CHAP. Pope by provision; we are to observe that anciently BiII. shops were chosen by the Clergy and people. Insomuch, Morinus de that in the form of ordination, as low down as the year Ordinat. pars ii. 900 or 1000, it is acknowledged, that in old times the Bishop was to enquire of every one who came to him to be Pordained, whether he was chosen by the people. This was agreeable to the Clementine constitution, which ordered, that a Bishop was to be 9 chosen by all the people, out of those of the best and most blameless character, who was accordingly to be presented to the Bishop, who was to ordain him. At that time no one was ordained but to an actual cure; so that to be ordained and collated to a Duareni de benefice was one and the same thing. Now this being lib. iii. c. 2. done at the election, and with the consent of the people, Sac.Minist. Observa the Eccles. they may properly be said to be patrons, as we now speak, of the several vacant bishoprics. But these elections, in process of time, as the bishoprics grew more wealthy, and consequently more deserving the wishes of men of worldly and corrupt minds, became very tumultuary and seditious, insomuch that the civil magistrate, to preserve the public peace, was forced to interpose. In the British and Saxon tions upon times, and even after the Conquest, till the reign of King Jurisdict. of John, bishoprics and other ecclesiastical dignities were the Kings of conferred by the King in Parliament, or his great councils. England. As one of the people and head of all the people, he must necessarily have a vote and great interest in these elections. And therefore, when it was found necessary to lay these popular ones aside, it must be thought very reasonable that this power should be transferred to the chief or princes of the people, and the magistracy: since it is certain, that all the right the people have is transferred to the Prince and Parliament as their head; and that by the ancient canons this right is not taken from them. Accord p Primitus cum venerint ordinandi clerici ante episcopum, debet episcopus inquirere unumquemque si electus populo sit. 4 Ὑπὸ πάντος τῷ λαῷ ἐκλελέγμενον. Constat secundum veteres canones in eligendis Ecclesiæ ministris, non solum cleri sed etiam populi consensum maxime requiri. Duareni de Sacris Eccles. Minis. lib. iii. cap. 2. II. stat. 6. ingly it is declared by our Acts of Parliament, that this CHAP. Church of England was founded in the estate of prelacy for several pious and good ends by the Kings of England, 25 Edw. III. who have therefore had and ought to have the custody of such voidances, and the presentments and collations of the benefices being of such prelacies. These collations they Cl. Seldeni therefore practised, presenting persons to vacant bishop- Eadmerum, rics, and investing them in them by the ceremony of deli- p. 142. vering to them a 'ring and a staff. This they continued notæ ad stat. 6. to do till the reign of King Henry I. when they granted 25 Edw. III. to the several Chapters a free election to such benefices upon a certain form and condition, as to demand licence of the King to choose, and after the election to have his royal assent. Beneficiis, tution of a 47. b. 20. As to the Popes, they, in ancient times, claimed to Duareni de themselves no right or power of ordaining any Priests or lib. iii. c. 1. Clerks, and consequently of collating them to benefices, out of their own dioceses. "It was many hundred years af- The Insti❝ter Christ, before they could acquire or get any primacy Christen " or governance above any other Bishops, out of their pro- Man, fol. "vince in Italy. Since which time they have ever usurped 66 more and more." The later Popes, not content to be confined within these limits, or indeed to have any bounds set them, have made no question of acting in the most arbitrary manner, as so many lords and kings, and to arrogate to themselves the government of the universal Church. The Pope was therefore said to have the full, free, and unlimited disposition of all benefices, and accordingly in time a custom prevailed, that was utterly unknown to the ancients, of expediting bulls; by which benefices not yet vacant were commanded to be conferred on certain per If it shall appear that till the reign of King John, archbishoprics, bishoprics, and other ecclesiastical dignities were conferred in and by the Parliament; then will a common mistake appear to run through many books of law, wherein we frequently read, that before his time they were donative, and conferred by the King per traditionem annuli et baculi. Confounding the election with the investitures; ascribing that to the King solely which was the act of the King and Parliament. Observations on the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of the Kings of England. de corrupto S CHAP. Sons whensoever they happened to become void: these II. were commonly called graces expectative and mandates of Nicol. de provision. The pretence for this new and unheard of Clemangis claim was, the better providing for the several vacant Ecclesiæ churches, and instituting pastors in them of purer morals Statu, c. 3. and better learning than those elected by the Chapters: but it was soon made appear, that the true meaning of this new attempt was only $ getting money and increasing the revenues of the Apostolical Chamber. For not only was there no regard had to either the age, the learning, or the morals of those to whom these bulls of provision were granted, the highest bidder being the surest purchaser, but in process of time the fees of these bulls were so much raised, and become so very extravagant, that it was ob6 Hen. IV. served by one of our English Parliaments, that "no Par"son, Abbot, nor other should have provision of any arch66 bishopric or bishopric, which shall be void, till that he "hath compounded with the Pope's Chamber to pay great "and excessive sums of money, as well for the first fruits "of the same archbishopric or bishopric, as for other ser"vices in the same court, and that the same sums or the 66 greater part thereof be paid beforehand; which sums c. 1. William Felter, LL.D. who died 1451. Of this we have the following instance given us by Dr. Gascoigne. Post mortem Decani Eboracensis, Feltar nomine, canonici ecclesiæ pacifice elegerunt - Bermyngham in decanum suum Eboracensem; et in tempore electionis in capitulo duo mali canonici Eboraci, et prior Sancti Oswaldi elegerunt extra capitulum, juxta imaginem Sancti Christophori, in decanum ecclesiæ Eboracensis, magistrum Richardum Andrew secretarium R. Henrici Sexti. Et, facta appellatione per illos tres canonicos contra electionem veram Bermingham in capitulo, R. Henricus licentiavit illum Richardum, qui fuit pessime et injuste sic a tribus extra capitulum electus, sub sigillo suo acceptare provisionem Papæ ut esset Eboracensis Decanus. Ita quod Papa Nicolaus quintus ipsum Richardum in decanatu ecclesiæ Eboracensis provideret, et electionem Bermyngham factam legitime, cassaret, et revocaret seu adnullaret. Et sic factum fuit Romæ per pecunias prædict. Rich. Et quia capitulum Eboracense ipsum Richardum provisum per Papam recipere in suum decanatum non voluit, idcirco per bullas Papæ Nicholai diversi canonici ecclesiæ cathedralis Eboracensis excommunicati fuerunt, et ecclesia cathedralis exposita interdicto, et suspensa per plures septimanas. Ita quod nec matutinæ, nec aliqua missa fuit in illa ecclesia per plures septimanas, nec vesperæ. Dict. Theol. MS. 66 II. pass the treble, or the double at least, of that that was CHAP. ❝ accustomed of old time to be paid to the said Chamber, "and otherwise by the occasions of such provisions." This the complaint of the Commons, on which this act is grounded, calls a damnable custom, which is introduct of new in the Court of Rome. t 21. This usurpation of the rights of the several patrons of ecclesiastical benefices, by the Popes, met with a very stout and resolute opposition here in England. One of our historians tells us, that in the reign of King Henry III. Mat. Paris, Hist. Angl. Pope Gregory, desirous to assist a special clerk of his, A. D. 1241. sent his apostolical mandate to the Abbot and convent of Bury, with armed entreaties and terrifying admonitions, that they would confer on the Pope the income of some church in their gift, which was at least of the yearly value of 100 marks. But on the Abbot's notifying this new demand to the King, and asking his advice, and withal intimating to him the ill consequences of yielding to it; the King being sensible that such a precedent would be not only to the prejudice of this church, but of all others in his dominions, on which the same arbitrary demands might be made, he as defender, patron, and governor of the said churches, detesting the hidden snares and the avarice of the court of Rome, very strictly prohibited any such enormous fact any more polluting the air of his kingdom. 22. But the avarice and exactions of the Popes were not soon checked. “ They claimed to have and occupie the The Insti"whole monarchy of the world in their hands, and that Christen "they might thereby lawfully depose kings and princes Man, fol. "from their realms, dominions, and seignories, and so "transfer and give the same suche persons as them liked." This occasioned our poet Chaucer to use this kind admo- Plowman's Tale, part ii. nition. How much times were altered afterwards may be seen by what Dr. Gascoigne tells us; speaking of Buthe Archbishop of York, he says, confert beneficia et præbendas pessime pueris et juvenibus, fol. 47. b. The like he reports of Kemp, Archbishop of York, and afterwards of Canterbury; malos et extraneos et curtesanos Romanos providit et elegit in magnas dignitates suæ ecclesiæ Eboracensis, et in rectores suæ diocesis. Dict. Theol. MS. tution of a 47. b. CHAP. * fellow. p. 75, 76. The Emperour gafe the Pope sometime, The proude Pope yput him out, Bp. Gib23. In the very next reign we find petitions drawn up son's Codex, for the estate of the crown of England, by the Earls, Barons, and other great men, and the Commons of the realm; wherein they complained of the various new and intolerable grievances, oppressions, injuries, and extortions done to them by the authority and mandate of the Lord Pope. The first of these mentioned by them is the unbridled multitude of provisions apostolical, "by which," they said, "the patrons of the several benefices are deprived of their "right of collation or presentation, the noble and learned "natives will be wholly excluded from all ecclesiastical "promotion, so that there will be a defect of council as to "those matters that concern the spirituality, and none "will be found fit to be preferred to the ecclesiastical pre"lacies; divine worship will be impaired, hospitalities and "alms will be laid aside, contrary to the primary intention "of the founders of the churches; the rights of the respec"tive churches will be lost, the church-buildings will all 66 go to ruin, and the devotion of the people will be les"sened." On which representation it was ordered, that the Sheriffs of every county should inquire of these abuses, and attach those who were guilty of them. Accordingly writs were prepared to be sent to the several Sheriffs for this purpose; but after the recess of the Parliament, the King was not only prevailed with by Cardinal Peter Fabines, then in England, to direct his Chancellor to suspend the sealing of the said writs, but did also grant letters of protection to the collectors of the first fruits and Peterpence, under colour of which they proceeded, as they had formerly done, in contempt of the prohibitions enacted in Parliament against their extortions and oppressions. Nay they had the boldness to complain publicly, at the next |