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be in council, treaty, or any act, in the which any thing CHAP. shall be imagined against him or the Church of Rome, their rights, states, honours, or powers; and if I know any such to be moved, or compassed, I shall resist it to my power; and as soon as I can, I shall advertise him, or such as may give him knowledge. The rules of the holy Fathers, the decrees, ordinances, sentences, dispositions, reservations, provisions and commandments apostolic, to my power I shall keep, and cause to be kept of others; heretics, schismatics and rebels to our holy Father and his successors, I shall resist and persecute to my power.

47. Some of these alterations and additions seem to have been made about our Bishop's time, when the Papal power was near at its utmost f height in this kingdom; and the dispositions, reservations, provisions and commandments apostolic, universally obeyed and submitted to, without any opposition. By these gradual usurpations came the Popes to claim, as sovereign monarchs, the following royal prerogatives, viz.

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premacy,

48. "To be superior to the whole Church 8, and to its Dr. Barrepresentative a general synod of Bishops. To convo- tise of the "cate general synods at his pleasure; all Bishops being Pope's Suobliged to attend upon summons from him. To preside p. 19. "in synods, so as to suggest matter, promote, obstruct, "and over-rule the debates in them. To confirm or invali"date their decrees or determinations; giving life or vigour "to them by his assent, or subtracting it by his dissent. "To define points of doctrine, or to decide controversies "authoritatively; so that none may presume to contest or

f

-cupiditas dominandi quando primum grassari cœperit, novi tituli, nova jura quando primum sint excogitata, quibus artibus, per quos gradus, quibus, quantisque motibus, bellis, sceleribus, parricidiis ad hoc fastigium humanæ potentiæ Papa Romanus fuerit evectus; nemo qui proximorum seculorum historias legit, potest ignorare, nisi fungus est, aut judicio divino excæcatur. Is. Casauboni Exerc. xv. ad Annales Baronii.

This Sir Thomas More denied: There are, saith he, orders in Christes church, by which a Pope may be both admonished and amended, and hath ben for incorrigible minde and lacke of amendment fynallie deposed and changed, English Works, p. 621. col. 2.

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"dissent from his dictates. To enact, establish, abrogate, 66 suspend, dispense with ecclesiastical laws and canons. "To relax or evacuate ecclesiastical censures by indulgence, "pardon, &c. To void promises, vows, oaths, obligations " to laws by his dispensation. To be the fountain of all 66 pastoral jurisdiction and dignity. To constitute, confirm, "judge, censure, suspend, depose, remove, restore, recon"cile Bishops. To confer ecclesiastical dignities and be"nefices by paramount authority, in way of provision, re"servation, &c. To exempt colleges, monasteries, &c. "from jurisdiction of their Bishops and ordinary superiors. "To judge all persons in all spiritual causes, by calling "them to his cognizance, or delegating judges for them, "with a final and peremptory sentence. To receive "appeals from all ecclesiastical judicatories; and to reverse "their judgments, if he findeth cause. To be himself un"accountable for any of his doings, exempt from judg"ment, and liable to no reproof. To erect, transfer, abo"lish episcopal sees. To exact oaths of fealty and obedi

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ence from the Clergy. To found religious orders, or "to raise a spiritual militia for propagation and defence of "the Church. To summon and commissionate soldiers "by croisade, &c. to fight against infidels, or persecute "those whom the Popes condemned as heretics, or schis"matics, or rebels against his authority."

49. To so monstrous an height did the Popes carry their usurped authority: insomuch that it was disputed in Erasmi An- the schools, "whether the Pope could abrogate that which not. Nov. " was decreed by the Apostles' writings, or determine that 1 Tim. i. 6. " which was contrary to the evangelical doctrine, or make a

Testam. in

"new article in the creed. Whether he has greater power "than St. Peter, or only equal. Whether he can com"mand angels. Whether he can wholly take away purga66 tory. Whether he be a mere man, or as God participates both natures with Christ. Whether he be not 66 more merciful than Christ was, since we do not read "that he ever recalled any from the pains of purga"tory."

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50. They did not indeed get this prodigious power all CHAP. at once, and without any opposition. In France, when Pope Boniface VIII. told Philip the fair, in his letter to him, that "he was subject to him in spirituals and tem"porals, that the collation of benefices and prebends did "not belong to him, nor their profits in their vacancy, and "that whosoever thought otherwise he reputed them fools, "&c." the King returned him this smart answer, Sciat Cat. Test. tua maxima fatuitas in temporalibus nos alicui non sub- 1687. esse, let your great foolship know, that in temporal matters we are subject to nobody. See the defence of the Parliament of Paris, against the Roman Court, for the liberty of the Gallican Church.

Veritatis, p.

51. Here in England, when Pope Gregory VII. demanded of William the Conqueror, his doing homage or fealty to him, the King returned him this peremptory answer, Fidelitatem facere nolui nec volo: I have hitherto Inter Epist.

Lanfranc.in

1095, p. 19.

refused it, nor will I do it now. For which his majesty Bibl. Cotgave this reason, that he neither promised it himself, nor ton. did he find that his predecessors had done it to the Pope's predecessors. In the controversy after this, betwixt Wil- Matt. Paris, liam Rufus and Archbishop Anselm, about appeals to the Hist. ad an. Pope, the King was angry at the mentioning the Pope's ed. Watts. name, Quia tunc temporis Ecclesia Romana schismate laborabat; no one being to be owned here for Pope, but whom the King and Parliament acknowledged for such. The King therefore alleged, that as the Emperor claimed it, as part of his office, to choose whom he would for Pope, and that no one else had any thing to do to name him to the Apostolic See, no Archbishop or Bishop of his kingdom should be subject to the Pope or Court of Rome, since he had all the liberties in his kingdom which the Emperor claimed in the empire. Accordingly, though ten years Inett'sOrig. Angl.vol.ii. were now elapsed since the death of Pope Gregory, yet p. 270. till the heat and zeal of Anselm did precipitate the resolutions of the Church and kingdom, we have no marks of any disposition to own the authority of either of the rival Popes. These resolutions were to acknowledge Urban for

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CHAP. Pope, who by way of requital took Anselm's part against the King, and in a council held at St. Peter's in Rome declared the King worthy of excommunication, and decreed all laymen excommunicate that should presume to give investitures, &c. But the thunders of the Papacy had not yet reached to England, or however the King and Bishops had not at this time learned to dread and stand in awe of them; for the King remained immoveable; and the Bishops, as they had unanimously advised Anselm to submit to the King, and renounce the see of Rome whilst he was in England, so they remained steady in their duty to the King and their country, notwithstanding what had since passed at Rome.

52. One would have thought that so violent a shock, added to the general opposition which this doctrine of the Papal supremacy met with from all the Western Princes, had been enough to shame so groundless and impious an imposture out of the world. But ambition knows no bounds, especially when backed by interest, and flushed and encouraged by the superstitious madness of the people. It was not long after this, that, through the industry of the Religious, the people were struck with such a panic dread of the Pope's thunderbolts, that, as if they had a deadening force, they were perfectly deprived of all sense of duty and loyalty to their Prince, or even of their own interest; insomuch that the unfortunate Prince K. Johnb, having been excommunicated by the Pope, and his subjects being absolved by him from their allegiance to him, was forced to resign his crown, and for the time to come to hold his kingdoms as fees of the Papacy; which he need never to have done, had his subjects had but a due sense of their duty and interest.

53. But this was too great a dishonour to be tamely submitted to by this Prince's successors. The Popes in

h Sir Thomas More absolutely denied, that the King had any power or authority to do this. Never could any King of England, says he, give away the realme to the Pope, or make the land tributary, though he would, nor no such money is there paid, nor never was. English Works, p. 296. col. 1.

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Wiclif, p.

Ab. p. 102.

deed still kept up their claim, and acted as if they had CHAP. been really lords of the fee, and our Princes and their subjects only their vassals and tributaries. But against this we find very warm remonstrances made by our Princes and their Parliaments, though indeed to very little purpose. In King Edward III.'s reign, Pope Urban VI. gave that great Prince notice of his intention to proceed against him, for not performing the homage which King John ac- Life of Dr. knowledged, &c. With this insolence the King acquainted 19. his Parliament, and required their advice: to which it was stoutly answered by the common consent of the whole estate, "that neither King John, nor any other King, Cotton's "could bring his realm and kingdom into such thraldom " and subjection, but by common assent of Parliament, "the which was not done; therefore that which he did "was against his oath at his coronation, besides many "other causes. If therefore the Pope should attempt any "thing against the King, by process, or other matters in"deed, the King, with all his subjects, should with all “their force and power resist the same." But notwithstanding this resolute answer of the estates of the realm, a monk, it seems, had the hardiness to defend this unjust claim of the Pope's. To him therefore Dr. Wiclif replied, Life of Dr. and shewed, that the resignation of the crown made heretofore by King John to the Pope, ought not to prejudice the kingdom of England, and did not at all oblige the present king. That the reason of this pretence was, that the Lord Pope ruling the kingdom of England with less control, and at his own pleasure, temporal demesnes may be heaped on the abbies without any restraint.

Wiclif, p.

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Of Servants, and

54. In his other writings, Wiclif argued against the of Prelates. Prelates of his time, saying "that it is not enough to be- c. 14. MS. "lieve in Jesus Christ, &c. but if a man believe the Bi"shop of Rome to be head of the holy Church. That "secular lords have no power upon Clerks, but if Prelates Lords, &c. clepen them to chastise Clerks when they ben rebell, Great Sen" and wolen not ben amended by their Prelates: that the tence of 66 King hath no jurisdiction ne power of their persons, ne plained, c.

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