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Acknowledgment of the

pope's fpiritual fupremacy no ufurpation.

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 lefs judicioufly 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 prefent day, may be at first 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 Spiritual supremacy 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 seventy-one popes, who during that space of time filled the papal see.

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 vifible 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 fpeak 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 tent with ufurto 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→

pation.

King Henry's belief of and fubmiffion to the pope's fupremacy the ftrongest 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 difpute 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 assertion, that the pope neither by diuine or humane 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 chriftendome? 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 humane 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. past, he shall find that presently after the world was pacified (from perfecution) the most parte of chriftian churches did obay the Roman; yea, and the Greeke church alfo, Q2 though

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though the empire were paffed to tha parte, wee shall find, that fhee acknowledged the primacy of the fame Romaine church, but only when fhee was in fchifme. And as for S. Hierome, though he were no Roman, yet did hee in his daies ascribe fo much authoritie and preheminence to the Roman church, as he affirmed, that in matters of great doubt it was fufficient for his faith to bee allowed and approued by the pope of Rome, &c." And he fays further.

"Whereas Luther fo impudently doth affirme, that the pope hath his primacie by no right, neither diuine nor humane, but onlie by force and tyrannie, I doe wonder how the mad fellow could hope to find his readers fo fimple or blockifh, as to beleiue, that the bishop of Rome, being a priest, unarmed, alone, without temporall force or right, either diuine or humane (as he supposed) should bee able to get authoritie ouer fo manie other bishops his equals, throughout fo manie and different nations, fo far off from him, and so little fearing his temporall power; or that fo manie people, citties, kingdomes, commonwealths, prouinces, and nations could bee fo prodigall of their owne libertie, as to fubject themfelues to a forraine priest (as now fo manie ages they haue done) or to give him

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