1558.

Queen Elizabeth. fore in relinquishing and forfaking of that Church, as a malignant Church, the Inhabitants of this • Realm fhall be forced to feek further for another Gofpel of Chrift, other Doctrine, Faith, and Sacraments, than we hitherto have received. Which • fhall breed fuch a Schism and Error in Faith, as < was never in any Chriftian Realm: And therefore of your Wifdoms worthy Confideration, and maturely to be provided for, before you pass this • Act of Supremacy.

.

Thus much touching the first chief Point. Now to the fecond chief Point; wherein I pro'mised to move your Honours to confider what this Supremacy is, which we go about by virtue of this Act, to give unto the Queen's Highness, • and wherein it doth confift; as, whether in Spiritual Government, or in Temporal. If in Spiritual, like as the Words of the Act do import, • Supream Head of the Church of England, immediate and next under God; then it would be 'confidered of your Wisdoms in what Points this Spiritual Government doth confift; and the • Points being well known, it would be confidered, whether this Houfe have Authority to grant them, and her Highness Ability to receive the ⚫ fame.

And, as touching the Point wherein the Spi• ritual Government doth confift, I have, in reading the Gospel, observed these four, amongst many; whereof the firft is to loofe and bind, ⚫ when our Saviour Jefus Chrift, in ordaining Peter to be the Chief Governour of his Church, faid unto him, Tibi dabo claves regni cælorum ; quodcunque ligaveris fuper terram, erit ligatum

in

• cœlis; & quodcunque folveris, erit folutum & in cœlis. Now it would be confidered of your Wisdoms, whether you have fufficient Authority to grant unto her Highness this firft Point of Spiritual • Government, and to fay to her, Tibi dabimus claves regni cælorum. If you fay, Yea, then we re⚫quire the Sight of your Warrant and Commiffion by the Virtue of God's Word: And if you fay,

! No,

1558.

'No, then you may be well affured, and perfuade Queen Elizabeth. yourselves, that you have no fufficient Authority to make her Highnefs Supreme Head of the Church here in this Realm. The fecond Point of Spiri'tual Government, is gathered of thefe Words of our Saviour Jefus Chrift, spoken unto Peter in the xxi. Chapter of St. John's Gospel, Pafce, Pafce, Pafce. Now whether your Honours have Authority, by this High Court of Parliament, to fay unto our Sovereign Lady, Pafce, Pafce, Pafce, < you must fhew your Warrant and Commiffion. And further, that her Highness, being a Woman by Birth and Nature, is not qualified by God's • Word to feed the Flock of Chrift, it appeareth moft plainly by St. Paul on this wife, faying, • Taceant Mulieres in Ecclefiis: Non enim permittetur eis loqui, fed fubditas effe, ficut dicit lex: And it • followeth in the fame Place, Quod turpe eft muli• eri loqui in Ecclefiis. And in his first Epistle to Ti

mothy, the fecond Chapter, faith, Docere autem • Mulieri non permitto, neque dominari in Virum, fed in filentio effe. Therefore it appeareth, That like as your Honours have not his Authority to give her Highness this fecond Point of Spiritual Government, to feed the Flock of Chrift; fo, by 'Paul's Doctrine, her Highness may not intermeddle herself with the fame. Therefore fhe ⚫ cannot be Supreme Head of Chrift's Church here in this Realm. The third and chief Point of Spi• ritual Government, is gathered of the Words of our Saviour Jefus Chrift, fpoken unto Peter, Luke the xxii. Chapter, Ego rogavi pro te, ut non deficiat fides tua: Et tu aliquando converfus confirma fratres tuos. Whereby it appeareth, that one chief Point of Spiritual Government is to confirm his Brethren, and ratifie them both by wholefome Doctrine, and Administration of the bleffed SacraC ments. But to preach or minifter the Holy Sacraments, a Woman may not; neither may he be Supreme Head of the Church of Chrift. The fourth and laft Point of Spiritual Government, ⚫ which I promiled to obferve and note unto you, Сс

• 'doth

Queen Elizabeth. doth confift in Excommunication, and Spiritual 1558. Punishment, of all fuch as fhall approve themfelves not to be the obedient Children of Chrift's • Church. Of the which Authority our Saviour, • Chrift fpeaketh, in St. Matthew the xviii. Chapter, there faying, Dic Ecclefiæ. Si autem Ecclefiam non audierit, fit tibi tanquam Ethnicus & Publicanus.. And the Apoftle St. Paul did excommunicate the ⚫ notorious Fornicator that was amongst the Co• rinths, by the Authority of his Apoftleship. Unto the which Apoftles, Chrift, afcending into. Heaven, did leave the whole Spiritual Government of his Church, as it appeareth by the plain • Words of Paul, in his Epiftle to the Ephefians, the iv. Chapter: Ipfe dedit Ecclefiæ fuæ quofdam Apoftolos, alios Evangeliftas, alios Paftores & Doctores, in opus minifterii, in ædificationem corporis Chrifti. But a Woman, in the Degrees of Chrift's Church, is not called to be an Apostle, nor Evangelist, nor to be a Shepherd, neither a Doctor, or Preacher. Therefore the cannot be Supreme Head of Chrift's 'militant Church, nor yet of any Part thereof.

Thus much I have here faid, Right Honourable and my very good Lords, against this Act of Supremacy; for the Discharge of my Conscience, and for the Love, Dread and Fear, that I chiefly owe unto God and my Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness, and unto your Lordships all; when otherwife, and without mature Confideration of thefe Premifles, your Honours fhall never be able to fhew your Faces before your Enemies in this Matter; being fo rafh an Example and Spectacle in Chrift's Church, as in this Realm < only to be found, and in none other.

Thus

humbly befeeching your good Honours to take in good Part this rude and plain Speech that I have here used, of much good Zeal and Will, I fhall 6 now leave to trouble your Honours any longer.'

It does not appear at what Time the former Speech was deliver'd; but, it was on the second Reading of the Bill, that Scott, Bishop of Chester, ftood up and fpoke as follows:

My

My Lord, and my Lords all,

I

Queen Elizabeth, 1558.

Bp. Scott's Speech againft

Do perceive that this Bill hath now been twice read, and by the Order of this Houfe muft be read the third Time. Which Order I think restoring the

· was appointed to be obferved for this End, That Supremacy.

every Man, being a Member of this Houfe, fhould fully understand, and fo at large fpeak his Mind and Confcience in the Contents of all the Bills preferred and read here, before that they be enacted and established as Laws. Wherefore I confidering that this Bill hath been now twice read, and hath accordingly been spoken unto gravely, wifely and learnedly, by divers of this honourable Company; and that I for my Part as yet have faid nothing therein; I fhall most humbly defire your good Lordships to give me Leave, and patiently to hear what I have to fay, as concerning this prefent Bill. And yet to confefs unto your Lordships the Truth; there be two Things that 'do much move me, and as it were pull me back from speaking any Thing in this Matter. The firft is, That I perceive the Queen's Highness, whom I pray God long to preferve, is as it were a Party therein; unto whom I do acknowledge that I owe Obedience, not only for Wrath and Displeasure's Sake, but for Confcience Sake, and that by the Scriptures of God. The fecond is, The Reverence I have to thofe Noblemen, unto whom this Bill was committed to be weighed • and confidered; whofe Doings I affure your good Lordfhips is a great Comfort not only unto me, but alfo, as I do think, unto all that be of the Profeffion that I am of, with many other befides. First, for that their Devotion towards Almighty • God doth appear; feing they will not fuffer the Service of the Church, and the due Admi• ftration of the holy Sacraments thereof, to be difanulled, or already altered, but to be contained [retained] as they have been heretofore: And, fecondly, for that their Charity and Pity, towards ⚫ the poor Clergy of this Realm, doth appear in CC 2 • miti

6

Queen Elizabeth. 1558,

mitigating the extream Penalties mentioned in this 6 Bill, for the Gainfayers of the Contents of the 6 fame.

* But there be two other Things of more Weight, that do move me to speak in this Matter what I 'think. The first is Almighty God, which I know doth look, that, according to the Profeffion whereunto (although I be unworthy) I am called, I fhould fpeak my Mind in fuch Matters as this is, when they be called in Queftion. The fecond is my Confcience, which doth urge me to do the fame.

• Wherefore, now to fpeak of the Matter, this I fay, That our Faith and Religion is maintained and continued by no one Thing fo much as by Unity, which Unity is continued and maintained in • Chrift's Church, even as Concord and good Order ⚫is maintained in a Commonwealth. Wherein as we

fee for civil Quietness, there is appointed in every Village one Conftable. And left there fhould any • Variance fall amongst them, there is, again, in e⚫ very Hundred one Head-Conftable, in whom all the other Inferiors be as knit in one. And where there be in one Shire divers Hundreds, to make away all Controverfies, as might chance amongst the faid Head-Conftables of thefe Hundreds, of that they be joined as in one. The Sheriffs likewife be joined in one Prince, which Prince being deprived of his princely Authority, the Unity and Concord of that Realm is diffolved, and every Man chooseth himself a new Lord. Even fo it is in the Church of Chrift, according to the 'Commandment of St. Paul. There is in every. Village at the leaft one Prieft; in every City one. Bishop, in whom all the Priefts within the Dio-. cefe be knit in one; in every Province one Metropolitan, in whom, for the, avoiding of Controverfies, all the Bifhops of that Province be join-. ed; and for Unity to be obferved amongst the Metropolitans, they be likewife joined in one High Bishop, called the Pope, whofe Authority. • being taken away, the Sheep, as the Scripture

faith,