Vindication of Ecclesiastical Volume 3 2

THE Epistle Dedicatory.

MY common relation to You all in general, as the eminentest Members of the Famous Society of LINCOLNSINNE, (a fruitful Mother for sundry ages, of many able, learned, reverend, renowned Privy Counselors, State-Officers, Judges, Justices, Barons in all Courts of Law, or Equity, both in England and Ireland, as well as of Eminent Serjeants, Readers, Barresters and Students of the Laws of England;) and my particular Obligations to each of You as my highly honored cordial Friends; have engaged me (in point of duty and gratitude) to dedicate to Your Eminencies, this THIRD TOME, of An Exact Chronological Vindication, & Historical Demonstration of the SUPREME ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of our British, Roman, Saxon, Danish, Norman, English KINGS, In, and Over all Matters, Causes, Persons Spiritual as well as Temporal, throughout their Realms and Dominions: More particularly, during the Reigns of KING JOHN, and HENRY the THIRD, (by way of Appendix to my Second Tome:) but principally of our glorious KING EDWARD the FIRST (the chief Subject matter of this Volume;) and emboldened me to publish it to the World, under the shelter of Your Venerable Names and Patronage.

And so much the rather was I induced thereunto, because this Volume consists for the most part of such Records, Writs, Prohibitions, Bulls, Patonts, Epistles, Procurations, Negotiations during their reigns, not formerly published, (illustrated with some few Historical passages) as are proper for your respective Conusances, Professions; which, in my humble opinion, will much conduce to assist and enable You in the faithful discharge of those high, honorable, public Places of Trust or Judicature, to which most of You are already, and the residue of You may hereafter be deservedly advanced, through His Majesty's royal Favor, by Your vigilant strenuous Defense of THE KINGS SUPREME ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY, and of all Jurisdictions, Privileges, Preeminences, Rights, Prerogatives annexed to his IMPERIAL CROWN, or Courts of Law; & the maintenance of all just Liberties of the consciences, persons, estates of His loyal Subjects, against the illegal exorbitant disloyal Claims, Innovations, Usurpations, Extortions, Vexations, Impositions, Censures, Practises, Conspiracies or Designs of the Popes, See, Court of Rome, or other Ecclesiastical domestic Prelates, Persons, Courts, or their subordinate Officers, to eclipse, diminish, invade, undermine, or subvert all or any of them in the least degree: by furnishing You with great plenty, variety of notable ancient Presidents, Writs, Prohibitions, Judgments, Edicts, and Legal proceedings of all sorts, even in the heighth of Popery and Prelacy, to restrain, countermine their disloyal Usurpations, extravagancies, oppressions, excesses, tending either to the prejudice of the Kings or people's Rights. All which (if I mistake not) will add much light, luster, and some considerable Supplements to our ancient Treatises of the Common Law, the broken Cases in Fitzherberts Abridgement, and proceedings in our Courts of Justice; yea, to the History of our Church, State affairs, the Treaties, Negotiations between our Kings, the Bishops, Cardinals, Legates, Court of Rome, and foreign Princes, during the reigns of the premised Kings, contained in sundry of their respective Epistles, Procurations, Bulls, Appeals, Instructions, Commissions, Patents, and Memorials (not extant in our printed Historians) which I discovered in the White Tower Chapel, and elsewhere, in our over-much neglected Records; many of which I rescued as well from putrefaction as oblivion, and here most humbly present to Your most judicious perusal.

It was my primitive intention, yea hope, to have completed and published this Tome long since; but the late raging Pestilence within the City and Suburbs of London (occasioned by the outrageous Plague of Sin in our own hearts, lives) which swept away with the besom of destruction more thousands of people than any Plague therein in former ages, enforcing me to retire from the Records for divers Moneths; and the dreadful consuming fire succeeding it, kindled and enraged by the superabounding of all kinds of Sodomitical sins and flames of lust, therein committed) which within few days space turned the greatest part of that Great, Rich, Famous City into desolate heaps of ashes, rubbish, and consumed my Printers House, with all his Printing-Presses, yea, most of his Cases, Letters, and of the printed Copies of my First and Second, with 40. printed Sheets of this Third Tome, therein, to my great loss; together with my daily long attendance in several Sessions of Parliament, besides other diversions since, and my want of convenient Lodgings in the Tower near the Records; so much obstructed, retarded my progress therein, and perusal, sorting, digesting into order all the Records and Monuments in these 3. Kings reigns pertinent to my Theame, that I could not possibly-complete it sooner; and may justly excuse its long expected publication, together with all defects of ornament, method, and the Supplemental Appendixes, or Insertions in improper places of this Tome, of some Records casually omitted in their Chronological series.

If any of Your Honors, Worships, or other curious Perusers thereof, shall chance to blame or censure me (as I fear they will) as guilty of several superfluities, or redundancies which might have been well omitted, especially in these particulars:

1. For the multitude of Prohibitions, Suits, Informations or Attachments on them for things, causes of the self-same kind, or Nature.

2ly. For the superfluity of Patents, Procurations of the same to Persons employed to Rome, France, or in the Collections of Dismes, and the like.

3ly. For the Repetitions of Licenses to elect Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots in England and Ireland, and Patents to confirm, consecrate, restore their Temporalties when elected, or confirmed by our Kings.

4ly. For the excessive multiplicity of the Names of Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Deans, Chapters, Parsons, Prebends, Vicars, Prebendaries, Religious Houses, Parishes, and their respective Chapels, put out of King Edward the first his protection for refusing to grant him an Ayde, without the Popes precedent assent thereto, for defense of the Church and Realm; who afterwards were enforced to make fines to, and compositions with him; whereupon they procured both general and particular Protections from him, at dearer rates then their denied Ayde amounted to. And of the Names of those Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Earls, Barons, Knights, Clergy-men and Laymen of Scotland, who made solemn, reiterated Oaths, Obligations, Deeds under their hands, seals, before special Commissioners, of their fidelity, obedience, and allegiance to King Edward the 1. and yet soon after most perfidiously violated them, by confederating with the French, and rebelling and taking arms against him.

To the 1. of these I answer: That this store can be no sore, nor blameworthy redundancy in me, since usual in all our Yearbooks, Reports, especially in Abridgements of the Law, ancient or modern; reporting several Prohibitions, Cases, Suits between different persons, in divers Terms, Years, Kings reigns of the self-same kind, form, without any blame or censure, as I have here done; on purpose to evidence the successive restless Usurpations, Innovations, Encroachments of Popes, Popish Prelates, Ecclesiastical Courts, Judges, Persons from year to year, upon these Kings Crowns, Rights, Prerogatives, Courts of Law, and the people's liberties; with their own Royal, and their Councils, Judges care, diligence to restrain, prohibit, punish them; Which being the principal Subject-matter of this and my former Tomes; my omission of any of them as superfluous, might justly be censured not •• lie for folly, but treachery in me both to the King, Subjects, and the Cause I plead.

To the 2. I return the self-same answer, with this addition; that different Patents, Procurations, Commissions to the same or diverse persons, upon the same, like, or different occasions, at divers times, under several or the same Kings, though running in the same or not much different general forms, must necessarily be recited, as well in my Collections as in the Records themselves; else the Negotiations, Treaties, Things, to which they relate, would become altogether defective, maimed, unintelligible, of little use, and give no satisfaction to any Judicious Readers.

The 3d. will easily be justified by the precedent answers to the two former, with this further reason; that the vacations, elections, confirmations, successions of our English and Irish Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, our Kings Prerogative in, over them from time to time; the Clergies irregularities, usurpations, abuses in them, to the prejudice of our Kings Crowns, Dignities, Prerogatives; with their Royal Reprehensions oppositions, preventions, punishments, or pardons of them, out of mere grace, not right; and the Ecclesiastical History, affairs, of the Churches of England and Ireland could not possibly have been faithfully or fully related, nor well understood, without the frequent recitals of their several successive Licenses, Elections, Confirmations, Patents of restitution and the like, essential to my Historical Demonstration.

For the 4th. (which seems most liable to exception:) I answer, 1. That the Names of all those persons, places, being particularly enrolled, recorded with special care, by King Edwards express command, into the Original Records themselves, for a lasting monument, evidence to Posterity of his Sovereign Right, Dominion, Jurisdiction, and Authority over the Clergy of England, and the Church, Prelates, Clergy, Nobility, Commonalty, Realm of Scotland, and of their submission, subjections, Oaths, Covenants and Allegiance made unto him in a most solemn public manner, upon the premised extraordinary occasions; I could not deem it a superfluity, but my necessary bounden duty, upon the same accounts carefully to insert them all at large into their Transcripts; which I likewise did upon 4. other Considerations: 1. To gratify our English and Scottish Heralds, and others delighting in Pedegrees, who may make good use of these Names of the Prelates, Nobility, Knights, Gentry, Clergy of England and Scotland, and the places of their residence, upon several occasions. 2ly. To evidence what places had Religious Houses, Parish-Churches, Chappelries in that age; and what rates, compositions they then paid to the King; which will easily show to all concerned, what alterations have since been made in any of them. 3ly. To manifest the general Confederacy of the English Prelates, Clergy, in opposing the Aydes demanded of them by King Edward, without the Popes precedent license: and their general and particular subsequent late repentances for it. 4ly. To evidence the universal detestable perjury, treachery of the Scottish Nobility, Nation, but especially of their Prelates and Clergy, in violating their reiterated solemn Oaths and Obligations to King Edward, by their confederacy with the French, and rebellions, wars against him, not without the Popes clandestine instigation, and abetment.

Having cleared these exceptions, I hope to all ingenuous Readers satisfaction, I must crave leave to inform Your Honors and Worships, that since my Compleating of this Volume (upon other public accounts, especially that of Queengold) I have perused most of the Great Rolls and Records of King Henry the 1, 2. King John, Henry the 3d. and Edward the 1. (besides other Kings reigns) in the Pipe, Kings, Lord Treasurers Remembrancers, and the Clerk of the Pleas respective Offices, and other Treasuries of Records in the Exchequer Court at Westminster, wherein I found sundry Transcripts of several Popes Bulls, relating to the Impositions, Grants of Dismes and Aydes on, or by the Clergy of England or Ireland for our premised Kings themselves, or pretended relief of the Holy Land, or to confirm some Privileges, Exemptions, granted by them and our Kings to Religious Orders or Monasteries, recorded or pleaded at large in that Court, the Originals whereof, for the most part, are extant in the Tower, or their transcripts enrolled in the dorses of the Clause, Patent, or other Rolls: which having published in this and the preceding Tomes, I shall not here repeat. Yet observing in the Great Rolls in the Pipe-Office in the 29, 30, 32, 33, & 34 years of King Henry the Second, (soon after the murder of that obstinate, perfidious Antimonarchical Arch-Rebel, as well as Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, canonized for a most glorious Saint and Martyr for his oppositions against the ancient Sovereign Ecclesiastical Rights and Prerogatives of this Victorious King over all Ecclesiastical persons, Causes, within this Realm, and other his Dominions; which encouraged his successors and other English Popish Prelates to usurp a new Monopoly of holding Plea and determining the right of Temporal Causes, Lay-fees, Advowsons, in their Ecclesiastical Courts, as well as of Spiritual matters) and discovering several Fines imposed by his Judges on sundry persons estreated into the Exchequer, and process thereupon issued to levy them, for prosecuting, or holding such Pleas in their Courts, and Consistories, against his Crown, Dignity, and Prohibitions; being the ancientest Records of this kind now extant, not formerly taken notice of by any Lawbooks or Historians, I thought fit here to present Your Honors with them as Rarities, rather then to smother or pretermit them, though not so proper for this Tome, which they precede in time.

In Rotulo Magno Anno 29 Regis Henrici 2. Rot. 2. dorso. under the Title, De Placitis Curiae. Richardus de Basinges redd. Comp. de 1. marc. quia placitavit in Curia Christianitatis de laico feodo. In thesauro liberavit, et quietus est.

In Rotulo Magno Anno 30 H. 2. Norhantonscire; under the Title, De Placitis Ranulphi de Glanvil, &c. et sociorum ejus. Adam de Hanvilla redd. Comp. dimid. marc. pro placito de laico feodo in Capitulo.

Ibidem. Norff. & Sussolkscire. Simon de Medelwolde debet x. marc. quia placitavit in Curia Christianitatis de laico feodo. Sed mortuus est.

Ibidem. Ewyerescire; De Placitis Curiae: Episcopus Dunolmensis debet D. marc. (a great, yet reasonable fine in that age, because a great rich Bishop, for this grand offense against his Oath and loyalty to his Sovereign) quia tenuit placitum de Advocatione cuiusdam Ecclesiae in Curia Christianitatis: (For the levying of which fine of 500 marks I find process issued and reiterated against him in the Great Rolls of Ann. 32 H. 2. rot. 7. & An. 33 H. 2. rot. 7.

Ibidem. Wyrecestrescire; under the Title of Nova placita per Gilbertum Pipard, &c. et socios suos. Prior de Wirecestre redd. Comp. de x. marquia tenuit placitum de laico feodo in Curia Christianitatis.

In Rotulo Magno Anno 32 H. 2. rot. 3. dorso. Titulo De placitis Curiae. Wilhelmus Scure redd. Comp. de v s. iv d. quia placitavit in Capitulo de laico feodo.

In Rot. Magno Anno 34 H. 2. (the last Roll in his reign) Berercscire; Wilhelmus Scure debet xvi d. quia placitavit in Capitulo de laico feodo.

Ibidem Rot. 7. dorso. Johannes Bud redd. Comp. de x. marc. quiatraxit placitum ad Christianitatem de laico feodo. In thesauro liberavit, et quietus est.

By these and other like presidents in this eminent Kings reign, we may discern his own, and his Judges, Officers, Courts of Justice care, vigilancy to restrain and prevent not only by Writs of Prohibition (extant in Glanvil) but likewise by Fines and pecuniary mulcts, to punish the then springing, increasing Innovations, encroachments of his ambitious, avaricious, usurping Bishops, their Courts, and Officers, upon his Royal Crown and Temporal Courts, in prosecuting and holding Pleas of Lay-fees, Advowsons, and other secular matters, whereof they had no legal conusance, against their Oaths and Allegiance to Him; whereof there are multitudes of like presidents in all our next succeeding Kings reigns in the Pipe Rolls, which I pretermit; because the Prohibitions, Attachments, Suits for prosecuting such Pleas collected in this Tome, will abundantly evidence the verity thereof.

Besides, I took notice of this memorable Clause concerning Intestate’s goods, in Rotulo Magno Anno 18 Regis Henrici 2. Rot. 9. dorso, under the Title of Abbatia de Bello (in Sussex) Petrus de Bello redd. Comp. (to the King) de xxxiiij. lib. & xiiii sol. de Catallis Pelokini Ballivi de Abbatia, qui obiit Intestatus. In thesauro liberavit, & quietus est. Which verifies this assertion of Ranulphus de Glanvilla, (Chief Justice under this King) in his Tractatus de Legibus & Consuetudinibus ANGLIAE, compiled by him in that age, for Law; Cum quis vero Intestatus decesserit, omnia Catalla sua sui Domini esse intelliguntur: si vero plures habuerit Dominos, quilibet eorum Catalla sua recuperabit quae in feodo suo reperiet, &c. towards the satisfaction of all Heriots, Debts and Duties owing to them or others by the Intestate; which being fully discharged, the King and Lord's (not the Bishop, Ordinary, much less his Vicar or Official) were to divide the residue of the Intestate’s goods amongst his Wife and Children if he had any, by the Laws of King Knute, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, and King Henry the 1. his Charter, & secundum consuetudinem terrae meae; as Glanvill, the Writs de rationabilibus divisis grounded thereon, and the Statute of Magna Charta, c. 18. intimate, and Bracton, with Fleta expressly affirm, (yet others deny) even in the cases of Lay-men: But in the cases of Bishops, Abbots, and Clergymen, (prohibited to marry by Councils, Canons, and Popes Decretals in that age) if they died intestate, all their goods, chattels, monies, of right accrued to the King by his prerogative, who thereupon usually seised and converted them to his proper use; whereof we have a memorable president in the case of Geoffrey Rydell Bishop of Eli; who dying intestate on the 12. of the Kalends of September Anno 1289. (between the death of King Henry the 2. and 4. days before the Coronation of King Richard the 1. his Son;) thereupon, quia Episcopatus intestatus decessit, eius bona confiscata sunt universa, to King Richard the first, as Radulphus de Diceto stories; or as Mat. Paris relates, Eodem tempore Gaufridus Elyensis Episcopus Intestatus decessit, unde de reliquiis suis confiscata sunt tria millia marcarum argenti, cumducentis marcis auri. Superlectilis sui numerus tàm in auro, quàm in argento, tàm in equis quàm in vestibus preciosis, tàm in bladis quàm in instauramentis in immensum excrevit. All which King Richard the 1. converted to his proper use, by his Prerogative Royal in such cases, as Radulfus de Diceto, Matthew Paris, Godwin, and others observe; notwithstanding the Usurper King Stephens Charter to the Bishops, and Clergy, whom they perfidiously Crowned against their Oaths to Queen Maude, (purposely to enlarge their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction over intestate Ecclesiastical Persons Chattels, and their own goods, chattels, with other particulars) by disinheriting their lawful Sovereign, for which most of them soundly smarted, their Castles, Treasures being seised, and their persons imprisoned by him, notwithstanding their Rochets, Canons, and his own new Charter to them.

Upon this occasion, and our Bishops, Canonists former and late claims of an ancient unquestionable legal right, Jurisdiction vested in them, to distribute all Laymens goods, chattels, dying intestate, to pious or other uses for the salvation of their souls; I thought fit to take special Notice in this Tome, what new clauses our seditious traiterous Archbishop Stephen Langet on and his Confederates cunningly thrust into King Johns Great Charter of Liberties, not extant in King Henry the firsts Charter, which they at first pretended he should only ratify. Which enlarged Charter, as it was within 2. years after quite nulled, by the Pope at King Johns request, and so gave the Bishops no legal power at all over intestate Freemens goods; so at the reviving thereof by King Henry the 3d. in the 9th year of his reign, the Clause concerning the distribution of the Intestate’s Goods, by his kindred, parents, or friends, PER VISUM ECCLESIAE; (from whence Bracton and Fleta inferred, ad ECCLESIAM & ad amicos pertinebit executio bonorum) thrust in by the Bishops, who interpreted the Church to be only the Bishop, was quite expunged out of his Great Charter, and all others, since confirmed by near 50. Parliaments. Whereupon the Bishops, to support their new encroached Jurisdiction over Intestate’s goods and chattels by color of this expunged Clause, which King Henry and his Council strenuously opposed, and would never assent to, after many reiterated supplications, set on foot a mere imaginary Ordinance, which they reported to be made by the Prelates, with the consent of the King and his Barons, and inserted into Otthobons Constitutions Anno 52 H. 3. and after that into John Stratfords, Anno 1342. but when, where, or by what Prelates, King and Barons that Ordinance was made, they neither then expressed, nor positively affirmed, nor can yet resolve. Yet by color of this Ordinance, Archbishop Boniface with his Suffragans made sundry Antimonarchical Constitutions in the Council of Lambeth Anno 1257. (41 H. 3. most contemptuously called and held by them against the Kings express Writs of Prohibition issued to them,) and among others, denounced a solemn Excommunication against all those Lord's (not excepting the King & his Officers) who should hinder Ordinaries distributions of Laymens goods to pious uses, as violaters of the Churches Liberties; Which Constitutions were no sooner known, but they were publicly appealed, complained against by the King in his own and the Kingdoms name and behalf, to two several Popes, as most illegally made, to the prejudice and grievance of his Crown, Royal Dignity, and against the Liberties and Customs of his Realm of England: for which and other contempts, this Archbishop was enforced to fly the Realm, to avoid the Kings, Nobles, people's displeasures, and died in exile; whereupon his Constitutions were totally rejected as Nullities, and never put in execution for 85. years space. But then his successor John Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury (as ungrateful perfidious a Traitor to King Edward the 3. as Boniface was to King Henry the 3d.) in a Convocation of the Clergy held at London Anno 1342. in high contempt of the Kings Sovereign Authority, (from which he alleged he was totally exempted, unaccountable to, and not to be judged by him for any crimes objected against him) revived and enlarged the exploded Constitutions of Boniface, with sundry Additional Articles and new Clauses of Excommunications, by his own usurped Pontifical power, to the manifest derogation of the Rights and Prerogatives of the Kings Crown and Dignity, which he thereby endeavored to wrest from him: And then like an absolute Legislator and Pope of our other World, commanded them to be published and inviolably observed throughout his Province in future times, in this imperious style; Hujus autem Concilii Constitutiones, & provisa remedia praecipimus in nostra Cantuariensi provincia, futuris temporibus inviolabilitex observari. Mandantes Coepiscopis et Suffraganeis universis, ut ipsas Constitutiones per se et alios, ut jus exigit, publicent et facient publicari, ac in publicam notitiam deduci; together with the old General Sentence of Excommunication, having sundry new Clauses of his own added thereunto: Hereupon King Edw. the 3. by two several Royal Writs, or Letters (made with advise of his Council, and ordered to be published at Canterbury and other places to all his Subjects,) strictly prohibited the publication or execution of these Excommunications or Constitutions; therein at large relating this Archbishops ingratitude, treachery, insolency, affronts, slanders of him, his Council, and Officers, and rendered this Character of him, them, and his designs in publishing them. Idem Archiepiscopus quam regalis benignitas beneficiis & honoribus magnificis ampliavit, &c. subito in virum onerosum & gravem crudeliter est conversus, & beneficiis acceptis ingratus, fremens arrogantia benefactorem persequitur, & illam nobis retributionem impendit, quem vulgariter proverbium dicit; Mus in pera; Serpens in gremio; Ignis in sinu; suis consueverunt hospitibus exhibere, &c. Opem tamen nostram & innocentiam, & Consiliariorum & Officialium nostrorum regalem persequentium fidelitatem & diligentiam convitiis lacerat, publice praedicando, &c. Et callidis inventionibus et reprobis consiliis, quasdam Excommunicationis sententias in Libertatis Ecclesiasticae et Magnae Chartae violatores in genere dudum latas, ad sugillandum opinionem Regiam, et praefatos Ministros Regios defamandos, et seditionem in populo nobis commisso PRODITORIE suscitandum, et devotionem Comitum, Procerum et Magnatum regni nostri Majestati Regiae subtrahendum; specificatis nonnullis Articulis, propter et contra solitum modum IN CONCILIO PROVINCIALI TRADITUM, mandavit per stias literas publicari. Quinimo cum ipse et alii Praelati Regni, qui de nobis Ecclesiarum suarum temporalia recipiunt, ex debito fidelitatis juratae, fidem, honorem, et reverentiam deberent exhibere; ipse solus pro fide perfidiam, pro honor contumeliam, et contemptum pro reverentia reddere non veretur; Unde etsi parati simus et semper fuerimus Patres spirituales ut convenit revereri, EORUM TAMEN OFFENSAS, QUAS IN NOSTRI ET REGNI NOSTRI PERICULUM REDUNDARE CONSPICIMUS, NON DEBEMUS CONNIVENTIBUS OCULIS PRAETERIRE, &c. Et quia de conservatione Iurium et Praerogativarum nostrarum Regalium, quae Progenitorum nostrorum Regum Anglia digne recolenda prioritas magnifice defensavit, sumus ut debemus sum solliciti; ac idem Archiepiscopus ad concitandum contra Nos Clerum et populum, et ad impediendum expeditionem guerrae nostrae quam per ejus consilium principaliter assumpsimus, quasdam denunciationes et publicationes sententiarum excommunicationum ac monitiones injuriosas, AC JURI CORONAE ET REGIAE DIGNITATIS NOSTRAE PRAEJUDICIALES, CUM PER EAS NITITUR IN MULTIS ARTICULIS A NOBIS AUFERRE JURISDICTIONEM NOBIS NOTORIE COMPETENTEM, CUJUS CUM SUMUS REX INVICTUS (misprinted for INUNCTUS, as I conceive) CAPACES ESSE DINOSCIMUR; ET QUAE NOSET PROGENITORES NOSTRI, scientibus et tolerantibus Summis Pontificibus, Praelatis et Clera regni nostri USI SUMUS PACIFICE AB ANTIQUO, fecit, et per alios fieri et publicari mandavit, IN MAJESTATIS NOSTRAE LAESIONEM, ET JURIUM ET PRAEROGATIVARUM NOSTRARUM REGALIUM DEROGATIONEM MANIFESTAM; Vobis district et sub incumbenti periculo PROHIBEMUS, ne publicationes, denunciationes, seu monitiones hujusmodi indebitas, ET JURIBUS AC PRAEROGATIVIS NOSTRIS REGIIS DEROGATORIAS ET PRAEJUDICIALES, vel alia per quae fideles nostri contra nos suscitari, vel expeditionem guerrae nostrae in subversionem nostri et fidelium n • strorum possint; quod absit aliqualiter impediri, AD MANDATUM IPSIUS ARCHIEPISCOPI vel alterius cujuscunque, quomodolibet per vos vel alios faciatis, vel quantum in vobis est ab aliis fieri permittatis. Et si quid per vos in hac parte attemptatum fuerit CELERITER REVOCETIS. T. meipso apud Turrim London 31 die Martii, Anno, &c.

Hereupon those Antimonarchical Excommunications and Constitutions of Archbishop Boniface revived by him, together with his own, thus publicly censured, revoked by the King and his Council, were totally neglected, and not put in execution by our succeeding Archbishops, Bishops, or Ecclesiastical Judges for 80. years space or more, as William Lindewode himself thus acknowledgeth in his Preface to Henry Chichely Archbishop of Canterbury, praefixed to his Provinciale; Consideravi equidem, quod quamquam Constitutiones ipsae ex interioribus medullis Scripturarum, & sacrorum Canonum, indubitatisque tam Theologorum, quam Iuris Canonici et Civilis autenticorum Doctorum sententiis ad utilitatem Provinciae Cantuar. subditorum extractae: A compluribus (tamen) dictae Provinciae tam Patribus aliisque Praelatis et Iudicibus, quam ipsorum subditis neglectui quodammodo habeantur, adeo quod temporibus his perpauci sunt qui ipsorum observationi, ut ratio exiget, invigilent. Whereupon this great Doctor of the Canon and Civil Law, (being then Official to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to bring these neglected Canons into credit, use, to enlarge the Jurisdiction of our Ecclesiastical Courts and Prelates) in the year 1423. at Bois St. Vincents in France, collected these two, and our other Archbishops Provincial Constitutions into one Body (as himself thus relates) resecatis superfluis & quibusdam ex eis abbreviatis correct in unum Opus collegi, & sub congruentibus Titulis ad instar libri Decretalium seriosius collocavi. Anno tunc sequenti eadem Statuta glossare proposui; which having accordingly glossed and accomplished about the 3d year of King Henry the 6. he dedicated his Provinciale to this Archbishop, tanquam verae juris lucernam in Ecclesia Anglicana radiantem: which was afterwards printed Antwerpiae, summa cura & diligentia Christopheri Endovien. Anno salutis nostrae 1525. 20 die Decembris; Venales habentur London, in Cimiterio Sancti Pauli, apud Franciscum Bryckman: By this his Provinciale and large Glosses on these Constitutions they began by degrees to be put in practice by our Bishops and Canonists, as binding Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons, to which all Clergymen and Laymen must submit, enforcing obedience to them by their Ecclesiastical Courts and Censures. To further which design thus begun by Lindewode, and reinforce these exploded Antimonarchical Constitutions, Jodocus Badius Ascensius, and Johannes Chappuys (two great Doctors of the Canon and Civil Law) An. 1504, collected, corrected, abridged, and printed the Legatinc Constitutions of Otho & Othobon the Popes Legates, made in England in two Councils held under them at London in the reign of King Henry the 3d, An. 1236. & 1248. with Johannes de Athon or Acton his Gloss upon them (a Doctor of the Civil and Canon Law flourishing in the reign of King Edward the 1. as Johannes Balaeus conjectures, though perchance of punier times) together with the Constitutiones Provinciales of sundry other Archbishops of Canterbury, (d) printed there together: Solertissima accuratione atque Art Magistri Wulfgangi Hopilii, impensis ejusdem, & probissimi Bibliopole Joannis Confluentini, in inclyta Parisiorum Academia. Ad laudëm & gloriam Optimi Maximi Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ejusque pientissimae Matris, (ranged in equipage with him) & totius coelestis Curiae, necnon AD CONSERVATIONEM LIBERTATIS ECCLESIAE ANGLICANAE, et ad salutem atque eruditionem totius Cleri, omniumque Christi fidelium inclitissimi Anglorum regni, Anno Domini 1504. ad Idus Septembris, (full 21. years before Lindewodes Provinciale was printed, and not long after Printing was first invented) dedicating them to William Warham, then Archbishop of Canterbury, ut Archiepiscoporum Cantuariensium statuta, ad excellentissimum Archipraesulem redirent. Which illegal, oppugned, Antimonarchical, exploded, nulled Constitutions of Archbishop Boniface and John Stratford, with those of the Council of Reading under John Peckham Archbishop of Canterbury, Anno 7 E. 1. (for which he was convented before the King and Parliament, and enforced to make a public revocation of several Clauses and provisions contained in his General Sentence of Excommunication therein made, as derogatory and prejudicial to the Kings Crown, Dignity, and Prerogative) being the Principal parts of Lyndwodes Provinciale, and our Canon Laws introduced by him, began to be cried up and put in execution by the Bishops and their Ecclesiastical Officers, to the great prejudice and dishonor of the King, and oppression of his Subjects; For effectual redress whereof, King Henry the 8. and his Parliament in the 25 year of his reign, upon complaint, That divers Constitutions, Ordinances, and Canons Provincial or Synodal had heretofore been enacted, thought not only to be much prejudicial to the Kings Prerogative Royal, and repugnant to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm, but overmuch onerous to his Subjects; which the Clergy of England therein not only acknowledged to be true, but also most humbly besought his Highness, that the said Canons and Constitutions might be committed to the examination and judgment of his Highness, and of xxxii. persons of the Kings Subjects, to be chosen and appointed by the KINGS MAIESTY; whereof xvi. to be of the Vpper and Nether House of Parliament of the TEMPORALTY, and other xvi. to be of the CLERGY of this Realm. And all the said xxxii. persons to be chosen and appointed by the KINGS MAIESTY. And that such of the said Constitutions and Canons as the Kings Highness, and the said xxxii. or the more part of them, shall deem and adjudge worthy to be continued, kept, and obeyed, shall be from thenceforth kept, obeyed, and executed within this Realm; so that the Kings most Royal assent, under his Great Seal, be first had to the same▪ And the residue of the said Canons, Constitutions, and Ordinances Provincial, which the Kings Highness, and the said xxxii. persons, or the more part of them, shall not approve, or deem, and judge worthy to be abolite, abrogate, and made frustrate, shall be abolite, void, and of none effect, (as in truth they were from their beginning, being made not only without, but against the Kings Royal assent and authority, and not ratified by our Parliaments) and never be put in execution within this Realm. It was thereupon accordingly declared and enacted by the successive Statutes of 25 H. 8. c. 19. 27 H. 8. c. 17. 31 H. 8. c. 16. 37 H. 8. c. 17. & 3, & 4 Edw. 6. c. 11. Which also provided and enacted, that these Acts shall not extend, or be intepreted, to give any authority to the said two and thirty persons, or to the more number of them, or to the Kings Highness, for to compile, stablish, or set forth any Ecclesiastical Law, repugnant or contrary to any Common Law, or Statute of this Realm, or the Kings Prerogative. Yet notwithstanding, these their Canons and Constitutions, though thus contemptuously made, published, complained against, yea censured, exploded by our Kings, and Parliaments from time to time, with Lyndewodes and Atons Glosses on them, are still obtruded on us, and magnified, justified, asserted, executed by our Bishops, Clergy, their Ecclesiastical Courts, Officers, and Doctors of the Canon Law, as the legitimate, irrefragable Ecclesiastical Laws both of the Church, King and Kingdom of England, not only to justify their distributions of Intestate’s goods, against the express Practice of our Savior Jesus Christ, and St. Paul's Doctrine, if we believe St. Bernard, (of which goods they were such ill Stewards and dispensers from the very beginning, that not only Bracton and Fleta write, but Archbishop Stratford himself acknowledgeth in his Constitutions, that they unduly usurping them in the name of the Church, yet NULLAM VEL SALTEM INDEBITAM facientes distributionem, converted them to their own uses, to the defrauding of their Creditors, Wives, Children, kindred; and I fear they have not been much better Stewards since;) But likewise to countenance their holding all their Ecclesiastical Courts, Visitations, and issuing out all their Citations, Processe, Probate of Wills, Letters of Administrations, Censures, in & under their own Names, Rights, Stiles, Seals, as in times of the Popes Usurpations, not the Kings, (whose Image, superscription, style they ought to bear, as well as his Coyn, Common Law Courts & Process, or else they are none of his) and to warrant all the extravagant vexatious Excommunications, Visitation Oaths, Articles, Proceedings, Extortions, lately revived since His Majesty's most happy Restauration, and the Statute of 13 Caroli II. chap. 12. to the derogation of His Majesty's Sovereign Ecclesiastical Authority, and great grievance, oppression, vexation of his loyal Subjects; For redress whereof I thought it necessary to inform both our Prelates, Canonists, but especially the Professors of the Common Law, how these Canons, Constitutions were originally made, opposed, exploded, yet since by degrees revived, and put in execution, notwithstanding our Kings, Nobles, Parliaments Appeals, Oppositions, Complaints, and Acts against them, wherewith few of them are acquainted.

And here I cannot but observe, That Sir Edward Cook, as he hath in his Commentary upon Articuli Cleri, taken special Notice of Archbishop Boniface and his Suffragans forementioned Constitutions, as made directly against the Laws and Statutes of the Realm, and the Kings Royal Crown, Dignity, which occasioned much difference between the Common and Ecclesiastical Law, Judges, Courts: So he likewise adds, That this Archbishop and his Clergy in a Parliament holden in the 51. year of H. 3. (which was their ultimum refugium, yet the right way) exhibited many Articles as grievances, called Articuli Cleri; which either by accident or industry are not to be found, yet some of their answers are extant; which he there recites, Ex fragmento Rotuli Parliamenti Anno 51 H. 3. as his Margin affirms, without any directions where to find it. But under his correction, I conceive he is much mistaken therein. For first, The Articles of Archbishop Boniface and his Clergy, were drawn and exhibited by them to King Henry the 3. and his Council, not Anno 51. but 41. of his reign, when these his Constitutions were made in pursuance of them, against the Kings Prohibitions. 2ly. These Articles are mentioned by Matthew Paris in his History, and since printed in his Additamenta; and in my Second Tome, being 50. in number. 3ly. King Henry the 3d and his Council refused to give any answer at all to them, or any of them, upon their reiterated requests, but absolutely rejected them, as the Archbishop and Clergy premise in their Proem to their Ecclesiastical Constitutions then made; neither doth Mat. Paris make mention of any answers to them, as no doubt he would have done, had there been any given. 4ly. There is no such Fragment of any Parliament or other Roll An. 51 H. 3. now extant in the Tower or elsewhere that I can find, nor any Parliament held that year, but two in Ann. 52 & 53 H. 3. wherein the Statutes of Marlebridge, and Dictum de Kenilworth were made. 5ly. Not one of our Historians or Antiquaries make mention of any such Articles of the Clergy in An. 51 H. 3. 6ly. The Answers he prints are unsuitable to those Articles in Matth. Paris Anno 41. both in their number, and matter, as all may clearly discern by comparing them. 7ly. Othobons Constitutions (made in a Council at London An. 52, or 53 H. 3. not 42. as Sir Henry Spelmans Edition, and John de Atons too mistake, as Matthew Paris, Matthew Westminster, Matthew Parker, and others, with the Clause and Patent Rolls of 49 & 50 H. 3. assure us, he arriving not, nor acting as a Legate till then within this Realm) make no mention of them. Upon all which considerations, I cannot but repute these answer, he hath printed to be Apocryphal.

But his most unpardonable Oversight and Mistake, is this; That in his very Proem to his Second Institutes on Magna Charta, he asserts, that the Writ of Proclamation issued by King Henry the 3d. 11 Decembris in the 19th year of his reign to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London, to prohibit all Schools and Lectures of the Canon Laws and Popes Decretals, (as King Stephen had done before him) then newly polished, abridged by Raymundus, at Pope Gregory the 9th. his request; qui ease soleniter et autentice per totius mundi latitudinem LEGI PRAECEPIT & DIVULGARI, et ad multorum perniciem publicavit; as Matthew Paris, Platina, Balaeus, and others relate; Vetuitque Ius Civile legi Lutetiae, et aliis in locis vicinis: as Gilbertus Genebrardus a Parisian Divine observes, by these new Decretals, to which all other Laws must give place, that they alone might rule the World; whereupon King Henry issuissued this Writ to prohibit them to be read upon, published, or put in execution; as being most derogatory to his Royal Prerogative, Laws, Courts, and Subjects liberties, to be meant and intended only, of Schools of the Common Law, and Readings upon the two Great Charters of Liberties and the Forest, which he had formerly ratified, and sworn to observe. Which grand misprision of his as I have here refuted at large, by pregnant evidences; so the very season wherein it was issued, soon after his removal of his ill Great Officers, Counselors, Chief Justicer, and putting honest, faithful ones in their places, upon his coming to himself, sight of his former miscarriages, and reconciliation to his faithful native Lord's and Subjects, formerly rejected, persecuted by him; with his confirmation of these Charters under his Great Seal in the Parliament of Merton within few months after, as himself observes, and the excellent Laws therein made by him for the common benefit of his Subjects, Nobles, Realm; attested by Matthew Paris, Matthew Westminster, other Historians, and by the Clause and Patent Rolls of the 18, 19, & 20th. years of his reign, will so irrefragably refute it, that I hope no Common Lawyers will from henceforth be seduced to believe it upon his Ipse scripsit, nor any Canonists or Civilians reap advantage by this his egregious Error; nor yet by his asserting Circumspecte agatis (a mere contrivance of the Bishops to enlarge their Jurisdictions) to be a Statute made, or Writ enacted in the Parliament of 13 E. 1. which I have here likewise evidenced to be an apparent untruth.

How far Popes, Bishops, and their Canon Law Doctors have by their own Canons, Constitutions, and Glosses on them enlarged their Jurisdiction even to the nulling, altering of the Testaments and Legacies of deceased Persons to pious uses, contrary to their express wills, those who please may read at leisure in the large folio Volume of Augustinus Barbosa, a grand Doctor of the Canon Law, & Episcopus Eugentinus, De Officio et Potestate Episcopy, (dedicated to the Virgin Mary) licensed, printed at Rome, and newly reprinted Lugduni 1665. Pars 3. Alleg. 80 & 81. & Alleg. 50. nu. 41. & Johannes Bertachinus de Episcopis, lib. 4. Quaest. 4. with sundry other Canonists quoted by them.

In what particulars they have advanced Themselves, their Pontifical Mitres, Laws, above the Imperial Crowns of all Christian Emperors, Kings, and their municipal Laws, I have elsewhere evidenced, and shall here demonstrate only in four other Instances worthy special observation.

First, they advance not only every Pope, but Bishop, far above all Christian Emperors and Kings in the manner of their Unctions and Consecrations: For whereas the Kings of Israel, when anointed to be Kings, had a Viol of Oil, by God's appointment, poured out upon their HEADS, as it was upon the High Priests Head, and were annointed with the same Oil that the High Priests were, as most affirm; to evidence to all, that they were thereby made the chief HEADS of all God's people committed to their government, and God's own VICARS upon Earth, sitting upon HIS THRONE, to be KINGS for the Lord their God: Which practice of anointing the Heads of Christian Emperors & Kings at their Coronations, was anciently used both in the Eastern and Western Empires; Pope Leo the 3d. himself anointing Charles the Great with Oil from HEAD to foot after the custom of the Jews, and likewise in the Coronation of our British and Saxon Kings before the Conquest, as this Prayer used at their Coronations in the ancient Ceremoniale made in the Saxons time assure us; Christ perunge tuum REGEM in regimen, &c. Tua sacratissima unctio super CAPUT ejus defluat, atque ad interiora descendat, atque cordis illius intima penetrat, &c. In Nomine Patris, & Filii, & Spiritus Sancti, prosit tibi haec unctio Dlei in Honorem et Consecrationem aeternam in secula seculorum, Amen. Which Custom hath continued ever since; all our Kings at their inaugurations (notwithstanding Popes Constitutions and Ceremonials to the contrary, to which they would not submit) having their HEADS anointed; as our Histories relate, and all the Ceremonials of their Coronations thus expressly enjoin in the Rubrics, UNGATUR CAPITE: with Oil and Crisme, as well as on his hands, breast, back, shoulders; and then using this Prayer. Deus Dei Filius Jesu Christ Dominus noster, qui a Patre Oleo exultationis unctus est prae particibus suis, ipse per praesentem sacri unguinis infusionem Spiritus Paracliti, SUPER CAPUT TWM infundat benedictionem, eandemque usque • d interiora cordis tui penetrare faciat, &c. Which even our Antimonarchical Arch-Traitor Thomas Becket thus acknowledged in his Epistle to King Henry the 2. An. 1166. Inunguntur REGES IN CAPITE, etiam Pectore et Brachiis, quod significat gloriam, sanctitatem, et fortitudinem: And Cardinal Hostiensis also not long after in these terms; Sed et Consuetudo antiqua circa hoc observatur; nam supradictorum REGUM FRANCIAE & ANGLIAE CAPITA INUNGUNTUR: And although Augustinus Barbosa affirms; Sicut Christus, id est Unctus, appellatur Dominus noster Jesus; ita REGES inunguntur, consecrantur, & coronantur, ut intelligant se A CHRISTO UNCTO (not from the Pope) potestatem habere, et in eo regnare. Yet notwithstanding, Pope Innocent the 3d. (who deprived King John of his Crown, to wrest a surrender of it to himself; and excommunicated, deposed the Emperor Otho by Treason, Rebellion, then set up, crowned Frederick the 2. in his stead:) not only to perpetuate the antichristian absolute Sovereignty of himself and his successors over all Christian Emperors and Kings, as the only Heads of the Universal Church, but also to deprive them of their Headship, Sovereignty over the Churches, Prelates within their own Dominions, & advance every of their Bishops paramount them; translated their Unctions from the Head to the Arm or Shoulders, and that only with Oil, not Crisme, upon this account, That after such time as our Savior was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows, qui secundum Apostolum est CAPUT ECCLESIAE, (therefore not the Pope) Principis unctio a CAPITE ad brachium est translata, UT PRINCEPS EXTUNC NON UNGATUR IN CAPITE, sed in brachio, sive humero, vel armo, in quibus Principatus congrue designatur, juxta illud quod legitur, (Isaiah 9. 6.) Factus est Principatus super humerum ejus. Whereupon the Roman Ceremonials and Pontificals since compiled, prescribe, that Emperors and Kings shall be anointed only on the Arm, Shoulders, not the Head, but Popes and Bishops only on the Head: when as the ancient Ordo Romanus, ad Regem benedicendum, compiled about 800 years after Christ, (as Jodocus Coccius and others assert) and used till this Pope Innocents time, expressly prescribes; Dominus Metropolitanus ungat de Oleo sanctificato CAPUT, Pectus & Scapulas, ambasque compages brachiorum ipsius, ita dicendo, Ungo te in REGEM, de Oleo sanctificato, &c. And their very New Ceremonials and Portificals still retain the forementioned Prayer after their anointing in the arms, as they used when their heads were anointed: The reasons of which alterations, worthy observation, they thus render to us. Solus Pontifex Chrismate in CAPITE ungitur, ex balsamo et oleo confecto, mystica ration; sed Imperatores et Reges tantum oleo in brachio exorcizato in modum Crucis inunguntur; ut ostendatur quanta sit differentia inter auctoritatem Pontificis et Principis potestatem. Vngitur primo in Capite Episcopus qui consecratur, ut auctoritas et dignitas ejus declararetur, eum scilicet esse CAPUT ET PRINCIPEM ECCLESIAE SUAE, (not the Emperor, or King) et ut ostendatur eum esse VICARIUM CHRISTI, ejus{que} dignitatem et auctoritatem gerere qui est super omnia, et quem constituit Deus CAPUT (therefore not the Pope) SUPER OMNEM ECCLESIAM. Ideo Reges non JAM in CAPITE, (as anciently) sed in humero unguntur: Primum, ut is proprius honor sit illius, quem Deus constituit excelsum super omnes Reges Terrae, et quem oleo laetitiae excellentius, & angustius unxit prae consortibus suis. (For which reason, if meant of Christ himself, not any Pope or Bishop, as the Scripture resolves, neither Popes nor Bishops should be anointed on the head, being an honor proper only to Christ himself:) Deinde, ut ostendatur, quod primo ante omnes Reges et Principes persona Capitis Pontificali Officio repraesentetur. Vngitur tamen et REX in humero, ut neque ipse plane excludatur a repraesentatione ejusdem Capitis; nam et hujus principatus, (ut dicit Isa. 9. 6.) fuit super humerum ejus; et ut sciat se esse ministrum ad portandam Crucem (when as the Text is Gladium) JESU CHRISTI, ad laudem bonorum, vindictam autem malorum, Rom. 13. 4. Yet as if this diversity in their Unctions were not sufficient, to advance the Pontifical above the Regal Authority, the Pope at his enstallment, by pretext of our famous Christian Emperor Constantine's Donation of his Imperial Crown to Pope Silvester, (which many of their Parasites assert to be genuine, and amongst others, Augustinus Barbosa, Andraeas Victorellus, with sundry other Canonists quoted by them, though Laurentius Valla, with far more Pontificians reject it, as a palpable forgery upon unanswerable reasons, as well as Protestants, branded as Palea even by Gratian himself, Dist. 96. as I have elsewhere evidenced,) in signum Imperii utitur CORONA IMPERIALI, et in signum Pontificis utitur MITRA. Sed Mitra semper utitur & ubique, Corona autem non semper, quia Pontificis authoritas est prior et dignior, et diffusior Imperiali potestate; Et utrum{que} gladium habet; unde et Reges et Imperatores deponit; immo non solum Imperium et Regnum constituat, sed et transfert; as being Rex Regum et Dominus Dominorum quantum ad potestatem; though Servus servorum Dei quantum ad humilitatem, as they distinguish.

2ly. Popes and the Doctors of their Canon Laws assert; That Omnes, sive Patriarchy cujuscunque apicem, sive Metropoliorum primatus, aut Episcoporum cathedras, vel Ecclesiarum, sive cujuscunque Ordinis dignitatem instituit Romana Ecclesia. Illam vero solus ipse fundavit, & supra petram fidei mox nascentis erexit, qui beato Petro aeternae vitae clavigero terreni simul et caelestis Imperii jura commisit. That totum jus eligendi et creandi Episcopos ad Romanum Pontificem pertinet tanquam ad Successorem Petri, cui data a Christo Domino summa potestas in totam Ecclesiam; whence they infer, That the Pope hath the sole power of erecting, dividing, uniting, transferring from place to place, suppressing, depriving, restoring all Archbishoprics, Bishoprics, Monasteries, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Ecclesiastical Dignities, Offices, Benefices, Priests, Officers, Incumbents, at his pleasure; and to indulge what privileges or exemptions he please to any of them, both from all Regal and Episcopal Jurisdiction and Censures: And, to prohibit Emperors, Kings, or any other Laymen to give Investitures of Bishoprics or other Ecclesiastical dignities, under pain of Excommunication both of the givers and receivers of such Investitures; That Christian Emperors, Kings, Lay-men have no right to elect, promote any Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Prebends, or Clerks to any Bishoprics, Monasteries, Prebendaries, Benefices, or Church-dignities, whereof they have the Patronage by right of their foundations, or endowments of them with Temporalties, Privileges, or otherwise, but only by the grace and donations of Popes, for certain politick reasons of State, who may resume them at their pleasures, if they shall judge they abuse their power therein.

3ly. From thence they infer, and magisterially resolve, that, Semper et in omni tempore Provisio beneficiorum et Ecclestarum, etiamsi Cathedrales, Metropoliticae, vel Patriarchy sint, ad Summum Pontificem de jure pertinuit, et usque in hunc diem pertinet, •• i nullum tempus praefixum est ad conferenda beneficia, quia non habet superiorem qui ejus negligentiam posset supplere. And hence they assert his Papal Right and Jurisdiction to dispose of all Episcopal, Ecclesiastical Dignities, Monasteries, Benefices whatsoever, both before & after their vacancies to whomsoever he pleaseth by his Provisions, notwithstanding his own grants to the contrary; and that in all sorts of cases imaginary: of which I shall render you this account in such particulars wherein they most frequently granted their Provisions to Archbishoprics, Bishoprics, Monasteries, Prebendaries, Benefices in England and Ireland, during the reigns of our 3. premised Kings, as well as in other foreign kingdoms, (grounded upon their own Apocryphal Papal Epistles, Canons, and Decrees,) as they and their Canonists thus generally, and more particularly resolve; Summus Pontifex in beneficialibus liberam et plenissimam habet potestatem. Beneficia omnia respectu S. Pontificis sunt manualia, et in eis uti potest plenariam potestatem, ac Clericum suo beneficio sine causa a Clerico data, sed excausa majoris boni Ecclesiae universalis, privare. Et licet potestatem in Episcopos transtulerit, ut quilibet in sua Dioecesi beneficia ibidem consistentia confer posset, penes ipsum major remansit, adeo quod impossible sit Papae suae derogare sententiae, seu ita privilegium alicui concedere, ut non possit absolute per ipsum revocari, cum in hoc non cadat quaestio potestatis, sed voluntatis tantum; et sic potestati Episcoporum a se concessae derogare, sibique collationes reservare potest; et per consequence de omnibus beneficiis, et in omnibus mensibus providere, et libere disponere valet: in quo ideo non detrahit alieno juri, sed proprio utitur, nec inde modo aliquo ordo Ecclesiasticus turbatur. Quod Summus Pontifex beneficia dissita per totum orbem in quibusvis dioecesibus ac provinciis quadruplici jure providere potest. Primo concursus, quatenus tanquam Episcopus universalis concurrit cum caeteris inferioribus collatoribus. Secundo jure devoluto, quia videlicet ex causa aliqua jus conferendi de inferioribus collocatoribus ad ipsum facta sit devolutio. Tertio jure praeventionis, cum videlicet praeveniendo vacationem beneficii mandat ea succedente certae personae conferri, eciam ipse ex tunc confert. Quarto jure reservationis. Quinto denique simplici via juris. Unde etiam in mensibus quos Papa Ordinario concessit de novo, non abdicavit totaliter a se potestatem conferendi, ita ut si ipse praeveniat; valeat ejus collatio. More particularly they assert, In primis reservantur de jure dispositioni Romana Pontificis, omnia beneficia vacantia apud sedem Apostolicam, seu in Curia: in tantum, quod si Ordinarius provideat de beneficio quod vacavit in Curia, provisus non habebit titulum coloratum. Et illud beneficium dicitur vacare apud sedem Apostolicam, ut sit reservatum, quod vacavit in locis vicinis ipsius Sedis Apostolicae, et Romana Curiae, quod prope eam intra duas dietas legales. Beneficia etiam apud sedem seu in Curia vocare dicuntur non solum per obitum in illa, quia beneficium illius qui est mortuus in Curia, dicitur reservatum, sed etiam per resignationem factam in manibus Papae, quam constat vere et legaliter dici resignationem in Curia, etiamsi mediante procuratore alibi constituto. Yea, resignantes beneficia in Curia Romana permutationis causa, si moriantur extra Curiam ambo, vel unus illorum ante permutationem completam, vacare ea beneficia in Curia tenent, quia non habetur ratio temporis in quo mortui sunt Clerici, sed ejus in quo resignarunt, quia tunc beneficia vacasse intelliguntur. Sic etiam in Curia beneficia vacare dicuntur, quando ibi privatio, aut alii vacationis modi inducuntur. Ubi privatio inducitur a jure, seu ex decreto propter actum positivum; per sententiam privationis latam in Curia contra se defendentem, verum contumacem, qui de jure habetur propraesenti. Secundo, Reservatione beneficia dispositioni Romani Pontif. pertinent per solam appositionem suae manus, quamvis inutiliter factam; ita quod si Papa providet alicui, vel provideri mandat de aliquo beneficio, si provisio fuerit nulla, utpote facta inhabili vel incapaci, aut propter subreptionem, vel alium defectum, beneficium remanet Papae affectum, et in illo Ordinarius non potest se intromittere. Tertio, Reservantur dispositioni Summi Pontificis beneficia vacantia seed Episcopali vacante, (either by death, or translations to other Sees) cujuscunque speciei et qualitatis sint. To which Augustinus Barbosa and others quoted by him, add at least 18 Heads of Reservations more, by which Popes have right to prefer persons by their Provisions to all sorts of Ecclesiastical dignities, benefices, and preferments, by their own Constitutions and Canons; so as none could escape their clutches, which those who please may there peruse at leisure.

That which encouraged Popes to these Extravagant Usurpations in their Provisions to, and Reservations of all Ecclesiastical Dignities and benefices, was the good success and victory they had gained in the Controversies between them the Emperors of Germany, and our King Henry the 1. (after above 30. years hot and bloody contests) in the Case of Investitures of Bishops and Abbots per Annulum & Baculum; whereof I shall render you this brief account. The Roman Emperors both claimed and exercised this Sovereign Prerogative, that no Pope, Patriarch, Archbishop, or Bishop should be elected, confirmed, or consecrated within their Empire, but by their precedent special license, subsequent Confirmation and Investiture; for the better preservation whereof, after the translation of their Courts & residence from Rome to Constantinople, the Bishops of Rome by their order, used to send Certificate of their elections to the Emperor to his royal City, and to give a certain sum of money to him before they were consecrated. This Pope Vitalian did An. 665. secundum antiquam consuetudinem: which sum o • money Constantine Pogonatus in the time of Pope Agatho about the year 680. released, but still reserved the former privilege of confirming Popes before they were consecrated (as well as of questioning, imprisoning, banishing, yea deposing them, which some Emperors did) as Gratian himself, Bartholomaeus Brixiensis, John Thierry, in their Glosses on him, Blondus, and others attest. Upon the translation of the Empire from the Germans to the French by Charles the Great himself (by his own sword and the Romans concurrent assent, as Marsilius Patavinus, and others prove at large, not by the Popes Authority,) Pope Adrian the 1. An. 773. (before Charles was crowned Emperor, in a Universal Synod at Rome of 153. religious Bishops and Abbots, Dedit ei jus eligendi Pontisicem, et ordinandi Apostolicam sedem, dignitatem quoque Principatus; insuper Archiepiscopos et Episcopos per singulas provincias AB EO INVESTITURAM ACCIPERE definivit; et ut nisi A REGE laudetur et INVESTIATUR EPISCOPUS, a nemine consecretur. Omnesque huic Decreto rebels anathematizavit, et nisi resipiscerent bona eorum publicari. Which Privilege Pope Leo the 3d. confirmed to this Emperor Charles, at his Coronation, and Pope Leo the 8. to the Emperor Otho the 1. in another Council Anno 963. as Waltramus Bishop of Naumburg in his Excellent Treatise against Pope Hildebrand, De Episcoporum Investitutis per Imp. asserts; (wherein he affirms, that this privilege of Investitures was used by the Kings of England, Scotland, Spain, Hungary, and of other Realms,) with Gratian himself and sundry others (wherein these their confirmations are recorded at large) acknowledge. This Privilege was enjoyed by, and continued sacred, inviolable in Emperors and Kings for above 200 years, as Waltramus, Antoninus, Johannes Aventinus, and others prove at large; till that Antichristian firebrand Pope Gregory the 7. in a Council at Rome in the year 1076. (to wrest this Right of Investitures from the Emperor Henry the 4. and his successors, and all other Christian Kings and Laymen) decreed; Si quis deinceps Episcopatum vel Abbatiam de manu alicujus laicae personae susceperit, nullatenus inter Episcopos vel Abbates habeatur, neculla ei ut Episcopo vel Abbati audientia concedatur. Insuper, ei gratiam B. Petri et Ecclesiae introitum interdicimus, suspendimus, quousque locum quam sub crimine tam inobedientiae quam ambitionis, ex quo idololatria caepit, resipiscendo non deserit. Similiter et de inferioribus dignitatibus constituimus. Item, Si quis Imperatorum, Regum, Ducum, Marchionum, Comitum, vel quaelibet summorum potestatum aut personarum Investituram Episcopatuum, vel alicujus Ecclesiasticae dignitatis dare praesumpserit, ejusdem sententiae vinculo se esse obstrictum sciat. And because the Emperor Henry the 4. would not hereupon quit this right of Investitures, he solemnly excommunicated him: upon which Henry in a Council at Worms degraded him from his Papacy, as an Intruder, Thief, Wolf, Tyrant, and no Pastor or Pope; He by way of revenge absolved all his Subjects from their allegiance, and raised his Prelates, Nobles, set up Rodulphus, and at last his own Son Henry against him, who by force of arms after many battles, crowned his Son Emperor in his stead, forcibly deprived him of his Empire, imprisoned him, (being likewise excommunicated for the same cause by Pope Clement 3. Victor 3. and Urban 2. who confirmed Hildebrands, and made new Canons and Constitutions against Investitures in several Councils) and after his death he had his Corps digged out of his grave, and kept uninterred for 5. years space upon this quarrel. Which yet his Son Henry revived: who coming to Rome to be crowned there by Pope Paschal the 2. Anno 1111. entreated him to confirm all the Bishops he had invested, and this right of Investitures, which the Emperors had enjoyed above 300 years: which he refusing to do, against Pope Hildebrands and his 3. successors decrees against Investitures, he commanded his Soldiers forthwith to apprehend and imprison the Pope & his Cardinals in the Mount of St. Sylvester, until they should all restore and confirm to him by their Deeds, investiendi Ius Carolo Magno datum; and crown him Emperor; which at last they yielded to do; this Pope by his Charter by himself, and 25 Cardinals by another, (recorded in the marginal Authors,) restoring and ratifying this Privilege to him and his successors, which they likewise confirmed by a most solemn Oath: But the Emperor was no sooner crowned, and departed from Rome, but this Pope with a few Cardinals and Bishops in a Council there summoned by him, most perfidiously nulled and revoked these their Charters, and this Privilege of Investitures, styling it Pravilegium, non Privilegium, excommunicating this Emperor therein, and raising such Rebellions against him, that at last, after 33. years bloody wars and contests between his father and him, and several Popes, to purchase his peace and absolution, he was enforced to quit and release this ancient Right by a Deed under his seal to Pope Calixtus the 2. Anno 1127. maximo et adhuc. punquam deleto Germaniae et Imperii totius dedecore. Atque ut notissima esset victoria et Caesaris probrum, Papae Legati ease literas in loco campestri spaciosissimo prope Rhenum clara voice proclamant et denunciant. Ea diplomata ubi ad Romam delata sunt incredibilem excitaverunt laetitiam et tripudium. Ut autem triumphus ill de manubiis Caesari ereptis communior et illustrior esset, Sanctissimus Papa Caesar Calixtus 2. ease literas de extorta resignatione et renunciatione Iuris Caesarii de Investitura Episcoporum, in Ecclesia Lateranensi publice suspendi jussit, omnibus ut risum et insultationem, more scilicet vere Apostolico, moveret: Just 12. years after Pope Paschal had extorted it from our King Henry the 2. Anno 1108. by the treachery, obstinacy, and rebellion of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbùry, after many years contests, as I have elsewhere evidenced; Yet notwithstanding this forced renunciation of this Privilege by the Emperor Henry the 5th his Deed, Lotharius the Emperor demanded the restitution of this right of Investitures from Pope Innocent the 2. (whom he restored to the Papacy, when expelled from Rome by Anacletus his Competitor;) Investitures then springing up in all places like Hydraes heads, notwithstanding all Popes or Councils successive decrees, fulminations, and above 50 years contests against them; till St. Bernard by his mediation with Lotharius and the French King composed this ancient difference by an amicable accord between the Pope, Emperor and them, engaging the Emperor, French King, and other Christian Princes in a War against the Saracens, the better to divert them from resuming this their ancient Privilege, that so Popes alone (under a pretext of preventing Simony in Lay-men) might engross the sale of all Bishoprics, Church-Dignities, Benefices into their own hands alone, and make all Bishops, Clerks become their devoted sworn servants, on whom all their preferments depended.

What strenuous oppositions King John, and Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury made against Pope Innocent the 3. his Provisions, when first set on foot within his Dominions, you may read in my second Tome in the case of Gilardus, on whom he conferred the Bishopric of St. David's by his Provision, who yet was enforced to quit it. To which I shall here annex his memorable Patents prohibiting both the aiding and consecrating of Sylvester (this Popes Archdeacon) to the Bishopric of Sajis (Sagiensis) in Normandy, under the Archbishopric of Rhoan about the same time, there casually omitted.

REX, &c. Omnibus Clericis per Episcopatum Sagiensem constitutis, &c. Datum est nobis intelligi, quod vos in pecunia et aliis succuritis Silvestro Archid. Sagiensi, qui contra Nos et dignitatem nostram in Episcopatu Sagiensi nititur promoveri. Unde vobis mandamus, quodde auxilio ei conferendo vel in pecunia vel alio modo desistatis, quodnisi feceritis omittere non poterimus, quin de vobis faciemus sicut de illis qui contra Nos et dignitatem nostram operantur. Teste meipso apud Argent. 12 die Aug.

REX, &c. W. Dei gratia Rothomag. Archiepiscopo, &c. Audivimus, quod Dominus Papa in Silvestrum Archid. suam contulit voluntatem, quod Iuri scripto et nostrae pariter contrarium existit dignitati, si exinde non fuerimus requisiti. Et praeterea cum sit notorium, illum super crimine adulterii publica laborare infamia, quod coram vobis, vel ubi fuerit necesse sufficienter ostendetur; unde appellavimus et adhuc appellamus, rogantes, ne contra juset dignitatem nostram, necnon et in dedecus Ecclesiae Sagiensis, immo tocius Ecclesiae Dei, munus ei consecrationis impendatis. Teste meipso apud Cenom. 13. die Augusti.

Sub eadem forma scribitur Ph. Senon. Archiepisco de eodem Silvestro.

To which I shall subjoin this Patent, evidencing his Ecclesiastical Sovereignty and Justice, in the equal distribution of the Rents of the Church at Poitiers, which some Non-resident Canons had engrossed, to those who did their duties in it, by his own Royal Authority, without the Pope, who alone claimed this as his Papal Prerogative.

REX. &c. Senescall. Pict. et Senesc. Andeg. Datun • est nobis intelligi, quod quidam Canonici Ecclesiae beati Hilarii Pict. tenent adfirmam redditus ejusdem Ecclesiae; ita quod alii Canonici qui assidue ibi Deo deserviunt inde patum aut nichil percipiant. Et quia hoc nolumus sustinere, Vobis mandamus, quod sine dilatione omnia bona praedictae Ecclesiae quae sunt per ballivam vestram in commune redigi faciatis; Ita quod bona illa per legales portiones singulis Canonicis per eosdem Canonicos, sicut fieri debet dividantur.

What other oppositions were made against Papal Provisions by our King John, Henry the 3d and Edward the 1. the Records in the Second, and Index to this Third Tome will inform you.

4ly. Whereas Pope Boniface the 8th. prohibited by his Constitutions, any Subsidy to be granted to King Edward the 1. or any other King, by Bishops or any Ecclesiastical persons for defense of the Church or Realm, without his and his Successors previous assents thereto, and their concurring consents, under pain of Excommunication; yet Popes, Bishops, and Canonists aver, That every Bishop, Archbishop, Patriarch, Cardinal, Pope, and Popes Legate, may both by Law and right demand & exact charitable Subsidies from their Clergy, Churches under them, without the previous consent of their Kings, upon several occasions; which they thus express. Episcopy, Archiepiscopi, Primates seu Patriarchy, in Civitatibus et Diocaesibus suis, possunt data manifesta et rationabili causa, jure exigere charitativum subsidium, et subditos Clericos et Ecclesias compellere ad tale subsidium solvendum; And that, in causa quae spectat ad dignitatem et honorem Ecclesiae; Pro sua consecratione; pro solutione debitorum in Ecclesiae utilitatem contractorum; cum magnas fecer it expensas in negotiis totius Diocaesis communibus pertractandis; pro fabrica suae Ecclesiae, vel alia re continente illius publicam utilitatem, vel conservationem. Si iter sit facturus ad Papam, vel Imperatorem, vel Regem ob Ecclesiae suae utilitatem; Si visitaturus sit limina Apostolorum; si velit ire ad Concilium provinciale; si impensas necessarias et alicujus momenti feceric in adventu Imperatoris, Regis, Principis vel Legati; And that quoties rationabilis causa subsit non solum semel, sed etiam pluribus vicibus possunt charitativum subsidium exigere, and also ex urgenti causa ultra taxam solitam. Yea Cardinales, cum in Ecclesiis suorum titulorum habent Jurisdictionem; may do the like. As for the Pope, De Romano Pontifice dubitari non potest quin hoc subsidium possit exigere ab omnibus Clericis et Ecclesiis; tum quia liberam habet administrationem omnium beneficiorum, tum quia est Dominus et Ordinarius cunctorum, Episcopus universalis Ecclesiae, et Ordinarius Ordinariorum. Hinc generalis exemptio non censetur eximere a subsidio per Papam imposito; nisi qui specially privilegio, ab hujusmodi onere nominatim eximeretur, quod non est praesumendum, quippe quod illud concedi non consuevit. And that Legatus Papae cui commissum est plenae legationis officium in sua provincia, cum omnia libere et immedite possit quae quilibet Ordinarius jure vel consuetudine potest, habet jus exigendi hujusmodi subsidium in Ecclesiis provinciae sibi delegatae. Upon which grounds, Popes, Cardinals, Popes Legates, Nuncioes, and other Romish Harpyes imposed, exacted many Dismes, Subsidies, Procurations, and other excessive Payments of divers kinds from our English and Irish Prelates, Clergy, and our Archbishops, Bishops, from the inferior Clergy during the premised Kings reigns, to their great oppression; which they frequently opposed, complained against, and our Kings thereupon prohibited by their Writs, Laws here re-cited.

I might add to these the Sovereign power Popes claim not only over all Christian Kings, Princes, but all Lay-men's persons, estates, and reputations, as to condemn, or declare them heretics, or infamous persons, uncapable to enjoy, inherit, confer lands, goods, offices, Legacies, to make Testaments, or prosecute suits in any Courts to recover their rights; to suspend them from their temporal offices, or restore them when suspended, deprived by their Princes, and their fames, when deemed infamous; yea to abrogate their temporal Laws, Statutes, Customs: to exempt children from the power of their parents, and Subjects from their obedience, oaths, services to their Lord's, and Sovereigns: to make and declare Bastards to be legitimate, and lawful children illegitimate, as especially to Crowns, so to all temporal goods and inheritances; To interdict their Realms, Cities, Lands, Rents, and all communion with them; yea to imprison, kill, burn them as heretics, infidels, blasphemers against the Holy Ghost, and accurse, damn them to all eternity, for opposing or denying this their transcendent power. Yea they assert this for Catholic Apostolic Law and Doctrine; Non sunt homicidae qui adversus excommunicatos zelo Catholicae matris Ecclesiae accensi excommunicatos interficiunt; as Pope Urban the 2d. and Gratian positively determine: And Pope Nicholas the 2d. in his Letter to the French Army employed against the Waldenses, superaddes thereto; Omnium vestrum nosse volumus charitatem, quisquis in hoc belli certamine fideliter mortuus fuerit (though otherwise never so flagitious a person) regna illi caelestia minime negabuntur.

These, with many other Assertions of like nature, you may read at large in Gratian, Pope Innocent 3. Corpus Juris Canonici; the Extravagants, Astexanus, Astensis, Dr. Marta, Augustinus Barbosa, Augustinus Triumphus, Alex. Carerius, Restaurus Castaldus, Petrus Ancharanus, Sylvestre, Baptista Trovomala, Angelus de Clavasio; Franciscus Zerula, Bartholomaeus Brixiensis, Cardinal Hostiensis, Antonius Corsetus, with sundry other Popes and Doctors of the Canon Law, quoted by them; by whose Codes, Books, Glosses, Lectures, the Popes and Prelates Soveraignties, Usurpations over all Christian Emperors, Kings, Princes, Nobles, Laymens Crowns, kingdoms, persons, consciences, estates, Laws, Liberties, have been principally asserted, advanced, supported, and continued in the world.

By what Popes, persons, means, arts, and for what ends the Canon Law was first compiled into a Code or Body, published, taught, studied, propagated, read on, professed, executed, and the Doctors, Students, Professors of it encouraged, multiplied, maintained in Universities, and advanced to the Highest Offices, Dignities, Preferments in the Church, as well as in Ecclesiastical Courts, and entrusted with the vigorous execution of them under Popes, Archbishops, Bishops, as their Vicars-Generals, Chancellors, Commissaries, Surrogates, Officials, Delegates, and what bad effects it produced, to the great prejudice and injury of all Christian Kings, Subjects, Realms, (to avoid all suspicion of prejudice or partiality in myself;) I shall crave leave to inform you in the words of a most learned French Civilian, Marc de Vulson (an Advocate in the Court of Paris, afterwards a Counselor of the French King in the Court of Parliament of Dauphine, a person beyond exception) in his Book, De la Puissance du Pape, & des Libertez de l'Eglise Gallicane, lib. 3. c. 17. de Decret de Gratian, et du Corps du Droict Canon; wherein, after a brief Account of the time and manner of the Emperor Justinians compiling his Code and Body of the Imperial Laws, and their disusage for near 600 years both in Italy, France, Germany, and the Western Empire, till about the year 1118. when the Emperor Lothaire the 2. at the instigation and solicitation of Irnerius, who then newly found them, ordered that they should be read in Schools, and the Judges to judge according to the Roman Civil Laws, to the great contentment of the learned Doctors and Studens thereof: thereupon informs us; that in imitation of the Emp. Justinian; Les Papes, qui desja avoyent beaucop empietie sur la Jurisdiction et authority des Empereurs et Rois, recognoissans que par le restablissement de ces belles loix, leur dessein seroit grandement empesche, qui estoit de serendre Souverains, aussibien au temporel comme au spirituel: et de former un Estat et Souverainete, dans l'Estat et Empire des Rois, Princes et Monarques, estimerent qu'il faloit a l envi et imitation du dit Justinian, dresser un Corps et Code de leurs Loix et Constitutions, le fair lire et interpreter es Escholes et Vniversitez, et donner order que touts les affairs se jugeassent par ycelles, si fair se pouvoit. A ces fins fut compile par Gratian le grand Decret. qui fut publie et authorise par le Pape Eugene 3. l'an 1151. et ainsi vingt ans apres que le Corps du droict de Justinian fut restabli en Italy et Almagne par Lothaire. Et pour le fair taunt plus facilement receivoir, ledit livre et volume de Gratian ne fut pas seulement compose des Ordonances des Papes, come le Code de Justinian des Constitutions des Empereurs, mais aussi de quelques passages de l'Escriture Saint: de plusieurs sentences des anciens Peres: de quelques loix prinses desdites Digestes es Code de Justinian, et autres urais et bons autheurs. Vray est que les uns sont tronquez, les autres alleguez a contre-sense, les autres falsifiez ouvertement: Et sur tout, le dit livre est rempli d'un tresgrand et quasi infini number de passages tirez des escrits faux et supposez, dont a este parle cy devant: comme sont les Canons dits des Apostres; les Epistres attribuees aux primiers Evesques de Rome, qui y sont quasi entierement transcrites, (taunt avoit-il peur d y failler,) du Concile tenu a Rome sous Sylvestre: de l'act ou instrument de la pretendue donation de Constantine: des Capitulaires attribuez a Charlemagne et autres.

Pour interpreter ces Loix et Canons, Gratian mesme compilateur d'iceux fut incontinent envoye a Paris, et par ce moyen le Droict Canon fut plustost receu en France, que le droict de Justinian, ainsi qu'a tresbien remarque Monsieur de l'Estrang President en Cour de Parlement de Tolouse en son Arrest 8. Et au livre 6. ch. 9. de son Histoire de Gauls, Et pour le mieux authoriser, Celestin 3. (qui siegea l' an 1191.) osa ordonner, qu'a Paris les causes pecuniaires des Clercs seront decidees par le droict Canon C. quod Clericis extra de foro comp. Et Honorius 3. inviron l'an 1210. fut si hardi de defendre, sous peine d'excommunication, de lire et ovir le Droict Civil a Paris, a fin que taunt mieux on s'addonne a son Droict Canon (qu'il appelle les Saints cayers) (sacram paginam) c. super specula, extra. de previleg. et excess. privileg. comme si ceta e • toit quelque beau privilege, de • e mettre en la place du Roy, et d'enterprender de fair les loix en son Royaume, et de defendre la lecture du Droict Civil. Et Alexandre 3. sous pretexte de corriger les abus, s'ingere de bailler des loix a l' Vniversite de Paris, et defend au Chancellier, ou Recteur d'icelle, d'exiger aucune chose pour la license et permission d'y enseigner les sciences, c. quanto de Magistris. Et Innocent 3. fit aussi certain ordonnance, Que sous peine d'excommunication, aucun ne prinst a louage le logis love par un autre: ce qui n'appartient qu'au Roy. Par la reception de ce corps Canon es Vniversites de France, fut faite une si grande bresche a nos Esglises Francoises, que les Papes et leurs armees y sont entrees a cheval. Et de la en avant, ils ont a leur plaisir erige des Escholes et Vniversitez France, ce qu'ils n'avoyent ose enterprendre au paravant: Ont donne des privileges a celles qui avoyent este establiss par nos Roys, et aux members d'icelles: Ont establi leurs Doctorats, et prescrit la form et les ceremonies de leur establissement: Ont institue, et establi esdites Vniversites des Iuges conservateurs de leurs privileges, se sont fait prester serment: Ont donne order que tous les supposts et members desdites Vniversites et Colleges, du moins les principaur, fussent Clercs non maries: Que les principales charges, et benefices Ecclesiastiques fussent affects aux Docteurs, ou licenties en Dro'ct Canon, ou en la Theology de Pierre Lombard, et non a autres: Que les Escholiers estudians ausdites Vniversites, fussent exempts de la Jurisdiction civile: Que sans la lirense, et express permission du Siege Romain, aucun de • 'Vniversite de Paris ne pust estre excommunie, ou interdit pur quelque cause et suject que ce fust: Que les Escholiers de l'Vniversite de Paris, soyent exempts de touts sortes de peages; Que les Docteurs de Paris puissent lire et enseigner par tout le monde. Incontinent un nonibre infini de persons s'addonna a la profession du Droict et science Canonique, puisque le profit et l'honneur estoit evident et certain. Plusieurs tascherent a l'envi de commenter, gloser, et apostiler ledit Decret, et d' extoller la dignity et puissance du Pape. Par ce moyen le Pape s'acquit une grande arm de creatures et suject au milieu de la France: et sans frais et despens forma un puissant Estat dans les Estats du Roy. Et le tout sous le beau manteau de conscience, religion, et spiritualite; au veu et sceu de nos Roys, et de leurs principaux Officers et de tout les Prelates de France, qui demeurerent muets en cest endroit. Bien est vray, que les Decretales des Papes depuis le dit Eugene 3. ayans este publiees separement, et sans meslange d'acune bone piece, premierement par Gregoire 9. environ l'an 1230. & consequement par Boniface 8. Clement 5. et Jean 22. la laider d'icelles en fit considerer l'importance, et au Roy et a sa Cour de Parlement de Paris, aux Prelates de France et a l'Vniversite: et fut cause de l'opposition et impeschement donne a la reception desdites Decretales. Mais ce fut bien tard, et apres la bataille gaignee. Et ceux la ce trompent, qui estiment que seulement des lors les Decrets prindrent des ails. Car les Decretales des quatre vingts quatorze Papes precedents, vrayes ou supposees qui ont este inserees audit Decret de Gratian, contiennent en substance les mesmes chooses que les dernieres, qui ne font que mieux exprimer et mettre en practique les Doctrines et maxims des premieres, que se reduisent a ceci; Que le Pape est Lieutenant de Jesus Christ, et a tout pouvoir taunt au temporel qu'au spirituel: Est juge de tout le monde, et ne puit estre juge par aucune creature. Que ses Constitutions et Decretales doivent e •• re inviolablement observees par tous: Que celuy qui mesprise ou enfreint fes mandements, ou diminueses privileges et son authority, ou n'est d'accord avec luy, commet crime d'heresy et d'infidrlite, blaspheme contre le Saint Esprit, est anatheme et damn. Et auffi nos Roys ont permis par mesgarde et tolerance, que l'esdites Decretales ayent este leues et interpretees es Universites, et que la jeunesse Fraincose fust imbibee de ceste doctrine. Et neantmoins ces oppositions, quoy que tardives, servirent a empescher, que la liberty des Esglises de Gaule ne fust intirement esteinte, comme ser a dit cy apres.

By which memorable Discourse of De Vulson, and the apparent frauds of Popes, Gratian, and other Canonists, in leaving out of their Codes and Collections of Councils all Canons made in the general, famous, ancient Councils of Ephesus, Laodicea, Constantinople, Chalcedon, and those they falsely attribute to the Apostles, which contradict the Popes Supremacy, and inserting spurious Canons, Councils, Synods, Decretal Epistles of ancient Popes into them, which only advanced their Papal and Episcopal Hierarchy and Jurisdictions, in, over all Temporal and Spiritual persons, causes, (which he and others at large demonstrate;) we may clearly discern, both the reasons, providence, prudence, justice of our King Stephen and Henry the 3d, in prohibiting, crushing the Books, Readings; Schools, Profession of the Canon Laws and Decretals in the University of Oxford, and in London, when first introduced into our Realm, like so many Cockatrice eggs, which would soon prove fiery flying serpents, yea vipers to them, their subjects, Realms; of King Henry the 3. and Edward the first their Prohibitions, Appeals, Protests against the Constitutions of Archbishop Boniface, Peokham, Stratford, with the forecited Statutes of King Henry the 8. Edward the 6. and their Parliaments, made against them and the Canon Law; and what little reason our Kings, Parliaments, Nobles, or Commons have, to countenance or support these Canon Laws and Constitutions, or the study, profession, use, or execution of them within their Dominions; against which not only two eminent Martyrs, to wit, Mr. William Tyndale, and Sir John Borthwicke, together with William Wraughton in his Hunting and Rescuing of the Romish Fox, (the Pope and his Prelates) dedicated to King Henry the 8. the Author of a judicious Treatise, expressing the Causes of the Divisions between the Spiritualty and the Temporalty, printed cum privilegio in Henry the 8. his reign, ch. 3, 4, 5, to 16. with others in that age have made many large Discourses, setting forth their dangers, mischiefs, together with their Nullity; but even our famous learned King Henry the 2. long before them, most strenuously opposed and suppressed. For, Lucas Dacherius (a modern Benedictine Monk) and Stephanus Balluzius, a learned Reverend Canon and Canonist of Reims, relate; that this our Noble, prudent, learned King Henry then Duke of Normandy, was so highly displeased with Hugo Archbishop of Rhoan for putting the Canon Law and new Canons made and confirmed by Pope Innocent the 2d. in the Council of Reims in execution, (without his Royal assent, and the States of Normandy) by exacting profession and obedience from the Abbots of Normandy, contra consuetudinem, (a punctilio in respect of other encroachments upon his Regality of an higher nature, by Becket and our Prelates) and for his justification thereof, vetustis Canonibus, qui volunt Abbates esse in potestate Episcoporum, et Decreto Concilii Rhemensis paulo ante celebrati; ut vel OB HOC IPSUM ad Innocentium scribens, MINATUS EST APERTE DIVORTIUM AB APOSTOLICA SEDE, NISI PRAESUMPTIO ILLIUS ARCHIEPISCOPI REPRIMERETUR: which so terrified this Pope, that he thereupon writ thus to the Archbishop; Quod profecto, quamvis justum fuerit, et a nobis in Coneilio Rhemensi mandatum; pro ejus (tamen) caritate aliquando condescendere debemus, & pro tempore, ipsius voluntati assensum praebere. Besides, this our learned prudent King, propter dissentiones et discordias saepius emergentes inter Clerum et Iusticiarios Domini Regis et Magnates Regni, occasioned by these Canon Laws, made sundry Edicts expressly against the Popes, Councils, Prelates Canons and Constitutions exempting Clerks from Secular Jurisdiction and punishments by Temporal Judges for Murders, Robberies, Rapes, and other Offences; Concerning the elections, homages and fealty of Bishops, the vacancies of Bishoprics, Excommunications, Appeals, Citations, and accusations of Laymen before Bishops, of Pleas of Advowsons and other causes not belonging to their Jurisdiction; Which Laws and Avitae Consuetudines regni, specified in 16. Articles drawn up in the forecited Council of Clarendon, Archiepiscopi, Episcopy, Abbates, Priores, Clerus, cum Comitibus et Baronibus ac Proceribus cunctis (by his Royal command) juraverunt, et firmiter in verbo veritatis promiserunt viva voice tenendas et observandas, Domino Regi et haeredibus suis, bona fide et absque malo ingenio inperpetuum. His itaque gestis, potestas laica in res et personas ecclesiastieas, omnia pro libitu, (as Mat. Paris complains) ECCLESIASTICO JURE CONTEMPTO, usurpabat; tacentibus, aut vix murmutantibus Episcopis, potius quam resistentibus; except only that Trayterous Archbishop Thomas Becket, whose goods, temporalties the King seised, and banished him the Realm for opposing them, against his Oath; which brought him to a tragical death.

What great Cause he and our premised Kings had thus to oppose, suppress the Canons and Constitutions of Popes, yea of their own Prelates in their Councils and Synods, will further appear by these remarkable Clauses in the most insolent Epistle of John Peckham Archbishop of Canterbury, Ann. 9 E. 1. who then making sundry Constitutions in a Provincial Council, prejudicial to the Kings Crown and Dignity, against two successive Writs of Prohibition to him and his Suffragans; for which King Edward the 1. was highly incensed against them, the Archbishop thereupon thus justified them by these Antimonarchical Topics, among others; Quia igitur ab antiquo tempore inter Reges et Magnates Angliae ex parte una; et Archiepiscopos et Episcopos, ac Clerum ejusdem Regni ex altera, duravit amara dissentio, pro oppressione Ecclesiae, contra Decreta Summorum Pontificum, contra Statuta Conciliorum, contra Sanctiones orthodoxorum Patrum, in quibus tribus summa authoritas, summa veritas, summa sanctitas existit. Supplicamus Regiae Majestati, &c. (instead of submitting himself and his Constitutions to the King and his Laws, as he ought;) to submit himself, his Crown, Laws, to the Canons, Laws, and Constitutions then made by him and his Suffragans in the Council of Lambeth; because there was no other means but this, to put a period to the contests between them, concerning the Churches pretended Liberties, nisi vos sublimitatem vestram praedictis tribus, scilicet Decretis Pontificum, Statutis Conciliorum, & Sanctionibus orthodoxorum Patrum (as curtailed, mis-cited, mis-applied by Popes, Prelates, and Gratian) jurta Domini beneplacitum, cum Catholicis Imperatoribus dignemini inclinare: Ex hiis enim tribus SUNT CANONES AGGREGATI, et Iura Coronae vestrae Christi Coronae subponenda▪ cujus sunt Diadema ac sponsae suae monilia, universae Ecclesiasticae Libertates. Decretis autem Summorum Pontificum, auctoritatem dedit summus omnium Imperator, &c. Ergo, nulla obstante consuetudine obediendum est Canonicis Ierarchice impositis; hoc est, sacris arbitriis Praelatorum. &c. Idem est ergo Sanctorum Patrum definitionibus resistor (published in their Canons and Constitutions) quod Spiritus Sancti oraculis adversari. Haec atten. dentes Imperatores Catholici LEGES SUAS OMNES SACRIS CANONIBUS SUBDIDERUNT, NE SCISMATICI, VEL HAERETICI PUTERENTUR. A right Papal and Archiepiscopal Resolution, directly contradictory to St. Paul's and St. Peters Doctrine and Practice.

I shall therefore cloze up this large Discourse concerning the danger, mischiefs of, & public oppositions against Popes, Prelates Decretals, Canons, Constitutions, and the Canon Laws both in England and elsewhere, by evidencing their Nullity, invalidity to oblige either Kings or Subjects, especially Laymen, unless specially approved, received, ratified by them, their Nobles and people by common consent in Parliament; with the Resolution of learned John Gerson Chancellor of Paris, yea of Didacus Covarruvias, Navarrus, Driedo, Armilla, Johannes Major, and Petrus de Marca, late Archbishop of Paris, in his excellent elaborate learned Volume, De Concordia Sacerdotii & Imperii, sen Libertatibus Ecclesiae Gallicanae, revised, enlarged by Stephanus Baluzius, printed Parisiis 1663. cum privilegio Regis; (who quotes all these Doctors, and asserts their joint Resolutions herein in these positive terms,) Certum est Legem nullam vim obtinere, si ab initio recepta non fuerit a subditis (especially a Regibus) Nam et maxim praesumendum est eam legem quae a Republica non recipitur, minime ea convenire. Huic conditioni magis videtur obnoxia Lex Ecclesiastica quam civilis, duplici ration. Prima est, quia potestas Ecclesiastica conceptis verbis data est, in aedificationem, non autem in destructionem; ut testator Apostolus; unde sequitur, nihil obtrudendum esse fidelibus quod eos offender aliquo pacto posset: atque ideo legem Ecclesiasticam minus commodam pro non scripta esse habendam. Secunda vero ratio haec est, quia Christus ipse discrimen utriusque potestatis in praeceptis dandis, authoritate sua constituit; Reges gentium dominantur eorum; Vos autem non sic, &c. Et ipse Petrus, Non dominantes in Clero, sed forma facti gregis, Ita ut verus Dominatus sit penes Reges, non autem penes Sacerdotes. Vehementer est Bernardus, & fere totus in eo, ut hanc sententiam Eugenio Pontifici persuadeat, Planum est, Apostolis interdicitur Dominatio, indicitur Ministratio.

Upon which grounds this learned Archbishop Marca (though a great asserter of the Popes, Canons, Prelates Authority in other particulars) proves at large in his 7 & 8 Books, De Concordia Sacerdotii & Imperii; That the Kings of France, England, Spain, and Emperors of Germany, did most justly reserve and retain to themselves the Sovereign power in elcctions, approbations, confirmations, investitures and institntions of Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Priors, Deans, Prebends, and other Ecclesiastical dignities, and justly receive the fruits, profits of Bishoprics, Monasteries, and present to the Prebendaries annexed to them during their vacancies by death, or translations; yea, seise the goods of Bishops, Abbots, and others dying intestate, to their proper use; as belonging to them by the ancient Laws, Custom of France, Normandy, and England, though inhibited, condemned under severe Ecclesiastical Censures, by sundry Canons, Constitutions of Popes, Bishops, Synods, as Sacrilege, unless in the Cases of such particular Churches, Monasteries, as are exempted from such seisures of their Temporalties and profits by Kings, their Founders, or Patrons special Charters, out of mere grace, not right; yea he proves in his first Book and Chapters by sundry presidents, and particularly complains in his Dedicatory Epistle to the late Grand Statesman, Cardinal Duke of Richelieu, Quod frequents & paene quotidianae in actu rerum positis occurrunt contentiones, quae secundum varias causarum figuras ob dignitatem laesam, vel diminutam auctoritatem accenduntur, et Christianae Reipublicae Principes inter se committunt; & ambae illae Potestates (ECCLESIASTICA ET RECIA) quae amico foedere conjungi debuerant, in dedecus Christiani nominis aliquando divellantur ab invicem, hominum vitio; and that principally by executing of Popes, Prelates Canons, and Canon Laws, not publicly confirmed by the concurrent Authority of Christian Kings, Parliaments, Realms, but obtruded on them against their wills. Which differences, Schisms, Mischiefs, can be neither totally nor finally composed, nor prevented, so long as such Canons, Constitutions, Decrees shall have any force, countenance, continuance, and be rigorously executed in Ecclesiastical Courts, by Judges, Delegates, Officials, Canonists, only in Popes, or Bishops own Names, rights, stiles, under their own seals alone, as independent on the Crown.

For the clearer demonstration whereof in our own Kingdom, I have with no small pains and diligence, collected out of all the whole or decayed files, and confused heaps of broken, scattered Original Writs, and the Plea-Rolls, Patent, Clause and other Rolls in the White Tower Chapel or elsewhere, all Writs of Prohibitions issued out, and Attachments, Suits at our Kings or their grieved Subjects prosecutions, brought for contempts of them, yet extant, during the reigns of the 3. premised Kings, either against Popes Nuncioes, Collectors, Delegates, or our Archbishops, Bishops, Archdeacons, Officials, Ecclesiastical Judges, or other persons, upon several occasions; but more especially for holding, prosecuting suits belonging to these Kings Temporal Courts, and vexing their Subjects by illegal Excommunications, and Writs de Excommunicato capiendo grounded on them, on purpose to discourage, or disable them, and deter all others from suing for Prohibitions to restrain their Extravagant Usurpations, in high contempt, and to the grand prejudice of the Kings Crown, Dignity, Courts, and Royal Authority; that so they might by degrees engross all temporal suits, causes into their own Courts, and trample all Secular Powers, Courts, Subjects, Laws, Liberties under their feet without control; whereof I found such multitudes, yet remaining, besides those quite putrefied, torn, lost or perished, as may not only satiate but surfeit their Readers: the most whereof I have abbreviated, and inserted into this Tome, as for the vindication of these Kings Ecclesiastical Sovereignty; and evidencing the inconsistency of these Canon Laws and Constitutions with it, or the Kingdoms, Subjects peace and felicity; so for these two following reasons.

First; To justify the practice of our late and present Judges in granting Prohibitions to Ecclesiastical Persons, Courts, to restrain their usurpations, and extravagances of all kinds, according to their Oaths, duties, against the frequent clamors, and unjust complaints of our Archbishops, Bishops, Canonists, and others to our Kings and their Council, as well since the Reformation of Religion as before; being warranted by such multitudes of Presidents from year to year even in times of Popery, when Popes and Prelates were most predominant: which will make a considerable Addition to the Presidents of Prohibitions in punier times, formerly collected by the Judges for their own defense.

Secondly, To evidence the manifold uncessant grievances, oppressions, vexations of the Subjects of this Realm in former ages, by reason of these diversities of Laws, Jurisdictions, Courts, especially since the Ecclesiastical depend not on the King, Parliament, or Common Laws of England, and are not executed by special Commissions from the King, limiting their Jurisdictions, Proceedings, by a derivative power from, by, and under him, nor in his Name, Right, Style, Seal alone, like other Courts, and Processe; Nor yet by our Bishops and Ordinaries themselves, who ought personally to execute their Ecclesiastical Judicatures and Jurisdiction (especially if appropriated by divine right to their Episcopal office, as many of them pretend;) who cannot delegate their Judicial authority to any subordinate Officers, no more then the Kings Judges, or Justices of Peace, and ought to judge in proper person, not by Proxy; or else totally to disclaim their Judicial authority, if they want leisure or skill to execute it; and not to sell, rent, or farm it out upon account to indigent, covetous Chancellors, Vicars, Commissaries, Officials, Surrogates who will give most for it, or to their kindred or nearest allyes; since these Officials, Surrogates in all ages, to fill their purses, and make hay whiles the Sun shines, have most grievously vexed, fleeced, fleyed the people committed to their Episcopal care, by Citations, Interdicts, Ex officio, and other illegal Oaths, Articles, proceedings, Excommunications, imprisonments upon Writs de Excommunicato capiendo, for pretended offenses, defamations of heresy, incontinency, perjury, or other crimes, upon fames, or accusations raised by themselves or their creatures, or for trivial matters, contempts, non-payment of illega fees, or suing out Prohibitions to relieve themselves by due course of Law, against their holding pleas of causes not belonging to them; whereby they have not only been banded up and down from Court to Court, place to place, like Tennis Balls, but even ground to powder, like corn between two Milstones, to their extraordinary oppression, impoverishing, and discontent. Yea, the charges, delays, difficulties in suing out Prohibitions for their just relief (especially when Bishops become predominant State-Officers) have been so great, that they have ofttimes proved as bad, nay worse then the maladies they should redress; so that thousands have rather chosen to submit to their Usurpations, extravagant exactions, censures, and to purchase absolutions from their excommunications, vexations, sequestrations upon any terms, at dearest rates, or to languish, perish under them, then to seek redress against, and strenuously to oppose them.

If these my Collections through God's blessing on, and Your honorable Protection of them, shall prove instrumental to redress these public abuses and usurpations, upon the Crown, Laws, & people's Liberties; to settle a future constant harmony between the Crown and Miter, the Laity and Clergy, to the Glory of God, the Safety and advancement of the Protestant Religion; that so we may all from henceforth endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, increase and abound in love one towards another; love one another with a pure heart fervently; and not bite, devour one another any longer, lest we be consumed one of another, and become a prey to our common Romish adversaries, now swarming everywhere amongst us, (fomenting our Divisions, Schisms, animosities against, and usurpations upon each other;) I shall bless God for such a happy success thereof; and endeavor (through his Divine assistance) with all convenient expedition to complete, publish my intended succeeding Tomes of this Heroic Subject.

In the mean time, I most humbly crave Your candid Acceptation and Protection of this Volume, and the continuance of Your former cordial affections to,