RICHARD COSIN AND THE REHABILITATION OF THE CLERICAL ESTATE IN LATE ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND James E. Hampson A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of St. Andrews 1997 Full metadata for this item is available in Research@StAndrews:FullText at: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2706 This item is protected by original copyright Richard eosin and the rehabilitation of the clerical estate in late Elizabethan England James E. Hampson This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of St. Andrews February, 1997 Thesis Declaration A. (i) I, James Hampson, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately one hundred thousand words in length, has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been submitted in any previous application for a higher degree. Date: I ( F"ej, / I "I 9 7 Signature of Candidate: (ii) I was admitted as a research student in October 1993 and as a candidate for the degree of Ph.D. in October 1994; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University ofSt. Andrews between 1993 and 1996. Date: II r-e-b / / ~ 17 Signature of Candidate: (iii) I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and regulations appropriate for the degree of Ph.D. in the U . of St. Andrews and that the candidate is qualified to submit this thesis in application Signature of Supervisor: __--j (iv) In submitting this thesis to the University of St. Andrews I understand that I am giving permission for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I also understand that the title and abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker. Date: N r:-eJ, . / '1 '1 7 Signature of Candidate: 11 Abstract The royal supremacy established by Henry VIII was never fully defined or resolved. Was it an imperial kingship or a mixed polity - the king-in-parliament? Professor G.R Elton's theory of parliamentary supremacy has been accepted for many years, but more recently this theory has come under attack from Professors Peter Lake, John Guy, and Patrick Collinson. They have shown that it was not strictly the case that either the r<iral" supremacy or the ecclesiastical polity of the Tudors was a settled issue; there was a tension and an uncertainty that underlay both the Henrician break with Rome in 1534 and the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559, yet this tension was not brought to surface of Tudor political debate until the latter part of Elizabeth I's reign. What brought the issue to the fore was the controversy between the puritans who opposed Archbishop John Whitgift's subscription campaign and the 'conformists' who sided with Whitgift's demand for order and congruity in the young Church of England. Part of this controversy was carried out in a literary battle between one of Whitgift's proteges, civil lawyer and high commissioner Richard Cosin, and puritan common lawyer James Morice. The debate focused on the legality of the High Commission's use of the ex officio oath and eventually came to hinge on the question of Elizabeth's authority to empower that commission to exact the oath by virtue of her leners patent. If the ex officio oath was strictly against the statutes and common laws of the realm, was the queen authorised to direct the commission to exact the oath anyway - over and above the law? To answer yes, as Cosin did, was to declare that the queen's royal supremacy was imperial and that her ecclesiastical polity was essentially theocratic. To answer no, as did Morice, was to assert that there were certain things that the queen could not do - namely that she was not empowered to direct the High Commission to contravene statute law, even in the name of ordering and reforming the church. Cosin's legal arguments for the imperial supremacy of the monarch were powerful, but his writings were steeped in a form of political rhetoric that was quickly coming into fashion in the late sixteenth century: the 'language of state'. The language of state was essentially an abandonment of the classical-humanist vocabulary of 'counseling the prince' for the sake of 'virtuous government' in pursuit of a 'happy republic'. This new political language used by Cosin III and other conformists justified itself on the premise that the state was so thoroughly endangered by sedition and instability that an urgent corrective was needed: not wise or virtuous counsel but strict obedience to the laws dut preserved civil and religious authority. With the threat of presbyterianism at the doorstep of the English Church, Cosin - protected and encouraged by d1e powerful Whitgift - was free to employ both his legal and his rhetorical skills in an effort to reinvigorate the English clergy by enhancing ilieir jurisdictional status over ilie laity. By ilie time James VI and I began his systematic revitalisation of ilie clerical estate in 1604, ilie vocabulary iliat would justify it had already been created. The influence of Cosin demonstrably permeated the early years of d1e Stuart Church suggesting dut Cosin might provide a link between d1e vague uncertainties of the Elizabethan Settlement and the stark realities of the Caroline Church. IV Preface This thesis is dedicated to my wife, Jane, who loved me enough to marry me and come to Scotland while I finished my Ph.D course. Hopefully, this final product of my research will adequately reward her patience with me. I would also like to thank my twO colleagues, Stephen Alford and John Cramsie, for their dose companionship and helpful advice throughout our common trials. Acknowledgements also are due to Drs. Brown Patterson, Andrew Pettegree, and Roger Mason for reading various drafts of my work and offering their insights and suggestions. The greatest thanks go to my supervisor, Professor John Guy. Besides being Head of the School of Modern History and International Relations my first year and Provost of St. Leonard's College the last two, he somehow managed to see each of his Ph.D. students at least once every two weeks, often for an extended sitting, giving a new definition to tlle term 'attentive supervision'. His unfailing confidence in my project, timely (and extensive) advice, and regular treatment of all his research students and staff as honoured friends I will not soon forget. All of my research exists primarily in electro-magnetic form on a Macintosh PowerBook 160 which has served me flawlessly tllese three years, and the thesis was formatted using the indomitable Microsoft Word. Thanks to Apple Computer and Microsoft which facilitate massive powers of organisation and information retrieval, tlle study and writing of history can remain the art it should be, rather than being relegated to the science of sorting index cards and collating written notes into file boxes by hand. v Table of Con ten ts Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1- Richard Cosin and James Morice ........................................................................ 15 Chapter 2- Ex officio procedure and James Morice's A briefe treatise ofoathes ......................... 43 Chapter 3- Richard Cosin's Apologie, Pan I ........................................................................... 73 Chapter 4- Richard Cosin's Apologie, Pan 11.: ...................................................................... 106 Chapter 5- Richard Cosin's Apologie, Pan III ...................................................................... 137 Chapter 6- James Morice's 'A just and necessarie defence' ................................................... 169 Chapter 7- The resolution of the controversy ...................................................................... 200 Chapter 8- Richard Cosin and the 1590s ............................................................................ 228 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 257 Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 273 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 281 VI Abbreviations APC Acts ofthe privy council BL British Library CPR Calendar ofpatent rolls DNB Dictionary ofnational biography HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission LPL Lambeth Palace Library OED Oxford English dictionary SR Statutes ofthe realm Introduction I mroduction From the perspective oflate Elizabethan England the Henrician break with Rome in the 1530s seemed like a clean sweep: a new theory of kingship both secular and theocratic was secured, the church was freed from the control of foreign powers, and there was a newfound sense that England was and always had been an empire in its own right. 'Where by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles', it had been declared 'that (his realm of England is an empire', 'governed by one supreme head and king having