The Disarmers Dexterities Examined, Chapter 5 · Section 8
SECT. VIII.
Anselm's interpretation of 2 Thes. 2.7. Lawfull power of Kings. Kings founders of Bishopricks in England. Regali authoritate, in the Charter for Battel Abbey. Bishopricks bestow d by Kings by Investiture. Non-reception of Legates. Kings power to remove Patriarchates prejudicial to the Papal, not Patriarchal pretensions.
HIs next tender of answers to my 15. and 16. Sections, begins with many good words to Anselme, in pure gratitude for the kindnesse he exprest to the Pope, in saving his authority, before he would consent to the erection of the Bishoprick of Ely. And seeing he is by S. W. afforded the Elogie of the gravest Prelate our countrey hath ever been honoured with, for this one merit of refusing the Kings sole authority to conclude such businesses, without his and the Pope's consent.] I shall ask him what he thinks of Anselm's words on 2 Thes. 2.7. Romanus Pontifex qui tenet nunc Ecclesias, teneat illas donec de medio fiat, i. e. donec ab ipsâ Romanâ Ecclesiâ quae est medium & cor Ecclesiarum, fiat iniquitas, ob quam ab eâ multae discedant Ecclesiae. The Bishop of Rome, who now holds the Churches, let him hold them till he be taken away, i. e. saith he, till iniquity be committed by the Roman Church it self, which is the middle and heart of the Churches, for which many Churches depart from her. What ill luck was it that S. W. his profusest acclamations should be bestowed upon one that hath no better deserved them?
I have no more to say, but to desire the Reader to read over the Sections, to which they are accommodated, and onelyonly to remember, that when I speak of the power of Kings, I speak onelyonly of their lawfull power, such as was by all disinterested persons accounted really to belong to them, such as is approved and allowed them by the Canons of the Ʋnive…sall Church, and in the exercise whereof, the Bishops or Governours of the Church then being, expressed their sense that it was so, and concurred, as far as they were concerned, to the acts of it (yet this still without the authoritative consent, or concurrence of the Bishop of Rome, as to this Realm of ours) and that for any all-lawful inerrablenesse, as he calls it, I that do not allow it the Pope in any his narrowest sphear of motion, in his own territories, or chair, did never plead it to belong to Kings in theirs; Nor do I any more pretend, that they which are obliged to make no law, bu… by consent of Parliament, should make lawes of themselves, without and against that consent, which is all the Reply due to his Answer to the instance of Kenulphus in his next Paragraph.
As for his other answer taken from the Kings founding of Abbies— it will rather assist, than prejudice our pretensions, who acknowledge him founder of our Bishopricks also, and from thence framed an argument for this power of his, Sect. 18.
What he addes of Regali authoritate, in the Charter of William the Conquerour to Battel Abbey, that it signifies the Jus Regis, 1 Kin the power of the sword, and injustice, and this consequent to his being the Emperour] needs no other answer than this, that he that came in by the sword, professed to rule by law, and is no more to be presumed to have broken his oath, than the Popes that vow to rule according to Canon, though they have come in by S…monie. And the part cular Charter by me cited from him, having the attestation of the Bishops and Barons joyned to his regal author…ty, 'tis to be presumed (there appearing no cause of feare to extort it from them) that they thought it agreeable to regal…tie and justice too, what he thus did, or would not have thus attested.
The three particulars behind in this 5. Sect. have been briefly toucht on already here, or in the Reply, and there is no appearance of weight in what is here suggested, to exact my farther inlarging. For, 1. If the Kings of France and England, and Emper…urs of Germany, have alwayes claimed to bestow Bishopricks by investiture, then I must still suppose this some prejudice, or retrenchment to the Pope's Ʋniversall Pastorship as S. W. will inlarge the fringes of it; and this his own words confesse to me, when at length he mindes me of the Pope, and Clergie's resistance to Kings, that usurped these In…estitures: for if so they did, sure they must be thought to have deemed it some invasion of their pretended rights, that the K ngs thus claimed and injoyed them, or else they would not have been so peevish to make such unjust at once, and gainlesse resistances. And this was all that I pretended from that instance.
So also for the Legates receptions, it cannot misse to be an indication of the Supreme power of Kings in all causes within their own R…almes, and consequently of the no Supremacy of the Pope, that his Legate, which is interpretatively himselfe, cannot without leave from the Prince, lawfully enter the Kingdome, or exercise any jurisdiction in it, this sure being the privilege of every Supreme Governour, that his Dominions should lye open to him, and to the foreign, 1 Pet. 2.14. his foreign, be they ordinary Judges of circuit, or fixt Procurators, or any that any way represent his person, as certainly Legates doe, and are therefore styled foreign from his person, or a latere, from his side, and come, and are either received, or rejected in the vertue of him that sent them. Of this see the Reply, p 124 And then the greater the number is of such nations, which still deny this liberty of admission to the Pope's Legates, the more proof, there are of the no Ʋniversal agnition of his Ʋniversal supremacy.
And lastly, for his suggestion, that all this while I mistake the Papal power for a Patriarchate. See Reply, c. 6. sect. 4. n. 21. or remember that the Supreme power of Kings being once asserted (particularly to this, to erect in their Realmes, Primates, or Bishop… independent from all forreigne power) is a competent prejudice to the Popes highest pretensions, those of the Ʋniversall Pastorship, and indeed most proportionable, and particularly adequate to that, and was never designed by me, as the E…gine to oppugne his Patriarchal just rights, nor if it had, could it have hoped to be successeful to that end. The unlimited Papal usurpations are they, that are found unreconcileable with the power of Kings in their owne Realmes, as one society cannot have two Supremes. This advertisement may assure him, I was not so blinde as to mistake Rome's pretensions to bee for no more than a Patriarchate; If I had, I should either never have disputed at all, or have made use of some other arguments, viz. the Pope's fastidious rejecting and disclaiming that title, relinquishing and renouncing those his just rights, in order to these higher pretensions.