all that should feed help or adhere to Us are set down in their Declaration * See before page 65. in the former Appendix of Instruments where you have this Declaration at length both Preamble and Fifteen Articles thereof entirely and consequently without interposition of any other matter After which also you have there pag. 70. the Excommunication before mentioned of the 12th of August intituled A Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Regular and Secular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the continuance of His Majesties authority in the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject and the ill conduct of His Majesties Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace at Jamestown in the Convent of the Friers Minors the 12th of August 1650. That in this Title they assume unto themselves a power to declare against the continuance of His Majesties authority where he hath placed it needs no further proof than the reading of it But whence they derive their pretence to this power We find not any where expressed nor by whom they are constituted Judges of the misgovernment of the People the ill conduct of His Majesties Army or of the violation of the Articles of Peace For the misgovernment of the People and ill conduct of His Majesties Army We acknowledge no earthly competent Judge of Us but His Majesty and the established Laws And for the violation of the Articles of Peace by the consent even of all those Bishops unless there be gotten amongst them some that opposed the Peace and joined with those that assisted the English Rebels as long as they could give them hire the trust of looking to the observance of the Articles of Peace was reposed by the General Assembly with whom the Peace was concluded in Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Dr. Gerald Fennel Esquires as appears by the said Articles Whereby we suppose it is clear That as the Bishops have arrogated to themselves an unwarranted power to declare against the continuance of His Majesties authority where he hath placed it and to be Our Judges in the government of the People and conduct of the Army wherein VVe doubt whether their skill be answerable to their desire to try it so have they as unwarrantably taken upon them to judge what is or is not a violation of the Articles of Peace and in all they have endeavoured to invade and usurp both upon King and People bereaving the one of Royalty and the other of Freedom Now supposing they were the Monarchs they would be let the grounds of their Excommunication set forth in all that VVe have seen be duly examined and it will be found that their sentence is most unjust So that as their Tribunal is usurped their Judgment is erroneous VVe begin with the Preamble of the Declaration in these words Preamble of the Declaration THE Catholick People of Ireland in the year 1641. forced to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel intention made a Peace and published the same 17th Jan. 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from His Majesty or from His Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now Charles the Second thereby manifesting their Loyal thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when His Majesty was in restraint and neither He or His Queen or the Prince of Wales in condition to send any supplies or relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were by the above Pacification obtained and thereby free themselves from the danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the power of England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and His Enemies in the Three Kingdoms Let the world â—udge if this be not an undeniable argument of Loyalty The Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates came sincerely and chearfully under His Majesties authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast Sums of monies well nigh half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other materials for War After His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant frustrating the expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Nation Which he began by violating the Peace in many parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the world ANSWER Concerning their motives of taking up Arms in the year 1641 We shall say nothing But since they begin so high with their Narrative as the year 1641 it will not be amiss to mind them That betwixt that and the year 1648 there was by Authority from His Majesty and Our Ministration several Cessations and at length a Peace concluded with the Confederate Roman-Catholicks in the year 1646 which Peace was shamefully and perfidiously violated by the instigation and contrivement of most part of these Archbishops Bishops Prelates and others of the Secular and Regular Clergy and that not in slight and strained particulars such as We are now charged with by them but by coming with Two powerful Armies before the City of Dublin upon no provocation from Us unless they esteemed the continuance of a Cessation for about Three years with them and the bringing them a Peace to their own doors such a provocation as deserved their bending their united power against Us leaving other parts that neither had nor would have Peace or Cessation with them unmolested and at liberty to waste their quarters whil'st they devoured Ours and sought Our ruine This as a particular blotting their name and memory with the everlasting infamy of Perfidy Ingratitude and undeniable Disloyalty they have reason to leap over in their Preamble least they should awaken the Curses of those multitudes of People who being seduced into so horrid a violation of Publick Faith by their impious allurements and hellish Excommunications are thereby become desolate Widows helpless Orphans and miserable Exiles from the place of their birth and sustenance True it is That His late Majesty and His now Majesty then Prince of Wales overcoming
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
Dignities and Offices whereby they constituted the said Father Walsh their Agent and Procurator to His Majesty and great Ministers to kiss His Majesties hands in their behalf and name c. Giving him moreover all the power authority and jurisdiction they could to act for them and the rest of the Clergy and Catholicks of Ireland and to do all things he should find expedient in order to obtain what favours His Majesty should think fit by connivence or otherwise for the exercise of their Religion and to save them from persecution on that account To which Instrument of Procuration many others afterwards did subscribe and put their Seals as soon as they saw it in particular the Bishop of Dromore and the Bishop of Ardagh with their own hands and the Bishop of Ferns by his proxy and special Commission from Spain to that end That the rest of the chief Superiours of the Clergy in other parts of Ireland did not the reason was given that the times then when it was done and sent to London were such as no Messenger would undertake to go about with the Instrument and to meet together it was impossible and all thought it sufficient for all that the Primate and those other Bishops and Vicars General had already done it especially whereas it was known that the Primate himself drew that Instrument Which I thought fit to insert here word by word as it is in the original writing To the end some persons who are yet unsatisfied in this matter may see what warrant the said Procurator had from the Clergy themselves to act for them and urge them far more yet then he hath to do themselves right In Dei nomine Amen Sciant vniversi per praesentes quod nos qui huic instrumento Procuratorio subscripfimus eligendum duximus sicut per praesentes eligimus nominamus facimus et constituimus Reverendum admodum et venerabilem virum Fratrem Patrem Petrum Valesium Ordinis Sti Francisci Recollectum S. Theologiae Lectorem c. nostrum Procuratorem Agentem et negotiorum Actorem et Gestorem ut nostro omnium nomine et vice osculetur Sacras manus Serenissimi Domini Regis nostri Caroli II. congratuleturque ejus felici et faustae inaugurationi et ingressui in sua Regna Monarchiam et Imperium Eidemque Serenissimo Domino Regi vota et preces nostras humiliter offerat et praesentet et coram sua Sacra Majestate Judicibus Commissionariis Delegatis et Ministris quibuscumque ab eodem Serenissimo nostro Rege ad id deputatis aut deputandis proponat agat sollicitet et promoveat causam Catholicorum et libertatis sive tollerantiae exercitii Religionis Catholicae in hoc regno Hiberniae Vt saltem procuret nobis eas conditiones favores et gratias quae in Articulis Pacis et Reconciliationis an 1648. compositae ratae et confirmatae inter Excellentissimum Dominum Marchionem Ormoniae et Confederatos Catholicos pactae et promissae nobis fuerunt omniaque alia proponat agat et concludat nostro omnium nomine quae in ordine ad dictam sollicitationem et Agentiam necessaria aut conducibilia fuerint Proinde damus eidem venerabili et Rdo. admodum Patri omnem potestatem Authoritatem et Iurisdictionem in quantum possumus aut debemus ut ad debitum effectum perducat pacem tranquillitatem et quietem Religionis Catholicae in hoc Regno Rogantes ut eidem credentia et fides abundé in omnibus habeâtur In quorum fidem has signaturis et sigillis nostris muniri fecimus Primo Jan. 1660. In the name of God Amen Be it known to all men by these presents that we who have subscribed this Procuratory Instrument have thought fit to elect as we do by these presents elect name make and constitute the very Reverend man Father Peter Walsh Recollect of the Order of St. Francis and Reader of holy Theology c. our Procurator Agent Actor and Doer of our affairs that in all our names and place he may kiss the Sacred hands of our most Serene Lord and King Charles the Second and congratulate his happy and fortunate inauguration and ingress into his Kingdoms Monarchy and Empire and that he may humbly offer and present unto the same most Serene Lord and King our vows and prayers and that before his Sacred Majesty Judges Commissioners and Delegats and other Ministers soever deputed already or hereafter to be deputed by the same our most Serene King he may propound act sollicit and promote the cause of Catholicks and of the liberty or tolerancy of exercise of Catholick Religion in this Kingdom of Ireland That at least he may procure to us those conditions favours and graces which in the Articles of Peace and Reconciliation in the year 1648. compounded ratified and confirmed betwixt the most excellent Lord Marquess of Ormond and the Catholick Confederats were conditioned for and promised to us And that he may propound act and conclude in all our names all other things which in order to the said sollicitation and Agency shall be necessary or conducing Therefore we give the same venerable and very Reverend Father all power authority and jurisdiction as much as we can or ought that he may bring to a good issue the peace tranquillity and quiet of Catholick Religion in this Kingdom praying that credence and beleef may be given him abundantly in all things In witness whereof we have strengthned these with our subscriptions and Seals 1. of Ian. 1660. Edmundus Archiepiscopus Ardmachanus totius Hiberniae Primas Fra. Antonius Episcopus Medensis Fra. Oliverus Episcopus Dromorensis Patricius Episcopus Ardaghadensis 1665. Cornelius Gaffneus Vic. Gen. Ardachaden Oliverus Dese Vic. Gen. Medensis Ego Jacobus Cusacus S. Theologiae D. fretus authoritate et commissione speciali Rmi D. Nicholai Episcopi Fernensis huic instrumento Procuratorio ejusdem Illmi ac Rmi D. Episcopi nomine subscribo die 8. Sep. 1662. Iacobus Dempsy Vic. Apostolicus Dublinensis c. Fra Ioannes Scurlog Ord. Praedicatorum Fra. Barnabas Barnewallus Ord. Capucinerum Fra Paulus Brownus Carmelita Discalocatus When the said Peter Walsh had in the same month of Ian. 1660. according to the English stile for it was 61. according to the Roman received this Instrument at London by the hands of the Reverend Father Antony Gearnon of St. Francis's Order and shewed it immediately to my Lord Lieutenant although as he expected he was soundly checked by His Grace for daring to receive such an Instrument from such men that is men as to the generality and chief of them formerly and lately too so charactered as they were for being in their inclinations and carriage very much disaffected to His Majesties interests and very obnoxious to the laws yet he ceased not ever after upon all good opportunities to act for them and all the rest of the Irish Clergie of their communion indifferently and without any distinction and endeavour to worke their peace
such be amongst the Subscribers can make themselves ready for the voyage before they can fit themselves with necessaries for so long a journey before they can get money to bear their charges and Passes to save them harmless the time will be wherein according to our constitutions the Commissary Visitor must go about the Province at home in Circuit And if so wherefore a journey so chargeable tedious and no less dangerous specially of so great a multitude and of persons too not convicted nor confessed nay of persons never once heard to speak or write for themselves never yet as much as once any way questioned either by messenger or by letter to this very day What I say further is That it would very well become your Paternity and the Minister General to consider seriously with your selves what your selves would do if your own condition or case in the Dominions of Spain Germany Franâ—e Poland Venice or other States and Principalities of Italy were like ours here If banishment proscription treason death it self the worst of evils and the vilest kind too of death were established by law where you live against the maintainers of the great Pontiffs pretended power either direct or indirect for deposing your own King and bereaving him of Crown and life together If you had now your selves groan'd for some ages under the yoke of severest laws against your Religion led the life of slaves in servitude and bondage if your Altars had been destroyed your Churches polluted your Holies contaminated your Goods confiscated and persons out-lawed And that now at last after so great and so long sufferings you saw a beam of light discovering some comfort some fair hopes of seeing in your own dayes under a pious King a cessation of your evils end of your persecutions restitution of your people liberty of religion intended for you and nothing else expected from you by a good lawful and merciful Prince your own natural Prince I mean but only that you would under your hands-writing renounce the late bloody horrid assertion of a Sermarine or Bellarmine Comitolus or a Suarezius a Gretzer Becan Lessius or any other such one or more Neotericks whether Divines or Canonists or both Assertions publickly and frequently condemned heretofore even by the most famous Universities Prelates Clergie and people of the greatest Catholick Nations of Europe and besides that you would only profess against assertions so strangely enormous pernicious and scandalous of such the foresaid few Divines or Canonists to be unalterably undispensably faithful in temporals to your own Monarch notwithstanding any attempts or machinations whatsoever of any person or power on earth even that of the great Pontiff to bereave your King of his temporal rights Scepter Crown or Life I say it would become your Paternitie and Minister General of the Order to consider with your selves coolely what you would think lawful to do in that case of your own what to determine as Christian Divines and what to declare promise and subscribe as faithful Subjects to your King Likewise to consider with your selves what then you would think of Caron Walsh or any others of your own Order that subscribed our above mentioned Form if I mean they in the now supposed case had the same power of or superiority over you which you indeed have over them and they used I say not abused it to estrange to alienate you and all other fellow Subjects from being so faithful to your King in his temporal Government to this end proceeded against troubled molested you with illegal summons and breach of Canons and did so too with the manifest prejudice of Catholick Religion and with the yet more special infamy hatred horrour of the Seraphick Institution amongst those are not of our Church Certainly prudent wise learned men men so zealous for Religion Faith and the service of God would alledge That there is no power given for destruction but for edification that we must rather obey God then any men whatsoever commanding against God Faith and Religion against the publick good or peace of a Catholick Nation so strangely of late and so many years together afflicted then men men too I say proceeding so either out of a certain blind obedience that sees not God or out of zeal that is not according to the knowledge of God or lastly and which is worst of all out of a sinful awe they stand in of other men who rule by power only domineering amongst the Clergie against the Prince of the Clergies precepts of Faith and examples of Life And what I finally say is That however your most reverend Paternities would carry your selves in the supposed case it concerns you in that wherein you are to be very careful and cautious that as the reverend Father Caron well adviseth in this matter or controversie if it be this indeed you intended in your Letter to the said Father your Paternities proceed religiously maturely and charitably or which is the same thing that without a just cause you proceed not to citations censures or any sentences whatsoever For when the sentence is either notoriously null by reason of an intollerable errour or through want of matter that is of a lawful cause or sin and this very sin to have a clear contumacy along with it or when the sentence is otherwise unjust by reason the substantial or essential form of judicial procedure such as the Canons and reason prescribe is not observed and much more when both that and this are manifest what fruit what effect can you hope thereof Certainly it appears out of the Canons and Doctors that a sentence of this nature obliges not Which you may see in cap. Venerabilibus Parag. potest quoque de sent Excom in 6. cap. per tuas Parag. nos igitur eod tit in Tâ—let l. i. c. 10. and Gandidus disquis 22. 24. dub 3. de Censur where he alledges Sâ—tus d. 22. q. 1. a. 2. and Suarez de Censur disp 6. sec 7 n. 52. averring moreover that when a censure is in this manner invalid or null in both Courts that is the internal of conscience and external of the Church its unnecessary to have an absolution as much as for caution as they speak With whom Henriques too l. 13. de Excommunicat cap. 15. Sayrus l. 1. de censur cap. 16. go along And as to the generality of the sentence all other Divines and Canonists Nay it appears out of that most learned and most holy Chancellor of the School of Paris Gerson de Excom consideratione 5tâ— tom 2. that a farr greater and more sinful contempt of the keyes of the Church is to be imputed to the Prelate or Ecclesiastical Judge so as is now said abusing his power then to the party censured if there be any comparison at all in the abuse Nay it further appears out of this most famous Divine that it may and is sometimes both meritorious in it self and honourable to the
orbem absolvere possit Et propterea dogma illud quod asserit quemque posse suum Regem quod sit disparis Religionis aut fidei Romano Catholicae contrariae e medio tollere aut contra illum arma movere ut impium Sacris Scripturis vetitum detestor abhominor Ac proinde teneo ac profiteor esse cuivis boni Catholici Subditi officium omnes Conspirationes clandestinas machinationes ad Rebellionem tendentes Regi aut sub illo Magistratui competenti aut Consiliario quamprimum aperire indicare neque ita facturum juro profiteor Ad quod maxime Divinum illud Oraculum Reddite Caesari quae sunt Caesaris Deo quae sunt Dei me invitat imo firmiter obligat In quorum omnium singulorum fidem ac robur his ego proptia manu subscripsi Pat Daly J. V. D. Octavo Maii 1663. THat Nation must be very barbarous and altogether a stranger to the Law of Nature which does not love dread and reverence Kings see over them by God which does not esteem the Name and Majesty of a King to be embraced and worshipped in Temporals next to God as a thing glorious yea even divine Wherefore there is a duty incumbent upon all the Irish but especially upon those who serve at the Altar and have the charge of instructing others to manifest with what and how great joy they celebrate the most happy Inauguration of our Illustrious Monarch and His Return to possess the Government of His Ancestors Why should not I therefore as it becomes all others likewise wish all happiness and prosperity to our most successful Prince who has snatch't these Nations and above others His Ireland out of the jaws of cruel Tyrants under whose barbarous yoke they have hitherto groaned Since it is far from Christian piety to do or think otherwise But having heard that many have a suspition there are several of our Order in this Kingdom who endeavour to raise intestine Sedition yea and aspire to get Forreign Forces to make a Rebellion against the Sacred Majesty of the King I cannot nor ought I to conceal with what observance love and sincerity of mind I am ready to yield Obedience and wish Prosperity to my most victorious King and how I am ready to bind my self by Oath faithfully to perform the same Wherefore I do most Religiously acknowledge and affirm in the word of a Priest sincerely and without all equivocation disguise or mental reservation That our most Illustrious King CHARLES the Second is Lord of this Kingdom of Ireland and of all other His Majesties Realms and Dominions by a true legitimate and hereditary Right and that I will obey him in all matters Temporal and Civil most faithfully I and deservedly and that there is no power under Heaven which can absolve me from this Oath of Allegiance more than those of my Function who are Subjects of the Princes of Germany Spain or other Nations throughout the World And therefore I detest and abhor the Opinion as impious and forbidden by the Holy Scriptures which maintains That any one may kill His King or take up Arms against Him because He is of a different Religion or of a Belief contrary to the Roman Catholick Faith Wherefore I assert and profess That it is the duty of every good and Catholick Subject forthwith to detect and discover to the King or to some competent Magistrate under him or to a Privy Counsellor all Conspiracies and clandestine Machinations tending to Rebellion and I swear and profess that I my self will so do Whereunto that Divine Oracle give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods does chiefly invite and firmly bind me To give strength and credit to all and every of these I have subscribed with mine own hand Pat Daly J. V. D. 10 May 1663. Where you see nothing at all home to any purpose much less to that of the Remonstrance of 1661. And indeed this good man alledges now being the year 1668. it was therefore the general Congregation of the Irish Clergy at Dublin and in 1666. did not would not Subscribe the Remonstrance of 1661. because Father P. Walsh declared publickly in the said Congregation That Remonstrance tyed them to stand by the King against even the very Pope himself in person invading any of His MAJESTIES Dominions with an Army and even in case too the pretence and intent also of such Invasion were only and purely to Re-establish Catholick Religion and to restore Catholick Proprietors to those Estates whereof they have been so lately dispossessed by force of Arms or which have been more lately yet invested in others by those several Acts of Parliament we have seen pass since the Kings Restauration But whether or no the said Father Peter Walsh descended then to such a case expresly and publickly in any of his several Speeches to that Congregation yet I am sure he hath sufficiently demonstrated in the _____ page of this First Part and elsewhere often the lawfulness and justice and even the necessity also of such engagement and sense of the Remonstrance at least as to a promise of passive obedience even in such very case to the King Nay and also as to active obedience and positive fighting for the King and themselves and for the natural and civil being of all the people of these Dominions even also in case of such an Invasion or of any made even with previous manifestoes of such a pure intention because no mortal man could without divine special and extraordinary Revelation know certainly that to be the real inward intention whatever the verbal outward of manifestoes should be and because of the nature of Conquest and Wars wherein a thousand Accidents may intervene which may wholly change the first intention or design A Third Paper or form of a Declaration and given the DUKE by the Lord Birmingham April 8. same Year 1664. VVE acknowledge and profess that it 's our Tenet and Opinion That we are by the Laws of God bound under pain of sin to observe inviolably and perform publick Faith with all manner of persons of whatever profession in Religion they be and to be as true obedient and loyal to our Sovereign Lord and King CHARLES the Second King of this Realm of Ireland and other His Dominions as any of His Subjects and that accordingly we will bear Him during our lives true Faith and Allegiance in as dutiful and obedient manner as the Laws of this Kingdom do require from us And if the Pope of Rome or any other person either Ecclesiastical or Temporal shall either by force of Excommunication Sentence of Deposition or by any other wayes or means attempt any thing to His prejudice That we will in opposition thereunto and in defence and maintenance of His Person Crown and Government expose our Lives and Fortunes if need be All which we Religiously swear to observe and that no
great horror as to this point of Subjects murthering their Kings which yet they do not really if their above reservations principles explications and all due circumstances above likewise intimated for some part and the wary placing of their words here be as they ought seriously examined The words expressing their seeming but very milde condemnation are placed thus Much less can we allow of or pass as tollerable any doctrine that perniciously and against the Word of God maintains that any private Subject may lawfully kill the Anointed of God his Prince Where in the first place it is to be observed that besides other changes of the clause in the Protestation of 61. relating particularly to this matter and which you have there in this absolute tenor And hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain that any private Subject may kill and murther the anointed of God his Prince though of different belief and religion from his These later Protestors omit these last words though of different belief and religion from his Words without question as material in our case as any if not more then any of the former the religious pretences of the lawfulness of killing Princes and other circumstances being duely weighed In the next place the words private Subject and the other words Anointed of God his Prince as well severally as joyntly taken and I mean as in this last Remonstrance or this of the congregation of 66. though not as in the former of 61. are to be considered as no way comprehending in the present case dispute and circumstances and proceeding from such unwilling minds and equivocating subscribers any person that shall pretend himself to be no more a Subject no more a privat person but a publick Minister of the Pope or people executing the sentence of either against a deposed deprived un-anointed or dis-anointed or excommunicated Prince no more in such cases the anointed of God no more a Prince but in the opinion which they refused to condemn or decline a tyrant by title or administration or both Lastly t is to be observed that however these late subscribers of the said congregation of 66. expound or understand the foresaid words private Subject the Anointed of God his Prince yet the whole proposition as it lies and the verb maintains as it is therein determined affected or restrained from its more general signification by those other immediatly antecedent words which perniciously and against the word of God and consequently as that proposition is not absolute but modal as logicians speak imports not by necessary construction that every or any doctrine which maintains that any privat Subject may lawfully kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince is pernicious and against the word of God For it only disallowes that Doctrine which perniciously and against the word of God to witt in some cases maintains c. and leaves the subscribers at liberty to approve of the same Doctrine in other cases wherein notwithstanding any words here they may say it does not perniciously nor against the word of God maintain that killing or murthering And they may instance the case wherein he is or may be deposed deprived excommunicated or a declared or publickly known tyrannical Administrator Governor or oppressor of the people against Justice So that the whole contexture of that proposition seems framed of purpose to equivocat and say nothing to any other purpose Which further yet may appear out of their double sense of the word Lawfully by them inserted Which in relation to themselves or others they will expound when they please of the Law of the Land onely And they will easily and without equivocation or mental reservation grant that in all cases whatsoever its unlawful by the Law of the Land to murther or kill the Prince But they do not as yet say it is so by or according to the laws of God and nature which are above the laws of the land So that it were necessary for them to speak plainly and expresly acccording to these last clauses if they would be understood to declare home as much as to this very point alone since they have not done so yet to any other And hence and out of all hitherto observed the two remaining clauses or parts of their Remonstrance appear to signifie a meer nothing as they proceed from them in this Remonstrance and relate as they must to their sense in all the foregoing parts Wherefore say they pursuant to the deep apprehension we have of the abomination and sad consequences of such practice we do engage our selves to discover unto your Majesty or some of your Ministers any attempt of that kind conspiracy or rebellion against your Majesties person Crown or Royal Authority that comes to our knowledge In case the Subscribers knew that the Catholicks of Ireland were now prudently resolved as having a good strong back to rebel or take Armes to morrow not only after a sentence of deposition of Charles the second pronounced by the Pope or a censure of Excommunication issued from his Holiness by virtue of which censure or under which penalty he would enjoyn all Irish Catholicks to joyn together not of purpose or primarily against the King or against His Crown Person or Authority or not of purpose to kill or murther Him or not as much as to de-throne or un-un-king Him but to restore themselves to their antient possessions or unto their both Temporal and Spiritual rights their lands and Religion and relieve themselves from the publick general oppression they complain of as pretended to proceed only from his great Ministers Councils and Parliaments not from himself but also without any such previous sentences or censures these subscribers notwithstanding this engagement and even without any breach of it I say according to their own sense both here and all along in their Remonstrance may nevertheless conceal such their Countrymens design And for the cases of deposition or excommunication as above there can be no manner of doubt they reserve still notwithstanding the words of this engagement as they understand them that liberty to themselves for at least in these cases and according to the opinions these men refuse to disown expresly cleerly or even virtually or equivalently in other words and which they refuse to disown so under their hands writing there would be no Rebellion against Majestie Crown or Authority Royal belonging to Charles over them And consequently neither if these subscribers should know certainly the final or primary design were to beâ—eâ—ve the King of His life would they find themselves bound by the tenor of this engagement or any other clause in their Remonstrance to reveal it at least I say after such previous sentences of deposition deprivation and excommunication or after the right of the Crown were pretended and known to be given for the good of Catholick Religion to an other Prince The reduplicative and specificative senses wherein the chief decliners of the former
which they make or intend to make there if any at all indeed they make or intend together with so many quibbles and fallacies yet this Remonstrance at least as from them does no way bind them after such declaration of the Pope to hold as much as to such however inconsiderable acknowledgements or promises Fourteenth Exception That further yet as from them and without relation to any such matter declared by the Pope it leaves them alwayes at liberty upon another account not to hold to their said however inconsiderable acknowledgments and promises Videlicet upon account of their maximes of extrinsick probability or of their perswasion of the lawfulness of changeing opinions and of practising too according to the contrary opinion of others and consequently of practising against all their acknowledgments ownings Declarations promises and oaths in this their own Remonstrance according to the doctrine of such Catholick Authors as maintain all oathes of Allegiance made to a Heretick Prince to be rendred absolutely void by the very Canons of the Roman Church in corpore Juris Canonici Fifteenth Exception That finally as from them it leaves them still at liberty to say they framed and subscribed it according to the very largest rules of equivocation and mental reservation and with as many and as fine abstractions exceptions constructions restrictions and distinctions too especially that of the specificative and reduplicative sense as any the most refined Authors and most conversant in such matters Canonists or Casuists or School-divines could furnish them with in time of need And these being the most obvious material Exceptions against this Remonstrance of 66. the Reader may judge of their reasonableness or unreasonableness as he please if he hath already or when he shall have read through not only the former part of this Second Treatise but both the first and second part of the first Treatise of this Book To which if he add the reading also of all the other four he may without any question judge the better of these Exceptions whether they be well grounded or not THE THIRD TREATISE CONTAINING The three propositions of Sorbon considered as they are by this Dublin Congregation applyed to His Majestie of Great Britain and themselves And what they signifie as to any further or clearer assurance of their fidelity to the King in the cases controverted HAving given in my Narrative the occasion upon which and the persons by whom after a long dispute these propositions with the other three of the six late of Sorbon were first offered to be assented to and signed in a distinct or different instrument or paper from that of their Remonstrance and how after those very persons hindered the signing of the other or last three and further in my exceptions to instances against and observations upon that Remonstrance of theirs upon their wording of and meaning by and in the several passages or clauses all along having noted their voluntary and contradictory omissions of what was necessary and what was both expected and demanded from them on the particular points and noted their abstractions reservations exceptions equivocations illusive expositions and yet no less if not more destructive constructions I need not say much here to shew the unsignificancy of the said three propositions I mean as to the publick end for which these Assembly subscribers would impose on others or flatter themselves they were subscribed by them For it will be obvious and easie to any understanding man that shall first read those fore-going small Tracts of mine to see evidently there can be no more assurance of the present or future faith of those Congregational subscribers or from their subscriptions to the said three additional propositions than was besorâ— intended by them in or could be from their sole Remonstrance taken according or in that sense of theirs which I have so declared at large I confess that in the state primitive or in that of the innocency of Christians these alone peradventure might have been sufficient to that end Nay and at this very present are very significant as proceeding from and applyed by the Sorbon-faculty and Gallican Church to their own most Christian King and themselves To wit amongst a People and in a Country where no other doctrine is taught or believed or as much as scarce thought upon if not by a very few privâ—tly in corners but that which they have learned from the express Canons of their own ancient Councils and of that particularly of Paris well-nigh a thousand years since in pursuance of the Tradition of their yet more ancient Fathers all along to the Apostles of Christ and Christ himself That kingly power is immedietly from God alone as from the primary and only efficient cause and no way depending of the Church or People Where the practice was so frequent when occasion was offered to resist the usurpations and incroachments of Popes on the Jurisdiction Royal and to oppose and contemn their Sentences of Deposition Deprivation Excommunication and other attempts whatsoever of the See of Rome against their Kings Parliaments or People Where Pithou's most Catholick and voluminous Books of the natural and genuine liberties of the Gallican Church and so many other great Catholick Writers on that subject are extant and frequent and conversant with them daily Where finally that King in their opinion is both their own and really most Christian and themselves of the same Religion with him and by him all their interests both religious and civil spiritual and temporal in the greatest latitude and height they can desire maintained exactly I confess that from such men of such principles in such a Country and to such a Prince these three Propositions barely as they are worded might peradventue do well enough But to conclude hence or that because the French King was pleased or satisfied with them so as coming from and presented to himself by Sorbon His Majesty of Great Britain our Gracious King must be or should be in our present case and on the points controverted amongst us pleased or satisfied with the self same resolutions or propositions aâ—d in the self same words only the application changed without any further addition explanation or descent to particulars and so pleased with them as coming from us were a very great fallacie and very great folly The cases are different in all particulars And therefore it must be consequent in reason that more particulars may and should be required and in other words that is in words expresly and sufficiently declaring as well against all equivocations and other evasions as particularly to the particular points in our own case The design having been as it is and must be yet to get us to resolve and declare satisfactorily and our own Interest and that of our Religion too especially as now in Ireland leading us thereunto But alas the private Interests of some very few men of that Congregation blew durst in the eyes of all the rest so as they
Roman-Catholicks the 17th day of January 1648 and in the 24th year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. ORMONDE The DECLARATION intituled thus A Declaration Of the Archbishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Secular and Regular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland AGAINST The continuance of His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject the ill Conduct of His MAJESTIES Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace Dated at Jamestown in the Convent of the Fryers Minors August 12. 1650. THE Catholick People of Ireland in the year 1641. forced to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel intention made a Peace and published the same the 17th of January 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from His Majesty or from His Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now CHARLES II. hereby manifesting their Loyal thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when His Majesty was in restraint and neither He nor His Queen or Prince of Wales in condition to send any supply or relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were obtained by the above Pacification and thereby freed themselves from the danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the Power of England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and his Enemies in the Three Kingdoms Let the World judge if this be not an undeniable Argument of Loyalty This Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates ran sincerely and chearfully under His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast sums of Monies well nigh half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other Materials for War After his Excellency the said Lord Lieutenant frustrating the expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Natives which he began by violating the Peace in many parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the World I. FIrst The foresaid Catholicks having furnished his Excellency with the aforesaid Sum of Money which was sufficient to make up the Army of Fifteen thousand Foot and Two thousand five hundred Horse agreed upon by the Peace for the preservation of the Catholick Religion our Sovereigns interest and the Nation his Excellency gave Patents of Colonels and other Commanders over and above the party under the Lord Baron of Inchiquin to Protestants and upon them consumed the substance of the Kingdom who most of them afterwards betrayed or deserted us II. That the Holds and Ports of Munster as Cork Youghal Kingsale c. were put in the hands of faithless men of the Lord of Inchiquin's Party that betrayed these places to the Enemy to the utter endangering of the KING's interest in the whole Kingdom This good service they did His MAJESTY after soaking up the sweet and substance of His Catholick Subjects of Munster where it is remarkable That upon making the Peace his Excellency would no way allow His Loyal Catholick Subjects of Cork Youghal Kingsale and other Garrisons to return to their own Homes or Houses III. Catholick Commanders instanced by the Commissioners of Trust according to the Pacification and hereupon by his Excellencies Commission receiving their Commands in the Army as Colonel Patrick Purcel Major General of the Army and Colonel Peirce Fitz-Gerald alias Mr. Thomas Commissary of the Horse were removed without the consent of the said Commissioners and by no demerit of the Gentlemen and the said places that of Major General given to Daniel O Neil Esq a Protestant and that of Commissary of the Horse to Sir William Vaughan Knight and after the said Sir William â—s death to Sir Thomas Armstrong Knight both Protestants IV. A Judicature and legal way of administring Justice promised by the Articles of Peace was not performed but all process and proceedings done by Paper Petitions and thereby private Clerks and other corrupt Ministers inrich't the Subject ruined and no Justice done V. The Navigation the great support of Ireland quite beaten down his Excellency disheartning the Adventurers Undertakers and Owners as Captain Antonio and others favouring Hollanders and other Aliens by reversing of Judgments legally given and definitively concluded before his Commissioners 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 VI. The Church of Cloine in our possession at the time of making the Peace violently taken from us by the Lord of Inchiquin contrary to the Articles of Peace no Justice nor redress was made upon Application or Complaint VII That Oblations Book monies Interments and other Obventions in the Counties of Cork Waterford and Kerry were taken from the Catholick Priests and Pastors by the Ministers without any redress or restitution VIII That the Catholick Subjects of Munster lived in slavery under the Presidency of the Lord of Inchiquin these being their Judges that before were their Enemies and none of the Catholick Nobility or Gentry admitted to be of the Tribunal IX The Conduct of the Army was improvident and unfortunate Nothing hapned in Christianity more shameful than the disaster at Rathmines near Dublin where his Excellency as it seemed to ancient Travellers and men of experience who viewed all kept rather a Mart of Wares a Tribunal of Pleadings or a great Inne of Play Drinking and Pleasure than a well ordered Camp of Souldiers Droghedagh unrelieved was lost by storm with much bloodshed and the loss of the flower of Leinster Wexford lost much by the unskilfulness of a Governour a young man vain and unadvised Ross given up and that by his Excellencies order without any dispute by Colonel Luke Taffe having within near upon 2500 Souldiers desirous to fight After that the Enemy make a Bridge over the River of Ross a wonder to all men and understood by no man without any let or interruption our Forces being within Seven or eight Miles to the place where 200 Musqueteers at Rossberkine being timely ordered had interrupted this stupendious Bridge and made the Enemy weary of the Town Carrig being betrayed by the
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
on the other side or even calling for them by Summons or otherwise at any time before such prejudgment given or made This I say is it that both obliges and warrants me in all reason to except against them as incompetent Judges of me or my writings in that Cause i. e. to except against their individual persons but not against their Authority placed in other men of less interested or byass'd judgment Nor certainly will this Exception appear strange or ill-grounded to such as shall be pleased to turn over in this Book not only to the many divers Letters of Roman Cardinals and Bruxel Internuncio's written at several times and upon several occasions since the year 1661 to Ireland against the same Cause and me and the rest of the Remonstrants but also to the Louain Theological Faculty's Censure * Dated at Louain 1662 Dec. 29. against it i. e. against the Loyal Irish Remonstrance and Subscribers of iâ— I pass oâ—er wholly in silence at this time the Bull of Pope Alexander VII * Dated at Rome 1665 Aug. 27. in the former cause of the Appeal made anno 1648 to Innocent X by the then Supreme Council of the Roman-Catholick Confederates of Ireland from those wicked Censures of Interdict and Excommunication fulminated that year and in that Kingdom against them and all other Irish joining with or obeying them in the Cessation of Arms concluded with the Royal Party of Protestants I say fulminated therefore against them by the Archbishop and Prince of Fermo Joannes Baptista Rinuccinus Nuncio there from the foresaid Innocent X. though a very partial inconsiderate Bull grounded falsely and given directly against all the more Loyal Irish Catholicks and given so of meer purpose to make them receive absolution in forma Ecclesiae consueta and consequently to do publick Pennance for having return'd but onely so nigh their obedience to the late King of ever blessed Memory as a meer or bare Cessation of Arms in order to the preservation of His Majesties interest when their own could not subsist without it in that Kingdom And these being the Six Appendages of so many Questions going before concerning my own constancy or inconstancy in Religion you are now at liberty to determine as to that matter what you think fit So having by this time inlarged my self I hope sufficiently enough for the information of some conviction of others and satisfaction of all ingenuous lovers of Truth having discharged my Conscience and spoken my Mind touching all the three Motives that induced me to this Dedicatory Preface to you it remains that howsoever or whatsoever you judge of me or my carriage or my writings I nevertheless continue my due regard to your Benefit and conclude this Discourse as it almost begun and for the matter proceeded all along with re-minding you most affectionately of your own and your Posterities and your Religions great Concern both in the Loyal Cause I contend for and in those happy ends at which I drive Therefore in the Apostles words Before God and our Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom by all the desires you have of your own and your Posterities living comfortably in this world as free-born Subjects in your Native Countrey and by all the hopes you have conceiv'd of enjoying that better Countrey with eternal life and rest in the world to come by all your zeal not only for the vindicating of your Religion from the scandal of Disloyalty Perjury Cruelty Inhumanity Tyranny c. both in Principles and Practices but of inviting also by taking away the grand Rock of scandal those of other Churches to save their Souls in the communion of yours or of the Roman-Catholick Church if indeed you believe there is no salvation for them otherwise and by all your godly wishes of a true understanding reconciliation union peace between all Churches professing the Name of Christ and more especially between His Majesties Protestant Subjects and your selves en fine by all that is Sacred and by all that is according to reason and grace desirable I conjure you that your selves mind as you ought that great Concern of your own and mind it both effectually and speedily without further delayes I beseech you as Christians and as Catholicks by the onely adorable name of the Holy Jesus whose Doctrine you should desire to follow above all things consider That his Kingdom was not of this world (a) John 18.36 That surely he gave neither to St. Peter himself nor to any other of his eleven or twelve Apostles separately nor even to all the same twelve or thirteen with Peter and Paul collectively taken any other sort of Kingdom or the Lieutenancy of any other Kingdom than what himself had in the dayes of his abode in flesh or as he was a mortal man before his Resurrection (b) See â—â—lâ—â—â—ius himself lib. 5. de Rom. Poâ—â—tiâ— c. 4 â—itt D. That the Keyes of Heaven and the Crowns of earthly Kingdoms import very different things That as his Father sent him (c) John 20.21 22 23. so he sent all the twelve with equal and with onely Commission to remit and retain sins viz. by his Power and by his Word and by his Sacraments but not to give or to take away Scepters or Crowns (d) Non eriâ—â—â— mortalia 〈◊〉 regna dat â—â—â—lestia by any means whatsoever That he commanded what is due to Caesar to be paid to Caesar as well as to God what is due to God (e) Matth. 22 23. That Paul the thirteenth Apostle and Vessel of Election in his Epistle to the Romans * Rom. 13.1 5. plainly declares That subjection to the supereminent secular powers which carry the Sword of Justice and receive Tributes is due from every Soul and that not onely out of fear of their Sword but for Conscience sake and for fear of hell and damnation it is due from every Soul among you even from those who are the most spiritual in profession even from those who are the most high in Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Function Priests Monks Bishops Archbishops nay were they Apostles were they Evangelists were they Prophets whosoever they were as Chrysostom spake * Chrysostom Hom. 23. in Epist Paul on this Text Rom. 1â— Omnis anima c. near Thirteen hundred years since on this very Text of the Apostle and in effect with Chrysostom all the Holy Fathers of the Christian Church before and after him for a Thousand years from the Apostles time until Gregory VII That Exemption from and much more Dominion over the said Powers ate inconsistent with Subjection to them in the same Temporal matters That other Divine right of Dominion either direct or indirect His present Holiness of Rome cannot justly pretend than what He derives from Christ by or through St. Peter nor other Humane right to any Kingdom than what the free consent of the Princes People and Municipal Laws
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
have been drawn into the same errour whose protestation and subscriptions he doth in like manner condemn according to the above form and this to deliver the consciences of Catholicks from the fraud and errour wherewith they are circumvented Yet The Most Holy Lord by no means intends hereby to avert the Catholicks from observing that fidelity to their most Serene King sincerely and from their Soules which may accompany and adorn the Religion due to the supream King of Kings nay He doth rather admonish and exhort that in that fidelity they enlighten other Subjects by their example as people that walk in light amidst darkness And these truly are what The Most Holy Lord commanded to be written to me of this whole business The same your Reverence may communicate to all your own that they may be rendered certain of the truth of this matter and undoubted mind of His Holyness In fine to your Sacrifices I commend my self from Bruxels 21. July 1662. most studious in the Lord Hierom Abbot of Mount Royal. The Reader may take notice here that in such copies of this letter as came authenticated by Claudius Agretti Secretary to the above Internuncius there was a title prefixed and that title was this Censura â—mi Domini Nostri Alexandri VII nec non et Eminentissimorum Cardinalium et Theologorum congregatorum circa Protestationem R. P. Fratris Petri Valesii After this or together with it comes an other letter of the 8. of the same month and year to the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland from Rome and from a person of farre greater authority and no less eminency then Cardinal Francis Barberin which he writes in the name of the whole Congregation de propaganda or as President thereof against the same Remonstrance and subscription of it Whereof albeit I could never see the original yet certain I am the copy which I give here is a true one and that letter not forged at all because the Cardinal himself owned it to the Provincial of the Franciscans of England Father la Croix being in the general Chapter of the said Order at Rome 1664. Although his Eminency who was there and then President of the said Chapter as Protectour of that Order and by special Commission from his Holyness would not have the Irish Franciscans who subscribed the Remonstrance proceeded against therefore as the same Father la Croix told my self nor would at all have that matter debated against them or spoke of there That letter endorsed thus To the Noble-men of Ireland you have here Ad Praestantes Viros Hiberniae Praestantes Viri Si ullo unquam tempore is qui vos vnicè diligit Sanctissimus omnium Fidelium Parens aerumnosum rerum vestrarum statum doluit hoc potissimum dolet quo vobis non modò ab exteris timendum esse cernit verùm etiam a domesticis nec non ab ipsis Fratribus cavendum Panditur siquidem malum non ab Aquilone tantùm verùm etiam unde spirare debuerat aura spiritus Sancti ventus nunc perflat vrens Erroris Magistri fiunt qui se veritatis discipulos asserunt utque fidelitatem Regi ostentent fidem corrumpunt Illud vero praecipue mirum accidit eos edidisse Protestationem iis conceptam verbis quibus solùm fidem Catholicam violarent nec quicquam in terris assequerentur quod ipsa integra fidelitate obtinere non possent Quis enim audeat inficias ire a Catholica Fide debitam non foveri in Principes obedientiam cùm ex Evangelico Praecepto quae Caesaris Caesarâ— et quae Dei sunt Deo per-aequè reddere teneantur Cùm ergo fidem profitentur consona non loquuntur Sed quam excusationem praetexere possunt illi qui cum sic subscripserunt non nullis propositionibus Principi fidelitatem testantibus olim a sede Apostolica Damnatis bonam fidem aut inculpatam ignorantiam causari non possunt Quis pudor Ecclesiastici ordinis eos cernere erroris Antesignanos per quos caeteri erant erudiendi Sanctissimi Pontificis anxit animum sal infatuatum effudisse fatuitatem atque eos qui praelucere debuerant tenebras induxisse Qui ergo a subscriptionum ejusmodi contagione se immunes servarunt caveant omninò ne in foveom a caecis ductoribus trohantur sanemque doctrinam sustineant Qui stat videat ne cadat Qui verò infaliciter prolapsi sunt impigre emergere satagant et iidem nosse sciant ac tenere quod Pater aequè Sanctissimus ac amantissimus monendo porrigit dexteram Conjuncti denique omnes in pacis vinculo eum Regi morem gerant quem ingenua fides docet Ego interim totius Congregationis negotiis vestris Prapositae nomine cuncto vobis prospera adprecor simulque hortor ut quam in fidei candore tuendo exhibuistis fortissimi pectoris constantiam eandem teneatis sciatisque Catholicos omnes Hibernos a Sanctissimo Domino nostro in Visceribus Jesu Christi amari eundemque summo vestrum omnium salutis ac tranquilliatis desiderio teneri extoto eorde et charitate in Domino Datum Rome die 8. Julii 1662. Addictissimus Franciscus Barberinus Noble Sirs If ever at any time He who most intirely loves you The Most Holy Father of all the faithful hath grieved for the afflicted condition of your affairs now is the time that most of all he is grieved wherein he sees you are not only to fear from those abroad but even be on your guard from your very Domesticks nay from your very Brethren For the evil is approaching not from the North only but even even thence a burning winde blowes whence the gentle breathings of the holy Ghost should have come They are made Masters of errour who give themselves for disciples of truth and to shew their fidelity to the King they destroy Faith In which procedure of theirs that is chiefly to be admired that they published a Protestation in such terms whereby they may be said to have only violated the Catholick Faith and gained nothing on earth which they might not have obtained that very Faith remaining entire For who dares deny that by the Catholick Faith due obedience unto Princes is cherished whereas by Evangelical precept every man is bound to yeeld to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is Gods when therefore they study to render themselves faithful to the King they prevail herein least of all when they speake nothing agreeable to that Faith they profess But what excuse can they pretend who when to testifie their Allegiance to the Prince they have subscribed their names to some propositions condemned heretofore by the Apostolick Sea cannot alleadge for themselves either a good conscience or inculpable ignorance in doing so What shame is it to the Ecclesiastical Order to behold them the Leaders into Errour by whom others should have been instructed Verily it hath vexed the Soul of the most Holy Pontiff to consider the unsavoury salt to have
defiled but certainly hold upon that matter in 〈◊〉 To be 〈◊〉 the Answers were 1. That it very ill â—â—ted with the profession of the followers of Christ and Successors of his Apostles and Disciples or the function of Priests of God and Preachers of Evangelical tâ—â—â—â— by their calling for any earthly regard or ambitious aim of titles or diguleies either 〈…〉 of the Church to decline the declaration of their conscience or of the doctrine of Christ whereby the stocks on people 〈◊〉 their charge or to whom they were sent might be sâ—â—â—dly and sufficiently instructed that to embrace 〈…〉 to 〈◊〉 as prescribed by the law of God That besides they were altogether ouâ— in their way to those worldly and they proposed themselves with so little regard of their duty or conscience That the case was much altered 〈◊〉 that hath been these hundred years pasts And that if they expected a greater liberty they should withal expect a more arrow inspection from the Prince or State into their affairs and Government and to the persons amongst them advanced 〈◊〉 others and to the means and wayes of their advancement hereafter and their 〈◊〉 its consequently principles and faithfulness to the Crown 2. That 〈◊〉 of them as formerly had been so with â—unate and indeed most of them were so as to have been pactiâ—â—s in the Nunâ—â—o's and other annexed quarrels against the brights of the Crown 〈…〉 of the Kingdom had the 〈◊〉 reason now to be forward to embrace the opportunity given them of meâ—â—ing hereafter a better opinion and removing as well as they might out of His Majesties breast Lord Lieutenants and even out of all the rest of their fellow Subjects especially Protestants the jealousies and suspicions their former actions continue yet in them and must alwayes continue if they refuse to give so lawful and dutiful so catholick and conscientious an argument of their change and repentance as their subscription to the said Remonstrance must be reputed 3. That for those others of them who in the 〈…〉 him been honest and loyal all along they should 〈…〉 the fair hope they had of a â—ew 〈…〉 its a 〈…〉 then this for their further good 〈…〉 their profession and â—â—â—ingâ—ed 〈◊〉 of their 〈…〉 uniform in in their doctrine and life according to the law of God in all sentiâ—â—â— that Time servers nor Wealth â—â—ckâ— That besides they should confides the streight the King was in but with so 〈…〉 the impossibility of satisfying 〈…〉 happen in such a case that of this Countrey but why 〈…〉 That to the publick good and gâ—â—â— parts of the Kingdom 〈…〉 of particular could not be preferred That they 〈…〉 be of the necessities of the publick for disposition And if the King or now Laws did wrong any even of the best deserving of their friends their religion and their conscience and principles told them and their function or calling peculiarly they nor other Subjects had in such a case other remedy but prayers and tears and supplications to Him that can believe the oppressed when he please in this world and will certainly 〈…〉 in Christian patience in a better Finally that the liberty 〈◊〉 exercise of Religion and of indoctrinating the People in the wayes to heaten were the markâ— propâ—r 〈◊〉 them to shoâ— at and to this end they were called not to contend for partitions of earthly patrimonies And that where one Proprietor 〈◊〉 his â—and a thousand Catholicks would loose their souls if they would not pursue in 〈◊〉 even course the principles of the Religion and a good Conscience and by their concurrence wipe off the jealousies raised against and scandals aspersed on it by the doctrine and practises which that Remonstrance did condemn on disown 4. To those that had ingrafted in them an aversioâ— against all was called or reputed the Interest of the Crown of England in this Countrey it was seriously inculcated how unfortunate both themselves and predecessors had been therein during the revolâ—â—â—â—s and various attempts in prâ—secution thereof these 500 years past since Hâ—â—ty the 2d And how the principles and arguments they made use of to flatten themselves to some kind of â—â—â—â—fulness which indeed 〈◊〉 a pitiful and in point of conscienâ—â— were such as chose and no other then those which Father Charles 〈◊〉 Mahâ—n the Mâ—â—er Jesuit hath in his wicked Apology set out in Portugal however pretended to have been printed at Frandâ—fords and dispersed here amongst the Confederate though publickly burn'd by the hand of a hangman at Kilkenny and by the authority also of the said Confederate and against which the Proculator himself by the command of to then supream Council preach't nine Sermons five Sundays one after another in St. Kennys Church on that text of Jeremiah Quis est 〈◊〉 vobis sap â—â—siqui considerat hoc quare perierit terra Even such as would involve by consequence all Kingdoms and States in the whole earth whereinto my Forreigner ever enter'd as any time in perpetual war and blood shed Such as would beâ—â—â—ve of all right all conquering Nations let the causes of the invasion be never so just or continued-possession after be never so long and the submission of the conquer'd never so voluntary for what can appear to the eyes of man And such also as would arm even themselves who made use of such arguments one against another while the world did stand Nay and such too as being prest on by contrary arguments would make them confess consequently as indeed they did such of them as were ingenuous and freely spoke their minds to the Procurator urging them in point of reason that it were not a sin against the law of God for any to involve the whole Kingdom iâ— was again if he could to recover only for himself a small patrimony even of a much as twenty pounds a year whereof he had been in his own privat judgement dispossesâ—â—d unjustly in the late plantations made before the wars It was further laid open to such men how their sin entertaining such mâ—râ—â—â—es and harbouring such designs was by so much the more abominable before God and man by how much they were themselves Hypocritical in pretending only to others that knew them not a speciousness of Religion and that of the Church of God and interest of the Pope Then which or any of all which God knowes they intended nothing less but where it brought or could bring their other truly intended worke about 5. To the Regulars in general it was answer'd That they knew better their own strength and their own exemption and their own priviledges then so That they often engage against the whole body of the secular Clergie in matters wherein they are sure to offend them more and have more opposition from them and less support from others either in their own Country at home or abroad in forraign parts or even at Rome And they were sure enough the Pope would be wiser then to discountenance such a numerous body
which were it his draught it had not been albeit in the main dispute it be fully sufficient the answer waâ— That it became not Priests nor Christians nor even moral or rational honest men although neither Priests nor Christians to obstruct the common good out of private animosities much less to obstruct it to the prejudice of the Religion and Worship of God and obstruct all too by sinister wayes by calumnies and forgeries and a false pretence of Religion where there was nothing less then Religion intended but rather the quite contrary That in relation to his former actings in the controversies with the Nuntio if they had considered things rightly they would rather acknowledge admire with thankfulness adore the Providence of God which had inspired him then to do as he did and as became a good Patriot Subject religious Man Christian Priest and Catholick Divine to the end he might be after so many revolutions some way instrumental to save them again That they have found his endeavours even in forwarding that Remonstrance and in many other Instances very useful and very advantagious and profitable too for all both Catholick People and Clergy of Ireland And therefore he might in some measure and sense though with infinit disproportion answer such of them as traduce or maligne him as Christ did the Jews when at the instigation of some both of the envious Priests and wicked Scribes and Pharisees too that religious but hypocritical Sect of those ancient people of God the multitude taking stones to throw at their Saviour of purpose to kill him he told and demanded of them as the Gospel relates multa opera bona ostendi vobis Ioh. â— 32. c. propter quod eorum opus lapidatis me That for his exposition of the said Remonstrance in his More Ample Account if it did not convince them as he believed it did or whether it did or no yet were not they desired to subscribe it nor was it ever intended by him or any other they or any else should either subscribe or approve otherwise of it but as they pleased to read or lay it by That he alone was to answer for that Book if there was any thing amiss in it And from them no more was expected but to sign the Remonstrance in it self barely considered according to the true obvious and sincere meaning of all the several passages And if they taking it so could otherwise rationally expound it than the Procurator did in his said little book themselves were to satisfie their own consciences in that behalf and leave his book to stand or fall to the Authors cost or profit That however he found it a tye of duty on himself for many respects and particularly for that of acting by special Commission for the Catholicks both Clergy and Lay-people of Ireland and to obtain for them some liberty ease or connivence in the exercise of Catholick Religion To let them know they could not by other expositions answer or arrive at the ends of that exposition nor shew themselves to be truly sincerely loyal or faithful to the King in those contingencies wherein their allegiance might be for their former actions prudently suspected 12. And for the general objection of all their allegation of the laws still in force c. they were desired to consider 1. How happy they would have thought themselves immediatly before the Kings Restauration and for so many other foregoing sad years under usurping Tyrants if they had found a suspension only of those laws and that connivence at the exercise of their Religion they now enjoyed under His most Sacred Majesty and ever since or immediatly after the Remonstrance presented in their names or behalf to Him That they had far more assurance than they yet deserved being they demurr'd so long on professing under their hands a dutiful subjection and no other certainly than without any such profession they were bound to by all the laws of God under pain of Hell or Damnation and by all the laws of the Land under the severest punishments of Treason That they were not to expect capitulations from the King for their being Subjects but neverthess had cause enough to see if they were not wilfully blind He was and would be to them all a good merciful gracious compassionat and indulgent King blotting all their former iniquities or those of so many of them as had been unjust to Him and his Father and Lieutenant and other protestant People quite out of His remembrance evermore if they did shew themselves true penitents and converts and sincere performers of their duty hereafter That they were no indifferent no competent Judges of those Articles they pleaded whether they were broken or no by the King or his Ministers or if broke in any part or to any person whether such breach was lawful and necessary or no in the present conjuncture of affairs after so great a change or alteration of the case That reason might tell them considering the condition of their Country and Inhabitants thereof which requires other laws and other proceedings and another kind of use of laws at least in matter of Religion than England does at present they could have no ground to fear any forcing of them to other Countreys for want of protection at home if and whiles they demeaned themselves peaceably provided they gave generally and cheerfully that assurance expected from them of such peaceable demeanour hereafter That in case of the very worst imaginable of evils the comfort of a good conscience were to be preferred by them to any earthly emolument and the conscience of having done their duty by washing the scandal of unholy tenets from their Religion would be a portable theatre to them whethersoever they should be forced and the assurance of suffering only in such case for a pure holy and undefiled Religion and Communion for justice and the Catholick faith only not for suspicion or conviction of treasonable maximes and practices condemn'd in all other Kingdoms and States in their own cases as impious uncatholick unchristian and even I say condemn'd by the professors of their own Church every where out of the small temporal Principality of the Pope And therefore they needed not apprehend any such attempt scorn prejudice or persecution abroad for having performed such a christian duty at home but on the contrary to be praised and cherished if not perhaps such as through vanity and folly would esteem no other refuge but where they might withal expect titles and miters which they very little deserved if not by such deserts as would untitle and unmitre them wholy if they were sifted narrowly according to the Gospel of Christ or Canons of the Catholick Church though perhaps they would hold them fast enough according to those other late ones made by Papal authority alone But that if the very saddest they could by Chymeraes frame to themselves did happen in such case as well abroad as at home it became
Propositions against the Jansenists and by occasion thereof against Mr. White alias Blacklow a learned Priest of the Roman communion though much for most of his books censured at Rome And he that printed at London that excellent Latin Panegyrick of Cromwel in verse I remember well though much unbecomming for the subject a Catholick Divine however it might sute a Heathen Poet Oratour as being in the praise of such a Tyrant Usurper And he that being netled by Mr. Blacklows replyes partly to be revenged on this Gentleman or out of zeal perhaps and partly to trye the fortune of his old age and expect some reward for his earnest endeavours to stifle Iansenisme in England whether for any other end I know not went to Rome immediately after his said writings and stayed there since It was this good Father as a veterane Souldier an able Divine and penman and a forraigner too that had no dependance on England they pitched on at Rome to write and print against that Remonstrance and against the sense thereof expounded by the Procuratour in his little English book wherein he gave the best account thereof he could and the exceptions made first against it required To which purpose they got the Irish Franciscans of St. Isidore their Colledge in the City to translate that little book of the Procuratours hopeing also they might find therein some passages or propositions censurable by His Holiness or Inquisition or by the Congregation de propaganda fide and thereby also find more cause and more matter to write against both the Remonstrance and chief defenders of it such as they accounted the Procuratour and Father Caron But their labour in that particular of translating of that book was lost For when they had done all their worst and brought their translation to the Colledg of Cardinals de propaganda nothing therein was esteemed censurable at least otherwise then the bare Propositions of the Remonstrance in it self And therefore it lyes and will in all likely-hood for ever lye amongst by layed sheets in that Colledg without any danger of condemnation or prohibition as even the Catholick Primate of Ardmagh then at Rome and in all probability concurring with the rest of his Countrymen against the Remonstrance and Subscribers writâ— to my self as soon as he was returned to Paris in 65. as also he together writt that His Holiness did not would not censure at all or meddle with or concern himself in that Remonstrance pro nec con otherwise then by his displeasure only against those Churchmen that were the first Authors or chief promoters of it And indeed we have no reason yet to complain of His Holiness in this matter albeit very much of the proceedings of his Eminency Cardinal Francis Barlerin and of the two Internuncius's of Bruxels But however this be or be not el Padre Macedo lost all his labours How farre he proceeded in it I do not know but sure I am whatever it was he writt on this subject it never came to light Whether because upon after thoughts they found he could saye nothing to purpose and whatever he would saye would certainly and fully be answered and judg'd safer to proceed rather by authority then reason against that Instrument and those Subscribers and by discountenancing and keeping them from all hopes of preferment or title in that Court until they retracted or whether for any other more pious and godly consideration of the Popes Holiness I cannot say for certain But am notwithstanding certain that to this day as neither Macedo nor Brodin so none els had the confidence either at home in Ireland or abroad in other Countries to publish as much as one sheet or leaf or line on that subject against the Remonstrance in print or otherwise that came to my knowledg besides those written letters only of Cardinal Barberin De Vecchijs and Rospigliosi part of which I have before given and shall the rest hereafter in their due place and besides the Censure of Lovain XIII The second particular of those two I desired the Reader to take notice of here as an appendix of those answers is That the Procurator alwayes and to all and every though so many dissenting opposing or delaying parties and factions of the Clergy against subscription in the perclose of his particular answers appropriated to their several objections inculcated seriously and vehemently insisted on this general argument against them That whereas they all generally confessed the catholickness and lawfulness of that form or of the acknowledgments declarations protestations promises engagements and petition of that Remonstrance and consequently the lawfulness of a subscription to it and withal saw clearly not only the expediency but necessity also of their concurrence and being it was evident enough they were bound under the greatest and strictest obligation of conscience and even of eternal damnation and they above other Christians by their special function to concur to all just conscientious or lawful means or such as were not sinful and were also the circumstances of place time and persons considered both expedient and necessary as well to hinder the propagation and labour the extirpation of erroneous false sinful and scandalous doctrine amongst the people whom they instructed as to wash off their holy Faith and Church such scandals already aspersed upon it through the carriage or miscarriage of some rendring it foul and odious and horrible and therefore estranging Sectaries of all sorts from all thoughts of returning or reuniting to it at any time but rather fixing them in heresie and schisme with loss of their eternal salvation even of such infinite myriads of souls for whose reduction to the Church and means of salvation they were specially commission'd by their calling and enjoyn'd to preach and teach Evangelical truths without addition or substraction of or countenance to any other novel doubtful or controverted opinions much less of those are certainly false and scandadalous and even against the common peace not of Catholicks or Christians alone but also of Infidels even of all societies of men on earth it must follow evidently out of these premises they must confess themselves to live in a very sinful state and extreamly dangerous hazzard of Gods most severe and most terrible judgments against them on the day of account if they delayed any longer their duty to God and to the King and to their own Church Religion People and to those too that abhorred their Church and Faith upon account chiefly of such their carriage or of their not disowning as they might and ought such pernicious doctrines and practises the antecedents concomitants and subsequents whereof render the Professors of the Catholick Faith and Church so abominable to all apostatized from or otherwise born and bred out of it For it is clear that under such penalties all Priests of God and Preachers of the Gospel of Christ by special function are obliged by all just means to endeavour the best they can to render
nation should highly rejoyce the miraculous Restauration of Charles the Second their natural King their only deliverer from the hard and intollerable durance and tyranny which they so many years have suffered in his absence under the suppressions of an Vsurped power and the Irish Clergie doth hold themselves by double obligation so to do first by the tye of natural subjection to their most gracious and lawful Prince secondly that they may vindicate themselves from the innumerable calumnies and lyes whereby they are misrepresented unto the King and his Ministers most falsely suggested to them that they intend to raise rebellion and tumults Wherefore we the whole body of the Dominican Friers unanimously that it may appear to the world with what sincerity of mind and purity of intension we are inclined to our Soveraign Charles the Second following the steps of our predecessors and fully satisfied in our conscience first do render most hearty thanks unto the King of Kings for the miraculous Restauration of His Sacred Majesty to His hereditarie Kingdoms and will ever pray that the same divine power and providence that established Him in his own right may give him long time happily to raign and govern And for manifestation of our fidelity to Him we do protest before God Angels and Men without any equivocation or mental Reservation our Soveraign Charles the Second to be the true and lawful King and Supream Lord of Ireland and therefore that we are in conscience and under pain of Highly offending God to obey our said Soveraign in all civil and temporal affairs no less then any of our function to their respective Princes in Europe And do further more protest that we know no external power that can absolve us from this Religious obligation no more than other Subjects of the like function with us from the like obligation in Spain France or Germany or any elswhere Finally we execrate abjure and renounce that not Catholick pernicious doctrine That any Subject may Kill or Murthen his King by himself or any other though differing with him in Religion nay we protest the contrary saying that all Subjects are bound to manifest all rebellious and machinations against their Kings person His Kingdom at State to the King or his Magistrate which we do hereby promise to do And this protestation of our fidelity we the aforesaid body of the Order of St. Dominick in Ireland do freely offer to His most meek and clement Majesty and prostrate under His Sacred â—ee we pray he may be pleased to accept this our protestation and to defend and deliver us frâ—â— the oppression of our persecutors for our profession is to fear and follow him who in the Gospel commands to give unto God his due and to Cesar his and we will always pray for His Royal Majesty his Queen and the blessing of a happy posterity Dated the 15th of October 1662. F. Iohn Hart Provincial F. Lawrence Kelly Diffinitor F. I. Burgate Deffinitor F. Eugius Coigly Diffinitor F. Richard Maddin Diffinitor F. Dionisius a Hanreghan F. Constant de Annunciatione Kyeffe F. William Bourke F. Cornelius Googhegan F. Felix Conuer F. Patrick Dulehanty F. Thomas Philbin F. Ioanner Baptista Bern F. Geâ—ot de martiribus Ferral F. Michael Fulam F. Goruldfitz Gerrald F. Abtonius Kenogan F. Clement Berae F. Batricius Doyre F. Charles Dermoâ—â— F. Dominick Fedrall F. Daniel Nolanus F. William O Meran F. Iohn Tyny F. Tadeus mac Donâ—ogh XVIII As concerning the Letter which this Dominican Provincial Father Iohn O Hart sent then by the same bearer and of the same date to the Procuratour although it was civil enough and a complement of thanks for minding his Order of their duty and further desires both of recommending them and their cause to His Grace and of hearing from him more often all particulars yet was it withal positive enough in declaring they could not or would not do more in that business than what they had now by their letter to the Duke and Remonstrance enclosed therein Nor indeed was it ever at any time before or after to this day expected by the Procuratour they would heartily or freely do any more because he knew very well in what hands the Government of that Order was or who were Provincials Definitors and Local Priors of their Province then and for many years puff and how unanimous they were all in the Nuncio's time and for him and his quarrel and ever since for the Censures and against any kind of peace with the Royal party only four or five excepted who yet had not the courage to mutter against the rest if not in private cornes Father Marke Rochford Oliver Darey Ioseph Langton Peter Nangle and because he know they gloried particularly and mightily in their however unfortunate unity therein having suffered no division amongst themselves but runn altogether one way for ought appeared so little did they consider that unity in evil is a curse from God and because he further knew certainly how they were touch'd to the very quick and took it to heart extreamly that any at all of theirs though but three only Father Scurlog Reynolds and Scully to whom since is added Father Clemens Birne had subscribed the Remonstrance and consequently saw themselves now in some degree begun to be divided In which judgment of them in general that it may be seen the Procuratour was not deceived but their violence made known to the end it may find some check hereafter I must not pass over in silence how they left no stone unremoved to vex the patience of those three or four subscribers and force them to a recantation exclaiming against them every where discountenancing them in every thing even against the rules not of their own Order only but of the common Canons of the Church and Christian charity also threatning to deprive them of active and passive voice in all elections and by actual instances thwarting in such Father Scurlog and Reynolds making one man of purpose to decline and vex them Priour of three Convents together at one time against the very Papal Canons cap. Vnum Abbatim 21. q. 1. ex Concilio Agathensi c. 57. Nay denying not licence only or a dispensation or indulgence to Reynolds in case of sickness to eat flesh but even an absolution of his sins on St. Dominicks eve because and only because he would not retract as it was in plain tearms told himself then and even by him that so denyed it his own local Prior in the City of Dublin And yet with more uncivil and barbarous usage to a Priest and from the chief Superiour Provincial in his visitation boxing an other on the face on that account only For they never did nor could taxe him nor any of those few other subscribers with any other kind of misdemeanour Finally removeing all such Friars to other Convents from being under the direction or command of Father Clement Prior of Newtown in Vlster of purpose or because he
compassing as yet any of his designs XXIII Likewise about the same time the R. R. Father in God Iohn Burk the Catholick Archbishop of Tuam very aged infirm and sickly and looked upon as not able to live one year longer came unexpectedly from St. Maloes and in my Lord Lieutenants absence arrived at Dublin privatly accompanied with father Thomas Quin the Jesuit and another of that Society in whose power and under whose directions this aged venerable Prelate wholy was The Procurator having done his first respects of visit to his Lordship desired to know his cause of venturing so confidently without acqainting first and having by some way addressed himself to my Lord Lieutenant and understood of some connivence for his return Minded him of the carriage and proceedings all along of the Clergy and especially of the Bishops of Waterford and Iames-stown That although his Lordship carried himself fairly and loyally in opposing the Nuncio even to his face at Galway and forced open the Church there which the Nuncio would have to observe his Interdict other Censures that he had sided all along with the Cessation supream Council at Kilkenny in that business and further too in concluding the second Peace yet he could not forget how he sullied all his former glory by his after unfortunate sitting and concurring at Iames-stown with other Bishops to those disloyal Declarations made there That he had not since by any publick or private application to His Majesty or Lord Lieutenant or by submission and repentance declared to either washed of the stain of that scandalous horrid transgression nor given any assurance of his more loyal carriage hereafter That yet both were of absolute necessity from a Prelate of highest rank such too as for example and for the satisfaction of God and men should be publick That he should therefore petition for himself and by his example induce the rest of the Irish Clergy to do the like and most humbly beg pardon for the time past and for the future sign that Remonstrance whereof to that end he had in France from London a sufficient account All which and much more to this purpose the Procurator humbly and earnestly minded him of even sometime in the presence of the above Father William Burgat Vicar General of Imly The good Archbishop heard him all out both attentively and patiently enough without sign of displeasure but return'd no other answer then That he was now so broken with age and many diseases of body that his mind also or understanding was no more of any kind of strength or capable to discern what he was to do in that or other things That he was for the matter dead already That he ventured this journey from France by Sea all along for otherwise he could not of purpose only to die and lye down at rest in his grave native soil That he would not have been to bold as to land at Dublin but that he supposed my Lord Lieutenant away thence in the Countrey at that time as it happened and that he might be carried away privatly to his own Province of Connaght without any further noise of his arrival or knowledge thereof given to my Lord Lieutenant And that being his Grace the Lord Lieutenant was now returned to Town he desired the Procurator should most humbly present his most submissive respects and make that true Apology for him of the design of his coming and desire of being connived at for so short a time as he had to drag a miserable life and end it by a death more welcome which he daily expected But the Procurator saw well enough that how infirm soever this good Archbishop was in body yet he had still sufficient apprehension and this excuse proceeded from the Fathers by whom he was led of late in all things perswading themselves his behaving himself so would give both countenance and authority enough amongst Catholicks not to themselves alone but to all others of the Clergy in denying or opposing a subscription which he had so declined That his name or extraction and his known affection sometimes formerly to the King and English Interest we 〈…〉 himself sufficiently of entertaining other scruples in that matter then those of religion and reverence to the See Apostolick And his quality of Archbishop and the only then of that Nation and Religion at home and the only moreover known to have formerly declared against the Nuncio would be a strong confirmation thereof at least might be a very probable excuse for all others of inferior degree until he had declared himself on the point All which and the use thereof notwithstanding the Procurator did well enough perceive and foresee yet he could not help having done his own duty But however advised this good Archbishop to retire as he did immediatly in a litter to Connaght where he remains ever since guided still by the same Fathers as wholly in their power The sequel whereof shall be seen hereafter in its proper place or second Part of this Narrative XXIV The Procurator therefore and by several other arguments seeing now certainly where the first obstruction to a further progress lay which should be removed and seeing that albeit the Fathers of the Society were but a very few in Ireland and most of them in or near Dublin yet their correspondency both at home and abroad especially at Rome was look't upon by most of the Pretendents in or Dependents of that Court and their own confidence withall in themselves was great partly because they had so dexterously behaved themselves in the Nuncio's quarrel that as they were perswaded much could not be objected to them on that account and partly for other causes and for that in particular of their extraction generally as for that also of some powerful Relations of some of them and albeit he saw well enough at the same time what influence the example of the Dublin Clergy in general both Parish-priests and Religious Orders of which Orders there he had only yet won the Franciscans and two of the Dominicans but none at all of the Augustinians Carmelits Cappuccins or Jesuits no more then he had none of the Parish-priests who were four or five and together with the said Regulars made fifty Priests or there abouts in that City albeit I say the Procurator saw well enough what influence the example of the Dublin Clergy in general would have upon the rest abroad in other parts of the Kingdom and that it would be to no great purpose but altogether vain to expect a concurrence from these if those had refused even there where the Lord Lieutenant and Council and Parliament sate and where notwithstanding the Dissenters had as much favour or freedom tolleration or connivence or whatever else you call it as the Subscribers and that on the other side the Dissenters had the advantage of the Subscribers at Rome and with the Generals of Orders beyond Seas of whose special favour
for the quarrel of God and for the defence of their Religion Nunc ergo O Filii aemulatores estate legis date animas vestras pro testamento Patrum vestrorum And cap. 13. we find vos scitis quanta ego fratres mei Domus patris mei fecimus pro legibus pro sanctis praelia I know the Author of the Book of the defence of the Remonstrance or Protestation saith that the Machabees made war through ignorance because they understood not their own law nor had the light of the law of Jesus Christ but he must give us leave not to believe him until he produceth some more warrantable authority then his bare word God having justified their war with miracles I have heard some say being pressed by this and other arguments that the wars of the Machabees were just not for that they fought for Gods cause or in defence of their Religion but because the true Prince retaineth his right alwayes and can recover his Kingdom again by force of arms if occasion serveth and he be able though his people be conquered and in a long and continued subjection to another King And therefore the Machabees had right to recover Iudea from the Gentile King and for this reason the war was just of their side But this evasion is a very slight one first because the Machabees are not praised for fighting for that cause but for their Religion Secondly because they had no right to the Crown of Iudea but the Progenitors of our Saviour Jesus Christ but they kept the command to themselves and never gave it to the right line of succession to the Crown among the Jews Besides none will presume to say that the wars of the late Earl of Tyrone against the Crown of England were just though his Ancestors were Kings of Ulster or Monarchs of Ireland What a probable opinion is and when a man may lawfully follow it Potest quis sequi tanquam probabilem opinionem unius doctoris probi docti maximé si adducat aliquam rationem intrinsicê probabilem et non sit contra opinionem communem Ita Sanches et undecimiali Non tamen si ab aliis Recentioribus valde famigeratis recitatur Ita Bresserus et alii Neque eo ipso quo invenitur impressa in aliquo Authore censeri potest probabilis .. Neque approbatio libri approbat omnes ejus opinniones Ita Marchantius et omnes alii communiter Let the Affirmative and the Negative of the above proposed question be be considered with the Reasons and Authors of both sides If they find reasons and authors according to what is laid down here concerning what is a probable opinion he may follow which part he pleaseth otherwise he cannot not follow it as a probable opinion XXVIII That forasmuch as in the Procuratour's Answers to their two or three former Queries they had had particularly cleerly his answer to this also that he found no new matter in this second paper but pitiful though replyes in effect which they can reasons for the affirmative yet such replyes as are grounded solely on the bare saying or opinion either of Pontius one of their own Society or of a confused rabble of such other Neoterick Schoolmen thronging together and treading in the stepps one of another like a flock of sheep without further serious ponderation of the nature of things in themselves or of those reasons would render such their saying intrinsecally probable or even extrinsecally from any decision or at least from any manifest determination obliging to submit unto nor found any thing more then either a full conviction of their not being conversant in those great Classick Authors Gerson Maior Almaine Johannes Parisiensis c. or the precedent or example of the Macchabees rebelling against Antiochus and the answer of the Procuratour to it in his little book entitled The More Ample Account this imperfectly related as ill considered and that worst of all applyed to maintain their affirmative resolve or a power in the Christian Church as purely such to inflict by force of Arms and by virtue of a Divine supernatural power corporal punishments upon any therefore and because too that none came ever after to own this second paper or demaund his rejoynder and moreover because themselves that sent it whoever they were did no longer insist upon it or any thing contain'd therein as shall be seen hereafter he lay'd it by as unsignificant for other purpose then to relate the folly of men that maugre all Christianity abuse themselves and others with such like silly and weak or false or only negative arguments For besides that if they had been pleased to consult Barclay the Father Son against Bellarmine and Widdrington's so many learned works against both the same Eminent Cardinal 's several books writt on this subject bearing either his own proper name or those of Tortus Sculkenius c as also against all the choycest arguments even of Cardinal Peron and so many others of the Society as Parsons and Gâ—etzer and fitz Herbert and Lessius personated under the name of Singleton or if they pleased to read what those other excellent Professors of Divinity of S. Benedicts Order Father Preston and Green apologized for themselves most learnedly to the Pope Gregory the XIIII they would have not only seen the vanity of their maxime of Statists or philosophers as here made use of or of Aristotle in particular so ill understood by them but that meaning of it or that the coercive power must be of the same kind with the directive to be that which was of a great number of most famous Classick Authors of the School besides that it was in all ages the doctrine of the Church and of even all the holy Fathers till Gregory the VII and that meaning also for what concerns our purpose deduced out of clear and evident Scriptures as those most famous Classick Authors perswaded themselves I say that besides all this if the authors of this Quaerie and second paper had considered a little their own allegations here and the arguments to the contrary they would find them partly false and partly unconcluding XXIX First they would find them false where they say that such as hold the negative can scarce produce one Classick Author c. and such as hold the affirmative may produce as many as ever wrote ex professo of this matter and if they mean only that Basilius Pontius sayes so they will find him too notoriously false if they please to consult Alensis Maior Gerson Almain Johannes Parisiensis c. not to speak a word of all or any of the holy Fathers nor of so many whole entire Vniversities nor of the common sense and practise of so many millions of the whole Catholick Church in all ages till Gregory the VII and after that believed and acknowledg'd themselves as a Church of Christ purely such to have no other coercion but
Green and Preston and last of all the most laborious and learned Latin Work In fol. of Father â—edmond Caron entituled Remonstrantia â—â—bernorum which is to be had in Dublin at Mr. Dancer the Booksellers in Castlestreet and which alone may serve for all the rest And then a Gods name such of them as pretend scruple in point of conscience if any of them do yet for I am perswaded certainly it is no more but a bare pretence and I know there are scarce any that alledge even such pretence or any thing at all of conscientiousness in the matter but meer temporal considerations let them determine as conscience not as worldly and mistaken interests shall direct them XXXVI Now to return whence I have so long digressed Soon after â—â—e said papers received and the former answered in writing as you have seen and the latter by word of mouth as you find here upon several occasions the Procurator being somewhat earnest with Father Shelton the then Superiour of the Society for his final resolution because some others of that very Society desired him to be so earnest alledging their own delayes was that only of knowing his resolution pro or con and promising they would themselves even in case of his denyal subscribe nevertheless immediatly Father Shelton having first convoked to Dublin from several parts such as he thought fit to consult with came at last to the Procurators Chamber and without further debate about the merits of the cause told him briefly and positively they would not subscribe that Form nor any other determining the main Question that is any disowning a power in the Pope to depose the King or absolve his Subjects from their allegiance in temporal affairs because said he this was a matter of right controverted 'twixt two great Princes Yet they would frame one of their own and such as became them to subscribe Upon which he departed But the Gentleman that accompanied him one of his own Society Father Iohn Talbot who had often before treated of the same matter and promised his own concurrence with several others of his Order whatever the Superiour did told the Procurator in his ear as they were parting that Father Shelton had not rightly delivered the result of the rest But nevertheless being soon after demanded the performance of his own former and free promise excused himself also until he had seen or known it was expected by my Lord Lieutenant himself that they should subscribe of that their subscription was required or desired by his Grace and not by the Procurator only Wherein desiring further to be satisfied the said Superiour Father Shelton and with him two more of the Society Father Thomas Quin and Father Iohn Talbot being called upon waited on his Grace having first sent to the Procurator their own Form or that which they would subscribe even this you have here The Jesuits first Remonstrance Declaration or Protestation of Allegiance AS we do acknowledge King Charles the Second to be our true and lawful King and rightful Soveraign of Ireland and all His Majesties Dominions So we confess our selves to be in conscience obliged to obey His Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs and notwithstanding diversity of Religion in Him and us We protest we are and during life shall be as loyal to his Majesty as any of his Subjects whatsoever and as either in Spain or France the Catholick Subjects are to their respective Kings and will be ready to detect and discover to His Majesty and to his Ministers whatsoever Treasons or Conspiracies shall come to our knowledge yea and expose if need be our lives in defence of his Majesties Person and Royal Authority and that by no Power on Earth whether Spiritual or Temporal we shall be moved to recede from any point of this our Allegiance and we further from our hearts detest for impious Doctrine and against the Rules of all Christianity to averr That any Subject can murther his Anointed King or Prince though of a different Faith and Religion and much more we abhorr as damnable the practice of that wicked assertion But being told by the Procurator it signified a meer nothing not even as much as a bare absolute or positive acknowledgment of the King to be King much less any thing of the cases controverted as that of the Popes pretended power to depose the King or even of his actual procedure to a deposition excommunication dispensation with or absolution of Subjects from their Allegiance whether he have such power or not they changed that their first Form and prepared this other which themselves delivered my Lord on the 4th of December 62. The Procurator being present and Father Quin speaking first as one formerly known to his Grace and one to that sign'd with seven other Catholick Divines of Dublin the lawfulness and tye upon Catholicks to resist the Irish Forces headed by the Nuncio when the Confederats rejected the peace of 46. and were drawn to besiege Dublin The tenor of their second form was this The Jesuits second Remonstrance Declaration or Protestation of Allegiance WE acknowledge His Majesty King Charles the Second to be our true and lawful King supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and all other His Majesties Dominions We acknowledge our selves bound in Conscience to obey his Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs and notwithstanding the diversity of Religion in Him and us we engage that during life we shall be as loyal to his Majesty as any of his Subjects whatsoever and as either in Spain or France the Catholick Subjects are or ought to be to their respective Kings and shall be ready to expose if occasion shall require our lives in defence of His Majesties Person and Royal Authority and no power on earth shall move us to recede from any point of this our Allegiance We shall be ready to detect and discover to his Majesty and his Ministers whatsoever Treasons or Conspiracies against his said Majesty shall come to our knowledge We detest from our very hearts that impious doctrine which averreth that any Subject can murther his anointed King or Prince though of different judgment in religion and we abhorr the damnable practice of that wicked assertion Their answer was then from his Grace that he would consider of it next morning That if it came short of the printed one as to the substance or sense they could expect no benefit thereby That it was in vain to use any distinctions or reservations That when he thought fit to act in this matter as the Kings Lieutenant he should not repute any person worthy of his Majesties protection that would not acknowledge the Royal Power independant from any but God alone That notwithstanding Father Quin insisted so much on the loyalty of his own Order in the late controversies and wars of Ireland yet he could not forget how the chief person of them Father Robert Nugent was a great Mathematician at Killkea when
the Nuntio came to besiege Dublin That he covld not understand why they declined a subscriptien to the Remonstrance signed presented to and received already at London by his Majesty whereas themselves now confess'd for they did so in his own presence it was very lawful and Catholick and could not be even as much as a venial sin for any to sign it That finally notwithstanding all he would not advise such wise men as they were what they had to do but knew what himself was to do which was to observe his own Masters directions And if they thought fitter to observe another Master that is him they called their General and is at Rome still to command or direct them what he please from the Pope they were to look to that and run the hazzard Wherefore and forasmuch too as within a few dayes more they understood by several wayes that his Grace having seriously considered of that second Form of theirs declared it in many points unsatisfactory they form'd yet a third adding somewhat more to the former but abstracting still both from any expression comprehending in terminis the Pope and from any likewise that might engage them not to decline the question or position of Right or that which asserts a power in the Pope or Church in some cases to depose the King and absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance being obstinately resolved to declare and engage only against matters of fact and this too with as many exceptions equivocations abstractions distinctions reservations as the words of this third Form would bear and the Divinity of their Casuists would allow The Jesuits third Remonstrance Declaration or Protestation of Allegiance WE the undernamed do acknowledge his Majesty King Charles the Second to be our true and lawful King supream Lord and right Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and all other his Majesties Dominions We acknowledge our selves bound in conscience to obey his Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs and notwithstanding the diversity of Religion in Him and us we engage our selves that during life we shall be as loyal to his Majesty as any of his Subjects whatsoever And we engage our selves to expose our Lives if occasion shall require in defence of his Majesties Person and royal Authority and that no sentence of deposition excommunication or any other censure whatsoever shall mâ—ve us to recede from any point of this our engagement of Allegiance and Duty We engage our selves to detect and discover to his Majesty and his Ministers whatsoever Treasons and Conspiracies against his Majesty or Governours shall come to our knowledge We detest from our hearts that impious doctrine which averreth that any Subject can murther or kill his anointed King or Prince though of a different judgement in Religion and we abhorr the damnable practice of that wicked assertion All which we swear religiously to observe according to the common and usual signification of the words without equivocation or mental reservation So help us God This third Form they offered and delivered my Lord by some friend of theirs within a few dayes after they had given the second by themselves But they found here also that his Grace understood English as well as themselves and that it was for some other purpose then that of a bare change or complement of words they strove so mightily to decline the printed Form of 61. being they would not in so many changes come near the material sense thereof notwithstanding they laboured so much to perswade others they never had any exception against the sense but against the words only as not being reverential enough because forsooth the Pope though only by this highest title of his office or dignity was express'd therein and because of the words disclaim and renounce which yet signified only as there a disclaim or renunciation of that ill grounded pretence of power in his Holiness to depose the King or licence his Subjects to take arms against Him But this exception against such words was found at last not to be The Exception but a real one indeed against the sense in whatever terms express'd XXXII The Fathers having found all their three several changes to no purpose one of them whom the Procurator esteemed still very much came to him and offered to change the fourth time their Form and express in particular the Pope so they were not required to meddle with the question of right But the Procurator answered they went too long already about the bush That if they mean'd really and conscientiously and sufficiently too as to the form of words to declare and oblige themselves as to matter of fact or in all contingencies whatsoever and notwithstanding any sentence of deposition deprivation suspension or excommunication against the King or his Liege-people and notwithstanding any other declaration whatsoever or dispensation with or absolution of the said people from their allegiance upon what pretext soever civil or religions temporal or spiritual to continue alwaies true and loyal Subjects to him who is now their King to Charles the Second and to his lawful Heirs and Successors they should not scruple neither in point of conscience or worldly interest to disclaim and renounce in plain express terms any such pretended power in the Pope That for what belong'd to conscience nothing was clearer then that they had the same warrant to renounce the power which they had to renounce obedience to it in all kind of contingencies whatsoever because it is impossible there should be a power in the Pope to command them and they in no case bound to take notice of or obey it For as it is a maxime that Frustra est potentia quae non reduciter ad actum so it is another maxime that Frustra est potentia mandandi si non sit obligatio parendi There can be no act of a commanding power but vain if there be no case wherein it is to be obeyed That for matter of interest or worldly regard of favour or disfavour they might be sure it would be the same thing at Rome to renounce that power and to renounce all obedience to it for ever nay the latter a farr greater guilt before God and man if the Romans or others understood the Fathers scrupled at the former and swallowed the latter because the latter without a persuasion of the former cannot be less then folly or sacriledge whether the swearers intend to perform or not That Bellarmine himself their own great Patron tells them so much in his Writings against Widdrington where he disputes against the Oath of Allegiance and proves enough to this purpose though very little to his own but however concludes truly that 't is impossible a man should swear without sacriledge that notwithstanding any excommunication or other sentence from the Pope against the King or his people he would alwayes continue a loyal Subject to the King in opposition to the Popes commands and yet not be perswaded at the same time the Pope
to concurr unto and obey Hereupon presently without further debate for none at all scrâ—â—◠〈◊〉 the catholickness or lawfulness such scruples having been sufficiently 〈◊〉 before clear'd amongst all persons of reason and conscience as many as were at that meeting and had not subscribed at London put their hands to a clean copy of that which was before signed by the Nobility and Gentry at London and others that could not be present then subscribed in their Chambers Both these and those in all were eight Lords and twenty three Esquires Collonels and Gentlemen The Earl of Clanrickard The Earl of Castle haven The Lord of Gormanstown The Lord of Slane The Lord of Athenry The Lord of Brittas The Lord of Galmâ—y Henry Barnawel now Lord of Kingsland Sir Andrew Aylmer Sir Thomas Esmond Sir Richard Barnawel Philip fitz Gerrald Nicholas Darcy Francis Barnawal Sir Henry O Neale Nicholas White George Barnawal Richard Beling W. Talbot Iohn Walsh Michael Dormer Iohn Bellew of Wellistown Patrick Netervil Robert Netervil Charles White Coll. Walter Butler Coll. Thomas Bagnel Gerrald fitz Symons Robert Devoreux Coll. Iames Walsh Edmond Walsh Gerrald Fennel And being joyned to the London Subscribers of the Irish Nobility and Gentry they make in aâ— one hundred and twenty one whereof one and twenty Earls Viscounts and Barons XLIV But these Noblemen not thinking they had by their own only subscriptions done enough in this matter unles they had invited the rest of the Peers and Gentry of their communion where-ever in the Countrey abroad throughout Ireland to the like loyal concurrence framed the ensuing Letter and signed two and thirty copies of it one for every County in the Kingdom to get all the hands of the rest of the Catholick Noblemen and Gentlemen where-ever to the said Remonstrance Sirs THe desires we have to serve our King Countrey and Religion in all just ways gives you the trouble of this Letter Which is to let you know That after serious deliberation finding our selves and together with us all others of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom as well as the Clergy of it obliged by all the rules of Reason and tyes of Conscience in the present conjuncture especially to concurr even by subscription to the late Remonstrance and Protestation presented Last Summer to his Majesty by such of our Irish Roman Catholick Noblemen and Gentlemen as were then at London and subscribed it there and received so graciously by Him We have therefore this last week given a beginning here at Dublin to that concurrence by our own manual Subscriptions also to the same Remonstrance prefixing to it a Petition to His Grace the Duke of Ormonde Lord Lieutenant for â—iâ—veighâ—ng our said Concurrence and representing it to His Majesty That reflecting on the unsignificancy of a few hands or subscriptions for attaining those great and good ends â—e drive at by this loyal and Religious Declaration we thought it concerned as further to invite by special Letters all the rest of the Nobility and Gentry of our Communion in the several Provinces and Counties of this Kingdom to the like Subscriptions to be transmitted to us hither without delay Whereunto we have found our selves the rather bound that we certainly know it is expected from us all by his Majesty and by the Lord Lieutenant and that his Grace doth wonder why the example of the first Subscribers at London hath not been here at home more readily and frequently followed hitherto by the rest who are no less concerned And that we know moreover that by the neglect or delay this twelve months past of a more general Concurrence to a duty so expedient and necessary we have let pass already fair opportunities to reap very many advantages by it That we hope the same prudential Christian Catholick and obvious reasons which perswaded us and such others as before us did give the first example from London will prevail with you no less Being they import as much as the clearing of our holy Religion from the scandal of the most unholy tenets or positions that can be taught written or practised the assuring his Majesty evermore of our loyal thoughts hearts and hands for Him in all contingencies whatsoever and the opening a door to our own liberty and ease hereafter from the rigorous laws and penalties under which our selves and our Predecessors before us in this Kingdom of Ireland as other our fellow Subjects of the Roman Communion in England and Scotland have sadly groaned these last hundred years That as we believe you will not think we would for even these very same ends how great and good soever nor for any other imaginable swerve in the least title from the true pure unfeigned profession of the Roman Catholick Faith nor from the reverence or obedience due unto his Holiness the Bishop of Rome or the Catholick Church in general so we believe also you will rest satisfied with the plain evidence of the very words genuine sense total contexture and final scope of this Protestation and of every entire clause thereof that nothing therein no part nor the whole of it denies 〈◊〉 indeed at all reflects on the spiritual jurisdiction authority or power of either Pope or Church or any power whatsoever which we you or any other Catholicks in the world are bound by any law divine or humane or by the maximes of our known and common Faith or by the condition of our Communion to assert own or acknowledge the whole tenour of it asserting only the supream temporal power in the Prince to be independent from any but God alone and the subjection and allegiance or the fidelity and obedience either active or passive due to Him in temporal affairs to be indispensable by any power on earth either temporal or spiritual That finally we do upon consideration of all the premisses and what else your own reasons may deduce thence and give further as additional arguments very earnestly desire and pray your unanimous cheerfull and speedy subscriptions to the said Remonstrance and Protestation which we have sent along with this Letter and by the hands of whom we have likewise prayed to call such of you together as he may conveniently or go about to your several dwellings for that end And if any chance to refuse the signing of it which we hope none will to bring us a true list and exact account of such together with the signatures of the rest that the multitude may not lye under prejudices for the failing of some Which being all we have to trouble you with at present commending you to God we bid you heartily farewell Dublin this 4th of March 1662. Your very loving friends and humble Servants Castlehaven Audley Clancartie Carlingford Mountgaret Bryttas Clanrickarde Fingall Tirconnell Galmoye Slane XLV And questionless if these copies had been sent then as was design'd there had been all the hands of the Nobility and Gentry in the Kingdome to the Remonstrance before
six months were over and the Clergie had been ashamed of their own obstinacy and no less confounded at their own scarce credible inconsiderancy But it pleased God to dispose affaires so that His Grace the Lord Lieutenant albeit otherwise very desirous to see these letters take effect as he was timely acquainted with the drawing and signing of them yet as they were ready to be dispatch'd to the several Counties and most of them too by Noblemen considering the dangerous plot then in hand amongst those disloyal Fanaticks who were to seize the Castle of Dublin and thinking prudently that if any papers whatsoever were carried about at that time by the Catholicks for getting hands or subscriptions those wicked plotters and their party would misinterpret them and pretend thereby a plott or some dangerous conspiracy a preparing amongst the Papists whereby to excuse the better themselves for meeting frequently in armed troups by day or night and considering moreover what influence the Irish Clergie had in the late warrs on the Layety of their communion yea notwithstanding any former Oath and that the same might be again unless the Clergie themselves had subscribed His Grace was pleased for these reasons to countermand for that time and suspend ever since the sending about of those letters expecting it might be done more seasonably when the Clergie had signed first and questionless too expecting the Clergie would sign as soon as their pretence of not dareing to meet by Representatives in a general Congregation were layed aside though it happen'd otherwise as will appear in the second Part of this first Treatise XLVI However the Catholick Gentry or old proprietours of the County of Wexford and few survivours of the Cittizens of that Town expected no such invitation by letters from the Noblemen but without any other then that they had gathered out of The More Ample Account and their own reason having framed for themselves a suitable both Petition to the Lord Lieutenant and preamble to His Majesty subscribed the Remonstrance with about two hundred hands for they wanted only three of that number and sent it His Grace by Mr. William Stafford of Lambstown who took great pains in this business Which Instrument of theirs I would not omit to insert here at length as an eternal monument of their honest loyal hearts however they have been abused in the late warrs by some of their spiritual leaders though perhaps that too more out of ignorance and blind zeal then any malice and whatever or how sad soever their condition above most other Counties be ever since as it was then when they signed so freely of themselves yea notwithstanding the contrary endeavours used by some Clergiemen especially two Fathers of the Society to disswade them Whether those Fathers behaved themselves so undiscreetly out of any disaffection to the King or rather out of mistaken Religion and prepossession by such foolish arguments as they had learned in their own Schools or by reading Bellarmine Suamz or such other by ass'd writers or whether by special command or direction of their Superiours I knew not To His Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General an General Governour of Ireland The Humble Petition of the Subscribers MOst humbly sheweth that they come with the same alacrity and cheerfulness to present to your Grace the ensueing Remonstrance and Protestation which some of their fellow Subjects of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom not long since humbly laid at His Majecties Feet Who was graciously pleased to accept thereof And they with the same zeal acknowledging themselves to be bound in the same duty and indispensable tyes of obedience to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors in all temporal matters do humbly beseech your Grace that this their most hearty concurrence to the same faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance may be made the more acceptable by your Graces conveyance thereof to His Majesty And they shall pray c. To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Gentry of the County of Ireland WHereas a considerable part of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland by the name of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland presented to your most Excellent Majesty a sincere Protestation and humble Remonstrance intituled the faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland for divers substantial and solid reasons in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance ingenuously and conscientiously expressed and set forth Now we the said Roman Catholick Gentry of the said County of Wexford whose names are hereunto subscribed being members of the said Roman Catholick Gentry of Ireland being bound in Conscience and duty to own the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance as well as our Countreymen first subscribing thereunto for the motives in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance expressed and in imitation of our said Countreymen and to avoid all jealousies and misopinions which may be concieved of our selves and of our Religion and feareing least we may be thought to vary from the said first Subscribers in doctrine in Religion or Religious Tenets do sincerely and truly without Equivocation or mental reservation in the sight of God and in the presence of your Majesty Acknowledg and confess your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other your Majesties Dominions and therefore we acknowledg and confess our selves to be obliged under pain of sin to obey your Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs as much as any other of your Majesties Subjects and as the laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands and that notwithstanding any power or pretention of the Pope or Sea of Rome or any sentence or Declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessours or Successours or by any authority spiritual or temporal proceeding or derived from him or his Sea against your Majesty or Royal Authority we will still acknowledge and perform to the utmost of our abilities our faithful loyalty and true Allegiance to your Majesty And we openly disclaim and renounce all forraign power be it either Papal or Princely spiritual or temporal or us much as is may seem able or shall pretend to free discharge or absolve us from this Obligation or shall any way give us leave or licence to raise tumults bear Arms or offer any violence to your Majesties Person Royal Authority or to the State or Government being all of us ready not only to discover and make known to your Majesty or to your Ministers all the Treasons made against your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to loose our lives in the defence of your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all conspiracies and attempts against
justice or such dispensation may be given without manifest injury to a third and besides where it is not repugnant to the law of God positive or natural And all this binding and loosing power in the Pope even in the whole Execution of it according to the Canons of the Vniversal Church and as farre as these Canons allow it as it is and will be religiously acknowledged and observed still by the Subscribers in all occasions so it is left wholly untouch'd unspoken of unmedled with but supposed still by the Remonstrance as a most Sacred Right not to be controverted much less denyed the Pope by any Catholick nor even to other Bishops of the Church for the portion belonging to them by the self same Canons But what hath this to do with the Lovain pretence of a power in the Pope to bind people by the Popes own peculiar laws Canons precepts or censures by Bulls or otherwise to do that which according to plain Scriptures practise of the primitive Church and Churches following for XI entire ages and according to the interpretation or sense delivered by Holy Fathers of those very Scriptures and according to the very first and clearest reflections also of natural reason must be vitious wicked and even most enormously wicked transgressions of those laws of God wherein neither Pope nor Vniversal Church have any power to dispense what to do with a pretended power in any to absolve from Subjection or command the Rebellion of Subjects against Soveraign Princes who are accountable to none for their temporals but to God Or what to do with binding or loosing to the prejudice and manifest injury not of one third person alone but of so many millions of third persons as there are people in a Kingdom or State This loosing is not of sin or of the penalties of sin but of virtue of Christian duties and divine injunctions Nor is such binding a binding to Holy righteousness but to Horrible depravedness And therefore both such binding and such loosing must be from no true power Divine or Humane from no Gospel of Jesus Christ or Canons of the Catholick Church nor from those Holy Keyes of knowledge or jurisdiction given St. Peter to open Heaven to penitents or shut it to impenitents nor from any Keyes at all but very false and errant Keyes if not right or true Keyes in this sense and to this purpose only that they set open the Gates of Hell first to receive all such unhappy Soules as make use of them and then to lock them in for ever Yet now that the Pope is and while he is or shall be continued a Soveraign temporal Prince in some part of Italy for the time hath been for many ages of Christianity even since Christian Religion was by law established when the Pope had no such not only Soveraign or supream but not even any inferiour subordinate temporal Princely power and may be so again for ought any man knows the Subscribers will freely grant the Lovain Divines That upon just grounds when truely such are or shall be the Pope may in the capacity of a temporal Prince but not of a Christian Bishop and may I say without any breach of the law of God declare and make Warr against the King of England always provided that he observe in all particulars what the law of God Nations and Nature require from him in the declaration or prosecution thereof And may do so with as much right as any other Soveraign Prince meerly temporal can but with no more certainly And further that the grounds of warr may possibly or in some extraordinary case be such on the Popes side as not only in the unerrable judgement of God but in the opinion of all men that shall know the grounds of both sides truely and sincerely stated the Warr may be just on the Popes side and unjust on the Kings The Subscribers do freely grant the Lovain Divines all this and all the advantages they can derive hence But what then must it follow that the subscribers have therefore sacrilegiously or against the sincerity of Catholick Religion declared in general or promised in their Remonstrance that they are ready to stand by the King and loose their lives in defence of his Person Rights or Crown or of his Kingdom State and people against all invaders whatsoever Papal or Princely spiritual or temporal c. forraign or domestick Or must this follow albeit we grant also the said promise or Declaration of standing so by the King to extend it self to or comprehend that very extraordinary case or contingency of our certain evident knowledg of the injustice of the Warr on the Kings side and clear Justice on the Popes Certainly neither the one nor other follows For albeit the case or supposition be rather metaphysically then morally possible that the generality of Subjects of either of the Princes or States in Warr together may evidently know or certainly assure themselves of the cleer Justice of the affailants fide at least so as to have no such kind of probability of any Justice on the defendants part and forasmuch as he is a Defendant yet admitting the case were morally possible who knows not that natural reason tells us and Divines and Lawyers teach that however the Prince both rashly and unjustly brings a Warr on himself and people yet both he and they are bound to hazard their lives each for others mutual defence that is for the defence of the Crown Kingdom State and Republick and for the lives liberties goods and fortunes of all that compose it though not for defence of any rashness or injustice So that although it be granted that both Prince and people are to quit all kind of unjust pretences yet their own natural defence or that of their goods lives and liberties as it comes not under that notion so it is unseparable from their taking armes in their own mutual defence in a meere defensive Warr or even that which happens after to be offensive before a good or Just peace can be obtained and is so I mean unseparable notwithstanding any injustice whatsoever done at first by Prince or people that brought the Warr upon themselves Be it therefore so that the Pope in such temporal capacity would make Warr on the King of England and be it granted for the present what otherwise in it self is very doubtful at least if not manifestly false That for the only unjust laws or only unjust execution of such or only other misgovernment or oppressions whatsoever of one King or Prince of his own proper natural undoubted Subjects without any injury done thereby to forraigners or any other forraign Kings Subjects or Prince or State such forraign Monarch or Common-wealth may justly declare and make Warr against him as for example the French or Spanish King and by the same reason the Pope also in his said temporal capacity against the King of England and be it clear and evident likewise that the
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
however apprehended by us to be so Now for the Lovaine Divines to say that to assert or acknowledge either of these two kinds of obedience or both as due by the law of God to the supream temporal Prince is as much as to deny the Popes or other Bishops or Priests either binding or loosing power which yet the Catholick Church never yet believed to be other then a purely spiritual power and to have no other then purely spiritual effects and a purely spiritual execution or means of execution and no corporal temporal or civil coercion or power of such coercion annexed if not that only which is added at some times and some places by the free pleasure of the supream civil Magistrate and by his proper Power and laws and is taken away again at his pleasure I say that for the Lovaine Divines to ground their Censure of sacriledge or unsincerity of Catholick Faith upon so unconsequent a supposition as if either such active or passive obedience or both together acknowledged by the Remonstrance did inferr the denyal of a binding or loosing power of the Church is to ground a very false and most injurious and erroneous Position upon a no less false and heretical supposition and is further to conclude them either bad Logicians or bad Theologians if not both For to object here that out of such active and passive obedience of Catholick Subjects notwithstanding the Popes excommunication to the contrary and out of their taking arms to defend their protestant King and his protestant Subjects as well as themselves in their lives and fortunes and out of his great power by Land and by Sea against the supposed invasion of a Catholick Army and from Catholick Princes the Pope himself being head of the Ligue must follow that if our King and his army prevail the Protestant Religion will be more and more established by him and perhaps too propagated into Catholick Countryes if he should make his Assailants a return by carrying the Warr back to their own doors or sending a formidable victorious Fleet of English Protestants to Civita Vecchia and consequently an apparant danger of destroying both Pope and Church and Religion at least amongst millions of people All which being evils of the first magnitude that whence they follow must be such I say that to object such conditional contingencies of extraordinary evils or possibilities to hinder an ordinary virtuous duty and of such evils too as have no connexion at all by nature or by design with such duty becomes very ill such Masters in Israel as the Doctors of Lovain For as it is an approved maxime in Divinity That evil is not to be done for any good that may thence arise though such good were foreseen to follow most certainly and without any kind of doubt so is it a no less approved maxime That duties enjoyned by the laws of God and man are not to be omitted and the quite contrary acted for fear of evils which by an extraordinary chance the malice or ignorance or other passion soever of other unjust men may thence derive and the anger of a just God may permit to be thence derived But if the Lovaine Doctors will deny the above active and passive obedience of Catholicks to be vertuous duties in the case and give no other reason then such as we have seen as indeed they do not for ought I saw or know and am very positive they cannot and if upon so weak a ground they have fram'd a Censure so erroneous and injurious both as they have most certainly then I have no more to say to this ground which is their second but that they have carryed themselves more prudentially in suppressing it so soon then conscientiously in alleadging it at any time LV. As for that alledged in the third place or as a third ground of the Censure I must confess I have not admiration enough to consider that men not only Doctors of Lovaine but Divines of a much inferiour degree whether of Lovaine or any other place esteemed either wise or honest should appear so weak or so malicious or both as to alledge it for a ground of any Censure at all and much more of one so severe Good God! Because the Remonstrance declares the Subscribers ready to discover any treason plot or conspiracy against his Majesties person c. that shall come to their hearing and yet not as much as promises that they will discover c. but only their being ready the Doctors of Lovaine must censure it as both sacrilegious and containing somewhat against the sincerity of Catholick Faith On precence forsooth that in relation to Confessors and Priests that hear confessions and subscrib'd or shall subscribe it it in some cases binds them to reveal secret sins heard only in the confessional seat and reveal such I mean without any licence from the penitent that confesseth such in that so holy secret and sacramental Consistory How much better had it become Doctors of Divinity and of so grave and judicious a Faculty as that of Lovaine should be to consider LVI 1. That all kind of Oathes of Allegiance or Fidelity in what form soever and to whom soever have alwayes either formally or virtually and for the most part even formally or in express words engaged the Swearer as indeed all such Oathes should to reveal all treasons plots conspiracies against the life estate or dignity of him to whom or for whom such Oathes were made And yet such expression was never interpreted in any age or Countrey by any Divines until of late by those byassed ill grounded Writers against the English Oath of Allegiance in King James's Statute to extend by any rational consequence to any kind of the least imaginable either direct or indirect breach of that which is now commonly called the Seal of Sacramental Confession Or which in effect is the same thing to extend to the revelation of the sin of such an individual penitent without his own leave as of such a penitent individually or determinatly or of him even as of one inderminatly of such or such a Society or body or corporation whatsoever nay or as of him too as of one of such a Countrey if I mean by such revelation how indeterminat soever as to the individual person yet sufficiently determinat as to the Society or Countrey any prejudice might arise to any such Corporation or Nation Suarez l 6. Defens Fidei Cathol contra Reg. Ang. de forma Iuram Fidel. cap. 3. though not to the individual person of the penitent For never yet amongst Christians where sacramental auricular confession is or was in use hath the knowledge had by the Confessor in that secret penitential Court been esteemed to fall under the general expression or notion of knowledge or of our knowledge as to any use to be made thereof out of the confessional Seat but what the penitent is expresly consenting unto Nor hath any Priest or Bishop whereof thousands upon
deposed from the sacaerdotal office but also thrust into a strict monastery to do perpetual pennance But nothing is concluded hence or may be against our case but on the contrary much for it as I mean to a lawful discovery of the sin or treason if such it be without discovering the sin or him that in his confession tells that intended treason For it licences the Confessors to consult in some cases with others telling them of the sins without revealing the sinner But for the rest it reflects not at all on the case of the Confessors discovery of an evil intended or plotted by others that never confess'd unto him such evil or such plot albeit the confessor knew it by or in the Sacramental confession of one of the very plotters or of some other that had no further hand in it then that of baâ—e knowledg Much less doth this Canon any way touch the case of a only seeming confitent or of such as is wickedly obstinately still impenitent however discovering such conspiracy in the confessional Seat And as little doth it say that either this kind of confession is any way Sacramental or the Seal or Obligation to keep it secret more then what is meerly natural or would be in case the party told it without any seeming formalities of a seeming Sacramental though truly known to the Confessor to be a very unsacramental confession Besides who knows not the general doctrine of Catholick Divines in relation to the Canons of the Church as such Canons only That they never bind nor intend to bind nor indeed can bind any not even I mean where they are received as this Canon is generally and ought to be not even where they seem in express words to come home to the case all the particular circumstances of it as this Canon doth not in any respect that I say such Canons neither do nor can bind any against the Law of God positive or natural Nay which is more that as barely such or as Canons of the Church only they bind not the faithful to observance where and when the observer must thereby suffer of loss of life or limb or estate or liberty or any other notable great and heavy inconvenience or evil which may be declined by the non observance of them For it is a known maxime of Divines in such cases that the Church is a pious indulgent mother But would she be so or not rather appear a cruel step-mother if she were supposed to make a Canon for concealing the intended ruine of King and Countrey and of an infinite number of Innocents nay and of her self too as may be well supposed in the case and concealing this also when the discovery so made by a confessor might prevent the whole mischief It s cruelty and inhumanity and want of piety and charity and religion and learning and reason too that would make any think she would be so impious And secondly what they can alleadg is That by the divine law natural as t is called by them for positive law divine they have none nor pretend any from Scripture or Tradition all Confessors must so behave themselves towards their penitents or confitents too let them say if they please as not to render the Sacrament of pennance odious And that a lawfulness once allowed in any case for the Confessor to reveal a thing or matter whatever it be told him in the confessional Seat and to reveal it I mean without his consent would render this holy Rite very odious and give occasion to many sinners not to declare their sins entirely but wholly to estrange themselves from confession for ever But if this argument concluded any thing to the purpose it would also conclude that Confessors must not discharg the duty they are confessedly and without contradiction of any side bound unto by all the laws of Reason and by all the Canons of the Fathers They would not enjoyn so many restitutions of lands and goods and same so extreamly grievous very often to penitents Nor would enjoyn so many other heavy pennances either medicinal or satisfactory no less painful then shameful too in many cases And who can deny but such injunctions render confession odious to nature Nay who can deny but the very duty it self of bare confession as it is prescribed by the Canons and Councils of the Church and by all Divines of the Roman Communion taught as necessary and as it is required to be exactly of all particular mortal sins of word deed or even inward consent alone and both of their number as farre as one can remember or conjecture after sufficient examination and of all kind of circumstances too that change the species as they speak must be very odious to nature especially when the sins are unnatural or shameful But if it be answered that such is the duty of the Confessor enjoyn'd him by the positive laws of the Church and by those natural laws also of Reason being he is Judge in that holy tribunal in the place of God and that such too is the doctrine of the Church and Catholick Faith where no liberty is left to Divines for teaching otherwise even so I answer to this allegation or objection of the Sacrament of confession to be rendred odious if the Confessor may be free in any case to make use of notices had therein without the Confitents permission It may indeed render it odious in such a case But to whom To a wicked impenitent or to a most unreasonable man To none truly rational and penitent to no such person making a true Sacramental confession or to none that is resolved at any time to confess holily will the confessors discharging his own duty render such a holy confession odious A duty whereunto and whereby in such case he is bound even by all the very laws of God as well positive as natural as may be easily demonstrated if at any time reqvired to hinder and prevent timely even by such a revelation such deplorable general and otherwise irremediable evils as would in all kind of moral certainty follow his not revealing the design communicated so in confession and let us always suppose the confitents denyal of consent to such revelation Though as I have noted before such denyal can hardly if at all be supposed in a true penitential confitent or in a true Sacramental confession unless we suppose withal the penitent to be some strange meer natural blockhead that is not capable of understanding his own obligation in such a case or the ghostly Fathers instructions in it Which yet is very like an impossible supposition 6. That our Masters of Lovain will find it a very hard if not absolutely impossible task To perswade a knowing pious man that either any dictate of natural reason or any ordinance of human Canons much less any article of Christian Faith or Catholick Religion hetherto delivered us either formally or virtually by Scripture or by tradition tye Confessors I
opinion or rather certain and true judgment of such a power in the Emperour as properly and essentially belonging to his Imperial office it was that the orthodox Bishops of Syria writ also to the same Emperour Leo for punishing by his own Imperial power according to the laws of the civil Commonwealth Timotheus Elucus Bishop or Patriarch of Alexandria as by the same laws and against both the same laws and Princes too being guilty of various crimes but in particular of adultery and murder De delictis autem say they post Câ—ncil Chalced. praesumptionibus quas nefandê commisit Reipublicae legibus corum praesulibus judicio competenti subdetur Where you see a meer secular judgment called or said to be a competent judgment of criminal Bishops And indeed that the banishment of the said Timotheus which soon after followed by the decree of this Emperour Liberat. Brevi c. 13. proceeded onely from his own proper Imperial power not from any Church power or from any commission or delegation from the Church we may gather sufficiently out of the 100. epist of the above S. Leo the Pope wherein he writes thus to Gennadius Dilectio tua eniti elaborare debit ne redeundi integram capiat libertatem de quo jam Edictis suis Princeps Christianissimus judicavit Finally pursuant to the same knowledg of the Imperial power and authority from God for judging and sentencing the criminal causes and inflicting corporal punishments in such criminal causes and on such Clergymen as were found guilty Pope Simplicius epist 9. 11. beseecheth the Emperour Zeno Vt quod per nos sayes he Ecclesia seriò postulat imô quod ipsi specialiùs supplicamus Petrum Alexandrinae Ecclesiae pervasorem ad exteriora transferri piissima praeceptione jubeatis But to leave this judgment of Popes or other Bishops of the power and authority Royal in the case which Judgment as such of the power is not the proper and primary subject of this section or at least of this part of it and to return to matter of fact onely and this of the Princes themselves acting by particular Instances The next Prince I offer to the Readers consideration is Theodoricus King of Italy For this Prince albeit an Arrian as to his beleef of the Trinity of persons or Divinity of Jesus Christ yet in all other points of Christian religion and in his veneration and observance of the Church and Churchmen and of their priviledges and exemptions in general and this without any distinction of Arrians or not Arrians he was precise wary and strict enough nor is there any reprehension or complaint of him in History as not being so And yet he is recorded to have admitted of and discussed the accusations drawn and presented to him by the very Catholicks themselves both Layety and Clergye against Pope Symmachus Of which matter Anastasius Bibliothecarius writes thus in Symmacho Post annos vero quattuor aliqui ex clero zelo ducti aliqui ex Senatu maximè Festus Prâ—binus insimulaverunt Symmachum subornarunt falsos testes quos miserunt Ravennam ad Regem Theodoricum accusantes beatum Symmachum occultè revocarunt Laurentium post libellum Romae factum fecerunt Schysma divisus est iterum Clerus nam alij communicaverunt Symmacho alij Laurentio Tunc Festus Probinus Senatores miserunt relationem Regi caeperunt agere ut visitatorem daret Rex Sedi Apostolieae quod canones prohibent And albeit upon debate this King at last remitted this cause of Symmachus to a Council of Bishops and that by the same King's licence several Councils of Bishops convened at Rome to sift it throughly which Councils I have amongst others and upon an other occasion quoted in the marginal note of my introduction to this first Treatise pag. 1. yet no man can deny that he admitted the accusations and thereupon and as judg of them and of the whole cause exercised several judiciary acts as having a legal power or Christian authority to do so Nor did Symmachus except or resist nor did any for him or in his behalf or in behalf of the Church or of Ecclesiastical Immunity reprehend Theodorick for doing so Nay we have seen before in this Treatise Sec ... this very Symmachus himself openly professing that he himself would yield to God in the Emperour's person to wit by obeying him in humane things as we saw him desiring on the other side that the Emperour should likewise revere God in the person of the Pontiff doubtless for what concern'd spiritual or divine matters The Catholick Emperour Justinus proceeded yet more imperially in the criminal cause of Dorotheus Bishop of Thessalonica For this Bishop being accused of sedition and of several murders too and particularly of the murder of Iohn who was one of the Legats of the See Apostolick and the rest of the Apostolick Legats being his accusers before the Emperour and being so also by express command from Hormisda the Pope whose Legats they were and he too that was murdered and this Pope himself pressing hard that the said Bishop Dorotheus the supposed murderer of his Legat should either be deposed by the Emperour from his Bishoprick and sent to banishment farr from his place or See and Church or certainly be sent to Rome with all fit prosecution of his cause Iustin indeed proceeded to a judicial tryal and sentence of the criminal Bishop but with so much regard of his own imperial power in the case that he neither did the one nor the other which Hormisda so earnestly pressed for Of all which the Suggestions amongst and after the epistles of Hormisda and these epistles themselves particularly the Suggestion which is after the 56. epist and the second Suggestion after the 64. epist and the 57. epistle in it self may be read Promittit say the Legats writing to the Pope Sancta Clementia for so they stile the Emperour vindicare citare Dorotheum quia nos contestati sumus pietatem ejus c. And Hormisda himself the Pope epist 57. writing to the said Legats Nam eumdem Dorotheum sayes he Constantinopolim jussu Principis didicimus evocatum adversus quem Domino filio nostro Clementissimo Principi debetis insistere ne ad eamdem civitatem denuo revertâ—tur sed Episcopatus quem numquam bene gessit honore deposito ab eodem loco ac Ecclesia longius relegetur vel certè huc ad urbem sub prosecutione congrua dirigatur But wherefore doth not this Pope command his Legats to insist upon the delivering of such a criminal a criminal Bishop into their own proper custody hands and power to proceed against him to judg and punish him as they shall find cause being they alone and not the Emperour were his competent Judges in the case if we believe our Bellarminians and Baronius wherefore do not these Legats wherefore doth not this Pope himself being denied what he desired fulminat excommunications against Iustine
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
where in the last place I dispute from Sect. lxi to this present lxxvi so clearly and prolixly against their fourth I have subverted by a most evident consequence all the very Fundamentals and not only the Superstructures of such a jus divinum in the Pope and not in the Pope only but in the universal Church as a Church which is yet far more than to subvert it in the Pope to depose Kings from their meer Temporal power And that whatever may be thought of my Disputes Sect. liv against their said second pretence of the binding and loosing power c. That is whether or no I have long and largely enough treated that matter in that place to clear all kind of Objections might be made in order to such a jus divinum in Pope or Church though I acknowledge none could be made with any reason yet I am sure if there was any such defect there I have elsewhere abundantly in effect compensated it in my prolix Disputes for sixteen Sections viz. from lxi to lxxvi against their fourth ground Where by so many unanswerable Arguments especially in Sect. lxxii and lxxiii I demonstrate the subjection de jure divino of all Clergymen whatsoever or whosoever and of the very Apostles themselves and by consequence of both Pope and universal Church as a pure Church to the Supreme Temporal power in Temporal matters For if de jure divino they were all both Pope and Church as such subjected entirely as at least to passive obedience in all Temporal matters to the Temporal powers respectively in the several Kingdoms or States Politick whether Christian or not Christian Catholick or not Catholick must it not follow evidently That there is no power de jure divino in either Pope or Church as purely such to depose Temporal Princes from their Temporal power Surely the inferiour wherein he is inferiour hath not power over his Superiour And if the very first glimmers of natural Reason doth not evidence this I know not what natural Reason is And if also the Arguments I have given Treating against the said fourth ground at large for the Affirmative that is for the subjection of Pope and Church as such in meer Temporals to the Supreme Temporal power of earthly and Lay Princes when and where the Princes are Lay-men or if the Solutions I have likewise given so at large to the Arguments for the contrary where I proceeded in a negative way denying the positions of Bellarmine if I say both my said Arguments and Answers be not clear and strong enough in the principles of both Reason and Christianity to maintain and prove all along That my very main purpose of a jus divinum to be for the subjection of both Pope and Church as such in meer Temporal matters to the Supreme Temporal Princes or States in the respective Kingdoms or Common-wealths of the world I confess my own ignorance of what is Reason or Christianity in any such or other matter soever Having so put a final period to all my Answers to the said four grounds of the Louain Censure of our Remonstrance what more according to my further promise or purpose in my lxxi Section must be the Subject of this present Section is first what ought to be consequent some brief reflections on the Censure it self and next the Conclusion which naturally must follow such reflections Concerning the former and seeing the Censure is in these words as you also may see by reading it over again Sect. xlvii or in page 102. of this same first Treatise and first part Quamvis Serenissimo c. quia tamen supradicta formula complectitur amplioris obedientiae promissionem quam possint Principes Seculares a Subditis suis Catholicis exigere an t Subditi ipsis praestare nonnulla insuper continet sincerae professioni Catholicae religionis repugnantia idcirco pro illicita prorsus ac detestabili habenda est Quapropter quicumque praefatam professionis formulam nondum signarunt cohibere se a signatura obligantur sub sacrilegii reatu quicumque autem signarunt refigere signaturas obstringuntur sub consimili reatu incauta namque definitio salubriter dissolvenda est nec ea dissolutio reputanda est praevaricatio sed temeritatis emendatio Ita post maturam deliberationem c. In English thus Albeit to the most Serene King of Britain and Ireland c. Yet forasmuch as the foresaid Form involves a promise of a more ample Obedience than Secular Princes can exact from their Catholick Subjects or their Subjects make unto them and that moreover it contains some things repugnant to the sincere profession of Catholick Religion therefore it must be held for wholly unlawful and detestable Which is the Reason That who ever have not yet subscribed the foresaid Form are under guilt of Sacriledge obliged to hold themselves from subscribing and that such as have already signed are bound under the same guilt to Revoke their signatures for an unwary definition must be wholsomely dissolved nor must such a dissolution be accounted any prevarication but an amendment of Rashness Thus have we after mature and frequent deliberation determined and decided at Louain c. Seeing I say the Censure is in this tenour now repeated and that although if we separate the precise or strict essentials only of this Censure from both the antecedent Suppositions and consequent Inferences altogether express'd as you see in those few lines we shall find the said precise and strict essentials of it to consist in these words only It must be held for wholly unlawful and detestable Yet forasmuch as the Faculty Theological of Louain who delivered their judgment so in this their short and second form of Censure would have us regard the whole tenour of their Paper or as well the premises which they suppose and express and the consequences which they infer as the said bare essentials of their absolute position Therefore you are to consider first That if we take altogether what they judge of it either formally or virtually and consequentially they judge our Remonstrance to be unlawful detestable sacrilegious and further yet to be either Heretical or Schismatical or both And that they judge it to be such for two Reasons which albeit they express yet they do not as much as attempt to prove but only suppose here The one is because it contains a promise of a more ample Obedience than Secular Princes can require from their Catholick Subjects or their Subjects make unto them And the other is because moreover it contains some things repugnant to the sincere profession of the Catholick Religion And truly that they judge it formally to be unlawful detestable and sacrilegious we see their own formal expressions for so much being that besides their formal adjectives unlawful and detestable as to the adjective or epithet sacrilegious we find it in their own formal substantive word Sacriledge where they judge that such as have already sign'd are bound under
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
Reason which should govern or direct their particular Actions as well in order to themselves as to others and should foresee what might be objected False against Truth because so manifestly against both the Divine revealed Truths of Christian Religion and against those evidences also of natural Reason given by me before against the fourth ground of the same Louain Divines Injurious against Justice because against the most considerable right can be of all Princes States and People and even of the Clergy too if considered aright And in the highest degree may be Scandalous against Charity because in the highest degree may be harming the name and same of their Christian Catholick Neighbours and of so vast a multitude of them and because also not only of endangering in the highest degree inasmuch as in them lay even the very Temporal safety of so great a number of all the poor Catholicks in the British Monarchy and the peace of the King of Englands Dominions but further yet of raising against and casting and continuing on the Roman Religion it self in general or wheresoever professed the greatest hatred and blackness and hideousness and horrour may be and because too consequently of continuing still the chief cause of the grand Schism in Europe by keeping still that Block of stumbling and Rock of Scandal in the way of all Sects whatsoever which above any other hinders them from thinking of a Return to their Mother Church whereby to save their Souls in the Unity and Truth of the Catholick Church Than which I am sure nothing can be either more highly or more properly and strictly scandalous As for the Minor of the Syllogism being the last part of it which sayes that the second or short Censure of Louain judges our Remonstrance to be unlawful detestable sacrilegious c. is so manifest that it cannot be disputed since you read it so in that very Censure it self the former part only which sayes also and where it sayes That our Remonstrance contains only in effect word and sense an Acknowledgment only of a meer Supreme Temporal power in the Supreme Politick Magistrate and a promise of Obedience and Fidelity in meer Temporal things to the same Power and Magistrate remains to be made here no less manifest and to be made so manifest by analysing resolving and taking in pieces the whole frame of the Act of Recognition and all the Appendages of it whereof the dispute is or may be whether it contains any things besides such Temporal power in the Magistrate and such Obedience and Faith in Temporal things in the Subjects or by considering every clause of it one after another apart and the relations of one to another and to the whole and of the whole to each For there can be no other way to demonstrate this former part of the Minor And this is an easie way ad oculum and will save the Reader some labour of turning to the 7 8 and 9 pages where the whole Remonstrance is wherein that Act of Recognition and those other Appendages of it are inserted Yet before I come to an issue on this point the Reader is to be Advertised First That in that publick Instrument which hath these six or seven years past occasioned so many Differences or Disputes or rather renewed them having for Title The humble Remonstrance Acknowledgment Protestation and Petition of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland it which in this distinction of words and proper strict sense of them as distinct is and ought to be understood by the word Remonstrance as in this Title so distinguish'd is not that which is at all controverted For that which is so understood is only the Representation of their then present sad and deplorable condition or of such grievances persecution suspition calumnies and odium under which for their Religion they lay then amongst their Protestant Fellow Subjects in Ireland Secondly That that which is and ought to be understood by the word Acknowledgment properly and strickly taken as in this Title signifying somewhat distinct from the meaning of the former word Remonstrance is no other than that which in the same Title is imported also by the word Protestation with this only difference That the whole Act of Recognition with all its Clauses and Appendages may be and is properly and truly an acknowledgment and confession both of the Supreme civil or Temporal power and of that obedience as above And that the very same whole Act of Recognition or Acknowledgment is in the Title called a Protestation partly because the Remonstrants or Subscribers do about the end of the same Act of Recognition formally or in formal express words Protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary of that which they acknowledge confess c. in that very Act of Recognition and partly too because that having done in the former part of that publick Instrument with the Representation of their Grievances in general then and immediately before they begin their said Recognition they speak thus We know what odium all the Catholick Clergy lies under by reason of the Calumnies with which our Tenents in Religion and our dependance upon the Popes Authority are aspersed and we humbly beg Your Majesties pardon to vindicate both by the ensuing Protestation which we make in the sight of Heaven and in the presence of Your Majesty sincerely and truly without equivocation or mental reservation and partly also because by the word Protestation any publick Testimony whether it be by an Oath or not may be truly and properly understood And therefore I confess ingenuously that within the whole Act of Recognition separately taken from the rest of that Instrument there is no Protestation at all understanding by the word Protestation that kind of Testimony which is by oath For indeed there is no oath at all either formal or virtual in the whole Act so taken separately or in any Clause or Appendage of it so taken And yet I confess too that is or may well be understood to be either a formal or at least a virtual oath which is in the passage immediately antecedent or going before that Act. But this oath imports no more then that the Remonstrants or Subscribers do so antecedently swear or protest in the sight of Heaven that they do sincerely and truly without equivocation or mental reservation acknowledge confess disclaim renounce declare promise profess protest hold abhor and detest whatever they acknowledge confess c. in their following Declaration or said Act of Recognition And therefore by no meâ—â— imports that they swear their Acknowledgment Confession Renunciation c. are made conformably to the objective truth of Things or Laws in themselves For Example They swear not nor protest at all in the sight of Heaven That our Sovereign King Charles the Second is Lawful and Rightful King Supreme Lord c. or I mean that He is so according to the verity of Things and Laws in themselves but only that they
Supremacy of the Pope whatever this be which the Catholick Church allows him For a pure Supreme Temporal in one and a pure Supreme Spiritual in another and over the same persons and causes are very truly certainly and evidently consistent The second Period or Clause being this And therefore we acknowledge and confess our selves to be obliged under pain of Sin to obey Your Majesty in all Civil and Temporal Affairs as much as any other of Your Majesties Subjects and as the Laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands and consequently being only and wholly of the obedience due by Catholick Subjects to Hâ—s Majesty and being it doth in formal express words determine this obedience to all Civil and Temporal Affairs as you see it doth there can be therefore no dispute of this Period The third Period also containing only in effect an acknowledgment of their resolution to acknowledge evermore and perform their Loyalty and true Allegiance to the King notwithstanding any contradiction by or from the Pope or by or from any other deriving power from the Pope or See of Rome for the words are these And that notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope or See of Rome or any sentence or declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessors or Successors or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal proceeding or derived from him or his See against Your Majesty or Royal Authority we will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of our Abilities our faithful Loyalty and true Allegiance to Your Majesty I say that being the third Period hath no other words or matter it 's very evident that the whole entire Subject of it is nought else but obedience in Temporals because the Loyalty and true Allegiance of Catholicks to their at least Protestant Prince can be no other but obedience and fidelity towards Him in all Temporal matters and because that by these words Our Loyalty and true Allegiance to Your Majesty neither His Majesty Himself nor other Protestant nor any indifferent and judicious Catholick ever yet understood nor indeed ought to understand any other Loyalty or Allegiance but that which is in meer Temporals Nor can it be said upon any rational ground that because the Remonstrants do here acknowledge That notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope c. or any sentence c. or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal c. it must follow That they either deny the true spiritual Authority of the Pope over any Christians or any part of the world or even his Temporal within his own temporal Territories or within those Territories I mean which are His uncontroverredly even also as to the temporal Government or that they are resolved or that they promise or declare that they will disobey or oppose any just sentence or declaration of his obliging themselves or any other Nothing less then either doth follow by any kind of consequence whereas indeed no more but that they are persuaded that the Pope hath neither any true Spiritual nor any true Temporal power from God or man to devest the King of his Temporals or to hinder them from being His loyal liege men in such Temporals and that if he pronounced any sentence or gave any command to the contrary though it were even by Excommunication such sentence and such command and even such Excommunication would be as to all effects and purposes null and void because against the Laws of God and man and nature and not proceeding from any true power he had from God or from the Church of God but only from a vain and false presumption of power or authority in the case and a clave errante from a Key errant or which is the same in effect at most and at best from such an abuse of his authority as invalidates and annulls his sentence in all respects whatsoever They do not therefore at all hereby or in this Clause as neither in any other not even as much as virtually or consequentially in any manner soever deny or oppose his true and pure spiritual power of judging or binding or that which truly and really is in him to judge and bind spiritually or in a spiritual manner both King and Subjects or to pronounce even Excommunication against either themselves or the King if or when there shall happen any just cause thereof But they only deny 1. That he hath no kind of Temporal power acquired either by divine or humane Right that reaches to the King or his Crown People or Dominions 2. That the spiritual power which he truly and really hath either from God immediately or from the Church and which the same Catholick Church acknowledges to be so in him or which the Subscribers admit to be in him can have no such effect by Excommunication or other sentence or means as is the bereaving the King of his Temporals or as is the hindering the Subjects to obey or making it lawful for them in point of Conscience and Religion not to perform to the uttermost of their Abilities their faithful Loyalty and true Allegiance to His Majesty And that this third Period or Clause or words or meaning of them import no more but this or that such Clause or Subscribers of it cannot be rationally said to deny or declare against any true power of the Pope or any true or just or legal or even as much as only valid sentence of his I shew evidently thus by two several examples of the like expression used in another matter For without denying or opposing the Popes true power or any true just or valid or binding sentence of his his Sons may declare that notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope or See of Rome or any sentence or declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessors or Successors or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal proceeding or derived from him or his See against their natural Father or his Fatherly Authority they will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of their Abilities their natural duty and filial obedience to their said Father And without denying or opposing the Kings true power or any true just or even any valid or binding sentence of his the very Subscribers themselves may declare as I for my part do here declare and I am sure all the rest are ready to declare that notwithstanding any power or pretension of the King or of His Crown or Kingdom or any sentence or declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by His Majesty His Predecessors or Successors or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal proceeding or derived from Him or His Kingdoms against their spiritual Father the Pope or his true Papal Authority they will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of their Abilities their Canonical fidelity and all that true obedience they are bound unto by
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
of obligation to reveal any thing or to stand by the Prince in any matter which is or may be against any spiritual Duty incumbent on them or against their Religion or Communion or against either Justice or Charity For certainly to reveal such Treason as is such by all the Laws of God and Man of Nature and Nations is a Temporal Duty and to defend the King's Person Royal Authority and State and Government under which we live and which are acknowledged by our selves to be Legal or not Usurped is no less a Temporal Duty or both I mean are Duties we owe to God and to the King and to the Laws and such Duties as are discharged in meer Temporal things and in a meer Temporal way too Sixth Period And further we profess That all Absolute Princes and Supreme Governors of what Religion soever they be are God's Lieutenants on Earth and that Obedience is due to them according to the Laws of each Commonwealth respectively in all Civil and Temporal Affairs That no other power is acknowledged here to be even in such Absolute Princes and Supreme Governors nor other obedience due to them by Subjects but in Civil and Temporal things there needs no further proof than what you see in the very express Letter of this self-same Period in the latter part or that of Obedience which also and by all consequence determines the former part of Power and consequently and most expresly determines both to Civil and Temporal Affairs As for the Title of Gods Lieutenants on Earth What Catholick can except against it on other ground but that of Ignorance or Malice or both Our great Nicholaus de Lyra of the Franciscan Order that most Famous and most Learned and also most Catholick Interpreter of the whole Scripture hath above 300 Years since in Sapient 6. called Emperors and Kings Vicarios Dei inâ—â—terra And Thomas of Aquin or whosoever under his name set out the work de Regim Princip l. 2. calls them so nay delivers this Maxim or Position of Kings and Princes Regem Principem toto conatu sayes he sollicitudine divino cultus incumbere teneri non solum quia homo sed etiam quia Dominus Rex est Dei vices gerit a quo maxime pendet St. Ambrose also well nigh a Thousand Years before Lyranus and Aquinas writ thus in Epist ad Roman c. 13. Sciant non se esse liberos sed sub potestate degere quae ex Deo est Principi enim suo qui vicem Dei agit sicut Deo subjiciuntur Nay and a Roman Pontiff Anastasius the Second but a few Ages after Ambrose's Ep. vii writ thus to Anastasius then Emperor of Rome Pectus Clementiae vestrae Sacrarium est publicae faelicitatis ut per instantiam vestram quam velut Vicarian Deus praesidere jussit in terris c. Seventh Period being purely Relative either only to the foresaid six or certainly to that and all the other foregoing Periods taking all together for it is in these words And therefore we do here protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary it is plain this Protestation must be Catholick and just if the Declaration maâ—e in that sixth Period and in the other several foregoing be such But I have now sufficiently demonstrated that all and each of these Declarations are such And 't is like no man will be so mad as to gather out of this Protestation in this seventh Period That the Subscribers protest simply absolutely abstractedly or specificatively against the Authority of any whosoever that declares or holds the contrary but only secundum quid or reduplicatively as holding the contrary not at all as holding declaring or commanding other just matters For the words to the contrary and what else goes before and follows after sufficently declare that Protestation to have only such reduplicative sense So that no other matter can be said to be in this Period or this Period to relate to other than to the Supreme Civil power of Princes in pure Temporal affairs and obedience of Subjects to them in the same Temporal affairs though I otherwise do my self and all the Subscribers also do confess passive obedience due to Princes from their Subjects even in all kinds too of pure spiritual affairs But what this passive is as also what active is I have before explicated and the judicious Reader cannot but easily understand what both are without any explication of mine Eighth Period And we do hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince though of a different belief and judgment from his Sure there is no professed Christian but Mariana Sanctarellus or some other few impious Scholars of theirs and those of Calvin's Crue who before lead the way or after followed them will quarrel with the Subscribers on this Period especially when the several determinations of the general Council of Constance relating to this matter are duly considered Nor even those in this more Pagan Philosophers of some Graecian Republick than Christian Divines of an establish'd Monarchy can justly say whatever they otherwise say the Subscribers attribute other or even relate to or suppose here in this Period any other power in the Prince than a pure Supreme Temporal or any other obedience in the Subject but in meer Civil or Temporal affairs For the corporal life or death of the Prince as of every other man is such Nor certainly upon any ground whatsoever can say at all the Subscribers attribute here any kind of spiritual power nay nor even a Temporal power in spiritual causes to Princes or consequently exact here from Subjects an active obedience in spiritual causes For if any did subscribe this other Proposition relating not to Princes but private Subjects We hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may kill or murther another private Subject though of a different Religion from his whatever Construction or Exposition this Proposition would or must be subject unto yet no man certainly could averr on any rational ground That the Subscribers of it attributed a spiritual power to every such private Subject whom he so exempts from being lawfully killed or murthered by another private Subject or that obedience were therefore in spiritual things due to him who could not be so murthered Ninth and last Period And we abhor and detest the practice thereof as damnable and wicked Which because it is Relative only to the eighth as the word thereof proves I need say no more than is already said on the said eighth immediately preceding And these Nine Periods which I have so given and considered apart being the onely Periods Clauses or parts of the said Act of Recognition and no other at all being therein nor as much as a word more who sees not but that the said Act considered even separately as to the several Clauses
to apprehend him or them so not appearing and to cause him or them so apprehended to be safely brought before Vs whereof they may not fail Given at the Council-Chamber in Dublin the 11th day of Iuly 1664. Ja Armachanus Mau Eustace Mich Dublin Meath Santry Hen Tichborne Jo Bysse J Temple Paul Davys J Ware God Save the King The other persons seized in the County of Cavan upon Account or Information to some of the Officers Civil or Military in that County and this Information given by some of the Neighbours were Thomas Brady James Gowan Patrick O Drumma three Secular Priests and Thomas Mukiernan Anthony Gowan and John Brady three Franciscans all leading men amongst the Clergy and Laity in those parts The Imprisonment of these six and Proclamation against those other Church-men startled mightily and cool'd the heat of the opposers of the Remonstrance because all the persons so either by Proclamation summonâ—d or by Surprizal confined were such And the Procurator's kindness and charity to the Prisoners did also help somewhat to allay their Impetuousness For though he had been then and some Months before actually sick yet notwithstanding his very great weakness he visited them several times and otherwise also shewed in effect he was far from entertaining any uncharitable disaffection or passion to their persons Besides that having suddenly after but during their Imprisonment departed to England and come to London he performed his promise to them at his departure and partly by his endeavours there and Letters back to Ireland to some persons of quality and power within a few weeks wrought their Enlargement on Bonds to appear when called upon His known successful endeavours also about that time before he left Ireland as likewise often the three last preceding Years to hinder the Indictments or Prosecutions of such in several parts of the Countrey against a great number of poor Catholicks for their Recusancy did likewise contribute to stop the Exclamations and Forgeries of the Anti-remonstrants LXXXII FRom London the Procurator being come thither about the end of August same Year 1664. next Month after sent back to Ireland the Reverend Father Antony Gearnon partly to work the Enlargement of the Prisoners and partly also when so Enlarged to get the chief Fathers of the Franciscans or the chief I mean in authority or command then amongst them videlicet their Definitory in all seven or eight to meet in some convenient place and by Letters and by the said Gearnon as a Messenger or Agent to postulate a Visitator of that Province from James de Riddere a Dutchman residing in Flanders and Commissary General then of that Order of the Franciscans throughout all the Northern and Northwest Kingdoms amongst which Ireland England and Scotland are and to that purpose to postulate and present unto him one of those other of whose faith to the King there was no suspicion Because otherwise that Order in Ireland being very numerous and leading and as to the greater number of them especially their Superiors very great Anti-remonstrants and formerly Nunciotists it could not be expected to be reduced to reason their Constitutions not warranting them to change Superiors before they had a Visitator from the General Superiors who live still in Forreign parts and because it would be of some consequence also to break in time by their example the other Regular Orders and even the Secular Clergy too And those Fathers of the Franciscans having met at Multifernan were by the said Father Gearnon and Procurator's Letters but more by that trouble whereinto some of them as above related were lately fallen wrought upon to write to Flanders and to the said de Riddere their Commissary General desiring him to let them have such an one for their Visitator as in the point of Loyalty or Fidelity to the King no exceptions could be taken against him nay such an one as should be grateful to His Majesty and great Ministers That they would receive none other And would any such even Father Redmund Caron himself For this was their language and manner of expressing their sense if I understand their Letters which for your satisfaction I give here They are three several The first is of Antony O Docharty their President because then Minister Provincial of that Order in Ireland written by him to Father Walsh the Procurator Second from the same President and all the rest of the Definitory to the self same Procurator Third also from them all to the foresaid James de Riddere the Flemmish or Dutch Commissary General The First as followeth SIR I Should have esteemed my self ungrateful had I not returned you many thanks for your Civility in your due Correspondency for the freedom of my Liberty and for your bountiful Charity without which I could neither defray my Lodging at Dublin nor be able to undertake this Journey Here we are met where I have propounded all you desire and am sorry F. Valentin hath not appeared I having adjured him by a sure way and Mr. Knight by his own way desiring him not to fail upon any score his presence would have rendred the business more facile Mr. Gearnon knows what difficulties we have met withall as he may inform you At length we have prevailed so far that you have these Instruments which I leave you to peruse and what is wanting there I do as far as in me lieth supply in mine own Addresses to the Commissary General which likewise I leave to you unsealed that you may see the Integrity and Reality of my Intentions I send also my obedience to whom you shall fix upon to be employed to his most Reverend Paternity leaving to you whom you fix upon another grateful to His Majesty in case of Mr. Caron â—s death or personal inability Thus assuring you that I will joyn heart and hand with you in all things that may concern my Loyalty the good of my Nation and Order So I subscribe SIR Your Brother and Servant Anthony Docharty Multifernan 25 Octob. 1664. The Second thus Reverend Father WE have received yours of the Third of October by the Reverend Father Anthony Gearnon to your request in which we have willingly and heartily condescended the motive of our meeting being only to do that which is for the Glory of God Interest of our King and better Settlement of our Religion and Order pursuant to which we send our Address to the Commissary General for our future Commissary and Visitator and also our Petition to his Grace though we think not our selves conscious of the least Crime against his mind or the Laws of the Land yet as desired we with as much submissiveness present it as cordially promise to banish from our hearts and actions the least thing that should incur the displeasure of His Majesty or our Lord Lieutenant to which we would annex our Remonstrance but that on the instant we had certain intelligence that the Clergy unanimously do intend to present one very speedily
Magin one of Her Majesties Chaplains coming along with his Lordship and being present all the Discourse but none else besides the said Father Redmund Caron How this Discourse continued three hours from Ten a Clock in the morning to One in the Afternoon How therein after due Salutes the Procurator immediately gave his Lordship a full account of the occasion motives ends and effects too of the Remonstrance continuing his Speech for half an hour or thereabouts and concluding That being it was apparent enough that in the said Remonstrance or Act of Recognition and Petition thereunto annexed there was nothing but what was consonant to Christian Religion and as such maintain'd expresly even in our dayes and at that very present by the Gallican Church and Universities he could not but wonder much his Lordship and Cardinal Francis Barberin should write such Letters as they had to the Nobility Gentry and Clergy of Ireland against that innocent Formulary How the Internuncio answering That his Holiness had condemn'd it the Procurator replied That besides the Non-appearance of any such Papal condemnation it was plain enough his Holiness was misinformed not only concerning the occasion expediency necessity ends and use of that Instrument but the very matter also contained therein even as Paul the V. formerly in Anno 1606. in those of the Oath of Allegiance had been misinformed and consequently abused by Father Parsons the English Jesuite and by Cardinal Bellarmine and those other six or seven Theologues deputed by that Pope to report their sense of the said Oath of Allegiance made by King James by occasion of the Powder-plot Treason How hereupon the Internuncio with some anger rejoin'd shortly Ego informavi I am he that inform'd his Holiness and the Brocurator to him again near as shortly But with your good leave my Lord you have not rightly nor well informed giving withal his convincing Reasons How Father Caron adding to the Procurator's answer and in short desiring the Internuncio to point out the Proposition or Clause one or more in that Formulary against Catholick Faith and finally concluding and asserting the said Formulary to be in all parts and all respects intirely conformable to Christian Doctrine and Catholick Faith the Internuncio had no more to say but Vos ita censetis Sedes autem Apostolica aliter censet yea think so but the See Apostolick otherwise How when both Caron and Walsh had again replied That general Allegations without particular proof of the See Apostolick's sense were to no purpose That the original or at least authentick Copy should be produced That credit in such matters was not to be given not even to the Letters of the very Cardinals as both Civilians and Canonists do teach That the Popes own acknowledg'd private Letters in case there had been such have no binding force no nor even his Briefs or Bulls in the present or other such Controversies That the point of the Popes Infallibility was no matter of Christian or Catholick Faith That the See Apostolick Roman Court and Catholick Church of Christ were three different things finally that together with all now said the reverence and obedience to his Holiness did very well consist how I say this Replication being made the Internuncio looking no more as superciliously or high as he had till then begun to speak to Father Walsh after another manner i. e. moderately and by way rather of Entreaty and Prayer than Command or Empire How this was to desire the said Father Walsh to lay by thenceforward all thoughts of that Remonstrance and think rather of any other medium whereby to obtain His MAJESTIES gracious propension to look mercifully and favourably on the Clergy of Ireland notwithstanding any thing formerly acted by them How when Father Walsh had briefly answer'd That really he knew no means could serve that end without some such Act of Recognition as the Remonstrance was the Internuncio replied He himself then would propose one and how accordingly he did this viz. Sanctissimus Dominus meus c. My most Holy Lord sayes he shall issue a Bull to all the Irish commanding them under pain of Excommunication to be henceforth and continue faithful and obedient to the King How the Procurator saying presently hereunto That indeed my Lord is the medium which if accepted would make His MAJESTY a down-right Vassal to the Pope and a very King of Cards but I hope His MAJESTY hath some better and surer means to rely on for keeping that Kingdom in peace than any kind of Bull or other even Letters Patent from his Holiness the Internuncio presently again Then sayes he I propose this other medium viz. Sanctissimus Dominus meus c. My most Holy Lord shall grant and create as many Bishops and Archbishops for Ireland as His Majesty and His Vice-Roy or Lieutenant in Ireland the Duke of Ormond will desire and those very persons they shall fix upon and moreover shall empower those persons so created Prelates to dismiss and send away out of Ireland all Clergymen whatsoever whom they shall find to be disloyal to the King How moreover the said Procurator to this also replied That although it was much more specious than the former yet considering His MAJESTIES Religion and the Laws now as yet in force and other Affairs too it seem'd impracticable for the present That were His MAJESTY even of the Roman communion nay and being what He is there was nothing offered by this medium but what was and is His own by ancient Right I mean the naming of all Prelates and suffering no other such but of His own Nomination And for banishing Disturbers away That sure He could Himself do that without the help of either Pope or inferiour Bishops whenever he should find such Proscriptions necessary And further That if He could not at least by the Authority of His own Laws or must or would admit of the Popes Authority therein as necessary then surely he must also or would in so much and that an essential point of Temporal Sovereignty acknowledge His own dependance from a Forreign power which questionless He neither would nor could Therefore considering all this besides the strict Oath of Allegiance and Obedience which even such Archbishops and Bishops must before their Consecration take to the Pope and not they alone but all sorts of beneficed persons according to the present practice and Rules of the Roman Church or prescript of their Pontificals and other Canons and must take also even expresly against all those they call or esteem Hereticks the last proposed medium could be no medium at all not as much as any kind of way probable if the Remonstrance and all such other Recognitions were by the self-same Prelates and all other inferiour Irish Clergymen laid by Especially considering that the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance both Enacted by the municipal Laws here had been long since by the Popes and Court of Rome and by all their fast Friends or maintainers of
his power and authority And we know there may be many other pretended grounds powers authorities However these matters be I declare first It was not the homeness of the Irish Formulary against the Pope but rather defect of that full and perfect and unavoidable undistinguishable homeness thereof that troubled me Though withall how defective or unhome soever it may be said by some to be against the Pope and Church or for the King and Civil Magistracy yet no man will deny now but that the Roman Court esteems it too too home and full against their Interests and Papal Usurpations Secondly That had I been at first consulted with as to the framing or fixing on a Formulary of Allegiance to the King neither King nor Council nor Parliament or House of Commons nor other Protestant Subject or not Subject whatsoever should have any ground left for excepting against the shortness or defectiveness of it as to any point controverted hitherto in that which relates to indispensable Allegiance in all Temporal things whatsoever or to its being open to Evasions or lyable to any kind of Quibbles not even to that of the reduplicative or specificative sense Thirdly That nevertheless I should not have been moved hereunto out of other respect than that of redeeming the Roman-Catholicks from the severity of the Laws against them hitherto these 100 years And I mean that of redeeming them only by a Declaration of their future fidelity and obedience in all Civil and Temporal matters so full clear and positive as would be answerable in all points to their so long consultation about such a one this whole entire Age past wherein they have declined first the Oath of Supremacy next that of Allegiance and by their demurs on both rendred themselves not only obnoxious to so many Laws but also to so many jealousies and suspitions of their Loyalty to the Crown and Kingdom of England Ireland c. as if they inclined to the vain pretences of Forreign powers And what I pray you will judicious learned Protestants say or rather what will they not say now when they cannot but understand how the said Catholicks oppose now again even a very cautious Declaration of bare and meer Allegiance in Civil things only and such a Declaration too I mean as was framed not by any Protestant but by themselves Or will not such Protestants as please have hence a very specious and probable ground to alledge in Parliament and plead there openly against the comprehension of Papists in any Act of Indulgence to Tender Consciences should there be any such And to alledge and plead I say A manifest inconsistence betwixt the safety of a Protestant Prince or State and the Repeal of Laws heretofore made against People so principled or any absolute liberty or freedom of exercise of Religion to them whose Religion appears by so many Arguments to be destructive to the very fundamentals of any Civil State especially Protestant because denying still to acknowledge as much as the very essence of such a State this essence if not consisting in at least requiring for one part of its essentials to be absolutely Sovereign or Supreme and Independent from any but God alone in all Temporal and Civil things And may not consequently the same Protestants plead That such Roman-Catholicks as peremptorily refuse to acknowledge that absolute Sovereignty or Supremacy and Independency in such a form of Declaration or Oath as cannot be lyable to any Evasions in any kind of Contingency whaâ—soever have no Title at all to His MAJESTIES gracious promises in His Letters from Breda for Indulgence to be given to all Tender Consciences that hold not Principles destructive to the fundamentals of Government For surely if any Opinions be destructive to such fundamentals those of the said Roman-Catholicks or of such Roman-Catholicks I mean as hold them must be of necessity Let any one therefore judge now with what sincerity or knowledge or truth the foresaid Internuncio Hierom de Vecchiis writ as you have seen to Father Bonaventure Brodin That the Valesian Formulary is it which may do more hurt and mischief to the Church of God than all the foreacted persecution of Hereticks And judge you Reader whom he understands here by Hereticks What by the Church of God What by hurt or mischief or ruine to that Church But blessed be God we are not so mad yet as to confine the Church of God to the walls of Rome or Papal and Cardinalitial Consistory or to the small number of men wherever diffused that either out of ambitious flattery or cowardly fear or ignorance or other respect whatsoever maintain the Papal Usurpations over Church or State asserting them so in plain contradiction both to Scripture Tradition Fathers Canons and practice too of the Catholick Church and not only to natural reason Nor yet so mad as to think that whatever hurts annoys or ruines the wicked Usurpations or unjust worldly Emoluments of such men must be esteemed any way truly hurtful to the Church of God and not rather on the other side both highly and truly advantagious and profitable Nor further yet so mad as to hold all those for Hereticks whom the Roman Ministers Tribunals or even many of their Popes even or also Boniface the VIII himself held for such No nor yet so mad as to esteem that to have been a persecution in the bad sense of this word which was a just prosecution of so many Emissaries sent heretofore from Rome of meer and set purpose to overthrow both King and Kingdom here by plotting and raising or endeavouring to raise even bloody horrid Rebellions of Subjects against both that I may say nothing now of the Invasion of Eighty Eight against Queen Elizabeth or the Powder-plot Treason after against King James and both His Houses of Parliament or of the late Rebellion in Ireland in our own dayes and year 1641. Nor finally so mad as to account the Remonstrants a Sect in the bad sense of this word albeit de Vecchiis would fain have them reputed such not only by Nicknaming them Valesians but also by joyning them in a comparative manner with those he expresly calls Hereticks For certainly it is meer madness either of blind ignorance or extreme malice that should make any to esteem the Teachers of fidelity and obedience in all Temporal things to a lawful King of what Religion soever to be therefore a Sect in the bad sense of this word Although in the Etymological sense generically taken or in any innocent thereof and in opposition to the present Roman Court its Partisans in the grand Controversie and in that or like good sense consequently whether generical or specifical wherein St. Paul confessed himself to be of the Sect of Pharisees in the point of Resurrection the Remonstrants confess themselves a Sect and glory in being so But the Internuncio gains nothing hereby if not that himself and his Associates how great or numerous soever be really in the worst sense
and Religious did subscribe which was purposely made to secure the Lay-Gentlemen that supposing they might enjoy the freedom of their Religion they might lawfully renounce the practice of these Articles which makes the case far different both to the one and the other they conceived you intended to deny and destroy the probability of that Opinion which they think it necessary for their ends to maintain And therefore to keep their hold and conserve their pretended right they framed this Decree in hugger mugger and kept it private Their chief motive is acknowledged in the Decree it self Least it should be said hereafter that his Holiness did approve or connive at the Subscription to such Articles as were prejudicial to his Pontificial greatness The same was also expresly intimated to the Popes Nuncio here it being signified unto him there should be no legal publication of it no more then there had been at Rome nor consequently sure did they intend it should oblige Nay even they themselves would esteem him a very Fool that would lose his Estate or venture his Life for the maintenance of this Opinion or Decree Your Negative Answers to these Articles are to be understood according to your and the Proposers intentions that is to renounce the practice of them and profess them to be no part of your Faith and Religion which I believe the very Court of Rome doth not pretend witness Cardinal Peron who after he had often averred in his Oration to the Nobles of France in the year 1615. that the Doctrine of the Pope's power to depose Heretical Kings and absolve their Subjects from their obedience was only Problematical And in particular That the Catholicks of England were obliged to obey King James then reigning In his other Oration to the third Sâ—â—te who urged and pressed to have the contrary Doctrine received as a fundamental Law of the Kingdom and as holy true and conformable to the Word of God having used all possible Arguments to dissuade them from this design and learnedly labouring to shew a greater probability for the affirmative part He concludes towards the end of his Speech That the Pope doth tolerate and suffer the contrary Opinion to be held so it be only maintained as Problematical in matter of Faith that is saith he so it be not proposed as necessary to Faith nor the Opposite declared as contrary to the Word of God impious and detestable Besides this Decree is given against the Negative Subscribers to unpublished Articles without any information or knowledge of the original Instrument whereunto you Priests did subscribe nay without calling any of you to Account but only in the Air against the Negative Subscription supposed to be done they know not where nor how contrary to the ordinary forms of our Law avd Justice But every man who hath negotiated in the Court of Rome can tell you That these Congregational Decrees are generally made by a few Cardinals and Prelates who to speak modestly little know upon what grounds and principles the abstruse Sequels of Faith are to be resolved They say in this They have consulted Divines that is perhaps some few Forreign Regulars whose Interests lie wholly in that Court depending immediately of it and exempted by his Holiness from the ordinary and divine Hierarchical Government of the Church who knowing nothing of the Affairs nor of the Circumstance of the Question were not like to deliver any other Opinion than what their great Patrons would have them I wish with all my heart That with the loss of my blood I could blot out the belief of all experienced men that nothing but Interest and Faction are prevalent in the Court of Rome It is now in every mans mouth that understands the Affairs of the World that they seek their own ends not the publick good Finally I remark that they chiefly direct their Decree to the Superiours of their exempted Emissaries no mention made of the Bishop or Clergy who are the only lawful and Canonical publishers with the permission and consent of the State or Civil Magistrates of any true authentical spiritual Command Truly if such a Decree had been sent hither and so illegally proclaimed it would have been presently condemned to be burnt by the hands of the Hangman In a word I see nothing capable to beget a Scruple nor that ought to hinder any Catholick from Subscribing to the Articles as you have done Nor shall I easily persuade my self that any wise and experienced man will shrink from so just an Act. If your State King or Parliament will suffer and tolerate you to live quietly under them which I wonder such able men should boggle at I shall quickly provide and help you with such advice from the most learned and most vertuous Divines of Europe as will make your Ecclesiastical Government an example to all other States and Kingdoms your Neighbours And still conserving all due Respect and spiritual Obedience to the See of Rome you shall free your selves from all unnecessary and unfit dependance of the Roman Court wherein I shall furnish you with the resolutions of such Questions as will open the eyes of all your unexperienced and tender conscienced Countrey-men who have not had perhaps the means to discern and distinguish their due and unnecessary obedience from a superfluous and unjust obsequiousness And which shall withall make appear to all the Christian World the now well near Fourscore years hard and unfatherly dealing of the Court of Rome over the poor persecuted and distressed Catholicks of England Let it therefore be your constant endeavour to give the King State or Parliament full satisfaction and assurance of your fidelity to the Civil and Political government of your Kingdom whatsoever it shall be which may most certainly stand with the integrity of your Religion and Consciences For the rest fear nothing trust to the justice of your Cause which you may assuredly believe will not want support For my particular according to my poor Ability you shall ever find me Your most loving Brother in Christ And obedient Servant T.H. From Paris this 2d of April 1648. By which two several Papers the written and the printed the Reader may understand fully what he shall find hereafter answered by me in the year 1664. to the foresaid Internuncio de Vecchiis concerning his Allegation or pretence of Innocent the X's having condemned these Negatives and consequently our Remonstrance as for one part thereof coincident with or virtually contain'd in them Fourth and last Observation is concerning that signal crafty admonition which the same de Vecchiis gave as you have before seen to Father Bruodin in these words Signanter ut sic refutetuâ— illud Jura nentum ne tamen Regii Ministri ansam accipiant in Catholicos saeviendi eosque tamquam Regia Dominationi quia ab Ecclesia defecerit infestos puniendi If I be not much mistaken de Vecchiis would have the Anti-Remonstrants use all kind of other false Arguments to
such other excellent Casuists for the lawfulness of murthering or assassinating not only your declared known enemy or inveterate or even any way profess'd or not profess'd Adversary but also any other even your own Consort or Companion that either affronts you never so little or but reveals nay or but threatens to reveal hereafter nay also or but whom you only suspect or fear may reveal although only out of lightness or vanity and not out of any malice to you some or any one even true imperfection or fault or fact of yours which being known may either defame or lessen or hinder you or your Society Order or Colledge from that power authority dignity esteem or advantages and emoluments you or they aspire unto provided only that you conceive the death of such a person to be necessary or behoveful either for the recovery or preservation of your name fame or of that which is or is called your worldly honour credit or esteem or even but your utility or profit temporary and earthly Finally you shall see the said most Reverend Prelate proving effectually by his carriage towards those Remonstrants for three or four years past That notwithstanding his formal Ejection or Dismiss out of the Society and he knows for what and knows moreover that I am not ignorant nor have been since 1659. either of that very true cause or of the very great person that procured his said Ejection yet he hath continued still a pragmatical constant close Disciple in the worst of Maxims to those very worst of Moralists Equivocatists Probablists Academists Scepticks nay and Assassins too retaining so whatsoever evil could be learn'd of them but relinquishing all that was good or just the more Christian precepts and practices he might have seen in some others even Writers of that very Society which threw him out Whether it was therefore that when he was created Archbishop by the Pope some Three years since his then Father General Oliva did complement him so high in a Letter which I my self have read from Rome promising himself and his Society in Ireland c. I know not what even certainly all that was great and wonderful now that he the foresaid Prelate was made Archbishop of the Head City or Metropolis of that Kingdom I am sure it argued what otherwise I my self did and could not but observe 1. That notwithstanding his ejection by the Fathers of purpose that they might please or rather not too much and too openly displease him whose affairs and hopes he the very same Prelate or person though not then a Prelate endeavoured to betray and utterly ruine Anno 1659. and by whose application therefore to the General of the Order his ejection was urged home yet the same General and ruling Cabal of that Society understood him and he them very well all along both before and after his ejection or dismiss given to him And how therefore and notwithstanding it and continually after it he observed a no less intimate correspondence with them and promoted their interests no less wheresoever he might than he had before 2. That in a very special and particular manner he did so by undermining covertly in all occasions and opposing also publickly in some all he could the Subscription of the Remonstrance As if indeed by that Formulary or advance of it his whole Ignatian Order's Reputation in these Kingdoms lay at stake His Letter out of England ann 1666. to Father Barton the English Jesuit then in Ireland persuading him to hinder all he could the National Congregation from Subscribing the Remonstrance may testifie this abundantly Which Letter the said Barton shewed and read then to my self Or if he had seriously considered what was most certainly true how well nigh a whole Century of years albeit more especially since the Powder-plot Treason and Oath of Allegiance made by King James the Professors of that Society of the Ignatian Order have labour'd so mightily both by word deed and writing to impose on the World and above all other parts or people of it upon His MAJESTIES of Great Britains Roman-Catholick Subjects That the power or authority and the doctrine or positions renounc'd disclaimed and abjured by the Oath of Allegiance made by King James and consequently as Internuncio de Vecchiis sayes those also protested against by that our late Remonstrance are positive and affirmative points of the Christian Religion And that all sincere Catholicks ought rather to suffer not only loss of goods and liberty but of life also even death it self than take any Oath declaring against such matters And moreover That such a death questionless should would and ought to be reputed Christian Martyrdom in a proper and strict sense of these words and consequently also reputed that very Baptism of blood which of its own nature without any Sacrament not only washes away clean all kind of sins both as to guilt and even temporary punishment but further purchaseth that extraordinary even accidental glorious Garland in Heaven which the Divines call Aureola Martyrii 3. That his foresaid promotion whether Legal or Illegal or whether as much as Canonical or Uncanonical nay whether absolutely void invalid or null by the Canons of the Universal Church I question not here was upon such and the like consequential accounts further'd in an high measure by the above General Oliva and other Jesuits of the Cabal as a matter conducing mightily to their interest the principles and genius of the man and consequently that he was the fittest instrument they could pitch upon being considered And certainly whoever knows that Societies power in the Court of Rome and how ignominious a punishment note and blot Ejection out of any Religious Order is or is esteem'd to be when it is after so many years profession and continuance in such Order and is moreover pretended to be for criminal causes and withall how when there is no intrigue in the matter there must also by consequence be or certainly and commonly is rather some extraordinary hatred or at least a very great strangeness and distance 'twixt the Ejectors and Ejected than any kindness and besides without peradventure how easie it is for the General or even Procurator of any Order at Rome to obstruct the like promotion of any that hath ever at any time before professed their Institute and after deserted it whereas if the Canons of the Church or even those of the Tridentin Council nay or the very Papal constitutions and ordinary practice of scrutiny at Rome it self de vita moribus and other qualities of such Episcopal candidates be observed or not rather wilfully and extraordinarily omitted a very small Objection made by men of Authority will serve to that end but much more questionless the infamous note of having been ejected for criminal matters who ever I say considers all this will certainly out of the above Letter of Oliva infer That the foresaid late promotion was on those very same or like consequential
time overpowred by a declared Forraign Enemy And that amongst other such means and devices First the Commissary General alias Commissarius Generalis Familiae of the Franciscan Order in Spaine by name Pedro Mannero sent immediately into Ireland new Parents revoking and annulling the delegat Authority of Father Redmund Caron over all the Irish Franciscans of that Kingdom to take thereby all support of Church-Authority from the numerous party of them that were and would be still to the very last opposers of the Nuntio's Faction of those who design'd to alienat Ireland totally and utterly for ever from the Crown of England although it was then and now likewise clear enough that even according to the very General Statutes of that Order neither the said Manero nor any other in his Office had or could have by vertue only of such Office or without special Commission from Rome which yet he did not specifie or allude unto any kind of Authority over the above Redmund's Commissariat Power delegated unto him by the Belgian Commissary General of the North-west Nations Next and soon after that Danielâ—a Dungo an Italian being chosen Vicar General of the whole Franciscen Order throughout the World for the Minister General had been dead some moneths before during the vacancy of whose place the Belgick Commissary Reverendissimus Marchantius when he had no Superiour in the Order above him sent and delegated the foresaid Redmund with full Authority into Ireland commanded by the Supream Power at Rome sent a second Patent of his own whereby not only the Supream Power at Rome sent a second Patent of his own whereby not only the said Father Caron's delegation was totally extinct but a fierce Irish Nuntiotist by name Eugenius Fildeus or Owen O Fihilly put in the same power which Caron had over all his Order in that Kingdome And then also it was that wicked Cabals were every day a forming both in Camps and Cities amongst many both Ecclesiasticks and Laicks against the King's Lieutenant the Marquess of Ormond the Nuntiotist Clergy-men of Owen Oneills Party being indefatigable in making use of the Argument of ill success not considering they had themselves been the only chief and first causes of that very success nor scrupling once to mix truth and lies indifferently so they could as indeed they did corrupt thereby but too too many Then I say it was that Limmerick and Galway plaid their prizes and when so many Troops and Regiments so many even of Horse and Foot in every Province seduced into private Confederacies and correspondencies to undoe themselves expecting every day to see Emerus mac Mahon the Bishop of Clogher then General only of the Vlster Army to be declared by himself and others of his way in the other several Provinces and really to command as Generalissimo of all Ireland and to see presently Armes and Money arrived to him as such out of Spain by the Agency of Patrick O Duff a Franciscan now at the writing hereof in the year 1672. arrived in London as a Successor to the said Emerus in that Bishoprick of Clogher employed sometimes before out of Ireland into Spain for that purpose and consequently to see moreover a Forreign Protector of the Roman Catholick Religion c. But God otherwise provided the said Emerus's Vlster Army being defeated by the Parliament Forces in that Province and he himself taken and put to death by them An accident which I also my self bewailed though I had little reason if I had considered onely my self For no sooner had that Army come in upon capitulation on the death of Owen O Neill to the Duke of Ormond and march'd up to Kilkenny and with them the said Clogher and that he was made there one of the Twelve Commissioners of Peace in behalf of the former Confederates of Ireland and sate with the rest in that City before he was made General by the King's Lieutenant no sooner invited in by my self and sent by the rest of those Commissioners to the Franciscan Monastery where I my self was then Superior and a great company before him and Bishop also of Dromore reasoning together of some differences in order to compose them by the mediation of the foresaid Twelve Commissioners of Peace he upon my answering modestly enough some things alledged falling suddenly into a violent and extravagant passion and converting his face and speech to me by my own name then calling me Apostate and great Writer of Books though he mean't onely the little Book of Queries written against the Censures of the Nuncio and withal vehemently striking his hand on the Table at which he Dromore and many more of the company sate took a solemn bloody Oath That although it happen'd that all the rest of Ireland might peradventure be forgiven yet I never should But however these private matters were I return to what more to my present purpose happen'd then or immediately before and after that defeat and death of Clogher For a little before that as far as I can remember it was 1. That the rest of all or very near all the Archbishops and Bishops hoping all to be their own now that they had the Bishop of Clogher made General of the confident victorious Catholick Army of the North as they call'd it and amongst them even many of those Bishops too that so lately before appeared against the Nuncio's Censures met together at Jamestown in Connaught and together also with some other Clergymen Secular and Regular assumed to themselves the Supreme civil power by declaring and that by a publick Instrument dated at Jamestown in the Convent of the Franciscans there Aug. 12. an 1650. against the Kings Lieutenant General and General Governour of that Kingdom by restoring the former Confederacy and by excommunicating also all persons whatsoever that would any more obey him c. 2. That the five other Bishops and one Vicar Apostolick remaining at Galway did on August 23. of the said month and year confirm under their hands too and as to every particular what those of Jamestown had done 3. That the new Commissary Visitator of the Franciscan Order Eugenius Fildeus having before summon'd a Provincial Chapter to the Convent of Kilconel in Connaught and holding it the 17 of August that same year 1650. at such time as most of the other temporal Provinces of Ireland had been over-run by the Parliament Forces and yet encourag'd by the example of the Bishops and the Nuntiotists of that Order convening there in great numbers and such as were for His Maiesties Lieutenant and yet came thither for all came not being not only deprived of voices and otherwise too proceeded against contrary to all form of Justice even their Enemies also being made their Judges but moreover with Threats and actual violence used to the chief of them Father Valentine Brown Professor Jubilat of Divinity and a holy man and a man also who had been Provincial near Thirty years before being frighted to an unworthy
must run under the notion of unlawful and consequently besides other inconveniencies render our persons subject to the penalties of the Law I doubt not but that when ye undertake to convoke your Brethren to meet ye are very sure of my Lord Dukes connivence But what if Phanaticks Souldiers or some malignant person or persons taking no notice thereof should even to displease my Lord Lieutenant himself molest honest People Might not this happen very well when nothing appeareth openly to warrant our meeting That it may is very clear witness what has been done to the poor Franciscans in Dublin on or about Christmas anno 1663. notwithstanding their pretended connivence which to this day that I could ever learn availed not one F. Tully apprehended in that occasion And when people had not this president before their eyes such as having been Prisoners some time are now Bailed upon Bonds to appear at a certain day after they are summoned will be very shie to concur to a meeting wherein they may expose not only themselves to forfeiture of their Bonds but also such as are engaged for them to danger of great losses Further I am satisfied That if the distractions of this War newly declared betwixt us and France had occurr'd at the time of your meeting in November ye would not without my Lord Lieutenants special permission in scriptis offer to expose the chief of our poor Clergy to the mercy of many that have but little or no affection for our wayes For though our intentions were never so good the ill affected might as often they have done it with less ground misconstrue them and plead that our meeting was to brew mischief and to contrive a way to draw in the French to assert and support Popery in this Land And why should not they suspect some sinister dealings when they see People assemble without Authority and in this conjuncture of a Settlement wherein most of our Natives have but little of satisfaction whether right or wrong I offer these Reasons to your Lordships and my other worthy Friends considerations praying That ye be pleased to hammer upon them very seriously before ye persuade people to that which is conceived danger Things done without mask and above board are more acceptable and less subject to Calumny Let us have my Lord Lieutenants safe conduct and I am sure all will concur with hearts and hands to pleasure His Majesty and his Grace too or any other that may doubt of our Loyalty His Grace cannot deny this if he wisheth our meeting and less notice will be taken of his granting thereof now for a good end than may be of his interposing his Authority for us after in case of any trouble or disturbance such as we may not but fear My Lord I plead not for my own self herein I onely speak what I judge to be according to reason and discretion It is well known I may not hazard my self in that meeting as that am scarce able to peep out of my Chamber much less to undergo so long a Journey as hence to Dublin Moreover when more active and stronger my propension to Loyalty was so well known that I hope my Lord Duke will not suspect my integrity in my old Age. I ever loved to live in peace and so still contributed my best endeavours to forward it Now there is nothing under Heaven that in my judgment may stand with a safe Conscience but I shall be very apt to embrace to give my King and His Lieutenant all becoming satisfaction I will expect your answer to the premises and timely notice whether the above mentioned pass or safe conduct will be granted In the mean time wishing the Holy Ghost in your counsels and consultations I beg a share in your holy Prayers and Sacrifices for My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Jo Archiepiscopus Tuamon 1 March 1665. POSTSCRIPT Inasmuch as of all likelihood besides a Remonstrance of our Loyalty other matters will be debated in the above meeting of ours if it taketh effect I shall desire that your Lordship be pleased to let me have the Heads of all whereby people that have not means to stay long in Dublin may have time to digest leasurely their resolution against that occasion and so hasten I conceive this necessary and to be sent to each of those that are expected in that meeting This Letter should have been in your hand ere now but it chanced to have had a lett by the way that occasioned its return to my self again Now I send it by the Post 13 March 1665. As soon as this Answer came to Ardagh's hands his Lordship was pleased both to shew and leave it with me having taken with himself along and enclosed in his own Reply to the Archbishop a fair Copy of a Petition which to satisfie such pretended Scruples I drew to be Signed by the Archbishop himself and the four other Prelates who had subscribed the Indiction The tenour of that Petition was as followeth To his Grace the Duke of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant General and general Governour of IRELAND The humble Petition of John Burk Archbishop of Tuam Patrick Plunket Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Daly Vicar General of Ardmagh James Dempsie Vicar Apostolick of Dublin and Capitulary of Kildare and of Oliver Dese Vicar General of Meath in their own behalf and that also of all other Bishops Vicars General and Provincial Superiours of regular Orders of the Roman Communion in Ireland HVmbly sheweth That your Petitioners finding the Professors of their Religion in this Kingdom and especially the Clergy to lie always under many jealousies and suspitions of disloyal intentions towards His Majesty or State Government and Peace of this Kingdom by reason partly of their supposed or known actings either of all or some of them in the late unhappy War and partly of some Tenets of Religion relating to the Government or power of Government which they are supposed likewise by some to hold and by reason also of their so long demurring these three or four last years upon a Concurrence by subscription to a Remonstrance of Loyaltie subscribed and presented at London to the King and your Grace by the Catholick Bishop of Dromore and some other Divines and by the Nobility and Gentry of their Nation and Religion then at London as after by some others also of the said Irish Roman Catholick Clergy Nobility and Gentry at Dublin and finally by reason of divers though in your Petitioners judgment very groundless reports of several Plots contrived or designed by them since His Majestie 's happy Restauration but very particularly at present by occasion of the Forraign War declared by the French King against our Gracious Soveraign and his Dominions as withal by occasion of this last report though extreamly vain of a Plot amongst the said Irish Catholicks against the English as pretended to have been thought to be put in execution the last St. Patricks day in this very month And
finding themselves obliged by their duty of Subjects and Allegiance to His Majesty King Charles the Second of Great Britain and Ireland and by that likewise of good Patriots to their Countrey as by that also of Spiritual Pastors to their respective Flocks and of conscientious Christian Catholicks to their Religion and Communion in general To endeavour as much as in them lies to remove those jealousies and suspitions by assuring His Majesty and your Grace and the State in general and even all people too whatsoever or of whatsoever Opinion or judgment in matters of Religion and by assuring them also in the best manner they can of their at least present disposition and firm resolution for ever hereafter to continue indispensably faithful to His Majestie and to your Grace and to the State and present Government in this Kingdom according to the Laws in all temporal things and to live peaceably and neighbourly with their fellow Subjects of the Protestant Religion of what Nation or Countrey soever they be originally And finding nevertheless that by reason of some of the said Laws still in force in this Kingdom against men of their calling and Religion and by reason too of several Proclamations issued since His Majesties Restauration against any meetings to be held by them or any of them as also by reason of the aforesaid jealousies suspitions and reports they cannot safely without your Graces known permission and licence meet together in any place or in such a number as would be requisite for the above end of assuring His Majesty and your Grace of their fidelitie and that by a publick Instrument under all their own proper hands to be after signed also by all the rest of the Roman Catholick Clergy under their charge and that if they should otherwise attempt to meet to what intent soever they might not only be subject to misconstruction but also run a very great hazard of bringing on themselves and not on themselves alone but on all others too of their Communion in this Kingdom even on the Lay-people instructed by them unavoidable inconveniences and all the dangers of the Laws and instead of lessening heighten the jealousies conceived against them Your Petitioners therefore most humbly beg That your Grace may be pleased to License all your said Petitioners the Roman Catholick Arch-Bishops Bishops Vicars Apostolick and General and all the Superiours Provincial of Regular Orders with two Divines more of each or every such Regular Order and such other Divines too as the said Archbishops Bishops or Vicars General shall think fit to bring along with them and all such Proctors also as the said respective Prelats as well of the Regular as Secular Clergy shall in case of sickness or other Legal disability send in their own places provided the whole number of the Congregation or of all such Prelats Proctours and Divines exceed not seventy And that your Grace may be pleased to License them so to come freely without Lett or Molestation to Dublin and meet there on the Eleventh of June this present year 1666. and continue there together where and when they shall or as often as they shall think fit for Twenty days that is until the first of July following and to assure them Ten days more of Liberty and safety to return whence they came or whethersoever they please without any Lett or Molestation by any Offices Civil or Martial or any other whatsoever to the end your Petitoners may give your Grace and by your Grace to His Majesty that assurance as above which they heartily desire And your Petitioners shall Pray c. Dat Daly utriusque juris Doctor Albas ac Vicarius generalis Ardmachanus nec non totius Provinciae Judex delegatus Another fair Copy of this Petition I sent at the same time to the Vicar General of Ardmagh Patrick Daly as to one of the four that sign'd the Indiction to be likewise by him subscribed and sent back out of the North by the same time we expected the Archbishops return And Daly fail'd not but by next Post sent it immediatly back subscribed with his own hand thus as you have already seen Patricius Daly utriusque Juris Doctor Abbas ac Vicarius Generalis Ardmachanus nec non totius Provinciae Judex Delegatus But the foresaid Archbishop of Tuam guided as before by his Nephew Jesuit who also was both his Secretary and Clerk thought better instead of Subscription to return this following rejoynder Dated April 16. 1666. and superscribed thus For the most Reverend c. My Lord YOur Lordships Letters of the 3d. and 6th of this moneth were in the way to the 12th But this likely proceeded through my distance from the Post The first brought inclosed a Petition intended for my Lord Duke in behalf of our Irish Roman Clergy to obtain his Graces permission and safe Conduct for them to meet the 11th of next June The Second contained nothing but your Lordships Civility to me for which special favour I may not but rest beholding to your Lordship As for the Petition to tell your Lordship the plain truth of my opinion thereupon I think it not proper we should prefer it My reason First if my Lord Duke of whose and His Majesties good intentions towards us no body indifferently knowing can doubt were as desirous we should meet as your Lordship seemeth to be perswaded sure nothing would hinder his Grace of Commanding us to assemble independent of any Petition of ours and his Letters of safe Conduct dispatched to that effect without our Addresses would prove less subject to any inconveniences Secondly If I might apprehend our preferring of a Petition expedient sure I would also conceive necessary to have somethings altered in and added to that which your Lordship was pleased to send me to be signed Further if your Lordship and I did sign to and prefer the same ut jacet no doubt it might be thought by others as much concerned therein as we P. W ly done of us to meddle with Petitioning in their behalfs without their own privity or allowance What have we to do with Cashel or its Province What with Provincials of Regular Orders or their Divines if acting for them without Commission though a thing usual in this age we will not have our selves deemed over busie quod omnes tangit ad omnibus debet approbari especially matters of such weight as this is When my Lord Lieutenant pleaseth to command us to meet with his pass for our safety I dare say at least I hope so there is none amongst us but will very readily obey his Orders But if in the mean time his Grace countenanceth a motion or discourse of our Petitioning to that end some are of strong belief it is rather to eschew the importunity of some of our own then out of any desire he entertaineth to see us together whilst we demean our selves as I wish we should and hope we do without offence to the Government This My Lord
Ressort pour a la diligence de ses Substituts y estre pareillement leues publiees signifiees aux Professeurs de Theologie dudit Ressort a ce qu'aucun n'en pretende cause d'ignorance Faict en Parlement a Rennes le 21. Aoust 1663. We shall hereafter see those six above inserted Sorbon Declarations whether French or Latin as you have them here in both Languages out of the French Copy translated into English by the Fathers of our National Irish Assembly But for as much as it may peradventure be objected by some of the more unreasonably exceptious and contentious Irish That I ought rather to give here an exact Copy of the very and only Paris Impression it self in Latin of those Acts of that University than of any of them elsewhere in France Printed I thought fit to obstruct also herein such endless wranglers and give that which was transmitted in the said year 1663. immediatly from Paris to London Acta Parisiensia Declaratio Facultatis Theologicae Parisiensis per illius Deputatos Regi exhibita circa theses de Infallibilitate Papae OCtavo Maii die Ascensionis D. N. Jesu Christi convenerunt domini deputati de Mince Morel Betille de Breda Grandin Guyard Guischard Gabillon Coguelin Montgailard in domum Facultatis juxta decretum pridie in Congregatione Generali factum ut convenirent de iis quae Regi Christianissimo declaranda erant ex parte Facultatis per os Illustrissimi ac Reverendissimi D. Archiepiscopi Parisiensis designati cum Amplissimo Comitatu Magistrorum ejusdem Declarationes Facultatis Parisiensis factae apud Regem super quibusdam propositionibus quas non nulli voluerunt ascribere eidem Facultati I. NOn esse doctrinam Facultatis quod summus pontifex aliquam in temporalia Regis Christianissimi Authoritatem habet imo Facultatem semper obstitisse etiam iis qui indirectam tantummodo esse illam Authoritatem voluerunt II. Esse doctrinam Facultatis ejusdem quod Rex nullum omnino agnoscit nec habet in temporalibus superiorem praeter Deum eamque suam esse antiquam Doctrinam a qua nunquam recessura est III. Doctrinam Facultatis esse quod subditi fidem obedientiam Regi Christianissimo ita debent ut ab iis nullo pretextu dispensari possint IV. Doctrinam Facultatis esse non probare nec unquam probasse propositiones allas Regis Christianissimi Authoritati aut Germanis Ecclesiae Gallicanae libertatibus receptis in Regno Canonibus contrarias v. g. quod Summus Pontifex possit deponere Episcopos adversus eosdem Canones V. Doctrinam Facultatis non esse quod summus Pontifex sit supra Concilium Oecumenicum VI. Non esse doctrinam vel dogma Facultatis quod summus Pontifex nullo accedente Ecclesiae consensu sit infallibilis Ita de verbo ad verbum Acta Parisiis Impressa Regi exhibita Mense May 1663. For so word by word is the Printed Copy of the very Latin Paris Impression of these Acts and Six Declarations presented to His Most Christian Majesty in the month of May 1663. XIII THE Reader may now questionless expect an account from me of some either learned or at least prudential debate amongst the Fathers in so grave an Assembly upon so solemn a Message as you have before seen to them on such a Subject from the Duke of Ormond His Majesties Lord Lieutenant then of that Kingdom But I am sorry I can give none at all either of the one or other sort nay nor of any either learned or unlearned or prudential or imprudential because of no kind of debate on that Message For indeed they took no more notice of it than if none at all had been sent them the leading men the Prelats and their numerous and sure sticklers over-awing and silenceing presently any that seemed inclining to move for paying as much as any even due or civil respect in such matters to the Lord Lievtenant or as much as to dispute the equity of what their Cabal had privately before the Congregation sate resolved upon viz. not to comply with His Grace in any material point but to sign and present a new unsignificant Formulary of their own i. e. That prepared to their hands and utterly decline That which His Grace expected from them yea not to suffer any mention at all to be as much as once made in publick of the former Remonstrance So powerfully influential on them was their Prophetical opinion of wonders to be expected by and for themselves done in that wonderful year of 1666. Nor did they seem at all to consider they might be as well defeated of all such their vain worldly carnal hopes of Empire Glory Pomp which they drove at as the Apostles were when before receiving the Holy Ghost in fulness on the 5th day they put this vain question Domine si in tempore hoc restitues Regnum Israel But to leave animadvertions so it was indeed That the Fathers did not once debate not only not the heads of the Procurators Speech but not a word of the very Message from his Grace Albeit they considered how to gratifie the Procurator himself for what was past i. e. for the liberty they had now enjoyed for so many years since 1662. through his endeavours and oblige him also for the future to continue the like endeavours for them as their Procurator And indeed I had scarce been an hour abroad hard by them walking in a Garden to take the fresh air after my long speech which together with the heat of the room made me retire a little when Father Francis Fitz Gerrald a Franciscan one of the Members of that Congregation as Procurator for the Vicar General of the Diocess of Cluan a vacant See in the Province of Casâ—el came with pleasing news to flatter me as he thought telling me the Congregation had voted two thousand pounds sterling to be Levied of all the Clergy of the Kingdom by several gales to be payed me towards my expenses hereafter in carrying on as general Procurator the great affair of their liberty and freedom as till then I had the four last years Him at that time I only answered that was not the point to be either resolved or debated Soon after the Primat himself came forth to me where I continued alone walking And he also would with the same consideration have wrought me to a more plyant temper I answered him to this purpose My Lord you should have known me better then to think to amuse me with the news of any such prepostrous either motions or resolves There will be time enough to consider of such inferiour matters when you shall have first done your duty in order to the King to my Lord Lieutenant and Protestant State Council Parliament which are and ought to govern you under God in all temporal affairs nay your duty to your Native Country and Irish Nation your Church and Catholick Religion and when you shall consequently
to suffer themselves to be carried on or hold to such rash resolves but to consider more seriously and maturely what the consequences might be For said I as to the First Either you intend to give the Lord Lieutenant full satisfaction by comprising plainly in your new Formulary the whole sense of the former Remonstrance or you do not intend any such matter but only to present him with some unsignificant Formulary not reaching home the points in controversie If the former to what purpose then would you vary from the words of that Remonstrance not only signed allready by a Bishop by so many other Divines and by so great a number also of the Nobility and Gentry all of your own Church and Communion but so solemnly presented to so graciously accepted by his Majesty so much to your ease and quiet hitherto promoted and so much also desired by His Majesty and Lord Lieutenant to have your further concurrence to it by your Manual Signature Do you intend to render your selves not without cause suspected by changing that form to work a Schysm amongst those of your own Communion and Nation To condemn all those who have Sign'd the first Formulary Do not you see it lawful for you in point of Conscience and Religion to approve what hath been done already for your ease by so many Noble Learned good Patriots but unlawful for them to fall from the justification of it Must the supercilious ungrounded Letters of Roman Courtiers or unconscionable unchristian ignorant censures of a Forreign University have such power amongst you Must Passion or even a mistaken interest rule you that are the Priests of God and carry you headlong to Schysm Besides consider the Lord Lieutenant will understand very well how it must follow That if in deference to the Roman Dictators you change as much as the words only of that Forme upon the same ground you must fall from the sense also when they shall presently send their next Letters condemning what you have done Lastly consider it is not against the words of the Remonstrance as any way less reverential that the Roman Court is or hath been hitherto incensed as you may see even in Cardinal Barberin's last Letters of April 24. this same year 1666 where he acknowledges the Remonstrance couch'd in bland oribus verbis but against the sense so that if you intend to give the sense of it in other words you must nevertheless incur their indignation If the later Do you think the Lord Lieutenant after so many years experimental knowledge of the meaning and purpose of such other several unsatisfactory Forms offered to him to decline that one which was and is satisfactory will not apprehend wherein you come short or think you he understands not English words or the material sense of them as well as you Think you that none of his Council can should himself not perceive the defectiveness Or think you that I my self could or ought to dissemble your imposing on His Grace if none else could see the Imposture But to what purpose do I question what you intend I know it Fathers And know you intend a Formulary coming short even in sense of all and each the very material passages of the Remonstrance even a Formulary that signifies nothing at all for His Majesties or Graces or Councils or Parliaments or even any particular persons either Protestants or Catholicks satisfaction as to the controverted points And therefore know 't will be rejected And what think you will the consequence be What in this conjuncture of publick affairs Erit novissimus error pejor priore And you will be certainly looked upon as men of profligate Principles and Designs and in due time also both considered and adjudged as men not worthy either of Protection or other Commiseration and not you alone but all the Clergy both Secular and Regular obeying you Nay which is yet more lamentable the very Lay-people observing you will be looked upon as men carried on blind-fold to or at least fitted and prepared for all pernicious designs when you are pleased to give the Signal As to the Second resolve or answer to my Second Querie concerning a Petition for Pardon I asked them whether they had forgotten the general either Rebellion or Insurrection which they pleased to call it of the year 1641 or the National Congregation of the Clergy Regular and Secular at Waterford under the Nuncio in the year 1646 or the other at Jamestown An. 1650 even after the Nuncio's departure or who in the mean time or rather indeed all along from 1641 to the year 1648 fought against both the Laws and those who had not only the Laws but the Kings especial Commission or who had been for the Nuncio's Censures against the Cessation who against both Peaces who for a Forreign Protectour who for the alienation of the Crown who for the design of Mac Mahon the Irish Jesuits Printed Book of Killing not only all the Protestants but even all such of the Roman Catholicâ— Irish who stood for the Crown of England and Rights of the King to Ireland and for choosing an Irish Native for their King Eligite vobis Regem vernaculum I asked them further did they indeed know none at all of the Irish Clergy yet surviving none of that very Congregation guilty of any of those matters or of any part of the Blood spilt in the late unhappy Wars or thought they it needless indeed to ask pardon of the King for such men in general or did they not know there was no Act of Indempnity yet for any such at least Clergy-men And then added Alas Fathers what a reproach will the very Presbyterians of Scotland whom you esteem the worst sort of Hereticks be unto you They have throughout all their Synods and Classes both unanimously and justly too agreed to beg the Kings Pardon and accordingly have beg'd and obtained it for their former actings And I have my self read their Petitions to that purpose in Print You that esteem your selves the only Saints for a holy Apostolical Religion will you come short of them in your duty Take heed Fathers that if you persist in your inconsiderate resolution I may not properly and truly for this very cause say to you that which our Saviour did in the Gospel to his own Countrymen the Jews who were yet the only people entrusted with the Oracles of God Amen dico vobis quoniam publicani peccatores precedent vos in Regnum Dei And here I expostulated again with the Bishop of Ardagh even before all the Fathers for his contrivance or at least very strange mistake both of my intention and words when I delivered my sense to his Lordship some two days before the Assembly sate first concerning such a Petition from them And repeated there in publick what passed between him and me on that Subject as you have it before at large Sect. 9. pag. 640. From hence I returned again to the former Subject of the
in the late Rebellion or civil War which you please to call it or even to speak one word for so much as a general Petition to be exhibited to his Majesty imploring His Majesties gracious Pardon No there was no crime at all committed by all or any of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland not even at any time nor in any occasion or matter happened since Octob. 23. 1641 if we must believe the Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunker pleading for them so in express terms and the tacit approbation of his words by the Universal silence of that Assembly nam qui tacet consentire videtur according to the rule of the Canon Law But who can believe either and not rather be hence convinced that God in his just indignation had suffered those Fathers to be for their punishment so strangely infatuated against all reason common sense the knowledge of all People and their own interest too For certainly and too too notoriously so they were all along in all their affairs during the fifteen days they sate but in this particular above any other even to astonishment However the Congregation being that evening adjourned to the next morning as soon as it was late and dusky having first prepared his way I went along with the Primat to the Kings Castle where my Lord Lieutenant received him privately in his Closet none being present besides me After salutes his Grace having first placed this greatest Roman Catholick Preâ—â—â—t of Ireland by him on a seat using him also with all other civil respect which the difference of Religion and reason of State could allow entertain'd him with a short but pithy material excellent Speech or rather lesson indeed It continued about a quarter of an hour And I must confess that in my life to my remembrance I never heard so much to the purpose said either so short or so well with so much weight and gravity not only not from any Lay-person to a Church-man but not even from an Ecclesiastick to any even Laick Nor was my judgement herein single The Primat himself confessed so much even openly too next morning before the whole Congregation as soon as they were sate and some occasion was offered him to speak before them of what the Lord Lieutenants Grace had recommended to them Nay he confessâ—d it also in these very Latin words Tanquam Angelus Del loquutus est mihi rendred in English Like an Angel of God he spake unto me What the heads were may be easily guessed out of what is said before both of the Primat himself and other matters hitherto in this Second part And the words I have lost because the Paper which contain'd them Yet I remember 1. They began exactly thus You know very well it was not for your good deeds the Pope created you titular Primat of Ardmagh 2. That all the while the Lord Lieutenants Grace continued speaking the Primat never as much as once lifted up his eyes but bare headed as the Lord Lieutenant also was held them still immoveably cast down and in truth behav'd himself because so conscious to himself as like a guilty penitent Transgressor admitted to the presence of his Lord as any could 3. That when His Grace the Lord Lieutenant either asked or minded him of what conditions I had proposed for his safe return and writ to himself to France he denied again that he had received that Letter 4. That I repeated thereupon in that presence of both the same Arguments I had the day before to the Primat alone to shew the unlikelihood of this excuse or at least my extream wonder at such a chance having nevertheless let fall some other words of purpose to lessen all I could before his Grace the Lord Lieutenant this weakness of the Primats answer 5. That his said Grace notwithstanding he saw clearly enough it was a meer story yet seemed not once in the least moved not as much as to reply one word on that or other subject to contristate or afflict him more but with much civility and obliging kindness recommended to him to improve the present opportunity in the Congregation for his own and Clergies and Countries best advantage and endeavour not only to rectifie but in some measure to satisfie for whatever had been not well done at any time before and so dismissed this Prelat very much satisfied with his gracious reception These are the heads of what I remember occurred or passed betwixt His Grace and this Primat then being the only time they conferred or saw one another And yet I must here take notice to the Reader That soon after the Congregation had been dissolved the Primats own Vicar General Doctor Patrick O Daly together with an other Priest of his Diocess lately then come from Paris told my self each of them at the same time with me at Dublin they had themselves severally heard from the said Primats own mouth That indeed he had in Paris before he came away thence received that Letter of mine which he so lately denyed both to me and to the Lord Lieutenant to have received but that he dared not acknowledge it either to the Duke or me or any other should tell because he then might be justly called in question for other matters if he signed not the controverted Remonstrance which yet partly through fear of the Court of Rome and partly too for other causes he neither dared nor would sign XV. THE next day being the fifteenth of June and fifth of the Congregations sitting the Lord Lieutenant having sufficiently understood their little sense of the only end for which he permitted them to meet and further how some of them had endeavoured to highten a false report of his intentions to depart suddenly out of Town of purpose to pretend they wanted time to consult or deliberate and so excuse themselves if they gave not full satisfaction it being consequently alledged they could not with safety continue their sitting when his Grace were so departed and for this reason they were better immediately sign the Instrument prepared to their hands viz. the insignificant one of which before and which you shall see in the next Section and then without further hazard of themselves Dissolve his Grace therefore thought fit to send them by Richard Bellings Esq a second Message to be read as it was this day read to them out of a written paper publickly and exactly word by word as here followeth after the Title The LORD LIEUTENANT's Second Message to the Congregation THat I understand it is reported I intend in a few days to leave this City and that it is thence apprehended by those of the Romish Clergy now met here that they may not have time to consider of and conclude upon the business for which their meeting is permitted namely for Subscribing to the Remonstrance and Protestation subscribed and presented to His Majesty in January and February 1661 by divers of the Nobility Gentry and Romish Clergy Whereupon I think
Of their own Kings being of an other Communion and of their own not being maintained by His Majesty and by his Laws in either jurisdiction or Possession of any benefices c They ought the rather give his Majesty and all his Protestant People that satisfaction was justly demanded of them for clearing their Religion from the scandal of such unwarrantable Positions by signing the contrary of those which not disowned by them must consequently and even justly too keep them perpetually under those Laws and penalties whereof they complained and that it mattered not a Pin for the truth of those Three Sorbon Declarations applyed c or the justice and lawfulness of signing them so applyed whether our Gracious Kingâ—s Religion were Orthodox or not because they concern'd not all either his Religion or Communion as every one might see by reading them but abstracted wholly from both and certainly as much at least every one of them as any of the three first which they had already subscribed or were preparing to subscribe nay that the two last of all viz. the Fifth and sixth had no kind of relation to the King of England or Clergy of Ireland more then to the French or Spanish Kings and their National Churches That what other reasons or arguments I made use of then to confute those evasions or other allegations whatsoever of the aforesaid both Chairman and Father Nettervil and to perswade the rest of the Congregation you may see at large in the French Treatise which of purpose answers their Paper of Reasons whereof presently That to do all the right I can to the other two of the last Committee sent me during my short recess from the Congregation those I mean who together with the aforesaid Father Nicholas Nettervil in behalf of the Congregation offered me That they i. e. the same whole Congregation would sign all the Six Sorbon Propositions I must declare that Father John Talbot though a Jesuit being one of those two and Doctor Angel Golding the other of them seconded me on the Point and in my own hearing and presence both earnestly and vehemently pressed the Fathers to make good what they had promised i. e. to sign unanimously the Six Sorbon Declarations applyed though what the said two Members did or how they carried themselves in my absence I do not know certainly but suppose the best of them That notwithstanding all the reasons which were given by me or them or any other if indeed any other spoke to that purpose of signing those Three last Declarations for I remember not that any other did at least concernedly or to purpose while I stay'd in the House that day I was no sooner withdrawn as my custome was every day to withdraw for a time of purpose to leave the Fathers at the more liberty to conclude after I had spoken all I thought fit then the Factious Multitude without any further reasoning but with their own blind passions and privat interests i. e. expectations of preferment from the Court of Rome hurried on by the above either notable French Agents or at least not very Loyal Subjects the Chairman and Nettervil to whom you may well adde the Bishop of Ardagh bear down immediately the other side and vote no Subscription at all of those three last Sorbon Declarations That nevertheless at the same time they order a Committee to draw up their Reasons or Motives i. e. the most specious pretences they thought might be fixed upon for excusing their not Subscribing those Three last to be together with a new Petition from them presented to His Grace the Lord Lieutenant That the remainder of this 18th day of the Monteh yea and the whole nineteenth following was chiefly imployed in drawing and agreeiog on the said Reasons or Motives and a new Petition to be annexed That all being at last agreed upon and assented to by the Congregation Father John Burk Vicar General Apostolick of Cashel and Father Cornelius Fogorty Doctor Vtriusque Juris as he Subscribes himself were deputed to present the said paper of Reasons and Petition to the Lord Lieutenant but without so much as any one hand at all Subscribed to either that Paper or this Petition That these two Fathers hoping as it would seem to have the better success in their Negotiation i. e. to impose on the Lord Lieutenant His Grace the Duke of Ormond if they could have access to His Grace without the Procurators introduction of them or knowledge of their going For the Procurator understanding what the Congregation voted in his absence on the 18th day in the evening came not at them any more that or next day or even until the 21. or if he did thought not fit to stay long or concern himself to know what besides they had resolved upon and Cornelius Fogorty building also his hopes partly upon the honour he had himself formerly at Paris had of some little acquaintance there with the then Marquess of Ormond as also upon his fellow Deputy Messenger John Burks being Chaplain as he pretended to the Right Honourable and truly vertuous Lady Thurles so nearly related to His Grace that I say these two Fathers who upon such hopes thrust themselves rather then they were out of any choice put on this employment as it appeared after not at all speaking nor acquainting the Procurator with their Message or intention got some other person to go along with them to His Grace not in the Kings Castle but then diverting himself with some Noblemen in the Bouling-green near the place where the Congregation sate and on the 20th of June but tenth day of that Assembly present His Grace with the said Petition and other annexed Paper of their Reasons why c. Both which exactly copied follow here The Congregations Second Petition or that on June 20. 1666 presented by John Burk and Cornelius Fogerty To His Grace the Lord Duke of ORMOD LORD LIEUTENANT of Ireland The humble Petition of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland SHeweth That your Petitioners have of late Subscribed and presented to your Grace a Remonstrance manifesting the obligations of duty and Loyalty which your Petitioners do and ever shall owe unto their Soveraign Lord the King and withal subscribed Three Propositions which they humbly conceived did conduce unto a further setting forth of the Principles of their Loyaltie thereby endeavouring to give your Grace all possible satisfaction and as touching the Three Propositions sent unto them for to be Subscribed they now return the annexed of the Motives why they did not sign them from your Graces further satisfaction hoping it may meet the success they wish for It is therefore the most humble Request of your Petitioners That your Grace will be favourably pleased to dismiss them and the rather because most of them have not wherewithal to defray so long and chargeable Attendance in this City And your Petitioners shall Pray The Paper of Reasons why c. presented at the same time by
ignorance to assert nay and endeavour also even before his own face to maintain That because the King was out of the Roman-Catholick Church it was not lawful to pray for him at all or at least not publickly on any other day in the year than good Friday nor then in particular for him but in general only i. e. forasmuch as he was comprehended amongst the great generality of Infidels or of Jews Mahumetans Pagans and Hereticks for whom altogether the Church prayed on good Friday as being the Aniversary of that day whereon our Saviour dyed for all the Children of Adam in general nor yet then or so to pray for him without some further qualification and restriction of what we should beg of God or wish from Heaven to him i. e. to pray only for what concern'd the Spiritual welfare of his Soul and therefore only to pray for his Conversion to the Roman-Catholick Church but not for his Temporal prosperity in this world until he be a true Member of the only true Church 2. That although his own endeavours partly and partly those not only of the rest of the former Remonstrants but of other good men who albeit they had through fear of the Roman Court and other Ecclesiastical Superiours not subscribed the Formulary or Remonstrance of the year 1661 yet in their Souls and where they durst both in word and deed too approve it had prevailed in most parts of the Kingdom against this wicked Heresie of not praying as they ought for the Supream Temporal Powers he knew notwithstanding too too well that all opposers were not yet perswaded to decry this errour down or to practice against it 3. That notwithstanding the ignorance or malice of such disaffected Church-men the Holy Scriptures to speak nothing at all of Natural Reason in the case or I mean of that reason which directs us to wish well to all men and love our Neighbours as our selves were plain enough both for Praying and Sacrificeing too even for Idolatruos and Heathen yea persecuting Heathen Princes and not only for their Spiritual welfare but their Temporal as Baruch 1.11 and 2 Timoth 2.1 at least joyned together manifestly prove For certainly the Princes and Kings for whom Paul desires Timothy and all other Christians to pray for Heathens and Nero amongst them was the very first Persecuting Roman Emperour And no less certainly both Nabuchodonozor and Baltassar in the Prophet Baruch were Heathen Princes and the former He that sacrilegiously robâ—d the Holy Temple nay utterly in his time subverted the Kingdom of the chosen People of God and carried the miserable remainders of them Captive to Babilon 4. That no Church-canon or Custom or Rubrick or Reason or Doctrine or Practice hath any power to prescribe against the Laws of God or their eternal reason declared in both the New and Old Testaments 5. And Lastly That nothing could more justly render us to all Protestants both suspected of disloyalty and odious for immorality than such our scandalous either opposing or omitting so known a duty Secondly for the later or second part of that same first of those Three Heads he let them know likewise That although not even the Subscribers of the very former Remonstrance or of that of the year 1661 may be thought to be obliged by the only precise contents of that Formulary To acknowledg either the Kings Authority in commanding any meer spiritual duties or the Peoples obligation in point of Conscience to obey the King in such commands yet no man of knowledge will thence conclude that the intention or design of that Formulary or Subscription of it was either formally or virtually i. e. tacitly and consequently to deny all such Authority in the King or all such obligation of conscience on either Lay people or Clergy but only in plain and express terms to acknowledge the Kings other kind of independent Authority viz That in Temporals and for commanding in all Temporals universally according to the Laws of the Land of the misbelief or denyal and rejection of which even Vniversal and Independent Authority in Temporals it behooved the Subscribers to clear themselves or at least those in general in whose behalf they Subscribed and Remonstrated That such concern and such intention or design is very far from any consequution or sequel implying their denyal of the Kings Authority for commanding some Spirituals even truly such nay or of his Authority for commanding Vniversally all Spirituals whether not purely or purely such to be duly perform'd by all Subjects both Lay and Ecclesiastical respectively as they are in their several capacities by the Laws of God and man directed enabled and obliged to perform and discharge them and therefore also very far from any conseqution implying their denial either of Peoples or Clergys obligation in point of conscience to obey the King whensoever He commands a due and holy observance or performance and discharge of such Spiritual works which neither of their own nature nor by any icrcumstances or ends prescribed by Him are vitiated or against the Laws of God but are in every such respect acts of true Religion Piety and Holiness For who sees not That a general affirmation of one sort of Authority in Kings and of a correspondent tye of obedience thereunto in Subjects must not infer a general renunciation or denyal of another kind of Authority in the one and tye on the other when these latter can not be truly said to be inconsistent with those other That both the Examples even of the most religious holy Kings either amongst the Jews and Israelites in the Old Testament or amongst Christians under the dispensation of the New yea in the more early times thereof and the Doctrin of the Fathers and natural reason too in the case manifestly prove this Authority in all Kings for commanding even such spiritual duties and consequently this obligation of and tye of Conscience on all Subjects of whatever Religion true or false the same or different from that professed by their Kings to obey them even in all such their commands whither given by Law or by Proclamation or other temporary Precept That to this purpose the Books of Paralipomenon do furnish us plentifully with the examples of David (a) 1 Parlip cap. 23 cap. 28. 2 Paralip 8 Ezechias (b) 2 Paralip 29. and Josias (c) Ibid. 35. to say nothing now of Joas adhuc dum bonum (d) Ibid 24. faceret coram domino nothing of Salomon (e) 3. Reg. 2. Vide etiam 4. Reg. 18 23. cap. 2 Paralip 19 34 35. cap. Et Mac. 4.59 Ester 9.26 Dan. 3 19. â—on 3.7 c. and the Civil Laws of the Christian Emperours of Rome the Books of the Code Pandects and Authenticks furnish us no less plentifully with examples of Constantine the Great Theodosius both the older and younger Honorius Martianus Justinian Heracliuus Leo and many more amongst whom Carolus Magnus and
met and played and run bolt up right and streight with as much activity and strength as the tallest and most active of all the rest of the youths and as if he had never been cripled even to the extream wonderment of every one that had known before This much did that Gentleman Mr. Geoffry Brown assure to me of his own knowledge as likewise That he never heard that that man so cured had at any time after relapsed into his former state of a Cripple And that this was all he could say for certain of Father Finachty which happened says he I must confess many years ago in the Protectors time adding withal That of other matters then or before or since related of him he could say nothing nor could deermine for his own part whether that he saw was a true Miracle or no. This relation from Geoffery Brown together with Mr. Belings very great and confident opinion went far to perswade me that in some at least former instances whether by reason of the Faith or of the strong Imagination of those came to Father Finachty to be cured by him or whether of any special gift or Grace he had from God somewhat happened to some few persons that seem'd Miraculous And truly Mr. Belings in particular was so confident of such Gift and Grace in him that not long after this my self being present he moved the Lord Lieutenant very earnestly for a new Pass to be given to the said Father to the end he might freely and publickly appear again and practice where ever he pleased even at Dublin Though I must withal acknowledge that my Lord Lieutenant seem'd no less confident that nothing done by him was truly Miraculous but whatsoever was reported of him was either a lye or a cheat or at best and most and where or if any thing on some occasion or to some ones self did seem done to himself a work of meer fancy and strong imagination saying nevertheless to Mr. Belings and me That notwithstanding such his opinion of Finachty yet he affirmed not the ceasing of Miracles Vniversally in all parts of the Church or world nor denyed but peradventure at the very present even some Jesuits wrought true Miracles somewhere and on some occasions in the East Indies Japan or China for the Conversion of Infidels but then also adding withal and in the last place assuring Mr. Belings That however says he if Father Finachty come to Dublin and do but one Miracle only of all the incredible numbers reported he shall lye even in my own bed here within the Kings Castle and be as safe and free as I to come and go at his pleasure But Mr. Beling says he then concluding look you to it that instead of acquiring honour and converting Protestants to your own Religion by bringing that Miraculous man of yours hither and exposing him to more prying more narrow searchers than any he hath met with amongst men that are themselves willing to be deceived you find not quite contrary effects and make him an object of scorn for Mountebankery and your selves of laughter for your credulity as I am sure you will Now partly because Mr. Belings notwithstanding all his former earnestness for and esteem of that famous man desisted from any further prosecution of this business i. e. from any invitation of him to come and appear at Dublin for the Conversion of Protestants and partly too because I heard so many others albeit no less either zealous or judicious Roman-Catholicks of a quite contrary opinion to Mr. Bellings in Finachty's concern nor moved at all by Geoffrey Brown â—s Relations I also gave over then any further enquiry resolved nevertheless to renew it again if peradventure I should hear afterwards of any more new Wonders or new Miracles wrought But I did not hear a word of such new matters not even for the whole Twelvemonth next coming Nay he not contrary and in the mean while the Earl of Clancarty assured me That himself was present when and where Father Finachty during his late pass and progress about the Kingdom Exorcised publickly at the Lady Thurls in Ormond with all his might and strength and consequently also exercised all his power of Wonder-working or Curing miraculously and there observed That when he the said Exorcist Father Finachty had done with some who were brought to him or whom he himself had fixed upon as Demoniacks and another thrusting in through the crowd had succeeded in their place as having a sore shoulder and desiring to be Cured thereof Father Finachty looking first on it and seeing it even visibly sore not only answer'd in the hearing of all were present and near him as I was said the foresaid Lord of Clancarty That it was a natural sore i. e. an evil or disease proceeding from natural causes only and consequently from other than any Diabolical work by possession obsession or otherwise and That he had nothing to do with any sort of meer natural disease whatsoever but pursuant to this answer refusing to meddle with or practise on that sore-shoulderâ—d man dismiss'd him openly and presently without having once attempted to cure or to ease him by Exorcism or other exercise of praying or crossing or blowing or stroaking c. Besides this relation of my Lord Clancarty I was told also about the same time by another person of very good credit a Connaught man too of the same Countrey with the said Father that he viz. Finachty had formerly been servant in his youth to one Father Moor an old venerable Jesuit and skilful Exorcist That of this same Father Moor it was he learn'd his Art or knowledge of Exorcising And that besides that knowledge and his own continual practice and long experience wherein he might be wholly directed by the known Books of Exorcisms as Flagellum Daemonum and such other as without question he was throughly conversant in them he could not truly pretend to other extraordinary power gift or vertue These two so particular and positive relations of men whom I had much reason to believe could not but very much further my being wholly taken off at least for a time from inquiring more after that good Father unless or until peradventure I did upon some new grounds understand more of him and that of new Miracles and these too more authentick than the former reported of him And yet I will not deny but Mr. Brown's Relation and his Testimony continued still more deeply fix'd in my Thoughts and had more weight with me than I could by any means rid my self of But it was not very long ere I had again the powerful Argument of universal Report and that even from London of the said Father Finachty's new and most prodigious and manifold signs and wonders wrought there For about a Twelve-month or thereabouts or at least not much more after he had from his former Circuit withdrawn himself back to Connaught and and that all persons were silent concerning him
confundetur super eum cum venerit in gloria Patris sui cum Angelis sanctis And then of the prediction Odio eritis omnibus propter nomen meum And after in the last place of the benediction of the encouragement and great reward therefore Beâ—ti eritis cum vos oderint homines cum separaverint vos exprobraverint ejeâ—erint nomen vestrum tanquam malum propter filium hominis gaudeâ—e in illa die exultate ecce enim merces vestra multa est incaelo secundum haec enim faciebant prophetis patres eorum 3. That the Clergy of Ireland least of any Clergy in the world hath any such dependencies at this present of the Pope and his Court. They have not from him or any else either benefice or pension if not perhaps some few Capucines and a very few more that receive from that Court and for their mission yearly some little inconsiderable sum Their benefices and patrimony is the sole benevolence of the poor Catholick Laytie which the Pope cannot take from them if themselves please And therefore must be the less excusable by much I speak according to humane weakness For it is a confessed truth they should not for the whole temporal patrimony of the Pope or Prince either speak or be silent against their Faith in such an occasion at least as that was of the Congregation And for their dependence of him in spirituals properly or purely such they know very well the maxime of the great Apostle There is no power to destruction but for edification Besides they are sure enough the Pope would not if he could lessen or weaken or discountenance that And that his Holyness cannot but understand very well that the veneration of his See and of his predecessors hath been much greater when this pretence of infallibility was far lesser and that that may be again expected when this shall be no more challenged and that to this end besides the regard of Souls the continuance of them in their spiritual functions in Ireland will be as useful as so many Church-men amongst such a people 4. That besides their independence in any kind of temporals from the Pope or his Court both Clergy and Laytie of Ireland of his communion are generally ruined as we see at present and eternally too for ought we see both themselves and posterity after them in their temporals and God send that only in their temporals for through and by their too much observance of that Court and the supream Bishop of it and yet nothing the more relieved or regarded after by him or his Court if a few parchment-rolls titulary Bishopricks or Vicarships in partibus that is here at home in miserable Ireland but given withal to such men only as were imployed by the chief Ministers of that Court of purpose to add fuell to the fire instead of quenching the flame while there was either fire ot flame or may be further yet any such expected be not reputed a relief or regard of a whole Nation that lost it self unfortunatly upon such foolish accounts And consequently least of any Catholicks in the world ought to regard the odium of that Court where they saw no other odium of other men against them on the account which only ought to be regarded amongst them of having done any thing against the truth or will of God against faith or religion which neither N. N. nor any else of the Congregation did as much as pretend unto against this sixth or any of the two former propositions unsubscribed by them 5. That if notwithstanding so many so clear and satisfactory answers the Fathers of the Congregation be yet unsatisfied of the unreasonableness and and unsufficiency of this pretence of odium to decline the subscription of the Popes fallibility if their apprehension of being lessened in the esteem or favour of the most blessed Alexander the 7th or of those are powerful in his Court who may give or hinder those vain concessions of I know not what empty titles expected thence of the translation of one from one titular See to another or the succession of another to an Archbishoprick not vacant as yet or the promotion of a third and fourth to other two such vacant Sees or of so many others of them both secular and regular to as many Bishopricks as there are such Irish titles in the Roman list each one pretending for one and some for more to be sure at last of one or of some also to inferiour titles to Vicariats Apostolical or General or even to Deanryes and Parsonages though still bare titles only or of the election or institution of Regulars to their own peculiar offices of Provincials Commissaries Visitators Priors Guardians Rectors c If I say their apprehension or fear of seeing all their hopes of and long pursuit after such empty titles how inconsiderable and invaluable soever in their own nature or esteem of others thwarted crossed frustrated wholy perswade them as yet of the reasonableness of this pretence of odium in the Roman Court against the question or that resolution of it or if moreover their expectation or inclination to which God forbid should be or I should charge on them a new conquest by forreigners in the present conjuncture of affairs in this year 66. expected by so many to produce as many more wonders do help on that perswasion of that resonableness and that no consideration no regard of what becomes Apostolical Bishops of Christ and Priests of God to do for discharge of their conscience in point of declaring their faith or doctrine especially on such an occasion as that was whereof we treat then I must tell Father N. N. and rest of our fathers of the Congregation in the first place that they proceed inconsequently alleaging here that odium for their excuse in not subscribing the 6th which if any such odium be they have incurred before for subscribing the first three For certainly the Popes and that Court have ever yet farr more concerned themselves in maintaining their pretences of power to depose Kings than that other of infallibility in themselves without a Council In the next place that they quite mistate and mistake the wayes to attain or retain what they would be at For matters as to them too run not in the same Channel now they have under former Princes this last hundred years We have through Gods favour a Gracious and wise King and Ministers answerable that can and will make some neerer inspection into the affairs and intrigues of their Roman Catholick Subjects of the Clergie as well as into those of others and as farr as they relate to their own safety and that of all their Subjects of whatever Religion or Communion And in the last place that supposing or granting the very worst of their expectations desires or fears that which no true Subject or good Catholick of these Dominions can desire yet as to such contingencies also future
religious or civil or both and by all right reason it is to be condemned in all temporal Kingdoms or Common-wealth where the civil laws of the land declare and provide against it as Treason or Rebellion 6. We hold it uncatholick false and scandalous doctrine which teacheth that Apostacy Schisme Heresie or any kind of sin or sins how grievous soever or any Excommunication or other Ecclesiastical censures of the Church of Christ how ever denounced can or do of their own nature as they abstract from the civil power and laws of the civil Magistrate or of the respective Kingdoms and Sâ—ates deprive any person whatsoever Prince or Subject of any of their temporal rights or Dominions or warrant any other to take away their life or any way annoy them in their persons or goods 7. We hold it manifestly impious unchristian and against the word of God to averr that a King lawfully such by title may upon any pretence whatsoever even of Schisme or Heresie or also of tirannical administration either in civil or religious matters or both be murthered or killed by any of his Subjects even in case the Pope alone or joyntly with other spiritual or temporal superiours of the Church should licence or pretend to licence it either by a publick or private or pretended sentence of Excommunication Deposition or Deprivation 8. The doctrine which teacheth that a King lawfully such by title and possession is no more King after he is deprived or deposed by the Popes sentence upon any pretence whatsoever and consequently teacheth by a vain and wicked distinction that who killeth him after such sentence killeth not a King but a private man or a publick and tirannical Usurper is false dangerous and intollerable amongst Christians 9. Notwithstanding the allegations of some for the general exemption of Clergie men by divine or human laws or both from the secular power We hold that all both Secular and Regular Clergie men whatsoever born and residing within any of His Majesties Dominions are by the law of God subject to His Majesties supream temporal both directive and coercive power as to that of their onely supream temporal Lord on earth from which none can justly pretend any exemption either divine or human other than what by the allowance favour and indulgence of the supream Magistrate and laws of the land are in force and use however they may have a right to be exempted in some cases from the temporal jurisdiction of inferiour Judicatures 10. Subjects professing declaring or subscribing any conscientious Oath Instrument Form or paper of their Allegiance and fidelity to their Prince in temporal affairs cannot in conscience make use of the doctrine of equivocation whereby they may be said to have a reserved sense in their words or mind not obvious or not conceived generally by others that intend no deceit 11. Nor can they in conscience then or at any time after make use of that other new doctrine of some Casuists or Probablists as they are called which teacheth the lawfulness of changing opinions and practices thence consequent at pleasure or as oft as you will even in matters of conscience and which teacheth consequently the lawfulness of following the opinion of others in those you judge less safe and less probable and following them even against your own fixed judgement and practising accordingly For to extend this doctrine of such Casuists that least the cases of either publick or private contracts much more or much less or any way at all â—o that of a publick or even private profession of allegiance to the Prince were nothing else but to teach perjury deceit and perfidiousness and to take away all faith and truth and safety from the world even from all kind of society of men Wherefore notwithstanding any controversie about the lawfullness of any form professing allegiance to the Prince and notwithstanding some peradventure may be who may say and even upon probable grounds either extrinsecal or even intrinsecal the said form to be unlawful that is unconscionable yet if it be not evidently such but on the contrary probably lawful it must ever hind him that taketh sweareth or subscribeth to it so that he may not at any time ever made in practice follow the contrary opinion notwithstanding any multitude or authority of its Patrons less than that of the Catholick Church 12. After mature perusal examination and discussion of the Remonstrance or Protestation of Loyalty subscribed in ouâ— at London by the Catholick Bishop of Dromore Father Peter Walsts and other Divines and by the Catholick Irish Nobility and Gentry then likewise there as also by others after both of the Clergy and Lavity here at 〈◊〉 in Ireland We find and we declare this to be our opinion judgment and conscience That notwithstanding the censure of those few Divines of the Lovaine-Faculty a censure some three years since and very imprudently too by the Agency Solicitation and Importunity of some of our Countrey-men procured and notwithstanding the Letters now of late or even those formerly sent to this Nation as from and in the name of Cardinal Francis Barbaâ—â—â— from Rome or those others from Bruxels and from the two succeeding Interâ—â—â—iuâ—'s there Hieronimus de Vâ—cchiis and Iacobus Rosâ—â—gliâ—sâ— and notwithstanding any other allegations whatsoever against the said Remonstrance or Protestation yet there is nothing in the said humble Remonstrance Acknowledgment Protestation and Petition that may justly be repâ—ted against the Catholick Faith nothing that may not be owned and subscribed with a safe conscience by every good Catholick Subject and consequently nothing that under the guilt of sacriledge or other sin ought or can at any time hereafter be disowned by such as have already or shall hereafter subscribe that Instrument And we further declare it to be our opinion judgment and conscience That for many reasons and specially for that of avoiding the imputation and scandal of our Adversaries that the Roman Catholick Tenets are inconsistent with the loyalty of Subjects due unto Protestant Kings and consequently of a disloyal inconstancy to be brought on themselves and the Catholick Religion they are bound under the heavy guilt of a sacrilegious breach of that Protestation not only not to revoke at any time for fear favour or any other respect their subscriptions but also not to decline in any wise in whole or in part the doctrine of that Protestation or the practice of it in relation to His Majesty according to the true sincere and plain meaning of the words without any kind of equivocation abstraction exception distinction or mental reservation And to the end it may appear to all the world we neither have nor will nor can have any kind of reserve we thought fit to declare our selves fully even on all the six late propositions of Sorbon as applyable to his Majesty of Great Brittain and Ireland our gracious King and to his Subjects And therefore and being we have already in the eight first
Suar. Tolet. Cajet alii quos citat sequitur Bonac tract de decalog d. 3. q. 9. pu unic prop. 3. nu 4. 5. according to the Catholick doctrine to relie for it is a mortal sin to tempt God by expectation of miracles And is there any man of sense will say That a dispensation which draweth along with it so much evil could either be in it self just or have a just cause specially where the cause pretended is the declining of a sin in adhering to a Cessation wherein or in which adhering we have manifestly proved no sin could be committed Nay We have evinced the said Cessation could not be not adhered unto or could not be rejected by the Council and Confederates without most grievous and fearful sins and we have shewed this to be the constant doctrine of the Catholick Divines and of the Church of God and that when the contrary was practised through ignorance and temerity the experience was fatal and cost them dear Thirdly By reason of the disesteem it would bring upon all Confederacy and of the unsecurity manifest danger and confusion it would bring upon and throw into all Christian States and Governments For if by such dispensations and upon such grounds the common Subject could be withdrawn from his Allegiance and with a good Conscience rebel what Prince what State or Republick nay what private man could live one day in security whereas they often see before their faces such boundless enraged ambition and such cruel designs of some Prelates may this be spoken without disparagement to so many other great and good Prelates who by their vertuous lives and apostolical doctrine support States Kingdoms and Monarchies of Christianity as in particular several are seen to use with us at this present such praise-worthy endeavours for the preservation of the Confederates If together with this example it were maintained as a Catholick Tenet That such Prelates or Churchmen could at their pleasure or upon such designs challenge and assume a power of the Fortunes Estates Crowns Lives of Kings and Republicks by dispensing with particulars or promiscuously with the multitude or any other in their due obedience and Oaths of Allegiance what should not be hourly feared Lastly which is hence consequent by reason of the aversion and hatred it would breed in all Infidels and Sectaries against our Religion For what Prince State or Commonwealth of any other Religion would admit of ours if our doctrine of dispensations in the Subjects Allegiance were so destructive of all Policy and good Government and so cruelly wicked Let us therefore here and evermore stop our Christian ears from such blasphemies against the Law of God and the Faith of the Holy Roman and Universal Church in all Ages to this present time And let us leave such Antichristian principles to Luther Calvin and such other infernal Furies who covered a great part of Europe with the blood of Christians by doctrine in substance not unlike this but certainly no worse than this and whereby they at their pleasures armed the Subject against the Prince and the People against the Magistrate for the destruction of Christianity and of the Church of God Read the Catholick Author who writ on Fox's Kalendar of Martyrs where he at large rehearseth the dangerous anarchical and bloody principles of late Sectaries specially of Puritans The Seventh and last Querie answered AS the present proceedings of the Lord Nuncio highly entrench with submissive reverence to his Grace we say it on all Supreme Governors on the Law of Nations the Honour of the Confederates and brings a scandal on our Holy Mother the Catholick Church which contrary to his Lordships proceedings teacheth and warranteth Promises Leagues Contracts Cessations and Peace made with Hereticks to be Religiously performed as we have seen in the second Supposition made in our Answer to the first Querie and in the Authors there cited and teacheth as we have seen before that all Subjects both Laicks and Ecclesiasticks Priests Fryers Jesuites Bishops Archbishops Patriarchs Cardinals are bound under mortal sin and eternal damnation to obey all Orders of the Civil Magistrate wherein evil and sin doth not manifestly appear which we have sufficiently proved not to appear in their orders concerning this great difference so it must follow that none of either state Temporal or Ecclesiastical may without shipwrack of his Conscience and loss of his Soul disobey the orders of the Supreme Council on sole pretence of the present proceedings of the Lord Nuncio these proceedings being now declared by strong and insoluble reasons to be unjust illegal invalid sinful commanding and enforcing to most enormous and execrable sins of Infidelity Perjury Rebellion Treason and to so many other abominable Crimes which stream out of these evil sources Whence is apparent how unsatisfactory and ignorant their Answer is who to excuse their disobedience to the Council alledge the Commands of their spiritual Superiours Guardians Pryors Provincials Bishops the Lord Nuncio c. to the contrary as if such Commands or of such Superiours or of any else whosoever temporal or spiritual were of more force to oblige their Consciences than the Commandments of God and than his Law which according to the Declaration made thereof unto us by St. Paul the Apostle Rom. 13. and by the doctrine of the Church of God the Holy Fathers and Catholick Doctors in all Ages on pain of eternal damnation enjoin both them and all such their Superiours whatsoever either of the Secular or Regular Clergy to obey the Council in all matters where manifest sin doth not appear And that sin doth not appear in any of the Commands of the Council concerning the faithful observation of this Agreement made with Inchiquyn yea notwithstanding any Censures of the Lord Nuncio we have more than sufficiently manifested and they who make this ignorant answer confess in regard it could not be hitherto found what Article or part of the Cessation might be with reason maintained to be sinful as by their flying to this strait they are constrained Otherwise certainly if they could shew any evil or sin therein they would rather make use of so reasonable an excuse for opposing the Decrees of the Council than of so bad a pretext as blind obedience to the Commands of Superiours who are as they obliged by the Law of God to be wholly subject to the Council for what concerns the peace and tranquility of the Commonwealth Wherefore what they call obedience to their Superiours is no true nor vertuous obedience but vitious but sinful but against their Conscience but damnation to their Souls as the Apostle hath because it implies plain disobedience to and transgression of the Commands of God who must be obeyed before all men of the earth Will any even of themselves deny but their obedience to the Commands of their Superiours enjoining them Rapine Theft Murther Adultery Sacriledge c. or enjoing them never to confess their sins never to pray
strong motives and moral certainties produced before in our Answer to the second Querie and which we may have to persuade us that the Supreme Council who are chiefly aimed at in this business had no such evil intentions Which together with all hitherto said being duly pondered by them who now seem so adverse to us in opinion but by them discharged a little of passion retyring into their Souls and looking with an eye of indifferency upon this difference we doubt not but they will acknowledge before God the truth of our Assertions and with how little reason but great hazard of eternal salvation they disobey the Commands of the Supreme Council on pretence of the present proceedings of the Lord Nuncio and we hope as we most heartily desire with all our Souls that they or at least such of them as have an affection to Loyalty and a true zeal of Gods cause will by their unfeigned and repentant submission to the Supreme Authority established by the Kingdom make happy these Answers labour'd as the shortness of time did permit for their conversion and satisfaction of all good Patriots by DAVID Bishop of OSSORY F John Roe Provincial of the Excal Carmelites Nicholas Taylor Doctor of Divinity William Shergoli Professor of Divinity Prebend of Houth and Vic. For. of Fingal Fr John Barnwall Lector of Divinity Fa Simon Wafer Lector of Divinity F Peter Walsh Lector of Divinity Luke Cowley Archdeacon of Ossory and Protonotary Apostolick Laurence Archbold Vic. For. in the Deaneries of Brea Tawney and Glandalagh F Christopher Plunket Guardian of St. Francis Convent in Dublin Fa John Dormer Guardian of St. Francis 's Order at Castle-dermot Fr Bonaventure Fitz-Gerald Guardian of Kildare F Laurence Matthews Preses of Carmel Kilken F Laur. a sancto Bernardo Paul Nash Prebend John Shee Prebend of Main James Sedgrave FINIS THE FIRST APPENDIX CONTAINING Some of those PUBLICK Instruments related unto PARTLY IN THE QUERIES AND PARTLY In several places of the precedent WORK or in the Four Treatises of this FIRST TO ME. VIZ. I. The Oath of Association or that which was the essential tye of the Roman-Catholick Confederates of Ireland as such according to that Form wherein it was taken or renewed in the year 1644. II. The Lord Nuncio's Excommunication and Interdict by him and his Fellow Delegates or Sub-Delegates fulminated on the 27th of May 1648. against the Adherers to the Cessation made with Inchiquin III. The Supreme Councils Appeal interposed on the 31 of May the same year to His Holiness Pope Innocent X. from the said Censures Nuncio and His Fellow Delegates c. IV. The Articles of the Second Peace or of that on the 27th of the following January same year 1648. according to the old English computation but the 7th of February 1649. according to the new Roman stile concluded betwixt His Majesty CHARLES I. and the Roman-Catholick Confederates of Ireland by James Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Special Commissioner for His Majesty in treating and concluding that Peace V. The Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Irish Prelates at Jamestown 12 Aug. 1650. against the said Marquess Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of Ireland wherein they assume to themselves the Regal Power restore again the Confederacy declare the said Marquess devested of all power c. VI. The Excommunication of the same date fulminated by the same Irish Archbishops Bishops and others against all persons whatsoever obeying any more or at any time thenceforth the said Marquess however the King 's Lieutenant Printed in the Year M.DC.LXXIII The Preamble to the Oath of Association WHEREAS the Roman-Catholicks of this Kingdom of Ireland have been enforced to take Arms for the necessary defence and preservation as well of their Religion plotted and by many foul practices endeavoured to be quite suppressed by the Puritan Faction as likewise of their Lives Liberties and Estates and also for the defence and safeguard of His Majesties Regal Power just Prerogatives Honour State and Rights invaded upon and for that it is requisite That there should be an unanimous Consent and real Union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the Premisses and strengthen them against their Adversaries It is thought fit by them That they and whosoever shall adhere unto their Party as a Confederate should for the better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the Publick Cause take the ensuing Oath The Oath of Association I A. B. do profess swear and protest before God and his Saints and Holy Angels That I will during life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland and to His Heirs and lawful Successors and that I will to my power during my life defend uphold and maintain all His and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights the power and priviledge of the Parliament of this Realm the fundamental Laws of Ireland the free exercise of the Roman-Catholick Faith and Religion throughout all this Land and the Lives just Liberties Possessions Estates and Rights of all those that have taken or shall take this Oath and perform the Contents thereof And that I will obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by the Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom concerning the said Publick Cause And that I will not seek directly or indirectly any Pardon or Protection for any Act done or to be done touching the General Cause without the consent of the major part of the said Council And that I will not directly or indirectly do any Act or Acts that shall prejudice the said Cause but will to the hazard of my Life and Estate assist prosecute and maintain the same So help me God and his Holy Gospel By the General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland Kilkenny July 26. 1644. Upon full debate this day in open Court Assembly it is unanimously declared by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Knights and Burgesses of this House That the Oath of Association as it is already penned of Record in this House and taken by the Confederate Catholicks is full and binding without addition of any other words thereunto And it is ordered That any person or persons whatsoever who have taken or hereafter shall take the said Oath of Association and hath or shall declare by word or actions or by persuasions of others That the said Oath or any Branch thereof doth or may admit any equivocation or mental reservation if any such person or persons be shall be deemed a breaker of his and their Oath respectively and adverse to the General Cause and as a Delinquent or Delinquents for such offence shall be punished And it is further ordered That the several Ordinaries shall take special care that the Parish-Priests within their respective Diocesses shall publish and declare That any person or persons who hath or shall take
10th of August from the Bishops met at Jamestown being delivered to Us on the 12th of the same by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly Dean of Tuam We desired them for the more sure and easie understanding and answering a Proposition of so high importance to reduce the substance of their message unto writing which on the 13th of the said month they accordingly did Which after We had considered and imparted to the Commissioners of Trust We found could not be so well answered in writing as We hoped it might be by a free and personal Conference with the said Prelates which on the 26th of this month We hoped might have been had In which hope We travelled hither at a time when Our presence towards the passages upon the Shannon betwixt Killaloe and Lymerick was very necessary for the defence of that part of the Kingdom lying on this side that River But finding now that the said Prelates have not found it convenient to be here We do according to your desire return Our answer to the foresaid Proposition by the Bishops of Cork and Clonfert And so We bid you heartily farewell from Loghreogh the 31 of August 1650. Your Lordships very loving Friend ORMOND To Our very loving Friends the Prelates met at Jamestown These An Answer to the Message delivered to Vs by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelâ—y Dean of Tuam from the Prelates met at Jamestown by vertue of their Letter desiring us to give full Credence to the said Bishop and Dean dated at Jamestown the 10th of Aug. 1650. The substance of which Message may be reduced to these particulars I. THe Message or Advice which is Our speedy repair to His Majesty to procure Supplies for the relief of the Kingdom leaving the Kings authority in the hands of some person or persons faithful to His Majesty and trusty to the Nation than which they say they can find no other expedient or remedy for relief of this gasping Nation and preservation of His Majesties interests therein or to prevent the ruine and desolation of all II. The reason of this Advice which is That thorough the Trust reposed in Us by His Majesty and our own interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred in the Nation they hope those Supplies may more easily and speedily be obtained by Our mediation than by any other means III. The Prelates promise undertaking that in the mean time which We understand to be during Our absence they will do what lieth in their power to assist the person or persons that shall be entrusted with the Kings authority Whereunto We answer That as the principal motives inducing us thorough some hazards and many difficulties to come into this Kingdom were the obedience We owe to His Majesties command and Our earnest desire to preserve this Nation in their Allegiance to Him wherein We alwayes have and ever shall place Our interest and the interest of such Kindred and Allies as will be guided by Our advice or example so We shall alwayes readily expose Our Self to the like or greater hazards and difficulties to remove out of the Kingdom when We receive His Majesties command for it or shall be convinced that our removal tends more to His service and the preservation of the Nation than our stay We confess That observing the destructive disobedience and obstinacy of divers persons and places We were once of opinion That We might have done Our King and Countrey better service by withdrawing Our Self than by continuing here by how much there would then have been less ground for division when the Nation should be governed by one or more of their own Religion And sure We were That the stronger the resistance were that should be made against the Rebels under what conduct whatsoever the better it would be for the King and for the Nation And though We held it not fit for Us even in point of Honour in flat terms to propose Our removal which might have met with as great misinterpretation as other actions and propositions of Ours intended for the good of the People have done yet in a Discourse had with many of the Prelates first at Lymerick and afterwards here VVe did in a manner lead them to the Proposition they have now made And VVe freely acknowledge That if they and the Nobility and Gentry here met in April last had not in writing and in discourse given Us assurance That they not only desired Our stay but would endeavour to procure such obedience to Us as might enable Us with hope of success to have gone on in the VVar VVe should have made use of the liberty given Us or command then laid upon Us by His Majesty to have freed Our Self from the vexation We have since endured and the dishonour VVe foresaw VVe should be subject unto for want of that power without which as We then told the said Bishops c. VVe should be able to do nothing considerable for the King or Nation Those assurances VVe have transmitted to His Majesty as also Our resolution to attend the effects of them But those disobediences still continuing VVe have again acquainted Him with the state of His Affairs here and do daily expect His pleasure upon the representations VVe have made to him without which unless forced by inevitable necessity VVe cannot answer Our removal out of the Kingdom VVhich is our first and principal reason why VVe may not comply with the advice given Us. Another reason is That VVe plainly observe That though the division is great in the Nation under Our Government yet it will be greater upon Our removal For which in a free conference VVe should have given such pregnant evidence as VVe hold not fit this way to declare The third is That though since the meeting here where we were assured of such effectual endeavours to procure obedience to the King's authority placed in Us the particular disobediences VVe then instanced have continued and been improved by many other affronts yet it hath pleased God to raise His Majesties affairs elsewhere to so hopeful a condition that may occasion His Majesties sending Us such commands as VVe should be sorry should not find Us upon the place In the last place it is most certain That no mediation of Ours will prevail so much with His Majesty for sending relief and supplies hither as the representations VVe desire to be enabled to make of the dutifulness and obedience of the People whereunto to dispose them VVe do again call upon you to make use of all the means within your power Given at Loghreogh the 31 of August 1650. ORMOND By which VVe conceive it appears That neither from that message had VVe cause to fear that such terrible Declarations and Excommunications should so suddenly without any more warning have followed Our refusal or delay to remove out of the Kingdom The moderation and civility of their message and the reasons set down by Us for Our not going considered
and us IV. They proposed that an Vnion cannot be had or preserved for preservation of the Nation without keeping the King's Authority among us for that many of those considerable will instantly make their conditions with the Enemy the Kings Authority being taken away and that there is no hopes of leaving that Authority with us but by revoking the Excommunication and the Declaration for it will not be left by the Lord Lieutenant or undergone by Clanricard but on those terms Whether there is ground for the sense of the Commissioners delivered in and upon these heads We leave to themselves to make good and to the event that shall follow the refusal of the Prelates to hearken or assent to the Proposals of the said Commissioners But finding that in the Reasons given by the said Prelates for their refusal and in the Advices they give for the union and preservation of the Nation they have repeated some of those things wherewith VVe were formerly unjustly charged by them and have framed new objections against Us VVe shall take a particular view of each of them and as far forth as VVe conceive Our Self concerned shall give Answers to them though VVe had reason to hope That if the offer VVe made should not meet with the success VVe desired that yet so affectionate a manifestation of Our love to the Nation transporting Us to an overture of reconciliation with those that had so much injured Us would not have given ground for repeating of old and casting new Aspersions upon Us. Answers of the Committee to the Proposals of the Commissioners before recited First Article The abovementioned Letter was read containing his Excellencies undertaking for asserting the Peace and his demands of two Provisoes to that end Where we observe his Excellency informed His Majesty of certain disobediences and affronts put upon the Kings Authority and consequently suggested matter to His Majesty of making His Declaration against the Peace Answer VVe have in Our Answer * * Pag. 115. to the 11th Article of their Declaration answered to this Introduction and Our Letter out of which they make this Collection is but newly recited * * Pag. to which VVe refer them Second Article We have perused the King 's Declaration disavowing of the late Peace And are of opinion for ought to Vs appearing That the King hath thereby withdrawn His Commission and Authority from the Lord Lieutenant This is clearly proved out of a branch of the said Declaration taking away and nulling all Commissions granted by him In that Declaration the King will have no friends but the friends of the Covenant Hence it is evidently inferred That His Majesties Authority is taken away from the Lord Lieutenant unless he be a friend to the Covenant as we conceive he is not But if he be he is not our friend nor to be trusted by us in having authority over us In the same Declaration the Irish Nation as bloody Rebels are cast from the protection of the Kings Laws and Royal Favours It may not therefore be presumed That He would have His Authority kept over such a Nation to govern them We do join with you in that you represent to wit there is no safety to be expected from Covenanters or Independents for the Catholick Religion or this Nation If that of the Peace be proved the onely safety we are for it However we conceive the benefit thereof is due to us having made no breach of our part Answer Here they readily declare their opinion concerning His Majesties having recalled Our Commission and take pains to prove it by an unavoidable dilemma or that at least We are not their Friend nor to be Trusted by them and by another strong Argument they endeavour to prove His Majesty would not have His Authority at all kept over this Nation VVhen by this means they have as they think shewed it impossible That the Peace can be continued which they know it cannot without the continuance of the Kings Authority then they say if the Peace be proved the onely safety they are for it and that however they conceive the benefit thereof is due to them having made no breach on their part If they would make it their business to seek for Arguments to keep the Kings Authority over them they might perhaps find many and these as convincing as those they have found to dispute it out of the Kingdom as The Conclusion and Ratification of the Peace here by vertue of His Authority precedent to the Declaration seeming to annul it the certainty that He was in a free condition when he gave the said Authority and ratified the Peace concluded by it and The question that may be made whether he was so when he declared against it and lastly That by the Articles of Peace He is obliged to continue His Authority here from which obligation no Declaration at least importuned from Him by His Subjects of Scotland can free Him or take from this Nation who have no dependence on Scotland the benefit of the Agreement made by His Majesty with them Upon these grounds it was That until His Majesty had been fully informed in all that had passed here and declared his free sense upon it We offered to justifie the lawfulness of concluding the Peace and the continuing validity of it to those that had not forfeited their interest in it if We might have had the concurrence of these Bishops and obedience in the places by the strength and means whereof it might have been justified And surely this was an offer not meriting the scorn and bitterness wherewith it was rejected If they that contrived this Paper have made no breach of the Peace on their part We have lost much labour in the forepassed discourse But We believe We have proved they have made many and those the highest it was possible to make And sure they must be very partial on their own side if they think the benefit of a thing they reject is due to them Third Article Something of our sense concerning what way may tend best to the Nations preservation we will say beneath and do offer our clear intentions before God to join with you and all men in what will be found the best and safest way to such preservation Answer This is onely a profession which requires no Answer from Us. Fourth Article We are of opinion and did ever think all our endeavours should be employed to keep the Kings Authority over us But when His Majesty throweth away the Nation from His protection as Rebels withdrawing His own Authority we cannot understand this mystery of preserving the same with us and over us or how it may be done Whereas you say That many of those considerable will instantly make their conditions with the Enemy if the King 's Authority be taken away by himself as by His Declaration it is and not driven away by the Subject in such case when the People may not hold it likely they
will not agree with the Parliament for not having it We are of opinion the best remedy the King 's Authority being taken away as was said of meeting this inconvenience of the Peoples closing with the Parliament is returning to the Confederacy as was intended by the Nation in case of breach of the Peace of His Majesties part This will keep an union amongst us if men will not be precipitantly guilty of breach of their Oath of Association which Oath by two solemn Orders of two several Assemblies is to continue binding if any breach of the Articles should happen of His Majesties part The King 's Authority and the Lord Lieutenants Commission being recalled by the Declaration abovesaid we are of opinion the Lord Lieutenant hath no such Authority to leave If we must expose Lives and Fortunes to the hazard of fighting for making good that Peace seeing the danger and prejudice is alike to defend that or get a better Peace why should we bound our selves within the limits of those Articles so disavowed Answer To this VVe answer That if they were alwayes of opinion all their endeavours should be employed to keep the King's Authority over them their Declaration and Excommunication is a strange way of manifesting that opinion which Declaration and Excommunication bears date before His Majesties Declaration wherein they say He throweth away the Nation as Rebels So that whatever His Majesty hath done in withdrawing His Authority it is apparent their endeavour to drive it away was first in time In their advice of returning to the Confederacy appears the scope of their dilemma's and arguments against the continuance of the King's Authority over them which that they may be sure to be rid of they say VVe have not Authority to leave Their Reasons why in Conscience they cannot consent to the revocation of their Declaration and Excommunication follow Vpon consideration of the whole matter we may not consent with safety of Conscience to the Provisoes of revoking our Declaration and Excommunication demanded by his Excellency or granting any assurance to him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting the like in the future and that for many Reasons especially for First Reason That the King's Authority is not in the Lord Lieutenant nor power in us to confer a new Authority on him being also destructive to the Nation to continue it in him and preservative if in another And that was our sense when we declared against the King's Authority in his person Answer The King's Authority was to Us when the Declaration and Excommunication was framed by them they acknowledge And that it is still in Us notwithstanding His Majesties said Declaration VVe are able to make good if We could find it of advantage to His service or the safety of His good Subjects But that they confess It is not in them to confer a new Authority upon us is one of the few Truths they have set down Yet why they may not pretend to give as well as take away Authority and why they may not to Us as well as to others We know not They further say It is destructive to the Nation if continued in Vs and preservative if in another and this they say was their sense when they declared against the King's Authority in Our person We would gladly know what We have done to change their sense since the time that by their many professions formerly recited they seemed to be of another opinion If it be for doing little or nothing We believe We have made it appear they are principally guilty of Our being out of action That it will be preservative to the Nation to have Authority to govern it in another We shall be glad to be convinced in the event Second Reason We much fear we should lose the few Churches remaining under his Government as we lost under him all the Churches of the Cities of Waterford and Kilkenny and the Towns of Wexford Rosse Clonmel Cashel Fethard Kilmallock c. In this agreeing with the Maccabees Maximus vero primus pro sactitate timâ—r exat templi Answer The loss of the places mentioned here is answered elsewhere We shall only add That as Cashel was lately deserted by some of those these men esteem obedient Children of Holy Church so the same men could neither be persuaded nor forced into Kilkenny when they had orders for it and by that means both places were lost Third Reason His Excellency having declared at Cork That he will maintain during his life the Protestant Religion according to the example of the best Reformed Churches which may be the same in substance with the Oath of Covenant for ought we know we may not expect from him defence of the Catholick Religion Answer Whatever We declared at Cork in this particular was before the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and was published in Print and then well known to many of these Bishops So that they ought then to have been aware how they had concluded a Peace with one that had made such a Declaration rather than now after almost Two years to make it a ground of breaking the Peace What Our opinion is of the Covenant or the best Reformed Churches We hold not Our Self obliged to declare Resolved We were to defend the Peace concluded by Us in all the parts of it Which We have faithfully endeavoured to do and should still have endeavoured it if We had not been interrupted affronted and wholly disabled therein by the contrivement of those very Bishops their Brethren and Instruments Fourth Reason The scandal over all the world to make choice of one of a different Religion especially in Rome where His Holiness in His Agreement or Articles with the Queen of England had a Catholick Governour granted though not performed And we do fear the scourges of War and Plague that have fallen so heavy upon us are some evidences of Gods anger against us for putting Gods Causes and Churches under such a hand whereas that Trust might have been managed in a Catholick hand under the King's authority Answer Now at length they are come plainly to shew the true ground of their Exception to Us which they have endeavoured all the while to disguise under the personal scandals they have endeavoured to cast upon us They are afraid of scandal at Rome for making choice as they call it as if they might choose their Governours of one of a different Religion If this be allowed them why they may not next pretend to the same fear of scandal for having a King of a different Religion and to the power of choosing one of their own Religion We know not Touching any agreement made between the Queen of England and His Holiness for a Governour for this Kingdom We have never heard of any such and We are most confident That in the agreement and consequently in the want of performance Her Majesty is falsely aspersed by the framers of this Paper Fifth Reason That we shall