined with as full a splendor in their proper Orbs as any of the Popes then did in the Sphere of Rome, receiving all their light from the Sun of Righteousness, not borrowing it from one a∣nother; for which the so much celebrated Canon of the Nicene Council may be proof sufficient. If not, the Edicts of Justinian shall come in to help, by which it was de∣creed that all Appeals in point of grievance should lie from the Bishop to the Metropoli∣tan, and from the Metropolitans unto the Primates (the Patriarchs as he calls them) of the several Diocesses. By which accompt it doth appear that the Patriarchate of Rome was antiently confined within the Praefecture of that City; in which respect as the Provinces subject to the Pope, were by Ruffinus called Regiones Suburbicariae, or the City Provinces; so was the Pope himself called Ʋrbicus, or the City-Bishop, by Optatus Afer.

To prove this point more plainly by particular instances, I shall take leave to travel over the Western Diocesses, to see what marks of Independence we can find among them; such as dissenting in opinion from the Church of Rome, or adhering unto different ceremonies and forms of worship, or otherwise standing in defence of their own Authority. And first the Diocess of Italy, though under the Popes nose (as we use to say) was under the command of the Arch-Bishop of Milain, as the Primate of it; which City is therefore called by Athanafius 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Metropolis or chief City of Italy. The Saturdays fast observed at Rome and not at Milain, (Quando Romae sum jejuno Sabbato, quum hic sum non jejuno Sabbato, as S. Ambrose hath it) shews clearly that the one had no dependence upon the other. And yet the difference of Divine Offices or Forms of worship is a more pregnant proof than this: the Churches of Milain officiating for many Ages by a Liturgie which S. Ambrose had a special hand in; they of the Patriarchate of Rome following the old Roman Missals, not fully finished and compleated till the time of Pope Gregory. Whence the distinction of Ecclesiae Am∣brosianae & Ecclesiae Gregorianae, extant in Bonaventure and others of the Writers of the latter times. Cross we the Seas unto the Diocess of Africk, governed in chief by the Primate or Arch-Bishop of Carthage: And there we find S. Cyprian determining against Pope Stephen in the then controverted case of Rebaptization; and calling him (in his Epistle to Pompeius) an obstinate and presumptuous man, and a fautor of Hereticks; no very great tokens of subjection, if you mark it well. The error of his judgement in the point debated I regard not here; but I am sure that in defence of his authority and jurisdiction, he was right enough, and therein strongly seconded by the African Church, opposing the incroachments of Zosimus, Boniface, and Celestine, succeeding one another in the Roman Patriarchate; prohibiting all Appeals to Rome in the Councils of Milevis and Carthage; and finally excommunicating Lupicinus for appealing to Pope Leo the first, contrary to the Rites and Liberties of the African Church. Next for the Diocess of Spain, I look upon the Musarabick Liturgy, composed by Isidore, Arch-Bishop of Sevil, and universally received in all the Churches of that Continent for as un∣questionable a character of self-subsistency as the Ambrosian Office was in the Church of Milain; the Roman or Gregorian Missal not being used in all this Countrey till the year 1083. At which time one Bernard a French-man and a great stickler in behalf of the Roman Ceremonies, being made Arch-Bishop of Toledo, by practising with Alfonso the then King of Castile, first introduced the Roman Missal into some of the Churches of that City, and after by degrees into all the rest of those Kingdoms: soon after the Churches of France, the greatest and most noble part of the Gallick Diocess, they were originally under the Authority of the Bishop of Lions, as their proper Primate, not ow∣ing any suit or service to the Court of Rome; but standing on their own Basis, and acting all things of themselves as the others did. The freedom wherewith Irenaeus the renowned Bishop of that City reproved the rashness of Pope Victor (in the Case of Easter) not well becoming an inferior Bishop to the Supream Pastor; shews plainly that they stood on even ground, and had no advantage of each other in respect of sub & supra, as Logicians say; notwithstanding that more powerful Principality (potentior principa∣litas, as the Latine hath it) which Irenaeus did allow him over those at home. But a more evident proofof this there can hardly be, than those large liberties and freedoms which the Church Gallican doth at this time enjoy; the remainders past all doubt of those antient Rights which under their own Patriarch they were first possessed of; not suffering the Decrees of the Council of Trent (that great supporter of the Popedom) to take place amongst them, but as insensibly, and by the practices of some Bishops

they were introduced; curbing the Popes exorbitant power by the pragmatick San∣ction, and by the frequent Judgments and Arrests of Parliament; insomuch as a Book of Cardinal Bellarmines tending to the advancement of the Papal Monarchy, and another Writ by Beanus the Jesuite, entituled Controversia Anglicana, in maintenance of the Popes Supremacy, were suppressed and censured, Anno 1612. Another Writ by Gasper Scioppius to the same effect (but with far less modesty) being at the same time burnt by the hands of the Hangman. Finally, for the Churches of the Diocess of Britain (those of Illyricum lying too far off to be brought in here) they had their own Primate, also the Arch-Bishop of York, and under him two Metropolitans, the Bishops of London and Caer-leon. And for a character of their Freedom or self-subsistence, they had four different customs from the Church of Rome, as in the Tonsure, and the keeping of the Feast of Easter, wherein they followed the Tradition of the Eastern Churches: So firm withal in their obedience to their own Primate, the Arch Bishop of Car-leon on Ʋsh (the only Arch-Bishop of three, which before they had) that they would by no means yield subjection unto Augustine the Monk, the first Arch-Bishop of the English, though he came Armed amongst them with the Popes Authority. Nor would they afterwards submit unto his Successors, though backed by the Authority of the Kings of England, acknowledging no other Primate but the Bishop of St. Davids (to which the Metropolitan See was then translated) until the time of Henry II. when the greatest part of South-Wales and the City of S. Davids it self was in possession of the English. These were the Patriarchs or Primates of the Western Churches, and by these Primates the Church was either governed singly (but withal Supreamly) in their several Diocesses, (taking the word Diocese in the former notion) or in con∣junction each with other, by their Letters of advice and intercourse, which they called Literas Formatas and Communicatorias. You see by this, that though the Pope was one of the Western Patriarchs, yet was he not originally and by primitive Institution, ei∣ther the Patriarch of the West (that is to say, not the only one) nor could pretend un∣to their Rights, as any of their Sees were ruined by the barbarous Nations; and con∣sequently his consent not necessary to a Reformation beyond the bounds of his own Patriarchate, under that pretence.

Let us next see what power he can lay claim unto, as the Apostle in particular of the English Nation. Which memorable title I shall never grudge him. I know well not only that the Wife of Ethelbert King of Kent, a Christian and a Daughter of France had both her Chappel and her Chappellance in the Palace Royal, before the first preaching of Austin the Monk, but that the Britains living intermixt with the Saxons for so long a time, may be supposed in probability and reason to have gained some of them to the Faith. But let the Pope enjoy this honour, let Gregory the Great be the Apostle of the English Saxons, by whom that Augustine was sent hither; yet this entituleth his Successors to no higher Prerogatives than the Lords own Apostles did think fit to claim in Countreys which they had converted. For neither were the English Saxons Bap∣tized in the name of the Pope (they had been then Gregoriani and not Christiani;) or looked upon him as the Lord of this part of Gods Heritage, but as an helper to their joy. S. Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles did disclaim the one; S. Peter the Apostle of the Jews did dissuade the other. The Anglican Church was absolute and Independent from the first beginning, not tied so much as to the Ceremonies of the Church of Rome; it being left by Gregory to the discretion of Augustine, out of the Rites and Rubricks of such Churches as he met with in his journey hither (these of Italy and France he means) to constitute a form of worship for the Church of England. And for a further proof hereof, he that consults the Saxon Councils collected by that Learned and In∣dustrious Gentleman Sir H. Spelman, will find how little there was in them of a Papal influence, from the first planting of the Gospel to the Norman Conquest. If we look lower, we shall find that the Popes Legat à Latere whensoever sent, durst not set foot on English ground, till he was licensed and indemnified by the Kings Authority; but all Appeals in case of grievance were to be made (by a Decree of Henry II. from the Arch-Deacon to the Bishop, from the Bishop to the Metropolitan, Et si Archiepis∣copus defecerit in justitia exhibenda, ad Dominum Regem deveniendum est postremo, and last of all from the Metropolitan to the King himself; no Appeal hence unto the Pope as in other places, so that the Clergy of this Land had a Self-authority of treating and concluding in any business which concerned their own peace and happiness, without resorting to the Pope for a confirmation. Out of which Canons and Determinations made amongst our selves, Lindwood composed his Provincial (though framed ac∣cording

to the method of the Roman Decretal) to be the standing body of our Canon-Law: that on the other side neither the Canons of that Church, or Decretals of the Popes were concluding here, but either by a voluntary submission of some fawning and ambitious Prelates, or as they were received Synodically by the English Clergy; of which the constitutions made by Otho and Othobon Legats à latere from the Pope may be proof sufficient; and finally that Anselm the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, was wel∣comed by Pope Ʋrban II. to the Council of Bari in Apulia, tanquam alterius orbis Papa, as in William of Malmesbury; tanquam Patriarcham & Apostolicum, as John Cap∣grave hat it, as the Pope, Patriarch, and Apostolick Pastor of another World (Divisos orbe Britannos, as you know who said.) Which titles questionless the Pope would ne∣ver have conferred upon him, had he not been as absolute and supream in his own ju∣risdiction (succeeding in the Patriarchal Rights of the British Diocess) as the Pope was within the Churches subject unto his Authority. And this perhaps might be the rea∣son why Innocent II. bestowed on Theobald (the third from Anselm) and on his Successors in that See, the Title of Legati nati; that they might seem to act rather in the time to come as Servants and Ministers to the Pope, than as the Primates and chief Pastors of the Church of England. And by all this it may appear that the Popes Apo∣stleship was never looked on here as a matter of so great concernment, that the Church might not lawfully proceed to a Reformation without his allowance and consent. Were that plea good, the Germans might not lawfully have reformed themselves, without the allowance of the English; it being evident in story that not only Boniface Arch-Bishop of Mentz, called generally the Apostle of Germany, was an English man; but that Willibald the first Bishop of Eystel, Willibad the first Bishop of Bremen, Willibrod the first Bishop of Ʋtretcht, Swibert the first Bishop of Virdem, and the first converters of those parts were of England also, Men instigated to this great work (all except the first) not so much by the Popes zeal as their own great piety.

By this that hath been said, it is clear enough that the Church of England at the time of the Reformation, was not indeed a Member of the Church of Rome, under the Pope as the chief Pastor and Supream Head of the Church of Christ; but a Fellow-member with it of that Body Mystical, whereof Christ only is the Head, part of that Flock whereof he only is the Shepherd, a sister Church to that of Rome, though with relation to the time of her last conversion, but a younger Sister. And if a Fellow-member and a Sister-Church, she might make use of that Authority which naturally and originally was vested in her, to reform her self, without the leave of the particular Church of Rome, or any other whatsoever of the Sister-Churches. The Church is likened to a City in the Book of God, a City at Ʋnity in it self, as the Psalmist calls it; and as a City it consisteth of many houses, and in each house a several and particular Family. Suppose this City visited with some general sickness, may not each Family take care to preserve it self, advise with the Physitian, and apply the Remedy, without consulting with the rest? Or if consulting with the rest, must they needs ask leave also of the Mayor or principal Magistrate, take counsel with no other Doctors, and follow no other course of Physick than such as he commends unto them, or imposeth on them? Or must the lesser languish irremediably under the calamity, because the greater and more potent Families do not like the cure? Assuredly it was not so in the Primitive times, when it was held a commendable and lawful thing for National and particular Churches to reform such errors and corruptions as they found amongst them; nor in the Church of Judah neither, when the Idolatries of their Neighbours had got ground upon them. Though Israel transgress, let not Judah sin, saith the Prophet Hosea, chap. 4. Yet Israel was the greater and more numerous people. Ten Tribes to two, two of the ten the Eldest Sons of their Father Jacob, all of them older than Benjamin the last begotten, being the second of the two; which notwithstanding the Kings of Judah might and did proceed to a Reformation, though those of Israel did refuse to co-ope∣rate with them. The like was also done de facto and dejure too in the best and hap∣piest times of Christianity; there being many errors and unsound opinions condemned in the Councils of Gangra, Aquilia, Carthage, Milevis; and not a few corruptions in the practical part of Religion reformed in the Synods of Eliberis, Laodicea, Arles, and others in the fourth Century of the Church; without advising or consulting with the Roman Oracle, or running to the Church of Rome for a confirmation of their Acts and doing; though at that time invested with a greater and more powerful principality than the others were. No such regard had in those times to the Church of Rome, though the elder Sister, but that another National Church might reform without her;

nor any such consideration had of the younger Sisters, that one should tarry for ano∣ther till they all agreed, though possibly they might all be sensible of the inconvenience, and all alike desirous of a speedy Remedy. But of this more anon, in Answer to the next Objections.

Proceed we now a little further, and let us grant for once that the Church of Eng∣land was a Member at that time of the Church of Rome, acknowledging the Pope for the Head thereof: Yet this could be no hindrance to a Reformation, when the pre∣tended Head would not yield unto it, or that the Members could not meet to consult about it. The whole Body of the Church was in ill condition, every part unsound, but the disease lay chiefly in the Head it self, grown monstrously too great for the rest of the Members. And should the whole Body pine and languish without hope of ease, because the Head (I mean still the pretended Head) would not be purged of some su∣perfluous and noxious humours occasioning giddiness in the brain, dimness in the eye, deafness in the ear, and in a word, a general and sad distemper unto all the Members? The Pope was grown to an exorbitant height both of pride and power; the Court of Rome wallowing (as in a course of prosperous fortunes) in all voluptuousness and sen∣suality. Nothing so feared amongst them as a Reformation, whereby they knew that an abatement must be made of their pomp and pleasure. Of these corruptions and abuses, as of many others, complaint had formerly been made, by Armachanus, Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln, S. Bernard, Nic. de Clemangis, and other Conscientious men in their several Countreys; not a few errors noted and informed against by Wickliffe, John of Hus, &c. But they complained to a deaf Adder, who was resolved not to hear the voice of those Charmers, charmed they never so wisely. The Church mean-while was in a very ill condition, when he that should prescribe the cure, was become the sickness. Considering therefore that a Reformation could not be obtained by the Popes consent, there was no remedy but that it must be made without it. The Molten Calf modelled by the Egyptian Apis, and the Altar patterned from Damasus, had made the Israelites (in all probability) as great Idolaters as their Neighbours, if the High Briests that set them up might have had their wills. Nor had it been much better with the Church of Christ, if Arianism could not have been suppressed in particular Churches, because Liberius Pope of Rome, (supposing him to be the Head of the Church in general) had subscribed unto it, and that no error and corruption could have been reformed, which any of the Popes (whose Graves I am very loth to open) had been guilty of, but by their permission. The Church now were in worse estate under Christian Princes, than when it suffered under the power and tyranny of the Heathen Emperors, if it were not lawful for particular Churches to provide for their own safety and salvation, with∣out resorting to the Pope; who cannot every day be spoke with, and may (when spoken with) be pressed with so many inconveniencies nearer hand, as not to be at leisure to attend such businesses as lie further off. And therefore it was well said by Danet the French Ambassador, when he communicated to the Pope his Masters purpose of Reforming the Gallican Church by a National Council: If (said he) Paris were on Fire, would you not count the Citizens either Fools or Mad-men, if they should send so far as Tiber for some Water to quench it, the River of Seine running through the City, and the Marne so near it?

3. That the Church of England might lawfully proceed to a Reformation without the help of a General Council, or calling in the aid of the Protestant Churches.

But here you say it is objected, that if a Reformation were so necessary as we seem to make it, and that the Pope was never like to yield unto it, as the case then stood; it ought to have been done by a General Council, according to the usage of the Primi∣tive times. I know indeed that General Councils (such as are commonly so called) are of excellent use, and that the name thereof is sacred and of high esteem. But yet I prize them not so highly as Pope Gregory did, who ranked the four first General Councils with the four Evangelists: Nor am I of opinion that they are so necessary to a Reformation either in point of Faith or corruption of manners, but that the business of the Church may be done without them. Nay, might I be so bold as to lay my naked thoughts before you (as I think I may) you would there find it to be some part of my Belief that there never was, and never can be such a thing as a General Council truly and properly so called; that is to say, such a General Council, to which all the Bishops of the Church (admitting none but such to the power of voting) have been

or can be called together by themselves or their Proxies. These which are commonly so called, as those of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, were only of the Prelates of the Roman Empire. Christian Churches existing at that time in Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Persia (which made up no small part of the Church of Christ) were nei∣ther present at them, nor invited to them. And yet not all the Prelates neither of the Roman Empire, nor some from every Province of it did attend that service: those Councils only being the Assemblies of some Eastern Bishops, such as could most conve∣niently be drawn together; few of the Western Churches (none at all in some) having or list or leisure for so long a journey: For in the so much celebrated Council of Nice, there were but nine Bishops sent from France, but two from Africk, one alone from Spain, none from the Diocess of Britain; and out of Italy, which lay nearest to it, none but two Priests appeared at all, and those as Legats from the Pope, not Authorised to represent the Italian Churches; so that of 318. Bishops which were there Assem∣bled, there were but twelve in all, (besides the Legats of the Pope) for the Western Churches; too great a disproportion to entitle it to the name of General. And yet this was more General than the rest that followed; there being no Bishops of the West at all in the second and third, but the Popes themselves; and in the fourth none but the Legats of the Pope to supply his place. So that these Councils were called General, not that they were so in themselves, but that there was a greater concourse to them from the neighbouring Provinces, than was or had been to some others on the like occa∣sions. Which if it be enough to constitute a General Council, I see no reason but the Council of Antioch might be called so too, summoned in the case of Paulus Samosetanus, the Patriarch at that time of that famous City. For the condemning of whose Heresie there convened not the Bishops of that Province only, but the Patriarch of Hierusalem, the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, Bozra in Arabia, Tarsus in Cilicia, Caesarea in Cappa∣docia, of Iconium in Lycaonia, of Neo-Caesarea in Pontus, besides many others from all places, of the same rank and quality, but of lesser same: Not to say any thing of Dionysius, Patriarch of Alexandria, invited but not present in regard of sickness, which defect he recompenced by his Letters of advice and intercourse; or of Dionysius Pope of Rome, so hampered by the Puritan or Novatian faction, that he could not come. So that if the present of two of the four Patriarchs, and the inviting of the others, with the Bishops of so many distant Nations as were there assembled, suffice to make a Ge∣neral Council; the Council of Antioch might as well have the name of General, as al∣most any of the rest which are so entituled.

But laying by these thoughts as too strong of the Paradox, and looking on a Gene∣ral Council in the common notion, for an Assembly of the Prelates of the East and West, to which the four Patriarchs are invited, and from which no Bishop is excluded that comes commissionated and instructed to attend the service: I cannot think them of such consequence to the Church of God, but that it may proceed without them to a Reformation. For certainly that saying of S. Augustine in his 4th. Book against the two Epistles of the Pelagians, cap. 12. is exceeding true. Paucas fuisse haereses ad quas superandas necessarium fuerit Concilium plenarium occidentis & orientis, that very few He∣resies have been crushed in such General Councils. And so far we may say with the Learned Cardinal, that for seven Heresies suppressed in seven General Councils (though by his leave the seventh did not so much suppress as advance an Heresie) an hundred have been quashed in National and Provincial Synods; whether confirmed or not con∣firmed by the Popes Authority, we regard not here. Some instances hereof in the Synods of Aquileia, Carthage, Gaugra, Milevis, we have seen before, and might add ma∣ny others now, did we think it necessary. The Church had been in ill condition, if it had been otherwise, especially under the power of Heathen Emperors, when such a confluence of the Prelates from all parts of the world would have been construed a Con∣spiracy against the State, and drawn destruction on the Church and the Persons both. Or granting that they might assemble without any such danger, yet being great bodies, moving slowly, and not without long time, and many difficulties and disputes, to be rightly constituted: The Church would suffer more under such delay by the spreading of Heresie, than receive benefit by their care to suppress the same. Had the same course been taken at Alexandria for suppressing Arius, as was before at Antioch for condemning Paulus, we never had heard news of the Council of Nice; the calling and assembling whereof took up so long time, that Arianism was diffused over all the world before the Fathers met together; and could not be suppressed (though it were condemned) in many Ages following after. The plague of Heresie, and leprosie of

sin would quickly over-run the whole face of the Church, if capable of no other cure than a General Council. The case of Arius, and the universal spreading of his Heresie compared with the quick rooting out of so many others, makes this clear enough.

To go a little further yet, we will suppose a General Council to be the best and safest Physick that the Church can take, on all occasions of Epidemical distemper; but then we must suppose it at such times and in such cases only, when it may conveniently be had. For where it is not to be had, or not had conveniently, it will either prove to be no Physick, or not worth the taking. But so it was, that at the time of the Refor∣mation, a General Council could not conveniently be Assembled, and more than so, it was impossible that any such Council should Assemble; I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted, according to the Rules laid down by our Controversors. For first they say it must be called by such as have power to do it. 2. That it must be intimated to all Christian Churches, that so no Church nor people may plead igno∣rance of it. 3. The Pope and the four chief Patriarchs must be present at it, either in person or by Proxie. And lastly, that no Bishop is to be excluded, if he be known to be a Bishop and not excommunicated. According to which Rules, it was impossible I say, that any General Council should be assembled at the time of the Reformation of the Church of England. It was not then as when the greatest part of the Christian world was under the command of the Roman Emperors; whose Edict for a General Council might speedily be posted over all the Provinces. The Messengers who should now be sent on such an errand unto the Countreys of the Turk, the Persian, the Tarta∣rian, and the great Mogul (in which are many Christian Churches, and more perhaps than in all the rest of the world besides) would find but sorry entertainment. Nor was it then, as when the four chief Patriarchs, together with their Metropolitans and Suffragan Bishops, were under the protection of the Christian Emperors, and might without danger to themselves, or unto their Churches, obey the intimation and at∣tend the service; those Patriarchs with their Metropolitans and Suffragans, both then and now languishing under the tyranny and power of the Turk, to whom so general a confluence of Christian Bishops must needs give matter of suspicion of just fears and jealousies, and therefore not to be permitted (as far as he can possibly hinder it) on good Reason of State. For who knows better than themselves how long and dange∣rous a War was raised against their Predecessors by the Western Christians for recovery of the Holy Land, on a resolution taken up at the Council of Clermont; and that making War against the Turks is still esteemed a cause sufficient for a General Council. And then besides it would be known by whom this General Council was to be assem∣bled: If by the Pope, as generally the Papists say, he and his Court were looked on as the greatest grievance of the Christian Church; and 'twas not probable that he would call a Council against himself, unless he might have leave to pack it, to govern it by his own Legats, fill it with Titular Bishops of his own creating, and send the Holy-Ghost to them in a Cloakbag, as he did to Trent. If joyntly by all Christian Princes (which is the common Tenet of the Protestant Schools) what hopes could any man conceive (as the time then were) that they should lay aside their particular interesses, to center all together upon one design? Or if they had agreed about it, what power had they to call the Prelates of the East to attend the business, or to protect them for so doing at their going home? So that I look upon the hopes of a General Council, I mean a General Council rightly called and constituted, as an empty Dream. The most that was to be expected was but a meeting of some Bishops of the West of Europe, and those but of one party only; such as were Excommunicated (and that might be as many as the Pope should please) being to be excluded by the Cardinals Rule. Which how it may be called an Oecumenical or General Council, unless it be a Topical-Oecume∣nical, a Particular-general (as great an absurdity in Grammar, as a Roman Catholick) I can hardly see.

Which being so, and so no question but it was, either the Church must continue without Reformation, or else it must be lawful for National particular Churches to reform themselves. In such a case the Church may be reformed per partes, part after part, Province after Province, as is said by Gerson. But I do not mean to trouble you with this Dispute. For that particular Churches may reform themselves by National or Provincial Councils, when the Church general will not do it, or that it cannot be effected by a General Council, hath been so fully proved by my Lord of Canterbury in his learned and elaborate discourse against Fisher the Jesuite, that nothing can be

added unto so great diligence. But if it be objected, as you say it is, that National Councils have a power of Promulgation only, not of Determination also: I answer first, that this runs cross to all the current of Antiquity, in which not only National but Provincial Councils did usually determine in the points of Faith, and these too of the greatest moment, as did that of Antioch; which if it were somewhat more than a National, was notwithstanding never reckoned for a General Council. I answer se∣condly as before, that for one Heresie suppressed in a General Council, there hath been ten at least suppressed in National and Provincial Synods; which could not be in case they had no power of Determination. And thirdly, That the Articles or Confession of the Church of England are only Declaratory of such Catholick Doctrines as were received of old in the Church of Christ, not Introductory of new ones of their own devising; as might be evidenced in particular, were this place fit for it. But what needs any proof at all, when we have Confession? For the Arch-Bishop of Spalato (a man as well studied in the Fathers, as the best amongst them) ingenuously acknow∣ledged at the High Commission that the Articles of this Church were profitable, none of them Heretical; and that he would defend the honour of the Church of England against all the World. And this he said at the very time of his departure, when his soul was gone before to Rome, and nothing but his Carkass left behind in England. The like a∣vowed by Davenport, or Franciscus à Sancta Clara (call him which you will) who makes the Articles of this Church rightly understood according to the literal meaning, and not perverted to the ends of particular Factions, to be capable of a Catholick and Orthodox sense, which is as much as could be looked for from the mouth of an Ad∣versary. So much as cost one of them his life (though perhaps it will be said that he died in prison) and the burning of his body after his death; though he endevoured to save both by a Retractation. So that in this case too we have omnia bene, nothing amiss in the proceedings of this Church, with reference to the Pope or a General Council.

But you will say, that though we could not stay the calling of a General Council, which would have justified our proceedings in the eyes of our Adversaries; it had been requisite even in the way of civil Prudence to have taken the advice of the Sister-Churches, especially of those which were engaged at the same time in the same designs, which would have added reputation to us in the eyes of our Friends, As for the taking counsel of the Sister-Churches, it hath been touched upon already, and there∣fore we shall say no more as to that particular; unless the Sister-Churches of these latter times had been like the Believers in the infancy of the Christian Faith, when they were all of one heart and one soul, as the Scripture hath it, Act. 4. their counsels had been dilatory, if not destructive. 'Tis true indeed, united Counsels are the stronger and of greater weight, and not to be neglected where they may be had; but where they are not to be had, we must act without them. And if we look into the time of our Reformation, we shall find those that were engaged in the same design, divided into obstinate parties; and holding the names of Luther and Zuinglius in an higher estimate than either the truth of the Opinion in which they differed, or the common happiness of the Church so disturbed between them. The breach not lessened, but made wider by the rise of Calvin, succeeding not long after in the fame of Zuinglius: Besides, that living under the command of several Princes, and those Princes driving on to their several ends; it had been very difficult, if not impossible to draw them unto such an Harmony of affections, and consent in judgment, as so great a business did require. So that the Church of England was necessitated in that conjuncture of affairs to proceed as it did, and to act that single by it self, which could not be effected by the common Counsels, and joynt concurrence of the others. 'Tis true, Melancthon was once coming over in King Henries days, but staid his journey on the death of Queen Anne Bullen; and that he was after sEnt for by King Edward IV. (Regis Literis in An∣gliam vocor) as he affirms in an Epistle unto Camerarius, Anno 1553. But he was staid at that time also on some other occasion, though had he come at that time, he had come too late to have had any hand in the Reformation, the Articles of the Church being passed, the Liturgy reviewed and settled in the year before. And 'tis as true that Calvin offered his assistance to Arch-Bishop Cranmer, for the reforming of this Church; Si quis mei usus esset, as his own words are, if his assistance were thought needful to advance the work. But Cranmer knew the man, and refused the offer; and he did very wisely in it. For seeing it impossible to unite all parties, it had been an imprudent thing to have closed with any. I grant indeed that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr (men of

great learning and esteem, but of different judgments) were brought over hither, a∣bout the beginning of the Reign of K. Edward VI. the one of them being placed in Oxford, the other in Cambridge; but they were rather entertained as private Doctors to moderate in the Chairs of those Universities, than any ways made use of in the Re∣formation. For as the first Liturgy which was the main key unto the work, was fra∣med and settled before either of them were come over; so Bucer died, before the com∣piling of the Book of Articles, which was the accomplishment thereof: Nor do I find that Peter Martyr was made use of otherwise in this weighty business, than to make that good by disputation, which by the Clergy in their Synods or Convocations was agreed upon. By means whereof the Church proceeding without reference to the dif∣ferent interesses of the neighbouring Churches, kept a conformity in all such points of Government and publique order with the Church of Rome, in which that Church had not forsaken the clear Tract of the primitive Times; retaining not only the Epi∣scopal Government, with all the concomitants and adjuncts of it, which had been ut∣terly abolished in Zuinglian Churches, and much impaired in power and jurisdiction by the Lutherans also; and keeping up a Liturgy or set form of worship, according to the rites and usages of the primitive times, which those of the Calvinian Congregations would not hearken to. God certainly had so disposed it in his Heavenly wisdom, that so this Church without respect unto the names and Dictates of particular Doctors, might found its Reformation on the Prophets and Apostles only, according to the Ex∣plications and Traditions of the ancient Fathers: And being so founded in it self, without respect to any of the differing parties, might in succeeding Ages sit as Judge between them, as being more inclinable by her constitution to mediate a peace amongst them, than to espouse the quarrel of either side. And though Spalato in the Book of his Retractations, which he calls Consilium redeundi, objects against us: That besides the publick Articles and confession authorised by the Churches, we had embraced some Lutheran and Calvinian Fancies (multa Lutheri & Calvini dogmata, so his own words run) yet this was but the error of particular men, not to be charged upon the Church as maintaining either. The Church is constant to her safe and her first con∣clusions, though many private men take liberty to imbrace new Doctrines.

4. That the Church did not innovate in translating the Scriptures, and the publick Liturgie into vulgar tongues; and of the consequents thereof in the Church of England.

The next thing faulted (as you say) in the Reformation, is the committing so much heavenly treasure to such rotten vessels, the trusting so much excellent Wine to such musty bottles: I mean the versions of the Scriptures and the publick Liturgies into the usual Languages of the common people, and the promiscuous liberty indulged them in it. And this they charge not as an Innovation simply, but as an Innovation of a dangerous consequence; the sad effects whereof we now see so clearly. A charge which doth alike concern all the Protestant and Reformed Churches, so that I should have passed it over at the present time, but that it is made ours more specially in the application; the sad effects which the enemy doth so much insult in being said to be more visible in the Church of England, than in other places. This make it ours, and therefore here to be considered, as the former were. First then, they charge it on the Church as an Innovation, it being affirmed by Bellarmine, l. 2. De verbo Dei, c. 15. (whether with less truth or modesty, it is hard to say) Ʋniversam Ecclesiam semper his tantum linguis, &c. that in the Universal Church, in all times foregoing, the Scrip∣tures were not commonly and publickly read in any other language but in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latine: This is (you see) a two-edged sword, and strikes not only against all Translations of the Scriptures into vulgar Languages for common use, but against reading those Translations publickly as a part of Liturgy, in which are many things as the Cardinal tells us quae secreta esse debent, which are not fit to be made known to the common people. This is the substance of the charge, and herein we joyn issue in the usual Form with Absque hoc, sans ceo, no such matter really; the constant current of Antiquity doth affirm the contrary; by which it will appear most plainly that the Church did neither Innovate in the act of hers, nor deviate therein from the Word of God, or from the usage of the best and happiest times of the Church of Christ. Not from the Word of God, there's no doubt of that, which was committed unto writing that it might be read, and read by all that were to be directed and guided by it. The

Scriptures of the Old Testament first writ in Hebrew, the Vulgar Language of that people, and read unto them publickly on the Sabbath days, as appears clearly, Act. 13.15. & 15.21. translated afterwards (by the cost and care of Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt) into the Greek tongue, the most known and sTudied Language of the Eastern World. The New Testament first writ in Greek for the self-same reason, (but that S. Matthew's Gospel is affirmed by some Learned men to have been written in the Hebrew) and written to this end and purpose, that men might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing they might have life in his Name, Joh. 20. vers. ult. But being that all the Faithful did not understand these Languages, and that the light of holy Scripture might not be likened to a Candle hidden under a Bushel: It was thought good by many godly men in the Primitive times to translate the same into the Languages of the Countreys in which they lived, or of the which they had been Natives. In which respect S. Chrysostom then banished into Armenia, translated the New Testament, and the Psalms of David into the Language of that people; S. Hierom a Pannonian born, translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick tongue, as Vulphilas Bishop of the Gothes did into the Gothick; all which we find together without further search, in the Bibliotheque of Sixtus Senensis, a learned and ingenuous man, but a Pontifician, and so less partial in this cause. The like done here in England by the care of Athelstan causing a Translation of it into the Saxon Tongue; the like done by Methodius, the Apostle General of the Sclaves, translating it into the Sclavonian, for the use of those Nations; not to say any thing of the Syriack, Aethiopick, Arabick, the Persian, and Chaldaean Versions, of which the times and Authors are not so well known. And what I pray you, is the vulgar or old Latine Edition, (of late times made Authen∣tick by the Popes of Rome) but a Translation of the Scriptures out of Greek and Hebrew for the instruction of the Roman and Italian Nations, to whom the Latine at that time was the Vulgar Tongue? And when that Tongue by reason of the breaking in of the barbarous Nations was worn out of knowledge, (I mean as to the common people) did not God stir up James Arch-Bishop of Genoa, when the times were darkest (that is to say, Anno 1290. or thereabouts) to give some light to them by translating the whole Bible into the Italian, the modern Language of that Countrey? As he did Wiclef not long after, to translate the same into the English of those times, (the Saxon Tongue not being then commonly understood) a copy of whose Version in a fair Velom Manuscript I have now here by me, by the gift of my noble Friend Charles Dymoke, Hereditary Champion to the Kings of England. So then it is no Innovation to translate the Scriptures; and less to suffer these Translations to be promiscuously read by all sorts of people; the Scripture being as well Milk for Babes, as strong Meat for the man of more able judgment. Why else doth the Apostle note it as a commendable thing in Timothy, that he knew the Scriptures from his Childhood? And why else doth S. Hierom speak it to the honour of the Lady Paula, that she made her Maids learn somewhat daily of the holy Scriptures? Why else does Chrysostom call so earnestly on all sorts of men to provide themselves of the holy Bibles, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the only Physick for the Soul, as he calls it there; inviting to the reading thereof not only men of learning and publick business; but even the poor Artificer also, as is acknowledged by Senensis, whom before we mentioned. And why else doth S. Augustine inform his Auditors, that it sufficeth not to hear the Scriptures read in the Congregation, unless they read also in their private Houses. Assuredly, if Boys and Girls, if Servants and Artificers are called upon so earnestly to consult the Scriptures, to have them in a Tongue intelligible to them in their private Families; and are commended for so doing, as we see they are: I know no rank of men that can be excluded.

Let us next see whether it be an Innovation in the Church of Christ, to have the Liturgies or Common-prayers of the Church in the Tongue generally understood by the common people, which make the greatest number of all Church Assemblies. And first we find by the Apostle, not only that the publick Prayers of the Church of Corinth, were celebrated in a Language which they understood; but that it ought to be so also in all other Churches, Except (saith he) ye utter by the voice, words easie to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? How shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen to thy giving of thanks (and consequently to thy Prayers also) if he understand not what thou sayest? 1 Cor. 14.9.16. What say the Papists unto this? Do not both Lyra and Aquinas expresly grant in their Commentaries on this place of Scripture, that the common Service of the Church in the Primitive times was in the common vulgar lan∣guage? Is not the like affirmed by Harding in his Answer to Bishop Jewels challenge,

Art. 3. Sect. 28. Adding withal, that it was necessary in the Primitive times that it should be so; and granting that it were still better that the people had their Service in their own vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it? Sect. 33. Having thus Consitentes reos, we need seek no further, and yet a further search will not be unprofitable. And on that search it will be found that the converted Jews did celebrate their divine Offices (Tractatus & oblationes, as the Father hath it) most commonly in the Syriack, and sometimes in the Hebrew tongue, the natural Languages of that people; as is affirmed by S. Ambrose in 1. ad Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Rationale Divinerum. Eckius a great stickler of the Popes, affirmeth in his Common places, that the Indians have their Service in the Indian tongue; and that S. Hierome having translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick, procured that the Service should be celebrated in that Language also. The like S. Hierome himself, in his Epistle to Heliodorus, hath told us of the Bessi a Sarmatian people: The like S. Basil in his Epistle to the Neo-caesareans, assures us for the Aegyptians, Libyans, Palestinians, Phenicians, Arabians, Syrians, and such as dwell about the banks of the River Euphrates. The Aethiopians had their Missal, the Chaldeans theirs; each in the language of their Countreys, which they still retain. So had the Moscovites of old, and all the scattered Churches of the Eastern parts, which they continue to this day.

But nothing is more memorable in this kind then that which Aeneas Silvius tells of the Sclavonians, who being converted to the Faith, made suit unto the Pope to have the publick Service in their natural Tongue; but some delay being made therein by the Pope and Cardinals, a voice was heard, seeming to have come from Heaven, pray∣ing, Omnis Spiritus laudet Dominum, & omnis lingua confiteatur ei: Whereupon their desires were granted without more dispute. Touching which grant, there is extant an Epistle from Pope John VIII. to Sfentopulcher King of the Moravian Sclaves, anno 888 at what time both the Latine Service and the Popes Authority were generally received in those parts of Europe. Which Letter of Pope John VIII. together with the Story above mentioned, might probably be a chief inducement to Innocent III. to set out a Decree in the Lateran Council, importing that in all such Cities in which there was a concourse of divers nations, and consequently of different Languages, (as in most Towns of Trade there doth use to be) the Service should be said, and Sacraments administred, Secun∣dum diversitates nationum & linguarum, according to the difference of their Tongues and Nations. And though Pope Gregory VII. a turbulent and violent man, about 200 years after the Concession made by John VIII. in his Letter to Ʋratislaus King of Bo∣hemia, laboured the cancelling of that priviledge, and possibly might prevail therein as the times then were; yet the Liburnians, and Dalmatians, two Sclavonian Nations, and bordering on Italy (the Popes proper seat) do still enjoy the benefit of that Indul∣gence, and celebrate their Liturgy in their own Language to this very day. So that the wonder is the greater, that those of Rome should stand so stifly in defence of the Latine Service, which the common people understand not, and therefore cannot knowingly, and with faith say Amen unto it. For though the Latine Tongue was Vulgar in a manner to those Western Nations, amongst whom the Latine Service was first received, and for that cause received because Vulgar to them: Yet when upon the inundation of the barbarous Nations, the Latine tongue degenerated into other Languages, as in France, Italy, and Spain; or else was quite worn out of knowledge, as in Britain, Belgium, and some parts of the modern Germany, in which before it had been commonly understood; it was both consonant to Piety and Christian Prudence, that the Language of the common Liturgies should be altered also. The people other∣wise either in singing David's Psalms, or repeating any parts of the daily Office, must needs be like those Romans or Italians which S. Ambrose speaks of; who loved to sing Greek songs by rote (as we use to say) out of a meer delight which they had to the sound of the words; nescientes tamen quid dicant, not understanding one word which they said or sung.

The blame and guilt of Innovation being taken off, we must next examine the effects and dangerous consequents; more visibly discerned at this time in the Church of England, than was or could have been believed when they were first intimated. A∣mongst these they reckon in the first place the increase of Heresies, occasioned by the mistaking of the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scripture; and to that end it is said by Bellarmine, that the people would not only receive no good by having the Scripture read publickly unto them in their national Languages, sed etiam caperet detrimentum, but on the contrary are like to receive much hurt. However,

acciperet facillime occasionem errandi; because thereby they would most easily be led into errors, which gave occasion unto some (as he tells us there) to call the Scripture Li∣brum Haereticorum, the Hereticks Book. So he in his 2. Book, and 15th. chapter De verbo Dei. The like saith Harding in his Answer to Bishop Jewel's Challenge, Art 3. Sect. 31. The Nations (saith he) that have ever had their Service in the vulgar Tongue (where note that some Nations never had it otherwise) have continued still in Errors, Schisms, and cer∣tain Judaical Ceremonies, &c. In the next place they reckon this, that by permitting Scripture and the publick Liturgies to be extant in the Vulgar Tongues, all men would think themselves Divines, and the Authority of the Prelates would be disesteemed: So Harding in his Answer to Jewels Apologie, l. 5. fol. 460. that the people not content with hearing or reading the holy Scripture, would first take upon them to be Expositors, and at last to be Preachers also, which in effect is that which is charged by Bellarmine. And for this last, the present Distempers and confusions in the Church of England (out of which they suck no small advantage) gives them great rejoycing, as seeing their pre∣dictions so exactly verified. In answer to the first we need say no more, then that there have been Sects and Heresies in all times and Ages; never so many as in the first ages of the Church (witness the Catalogue of S. Augustine, Philastrius, and Epiphanius) in which the Scripture was translated into fewer Languages than it is at the present. 2. That this is no necessary effect of such Translations (for we see few new Heresies started up of late in France or Germany, where such Translations are allowed of) but a meer possible Contingency, which either may be or may not be, as it pleaseth God to give or to withdraw his grace from a State or Nation. And 3. That as according to the Divine Rule of the Apostle, we must not do a thing positively evil, in hope that any good, how great soever, may come of it: So by Analogy thereunto, we must not debar the people of God from any thing positively good, for fear that any contingent mischief may ensue upon it. But of this I shall not say more now, as being loth to tra∣vel on a common place. The point hath been so canvassed by our Controversors, that you may there find Answers unto all Objections.

That which doth most concern me to consider of, is the second consequent, because it doth relate more specially than the other did to the present condition and estate of the Church of England. Although the Charge be general and equally concerning all the Protestant and Reformed Chrrches; yet the Application makes it ours, as before I said, and as ours, properly within the compass of my present design. And though I will not take upon me to Advocate for the present distempers and confusions of this wretched Church (which no man can lament with a greater tenderness, or look on with more indignation than I do, and I think you know it:) yet I must tell you that it is neither Novum crimen C. Caesar, nor ante haec tempora inauditum, for those of the in∣feriour sort to take upon them the inquiry into sacred matters, to turn Expositors and Preachers, as the spirit of delusion moves them. The people have had an itch this way, in all times and Ages. The Satyrist thus complained of it amongst the Heathens:

—Ecce inter pocula quaerunt Romulides saturi, quid dia Poemata narrant.

That is to say,

The well fed Romans in their Cups, do sit And judge of things contain'd in holy Writ.

And the Apostle doth complain of it among the Christians, where he informs us of some ignorant and unstable men, which wrested some hard places of S. Pauls Epistles, as they also did the other Scriptures, to their own destruction, 2 Pet. 3.26. and wrest them so, they could not (I am sure of that) did they not take the liberty of expounding also. Look lower to S. Basils time, when learning did most flourish in the Church of Christ, and we shall find the Emperors Cook (or the Clerk of his Kitchen at the best) as busily dishing out the Scriptures, as if it were no more than serving up his Masters diet from the Kitchin-hatch; paid home by that good Father for his over-great sawciness, with this handsome scoff, Tuum est de pulmento cogitare, non Divina deeoquere, that it belonged unto his office to provide good Pottage for the Court, not to Cook the Scriptures. But this was not the folly only of this Master Cook, who perhaps (though better fed

than taught) might now and then have carried up the Chaplains Mess, and having heard their Learned conferences and discourses, was apt enough to think himself no small fool at a joynt of Divinity. That whole Age was extreamly tainted with the self-same peccancy; of which S. Hierome in his Epistle to Paulinus, makes this sad com∣plaint. Whereas (saith he) all other Sciences and Trades have their several and distinct professors, Sola Scripturarum ars est quam omnes passim sibi vendicant; only the Art of opening, or rather of undoing a Text of Scriptue, (as the phrase is now) was usurped by all: Hanc garrula anus, hanc delirus senex, &c. The pratling Gossip and the doting Sire, the windy Sophister, and in a word, all sorts of people do presume upon, dismembring the body of the Scriptures, and teaching others before they have learnt any thing that is worth the teaching. Some with a supercilious look, speaking big words, discourse of holy Scripture among silly Women; others (the more the shame) learn that of Women which afterwards they may teach to Men, and some with no small volubility of tongue, and confidence, teach that to others which they never understood themselves: Not to say any thing of those who having a smack of humane learning, and coming so prepared to handle the Holy Scriptures, do with inticing words feed the ears of the people, bearing their Auditors in hand quicquid dixerint legem Dei esse, that whatsoever they deliver is the Word of God, nor will vouchsafe to learn what the Prophets and Apostles do conceive of the matter, but very incongruously produce some Testimonies out of holy Writ to make good their corrupt imaginations; as if it were an excellent, not a pernicious way of teaching, to wrest the sense of holy Scripture, and thereby to accommodate it to their present purposes! Hath not the Father given us in this place and passage a most excellent Mirrour, wherein to see the ill complexion of the present times? Doth not he set them forth in such likely colours, as if he rather did delineate the confusions of the present Age, than lament the miseries of his own? May not both Factions see by this, what a condition the poor Church of England is involved in by them? The sight whereof, althoug it justifie them not in their several courses, as being not without example in their present practices:) yet it may serve to let you know that as the distractions and confusions under which we suffer, are not the consequents of our translating of the Scriptures and publick Liturgies into the common vulgar Tongues, so it is neither new nor strange that such confusionsand distractions should befal the Church.

5. That the proceedings of this Church in setting out the English Liturgy, were not meerly Regal; and of the power of Soveraign Princes in Ecclesiastical affairs.

Having thus proved that nothing hath been done amiss by the Church of England, with reference to Gods Word, the testimonies of godly Fathes, and the usage of the primitive times, in leaving off the Latine Service, and celebrating all Divine Offices in the English Tongue: I am to justifie it next, in order to the carrying on of that weighty business, whether so Regular or not, as we fain would have it. I see you are not scrupled at the subject-matter of the Common-prayer-book, which being translated into Greek, Latine, French and Spanish, hath found a general applause in most parts of Christendom; no where so little set by as it is at home. All scruples in that kind have been already fully satisfied by our learned Hooker, who hath examined it per partes, and justified it in each part and particular Office. But for the greater honour of it, take this with you also, which is alledged in the Conference of Hampton Court, touching the Marquess of Rhosny (after Duke of Sally, and Lord High Treasurer of France) who coming Ambassador to King James from Henry IV. and having seen the solemn celebration of our Service at Canterbury, and in his Majesties Royal Chappels, did often and publickly affirm, that if the Reformed Churches in France had kept the same Orders as were here in England, he was assured there would have been many thousand Pro∣testants in that Kingdom more than were at that time. That which you seem to stick at only is in the way and manner of proceeding in it; which though you find by perusal of the Papers which I sent first unto you, not to have been so Parliamentarian as the Papists made it; yet still you doubt whether it were so Regular and Canonical as it might have been. And this you stumble at the rather, in regard that the whole Body of the Clergy in their Convocation, had no hand therein, either as to decree the doing of it, or to approve it being done; but that it was resolved on by the King (or ra∣ther by the Lord Protector in the Kings Minority) with some few of the Bishops; by which Bishops, and as small a number of Learned Church-men, being framed and fashioned, it was allowed of by the King, confirmed or imposed rather by an Act of Parliament. Your question hereupon is this, Whether the King (for his acting it by a

Protector doth not change the Case) consulting with a lesser part of his Bishops and Clergy, and having their consent therein, may conclude any thing in the way of a Reforma∣tion, the residue and greatest part not advised withal, nor yielding their consent unto it in a formal way. This seems to have some reference to the Scottish Liturgie (for by your Letter I perceive that one of the chief of your Objectors is a Divine of that Nation) and therefore it concerns me to be very punctual in my Answer to it.

And that my Answer my be built on the surer Ground, it is to be considered, first whether the Reformation be in corruption of manners, or abuses in Government, whe∣ther in matters practical, or in points of Doctrine. 2. If in matters practical, whether such practice have the character of Antiquity, Universality, and Consent, imprinted on it; or that it be the practice of particular Churches, and of some times only. And 3. If in points of Doctrine, whether such points have been determined of before in a General Council, or in particular Councils universally received and countenanced; or are to be defined de novo on emergent controversies. And these Distinctions being laid, I shall answer briefly. First, If the things to be reformed be either corruptions in manners, or neglect of publick duties to Almighty God, abuses either in Govern∣ment or the parties governing; the King may do it of himself by his sole Authority. The Clergy are beholden to him, if he takes any of them along with him when he goeth about it. And if the times should be so bad, that either the whole body of the Clergy, or any (though the greatest) part thereof should oppose him in it; he may go forwards notwithstanding, punishing such as shall gainsay him in so good a work, and compelling others. And this I look on as a Power annexed to the Regal Diadem, and so inseparably annexed, that Kings could be no longer Kings if it were denied them. But hereof we have spoke already in the first of this Section, and shall speak more hereof in the next that follows. And on the other side, if the Reformation be in points of Doctrin, and in such points of doctrine as have not been before defined, or not defined in form and manner as before laid down: The King only with a few of his Bishops and Learned Clergy (though never so well studied in the point disputed) can do nothing in it. That belongs only to the whole Body of the Clergy in their Con∣vocation rightly called and constituted; whose Acts being ratified by the King, bind not alone the rest of the Clergy, in whose names they Voted, but all the residue of the subjects, of what sort soever, who are to acquiesce in their Resolutions. The constant practice of the Church, and that which we have said before, touching the calling and authority of the Convocation, makes this clear enough. But if the thing to be Re∣formed be a matter practical, we are to look into the usage of the Primitive times. And if the practice prove to have been both ancient and universally received over all the Church, though intermitted for a time, and by time corrupted: The King con∣sulting with so many of his Bishops, and others of his most able Clergy, as he thinks fit to call unto him, and having their consent and direction in it, may in the case of intermission revive such practice, and in the case of corruption and degeneration, re∣store it to its Primitive and original lustre, whether he do it of himself, of his own meer motion, or that he follow the advice of his Council in it; whether he be of age to in∣form himself, or that he doth relie on those to whom he hath committed the publick Government; it comes all to one: So they restrain themselves to the ancient patterns. The Reformation which was made under josias, though in his Minority and acting by the Counsel of the Elders, as Josephus telleth us, Antiqu. Jud. 1. cap. was no less pleasing unto God, nor less valid in the eyes of all his Subjects, than those of Jeho∣saphat and Hezekiah in their riper years, and perhaps acting singly on the strength of their own judgments only without any advice. Now that there should be Liturgies for the use of the Church, that those Liturgies should be celebrated in a Language un∣derstood by the people: That in those Liturgies there should be some prescribed Forms for giving the Communion in both kinds, for Baptizing Infants, for the re∣verent celebration of Marriage, performing the last office to the sick and the decent burial of the Dead, as also for set Feasts and appointed Festivals; hath been a thing of primitive and general practice in the Christian Church. And being such, though in∣termitted or corrupted, as before is said, the King advising with his Bishops and other Church-men (though not in a Synodical way) may cause the same to be revised and revived; and having fitted them to edification and increase of piety, either commend them to the Church by his sole authority, or else impose them on the people under cer∣tain penalties by his power in Parliament. Saepe Coeleste Regnum per Terrenum proficit. The Kingdom of Heaven (said Reverend Isidore of Sevil) doth many times receive in∣crease

from these earthly Kingdoms; in nothing more than by the regulating and well ordering of Gods publick worship.

We saw before what David did in this particular, allotting to the Priest the Courses of their Ministration, appointing Hymns and Songs for the Jewish Festivals, ordaining Singing-men to sing, and finally prescribing Vestments for the Celebration. Which what else was it but a Regulating of the Worship of God, the putting it into a solemn course and order, to be observed from time to time in succeeding Ages? Sufficient ground for Christian Princes to proceed on in the like occasions; especially when all they do is rathe the reviving of the Ancient Forms than the Introduction of a new. Which as the King did here in England by his own Authority, the Body of the Clergy not consulted in it; so possibly there might be good reason why those who had the conduct of the Kings affairs, thought it not safe to put the managing of the business to a Convocation. The ignorance and superstition of the common people was at that time exceeding profitable to the Clergy, who by their frequent Masses for the quick and dead raised as great advantage, as Demetrius and the Silver-Smith by Dianas shrines. It hapned also in a time when many of the inferiour Clergy had not much more lear∣ning than what was taught them in the Massals and other Rituals, and well might fear that if the Service were once extant in the English tongue, the Laity would prove in time as great Clerks as themselves. So that as well in point of Reputation, as in point of Profit, (besides the love which many of them had to their former Mumpsimus) it was most probable that such an hard piece of Reformation would not easily down, had it been put into the power of a Convocation; especially under a Prince in Nonage, and a state unsettled. And yet it was not so carried without them neither, but that the Bishops generally did concur to the Confirmation of the Book (or the approbation of it rather) when it passed in Parliament; the Bishops in that time, and after (till the last vast and most improvident increase of the Lay-nobility) making the most conside∣rable, if not the greatest part of the House of Peers; and so the Book not likely to be there allowed of, without their consent. And I the rather am inclined unto that Opi∣nion, because I find that none but Tunstal, Gardiner, and Bonner were displaced from their Bishopricks, for not submitting in this case to the Kings appointments; which seems to me a very strong and convincing argument, that none but they dissented or refused conformity. Add here, that though the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation were nto consulted with at first (for the Reasons formerly recited) yet when they found the benefit and comfort which redounded by it to good Christian people, and had by little and little weaned themselves from their private interesses, they all confirmed it on the Post-fact: passing an Article in the Convocation of the year 1552. with this Head or Title, viz. Agendum esse in Ecclesiae linguae quae fit Populo nota, which is the 25th. Article in King Edwards Book. Lay all that hath been said toge∣ther, and the result of all will be briefly this, that being the setting out of the Liturgy in the English Tongue was a matter practical, agreeable to the Word of God and the Primitive times; that the King with so many of his Bishops and others of the Clergy as he pleased to call to Counsel in it, resolved upon the doing of it; that the Bishops generally confirmed it when it came before them, and that the whole body of the Clergy in their Convocation (the Book being then under a review) did avow and justifie it: The result of all I say is this, that as the work it self I say was good, so it was done not in a Regal but a Regular way, Kings were not Kings if regulating the exter∣nal parts of Gods publick worship according to the Platforms of the Primitive times, should not be allowed them.

But yet the Kings of England had a further right as to this particular, which is a power conferred upon them by the Clergy (whether by way of Recognition or Con∣cession, I regard not here) by which they did invest the King with a Supream Autho∣rity, not only of confirming their Synodical Acts not to be put in execution without his consent; but in effect, to devolve on him all that power, which formerly they enjoyed in their own capacity. And to this we have a parallel Case in the Roman Em∣pire, in which there had been once a time when the Supream Majesty of the State was vested in the Senate and people of Rome, till by the Law which they called Lex Regia, they transferred all their Power on Caesar, and the following Emperors. Which Law being passed, the Edicts of the Prince or Emperor were as strong and binding as the Senatus Consulta, and the Plebiseita had been before. Whence came that memorable Maxim in Justinians Institutes; that is to say, Quod Principi placuerit legis habet vigorem. The like may be affirmed of the Church of England, immediately before, and in the

Reign of K. Henry VIII. The Clergy of this Realm had a Self-authority in all matters which concerned Religion, and by their Canons and Determinations did bind all the Subjects of what rank soever, till by acknowledging that King for their Supream Head, and by the Act of Submission not long after following, they transferred that power upon the King, and on his Successors: By doing whereof they did not only disable themselves upon concluding any thing in their Convocations, or putting their results into execution without his consent; but put him into the actual possession of that Au∣thority which properly belonged to the Supremacy, or the Supream Head, in as full manner as ever the Pope of Rome, or any delegated by and under him did before enjoy it. After which time, whatsoever the King or his Successors did in the Reformation, as it had virtually the power of the Convocations; so was it as effectual and good in Law, as if the Clergy in their Convocation particularly, and in terminis, had agreed upon it. Not that the King or his Successors were hereby enabled to exercise the Keys, and determine Heresies much less to preach the Word and administer the Sa∣craments, as the Papists falsly gave it out; but as the Heads of the Ecclesiastical Body of this Realm, to see that all the members of that Body did perform their duties, to rectifie what was found amiss amongst them, to preserve peace between them on emer∣gent differences, to reform such errors and corruptions as are expresly contrary to the Word of God; and finally, to give strength and motions to their Councils and De∣terminations, tending to Edification and increase of Piety. And though in most of their proceedings towards Reformation, the Kings advised with such Bishops as they had about them, or could assemble without any great trouble or inconvenience, to ad∣vise withal; yet was there no necessity, that all or the greater part of the Bishops should be drawn together for that purpose, no more than it was anciently in the Pri∣mitive Times for the godly Emperors to call together the most part of the Bishops in the Roman Empire, for the establishing of the matters which concerned the Church, or for the godly Kings of Judah to call together the greatest part of the Priests and Le∣vites, before they acted any thing in the Reformation of those corruptions and abuses which were crept in amongst them. Which being so; and then withal considering as we ought to do, that there was nothing altered here in the state of Religion, till either the whole Clergy in their Convocaton, or the Bishops and most eminent Church-men had resolved upon it; our Religion is no more to be called a Regal than a Parliament-Gospel.

6. That the Clergy lost not any of their just Rights by the Act of Submission, and the power of calling and confirming Councils did anciently belong to the Christian Princes.

If you conceive that by ascribing to the King the Supream Authority, taking him for their Supream Head, and by the Act of Submission which ensued upon it, the Clergy did unwittingly ensnare themselves, and drew a Vassallage on these of the times succeeding, inconsistent with their native Rights, and contrary to the usage of the Primitive Church: I hope it will be no hard matter to remove that scruple. It's true the Clergy in their Convocation can do nothing now, but as their doings are confirmed by the Kings Authority, and I conceive it stands with reason (as well as point of State) that it should be so. For since the two Houses of Parliament, though called by the Kings Writ, can conclude nothing which may bind either King or Sub∣ject in their civil Rights, until it be made good by the Royal Assent: so neither is it fit nor safe that the Clergy should be able by their Constitutions and Synodical Acts, to conclude both Prince and People in spiritual matters, until the stamp of Royal Autho∣rity be imprinted on them. The Kings concurrence in this case devesteth not the Clergy of any lawful power which they ought to have, but restrains them only in the exercise of some part thereof, to make it more agreeable to Monarchical Government, and to accommodate it to the benefit both of Prince and People. It's true, the Clergy of this Realm can neither meet in Convocation, nor conclude any thing there∣in, nor put in execution any thing which they have concluded, but as they are enabled by the Kings Authority. But then it is as true withal, that this is neither incon∣sistent with their native Rights, nor contrary unto the usage of the Primitive Times. And first it is not inconsistent with their native Rights, it being a peculiar happiness of the Church of England to be always under the protection of Christian Kings; by whose encouragement and example, the Gospel was received in all parts of this Kingdom. And if you look into Sir Henry Spelman's Collection of the Saxon Councils, I

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

exemplified in the Ephesine Council, in which by the appointment of Theodosius and Valentinian then Roman Emperors, Candidianus, a Count Imperial, sate as Judge or President; who in the managing of that trust over-acted any thing that Cromwel did, or is objected to have been done by him as the Kings Commissioner. For that he was to have the first place in those publick meetings as the Kings Commissioner, or his Vicar-General, which you will, (for I will neither trouble my self nor you with dis∣puting Titles) the very Scottish Presbyters, the mo st rigid sticklers for their own pre∣tended (and but pretended) Rights which the world affords, do not stick to yield. No Vassallage of the Clergy to be found in this, as little to be feared by their Submission to the King as their Supream Governour.

Thus Sir, according to my promise, and your expectation, have I collected my Re∣membrances, and represented them unto you in as good a fashion as my other trouble∣some affairs, and the distractions of the time would give me leave; and therein made you see, if my judgment fail not, that neither our King or Parliaments have done more in matters which concern'd Religion and the Reformation of this Church, than what hath formerly been done by the secular Powers, in the best and happiest times of Christianity; and consequently, that the clamours of the Papists and Puritans both, which have disturbed you, are both false and groundless. Which if it may be service∣able to your self, or others, whom the like doubts and prejudices have possessed or scrupled, It is all I wish; my studies and endeavours aiming at no other end, than to do all the service I can possibly to the Church of God; to whose Graces and di∣vine Protection you are most heartily commended in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, By

SIR,

Your most affectionate Friend to serve you Peter Heylyn.