the mean time that no such Indictments Attainders Outlawries Processes or other proceedings thereupon nor any Letters Patents Grants Leases Custodiums Bonds Recognizances or any Record Act or Acts Office or Offices Inquisitions or any other thing depending upon or taken by reason of the said Indictments Attainders or Outlawries shall in any sort prejudice the said Roman Catholicks or any of them but that they and every of them shall be forthwith on perfection of these Articles restored to their respective possessions and hereditaments respectively provided that no man shall be questioned by reason hereof for measne rates or wastes saving wilful wastes committed after the first day of May last past V. Item It is likewise concluded accorded and agreed and His Majesty is graciously pleased that as soon as possibly may be all impediments which may hinder the said Roman Catholicks to sit or vote in the next intended Parliament or to choose or to be chosen Knights and Burgesses to sit or vote there shall be removed and that before the said Parliament VI. Item It is concluded accorded and agreed upon and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That all Debts shall remain as they were upon the 23d of October 1641. notwithstanding any disposition made or to be made by vertue or colour of any Attainders Outlawry Fugacy or other forfeiture and that no Disposition or Grant made or to be made of any such Debts by vertue of any Attainder Outlawry Fugacy or other forfeiture shall be of force and this to be passed as an Act in the next Parliament VII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon and His Majesty is graciously pleased That for the securing of the Estates or reputed Estates of the Lords Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders or reputed Freeholders as well of Connaught and County of Clare or Countrey of Thomond as of the Counties of Limerick and Tipperary the same to be secured by Act of Parliament according to the intent of the 25th Article of the Graces granted in the Fourth year of His Majesties Reign the tenour whereof for so much as concerneth the same doth ensue in these words viz. We are graciously pleased that for the securing of the Inhabitants of Connaught and Countrey of Thomond and County of Clare that their several Estates shall be confirmed unto them and their Heirs against Vs and our Heirs and Successors by Act to be passed in the next Parliament to be holden in Ireland to the end the same may never hereafter be brought into any further question by us our Heirs and Successors In which Act of Parliament so to be passed you are to take care that all tenures in capite and all Rents and Services as are now due or which ought to be answered unto Us out of the said Lands and Premises by any Letters Patents past thereof since the first year of King Henry the Eighth or found by any Office taken from the said first year of King Henry the Eighth until the One and twentieth of July 1615. whereby Our late dear Father or any His Predecessors actually received any profit by Wardship Liveries Primer-seizins Measne-rates Ousterlemaynes or Fines of Alienations without Licence be again reserved unto Us Our Heirs and Successors and all the rest of the Premises to be holden of our Castle of Athlone by Knights service according to our said late Fathers Letters notwithstanding any tenures in capite found for Us by office since the One and twentieth of July One thousand six hundred and fifteen and not appearing in any such Letters Patents or Offices within which Rule His Majesty is likewise graciously pleased That the said Lands in the Counties of Limerick and Tipperary be included but to be held by such Rents and Tenures only as they were in the fourth year of His Majesties Reign provided alwayes That the said Lords Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders or reputed Freeholders of the said Province of Connaught County of Clare and County of Thomond and Counties of Tipperary and Limerick shall have and enjoy the full benefit of such composition and agreement which shall be made with His most Excellent Majesty for the Court of Wards Tenures Respite and issues of homage any Clause in this Article to the contrary notwithstanding And as for the Lands within the Counties of Kilkenny and Wickloe unto which His Majesty was intituled by office taken or found in the time of the Earl of Strafford's Government in this Kingdom His Majesty is further graciously pleased That the state thereof shall be considered in the next intended Parliament where His Majesty will assent unto that which shall be just and honourable And that the like Act of Limitation of His Majesties Titles for the security of the Estates of His Subjects of this Kingdom be passed in the said Parliament as was Enacted in the One and twentieth year of His late Majesty King James's Reign in England VIII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That all incapacities imposed upon the Natives of this Kingdom or any of them as Natives by any Act of Parliament Provisoes in Patents or otherwise be taken away by Act to be passed in the said Parliament and that they may be enabled to erect one or more Inns of Court in or near the City of Dublin or elsewhere as shall be thought fit by His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom for the time being And in case the said Inns of Court shall be erected before the first day of the next Parliament then the same shall be in such place as His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom for the time being by and with the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Castelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunrie 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 Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them shall think fit And that such Students Natives of this Kingdom as shall be therein may take and receive the usual degrees accustomed in any Inns of Court they taking the ensuing Oath viz. I A. B. do truly acknowledge profess testifie and declare in my Conscience before God and the World That our Sovereign Lord King CHARLES is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and of other His Majesties Dominions and Countries and I will bear Faith and true Allegiance to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and Him and Them will defend to the uttermost of my power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever which shall be made against His or Their Crown and Dignity and do my best endeavour to disclose and make known to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors or to the Lord Deputy or other His Majesties Chief Governour
offences of what nature kind or quality soever in such manner as if such Treasons or offences had never been committed perpetrated or done That the said Act do extend to the Heirs Children Kindred Executors Administrators Wives Widows Dowagers and Assigns of such of the said Subjects and their Adherents who dyed on before or since the Three and twentieth of October 1641. That the said Act do relate to the first day of the next Parliament That the said Act do extend to all Bodies Politick and Corporate and their respective Successors and unto all Cities Burroughs Counties Baronies Hundreds Towns Villages Tythings and every of them within this Kingdom for and concerning all and every of the said offences or any other offence or offences in them or any of them committed or done by His Majesties said Subjects or their Adherents or any of them before in or since the Three and Twentieth of October 1641. Provided this Act shall not extend to be construed to pardon any offence or offences for which any person or persons have been convicted or attainted of Record at any time before the Twenty third day of October in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and one That this Act shall extend to Piracies and all other offences committed upon the Sea by His Majesties said Subjects or their Adherents or any of them That in this Act of Oblivion words of Release Acquittal and Discharge be inserted That no person or persons Bodies Politick or Corporate Counties Cities Burroughs Baronies Hundreds Towns Villages Tythings or any of them within this Kingdom included within the said Act be troubled impeached sued inquieted or molested for or by reason of any offence matter or thing whatsoever comprized within the said Act And the said Act shall extend to all Rents Goods and Chattles taken detained or grown due to the Subjects of the one party from the other since the Three and twentieth of October One thousand six hundred forty and one to the date of these Articles of Peace and also to all Customs Rents Arrears of Rents Prizes Recognizances Bonds Fines Forfeitures Penalties and to all other Profits Perquisites and Dues which were due or did or should accrue to His Majesty on before or since the Three and twentieth of October One thousand six hundred forty and one until the perfection of these Articles And likewise to all Measne-rates Fines of what nature soever Recognizances Judgments Executions thereupon and penalties whatsoever and to all other profits due to His Majesty since the said Three and twentieth of October and before until the perfection of these Articles for by reason or which lay within the survey or cognizance of the Court of Wards And also to all respites issues of homage and Fines for the same Provided this shall not extend to discharge or remit any of the Kingâ—s debts or subsidies due before the said Three and twentieth of October 1641. which were then or before levied or taken by the Sheriffs Commissioners Receivers or Collectors and not then or before accompted for or since disposed to the Publick use of the said Roman-Catholick Subjects but that such persons may be brought to accompt for the same after full settlement in Parliament and not before unless by and with the advice and consent of the said 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 Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them the said Lord Lieutenant shall otherwise think fit Provided that such barbarous and inhumane Crimes as shall be particularized and agreed upon by the said Lord Lieutenant and the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunric 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 Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them as to the Actors and Procurers thereof be left to be tryed and adjudged by such indifferent Commissioners as shall be agreed upon by the said Lord Lieutenant and the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunrie 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 Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them And that the power of the said Commissioners shall continue only for Two years next ensuing after the date of their Commission which Commission is to issue within six months after the date of these Articles Provided also that the Commissioners to be agreed on for tryal of the said particular Crimes to be excepted shall hear order and determine all cases of Trust where relief may or ought in equity to be afforded against all manner of persons according to the equity and circumstances of every such cases and His Majesties chief Governour or Governours and other Governours and Magistrates for the time being and all His Majesties Courts of Justice and other His Majesties Officers of what condition or quality soever be bound and required to take notice of and pursue the said Act of Oblivion without pleading or suit to be made for the same And that no Clerk or other Officers do make out or write out any manner of Writs Processes Summons or other precept for concerning or by reason of any matter cause or thing whatsoever released forgiven discharged or to be forgiven by the said Act under pain of Twenty pounds sterl And that no Sheriff or other Officer do execute any such Writ Process Summons or Precept and that no Record Writing or memory do remain of any offence or offences released or forgiven or mentioned to be forgiven by this Act and that all other Causes usually inserted in Acts of General pardon or oblivion enlarging His Majesties grace and mercy not herein particularized be inserted and comprized in the said Act when the Bill shall be drawn up with the exceptions already expressed and none other Provided alwayes that the said Act of Oblivion shall not extend to any Treason Felony or other offence or offences which shall be committed or done from or after the date of these Articles until the first day of the before mentioned next Parliament to be held in this Kingdom Provided also that any Act or Acts which shall be done by vertue pretence or in pursuance of these Articles of Peace agreed upon or any Act or Acts which shall be done by vertue colour or pretence of the Power or Authority used or exercised by and amongst the Confederate Roman-Catholicks after the date of the
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
the authority or passage alledg'd out of St. Bernard the answer is 1. That it is curtail'd by the Quoter the words immediatly following part of the same sentence and last period of that passage being purposely omitted That period being thus concluded by the Saint Séd sanè ad nutum sacerdotis jussum imperatoris Where he manifestly shews the difference betwixt the direction of the Priest and command in the Emperour over the temporal or material sword 2. That St. Bernard never mean'd to impose any any necessity of conscience on the Prince to draw his sword whensoever and as often soever as the Priest or Bishop would becken or nod or which is the same thing would advise counsel or endeavour to perswade him But mean'd only that the material sword should indeed be drawn by the Emperours command in such controversies or quarrels as the Priest might and ought in conscience to justifie according to the laws of God And that temporal Princes in undertaking war or in matter of publick or private justice where they must use the sword or force should if their be any doubt whether the undertaking or execution be according to the law of God or no and if themselves cannot resolve themselves should I say in such cases advise with or consult the Priest in that which belongs to conscience The Saint without any question supposing what the Prophet Malachy speaks That the lips of the Priest shall preserve knowledge and others shall demand of him the law of truth 3. That were St. Bernard speaking to the Bishops of Milan Constantinople Alexandria Antioch Ierusalem or to him of Paris London Toledo or Triers or to any other particular Bishop in the world that had a temporal Prince or General of War within his Diocess he might and would have said so much to him nay to the Priests that are no Bishops at all I mean the Ghostly Fathers or Spiritual Directors of Princes 4. That this very Saint himself doth abundantly clear all scruples in this matter For not to take notice of those words tuo forsitan nutu to quit the advantage of these other jussum Imperatoris both in this very passage quoted against me that other in his first book of Considerations to the same Pope Eugenius c. 5. is abundantly sufficient Non monstrabunt puto sayes he ubi aliquando quispiam Apostolorum Iudex sederit hominum aut divisor terminorum aut distributor tèrrà rum stetisse denique ego Apostolos judicandos sedisse judicantes non lego c. Ergo in criminibus non in possessionibus potestas vestra quoniam propter illa non propter has accepistis claves regni caelorum praevaricatores utique exclusuri non possessores Quaenam tihi major videtur dignitas potestas dimittendi peccata an praedia dividendi sed non est comparatio Habent haec infima terrena judices suos Reges Principes terrae Quid fines alienos invaditis After all which he gave in the same paper of his answers that is in the skirt of it this Advertisement The Reader may be pleased to take notice That however this be or whatever may be thought of this doctrine yet the Subscribers to the Protestation are not any way engaged either in the affirmative or Negative it being manifest that the protestation in it self abstracts from either part and consequently both from these Answers and the Queries too XXVII That besides and after sending the foresaid two or three Quaeries to the Procurator the Jesuits now I remember not which of them or by whom sent him this other of one single Quaerie and reasons for the Affirmative Which because it and the former were the only papers and indeed only Quaeries and Reasons either by paper or without paper insisted on seriously by them or any others in Ireland ever since this dispute concerning the Remonstrance began And none else but those Fathers of the Society and in this manner only insisted on them so I give wholly and exactly as in the original given me without any subscription Whether a temporal or corporal punishment may be inflicted by virtue of a spiritual power Some reasons offered for the Affirmative First it is a maxime of Aristotle and allowed of by all Statists Doctors of the Civil and Canon Law and by all Divines that frustra datur potestas directiva sine coerciva The spiritual power is directiva Therefore in all reason we must allow potestas coerciva or a coactive power I know the answer of such as hold the negative is that potestas directiva hath a coactive power intra eandem sphaeram that is to say when the potestas directiva is spiritual it must have potestas coerciva or a coactive power ejusdem generis of the same kind and therefore spiritual punishments are allowed to the potestas directiva spiritually as Excommunications interdicts c. but no temporal punishments To this I reply that they can scarce produce one Classick Author of any note that giveth this exposition and they that hold the affirmative may produce as many as ever wrote ex professo of this matter for the contrary teste Basilio Pontio one of the most eminent men of this age who expressis verbis saith haec est communis omnium Catholicorum opinio Secondly omitting many other proofs it is the opinion of two General Councils that of Lyons and that of Lateran though perhaps not enacted per modum decreti But because General Councils are undervalued by some that believe that only the diffusive Church is infallible I will stand to the general practice of the diffusive Church which is the surest way to know its opinion When any person is nominatim Excommunicatus he is not only put from Mass and deprived of the suffrages of the faithful but also he is forbidden any civil commerce and conversation with the faithful he must not eat or drink with them he must not discourse nor be saluted by them besides they are whipped and commanded to undergo austere penances But all these are corporal punishments Therefore the opinion of the Diffusive Church is that a spiritual power can inflict corporal punishments And this being once granted it must be also allowed that the corporal punishment may be the greater pro qualitate delicti and consequently when the crimes are great it is in the power of the Church to inflict great punishments corporal and temporal Thirdly It is recounted 2. Machab. cap. 2. that Antiochus being King of the Jews the Priest Mathathias seeing a Jew by the Kings command ready to offer sacrifice to the Idols killed both the Jew and him who by the Kings command did compel the Jews to sacrifice Is it found in Scripture that this act is reprehended or doth any of the holy Fathers condemn Mathathias of unlawful murther in this case The same Mathathias being ready to depart this world and give an account to God of all his actions exhorteth his Sons to take arms
is plain enough that if any pretend the Fathers of Agatha intended ought else it must consequently be granted this canon of theirs was not formed by them as of any matter in their opinion belonging to Catholick Faith or Laws of God or in their opinion also as much as enacted formerly in other parts by any civil or imperial or general institution or constitution made by the Christian Emperours of Rome or Constantinople but only formed by them that is by these Fathers of Agatha in pursuance and by virtue only of a local custom of Guien introduced by the command or connivence of the politick Magistrates of that little Kingdom or Countrey as regarding only the external politick administration direction or government of Churchmen which external politick government of the Church varies not seldom according to the variety of Times Kingdoms and Provinces And my reasons for saying so or for saying this to be plain enough are I. That at that very time it was otherwise by law and practice of the great Roman world or Empire in all other places generally being we know out of the imperial laws then in force and out of Ecclesiastical History that Clerks being summon'd to the civil Courts did generally in other Provinces both answer and appear without any reluctance or prohibition from Councils For this Council of Agatha was not held within the bounds at that time of the Roman Empire but under Alarick the Gothish King who at that time held Guien by hereditary and as formerly by concession too of Roman Emperours dismembred from the Empire and conferr'd on his Predecessors without any supremacy reserved to the Empire Which was the reason that in the beginning of the acts of this Council we find no mention at all of the Emperour but of the King Cum Dei nomine ex permissu Regis in Agathenscm civitatem sancta Synodus convenisset c. Ibique flexis genibus in terra pro regno ejus pro longaevitate populi Deum deprecaremur c. 2. That the above first part of this 32. canon of Agatha as likewise that whole one and twentieth canon of Tribur if construed to put a stop to Clergymen from following or acting in the forum of the lay Defendant is now at this time and hath been these many ages past abrogated by the common consent or custom of all people and nations Whereas the common law is now and hath been so long that a Clerk at difference with a Lay-man if he will be righted by law must commence his suit in the lay or civil Judicatory As we may see expresly declared to have been still the law cap. si Clericus 5. de Foro competenti where the Pope Alexander the Third hath thus decreed Si Clericus Laicum de rebus suis vel Ecclesiae impetierit Laicus res ipsas non Ecclesiae esse aut Clerici sed suas proprias asseverat debet de rigore juris ad forensem Iudicem trahi Cum Actor forum Rei sequi debeat licet in plerisque partibus aliter de consuetudine habeatur Therefore if these words or first part of the canon of Agatha Clericus nec quenquam praesumat apud secularem Iudicem episcopo non permittente pulsare are neither according to the common law ciuil or canonical of the christian world nor otherwise ever yet have been observed but out of custom only in so me or even many places as at that time of the Council of Agatha it was in Guien how can we esteem otherwise of the following words or second part of the same canon Sed si pulsatus fuerit non respondeat c. being there is no difference made in this canon it self Or who can affirm this second part was more firmly enacted by this Council or more generally observed by the Faithful Or otherwise then out of a civil custom and in pursuance and by virtue only of the supream civil power authority approbation permission or connivence in that Countrey And consequently who can rationally make it an argument of the exemption of Clergymen by the sole pure Episcopal Authority from as much as the subordinat civil Iudges Nay or an argument of their general exemption by the civil authority it self in other parts of the world at that time which was before Iustinians So little doth any part of this canon argue the exemption at any time of Clerks either in other parts of the world or in Guien it self from the supream civil Magistrate by any kind of authority imperial or Episcopal The fourth Council alledged for this exemption is that which they call Concilium primum Matisconense held in the year 576. as Barclay thinks or 581. as Spondanus or certainly 532. as the printed Acts. A Provincial Council it was of one and twenty Bishops Priscus Archbishop of Lyons presiding And as the Acts do shew called it was at the desire of King Guntheramnus who was one of the three brother Kings grand children to Clodoveus that devided France amongst themselves and left Orleance to him for his seat And all the Canons of it were in matter only of Discipline Amongst which the eight is in these words Ut nullus Clericus ad Judicem secularem quemcumque alium fratrem de clericis accusare aut ad causam dicendam trahere quocumqu loco praesumat sed omne negotium Clericorum aut in Episcopi sui aut in praesbyteri aut Archidiaconi praesentia finiatur And the fift and last Council alleadged in this matter by Cardinal Bellarmine l. 1. de cleric c. 28. ut supra is that which in order is the third of the Councils of Toledo and was held in Aera 627. being the year of our Lord Saviour Christ not 589. according to William Barclays computation but 593. according to Baronius and his continuator Spondanus Bishop of Apamia It is the 13. canon of those of Discipline or external reformation of the Clergie and people made in this Council which is pretended by the Cardinal as to his purpose And I confess this Council is of as great authority as an universal of all Spain and not of Spain alone but of the Bishops also of the Province of Narbon in France subject at that time to the Goths must be which therefore in Spain and as to Spain was stiled Concilium Vniversale having also had 70. Bishops that subscribed although not therefore a General Universal or Oecumenical Council simply such or at all such even for Discipline as to other Catholick Churches but in as much as received by them however several of its canons be inserted in Gratian this particularly whereof our present controversy is related 11. q. 1. cap. Inolita praesumptio And I confess too that Gratian hath truly related word by word this 13th canon as it is in the Council it self being this which I give here at length Inolita praesumptio usque adeo illicitis ausibus aditum patefecit ut Clerici Conclericos suos relicto
that exemption be indeed or truly amounts to I pass over the little value many Countries of the Pope's even very strict communion and both many great and Catholick and Classick Authors too even very great sticklers for the Papacy it self as de jure divino have for this Bull or obligation of it yea notwithstanding all the solemnity used at Rome every year in renewing it How yet they will not receive nor publish it nor suffer it to be published amongst themselves nor hold themselves obliged at all by the publication of it either at Rome or in other places Whereof as enough may be seen in Suarez and Salas de Legibus where they treat of this subject so that was a notable instance which happen'd at Brussels in Albert and Isabels Principality over the Low Countreys resigned to them for ever by the King of Spain Philip the Second when the Nuncio Apostolick there at that time an Italian Archbishop thought he had met with such a conjuncture as therein he might introduce that Bull and therefore caused it to be affixed to the gates of the great Church of St. Gudula yet by commands from the Council of Brabant and Archbishop of Mechlin it was presently torn and pulled down quia non accessit placitum Principis and therefore too any further publication or observation of it prohibited ever since Which relation I had my self from the reverend Fathers de Young and Derkennis two famous professors of Divinity in the Colledge of the Jesuits at Lovaine when I studied in that University But whether this be so or no or whether the great number of those very famous Catholick Divines quoted by Suarez and Salas and by others too who maintain stiffely that Bulla caenae obliges no man in any Diocess out of the temporal Patrimony of the Roman Bishop as neither any other Bull of the Pope at least in matters of Discipline where not legally both published and received by the particular Churches Bishops Princes Clergy and People whether I say that great number of Divines be well grounded or no in maintaining so the invalidity of this Bull of the Supper without a special publication and reception in every particular Diocess neither the one viz. of that relation of the Fathers nor the other to wit of these Divines matters one pinn For I have shewed already that whether so or no whether without such particular publication and reception obliging or not obliging according to its tenour it hath not one word or clause to prove Bellarmin's voluit if by voluit he understand what he ought to our present purpose that is if the Pope's having actually or de facto as much as in him exempted Clerks by a Decretal Epistle Bull or Brief or other Declaration whatsoever sufficient for such purpose as much as according to the doctrine of the very Roman Divines and exempted them too even from the very supream civil power it self of temporal Princes or States For I confess that if any will understand by Bellarmine's voluit a meer inclination affection or good will of Popes to do so if they had found it feasible or according to the rules of prudence to do so that is if they feared not to loose all by doing so it may be granted and ought to be granted that within this last five hundred years many Popes have been spirited so whereof that conroversie in particular of Paul the V. with the Venetians in the year 1606. is for that one Pope a very notable instance But withal it must be granted on the other side that either this is not it which Bellarmine intended by his voluit or at least that he intended nothing to even his own purpose For such a will signifies nothing because not executed The contests therefore of several Popes with several Princes or States about jurisdiction as relating to Clerks argues no more but that such Popes did suppose or at least would have others believe they did suppose Clerks already or by some former law of God or Man or by humane custom in some places left in all causes whatsoever to the Court Ecclesiastical But argues not that any of themselves or other former or latter Popes whosoever did so exempt or attempted to exempt them so And for their suppositions or euen admonitions and comminations of censures nay or actual and manifold censures fulminated in such controversies against their opposers it is apparent in Ecclesiastical History they were little regarded by Princes or States or by other particular Churches of the papal communion or by their Divines Whereof also besides the State of Venice and several other Kingdoms and Principalities we have a most singular argument in the proceedings of Philip the Second that most religious and Catholick King of Spain when after the Usurpation of the Crown of Portugal by Anthony the Bastard Prior of Crati who by the faction and countenance chiefly of the Churchmen of Portugal got himself crown'd he reduced and subdued Portugal to himself as the more lawful Heir of that Kingdom For Spondanus ad Annum Christi 1581. tells how this great Catholick King expresly refused to extend to the religious of Portugal his Act of general Indemnity which in the general Assembly of Estates held by himself at Lisbone the said year he granted all those other Portugueses had opposed his title or the Duke of Alva his General or who had submitted to the said Anthony Nay excluded positively in the same Act and from the benefit of it all the Regulars or Monks of Portugal and besides them none at all but the said Prior Anthony himself the Bastard Usurper illegitimate Sou to Prince Lodovicus Franciscus Portugallus Count Vimiosi Iohn his brother Bishop of Guardia fifty other principal ring-leaders of Anthonie's faction And tells moreover that notwithstanding the general discontent arising from such exclusion or exception and notwithstanding all the frequent expostulations and supplications to his Catholick Majesty to mitigate this rigour he could never be wrought upon until at least two thousand Priests and Monks had by several kinds of violent deaths in several places partly within Portugal it self and partly abroad in the Islands of Azoras been destroyed in the prosecution of the warr against the relicks of Anthoni's Faction whereof also many were said to have been privatly dispatch'd It is true indeed that Thuanus L. 74. quoted by Spondanus ad annum Christi 1583. relates how it was rumour'd that Philip by his Embassadours at Rome obtained a Bull wherein the Pope pardoned him the killing of two thousand persons consecrated to God by a sacred and religious life But it is also true that neither Spondanus himself though a very precise religious Catholick Bishop and a great defender of all just laws of Popes and priviledges of the Clergy nor any other Historian or Writer I have yet seen reprehends nor tells that any other Divine or Clerk or even the Pope himself did reprehend King Philip as having violated
all the power of the Emperour Frederick accompanied with such numerous and formidable legions and with all the Princes of Empire and Kings also of Denmark and Bohemia at Avignon whether this Emperour of purpose to entrap Lewis in a conference and force him to quit Alexander and 2. when immediatly after this he also personally visited this Pope Alexander apud Bobiense Monasterium where he was then retired presented him richly and did him so much honour and reverence that after kissing his toe he excused himself from sitting in the chayre prepared for him and with all his Barons sate on the bare ground at his feet and 3. That together with the said King Lewis of France at their meeting upon the River Loyre where this Pope mediated and concluded a peace betwixt them he out of exceeding reverence towards him and to countenance him the more against the Antipope Victor and Frederick the Emperour and for example to his own Subjects and those of France too and all others performed the office of a yeoman of the stirrop upon one side as the King of France did on the other leading his horse by the reyns both of them a foot on the right and left hand till they left him at his lodging as he after continued constant in his observance of this same Pope Alexander all along during the whole Schysme of three Antipopes created against him at such time and such a conjuncture as this Thomas Becket having been so elected by this Henry the Second as we have seen and so confirmed by this Pope Alexander the Third nay and immediatly upon his election and before any word sent to or received from Alexander though so neer him then as Mons Pessulanus in France having received investiture as the custom then yet was in England from a lay hand from that King 's own hand by receiveing from him a staff and a ring the first occasion spring or motive of all their following great long and fatal differences was very soon after unluckily happen'd even the very second year of his Archbishoprick that is immediatly after his return from that great Council of 17 Cardinals a hundred and four and twenty Bishops four hundred and fourteen Abbots and of an infinit number of other Priests and Clerks held in the month of May 1163. by Alexander at Tours in France concerning the Schysme where Alexander did such extraordinary honour to this our Canterbury Archbishop Thomas Becket as to send all his Cardinals two onely excepted who assisted himself out of town to receive him as he came to the Council But that which you are specially to observe here and first of all in order to our main purpose is what the particulars were of this first occasion spring or motives And indeed I confess that as Gulielmus Neuhrigensis tells us in the 16. Chapter of his History that at this Council of Tours though not publickly in the Council but privatly this our St. Thomas of Canterbury resigned his Archbishoprick to Alexander as not being able otherwise to bear the stinging pricks of his own conscience for having received the investiture of it from a lay hand and that Alexander again with his own hand invested him so he also tells us that the sole original cause of all the following fatal differences 'twixt St. Thomas and his King Henry the Second was that he would not suffer the King to proceed by law against criminal Priests that is would not suffer him to have them tryed sentenced and punish'd in the civil Courts or by the civil Judges according to that law which the King said was the law of the land the law and custom of his Predecessours But Cesars Baronius ad an Christi 11â—3 corrects Neubrigensis in both particulars And yet he or his Epitomizer Henricus Spondanus ad an Christi 1163 sayes that Neubrigensis was an Author of that time and both a faithful and accurat Writer Willelmus Neubrigensis sayes he hujus temporis scriptur fidelis aâ—â—enatus However Baronius corrects him in both the said particulars and sayes that as the first of Thomas of Canterburie's resignation happen'd in the year 1164. when being fled out of England he the second time accoasted the same Pope Alexander and presented the heads of those laws about which the consequent main contest was 'twixt the King and him so it appears out of the Acts of our Saints Life written by the before named four Authors of the said Acts that besides that of not suffering the King to proceed by law against criminal Priests which he confesses interceded yet several other causes preceded and most just causes too which imposed a necessity on the Saint to reprehend the King For sayes he these Acts relate how the King came to be incensed against him viz. because he endeavoured to recover from the hands or possession of Lay-men some lands which formerly belong'd to the Church of Canterbury and were unduly alienated by his Predecessors and because he endeavoured likewise to abolish the bad custom which had long prevailed in England that the revenues of vacant Churches should be payed in to and challenged by the Kings Exchequer whereby it came to pass that the Churches were too long of purpose kept vacant and yet because that being Archbishop he quitted his former office of Chancellorship against the Kings will who desired he should keep it still together with his Episcopacy which yet he would not reflecting on that of St. Paul Nemo militans Deo implicat se negotiis secularibus and because moreover he prohibited the exaction of an unjust assessement laid on the subjects and further also because he delivered not to the secular court a certain Priest condemn'd of murther but only degraded him and shut him up in a Monastery for his pennance nor delivered to secular punishment as the King desired another certain criminal Chanon but only laid him under Ecclesiastical Censures And these were the causes or springs of the great contest which followed as Baronius sayes out of the said Acts. And yet I must say that as he doth not as yet out of the same Acts or any thing here said by him out of them disprove what Neubrigensis said to be the only that is the first or sole first cause motive or spring for all these four or five did not happen altogether and that of not delivering the criminal Priest and Chanon to the secular court might have been the first of all for any thing related by him out of those Acts being they distinguish not or declare not particularly as he relates them which was first or last in time so it is clear by Baronius's own prosecution of the history of this Saints troubles and the Kings quarrel to him that this of not delivering those criminal Ecclesiasticks was that onely which occasion'd all the ensueing differences or that onely at least which the King took as the immediat pretence of his first publick quarrel with him and rest of the Bishops
at the meeting at London which was before that of Clarendon or Northampton So that as Baronius or Spondanus out of him or both say it was to excuse his own King that Neubrigensis fixes on this of our holy Archbishops denyal to deliver to legal punishment those criminal Clerks as on the onely cause of the following tragedy being it was so specious a cause on the Kings side to quarrel with the Archbishop even so I cannot but say that I think these two great Annalists have of purpose albeit without sufficient ground contradicted Neubrigensis to excuse the Saint even also in this very particular instance as well as in all other of the difference being such a demand must appear to most men on first sight to be but very just on the Kings side and consequently that the denyal of it must on the Archbishops side appear to the same men at least too too rigid if not unjust as to the matter in it self though I for my own part verely believe the Saint apprehended it farr otherwise nay am certain he did as I am also at least very probably perswaded that he apprehended it so upon very just grounds and very true even in themselves objectively But however this matter be of the sole cause and because it is not much material to my main purpose whether of the two Neubrigensis or Baronius out of those other Authors speaks most exactly of that or if it be any way or in any degree material that surely Baronius's observation of others causes to have proceeded must be for me and though to help Neubrigensis as likewise to illustrate the matter in it self a little more I can add Hoveden ad an 1163. where he writes thus Eodem anno gravis discordia orta est inter Regem Angliae Thomam Cantuariensem Archiepiscopum de Ecclesiasticis dignitatibus quas idem Rex Anglorum tuebare minuere conâ—batur Archiepiscopus ille leges dignitates Ecclesiasticas modis omnibus illibatas conservare nitebatur Rex enim volebat praesbyteros diaconos subdiaconos alios Ecclesiae Rectores si comprehensi fuissent in latrocinio vel muâ—dra vel felonia vel iniqua combustione vel in his similibus ducere ad secuâ—ariâ— examina punire sicut laicum Contra quod Archiepiscopus dicebat quod si clericus insacris ordinibus constitutus vel quilibet alius Rector Ecclesiae calumniatus fuerit de aliqua re per viros Ecclesiasticos in curia Ecclesiastica debet judicari si convictus fuerit ordines suos amittere sic alienatus ab efficio Beneficio Ecclesiastico si postea fâ—ris fecerit secundum voluntatem Regis Bailivorum suorum judicetur therefore now Secondly you are to observe the progress of this great jealousy of the Kings whatever the sole first cause of it was and you are to observe it also out of Baronius who takes it from Robertus or Heribertus one of the said four Authors of the Acts viz that in the same year of Christ 1163. the same King Henry the Second being mightily incensed against our holy Archbishop of Canterbury and convening at London both him and rest of the Bishops of England and urging vehemently that such criminal Clerks as those before mentioned should after canonical punishment inflicted on them in the Ecclesiastical Court be delivered nevertheless to the secular Court our said holy Archbishop and not he alone but all the other Bishops unanimously and flatly refused to do so That hereupon the King being wholly enraged as seeing them all to a man so unanimous against him in that point demanding of them whether they would observe his royal customs consuetudines suas Regias they all having first consulted together and every one apart being demanded so apart answered they would with this caution Salvo ordine suo That when the King urged them to promise absolutely that they would without any such caution onely Thomas answered that when they had formerly sworn allegiance and fidelity to him Vitam scilicet membrum honorem terrenum salvo ordine suo in this earthly Honour the Royal customs were comprehended and that they would not oblige themselves in any other form to their observance then in that wherein they had formerly sworn That although Hilary Bishop of Chester seeing the King more and more incensed vehemently by reason of such their unanimous answer did without advising with the rest change that contentious caution into these other two words bona fide promising that himself would observe the Royal customs bona fide yet the King was nothing at all appeased but rejected him also with contumely and after many altercations departed full of anger and indignation from London without saluting any one of all the Bishops That matters continueing thus for some time next year after which was 1164. Thomas of Canterbury being much importuned by the reasons and desires of many Bishops and Abbots to conform himself in the controverted point to the Kings pleasure one of the Abbots having also told him that Pope Alexander himself when he had heard of these altercations had given way to and licenced such their conformity Thomas I say being perswaded at last by such arguments accoasted the King and promised him that he would alter the word or the caution which gave so much offence to His Majesty in that which related to his Royal customs or to the form of their oath for observing those customs That the King being hereby somewhat appeased and withal desirous that such alteration should be made publickly in Parliament or in a general Assembly of all the three Estates summon'd the same three Estates Lords spiritual Temporal and Commons or Magistrates as Baronius calls them to meet at Clarendon this very year 1164. and upon the thirtyth of Jan. That this great Assembly being sate and the King urging the performance of what was so promised Thomas apprehending again mightily that such performance might prejudice Ecclesiastical Immunity fell back from his promise nor could ever be brought on to it again or to acquiesce to the King either by any threatnings or by any blandishments of his untill at last moved by the continual intreaties prayers geniculations tears of as well the Bishops as of others of the Clergie and Nobility and by the present danger of prison banishment death represented by them to him he chose rather sayes Baronius to obey them then him that is he chose rather to be perswaded by them then by him and however this be acquiesced at last and first of all and in the presence of all the Bishops and whole Parliament swore to observe the Royal customs bona fide omitting and suppressing the contentious caution or words Salvo ordine and that immediatly after him all and singular the other Bishops every one a part for himself took the same oath and in the very self same tearms or form And you are to observe here how Roger Hoveden a
upon his landing all the Ports being by the Archbishop of York Bishop of Lendon and Bishop of Salisbury's directions beset with Souldiers his baggage was narrowly search'd of purpose to seize on all his Bulls and letters from the Pope it is manifest I say that presently after this affront when or assoon as he was come to Canterbury the Kings Ministers sollicited by the said Bishops of York London and Salisbury who were then also come to Canterbury of purpose to vex Thomas declared unto him in the Kings name that he should absolve the Bishops who were suspended and excommunicated by the Pope because what was so done against them redounded to the Kings injury and to the subversion of the customs of the Kingdom That to this declaration or demand Thomas answered first Non esse judicis inferioris soluere sententiam superioris that it was not the part of an inferiour judg to solve the sentence of a superiour And secondly answer'd when others more urgently press'd him and threatned him in the Kings behalf that for the peace of the Church and reverence he boare to the King he would run the hazard of giving absolution to those Bishops so they would swear in forma Ecclesia in the then usual form of the Church to obey the commands of the great Pontiff That hereupon when the rest of the Bishops began to yield as not thinking it safe to oppose themselves to the Church and impugne the Apostolical sanctions for the preservation of the customs of the Kingdom the man enemy of peace sayes Spondanus out of Baronius and author and propagator of all dissention from the very beginning of the troubles the Archbishop of York disswaded them advising that they should rather go to the King without whose consent sayes he such an oath could not be taken That following this advice they all immediatly crossed the Sea to the King then as yet in France and adding sin to sin sayes Baronius or his Epitomizer Spâ—ndanus sent messengers back to the young King in England â—â—o should perswade him That Thomas had sought to depose his Majesty That finally with the Father King Henry the Second himself having been otherwise before ill enough affected to Thomas though lately so as we have seen reconciled those ill advisers wrought so much by their accusations that wholy transported with rage he was heard often to let fall those fatal complaints and curses of all who had been bred with him whom he had so favoured and advanced that none of all would riâ— him of one Priest who so troubled the Kingdom and sought to despoyle him of his Royal Dignity And therefore also what is the scope of this fourth observation is manifest viz that notwithstanding the grand quarrel which continueâ— so long was about those 16. Heads of laws or customs yet the more immediat motive of the Saints death was onely that his refusal of giving absolution to those censur'd Bishops after the King was reconciled to him without any condition of tying him to the observation of the said Heads nay rather with express promise made by the King to the Pope and his said last Legats that he would no more urge their observance For as the said Baronius and Spondanus tel the particulars of this last motive out of the often mention'd Acts of his life and out of the 73. epistle of S. Thomas himself which was his last to Pope Alexander as they relate also out of the same Acts and other Historians and epistles of the Saint all other particulars given by me in this fift observation so they tell us out of the same Acts wherein as to this now all other Histories agree how the Courtiers being much moved to indignation against Thomas by these words of the King four of them conspiring the death of Thomas and immediatly therefore sayling into England and being come to Canterbury and with their swords drawn on the 29. of Dec. 1170. scarce a month after the Saint was return'd from his long exile then there broke violently into the Church when and where the good Archbishop was at evening prayers with his Monks and other Clerks and furiously calling for him by his name and the Saint hereupon being come towards them mildly and after reproving the Sextons for endeavouring to shut the Church doors and to keep out these murtherers saying that the Church was not to be kept or defended after the manner of camps non esse Ecclesiam castrorum more custodiendam telling the murtherers he was ready to suffer death for God and for asserting justice and the liberty of the Church and commanding them under excommunication not to hurt any other of his either Monk Clerk or Laick and lastly bowing down his head as in prayer and recommending himself and the cause of the Church to God to the blessed Virgin to the holy Patrons of that his own particular Church of Canterbury and to S. Denis by name and in this Christian posture expecting the fatal strokes he received them withall constancy whereby in an instant his bloud and brain mixed together with his dead trunk covered the sacred pavement Whence appears undoubtedly that whatever the former differences were twixt the King and our Saint the sole immediat later difference and onely cause of those fatal exclamations of the Kings which made or occasioned those four unfortunate gentlemen to commit so prodigious a Sacriledg was his above recited refusal of absolution to York and the other censur'd Bishops unless they would promise in forma Ecclesiae consueta to stand to the judgment of the Pope Fiftly you are to observe how it is so farr from appearing out even of Baronius or Spondanus that S. Thomas of Canterbury did break or would breake with the King or have any difference at all with him upon every of the above 16. Heads individually separatly taken as it is certain on the contrary 1. That even Pope Alexander himself even in a publick consistory where also Thomas himself was present allowed of the six last as tollerable 2. That the same Pope writing in the year 1169. epist 11. and epist 30. to the said King Henry the Second and his Bishops of England even then when the contest was in the very height took notice onely of two points in as much as he onely therein admonish'd the King most earnestly to suffer that the vacant Churches might be provided for by canonical election of Bishop and commanded the Bishops to excommunicate all both receivers and givers of lay investitures and to see that all such persons should be effectually shâ—nned by all the faâ—â—â—â— 3. That Polydore Virgiâ— in Henric. 2. â— XIII Histor Angl. tels us expresly and pâ—ainly that the grands or chief caâ—â—e of S. Thomas of Canterburys so great and long contest with his King Henry the second was that he observed this King daily advancing such Priests to Ecclesiastical dignities and even Bishopricks as were leâ—â— deserving and doing so as the King pleaded
the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury and by the Saxon Danish Norman laws of England all along till Henry the Second himself 's own raigne and until after this controversie happen'd criminal Clerks even guilty of murder were to be judg'd and punish'd only by the Court Ecclesiastical â—ay that not only by the same laws all Clergiemen 〈…〉 all crimes whatsoever to be judg'd only by the Bishops but that all the very 〈◊〉 of the Church were â—â—all causes whatsoever to be adjudg'd only in the Church of Ecclesiastical Tribunals nor should have recourse to those were by way of distinction commonly called the Kings Courts but only in default of justice done according to law in the Courts of the Church Which being in or as to both differences the law of England contrary to which iâ— both differences oâ— cases Henry the Second would have forced St. Thomas and no other law of God or Man commanding St. Thomas to submit to the King in either as the case stood not even that of St. Paul 13. to the Romans because St. Thomas had in both as in all his other differences the sublimer â—oâ—â—ers in the law of the land for himself who sees not that St. Thomas needed not for his own justification in either differences pretend either the positive law of God or the natural law of God or the law of Nations or the Imperial law or even any Church law or Papal law or Canon for the exemption of criminal Clergiemen from the secular Courts when he denyed to deliver up the two criminal Clerks or when he refused to sign or seal that second Head of Henry the Second's customes which second head was such as subjected all Clergie-men in all kind of causes civil criminal mixt spiritual and temporal to the cognizance of the Kings even ordinary lay Judges and Courts as you may see by turning to and reading over again in my fourth Observation that second Head of those 16 And who seeâ— not but he might at the same time without any contradiction inconsequence oâ— contrariety maintain that still it was true that abstracting from the laws of England then as yet 〈◊〉 because not legally repealed all Clerks in England were by the laws of â—eason and laws of God and doctrine of the Fathers and many Canons too of Popes and Councils subject in all temporal causes both civil and criminal to the lay civil Courts and Judges of Henry the Second Nay who sees not but for any thing alledg'd or known out of the Histories of either his life or death or martyrdome or canonization or miracles or invocation of him after as a glorious martyrized Saint and even martyrized only too if you please in meer defence of the Church liberties and immunities who sees not I say but that notwithstanding any thing hitherto so alledg'd out of all or any of those Histories he not only might be but was rigidly and constantly of this judgement and opinion especially being these Histories tell us in one instance that when he was so much pressed to sign to those 16. Heads as the royal customes of Henry the First he doubted they were no such customes of Henry the First or were no customes at all and therefore chiefly and only fell off after swearing them and would not sign or seal them at all as was desired and expected from him albeit his Cross-bearer's check did forward his repentance for having sworn Sed cum descriptas consuetudines sayes Parker himself in the life of our Saint perlegisset Thomas for when he swore to observe them he did not see them in writing nor were they digested at all into heads and therefore he only swore in general to observe those customes which Henry the Second called â—nitas consâ—â— tudines his Grandfathers customes and royal customes â—ulâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 an ill â—um quaedam inter consuetudines essent habendae itâ—â— diem deliâ—â—◠〈…〉 sigillum chirographum adhiberet petiit and whereas also he could not be ignorant of the laws both Imperial which he had studied and of the laws of England where he lived and judged so long as Chancellor Or who sees not briefly that that there is no contradiction that a most rigid 〈◊〉 Bishop should dye for the rights of the Clergie and be therefore a Marâ—â—◠〈◊〉 yet acknowledge all those rights or at least many or some of them 〈◊〉 â—â—â—ch he dyed as for example that of exemption came to the Clergie from the meer civil or municipal and politick just laws of the land and only from such laws of the land and not by any means immediatly from any other law divine or humane of nature or Nations or of the Church Pope or Emperour if not in so much only as the laws of God and nature approve all just laws of every land 〈◊〉 they be repealed by an equal authority no that which made them Finally who sees not also that notwithstanding all this or notwithstanding the municipal laws of England were for St. Thomas in every particular of his said manifold opposition to his King or that by the same laws the English Clergie had such exemptions from secular Courts yet St. Thomas might have been of this opinion also and perswasion at the same time and was so too most rigidly and constantly for ought appears to the contrary out of the Acts of his life or other Historians that as by no other laws of God or man or reason so neither by those very laws of England either himself or any other Clergieman was exempt from the supream civil coercive power or even could be exempt during their being subjects or their acknowledging to be so or their living in the quality of subjects 1. Because the very name and nature of subjection draws along with it and either essentially or at least necessary implyes this which is to be subject to the supream coercive power at least in some cases and some contingencies 2. Because that if both himself and all other Ecclesiastical Judges and Bishops taking the Pope himself too in the number did fail in their duty of punishing Clerks notoriously scandalously and dangerously criminal or that if the criminal Clerks themselves would not according to the law of the land submit to the sentence and punishment prescribed into them by the Bishops or if even also the Bishops themselves were altogether guilty of the same crimes or patronizers of the criminals and would not amend or satisfie of themselves without any peradventure t is evident that the supream civil coercive power might and ought in such cases to proceed against them by plain force and corporal coâ—rcion cuia salus populi suâ—rema lex esto 3. Because the power whereby S. Thomas himself and all other Bishops and Ecclesiastical Judges proceeded in a compulsory way to any civil or corporal coercion of criminal Clerks against the will of the same Clerks as to seizing their persons imprisoning them whiping them taking away their temporal goods confining them
do acknowledge and confess Him to be so So that their said oath formal or virtual if an oath at all immediately going before or premised to the Act of Recognition doth not fall upon the verity of Things as in themselves objectively or upon the conformity of their words or of their sentiments to the things Objects or Laws as in their true Nature but only on the conformity of their outward or verbal Acknowledgments Confessions Renunciations Promises Resolutions c. to their own inward thoughts and hearts Which I thought fit to Note here for their sake who pretend for a Reason of not subscribing that it is not just they should swear that which is controverted or may be controverted or that they should swear that which they cannot otherwise know but by probable Arguments or swear that either formally or virtually which is in debate twixt great Divines As for Example That the Pope cannot de jure dethrone or depose our King for this Position must be virtually supposed by the Subscribers of our Remonstrance For their sake I say it is I give this Advertisement here That there is no kind of oath formal or virtual in that Act of Recognition or in any Clause or Appendage of it and that the antecedent Proposition in the sight of Heaven or oath if it be an oath immediately going before it falls only on the conformity of their words to their mind that is signifies only That however the Things Objects Laws c. be in their own nature yet the Subscribers do sincerely and truly without equivocation or mental reservation acknowledge and confess renounce disclaim protest detest abhor c. so and so And yet I confess they cannot honestly or conscientiously do so or profess or subscribe so unless at the same time they persuade themselves of the absolute certainty or at least of the undoubted probability of all such Positions as are either formally contained in or virtually supposed by the said Act of Recognition or in or by all or any of the Clauses and Appendages of the same Act and unless they resolve also at the same time never to change their opinion in that or concomitant Resolution to be ever accordingly faithful to the King For otherwise by doing so or professing or subscribing so the Subscribers must be guilty before God of most grievous sins against both God and the King that is first of Perjury by calling Heaven to witness their sincere profession of that which either they do not believe or persuade themselves at all that they ought by any means to profess or if they persuade themselves that they ought or might without sin profess they do not resolve in their heart to perform what in word they promise at least virtually for the future and in the second place of Hypocrisie or of the most horrid odious scandalous and dangerous dissimulation and deception may be of the very King Himself and in a matter of highest concernment to His Majesty and all His People And I say yet that without such persuasion and resolution the Subscribers must be guilty of such enormous sins let the Protestation it self and in it self objectively taken be admitted by all sides to be in all respects the most Christian Catholick and Conscientious hath ever yet been framed Because that according to the Rule of the great Apostle Paul to the Romans chap. 14. vers 22. Omne autem quod non est ex fide peccatum est whatever is done or professed or promised contrary to the dictate of ones own inward conscience must be to him a sin be it otherwise in it self and according to the very Law of God himself the most holy action profession or promise can be Whereof to give here a further Reason is as needless as it is obvious to all knowing men That our inward practical dictate is and must be to us the measure and very next Rule of our Actions Dictamen practicum regula proxima humanorum actuum And that although our conforming our selves to it be not sufficient alwayes or at all times to render our Actions just as when it is not just in it self according to the objective Truth of Things or Laws in themselves yet our varying from it in our Actions is abundantly sufficient to render our Actions unjust evil and vicious quia bonum ex integra causa malum ex quocunque defectu Thirdly And consequently the Reader is to be Advertised That to save him the trouble of turning back to the beginning of this Book I give here word by word all that Act of Recognition otherwise called the Protestation of our Remonstrance and the Petition following it immediately concerning both which Recognition and Petition or some passages of both or either all the Controversie and Censure of Louain is For without any interjection presently after the last passage given before in my second Advertisement of the Remonstrance of what or of that odium the Irish Clergy lay under that Instrument thereof proceeds thus and begins continues and ends the Act of Recognition thus WE do acknowledge and confess Your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supreme Lord and Rightful Sovereign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other Your Majesties Dominions 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 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 And we openly disclaim and renounce all Forreign Power be it either Papal or Princely Spiritual or Temporal inasmuch as it 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 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 soever And further we profess that all absolute Princes and Supreme Governors of what Religion soever they be are Gods Lieutenants on earth and that Obedience
Infallibility of the Pope without a general Council no writings of His whatsoever though under his own hand and with his own name induce not a certainty of Faith or such an one in which there can be no falshood or errour I say nothing for the present of the other conditions they require to this that a Declaration of the Pope though by such a Decretal Epistle or Brief so promulgated and so directed to all the faithful of Christ though definitive too and in a matter of Faith oblige not per se of its own sole nature to assent or what restrictions they put as namely that neither the proems nor motives nor suppositions nor any reasons alledged are defined And that whenever the Bull is declarative onely and not constitutive also or as far as 't is only declarative if it relie on false grounds or reasons or any way uncertain or apparent only or only opinative or probable so far of necessity it is subject to the danger of errours and that the constitutive part of such a Bull grounded only upon such a declarative necessarily wants all manner of force to oblige any whatsoever at least those who clearly see the errour doubt or uncertainty For the present likewise I say nothing that these Divines require besides to the Infallibility of a Papal definition or to this that none may dissent that the Pope declare in express or equivalent words that the Article defined is an Article of Catholick faith and the contrary or contradictory heretical All these things I say and possibly more to this purpose I pass over in silence Yet there is a certain errour deceit or at least supposition not well grounded I have read and observ'd in several of your Lordships Letters to several people both here and in Ireland which I cannot let pass without a short animadversion It is That our Holy Father Alexander the VII did not think it necessary to give a new censure of our Protestation that being sufficient which had been made by former Popes since it appeared ours contained some things which were the same with the Propositions condemn'd heretofore by Paul the V. and lately by Innocent the X. But my Lord it does not appear that Paul the V. has condemn'd any one or more certain and determinate Propositions of the Oath of Allegiance as they call it or Fidelity prescrib'd by a Law of King James and the Parliament and Kingdom in his time For in the reference which you make to the judgment of Paul the V. you allude to Propositions contain'd in that Oath Nay it appears on the contrary out of the Letters of Paul the V. which are extant in Print and in form of a Brief directed onely to the Catholicks of England I question not for the present whether they were subreptitious or ever publish't or whether the due Solemnities of Law were observed it appears I say he never condemned any one or more in particular but onely in general terms after other matters of not going to the Churches Sermons and Rites of Protestants or Heterodox admonishes the Catholicks of England not to take that Oath or the like as is manifest by the very tenour of the first Brief dated at Rome the 10th of the Calends of Octob. 1606. in which only first Brief he speaks directly and by design against that Oath of it self And in particular this is manifest by the words of the same Pope in the same Brief which give the onely reason why he admonishes them not to take that Oath and why he tells them it ought perspicuously to appear to the English Catholicks out of the words of the Oath that such an Oath cannot be taken with the safety of Catholick faith and of their souls Since sayes he it contains many things which are manifestly contrary to faith and salvation For after these words and for these alone as the onely ground and reason of his Declaration and Admonition it follows immediately Therefore we admonish you that you wholly beware of taking this or the like Oaths Wherefore since it appears sufficiently by these words which assign his reason especially joyn'd with the tenour of the rest of the Brief from the beginning to the end that Paul the V. did not condemn all that was containâ—d in that Oath I say did not condemn all so much as in these general or any other terms of these Letters or at least since it does not only sufficiently but evidently appear that to his Holiness Alexander the VII it can not be known by those Letters nor indeed can be known at all for no man in his wits will say he can be certain of this otherwise than by those words and that Brief which in particular or whether any such of the Propositions contain'd in that Oath of Allegiance made by King James were censured by that Declaration nay not so much as which he desired or intended to censure and because 't is no less plain to any that shall exactly compare that Form of the Kings with ours that the Propositions are far different both in words and sense and that in that there be many more Propositions but fewer in ours that in that there is contain'd a formal Oath largely expressed and an Oath without all doubt strictly taken in some places assertory in others promissory for thrice at least if not four or five times they formally swear in that manner in that of the Kings but no Oath at all contained in ours not so much as largely taken no where in no part or Proposition from the beginning of the form to the end that 't is affirm'd in that and peradventure with the sacred tye of an Oath that there is in the Pope no power to depose Kings whereas ours for what concerns that particular expresses onely an act of the will and renounces such a power determining nothing either with or without an Oath of the Position in it self and taken in its own nature whether it be true or false or probable or not that in that some things are abjured as heretical in ours none that that binds under obligation of a promise sworn to to discover all Treasons ours declares onely a readiness of mind to discover them I say since it appears that all these things are most true and farther out of Parson's Letters in Withrington dated at Rome when they consulted there of condemning that Oath of K. James and farther also out of several Books of Bellarmine though under counterfeit names against the said Withâ—ington and other defenders of the said Oath that Paul the V. was only or chiefly moved to frame that Brief by which the Kings Oath is condemned by this reason because He had been persuaded though without any either sufficient or probable argument by Bellarmine himself and those other seven or eight Divines at Rome whom He had deputed to examine it that by that Oath was likewise deny'd the Primacy of the Pope and his power to excommunicate either Kings or their
Your most humble and affectionate servant in Christ Peter Walsh London Pebr. ult M.DC.LXV The Answer either to this or former Letter I cannot give because I never saw nor heard of any it having been the fate of all my Writings hitherto these 28 years on whatever Subject never to have had the honour of either Answer or Reply onely my Letter to the Duke of ORMOND in behalf of the Irish Nation and their Temporal pretences or those I mean of their Temporal rights excepted And yet my Replies on this very Subject as well to the man in the dark as to the person of Quality remain still without rejoinder But that of the Temporal rights of our miserable unfortunate Nation as it relates to the King and municipal Laws and later Acts also of Settlement or Explanation for Ireland since His MAJESTY was restored being no part of nor having any relation to the present Controversie with the Court of Rome about our Remonstrance I pass over without any further Animadversion upon it or my self or my own fortune or fate in order to it LXXXVIII SOon after those two Letters had been sent to the Internuncio and the Procurator's Reply to the person of Quality had been out in Print much about the same time a Reply indeed which at that time very much took with the Roman Catholicks of Ireland in general whether Royallists or Nuntiotists and yet the Explanatory Bill for Ireland going on apace before the King and Council at London the Procurator was advised to send from London Father Antony Gearnon once more back to the Provincial and Diffinitors of the Franciscan Order in that Kingdom partly to give them an account of his late negotiation and success in Flanders but principally to persuade them to a concurrence to and subscription of the Remonstrance without further delay that by their example all the rest of the Irish Clergy both Regular and Secular might speedily resolve to give such testimony or assurance of their future Loyalty as in a time of so great and imminent danger it was more than needful they should For it look'd then towards a Rupture and great War both with France and Holland With Letters to that purpose written by the Procurator to the Provincial and whole Diffinitory as with assurance also to them that they might safely meet where ever they pleased Father Gearnon arrives in Ireland and accosting those principally concerned delivers his Letters Whereupon the Provincial summoning all the rest to the Convent of Killihy they all meet accordingly on the day appointed which was in June 1665. and many others too both Remonstrants and Anti-Remonstrants of that Franciscan Order to hear the debates and see the issue After some dayes consultation the Diffinitory who onely were the persons in chief authority in all Nine viz. the Minister Provincial the four Diffinitors the Custos Custodum and three more stiled Patres Provinciae as having been formerly Superiours Provincial of that Province i. e. of the whole Franciscan Order in Ireland being divided on the point the greater Vote of Anti-Remonstrants amongst them carried the resolution in the Negative Which was an easie matter for that Party when they would do nothing but by Vote For they knew their own strength that way there having been in that whole Diffinitory but onely two declared overboard for the Formulary as who had long before very freely of themselves subscribed it viz. Father Valentin Brown a Professor Jubilat of Divinity eldest Father of the Province as who had been well nigh Forty years before Minister Provincial of Ireland and then received me into that Order a man esteemed both of sound learning and great holiness and Father James Fitz-Simons then Custos of the Province and Guardian of Dublin likewise a learned vertuous and very judicious Gentleman Besides these two throughly and openly declared Remonstrants the Provincial himself Antony O Docharty who was President of that Meeting and Superiour of all had by Letter under his own hand to the Duke of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant then of Ireland even sent by my self from Multifernan to the said Duke privately declared himself a Remonstrant although being an expectant from Rome and not that only he would preserve himself that side too and therefore not own before others any such matter or Letter Yet this Letter you have before page 92. 93. of this First Part. Some others also of that Diffinitory were not averse but they were overborn by a greater number especially by the violence of Thomas Makiernan Peter Gennor and Bonaventure O Mellaghlin grand inveterate fiery Nuntiotists but above all by the said Thomas whose authority or esteem amongst the Nuntio party was more than ordinary as who had been in the said Nuntio's time made Provincial of set purpose and the Provincial that play'd Rex indeed especially in his own Order until the Loyal Marquess of Clanrickard made bold yea notwithstanding the fond pretence of Ecclesiastical immunity in the case to seize upon his person and clap him prisoner into the King's Castle at Athlone By such men I say the Resolve was carried in the Negative i. e. That neither themselves nor their Brethren Franciscans in all at least Four or five hundred at home in Ireland at that very time directed by them should sign the controverted Remonstrance and yet they themselves were the very first that wrought and rais'd all the grand Controversie by their Instrument or Paper given to Brady See page 91. but another framed by themselves in that Meeting Which and their other Resolve too of writing again to the Commissary General de Riddere into Flanders desiring a Visitator I mean such an one as would not be excepted against by His MAJESTIES Ministers or by Father Walsh or other of the Remonstrants you will better understand out of their own Letters both to my self the foresaid Procurator P. W. and to the said Commissary General de Riddere Their Letters to me were three several One from them All together One from the Provincial onely And a third from Father Valentin Brown The First in this Tenure Reverend Father WE have received yours by Father Gearnon in Answer to which we say That notwithstanding we have been liable to the Censure of many for not having hitherto signed your Remonstrance by reason it was so generally contradicted by the Clergy of this Nation scrupling some distasteful expressions therein and that it did not until of late appear unto them that it was exacted or required by Authority yet inasmuch as to our great grief we are given to understand that our Order supposed to be the most numerous not accepting or signing the said Remonstrance as yet hath been the occasion that nothing was done in that particular Wherefore as well to vindicate our selves from Aspersions and to testifie our sincere Affection and Zeal by our best endeavours to advance His Majesties Service We have unanimously agreed to Sign the Protestation which goeth along with this to you Signed
the branches of the Protestation and diserte to this Proposition Non potest summus Pontifex deponere Reges Principes in ullo tandem casu If this you cannot do why seek you me to join with you and forsake those Seventy one Doctors who were all of them good and loyal Subjects and taught others to be so or why do you affirm my Intellect is ill principled I return to the submissive Letter or to a more submissive than that I sent My will you may be well assured doth not stick to write any thing may give satisfaction to the King and Duke that my Conscience can agree unto yea and to change my understanding as to the actings past and to the future if you will give reasons and arguments strong enough for making such a change You may also further understand That I have consulted with very learned Divines who after serious ponderation of the matter told me I could not safely change the Principles I keep to It is also my full resolution that luminare majus the Pope and luminare minus my King shall ever receive from me all honour submission obedience due to their lights majesty and greatness respectively with all candor and fidelity I likewise advertise you That I am disposed to take light and instructions for changing any error that I shall find in my understanding Finally when I shall come to a place of repose and quietness I shall think of that other Letter for I have now quitted my settlement in Galicia much to the grief of my Lord Archbishop and am now thinking to put my self as near home as I can until God will be pleased to give an end to this difficulty I have not seen that work of Father Caron in folio perhaps I shall see it in Paris I would be glad to see your Apologia if perhaps the Romans will remain satisfied therewith who albeit they have as yet decreed nothing against the Protestation yet are offended with you and all that sign'd it God give those Prelates and Clergy that meet in Dublin Spiritum consilii fortitudinis Spiritum scientiae pietatis Though our Principles about the main question are different I heartily thank you for your affection promising you the like candor if in any thing I may be able to serve you I conclude assuring you the Duke will not find more sincerity and Christian affection in any of his own Bishops than in me and even so I remain Reverend Father with all my Soul Your affectionate Servant Nico Fernensis Another also of his to my self from Paris July the 18th the same year 1606. Father Walsh Paris 18 July 1666. I Hope you had ere this my Answer from St. Sebastian of the 10th of May to yours of the 10th of March sent away by a little Spanish Vessel I had adventured over with the same but for your Letter which had it overtaken me in St. James's I had not come to France By the said Answer I briefly told you That I have for my opinion against yours touching some Tenets of the Protestation Seven Saints and St. Thomas one of them Seven Cardinals One Patriarch Three Archbishops Ten Bishops and Thirty one Classical Authors with other eminent Divines All of these were persons of great learning and authority and good and faithful Subjects and taught others to be so I wonder then how you would have me forsake such grave and learned Sages or say my understanding is ill principled following those men Seeing the Duke is satisfied as you write for any thing done at Paris which was the most done by me against him and that he thinks I am a good man good Priest good Bishop candid and without cheat and yet will not have me come to my Countrey and in the mean time calleth Ardmach home of whom he had not so good an opinion certainly he never did his Excellency so good a service as I have done nor had intention to do I know not what to say but must tell you this is a mystery all that hear thereof wonder at and none can penetrate or understand it I say not this envying that afflicted man this happiness if he will find it to be so After the great heats we have here I intend to give reason more at large why I may not with quietness of mind sign the Protestation as the Duke and you demand at the more substantial parts thereof I do not scruple or stagger I will also answer some parts of your Letter which intrencheth much upon me when this is done the Duke and you will learn clearly my sense and why I cannot give a more submissive than my former Letter And seeing for ought to my appearing I cannot satisfie my Conscience and the Duke together nor become profitable to my flock at home nor live quietly and secure his anger not being appeas'd you may know hereby that I am resolved after Dog-dayes to go to Louain and there end my dayes where I began my studies I shall thereby free you from giving further trouble to the Duke in mediating for me and free his Grace from being troubled about me and give my self a freedom from many personal afflictions and troubles good men indure there though my heart shall still have a share in their sufferings Do me the friendship and right of shewing this Letter to the Duke and send your answer to this City in the form beneath written God pour a blessing of peace and tranquility upon the people of that Nation and even so I remain Sir Your affectionate Servant Nico Fernensis Behold the chief Letters of this good Prelate which I thought might be of some use here For albeit the last was written after the National Congregation in Ireland had been held yet relating to the former matter without much distance of time in the date I would give it here As for the subject of them or rather I mean any answer to or animadversion upon the Contents of them where any thing is said against the Remonstrance none is to expect here what is not the design of this Historical Part of the Book Enough hath been said already to that purpose in my former Part of this Treatise especially where I dispute against the Fourth ground of the Censure of Louain but more particularly Sect. Lxxiv pag. 340. where I treat of cap. novit de Judic or that very place of Innocent the III. which the Bishop alludes to Enough by Father Caron in his Remonstrance c. Enough before our dayes by the Learned Barclays the Father and Son and by the Son particularly enough even also as to the Bishops 70 or 72 Authors quoted by him out of Bellarmin's last work against Barclay the Father Enough by the excellent English Benedictin Writer Thomas Preston under the name of Widdrington And finally and long before their dayes by the ancient Divines of Paris Maior Almainus and even holy Gerson himself That I may say nothing now either of the vast
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
how I conceived their signing those Declarations of Sorbon might be of good use And since they were absolutely upon a new unsignificant Formulary of their own without taking notice of his Graces two former messages how the said Sorbon Declarations signed by them freely and unanimously might in great part supply the defects of their Formulary How what remained after to be supplyed might be done in a distinct Schedule which I had prepared by me to be signed by them after they all had once concurred in signing those Declarations of Sorbon if indeed they would sign all six that distinct Schedule being such as interpreted the meaning of their new Formulary of Recognition to be That they intended therein to bind themselves to continue according to the Laws of the Land faithful and obedient to the King even in all contingencies whatsoever especially of Excommunication fulminated by the Pope against the King or themselves for being obediently faithful to His Majesty as likewise to protest not only against all and every equivocation and both Mental and Vocal reservation but all Doctrines also whatsoever contrary to the true honest plain and obvious meaning or sense of the words of their said Formulary or Act of Recognition Finally how I believed there would be less difficulty in getting them to sign these matters in a distinct Schedule than to insert them in their beloved Formulary and truly no difficulty at all if once they had sign'd the six Sorbon Declarations as they offered already to me by their Committee After all which at large reported and declared I told his Grace That I knew they intended to sign their said Formulary or Act of Recognition that very day and present it at night to his Grace That notwithstanding I absented my self from them of purpose to try whether by such my absence they might be any thing the more brought to reason or to do that which was for their own advantage yet being they had so earnestly and by so many messages and that offer also of signing those six Sorbon Declarations desired my return and being moreover they were now on the point of concluding what they intended wherein it was hard or somewhat unseemly for me to single my self from them to no purpose I prayed his Graces either commands or advice as to that of my return once more to and concurring with them wherein I saw they concluded any thing Lawful how unsatisfactory or unsufficient soever otherwise it might peradventure be as to the main point in controversie or that principally expected from them And that His Grace would be pleased to give the most favourable reception he could to such persons as were to come that night from the Fathers with their Act of Recognition c. and promise them his Answer thereupon after he had taken a day or two for considering the Contents of such Instruments as they presented to him And such indeed was the only end of my going that morning to the Lord Lieutenant being continually sollicitous even during my recess from and distance or difference with the Congregation how nevertheless to do them all the good offices I could with his Grace and in one way or other to prevail with them also to do themselves and poor Clergy and People too represented by them that right in some measure at least which became the Priests of God to do now at last for a Nation rendred hitherto the most miserable of any in Europe and rendred such by their endevours and misdemeanours only And I dare say His Grace also had as real desires of their doing themselves and rest of their Nation and Religion that very same right as I had or could have whereof I am sure they themselves had very many clear Arguments but I a hundred more In pursuance of which on this very occasion of my address or discourse this morning or of my prayer not only of his advice to my self as to the point of my returning or not returning to the Fathers but of a favourable reception of the Deputies at night His Grace both commanded me to return to the Congregation and promised that reception of the Deputies which I desired yea notwithstanding that he knew as fully and throughly as I did how they had so temerariously and unworthily yea almost incredibly slighted both his former messages to them Wherefore as well in obedience to his Graces commands as in compliance with the Fathers and not to single or estrange my self wholly from them in any thing at all wherein I might comply but give them all the satisfaction I could about evening I returned and entred unexpectedly to their House even just then when they were signing a great Parchment Roll containing their new unsignificant Formulary or Act of Recognition As soon as they saw me entred their chief Leaders both welcom'd me and exprest extraordinary much contentment at my return even their Chairman himself leaving his Chair and coming some steps forward to embrace me twixt his arms as he did then telling me what they were upon and shewing the publick Instrument of Recognition they were signing and withal how together with it they had for my satisfaction prepared an other distinct Paper containing the three first of those six Sorbon Declarations which three or Paper containing them as the only of those six which seem'd to them to concern their Allegiance to the King they would then likewise presently subscribe to be together with their said Parchment Roll of Recognition presented to the Lord Lieutenant finally praying that I would concur with them in each and now after all I had all along till the present so obligingly done for them not to desert them in any respect or thing but prepare a good favourable and gracious reception for those who intended as deputed by and from the Congregation to wait on the Lord Lieutenant's Grace that night with the foresaid publick Instruments viz. the Bishop of Ardagh and himself the Chairman and that I would not only prepare their such reception but accompany also and introduce them to His Grace at such hour as I thought fit or should be appointed by His Grace When I had heard out all I answered in short That I never intended really either to seperate from or be wanting to them in whatsoever I might be useful That my late and short recess was only for their good viz. thereby to occasion their further and better enquiry into the defects of the Formulary they intended to present and their supplying those defects That although I returned not at the desire or upon the proposals of any of their several Committees sent unto me yet I begun to hope well of them when the second Committee they sent offered to me their intended Subscription of those six Sorbon Declarations That thereupon I waited on my Lord Lieutenant and informing His Grace of all the differences and whatever else passed betwixt either the Congregation it self or their said Committees and me made special use
to what I expected and I think expresly desired too But whether he mistook or not I found not that the Copy which he about a Fortnight after sent me answer'd my expectation wholly in any point save only in that concerning those two Books their decree consent or sense against Father Finachty being not mention'd therein and but very little of what I drove at in my discourse on the first Head concerning our obligation to observe religiously both Feasts and Fasts and other spiritual holy duties enjoin'd by the King For that Copy you have here exactly in this following Letter of his from Ross 7 July 1666 to me at Dublin Very Reverend Father IN compliance to your last speech with me I here insert such acts as I have writ though I may not say they are formal ones by reason they were not seriously digested and couched by select Committees but only upon the motions and allowance of the House for my memories sake pen'd by me they being not the principal scope of that meeting Primo Electus est Prolocutor Roverendissimus D. Andraeas Finiboren Episcopus Electus est Secretarius Nicolaus Redmond Vic. Gen. Fernen Secundo Statutum est quod nihil in presente Convocatione quoad Vocationem Sessionem Praecedentiam vel Subscriptionem actum cedat in praejudicium alicujus cujuscunque dignitatis aut instituti in futurum Tertio Statutum est ut quilibet Sacerdos saecularis cujusvis Ordinis Regularis singulis diebus dominicis festis specialiter omnibus diebus quibus vel a Rege vel Pro-Rege preces publicae indicuntur fundat certas preces Laicos similiter facere moneat Pro foelice successu Serenissimi Regis nostri Caroli Secundi Regina totiusque domus Regiae necnon Excellentissimi Domini Jacobi Ducis Ormoniae familiae ejus Quarto Liber inscriptus C. M. alias Cornelio sienti antehac Galviae a Clero Kilkenniae a Supremo Concilio Confaederatorum condemnatus ignis datus est ita etiam in hoc coetu condemnatus igne cremari dignus judicatus est Quare omnibus singulis utriusque Cleri qui librum istum penes se habent vel alibi inventum repererint praecipitur ut illum ad suos respective Superiores deferant in ignem conjici faciant Quinto Similiter fiat de libro attributo Ricardo Ferrall Capucino Sexto Quicunque Sacerdos Saecularis deprehensus fuerit distinctiones facere inter Provincias Provincias inter modernos antiquos Hibernos pro prima vice qua de hoc crimine convictus fuerit solvat quinque solidos pro secunda viginti pro tertia fuspendatur ad beneplacitum Ordinarii Septimo Quicunque Regularis cujusvis Ordinis de eodem crimine convictus fuerit pro prima vice ad quinque dies pane aqua idque super nudam terram vescatur pro secunda decem pro tertia voce activa passiva privetur ad beneplacitum sui Superioris Octavo Quicunque deprehensus fuerit circumferre unam Remonstrantiam falso Franciscanis impositam qua non solum temporalis sed omnis etiam spiritualis potestas Regi tribuitur * * It seems hereby that some malicious persons had instead of the true Remonstrance subscribed by the Irish Divines Nobility and Gentry at London in 1661. S.V. forged another and shewed it to many of purpose to persuade them that this false one was the Remonstrance which Peter Walsh presented to the King and would persuade all others to sign aut etiam Remonstrantiam modo ab hoc coetu compositam Pro-Regi exhibitam falsificare praesumpserit falsariorum paenis subjaceat This much with my love and service to your Reverence and the rest of that Seraphical Family there I take leave and rest Very Reverend Father Your affectionate Friend and Servant Nico Redmond Rosse 7 Julii 1666. However i. e. whether this Father Secretary gave me fully or truly all these Acts or no what is more to my main purpose is to let my Readers know That presently after I had ended my Discourse on the last of the foresaid three Heads and the Fathers had delivered their Sense and Censures by common consent they dissolved the Chairman having pronounced the ordinary dismiss Ite in pace And so we see at last this National Congregation ended XXIII VVHat remains therefore to see also this long Treatise ended is to give here in one entire and the last Section thereof 1. Those other passages relating to the Lord Lieutenant and Bishops which happen'd immediately after the Congregation was dissolved 2. The Procurator 's judgment of this Congregation leading Members thereof and of their several interests and ends 3. How after their dissolution the doctrine of Allegiance in Fifteen several complex Propositions or short Paragraphs was debated for a whole month by a select number of Divines 4. And last of all The Paper of Animadversions given to the Lord Lieutenant and His Grace 's Commands laid on the Procurator These are now the only remaining Appendages What I have to say of the first of them is That as soon as the Fathers had so dissolved as we have seen before every one preparing to depart the Town to their several homes Father Ronan Magin * He is Brother to Father Patrick Maginn the QUEENS Chaplain a Roman or Italian Doctor of Divinity i. e. graduated so abroad though otherwise an Irish man Dean and Vicar-general of Dromore and one too who had some time before the Congregation sate signed the Controverted Remonstrance of the year 1661 desired me to go with him to the Kings Castle and Lord Lieutenant there that he might have the honour of kissing His Graces hands and receiving His Commands before he had departed home to his Diocess I willingly yielded the rather that my own duty required I should my self however wait that morning on His Grace to give Him an account of the Congregations being dissolv'd and I was glad to have some one of the Members present when I gave it because my further duty required I should therein let His Grace understand what other matters had been treated of that Morning before the Fathers dissolved Being therefore both together admitted by His Grace in to his Closet and I giving that account and amongst or before other matters how I was necessitated to oppose the Bishop of Ardagh to his face before all the Fathers in that either through wilfulness or dulness he had so strangely misrepresented in publick to the whole Congregation His Graces answer to him and his Fellow-Commissioner and thereby endeavoured to amuse the Fathers and make them hug their own stubbornness and his and his Cabals unhappy contrivances that which mightily grieved me then to hear and was never since upon any due occasions out of my mind and therefore thought fit to take special notice of here is what His Grace thereupon with very great feeling declared viz. That sayes he these Twenty years I had to do
Infidels and heretical Princes disturbing the publick peace tending to the ruine of Kingdoms and Republicks diverting Subjects from the obedience due to their Soveraigns and precipitating them into faction rebellion sedition and even to commit Parricides on the sacred persons of their Princes The Rectors Deans Proctors Batchelors and whole Vniversity have made this Decree That the sacred Faculty of Theology ought highly to be commended for having given a judgment so pious so religious so wholsome against so wicked and dangerous a Doctrine for having so opportunely held forth to the whole Church but especially to all France the clear light of ancient and orthodox Doctrine for having so gloriously followed the illustrious generosity of their Predecessors and performed a task not only becoming their particular profession to defend the truth but deserving the imitation even of the whole Vniversity it self And to obstruct altogether the very entrance of this new and pernicious doctrine and cause all those who now are or hereafter shall be members of this Vniversity or merit promotion to any degree therein to remember for ever to form and regulate their opinions according to the judgments pronounced by that sacred Faculty and keep at utmost distance from the doctrine so justly proscribed and that every one in particular may fly detest and abhor it and as well in publick as privat combat confute and convince its falsity They do decree that in the next solemn procession as also annually in the Assembly for the procession general immediatly after opening the Schools in the month of October this censure shall publickly be read by the Proctor of the University the first business nothing to intervene and recorded in the Registers of each Faculty and Nation and that two Copies hereof written and signed by the hand of the Clerk of the sacred F-culty of Theologie shall be kept in the common Records of the University and the like number be sent as soon as may be to all Superiours of Colledges and Houses to the end all possible care and diligence be used to secure all those who frequent or reside in the said Colledges from the corruption and poyson of this pernicious doctrine and that they never give way that any person whatsoever presume to say or do any thing contrary to what has so wisely been determined and ordained by that sacred Faculty If any Doctor Professor Master of Arts or Scholler resist and disobey or go about in any sort by word or writing on any cause or pretence whatsoever to offer at the least attempt or make the least opposition against this so laudable and legal a censure let him for a note of infamy and ignominy be expelled and deprived of his degree faculty and rank by a sentence that may for ever cut off all hope of admittance Quintaine Scribe of the University The like Decrees and censures have been made and past on the same occasion and against the same doctrine that the Pope can punish Kings with temporal punishments depose or deprive them of their Kingdoms or Estates c. and have been publickly enacted by these other several Universities following as appears too out of the foresaid Collection of Divers Acts c. By the Vniversity of Caen assembled in the Convent of St. Francis 7. May 1626. By the Vniversity of Rheims the four Faculties being assembled in the Chappel of St. Patrice 18th May 1626. By the Vniversity of Tholouze the Rector and professors of all the Faculties being assembled in St. Thomas's School at the Dominicans 23. May 1626. By the Vniversity of Poitiers assembled at the Dominicans 26. June 1626. By the Vniversity of Valence assembled in the great Hall 14. July 1626. By the Vniversity of Burdeaux assembled at the Carms 16. July 1626. By the Vniversity of Bourges all the Deans and Doctâ—rs-Regent of all the Faculties assembled by the Rector 25. November 1626. By all which the said doctrine was condemned as false erroneous contrary to the word of God pernicious seditious and detestable And so I conclude this my third Treatise or my considerations of the foresaid three Sorbon-propositions as applied by the Congregation to our own gracious King and themselves or Catholick Clergy and people of Ireland Or which is the same thing my considerations of what the said three single Propositions do signifie as from them and as to any further or clearer assurance of their fidelity hereafter to the King or Government in the cases controverted than that was they had before signified by the former paper of their Remonstrance alone without any such additional propositions Now to their third or last paper I mean that of their reasons given to my Lord Lieutenant why they would not subscribe the other three or the three last of those six of Sorbon applyed mutatis mutandis to our King and them selves THE FOURTH TREATISE CONTAINING Answers To the reasons presented in writing to His Grace the Twentieth of June 1666. by Father John Bourk Vicar General of Cashil and Father Cornelius Fogarty D. V. I. in behalf of and by Commission from the Congregation The title of the said writing or reasons being The reasons why we the Roman Catholick Clergie signed not the other three propositions But no hand or Subscription either of Secretary Speaker or any other not even of those very Commissioners that delivered it unto the Paper BEcause that writing is somewhat long and I have already given it intirely and consequently word by word in my first Treatise or Narrative where the Reader may turn to it I will onely take it here by pieces as I have in my second Treatise their Remonstrance And having little to say to the title nor else but what I hope will appear in the procedure and conclusion of these answers which is that I might as justly prefix to this Treatise of mine as a Gentleman in England since the Kings Restoration did to a piece of his own this other title The Jesuits reasons unreasonable and that Father N. N. of the Society can tell his Clients the misterie of such prefixion or application as who hath been as well the chief contriver of those reasons as he was next the Chairman the grand obstructer of the Subscriptions unto I mean the three last propositions I observed their said writing consists of five Paragraphs Whereof the first though short enough truly yet comprehends in general their reasons The following other four are only to prove by induction and by special instance of their rejected propositions and consideration of them what is said so in general is that first Paragraph Which Paragraph therefore they begin and conclude in those words Because we conceive them not any way appertaining to the points controverted And though we did we thought we had already Sufficiently cleared all scruples either by our former Remonstrance seperatly or jointly with the first three propositions we had already subscribed But to make us believe or conceive these reasons as reasonable they give first
Confederates fallen to such an ebb and sad condition our two most flourishing Armies defeated and brought to nothing our quarters over-run by four several Enemies burnt wasted and for no less than a third part of what was ours intirely even last year now made tributary our own Forces of the Vlster Army devouring what was left by the Common Enemy and in Hostile wise destroying all places which by others were untouch't and which before this Cruelty were able to and really did support the most considerable proportions of the charges of War our Exchequer hence both empty and altogether hopeless to get in monies from a Countrey so totally exhausted and so lamentably ruined our expectations of great Sums and helps from beyond Seas being turn'd to wind smoke and despair for any thing hath yet appeared or if some little quantity be come it being feared that it should be given for maintaining sides and supporting Factions against the Government as we have seen in effect proved no common Granaries for the Publick and but very small store of grain with any private persons in so great a dearth of Corn as Ireland hath not seen in our memory and so cruel a Famine which hath already killed Thousands of the poorer sort and therefore no possibility to keep an Army in the field though no other want had been but that of bread and if Enemies were as hitherto coming on us from the four Winds lastly so much dissention such distance and such malignant hatred 'twixt our selves within the body of the Confederates as the wiser sort did not without cause conceive to be too ominous and to weaken us no less than could the strongest Army of our Enemies an ebb so low and a condition so sad of the Confederates that according to humane hopes there was no likelihood without a Cessation with some one Party they might subsist this Summer either by a defensive War in all the Provinces or an offensive in one and a defensive in the rest Yet by the Cessation they might be so enabled that according to much probability Religion might be planted this season where Heresie is most insolent and powerful of any place in the Kingdom For if that Party of the Confederates which now opposeth the Cessation were obedient and together with the Forces of the Marquess of Clanrickard drawn by this Cessation from a Neuter to a Confederate or at least to a social War against His Majesties Enemies and of the Lords Taffe Preston and Inchiquin nay should Inchiquin stay at home and give no help but only forbear annoying us should we say the foresaid Lords and Forces march against the Scots and Dublin who sees not but by the help of this Cessation Faith and Religion might in many places be planted this Summer on the ruines of Heresie And hence it is That Thirdly it is clear The Cessation is so far from disadvantaging Religion as there could hardly be a better way thought of to further it Whence followeth That not only necessity which hath been now declared but also utility or great advantage gotten by it for the Cause doth warrant it since by the Articles Inchiquin himself with his victorious Army is bound to display these Colours for us which so many times we groaned to see against us More indeed than the nature of a Cessation draweth along with it and if it be taken together with the former benefit of the second and fifth Article and with the care had that the Lord of Inchiquin's Protestant Party should not enjoy the like benefit or liberty of either their Function or Religion in our quarters more it is plain to the honour and profit of our Faith than the greatest and most Catholick Kings and Emperours performed in the like occasions Certainly we know the King of Spain hath to pass over the present Peace so long expected and so much spoken of almost in our own memory concluded a Truce of Twelve years with the Hollanders (r) Auctarium Chron. ad annal Barronii ad an 1609. and yet no such liberty obtained for the Catholick Religion within their quarters Nay we know That the most powerful and most virtuous Charles the V. King of Spain and Emperour of Germany though his Kingdoms were so vast his Forces both at Sea and Land so great his Treasures so inexhaustible and himself so victorious yet to provide for the safety of his Estate rather than to hazard too much with the Hereticks of Germany (s) Idem ad an 1547. 1552. was contented to give them by express Article and Act of Parliament the free exercise of their Religion and Function even of that Religion which was presented by the Lutherans and is called Confessio Augustana throughout all Germany (t) Yet liberty of Religion is the very worst of evils most repugnant to and destructive of Catholick Faith and of all Civil Government and only out of meer necessity to be permitted Becan in Suâ— de fid Haer. ser c. 16. q. 4. con 2. 3. by vertue of which Act and of other such Acts made by his Successors the Lutherans and Catholicks on several hours use their Rites in the same Churches in many Towns of Germany c. even to this present day We know moreover That Matthias Caesar (u) Knolls in his Turk Hist in Achâ— Gospar Landorp in the year 1606. articled with the Protestant rebellious Hungarians That from thenceforth it should be lawful for every man throughout the Kingdom of Hungary to have the free use of his Religion and to believe what he would And in the year 1609. for to purchase his own peace and safety of his Empire gave free exercise of Religion and delivered the University of Prague to the rebellious Sectaries on the 12th of July and several Churches in Austria and Moravia to the Hereticks then in Arms (x) See at large in the Turkish History in Achmat fol. 1290. the pacification made with the Protestant States of Moravia and Austria and fol. 1295. the pacification made with the Bohemians on the 12th of March We know lastly That Henry the III. King of France was constrained through the dangers otherwise threatning his State to condescend to a worse Peace than any of these mentioned with the Huguenots at large set down in Surius (y) Surius ad an 1576. And that Henry the IV. seeing his Flour-de-lucis thrown into a Labyrinth of Troubles by the same Hereticks to provide for the good of his Kingdom by quietness confirmed unto them their liberty of Religion gave stipends to their Ministers out of the Publick Treasury and certain strong holds as a pledge for performance Yet no Censures issued against these Catholick Princes or Subjects for such Agreements no Declaration made by His Holiness or by the Clergy against them but Churches open to them alwayes and Sacraments administred Which questionless could not be if His Holiness if the Prelates of those Kingdoms if the Clergy and Universities did
their Votes in Parliament until such time as they shall afterwards acquire such Estates respectively and that none be admitted into the House of Commons but such as shall be estated and resident within this Kingdom XII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That as for and concerning the independency of the Parliament of Ireland of the Parliament of England His Majesty will leave both Houses of Parliament in this Kingdom to make such Declaration therein as shall be agreeable to the Law of the Kingdom of Ireland XIII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That the Council Table shall contain it self within its proper bounds in handled matters of State and weight fit for that place amongst which the Patents of Plantation and the Offices whereupon those Grants are founded are to be handled as matters of State and to be heard and determined by His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours for the time being and the Council publickly at the Council-Boord and not otherwise Titles between Party and Party grown after these Patents granted are to be left to the ordinary course of Law And that the Council Table do not hereafter intermeddle with common business that is within the cognizance of the ordinary Courts nor with the altering of possessions of Lands nor make nor use private Orders Hearings or References concerning any such matter nor grant any Injunctions or order for stay of any Suits in any Civil cause and that Parties grieved for or by reason of any proceedings formerly had there may commence their Suits and prosecute the same in any of His Majesties Courts of Justice or Equity for remedy of their pretended Rights without any restraint or interruption from His Majesty or otherwise by the chief Governour or Governours and Council of this Kingdom And that the proceedings in the respective Presidents Courts shall be pursuant and according to His Majesties printed Book of Instructions and that they shall contain themselves within the limits prescribed by that Book when the Kingdom shall be restored to such a degree of quietness as they be not necessarily inforced to exceed the same XIV Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further pleased That as for and concerning one Statute made in this Kingdom in the Eleventh year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth intituled An Act for staying of Wool Flocks Tallow and other necessaries within this Realm And one other Statute made in the said Kingdom in the Twelfth year of the Reign of the said Queen intituled An Act _____ And one other Statute made in the said Kingdom in the Thirteenth year of the Reign of the said late Queen intituled An Explanation of the Act made in a Session of this Parliament for the staying of Wool Flocks Tallow and other Wares and Commodities mentioned in the said Act and certain Articles added to the same Act all concerning Staple or Native Commodities of this Kingdom shall be repealed if it shall be so thought fit in the Parliament excepting for Wool and Wool-fells and that such indifferent persons as shall be agreed on by the said Lord Lieutenant and the said 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 Dillen Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them shall be authorized by Commission under the great Seal to moderate and ascertain the rates of Merchandize to be exported or imported out of or into this Kingdom as they shall think fit XV. Item It is concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is graciously pleased That all and every person and persons within this Kingdom pretending to have suffered by offices found of several Countries Territories Lands and Hereditaments in the Province of Vlster and other Provinces of this Kingdom in or since the first year of King James's Reign or by attainders and forfeitures or by pretence or colour thereof since the said first year of King James or by other Acts depending on the said offices attainders and forfeitures may petition His Majesty in Parliament for relief and redress and if after examination it shall appear to His Majesty the said persons or any of them have been injured then His Majesty will prescribe a course to repair the person or persons so suffering according to justice and honour XVI Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That as to the particular cases of Maurice Lord Viscount de Rupe Fermoy Arthur Lord Viscount Jueagh Sir Edmond Fitz-Gerald of Cloungliffe Baronet Charles Mac Charthy Reagh Roger Moore Anthony Moore William Fitz-Gerard Anthony Lynch John Lacy Collo Mac Bryen Mac Mahon Donnel Costingen Edmond Fitz-Gerald of Ballimartyr Lucas Keatinge Theobald Roch Fitz-Myles Thomas Fitz-Gerald of the Vally John Bourke of Loghmaske Edmond Fitz-Gerald of Ballimullo James Fitz-William Gerald of Glysnan and Edward Sutton they may Petition His Majesty in the next Parliament whereupon His Majesty will take such consideration of them as shall be just and fit XVII Item It is likewise concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is graciously pleased That the Citizens Freemen Burgesses and former Inhabitants of the City of Cork and Towns of Youghal and Dongarvan shall be forthwith upon perfection of these Articles restored to their respective Possessions and Estates in the said City and Towns respectively where the same extends not to the indangering of the Garrisons in the said City and Towns in which case so many of the said Citizens and Inhabitants as shall not be admitted to the present possession of their houses within the said City and Towns shall be afforded a valuable annual Rent for the same until settlement in Parliament at which time they shall be restored to those their possessions And it is further agreed and His Majesty is graciously pleased That the said Citizens Freemen Burgesses and Inhabitants of the said City of Cork and Towns of Youghal and Dongarvan respectively shall be enabled in convenient time before the next Parliament to be held in this Kingdom to choose and return Burgesses into the same Parliament XVIII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That an Act of Oblivion be passed in the next Parliament to extend to all His Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom and their Adherents of all Treasons and offences Capital Criminal and Personal and other
but give my Reader this advertisement also That even with such questions both the infallibility of the Catholick Roman Church and the religious and rational piety also of that very Church in venerating and invoking him may subsist Because her infallibility regards other matters as I have said before and because her veneration and invocation of this or that Saint in particular whose sanctity on earth and glory in heaven is not revealed unto her otherwise or taught by clear Scripture or constant Tradition from the beginning doth and must of necessity alwayes imply as to such I mean who see no evident miracles or who are not throughly convinced of such this tacit condition That he or she whom they invoke be in glory and because also moral certainty from humane faith may ground a religious and pious practice as no certainty at all but meer probability of natural grounds may be sufficient to enact a binding law or sanction even also in order to piety and because moreover the prayers of the faithful to Saints whether they invoke them in recto or in obliquo regard principally and without any comparison but that of an infinit disproportion God himself and are terminated in him alone and so farre only regard the Saints as they are in his favour grace and glory and so far only as he is pleased we should either venerat or invoke them So that if in any kind of contingency it may happen that the Church be deceived in her opinion which in this matter depends of humane testimonies and humane knowledge apprehension or sense it cannot be therefore said that her practice is either impious or irreligious or indeed any way foolish Not impious or irreligious for the reasons hitherto given of the tacit condition and primary termination of the worship and prayer nor foolish being she hath grounds enough of and for a moral humane certainty or firm adhesion of such humane belief or perswasion to the material object of her understanding by reason of the formal object of her assent in such matters this formal object being in part the most credible testimonies of other men and in part also at least sometimes the evidence of sense And so I have done at last with all my answers to the fourth and grand and very last of all those I call'd remaining objections and have done also with all my observations and advertisements to the Reader concerning this matter of Thomas of Canterbury Only for a final perclose and for the greater satisfaction yet of the more curious Reader I will add here two appendixes The one is brief and concerning the height or amplitude whereunto the exemption of some persons and some crimes from the civil Judicatories in England grew For at last it came to be such that not only the criminal Clerks themselves however guilty of what crime you please but also the very most enormous lay criminals when their crimes had relation to or had been committed against a Clerk that is when they had impiously and execrably murdred any Clerk Priest or even Bishop or Archbishop were exempted from the secular power but understand you this conformably to my doctrine before were sent to Rome to receive such pennance as the Pope should be pleased to inflict and thereby were absolutely freed of all other punishment that is of any which the civil power and the civil or municipal laws did use or inflict for murder All which to have been so in England for some time is so true that not even any of those very most impious four murtherers of St. Thomas of Canterbury himself though a long time after remaining peaceably and publickly altogether in the village of Cnaresburc in the West of England and at the house of Hugh de Mâ—roville who was himself one of the four murtherers and Lord of that Town or Village of Cnaresburc was at all enquired after by the lay Judges nor as much as touch'd or proceeded against in any wise by them but suffer'd to depart peaceably to Rome when themselves saw that all men and women shun'd their company and that none would either speak or eat with them nor even the very dogs taste of their relicks or fragments whence they were sent by Pope Alexander to do pennance at Jerusalem where finally living a penitential life by his command in Manic nigro they dyed and were buried without the gate of the Temple with this inscription Hic iacent miseri qui martyrizaverunt Beatum Thomam Archiepiscopum Cantuaâ—iensem And yet is so true that immediatly or at least very soon after the dayes or death of St. Thomas of Canterbury Richard Archbishop also of Canterbury either he that was the Saints immediat Successor or he at least who was the Sixt after him in that See for both were Richards and this last was called Richardus Magnus and sate as I take it in the dayes of Henry the Third and I have not leasure now to see which of them it was nor is it material much to set down here which complain'd of the abuse and complain'd thus most grievously of it as you may read in Petrus Blesensis and in his seventy third Epistle to the Bishops of England Clerici vel Episcopi occisores Romam mittuntur sayes he euntesque in deliciis cum plenitudine Apostolicae gratiae majore delinquendi audacia revertuntur Taltum vindictam excessuum Dominus Rex sibi vindicat sed nos eam nobis damnabiliter reservamus atque liberam praebentes impunitatis materiam in sauces nostras Laicorum gladios provocamus Ignominiosum est quod pro capra vel ovicula gravior pro sacerdote occiso paeâ—a remissior irrogatur Where also you see this good Archbishop acknowledging in formal words not only a double inconvenience arising from such exemptions and reservations but in effect also and expresly enough acknowledging that the King did upon one side justly challenge to his own say Courts the punishment of such criminals and that on the other side the Bishops did as damnably that is unjustly reserve them to their own ecclesiastical cognizance only The other appendix is a redection upon their impiety and inhumanity who wel-nigh four hundred years after the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury and in the general sack of all the Churches and holy places in England but more especially of those which were more eminent and rich and yet more particularly of the three excellently glorious monuments the first of Alban the Protomartyr of Great Brittain under Dioclesion the Emperour the second of St. Edmond that Christian Saxon King and martyr too as who was killed by the Pagans in odium fidei and the third of St. Thomas of Canterbury perswaded Henry the eight to have a process formed against him I mean Thomas of Canterbury in a Court of Justice and perswaded this King accordingly and effectually though otherwise ridiculously enough to have him declared guilty of high Treason and yet perswaded this King to have an
Act passed in Parliament whereby it was made capital for any either to keep holy-day for him or to pray unto him or to call him a Saint at all or even to suffer his name to be in their Calanders c. if Sanderus de Schismat Angl. l. 1. in Henric. speak truth of such matter of fact in Henry the Eights raign nay moreover perswaded this King to have him disinterred or dis-entombed and his Relicks body or bones burn'd and the very ashes scattered into the four winds if Pope Paul the Third was rightly inform'd for thus he speaks of this matter in his Bull of the year 1538. against the said Henry Postquam ipsum Divum Thomam ad majerem religionis contemptum in judicium vocari tanquam contumacem damnari ac proditorem declarari feeerat exhumari combuâ—i cineres in ventum spargi jussit omnium plaâ—è cunctaram gentium crudelitatem superans cum ne in bello quidem holles victores saevire in mortuorum cadavera soleant All which this King was perswaded unto by such wicked Councellors as had no other God but gain For if Sanderus tell truth in this matter there was so great a treasure of gold silver and pretious stones and so much most costly stuffs hangings c. in and belonging to that only Tomb of St. Thomas of Canterbury as loaded six and twenty Waines of the greatest and largest by the confession of that Kings own Treasurer who received them Ut occasionem quaeri oportuerit unde expilaretur And histories tell us that Henry the Eight did not so or give any such command out of any such principle of religion or irreligion as that is which sayes that no Saints are to be venerated or invocated or even honoured by such pretious donaries bestowed on their Tombs for he never altered from the saith of the Roman Church in this as neither did he in any other except that only of the Popes Supremacy if in this very point of Supremacy understood rightly he altered at all otherwise then schismatically And reason tells us that for maintaining or forwarding his schysm it was unnecessary that he should spoil this holy mans Tomb or indeed any other Shrine or Church or Chappel For a separation from the power of the Pope or even renunciation of both his pretended and true power of primacy whatever this be may be very well conceived to be and to have been both in its own nature and all the then circumstances wholy independent from any such proceedings against St. Thomas of Canterbury or indeed any other Saint especially being that as I have demonstrated heretofore St. Thomas of Canterbury never either formally or virtually or consequentially in any of his contests with Henry the Second denied the Kings of England's supream temporal independent power or any which was in him according to the laws of the Land which were then unrepealed So that I may here to that impious Councellor whoever he was of Henry the Eight apply that of St. Augustine in Psal 63. v. 7. Sed avaritia illa quae captivavit discipulum comitem Christi captivavit militem custodem Jepulchri Yet Matthew Parker very like himself in other things would fain justifie these proceedings of Henry the Eight For in the end of that life which he writes of Thomas Becket amongst his other lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury though he write that exactly enough laying aside his own censorious terms of against the Saint in some passages yet in the perclose of all he writes thus Thomas etsi celebri testimonio Martyrii à Papali Clero pro Ecclesiae suae Cantuariensis privilegiis candidatus in Ecclesia Christi humili primum in cripto positus deinde sublimiori excelso ac sumptuoso delubro conditur fuerit in quo caput ejus seorsim à cadavere situm Thomae Martyris corona appellabatur ad quod peregrinantes undique confluerent muneraque praetiosa deferrent stupendaque edita miracula quae ab Anglicis Latinisque scriptoribus ejus laudes celebrantibas commemorantur utque perenni gloria nulla oblivione interitura floreret horis matutinis atque vespertinis preces ab acutissimo Theologo Thoma Aquinate elegantiori style tamquam rythmo compositae atquae concinnatae quibus auditorum aures mulcerent in ejusque stuporem raperentur quotidie ei fusae fuerint tandem tamen saeculis aliquot labentibus diligenti ac sedula indagatione adhibitis totius regni Praesulibus ac Proceribus Rex qualis Thomas fuerit certo comperit quam nefanda gesserat quantasque turbas tragaedias in regno concitaverat Ideoque nomen ejus in publicarum precum libris ut Sanctum ubivis decantatum deleri penitus abradi praecepit Intollerabili enim arrogantia supra Regiam authoritatem juraque publica magisque quam Christianae aut Ecclesiasticae libertatis immunitas divino jure postulat se extulerat Tanta autem fama celebritate adumbratae sanctitatis suae nomen percrebuerat ut Cantuariensis Ecclesia in qua delubrum ejus situm erat quae ut diximus Christi servatoris Ecclesia ex prima institutione dicebatur id nomen amiserat in sancti Thomae Ecclesiae nomen fere transierat Sed hic semper est adulterinarum fucatarum rerum exitus ut veritate tempore probata hypocrisis patestat in nihilum concidat And with these last words of his own il-grounded il-affected censure this otherwise good Antiquary but first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury made by Queen Elizeabeth shuts up his whole life of his so great holy Catholick Predecessour in that See Which entire passage out of him I give here that the Protestant Readers of this work of mine who have a prejudice against any thing related by Sanderus or exaggerated by Paulus Tertius and perhaps they have reason to be so against Sanders in many things and this Paul too in some things and yet perhaps also against neither for what relates to the present subject may see the said usage against St. Thomas of Canterbury attested for the most weighty part by Parker himself and for no part denyed by him and that my both Catholick and Protestant Readers may see in this relation of Parker himself very much to confirm us in our opinion and belief of St Thomas of Canterburye's undoubted sanctity in his life or death or rather both whether he was a martyr or no in the rigid sense of the word being that he I mean Matthew Parker acknowledges here in such express words that there were stupendious miracles wrought at his tomb and that he neither here nor elsewhere contradicts those miracles by saying they were either forgeries or delusions And besides I give this passage all along in Parkers own words that the candid Reader may see I have reason to wish that Parker had not been so little candid himself in this very passage as neither to name that King or fix on that time