446. Proceedings against WILLIAM WHISTON, for publishing divers Tenets contrary to the Established Religion: 10 ANNE, A. D. 1711. [The following Address, and Opinions, being authentic, are, it is conceived, of importance enough to give them a place in this Collection. The Address was presented by the Lord Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry,* and the Lord Bishop of Ely, April 17, 1711. Former Edition.] To the QUEEN's most Excellent Majesty, The Humble ADDRESS of the Archbishop and Bishops of the Province of Canterbury, in Convocation assembled. rect the said printed Preface to the convocation now assembled. And whereas we take ourselves to be both bound in duty to God, and to his holy truths, and in obedience to your majesty's pious intentions signified to us with your gracious licence, to repress the said blasphemy: and also obliged in vindication of our firm adherence to the true faith, and for the preservation of the same in the members of our communion, to call the said William Whiston before us, in order either to his amendment, or exclusion from the communion of the Church of England; but do yet find ourselves hindered from going on, by some doubts arising among ourselves concerning our power so to act and proceed: May it please your Majesty, WHEREAS one William Whiston, a pres- For that the court of convocation being final, byter of the Church of England, and late pro- or the last resort, from which no appeal is professor of mathematics in the University of Camvided by the statute made in the 25th year of bridge, who was, in October last, expelled the Henry the eighth, chap. 19, it may seem to be said University, for asserting and spreading doubtful how far a prosecution, without appeal abroad divers tenets, contrary to religion re- to the crown, will be consistent with the statute ceived and established by public authority in made in the first year of queen Elizabeth, chap. this realm, has, since that time, and a little be- 1, sect. 17, whereby all jurisdiction, and partifore the sitting of this present convocation, cularly for reformation of errors, heresies, and printed and published an Historical Preface to schisms, is united and annexed to the imperial other writings of the same pernicious design, crown of this realm; and also how far it will intended for the press, in which he has ad- be consistent with the statute of Appeals, made vanced several damnable and blasphemous as- in the 25th year of Henry 8, chap. 19, which, sertions against the doctrine and worship of the in the course of the appeals directed to be ever-blessed Trinity: expressly contradicting henceforth inade, doth not mention convocathe two fundamental articles of the Nicene tion. May it please your most gracious macreed; and defaming the whole Athanasian;‡jesty, out of your known zeal for the honour of and has bad the confidence to inscribe and di * The celebrated and excellent Hough. See the Case of Magdalen College, vol. 12, p. 1. + Moore. "The account given of Athanasius's Creed, seems to me no-wise satisfactory; I wish we were well rid of it." Archbishop Tillotson's Letter to Bishop Burnet, published in the Life of the latter. Of this so much litigated Creed, Swift in his Sermon on the Trinity, says, "Although it is useful for edification to those who understand it, yet, since it contains some nice and philosophical points which few people can comprehend, the bulk of mankind is obliged to believe no more than the Scripture doctrine, as I have delivered it; because that Creed was intended only as an answer to the Arians in their own way, who were very subtle disputers." The Council of Nice was held in the year 325: Athanasius died in 373: I believe it is now very generally agreed by those, who have studied the question, that the Athanasian Creed was not composed before the time of Hilarius, bishop of Arles, about the year 430. God, and the good of his Church, to lay this case before your reverend judges, and others whom your majesty in your wisdom shall think fit, for their opinion, how far the convocation, as the law now stands, may proceed in examining, censuring, and condemning such tenets as are declared to be heresy by the laws of this realm; together with the authors and maintainers of them. Upon this Address to the Queen, her Majesty was pleased to refer the whole to the Twelve Judges, and to her Attorney and Solicitor-General; who being several times assembled together, and debating the matter, came to the following Resolutions. To the QUEEN's most Excellent Majesty. May it please your Majesty ;-In humble obedience to your majesty's royal command, signified to your judges by the right honourable the lord keeper; we whose names are subscribed have considered the questions mentioned in the Address hereunto annexed, and are humbly of opinion, that since the statute of 23d of Henry 8, against citing out of the diocese, and those statutes of the 24th and 25th The other PAPER here follows. May it please your majesty ;-In obedience to your majesty's commands, signified to us by the right honourable the lord-keeper of the great seal, in relation to the humble Address of the archbishop and bishops of the province of Canterbury, in convocation assembled, hereunto annexed; we whose names are hereunto subscribed, have taken into consideration the doubts and questions therein stated. And after conference with the rest of the mon right there lies an appeal from all ecclesiastical courts in England to your majesty, in virtue of your supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, whether the same be given by express words of any act of parliament, or not: And that no act of parliament has taken the same away. And consequently, that a prosecution in convocation, not excluding an appeal to your majesty, is not inconsistent with the statute of 1 Eliz. ehap. 1, but reserves the supremacy entire. years of the same reign, touching appeals, and as the law now stands, the convocation hath not any jurisdiction originally to cite before them any person for heresy, or any other spiritual offence, which according to the laws of the realm may be cited, censured, and punished in the respective ecclesiastical courts or jurisdictions of the archbishops, bishops, and other ordinaries; who, we conceive, have the proper judicature in those cases; and from whom and whose courts the parties accused may have their appeals; the last resort where-judges, we are humbly of opinion, that of comin is lodged in the crown. In which statute for citing out of the diocese, and in the others, as far as relates to appeals for such offences, no notice is taken of the convocation, either as to jurisdiction, or appeals. Nor doth it any way appear to us in whom the pretended judiciary power of a convocation, either before or since the said statutes, (if any such they ever had) resided; whether in the whole body of the convocation, or in part. But it is plain by the first statute, that the archbishop's jurisdiction, even in case of heresy, is bounded so that he cannot proceed against such offenders within any other diocese than his own, without the consent, or in the default of the diocesan bishops. All which statutes being made for the ease and benefit of the subjects, they cannot, as we humbly conceive, be deprived of the benefit of them by any pretence of jurisdiction in the convocation; from which we cannot find or be informed of any instance of appeal. Nor have any judicial precedents or authorities for convening or censuring of such offenders in any convocation since those statutes, or the reformation (which is now near 180 years), appeared unto us. And if such power should be allowed to the convocation, we conceive it would invade the ordinary jurisdiction of the archbishops and bishops; which we conceive are preserved by the act of parliament made in the 17th year of the reign of his late majesty king Charles the first, chap. 11, and by another made in the 13th year of king Charles the second, chap. 12, and by the act made the 29th Car. 2, chap. 9, which took away the writ De Heretico Comburendo; in none of which any mention is made of the convocation. And by the Bill of Rights, 1 Will. & Mar. it is enacted, That the commission for erecting the late court of commission for ecclesiastical causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious. But we conceive that heretical tenets and opinions may be examined and condemned in convocation, authorized by royal licence, without convening the authors or maintainers of them. All which we most humbly submit to your royal majesty's great wisdom. May 5th, 1711. Jo. BLENCOWE. As to the question proposed in the said Address, how far the convocation, as the law now stands, may proceed in examining, censuring, and condemning such tenets as are declared to be heresy, by the laws of this realm, together with the authors and maintainers of them, we understand it to import only these two things: Whether a jurisdiction to examine, censure, and condemn such tenets, and the authors and maintainers thereof, could ever be exercised in convocation? And if it could, whether it be taken away by any act of parliament? And we humbly lay before your majesty, that all our lawbooks that speak of this subject, mentioning a jurisdiction in matters of heresy, and condemnation of heretics, as proper to be exercised in convocation both before and since the acts of parliament mentioned in the Address; and none of them that we find, making any doubt thereof; and we observe nothing in those, or any other acts of parliament, that we think has taken it away; We are humbly of opinion, that such jurisdiction, as the law now stands, may be exercised in convocation. But this being a matter which, upon application for a prohibition, on behalf of the persons who shall be prosecuted, may come in judgment before such of us as have the honour to serve your majesty in places of judicature, we desire to be understood to give our present thoughts with a reserve of an entire freedom of altering our opinions, in case any records, or proceedings, which we are now strangers to, shall be laid before us, or any new considerations which have not occurred to us, be suggested by the parties, or their counsel, to con vince us of our mistake. T. PARKER, (d) RO. PRICE, (f) E. NORTHEY, (g) (d) Lord Chief Justice of the King's-bench. (e) A Justice of the_King's-benchi. A Baron of the Exchequer, (8) Attorney General. 2 Z simplicity, and words without meaning. The "POSITIONS published and spread about in the mons and Essays, &c. p. 213, l. 19, to 23, p. 215, 1. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 1. 9, 10, 11, 26. to 30. Mr. Thackham's Depos. Mr. Hughes' Depos. Mr. Townsend, Mr. Macro, and Mr. Amyas depositions. Vid. Serm. and Essays, p. 276. I. 21, to p. 278. l. 6.] "On October 22, 1710, William Whiston was summoned by an esquire bedell to appear before the vice-chancellor on the afternoon of the next day. In obedience to this summons, he went with a friend to the vice-chancellor's lodge, when his friend not being permitted to aecompany him farther, he was conducted into an upper room, in which were present the vicechancellor, nine heads of colleges, and the university registrary. A book of sermons was immediately put into his hands, and he was required to own it; but, on his refusing to answer such questions, the university printer was "1. That the Father alone is the one God of sent for, who could, however, say nothing to the Christian religion, in opposition to the the purpose, and no other witnesses were three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy called, relating to this publication. The depo- Ghost, being the one God of the Christian resitions of several members of the universityligion.-[Vid. Postscript throughout. Vid. Serwere then read, stating, that in a lecture in one of the parish churches, Whiston had asserted, There was but one God; and that God the Father only was that one God; that the Father was in all the ancient and primitive • creeds mentioned to be the only God; that the Son was indeed exalted above all creatures, and made a partaker of many 'divine excellencies and perfections; and as such he was to be worshipped with a sort or "2. That the creed commonly called the 'degree of divine worship.' Similar opinions Creed of St. Athanasius, is a gross and antiwere deposed also to have been advanced by christian innovation and corruption of the prihim at a coffee house, in a meeting of the mimitive purity and simplicity of the Christian nisters of the charity schools. To these depo- faith among us. sitions Whiston said nothing, requiring only time for his defence, and copies both of the depositions read to him, and the statute, which he was supposed to have offended; subjoining also a solemu address to the company, on the nature of Christian benevolence, and the certainty of its appearance one day before the tribunal of Christ, which most probably was looked upon by these guardians of religion as marks of his (h) Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. (m) As to him see several Cases in this Collection, particularly that of the Seven Bishops. July 5, 1711. In the evening I went to Lord Treasurer, and among other company found a couple of judges with him, one of them Judge Powell, an old fellow with grey hairs, was the merriest old gentleman I ever saw, spoke pleasant things, and laughed and chuckled till he cried again." Swift's Journal to Stella. (n) A Justice of the Common Pleas. "This position is contrary to the 1st, 2d, and 5th of the 39 articles, and to the Nicene and Athanasian creeds. "This position is contrary to the rubric before the said creed, and the 8th article. "3. That the canon of the Scripture, the rule and guide of a Christian's faith and practice, is that contained in the last of the ecclesiastical canons, ordinarily stiled apostolical; which all along appears to have been the standard of the primitive church in this matter. I mean as including all the books we now own for canonical, and also the two epistles of St. Clement, and the constitutions of the apostles by St. Clement: to which the pastor of Hermas is to be added; as well as we have already added the apocalypse of St. John. "That the Doctrine of the Apostles appears to be a sacred book of the New Testament, long lost to the Christian church. These two positions are contrary to the sixth of the 39 articles. "Mr. Whiston undertakes to prove clearly, that the apostolical constitutions are the most sacred part of the canonical scriptures of the New Testament. "Mr. Whiston asserts, that the doxology, current in all these latter ages, 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,' was not the true Christian doxology. "This position is against the doxology received and established in the public liturgy. "Dated October 25, 1710. “This paper was delivered to Mr. Whiston, the day and year above-written, by Mr. Vicechancellor's order.-Witness my hand, "7. That I ought to have been convened publicly in the consistory, and evidence fairly there produced against me in an open court; and not privately in a chamber, been asked many ensnaring questions, with the exclusion of even a single friend, who was willing to have been there to assist and direct me. "8. That any prior determination of the sense of this statute, before I have had counsel allowed me, or legal advice taken about its true. extent and meaning, is of no force at all against me. "ROBERT GROVE." "Against this mode of proceeding, Whiston first read, and then delivered in a protest, stating his surprize, that they should not have "And I desire and demand that I may have conferred with him, as was formerly the usage, time given me, and counsel allowed me to argue on his opinions; and that no one, through the validity of these exceptions. Christian charity, had endeavoured to convince "October 25, 1710. W. WHISTON." him of his errors. Many on the contrary, at- "Little attention was paid to this protest. tempted to undermine him; at one time, talk-The vice-chancellor gravely exhorted the proing of him as a public enemy to be expelled by testant, under pain of condemnation on the grace; at another time, to be prosecuted in the following Monday, to leave his errors, and ecclesiastical courts, or at the assizes: then the return to the Church of England; and peropinion of counsel was taken on the propriety ceiving, after a little time, that he began to of convicting him of heresy, and expelling him draw some of the heads into farther arguing by Lucas's statutes; and now a remote uni- and reasoning about these matters, the viceversity statute was thought of, which could chancellor took one of the candles and connot, in the present instance, be applied with ducted him out of the house. justice. This statute related to public sermons, and similar public acts and lectures before the university; but he had never preached before the university, nor performed divinity exercises; and the only lectures he had given, were mathematical. With respect to his sermons in the parish church, he conceived himself amen- | able only to the bishop of the diocese; and books published in London, and private discourses elsewhere, could not be punishable by this meeting, since the crimes must be done 'publicè docendo, tractando, vel defendendo,' in public and solemn sermons, lectures, or disputations, before the university. He complained also, that, in so important a business, the chancellor had not been consulted, and that he had been so privately convened and interrogated, and, saving therefore to himself the liberty of making farther objections to their proceedings, he summed up his protest in the following articles: "1. That I am charged with breaking that 45th statute which I have been uncapable of breaking, because it only concerns such public university exercises as I bave never performed. "2. That the place where most of the words are pretended to have been spoken, St. Clement's church, is utterly out of the jurisdiction of the university, and so no ways within this statute. "3. That the want of the specification of the time, or the too loose specification of it, renders most of the depositions of no value. "4. That words charged at so great a distance of time, cannot be sworn to so particularly as is necessary to affect me. "5. That words spoken in private conversation, or at a coffee-house, or (written) in a private letter, can no way be within this statute. "6. That no books printed and published at London, can be within this statute. "On the Sunday following, Whiston received a summons to attend a meeting of the vice-chancellors and heads on the next day; from which, at first, he determined to absent himself; but afterwards altering his mind, he appeared before the heads, now twelve in number; and being asked by the vice-chancellor to retract his errors, he read a protest to them against all their proceedings, which he desired might be entered upon the records of the university. He then took his leave; and the following act, afterwards made public, gives the determination of the meeting: "October 30th, 1710. "At a Meeting of Mr. Vice-chancellor, and the Heads of Colleges in the University of Cambridge, in the Vice-Chancellor's Chamber, in King's College, in the said University. "Whereas it hath been proved before us, that William Whiston, master of arts, mathe matic professor of this university, hath asserted and spread about in Cambridge, since the 19th day of April 1709, divers tenets against religion received and established by public authority in this realm, contrary to the 45th statute of this university; and whereas the said William Whiston being required and exhorted by Mr. Vice-chancellor, to confess and retract his error and temerity in so doing, did refuse to make any such confession and retractation; it is therefore agreed and resolved by us, the vicechancellor, and heads of colleges, whose names are here underwritten, that the said WilJiam Whiston hath incurred the penalty of the foresaid statute, and that he be banished from this university according to the tenor of the same: C. Roderick, vice chancellor; Joseph Ellys, Humf. Gower, Ben. James, S. Blithe, John Covel, Jo. Balderston, Gabr, Quadring, Tho. Richardson, Ch. Ashton, Bardsey, Fisher, Edw. Lany. Unde venerabilis vir Dr. Roderick, dominus procancellarius, assidentibus et consentientibus Johanne Ellys milite, Doctore Gower, Doctore James, Doctore_Blithe, Doctore Covel, Doctore Balderston, Doctore Quadring, Doctore Richardson, Doctore Ashton, Doctore Fisher, Doctore Lany, collegiorum præfectis, sententiam ferendo decrevit, declaravit, et pronunciavit prout sequitur. In the name of God, Amen. I Charles Roderick, vice-chancellor of this university, do decree, declare, and pronounce, that Mr. William Whiston, mathematic professor of this university, having asserted and spread abroad divers tenets contrary to religion received and established by public authority in this realm, bath incurred the penalty of the statute, and that he is banished from this university." were new: The archbishop was not named the president of the convocation, as was usual in former licences; and in these, the archbishop's presence and consent alone was made necessary, except in case of sickness, and then the archbishop had named some bishops to preside, as his commissaries: And in that case, the convocation was limited to his commissaries, which still lodged the presidentship and the negative with the archbishop. This was according to the primitive pattern, to limit the clergy of a province to do nothing, without the consent of the metropolitan; but it was a thing new and unbeard-of, to limit the convocation to any of their own body, who had no deputation from the archbishop. So a report of this being made, by a committee that was appointed to search the records, it was laid before the queen : And she sent us a message to let us know, that she did not intend, that those whom she had named to be of the Quorum, should either pre "Lata fuit hujusmodi sententia per dictum dominum procancellarium, præsente me Roberto Grove, not, pub. et almæ univer-side or have a negative upon our deliberations, sitatis prædictæ registrario." "The severity," says Mr. Frend, "with which Whiston was treated is easily accounted for. About that time the nation was, by Sa. cheverell's trial, alarmed with the cry of danger to the Constitution in Church and State; that bigot had received support from administration, and the Tories in general; and motions were made even in parliament, for the suppression of irreligion and impiety." Whiston was succeeded in his professorship by the blind Saunderson, whom Mr. Frend denominates (I believe with the strictest truth) a profligate, and a contemner of all religion.' In relation to Whiston's case, Burnet writes as follows: though the contrary was plainly insinuated in the licence. The archbishop was so ill of the gout, that after our first meetings, he could come no more to us; so was the bishop of London: upon which, the bishop of Bath and Wells, seeing how invidiously he was distinguished from his brethren, in which he had not been consulted, pretended ill health; and we were at a stand, till a new licence was sent us, in which the bishops of Winchester [Trelawney,] Bristol [Robinson,] and St. Davids [Bisse,] were added to be of the Quorum. The two last were newly consecrated, and had been in no functions in the Church before: So the queen not only passed over all the bishops, of those named by herself, and set the two last made in king William's reign, but a great many in a distinction above all their brethren. All this was directed by Atterbury, who had the confi dence of the chief minister; and because the other bishops had maintained a good correspondence with the former ministry, it was thought fit to put marks of the queen's distrust upon them, that it might appear, with whom her royal favour and trust was lodged. "The convocation of the province of Canterbury was opened, the 25th of November, 1711, the same day in which the parliament met: And Atterbury was chosen prolocutor. Soon after, the queen sent a licence to the convocation, empowering them to enter upon such consultations, as the present state of the Church required, and particularly to consider "The convocation entered on the consideraof such matters, as she should lay before them; tion of the matters referred to them by the limiting them to a Quorum, that the archbi-queen: And a committee was appointed, to shop of Canterbury [Tennison,] the bishop of draw a representation of the present state of London [Compton,] or the bishop of Bath and the Church, and of religion among us; but Wells [Hooper,] should be present, and agree after some heads were agreed on, Atterbury to their resolutions. With this licence, there procured, that the drawing of this might be left was a letter directed to the archbishop, in to him: And he drew up a most virulent de which the convocation was ordered, to lay be- clamation, defaming_all the administration, fore the queen an account of the late excessive from the time of the Revolution: Into this be growth of infidelity and heresy among us; and brought many impious principles and practices, to consider how to redress abuses in excommu- that had been little heard of or known, but were nications; how rural deans might be made now to be published, if this should be laid bemore effectual; how terriers might be made fore the queen. The lower House agreed to and preserved more exactly; and how the his draught; but the bishops laid it aside, and abuses in licences for marriage might be cor- ordered another representation to be drawn, in rected. more general and more modest terms. It was not settled, which of these draughts should be made use of, or whether any representation at all should be made to the queen: For it was "In this whole matter, neither the archbishop nor any of the bishops were so much as consulted with; and some things in the licence |