excuse their great dependence from the Ordinaries and Secular Clergy as to their future admission to the respective Districts or Diocesses and their establishment for houses in the Countrey Besides that they were but a very few and inconsiderable in respect of others That however their judgment affection or extraction lead them yet this cause alone might be sufficient for their excuse not to subscribe without encouragment by example from the Ordinaries And yet it is very well known that several of them as likewise of the other more ancient Orders laboured earnestly and mightily that there should be no such encouragment or example at all from Ordinaries or any other Whereof the reason is very obvious Because the later any religious Institution is and the newer in any Catholick Countrey the greater dependence it must have and the more support it wants from Rome Which those three last Orders amongst us were so far from putting to any hazard to be lost by subscription that they would assure themselves of it more and more by the greatest opposition they could make in favour of all pretences for the holy See and thereby also be sure to continue their yearly pensions of Missionaries such of them I mean as are pensionaries upon the account of mission as several are 9. That above all the Jesuits yet more particularly found themselves concern'd on this particular account that so many great and famous Writers of their Society and by consequence the whole Society it self had been all along these fourscore years at least throughly engaged to maintain the contrary doctrine and practises 10. That on the other side the Secular Clergy pretended there was no signing for themselves before the Regulars concurr'd who as being commonly the best Divines and Preachers and many in number and changeable from County to County and from one Diocess and Province to another at their Superiours will and in most parts in greater esteem with the lay people then the Secular Clergy would if not concurring with them cast such an aspersion on them as would be able to render them infamous and contemptible amongst their own Parishioners upon account of so specious a pretence amongst ignorant people as the renouncing the Papal power and acknowledging the King to be Supream Head of the Church would amount unto For so many and very many too of both Secular and Regular Clergy gave out to the common sort against their own knowledge and conscience the Subscribers mean'd and did by that Remonstrance of 61. representing it as the same thing with the Oath of Supremacy which Roman Catholicks generally have refused this hundred years and therefore lay under so many incapacities and other penalties Nay some of those Clergy-men did not stick to say and swear too they would sooner take the Oath of Supremacy than subscribe that Remonstrance And yet it is very clear those Gentlemen understand neither or if they do either that certainly they are out as to both in their explications of them as far as from East to West For in the sense wherein the sons of the Protestant Churches of England and Ireland take the Oath of Supremacy they acknowledge no spiritual Supremacy purely such or any such spiritual Headship or supream Government-ship in the King in any causes or things what soever even temporal so far are they from acknowledging such in causes or things Ecclesiastical or Spiritual not even in those which are by extrinsecal denomination only called Ecclesiastical or Spiritual but only a Supream Politick Civil or Temporal Head-ship or Government-ship in all things whatsoever by the power of the material Sword and this of this Sword over all persons generally as well Church-men as others Which sense is very Catholick and owned in relation to their Kings and 〈…〉 temporal Governours by all Catholicks in France Spain Germany Poland Italy 〈◊〉 wheresoever in the world Nor do they intend to deny by the 〈◊〉 Oath in the negative â—â—me any power purely spiritual to the Pope or other even 〈◊〉 Prelate 〈◊〉 that power only which 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—ugnant to that supâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 temporal or politick Government-ship be not said to be such as indeed it cannot justly And on the other side it is plain the Remonstrance o◠〈…〉 not a word or clause either defectâ—â—◠〈◊〉 directly or by any kind of consequence importing the 〈◊〉 wherein the Roman Catholicke have refused â—â—therto the â—â—nd Oath of Supremacy 〈◊〉 this sense is no other than 〈…〉 by the universality of the words or signs 〈◊〉 the affirmative and negative 〈◊〉 the Roman Catholick Vulgar understands ever also a spiritual Privacy or Supremacy purely such to be attributed to the King and denied to the Pope and other Bishops in those Dominions albeit this sense be plainly repugnant to the very Confession of Faith in the 〈◊〉 articles of the Prâ—â—estâ—â—â— Church England and Ireland and to those others of Queen Elizabeth in her Injuctions authorized and owned even by Parliament Now it is no less manifest and out of all controversie amongst such as do but even lead singly over the Protestation of 61. that there us not a word in it 〈◊〉 â—biâ—â—ting any such to the King or denying it to the Pope or intending at all any such thing nor indeed any thing else but what is allowed and approved by the doctrine and practice of all the Catholick world abroad iâ— peradventure the present Roman Court not the Roman Church be not excepted and the few sticklers for it although against the sense and inclination of all the wise and moderate Popes even I mean too such as governed that See in these latter times But however this be or be not such was the pretence of many for not concurring by their subscriptions albeit they confess'd withal the Remonstrance very catholick in it self And for this pretence or the scandal raised against the Remonstrance of renouncing the Pope or importing the same with the Oath of Supremacy besides the malicious or wilful stumbling of some at one word in it not construed or taken with the words immediatly following restraining that word as all men of never so little reason or sense must allow it ought to be I know not but the reprinting of the single sheet of that Remonstrance at London by some of purpose to gain by selling it when all the first Edition was immediately bought and the reprinting of it with a false Title cryed and sold so up and down the Streets which false Title imported the renouncing of the Pope by the Popish Clergy of Ireland whether I say this occasioned not at first that aspersion amongst some ignorant people I know not though I am sure it could not amongst the Clergy on Layety either that read the paper it self or what was therein contained 11. That some also of the leading men had a special pick to it only because advanced by the Procurator by whose means they would not even desire the freest exercise of their Religion because he had been all
Ecclesiastical or a sin or charge of the sin of Schisme Qui potestati resistit Dei ordinationi resistit Illa regula sayes he terrenae potestates cum Schismatices persequuntur se defendunt An Apostolum delebimus To Augustine we may annex Theodulus Caelesiriensis who sayes the Apostle Paul in that passage of the 13. Rom. multa providentia monstrare Christi Evangelium non ad publicae bonae ordinationis subversionem datum esse eo quod satis esset hostium qui veritatis nomine sint nos oppugnaturi quod nos adversus tot hostes eoso superfluos cogitare oporteat And Ambrose the second time in epist 88. where he writes in these tearms to Eugenius Augustus though also if my memory faile me not a meer Vsurper of the Empire In his in quibus vos rogari decet etiam me exhibere sedulitatem potestati debitam sicut scriptum est Rom. 13.7 cui honorem honorem cui tributum c. Nam cum privato detulerim corde intimo quomodo ei non deferrem Imperatori Sed qui nobis deferri vultis patimini ut deferamus eâ— quem Imperij vestri vultis Authorem probari You see in Ambrose a Bishop and a most learned holy Bishop the distinction of his being a man and being a Bishop As a man he gives the Emperour all obedience in humane things according to the precept of Paul But as a Bishop who had the superintendency of divine matters he refuses to be subject in the same divine matters to the Emperour To all these holy Fathers who of purpose either expounded or expresly applyed to our purpose this text of Paul Rom. 13. we may also annex some other holy Fathers who have without any peradventure implicitly or virtually given the same exposition of it forasmuch as they having been Churchmen themselves professed themselves and all other Christians generally without any exception nay and some of them in particular or in specie professed the very Churchmen the very Priests of God to be subjected by God himself to worldly Princes For to pass by that sentence of Iustinus Martyr Apol. 2. ad Anton. Iâ—peratorem Nos solum Deum adoramus vobis in rebus alijs laeti inservimus Imperatores ac Principes hominum esse profitentes and that also of Athanasius in Apolog. ad Constantium where he speaks thus even to an Arrian Emperour who yet unjustly persecuted him Nequaqam restiti mandatis tuae pietatis Minimè gentium Absit Non enim ego is sum qui vel Quaestori civitatis restitero nedum tamen Imperatori Certâ— me profectioni adornabam Nam hujus qnoque rei conscius est Montanus ut litteris tuis acceptis si dignatus fuisset scribere statim decederem promptitudine obsequendi mandatum tuum antevenirem Non enim ita insanio vt istiusmodi praeceptis contradicendum putarim Ex decreto â—uae Majestatis voluntatem tuam cognoscere studebam Sed neque tum accepi quod jure postulabam jam impraesentiarum nulla alia de causa aecusor Non enim restiti decreto tuae pietatis neque Alexandriam ingredi conabor quamdiu id per tuam humanitatem non licebit And yet the controversy with Athanasius was about his very unjust banishment and of his very just restitution back again to his own Patriarchal See of Alexandria And yet also he confesses here it had been absolute frenzy or madness for him not to depart into exile from even that his own proper See at that very Arrian Emperour Constantius's bare command without any further violence or force of Souldiers to pull him out or carry him away expected as likewise to return back at any time before he had his Imperial Majestie 's gracious condescension to his return I say For notwithstanding that I pass by these sayings of Ignatius and Athanasius What is more cleer in the consequence then that even S. Gregory the Great himself a most holy Roman Pontiff though jealous enough too of and no less zealous for both all the just priviledges of the Clergie in general and all the honours of the Papacy in particular or the prerogatives due to his own See then I say that this very same so holy so concerned and learned Gregory is implicitly and virtually cleer enough to our purpose where l. 4. Regist ep 31. ad Mauritium Augustum and epist 64. ad Theodorum intimum medicum Mauritij he acknowledges the Dominion of the Emperour Mauritius as given by God himself overall the Priests of his Empire Sacerdotibus autem non ex terrena potestate Dominus noster citius indignotur sed excellenti consideratione propter eum cujus servi sunt eis ita dominetur ut etiam debitam reverentiam impendat for he speaks in the said 31. epistle writing to the Emperour himself And again writing to Theodorus the said Emperours intimate or chief Physitian epist 64. of an other matter Valde autem mihi durum videtur sayes he ut ab ejus servitio milites suos prohibeat qui ei omnia tribuit dominari eum non solum militibus sed etiam Sacerdotibus concessit And what is more clear too in the consequence to our purpose then what another ancient Pope I mean Gelasius writes in his tenth Epistle to the Emperour Anastasius Quantum ad ordinem pertiâ—et publica disciplinae sayes he cognoscentes imperium tibi superna dispositione collatum legibus tuis ipsi quoque parent Religionis Antistites c. where he confesses that the very chief Pontiffs of Christian Religion ought to obey the Emperours laws in matters belonging to publick discipline and gives for reason that it was from God he received the Empire And lastly what is to our purpose more clear in the consequence then that of those other most religious and godly ancient Fathers in history Ecclesiastical stiled Archimandritae Constantinopolitant the Abbots of Constantinople writing to Pope Agapetus in Quinta Synod act 1. tom 2. Conciliorum Licenter omnia accident say they non contra Ecclesiasticos solos sed etiam contra ipsum piissimum Imperatorem nostrum vestrum honorabile câ—put Where you see these very most religious Fathers of the Greek Church of such ancient times and of the same Catholick Communion with the Pope writing to the Pope himself do notwithstanding stile the Emperour nostrum vestrum honorabile Caput both their own honourable head and the Popes head too or our and your honourable Head Which I could wish the Catholicks both Layety and Clergie of England had well considered before they divided so unhappily about the title of Head given at the beginning or before the beginning of the change to Henry the 8. and continued after to some of the following Princes as I could also heartily wish the framers of the Oath which had that title in it had been more circumspect in using such words as would more to the understanding of the vulgar signifie the politick Headship only
the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury and by the Saxon Danish Norman laws of England all along till Henry the Second himself 's own raigne and until after this controversie happen'd criminal Clerks even guilty of murder were to be judg'd and punish'd only by the Court Ecclesiastical â—ay that not only by the same laws all Clergiemen 〈…〉 all crimes whatsoever to be judg'd only by the Bishops but that all the very 〈◊〉 of the Church were â—â—all causes whatsoever to be adjudg'd only in the Church of Ecclesiastical Tribunals nor should have recourse to those were by way of distinction commonly called the Kings Courts but only in default of justice done according to law in the Courts of the Church Which being in or as to both differences the law of England contrary to which iâ— both differences oâ— cases Henry the Second would have forced St. Thomas and no other law of God or Man commanding St. Thomas to submit to the King in either as the case stood not even that of St. Paul 13. to the Romans because St. Thomas had in both as in all his other differences the sublimer â—oâ—â—ers in the law of the land for himself who sees not that St. Thomas needed not for his own justification in either differences pretend either the positive law of God or the natural law of God or the law of Nations or the Imperial law or even any Church law or Papal law or Canon for the exemption of criminal Clergiemen from the secular Courts when he denyed to deliver up the two criminal Clerks or when he refused to sign or seal that second Head of Henry the Second's customes which second head was such as subjected all Clergie-men in all kind of causes civil criminal mixt spiritual and temporal to the cognizance of the Kings even ordinary lay Judges and Courts as you may see by turning to and reading over again in my fourth Observation that second Head of those 16 And who seeâ— not but he might at the same time without any contradiction inconsequence oâ— contrariety maintain that still it was true that abstracting from the laws of England then as yet 〈◊〉 because not legally repealed all Clerks in England were by the laws of â—eason and laws of God and doctrine of the Fathers and many Canons too of Popes and Councils subject in all temporal causes both civil and criminal to the lay civil Courts and Judges of Henry the Second Nay who sees not but for any thing alledg'd or known out of the Histories of either his life or death or martyrdome or canonization or miracles or invocation of him after as a glorious martyrized Saint and even martyrized only too if you please in meer defence of the Church liberties and immunities who sees not I say but that notwithstanding any thing hitherto so alledg'd out of all or any of those Histories he not only might be but was rigidly and constantly of this judgement and opinion especially being these Histories tell us in one instance that when he was so much pressed to sign to those 16. Heads as the royal customes of Henry the First he doubted they were no such customes of Henry the First or were no customes at all and therefore chiefly and only fell off after swearing them and would not sign or seal them at all as was desired and expected from him albeit his Cross-bearer's check did forward his repentance for having sworn Sed cum descriptas consuetudines sayes Parker himself in the life of our Saint perlegisset Thomas for when he swore to observe them he did not see them in writing nor were they digested at all into heads and therefore he only swore in general to observe those customes which Henry the Second called â—nitas consâ—â— tudines his Grandfathers customes and royal customes â—ulâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 an ill â—um quaedam inter consuetudines essent habendae itâ—â— diem deliâ—â—◠〈…〉 sigillum chirographum adhiberet petiit and whereas also he could not be ignorant of the laws both Imperial which he had studied and of the laws of England where he lived and judged so long as Chancellor Or who sees not briefly that that there is no contradiction that a most rigid 〈◊〉 Bishop should dye for the rights of the Clergie and be therefore a Marâ—â—◠〈◊〉 yet acknowledge all those rights or at least many or some of them 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ch he dyed as for example that of exemption came to the Clergie from the meer civil or municipal and politick just laws of the land and only from such laws of the land and not by any means immediatly from any other law divine or humane of nature or Nations or of the Church Pope or Emperour if not in so much only as the laws of God and nature approve all just laws of every land 〈◊〉 they be repealed by an equal authority no that which made them Finally who sees not also that notwithstanding all this or notwithstanding the municipal laws of England were for St. Thomas in every particular of his said manifold opposition to his King or that by the same laws the English Clergie had such exemptions from secular Courts yet St. Thomas might have been of this opinion also and perswasion at the same time and was so too most rigidly and constantly for ought appears to the contrary out of the Acts of his life or other Historians that as by no other laws of God or man or reason so neither by those very laws of England either himself or any other Clergieman was exempt from the supream civil coercive power or even could be exempt during their being subjects or their acknowledging to be so or their living in the quality of subjects 1. Because the very name and nature of subjection draws along with it and either essentially or at least necessary implyes this which is to be subject to the supream coercive power at least in some cases and some contingencies 2. Because that if both himself and all other Ecclesiastical Judges and Bishops taking the Pope himself too in the number did fail in their duty of punishing Clerks notoriously scandalously and dangerously criminal or that if the criminal Clerks themselves would not according to the law of the land submit to the sentence and punishment prescribed into them by the Bishops or if even also the Bishops themselves were altogether guilty of the same crimes or patronizers of the criminals and would not amend or satisfie of themselves without any peradventure t is evident that the supream civil coercive power might and ought in such cases to proceed against them by plain force and corporal coâ—rcion cuia salus populi suâ—rema lex esto 3. Because the power whereby S. Thomas himself and all other Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges proceeded in a compulsory way to any civil or corporal coercion of criminal Clerks against the will of the same Clerks as to seizing their persons imprisoning them whiping them taking away their temporal goods confining them
to a perpetual cloyster'd life c was derived unto them and wholly depending of the supream temporal or civil coercive power residing originally and independently in the Prince and in his laws for the very Papal canons even Pope Caelestine the III. himself cap. 〈◊〉 homine de judicijs as I have quoted him in the former section confesseth that after and besides suspension excommunication and deposition or degradation the Church hath no other nor any more punishment for any 4. Because the very self same supream civil coercive power which as Legislative authorized the Bishops to be the onely ordinary Judges of criminal Ecclesiasticks and did also both prescribe and warrant that kind of punishment which they inflict on such Clerks and did ordain there should be no other punishment but that for such persons and the very self same supream civil power that made those municipal laws for the exemption of Clerks in criminal causes from the lay Judges may again unmake them upon just occasion or may lessen or moderat that exemption as there shall be cause and consequently criminal Clerks are still in so much under the supream civil coercive power as de facto de â—ure they are indeed and were indeed always for so many other respects and in so many other cases and contingencies notwithstanding the most ample municipal laws for exemption that are or have been 5. And lastly because there is no contradiction inconsistence or contrariety betwixt S. Thomas his being of this opinion and perswasion and the being of the laws of England such as I said they were then Which yet we may easily understand by the example of the priviledge of Peers For certainly the Peers of a Kingdom will not pretend themselves exempt from the supream coercive power of the Prince albeit they cannot by the laws of the land be judg'd or condemned but by their own Peers Therefore an exemption from one sort of Judges doth not argue an exemption from the supream power that is above all sorts of Judges And therefore nothing can be alleadg'd out of the life or death or sanctity or martyrdom or canonization or invocation or even miracles of S. Thomas of Canterbury nor out of all these joyntly taken with the laws of the land for which he stood to prove that he was of a contrary judgment or perswasion to my doctrine All that is alleadged of any such matters do onely evidence the purity of his Soul and justice of his cause neither of which my doctrine doth at all oppose but allow approve and confirm But if any should replye that the laws of the land as to our controversy were chang'd by the swearing of those 16. Heads of customes by all the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons Abbots Priors and whole Clergie and even by St. Thomas of Canterbury himself first of all as Matthew Paris tels us in these tearms Hanc recognitionem consuetudinum libertatum Deo deâ—estabilium Archiepiscopi Episcopi Abbates Priores Clerus cum Comitibus Baronibus Proctribus cunctis juraverunt se observaturos Domino Regi heredibus ejus bona fide absque malo ingenio in perpetuum Inter alios etiam his omnibus Thomas Cantuariensis consensit and should replye that after such change by such swearing S. Thomas of Canterbury did fall into his own former opposition of or differences with Henry the second even as to the second head of those customes and in prosecution of his former refusal to deliver up to secular justice those two criminal Clerks and should therefore conclude that S. Thomas must have pretended for himself at such time not the former laws of the land which were so repealed by a contrary law of Henry the second but either the laws of God Nature or Nations or the Canons of the Church or Pope c if I say any should make this objection here the Answer is at hand very facile and clear out of my former observations viz that such swearing alone was not enough without further signing and sealing as it seems the custom then was of the Bishops and Peers in making of laws nor all three together whether signing and sealing was necessary or not without a free consent in those or of those who swore so or sign'd or sealed so and that there was no free consent but a forc'd one by threats of imprisonment banishment death appears out of my said observations and all the several Historians especially Hoveden who treat exactly of this contest Now it is plain that such laws are no true laws or have not at all as much as the essence of laws which are not freely made without such coaction And therefore consequently it is plain that such repealing was no true legal repealing of the former laws Whereof also this was a further argument that Henry the second himself did in the end of the contest wholly quit his challenge to those controverted customs which he did so for a time constrain the Bishops Clergie and people to submit to against their own will and their own true laws Yet as it must be granted by such as are versed in the antiquities of England that there was a time and some ages too of the Christian Church in England even after the conversion of the Saxons before such municipal laws were enacted for such favourable and ample immunities to Clergiemen and before also the Clergie did as much as pretend by custom or otherwise to any exemption in criminal causes from the lay courts so I confess there have passed several ages of the very Roman Religion professed by law in England after the same great immunities and exemptions in criminal causes were in some part or for the greatest part legally repealed by law or custom or both and free consent or submission of the very Bishops and Clergie themselves upon new occasions and grounds being weary of contesting with the lay judges and Kings and that immediatly too or very soon after the days of Henry the second himself the very Popes also themselves at least many of them either consenting or certainly conniving at this change in the laws customs and practice of England in order to Clergiemen Whereat we are not much to wonder being that Roger Hoveden so faithfull an Historian as he was as he was also contemporary to Alexander the third and St. Thomas of Canterbury and was moreover so extraordinary an admirer of this Saint as may be seen by reading his Annals of him being I say this Roger Hoveden tels us in plain tearms ad an 1164. that the said Pope Alexander the third himself before his going to Rome out of France sent express directions to Thomas of Canterbury when the great difference began about the 16. Heads to submit himself in all things to his King and to promise to receive observe and obey without any exception those very customs or laws controverted Deinde sayes our Annalist Hoveden venit in Angliam vir quidam Religiosus dictus
great strictness in his own way I mean according to the judgment of the Prelats and Nobles of that Assembly at Paris But for a judgment also given of purpose on that whole controversie and given by a contemporary Historian a Catholick by religion a Monk by profession and writer of very good repute Gulielmus Neubrigensis and a judgment given by him of this matter even after Thomas had been both martyrized and canonized you have it in his third Book cap. 16. and in these words Sane cum plerique soleant in iis quos amant laudant affectu quidem propensiori sed prudentia parciori quicquid ab iis geritur approbaâ—e planè ego in viro illo venerabili ea quae ita ab ipso acta sunt ut nulla exinde proveniret utilitas sed feruor tantum accenderetur Regius ex quo tot mala post modum pullulasse noscuntur laudanda nequaquam censuerim licet ex laudabili zelo processerint sicut nec in Beatissimo Apostolorum Principe arcem jam Apostolicae perfectionis tenente quod geâ—tes suo exemplo Judaizare coegit in quo eum Doctor gentium reprehensibilem deciatat fuisse licet eum constat laudabili hoc pietate fecisse Third reason That he might possibly be imbued with the doctrine which was growing then of the exemption of Clergiemen either by divine immediate right of the positive or even natural law of God or by that which is pretended to be mediatly divine and immediatly canonical or humane from the Canons of the Church or at least from the bad or false interpretation of those Canons or by some prescription and will and power of those Popes who so mightily in his dayes and for almost a whole age before his dayes immediatly and continually contested with the very Emperours themselves and all other Bishops for both the spiritual and temporal soveraignty of the world and this too by a pretence of divine right And that we must not wonder that even on so great a Saint as Saint Thomas of Canterbury himself the authority of the first Apostolick See and the numbers of her admirers adorers and followers then in what quarrel soever and the specious pretence of piety in the cause and education in such principles or amongst such people should work a strong pre-possession of zeale as for the cause of God being it was reputed the cause of the Church however that according to the veritie of things or true laws divine or humane as in themselves nakedly or abstractedly it might peradventure not have either the cause of God or the cause of the Church Fourth reason and it is a confirmation that is a very probable argument though nor perhaps throughly or rigidly demonstrative of the truth of the Third That in the speech or words of St Thomas of Canterbury in the time of his banishment to his King Henry the Second at Chinun which Honeden ad an 1165. calls Verba Beati Thomae Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi ad Henricum Regem Angliae in Concilio suo apud Chinun we find this sentence of his Et quia certum est Reges potestatem suam ab Ecclesia accipere c. Wherein I am certain this holy Bishop was point blanck contrary to the sense of ten thousand other holy Bishops before him in the more primitive ages of the Church and contrary to plain Scripture and universal Tradition of the Catholick Church for at least the ten first and best ages of Christianity Fift reason That it is not so clear in all respects that those sixteen heads of customs passed not legally and long before the Saints death into a just municipal law of the land or of England notwithstanding that St. Thomas denyed and even justly too denyed his own hand and seale or even justly also retracted his own former consent by oath yea and notwithstanding that it was meerly out of fear that the rest of the Bishop did at first consent or gave their own consent by oath likewise For it may be said first and said also upon very probable grounds out of the several ancient Catholick and even Ecclesiastick Historians who writ of purpose of those dayes and matters that they all freely after consented And secondly it may be said that the greater vote enacts a law in Parliament having the consent royal whether one Bishop or moe peradventure or even all the Bishops dissent And thirdly yet iâ— may be said that all laws most commonly or at least too often may be called in question upon that ground of fear of the Prince Sixt and last reason That we must rather give any answer that involves not heresie or manifest errour in the Catholick Faith or natural reason obvious to every man then allow or justifie the particular actions or contests or doctrine of any one Bishop or Pope how great or holy soever otherwise or even of many such or of all their partakers in such against both holy Scriptures plain enough in the case and the holy Fathers generally for the ten first ages in their explications of such Scriptures and consequently against that universal Tradition which must of necessity be allowed Nihil enim innovandum sed quod traditum est observandum Behold here six reasons which taken at least altogether may justifie my giving the two last Answers or my adding them to the other two former As for the rest I leave it to the Readers choice which of all four he will fix on though I my self and for my own part and out of a greater reverence to the Saint himself and to the Pope that canonized him or to that Pope I mean in as much as he canonized him for a martyr in such a cause if he did so or intended so taking the name of martyr properly and strictly whereof what we read in our very Breviary of the cause for which the Pope sayes he suffered may perhaps give some occasion of scruple being it is there said of those Laws of Henry the Second and only said that they were leges utilitati ac dignitati Ordinis Ecclesiastici repugnantes but not said that they were laws against the laws of God though I say I could wish for these reasons that all my Readers did fix as I do my self rather on the first and second Answer then on the two last But on which soever of all four they six I am confident none may infer that they or I question Thomas of Canterbury's sanctity in this world either in his life or at his death or his glory in heaven after his death or question the Bull of of his canonization or question the holy practice of the Catholick Church in her veneration or invocation or finally question as much as those miracles which I suppose were sufficiently proved in the process form'd for his canonization or even those which as wrought after that time at his Tomb or elsewhere are alledg'd upon sufficient grounds if any such be so alledg'd Though I cannot here
is due to them according to the Laws of each Commonwealth respectively in all Civil and Temporal Affairs And therefore we do herâ— protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary And we do hold it â—â—â—ious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may â—ill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince though of a different Belief and â—â—ligion from his And we abhor and detest the practice thereof as damnable and wicked After which Act of Recognition and Appendages of it you have immediately in the same Instrument this Petitionary Address These being the Tenents of our Religion in point of Loyalty and Submission to Your Majesties Commands and our dependance of the See of Rome no way intrenching upon that perfect Obedience which by our Birth by all Laws divine and humane we are bound to pay to Your Majesty our natural and lawful Sovereign we humbly beg prostrate at Your Majesties feet that you would be pleased to protect us from the severe persecution we suffer meerly for our profession in Religion leaving those that are or hereafter shall be guilty of other Crimes and there have been such in all Times as well by their Pens as by their Actions to the punishment prescribed by the Law Having so given all I would have the Reader to take notice of here previously or before I come to an issue on the Point for proving my above Minor that is for proving that in our Remonstrance there is nothing at all contained but a bare acknowledgment confession c. of the Supreme Temporal power to be in the respective Lay Supreme or absolute Princes within their own Dominions and of obedience to be due to them in all Temporal affairs by all their own respective Subjects albeit I confess that for my present purpose of proving my said Minor I have not so dilated as I did in my second Advertisement but for that other end I there expressed for whether in the said Act of Recognition there be an Oath virtually or formally contain'd or not it matters not to my purpose of shewing or proving that no more nor ought else is therein contain'd or acknowledg'd but the meer Temporal Supreme power of the Prince in Temporal Affairs and obedience of the Subjects in the same Temporal Affairs Now therefore to demonstrate clearly that nothing else but such power and such obedience is therein acknowledged confessed c. nor by consequence any other disclaimed renounced abhorred detested or protested against but what doth not subsist with that power in the Prince and that obedience in the Subjects who sees not first that there are no more but Nine periods or clauses with perfect periods in the said Act of Recognition from the first word of it to the last immediately before the Petitionary Address And that in none at all of all these Nine either separately or jointly taken there is other power than such meer Temporal or Civil acknowledg'd in the King or in any other Temporal Prince or other Obedience Loyalty or Fidelity but such as is in Temporal things only acknowledg'd to be due from Subjects to their Prince And secondly or consequently too who sees not there is not in any of the said clauses either separately or jointly taken any other power disclaimed in or renounced or abhorred or detested or protested or declared against as being or as pretended to be in any other Pope or Prince or Church or People but that only which is inconsistent with His Majesties Supreme Temporal power only And that there is not any other obedience likewise declared against but that obedience only which is inconsistent with the obedience of Subjects in Temporal things to their own respective Supreme Temporal Princes For taking these Nine periods or clauses or parts of the said Act of Recognition and considering them first each apart separately what I say will be evident to any man that hath sense and reason The first period is in these words We do acknowledge and confess Your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supreme Lord and rightful Sovereign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other Your Majesties Dominions Sure here is no word or words importing signifying or attributing to King Charles any power but that which His true and lawful Kingship Supreme Lordship and Rightful Sovereignty requires to be in him And therefore not any power but that which is meerly Temporal for his said Kingship Lordship and Sovereignty require no other 'T is true the Protestants or those of the Protestant Church of England who are not in communion with Rome or the Roman Bishop and who take that Oath they call the Oath of Supremacy do understand the Kings Royal power to extend it self to as well Spiritual as Temporal things and persons and consequently by the words Supreme Lord if in an Oath framed by themselves and for themselves or to be by themselves taken or subscribed might understand that themselves I say by such words and Oath would attribute to the King such a Supreme Lordship and consequently such a Supreme power as extended to as well Spiritual things and persons as to meer Temporal things Yet it is also true 1. That this hath nothing to do with the signification of the words Supreme Lord as used by Catholicks in a Remonstrance drawn by Catholicks and only for Catholicks to sign 2. That these words Supreme Lord especially as used to a secular Prince signifie not either by their proper native signification as imposed originally or used by knowing men nor by or in even the vulgar acception of them any other Supreme Lordship but that of a meer temporal worldly politick or Civil Supreme power of the Sword and not at all any spiritual of the Word or Sacraments of the Christian Religion 3. That the Sons of the Protestant Church of England however by their Oath of Supremacy they attribute to or acknowledge in the King a Supremacy that is a Supreme power over all or in all as well spiritual things and spiritual persons as in or over all temporal things and persons yet by that Supremacy or Supreme power they understand no spiritual power at all either of the Word Sacraments or Faith or of any other matter whatsoever but a meer Temporal Civil or Politick power of the material Sword And therefore it is plain That neither in the Catholick or Protestant meaning of the words of this first Period any other power is or may be understood but a meer Temporal power Supreme acknowledged in the King And therefore also it 's no less plain that by the said words or sense of them it cannot be said the Remonstrance or Subscribers of it do either formally or virtually or any way at all consequentially ascribe to the King any kind of spiritual Supremacy or Supremacy of spiritual power but of meer Temporal and Politick power or do at all as much as by any kind of rational consequence deny the pure spiritual
of his Majesties Kingdoms that the belief of Transubstantiation amongst English Irish and Scottish Catholicks is no more a Sign or an Argument of a Puritan Papist than it is at present amongst the French XII That we have no cause to wonder at the Protestants Jealousie of us when they see all the three several Tests hitherto made use of for trying the judgment or affection of Roman Catholicks in these Kingdoms in Relation to the Papal pretences of one side and the Royal rights of the other I mean the Oath of Supremacy first the Oath of Allegiance next and last of all that which I call the Loyal Formulary or the Irish Remonstrance of the year 1661 even all three one after another to have been with so much rashness and wilfulness and so much vehemency and obstinacy declined opposed traduced and rejected amongst them albeit no other Authority or power not even by the Oath of Supremacy (z) Art 37. of the Church of England And Admonition after the Injunctions of Queen ELIZABETH it self be attributed to the King save only Civil or that of the Sword nor any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power be denied therein to the Pope save only that which the general Council of Ephesus (a) In the year 431. under Theodosius the Younger in the Case of the Cyprian Bishops and the next Oecumenical Synod of Chalcedon (b) In the year 451 Can. 28. under the good Emperour Martianus in the case of Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople and the two hundred and seventeen Bishops of Africk (c) In the year 419. whereof Saint Augustine was one both in their Canons and Letters too in the Case of Apiarius denyed unto the Roman Bishops of their time and albeit the Oath of Allegiance was of meer purpose framed only to distinguish 'twixt the Loyal and disloyal Catholicks or the honest and Loyal party of them from those of the Powder-Treason Principles and albeit the Remonstrance of 1661 was framed only at first by some well meaning discreet and learned Roman Catholicks of the English Nation and was now lately signed by so many and such persons of the Irish Nation as we have seen before and was so far from entrenching on the Catholick Faith or Canons or Truth or Justice in any point that saving all these it might have been much more home than it is though indeed as from well meaning honest men it be home enough nay and albeit neither of these two later Tests the Oath of Allegiance or the Irish Remonstrance promiseth to the King any other than meer Civil obedience and this obedience too in meer civil or temporal Affairs only according to the Laws of the Land nor denyes any canonical obedience to the Pope in either Spiritual or Ecclesiastical matters purely such nor indeed in any matter at all wherein the Canons of the Catholick Church impower his Holiness and wherein his Key does not manifestly err How much more may it provoke them to see the few Ecclesiastical approvers of the said Tests especially of either of these two last to have been therefore persecuted amongst and by the foresaid generality of British and Irish Catholicks yea to have been look'd upon as Outcasts Excommunicants Schismaticks Hereticks and what not And that excellent man that most loyal and learned English Monk Father Thomas Preston for having formerly both under his own name and that of Roger Widrington so incomparably defended the foresaid Oath of Allegiance to have been forced nay content and glad at last to shelter himself in a (d) In the Clink at London prison from the furious persecution of the Opposers And after him so lately again Father Peter Walsh of Saint Francis's Order only for having promoted the said Loyal Irish Formulary of 1661 and for having Subscribed it himself and refused to retract his Subscription to have been reduced to a far worse condition than Preston even that of a Bannito or an Out-lawed man by publick denunciation and affâ—xion of him as an excommunicate person to be shun'd by all former Acquaintance except a very few and to be left alone at last for the matter one single person to maintain the justice of that Formulary and of his own defence and cause and carriage all along and consequently to grapple with a numberless number of subtle and powerful and implacable Adversaries How much more to see so many Books of Roman Catholick Doctors Italian Spanish German Dutch Candian English of Bellarmine and Becan and Suarez and Singleton and Sculkenius and Tortus and Eudamon Johannes and Gretser and Parsons and Fitzherbert c to have been written printed and published against the foresaid Oath of Allegiance enacted by King James And amongst the generality of the Roman Catholick Readers so many practical Students to have been indoctrinated by those very Books or some of them Although Books in truth wholly composed of lying Sophistry i.e. of very false Doctrines in point of Religion and very treasonable and pernicious in point of subjection as it hath been sufficiently proved concerning all the above mentioned Doctors by the foresaid indefatigable Writer Thomas Preston who has not left his Antagonists either place or possibility of saying a word to his last Pieces wherewith he so incomparably baffled all their Answers Replies Rejoinders c. How much more after all this and even since his present Majesties Restauration to see so much wrath and rage against so innocent a Formulary of their own and of professing Allegiance in meer temporal things only So many forreign Censures of Divines and forreign Letters of Inter-Nuncio's and Cardinals to have been procured And so many forreign both Citations and Excommunications to have been issued forth against the Subscribers of it with professed design both to suppress it utterly and either to silence them eternally or to destroy them for subscribing it yea so many Missionaries to have been employed and Commissaries authorized and for a dead lift and when opportunity served at last in the year 1669 besides Provincials instituted and Vicars Apostolical made even so many Bishops and Archbishops on a sudden to have been created in Ireland by his Holiness for that end chiefly And all this strange and late procedure against so harmless a profession of Allegiance to have been hitherto look'd upon by the generality of British and Irish Catholicks I mean by such of them as knew thereof not only with indifferent eyes and thoughts but by the far greater part of them received with complacency and by all for ought appears submitted unto with a perfect resignation of their Souls to the good pleasure of his Holiness and his Ministers I say it is not to be imagined that all these matters concerning those three several Tests one after another should have been and happened thus even publickly before the Sun and to the full Knowledge not of Catholicks onely but of Protestants but it must of necessity give very much ground to the more considering persons
amongst the same Protestants to perswade themselves that however in our neighbouring Catholick Kingdoms the Article of Transubstantiation and the Doctrine of the Bishop of Rome's universal Monarchy or of his both spiritual and temporal supreme Jurisdiction do not walk hand in hand together yet amongst the generality of Roman Catholicks in these Nations it hath been otherwise continually these last hundred years and is at present whether in the mean time this proceed out of Ignorance or Interest or both XIII That thus at last the only true both original and continual causes on our side of all the severe Laws and of all the other grievous misfortunes and miseries past and present which we complain of and groan under as peculiar to the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion in these Nation appearing to be and really being such as I have hitherto discoursed none can be so short sighted or so unapprehensive as not without further discourse to understand likewise the only Christian and proper efficacious remedy of all the said evils for what I mean concerns the future and our own endeavours and concurrence with God and man to help our selves For certainly nothing can be more obvious to reason than that since our own either formal or virtual express or tacit owning of so many uncatholick Positions and so many unchristian practises by our continual refusing to disown them or either of them in any sufficient manner or as we ought by any proper Test hath been of our side hitherto the only immediate cause of all our woes and especially of all those legal Sanctions which upon due reflection do without doubt render our best condition even at present anxious it must follow That the only proper true and efficacious remedy on our side also must be at last our own free and unanimous and hearty and conscientious disowning of all and every the said erroneous Positions and wicked practises even by such a publick full and clear Instrument or Declaration and Oath as may satisfie all Protestants of our utter Aversness and Enmity to all Rebellious Doctrines and Practises whatsoever especially to those which tend to the maintaining of any kind of temporal Dominion or Jurisdiction direct or indirect or even any spiritual Power or Authority which may have the effect of such temporal in the Pope or See of Rome over his Majesty or any of his Majesties Subjects or at all within the Realms of England Ireland or Scotland or within any of the other Dominions acknowledging his Majesty even in any case of contingency imaginable especially in case of either true or only pretended Apostacy Heresie Schism c. and such publick Instrument Declaration and Oath so full and clear even also against all equivocations and both mental and vocal evasions whatsoever to be in your name together with your Petition most humbly presented to the King and Parliament some time this present Session by your sufficient Representatives the Roman Catholick Lords or such of them as will be pleased to take these matters to heart XIV That when in such manner as you ought you have performed that duty which you have so long owed to God and the King to your Country and Religion to the Christian Church in general and all mankind and amongst them to your selves and your posterity after you and when you have thereby done your part to disarm all the anger of the Presses and to silence all the clamor of Pulpits and put an effectual stop to a thousand new Invectives and ten thousand more Sermons preparing to incense the Protestant people against you i. e. when by such a publick Instrument or solemn Declaration and Religious Oath of the generality of your Nobles Ecclesiasticks and Gentry you shall have quite rendred unsignificant their I know not which more affrighting or bewitching Theme quite destroyed their Common place and no less effectually than clearly answered their only grand Objection against your Liberty viz. That of The inconsistence of the safety of a Protestant Prince or State or Kingdom or People with Liberty in the same Dominions given to Roman-Catholick Subjects and consequently when by doing so you shall have done your selves all the greatest right you can think of viz. you shall have conform'd to the inward dictates of a good Conscience wiped off from your holy Religion the outward scandal of most wicked Principles yielded to victorious Truth wheresoever you behold her and which is and must be consequential when you shall have thus after a tedious contest of above a hundred years advanced on your side the first considerable step to meet half way the Right Reverend Prelates and other learned Teachers of the Church of England in order to a happy reconciliation at last of the remaining differences then may you confidently expect from their side also i. e. from his most Gracious Majesty and the great Wisdom and Piety of both Houses of Parliament all that ease relaxation indulgence peace kindness love which by any men dissenting yet in so many other points from the Religion established by Law can be in reason expected even a Repeal at least of all the Sanguinary and Mulctative Laws For to expect an equality in all priviledges with those that are of the Protestant Church until God be pleased to bring you nearer them or them to you than in a meer profession how real and cordial and universal or comprehensive soever of Allegiance to the King in Temporal or Civil Affairs only I say till that day come which we pray for it will I believe seem unreasonable to your selves to expect that equality with them which they were not to expect of you if you had the power in your hands and they were in your condition How can they in reason expect so much favour as they now shew us if they retain any memory of former times and consider the now prevailing Party amongst us and Papal Constitutions even at this present governing that Party at least in relation to such as are reputed Hereticks or Schismaticks by the Consistory at Rome XV. That of those Ecclesiasticks who as the English Opposers of the Oath of Allegiance or the Irish Persecutors of the Loyal Remonstrance shall endeavour to persuade your continuing alwayes Rigid Papalins maugre Heaven and Earth and to stifle any motion or thought of giving a Protestant Prince or Parliament any more satisfaction in the principal point either of Consistence or Inconsistence c than your selves or your Predecessors have given hitherto some of them are naturally averse to the Crown of England and would be so though it were as entirely devoted now to the See of Rome as it was at Dover when King â—ohn laid it there at the Legat's feet others are daily expectants of Mitres and Titles and Bulls and Dignities from that City of Fortune others have already taken the Formal or Ceremonial possession of their now most Illustrious and most Reverend Lordships and these also have already at their Consecration
one tittle or any one action hitherto alledg'd against me as such other than what is in effect and substance my Assertion or Vindication of the Supreme Temporal Sovereignty of the Crowns of these Kingdoms i. e. of their being in all Temporals and all Contingencies whatsoever independent from any but God alone and therefore in Temporals no way dependent from the Pope either by divine or humane right Whether any person may on such ground call in question the sincerity of my believing or professing as I ought all the undoubted Articles of the Roman-Catholick Faith 3. And seeing there was never yet any other matter not even by my greatest Persecutors at any time objected articled oâ— pretended against me beside that i. e. besides my former opposing the Nuncio's Censures and my later promoting the Remonstrance and my endeavours in both against the pretences of the Roman Bishops to the Crowns of England Ireland Scotland c Whether it may in any wise be said or thought by unbyassed learned men That I have given any real ground for the vile detraction of those who treat me every way as if I had been a desertor of the Church 4. Nay Whether considering first The nature of those two grand Controversies wherein I have so freely engaged against all the power of the Roman Court abroad and all the endeavours of the Nuncio's Party and Antiremonstrant Clergy at home secondly The most grievous manifold and continual persecutions I suffered in both Causes one while by Suspensions and Deprivations another while by Excommunications then by Imprisonment in a Forreign Countrey even as far off as Spain and then again by new Thunders of Ecclesiastical Censures and by scandalous Declarations and posting of my Name besides other frequent enterprizes on several occasions against both my Liberty and Life thirdly My continuing constant in both Causes even all along to this very day even also then and that not only once happening when I had no support in this World but my own Conscience of suffering i. e. my own certain knowledge of my suffering onely for Righteousness sake nay then also when some of my chiefest Adversaries laboured with all their powerful malice even here at London to compel me and spared not to speak openly that either they would compel me to renounce the Roman-Catholick Church and declare my self an Heretick or they would make me submit to the Roman Court in the latter of these two Causes viz. that of the Loyal Remonstrance it being the onely matter then prosecuted against me fourthly Their failing nevertheless to this present in obtaining their will of me in either the one or other Whether I say considering all this whereof besides many men I am sure the All-seeing God is witness it be not more likely That no kind of prejudice against the Roman-Catholick Faith or Church but a true and powerful zeal according to knowledge for the primitive Christian purity of both is it that hath set me against those opinions and practices flowing in the corruption of latter Ages from the Roman Court which have shaken Religion divided Christendom and brought a scandal upon Faith as if it were to be supported or advanced by the wrath and rage of men by Rebellion and Slaughter by Subversion of Government and Confusion of the World so making it a ground of jealousie to Magistrates and diverting peaceable and charitable Souls from that union which ought to be amongst the Disciples of Christ 5. Also whether it may not by rational men be at least charitably believed That I would not so often at several times and upon several occasions since first I engag'd in either Controversie especially in the last have refused many Preferments in my own Order have rejected many tempting proffers too even of Episcopal dignity in my own Countrey have also particularly and lately in the National Synod or Congregation held at Dublin anno 1666 and that in publick before all the Fathers refused to yield by any means to their pressing offer not only of all the best Commendatory Letters that could be drawn on Paper in my behalf both to His Holiness Himself who then was and the Cardinal Patron and the Congregation de Propaganda and all other Ministers of the Roman Court as many as were concern'd in the Affairs of Ireland but also of a yearly and very considerable Salary too by general Applotment amounting as they esteemed or computed it in Three years to Two thousand pound English money and in lieu of all these offers have deliberately chosen to run the manifest hazard of undergoing and accordingly since to have in very deed undergone all the vexatious infamy of Ecclesiastical Censures in my own Church Order and Countrey and all the further Evils not only of some at least consequential hardships but of many black Calumnies many bitter Reproaches yea and some yet more inhumane Machinations of cruel men even here in England these four last years since 1669 Whether I say it may not by rational men be and be at least charitably believed That I would not have rejected freely all those tempting offers and in lieu of them voluntarily chosen to lie under all these Sufferings for any thing less than the keeping a good Conscience and the preserving the honour of Christian Catholicism untainted at least in some Priests and Religious men of the Roman-Catholick Religion in these Nations and the justifying my self and those of my way the few Irish constant Remonstrants with such others who communicate with them Loyal Subjects to our Prince the King of England and the winning also for the good of Catholicks in general upon His Majesties Councils Parliaments and all good Protestant people by our peaceable Conversation and Faithfulness amidst all our Sufferings from every side notwithstanding any difference from the Protestant Church in some few Articles of Religion Whereas such other Church-men of the Roman Communion as by their practises or principles have formerly shewn themselves and still appear to continue Enemies to the Supreme Temporal Government of these Kingdoms may in all reason expect the severest Laws to be edg'd against them by Authority under which it will be sad to suffer as evil doers 6. Lastly Whether it had not been very much for the advantage of Roman-Catholicks in general and their Religion in this Monarchy That these last hundred years they had been indoctrinated onely and wholly guided as to their Consciences by such Roman-Catholick Priests and Church-men as are of my principles in relation to the Temporal Powers independence from Rome and the indispensable obedience of Subjects in Civil matters and both the injustice and invalidity or nullity of Ecclesiastical Censures pronounced against either Prince or People or Priests for maintaining these not onely Rational but Christian Principles or asserting any of all their necessary Antecedents Consequents or Concomitants And now my Lords Fathers and Gentlemen to your impartial judgment on all and each of these Queries I do with due
though somewhat more particularly to the Fifth That besides the facilitating all I could the Repeal of penal Statutes by overthrowing the grand Objection against it I had no other extrinsick end hitherto in any of the Controversies wherein I am engaged nor shall God willing have at any time hereafter save onely that which must have been consequential nay that which is very well becoming not only a Roman-Catholick Priest and Votary of St. Francis's Order but any Christian of whatever Church or Profession viz. the breaking down of so much of that middle wall of partition between us which hath separated first the Orient from the Occident and then again in the Occident it self hath divided from one another so numerous flourishing and conspicuous both Nations and Churches holding them so long involved in a direful Schism to the great hurt of Christianity and to the destruction of so many Souls This so great and so desirable a blessing of Peace and reconciliation of one to another in God by the Cross and by the breaking down the wall of partition all enmity being slain on both sides between the Churches i. e. between the Sons of the Church of England on this side and those of the Roman-Church on the other as many at least as are subject to His Majesty I must confess I have these many years regarded as my chief and ultimate end howsoever unlikely it seem'd in this world To this most desirable end all my Studies Writings Elucubrations and Books have been principally directed At this my Remonstrances Professions Protestations Renunciations have perpetually aimed For this I took so much pains devoured so many labours underwent so many hazards and suffered those well nigh innumerable Evils whereof I see not even yet either period or measure And finally this happy end is it that hath made me as elsewhere in some other of my Writings so now in this Epistle declare so plainly and openly against so many embroiling Positions notwithstanding they be the Doctrines of a very powerful Faction amongst Roman-Catholick Professors nay the beloved Maxims of the Roman Court and its Minion-writers Whose soever they be it 's clear enough that of them is built one entire side at least of that middle wall of partition (a) Ephes 2.14 which to the unspeakable reproach and further unvaluable hurt of the Christian Church in general hath so often both formerly and lately engaged yea and doth at present engage People Nations Principalities Republicks Kingdoms Empires not only unhappily but damnably in mortal feuds one against another but which therefore ought and must for the great end of Peace amongst the Children of God be broken down of every side by Him who is our Peace by Him who not onely in former times as you read in the Prophet and Apostle in Isaiah (b) Isa 57.19 and in (c) Ephes 2.14 17. Paul hath evangelized Peace Peace the fruit of the lips to them that were far off and to them that were nigh but now also at this present to the now divided Parties Preaches the same Peace to the end that the Sons of Peace on each side co-operating He may again make in himself of twain one new man so making peace and reconciling both unto God in one body by the Cross having stain again the enmity in his own flesh Oh that we might live to see once that day That day so fervently so anxiously beg'd of God by all his Saints That day so long desired by Princes expected by Prophets wished for so passionately by all the Children of God! That day in which there will be neither Jew (d) Coloss 3.12 Galat. 3.28 nor Gentile nor Barbarian nor Scythian nor Protestant nor Papist I mean nor Reformist nor Romanist nor any other names or symbols of Discord That day wherein once more Christ himself will be all (e) Coloss 1.18 24. Ephes 5.23 and in all both head and body and consequently there shall be one fold (f) John 10.16 and one shepherd Oh blessed day and blessed eyes that shall behold it And oh how willingly how heartily with all my Soul would I to see that most happy day run into the arms kiss the hands embrace the knees lie down at the feet of those who have bereft me of all things else and fought my life How freely how gladly for that end would I moreover if they pleased even appear before them as a Criminal even in the habit of a publick Penitent my head covered with Ashes and my body with Sackcloth my eyes running down with tears and my flesh pined away with fasting How lastly to see that greatest bliss in this life would I prostrate my self before them on the earth even without the door and porch of the Church and with humblest prayer beg admittance and not only reconciliation but pardon where even I mean according to my own proper judgment there was no need of it no fault committed by me to require it These have been the wishes God knows and this the constant disposition of my Soul these many years And therefore as an universal condemnation of the new Doctrines to eternal night and silence hath continually appear'd to me no less than necessary of one side for breaking down the middle wall of separation so amongst the Christian Churches that blessed that heavenly reconciliation union coalition in the Spirit of God and Peace of Christ which is above all sense hath alwayes been the very ultimate end in this world that I have propos'd to all my Labours and Sufferings As for the rest I know that how Divine soever the Wishes be how proper and pure and holy and excellent soever the Means that we employ for attaining them yet the Success must be in the hand of the Almighty alone who (g) Wisd 8. reaching from end to end strongly and disposing all things sweetly makes the morning star to arise in his appointed time and the evening star on the sons of the earth who (h) 2 Cor. 4.6 commands light to shine out of darkness and who alone with one word of his pleasure determines the roughest Tempest in the gentlest Calm Hatred in Love Schism in Unity and the bloodiest War in the most blessed Peace when (i) Coloss 1.20 he will and as he will reconciling all things whether Terrestrial or Celestial by the blood of his Cross Fifth Appendage relating also to all the Queries That notwithstanding any whatsoever excellence of all and every the ends both intrinsick and extrinsick which I had proposed to my self in the Controversies yet I have continually shun'd as I would a rock or a shelve in a Tempest that other late Doctrine of those Schoolmen of ours who are called Probablists which teacheth the sanctifying forsooth of all wicked means by good intentions And therefore that as far as I know my own heart and actions and the Laws of God or man I have at no time hitherto been wanting nor shall hereafter with the grace
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
as well with His Grace as with His Majestie and His Majesties other great Ministers and for the rest of the Catholick people of Ireland that ease and connivence he could for what concerned the exercise of their Religion Nor onely that but as occasion offered by writing and printing and exhibiting to His Majestie Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Lord Chancellour of England and other great Ministers of State several papers and books in Print and otherwise of his own labours to move the performance of the Peace of 48. to the Catholicks of Ireland and to mind His Majestie of his justice to Innocents and of His mercy to Nocents But in the first place laboured opportunely and importunely till he prevailed at last to get all the great number of Priests released which had been in several places and Provinces of Ireland in restraint about six-score of them and a great many for several years before His Majesties happy Restauration Wherein he was so impartial to all that although he was offered several times the release of such of those Priests as he would pass his word for that they had been honest all along in the Royal cause during the late difference betwixt the Confederats of Ireland yet he modestly and patiently declined that savour and let those his own special friends suffer with the rest until His Majesties Gracious condescension and my Lord Lieutenants goodness looked indifferently upon them all with an eye of compassion and mercy upon hopes given His Majesty that they would all prove faithful Subjects evermore II. The year 60. and 61. being passed over till the winter came and the hopes of Roman Catholicks for what was moved in their behalf in the House of Lords at Westminster concerning the repeal of laws against them at least and in the first place of those are called Sanguinary being blasted in the bud and the example of the late Irish Rebellion and breach of both peaces in 46. and 48. by some or many of those of that Religion and Nation having besides other arguments and intrigues being made use of against such as moved for such repeal and the Parliament of England being adjourned or prorogued and that of Ireland then under the Lords Justices the Chancellour the Earls of Orrery and Montrath sitting and a great plott amongst the Irish Catholicks so falsly imposed upon them grounded on the no less false and vain pretence of a letter sent by one Priest to an other but contrived onely by a perfidious fanatick impostour as appeared soon after and that Parliament of Ireland however and Lords Justices upon this ground proceeding with strange and new severity against both Clergie and Layety of that Religion and some few of the Catholick Gentry and Clergie consulting together at Dublin of a remedy Sir Richard Barnewal Richard Beling Esq Thomas Tyrrel Esq Oliver Dese Vicar general of Meath Father James Fitz Simons Guardian of the Franciscans at Dublin and others it was resolved upon at last to Remonstrate their condition to His Majestie and Petition his just and merciful regard of them that suffered so unjustly Which accordingly the said Mr. Beling drew in the name of the Catholick Clergie of Ireland Because the design was chiefly imposed on them and upon their account the Layety suffered But forasmuch as he considered that a bare Remonstrance of their sufferings or a bare Petition of redress could not much avail a people that lately had acted as they had done in obedience to the Nuncio both he and the rest of those gentlemen with whom he consulted found it necessary by a Solemn Declaration of their principles in point of obedience in temporal things to obstruct the grand objection of The inconsistency of Catholick Religion and of a tolleration of it with the safety of a Protestant Prince or State Which was the reason that one of those Gentlemen remembring they had lately seen a printed Declaration of the Catholicks of England in their name exhibited in a long Petition to the Parliament at Westminster a little before or in the beginning of the commotions of those Kingdoms about the year 1640. and lighting on the book after diligent search wherein they had read it which is that of Father Cressy an English man and a Benedictine Monke sometime before Protestant Dean of Leighlin in Ireland entituled his Exomologesis or the motives of his conversion to the Catholick Church and having brought it to Mr. Beling he judging it very proper for the present matter and purpose of the Catholicks and Clergy of Ireland and much pleased to have such a precedent as that of men so learned and wary as the Catholicks of England for a business or Declaration of that kind extracted it word by word out of the said book pag 76. 77. and 78. Paris impression without any other change but of the Application to the King instead of the Parliament and of Ireland instead of England and inserted it in that Remonstrance which he then drew for his own Countrymen Which although it hath been often already and in several pieces of mine published in Print yet forasmuch as it was that which occasioned this general Congregation at Dublin of the said Irish Clergie in 66. five years after it was in their names exhibited to His Majestie at London and because peradventure many would consider the tenour of it when they come to read this present Treatise and other Treatises following to free them of a trouble to looke after those other pieces wherein it is I have thought fit to give them it here again to their hand To the KINGS most Excellent Majesty The humble Remonstrance Acknowledgement Protestation and Petition of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland YOur Majesties faithful Subjects the Roman Catholick Clergy of your Majesties Kingdom of Ireland do most humbly Represent this their present state and deplorable Condition That being intrusted by the undispensable Commission of the King of Kings with the cure of Souls and the care of their Flocks in order to the Administration of Sacraments and Teaching the People that perfect obedience which for Conscience sake they are bound to pay to your Majesties Commands they are loaden with Calumnies and persecuted with Severity That being obliged by the Allegiance they owe and ought to swear unto your Majesty To reveal all conspiracies and practices against your Person and Royal Authority that come to their knowledge they are themselves clamour'd against as Conspirators plotting the destruction of the English among them without any ground that may give the least colour to so foul a crime to pass for probable in the judgment of any indifferent person That their Crimes are as numerous and divers as are the Inventions of their Adversaries and because they cannot with freedom appear to justifie their Innocency all the fictions and allegations against them are received as undoubted verities and which is yet more mischievous the Laity upon whose Consciences the character of Priesthood gives them an influence suffer
answer that Affrican Synod where those Fathers reprove the injustice of Celestine's demand of such transmarine judgments in the case of Apiarius requiring it to be transmitted out of Affrick to Rome and reprove I say that injustice in these very words which you may read in the now mentiond Synodical Epistle a few lines after the former words Or how can that kind of transmarine judgment be rational or legal whereunto the persons of necessary witnesses cannot be brought because either of their sex or infirmities of old age or of many other intervening impediments But that neither within the limits of the same Province nor even where the crossing of the Sea is unnecessary the parties accused be drawn too farre from their dwelling places and so molested too much by the Judges on pretence of a judicatory Innocent the Third has enacted even in a Councel Oecomenical of the whole earth cap. Nâ—nnulli Extra de Rescriptis But all this and very many other passages to this purpose I pass over at present as I have said before I pass over likewise that exception which the Canons allow against the unsafety of the place to which the summons are the unsafety of it I say if the nature of the controversy and present circumstances be considered Especially if we call to mind what several Religious men and of several Orders too that to clear themselves from calumnies in a Controversy not altogether unlike this and being not even summond in that or any other cause whatsoever nor convicted of any kind of crime the Judges themselves confessing both did venture hence to goe and appear at Rome or Madrit have suffered in our own days in our own late memory and suffered too without so much as any kind of even the very external formality of law or canons observed towards them and suffered so too most plainly against all the laws of God and nature And if we call moreover to mind those inhumane plots contrived in forraign Countries against the very lives of some even of our secular Nobility that having been formerly engaged with us in the same controversy were after in the ruine forced to shift abroad plots layd by some of those very men that now again endeavour to embroyle all anew commixe heaven and earth put all things out of frame the second time into the most horrid confusion they can of purpose partly to asperse and be revenged of us In fine I pass over the greatest exception of all The quarrel against us and the controversy in all parts to be such as concerns the temporal rights of all supream lawful Magistrates or Governours Kings and States Kingdoms and Common-wealths that acknowledge no dependency in temporals but from God alone whether they be Christians or Pagans Orthodox or Heterodox believers And consequently such whereof the Minister general or Commissary National of St. Francis's Order is so farre wide from being judge I mean as to any effect of being able and I speake onely here of ability in point of conscience to oblige their Inferiours to determine in any part against the right of Princes or silence the truth of the Gospel of Christ in this matter chiefly where the declaration of such truth is needful amongst Sectaries that are partly for want of such declaration made to them by Catholicks known to continue their separation walke in darkness and have a most strange aversion from the Church of Rome that neither is the great and most blessed Pontiff himself alone reputed a competent much less infallible Judge in this controversy not I say reputed so even by most celebrious and most excellent Catholick Divines though earnest renowned Champions for the Roman Faith in all its tenets and latitude Which manifestly abundantly appears not onely out of the late Decree of the Theological Faculty of Paris of the 8. of May this present year 1663. and many other decisions not of that Faculty of Paris alone but of all other Vniversities of the Kingdom of France and of the Gallicane Church too in general since the horrid murthers of Henry the Third and Fourth even of National Councels of the Bishops of the same Church against the several attempts of Boniface the Eight and Julius the Second but also out of the carriadge books actions of the Divines and Prelats of the Venetian Republick and Church against Paul the Fift in the year 1606. out of the sense and sentence of the Archbishops Bishops and Abbots of the Catholick Church of England in the Raigns of Edward the Third and Richard the Second above 300. years since Gregory the Eleventh and Martin the Fift strugling to the contrary but to no purpose as you may read even in Polydore Virgil in his life of Edward the Third out of the German Italian and other Churches truly Orthodox of several Nations of Europe their Prelats and Clergie who adhered to the Roman Emperours where the temporal rights were concernd against Gregory the Seventh and some other great Bishops of the Roman Sea lastly and yet more particularly our of our own William Occam in the cause of Lewis of Bauier and out of Iâ—â—nnes Parisiensis Gerson Major Almain Cardinal Cusan c. most famous writers and Doctors too both Catholick and Classick nay if any credit be given to Aventinus in his Seventh book of his Boiarian Annals where he relates the Decree of the foresaid Emperour Lewis of Bauier out of that General and celebrated Chapter of the whole very Order of St. Francis held at Perusia in Italy or out I mean of the famous Appeal they all that is their General Provincials and Doctors of Divinity made therein from Iohn the two and twentieth Pope of that name to a future Oecumenical Council of Christendom although I do not deny but the most immediate occasion of their appearing so as is related in that History against the Pope and appealing from him was his condemning the Franciscans for teaching That neither Christ nor his Apostles had any temporal right or property in earthly goods but onely simplicem usum facti Whom therefore in shew but really for an other cause that is for their siding against him with the Emperour and maintaining by their pens and Sermons the Emperours temporal rights he tearmed foolish animals pernicious foxes that by a seeming strictness of religion and hypocrisy abused the world and seduced the people having first set forth those Extravagants which you may read in the Canon law against the Order it self All which I say and very much more of this kind I pass over at present Nor least I exceed the measure of an epistle do I at this time alledge either those other arguments derived from the intrinsick nature or as they speak commonly from the very bowels of the cause it self or those which may be brought from or out of Canonical Scriptures or the monuments of holy Fathers who in a continual succession for nine hundred years compleat nay till the eleventh age of Christianity delivered
pretence or even true real only cause of Warr so declared and prosecuted by the Pope against our King is purely and solely for unjust laws made and executed against Catholicks and against as well their temporal as spiritual rights and only to restore such rights to the Catholick Subjects of great Brittain and Ireland and be it further made as clear and certain as any thing can be made in this life to an other by Declarations or Manifestoes of the Popes pure and holy intentions in such an undertaking and of his Army 's too or that they intend not at all to Usurp for themselves or alienat the Crown or other rights of the Kingdoms or of any of the people but only to restore the Catholick people to their former state according to the ancient fundamental laws and to let the King govern them so and only disinable him to do otherwise and having put all things into such order to withdraw his Army altogether let all this I say be granted yet forasmuch as considering the nature of Warr and conquest and how many things may intervene to change the first intentions so pure could these intentions I say be certainly known as they cannot to any mortal man without special Divine revelation what Divines can be so foolish or peremptory as to censure the Catholick Subjects for not lying under the mercy of such a forraign Army or even in such a case to condemn them either of Sacriledg or of any thing against the sincerity of Catholick Faith only for not suffering themselves to lye for their very natural being at such mercy Or if any Divines will be so foolish or peremptory as these Lovain Divines proved themselves to have been by this second ground of their Censure I would fain know what clear uncontroverted passage of Holy Scripture and allowed uncontroverted sense thereof or what Catholick uncontroverted doctrine of holy Tradition or even what convincing argument of natural reason they can alleadg in the case And as I am sure they cannot alleadg any so all others may presume so too being their said original long Censure wherein they lay down all their grounds and likely too their best proofs of such dare not see the light or abide the test of publick view And if all they would have by this ground or pretence of ground or by the bad arguments they frame to make it good were allowed it is plain they conclude no more against a Remonstrance which assures our King of his Roman Catholick Subjects to stand by him in all contingencies whatsoever for the defence of his person Crown Kingdom and people and their natural and political or civil rights and liberties against the Pope himself then they would against such a Remonstrance as comprehended not such standing by against the Pope but only against French Spanish or other Princes of the Roman Church or Communion For the Pope hath no more nor can pretend any more right in the case to make Warr on the King of England then any meer temporal Prince of that Religion can being if he did Warr it must be only and purely as a meer temporal Prince for as having pure Episcopal power either that wich is immediately from Jesus Christ or that which is onely from the Fathers and Canons of the Church or if you please from both he is not capacitated to fight with the sword but with the word that is by praying and preaching and laying spiritual commands and inflicting spiritual censures only where there is just cause of such And I am sure the Lovain Divines have not yet proved nor will at any time hereafter that the non-rebellion of Subjects against their own lawful Prince let his government be supposed never so tyrannical never so destructive to Catholick Faith and Religion or even their taking arms by his command to defend both his and their own civil and natural rights against all forraign invaders whatsoever and however specious the pretext of invasion be is a just cause of any such spiritual Ecclesiastical censure Nor have proved yet against them or can hereafter that such censures in either of both cases would bind any but him alone that should pronounce them and those only that besides would obey them Yet all this notwithstanding I am farre enough and shall ever be from saying or meaning that Subjects whatsoever Catholick or not Catholick ought or can justy defend any unjust cause or quarrel of their Prince when they are evidently convinced of the injustice of it Nor consequently is it my saying or meaning that Catholick Subjects may enlist themselves in their Princes Army if an offensive Warr be declared against the Pope or even other Catholick Prince or State soever and had been declared so by the Prince himself or by his Generals or Armyes and by publick Manifesto's or otherwise known sufficiently and undoubtedly to be for extirpation of the true Orthodox Faith or Catholick Religion or of the holy rites or Liturgy or holy discipline of it Nor doth our Remonstrance engage us to any such thing but is as wide from it as Heaven from Earth It engages us indeed to obey the King even by the most active obedience can be even to enlist our selves if he command us and hazard our lives in fighting for the defence of his Person Crowns Kingdoms and People amongst which people our selves are but only still in a defensive Warr for his and their lives rights and liberties but engages us not at all to any kind of such active obedience nor ever intended to engage or supposed us engaged thereunto in case of such an offensive Warr as I have now stated What obedience the Remonstrance engages us unto in this later case is onely or meerly passive And to this passive obedience I confess it binds us in all contingencies whatsoever even the very worst imaginable But therefore binds us so because the law of the Land and the law of God and the law of Reason too without any such Remonstrance bound us before The Remonstrance therefore brings not in this particular as neither indeed in any other any kind of new tye on us but only declares our bare acknowledgement of such tyes antecedently Even such tyes as are on all Subjects of the world to their own respective lawful supream politick Governours Which bind all Subjects whatsoever to an active obedience when ever and where euer they are commanded any thing either good of its own nature or even but only indifferent and where the law of God or the law of the Land doth not command the contrary or restrain the Princes power of commanding it And to a passive obedience when he commands us any evil or any thing against either of both laws That is to a patient abiding suffering or undergoing without rebellion or any forcible resistance whatever punishment he shall inflict on us for not doing that which he commands and is truly evil in it self as being against the laws of God or is
this great Prince And so we are at least throughly quitt even for matter of example And so I have also done with my sixth and last of all those considerations or of all those points on which I have said before in the beginning of my animadversions of or answers to the third ground of the Censure it had much better become our masters of Lovaine Doctors of Divinity and of so grave and so judicious a Faculty as that of Lovaine should be to reflect seriously before they had precipitated so temerariously and injuriously and even erroneously to boot to censure that Remonstrance of 61. on this ground of its pretended promise or tye on Confessors to break the Sacred Seal of Confession The nullity and falsity of which pretence or ground although I knew that my very first consideration of all the six had sufficiently evinced yet I would ex superabundanti and to clear this matter in all particulars and to instruct others more fully give all the rest albeit unnecessary amongst men of reason to vindicate in this behalf or any other that Remonstrance LX. I onely to end all whatever I intended to say on this occasion further add it is a confirmation of what I have said before in my first consideration that if our sticklers at home for the Lovaine Censure in this behalf or if the opposers of the said Remonstrance of 61. on account of obliging Confessors to break the Sacred Seal of Confession will continue still their malicious clamours against it on this account finding all other accounts to stand them in no stead though I be sure they find this very same to stand them in as little as any of all they must confess themselves consequently obliged to clamour no less nay more against the Remonstrance of 66. whereof hereafter I will treat at large even that of the Dublin Congregation of that year even that of the general Representatives of the whole Clergie of Ireland even that of their Archbishops Bishops Provincials Vicars general Divines altogether For if the former of 61. be quarreld at for expressing onely the readiness of the subscribers of it to reveal c. and for expressing such readiness without any express engagement or any at all in other express tearms then these two words being ready words of their own proper strict signification not engageing at all the subscribers to reveal or that they will discover actually but at most a present preparation or disposition of mind to discover c certainly this passage of the Remonstrance of 66. wherein there is an express engagement or one in express words that they will or shall discover c. must be in reason as much at least if not more quarreld at on that account Wherefore pursuant c. we do engage our selves to discover unto your Majesty or some of your Ministers any attempt of that kind rebellion or conspiracy against your Majesties person Crown or Royal authority that comes to our knowledge For here is the same general notion of knowledge without any express distinction of it without any express reservation or exception of that knowledge which is had in confession as indeed there should not be any either express or tacit thereof more then is in the former Remonstrance of 61. LXI To the fourth and last ground of that Censure of Lovaine against this Remonstrance of 61 their pretence of its renouncing Ecclesiastical Immunity or of subjecting Clergiemen against Ecclesiastical Immunity to the cognizance and punishment of the civil Magistrate The Procurator and other subscribers answer'd 1. That there is not a syllable in that Remonstrance which may seem to any man of reason to say either formally or virtually expresly or tacitly That Churchmen have not or ought not to have either by the laws of man civil or Ecclesiastical or by the laws of God positive or natural any such immunity or exemption either for their goods or persons from the cognizance or punishment of the subordinate inferiour civil Courts Magistrates or Judges I mean any such immunity or exemption as the Catholick Faith or Catholick Church teacheth as out of Scripture or out of Tradition or even as by virtue of any canon or custome obliging as much as the very Churchmen to assert or maintain it or not to renounce or disacknowledge it not even in some cases or some Countreys where the civil or municipal laws are contrary to such canon or such custome as for example England and Ireland where this last century of years the laws and customs are known to be so much altered from that they perhaps have formerly been in this matter That the acknowledgment of the King to be our King and our supream Lord too or the acknowledgment of his absolute independent supremacy in all temporals within his own Dominions concluds neither formally nor virtually a disacknowledgment or even the least renunciation of any kind of real true pro-per Ecclesiastical Immunity acknowledg'd by other parts or people or Churches or Churchmen in the world even in the most Catholick Countries No more certainly then doth the like acknowledgment known to be made by word and by writing by all Catholick French Spanish Venetian German c Clergiemen to their own respective Kings Emperours States conclude that they disacknowledg or renounce thereby or by any other means that which they call or acknowledg to be Ecclesiastical Immunity or Exemption amongst themselves That as little doth the acknowledging our selves bound under pain of sin to obey His Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs as much as any other of His Majesties Subjects and as the laws and rules of Government in this Kingdom require at our hands that I say as little doth this acknowledging such obligation draw along with it by either formal or virtual consequence our disacknowledging or renouncing our right or pretence to any true real or proper Ecclesiastical Immunity or Exemption If we have indeed or can have or ought to have any such right or pretence of right in the case For such obligation and such acknowledgment of it can and does very well consist evermore with a challenge or claim to all kinds of true and proper Ecclesiastical Immunity or exemption whether that challenge or claim be well or ill grounded in the case being it is very well known that other His Majesties Subjects are not bound under pain of sin to obey His Majesty by an active obedience always not even in all civil and temporal affairs but either by an active or passive only And being it is no less known that the laws and rules of Government in this Kingdom require no more at their hands even in all civil and temporal affairs then to be so obedient as either to do that freely which they prescribe or patiently and without resistance to abide the penalties of the same laws and of His majesties pleasure And being moreover it is evident of it self that a Priest can without making any resistance patiently christianly
godliness piety zeal what they believed to be their own proper goods how much more would they have abstained from usurping on those of the Church and to which they had known themselves to have no kind of right Secondly forasmuch as depends of the testimony or authority of the civil Law it self it is clear enough that Clergiemen have not only been originally or sometime but have continued alwayes or at all times since the very first of christianity are at present stil subject to the supream civil Power therefore not exempt from it For being it appears by these laws that Clergiemen were so first indistinctly in all kind of politick matters subject or not exempt in any either from the supream civil or subordinate civil and being further that none of these laws nor altogether exempt them but in some politick things or some such causes from the subordinat only and in none at all from the supream in any such cause and being moreover that it was from and by virtue of or by a power derived from those very civil laws and consequently from the supream civil Magistrate Prince Emperour that Ecclesiastical Judges were so appointed for other Clerks in any civil or criminal cause whatsoever or in those we call meer lay crimes it must follow that forasmuch as concerns the testimony of those civil laws which Bellarmine quotes here Clerks are still subject to the supream civil power though not in some cases or not even in very many cases to the subordinat civil but in such have other Judges that is Ecclesiastical ones appointed them by the same laws For by the testimony of these laws they are not exempt wherein they were not exempted by those very laws And those laws do not exempt them in any case at all from the Legislator Himself or from the supream civil power nor even from the subordinate indistinctly and universally in all cases but in some only Thirdly it is clear enough also by the testimony authority and warranty of these civil Laws and forasmuch I say as depends of such warranty if joyn'd together with the allowed doctrine of all christian both Lawyers and Divines generally that in such Christian Kingdoms as never have been govern'd by those laws of Roman Emperours or which in after-times did legally shake off the yoke both of the Empire and imperial laws generally and are govern'd only by municipal laws of their own Clerks are not exempt at all in politick matters from either supream or subordinate lay Courts or Judges no further then such municipal peculiar civil laws do exempt them And being that in no such Countrey at all for any thing we know yet or is alledged yet by Bellarmine or by our Divines of Lovaine Clerks are not exempt by such laws from the supream civil power and being at least that whatever may be imagined of some one or other Countrey with or without ground we know certainly there is no such law in England or Ireland nor hath yet ever been it is no less clear that Clerks are not at all exempt in England or Ireland in politick matters from the supream civil power of the Prince or of his Laws forasmuch I say still as depends of the testimony of the civil laws or even of the doctrine of either Christian Lawyers or Catholick Divines Which doctrine is that laws of men when meer laws of men and in politick matters depend not only of public tiâ—â—â— but also of legal reception and hereof also that they be not abrogated again by a contrary establishment or by a general opposition abrogation or disuse in any particular Kingdom or State especially if such as have the supream civil Legislative Power approve of or concurr to such abrogation or disuse Fourthly and Lastly and as a corrollary out of all it is perspicuous that as the very civil laws of Roman Emperours and such other municipal laws of other Christian Princes giving such or some certain and special exemptions and other priviledges to Clergiemen and giving them freely and out of devotion only for the greater decency and reverence of the Church do convince any rational person that secular Princes are still continually as they have been originally Superiours in temporal power to the Clergy even to all Priests and Bishops whatsoever living within their Dominions so they also convince that not even the great Priest and Bishop the very chief and spiritual Prince both of all Priests and of all Bishops too the Pope himself not even this so Oecumenical Vicar of Christ in all spiritual matters throughout the whole earth can be truly said to be at present upon any other account exempted from secular Powers in temporal matters but on this only that he also himself is now as he hath been for some ages though not from the beginning a temporal or secular Prince too and that now he represents a double Person that of the Successor of St. Peter at Rome which undoubtedly he hath from Christ and from the Church purely taken as a Church and that also of a secular Prince with independent secular civil or temporal power which latter he hath no less undoubtedly and even only and solely from the meer devotion benevolence bounty and gift of other Princes and people even I mean of meer lay Princes People But to the end learned men shall not say I take advantage of Bellarmine's not having so throughly examined this matter in his great work of Controversies nor even in his very last edition of that work which yet is the edition I have hitherto answered and shall not object at any time that Bellarmine sifted yet more narrowly the question of the civil laws in a latter book of his when he was in his old age forced to it by Doctor William Barelay's answers and solutions of all the Church-canons whereon chiefly or rather indeed only Bellarmine relyed till then as we have seen and we shall further see yet in the next Section for his so general exemption of Clergiemen from even the supream civil coercive power in all criminal causes whatsoever least I say any should object this I will give at large and in Bellarmines own words but Englished all that he replies in that his very last piece on this subject we have now in hand of the civil laws against the same William Barclay and my own rejoynder also though in effect and for the most part made before I confess by another that is by Iohn Barclay the Son in his Pietas and to justifie the quarrel of his then dead Father LXIX Bellarmine therefore seeing by the said William Barclay's work De Potestate Papae in Temporalibus against him that all his former pretences of what law soever civil or ecclesiastical for the exemption of Clergiemen from the supream civil Power could not perswade any judicious Reader of that book of William Barclay regards no more what he had granted before in his great Works of Controversies and even in the very
an ordinance in such general or rather indefinit terms for the exemption of Clerks in a criminal question from the civil-Judicatory or being it is but a command or law That none should presume to call or draw an Ecclesiastical person in a criminal question or even civil to a secular judgment against the Imperial Constitutions and Canonical Functions and whereas there was never yet any Imperial Constitution or Canonical Sanction either made before his time or in his time or after his time that exempted Clergymen in either of both sorts of questions civil or criminal from the supream civil and absolute power of the Emperour themselves or of other Kings that acknowledge neither Emperour nor Pope nor any other above themselves in their temporal government who sees not that out of this Constitution of Frederick nothing can be concluded for such exemption of Clerks in criminal causes from the supream civil power but only from that of subordinat inferiour and ordinary civil or secular Judicatories Besides we know Fredericks laws were only for those few Cities or Provinces that remain'd in his time which was about the year of Christ one thousand two hundred and twenty and therefore could not pretend nor did pretend to prescribe laws to other Kingdoms or Kings for the exemption of Clerks either in civil or criminal causes or even to the inferiour Iudicatories of other Kings And that we know also that that law of Frederick was not imitated by the like in other Principalities not subject to him not imitated I say generally as to the exemption of Clerks in all either civil or criminal causes whatsoever from the very subordinat inferiour civil Iudicatories nor even in prima instantia So that I must conclude that Bellarmine was put to a very narrow strait for an imperial or civil law wh◠〈◊〉 pitch't on this of Frederick which was not known nor as much as 〈◊〉 of in other parts of even Europe it self as owning no subjection to Frederick And yet a law not to the purpose were it of the same authority those Imperial Constitutions were when the Orient and the Occident South and North as far as the Roman Empire was ever spread at any time or even in great Constantins days were under one Lord. An imperial or civil law in those days or of such others for some ages after which wâ—e received in the wide christian world consequently generally retained might have been to purpose if it had clearly expresly on particularly enacted any thing to our present purpose But conceived in such terms as this of Frederick coâ—lâ— not be to such purpose For it is one thing to be exempted from the subjection due to Emperours or Kings and another to be exempted a forâ— secuilâ—i from a secâ—â—â—â— Iudicatory The Emperours had under themselves and established by themselves and by their own civil laws two sorts of Iudicatories The one termâ—â—â—g meer civil or meer secular Iudicatory where peculars onely or meer â—ay men were Judges And the other termed 〈◊〉 Ecclesiastical Iudicatory where Ecclesiastical Persons only or persons depâ—â—â—â— by them were Iudgeâ— whatever the cause or question was civil or criâ—â—nal temporal or spiritual or mixt of both And both had their power which as coercive or a 〈…〉 with any coerciâ—â—â— from the Emperours and from their civil law 〈◊〉 So that the Emperours exempting any from the secular Iudicatory 〈…〉 leave or put such under the subordinat pâ—â—er of the Ecclesiastical Judges deputed by the same Emperours or by their laws Which they might have done in favour of meer lay men 〈◊〉 some lay-men and in some or many or all case whatsoever made had it been their Imperial pleasure as often they did by instances grant Epise 〈◊〉 And entiam to meer lay men and in meer lay crimes or lay causes 〈◊〉 civil and criminal at leaâ— in civil Would Bellarmine conclude therefore that those were exempted or should be in such a case and by the Emperours themselves or their laws exempted from their own supream civil coercive power in criminal causes or indeed in any whatsoever Or must it follow that because by the law of England a Lord for example 〈◊〉 be condemned or tryed in a criminal cause but by his Peers that therefore in England a Lord is exempt from the supream civil coercive power of the King himself Or that it is not by a power derived from the King thâ—â— Peer 〈…〉 condemn or free another Peer Or even that by the supream power of the King which formerly established such a law of priviledge for Peers the same law may not be justly again or upon just grounds repealed and a contrary law made in Parliament if at any time it were found by manifest experience that the Peers did manifestly and manifoldly and even to the ruine of the King and Kingdom and against the very primary intention of all priviledges and laws make use of or rather abuse such a former law or former priviledge Or finally and consequently that whatever priviledge of exemption though only from Inferiour lay Judges was so granted as before to Clerks by the supream civil power of Emperours Kings and other States was such that in case of manifest and manifold abuse even to the ruine of the publick and without any hope of amendment it could not be revoked again or moderated by another law and equal power to that which gave it before Therefore from first to last I think it is now clear enough that by the civil law no Clerks are exempt in criminal causes from the supream coercive power of such temporal Princes or States under whom they live LXIX That neither by the Canons of the Church I am now to prove Wherein I find so little difficulty that notwithstanding the general errour so wide spread or supposed amongst as well Divines as Canonists to the contrary but introduced at first and continued after out of some passages of Councils very ill understood considered or examined I dare say boldly that not onely none of all those Councils or Canons of Councils alledged for such exemption of Clerks from the supream civil power but not even any of them alledged for their exemption from as much as the subordinat civil power of inferiour Judicatories hath any such matter at all Though my purpose here be not other then to prove this truth for what concerns the supream power only To which purpose I affirm that no where in any Council is it found that the Fathers attributed such authority to themselves as by their own sole power to exempt Clerks from lay Tribunals â— or which is the same thing to deprive secular Judges or Magistrates of power empire command judgment coercion or Iurisdiction over Clerks or which also imports the very same to prohibit the secular Judges not to take cognizance of or give sentence in the causes either civil or criminal of Clerks brought unto their tribunals or finally and it is still in effect the same
all the power of the Emperour Frederick accompanied with such numerous and formidable legions and with all the Princes of Empire and Kings also of Denmark and Bohemia at Avignon whether this Emperour of purpose to entrap Lewis in a conference and force him to quit Alexander and 2. when immediatly after this he also personally visited this Pope Alexander apud Bobiense Monasterium where he was then retired presented him richly and did him so much honour and reverence that after kissing his toe he excused himself from sitting in the chayre prepared for him and with all his Barons sate on the bare ground at his feet and 3. That together with the said King Lewis of France at their meeting upon the River Loyre where this Pope mediated and concluded a peace betwixt them he out of exceeding reverence towards him and to countenance him the more against the Antipope Victor and Frederick the Emperour and for example to his own Subjects and those of France too and all others performed the office of a yeoman of the stirrop upon one side as the King of France did on the other leading his horse by the reyns both of them a foot on the right and left hand till they left him at his lodging as he after continued constant in his observance of this same Pope Alexander all along during the whole Schysme of three Antipopes created against him at such time and such a conjuncture as this Thomas Becket having been so elected by this Henry the Second as we have seen and so confirmed by this Pope Alexander the Third nay and immediatly upon his election and before any word sent to or received from Alexander though so neer him then as Mons Pessulanus in France having received investiture as the custom then yet was in England from a lay hand from that King 's own hand by receiveing from him a staff and a ring the first occasion spring or motive of all their following great long and fatal differences was very soon after unluckily happen'd even the very second year of his Archbishoprick that is immediatly after his return from that great Council of 17 Cardinals a hundred and four and twenty Bishops four hundred and fourteen Abbots and of an infinit number of other Priests and Clerks held in the month of May 1163. by Alexander at Tours in France concerning the Schysme where Alexander did such extraordinary honour to this our Canterbury Archbishop Thomas Becket as to send all his Cardinals two onely excepted who assisted himself out of town to receive him as he came to the Council But that which you are specially to observe here and first of all in order to our main purpose is what the particulars were of this first occasion spring or motives And indeed I confess that as Gulielmus Neuhrigensis tells us in the 16. Chapter of his History that at this Council of Tours though not publickly in the Council but privatly this our St. Thomas of Canterbury resigned his Archbishoprick to Alexander as not being able otherwise to bear the stinging pricks of his own conscience for having received the investiture of it from a lay hand and that Alexander again with his own hand invested him so he also tells us that the sole original cause of all the following fatal differences 'twixt St. Thomas and his King Henry the Second was that he would not suffer the King to proceed by law against criminal Priests that is would not suffer him to have them tryed sentenced and punish'd in the civil Courts or by the civil Judges according to that law which the King said was the law of the land the law and custom of his Predecessours But Cesars Baronius ad an Christi 11â—3 corrects Neubrigensis in both particulars And yet he or his Epitomizer Henricus Spondanus ad an Christi 1163 sayes that Neubrigensis was an Author of that time and both a faithful and accurat Writer Willelmus Neubrigensis sayes he hujus temporis scriptur fidelis aâ—â—enatus However Baronius corrects him in both the said particulars and sayes that as the first of Thomas of Canterburie's resignation happen'd in the year 1164. when being fled out of England he the second time accoasted the same Pope Alexander and presented the heads of those laws about which the consequent main contest was 'twixt the King and him so it appears out of the Acts of our Saints Life written by the before named four Authors of the said Acts that besides that of not suffering the King to proceed by law against criminal Priests which he confesses interceded yet several other causes preceded and most just causes too which imposed a necessity on the Saint to reprehend the King For sayes he these Acts relate how the King came to be incensed against him viz. because he endeavoured to recover from the hands or possession of Lay-men some lands which formerly belong'd to the Church of Canterbury and were unduly alienated by his Predecessors and because he endeavoured likewise to abolish the bad custom which had long prevailed in England that the revenues of vacant Churches should be payed in to and challenged by the Kings Exchequer whereby it came to pass that the Churches were too long of purpose kept vacant and yet because that being Archbishop he quitted his former office of Chancellorship against the Kings will who desired he should keep it still together with his Episcopacy which yet he would not reflecting on that of St. Paul Nemo militans Deo implicat se negotiis secularibus and because moreover he prohibited the exaction of an unjust assessement laid on the subjects and further also because he delivered not to the secular court a certain Priest condemn'd of murther but only degraded him and shut him up in a Monastery for his pennance nor delivered to secular punishment as the King desired another certain criminal Chanon but only laid him under Ecclesiastical Censures And these were the causes or springs of the great contest which followed as Baronius sayes out of the said Acts. And yet I must say that as he doth not as yet out of the same Acts or any thing here said by him out of them disprove what Neubrigensis said to be the only that is the first or sole first cause motive or spring for all these four or five did not happen altogether and that of not delivering the criminal Priest and Chanon to the secular court might have been the first of all for any thing related by him out of those Acts being they distinguish not or declare not particularly as he relates them which was first or last in time so it is clear by Baronius's own prosecution of the history of this Saints troubles and the Kings quarrel to him that this of not delivering those criminal Ecclesiasticks was that onely which occasion'd all the ensueing differences or that onely at least which the King took as the immediat pretence of his first publick quarrel with him and rest of the Bishops
day murthered him in the Church as he was at evening prayer Seventhly you are to observe good Reader what the ancient Christian civil or municipal laws of England or those I mean of the State politick and civil as they are distinguish'd from the meer canons of the Church were concerning the immunity of Clergiemen from secular tribunals in the punishment of their crimes and were yet in the days of S. Thomas and Henry the second or at any time before that contest not legally repealed then by a contrary civil or municipal law of that land or by any contrary custom admitted or in force For I must confess that often considering with my self how it was not probable that so vertuous and just a man and even so knowing a man also as S. Thomas of Canterbury must have been being he studied so long both in Oxford and Paris and the civil law in Italy and was one of the Justiciers in London before he went to Italy was after Archdeacon and last of all before made Archbishop was five whole years great Chancellour of England sitting and judging in the Court of highest judicature how I say it was not onely not probable but not even really possible that such a man being made Archbishop of Canterbury should upon false grounds that is upon any such vain or trifling grounds as those are of some of our late School-divines Canonists or Historians or as those are of Bellarmine Baronius c. for the exemption of Clergiemen from secular tribunals even the very supream in or as to the judgment or punishment of their crimes whatsoever contend so mightily and so dangerously and so fatally at last with Henry the Second or contend with him at all upon such grounds for any kind of exemption of those two Clerks whereof before from the Kings Judicatories especially when the King himself desired they should be delivered to the secular Court because of their own proper great delinquency and because also or indeed cheifly of the great clamours were then against the more general delinquency of Clerks in England as not regarding much Ecclesiastical punishments or should also but I say still upon the grounds of Bellarmine or his Associats contend with that King upon the matter or subject of the second of those 16. Heads which begins Clerici citati c. and which is the only indeed of all those 16. Heads that any way touches our present controversie or which of all those Heads may at all be made use of against my doctrine of the subjection of Clerks in criminal causes to the supream civil power Therefore I took the pains in reading over all the more ancient civil or municipal laws of England as many as I heard were extant and not only the Saxon laws publish'd of late by Abrahamus Whelocus though formerly translated into Latin out of the ancient English or Saxon language by Gulielmus Lambardus but also the Norman laws made for England by William the Conquerour and his youngest Son King Henry the first as Roger Twisden gives them as likewise I yet further took pains in consulting the Histories of William the Conqueror William Rufus Henry the First King Stephen Henry the Second c. because I perswaded my self it could not be otherwise but that certainly S. Thomas had some good sure ground for himself in the municipal proper peculiar laws of England for that which concern'd his grand contest or even for that second head fingly taken of those above 16. or even also for his not delivering up to secular judgment those two criminal Clerks Nor truly was I deceived in my perswasion nor frustrated in my inquisition For having read the laws of King Inas who began to raign an 712. and ended an 729. of King Alured who began his raign an 871. and ended an 900 of King Ethelred who began an 979. ended an 1016. of King Edgar who began an 959. ended an 975. of King Edmund who began 940. ended 946. of Edward the Second of that name of Saxon Kings who began 900. end 924. and of Guthrun the Danish tributary King those laws I mean which are called Faedera Edwardi ac Guthruni Regum of King Ethelstan who began his raign 924. ended 940. of King Canutus who began 1016. ended 1035. of Edward the Third of that name of the Saxon Kings otherwise called Edouardus bonus Edward the Confessor and St. Edward who began 1042. ended 1066. as likewise those of Gulielmus Conquaestor who began 1067. ended 1087. and of Henricus primus who began 1100. ended 1135. I find enough to my purpose 'T is true those of Inas Ethelred and Aelstane have nothing in particular touching it nor those even of Edgar which were renewed again LXVII years after his death and after that by reason of the intervening wars they had been so long out of use and were so renewed by Edwardus bonus St. Edward the Confessor any thing but that in general which is the first of all his laws Primum Ecclesiae Dei jura ac Immunitates sitas omnes habento deâ—umas quisque c. yet those of Alured determine thus Sacerdos si quempiam interfecerit eorum omnium quae ope domicilii fretus acquisierit confiscatio sequitor eumque gradu spoliatum Episcopus è fano pellito ni Dominus data capitis aestimatione veniam illi exorarit And those of Edmund thus si quis hominis Christiani sanguinem effuderit ad Regium conspectum etsi ei seruierit non admittitor ni prius id sceleris juxta ac fuerit ei ab Episcopo ac sacerdote imperatum compensarit But those of Edward the Second and Guthrum thus Si quis sacris initiatus clepserit dimicarit peierarit aut fornicatus fuerit capitis aestimatione mulcta aut legis violatae paena pro îpsa delicti ratione compensato Deo saltem prout se regulae habuerint Ecclesiasticae faciat satis atque in custodiam ni fidejussores admoverit conjicitor Sacerdos si in diebus festis aut jeiuniis populo indicendis erraverit 30. solidis si quidem id inter Anglos evenerit mulctator fin idem in Dacis acciderit sesquimarcam pendito Sacerdos si ad dies in hoc condictos oleum non pararit sacrosanctum aut baptisma cum usus fuerit denegarit inter Anglos mulctator in Dacis autem legis violatae paenas luctooras nimirum duodenas numerato Si quis sacris initiatus capitale quidquam perpetrarit capitor ut tandem Episcopo criminis admissi paenas dependat And those also of Canutus in part after the same manner and in part otherwise or thus Si eorum qui Arae deservierint aliquis hominem occiderit aut insigne aliquod perpetrarit flagitium gradu honore dispoliatus perinde ei atque Papa circumscripserit habitandi locum exulato ac cumulatè compensato Sin is crimen fuerit inficiatus excusatio tripla esto Atque ni hanc quae Deo hominibus
Philippus de Eleemosyna missus a latere Alexandri summi Pontificis Cardinalium omnium ad pacem faciendam inter Regem Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem per quem summus Pontifex omnes Cardinales mandaverunt Cantuariensi Archiepiscopo ut ipse pacem cum Domino suo Rege Angliae faceret leges suas sine aliqua exceptione custodiendas promitteret Nor are we much to wonder that either Popes of Rome or Bishops of England for peace's sake and upon new occasions should after the days of St. Thomas of Canterbury either connive at or concurr to or at least not oppose the legal repealing of the former municipal laws of England and of their own Ecclesiastical canons too if any had been in that point of jurisdiction or exemption of criminal Clerks from or subjection of them to even the ordinary secular judicatories at least in some cases and criminal cases too being they had and had in the very case of such enormous crimes of Clerks as murder theft malefice a precedent so auncient and of such great authority in the Catholick Church as that I have given in my LXIX Section out of the first Council of Matisconum held in the year 532. where the auncient Fathers and Bishops who composed that Council do in express tearms and in their 7. canon leave such Clerks or rather suppose them still left to secular justice as were guilty or accused of murder theft or malefice For that 7. canon is in these words Vt nullus Clericus de qualibet causa extra discussionem Episcopi suia seculari judice injuriam patiatur aut custodiae deputetur Quod si quicumque Iudex absque criminali cuasa id est homicidio furto aut maleficio facere fortasse praesumpserit quamdiu Episcopo loci illius visum fuerit ab Ecclesiae liminibus arceatur Besides that they had the precedent of all the Bishops of the world both in the Eastern and Western Church under the Roman Empire who all for so many hundred years of Christian Religion established by law submitted to the civil laws of the Roman and Christian Emperours by which laws until Frederick the Seconds laws Clerks were subjected in all criminal causes to the very inferiour lay judges As for the case of treason against the person of the Prince or rebellion against the State or Commonwealth it was never in any Country not even England nor at any time as much as thought on to be exempted from lay cognizance or punishment at least when the King pleased to proceed by extraordinary commission And yet also I confess that such repealing Statuts Customs or both whatever they were under Edward the Second or any former or later King from Henry the Second to Edward the Third made so a municipal law of England suffered again some chang or some amendment in favour of the Clergie in the year 1344. under King Edward the Third in a Parliament held by him at Westminster For so Matthew Parker tels us expresly in his Antiquitates Britannicae pag. 236. in his life of Ioannes Stratford Archbishop of Canterbury Rex Gallum sayes he feroci Marte expilans postquam biennio bellum gessisset exercitu in castris relicto in Angliam reversus est Westmonasterii Parlamentum tenuit In eo Clerus ei concessit decimas triennales Rex Clero vicissim concessit quod nullus Archiepiscopus vel Episcopus coram Iusticiariis Regis judicium subeat nisi Rex hoc nominatim specialiter praeceperit Tum quod nullus Clericus coram Iusticiariis Regis judicium sustineat sive ad ipsius Regis sive alicujus partis instantiam si se submittat Clericatui dicat se membrum Ecclesiae sanctae nec debere ipsis Iustitiariis respondere Quod si quis Clericus de bigamia accusetur de eo non fore permissum Iustitiariis inquirere sed mittatur curiae Christianae Which same Author Matthew Parker tels us further thus pag. 244. in the life of Simer Istippe Archbishop of Canterbury that the same Archbishop Islippe obtained further from the same King Edward the Third and in an other Parliament held by him at Westminster in the five and twentieth year of his Raign and of Christ an 1351. a more ample redress of the grievances of the Clergie from the oppressions of the lay Judges and other the Kings Ministers Archiepiscopus deinde a Rege proceribus in Parliamento obtinuit ut legum ac libertatis Ecclesiasticae oppressiones quibus Clericorum status diu afflictus fuit statuta tollerentur Quo impetrato cum Clerici permulti privilegio Clericali abutentes quam plurima flagitia perpetrarent Rege proceribus id flagitantibus ab Archiepiscopo suisque Suffraganeis statutum est ut Clerici de capitalibus criminibus testibus probationibus suave confessione convicti Episcopalibus perpetuò carceribus mancipati ad pristinum locum aut ordinem numquam restituantur ne ordini Clericali scandalum generetur sed perpetuam agentes paenitentiam quarta sexta feriis in sabbathis pane doloris aqua angustiae semel in die caeteris diebus pane tenuissima cerevisia dominico autem die pane cerevisia legumine tantummodò nutriantur And further yet the same Author Matthew Parker pag. 279. in the life of Henricus Chicheley Archbishop of Canterbury tels us how the Clergie holding a Synod under the said Chicheley in Edward the Fift's Raign an Dom. 1420 and having granted that King a Tenth Clerus a Rege vicissim impetravit Ne hospitii sui pro victualibus provisores Clericorum bona aut possessiones attingerent Deinde ut Clerici in foro Regio capitalium crimmum postulati datis fidejusseribus judicio sisti carceribus liberentur Tertio ut Presbiteri castrati felonum id est homicidarum paenis afficerentur And finally the same Author and Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker tels pag. 298. in the life of Ioannes Mortâ—n Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry the Seventh an Dom. 1487 how upon occasion of a Rebellion in England against the said Henry the Seventh and of the abuse of Sanctuaries of the priviledg of Sanctuaries especially of that of Colchester by some of the Rebels who for a time sheltering their lives in them yet when they found a fit opportunity started out often to do mischief then return'd again how I say upon this occasion the former priviledg of the very Sanctuaries was lessened by law before which law a Bull also was procured from Pope Innocent who then sate declaring that such criminals should be by the lay power extracted out of Sanctuary Lataque ex illa Papali Bulla lex est sayes Parker ut asylis inscripti si homicidia furta incendia sacrilegia depopulationes agrâ—rum Regni aut Regis proditiones postea commiserint inde ejecti vi laica ducantur ad supplicium All which several changes of or concerning the Immunities of Churchmen and Churches in England
but give my Reader this advertisement also That even with such questions both the infallibility of the Catholick Roman Church and the religious and rational piety also of that very Church in venerating and invoking him may subsist Because her infallibility regards other matters as I have said before and because her veneration and invocation of this or that Saint in particular whose sanctity on earth and glory in heaven is not revealed unto her otherwise or taught by clear Scripture or constant Tradition from the beginning doth and must of necessity alwayes imply as to such I mean who see no evident miracles or who are not throughly convinced of such this tacit condition That he or she whom they invoke be in glory and because also moral certainty from humane faith may ground a religious and pious practice as no certainty at all but meer probability of natural grounds may be sufficient to enact a binding law or sanction even also in order to piety and because moreover the prayers of the faithful to Saints whether they invoke them in recto or in obliquo regard principally and without any comparison but that of an infinit disproportion God himself and are terminated in him alone and so farre only regard the Saints as they are in his favour grace and glory and so far only as he is pleased we should either venerat or invoke them So that if in any kind of contingency it may happen that the Church be deceived in her opinion which in this matter depends of humane testimonies and humane knowledge apprehension or sense it cannot be therefore said that her practice is either impious or irreligious or indeed any way foolish Not impious or irreligious for the reasons hitherto given of the tacit condition and primary termination of the worship and prayer nor foolish being she hath grounds enough of and for a moral humane certainty or firm adhesion of such humane belief or perswasion to the material object of her understanding by reason of the formal object of her assent in such matters this formal object being in part the most credible testimonies of other men and in part also at least sometimes the evidence of sense And so I have done at last with all my answers to the fourth and grand and very last of all those I call'd remaining objections and have done also with all my observations and advertisements to the Reader concerning this matter of Thomas of Canterbury Only for a final perclose and for the greater satisfaction yet of the more curious Reader I will add here two appendixes The one is brief and concerning the height or amplitude whereunto the exemption of some persons and some crimes from the civil Judicatories in England grew For at last it came to be such that not only the criminal Clerks themselves however guilty of what crime you please but also the very most enormous lay criminals when their crimes had relation to or had been committed against a Clerk that is when they had impiously and execrably murdred any Clerk Priest or even Bishop or Archbishop were exempted from the secular power but understand you this conformably to my doctrine before were sent to Rome to receive such pennance as the Pope should be pleased to inflict and thereby were absolutely freed of all other punishment that is of any which the civil power and the civil or municipal laws did use or inflict for murder All which to have been so in England for some time is so true that not even any of those very most impious four murtherers of St. Thomas of Canterbury himself though a long time after remaining peaceably and publickly altogether in the village of Cnaresburc in the West of England and at the house of Hugh de Mâ—roville who was himself one of the four murtherers and Lord of that Town or Village of Cnaresburc was at all enquired after by the lay Judges nor as much as touch'd or proceeded against in any wise by them but suffer'd to depart peaceably to Rome when themselves saw that all men and women shun'd their company and that none would either speak or eat with them nor even the very dogs taste of their relicks or fragments whence they were sent by Pope Alexander to do pennance at Jerusalem where finally living a penitential life by his command in Manic nigro they dyed and were buried without the gate of the Temple with this inscription Hic iacent miseri qui martyrizaverunt Beatum Thomam Archiepiscopum Cantuaâ—iensem And yet is so true that immediatly or at least very soon after the dayes or death of St. Thomas of Canterbury Richard Archbishop also of Canterbury either he that was the Saints immediat Successor or he at least who was the Sixt after him in that See for both were Richards and this last was called Richardus Magnus and sate as I take it in the dayes of Henry the Third and I have not leasure now to see which of them it was nor is it material much to set down here which complain'd of the abuse and complain'd thus most grievously of it as you may read in Petrus Blesensis and in his seventy third Epistle to the Bishops of England Clerici vel Episcopi occisores Romam mittuntur sayes he euntesque in deliciis cum plenitudine Apostolicae gratiae majore delinquendi audacia revertuntur Taltum vindictam excessuum Dominus Rex sibi vindicat sed nos eam nobis damnabiliter reservamus atque liberam praebentes impunitatis materiam in sauces nostras Laicorum gladios provocamus Ignominiosum est quod pro capra vel ovicula gravior pro sacerdote occiso paeâ—a remissior irrogatur Where also you see this good Archbishop acknowledging in formal words not only a double inconvenience arising from such exemptions and reservations but in effect also and expresly enough acknowledging that the King did upon one side justly challenge to his own say Courts the punishment of such criminals and that on the other side the Bishops did as damnably that is unjustly reserve them to their own ecclesiastical cognizance only The other appendix is a redection upon their impiety and inhumanity who wel-nigh four hundred years after the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury and in the general sack of all the Churches and holy places in England but more especially of those which were more eminent and rich and yet more particularly of the three excellently glorious monuments the first of Alban the Protomartyr of Great Brittain under Dioclesion the Emperour the second of St. Edmond that Christian Saxon King and martyr too as who was killed by the Pagans in odium fidei and the third of St. Thomas of Canterbury perswaded Henry the eight to have a process formed against him I mean Thomas of Canterbury in a Court of Justice and perswaded this King accordingly and effectually though otherwise ridiculously enough to have him declared guilty of high Treason and yet perswaded this King to have an
Act passed in Parliament whereby it was made capital for any either to keep holy-day for him or to pray unto him or to call him a Saint at all or even to suffer his name to be in their Calanders c. if Sanderus de Schismat Angl. l. 1. in Henric. speak truth of such matter of fact in Henry the Eights raign nay moreover perswaded this King to have him disinterred or dis-entombed and his Relicks body or bones burn'd and the very ashes scattered into the four winds if Pope Paul the Third was rightly inform'd for thus he speaks of this matter in his Bull of the year 1538. against the said Henry Postquam ipsum Divum Thomam ad majerem religionis contemptum in judicium vocari tanquam contumacem damnari ac proditorem declarari feeerat exhumari combuâ—i cineres in ventum spargi jussit omnium plaâ—è cunctaram gentium crudelitatem superans cum ne in bello quidem holles victores saevire in mortuorum cadavera soleant All which this King was perswaded unto by such wicked Councellors as had no other God but gain For if Sanderus tell truth in this matter there was so great a treasure of gold silver and pretious stones and so much most costly stuffs hangings c. in and belonging to that only Tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury as loaded six and twenty Waines of the greatest and largest by the confession of that Kings own Treasurer who received them Ut occasionem quaeri oportuerit unde expilaretur And histories tell us that Henry the Eight did not so or give any such command out of any such principle of religion or irreligion as that is which sayes that no Saints are to be venerated or invocated or even honoured by such pretious donaries bestowed on their Tombs for he never altered from the saith of the Roman Church in this as neither did he in any other except that only of the Popes Supremacy if in this very point of Supremacy understood rightly he altered at all otherwise then schismatically And reason tells us that for maintaining or forwarding his schysm it was unnecessary that he should spoil this holy mans Tomb or indeed any other Shrine or Church or Chappel For a separation from the power of the Pope or even renunciation of both his pretended and true power of primacy whatever this be may be very well conceived to be and to have been both in its own nature and all the then circumstances wholy independent from any such proceedings against St. Thomas of Canterbury or indeed any other Saint especially being that as I have demonstrated heretofore St. Thomas of Canterbury never either formally or virtually or consequentially in any of his contests with Henry the Second denied the Kings of England's supream temporal independent power or any which was in him according to the laws of the Land which were then unrepealed So that I may here to that impious Councellor whoever he was of Henry the Eight apply that of St. Augustine in Psal 63. v. 7. Sed avaritia illa quae captivavit discipulum comitem Christi captivavit militem custodem Jepulchri Yet Matthew Parker very like himself in other things would fain justifie these proceedings of Henry the Eight For in the end of that life which he writes of Thomas Becket amongst his other lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury though he write that exactly enough laying aside his own censorious terms of against the Saint in some passages yet in the perclose of all he writes thus Thomas etsi celebri testimonio Martyrii à Papali Clero pro Ecclesiae suae Cantuariensis privilegiis candidatus in Ecclesia Christi humili primum in cripto positus deinde sublimiori excelso ac sumptuoso delubro conditur fuerit in quo caput ejus seorsim à cadavere situm Thomae Martyris corona appellabatur ad quod peregrinantes undique confluerent muneraque praetiosa deferrent stupendaque edita miracula quae ab Anglicis Latinisque scriptoribus ejus laudes celebrantibas commemorantur utque perenni gloria nulla oblivione interitura floreret horis matutinis atque vespertinis preces ab acutissimo Theologo Thoma Aquinate elegantiori style tamquam rythmo compositae atquae concinnatae quibus auditorum aures mulcerent in ejusque stuporem raperentur quotidie ei fusae fuerint tandem tamen saeculis aliquot labentibus diligenti ac sedula indagatione adhibitis totius regni Praesulibus ac Proceribus Rex qualis Thomas fuerit certo comperit quam nefanda gesserat quantasque turbas tragaedias in regno concitaverat Ideoque nomen ejus in publicarum precum libris ut Sanctum ubivis decantatum deleri penitus abradi praecepit Intollerabili enim arrogantia supra Regiam authoritatem juraque publica magisque quam Christianae aut Ecclesiasticae libertatis immunitas divino jure postulat se extulerat Tanta autem fama celebritate adumbratae sanctitatis suae nomen percrebuerat ut Cantuariensis Ecclesia in qua delubrum ejus situm erat quae ut diximus Christi servatoris Ecclesia ex prima institutione dicebatur id nomen amiserat in sancti Thomae Ecclesiae nomen fere transierat Sed hic semper est adulterinarum fucatarum rerum exitus ut veritate tempore probata hypocrisis patestat in nihilum concidat And with these last words of his own il-grounded il-affected censure this otherwise good Antiquary but first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury made by Queen Elizeabeth shuts up his whole life of his so great holy Catholick Predecessour in that See Which entire passage out of him I give here that the Protestant Readers of this work of mine who have a prejudice against any thing related by Sanderus or exaggerated by Paulus Tertius and perhaps they have reason to be so against Sanders in many things and this Paul too in some things and yet perhaps also against neither for what relates to the present subject may see the said usage against St. Thomas of Canterbury attested for the most weighty part by Parker himself and for no part denyed by him and that my both Catholick and Protestant Readers may see in this relation of Parker himself very much to confirm us in our opinion and belief of St Thomas of Canterburye's undoubted sanctity in his life or death or rather both whether he was a martyr or no in the rigid sense of the word being that he I mean Matthew Parker acknowledges here in such express words that there were stupendious miracles wrought at his tomb and that he neither here nor elsewhere contradicts those miracles by saying they were either forgeries or delusions And besides I give this passage all along in Parkers own words that the candid Reader may see I have reason to wish that Parker had not been so little candid himself in this very passage as neither to name that King or fix on that time
was not so neerly concerned he could not but retain still kindness enough for Henry albeit the King of France as nearer him and of greater use could not but sometime cross that very kindness 8. But the former Cardinal-Legats come the first time from Rome to compose the difference 'twixt Henry and Thomas where they had a conference with him betwixt Gisortium and Trie amongst other things objected to him in the behalf of Henry and after they had been with Henry that he had perswaded the King of France to war upon him Adjecerunt etiam querelas sayes Hoveden ad an 1169. injurias quibus Rex Angliae se ab ipso lasum esse conquestus est imponens ei etiam inter caetera quod ei excitaverat guerram Regis Francorum But in these words you see Hoveden sayes that this was an imposture or that Henry imposed on Thomas in this particular And immediately after the same Author tells that Thomas refuted this and all other objections by true and probable reasons Cantuariensis autem sayes he in omni humilitate mansuetudine spiritus post gratiarum actionem Domino Papae illis debitam respondit ad singula rationibus veris probabilibus querelas Regis evacuans injurias Ecclesiae damna intollerabilia patenter exponens You will say that however this be of such actual treason or treason in fact against his Prince by setting on the King of France it cannot be denyed that he held treasonable Principles that is such Principles as were suitable to such practise or such treason in fact because such as lessen the Majesty of the King and Kingdome if not wholly subject it to others forasmuch as his opinion and judgment was that Kings receive their power from the Church as himself declared in his own words to the King at Chinun Is there any man would think so but would also think at the same time that the Church might take away again or transfer the power of Kings But I say that as he cannot in act or fact be accused of treason so neither in habitude or aptitude or inclination or true meaning or natural sequele of that word saying opinion or judgement of his at Chinun may he be charged with any as much as speculative treasonable Principles however otherwise abstracting wholly not only from fact but even from intention or even also from being rendred any kind of way or framed into practical dictates 1. Because it is one thing to say that Christian Kings receive their power from the Church and another to say that after they have once received their power so the Church may either revoke it again wholly or any way lessen it As it is one thing to say that from the people as a civil society of men and not from them as a Church Kings especially in elective Kingdomes receive their power and an other that the people having once conferr'd it and so transferr'd the Majesty from themselves may revoke it againe either at their pleasure or in any case whatsoever without the King 's own consent And because the first or the assertion of receiving such power either from Church or people is no way treasonable either by the nature of such reception or such assertion in it self considered or by any positive law in any Country for ought we have heard not even in England nor certainly was treasonable in the days of Thomas of Canterbury However perhaps it be an errour against the truth of things in themselves to say that Kings in hereditary Kingdomes receive their politick royal power either from the Church or from the people or even in elective Kingdomes otherwise from either then as from bare instrumental or conditional causes or such as Philosophers call conditiones sine quibus non c. not at all from either as from the true proper efficient cause of the power For this efficient is according to the sounder doctrine in Christian Religion and in reason too God alone As even according to the Doctrine of Bellarmine God alone is the onely true proper immediate efficient of the Papal power albeit he had not been Pope if he had not first been elected by the Church or by their Representative now the Colledg of Cardinals or formerly by the Emperours or before that by the Roman Clergy or before that also by the Clergy and people of Rome both joynd together 2. Because that although we find this entire passage Et quia certum est Reges potestatem suam ab Ecclesia accipere non ipsam ab illis sed a Christo salva pace vestra loquor non haberetis Episcopis praecipere absolvere aliquem vel excommunicare trahere Clericos ad secularia examina judicare de decimis de Ecclesiis interdicere Episcepis ne tractent de transgressione fidei vel juramenti multa alia quae in hunc modum scripta sunt inter consuetudines vestras quas dicitis avitas I say that although we find this entire passage amongst those which are called in Hoveden Verba Beati Thoma Cant. Archiep. ad Henricum Regem Angliae in Concilio suo apud Chinun nay although we did admit it as truly such and admit all the rest of that Speech in Hoveden as words spoke by St. Thomas himself whereof yet I have this ground to doubt that I find not in the whole series of the History of matter of Fact either in Hoveden himself or any other when or how or that at all St. Thomas ever met that King during his banishment but twice once in Paris and in presence of the King of France and another time in the fields abroad when they were at last reconciled by the mediation of the last Legates Where then was Chinun here or any such words However admitting those Words and that entire passage of or amongst those Words as really spoke by St. Thomas and at such a place and Councel I see nevertheless partly in some former passages of that very speech at Chinun and partly also and more fully perhaps in his long and second Letter which no man doubts to be his own true letter to Gilbert Bishop of London and see in both ground enough to answer and say that in this passage I have already given the Saint mean't not at all that from the Church Kings receive so their true civil or politick Royal power or their power of the material sword at least as to the essentials or even as to the necessary appendages of it in pure civil or temporal matters that without such reception as he mean't of it from the Church they had had none at all or that without such reception as he mean't neither their birth-right in hereditary Kingdomes nor election of the people in elective Kingdomes nor any other Title whatsoever in either could be sufficient to give them as man can give true civil and politick Royal Power or to give this I mean antecedently to their receiving what they use to
give and they to receive it from Her But sayes not That the Church may by her own power or at her pleasure or in any case Revoke that Authority again or hurt lessen or endanger it but wholly abstracts from this whether it be so or not according to the truth of things in themselves 4. Because the Querie made after the Objection or that which ask't thus Is there any man would think so but would also think at the same time that the Church might take away again or transfer the power of Kings is soon and rationally answer'd in the affirmative For so do very famous Catholick Doctors both Divines Civilians and Canonists and they all of strict communion with the Roman Church and Pope maintain and maintain also I mean too concerning such authority and power as without any question they had at first originally from the Church and could not have but from her but hath been time out of mind annexed to their Crowns or hath been originally or at some time granted them per modum contractus vel concordati vel transitionis And that you may not have my saying so for proof you may be pleased to run over this Latin insertion extracted out of that very learned School Divine and English Father and Doctor of St. Francis's Order who was lately and three several times Minister Provincial of his said Order in England and for ought I know lives yet Father Francis Davenport alias a Sancta Clara. And I give it wholly in his own words as it lies in his Paraphrase on the XXXVII Article of those XXXIX of the Protestant Church of England And give it so at length not only that you may see in it Catholick Doctors and Writers enough confirming what I have so answerâ—d in the Affirmative to this Query but for to clear your judgment in some other matters also relating to the Subject in hand here or at least to that of my whole Discourse of Ecclesiastical Exemption if not to some other questions in this my present Book And yet give it not as meaning to tye my self in all things to his judgment or at least to his too fearful or scrupulous expressing and tying of himself in meer words to some other late Schoolmen especially where he rather follows their opinion or their expression who deny Jurisdiction to Kings ex jure Regio de jure Divino naturali over the persons and in the causes of Ecclesiasticks and only attribute to them nudam potestatem civilem temporalem c. over such persons and in such causes than theirs who on the contrary attribute to Kings the thing and word Jurisdiction over the same persons and things and this too per se and by the Law of God and Nature Hic articulus sayes he meaning the foresaid XXXVII Article of the Protestant Church of England subministrat materiam examinandi Quaestionem longe gravissimam An scil laici sint capaces jurisdictionis spiritualis Primo advertendum ex omnium sententia illos non esse capaces clavium quia tunc etiam remissionis seu absolutionis a peccatis Secundo advertendum jurisdictionem spiritualem seu potestatem jurisdictionis non esse immediate ipsam potestatem clavium immo separabiles nec actu semper conjungi vel jure divino vel positivo Tertio supponendum summum Pontificem in omni sententia secundum absolutam potentiam suam posse jurisdictionem talem laicis concedere quia non expresse contra jus divinum ut recte Soto 4. dist 20. quaest 1. art 4. Scot. 4. d. 20 q 1. a. 4. Mirand in Manual q. 3. a. 2. D. Alvin c. 3. c. sic etiam Miranda in Manuali quaest 3. art 2. hoc non solum respectu virorum sed foeminarum Addit tamen Miranda hoc respectu foeminarum nusquam adhuc concessum Quod tamen negat D. Alvin c. 3. de Episcopis Abbatibus Abbatissis c. 22. citat multa jura ex quibus actu conceditur Abbatissis potestas jurisdictionis non quidem excommunicandi per se sed praecipiendi suis subditis Sacerdotibus ut excommunicent rebelles contumaces moniales hoc valere vel ex jure communi vel consuetudine vel saltem ex privilegio vel strictius loquendo dicendum cum Laimanno lib. 1. Laiman l. 1. tract 5. p. 1. c. 3. n. 3. 4. tract 5. p. 1. cap. 3. num 3. 4. quod non habent jurisdictionem spiritualem proprie sed usuram quandam jurisdictionis Et hinc conferre possunt beneficia instituere clericos in Ecclesiis ad Monasterium suum pertinentibus c. Vt sensum meum in re tam gravi aperiam Dicendum putem nullo quidem jure ut praetactum est eis competere potestatem seu jus spirituale ut loquitur Joannes de Parisiis de potestate Papae c. 21. quo gratia spiritualis causatur id est Joan. de Paris c. 21. de potest Papae potestas administrandi Sacramenta Et idem est judicium de potestate quae consequitur ex priori ut est inflictio poenae spiritualis scripturarum expositio Ministrorum Ecclesiae institutio confirmatio vel examen alia id genus multa Quodvis enim horum de jure divino restringitur praecise ad homines spirituales sen Deo sacros ut olim definitum est a Joan. 22. contra Marsilium de Padua ut videre est apud Turrecrem l. 4. Summae sub finem Joan. 22. contra Mars de Padua Turrecr l. 4. summae Caeterum quoad potestatem seu jus antecedens non de per se necessario annexum spiritualibus officiis bene potest in laicis subinde residere sicut praesentatio collatio beneficiorum punitio temporalis clericorum alia id genus multa ut dixi de Abbatissis praecipue ex concessione Ecclesia vel longa consuetudine praescripta convenientibus Praelatis Ecclesiae Dixi merito etiam ex consuetudine quia non solum concessio Innoc. in c. novit c. Salgado p. 1. c. Prael 3. nu 120. sed consuetudo ipsa tribuit jurisdictionem etiam in spiritualibus ut docet Innocent in cap. Novit de judic multi praesertion quando consuetudinis exercitium a tempore immemoriali probatur ut declarant Juristae de quare vide Salgado p. 1. c. 1. Praelud 3. n. 122 deinceps Dices hic non solum concedi Principibus nostris potestatem ex consuetudine seu concessione sed supremam ut ibi asseritur quod noâ— potest eis competere in spiritualibus ut omnes Doctores tenent Respondeo quod Doctores praedicti asserant Papaâ— non posse auferre jurisdictionem Principum ex consuâ—tudine vel concessione firma valide licite introductam Nav. c. 27. in Enchir. n 70. Salz sch Ber. Diaz cap. 55. Sect. Apud Gall. Duvall de disc Eccl. p. 3 fol. 405. sicut satis insinuat Navar. c. 27. in
credit given to this ungodly suggestion or of any kind of proceedings after in pursuance thereof by the same young King against Thomas That the ground or colour of this suggestion was no other but that Thomas held those Bishops for excommunicated who did use Pontificals contrary to the Popes command and custom of the Church and of England also in the Consecration of the said young King and use them so in the Diocess of another Bishop without his Licence That no man is so blind or was then so blind as to hold that the young Kings being King depended of his being Consecrated at all by any Bishops whether excommunicated or not excommunicated And therefore that albeit I grant as I do verily grant That St. Thomas had been guilty of Actual Treason if he had sought in any wise or at any time against the Law of the Land to depose either of both Kings the young or old the Father or the Son yet nothing material is alledged to prove that ever he did so Besides I answer That on the other side there are so many and so strong Arguments and Presumptions in Law and in Reason to persuade us of the greatest unlikelihood may be of any such matter to have been whereas no kind of proof hath been or hath been offer'd That I see not how any rational indifferent person may or might have ever entertained any such thought of St. Thomas of Canterbury First Argument His wonderful austere holy devout life with so perfect a contempt of all that was pleasant gay or glorious in the world immediately upon his Election and ever after to the hour of his death and this life so devoted wholly to God attested even by the confession of Parker himself but seen particularly and exactly in all the contemporary Writers of the Saints own time as Hoveden and others whom I have before quoted Second Argument His having lived the most retired contemplative life could be in three several Monasteries in Flanders and France even all the time of his Exile first in St. Bertins at St. Omers in Flanders next at Pontiniacum in France and lastly in the Abby of St. Columb in another part of France when and after he was forc'd from Pontiniacum by the Threats of Henry the Second to the Abbot of this place to banish out of the Dominions of England all the Monks of his Order if he did any longer entertain or relieve Thomas In which Abby of St. Columb he for the four whole last years of his Banishment and until his Return to England led that life which merited as he was in prayer and after he was reconciled to his King to hear a voyce from Heaven saying to him Surge velociter abi in sedem tuam glorificabis Ecclesiam meam sanguine tuo tu gloriaberis in me Hoveden ad An. 1170. Third Argument That notwithstanding Henry the Second had Legates favourable enough to him and a Pope also yet neither before them nor in his Letters or Messages to the Pope himself he ever did for so many years of the Saints Banishment or after his Return during the Saints life as much as once insist upon any Treasonable practice of his against himself or Son or Crown or Kingdom nor even as much as once lightly charge him with any for ought appears out of History and that Histories tell how when the former Legates once lightly objected his raising the King of France c. whoever put that into their mouths The Saint answered so clearly and convincingly That there was not a word of proof or even as much as reply against him Fourth Argument That not even after the Saints death not even then when all Christendom with horrour and amazement looked upon and cryed against Henry the Second as a most impious Murtherer and execrable Tyrant thinking the Saint was murthered by his command or consent not even then when he was therefore taken for an excommunicated person and the worst of those excommunicated against whom as Actors any way or Authors of the Saints death Pope Alexander so formidably Thundered Curses and Anathems from Rome and this too at the passionate instance of both the King and Clergy of France That I say not even then or at any time after nor then when at his own earnest solicitation special entraordinary Legates came along from Rome to hear him plead his own excuse or what he could alledge for himself to extenuate the horrour of his guilt he or his Son did or the Bishops of their way did or any other for them or either of them did as much as once pretend any Treason or any other Misdemeanor at all of the Saint whereby as much as to extenuate the heinousness and hideousness of the Murther committed on him but only made it their work to justifie themselves by Oath That they never consented to nor as much as suspected his death upon any account whatsoever Fifth Argument That Henry the Second himself so great a King as he was and so passionately bent against the Saint in his life-time did for having been only unknown to himself or without design the occasion of the Saints death undergo such Pennance and perform'd it so devoutly and unfeignedly invocating the Saint at his shrine that 't is not any way probable the Saint was ever guilty of the least Treason or that the King ever entertained any such Thought of the Saint For what rational man much less so Royal and interested a person would have in such manner invoked a Traytor Sixth Argument That God shewed by so many prodigious signs and wonders incontinently and continually after the Saints death wrought above all the power of nature That he was no Traytor Amongst which though I do not rank those extraordinary temporal blessings poured from Heaven upon this penitent King and on that very day wherein he ended so devoutly his Pilgrimage and his Fasts and Watch and other corporal Afflictions endured first by coming in a penitent Weed and Bare-foot for Three whole Miles that is from the place where he first saw the Church of Canterbury where the Martyr was Enterr'd leaving the very print of his steps all bloody behind him the keen stones cutting his tender feet so that much blood ran from them all along continually and next in the Church of Canterbury by receiving there and on his naked shoulders so many sharp lashes of Disciplines as they call them from the hands of all the Bishops Priests and Monks present yet being those extraordinary temporal blessings were so signal as the overthrow of the whole Scottish power on that day and as the taking also of their King prisoner on that very same day too by his Armies in the North of England I cannot say but the Catholick Writers of that Time had Reason to attribute even these earthly favours of God to the Kings so exemplary and satisfactory Humiliation and to the Saints benign propitious and powerful intercession with God for
Catholicks of those two Nations containing only such matter and to alledge as the cause or as a cause of such condemnation and censure and alledge it also in plain terms That it the said Instrument contain'd some things repugnant to the sincere profession of Catholick Religion What can I say be more rash false injurious and scandalous than to say so of such a matter if it be not so at all if there be no kind of true ground for saying that it is so And that it is not so at all or that the Remonstrance contains not either formally or virtually and consequentially as much as any one thing or part of a thing if such part may be repugnant to the sincere profession of Catholick Religion appears hence evidently That neither in its Acknowledgments Confessions Promises Disclaimings Renouncings Declarations Professions Protestations Abhorrencies Detestations nor in its final resignation in the Petitionary Address nor in any other clause or word if there be any other as indeed there is not but what belongs to these heads now repeated there is not as much as a syllable which by any kind of true either Grammatical or Theological or as much as seeming or likely construction imports any more in effect than first a bare Acknowledgment of the Supreme Temporal power of these Dominions of England Ireland Scotland c. and of all persons whatsoever Laymen or Clergymen living within them to be in our gracious Sovereign Charles the Second to have been in His lawful Predecessors and hereafter to be a so in His lawful Successors as likewise a bare acknowledgment of the like Supreme power under God to be in other Princes and Supreme Magistrates within their own respective Dominions And next an express or tacite promise to observe and obey and continue Loyal or Faithful in all Civil and Temporal matters to that self-same Supreme Temporal power of our gracious King yea notwithstanding any Doctrine to the contrary or even any Attempt by any other power whatsoever Temporal or Spiritual to force them or draw them from their Allegiance or Obedience to King Charles in meer Civil and Temporal Affairs For I have already and abundantly too demonstrated where I before Treated against the four grounds of the Louain Divines and more especially where I Treated against their fourth That it is so far from being against the sincere profession of Catholick Religion to assert or promise any such thing that it is on the contrary even revealed and declared positively and expresly and clearly by God himself in several places of Holy Scripture and yet more particularly in St. Paul's Epistle and by the mouth and pen of this great Apostle That all Supreme Temporal power is in the Supreme Temporal Princes and States over all their own respective Subjects as well Ecclesiasticks as Laicks And consequently that in all Temporal matters Allegiance and Faith and Obedience is due to such their power and ought to be paid and performed to them not only for fear of their Anger and Sword but for Conscience and fear of Damnation as St. Paul most expresly declares in formal words 13 ad Rom. And moreover that all this Doctrine hath been so as here delivered by universal Tradition for almost eleven entire Ages of Christian Religion all along till Gregory the Seventh usurped unto himself the Temporal power of the Empire as belonging to him by Divine Right All which being so as certainly it is so I frame thus my Argument Syllogistically against both the said Causes or Reasons supposed and expresly inserted in this second or short Censure of the Louain Faculty Theological as the only Reasons given therein wherefore they censure our Remonstrance and censure it so heavily and grievously or with such odious epithets as these unlawful detestable sacrilegious c. Whatsoever Vniversity or other Censure taxes judges or condemns any Remonstrance that contains only in effect or both in word and sense a bare Acknowledgment of such meer Supreme Temporal Natural Civil and Political power of the Sword as is hitherto said in the Supreme Lay Magistrate Prince or State and withall a promise only of such obedience as before is said in meer Civil and Temporal Affairs to that Power or that Magistrate according to the Laws of the Land I say that whatever Censure taxes judges or condemns such a Remonstrance to be utterly unlawful detestable and sacrilegious viz. upon account supposition or pretence That it contains a promise of a more ample Obedience than Secular Princes can exact from their Catholick Subjects or their Subjects make to them and that moreover it contains some things repugnant to the sincere profession of Catholick Religion Every such University or other Censure whatsoever I say must be rash against Prudence false against Truth injurious against Justice and scandalous in the highest degree against Charity But the second or short Censure given by the Louain Divines against the Irish Remonstrance of 61. 62. is such or is a University Censure of a Remonstrance that contains only in effect or both in word and sense a bare Acknowledgment of such meer Supreme Temporal Natural Civil and Political power c. and withall a promise only of such obedience c. and yet taxes judges and condemns such a Remonstrance to be unlawful c. viz. upon account supposition c. Ergo the second or short Censure given by the Louain Divines against the Irish Remonstrance of 1661. and 1662. must be rash against Prudence false against Truth injurious against Justice and scandalous in the highest degree against Charity And indeed the Major of this Syllogism ought at least among such Christian Divines as are men of Reason to be reputed of the nature of those Propositions which are called Propositiones per se notae if or as far as any such may be in Christian Philosophy or Divine Science of Christians For this tells us manifestly and evidently according to that evidence which Christian Religion is capable of That all such Censures as are against other at least Christian men and so great also and numerous a Body of other Christian men and are against them upon such an account only that is for maintaining such a power in the Supreme Civil Magistrate and such obedience due from the Subjects as are both revealed in the very written Word of God himself in holy Scripture and so constantly and universally delivered by Tradition and no less approved and confirmed even by pure natural Reason and so I mean revealed delivered approved and confirmed as I have already in my Disputes against the fourth ground of the Louain Divines proved that power and that obedience to have been I say that Christian Philosophy tells us manifestly and evidently that all such Censures must be so as I have said and even notoriously too rash false injurious and scandalous Rash against Prudence because heady foolishly bold and wholly inconsiderate against the Rules of that even humane Providence or of that right
people and that obedience also in Temporals which is in all other Subjects to their own respective Princes and States or an obedience which tyes them not to raise Tumults bear Arms c. against the Princes Person Royal Authority c Lastly Who sees not there was very much both expediency and necessity in these Kingdoms of England Ireland and Scotland but more especially in Ireland for Catholick Priests amongst such a world of Sectaries and under a Protestant King and State to make such a Remonstrance or one in such even formal words of disclaiming and renouncing in so much any Forreign power being the generality of Romish Priests in these Kingdoms or at least in Ireland have been these many Years and are as yet upon so many sufficient grounds suspected to own such a Forreign power both Papal and Princely Spiritual and Temporal as in their opinion at least may seem nay is able and may even justly pretend to free discharge and absolve them from all obligation of Loyalty even in the most Civil and Temporal Affairs whatsoever and give them leave and licence to raise Tumults bear Arms and offer violence to His Majesties Person Royal Authority and to the State and Government of both Ireland Scotland and England So that from first to last you see by this Discourse even the very grand Block of stumbling and chief Rock of scandal quite removed or rather see there hath never been any such at all in the Remonstrance being this fourth Clause or Period of it is free of any such and hath neither Block nor Rock in it self at all the Block and Rock being onely in false and even wilfully and maliciously false Representations of it by perverse Interpreters Fifth Period or Clause follows Being all of us ready not only to discover and make known to Your Majesty and to Your Ministers all the Treasons made against Your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to lose our Lives in the defence of Your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all Conspiracies and Attempts against Your Majesty be they framed or sent under what pretence or patronized by what Forreign Power or Authority whatsoever But certainly here is nothing else Remonstrated but their being ready to perform their Duty in meer Civil or Temporal Affairs or which is the same thing I mean to perform a meer Civil and Temporal Duty and to perform it in a meer Civil way as all Subjects ought to their meer Civil or Temporal Prince To reveal Treason and defend the Kings Person Royal Authority and State even with the hazard of their Lives Are not both meer Civil and Temporal Duties As for that which some either too grosly stupid or too ridiculously malicious object 1. That Confessors who subscribe this Period or Clause of the Remonstrance declare they are ready and oblige themselves thereby to reveal in some case Sacramental Confessions and break the Sacred Seal of such Confessions made to them forasmuch as they say here They are ready to reveal all Treasons which shall come to their hearing And 2. That all sorts of Catholicks both Laymen and Clergymen subscribing this Clause bind themselves thereby to reveal that also which they cannot in Conscience reveal forasmuch as this Clause binds them to reveal all Treasons and we know 't is Treason by the Law at least in England 't is so to Reconcile any man to the Pope or to be Reconciled so to be made a Priest beyond the Seas by the Popes Authority and afterwards to return to the Kingdom of England as it is also Treason to deny that the King's Majesty of England is Supreme Governor in His Kingdom even in Ecclesiastical Causes and yet 't is plain they cannot nor ought not by any Law of Conscience as it stands not with the Laws of their Communion or Religion to reveal such matters To the first or that of Confessors I have already of purpose and at large answered in my LV Section where I Treated this Subject against the Third ground of the Louain Censure And to the Second or that of all Catholicks generally I say in brief here That Widdrington hath in his Theological Disputation Cap. 4. Sect. 3. upon the Oath of Allegiance most learnedly clearly and even diffusely answered this very Objection made in his time by some especially by Antonius Capellus Controvers 1. Cap. 2. pag. 30 seq against which or in answer to which the learned Widdrington or whoever was Author of those Works which go under his name in effect sayes That neither King James himself nor His Oath of Allegiance nor the Statute thereupon by the Clause of that Oath which tyes to the discovery of Treason did intend to bind or does indeed any way bind to the discovery of other Treason or Trayterous Conspiracy than that which is truly such by the Laws of God Nature and Nations even that which is truly such in all Catholick Nations against Catholick Princes but by no means to the discovery of such matters as are only of late by the peculiar Law of England called or made Treasons Treasonable or Trayterous Conspiracies and are not otherwise in their own nature against the natural Allegiance Truth Fidelity and Obedience of Subjects to their Prince And I say besides that neither any indifferent Catholick or even Protestant ever yet understood by the word Treason in such a Clause whereby Catholicks in an Oath or Declaration especially made by themselves oblige themselves to discover all Treasons any other kind of Treason but that which is such of it 's own nature or by all the Laws of God Nature and Nations or that which is such in all Catholick States and Kingdoms not that which is such by the positive Law of only this or that Kingdom or is only such by Laws made against even the very profession of the Roman Catholick Religion for such might be made Treasonable by an unjust Law of men were it left to the greater vote at least in some Contingencies and in some Countries And I say in the last place That words bind not against or besides the intention of such as speak or subscribe them not are by any Rule of Reason or Law to be construed so to bind whensoever the obvious and common sense of such words in all Nations or in the generality of Nations and Religions require no other intention but may subsist very well without any other intention and the Speakers and Subscribers of such words be thought to deal honestly and conscientiously and to be without fraud equivocation or mental reservation in such their speaking and subscribing Out of all which jointly taken with what I have said before on the other Clauses it is apparent enough That notwithstanding such capricious and foolish Objections the fifth Period contains no other than a promise or purpose of the Subscribers of being faithful in performing their natural Duty in Temporal matters without any kind
Infallibility of the Pope without a general Council no writings of His whatsoever though under his own hand and with his own name induce not a certainty of Faith or such an one in which there can be no falshood or errour I say nothing for the present of the other conditions they require to this that a Declaration of the Pope though by such a Decretal Epistle or Brief so promulgated and so directed to all the faithful of Christ though definitive too and in a matter of Faith oblige not per se of its own sole nature to assent or what restrictions they put as namely that neither the proems nor motives nor suppositions nor any reasons alledged are defined And that whenever the Bull is declarative onely and not constitutive also or as far as 't is only declarative if it relie on false grounds or reasons or any way uncertain or apparent only or only opinative or probable so far of necessity it is subject to the danger of errours and that the constitutive part of such a Bull grounded only upon such a declarative necessarily wants all manner of force to oblige any whatsoever at least those who clearly see the errour doubt or uncertainty For the present likewise I say nothing that these Divines require besides to the Infallibility of a Papal definition or to this that none may dissent that the Pope declare in express or equivalent words that the Article defined is an Article of Catholick faith and the contrary or contradictory heretical All these things I say and possibly more to this purpose I pass over in silence Yet there is a certain errour deceit or at least supposition not well grounded I have read and observ'd in several of your Lordships Letters to several people both here and in Ireland which I cannot let pass without a short animadversion It is That our Holy Father Alexander the VII did not think it necessary to give a new censure of our Protestation that being sufficient which had been made by former Popes since it appeared ours contained some things which were the same with the Propositions condemn'd heretofore by Paul the V. and lately by Innocent the X. But my Lord it does not appear that Paul the V. has condemn'd any one or more certain and determinate Propositions of the Oath of Allegiance as they call it or Fidelity prescrib'd by a Law of King James and the Parliament and Kingdom in his time For in the reference which you make to the judgment of Paul the V. you allude to Propositions contain'd in that Oath Nay it appears on the contrary out of the Letters of Paul the V. which are extant in Print and in form of a Brief directed onely to the Catholicks of England I question not for the present whether they were subreptitious or ever publish't or whether the due Solemnities of Law were observed it appears I say he never condemned any one or more in particular but onely in general terms after other matters of not going to the Churches Sermons and Rites of Protestants or Heterodox admonishes the Catholicks of England not to take that Oath or the like as is manifest by the very tenour of the first Brief dated at Rome the 10th of the Calends of Octob. 1606. in which only first Brief he speaks directly and by design against that Oath of it self And in particular this is manifest by the words of the same Pope in the same Brief which give the onely reason why he admonishes them not to take that Oath and why he tells them it ought perspicuously to appear to the English Catholicks out of the words of the Oath that such an Oath cannot be taken with the safety of Catholick faith and of their souls Since sayes he it contains many things which are manifestly contrary to faith and salvation For after these words and for these alone as the onely ground and reason of his Declaration and Admonition it follows immediately Therefore we admonish you that you wholly beware of taking this or the like Oaths Wherefore since it appears sufficiently by these words which assign his reason especially joyn'd with the tenour of the rest of the Brief from the beginning to the end that Paul the V. did not condemn all that was containâ—d in that Oath I say did not condemn all so much as in these general or any other terms of these Letters or at least since it does not only sufficiently but evidently appear that to his Holiness Alexander the VII it can not be known by those Letters nor indeed can be known at all for no man in his wits will say he can be certain of this otherwise than by those words and that Brief which in particular or whether any such of the Propositions contain'd in that Oath of Allegiance made by King James were censured by that Declaration nay not so much as which he desired or intended to censure and because 't is no less plain to any that shall exactly compare that Form of the Kings with ours that the Propositions are far different both in words and sense and that in that there be many more Propositions but fewer in ours that in that there is contain'd a formal Oath largely expressed and an Oath without all doubt strictly taken in some places assertory in others promissory for thrice at least if not four or five times they formally swear in that manner in that of the Kings but no Oath at all contained in ours not so much as largely taken no where in no part or Proposition from the beginning of the form to the end that 't is affirm'd in that and peradventure with the sacred tye of an Oath that there is in the Pope no power to depose Kings whereas ours for what concerns that particular expresses onely an act of the will and renounces such a power determining nothing either with or without an Oath of the Position in it self and taken in its own nature whether it be true or false or probable or not that in that some things are abjured as heretical in ours none that that binds under obligation of a promise sworn to to discover all Treasons ours declares onely a readiness of mind to discover them I say since it appears that all these things are most true and farther out of Parson's Letters in Withrington dated at Rome when they consulted there of condemning that Oath of K. James and farther also out of several Books of Bellarmine though under counterfeit names against the said Withâ—ington and other defenders of the said Oath that Paul the V. was only or chiefly moved to frame that Brief by which the Kings Oath is condemned by this reason because He had been persuaded though without any either sufficient or probable argument by Bellarmine himself and those other seven or eight Divines at Rome whom He had deputed to examine it that by that Oath was likewise deny'd the Primacy of the Pope and his power to excommunicate either Kings or their
been certainly informed that all Ireland were absolutely resolved to bid an eternal adieu to all or any Communion with the Roman Church and great Pontiff So much and so nearly to heart did they take that harmless that innocent profession of Allegiance though but in temporal things only made to a Protestant King of England by some and those too but a few respectively of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland As for any thing more of the said Primat Reilly to be observed in this present Section I remember no more but only 1 That as soon as the news of his arrival was bruted both Protestants and Roman Catholicks admired very much how he especially at such a time not only of War twixt England of one side and Holland and France of the other but also of all the three Estates of Ireland in Parliament at Dublin dared to venture home and appear even in that Capital City 2. That some few days before the then Lord Chancellour of England having intelligence of the said Primats landing secretly in England from Flanders and passing through England incognito to Ireland advertised the Lord Lieutenant thereof by that very Packet-boat by which Reilly landed to the end he should be taken the permission of his return having not been signified by his Grace to the said Lord Chancellour but by the next Packet after 3. That for the two Bishops Ardagh and Kilfinuran who till the Primats landing were the only chief in the Congregation and the former of them the only Bishop of the Province of Ardmagh the other the only of the Province of Cashil having withal the Bishop of Tuam's proxy they seemed not any way at all pleased with his arrival as neither did he seem to have much correspondence with or any great esteem for either of them 4. That as far as I could observe all along after during the other Thirteen days of their Session both he of them and they of him stood in some awe I mean as to any clearer declaration of their sentiments or inclinations either to satisfie the King or dissatisfie the Pope in that for which they were permitted to Convene Though withal I did then and do also at present firmly perswade my self out of what I did then my self both see and hear done in the publick Session That the said Ardmagh seemâ—d much more strongly inclin'd to give even full satisfaction as to the point of any Declaration which might concern either his future fidelity or Petition of Pardon for any matters whatsoever past then either Ardach or Kilfinuran whereof you shall have the true reason according to my best conjecture where I give my own judgment of the Congregation and leading Members thereof XI WHat we are now to consider is what happen'd or was done next day being the 13 of June and 3 of their Session but the very first day indeed wherein any material thing was spoke or said or delivered by any in order to the ends for which the Fathers were convened But an unlucky sudden and unexpected accident was like that very day without any further progress in the intended or at least pretended scope of this meeting to have utterly dissolved it and put a final but shameful period to all their designes For the House being sate and Speaker placed in his Chair the Primat last of all coming in bid the Chair-man viz. the Bishop of Kilfinuran leave the Chair as being due to him the said Primat saying withal that none should in his presence besides himself possess that seat The Chair-man refuses and contradicts and with him also not only the Bishop of Ardagh and the Vicar General or Apostolical of Dublin but many more nay most of all the House Whereupon arises a vehement hurry clamour tumult The Primat presently withdraws And all the Members of his Province of Ardmagh except one or two depart likewise following their Archbishop No sooner was he the said Primat gone with his followers then Ardagh Kilfinuran the Vicar Apostolick of Dublin and all their fast Partizans bale out vehemently for a Dissolution a departure every one to his own home There was nothing to be heard or seen but a loud din and some running to the door to keep it open others to shut it some encouraging taking and haleing one another by the hands to depart others crying Dissolve Dissolve and some on the other side praying intreating conjureing them to stay a little and think better of the scandalous Sequel I that found my self as much concern'd as any if not more than any one used all my utmost endeavours to hinder so sad a resolution At last converting my self to the two Bishops in the hearing of all the rest I took the liberty even also of sharp reproof but after I had seen that intreaties would not do with them who together with James Dempsy Vicar Apostolick of Dublin were the ringleaders of that so Scandalous and factious resolve And amongst or besides many other things I spoke out openly and plainly to them both That without comparison It had been less hurt they had both drop'd down dead in that very place than that the whole Irish Clergy yea and Laity also their whole Nation their Religion and Communion in general should be on such an occasion exposed to that eternal shame reproach and scorn amongst all Protestants which they must certainly have expected by continuing so mad so furious and desperate a resolution That sure they should have considered their meeting was not nor could be unknown as not unto the Protestant Councel of State so neither to the Parliament of all the three Protestant Estates of the Kingdom both of them at that very time sitting in that very Citty where a National Congregation of the Roman Catholick Clergy did so behave themselves That further they should also have considered how during all that very time that very hour of their so phrantick a transport Three Lay persons both of Quality and their own Nation and Religion also employed to them by his Grace the Lord Lieutenant of the Kingdom and sent by him on a special message to them were hard by expecting to be introduced And Lastly therefore that neither amongst Protestants nor Catholicks they could ever at any time wipe off the ignominious and even also barbarous stain if they persisted to say nothing of all other inconveniences and evils which must have been the consequence of so much not only rashness but also unmannerliness Netled at my freedom the Bishop of Ardach replies in a troubled angry mood and in these very words Quid tu Fratercule ita ad Episcopos But my return was obvious enough That the Case required it And that had there been no other reason as indeed many more were to oblige me thereunto but the very Contents of the publick Instrument signed even by him as well as by others whereby I was the general Procurator empowred with all Power Authority and even Jurisdiction too for the ends of the
saw by chance an extract of a late Letter sent from Ireland and written by an Irish Jesuit one Ward by name if my memory fail me not to an other Irish Jesuit at London viz Father Hughs living then with the Portugal Embassadour but now with the Queen which related How amidst all the extream afflictions of the miserable remainders at home of the Catholick People in Ireland even God himself from high had both graciously and wonderfully visited them at last to confirm them in their holy Religion by raising a wonderful man indeed amongst them James O Fienachtuy a Secular Priest who had formerly the charge of a Parish in the Archbishoprick of Tuam or Province of Connaught and by gifting this man so extraordinarily i. e. with such a true Miraculous Power of dispossessing Devils and curing too all sorts of other even the most natural diseases that he drew the world after him and not only Catholicks but Protestants In so much That he had often a Thousand sometimes Fifteen hundred nay Two or three Thousand who followed him even through Bogs Woods Mountains and Rocks and desert places whether soever the people heard him to have fled from the Persecution of Cromwel's Troups or Governours That Priests enough could not be had though many accompanied him of purpose to hear the confessions of the great Multitude drawn to Repentance and Resolutions of a new Life by the example of his life and wonder of his Works That therefore he was justly and principally next after St. Patrick alone esteemed another Thaumaturgus i. e. Wonder-worker of Ireland as being greater in the glory of Miracles and prodigiousness of Signs than any even of so vast a number of Irish Saints who are in History Recorded to have formerly in a continual succession for some Ages flourished in that then Island of Saints and therefore also That as he was of one side the greatest comfort might be to Catholicks so on the other he was even the very greatest terrour could be to Hereticks who saw clearly now they must fall being God had now at last raised them an enemy whom they could not overcome nor indeed so much as fight by any force of Arms whilest he conquered them by Words Signs and Wonders Having seen also as I remember the very Original of this Letter with Father Hughs himself whom to that purpose I accoasted and been further assured both by him and a general no less credulity then confident report amongst all the Irish then at London that all was very true and notorious at home throughout Ireland I could not but entertain pleasing Ideaes of invincible Arguments for the divine certainty of the Roman-Catholick Religion viz Arguments wholly composed of Miracles wrought so manifoldly publickly and undeniably by one professing it and wrought by him even as was further said in express confirmation of it by his invoking God to this purpose and he also himself living still in his own Countrey at home where we might easily find out the truth of matters of Fact For I must confess that having from my youth dedicated my studies chiefly to Controversial Divinity for what concern'd the differences 'twixt Roman-Catholicks and those of all other Churches especially the Protestant Church of England and having even lately had occasion enough especially at London in my frequent converse with some learned Protestants to reflect very often upon those Notes or Signes of the only true Church which Bellarmin Bozius and some others give and finding also that in my judgment all other Notes might be easily answered save that only of Miracles as alledged to be appropriated to and continued in the Roman Church only or only amongst those of her Communion there was nothing I desired more even for many years before I heard a word of Father Finachty than that I might be by some way or other absolutely and without moral possibility of contradiction or fiction assured of some at least one true Miracle wrought by any of that Communion living in our days and in any of these our own Countries at home where we might easily see both the Person and Miracle wrought by him or her especially if wrought by his or her invoking God publickly before the People or a convenient number of competent Witnesses and begging that his Divine Majesty would be pleased to work such or such a true Miracle in confirmation of the Roman-Religion in matters differing from those believed as points of Faith or Christian Doctrine by other Churches And therefore it was that when I had as before the first time heard at London of James Finachty I was mâ—ghtily pleased as flattering my self with great hopes of attaining at last in him my foresaid wish But my hopes were not long after abated if not rather quite vanished and that upon this occasion Even the very next Summer following one Father Bonaventure O Melaghlin an Irish Franciscan and one who had for many years gone through almost all promotions i. e. all both Local and Provincial Superiourships of his own Order in the Province of Ireland at home who had been several times Guardian once Vicar Provincial and now Pro-Minister Provincial going from Ireland to the general Chapter in Spain there to be one of the Vocals as representing the Person of the then Franciscan Minister Provincial of Ireland took London in his way Where finding me and often discoursing with me and amongst other matters even in presence of about nine or ten other Irish Franciscan Fathers who lived then at London and even also in particular categorical and positive answer to my Questions put unto him publickly before them all concerning the reports of Father Finachty's famed wonders or Miraculous gift of dispossessing Devils and healing too all other diseases whatsoever he assured me That neither himself nor any other of the more grave and judicious Church-men of his acquaintance at home in the Province had any such opinion of the said Father Finachty or his pretended gifts or cures That not only of his curing miraculously either all or any one natural disease but even of his curing by Exorcism or otherwise any either possessed or obtested person he could say nothing much less could give any assurance at all That for his own part he understood not so much yet as that Father Finachty's pretences of so many some Possessed and some Obsessed persons had any ground or colour nay nor perhaps could understand even so much as how any one single person's being truly in our days either Possessed or Obsessed in that Countrey might upon rational grounds be confidently alledged That not only not himself but forasmuch as he had yet learn'd or heard no other person how discerning soever hath at all hitherto discerned nor indeed could discern any proper signs of meer Diabolical works in or about such persons whom Father Finachty pretends to be under such visitations of the Devil as are truly called Possession or Obsession That if any such signs could be discern'd by
of so many former abroad in other parts of Europe since Gregory the 7th so manifest in History force not a confession of all this from F. N. N or if the very nature of the positions in themselves and the judgment of all judicious and ingenuous men of the world prevail not with him to confess that a general decision and resolve of the Roman Catholick Clergy in Ireland as well against the Popes pretence of infallibility as against his other of a power for deposing the King and raising at pleasure his Subjects in rebellion and against both absolutely and positively be not one of the most rational wayes to hinder the disturbance of King and Countrey as from such Clergie-men and others of their Communion and Nation and if the denyal of such decision and resolve against either pretence especially against this of infallibility since it is plain that if the Pope be admitted infallible his deposing power must necessarily and instantly follow because already and manifoldly declared by several Popes if I say this denyal convince not the denyers and such denyers as the said Congregation in this Country and Conjuncture of a design or desire or pleasure or contentedness to leave still the roots or seeds of new disturbances of both King and Countrey in the hearts of their beleevers and if I say also F. N. N. himself will not upon more serious reflection acknowledge all this to be true and â—â—ident I am sure all other judicious and knowing men even such as are â—iâ—interested wholy in the quarrel and not his partisans will That finally what I have to say is That whosoever is designed by him to be per stringed in or by this last pretence of furthering this dispute to the disturbance of both King and country may answer F. N. N. what the Prophet Elias did Achab on the like occasion Non ego turbavi Israel sic 〈◊〉 demâ—â— Patris tui 3 Reg. 18.18 qui â—ereliquistis mandata Domini secuti estis Bealim And 〈◊〉 that nâ—â— such person alone who ever chiefly perhaps intended nor his few other associates only perstringed likewise by F. N. N. and congregation in this perclose of their Paper but the poor afflicted Church of Ireland generally as it compriseth all beleevers of both sorts and sexes Ecclesiastical and Lay-persons of the Roman Communion nay but the Catholick Church of Christ universally throughout the world hath cause enough already and will I fear have much more yet to say as well to him and the Congregation as to all such other preposterous defenders of her interests what Iacob said to Simeon and Levi Gen. 34.30 upon the sack of Sichem Turbastis me â—diosum fecistis me Chananaeis Pherezaeis habitatoribus terrae hujus And more I have not to say here on this subject of infallibility But leave the Reader that expects more on that question or this dispute in it self directly and as it abstracts from the present indirect consideration to turn over to the last Treatise of this Book Where he shall find more at large and directly to that purpose what I held not so proper for this place Though I confess it was the paper of those unreasonable reasons the answers to which I now conclude here that gave me the first occasion to add that sixth and last piece as upon the same occasion I have the fifth also immediately following this fourth Only I must add by way of good advice to F. N. N That if he or the Congregation or both or any for them will reply to these answers or to what I have before said in my second or third Treatise on their Remonstrance and three first Propositions or even in my first though a bare Narrative only and matter of notorious fact related and if they will have such reply to be home indeed it cannot be better so than by their signing the 15. following Propositions Which to that purpose I have my self drawn and had publickly debated for about a moneth together in another but more special Congregation of the most learned men of this Kingdom and their own Religion held even in that very house where the former sate and immediatly after they were dissolved The Fourteen PROPOSITIONS of F. P. W. Or the doctrine of Allegiance which the Roman Catholick Clergie of Ireland may with a safe Conscience and at this time ought in prudence to subscribe unanimously and freely as that onely which can secure His Majestie of them as much as hand or subscription can and that onely too which may answer the grand objection of the inconsistency of Catholick Religion and by consequence of the toleration of it with the safety of a Protestant Prince or State 1. Prop. HIS Majestie CHARLES the Second King of England is true and lawful King Supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other His Majesties Dominions and all the Subjects or people as well Ecclesiastick as Lay of His Majesties said Kingdoms or Dominions are obliged under pain of sin to obey His Majestie in all Civil and Temporal affairs 2. His said Majestie hath none but God alone for Superiour or who hath any power over him Divine or Human Spiritual or Temporal Direct or indirect ordinary or extraordinary de facto or de jure in his temporal rights throughout all or any of his Kingdoms of England Ireland Scotland and other Dominions annexed to the Crown of England 3. Neither the Pope hath nor other Bishops of the Church joyntly or severally have any right or power or authority that is warrantable by the Catholick Faith or Church not even in case of Schisme Heresie or other Apostacy nor even in that of any private or publick oppression whatsoever to deprive depose or dethrone His said Majestie or to raise his Subjects whatsoever of His Majesties foresaid Kingdoms or Dominions in Warr Rebellion or Sedition against him or to dispense with them in or absolve them from the tye of their sworn Allegiance or from that of their otherwise natural or legal duty of obedient faithful Subjects to His Majestie whether they be sworn or not 4. Nor can any sentence of deprivation excommunication or other censure already given or hereafter to be given nor any kind of Declaration dispensation or even command whatsoever proceeding even from the Pope or other spiritual authority of the Church warrant His Subjects or any of them in conscience to rebel or to lessen any way His said Majesties said Supream Temporal and Royal rights in any of his said Kingdoms or Dominions or over any of his people 5. It is against the doctrine of the Apostles and practice of the primitive Church to pretend that there is a natural or inhere at right in the people themselves as Subjects or members of the civil common-wealth or of a civil Society to take arms against their Prince in their own vindication or by such means to redress their own either pretended or true grievances
Navigation the great support of Ireland quite beaten down his Excellency disheartning the Adventurers Vndertakers and Owners as Captain Antonio and others favouring Hollanders and other Aliens by reversing Judgments legally given and indefinitely concluded before his coming to Authority By which depressing of maritime affairs and not providing for an orderly and good Tribunal of Admiralty we have hardly a Bottom left to transmit a Letter to His Majesty or any other Prince ANSWER Here again VVe are charged in general with disheartning Adventurers Undertakers and Owners and no man named but Captain Antonio nor the particular wherein he was disheartned set down We are further charged with reversing of Judgments legally given and definitively concluded before Our coming to Authority but no particular Judgment so reversed is or indeed can be instanced So that all VVe can answer to this part is That it is not true and for what remains That VVe placed the power of Admiralty in this Kingdom according to the Assemblies instance and from time to time gave Commissions to such persons as the Commissioners desired in several parts to hear and determine maritime causes Sixth Article of the Declaration The Church of Cloine in our possession at the time of making the Peace violently taken from Vs by the Lord Inchiquin contrary to the Articles of Peace no Justice or Redress was made upon Application or Complaint ANSWER For Answer to this VVe refer you to Our Answer to the first Article of the pretended Grievances which Article and Answer are as followeth Article viz. The first of those called the Grievances First They have not been suffered to enjoy the Churches and Church-livings which in the time of the perfection of the Articles of Peace they possessed but were after the said Articles made and perfected put forth expelled and still kept out of possession of divers Parish-Churches and their Tythes and Livings and even of some of the Cathedral Churches and many of the Prelates and Pastors hindred from exercising of their respective Jurisdictions and Functions amongst their Flocks and Grants made of some of their Bishopricks and their Livings which sithence the War or the greatest part of it hath been and yet is in the possession of the Catholick Bishops to Protestant Bishops and notwithstanding the Prelates and Clergy in the Counties of Cork and Waterford where chiefly those Grievances happened have made suit for remedy yet have they obtained no redress in their suits nor have they say the Commissioners of Trust in whom the last General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of this Nation which concluded the said Peace put their confidence for procuring an effectual compliance with the said Articles and seeing in no point they should be violated or broken in this so important a point concerning the Church given effectual furtherance for recovering their right to the said Prelates and Clergy Answer viz. To that first Article of those called the Grievances First We deny that they if thereby be meant the Roman-Catholick Clergy were not suffered to enjoy the Churches and Church-livings which at the time of perfecting the Articles of Peace they possessed or that by the Articles of Peace they ought to possess And as to the instances made in the Margent the composers of this Article do very well know That their possession of those Churches and Church-livings were flatly denied by the Protestant Clergy And it is very well known to the Commissioners who followed that business with diligence and earnestness enough That We never refused nor delayed to afford them any just means of bringing that Controversie to a final end till at length by Treachery and the Rebels power the Things controverted were lost to both Parties Nor was there any Complaint made unto Us since the conclusion of the Peace till now that the Romish Prelates or Pastors or any of them have been hindred from exercising their respective Jurisdictions and Functions amongst their Flocks except one Complaint made of the Governour of Dungarvan wherein We were ready to have given such Redress upon hearing all Parties as should have been found fit if the said Complaint had been prosecuted We know of no Grant made by His Majesty of any Bishoprick whatsoever since the conclusion of the Peace nor can We find any Article of the Peace that restrains His Majesty from making such Grants so the Roman-Catholick Bishops be not thereby dispossessed of what they were possessed of upon conclusion of the Peace until His Majesty declare His pleasure in a Free Parliament in this Kingdom And whatever His Majesty might intend to declare the making of Protestant Bishops could be no anticipation thereof to the prejudice of the Roman-Catholicks since Bishops are held essentially necessary to the exercise of the Religion of the Church of England Seventh Article of the Declaration That Oblations Book-monies Interments and other Obventions in the Counties of Cork Waterford and Kerry were taken from the Roman-Catholick Priests and Pastors by the Ministers without any redress or restitution ANSWER For this We answer That it was conceived by the Ministers herein mentioned that where they had possession of the Church-livings the Obventions here mentioned were also due to them But whether it were or not sure We are there was never any Complaint made to Us in this particular till Our coming to Tecroghan after the loss of Droghedagh and that within a very little time after before the truth of the Allegation could be examined the Towns of Munster revolted and the business was so decided at least if any difference of this kind continued in the County of Kerry which was longer held We never after Our being at Tecroghan heard of it that We remember Eighth Article of the Declaration That the Catholick Subjects of Munster lived in a slavery under the Presidency of the Lord Inchiquin those being their Judges that before were their Enemies and none of the Catholicks Nobility or Gentry admitted to that Tribunal ANSWER To this VVe answer That no complaint of any such slavery imposed by the said Lord President or Presidency was made to Us but on the contrary That upon his Lordships instance VVe directed Our Letters to him to swear and admit of the Council of that Province the Lord Viscount Roch of Fermoy the Lord Viscount Muskery Major General Patrick Purcell Lieutenant Colonel Gerard fitz Morrice and others all which were written unto by the Lord President to come to him to be sworn accordingly whereof the Lord Muskery Major General Patrick Purcell and Lieutenant Colonel Fitz Morrice were sworn but the rest not coming according to the Letters could not be sworn Ninth Article of the Declaration The conduct of the Army was improvident and unfortunate nothing happened in the Christianity more shameful than the disaster at Rathmines near Dublin where his Excellency as it seemed to ancient Travellers and men of Experience who view'd all kept rather a Mart of Wares a Tribunal of Pleadings or a great Inne of
even to a vast number who had in former times been Diffinitors Guardians Confessors to the Cloystered Nunns and which was above all even very many esteemed even by their Enemies till then the most regular observant strict and holy in their conversation and exemplar life of all whatsoever of that Irish Franciscan Province as for example Valentin Brown Thomas Babe the whole Convent of Wexford c. who against the Nuncio appeared over-board for the Supreme Council and General Assembly of the Confederates in so good and just a quarrel in the said year 1648. and continued so constantly until they had compassed what they intended 3. That together with their own strength of number zeal learning industry and pains taken by Preaching and otherwise against their perjur'd Adversaries and wicked Cause they had the Arms and Armies and all whatever Authority both of the Supreme Council and soon after following General Assembly of the Confederate Catholick States of the Kingdom to encourage support and further them 4. That as to those Arms and Armies to which the Army also of the then Baron now Earl of Inchiquin was join'd the matter is too well known out of History which records how immediately after the Nuncio's Censures fulminated the Confederates came to unsheath their Swords in a Civil War one against another divided into the Royal and Nuncio Parties 5. And that as to what further provision by a publick Engagement or Declaration or Instrument of Protection the Supreme Council thought fit to make for the security of those Loyal Ecclesiasticks who had declared for them and stood the shock against all the fury of the Nuncio and other Prelates Secular and Regular joining with him the ensuing Copy of that Instrument under the great Seal of the Confederates dated June 3. and immediately after printed at Kilkenny that same year 1648. will give the Reader what he may demand C Locus Sigilli R By the SUPREME COUNCIL of the CONFEDERATE CATHOLICKS of IRELAND THE deep Sense which we have of the sad condition the Kingdom is at present reduced unto by the unadvised proceedings of some Prelats Secular and Regular and more especially of some Provincial Superiors of Regular Orders in this Kingdom together with our just fears that unless a timely course be taken to stop the violence of those unwarrantable wayes the whole Body of the Confederates may run irrecoverable hazard These with the conscience of doing an act most Religious by safeguarding Innocence though no common danger were suspected moving us to reflect on the Duty we owe to the Publick and on the strait tye which the Oath of Association binds us unto for its preservation therefore and for discharge of our Duty in both and stopping the current of evils which we sadly behold flowing out of the above source though the Laws both divine and natural edge us to use all extremity in business of so great concernment whereon the safety and lives of the whole Nation depends yet being unwilling to fix on any course which might seem harsh even to the offenders themselves we thought good first to admonish and desire all and every the said Prelates of what degrees soever Archbishops Bishops Abbots Vicars Generals Deans and Chapters Provincials Priors Guardians and all other Superiours conjuring them by the Sacred bond of the Oath of Association and strictly charging them on their due Allegiance to His Majesty His Crown His Kingdom and unto us as Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks that they shall in no wise molest any of their respective Subjects Priests or Religious for persevering in their Loyalty or in pursuance thereof for approving the late Cessation made by us with the Lord Baron of Inchiquin and that they shall not command sollicite desire or induce by word writing or deed publickly or privately any of their said Subjects to oppose the said Cessation or any other our just Commands in pursuance of it for the publick safety or to infuse into the people any disobedience to our Autthority upon any pretence whatsoever even of the Declaration made or Censures now issued or hereafter to be issued by the Lord Nuncio and his four Bishops on the same ground From all which as both groundless and unlawful we have according to the rule of Sacred Canons legally appealed to His Holiness and by that our Address not only suspended the past Sentences and Censures but also his Graces whole Jurisdiction and the said four Bishops if any they had from proceeding any further therein until His Holiness's pleasure be known AND furthermore we require by vertue of the said Oath and upon their Allegiance all inferiours of both Clergies Dignitaries Curates Preachers Confessors and all others of what condition soever they be that they shall not on any pretence even of the said Censures withdraw any Confederate from approving the said Cessation or obeying our Orders and Decrees made and to be made in pursuance thereof but rather endeavour in their publick Sermons private Conferences and upon each occasion offer'd to confirm them in their Allegiance to His Majesty and our just Decrees and Orders BESIDES We thought it most necessary and just to receive as we do by these and from this instant into the special and immediate protection of the Crown and of His Majesty the administration of whose Rights even in this particular is in our hands towards the Confederate Catholicks all Church-men both Secular and Regular of what degree soever who hither to have declared themselves faithful and obedient to the Government of this Kingdom and who have therefore and for opposing sinister and dangerous practises against us and such as are in Authority been heretofore are for the present or shall hereafter be persecuted by their Superiours vexed hindred suspended deprived or any way molested Protesting and publishing to the World That we will use all the extent of our power to support and defend their innocence herein against the Lord Nuncio and such their Superiours until His Holiness and General Superiours of Institutes being sufficiently informed provide further for the affairs of the Church and true Discipline of Regular Orders in Ireland LASTLY We Declare unto the said Prelates and Superiours and likewise unto all Inferiours of either Clergy That if henceforth any Church-men be found seducing the People as aforesaid or countenancing either Seducers or the Seduced we must and will presently upon notice given proceed against such as enemies of the common good and injurious to the Government the suddenness and greatness of the present fatal dangers necessitating us thereunto HENCE it is that none is to conceive we intend hereby since both are per viam facti and for our natural and necessary defence in assuming into our protection the unjustly oppressed Ecclesiasticks to usurp an illegal power jurisdiction or unwarrantable prerogative or to intrench upon the immunities of the Church being so far from either as we are certain our Decree in all and every the aforesaid particulars
doth not swerve from the square of Sacred Canons from the consent of great Divines and Canonists from the practice of most Catholick Nations and amongst the rest of England before the Schism without controulment of the Clergy nay we are undoubtedly possessed the Law of Nature which is above all Canons doth approve and command it so strictly as we cannot otherwise answer the Trust reposed in us when by our negligence herein the Lives and Fortunes of the Confederate Catholicks would be exposed to most inevitable and evident danger Given at Kilkenny Castle the Third day of June 1648. and in the Four and twentieth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Mountgarret Athunry Donboyne Lucas Dillon Rob Linch Rich Barnewall Rich Everard Rich Bellings Patr Gough John Walsh Gerrald Fennell Patrick Brian Robert Deuereax George Commin GOD SAVE THE KING 6. That next Winter following the General Assembly of all the Three Estates of the Confederates being conven'd from all parts of the Kingdom at Kilkenny in order to conclude the Second Peace or it called the Peace of 1648. with His Majesties Lord Lieutenant and great Commissioner the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond as they did indeed before that year ended conclude it they took into their special care to second the foresaid publick Declaration of the Supreme Council and that by another as publick of their own fix'd up publickly to the great Gate as the manner was of their Assembly-house and to several other places in Town under the hand of their Speaker Sir Richard Blake In which Assembly Declaration and Act the Estates amongst other things took notice first of the designs of the rebellious Clergymen especially Regulars who even contrary to the Oath of Association took part with the Nuncio Owen O Neill and others proscrib'd by publick and lawful Authority to hold meetings and celebrate even Provincial Chapters in the woody mountainous boggy or other unaccessible places possess'd by Owen O Neill and that too partly nay principally of purpose to proceed against those other good and loyal Churchmen who for His Majesties service obeyed the Supreme Authority of the Confederates yea to displace and deprive them of their respective local Superiourships Guardianships or other offices and to name Malignants in their stead And therefore in the next place they strictly commanded all such rebellious Out-lawed Ecclesiasticks of what dignity or title or office soever at their utmost peril not to hold any kind of Meeting or Chapter upon any account whatsoever And Thirdly also they no less strictly enjoin'd all and every the loyal Ecclesiasticks and on their Allegiance to the King and likewise at their utmost peril commanded them not to assemble with nor receive or obey any Summons Orders Precepts Sentences Institutions Destitutions Statutes c. of or from all or any of the adverse party but to continue their respective offices and other matters as formerly until His Holiness or other general Superiours beyond Seas should upon or after full information send persons duly qualified and empower'd to rectifie all abuses and punish in their way according to their demerits those fire-brands of rebellion and civil War 7. That accordingly all Ecclesiasticks adhering to and obeying the said Supreme Authority behaved themselves but more especially those of the Franciscan Order being they were above others concern'd forasmuch as Father Thomas Makiernan their Minister Provincial and his Diffinitory all and every of them declared Enemies to and by the said Supreme Authority had within Owen O Neill's Quarters presumed to hold a Chapter or Congregation intermedia as they call it and therein authoritatively as much as in them lay displaced all the loyal Guardians throughout the whole Province and order'd Malignants to succeed them 8. That by such means used and care taken that year 1648. the loyal Ecclesiasticks of Ireland then came to be and continue still so numerous until they got the upper hand in all parts even amongst the common people and quite run down their Adversaries and so for what belongâ—d to them enabled the very same foresaid Supreme Council and General Assembly to reduce that Irish Nation once more unto their due obedience to His Majesty by treating and concluding as they did within a few Months after the second Peace or that of 1648. with His Majesties foresaid great Commissioner 9. That after this Peace concluded and the Government thereby placed in and executed by the said Commissioner the Duke of Ormond as under the King Lord Lieutenant those same loyal Ecclesiasticks having in all respects the same countenance and protection from his Excellency which was before given them by the Confederate Council and Assembly witness in particular among an hundred other examples which I could alledge Father Redmund Caron come and sent from Flanders as upon the Letters and Complaints of the foresaid Council and Assembly delegated by the Highest power general then of the Franciscan Order the most Reverend Peter Marchant of purpose to reform the abuses of his Order in Ireland and either to reduce or depose the rebellious Provincial and Diffinitory they I mean the above loyal Ecclesiasticks encreased daily more and more both in number strength and credit until the two Sieges of Londonderry and Dublin had been raised and the fate of Rathmines happen'd and Cromwel with a great Army landed and the strong Sea-towns of Munster betrayed and Droghedagh and Wexford stormed and Rosse taken and the repulse at Carrig and the treachery at Waterford and Owen O Neill with his Forces being rejected by the Parliament of England condition'd but too late with and submitted to the Lord Lieutenant and Owen O Neil dying at the very time the Bishop of Clogher Ewer mâ—â— Mahoâ— made General of the same Northern Army Then it was that the Nuntio party of the Ecclesiasticks being on the late submission mix'd with the Royalists reassum'd new courage and gain'd ground by sowing new divisions and playing over again their former Game Then that after the Appeal to Innocent the Tenth sent to and prosecuted at Rome by Father John Roe Provincial of the Irish Carmelites the same Nuntio partty first began to speak big and Triumph also in that Court the said Father Roe without any satisfaction or positive answer being forced to leave off his prosecution and depart if not steal away privily viz. when the news of Rathmineâ— and the consequences thereof had been with so much gladness and excess of joy come to and proclaimed in Rome Then it was that all means and devices had been ordered there to make use of the present occasion of the Royals Powers declining in Ireland for either the reduction or destruction of the Anti-Nuntiotist Irish Ecclesiasticks as being the time expected when these could have but little or no support from a tottering Government a Government undermin'd hourly by its own seeming friends and therefore even professed Subjects and at the same