Opposed by the ftatutes of provifors. And in the time of the next fucceeding king, to wit, king Stephen, the pope gained appeals to the court of Rome, for in a fynod at London, convened by Henry bishop of Wincheffer the pope's legate, it was decreed, that appeals fhould be made from provincial councils to the pope: before which time, appeals to Rome were not in ufe. Thus did the pope ufurp three main points of jurifdiction, upon three feveral kings after the conqueft (for of king William Rufus he could gain nothing), viz. upon the conqueror, the fending of the legates or commiffioners to hear and determine ecclefiaftical caufes; upon Henry the first, the donation and inveftiture of bifhopricks and other be néfices; and upon king Stephen, the appeals to the court of Rome. And in the time of king Henry the second, the pope claimed exemption of clerks from the fecular power. And, finally, in the time of king John, he took the crown from eff the king's head, and compelled him to accept his kingdom from the pope's donation. God. 96. 5. Nevertheless all this obtained not without violent Atruggle and oppofition: and this caufed the ftatutes of provifors to be made, in the reigns of king Edward the third and king Richard the fecond. By the former of which, (namely, the ftatute of the 27th Ed. 3. c. 1.) it is enacted as followeth : Because it is hered to our lord the king, by the grievous and clamorous complaints of the great men and commons of the realm, how that divers of the people be drawn out of the realm, to answer of things whereof the cognizance pertaineth to the king's court; and alfo that the judgments given in the fame court be impeached in another court, in prejudice and disherifon of our lord the king and of his crown and of all the people of his faid realm, and to the undoing and deftruction of the common law of the jame realm at all times used: Whereupon, upon good deliberation had with the great men and other men of his faid council, it is affented and accorded, that all the people of the king's ligeance of what condition that they be, which shall draw any out of the realm in plea, whereof the cognizance pertaineth to the king's court, or of things whereof judgments be given in the king's court, or which do fue in any other court to defeat or impeach the judgments given in the king's court, fhall have a day, containing a space of two months, by warning to be made to them, to appear before the king and his council, or in his chancery, or before the king's juftices of the one bench or the other, or before other the king's justices which to the fame fhall be deputed, to anfwer in their proper perjons to the king, of the contempt done in this behalf. And if they come not at the faid day in their proper person to be at the law; they they, their procurators, attornies, executors, notaries, and maintainers, fall from that day forth be put out of the king's protection, their lands and goods forfeit to the king, and their bodies wherefoever they may be found shall be taken and imprifoned and ranfomed at the king's will, and upon the fame a writ fhall be made to take them by their bodies, and to feize their lands goods and poffeffions into the king's hands; and if it be returned that they be not found, they shall be put in exigent and outlawed. Provided, that at what time they come before they be outlawed, and will yield them to the king's prison to be justified by the law, and to receive that which the court fbail award in this behalf, they shall be thereto received; the forfeiture of lands and goods abiding in their force, if they do net yield them within the faid two months as is aforefaid. And by the other ftatute, viz. 16 Ric. 2 c. 5. (which the pope called execrabile ftatutum, and the paffing thereof fadum et turpe facinus) it is enacted, that if any fhout purcbafe or pursue, or cause to be purchased or pursued, in the court of Rome or elsewhere, any tranflations of prelutes, proceffes, fentences of excommunication, bulls, inftruments, or any other things whatsoever which touch the king, against him, bis crown and his regality, or his realm; and they which bring within the realm or them receive, or make thereof notification, or any other execution whatsoever within the faid realm or without: they, their notaries, procurators, maintainers, abete tors, fautors, and counsellors, shall be put out of the king's protection, and their lands and goods forfeited to the king, and they fhall be attached by their bodies if they may be found, and brought before the king and his council, there to answer to the cafes aforefaid, or process fhall be made against them by præmunire facias, in manner as it is contained in other statutes of provifors; and other which do fue in any other court in deragation of the regality of our lord the king. They are called other courts (lord Coke fays), either because they proceed by the rules of other laws, as by the canon or civil law; or by other trials than the common law doth warrant. For the trial warranted by the law of England for matters of fact, is by verdict of twelve men before the judges of the common law of matters pertaining to the common law, and not upon examination of witneffes in any court of equity. So as thofe other courts are either fuch as are governed by other laws, or fuch as draw the party to another kind of trial. 3 Inft. 120. And where the ftatute of the 16 R. 2. faith, in the "court of Rome or elsewhere;" (altho' it may seem to be meant and conceived of the places of remove which the popes ufed in those days, being fometimes at Rome in D 3 Italy, Abolished in the be the fupreme tion. Italy, fometimes at Avignon in France, fometimes in But it feemeth, that the fuit in these courts for a matter 6. Afterwards (upon the dawn of the reformation) by reign of King the ftatute of the 24 Hen. 8. c. 12. it is recited as followHenry the eighth; and the eth: Where by divers fundry old authentic hiftories ond king declared to chronicles, it is manifeftly declared and expressed that this realm head and foun- of England is an empire, and fo hath been accepted in the tain of jurisdic- world, governed by one fupreme head and king, having dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the fame; unto whom a body politick compact of all forts and degrees of people, divided in terms and by names of Spiritualty and temporalty, been bounden and owen, to bear next to God, a natural and humble obedience; he being alfo inftitute and furnished, by the goodness and fufferance of almighty God, with plenary whole and intire power preeminence authority prerogative and jurifdiction, to render and yield justice and final determination, to all manner of folk refiants or fubjects within this his realm, in all caufes matters debates and contentions happening to occur infurge or begin within the limits thereof, without restraint or provocation to any foreign princes or potentates of the world; the body Spiritual whereof having power, when any cause of the law divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual learning, that it was declared interpreted and fhewed by that part of the faid body politick, called the fpiritualty, now being ufually called the english church, which always hath been reputed, and also found of that fort, that both for knowledge integrity and fufficiency of number, it hath always been thought, and is aljo at this hour, fufficient and meet of itfelf, without the intermeddling of any exterier perfon or perfons, to declare and determine all fuch doubts, and to adminifter all fuch offices and duties, as to their rooms fpiritual doth appertain: for the due administra tion whereof, and to keep them from corruption and finifter affellion, the king's most noble progenitors, and the anteceffors of the nobles of this realm, have fufficiently endowed the faid church, both with honour and possessions; and the laws temporal for trial of property of lands and goods, and for the confervation of the people of this realm in unity and peace, without rapine or Spoil, were and yet are adminiftred adjudged and executed by fundry judges and minifters of the other part of the laid body politick, called the temporalty; and both their authorities and jurifditions do conjoin together in the due adminiftration of juftice, the one to help the other. And accordingly, lord Coke, treating of the king's ecclefiaftical laws, faith as followeth : By the ancient laws of this realm, this kingdom of England is an abfolute empire and monarchy, confifting of one head, which is the king, and of a body politick, compact and compounded of many and almost infinite feveral and yet well agreeing members. All which the law divideth into two general parts, that is to fay, the clergy and laity, both of them next and immediately under God fubject and obedient to the head. Also the kingly head of this politick body is inftitured and furnished with plenary and intire power prerogative and jurifdiction, to render juftice and right to every part and member of this body, of what ef tate, degree, or calling foever, in all caufes ecclefiaftical or temporal; otherwife he should not be a head of the whole body. And as in temporal caufes, the king by the mouth of his judges in his courts of juftice doth judge and determine the fame by the temporal laws of England; fo in causes ecclefiaftical and spiritual, as namely, blafphemy, apoftacy from christianity, herefies, fchifms, ordering admiffions, inftitutions of clerks, celebration of divine fervice, rights of matrimony, divorces, general bastardy, fubtraction and right of tythes, oblations, obventions, dilapidations, reparation of churches, probate of teftaments, adminiftrations and accounts upon the fame, fimony, incelts, fornications, adulteries, folicitation of chastity, penfions, procurations, appeals in ecclefiaftical caufer, commutation of penance, and others, (the cognizance whereof belongeth not to the common laws of England,) the fame are to be determined and decided by ecclefiaftical judges, according to the king's ecclefiaftical laws of this realm. For as the Romans, fetching divers laws from Athens, yet being approved and allowed by the flate there, called them notwithstanding the civil law of the Romans; and as the Normans, borrowing all or moft of their laws from England, yet ftyled them by the name of the laws or customs of Normandy; fo albeit the kings of England derived their ecclefiaftical laws from others, yet fo many as were approved and allowed here, by and with a general confent, are aptly, and rightly called The king's ecclefiaftical laws of England; which whofoever shall deny, he denieth that the king hath plenary power to deliver justice in all causes to all his fubjects, or to punish all crimes and offences within his kingdom, for that the deciding of matters fo many and of fo great importance, are not within the cognizance of the common laws; which to deny, doth import that the king is no compleat monarch nor head of the whole and intire body of the realm. 5 Co. Cawdrie's cafe. And certain it is (he faith in another place) that this kingdom hath been beft governed, and peace and quiet preferved, when both parties, that is, when the juftices of the temporal courts, and the ecclefiaftical judges, have kept themselves within their proper jurifdiction, without incroaching or ufurping one upon another; and where fuch encroachments or ufurpations have been made, they have been the feeds of great trouble and inconvenience, 4 Inft. 321. And in the preamble of the ftatute of the 25 Hen. 8. 21. it is recited, that this realm, recognizing no fuperior under God but only the king, hath been and is free from fubjection to any man's laws, but only to fuch as have been devised made and obtained within this realm, for the wealth of the fame, or to juch other, as by jufferance of the king and his progenitors, the people of this realm have taken at their liberty by their own confent to be used amongst them, and have bound themselves by long use and cuftom to the abfervance of the fame, not as to the obfervance of the laws of any foreign prince potentate or prelate, but as to the cullomed and ancient laws of this realm, originally established as laws of the fame, by the faid fuffrance confents and custom and none otherwife. And according hereunto lord Hale faith, that neither the canon nor the civil law have any obligation as laws within this realm, upon any account that the popes or emperors made thofe laws canons refcripts or determinations, or becaufe Juftinian compiled their body of the civil law, and by his edicts confirmed and publifhed the fame as authentical, or because this or that council or pope made those or these canons or decrees, or becaufe Gratian or Gregory or Boniface or Clement did (as much as in them lay) authenticate this or that body of canons or conftitutions; for the king of England doth not recognize any for authority as fuperior or equal to him in this kingdom, neither do any laws of the pope or emperor, as they are fuch, bind here; but all the strength that either the papal or im |