first, that archbishop Parker should, according to the canons of the council of Nice, have been confirmed and ordained by his ecclesiastical superior, the patriarch of the west, or the bishops of the province delegated by him; and since he was not, that his ordination was schismatical, and he had no mission P.

Few controversies are capable of a more satisfactory decision than the present. I observe, in the first place, that the objection does not assume any imaginary divine right in the see of Rome to confirm and ordain all metropolitans, but takes the lower ground of an ecclesiastical or canonical right. Of the former indeed there is no trace in apostolical tradition. The several ordinary powers and privileges which our Saviour promised to St. Peter, for the sake of commending unity, he conferred on all the apostles and their successors, as Bossuet, Du Pin", Richers, and other eminent Romish divines have proved, both from the words of scripture and the tradition of the church in all ages. The customs and canons of the church gave the bishop of Rome, who, like other bishops, was a successor of Peter and the apostles, a primacy of honour, and a patriarchal jurisdiction over the suburbicarian provinces

authors, from Champney down to Milner, and Trevern, bishop of Aire, who have recently advanced them with much confidence.

p Trevern, Champney.

q Defensio Declarat. Cleri Gallicani, lib. viii. c. 12. Corollar. Defens, c. II.

r De Antiqua Ecclesiæ Dis

ciplina, Dissertat. iv. c. I.

s Libellus de Eccl. et Polit. Potest. p. 15, &c. Colon. 1683. It must be almost needless for me to refer to Barrow's unanswerable Treatise upon the Pope's Supremacy, as the best refutation of all the claims of the Roman pontiff and his adherents.

in Italy and Sicily t. His jurisdiction did not extend to any part of the eastern church, nor to Africa, Gaul, Spain, Britain, or Ireland, in the west, as Du Pinu and others have admitted and proved. Britain and Ireland were independent of Roman jurisdiction when the council of Nice was held, A. D. 325, as we are informed by Barnes, the learned Benedictine; and therefore, supposing that the canon to which M. Trevern refers, gave patriarchs the power of ordaining all metropolitans within their patriarchates, yet it did not apply to Britain and Ireland, because they were not within any patriarchate.

The ancient British church had existed at least from the second century, if not from the apostolic age. Its bishops sat in the councils of Arles, Nice, Sardica, and Ariminium, in the fourth century; and none of them were ordained or confirmed by the Roman patriarch. They did not send any appeals to him in ecclesiastical causes, nor did they attend councils summoned by him ". About the middle of the fifth century, the pagan Saxons invaded Britain, and gradually subdued a large portion of the coun

t Du Pin, de Antiq. Eccl. Discipl. Diss. i. §. 14. Stillingfleet's Origines Britt. c. 3. Bingham's Antiquities, book ix. ch. 1. §. 9, &c.

u Du Pin, ut supra.

v Barnes, 66 Catholico-Romanus Pacificus, sectio iii. De insula magna Britanniæ privilegiis," defends the ancient liberties of the British church in a most able manner; and remarks, that these rights or privileges (as he terms them)

may be retained by us without any mark of schism and "sine dispendio catholicismi." This learned and candid man was, in consequence of his liberal notions, seized at Paris, carried prisoner to Rome, immured in the dungeon of the inquisition, and ere long thrust into a madhouse, where he died. See also Bingham's Antiquities, book ix. chap. 1.

w Stillingfleet's Origines Britannicæ, chap. 2, 3, 4.

try; but this calamity cannot be imagined to have destroyed the ancient rights of the church of Britain. A continual succession of bishops was still preserved; and even in the latter part of the sixth century there were British bishops at London and York, as well as in the western and unconquered parts of the country. At the end of this century, Augustine was sent by Gregory of Rome to convert the AngloSaxons; a task which the British bishops had, from various circumstances, found it impossible to accomplish. Gregory subsequently directed Augustine to ordain several bishops to aid him in this work, and he was perfectly justified in doing so. The succeeding Roman pontiffs continued to ordain pastors for the English church; and while there was a necessity for so doing, while the church was weak, and required external assistance, they could not be aceused of ambition, but deserved commendation and praise.

These laudable acts, however, cannot be imagined to have invested the Roman bishops with patriarchal jurisdiction over Britain. When the necessity which justified them was extinct, the ancient original rights of the British church revived. When the common faith was assailed, or when infidelity was to be converted, it was the duty of all Christian churches to lend assistance to their brethren who needed it. And

x Theonus of London and Thadiocus of York were obliged to fly into Wales, in A. D. 586: see Usher's Brit. Eccl. Antiq. c. 5. Kentigern, about this time, ruled the British church in Glasgow and Cumberland. Ibid. c. 14. 15. Seven British

bishops met Augustine in the conference at Augustine's oak. Beda, lib. ii. c. 2. At this time the Irish church was perfectly independent of the Roman patriarch, and was united in the closest amity with the church of Britain.

in the present case we find that the Irish afforded still more effectual aid to the cause of Christianity than the Roman patriarch, of whom they were independent; for by far the greatest portion of the Anglo-Saxons were converted by missionaries and bishops from Ireland. But even supposing that all the Anglo-Saxons had been baptized by Augustine and his followers, this would not have established a patriarchal right for the Roman pontiff in Britain. In this we are borne out by several examples. The Roman See sent seven bishops into Gaul, in the third century, to aid the original Gallican church in propagating Christianity"; yet we have the testimony of Du Pin that Gaul was not a portion of the Roman patriarchate on that account; and we are told by Bossuet, De Marca, Baluzius, &c.a that the Roman pontiff did not ordain the metropolitans of France in consequence. Hence no right of

y See above, p. 250, note f. z Gregory of Tours, lib. i. c. 28. x. c. 31. De gloria Confessorum, c. 30. De Marca, archbishop of Paris, informs us, that the most celebrated authors of the Roman communion, such as Carolus Molinæus, Fauchetius, Pasquierius, Pithæus, Hotmannus, Servinus, and others, teach "that the Roman pontiff exercised no authority in Gaul before the sixth century; that in all that interval, of almost 600 years, the king alone presided over the Gallican church as head, and not the pope." Prolegomena ad lib. de Conc. Sac. et Imp. p. 71.

a Bossuet, Defensio Decla

rat. Cleri Gallicani, lib. viii. near the end. De Marca, De Concord. Sacer. et Imperii, lib. iv. c. 4, proves, that not only the ordinations of Gallican metropolitans were made without the authority and bulls of the Roman patriarch, but likewise those of Africa, Spain, Illyricum, Italy, and all other countries beyond the suburbicarian provinces. How enormously must the power of that prelate have extended since those times; for he now not only arrogates to himself the exclusive ordination of all metropolitans in the world, but even all bishops must have his confirmation before they are ordained.

ordination, or any other patriarchal right in Britain, accrued to the see of Rome, from having sent Augustine to convert the Anglo-Saxons. A still stronger case is supplied by the Irish church. Celestine of Rome successively ordained Palladius and Patrick bishops, for the conversion of the Irish; and yet Ireland did not become subject to the Roman patriarchate, but for seven hundred years ordained its own metropolitans, till, at the synod of Kells, A. D. 1152, the Irish archbishops consented, for the first time, to receive palls from Rome. The ordinations of Augustine and his successors for some time were justifiable, owing to the necessity and weakness of the church; but then these were only exceptions from the rule, relaxations of the canons, and the ancient rights of Britain remained unshaken.

These unquestionable facts, while they prove that the canon of Nice, so much dwelt on by certain persons, has no force in these churches, also shew that the Roman patriarch can have no jurisdiction over us by divine right. But we shall presently see that they go much further. The sixth canon of the council of Nice, A. D. 325, commanded that the "ancient customs should prevail," and the "privileges of churches be preserved." The council of Ephesus, A. D. 430, forbade bishops to assume jurisdiction over provinces, which had not from the beginning been subject to their predecessors. It enjoined on all who might have taken such provinces an immediate restitution, and decreed " that every province should preserve pure and inviolate the rights which it had from the beginning; that," as the council added, with the wisest foresight, "the canons of the Fathers may not be transgressed, nor