The Disarmers Dexterities Examined, Chapter 5 · Section 12
SECT. XII.
Answer to his seventh Section. Strictures on the lighter part of it. Ethelberts erecting the Primacy at Canterbury. Removall of Primacies, and Addition of Provinces, to whom justly assignable. Caerusks remove to S. Davids. Valentia and Flavia Caesariensis. From York to Canterbury.
THe first three pages of his 7. Sect: have no appearance of weight, or difficulty: to which any more answer is in reason due, then the Section in the Treatise, to which they belong, will readily, if it be consulted, afford any man. But he, 1. finds fault with parentheses, which are a very visible part of the Scripture style, and so may not reasonably be found fault with in mine, 2. misreports my arguing, which neither denyes tradition as he would have it, nor layes any more weight on the negative argument than evidently belongs to it, and requires not of him, as he suggests, to find the name of Primates or Patriarchs in Scripture, but saith that there is no imaginable obstacle there, against which though but interpretatively the Prince can be said to offend, when he shall make such changes; and 3. from faber fabrilia tractet he concludes it the testimony of common sense, that Kings must not meddle with such matters, as if none could ever judge which were the largest city, and most fitly accomplisht to be a Metropolis, but he who had spent his age in the study of Divinity, which yet no way belongs to it, and 4 he resolves that nothing hath been said either to disprove the Popes Ʋniversal Pastorsh p, or to evidence this right o… Kings to remove Patriarchs, to be founded in the Canon of Chalcedon— when I have all reason to think, that he hath not said one word in defence of either of these pretensions, which is not now answered, and when without any id est, the 17th Ca…on of Chal edon is plain, that whensoever any city is erected or restored by the Imperial power, the order of the Ecclesiastical divisions shall follow the Civil forms; Of which, and of the Canon in Trullo, and the acknowledged force thereof to this matter, I have in this Reply inlarged abundantly.
But what he next proceeds to, hath transported him into severall passions, betwixt which he hath found out another grievous mistake, if it have but the luck to stand good to him; However it makes a dish in the bill of Fare, that allowance of an house to dwell in and meat to eat, is the erection of a Primacy. And was it not truly said of old by the Deipnosophist, that foreign, Cooks are Poets, and that a little skill in that art is sufficient to convert the Rape root into a delicate fish service, at a time when nature denied, and all the Ocean would not afford the like. Just thus is it here, I said that Canterbury or Dorovernia was the seat of King Ethelberts Kingdome, and proved it by the words of Bede, who calls it*lib. 1 c. 25. Imperii sui totius Metropolis, and that King at the time of Augustines planting the fa…th did erect a Primacy in that City, not bringing any proof of this, but mentioning it as a certain thing, that needed no probation. And he very diligently seeks out the place in Bede, where those words are, Imperii sui Metropolis, and finding there a mention of his giving them a mansion and food, this forsooth must be drest out for my proof of his erecting a Primacy there, and that at a time when Ethelbert, he confesses, was not yet converted, and all this managed with great demurenesse, as if I had been really gui…ty of this senslesnesse. The short is, I did really prove from those words, what I designed from them, that Canterbury was King Ethelberts se…t of h… Kingdom, but never dreamt of inferring from that place the erecting of an Ec…lesiastical Primacy there. I know that could not be done, till after the Kings conversion, and then it is distinctly mention'd by the same Bede in the*lib. 1. c. 26. next Chapter, in the title whereof we read, Ʋt in urbe Regis sedem Episcopatus acceperit, how Augustine received the seat of his Bishoprick in the King's city and so in the chapter it self in these words, Nec distulit (Rex) quin— doctoribus suis locum sedis eorum gradui congruum in Dorovern â Metropoli suâ denaret, simul & necessarias in diversis speciebus possessiones confer…et, Th… King deferred not to give his Teachers the place of a seat, agreeable to their degree, in Canterbury his Metropolis, and together with it conferred on them necessary possessions in several k ndes. And there can be no ground of doubting it. The Pope sent hem to preach *Episcopum ordinandum (si ab Anglis susciperen…ur) dispo…ucrat. Bed. 1. c. 23.appointed Augustine should be ordained Bish p, if the English should rec…ive them. The*c. 27. Archbishop of Arles ordai…ed him according to the Popes direction. But where the se…t of his Bishoprick should be fastened, it is not imaginable, who should give order for that, but onelyonly King Ethelbert; the Pope could not, who did not certainly foresee his reception; the ordainer the Bishop of A…les had nothing to doe with it, nay, this he was first to have as his title, before he could by Canon ordein him, and accordingly so it is in story, that, and the Pall from the Pope, his ordination, and consecration were both consequent to the Kings assigning him the seat, the first in 27. the other in 29 chap: And so much for the childish piece of insincerity, as he calls it: the reader will now judge, on which side it lies.
Next follows the arreignment of my words about the Removal of the Primacies in England, and addition of Provinces, which I conceived assignable, i. e. justly, or so as might agree with the truth of History, assign…ble to nothing but the acts of Princes in removing, and erecting Metropole…; but he affirms these to be assignable, 1. to the Popes power, 2. to the consent of Bishops.] Here if by the consent of Bishops he mean the concurrence of their consent to the Kings act, I shall make no questi…n of that, th…s differs from an authoritative consent, and so still the King might doe it, though the Bishops concurred and consented to it: his doing it was never by me intimated to be his doi…g it against their will, but his doing it regularly and advisedly, as in reason, and for the good of the Church he ought to doe it. The former then is the onel… matter of question, whether it were the Popes or the Kings act, and as yet there being nothing produced on S. W. his side, but the bare mention of the possibility that the Pope should doe it, without all tender of proof, that he did, there is nothing to be answered, or replied by me, yet I shall by one instance (which will suffice in this matter) evidently prove that in that at least, he neither did, nor could doe it. The Archbishoprick of Caerusk in Monmouth-shire was removed to St. Davids in the reign of King Arthur, and that as hath been shew…d, as before Augustines coming into England, so before the Pope had any hold here, and whilst Cae usk was not subject to any other Bishop whatsoever, as hath formerly been proved, and vindicated; and therefore I conclude this is no way assignable to the Pope, without c…n…ound ng, and denying all that our Histories tell us in this matter. As for the addition of Valentia and Flavia Caesariensis, it was certainly done by the Roman Emperours, and those are not the Pope. And the choice of Canterbury for the Metropolis having even now been cleared to be the act of E helbert (though Augustine the B shop there was sent from Rome, and ordained by the Bishop of Arles, and after had a Pall from Rome) the removal of it from London (where it was formerly, even at the time of the Nicene Councel) must be assigned to that o…iginal, and the rather, because that which the Pope in his Letter to Augustine, saith of London, Greg ex Reg. l. 12. In…ict 7. Ep. 15.that the Bishop thereof should semper in posterum à synodo propriâ consecrari, be for ever afterward consecrated by his owne synod, i. e. by an Archbishop, never came to any …ffect, the Archbishoprick continuing to be established at Canterbury, and no remembrance remaining to us, of Londo…s being an Ecclesiastical Metropolis after this: So that Neubrigensis resolves it must be unstood of C…nterbury, what Greg. Ep. saith of London; l. 5 c 10.discerning it seems, that as to London it found no accomplishment. Lastly, for York, the principall colonie of the Romanes in Britann, and the seat of the Emperours Palace, and the place of the Lieutenants residence, and adorned with other dignities, mentioned in Tract of Sch. tis certain the Primacy continued there, while the Romans held the Government, and after that, while the Britans held England, and in memory thereof Gregories appointment to Augustine after his comming was that*Si civitas cum finitimis locis verbum Dei receperit, ipse quoque 12. Episcopos or linet, & Metropolitani h…no…e p rjruatur l. 12 cp. 15. if that City received the Faith, it should so far enjoy the former pr…vilege, as to be the seat of a Metropolitane, with twelve Bishops under him, and without any subjection Londinensis Episcopi ditioni, to the power of the Bishop of London, or (as Neubri…ensis with all reason saith it must be understood) of the Bisho… of Canterbury and*Sit vero inter Episcopo h…noris ista d…stinctio, ut ipse prior habeatu… qui prius fue… t o…dinatus. Ib. for the future after Augustines death, …e to be the fi st of those two Archbishops which from time to time was first ordained, which again being not agreeable to Canterburies having the Primacy, (for that differs from all such equality) tis evident that that Pope did not remove the Primacy from York to Canterbury; and that any successor of his did, I know not that it is pretended. And thus he sees the grounds of the Doctors reasoning not so irrational, in respect of the processe, or unconcluding in respect of the Medium, as he would have perswaded by his Sarcasmes (not his Reasons) which make up the far greatest part of his confutations.