shoprick, together with all the ordinary jurisdiction thereunto appertaining, should be adjudged clearly dissolved and extinguished; and that King Edward the Sixth should from henceforth have, possess, and enjoy, to him, his heirs, and successors for ever, whatsoever did appertain or belong to the said Bishoprick, in as large and ample a manner and form as any Bishop thereof had, held, or possessed, or of right ought to have had, held, or possessed, &c. Be it therefore enacted, &c."

No. V.

Archbishop Heath's, Bishop Scot's, and Abbot Feckenham's Speeches against Q. Elizabeth's Supremacy, and the New Liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer; with some Account of the Speakers.

Q. ELIZABETH, in the first Parliament of her summoning (besides admitting the Catholic Bishops) sent her writ to the Lord Prior Tresham and Abbot Feckenham, to make their appearance, with the rest of her Barons, in her Great Council."-Ful. Ch. Hist. B. VII. p. 359.

In this graud council of the nation, two things seem to have been resolved on by the Queen and her more intimate counsellors. The first was, to rear up again the pillar of Supremacy, which Queen Mary had thrown down; and the latter was, to introduce a new Liturgy, or form of public worship. Against the first, Archbishop Heath, in the House of Lords, stood up, and spoke as follows:

"My Lords,

"With humble submission of my whole discourse to your Honours, I propose to speak to the body of this act, touching the Supremacy; that so what this Honourable Assembly is now a doing, concerning the passing of this act, may thereby be better weighed and considered by your wisdoms. First, when by virtue of this Act of Supremacy, we must forsake and fly from the See of Rome, it should be considered by your wisdoms, what manner of danger or inconvenience may attend such a step; or else, whether there be none at all. Secondly, when the intent of this act is to give unto the Queen's Highness a Supremacy, it should be con

*He was Lord Prior (or Grand Master, as some call him) of the Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem, refounded by Queen Mary.

sidered by your wisdoms, what this Supremacy is, and whether it doth consist in spiritual government or in temporal. If in temporal, what further authority can this House give unto her Highness, than what she hath already by right of inheritance, and this not by our gift, but by the appointment of God? she being our Sovereign Lord and Lady, our King and Queen, our Emperor and Empress. And if, further than this, we acknowledge her to be Head of the Church of England, we ought also to grant, that the Emperor, or any other Prince, being Catholic, and their subjects Protestants, are to be heads of their church. Whereby we shall do an act as disagreeable to Protestants, as this seems to Catholics. If you say this Supremacy doth consist in spiritual government, then it should be considered, what this spiritual government is, and in what points it doth chiefly consist. Which being first agreed upon, it should be further considered by your Wisdoms, whether this House may grant it to her Highness or not? and whether her Highness be an apt person to receive the same? So, by a thorough examination of these points, your Honours will proceed in this matter groundedly, upon sure knowledge, and not be deceived with ignorance.

"Now to the first point, wherein I promised to examine, what matter of weight, danger, or inconvenience, might be incurred by thus our forsaking and flying from the See of Rome. And if there were no further therein, than the withdrawing our obedience from the Pope's person, (supposing that he had declared himself to be a very austere and severe Father to us) then the business were not of so great importance, as it is in very deed, as will immediately appear. For, by relinquishing and forsaking the See of Rome, we must forsake and fly from these four things: First, we must forsake and fly from all General Councils. Secondly, we must fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ. Thirdly, from the judgment of all other Christian Princes. Fourthly, and lastly, we must forsake and fly from the Unity of Christ's Church, and by leaping out of Peter's ship, hazard ourselves to be overwhelmed and drowned in the waves of schism, sects, and divisious.

"First, touching General Councils, I shall only name. unto you these four, viz. the Nicene, the Constantinopolitan, the Ephesine, and that of Chalcedon, which are approved by all men, doubted or denied by no man. Of the which four councils S. Gregory writeth in this wise: Sicut enim Sancti Evangelii quatuor Libros, sic hoc quatuor Concilia, scilicet, Nicenum, Constantinopolitanum, Ephesinum,

et Chalcedonense, suscipere ac venerari më fateor-I confess I do receive and reverence these four General Councils of Nice, of Constantinople, of Ephesus, and of Chalcedon, even as I do the four Evangelists.'-At the Nicene Council, the first of the four, the Bishops which were there assembled did write their epistie to Sylvester, then Bishop of Rome, That their decrees made there might be confirmed by his authority.' At the council held at Constantinople, all the Bishops there were obedient to Damasus, then Bishop of Rome. He, as chief judge in that Council, gave sentence against the heretics Macedonius, Sabellius, and Eunomius; which Eunomius was both an Arian, and the first author of that heresy, that only faith doth justify. And here (by the way) it is much to be lamented, that we the inhabitants of this realm, are much more inclined to raise up the errors and sects of ancient condemned heretics, than to follow the true approved doctrine of the most catho lic and learned Fathers of Christ's Church. At the Ephesine Council, Nestorius the heretic was condemned by Celestin, then Bishop of Rome, he being the chief judge there. At the Council of Chalcedon, all the Bishops assembled there (to the number of six hundred and thirty) did write their hun ble submission unto Leo, then Bishop of Rome, wherein they did acknowledge him to be their Chief Head. Therefore, to deny the See Apostolic and its authority, were to contemn and set at nought the judgment, authority, and decrees of these four councils.

"Secondly, we must forsake and fly from all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christ's Church, whereunto we have already confessed our obedience at the font, saying, Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam - I believe the Holy Catholic Church. Which article containeth, that we must believe, not only that there is a Catholic Church, but that we must receive also the doctrine and sacraments of the same church, obey her laws, and live according to the same; which laws do depend wholly upon the authority of the See Apostolic. And like as it is here openly professed by the judges of this realm, that the laws agreed upon in the Higher and Lower Houses of this Honourable Parliament, be of small or none effect before the royal assent of the King or Prince be given thereunto: just so, ecclesiastical laws, when made, cannot bind the Universal Church of Christ, without the royal assent and confirmation of the See Apostolic.

ર્ડ Thirdly, we must forsake and fly from the judgment of all other Christian Princes, whether they be Protestant or

Catholick, when none of them do agree with these our doings; King Henry the Eighth being the first that ever took upon him the title of Supremacy. And whereas it was of late, bere in this House, said by a Nobleman, that the title of Supremacy is of right due to the King, because he is King; then it would follow, that Herod, being a King, should be Supreme Head of the Church at Jerusalem, and Nere the Emperor, Supreme Head of the Church of Christ at Rome: they being both infidels, and therefore no members of Christ's Church. And if our Saviour Jesus Christ, at his departure from this world, should have left the Spiritual Government of his Church in the hands of Emperors and Kings, and not have committed the same unto his Apostles, how negligently then should he have left his Church, will appear right well, by calling to your remembrance, that the Emperor Constantine the Great was the first Christian Emperor, and reigned not till above three hundred years after the ascension of Christ. If, therefore, by your proposition, Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, was the first Chief Head and Spiritual Governor of Christ's Church throughout his empire, then it followeth, that our Saviour Christ, for the whole time and space of three hundred years, until the coming of Constantine, had left his Church, which he had dearly bought by the effusion of his most precious blood, without any Head at all. Besides, how untrue the saying of this Nobleman was, will further appear from the examples of Ozias and King David. For when King Ozias did take the censer to incense the altar of God, the Priest Azarias did resist him, and expelled him out of the Temple, and said unto him these words; Non est officii tui, Oza, ut adoleas incensum Domino, sed sacerdotum, hoc est, filiorum Aaron, qui consecrati sunt ad hujusmodi ministerium. [2 Pural. xxvi. 18.]

If.

It is not thy office, Ozias, to offer incense to the Lord, but it belongs to the priests, that is, to the children of Aaron, who are consecrated to this kind of ministry.'-Now 1 shall most humbly demand this question: When the Priest Azarias said to the King, Non est officii tui, &c.It is not thy office, &c. whether he said true or no? you answer, that he spoke truth, then the King was not the Supreme Head of the Church of the Jews. If you say no : why did God then plague the king with a leprosy, and not the priest? Again: the Priest Azarias, in resisting the King, and thrusting him out of the Temple, did he act the part of a subject, or no? If you answer no, why then did God spare the Priest, and not the King? If you answer

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yea, then it is most manifest that Ozias, merely because he was a King, could not be Supreme Head of the Church. And as touching the example of King David, in bringing home the ark of God from the country of the Philistines to the city of David, what Supremacy, or Spiritual Government of God's ark, did King David there take upon him? Did he place himself amongst the priests, or take upon him any spiritual function appertaining to them? Did he approach near unto the ark, or yet presume to touch the same? No, by no means. For he had seen before Oza struck dead by the hand of God for the like arrogance and presumption. And therefore King David did go before the ark of God with his harp, making melody, and placed himself amongst the minstrels; and so humbly did he abase himself, though a king, as to dance before the ark of God, like his other subjects. Insomuch that his Queen Michol, King Saul's daughter, seeing this great humility of King David, disdained him for it. Whereupon King David made her this answer: Ante Dominum qui elegit me potius quàm Patrem tuum, et quàm omnem Domum ejus -et_ludam, et vilior fiam, plus quam factus sum-Before the Lord, who hath chosen me, rather than thy Father, and than all his house, I will both play, and also become more abject than I have been.' [2 Kings vi. 20, 21.] Such was the laudable humility of this king! Now, may it please your Honours to consider, which of both these kings it shall be most convenient for your Wisdoms to move the Queen's Majesty to follow; whether the example of proud Ozias, induced by your persuasions and counsels to take upon her the Spiritual Government, and thereby exposing her soul to be plagued at the hand of God, as King Ozias was; or else to follow the example of good King David, who, in refusal of all Spiritual Government about the ark of God, did humble himself in the manner I have already declared. To which our Sovereign Lady the Queen's Highness, of her own nature, being well inclined, we may assure ourselves to have of her as humble, as virtuous, and as godly a mistress to reign over us, as ever had English people here in this realm ; if that her Highness be not by your flattery and dissimulation, seduced and beguiled.

Fourthly, and lastly, we must forsake and fly from the Unity of Christ's Church, For the holy martyr, St. Cyprian, tells us, That the Unity of the Church of Christ doth depend upon the Unity of Peter's Authority. Therefore, by leaping out of Peter's ship, we must needs be overwhelmed with the schism, sects, and divisions; because