inheritances of the kingdom. To this end the Benedictine and other monks were introduced, by whose hypocrisy and deceit, indulgences and rapine, in about a century after the conquest, innumerable abbeys and religious houses were built and endowed, not only with the tithes of parishes, but also with lands, manors, lordships, and extensive baronies. And the doctrine inculcated was, that this illgotten property was consecrated to God himself, and to alienate it was sacrilege. This is only a partial outline of the extent of papal usurpations; but it is sufficient to answer the purpose in view. (See Blackstone's Com. b. iv, c. 8. pp. 104-110.)

The regal form of church government had made considerable progress in England before the power of the pope could be efficiently established; and it had become so established by law that it was finally made available in overturning papal usurpations. The kings of England, having claimed in ancient times a power in ecclesiastical matters equal to what the Roman emperors had in their empire, exercised this authority over the clergy and laity. They erected bishoprics, granted investitures in them, called synods, made laws, and, in a word, governed their whole kingdom as well in ecclesiasti cal as in civil matters. And when the bishops of Rome obtained supreme power in the English Church, they gave investitures, received appeals, sent legates to England, and did several other things of a like nature. The kings of England long contested these invasions, as they deemed them, of their ancient rights. But in consequence of the weakness of some princes, the superstition and treachery of others, &c., the popes at length succeeded to some degree in establishing their authority. In the first contests between the king and the popes, the clergy were generally on the pope's side. But when the popes became warlike princes, and made heavy demands on the clergy, by palls, expensive bulls, annates, tenths, as standing taxes, beside many new ones on emergent occasions; the clergy fled back to the crown for protection, which their predecessors had abandoned. Several penal laws were made against this enormous power; yet there was not sufficient fortitude to stop its progress so that the pope's interest still advanced.

3. The famous act of premunire, by which the supremacy of the pope was transferred to the king of England, prepared the way for, and indeed was the principal means of, organizing the English Protestant Church. The import of the name premunire, and its application, have been already explained. We will now trace those steps by which the English Church was transferred from the popish to the regal form of church government.

From the days of Edward I., who commenced his reign in 1272, many statutes were made to restrain the exactions of Rome. In the 35th year of this king's reign, or in the year 1307, the first statute against papal provisions was made, and is reckoned the foundation. of all the future statutes of premunire, which was an offence immediately against the king, because every increase of the papal power was deemed a diminution of the authority of the crown. The statute recites, (35 Ed. I. st. i.)-"That the abbots, friars, and governors had, at their own pleasure, set divers impositions upon the monasteries and houses in their subjection; to remedy which it was enacted, that, in future, religious persons should send nothing

to their superiors beyond the sea; and that no imposition whatever should be taxed by friars to aliens." By statute(25 Ed. III., st. 5, c. 22,) in the year 1352, it was enacted-" that the court of Rome should not present or collate to any bishopric or living in England; and that whosoever disturbed any patron in the presentation to a living, by virtue of a papal provision, such person should pay fine and ransom to the king, at his will; and be imprisoned till he renounced such provision. The same punishment was inflicted on such as should cite the king or any of his subjects to answer in the court of Rome." Several other statutes, to the same amount, were made during this king's reign; nevertheless, the pope found means to counteract their operation, so that the statutes were not of much present practical use. (See Burnet, b. ii. vol. i, p. 142.).

In the reign of Richard II., who ascended the throne in 1377, "it was found necessary," says Blackstone, (b. iv, c. 8, p, 112)" to sharpen and strengthen these laws, and therefore it was enacted by statutes, (3 Rich. II., c. 3 & 7; Rich. II. c. 12,) first, that no alien should be capable of letting his benefice to farm; in order to compel such as had crept in, at least, to reside on their preferments: and that afterward no alien should be capable to be presented to any ecclesiastical preferment, under the penalty of the statutes of provisors. By the statute 12 Rich. II., c. 15, all liegemen of the king, accepting of a living by any foreign provision, are put out of the king's protection, and the benefice made void. To which the statute 13 Rich. II., st. 2, c. 2, adds banishment and forfeiture of lands and goods; and by c. 3 of the same statute, any person bringing over any citation or excommunication from beyond sea, on account of the execution of the foregoing statutes of provisors, shall be imprisoned, forfeit his goods and lands, and moreover suffer pain of life and member."

But in the year 1393, the famous statute of premunire was passed in the sixteenth year of Richard II., c. 5, which is the statute generally referred to by all subsequent statutes, and is by way of eminence and distinction called the statute of premunire. Complaint had been made to parliament "that the crown of England, which had been so free at all times, should be subjected to the bishop of Rome, and the laws and statutes of the realm by him defeated and destroyed at his will. They also found those things to be against the king's crown and regality, used and approved in the time of his progenitors." Whereupon it was ordained by the parliament,"That if any did purchase translations, sentences of excommunications, bulls, or other instruments from the court of Rome, against the king or his crown, or whosoever brought them to England, or did receive or execute them; they were out of the king's protection, and that they should forfeit their goods and chattels to the king, and their persons should be imprisoned." (Burnet, b. ii, vol. i, p. 143.)

By statute 2 Henry IV., c. iii, and in the year 1401, it was enacted that all persons who accept any provision from the pope, to be exempt from canonical obedience to their proper ordinary, were also subject to the penalties of a premunire. This is said to be the last ancient statute concerning this offence till the Reformation. Several other statutes were passed in the parliament between

the passage of the famous prémunire act, and the reign of Henry VIII.; but the struggle for the mastery between the popes continued with doubtful or alternate victories till the reign of this monarch.

The statutes of premunire were extended to various ecclesiastical offences in the reigns of Elizabeth and her father; such as the appointment of bishops refusing to take the oath of supremacy, carrying crosses and such things to be blessed by the pope, aiding Jesuits, and the like. (See Burnet's Hist. Ref. b. ii, vol. i, p. 140, &c. Blackstone's Com. b. iv, c. viii, p. 103–118. Jacob's Law Dict. on premunire.) The original meaning of the offence called premunire was introducing a foreign power into England, and creating imperium in imperio, by paying that obedience to the pope which constitutionally belonged to the king, long before the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. The penalty for this offence of premunire was according to Coke,-"That from the conviction, the defendant shall be out of the king's protection, and his lands and tenements, goods and chattels forfeited to the king, or that his body shall remain in prison at the king's pleasure." 1 Inst. 129.

4. While the debates and proceedings respecting the divorce from Queen Catharine by Henry VIII. were pending, all appeals to Rome were cut off, by act of parliament in consequence of the evasions of the pope and his advisers. An act was passed in 1533, (24 Hen. VIII., act xxii,) against appeals to the pope, which widened the breach between the pope and Henry. The preamble declares,— "That the crown of England was imperial, and that the nation was a complete body within itself, with a full power to give justice in all cases, spiritual as well as temporal; and that in the spirituality, as there had been at all times, so there were then, men of that sufficiency and integrity, that they might declare and determine all doubts within the kingdom; and that several kings, as Edward I., Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV., had by several laws preserved the liberties of the realm, both spiritual and temporal, from the annoyance of the see of Rome, and other foreign potentates; therefore it was enacted that all such cases, whether relating to the king or any of his subjects, were to be determined within the kingdom, in the several courts to which they belonged, notwithstanding any appeals to Rome, or inhibitions and bulls to Rome; whose sentences should take effect, and be fully executed by all inferior ministers and if any spiritual persons refused to execute them because of censures from Rome, they were declared liable to the pains in the statute of provisions in the sixteenth of Richard II. But that appeals should only be from the archdeacon, or his official, to the bishop of the diocese, or his commissary, and from him to the archbishop of the province, or the dean of the arches ; where the final determination was to be made without any farther process; and in every process concerning the king, or his heirs and successors, an appeal should lie to the upper house of convocation, where it should be finally determined never to be again called in question." (Burnet Hist. Ref. b. ii, vol. i, p. 167.)

1531.

It may be proper to mention here what occurred in the year Cardinal Wolsey, two years previous to this time, by exercising his legantine powers, fell into a premunire, by which his property was forfeited to the king. In this year, those who had appeared in his

courts, and had suits there, were also found in the same guilt by the law; and they were excepted out of the pardon that was granted under the former parliament. Therefore an indictment was brought into the king's bench against all the clergy of England, for breaking the statutes against provisions and provisors. By this their goods and chattels were forfeited to the king, and their persons liable to arrest and confinement during the king's pleasure. The convocations of York and Canterbury took the subject into consideration; they demanded a considerable sum of money, in lieu of the forfeiture of their goods, or that they should acknowledge the king as protector and supreme head of the church and clergy of England, and reject the pope's supremacy in England. The last met with some opposition from both the convocations; but they finally agreed to give the subsidy, and acknowledge the ecclesiastical headship of the king. The convocation of Canterbury prayed the king to accept of the sum of 100,0007. in lieu of all punishments which they had incurred by going against the statutes of provisors, and did promise for the future, neither to make nor execute any constitution without the king's license; upon which he granted them a general pardon. The convocation of the province of York offered 18,8407, with another submission of the same nature, and were also pardoned. This prepared the way for the passage of the act mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Thus the king pardoned the clergy on their submission; and they acknowledged him protector and supreme head of the church and clergy of England. They rejected the supremacy of the pope, but substituted for its place that of the king. (Burnet Hist. Ref. b, ii. vol. 1, p. 140, 149.)

Let any one compare the bishops' oath of supremacy to the pope and that taken by the bishops to Henry in 1532, and he will perceive that the bishops only changed their masters, without much change in their principles. Our limits do not allow us to enlarge. We refer our readers for both the oaths to Burnet (b. ii, vol. 1, p. 163.)

It may be proper to state here that, in the end of January 1533, King Henry sent to the pope for the bulls for Cranmer's promotion; and though the statutes were passed against procuring more bulls from Rome, yet the king resolved not to begin the breach till he was forced to it by the pope. His holiness was not hearty in this promotion; yet, to prevent a rupture with England, he consented, and the bulls were expedited, though, instead of annates, there were only 900 ducats paid for them. They were the last bulls that were received in this king's reign. By one bull Cranmer is, upon the king's nomination, promoted to be archbishop of Canterbury, and it is directed to the king. By a second, directed to himself, he is made archbishop. By a third, he is absolved from all censures. A fourth, is to the suffragans. A fifth, to the dean and chapters. A sixth, to the clergy of Canterbury. A seventh, to all the laity in the see. An eighth, to all that held lands of it, requiring them to receive and acknowledge him as archbishop. All these bear date 21st Feb. 1533. By a ninth bull of Feb. 22d, he was appointed to be consecrated, and to take the oath that was in the pontifical. By a tenth bull, of March 2d, the pall was sent him.

And by an eleventh, of the same date, the archbishop of York and the bishop of London were required to put it on him. Such were the several artifices employed to enrich the apostolic chamber. When the bulls were brought to London, Cranmer was consecrated on the 30th of March, 1533. He scrupled to take the oath of obedience to the pope; but, after being permitted to make a protestation respecting his sense of it, he took the oath and was consecrated. "By which," says Bishop Burnet, "if he did not wholly save his integrity, yet it was plain he intended no cheat, but to act fairly and aboveboard." Such were the sentiments of the times, that the grossest inconsistencies seem to have been practised without much examination or disgust.

In March, 1534, an act was passed by parliament which, among other things, declares and enacts," That the intolerable exactions for Peter-pence, provisions, pensions, and bulls, were contrary to the laws, and grounded only on the pope's power of dispensing, which was usurped. But the king and the lords and commons only had power to dispense or abrogate laws. That the two archbishops might grant no licenses for new things till they were first examined by the king and his council." In short, Henry VIII. modelled the church as he thought fit; and it was well he had such a counsellor as Cranmer. The Church of England was rescued from the grosser popery by this wicked man; but much of its spirit and practice remained. (See Burnet, b. ii, vol. 1, p. 191.)

5. But the act of supremacy which passed in the year 1535, and the 26th of Henry VIII., laid the foundation on which the peculiar polity of the Church of England was built. The various acts of premunire prepared the way; but this act cast the moulà into which the church was formed, by establishing fully the supremacy of the British monarch, in making him the supreme head of the church, and in robbing the clergy of almost all part or lot in ecclesiastical matters, except as they may act as counsellors, delegates, or creatures of the crown or parliament. The substance of this act, as quoted by Neal in his History of the Puritans, is as follows. "Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightly is and ought to be supreme head of the Church of England, and is so recognised by the clergy of this realm in their convocations; yet, nevertheless, for confirmation and corroboration thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion in this realm of England &c.; be it enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that the king, our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England; and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well as the title and style thereof, as all honors, dignities, immunities, profits, and commodities, to the said dignity of supreme head of the church belonging and appertaining; and that our sovereign Íord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority to visit, repress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, whatever they be, which, by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction, ought or may be lawfully reformed, repressed, ordered, corrected, restrained or amended, most to the pleasure of almighty