deposed from the sacaerdotal office but also thrust into a strict monastery to do perpetual pennance But nothing is concluded hence or may be against our case but on the contrary much for it as I mean to a lawful discovery of the sin or treason if such it be without discovering the sin or him that in his confession tells that intended treason For it licences the Confessors to consult in some cases with others telling them of the sins without revealing the sinner But for the rest it reflects not at all on the case of the Confessors discovery of an evil intended or plotted by others that never confess'd unto him such evil or such plot albeit the confessor knew it by or in the Sacramental confession of one of the very plotters or of some other that had no further hand in it then that of baâ—e knowledg Much less doth this Canon any way touch the case of a only seeming confitent or of such as is wickedly obstinately still impenitent however discovering such conspiracy in the confessional Seat And as little doth it say that either this kind of confession is any way Sacramental or the Seal or Obligation to keep it secret more then what is meerly natural or would be in case the party told it without any seeming formalities of a seeming Sacramental though truly known to the Confessor to be a very unsacramental confession Besides who knows not the general doctrine of Catholick Divines in relation to the Canons of the Church as such Canons only That they never bind nor intend to bind nor indeed can bind any not even I mean where they are received as this Canon is generally and ought to be not even where they seem in express words to come home to the case all the particular circumstances of it as this Canon doth not in any respect that I say such Canons neither do nor can bind any against the Law of God positive or natural Nay which is more that as barely such or as Canons of the Church only they bind not the faithful to observance where and when the observer must thereby suffer of loss of life or limb or estate or liberty or any other notable great and heavy inconvenience or evil which may be declined by the non observance of them For it is a known maxime of Divines in such cases that the Church is a pious indulgent mother But would she be so or not rather appear a cruel step-mother if she were supposed to make a Canon for concealing the intended ruine of King and Countrey and of an infinite number of Innocents nay and of her self too as may be well supposed in the case and concealing this also when the discovery so made by a confessor might prevent the whole mischief It s cruelty and inhumanity and want of piety and charity and religion and learning and reason too that would make any think she would be so impious And secondly what they can alleadg is That by the divine law natural as t is called by them for positive law divine they have none nor pretend any from Scripture or Tradition all Confessors must so behave themselves towards their penitents or confitents too let them say if they please as not to render the Sacrament of pennance odious And that a lawfulness once allowed in any case for the Confessor to reveal a thing or matter whatever it be told him in the confessional Seat and to reveal it I mean without his consent would render this holy Rite very odious and give occasion to many sinners not to declare their sins entirely but wholly to estrange themselves from confession for ever But if this argument concluded any thing to the purpose it would also conclude that Confessors must not discharg the duty they are confessedly and without contradiction of any side bound unto by all the laws of Reason and by all the Canons of the Fathers They would not enjoyn so many restitutions of lands and goods and same so extreamly grievous very often to penitents Nor would enjoyn so many other heavy pennances either medicinal or satisfactory no less painful then shameful too in many cases And who can deny but such injunctions render confession odious to nature Nay who can deny but the very duty it self of bare confession as it is prescribed by the Canons and Councils of the Church and by all Divines of the Roman Communion taught as necessary and as it is required to be exactly of all particular mortal sins of word deed or even inward consent alone and both of their number as farre as one can remember or conjecture after sufficient examination and of all kind of circumstances too that change the species as they speak must be very odious to nature especially when the sins are unnatural or shameful But if it be answered that such is the duty of the Confessor enjoyn'd him by the positive laws of the Church and by those natural laws also of Reason being he is Judge in that holy tribunal in the place of God and that such too is the doctrine of the Church and Catholick Faith where no liberty is left to Divines for teaching otherwise even so I answer to this allegation or objection of the Sacrament of confession to be rendred odious if the Confessor may be free in any case to make use of notices had therein without the Confitents permission It may indeed render it odious in such a case But to whom To a wicked impenitent or to a most unreasonable man To none truly rational and penitent to no such person making a true Sacramental confession or to none that is resolved at any time to confess holily will the confessors discharging his own duty render such a holy confession odious A duty whereunto and whereby in such case he is bound even by all the very laws of God as well positive as natural as may be easily demonstrated if at any time reqvired to hinder and prevent timely even by such a revelation such deplorable general and otherwise irremediable evils as would in all kind of moral certainty follow his not revealing the design communicated so in confession and let us always suppose the confitents denyal of consent to such revelation Though as I have noted before such denyal can hardly if at all be supposed in a true penitential confitent or in a true Sacramental confession unless we suppose withal the penitent to be some strange meer natural blockhead that is not capable of understanding his own obligation in such a case or the ghostly Fathers instructions in it Which yet is very like an impossible supposition 6. That our Masters of Lovain will find it a very hard if not absolutely impossible task To perswade a knowing pious man that either any dictate of natural reason or any ordinance of human Canons much less any article of Christian Faith or Catholick Religion hetherto delivered us either formally or virtually by Scripture or by tradition tye Confessors I
distinction of Countrey or Degree or Sex or Age Men Women Children from the most illustrious Peer to the most obscure Plebeian wheresoever in any of His Majesties Kingdoms or Dominions even at this present lie under all the rigorous Sanctions and all the severe Penalties of so many incapacitating so many mulctative Laws nay and so many sanguinary which reach even to life in several cases And your Predecessors before you have well nigh a whole Century of years been continually under the smart or apprehension of the severity of them And so may your Successors and your Children and Posterity after you for so long more if the true causes of Enacting at first those Laws and continuing them ever since be no better considered i.e. no more narrowly search'd into nor more effectually regarded by you than they have been by your Fathers for you or themselves But whatever Gods providential care of or goodness to your Posterity after you may be I am sure it cannot be denied but all Roman-Catholicks universally now living any where in England Ireland or Scotland must upon due reflection find themselves highly concern'd in having the Sword-point of those penal Constitutions hanging continually and even perpendicularly over their heads Do not we all manifestly perceive they are with-held at present from execution by a very small and weak Thred not only of one life that is mortal but even of one will alone that yet may be alter'd of a sudden upon many occasions which may happen when least expected Now seeing you are all every one thus concern'd in those Laws surely so you must all be in the causes of them i.e. in those genuine true proper and onely causes which continued must necessarily continue those very Laws and which removed will naturally remove them But if in those causes your concernment be such how can it be other or indeed how can it be any way less in the Subject of this Book All the several Treatises and Parts thereof and all the several Relations Discourses Disputes Animadversions therein occasion'd by either of the two Formularies drive ultimately at a plain and full discovery of those very causes and of their continual dependance on your own proper will alone and how lawfully and justly you may or rather how strictly you are even by all the known Maxims of Christian Religion Catholick Faith and Natural Reason bound in Conscience to remove them Your Concern therefore above all others in the Subject being thus at last clearly manifested I need no further Apology for the Dedication A Consecratory Address to you appears now evidently enough to have been required by the Nature of the Work it self as a necessary Appendage of that real duty which I have endeavoured to the best of my understanding all along in this Book to pay the most sacred name of Catholicks And in truth to whom other than to your selves ought or could I upon any sufficient ground dedicate a Book of so universal and weighty a Concern of yours Yet after all I must acknowledge that besides your propriety in the Subject I had the current of my own desires and my own Ideas to exact this Duty I have in truth these many years had continually even passionate desires of some fair opportunity to offer unto you but with all due submission still some farther and more particular thoughts relating both to the proper causes and proper remedies of all your foresaid evils And have at last entertain'd the pleasing Idea of a Dedicatory as the fairest occasion I could wish to speak directly and immediately to your selves all whatever I think to be for your advantage on that Subject and sutable to the measures of a Letter and what I moreover know some others think who yet have not the courage to speak or to inform you And therefore to pursue my old method I call it old having held these 26 years of delivering my thoughts fully and throughly in all Points which I conceive to be material though at the same time expecting from some contradiction and from others worse but comforting myself nevertheless with the conscience of very great Truth with the zeal of your highest advantage and with the certain expectation that all judicious good men will approve what I shall say and lay all to heart as they ought I must now tell you that if we please to examine things calmly with unprejudiced reading and unbyass'd reason we may find without any peradventure I. That the rigour of so many Laws the severity of so many Edicts and the cruel execution of both many times against even harmless People of the Roman Communion have not intentionally or designedly from the beginning aim'd nor do at present aim so much at the renunciation of any avowed or uncontroverted Articles of that Christian or Catholick Religion you profess as at the suppression of those Doctrines which many of your selves condemn as Anti-catholick and for the prevention of those practises which you all say you abhor as Antichristian II. That it is neither the number of Sacraments nor the divine excellency of the Eucharist above the rest either by the real presence in or Transubstantiation of the Consecrated Host nor the communion thereof in one kind onely nor the more holy and strict observance of Confession nor the ancient practice of Extreme Vnction nor the needless Controversies 'twixt Vs and the Protestants if we understood one another about Faith Justification Good Works or those termed Supererogatorie or about the Invocation of Saints Veneration of Reliques Worshipping of Images Purgatory and Pardons nor is it the Canon of the Bible or a Learned Liturgy or Continency of Priests and obligation of certain Vows or holiness of either a Monastick or Cloystered life in a well-ordered Community of devout Regulars nor is it either a Patriarchical power in the Bishop of Rome over the Western Church according to the ancient Canons and Customs or which is yet somewhat more an universal Pastorship purely spiritual acknowledg'd in Him such I mean as properly flows from the Celestial power of the two Keyes of Peter as far as ever it was acknowledged by all or any of the ancient Councils I say it is not any of all these Articles or Practises nor all together not even join'd with some others whether of lesser or greater note that is the grand Rock of scandal or that hath been these last Hundred years the cause of so many Penalties Mulcts Incapacities of shameful Deaths inflicted and more ignominious Characters given us III. That of our side the original source of all those evils and perpetual spring of all other misfortunes and miseries whatsoever of the Roman-Catholicks in England Ireland Scotland at any time since the first change under Henry VIII hath been a System of Doctrines and Practises not only quite other than your selves do believe to have been either revealed in Holy Scripture or delivered by Catholick Tradition or evidenced by Natural Reason or so much as defined by
reflect upon his Ordination as if indeed that had been not only uncanonical or unlawful but really void and null or as the Schoolmen speak invalid Were I to deliver my opinion of that matter or were it to my purpose to speak thereof I would certainly hold my self obliged in Conscience for any thing I know yet to concur with them who doubt not the Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Protestant Church of England to be at least valid And yet I have read all whatever hath been to the contrary objected by the Roman-Catholick Writers whether against the matter or form or want of power in the first Consecrators by reason of their Schism or Heresie or of their being deposed formerly from their Sees c. But I have withal observed nothing of Truth alledg'd by the Objectors which might in the least persuade any man who is acquainted with the known Divinity or Doctrine of our present Schools besides what Richardus Armachanus long since writ and with the Annals of our own Roman Church unless peradventure he would turn so frantick at the same time as to question even the validity of our own Ordination also in the said Roman Church on pretence forsooth either of the Form of the Sacrament altered at the pleasure of men or Succession of Bishops interrupted by so many Schisms or of Stephen VII (a) 〈◊〉 ad an Christi 893. condemning all the Ordinations of his Predecessor Formosus and John IX (b) ad an 904. rescinding all the Acts of that Stephen and then Sergius III (c) ad an 908. rescinding likewise all the Acts of the said John IX and the former Ordinations of Formosus Upon occasion of which horrible Hurly Burly of Ordinations Exordinations and Superordinations an Author of that time called Auxilius (d) cod anno 908. writ an excellent Book intituled De Ordinationibus Exordinationibus Superordinationibus Romanorum Pontificum Ordinatorum ab eis Exordinationibus Superordinationibus XIV Notwithstanding this Book have so many Treatises and be so bulky yet it brings the History of the Loyal Remonstrance and its Vindication against all Censures but to the end of the year 1666 or rather to the end or breaking up of the Irish National Congregation which was held at Dublin in the said year from the 11th of June when it convened to the 25th of the same Month when it dissolved The prosecution of the History and Vindication of the Subscribers of the said Loyal Formulary against all other sorts of Censures and illegal proceedings wherewith they have been ever since the year 1666 to this present 1673 more violently than before persecuted belongs to the Second Tome If you think this other Tome in English will be long a coming and it may be it will you may see in the mean time enough to satisfie you partly in my Latin three several Pieces intituled Hibernica and partly in my First and long Latin Epistle to Haroldus which hath been already published in Print XV. And yet however as I have now said it be not the scope or design of this Volume to give any part of the Sufferings of the Remonstrants since the year 1666 from their Antagonists and Persecuters much less to give instances of what in former times i. e. before the King's Restauration the Loyal Party of the Irish Clergy suffered from the Nuncio Party all along at least from the year 1646 to the year 1660 upon meer account of their having opposed and not observed the said Nuncio's Excommunication and Interdict nevertheless such i. e. so malicious hath been the indefatigable industry of Father Peter Talbot the Titular Archbishop of Dublin and Ring-leader of the Irish Anti-remonstrants all along these five or six years past in persecuting the said Remonstrants to death as far as in him lay that in the LXXXIV Section of the First Part First Treatise and contrary or at least much beside my former purpose he extorted from me some few reflections in general on his very Archiepiscopal but withal very disloyal unconscientious and unâ—hriâ—â—ian endeavours in that matter if not withal somewhat though but obscurely on his former actings in other matters at London in the year 1659. And such also that is so manifestly untrue have his Answers been at Dublin some 2 or 3 years since to a Petition of mine presented here at London in behalf of the foresaid persecuted Remonstrants and Loyal Party of Irish Clergy-men who had likewise in former times on the other account of opposing the Nuncio suffered that for disproving him where amongst many other untruths in his said Answers he would insinuate there had not been any such former suffering of any of the Remonstrants from the Nuncio Party I judged it expedient to take likewise in this very Book or Second Part of the First Treatise thereof an occasion of Treating incidentally and giving all those many and manifold notorious instances you may see there Sect. II. from pag. 579 to pag. 601. of the grievous Persecutions which the said Loyal Irish Ecclesiasticks that opposed the Nuncio suffered therefore continually from 1646 to 1660 both at home in Ireland and abroad in all other Catholick Countries of Europe wheresoever they lived or whether they were driven after the Parliament Arms had prevailed in their own Countrey XVI Nothing less than nor yet any such thing as a design to undervalue the miracles reported on any sufficient ground to be wrought either in former or later times by any Saint or person of the Roman Church induced me to give that large Account of the famed wonder-working Irish Priest James Fienachty which you may read likewise in the said Second Part c Sect. XXI from pag. 710 to pag. 735. Beside the duty of an Historian which even alone might require that Narrative in that very place I had all the reason in the world to invite me to give it that Protestants may be convinced there are yet remaining of the Roman Church at least some even Irish Ecclesiasticks that desire not to maintain the truths of Christianity or Catholicism by Cheats or Tricks and Lyes and Mountebankries XVII I was mistaken in my Third Treatise of this Book pag. 29 where I supposed Father Nicholas Nettervil the Jesuit Doctor of Divinity had amongst others sign'd the Three first of the Six late Sorbon Propositions or Declarations applied c. For now looking by chance on the original Instrument of the said Three first Propositions c Sign'd by the General Congregation at Dublin and comparing the number and names of the Subscribers there to those who Sign'd their First Paper or Remonstrance I find Nine of those Remonstrators not to have subscribed to the foresaid later Instrument of their Three Propositions and that amongst these Nine N. N or the said Father Nicholas Nettervil of the Society of Jesus is one Which may seem as strange as it is true he having been the first man that offered to Sign even all
the Argument of extrinsick probability than by the intrinsick reasons whereof they were not so capable And this extrinsick probability must have been by so much the greater by how much they saw the Authors of the Book to be Sixteen besides Fifteen other Approvers thereof XXII None must wonder to see amongst these Approvers the whole Colledge almost or Professed House of the Jesuits then at Kilkenny For indeed there was no more of note in their said House but Sign'd under their approbation save onely Father John Mac Egan one of their Professors of Philosophy The truth is they were all every one for the peace of the Nation and return of the People to their due obedience to His late Majesty of ever blessed Memory and Crown of England if you except the said Egan whose approbation therefore the rest thought not fit to desire at all as themselves told me They were all beside him not only of ancient English extraction but of their affection who were most against the wayes or designs of Owen O Neal and the Nuncio They were of that very Colledge of Divines that was convened to resolve the Queries They voted therein as I did against the validity of the Censures and together with the rest prayed me to write They kept their Chappels open from the first day of the difference notwithstanding the Dominican and Franciscan Monasteries of Kilkenny had shut their own Churches in observance of the Interdict In fine they were all none excepted and had been for some years before my own very civil kind familiar Friends above any other Order that was then in that City XXIII And yet I cannot deny but they play'd least in sight when the Book came to be Sign'd by the Bishop and rest of the Answerers These as soon as they had done Signing went immediately with it to the Grand Extraordinary Council of the Four Provinces Which Council expected them and it impatiently as hoping it might clear the scruples of the multitude and consequently take away the chief encouragement which Owen O Neal had to pitch his Camp so near Kilkenny that his Tents could be seen from the Walls Nor were they frustrated of their expectation Perhaps the Fathers were startled at that so near approach * Even the 〈…〉 Counâ—â—â— themselveâ— together with thâ—se other 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 them to their assistance out of the Toâ—â— Provinces were so startled at this so near approach of Oweâ— O 〈◊〉 Army and the shutting of Churches in observance of the Nuncio's Interdict and the great division of the People at the same time on the point also of the verâ— Excommunication it self that after the Colledge of 〈…〉 at least such of them as were most industrious had first confer'd Notes and turn'd Books for ten daâ—â—â— together and then laid the whole burthen on me during the three dayes and three nights I had without â—â—â—â—ting once my eyes continued at one Table writing that Book I remember very well how besides â—â—hers Richard Belings Esq a leading Member of and chief Secretary to the said Council came several 〈◊〉 from them to my Chamber to hasten my dispatch and to tell me the great danger of delay being the 〈◊〉 was in sight and the People so divided And I remember also very well how for the same reasons 〈◊〉 â—oâ—c'd to watch moreover even the very two next dayes and nights immediately following the forâ—â—â— three for studying the first Sermon that was Preach'd in Ireland of purpose on the Subject of the 〈…〉 against them and the Nuncio Nor could I not even for this other reason otherwise choose 〈…〉 before it was publish'd in all the Churches of the Town which kept not the Interdict that I 〈◊〉 next Sunday following Preach in the Cathedral on the great and then present Controversie To perâ—â—â—â— which duty notwithstanding I had not shut my eyes for five dayes and nights before God gave me strength My Text was that of Susâ—nâ—aâ— in the Prophet Daniel Augustiae sâ—nt mihi undique Dan. 13.22 〈◊〉 answerable to the great perplexity I was in 'twixt fear of the Nuncio's indignation of one side if I 〈◊〉 my duty and my belief of God's vengeance threatning me on the other hand if I did not of the Enemy and therefore absented themselves as intending if they could to sleep in a whole skin by securing themselves on every side But I nevertheless found my self more concern'd in their absenting themselves than to pass it over without Expostulation seeing I was desired by them as well as by others to write that little Book to justifie their practice XXIV Wherefore as soon as the Sixteen Notaries appointed that day by the Council for Copying it fairly had done and that I was commanded to put it in Print and to oversee it in the Press and that others also had brought me their own Approbations thereof those Approbations I mean which you see before the Book next unto the Title-page I sent to the Fathers of the Society to desire at least their Approbation under their own hands to be Printed together with the rest minding them at the same time of the publick end of the Book and expostulating with them for their absence on the former day wherein they should have appeared and Sign'd amongst the principal Answerers Whereupon they came to me and pray'd to be excused pretending 1. There was no necessity of their appearing in Print either as Answerers or as Approvers seeing there were already so many others who gave authority enough to the Book 2. That others could not be such losers as they should be without any peradventure by appearing in Print or at all under their hands in that Book against the Nuncio They had not only bestowed a Coach and Six Horses on his Lordship but lent him Twelve hundred pounds sterling which they were sure to lose for ever in case they put their hands to that Book 3. That they could excuse and justifie even before his Lordship their practice in keeping open their Chappel notwithstanding the Interdict because they did therein but what the priviledges of Regulars and the very Papal Canons allowed them to do by conforming themselves to the Mother-Church or Cathedral but that of approving such a Book they could not excuse In giving these three several Reasons or Excuses the Fathers who nevertheless were my own very special good Friends drill'd on three whole dayes keeping me at a stand when the Approbations given by others were under the Press Which was the cause that seeing interest onely kept them off I desired them to consider seriously Whether since both their Conscience and Affection would lead them to give their approbation also under their own proper hands as others had already done before them the loss unto them of Three thousand pound from others were not greater than that of the Twelve hundred lent the Nuncio And whether the General Assembly had not some time before the late difference with the Nuncio promised them
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
the Religion and Catholick Church pure undefiled immaculate without spot or wrinckle whereby to invite and perswade others to it for the salvation of their souls or certainly that they must allow salvation as they neither do nor can to be found in other Congregations or Churches either Heretical or Schismatical And further he minded them seriously insisting no less earnestly thereupon That no earthly regard none at all of temporal either advantages or disadvantages of honour profit ease much less of such vain titles and preferments as they look after nor on the other side any apprehension of disfavour discountenance danger persecution nor loss of goods if they had any nor even of liberty and life could excuse them from this duty That whether all their hopes of the King and his great Ministers of his Councils and Parliaments or of the moderate people of the Protestant Church upon one side should fail them having done their own duty and their pleas of innocence and articles both or whatever else-were of no account and all their both nearest and dearest Lay-relative Proprietors to a man were destroyed at home and themselves finally forced abroad again or design'd to suffer in their own Countrey the extreamest rigour of laws either made already or hereafter to be at any time or contingencies there or if on the other side they were absolutely certain being exiled to meet with no less severity and cruelty from the Court of Rome or an angry incensed Pope and from all Princes and Catholick Prelates and People too where-ever they came that even this certainty of such evils however in themselves or to any prudent man neither probable nor morally possible could not excuse them from this duty That the first Subscribers had supposed all the very worst could happen beyond all fear and yet found themselves bound to do what they did That they conceived their special function nay Christianity it self obliged them so in the case and others of the same calling could pretend no special priviledge from Christ or his Gospel or his Church whatever the Courtiers of Rome but at their instance and importunity and that of their busie ignorant Agents and Sollicitours there did erroneously complement them with And therefore the conclusion of all was that he understood not with what confidence or conscience but that of horrour and sacriledge and of being guilty of the body and blood of our Lord and of eating and drinking judgment to themselves as St. Paul speaks or their own condemnation they could persisting in their obstinacy approach the Altars of God and celebrate the Divine and unbloudy Mysteries With which final conclusion as with all the rest of this last discourse notwithstandieg the Procurator most frequently and earnestly and pathetically perclosed all his several answers to the several parties of the Clergy and to those too of greatest authority and power amongst them even Provincials Vicars General Bishops and Archbishops yet which is very notable he never had hereunto at any time or from any person of them all one word of reply but sighs only from some arguing a remorse and silence from the rest without any remorse at all if their past and after actions be sufficient testimonies of their affections XIV Now after so long a discontinuance of or digression from the bare matter of fact and without further consideration of the arguments of either side or of the allegations of the dissenters the refutations or reasons insisted on by the Procurator to return back thither where I was treating how upon the arrival of the said Procurator about the end of August 1662. he had by conferring at Dublin with several of the chief heads there peevishly adverss to the Remonstrance some alledging one excuse and some another and others many together of such as you have seen already above or before the answers partly understood the whole intrigue from those men and partly too from others who came to him from several parts of the Countrey abroad of purpose to let him know the general conspiracy either enter'd or submitted unto even by some of the best affected most loyal heretofore of both Secular and Regular Clergy throughout all parts of the Kingdom against that Remonstrance and himself also upon account thereof if he persisted in his resolution to draw them to it or not to work for them a liberty as they vainly conceived he could to frame another unsignificant one for themselves and prevail for the acceptance of such by His Grace and by His Majesty the Procurator fully therefore now understanding what he was to do resolves in the first place to attempt the breaking of that ligue so general the breaking of it immediatly by some Instances at Dublin the Metrapolitan City Whose Clergy and their example must especially in such a matter have had great influence on the rest in other parts of the Kingdom and certainly so much that if they residing in the very sight of the State and giving daily intelligence to the rest abroad or if at least some leading men of them could not be wrought upon to desert so sinful and shameful I will not say disloyal a confederacy there could be no hopes at all to prevail with any others In which attempt he was presently after some little pains taken so far succesful as to have reason'd to a subscription publick owning thereof the Guardian other Fathers of the Franciscan Convent in that City being in all five with them two of the Dominicans whereof one was the then Prior of Droghedah but residing at Dublin These were they that first of all others in Ireland at home next after Father Valentine Browne at Galway condemn'd by a clear and ever since constant profession and observance of their duty the rashness and sinfulness of that so general conspiracy against it Though I must confess that as many as after followed their example to this day have of themselves freely and heartily without compulsion or even other invitation then what was publick in the Book and Letters of the Procurator come along from several and some from very remote parts of the Kingdom to Dublin of purpose to subscribe that Instrument and thereby quiet their own conscience by declaring in that manner as they should and was expected from them their true allegiance to the Prince XV. But for as much as I doubt not there are very many both desirous and curious to know the number and names of all those of the Clergy Regular or Secular who have then or at any time since concurred for the number and names of the Subscribers at London of that Clergy together with the Bishop of Dromore I have already given with the Remonstrance it self in the beginning of this Treatise as they are extant in print and because it will be more satisfaction to give them altogether then dispersedly in several places as they signed at several times the Reader may satisfie himself here in both particulars
pray therefore that all proceedings in this matter be charitable religious deliberate and mature to the end scandals and greater dangers may be prevented protesting that we are most ready according to the Canons of the Church and light of reason to give Cesar what is Cesars due and to God what is due to Him and that both duties observed entirely your Paternity shall find us the children of obedience who are Your most Reverend Paternitie's most humble Servants Redmond Caron And the rest of the Subscribers now at London XLIX Immediatly after and in pursuance of his answer he sent a copy thereof and of the citation to Father Peter Walsh the Procurator then in Ireland Whereof the Procurator thought fit to take so much notice out of that respect due for himself also to the said Commissary General as to return both in his own name and in that of all other Subscribers of his Order at home in Ireland this long letter that follows rendred into English out of the Latin copie To the most Reverend Father James de Riddere Commissary General of St. Franci's Order in the Belgick Brittish and other annexed Provinces at Mechlin Most Reverend Father I have some twenty dayes past seen a copy of the letter which your Paternity gave the 18th of April from Brula to Father Caron at London and his answer both sent hether by the same Father And though it may not be certainly gathered either out of that your most Reverend Paternities letter or any other argument that I am my self any way concern'd therein yet because that Reverend Fathers conjecture in his foresaid answer seems not improbable to some that your Paternity intended by that very letter to summon to Rome or Brussels the Fathers of our Order and Province of Ireland who lately made to the King in a certain form or publick Instrument a profession of their Allegiance and subscribed the same and yet notwithstanding forasmuch as there are on the other side many considerations of no little force to perswade it can be no way likely that most prudent and most learned men such as without any question it is fit we should esteem the Minister General of the whole Order of St. Francis throughout the world and his most worthy General Commissary of the Northern Provinces should attempt or intend any thing against their own Sons upon the onely account of having complyed with all divine and humane laws by professing to their lawful King that fidelity in all temporals which they are otherwise bound unto and professing it also at such a time when doubtless it was both necessary and profitable to and the very interest of the Roman Catholick Church and no kind of disadvantage but a very great and known advantage to the true Orthodox Faith therefore and not in my own name onely or from my self alone but in all theirs too and from all of our Institute living now at home in the Province and these indeed are many both grave and sound men besides some Bishops and a considerable number of others amongst the inferiour Clergie not onely secular but regular also of other Orders learned conscientious and very zealous too for the Roman Faith and Papal Dignity who have subscribed that late Protestation of our Allegiance in temporals the rumour of which profession and subscription peradventure came to your hearing I very earnestly beseech your most Reverend Paternity may be pleased to signify out of hand whether you meaned them perhaps in that citatory letter sent Father Caron or whether you mean'd not rather some others accused peradventure of some kind of real faults defects or which God forbid of crimes And if the former that is the Subscribers whether such onely of them as yet are in England or live at London or even all those too residing at home dispersed in all parts of Ireland of all whose names or subscriptions the most Excellent Vice-Râ—y the Duke of Ormond hath at present the Original Catalogue as of such who have since my last arrival here subscribed the foresaid Instrument or profession of Allegiance Which about a year and a half since was first presented to His Majesty at London read and favourably accepted by him albeit then signed but by a very few hands in respect of the numbers that since have subscribed here And your most your most Reverend Paternity may be further pleased to certifie these living so at home as I have said now dispersed throughout all Provinces and parts of this Kingdom and certifie them by me or whom els you please what you think of the Reverend Father Carons exceptions given in his answer to the summons contained in that your Epistle supposing I mean that he hath so much as by guess understood aright your meaning whether they ought to be reputed probable lawful or Canonical To me indeed reading in Gratianus the Pontifical Canons or Decrees of the Provincial Councels of Carthage and Tarragona it appears manifestly out of cap. Placuit cap. Si Episcopus cap. Si quis Episcoporum d. 18. That notwithstanding any summons even I say the most legal and formal the parties summoned are excused when either by age or sickness or the Kings command to the contrary or any other corporal necessity of moment they are hindered from appearing I speak nothing at present of other Constitutions either of even the very Pontiffs of Rome or of the greatest Councels too of the Catholick Church those Canons to witt established by the authority of Synods not Provincial onely but National of the whole Affrican Church and Oecumenical of the whole earth and by that also of the consent and acceptation or submission of all the faithful of both Churches Greek and Latin even then I mean when That was reputed Orthodox and by that likewise of the concurrence of the chiefest and greatest Fathers amongst whom St. Augustine that light of Doctors was one Which Canons prescribe the judgment or tryal of causes to be held where no danger can be of wanting witnesses of either side or only where the witnesses may conveniently appear And therefore that judicial causes or the parties accused be not drawen or summond to any place where they may not come within a very few days not summond at all to appear without the bounds of the Province where they live nor forced likewise beyond the Seas whether commonly neither the accusers themselves nor the accused much less the witnesses either will or can goe For say the Fathers of that Synod of Affrick which is called Vniversal in their Synodical epistle to Pope Celestine speaking of the Fathers of former times specially of those who made the Canons of the great and first Councel of Nice it was most prudently and justly determined by them that all judicial causes should have their decision where they had their rise And verely whoever is of an other judgment and will rather fix on a judicatory beyond the Seas will scarce or not even scarce be able to
however apprehended by us to be so Now for the Lovaine Divines to say that to assert or acknowledge either of these two kinds of obedience or both as due by the law of God to the supream temporal Prince is as much as to deny the Popes or other Bishops or Priests either binding or loosing power which yet the Catholick Church never yet believed to be other then a purely spiritual power and to have no other then purely spiritual effects and a purely spiritual execution or means of execution and no corporal temporal or civil coercion or power of such coercion annexed if not that only which is added at some times and some places by the free pleasure of the supream civil Magistrate and by his proper Power and laws and is taken away again at his pleasure I say that for the Lovaine Divines to ground their Censure of sacriledge or unsincerity of Catholick Faith upon so unconsequent a supposition as if either such active or passive obedience or both together acknowledged by the Remonstrance did inferr the denyal of a binding or loosing power of the Church is to ground a very false and most injurious and erroneous Position upon a no less false and heretical supposition and is further to conclude them either bad Logicians or bad Theologians if not both For to object here that out of such active and passive obedience of Catholick Subjects notwithstanding the Popes excommunication to the contrary and out of their taking arms to defend their protestant King and his protestant Subjects as well as themselves in their lives and fortunes and out of his great power by Land and by Sea against the supposed invasion of a Catholick Army and from Catholick Princes the Pope himself being head of the Ligue must follow that if our King and his army prevail the Protestant Religion will be more and more established by him and perhaps too propagated into Catholick Countryes if he should make his Assailants a return by carrying the Warr back to their own doors or sending a formidable victorious Fleet of English Protestants to Civita Vecchia and consequently an apparant danger of destroying both Pope and Church and Religion at least amongst millions of people All which being evils of the first magnitude that whence they follow must be such I say that to object such conditional contingencies of extraordinary evils or possibilities to hinder an ordinary virtuous duty and of such evils too as have no connexion at all by nature or by design with such duty becomes very ill such Masters in Israel as the Doctors of Lovain For as it is an approved maxime in Divinity That evil is not to be done for any good that may thence arise though such good were foreseen to follow most certainly and without any kind of doubt so is it a no less approved maxime That duties enjoyned by the laws of God and man are not to be omitted and the quite contrary acted for fear of evils which by an extraordinary chance the malice or ignorance or other passion soever of other unjust men may thence derive and the anger of a just God may permit to be thence derived But if the Lovaine Doctors will deny the above active and passive obedience of Catholicks to be vertuous duties in the case and give no other reason then such as we have seen as indeed they do not for ought I saw or know and am very positive they cannot and if upon so weak a ground they have fram'd a Censure so erroneous and injurious both as they have most certainly then I have no more to say to this ground which is their second but that they have carryed themselves more prudentially in suppressing it so soon then conscientiously in alleadging it at any time LV. As for that alledged in the third place or as a third ground of the Censure I must confess I have not admiration enough to consider that men not only Doctors of Lovaine but Divines of a much inferiour degree whether of Lovaine or any other place esteemed either wise or honest should appear so weak or so malicious or both as to alledge it for a ground of any Censure at all and much more of one so severe Good God! Because the Remonstrance declares the Subscribers ready to discover any treason plot or conspiracy against his Majesties person c. that shall come to their hearing and yet not as much as promises that they will discover c. but only their being ready the Doctors of Lovaine must censure it as both sacrilegious and containing somewhat against the sincerity of Catholick Faith On precence forsooth that in relation to Confessors and Priests that hear confessions and subscrib'd or shall subscribe it it in some cases binds them to reveal secret sins heard only in the confessional seat and reveal such I mean without any licence from the penitent that confesseth such in that so holy secret and sacramental Consistory How much better had it become Doctors of Divinity and of so grave and judicious a Faculty as that of Lovaine should be to consider LVI 1. That all kind of Oathes of Allegiance or Fidelity in what form soever and to whom soever have alwayes either formally or virtually and for the most part even formally or in express words engaged the Swearer as indeed all such Oathes should to reveal all treasons plots conspiracies against the life estate or dignity of him to whom or for whom such Oathes were made And yet such expression was never interpreted in any age or Countrey by any Divines until of late by those byassed ill grounded Writers against the English Oath of Allegiance in King James's Statute to extend by any rational consequence to any kind of the least imaginable either direct or indirect breach of that which is now commonly called the Seal of Sacramental Confession Or which in effect is the same thing to extend to the revelation of the sin of such an individual penitent without his own leave as of such a penitent individually or determinatly or of him even as of one inderminatly of such or such a Society or body or corporation whatsoever nay or as of him too as of one of such a Countrey if I mean by such revelation how indeterminat soever as to the individual person yet sufficiently determinat as to the Society or Countrey any prejudice might arise to any such Corporation or Nation Suarez l 6. Defens Fidei Cathol contra Reg. Ang. de forma Iuram Fidel. cap. 3. though not to the individual person of the penitent For never yet amongst Christians where sacramental auricular confession is or was in use hath the knowledge had by the Confessor in that secret penitential Court been esteemed to fall under the general expression or notion of knowledge or of our knowledge as to any use to be made thereof out of the confessional Seat but what the penitent is expresly consenting unto Nor hath any Priest or Bishop whereof thousands upon
a yet impenitent wicked sinner sacramental absolution or the power of a Priest to absolve extending only as indeed sacramental confession it self to sins already committed in thought word or deed and as such declared to be absolved from For 1. in the case some person kneels as to confess his own sins penitently and with purpose to quit them for evermore and then by way of accusation of himself tells the Confessor he hath had a hand by acting or consenting or by knowing only and concealing such a wicked plot treason or conspiracy or he tells him this by way of consultation only to know whether he hath sinned or not by so demeaning himself in such a matter but still nevertheless consequently with purpose to be led to repentance and receive pennance and make satisfaction or do all his own duty hereafter as the Confessor shall instruct and injoyn him And this penitent withal tells this plot only depends of himself alone or of himself with others who have a share in it already and can execute it whether he will or no if he do not reveal it Or 2. in the case another comes in shew only to sacramental confession layes himself down at the Confessors feet and it matters not with what design whether that of consulting about the manner of engageing others or whatever else you please tells him of such a plot but withal shews manifestly to the Priest that he comes without any purpose to quit or reveal it though he should be enjoyn'd by him to reveal it and however the sinfulness and horrour of it be represented to him by his instructions Or thirdly in the case another or the same person comes to a Confessor or to any Priest and without putting himself in posture to confess his sins or sign of any such purpose tells him he hath somewhat of concern to both or either or some others to communicate to him so he would promise to receive it under the seal of confession The Priest promises and this person discloses the treason In this last case it is too too manifest that if the Priest reveal the treasons there is no discovery nor can be of any sin told in sacramental confession nor consequently a breach of any sacramental secrecy or seal not even in case the matter discovered were no treason at all nor other wickedness whatsoever Nay nor although it were such even of its own nature as ought to be kept secret and which could not be to the prejudice of any to be kept so For as the seal of sacramental confession depends not of the will of men but of the nature of the Sacrament and the law of reason and Canons of the Church which so strictly forbid Confessors to render sacramental confession odious by revealing the sins and the sinner or rather at any time or upon any occasion ever the sinner himself without his own consent so it is to no purpose to look for such discovery or such breach where there is no such confession And for the same reason it is no less manifest that if in the second case the Confessor reveal the treason there is neither such discovery nor such breach For and forasmuch as relates to or depends of this other seeming penitent if indeed at all as much as seeming such what he doth is so farr from a sacramental confession that it is most certainly the most execrable profanation of sacred rites can be as for no other end which a man not perfectly frantick could fix upon then to involve the Confessor himself and by him others in the same horrid enterprizes The first case therefore only remains to be considered But who sees not that scarce ever there can possibly be any such need in this case to engage the Confessor to reveal any matter at all if he discharge his own duty towards the penitent For in this true penitents case whether by way of consultation or by that of confession only he reveal such treason to him the confessor is bound to tell his said penitent that his sins cannot be forgiven by the Keys of the Church nor the Sacrament of pennance be intire as to him before he actually and by himself or some other discover the treason to those concern'd to know it being it is a Catholick verity this Sacrament consists of three essential or integral parts of the penitents side contrition confession and satisfaction as the duties necessarily antecedent concomitant and subsequent to the absolution given by the Priest and being the penitent cannot possibly be a true penitent that is any way fitted for or capable of absolution from the Priest unless he be really and truly resolved to observe all the laws of God and all those too of man which are not against those of God and therefore not capable of such absolution unless he hath either actually and already done his duty to the Prince or State or even to any other particular person if and when the conspiracy is only against such particular person by revealing to such as he ought by the laws of charity and justice what he should reveal and concerns them so neerly and highly to be revealed to them or unless he hath at least such a present real true positive effectual preparation or disposition of mind to reveal it immediately before there can be any danger and being this actual past discharge of his duty or this present effectual preparation of his mind must be known with as much certainty as may be to the Confessor And therefore too if the Confessor be discreet or wise conscientious and if the danger be very great and if he see any strong rational grounds which he can scarce ever see in this our first case to suspect a new tentation to come on the penitent if once absolved that may draw him back from his present resolution to reveal such intended wickedness the same Confessor is bound to tell the Penitent that he ought and must give him leave to discover what he knows from him I mean what is of absolute necessity to be discovered for preventing the evil And the Penitent as he is questionless bound to give him this leave so he will give it actually and immediately and even without any peradventure if we do not alter the case So that neither in this first case there can be any danger of the Confessors revealing any thing at all heard in Sacramental confession and revealing it I mean against the Seal of that Sacramental confession whether sin already committed by the Penitent himself and subjected by him to the Keys of the Church to be both absolved from and kept secret or whether any thing els not so committed or not so subjected by him to be absolved from or so kept secret 5. That no good and gracious no solid or conscientious Catholick Divine in the world can say or justifie a meer fiction of a Sacramental Seal of Secrecy where there is no Seal where none can be
nay and meritoriously too abide the sentence of death even in prima instantia from a Judge of Assize according to the laws of England or Ireland or both and the Execution of it and even at the same time acknowledge himself bound under pain of sin to abide this sentence and this execution patiently and christianly without resistance and yet at the same time also challenge the priviledge of the Canons or at least not renounce the priviledge of the Canons and even of such as he really conceives to be obliging Canons whether groundedly or ungroundedly he conceives or alledges such Canons it matters not to our purpose or that he may at the same time also alledge and the case may be such that he may truly too alleadge that he is proceeded against unjustly both by the Inferiour supream Judge both against the legally established received unrepealed obliging Canons of the Church and the uncontroverted clear just and wholsome laws of the State And therefore it is no less evident that there can be no inconsistency no contradiction at all betwixt a Priests acknowledging the duty of such an obedience and his challenging alwaye nevertheless a right not to be proceeded against by such a sentence That our further declaring in the said Remonstrance That notwithstanding any sentence of excommunication deposition c. we will alwayes be true obedient faithful Subjects to the King that we renounce all forreign power spiritual or temporal in as much as it may seem able or shall pretend to absolve us from us Allegiance or dispense with us therein or give us leave to raise tumults bear arms c. against his Majesty or Laws That we bold the doctrine impious and renounce â—t as such which teacheth that any Subject may murder the anointed of God his Prince though of a different Religion from his That we acknowledge all supream temporal Princes to be Gods Lieutenants on earth or in their Dominions and obedience due to them respectively in all civil and temporal affairs by their own Subjects That finally we protest against all contrary doctrines and practices That I say our further declaring any or all these particulars together doth not either formally or virtually or expresly or tacitly draw with it our declaring against or our disacknowledging renouncing declining or quitting the Exemption or Ecclesiastical immunity of Clerks either as to their Persons or as much as to their Goods if by this Exemption or Immunity that be understood as it ought certainly which all Catholick States Kingdoms Nations Councils Parliaments People Divines Universities Bishops Clerks and consequently Churches do understand in France Spain Germany Italy Venice Poland c. For the truth of all and every such declaration and obligation consequent may and doth very well stand in their opinion and according to their practice with such Exemption being they all hold this Exemption to be not independently from the soveraign power of the Princes or States or of their Laws but with dependance alway in relation to that soveraignty or supream Majesty from the inferiour Judicatures and in such cases only whether civil or criminal as are priviledged and only too in prima instantia or at most in so many other instances as will not require manifestly or by manifest necessity an appeal or recourse to the Prince or State civil or pollitick â gravamine or the interposition of the Prince's or States supream power in the case without any such appeal or recourse of either Plantiff or Defendant but ex officio where the Prince or State see a manifest necessity of such interposition as the case may be very well as it hath often been that the Ecclesiastical Judges are themselves involved in the same crime for example in treason or sedition and therefore will not punish the criminals accused before them but rather encourage them as much as they dare That moreover as it appears manifestly out of all the foresaid passages either separatly or collectively taken there is not from the first word to the last of the said Act of Recognition or Declaration of Allegiance not I say any passage at all any word or syllable in that whole Declaration being these I have given are all it contains of any matter soever that may be formally or virtually expresly or tacitly directly or indirectly understood by any rational impartial man to dis-acknowledge or declare against Immunity Ecclesiastical or the Exemption of Clergy-mens either Persons or Goods as this Exemption is allowed or approved by the Catholick World or Church or as by either understood so it appears no less manifestly that in the petitionary address which immediatly follows the said Act of Recognition or Declaration of Allegiance and of principles belonging to such Allegiance there is neither as much as one word which may import to an impartial understanding Reader or to any that is not clouded by ignorance or byassed by malice any such dis-acknowledgment of or declaration against such immunity or exemption And that if in this petitionary address there be nothing to this purpose or any such dis-acknowledgment of or declaration against such Ecclesiastical Immunity or Exemption it must be and is confess'd by the very most scrupulous or most invidious Adversaries there can be none at all in all or any part of that Remonstrance or in that whole Instrument entituled The humble Remonstrance Acknowledgment Protestation and Petition of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland To prove this last conditional assertion I need not add any thing more to what I have said already or observed in considering all the several distinct parts of the Act of Recognition in it self and other declarations following therein and to what moreover I have presently hinted of the confession of our most carping Adversaries but only this one advertisement more to the Reader whereof himself by reading only over that whole Instrument can be Judge that nothing else is contained in the paper but a bare Remonstrance of grievances persecution odium c. which no man ever yet quarrel'd against as pretending therein a ground for this fourth Exception or any other whatsoever What remains therefore to be cleared is the petitionary address of that paper as that indeed against which for ought I heard from the Dissentors themselves or any of them all their quarrel is on this pretence of quitting Ecclesiastical Immunity and subjecting Clergy-men to Lay Judicatories or to Secular Courts in criminal causes But how justly or unjustly be you Judge good Reader when you have considered the words sense and scope of that Petition so often returned for answer to this invidious Exception The words and whole tenor of that perclosing Address are these and no other These being the tenets of our Religion in point of Loyalty and submission to your Majesties commands and our dependance of the See of Rome no way intrenching on that perfect obedience which by our birth by all laws divine and humane we are bound to pay to
as I have done here but only quotes the books and chapters especially for the two former Which yet is not his custom when he finds the places home to his purpose As for that no less unconcluding and that too but onely one out of the new Testament you have it in the 17th of Matthew verse 23.24.25 and 26. where it is related that our Saviour being at Capernâ—â—m and the tribute gatherers demanding of Peter whether his Master would pay the tribute money or didrachma and Peter having answered yes our Saviour presently knowing of the matter and preventing Peter and questioning him in this manner what thinkest thou Simon of whom do the Kings of the earth take custom or tribute of their own children or of strangers and Peter answering of strangers our Saviour inferr'd instantly Ergo liberi sunt filij Then are the children free Adding further thus notwithstanding least we should offend them or give them cause to be scandalized at us go thou to the Sea and cast a hook and take that fish which shall first come up and when thou hast opened his mouth thou shalt find a stater that take and give it them for me and thee Of all these examples and places of Scripture Bellarmine frames his first proof to inferre his foresaid Thesis or fift proposition which is That the exemption of Clerks in all politick or civil affairs and as well of their persons as of their goods from all even the most supream temporal Magistrate for that too he means all along was introduced amongst Christians for this also was and must have been his purpose both by divine and humane law And for humane law he supposed that proved before as himself notes and alleadges these Scripture examples and passages to prove onely that his fift proposition for what concerns divine right or divine law Notwithstanding all which I say the case is clear enough still if we but consider these very testimonies passages either out of the old or out of the new or out of both Testaments For whatever may be alleadged pretended or inferr'd though nothing can be but with very little colour out of any or even all these places taken together for the exemption of the lands goods or persons of Clergiemen from paying tribute customs polemony or other taxes whatsoever yet I am perswaded that no rational man much less any consciencious able Divine can be so blind as not to see the unsignificancy of these Scripture testimonies or examples to prove the persons of Clergiemen exempt in criminal causes by divine right and by the positive law of God from the supream civil coercive power Which onely is that I dispute here with Cardinal Bellarmine or rather with his disciples or defenders in this particular controversy the Divines of Lovain And I am perswaded so 1. Because that of the Egyptian Priests signifies no kind of exemption of their persons from laye Indicatories not even from such as are inferiour and subordinate onely nor in any causes whatsoever either criminal or civil or mixt of both Nor signifies as much as the exemption of their lands or goods from all kind of taxâ—â— or from any at all but onely from the forfeiture or sale of their lands or from paying a fift part of the increase And this exemption too from such forfeiture sale or fift part not to have been made by any positive law of God but by the laws of man that is of Ioseph or Pharao 2. Because That of Artaxerxes concerning the Mosaycal Clergie at Ierusalem signifies no more but that Kings command to his own inferiour officers not to laye any imposition of toll taxes c. on them but not a word that himself had no power to taxe them much less any syllable which might import that those Ministers of that holy Temple were exempt either in other civil or criminal causes from his own cognizance or punishment or even from that of his inferiour subordinate civil Judges or from the Lieutenant that govern'd Palestine under him Besides we know the positive law of Artaxerxes cannot be said to be the positive law of God 3. Because that of Leviticus though confessedly sometime the positive law of God signifies no more also but that the whole tribe of Levi were put under the subordinate care and jurisdiction of Aaron and of his Sons the Priests and of their successors and onely as to the Ministery of the Tabernacle whereof he had charge according to what was expresly decreed in all such particulars by God himself in the law given by him to Moyses and rest of Israels descendants Not a word at all exempting either Levits or Priests or as much as the High Priest himself in other affairs or in either criminal or civil matters from the supream civil Temporal or politick Iurisdiction of Moyses or other succeeding Generals Judges or Kings nor as much as exempting them from tribute or taxe or other imposition if at any time the necessities of their countrey or people or weal publick or kingdom were such as the supream civil Governours should judge it necessary to taxe them proportionably for the publick good or safety as well of themselves as of all the other tribes It is true that although not here yet elswhere God left the tribe of Levi exempted from being bound to be listed for War Nay expresly ordained Numb 1.49 that they should not be listed so but should be exempted from that charge or duty as being there appointed for and applyed wholly to an other special duty that is to carry still and serve and keep and watch the tabernacle which could not well consist nor at all with that of warfaring But what hath this particular exemption from one onely duty to do with a general exemption from all other civil duties whatsoever and from the very supream power it self which was to take care that this duty also as well as others should be discharged Those amongst the Romans who by the laws were priviledged not to serve in the warrs were they exempted therefore in all other matters from the supream power of the state or Empire or exempted generally from the supream Coercive power in criminal causes or must Bellarmine abuse his Reader with such quotations and such implyed but unconcluding arguments Nor certainly does that iterated expression of God in that place of Leviticus or elswhere mei sunt they are mine import any more then a special designation of that tribe for that most special Service of His about the tabernacle For he hath often elswhere in holy Scripture said of all the twelve tribes together that they were his own chosen peculiar people And yet never mean'd to exempt them thereby nor by any other expression from the power of their earthly either supream or subordinate Governours or exempt them at all from such power in either civil or criminal matters or in any whatsoever but in such religious matters onely as himself expresly had reserved for the
delegating others or sitting himself alone or with others in judgment on this cause of Cecilian a Bishop the other excuse of Baronius tom 3. an 316. n. 58. is no less vain and frivolous then his former pretences For now he sayes that Constantine yielded to or admitted of such unlawful unjust appeals to the end the schismatick Donatists being so in all tribunals overcome should at last desist from that cause and be ever after quiet and the Affrican Church so then divided by schisme might be sometime again united in peace and concord and because he thought Affrick could otherwise hardly be continued under the Roman Empire being so powerful a faction as that of the Donatists did shake the Affricans already as to their allegiance ut sic victi sayes he speaking of these schismaticks à causa desisterent penitusque conquiescerent Ecclesia Affricana schismate scissa pace atque concordia uniretur quodque existimaret haud facile posse sub Romano Imperio contineri Affricam tam potenti factione labantem To which excuse I suppose first in general that evil is not to be done for any end how good soever And yet even in such a case of Affrick the procedure of Constantine must have been evil because against both the natural positive law of God if the suppositions and positions too of Baronius and Bellarmine were true concerning the Immunity of Ecclesiasticks even also in criminal causes from all kind of lay or civil Judicatories Next I suppose in particular that the politick rules of some worldly Princes for governing or containing their people in obedience cannot excuse a pious Prince if the true liberties of the Church be hurt by the practice of such And I say moreover it is very strange that Baronius a Priest and a Cardinal Priest should admit here of such politick reasons of Constantine or rather in and for Constantine against Ecclesiastical Immunity which yet himself maintains all along also here to have been usurped upon and unjustly hurt by such procedure of Constantine yea notwithstanding that pretence of danger in Affrick In his fifth Tome an 400. n. 41. he himself praises and perhaps justly too praises the vigour and piety of St. Iohn Chrysostome in dissuading the Emperour Arcadius from granting to to Gainas the Arian Rebel that only one Church which he desired for the people of his Sect within Constantinople Theodoret. l. 5. c. 32. albeit the Emperour was otherwise and vehemently too inclined as considering the power of Gainas and suspecting he aimed at the Empire and therefore praying Chrysostome's consent for giving him that one Church to try if that would lessen the rage of Gainas for he was already in the head of an army But all was in vain for Chrysostome would not be moved But whether this was in the case rather too much rigour then true vigour in Chrysostome according to prudential maximes and pious too I leave others to judge I am sure other good Churchmen and even great Bishops have also in our own age and some former too consented to the giving awaye from Catholicks to Protestants and to the use of Protestant Ministers and their divine services not one Church only but some hundreds if not thousands of Churches in Germany France Flanders c. and this also for ever and even by publick articles of pacification And I am sure also if this were not lawfull and I mean in point of conscience or of Gods law I see not how Caholicks living under the dominion of Protestant Princes or States now at present in Europe may with any colourable argument of reason urge the restoring or bestowing on themselves some or any of the Churches which are at present and have been so long in the possession and made use of by protestant Ministers and Bishops For these Princes States Ministers Bishops and their protestant people must at least for the generality of them be supposed to hold the Roman Religion and rites to be prophanations of those Churches as Chrysostome held of the Arrian Religion and Rites so that until they be convinced that the present Roman Religion and rites are the true ancient and true rites of the true Christian Apostolick Church or that their own Religion or Rites are false no man will be able to perswade that is to convince them by reason it may be safe in point of conscience for them to permit freely in their own dominions where they can otherwise avoid it the use of any Churches to Roman Catholicks if I say Chrysostome justly and prudently speaking not according only to his opinion but according to the verity of things in themselves denied his own consent to the Emperour Arcadius for giving that one Church in Constantinople to the Arrians at that time or in that conjuncture and denied it justly and prudently I mean still upon that only account of being against conscience or against the law of God Other politick and wise considerations he might have had indeed as I beleeve he had and as I beleeve also whether he had or not he advised that herein which he thought most pious but such concern us not here As no more doth this whole Instance it self nor any part of it but only to argue ad hominem out of Baronius himself against himself and to shew that if Chrysostome be praise worthy for choosing rather to let the whole Empire nay the whole Catholick Church too run the risco of being over-run by an Arrian rebel Tyrant then consent to or permit the delivering up to the Arrians for their divine service one material Church or Temple or House only however consecrated yet composed of lime and stone or brick inanimate things Constantine is not excusable by him and by his pretence here if he transgressed Ecclesiastical Immunity in usurping on and profaning the sacred persons of Bishops who are the principal parts of the very living Church albeit a portion of the Empire were in hazard if he had not done so To pass by therefore this excuse of Baronius or to say no more of it Constantine is far better defended by saying what the truth is and was that he wanted no excuse at all being he did nothing in this whole procedure or any other of judging Churchmen in criminal causes and such dangerous variance but what became and was the duty of a pious Prince who carries the sword and ministers vindicative justice For by actual and effectual Instances to appease the tumults of the very Sacerdotal Order and to assume the protection of the Faith peace and tranquillity of the Church and to force also when necessary the Churchmen themselves to live in peace among themselves and with others is part of this princely royal and imperial duty I say nothing here of Iohn the Meletian Bishop or of those many other Egyptian Bishops commanded and actually sent by Constantine to exile of whom Baronius tom 3. an 336. n. 16 17. But forasmuch as Baronius sayes ibid n.
solum ad mundi regimen sed maxime ad Ecclesiae praesidiuâ— esse collatum At most therefore what is in this matter granted to the Church is that Ecclesiasticks be not by Princes proceeded against coercively to punishment if their transgression be onely or meerly Ecclesiastical and the punishment be corporal I say be not so and in such case punished corporally unless or until the Church do her own duty first by depositions or censures or both Except you always still such extraordinary cases wherein the Superiours of the Church should or would themselves also peradventure be too refractory or too contumacious against reason as guilty of the same crimes or for any causes whatsoever countenancing or favouring the criminal Clerks and therefore refusing to proceed at all or at least onely against them For when a degraded Clerk is given over to the secular Court he is not delivered so by the Church to the secular Magistrats as if the Church did mean or intend these Magistrats should proceed by vertue of a power derived from her or be the Ministers or executioners of her own sentence which if capital she hath no power no authority at all from God or man to pronounce or decree as if any other way it be purely civil or forcible at all corporally for example to corporal restraint or imprisonment she hath for so much all her power from man and from the civil laws onely but he is given over so by the Church as meaning and intending onely that such a criminal Clerk be thenceforward under the ordinary power of even the inferiour lay Magistrats and Judges and by such delivery or giving over signifying unto them that they may now proceed if they please and think fit either to absolve or condemn him For even Caelestinus III. himself a Pope of the later times confesses c. Non ab homine de judic that Ecclesiastical punishment is of a quite other nature then that which is lay and that the Church hath no kind of power or authority to inflict such punishments as are in their own nature lay punishments or which is the same thing that she hath no power no authority at all of her self as a Church to inflict any punishment but purely Ecclesiastical but suspension deposition excommunication the lesser and greater and finally degradation when the criminal Clerk is delivered over or left under the secular power let the crimes of such a Clerk be ever so great and ever too such pure lay crimes even perjury theft and murder c and even heightned also by incorrigibleness A nobis fuit ex parte tua quaesitum sayes the above Caelestine utrum liceat Regi vel alicut seculari personae judicare Clericos cujuscumque ordinis sive in furto sive homicidio vel periurio seu quibus cumque fuerint criminibus deprehensi Consultationi tuae taliter respondentus quod si Clericus in quocumque ordine constitutus in furto vel homicidio vel periurio seu alio crimine fuerit deprehensus legittime atque convictus ab Ecclesiastico Iudice deponendus est Qui si depositus incorrigibilis fuerit excommunicari debet deinde contumacia crescente anathematis mucrone feriri postmedum verò si in profundum malorum veniens contempserit cum Ecclesia non habeat ultra quid faciat ne possit esse ultra perditio plurimorâ—m per secularem comprimendus est potestatem ita quod ei deputetur exilium vel alia legittima paena Where you are to observe singularly as to our present purpose of distinction betwixt Ecclesiastical and secular punishment and of no power at all in the Church to inflict corporal secular civil or lay punishments what Caelestinus sayes in these words Cum Ecclesia non habeat ultra quid faciat As you are also to note that he answers not directly or rather indeed not at all to the main question whether the King or other secular powers could punish Clerks guilty of or manifestly deprehended in perjury theft or murder but declines that of the authority of Kings or of other secular powers acting of themselveâ— in such cases without relation to the desires of the Church that they should act so and onely prescribes to the Ecclesiastical superiours how they themselves are to proceed by degrees aâ— becomes them against such criminal Clerks For otherwise it hath been seen before and in the very laws of Iustinian submitted unto by the Church that in such criminal causes the civil Praetors proceeded immediately against Churchmen though execution of the sentence was suspended until degradation was by the Bishop And it hath been seen that in a very auncient Council of Bishops long before this Calestine the first of Matisconum I mean the cases of theft murder and malefice were still expresly and particularly supposed or rather declared to have no Ecclesiastical exemption but to be still under the cognizance of even the inferiour lay judges And reason it self and the necessary preservation of both State and Church tell us that Caelestine's answer here cannot be otherwise understood in all the formalities of it and as relateing to the power supream of Kings who acknowledg none but God above them in temporals and who recieve not or incorporat not by their own proper power and into their own civil law this canon of Caelestine in any other sense or any other Church canon at all either like or unlike to it exempting Clerks in such crimes and in the first Instance from their supream legal cognizance or even from that of their subordinat ordinary secular and lay judges For I confess that in such Kingdoms or temporal States if any such be wherein the Princes or people or civil Governours and civil laws or customs have recieved such Ecclesiastical canons for the exemption of Clerks in such crimes until such Ecclesiastical formalities had preceeded it is fitting they be obserued and ought to be observed while the civil laws which onely gave them force or a binding virtue remain unrepealed and if the litteral observation of them strike not at the very being or at least peaceable and well being of the Commonwealth But observed so that is by virtue of the civil reception and incorporation of them into the civil laws and by the civil power they make nothing at all against my main purpose or against that of those other canons I alledg for the power of Kings from God to punish delinquent Clergiemen with civil and corporal punishments where and when they shall upon rational grounds judg it necessary and expedient for the publick good of either Church or State and where and when it is not against the laws of the land that they punish them so either by themselves immediately or by their subordinat lay judges either extraordinary or ordinary The Bishops of Affrick acknowledging this power in temporal Princes write in this manner and stile to the Emperour Vt novellae praesumptionis scandalum quod adversus fidem nostram attentatum
are so many strong confirmations of that which is and which I gave already as in effect my first Answer in general to the fourth the grand and last of all the remaining objections as it is made in general For if I be not very much deceived they strongly confirm not onely the rational probability but the moral certainty of what I have answered so that is that Thomas of Canterbury was not of a contrary judgment or opinion to my doctrine concerning the exemption of Clergiemen from inferiour lay tribunals and their subjection to the supream civil coercive power notwithstanding any true or pretended exemption but that he held as I do that all true Ecclesiastical exemption of either Churchmen or Churches and of the lands or goods of the Church is meerly and onely proceeding from the civil power of the municipal laws of the land not from any other law divine or human and held that by no such even municipal law Churchmen either have been or might be universally in criminal causes exempt from the supream civil coercive power of the supream Magistrat while otherwise they acknowledg themselves or indeed remained subjects And yet for exemplifying this I do not insist on that out of Parker concerning the Asyla because though he sayes 't was made a law yet I do not find it clear in him it was so by authority of Parliament but of a Synod in pursuance of the Popes Bull though for any thing I know it might have been so also by Parliament or otherwise by custom without any relation either to that Synod or that Bull. My Second answer to this grand fourth last objection is more particular cause it is to it as it is framed into a Syllogisme against me and is to each of the particular premisses a part Therefore to the Major which in effect is in these tearms whatever doctrine condemns of opposes the justice of St. Thomas of Canterbury's quarrel with Henry the Second c is false I answer that for my own part and for any thing may be deduced thence I admit it or this Major and admit it simply and absolutely without any distinction and even admit it so not onely as to the immediat cause for which he suffered but as to the intermediat or grand and long quarrel concerning the 16. customs and also as to the very original or that other complex of those antecedent five differences and as to a sixt original too if you please to add a fixt whereof hereafter and which might have been the very first spring or occasion of all that followed if we believe Parker For I confess it is my own judgment whatever judgment some contemporary Catholick Authors though otherwise both true Historians and good Ecclesiastical regular Monastical persons were of to the contrary on the whole matter and for what I can judg of matter of fact in relation to those dayes of St. Thomas and to the laws were as yet then legally unrepealed in England and to that King Henry the Second I confess I say that takeing all these relations together it is my own judgment plainly that Thomas of Canterbury had justice of his side in all these several following instances 1. In changing the pomp and vanity and pleasures and delicacies of his former life while he was high Chancellour of England and how splendidly pleasantly and delicatly he lived before in that office and in his other high employments of warr and peace and embassies abroad may be seen in Parker though Parker tax him not even for that time with any injustice sinfulness or viciousness but with a courtly and wordly pleasant and pompous life to the height and to humour the King and Court and in changing all I say into a life devoted wholly to God above all humane esteem and yet also unto the austerities of a most rigid Monk and Hermit as to his own body Which if Parker guess aright was the first cause or rise of the Kings alienation ever after from him before any other difference happen'd Quod he means the Archiepiscopal Pallium simul atque Thomas accepisset sayes Parker in the life of Thomas of Canterbury tam dissimili atque immutato genere vitae a priori illa curiali fuit ut Monachalem superstitionem so Parker cals it sub vestitu Clericalitexerit Nam ut scribit Trivetus and he quotes also in his Margin Roff. Hystor Arch. Nich. Trivetus Will Canter all of them ancient Catholick Historians post susceptum Pastoris officium supra humanam aestimationem factus est Deo devotus Consecratus enim cilicium clam induit femoralibus usus est usque ad poplites alicinis sub vestis Clericalis honestate habitum colens monachalem Et Wil. Cant. Paucis consciis sub lorica fidei militabat gaudens quia in triplici veste triplicem personam gereret exteriori clericum exhiberet interiori monachum occultaret intima Eremitae molestias sustineret Ex quo quidem existimare facile est quamvis Monachorum sibi studia hac dissimulatione this of dissimulation is Parkers own addition and not what he read in his Authors adjunxerit quantum tamen Regis Praesulum atque Procerum animos abalienaverit si quis ea quae de communi omnium voto de Monachis ab Episcopali dignitate deinceps repellendis in Rodolphi vita antea scripsimus animadverterit Atque haec prima esse poterat offensionis dissensionis Regiae causa quod cum antea politius urbaniusque vixisset jam odiosam illam Monachalem institutionem susceperit sive sponte sua sive quod illam obsoletam Papalis excommunicationis sententiam in Elphegi vita antea descriptum timuerit 2. In discharging himself of the Chancellours place especially being that he had no command from the King to the contrary 3. In recovering to his Church of Canterbury and by due course of law those lands which some of his Predecessors had against law alienated to lay persons and secular uses 4. In using his best endeavours that the fruits or temporal revenews of vacant Churches should not be swallowed by the Kings Exchequer 5. In declaring his judgment frankly and compassionatly for the ease of the people according to law in that case wherein the Kings Officers against law extorted from them Hyde money or accridg money and extorted it as a duty whereas it was or should be but a free benevolence at the pleasure of the people and this too but in certain cases whereof none was then 6. In not delivering the two criminal Clerks to secular justice 7. In not swearing first at the Kings demand to receive and observe the 16. customes and when he had through too much importunity and fearfull apprehensions of others and at the entreaty and perswasion and tears also of the Bishops of Salisbury and Norwich and of the Earls of Lester and Cornwal and of those two Templars Richardus de Hastings and Tâ—stes de St. Homero all
Ecclesiasticos quam Saeculares praesertim Nobiles congruis admonitionibus sedulo continere satagat in sincera perfecta erga Sanctam Apostolicam Sedem observantia rejectis commentis novae formulae fidelitatis Valesianorum Illud enim est quod Ecclesiam Dei majori damno ac pernicie afficere potest quam quaevis anteacta Haereticorum persecutio In eo autem munere obeundo non est quod Paternitati Vestrae suggeram utpote ubertim in hujusmodi materiis instructae ex propria eruditione ac prudentia praeter ea quae nuper ipsi viva voce insmuavi signanter ut sic refutetur arguatur illud Juramentum ne tamen Regii Ministri ansam accipiant in Catholicos saeviendi eosque tanquam Regiae Dominationi quia ab Ecclesia defecerit infestos persequendi De omnibus porro quae in causa fidei at statu Ecclesiae digna notatu compererit gratissimum mihi erit Paternitatis Vestrae Litteris identidem edoceri Illas autem inscribat absque operculo A Monsieur Monsieur Francois Rossi-Bruxelles ita enim secure ad me perferentur Denique Paternitatis Vestrae Sacrificiis me animitus commendo Bruxellis 7. Octobris 1663. Paternitatis Vestrae Studiofissimus Hieronymus Abbas Montis Regalis In English thus Reverend Father in Christ YOur Paternities most friendly Letters dated at Paris the 20th of the last month I have received wherein you signifie that you are now again upon thoughts of your Journey to Ireland Wherefore I wish you a most happy Journey and send you the Faculties of an Apostolical Missionarie As for that which you mention of danger of Confusion in that Kingdom by occasion of the Visitor now suddenly to be Commission'd he meant the Visitator of the Franciscan Order in Ireland who was then to be sent or at least Commission'd from beyond Seas I could wish you did particularly inform me on that Subject that understanding fully the whole Affair I might timely take my measures Nothing occurs to me which at present I may recommend But the sum of all consists herein That rejecting the Comments Lyes or false Device of the new form of Fidelity of the Valesians you labour diligently by congruous Admonitions to contain your Countreymen especially the Nobility and Gentry in a sincere and perfect observance of the See Apostolick For that Formulary is it which can do more harm unto and bring more ruine upon the Church of God than all the forepast persecution of Hereticks In order to the discharging of that Duty incumbent on you its needless that I suggest any other thing to your Paternity being a man throughly and abundantly instructed in such matters by your own eradition and prudence besides those which I have lately by word of mouth insinuated to you signally That the said Oath be refuted and reproved so as that notwithstanding the Royal Ministers may not thence take occasion of severity against Catholicks or of persecuting them as people studiously and maliciously undermining the Royal Dominion on account of its having fallen from the Church As for the rest know it will be most grateful unto me that by your Letters I be frequently advertised of all Note-worthy matters concerning the cause of Faith or State of the Church which shall occur to you Your Letters without cover you may superscribe A Monsieur Monsieur Rossi-Bruxelles for so they will securely be brought to me To conclude I commend my self heartily to your Paternities sacrifices Bruxels 7. Octob. 1663. Your Paternities Most Affectionate Hierom Abbot of Mount Royal On either Letter though you need no Animadversions because they are of themselves plain enough as it is also plain that as well by these as other you have Sect. vii this Internuncio begun that which his Successors ever since more vigorously pursued viz. to have the Remonstrants esteemed both Schismaticks and Hereticks yet I cannot here but give some few Observations First Observation is How these men would pull out our eyes and make us believe the Pope would have all kind of Duty Faith and Obedience paid by us to our King to be exemplars of these vertues even to Hereticks and in a place of darkness the lights of the world in such matters and yet at the same time and by the same Letters to condemn us in effect as Schismaticks and Hereticks for any way acknowledging our King to be King and promising to obey Him as such and at the same time also to procure a publick University Censure of the Louain Divines to condemn our Subscription of such acknowledgment and promise and no less solemnly than formally or in express words to judge both to be unlawful detestable and sacrilegious yea and consequentially or virtually to be also Schismatical and Heretical For that our very such bare acknowledgment and promise c. were so condemn'd by them is manifest because our said Remonstrance and Subscription neither contain'd nor imported any more than such bare acknowledgment and promise c. being they contain'd and imported only this much That we acknowledge the King to be Supreme in all Temporal and Civil Affairs and that we promised to be faithfully and unchangeably obedient to him in such that is only in all Temporal and Civil things leaving out of purpose all mention of any kind of Spiritual things or causes Now who sees not that if we be condemn'd for only acknowledging the King to be Supreme in Temporals we are consequently condemn'd for the bare acknowledgment of his being at all or in any way or sense our King For there are but two or at most three wayes or senses wherein any can be truly said to be King The one that he be Supreme both in Temporals and Spirituals The other that he be in Temporals only and the last that only in Spirituals either purely and essentially or only by extrinsick denomination such But we have not Remonstrated nor have we Subscribed our acknowledgment of the King 's being our King either in the first or last sense but have been as to the words of our Formulary as far from either of both these two senses as Heaven is from Earth And therefore have only in the second Whence is further most evidently consequent That being we are condemn'd for Remonstrating or Subscribing in that sense we are also for the very barest acknowledgment can be of the Kings being any way King For how can we acknowledge him King if ever also as to very Temporals we deny his Kingship And therefore it is not only a meer Cheat and Imposture but Folly Non-sense and even plain contradiction to say That his Holiness would have us to be and continue still in our duty faith and observance to any person as to our King and yet at the same time to tell us That our profession of fidelity and obedience in Temporal things is unlawful detestable and sacrilegious nay Schismatical and Heretical upon this account that by such profession we both promise a more ample obedience to
of giving the foresaid protestation of fidelity in more pleasing words was not wanting which yet are no way able or fit to remove the mischief But to those who having past the bounds of modesty after so many vain endeavours peradventure glory to have had this last success of the designed Assembly His Holiness doth threaten sore divine revenge if they turning from wicked thoughts do not abstain from such enterprises In the mean while I in the name of the whole Congregation set over your affairs do exhort you that the opinion of your fortitude and faith and the concern of your Salvation be above all things taken by you to heart and that you pay a grateful return of good offices to the Roman Church which hath begot you in Christ The rest is that you all hold for certain you are singularly beloved by our most Holy Lord who by prayers all set on fire with duty and Charity most earnestly begs of the most High God that you may from those unhappy thickets of briars and wild Forrests of danger be brought to the pastures of the Lord. Rome April 24. 1666. Your most loving in the Lord Francis Cardinal Barberin The second Letter or that which was from Rospigliosi dated at Brussels May 13. same year 1666. to the Clergy alone superscribed thus Reverendissimis ac Venerabilibus Dominis Episcopis Vicariis Sedium Vacantium reliquo Clero Hiberniae And proceeding thus Reverendissimi ac Venerabiles Domini PUritas Fidei Catholicae quae inter tot pericula aerumnas illaesa permansit in Regno Hiberniae efficit ut omnes Apostolici Administri merito habeant fideles illos pro dilectissimis Sanctae Sedis filiis tenerrimo effusoque studio erga res eorum afficiantur Ego qui non ex merito sed ex mera Sanctissimi Domini Nostri beneficentia eumdem characterem sustineo meaeque curae commissam habeo directionem negotiorum Vestri Regni sentio mihi adeo acriter praecordia convelli ut lachrymas continere nequeam dum perpendo Nationem illam quae caeteris hactenus illustre constantiae exemplum fuit cuivis temporali commodo praetulit semper conservationem orthodoxae Religionis divini cultus augmentum majorem gloriam Dei nunc versari in periculo ob insidias quorumdam a Patre Iniquitatis humani generis hoste seductorum contaminandi illam eamdem Fidem cujus splendorem per totum Orbem tot tam praeclare gestis hactenus conata est conservare augere Eo quidem tendit Juramentum ad quod subscribendum Valesius Caronus per varias technas satagunt persuadere Ecclesiasticos sicque illos facere Instrumenta causam Damnationis caeterorum Iste est finis ob quem tanto nisu promovent congressum Dubliniensem Et quamvis fingant se moveri zelo fidelitatis debitae Regi satis patet esse merum fucum ad bonos decipiendos quoniam abunde notvm est compertum omnibus quam firmiter radicatum in animo affectum reverentiam obedientiam habeant erga Serenissimam Majestatem suam ac ne optari quidem posse documenta ampliora iis quae hactenus exhibuerunt Et si quid praeterea tentant Valesius Caronus spectat non ad augendam fidelitatem Populorum erga Principem sed ad exterminandam puritatem Catholicae Religionis cujus destructivum est praefatum Juramentum consequenter ad cunctos fideles Hibernos in lachrymosam ac perpetuo deflendam erniciem detrudendos Quanto gravius est periculum tanto amplius meritum acquiret penes Omnipotentem Deum quicumque animo zeloso constanti suavique ac prudenti moderamine remedium opportunum attulerit imminenti periculo Neque possunt oves alio quam vestro praesidio defendi a morsu laetali pravae suggestionis quoniam ob eruditionem dignitatem Sacerdotalem vos praecipue venerantur suspiciunt eademque ratione tenemini earum saluti enixe sedulo consulere Igitur vos in visceribus Christi rogo obtestorque ut tot praesentes tot posteros vestros Conterraneos ab interitu ac casu irreparabili revocetis ne Christus Dominus in durissimo judicio iis qui praesunt faciendo districtam a vobis rationem indiligenter peractae villicationis exigat Nec plura addere operae praetium duco cum causa ipsa quae Dei Cultum Salutem Patriae honorem Generis vestri inseparabiliter attinet zelum vestrum per se incendat excitet adhortetur Finio igitur Altissimum orans ut vos gratia sua praeveniat sequatur ac bonis consiliis jugiter praestet esse intentos Bruxellis 13 May 1666. Reverendissimi ac Venerabiles Domini Vester Devotissimus Servus ad omnia officia paratissimus Jacobus Rospigliosi Abbas S. Mariae Internuncius Apostolicus The Superscription was Reverendissimis ac Veneralibus Dominis D. Episcopis Vicariis Sedium Vacantium reliquo Clero Hiberniae Rendered into English the Superscription in these words To the most Reverend Lords Bishops and the Venerable the Vicars of the vacant Sees and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland And the inner Contents as here Most Reverend Lords and Venerable Sirs THE purity of Catholick Faith which amongst so many dangers and tribulations remain'd without stain or spot in the Kingdom of Ireland makes all Apostolick Ministers to esteem those faithful deservedly the most beloved sons of the Holy See and to have a most tender and affectionate regard of all their Concerns I who through no merit of my own but out of the meer beneficence of our most Holy Lord bear the character of such a Minister and have the direction of the affairs of your Kingdom committed to my charge feel my bowels so grievously pull'd and torn in pieces that I cannot forbear weeping when I consider that Nation which to all other Nations hath been hitherto an illustrious example of constancy and which before all temporal advantages hath alwayes preferr'd the conservation of Orthodox Religion increase of Divine Worship and greater glory of God to be now in danger through the wiles of some seduced by the Father of iniquity the Foe of humane kind of contaminating that very Faith the splendor of which throughout the whole earth by so many and such glorious deeds it hath hitherto endeavoured to preserve and increase To that indeed tends the Oath to the subscribing of which Walsh and Caron by so many subtle arts labour to persuade the Churchmen and so make them Instruments and causes of the damnation of others That is the end for which they use such great endeavours to promote the Dublin Assembly And albeit they feign themselves moved out of zeal of fidelity due to the King yet this appears sufficiently to be but meer false dye to deceive the good because it is abundantly known and manifest to all what affection reverence and obedience and how firmly rooted in their very Souls towards His most Serene Majesty
pay We neither know when or where it was or who had more The manner of Mr. Daniel O Neal â—s coming into Command was thus he had taken great pains in bringing his Uncle General Owen O Neil to submit to the Peace and His Majesties Government so did he effectually labour after that work was effected to bring the Vlster Army to Our assistance when Cromwel was in his march from Dublin towards Wexford Owen O Neil being sick the Army was conducted by Lieutenant-General Farrel and Major-General Hugh O Neil but when it joined with the Leinster Munster and Connaught Forces and some English and Scottish Horse and Foot We found great difficulty how to distribute Orders with satisfaction to all these Parties the Vlster Party being unwilling to receive them by Major-General Purcell and the rest were as unwilling to receive them by Major-General Hugh O Neil But all Parties were content to receive them from Daniel O Neil and by him they were distributed and Major-General Purcell was sent into Munster where he had and exercised a Command in chief in the absence of superiour Officers nor was his Commission annulled or a new one of his place given to any other to this day So that if the displacing him or any other Officer without the consent of the Commissioners had been a breach of the Articles of Peace as it is not there is no Truth in the Affirmation that he was displaced Fourth Article of the Declaration A Judicature and legal way of administring Justice promised by the Articles of Peace was not performed but all process and proceedings done by Paper-petitions and thereby private Clerks and other corrupt Ministers enriched the Subjects ruined and no Justice done ANSWER For Answer to this We refer you to Our Answer to the Third Article of the said pretended Grievances Which Article and Answer are as followeth Article viz. The Third of those called the Grievances That whereas it was by the said Articles concluded there should be Judicatures raised and established in this Kingdom for doing of Justice and legal determining of differences and controversies arising betwixt His Majesties Subjects Articles of Peace art 13. see pag. 49. of the Append. of Instrum and that the Council-Table should onely meddle with matters of State and should not intermeddle with common business within the cognizance of the ordinary Courts nor with altering possession of Land nor make nor use private Orders Hearings or References concerning any such matters c. and the proceeding in the respective presidency Courts should be pursuant and according to His Majesties printed Book of Instructions and that they should contain themselves within the limits prescribed by that Book when the Kingdom should be restored to such a degree of quietness as they be not necessarily enforced to exceed the same Yet the People generally complain the said Judicatures have not been raised nor any other way prescribed for the determining of such controversies but the Council Table or rather the Lord Lieutenant alone and the Presidency or President alone took to them cognizance of all Causes and arbitrarily on Paper Petitions determined all Causes extrajudicially even to the altering of possessions and in consequence thereof to the determination of Titles and right of inheritance And though the present disuse of the Law as aforesaid is in the peoples mouth a heavy grievance at the present yet will Posterity have just cause to tell abroad That in the not erecting Inns of Court in pursuance of the said Articles of Peace through which to convey to them the knowledge of the Law See the Articles of Peace art 8. before in the Appen of Instrum pag. 49. they are given up to ignorance of government obedience or property And though the Province of Munster was not since January last in such absolute tranquility as before the War yet did not the state of it require a transgression of his Majesties said Book of Instructions which yet was violated in the practice of that Court by the Commissioners there intrusted being generally uninterested in the Kingdom in blood or fortune and all Protestants by reason whereof the less indifferency in matters relative to Religion was afforded to the Catholicks ANSWER Art the 8. ibid. By the Articles of Peace Judicatures were to be raised and Judges named by the advice and with the consent of the Commissioners For which purpose VVe sent to His Majesty for leave to make and use a great Seal which as soon as VVe had received VVe caused a great Seal to be made and were at all times ready to have agreed with the Commissioners what kind of Judicatures to raise and with what persons to have supplied them as will not be denied by the said Commissioners Which may suffice for Us to answer to that particular We acknowledge That according to the necessary power at all times invested in the chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom VVe have received many Petitions and to the best of Our understanding have made just and equal Orders and References upon them and have also upon Certificate of the ablest men VVe could find finally determined some of them but never to the alteration of possession unless perhaps upon clear proof of forcible intrusions by violence contrary to all the Rules of Law and Reason Which if VVe had not done during the want of Judicatures every mans power would have been his Judge in his own cause What the Presidency or President have done irregularly or contrary to the Articles of Peace they shall be brought to answer when they or he shall be particularly charged That Inns of Court have not been erected according to the Articles of Peace Posterity may tell as loud as they please but if they have Schools to learn English enough to read the Articles of Peace they will find that His Majesty was only to enable the Natives of this Kingdom to erect one or more Inns of Court in or near the City of Dublin or elsewhere as should be thought fit by His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours for the time being Whereby by the scope of the Article which is for removing of incapacities it is plain the said Inns of Court were not to be erected at His Majesties charge And sure no man will have the impudence to say That VVe who had the honour to govern under His Majesty did give the least interruption to the erecting of them or that ever it was proposed to Us to give way to the erection of the said Inns. Whereof VVe confess there was never more need if their property be to instruct the People in their duty of obedience to Government with this addition That to charge Us with want of doing Justice without instancing the particular cases wherein VVe failed thereby taking from Us the means to vindicate Our Self from so high a Crime is sutable to the justice and practises of these Declarers Fifth Article of the Declaration The