election was knowen, to keepe the vnitie of the church: and they that dyd take part or mainteyne the vsurper, to be schismatikes, because that vsurper was a Schismatice: Quia non sit fas in eadem ecclesia, duos simul Episcopos esse, nec priorē legitimū episcopū sine sua culpa deponi: Because it was not lawfull  

for two Bishops to be at once together in one Churche, neyther the former bishop beyng lawful, to be deposed without his fault were proued. MarginaliaThe church of Rome hath no more prerogatiue, then any other Church. And this is not a prerogatiue of the Church of Rome, more then of any other cathedral, special, patriarchal, or metropolitical Church, as appeareth in the third Epistle of the first booke, and in the eight of the second, and of the fourth booke of S. Cyprian to Cornelius. MarginaliaThe vnitie of the church standeth not in the vnitie of the bishop of Rome. Whose wordes and reasons, although peraduenture they might seeme to conclude the vnitie of the Church in the vnitie of the Bishop of Rome, because they were all written to hym in his owne case, maye as well be written vnto any other bishop lawfully chosē, who percase shoulde be likewise disturbed as the bishops of Rome then were, by any factions of ambitious heretikes.

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And where you thinke the name  

of supreme head vnder Christe, geuen and attributed to the kynges maiestie, maketh an innouation in the Churche, and perturbation of the order of the same, it can not be any innouation or trouble to the Churche, to vse the roume that God hath called hym to, whiche good Christian Princes dyd vse in the begynnyng when fayth was most pure, as S. Augustine   MarginaliaAugust. Epist. 162. ad Glorium & Eleusium sayth: Ait enim quidam, non debuit Episcopus pro consulari iudicio purgari. &c.   One there is whiche saith, that a Bishop ought not to haue bene put to his purgation before the iudgement seate of the Deputie, as though he hym selfe procured it, & not rather the Emperour hym selfe caused this inquirie to be made, to whose iurisdictiō (for the whiche he must aunsweare to God) that cause dyd especially pertayne. Chrisostome writeth   of that Imperiall authoritie thus: MarginaliaThe imperiall authoritie is next vnder God. Læsus est qui non habet parem vllum super terram: summitas & caput est omnium hominum super terram: He is offended that hath no peere at al vpō the earth, for he is the highest potentate, & the head of al men vpon earth. And Tertullian ad Scapulam saith:   Colimus ergo & Imperatorē sic, quomodo & nobis licet, & ipsi expedit, vt hominem a Deo secundum. &c. We honour & reuerence the Emperour in suche wise, as is lawful to vs and expedient to hym, that is to say, as a man next and the second to God, from whom he hath receyued all the power he hath: & also inferiour to God alone, whose pleasure it is so to haue it: For thus is he greater then al men, whiles he is inferiour but to God alone.

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And the sayde Tertullian in his booke  

Apologeticall speakyng of Emperours, sayth: MarginaliaTertul. in Apologet. Sciunt quis illis dederit imperium. &c. They know who hath geuen to them their gouernement: they know that God is he alone, vnder whose onely power they be, and take themselues as second to God, after whom they be the chiefe before al other. Theophilacte   also to the Rom. vpon this place: MarginaliaTheophil. in Rome. Omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit, sayth: The Apostle there teacheth euery man, Siue sacerdos ille sit, siue Monachus, siue Apostolus, vt se principibus subdat: that whether he be a priest or a monke or an apostle, he should subiect him selfe to princes. That is,   although thou be an Apostle, an Euangelist, a Prophet, or what so euer thou art, be subiect. Non enim (sayth he) subuertit pietatem hec subiectio: For this subiection ouerthroweth no godlynes. And the Apostle sayth not onely Let hym obey: but let hym be subiect.

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And if the Apostles be subiect to Princes, much more all Bishoppes and Patriarkes, yea the Bishops of Rome and al other.

It is written also in the Chronicles:  

Marginalia1. Paral. 28. Dauid sayd to Salomon, behold the priestes and Leuites diuided in cōpanies, to do all manner of seruice that perteineth to the house of God   . Also: Marginalia2. Paral. 16. Dauid dyd appoynt chiefly to thanke the lord, Asaph and his brethren. &c.  

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I Chronicles 16.7.

And, Marginalia2. Paral. 19. Iosaphat the king did   cōstitute Leuites and priests, and the ancient families of Israel for the iudgement and cause of the Lord towards al the inhabitantes of the earth: and he charged them, saying: thus shal ye do in the feare of the Lord, faithfully and in a perfect hart. MarginaliaChron. 31. Furthermore, Ezechias appoynted the priestes & the Leuites in their order, to wait by course euery man accordyng to his office. And it foloweth: Ezechias gaue commaundemēt to the people dwellyng in Hierusalē  

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Commentary from the book of Ezekiel.

, that they should geue their portions to the priestes and Leuites, that they might attend on the lawe of the Lord. Where it foloweth also that by the precept of Ezechias the kyng, & of Azarias the bishop of the house of the Lord, al thynges were done: to whō perteyned al the dispensation of the house of þ^e Lord. And in the end it is sayd: Ezechias dyd al these thinges in al Iurie: he wrought that which was good, right, & true before his lord God in al the furniture of the ministeryieof the house of the Lord, accordyng to the lawe & cere monies, desirous to seeke his Lord God with all his hart, as he did, and prospered therein. MarginaliaChron. 35. Iosias also   dyd ordeine priestes in their offices, and commaunded many thynges.

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By all whiche it may appeare, that Christian kynges be soueraignes ouer the Priests, as ouer al other their subiectes, and maye commaunde the Priestes to do their offices, as wel as they do others: and ought by their supreme office, to see that al men of al degrees doe theyr duties, wherunto they be called eyther by God, or by the kyng: and those kynges that so do, chiefly do execute wel their office. So that the kinges  

highnes takyng vpon him as supreme head of the Churche of Englane, to see that as well spiritual men, as temporal, doo their dueties, dooth neither make innouation in the Church, nor yet trouble the order thereof: but doth as the chiefe and the best of the kynges of Israel dyd, and as al good Christian kynges ought to doo. MarginaliaGenerall Councells called by the Emperours. Whiche office good Christian Emperours alwayes tooke vpon them, in callyng the vniuersal Councelles of all countreys, in one place and at one tyme, to assemble together, to the intente that all heresies troublyng the Churche, might be there extirped: callyng and commaundyng as well the Bishop of Rome, as other Patriarkes and all Primates, as wel of the East as of the West, of the South as of the North to come to the sayde Councelles. As Martianus the Emperour dyd in callyng the great Councell of Chalcedon   , one of the foure chiefe and first general Councels, commaunding Leo then Bishop of Rome, to come vnto the same. And albeit Leo neither liked the tyme, whiche he woulde for a season should haue bene differred: nor yet the place, for he woulde haue had it in Italy, where as the Emperour by his owne cōmaundement had called it to Chalchis in Asia: yet he aunsweared the Emperour, that he would gladly obey his cōmaundement, and sent thither his agentes to appeare there for hym, as doth appeare in the Epistles of Leo   to Martiane then the Emperour. xli. xlvij. xlviij. and in the. xlix. Epistle to Pulcheria the Empres. And likewise he desireth Theodosius the Emperour to commaūde a Councel of Bishops to be called in Italy, for takyng away such contentions and troubles, as at that tyme troubled þ^e quietnes of the Churches. And in many moe Epistles of the same Leo it dooth manifestly appeare, that the Emperors alwayes assembled generall Councels by their cōmaundementes. And in the sixt general Councel   it appeareth very plainly, that at tyme the Bishops of Rome made no clayme nor vsed any title   to cal them selues heades vniuersal ouer al the catholike Church, as there doth appeare in the superscription or salutation of the foresaid Synodical preamble, which is thus worde for word:

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To the most godly Lordes and most noble victors and conquerours, the welbeloued children of God and of our Lord Iesu Christ, Constantine the great Emperour, and to Heraclius and Tiberius Cesars, Bishop Agatho the seruant of the seruants of God, with al the conuocations subiect to the Councell of the See apostolike, sendeth greeting. And he expresseth what countreys he reckened and comprehēded in that superscriptiō or salutation: For it foloweth that those were vnder his assembly, which were in the North & East parts. So that at that tyme the bishop of Rome made no such pretence to be ouer and aboue al, as he now doth by vsurpation, vendicatyng to hymself the spiritual kyngdome of Christe, by whiche he raigneth in the hartes of all faythfull people, and then chaungeth it to a temporall kyngdome ouer and aboue all kynges, to depose them for his pleasure, preachyng thereby the fleshe for the spirite  

, and an earthlye kyngdome for an heauenly, to his owne dampnation, if he repent not. Where he ought to obey his prince by the doctrine of Saint Peter in his first Epistle, saying: Marginalia1. Pet. 2. Be ye subiecte to euery ordinaunce of man, for the Lordes sake, whether it be to the kyng as to the chiefe, or vnto gouerners, as sent of hym to the punishment of the euyll dooers, and to the prayse of the good. Agayne S. Paul:   Let euerye soule be subiecte to the higher powers. MarginaliaRom. 13. With other thynges before alleged. So that this his pretensed vsurpation to be aboue al kynges, is directly agaynst the Scriptures, giuen to the Church by the apostles: whose doctrine who soeuer ouerturneth can be neyther the head, nor yet the least member of the Churche.

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Wherefore, albeit ye haue hyretofore sticked to the sayde wrongfully vsurped power, moued thereto, as ye write, by your conscience, yet sithence nowe ye see further, if ye lust to regarde the meere truth, and such auncient authours as haue bene written to you of in tymes past, we woulde exhort you for the wealth of your soule, to surrender into the Bishop of Romes handes, your red hat, by which he seduced you, trustyng so to make you, beyng come of a noble bloud, an instrument to aduaunce his vayne glory whereof, by the sayd hat, he made you participant, to allure you therby the more to his purpose.

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