The Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy

The two next Arch-Bishops, John Vfford, and Thomas Bradwardyn (swept away with the Plague within one years space before their instalments) had neither time nor opportunity to contest with their Sovereign; But their next Successor Simon Islip, as he had gre • t con • ests with the Bishop of Lincoln about the University of Oxford, and with the Arch-Bishop of York about Cross bearing, which troubled the King and Kingdom much (of which more hereafter in a peculiar Treatise of our Prelates Schisms:) So he got a grant from the Pope to receive a Subsidy of all the Clergy of his Diocese (to wit, four pence out of every Mark) to defray his Archie piscopall charges • under pretext of which by misinterpreting the Popes Bulls, he exacted from them a whole Tenth. He endeavored to exempt Clerks from Temporal Jurisdiction and Courts in cases of Felony; which being obtained, divers Clerks abused their Privileges, committed many heinous crimes, so as the Bishops at the Kings and Nobles earnest request, were enforced to make a strict Decree for their future punishment and restraint. Besides, he accompanied Thomas Lile Bishop of Eli to the Barre, where he was arraigned and found guilty of Murder, yet admitted his appeal to purge himself before him as his Metropolitan after the Jury had found him guilty, in affront of Law and Justice: After which, Eli breaking prison, fled to Rome, caused the Kings Judges to be Excommunicated, together with their servants, and their Lands to be Interdicted; and such of them as died Excommunicated, he caused to be unburied, and to be digged out of their Graves in Church-yards, and cast into Mires; which caused great stirs in England. At last this Arch-Bishop riding to Magfield, fell into a Mire himself with his horse; in which fall, the horse striving to recover himself, he was plunged over head and ears and drenched in the Myre; and coming all wet into Magfield, fell into a sleep before his clothes were put off, and so into a Palsy, and there died. A just punishment for his cruelty to the dead Corps o • those Excommunicate persons. In his time there was a great mortality, especially among Clergy-men, 7 • Bishops dying in one year, Anno 1345. and 2. the next.

Simon Langham, his next Successor, was successively both Chancellor and Treasurer of England, and in his time all public Offices of the King and Kingdom were administered by Clergy • men, for this Arch-Prelate was Chancellor; John Bishop of Bath, Treasurer • David Wollor, Priest, Master of the Rolls; William Wickham Arch-deacon of Lincoln, Keeper of the Privy Seal; John Troy, Priest; Treasurer of Ireland: Robert Caldwell, Clerke, Treasurer of the Kings House; William Bug • rig, General Receiver of the Dutchie of Lancaster; William Asheby, Chancellor of the Exchequer; John Newnham, one of the Chamberlaines of the Exchequer, and one of the Keepers of the Treasury and Kings Jewels, and William de Mulso the other; John Ronceby, Clerke of the Household, and Surveyor, and Comptroller of the Kings works; Roger Barnburgh, and 7. more Clergy-men, Clerks of the Chancery • Richard Chesterfield, the Kings under Treasurer; Thomas Brantingham, the Kings Treasurer in the parts of Guines, Mark, and Calais : All which Clerks abounded likewise with Ecclesiastical Benefices and Dignities; some of them possessing at least 20. Benefices and Dignities by the Popes own license, and having further liberty to retain as many Livings as they could get: This was in the year 1367. But not long after Anno 1371. upon a complaint of the Nobles in Parliament, all Clergy-men were thrust out of Temporal Offices, and Lay-men put into their places. Holinshed out of Caxton saith that the King this year in Parliament demanded a subsidy of 50000. pound of the Laity, and as much of the Clergy. The temporal men soon agreed to that payment, but the Clergy excused themselves with fair words, and shi • ting answers, insomuch that the King took displeasure with them, and deposed certain spiritual men from their office of dignity, as the Chancellor, the Privy seal, the Treasurer, and such other, in whose rooms he placed temporal men: where as Ca • ton in truth saith, that this subsidy was raised by the Clergy by good avisement out of their Lay Fee, and that this their removal from Lay Offices was at the request and asking of the Lord's in hatred of men of holy Church; with which Walsingham accords. This Arch-Prelate being very ambitious, was without the Kings privity, created by Pope Urban Cardinal of S. Sixtus • with which news the King being much offended, seised on his Temporalties: At which the Arch-Bishop nothing troubled, did at last with much difficulty obtain leave from the King to go to Rome destitute of his Family, and stripped of all his Archiepiscopall Ensigns, where he shortly after died.

William Witlesey, who next enjoyed this See, had some differences with the King about granting Subsidies. At last he and the Clergy condescended to grant an Annual Tenth upon condition that the King would free them from the intolerable yoke of the Popes oppr ••• ions; But Will. Courtney thē Bp o • Hereford, after Arch-Bp of Cant. ) standing up stoutly in the midst o • the Synod, said with a loud voice; That neither he nor the Clergies of his Diocese would give anything to the King, be • ore the King had remedied those calamities under which the Clergy had long time suffered : Whereupon, the King sent Messengers to the Pope to Rome, to take away Provisions, Reservations, and other Exactions wherewith the Clergy and people of England were grieved; and put the Statute against Provisions in execution.

Simon Sudbury, who next succeeded him, about whose Election there was much debate, was not long after his Instalment made Lord Chancellor of England, and sundry other Clergy-men formerly put from the Administration of Temporal Offices and affairs, by his example and means were restored to them again; those Lay-men who managed them being disgracefully thrust out thereupon: Wakefeld Bishop of Worcester, being made Lord High Treasurer. This Arch-Bishop in the insurrection of Jack Straw and Wat Tyler (stirred up by John Ball a seditious Priest) was by this Vulgar rout (who purposed to destroy all Bishops and Abbots) proclaimed an enemy both to the King and people; who were so incensed against him as their greatest enemy, that apprehending him in the Tower of London, where the King then was, even whiles he was saying Mass; they drew him out thence, and with an Axe cut off his head like a Traitor. The manner of which Execution is thus described by Wal • igham, Godwin, and others. These Rebels in all haste came to the Tower, where the Court then was, requiring with great out-cries the Arch-Bishop. The Arch-Bishop, then Lord Chancellor, having had some inkling thereof the day before, had spent all that night in prayer, and just when they called for him was saying of Mass in the Chapel of the Tower. That ended, and hearing of their coming, Let us now go (saith he unto his men) surely it is better to die, seeing to live it can be no pleasure. With that, in came these murthering Rebels, crying, Where is the Traitor, Where is the Traitor ? He answered, I am the Arch-Bishop, (whom I think you seek) but no Traitor. With great violence then they drew him out of the Chapel, and carried him to the Tower Hill • seeing there nothing but swords and weapons; and hearing nothing but, Kill, kill, away with the Traitor, &c. yet he was not so amazed, but with great eloquence he could go about to persuade them, not to imbrue their hands in the blood of their Arch-Bishop, their chief Pastor: assuring them, that all the Realm would be interdicted • or it, and the fact must needs be punished first or last by the temporal Law. And lastly, though these failed, God the just Judge would revenge it, either in this, or in the world to come, if not both. But these Varlots were so eagerly bent, that the very songs of the Sirens would nothing have moved them; seeing therefore nothing but death before his face, with comfortable words forgiving the executioner (that scarce ever requested him so to do) with a very cheerful countenance he kneeled, and yielded himself to their fury; once he was stricken in the neck so weakly, as that notwithstanding, he kneeled still upright, and putting his hand up to the wound, he used these words; A ha, it is the Hand of God. He had not removed his hand from the place, when a second stroke cut off his fingers ends, and felled him to the ground: with much ado, having hacked and hewed his neck with eight blows, they got off his head, upon Friday June 14. 1381. All which day, and a part of the next, his body lay there headless, no man daring to offer it burial: as for his head, they nailed his hood upon it, and so fixing it upon a pole, set it on London Bridge. By all which it appears, that he was very odious to the people, and no other but a Traitor in their estimation.

William Courtney, next Arch-Bishop to him in succession, as he opposed the grant of a subsidy to the King whiles he was Bishop of Hereford, as you heard before, in the Acts of Whitlesey ; so in the year 1376. when he was Bishop of London, when King Edward the third desired a pecuniary aid to help to supply his wants, and defray his Wars, this proud Prelate withstood these payments, complaining, that many injuries were done to him and to William Wickam Bishop of Winchester, which put into writing, he tendered to the Synod, and requested that nothing might be granted to the King before he had made satisfaction to them for these injuries, which the Synod assented to • and thereupon Wickam, formerly banished by the King, was restored to his Bishopric, and admitted into his Synod. He received his Arch • Bishopric by provision from the Pope against the Law, and made great scruple whether he might have his Crosier borne before him, or whether he might marry the Queen of Bo • omia his Sister, to King Richard the second, before he had received his Pall from • he Pope; which ye • he did at last, interposing this wary Protestation, that he did it not in contempt o • the Court of Rome. He excommunicated the Bailiffs o • Canterbury, for p • nishing adultery and other crimes, which were to be punished by the Prelates; who neglected for to do it. After which he excommunicated one Richard Ismonger of Ailsford in Kent, because he corrected criminals by Lay Authority, which were to be punished by the Prelates, and so violated the privileges of the Church: he humbly desired to be absolved, promising by oath, never hereafter to violate the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and that he would undergo any punishment for his former contumacy and rashness that the Arch • Bishop should impose upon him; who enjoined him this pun • shment: First, that in the Market place of West • alling in the greatest assembly of the people, he should for three Market days together be stripped naked, and bastinadoed with clubs; and after that he should undergo the same punishment as often both at Maidstone and Canterbury, and that a • ter his last castigation at Canterbury, he should enter into the Cathedral Church there, naked, and offer a Taper of five pound weight at Thomas Beckets shrine: which punishment if he refused to perform, he should relapse into his former state of excommunication: a strange punishment for the Kings Officer to undergo, only for executing justice upon delinquents in the Prelates defaults. This Arch-Prelate so far incensed King Richard the second, that he commanded his goods, and temporalties to be feased, and the Bishop himself was glad to hide his head in secret corners, with a few attendants till he had made his peace with the King. In this Arch-bishops time, there were great contests between him and his Suffragans, who opposed him in his Metropol • ticall visitation, and in levying the tax of four pence the pound on the Clergy within his Province, which he to their great oppr • ssion had procured from the pope: He had a great contestation with the Earl of Arundell, whose servants he excommunicated for fishing in one of his Ponds in the Manor of Southmalling in Chichester Diocese; whereupon the Earl complained to the King, who hearing the cause, commanded the excommunication directed to the Bishop of Chichester, to be revoked. In this Arch-Bishops time, the Statute of Provisions and Premunire was enacted; which the Pope and Prelates labored forthwith to cause the King to repeal, to which the Nobles and Commons would by no means consent. Ann. Dom. 1387. when divers causes of high Treason were debated in Parliament, the Arch-Bishop with his Suffragans who by Law could not be present in the House, in debating causes of blood, departing the House made this Protestation: In the Name of God, Amen. Whereas of right and by the custom of the Realm of England, it appertains to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury for the time being, as also to his Suffragans, his Brethren and fellow Bishops, Abbots, Priors, and all other Prelates whatsoever, holding of our Lord the King by Barony, to be personally present in all Parliaments of the King as Peers of the said Realm, and there of the businesses of this Kingdom, and other things there usually handled, with the • est of the Peers of 〈◊〉 said Kingdom, and others having right to be there present, to consul • , and handle, ordain, decree, and define, and to do other things, which are there ready to be executed in time of Parliament, in all, and every of which, we William Courtney, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, &c. for us and our Suffragans, fellow Bishops, and Confreers, as likewise for the Abbots, Priors, and all Prelates aforesaid, protest, and everyone of them here present by himself or his proxie, publicly and expressly protesteth, that we and every of us, intend and intendeth, will and willeth to be present in this present Parliament, and others as Peers of the said Realm, after the usual manner, to consult, handle, ordain, decree, and define, and to exercise other things with others who have right to be present in the same, our state and order, and each of them in all things always saved. But because in the present Parliament some matters are handled, at which by the de • rees of sacred Canons it is not lawful for us, or any to be any ways personally present, for those things we will and every of them protest, and every of them here present protesteth likewise; that we neither intend nor desire, as by Law we neither can nor ought, neither doth any of them intend or desire to be present any way in this present Parliament, whiles such matters are or shall be in debate, but we and every of them will in this part wholly absent ourselves. And we further protest, and every of them protesteth that for this our absence we neither intend, nor will, nor doth any of them intend or will, that the Processe made, or to be made in this present Parliament, as the which we neither may, nor ought to be present, as far as it concerns us or any of them, shall in future times be any way impugned, debilitated or infringed. Which I recite to show, that Parliaments may be held and decree things without Bishops, and to check the pride of those Prelates who this Parliament pleaded hard to be present at the debate of the Lord Straffords Cause. I cannot here pretermit the treacherous and bloody practice of William Cour • ney against the true Saints of God, and the Kings most loyal Subjects, for he being not content solemnly to excommunicate and persecute John Wiclife, John Ashton, Nicholas Herford, and Philip Repingdon, both at Paul's-cross and at Oxford, for the true profession of the Gospel, did mo • eover by all means possible solicit King Henry the fourth, to join with all the power of his Temporal Sword, for that he well perceived, that hitherto as yet the Popis • Clergy had not authority sufficient by any public Law or Statute of this Land, to proceed unto death against any person whatsoever, in case of Religion but only by the usurped tyranny and example of the Court of Rome : Where note (gentle Reader) for thy better understanding, the practice of the Romish Prelates, in seeking the Kings help to further their bloody purpose against the good Saints of God. This King being but young, and under years of ripe judgment, partly induced, or rather seduced by importune suite of the foresaid Arch-Bishop; party also either for fear of the Bishops, (for Kings cannot always do in their Realms what they will) or else perhaps enticed by some hope of a Sublidy to be gathered by the Clergy, was content to adjoin his private assent (such as it was) to the setting down of an Ordinance, which was indeed the very first Law that is to be found made against Religion and the Professors thereof, bearing the name of an Act made in the Parliament, holden at Westminster, Ann. 5. Rich. 2. c. 5. commonly entitled, An Act against the Lollards (the Contents whereof you may read in the Statutes at large, and in Master Fox. ) This Act, though it bears the name of a Statute both in written and Printed Books, yet it was fraudulently and unduly devised by the Prelates only, and a mere pernicious forgery to advance their own Episcopal power and Jurisdiction, invade the Subjects liberties, tread down Religion, and shed our Martyrs blood; with which the Commons were so highly offended, as they had just cause so to be, that in the U • as of Saint Michael next following, at a Parliament summoned and holden at Westminster, the 6. year of the said King, among sundry petitions made to the King by the Commons, whereunto he assented; there is one in this form, against this spurious Act of theirs • Item, prayen the Commons, that whereas an Estatute was made the last Parliament in these words: It is ordained in this present Parliament, that Commissions from the King be directed to the Sheriffs and other Ministers of the King, or to other sufficient persons, after, and according to the Certificates of the Prelates thereof, to be made unto the Chancery from time to time, to arrest all such Preachers, and their Fautors, Maintainers, and Abettors, and them to detain in strong Prison, until they will justify themselves according to reason, and Law of holy Church. And the King wille • h and commandeth, that the Chancellor make such Commissions at all times, as shall be by the Prelates or any of them certified, and thereof required, as is aforesaid. The which was never agreed nor granted by the Commons; but whatsoever was moved therein was without their assent. That the said Statute be therefore disannulled. For it is not in any wise their meaning, that either themselves, or such as shall succeed them, shall be further justified or bound by the Prelates, then were their Ancestors in former times: whereunto is answered, Il plest an Roy. i. e. The King is pleased. This supposed Statute, thus fraudulently devised by the Prelates only, was in like manner most injuriously, and unorderly executed by them; for immediately upon the publishing of this Law, without further warrant either from the King or his Council, Commissions under the Great Seal of Engl • nd, were made in this form, Richard, by the Grace of God, &c. Witness myself at Westminster the 26. day of June, in the 6. year of our R • igne. Without more words of Warrant under writ • en, such as in like cases are both usual and • equisite, viz. Per ipsu • Regem, per Regem & Concilium ; or Per breve de privato Sigillo. Al, or any of which words being utterly wanting in this place, as may be seen in the Kings Records of that time; it must therefore be done either by warrant of this fore-said Statute, or else without any warrant at all. And whereas the said Statute appointed the Commissions to be directed to the Sheriff, or other Ministers of the Kings, or to other sufficient persons, learned for the arresting of such persons: they fraudulently procured the said Commissions to be directed to the Arch-bishop and his Suf • ragans, being both Judges, Accusers, Witnesses, and Parties in the Case, authorizing them further, without either the words, or reasonable meaning of the said Statute, to imprison them in their own houses, or where else pleased them: Yea, such was this Arch-Bishops, and the other P • elates Treachery and villainy in this particular, notwithstanding this unjust and spurious Law was repealed upon the forementioned Petition of the Commons, and the fraud of the framers thereof sufficiently discovered; yet such means was there made by the Prelates, that this Act of repeal was never published, nor ever since imprinted with the rest of the Statutes of that Parliament. Insomuch as the said repeal being concealed, like Commissions and other Processe were made from time to time, by virtue of the said Bastard Statute, as well during the Rain of this King, as since against the Professors of Religion; as Master Fox in his Acts and Monuments, both shows, and proves at large. Now what is this no • orious forgery, this unjust and fraudulent execution of this pretended Act of Parliament, even after its repeal, by this Arch-Bishop and his Brethren, but the very heighth of Treachery, Villany, Schism, and Sedition; yea, an In • ernall policy, to advance Episcopal Jurisdiction, erect a bloody Inquisition, and shed our Martyrs blood, contrary both to the Laws of God and the Realm? To end with this Prelate, Amm. 1385. this King called a Parliament at London, wherein the Laity granted the King one Quindisme and a half, upon condition that the Clergy would give him one Disme and a half. This Arch-Bishop stiffly opposed this condition saying, That it ought not to be made, especially seeing the Church ought to be free, and no ways to be taxed by Lay-men; adding, that he would rather endanger his head for this cause, then suffer the Church of England to be so much enslaved. Which Answer so moved the company of Commons, that the Knights of the Counties, with certain of the Nobles of the Kingdom, with great fury petitioned, that the Temporalties of the Ecclesiastickes might be taken away, saying, That the Clergy were grown to such excessive pride, that it would be a work of piety and charity, by the taking away of their Temporalties, which did puff them up, to compel them to be more humbly wise. These things they cried out, these things they presented to the King in short writings, thinking to bring this Petition to effect. The Arch-Bishop to prevent the danger, consulting with his Clergy, granted the King one Tenth very willingly; which the King accepted of, and so for the present the insatiable covetousness of the Enemies of the Church (saith Walsingham ) was frustrated, and this Clause of the Laity obliterated out of the Bill.

Thomas Arundell his immediate successor, by provision from the Pope, against the Law, as he resigned his Chancellourship of England, so soon as ever he was made Arch-Bishop, as incompatible with his function (as Thomas Becket, Walter Reynalds, John Stratford, with other his predecessors had commendably done before, witness Matthew Parker, Godwin, and Fox, in their lives, which I wish our secular Prelates would now imitate, though not in resuming this office again, as he did at last:) so he was scarce warm in his Seat, when by King Richard the seconds displeasure, he was dispossessed of the same, for not only the Arch-Bishops Brother the Earl of Arundell, was attainted and condemned of High Treason against the King in full Parliament, for which he was presently executed; but the Arch-Bishop himself was by Sir John Bushy, in the behalf of the Commonalty, accused of high Treason, for that he had evil counseled his Majesty, and induced him to grant Letters of Pardon to his brother the Earl of Arundell, being a rank Traitor. After which he was found guilty and condemned of High Treason, adjudged unto perpetual exile (for conspiring to take the King, the Dukes of Lancester and York, prisoners, and to hang and draw the other Lord's of the Kings Council,) and commanded within forty days to depart the Realm, under pain of death. He thus banished got to Rome, and found such favor with the Pope, as that he first writ earnestly to the King for his Restitution: the King writes a sharp Letter against him to the Pope, wherein he showeth, That he plotted Treason against him, and endeavored to take away his life; that he deserved rather to be quartered and executed as a Traitor, then banished; that the whole Kingdom wondered and were offended, he had dealt so mildly with him, and not executed him as he deserved; that he was a man impatient of peace, of a Trayterous and seditious spirit, so as he could not restore him, or re-admit him into the Realm without danger of his Life and Kingdom; and therefore, though all the World consented to his Restitution, yet he would never do it whiles he breathed. Upon which Letters, the Pope not only refused to restore him, but at the Kings request, made Roger Walden Arch Bishop in his stead.

The Pope hereupon conferred the Arch-bishopric of S ^t . Andrew's in Scotland, with other livings here in England, by way of provision, upon Arundel • who confederating afterward with Henry Duke of Lancaster, against King Richard, they levied what forces they could, and landed with them in England so that at last King Richard upon parly with this Arundell, whom he had banished, was forced to resign his Crown, and to render himself prisoner to the Duke of Lancaster, with promise of saving his life only: Hereupon the Arch-Bishop after the Resignation made in parliament, Crowned the Duke King, and made a Brief Collation on these words, 1 King. 9. A man shall Rain over the People ; Tending wholly to the praise of the new King, and disparagement of the old; Recorded at large by Holinshed : After which he thrust Walden out of his See, and got restitution of it again, the Pope confirming his Restauration, and declaring Walden to be an intruder; who after a while was made Bishop of London. This Arch-Bishop thus restored to his See, and in high favor with the King, proved a bloody persecutor and butcher of God's Saints; to which end following the steppes of his predecessor Courtney, he, with the rest of the Bishops, fraudulently and surreptitiously procured by crafty • means and subtle pretences, the cruel bloody Statute Ex Officio, as Master Fox doth style it (to wit, 2. Hen. 4. c. 15.) to pass the Upper House of Parliament as a Law, without the Commons assent or Privity, whose assent they yet foisted into the written and Printed Copies of that Act, to blind the world withal, and give it the color of a Statute, though it be not to be found in the Parliament Roll the Commons never consenting to it, as Mr. Fox hath shown at large in his Acts and Monuments, p. 539.540. and the Statute of 25. Hen. 8. c. 14. witnesseth: which bastard Statute, by color of which alone most or all our English Martyrs were afterwards imprisoned, burned, tortured, and put to death) being thus unduly obtained, this bloody Arch-Prelate, forthwith caused many godly Martyrs to be burnt to ashes, and the Worthy honorable Lord Cobham with sundry others to be put to death; by reason whereof the Kingdom of the Pope, and of the Prelates his members here in this Realm, began to be • so strong, that none durst stir or once mutter against them. The Bishops having the King so full on their side, armed moreover with these two forged Laws, with imprisonments, sword, fire, and faggot, reigned and ruled as they listed, as Kings and Princes within themselves: So strong were they of power that no human force was able to stand against them, so exalted in pride and puffed up in glory, that they thought all things to be subject to their reverend majesties. Whatsoever they set forth and decreed, though in their own names, rites, and by their own authorities, it must of all m • n be received and obeyed. And it was their Superstitious blindness, and curious vanity, that whatsoever • oy came once in their fantacy, it was straight-way determined and established for a Law of all men to be observed, were it never so • rivilous or superstitious; yea such was the pride, vain-glory, and insolency of this Arch-Bishop Arundel, (who stuffed the Church with Ceremonies, and vain Traditions of men as his Successors doth now) that he in great snuff suspended all the Churches in London, not only with the Steeple and Bells, but also with the Organs, (because they did not ring • he Bells for a triumph at his coming, when he passed by the high street of London, with his Cross carried in pomp before him,) till the Ministers and Officers of the said Churches should do penance, and give him competent satisfaction for this indignity. Now what shall we think or conclude of these two last Arch-Bishops, Courtney and Arundel, who thus took upon them to forge even public Acts of Parliament for the advancement of their own • Antichristian Hierarchy, the suppressing of the Gospel, the murthering and destroying the Kings best Subjects, and the effusion of so much Martyrs blood, but that they were monsters of Trechery, Tyranny, inhumanity Traitors and enemies both to the Church and Common-wealth, yea the very Devils and Popes Arch-agents to effect their wills. But God was even with the latter of them, Arundel, who shutting up the mouths, and silencing the tongues of many faithful Ministers, his own Tongue at last by God's just judgment swelled so big in his mouth, as he was able neither to ea • e, drink, no • speak in many days, and so died of hunger after he had starved so many poor Christian Souls, and burned their bodies into ashes. In the year 1403. King Henry the fourth, intending to go into North Wales to chasten the presumptuous doings of the unruly Welsh-men, and wanting money to wage his Soldiers, there were some that counseled him to be bold with the Bishops, and supply his wants with their superfluity. But as it fortuned, Arundel Arch-bishop of Canterbury was there present, who in the name of all the rest boldly made answer, that none of his Province should be spoiled by any of those naughty persons; but that first with hard stripes they should understand the price of their harsh enterprise. But the King nevertheless used the matter so with the Bishops for their good wills, that the Arch-bishop at length to pleasure him, calling the Clergy together, got a grant of one Tenth, towards the Kings necessary charges. And thereby secured their temporalities for that time. The next year following, a Parliament being called to consult how the King might be relieved with money for defense of the Realm against the Scots and Welshmen at home, and the Britain's, Flemmins, and Frenchmen abroad, it was thought most expedient, that the spirituality should be deprived of their temporal possessions to relieve the Kings necessity. Hereupon rose great alteration between the Clergy and the Laity, the Knights affirming, that they had often times served the King, not only with their goods, but also with their persons in very great dangers and jeopardies, whilst the spiritualty • it at home, and help the King nothing at all. Whereupon this Arch-Bishop stoutly answered, That the Clergy had always given to the King as much as the Laity had done, considering they had oftener given their Tenthes to him then the Laity their Fifteenes: also, that more of their Tenants went to the Kings wars, than of the Tenants of them of the Lay fee: besides this they prayed day and night for the Kings good success against his enemies. When the Speaker named Sir John Cheinie, in replying by plain speech, seemed but little to esteem such prayers of the Church, the Arch-Bishop was set in a great chafe, and with sharp words declaring what he thought must needs follow both of the King and Kingdom, when Prayers and Suffrages of Church-men came to be so little set by, he grew to such impatiency, that he flatly told the Speaker, That although he seemed little to esteem of the Religion of the Clergy, ye • he would not have him to think that he should thus take away the possessions of the Church, without finding such as would seek to withstand him: For if (said he) the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury may live, thou shalt have • o • taking away any manner of thing that is his. After this when the Arch-Bishop perceived that the King winked at these matters, he rose from his place, and coming before the King he kneeled down, and besought him to consider, how through the Grace and favor of Almighty God, he had obtained the Kingdom; and therefore ought to remember his first purpose and intent, which was, to give to e • ery man his right, so far as in him say • he • willed him likewse to have in consideration the Oath which he so willingly had received, that is, that he should advance the Honor of the Church, and the Ministers thereof cherish and maintain; Also to have in mind the danger and dishonor that redounded to such as brake their oaths; so that he besought him to permit and suffer the Church to enjoy the privileges and Liberties, which in time of his Predecessors it had enjoyed, requesting him to stand in awe of that King by which all Kings did ra • gne, and to sear the censures and condemnations that those in • urred, which took or bereft • rom the Church any good or right belonging to it, who most certainly (said he) are accursed. When the Arch-Bishop had used this or the like speech, the King commanded him to go to his seat again, assuring him, that his intent and purpose was, to leave the Church in as good state or better than he found it. The Arch-Bishop herewith turning to the Knights and Burgesses of the Parliament, said unto them, You and such others as you be, have given counsel unto the King and his Predecessors to confiscate and take into their hands the goods and possessions of the Cells which the Frenchmen and Normans possessed here in England, and affirmed, that by the same he and they should heap up gr • at riches; and indeed those goods and possessions were worth many thousands of gold, and yet it is most true, that t • e King this day is not one half pound of silver better thereby, for you have begged and gotten them out of his hands, and have appropriated the same to yourselves, so that we may conjecture very well, that you request to have our Temporalties, not to advance the Kings profit, but to satisfy your own greedy covetousness; for undoubtedly if the King (as God forbid he should) did accomplish your wicked purposes and minds, he should not be one farthing the richer the year next after: and truly sooner will I suffer this head of mine to be cut off from my shoulders, then that the Church should lose the least right that appertaineth to it. The Knights said little, but yet they proceeded in their suite to have their purpose forward. Which the Arch-Bishop perceiving, (as another Argus • having his eyes on every side, to mark what was done) labored so to disappoint their doings, that he wan the favor of certain of the Temporal Lord's to assist him, who constantly avouched by their consents, that the Church should never be spoiled of her Temporalties; and herein they acquitted the Arch-Bishop and Prelates, one pleasure for another, which they had done for them before, when the Commons in this Parliament required, that all such Lands and revenues which sometime belonged to the Crown, and had been given away by the King, or by his predecessors King Edward or King Richard, should be restored again to the Kings use; unto which request the Arch-Bishop and other the Prela • es would in no wise consent. Thus by this Arch-Bishop Arundel, that Petition of the Commons the • pirituall Temporalities came to naught. Afterwards, in an other Parliament Anno 1410. the Commons of the • ower House exhibited a Bill to the King and Lord's of the Upper House, containing in effect as followeth. To the most excellent Lord our King: and to all the Nobles in this present Parliament assembled, your faithful Commons do • umbly signify, that our Sovereign Lord the King might have of the Temporal possess • ons, Lands, and Tenements which are lewdly spent, consumed and wasted by the Bishops, Abbots and Priors within this Realm, so much in value as would suffice to find and sustain an 150. Earls, 1500. Knights, 6200. Esquires, and 100. Hospitals more than now be : which is more largely and particularly related in Fabian. The King (as some write) mis-liked the motion, and therefore commanded, that from thenceforth they should not presume to study about any such matters. Another thing the Commons then sued to have granted to them, but could not obtain: That Clerks convict should no • thenceforth be delivered to Bishops Prisons: Moreover they demanded to have the Stat • te either revoked or qualified, which had been enacted without their consent in the Second year of this Kings reign, against such as were reputed to be Heretics or Lollards. But the King seemed so highly to favor the Clergy, that the Commons were answered plainly, that they should not come by their purpose, but rather that the said statute should be made more rigorous and sharp for the punishment of such persons: and all this by means of this bloodly Arch-Bishop Arundel, of whom we have heard sufficient.

Henry Chichely, being elected Arch Bishop by the Monks of Canterbury with the Kings consent, immedia • lie after Arundels death, he refused to accept of this their Legal election; and against the express Statutes of the Realm, touching Provisions and Premuni • es, accepted of the See only by Colla • ion from Pope John the 23. in affront both of the King and those Laws, which the Pope endeavored in vain to get repealed, and therefore opposed in point of practice all that he might, reserving by a Decree of the Council of Constance all vacancy to his own dispo • all, bestowing all the Bishoprics of England as soon as they were void at his own pleasure, by the Arch-Bishops connivence, in affront of the Laws and the Kings royal Edicts. This Arch-Prelate published throughout his Province Pope Martins Bulls, for the extirpation of the Wicklevists and Hussites by force of arms, and promised the same Indulgences to those who should take up the Crossado and war against them, as those enjoyed who went to the holy Land to fight against the Sarecens. For which good service the same year ( Anno 1429.) he received the Title of the Cardinal Presbyter of S. Eusebius • rom Pope Martin the 5. who also created him his Legate here in England, without the Kings privity, and contrary to Law. But to color the business, lest he should seem to receive that power Legatine without the Kings permission and Licence, against the Laws and Customs of the Realm; one Richard Condray was made the Kings procurer, that he might appeal to the next general Council from all injuries, grievances, and prejudices offered or to be offered by the Pope or Court of Rome to the King and the Kingdom. There • ore as soon as it was known that the Arch-Bishop had received this Legatin power without the Kings privity or license, Condray made this appeal to Humfrey Duke of Gloster Lord Protector, and others o • the Kings privy Council, in writing. In which he expressed, that no Legate of the Sea Apostolic ought to come into the Kingdom of the King of England or other his Lands or Dominions, but at the vocation, petition, requisition or entreaty o • the King of England for the time being, the Roman Pontifex tolerating and consenting thereto, as well tacitly as expressly: in which appeal notwithstanding, if the said Arch Bishop, not as a Legate but as a Cardinal would say, open, or propound anything from the Pope to the King, it might be lawful for him to do it. In which the King would so far assi • t as he migh • do it by the Laws and Privileges of his royal Crown, and of his famous Kingdom of England. The appeal being read, the Arch-Bishop in the presence of the Prelates and Nobles there present, confessed and protested That it was not, nor is, nor should be his intention by his entering into England, nor by any things done or to be done by him, spoken or to be spoken, for to exercise the Legatine power which he had undertaken, without the Kings permission, or to derogate in anything from the rights, privileges, liberties, or customs of the King or Kingdom, or t • contradict • hem, but to preserve, defend, maintain, and roborate all and every of them. By this device he deluded both the King, Counsel, and Laws: how well he kept this his protestation, his subsequent Acts will evidence. For immediately after he made a Synodical Constitution, That no married man or Lay man should exercise any Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or be Judge or Register in any Ecclesiastical Court in causes of correction of the soul, under pain of incurring the greater excommunication ipso facto, if they offered to intermeddle in any of the premises cont • a • y to the Councils prohibition; which further makes void all citations, process and Acts whatsoever, had and made by Laymen in the Cases aforesaid, and suspends all Ordinaries from the exercise of Ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and ingress into the Church, who should grant any married or Lay man power to exercise any Ecclesiastical Office or authority under them. What the true intent of this Arch-Prelates Constitution was, and how far this Decree intrenched upon the Kings Prerogative Royal, appears by the Statute of 37. H. 8. c. 17. (made purposely to repeal this Constitution) which I shall here insert. In most humble wise show and declare unto your highness your most faithful, humble, and obedient Subjects the Lord's Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons of this present Parliament assembled, that whereas your Majesty is, and hath always justly been by the Word of God supreme head in Earth of the Church of England, and hath full power and authority, to correct, punish, and repress all manner of Heresies, errors, vices, abuses, Idolatries, hypocrisies, and Superstitions • springen and growing within the same; and to exercise all manner of Jurisdictions, commonly called Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction. Nevertheless, the Arch-Bishop of Rome and his adherents minding utterly as much as in him lay, to abolish, ob • cure, 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, ordained, and established, and decreed divers ordinances and constitutions, that no Lay or married man should or might exercise or occupy any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical, nor should be any Judge or Register • in any Court comm • nly called Ecclesiastical Cour • , lest their • alse and usurped power, which they pretended and went about to have in Christ's Church, should decay, wax vile, and of no reputation, as by the said Councils and Constitutions Provincial appeareth: which standing and remaining in their effect not abolished by your Graces Laws, did seem to appear to make greatly for the said usurped power of the said Bishop of Rome, and to be directly repugnant to your Majesty's Title of supreme head of the Church and prerogative Royal, your Grace being a Lay-man: and albeit the said Decrees, Ordinances and Constitutions by a Statute made the 25 • year of your most noble reign be utterly abolished, frustrate and of none effect, yet because the contrary thereunto is not used nor put in practice by • he Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Deans, and other Ecclesiastical persons, who have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical, but by, under, and from your royal Majesty, it addeth or a • the least may give occasion to some evil disposed perso • s to think and little to regard the proceeding, and censures Ecclesiastical made by your Highness and your Vice-gerent, Officials, Commissaries, Judges, and Visitators • being also Lay and married men, to be of little or none effect or force, whereby the people gathereth heart and presumption to do evil, and not to have such reverence to your most godly injunctions and proceedings, as becometh them. But forasmuch as your Majesty is the only and undoubtedly supreme head of the Church of England, and also of Ireland, to whom by Scripture all authority and power is wholly given to hear, and determine all causes Ecclesiastical, and to correct all vice and sin whatsoever, and to all such persons as your Majesty shall appoint thereunto; that in consideration thereof, as well for the instruction of ignorant persons, as also to avoid the occa • ion of the opinion aforesaid, and setting forth of your prerogative royal and supremacy, It may therefore please your Highness, that it may be ordained and enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that all and singular as well Lay as those that be married now, or hereafter shall be married, being Doctors of the Civil Law, lawfully create and made in any University which shall be made, ordained, constituted, and deputed to be any Chancellor, Vicar General, Commissary, Officiall, Scribe, or Register by your Majesty, or any of your Heirs, or Successors to any • Arch-Bishop, Bishop, Arch-Deacon, or other person whatsoever, having authority under your Majesty, your Heirs and Successors, to make any Chancellor, Vicar General, Commissary, Off • ciall, or Register, may lawf • lly execute and exercise all mann • r of Jurisdiction commonly called Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and all Censures and Corrections appertaining o • any wise belonging unto the same, albeit such person or persons be Lay, married, or unmarried, so that they be Doctors of the Civil Law, as is aforesaid, any Law, Constitution, or Ordinance to the contrary notwi • hstanding. By this Act it is apparent, that the end of the former Constitution was treacherously to undermine and abolish the Kings Prerogative Royal in causes Ecclesiastical, and to make the Pope and our Prelates absolute Monarchs, and our Kings mere Cyphers to execute their Mandates, when by the express words of this Law, with that of 1. Ed. 6. c. 2.26. H. 8. c. 1.1. Eliz. c. • .5. Eliz. c. 1.8. Eliz. c. 1. and 1. and 2. Phil. and M • ry c. 8. it is most clearly resolved, that our Arch-Bishops and Bishops, have no manner of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical over other Ministers by any divine right, (as they now vainly, if not traitorously pret • nd) but by, from, and under our Kings, in whose name and right, and under whose Seal alone all their Ecclesiastical process ought to issue, as hath been elsewhere plentifully manifested, it being no less than a Premunire, by the Statute of 1. Edw. 6. c. 2. • or any Bishops or Ecclesiastical Judges to issue out processes in their own names, and under their own Seals, as now our Prelates do. This Law of Premunire, was such a curb to our usurping Prelates, that this Arch Prelate Chichely, in the last Synod he held Anno. 1439. without delay or difficulty granted King Henry the sixth a Tenth, and promised him large supplies from the Clergy in all things, if he would abrogate those hard Laws of Premunire, where-with the Clergy were very falsely accused and oft taken and ensuared as in unjust s • ares ; (whereas in truth those Laws were the principal safety both of King and people, to preserve and free them from the unjust encroachments of Popes and Prelates, upon their Liberties, Laws, and Estates, which made the Pope and them so frequently to solicit their repeal.) And by his countenance William Lindwood collected and set out the Provincial Constitutions of the Arch-Prelates of Canterbury in their Synods, in affront of the Kings prerogative Royal and the Laws of the Realm, dedicating them to this Arch-Prelate, and entreating him to put them in due Execution being neglected, and quite disregarded formerly, both by Prelates, Judges, and people, as he complains in his Epistle Dedicatory to him. In brief, when in the Parliament held at London, Anno 1414. under King Henry the fifth, the Commons reviewed their former Petition in Parliament made to King Henry the fourth but four years before, to seize the Bishops and Abbots Temporalities, showing how many Earls, Knights, and Esquires they would maintain; The Bishops and Abbots whom it touched very near, much • earing • the issue • determined to assay all ways to put by, and overthrow this Bill, and minding rather to bow than break, they first agreed to offer the King a great sum of money, to stay this new moven Demand. The cause of this offer seemed to some of the wise Prelates neither decent nor convenient, for they well • oresaw, and perfectly knew, that if the Commons perceived, that they by rewards or by offer of money would resist their request and petition, that they stirred and moved with a fury, would not only rail and despise them as corrupters of Princes, and enemies of the Public • Wealth, but would so cry and call on the King, and the • emporall Lord's, that they were like to lose both work and oil, cost and lining. Wherefore they determined to cast all chances, which might serve their purpose, and in special, to replenish the Kings brain with some pleasant study, so as that he should neither fantasy nor regard the serious Petition of the importunate Commons. Wherefore on a day, when the King was present in Parliament, this Henry Chichely Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, after low Obeysance made to the King, made a public Oration in Parliament be • ore the King, and Peers, wherein he shown the Kings undoubted Title to sundry Provinces and the whole Realm of France ; with the injustice and nullity of the Salicke Law, the only Obstacle to his Title, stirring up the King and Nobles by force of Arms to regain the same: and withal declared that his loving Clergy and subjects of the spiritualty, to show their willingness and desire to aid his Majesty for the recovery of his ancient Right, and true Inheritance, had in their Convocation, granted to his Highness such a Sum of money as by Spiritual Persons, never was to any P • ince thorough the whole Christian World, before those times, given or advanced: By which device seconded by the Duke of Exe • er, he diverted and shifted off the Petition of the Commons, and engaged the King and Kingdom in a long, bloody, and costly War. The King himself professing on his death Bed, that before the beginning of the same Wars, he was fully persuaded by men both Wise, Pious, and of great holiness of life, that in prosecuting his just Title, he might & ought both begin the same Wars, and follow them till he brought them to an end, justly and rightly, and that without all danger of God's displeasure, or peril of soul. Such an incendiary of war, was this Arch-Ambassador of peace that should be.

John Stafford, preferred to the Bishopric of Bath and Wells by provision from Pope Martin the fifth, contrary to the Laws enacted against Provisions from Rome, immediately after Chichelyes death, was in farther affront of the said Laws promoted to the See of Canterbury, by Pope Eugenius ; that prohibited usurpation of Papal Provisions, de • ended by so many Laws and Statutes, being no whit abated, through the Popes industry, and the Prelates Treachery and ambition, who would rather incur the danger of these Laws, and dis-savor of their Princes, then want a far Bishopric, though they paid Popes dearly for it. This Arch-Prelate in the first Synod held under him at London, Anno. 1444. confederating with the rest of the Clergy, when a Subsidy was demanded of them, petitioned, that the Statutes of Provisors, and the Writs or Actions of Praemunire, which by the crafty and malicious interpretation of the Lawyers, as they • alsely • urmised, were turned to the destruction of the Clergy, and disturbance of Ecclesiastical Discipline, might be either wholly abrogated, or their rigor moderated • and that Lay-men for suing Clergy-men falsely in Temporal Courts, might have some severe punishment inflicted on them by a Law. But this their motion vanishing into smoke, and the Judges restraining their extravagant proceedings in Ecclesiastical Courts by Prohibitions, and bringing them within the compass of the Statutes against Provisions, and in the danger of Premunire's, which did much terrify them; hereupon the Arch-Bishop and Prelates in their next Synod at London, An. 1446. presented a new Petition to the King in the Name of the whole Clergy of England, wherein they grievously complained of the Lay-Judges, who were ever very troublesome and despiteful to Clerks; desiring that the Statutes of Provision and Praemunire might be more equally expounded in favor of the Prelates by the Parliamen, than it was by the Lawyers, and that they might be restrained from granting Prohibitions to, and exercising • any Jurisdiction over Spiritual Judges; But this Petition proved ineffectual; it being provided by Statute, that no spiritual Law shall have place contrary to a Common Law or Act of Parliament. And this were not (as the Lord Audley Chancellor of England, once told Stephen Gardener Bishop of Winchester in the Parliament House, who thought it strange, that Bishops authorized by the King could fall in a Praemunire ) the Bishops would enter in with the King, and by means of his Supremacy order the Lairy as they listed; but we will provide, quoth he, that the Praemunire shall ever hang over your heads, and so we Laymen shall be sure to enjoy our inheritance, by the Common Laws and Acts of Parliament. After this, the Pope exacted of the Clergy of England a Tenth of all their Revenues, and sent Nuncioes to the Arch-Bishop with Bulls to collect it. But the King hearing of this secret fraud, commanded the Arch-Bishop not to obey the Pope herein, who yet was so far a servant to the Pope, and enemy to the King, that during all his Archiepiscopall Rain the Pope made Bishops by Provision, against the Laws of the Realm.

John Kemp, the next Arch-Bishop, elected lawfully by the Monks of Canterbury with the Kings consent, refused to take his Arch-Bishoprike from the King, but waving his Election, received it by Provision from the Pope, who sent over six several Bulls to this end, the first to the Arch-Bishop himself, the second to the Chapter of Canterbury : the third, to his Provincial Suffragans; the fourth, to the Clergy of the City and Diocese of Canterbury ; the fifth, to the people of the same; the sixth, to the Vassals of the Arch-Bishop; by which Bulls the Pope increased much hi • Revenues: And • o oblige this Arch-Prelate the faster to him, the Pop • by another Bull created him Cardinal of Saint Ruffine : But this Arch-Bishop dying within one year and an half after his Consecration, could do him but little service.

Thomas Burgchier, immedia • ely succeeding him, by the special favor of King Henry the sixth, this ungrateful Prelate (made a Cardinal by the Pope) some • ew years after ( An. 1461.) crowned and consecrated Edward the fourth at Westminster to be King in his stead, during King Henry his life, and in a full Synod procured the Clergy to grant him a Tenth: Afterwards in a Synod at London, An. 1463. he • granted him another Subsidy, and obtained a Grant from King Edward under his Seal, that the Prelates should bridle the malice of those by whom their rights were violated, as well by old Ecclesiastical Laws as by those new Laws they should make, both in all causes belonging to the Ecclesiastical Court, as also in the Tythe of great Trees of twenty years growth or more, without the fear or penalty of the Statutes of Provisors, or of the Writs or Actions of Premunire, or of any Prohibition, and that they might proceed therein without any consultation obtained: And that if any of the Kings Judges, or other secular Judges should by any Writs or Processe hinder or deter any Arch-Bishop, Bishop, or Arch-deacon, or their Vicars, Officials, Commissaries, or other Ecclesiastical Judges: That then upon the monition of the said Arch-Bishop, Bishop, &c. so hindered or scared, the said Judge should appear in the Chancery at such day as the said Arch-Bishop or Ecclesiastical Judge should appoint, on pain of two hundred pound, to answer to the King for this his contempt, and that his Processe against the Ecclesiastical Judge, should by Royal Authority be rescinded, and pronounced to be void and frustrate. In his time there were many Pilgrimages made both by King Edward, the Queen, and others to that Arch-traitor Beckets Shrine at Canterbury, where they offered many rich gifts: Afterwards, Anno. 1469. the Earl of Warwick conspiring with others to free King Henry the Sixth from the Tower of London ; King Edward hearing of it, went in Pilgrimage to Beckets Tomb to Canterbury, and there held a Council of five Bishops and many Peers of the Realm, from which the Arch-Bishop being suspected (as treacherous and unfaithful) was wholly excluded: King Edward deceasing, this Arch-Prelate though he made a Will sequestered all his goods as ordinary, and seized the Great Seal, the Privy Seal, and the Royal Signer, which he detained in his custody; and whereas Richard Duke of Gloucester had traytorously plotted to murder his Nephews, Edward the Fifth, and his Brother, this Arch-bishop was employed by him to go to the Queen, to get the young Duke of Clarence from her out of the Sanctuary at Westminster, who using many reasons and flattering words to her in vain, at last made this deep protestation: That if she were content to deliver the Duke to him, and to the other Lord's present, he durst lay his own body and soul both in pledge, not only for his surety, but also for his estate, &c. Whereupon, with much ado, she delivered the Duke into his treacherous hands, who forthwith brought him into the Star-Chamber to his Uncle the Lord Protector • He having both Brothers now in his power, pretends them to be illegitimate, proclaims himself right Heir to the Crown, procures first Pinker ; and then Doctor Shaw (no doubt by the Arch Bishops help and privity) in a Sermon at Paul's Cross (by which Sermon he lost his honesty, and soon after his life, for very shame of the World, into which he never durst after to come abroad) to publish to the people, T • at Edward the fifth and his Brother were unlawfully begotten in Adultery, not by the Duke of York, but others; That Richard of Gloucester was right Heir to the Crown, extolling him to the skies, and slandering King Edward the Fourth with his Queen, as never lawfully married to her. Then proceeding treacherously to murder his poor young Nephews, and usurping their Royal Throne; this Arch-bishop readily crowns him (though a bloody and unnatural Usurper) as lawful King of England, and his Lady likewise Queen, the other Bishops and Abbots assisting him in this action, and accompanying him in their Pontificalibus. This Usurper being afterward slain, the Arch-Bishop (ever turning with the • yde of things) crowns Henry the 7. likewise King of England, and shortly after departed this world, Anno 1486. I find not (writes Godwin in his life) that ever any English man connued so long a Bishop, or that any Arch-bishop either before or after him in 800. years enjoyed that place so long; for he continued Arch-Bishop 32 years, and lived after the time of his first Consecration and promotion to the Bishopric of Worcester 51. years, and I marvel much, that in all that while he never endeavored to leave behind him any good Deed for the perservation of his Memory. Sure I am, that his Treachery to the young Duke of Clarence, and King Henry who advanced him, and his Treasons in crowning two Usurpers, with his base temporising, remain as so many survi • ing Monuments of his in • amie and disloyalty.

John Morton his Successor, whiles Bishop of Eli, was accused by Richard the Third of many great Treasons, and committed by him to the Tower : from whence being removed and committed to the custody of Henry Duke of Buckingham, he by degrees stirred up the Duke to plot the deposing of King Richard the Usurper, and se • ting up of the Earl of Richmond, for which the Duke not long after lost his head: The Bishop in the mean time disguising himself, escaped out of the Dukes custody, fled first to Eli, next to Flanders, after which he went to Rome, never more intending to meddle with the world. But King Henry the seventh having got the Crown, married King Edward the fourth his daughter, and so united the Houses of Lancaster and York, (which marriage was first devised by this Prelate) called him home again, made him Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and Chancellor of England ; whereunto the Pope annexed the honor of a Cardinal, translating him from Eli to Canterbury, by no less than six • everall Bulls, (all against Law) to augment the Fees. In his time Richard Simon, a Priest, an ambitious wretch, on hope to make himself the principal Bishop in England, plotted the advancement of Lambert Synmell ; (being his Pupil in the University of Oxford ) to the Crown of England, under the name of Edward Earl of Warwick ; and conveying this Imposter to Dublin in Ireland, he there caused him to be proclaimed King of England ; after this, to land with an Army in England, where in a Battle at Stockefield, in which many were slain, this Priest and his Co •• • erfeit were both taken Prisoners, and attainted of High Treason, yet this Simon (or rather Sinon ) out of the extraordinary reverence to his function was not executed, but only committed to the Arch-Bishop, who imprisoning him some space in his own Prison, delivering him over to the Major of London, condemned him to a Dungeon and perpetual shackles. After which this Arch-Bishop imposed two great Subsidies on the Clergy of his Province to their great oppression, forcing • hem by the Popes authority to contribute so largely toward the charges of his tran • lation, as of his own Diocese only (which is one of the least o • England ) he received 354. pound: sent Pope Inno • ents Bulls to all the Suffraga • es of his Province to publi • h and execute, in open affront of the Laws of • he Realm, the King • Prerogative Royal, and the Subjects Libe • ties; for which good Service, the Pope by his Bulls appointed him to be Visi •• r of all the Monasteries and other places exempt from Archiepiscopall and Ordinary Jurisdiction throughout England, and made him Cardinal of Saint Anastasia ; he persuaded the King to sue to the Pope, not only for the Popes canonization of King Henry the Sixth, but likewise for the translation of his dead Corps from Windsor to Westminster Abbey, and that in an unwor • hy manner, when as the King might have done it by his own mere Royal Authority only. He procured his Rebellio • s predecessor Anselm, with a great sum of money, to be canonized at Rome for a Sa • nt; and had many conflicts and contestations with the Bishops of London, and other his Suffragans, abou • Probate of Wills and Jurisdiction of their Eccl •• ia •• icall Cour • s, which caused Appeales to Rome, whereupon • he • nferiour Priests, with many others of his Province, ca •• for • h sundry public calumnies to his disgrace; against whom Pope Alexander sent forth a Bull, cruelly fulminating Excommunications against them. And by this means the privileges of the See of Canterbury, oft times called into dou • t and controversy in former time, were at la • t e •• ablish •• . It seems the Bishops in his days were very much hated by the inferior Clergy: whereupon in a Synod at London under him, Anno Dom. 1487. certain Preachers were sharply reproved and threat • ed, who in their Sermons, cum plausu populari, eloquentia canina, latran • immodestius in Episcopos absentes, did with popular applause, a • d doggish eloquence bark immodestly again •• B • shops that were absent. In the latter end of this Arch-Bishop Mortons rule, one Patrick an Augu •• ine Friar, had a Scholar called Ralph Wilford, whom • e in open Pulpit decla • ed to be the Earl of Warwick, and desired all men of help: but the head of this sedition was Summer topped, that it could have no time to spring any higher, the Master and Scholar being both apprehended, imprisoned and attain • ed, the Scholar was afterwards hanged, but the Master (the Grand Traitor) only condemned to perpetual Prison: For at that time (writes Hall ) here in England so much Reverence was attributed to the Holy Orders, that to a P • jest, although he had committed High Treason against his Sovereign Lord, and to all other offenders in murder, rape; or theft, which had received any of the three higher Holy Orders, the life was given and the punishment of death released. The chief cause of this favor (saith he) was this, because Bishops of a long time did not take knowledge, nor intermit themselves with the search and punishment of such heinous and detes • able offenses, by reason whereof they did not disgrade and deprive from holy Orders su • h Malefactors and wicked persons, which without that ceremony by the Canonical Law could not be put to death. Furthermore, what should a man say, it was also used, that he that could but only read (though he understood not what he read) how heinous or detestable crime soever he had committed (Treason only excepted) should likewise as aff • nes and allies to the holy Orders, be saved, and committed to the Bishops prison. And to the intent that if they should escape, and be again taken committing the like offense, that their lives should be no more to them pardoned, it was ordained, that Murthe • ers should be burnt on the brawn of the left hand with an hot Iron, signed with this letter M, and thieves in the same place with this letter T, so that if • they once signed with any of these marks, did reiterate like crime again, they should suffer the punishments they had deserved: which devise was enacted and established in Parliament in the fourth year of H. the 7. and taken, as I conjecture, from the French Nation, which are won • if they take any such offender, to cut off one of his ears, as a sure mark hereafter of h • s evil doing. And the charge of keeping such offenders, because it soundeth to spiritual Religion, is committed to the Bishops and Rulers of the spiritualty, with a penalty set upon them, if any such Prisoner do afterwards escape. The which Act and privilege did nourish and increase abundantly the Sect and swarm of Thieves and Murderers; for after that time there were an hundred ways practiced and invented how at one time or other to deliver or convey them out of prison, by making their purgation (by what sleight & means they care not) of such offenses as before they were convicted and found guilty, if no man be present to lay exceptions to the same. For if the party offended and hurt be absent at the day of the purgation making, the thief or murderer truly found guilty from the beginning, shall be both excused and set at liberty. And oftentimes the sooner, because the Bishop would not lose the sum of an hundred pound for the escape of a poor Knave, scant worth a dandy prat: so Hall ; whose words I have recited, to manifest what favorers and Protectors our Bishops have been of Traitors and Malefactors in all ages, especially of those of their own Tribe, who by means of their Orders, Sanctuaries, Purgations, and other pretended exemptions and devises, were seldom brought to execution for their most horrid Treasons, which made them the more bold and insolent to commit them. And for my part I deem it true both in Law and conscience, that the Patrons, Receivers, and Res • ners of Traitors and other Malefactors (as our Prelates have ever been) are as bad, nay worse, than the Traitors and Malefactors themselves, and worthy more severe punishment than they. But it is time to conclude with this Arch-Bishop.

Henry Dean who next enjoyed this See, was • ormerly made Chancellor of Ireland by King Henry the seventh, where he played the Warriour, and drave Perkin Warberke thence, forcing him to fly into Scotland : after this being made Bishop of Bangor, he had many great suites and • ontests with divers about the Lands won or taken from his See. And among other particulars, pretending the Island of Seals between Holy-head and Anglesy to be unjustly detained from his Church by the possessers thereof: they refusing to give him possession, the Bishop thereupon brings a great power of armed men and a Navy thither, and drives out the Inhabitants thence by force, annexing it to his See. This Prelate being afterward Translated to Salisbury, and from thence to Canterbury, the Pope sent him a Pall by Adrian of Castello Secretary to his holiness, upon the receipt whereof he took this Solemn Oath to the Pope (as his Predecessors and other Bishops formerly used, yet practiced in fo •• aine parts) which made him a Traitor, or half subject only, to his King. I Henry Archbishop of Canterbury from this hour forward shall be faithful and obedient to S. Peter and to the holy Church of Rome, and to my Lord the Pope and his Successors Canonically entering, I shall not be of Council nor consent, that they shall lose either life or member, or shall be taken or suffer any violence or any wrong by any means. Their Council to me credi • ed by them, their Messengers, or Letters, I shall not willingly discover to any person. The Pope-dome of Rome, the Rules of the Holy Fathers, and the Regalities of S. P • te • , I shall help and retain, and defend against all men. The Legate of the See Apostolic going and coming I shall honourably entreat. The Rights, Honors, Privileges, Authorities of the Church of Rome, and of the Pope and his Successors, I shall cause to be conserved, defended, augmented, and promoted. I shall not be in Council, Treaty, or any Act, in the which anything shall be imagined against him, or the Church of Rome, their Rights, States, Honors, or powers, and if I know any such to be moved or compassed, I shall resist it to my power, and as soon as I can, I shall advertise him or such as may give him knowledge. The Rules of the Holy Fathers, the De • rees, Ordinances, Sentences, Dispositions, Rese • vations, Provisions, and Commandments Apostolic, to my power I shall keep and cause to be kept of others, Heretics, Schismatics, and Rebels to our holy Father and his Successors, I shall resist and perse • ute to my power. I shall come to the Synod when I am called, except I be letted by a Canonical impediment. The Lights of the Apostles on this side the Alps, I shall visit personally, or by my Deputy once every year, and those beyond the Alps once every two years, unless I am there-from absolved by an Apostolical dispensation. I shall not alien or sell the possessions belonging to my Arch-Bishopric, nor give, nor mortgage, nor infeofe any of them afresh, or any ways alien them without the Popes Counsel. So God me help and the holy Evangelists. This Oath every Arch-Bishop and Bishop not only in England, but likewise in Spain, France, Germany, and other Kingdoms, used to take to the Popes unholiness. No wonder therefore if they were such Traitors, Rebels, and Conspirators against their Kings, such sticklers • or the Pope, such Champions • or his unjust usurpations upon th • ir Sovereigns Prerogatives, and so forward to twhart and discover all those designs o • their Princes, which were any ways displeasing or disadvantageous to the Pope; who as long as this Oath continued, and Bishops that took it bore sway in our Kingdom (being both Privy Counsellers of State, Lord Chancellors, Lord Privy Seals, Lord Treasurers, or other great Officers) never lost his hold or usurped power among us, which he still ke • pes, only by means of Bishops in other Kingdoms, where the Prelates yet take this Oath of Alleagiance to him. But this Oath which like a mystery of Iniquity was concealed from our Princes, being discovered to King Henry the eighth in the twenty fourth year of his reign, this wise Prince considering the disloyal • ty and mischief of it, sending for the Speaker and Commons House of Parliament spake thus unto them, Welbeloved Subjects, We had thought the Clergy of our Realm had been our Subjects, but now We have well perceived that they be but half Our Subjects, yea and scarce our Subjects. For all the Prelates at their Consecrations take an Oath to the Pope clean contrary to the Oath they make unto Vs : ( with which the Pope usually dispensed, but never with any Oath made to himself, which must be observed and stand good, what ever Oath else be violated:) so that they seem to be his Subjects, and not ours. And so delivering them the Copy of both Oaths (of this to the Pope and the other to himself,) required them, to invent some order that he might not be thus deluded. The discovering and opening of these Oaths (which were read in Parliament) both to the King and People (as both Hall and Mr. Fox record) was the occasion that the Pope lost all h • s interest and Jurisdiction here in England within short while after: This Oath to the Pope being thereupon abolished and made void by the Statute, and a new Oath to the King prescribed and ministered to the Bishops, together with an Oath of Alleagiance; wherein the Popes Authority stands abjured, and the King acknowledged Supreame head on earth under Christ of the Church of England : the form of which Oaths are recorded in Mr. Fox, Mr. Hall, and the Statute of 28. Hen. 8. c. 10. The Prologue of which Act, with the Oath • herein prescribed, being pertinent to our purpose, I shall here recite.

This forementioned Oath to the Pope, usually taken by all our Prelates, being one main Pillar to support the Popes usurped Monarchy both at home and abroad; and a chief engine to undermine the royal Prerogatives of Christian Princes; and perchance the groundwork of many of our own and foreign Prelates Treasons, Treacheries, Rebellions, Conspiracies, and contempts against their Sovereigns; It will not be amiss, no • impertinent here to inser • that excellent discourse, which our famous Martyr, Doctor Barns hath long since made upon it, in his Supplication to King Henry the 8. where he thus writes.

But to return again from these Trayterly disloyal Oaths to our Arch-Bishops: William Warham, the next Arch-Bishop, as he received his confirmation, consecration, Pall, together with a power Legatine from Pope Julius, by sundry Bulls, against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm, and took the forenamed Oath to the Pope, which made him no good Subject to his Prince; so the Royal Pomp at his instalment and inthronization was merely Anti-Christian. The day before his coming to Canterbury, went thither the Duke of Buckingham who was his Steward [a goodly Office • or the grea • est Peer of the Realm] attended with 140. horse, to see all things in a readiness. This Duke had also the Office of Chief Butler; and being unable to execute both duties, he deputed Sir George Bourchier unto the Butlership. The Duke himself took great pains to see that nothing requisite, for the performance of this Solemnity in the most magnificent manner, might be wanting. The next day [being Sunday] he me • the Arch-bishop over against S. Andrew's Church, and doing low obeisance unto him • went before him bareheaded to Christ Church : from which Church he was attended by the Duke in like • ort as he was thither ward. The Cheere at dinner was as great as for money it might be made, with several Verses, Pageants, Theaters, Sceans, and Player-like representations, in natu • e o • a Puppet-play, (made in puff-past or March-pane) before every Course, de • cribed more largely by Matthew Parker, fitter for a Maske than a Bishops Consecration; and savoring of more than Asian Luxury, as this his Suc • essor confesseth. Be • ore the first Messe, the Duke himself came riding into the Hall upon a great Horse, bare headed, with his white staff in his han •• and when the first dish was set on the Table, made obey • an ••••• y bowing his body to the Arch-bishop. Such Vassals did • ho • e proud Popes of Canterbury make the very greatest Nobles, as thus to become their Servants, and wait upon their Roche • s. In this Arch-Bishops time, there fell out great contestations and s • ites at Rome between him, and the Bishops of Winchester, London, Lincoln, Exeter, and other his Suffragans, touching the Jurisdictions of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury ; which cost much money. After this he, and Cardinal Wolsi • , who by his power Legatine invaded and swallowed up all the Jurisdiction & Rightes of the other Pr •• a • es and of the See of Canterbury ) had divers contests, and bickerings. Anno 1512. This Arch-Prelate by an Oration in Parliament against the French King, raised up a bloody war between England and France, towards which two fifteenes were granted by the temporalty and two tenths by the Clergy: after which, Anno. 152 • . When the Commons were assembled in the nether house, they began to Commune of their grie • es, wherewith the Spiritualty had before time grievously oppressed them, both contrary to the Law of the Realm, and contrary to all right, and in special they were sore moved with six great causes.

• [unspec 1] The first, for the excessive fines, which the Ordinaries took for Probate of Testaments, insomuch that Sir Henry Guildford Knight of the Garter, and Controller of the Kings house, declared in the open Parliament on his fidelity, that he and others being Executors to sir William Crompton Knight, paid for the Probate of his Will to the Cardinal and the Bishop of Canterbury a thousand Markes sterling. After this Declaration where shown so many extortions done by Ordinaries for Probates of Wills, that it were too much to rehearse.
• [unspec 2] The second was, the great polling and extreme exaction, which the Spiritual men used in taking of Corps, Presents, or Mortuaries. For the Children of the desunct should all die for hunger, and go a begging, rather than they would of Charity give to them the seely Cow which the dead man ought, if he had but only one, such was the Charity then.
• [unspec 3] The third cause was, that Priests being Surveiors, Stewards, and Officers to Bishops, Abbots, and other Spiritual heads • had and occupied Farms, Granges, and Grasing in every Country, so that the poor Husband men could have nothing but of them; and yet for that they should pay dearly.
• [unspec 4] The fourth cause was, that Abbats, Priors and Spiritual men kept Tan-houses, and bought and fold Wooll, Cloath, and all manner of Merchandize, as other Temporal Merchants did.
• [unspec 5] The fifth cause was, because that Spiritual Persons promoted to great benefices, and having their Livings of their Flock, were lying in the Court in Lord's houses, and took all of the parishioners, and nothing spent on them at all, so that for lack of Residence, both the poor of the Parish lacked refreshing, and universally all the Parishioners lacked Preaching and true • Instruction of God's Word, to the great peril of their Souls.
• The sixth cause was, to see one Priest little learned to have [unspec 6] ten or twelve Benefices, and to be resident upon none, and to know many well learned Scholars in the Universities, which were able to preach and teach, to have neither Benefice nor exhibition. These things before this time might in no wise be touched, nor yet talked off by any man, except he would be made an Heretic, or lose all that he had. For the Bishops were Chancellors, and had all the rule about the King, so that no man durst once presume to attempt anything contrary to their profit or commodity. But now, when God had illuminated the eyes of the King, and that their subtle doings were once espied; then men began charitably to desire a Reformation; and so at this Parliament men began to show their grudges. Whereupon the Burgesses of the Parliament, appointed • uch as were learned in the Law, being of the Commons house, to draw one Bill of the Probates of Testaments, another for Mortuaries, and the third for Non-residence, Pluralities, and taking of farm • by spiritual men. The learned men took much pains, and first set forth the Bill of Mortuaries, which passed the Commons house, and was sent up to the Lord's. To this Bill the Spiritual Lord's made a fair face, saying, that surely Priests and Curates took more than they should, and therefore it were well done to take some reasonable order: thus they spake, because it touched them little. But within two days after was sent up the Bill concerning Probate of Testaments ; at the which the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in especial, and all other Bishops in general both frowned and gra • nted, for that touched their profit. Insomuch as D. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester said openly in the Parliament Chamber these words: My Lord's, you see daily what Bills come hither from the Commons house, and all is to the destruction of the Church. For God's sake see what a Realm the Kingdom of Bohemia was, and when the Church went down, then fell the glory of the Kingdom: now with the Commons is nothing but down with the Church, and all this me seemeth is for lack of faith only. When these words were reported to the Commons of the nether House, that the Bishop should say, that all their doings were for lack of faith, they took the matter grievously, for they imagined, that the Bishop esteemed them as Heretics, and so by his slanderous words would have persuaded the Temporal Lord's, to have restrained their consent from the said two Bills, which they before had passed. Wherefore the Commons after long debate, determined to send the Speaker of the Parliament to the Kings highness, with a grievous complaint against the Bishop of Rochester ; and so on a day, when the King was at leisure, Thomas Audley speaker for the Commons, and thirty of the chief of the Commons House, came to the Kings presence in his Palace at Westminster, which before was called York-place, and there very eloquently declared, What a dishonor to the King, and the Realm it was, to say, that they which were elected for the wisest men of all the Shires, Cities, and Boroughs, within the Realm of England, should be declared in so Noble and open a presence, to lack faith; which was equivalent to say, that they were infidels, and no Christians, as ill as Turks or Sarazens, so that what pain or study soever they took for the Common wealth, or what Acts or Laws soever they made or stablished, should be taken as Laws made by Painims and Hea • hen People, and not worthy to be kept by Christian men. Wherefore he most humbly beso • ght the Kings Highness, to call the said Bishop before him, and to cause him to speak more discreetly of such a number as was in the Commons-house. The King was not well contented with the saying of the Bishop, yet he gently answered the Speaker, that he would send for the Bishop, and send them word what answer he made; and so they departed again. After this the King sent for the Archbishop of Canterbury and six other Bishops, and for the Bishop of Rochester also, and there declared to him the grudge of the Commons: to the which the Bishop answe • ed, that he meant the doings of the Bohemians, was for lack of Faith, and not the doings of them that were in the Commons House. Which saying was confirmed by the Bishops being present, who had him in great reputation: and so by that only saying, the King accepted his excuse, and thereof sent word to the Commons by Sir William-Fitz-Williams Knight, Treasurer of his Household, which blind excuse pleased the Commons nothing at all. After, divers assemblies were kept between certain of the Lord's, and certain of the Commons, for the Bills of Probates of Testaments, and the Mortuaries; the Temporalty laid to the Spiritualty their own Laws and Constitutions, and the Spiritualty sore defended them by prescription and usage; to whom this answer was made by a Gentleman of Grayes-Inn, The usage hath ever been of thieves to Rob on Shooters-hill, Ergo, is it Lawfull With this answer the Spiritual men were sore offended, because their doings were called robberies. But the Temporal men stood still by their sayings, insomuch that the said Gentleman said to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury, that both the exaction of Probates of Testaments, and the taking of Mortuaries as they were used, were open Robbery and theft. After long disputation, the Temporal Lord's began to lean to the Commons, but for all that the Bills remained unconcluded for a while. The King like a good and discreet Prince, not long after aided them for the redress of their griefs against the Spiritualty, and caused two new Bills to be made indifferently, both for the Probates of Testaments and Mortuaries; which Bills were so reasonable, that the Spiritual Lord's assented to them all; though they were sore against their minds, and in especial the Probates of Testaments sore displeased the Bishops, and the Mortuaries sore displ • ased • the Parsons and Vicars. After these acts thus agreed, the Commons made another Act for Pluralities of benefices, Non-Residence, buying, selling, and taking of Farms by Spiritual Persons; which Act so displeased the Spiritually, that the Priests railed on the Commons of the Common house, and called them Heretics and Schismatics; • or the which divers Priests were punished. This Act was sore deba • ed above in the Parliament Chamber, and the Lord's Spiritual would in no wise consent. Wherefore the King perceiving the grudge of his Commons, c • used • i • ht Lord's and eight of his Commons to me • e in the S • a ••• h ••• er a • an after-noon; and there was sore debating of the cause, insomuch that the Temporal Lord's of the Upper house which were there, • ooke part with the Commons against the Spiritual Lord's, and by force of reason caused them to assent to the • ill with a little qualifying. Which Bill the • next day was wholly agreed to in the Lord's house, to the great rejoicing • of the Lay people, and to the great displeasure of the Spiritual persons • Immediately after this, not only Cardinal Wol • e himself, but the Arch-bishop and whole Cle • gi • of •• gland were brought into a Pr 〈7 letters〉 by this Parliamen • the Cardinal for accepting of a power Legati • e from th • Pope, contrary to the Laws of the Realm, and the 〈◊〉 of the Cl ••• i • for consenting and submitted thereunto, and holding a Synod by virtue of i • : to avoid this danger, and purchase a pardon, the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury pro • fered to give the King one h • ndred thousand pounds, and the Clergy of the Province of York 18000 • ounds more; but the King would not accept of this sum, unless they would declare him in the Act by which they granted him this subsidy, to be supreme head of the Church of England here on earth, next under Christ : but proceeded to take the forfeiture of the Premunire against them. This put the Prelates, the Popes sworn vassals, to a great Dilemma; for either they must plainly renounce the Popes usurped supremacy, or the Kings mercy, and fall under the lash of a Premunire, whereby all their Bishoprics, goods, livings were for • eited to his Majesty; and their lives and liberties at his devotion. Loath were the Bishops to forsake their old Lord the Pope, whose servants they had been so long, and therefore they used all delays and adjournments to spin out the time, and delude the King, but he would not be mocked by them. At last therefore they agreed upon this recognition. We acknowledge the Kings Majesty to be the singular Protector, the supreme Lord, and likewise supreme head of the Church and Clergy of England so far forth as it is lawful for him to be by the Laws of Christ. But the King much offended with this ambiguous dubious, and equivocating acknowledgement (which in truth was no concession of what he demanded) required them to make a full and plain acknowledgement of his supremacy in direct and positive terms, without ambiguity or shifts, or else to deny and conclude against it, and incur • e the penalty of the Premunire. Being thus put to it the Archbishop and Bishops hereupon made many adjournments of the Convocation, and at last put it over from April, to the fifth of October, to • hunne the rock on which they were like to split themselves, or their holy Father the Pope, in which space the Archbishop died: At last they agreed to give the King the Title he desired, and inserted it into a public instrument: Whereupon the King at last granted them a general pardon, in Parliament, which begins thus: The King our Sovereign Lord, calling to his blessed and most gracious remembrance, that his good and loving sub • ects, the most Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Can • erbury, and other Bishops, Suffragans, Prelates, and other spiritual persons of the Province of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, of this his Realm of England, and the Ministers under-written, which have exercised, practiced, or executed in spiritual Courts, and other jurisdictions within the said Province, have fallen, and incurred into divers dangers of his Laws by things done, perpetrated, and committed contrary to the order of his Laws, and sp •• ially, contrary to the form of the Statutes of Provisours, Provisions, and Premunire : and his Highness having always a tender eye, with mercy, pity, and compassion • owards his spiritual subjects, minding of his high goodness and great benignity, so always to impart the same unto them, as justice being duly administered, all rigor being excluded, and the great and benevolent minds of his said subjects, largely, and many times approved towards his highness, and specially in their Convocation, and Synod now presently being in the Chapiter house of the Monastery of Westminster, by correspondence of gratitude to them to be requi • ed: of his mere motion, benignity, and liberality, by authority of this his Parliament, hath given and granted his liberal and free pardon to his said good and loving spiritual subjects, and the said Ministers, and to every of them to be had, taken and enjoyed to and by them and every of them by virtue of this present Act, in manner and form ensuing: that is, to wit; The Kings Highness of his said benignity, and high liberality, in consideration that the sad Archbishop, Bishops, and Clergy of the said Province of Canterbury in their said Convocation, now being, have given and granted to him a subsidy of one hundred thousand pounds of lawful • money currant in this Realm, to be levied and collected by the said Clergy at their proper costs and charges, and to be paid in certain form specified in their said grant thereof, is fully and resolutely contended and pleased, that it be ordained, established, and enacted by authority of this his said Parliament, that the most Reverend Father in God William Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan and Primate of all England, and all other Bishops, and Suffragans, Prelates, &c, shall be by authority of this present pardon, acquired, pardoned, released, and discharged against his Highness, his heirs, successors, and executors, and every of them, of all and all manner offenses, contempts, and trespasses committed or done, against all and singular Statute and Statutes of Provisours, Provisions, and Premunire, and every of them, and of all forfeitures, and titles, that may grow to the Kings Highness by reason of any of the same Statutes, and of all and singular trespasses, wrongs, deceits, misdemeanors, for • eitures, penalties and profits, sums of money, pains of death, pains co • porall and pecuniar, as generally of all other things, causes, quarrels, suits, judgments and exactions in this present Act hereafter no • excepted, nor soreprised, which may be or can be by his Highness in any wise, or by any means pardoned, before and to the ten • h day of the month of March, in the 22. year of his most Noble Rain to every of his said loving subjects. Provided always that this Act of free pardon shall not in any wise extend or be beneficial to the Reverend Father in God John Archbishop of Dublin, now being in the Kings Dominions of Ireland, nor shall in any wise extend to pardon, discharge, or acquit the Bishop Hereford, Peter Ligham, John Baker, Adam Travers, Robert Cliffe; Rouland Philip's, and Thomas Pelles Clerks: who it seems were guilty of some notorious crimes against the King, and therefore excepted out of this general pardon: But to return again to Warham. This Archbishop persecuted, and shed the blood of some of our Martyrs, and caused the corpse of William Tracy Esq. for some orthodox passages in his Will, to be taken out of the grave, and burn • for an Heretic by an Order made in Convocation: sending a Commission to Doctor Parker Chancellor of Worcester to execute this wicked sentence, who accomplished the same. King Henry the eighth hearing his Subject to be taken ou • of the ground, and burnt without his knowledge or due order of Law, sent for the Chancellor, laid this to his charge as an high offense, who excused himself by this Archbishops command then newly dead, but in conclusion it cost the Chancellor 300 • to pu • chase his pardon, and would have cost the Archbishop more, had not his death prevented this danger: In fine, this Archbishop Warham, and Fisher B. of Rochester, gave credit and countenance to the forged visions & revelations of Elizabeth Barton, afterwards condemned of high Treason for the same, as •• nding to the reproach, peril, and destruction of the Kings pers • n, honou • , fame, and dignity ; and Thomas Laurence Register to the Archbishop (it is likely by his Masters privity) proceeded so far, as to write a book of her counterfeit miracles, revelations and holiness : for which she and her complyces were afterwards execu • ed as Tiburne as they had justly deserved, being attainted of treason by Parliament : among which cursed c • ue, Richard Master Priest, Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity, and Henry Deering Munkes of Canterbury, Henry Gold Bachelor of Divinity, Thomas Laurence Register to the Archbishop o • Canterbury Warham, and Hugh Ric. a Frier observant (who seduced this silly girl to effect their own, and the Prelates designs the better thereby) suffered death as Traitors, by hanging, drawing, and quartering at Tiburne : The act of their attainder, treasons and execution is at large related by M. Hall in his Chronicle, 25. H. 8. f. 218, 221, 222, 223, 224. to which I shall refer the Reader.

Thomas Cranmer next to him in succession, was made Archbishop by King Henry the 8. much against his will: for in his Discourse with D. Martyn, a little before his Martyrdom, being charged by him, that he had aspired to the Archbishopric of Canterbury ; he replied, I protest before you all, there was never man came more unwillingly to a Bishopric than I did to that, insomuch that when King Henry did send for me in Post that I should come over, I prolonged my journey by seven weeks at the least, • hinking that • ee would be forgetful of me in the mean time. He coming to the See, took the like Oath to the Pope as his predec • ss •• rs had done, and therefore was deeply charged of perju • y by Martyn, for renouncing and swearing against the Popes Supremacy afterward, though he answered, that the first oath was against the Laws of God, of the Realm, the Kings Prerogative, and made void by Parliament, and so not binding. After the nullifying of which oath, partly by his means, but principally by the Lord Cro • wels (whom the King made his Vicegerent General in all Ecclesiastical affairs and causes, and superior to the Archbishop of Canterbury in place and Ecclesiastical power ) the Popes Supremacy, and usurped jurisdiction was by several Acts of Parliament quite abolished out of England, as prejudicial, and directly opposite to the Kings Prerogative Royal: King Henry dying, the Archbishop swore to his will, by which Queen Mary was to succeed to the Crown as next heir, in case King Edward died without issue. King Edward seeing the obstinacy of Q •• en • Mary in matters of Religion, what a pillar she was like to prove to the Church of Rome, and persecutor of the true Professors of the Gospel ordains by his last Will, that Queen Mary should be put by the Crown, and the Lady Jane succeed him as next Heir; to which Testament all the Council swore, and the Archbishop too at last, after much ado : Whereupon King Edward, and Queen Mary getting the Crown, and putting by the Lady • ane; Cranmer who also aided the Duke of Northumberland with horse and men against the Queen, was thereupon committed prisoner to the Tower, and soon after condemned of high treason, and that by an ordinary Jury, for seeking thus to disinherit the Queen : who pardoning all the rest that were guilty of this crime, released likewise the Treason against him, (though she excepted him out of her general pardon, and some other Bishops,) and accused him only of heresy as those times deemed it, for which he was deprived, degraded, and burnt at last for a Martyr, repenting of that Recantation, which he had over-cowardly made before, out of fear, and human frailty. And here, not to detract anything from the due praise of this our glorious Martyr, give me leave only to observe.

• [unspec 1] First that he had a hand in the condemnation, and execution of Lambert, Frith, and some other of our godly Marryrs, before he was thoroughly instructed in the points of our Religion.
• [unspec 2] Secondly, that he was the chief man in accomplishing the divorce between Henry the 8, and Queen Katharine, which occasioned much trouble, dissention, war; and a furtherer of this Kings subsequent lustful, if lawful marriages.
• [unspec 3] Thirdly, that the Lincoln-shire rebels in the sixth Article of their grievances presented to King Henry the 8. complain thus against this Archbishop, and other Prelates. That we your true Subjects find them grieved, that there be divers Bishops of England of your Graces late promotion, that have subverted the faith of Christ, as we think, which is the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Rochester, the Bishop of Salisbury, the Bishop of S. Daveyes, and the Bishop of Develin, And in special, as we think, the beginning of all the trouble of this Realm, and the great exactions that hath been taken of your poor Communalty, have risen by the occasion of the Bishop of Lincoln, by whose Officers, and by other of the Lord Cromwells servants, a great rumor and noise is risen, and the common voice is, that such jewels, plate, and other ornaments of our Parish Churches, which we occupy in the service and honor of God, should be taken from us, and spoiled in like manner and fashion, as the houses of Religion have been. Add to this.
• Fourthly, that though the Popes Supremacy were abolished [unspec 4] in his time, by sundry Acts of Parliament, yet the Bishops of that age labored underhand to support it, what they might, and were both willing to continue & set it up again, as is clear by • 1 H • 8. c. 14. the two notable Statutes of 37. H. 8. c. 17. and 1. Ed. 6. c. 2. worthy consideration. And likewise by M. Tyndale, in his obedience of a Christian man, and practice of Popish Prelates, by Rodoricke Mors his complaint to the Parliament, c. 19, 20, 21. by William Wraghtons hunting and finding ou • of the Romish Fox among the English Bishops, and his rescuing of the Fox, by Henry Stalbridge his exhortatory Epistle, D. Barns his supplication to King Henry the 8. M. Fox, and other Treatises written in those days even by Protestants, which prove the Bishops of those times to be Traitors to the King; close enemies to the Kings Prerogative, and fast friends to the Popes unjust us • rpation, as Bonner, Stephen Gardener, with other of them shown themselves in Queen Mary's days. By which it appears, that the Bishops in those times were generally disliked and complained against on all hands. [unspec 5]
• Fifthly, that the bloody Statute of 31. H. 8. c. 14. called by some the six Articles, by others the whip with six strings, and by the most part the bloody statute, was made and devised in this Archbishops time, by the cruelty and policy of the Bishops, especially of Stephen Gardener Bishop of Winchester : which Statute for the miserable and pernicious tyranny & rigid execution, of the same is worthy of no memory among Christian men, but rather to be buried in perpetual silence of oblivion, as M. Fox determines. Ma • thew Parker indeed records that Cranmer opposed this Act at first, then caused it to be moderated, and at last to be repealed in King Edwards days, but others seem to imply that he gave consent thereto at first.
• Sixthly, that he is the only Martyr of all the Archbishops of [unspec 6] Canterbury, none ever dying in defense of the Gospel of Christ but he alone; the others making many Martyrs in all ages by their persecutions, but never being any themselves. Hence Matthew Parker his Successor, writes thus; Cranmerus fide integra, non Pontificia censura in libro vitae scriptus coelestem h •• reditatatem cum Christo consecutus est, ut si in hominibus gloriari fas esset, non ab Augustino, Dunstano, Elphego, Anselmo, Thoma Becket, Edmundo, & reliqua pontificia • urba, sed ab hoc uno, qui solus in Christi causa contra Antichristum Flammarum incredibili dolore • ad coelos subla • us est, Cantuariensis sedes nobilitata esse videatur.
• [unspec 7] Seventhly, that as this Prelate at first, was unwilling to be made a Bishop, so he suffered Martyrdom only after his deprivation and degradation from his Bishopric, not whilst he was a Bishop.
• [unspec 8] Eighthly, that he failed more in his Marty • dome by reason of his cowardly recantation, than any of his fellow Martyrs, and that through promises and hopes of life and restitution to his former dignity and Archbishopric, the chief motives inducing him to this shameful recantation.
• Ninthly, that though he suffered Martyrdom for Religion only as a private Christian, after he was put from his Bishopric, [unspec 9] not whiles he continued Archbishop, yet he was condemned as a Traitor for-high treason, and that justly, as he confessed, whiles he was an Archbishop, for an Act done by him as an Archbishop, and Counselor of State, for which he professed both his sorrow, and repentance; And this Archprelate, and Bishop Ridley (committed likewise for Treason) were very importunate suitors to King Edward the 6. to tolerate the use of Mass in his Sister Mary's family; pressing him with divers political reasons to condescend to this their importunate suite, which the infant King, not only rejected with strong pious reasons, but tears, to these Bishops great reproach : who thereupon said to M. Cheeke the Kings Tutor: Ah M. Cheeke, you may be glad all the days of your life, that you may have such a Scholar, for he hath more Divin •• y in his little finger, than all we have in all our bodies.

But to pass from this Martyr to Cardinal Poole, his immediate successor. This Archprelate though almost, if not quite a Protestant in the point of justification, was yet a notori-Traitor, and so procliamed by King Henry the 8. who thereupon gave his D • anery of Exeter to another, and that no • without just cause: for he refused to come out of Italy to the King his Sovereign when he sent for him: he was sent twice by the Pope as his Legate, both to the French King, and the Germans, to stir them up to make war against King Henry the 8. and to invade England, though with ill success; The King thereupon requested th • m to send him over into England, that he might proceed against him as a Traitor. He was intimate with the Pope, studied to advance his power, and suppress his Sovereigns, stirred up his friends in England against the King by his letters, whereupon the King banished both him and his mother the Countess of Salisbury by Act of Parliament, proclaimed him a Traitor (whence Father Latimer in his 5. Sermon before King Edward calls him Cardinal Poole the Kings Traitor, &c. ) and after that be headed his mother and elder brother Viscount Mountacute for high treason. What manner of person, and Traitor this Cardinal was to his Sovereign, will appear by a Letter written to him being at Rome by Cutbert Tonsiall Bishop of Duresme, and John Stokerley, Bishop of London, which begins thus: For the good will that we have borne unto you in times past, as long as you continued the Kings true subject, we cannot a little lament and mourn that you neither regarding the inestimable kindness of the Kings highness, heretofore shown unto you, in your bringing up, nor the honor of the house that you be come of, nor the wealth of the Country that you are borne in, should so decline from your duty to your Prince, that you should be seduced by fair words, and vain promises of the Bishop of Rome, to wind with him, going about by all means possible to pull down, and put underfoot your natural Prince and Master, to the destruction of the Country that hath brought you up; and for the vain-glory of a Red Ha • , to make yourself an instrument to set forth his malice, who hath stirred up by all means that he could, all such Christian princes as would give ears unto him, to depose the Kings highness from his Kingdom and to offer it as a prey to them that should execute his malice, and to stir if he could his subjects against him in stirring, and nourishing rebellions in his Realm: where the office and duty of all good Christians, and namely of us that be Priests, should be to bring all commotion to tranquility, and trouble to quietness, all discord to concord, and in doing the contrary, we show ourselves to be but the Ministers of Satan, and no • of Christ, who ordained all us that be Priests to use in all places the legation of peace, and not of discord. But since that cannot be undone, that is done, the second is, to make amends, and to • ollow the doing of the Prodigal Son spoken of in the Gospel, who returned home to his father, and was well accepted, as no doub • you might be, if you will say as he said, in acknowledging your folly, and do as he did, in returning home again from your wandering abroad in service of them who little care what come of you, so that their purpose by you be served.

This Cardinals Treason, ingratitude, and perfidiousness, is yet further exemplified by the same Cutbert Tonstall, in his Sermon which he preached before King Henry the 8. upon Palme Sunday, in the year of of our Lord, 1538. Printed anciently by i • self, in part recited by Holinshed p. 1164, 1165. and more largely by Thomas Becon, where he thus blazons both the Pope and him in their native colors.

The Bishop of Rome, because he cannot longer in this Realm wrongfully use his usurped power in all things as he was wont to do, and suck out of this Realm by avarice insatiable, innumerable sums of money yearly to the great exhausting of the same; he therefore moved and repleat with furious ire, and pestilent malice, goeth about to stir all Christian Nations that will give ear to his Devillish enchantments, to move war against this Realm of England, giving it in prey to all those that by his instigation will invade it. And the Bishop of Rome now of late to set forth his pestilent malice the more, hath allured to his purpose a subject of this Realm Reginald Pole, coming of a noble blood, and thereby the more arrant Traitor, to go about from Prince to Prince, and from Country to Country, to stir them to war against this Realm, and to destroy the same being his native country; whose pestilent purpose, the Princes that he breaketh it unto, have in much abomination, both for that the Bishop of Rome (who being a Bishop should procure peace) is a stirrer of war, and because this most arrant and unkind Traitor is his minister to so devilish a purpose, to destroy the Country that he was borne in, which any heathen man would abhor to do. But for all that without shame he still goeth on, exhorting thereunto all Princes that will hear him, who do abhor to see such unna • uralnesse in any man as he shameless doth set forwards; whose pernicious treasons late secretly wrought against this Realm, have been by the work of Almighty God, so marvelously detected, and by his own brother without looking • herefore so diclosed, and condign punis • meant ensued, that hereafter (God willing) they shall not take anymore such root to • he noysance of this Realm. And where all Nations of Gentiles, by reasons and by law of nature, do prefer their Country before their Parents, so that for their Country they will die against their Parents being traitors; this pestilent man, worse than a Pagan, is not ashamed to destroy (if he could) his native Country. And whereas Curtius an Heathen man was content for saving of the City of Rome where he was borne, to leap into a gaping of the earth, which by the illusions of the devil was answered should not be shut, but that it must first have one: this pernicious man is contented to ru • ne headlong into hell, so that he may destroy thereby his native country of England, being in that behalf incomparably worse than any Pagan. And besides his pestilent treason, his unkindness against the Kings Majesty, who brought him up of a very child, and promoted both him, and likewise restored his blood being tainted, to be of the Peers of this Realm, and gave him money yearly out of his coffers to maintain him honourably at study, makes his Treason much more detestable to all the world, and him to be repured more wild and cruel than Tiger. But for all this thou English man take courage unto thee, and be nothing afraid, thou hast God on thy side, who hath given this Realm to the generation of Englishmen, to every man in his degree after the laws of the same: thou hast a Noble, Victorious and Virtuous King, hardy as a Lyon, who will not suffer thee to be so devoured by such wild beasts. Only take an English heart unto thee, and mistrust not God, but trust firmly in him, and surely the ruin intended against thee shall fall on their own necks that intend it, and • ear not though the devil and his disciples be against thee, for God thy protector is stronger than he, or any other, and shall by his grace give him and them a fall; and so show unto thee, that God is on thy side. Consider, that it is written in Prov. 6. that amongst many crimes there rehearsed, that God hateth chiefly, he doth detest those persons that sow discord among their brethren (as all we Christians are brethren under our heavenly Father) Also it is written in John 8. that those that do stir men to murder are children of the Devil, which was from the beginning a murderer, and brought Adam to sin, and thereby to death; as the Jews (his children) stirred the peop • e to put Christ to death. Saint Paul also in Rom. 16. warneth them to beware of those that make dissention and debate among them, against the Doctrine that he had taught them, and biddeth them eschew their company; wherein the Holy Ghost wrought in Paul, for these many years past little war hath been in these parts of Christendom, but the Bishop of Rome either hath been a stirrer of it, or a nourisher of it, and seldom any compounder of it, unless it was for his ambition and profit. Where • ore since as S. Paul saith in 1 Cor. 14. that God is not the God of dissention, but of peace, who commandeth by his Word peace always to be kept; we are sure that all those that go about to break peace between Realms, and to bring them to war, are the children of the devil, what holy names soever they pretend to cloak their pestilent malice withal, which cloaking under hypocrisy is double devillishnesse, and of Christ most de • ested; because under his blessed name they do play the Devils part. And therefore seeing Christ is on ourside against them, let us not fear them at all, but putting our confidence in Almighty God, & cleaving fast to the Kings Majesty, our supreme head on earth next under Christ of this Church of England, as • aithfull subjects by Godslaw ought to do; though they go about to stir Gog & Magog, and all the ravenners of the world against us, we trust in God verily, and doubt not but they shall have such a ruin as is prophesied by Ezekiel in C. 39. against Gog and Magog going about to destroy the people of God, whom the people of God shall so vanquish and overthrow on the mountains of Israel, that none of them shall escape, but their carcasses there to lie to be devoured by ki • es, and crows, and birds of the air; and if they shall persist in their pestilent malice, to make invasion into this Realm: then let us wish that their great Captain Gog, (I mean the Bishop of Rome) may come to them to drink with them of the same cup that he maliciously goeth about to prepare for us, that the people of God might surely live in peace. Thus Tonstall, concerning the Pope and the Cardinal, though a Papist. It is an Italian proverb of our English men That an Italianated English man, is a devil incarnate : such a one was this Cardinal; qui Italis pontificiisque adulationibus, con • iliis, atque technis in Regis atque Patriae discrimine sic se 〈…〉 passus • st, •• non modo 〈…〉 PRODITOR, writes his immedia • e successor of him • In the 31. year of King Henry the 8 • he put the King & Kingdom to extraordinary trouble and expense • or the King being then informed by his • rusty and faithful friends, that the cankered and cruel Serpent the Bishop of Rome, by that Arch-tr • ytor Reginald Poole, enemy to God's Words, and his natural country, had moved and stirred divers great Princes and Potentates of Christendom to invade the Realm of England, and utterly to destroy the whole Nation of the same; Wherefore his Majesty in his own person, without any delay, took very laborious and pain • ull journeys • owards the Sea coasts; also he sent divers of his Nobles and Counselors to view and search all the Ports and dangers of the Coasts where any me • e and convenient landing place might be supposed, as well on the borders of England, as also of Wales, and in all such doubtful places his highness caused divers and many Bulwarks and • ortifications to be made: And further, his Highness caused the Lord Admiral, Earl of Southhampton, to prepare in readiness ships for the Sea, to his great cost and charges: And beside this, to have all people in a readiness, he directed his commissions throughout the Realm to have his people mustered, and the harness and weapons seen and viewed, to the intent that all things should be in readiness if his enemies should make any attempt into this Realm, and likewise caused a general muster to be made of all the Citizens of London between the age of 60. and 16. This Arch-traitor after the Pope had employed him to move the Emperor and King of Spain to break their league with King Henry, and to proclaim war against him, kept a continual guard about him, lest the King should send some to murder him. And retiring to Viterbium, where he lived some space near a Nunnery, he bega • two bastards (a son and a daughter) on the Abbe • se, who oft repaired to his lodging; which was afterwards objected to him, when he was elected Pope by the major part of Cardinals, and yet lost that Antichristian See by his own negligence and delays King Edward the 6. deceasing and Queen Mary coming to the Crown, she presently sent for this Traitor home; the Pope upon this occasion makes him his Legate, to reduce England under his vassalage, and tyranny. The Cardinal hereupon sore longed homeward, not doubting but if things stood, as he thought, to get a dispensation to lay off the Hat, and put on a Crown. But the Emperor mistrusting what the Prelate intended, found devises to hold him beyond the seas, until the match was concluded between Queen Ma • y and his son. Anno 1554. he arrived in England, and the same day he landed, an Act passed in the Parliament house (through the Queens, and Winchesiers means) for his restitution in blood, and the utter repealing of the Act of at • ainder against him in King Henry the 8. his reign. The Cardinal soon after caused Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury to be deprived and degraded, seating himself in his See; and making a long Oration in Parliament, declaring the offense and schism of the Kingdom in casting off the Pope, and his willingness to receive them into the bosom of the Church again upon their submission; he caused the Parliament to make an Act, repealing all Statutes, Articles, and Provisions made against the See of Rome since the 20. year of Henry the 8. reviving the Popes supremacy, and denying the Queens, wherein the whole Realm submitted it self to the Pope: some parts of which Act, pertinent to my purpose, I shall crave leave to recite,

Whereas since the 20. year of K. Henry the 8. of famous memory, Father unto your Majesty, our most natural Sovereign, and gracious Lady and Queen, much false and erroneous Doctrine hath been taught, preached, and written, partly by divers natural borne subjects of this Realm, and partly being brought in hither from sundry other foreign Countries, hath been sown and spread a broad within the same, by reason whereof, as well the spirituali • y as the temporality of your Highness Realms and Dominions have swerved from the obedience of the See Apostolic, and declined from the unity of Christ's Church, and so have continued, until such time as your Majesty being first raised up by God, and set in the seat royal over us, & then by his divine & gracious providence knit in marriage with the most Noble and Virtuous Prince the King our Sovereign Lord your husband, the Popes holiness, and the See Apostolic sent hither unto your Majesty's, as unto persons undefiled, and by God's goodness preserved from the common infection aforesaid, & to the whole Realm the most reverend father in God the Lord Cardinal Poole, Legate de Latere, to call us home again into the right way, from whence we have all this long while wandered, and strayed abroad; and we a •• er sundry long and grievous plagues, and calamities, seeing by the goodness of God • our own errors, have acknowledged the same unto the said most reverend Father, and by him have been and are the rather at the contemplation of your Majesty's, received and embraced into the unity and bosom of Christ's Church, and upon our humble submission, and promise made for a declaration of our repentance, to repeal and abrogate such Acts and Statures as had been made in Parliament since the said 20. year of the said King Henry the 8. against the supremacy of the See Apo • stolike, as in our submission exhibited to the said most reverend Father in God by your Majesty's appeareth. The tenor whereof ensueth. We the Lord's spiritual and temporal, and the Commons assembled in this present Parliament, representing the whole body of the Realm of England, and the Dominions of the same, in the name of ourselves particularly, and also of the said body universally, in this our supplication directed to your Majesty's, with most humble suit, that it may by your graces intercession and means be exhibited, to the most reverend Father in God, the Lord Cardinal Poole Legate, sent specially hither from our most holy Father Pope Julius the third, and the See Apostolic of Rome, do declare ourselves very sory and repentant of the Schism and disobedience committed in this Realm and dominions aforesaid, against the said See Apostolic, either by making agreeing, or executing any Laws ordinances, or Commandments against the supremacy of the said See, or otherwise doing or speaking that might impugn the same, offering ourselves, and promising by this our supplication, that for a token and knowledge of our said repentance, we are and shall be always ready under, and with the Authorities of your Majesty's, to the uttermost of our powers to do what shall lie in us for the abrogation and repealing of the said Laws and Ordinances in this present Parliament, as well for ourselves as for the whole body whom we represent: whereupon we most humbly desire your Majesty's, as personages undefiled, in the offense of this body towards the said See, which nevertheless God by his providence hath made subject to you, so to set forth this our most humble suit, that we may obtain from the See Apostolic, by the said most reverend Father, as well particularly as generally, absolution, release, and discharge from all danger of such censures and sen • en •• s, as by the Laws of the Church we are fallen into; and that we may a • children repentant be received into the bosom, and unity of Christ's Church, so as this noble Realm, with all • the members thereof may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolic, and Popes for the time being, serve God and your Majesty's to the furtherance and advancement of his honou • and glory: we are at the intercession of your Majesty's, by the authority of our holy Father Pope Julius the third, and of the See Apostolic, assoiled, discharged and delivered from excommunication, interdictions, and other censures Ecclesiastical, which have hanged over our heads for our said defaults since the time of the said schism mentioned in our said supplication. The which time the said Lord Legate, and we do all declare, recognise, and mean by this Act to be only since the 20. year o • the reign of your most Noble Father King Henry the 8. It may now like your Majesty's, that for the accomplishment of our promise, made in th • said supplication, that is, to repeal all Laws and Statutes made contrary to the said supremacy and See Apostolic, during the said schism, which is to be understood, since the 20. year of the reign of the said late King Henry the 8. and so the Lord Legate doth accept, and recognise the same. After which they repeal in this Act also, the Statutes against the Popes supremacy, and profit: And declare, that the title or style of supemacie, or supreme head of the Church of England, and of Ireland, or either of them, never was, nor could be justly or lawfully attributed, or acknowledged to any King or Sovereign Governor of this Realm, nor in any wise could or might rightfully, justly, or lawfully by any King or Sovereign Governor of this Realm, be claimed, challenged, or used. And withal they commend Queen Mary for omitting this style, though s ••• led by Act of Parliament. And to color this disloyalty and prejudice to the Crown, they add this srivolous clause to the end of this Act, And forasmuch as we your Majesty's humble & obedient subjects the Lord's spiritual and temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament assembled, neither by the making or delivering of either the supplications afor • said, nor by any clause, Articles or Sentence thereof, or of any other Clause, A • ticle, or Sentence of this or any other Statu • e, or the preambles of the same, made or agreed upon in this Session of this pr • s • nt Parliament, by any manner of interpretation, construction, implication, or otherwise intend to derogate, impair, or diminish any of the prerogatives, liber • ies, franchesies, preeminences, or jurisdictions of your Crown imperial of this Realm, and other the Dominions to the same belonging; We do most humbly beseech your Majesty's that it may be declared and ordained, and be it • nac • ed and declared by authority of this present Parliament, that neither the making exhibiting or inferring in this present Statute, or in the preambles of the same, of the supplica • ions or promise aforesaid, or either of them, nor any other things, words, sentences, clauses, Articles in the preambles, or body of the Acts aforesaid, shall be construed, understood, or expounded to derogate, diminish or take away any the liberties, privileges, prerogatives, preeminences, authorities, or jurisdictions, or any part or parcel thereof, which were in your Imperial Crown of this Realm, or did belong to your said Imperial Crown, the 20. year of the reign of your the Queens Majesty's, most noble Father, ( Henry the 8.) or any other your most noble Progenitors before the said 20: year. And the Popes holiness, and See Apostolic to be restored, & have and enjoy such authority, preeminence and jurisdiction, as his Holiness used and exercised, or might lawfully have used and exercised by authority of his supremacy, the said 20. year of the reign of the King your Father within this your Realm of England, and other your Dominions without diminution or enlargement of the same, and none other, and the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archbishops, Bishops, and Ordinanaries to be in the same Sta • e for process of sui • s, punishment of crimes, and execution of censures of the Church, with knowledge of causes belonging to the same, and as large in these points as the said jurisdiction was the said 20. year.

Where observe, that the Prelates usurped Jurisdiction over the Kings prerogative was much eclipsed, if not quite abolished by several statutes made in King Henry the 8. and Edward the 6. his reign, and expired together with the Popes, as appears by these words of the Clergies supplication recited in the body of this Act. Nos Episcopy & Clerus, &c. cum omni debita humilitate & reverentia, exponimus Majestatibus vestris, quod licet Ecclesiarum, quibus in Episcopos, Decanos, Archidiaconos &c. constituti sumus bona, Iurisdictiones & jura in pernicioso hujus Regni praeterito schismate DEPERDITA ET AMISSA, omni studio & totis nostris v • ribus, recuperare, & ad pristinum ecclesiarum jus revocare, juris remediis niti deberemus, &c. Insuper Majestatibus vestris supplicamus, ut pro sua pietate efficere dignentur, ut ea quae ad jurisdictionem nostram & libertatem Ecclesiasticam pertinent, sine quibus debitum nostri pastoralis officii & curae animarum nobis commissae exercere non possumus, nobis superiorum temporum injuria ablata, restituantur, & ea nobis & ecclesiis perpetuo illaesa & salva permaneant; & ut omnes leges, quae hanc nostram jurisdictionem & libertatem Ecclesiasticam tollunt, seu quovis modo impediunt, abrogentur, ad honorem dei, & majestatum vestrarum, &c.

As therefore the Bishops & Popes Jurisdiction were suppressed together before, so it is worth the observation, that they are both revived together by this Act, upon the restauration of Popery; And good reason, for Nicholas le Maistre in his Instauration of the Ancient Principality of Bishops, Dedicated to the great French Cardinal Richeleiu, Printed at Paris 1633. in his Dedicatory Epistle to this Cardinal informs us; That verily the Majesty of the Pontifical and Episcopal jurisdiction is so conjoined and confederated together, that the enemies cannot so guide their hands, but with the same audacity wherewith they assaulted the Popes Crown, they likewise shaked the Bishops Miters, and as it were with one bloody wound pierced both their sides. Whence it came to pass, that the atrocity of the Bishops sorrows increased so far, that their patience sufficient to digest their own domestic injuries, was let loose to the dangers of the chief Pontise, the Pope, and brake forth into the most sharp indignation and hatred • that thence it might appear, that the glory of their own name could never be more secure, than when and where the Popes greatness shall be adorned with greatest honors: which being violated, all the splendor of the Episcopal Order must necessarily die and grow contemptible. Hence we see it comes to pass by a certain Divine assent and Counsel, that the Authority of Bishops should be expelled out of the same Provinces, out of which unhappy lust had thrust out the Papal Majesty. So this Author of late, by which we may discern what a near and indissoluble connection there is between the Papacy and the Prelacie, and how the Pope and Prelates ever mutually strive to support and advance one another's authority. Cardinal Poole thus reviving the Popes and Prelates Jurisdiction, and suppressing and eclipsing the Royal Prerogative, as you have heard, hereupon the Queens name and Title formerly used in all Ecclesiastical Processe, with this clause, Suprema Autoritate Regia legitime fulcitus & the like, was wholly omitted out of them; and whereas all such processes were sealed with her seal, and all Probates of Wills and Letters of Administration granted in her name, and under her seal only, not the Bishops, like Writs at the Common Law, according to the Statute of 1 Ed. 6. c. 2. the Bishops thenceforth used only their own seals and names, excluding hers, and so set themselves in her Royal Throne. To effect this, the Cardinal and Prelates caused Queen Mary to send Articles to the Ordinaries to be put in Execution, whereof this was one; that no Bishop or his O • ficer, or any other Person hereafter in any of their Ecclesiastical writings, in process or other extrajudiciall Acts, do use to put in this clause or sentence, Regia autoritate fulcitus, or do demand any Oath touching the Primacy: to which Master Fox annexeth this Marginall annotation, The Kings Authority giveth place to the Popes Authority, the supremacy of the King repealed; and hereupon in the Queens writ to Bonner, • or the sommoning of a Convocation, her style of Supremum caput was taken away; where note (good Reader, writes Master Fox ) concerning the altering and changing of the Queens style, the later part hereof to be le • t out of her Title which is, Ecclesiae Anglicanae & Hibernae supremum caput, because in the Parliament last past, the supremacy being given away from the Crown of England to the Pope, thereupon this parcel of the Title was also taken away: likewise the said Bonner giving his Certificate upon the same, left out, Autoritate illustrissimae, &c. legitime fulcitus ; w ^ch parcel also in the said Parliament was reprived and taken away the same time. Which notable usurpation upon the Crown, though abolished by 1. E l. c. 1.8. E l. c. 1.1. • ac. c. 25. and other Acts which revive the statute 1. E l. 6. c. 2. being nothing but the Common Law, our Prelates (in imitation of these and other their undutiful Popish Predecessors) have not only continued, but likewise upon the now Arch-Bishop of Canterburies motion in Star-Chamber, procured a Resolution and Certificate of all the Judges of England against the Laws & Kings prerogative royal, to justify this their usurpation, of issuing out process under their own names and seals, and keeping Visitations and Courts in their own names, without any Patent or Commission from his Majesty, to be legal; as appears by two Orders of Star-Chamber, 12. Maii, and 4. Iunii. 13. Caroli. This Arch-prelate Cardinal, having thus re-established the Popes and Prelates jurisdiction here by Act of Parliament,