Duty of exercising the Power of the Keys. 161 CENSURES. the time he was debarred from entering into the Church, ON CHURCH which was a lesser sort, or lower degree, of excommunication. The religious emperor, as well as the holy father, knew that the power of the keys was committed to a particular order of men for maintaining and upholding the kingdom of God in the kingdoms of the world, and for preserving the authority of His ministers therein, and that priests and people, standing in awe of that spiritual power, might be afraid to do any thing that would dishonour their spiritual society and profession, or give offence to the Jews, or to the Gentiles, or to the Church of God. The clergy of all Churches ought to take care to preserve this power in purity and force, and not to let it fall into decay, or desuetude, or suffer by irregular administration, lest God should not only call them to an account for their stewardship in this world, and in judgment take it from them, but condemn them in the next, as mal-administrators of His kingdom upon earth, and traditors of the trust He hath committed to them. I fear the nonuser and abuser of this sacred power in the Church of England, hath been a great ingredient in the judgments that formerly, and of late, have fallen upon it, and particularly of the progressive contempt of her clergy, and growing number of her enemies. For the neglect of using this power, to the great and holy end for which God hath appointed it, and using of it, when it is administered, in such manner as is not agreeable to the holy nature and solemnity of such a Divine institution, I may justly say, are the high-places' that yet remain' in the Church of England, which ought always and by all means, in season and out of season, to endeavour the restoration of the ancient godly discipline in its purity, in conjunction with her Apostolical government, and purity of doctrine and worship: and would the governors of the Church, in sincerity and the sense of their duty, go about this good work, which is wanting to complete our reformation, God, I trust, would give success to their faithful endeavours; and when it was done, He would with the pure, strict, ancient discipline, restore the Church and her clergy to their ancient veneration; He would then multiply the number of her friends, as fast as He hath suffered her enemies to increase; nay, then He would make her enemies, her worst enemies, even such as is the author of PREFAT. DISCOURSE, 162 Abuses in the exercise of this power admitted. the Rights, and his accomplices, the disciples of Spinoza, to SECT. VIII. be at peace with her, and become her good friends. Every one who reads his book must needs observe how he sets himself with all the sophistry he hath, to argue against the ecclesiastical discipline, and, in such a manner as becometh himself, against the power of excommunication, from some corruptions in the exercise and execution of it, which the clergy bewail as much as he ridicules, and which by consequence have been, and still are, much more the misfortune, than the fault of the Church. It was bewailed by Edward Fox, bishop of Hereford, before the Reformation, in a treatise concerning the division between the spirituality and temporalty", of which I have seen an English translation by Henry Stafford, son of Edward duke of Buckingham, printed by Robert Redman at Londona. In this treatise the bishop sets forth with great faithfulness and grief the corruptions both of the regulars and seculars; which I observe for the honour of the clergy, who never palliated or concealed the ▾ Edw. Foxus [natione Anglus, Cantabrigiæ regalis Collegii socius, et in eadem Academia Sacræ Theologiæ Doctor: denique successu temporis] Episcopus Herefordensis, vir eloquentiæ laude præstans, prudentissimus etiam et gravis, [in dirigendis et expediendis arduis negotiis cum judicio promptus et dexter. Unde Rex Angliæ Henricus octavus hujus viri opera, in variis legationibus in Italiam et in Germaniam usus est, et quidem satis commode. Item] nobilissimus Heros Henricus Dominus de Staffordio virum hunc mire coluit, et in gratiam auctoris aliqua ejus opera ex Latino in Anglicum vertit sermonem. Ex iis quæ scripsit hæc pauca saltem invenio, Differentiam utriusque status et potestatis [librum unum.] Quem in Anglicum vertit ipse Staffordius. Pitsius [de Illustribus Angliæ Scriptoribus] ad An. 1530. n. 930. Henricus Staffordius, Edwardi illustrissimi Ducis Buckinghamiæ filius, vir felicis ingenii, et in melioribus quibusque disciplinis insigniter eruditus, &c. Illud unum mihi constat eum e Latino in Anglicum sermonem eleganter vertisse Edwardi Foxi Præsulis Herefordensis opus de Differentia Potestatis Ecclesiasticæ et Secularis. [obiit anno post nativitatem Christi 1558.] Id., ad ann. 1558. [n. 1008.] [The title of the book is Opus Eximium de vera differentia regiæ potestatis et ecclesiasticæ, ac quæ sit ipsa veritas de virtute utriusque. Londini; in ædibus Tho. Bartholeti. 1533. It is directed against the authority of the pope, and to maintain that of the king, in spirituals.] a [There was also an edition of this translation printed by William Copeland in 1548. Fox was a statesman, introduced by Wolsey, and himself introducing Cranmer to the court. "He was almoner to the king, and reputed, Burnet says, " one of the best divines in England.' He was the principal pillar of the Reformation, as to the politic and prudential part of it; being of more activity and no less ability than Cranmer himself; but he acted more secretly than Cranmer, and therefore did not bring himself into danger of suffering on that account. He was Henry's ambassador to the Protestant princes at Smalcalde, sent to urge them to an union with England against Rome. Lloyd (State Worthies) represents him as a fine preacher, but adds, that his inclination to politics brake through all the ignoble restraints of pedantic studies, to an eminency that made him the wonder of the university, and the darling of the court."-Chalmers' Biogr. Dict.] 163 CENSURES. A restraint on the Civil Power; parallel instances; faults of their own order, in former or later ages, as may be ON CHURCH seen in the works of Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Hierom, Ambrose, &c., not to mention the councils, to which our author hath an implacable enmity, and many writers even of the latter and most corrupt ages of the Church. It is out of the writings of clergymen, that he hath picked up his discoveries of the corruption of the clergy, which I observe again in bar and abatement to his accusations, which he brings against the whole order, without distinction of good from bad. Wherefore his malicious reflections upon the reformable mal-administration of Church censures are no argument against them, unless it be good logic to argue against the goodness of a thing, from the abuse of it, which may be reformed. The foundation of his argument against them is purely verbal and precarious, in such suppositions and expressions as this; "their pretending to a judicial power;" "their assuming to themselves a jurisdiction in contradistinction to the magistrate's":" so, if he pleases, he may say their assuming to themselves a power" of making a man a member of Christ, a child of God, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven. But in this way of speaking of the sacerdotal power he begs the question, which, as I observed before, is a question of fact, whether God hath not given His ministers such a power and jurisdiction? and if He have, then all his arguments ab incommodo upon the civil power, were they true, would fall to the ground. The king or queen is the supreme magistrate in this kingdom, and in his way of arguing he may write another book against some parts of our constitution, and the rights, and grants, and privileges of societies, as well as single persons; because in many cases they so limit and restrain the royal power, and, as he phrases it, "take from the sovereign the power of protecting his subjects;" as for example, if the college, of which he is a member, will expel him, neither the supreme magistrate, nor all the magistrates in the kingdom, can hinder them, or protect him from expulsion. If the lower house of parliament will send one of their members to the tower, or impeach a peer, C b [Rights, p. 65.] [vid. note a, p. 48. Tindal was on one occasion formally reprimanded by his college for gross incontinency.- DISCOURSE, 164 Independent Jurisdictions. Magistrate precluding from PREFAT. though never so great a favourite of the sovereign, neither SECT. VIII. he, nor all the magistrates of the kingdom can hinder it, or protect them; and if human constitutions can so restrain, and tie up the hands of the regal power, may not God by His divine constitutions do the same? Is it such a strange thing that the Church should have the power, which every society, every college, every company, every university hath to turn out their incorrigible, and contumacious members, or members who commit such crimes for which by the charter or statutes they ought to be expelled? Every father of a family hath power, or, as he is pleased to express it, "assumes a power to himself," of turning a disobedient son or servant, independently of the magistrate, out of his house; and may not the fathers of the Church exercise the same power, which God hath given them, and expects they should exercise, upon open, scandalous, or obstinate sinners, as they will be answerable therefore to Him at the day of judgment? The question therefore is, whether or no God hath vested them with this power, or whether they have "assumed it to themselves?" And the reader is left to judge, whether he will believe antiquity, universality, and consent, the ancient, universal, and unanimous testimony of the Catholic Church, or this upstart number of novelists, who are enemies to the Christian faith and religion, as well as the priesthood, because priests are ordained for the defence thereof. But he saith, "if the power of excommunication belongs independently to the clergy, then the magistrate could neither banish, imprison, or put a man to death, because it would deprive him of the communion of the Church." By communion, he means actual communion, or "communicating,” as he otherwise expresses himself, and then here is a dainty argument indeed, which proves abundantly too much, and by consequence nothing at all. For if this be a true argument against the sacerdotal power of excommunication, then a Christian must not live and trade in a country, where there are no Christian meetings for worship, or such Christian meetings with which he cannot join; because, as he speaks, "it would hinder him not only from communicating with his own Church, but with all the Churches in the world." For e [See note c, preceding page.] d Rights, p. 38. [ch. i. § 9.] [Ibid.] с actual communion. Avoiding excommunicates; Exceptions. 165 CENSURES. the same reason a faithful Christian must not go a long ON CHURCH voyage in a Turkish or Indian ship, or a vessel only manned with quakers; or in a journey, rest on the Lord's day where there is no Church. In these cases, as in close imprisonment, or banishment to desert islands, the prisoners and exiled persons want indeed the benefit of actual communion, but they have the comfort of being in a state of communion with all the Churches in the world. And as for the want of actual communion, if their close confinement or banishment is just, they are justly deprived of it, as any other criminal in close imprisonment is of the enjoyment of his family; but if they be unjust, then the Church, which protects no man from the power of the magistrate, teaches submission and passive obedience, and leaves the unrighteous magistrate (who is here supposed to be supreme) to answer for his unrighteousness to God. His next Herculean argument against the sacerdotal power of excommunication is taken from the effect of it, because excommunicate persons are to be avoided until they return to the Church'. This he sets forth in most tragical manners, without saying that it extends not to near relations, as husbands, wives, children, servants, or subjects, nor to cases of necessity, or cases of conversing with excommunicates for their admonition, instruction, and edification. However, this ? [Article XXXIII. Of excommunicate persons, how they are to be avoided. That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an heathen and publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a judge that hath authority thereunto.] 8 Rights, pp. 39-41. h [Decret., Pars 2. caus. xi. qu. 3. § 103. Quoniam multos. (a decree of Gregory VII.) Ab anathematis vinculo eos subtrahimus, videlicet uxores, liberos, servos, ancillas, seu mancipia, necnon rusticos servientes, et omnes alios qui non adeo curiales sunt, ut eorum consilio scelera perpetrentur. The canonists express the exceptions derived from this decree, in the line, Utile, lex, humile, res ignorata, necesse. Utilitas, tum temporalis tum 1.... 3. Tertia causa, per ly humile intimata est subjectio, ratione cujus liberi cum parentibns excommunicatis, servi et subditi cum dominis, vel superioribus suis, milites cum ducibus belli communicare non prohibentur, et sicut ex contra.... 4. Quarta causa, per ly res ignorata, indigitata est ignorantia tam juris quam facti.... 5. Quinta causa, per ly necesse indicata est necessitas quæcunque notabilis sive se teneat ex parte communicantis, vel alterius.-Vid. Reiffenstuel's Jus Canonicum, and the canonists referred to by him, tom. iv. p. 404. Antw. 1755.] |