amongst the same Protestants to perswade themselves that however in our neighbouring Catholick Kingdoms the Article of Transubstantiation and the Doctrine of the Bishop of Rome's universal Monarchy or of his both spiritual and temporal supreme Jurisdiction do not walk hand in hand together yet amongst the generality of Roman Catholicks in these Nations it hath been otherwise continually these last hundred years and is at present whether in the mean time this proceed out of Ignorance or Interest or both XIII That thus at last the only true both original and continual causes on our side of all the severe Laws and of all the other grievous misfortunes and miseries past and present which we complain of and groan under as peculiar to the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion in these Nation appearing to be and really being such as I have hitherto discoursed none can be so short sighted or so unapprehensive as not without further discourse to understand likewise the only Christian and proper efficacious remedy of all the said evils for what I mean concerns the future and our own endeavours and concurrence with God and man to help our selves For certainly nothing can be more obvious to reason than that since our own either formal or virtual express or tacit owning of so many uncatholick Positions and so many unchristian practises by our continual refusing to disown them or either of them in any sufficient manner or as we ought by any proper Test hath been of our side hitherto the only immediate cause of all our woes and especially of all those legal Sanctions which upon due reflection do without doubt render our best condition even at present anxious it must follow That the only proper true and efficacious remedy on our side also must be at last our own free and unanimous and hearty and conscientious disowning of all and every the said erroneous Positions and wicked practises even by such a publick full and clear Instrument or Declaration and Oath as may satisfie all Protestants of our utter Aversness and Enmity to all Rebellious Doctrines and Practises whatsoever especially to those which tend to the maintaining of any kind of temporal Dominion or Jurisdiction direct or indirect or even any spiritual Power or Authority which may have the effect of such temporal in the Pope or See of Rome over his Majesty or any of his Majesties Subjects or at all within the Realms of England Ireland or Scotland or within any of the other Dominions acknowledging his Majesty even in any case of contingency imaginable especially in case of either true or only pretended Apostacy Heresie Schism c. and such publick Instrument Declaration and Oath so full and clear even also against all equivocations and both mental and vocal evasions whatsoever to be in your name together with your Petition most humbly presented to the King and Parliament some time this present Session by your sufficient Representatives the Roman Catholick Lords or such of them as will be pleased to take these matters to heart XIV That when in such manner as you ought you have performed that duty which you have so long owed to God and the King to your Country and Religion to the Christian Church in general and all mankind and amongst them to your selves and your posterity after you and when you have thereby done your part to disarm all the anger of the Presses and to silence all the clamor of Pulpits and put an effectual stop to a thousand new Invectives and ten thousand more Sermons preparing to incense the Protestant people against you i. e. when by such a publick Instrument or solemn Declaration and Religious Oath of the generality of your Nobles Ecclesiasticks and Gentry you shall have quite rendred unsignificant their I know not which more affrighting or bewitching Theme quite destroyed their Common place and no less effectually than clearly answered their only grand Objection against your Liberty viz. That of The inconsistence of the safety of a Protestant Prince or State or Kingdom or People with Liberty in the same Dominions given to Roman-Catholick Subjects and consequently when by doing so you shall have done your selves all the greatest right you can think of viz. you shall have conform'd to the inward dictates of a good Conscience wiped off from your holy Religion the outward scandal of most wicked Principles yielded to victorious Truth wheresoever you behold her and which is and must be consequential when you shall have thus after a tedious contest of above a hundred years advanced on your side the first considerable step to meet half way the Right Reverend Prelates and other learned Teachers of the Church of England in order to a happy reconciliation at last of the remaining differences then may you confidently expect from their side also i. e. from his most Gracious Majesty and the great Wisdom and Piety of both Houses of Parliament all that ease relaxation indulgence peace kindness love which by any men dissenting yet in so many other points from the Religion established by Law can be in reason expected even a Repeal at least of all the Sanguinary and Mulctative Laws For to expect an equality in all priviledges with those that are of the Protestant Church until God be pleased to bring you nearer them or them to you than in a meer profession how real and cordial and universal or comprehensive soever of Allegiance to the King in Temporal or Civil Affairs only I say till that day come which we pray for it will I believe seem unreasonable to your selves to expect that equality with them which they were not to expect of you if you had the power in your hands and they were in your condition How can they in reason expect so much favour as they now shew us if they retain any memory of former times and consider the now prevailing Party amongst us and Papal Constitutions even at this present governing that Party at least in relation to such as are reputed Hereticks or Schismaticks by the Consistory at Rome XV. That of those Ecclesiasticks who as the English Opposers of the Oath of Allegiance or the Irish Persecutors of the Loyal Remonstrance shall endeavour to persuade your continuing alwayes Rigid Papalins maugre Heaven and Earth and to stifle any motion or thought of giving a Protestant Prince or Parliament any more satisfaction in the principal point either of Consistence or Inconsistence c than your selves or your Predecessors have given hitherto some of them are naturally averse to the Crown of England and would be so though it were as entirely devoted now to the See of Rome as it was at Dover when King â—ohn laid it there at the Legat's feet others are daily expectants of Mitres and Titles and Bulls and Dignities from that City of Fortune others have already taken the Formal or Ceremonial possession of their now most Illustrious and most Reverend Lordships and these also have already at their Consecration
clearest both Texts and Reasons imaginable Of all which manifold Authorities of Reason Gospel Humane Laws and Canons having had sufficient knowledge when I engaged in the Controversie and more when for so engaging and for that only I was so strangely prosecuted by Summons Censures c I thought that even my duty to you and the regard I was bound to have of your common interest required of me to make the best use I could of that knowledge in order to your publick good as well on the one hand to assert your and my both Native and Christian right against them that invaded it by those unlawful proceedings as also on the other hand to shew at least in one instance the untruness of that Proposition whereof depends and wherein lies the whole stress of the grand Objection against you which if I be not much deceived is in substance this viz. That for any Roman-Catholick Priest holding firmly to all and every the Articles of Faith undoubtedly believed or at least own'd as such amongst all Roman-Catholicks universally and observing all other duties required of him by the Canons received generally in the National Churches of that Religion it is impossible to be in all cases or contingencies whatsoever indispensably or unalterably obedient and faithful to a Protestant Prince or Kingdom or Government not even in so much as in all meer Civil or Temporal things onely according to the Laws of the Land especially if the Pope command him to the contrary under pain of Excommunication Now as I have behaved my self hitherto I am sure I have manifestly enough proved the untruth of that Proposition and by consequence for as much as pertains to me have really answer'd the grand Objection deducible from it And so have not a few other Irish Priests even all those who together with me suffered very much for many years in the former Cause of the Nunoio or in this latter of the Remonstrance or in both and have not as to either condemn'd or contradicted themselves hitherto by any unworthy submission though at last compellâ—d to silence and in other matters forced to desert me and to submit to their Adversaries Nor do I at all doubt but rather am certain there are this day within England above Five hundred Native Priests beside a great many more in Ireland however at present weathering out the storm so fully resolved for the future in their own persons and cases likewise to disprove that Proposition and to satisfie the Objection built thereon That if His MAJESTY and both Houses of PARLIAMENT may be graciously pleased to try them once with an Act of Grace after a hundred years punishment and to take off I say not any other Incapacity but onely that of living in their Native Countrey that when at home they have satisfied the State they may not be driven abroad to beg or starve and be there exposed to all the rage and violence of the Roman Court they will by a publick Instrument signed under all their hands declare as amply and clearly and heartily against all the foresaid new Doctrines and Practises and all other whatsoever groundless vain pretences of Rome as I have done or as that Act shall require and will be ready to renew that Assurance as oft as shall be required and even to expose their Lives if need be in defence of it notwithstanding any Declarations Precepts or Censures of the Pope to the contrary Third Appendage relating to the Sixth Querie That I know and cannot but mind you of what the Roman-Catholicks of these Kingdoms have lost even since the King 's most happy Restauration by not being advised by Church-men of honest principles in point of His Majesties independent Power and the Subjects indispensable Obedience to Him in all Civil or Temporal things according to the Laws of the Land They have lost three fair opportunities of being not only eased of all their pressures from the penal Statutes but rendred as happy as they could in reason desire or even wish under a Protestant King and Government The first opportunity was offered them in England in the year 1661 when it was earnestly and strongly moved in their behalf in the House of Lords to Repeal the Sanguinary Laws in the first place and a Hill was drawn up to that purpose The second and third were in Ireland the former in the year 1662 when a discontented Party of the Adventurers and Souldiers there had laid their design for surprizing the King's Castle at Dublin and the latter in the year 1666 when we were in the first War with Holland and near to it with France and the Irish National Congregation of the Roman-Catholick Clergy was by occasion of that War suffered to convene at Dublin in order to assure the King of their fidelity How happy the Roman-Catholicks in general might have been if they had taken time by the forelock in any of those three opportunities especially in the first may be easily understood And how unhappy their neglect or wilfulness hath proved to themselves I cannot but with grief of heart consider The rather because I was my self the onely man employed first to the Roman-Catholick Clergy both of England and Ireland on the foresaid occasions to prepare them against any obstruction from themselves of the favours intended towards them and that nothing else was required on the first occasion from those in England but their being ready to take the Oath of Allegiance onely as in the Statute 3 Jacobi His Majesty being then inclined to have dispens'd with them for the Oath of Supremacy nor in the second and third occasion was any thing required from those of Ireland more than their Signing the Loyal Remonstrance or Formulary which had been Sign'd before in the year 1661 by some of their own Ecclesiastical Brethren and so considerable number of their Nobility and Gentry For my own part I am morally certain that if those fair opportunities had not been slighted or if either the one or the other condition had been embraced you should not have seen in your dayes any such tryal of men for bearing office as that you complain of so much now a renouncing of the Doctrine or Tenet of Transubstantiation according to the late Act of the Parliament of England And I am no less certain that had you hearkned to the advice of any of those many virtuous learned Church-men amongst you who have as much true zeal according to knowledge even for the splendor of Catholick Religion and as much true reverence for and obedience to His Holiness as according to Reason or Christianity they can have and withall are truly well affected and rightly principled as to that faith and obedience which they and you all owe by the Laws of God and man to the Temporal Government you had neither slighted any of those good opportunities nor neglected to embrace either of those two most reasonable conditions Fourth Appendage but relating to all the Queries generally
Propositions against the Jansenists and by occasion thereof against Mr. White alias Blacklow a learned Priest of the Roman communion though much for most of his books censured at Rome And he that printed at London that excellent Latin Panegyrick of Cromwel in verse I remember well though much unbecomming for the subject a Catholick Divine however it might sute a Heathen Poet Oratour as being in the praise of such a Tyrant Usurper And he that being netled by Mr. Blacklows replyes partly to be revenged on this Gentleman or out of zeal perhaps and partly to trye the fortune of his old age and expect some reward for his earnest endeavours to stifle Iansenisme in England whether for any other end I know not went to Rome immediately after his said writings and stayed there since It was this good Father as a veterane Souldier an able Divine and penman and a forraigner too that had no dependance on England they pitched on at Rome to write and print against that Remonstrance and against the sense thereof expounded by the Procuratour in his little English book wherein he gave the best account thereof he could and the exceptions made first against it required To which purpose they got the Irish Franciscans of St. Isidore their Colledge in the City to translate that little book of the Procuratours hopeing also they might find therein some passages or propositions censurable by His Holiness or Inquisition or by the Congregation de propaganda fide and thereby also find more cause and more matter to write against both the Remonstrance and chief defenders of it such as they accounted the Procuratour and Father Caron But their labour in that particular of translating of that book was lost For when they had done all their worst and brought their translation to the Colledg of Cardinals de propaganda nothing therein was esteemed censurable at least otherwise then the bare Propositions of the Remonstrance in it self And therefore it lyes and will in all likely-hood for ever lye amongst by layed sheets in that Colledg without any danger of condemnation or prohibition as even the Catholick Primate of Ardmagh then at Rome and in all probability concurring with the rest of his Countrymen against the Remonstrance and Subscribers writâ— to my self as soon as he was returned to Paris in 65. as also he together writt that His Holiness did not would not censure at all or meddle with or concern himself in that Remonstrance pro nec con otherwise then by his displeasure only against those Churchmen that were the first Authors or chief promoters of it And indeed we have no reason yet to complain of His Holiness in this matter albeit very much of the proceedings of his Eminency Cardinal Francis Barlerin and of the two Internuncius's of Bruxels But however this be or be not el Padre Macedo lost all his labours How farre he proceeded in it I do not know but sure I am whatever it was he writt on this subject it never came to light Whether because upon after thoughts they found he could saye nothing to purpose and whatever he would saye would certainly and fully be answered and judg'd safer to proceed rather by authority then reason against that Instrument and those Subscribers and by discountenancing and keeping them from all hopes of preferment or title in that Court until they retracted or whether for any other more pious and godly consideration of the Popes Holiness I cannot say for certain But am notwithstanding certain that to this day as neither Macedo nor Brodin so none els had the confidence either at home in Ireland or abroad in other Countries to publish as much as one sheet or leaf or line on that subject against the Remonstrance in print or otherwise that came to my knowledg besides those written letters only of Cardinal Barberin De Vecchijs and Rospigliosi part of which I have before given and shall the rest hereafter in their due place and besides the Censure of Lovain XIII The second particular of those two I desired the Reader to take notice of here as an appendix of those answers is That the Procurator alwayes and to all and every though so many dissenting opposing or delaying parties and factions of the Clergy against subscription in the perclose of his particular answers appropriated to their several objections inculcated seriously and vehemently insisted on this general argument against them That whereas they all generally confessed the catholickness and lawfulness of that form or of the acknowledgments declarations protestations promises engagements and petition of that Remonstrance and consequently the lawfulness of a subscription to it and withal saw clearly not only the expediency but necessity also of their concurrence and being it was evident enough they were bound under the greatest and strictest obligation of conscience and even of eternal damnation and they above other Christians by their special function to concur to all just conscientious or lawful means or such as were not sinful and were also the circumstances of place time and persons considered both expedient and necessary as well to hinder the propagation and labour the extirpation of erroneous false sinful and scandalous doctrine amongst the people whom they instructed as to wash off their holy Faith and Church such scandals already aspersed upon it through the carriage or miscarriage of some rendring it foul and odious and horrible and therefore estranging Sectaries of all sorts from all thoughts of returning or reuniting to it at any time but rather fixing them in heresie and schisme with loss of their eternal salvation even of such infinite myriads of souls for whose reduction to the Church and means of salvation they were specially commission'd by their calling and enjoyn'd to preach and teach Evangelical truths without addition or substraction of or countenance to any other novel doubtful or controverted opinions much less of those are certainly false and scandadalous and even against the common peace not of Catholicks or Christians alone but also of Infidels even of all societies of men on earth it must follow evidently out of these premises they must confess themselves to live in a very sinful state and extreamly dangerous hazzard of Gods most severe and most terrible judgments against them on the day of account if they delayed any longer their duty to God and to the King and to their own Church Religion People and to those too that abhorred their Church and Faith upon account chiefly of such their carriage or of their not disowning as they might and ought such pernicious doctrines and practises the antecedents concomitants and subsequents whereof render the Professors of the Catholick Faith and Church so abominable to all apostatized from or otherwise born and bred out of it For it is clear that under such penalties all Priests of God and Preachers of the Gospel of Christ by special function are obliged by all just means to endeavour the best they can to render
Thomas Makiernan c. and sent of purpose to procure the Protestation to be censured WE the vndernamed of both Clergies of Ireland finding our selves much traduced in forraign Nations as if we had been at least the mediat Authors of a certain writing printed at London 3. February 1661. the title whereof is The humble Remonstrance Acknowledgment Protestation and Petition of the Roman Catholick Clergie of Ireland exhibited to our most Serene King of Great Brittain Charles the Second by a certain Father Fr. Peter Walsh under the title of Procurator of both Clergies Secular and Regular which writing is said in a further Explication thereof set out likewise in Print by the same Father to have been sent him out of Ireland to London as from the Generality of the said Clergies to the end he might present it in their names to the King Therefore that it may appear publickly to the world how injuriously we suffer in this matter We do by this present Instrument make it known and signifie and in the word of Priests do holily swear that neither we nor any of vs have concurred to the making of the said Remonstrance Protestation c. or to the sending of it from Ireland to London nor finally to the presenting of it to the King nay not so much as to have seen heard or understand any thing of the said Remonstrance before it appeared in Ireland in the moneth of March last past And therefore do well know it hath been framed and forged by the said Author and his complices In witness whereof we have subscribed to this Instrument this day being the 24. of July 1662. XLI To return when the Procuratour heard their put off he told them first he understood well enough their purpose and thereupon shewed them a copy of this Instrument they had given the said Father Brady which he recieved a little before from some of their own in Vlster That he knew well enough who subscribed it as for that some of them were present there and who refused to subscribe it as for instance one by name Father Oliver Dese Vicar General of Meath and knew they perswaded the Vicars General to raise 6. pounds a Diocess for their Agents charges and this to worke sedition at home by the help of forraign Censures That besides much disloyaltie to the King and much malice to the Procuratour it contained manifest lyes Secondly he told them such an answer was worse then a plain denyal without any reason given for it Because it rendred by consequence any subscription of theirs at any time and to any Form unsignificant as to any kind of assurance of their loyaltie or Faith to the King For upon the same grounds they would refuse to sign at Easter if such a Censure came by that time they might and should and would questionless retract their signature whenever there came any Censure from beyond Seas especially from His Holiness And then to what purpose any Form at all or any subscription from men so principled or so resolved nay to what other intent was the Remonstrance of 61. but to assure the King against such danger or what use could be or was intended to be made of it for the advantage of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland or what to perswade the Kings Councils Parliaments or other Protestants to be more favourable to them hereafter if not upon this account only That His Majestie could in all contingencies whatsoever be sure of such as would subscribe it But all this and what ever more he said then and in those three whole dayes and nights he stayed with them and very much he said in that time even also upon grounds of humane prudence and of both the present and past condition of their Country and people of their religion in it and of their own late carriadge in the Warres was to no more purpose then to wash the Blackamore Only he prevailed and this only too in private with the Provincial Father Docharty to give him two letters written all along with his own hand and subscribed by him The first was licencing those of his own Order such as would to subscribe the Remonstrance even that I mean so much controverted For the Procuratour objected to him and it was very true that he had partly by himself immediately in his visits of the Convents and partly by others deputed by him as Commissaries to visit where he would not goe himself commanded the respective local both Superiours and Inferiours not to subscribe that Remonstrance And for instance that himself personally visiting those of Trim enjoyn'd the Guardian of that place Father Patrick Wesly and that too under paine of Excommunication not to subscribe And his Commissary to some of the Convents of Leinster Father Antony Darcy enjoyn'd the same to those of Wexford though not under the same penalty The second letter was to my Lord Duke as from himself alone and containing his own private approbation of and concurrence to the said Remonstrance even as to every part clause word and even too in the true obvious and whole genuine sense of the Author whom he supposed to be the Procuratour himself because it goes commonly in his name And here you have his second letter at length copied verbatim out of the original May it please your Grace HAving recieved from the Reverend Bearer full satisfaction in all particulars relating to the late Remonstrance and Protestation so graciously accepted by his Majestie and haveing further known by him your Graces expectation of a more general concurrence from the rest of the Irish Clergie to the said Protestation and considering moreover that the said Protestation containes nothing but the dutie of a Catholick Subject to his most Sacred Majestie though of a different Religion from that professed in the Roman Church I found myself bound in conscience by the laws of God and dictates of natural reason to concurre as I do by these lines under my hand and most heartily from my very Soul with the rest who have already signed to approve of and own all and every particular of the said humble Remonstrance Acknowledgment Protestation and Petition presented to His Majestie at London and to your Grace by Father Peter Walsh in the name or behalf of the Roman Catholick Clergie of Ireland Yet my Lord forasmuch as I am tyed by my charge and Rule to take suddenly a Iourney to Rome as likewise Father Fitz Simons Guardian of the Franciscans of Dublin is your Grace will I hope excuse me for the reasons which I have intrusted the Bearer withal not to sign or subscribe my name in the common paper with the rest until I turn back if it be Gods pleasure that I return safe And will give me leave I hâ—pe likewise to beg this further favour thâ—â— this letter appear not against me nor my name in Print until that time unless peradventure that Father Walsh get the concurrence of all other hands or of such of
Ressort pour a la diligence de ses Substituts y estre pareillement leues publiees signifiees aux Professeurs de Theologie dudit Ressort a ce qu'aucun n'en pretende cause d'ignorance Faict en Parlement a Rennes le 21. Aoust 1663. We shall hereafter see those six above inserted Sorbon Declarations whether French or Latin as you have them here in both Languages out of the French Copy translated into English by the Fathers of our National Irish Assembly But for as much as it may peradventure be objected by some of the more unreasonably exceptious and contentious Irish That I ought rather to give here an exact Copy of the very and only Paris Impression it self in Latin of those Acts of that University than of any of them elsewhere in France Printed I thought fit to obstruct also herein such endless wranglers and give that which was transmitted in the said year 1663. immediatly from Paris to London Acta Parisiensia Declaratio Facultatis Theologicae Parisiensis per illius Deputatos Regi exhibita circa theses de Infallibilitate Papae OCtavo Maii die Ascensionis D. N. Jesu Christi convenerunt domini deputati de Mince Morel Betille de Breda Grandin Guyard Guischard Gabillon Coguelin Montgailard in domum Facultatis juxta decretum pridie in Congregatione Generali factum ut convenirent de iis quae Regi Christianissimo declaranda erant ex parte Facultatis per os Illustrissimi ac Reverendissimi D. Archiepiscopi Parisiensis designati cum Amplissimo Comitatu Magistrorum ejusdem Declarationes Facultatis Parisiensis factae apud Regem super quibusdam propositionibus quas non nulli voluerunt ascribere eidem Facultati I. NOn esse doctrinam Facultatis quod summus pontifex aliquam in temporalia Regis Christianissimi Authoritatem habet imo Facultatem semper obstitisse etiam iis qui indirectam tantummodo esse illam Authoritatem voluerunt II. Esse doctrinam Facultatis ejusdem quod Rex nullum omnino agnoscit nec habet in temporalibus superiorem praeter Deum eamque suam esse antiquam Doctrinam a qua nunquam recessura est III. Doctrinam Facultatis esse quod subditi fidem obedientiam Regi Christianissimo ita debent ut ab iis nullo pretextu dispensari possint IV. Doctrinam Facultatis esse non probare nec unquam probasse propositiones allas Regis Christianissimi Authoritati aut Germanis Ecclesiae Gallicanae libertatibus receptis in Regno Canonibus contrarias v. g. quod Summus Pontifex possit deponere Episcopos adversus eosdem Canones V. Doctrinam Facultatis non esse quod summus Pontifex sit supra Concilium Oecumenicum VI. Non esse doctrinam vel dogma Facultatis quod summus Pontifex nullo accedente Ecclesiae consensu sit infallibilis Ita de verbo ad verbum Acta Parisiis Impressa Regi exhibita Mense May 1663. For so word by word is the Printed Copy of the very Latin Paris Impression of these Acts and Six Declarations presented to His Most Christian Majesty in the month of May 1663. XIII THE Reader may now questionless expect an account from me of some either learned or at least prudential debate amongst the Fathers in so grave an Assembly upon so solemn a Message as you have before seen to them on such a Subject from the Duke of Ormond His Majesties Lord Lieutenant then of that Kingdom But I am sorry I can give none at all either of the one or other sort nay nor of any either learned or unlearned or prudential or imprudential because of no kind of debate on that Message For indeed they took no more notice of it than if none at all had been sent them the leading men the Prelats and their numerous and sure sticklers over-awing and silenceing presently any that seemed inclining to move for paying as much as any even due or civil respect in such matters to the Lord Lievtenant or as much as to dispute the equity of what their Cabal had privately before the Congregation sate resolved upon viz. not to comply with His Grace in any material point but to sign and present a new unsignificant Formulary of their own i. e. That prepared to their hands and utterly decline That which His Grace expected from them yea not to suffer any mention at all to be as much as once made in publick of the former Remonstrance So powerfully influential on them was their Prophetical opinion of wonders to be expected by and for themselves done in that wonderful year of 1666. Nor did they seem at all to consider they might be as well defeated of all such their vain worldly carnal hopes of Empire Glory Pomp which they drove at as the Apostles were when before receiving the Holy Ghost in fulness on the 5th day they put this vain question Domine si in tempore hoc restitues Regnum Israel But to leave animadvertions so it was indeed That the Fathers did not once debate not only not the heads of the Procurators Speech but not a word of the very Message from his Grace Albeit they considered how to gratifie the Procurator himself for what was past i. e. for the liberty they had now enjoyed for so many years since 1662. through his endeavours and oblige him also for the future to continue the like endeavours for them as their Procurator And indeed I had scarce been an hour abroad hard by them walking in a Garden to take the fresh air after my long speech which together with the heat of the room made me retire a little when Father Francis Fitz Gerrald a Franciscan one of the Members of that Congregation as Procurator for the Vicar General of the Diocess of Cluan a vacant See in the Province of Casâ—el came with pleasing news to flatter me as he thought telling me the Congregation had voted two thousand pounds sterling to be Levied of all the Clergy of the Kingdom by several gales to be payed me towards my expenses hereafter in carrying on as general Procurator the great affair of their liberty and freedom as till then I had the four last years Him at that time I only answered that was not the point to be either resolved or debated Soon after the Primat himself came forth to me where I continued alone walking And he also would with the same consideration have wrought me to a more plyant temper I answered him to this purpose My Lord you should have known me better then to think to amuse me with the news of any such prepostrous either motions or resolves There will be time enough to consider of such inferiour matters when you shall have first done your duty in order to the King to my Lord Lieutenant and Protestant State Council Parliament which are and ought to govern you under God in all temporal affairs nay your duty to your Native Country and Irish Nation your Church and Catholick Religion and when you shall consequently
THE History Vindication OF The Loyal Formulary or Irish Remonstrance So Graciously Received by His MAJESTY Anno 1661. AGAINST All CALUMNIES and CENSURES IN SEVERAL TREATISES WITH A True Account and Full Discussion of the Delufory Irish Remonstrance and other Papers Framed and Insisted on By the National Congregation at Dublin Anno 1666 And Presented to His MAJESTIES then Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom the Duke of ORMOND But Rejected by HIS GRACE To which are added THREE APPENDIXES Whereof the Last contains The Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland His LONG EXCELLENT LETTER Of the Second of December 1650. In Answer to both the DECLARATION and EXCOMMUNICATION of the Bishops c. at Jamestown THE AUTHOR Father Peter Walsh of the Order of St. Francis Professor of Divinity Melior est contentiâ— pietatis causa suscepta quà m vitiosa concordia Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 1. pro Pace Printed Anno M.DC.LXXIV TO THE CATHOLICKS OF ENGLAND IRELAND SCOTLAND And all other DOMINIONS UNDER His Gracious Majesty CHARLES II. My Lords Fathers and Gentlemen HOw customary soever amongst Writers both ancient and modern sacred and profane the Dedication of Books hath been as well sometimes only to desire patronage as at other times gratefully to acknowledge benefits yet I do ingenuously confess it was nor this nor that end nor indeed any private regard whatsoever made me after some debate with my self resolve at last upon a Dedicatory Address to the most illustrious name of British and Irish Catholiks that name of names and most glorious of titles so peculiarly challeng'd and zealously contended for by you as the proper inheritance of those in this famous Empire of Great Brittaine that continue in Ecclesiastical Communion with the Catholick Bishop of old Rome What induced me to this Dedication or rather what required it as a duty of me was your undenyable concern above others in the subject or matters treated in this Book and indeed whole design of it even that very publick and great concern of yours appearing all along to be so proper so intrinsick nay so essential to the Book it self and if I may speake freely that very concern of yours the most universal and most considerable of any can be thought of at present by you To evidence your being every one so concern'd I think there needs no more than to consider what the said subject is It is 1. in general the old and fatal Controversie of late again much more unreasonably and vehemently if not more unhappily too then at any time before renewed amongst his Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects especially those of Ecclesiastical Function about the nature measures and obligation of Allegiance due to His Majesty from them in meer temporal things only And 2. in particular it is for one moyety or principal part thereof the Loyal Formulary of remonstrating promising and protesting indispensable Faith and Obedience to our Gracious King Charles the Second in all civil and temporal tâ—ings whatsoever according to the Laws of the Land or of His Kingdoms respectively Which Formulary was first conceived and agreed upon in the Reign of His Majesties Father of glorious Memory about five and thirty years since by the Roman Catholicks of England or at least some leading persons of them but more lately viz. after His present Majesties happy Restauration and more effectually too was espoused by considerable numbers of those of Ireland for many evident Reasons The chief Reason was the rather by that means to induce His Sacred Majesty to command the ceasing of a rigorous persecution which was then * 1661. actually on foot in that Kingdom under the Triumvirat of Sir Maurice Eustace Lord Chancellor and the Earls of Orrery and Mountrath against all Roman Catholicks universally without distinction or exception of any After much both private and publick debate about this Formulary in the years 1661 and 1662 it not only was subscribed at several times and places by the proper hands of threescore and ten of their Clergy whereof a Bishop was one and a hundred sixty four of their chiefest Lay Nobility Gentry and Proprietors whereof one and twenty were Peers viz. seven Earls nine Viscounts and five Barons but immediately after the first Subscription at London anno 1661. was solemnly presented to and graciously accepted by His Majesty And I suppose they that had any dislike of it in those dayes were well enough pleased with their shares of the success which was His Majesties effectual countermanding the winds and tempest of persecution throughout Ireland and his gracious smiling on the distressed Catholicks both People and Clergy of that Island This honest Formulary now commonly called the Irish Remonstrance so necessarily and piously espoused thus by so many good Patriot-Subscribers as a conscientious Christian full and satisfactory profession of the duty which by all Laws divine and humane they as well as all other Subjects owe His Majesty against all pretences of the Pope to the contrary was even for that very cause i. e. for being so Christianly honest and sincerely loyal soon after traduced and impugned by sundry Ecclesiasticks of the Roman Communion and chiefly by many of those Irish who had received most benefit by it These good men were not content by their reproaches and calumnies to make it odious at home but also dealt so by their disloyal Arts and powerful Friends in other Countries that they got it to be censur'd and condemn'd in formal terms as unlawful detestable sacrilegious yea in effect as schismatical and heretical by the publick Censures of the Lovain Theological Faculty and publick Letters also both of the Bruxell-Internuncio's De Vecchii and Rospigliosi and of the Roman Cardinals De propaganda Fide under the presidency of Cardinal Francis Barbarin himself though amongst other his many titles at Rome stiled Protector of England Having thus gotten the face of Authority on their side they have not ceased ever since for twelve years to the present 1673 but especially these five or six last years have in a most furious manner proceeded even with all the vilest arts of malicious Cabals Conspiracies Plots Libels and an Impostor Commissary and a forged Commission and all the most lying slanders imaginable to persecute and defame the few remaining constant Ecclesiastical Subscribers They have kept them in continual chace with all the greatest and all the most illegal most uncanonical extent of an abused Power with monitories citations depositions excommunications denunciations and even publick affixion or posting of them Of which extremely unjust and scandalous procedures against men no way contumacious as I have sufficiently proved * Vid. Hibernica Valesii Tert. Part. Epist Prim. ad Haroldum there was no cause in nature that appeared or was pretended but a manifest design to force them to renounce their Allegiance to the King by retracting their Subscriptions When they had found them of proof against these attempts under colour of Law they broke out into rage and being
of the chief maintainers of his spiritual Primacy at least in the whole latitude of even the pretences of it execution of such pretences to so great a diminution of the ordinary power of all other Bishops wheresoever as the Bishops themselves Arch-bishops Primats and Patriarchs too complain of whether justly or injustly I meddle not with that And that moreover they could not be ignorant of what their own Divines do teach in such a case of revocation without cause at least for an unjust cause and for so ill an end as the supporting of errour and Heresy in the Church or of what St. Paul before them taught Non est potestas ad destructionem c. or of the character and power they received in their consecration or of what the power of jurisdiction imports and what it is in its own nature and that nothing els by addition but ablatio obicis and how both Christ himself and the Church of Christ supplyes what is wanting what is obstructing crosses even that ebex or obstacle when it is put by an unjust sentence and for a general destruction or corruption by any Prelate soever revokeing so or attempting to revoke so against former laws Canons Nor could be ignorant how their own Divines also teach their priviledges are most of them for such as are material inserted even in the body of the Canon Law and ratified by general Councils even by the very Council of Trent as many as are not there specifically revoked And that the Pope is not Lord absolute but Lord Keeper only of the Canons at least of those we call in opposition to others Canones Vniversalis Ecclesiae And further teach that the Priviledges of Regulars as to the main and material of them are of the nature of those are called Remunerative which cannot at least so easily and without an evident abuse be recalled Nor could be ignorant also such of them as were conversant in Ecclesiastical History how the Franciscan Order alone could and did maintain themselves and their own lawful priviledges against all the thunders of John the two and Twentieth incensed against them principally or only for maintaining their Temporal Allegiance to Ludovicus Bavarus then Emperour though deposed by the Popes unjust sentence as much I say as such a Papal sentence could depose him verbally That those Regulars moreover knew no less their own interest to be greater in the people and Clergie both of Ireland and the esteem of them farre greater than that the Ordinaries could upon such an improbable ground or would or dared attempt any thing to their prejudice much less prevaile if they would be so inconsiderate as to venture on that ground any attempt against them Whereas on the contrary the Ordinaries themselves confess'd their farre greater influence or that of Regulars on the people Which is so true that for example Doctor Daly Vicar general of Ardmagh and Judge Delegate in all that Province by Commission from the titular Catholick-Primate when at Dublin some two years past called upon to sign the said Remonstrance or give his reasons why not alleadged for not concurring then and confess'd plainly and several times his only reason for not doing it was the opposition of the Franciscans in his Province who were indeed said he the only Divines they had That for his own part he was no Divine and his learning was but a little in the Canons and that little too principally in those of the Council of Trent yet such little thereof as he had by practice because received in that Province That the Franciscans only boare all the swaye amongst his Ulster-people and that indeed so very great that if he could get but only four leading men of them Father Thomas Makiernan Anthony Gowan Malachias Corcran Bonaventure Quin to sign with him he would undertake to bring the whole Province or Arch-Bishoprick of Ardmagh with the several Ordinaries Bishops Vicars General and other inferiour Clergie to sign at Dublin And so true besides that Father Oliver Dese Vicar General of Meath alleaged also and confessed often that four or five leading men only of the several Provinces of Ireland of that very Franciscan Order who had been formerly of the Nuncios party once concurring would infallibly draw after them to a like concurrence or subscription all the rest not only of that Order but of all other Orders of the regular Clergie and not of the regular Clergie alone but even of all the Secular also in all parts of the Kingdom who hitherto either opposed or not concurr'd to it 6. To the Franciscans in particular I mean those leading Nuntiatists and their party in that Order it was answered That they had the more reason to shew on this occasion good example to others by how much they were known formerly upon an other quite contrary to have been so active in giving them bad by misleading them from their duty to the utter destruction of their Country and Religion And that now therefore they above others should endeavour singularly and hasten to redeem as much as in them laye by lawful conscientious and Catholick demonstrations of their loyaltie hereafter what they had so perpetrated in former times against the Catholick and Christian maximes of fidelity And that it is no shame to retract an errour but a very great sin to continue in it 7. To the Dominicans That union in an evil cause or purpose is not that union which deserves a blessing but a curse from God And a pursuance of it is not that perseverance to which our Saviour in the Gospel promiseth salvation but a most dreadful condemnation even fire and flames and everlasting torments in Hell That as to those Franciscans was answered it was no shame to retract or repent but the shame was in continueing obstinately an errour and it was never too late to begin to do well and the reward proposed on one side and the punishments on the other by God himself did not only countervaile but surmount infinitely all those vaine apprehensions of being reputed changelings and all that shame which they so much apprehended for doing well but which indeed they ought to have reflected on when they formerly did so ill That their first allegation of their Acts Statutes or Declarations at Kilkenny should be reputed amongst rational men both a sufficient and necessary motive for them above others to wash away the stain which they so deeply were coloured with in graine And their second which was their grand Achilles but only by a fond imagination could be no excuse at all Whereas they cannot but confess their said Oath or said Constitutions or both oblige them not but secundum aequum et bonum where no grand inconvenience follows much less oblige them at all where the laws of God or man of the Church or Kingdom Ecclesiastical or Temporal unto which they must as Subjects conform oblige them to the contrary And they could not but
which were it his draught it had not been albeit in the main dispute it be fully sufficient the answer waâ— That it became not Priests nor Christians nor even moral or rational honest men although neither Priests nor Christians to obstruct the common good out of private animosities much less to obstruct it to the prejudice of the Religion and Worship of God and obstruct all too by sinister wayes by calumnies and forgeries and a false pretence of Religion where there was nothing less then Religion intended but rather the quite contrary That in relation to his former actings in the controversies with the Nuntio if they had considered things rightly they would rather acknowledge admire with thankfulness adore the Providence of God which had inspired him then to do as he did and as became a good Patriot Subject religious Man Christian Priest and Catholick Divine to the end he might be after so many revolutions some way instrumental to save them again That they have found his endeavours even in forwarding that Remonstrance and in many other Instances very useful and very advantagious and profitable too for all both Catholick People and Clergy of Ireland And therefore he might in some measure and sense though with infinit disproportion answer such of them as traduce or maligne him as Christ did the Jews when at the instigation of some both of the envious Priests and wicked Scribes and Pharisees too that religious but hypocritical Sect of those ancient people of God the multitude taking stones to throw at their Saviour of purpose to kill him he told and demanded of them as the Gospel relates multa opera bona ostendi vobis Ioh. â— 32. c. propter quod eorum opus lapidatis me That for his exposition of the said Remonstrance in his More Ample Account if it did not convince them as he believed it did or whether it did or no yet were not they desired to subscribe it nor was it ever intended by him or any other they or any else should either subscribe or approve otherwise of it but as they pleased to read or lay it by That he alone was to answer for that Book if there was any thing amiss in it And from them no more was expected but to sign the Remonstrance in it self barely considered according to the true obvious and sincere meaning of all the several passages And if they taking it so could otherwise rationally expound it than the Procurator did in his said little book themselves were to satisfie their own consciences in that behalf and leave his book to stand or fall to the Authors cost or profit That however he found it a tye of duty on himself for many respects and particularly for that of acting by special Commission for the Catholicks both Clergy and Lay-people of Ireland and to obtain for them some liberty ease or connivence in the exercise of Catholick Religion To let them know they could not by other expositions answer or arrive at the ends of that exposition nor shew themselves to be truly sincerely loyal or faithful to the King in those contingencies wherein their allegiance might be for their former actions prudently suspected 12. And for the general objection of all their allegation of the laws still in force c. they were desired to consider 1. How happy they would have thought themselves immediatly before the Kings Restauration and for so many other foregoing sad years under usurping Tyrants if they had found a suspension only of those laws and that connivence at the exercise of their Religion they now enjoyed under His most Sacred Majesty and ever since or immediatly after the Remonstrance presented in their names or behalf to Him That they had far more assurance than they yet deserved being they demurr'd so long on professing under their hands a dutiful subjection and no other certainly than without any such profession they were bound to by all the laws of God under pain of Hell or Damnation and by all the laws of the Land under the severest punishments of Treason That they were not to expect capitulations from the King for their being Subjects but neverthess had cause enough to see if they were not wilfully blind He was and would be to them all a good merciful gracious compassionat and indulgent King blotting all their former iniquities or those of so many of them as had been unjust to Him and his Father and Lieutenant and other protestant People quite out of His remembrance evermore if they did shew themselves true penitents and converts and sincere performers of their duty hereafter That they were no indifferent no competent Judges of those Articles they pleaded whether they were broken or no by the King or his Ministers or if broke in any part or to any person whether such breach was lawful and necessary or no in the present conjuncture of affairs after so great a change or alteration of the case That reason might tell them considering the condition of their Country and Inhabitants thereof which requires other laws and other proceedings and another kind of use of laws at least in matter of Religion than England does at present they could have no ground to fear any forcing of them to other Countreys for want of protection at home if and whiles they demeaned themselves peaceably provided they gave generally and cheerfully that assurance expected from them of such peaceable demeanour hereafter That in case of the very worst imaginable of evils the comfort of a good conscience were to be preferred by them to any earthly emolument and the conscience of having done their duty by washing the scandal of unholy tenets from their Religion would be a portable theatre to them whethersoever they should be forced and the assurance of suffering only in such case for a pure holy and undefiled Religion and Communion for justice and the Catholick faith only not for suspicion or conviction of treasonable maximes and practices condemn'd in all other Kingdoms and States in their own cases as impious uncatholick unchristian and even I say condemn'd by the professors of their own Church every where out of the small temporal Principality of the Pope And therefore they needed not apprehend any such attempt scorn prejudice or persecution abroad for having performed such a christian duty at home but on the contrary to be praised and cherished if not perhaps such as through vanity and folly would esteem no other refuge but where they might withal expect titles and miters which they very little deserved if not by such deserts as would untitle and unmitre them wholy if they were sifted narrowly according to the Gospel of Christ or Canons of the Catholick Church though perhaps they would hold them fast enough according to those other late ones made by Papal authority alone But that if the very saddest they could by Chymeraes frame to themselves did happen in such case as well abroad as at home it became
certain that ever since the chief leading men of that Order conforming themselves further to all such directions as they receive from their Colledg or Convent of Irish Dominicans at Lovain as those of that Colledg to what they themselves procure from Rome and transmit to Ireland have been in all parts of this Kingdom very insolent and violent all of them in private discourse amongst all sorts of men decrying the Remonstrance and Subscribers of it if not as unlawful and heretical yet certainly against the Interest of the Pope Country and Religion and some of them preaching publickly at altars against both in the vilest and impudentest manner telling the people they should rather abide all evils suffer death it self then approve of such a form pursuant to the late Priour of Dublin but now of Naas Father M. Fullam's attestation under his own hands writing in a letter to one of his own Order Father John Scurlog that he would for his own part sooner take the Oath of Supremacy To such a degree of folly and frenzy their malice to the Subscribers drove them Which was the cause that especially in Connaght and Vlster they spared not to asperse the whole Order of Franciscans as well those had not yet subscribed as those did amongst the common people with defection from the See Apostolick because the Procuratour and greatest number of Subscribers and maintainers of that form are Franciscans and those tollerated by and countenanced or at least not proceeded against by their chief Superiours and to the end they might by such scandals raised of the Franciscans be themselves esteemed the Champions of the Great Pontiff in Ireland and both lessen the credit of others and gain to boot their benefactors Which was next that of pretensions at Rome and distractions at home against the peace of the Country and establishment of the King the only marke they shott at XX. Wherein they had the Augustinian Order who are twixt threescore and fourscore in this Kingdom but most of them in Connaght their unalterable and no less in so much unconscionable Associats I mean as to the generality of them For I do not involue every individual of them in such unworthy intrigues though I can say that not as much as one of this Augustinian Order hath for so many years since 61. though several of them very home reason'd with by the Procuratour himself any way declared his or their moderation in this matter so farre they were all from subscription excepting only that one Gentleman of theirs Father Gibbon who subscribed at London amongst the other 25. there And can say this much too of them that Father Martin French their late Priour at Dublin hath acknowledg'd there some 3. or 4. years since they were the Order of all others that ledd the Van of opposition by common consent or decree in a chapter held by them in 62. and in Connaght a little before those others of the Dominicans or Franciscans were held which was to them as it proved since like the laws of Medes and Persians irrevocable untransgressable without any regard of any other laws either of man or God positive or natural XXI About the same time the Procuratour had the above answers of the Dominican and Franciscan Chapters or Provincials he received from England by letter from the Bishop of Dromore bearing date the 18th of October the said year 62. another letter therein enclosed which was to the said Bishop from the Dean and in behalf of the Chapter of the English secular Clergie For those have a certain select number how many they are I do not exactly remember but I think about 28. composing their Chapter which represents and gives orders to all that Clergie wherever dispersed in England and Wales making a farre greater number for they were about 600. in Cromwels time sufficient learned and loyally affected all of them to the King Which enclosed letter of the English Dean and Chapter the Bishop sent the Procuratour as it was of purpose written to answer without place of reply an other pretended scruple of some of the Irish Clergie that they had not seen any approbation of the Remonstrance or concurrence from the Clergie of England though specially and by name invited to it by the Procuratours printed Advertisement annexed to the Remonstrance and by his book or The More Ample Account which he soon after publish'd amongst them at London The original being shewed by the Procuratour convinced all that would be convinced by reason for it was that you have here in the copy For the Right Reverend Father in God Oliver Lord Bishop of Dromore Right Reverend Father in God c. ALthough it be a chief point of Christian duty to be passive even in injustices without reply yet is that patience scarce profitable though with the gaine of private vertue where the publique receives prejudice And for this reason do I give your Lordship this trouble for understanding from persons of Quality that I and the rest of my Brethren of the Chapter are reported to obstruct the subscriptions of the Irish Clergie to the Declaration of Allegiance here exhibited to His Majestie as upon this score that being desired to joyn with you in it we refused it as both imprudent and unjust and by that refusal of our concurrence gave occasion to divers of the Irish Clergie to do the like by which we seem to be a block in the way to that freedom of Conscience which we would gladly purchase with our blood We humbly begg this favour of your Lordship that as you are best able to cleer us in this point that our concurrence was never required nor were we privy to your business the circumstances of our conditions being different from yours so your Lordship being assured of our judgment would please to signifie it where it may undeceive the over-credulous My Lord I have spoke with our Brethren concerning this business and find them so farre from censuring your draught or proceed in that protestation that as we know it destructive to Soveraign Majestie to be dependent in Regalities so we take it derogative to good Subjects to deny him the power Absolute in Temporalities And therefore being taught by the law of God to give him obedience indispensable we cannot but judge in that you runn along with your duty As for the expressions passing a censure upon the contrary tenets as some peradventure may think them too severe we could wish the circumstances of affairs in these His Majesties Kingdoms could have declared them impertinent but considering this age overrun with disloyaltie and even amongst those of our Holy Catholique Faith some to our great grief have been too active under colour of bad principles it cannot but be necessary to declare those principles no other then the Cockle of wicked doctrine sowed by the Enemy of mankind to the prejudice of Christianity which being a law of an absolute Rectitude in setting right our duties to God and
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
do not say not to reveal such fatal plots conspiracies or treasons without revealing the Confitent himself against the person of the Prince and the whole fabrick of the Commonwealth and by consequence ordinarily against so many millions of innocent harmless people without possibility or at least moral probability of seeing the end of the evils and general calamities arising thence but I say do not as much as tye them not to reveal the very person of the penitent or the confitent himself if the case be such or may be such though it can hardly ever be such that the design cannot by human industry be otherwise prevented For I am sure that neither that Canon of the Lateran Council nor any other of the Church doth reach this case As I am certain that all Divines will confess the Church can make no Canon hereafter to reach it if there be no former antecedent express or tacit rule for it in the law of God or nature And I am no less certain that until yesterday come back again neither the Doctors of Lovain nor any other in the world can ever demonstrate or prove any such antecedent rule either of natural reason or of Scripture or Tradition LVII As for the saying of some otherwise peradventure good Casuists or Canonists or even the croud of never so many of the later but worser Schoolmen who should valew them when they bring nothing to make their placits good no Scripture no Tradition no Fathers no Councils no reason at all that would take with a rational knowing pious man but on the contrary produce only their own ill grounded opinions and a world sometimes of barbarous names of Authors such as many of their own are even against the clear dictates of the law of God and nature against all virtue and piety and against all true Religion and even against the very first principles of reason I would very fain know of these Gentlemen these excellent Moralists who must needs dilate themselves on Metaphisical suppositions to shew forsooth their blind zeal for a meer fiction of a seal which neither God approved nor the Church ever commanded or allowed in our case what will godly pious understanding men Judge of them what will any good Christian Commonwealthsmen think of their foolish imagination of a very and truly not only unsacramental but also unnatural seal in a case proposed thus All the Catholick Princes and States of Europe and oâ— all other parts of the world professing Catholick Religion or enjoying the Roman Communion and all the power they can raise of horse and foot even two or three or four million more or less of men are in one field or one country joyn'd and amass'd together and the Emp. Kings of Spain France Poland Portugal c. and the very Pope with all the Court of Rome in the head of all against also all the contrary power of the habitable earth Hereticks and Jews Mahumetans and other Infidels and as well the Lutherans and Caluinsts and all the huge variety of other Sects both in the Greek and Latin Church as the Turk Tartar Persian Moore and Indian the Chinese and all the wild people of America and even those of the Terra australis incognita joyn'd also together in one body to ruine utterly the Catholick Church of Christ and raze it from the very face of the earth They are ready on both sides to joyn battle or as many battles as you please and to put all to a fatal hazard and let the resolution be so too that it is absolutely fixed upon by both sides and every individual of each side never to flye never to take quarter win all or loose all to kill or to be killed In this conjuncture suppose a Christian a Roman Catholick by name education profession and by inward belief too goes to confession to a Priest tells him of such a plot or yet a farre worse and incomparably more dangerous then that of Count Iulian against Roderico the Spanish King in that fatal battle wherein the Moores conquered Spain of some other discontented wicked Catholicks and whether himself had or had not a â—and therein it matters not that out of a divelish passion against the chief Commanders especially the Pope himself for some private quarrel had so devoted so resigned themselves over to the Divils power and to infernal revenge that they have contrived such a plot and are now ready for execution of it as will inevitably ruine all this Christian Catholick power deliver them up to their enemies and even bring to a most cruel slaughter all and singular the individuals of this never so vast army of the Roman Faith or Religion and in the first place the Pope himself and all his Cardinals and Court and all other Churchmen of the Roman City or Diocess and after all bring this â—ame holy City and Diocess and even all the temporal Patrimony of St. Peter within or without it to be plough'd up and sowed with salt to the end it may never again be inhabited as some conquerors are read to have done to some â—ebellions or enemy Cities But withall this penitent or this confitent when he reveals this so fatal conspiracy to the Priest is so possess'd suddenly by the Divels suggestion that notwithstanding any exhortations of the Priest he will not promise that himself will reveal it to those concern'd nor licence the said confessor to reveal it nor yet will tell him the persons time or place or manner of the execution of it whereby it might be prevented by the confessors giving a general notice only either in secret or in publick to the Pope or other King or General or person of the army and yet withal hath told so much and in such a manner that the confessor is and ought to be thereby absolutely perswaded of the truth of such and so unspeakably enormous conspiracy In such a case as this though a case that will never be yet because so many of our honest Casuists and famed Theologues and so great a croud of them too bring it or the like or yet a farre worse to a supposition because they suppose even the both temporal and spiritual destruction and even eternal damnation of all the World I demand what will truly pious understanding christian Commonwealthsmen or Divines that examine soberly and from its origin the true nature and the true ends of Sacramental confession or Sacramental secrecy or seal under which it is to be kept by the confessor and withal consider all the both general and particular most express and most indispensable tyes of the laws of God and man and nature of the laws of charity justice and loyalty and all the duties not of a Christian Subject only but of a man what I say will such other conscientious rational Commonwealthsmen or Divines think of their doctrine that maintain in such a case the lawfulness of quitting utterly all these duties or of reputing them no duties
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
in it self purely or as abstracting from matter of fact we say two things here to clear all the fog which many of our late School Divines do raise without any cause at all to loose themselves and others in it The one is that in this cause of Caecilian and such others of Church-men wherein Constantine or other Christian Emperours interposed their imperial authority and carried themselves properly as Judges that wherein they did so was pure matter of fact whereof questionless the lay Emperours when judicious and just were secundum allegata probata as competent Judges as any Ecclesiastick And the other is that whereas the Emperour and the same we must say of every other supream or Soveraign Prince within his own dominions is of supream absolute independent power within his Empire he must consequently have sufficient authority from God himself to promote all that may be for the publick good peace or safety of his people in this life and of their happiness too in the other according as he is directed by the law of God and therefore also must have sufficient power from God himself to see and take effectual care and such effectual course as is necessary that the very Ecclesiastical affairs within his Empire be duely carried on Therefore albeit he be not the competent Judge in a doubtfull case what was or was not the Faith delivered once in such or such a point controverted yet he is a competent Judge to see and determine as to matter of Fact whether the Ecclesiasticks of his Kingdom duely observe the uncontroverted Faith or that part of Faith which all men which even themselves confess acknowledge to be that which was once so delivered or whether they duely observe the known and holy canons of the Church made for preservation of that Faith And he is a competent Judge also or hath a competent sufficient absolute independent power to force the very Ecclesiasticks themselves to keep that Faith entire and sound even also I mean as to the very Theory of it and to all questions of divine right especially where and when he sees that by reason of controversies arising about such very questions or Theory the publick external peace of either Church or State may be endangered or that the publick tranquillity depends of the unity of his people in such matters according to what was from the beginning taught By which very consideration that Constantine himself was very much induâ—ced â—o interess himself in these matters of Faith even himself also writes apud â—arrâ—nium tom 3. an 313. n. 37. least otherwise he should have seen dangeâ—ous troubles and commotions in his Empire and thence have suffered also very much in his reputation as not governing well or prudently or also as haveing imprudently embraced that religion whose professours he could not keep in peace or unity amongst themselves Of which consideration and judgement of Constantine or rather of which power and authority of Constantine or indeed of both the one and the other St. Augustine speaks ep 162. where he writes thus Quasi verò ipse sibi he means Felix Aptungitanus â—â—c comparavit ac non Imperator ita quasi jusserit ad cujus curam de qua rationem Deo redditurus esset res illa maximè pertinebat But of this authority and superintendency in general of Emperours Kings Princes and other supream temporal or politick States in and over the Church or the spiritual or Ecclesiastical both Superiours and Inferiours of the same Christian Catholick Church this is not the proper place to treat at large It sufficeth at present to say that forasmuch as Constantine did so and so often too interess himself in this cause of Caecilian and deputed Judges to hear and determine it he did all this by the true proper genuine authority of an Emperour and even of a Christian Emperour whose duty it is when the Ecclesiasticks themselves alone cannot end or compose their own dissentions that he by his own supream authority assist and promote their agreement and even force them to a just and equitable agreement Which the Milevitan Council approves in effect canone 19 and ponitur xi q. 1. c. 11. and in these tearms Placuit ut quicumque ab Imperatore cognitionem judiciorum publicorum petierit honore proprio privetur Si autem Episcopale judicium ab Imperatore postulaverit nihil ei obsit But that Constantine did in aftertimes adorn and magnifie the Church or Churchmen with most singular and most ample priviledges concerning civil judgments or judgments in civil affairs this he did not as Baronius tom 3. an 314. n. 37. would make us believe he did to correct or by way of correction of those former judgments of his own in the said or like affairs of Ecclesiastical persons which judgments our great Annalist sayes were unduly and unjustly usurped by the Emperour but did so or gave such priviledges out of his meer liberality and piety alway nevertheless reserving his own proper supream and general and imperial authority to provide upon emergencies by himself or by such others as he should think fit to depute for the necessities of the Church and Churchmen as often as he saw need However let us proceed in the matter of fact which is our proper subject here For notwithstanding the aforesaid judgment also of the Council of Orleance the Donatists yet appeal even from it and the second time to the Emperour himself against and in that cause of Cecilian and the Emperour admits again their appeal judges the matter himself absolves Cecilian and condemns the Donatists St. Augustine is my author and witness ep 48. and epist 162. where yet he neither accuses nor reprehends the Emperour Nor doth Cecilian except but obeyes and freely presents himself to be judged by the Emperour For it was a criminal judgment that is the matter debated was a crime charged upon him Nay St. Augustine openly sayes and avers that neither the accusing or appealing Bishops themselves were to be reprehended on this account that they drew or brought the affairs or causes of or accusations against other Bishops to a lay secular Judicatory For thus he writes ep 48. Si autem sicut falso arbitramini vere criminosum Caecilianum judicandum terrenis potestatibus tradiderant quid objicitis quod vâ—strorum praesumptio primitus fecit he speaks to the later Donatists quod eos non arguerimus sayes he quia fecerunt si non animo inuido noxio sed emendandi corrigendi voluntate fecissent Therefore St. Augustine sayes that where and when the dispute concerns the correction and amendment of Ecclesiasticks to demand the judgment or sentence and to appeal to the power of earthly Princes is not reprehensible if the accusers proceed not in such or indeed any other application out of envie or malice Concerning this second admission of Constantine or indeed rather concerning his whole procedure in this affair by admitting any appeal at all or
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
conclude that which was before the conclusion of my first and grand Syllogism in this very Section against the foresaid two suppositions expressed in the Louain Censure That is whether I may not most justly repeat and most evidently conclude again that the said second or short Censure of Louain which was it only came as yet to publick view against that Remonstrance of ours or of 1661 or 1662 Must be rash against Prudence false against Truth injurious against Justice and scandalous in the highest degree against Charity Nay whether indeed it be not it self and not our Remonstrance that which is truly both Vnlawfull Detestable Sacrilegious Schysmatical and Heretical being it condems for such that Protestation which in all respects is Catholick Peaceable Religious Desirable Dutifull and Lawfull And whether this Protestation being really such and that Censure really such also as it now appears abundantly to be the former so Holy the latter so Wicked the inference of the Louaine Divines wherewith they conclude their said Censure in these words Quapropter quicunque praefatam professionis formulam nondum ignorant cohibere se a signatura obligantur sub sacrilegii reatu quicumque autem signarunt refigere signaturas obligantur sub consimili reata adding to confirm this second part of their Inference and resolution that saying of the Canons incauta namque definitio salubriter dissolvenda est nec ea dissolutio reputanda est praevaricatio sed temeritatis emendatio whether I say that Inference as such or as an Inference be not deduced from notoriously false Premises and Antecedents and whether as a Resolution without any note of Inference it be not in it self as Wicked Injurious Unlawfull Detestable Schysmatical and Heretical as that must be which in a manner so solemn determines against and dehorts from the most important and most known and most necessary Christian Obedience Fidelity and Duty of Subjects to their Princes And more especially of Catholick Subjects to their Protestant Prince and yet most especially of all where the Catholick Subjects lye under such great and such rational suspition of their at least in certain Cases Fidelity to their Protestant Prince as the Rebellion of the Catholicks of Ireland in the year 1641. and their several breaches of the two Peaces in the years 1646 and 1648. besides other later Arguments have occasioned to be entertain'd of the greater part of the said Irish Catholicks Or at least and without any such relation or comparison at all but positively and strictly speaking whether that final Resolve of Louain be not and even as to both parts of it to wit the first which says That such as have not yet signed the said Remonstrance are bound under the guilt of Sacriledge to abstain from signing and the last which says also That such others who have already signed are under the like guilt bound to retire that is to revoke or cancel their Signatures whether I say that final Resolve of Louaine and as to both the said parts be not most Ungodly False Unjust Scandalous Impious and Rebellious Resolves And whether the Catholicks of Ireland practising accordingly do not thereby strengthen the Arguments of such of the Protestants as would contiue the Laws in force against Papist Recusants Whether also it appear not by this time most evidently out of what is said hitherto both in this present Section and in all the so many foregoing other Sections against the four grounds of the Louaine Censure that on the contrary such of the Catholicks of Ireland especially those of Ecclesiastical Function are under the guilt of the highest and foulest and most dangerous at least Scandal may be cast or continued on their Religion and Communion bound to add or to offer their own Subscriptions also to the said Remonstrance being that by such Subscriptions or Offer they may ruin the strongest nay the only Argument is made use of by their grand Adversaries to Scandalize their Religion and Communion and render both odious to King and State and inconsistent with the safety of at least any Protestant Kingdom or People and consequently hinder by so specious and truely strong an Argument the Repeal of the Laws which are against Papists as being a People who maintain still according to the Censure of Louaine or final Resolve therein contained that under no less then the guilt of Sacriledge no Remonstrance no Declaration no Testation or Oath is to be Subscribed by them if it disclaim any Power in the Pope to License them at his pleasure to Rebel against their Protestant King and Murther both Him and His Protestant Subjects albeit their own Relations and fellow Subjects too and who maintain also according to the same Censure or some final Resolve therein contained that even such as have already Subscribed any such Remonstrance Declaration Protestation or Oath though containing nothing else but a bare acknowledgment of the Kings Supreme or Soveraign Power in meer Temporals and the Obedience and Fidelity of his Catholick Subjects to him in such Temporals only are under no less also then the guilt of the like Sacriledge bound to Refix again their Signatures And whether such as have already Subscribed especially those of Ecclesiastical Function are not yet more strictly bound under the same highest and foulest and most dangerous Scandal to their Religion and Communion not to Refix i.e. not to retract their Subscriptions For if Priests who have so freely and voluntarily of themselves without any kind of coaction Subscribed a Lawfull Declaration of their Allegiance to their King and this only in meer Temporal Affairs be not bound not to Refix their Subscriptions upon the Judgment of Foraign or Factious Divines or upon a Letter from Rome against it or any other account whatsoever cannot all Protestants rationally conclude that there is no Trust to be reposed in no Faith to be given to such men or to any others lead or indoctrinated by them no not although they had signed Ten thousand Protestations Then which I pray can there be a more dangerous Scandal to the Religion and Communion and Persons too of Catholick Subjects under a Protestant Prince and State and where such severe and severely Penal and incapacitating Laws are still in force against Papist Recusants Besides and which is very consequentially hear whether the Faculty Theological of Louain or those of it yet alive who sign'd that most imprudent rash injurious false wicked impious and scandalous Censure And whether the two late Bruxell Internuncio's De Vecchiis and Rospigliosi and the most eminent Lord Cardinal Francis Barberin being they all three severally take the pains to write so many strange or rather bad Letters some to the Clergy and others to the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland giving both these and those caution against and exhorting all to beware of the often mention'd Remonstrance as of a dangerous unlawful and pernicious Declaration and as of one moreover contrived of purpose by false Brethren a falsis fratribus
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
finding themselves obliged by their duty of Subjects and Allegiance to His Majesty King Charles the Second of Great Britain and Ireland and by that likewise of good Patriots to their Countrey as by that also of Spiritual Pastors to their respective Flocks and of conscientious Christian Catholicks to their Religion and Communion in general To endeavour as much as in them lies to remove those jealousies and suspitions by assuring His Majesty and your Grace and the State in general and even all people too whatsoever or of whatsoever Opinion or judgment in matters of Religion and by assuring them also in the best manner they can of their at least present disposition and firm resolution for ever hereafter to continue indispensably faithful to His Majestie and to your Grace and to the State and present Government in this Kingdom according to the Laws in all temporal things and to live peaceably and neighbourly with their fellow Subjects of the Protestant Religion of what Nation or Countrey soever they be originally And finding nevertheless that by reason of some of the said Laws still in force in this Kingdom against men of their calling and Religion and by reason too of several Proclamations issued since His Majesties Restauration against any meetings to be held by them or any of them as also by reason of the aforesaid jealousies suspitions and reports they cannot safely without your Graces known permission and licence meet together in any place or in such a number as would be requisite for the above end of assuring His Majesty and your Grace of their fidelitie and that by a publick Instrument under all their own proper hands to be after signed also by all the rest of the Roman Catholick Clergy under their charge and that if they should otherwise attempt to meet to what intent soever they might not only be subject to misconstruction but also run a very great hazard of bringing on themselves and not on themselves alone but on all others too of their Communion in this Kingdom even on the Lay-people instructed by them unavoidable inconveniences and all the dangers of the Laws and instead of lessening heighten the jealousies conceived against them Your Petitioners therefore most humbly beg That your Grace may be pleased to License all your said Petitioners the Roman Catholick Arch-Bishops Bishops Vicars Apostolick and General and all the Superiours Provincial of Regular Orders with two Divines more of each or every such Regular Order and such other Divines too as the said Archbishops Bishops or Vicars General shall think fit to bring along with them and all such Proctors also as the said respective Prelats as well of the Regular as Secular Clergy shall in case of sickness or other Legal disability send in their own places provided the whole number of the Congregation or of all such Prelats Proctours and Divines exceed not seventy And that your Grace may be pleased to License them so to come freely without Lett or Molestation to Dublin and meet there on the Eleventh of June this present year 1666. and continue there together where and when they shall or as often as they shall think fit for Twenty days that is until the first of July following and to assure them Ten days more of Liberty and safety to return whence they came or whethersoever they please without any Lett or Molestation by any Offices Civil or Martial or any other whatsoever to the end your Petitoners may give your Grace and by your Grace to His Majesty that assurance as above which they heartily desire And your Petitioners shall Pray c. Dat Daly utriusque juris Doctor Albas ac Vicarius generalis Ardmachanus nec non totius Provinciae Judex delegatus Another fair Copy of this Petition I sent at the same time to the Vicar General of Ardmagh Patrick Daly as to one of the four that sign'd the Indiction to be likewise by him subscribed and sent back out of the North by the same time we expected the Archbishops return And Daly fail'd not but by next Post sent it immediatly back subscribed with his own hand thus as you have already seen Patricius Daly utriusque Juris Doctor Abbas ac Vicarius Generalis Ardmachanus nec non totius Provinciae Judex Delegatus But the foresaid Archbishop of Tuam guided as before by his Nephew Jesuit who also was both his Secretary and Clerk thought better instead of Subscription to return this following rejoynder Dated April 16. 1666. and superscribed thus For the most Reverend c. My Lord YOur Lordships Letters of the 3d. and 6th of this moneth were in the way to the 12th But this likely proceeded through my distance from the Post The first brought inclosed a Petition intended for my Lord Duke in behalf of our Irish Roman Clergy to obtain his Graces permission and safe Conduct for them to meet the 11th of next June The Second contained nothing but your Lordships Civility to me for which special favour I may not but rest beholding to your Lordship As for the Petition to tell your Lordship the plain truth of my opinion thereupon I think it not proper we should prefer it My reason First if my Lord Duke of whose and His Majesties good intentions towards us no body indifferently knowing can doubt were as desirous we should meet as your Lordship seemeth to be perswaded sure nothing would hinder his Grace of Commanding us to assemble independent of any Petition of ours and his Letters of safe Conduct dispatched to that effect without our Addresses would prove less subject to any inconveniences Secondly If I might apprehend our preferring of a Petition expedient sure I would also conceive necessary to have somethings altered in and added to that which your Lordship was pleased to send me to be signed Further if your Lordship and I did sign to and prefer the same ut jacet no doubt it might be thought by others as much concerned therein as we P. W ly done of us to meddle with Petitioning in their behalfs without their own privity or allowance What have we to do with Cashel or its Province What with Provincials of Regular Orders or their Divines if acting for them without Commission though a thing usual in this age we will not have our selves deemed over busie quod omnes tangit ad omnibus debet approbari especially matters of such weight as this is When my Lord Lieutenant pleaseth to command us to meet with his pass for our safety I dare say at least I hope so there is none amongst us but will very readily obey his Orders But if in the mean time his Grace countenanceth a motion or discourse of our Petitioning to that end some are of strong belief it is rather to eschew the importunity of some of our own then out of any desire he entertaineth to see us together whilst we demean our selves as I wish we should and hope we do without offence to the Government This My Lord
there is betwixt the power of a Bishop and that of the Magistrate However you have stated the case in your Letter to my self concerning your obligation of coming home with hazard and you have stated it so as I need not answer or advise you unless it be to deny your supposition yet I will advise your Lordship not to venture any further then Paris or Louaine or some near place on that side the Sea until I send to you again after you have altered your stile on the above Subject And must tell you there is no command of God on you in the case nor any necessity incumbent on you of Preaching or looking here Personally to your flock until you mend what is amiss of your own part Yet I do withal confess there is a necessity on you to do this And therefore that if or as soon as you shall do this there can be no excuse or plea against a command of God and a necessity on you to come home and look personally to your flock as well as you may and Evangelize to them It is only therefore I said now there was no command nor necessity because I suppose your failing hitherto so long in not making use of the Lawful and Evangelical means to be without danger to your self or others at liberty here to obey God in your charge proceeded only from want of due reflection on the lawfulness of the means and consequently suppose that in so good a man it was no depravation of will But hereafter I know not how you may answer God since you may come without such danger to your self or others or hinderance I mean of a greater or lesser good if you please to do what by the Law of Christ you may and ought to do viz. confess you have done ill crave His Majesties pardon and assure him under your hand by the same Instrument we have of your future and certainly otherwise bounden fidelity towards him It becomes a Bishop of Jesus Christ to shew this good example to others And it more particularly becomes him that lead others into Errour to shew them by his own example whether they are to return And indeed whom doth Obedience Humility Faith Justice and Repentance too become more then a Preacher of them and a chief Preacher too by his Episcopal Function As for the rest my Lord Know the Duke hath a good opinion of your will or intentions all along and is satisfied for any thing done at Paris but is sorry to observe your intellect so Principled yet even in relation to the very essential duty of Subjects And I am for my part more sorry because 't is point blank against the Principles of Christianity and all those arguments I make use of to help in Religion again Would your Lordship had Mr. Carons late Latin Work in Folio against those of Louain and Cardinal Barberins â—s Letter An other Work in Latin I have of my own which I will not publish yet for some reasons nor till I expect some farther time to see whether any one will undertake for Louaine to answer that of Mr. Carons Both he and I take notice of your Objections in some of your former papers to me I have besides a Remonstrance and a Petition too in Latin of Thirty sheets and in my own name and of matter of Fact all to his Holiness which also for some other reasons I do not Publish yet Your Lordship gave me occasion to think of it and it shall serve for an Apology such as you desired me to write I have all your Papers against Ferral still lying by me as likewise Mr. Lynche's Alithinologias Again I returne to your self and the Duke He thinks you a good Man This I writ to comfort the good Bishop in his affliction And think I writ but what in effect I supposed the Duke had on some occasion and by some words signified to me although peradventure not in those nor in so many other formal and express words especially at any one time good Priest and good Bishop And thinks you Candid and without cheat But sees withal that notwithstanding all your goodness you have still most dangerous Errours in your understanding and wonders at your weakness that cannot see them after so many occasions and causes and reasons to discover them to you And he knows you would if your understanding in that one matter were once rightly principled be of more use both as to piety and policy then many others of your calling or dignity There is a general Congregation of the Roman Clergy to be here at Dublin the XI of June next You may be there if you leave Spain in time and return in time to this such other Letters as become you For then I shall send you the Duke's License otherwise not Excuse this unmethodical scribling for I have no leasure now to do otherwise This goes to you by the way of Paris and my Lord of Ardmagh I am with all my Soul My Lord Your most Affectionate and Humble Servant P. Walsh Dublin March 16. 1665. S. V. His Letter of May 10. 1666. from St. Sebastian to my self again Reverend Father Walsh St. Sebastian May 10. 1666. YOurs of March 10th 1666. came yesterday to hand and though I have not obtained what I demanded I had thereby a great consent and satisfaction of mind that the Duke thinketh me a good man good Priest good Bishop candid and without all cheat That being so what danger can be feared from me but you say my Intellect ill principled may be feared Sir my Principles even about the main question between us and subject of the Protestation are those held by many eminent Divines and classical Authors Bishops Cardinals and some of them Saints and St. Thomas Prince of Divines one of those holding what they held will you say my Principles are dangerous and my Intellect erroneously instructed Were we together likely by wording we should better understand one another than by writing at this distance You may believe me my inclination is totally to follow the safest Principles for my Conscience and I am as much for those great Rules and Laws of Christianity taught by our Saviour Reddite puae sunt Caesaris Caesari c. and delivered by St. Paul to the Romans Omnis anima subdita sit c. as any whatsoever And I understand them rightly as I conceive as the greatest Divines understand them and as the Church doth explain them What more can be demanded from me following so many learned Masters Classical Authors Saints Bishops Cardinals who can blame me the Authority of all those is great their learning great their sanctity great the light they had from God great their number great being if I well remember Seventy one Authors as I found them in the answer of Cardinal Bellarmine to Barclaius Give me so many for your opinion so learned so holy and of so great credit and fame and I will subscribe to all
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
it fit to let them know I have no purpose of leaving this City so soon but that they may have time enough to resolve upon Subscribing the said Declaration and Protestation which contains nothing but a necessary and dutiful acknowledgment of the Loyalty they owe His Majesty and a Condemnation of all Doctrine and Practice contrary thereunto And I think fit further to put them in mind that such an opportunity as this hath not been given to them or to their Predecessors and if now lost may not perhaps be easily or quickly recovered This worthy Messenger and so Catholick a Gentleman too nay of such repute amongst the late Roman Catholick Confederates of Ireland that he was the first Embassadour employed by them to the Pope and other Princes and States of Italy having done so his duty in reading that Message to the Congregation was further pleased out of his own great good will to and Zeal for them and his Religion and Countrey in general to adde also his own further desires advice reasons exhortations and importunity beseeching them with all earnestness to take special notice of the Lord Lieutenants so gracious and seasonable reminding them not to lose the present opportunity c. After this Gentleman's departure which was as soon as he had done his own speech the Procurator 〈◊〉 my self P.W. made his also being his third Speech and last indeed on the Subject of the Remonstrance of 1661. for the Signing or Subscribing of which they â—ere permitted to sit as His Grace the Lord Lieutenant expresly minds them 〈◊〉 the Second time in his Message by Mr. Belings And from this expression of his Grace the said Procurator took his exordium again now failing not in the prosecution to present and exaggerate to the Fathers by all sorts of Arguments the manifold inconveniences and irremediable evils which in a little time they would bring on themselves and all the Native People of their Communion if they persisted in their inconsiderate resolve of declining what was both expected and demanded from them the Subscription of the above Remonstrance or if in lieu thereof they subscribed only an unsignificant Formulary of a private Cabalâ—s framing long before they met in this National Congregation But finding their leading men would by no means be drawn from their unhappy purpose of Subscribing only that of their Cabal the Procurator willing yet to try a little further all possible ways of saving them by rendring their meeting in some sort successful or to some good end or of having some ground given him to excuse them to the State or to interpret their Acts so as they might seem in some wise to concur in sense with the former Remonstrance takes advantage of the Speakers or Chairmans answering him in behalf of the whole House viz. That it was not out of any prejudice against the Remonstrance of 1661 they would not Sign it but because they thought it more convenient and becoming hath their Dignity and Liberty to word their own sense and for the rest they were far from any thoughts of condemning that Remonstrance or Subscribers thereof and therefore makes them presently therein Publick this Proposal That being no reason would move them from their determination of changing or varying from that Formulary yet if they pleased to testifie under their hands or by a publick and authentick Act of their Assembly what their Speaker had now delivered concerning that same Formulary of 1661 as the only reason of their varying from it he viz. the Procurator would heartily endeavour to perswade His Grace the Lord Lieutenant to accept graciously of their new Formulary or Act of Recognition if any way or in any good sense home to purpose Whereupon he produces and reads to them a fair draught of a very short paper which to that end he had prepared for them against such a fatal contingency of their continuing unalterable in their Resolution for a change or variation from the forme Which paper was exactly in these words HAving seriously perused examined and debated the Remonstrance and Protestation of Fidelity exhibited to His Majesty in January and Feb. 1661 by the Bishop of Dromore and Father Peter Walsh and such other Divines of our Nation of Ireland and by the Nobility and Gentry then at London who concurred likewise by their subscription and exhibition as aforesaid We find no part clause or proposition or any thing at all therein in any part or as to the whole contrary to Catholick Faith or which may not be owned or subscribed with a safe and good Conscience In witness whereof We the Members House and general Congregation of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland have hereunto Subscribed at Dublin June 15. 1666. When the Procurator had read this paper to them he added moreover That without this or same other publick Instrument by them Signed or Enacted containing in effect or substance that this Paper did it was impossible to prevent a Division nay a manifest Schism amongst the Irish Clergy if the Congregation would frame or sign only a new Formulary of their own and so not only decline but at least virtually condemn the former when nothing could be shewed to the contrary But the spirit of division possessing wholly their Demagogues they excused themselves from signing that or any such Paper professing nevertheless constantly That they had nothing to object nor would at all object any thing against either that First Formulary or Subscribers thereof Whereupon the Procurator both earnestly and mightily urged that at least a Select Congregation of their best and most professed Divines should be appointed by them to examine the said Formulary or Remonstrance or rather indeed to speak properly and strictly the Act of Recognition and both profession and promise of Allegiance c inserted therein debate every Clause thereof and then report to the House their judgment of it i. e. Whether they could except either against the whole or any part or clause or proposition thereof as unlawful to be sign'd in point of Religion or Conscience Giving for his earnest urgency herein besides many other reasons this in particular That for that very end principally if not only the Letters of Indiction had directed both the Bishops and the other Prelats Regular and Secular to bring the number of Divines with them fixed upon in the said Letters and consequently That for the same end those Divines now sate as Lawful Members of the Congregation And this also particularly That all such as had for so many late years either spoke against it and traduced it as Unlawful Schismatical Heretical Sacrilegious or otherwise on any account whatsoever excused themselves from signing it appealed still for their justification to a National Assembly wherein it might be throughly examin'd and canvassed Against which both motion and reasons the Bishop of Ardagh carrying himself rather like a man besides himself than of any kind of judgment discourse or sobriety spake cryed bauled even to raving
of that offer of theirs by the Reverend Fathers Nicholas Nettervil John Talbot and Angel Golding and their promise consequently to subscribe the whole six Propositions or Declarations of Sorbon and thereby had already prepared for their Deputies that reception they expected That nevertheless I saw now they intended no more but the three first of those Declarations That besides the note of inconstancy and uncertainty in their offers and promises they would lye under by declining the other three it would appear manifestly on debate That no kind of Instrument or Profession of theirs although backed with their signing those three first could signifie any thing at all because that on the contradictory question they declined signing the other three as they had already declined not only their signing the Remonstrance but even a simple Paper which only attested their not condemning that honest Formulary yea both declined and opposed so much as a debate or examination of it even by the Divines only That therefore I thought it concernâ—d mightily even their own credit and reputation to perform what they had so unexpectedly without any desire or thought on my side offered of their own free accord i e. to subscribe all the six That whatever they did herein or in any thing else I would nevertheless having first discharged my own duty to God and man by telling them what seem'd to me fitting and necessary according to all Religion Veracity and Justice do of my side what I returned for i. e. joyn with them by subscribing their Recognition c. being they so heartily desired I should and that I saw no evil therein but of bare omission which I was not to answer for That however at the same time I must declare to them They neither must nor ought in any reason flatter themselves with hopes of advantage or acceptableness of their said Act of Recognition or other Paper because I had returned to concur with them in signing whereas I only returned so and meaned to sign also as many papers as they pleased wherein I found no hurt though otherwise very little or no real good at all to the purpose not that I believed such Instruments by whomsoever sign'd would advantage them a jot but that I thought it unbecoming me to deny them utterly at last either my presence or concurrence even by hand and heart both where I might without sin or shame give both albeit I otherwise expected no advantage to them by either since I had plainly and sincerely told them so much and moreover done what else I thought or hoped might rectifie their judgments or alter their so fatal resolutions Lastly That if they of their sides had been but half way so indifferently if not so rationally and equitably disposed to concur with me and others by signing that only one Paper of the Remonstrance expected from them wherein they saw not only no evil no kind of culpable either Commission or Omission but even all that was honest loyal expedient necessary for the good of themselves their Church and People I might then by my return to a conjunction with them confidently assure them of the happiest issue any Irish Congregation had these hundred years whereas now as they have taken their own measures and finally resolved I could hope for no such matter but rather on the contrary fear their Resolve should prove unluckily ominous To this purpose when I had fully declared my mind the Speaker Primat and some others answered That nevertheless they hoped His Grace the Lord Lieutenant would be satisfied with the three first of the Sorbon Propositions That to this purpose they had those three fairly drawn in a different Paper but subscribed only at present by the two foresaid Prelats viz. the Primat of all Ireland and the Bishop of Kilfinuragh Chairman and by the Secretary Nicholas Redmond to the end this paper also together with their Act of Recognition might be presented to His Grace And that if His Grace must needs have the other three and could not be satisfied with their reasons to the contrary they would also subscribe these Whereupon without further dispute or reply but believing what herein they said I subscribed their Parchment Roll of Recognition where they desired me to subscribe it in the last place under the third Column of the other Subscribers and subscribed it there as they would likewise have me in this manner viz. Father Peter Walsh Reader of Divinity of St. Francis's Order Procurator of the Catholick Clergy the Chairman only at a lower distance subscribing after me much under the same Column and at a lower distance yet as under the third Column their Secretary Nicholas Redmond Which particular of my Title of their Procurator in my subscription I take notice of here to obstruct the calumnies even of some of the late titular Archbishops especially Peter Talbot of Dublin and William Burgat of Cashil who in some occasions even since they have been consecrated Bishops within these four last years have had the confidence either to deny that I have been or am or at least to call in question whether I be or have been at any time Procurator of the Clergy Regular and Secular of Ireland as I have subscribed my self in some of my Books Now I am sure if there were no other argument to convince them either of ignorance or malice herein that very Original Parchment Roll of this National Assembly's Act of Recognition doth which their Chairman Andrew Lynch Bishop of Kilfinuran and with him Patrick Plunket the Bishop of Ardagh took into their own custody as soon as the Subscriptions had been all put to it and for any thing I remember now mine was put to it after all the rest had done and finished all the three Columns of their names and so subscribed with my name and title of their Procurator under my hand both presented and delivered it with their own hands to the Lord Lieutenant that very night And so I am at last insensibly come where I would be in this Section viz. at my waiting on these two Bishops deputed by the Congregation to present his Grace with those two publick Instruments For as soon as the Subscription was over the House adjourned and night come I waited on them into the Castle having first acquainted my Lord Lieutenant with the whole Contents of both their Parchment Roll and other Paper as likewise how they fell back the one moyetie from their so late offer of signing all the six Declarations of Sorbon and how nevertheless they promised to sign the rest if His Grace would needs have it so though I could not for my part be sure of any promise of theirs but what I saw first in black and white under all their hands Notwithstanding all which His Grace both admitted these Deputies into his Closet and received them very courteously taking no notice at all of what he knew of any matters past in their House And they as
ignorance to assert nay and endeavour also even before his own face to maintain That because the King was out of the Roman-Catholick Church it was not lawful to pray for him at all or at least not publickly on any other day in the year than good Friday nor then in particular for him but in general only i. e. forasmuch as he was comprehended amongst the great generality of Infidels or of Jews Mahumetans Pagans and Hereticks for whom altogether the Church prayed on good Friday as being the Aniversary of that day whereon our Saviour dyed for all the Children of Adam in general nor yet then or so to pray for him without some further qualification and restriction of what we should beg of God or wish from Heaven to him i. e. to pray only for what concern'd the Spiritual welfare of his Soul and therefore only to pray for his Conversion to the Roman-Catholick Church but not for his Temporal prosperity in this world until he be a true Member of the only true Church 2. That although his own endeavours partly and partly those not only of the rest of the former Remonstrants but of other good men who albeit they had through fear of the Roman Court and other Ecclesiastical Superiours not subscribed the Formulary or Remonstrance of the year 1661 yet in their Souls and where they durst both in word and deed too approve it had prevailed in most parts of the Kingdom against this wicked Heresie of not praying as they ought for the Supream Temporal Powers he knew notwithstanding too too well that all opposers were not yet perswaded to decry this errour down or to practice against it 3. That notwithstanding the ignorance or malice of such disaffected Church-men the Holy Scriptures to speak nothing at all of Natural Reason in the case or I mean of that reason which directs us to wish well to all men and love our Neighbours as our selves were plain enough both for Praying and Sacrificeing too even for Idolatruos and Heathen yea persecuting Heathen Princes and not only for their Spiritual welfare but their Temporal as Baruch 1.11 and 2 Timoth 2.1 at least joyned together manifestly prove For certainly the Princes and Kings for whom Paul desires Timothy and all other Christians to pray for Heathens and Nero amongst them was the very first Persecuting Roman Emperour And no less certainly both Nabuchodonozor and Baltassar in the Prophet Baruch were Heathen Princes and the former He that sacrilegiously robâ—d the Holy Temple nay utterly in his time subverted the Kingdom of the chosen People of God and carried the miserable remainders of them Captive to Babilon 4. That no Church-canon or Custom or Rubrick or Reason or Doctrine or Practice hath any power to prescribe against the Laws of God or their eternal reason declared in both the New and Old Testaments 5. And Lastly That nothing could more justly render us to all Protestants both suspected of disloyalty and odious for immorality than such our scandalous either opposing or omitting so known a duty Secondly for the later or second part of that same first of those Three Heads he let them know likewise That although not even the Subscribers of the very former Remonstrance or of that of the year 1661 may be thought to be obliged by the only precise contents of that Formulary To acknowledg either the Kings Authority in commanding any meer spiritual duties or the Peoples obligation in point of Conscience to obey the King in such commands yet no man of knowledge will thence conclude that the intention or design of that Formulary or Subscription of it was either formally or virtually i. e. tacitly and consequently to deny all such Authority in the King or all such obligation of conscience on either Lay people or Clergy but only in plain and express terms to acknowledge the Kings other kind of independent Authority viz That in Temporals and for commanding in all Temporals universally according to the Laws of the Land of the misbelief or denyal and rejection of which even Vniversal and Independent Authority in Temporals it behooved the Subscribers to clear themselves or at least those in general in whose behalf they Subscribed and Remonstrated That such concern and such intention or design is very far from any consequution or sequel implying their denyal of the Kings Authority for commanding some Spirituals even truly such nay or of his Authority for commanding Vniversally all Spirituals whether not purely or purely such to be duly perform'd by all Subjects both Lay and Ecclesiastical respectively as they are in their several capacities by the Laws of God and man directed enabled and obliged to perform and discharge them and therefore also very far from any conseqution implying their denial either of Peoples or Clergys obligation in point of conscience to obey the King whensoever He commands a due and holy observance or performance and discharge of such Spiritual works which neither of their own nature nor by any icrcumstances or ends prescribed by Him are vitiated or against the Laws of God but are in every such respect acts of true Religion Piety and Holiness For who sees not That a general affirmation of one sort of Authority in Kings and of a correspondent tye of obedience thereunto in Subjects must not infer a general renunciation or denyal of another kind of Authority in the one and tye on the other when these latter can not be truly said to be inconsistent with those other That both the Examples even of the most religious holy Kings either amongst the Jews and Israelites in the Old Testament or amongst Christians under the dispensation of the New yea in the more early times thereof and the Doctrin of the Fathers and natural reason too in the case manifestly prove this Authority in all Kings for commanding even such spiritual duties and consequently this obligation of and tye of Conscience on all Subjects of whatever Religion true or false the same or different from that professed by their Kings to obey them even in all such their commands whither given by Law or by Proclamation or other temporary Precept That to this purpose the Books of Paralipomenon do furnish us plentifully with the examples of David (a) 1 Parlip cap. 23 cap. 28. 2 Paralip 8 Ezechias (b) 2 Paralip 29. and Josias (c) Ibid. 35. to say nothing now of Joas adhuc dum bonum (d) Ibid 24. faceret coram domino nothing of Salomon (e) 3. Reg. 2. Vide etiam 4. Reg. 18 23. cap. 2 Paralip 19 34 35. cap. Et Mac. 4.59 Ester 9.26 Dan. 3 19. â—on 3.7 c. and the Civil Laws of the Christian Emperours of Rome the Books of the Code Pandects and Authenticks furnish us no less plentifully with examples of Constantine the Great Theodosius both the older and younger Honorius Martianus Justinian Heracliuus Leo and many more amongst whom Carolus Magnus and
find no succour or countenance from any Catholick Prince of the Church or Laity he governing but reproach and disgrace Answer We believe that no Prince or State that could not be induced to succour or countenance this Nation being under obedience to their natural King will succour or countenance it if it suffer it self to be seduced into Rebellion upon the motives suggested by these men and their Brethren which were to give evil example to their own Subjects and hazard the quiet of their Kingdoms or States Sixth Reason That the Souldiers by the ill success of his conduct have not the heart to fight under him and so we shall be lost if we come to fighting Seventh Reason We find the People generally in great fear to be lost under his Government and are of opinion That the greater part of the People will agree with the Parliament if the Authority were continued in him despairing of defence under him Answer To these We have answered elsewhere * * From page 109. to page 115. in this Discourse Eighth Reason That we declared against him having the King's Authority out of no spleen or malice against his person so save us God but for the fear we had upon good deliberation of the utter ruine and destruction of the Nation under his Government and that now finding no reasons or wayes of preservation by him we may not with reason be induced to alter our opinion especially the Kings authority being not in him Answer We cannot sufficiently wonder That men having no spleen or malice to our person have yet been so Transported by their desire to have a Governour to their mind as to asperse us with so many untruths as they have been detected of in this Discourse Or why if their charity be such as they speak of they chose not rather to deal freely with Us in private when VVe so often provoked them to it than to join with others to keep Us here against Our inclination as if it were on purpose to send Us away irrecoverably blasted in Honour and Reputation by their publick Declaration Ninth Reason That those two considerable Corporations remaining are at great distance with his Excellency for giving Commissions to take away their Goods and other Reasons and are thought to be resolved not to submit to him though they resolve to appear as in their intentions and actions they conceive they are faithful to the Crown and to the Kings authority obedient if placed in another person Answer As to the Commissions here mentioned to be given by Us against Lymerick the many provocations disobediences affronts and challenges of dues by the Commissioners applotted on them required much more at Our hands than VVe did VVhich you will find by the ensuing Discourse though therein VVe are necessitated to re-assume in part what VVe formerly said of the demeanour of that City That VVe having for a long time observed the great disadvantage His Majesties service in the conduct of the VVar hath been subject unto for want of Garrisoning the Army in the principal Cities and Towns of this Kingdom whereby the Army could not but be undisciplin'd and unfit for action the Countrey where VVe have been forced to quarter them at large burthened and destroyed and the said Cities and Towns on the defence whereof depended the preservation of the Kingdom with the lives liberties and fortunes of all His Majesties good Subjects therein in apparent hazard of being lost upon the approach of an Enemy as by sad experience hath been verified in the loss of some places of importance for the want of the seasonable admitting into them of fitting Governours and Garrison Souldiers VVe did on the 14th of January last propose unto the Commissioners authorized by Us in pursuance of the Articles of Peace That then immediately Lymerick and other places should be strongly Garrison'd and Fortifi'd and in pursuance of the said Articles VVe offer'd unto them the names of three persons of the Roman-Catholick Religion that out of them they might choose one for the Command of Lymerick But the Plague increasing at Kilkenny together with the necessity of dissolving the meeting then there and for other important Reasons the Election of a Governour of the said City of Lymerick was deferred to the end that at Our coming thither VVe might in the manner prescribed by the Articles of Peace make choice of such a Person and Garrison as might be at once fit for so important a Charge and beyond all possibility of being lyable to just Exception from that Corporation We leave it to the Commissioners and others that then attended Us to witness what pains We there took to satisfie those of that City in the necessity of their speedy receiving a Governour and Garrison in relation to all the interests that can be of value with any people what Our patience was in passing by many disrespects and marks of an unworthy distrust put upon us there as particularly the Officer commanding the City Guards neither came to Us for orders nor imparted any to Us That no Officer of the Army nor any other person could without special leave and that hardly obtained from the Mayor be admitted to come to Us to receive Our commands and directions for resisting the Rebels than by this means prevailing in the County of Lymerick and other places and That the Lord Viscount Kilmallock a Peer of the Realm and an Officer of the Army was We being upon the place restrained of his liberty for no other reason than for quartering by Our orders for one Night some few Horse under his Command in the liberties of the City When thorough such their deportment We despaired of persuading them to the wayes leading to their proper safety and also judged it far beneath the honour of Our Master to remain any longer in a place where such Affronts were put upon His Authority intrusted with Us We determined to remove from thence to Loghreogh appointing the said Commissioners and as many of the Roman-Catholick Bishops as were within any convenient distance to meet Us there on the 19th of March Where being met We declared unto them the necessity of Garrisoning that City and gave them some notice of Our resentment of Our usage there yet sparingly in hope that by their means they might be brought to consent to what was so necessary for their own preservation and in time to a better understanding of their duty to His Majesties Authority Whereupon the said Commissioners by two of their number directed very pressing and rational Letters to that Corporation to the effect proposed by Us offering to them their choice of five persons for the Martial Government of that City all of the Roman-Catholick Religion of considerable interest in the Kingdom and of unblemished Reputation And the Bishops do affirm That they accompanied those Letters with others from themselves persuading that obedience should be given to what was required by Us with the advice and consent of
people and that obedience also in Temporals which is in all other Subjects to their own respective Princes and States or an obedience which tyes them not to raise Tumults bear Arms c. against the Princes Person Royal Authority c Lastly Who sees not there was very much both expediency and necessity in these Kingdoms of England Ireland and Scotland but more especially in Ireland for Catholick Priests amongst such a world of Sectaries and under a Protestant King and State to make such a Remonstrance or one in such even formal words of disclaiming and renouncing in so much any Forreign power being the generality of Romish Priests in these Kingdoms or at least in Ireland have been these many Years and are as yet upon so many sufficient grounds suspected to own such a Forreign power both Papal and Princely Spiritual and Temporal as in their opinion at least may seem nay is able and may even justly pretend to free discharge and absolve them from all obligation of Loyalty even in the most Civil and Temporal Affairs whatsoever and give them leave and licence to raise Tumults bear Arms and offer violence to His Majesties Person Royal Authority and to the State and Government of both Ireland Scotland and England So that from first to last you see by this Discourse even the very grand Block of stumbling and chief Rock of scandal quite removed or rather see there hath never been any such at all in the Remonstrance being this fourth Clause or Period of it is free of any such and hath neither Block nor Rock in it self at all the Block and Rock being onely in false and even wilfully and maliciously false Representations of it by perverse Interpreters Fifth Period or Clause follows Being all of us ready not only to discover and make known to Your Majesty and to Your Ministers all the Treasons made against Your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to lose our Lives in the defence of Your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all Conspiracies and Attempts against Your Majesty be they framed or sent under what pretence or patronized by what Forreign Power or Authority whatsoever But certainly here is nothing else Remonstrated but their being ready to perform their Duty in meer Civil or Temporal Affairs or which is the same thing I mean to perform a meer Civil and Temporal Duty and to perform it in a meer Civil way as all Subjects ought to their meer Civil or Temporal Prince To reveal Treason and defend the Kings Person Royal Authority and State even with the hazard of their Lives Are not both meer Civil and Temporal Duties As for that which some either too grosly stupid or too ridiculously malicious object 1. That Confessors who subscribe this Period or Clause of the Remonstrance declare they are ready and oblige themselves thereby to reveal in some case Sacramental Confessions and break the Sacred Seal of such Confessions made to them forasmuch as they say here They are ready to reveal all Treasons which shall come to their hearing And 2. That all sorts of Catholicks both Laymen and Clergymen subscribing this Clause bind themselves thereby to reveal that also which they cannot in Conscience reveal forasmuch as this Clause binds them to reveal all Treasons and we know 't is Treason by the Law at least in England 't is so to Reconcile any man to the Pope or to be Reconciled so to be made a Priest beyond the Seas by the Popes Authority and afterwards to return to the Kingdom of England as it is also Treason to deny that the King's Majesty of England is Supreme Governor in His Kingdom even in Ecclesiastical Causes and yet 't is plain they cannot nor ought not by any Law of Conscience as it stands not with the Laws of their Communion or Religion to reveal such matters To the first or that of Confessors I have already of purpose and at large answered in my LV Section where I Treated this Subject against the Third ground of the Louain Censure And to the Second or that of all Catholicks generally I say in brief here That Widdrington hath in his Theological Disputation Cap. 4. Sect. 3. upon the Oath of Allegiance most learnedly clearly and even diffusely answered this very Objection made in his time by some especially by Antonius Capellus Controvers 1. Cap. 2. pag. 30 seq against which or in answer to which the learned Widdrington or whoever was Author of those Works which go under his name in effect sayes That neither King James himself nor His Oath of Allegiance nor the Statute thereupon by the Clause of that Oath which tyes to the discovery of Treason did intend to bind or does indeed any way bind to the discovery of other Treason or Trayterous Conspiracy than that which is truly such by the Laws of God Nature and Nations even that which is truly such in all Catholick Nations against Catholick Princes but by no means to the discovery of such matters as are only of late by the peculiar Law of England called or made Treasons Treasonable or Trayterous Conspiracies and are not otherwise in their own nature against the natural Allegiance Truth Fidelity and Obedience of Subjects to their Prince And I say besides that neither any indifferent Catholick or even Protestant ever yet understood by the word Treason in such a Clause whereby Catholicks in an Oath or Declaration especially made by themselves oblige themselves to discover all Treasons any other kind of Treason but that which is such of it 's own nature or by all the Laws of God Nature and Nations or that which is such in all Catholick States and Kingdoms not that which is such by the positive Law of only this or that Kingdom or is only such by Laws made against even the very profession of the Roman Catholick Religion for such might be made Treasonable by an unjust Law of men were it left to the greater vote at least in some Contingencies and in some Countries And I say in the last place That words bind not against or besides the intention of such as speak or subscribe them not are by any Rule of Reason or Law to be construed so to bind whensoever the obvious and common sense of such words in all Nations or in the generality of Nations and Religions require no other intention but may subsist very well without any other intention and the Speakers and Subscribers of such words be thought to deal honestly and conscientiously and to be without fraud equivocation or mental reservation in such their speaking and subscribing Out of all which jointly taken with what I have said before on the other Clauses it is apparent enough That notwithstanding such capricious and foolish Objections the fifth Period contains no other than a promise or purpose of the Subscribers of being faithful in performing their natural Duty in Temporal matters without any kind