deniably, that the legal consecration of our Protestant Bishops was published to the world in print, both in Latin and English, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign; and could not be contradicted then by the greatest adversaries of our Church. Secondly, that the exception, which our English Nonconformists in those days did take to our Episcopal orders, was not want of legal consecration but legal consecration itself; upon which ground this translator nicknamed them "Poope-holy" orders.

THE

CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER THE FIRST.

The occasion of this Treatise.

[The lying fable of the Nag's Head Consecration newly revived.

1. With a fabulous addition, concerning the author.

2. With a second fabulous addition, concerning Dr. Morton Bishop of

Durham.]

ib.

22

21

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

The Vindication of the Bishop of Duresme.

[The Bishop of Durham accused of having allowed the reality of the Nag's

Head Consecration.

1. Of the supposed occasion of his doing so.

The pitiful mistakes in this part of the story.

2. Of his pretended speech upon that occasion.

His own denial of it.

Attestation of the other Bishops then in Parliament and still

surviving.

of the Temporal Lords then in Parliament.

ib.

26

27

28

ib.

32

33

Three reasons against the Nag's Head Consecration; I. from the

contradictions of the relaters; II. from the lateness of the

discovery; III. from the strictness of our laws.

[The story of the Nag's Head Consecration.]

I. The first reason [against it ;-from the contradictions and defects of its

relaters.

1. About the consecraters.

2. Who they were that were consecrated.

3. The time of the consecration.

Page

41

42

ib.

44

ib.

.

4.5

4. Their omitting to name the notary who drew up the acts of the

consecration.]

.

.

II. Second reason [against it ;-from the lateness of its discovery.

Not one syllable about it in Sanders' book De Schismate Anglicano.]. 46

III. The third reason [against it;-from the strictness of our laws.]

49

CHAPTER THE FOURTH.

The fourth and fifth reasons against this improbable fiction;—

from the no-necessity of it, and the less advantage of it.

[IV. Fourth reason against the Nag's Head Consecration;-from the want

of necessity for it.

No want of a competent number of ordainers.

1. Of the Bishop of Llandaff in particular.

2. The ordainers were themselves rightly ordained.

Viz. By such as were truly Bishops.

And with a valid form of ordination.]

V. A fifth reason [against the Nag's Head Consecration ;—from the want of

advantage in it.

The legal forms for obtaining a Bishopric; how many they are; and

how closely connected.

All of them necessary to give possession of a Bishopric.

Such a consecration as that supposed both useless and ruinous to the

agents in it.]

CHAPTER THE FIFTH.

The sixth and seventh reasons ;-that all the records of England

are diametrally opposite to their relation, and do establish

our relation.

[VI. Sixth reason against the Nag's Head Consecration;-that it contra-

dicts the records.

VII. The seventh reason [against the Nag's Head Consecration ;-that

the same records confirm our own relation.

1. The Congè d'Eslire.

2. The election by the Dean and Chapter.

3. The first commission from Queen Elizabeth.

Why not executed.

The second commission from Queen Elizabeth.

Of the dispensative clause in the second commission.

Why inserted.

Probably to obviate objections to the legality of the ordi-

nation.

Page

71

ib.

72

ib.

73

74

77

ib.

79

80

83

84

86

. 87

ib.

88

The form of ordination was expressly abrogated by Queen

Mary and not expressly restored by Queen Elizabeth.

4. The confirmation of the election.

5. The consecration itself.

Our adversaries driven to assert the records to be forged.

Forgery impossible in such a case as this.

i. The laws of the kingdom recognise these records as evidence.

ii. Of the notaries who attested them.

iii. The legality of the commission was certified by six of our

most eminent lawyers.

.

iv. They are recognised by a subsequent Act of Parliament..

v. And by the author of the book De Antiquitate Britannica
Ecclesia..

The eighth, ninth, and tenth reasons against that fabulous rela-

tion;-from the authority of our Statute, the Book of the

Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and all sorts of

witnesses.

VIII. The eighth reason [against the Nag's Head Consecration;-from the

8 Eliz. c. 1.

IX. The ninth reason against the Nag's Head Consecration;-from the

De Antiquitate Britannica Ecclesiæ.]

X. The tenth reason [against the Nag's Head Consecration ;-from the evi-

dence of all sorts of witnesses.

Of their writers.

Of our own writers.

1. Mr. Clerke.

94

ib.

ib.

96

96

2. Mr. Higgins.

3. Mr. Hart.

4. Father Oldcorn.

5. Mr. Wadsworth.

6. Four other Romanists.

7. Mr. Neale himself.

Conclusion.]

BRAMHALL.

CHAPTER THE SEVENTH.

The Nag's Head Ordination is but a late device of the Earl

of Nottingham-Bishop Bancroft-Doctor Stapleton-the

Statute of the Eighth of Elizabeth [c.] 1.—and the Queen's

Dispensation.

[The story of the Nag's Head Consecration never heard of before the year
1600.

Page

103

The Earl of Nottingham's testimony.

Of Bishop Bancroft.

The supposed authorities for the story.

Dr. Stapleton says nothing of it, but rests his objections on other grounds.

Of the statute passed 8 Eliz. c. 1.

Of Queen Elizabeth's dispensation.]

ib.

. 105

CHAPTER THE EIGHTH.

Of Bishop Bonner-the re-ordination of our clergy-the quality

of their witnesses-Mr. Fitz-Herbert's suspicions the tes-

timony of their doctors-and the publishing of our register

before Mr. Mason.

[Of Bishop Bonner's plea, that Bishop Horne was not a legal Bishop.

Their re-ordination of our clergy no argument against the validity of our

113

ib.

The Canterbury register published to the world before Mr. Mason's book.

The Antiquitates Britanniæ first published in 1572.

Of the testimony of their own doctors against the validity of our orders.

1. Dr. Bristow gives no reasons for his determination upon the sub-

ject.

2. Nor Mr. Reynolds.

119

120

The register which that book contains a genuine portion of it.

And consistent with the rest of the book..

3. Dr. Stapleton objects illegality to our orders, but says nothing of

the Nag's Head Consecration.

126

4. Nor Dr. Harding.

128

Of the contradictions of our own writers in immaterial points.]