CHAP. X.

OF THE SUPREME

HEAD OF THE CHURCH

I

OF ENGLAND.

Shall follow the common order of affociating our ideas of church and ftate, by first confidering the king as fupreme head of the church of England. Now, although in this difcuffion I fhall rather confider, what the constitution now is, than what it heretofore was; yet, as whatever ecclefiaftical fupremacy over the church of England is now vefted by the constitution in the perfon of the king, is generally fuppofed to be vested in him by the continuance, recognition, revival, or transfer of an old power, and not by the creation, donation, and inveftiture of a new one, as I fhall endeavour to make appear, it will be incumbent upon me to make fome refearches into the origin and eftablishment of Spiritual or or ecclefiaftical power in this country. I will prefume it useless to repeat any thing I have heretofore faid, to prove that the majority of the community, who must conclude the whole, have not only an indefeasible right, but an indifpenfable obligation and adopt that divine cult or worship,

duty to

7

which they fhall confcientiously think God requires from them, and to countenance and fupport it with what civil fanctions they fhall think proper. My examination therefore will not be, whether our ancestors exercifed their right, and fulfilled their duty more or less judiciously or perfectly than their fucceffors; but in what manner and to what extent they actually made a religious establishment an effential part of their civil conftitution. This difcuffion has often been a fubject of fuch rancorous controversy, that I am not totally free from fear, left the liberality even of the present day, may be at firft unequal to form a perfectly unbiaffed judgment upon the fubject. I am now to examine the truth, not the reafon of facts.

As true as it is, that in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of king Henry VIII. the majority of the people of England did, by the act of their representatives in parliament, renounce and throw off the fpiritual fupremacy of the pope of Rome; fo true is it, that they had uninterruptedly acknowledged and fubmitted unto it for near one thousand years before the twenty-fourth of Henry VIII. A.D. 1532. It is frivolous in the extreme, to treat this fpiritual fupremacy

of

of the pope as a papal ufurpation; for who can be fo fimple as to believe, that fuch fubmiffion could have been forced upon the English nation, who were ever jealous of their liberty, against their confent, by one hundred and feventy-one popes, who during that space of time filled the papal fee.

We must allow to our ancestors the fame right and the fame obligation of following the dictates of their confciences, which we claim and acknowledge ourselves. By the tenets of the religion, which they then profeffed, the fpiritual primacy of the visible fucceffor of St. Peter was an effential article of their belief; their fubmiffion therefore to the bishop of Rome, as fuch visible acknowledged head of the church was as free, as their adoption of the religion, which taught the neceffity of fuch a primacy. What an abfurdity would it not be, to speak of the belief and profeffion of the Roman catholic religion in Poland or Portugal as an ufurpation? And if our ancestors thought proper Confent of the to make a free voluntary tender and fecurity to the bishops of Rome, either of Peter Pence, first fruits, or any other civil advantage, or benefit, how can that be called an ufurpation, which could neither have been originally impofed, nor continue to be en

forced

nation inconfif. tent with ufurpation.

King Henry's belief of and fubmiffion to the pope's fupremacy the trongest proof of its actual existence.

forced by any civil or human means, without the confent of the nation? The fact demonftrates the truth! For from the moment, in which the nation withdrew their confent, from that moment the bishop of Rome enjoyed no more civil or temporal rights, benefits, nor advantages within this kingdom, than St. Peter did from our heathen British ancestors, who inhabited the ifland in his days.

As to this point, I know of no authority, that can be fo conclufive, as that of king Henry himfelf, who, about ten years before the paffing of this act, in defence of the fpiritual fupremacy of the pope against Martin Luther, wrote a book, which he fubfcribed with his own hand, and fent to pope Leo X. by Dr. Clerke, the bishop of Bath and Wells, and for which he obtained the title of defender of the faith, which has been ever fince kept up by our fovereigns to this day.

*« I will not offer fo much injury unto the pope, as earnestly and carefully to dif pute heere of his right, as though the matter might be held in doubt; it is fufficient for that, which now we haue in hand, that his enemy (Luther) fheweth himself so much

* Henry VIII. in Def. Sacram. cont. M. Luth.

to

to be carried away with paffion and fury, as he taketh all faith and credit from his owne fayings, cleerly declaring his malice to be fuch, as it fuffereth him neither to agree with himself, nor to confider what he faith."

And then, after confuting Luther's opinion and affertion, that the pope neither by diuine or bumane law, but onlie by ufurpation and tyrannie, bad gotten the headshipp of the church, he continues," Luther cannot deny, but that all the faithfull chriftian churches at this daie doe acknowledge and reuerence the holy fea of Rome, as their mother and primate, &c. And if this acknowledgment is grounded neither in diuine nor humane right, how hath it taken fo great and generall roote? How is it admitted fo uniuerfally by all christendome? When began it? How grew it to bee fo great? And whereas humane confent is fufficient to giue humane right at least, how can Luther faie, that heere is neither diuine nor bumane right, where this is, and hath been for time out of minde, uniuerfall humane confent? Truly if a man will looke ouer the monuments of things and times paft, he fhall find that prefently after the world was pacified (from perfecution) the moft parte of chriftian churches did obay the Roman; yea, and the Greeke church alfo, Q2 though