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<DATE>2012-07-18</DATE>
<RESPSTMT>
<NAME>Pip Willcox</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch Z120611.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<STC T="W">A3511</STC>
<STC T="T">E206_7</STC>
<BIBNO T="umi">99868713</BIBNO>
<VID>157711</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>AN ANTI-RE|MONSTRANCE, TO THE LATE HVMBLE REMON|STRANCE TO THE HIGH COVRT OF PARLIAMENT.</P>
<P><HI>Printed Anno</HI> 1641.</P>
</DIV1>
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<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="answer">
<PB REF="2">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>AN ANTI-REMON|STRANCE TO THE LATE HVMBLE REMONSTRANCE to the High Court of Parliament.</HEAD>
<P>THe&s;e few Leaves of Paper breake on through, after the Humble re|mon&s;trance, with le&s;&s;e noy&s;e, be|cau&s;e of le&s;&s;e bulke; and not &s;tuffed with the huskes of a bare plea&s;ing &s;peech, but pre&s;ented to your view with more &s;ub&s;tance then Rethorique, and with more things then words, and &s;uch as I hope will plucke off the vizard of dutifull Sonne from the Authour of the Remon&s;trance, or make his Mother little behol|ding to him for his advi&s;e. Yee are not ignorant of the great di&s;tractions, oppo&s;itions, and of the di|ver&s;ity of affections and feares of the people of the whole land about the event of the Churches reformation in hand: for indeede &s;ome out of a zeale, &s;omewhat incon&s;iderate doe cry downe E|pi&s;copacy as Antichri&s;tian. Others very mo|derate crave and wi&s;h earne&s;tly, Epi&s;copacy were
<PB N="2" REF="3">reformed and purged from the Romi&s;h and Ty|rannicall government that incumbers it, and which &s;ince the la&s;t reformation in King <HI>Edward</HI> the &s;ixth dayes, no free Parliament yet was &s;o hap|py as to redre&s;&s;e: Againe, a third kind of men carried by a contrary winde, maintaine Epi&s;co|pacy to bee by Divine right, not &s;o much as na|ming that apply of di&s;cord, nor mentioning the maine thing which is &s;o much &s;tood upon, which is not that Epi&s;copacie is either of Divine right or not, for if (as the Author of the remon|&s;trance acknowledgeth,) a Church may &s;tand without Epi&s;copacie, it matters not much, which of the&s;e two opinions is held: but the maine point debated lyes in this a&s;&s;ertion, that <HI>Epi&s;co|pall government, as it is e&s;tabli&s;hed in England is mo&s;t di&s;agreeable to Chri&s;t and the Apostles in&s;titution, and to therites and con&s;titutions of the primi|tive Church, and makes a part of the my&s;terie of iniquities, which the Roman Church for many hundred yeares in England hath had the greate&s;t &s;hare in.</HI> Likewi&s;e the favourers of the humble remon|&s;trance traduce as libellers the oppo&s;ers of that tenet of <HI>Epi&s;copacie</HI> by Divine right, and of the corruptions that attend Epi&s;copacie, as it is e&s;ta|bli&s;hed in <HI>England.</HI> The&s;e di&s;tractions and op|po&s;itions being &s;uch; may it plea&s;e the Hono|rable Court &s;eriou&s;ly to ponder that there is as great a latitude between having no Bi&s;hops at all, and having them with the tendred limitations by tho&s;e they call libellers; as there is betweene re|taining a limited power in Bi&s;hops, and confir|ming
<PB N="3" REF="3">the Bi&s;hops in the exorbitant authority and greatne&s;&s;e of Government as it is e&s;tabli&s;hed in <HI>England:</HI> which Governement God forbid it were retained, being as it is conceived by the mo&s;t learned, pious, and judicious of the land mo&s;t Antichri&s;tian, and attended with more evill then the quite aboli&s;hing of Epi&s;copacie can prove hurtfull, and of dangerous con&s;equence; and that for the&s;e rea&s;ons and grounds follow|ing.</P>
<P N="1">I. Epi&s;copall Government as it is e&s;tabli&s;hed in <HI>England,</HI> is a continuation of the height of pow|er and juri&s;diction, which in the darke&s;t times of Popery the Pope hath u&s;urped by his Bi&s;hops and Abbots farre beyond the footing, he ever tooke in <HI>France, Spaine,</HI> or <HI>Germany.</HI> Therefore what the Authour of the remo~&s;trance alleadgeth of the ancientne&s;&s;e of Epi&s;copacie, and of its con|tinuance hitherto 1500. yeares is vaine and fri|valous, for the Roman Church upon the &s;ame ground or pleading of antitiquitie makes her he|re&s;ies and abominations warantable.</P>
<P N="2">II. The Bi&s;hops in&s;titution and inthroni&s;ing is altogether repugnant and contrary to the lawes and cu&s;tomes of the Primitive Church, and a|gain&s;t the con&s;titutions of the Prime Chri&s;ti|an Emperours, who ordained that the people joyntly with the inferiour Cleargie &s;hould pre|&s;ent to the Emperour a catalogue of the mo&s;t pi|ous and learned men of the Dioce&s;&s;e, and the
<PB N="4" REF="4">man that the Emperour was to pitch upon, be inve&s;ted with the function of a Bi&s;hop: for proofe thereof reade the con&s;titutions of <HI>Charles</HI> the great; <HI>Lewis</HI> the godly, <HI>Gregory</HI> the great, <HI>Gela|&s;ius</HI> and others.</P>
<P N="2">II. The height and &s;uperiority of place that Bi&s;hops hold, is one of the greate&s;t reliques of the Popi&s;h tyranny in <HI>England,</HI> which is mo&s;t unfit in Mini&s;ters of the Go&s;pel, repugnant to the cu&s;tomes of other Nations, &amp; to the di&s;tance, yea rather nearene&s;&s;e of Office and dignity, that ought to be betweene Bi&s;hops and Mini&s;ters. It is not heard but in <HI>England</HI> that Chancellors or Lord Keepers take place after Arch-Bi&s;hops, while o|ther Mini&s;ters are &s;o farre inferiour and di&s;tant from them, as a Prince from of poore tenant or a high &s;umptuous palace from a poore thatcht cot|tage.</P>
<P N="4">IIII. The Bi&s;hops &s;ole exerci&s;e of Iuri&s;dicti|on is &s;uch, as the like was never heard in any Court of ju&s;tice, and is repugnant to rea&s;on and naturall equity, and cannot bee but an appendice derived from the &s;onne of perdition, that arro|gates to him&s;elfe an unerring &s;ole power: The Kings Bench, Common-pleas, &amp; Exchequer, are benches of a certaine number of Iudges; The Chancellor of <HI>England</HI> hath an a&s;&s;i&s;tance of 12. Ma&s;ters. I would faine know when Chri&s;t &s;aid <HI>dic Eccle&s;iae,</HI> if he under&s;tood that a Bi&s;hop &s;hould be a &s;ole Iudge within his Dioce&s;&s;e in deciding any litigious cau&s;e.</P>
<PB N="5" REF="4">
<P N="5">V. Al&s;o the exerci&s;ing of any power by de|puties, which is the prerogative of Kings, is a mon&s;trous u&s;urpation in the Bi&s;hops of <HI>England;</HI> a &s;trange bird hatcht in no court but theirs, every judge in any other Court di&s;charging his judiciall function in his own per&s;on. 'Tis no mar|vell if they that Preach by deputies ob&s;erve the like practi&s;e in keeping of Courts.</P>
<P N="6">VI. The Bi&s;hops jurisdiction entrenching up|on the civill Magi&s;trate or Iudge by their <HI>jus Pon|tificium</HI> or Canon law, which the Pope left them for a legacie, &s;uch are the cau&s;es te&s;tamentary and matrimoniall, is an u&s;urpation no le&s;&s;e bad then the former, and derogates from the holy power of Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall keyes, which Bi&s;hops a&s;&s;umed in the prime pure times of the Church.</P>
<P N="7">VII. It were not &s;o much to u&s;urge juri&s;dicti|on, if their lawes were but &s;ound, and their legall proceeding ju&s;t: But their High Commi&s;&s;ion, the oath <HI>ex officio,</HI> the horrible abu&s;e of excom|munication, the commutations of bodily penance into pecuniary, their hinderances of prohibitions, &s;topping the cour&s;e of law, their determining of tithes &amp; po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions of livings by a <HI>Quare impedit,</HI> are as many pockie eye-&s;ores, which deface the holy calling of Bi&s;hops, and make them, though their fir&s;t in&s;titution had beene of Divine right, to be now le&s;&s;e then of humane in&s;titution.</P>
<PB N="6" REF="5">
<P N="8">VIII. Ther not depending on any free Eccle&s;i|a&s;ticall a&s;&s;embly is as much or more then the Pa|pi&s;ts a&s;cribe to the Pope, who by maine of them is thought inferiour to the councel and cen&s;urable by ir.</P>
<P N="9">IX. Their Vi&s;itations are api&s;h and counterfet imitations of the ancient Synods which are dege|nerated into receits of cu&s;tome, as paying for Licences, Procurations, Benevolences, Synodalls, and the like. <HI>Nihil e&s;t quod curia Epi&s;coporum non vendat, &amp;c.</HI></P>
<P N="10">X. Their convocations or Synods are little better; where <HI>deputati &s;unt deputantes,</HI> the deputies are deputing; where in mo&s;t of the members of it, there is no free choi&s;e of election; but Bi&s;hops, Deanes, and Arch-deacons have right to &s;it by their place and office: where tho&s;e of the lower Hou&s;e are like to maine &s;tockes, that have no mo|tion, but as they are carried by the members of the &s;phere of the higher hou&s;e.</P>
<P>Who ever &s;hall reade <HI>Mathaeus Paris</HI> and <HI>Ma|thaeus We&s;tmona&s;terien&s;is;</HI> and view the disfi|gured face of the Church of <HI>England</HI> under <HI>Henry</HI> the &s;econd, <HI>John,</HI> &amp; <HI>Henry</HI> the third, Kings of <HI>England,</HI> will acknowledge that the Pope had more power &amp; juri&s;diction in <HI>England</HI> in the per|&s;ons of his Bi&s;hops and Abbots, then in any other Kingdome, and will not wonder if Bi|&s;hops have hitherto kept po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion, though they
<PB N="7" REF="5">hold no more of the Pope; nor will hee ea&s;ily be per&s;waded, that that governement is of Divine or Apo&s;tolicall in&s;titution, which hath ever been contrary to the con&s;titutions of the ancient Church, and to Imperiall lawes, and repugnant to the proceedings of all Courts of Iu|&s;tice, and to common equitie and &s;ence.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
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