CHAP. I.

In his first Chapter, after a great deal of prattle to no purpose, he Sets up the Propositions suggested by Mr. Hickeringill, and then he Batters them.

The Propositions suggested by Mr. Hickeringill, are these following.

1. THat before Hen. 8. All Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England, was de­rived from the Pope: as Mr. Cary. p. 6.

2. That Hen. 8. When he annex'd the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Crown, he took it wholly away from our Ecclesiastical Ministers.

3. That the Church had no Jurisdiction after Hen. 8. had annex'd it to the Crown, till 1 Edw. 6.2.

4. That if there be any Ecclesiastical Power in our Church, it canot be execu­ted but in the name and with the stile &c. of the King, according to 1 Edw. 6.2.

5. That all our Ecclesiastical Power was lately founded in 1 Eliz. 1. as it Established the High-Commission-Court; And that Act being repeal'd, All Ecclesiastical Power was taken away with the Power of that High-Com­mission.

Then most insultingly concludes, in these Words, — On a Rock consisting of these Sands, stands our mighty Champion, triumphing with his Naked Truth, &c.

And truly if our mighty Champion stand thus Triumphing upon a Rock made of Sands, It is the first Rock made of Sands, that ever was seen in the World before: I have seen great hills of Sands, but never a Rock consisting of Sands be­fore: for lively and natural expressions, and tough and sinewy Arguments, 'tis the very None-such of the D. D? Come, confess ingeniously, Is there not more and better Heads then your own in this Elaborate Work? Is it not the Six Months labour of a Prelatical Smectimnuus, or Club-Divines. Now for his Rancounter.

CHAP. II.

Wherein very Majesterially he asserts (contradictorily) In defiance of the said Propositions and Rocks of Sand, That ‘ Our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England was not derived from the Pope, but from the Crown before the Reformation, by Hen. 8. Sed quomodo probas, Domine D. D?’

First by begging the Question, Petitione Printipij, And asking sternly and de­manding in 8 bold Questions, first, Dare any Protestant stand to the contrary, &c.

So that he has got Mr. Hickeringill upon the Lock, and upon the Hugg, the Devonshire and Cornish Hugg; Hang, or Drown'd, there's no escaping; yield, or confess your self a Papist, concluding that to say so, is not more like a Hob­bist than a Papist. I thought I had caught a Hobby, but War-Hawk.

To which I'le onely say, that (as Seneca (in his Epistles to his dear Lucillus) speaking of Harpast (his Wives Fool, a poor ridiculous creature) That if he had a desire to laugh at a Fool, he need not seek far, for he could find cause e­nough at home to laugh at himself, so) you Mr. quibling Archdeacon need not be at charge to keep a Jester, you may find one ridiculous enough within the Corps of your own Archdeaconry — Hobby-War-hawk.

But then he falls, and grows calm, and leaves this bold Italian way of Reggin [...] and comes to his proofs.

First, Then our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was not derived from the Pope, but from the Crown before H. 8. because it was a known Law (25. Edw. 1. and 25. Edw. 3.) long before Hen. 8. that the Church of England was founded in Episcopacy by our Kings, &c. and not in the Papacy.

1. I always thought (till now) that our Church of England (I know not for his Church of England) was neither founded upon Episcopacy, not the Papacy, but on Christ the Rock of Ages.

[Page 6] 2. The Popish Episcopacy (in the said two King Edwards time) and the Papacy were one and the same piece; the Pope the Head, they the Members, and deriva­tive from him, influenc'd by him, and would never obey our Kings further then they list, as appears by stout Robert Archbishop of Canterbury, another Becket: And though the Kings made bold to recommend an Archbishop, or a Bishop to the Pope, yet the Pope Invested and chose whom he list; (the great­er Usurper he, but who did or could help it?) till stout King H. 8. did behead the Pope, and made himself (by Parliament) Head of the Church.

'Tis true, Rome was not built in a day, and neither did nor could extend its Suburbs and Commands as far as England, till William the Conquerour (the Pope's Champion) and who fought under the Popes Banner (which he sent him for the Invasion of England) did with his French, and Normans, and all Gather­ings, bring with his French and Italian Troops, the French and Italian Laws, and the French Mode of Ecclesiastical Polity and Jurisdiction; And therefore ('tis rightly noted) that 'till Will. the Conquerour, there was no Bishops Courts or Ecclesiastical Courts but the Hundred-Courts, (the onely Courts of Justice in England in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal.)

But the Pope made his Champion Will. the Conquerour and all succeeding Kings after him, till H 8. set up such Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdiction (as were at Rome) wherein they Judged and proceeded according to the Popes Canon-Laws, and he himself was the Head and Supream of those Courts, and nothing more frequent then Appeals to Rome, till the 24. H [...]n. 8.12. ordain'd that there should be no Appeals thither, where he had emptied so much of his purse, and yet could not obtain a Divorce to his liking; if appeals to Rome from our Ecclesiastical-Courts, then they were onely Romes Inferior Courts.

And was there ever any Statute made, from Will. the Conquerour, or rather Hen. 3. to Hen. 8. but by the consent of the Popish Clergy, that is to say, the consent of the Pope their Head; whose Laws they obey'd in defiance of their Leige-Lords and Soveraign Kings.

I know there was old Tugging frequently betwixt our Kings and the Popes, and sometimes the staring people cryed Now the Pope, then (in hopes) Now the King has got is; but, if any stout King did (as they did) try for Mastery with this Whore, and who should wear the Britches, yet Pope Joan, or Pope John; or howsoever nam'd, always got the better at long run.

Of which I will Instance in some few particulars that first occur and come to mind, for I scorn to spend so many days as this D. D. (with his Smec-con­joyn'd) has been Months in Labour for the production of his Ridiculus mus.

Robert Kildwardby Archbishop of Canterbury, 6. Edw. 1. Fleec't the whole Province of Canterbury (namely, the greatest part of the Kingdom of England) by his Provincial-Visitation, not by down-right plundering of the Clergy, Church-wardens, and the poor and rich Sinners; (he knew a way worth two on't, the other had been the ready way to be hang'd, for Edward 1. was neither Bigot, Antiq. Brit. Ec. p. 196. Fook, nor Coward,) for He (saith Mat. Parker) being the Popes Crea­ture, went a visiting (as some do now a days) without any Commission from the King; no strange thing in those days, more strange in our days, now that they have not (as formerly) a Pope to back them, and whose Creatures they were in despight of the King; But this crafty Robert Kildwardby play'd the Fox in his Visitation; and Se donis (saith the Historian) non imperitando sed artificiose, ut fratres sui ordinis solebant, suadendo locupletavit: that is, He enrich'd himself and fill'd his pockets, but how? not by an open violent way of force and com­mand, but craftily, with sleight of Hand and Tongue, (as the Brethren of his Or­der are wont to do) pick'd their pockets with a parccl of fair words.

Why, that's better yet, then the Hectoring way, Come—Clergy-man— deliver, your Purse, your Purse—for Procurations, Visitations, &c.

The Naked-Truth on't was, the Pope (Nicholas 3d.) had a Cardinals Capp at Robert's service, if he would come up to the price on't, and bid like a Chap­man; but all the craft lay in the catching — the Money to day the purchase.

Whereupon Kildwardby does not go in the old Road of Procurations, Syno­dals and Vilitations, that (even in those times were not onely grumbled at by (the Slaves) the Inferior Clergy, but many Canons and Decrees made against the same; (see Naked Truth 2d. part.) And therefore Robert went another way to work, namely, the way of Loanes, or Gifts, (for they have often proved one and the same thing, though the publique Faith has been surety and bound for repayment,) And therefore — Se donis artificiose suadendo locupletavit, he wheedled them out of their Moneys with a parcel of fair words; (why? that's fairer play, then to Hector and Brow-beat the Clergy out of their Moneys with threats of Suspension, Excommunication, the Devil and the Gaol.

But Rob. had no sooner done his Business, and won the Game, most neatly and above-board, filling his Coffers, but he begun to take pleasure (as Misers do) in looking upon the Beauty of his mighty Treasures, and lik'd their looks better then that of a Cardinals Cap; but Old Nick (the Pope) heard of his good luck, (for he had Spyes that told him all along how the Game went, and what good fortune the Archbishop had, and how he thrive in his Visitation-Provincial) whereupon Nichol. the Pope forthwith sends for him to Rome, and is resolved to go snips, and half Stakes, and therefore crys— half mine, and bids him devide the booty — these are not my words, nor the comment of a Hobbist and a Papist, but the very words of the Historian of those times, — A Nicalao 3. papa Romam ad praecium participandum accitus est; ab eo (que) Antiq. Eccl. Brit. 196. Cardinalis Hostiensis & portuensis Episcopus creatus est: For half of that Money the Pope made him Cardinal of Ostia, and Bishop of Portua.

I have heard of many a Thief that has rob'd poor Men of 500 l. and been condemn'd, and yet have got a Pardon; And the Popes-Collector for Peter-Pence (Polidor Virgill) does as smartly observe upon them and their Trucking for Souls and Benefices, ( Lib. 17. Hist. Angliae.) Legem nunc prope eversam, &c. Polyd. Virg. 322. H. Ang. telling what feats in those days Money could do in the Spiritual-Courts, and a­mongst Spiritual Men, and to purchase a Benefice, a Bishoprick, or an Arch­deaconry; but now a days there is a Law against Symony, and an Oath against Symony; yea, yea, so there was in those days.

Thus that Pope was his Crafts-Master, and kill'd two or three Birds with one stone; you heard how dear he sold, and what a mighty price he got for a Car­dinals Cap, and a pair of Lawn-Sleeves; and one would have thought he might have sit down contented, and have slept quietly for that night, and never have writ Diem perdidi upon his Beds-head: But this was but a Lean-days-work in comparison of what he got by the very same Bargain, namely, The Vacancy of the Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury, which was as good to him as ready Money in his Purse: It would not be long upon his hands, such Ware (as that) will off to one or other; or perhaps, he had promised the Gift and Donation thereof to one of his Harlots, no strange things even in those days.

For his Wench, or he (I know not which) contracted for the said Arch-pl­shoprick with John Peckham (the fairest Chapman) and a notable Blade at the Canon and Civil Law; an Advocate, a glib Hackney-Tongue he had in his head, (says Matthew Parker) Lugduni cum esset, Jure civili at (que) Pontisicio operam de­dit, in quâ causas tantâ furis peritiâ tractavit, &c. A notable bold Fellow (it seems he was) at the Bar, and ( as is usual to such as are so well stock'd with im­pudence) he knew it as well, and look'd big, and high, and staring, surly, Mat. Paris. Hist. p. 90, 97. and grim, Gestu, incessu, & sermone glorioso & elato fuit. And yet all those mighty vertues would not help him to preferment, but that he truckl'd under-hand with the Popes Wench, he knew the way to the Wood, and how the Market went, as well as another; and therefore in plain down-right-Symony (without the ce­remonious equivocation of a Game at Tables with the Patron, buying a foundred Jade of him for 100 Guinnies, or making Friends to his Wife or Miss,) he be­came bound to the Pope in 4000 Marks, (a wonderful summ in those Days) and was esteemed above Seven Years purchase at that time for the said Holy-See of Canterbury.

A good round summ for poor John Peckham (for so he styl'd himself) to sof­ten the Hearts and melt into Money his Province, that had been reap'd and fleec'd a little before by Rob. Kildwardby his immediate Predecessor, Poor John came but to the gleanings and picking of Wool; but its no matter, in 13 years (for so long he sat Archbishop) he paid off his Bond to the Pope, saw it can­cell'd, Antiq. Eccl. Brit. p. 206. advanc'd all his Kindred to great estates, and left (all charges borne and debts paid) to his Executors 5305 l. 17 s. 2 d. and q. (making Nicholas of Knovile Rector of Maidston, and Simon de Greille his Executors.)

A vast summ, Jo. Buleus. Scrip. Brit. cent. 4. c. 64. p. 348. 349. Godwins Catal. p. 78. in those times, especially considering how poor and insolent he was when he first made the bargain with the Pope or his Lemman, and enter'd into Bond; nay, and to his dying day he kept the old style, calling himself in his Letters constantly, Poor John Peckham, (like the blind Beggar of Bednal-Green) for good people enrich'd him out of meer charity and in compassion of his pittiful crys and importunate begging; and none could imagine, till their deaths, that they were worth a Farthing, all debts paid.

Thus he begun some of his Letters, Johannes frater Cantuarensis Ecclesiae servus humilis, qui Regi suis (que) Ministris audaciter restitit, &c. In English — Poor John a Fryar of Canterbury, the Churches humble servant, that always stoutly rebell'd against the King and Court, &c.

But though he was hard enough for this King ( Edw. 1.) as stout as he was, yet the Pope was too hard for poor John; 'tis ill halting before a Cripple.

For he was no sooner well warm in the See of Canterbury, and found the ver­tue and comfort of Lambeth, but he begins to cast about how he might cheat the Pope his Patron, because, quoth he, to deceive a deceiver is no deceit, and the 4000 Marks is a Symonical Contract, and being a cunning Lawyer, and also loving his Money, most ungratefully he went about to chouse the Pope of the Money, thinking he had Law enough of his side; and that a Simoniacal Con­tract and Bond is ipso facto void in Law and of no effect, strength nor vertue.

But the Pope presently smelt him and his Tergiversations, and was as cun­ning as Peckham was crafty, and was resolv'd to rub up his memory and teach him better manners then to forget his Creator; and therefore without any dal­lying or Shall I? Shall I? he makes no more a do but fairly curst the Archbishop by Excommunication (sent over and) nail'd on the Cathedral Church doors of Canterbury, and also a Bull of Deprivation; upon condition tho', That if John paid the said 4000 Marks (the subject of the Quarrel) to the Lucan-Mer­chants within one Month after demand,) the Pope and Peckham would be as good Friends as ever.

John Peckham thought of having a fair hearing at the Bar, and Advocates and Councel on both sides, or perhaps John would have pleaded his own cause to make void the Bond; but some are Wiser then other some; the Pope knows a trick worth two on't, and without more adoe, sends him to the Devil, and deprives him of his Archbishoprick, except as before excepted.

In short, seeing he had met with his match, there was no remedy but the Mo­ney must be paid, not a Farthing bated of the Principal; onely the Pope gave him a Years time (instead of the said Month) for the payment of so immense a summ.

Of all which hard Measure Poor John Complains in his Letter to the Pope, in these very Words. — Ecce me creastis, & quanto creatura a sua na­turaliter appetit perfici createre, sic in meis oppressionibus censeo per ves recrean­dum. Sane nuper ad me pervenit Cujusdam executionis Litera horribilis in aspe­ctu & auditu terribilis, quod nisi infra mensem mercatoribus Lucanensibus cum effectu de quatuor millibus in arcarum quae in Romana Curia contraxi, extunc sunt excommunicationis sententia innodatus, & in Ecclesia mea & alijs. Majori­bus pulsatis campanis, accensis Candelis, excommunicatus denuncior, singulis die­bus Deminicis & festivis. Hanc tam graudem solutionem impossibilem sibi futu­rum, rescribit, &c.

A great deal of heavy splutter he had (poor man) all the dayes of his Life, whilest he sat Archbishop, what with the Pope on one fide, the King on the other, and the Augustine Monks of Canterbury, who were wonderfull Rich, and well worth the shearing and fleecing; Chron. VVill. Thron. col. 1960, 1961. and therefore he would have gladly have been at it amongst them with Visitations: But they stood upon their guard, defy'd him, and bid him come at his Peril, or dare to meddle with their exempt Churches, of Menstre, Chistelet, Nordborne, Middleton and Faversham, &c. And that they would suffer none to visit them but the Pope and his Legate; which Priviledges they contested with him Anno 1293. and maintain'd that they were no other than the Priviledges of their anci­ent Foundation granted by Augustine the Monk, Apostle of England, (the Popes Apostle) and first Archbishop of Canterbury; Anno Dom. 600. or therea­bouts. and confirmed by Pope Boniface, Agatho, Caelestine, Calixt, Innocent, Ʋrban, Eugenius, Lucius, Alex­ander, Gregory, Innocent, Alexander and Honorius.

But Peckham after a weary life took occasion to dye, and there was an end of his Contests, his Creator (Pope Nicholas) departing his busie life a little before him, but first calling all his Cardinals into his Bed-chamber, Saxoniae, l. 8. c. 35. Cent. Magd. 13. c. 10. col. 1091. where he lay upon his Death-bed, and by the Prerogative of his Power; degrades them every man, and makes as many Friar-minor's (of his own Order) Cardinals in their Rooms, and charging them upon his Benediction to choose none but Friar-minors into the Papal-Chair for ever. Which they performed to their utmost, and untill Sextus 4. was Pope, there was always a little-Pope lurk­ing among the Fryar-minors, and he had his Cardinals, and pardon'd Sins (I'le warrant) as well as the best Pope of them all; only he sold his In­dulgences much cheaper and a better Penniworth.

This mischief hapned An. 19 Ed. 1. and by Peckham's death, the King was freed of a Tyger of a Priest, that alwayes resisted his Majesty tooth and nayl, threatning and vapouring with his Bell, Book and Candle: But after their death, the King took heart, as by a memorable Example in our Common-Law Books happening at this time, may appear; before the Statute of Carlisle against Popes Bulls and Provisions: For, A Subject of this Realm procured a Bull of Excommunication from the Pope against ano­ther Subject, and gave notice thereof to the Treasurer of the King; for which offence, Le Roy voluyt quil ust este tray & pendus, The King willed he should be drawn and hang'd as a Traytor.

Here's an Instance (Mr. D. D.) as pregnant as your 25 Ed. 1. against the Popes Usurpations: But this was no thanks to John Peckham Arch­bishop of Canterbury, and the rest of the Bishops. For all resisted, all the Clergy, and did as much mischief as in them lay: But the King and Parlia­ment got the day, An. 7. Edw. 1. and made John Peckham the Archbishop Recant his dissolute Canons made in the Convocation (at Rading) in these words:

‘ Memorandum quod venerabilis Pater Johannes Cantuarensis Archiepisco­pus, venit coram Rege & Concilio suo in Parliamento Regis sancti Michaelis, Claus. 7 Edw. 1. m. 1. dorso. Revocationes Provisionum Concilii Ra­ding. anno Regni Regis septimo, apud Westm. & consitebatur & concessit quod de Statutis, Provisionibus & Declarationibus eorundem, quae per ipsum promulga­tae fuerunt apud Rading, mense Augusti, Anno eodem, inter quasdam senten­tias Excommunicationis quas idem Archiepiscopus ibid, promulgabat.’

‘ Primò, deleatur, & pro non pronunciata habeatur illa clausula in prima sen­tentiâ Excommunicationis quae facit mentionem, de Impetrantibus literas Reglas ad Impediendum Processum in causis quae per sacros Canones ad forum Eoclesiasti­cum pertinere noscuntur.’

‘ Secundò, quòd non Excommunicente Ministri Regis, licet ipsi non pareant Mandato Regis, in non capiendo Excommtnicatos.’

‘ Tertiò, de illis qui invadunt Maneria Clericorum, ut ibi sufficiat Paena per Regem posita.’

‘ Quarto, quod non Interdicat vendere victualia Eboracensi Arch [...]episcopo, vel alii venienti ad Regem.’

‘ Quintò, quod tollatur Magna Charta de foribus Ecclesiarum; Consitetur eti­am & concessit, quod nec Regi, nec Haeredibus suis, nec Regno suo Angliae, rati­one aliorum Articulorum in Concilio Rading, Contentorum nullum prejudicium generetur in futurum.’

In English thus.

‘Be it remembred, that the Reverend Father John Archbishop of Canter­bury came before the King and the King's great Council of Parliament, in Michaelmas Term, at Westminster, in the seventh Year of his Reign, and confest and acknowledged, that—of the Laws, Provisions, and Declara­tions, which were by him Promulgated at Rading, in the Month of August last past, amongst other Sentences of Excommunication which the said Archbishop did there pronounce: First, Let that clause in the first Sentence of Excommunication (pronounced against all those that obtain the Kings Pro­hibition to hinder Process in Ecclesiastical Courts, of such Causes as are known to appertain to Ecclesiastical Cognizance and Jurisdiction) be made null and void, and stand for nothing, as if it had never been made; as also,’

‘Secondly, That the Kings Ministers of Justice shall not be Excommuni­cated, although they do not obey the King's Mandates for apprehending such as are Excommunicate. ( Note by the way then that the Writ de Ex­communicato capiendo (the onely Weapon of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and the onely Prop of Ecclesiastical Courts) was not Common Law, but long after, (only Statute-Law,) and but in some Cases neither: 5 Eliz. 23. The Queen finding (that since the mist of Superstition was vanish't by the Sun-shine of the Gospel, the People could not discern any Terrour in the Thunder of Excommunica­tion for every petty cause, and therefore) that without the temporal Sword was also drawn to back it, her new High-Commission-Court, and consequently all other Ecclesiastical Courts (that had no Weapon but the Spiritual Sword of Excommuni­cation) could strike no Awe, Terror nor Reverence into the obstinate and contu­macious; much less into Delinquents.)’

‘Thirdly, That the Punishment inflicted by the King alone, upon those that Invaded the Clergy-mens Mannors, should be held sufficient.’

‘Fourthly, That he would not hereafter interdict and forbid any one from selling any Meat or Drink to the Arch-bishop of York, ( Whom the proud Prelate had Excommunicated about a Quarrel betwixt them for Precedency, &c. And therefore he thought thus to famish him, as happened after to Jane Shore Excommunicate: God deliver men from a furious Bigot and Proud Prelate, when he has Power to be Mischievous;) or any other that comes to the King.’

‘Fifthly, That Magna Charta be taken off from the Church doors; ( For you must know, that the Impugners of Magna Charta were in this Synod of Ra­ding again declared Excommunicate; which the King and Parliament did dislike, and would not suffer any such Sentence of Excommunication to pass, except for things thought worthy and deserving the same, in the Judgment of King and Parliament, who were Judges also even of the timing of an Excommunication, even in particulars, which had (like the Impugners of Magna Charta) been adjudged formerly to deserve to be struck with that Thunder-clap, that grew so frequent, it lost its Terrour;) the said Arch-bishop also confesses and does ac­knowledge, and grant, that neither the King, nor his Heirs, nor his King­dome of England, shall receive any dammage by reason of any of the said Articles contained in the Synod of Rading.’

Bless us! what work's here, to keep the Arch-bishop and his Clergy qui­et, that a King and Parliament must use all the skill and Power of England (which commonly 'till Hen. 8. was all too little) to bind these Brats of Rome (and Creatures of the Pope, and Symonists,) to the good Behaviour, and [Page 11]to tye up their Hands and Tongues from doing the King, his Heirs, and his Kingdom of England any Mischief.

And now (Mr. Arch-deacon) I have bestowed some little Pains (you see) to draw you a Picture in little, of those times of Edward 1. that you bring to make something to the purpose of exalting your Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and Jurisdiction, (from the Prospect of those times;) and what Honour you have got to your Hierarchy by this Provocation, Plume your self with; but, I dare say, the Reader will say before I have done with you, that you had done your Church as much Service in the Convocation, where the men of your little ray, of your Talent and Improvements, would listen to your Leges Angliae with great admiration; rather than thus to neglect your great im­ployment (there) by this impertinent Diversion of Writing and publish­ing the Laws of England, in which you have no more skill nor ability than you have in undertaking to Answer the Naked Truth.

But to take a little further View (with the Reader's Patience) of those Popish times of King Edward, &c. before Hen. 8. which (the Arch-deacon thinks) do make so much for his Turn.

Afflictions seldom come alone, as poor John Peckham found true, by sad Experience; for besides, that there was no help for it, but the 4000 Marks must be paid, or the Symonist Arch-bishop lose both Heaven and Earth, King Edward also for his Wars with Scotland was as needy of Money as the Pope, and he borrowed by way of Loan a whole Years Revennue of the Pro­fits of the said Arch-bishoprick, and that Loan (poor John Complains) being little better than a Benevolence, came in a very ill time; For, Robert Kilwarby the late Arch-bishop, and before him his Predecessor Boniface, had left the Arch-bishoprick lean, cadaverous, forlorn, delapidated and Poor, the Peo­ple too were exhausted by Wars and Seditions:

For if they had had it, he could not (he would not) have wanted it; and the Pope too resolved that if the Arch-bishop or the People had it, he also could not (would not) want it; (as his Brother Pope used to say) he could never want Money so long as he could hold a Pen in his hand to write to his Ass, (meaning) England; for the whole World had not (I had almost said has not) such Religious Zealots and Bigots, that would run at all, right or wrong, in the Cause of Religion, Religion, (as Hud. sayes) whose Honesty they all will Swear for, though not a man of them knows wherefore.

For the subtle Italian Papists that stand near, and sees within the Scenes, the Lives of Popes and Cardinals, &c. understand the Juggle, and will not give two Pence a piece for an Indulgence, that here in England will go cur­rant for a hundred pounds; whilst the modest Papists at Rome smile at the known pious Frauds, and the rest Laugh right out, or (at least) in their Sleeves.

But to return—

Though the Pope Bubled poor John Peckham, as aforesaid, He also after he had got a little heart (Papae ad exemplum) does endeavour to Hector or Wheedle the King out of some Money by Texts of Holy Writ, (the very same that some Religious Bigots have made use of, to as vile ends in our times) in an insolent Letter to his Majesty, written 9 Edw. 1. beginning with these very words— Excellentissimo Principi, ac Dom. Edvardo, Spelman's Con­cil. p. 341, 342. Dei gratiâ Illustri Regi Angliae, Domino Hiberniae, & Duci Aquitaniae, &c. Johannes permissione divinâ Cantuarensis Ecclesiae minister humilis, &c. Which see at large in Spelman; and after some Complements, he falls on in downright Ear­nest— quia tamen oportet Domino magis quàm hominibus obedire— & ad praeva­ricationem Legum illarum, quae divina Authoritate absque omni dubio subsistunt, nullâ possumus humanâ constitutione ligari, nec etiam Juramente— That is (in plain English) the Arch-bishop told the King, he would be his humble Ser­vant, and as loyal a Subject as the best, but onely that he was bound to obey [Page 12]God rather then men, and that no humane Laws, no though he had Sworn to obey them, Acts 5.29. should tye or oblige him to the breach of those Laws which are founded upon Divine Authority.

Of which, he and the Pope were the Interpreters and Commentators; he might as well have told the King, he would be his humble Servant, when, where, and in what he list.

For presently after he brings that of Isa. 10.1. to vanquish the King and Parliament that made him Recant (his own Canons) two years before; Isa. 10.1. Di­cente Domino per Prophetam, Vae qui condunt Leges iniquas, &c. Wo unto them that Decree unrighteous Decrees, &c. (meaning the Statutes made by the King and Parliament;) for so he goes on— quia igitur ab antiquo tempore inter Leges & Magnates Angliae, ex parte unâ, & Archiepiscopos, Episcopos & Clerum ejusdem Regniex altera, duravit amara dissensio, pro oppressione Ecclesiae, contrà Decreta summorum Pontisicum, contra Statuta Conciliorum, contra Sanctiones Or­thodoxorum Patrum, in quibus tribus summa auctoritas, summa veritas, summa­que sanctitas consistunt, supplicamus Regiae Majestati, &c. huic periculosae dissen­tioni dignemur finem apponere salutarem, cui finis alitèr imponi non potest, nisi vos sublimitatem vestram praedictis tribus, scilicèt Decretis Pontificum, Statutis Conci­liòrum, & Sanctionibus Orthodoxorum Patrum, juxtà Domini beneplacitum cùm Catholicis Imperatoribus dignemini inclinare, ex his enim tribus sunt Canones ag­gregati, & jura Coronae vestrae Christi Coronae supponenda, cujus sunt Diadema & Sponsae suae monilia, universae Ecclesiasticae Libertates,— (All which are most emphatical words, and most apt for our purpose to stop the Arch-deacon's Mouth, that would have the present Church of England and its Jurisdiction deriva­tive from Edw. 1. and Edw. 3. Nor do I know any man more able (in all History) to write all that could be said for Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, Ca­non-Law, or Civil-Law, than the said Peckham; nor can any thing better re­present the posture of Affairs in England as to Ecclesiastical matters, than the said Letter, which I will English faithfully, as followeth—)

‘Because (quoth the Archbishop) there has been of old and long has con­tinued a bitter Dissention betwixt the King and Parliament of England, on the one part; (God grant they may alwayes be so, (as they ought to be but) one part,) and the Archbishops, Bishops, and Clergy of this Realm, on the other part, to oppress the Church, contrary to the Popes Decrees, con­trary to the Canons of Councils, contrary to the Sanctions of the Orthodox Fathers, in which three consists the Supream Authority, the greatest Verity, and the choycest Piety: We intreat your Royal Majesty, that we should vouchsafe together to put an end to this dangerous Dissention and Differen­ces, which can never be concluded, except you will please to submit your highness to the said three things, namely, the Decrees of Popes, the Canons of the Synods, and the Opinions of the ancient Orthodox Fathers, according to the Command of the Lord, and after the Example of Catholick Kings:’

‘For of these three are the Canons made, and the Rights of your Crown must submit to the Crown of Christ; the Churches Rights and Liberties, being the Diadem of Christ and the Ornament and Jewels of his Spouse, &c.’

Whence I make these plain Remarks.

1. That as the Devil (Tempting our Blessed Saviour) accosted him with Holy Scripture in his Mouth, so does this filthy Symonist talk Scripture Lan­guage to the King and Parliament, whilst he himself hated to be Reformed.

2. That there was and has been an old Feud, Difference and Dissention, (and cannot possibly be otherwise) where the Layety are Governed by one Law, and the Clergy by another; the Layety a distinct and peculiar Party, on the one part; and the Clergy with other designs, a party in Opposition to the Layety, on the other part. The Devil and the Pope brought in that distinction of Layety and Clergy, (not God and Scripture,) and it was never a quiet World in Christendome since that time of making that distinction, which God never made.

[Page 13] 3. That when the King and Parliament Thwarts the Clergy and the Ca­nons of their own devising, and made to gratifie (as those of Rading aforesaid) only their Avarice, Ambition and Revenge; yet that is called—Oppressing the Church of God.

4. That Kings must alwayes (under the notion of submitting to God and Christ) submit their Scepters, Crowns and Dignities, to Religious Zea­lots and Bigots, when they get the Power; and they'l have it too, or they'l want of their will.

5. That the Clergy, Archbishops and Bishops accounted themselves, and were taken and accepted for the Church of England.

6. That the Pope was Head of this Church, his Decrees their Rule and Ca­nons to walk by, and carry on their Ecclesiastical-Courts and Jurisdiction.

7. That their Laws were contrary to the sence of the King and Parliament.

8. That the King and Parliament were sometimes (though but a little, little time) too hard for those Archbishops, Bishops and Clergy, of whom the Pope was Supream head.

9. That it is impossible that our present Archbishops, Bishops, and Eccle­siastical Jurisdiction, can derive their Authority for Ecclesiastical Courts from the Popish Arch-bishops, Popish Canons, Popish Bishops (that had the Pope for their head) since our Clergy, Archbishops and Bishops, do re­nounce the Popes Supremacy.

10. That the Ecclesiasticals before Hen. 8. (whilst the Pope was their head) look't upon the Kings of England as their Inferiours; and that the King and Parliaments Sentiments and Decrees should truckle to theirs; And if some had not some strange Reliques, they would not dare (as this Archdeacon does) to write, and defend a Jurisdiction and Courts in England, without special Authority and Commission from the King.

And for him to say, They Keep Courts by Common-law, is the idlest of all his dreams.

1. Because before Will. the Conqueror there was never any Spiritual Courts Kept distinct from the Hundred-Courts; and if they have right to keep them there at the Bayliffs house, let them come, but instead of Chancellours, Sur­rogates, and Officials, and Archdeacons, must sit for Judges there (as now and of Old) two honest Freeholders; let them come then, with their Ec­clesiastical Courts founded in the Common-law before William the Conquerour.

2. The Common-Law ( this D. D. calls, p. 51.) long and granted Use in the whole Land; but then if they plead for their Ecclesiastical Courts accord­ing to ancient use and custome, they must keep them in Places, Times, and by such Laws and Judges, as were of the ancient use and custom.

3. The Common-Law of England is ancienter than our Christianity; but Bishops, as now in England, much less Archbishops, (for Austin the Monk (sent hither by the Pope) was the first Archbishop) and much less Archdea­cons, are the Inventions of men, and the favour of Kings, at first, of Popish Kings; for before Austin the Monk, Anno Dom [...] England had neither Lord Bishops nor Lord Archbishops after the manner they are now, therefore neither they nor their Courts (as now kept) have any foundation in Common-law.

4. By his own shewing, that Edict of William the Conquerour enjoyns that no Bishop nor Archdeacon hold Pleas any longer in Hundret, nor bring any Ec­clesiastical cause to the Judgment of Secular men; Therefore William the Conquerour (the Popes Champion) brought with him this new distinction of Clergy and Layty, and Ecclesiastical Judges and Secular Judges; for it seems Ecclesiastical Causes (as well as Secular) were brought in the Hundret Court to the Judgment of Secular men, not Ecclesiastical men.

5. The said Proclamation ordains every man to do right to God and the Bishop, not according to the Hundred, but according to the Canons and Episcopal Laws.

Which answers the greatest Stress of the D. D. Answer, The Conque­rour with the Pope brought in the Canons and Episcopal Laws, and when the Pope's head was cut off and his Supremacy taken away, vanish also did his Canons and Episcopal Laws.

And the Popish King and Parliament in Hen. 8. time knew it as well, and therefore when they had made the King Head of the Church, as well as State (a fatal distinction of Church and State, and often makes a Kingdom divided against its self) cutting off all Appeals to Rome, 24 H. 12. (in the very next year) they found a necessity to abrogate all Popish Canons that were contrariant to the Kings Prerogative, and the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, but such as were not so contrariant and repugnant to remain in force.

And to that purpose there was to be a Book of such Canons compiled by thirty two Commissioners, party per pale, one moyety Clergy and the other Lay; but they did nothing, and so that project in the Statute came to nothing; And for my part, in the Knowledge I have in the ancient Councils and Ca­non's, (in the making whereof the Pope had the great hand) they might as well seek a needle in a bottle of Hay, as seek for Canons (amongst the old ones) suitable to the new face of our Church when it had lost its old wonted head, that had Authorized and Father'd the English Church and all Eccle­siastical Jurisdiction from William the Conquerour, till 24 Henry 8. which was 467 long years, and during the weary Reigns of twenty Kings together; who were so tyred with the Pope's Insolence, that some of them (as King John) meditated rather to turn Turk, than undergo the Infamy as well as Tyranny and Cruelty, in being (all his Reign) so shamefully Priest-rid­den; complaining and bemoaning himself, that after he subjugated himself and his Scepter to the Pope of Rome, nothing prosper'd that he undertook ever after.

Therefore hard is the fate of that Man, much more of that King and King­dom, that are under the Tyranny of these Bigots.— How do they wrest the holy Scriptures to surrogate their preposterous Hierarchy, as did the said Pop­ham Archbishop, in his said Letter to the King, ( Edw. 1.) aforementioned, quoting— Mat. 16.19. Whatsoe're thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and threatning the King with death— from Deut. 17.12. And the man that shall do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the Priest, (that stand­eth to minister there before the Lord thy God) or unto the Judge, even that man shall dye.

Then, he threatens the King with Deut. 17.18, 19, 20. and with Luk. 10.16. He that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; And he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me: which (saith the Arch­bishop) St. Dyonisius expounds— Ierarchis in his quae agant Ierarchicè, obedien­dum est, sicut a Deo motis—To the Hierarchy or Prelates in what they act as Prelates, we ought to obey them, as those that are influenc't by God himself.

Then he quotes Deut. 17.8, 9, 10, 11. and Heb. 4. and Mat. 17.5. Mat. 28.20. Acts 3.22. Mat. 18.19, 20. Mat. 18.17. Mat. 10.20. as Imper­tinent as tedious to insist upon, concluding his Letter in a menacing way, —from Lambeth, November, Anno Dommi 1281. and the third year of his Translation.

Instancing also (for his Platform and imitation in this his contumacy) the example of Thomas Becket, and Boniface, his Predecessors, as fierce and Seditious as himself.

But wise King Edw. 1. like his Grandfather Hen. 2. and his Father Hen. 3. would not so easily part with the Reins of Government; for he disanulled (not only the Rading-Canons as aforesaid,) but also the Lambeth-Canons, Anno 1281.

Even as his Grandfather Hen. 2. abrogated all the Canon Law (being [Page 15]then Duke of Normandy) and particularly the Canons of the late Councel of Rhemes, And by Proclamation forbidding ( Hugo Archbishop of Roan) to put the same in Execution; and threatning Pope Innocent 2. that if he would not restrain the said Archbishop therein, he would turn Protestant (so I translate the words of the Kings letter to Pope Innocent;) Minatus est Apertè divortium ab Apostolicâ sede, nisi praesumptio illius Archiepiscopi reprimeretur.

Which so frighted the Pope, that he was glad to knock under and yield to the time; (foreseeing a Storm approaching) he very wisely made fair weather on't, (to use his own words;) — Quod prefectò quamvis Justum fuerit, Mat. Paris. Hist. Aug. p. 96, 97. & à nobis in Concilio Rhemensi mandatum, pro ejus tamen charitate aliquando condescendere (quan­do non ascendere possumus) debemus, et pro tempore, ipsius voluntati assensum praebere. That is (saith the Pope)— ‘What was done in the Councel of Rhemes, was no­thing but what was Just and right, and also by us Commanded; nevertheless for charity sake we must be lowly and condescend then when we cannot climb and ascend and be uppermost, and for the present, give our assent and consent to the Kings will and pleasure.’ And there had been a fatal divorce (or beginning of Protestanism) from Rome by another Henry, ( Hen. 2.) long before Hen. 8. if Pope Innocent had been as stiff and inflexible as was Pope Clement to Hen. 8.

So that all along, those (that please to observe our Statutes, Histories and Chronicles, they) will find, that ever since our Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction was brought from France and Rome by William the Conquerour, sometimes the Church­men and (their head) the Pope had the weather-gage, and sometimes the Kings, as they hapned to be some more prudent, some more weak, some more potent, and some in greater straits than other; of which last condition, namely, when our Kings affairs were in a Peck of troubles and distresses, the Pope and his Janizaries (the Popish Prelates,) alwaies wrought upon their necessities, and (most un­manly) would never give them fair quarter, when they had them down; None so cruel as Women and cowardly Gownmen when they get men at advantage; many Instances whereof you may see in the reigns of King John, the King Henries, and the King Edwards, &c.

So that— now Canon-Law, now Statute-Law— now the Church, and now the State, now the Lord Arch-bishops and Lord Bishops, and now the Lords tempo­ral and the Common's had the upper-hand: but the Bishops carryed it for the most part, and alwaies at long run, whilest they had the Pope or the High-Commis­sion on their side; And (even since) they have lost those two main Pillars, I do not see but it may be (yet) in great measure true, what the Learned Spelman sayes was Currant (of Old) even to a Proverb,— Os Sacerdotis Oraculum esset Plebis; Os Episcopi Oraculum Regis & Reipublicae; Both King, People and Com­mon-wealth took all for Gospel that the Bishops and Priests said and perswaded.

And therefore no wonder at what Mr. Archdeacon sayes, p. 49. That our great Church-men had no small hand in making all our Laws, both Ecclesiastical and Civil; and made bold to sit upon the Benches with the Judges, in the Kings Palace and Court, in the Councel and Parliament; In the County, with the Earl and Justices of the County, in the Sheriffs County-Court with the Sheriff, and in the Hundred-Courts with the Lords of the Hundred.

All true to a Tittle; why, who durst take them by the Lawn-sleeves and ask them what they had to do there? They had as good have taken a Bear by the Tooth, the stoutest Lay-man of them all.

Besides, a Scholar was a rare Bird in those daies; Ignorance is the Mother of Popish Devotion; and therefore neither Lords, nor Parliament-men, nor Judges, had any more Learning than needs must, no, nor skill in Laws.

So that the Clergy did all; who sway'd the Kings Councels but they? who were Lord Chancellors, Lord Treasurers, Lord Chief Barons, Lord Chief Justices, Ma­ster's of the Rolls, but they?

Was not Nigel Bishop of Eli (in H. 1. time) Lord Treasurer, and wonderful skilful in the Laws and Court of the Exchequer? Was not Martin de Patishal Clerk and Dean of Paul's made Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-bench (in H. 3. time) [Page 16]because of his skill in Law? Brail. So also was William de Raleigh Clerk, made one of the Judges of the Kings-bench; Henry de Stanton Clerk, Lord Chief Justice of the Common-pleas; and the Par­son of Oundell in Northamptonshire, made Master of the Rolls, with thousands more, even to our times, Bract. Rot. Pat. 17. E. 2. and in man's memory; was not the Bishop of Lincoln, William's, Lord Treasurer? (so also Bishop Juxton Bishop of London:) And Archbishop Laud did all in all with King Charles 1. And in the Case of Ship-money, and the Loans and Benevolences, (those hard shifts,) that good King might well repent that ever he followed such precipitate Counsels.

And therefore, (Mr. Archdeacon,) it is no great Credit to you (nor for your Jurisdicti­on Ecclesiastical) to quote all the 12 Judges and their Subscriptions, to vouch your Citations in your own Name, and not in the Name and Stile of the King, because that Opinion was sub­scribed by 12 Judges,—

• John Brampston, L. C. J.
• John Finch, L. C. J.
• Humph. Davenport, L. C. B.
• Will Jones.
• Jo. Dinham.
• Ri. Hutton.
• George Crook.
• Tho. Trevor.
• George Vernon.
• Ro. Berkley.
• Fr. Crauly.
• Ri. Weston.

For they were very man of them, except Hutton and Crook, condemn'd by Parliament, for betraying the Rights and Properties of the Kingdom in the case of Ship-money.

And therefore, (Mr. Archdeacon) I except against the Judgment and Opinion of your 12 Judges (very legally) in the cons truction of the Statute of Edw. 6.2. Alas! good men, to say otherwise, it was as much as their places were worth, (besides the Terrour of the Star-chamber, and High-Commission-Court, and indeed every Spiritual Court, which were then as horrible as the Spanish Inquisition, and so much the more cruel that by the Oath ex Officio a man was bound to accuse himself, which is not required by the Inquisition of Spain.

And therefore some have observed, that when the severe part of the Law, as in Sentences, Fines, &c. has been put to the Vote in the Star-chamber and other Courts against Offenders, the Clergy-Men there, (who should have been Exemplary in Mercy and Charity, and not for summum Jus,) were alwayes more rigid and fierce than the Laity.

As for Instance, when Mr. Chambers, 5 Carol. 1. said (and only privately to the Privy Councel, call'd thither to answer for not paying Customs,) That the Merchants in England were more wrung and screwed than in foreign parts:— And what if it had been true? why may not our Laws screw them, and enact bigger Customs and Excise, (as of Wines, &c. we do;) where's great mischief? Why; for this he was to be fined in the Star-chamber, (for the words are not other where actionable:) And the Chancellour of the Exchequer he was for fining him (for those words) 500 l. so also voted the two Lord Chief Justices: Ay, but when it came to the Bishops—Doctor Neal Bishop of Winchester—cryes— 3000 l. then also Doctor Laud Bishop of London—3000 l. At last the business was adjusted, and the Fine settled—2000 l.

Therefore, (Mr. ARchdeacon) do not vapour and tell us of the opinion of the Judges when High-Commission-Court and Star-chamber were up; do not we know, who penn'd the Procla­mation's; and who did the business, and every man's business that durst st and in his way?

You may as well say, That Atturny General Noy was a great Lawyer; who doubts it? does it therefore follow that Ship-money (his Invention) was Legal? Anno Domini 1632.

And the Judgment of a whole House of Commons might surely stand in Competition with the opinion of a single Archdeacon, though he had some of the Judges on his side; although it was that House of Commons in 1640. for not one in Ten of them were Rumpers.

‘Resolved—That the Clergy in a Synod or Convocation hath no power to make Canons, Vote of the House of Commons. Constitutions, or Laws Ecclesiastical, to bind either Laiety or Clergy without a Parlia­ment: And that the Canons are against the fundamental Laws of this Realm, against the Kings Prerogative, Property of the Subjects, the Right of Parliaments, and do tend to Facti­on and Sedition.’

And therefore, your Doughty work and Leges Angliae, which (you seem) to commend as the sence of a Convocation, and you their Prolocutor, saying, p. 66. ‘So whether it seem good to the King and his High Court of Parliament, to augment or lessen it (Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction) or to continue it as it is, we, ( we again) shall still maintain our Loyalty (that's kind) and manifest our duty, and chearfully submit our selves.’

I am glad to hear it; if this chearful submisson be the sence of your Brethren, and that you have (Mr. Archdeacon) from them authentick Letters of Credence for this Manifesto.

But I doubt it; for (certainly) your Brethren are better Scholars, and better principled than to own such an idle and impertinent Discourse as this of yours, that is throughout so loose, futile, and tending to such arbitrary Principles, that indeed none are so fit to answer you as a Parliament, if they do not think it beneath them to take notice of such a Prater; that has so little Judgment as to think it possible to prove the Spiritual Courts and Jurisdiction, (as now practi­sed) to be Common-Law Courts, much less Statute-Law-Courts; which is next to be consi­der'd, in his

CHAP. III. Whose Title is, That

KING Henry 8. did not, by renouncing the power pretended by the Pope, make void the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; neither was it void before it was restored by 1 Edw. 6.2.

And to prove this Negative, he's at it again with his old way of Questions, but that he shews a little more warmth and wrath against Mr. Hickeringill in this Ironical Sarcasm— Pray Mr. Wiseman where, and by what words did H. 8. cut off, as you say, all these ordinary Jurisdictions?

Mr. Hickeringill told you enough of it in the Naked Truth, which read o­ver seriously before you answer any more such Books ( good Mr. D. D.) He told you, that when the Popes Supremacy and Head was be-headed, and the King made Supreme Head of the Church (as well as State) and of the Spiritu­ality as well as Temporality, by Act of Parliament:

The same King and Parliament devis'd also, and advis'd, by what Laws this new face of the Church (having got a new head, sure it had a new face) should be guided and governed.

Therefore the King and Parliament enact, that the King shall appoint Thirty-two Commissioners, not to make new Laws, but compile them out of the old ones; so that they were not repugnant to the Kings Prerogative, nor the Laws of the Realm.

But that was a thing impossible, for most of the Canons being forged at Rome (or Licensed there, and Confirmed) and also they supposing the Pope Head of the Church (which was against the Laws of this Land) nothing could be done; and the reason is already given in the former Chapter, at large; so that less shall need to be said to this Chapter, or indeed to the remaining part of his mighty Volume, or Leges Angliae.

And truly, that King Henry 8. had so much to do to keep and secure his new ac­quests—(the Abby-Lands, Monastries, &c.) and to Counterplot the Pope and his Emissaries; and on the other side, the English Bishops were so consterna­ted (at the sudden and total downfal of their Brethren and Sisters (the Fryers, Abbots and Nuns) that they were in a bodily fear, lest that King (thus flesh't) finding the sweetness of the Booty, should hunt after more Church-Lands: And therefore Mr. Archdeacon needed not ask the Question, Was that watchful Prince asleep? no, (surely) nor yet the watchful Bishops (I fear) did not sleep very quietly, but were always troubled in their sleep, crying out,—oh— this fat Mannor is upon the go—And these brave Walks, Houses and Orchards are a departing—

And as dreams sometimes prove unluckily true, so did these dreams; for soon after was (first) exchanged with the two Archbishops by the Satute of 37. Henry 8.16. Sixty-nine fat and stately Mannors (named in the said Statute) at one time from the Archbishop of York, and also a great many brave Country-houses, and rich Mannors from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and from Edmond Bishop of London; which See was particularly named in the Sta­tute.

But some may say, that the Abby-Lands which the King gave in exchange, were not comparable in value to the said Archbishops Lands and Man­nors.

Who can help that? if they did not like those Abby-Lands (I suppose) they might have let them alone.

Thus the King having been busied in the 24th year of his Reign, with cut­ting off the Roman Head, and all appeals to Rome, then troubled with his Abby-Lands, beginning with the lesser Monastries, 27 Henry 8.28. those digested, then the great Monastries and Nunneries, 31. Henry 8.13. then the next year the brave Houses, Lands and Revenues of the Templers, called the Knights of the Rhodes, and of St. John of Jerusalem; 32. Henry 8.24. then the Free-Chan­tries, Hospitals, &c. in 37. Henry 8.4. and in this his last year, that sad exchange with the Archbishops, and Bishop of London, 37. Henry 8.16.

I do not see any cause, Mr. Archdeacon, why any flesh alive should say, that either the King or the Bishops were asleep for Thirteen years together, in which time every one had work enough to be watchful.

The best on't is, that the man thinks he can answer all Mr. Hickeringill's Ar­guments (in the Naked Truth) with a Story which he tells, p. 14. and so silly and so little quadrating with the question in controversie, that it is not worth the answering, nor his observation thereon—namely, that though the Lords (of the Mannors) were changed, yet the Customs, and Courts, and Offi­cers were not changed.

No, were not the Customs, Courts nor Officers changed? God forbid, for then it must still be a Custom, that neither the Bishop nor the Archdeacon may lawfully Marry: it will still be a Custom to excommunicate (as it was of old) all that did not pay the Pope the first fruits, and tenths, if the Customs be not changed; and a thousand such exceptions could I make, if it were not below me to take notice of all his idle and impertinent Whimsies and Stories, obvious enough to every learned and ingenuous Reader, without my remark or asterisque to expose it.

Nor does any body deny, but that King H. 8. willing to have a Divorce from Queen Katharine, from Rome, and not able to obtain the same, got it at home; the said Statute of Appeals cutting off all Appeals to Rome, and enabling the Kings Courts, Spiritual and Temporal, to determine the same, ‘Any Forrein Inhibitions, Appeals, Sentences, Summons, &c. from the See of Rome, &c. to the Let or Impediment in any wise, notwithstanding. 24. Henry 8.12.’

Whence note,

1. The design of the Statute is to cut off Appeals to Rome, this Realm of England being an Empire of it self, governed by one Supreme Head.

2. Therefore no need of such Appeals, when they may be with less trouble ended here within the Kings Jurisdiction, in Courts Spiritual and Tem­poral.

3. That Statute limits the cognisance of all matters cognisable in Spiritual Courts, to these Three sorts—namely, Causes Testamentary, Matrimonial, or Divorces, Tithes, and Oblations, and Obventions; and if they can prove their Courts to be lawful Courts, and by lawful Anthority, who ever doubted but those Three things were matters and causes of Ecclesiastical cognisance? but they are not content to keep themselves there; and therefore the great design (of the Naked Truth) is not in the least to check their proceedings in those Three Particulars, but their exorbitances in medling with Church Wardens, the Oath of Church-Wardens, exactions illegal and unconscionable in their Fees, in despight of the Statutes, in Probate of Wills, Procurations, Sequestrations, Synodals, Licenses to Preach, Visitations, &c.

4. The Archbishops, Bishops and Clergy in Convocation, in less than Twenty years after this Statute, found so little Authority in this 24. Henry 8.12. for keeping Spiritual Courts, and exercising Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (it coming in but by way of Parenthesis, and not the purport and main design of the Sta­tute) [Page 19]that they all acknowledg and confess, uno ore, and 2. Phil. and Mar. that their Jurisdiction and Liberties Ecclesiastical, were taken away, and desired their restauration; and surely they better understood their Ecclesiastical Jurisdi­ction in those days, than this Archdeacon can possibly at this distance, in these days.

Lastly, The Temporal as well as Spiritual Courts are enabled by 24. Henry 8.12. to determine the controversies in this Realm, without Appeals, and yet none of them take upon them to Sit without the Kings special Commissi­on and Authority, except petty-Hundred-Courts, &c. which are Common-Law-Courts; but so are not the Ecclesiastical (at best) further than Ecclesiastical matters may still by the Common Law be tryed before the Lord of the Hundred, or his Steward and the Freeholders; and the Bishop also and Archdeacon may be suffered to come into the Room; but whether they may come in without knocking, or must sit or stand, be covered or uncovered, when they come there, by the Common Law, (it seems) it is not by (our D. D.) the great Common Lawyer as yet determined.

And therefore it is much better for the Archdeacon, at least much more pro­per for him, to leave these doubtful matters (as whether 1 Edward 6.2. be now in force, and how far, and to what Commissioners the 13 Car. 2.12. does ex­tend (wherein the Author of the Naked Truth would not peremptorily assert any thing) to the decision of a Parliament, or wiser heads than his own.

Then in Chap. 3. Sect. 2. the D. D. tells of another Statute, 31 Henry 8.3. and cites the words, but most egregiously false; there is not one such clause in 31 H. 8.3. But if there were, as perhaps (I will not deny) something to that pur­pose in another Statute, that Archbishops, Bishops, &c. may wear the Tokens, and Ensigns, and Ceremonies of their Order; and whilst they do nothing but what to their Office and Order does appertain, no body will trouble themselves about them.

And more false also is what he would make 25 Henry 8.19. speak, as though by that Statute the Convocation hath power reserved (by the same Act) of making new Canons, provided the Convocation be called by the Kings Writ, and have the Royal assent and License to make, promulgate, and execute such Ca­nons.

If this be true, I do not know but the Lambeth-Canons (exploded and con­demned by Act of Parliament) and those of King James, are all Statute-Law; for the Convocation (that made them) were called by the Kings Writ, and they were confirmed also by the Royal assent—

In a matter of this consequence, let us turn to the Statute, and trust our Arch­deacon henceforward no further than our own knowledg.

That of 25. Henry 8.19. begins thus—

The Title.

The Clergy in their Convocation shall enact no Constitutions without the Kings assent.

And as the Title, so the body of the Act, Where the Kings humble and obedi­ent subjects, the Clergy of this Realm, &c. promise in verbo Sacerdoti, that they will never presume to attempt—premulge, or execute any new Canons, &c. unless the Kings Royal Assent and License be to them had, to make, promulge and execute the same—

Now is this D. D. an honest man? when the Statute only binds them to good behaviour; namely, not to presume without the Royal assent; but does not en­able them to make any new, though they have the Royal Assent?

False also, most impudently false, is his next quotation of a Statute 37 Henry 8.16. But if he mean 37 Henry 8.17. still it is false, either through Impru­dence, or unparellel'd Impudence; for there is not one word to the matter in question, but the whole Statute is only a License to Marry, a License for civil Lawyers to Marry; and that though they be Marryed, yet that shall not make them uncapable of being Commissaries, Chancellors, or Vicar-generals, or Offi­cials; but does not create or constitute any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, or Courts to put them in.

Indeed, the said 37 Henry 8.17. is a clear and evident explanation of the 25 Henry 8.18. that thereby the King and Parliament did look upon all Ec­clesiastical Canons, Ordinances and Constitutions, formerly made, to be null, and void, and repealed, and of no effect by the said 25 Henry 8.18. saying, that the Bishop of Rome and his adherents, minding utterly as much as in him lay to abolish, obscure and delete such power given by God to the Princes of the earth, whereby they might gather, and get to themselves the government and rule of the world, have in their Councils, and Synods Provincial—made divers Ordinances and Constitutions—And albeit the said Decrees, Ordinances and Constitutions by a Statute made 25 Henry 8. be utterly abolished, frustrate and—

1. By this it is evident, that as the King, Pope and Bishops had all work e­nough to look to themselves, and that King Henry, and his Parliament, and Bi­shops, were still Popish; so if the Spiritual Courts had any Jurisdiction, yet they had none but by way of Parenthesis in the said Statute of Appeals.

2. And that only in causes Testamentary, Marriage, or Divorce, Tithes or Ob­lations—

3. And to Judg of these, and determine, was impossible, because they had no Canons, Decrees, nor Laws Ecclesiastical, by which to Judg and determine of them.

4. And therefore Mr. Archdeacon, though by what has been said, your Offi­cial might keep Spiritual Courts, although he were Married, so also he might keep Spiritual Courts, although he did nothing but whistle there all the while, or throw stones at all that came near him; for Sentences and Decrees cannot be made but according to a Canon Law or Rule; and Canons there were none in force at that time, in the said Judgment of the House of Commons.

And therefore though you had never so much Authority and Commission for keeping your beloved Courts, what's that to the Naked Truth? Have you any Commissions for Extortions in Probate of Wills, for illegal Extortions of Mo­ney, for Citations, Licenses to Preach, Institutions, Inductions, Sequestrations, Synodals, Procurations, Money from Church-Wardens, Commutations, Visi­tations? to confute which, is the great import of the Naked Truth; and you have not one word in your Leges Angliae to say for them, or for your selves, or to justifie by whose, or by what Commission, or by what Canons you act and proceed.

It is a most dangerous and fatal thing sure, for a man to think as the Papists do think (in these days); whereas I thought, a man might have believed, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and a thousand things more that the Papists be­lieve, and yet keep out of harms way.

But no; our desperate D. D. has ( p. 22.) got Mr. Hsckeringill upon the Hip again, and gores him too with one of the unavoidable Horns of the sharpest of Arguments, a Dilemma (in these words) namely,—

I leave it to Mr. Hickeringill himself; for if he think that that Convocation ( namely, in Queen Marys Reign) spake that which was not true, he hath said no­thing to the purpose (so his business is done that way). But if he think they did speak truth, then he thinks, that the Jurisdiction of the Church of England, as [Page 21]derived from the King, according to the Statute of Edw. 6. or in Hen. 8's time, was no lawful Jurisdiction; that is, Mr. Hickeringill thinks as the Papists think: War hawk again Mr. Hickeringill, and a Premunire too.

Let him even pick and chuse, I see there's no escaping, yield or dye; there's no fence against a Crambee-Pun and Quibble; the second assault is always irresistible.

And yet this Joke is not so witty as it is sharp and poynant, insinuating, that Mr. Hickeringill's opinion is a Popish opinion; so in plain English he says be­fore— Chap. 2. Sect. 2. In these words— Thus our ancient Ecclesiastical Go­vernours and Laws depended upon the Crown, and not upon the Pope, by the Laws of England, and in the Judgment of all the States of the Kingdom before H. 8. and so did also the execution of those Laws, by those Governours in the same publick Judgment—All this is true, and the very Naked Truth in other words varyed. And what of all this? listen— a little better than Mr. Hickeringill 's Popish opinion.

And why, I pray, Mr. Archdeacon, why this unsanctified Epithete of— Popish—To vindicate in the words of the ingenious Hudribas—

Well, look to thy hits D. D. for all the corps of thy Archdeaconry, together with the Extortion money in Visitations, Synodals and Procurations, will not be able to pay the damages that you and your Bookseller Royston are like to undergo, forfeit and pay, for bringing that scandalous imputation of Popery so often in your Book against Mr. Hickeringill, who though he has not much Ecclesiastical Emoluments to lose thereby, if the imputation be true, yet he pays the King Assessments, and finds Arms for above 200. l. per annum, temporal estate of in­heritance; a third part whereof (besides other mischiefs) are forfeit, if you can prove him a Papist; and if you cannot, 'tis fit that on the Gallows which was set up for innocent Mordecai, that wicked Haman should be hang'd thereon; and the mischief which you wickedly design'd against him, 'tis but just it should fall upon your own Pate; and that you and your Bookseller should for the Li­bel fall into the same Pit which you have in malice and wickedness digged for the innocent. Alas! you do not know Mr. Hickeringill (the man you scandalize) in time he'l make you know him better, I dare assure ye; as he has, and will do to some others, such railers, lyars and slanderers as your selves; sure Mr. Archdeacon you do not say your Prayers, you do not (sure) say your Litany D. D.

But all your provocations cannot make Mr. Hickeringill render you railing for railing, the wonted attacks of effeminate and doting old men.

The Author of the Naked Truth is so much against the Popes Supremacy, and all other Religious Bigots, that some think (as does this Archdeacon) that he gives the King too many, even all the Keys of the Church.

For 'tis undoubtedly true, that the Crown of this Realm of England is, and has been (before H. 8.) Imperial; that is, de jure, not de facto; thanks to the wicked Usurper, the Pope and his Legates, like that Paudolfus, who in huffing pride set his Ecclesiastical foot upon this Imperial Crown in King John's time; or like those Popes that made the Emperors themselves hold their Stirrups.

This ought not to have been done, it was not de jure, it was commonly de fa­cto done, before H. 8ths time: and thus (with his Quixot-chivalry) he assaults the Windmills set up by his own brains, like boys that set up their Shrovetide-Cocks only to throw at, and busy themselves.

As for example, Chap. 2. Sect. 3. he says, the Statutes grant Consultations and Appeals into Chancery from the Spiritual Courts—'Tis true, but what then? it only supposes that the Spiritual Courts meddle with those appealable Causes, (as Matrimony, Tythes, &c.) which are but very few.

And whereas he says, the Bishops may deprive, and have Statute-Law for so do­ing; 'tis false, they have indeed power by 1 H. 7.4. to commit a Minister that has committed Incest or Fornication, to the Gaol, but for no other offence; and that Statute was made upon force, when the Laity durst not meddle with a Cler­gy-man, though a muderer, without consent of his Ordinary.

However the Clergy then were so goatish, numerous, and high-fed, that no man could keep his wife or daughters from those lazy and bucksome Abby-Lubbers; and so let the Bishops (still) for Incontinency send the Delinquent to Gaol; but (I thank you) no such matter, Incontinency is now as modish and fashionable a sin as ever; I have known Two or Three notorious Whoremasters (Ministers in Essex) convict, but they scap'd the Gaol, and one of them (a Scotch-man) that had two Bastards in one year, got a Pardon.

The sin of Adultery and Fornication is a filthy and abominable sin in all men, especially in Divines, but as long as it is the Mode, it will sind great Patrons to countenance and abet it; sweet-lips cannot forbear so sweet a sin.

No body denies, but Procurations, Synodals, Robbing by the High-way, Visi­tations and Picking of Pockets (in spight of Laws, Canons and Decrees of Ho­ly-Church to the contrary, in spight of Equity and Conscience, in spight of Mer­cy, Pity and Compassion, has been (in times of Prelacy) in spight of Christs command, and the Apostles command (not to wrong men for filthy lucres sake) has been, I say, an old and ancient practise; and indeed, in the days of Popish Pre­lacy and the High Commission, they did what they list, who durst controul or gainsay?

But now that Popish Prelacy and the High Commission are null'd and made void, and all their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction so precarious, and no authority for their Procurations and Synodals, no authority to call Church-Wardens and Mini­sters before them to a great Town and Tavern, no authority for such Visitations, much less to demand money for the same; no authority (neither) to demand money in Ecclesiatim-Visitations: (and yet they will have six shilling and eight pence ready money, and visit Twenty Churches in a day (a very special Trade). They will not be put off with a little Victuals, Bread and Cheese, or Pottage: no—these Ecclesiastical fellows are high fed.)

And truly to spoil all their Courts, though they had never so lawful an au­thority, let but the people follow this following advice, and you will not long be troubled with them.

Namely, When the Minister and Church-Wardens are cited to come to a Vi­sitation at a great Town, and there is a great Tavern, take no notice of it, refuse to be hurried from your business, your families and your homes against Law; let them proceed against you as far as they dare; if they excommunicate you for contempt, a good Action of the case lies against them, for there is nei­ther Statute-Law, nor Common-Law, nor Civil-Law in England to justifie such Citations and Visitations.

Indeed, there is old Canons in times of Popery, to justifie, that there has been Ecclesiatim Visitations: namely, for the Visitor or Bishop to come to your Churches, and see how you do; but it is against all Law, Equity and Consci­ence—to see how your Pockets do.

Therefore if they come, Ecclesiatim Visits, give them such poor fare as the Vi­car feeds upon; if they be hungry feed them, do not fat them, do not feast them, and I'le secure, you shall not be often troubled with them thence following; but give them not a cross of money, and fear not that ever they'l disquiet you very often.

As it is in the Naked Truth—if their visitationes morum prove not to be vi­sitationes nummorum, I'le be your warrant, you shall not need a new Act of Parli­ament to stave them off.

So, if they call upon you, and cite you to prove a Will, or take an Administra­tion, [Page 23]though the Sumner or Appariter come Forty Miles, do not give the knave a Groat, but for him, and his Masters, and the Citation or Process, give him Three Pence, and no more, as by Statue, 23. Hen. 8.9. 1. Eliz. 1.

If they ask or demand any more, sue them upon the said Statute, inan Action of debr, or qui tam—five Pounds due to the King, and five Pounds to the party grieved.

The like penalty upon them, if you sue them for taking more for Administrations or Probat of Wills than is allowed by Statute; nay, if they will not give you back your Will, when proved, into your own keeping, upon demand, there lies a swindg­ing Action against them, as Baron Weston declared at Chelmsford the last Assizes in open Court to the Countrey, exhorting them to bring such Actions against those Ecclesiastical fellows (so he stil'd them) and if they brought such Actions before him, he would make examples of them.

The cry, the common-cry against the extortions of these Ecclesiastical fellows, was loud and clamorous all over England, and reacht the ears of the King and Par­liament in Henry 8ths time (as in good time it may again) which occasioned the Statute of 21 Henry 8.5. as appears by the Preamble of that Statute against their extortions, in these very words,—namely,—

Where in the Parliament holden at Westminster, in the 31st. year of the Reign of the Noble King of Famous Memory, Edw. 3. upon the complaint of his people for the outragious and grievous fines and sums of money, taken by the Ministers of Bishops, and of other Ordinaries of Holy Church, for the Probat of Testaments, and for the Acquittances by the said Ordinaries to be made concerning the same: The said Noble King in the same Parliament openly charged and commanded the Archbishop of Can­terbury, and other Bishops for that time being, that amendment thereof should be had: and if no amendment thereof should be had, it was by the authority of the same Par­liament accorded, that the King should thereof make inquiry by his Justices, of such oppression and extortions, &c. And where at the Parliament holden at Westminster, 3 Hen. 5. it was recited, that the Commons of this Realm had oftentimes complained there in divers Parliaments, for that divers Ordinaries do take for the Probation of Testaments, and other things thereunto belonging, sometimes XL. s. sometimes LX. s. and sometimes more, against Right and Justice; where in time of King Edw. 3. men were wont to pay for such causes but 2. s. 6. d. or 5. at most, by which unlawful ex­actions, &c.

Then it follows in the Statute, and is enacted, that none of these Bishops Ordina­ries, Archdeabons, Commissaries, Chancellors, Officials Registers, Scribes, Praisers, Summoners, Appariters, or other their Ministers, shall take or demand for Probation, Writing, Sealing, Registring, making of Inventories, or giving of Acquittances, or for any other manner of cause concerning the same, any more than what follows, namely,

Where the goods of the deceased amount not to more than 5. l.

Where the goods of the deceased amount to more than 5. l. and yet under 40. l.

For such Probat, Inventory, or Administration, Where the goods of the deceased amount to above 40. l.

And if he please, may take and demand a penny for writing every ten lines of such Testament, each line to contain ten Inches.

For Inventories they usually take 40. s. a Press (as they call it) that is, the length of an ordinary sheet of Parchment.

But by this Statute, for Inventories not one farthing.

Here's (now) one would think, a Law to keep them in awe, but it signifies nothing, they have got so many cunning starting-holes to creep out, 'tis hard to catch a Fox.

For if they be Indited for extortion, or that you bring an Action of Debt upon the Statute, or a qui tam—namely,

But here too you will be baffled again, except you punctually observe these following Conditions: If it be a Will that is to be proved,

1. You must bring the Witnesses along with you to prove the Will, and that it is the true, whole, and last Testament of the Testator, and that the Executor also believes the same to be the last Will and Testament of the Testator. 21 H. 8.5.

2. You must bring Wax also (soft Wax) ready for the Judg to put to, and affix the Seal of the Court, if the goods of the deceased amount not to five pounds. 21 H. 8.5.

3. You must bring two Inventories, fairly written and Indented, the one to be left with the Ordinary, the other to be carried away by the Executor, or Administra­tor. 21 H. 8.5.

4. The very Individual Will and Testament of the Testator you must carry a­way with you again, so soon as it is Registred, as 21. H. 8.5.

5. You must carry with you good Witnesses of the Tender of the said Fees.

And keep but to these Conditions, which are plain and easie, and there is never a Register, or Chancellor, or Sumner of them all that will give many hundreds of pounds for the Place, nor will you be much pestered with these Ecclesiastical-Courts, or Ecclesiastical fellows: (for that now belike is the word, Ecclesiastical fellows); nor with Archdeacons, although they had never so good Authority for keeping Courts, and sending Citations in their own names, and not in the name and stile of the King (their head) and the head of the Church, as well as State; and as all other his Majesties Courts are kept in England.

Indeed the Courts-Baron, and Courts Leet, &c. are kept in the name of the Lord of the Leet, Hundred, &c. they being the Lords-Courts properly, and not the Kings-Courts, no more than his Lands or Mannors are properly the Kings Lands and Mannors.

But the Courts of Justice, whether Ecclesiastical or Civil, ought surely to be open to all the Kings Leige people, and have the Kings Authority, name and stile, not only for their Warrant and Authority, but to give them thereby life, vigour, power, Granduer and Majesty.

And 'tis strange to me, that men who have taken the Oath of Supremacy, have bid desiance to the Pope, and do not pretend to set up a Commonwealth in a Common­wealth, nor any Government independent of the Crown Imperial of this Realm, nor have no privy designs (at some time or other) to stand (as of old) upon their own legs without dependance upon the King (whom both Papists, Presbyterians, Fift-monarchy-men, &c. endeavour to subjugate to their discipline) should be so aukward, and loath to have their Processes and Citations go out, and run (as other Writs) in the Kings name and stile; and it were but for their own ends to agrandize their Pro­cesses and Proceedings; except (as formerly) the Clergy do take care to have as little dependance upon a Lay-man as possibly may be; and I say again, it will never be well, nor our differences cemented, until Lay and Ecclesiastical men be one and the same, with one and the same ends and designs (in this Kingdom) where all Ecclesiastical and Lay-power is united, and one and the same, in one Head, our Soveraign Lord the King.

'Tis this Bigottism that undoes us, and wars upon the score of Religion that (above all other things) has blooded all over the woful face of Christendom.

But let me hear of no more Extortions for Visitations, Procurations, Sy­nodals, Institutions, Inductions, Ordinations, Licenses to Preach, Seque­strations, Pilling and Polling the Clergy, nor (in Probate of Wills) the Laity; and in Visitations, Church-Wardens.

And when they have done, and (Performed their said Great Duties) if (after that) they cry out, for want of work and Employment, let them (also) sit upon as many Benches, as shall be thought fit.

It is acknowledged, also, That Convocations are, alwayes have been, and ought to be Assembled by the King's Writ only; no doubt on't, (for else they are an Unlawful Conventicle:) And there let them Sit together, 'till I, or any Body else disturb them, or meddle with them.

The Power to make Laws for the Church, was ever in the ( King and Parliament only;) and who ever denyes the same, 'tis fit they should severe­ly Answer it in a Parliament: Have a care of a Parliament, (Mr. Arch-Deacon;) Have a care of a Praemunire, War-Hawk; (I will not say,) War-Buzzard.

I had almost forgot to touch upon one String, with which he makes a great Sound and Noise in his Proem; and that is, to prove, That Chan­cellors, Registers, Sumners, Officials, Commissaries, Advocates, Notaries, Sur­rogates, &c. ejusdem farinae, are all Church-Officers Jure Divino, and ac­cording to Holy Writ: Ay! But where? What Chapter? What Verse? (It follows as close as any thing) In 1 Cor. 12.28. Helps in Government.

‘ The Registers are but to Make (I thought that had been the Judges Office, to Make) and keep the Acts of Court, &c. Advocates and Proctors, to Order and Manage Causes; And Apparitors, to Serve Process, and Execute Man­dates, &c.’

Then this Remark; — ‘ Mr. Hickeringill is a Man of great Experience in Spiritual Jurisdiction, and need not be told of these plain Matters;’ (ha­ving said in the first words of this Paragraph,) ‘ But, How Witless, and Quaker­like is this?’ And, How unlike Mr. Hickeringill?

Sometimes he makes (Mr. Hickeringill) a Hobbist, a Papist, a Statist, and a Man of great Experience in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; and now a Witless Quaker; (Even just what the Good Old Gentleman pleases.)

But sure, Mr. Arch-Deacon does mistake, and Mr. Hickeringill is not a Man of so great Experience, but he had need to be told of these Plain Mat­ters again and again, before it can be beaten into his Head; That the Apostle (who never had Register, Surrogate, Apparitor, nor Commissary, Of­ficial, nor Advocate, (nor the Primitive Church) no, not so much as an Arch-Bishop, or an Arch-Deacon) should ever intend, or mean any such Creatures, when he told the Corinthians of, Helps in Government.

Well, of a D. D. 'tis an Incomparable Finder, a Piercing and Quick-sight­ed Commentator for a Man of his Age, that cannot see without Specta­cles.

For Proctors, Sumners, and Apparitors, are just such Helps in Government, in the Church; as Squire Dun, and Gregory, in the State; namely, Helps to Ruin many. Alas! Poor Primitive Church of Christ! That made a Shift to subsist many Hundreds of Years, (by Miracle surely) and yet never had these Ass-sistants, or Helps in Government.

Such Helps in Government, (God knows!) Plut. Lives, p. 940. as are far more fit to People the City that Plutarch speaks of, called Poneropolis: God grant them a good Shipping; they'l meet with many of their Brethren in Spain and Italy.

And it is as sensless to Defend these Ecclesiastical Fellows by Magna Char­ta, because such as They (if they still be Papists, as those were) were (then) Members of Holy-Church, and brought hither from Rome by William the Con­querour.

For by that First Clause of Magna Charta, That the Church of England shall be Free, and have all Her Liberties, &c. can never be meant, (as the Arch-Deacon would insinuate) that it is a Sin to alter that Frame of Government, and the Rights and Libertyes of Holy Church: For Peter-Pence, First Fruits, and Tenths to the Pope, Investiture of Bishops, &c. with many other, were then the Right and Liberties of Holy Church, (as afore­said) when Magna Charta was Made.

I have not willingly omitted to give Answer to all, and every the idle Cavils and Exceptions in his Book: Once for all, (by way of Conclusi­on; for I am quite tired with his Impertinencies) let the Reader Read the Statute of 1. Eliz. 1. and he will find,

1. That the Popish Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Church, at the Ma­king of that Statute, was cut off utterly, by the Name of all Forreign Pow­ers, Repealing the 1. and 2. Phil. & Mar. 8. whereby the See of Rome had been again set up in England, from whence (that Statute confesses with great Contrition) (to use the Words of that Statute,) They had a long while wandred, and strayed abroad; and in which Statute, the Protestant Ecclesi­astical Jurisdiction (set up by Edward 6.) is Disanulled.

2. That therefore by 1. Eliz. 1. it appears, there was then neither Popish nor Protestant Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical.

3. That therefore full Power and Authority is granted to the Queen, Her Heirs and Successors, to set up the High-Commission-Court, the Soul and Life of all the other Inferior Ecclesiastical Courts.

4. That this High-Commission-Court might (for the Greatness thereof, for the Novelty thereof, and for the Grievous Vexations thereof) be cal­led Extraordinary; yet all the Inferior and Subordinate Courts were all of a Piece: It was the Head-Court, whither all Appeals at length might come; and it animated all the Rest: and when it was Disanul­led, and that Head Beheaded by 13. Car. 2.12. all the little Inferior, and Ordinary Ecclesiastical-Courts, were held Dead in Law, and Spirit-less. And when we shall perswade the King and Parliament to Revive Them, God only knows.

But let us suppose, that they have Right in their Ecclesiastical Courts to take Cognizance of causes Testamentary, Matrimonial, of Tythes and Oblations; and by 1. Eliz. 2. for not coming to Divine Service: What's this to Visitations, Church-Wardens, and the Oath of Church-Wardens, Procurations, &c.

In Causes Testamentary, (whether Men be cited, or not cited) I will (as I am an Ecclesiastical Judge) give my Country-men this honest Coun­cel (without a Fee) meerly for the Publick Weal:

Bring your Will (if you be Executor and Inventory as aforesaid) as also, make the same application to them, if you be next of Kin to the Deceased, and have Right to take Letters of Administration) keep to the former Instructions, and Tender them the afore-said Fees: And if you be an Administrator, then according to a late Act, (for an Admini­stration-Bond, tender them One Shilling more.) If they Refuse to Dispatch you, without Frustratory Delay, go away: And what ever you are Damni­fyed thereby, the Law will give you Right, and Satisfaction and Repara­tion upon them.

And if they be thus held to Justice, and to take no more than due and legal Fees, there needs no Act of Parliament to Discountenance the Ecclesiastical Courts.

And indeed they cannot afford to buy their Offices, and yet get no more than legal Fees; for the value of Mony is so different from what it was in Henry the Eighths time, (when a Harry-groat was the chiefest Silver-Coyne, [Page 27]and would have bought as much Victuals as Half-a-Crown will now) that they cannot afford to keep Clarks, nor to write and Register Wills at this day for the Legal Fees.

But who dare Make himself wiser than the Law; when the High-Commission-Court was up, there was no dealing with them, nor with their extortions; And ever since that Court has been defeated, no Parlia­ment has (as yet) thought them worthy of larger Fees; and why should men be wiser than what is written, and enacted in the Statutes of this Realm?

No doubt but the settling of these Ecclesiastical-Matters, and the Curbing these Ecclesiastical Fellows, are things of weight and great Consequence, deserving the most serious debate of the highest Judicature, a Parliament; But till they have time, or till they think fit to take some Order here­in, I have shown you how to do their business.

Nor have I done this, out of Malice and Spleen, against these Eccle­siastical Fellows, that do so Huff the Countrey, and the Inferior Clergy, but in Detestation of their Avarice and Extortions, Aggravated with such insufferable Insolence, that I speak but the sense of the Common-Cry of the Country against them, as Loud and Obstreperous, and for the same exor­bitances, as in the Reigns of Edward the Third, Henry the Fifth, and Henry the Eighth, when those three Statutes were made on purpose to check their Insufferable Pride and Greediness.

And for an Example to them, I'le only Instance in the said Popish King Edward the First, how he made an Example of them. 1. In England, 2. Scotland. 3. Ireland.

1. In England, when John Roman Arch-Bishop of York, Excommunicated Anthony Beck Bishop of Durham, for Imprisoning John de Amelia, and william de Melton, publick Notaries, sent by the Arch-Bishop to Summon before him and the said Bishop, then employed in the Kings-Service, in the Northern parts, the Arch-Bishop admonishing him thereunto, Once, Twice, Thrice, and still the Bishop (or his Ministers,) refusing to release them, the Arch-Bishop thunder's out the Curse (against him) of Excommunication, to the Pri­or of Boulton in Craven, to cause the same to be published in the Chur­ches of Alverton and Darlington, begining, Claus. 20. E. 1. m. 2. Dor­so Brevia Re­gis. Johannes Permissione dia Ebo­rac. ‘ Archi-Episcopus, Angliae primas, Dilecto in Christo filio Priori de Boulton, &c. Dat. apud Sanctum Martinum juxta viterbium 13. Kal. Maii, Anno Gratiae, 1292. & Pontificatus nostri Septimo;’ In the seventh year of our Popedom.

(For Papa, or Pope, was the Common Complement every little Bishop past upon his brother Bishop, in those dayes; of which, I can Instance in many Records, if needful.)

This difference was decided by Parliament. See placita Parliam. An. 21. Ed. 1. nu. 17.18. ‘ Johannes Archi-Episco­pus Eborum Attachiatus fuit ad respondendum Domino Regi, de placito, quare cum placita de Imprisonamento & alijs transgressionibus in Regno Regis contra pacem Regis factis, ad Regem & Coronam—Idem Archi-Episcopus per Johannem Priorem de Bolton in Cravene Commissarium suum, in venerabilem Patrem Antonium-Episcopum Dunelm. &c. Die mercurii prox. ante festum S. Jacobi Apostoli Anno vicessimo apud Derlington, &c. Sententiam Excommunicationis in dictum Antonium, &c. fecerit fulminari, &c. In Regis contemptum, &c. in despectum ipsius Regis 20. Mill. Librarum, & hoc offert Rioardus de Bre­tenil pro Domino Rege verificare, &c.’

‘ Et Archi-Episcopus venit & defendit omnem contemptum & totum, &c. & dicit quod Ipse nihil fecit in contemptum Regis, nec contra dignita­tem suam, &c. & dicit, quod de sententia a Canone lata & per ipsum declara­ta, in curia Domini Regis non debet respondere; sed tamen salva libertate Ecclesiae suae ob Reverentiam Domini Regis vult plane declarare factum su­um, &c.’

‘ Et Richardus de Bretenill qui Sequitur, pro rege dicit, quod Praedictus Epis­copus Dunelm. Habet duos status, viz. Statum Episcopi quoad Spiritualia, et Statum Com. Palatii quoad. Ten. sua Temporalia, &c. too long here to Recite;’ (I can shew the whole process in Parliament) where the Arch-bishop was voted to be committed to Prison, to Absolve Bishop Anthony, and to pay what fine the King pleased, which was Four Thousand Marks of Silver (an Immense Sum, in those dayes) but the Arch-bishop was vastly Rich, and though the Son of a whore (a poor Chamber-maid) yet she had the wit to lay the Bastard at a Rich Man's door; Fathering it upon one John Roman, Treasurer of York, who educated him very well, made him a Schollar; and * H. de Knigh­ton. de event Aug. l. 3. c. 7. Col. 2507. Henry De Knighton sayes, he was a right Roman, for he inherited the Roman Avarice of those dayes, as well as the Name; being the first Arch-bishop that wheedled himself into the estate of the deceased that died Intestate, or that gave Letters of Administration, in England; ( and yet this deep-read Arch-Deacon makes the common Law de­pose and Justify their proceedings in Spiritual Courts) Pretending (that since the Poor Soul died without a Will, and so (Consequently) had not taken care to Redeem his Soul out of Purgatory, by giving the Priests his Goods, Mony or Lands, for so many Masses to that purpose; therefore the Arch­bishop (Piously) took that care upon him; yet he himself hapned to dye (though not Intestate, yet) so suddenly, (for two judgments in Par­liament against him, (namely, the aforesaid,) and, presently after, for endeavouring to defraud the King of Three-hundred pounds of Money belonging to one Bonamy, a banish't Jew, and which he would have been fingering for himself, knowing that the Money lay in the Priory of Brid­lington within his Jurisdiction) Broke his heart, his Executors would not, or durst not meddle with his Goods.

‘ Executores enim sui se intromittere noluerunt, Ibid ita quod non proprio sed po­tius alieno fiebant expensae funerum, & in ecclesia sua cum honore simplici repositus est, non enim panis vel obolus pro anima ipsus dabatur: unde justo dei Judicio contigit, ut qui subditorum bona & maxime ab Intestatis sitiret, subita quasi morte praeventus, nullum vel modicum ex Testamento suo proprio consecutus est Emolumentum: That is (saith Henry De Knighton) His Executors would not meddle with the Execution of his Will, so that his Funeral expences were defrayed, out of other Men's, rather than his own Estate; he was buried in his own Church after a very home­ly manner; for not a bit of bread was given to the poor, nor one far­thing, to pray for his Soul; by the just Judgment of God upon him, that he that did so thirst after Intestates Estates (especially) dying in his province, being prevented by a sudden death, got none or very little benefit by his own last Will and Testament.’

The second Instance shall be in Scotland; for King Edward the first was King thereof, at least, by conquest, ( King Edward the Conquerour of Scotland) when the Bishop of Glasgow having a spight, and a pique against a Minister of his Diocess, Deprived him of his Living Tortiously and Arbitrarily, whereupon King Edward the first by his Letters to his Lieue­tenant, or Guardian of Scotland, restor'd him upon the Petition of John Comyn, in these words.

‘ Al Tres honorable prince e noble, In Bundel. Brevi [...]n & petic. in Tur. Load. An. 24. E. 1. e a son Trescher signur lige sire Ed­ward par la grace Dieu, noble Roy Dengleterre, le ce ou, si luy plest, Johan Comyn Kaunk il set e poet de Honur e de Reverence Com a seon seignur lige. Chire sire si vus plest, io vus pri especialment ke vus deyngnet man­der vostre Lettre au Gardeynde Escoce pur mettre mesh Robert Mounsy­citien partur de ceste Lettre en la eglice de graunt Dalton, de la quele sire Ro­bert [Page 29]Evesk de Glascou, &c.’ 'tis too tedious further to recite.

The last Instance is a Record of a Fine set upon the Bishop of Cork in Ireland for holding Plea (in the Spiritual Courts) of things belonging to the King's Crown and Dignity, for which he was amerced 140. l. Claus. 20. E. 1. m. 13. Hi­bern. pro Ro­berto nuper, Corcagensi E­pisc. to be Levyed upon his Goods and Chattels, in these words:

‘ Cum venerabilis Pater Robertus Cortagiensis Episcopus huper coram vene­rabill patre, S. Tuamensi Archi-Episcopo tunc Justis. Regis Hiberniae, amer­ciatus esset ad centum libras pro contemptu, & idem Episcopus Amerciatus esset postmodum coram eodem Justic. ad quadraginta libras, pro eo quod advo­cavit se tenuisse placita in Curia Christianitatis and Coronam & Dignitatem Regis spectantia, &c. Teste Rege apud Westm. primo die Decembris. 20. R. R. E. 1.’

And 'tis observable this great Fine was set by an Arch-Bishop of Tu­am, then the Kings Lord-Chief-Justice in Ireland.

For indeed (in those dayes) The Clergy were the greatest Lawyers and had the greatest places; Bak. Chron, p. 50. and yet they would not suffer any Clergy-Man to be subject to temporal Magistrates, by a Canon made, B. Steph. in a Synod held at London by Henry Bishop of winchester, the Pope's Le­gate.

'Tis true King Henry the Second opposed this Canon, and Thomas Becket Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that stood up for it, and the Contest almost ruined them both. But no King like King Henry the Eighth, Bak. Chron. p. 95. and Edward the First, for keeping the Crown safe from the usurpations of the Clergy; this latter not suffering any Prelates to sit in the Parliament at Saltsbury, Anno. 1274. and took their great Treasures hoorded up in Churches, and Monasteries, and put it in the Exchequer.

And though stout King ( Edward the Third) strugled hard, and a long time tug'd with John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, who threatned the King, that he would exercise his Ecclesiastical Authority and proceed to Excommunication of his Officers, though not of himself, Queen, or Children; yet the great Offices of the Realm were executed by Clergy-Men in his Reign; for at one time when Simon Langham was Arch Bishop of Canterbury, he was also Lord Chancellor of England; (a Place that Becket resigned when he was made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, denying to be at the Helm of the Common Wealth, and the Church both at once;) wil­liam Wickham Arch-Deacon of Linclon was Keeper of the Privy Seal: David Willer Parson of Sommersham, Master of the Rolls; Ten Benesis't Ministers Civilians, Masters of the Chancery; William Mulse Dean of S. Martins Le Grand, chief Chamberlain of the Exchequer, Receiver and Keeper of the Kings Treasure and Jewels; William Aksby Arch-Deacon of Northampton, Chancellor of the Exchequer; William Dighton Prebendary of St. Martins, Clark of the Privy Seal; Richard Chesterfield Prebend of St. Stephen's, Treasurer of the Kings House; Henry Smatch Parson of Oun­del, Master of the Kings Wardrobe; John Newnham Parson of Fenny-Staunton, one of the Chamberlains of the Exchequer; John Rawsby Parson of Harwick, Surveyor and Comptroller of the Kings Works; Thomas Brittingham Parson of Asby, Treasurer to the King for the part of Guif­ness, and the Marches of Callice; John Troys a Priest, Treasurer of Ire­land.

But certainly a Gospel-Minister may find work enough, (though he be a Bishop or Arch Bishop) in the Works of his Ministry; and most Ho­nour; I am not for Alterations and great Changes, yet certainly the Face of our Church of England is not only comely, but beautiful and well guarded [Page 30]by the Statutes of Uniformity, and Confining all Places of Honour and profit in the Kingdom to the Son's of the Church, and to such only as can Conform to Her Liturgy and Administration of the Blessed Sacra­ments.

And what would men be at? what would they have more? than a certain setled Religion (as in Holland) which (alone) is countenanc't, (alone) Entrusted with affairs of State, Places of Honour or Profit both at Sea and land; indeed other Religions or Modes of worship, are rather conniv'd and wink't at, than incouraged, both in England and Holland.

And will no face of a Church please some men, but the Blood-red, Bloa­ty and Sanguinary Carbuncle Fiery Face of an Inquisition, Canon's, or High Commission, or Low Commission Courts, unkown to the Primitive Church and Christians, that were content to serve God, though they had not power to Damn, and Cram and Ram, (&c. Oaths, Canons, Creeds) down Mens Throats in spite of their Teeth.

But on the other hand, I abhor the novelty, as much as the Ruin, I foresee, in Men that are so given to Change and Reformation, that nothing terminates their designs but total Destruction.

They cannot be content to sweep the house, but they must pull it down, and how to set up one (a better) in its room, more cleanly, and more convenient, they have neither skill nor will to enquire; like the late Reformers (in the late times) that pull'd down and pull'd down, without considering what next to set up and erect, or knowledg how to do it.

And indeed the Extortions in the Spiritual-Courts are inconside­rable in comparison of those amongst the numerous fry of Common-Lawyers, Atturneyes, Clarks, Notaryes, Sollcitors, Splitters of Cau­ses, &c.

Whose numbers are almost numberless, and now they are born, they must be kept; and if one or two Lawyers in a Country be enough to disquiet the same, what are all those growing and threatning swarmes, twenty times more than in the dayes of Qeen Elizabeth, who astonish't and afrighted at the wonderfull growth of the numbers of Lawyers, Atturneyes, Pettifoggers and Solicitors in her time, seeming to threa­ten some alteration; (as the Spirit that Conjurers raise, (some say,) will fall upon their Masters for want of other work and imployment) was comforted by the Learned Lord Treasurer Burleigh, with this an­swer, Madam the more Spanyells (alwayes) the more Game.

And there may be the more sport for the Lawyers, but still the Coun­try, the poor Country-man, the Laborious Country-man (the staff of bread,) is there Decayed and Impoverish't; through numerous Shoals of Beef Eaters and Man-Eaters, which (if they were honestly put to Sea and the Plantations) the sturdy young fellows would do good work, and live with less care, less shifts, more honestly, nay, more profitably also both for themselves, and their country.

And therefore, though I have told you that the Spiritual-Courts are naught, stark naught; yet where shall we mend our market?

For I am certain that the Fees of Lawyers, and the pretty devices (to fill up Atturnyes Bills) (in despight of 3. Jacob.) so notably of late found out and enhanc't, That a man might have tryed two causes twenty years ago as cheap as he can try one now.

Some Men never know when they have enough; ten shillings or twenty (at most) use to be the Highest Fee for the best Serjeant that [Page 31]came to the Barr; now, every Petty Counce look's asquint and lakes it in disdain, if you proffer him Silver and not Guinies; Two, Three, Four; nay, Ten or Twenty Guinies, some of them think all too lit­tle.

And if you do not satisfy these Breath Sellers, (and 'tis almost impossible to satisfy them) they may perhaps leave You, and your Cause, in the Lurch; or find out some Quirk [...] or Quiditty, or [...] Trick, to unravel all you have done: And then fet you to begin again, and at it again; more Guinies again.

And therefore, Men that try, will certainly find, (perhaps too late) that Seldom comes a Better.

All violent Changes distemper a State, which Caesar's Murderers found to their Cost, repenting they did not rather Submit to the Time, and endure his Usurpation, (the Ruin of the bravest Common-Wealth, that ever was in the World) rather than by such Violence, to give the better Colour to the Pretences of his Successors, who wanted Caesar's Incomparable Clemency, and Magnanimity.

I'le Conclude with the Story of Pacavius Calavinus, a Man of Great Authority in Capua, (the Second City of Italy) who by a wile had shut up, and secur'd the Senate, and Chief Magistrates of that Famous City, in the Guild-Hall there; being Men Bad enough in all Conscience; and the Common Cry against them for their Enormities was not Louder, nor more Universal, than in England of late Years, against the Rump, or Committee of Safety.

But Pacuvius (having made them thus fast) call'd the People into the Forum, or Market-place, to hear their Good Pleasure, and what Sen­tence or Punishment they would doom them unto: With one Mouth the People, Ne [...]ine Contradicente, Condemn'd them to Death and Torture, and to be drawn out by Lot, one by one to Execution; but not one to Suffer, 'till another was chosen by the People to supply his Place; (for they knew, they could not subsist without Justice, and consequently Ju­stices and Governours.)

First, That One (on whom the Lot hapned to fall) was called out by Pacuvius, and Sentenc't to be cut off, as a Pernicious and Rotten Mem­ber: But (First) saith Pacuvius, Make Choice of another better Qualifyed to supply his Place.

This unexpected Speech bred a Distracted Silence, and the Multitude were put to a Grievous Plunge; one thought upon One Friend; and ano­ther, of Another; every one as his Interest, Relation, Friendship, or Acquaintance most perswaded; at length, one of the Boldest of the Rabble ventur'd to Name One, Fittest (in his Opinion) to Suc­ceed.

And no sooner was he Nominated, but the Multitude (who had other Designs, for other Friends of Their Own; or some Just Cause of Di­gust against Him that was propos'd,) by a general Consent of Voy­ces, did Condemn this New-Magistrate with a more Loud, and Univer­sal Out-Cry, than the former old Senator, who was bad enough, but not Guilty of so many Hundred Imperfections and Faults, as was Objected against this New-Upstart.

So that these Contradicting Humours growing more Violent and Hot, every one following his private Affection or Malice, a far greater Con­fusion and Hurly-Burly ensued upon the Nomination of a Second and Third; for in Chusing fit Successors, the Multitude could never agree.

At last, weary of this Tumultuous Toyle, One sneak't Home one way; Another, another way; Scattering and Stealing away from this [Page 32]Rabble-Rout, every one with this Resolution, That, since all Men are frail, Mortals not Angels, of Two Evils, best to chuse the Least; that some Diseases are safer to be Ender'd, than Cur'd; and better an Old Evil, (of which we know the Worst, and have had Experience) than a New-Evil, that we know not whither it will tend, or where it will End; and Finally, That Seldom comes a Better.

Let these Elegant French-Verses finish the Discourse, (made by Pi [...]rack, the French-Poet; but more Honestly, than Elegantly.)