I. pressures of other great princes abroad,―that God afflicts DISCOURSE them, because they will not become Protestants,-as you can say that God afflicted our late King, because he would not turn Papist. may be for the sins of their taken away xxviii. 2. But if you will not allow his Majesty's sufferings to be Sovereigns merely probatory, and if (for your satisfaction) there must be a weight of sin found out to move the wheel of God's justice, why do you not rather fix upon the body of his subjects, or subjects. at least a disloyal part of them? We confess that the best of us did not deserve such a jewel; that God might justly snatch him from us in His wrath for our ingratitude. Reason, religion, and experience do all teach us, that it is usual with Almighty God to look upon a body politic, or ecclesiastic, as 25 one man, and to deprive a perverse people of a good and gracious governor; as an expert physician, by opening a vein in one member, cures the distempers of another. "For the Prov. transgressions of a land, many are the princes thereof." It may be that two or three of our princes at the most (the Not above greater part whereof were Roman Catholics) did style them- three of selves, or give others leave to style them, the 'Heads of the our Princes Church within their dominions".' But no man can be so Heads of the Church. simple as to conceive that they intended a spiritual Headship, -to infuse the life and motion of grace into the hearts of the faithful; such an Head is Christ alone; no, nor yet an ecclesiastical Headship; we did never believe, that our Kings in their own persons could exercise any act pertaining either to the power of order or jurisdiction; nothing can give that to another, which it hath not itself. They meant only a civil That is, or political Head, as Saul is called "the Head of the Tribes only politiof Israel;" to see that public peace be preserved; to see that 1 Sam. xv. all subjects, as well ecclesiastics as others, do their duties in y [The title of "In terris, or terra, Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ et Hibernicæ supremum Caput" was assumed by Henry the Eighth, A. D. 1534 (Stat. 26. Henry VIII. c. 1; see also 35 Henry VIII. c. 3. and 37 Henry VIII. c. 17); continued by Edward the Sixth (see Stat. 1. Edward VI. c. 12. sec. 6.,) by Lady Jane Grey (Proclamation, in Lord Somers' Tracts, vol. i. p. 53; she is omitted of course from Bramhall's reckoning), and in the beginning of her reign by Queen Mary; dropped by the two or called cal Heads. 17. I. PART their several places; to see that all things be managed for that great and architectonical end, that is, the weal and benefit of the whole body politic, both for soul and body. If you will not trust me, hear our Church itself:-' When we attribute the sovereign government [of the Church] to the King, we do not give him any power to administer the Word or Sacraments; but only that prerogative which God in Holy Scripture hath always allowed to godly princes, to see that all states and orders of their subjects, ecclesiastical and civil, do their duties, and to punish those who are delinquent with the civil sword".' Here is no power ascribed, no punishment inflicted, but merely political; and this is approved and justified by S. Clara, both by reason, and by the examples of the Parliament of Paris: yet, by virtue of this political power, he is the keeper of both Tables, the preserver of true piety towards God, as well as right justice towards men; and is obliged to take care of the souls, as well as the skins and carcasses, of his subjects. The Christian Em This power, though not this name, the Christian Emperors b perors poli- of old assumed unto themselves;-to convocate Synods, to pretical Heads. side in Synods, to confirm Synods, to establish ecclesiastical laws, to receive appeals, to nominate Bishops, to eject Bishops, to suppress heresies, to compose ecclesiastical differences, in Councils, out of Councils, by themselves, by their delegates: all which is as clear in the history of the Church, as if it were written with a beam of the sun. The old political Heads. This power, though not this name, the ancient Kings of England England ever exercised, not only before the Reformation, but before the Norman Conquest; as appears by the acts of their great Councils, by their Statutes, and Articles of the Clergy, by so many laws of provision against the Bishop of Rome's conferring ecclesiastical dignities and benefices upon foreigners, by so many sharp oppositions against the exactions and usurpations of the Church of Rome, by so many laws concerning the patronage of Bishoprics and investitures of Z Art. 37. [in substance, and the clause between brackets added.] a Expos. Paraph. Artic. Confess. Anglic. art. 37. [pp. 410, 411. Lugd. 1635.] b [Bramhall's Vindication of the Church of England, c. 6. (Works, pp. 88. 91. fol. edit.), Discourse ii. Part i.] [Bramhall's Vindication &c. c. 4. (Works, pp. 69, &c. fol. edit.), with the corresponding chap. in the Replication (Works, pp. 189, &c. fol. edit.), Discourses ii. and iii. Part i.] 1. Bishops, by so many examples of churchmen punished by the Discourse civil magistrate of all which jewels the Roman Court had undoubtedly robbed the Crown, if the Peers and Prelates of the Kingdom had not come in to the rescue. By the ancient laws of England it is death, or at least a forfeiture of all his goods, for any man to publish the Pope's Bull without the King's license. The Pope's Legate without the King's leave could not enter into the realm. If an Ordinary did refuse to accept a resignation, the King might supply his defect. If any ecclesiastical court did exceed the bounds of its just power, either in the nature of the cause, or manner of proceeding, the King's prohibition had placed. So in effect the Kings of England were always the political Heads of the Church' within their own dominions. So the Kings of France are at this day. K. Charles zabeth, Heads of But who told you that ever King Charles did call himself Neither the Head of the Church?' thereby to merit such a heavy [the First], judgment. He did not, nor yet King James his father; K. James the First], nor Queen Elizabeth before them both, who took order in her nor Q. Elifirst Parliament to have it left out of her title. They thought styled that name did sound ill, and that it intrenched too far upon the Church. the right of their Saviour. Therefore they declined it, and were called only 'Supreme Governors, in all causes, over all persons ecclesiastical and civils;' which is a title de jure in26 separable from the crown of all Sovereign Princes: where it is wanting de facto (if any place be so unhappy to want it), the King is but half a King, and the Commonwealth a serpent with two heads. Thus, you see, you are doubly, and both ways miserably, mistaken. First, King Charles did never style himself' Head of the Church,' nor could with patience endure to hear that title. Secondly, a political Headship is not 'injurious to the [p. 3.] d See authorities for all these in Lord Coke's Reports, Caudrey's casc. [part 5. case 1.] e [See above, note y, p. 29.] f [Queen Elizabeth's sentiments may be found in the well-known letter of Jewel to Bullinger (Collier's Church Hist. Pt. ii. bk. vi. vol. ii. p. 432. fol. edit.). King James speaks somewhat to the same purpose in his Apologia pro Jurament. Fidelitat. in fin.; but both his sentiments and those of King Charles, as well as the anecdote of the latter 8 [Oath of Supremacy. Stat. 1. Eliz. I. PART unity, or authority, of the Church.' The Kings of Israel and Judah, the Christian Emperors, the English Kings before the Reformation, yea, even before the Conquest, and other sovereign princes of the Roman communion have owned it signally h. The Au thor's satis the Pope to leave that vain title. But it seems you have been told, or have read this, in the virulent writings of Sanders', or Parsonsk, or have heard of a ludicrous scoffing proposition of a marriage between the two Heads of the two Churches, Sixtus Quintus and Queen Elizabeth, for the reuniting forsooth of Christendom. All the satisfaction I should enjoin you, is to persuade the faction, to Bishop of Rome (if Gregory the Great were living, you persuade could not fail of speeding',) to imitate the piety and humility of our princes; that is, to content himself with his Patriarchal dignity and primacy of order 'et principium unitatisTM,' and to quit that much more presumptuous, and (if a Pope's word may pass for current) antichristian", term of the Head of the Catholic Church.' If the Pope be the Head of the Catholic Church, then the Catholic Church is the Pope's body, which would be but a harsh expression to Christian ears; then the Catholic Church should have no Head, when there is no Pope; two or three Heads, when there are two or three Popes; an unsound Head, when there is an heretical Pope; a broken Head, when the Pope is censured or deposed; and no Head, when the See is vacant. If the Church must have one universal, visible, ecclesiastical Head, a, general Council may best pretend to that title, Jun; de C h [Bramhall's Vindication, &c. cc. 6, 7; Discourse ii. Part i.] [De Visib. Monarch. Eccles. lib. vii. p. 151.-De Clave David. lib. v. c. 3. pp. 114, sq. lib. vi. c. 1. sec. 6. pp. 145, sq. sec. 8. p. 150. Würzb. 1592.-De Schism. Anglic. lib. iii. pp. 257, sq. Col. 1628.] k [Warnword to Sir F. Hastings' Watchword, Encount. vi. in fin.-Warnword to Sir F. Hastings' Wasteword, Encount. i. c. 16. § 3. &c. c. 17. § 8. &c.-Three Conversions of Engl. P. i. c. 12. § 5.] 1 [The protest of Gregory the Great against the assumption of the title of 'Episcopus Universalis' (or in other words, Head of the Catholic Church) by John, Patriarch of Constantinople, Ixix 1505.0 may be found in his letters; to John himself-Epist. lib. v. epist. 18., to others-Ibid. lib. v. epist. 20. 21. 43. lib. ix. epist. 68. Op. tom. ii. ed. Bened.] m ["Petri cathedram ... ecclesiam principalem, unde unitas sacerdotalis exorta est." Cyprian. ad Cornelium, Epist. 59. pp. 135, 136. "Unitatis ejusdem" (Ecclesiæ) "originem ab uno” (Petro) "incipientem." Id. De Unitate, Op. p. 107. "Ecclesia... super Petrum origine unitatis ... fundata." Id. ad Januar. &c., Epist. 70. p. 190.] [Greg. M. Epist. lib. v. epist. 21. Op. tom. ii. p. 751. C.-see also lib. v. epist. 43. ibid. p. 773. B. and lib. ix. epist. 68. ibid. p. 984. C.] I. Hatred of cause why ment per King. [p. 2.] Neither are you more successful in your other reason, why DISCOURSE the Parliament persecuted the King;-'because he maintained Episcopacy, both out of conscience and interest, which they Episcopacy sought to abolish.' For though it be easily admitted, that not the true some seditious and heterodox persons had an evil eye both the Parlia against monarchy and Episcopacy from the very beginning secuted the of these troubles, either out of a fiery zeal, or vain affectation of novelty (like those, who having the green-sickness prefer chalk and meal in a corner before wholesome meat at their father's table), or out of a greedy and covetous desire of gathering some sticks for themselves upon the fall of those great oaks; yet certainly they, who were the contrivers and principal actors in this business, did more malign Episcopacy for monarchy's sake, than monarchy for Episcopacy's. What end had the Nuncio's faction in Ireland against Episcopacy? whose mutinous courses apparently lost that kingdom. When the King's consent to the abolition of Episcopacy in Scotland was extorted from him by the Presbyterian faction (which probably the prime authors do rue sufficiently by this time), were those Presbyterian Scots any thing more favourable to monarchy? To come to England, the chief scene of this bloody tragedy; if that party in Parliament had at first proposed any such thing as the abolition either of monarchy or Episcopacy, undoubtedly they had ruined their whole design; until daily tumults and uncontrollable uproars had chased away the greater, and sounder, part of both Houses their first protestation was solemnly made to God, both for King and Church, as they were by law established?. : causes of bles in Would you know then what it was that conjured up the The true storm among us? It was some feigned jealousies and fears the trou(which the first broachers themselves knew well enough to be England. fables), dispersed cunningly among the people, that the I. King purposed to subvert the fundamental laws of the King [John Baptista Rinuccini, Archbishop of Fermo, was sent into Ireland by Innocent X. as his nuncio, in 1615. An account of his proceedings, which certainly had no connection whatever with Episcopacy as such, may be found in Clarendon's Historical View of the Affairs of Ireland from 1640 to 1652, printed at the end of his Hist. of the Rebell., vol. iii. pp. 1019, &c., and more BRAMHALL. D fully, from his own Memoirs, in Carte's P[See the Solemn Protestation, 'taken |