their jurisdiction, as far as it was derived from civil delegation, was regulated in due fubferviency to civil interefts. The Church became as the Hebrew Church † under the kingly government; and the Christian Church in the earlier ages, as to its ex-. ternal direction, and temporal privileges and immunities, fubject to a civil head, and controlable by the civil legislature. ** If in the feparation from the Papal fupremacy the line of difcrimination between the fpiritual and temporal powers was inaccurately drawn §; if, in surrendering the com plicated In the preamble to 25th of Henry VIII. c. 21. Parliament is faid to have authority to abrogate, null, amplify, or difpenfe with all human laws of this realm. The King is head of the Church only as the reprefentative of the Supreme Power of the ftate. His power as fuch must be sanctioned by Parliament; and laws paffed under his authority in convocation, are not fupposed to be binding on the Laity till confirmed by Parliament. See Strange's Reports. 3. Sam. ch. xv. ver. 17. 1 Kings, ch. ii. ver. 26, 27, 35.1 Chron. ch. xxiii. ver. 6. ch. xxiv. ver. 3. ch. xxviii. ver. 21. 2 Chron. ch. vii. ver. 8, 9. ch. viii. ver. 14, 15. ch. xxiv. ver. 5-9. Collyer's Ecclef. Hift. Vol. II. p. ii. b. ii. Matt. ch. xvii. ver. 22. Rom. ch. xiii. ver. 7. 1 Peter, ch. ii. ver. 13. After the establishment of Chriftianity under the temporal protection, the Emperors paffed ecclefiaftical laws, and fummoned councils. The Kings of England had generally confidered the civil fupremacy as their right, as could be fhewn from the time of Lucius. The fpiritual rights of the Clergy would probably never have been affected, had they not been blended with the affump plicated and entangled claims, interwoven by long prescription with the fpiritual authority, fome undue conceffions were made to imperious invafion *, and fome rights incautiously tion of temporal power. Henry's tyrannical temper could not brook the idea of any authority but his own. He was embarraffed, and wished to evade the force of Acts, ch. xx. ver. 28. Heb. ch. xiii. ver. 17. and his jealoufy of the former pretenfions of the Clergy led him to declarations injurious to their spiritual rights. He affirmed in his Letter to the Convocation what was not ftrictly true, that he claimed nothing more by the supremacy than what Chriftian kings in primitive times affumed in their own dominions. The Clergy, who in 1530 firft reluctantly conceded the fupremacy to the king, did it with referve, and as far as might confift with the laws of Chrift; and 26th of Henry VIII. c. 1. was made with reference to this declaration, which was followed by many others in the fame ftrain. See Declar. on the Functions and Divine Inftitut. of Bishops; Burnet's Adden. fol. 1. p. 321'; and Plowden's Church and State, b. iii. ch. 6. The fucceffors of Henry fhrunk from this claim, though they fometimes affumed undue powers; and it was gradually perceived that they might decline the fpiritual without injury to the temporal authority. See Preamble to 25th Henry VIII. c. 21; Injunctions of Elizabeth, 37th Article, &c. * The 25th of Henry VIII. c. 9. which gave to commiffioners, appointed by the king, a power of abrogating Canons, and which allowed appeals to the king in court of delegates, seems to affect the fpiritual rights of the Clergy, but was probably defigned to give to the king a cognizance only of civil matters; fuch as affected his prerogative, or the laws of the "realm." One of the laws of the Reformatio Legum Ecclefiafticarum, established in virtue of this act, certainly tranfgreffes the line, when it afferts that all jurifdiction, ecclefiaftical as well as fecular, is derived from the king, as the only fountain. Many ftatutes, and the first oaths of fupremacy, hold the fame loofe language; giving all manner of fpiritual and ecclefiaftical authority to the king, and taking it from the Bishops, except as it exifts by delegation from, and dependency on him. F 3 See incautiously or bafely relinquifhed *, they were fteadily reclaimed, and finally recovered. The Church, in the ultimate and permanent defcription of its character, was countenanced in the poffeffion of its legitimate powers, but was understood, in its juft definition, to be a congregation compofed of Laity as well as Clergy. The fpiritual privileges of its duly ap See 26th Hen. VIII. c. 1. 31ft Hen. VIII. c. 17. 37th Hen. VIII. c. 17. ift Edw. VI. c. 2. Ift Eliz. c. A. ift James I. c. 25. 13th Car. II. c. 12. The 25th of Henry VIII. c. 20. gave alfo too much to the civil power, when it compelled the Bishops, under the penalty of premunire, to confecrate perfons nominated or elected to a bishopric. But however exceptionable the terms of these ftatutes, it does not appear that any deliberate intention exifted, or was understood to exift in the legislature, to authorise any invafion of the purely fpiritual authority of the Bishops. The furrender of the bishoprics in the reign of Edward VI. was certainly a moft unworthy conceffion; and the commiffion taken out by Cranmer, Bonner, and others (whoever fet the example), which admitted the derivation of all jurisdiction, both ecclefiaftical and civil, from the king, to be exercised at his precarious pleafure, have been juftly ftigmatized, notwithftanding the tardy admiffion of other things of divine right. Cranmer's Eraftian fentiments, however, were foon relinquifhed; and it was well understood in Elizabeth's reign, if not before, that the epifcopal character was not derived from, or alienable by, the civil power; for when Parker was confecrated Archbishop, upon a queftion of the competency of the Bishops to confecrate, as they had been legally deprived in the late reign, it was determined that, as they had been once confecrated, the epifcopal character remained, and they might convey it. See Neal, Vol. I. c. 4. pointed pointed rulers were reverenced *. Their minifterial functions, their appropriate powers of ordaining, inftituting, confirming, confecrating, and conferring of spiritual authority, though transferred from the Pope to the Bishops, and ordinaries †, the rightful claimants of it, were fully acknowledged. Their jurifdiction, purely fpiritual, was preserved uninjured ‡, though their ecclefiaftical jurifdiction, affecting civil interefts, was to be ex Mr. Plowden, after a full inveftigation of the fubject, has observed, that, if we take the whole of the circumftances under our confideration, and examine attentively and impartially the. laws refpecting this subject, we shall find that they are emphatically grounded on the principle that the fource of the spiritual jurisdiction and Church government is completely out of the competency or power of the civil magiftrate, Church and State, b. ii. c. 5. The mixed power of the Pope refolved itself into the Church and State. The fpiritual authority, if not in precife defcription, yet in operation, was transferred to the Archbishops, Bishops, &c. over whom the king has a fuperintendant fupremacy of restraint, and of appeal in concerns of civil intereft. Hooker, b. viii. See the 25th Henry VIII. c. 19. The Clergy, in conformi ty to a fubmiffion which they had made, are forbidden to affemble without the king's writ, or to attempt any thing, when affembled, without the king's licence. The Clergy have certainly a tranfmitted right to exercise a jurisdiction, merely fpiritual, independently of the civil power; but they can have no coactive power to enforce their decifions, however binding on the confcience, till accepted by the ftate; and when in alliance with the ftate, they with propriety confent that their ecclefiaftical meetings and deliberations fhould be fuggefted and fanctioned by the civil governor. ercifed only in conformity to stated regulations; with confent of the civil governor; with deference to the laws, ftatutes, and cuftoms of the country; and was to be entitled to no coercive impofition on the Laity till ratified by the acceptance of the state, formally expreffed by its representatives *. The ecclefiaftical Canons, as they had been framed partly with the affumption of temporal power, were fubjected to a revifal; and, as far as they had a civil aspect, were to rest their validity on the civil ratification †. The ecclefiaftical courts, reftricted in their cognizance and proceedings, in fubordination to a controlling jurifdiction, as to concerns of prefent interest, were gradually improved into establishments of diftinguished equity‡. Thus *The Clergy, though legitimate interpreters of Chrift's will, have no infallibility; and the Laity muft judge of the confiftency of their decrees with the revealed law; muft fignify their acceptance of them before they can be subjected to their temporal effect. + See 25th Hen. VIII. c. 19. 1 Eliz. c. 1. on which depended the authority of the Legatine and Provincial Conftitutions. The Canons enacted by the Clergy in the reign of James I. as not confirmed by Parliament, have been declared to be not obligatory on the Laity, except where they are explanatory of the ancient Canon law, whatever refpect they are entitled to from the Clergy. Blackstone's Introd. By the alterations which took place at the Reformation, and fince, especially by ftatute 13 Car. II. c. 12. the ecclefiaf |