inflicted other then what ought to be understood by those other words directed prescribed enjoyned commanded or mean other means or wayes of execution than those are purely spiritual or ecclesiastical censures only Fifthly and lastly They would find their allegations false where they say that when any is excommunicated he is forbidden all civil commerce conversation with the Faithful this according to the doctrine of the diffusive Church For albeit the Casuists or Summists have this rule Os orare vale communio mensa negatur to be observed by the faithful towards excommunicated persons that are nominatim denunciati or declared by their own proper names and by the authority and special sentence of an Ecclesiastical Judge to have fallen into the censure of excommunication and therefore to be shunn'd yet even those very Casuists and by the doctrine and practice of both Diffusive and Representative Church and even out of the very Canons of Pope Gregory the Seventh himself against his own former against all other former later censures of all other Ecclesiastical Canons or Judges whether Popes or not Popes have this special exception Vtile lex humile res ignorata necesse Which special Exception exempts from that general rule the Wife and Children and Servants and Subjects and all such as by a superiour law of God or Man are bound to obedience duty service or charity salutation reverence respect or even to any commerce or conversation meerly civil and so exempts them that nothing is more certain then that the Church as purely such hath no power from Iesus Christ or from the nature of Excommunication as it is purely Ecclesiastical much less as it is Evangelical or grounded in the Gospel not to exempt them For the Church's power of excommunication is no more no greater nor the nature or essence of this censure as from the Church no other then what can be derived from that passage Si Ecclesiam non audierit sit tibi tanquam Ethnious publicanus Mat. 18. And it is plain that one may be treated as a Heathen or Publican by bare exclusion from a religious or sacred communion or from that which is only in such things paying him notwithstanding all both natural and civil observances enjoyned otherwise by the laws of God and man As we know the Synagogue of the Jews did pay to the Roman though heathen Governours and People and as we know they observed towards others even the very worst of Publicans So that other effects of excommunication or those annexed unto it by Papal Canons which disenable any to any kind of civil rights or take away any such or hinder any duty are meerly accidental meerly temporal not spiritual and consequently not binding at all out of the Popes own temporal Principality but in as much as and where they are approved of and received by the other temporal Princes States and Laws nor even binding in his own temporal Principality as proceeding from the Pope as Pope or as the Supream Bishop or as having any power from Christ or the Church as a Church but as enacted by him as a temporal Prince and by that meer temporal power the Emperours or People or both have conferr'd upon or continue or suffer in Him by tacit consent or connivence or submission or otherwise soever Of all which I have treated more at large in my Latin Theological Work of Answers c. Out of which though yet not published in print I give this Latin Animadversion as at present wanting time to translate it Alii effectus hujusce majoris excommunicationis partim sunt ex jure naturae ut quisque sibi à mâ—â—bidis caveat ne eundem morbum contrabat partim ex Scripturae monitis ac institutis cum talibus neque cibum suntere 1 Cor. 5.11 neque ave ei dixeritis 2. Ioh. 1.10 Vbi advertas licet haec non posse dici praeceptu vel Dei vel Apostolorum in stricto seu proprio sensu praeceptorum uti nimirum distinguuntur á consiliis seu uti praecepta dicuutur ad peccatum saltim quod mortale sit obligare imo vel equidem ad veniale Neque solum non esse â—alia praecepta obligationis praecisa nimirum circumstantia legis naturae in aliquibus casibus personis aliquibus sed ne quidem consilia perfectionis data omnibus singulis atque in quibuscunque eventibus indiscriminatim sed aliquibus tantum qui nempe non sunt ex alio capite seu lege Dei vel naturae alià s obligati ad recipiendum excommunicatos in domum cibumque cum illis manducandum salutemque apprecandam ejusmodi salutatione Et quo ad praeceptum res est clara primò quoad priorem locum qui ex Paulo est ut legenti caput illud totum manifestè patet Vitandi enim periculi scandali gratia corruptionisque a fermento malitiae ut v. 7 admonet Paulus v. 10. ac 11. non commisceri hominibus ejusmodi querum vetat ibi consortium Ergo ubi non est periculum scandali neque erit vetatio coâ—â—ortii Praeterea ex ipsa ratione Pauli data v. 10. quod nolit Christianis prohibitum commisceri cum fornicariis quos ibi vocat hujus mundi aut avaris aut rapacibus aut idolis servientibus manifestum est neque mentis ejus fuisse modò ubi regna integra sunt Christiana ac mundus penè prohibere commercium v. 11. cum iis aliis qui fratres nominantur id est Christiani similiter etiamsi fornicatores aut avari aut idolis servientes aut maledici aut ebriosi aut rapaces Ratio enim a Paulo data priori versu ac pro licentia ibidem concessa est Quoniam oporteret christianos ex mundo exire si nollent cum istis Ethnicis commisceri Atqui haec aeqnè nunc militat in mundo Christiano pro commercio cum aljis Christianis licito etsi hâ— alii sint ejusmodi vitiis inquinati Si enim non liceret cuiquam Christiano communicare cum alio qui frater nominatur estque nihilominus aut avarus aut rapax aut ebriosus aut maledicus primùm sanè foret necessum plantato jam Evangelio et refrigescente in omnibus penè etiam Catholicis charitate primâ exire de mundo Denique tota praxis ac doctrina Ecclesiae Catholicae virorumque timoratissimorum nâ—n patitur aliam Pauli interpretationem Ecquis enim putat modo illicitum peccatumve esse cibum sumere cum avaro Catholico aut ebriosa aut maledico c Et sanè perquam notum est post Extravagantem Martini Quinti in Concilio Constantiensi etiamsi constet ejusmodi vel pessimos quosque fratres in Excommunicationem expressam incidisse licere nihilominus iisdem communicare etiam in divinis antequam denuntientur nominatim a Judice Ecclesiastico nisi forte sint notorii Clericorum percussores Quod tamen non liceret per Concilium vel Pontificem
pastors at the same time in other cases and respects and in order also to those very other men must notwithstanding all this be directed govern'd judg'd in the self-same other cases and respects and by the very self-same other men who yet are themselves in such other cases and respects but meer metaphorical sheep and no pastors at all I say that to conclude so must of necessity be no other then to conclude that which cannot be concluded but by a manifest inconsequence against natural reason no less manifest abuse of this very similitude because as it is now apparant it concludes the metaphorical Pastor wherein he is pastor to be directed by his own metaphorical sheep To his Fourth argument from the Greek word Cleres or Latin Clerici or the title of Clerks appropriated or at least attributed as originally peculiar to Ecclesiastical men or to the argument derived from the signification of that word name or title importing as much as a lot and consequently signifying Churchmen to be in a special manner of the lot or portion or share of God The answer is obvious 1. That were that indeed the etimological reason of that title as attributed to them which yet this Cardinal hath not proved and others that dive unto such etimological reasons deny saying that Churchmen are not therefore stiled Clerks but because they of their own parts are by their orders supposed to take God onely for their own portion lot share inheritance yet I say were the meaning that which he gives this word certainly no more could be thence concluded for their exemption or immunity from the supream civil coercive power then could be for the like exemption of the Levits by the words of God himself so often repeated in Leviticus mei sunt And being these words of God himself prove no such exemption to have been of the Levits as I have before discoursed in the former section much less can the title of Clerks assumed by our churchmen themselves or given them by other men though I confess significantly and properly enough 2. That notwithstanding that Clergiemen are by special function and in a more special manner then meer laymen the Ministers of God and consecrated for to be so and were it granted besides that all Clergiemen are at the time of their consecration or other designation such as that is of the onely first clipping of their haire by the Bishop which is called primi tonsura and which without any more adoo makes them Clerks were it I say granted that at such time all the lay people and even the very supream civil Magistrate himself amongst them did offer to God for his Ministery all Clergiemen whatsoever that is all such as are then to be initiated by the Bishop which yet cannot be granted being we see often too many unfit in many respects initiated so against both the express Canons of the Church and known judgment of both Prince and People no more can be rationally concluded from either such designation or such oblation or both together but that neither people nor Prince may at any time evermore divert or hinder from the Sacred Ministery the persons so consecrated by the Bishop and offered by themselves to God for that his special Ministery Nor therefore of such initiated persons no such exemption at least as that pretended to be of them from even the very supream civil power and in all causes even the most criminal soever can at all from such consecration or oblation or both together be concluded by any principle of natural reason Because natural reason and practise too of all ages and countries tels us there is no incompatibility at all betwixt the duty or subjection of sacred persons to or not exemption from at least the supream civil power and that of their special holy function but on the contrary that the former doth much advantage the later And because both natural reason and christian Religion tels us that Clerks by their sacred initiation are not freed from any other former duties or from such as they had till then been bound unto by the laws of God or nature to be performed to other men as for example the duty of paying a pecuniary sum borrowed from a Neighbour the duty of reverencing honouring obeying and serving their natural parents in all such things and cases as children ought c. And lastly because it is confessed of all sides that subjection to the not onely supream but subordinate civil Magistrate in such criminal causes was a former duty Whence also it is clear enough that the exemption of Clerks from the subordinate or inferiour civil Judges cannot be said to be annexed perse or naturally or necessarily at all to any such initiation oblation or both together but meerly by accident and by the free will of others forasmuch to witt as it pleased the civil Magistrate civil power and civil laws to exempt them from such inferiour civil Judges in all or many or some cases according to the divers customs of divers Countries 3. That were that assumption of Bellarmine universally true without any distinction where he sayes That in things offered and consecrated to God and therefore made in some sense as if they were the peculiar and property of God no secular Princes can have any right or were it true in his sense and to his purpose or were a peoples being made in some sense as if they were the peculiar and property of God were this I say wherein Bellarmine here puts all his force an argument of the exemption of such people from all meer civil or lay power then must it follow that all not onely the 12. tribes of Israel and not the tribe of Levi alone had been in the old Testament exempted from all meer lay power but even that all Christians are universally in the new For all the 12. tribes were not onely purified and sanctified by several aspersions and other ceremonies performed by Moyses and Aaron and offered also and devoted by themselves to God and this too by the appointment of God himself but were also all of them generally adopted by God and by his own mouth declared his own chosen people portion lot inheritance and sanctified by himself and for his own service segregated out of all the Nations of the earth Eritis mihi sancti quia sanctus sum ego Dominus separavi vos a caeteris populis ut essetis mei Levit. 20. words I am sure spoken by Moyses as from the mouth of God himself and spoken by him to all the 12. Tribes universally and not to that of Levi alone And therefore all the 12. Tribes of Israel were made as of the property and peculiar of God himself quasi ipsius dei propria facta sunt according to Bellarmines phrase speaking of Clerks And for all Christians too universally who is so ignorant as not to know or so obstinate as not to confess that they are offered by their Godfathers
of obligation to reveal any thing or to stand by the Prince in any matter which is or may be against any spiritual Duty incumbent on them or against their Religion or Communion or against either Justice or Charity For certainly to reveal such Treason as is such by all the Laws of God and Man of Nature and Nations is a Temporal Duty and to defend the King's Person Royal Authority and State and Government under which we live and which are acknowledged by our selves to be Legal or not Usurped is no less a Temporal Duty or both I mean are Duties we owe to God and to the King and to the Laws and such Duties as are discharged in meer Temporal things and in a meer Temporal way too Sixth Period And further we profess That all Absolute Princes and Supreme Governors of what Religion soever they be are God's Lieutenants on Earth and that Obedience is due to them according to the Laws of each Commonwealth respectively in all Civil and Temporal Affairs That no other power is acknowledged here to be even in such Absolute Princes and Supreme Governors nor other obedience due to them by Subjects but in Civil and Temporal things there needs no further proof than what you see in the very express Letter of this self-same Period in the latter part or that of Obedience which also and by all consequence determines the former part of Power and consequently and most expresly determines both to Civil and Temporal Affairs As for the Title of Gods Lieutenants on Earth What Catholick can except against it on other ground but that of Ignorance or Malice or both Our great Nicholaus de Lyra of the Franciscan Order that most Famous and most Learned and also most Catholick Interpreter of the whole Scripture hath above 300 Years since in Sapient 6. called Emperors and Kings Vicarios Dei inâ—â—terra And Thomas of Aquin or whosoever under his name set out the work de Regim Princip l. 2. calls them so nay delivers this Maxim or Position of Kings and Princes Regem Principem toto conatu sayes he sollicitudine divino cultus incumbere teneri non solum quia homo sed etiam quia Dominus Rex est Dei vices gerit a quo maxime pendet St. Ambrose also well nigh a Thousand Years before Lyranus and Aquinas writ thus in Epist ad Roman c. 13. Sciant non se esse liberos sed sub potestate degere quae ex Deo est Principi enim suo qui vicem Dei agit sicut Deo subjiciuntur Nay and a Roman Pontiff Anastasius the Second but a few Ages after Ambrose's Ep. vii writ thus to Anastasius then Emperor of Rome Pectus Clementiae vestrae Sacrarium est publicae faelicitatis ut per instantiam vestram quam velut Vicarian Deus praesidere jussit in terris c. Seventh Period being purely Relative either only to the foresaid six or certainly to that and all the other foregoing Periods taking all together for it is in these words And therefore we do here protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary it is plain this Protestation must be Catholick and just if the Declaration maâ—e in that sixth Period and in the other several foregoing be such But I have now sufficiently demonstrated that all and each of these Declarations are such And 't is like no man will be so mad as to gather out of this Protestation in this seventh Period That the Subscribers protest simply absolutely abstractedly or specificatively against the Authority of any whosoever that declares or holds the contrary but only secundum quid or reduplicatively as holding the contrary not at all as holding declaring or commanding other just matters For the words to the contrary and what else goes before and follows after sufficently declare that Protestation to have only such reduplicative sense So that no other matter can be said to be in this Period or this Period to relate to other than to the Supreme Civil power of Princes in pure Temporal affairs and obedience of Subjects to them in the same Temporal affairs though I otherwise do my self and all the Subscribers also do confess passive obedience due to Princes from their Subjects even in all kinds too of pure spiritual affairs But what this passive is as also what active is I have before explicated and the judicious Reader cannot but easily understand what both are without any explication of mine Eighth Period And we do hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince though of a different belief and judgment from his Sure there is no professed Christian but Mariana Sanctarellus or some other few impious Scholars of theirs and those of Calvin's Crue who before lead the way or after followed them will quarrel with the Subscribers on this Period especially when the several determinations of the general Council of Constance relating to this matter are duly considered Nor even those in this more Pagan Philosophers of some Graecian Republick than Christian Divines of an establish'd Monarchy can justly say whatever they otherwise say the Subscribers attribute other or even relate to or suppose here in this Period any other power in the Prince than a pure Supreme Temporal or any other obedience in the Subject but in meer Civil or Temporal affairs For the corporal life or death of the Prince as of every other man is such Nor certainly upon any ground whatsoever can say at all the Subscribers attribute here any kind of spiritual power nay nor even a Temporal power in spiritual causes to Princes or consequently exact here from Subjects an active obedience in spiritual causes For if any did subscribe this other Proposition relating not to Princes but private Subjects We hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may kill or murther another private Subject though of a different Religion from his whatever Construction or Exposition this Proposition would or must be subject unto yet no man certainly could averr on any rational ground That the Subscribers of it attributed a spiritual power to every such private Subject whom he so exempts from being lawfully killed or murthered by another private Subject or that obedience were therefore in spiritual things due to him who could not be so murthered Ninth and last Period And we abhor and detest the practice thereof as damnable and wicked Which because it is Relative only to the eighth as the word thereof proves I need say no more than is already said on the said eighth immediately preceding And these Nine Periods which I have so given and considered apart being the onely Periods Clauses or parts of the said Act of Recognition and no other at all being therein nor as much as a word more who sees not but that the said Act considered even separately as to the several Clauses
amongst the People and amongst all Catholicks both at home in Ireland and abroad in Forreign Countries for Sufferers in the Cause of God and Catholick Religion c all those and these Considerations I say at least jointly taken made the opposers come to such an height of Insolencies and Injuries against the Subscribers that such as were otherwise willing to subscribe kept back their hands as having not withall resolution or resignation enough to expose themselves to all the obloquies and calumnies of those fiery both ignorant and malicious opposing Zelots And from the last of all the five viz. my LORD LIEUTENANT's departure some of these unreasonable men did as unreasonably derive joy and gladness But gaudium Hypocritae instar puncti as Job sayes LXXXI FOR two other much contrary and no less unexpected Accidents happen'd in July following the same Year 1664. which in some measure altered their Joy and humbled their Pride 1. A Proclamation issued on the xi of July the same Year 1664. against some of the Ringleaders of those factiously dissenting and opposing persons commanding them upon other Accounts to appear at the Council Table 2. And soon after some others of them were upon some other Information or Suspition seized upon in the County of Cavan brought Prisoners to Dublin and committed to the Marshalsea But for the greater satisfaction of curious Readers I give here at length that Proclamation By the LORD DEPUTY and COUNCIL A PROCLAMATION Requiring Denis Magee Anthony Doghertie and others to appear personally at the Council Board OSSORY WHEREAS Information hath been given unto Vs by divers Gentlemen and others of the Popish Religion That several pretended Chapters have been and are to be soon called in several parts of this Kingdom and Meetings appointed by Persons disaffected to His MAJESTIES Government and to the Publick peace and quiet who take opportunities from those Assemblies to diffuse and spread abroad amongst the people of that Religion Seditious Doctrines to the great dissatisfaction of all those who are Peaceably and Loyally inclined And particularly that one Denis Magee doth by colour of a late Commission derived from the Bishop of Rome call himself and now acts as Commissary Visitor of the Order of the Franciscans in this Kingdom and by such illegal Authority doth summon Assemblies to be held suddenly for pernicious ends contrary to the known Laws of the Land and to the Peace and Quiet of the People And that John O Hairt who goes under the title of the Prior Provincial of the Dominicans Anthony Doghertie under the title of Minister Provincial of the Franciscans Jeoffry Gibbon as Prior Provincial of the Augustinians Joseph Sall under the title of Guardian of the Franciscans in Cashel Anthony Darcy Fryer Andrew Sall under the title of Superior of the mission of the Iesuits in this Kingdom and others under colour also of Authority derived from the Bishop of Rome go in Circuits and visit the several Provinces to the great Trouble and grief of the Well-affected even of their own Religion which practises and proceedings of the said persons are Offences of a high nature and are an exercising of Forreign Iurisdiction within this Kingdom and do render the Offenders and their Orders Assistants Comforters Abettors Procurers Maintainers Fautors Concealers and Counsellers lyable to the Dangers Penalties Pains and Forfeitures ordained and provided by the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom and may tend if not seasonably prevented to the seducing of His Majesties good Subjects and to the disturbance of that peace and tranquillity which by the blessing of God upon His Majesties gracious Government this Kingdom now enjoyes in the belief whereof We are further confirmed by the proceedings of certain Fryers who have been lately Apprehended and now remain Prisoners at Dublin namely Thomas Mackiernan John Brady Anthony Gowan and others the like obstinate Seducers of His Majesties Subjects And therefore as it was an Act of Loyalty to His Majesty in those persons of the Popish Religion to give Vs the said Information so it was an Act of Prudence in them for their own safety and preservation that they who are Loyal to His Majesty a Duty due from them and from all his Subjects by the Laws of God and Nature might not be involved in the guilts of others who fail in that Duty nor incur the punishments by the Laws of the Land justly due to such Offenders And whereas We are desirous in Our tenderness of all His Majesties Subjects of that Religion who are dutifully and peaceably minded that they may be preserved from that Contagion and those Dangers which by the Contrivances and Seducements of the said Denis Magee John O Hairt Anthony Doghertie Jeoffry Gibbon Joseph Sall Anthony Darcy Andrew Sall and others of turbulent spirits are endeavoured Therefore as a Caution to them and all others We judge it fit to give them this Publick forewarning that so they may avoid the Dangers which by the Laws of the Land they may otherwise incut and do hereby in His Majesties Name strictly Charge and Command all persons of what condition soever That they or any of them do not presume to assist abet countenance or conceal any of the said persons in those unlawful doings and that they or any of them do not appear or come together upon any Summons Citation or Notice whatsoever from the said Denis Magee John O Hairt Anthony Doghertie Jeoffry Gibbon Joseph Sall Anthony Darcy Andrew Sall or from any of them or from any other exercising Forreign Iurisdiction in this Kingdom derived from the See of Rome or make any Collections or Contributions in money or otherwise for them or any of them or obey or observe any Rules or Orders or Directions issued or to be issued by them or by any of them as they will answer the contrary at their perils And these are likewise in His Majesties Name strictly to Charge and Command the said Denis Magee John O Hairt Anthony Doghertie Jeoffry Gibbon Joseph Sall Anthony Darcy and Andrew Sall upon their Duty of Allegiance to His Majesty to forbear any further proceedings by virtue of the said Forreign Authority upon their utmost perils And also to appear personally before Vs the Lord Deputy or other chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom for the time being and Council at or before the 27th day of this present July to answer such matters as are to be objected against them in His Majesties behalf and not to depart without Our special Licence And in case they or any of them shall fail to appear as aforesaid then all Officers Civil and Military and all persons whatsoever whom it may concern are hereby Authorized and Required after the said 27th day of this present July to make diligent search and inquiry for the said Denis Magee John O Hairt Anthony Doghertie Jeoffry Gibbon Joseph Sall Anthony Darcy and Andrew Sall and wheresoever they or any of them that shall not appear as aforesaid shall be found
remit the Reader to such other Books and other places also in this same Book where he may find as much satisfaction as can be desired To clear in all respects whatsoever that very matter i. e. To evince as clear as the Sun shines in his brightest meridian glory That not even so much as that very species or kind of Apostasie which is or ought to be only grounded on the sin of disobedience or contumacy against some lawful Commands or Summons can be with any justice or truth objected to Me and Caron or to either of us No not even now in the year 1673 to me alone though I confess that I have my self alone since the 20th of September 1669 at several times opposed but Canonically opposed three several Citations or Summons and Commands at the instance and by the procurement of the late Bruxel-Internuncio Airoldi and other Roman Ministers abroad and their Irish Emissaries both abroad in other Countries and at home in Ireland but of purpose to suppress utterly the doctrine of the Remonstrance sent one after another from beyond Seas yea and from the lawful or acknowledged General Superiours of my own Order enjoining me under pain of Excommunication ipso facto latae to appear before them in Forreign Countries and within the term of time peremptorily prefix'd by them So much here by occasion of that second friendly Advertisement given me by my Lord of Ferns or of that great Romans having termed Me and Caron Apostates and whose Letter terming us so my Lord of Ferns did see although otherwise to treat here of that matter was I know Forreign enough to the main scope of my third Appendage which had been sufficiently treated before And therefore now There remains only the fourth and last of all the Appendages viz. A Paper of Animadversions given to the Lord Lieutenant and His Grace's Commands laid on the Procurator Upon or by occasion of which Paper I have no more to say but 1. That when the Commissioners of the National Congregation had presented His Grace the Lord Lieutenant their new Remonstrance or new Recognition and His Grace taking time to consider and examine throughly the import thereof had shewed it to such Lords of the Kings Privy Council in that Kingdom whom He thought fit to consult in that affair before He gave His Answer to the Congregation which long'd very much to know whether He would accept thereof as satisfactory one of the said Lords viz. the Earl of Anglesey then Vice-Treasurer of Ireland now at the writing hereof Lord Privy Seal in England drew briefly some material Animadversions upon it shewing its insignificancy and unsatisfactoriness in or as to the main points wherein the Fathers should have declared themselves 2. That soon after they i. e. that Congregation had dissolved His Grace was pleased to tell me of that Paper of Animadversions and together give me the very Original of which Original as I have it by me still so I give here a true exact Copy viz. Animadversions on the Remonstrance or Protestation of the Romish Clergy of Ireland subscribed the 15th day of June 1666. WE Your Majesties Subjects His Majesties satisfaction is the pretence of both these Remonstrances of this and of the former presented by Peter Walsh the Procurator of the Romish Clergy of Ireland 1661. If the former had not been in some degree satisfactory in England it had not been offered to their Subscriptions here Therefore in differing from that they must design either to offer more which is not pretended or less which will not be enough or only to alter the expression But as to that it is not probable that they would put themselves to any stress to find out better words to signifie their meaning than those which have already obtained some acceptance It may therefore be more than suspected that they decline that first Remonstrance because it is not lyable to so many reserves and uncertainties as they would have it and they will have another of their own which is more subject to what interpretations they shall please to put upon it The truth of which Conjecture is too evident by these following particulars differing from the former Remonstrance Undoubted Sovereign Seems to signifie only him who exercises Supreme Authority but the rightful Sovereign as it is expressed in the former is he who ought to exercise that Authority As any Subject ought to be to his Prince The Pope often pretending Authority directly or indirectly over Princes in Temporal affairs this expression secures not our King of their obedience against the pretensions of the Pope And as the Laws of God and Nature require I living in Ireland will obey the great Turk as far as the Laws of God and Nature require but the former Protesters will obey King Charles as far as the Laws and Government of this Kingdom require The Laws of God and Nature are general to all Mankind and every Rebel pretends to an observation of them They design not obedience to a particular King who will not regulate it by the particular constitution of his Kingdom We will inviolably bear true Allegiance That is in their own sense as far as the Laws of God and Nature require Some make the Pope Judge of the former but every man makes himself Judge of the latter The King must please both to be sure of these men No Power on Earth shall be able to withdraw us from our duty herein This is little significant seeing their duty is tryable only by the Laws of God and Nature of which the Pope and themselves are Judges But if they intend really to oppose any design of the Pope against the King why do they not say they will do it in that Paper which pretends to secure His Majesty in that particular Their obedience to the Pope is that which makes the jealousie of their disobedience to the King Therefore to clear themselves they should have renounc'd the Popes Authority as it may be opposite to the Kings If they dare not name opposition to him how can it be expected that they will oppose him And how careful they are not to give offence to the Pope we see by their clear leaving out almost the whole Paragraph in the former Remonstrance which secures particularly against his Vsurpations If they say they decline naming him in bare respect to him it seems they prefer their Complement beyond their duty but if that be it why then do they name him in their Subscriptions to the first Proposition of the faculty of Sorbon We will to the loss of our blood assert Your Majesties Rights But they are still no more than the Laws of God and Nature allows you The Laws of the Kingdom are insignificant It is not our Doctrine that Subjects may be discharged c. But doth their Doctrine condemn and anathematize such practises Or do they condemn and anathematize that Doctrine Do they condemn the Doctrine of Suarez Bellarmine Mariana Salmeron Becanus
hisce subscripsimus Kilkenniae 28 Januarii 1648. Jo Archiepiscopus Tuamen Fran Aladen Ed Limericensis THE ARTICLES OF PEACE Made and Concluded by his Excellency JAMES LORD Marquess of Ormond LORD LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland on the behalf of His Majesty WITH THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the Roman-Catholicks of the said Kingdom on the behalf of His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects of the same Re-printed in the Year M.DC.LXXIII BY THE LORD LIEVTENANT GENERAL AND General Governour Of the Kingdom of IRELAND ORMONDE VVHEREAS Articles of Peace are made concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between Vs JAMES Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland by vertue of the Authority wherewith We are entrusted for and on the behalf of His Most Excellent Majesty of the one part and the General Assembly of the Roman-Catholicks of the said Kingdom for and on the behalf of His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects of the same on the other part A true Copy of which Articles of Peace is hereunto annexed We the Lord Lieutenant do by this Proclamation in His Majesties Name publish the same and do in His Majesties Name strictly charge and command all His Majesties Subjects and all others inhabiting or residing within His Majesties said Kingdom of Ireland to take notice thereof and to render due Obedience to the same in all the parts thereof And as His Majesty hath been induced to this Peace out of a deep sense of the miseries and calamities brought upon this His Kingdom and People and out of a hope conceived by His Majesty that it may prevent the further effusion of His Subjects Blood redeem them out of all the miseries and calamities under which they now suffer restore them to all quietness and happiness under His Majesties most gracious Government deliver the Kingdom in general from those Slaughters Depredations Rapines and Spoils which alwayes accompany a War encourage the Subjects and others with comfort to betake themselves to Trade Traffick Commerce Manufacture and all other things which uninterrupted may increase the wealth and strength of the Kingdom beget in all His Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom a perfect unity amongst themselves after the too long continued division amongst them So His Majesty assures Himself that all His Subjects of this His Kingdom duly considering the great and inestimable benefits which they may find in this Peace will with all duty render due Obedience thereunto And We in His Majesties Name do hereby declare That all persons so rendring due Obedience to the said Peace shall be protected cherished countenanced and supported by His Majesty and His Royal Authority according to the true intent and meaning of the said Articles of Peace Given at Our Castle of Kilkenny the Seventeenth day of January 1648. GOD SAVE THE KING ARTICLES of Peace made concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between his Excellency JAMES Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland for and on the behalf of His Most Excellent Majesty by vertue of the Authority wherewith the said Lord Lieutenant is intrusted on the one part And the GEMERAL ASSEMBLY of the Roman Catholicks of the said Kingdom for and on the behalf of His Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of the same on the other part HIS Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects as thereunto bound by Allegiance Duty and Nature do most humbly and freely acknowledge and recognize their Sovereign Lord King Charles to be lawful and undoubted King of this Kingdom of Ireland and other His Highness Realms and Dominions And His Majesties said Roman Catholick Subjects apprehending with a deep sense the sad condition whereunto His Majesty is reduced as a further humble Testimony of their Loyalty do declare That they and their Posterity for ever to the uttermost of their power even to the expence of their blood and fortunes will maintain and uphold His Majesty His Heirs and lawful Successors their Rights Prerogatives Government and Authority and thereunto freely and heartily will render all due obedience OF which faithful and loyal Recognition and Declaration so seasonably made by the said Roman Catholicks His Majesty is graciously pleased to accept and accordingly to own them his loyal and dutiful Subjects and is further graciously pleased to extend unto them the following graces and securities I. IMprimis It is concluded accorded and agreed upon by and betweeen the said Lord Lieutenant for and on the behalf of His most Excellent Majesty and the said General Assembly for and on the behalf of the said Roman Catholick Subjects And His Majesty is graciously pleased that it shall be Enacted by Act to be past in the next Parliament to be held in this Kingdom That all and every the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion within the said Kingdom shall be free and exempt from all Mulcts Penalties Restraints and Inhibitions that are or may be imposed upon them by any Law Statute Usage or Custom whatsoever for or concerning the free exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion And that it shall be likewise Enacted That the said Roman Catholicks or any of them shall not be questioned or molested in their Persons Goods or Estates for any matter or cause whatsoever for concerning or by reason of the free exercise of their Religion by vertue of any Power Authority Statute Law or Usage whatsoever And that it shall be further Enacted That no Roman Catholick in this Kingdom shall be compelled to exercise any Religion Form of Devotion or Divine Service other than such as shall be agreeable to their Conscience and that they shall not be prejudiced or molested in their Persons Goods or Estates for not observing using or hearing the Book of Common Prayer or any other Form of Devotion or Divine Service by vertue or colour of any Statute made in the second year of Queen Elizabeth or by vertue or colour of any other Law Declaration of Law Statute Custom or Usage whatsoever made or declared to be made or declared And that it shall be further Enacted That the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion or any of them be not bound or obliged to take the Oath commonly called the Oath of Supremacy expressed in the Statute of Secundo Eliz. cap. 10. or in any other Statute or Statutes and that the said Oath shall not be tendred to them and that the refusal of the said Oath shall not redound to the prejudice of them or any of them they taking the Oath of Allegiance in haec verba viz. I A. B. do truly acknowledge profess testifie and declare in my Conscience before God and the World That our Sovereign Lord King CHARLES is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of other His Majesties Dominions and Countries and I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them will defend to the uttermost of my
six months were over and the Clergie had been ashamed of their own obstinacy and no less confounded at their own scarce credible inconsiderancy But it pleased God to dispose affaires so that His Grace the Lord Lieutenant albeit otherwise very desirous to see these letters take effect as he was timely acquainted with the drawing and signing of them yet as they were ready to be dispatch'd to the several Counties and most of them too by Noblemen considering the dangerous plot then in hand amongst those disloyal Fanaticks who were to seize the Castle of Dublin and thinking prudently that if any papers whatsoever were carried about at that time by the Catholicks for getting hands or subscriptions those wicked plotters and their party would misinterpret them and pretend thereby a plott or some dangerous conspiracy a preparing amongst the Papists whereby to excuse the better themselves for meeting frequently in armed troups by day or night and considering moreover what influence the Irish Clergie had in the late warrs on the Layety of their communion yea notwithstanding any former Oath and that the same might be again unless the Clergie themselves had subscribed His Grace was pleased for these reasons to countermand for that time and suspend ever since the sending about of those letters expecting it might be done more seasonably when the Clergie had signed first and questionless too expecting the Clergie would sign as soon as their pretence of not dareing to meet by Representatives in a general Congregation were layed aside though it happen'd otherwise as will appear in the second Part of this first Treatise XLVI However the Catholick Gentry or old proprietours of the County of Wexford and few survivours of the Cittizens of that Town expected no such invitation by letters from the Noblemen but without any other then that they had gathered out of The More Ample Account and their own reason having framed for themselves a suitable both Petition to the Lord Lieutenant and preamble to His Majesty subscribed the Remonstrance with about two hundred hands for they wanted only three of that number and sent it His Grace by Mr. William Stafford of Lambstown who took great pains in this business Which Instrument of theirs I would not omit to insert here at length as an eternal monument of their honest loyal hearts however they have been abused in the late warrs by some of their spiritual leaders though perhaps that too more out of ignorance and blind zeal then any malice and whatever or how sad soever their condition above most other Counties be ever since as it was then when they signed so freely of themselves yea notwithstanding the contrary endeavours used by some Clergiemen especially two Fathers of the Society to disswade them Whether those Fathers behaved themselves so undiscreetly out of any disaffection to the King or rather out of mistaken Religion and prepossession by such foolish arguments as they had learned in their own Schools or by reading Bellarmine Suamz or such other by ass'd writers or whether by special command or direction of their Superiours I knew not To His Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General an General Governour of Ireland The Humble Petition of the Subscribers MOst humbly sheweth that they come with the same alacrity and cheerfulness to present to your Grace the ensueing Remonstrance and Protestation which some of their fellow Subjects of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom not long since humbly laid at His Majecties Feet Who was graciously pleased to accept thereof And they with the same zeal acknowledging themselves to be bound in the same duty and indispensable tyes of obedience to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors in all temporal matters do humbly beseech your Grace that this their most hearty concurrence to the same faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance may be made the more acceptable by your Graces conveyance thereof to His Majesty And they shall pray c. To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Gentry of the County of Ireland WHereas a considerable part of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland by the name of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland presented to your most Excellent Majesty a sincere Protestation and humble Remonstrance intituled the faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland for divers substantial and solid reasons in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance ingenuously and conscientiously expressed and set forth Now we the said Roman Catholick Gentry of the said County of Wexford whose names are hereunto subscribed being members of the said Roman Catholick Gentry of Ireland being bound in Conscience and duty to own the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance as well as our Countreymen first subscribing thereunto for the motives in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance expressed and in imitation of our said Countreymen and to avoid all jealousies and misopinions which may be concieved of our selves and of our Religion and feareing least we may be thought to vary from the said first Subscribers in doctrine in Religion or Religious Tenets do sincerely and truly without Equivocation or mental reservation in the sight of God and in the presence of your Majesty Acknowledg and confess your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other your Majesties Dominions and therefore we acknowledg and confess our selves to be obliged under pain of sin to obey your Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs as much as any other of your Majesties Subjects and as the laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands and that notwithstanding any power or pretention of the Pope or Sea of Rome or any sentence or Declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessours or Successours or by any authority spiritual or temporal proceeding or derived from him or his Sea against your Majesty or Royal Authority we will still acknowledge and perform to the utmost of our abilities our faithful loyalty and true Allegiance to your Majesty And we openly disclaim and renounce all forraign power be it either Papal or Princely spiritual or temporal or us much as is may seem able or shall pretend to free discharge or absolve us from this Obligation or shall any way give us leave or licence to raise tumults bear Arms or offer any violence to your Majesties Person Royal Authority or to the State or Government being all of us ready not only to discover and make known to your Majesty or to your Ministers all the Treasons made against your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to loose our lives in the defence of your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all conspiracies and attempts against
justice or such dispensation may be given without manifest injury to a third and besides where it is not repugnant to the law of God positive or natural And all this binding and loosing power in the Pope even in the whole Execution of it according to the Canons of the Vniversal Church and as farre as these Canons allow it as it is and will be religiously acknowledged and observed still by the Subscribers in all occasions so it is left wholly untouch'd unspoken of unmedled with but supposed still by the Remonstrance as a most Sacred Right not to be controverted much less denyed the Pope by any Catholick nor even to other Bishops of the Church for the portion belonging to them by the self same Canons But what hath this to do with the Lovain pretence of a power in the Pope to bind people by the Popes own peculiar laws Canons precepts or censures by Bulls or otherwise to do that which according to plain Scriptures practise of the primitive Church and Churches following for XI entire ages and according to the interpretation or sense delivered by Holy Fathers of those very Scriptures and according to the very first and clearest reflections also of natural reason must be vitious wicked and even most enormously wicked transgressions of those laws of God wherein neither Pope nor Vniversal Church have any power to dispense what to do with a pretended power in any to absolve from Subjection or command the Rebellion of Subjects against Soveraign Princes who are accountable to none for their temporals but to God Or what to do with binding or loosing to the prejudice and manifest injury not of one third person alone but of so many millions of third persons as there are people in a Kingdom or State This loosing is not of sin or of the penalties of sin but of virtue of Christian duties and divine injunctions Nor is such binding a binding to Holy righteousness but to Horrible depravedness And therefore both such binding and such loosing must be from no true power Divine or Humane from no Gospel of Jesus Christ or Canons of the Catholick Church nor from those Holy Keyes of knowledge or jurisdiction given St. Peter to open Heaven to penitents or shut it to impenitents nor from any Keyes at all but very false and errant Keyes if not right or true Keyes in this sense and to this purpose only that they set open the Gates of Hell first to receive all such unhappy Soules as make use of them and then to lock them in for ever Yet now that the Pope is and while he is or shall be continued a Soveraign temporal Prince in some part of Italy for the time hath been for many ages of Christianity even since Christian Religion was by law established when the Pope had no such not only Soveraign or supream but not even any inferiour subordinate temporal Princely power and may be so again for ought any man knows the Subscribers will freely grant the Lovain Divines That upon just grounds when truely such are or shall be the Pope may in the capacity of a temporal Prince but not of a Christian Bishop and may I say without any breach of the law of God declare and make Warr against the King of England always provided that he observe in all particulars what the law of God Nations and Nature require from him in the declaration or prosecution thereof And may do so with as much right as any other Soveraign Prince meerly temporal can but with no more certainly And further that the grounds of warr may possibly or in some extraordinary case be such on the Popes side as not only in the unerrable judgement of God but in the opinion of all men that shall know the grounds of both sides truely and sincerely stated the Warr may be just on the Popes side and unjust on the Kings The Subscribers do freely grant the Lovain Divines all this and all the advantages they can derive hence But what then must it follow that the subscribers have therefore sacrilegiously or against the sincerity of Catholick Religion declared in general or promised in their Remonstrance that they are ready to stand by the King and loose their lives in defence of his Person Rights or Crown or of his Kingdom State and people against all invaders whatsoever Papal or Princely spiritual or temporal c. forraign or domestick Or must this follow albeit we grant also the said promise or Declaration of standing so by the King to extend it self to or comprehend that very extraordinary case or contingency of our certain evident knowledg of the injustice of the Warr on the Kings side and clear Justice on the Popes Certainly neither the one nor other follows For albeit the case or supposition be rather metaphysically then morally possible that the generality of Subjects of either of the Princes or States in Warr together may evidently know or certainly assure themselves of the cleer Justice of the affailants fide at least so as to have no such kind of probability of any Justice on the defendants part and forasmuch as he is a Defendant yet admitting the case were morally possible who knows not that natural reason tells us and Divines and Lawyers teach that however the Prince both rashly and unjustly brings a Warr on himself and people yet both he and they are bound to hazard their lives each for others mutual defence that is for the defence of the Crown Kingdom State and Republick and for the lives liberties goods and fortunes of all that compose it though not for defence of any rashness or injustice So that although it be granted that both Prince and people are to quit all kind of unjust pretences yet their own natural defence or that of their goods lives and liberties as it comes not under that notion so it is unseparable from their taking armes in their own mutual defence in a meere defensive Warr or even that which happens after to be offensive before a good or Just peace can be obtained and is so I mean unseparable notwithstanding any injustice whatsoever done at first by Prince or people that brought the Warr upon themselves Be it therefore so that the Pope in such temporal capacity would make Warr on the King of England and be it granted for the present what otherwise in it self is very doubtful at least if not manifestly false That for the only unjust laws or only unjust execution of such or only other misgovernment or oppressions whatsoever of one King or Prince of his own proper natural undoubted Subjects without any injury done thereby to forraigners or any other forraign Kings Subjects or Prince or State such forraign Monarch or Common-wealth may justly declare and make Warr against him as for example the French or Spanish King and by the same reason the Pope also in his said temporal capacity against the King of England and be it clear and evident likewise that the
however apprehended by us to be so Now for the Lovaine Divines to say that to assert or acknowledge either of these two kinds of obedience or both as due by the law of God to the supream temporal Prince is as much as to deny the Popes or other Bishops or Priests either binding or loosing power which yet the Catholick Church never yet believed to be other then a purely spiritual power and to have no other then purely spiritual effects and a purely spiritual execution or means of execution and no corporal temporal or civil coercion or power of such coercion annexed if not that only which is added at some times and some places by the free pleasure of the supream civil Magistrate and by his proper Power and laws and is taken away again at his pleasure I say that for the Lovaine Divines to ground their Censure of sacriledge or unsincerity of Catholick Faith upon so unconsequent a supposition as if either such active or passive obedience or both together acknowledged by the Remonstrance did inferr the denyal of a binding or loosing power of the Church is to ground a very false and most injurious and erroneous Position upon a no less false and heretical supposition and is further to conclude them either bad Logicians or bad Theologians if not both For to object here that out of such active and passive obedience of Catholick Subjects notwithstanding the Popes excommunication to the contrary and out of their taking arms to defend their protestant King and his protestant Subjects as well as themselves in their lives and fortunes and out of his great power by Land and by Sea against the supposed invasion of a Catholick Army and from Catholick Princes the Pope himself being head of the Ligue must follow that if our King and his army prevail the Protestant Religion will be more and more established by him and perhaps too propagated into Catholick Countryes if he should make his Assailants a return by carrying the Warr back to their own doors or sending a formidable victorious Fleet of English Protestants to Civita Vecchia and consequently an apparant danger of destroying both Pope and Church and Religion at least amongst millions of people All which being evils of the first magnitude that whence they follow must be such I say that to object such conditional contingencies of extraordinary evils or possibilities to hinder an ordinary virtuous duty and of such evils too as have no connexion at all by nature or by design with such duty becomes very ill such Masters in Israel as the Doctors of Lovain For as it is an approved maxime in Divinity That evil is not to be done for any good that may thence arise though such good were foreseen to follow most certainly and without any kind of doubt so is it a no less approved maxime That duties enjoyned by the laws of God and man are not to be omitted and the quite contrary acted for fear of evils which by an extraordinary chance the malice or ignorance or other passion soever of other unjust men may thence derive and the anger of a just God may permit to be thence derived But if the Lovaine Doctors will deny the above active and passive obedience of Catholicks to be vertuous duties in the case and give no other reason then such as we have seen as indeed they do not for ought I saw or know and am very positive they cannot and if upon so weak a ground they have fram'd a Censure so erroneous and injurious both as they have most certainly then I have no more to say to this ground which is their second but that they have carryed themselves more prudentially in suppressing it so soon then conscientiously in alleadging it at any time LV. As for that alledged in the third place or as a third ground of the Censure I must confess I have not admiration enough to consider that men not only Doctors of Lovaine but Divines of a much inferiour degree whether of Lovaine or any other place esteemed either wise or honest should appear so weak or so malicious or both as to alledge it for a ground of any Censure at all and much more of one so severe Good God! Because the Remonstrance declares the Subscribers ready to discover any treason plot or conspiracy against his Majesties person c. that shall come to their hearing and yet not as much as promises that they will discover c. but only their being ready the Doctors of Lovaine must censure it as both sacrilegious and containing somewhat against the sincerity of Catholick Faith On precence forsooth that in relation to Confessors and Priests that hear confessions and subscrib'd or shall subscribe it it in some cases binds them to reveal secret sins heard only in the confessional seat and reveal such I mean without any licence from the penitent that confesseth such in that so holy secret and sacramental Consistory How much better had it become Doctors of Divinity and of so grave and judicious a Faculty as that of Lovaine should be to consider LVI 1. That all kind of Oathes of Allegiance or Fidelity in what form soever and to whom soever have alwayes either formally or virtually and for the most part even formally or in express words engaged the Swearer as indeed all such Oathes should to reveal all treasons plots conspiracies against the life estate or dignity of him to whom or for whom such Oathes were made And yet such expression was never interpreted in any age or Countrey by any Divines until of late by those byassed ill grounded Writers against the English Oath of Allegiance in King James's Statute to extend by any rational consequence to any kind of the least imaginable either direct or indirect breach of that which is now commonly called the Seal of Sacramental Confession Or which in effect is the same thing to extend to the revelation of the sin of such an individual penitent without his own leave as of such a penitent individually or determinatly or of him even as of one inderminatly of such or such a Society or body or corporation whatsoever nay or as of him too as of one of such a Countrey if I mean by such revelation how indeterminat soever as to the individual person yet sufficiently determinat as to the Society or Countrey any prejudice might arise to any such Corporation or Nation Suarez l 6. Defens Fidei Cathol contra Reg. Ang. de forma Iuram Fidel. cap. 3. though not to the individual person of the penitent For never yet amongst Christians where sacramental auricular confession is or was in use hath the knowledge had by the Confessor in that secret penitential Court been esteemed to fall under the general expression or notion of knowledge or of our knowledge as to any use to be made thereof out of the confessional Seat but what the penitent is expresly consenting unto Nor hath any Priest or Bishop whereof thousands upon
as I have done here but only quotes the books and chapters especially for the two former Which yet is not his custom when he finds the places home to his purpose As for that no less unconcluding and that too but onely one out of the new Testament you have it in the 17th of Matthew verse 23.24.25 and 26. where it is related that our Saviour being at Capernâ—â—m and the tribute gatherers demanding of Peter whether his Master would pay the tribute money or didrachma and Peter having answered yes our Saviour presently knowing of the matter and preventing Peter and questioning him in this manner what thinkest thou Simon of whom do the Kings of the earth take custom or tribute of their own children or of strangers and Peter answering of strangers our Saviour inferr'd instantly Ergo liberi sunt filij Then are the children free Adding further thus notwithstanding least we should offend them or give them cause to be scandalized at us go thou to the Sea and cast a hook and take that fish which shall first come up and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a stater that take and give it them for me and thee Of all these examples and places of Scripture Bellarmine frames his first proof to inferre his foresaid Thesis or fift proposition which is That the exemption of Clerks in all politick or civil affairs and as well of their persons as of their goods from all even the most supream temporal Magistrate for that too he means all along was introduced amongst Christians for this also was and must have been his purpose both by divine and humane law And for humane law he supposed that proved before as himself notes and alleadges these Scripture examples and passages to prove onely that his fift proposition for what concerns divine right or divine law Notwithstanding all which I say the case is clear enough still if we but consider these very testimonies passages either out of the old or out of the new or out of both Testaments For whatever may be alleadged pretended or inferr'd though nothing can be but with very little colour out of any or even all these places taken together for the exemption of the lands goods or persons of Clergiemen from paying tribute customs polemony or other taxes whatsoever yet I am perswaded that no rational man much less any consciencious able Divine can be so blind as not to see the unsignificancy of these Scripture testimonies or examples to prove the persons of Clergiemen exempt in criminal causes by divine right and by the positive law of God from the supream civil coercive power Which onely is that I dispute here with Cardinal Bellarmine or rather with his disciples or defenders in this particular controversy the Divines of Lovain And I am perswaded so 1. Because that of the Egyptian Priests signifies no kind of exemption of their persons from laye Indicatories not even from such as are inferiour and subordinate onely nor in any causes whatsoever either criminal or civil or mixt of both Nor signifies as much as the exemption of their lands or goods from all kind of taxâ—â— or from any at all but onely from the forfeiture or sale of their lands or from paying a fift part of the increase And this exemption too from such forfeiture sale or fift part not to have been made by any positive law of God but by the laws of man that is of Ioseph or Pharao 2. Because That of Artaxerxes concerning the Mosaycal Clergie at Ierusalem signifies no more but that Kings command to his own inferiour officers not to laye any imposition of toll taxes c. on them but not a word that himself had no power to taxe them much less any syllable which might import that those Ministers of that holy Temple were exempt either in other civil or criminal causes from his own cognizance or punishment or even from that of his inferiour subordinate civil Judges or from the Lieutenant that govern'd Palestine under him Besides we know the positive law of Artaxerxes cannot be said to be the positive law of God 3. Because that of Leviticus though confessedly sometime the positive law of God signifies no more also but that the whole tribe of Levi were put under the subordinate care and jurisdiction of Aaron and of his Sons the Priests and of their successors and onely as to the Ministery of the Tabernacle whereof he had charge according to what was expresly decreed in all such particulars by God himself in the law given by him to Moyses and rest of Israels descendants Not a word at all exempting either Levits or Priests or as much as the High Priest himself in other affairs or in either criminal or civil matters from the supream civil Temporal or politick Iurisdiction of Moyses or other succeeding Generals Judges or Kings nor as much as exempting them from tribute or taxe or other imposition if at any time the necessities of their countrey or people or weal publick or kingdom were such as the supream civil Governours should judge it necessary to taxe them proportionably for the publick good or safety as well of themselves as of all the other tribes It is true that although not here yet elswhere God left the tribe of Levi exempted from being bound to be listed for War Nay expresly ordained Numb 1.49 that they should not be listed so but should be exempted from that charge or duty as being there appointed for and applyed wholly to an other special duty that is to carry still and serve and keep and watch the tabernacle which could not well consist nor at all with that of warfaring But what hath this particular exemption from one onely duty to do with a general exemption from all other civil duties whatsoever and from the very supream power it self which was to take care that this duty also as well as others should be discharged Those amongst the Romans who by the laws were priviledged not to serve in the warrs were they exempted therefore in all other matters from the supream power of the state or Empire or exempted generally from the supream Coercive power in criminal causes or must Bellarmine abuse his Reader with such quotations and such implyed but unconcluding arguments Nor certainly does that iterated expression of God in that place of Leviticus or elswhere mei sunt they are mine import any more then a special designation of that tribe for that most special Service of His about the tabernacle For he hath often elswhere in holy Scripture said of all the twelve tribes together that they were his own chosen peculiar people And yet never mean'd to exempt them thereby nor by any other expression from the power of their earthly either supream or subordinate Governours or exempt them at all from such power in either civil or criminal matters or in any whatsoever but in such religious matters onely as himself expresly had reserved for the
sayes Theodorecus l. 2. c. 9. 10. maximè omnium caepit clamare orare Imperatorem ut de iniquo indignoque ejus facinore non Episcoporum Concilio sed pro tribunali judicium quaeratur seque pollicetus primum Episcoporum Clericos qui facinoris conscij erant supplicioÌ„ coercendos traditurum Stephani quoque ministros ait eodem medo puniendos esse At cum Stephanus petulanti ore illis contradiceret affirmaretque plagas non infligendas esse Clericis placuit Imperatori Magistratibus ut quaestio de facto in Regia haberetur Ad hunc modum ergo intellecta Stephani improbitate primum Episcopis qui tum aderant mandatum dant Judices ut hominem abdicent Episcopatu deinde illi ipsi eum Ecclesia penitus expellant Where you are to observe that not onely not the judgment of the fact of Murder but not even the judgment of this question of right whether the said Patriarch or Bishop Stephen of Antioch should be deposed or no is remitted to the Ecclesiastical court or to the Church or Council of Bishops but peremptory command sent by the lay Judges to the Bishops to depose him actually and by their spiritual judgment whom they the same lay Judges had already and by a civil judgment sentenced to be so deposed albeit these lay judges reserved to themselves still or to the civil power the real execution of both sentences that is the actual and corporal expulsion of Stephen from Antioch Nor is it material to object here that Constantius was an Arrian for the Arrian Bishops stood as much for the immunities of the Church and Churchmen and so did the Arrian Princes advised by them as any Catholick Bishops or Princes did when the crime objected was not diversity in religion And this crime of Stephanus was a meer lay crime and consequently a crime that by the very laws of even Constantine the great himself nay and of all other Catholick Princes after him and after Constantius his Arrian Son for many hundreds of years and even too by the very express laws of Justinian himself so long after Constantine and Constantins was even when committed by any Ecclesiastick whosoever to be tryed and judged by the civil Judg that is by the Praetor of the Province But however this matter be of Constantius whether he was then a down right Arrian or not albeit this be not material as I have now proved I am sure his brother Emperour Constans who ruled in the west was ever a zealous Consubstantialist and orthodox in all preciseness And yet our often mentioned Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria and Paulus Bishop of Constantinople being deposed from their Sees by other Bishops and having their refuge to him that is to this Emperour Constance in the West he at their instance and earnest petition and even in a cause meerly Ecclesiastical but for the relief of innocency oppress'd wrongfully sends letters to his said brother Constantius wherein as Socrates writes l. 2. c. 12. and Sozom. l. 3. c. 9. he signifies his pleasure that three Bishops be sent from the East to give him an account of the causes why Athanasius and Paulus had been deposed nay and threatens otherwise or if the said Athanasius and Paulus upon account given were found to have been unjustly deposed and should not be restored again to make warr on Constantius Which to avoid Constantius sent him Narcissus the Cilician Theodorus the Thracian Maris the Chalcedonian and Marcus the Syrian four Bishops as after also when Constans was not satisfied with the causes which these four Bishops alleadged he actually restored Paulus and Athanasius though for a time onely for he again banished them In which procedure of Constance I believe our very Antagonists will not have the confidence to say there was any vsurpation being that such religious orthodox Bishops as this Paul and Athanasius and so rigidly observant as they of Ecclesiastical Discipline were his Authors and Petitioners to reassume the judgment of themselves albeit in a cause purely Ecclesiastical or which onely or at least chiefly concern'd a spiritual sentence of deposition of two Bishops from their Episcopal Sees pronounced against them by a Council of other Bishops But whether our said Antagonists will or no pretend therein any vsurpation I am sure the matter of fact is true as I am sure also that even natural reason it self will force them to confess there was a supream right in Constans to relieve by all due means oppressed innocy and that there was no other way so ready just and equitable as this which he took Valentinianus a Catholick Emperour also shall make up the fourth of those Instances of Princes to our purpose For he condemned by his own Imperial sentence Bishop Chronopius to the silver mines for having appealed from an Ecclesiastical sentence of 70 other Bishops L. 2. Quorum Appel C. Theodâ—s and forced him accordingly to suffer it by going to and labouring in the said mines The very same Valentinian punished by diverse banishments the Bishops Vrsicinus Gaudentius Vrsus Ruffus and several other Bishops too because their Schysmes troubled the publick peace and tranquillity Iure mansuetudinis nostrae sensibus sayes he vel divinitus damnarum est vel tranquillitate naturae ne cum delinquentium facinore legum severitate certemus ac speâ—emendationis futurae mitiorem esse vellemus correctionis injuriam quam provocat meritum nostrum Ampeli Pater charissime Augustorum Dudum Vrsicini inquietudine provocati faventes concordiae populi Christiani quâ—eti etiam Vrbis sacratissimae providentes uno interim loco intra Gallias dumtaxat perturbatorem tranquillitatis publicae statueramus jure cohiberi scilicet ne applicatione morum latae dissensionis incommodum spargeretur Verum naturae nostrae mansuâ—tudine levigati ita memorato abscedendi copiam dedimus ne ad Vrbem Romam vel certè suburbicarias regiones pedem inferat neque nequitiae suae cogitationem canetur infundere Idetiam de caeteris ervoris consortibus Gaudentio videlicet Vrso Ruffo Auxanone Auxanio Adiedo Ruffino sancimus c. Apud Baronium tom 4. an 371. n. 1. Therefore also by this instance and by this law too of Valentinian as it ought to be the chief care of Princes as incumbent on them by their publick office and duty and by the very nature of Principality or Government that the publick peace and tranquillity be preserved entire in and amongst their Citties Cittizens and other people subject to them so it must be consequently their charge to coerce the very Ecclesiasticks themselves if they disturb that peace or tranquillity Gratianus the Emperour likewise in all points Orthodox as the dareling of S. Ambrose however onely a Catechumen banish'd on the same account the Bishops Instantius Salvianus and Priscillianus and banish'd them not onely out of their episcopal Sees or Citties wherein and whereof they were Bishops but out of all countries subject to him Though after being ill advised he
even to a vast number who had in former times been Diffinitors Guardians Confessors to the Cloystered Nunns and which was above all even very many esteemed even by their Enemies till then the most regular observant strict and holy in their conversation and exemplar life of all whatsoever of that Irish Franciscan Province as for example Valentin Brown Thomas Babe the whole Convent of Wexford c. who against the Nuncio appeared over-board for the Supreme Council and General Assembly of the Confederates in so good and just a quarrel in the said year 1648. and continued so constantly until they had compassed what they intended 3. That together with their own strength of number zeal learning industry and pains taken by Preaching and otherwise against their perjur'd Adversaries and wicked Cause they had the Arms and Armies and all whatever Authority both of the Supreme Council and soon after following General Assembly of the Confederate Catholick States of the Kingdom to encourage support and further them 4. That as to those Arms and Armies to which the Army also of the then Baron now Earl of Inchiquin was join'd the matter is too well known out of History which records how immediately after the Nuncio's Censures fulminated the Confederates came to unsheath their Swords in a Civil War one against another divided into the Royal and Nuncio Parties 5. And that as to what further provision by a publick Engagement or Declaration or Instrument of Protection the Supreme Council thought fit to make for the security of those Loyal Ecclesiasticks who had declared for them and stood the shock against all the fury of the Nuncio and other Prelates Secular and Regular joining with him the ensuing Copy of that Instrument under the great Seal of the Confederates dated June 3. and immediately after printed at Kilkenny that same year 1648. will give the Reader what he may demand C Locus Sigilli R By the SUPREME COUNCIL of the CONFEDERATE CATHOLICKS of IRELAND THE deep Sense which we have of the sad condition the Kingdom is at present reduced unto by the unadvised proceedings of some Prelats Secular and Regular and more especially of some Provincial Superiors of Regular Orders in this Kingdom together with our just fears that unless a timely course be taken to stop the violence of those unwarrantable wayes the whole Body of the Confederates may run irrecoverable hazard These with the conscience of doing an act most Religious by safeguarding Innocence though no common danger were suspected moving us to reflect on the Duty we owe to the Publick and on the strait tye which the Oath of Association binds us unto for its preservation therefore and for discharge of our Duty in both and stopping the current of evils which we sadly behold flowing out of the above source though the Laws both divine and natural edge us to use all extremity in business of so great concernment whereon the safety and lives of the whole Nation depends yet being unwilling to fix on any course which might seem harsh even to the offenders themselves we thought good first to admonish and desire all and every the said Prelates of what degrees soever Archbishops Bishops Abbots Vicars Generals Deans and Chapters Provincials Priors Guardians and all other Superiours conjuring them by the Sacred bond of the Oath of Association and strictly charging them on their due Allegiance to His Majesty His Crown His Kingdom and unto us as Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks that they shall in no wise molest any of their respective Subjects Priests or Religious for persevering in their Loyalty or in pursuance thereof for approving the late Cessation made by us with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin and that they shall not command sollicite desire or induce by word writing or deed publickly or privately any of their said Subjects to oppose the said Cessation or any other our just Commands in pursuance of it for the publick safety or to infuse into the people any disobedience to our Autthority upon any pretence whatsoever even of the Declaration made or Censures now issued or hereafter to be issued by the Lord Nuncio and his four Bishops on the same ground From all which as both groundless and unlawful we have according to the rule of Sacred Canons legally appealed to His Holiness and by that our Address not only suspended the past Sentences and Censures but also his Graces whole Jurisdiction and the said four Bishops if any they had from proceeding any further therein until His Holiness's pleasure be known AND furthermore we require by vertue of the said Oath and upon their Allegiance all inferiours of both Clergies Dignitaries Curates Preachers Confessors and all others of what condition soever they be that they shall not on any pretence even of the said Censures withdraw any Confederate from approving the said Cessation or obeying our Orders and Decrees made and to be made in pursuance thereof but rather endeavour in their publick Sermons private Conferences and upon each occasion offer'd to confirm them in their Allegiance to His Majesty and our just Decrees and Orders BESIDES We thought it most necessary and just to receive as we do by these and from this instant into the special and immediate protection of the Crown and of His Majesty the administration of whose Rights even in this particular is in our hands towards the Confederate Catholicks all Church-men both Secular and Regular of what degree soever who hither to have declared themselves faithful and obedient to the Government of this Kingdom and who have therefore and for opposing sinister and dangerous practises against us and such as are in Authority been heretofore are for the present or shall hereafter be persecuted by their Superiours vexed hindred suspended deprived or any way molested Protesting and publishing to the World That we will use all the extent of our power to support and defend their innocence herein against the Lord Nuncio and such their Superiours until His Holiness and General Superiours of Institutes being sufficiently informed provide further for the affairs of the Church and true Discipline of Regular Orders in Ireland LASTLY We Declare unto the said Prelates and Superiours and likewise unto all Inferiours of either Clergy That if henceforth any Church-men be found seducing the People as aforesaid or countenancing either Seducers or the Seduced we must and will presently upon notice given proceed against such as enemies of the common good and injurious to the Government the suddenness and greatness of the present fatal dangers necessitating us thereunto HENCE it is that none is to conceive we intend hereby since both are per viam facti and for our natural and necessary defence in assuming into our protection the unjustly oppressed Ecclesiasticks to usurp an illegal power jurisdiction or unwarrantable prerogative or to intrench upon the immunities of the Church being so far from either as we are certain our Decree in all and every the aforesaid particulars
and strong Castle of Carrigfergus I found left but by whom I know not in my Chamber at Dublin a Packet of Letters endorsed to my self Opening them I found not a word to my self but fair Copies onely of some three Letters one from Cardinal Barberin and two more from Rospigliosi to others in Ireland or rather indeed to all the Clergy of Ireland exhorting them to stand manfully against Caron and me and my intended design of the National Congregation Each of those Papers had in the Frontispiece written Copia vera and as I knew after they had been written or copied out so by the hand or pen of Abbot Claudius Agretti then Secretary to the Bruxels-Internuncio Rospigliosi as he was before to de Vecchiis the former and continued after to Airoldi the present Internuncio Within a few dayes more a Friend tells me there was a young Dominican Father by name Christopher O Ferrail lately landed from Flanders Louain and Bruxels with some extraordinary message and letters of importance to the Clergy and that some Nights he lay in one Bed with his own Provincial John O Hairt a known zealous Anti-Remonstrant keeping very close consultation together After a day or two more Father Mark Brown a Franciscan then lately come from Spain and by the Minister General delegated as Commissary Visitator of all his Order in Ireland came of purpose also to my Chamber to let me know and see as a great secret some Copies of Letters lately sent from Bruxels and dispersed now both in Town and Countrey to prevent the Convention of the Fathers Having seen and heard so many particulars of this Forreign design of Rome I found it my duty to acquaint my Lord Lieutenant both with it and all the particulars of it as I did And in truth if at any time or in any conjuncture I should be mindful of the obligation incumbent on me not only as a Subject in general nor only besides as one that sign'd the Remonstrance and consequently obliged my self also by my own hand not to conceal such matters but as one moreover on whose sincerity in particular the said Lord Lieutenant depended nay on whom His Majesty had in July 1662. at Hampton Court when I had the honour on my departure then for Ireland to kiss His Majesties hand laid His express command That I should not deceive in any thing or frustrate the Duke of Ormonds His Lord Lieutenant's expectation if I say at any time or in any conjuncture of publick Affairs I should have been effectually mindful of my duty in acquainting his Grace with such pernicious designs it must have been then when His Majesty had open War with some Neighbours abroad was on ill terms with others had the Irish at home very ill satisfied and the Tories every day starting out grown numerous and under Colonel Costelogh even big with expectations from abroad and of a more general insurrection at home and when also the Duke himself expected that National meeting as at hand In all other matters or those I mean which related not to the safety of the Crown or peace of the People I have at all times been careful enough and even as wary and charitable and just also as cap. would have me Vid. Theodoret l. 1. cap. xi and all others at least Clergymen be in concealing the personal imperfections if any I had known of other Clergymen But if I had concealed any such ill designs undermining the safety of His Majesties Crown or peace of the Kingdom I had done like a bad Christian worse Priest false Remonstrant disloyal Subject and the very worst of Hypocrites Nay and done that which by consequence must in time have reflected on and highly prejudiced His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects especially the Irish in general For if I had been so treacherously perjured even also against my own very manual signature who is so dull as not to understand the use would be made thereof by all knowing Protestants upon any fit occasion to prejudice Catholicks who not this obvious inference viz. That if I who had writ and preach'd so much had suffered so much for and been tryed so much in the point of Loyalty and besides had been the leading man of all the Subscribers to that publick Instrument which particularly binds to discover all such dangerous designs or practices should nevertheless upon new considerations fail in that duty then certainly there could be no reason to repose thenceforth any more or believe at all not even any protestation whatsoever of any Priest continuing in the Roman-Catholick Religion And yet I must let my Reader know That all the while I did nothing in that or any such matter which I did not alwayes and in all due occasions both publickly and privately own as well to the National Congregation when they were sate as to other either less solemn meetings or particular persons of the Irish Clergy as themselves could not but see that not only I but all other Subscribers besides our being otherwise obliged had even bound our selves particularly by our own manual Subscription to do No sooner had my Lord Lieutenant those notices then he sends to apprehend the foresaid Express Christopher Ferrail in his Father Mr. Bryan Ferrail's house at Dublin and being apprehended commits him to Proudfort's Castle On the 7th of June a Committee of His Majesties Privy Council viz. the Earl of Roscommon Earl of Anglesey Sir Paul Davys Sir Robert Forte and Sir James Ware examin'd him and again the second time on the 9th of the same month The originals of both Examinations subscribed as well by Ferrail himself as by the said Lords of the Committee I have at present in my custody though I confess there is not much material in either save only that Ferral confess'd 1. That he received from the Apostolick Internuncio of Flanders Jacobus Rospigliosi Letters for the Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunket wherein there was enclosed another from Cardinal Francis Barberin to the Clergy of Ireland 2. That from the same Internuncio he received a third Letter written by himself as Barberin had been to the said Irish Clergy in general 3. That the Internuncio had read all to him before they had been seal'd up in a Packet 4. That the Contents of all were about warning that Clergy to take heed of swearing Allegiance to their King that it might not be to the prejudice of their own Faith 5. That the Internuncio told him he would send other Letters by the Post to a friend in Ireland least he should miscarry 6. That having parted Brussels May 13 or 14. Stylo Novo and landed at Dublin about a fortnight after he delivered all those Letters to the foresaid Bishop of Ardagh those of them to the Clergy in general having been with flying Seals open The first of the two Examinations being brought to the Lord Lieutenant his Grace was pleased to send for me on the eighth of June and shewing me the Paper bid
immediately succeeding Internuntius's of Brussels Hieronimus de Vecchys and Jacobus Rospigliosi determined the case as well in this particular point as in all others of the like nature against the former protestation of 61. and so reserved to themselves a latitude or liberty of telling all others and practising themselves accordingly That indeed although it be not their own particular Doctrine sense or Judgement yet for as much as it is Romes or at least the Courts there and for as much as they owe obedience to that See and must submit their Judgements to and receive commands from it specially whensoever his Holiness shall declare or if he hath so al-ready on the point declared an obligation of Conscience or that it is of necessity or that it is a command to them which cannot be transgressed Salvâ veritate fidei Catholicae or sine dispendio salutis aeternae they must for these reasons obey and conform themselves to the contrary Doctrine and practice flowing from it To pass by at present I say all this and that for these causes or motives besides divers others which I likewise pass over this time they would no way censure the contrary doctrine nor as much as seem to dis-allow it as they do not as much as simply averr what their own judgment on the point is or shall be hereafter at any time Who cannot but see out of all said already that by Subjects in this passage they understand only such as are and must or ought to continue Subjects alwayes De Jure and even De Jure Divino not such as are de facto only Subjects such as are onely Subjects by force or out of prudence onely that is until they see they prudently may in some cases of deposition deprivation Excommunication or without any such sentences in some cases of Apostacy heresy schysme or of publick oppression or tyrannical administration and that the people themselves by virtue of their own pretended inherent Civil and supream right in some cases declare themselves exempt and their king or the person until then their King now devested of that power and themselves freed of all kind of tye of subjection to him For even in such cases or contingencies they will say and may truely say according to their present sense opinion and general negative abstraction here That it is not their Doctrine that Subjects may be discharged absolved or freed from their obligation of performing their duty And yet they will and may say then according to their present meaning and that meaning too which their Remonstrance in the words contexture all other present circumstances affecting it necessarily imports that such as were until then Subjects are no more Subjects And if they be still in fact or by force or out of prudence till they find their time they are not so by right Or if by right of the lawes of the Land yet not by a right derived from the lawes of God nature And therefore that although this proposition of theirs be alwayes true then too shall be according to this their present meaning or explication which understands by Subjects none but such as are and ought by the lawes of God nature to continue such and according as they understand the said lawes yet in the cases or emergencies above such persons owe no more any duty of obedience or allegiance and consequently need no further discharge absolution or freedom by the sentence or declaration of any man or men from such duty which hath not nor can have a being or existence in such cases but they are discharged absolved and freed from any such duty on them by the very nature and contingencie of things and by the very consequent ceasing of the obligation of duty of it self I mean and without any further ceremonie They will also and may truely say without giving cause by this passage or any other in their Remonstrance to be up-braided with untruth herein breach of promise or falsity that however or whatever they or any of them may themselves or shall otherwise peradventure think of this matter or whatever their own private Judgement or Doctrine be or be not yet if the Pope shall declare or hath already unto them his or that of his Courts to be the Doctrine of the Catholick Church and with all command them by his Apostolical authority to follow it they must accordingly practise And that it is therefore they formed this Declaration as all the other several clauses of their remonstrance with so much caution and reservation as withal they framed them so that they might not seem to denie the common principle of Christian faith allowed by both sides as too evident in Holy Scripture though for my own part I believe those other they decline to be no less evident there That Jure Divino or by the law of God Princes are to be obeyed by their Subjects and yet by so many abstractions distinctions and explications render that very principle unsignificant and unbinding if and when they shall think fit Whence the ingenious Reader may also perfectly understand the causes or motives of the subtilty and fineness used in placing the words that compose the Proposition or Declaration immediatly following or which directly relates to and seems to condemn the doctrine of the lawfulness not of deposing or depriving Kings but of murthering or killing them by the hands of their Subjects Wherein it might be expected by vulgar judgments that if in any passage the Assembly would be more clear and ingenuous although to such as are fully versed in the controversie and positions of Suarez Bellarmine and such others whose doctrine as to this point or whole matter the Assembly would not by any means condemn it will not seem strange they be no more since the lawfulness of killing or murthering of Kings even I say by the hands of their own Subjects must be equal to that of a sentence of deposition or deprivation of them by Pope or People or of a Censure of Excommunication or other commanding the people to rebel or take Arms against them or to put any such sentence in execution As indeed Bellarmine in his answer to William Barclay and Suarez in his to King James and all others of that way on this subject plainly confess and averr as a consequence unavoidable So many experiences where and as often as any such attempt of deposition hath been made and the nature of man to preserve himself to his power shewing the moral impossibility or at least the very rare contingency of an effectual deposition of a King by his Subjects but withal he was murthered by them Whence it is necessarily consequent that whoever licences the one must the other And yet these late Remonstrants or Subscribers to this Protestation of 66. would by their dexterity seem but to such only as are not conversant in the dispute or do not strictly examine the placing of their words to condemn a doctrine of so
Priest treat of or debate any question or subscribe any Proposition or declaration against his conscience and Religion nor on the other side ought or could any person at least such as are commanded by God and whose commission and function it is from the holy Jesus and holy Spirit to preach and teach purely the Gospel of Christian Religion and oppose by all just means any kind of innovation in the rule of Catholick and saving faith ought or could any such I say through fear of loosing those temporal profits of the whole earth had he them in actual possession omit to treat or debate or declare or subscribe a Proposition sound in it self and necessary withal in circumstances even as relating to such treatie debate declaration or subscription to oppose such innovation That such is this question and such the 6th declaration or proposition being a negative resolve of it against the Popes infallibility without the consent of the Church For were not the said resolve Catholick or sound in Catholick Religion even in the judgment of Father N. N. and of the Congregation they should have cleerly said so and were bound by their calling and on pain of everlasting damnation to have answered so for the discharge of their duty to God and their flocks Neither should any fear or favor have hindered their answering so For what will it availe a man to gaine the whole world and suffer the detriment of his Soul was the question of our Lord. And again in on other place do not fear those that kill the body onely but fear him that hath power to cast both body and Soul into everlasting fire was the same Heavenly Masters advise and command unto his Disciples And that the question it self of the Popes infallibility without a Council as that of the Councils without or against the Pope when he will not conform to them and the resolve of it on one side or other for or against the Pope is so necessary where the question is debated publickly and seriously for a resolve there is no man of judgement can deny Because thereon depends the whole certainty of what we are to believe or what we are to hope for as a necessary mean to Salvation It being manifest that Popes often have declared and commanded us many things to believe and may hereafter yet much more which the Church never did consent unto nay which many Catholick Churches in Europe have already and often too both contradicted and condemned But if the Pope or his determination be the infallible rule of faith then must all such people or Churches be in a damnable condition as opposing that rule and beleiving an error That hence it appears sufficiently and evidently this question or treatie of it is not onely not unprofitable but the most profitable can be seeing it regards directly the greatest profit imaginable that of the Salvation of Souls by the necessary rule or means of saving faith That further the profittableness of the negative resolve against the Popes infallibility if that resolve be Catholick in it self as neither Father N. N. nor Congregation denyes but grants it to be doth hence appear that such resolve alone removes the grand obstacle of reunion and reconciliation of such a world of particular Churches that profess Christ and by consequence of their Salvation by restoring them to the vnity of rhe Catholick Church wherein alone as in the Ark Noah Salvation is to be had For the grand remora is that by reason of that challenge of the Pope or rather of others for him of an absolute infallibility in himself they think they cannot expect his communion without being lyable to impositions on them in matters of faith at his pleasure and such impositions too as very many most learned and pious Catholicks themselves in all countries will not cannot submit unto but must therefore abide such vexation often as no less often makes their Communion with the Roman See and Pontiff cumbersome and loathsome and a yoake of that great absolute and intollerable subjection which neither themselves or Fathers before them could bear with Christian patience That if the reduction of so many millions of straying sheep into the fold and the consequent Salvation of their Souls or the preservation of those are in it already appear not sufficient arguments of profitableness to Father N.N. and the Congregation in the debate and resolve of this question if that which brings along with it per se and of its own nature the greatest Spiritual profit can be the gaine of Soules and eternal Salvation in the other life be not ranked hereby him or them in the number of things profitable but comprehended as onely such and understood by his and their unprofitable question which yet I believe F. N. N. or the Congregation will hardly own and if they will have us understand here that which as to the conveniencies of this world and life is unprofitable let it be so and then too let all prudent men judge whether people of their Condition Country and Religion should not esteem and confess that question and resolve of it in the present circumstances to be indeed not onely not unprofitable in any respect but certainly and without contradiction very profitable as being the most useful they could fix upon before together with or next after a sufficient Oath of Allegiance to remove the great jealousy hath been justly harboured as of the Roman Catholick Clergie of Ireland and their predecessors this entire last centurie of years ever since at least Queen Mary's Reign so and farr yet more of the present Clergie ever since the 23th of October 1641. and most of all since the Waterford Congregation in 46. and James-town Council in 48. and of their too too great dependency of the Court of Rome and too too great credulitie in or belief of and submission to any decree or command or even to an ordinary letter proceeding thence though onely from one of the Ministers and also though to the direct and absolute ruine of the King and of his Kingdoms and people together And let all prudent men judge whether being that Congregation was held by the Fathers and their Remonstrance and three first Propositions of Sorbone were subscribed by them and presented of purpose or at least under pretence to remove those jealousies and thereby obtain for themselves and rest of the Clergie and to the lay people too directed by them some peace and some ease and some indulgence and comfort either by an absolute revocation of the penal Laws against their Religion or by a mitigation or suspension of such Laws and that the Fathers thought or undoubtedly should think any thing in it self otherwise Catholick or honest and just that should be in the then present circumstances useful to that end to be also profitable in this world or life because helping on that end or that relaxation or suspension of the Laws which questionless they esteem profitable even
perjured malignant infamous The second is That wherein provision was made for supplying the Resident Council with legal members See this second Act at large in the printed Establishment concluded upon by the last general Assembly at Killenry the 12th day of November Anno 1647. in case of the necessary absence of such as were nominated by the last Assembly or of any of the just number who are bound to reside by vertue of which Act they have subscribed as Resident who were legally brought in to supply the vacant places And for such honourable persons as above the number of Residents did vote or subscribe the Cessation it 's known they did it not officiously but out of their duty to the Publick and by the power of grand Counsellors conferred on them by the last Assembly Wherefore it being now clear from first to last both out of our solutions to all is or may be objected against the Appeal and out of positive reasons for it that according to the prescript of Canons and sense of Doctors it hath all the conditions of a just Appeal and that the Lord Nuncio and Delegates are even by the Law deprived of all or any power to question examine or judge the reasonableness or justice thereof or to cast any obligation on us either before God or the World to submit to his or their judgment in this behalf it must be inferred by a necessary consequence out of what is formerly said That your Lordships Appeal doth not only by the Canons but also by the sense of Doctors suspend the Censures their effects and consequences and all other proceedings of the Lord Nuncio Delegates Subdelegates and of all and every or any other deriving power from him or them on the same ground For that as we have formerly seen their doctrine is That a just Appeal of its own nature and as soon as 't is interposed hath all and each of the said effects And hence they may be fully satisfied who hitherto were persuaded or fearful through their own ignorance or have been deluded by the disaffected who of purpose through scruples into mens Consciences without Law or Reason taking occasion by the kind of apostles the Lord Nuncio granted which are refutatories not reverentials or dimissories to persuade the simple that by reason these refutatories were granted and not reverentials the Appeal can be of no force Which erring Assertion is plainly convinced by what hath been already said For since it is manifested That the reasonableness justice or lawfulness of an Appeal depends not of the Judges breast or answer unto it which they call apostles but is to be accounted such if the Causes alledged in it seem evident probable or likely or would be thought probable in case their truth might be proved and since it is no less evident that a refutatory that is to say a rejecting answer proceeding either from the malice negligence corruption or ignorance of the Judge or from any other motive whatsoever cannot make the Appeal unreasonable which before the answer was in it self reasonable and contained the expression of causes either evidently or probably just since lastly it hath been proved that a just or lawful Appeal of its own nature suspends the Judge from being any more Judge of the Appellant from jurisdiction over him or power to question the lawfulness of his Appeal how can refutatory apostles given by the Judge as answer to the said Appeal have power to hinder these suspensive effects If it be said That the Canons which thus deprive the Judge are not to be understood of him when he gives apostles refutatories we must say this is a most ridiculous evasion and meer non-sense Certainly they were not made against Judges who give reverentials or dimissory apostles For what Judge who gave reverentials hath ever yet been so frantick as to give wittingly such apostles and yet to frame a Process against and call in question the probability of the Appeal whereas by giving such apostles he deprived himself of all power yea should the Appeal otherwise be frivolous Neither have they been instituted only against Judges who deny both kinds in regard the words of the Text are not by any proper or common sense they may have restrained to any such limitation nor by the adjoining Glosses or opinion of Doctors Commenting thereon but may and ought according to their proper meaning to be understood generally in all cases of just Appeals whether apostles be given or no whether they be refutatories or dimissories c. And surely where the Canons would have only provided against the abuse of Judges who give no kind of apostles we find their meaning expressed in significant terms as cap. Vt super de Appellat 6. which may be read in the margent Innocent 4. in Conc. Lug. cap. Vt super de appellat in 6. Ut super appella ione ac ejus causa instructio facilior vaâ—eat in processu haberi districte praecipimus quod ille aquo appellatur Apostolos appell inti juxta tenorem Constitutionis nostrae super hoc editae tribuit requisitus si vero non exhibuerit ex tunc si â—orte in causa procedat nisi appellationi renunciatum fuerit ejus invaâ—idos irritus sit processâ—s But to unmask wholly the non-sense of this evasion let us observe the absurdity and contradiction which thence doth follow for if cap. Si a Judice de Appellat in 6. and the like are of no force against the Judge when he gives only refutatories for answer to a just Appeal then it must follow that the Judge by an unjust act that is by giving such an illegal answer or apostles refutatories when he should have given dimissories reaps a benefit to wit recovers the jurisdiction and power which before was suspended by and from the instant of the Appeal interposed until that present of receiving the refutatories And if it be said That his jurisdiction was not so suspended until the dayes passed which are allowed by the Law for deliberating on the apostles then besides that this is against the Text a plain contradiction follows in the Canons and Glosses which is that during this interval the said Judge from whom may call in question examine juridically give sentence c. of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the Appeal since he is not restrained of his power during this interval and yet all Canons and Glosses affirm the contrary as we have before seen The like contradiction follows if any confess as he must that indeed the Judge could not proceed during the interval of time twixt the Appeal made and apostles given but will nevertheless say that he may presently after the apostles when they are refutatory here is we say the like contradiction in regard that if the Appeal was at first reasonable and just it remains so alwayes notwithstanding the refutatory apostles unjustly given and consequently by all the foresaid Canons Glosses and even by natural equity
Play Drinking and Pleasure than a well ordered Camp of Souldiers Drogheda unrelieved was lost by storm with much bloodshed and the loss of the flower of Leinster VVexford lost much by the unskilfulness of a Governour of a young man vain and unadvised Rosse given up and that by his Excellencies order without any dispute by Colonel Luke Taaffe having within near upon 2500 Souldiers desirous to fight After that the Enemy made a Bridge over the River of Rosse a wonder to all men but understood by no man without any lett or interruption our Army lying within 7 or 8 miles to the place where Two hundred Musqueteers at Rosse Bercken being timely ordered had interrupted this stupendious Bridge and made the Enemy weary of the Town Carrick being betrayed by the Protestant Ward there our Army afterwards appearing before the place the Souldiers were commanded to fight against Walls and armed Men without Guns Ladders Petards Shovels Spades Pick-axes or other necessary materials being killed upon the place 500 Souldiers valiantly fighting Yet near Thomas-town our Souldiers being of tryed Foot two to one and well resolved were forbidden to fight in the open Field having advantage of ground against the Enemy to the utter disheartning of the Souldiers and People After this the Enemy came like a Deluge upon Callan Fethard Cashell and other Corporations within the Province of Leinster and Munster and the Countrey about rendred Tributary Then followed the taking of Leighlin and Kilkenny then that of Clonmel where the Enemy met with gallantry loss and resistance Lastly Tecroghan and Catherlagh two great Pillars of Leinster shaken down that of Tecroghan to speak nothing for the present of other places was given up by orders VVaterford blocked is in a sad condition Duncannon the Key of the Kingdom unrelieved since the first of December is like to be given up and lost ANSWER For the improvidence of the conduct of the Army VVe shall only answer That it was as provident as VVe had means and skill to conduct it And for the misfortune VVe ascribe that to the good pleasure and justice of God But how far forth the disaster at Rathmines was shameful beyond any thing that ever hapned in the Christianity as they express themselves VVe refer you to the relation of what VVe have said upon that Subject in Our Answer thereunto in what concerns the same in the pretended Grievances and to the testimony of divers now there that were upon the place with Us. The Article of those Grievances and Our Answer are as followeth Article viz. the ...... of the pretended Grievances That the defeat of Rathmines given by the Rebels to His Majesties Army being far more numerous than the Rebels is by the People generally ascribed to the faithlessness ignorance and Cowardize of some of tht Officers of His Majesties said Army and that the People are the rather induced to believe the same sithence no search or inquiry was made by Court or Council of War of the deport of the said Officers of His Majesties said Army in their respective duties at Rathmines aforesaid Answer viz. To this Article of the said Grievances Concerning the defeat at Rathmines It is with that as with all misfortunes of that nature in VVar every man at his pleasure making himself Judge of the causes of them and many times without looking into or having knowledge of the true condition of the beaten Party deliver their judgments upon mistaken grounds and for the most part are guided by their passions either of Envy or Self-conceit of their own abilities to judge superciliously or maliciously of those actions whereunto they are willing strangers And this being a disadvantage whereunto all Commanders have been and ever will be subject VVe have no reason to expect an exemption from it and might therefore pass by this Grievance reserving Our Self for an accompt of Our actions till it were required from Us by him to whom only in this case VVe are obliged to render one But such is Our desire to satisfie those that are faithful to the Cause VVe have laboured in and may have been stumbled at that chance of VVar that VVe shall give them the reason and grounds of Our undertaking and of the supposed omission recited in what remains of these Grievances And first it is necessary it should be understood That a little before the time of that defeat the condition of affairs in this Kingdom stood thus The Province of Leinster Munster and Connaught were entirely reduced to His Majesties obedience except the City of Dublin and Ballysonnan which was block't up with a small number of Our men But in Vlster the Rebels there by the assistance of Owen O Neil and the interruption given to the Lord Viscount Mountgomery by the Scottish Clergy had raised the Siege of Londonderry and were become Masters of the Field About the same time also VVe had certain intelligence That Cromwel with a very strong Army a vast Sum of money and great plenty of all Provisions was ready shipt for this Kingdom And it was from good hands intimated unto Us That he purposed his descent in Munster and that he had there intelligence with some Governour of the Sea-Ports there Hereupon it was taken into consideration at a Council of VVar whether the blocking up of Dublin should be continued or whether VVe should not retire from thence to Drogheda Trym and the Garrisons adjacent and prepare Our Self for securing of Munster and making a defensive or offensive VVar as occasion should afterwards be offered And of this opinion VVe were the rather that it was there also concluded That the Lord President of Munster with a good Party of Our best Horse should go into Munster to secure it and that the very day VVe rose from Finglasse and marched to Rathmines Reynolds landed with 600 Horse and 1500 Foot Hereunto it was strongly objected That if VVe sent away Our heavy Cannon which VVe proposed should be done the more to facilitate an orderly Retreat the People would despair of the taking of Dublin That they would accompt all that was done as good as nothing unless that City were reduced That they would not consider that the City was to be reduced by distressing it by blocking up which might have securely been done the way VVe proposed but taking the matter to be given over and consequently despairing of the ease they expected by the total reduction of the Kingdom would grow more and more backward in their contribution and perhaps be seduced to a conjunction with Owen O Neil and a rejection of the Peace and His Majesties authority thereby established over them which even then We found was though underhand privately and under other pretences aimed at by some that since have taken advantage of the time to declare themselves without disguise It was also objected That unless Dublin were reduced before Cromwels landing with the Force and Treasure We were sure he had in readiness at the Water-side that