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II.

Edw. III. 4,

invented by the Court of Rome for augmenting its reve- CHAP. nues, this was the most gainful one; and, that though it was by little and little imposed, that so it might insensibly, as it were, take place, (for when the Pope first of all pretended to dispose of vacant benefices by his mandates of provision, this tax seems not to have been demanded,) yet it was often protested against, and complained of as a great grievance, but to no purpose. Here in England we find remonstrances made against this imposition from Rome, by several Parliaments, who call it an unheard of 25, 47, 51, thing, a damnable custom newly introduced, and represent 6, Rich. II. it as the occasion of a great part of the treasure of this 6 Hen. IV. realm being carried to the court of Rome, and of impoverishing the several Archbishops and Bishops. In the address of the Lords and Commons, on which the first of these acts is grounded, made in less than twenty years after this tax is said to have been first imposed, it is complained, that the Pope had then newly set forth the hardest explanations of the collection of this tax, and which were very prejudicial to the King and kingdom, and the whole Church of England.

MS. c. 5.

25. Of this grievance Dr. Wiclif very loudly com- Of Prelates, plained; he said "it was symony to serve the Pope in such

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a strange travail and country, and give him gold for his "lead, and the first fruits for gift of a church. When "(saith he) a lord hath the gold for presenting, the gold " dwelleth still in our land; but when the Pope hath the "first fruits, the gold goeth out and cometh never again." And then he proceeds to shew the malice and cursedness of symony. Nor was hez singular in this opinion of his.

qua quidem re, ut gravi, sæpe reclamatum fuisse testatur Henricus Hostiencis qui cum Alexandro IV. Pontifice vixit, sic ut Franciscus Zabarellus tradit, post hæc in concilio Viennensi (quod Clemens V. indixit qui factus est Pontifex anno salutis humanæ 1305) agitatum fuisse ut, eo deposito annatum onere, vigesima pars vectigalium sacerdotalium penderetur quotannis Romano Pontifici, et id quidem frustra. Quare Pontifex annatas in sua nassa retinuit, ut ne indidem exire possent. Polydore Vergil de Invent. Rerum, lib. viii. cap. 2.

z Nec satis perspicio ut se excusare possint hoc modo promoti a Pontifice, quominus in canonum pœnam incurrant, et tanquam vitio creati, ut veteres

II.

Beneficiis,

CHAP. We are told that it is the opinion of almost all Divines and Canonists, that the Pope is equally obliged with other Duaren. de Bishops by the law of a symoniacal ambitus, if he takes any lib. iv. c. 3. money for disposing of the sacred ministries of the Church: and, that by the Council of Basil, this kind of tax was * Depriva- condemned, and the pain of simoniacal ambitus decreed tion is the against those who this way come at the sacred ministries of the Church.

penalty of simony.

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*

26. Our Bishop, in his defence of himself and the other Bishops thus promoted by the Pope, seems to have been misled by the prevailing opinion of this time; that the Pope, as universal Pastor, had a right to the fruits of all the ecclesiastical benefices in the Christian Church. For thus his Lordship is said to have preached at Paul's Cross, "that b Bishops paying to the Pope before they are admit"ted to be Bishops 5000 marks, or a greater sum, are not guilty of sin on this account, because by this payment 66 they do not give any thing to the Pope, but only make 66 a tender to him of what is his own, as a bailiff or stew"ard does, when he accounts or reckons with his lord." By this it should seem as if it was then generally thought, Consilium that the Pope had a right to all the benefices of the delectorum Church, and might in the disposal of them reserve to himself what he thought fit of the profits of them, without bedanda Ec- ing guilty of symony, since, as rightful lord of them, he sold only that which was his own: and indeed so far was the power or authority claimed by the Popes, of providing

Cardinali

um, &c.

de emen

clesia.

loquebantur, dignitatem, honoremque, ecclesiasticum amittant, siquis ad priscæ institutionis normam potius, quam receptæ consuetudinis, hæc exigere velit. Duaren. de Beneficiis, lib. vi. c. 3.

a Hic autem ambitus vulgo simoniacus dicitur a Simone, quodam apostolorum contemporaneo, qui mirificam illam divinamque vim ac potestatem Spiritus Sancti gratiam infundendi per manuum impositionem, quam habebant Apostoli, ab ipsis emere et mercari voluit. Ibid. cap. 2.

b Item prædicavit Londoniis ad crucem S. Pauli, quod episcopi solventes Papæ Romano, antequam per Papam admittantur, ut sint episcopi, quinque millia marcarum seu majorem summam non peccant in hoc, nec hæc solvendo Papæ aliquid dant Papæ, ut ipse dicit, sed tum tribuunt Papæ quod Papæ est, sicut tribuit aliquis Ballivus suo domino. Gascoigne, Dict. Theol. MS.

II.

persons to bishoprics and other dignities, when they should CHAP. become void, by degrees established in this weak and troublesome reign, that the Popes seem to have acted in this matter with little or no opposition, application being generally made to them, as if they were the undoubted rightful patrons. Insomuch that, as it has been hinted before, Gascoigne tells us it was commonly said, that three things made a man a Bishop in England: 1. the will of the King; 2. the will of the Pope; and, 3. a round sum of money paid into the Pope's Chamber at Rome.

28. Whatever were the effects of this complaint of our Bishop's preaching, it is plain it did not discourage his Lordship from proceeding in his endeavours to vindicate the Bishops and Clergy of the established Church, and to reconcile the dissenting Lollards to it, by causing them to have a better opinion of their discipline and governance. Of this I shall give an account in the next chapter.

с

-Per provisionem factam Romæ in diebus meis facti sunt plures episcopi, et abbates et decani sine electione quacunque, excepta electione Papæ, quæ vocatur provisio. Gascoigne, Dict. Theol. MS.

from A. S. pitan.

CHAP. III.

An account of a book published by the Bishop, entitled,
The Repressour, &c.

1.

OUR Bishop was not, it seems, by the offence lately taken at his preaching in vindication of the Bishops and conforming Clergy, and the trouble given him on that account, made to desist from his attempts to defend the established Church from the objections made to her by the dissenting Lollards. And therefore in the year 1449, his Lordship published a book in English, which he entitled, *blaming The repressing of over miche * witing the Clergie; in which his Lordship endeavoured to defend the Clergy of the then Church of England against the common objections of the followers of Dr. John Wiclif, then going by the nick-name of Lowlardis, or Lollards. The design of this book may be seen by what the Bishop himself says of the partition or division of it. "I schal," says he, "justifie xi gover"nauncis of the Clergie whiche summe of the comoun peple unwiisly and untreuli jugen and comdempnen to "be yuele. Of which xi governauncis oon is the hauvinge "and using of ymagis in chirchis; and another is pil66 grimage in going to the memorials or the myndeplacis of seintis, and, that pilgrimagis and offeringis 66 mowe be doon weel, not oonli priueli, but also openli; "and not oonli so of laymen, but rather of prestis and "of bischops. And this schal I do by writing of this

† called.

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present book in the comoun peplis langage, pleinli and openli and schortli, and to be † clepid The Repressing, "&c. and he schal have v principal parties. In the firste "of whiche parties schal be maad in general manner the "seid repressing, and in general maner proof to the xi "seid gouernauncis. And in the ii, iii, iv, and v parties "schal be maad in special manner the seid repressing, "and in special maner the proof to the same xi go"vernauncis."

2. In the first part of this work, where the Bishop, as

III.

he proposed, makes the repressing in general manner, he CHAP. attacks the main or general principle of the over-blamers of the Clergy, as the Bishop calls them, or as he elsewhere styles them, of the Bible-men, which holden them so wise by the Bible a alone. According to the Bishop some of these affirmed, that,

3. "No governaunce is to be holden of Christen men Repressour, "the service or the lawe of God, save it which is groundid part ii. c. 1. "in holie Scripture of the Newe Testament; whereas "others of them maintained, that no governaunce is to be "held or accounted of Christian men the service or the law "of God, save it which is groundid in the New Testament 66 or in the Old, and is not bi the New Testament re"voked." Both parties agreed in this, that Scripture did not only contain all revealed and supernatural truth, which is absolutely necessary for men to know in this life, that they may be saved in the next; but all things simply, and in such sort, that to do any thing according to any other law, is not only unnecessary, but unlawful and sinful. This they applied to the ecclesiastical polity, or the government and service of the Church, to shew that to use any government or discipline, or to observe any rites or ceremonies which are not grounded in the Old or New Testament, is unlawful. So that the question was, not whether the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were the law of God concerning revealed and supernatural truth, but whether they were to be our law in the choice and use of such things as are in their nature indifferent, so that we may not be sometimes sufficiently guided by the light of reason and the common rules of discretion, and are not bound for every b thing we do in such matters to have our warrant from some places or other of holy Scripture. For however complete the sufficiency of the whole or entire

a

-Talem habebant terminum in omnibus suis dictis semper prætendendo legem Dei Goddislawe. Hen. Knighton de Event. Angliæ, coll. 2644.

I say, that the word of God containeth the direction of all things pertaining to the Church, yea of whatsoever things can fall into any part of man's life. Cartwright's Admonition, p. 14. §. 3.

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