the Tridentine Fathers but also quite contrary to those Doctrines and Practises which are manifestly recommended in the letter sense and whole design of the Gospel of Christ in the writings of his blessed Apostles in the Commentaries of their holy Successors in the belief and life of the Christian Church universally for the first Ten Ages thereof and moreover in the very clearest dictates of Nature it self whether Christianity be supposed or not IV. That of those quite other and quite contrary Doctrines in the most general terms without descending to particular applications of them to any one Kingdom or People c the grand Positions are as followeth viz. That by divine right and immediate institution of Christ the Bishop of Rome is Vniversal Monarch and Governour of the World even with sovereign independent both spiritual and temporal authority over all Churches Nations Empires Kingdoms States Principalities and over all persons Emperours Kings Princes Prelates Governours Priests and People both Orthodox and Heterodox Christian and Infidel and in all things and causes whatsoever as well Temporal and Civil as Ecclesiastical or Spiritual That He hath the absolute power of both Swords given Him That He is the Fountain of all Jurisdiction of either kind on Earth and that whoever derives not from Him hath none at all not even any the least Civil or Temporal Jurisdiction That He is the onely Supreme Judge of all Persons and Powers even collectively taken and in all manner of things divine and humane That all humane Creatures are bound under forfeiture of Eternal Salvation to be subject to Him i. e. to both His Swords That He is empowred with lawful Authority not only to Excommunicate but to deprive depose and dethrone both sententially and effectually all Princes Kings and Emperours to translate their Royal Rights and dispose of their Kingdoms to others when and how He shall think fit especially in case either of Apostasie or Heresie or Schism or breach of Ecclesiastical Immunity or any publick oppression of the Church or People in their respective civil or religious Rights or even in case of any other enormous publick Sins nay in case of only unfitness to govern That to this purpose He hath full Authority and Plenitude of Apostolical Power to dispense with Subjects in and absolve them from all Oaths of Allegiance and from the antecedent tyes also of the Laws of God or man and to set them at full liberty nay to command them under Excommunication and what other Penalties He please to raise Arms against their so deposed or so excommunicated or otherwise ill-meriting Princes and to pursue them with Fire and Sword to death if they resist or continue their administration or their claim thereunto against His will That He hath likewise power to dispense not only in all Vows whatsoever made either immediately or mediately to God himself nor only as hath been now said in the Oath of Allegiance sworn to the King but in all other Oaths or Promises under Oath made even to any other man whatsoever the subject or thing sworn be That besides Oaths and Vows He can dispense in other matters also even against the Apostles against the Old Testament against the Four Evangelists and consequently against the Law of God That whoever kills any Prince deposed or excommunicated by Him or by others deriving power from Him kills not a lawful Prince but an usurping Tyrant a Tyrant at least by Title if not by Administration too and therefore cannot be said to murther the Anointed of God or even to kill his own Prince That whosoever out of pure zeal to the Roman-Church ventures himself and dyes in a War against such a Tyrant i.e. against such a deposed or excommunicated Prince dyes a true Martyr of Christ and his Soul flies to Heaven immediately That His Holiness may give and doth well to give plenary Indulgence of all their sins a culpa poena to all Subjects rebelling and fighting against their Princes when He approves of the War That antecedently to any special Judgment Declaration or declaratory Sentence pronounced by the Pope or any other subordinate Judge against any particular person Heresie does ipso jure both incapacitate to and deprive of the Crown and all other not only royal but real and personal Rights whatsoever That an Heretick possessor is a manifest Vsurper and a Tyrant also if the possession be a Kingdom State or Principality and therefore is ipso jure out-law'd and that all his People i. e. all his otherwise reputed Vassals Tenants or Subjects are likewise ipso jure absolved from all Oaths and all other tyes whatsoever of fidelity or obedience to him That he is truly and certainly and properly an Heretick who misbelieves calls in question or even doubts of any one definition of the Tridentine Council or of any one that is of meer Papal Constitution or of any one of those Articles profess'd in Pius Quartus 's Creed That not only the Pope but any Patriarch nay any inferiour Bishop acknowledging His Holiness may if need be both excommunicate and depose their own respective Princes Kings or Emperours and may also without their leave or knowledge reverse the Decrees of their Vice-Roys or Lieutenants and even censure depose from and restore again such Lieutenants to their former dignity and charge That all Ecclesiasticks whatsoever both Men and Women Secular and Regular Patriarchs Primaâ—s Archbishops Bishops Abbots Abbesses Priests Fryars Monks Nuâ—s to the very Porter or Portress of a Cloyster inclusively nay to the very Scullion of the Kitchin and all their Churches Houses Lands Revenues Goods and much more all their persons are exempt by the Law of Nature and Laws of Nations and those of God in Holy Scripture both Old and New Testament and those of men i. e. of Christian Emperours Councils and Popes in their respective Institutions and Canons and are indeed universally perpetually and irrevocably so exempt from all secular civil and temporal Authority on Earth whether of States or of Princes of Kings or of Emperours and from all their Laws and all their Commands that is from both the directive and coercive virtue of either or which is the same thing in effect from sin against God and from punishment by God or man for only transgressing them That consequently if any Church-man should murder his lawful and rightful King blow up the Parliament fire burn and lay waste all the Kingdom yet he could not be therefore guilty of Treason or truly called a Traytor against the King or against the Kingdom or People or Laws thereof no nor could justly be punish'd at all by the secular Magistrate or Laws of the Land without special permission from the Pope or those deriving Authority from Him That nevertheless all Clergy-men regular and secular in the World from the meanest either Accolits or Converts to the highest Generals of Orders and greatest Patriarchs of Nations inclusively may be out of all Kingdoms and even contrary to
unanimously in Tyr-Oen's Rebellion against the self-same heretical Queen as they call'd her not to mention here any way His Breve to Tyr-Owen himself (h) Dated in January the said year of His Popedom but of Christ 1601. And the Theological Judgment of the two famous Universities of Castile Salamanca and Valladolid (i) The former at Salamanca dated the second of February 1603. albeit the Jesuits Colledge there begun and Signed it before on the seventh of March 1602. the latter dated at Valadolid the eighth of March 1603. both justifying the lawfulness of Tyr-Oen and his Associates their taking Arms against the Queen and condemning as guilty of mortal sin all the other Roman-Catholick Irish that obeyed the Queen and fought against them for Her Majesty And the two several Breves of Paul V. (k) The first dated at St. Marks in Rome sub annulo Piscatoris x. Cal. Octob. 1606 and the second next year after which was the third of his Papacy dated likewise there at St. Marks on the 23d of August in the second and third year of His Papacy and both Breves directed to the Catholicks of England against the Oath of Allegiance made by King James in Parliament a little time before And lastly the other two several Breves of Vrban VIII (l) And that dated at St. Peters at Rome under the Signet of the Fisher May 30. 1626. whereof one was in like manner to the Catholicks of England exhorting them to lose their lives rather than be drawn to take noxium illud illicitum Anglicanae fidelitatis Juramentum quo non solum id agitur ut fides Regi servetur sed ut sacrum universae Ecclesiae sceptrum eripiatur Vicariis Dei omnipotentis c. that pernicious and unlawful Oath of Allegiance of England which His Predecessor of happy memory Paul V had condemned as such The other was that Bull or Breve of Plenary Indulgence (m) Dated 1643. May 25. given yet more lately to all the Roman-Catholicks of Ireland who had join'd in the Rebellion there begun in the year 1641 even that very Bull I mean which the Person of Quality objects in his Answer to P. W. Besides all these Publick Instruments and many more I omit of Paper and Parchment and Hands and Seals which are not denied nor can be on any sufficient ground witness in the second place all the no less unchristian than unhappy effects of these very Bulls Breves Judgments and Indulgences Particularly witness first the Rebellion of the Lincolnshire Twenty thousand men under that sturdy Monk Doctor Mackerel alias Captain Cobler and immediately after their suppression the much more terrible Insurrection of Forty thousand Yorkshire and other Northern men formed into a complete Army and even provided with a Train of Artillery calling themselves the Holy and Blessed Pilgrimage or the Pilgrimage of Grace and both Rebellions raised on pretence of Religion against Henry VIII (n) Two Rebellions in the year 1537. against Henry VIII Two more against King Edward VI. Several other in England and Ireland against Q. Elizabeth in the year 1537. Next those other two great Bodies of Northern and Western Roman-Catholick Zealots against his son King Edward VI and the latter marching into the Field with a Crucifix under a Canopy which instead of an Altar was set in a Cart accompanied with Crosses and Candlesticks and Banners and Holy Bread and Holy Water c. Then the unfortunate Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland with all their Adherents drawn so temerariously into the Field at Cliflord Moore not far from Wetherby in the West-riding of Yorkshire against their lawful Queen Elizabeth Then the Earls of Desmond Tyr-Oen Tyrconnel the Viscount Baltinglasse O Docharty and so many other Septs and Names as at several times Rebelled against Her in Ireland and from first to last continued there a long and doubtful War against Her Then the Invincible Armada (o) Spanish Invasion 1588. or Spanish Invasion in the memorable year 1588 besides those more private Plots of Parry Babington Savage Cullen Lopez Squire York and others to take away Her Life by Sword or Poyson Then against King James not only in Scotland (p) The armed Confederacy of several Earls in the year 1592. and while He was only King of Scotland the armed Confederacy of the Earls of Montrosse Bothwell Crawford Arrol Huntley Anguss the Lairds of Kinfawns of Fintrie and others in the year 1592 by the advice and at the sollicitation of the Jesuits Hay Creighton Abircrumby Tyrie but in England (q) Gunpowder-Treason Nov. 5. 1605. after coming to that Crown also both against Him and all the Three Estates of that Kingdom in Parliament assembled the most Execrable design of the Powder-plâ—t Traytors on the Fifth of November 1605 besides other Designs and less famed Contrivances formerly both in England and Scotland against His own Person Liberty and Life Lastly Under King Charles I of Glorious Memory the Universal Rebellion or Insurrection which you please to call it of all the Roman-Catholicks of Ireland (r) The Irish Rebellion 1641. a very few excepted against His said Maiesties Laws Authority and Deputies of that Kingdom in 1641 their Confederacy formed and War continued by them for so many years after and even Two several Peaces (s) The first Peace in the year 1646 and the second in the year 1648. with His Majesties LORD LIEUTENANT in that interim so scandalously violated by the prevailing Party amongst them To all which matters of Fact of both kinds relating only to the proper and even latter as well affairs as times of these Kingdoms of England Ireland and Scotland if we please to add the strictest Oath of Fidelity that can be imagined which all even our own Archbishops Bishops and Abbots do and must take at their Consecration that I may pass over now in silence not only the other Oath which all Beneficed Church-men whatsoever that have Collation or Institution by Bull from His Holiness nay all graduated Lawyers and Physitians do likewise take but also the false and yet both practical and general interpretation of the solemn vow of Obedience which all even our very Regulars do make there can be nothing more desired to shew That we need not go higher up than our own Dayes and our Fathers nor farther off than the peculiar Concerns of these very Nations to instance both manifestly and abundantly such practises as in all respects are answerable to the very worst of those Principles to which they relate VIII That notwithstanding the great multitude of Roman-Catholick Writers and greater authority of other Patrons of the same Church viz. the Roman Bishops themselves commonly these last 600 years maintaining even the very highest Enormities of the now related both Principles and Practises yet even continually since the very first time that any 〈◊〉 in those Principles or any lawfulness in those Practices hath been asserted either by Pope Hildebrand Himself
otherwise at all noxious to humane Society and then also and there to Enact those penal Laws where at the same time the Lawmakers could not but have continually before their eyes all those beforemention'd Positions and Practises which they could not but judge to be indeed of the greatest Danger Insolence Pride Injustice Usurpation Tyranny and Cruelty imaginable even those very Positions and Practises which they knew to threaten themselves above others most particularly and which they saw themselves Ten thousand times more concern'd to persecute than any pure Religious Rites or Articles nay which they also knew to be such as even according to the judgment of the greater and sounder part of the Roman-Catholicks themselves abroad in other parts of the World did of their own nature require all the severity of Laws and all the anger of Men to prosecute them I am sure the Third Estate of the Roman Catholicks of France anno 1514 1â— did think so when they desired it should be made a fundamental Law of FRANCE to be kept and known by all men That the King being acknowledged Head in his Dominions holding his Crown and his Authority only from God there is no power on earth whatever Spiritual or Temporal that hath any right over his Kingdom either to depose our Kings or dispense with or absolve their Subjects from the fidelity and obedience which they owe to their Soveraign for any cause or pretence whatsoever That all his Subjects of what quality or condition soever shall keep this Law as holy true and agreeable to God's Word without any distinction equivocation or limitation whatsoever which shall be sworn and signed by all the Deputies of Estates and henceforward by all who have any Benefice or Office in the Kingdom before they enter upon such Benefice or Office and that all Tutors Masters Regents Doctors and Preachers shall teach and publish that the contrary Opinion viz. That it is lawful to kill and depose our Kings to rebel and rise up against them and shake off our Obedience to them upon any occasion whatever is impious detestable quite contrary to Truth and the establishment of the State of France which immediately depends upon God only That all Books teaching these false and wicked Opinions shall be held as seditious and damnable All Strangers who write and publish them shall be look'd upon as sworn enemies to the Crown and that all Subjects of His Majesty of what quality and condition soever who favour them shall be accounted as Rebels Violators of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom and Traytors against the King c. And I am sure also That all the Parliaments and Universities of the same Kingdom did likewise think and believe so when at several times they proceeded with so much severity in their censures against so many inconsiderate Writers that maintain'd the Papal vain pretences of Authority to depose Kings and exempt their Subjects from the obedience due to them But to say nothing at present of the many several Arrests of the French Parliaments on this subject and speak only of their University Censures how smart these were in general the Universities of Paris (z) 1626 4. April and Caen (a) 7. May. and Rheims (b) 18. May. and Tholouze (c) 23. May. and Poitiers (d) 26. June and Valence (e) 14. July and Burdeaux (f) 16. July and Bourges (g) 25. November sufficiently tell us in their special Censures anno 1626. against the Jesuit Sanctarellus in particular i. e. against the Doctrine of such a power in the Pope asserted by him the said Sanctarellus in his Treatise of Heresie Schism Apostasie c. The first of them viz. the University of Paris finding in the said Book this Assertion That the Pope may with temporal punishments chastise Kings and Princes depose and deprive them of their Estates and Kingdoms for the crime of Heresie c. condemn'd it in formal words as new false erroneous contrary to the Law of God rendring odious the Papal Dignity opening a gap to Schism derogative to the Soveraign Authority of Kings which depends on God alone retarding the conversion of 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 Particides on the sacred Persons of their Princes And the other seven Universities were not much behind for they also every one condemn'd it as false erroneous contrary to the Word of God pernicious seditious and detestable XI That if any shall object those penal Statutes which may perhaps be thought by some to have all their quarrel and bend all their force and level all the rigor of their Sanctions against some harmless Doctrines and practises whether in themselves otherwise true or false good or bad I say against the meer spiritual meer sacramental rites of our Religious worship of God and our Belief of meer supernatural operations following as for example against our Doctrines of the Consecration and Transubstantiation and our practice withall of the adoration of the Host which this present Parliament at Westminster in their late Act against Popish Recusants may be thought by some to make the principal mark whereat all the arrows of disfavour must now be shot the answer is both consequential and clear viz. That the Law-makers perswading themselves 1. that the Roman Catholicks in general of these Kingdoms both Ecclesiasticks and Laicks had alwayes hitherto since the schism either out of ignorance and blind zeal or a mistaken interest or irrational fear refused or at least declined to disown by any sufficient publick instrument the foresaid Anti-catholick Positions and Practises which maintain the Popes pretences of all Supreme both Spiritual and Temporal Dominion Jurisdiction Authority Power Monarchy and Tyranny c 2. That their Missionaries i e. their Priests not only day and night labour to make new Proselytes but also to infuse into as many of them and of their other Penitents as they think fit all their own Principles of Equivocation and mental Reservation in swearing any Oath even of Allegiance or Supremacy to the King and forswearing any thing or doctrine whatsoever except only those Articles which by the indispensable condition of their communion they may not dissemble upon Oath 3. That the Tenet of Transubstantiation is one of those Articles therefore to discover by this however otherwise in it self a very harmless Criterium the mischief which they conceive to go along with it thorough the folly of Roman Catholicks in these Dominions they make it the test of discriminating the Loyally principled Protestant from the disloyal and dissembling Papist Which otherwise they would not have done if the Romanists themselves in general who are Subjects to our Gracious King had by any sufficient Test distinguished amongst themselves and thereby convinced the Parliament and all other Protestant people
purpose Nothing but against oppressive taxes contrary to law and former customs and taxes too imposed by the Consuls only and Rectors of particular Cities Nothing in specie against even any such oppressive taxe tallies exactions collections laid or made by an absolute order law or constitution of the supream civil power or of Kings Emperours States who certainly are not understood by the names of Consuls and Rectors of Cities And however this of taxes of Clerks be nothing at all for the exemption of the persons of Clerks from the supream civil power in all other civil and criminal causes whatsoever which only is it we dispute of here Nothing besides but what was convenient for the Government of the people within the Popes own temporal Patrimony for which only the additions of Gregory were unless it pleased other Countreys and of themselves to receive his said additions Finally nothing but what the Pope Innocent might as justly have decreed in case he believed certainly that Clerks had their exemption whatever it be from the sole civil power as if he had believed they had it only from the Church or from himself or some other of his Predecessors in the See of Rome 3. For although cap. Ecclesia sanctae Mariae de constitutionibus be a meer papal constitution of Innocent the Third only and hath indeed an expression which imports some such thing as the exemption of Churches and of the persons too of Churchmen from the power of Laicks yet forasmuch as this expression is not specifical or not in specie relating to or comprising the very supream lay power it self but so generical only as these words which are the words there concerning this matter Nos attendentes quod laicis etiam religiosis super Ecclesiis personis Ecclesiasticis nulla sit attributa potestas and consequently forasmuch as these words may have a very true and rational sense notwithstanding the subjection still of the persons of Clerkes to the supream lay power because the civil laws or customs which prevailed at that time under Innocent the Third or which is the same thing because the Emperours themselves had given or permitted under themselves to the Church and Churchmen proper Ecclesiastical Judges for all their own both civil and criminal causes how ever still subordinat Judges in such causes to the Emperours and the same must be said of other Kings who had granted the like Ecclesiastical Judges and moreover forasmuch as this canon or chapter of Innocent is only a decision of a particular controversie in matter of a possession controverted betwixt a certain Church called here the Church of S. Mary and a certain Convent termed likewise in this canon the Convent of St. Sylvester which possession was adjudged by a certain lay judge called Senator against the said Convent without previous confession conviction or examination of the same Convent and those words above or meaning of them no part of that which was intended or decided by the Pope in this canon but assumed only and that also transiently as in part importing his reason or motive to remand that possession back to the said Convent and that we know the reasons motives or suppositions expressed in a sentence or canon are not therefore defined by the Pronouncer of the sentence or maker of the canon and further yet because those words neither distinguish nor determine by what authority or law that is whether by divine or humane civil or ecclesiastical authority or law it was so enacted that lay-men could have no power in the causes of Church-lands or Church-men and because too they say nothing at all of any Pope's having made such a law whether by a true or only pretended power as did incapacitat all kind of Laicks even the very supream civil Magistrate himself or indeed as much as the very subordinate inferiour lay Judges from having any judicial authority over Churchmen finally because those words of themselves take away no such authority from Laicks but only at most signifie the not being of such authority attributed to Laicks whatever those Laicks were and by what means soever it came to pass not to be attributed to them therefore it is plain enough this canon Ecclesia sanctae Mariae is to no purpose alledged for Bellarmin's voluit that is for the matter of Fact of any Pope's having done so or having exempted so by his own Power all Clerks from the jurisdiction of even supream lay Princes or even of having declared them so exempted by the law of God himself 4. That albeit also cap. seculares de foro competenti in Sexto and cap. Clericis de Immunitate Ecclesiar be two meer Papal canons as made by the sole authority of Boniface the VIII and although it be confessed this Pope did challenge all the both spiritual temporal power on earth in Church and State to himself alone as likewise consequently to his Predecessours and Successours in the See of Rome which his extravagant Vnam sanctam De Majoritate obedientia and his other proceedings against a King of France besides the later of these two canons here quoted the said cap. Clericis can prove abundantly yet I dare confidently averre that neither of these canons of his however otherwise too too exorbitant at least the later of them comes home enough to prove that any Pope hath de facto by his own meer Papal authority exempted Clerks in all civil and criminal causes from the supream civil coercive power of Lay Princes or hath de facto as much as declared or defined that Clerks have been so or are so exempted by the law of God in such causes from the said supream power of temporal Princes That for the former canon seculares de foro competenti the case is clear enough out of the very words and whole tenour of it Which being but short I give here altogether not omitting one word Seenlares judices qui licet ipsis nulla competat jurisdicto in hac parte personas Ecclesiasticas ad soluendum debita super quibus coram eis contra ipsas earum exhibentur litterae vel probationes aliae indueuntur damnabili praesumptione compellunt a temeritate hujusmodi per locorum Ordinarios censura Ecclesiastica decerninus compescendos where you see first there is not one word directly or indirectly of criminal causes but only of a civil in matter of debt Nor secondly any specifical comprehension no nor any comprehension at all of Kings States or Princes but onely of those inferiour persons whose peculiar office it is to be judge twixt party and party Nor thirdly is there any word here declaring by whose law or authority that is whether by that of the Pope or that of the Church c. it came to pass that these very inferiour Lay Judges have no jurisdiction in hac parte in a civil cause of debt challenged on a Clerk or declaring how it came to pass that the proceeding judgment or determination
people and that obedience also in Temporals which is in all other Subjects to their own respective Princes and States or an obedience which tyes them not to raise Tumults bear Arms c. against the Princes Person Royal Authority c Lastly Who sees not there was very much both expediency and necessity in these Kingdoms of England Ireland and Scotland but more especially in Ireland for Catholick Priests amongst such a world of Sectaries and under a Protestant King and State to make such a Remonstrance or one in such even formal words of disclaiming and renouncing in so much any Forreign power being the generality of Romish Priests in these Kingdoms or at least in Ireland have been these many Years and are as yet upon so many sufficient grounds suspected to own such a Forreign power both Papal and Princely Spiritual and Temporal as in their opinion at least may seem nay is able and may even justly pretend to free discharge and absolve them from all obligation of Loyalty even in the most Civil and Temporal Affairs whatsoever and give them leave and licence to raise Tumults bear Arms and offer violence to His Majesties Person Royal Authority and to the State and Government of both Ireland Scotland and England So that from first to last you see by this Discourse even the very grand Block of stumbling and chief Rock of scandal quite removed or rather see there hath never been any such at all in the Remonstrance being this fourth Clause or Period of it is free of any such and hath neither Block nor Rock in it self at all the Block and Rock being onely in false and even wilfully and maliciously false Representations of it by perverse Interpreters Fifth Period or Clause follows Being all of us ready not only to discover and make known to Your Majesty and to Your Ministers all the Treasons made against Your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to lose our Lives in the defence of Your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all Conspiracies and Attempts against Your Majesty be they framed or sent under what pretence or patronized by what Forreign Power or Authority whatsoever But certainly here is nothing else Remonstrated but their being ready to perform their Duty in meer Civil or Temporal Affairs or which is the same thing I mean to perform a meer Civil and Temporal Duty and to perform it in a meer Civil way as all Subjects ought to their meer Civil or Temporal Prince To reveal Treason and defend the Kings Person Royal Authority and State even with the hazard of their Lives Are not both meer Civil and Temporal Duties As for that which some either too grosly stupid or too ridiculously malicious object 1. That Confessors who subscribe this Period or Clause of the Remonstrance declare they are ready and oblige themselves thereby to reveal in some case Sacramental Confessions and break the Sacred Seal of such Confessions made to them forasmuch as they say here They are ready to reveal all Treasons which shall come to their hearing And 2. That all sorts of Catholicks both Laymen and Clergymen subscribing this Clause bind themselves thereby to reveal that also which they cannot in Conscience reveal forasmuch as this Clause binds them to reveal all Treasons and we know 't is Treason by the Law at least in England 't is so to Reconcile any man to the Pope or to be Reconciled so to be made a Priest beyond the Seas by the Popes Authority and afterwards to return to the Kingdom of England as it is also Treason to deny that the King's Majesty of England is Supreme Governor in His Kingdom even in Ecclesiastical Causes and yet 't is plain they cannot nor ought not by any Law of Conscience as it stands not with the Laws of their Communion or Religion to reveal such matters To the first or that of Confessors I have already of purpose and at large answered in my LV Section where I Treated this Subject against the Third ground of the Louain Censure And to the Second or that of all Catholicks generally I say in brief here That Widdrington hath in his Theological Disputation Cap. 4. Sect. 3. upon the Oath of Allegiance most learnedly clearly and even diffusely answered this very Objection made in his time by some especially by Antonius Capellus Controvers 1. Cap. 2. pag. 30 seq against which or in answer to which the learned Widdrington or whoever was Author of those Works which go under his name in effect sayes That neither King James himself nor His Oath of Allegiance nor the Statute thereupon by the Clause of that Oath which tyes to the discovery of Treason did intend to bind or does indeed any way bind to the discovery of other Treason or Trayterous Conspiracy than that which is truly such by the Laws of God Nature and Nations even that which is truly such in all Catholick Nations against Catholick Princes but by no means to the discovery of such matters as are only of late by the peculiar Law of England called or made Treasons Treasonable or Trayterous Conspiracies and are not otherwise in their own nature against the natural Allegiance Truth Fidelity and Obedience of Subjects to their Prince And I say besides that neither any indifferent Catholick or even Protestant ever yet understood by the word Treason in such a Clause whereby Catholicks in an Oath or Declaration especially made by themselves oblige themselves to discover all Treasons any other kind of Treason but that which is such of it 's own nature or by all the Laws of God Nature and Nations or that which is such in all Catholick States and Kingdoms not that which is such by the positive Law of only this or that Kingdom or is only such by Laws made against even the very profession of the Roman Catholick Religion for such might be made Treasonable by an unjust Law of men were it left to the greater vote at least in some Contingencies and in some Countries And I say in the last place That words bind not against or besides the intention of such as speak or subscribe them not are by any Rule of Reason or Law to be construed so to bind whensoever the obvious and common sense of such words in all Nations or in the generality of Nations and Religions require no other intention but may subsist very well without any other intention and the Speakers and Subscribers of such words be thought to deal honestly and conscientiously and to be without fraud equivocation or mental reservation in such their speaking and subscribing Out of all which jointly taken with what I have said before on the other Clauses it is apparent enough That notwithstanding such capricious and foolish Objections the fifth Period contains no other than a promise or purpose of the Subscribers of being faithful in performing their natural Duty in Temporal matters without any kind
of obligation to reveal any thing or to stand by the Prince in any matter which is or may be against any spiritual Duty incumbent on them or against their Religion or Communion or against either Justice or Charity For certainly to reveal such Treason as is such by all the Laws of God and Man of Nature and Nations is a Temporal Duty and to defend the King's Person Royal Authority and State and Government under which we live and which are acknowledged by our selves to be Legal or not Usurped is no less a Temporal Duty or both I mean are Duties we owe to God and to the King and to the Laws and such Duties as are discharged in meer Temporal things and in a meer Temporal way too Sixth Period And further we profess That all Absolute Princes and Supreme Governors of what Religion soever they be are God's Lieutenants on Earth and that Obedience is due to them according to the Laws of each Commonwealth respectively in all Civil and Temporal Affairs That no other power is acknowledged here to be even in such Absolute Princes and Supreme Governors nor other obedience due to them by Subjects but in Civil and Temporal things there needs no further proof than what you see in the very express Letter of this self-same Period in the latter part or that of Obedience which also and by all consequence determines the former part of Power and consequently and most expresly determines both to Civil and Temporal Affairs As for the Title of Gods Lieutenants on Earth What Catholick can except against it on other ground but that of Ignorance or Malice or both Our great Nicholaus de Lyra of the Franciscan Order that most Famous and most Learned and also most Catholick Interpreter of the whole Scripture hath above 300 Years since in Sapient 6. called Emperors and Kings Vicarios Dei inâ—â—terra And Thomas of Aquin or whosoever under his name set out the work de Regim Princip l. 2. calls them so nay delivers this Maxim or Position of Kings and Princes Regem Principem toto conatu sayes he sollicitudine divino cultus incumbere teneri non solum quia homo sed etiam quia Dominus Rex est Dei vices gerit a quo maxime pendet St. Ambrose also well nigh a Thousand Years before Lyranus and Aquinas writ thus in Epist ad Roman c. 13. Sciant non se esse liberos sed sub potestate degere quae ex Deo est Principi enim suo qui vicem Dei agit sicut Deo subjiciuntur Nay and a Roman Pontiff Anastasius the Second but a few Ages after Ambrose's Ep. vii writ thus to Anastasius then Emperor of Rome Pectus Clementiae vestrae Sacrarium est publicae faelicitatis ut per instantiam vestram quam velut Vicarian Deus praesidere jussit in terris c. Seventh Period being purely Relative either only to the foresaid six or certainly to that and all the other foregoing Periods taking all together for it is in these words And therefore we do here protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary it is plain this Protestation must be Catholick and just if the Declaration maâ—e in that sixth Period and in the other several foregoing be such But I have now sufficiently demonstrated that all and each of these Declarations are such And 't is like no man will be so mad as to gather out of this Protestation in this seventh Period That the Subscribers protest simply absolutely abstractedly or specificatively against the Authority of any whosoever that declares or holds the contrary but only secundum quid or reduplicatively as holding the contrary not at all as holding declaring or commanding other just matters For the words to the contrary and what else goes before and follows after sufficently declare that Protestation to have only such reduplicative sense So that no other matter can be said to be in this Period or this Period to relate to other than to the Supreme Civil power of Princes in pure Temporal affairs and obedience of Subjects to them in the same Temporal affairs though I otherwise do my self and all the Subscribers also do confess passive obedience due to Princes from their Subjects even in all kinds too of pure spiritual affairs But what this passive is as also what active is I have before explicated and the judicious Reader cannot but easily understand what both are without any explication of mine Eighth Period And we do hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince though of a different belief and judgment from his Sure there is no professed Christian but Mariana Sanctarellus or some other few impious Scholars of theirs and those of Calvin's Crue who before lead the way or after followed them will quarrel with the Subscribers on this Period especially when the several determinations of the general Council of Constance relating to this matter are duly considered Nor even those in this more Pagan Philosophers of some Graecian Republick than Christian Divines of an establish'd Monarchy can justly say whatever they otherwise say the Subscribers attribute other or even relate to or suppose here in this Period any other power in the Prince than a pure Supreme Temporal or any other obedience in the Subject but in meer Civil or Temporal affairs For the corporal life or death of the Prince as of every other man is such Nor certainly upon any ground whatsoever can say at all the Subscribers attribute here any kind of spiritual power nay nor even a Temporal power in spiritual causes to Princes or consequently exact here from Subjects an active obedience in spiritual causes For if any did subscribe this other Proposition relating not to Princes but private Subjects We hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain That any private Subject may kill or murther another private Subject though of a different Religion from his whatever Construction or Exposition this Proposition would or must be subject unto yet no man certainly could averr on any rational ground That the Subscribers of it attributed a spiritual power to every such private Subject whom he so exempts from being lawfully killed or murthered by another private Subject or that obedience were therefore in spiritual things due to him who could not be so murthered Ninth and last Period And we abhor and detest the practice thereof as damnable and wicked Which because it is Relative only to the eighth as the word thereof proves I need say no more than is already said on the said eighth immediately preceding And these Nine Periods which I have so given and considered apart being the onely Periods Clauses or parts of the said Act of Recognition and no other at all being therein nor as much as a word more who sees not but that the said Act considered even separately as to the several Clauses
ignorance to assert nay and endeavour also even before his own face to maintain That because the King was out of the Roman-Catholick Church it was not lawful to pray for him at all or at least not publickly on any other day in the year than good Friday nor then in particular for him but in general only i. e. forasmuch as he was comprehended amongst the great generality of Infidels or of Jews Mahumetans Pagans and Hereticks for whom altogether the Church prayed on good Friday as being the Aniversary of that day whereon our Saviour dyed for all the Children of Adam in general nor yet then or so to pray for him without some further qualification and restriction of what we should beg of God or wish from Heaven to him i. e. to pray only for what concern'd the Spiritual welfare of his Soul and therefore only to pray for his Conversion to the Roman-Catholick Church but not for his Temporal prosperity in this world until he be a true Member of the only true Church 2. That although his own endeavours partly and partly those not only of the rest of the former Remonstrants but of other good men who albeit they had through fear of the Roman Court and other Ecclesiastical Superiours not subscribed the Formulary or Remonstrance of the year 1661 yet in their Souls and where they durst both in word and deed too approve it had prevailed in most parts of the Kingdom against this wicked Heresie of not praying as they ought for the Supream Temporal Powers he knew notwithstanding too too well that all opposers were not yet perswaded to decry this errour down or to practice against it 3. That notwithstanding the ignorance or malice of such disaffected Church-men the Holy Scriptures to speak nothing at all of Natural Reason in the case or I mean of that reason which directs us to wish well to all men and love our Neighbours as our selves were plain enough both for Praying and Sacrificeing too even for Idolatruos and Heathen yea persecuting Heathen Princes and not only for their Spiritual welfare but their Temporal as Baruch 1.11 and 2 Timoth 2.1 at least joyned together manifestly prove For certainly the Princes and Kings for whom Paul desires Timothy and all other Christians to pray for Heathens and Nero amongst them was the very first Persecuting Roman Emperour And no less certainly both Nabuchodonozor and Baltassar in the Prophet Baruch were Heathen Princes and the former He that sacrilegiously robâ—d the Holy Temple nay utterly in his time subverted the Kingdom of the chosen People of God and carried the miserable remainders of them Captive to Babilon 4. That no Church-canon or Custom or Rubrick or Reason or Doctrine or Practice hath any power to prescribe against the Laws of God or their eternal reason declared in both the New and Old Testaments 5. And Lastly That nothing could more justly render us to all Protestants both suspected of disloyalty and odious for immorality than such our scandalous either opposing or omitting so known a duty Secondly for the later or second part of that same first of those Three Heads he let them know likewise That although not even the Subscribers of the very former Remonstrance or of that of the year 1661 may be thought to be obliged by the only precise contents of that Formulary To acknowledg either the Kings Authority in commanding any meer spiritual duties or the Peoples obligation in point of Conscience to obey the King in such commands yet no man of knowledge will thence conclude that the intention or design of that Formulary or Subscription of it was either formally or virtually i. e. tacitly and consequently to deny all such Authority in the King or all such obligation of conscience on either Lay people or Clergy but only in plain and express terms to acknowledge the Kings other kind of independent Authority viz That in Temporals and for commanding in all Temporals universally according to the Laws of the Land of the misbelief or denyal and rejection of which even Vniversal and Independent Authority in Temporals it behooved the Subscribers to clear themselves or at least those in general in whose behalf they Subscribed and Remonstrated That such concern and such intention or design is very far from any consequution or sequel implying their denyal of the Kings Authority for commanding some Spirituals even truly such nay or of his Authority for commanding Vniversally all Spirituals whether not purely or purely such to be duly perform'd by all Subjects both Lay and Ecclesiastical respectively as they are in their several capacities by the Laws of God and man directed enabled and obliged to perform and discharge them and therefore also very far from any conseqution implying their denial either of Peoples or Clergys obligation in point of conscience to obey the King whensoever He commands a due and holy observance or performance and discharge of such Spiritual works which neither of their own nature nor by any icrcumstances or ends prescribed by Him are vitiated or against the Laws of God but are in every such respect acts of true Religion Piety and Holiness For who sees not That a general affirmation of one sort of Authority in Kings and of a correspondent tye of obedience thereunto in Subjects must not infer a general renunciation or denyal of another kind of Authority in the one and tye on the other when these latter can not be truly said to be inconsistent with those other That both the Examples even of the most religious holy Kings either amongst the Jews and Israelites in the Old Testament or amongst Christians under the dispensation of the New yea in the more early times thereof and the Doctrin of the Fathers and natural reason too in the case manifestly prove this Authority in all Kings for commanding even such spiritual duties and consequently this obligation of and tye of Conscience on all Subjects of whatever Religion true or false the same or different from that professed by their Kings to obey them even in all such their commands whither given by Law or by Proclamation or other temporary Precept That to this purpose the Books of Paralipomenon do furnish us plentifully with the examples of David (a) 1 Parlip cap. 23 cap. 28. 2 Paralip 8 Ezechias (b) 2 Paralip 29. and Josias (c) Ibid. 35. to say nothing now of Joas adhuc dum bonum (d) Ibid 24. faceret coram domino nothing of Salomon (e) 3. Reg. 2. Vide etiam 4. Reg. 18 23. cap. 2 Paralip 19 34 35. cap. Et Mac. 4.59 Ester 9.26 Dan. 3 19. â—on 3.7 c. and the Civil Laws of the Christian Emperours of Rome the Books of the Code Pandects and Authenticks furnish us no less plentifully with examples of Constantine the Great Theodosius both the older and younger Honorius Martianus Justinian Heracliuus Leo and many more amongst whom Carolus Magnus and
and us IV. They proposed that an Vnion cannot be had or preserved for preservation of the Nation without keeping the King's Authority among us for that many of those considerable will instantly make their conditions with the Enemy the Kings Authority being taken away and that there is no hopes of leaving that Authority with us but by revoking the Excommunication and the Declaration for it will not be left by the Lord Lieutenant or undergone by Clanricard but on those terms Whether there is ground for the sense of the Commissioners delivered in and upon these heads We leave to themselves to make good and to the event that shall follow the refusal of the Prelates to hearken or assent to the Proposals of the said Commissioners But finding that in the Reasons given by the said Prelates for their refusal and in the Advices they give for the union and preservation of the Nation they have repeated some of those things wherewith VVe were formerly unjustly charged by them and have framed new objections against Us VVe shall take a particular view of each of them and as far forth as VVe conceive Our Self concerned shall give Answers to them though VVe had reason to hope That if the offer VVe made should not meet with the success VVe desired that yet so affectionate a manifestation of Our love to the Nation transporting Us to an overture of reconciliation with those that had so much injured Us would not have given ground for repeating of old and casting new Aspersions upon Us. Answers of the Committee to the Proposals of the Commissioners before recited First Article The abovementioned Letter was read containing his Excellencies undertaking for asserting the Peace and his demands of two Provisoes to that end Where we observe his Excellency informed His Majesty of certain disobediences and affronts put upon the Kings Authority and consequently suggested matter to His Majesty of making His Declaration against the Peace Answer VVe have in Our Answer * * Pag. 115. to the 11th Article of their Declaration answered to this Introduction and Our Letter out of which they make this Collection is but newly recited * * Pag. to which VVe refer them Second Article We have perused the King 's Declaration disavowing of the late Peace And are of opinion for ought to Vs appearing That the King hath thereby withdrawn His Commission and Authority from the Lord Lieutenant This is clearly proved out of a branch of the said Declaration taking away and nulling all Commissions granted by him In that Declaration the King will have no friends but the friends of the Covenant Hence it is evidently inferred That His Majesties Authority is taken away from the Lord Lieutenant unless he be a friend to the Covenant as we conceive he is not But if he be he is not our friend nor to be trusted by us in having authority over us In the same Declaration the Irish Nation as bloody Rebels are cast from the protection of the Kings Laws and Royal Favours It may not therefore be presumed That He would have His Authority kept over such a Nation to govern them We do join with you in that you represent to wit there is no safety to be expected from Covenanters or Independents for the Catholick Religion or this Nation If that of the Peace be proved the onely safety we are for it However we conceive the benefit thereof is due to us having made no breach of our part Answer Here they readily declare their opinion concerning His Majesties having recalled Our Commission and take pains to prove it by an unavoidable dilemma or that at least We are not their Friend nor to be Trusted by them and by another strong Argument they endeavour to prove His Majesty would not have His Authority at all kept over this Nation VVhen by this means they have as they think shewed it impossible That the Peace can be continued which they know it cannot without the continuance of the Kings Authority then they say if the Peace be proved the onely safety they are for it and that however they conceive the benefit thereof is due to them having made no breach on their part If they would make it their business to seek for Arguments to keep the Kings Authority over them they might perhaps find many and these as convincing as those they have found to dispute it out of the Kingdom as The Conclusion and Ratification of the Peace here by vertue of His Authority precedent to the Declaration seeming to annul it the certainty that He was in a free condition when he gave the said Authority and ratified the Peace concluded by it and The question that may be made whether he was so when he declared against it and lastly That by the Articles of Peace He is obliged to continue His Authority here from which obligation no Declaration at least importuned from Him by His Subjects of Scotland can free Him or take from this Nation who have no dependence on Scotland the benefit of the Agreement made by His Majesty with them Upon these grounds it was That until His Majesty had been fully informed in all that had passed here and declared his free sense upon it We offered to justifie the lawfulness of concluding the Peace and the continuing validity of it to those that had not forfeited their interest in it if We might have had the concurrence of these Bishops and obedience in the places by the strength and means whereof it might have been justified And surely this was an offer not meriting the scorn and bitterness wherewith it was rejected If they that contrived this Paper have made no breach of the Peace on their part We have lost much labour in the forepassed discourse But We believe We have proved they have made many and those the highest it was possible to make And sure they must be very partial on their own side if they think the benefit of a thing they reject is due to them Third Article Something of our sense concerning what way may tend best to the Nations preservation we will say beneath and do offer our clear intentions before God to join with you and all men in what will be found the best and safest way to such preservation Answer This is onely a profession which requires no Answer from Us. Fourth Article We are of opinion and did ever think all our endeavours should be employed to keep the Kings Authority over us But when His Majesty throweth away the Nation from His protection as Rebels withdrawing His own Authority we cannot understand this mystery of preserving the same with us and over us or how it may be done Whereas you say That many of those considerable will instantly make their conditions with the Enemy if the King 's Authority be taken away by himself as by His Declaration it is and not driven away by the Subject in such case when the People may not hold it likely they
that they might be free from all tyes of Duty Faith Obedience and Acknowledgment or Recognition of His Majesties Authority over them c. 1. This general Exception proved manifoldly viz. 1. By four several Instances of such Variation 2. By two notable Observations added to those Instances 3. By examining all and every of the several parts periods or clauses of their said Remonstrance and what their meaning in each must be and consequently by discovering all their subtlety of Ampliations Restrictions Abstractions Constractions Modifications Equivocations Reservations in fine all their Evasions and Subterfuges yea their beloved distinctions as well of Fact and Right as of the reduplicative and specificative sense 4. By Eighteen special Exceptions All from pag. 1. to 20 or last of this Second Treatise First special Instance of such variation and most material change 2. Second special Instance thereof 3. Third special Instance 13. Fourth and last Instance 14. These Instances back'd with two notable Observations more First Observation 16. Second Observation 17. One passage of their Remonstrance examined 2 3 5. Another 4. Two more 6. A Fifth 7. Sixth passage 8. Seventh 9. Their Conclusion 10. And after all the very beginning of their Remonstrance however it be in these words We Your Majesties Subjects the Roman-Catholick Clergy of Ireland together assembled do hereby declare and solemnly protest before God and his Holy Angels That we own and acknowledge Your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supreme Lord and undoubted Sovereign as well of this Realm of Ireland as of all other His Majesties Dominions This very specious beginning and these very words I say as proceeding from the said National Congregation and as relating to all as well the Clauses inserted after as those purposely omitted is and are evidently proved to signifie a meer nothing 10 11. Eighteen special Exceptions against the said Remonstrance of the National Congregation 18 19 20. In the Third Treatise Which considers the Three first Sorbon Propositions as applied and published by the Dublin Congregation THere can be no more assurance of the present or future faith of those Congregational Subscribers from their Subscriptions to the said three Propositions added to their Remonstrance than was before intended by them in or could be from their sole Remonstrance taken according to or in that sense of theirs declared and proved to be theirs in the former Treatise Pag. 21. The unreasonable obstinacy of the Congregation as well in framing their said Remonstrance as in applying their said three Propositions both manifestly and manifoldly appears 23. First and second Argument to prove this ib. Third Argument which is ab intrinseco 24. The said three Sorbon Propositions applied c. 25. Four several Explications of the first of those three Sorbon Propositions and all those Explications own'd by the chief Divines of that Congregation ib. First Exposition 25. Second and Third 26. The Fourth and last 29. Expositions questionless even each or every of them able to â—â—ict from any man this confession that for neither of both parâ—s or both together the first Proposition adds nothing at all to their Remonstrance Pag. 30. Their second Proposition lyable to the same Exceptions Abstractions Reservations Equivocations and even Distinctions of the reduplicative and specificative sense ib. Their third Proposition also how specious soever yet as from them is wholly insignificant as being subject especially to the distinctions of the reduplicative and specificative sense of fact and of right of humane or temporal and divine or spiritual yea of ordinary and extraordinary c. 31. Third Argument in form 30. Proofs that the three Sorbon Propositions both in themselves and as applyed by the foresaid Congregation are lyable rationally to such Constructions 33. Fourth and Fifth Argument 34. An Evasion obviated 35. The Parisian Censure of Sanctarellus at length 35 36. Confirm'd by the seven other Vniversities of France 38. In the Fourth Treatise Containing Answers to the Reasons why the Congregation would not Sign any of the three latter of the Six Sorbon Declarations c. THeir Title might not ungroundedly be turn'd to this other The Jesuits Reasons unreasonable Pag. 39. The three rejected Propositions or Declarations 40. The first Paragraph of their Paper of Reasons c. contains the first or rather onely general Reason alledg'd by the Congregation for rejecting them ib. That general Reason is in effect either the Impertinency of all and each of the said Fourth Fifth and Sixth of the Six late Sorbon Declarations to assure His Majesty of Great Britain of the future Allegiance of the Irish or is the insignificancy of the same three later Propositions to assure Him any more or better of the Irish Clergies Fidelity than His Majesty might have been by their two former Instruments viz. their Remonstrance and their three first of the said six Sorbon Propositions ib. The end which the Author hath in answering as well that first or rather onely indeed but no less false than general Reason as all the rest following I confess pretended but in truth likewise very false specifical Reasons or rather pretended specifical Proofs of the foresaid general one viz. by Induction of particulars ib. The second Paragraph of their Paper i. e. the first of their specifical Reasons or Proofs viz. That they look'd upon the Fourth Proposition of Sorbon as not material in their debate For c answer'd by demonstrating the contrary as to every point of their Allegations 41 42 43 44. Particularly their speaking these words We conceive not c. in their general Reason and in their said first specifical these other words We look'd upon it c. so much in truth against their own certain knowledge and therefore Conscience answered 40 41. And their horned Argument or Dilemma answer'd 42. And their saying that they conceive not what more they might have said thaâ— hath been touch't already positively in their Remonstrance answer'd 43. They might in terminis applying the said Fourth to themselves have said That we do not approve nor ever shall any Propositions contrary unto our Kings Authority or true Liberties of the Irish Church and Canons received in the same Kingdom for example That the Pope can depose Bishops against the same Canons 41. And more at large discoursed upon Pag. 43. And their saying That they admit not any Power derogatory to His Majesties Authority answered 44 45. Third Paragraph of their Paper containing their next two specifical Reasons or Proofs and Arguments for their general one and for what particularly I mean concerns the Fifth Sorbon Declaration viz. their alledging first That whether the Pope or a General Council be above or not above c. is a School Question of Divinity which they thought not material to their affairs to talk of secondly That they conceive it not only impertinent but dangerous c. in the consequence to deny the Pope to be above a General Council for then it would follow that they must
neither that nor his offer to put himself into the City when Ireton was encamped before it could prevail with them 30. The Proceedings of the Bishops about this time i. e. their clandestine Assembly at Jamestown of their own meer motion and power without any licence approbation permission or knowledge of his Excellency ib. The Letter dated 24th of July 1650 and Signed by Thomas Flemming Archbishop of Dublin and John Burk Archbishop of Tuam to his Excellency which shews what kind of Assembly that of Jamestown was like to be ib. His Excellencies Answer from Roscommon to that Letter 2d of August that year 91. He leaves it to the judgment of the General Assembly of Loghreogh to which he writes Whether the most absolute Monarch of Christendom could after a more Kingly manner have required the advice of his Subjects or with a more negligent State have promised gracious Answers than these two Archbishops did from and to him in their said Letter 92. His Answer to the said two Archbishops produced the expressions you will find in a Letter of the whole Congregation it self to his Excellency from Jamestown dated 10th of August 1650 and subscribed by them which was also a Letter of Credence viz. to be given by his Excellency to the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly 92. Particulars of the Message sent from the said Congregation by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly to his Excellency and by these Messengers or Commissioners delivered on the 13th of August 1650. 93. Neither by this Message nor the Letter of Credence of the 10th of August could any imagine that the satisfaction the Prelates do seemingly promise in both to give should be their Declaration against his Person and Authority and their Excommunication too against any that would feed help or adhere unto him both dated 11th and 12th of August the very next dayes after they had sent the above-recited both Letter and Message 93 94 96. His Excellencies Answer from Loghreogh on the 31 of August same year to the Prelates met at Jamestown i. e. to their said Letter of Credence 94. His Answer also to the particulars of the Message 95. The unhandsomness first injustice next and lastly the rashness of their said both Declaration and Excommunication 96. What not only an invasion these proceedings of the Bishops is upon the Regal Power but usurpation also on the freedom of the Nobility and Commons is fit for the General Assembly of all the Three Estates viz. then sitting at Loghreogh to consider ib. Letters from the Bishop of Clonfert and Doctor Charles Kelly to the Officers of the Army under the command of the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard and from the Bishops of Raphoe Killala and Fearns to the Earl of Westmeath and other Officers 96 97. Reflections on these Letters ib. The grounds of the Congregations or the Jamestown Assemblies proceeding to an Excommunicating of all that should feed help or adhere to his Excellency the Kings Lieutenant of that Kingdom are set down in their Declaration of the 12th of August intituled A Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Regular and Secular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the continuance of His Majesties Authority in the Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject and the ill conduct of His Majesties Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace at Jamestown in the Convent of the Fryarâ— Minors the 12th of August 1650. 98. Reflections on this Title Pag. 98. Now supposing they were the Monarchs they would be and let the grounds of their Excommunication set forth by them be duly examined it will be found that their sentence is most unjust So that as their Tribunal is usurped their Judgment is erroneous ib. The Preamble of their Declaration and His Excellencies Answer to that Preamble 99 100. First Article of their Declaration and his Answer 101. Second Article and its Answer 102. Third Article and its Answer 102 103 104. Fourth Article and its Answer 105 106. Fifth Sixth Seventh and Eighth Article with his Answers 107 108 109. Ninth Article which is concerning the conduct of the Army ib. Answer at large to this Ninth Article 109 110 111 112 113 114. Tenth and Eleventh Article and Answers to them 115. Twelfth Article and the Answer thereunto 116. Thirteenth Fourteenth and Fifteenth Article with Answers to them 117 118. Conclusion of the Declaration 119. The Names of those who Subscribed this Declaration both at Jamestown and Galway 119 120 121 122 123. His Excellency having on the 13th of October the same year 1650 received in Print His Majesties Declaration made in Scotland against the Peace concluded in 1648 with the Irish he assembles the Commissioners of Trust on the 23d of October shews them the said Declaration made by His Majesty and by their advice and consent issues his Letters of the 24th of October for the meeting of the Assembly * This was the Assembly unto which His Excellency writ this long and excellent Letter whereof I give here the Heads understand you a General or National of all the Three Estates of the Roman-Catholicks of Ireland at Loghreogh on the 15th of November that same year 1650. He writes also on the foresaid 23d of October his Letter dated at Inis to the said Commissioners of Trust assuring them he would stand by the Irish Nation for maintaining to them the said Peace of 1648 until they could have free access to His Majesty provided they of their part did four things Whereof the first is That in the mean time all the Acts Declarations and Excommunications against him and the People obeying him issued by the Bishops met at Jamestown the former August be revoked by the same Bishops c. See that Letter at length 124. This offer with all the four necessary conditions annexed to it was satisfactory to the said Commissioners of Trust as appears by their Letter of the 24th of Octob. dated at Inis to His Excellency which you may read 125 126. In compliance with their desire expressed in their said Letter His Excellency gave way to their Treating with the Prelates at Galway ib. Proposals accordingly made the 29th of October 1650 by the same Commissioners to the Committee of Bishops at Galway And His Excellencies brief Animadversions upon those Proposals if not rather in general upon the Answers made by the said Committee of Bishops 127. Those Answers themselves in terminis of the Committee to the said Commissioners of Trust in Four Articles together with His Excellencies Replies to each of them 127 128 129. After the said Four Articles of their Answers the Bishops resolve thus in express terms viz. Upon consideration of the whole matter we may not consent with safety of Conscience to the Provisoes of Revoking our Declaration and Excommunication demanded by His Excellency or granting any assurance to Him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting
under all the crimes thus falsly imputed to them it being their Adversaries principal design That the Irish whose Estates they enjoy should be reputed persons unfit and no way worthy any Title to your Majesties mercy That no wood comes amiss to make Arrows for their Destruction for as if the Roman Catholick Clergie whom they esteem most criminal were or ought to be a society so perfect as no evil no indiscreet person should be found amongst them they are all of them generally cryed down for any crime whether true or feigned which is imputed to one of them and as if no words could be spoken no Letter written but with the common consent of all of them the whole Clergie must suffer for that which is laid to the charge of any particular person amongst them We know what Odium all the Catholick Clergie lies under by reason of the Calumnies with which our Tenents in Religion and our Dependence upon the Popes Authority are aspersed And we humbly beg your Majesties pardon to vindicate both by the ensueing Protestation which we make in the sight of Heaven and in the presence of your Majesty sincerely and truly without equivocation or mental reservation We do acknowledge and confess your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supream Lord and rightfull Soveraign 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 Sea 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 Sea 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 in as much 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 license 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 Supream Governours of what Religion soever they be are Gods Lieutenants on Earth and that obedience is due to them according to the laws of each Commonwealth respectively in all Civil and Temporal affairs And therefore we do here protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary And we do hold it impious and against the word of God to maintain that any private Subject may kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince though of a different belief and Religion from his And we abhor and detest the practice thereof as damnable and wicked These being the Tenents of our Religion in point of loyalty and submission to your Majesties Commands and our Dependence of the Sea of Rome no way intrenching upon that perfect Obedience which by our Birth by all laws divine and humane we are bound to pay to your Majesty our natural and lawful Soveraign We humbly beg prostrate at your Majesties feet That you would be pleased to protect us from the severe persecution we suffer meerly for our profession in Religion leaving those that are or hereafter shall be guilty of other Crimes and there have been such in all times as well by their Pens as by their Actions to the punishment prescribed by the Law Fr. Oliver Dâ—arcy Bishop of Dromore Fr. George Dillon of S. Fran. Ord. Guardian of the Irish Franciscans at Paris Fr. Philip Roch of S. Fran. Ord. Reader Gen. of Divinity Fr. Anthony Gearnon of S. Fran. Ord. one of Her Majesties the Queen Mothers Chapl. Fr. Iohn Everard of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Anthony Nash of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. William Lynch of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. Fr. Nicholas Sall of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Iames Cusack Doctor of Divinity Cornelius Fogorty Protonot Apost and Doctor of the Civil and Canon Law Daniel Dougan Divine Fr. Henry Gibbon of S. Aug. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Redmund More of S. Dom. Ord. Conf. and Preac Bartholomew Bellew Dennis Fitz Ranna Bartholomew Flemming Fr. Redmund Caron of S. Fran. Ord. Reader jubilate of Divinity Fr. Simon Wafre of the same Order Reader of Divinity Fr. Iames Caverley of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Iohn fitz Gerrald of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Theobald Burk of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Matthew Duff of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Peter Geoghegan of S. Fran. Ord. Conf. and Preac Fr. Peter Walsh of S. Fran. Ord. Reader of Div. and Procurator of the Roman Catholick Clergy both Secular and Regular of Ireland This paper without any hands to it for the gentlemen that consulted of and drew it in this form did not then reflect on the necessariness of any subscription to it and if they had they saw the storm so great and furious raised suddenly against those men chiefly who should have subscribed it that it was impossible for them to meet even for any such or other end soever and yet the making of such address to His Majestie could not be delayed so as to send about to search for them where they could not be met with singly one by one but after too much time therefore I say this paper without any hands to it was delivered immediately to Father James Fitz Simons residing and hiding himself the best he could at Dublin to be sent together with the Proclamation of the Lords Justices and ordinances of Parliament and the forged letter of Mac Dermot the Priest and their own discoveries of the imposture to the above Father P. W. then at London as Procuratour of the Clergie to be presented by him to His Majestie and Lord Lieutenant and was accordingly sent and delivered him by the Earl of Fingale who had then some occasions of his own to goe for England Which the Procurator had no sooner received then after communicating all to some others of the Irish Clergy and Gentry then at London and press'd by them all to
and all the rest in general of the inferior Clergie of Ireland England Scotland Wales wherever at home or abroad in other Countries he sent copies immediately to the chief of the Irish Clergie with other particular written letters from himself also some and some from the said Bishop of Dromore to invite them to a concurrence and shew them the necessity of it in that conjuncture Particularly to Iohn Burke Arch-bishop of Tuam Robert Barry Bishop of Cork Patrick Pluncket Bishop of Ardagh Andrew Linch Bishop of Kilfinuran at that time all in France and to Nicholas French Bishop of Ferns living then in Spain Onely the Arch-bishop of Ardmagh Primate Reilly then at Rome he thought not fit to write unto at that time because more then any of the rest lying under too too great and special prejudices in Ireland and with His Majestie and Lord Lieutenant and therefore since the Kings Restauration withdrawn and even from Rome commanded to with-draw and that wholly depending of that Court for a poor subsistence the Procuratour thought not fit to bring new jealousies on him there also which he feared his correspondence in such a matter would For although he was very certain His present Holyness would not or that Court under so wise and moderate a Governour declare any thing publickly against the said Remonstrance or subscribers forasmuch as he knew most evidently there was nothing in it which was not the sense of the Catholick world abroad yet he was perswaded withal it could nevertheless but be somewhat unwelcome and displeasing to the flatterers of his Holyness and that there would not be wanting many both English and Irish Clergiemen to incense that Court against the subscribers as will be seen hereafter it happened IV. However they contained themselves at first against the expediency alone of such a Remonstrance yet when The more ample Account was published seeing those kind of exceptions would do no good some of the Irish from Lovain and others from other places began to mutter and write letters also which were privately carried from hand to hand that the said Remonstrance or Declaration and Protestation of Allegiance to His Majestie therein contained though in temporal things only was against Catholick Religion because a diminution of the authority of the great Pontiff Whereupon Father Redmond Caron of St. Francis's Order who at the time of the signing of the said Remonstrance at London had been in Wales with my Lord Powis and was now come to London and signed it after the rest tooke the pains to write and print an other smal Treatise in English too against that scandalous errour dedicating it to His Majestie and giving it the title of Loyalty asserted Wherein to convince that errour he amassed together a huge number of Catholick Authors Scriptures Canons Fathers Popes c. quoting only the places briefly not the words but adding withal a great many Theological reasons though briefly and in the end of it answering Cardinal Peron's Oration and all the arguments of that indeed elegant but not well grounded speech to the third estate of France Which the said Father thought fit to do at that time because much use was made also of that piece of eloquence amongst those that were not versed in the matter nor had ever seen those learned satisfactory answers thereunto returned some fifty years since as well by Catholicks as Protestants V. By this time the Antagonist's of that Remonstrance were working their intrigues being much netled and bafled And yet I saw no great encouragement they had then from the Bishops of their Country living abroad For Andrew Linch Bishop of Kilfinuran who had at home in the troubles of Ireland although promoted by the Nuncio to his little Bishoprick adhered nevertheless to the supream Councel for the peace of 48. against the Nuntio and was not at Iames-town nor countenanced or engaged in the troubles of the other Bishops there against the said peace as soon as he received at St. Malos the book and letters sent from London called together those Irish Priests there at that time and got their subscriptions to the same Remonstrance Although within a while after the brute coming of endeavours at Rome against it by some there and of discountenance in that Court for it was no more yet and those very Priests at St. Malos who had sometime before subscribed fearing though unreasonably they might therefore and upon account of their subscription suffer in their livelyhood where they were or in their present or future pretensions where they were not in the Roman Court came to the said Bishop and importun'd from him the paper of their subscriptions And the Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunket residing then in an other part of France who likewise and though promoted also by the Nuntius adhered constantly to the same peace and to the former cessation notwithstanding the Nuntio's censures against it and absented himself from the Council at Iames-town as being assembled in his Diocess without his consent as much as demanded of him and never approved of the Acts of that meeting was supposed by all that knew him to approve of the Remonstrance and protestation of loyalty therein Whereof in the year 1662. 2. of October by this following letter sent to his Brother Sir Nicholas Plunket he gave ample testimony however his carriage proved after in our Dublin Congregation in 1666. For his Honoured Brother Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight these at Dublin WOrthy dear Brother the Oath taken by the Nobility and your self I seriously considered and consulted with others Both they and I find the same most just lawful and conformable to St. Pauls doctrine For there are two sorts of obedience the one necessary the other voluntary By the necessary thou oughtest humbly to obey thy Ecclesiastical Superiours and such as are authorized by them Also it is necessary to obey thy Civil Superiours as your King and the Magistrates which he hath established over thy Country Finally thou must obey thy domestical Superiours as thy Father and Mother Master and Mistris This obedience is called necessary because no man can exempt himself from the duty of obeying these Superiours God having placed them in authority to command and govern each one according to the charge which they have over us and to obey their command is of necessity Voluntary obedience is that whereunto we oblige our selves by our own election and which is not imposed upon us by an other and of which we make no solemn vow As a conclusion I boldly and with an assured confidence say our Gracious King is better incomparably then such Kings as were in St. Pauls times being infidels yet would have them obeyed Not els but Yours as his own Ardagh At Seez the 2d of December 1662. V As for the Bishop of Corke Robert Barry then living also at St. Malos although his earnestness all along for the Nuncio's quarrel without any regard of his own extraction family or interest
Green and Preston and last of all the most laborious and learned Latin Work In fol. of Father â—edmond Caron entituled Remonstrantia â—â—bernorum which is to be had in Dublin at Mr. Dancer the Booksellers in Castlestreet and which alone may serve for all the rest And then a Gods name such of them as pretend scruple in point of conscience if any of them do yet for I am perswaded certainly it is no more but a bare pretence and I know there are scarce any that alledge even such pretence or any thing at all of conscientiousness in the matter but meer temporal considerations let them determine as conscience not as worldly and mistaken interests shall direct them XXXVI Now to return whence I have so long digressed Soon after â—â—e said papers received and the former answered in writing as you have seen and the latter by word of mouth as you find here upon several occasions the Procurator being somewhat earnest with Father Shelton the then Superiour of the Society for his final resolution because some others of that very Society desired him to be so earnest alledging their own delayes was that only of knowing his resolution pro or con and promising they would themselves even in case of his denyal subscribe nevertheless immediatly Father Shelton having first convoked to Dublin from several parts such as he thought fit to consult with came at last to the Procurators Chamber and without further debate about the merits of the cause told him briefly and positively they would not subscribe that Form nor any other determining the main Question that is any disowning a power in the Pope to depose the King or absolve his Subjects from their allegiance in temporal affairs because said he this was a matter of right controverted 'twixt two great Princes Yet they would frame one of their own and such as became them to subscribe Upon which he departed But the Gentleman that accompanied him one of his own Society Father Iohn Talbot who had often before treated of the same matter and promised his own concurrence with several others of his Order whatever the Superiour did told the Procurator in his ear as they were parting that Father Shelton had not rightly delivered the result of the rest But nevertheless being soon after demanded the performance of his own former and free promise excused himself also until he had seen or known it was expected by my Lord Lieutenant himself that they should subscribe of that their subscription was required or desired by his Grace and not by the Procurator only Wherein desiring further to be satisfied the said Superiour Father Shelton and with him two more of the Society Father Thomas Quin and Father Iohn Talbot being called upon waited on his Grace having first sent to the Procurator their own Form or that which they would subscribe even this you have here The Jesuits first Remonstrance Declaration or Protestation of Allegiance AS we do acknowledge King Charles the Second to be our true and lawful King and rightful Soveraign of Ireland and all His Majesties Dominions So we confess our selves to be in conscience obliged to obey His Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs and notwithstanding diversity of Religion in Him and us We protest we are and during life shall be as loyal to his Majesty as any of his Subjects whatsoever and as either in Spain or France the Catholick Subjects are to their respective Kings and will be ready to detect and discover to His Majesty and to his Ministers whatsoever Treasons or Conspiracies shall come to our knowledge yea and expose if need be our lives in defence of his Majesties Person and Royal Authority and that by no Power on Earth whether Spiritual or Temporal we shall be moved to recede from any point of this our Allegiance and we further from our hearts detest for impious Doctrine and against the Rules of all Christianity to averr That any Subject can murther his Anointed King or Prince though of a different Faith and Religion and much more we abhorr as damnable the practice of that wicked assertion But being told by the Procurator it signified a meer nothing not even as much as a bare absolute or positive acknowledgment of the King to be King much less any thing of the cases controverted as that of the Popes pretended power to depose the King or even of his actual procedure to a deposition excommunication dispensation with or absolution of Subjects from their Allegiance whether he have such power or not they changed that their first Form and prepared this other which themselves delivered my Lord on the 4th of December 62. The Procurator being present and Father Quin speaking first as one formerly known to his Grace and one to that sign'd with seven other Catholick Divines of Dublin the lawfulness and tye upon Catholicks to resist the Irish Forces headed by the Nuncio when the Confederats rejected the peace of 46. and were drawn to besiege Dublin The tenor of their second form was this The Jesuits second Remonstrance Declaration or Protestation of Allegiance WE acknowledge His Majesty King Charles the Second to be our true and lawful King supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and all other His Majesties Dominions We acknowledge our selves bound in Conscience to obey his Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs and notwithstanding the diversity of Religion in Him and us we engage that during life we shall be as loyal to his Majesty as any of his Subjects whatsoever and as either in Spain or France the Catholick Subjects are or ought to be to their respective Kings and shall be ready to expose if occasion shall require our lives in defence of His Majesties Person and Royal Authority and no power on earth shall move us to recede from any point of this our Allegiance We shall be ready to detect and discover to his Majesty and his Ministers whatsoever Treasons or Conspiracies against his said Majesty shall come to our knowledge We detest from our very hearts that impious doctrine which averreth that any Subject can murther his anointed King or Prince though of different judgment in religion and we abhorr the damnable practice of that wicked assertion Their answer was then from his Grace that he would consider of it next morning That if it came short of the printed one as to the substance or sense they could expect no benefit thereby That it was in vain to use any distinctions or reservations That when he thought fit to act in this matter as the Kings Lieutenant he should not repute any person worthy of his Majesties protection that would not acknowledge the Royal Power independant from any but God alone That notwithstanding Father Quin insisted so much on the loyalty of his own Order in the late controversies and wars of Ireland yet he could not forget how the chief person of them Father Robert Nugent was a great Mathematician at Killkea when
six months were over and the Clergie had been ashamed of their own obstinacy and no less confounded at their own scarce credible inconsiderancy But it pleased God to dispose affaires so that His Grace the Lord Lieutenant albeit otherwise very desirous to see these letters take effect as he was timely acquainted with the drawing and signing of them yet as they were ready to be dispatch'd to the several Counties and most of them too by Noblemen considering the dangerous plot then in hand amongst those disloyal Fanaticks who were to seize the Castle of Dublin and thinking prudently that if any papers whatsoever were carried about at that time by the Catholicks for getting hands or subscriptions those wicked plotters and their party would misinterpret them and pretend thereby a plott or some dangerous conspiracy a preparing amongst the Papists whereby to excuse the better themselves for meeting frequently in armed troups by day or night and considering moreover what influence the Irish Clergie had in the late warrs on the Layety of their communion yea notwithstanding any former Oath and that the same might be again unless the Clergie themselves had subscribed His Grace was pleased for these reasons to countermand for that time and suspend ever since the sending about of those letters expecting it might be done more seasonably when the Clergie had signed first and questionless too expecting the Clergie would sign as soon as their pretence of not dareing to meet by Representatives in a general Congregation were layed aside though it happen'd otherwise as will appear in the second Part of this first Treatise XLVI However the Catholick Gentry or old proprietours of the County of Wexford and few survivours of the Cittizens of that Town expected no such invitation by letters from the Noblemen but without any other then that they had gathered out of The More Ample Account and their own reason having framed for themselves a suitable both Petition to the Lord Lieutenant and preamble to His Majesty subscribed the Remonstrance with about two hundred hands for they wanted only three of that number and sent it His Grace by Mr. William Stafford of Lambstown who took great pains in this business Which Instrument of theirs I would not omit to insert here at length as an eternal monument of their honest loyal hearts however they have been abused in the late warrs by some of their spiritual leaders though perhaps that too more out of ignorance and blind zeal then any malice and whatever or how sad soever their condition above most other Counties be ever since as it was then when they signed so freely of themselves yea notwithstanding the contrary endeavours used by some Clergiemen especially two Fathers of the Society to disswade them Whether those Fathers behaved themselves so undiscreetly out of any disaffection to the King or rather out of mistaken Religion and prepossession by such foolish arguments as they had learned in their own Schools or by reading Bellarmine Suamz or such other by ass'd writers or whether by special command or direction of their Superiours I knew not To His Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General an General Governour of Ireland The Humble Petition of the Subscribers MOst humbly sheweth that they come with the same alacrity and cheerfulness to present to your Grace the ensueing Remonstrance and Protestation which some of their fellow Subjects of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom not long since humbly laid at His Majecties Feet Who was graciously pleased to accept thereof And they with the same zeal acknowledging themselves to be bound in the same duty and indispensable tyes of obedience to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors in all temporal matters do humbly beseech your Grace that this their most hearty concurrence to the same faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance may be made the more acceptable by your Graces conveyance thereof to His Majesty And they shall pray c. To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Gentry of the County of Ireland WHereas a considerable part of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland by the name of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland presented to your most Excellent Majesty a sincere Protestation and humble Remonstrance intituled the faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland for divers substantial and solid reasons in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance ingenuously and conscientiously expressed and set forth Now we the said Roman Catholick Gentry of the said County of Wexford whose names are hereunto subscribed being members of the said Roman Catholick Gentry of Ireland being bound in Conscience and duty to own the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance as well as our Countreymen first subscribing thereunto for the motives in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance expressed and in imitation of our said Countreymen and to avoid all jealousies and misopinions which may be concieved of our selves and of our Religion and feareing least we may be thought to vary from the said first Subscribers in doctrine in Religion or Religious Tenets do sincerely and truly without Equivocation or mental reservation in the sight of God and in the presence of your Majesty Acknowledg and confess your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other your Majesties Dominions and therefore we acknowledg and confess our selves to be obliged under pain of sin to obey your Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs as much as any other of your Majesties Subjects and as the laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands and that notwithstanding any power or pretention of the Pope or Sea of Rome or any sentence or Declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessours or Successours or by any authority spiritual or temporal proceeding or derived from him or his Sea against your Majesty or Royal Authority we will still acknowledge and perform to the utmost of our abilities our faithful loyalty and true Allegiance to your Majesty And we openly disclaim and renounce all forraign power be it either Papal or Princely spiritual or temporal or us much as is may seem able or shall pretend to free discharge or absolve us from this Obligation or shall any way give us leave or licence to raise tumults bear Arms or offer any violence to your Majesties Person Royal Authority or to the State or Government being all of us ready not only to discover and make known to your Majesty or to your Ministers all the Treasons made against your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to loose our lives in the defence of your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all conspiracies and attempts against
pray therefore that all proceedings in this matter be charitable religious deliberate and mature to the end scandals and greater dangers may be prevented protesting that we are most ready according to the Canons of the Church and light of reason to give Cesar what is Cesars due and to God what is due to Him and that both duties observed entirely your Paternity shall find us the children of obedience who are Your most Reverend Paternitie's most humble Servants Redmond Caron And the rest of the Subscribers now at London XLIX Immediatly after and in pursuance of his answer he sent a copy thereof and of the citation to Father Peter Walsh the Procurator then in Ireland Whereof the Procurator thought fit to take so much notice out of that respect due for himself also to the said Commissary General as to return both in his own name and in that of all other Subscribers of his Order at home in Ireland this long letter that follows rendred into English out of the Latin copie To the most Reverend Father James de Riddere Commissary General of St. Franci's Order in the Belgick Brittish and other annexed Provinces at Mechlin Most Reverend Father I have some twenty dayes past seen a copy of the letter which your Paternity gave the 18th of April from Brula to Father Caron at London and his answer both sent hether by the same Father And though it may not be certainly gathered either out of that your most Reverend Paternities letter or any other argument that I am my self any way concern'd therein yet because that Reverend Fathers conjecture in his foresaid answer seems not improbable to some that your Paternity intended by that very letter to summon to Rome or Brussels the Fathers of our Order and Province of Ireland who lately made to the King in a certain form or publick Instrument a profession of their Allegiance and subscribed the same and yet notwithstanding forasmuch as there are on the other side many considerations of no little force to perswade it can be no way likely that most prudent and most learned men such as without any question it is fit we should esteem the Minister General of the whole Order of St. Francis throughout the world and his most worthy General Commissary of the Northern Provinces should attempt or intend any thing against their own Sons upon the onely account of having complyed with all divine and humane laws by professing to their lawful King that fidelity in all temporals which they are otherwise bound unto and professing it also at such a time when doubtless it was both necessary and profitable to and the very interest of the Roman Catholick Church and no kind of disadvantage but a very great and known advantage to the true Orthodox Faith therefore and not in my own name onely or from my self alone but in all theirs too and from all of our Institute living now at home in the Province and these indeed are many both grave and sound men besides some Bishops and a considerable number of others amongst the inferiour Clergie not onely secular but regular also of other Orders learned conscientious and very zealous too for the Roman Faith and Papal Dignity who have subscribed that late Protestation of our Allegiance in temporals the rumour of which profession and subscription peradventure came to your hearing I very earnestly beseech your most Reverend Paternity may be pleased to signify out of hand whether you meaned them perhaps in that citatory letter sent Father Caron or whether you mean'd not rather some others accused peradventure of some kind of real faults defects or which God forbid of crimes And if the former that is the Subscribers whether such onely of them as yet are in England or live at London or even all those too residing at home dispersed in all parts of Ireland of all whose names or subscriptions the most Excellent Vice-Râ—y the Duke of Ormond hath at present the Original Catalogue as of such who have since my last arrival here subscribed the foresaid Instrument or profession of Allegiance Which about a year and a half since was first presented to His Majesty at London read and favourably accepted by him albeit then signed but by a very few hands in respect of the numbers that since have subscribed here And your most your most Reverend Paternity may be further pleased to certifie these living so at home as I have said now dispersed throughout all Provinces and parts of this Kingdom and certifie them by me or whom els you please what you think of the Reverend Father Carons exceptions given in his answer to the summons contained in that your Epistle supposing I mean that he hath so much as by guess understood aright your meaning whether they ought to be reputed probable lawful or Canonical To me indeed reading in Gratianus the Pontifical Canons or Decrees of the Provincial Councels of Carthage and Tarragona it appears manifestly out of cap. Placuit cap. Si Episcopus cap. Si quis Episcoporum d. 18. That notwithstanding any summons even I say the most legal and formal the parties summoned are excused when either by age or sickness or the Kings command to the contrary or any other corporal necessity of moment they are hindered from appearing I speak nothing at present of other Constitutions either of even the very Pontiffs of Rome or of the greatest Councels too of the Catholick Church those Canons to witt established by the authority of Synods not Provincial onely but National of the whole Affrican Church and Oecumenical of the whole earth and by that also of the consent and acceptation or submission of all the faithful of both Churches Greek and Latin even then I mean when That was reputed Orthodox and by that likewise of the concurrence of the chiefest and greatest Fathers amongst whom St. Augustine that light of Doctors was one Which Canons prescribe the judgment or tryal of causes to be held where no danger can be of wanting witnesses of either side or only where the witnesses may conveniently appear And therefore that judicial causes or the parties accused be not drawen or summond to any place where they may not come within a very few days not summond at all to appear without the bounds of the Province where they live nor forced likewise beyond the Seas whether commonly neither the accusers themselves nor the accused much less the witnesses either will or can goe For say the Fathers of that Synod of Affrick which is called Vniversal in their Synodical epistle to Pope Celestine speaking of the Fathers of former times specially of those who made the Canons of the great and first Councel of Nice it was most prudently and justly determined by them that all judicial causes should have their decision where they had their rise And verely whoever is of an other judgment and will rather fix on a judicatory beyond the Seas will scarce or not even scarce be able to
at all I mean about so wicked a consultation or so impertinent and frantick a relation though amongst or together with some other acts not of a holy Sacramental but of a truly horrid not Sacramental confession as in the second case or any can be supposed where the seeming penitent so indeed sacrilegiously abuses the confessional Seat and all the rites of Sacramental confession and mocks at the Sacrament it self and God himself who instituted the Sacrament not for any such end certainly as to conceal such enormous evils to come not evils perpetrated already and as such confess'd penitently but to be hereafter perpetrated without any remorse at all of pennance or conscience And that our Lovain Divines may see if they please this saying or this doctrine of mine is so far from being mine alone that it hath for Patrons their own most approved classick Authors treating of this matter in hand of the Seal of confession Innocent W. in cap. omnis utriusque sexus Abbas ibid. Alens part 4. q. 78. m. 2. artic 2 Sylvest verb. confessio 3. q. 5. who all and each of them and the first no less himself then a Pope taught this doctrine constantly in the above places without retractation in any other That a discovery of a future sin made in confession doth not fall under the Seal of confession Because in such a case the Priest is not to the penitent a Minister of God or of that Sacrament of confession but a meer natural Friend Councellor or Adviser and therefore is not bound to conceal the evil to be committed but rather bound to discover so much as may and will suffice to hinder it Or because such detection of future crimes belongs not to that penitential Divine Court of this Sacrament of confession And may further see if they please what Dominions Soto hath Relect. de Ratione regendi Secreti m. 8. q. 4. conclus 2. to confirm this very Doctrine where he treats of or brings for example some wicked persons who had conspired against the Pope and affirms that Secrets or sins of this nature must not be concealed but discovered presently Out of all which Catholick Classick writers their reasons our Lovain Doctors may conclude the rashness of their own Censure as to this point we now handle Because they may see in them there is no true sacramental seal of secrecy in our case but a meer fiction of such nor other kind of Seal but that which is meerly natural and ordinary of keeping secret what is told us under secrecy and of keeping such and for that part only which ought to be kept so And further see in them that this natural or ordinary Seal of secrecy ought not to seal any persons mouth when the matter is of a design for the future of such horrid consequence as is for example the unjust taking away an other mans life or the unjust ruining of him in all his fortune or that either which is more pretious to him then his goods or fortunes or whatever be said of such designs against particulars or private persons ought not to do so when the matter is of such both incomparably and universally more fatal and more deplorable consequence as must be a treasonable conspiracy against the King or State if not prevented timely Nay and that this which I now say is most certain in it self without any dependence of the extrinsick authority of such Catholick and Classick writers our Lovain Divines must allow unquestionably if they can produce no positive law of God nor Canon of the Church nor evident or convincing dictat of natural reason in the case or against such revelation of such a treasonable conspiracy to be made by the Confessor albeit the seeming penitent did not or even would not give him leave at all to reveal it For if no such argument can be alleadged by them against it who sees not but the Confessor not only may with a safe conscience but ought if he will not have a most unsafe and most wicked conscience discover what he knows to be necessary for preventing a mischief so fatal horrible and general the evil which will be prevented by discovery of such a secret is infinitely greater then any can be prevented by keeping it still a secret or by not discovering it And of two evils the least is to be chosen that is to be suffered to follow especially when the least is the natural or consequential punishment of mens own malicious designs And therefore that by the very law of nature the pretended obligation of keeping secrecy in that case yields and gives place to a higher obligation or to that which cannot in any right reason be controverted at all or questiond to be higher But so it is now that I am absolutely certain the Lovain Divines cannot alleadge any such argument or produce any one positive law of God or any one Canon of the Church or any one evident or convincing dictate of natural reason in the case or against such revelation by the Confessor and am so absolutely certain hereof that I dare defie them or any for them to instance as much as one of all What they can alleadg but yet to very smale purpose or rather to none at all is 1. That Papal Canon attributed to the 4th Councel of Lateran though only framed at first by the Pope himself who was Innocent the III. however debated after by the Fathers but for any thing known certainly not made a conciliary act or canon of that Council As may be said also of all the rest of those other 60. Canons or Sexaginta Capitula attributed likewise to that fourth Lateran Councel I say that what they can alleadg is first that Canon inserted in the Decretals by Gregory the IX extra de Paenit et Remis in cap. Omnis utriusque sexus Where the Pope or that Council or both if you please admonish the confessor and under most grievous penalties enjoyn him not to reveal by word or sign the sinner or the sin as relating to him and confess'd by him privately or auricularly for absolution The words of the Canon are these Caveat autem omnina ne verbo vel signo vel alio quovis mâ—do prodat aliquatenus peccatorem Sed si prudentiorum consilio indigverii illud absque ulla expressione personae cautè requirat Quoniam qui peccatum in paenitentiali judicio sibi detectum praesumpserit revelare non solum a sacerdotali officio depâ—nendum decernimus verum etiam ad agendam perpetuam penitentiam in arctum monasterium detrudendum Let him the Confessor in any wise beware that neither by word or sign or any other manner soever he discover in any sort the sinner But if he want counsel of the more prudent let him warily seek it without any expression of the penitents person For we decree that whoever shall presume to reveal a son discovered to him in penitential judgment shall not only be
ancient and where according to our own very common doctrine in Schools they give no sufficient ground at all to derive such unreasonable conclusions from their decrees nor ever I am confident as much as once imagined any would be so extravagant as to derive such Fourthly That although we admitted as we neither do nor can that the Fathers of Agde in the second part of this canon and by these words sed si pulsatus fuerit non respondeat nec proponat nec audeat criminale negotium in judicio seculari proponere were intended absolutely and generally to forbid their own Clerks in any case to answer in the publick lay Courts and in criminal causes notwithstanding the Judges themselves should expresly and particularly summon and command them to appear and answer yet nothing could be concluded hence against either of my above affirmations First nothing to prove as I will presently shew that which indeed is the only thing to be proved against my main or rather only purpose that is nothing to prove that the Fathers therefore intended that Clerks should not appear and answer if by the supream secular Judge himself or by a warrant come immediatly from the King himself or from his special Delegate in such a matter they were commanded to appear and answer before him Secondly nor any thing to prove that by the pure and sole authority of the Church or of any Councils or Bishops Cergiemen were warranted as much as in point of conscience not to appear and answer even before the subordinat inferiour lay Judges Nor thirdly yet any thing at all to prove that these Fathers of Agde or other Council declared by that other canon that Clerks were generally in all Countreys and in all causes or all matters even the most criminal and horrid soever at that time which was indeed before Iustinians time exempt as much as by the civil authority of Emperours or even of other Kings from all inferiour lay Judicatories and so exempt that if in any case these inferiour Judges themselves did ex officio proceed against them yet they were not bound to answer or obey or observe their judgement or that if those same inferiour Judges gave sentence for or against them in any temporal cause whatsoever or in any cause not purely spiritual such sentence would not hold when pronounc'd according to the civil or municipal either Imperial or Royal Laws inforce in the respective Countreys Such forbidding of their own Clerks might have been grounded on a particular custom introduced by the people in that Province of Guien and by the consent or permission or connivence or tacit approbation of the former civil Magistrats themselves or of King Alaricus himself or his Predecessors And in such case the Bishops there might have justly forbid their own Clerks to appear even at the summons of inferiour lay Iudges because the peculiar civil custom of that place not any spiritual power or canons of their own did so priviledg them albeit in all the rest of the world where the imperial written laws were still in force and strict observance no law or custom did so priviledge them or other Clerks at that time which was before Iustinians time and his law Novel 83. not to appear before the subordinat Magistrats or civil Iudges when summoned by them in a criminal cause nor priviledge the Bishops at all for holding coercive Courts either in civil or criminal causes but only by consent of both parties in difference And that it was introduced so or that such custom had been so in Guien and that only pursuant to the humane civil right or priviledge or exemption derived only from such custom and to maintain it until it had been legally revoked again by the supream civil power the Fathers of Agde made that canon or second part of it we have all the reasons to perswade us which perswade us also and clearly convince us that Ecclesiasticks are by the law of God as well as Laicks under the coercion of the lawful supream lay Magistrate and of his inferiour lay Iudges too if not or where not particularly exempted by him and those reasons besides which tell us we must have that reverence to all such Catholick ancient Fathers and especially in Council together as those of Agde are confessed to have been St. Cesarius the Archbishop of Arles and Primate of all France having been their President and so venerable an opinion of them as not to fix or give such a sense or interpretation to any of their canons however only canons of Discipline as would argue the canon-makers of ignorance or rashness or of any perversness at all or even such their canons of containing any thing either formally virtually or consequentially against the only infallible divine canons of the law of God and I mean still not to give or fix such interpretation to such canons where we can choose that is where the words are not so specifical and particular as to require it Now it is plain enough the words above-rehearsed are not so specifical or so particular as to require a contrary interpretation to that of them I have given here And yet that it was so or that in pursuance and by virtue of such a peculiar custom only of that Province or that little Kingdom there of Guien and of the supream civil Magistrats pleasure permission approbation and consent the Fathers of Agde made this canon or second part of it forbidding Clerks to answer in a criminal cause before lay Judges to wit before inferiour lay Judges we have secondly a sufficient other argument out of the first part of the same canon or out of the sense and natural consequences of it if compared with the practice of the Christian world in all other parts both at that time and at this For the first part being that no Clerk shall presume to sue a lay man before a lay Iudge without the Bishops licence and this importing as much as that an Ecclesiastical Plaintiff shall not without his Bishops leave conveâ—e a lay Defendent before his own proper lay Judge even I say in a meer lay cause or crime and this consequently being against the general rule Quâ—d Actor sequitur Forum Dei it is plain enough that if any will maintain those Fathers intended else here then only to prescribe to Clerks the first peaceable way they should take for righting themselves by letting the Bishop know the wrong done them to the end he might call the lay pretended injurer and try whether he could induce him fairly or by fatherly admonitions if first he had found a real injury done by him to the Clerk which also was christianly ordained as a rule by the Council of Tribur can 20. a German Council of two and twenty Bishops held in the year 895 under Arnulphus the Emperour and indistinctly ordained by this Council for lay men also to observe in case they pretended injuries done themselves by any Clerks I say it
only such causes as are meerly Ecclesiastical That Peter Martyr in cap. 13. ad Roman not only teaches the very same but further adds that Princes could not give Clerks the priviledge to be exempt from or not to be subject to the politick Magistrats because sayes Martyr this would be against the law of God and therefore that notwithstanding any concessions of Princes Clerks ought alwayes to be subject to the secular Magistrats And that Ioannes Brentius in Prologamâ—nis and Melanchthon in locis cap. de Magistrat subject Ecclesiasticks to the secular Tribunals even in matters and causes Ecclesiastical But who is so weak as to be frighted from any truth because maintained also or asserted by some lyars Or who knows not that all both Hereticks and Arch-hereticks too joyn with the most orthodox in many both Philosophical and Theological Natural and Moral Divine and Humane positions and even in very many of the most precise uncontroverted revelations of Christian Faith Must it be suspected to be a Christian Truth that Jesus Christ is the Messias promised that he is the Son of God that there are three persons in the Godhead that there are some Sacraments of the new Testament that Christ was born of a Virgin that he suffered for Mankind that he shall come to judge the quick and the dead c. must I say any of these be suspected not to say rejected because Melanchthon or Brentius or Martyr or even Calvin himself or Luther beleeve and maintain them against other Hereticks If therefore they or any other such as they taught also this truth of Clergiemens not being exempt from but subject to the supream civil coercive power of Princes which only is it I undertake here to maintain must Bellarmine therefore think to fright us from saying the same thing although we say it not at all because they did And yet I must further tell the Readers and Admirers of Bellarmine although my task here require it not 1. That our Saviour himself by his non scandalizemus eos in Mat. 17. sufficiently proves that not even himself was altogether so free but that as the fulfiller of the old Law and Prophets and as the giver of a yet more perfect law for the salvation of mortals and as a pure man he was bound videlicet by the rules of not giving just cause of scandal and ruine to others in that circumstance to pay the di-drachma And that Marsilius de Padua or Ioannes de Ianduno were not condemned nor censured at all for saying that any pure man who was not together both God and man as our Saviour Christ was by the wonderful union of both natures or that any other besides our Lord or even for saying that Peter himself was not exempt from the supream temporal power in temporal matters 2. That if Calvin pretend no more but that Clerks ought to be subject in politick matters to the supream temporal Magistrate and where the same temporal doth not exempt them insomuch he speaks not his own sense but the sense he was formerly taught in the Catholick Church which yet in so many other points he unhappily deserted Thirdly That although if Martyr be understood also of inferiour Magistrats as I doubt not much he ought to be his addition be absolutely and simply false yet if understood of the supream onely as perhaps others may understand him and of Clerks living still as Subjects under any such temporal power supream and acknowledging and owning it for such and themselves for Subjects Martyr was not out by saying in this Hypothesis that Princes could not in secular matters exempt Clerks from the secular Magistrat vz. from the supream secular Fourthly That although also if Brentius and Melanchthon understood by causes Ecclesiastical those which are purely and originally such and not those which by custome onely or concession of Princes or because onely permitted or delegated by Princes or their laws to the cognizance of Ecclesiastical Judges are now and have been a long time called Ecclesiastical vz. per denominationem extrinsecam by an extrinsick denomination from such Ecclesiastical Judges not by any intrinsick assumed from the nature of the causes which in themselves otherwise are meerly civil or temporal as for example usury adultery theft committed in Sacred places or of Sacred things c I say that although if not this latter kind of Ecclesiastical causes but the former be understood by Melanchthon and Brentius and if they further mean'd that Clerks are to acquiesce finally in the judgment or determination of the temporal Magistrat in all such pure Ecclesiastical or purely spiritual causes it must be confessed their doctrine or this meaning of it is very false and heretical yet if they understood onely the second sort of Ecclesiastical causes and by secular Magistrats intended onely the supream secular it must be also confess'd that in so much they spoke orthodoxly Besides that none may upon rational grounds deny to Kings and other supream temporal Governours a certain kind of external and temporal or politick and civil superintendency even of the very truest and purest Ecclesiastical or purely spiritual causes of the Church such as are those of believing this or that to have been revealed by God of Ministring the Sacraments in this or that manner and with convenient or decent rites c. Provided they do not use nor attempt to use immediately by themselves or even mediately by others and by vertue of their own proper authority other means or execution of such superintendency but such means and execution as are meerly temporal and corporal or such as are answerable to the civil power and sword Which kind of superintendency and supream civil coercive judicatory power annexed and I mean also annexed in order to such spiritual causes no man will deny to Kings that will consider it is onely from their supream coercive power the Ministers of justice derive authority to put any man to death for Apostacy Infidelity or Heresy in Faith or doctrine or Sacriledg in the administration of Sacraments For it is not the Bishop or Church that by any power Episcopal or Church power adjudgeth any Clerk to death for denying or renouncing Christianity or any Priest for poysoning his communicant at the Sacred Altar or with a Sacred or unsacred hoast but the King and State and their laws and power So that these onely are still the supream Judges for temporal and corporal and civil punishment or coercion whether by death or otherwise and let the cause be never so spiritual or let the crime be committed in matters or things never so purely strictly or solely Ecclesiastical And therefore if Brentius and Melanchthon intend no more but this by saying that Ecclesiasticks were not exempt but subject even in causes Ecclesiastical to the supream civil power they both meand and sayed in so much but what the Catholick Church had taught them As if they meand any more that is if they meand to say that Ecclesiasticks
committed according as the respective civil laws or customs of Kingdoms are and who may consequently according to the same laws deprive this or that private man of some civil right enjoyed by him formerly if he find it so expedient for the publick And I grant also what Bellarmine sayes of a power in the Pope to make a Metrapolitane or Archbishop of a simple Presbyter and consequently to subtract him from his former Ordinarie's Jurisdiction and of the like or unlike and even more absolute power in the King to give the creation of an Earl to a private inferiour person and place him in authority above another Earl to whom he was till then subject in many things and perhaps even generally subject also to all his commands But it is therefore I admit both because that not only this simple Presbyter and this private person but this Ordinary other Earl too are subject respectively to the Pope King and that by the civil laws the King may for the publick good and by the canons Ecclesiastical the Pope also may for the like publick regard so and so dispose of such persons no law of God or man being to the contrary Is this to conclude the exemption of Clergiemen from the power of Princes and against the will of Princes and against all laws both divine and humane and against all reason too and given more over by a man who could not exempt himself but was himself as subject as any other Clerk and consequently by a man who had no power at all over either Prince or Clerk in such matters Or is this to prove that the law of Christ doth exempt them or impower the Pope to exempt them in temporal things because forsooth they have a new spiritual creation which yet reason tells us and the Scripture teacheth to be and that it ought to be very consistent both in the creatour and created with their subjection in such temporal things to the proper Rulers of the same temporal things Bellarmine therefore seeing this first answer of his own could not sufficiently defend him against the reasonableness of that maxime Lex Christi neminem privat jure dominioque suo not even for all his instances which I have now throughly canvassed as much as is necessary to my purpose found it his best way to have recourse to his Recognitions or last Editions of his great work of Controversies and particularly of his book de Cleric cap. 28.29 and 30. and briefly out of his said latter doctrine there to give a second answer to Barclay here cap. 34. con Barclaium which in effect must be also to that part of my second proposition or minor of this my first argument where also in effect I said That Infidel Princes during the time of their infidelity and before they became Christians had a coercive power in temporal things over all Christians whatsoever as well Clerks as Laicks or in all temporal civil and politick causes or which is that I mean'd and do mean had that power over Clerks not de facto only but even de jure Legis Christianae According to this second answer Bellarmine admits or at least sayes nothing to the first proposition or major of my above first argument but flatly denâ—es my second proposition or minor chiefly for the first part of it and sayes the law of God as well positive as natural exempted Clerks from all earthly secular Authority (a) Ad hoc respondeo Clericos non solo Privilegio Principum sed etiam decretis summorum Pontificum quod majusest divino jure exemptos fuisse antequam Principum privilegio eximerentur Bellae minuâ— contâ— Barel um cap. 34.1 from all meer worldly Principalities and Powers whether Christian or Heathen and exempted them so long before they had been in aftertimes exempted either by the laws of Emperours or canons of Bishops But yet further and most specially and particularly endeavours to mantain this second answer in his said 3â— chap. contra Barclaium for what concerns the Pope's own person or the exemption of the Pope himself what ever be said of other Clerks Priests or Bishops whatsoever For to William Barclaies argument pressing him thus or in this form besides whereas the Pope himself hath not obtained his own exemption or that of his own person only by other law title or right but by that of the bounty and beneficence of secular Princes for as our Adversaries confess he means Bellarmine in the first place and in his former editions which were those which only William Barclay saw the Pope himself was subject de jure and de facto to Heathen Princes as other Citizens were it is very absurd to say that he might free others from that subjection least otherwise it might be said to him Alios salvos fecit seipsum non potuit salvum facere I say that to this argument of Barclay Bellarmine answers cod cap. 34. contra Barclaium and answers also in these very tearms Respondeo Argumentum Barclaii duplicivitio laborat Nam antecedens habet falsum conâ—ecutionem viti sam Falsum imprimis est Pontificem non alio jure quam Principum largitate beneficio exemptionem suam nactum esse Qui enim Vicarium suum in terris eum constiâ—it is hâ—c ipso eum exemit ab omni potestate Principum terrae Sed etiamsi jure subjectus fuisset Regibus vel Imperatoribus Ethnicis non tamen sequeretur cum subjectium quoque esse debere Regibus vel Imperatoribus Christianis nisi ipsorum largitate beneficio eximeretur Nam cum sit ipse super omnem familiam constitutus Reges atque Imperatores ab eo in eamdem familiam coaptentur ut ab ipso regantur dirigantur certé nulla ratio patitur up ipse illis subjiciatur quibus jure divino praesidet It seems our great Cardinal was reduced to very great streights when he was forced to contradict himself so notoriously even for the matter to change his Faith and Religion if he would have as indeed he fain would have us to hold the exemption of Clerks and especially of the Prince or Chief of Clerks the Pope himself I mean to be a matter of Faith and Religion But however this be of his change or of his faith or of his religion or even sole opinion whether out of interest or out of conscience altered so strangely in his old age from that it was in the dayes of his stronger judgment when he had much less to by ass him and long before Sixtus the V. did threaten to burn his first Edition partly for opposing the direct power of the Canonists and even when first he appeared in the lists so gloriously bidding defiance to all hereticks of all ages in the world however I say this be or not be of his change that this second answer as relating first to the whole Clergy in general nay and to every individual of them of whatsoever eminency
would be not to exempt them but in effect to make them to be no members at all As for that reason of diversity which Bellarmine hath given As it is unnecessary that all the Citizens pay tribute or that all bear arms to defend the Republick who sees not also that it argues no diversity no difference at all in the simile For in the natural body it is not necessary that all the members walke that all see that all hear c. But it is sufficient both in the natural body and in the civil that every member so attend perform that duty unto which it is ordained or applyed that all in common do still in the same body and under the same head what they are enjoyned or destined to Let Bellarmine therefore let his disciples abstain hereafter from such absurd Paradoxes What man of found reason hath ever yet in his own soul inwardly perswaded himself that a King may not de jure King it over that is govern by direction and coercion those of whom he is King nor a head the members of its own body But our Cardinal denye here that from the contrary position and practice any perturbations of the common-wealth should arise because that albeit the King may not coerce transgressing Clerks yet the Bishops may and will To this because I have said enough already I onely saâ— now that to assent this power of coercion of Clerks to Bishops for lay crimes or those committed in meer temporal or civil matters and deny it to King were nothing els in effect but to rayse Bishops from their Office Ministry Episcopal to the power and Dignity Royal of Kings and then consequently to make but meer Ciphers of the Kings themselves For I demand of Bellarmine or of his Schollars why were Kings instituted or to what end their power if it was not to govern the Republick to provide for the peace and safety of all the people of what condition or profession soever Lay or Ecclesiastick and to provide for the security and tranquility of all by punishing and rewarding indifferently according to the respective merits or demerits of every individual But our Cardinal snatches away from Kings this proper function of Kings and gives it to Bishops whereas it is notwithstanding certain that neither can the common-wealth be quiet if Clerks do violate the laws resign themselves over to sedition and yet may not be de jure therefore punished curbed or any way restrained by Kings For who sees not consequently that neither de jure can the King contain his Provinces in peace nor compel his people to live together within the bounds of honesty equity or justice And who sees not consequently also but that the very politick peace nay the very politick being of the common-wealth must depend of the will of the Bishops to whom onely the light of governing of licencing or restraining Clerks our good Cardinal will have to belong that by the severity of their Episcopal censures or other judgments they may as they will coerce the nocent and thereby and in so much pacifie the troubles of the Republick or as they please too permit all wickedness and all the most enormours horrid crimes of Sedition and Rebellion to extinguish quite the face and being of a Republick How farre more piously Christianly and rationally too had Bellarmine taught and writt that by the favour and priviledg given by Kings the Clergie are not subject to any other Judicatory but to one composed of Ecclesiastical judges yet so that as well those very Judges as the criminal Clerks be subject still to and not exempt from the supream Royal power of the King who gave subordinate power to those very Ecclesiastical Judicatories in temporal things nay and in spiritual too for what belongs to corporal or civil coercion and who as the supream temporal Prince may command prohibit and provide that no person of what condition or profession soever breake the peace of his Kingdom and who also may when there is just cause take cognizance of and judg as well what ever delinquent Clerks as the very Ecclesiastical judges of those Clerks To that of Hermannus the Colen Archbishop I will say that Bellarmine writes so of this matter as he may be refuted with that jeer wherewith a certain Boor pleasantly checked a great Bishop as he rode by with a splendid pompous train The story is that a country clown having first admired and said this pomp was very unlike that of the Apostles to whom Bishops did succeed and some of the Bishops train answering that this Bishop was not only a successor of the Apostles but also Heir to a rich Lordship and that moreover he was a Duke and a Prince too the clown replied but if God sayes he condemn the Duke and Prince to eternal fire what will become of the Bishop Even so doth Bellarmine write as that servant spoke that this Hermannus whom Charles the V. summon'd to appear was not only an Archbishop but a Prince also of the Empire And even so do I say and replye with the country swain when the Emperour judged this Prince of the Empire did he not I pray judge the Archbishop too But you will say that though indeed he judged the Archbishop yet not as an Archbishop but as a Prince of the Empire Let it be so For neither do I nor other Catholick Opposers of Bellarmine in this matter intend or mean or at least urge or press now that Clerks as Clerks are subject to the coercion or direction of Kings but as men but as Citizens and politick parts of the body Politick which kind of authority as Bellarmine confesses Charles the V. both acknowledg'd in and vindicated to the Emperour Of whose piety what Bellarmine adds is to no purpose For it is not denyed that it becomes good Princes to leave that is to commit the causes of Clerks how great and weighty or criminal soever to Ecclesiastical Judges if it stand with the safety or good hic nunc of the Commonwealth that such causes be discussed before such Judges And yet I must tell the Defenders of Bellarmine that if they please to consult the Continuator of Baronius the most reverend and most Catholick Bishop Henricus Spondenus ad an Christi 1545. they will find that upon complaint of the Catholick Clergy and University also of Colen to as well the Emperour Charles the V. as the Pope Pavl the III. against the said Archbishop as by the advice of Bueer introducing Heresie and licenceing the Preachers of it in that City and Diocess and that at their instance petitioning for help redress in that matter against the said Hermannus it was that the said Emperour Charles the V. did in the Diet of Wormes the said year and about the end of Iune by his Letters or Warrant signed and sealed summon the said Archbishop to appear before him within thirty dayes either by himself in his own proper person or by
aequum bonum as they shall think fit to an external confirmity and by the directive virtue and part onely of such laws but by no means to or by the sanctions or coercive part as Bellarmine holds and whether Gregory's entreating Mauritius to shew due reverance to the Priests of God import as much as that the Priests should not ought not to be punished by the Emperour when they transgressed for so too Bellarmine sayes that Gregory may be interpreted I leave to the discerning Reader As also whether dominari imports nought else but legibus obligare and whether reverentiam exhibere import the same with or as much as non â—â—â—ire Finally whether Cardinal Bellarmine not being content with these absurd Glosses but adding moreover that it is not to be wondred at Si Gregorius ita loquatur â—t iugum tyrannicum Mauritij si auferre non poterat mitigare saltem moderari nâ—gretur if Gregory speaks with so great submission to mitigate and moderate the tyrannical yoak of Mauritius being he could not wholly rid himself of it whether I say Bellarmine saying so taxe not Gregory with dissimulation and yet gives not any probable reason wherefore Gregory should so strangely dissemble For certainly for such a man as Gregory was to dissemble so or speak so in such a matter against his conscience was not to mitigate or moderate but to nourish and encrease tyranny and encrease it also to the greatest prejudice could be against the Vniversal Church if what Bellarmine and Baronius would faine defend as their main scope were true that is if it were true that Priests are by the law of God exempt from all secular even Imperial power And yet I must say now and this is an other but shorter and clearer Answer both to Baronius and Bellarmine and as to the place alleadged out of St. Gregory's commentaries that as St. Gregory intended not nor could make any strict or proper comparison twixt that Christian Emperour he means in his commentaries on the penitential Psalms and Nero and Dioclesian but onely for example's sake to instance who were though not all in the same degree and might be called or said to be portae Inferi against the Church as having persecuted her every one of them more or less such as was sayes he Nero and Dioclesian and he that now persecutes to wit each of them in his own kind Nero in his and Dioclesian in his and in some degree or measure he too that by or through Symoniacal avarice was thought by Gregory to vex and trouble the Church and as that comparison made by Gregory how proper or strict soever it may be taken to be and though it were intended of Mauritius himself doth nothing advantage Baronius or Bellarmine is no way material being as I have said already there is no specialty in it or in the whole complaint of the oppression of Priests in particular but onely of the Church in general so it is manifest enough that if they cannot produce some passage out of Gregory where he teaches that Priests onely for their being Priests were not bound in meer temporal matters to obey the just commands of Nero and Dioclesian though otherwise or in other matters as in those of true Religion cruel persecutors or that Priests for onely being Priests were not by the text of Paul ad Roman 13. subject in temporal matters to those very persecuting sublimer powers they say nothing at all out of Gregory to decline this sense I have given to be the true proper genuine sense of Gregory in his often quoted epistles to Mauritius and Theodorus for the subjection of all Churchmen nay even too of the Pope himself or of Gregory himself to Mauritius or to any other Emperour And I am sure they can alleadg no such place out of Gregory 'T is true that Gregory hath super Psal 5. Paenitent vers Tota die exprobrabant mihi inimici mei this passage before quoted Coneitavit enim sayes he speaking of the Devil adversus Ecclesiam non solum innumerabilem populi multitudinem verum etiam regiam si fas est dicere potestatem nulla enim ratio sinit ut inter Reges habeatur qui destruit potius quam regat imperiam c. Where as you see after telling how the Devil had excited against the Church of God not onely a numberless number of people but also the royal power if it be lawfull to call it such he adds immediately For sayes he no reason permits that he be esteemed amongst Kings who rather destroyes then governs the Empire I say 't is true that Gregory hath this passage But I say also it is no less true that heer is not a word to Baronius's or Bellarmine's purpose in our present dispute For laying aside that themselves are bound in their own principles to interpret these words beningly and with a graine of salt as the phrase is in Schools and to say that Gregory's meaning was not that before a legal sentence of deposition by sufficient authority that Emperour whoever he was retayn'd not still de jure all his imperial power notwithstanding any ill-government or any kind of destruction which S. Gregory did or could without an Hyperbole charge upon him properly and truely nor consequently was that it was not in strictness of speech and in reality of things lawfull to call his power the true Royall Imperial power nor was that in the same strictness and reality no reason suffered him to be esteemed or accounted a King or Emperour but was onely such meaning as they have who when they have a great disesteem for one and for some actions of his very much below a man use commonly to say That he is no man and by consequence that Gregory must not be understood here as speaking Philosophically or Grammatically but Rhetorically or as meaning onely that he was a very bad very unjust King as to the use of his Kingship in some thing albeit still a true King as to the authority of a King and to the use too in all other things wherein he govern'd according to the laws or to reason I say that laying aside this interpretation or exposition of Gregory's meaning which themselves Baronius and Bellarmine are even in their own principles bound to give and yet could have no place if Gregory's words here be taken rigorously or in a strict grammatical sense it is manifest enough that here is not one word take it in what sense you please Philosophical and Grammatical or Theological or Rhetorical that signifies he was no King for having challeng'd vsurped or executed a Royal power jurisdiction or authority over and against Preists in meer temporal things or for having punish'd such Priests as were highly and enormously delinquent against the laws in such temporal things So that from first to last nothing can be more evident than that our good Cardinals have lost all their pains in commenting on this passage of Gregory's Commentarie's
supream temporal Prince in any of the Citties or territories which he either actually possesses or challengeth to himself as such an absolute or supream independent temporal Prince To enquire into any such intrigue is not material nor any part of my purpose And all I say of it because I mention'd it accidentally is that if the Pope be not so I could heartily wish he were so provided all Popes made that good use of it and onely that good use which some blessed Popes have For I am farre enough for envying the Apostolical See or even present Roman or Papal Court any even worldly greatness which may be to the glory of God and general good of Christian people was verily such even worldly greatness not onely of the Popes of Rome but of other Bishops and of other Priests too may be without any peradventure if regulated and applyed well And I am also farre enough from perswading my self that no Christian Priest can be found who may for natural parts and gifts of God be among Christians and if it please the Christians themselves such an other as Hermes Trismegistâ—s was among Heathens a great Priest great Prophet and great King withall Nay I confess that many Clergiemen have many excellencies and advantages for government above most Laymen Yet I say withall that if in elective Kingdoms or States they were by the people put at the Helme of supream temporal government or if in hereditary Kingdoms any of them came by succession to it their being Priests Bishops or even Popes would not could not enlarge their temporal power in any kind of respect nor give them any more temporal exemption as from any pure law of God or Christian Religion then they had before they were Priests c. It is not therefore against any power Ecclesiastical or even Papal as such I dispute here but onely against the unwarrantable extension of such and as onely such by those two most eminent writers Cardinal Baronius and Cardinal Bellarmine Yet I will say this much for Cardinal Bellarmine albeit shewing 〈◊〉 this also his contradiction of himself that in his great work of controversies de Concil Eccles l. 1. 〈◊〉 13. I know lot how but by the too great power of truth he confesses in very express worth that even the very Popes themselves have been subject and even too subjected themselves in temporal affairs to the Emperours and consequently that their Pontifical or Papal office or dignity did not exempt them from subjection to the lay supream power For considering there how the foâ—â— first general Councils of the vniversal Church had been convoked by the Emperours and fearing least such convocation might prejudice that authority which he ascribes to the great Pontiff and consequently bringing four causes or reasons why the Popes then were necessitated to make use of the power Imperial as he sayes for the convocation of those four first general Councils he delivers thâ—â— his fourth Reason Quarta ratio est sayes he quia to tempore Poâ—â—tyex eâ—si in spirituâ—libus essex caput omnium etiam Imperatorum tamen in temporalibus subâ—â—citbus se Imperatoribus ideo non peterat invito Imperatore aliquid agere cum tantum â—â—bâ—isset petere ab Imperatore auxilium ad convocandum Synodum vel ut permitteret Synodum convocari tamen quia Dominum suum temporalem cum agnoscebal supplicabat ut jubereâ— Synodum convoâ—â—i At post illa tempora ista omnes causae mutata sunt Nam neo illa lex viget he means that old Imperial constitution which prohibited all Colleges and frequent or numerous Assemblies without the Emperours licence to prevent seditions designs Vide l. 1. ff de Collegiis illicitis l. Conventicula ff de Episcopis Clericis noc Imperatores in â—oto orbe dominantur nec sumptibus publicis fiunt Concilia nec sunt Gentiles qui impedire possint Pontifex qui est caput in spiritualibus cum etiam ipse in suis Provinoiis sit Princeps supremus temporalis sicut sunt Reges Principes alij id quod divina providentia factum est ut Pontifex libere manus suum exequi possit So Bellarmine cleerly and expresly to a word Therefore by this ingenuous confession of Bellarmine himself the Pope hath no freedom no exemption at all in temporal matters from the civil power of the Emperour by virtue I mean of his Pontificat or Papal office But hath all his exemption in such matters by vertue onely of the supream temporal Principality which he acquired after as Bellarmine's sayes and which he possesses yet And consequently Bellarmine confesses also that this temporal Principality being removed or lost as by a just conquest and many other legal wayes it may be the Pope will be no more exempt in temporals from the Emperour or King of Rome but subject to him wholly in such Which is that onely I contend all along in this dispute of the Pope And therefore it must also follow evidently out of this doctrine and confession of Bellarmine himself that all other Priests Bishops and Clerks whatsoever even Cardâ—nals who have no supream earthly power and Principality of their own must be throughly and entirely subject in temporal matters to those supream lay Princes in whose dominions they live and whom they acknowledge to be their own very true Soveraign Lords Which is that moreover which I contend for in all the Sections of this whole and long dispute of Ecclesiastical Immunity against the Divines of Lovain And I am extremely deceaved if Bellarmine yeeld it not fairely and freely in this place however he coyned a new faith for himself after in his old age and in his little books against Barclay Widdrington and some others But forasmuch as nothing more confirmes the rightfull power and authority of Kings in all humane things over also their subjects even all Ecclesiasticks whatsoever then the most ancient custome and perpetual practise in the Christian Catholick Church this very Church her self not onely not resisting but consenting also and approving such custome and practise therefore it is that to those particular Instances already given of such practise or matter of fact in the persons of those two most holy Bishops Athanasius and Eusebius and in the persons also of those other two and not onely most holy but even the very Head Bishops of the whole Earth in their own time as being the great Pontiffs then of the Roman See to witt Gregory and Constantine I must now moreover add those other particular Instances in such matter of fact which I promised of Princes Wherein if I be somewhat prolix in bringing not a few examples down along throughout almost all ages of Christianity from the days of Constantine the great and first Christian Emperour the profit will yours good Reader and the labour mine For you may cull out and pause on such as you find the most illustrious the rest you may read over cursority on pass by
opinion or rather certain and true judgment of such a power in the Emperour as properly and essentially belonging to his Imperial office it was that the orthodox Bishops of Syria writ also to the same Emperour Leo for punishing by his own Imperial power according to the laws of the civil Commonwealth Timotheus Elucus Bishop or Patriarch of Alexandria as by the same laws and against both the same laws and Princes too being guilty of various crimes but in particular of adultery and murder De delictis autem say they post Câ—ncil Chalced. praesumptionibus quas nefandê commisit Reipublicae legibus corum praesulibus judicio competenti subdetur Where you see a meer secular judgment called or said to be a competent judgment of criminal Bishops And indeed that the banishment of the said Timotheus which soon after followed by the decree of this Emperour Liberat. Brevi c. 13. proceeded onely from his own proper Imperial power not from any Church power or from any commission or delegation from the Church we may gather sufficiently out of the 100. epist of the above S. Leo the Pope wherein he writes thus to Gennadius Dilectio tua eniti elaborare debit ne redeundi integram capiat libertatem de quo jam Edictis suis Princeps Christianissimus judicavit Finally pursuant to the same knowledg of the Imperial power and authority from God for judging and sentencing the criminal causes and inflicting corporal punishments in such criminal causes and on such Clergymen as were found guilty Pope Simplicius epist 9. 11. beseecheth the Emperour Zeno Vt quod per nos sayes he Ecclesia seriò postulat imô quod ipsi specialiùs supplicamus Petrum Alexandrinae Ecclesiae pervasorem ad exteriora transferri piissima praeceptione jubeatis But to leave this judgment of Popes or other Bishops of the power and authority Royal in the case which Judgment as such of the power is not the proper and primary subject of this section or at least of this part of it and to return to matter of fact onely and this of the Princes themselves acting by particular Instances The next Prince I offer to the Readers consideration is Theodoricus King of Italy For this Prince albeit an Arrian as to his beleef of the Trinity of persons or Divinity of Jesus Christ yet in all other points of Christian religion and in his veneration and observance of the Church and Churchmen and of their priviledges and exemptions in general and this without any distinction of Arrians or not Arrians he was precise wary and strict enough nor is there any reprehension or complaint of him in History as not being so And yet he is recorded to have admitted of and discussed the accusations drawn and presented to him by the very Catholicks themselves both Layety and Clergye against Pope Symmachus Of which matter Anastasius Bibliothecarius writes thus in Symmacho Post annos vero quattuor aliqui ex clero zelo ducti aliqui ex Senatu maximè Festus Prâ—binus insimulaverunt Symmachum subornarunt falsos testes quos miserunt Ravennam ad Regem Theodoricum accusantes beatum Symmachum occultè revocarunt Laurentium post libellum Romae factum fecerunt Schysma divisus est iterum Clerus nam alij communicaverunt Symmacho alij Laurentio Tunc Festus Probinus Senatores miserunt relationem Regi caeperunt agere ut visitatorem daret Rex Sedi Apostolieae quod canones prohibent And albeit upon debate this King at last remitted this cause of Symmachus to a Council of Bishops and that by the same King's licence several Councils of Bishops convened at Rome to sift it throughly which Councils I have amongst others and upon an other occasion quoted in the marginal note of my introduction to this first Treatise pag. 1. yet no man can deny that he admitted the accusations and thereupon and as judg of them and of the whole cause exercised several judiciary acts as having a legal power or Christian authority to do so Nor did Symmachus except or resist nor did any for him or in his behalf or in behalf of the Church or of Ecclesiastical Immunity reprehend Theodorick for doing so Nay we have seen before in this Treatise Sec ... this very Symmachus himself openly professing that he himself would yield to God in the Emperour's person to wit by obeying him in humane things as we saw him desiring on the other side that the Emperour should likewise revere God in the person of the Pontiff doubtless for what concern'd spiritual or divine matters The Catholick Emperour Justinus proceeded yet more imperially in the criminal cause of Dorotheus Bishop of Thessalonica For this Bishop being accused of sedition and of several murders too and particularly of the murder of Iohn who was one of the Legats of the See Apostolick and the rest of the Apostolick Legats being his accusers before the Emperour and being so also by express command from Hormisda the Pope whose Legats they were and he too that was murdered and this Pope himself pressing hard that the said Bishop Dorotheus the supposed murderer of his Legat should either be deposed by the Emperour from his Bishoprick and sent to banishment farr from his place or See and Church or certainly be sent to Rome with all fit prosecution of his cause Iustin indeed proceeded to a judicial tryal and sentence of the criminal Bishop but with so much regard of his own imperial power in the case that he neither did the one nor the other which Hormisda so earnestly pressed for Of all which the Suggestions amongst and after the epistles of Hormisda and these epistles themselves particularly the Suggestion which is after the 56. epist and the second Suggestion after the 64. epist and the 57. epistle in it self may be read Promittit say the Legats writing to the Pope Sancta Clementia for so they stile the Emperour vindicare citare Dorotheum quia nos contestati sumus pietatem ejus c. And Hormisda himself the Pope epist 57. writing to the said Legats Nam eumdem Dorotheum sayes he Constantinopolim jussu Principis didicimus evocatum adversus quem Domino filio nostro Clementissimo Principi debetis insistere ne ad eamdem civitatem denuo revertâ—tur sed Episcopatus quem numquam bene gessit honore deposito ab eodem loco ac Ecclesia longius relegetur vel certè huc ad urbem sub prosecutione congrua dirigatur But wherefore doth not this Pope command his Legats to insist upon the delivering of such a criminal a criminal Bishop into their own proper custody hands and power to proceed against him to judg and punish him as they shall find cause being they alone and not the Emperour were his competent Judges in the case if we believe our Bellarminians and Baronius wherefore do not these Legats wherefore doth not this Pope himself being denied what he desired fulminat excommunications against Iustine
their own civil power both executed and decreed such corporal or civil punishment and consequently who were the sole authoritative Judges of both Priests Bishops and Popes I mean as to inflict or not inflict such corporal or civil punishments on them be the crime whatsoever you please Lay or Ecclesiastical But if you would see yet some instance or some example in particular fact of the continued possession of that authority in Princes even after I mean the tenth century of Christian Religion was compleat You may reflect on Conradus the Emperour who in presence of Benedict the ninth Roman Pontiff of that name sharply arose against and roughly laid hands that is with his own hands seized on Heribertus Archbishop of Millan as guilty of treasonable practices against the Empire albeit this Heribeâ—t saved himself after by flight and in the presence too of the same Pope Benedict in his hearing and seeing all was done decreed banishment from their Sees against three other Bishops and effectually cast them to exile the Bishop of Cremona Vercellis and Placentia Hermannus in Chron. an 1037. and Baronius eod an tom 11. Where this great Annalist Baronius divines after his own manner that surely Conradus did not this or that without consulting first and obtaining the good leave of the Roman Pontiff dreaming so what the Historians of that age were ignorant of did wholy pass over in silence without question because there was no such consultation held with the Pope no such leave asked from him for it is not likely that if any such had been they had given us no kind of hint of it And so too this prophetical or conjectural Annalist gives us his own very vain imagination for a record where he sayes that a suddain pestilence followed to revenge this fact or this usurpation of Conradus But if Conradus with licence of the Pope proceeded so against these criminal Bishops wherefore doth Baronius invent this revenge of an usurpation that was not in the case if his dream be true So little is our great interpreter of God's judgments and scourges consistent or constant to himself And if any should say for him that he meaned not that God reveng'd by such a plague any usurpation of Conrade being the Pope gave his consent also but only mean'd that God thereby reveng'd some other injustice in the proceedings albeit authorized by the Imperial and Papal powers joyntly or both together then I say that such meaning or interpretation of Baronius were it infallibly true in such meaning is nothing to his purpose here or against mine at all as the judicious Reader may himself easily see without any further illustration or observation by me And you may also reflect on Henry King of the Romans afterwards Emperour and the second of this name who continuing and persevering in the possession of the right or authority of coercing and punishing Clergiemen in imitation of his Predecessors wel-nigh a thousand years deprived of his dignity Widgerus Archbishop of Ravenna nay and the Pope himself of his Papacy Gregory the Fifth of that name Hermannus in Chron. Of other Henry's Emperours of Rome I say nothing Because in their time and by the occasion of the too great abuse by Clergiemen of the reverence to and patience of Princes with the Roman See in particular and Ecclesiastical Order in general nay and peradventure also by the occasion of the neglect and sluggishness of the Princes themselves that I may not here enlarge on or give other most certainly true causes as likewise by occasion of the many great priviledges formerly granted by Emperours and other Kings to all Priests and Bishops albeit amongst all such priviledges there was never any such to them in general as an exemption in temporal matters from the supream civil power and moreover by occasion of some special priviledges granted to the Roman See alone and to the Bishops thereof and finally by occasion of the vast both spiritual and temporal Revenues which these Roman Pontiffs were in the dayes of the other Henries possessors of they I mean the Roman Pontiffs were then arrived to such a height of worldly greatness and strength that seeing the former and indeed formidable power of the Roman Empire divided and subdivided in to so many different unsubordinate Kingdoms and seeing themselves could hardly ever want some one or other Prince amongst all to embrace their Papal quarrel against any other either Prince King or Emperour and considering also the great ignorance or blind zeal of many then who as their affections lead them or as their Preachers told them in some or many Provinces of Europe took all the Dictates of Roman Pontiffs for so many infallible or divine oracles pursuant to the doctrine hereof also first invented soon after vented by Gregory the VII I say that by these occasions and by their own improvements of them the Popes were in the times of the other succeeding Henries come to such a height of glory and greatness that they dared resist as they did Kings and Emperours in what quarrels soever and particularly in this of the pretended exemption not of themselves only but of all Bishops of the world nay and of all Priests too nay and also of all other Clerks of whatsoever lower degree from all earthly power add in all criminal causes of what nature soever pretending that such persons as being dedicated to God had no other truly proper and supream Governour or Prince on earth but themselves alone the Popes of Rome And therefore being it was then or much about that time this controversie begun which I have disputed on hitherto I have resolved to bring no instances of other Princes or Bishops since that time or of that time but content my self with these of more antiquity as best sorting with my purpose which only is and was along in this Section to shew the former doctrine of the holy Fathers and their Exposition of St. Paul 13. Rom. confirmed by the practice and in so many particular instances of both Ecclesiastical Prelats and Christian Princes in the more ancient Ages of the Church and for so many ages together all along quite contrary to both the doctrine and practice of some few or many if you please Ecclesiasticks in the later and worser and in this by little and little degenerated ages of Christianity And yet I would have my Readers take notice that I could furnish them were it necessary with a cloud of witnesses and a cloud of such particular instances both in the very said time and after the very said time of even the self same other Henries also and even also all along in every age of these very latter and worser until this present wherein we live and in this present year of it 1667. and could furnish them with these witnesses and produce to them these other such particular instances in matter of fact of Bishops and of Princes and of Roman Catholick Princes too for such only
solum ad mundi regimen sed maxime ad Ecclesiae praesidiuâ— esse collatum At most therefore what is in this matter granted to the Church is that Ecclesiasticks be not by Princes proceeded against coercively to punishment if their transgression be onely or meerly Ecclesiastical and the punishment be corporal I say be not so and in such case punished corporally unless or until the Church do her own duty first by depositions or censures or both Except you always still such extraordinary cases wherein the Superiours of the Church should or would themselves also peradventure be too refractory or too contumacious against reason as guilty of the same crimes or for any causes whatsoever countenancing or favouring the criminal Clerks and therefore refusing to proceed at all or at least onely against them For when a degraded Clerk is given over to the secular Court he is not delivered so by the Church to the secular Magistrats as if the Church did mean or intend these Magistrats should proceed by vertue of a power derived from her or be the Ministers or executioners of her own sentence which if capital she hath no power no authority at all from God or man to pronounce or decree as if any other way it be purely civil or forcible at all corporally for example to corporal restraint or imprisonment she hath for so much all her power from man and from the civil laws onely but he is given over so by the Church as meaning and intending onely that such a criminal Clerk be thenceforward under the ordinary power of even the inferiour lay Magistrats and Judges and by such delivery or giving over signifying unto them that they may now proceed if they please and think fit either to absolve or condemn him For even Caelestinus III. himself a Pope of the later times confesses c. Non ab homine de judic that Ecclesiastical punishment is of a quite other nature then that which is lay and that the Church hath no kind of power or authority to inflict such punishments as are in their own nature lay punishments or which is the same thing that she hath no power no authority at all of her self as a Church to inflict any punishment but purely Ecclesiastical but suspension deposition excommunication the lesser and greater and finally degradation when the criminal Clerk is delivered over or left under the secular power let the crimes of such a Clerk be ever so great and ever too such pure lay crimes even perjury theft and murder c and even heightned also by incorrigibleness A nobis fuit ex parte tua quaesitum sayes the above Caelestine utrum liceat Regi vel alicut seculari personae judicare Clericos cujuscumque ordinis sive in furto sive homicidio vel periurio seu quibus cumque fuerint criminibus deprehensi Consultationi tuae taliter respondentus quod si Clericus in quocumque ordine constitutus in furto vel homicidio vel periurio seu alio crimine fuerit deprehensus legittime atque convictus ab Ecclesiastico Iudice deponendus est Qui si depositus incorrigibilis fuerit excommunicari debet deinde contumacia crescente anathematis mucrone feriri postmedum verò si in profundum malorum veniens contempserit cum Ecclesia non habeat ultra quid faciat ne possit esse ultra perditio plurimorâ—m per secularem comprimendus est potestatem ita quod ei deputetur exilium vel alia legittima paena Where you are to observe singularly as to our present purpose of distinction betwixt Ecclesiastical and secular punishment and of no power at all in the Church to inflict corporal secular civil or lay punishments what Caelestinus sayes in these words Cum Ecclesia non habeat ultra quid faciat As you are also to note that he answers not directly or rather indeed not at all to the main question whether the King or other secular powers could punish Clerks guilty of or manifestly deprehended in perjury theft or murder but declines that of the authority of Kings or of other secular powers acting of themselveâ— in such cases without relation to the desires of the Church that they should act so and onely prescribes to the Ecclesiastical superiours how they themselves are to proceed by degrees aâ— becomes them against such criminal Clerks For otherwise it hath been seen before and in the very laws of Iustinian submitted unto by the Church that in such criminal causes the civil Praetors proceeded immediately against Churchmen though execution of the sentence was suspended until degradation was by the Bishop And it hath been seen that in a very auncient Council of Bishops long before this Calestine the first of Matisconum I mean the cases of theft murder and malefice were still expresly and particularly supposed or rather declared to have no Ecclesiastical exemption but to be still under the cognizance of even the inferiour lay judges And reason it self and the necessary preservation of both State and Church tell us that Caelestine's answer here cannot be otherwise understood in all the formalities of it and as relateing to the power supream of Kings who acknowledg none but God above them in temporals and who recieve not or incorporat not by their own proper power and into their own civil law this canon of Caelestine in any other sense or any other Church canon at all either like or unlike to it exempting Clerks in such crimes and in the first Instance from their supream legal cognizance or even from that of their subordinat ordinary secular and lay judges For I confess that in such Kingdoms or temporal States if any such be wherein the Princes or people or civil Governours and civil laws or customs have recieved such Ecclesiastical canons for the exemption of Clerks in such crimes until such Ecclesiastical formalities had preceeded it is fitting they be obserued and ought to be observed while the civil laws which onely gave them force or a binding virtue remain unrepealed and if the litteral observation of them strike not at the very being or at least peaceable and well being of the Commonwealth But observed so that is by virtue of the civil reception and incorporation of them into the civil laws and by the civil power they make nothing at all against my main purpose or against that of those other canons I alledg for the power of Kings from God to punish delinquent Clergiemen with civil and corporal punishments where and when they shall upon rational grounds judg it necessary and expedient for the publick good of either Church or State and where and when it is not against the laws of the land that they punish them so either by themselves immediately or by their subordinat lay judges either extraordinary or ordinary The Bishops of Affrick acknowledging this power in temporal Princes write in this manner and stile to the Emperour Vt novellae praesumptionis scandalum quod adversus fidem nostram attentatum
est auferatur fratremque nostrum Paulum Constantinopolitanae Ecclesiae Episcopum Regali authoritate vt nobiscum id est cum omni generalitate orthodoxé sapere debeat coarctare degnemini Concil Lateran consult 2. sub Martino 1. they desire the Emperour that by his legal authority and by corporal coercion he force him who not onely was a Priest not onely a Bishop but in the highest degree of the Hierarchy ordained by humane constitution or by the canons of the Church even the very Patriarch of Constantinople For a ninth canon that which is in the Ninth Council of Toledo cap. 1. may very well and properly serve where the Fathers acknowledging this supream coercive power of Clerks in Princes ordain thus against Clerks that defraud the community or the Church of the oblations intended in common for the Church Vt si sacerdotem seu ministrum aliquid ex collatis rebus praeviderint defraudare aut commonitionis honestae conventione compescant aut Episcopo vel Iudici corrigenda denuntient Quod si talia Episcopus agere tentet Metropolitano ejus haec insinuare procurent Si autem Metropolitanus talia gerat Regis haec auribus intimare non differant Where you see this ancient Council of Spanish and very orthodox Bishops ordaining that the excesses of Ecclesiastical persons of Priests Bishops and Metrapolitanes be in the last place or when no remedy is applyed by the Bishops or Metropolitanes themselves complained of to the King to be questionless by him and by his regal authority corrected and coerced Tenth and last of those canons I pitch upon and restraine my self unto here is a canon of the Synod of Ravenna convoked by Iohn the ninth Pope of that name about the nine hundredth year of Christ For in this Council Lambertus the Emperour being himself there in person and at some variance with that Pope who who was likewise present in his own person amongst his Capitula or heads which he proposed to the Council and as to be admitted by the Pope and Council proposed in the first place of all this Si quis Romanus cujuscumque sit ordinis sive de clero sive de Senatu seu de quocumque ordine gratis ad nostram Imperialem Majestatem venire voluerit aut necessitate compulsus ad nos voluerit proclamare nullus ei contradicere praesumat Donec liceat Imperatoriae Potestati eorum causas aut personas aut per Missos nostros deliberare Which capitulum was assented unto and ratified by the Fathers and made a conciliary Act and therefore too a Canon of that Council and all this done so solemnly and even in the sight and with the approbation also and consent of the very Roman Pontiff himself there in person present to the end it might appear to the world that after the more directly spiritual or purely Ecclesiastical Canons had been ended by the Fathers the Emperour would by this particular Canon of another nature have it declared that he preserved still entire his own right of judging the very Clergy of Rome it self as an Emperour and in all matters whatsoever belonging to his imperial cognizance and consequently still preserved intire his own imperial coercive power of criminal Clerks or that of punishing them civilly corporally if or when their delinquencies or crimes or the preventing of such crimes for the future in others required such punishments To conclude this Section of Canons I must give some few and brief advertisements to the Reader concerning them and my purpose in alledging them 1. That I alledge them not as causes or as grounds or springs of such authority in secular Princes but only as testimonies of the sense of the Fathers who made them and for those ages wherein they were made that there was by and from a superiour power such a previous original proper essential independent right in supream secular Princes and that for the more certain more demonstrative proofs of such a right in Princes I relye not somuch on any express Canons of either Popes or Councils as upon those plain texts of holy Scripture and those other so plain and so express of all the holy Fathers generally who in their other writings that are not Papal or conciliary Canons commented upon the same Scriptures and besides these two arguments of Scripture and Tradition which I have before given at length in three Sections for I make that of my Instances of practise part of the argument of Tradition that I do also very much relye upon those other evidences of natural reason which you may turn to Sect. LXXII 2. That although for these Canons which are only Papal that is those which are made or issued by the sole authority of one or more Popes without a Council I pretend them not to be of equal authority with such as had the consent of a Council nor hold those meer Papal Canons or any other in Gratian to be properly and strictly the Canons of the Church being these are such as were made at first or approved at last by a general Council or otherwise introduced by universal consent or custome albeit others too may be Canons for the occidental Church apart or apart for the oriental yet as to my present purpose meer Papal Canons may be justly presumed to be most sufficient testimonies because against the Popes themselves or against the present exemption of Popes by divine right and their pretended power also by any right whatsoever to exempt others I mean still out of their own dominions or those wherein they are themselves at present supream temporal Princes 3. That in my interpretations of those Canons or in my conclusions derived or intended from them I do not tye my self either to Gratian whom I confess to have seen many or most or perhaps all of them or to any of his Glossatours if indeed Gratian himself how otherwise great and earnest soever a Hiero Monarchist or Zealot for and assertor of the Roman and Papal Hieromonarchy interpret conclude or say any thing at all point blanck either directly or indirectly or consequentially or virtually against my interpretations or conclusions here out of these Canons or against my assertions all along of the supream royal coercive power of criminal Clerks For truly he may be very well understood without any such meaning xi q. 1. where he had most occasion to deliver himself as of purpose treating there of the proper Judicatory of Clerks Because that forasmuch as of this matter he treats only according to the Canons of the Church and priviledges given by Emperours and that I have shewed and proved already elsewhere in my LXIX Section â—e brings neither an Imperial constitution nor allowed Church canon nor as much as any true or certain though meer Papal Canon which maâ—y be home enough against my assertion of such an absolute independent supream coercive power in Kings and that also in his last Paragraph which begins thus as even his former doth
Ex his omnibus datur intelligi his own conclusion is in general tearms only importing that a Clerk is not either in a civil or criminal cause to be convented in publick that is in lay or secular Judicatories Quod Clericus sayes he ad publica judicia nec in civili nec in criminali causa est producendus not descending to the particular or specifical case of the regal power and regal cognizance intervening by special commission or special warrant or in a special emergency nor descending also to or considering the special case of times or Countryes when or where no such canon of the Church or Pope no such priviledge imperial at least in that latitude is in use or perhaps hath ever yet been received or if once received hath been again repealed Therefore Gratian may be rationally expounded to mean by his judicia publica in this Paragraph those ordinary Judicatories only which are of inferiour lay Judges and those too but only where such Canons are received or such priviledges allowed by the supream civil powers and laws But if any must needs press further yet or in any other sense the conclusion of Gratianus then I must say three things The first is that as I have proved already elsewhere in this work if a Clerk sue a Layman for any temporal matter or in a meer civil cause that is not criminal he must sue him in a lay Court and before a lay Judge and this lay Judge albeit only a subordinate inferiour and ordinary Judge shall give a binding sentence against this Clerk if the law be in the case for the Layman So that neither is it generally true not even by the very Canons I mean that Clerks in all civil causes are totally exempt from the jurisdiction of as much as the very inferiour lay Judges For the very Canons not to speak of the civil laws now in force throughout the world have ordered so Quod Actor sequatur forum Rei let the Actor be ever so much a Clerk or Ecclesiastick The second is that generally for criminal causes of Clerks Gratianus hath not produced as much as any one either imperial constitution or even any one Church Canon sufficiently either in particular or in general revoking or anulling or sufficiently declaring that revocation of the 74. Constitution of Iustinianus whereby this Emperour appoints and impowers the lay Judges for those within Constantinople and for those abroad in the Provinces the lay Pretors in the same Provinces to iudge the criminal causes of Clerks nay nor hath at all as much as attempted to answer or gain-say it albeit this very 74. Constitution was the very last chapter saving one which himself produced immediatly as a canon before the foresaid last paragraph Ex â—is omnibus Thirdly that for those Church Canons or those more likely authorities or passages true or false of some Popes or some Councils alledged by Gratianus in that his eleventh cause and first question or those in him which may seem most of any he hath to ground another sense then that I have said to be his sense I have before sufficiently nay and abundantly too cleared and answered them at large in my LXIX Section of in my answer to Bellarmine's aâ—legations of the Canons for himself and for the exemption of criminal Clerks from the supream royal coercive power of Kings where I have also noted some of Gratian's either voluntary or unvoluntary corruptions of the Canons Fourthly and consequently that whether Gratian was or was not of a contrary opinion it matters not a pin It is not his opinion and let us suppose he had truly and sincerely declared his own inward opinion for I am sure many as good and as great and far greater then he dared not declare their own when he writ his Decretum or declare any at all but in the language of the Papal Court It it is not I say his opinion but his reason we must value for sin he did not himself nor any for him does pretend to infallibility And I am sure he neither brings nor as much as pretends to bring any Scripture at all or any Tradition of the Fathers or even as much as any argument of natural reason for the warranty of any other sense And I am certain also that my judicious and impartial Readers will themselves clearly see and confess that he brings not for himself or for such a sense as much as any one Canon true or false to confront these I have alledg'd for my self and for that sense I intend all along or any one Canon true or false that denyes that which I have given for the coercive power of secular Princes to have been and to be the sense of Paul the Apostle Rom 13. or to have been and be the general and unanimous sense of the holy Fathers in their commentaries and expositions of it or finally any one Canon true or false that particularly and either formally or virtually descends to the specifical debate 'twixt the most eminent Cardinals Bellarmine and Baronius or their followers the present Divines of Lovaine and me concerning the supream royal and external Jurisdiction of Kings to punish criminal Clerks by their own immediate authority royal and by virtue of their own royal commissions and delegations extraordinary in all cases and contingencies wherein the preservation of the publick peace and safety of either Church or State require it and by their mediat authority also in their inferiour Judges and by vertue of their ordinary commissions or delegations to such Judges or of the ordinary power which the civil laws of the land give to these Judges in all cases I mean wherein the same civil laws or the makers of such laws have not received or admitted of the more or less ancient constitutions of Roman Emperours or of the more or less ancient Canons of the great Pontiffs or of other Bishops in their Ecclesiastical Councils for what concerns the exemption of Clergie-men in criminal causes from the meer civil and ordinary Courts and lay inferiour or subordinate Judges and their subjection to Ecclesiastical Judges only and the Prince himself who must be without any peradventure and even in such causes too of Clerks above all Iudges in his own Kingdom whether lay or Ecclesiastical Judges For I have before sufficiently demonstrated that all Ecclesiastical Exemption in temporal matters or in all both civil and criminal causes is only from the supream civil Power as from the only proper and total efficient cause and I have also before demonstrated that no exemption to any persons or person whatsoever could be given by that Power from it self or at least for the matter of coercion and when the publick good required it unless at the same time it freed such persons or person from all kind of subjection to it self and I have likewise demonstrated before that such exemption from it self in any case at all whatsoever cannot be rationally supposed as given by
for himself by veâ—â—â—â— of the Norman laws in force which empowered him to bestow such Ecclesiastical preferments and dignities on those he thought 〈◊〉 and consequently observed 〈◊〉 takeing a direct course to break all the authority and dignity of the Sacerdotal order and labouring mightily to bend all right and law whether soever he pleased nam cum Thomasvir summa integritate atque prudentia cerneret Regem quotidie sacerdotes minus idoneos aut eligere Episcopos aut ad aâ—d perducere sacerdotia ac ex praescripto Normannicarum legum jure ut ille aicbat suo utendo nihiâ—â— a â—â—jorum consuetudine atque concessis alienunt faciendo omnem sacerdotalis ordinis authoritatem dignitat emque frangere demum ius fasque coâ—ari trahere quo vellet priâ—â— cum admonuit c. And sixtly your are to observe several passages in that most exact latin relation or latin liâ—e of S. Thomas written and publish'd by Matthew Parker in his Antiquitates Brittannicae amongst other lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury To which so exact relation yet of Parker I do not by any mâ—ans remit you as that I do my self nor would have you good Reader to approve any of his expressions where they are to the contempt prejudice or dishonour of St. Thomas being this Matthew Parker was of an other communion that is a Protestant and even also too the very first Protestant Archbishop placed in the See of Canterbury under Queen Elisabeth and consequently no great adorer or admirer of S. Thomas but remit you to it rather as well for the better justification of S. Thomas in his grand controversy as for the great illustration of my own Answers in some particulars to the argument grounded against me on the contrary And you are to note that Parker gives you in his margent those ancient Catholick Historians of England out of whom he takes his said most exact relation as to the matter though not as to his own in everent words in some passages and gives you Houeden Walter Coventren Roff. Histor Ioranal Hist Roger de Cestriae William Cantuariens Matthew Paris Florilegus Heribertus Arch. Nicholas Trivet Radulph de Duceto Gemblacen Sigibertut Allanus Abbas Theokesheriensis Annal. Eccles. August Aurea hystor part 2. Matthew Westmonast Gervasius Therefore out of this relation partly and partly in order to it so given by Matthew Parker who questionless might have had more then any other of his days all the Records both printed books and ancient manuscrips of this Saints life if onely those which are said to be in the Vatican be excepted whereof notwithstanding he seems to have had a copy for Heribertus whom he frequently quotes in the Margent was one of the four compilers of the Vatican life you are to observe to my purpose and even to the Saints advantage and for his justification 1. How when he had been pitch'd upon by the King to be chosen Archbishop against his own will he declared freely to the â—ame King that if his Majesty would have him chosen his Majesty must expect opposition from him in the concerns of Ecclesiastical rights or immunities whenever entrench'd upon by his Majesty or civil officers 2. That the Priest accused of murder was not convict by witnesses nor by his own confession though he sailed in that was called canonical or legal purgation And yet for failing herein was punish'd as much as the Archbishop could punish him and as much too as the law required he should be that is was degraded and cloyster'd to do perpetual pennance during life and even that strict pennance which the canons laws and customs of England prescribed 3. That albeit of the crime of the Chanon Phillip Bâ—â—is nothing in particular is written by our Historians besides that of his reviling the King's Judges when he was spre'd to their tribunal yet the Archbishop not onely had him whip'd or scours'd publickly but also deprived of all Ecclesiastical benefices and offices â— That it was onely by due course of law our holy Archbishop recovered those landâ— as of right belonging to the Church of Canterbury whereof or of which 〈…〉 such complaints were made to the King 5. That for having 〈◊〉 â—â—s Seal of Chancellourship to the King to Narmandy and so quitted himself of that office he did nothing against the law of God or man nay or any thing but what he was licenced to do by the young King Henry the Son at such time as he consented to the election and was consecrated in the said young King's owâ— presence as the Saint himself pleased for himself publickly in the Parliament at Westminster 6. That for his having hindered the payment of the yearly contribution from every hyde of land he did not hinder any free and voluntary contribution of such payment but the exaction of it as of an assessment laid by the Kings own warrant and to be paid as a duty in the case into his own excheque whereas by the law or custom of the land there was not in the then case any such duty of eâ—action and assessment of such money to be paid into the Kings Treasury 7. That those 16. Heads of laws or customs about which the grand and long contest was are acknowledg'd here by Matthew Parker himself not to have been as yet then either laws or customs of the land though Henry the Second alleadg'd them and would have them as such and as the laws or customs of his grand Father but onely were conceived or written by Henry the first but never by him or other after him till Henry the Second pass'd so into laws or customs and that Thomas of Canterbury reflecting hereupon gave it amongst other reasons for his falling back from his forced oath at Clarendone and for his not confirming by his seal as was expected what he had so formerly sworn ex metu caâ—ente in virum constantem 8. That the four Squires who murther'd him demanded three things of him to be done The first was that he should do homage to the young King for his Barony the second that such Clerks as he brought with him into the Kingdom should take such an oath to the same King as would be prescribed to them for the security of the Kingdom and the third was that he should absolve the Bishops and other excommunicated persons from those Ecclesiastical censures which they had incurr'd 9. That S. Thomas denyed none of all but onely with this caution the two last that the oath to be offred to himself or those Clerks should be such an oath as might be justly or by law required of them and that those Bishops and other excommunicated persons who had done manifest injury to him and to his Church of Canterbury for which injuries partly they were excommunicated should first by oath promise to make satisfaction or repair the prejudices and injuries so done by them And that for such his answers which was but very just they immediatly next
by whom or wherein Thomas of Canterbury after some ages and upon a review of his life or actions and knowledge of his nefarious turbulencies and tragedies and of his intollerable arrogancy in raising himself above the royal power laws and dignity as he sayes was so condemn'd It seems he was either ashamed to name the person or raign of Henry the eight in such a matter and in opposition to such a Saint or verely he would impose on his unskilfull Reader and make him think it might peradventure have been so by a King and so in a time that was not reputed Schismatical by the Romanist's themselves and thereby would wholly undermine the credit of a Saint who certainly could be no true Saint if Parker was either a true Bishop in the truth and unity of the Catholick Church or true Christian in the truth and integrity of the Catholick Religion And I give it moreover to take notice of his wilful imposture where he sayes that that nameless King found out what kind of man Thomas was what evilt he had raised c. and sayes also that that nameless King found out all this in a great Conneil of all the Prelats and Peers of the Kingdom meaning so to impose on his Reader as a truth without as much as the authority of any writer for he quotes none in this nor could but against all truth that the Bishops of England in that Kings time concurr'd with him in his judgment or condemnation of Thomas of Canterbury for a traytor viz. against the Kings person or people of England or their laws or all three For certainly he could not be on any rational ground declared traytor or even to have been such at any time in his life not to speak now of the instance of his death or of any time after his reconciliation to Henry the Second but upon one of these three grounds or as having acted either against the Kings own person or royal rights or against the liberties of the people or against the sanctions of the municipal laws of England And O God of truth who is that is versed in the Chronicles of England can imagine any truth in this sly insinuation of Parker concerning that of the Bishops to have concurr'd with Henry the Eight in the condemnation or prophanation and sacriledge committed against St. Thomas of Canterbury so many hundred years after his holy life and death and so many hundred years after he had possessed not England alone but all the Christian world with the certain perswasion of his sanctity attested so even after his death by such stupendious miracles at his tomb and wrought there at or upon his invocation and by such stupendious and known miracles I say that Parker himself hath not the confidence as much as to mutter one word against the truth and certainty of their having been or having been such Nay who is it can upon a a sober reflection perswade himself that either Henry the Eight himself or any other whatever and how even soever atheistical Councellor of his could pretend any as much as probable ground in natural reason laying aside now all principles of Religion to declare this Thomas of Canterbury so long after his death to have dyed a traytor nay I say more or to have lived so or to have been so at any time in his life T is true that in all branches and each branch of the five membred complex of those first original and lesser differences which preceded that great one of the sixteen customs he for some part did not comply with the Kings expectation and for other parts positively refused to obey the Kings pleasure or even command But so might any other Subject and might I say without being therefore guilty of treason nay without being guilty of any other breach of law or conscience had he the law of the land and liberty of a Subject of his side as Thomas of Canterbury had in each of these five original differences And that he had so the law of the land for him even in that very point of them which Henry the Second took most to heart that I mean of the two criminal Clergymen besides all what I have given before at large of those very laws to prove it this also is an argument convincing enough that Henry the Second was not where he had the law of his side a man to be baffled by any Subject whatsoever nor would be so ceremonious as to call so many Councils or Parliaments of Bishops and other Estates to begg that which by law he had already in his power without their consent And therefore certainly had the law of the land been at that time for him that is for the ordinary coercion of criminal Clerks in his lay Courts and in what case soever or even in case of felony or murder committed by Clerks he had without any further ceremony at least after he saw the Archbishop refuse to comply with his desire or obey his command and after he saw also the Priest was in the very Ecclesiastical Court convict of murder sent his own Officials to force him away to and before the lay Judges and sent his Guards too or Souldiers were this necessary Neither of which he as much as attempted to do And therefore had we no other argument who sees not that it is clear enough out of this very procedure that the Archbishop committed no treason in this very matter wherein of any of also the branches of that whole five membred complex he most positively and plainly opposed that King though by such a kind of opposition as might become a Subject that is by an opposition of dissent without any interposition of arms or force 2. T is true also that after this Thomas of Canterbury opposed mightily but with such a kind opposition as I have now said all those sixteen heads of Henry the Second pretended by him to have been the Royal Costoms of his Grandfather and that after giving a forced consent and taking a forc'd oath to maintain them he retracted again freely and conscientiously his said consent and oath and refused to give his hand or seal for introducing or establishing them But I am sure there was no treason in this not only because he saw or apprehended they were against the former laws and for an evil end too press'd by that King so violently but also because he saw or apprehended that the very pretence was false that is that some of them had never been customes Is it not lawful without treason nay or other breach of law for any Peer and so great a Peer as the Archbishop of Canterbury to deny his own assent in Parliament or even to revoke and for as much as belongs to himself his own former assent at least when otherwise his conscience is wounded and when he proceeds no further by force of arms and that the laws is yet only in deliberation to be establish'd but not
receive in order to the Ceremonial or significative and whatever other additional complement of it from the Church For thus he discourseth a little before in the same speech at Chinun speaking to his King Nosse debetis vos Dei gratia Regem esse primò quia vos ipsum or ipsos regere debetis vitamque vestram optimis informare moribus ut vestri exemplo caeteri provocentur ad melius juxta illud sapientis Componitur orbis regis ad exemplum Secundariò alios demulcendâ— alios puniendo potestatis authoritate quam accepistis ab Ecclesia cum sacramento unctionis tum gladii officio quem gestatis ad malefactores Ecclesiae conterendos Injunguntur enim Reges in tribus locis in capite in pectore brachiis quod significat gloriam scientiam fortitudinem And thus also after he discourseth in that Letter to the Bishop of London and about the end of that Letter Sciat ergo intelligat te intimante Dominus meus to wit the King quod qui dominatur in regno hominum sed Angelorum duâ—ts sub se potestates ordinavit Principes Sacerdotes unam terrenam alteram spiritualem unam ministrantem alteram praeeminentem unam cui potentiam concessit alteram cui reverentiam exhiberi voluit Out of both which passages and not only jointly but severally taken and much more if jointly as they ought the more fully to undestand the Saints meaning I am very much deceived if it appear not sufficiently 1. That he acknowledges the Royal Power as such in Kings to be no less from God than the Sacerdotal in Priests 2. That to Kings he gave the Temporal power of this World and Carnal power of the material Sword To Priests a spiritual Authority and no more in order to the Temporal power and Carnal sword but a Mandat only from him to such as have that Power and Sword to revere those who onely have the Word 3. That where he intimates they received or do receive the Authority of power from the Church he declares plainly enough that he means no more by this phrase but that they received or do receive it Ceremoniously and significatively and in some-wise completively from the Church when they were or are anointed by Sacred Oyle by Her in three places in their Head Breast and Shoulders which sayes he signifies Glory Knowledge and Fortitude qualities necessary to a King and of right flowing from the power which he had antecedently to their unction but now signified both to the King himself and to others and signified by such unction that they ought to flow from it and qualities also not seldome by the prayers of the Church at that time impetrated from God to flow from it thenceforth more abundantly and conspicuously Or that if besides this ceremonious and significative reception of power from the Church he mean any other real reception it must be of another Authority than that which is essential and proper in all times and all places to the Supreme Civil or Politick Magistrate as such and must be onely of some kind of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical capacity power authority or enablement for some spiritual Functions either within the Church and in order to the very mystical Sacrifice or Preparatories or Antecedents or Concomitants of it or certainly without and over the Church and in relation to its proper Government Ecclesiastical and to its Benefices and Offices For such a double Authority given by the Church to Christian Emperours and Kings especially in and by or together with their Unction and Consecration at least as Church affairs stood a long time before that of St. Thomas of Canterbury and long after too he might have very well averr'd and rationally have objected to Henry the Second whereby to move him not to be so ungrateful to the Church which had so obliged him And such a double Authority given by her to them is apparent 1. In their Clerical Offices performed sometime within the very Churches and at the very Altars For so we find that Sigismund that good and zealous Emperour who was the chief Instrument for gathering the General Council of Constance to end the great Schism of Three Anti-Popes and assisted at it when it sate and the Pope John the XXIII celebrated the solemn Mass on Christmas day in the Cathedral of the City did serve at the high Altar clad in the Vest of a Deacon and doing the Office did read also and sing publickly the Gospel Exiit Edictum a Caesare Augusto ut describeretur universus c. which was the Gospel of that Mass which the Pope then celebrated 2. In the Canonical and positive right of Patronage and Nomination of Church Officers and Beneficiaries as of Bishops Abbots Priors c. which they have and which at least many or most or they all had at least in most parts before the dayes of Thomas of Canterbury and had verily either from the express Donation made to them by the Church as that of naming the very Pope himself and all Archbishops and Bishops in the West made to Carolus Magnus and his Successors or by the tacite permission and approbation of the same Church partly for their Merits and partly for the bindring of Schisms amongst the Clergy or Lay-people or both which happen'd before in popular or Clerical or joint Elections or in such as were made by the Communities I say Canonical and positive Right or Patronage or Nomination c. because I confess That all Supreme Lawful Princes and States whatsoever as well Heretick as Catholick as well not Christian as Christian have a natural right of Patronage over the very Christian Church and a negative Suffrage in the Election of such Christian Church Officers as live within their Dominions forasmuch as the safety of their people may be concern'd in such that is have a right from the Law of Nature and a right essential to their Kingly Office not to suffer any Disturber of the publick Peace to be nominated or to enjoy any Church Livings or Church Office within their own Dominions And that such natural Right and negative Suffrage is not derived or given to them by the Church But the former double Authority is by or together with their Sacred Unction And that St. Thomas of Canterbury meant only this by the Authority which he sayes they received from the Church if indeed at all he meant any more by this saying of his than their receiving their politick Kingly power either significatively and completively as to the outward Ceremonies before the people or at most in some measure and degree and as to the perfect establishment of it instrumentally and by their mediation or at least by their making no opposition sufficiently appears First out of his manner of speaking or couching these words Secundario alios demulcendo alios puniendo potestatis authoritate quam accepistis ab Ecclesia tum gladii officio quem gestatis ad malefactores
Ecclesiae conterendos Where though he insinuate some Authority of power received also from the Church to allure some by fair and sweet means others by sowr severity yet after he tells the King That besides that Authority he hath the Office of the Sword also gladii officio and carries it for the crushing and cutting off Malefactors but sayes not that he received this Sword or the Office or Power or Authority of it from the Church nay sufficiently insinuates by the placing of his words That Kings receive not this at all from the Church And therefore also insinuates clearly enough that they receive not at all at least otherwise than I said their true civil or politick Royal power or the true Essentials or necessary Appendages of it from the Church for this is the same with the office of the Sword And secondly out of that whole passage of his to the Bishop of London where he makes the whole Regal power to be the immediate institution of God and derived from Him alone and no less immediately than the Sacerdotal is and in the perclose most significantly shews the difference 'twixt them by saying That God ordained the one Authority to which he gave the power but the other to which he would have reverence done Vnam cui potentiam concessit alteram cui reverentiam exhiberi voluit as meaning earthly power and signifying that no such was given by God to the Church and consequently that the Church could not give it to any other for nemo dat quod non habet but onely and wholly to earthly Princes Therefore from first to last the natural and genuine meaning of St. Thomas of Canterbury in that passage of his at Chinun which I alledgd against my self out of Hoveden must be that whereas it is certain it was from the Church your Majesty received that extraordinary power you have in some Church affairs and that she hath her own proper supreme purely spiritual and properly Ecclesiastical from Christ alone and not from you or any other Prince and whereas either she hath never given you that power you challenge in so many other Church affairs or if she hath to any of your Predecessors she hath again upon rational grounds revoked it therefore pace vestra loquor you ought not to command Bishops to absolve whom you will and when you will or to excommunicate whom and when you please or draw or send Clerks to Secular Courts both against the Laws of the Land and her Canons nor ought you to interdict Bishops or command them that in their own Ecclesiastical Courts and Ecclesiastick manner they handle not the breach of Oath or transgressions against Faith c. For albeit that in some other matters which St. Thomas objected here to the King the Church peradventure had nothing to do with the cognizance of them as to the determination of Right but what she had from humane Laws and the very municipal Laws of the Land I mean yet once she had that Right given her by such Law there is no question but that until such Law were legally again Repealed by an Authority equal to that which made it she might proceed by her own spiritual Authority Supreme and Independent from any but Christ alone and in a pure spiritual way proceed against any Prince whatsoever that invaded even such her Rights however acquired humanely or by humane Laws as all other Temporal Rights are by all sorts of people acquired For even to preserve the only humane Rights of meer Lay-men to their Goods or Lands c She may use her spiritual power when it is necessary and seasonable against any Invader or Usurper And consequently St. Thomas having the Law of the Land on his side where there was nothing positively determined pro or con in the Laws of God or Nature he might even as to such matters very justly have said to Henry the second Pace vestra loquor non haberetis Episcopis praecipere c. And might have said so and all the rest either consequent or antecedent of the Authority received from the Church and said all without any kind not only not of Treason but of as much as the least Treasonable principle in pure speculation abstracting from all fact and intention of fact which could entrench upon the Majesty of the Prince or safety of the people And I am sure there can be neither Treason in fact nor in habitude either by the nature of things or interpretation of Laws but against either As I confess that all Treason properly such as Treason is taken here i. e. Legally and not Etymologically or as it is taken for that which we call in Latin Crimen laesae Majestatis must be only against the person or persons in which or in whom only the Supreme civil power is or in which only or whom that we call Majesty is And therefore that in an absolute Monarchy where we know that Majestas non est in populo there can be no such crime as this Treason committed against the people but only against the Prince Whereof Bodinus may be read in his Books de Republica 3. Because it is no Treasonable principle by it's own Nature or by Law at least in Speculation or Theory That such Authority as is not essential or necessarily annexed to the Supreme civil or temporal power but accidental and accidentally annexed or permitted to it by or at the pleasure of another or others not subject at all to such Supreme power civil or at least not subject in such matters especially if such Authority be not in its own Nature purely politick or civil at all that I say such Authority so hitherto accidentally annexed or permitted may even at least in some cases be either suspended or prohibited or lessened or altered or even totally revoked and even also totally transferred by those which so annexed or permitted it formerly to the Supreme civil Magistrate And the reason is because it can be no Treasonable principle which dictates not nor inclines not to actual Treason that is to an unlawful or injurious hurting or lessening or endangering of Majesty or of that which is the essential or necessary Appendages of Majesty in this one or in these more persons wherein it is placed according to the several Forms of Government And this principle neither dictates nor enclines to any such unlawful or injurious hurting lessening c. Now if this principle be not Treasonable which sayes That such Authority so given by the Church to the King may be again Revoked from the King at least in some cases how can that other be Treasonable which only sayes That he received sometime such Authority from the Church Nay and I add now or how can that be Treasonable which only sayes That Christian Kings originally or some-time past received whatever Authority you please or even their whole very politick or civil and temporal Authority from the Church in whatever wise the Church was able to
give and they to receive it from Her But sayes not That the Church may by her own power or at her pleasure or in any case Revoke that Authority again or hurt lessen or endanger it but wholly abstracts from this whether it be so or not according to the truth of things in themselves 4. Because the Querie made after the Objection or that which ask't thus Is there any man would think so but would also think at the same time that the Church might take away again or transfer the power of Kings is soon and rationally answer'd in the affirmative For so do very famous Catholick Doctors both Divines Civilians and Canonists and they all of strict communion with the Roman Church and Pope maintain and maintain also I mean too concerning such authority and power as without any question they had at first originally from the Church and could not have but from her but hath been time out of mind annexed to their Crowns or hath been originally or at some time granted them per modum contractus vel concordati vel transitionis And that you may not have my saying so for proof you may be pleased to run over this Latin insertion extracted out of that very learned School Divine and English Father and Doctor of St. Francis's Order who was lately and three several times Minister Provincial of his said Order in England and for ought I know lives yet Father Francis Davenport alias a Sancta Clara. And I give it wholly in his own words as it lies in his Paraphrase on the XXXVII Article of those XXXIX of the Protestant Church of England And give it so at length not only that you may see in it Catholick Doctors and Writers enough confirming what I have so answerâ—d in the Affirmative to this Query but for to clear your judgment in some other matters also relating to the Subject in hand here or at least to that of my whole Discourse of Ecclesiastical Exemption if not to some other questions in this my present Book And yet give it not as meaning to tye my self in all things to his judgment or at least to his too fearful or scrupulous expressing and tying of himself in meer words to some other late Schoolmen especially where he rather follows their opinion or their expression who deny Jurisdiction to Kings ex jure Regio de jure Divino naturali over the persons and in the causes of Ecclesiasticks and only attribute to them nudam potestatem civilem temporalem c. over such persons and in such causes than theirs who on the contrary attribute to Kings the thing and word Jurisdiction over the same persons and things and this too per se and by the Law of God and Nature Hic articulus sayes he meaning the foresaid XXXVII Article of the Protestant Church of England subministrat materiam examinandi Quaestionem longe gravissimam An scil laici sint capaces jurisdictionis spiritualis Primo advertendum ex omnium sententia illos non esse capaces clavium quia tunc etiam remissionis seu absolutionis a peccatis Secundo advertendum jurisdictionem spiritualem seu potestatem jurisdictionis non esse immediate ipsam potestatem clavium immo separabiles nec actu semper conjungi vel jure divino vel positivo Tertio supponendum summum Pontificem in omni sententia secundum absolutam potentiam suam posse jurisdictionem talem laicis concedere quia non expresse contra jus divinum ut recte Soto 4. dist 20. quaest 1. art 4. Scot. 4. d. 20 q 1. a. 4. Mirand in Manual q. 3. a. 2. D. Alvin c. 3. c. sic etiam Miranda in Manuali quaest 3. art 2. hoc non solum respectu virorum sed foeminarum Addit tamen Miranda hoc respectu foeminarum nusquam adhuc concessum Quod tamen negat D. Alvin c. 3. de Episcopis Abbatibus Abbatissis c. 22. citat multa jura ex quibus actu conceditur Abbatissis potestas jurisdictionis non quidem excommunicandi per se sed praecipiendi suis subditis Sacerdotibus ut excommunicent rebelles contumaces moniales hoc valere vel ex jure communi vel consuetudine vel saltem ex privilegio vel strictius loquendo dicendum cum Laimanno lib. 1. Laiman l. 1. tract 5. p. 1. c. 3. n. 3. 4. tract 5. p. 1. cap. 3. num 3. 4. quod non habent jurisdictionem spiritualem proprie sed usuram quandam jurisdictionis Et hinc conferre possunt beneficia instituere clericos in Ecclesiis ad Monasterium suum pertinentibus c. Vt sensum meum in re tam gravi aperiam Dicendum putem nullo quidem jure ut praetactum est eis competere potestatem seu jus spirituale ut loquitur Joannes de Parisiis de potestate Papae c. 21. quo gratia spiritualis causatur id est Joan. de Paris c. 21. de potest Papae potestas administrandi Sacramenta Et idem est judicium de potestate quae consequitur ex priori ut est inflictio poenae spiritualis scripturarum expositio Ministrorum Ecclesiae institutio confirmatio vel examen alia id genus multa Quodvis enim horum de jure divino restringitur praecise ad homines spirituales sen Deo sacros ut olim definitum est a Joan. 22. contra Marsilium de Padua ut videre est apud Turrecrem l. 4. Summae sub finem Joan. 22. contra Mars de Padua Turrecr l. 4. summae Caeterum quoad potestatem seu jus antecedens non de per se necessario annexum spiritualibus officiis bene potest in laicis subinde residere sicut praesentatio collatio beneficiorum punitio temporalis clericorum alia id genus multa ut dixi de Abbatissis praecipue ex concessione Ecclesia vel longa consuetudine praescripta convenientibus Praelatis Ecclesiae Dixi merito etiam ex consuetudine quia non solum concessio Innoc. in c. novit c. Salgado p. 1. c. Prael 3. nu 120. sed consuetudo ipsa tribuit jurisdictionem etiam in spiritualibus ut docet Innocent in cap. Novit de judic multi praesertion quando consuetudinis exercitium a tempore immemoriali probatur ut declarant Juristae de quare vide Salgado p. 1. c. 1. Praelud 3. n. 122 deinceps Dices hic non solum concedi Principibus nostris potestatem ex consuetudine seu concessione sed supremam ut ibi asseritur quod noâ— potest eis competere in spiritualibus ut omnes Doctores tenent Respondeo quod Doctores praedicti asserant Papaâ— non posse auferre jurisdictionem Principum ex consuâ—tudine vel concessione firma valide licite introductam Nav. c. 27. in Enchir. n 70. Salz sch Ber. Diaz cap. 55. Sect. Apud Gall. Duvall de disc Eccl. p. 3 fol. 405. sicut satis insinuat Navar. c. 27. in
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
Supremacy of the Pope whatever this be which the Catholick Church allows him For a pure Supreme Temporal in one and a pure Supreme Spiritual in another and over the same persons and causes are very truly certainly and evidently consistent The second Period or Clause being this And therefore we acknowledge and confess our selves to be obliged under pain of Sin to obey Your Majesty in all Civil and Temporal Affairs as much as any other of Your Majesties Subjects and as the Laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands and consequently being only and wholly of the obedience due by Catholick Subjects to Hâ—s Majesty and being it doth in formal express words determine this obedience to all Civil and Temporal Affairs as you see it doth there can be therefore no dispute of this Period The third Period also containing only in effect an acknowledgment of their resolution to acknowledge evermore and perform their Loyalty and true Allegiance to the King notwithstanding any contradiction by or from the Pope or by or from any other deriving power from the Pope or See of Rome for the words are these And that notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope or See of Rome or any sentence or declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessors or Successors or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal proceeding or derived from him or his See against Your Majesty or Royal Authority we will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of our Abilities our faithful Loyalty and true Allegiance to Your Majesty I say that being the third Period hath no other words or matter it 's very evident that the whole entire Subject of it is nought else but obedience in Temporals because the Loyalty and true Allegiance of Catholicks to their at least Protestant Prince can be no other but obedience and fidelity towards Him in all Temporal matters and because that by these words Our Loyalty and true Allegiance to Your Majesty neither His Majesty Himself nor other Protestant nor any indifferent and judicious Catholick ever yet understood nor indeed ought to understand any other Loyalty or Allegiance but that which is in meer Temporals Nor can it be said upon any rational ground that because the Remonstrants do here acknowledge That notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope c. or any sentence c. or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal c. it must follow That they either deny the true spiritual Authority of the Pope over any Christians or any part of the world or even his Temporal within his own temporal Territories or within those Territories I mean which are His uncontroverredly even also as to the temporal Government or that they are resolved or that they promise or declare that they will disobey or oppose any just sentence or declaration of his obliging themselves or any other Nothing less then either doth follow by any kind of consequence whereas indeed no more but that they are persuaded that the Pope hath neither any true Spiritual nor any true Temporal power from God or man to devest the King of his Temporals or to hinder them from being His loyal liege men in such Temporals and that if he pronounced any sentence or gave any command to the contrary though it were even by Excommunication such sentence and such command and even such Excommunication would be as to all effects and purposes null and void because against the Laws of God and man and nature and not proceeding from any true power he had from God or from the Church of God but only from a vain and false presumption of power or authority in the case and a clave errante from a Key errant or which is the same in effect at most and at best from such an abuse of his authority as invalidates and annulls his sentence in all respects whatsoever They do not therefore at all hereby or in this Clause as neither in any other not even as much as virtually or consequentially in any manner soever deny or oppose his true and pure spiritual power of judging or binding or that which truly and really is in him to judge and bind spiritually or in a spiritual manner both King and Subjects or to pronounce even Excommunication against either themselves or the King if or when there shall happen any just cause thereof But they only deny 1. That he hath no kind of Temporal power acquired either by divine or humane Right that reaches to the King or his Crown People or Dominions 2. That the spiritual power which he truly and really hath either from God immediately or from the Church and which the same Catholick Church acknowledges to be so in him or which the Subscribers admit to be in him can have no such effect by Excommunication or other sentence or means as is the bereaving the King of his Temporals or as is the hindering the Subjects to obey or making it lawful for them in point of Conscience and Religion not to perform to the uttermost of their Abilities their faithful Loyalty and true Allegiance to His Majesty And that this third Period or Clause or words or meaning of them import no more but this or that such Clause or Subscribers of it cannot be rationally said to deny or declare against any true power of the Pope or any true or just or legal or even as much as only valid sentence of his I shew evidently thus by two several examples of the like expression used in another matter For without denying or opposing the Popes true power or any true just or valid or binding sentence of his his Sons may declare that notwithstanding any power or pretension of the Pope or See of Rome or any sentence or declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessors or Successors or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal proceeding or derived from him or his See against their natural Father or his Fatherly Authority they will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of their Abilities their natural duty and filial obedience to their said Father And without denying or opposing the Kings true power or any true just or even any valid or binding sentence of his the very Subscribers themselves may declare as I for my part do here declare and I am sure all the rest are ready to declare that notwithstanding any power or pretension of the King or of His Crown or Kingdom or any sentence or declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by His Majesty His Predecessors or Successors or by any Authority Spiritual or Temporal proceeding or derived from Him or His Kingdoms against their spiritual Father the Pope or his true Papal Authority they will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of their Abilities their Canonical fidelity and all that true obedience they are bound unto by
other ARTICLES proposed to the Catholicks of England whereunto it was required they should subscribe their negative Answers whereby it might be understood they profess that there is nothing contained in these three Articles which doth necessarily belong to the Catholick Faith and Religion insomuch that they may and will abjure if it be thought needful the practice and execution of them all I. THat the Pope or Church hath power to absolve any person or persons from their obedience to the Civil and Political Government established or to be established in this Nation in Civil and Political Affairs II. That by the Command or Dispensation of the Pope or Church it if lawful to kill destroy or do any injury to any person or persons living within the Kings Dominions because that such a person or persons are accused condemned censured or excommunicated for Error Schism or Heresie III. That it is lawful in it self or by dispensation from the Pope to break promise or oath made to any of the aforesaid persons under pretence that they are Hereticks Fifty English Catholick Gentlemen have subscribed Negative answers to these three Articles upon certain conditions secretly agreed upon for the good and free exercise of the Catholick Religion they being assured by divers Priests both Seculars and Regulars under their Hand-writings that it was lawful for them so to do Which since a Congregation in Rome hath ordained and decreed was not nor is not lawful Whereupon a Priest writeth out of England to his friend a Doctor of Divinity of Paris and sends him a Copy of this Congregational Decree earnestly desiring him that he will let him freely know his sentiment and opinion in this business Which Doctors answer to the question here followeth Most dear Brother in Christ HAving seriously considered the three Articles you sent me with their little Preface which you say contains in brief the substance of what was intended both by the proposers and your selves I cannot refuse neither in charity nor friendship to give you my opinion concerning your Subscription thereunto Yet being unwilling you should relie upon my private and particular judgment in a matter of such moment I have consulted with several great and learned men of our Nation but especially some of the most ancient and learned Doctors of Divinity of our Faculty here whose constant sentiments are that not only in their Opinion your Act is lawful just and true but that it is also the general and universal belief of all the learned and judicious men of this Kingdom So that I see not upon what grounds you need fear or apprehend the Censures which the Decree of the Congregation in Rome pretends you have incurred Were your Kingdom or State setled and that your liberty depended only upon your giving assurance of your fidelity I should easily procure you such sovereign Antidotes against your timorous apprehensions and such publick Declarations of your duty in this kind as that none but either weakly scrupulous or busily factious would be any whit moved at the interessed proceedings of the Court of Rome Methinks you should not be ignorant how such Decrees of those Congregations are slighted and rejected in the Supreme Courts of this Kingdom by the most learned and most vertuous Secular Judges of the Christian world Even those who bear the most dutiful Respect to his Holiness as well Seculars as Regulars will openly profess That the Cabals and Interests of the Court of Rome are now so generally known that the Decrees of their Congregations are scarcely taken notice of out of the Popes Territories We had not many months ago such a Decree sent hither from Rome to the Pope's Nuncio against a late Book called Les grandeurs de L'eglise Romaine which because the Popes Nuncio would have published and dispersed throughout the Kingdom having obtained licence from the King to it The Kings Advocate General Mr. Talon a man worthy of his place made a learned Speech in open Parliament without any relation or interest to the Doctrine of the Book against the admittance of such Decrees wherein he remarked very well the different nature and quality of these Congregational Decrees which were never received nor acknowledged as legal and authentical in France from th Bulls of his Holiness as Head of the Church And this Speech was immediately confirmed an ratified by a judgment given by this renowned Senate and so the publication of the Decree was hindered and suppressed There was likewise in the year 1625. a seditious Book written by one Garasse a Jesuite but bearing no name entituled Admonitio ad Regem secretly dispersed up and down in this City which was condemned by a general Synod of the Clergy of this Kingdom then assembled in this Town wherein the indispensable duty and obedience of Catholick Subjects to an heretical and even to a persecuting King or State was particularly declared and avouched You may see the words themselves pag. 12. Quare id ipsum c. Given at Paris in the general Assembly of the Clergy the 13th of Decemb. 1625. Whereupon one Sanctarellus an Italian Jesuite was caused to write a Book in approbation of the Pope's temporal authority to depose Kings and Princes and to absolve their Subjects from their obedience which was presently censured by our Faculty of Divinity and the affirmative Doctrine of your first Article which is your chief difficulty and other such like Positions were improved and condemned as new false erroneous contrary to the Word of God c. Given in the Sorbon the 1st of April 1626. Hereupon four of the most famous Jesuites of France then residing Superiours in their Colledges here were sent to the Parliament and being demanded their Opinions in this point they confirmed and ratified this Censure under their hands professing farther That they did and would consent and adhere to what the Sorbon had or should declare in this or any other matter of Doctrine I could send you the particulars of these and many such like proceedings here being partly in Print partly upon publick Record but I conceive it needless at least for the present However the Court of Rome's pretensions to Secular and Temporal power over Kings and Commonwealths are now grown out of date nor was it ever authorized but by the execution of it The Origine of the Pope's authority in Temporal Affairs is well enough known The great piety and respect to the See of Rome of divers ancient Emperors Kings and Princes have made them receive their Crowns and Diadems from his Sacred hands and cast their Swords and Scepters at his Saintly feet Others have made use of the Pope's swaying power to settle themselves in their usurped Monarchies and Princedoms Not any versed in Ecclesiastical History but knows the particulars of these Truths But to come back to your Decree I perceive that the Authors of it looking only upon tht Negative answers to the bare Articles without the Preface or separated Instrument whereunto you Priests
such other excellent Casuists for the lawfulness of murthering or assassinating not only your declared known enemy or inveterate or even any way profess'd or not profess'd Adversary but also any other even your own Consort or Companion that either affronts you never so little or but reveals nay or but threatens to reveal hereafter nay also or but whom you only suspect or fear may reveal although only out of lightness or vanity and not out of any malice to you some or any one even true imperfection or fault or fact of yours which being known may either defame or lessen or hinder you or your Society Order or Colledge from that power authority dignity esteem or advantages and emoluments you or they aspire unto provided only that you conceive the death of such a person to be necessary or behoveful either for the recovery or preservation of your name fame or of that which is or is called your worldly honour credit or esteem or even but your utility or profit temporary and earthly Finally you shall see the said most Reverend Prelate proving effectually by his carriage towards those Remonstrants for three or four years past That notwithstanding his formal Ejection or Dismiss out of the Society and he knows for what and knows moreover that I am not ignorant nor have been since 1659. either of that very true cause or of the very great person that procured his said Ejection yet he hath continued still a pragmatical constant close Disciple in the worst of Maxims to those very worst of Moralists Equivocatists Probablists Academists Scepticks nay and Assassins too retaining so whatsoever evil could be learn'd of them but relinquishing all that was good or just the more Christian precepts and practices he might have seen in some others even Writers of that very Society which threw him out Whether it was therefore that when he was created Archbishop by the Pope some Three years since his then Father General Oliva did complement him so high in a Letter which I my self have read from Rome promising himself and his Society in Ireland c. I know not what even certainly all that was great and wonderful now that he the foresaid Prelate was made Archbishop of the Head City or Metropolis of that Kingdom I am sure it argued what otherwise I my self did and could not but observe 1. That notwithstanding his ejection by the Fathers of purpose that they might please or rather not too much and too openly displease him whose affairs and hopes he the very same Prelate or person though not then a Prelate endeavoured to betray and utterly ruine Anno 1659. and by whose application therefore to the General of the Order his ejection was urged home yet the same General and ruling Cabal of that Society understood him and he them very well all along both before and after his ejection or dismiss given to him And how therefore and notwithstanding it and continually after it he observed a no less intimate correspondence with them and promoted their interests no less wheresoever he might than he had before 2. That in a very special and particular manner he did so by undermining covertly in all occasions and opposing also publickly in some all he could the Subscription of the Remonstrance As if indeed by that Formulary or advance of it his whole Ignatian Order's Reputation in these Kingdoms lay at stake His Letter out of England ann 1666. to Father Barton the English Jesuit then in Ireland persuading him to hinder all he could the National Congregation from Subscribing the Remonstrance may testifie this abundantly Which Letter the said Barton shewed and read then to my self Or if he had seriously considered what was most certainly true how well nigh a whole Century of years albeit more especially since the Powder-plot Treason and Oath of Allegiance made by King James the Professors of that Society of the Ignatian Order have labour'd so mightily both by word deed and writing to impose on the World and above all other parts or people of it upon His MAJESTIES of Great Britains Roman-Catholick Subjects That the power or authority and the doctrine or positions renounc'd disclaimed and abjured by the Oath of Allegiance made by King James and consequently as Internuncio de Vecchiis sayes those also protested against by that our late Remonstrance are positive and affirmative points of the Christian Religion And that all sincere Catholicks ought rather to suffer not only loss of goods and liberty but of life also even death it self than take any Oath declaring against such matters And moreover That such a death questionless should would and ought to be reputed Christian Martyrdom in a proper and strict sense of these words and consequently also reputed that very Baptism of blood which of its own nature without any Sacrament not only washes away clean all kind of sins both as to guilt and even temporary punishment but further purchaseth that extraordinary even accidental glorious Garland in Heaven which the Divines call Aureola Martyrii 3. That his foresaid promotion whether Legal or Illegal or whether as much as Canonical or Uncanonical nay whether absolutely void invalid or null by the Canons of the Universal Church I question not here was upon such and the like consequential accounts further'd in an high measure by the above General Oliva and other Jesuits of the Cabal as a matter conducing mightily to their interest the principles and genius of the man and consequently that he was the fittest instrument they could pitch upon being considered And certainly whoever knows that Societies power in the Court of Rome and how ignominious a punishment note and blot Ejection out of any Religious Order is or is esteem'd to be when it is after so many years profession and continuance in such Order and is moreover pretended to be for criminal causes and withall how when there is no intrigue in the matter there must also by consequence be or certainly and commonly is rather some extraordinary hatred or at least a very great strangeness and distance 'twixt the Ejectors and Ejected than any kindness and besides without peradventure how easie it is for the General or even Procurator of any Order at Rome to obstruct the like promotion of any that hath ever at any time before professed their Institute and after deserted it whereas if the Canons of the Church or even those of the Tridentin Council nay or the very Papal constitutions and ordinary practice of scrutiny at Rome it self de vita moribus and other qualities of such Episcopal candidates be observed or not rather wilfully and extraordinarily omitted a very small Objection made by men of Authority will serve to that end but much more questionless the infamous note of having been ejected for criminal matters who ever I say considers all this will certainly out of the above Letter of Oliva infer That the foresaid late promotion was on those very same or like consequential
verbo complectar suppliciter significo Paternitati Vestrae Reverendissimae nolle Magistratum nostrum ullum admittere in Commissarium aut etiam Provincia Vicarium aut Ministrum Provincialem nisi talem qui fuerit Regi nostro ejusque Ministris gratus Ad satisfactionem alterius Partis nos hic congregati nominavimus duodecem personas ex solis Anglo-Hibernis supponentes quod unus vel alius esset positive gratus quo non obstante tandem resolutum est cum non sciremus quis foret positive gratus Gubernio neminem nominare Sed totum relinquere Prasentationi Curiae ne vel in minimo videamur velle Magistratum offendere Quare obnixe in Domino flexis genibus rogo Paternitatem vestram Reverendissimam quatenus quamprimum de tali ex Curia constiterit quod ipsum instituat in Commissarium seu Vicarium Provinciae ut Magistratui satisfiat tandem his litigiis finis imponatur videamusque semel Pacem in diebus nostris quod si aliquid interea superveniet a Reverendissimo Patre nostro Ministro Generali rogo quantocius securius mitti quia tunc etiam non parum temporis elabetur donec resciatur ex Curia an fuerit gratus qui mittendus est Quae omnia omni cum submissione offert rogat praesentat Paternitati vestrae Reverendissimae Reverendissime Pater Paternitatis vestrae Reverendissimae Servus Filius indignus Fr Antonius Docharty As for the Protestation or new Formulary of their own sent to me by that Diffinitory as you find it mention'd in their Letter to me you have it here following To the Kings most Excellent Majesty CHARLES II. The most humble Remonstrance Acknowledgment and Recognition of the Provincial Fathers of the Province Diffinitors and the rest of the Religious of the Order of St. Francis in Ireland WE do freely confess and declare in our Consciences 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 respectively and as the Laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands And that we will still acknowledge and perform to the uttermost of our Abilities our faithful Loyalty and true Allegiance to Your Majesty and That notwithstanding any power on earth pretended to the contrary be it spiritual or temporal or any sentence or declaration of what kind or quality soever given or pretended to be given or which hereafter shall be given or pretended to be given by any such power or by any authority spiritual or temporal proceeding or derived from any such pretended power against Your Majesties Rights or Royal Authority And we openly disavow and disclaim all Forreign power either spiritual or temporal inasmuch as it would 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 and Rights 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 unto our hearing but also to expose our Lives in the defence of Your Majesties Person Rights and Royal Authority as occasion will require 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 Christian Princes and Supreme Governours of what Religion soever they be are Gods Lieutenants on earth in their own Dominions and that obedience is due to them according to the Laws of each Commonwealth respectively in all civil and temporal Affairs And therefore we do here protest against all Doctrine and Authority to the contrary And we do hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain that any private Subject may kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince though of a different Belief and Religion from his And we do abhor and detest the practice thereof as damnable and wicked Fr Antony Docharty Minister Provincial Ex parte Diffinitorii Fr James Cay Diffinitor Secretary of the Diffinitory O The place of the Seal In such very Form sealed with the great Seal of their Province and attested so as you see by the proper hand of their President and of their Secretary too in the name of the rest of that Diffinitory they sent me two original Duplicats of their said Protestation as of their own proper Remonstrance Acknowledgment and Recognition c. but without any either Preamble antecedent or Petition subsequent or other Complement or Address annexed besides those Letters to my self Another Paper also signed by them all was sent unto me by Father Gearnon from that meeting as all the other both Letters and Papers were by the Pacquet and Post For the truth is neither to him nor to any other of the more intelligent persons that were for the Remonstrance did any of all these either Letters or other Papers seem worthy of his toyle to come in person with them or even scarce to send them by the very Post However he did carefully send all those you have already seen and besides them this other protesting briefly in the word of Priests That none of them had by himself or other written any such matter as was contained in the Petition exhibited at Rome to the Cardinal Protector in the name or behalf of the Province of Ireland against Father Walsh Caron and rest of the Remonstrants Such was the effect in short of this other Paper as you shall see in their own words For having drawn a Copy of the said Petition upon one side of a Leaf and it as a true Copy authenticated by their Custos Custodum James Fitz-Simons their Provincial with his own hand on the other side of that same Leaf written in Latin as above and both himself and all the rest of the Diffinitory sign'd it as here now word by word Ego in verbo Sacerdotis protestor me nihil ex retroscriptis scripsisse aut scribi fecisse ad Eminentissimum D. Cardinalem Fr Antonius Docharty Minister Provincialis Idem ego testor Fr Petrus Gennor Diffinitor Fr Paulus Feranan Diffinitor idem testor Fr Antonius de Burgo Diffinitor idem testor Idem quod supra in verbo Sacerdotis protestor Fr Jacobus Caius Diffinitor Diffinitorii Secretarius But who sees not the equivocation or rather reservation and the cheat and insignificancy of this Paper 1. Because neither Thomas Makiernan nor Bonaventure O Mellaghlin two of the chief Anti-Remonstrant Fathers of the Diffinitory did sign it 2.
submission under their own hands writing and a new Provincial and Diffinitory chosen all of them Nuntiotists and all the Guardians likewise either titular or real made of that Party and in the last place Fifteen severe and publick Statutes voted and established for perpetual Laws against all the Anti-Nuntiotists the said Commissary Visitator confirm'd all and so discharged his duty to Rome which had him for those ends and no other Commission'd 4. That after the defeat of the foresaid Bishop of Clogher and the excommunication too of the rest of the Bishops and of their other assistants of the Clergy both Secular and Regular against all who should thenceforth obey or acknowledge the King's Lieutenant came to be generally known and the Lord Lieutenant had thereupon thought fit to withdraw out of the Kingdom and nevertheless and at the importunity of the more loyal part of the Nobility and Gentry having thought also fit to leave the Kings Authority in the hands of the truly loyal Marquess of Clanrickard a Roman Catholick yet even under this very Catholick Deputy the Nuntiotists not regarding neither him no more indeed then they did the Protestant Marquess of Ormond nor the common Enemy studied nothing more than how in the few places how in the very Mountains Boggs and Woods which only at last through their own disobedience and division were left them and that too but a little longer free if yet free from the Parliament Forces to persecute those other Clergymen who as well in their latter as former excommunication opposed them still but chiefly to persecute their more leading or more resolute men and above all others Father Peter Walsh who records this now to Posterity And that him the said Father Walsh they persecuted so maliciously inveterately continually and in many respects inhumanely â—oo throughout all Provinces Counties Places whither at any time he withdrew or wherever he sheltred himself from the common Enemy the Parliament Forces that at last in the year 1651. and then in a Provincial Synod held in the woods of Clanmalira in the Province of Leinster where he then was by chance they not only solemnly and by name denounc'd him excommunicated but interdicted even also the victualling Folks that should for as much as his money dare to suffer him enter into their houses or sell him meat or drink nay further that some of that very meeting though not by a publick Act encourag'd the looser Souldiery to kill him telling them it was lawful so to do being he was excommunicated as disobedient to and an Enemy of the Church What he suffered lately before at Kilkenny Limmerick Killaloe Galway Inishbofin c what hazards he run often in the very High-wayes Travelling were too long and not proper here to be related It sufficeth to let the Reader guess hence how it was about this time everywhere throughout Ireland with the generality of such loyal Ecclesiasticks as with him stood out so many furious shocks and weather'd so great and long and continual storms after the Royal Government began to decline in August 1649. but much more after the Lord Lieutenant had by Jamestown Excommunication been forc'd away for France about the end of the year 1650. And yet I must confess they were much weakned too before then by the loss of such numbers of them and of the holiest of them as were kill'd at Wexford * Richard Synot Paul Synot Francis Stafford Hamond Stafford John Esmond Peter Stafford c. all of them esteemed the most religious exemplar and indeed holy men of their Order in Ireland or at least equal to any whatsoever The first of them was often Guardian of several Convents amongs which was that of St. Isidore at Rome and Custos of the Province The second was even Legat from the Pope in Baâ—bary for many years Third Guardian of Wexford sometime and Secretary of the Province Fourth also Guardian of the same place and after an Hermit in an Island till he was commanded out of it by Father Caron Fifth likewise Guardian of the same Convent in his turn and of special gift in exercising Sixth like St. Bartholomew had by continual kneeling in Prayer the skin of his knees as hard as a Camels by the Parliament Forces when the Town was taken by storm and some also at Droghedagh and others elsewhere albeit the adverse Ecclesiasticks or Nuncio party cryed down those true and holy Martyrs for truly cursed and excommunicated persons and refused to pray for them as having condignly suffer'd death because forsooth obnoxious to the Nuncio's Excommunication they lived and dyed out of the Church And I must confess also that some others of their best ablest and holiest Fathers too at Waterford during the Siege thereof at Dublin in Prison and elsewhere in several parts of the Kingdom dyed of the great Plague which begun in the year 1649 and continued above Three years running over all parts and corners of the Island except onely the North. As for the Nuncio's unheard of proceedings against Valentine Brown and George Dillon at Galway such qualified persons the one Reader Jubilate of Divinity and Father of the Province as who had not only often been Guardian and Commissary thereof but also Minister Provincial above Twenty years before the other a Noble-man's son and then actual Guardian of the Town as he had formerly been Diffinitor and several times Guardian of some other Convents and both of them most virtuous and exemplar men how the Nuncio himself in person jointly with their own Provincial Thomas Makiernan suspended and both removed and reduced them to the communion of Laicks publickly before the People and this only for refusing to approve of his former Excommunication fulminated against the adherers to the Cessation of Arms concluded with the Baron of Inchiquin in May 1648 I say that as for this albeit so unjust so unheard of so uncanonical procedure wherein moreover the Nuncio himself denied them even a Copy of their sentence I will say nothing here because notwithstanding it and many other such of the said Provincial Makiernan against some others then and for some months before and after in such parts of the Kingdom where he and his Faction were rampant the opposers of the Censures adherers to the Cessation and Appeal and consequently also the said Valentine and George within some few months more got clearly the better every way of all their Adversaries albeit these advantages were lost again by such degrees and means as I have said before And for the same Reason I will not mention here Neither 1. The Provincial Chapter of the Franciscan Order at Rosserial in the year 1647. where at the Nuncio's beck and by his and the Vlster parties contrivement both Provincial Diffinitors Custos and all the Guardians generally throughout the whole Kingdom only a very few of these last excepted were chosen out of that sole Faction which had devoted it self to the said Nuncio and Owen O Neill for obstructing
amongst their miserable Relations or were actual Prisoners to the Parliament or peradventure expected at least some of them a better opportunity to go if they could not stay That if I say for so long time at home after Rathmines Fate matters went so ill with all those were against the Nuncio and his censures and Owen O Neil and were for the Cessation Appeal Peace Ormond and consequently for the King much more ill must all things have gone after and accordingly did go with them abroad in all Forraign Countries of the Roman Communion and in all places and amongst all people wheresoever the Roman Court had any jurisdiction power authority or influence Their fellow exiles of the Nuncio party however Countrey-men and many of them also neighbours and kinsfolks having their hearts hardned against any commiseration and their understandings not at all as it would seem enlightned by so many and such prodigious calamities so lately befallen their common Countrey and themselves proved even in those Forraign Parts as cruel foes to them as when at home or rather yet far more cruel even in very deed as cruel as Tygers In Spain Portugal France Flanders Germany Italy nay as far as Hungary wheresoever any of the Appellants those peaceable but unfortunate Irishmen were retired to live and die in Peace if they could the Nuntiotist's who were in far greater numbers every where dispersed and well entertained yea and of far more credit also as having the speciousness of a Papal Nuntio's cause against Hereticks and recommendations of Rome and consequently of all other both Forraign Bishops and General Superiours of Orders to gain them credit informing the Natives and possessing them with sundry abominable wicked lies not only to hinder those more then afflicted men from any kind of harbour entertainment relief or even Almes given to the miserablest of beggars but also to perswade all the said Natives even to persecute them as Ormonians enemes of their own Countrey Antinuntiotists Antipapists Anticatholicks excommunicat persons favourers of Hereticks and in plain terms at last both Schismaticks and Hereticks too themselves The great plotters furtherers encouragers actors of all such evil and inhuman designs against them next after some of the Nuntiotist exiled Bishops and Paul King at Rome and Dionisius Masarius Dean of Firmo but at that time Secretary also at Rome to the Congregation of Cardinals de propaganda Fide as he had formerly been the chief man with his Lord the Nuncio in Ireland were in general the three Irish Franciscan Cloysters and Colledges the first in Louain second at Prague in Bohemia third in Rome and the Dominican Irish Colledge at Louain too and besides these all other the several Seminaries of the Irish Secular Priests and Students in Flanders France Spain and Portugal In all which as the exiled Nuntiotists had good reception so the other side had none at all both the natural inclination and worldly interests of such persons as even all along the time of the War in Ireland and much more after possessed these Colledges and Seminaries rendring the very name of Antinuntiotists odious to them Besides that the Divinity Principles commonly taught in their Schools entituled the Pope to the temporals of all the World and not only to Ireland or England c. though more especially to these and such other Countries whose Kings or chief Governours fell off from acknowledging the Holy See and consequently that the very intellect of such possessors of those Houses at least generally taking them was wholly prepossest against that name rendred so odious To descend to particular instances of those Antinuntiotists that found by sad experience in their own persons how cruel their foresaid opposite brethren were abroad and made others also be were it my design here I could manifoldly For to pass over now so may young Fathers and Students Nicholas Archbold Christopher Plunket Thomas Shortal John Shortal c. at Louain and so many others elsewhere albeit the ornament of their Colledges yet about the Year 1650 turned out of the Colledges only because they had either a little before studied under Father Walsh at Kilkenny or for some other cause or jealousie had been but suspected to be Ormonians I could name but too too many even of the more ancient known and esteemed honest men against whom being exiled to Forraign Parts the greatest malice of the Nuntiotists displayed it self though in several places and Countries openly professedly and only on account of their having approved by signature under their hands my Book of Queries Printed at Kilkenny in 1648. though only a Book against the Nuncio's censures and for the Appeal of the Supreme Council to Pope Innocent the Tenth and amongst them particularly Father John Barnwal of St. Francis's Order Reader of Divinity denyed even so little as one nights lodging in the Count of Louain and Father _____ Brown the Carmelit sufficiently vexed by those of his own Order Laurence Archbold lately before Vicar General of the Archbishoprick of Dublin and Doctor _____ Taylor two secular Priests so much malign'd in France of purpose to hinder them even from any kind of livelihood or charity of strangers and Father Laurence Tankard shut up in the Prison of Ara caeli at Rome I could also name Redmund Caron Reader of Divinity the late Commissary of his Order in Ireland Anthony Gearnon Matthias Barnwal Anthony Conmeus Reader of Divinity Morice Fitz Gerrald Francis Dillon all of them qualified and good men of the Franciscan Order all of them living religiously in their several Convents in the Low-countries except only Francis Dillon who continued still in France and Anthony Gearnon that was at all adventures return'd to his mission in Ireland by permission of his General Superiour and I could tell how all these were used in the Year 1653. that is how by a notoriously and manifoldly both false and wicked information sent expresly and purposely from Rome by two furios Zealots the one an Irishman the other an Italian against them to the Spanish General of the Franciscans Fray Pedro Manero at Madrid in Spain they were all immediately thereupon by a special Letter even from his Catholick Majesty himself to the Archduke Leopoldo at Brussels ordered to be Banished presently and perpetually out of all and every of the Dominions of the Spanish Monarchy the true and only cause indeed though not represented to his Catholick Majesty nor perhaps to Manero being that they also either maintain'd or were known to be for the Doctrine and cause which that Book asserted Nor doth it lessen the malice of their Adversaries that the information being found in all particulars very false that sentence was suspended I could moreover and without any question name the Author of that Book i. e. my self as who partly on that very occasion I mean of that Letter for Banishing sent to Leopoldo signified to me being returned from Ireland to London by Father Caron from Flanders and partly to justifie
me go presently tell the Bishop all and that he must be sent for that very Evening but without any design or intention to harm him and therefore should not be frighted if he should see Sir William Flour Lieutenant Collonel of the Regiment of Guards come in a Coach to call for him at his Brothers Sir Nicholas Plunket's house When I had accordingly out of hand visited the Bishop delivered my message and told him the confession of Ferral under his own hand the good Prelat seem'd to be in a strange perplex'd and fearful confusion But desiring my advice and I telling him there was no way like truth and that dealing candidly there would be no further jealousie of or reflection upon him he goes into a corner of his Chamber brings thence all the Letters shews them me and withal prays me not to let others know that he delivered them understand after he had done so indeed to the Lord Lieutenant I was scarce parted when Sir William Flour came in the dusk of the Evening called for the Bishop and desiring his company in the Coach led him without notice taken by any to the Kings Castle and Lord Lieutenant there to whose Excellencies own hands the Bishop delivered immediatly all the said original Letters with their own proper Endorsements and Seals both of the Internuncio and Cardinal Behold Reader how or by what means I came to have in my custody now those very originals whereof you shall see presently the true copies For as soon as my Lord Lieutenant and Council had perused and seriously considered of them His Grace was pleased to commit them to my custody but withal telling me that they were the only first arguments which perswaded the Earl of Anglesey and some other Lords of the Council I was no cheat nor the controversie twixt the Remonstrants and Antiremonstrants a deceipt or trick but a real difference twixt the Loyally and Disloyally principled or affected Irish That Anglesey with many others until themselves had seized and examined Ferral and seen those Letters with the proper Hands and Seals to them delivered so by Ardagh had been of opinion that Peter Walsh pretended a difference where there was none but rather indeed all of both sides agreed to deceive the Protestants and he to be the chief Actor therein And that now even the Earl of Anglesey himself in particular was so convinced of the contrary that he declared he would himself be thenceforth for repealing all the penal Laws in order to those downright honest Remonstrants and all others who should thenceforward freely and heartily joyn with them by subscribing that very Instrument and like them standing to it constantly against all the censures and other Decrees Plots and Procedures of Rome Now to the tenour of these Letters I give it first according to the original in that Language wherein they were written i. e. in Latin next rendred in English Cardinal Francis Barberins Letter from Rome April 24. 1666. to the Clergy and Catholicks of Ireland superscribed thus Praestantissimis Viris Clero Catholicis Regni Hiberniae Praestantissimi Viri QUadrienium jam pene fluxit ex quo Sanctissimus Dominus noster pro sua erga Vos dilectione meis literis vos admonuit saluti velâ—rae imminere periculum a falsis fratribus Cumque maxime averet audire laqueum contritum esse vos liberatos nuntius tristis affertuâ— conventum inter vos esse tertio Idibus Junii Coetum Dublinii cogi ad deliberandum de subscribendo illi protestationi quae fidelitatis titulum praeferens fidei Catholicae astruit adversantia Jussit ergo Sanctitas sua vos per me serio commonefieri ne fidelitatem civilem cum obedientia sedi Apostolicae debita confundatis neve in vestrum induci animum patiamini Regi parere non posse illum qui Romano Pontifici morem gerit cum immo nihil ad Regum Auctoritatem firmandam magis conferat quam in subditis fidele erga Pontificiam Auctoritatem obsequium Et sane quae Lex Monarchico Regimini adeo favet quam Catholica Quae justam Regibus subjectionem praecipit adeo arcte quam illa quae obedire Praepositis suis aperte jubet In hac igitur constantes estote nec vestri animi robur tentet aut labefactet jactatus timor nec fallant decipulae hostis humani generis cui utpote quae sunt multiplices nocendi artes illa non defuit fidelitatis obtestationem blandioribus verbis attemperandi quae tamen apta nullatenus sunt ad perniciem avertendam Illis vero qui verecundiae limites transgressi post tot irritos conatus extremum tandem successum hunc designati Conuentus habuisse fortasse gloriantur Sanctitas sua divinam interminatur ultionem nisi se a pravis cogitationibus avocantes ab hujusmodi tentamentis abstineant Vos interim totius Congregationis vestris negotiis praepositae nomine hortor vestrae ut fortitudinis fidei existimatio vestraque salus vobis potissimum cordi sit gratam ut vicem Romanae Ecclesiae quae in Christo vos genuit rependatis Reliquum est ut pro certo omnes habeatis Vos unice diligi a Sanctissimo Domino Nostro qui ab infelicibus vepretis saltibus ad Domini pascua vos traduci a Deo optimo Maximo incensis officio charitate precibus exposcit Romae Aprilis 24. 1666. Vester Amantissimus in Domino Franciscus Cardinalis Barberinus Rendred into English the Superscription thus To the most Excellent men the Clergy and Catholicks of the Kingdom of Ireland And inner Tenour thus Most excellent Men FOur years now are almost past since our most Holy Lord out of his love to you hath by my Letters admonished you of dangers to your Salvation which are impending from fals Brethren And when he mightily desired to hear news of the snare broken and you delivered behold the sad tidings come of your having agreed amongst your selves that a Congregation shall be held at Dublin on the third of the Ides of June for deliberating on the point of subscribing that Protestation which making shew of the Title of fidelity asserts things contrary to the Catholick Faith Wherefore his Holiness hath commanded that by me you be seriously admonished not to confound civil fidelity with the obedience due to the See Apostolick nor suffer it to enter into your Souls that he cannot be truly obedient to the King who doth this duty to the Roman Pontiff whereas indeed nothing can more conduce to establish the Authority of Kings than in their Subjects a faithful obsequiousness to the Pontiffical Authority And indeed what Law doth so favour the Monarchical Government as the Catholick What doth so strictly command subjection as that which openly enjoyns all to obey their Superiours Be therefore constant in this Law nor let the traps of the enemy of human kind deceive you to which enemy as to whom the manifold Arts of harming are present that
the said Burk and Forgery The Reasons why we the Roman-Catholick Clergy signed not the other three French Propositions The Propositions not inserted 4 That the same Faculty doth not approve nor ever did any propositions contrary unto the French Kings Authority or true Liberties of the Gallican Church or Canons received in the same Kingdom For example That the Pope can depose Bishops against the same Canons 5 That it is not the Doctrine of the Faculty That the Pope is above the general Councel 6 That it is not the Doctrine or Dogme of the Faculty That the Pope without the consent of the Church is Infallible 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 seperately or jointly with the three first Propositions we had already subscribed And as to the Fourth we looked upon it as not material in our Debate for either we should sign it as it was conceived in the French Original Coppy and we thought it impertinent to talk of the French Kings Authority the Gallican Priviledges and Canons from whence they derive their Immunities c. or that we should have inserted them mutatis nominibus the names being only changed and then we conceived not what more we might have said then had been touched already positively in the Remonstrance neither do we admit any Power derogatory unto his Majesties Authority Rights c. yea more positively then doth the French Proposition as may appear As to the 5th we thought it likewise not material to our affair to talke of a School Question of Divinity controverted in all Catholick Vniversities of the World whether the Pope be above general Councel or no Whether he can annul the Acts of a general Councel or no Dissolve the general Councel or whether Contrariwise the Councel can depose the Pope c Secondly we conceive it not only impertinent but dangerous in its consequence and unseasonable to talk of a question which without any profit either to the King or his Subjects may breed Jealousie between the King and his Subjects or may give the least overture to such odious and horrid disputes concerning the Power of Kings and Commonwealths as our late sad experience hath taught us The 6th regards the Popes Infallibillity in matters of Faith Whether the Pope not as a private Doctor but with an especial Congregation of Doctors Prelats and Divines deputed can censure and condemn certain Propositions of Heresie or whether it be necessary to have a General Councel from all parts of the World to decide define censure and condemn certain Propositions of Heresie The Jansenists already condemned of Heresie by Three Popes and all the Bishops of France to vindicate themselves from the Censure contest the first way They write in their own defence and many more against them On which Subject is debated the Questio Facti whether the Propositions condemned as Heresie by the Pope be in the true sense and meaning of the Jansenists or no whether in his Book or no as may appear by such as we can produce if Necessary The Universities of France say That it is not their Doctrine that the Pope c. Whether this touched our Scope or no we leave it to all prudent men to judge If they think it doth let them know that we should not hould the Popes Infallibillity if he did define any thing against the Obedience we owe our Prince If they speak of any other Infallibillity as matter of Religion and Faith as it regardeth us not nor our Obedience unto our Soveraign so we are loath Forraign Catholick Nations should think we treat of so odious and unprofitable a Question in a Country where we have neither Universitie nor Jansenist amongst us if not perhaps some few Particulars whom we conceive under our Hand to further this dispute to the disturbance of both King and Countrey XVII ON the 21 of June and 11th of the Congregation the Fathers being all seated and the Procurator also who had the night before from His Grace what answer He gave those Deputies upon receipt of their said Petition and other annexed paper being present John Burk and Cornelius Fogorty rendred such an account of their success as did seem both presently and mightily to startle at least the major part of the Congregation amongst whom the Archbishop of Ardmagh neither was nor seem'd to be the least concern'd if not more then any For as soon as those rarely gifted men Burk and Fogorty had related openly their manner of access to His Grace and not only his appearing extreamly dissatisfied with their address but his very short and positive Answer That the Fathers might Dissolve and depart immediately whether they pleased being they did no good by their meeting nor intended any the said Primat of Ardmagh stood up and fell so fouly on this Burk who as being older in years and dignified in Office before the other was he that gave this account that he spared not to tell him There could not have been any better success expected from his negotiation who being so unfit for any such matter had nevertheles so importunately thrust himself on And then converting himself to the Procurator entreated him in the name of all the Fathers that he would go to His Grace and obtain for them three days more to continue their Congregation and consider a little better how not to depart with His Grace's displeasure but rather to satisfie Him if possibly they could even by signing those very three last controverted and consequently all the Six Declarations of Sorbon applyed as they should be mutatis mutandis Wherein the whole House seeming to concur with the Primat the Procurator could do no less then promise them he would use his best endeavours and so departs for the Castle leaving them in much perplexity but withal desiring them to continue sitting till he returned They did so and he by good fortune not only found His Grace at leasure but prevailed with him for the Fathers and returned to them presently with that permission they desired They gave thanks He moves That immediately a Select Committee should be appointed to consider of both the pertinency and necessity especially as the case stood for assuring their Allegiance to the King To Sign even the Three last of those Six Sorbon Declarations The Bishop of Ardagh to hinder any further progress or signature vehemently cries out Rather presently to the vote of the whole House whether we shall in any wise or upon any condition subscribe or no those Three last But the Procurator albeit contrary to his former custome continuing still in the House and consequently of one side both by his reasons and pretence opening the mouthes of some and silencing others prevailing so at last That the greater voice cryed first for a Vote upon his motion for the Committee and than again for stroaking on
Ludovicus Pius both very Christian Catholick Emperours deserve to be particularly remembred being they made so many good Laws for the Government of meer Ecclesiastical or Church affairs and persons as may be read in their own Capitularies though not in any of those Books which make up that now commonly called Corpus Juris Civilis That for what concerns the Testimony of others i. e. of those we justly call our Holy Fathers as whom in the next degree after the Apostles we look upon as our best Masters of Christianity St. Augustin alone may at present serve for them all the rather that no man in his right senses did ever honestly or conscienciously dispute this matter Let the Disciples of Bellarmine and admirers of Baronius think what they please In hoc Reges Deo servire in quantum Reges sunt si in suo Regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verumetiam quae ad divinam Religionem is the sentence of this great Doctor in several places of his Works (f) Aug contra Crosse Gram l. 3. cap. 51. Ep. 50. super Psal 2. That reason alone might perswade the truth thereof being reason alone without other help teaches all both Kings and Subjects there is a God whom all must worship and glorifie and reason alone shews that when they i. e. both Kings and People are once perswaded though but by Revelation only of the true way to worship God and Kings do moreover know themselves to be the Vice-gerents of God with the power of the Sword in order to the Government of the People entrusted to their charge and the People also believe the same of them it must consequently and even from the nature of Royal Authority follow That of one side Kings are empowred to command the People to worship glorifie and praise God for his mercy render him thanks for his bounty beg assistance in dangers his deliverance from the power of enemies c and therefore also to set apart some days and observe religiously those days already set apart for such holy duties as Preaching and Praying and Fasting and invokeing God even in publick Assemblies at Church humbling themselves before him relieving the poor and doing all other works of mercy corporal and spiritual and of the other side the people are bound to obey their Kings and other Supream Civil Governours in such commands how spiritual soever the matter or things enjoyned be Nay That reason alone yea without any help or illustration either of the more ancient holy Fathers or later Expositors must teach us That if all Subjects are by the general and positive Law of God in St. Paul 13 Rom. commanded under pain of Damnation or Hell to be subject to the Supream Civil Powers without any distinguishing note of the matter enjoyn'd unless that note which makes clearly for the matter of good works to be commanded by such Rulers it must necessarily follow That since according to the Confession of every side all Subjects are obliged by that very Law in St. Paul 13 Rom. to obey their Kings in all Commands at least which are not contrary to the Laws of the Land and which concern temporary or worldly things alone much more must they be obliged to obey them in all those other more excellent and holy commands which relate either immediately and principally or mediately and consequently to their eternal happiness in another life and therefore to the most excellent of Spiritual matters For all the Laws and Precepts of God either those delivered immediately by Christ or by the mouthes and pens of his Apostles regard if not only at least principally first as the due means a Spiritual life of Grace in this World and next as the final end of such means a Spiritual life of Glory in the other Lastly That such Authority in Kings of commanding Spirituals being not derived from the Keys of the Church given to Peter and rest of the Apostles but flowing naturally originally and necessarily too from the Supream Royal or Civil Power of Kings can be no more lost or forfeited by Heresie or other Infidelity nay nor by any kind of sin or misdemeanour whatsoever than their authority for commanding in meer Temporals especially being it is manifest enough That the Authority of commanding such Spiritual duties and Religious worship of God is often too too necessary in Kings for attaining even the very true politick Temporal or earthly and natural ends of a Common-wealth securing the Temporal Peace or happiness of the People and obtaining it of God from whom alone all both Spiritual and Temporal both Supernatural and Natural blessings come So much did the Procurator let the Fathers of the Congregation know i. e. to such purpose did he speak to them on the Subject of the first of those three heads before mentioned And they did seem in truth to have been fully perswaded by his discourse For they all assented and consented That all both Feasts and Fasts all days either of Humiliation or Thanksgiving commanded by the King should be accordingly observed in their way both by themselves and rest of the Roman-Catholick Clergy and people of Ireland XXI ON the second of those Three Heads or that concerning Father James O Fienachtuy the famed wonder-working Priest he spoke in the next place giving a large and very particular account of all he had either heard from others or by his own experience known of that good Father i. e. an account of those arguments which of one side cryed him up for a Wonderful curer of all Diseases and of the other discovered him at last to have never had any such gift of healing or at least to have lost it lately if ever at any time or in any instance formerly he had it But forasmuch as the Reader may be desirous to know more particularly such matters relating to the said Fathers James O Fienachtuy who made for some years so great a noise both in Ireland and England not only amongst Roman-Catholicks but even Protestants I think it worth my labour to give here to my best remembrance the very speech or at least substance of it containing that account given so by the Procurator i. e. my self to this National Congregation as followeth viz Account of the famed Wonder-working Priest c. MY Lords and Fathers it is no disaffection to nor prejudice against the person of Father Fienachtuy but the general concern of all our Church in the truth or falshood of Miracles reported these many years to have been wrought by him puts me now in the second place upon a large discourse and very particular account of him especially as to some later passages which cannot be known to you otherwise then from me or my relation to others The first place and time I heard of this Miraculous Priest was at London in the year 1657 or thereabouts under the late Usurping Power of Cromwel Then and there I
this present Work immediately after the Fourth Treatise See there pag. 80. For albeit this Part or Treatise and Section of the Book where I am at present were the more proper place to give the said Propositions of Allegiance yet forasmuch as they are already Printed where I now told I having thought fit for some Reasons to give them in that place when some five or six years since I Printed the three next following Treatises viz. the Second Third and Fourth before this present First which I am now ending and that to Reprint them here again were needless and but increase of Charge in the Printing-house therefore I direct the Reader to the said Treatise 4. pag. 80. where he may see those Propositions and under this Title The Fourteen Propositions of F. P. W. or the doctrine of Allegiance which the Roman-Catholick Clergy of Ireland may with a safe Conscience and at this time ought in prudence to subscribe unanimously and freely as that only which can secure His Majesty of them as much as hand or subscription can and that only too which may answer the grand objection of the inconsistency of Catholick Religion and by consequence of the toleration of it with the safety of a Protestant Prince or State 7. That in this Title may be seen what end I had both in writing those Propositions and having them so debated even the same end which the controverted Remonstrance it self and all my Books written and Persecutions too suffered in defence thereof had hitherto and shall have hereafter 8. That in the same Title I attributed these Propositions to F. P. W. viz. to my self not so much because they were wholly my own draught and had not a word either added to or detracted from them by the said Divines save only in one or two places at most where to satisfie some of the Fathers I mollified the expression of my own Copy in a word or two or rather indeed left out and wholly blotted those words but chiefly because the Franciscan Provincial Chapter having come on and sate before the Divines had run over and throughly debated any of the three last Propositions or Paragraphs and the same Divines being consequently forc'd to adjourn for that time and such new distractions too having hapned in that Provincial Chapter as occasioned the departure of several of those very Divines who debated the former eleven Propositions there was no further meeting held either about the examination of the other remaining three last or subscription of any of all the Fourteen by these Divines as was at first intended Which want of subscription by them to those even eleven Propositions albeit otherwise throughly debated and approved by them all unanimously in the very terms even to a syllable wherein I give them printed Treat 4. pag. 80. 81 and 82. and want also of through examination by them i. e. by the said Divines of any of the three last although otherwise read publickly by them and not at all excepted against in that reading by any of their Colledge made me not to venture on publishing the said even so much as the first eleven Propositions in their name but only in my own all the Fourteen until they were or happen'd I mean to be hereafter actually subscribed by others Because if I had done otherwise I was not sure but some would peradventure say I had no authority for doing so being I had no actual subscription yet and consequently was not sure but such Title involving others and consequently the Propositions themselves would be disown'd at least by some of them But I was certain of my self to own both my own Title and whole Work even every individual of the Fourteen Propositions to the least word and syllable 9. That for my change of stile in the Thirteenth Paragraph or Complex Proposition which contains the three last of the six Sorbon Declarations made by that Faculty in the year 1663. or change thereof I mean from assertory of the outward object to promissory or rather only declaratory of an inward unalterable resolution of mind whereas in the eleven former it is assertory but in the said thirteenth only promissory i. e. or declaratory as now said containing only a promise or rather declaring our unalterable resolution never to approve or practise according to any Doctrine or Positions which in particular or general assert the contrary of any one even of the very three last of those six late Sorbon Declarations made against the extravagant and uncanonical pretences of the Pope the reason inducing me to this kind of change and to an abstaining also therein from any kind of Censure against those contrary Doctrines or Positions how otherwise false and wicked soever in themselves was That I feared several of the said Divines would hardly be drawn to concur unto approve of and least of all subscribe an assertory expression viz. upon the matter of the said three last Sorbon Declarations but doubted not they would easily be persuaded to come off to such a promissory or such a declaratory one without any Censure of the contrary Doctrines For otherwise had I in the Copy or Draught proposed to them express'd fully my own sense and what I would my self dare maintain publickly even under my own hand I had done it as to the outward object i. e. in plain terms categorically either asserting or denying the outward object or subject which you please to be so or so And therefore 1. as to the Fourth of those Sorbon Propositions I would have spoken thus The Pope hath no authority which is repugnant to the Supreme Royal Jurisdiction of our King no nor any which is so much as contrary to the true liberties of the Irish Church and Canons received in the same Kingdom and by consequence it ought not nor cannot be maintain'd for example That the Pope hath any authority at all to depose Bishops against the said Canons And 2. as to the Fifth I would have express'd my self in this manner The Pope is not only not above the General Council but is under every Oecumenical Council truly such As likewise 3. and as to the Sixth I would have no less plainly thus The Pope is not infallible not even in questions of Right arising about the Articles of divine Faith but certainly fallible in all even such points if or wherein he hath not the consent of the Catholick or Vniversal Church Nay further I had to such my Assertions added as smart Censures of the contrary doctrines as any of those are which you find in any of the former eleven Paragraphs or Propositions But my business or design in drawing those 14 Propositions and consequently the Thirteenth of them having been partly to draw them so as I might rationally expect to prevail with the Colledge of Divines for their concurrence I judg'd it necessary to alter my stile from assertory to promissory and make use of no Censure at all when I came to the said
remit the Reader to such other Books and other places also in this same Book where he may find as much satisfaction as can be desired To clear in all respects whatsoever that very matter i. e. To evince as clear as the Sun shines in his brightest meridian glory That not even so much as that very species or kind of Apostasie which is or ought to be only grounded on the sin of disobedience or contumacy against some lawful Commands or Summons can be with any justice or truth objected to Me and Caron or to either of us No not even now in the year 1673 to me alone though I confess that I have my self alone since the 20th of September 1669 at several times opposed but Canonically opposed three several Citations or Summons and Commands at the instance and by the procurement of the late Bruxel-Internuncio Airoldi and other Roman Ministers abroad and their Irish Emissaries both abroad in other Countries and at home in Ireland but of purpose to suppress utterly the doctrine of the Remonstrance sent one after another from beyond Seas yea and from the lawful or acknowledged General Superiours of my own Order enjoining me under pain of Excommunication ipso facto latae to appear before them in Forreign Countries and within the term of time peremptorily prefix'd by them So much here by occasion of that second friendly Advertisement given me by my Lord of Ferns or of that great Romans having termed Me and Caron Apostates and whose Letter terming us so my Lord of Ferns did see although otherwise to treat here of that matter was I know Forreign enough to the main scope of my third Appendage which had been sufficiently treated before And therefore now There remains only the fourth and last of all the Appendages viz. A Paper of Animadversions given to the Lord Lieutenant and His Grace's Commands laid on the Procurator Upon or by occasion of which Paper I have no more to say but 1. That when the Commissioners of the National Congregation had presented His Grace the Lord Lieutenant their new Remonstrance or new Recognition and His Grace taking time to consider and examine throughly the import thereof had shewed it to such Lords of the Kings Privy Council in that Kingdom whom He thought fit to consult in that affair before He gave His Answer to the Congregation which long'd very much to know whether He would accept thereof as satisfactory one of the said Lords viz. the Earl of Anglesey then Vice-Treasurer of Ireland now at the writing hereof Lord Privy Seal in England drew briefly some material Animadversions upon it shewing its insignificancy and unsatisfactoriness in or as to the main points wherein the Fathers should have declared themselves 2. That soon after they i. e. that Congregation had dissolved His Grace was pleased to tell me of that Paper of Animadversions and together give me the very Original of which Original as I have it by me still so I give here a true exact Copy viz. Animadversions on the Remonstrance or Protestation of the Romish Clergy of Ireland subscribed the 15th day of June 1666. WE Your Majesties Subjects His Majesties satisfaction is the pretence of both these Remonstrances of this and of the former presented by Peter Walsh the Procurator of the Romish Clergy of Ireland 1661. If the former had not been in some degree satisfactory in England it had not been offered to their Subscriptions here Therefore in differing from that they must design either to offer more which is not pretended or less which will not be enough or only to alter the expression But as to that it is not probable that they would put themselves to any stress to find out better words to signifie their meaning than those which have already obtained some acceptance It may therefore be more than suspected that they decline that first Remonstrance because it is not lyable to so many reserves and uncertainties as they would have it and they will have another of their own which is more subject to what interpretations they shall please to put upon it The truth of which Conjecture is too evident by these following particulars differing from the former Remonstrance Undoubted Sovereign Seems to signifie only him who exercises Supreme Authority but the rightful Sovereign as it is expressed in the former is he who ought to exercise that Authority As any Subject ought to be to his Prince The Pope often pretending Authority directly or indirectly over Princes in Temporal affairs this expression secures not our King of their obedience against the pretensions of the Pope And as the Laws of God and Nature require I living in Ireland will obey the great Turk as far as the Laws of God and Nature require but the former Protesters will obey King Charles as far as the Laws and Government of this Kingdom require The Laws of God and Nature are general to all Mankind and every Rebel pretends to an observation of them They design not obedience to a particular King who will not regulate it by the particular constitution of his Kingdom We will inviolably bear true Allegiance That is in their own sense as far as the Laws of God and Nature require Some make the Pope Judge of the former but every man makes himself Judge of the latter The King must please both to be sure of these men No Power on Earth shall be able to withdraw us from our duty herein This is little significant seeing their duty is tryable only by the Laws of God and Nature of which the Pope and themselves are Judges But if they intend really to oppose any design of the Pope against the King why do they not say they will do it in that Paper which pretends to secure His Majesty in that particular Their obedience to the Pope is that which makes the jealousie of their disobedience to the King Therefore to clear themselves they should have renounc'd the Popes Authority as it may be opposite to the Kings If they dare not name opposition to him how can it be expected that they will oppose him And how careful they are not to give offence to the Pope we see by their clear leaving out almost the whole Paragraph in the former Remonstrance which secures particularly against his Vsurpations If they say they decline naming him in bare respect to him it seems they prefer their Complement beyond their duty but if that be it why then do they name him in their Subscriptions to the first Proposition of the faculty of Sorbon We will to the loss of our blood assert Your Majesties Rights But they are still no more than the Laws of God and Nature allows you The Laws of the Kingdom are insignificant It is not our Doctrine that Subjects may be discharged c. But doth their Doctrine condemn and anathematize such practises Or do they condemn and anathematize that Doctrine Do they condemn the Doctrine of Suarez Bellarmine Mariana Salmeron Becanus
c. in this particular They do not say they do From performing their duty of true Obedience and Allegiance to their Prince But what Obedience and Allegiance they adjudge to be a duty and true they do not declare but leave that under the uncertainty of their own interpretation That any private Subject The King is not secured by this against either Pope or against any private Subject that may be employed to that horrid work by any pretended Authority for then he ceaseth to be a private Person The Anointed of God If the Pope Excommunicates him and deposes him will they accompt him still the Anointed of God or his Prince They have not yet told us so in this Remonstrance So that this specious Protestation of Duty falls very much shorter of the former Remonstrance and is so doubtfully exprest that it lookt rather like a fallacy to deceive the Prince than any clear asserted Loyalty to found thereon any confidence of their Obedience 3. That withall at the same time and by occasion of shewing me these Animadversions His Grace told me That being the Lords of the Council who saw that new Remonstrance and other Papers presented from the Congregation upon first sight so clearly discerned their Juggle it became me to give throughly and clearly all Exceptions at large which might or ought in reason be made against the same Remonstrance and Act of Recognition and moreover to give candidly the true import of the three first Sorbon Declarations as applied and sign'd by the Congregation or as proceeding from them as likewise to give a full and clear and satisfactory Answer to the said Congregation's third Paper or that containing their Reasons why they sign'd not the three last of those late six Sorbon Declarations 4. That in obedience to such His Graces Commands for I took such intimations for sufficient Commands from Him I put my self presently to write the three next following Treatises of this Book or the Second Third and Fourth thereof viz. answering so exactly the number of material Papers given by or presented as from the Congregation to His Grace Which Papers were only three for I look not on their Petitions as any way material 5. That besides the bare motive of obeying His Grace I had these other strong inducements to write on that Subject First I consider'd That by my being backward or if I did shew my self backward in such a matter occasion might be thence taken and peradventure justly too by the foresaid Lords of the Council and consequently by all others of their communion to suspect me also and together with me even all other Subscribers of the former Remonstrance how otherwise Loyal soever Next I remembred what my Lord Lieutenant was pleased some few dayes before to tell me of the Earl of Anglesey's new Sentiments i. e. better opinion of and more favourable inclinations to the Subscribers of the First Remonstrance than his Lordship had formerly had viz. How the said Earl having seen the originals of the late Letters come from the Court of Rome i. e. from Cardinal Francis Barberin and the then Internuncio of Burgundy and Low-countries James Rospigliosi now Cardinal Rospigliosi against the said former Remonstrance and Subscribers thereof had thereupon declared to His Grace the Lord Lieutenant 1. That himself was now at last by the said Letters fully convinced That that former Remonstrance and Controversie about it was no Juggle that Peter Walsh the chief promoter of it was no Cheat but rather on the contrary that indeed the Controversie was real and the Subscribers of that first Formulary as many of them as bore up constantly and unalterably against the Court of Rome in that point were in truth honest for so much And 2. therefore that he for his own part would be thenceforth for repealing the sanguinary and mulctative Laws in order to such constant Professors and unalterable performers of their due Allegiance to the King in all Temporal things whatsoever according to the Laws of the Land Now when I remembred this of my Lord Anglesey I then also consider'd further nay persuaded my self That the more clearly and ingenuously I declared my self on that Subject of the Remonstrance according to my own inward Conscience but regulated still by the unerring Rule of Holy Scripture and Universal Tradition besides natural Reason in the case the more also I should at least of my part really and effectually serve the Roman-Catholicks both Clergy and People of Ireland whose true common good next unto the discharge of a good Conscience and the glory of God by the defence of Truth I alwayes proposed to my self as at least one of the chiefest ends in this World of all my labours For I doubted not but with the blessing of God what I was then to write and now have on that Subject would in time reduce many even of as well the most ignorant as most obstinate of them i. e. some to a right understanding of the principles of Christianity and Reason others to a better compliance with what in truth they understand already but through depravation of will and byas of private interest will not seem or confess they understand Nor doubted but I would confirm many more in that which they themselves already both understand and will according to their own coolest thoughts and more natural inclinations and yet after all were like to be as indeed they have lately been under strong temptations to renounce for ever both And however these matters depending on these or those Irish Clergymen themselves do or prove I must confess I never once question'd then nor do at present but that I should by my writings on that Subject not only continue but encrease those good inclinations which I had already then â—nderstood to be in the foresaid Earl of Anglesey and not in him only but in many other Moderate Noble and Illustrious persons of the Protestant Church for repealing the sanguinary and mulctative Laws in order to such persons of the Roman-Catholick Church as have already or shall hereafter capacitate themselves for so great a favour and I know they all every one may do so without quitting one article word or syllable of the Roman-Catholick Religion as professed in any other Countrey of that same Religion abroad in the world In fine I at least hoped very much to see in my own dayes even the very unexpected fruits of such good inclinations in those illustrious moderate persons that really commiserate the case not only of all such Roman-Catholick Priests of those Dominions as only for their declared Loyal principles and affections to the King are persecuted continually in their own Church and yet not protected by his Laws but likewise of so many Thousands of poor innocent well-principled and well-affected Laicks men and women who sometimes smart by and alwayes lie under the severity of the same Laws And yet after all I will not deny but I had some consideration also of defending
my self and other friends against all both Forreign Censures and Home Impostures I had in truth some regard of vindicating my self and all those persuaded by or associated with me either in signing or adhering to the foresaid Remonstrance and consequently too of vindicating even that Formulary it self from the no less malicious than both scandalous and false aspersion of unlawful detestable sacrilegious yea schismatical and heretical with which our Adversaries branded us And if I had not had that consideration in some degree of my self and Friends I had been as unsatisfied with my own heart as ever any of my Adversaries were with any of my Books For I think every honest man is bound in Conscience to defend himself and Friends especially his own and their good name wherein and as far as he justly may cum moderamine inculpatae tutelae And I am persuaded no man will be so rash or impudent as to reprove me for thinking so But withall I do protest in the presence of God it was not any such or other whatsoever private consideration or regard of my self or said Friends that was the chiefest or strongest motive I had to put Pen to Paper in any of the foresaid now hereafter following Treatises or in any other Treatise or Part or even addition of other Appendages to all the Treatises of this present Book but that more publick regard of the more common and universal good of the Irish Nation and Catholick Religion which I have signified before And so I perclose here at last this Second Part and consequently as to both Parts the whole First Treatise Which Treatise the necessary Theological Disputes against the four grounds of the Censure of Louain for an Hundred sheets together in the First Part have made so long albeit I confess the pure Historical Sections are even of themselves long enough But the next following Three Treatises will in some measure by their shortness compensate the former length For they are proportionably as short as may be and yet as long as their several Subjects require them to be having nothing Historical in them and but a strict and pure partly Theological and partly Rational Examination of the import and weight of those foremention'd three several Papers of the National Congregation and yet even that such an Examination too as in many or rather most material places doth suppose the reading of this First Treatise or of some things diffusely treated therein Which is the reason they needed not be longer than they are What I think will seem most wanting in them to the Readers ease must be That they have no Marginal nor any other sort of Remissions directing to the Sections or Pages of this First Treatise where some of the Publick Instruments or other matters related unto are given or handled at large But I could not help that being I was necessitated to write and print them before I had written a word of this And a diligent or curious Reader may quickly help himself at least by turning to the Table THE SECOND TREATISE CONTAINING Exceptions against the form or protestation of Allegiance subscribed and presented the 16. of June 1666. to His Grace the Duke of Ormonde Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of Ireland by such of the Irish Clergie of of the Roman Communion as convened at Dublin the 11th of the said month and year and dissolved the 25th thereof FIrst they varied in this form not only as to single words but to entire clauses and their sense in the most material parts from the former protestation subscribed by those others of the said Clergie and of the Nobility and Gentry at London in 61. And varied so of set purpose as openly appeared upon the contradictory question and debate for fourteen dayes together in their publick Assembly that they might be free from all tyes of duty faith obedience and acknowledgment or recognition of His Majesties power over them or their own obligation to obey him in all cases and contingencies wherein Bellarmine Suarez Santarellus Mariana or any other such later or former Writers maintain the lawfulness of the deposition of Kings by the Popes or peoples authority and the lawfulness also of the Rebellion of the people against Princes deposed so or excommunicated and denounced by the Prelats of the Church And that they should not be convinced to have disclaimed any wise either clearly and expresly or equivalently and by consequence in the general pretence of a power in the Pope or Church by divine immediate right spiritual or temporal or mixt of both either direct or indirect to depose all kind of Princes at least such as they account as Hereticks in the Christian Religion and to absolve their Subjects or declare them absolved from all kind of Allegiance at least in the extraordinary or even ordinary cases of such as they likewise account or esteem Apostacie Heresie Schisme or other tyrannical or sinful administration or either true or pretended oppression of the people nor convinced also to have disclaimed even in those other meerly humane titles or rights which the Popes have so often pretended and still do and which many or most of that Irish Clergie as likewise the present faculty of Lovaine Divines in their late censure of the former Remonstrance procured by the Agency and sollicitation of some of the said Irish Clergie and by the vehement interposition of the late Internuntio at Bruxels the Italian Abbot of Mount-Royal Hieronimus De Vecchiis do peculiarly and stiffely maintain to the Realmes of England and Ireland to wit those of donation submission feudatary title and forfeiture Or which are the same those argued from the either true or pretended Bull of Adrian the fourth to Henry the second concerning the Kingdom of Ireland and those likewise argued from the famed resignation of the Crowns or Soveraignties of both Kingdoms by King John to Innocent the Third or to his Legat Pandulphus at Dover and from the payment of Peter-pence Secondly And to come to the particulars of this change or variation and and I mean it in the material parts only And not to take any notice though it is fit there should be some of the changing the Epithet or Adjective Rightful first Line of the said former Protestation of 61. into that of undoubted in this of 66. for one may be an undoubted Soveraign De facto though not De jure rightful but an Usurper Or may be in fact or possession undoubted Soveraign though another should be in deed and so acknowledged as to right the true King and Soveraign Nor yet to take any notice of altering those other three words under pain of sin second Line of the said former printed Remonstrance into those in Conscience albeit the doctrine and practice of equivocation so common to and so mightily insisted upon amongst them and yet further the positive exceptions of some of their party even at London some four years since against those very words and
or composed by them or any committee from them but by three or four onely and a whole month before the congregation sate or came together from the several Provinces of Ireland and with a resolution not to suffer one â—ord to be altered therein Which was the reason they would never suffer â—â— as much as once to be debated or mended with any addition or explanation or have it sent to my Lord Lieutenant to know of His Grace before it was signed whether he were pleased with it or had any exceptions against it notwithstanding they were often desired publickly in their meeting to send him for that end a copy of it before they subscribed But they would not 〈◊〉 that motion because they were resolved not to give him any reasonable satisfaction And yet there Gentlemen would impose upon others specially on such Protestants as know not their intrigues that they comprised in this their own form or protestation all the Substance as they speak of the former and varie not from it in sense but in words onely At least that they assure the King of their fidelity hereafter or that whetheâ— the Pope as Pope hath from Christ or from the Church any power to depose Princes and at least in some cases to absolved their Subjects or to declare them absolved from the bond of their otherwise due Allegeance or whether he hath not any such power and whether the Pope proceed to Execution of such power or pretended power or shall not so proceed which questions they peremptorily refused to meddle with but abstracted from in this Remonstrance yet they will observe their duty towards the King And so say they they determine as to themselves the lawfulness in matter of Fact and in Relation to the King to oppose the Pope but will not determine any way the lawfulness as to the question of Right or power or authority betwixt two great Monarchs the Pope and King for this is their own language that is they will not determine even as to themselves much less as or in relation to others whether the Pope hath or hath not power from God or from man to depose our King and absolve his Subjects from their Allegeance All which to be their meaning and resolution though this same be but a very sorry one and unsignificant to any real purpose when or if there should be a tryal they would impose on others and have others conceive of them forsooth because that instead or in lieu of all those four and such other express and cleer passages or clauses of the former Protestation of 61 declined by them they insert in theirs this one you shall presently have but one too too general equivocat and ambiguous and therefore to no purpose at all for no kind of real assurance to the King of their fidelity hereafter not even I say in matter of fact and when the Pope or if the Pope shall attempt to proceed against the King or his Subjects out of any such pretended power whether in their opinion he truely hath or hath not any such For all the Assurance they give against such Doctrines and practices and all the declaration they make in theirs in lieu of so many cleer particular ones in the former which they purposely declined you have in these very words and some few more that follow after but which import no more as shall be likewise seen hereafter Therefore we promise unto your Majestie in the presence of Heaven that we will inviolablie bear true Allegiance to your Majestie your lawful Heirs and Successors c. Where in the first place the consequential or Illative word therefore is to be noted For this word importing all that followes to be of no larger extent then what immediatly preceded or which is the same thing to have been virtually comprized in it aâ— a consequent in its Antecedent who sees not that they mean by what followes to promise no other allegiance then that which they conceive due by the Lawes of God and Nature For to these as immediately goeing before this note of Illation and all that followes relate and as I have said before such as understand them know they maintain stiffly though without reason that by the Lawes of God or Nature they are not bound to obey either actively or passively or as much as to acknowledge CHARLES the Second for their King if once deposed or deprived by the Popes sentence upon at least a pretence of Apostacy heresy Schysme or other such crimes as they make that of Tyrannical administration or publick oppression of the people in their Civill or Religious Rights or if the people who are now deemed his Subjects be dispensed with hereafter or declared by the Fathers of the Church dispensed with in their Allegiance much more if themselves be commanded under pain of Excommunication or other Censure to disobey or dis-own him Nay such as understand them know they are themselves perswaded and perswade others that in case of Tyrannical Administration or publick oppression and this case they are also known to suppose now and averr to be at present the people may of themselves that is by virtue of the natural civill and inherent power in them or pretended to be in them as men or as a civill Society abstracting wholy from the consideration of their being a christian Society or Church of Christ without any such antecedent concomitant or subsequent sentence of deposition or deprivation or censure of Excommunication or other declaration whatsoever issued from the Pope or other Prelats or Pastors or members of the Church as such I say that such as know these late Remonstrants and their principles abstractions and evasions know withall that in such case they maintain it to be no sin when prudently they expect any success to take Arms against their King or him that abstracting from such a case and every other of the former would be their King and so moreover their King that it would be a sin in the people and in themselves against conscience to resist him by Arms. For which Tenet of theirs they openly in their congregation and in particular their Speaker made use of this their common place or Maxim how false soever in it self or how ill soever applied That Protection and Subjection are correllatives as they deny that protection to be afforded now to Irish Catholicks as the case stands with them Making themselves so as well in this case as all others the Soveraign Judges at least as to themselves and the people guided by them both of Protection and Subjection of injuries and remedies and of all the Lawes by consequence In the next place and abstracting wholy from that consequential word Therefore or from any Relation thereby to their so warily expressed obligation according to the lawes of God and Nature and to their erroneous interpretation or understanding of those lawes it is no less but yet much more diligently to be noted that although the promise
great horror as to this point of Subjects murthering their Kings which yet they do not really if their above reservations principles explications and all due circumstances above likewise intimated for some part and the wary placing of their words here be as they ought seriously examined The words expressing their seeming but very milde condemnation are placed thus Much less can we allow of or pass as tollerable any doctrine that perniciously and against the Word of God maintains that any private Subject may lawfully kill the Anointed of God his Prince Where in the first place it is to be observed that besides other changes of the clause in the Protestation of 61. relating particularly to this matter and which you have there in this absolute tenor And hold it impious and against the Word of God to maintain that any private Subject may kill and murther the anointed of God his Prince though of different belief and religion from his These later Protestors omit these last words though of different belief and religion from his Words without question as material in our case as any if not more then any of the former the religious pretences of the lawfulness of killing Princes and other circumstances being duely weighed In the next place the words private Subject and the other words Anointed of God his Prince as well severally as joyntly taken and I mean as in this last Remonstrance or this of the congregation of 66. though not as in the former of 61. are to be considered as no way comprehending in the present case dispute and circumstances and proceeding from such unwilling minds and equivocating subscribers any person that shall pretend himself to be no more a Subject no more a privat person but a publick Minister of the Pope or people executing the sentence of either against a deposed deprived un-anointed or dis-anointed or excommunicated Prince no more in such cases the anointed of God no more a Prince but in the opinion which they refused to condemn or decline a tyrant by title or administration or both Lastly t is to be observed that however these late subscribers of the said congregation of 66. expound or understand the foresaid words private Subject the Anointed of God his Prince yet the whole proposition as it lies and the verb maintains as it is therein determined affected or restrained from its more general signification by those other immediatly antecedent words which perniciously and against the word of God and consequently as that proposition is not absolute but modal as logicians speak imports not by necessary construction that every or any doctrine which maintains that any privat Subject may lawfully kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince is pernicious and against the word of God For it only disallowes that Doctrine which perniciously and against the word of God to witt in some cases maintains c. and leaves the subscribers at liberty to approve of the same Doctrine in other cases wherein notwithstanding any words here they may say it does not perniciously nor against the word of God maintain that killing or murthering And they may instance the case wherein he is or may be deposed deprived excommunicated or a declared or publickly known tyrannical Administrator Governor or oppressor of the people against Justice So that the whole contexture of that proposition seems framed of purpose to equivocat and say nothing to any other purpose Which further yet may appear out of their double sense of the word Lawfully by them inserted Which in relation to themselves or others they will expound when they please of the Law of the Land onely And they will easily and without equivocation or mental reservation grant that in all cases whatsoever its unlawful by the Law of the Land to murther or kill the Prince But they do not as yet say it is so by or according to the laws of God and nature which are above the laws of the land So that it were necessary for them to speak plainly and expresly acccording to these last clauses if they would be understood to declare home as much as to this very point alone since they have not done so yet to any other And hence and out of all hitherto observed the two remaining clauses or parts of their Remonstrance appear to signifie a meer nothing as they proceed from them in this Remonstrance and relate as they must to their sense in all the foregoing parts Wherefore say they pursuant to the deep apprehension we have of the abomination and sad consequences of such practice we do engage our selves to discover unto your Majesty or some of your Ministers any attempt of that kind conspiracy or rebellion against your Majesties person Crown or Royal Authority that comes to our knowledge In case the Subscribers knew that the Catholicks of Ireland were now prudently resolved as having a good strong back to rebel or take Armes to morrow not only after a sentence of deposition of Charles the second pronounced by the Pope or a censure of Excommunication issued from his Holiness by virtue of which censure or under which penalty he would enjoyn all Irish Catholicks to joyn together not of purpose or primarily against the King or against His Crown Person or Authority or not of purpose to kill or murther Him or not as much as to de-throne or un-king Him but to restore themselves to their antient possessions or unto their both Temporal and Spiritual rights their lands and Religion and relieve themselves from the publick general oppression they complain of as pretended to proceed only from his great Ministers Councils and Parliaments not from himself but also without any such previous sentences or censures these subscribers notwithstanding this engagement and even without any breach of it I say according to their own sense both here and all along in their Remonstrance may nevertheless conceal such their Countrymens design And for the cases of deposition or excommunication as above there can be no manner of doubt they reserve still notwithstanding the words of this engagement as they understand them that liberty to themselves for at least in these cases and according to the opinions these men refuse to disown expresly cleerly or even virtually or equivalently in other words and which they refuse to disown so under their hands writing there would be no Rebellion against Majestie Crown or Authority Royal belonging to Charles over them And consequently neither if these subscribers should know certainly the final or primary design were to beâ—eâ—ve the King of His life would they find themselves bound by the tenor of this engagement or any other clause in their Remonstrance to reveal it at least I say after such previous sentences of deposition deprivation and excommunication or after the right of the Crown were pretended and known to be given for the good of Catholick Religion to an other Prince The reduplicative and specificative senses wherein the chief decliners of the former
determining at all whether the King or his inferior Courts or Judges may or may not justly and by their own proper supream or subordinat civil authority and expresly against the Popes decrees proceed against such criminals according to the present municipal lawes of the land nor determining whether such Ecclesiastick criminals may in conscience where they may or can choose subject themselves in such cases as wherein by the Canons of the Roman Church they are exempt from the power and punishment of the secular Magistrat and his lawes unless or until they be delivered over to him by the Church albeit the subscribers of that Remonstrance of 61. were then are now and will so continue principled in conscience and doctrine that by the lawes of God no Canons of the Church may exempt any Church-men of what rank or degree soever no more then they can meer Lay-men from either the directive or coercive supream temporal power of such Kings as have not any other superior in their temporals but God alone nor against their wills or lawes from their courts or subordinat Judges though it be most conformable to the law of God and nature that Princes should for the reverence of the sacred function exempt them generally from the power of inferior or subordinat judicatures and leave them to be punished by their own Ecclesiastical superiors if not in such cases or contingencies as they shall find their said Ecclesiastical superiors to be unwilling or unfitting or to be involved themselves in the same crimes or the chief Patrons of them But however this be in truth and whatever the subscribers of 61. think or think not of this matter and whether the foresaid two lines which finally conclude their said sequel petition and resignation imply formally or virtually or any way at all such renunciation of Ecclesiastical immunity or implye it not in any kind of manner yet for as much as upon many occasions great use has been made as I have said before of the above objections though as often cleerly and throughly solved as made against the Remonstrance of 61. and that in this other of 66. the contrivers and promoters of it have intirely omitted that passage both as to the words and sense and I mean that sense which they themselves conceive or certainly would have others conceive of purpose to render that passage and by and for it the whole foresaid Remonstrance of 61. odious and scandalous and for as much also as from persons so principled in that point of Clergie mens exemption there can be no assurance to the King by general words and notions or by such too too general acknowledgements protestations declarations and promises of any real true and significant subjection intended or promised by them but such only as leaves them alwayes at liberty that is free from the supream temporal Coercive power of the King and his laws and leaves them not so much as under an inward obligation of sin to conform outwardly or submit as much as to the direction or directive part virtue or power of any kind of Temporal or civil Magistrat or laws but only under such an unsignificant obligation as these words ex aequo et bono import and for as much further as until they declare sufficiently that is cleerly expresly and particularly against this dangerous false and scandalous doctrine it must in reason be to no purpose for them to offer or for His Majestie to receive any kind of Protestation of Allegiance from them therefore I found this alteration and omission of the said two lines nothing equivalent as to that sense how injuriously or invidiously soever conceived by them being in their own Remonstrance given in lieu thereof I say I found that change a most material exception and if not a greater at least as great as any of all the former Leaving to the judicious Reader to be considered soberly and coolely what according to such doctrine of the exemption or immunity of Clergy-men signifies any word acknowledgment protestation declaration or promise as from such Clergy-men in their Remonstrance even in case there had been no other Exception to it What those words which are their very first beginning of it We your Majesties Subjects the Roman Catholtck Clergy of Ireland c Or whether from such men so principled in this matter these words must be construed or understood to import any more then that they profess themselves verbally not really equivocally not univocally Subjects Or do not they withal and at the same time perswade themselves and stiffely maintain that however in word they complement yet in deed they are not Subjects either in soul or body not even in any kind of case to any civil or temporal power or law on earth as barely such Or doth the Kings Majesty pretend his own to be other then barely and only such that is temporal and civil And so I conclude all my four Instances Which especially the second and fourth or this last I confess might be comprized in a fewer Lines But I chose this method of purpose to make the weaker sort of capacities to understand at large the causes of dissatisfaction my Lord Lieutenant and Council have in this Remonstrance of the foresaid late Assembly how specious soever it may appear at first reading to such as are not throughly acquainted with the intrigues And now to those Instances and Exceptions will only add in brief two Observations more Which especially the first of them confirm evidently enough to any indifferent man that is not a fool how little how weak and frail and false the assurance is the King can derive from such a Remonstrance of such men and in such a country and time as this First Observation That upon the sole account of their express refusal on the contradictory publick debate in the Assembly to petition his Majesty as you have seen at large in the Narrative whlch goes before the Exceptions for pardon of those crimes or offences chargable on them as committed by them or any of them or any else of the Irish Clergie by reason or occasion of the first Insurrection 23. Octob. in 41. or of the after conjunction of the rest of the Irish Catholicks the same or following year in a social war with the first Insurrectors or by reason or occasion in particular of the Clergies general Congregation at Waterford under the Nuncios Authority and their Declaration therein and those other actings afterwards in pursuance thereof in the next general Assembly of the three Estates in Kilkenny against the peace of 46. or of the total breach and publick rejection of it in all parts of the Kingdom or by reason or occasion also of the Declarations of the Bishops at Jamesstown against the second Peace or that which followed in 48. and of the consequent breaches thereof by so many other persons and parties and in so many other Provinces and Counties of the Kingdom I say that upon the sole account of
truely declare it is not their or it is not our Doctrine though in an other sense they cannot nor intended so to do And for to justifie this declaration distinction or equivocation they will according to the principles of equivocating Divines readily make use of that passage or words of our Saviour in the Gospel mea doctrina non est mea sed ejus qui mifit me Patris And yet when they shall find it for their advantage they will no less readily acknowledge that their intention also was to declare by those words that what follows is not the doctrine of even those very Doctors or Popes nor consequently of the Church And yet will acknowledge too this much without any prejudice to their own opinion or judgment in the points controverted and without holding themselves obliged by this Declaration understood as it ought or may not to practice accordingly For all they say in this first part of that first Proposition is We the under-named do hereby declare that it is not our doctrine that the Pope hath any authority in temporal affairs over our Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second They will here presently when they please and shall think fit have recourse to the several meanings of the word Authority And without any necessity of using the distinction which yet is obvious enough and frequent with them of authority in fact and authority of right they will say although not with the Doctors of Lovaine in their censure of the Remonstrance of 61. that they declare it is not the doctrine of the Romae Church that the Pope hath any authority which is purely or meerly temporal or even humane at all or by humane right ways or title acquired over the King in his temporal Affairs And that neither hath he any Divine or Spiritual which is ordinary over him in such or which at his pleasure may at all times and in all cases dispose of the Kings Temporals And after this or notwithstanding any thing here declared they will say with Bellarmine that all the most supream right or authority challenged by Popes to depose Princes and dispose of their Temporals is entire and safe enough For this grand Authority indeed they have or challenge thereunto universally is not in the rank of temporals nor in the order of humane Authorities but in that of wholy spiritual and purely divine and supernatural Is not ordinary but extraordinary or as Innocent the 3d. speaks casual only that is in some particular great and extraordinary cases or emergencies and this too ratione peccati alone as the same Innocent further saith And consequently they will say that by any such general though negative Declaration or by a Declaration in such general words only or against any Authority in general to be in the Pope this very specifical this extraordinary casual spiritual celestial divine Authority in such great unusual contingencies must never be thought to be declared against according to the maxime of Lawyers and Law before given in my Exceptions to their Remonstrance For which saying they will further yield this reason That without any such specifical meaning intended their said Declaration or Proposition may be useful to shut out of doors the Popes humane pretences or pretences of meer humane right said to have been acquired and by the present Faculty of Lovaine maintained to continue still in force to these Kingdoms by donation submission prescription feudatary title and forfeiture And that such Declaration or one against such humane pretences in particular to his Majesties Kingdoms of England or Ireland nay and Scotland too was enough to be expected from them by his Majesty without putting them to the stress of resolving on that other supereminent divine pretence and which really is to all other at least christian Kingdoms in the world or all those of other Kings and in such extraordinary cases as well as to his Majestie 's They have yet in store a third explication equivocation distinction but as fallacious as if not more than any of these two already given And I call it a third way of evasion though as to the first part of it and as to the matter in it self of that first part however the words be different it varyes not or but very little from what is already said in effect It does in indeed in the second Part as will be seen They will as occasion requires or they find it expedient say nothing of the first on the words our doctrine nor of the second on the words authority in temporal affairs But when they come to Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second they will instantly tell you as Logicians or Sophisters of their specificative and reduplicative sense And that these words bear it And that the cause it self and the conjuncture of circumstances make their recourse to this kind of distinction very lawful They will therefore when they please to proceed a third way allow it is not the doctrine not even of the Catholick Church that the Pope hath any authority not even spiritual or divine in temporal affairs over our Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second they will I say allow this Proposition or this part of that first complex Proposition but allow it only in sensu reduplicative in the reduplicative sense or as the reduplication falls on these last words Our Soveraign Lord King Charles the Second In the specificative they will deny it and withal deny it was their meaning what ever the Sorbonists meaned by the like to their own King to declare at any time or by that Proposition that the Pope had not some authority in temporal affairs over our King considered as a Criminal or Sinner though in such not any over him considered only as our Soveraign Lord and King Charles the Second They will further say that while the Pope himself or people or both joyntly suffer or tollerat Charles the Second as King the Pope hath no authority in temporal affairs over him But yet when he finds it convenient and necessary in any of those great extraordinary emergencies not to tollerat him any longer he may by his divine authority in such cases depose and deprive him of all his temporals together and transfer the right of them to another and this by way of Jurisdiction over his person as a criminal and sinner not over his person as a King not criminal or sinful They will further say and though I meaned it hitherto as the second part of this third way yet it may be also and is a fourth way of explication or evasion that allowing it not to be the doctrine of the Church that the Pope hath any Authority of Jurisdiction Power or Superiority properly such in temporal affairs over the King considered either in the reduplicative or specificative sense and allowing too that themselves intended to declare so much by the said former part of their first Proposition yet the last refuge is alwayes open A Power and Authority in the
Pope to declare the King deposable by the people and command the people even under pain of Excommunication to depose him whose power is no longer then they continue it as they not God immediatly gave it him according to Bellarmines doctrine And even a power and authority in the Pope to declare him actually deposed or even by and through the very nature of his carriage or government to have already and now actually forfeited his right of raigning any longer and therefore now a Tyrant not only by administration but also by title And consequently to excite all even forrain Princes to invade him And finally to declare it lawful even for all those were his own very Subjects heretofore at any time thence forth even to kill him forceably if he yield not himself calmly to the slaughter They will say there is nothing against this declarative power in that Proposition or that first part of it not even quitting all their former explications of the several words or clauses thereof And they may say so truly As for the second part of the said first Proposition which second part they deliver in these other words yea we promise That we shall still oppose them who shall assert any power either direct or indirect over him in civil and temporal affairs although it may seem to contradict and they will questionless and to such as and when they find expedient say it doth contradict this gloss and explication of the former part yet upon occasion and to others to whom they may freely imbosome themselves and shall think it convenient they have readily at hand and in pursuance of the said former explication of the first part another of the same nature a fine pretty distinction abstraction exception equivocation reservation that sheweth in one word or two the unsignificancy of it against any more assurance to the King of them They will say first that by power either direct or indirect in the said second part may and ought to be understood a power natural temporal and properly humane or that which is by humane ways acquired not that which is properly and even autonomastically or by way of excellency called the supernatural spiritual celestial or Divine of the Pope as Vicar of Christ to whom and in relation to that autonomastical power as to Christ himself was said 〈◊〉 2. dabo tibi gentes in hereditatem tuam et possessionem tuam termines terrae and who may consequently and still in relation to that power say of himself as truly as even Christ himself hath before said of himself though after his resurrection Matth. â—â— 1â— not before data est mihi omnis potestas in Caelo et in terra and may say so of himself with ground sufficient in the Gospel of Christ where it was said to his predecessor Peter and consequently to him by Christ himself Pasce oves meas Jo. 21.17 And Quodcumque ligaveris super terram erit ligatum et in Caelo Matth. 16.19 Secondly they will say that if you will needs have by power either direct or indirect in this Second part understood even that spiritual power of Bellarmine or if you will needs have this promise of theirs so to be taken as obliging them to oppose the assertors of the said Bellarmins Doctrine or distinction of that spiritual power into direct and indirect and of his assertion that maintains the same spiritual power for deposing Kings indirectly though be by this quibble and in word only decline the odium of the direct power which yet in effect he maintains by the indirect and even in the whole latitude of the direct asserted formerly by others especially Canonists I say that if you will needs have these words of theirs in that second part any power either direct or indirect understood of that very Supream Supernatural Spiritual Celestial Divine power of the Pope they will grant it but with that other pretty and easie distinction of theirs which I have also before given in their explication of the former part of this very proposition They will say you must then understand their promise to oppose only such as shall assert a power either direct or indirect which is or may be said to be ordinary to witt a power in all times or all cases as they expound it but not such as will only assert a power extraordinary or such a spiritual Divine power at some certain times or in some extraordinary cases only to witt that very power which Innocent the Third calls Casual and gives to himself and other Popes over Kings in their civil and temporal affairs ratione peccati and that very power too which others give the Pope ratione Spiritualitatis annexae or in ordine ad Spiritualia And they will consequently and by this brief distinction consisting only of the two words ordinary and extraordinary save themselves from the shame of quitting wholy Bellarmins Doctrine or quitting it at all as to his divine pretences or as to his assertions of such a divine power in the Pope whatever they do for his other claim of Human right and in the case of England in some of his writings And will therefore as they may averr truely and confidently that Bellarmine himself was never yet surer to his main purpose by his quibble of direct and indirect than they are still in effect notwithstanding this very second part both to his assertion and distinction and then they appear to be so unto such as they please to declare themselves by this other Suttlety of their own distinction of his indirect power into ordinary and extraordinary I will pass over a third explication or gloss of some of those Gentlemen upon those very words any power either direct or indirect as I have past it over before in my observations on the former part of this proposition their distinction of a power in fact or execution and of a power of right or which ought to be admitted to execution but is hindred unlawfully Or which amounts to the same an habitual power and an actual a power in acta primo and a power in actu Secundo But this is not so fine or Suttle and withall it is more odious and dangerous because it as well maintains all those very human and meerly temporal and civil pretences of the Pope to the Kingdoms in particular of England and Ireland and Scotland too by donation submission prescription feudatary title forfeiture as those do which are tearmed his Divine or Spiritual and which are indeed no less to all the States and Kingdoms of the earth And therefore it is that Father N. N. and the rest in general of the most subttle and leading men of that Congregation who subscribed and expounded to others what the three propositions might import to their advantage or dis-advantage and who taught the several meanings distinctions abstractions exceptions equivocations and reservations that might be used at pleasure and without any prejudice to the main points
declaration and meaning to be always with this reserve that whatever this their second proposition or constant doctrine signifie or be intended or conceived by any to signifie or this their resolution so expressed never to recede from it yet all must be with perfect submission to the Pope and so that if it sufficiently appear the Pope hath already declared or shall at any time hereafter declare by Brief Bull or other letters against such doctrine as uncatholick or against such resolution as unsafe they will quit both for these causes I say there can be no rational indifferent person but will be convinced that out of this second proposition as from them there can acrue no more assurance to the King of their future fidelitie than out of the first and consequently than out of their Remonstrance alone without any such additional proposition or propositions That is as I have a little above said just none at all Nor will their third or last Proposition mend the matter They give it indeed as the two former in words specious enough to plain well-meaning men to the simple and ignorant Nay specious enough to very understanding persons but yet such persons only as are not acquainted with their explications borrowed from late School-men and particularly from Bellarmine against Barclay and from other impugners with him of the Oath of Allegiance against the most learned Father Green and Preston of St. Beâ—ns Order as well under Widringtons name at first in several works as their own at last in their Apology to Gregory the Fourteenth and against the rest of the Roman Clergy of England that so learnedly conscientiously modestly nay and patiently too maintain'd that oath in King James's dayes especially the Secular Clergy maâ—gre Cardinal Bellarmines Letter to the Arch-Priest Blackwel and maugre likewise all his other several books under his own or fictitious names and maugre also even that either true or pretended brief of Paul the Fifth in the year 1606. against the said Oath procured by Father Parsons upon the mis-representation and most false suggestion of Cardinal Bellarmine and his seven or eight other fellow Divines to whom joyntly the examination of the said Oath of Allegiance was committed by the same holy Father Paul the Fifth and finally notwithstanding the best and worst endeavours of besides Lessius Gretzer Fitzherbert Becan Parsons himself and several others Franciscus Suarez the Spanish learned Jesuite at the instigation of the English Fathers of the same Society and in pursuance of the said Brief and for the unlawful advancement of his own great Masters no less unlawful interest This third Proposition therefore I say notwithstanding its words or tenor so specious at first to such as are not acquainted with the familiar explication or meaning of the chief proposers a meaning or explication learned from these late Sophisters that writ so ill and so erroneously too against King Iames's said Oath of Allegiance being reviewed being duly pondred as from them or as from those Congregational men will be found to be of as little weight as any of the two former and will be so found I mean as to the resolution justly expected from so venerable so grave and so withal justly suspected an Assembly But not to delay the Reader my longer I repeat again here that Proposition in it self barely or as they have given it in their own words We the undernamed do hereby declare that it is our doctrine that we Subjects oâ—e so natural and just obedience to our King that no power under any pretext soever can either dispense with or free us of the same Now mark the Sophistry In the first place the reduplicative sense must be allowed in these two words We Subjects that is in as much or while we are Subjects Which will be no longer than it shall please the Pope not to denounce the King by name excommunicated or deprived of or deposed from his kingdoms by a judicial process or bull on pretence of his apostasie heresie schisme oppression of the Church or People against that which the Pope shall determine to be justice or faith Next the same reduplication must be allowed to fall on the word King And thirdly at the word power all the former distinctions of fact and of right of humane or temporal and divine or spiritual and of ordinary and extraordinary must be ushered in And in the last place from these general words under any pretext soever there must be alwaies understood an exception of those extraordinary cases or contingencies above so often repeated of destroying the Church or People tyrannically by endeavouring to make them Apostats Hereticks Schismaticks or by tyrannising over them even in their temporal or civil rights alone And the judgment hereof must be the Pope's only or the people's when they please to take it Nor will the Doctrine of the Apostles even in the cases of tyrannical heathen Emperours as of Nero and Domitian much less of the Fathers even in the cases of manifest notorious Apostats and Hereticks as of Iulian Constantius Valens Anastasius c. move the Divines of our congregation any whit at all They say with Bellarmine the Apostles and Fathers and other primitive Christians dissembled in this point because they had not strength enough of men and arms to oppose though besides that this answer is impious it be also most manifestly false in the case of Iulian the Apostat and of the succeeding Heretick Emperours Having thus with all sincerity considered all and every of their three Propositions both nakedly and abstractedly as they are in themselves and also as given by that Congregation and having layd open most sincerely too the meaning or sense these Divines or at least the chief and most leading of them have conceive or intend others should upon fit occasions understand by those Propositions and by their several clauses and words it only now remains that I briefly put in form my third Argument grounded on such abstractions exceptions distinctions reservations and equivocations And I frame it thus Syllogistically because I have to deal with some caprichious Logicians or Sophisters No Propositions are sufficient in this age for giving assurance to the King of the future loyalty of a Roman Catholick people and as from such a Roman Catholick people too whom he hath already by experience and his Father before him found in several publick Instances manifestly disloyal and even perfidious in the highest nature could be but such Propositions as by clear express words from which there can be no exception or evasion and of which there can be no distinction according to the present School-divinity of Bellarmine or Suarez or such others descend to the specifical cases about which the controversie is if the Proposers be expresly desired by the King or the Lieutenant in his Name or by his Authority to descend so in their Remonstrance or Propositions to such cases and if they expresly and obstinatly too refuse to descend so or
to such particular or specifical cases But those three foresaid Propositions of the said Congregation are such as as do not so descend by clear express words from which there can be no exception or evasion and of which there can be no distinction according to the present School-divinity of Bellarmine or Suarez or such others to the particular or specifical cases about which the controversie is and the said Congregation being the Proposers have been expresly desired by the King or his Lieutenaut in his Name or by his Authority to descend so in their Remonstrance or Propositions to such cases and they have expresly and obstinatly too refused to descend so or to such particular or specifical cases and yet they are a people whom he hath already by experience and his Father before him found in several publick Instances manifestly disloyal and even perfidious in the highest nature could be Therefore those three foresaid Propositions of the said Congregation are not sufficient in this age as from them for giving assurance to the King of their future loyalty Or thus If the foresaid three Propositions of Sorbon applied by the said Congregation to the King of Great Britain and Ireland and to themselves and rest of his Roman Catholick Subjects of Ireland be in the judgement of the chief Divines and leading men of that Congregation lyable rationally all circumstances weighed to such constructions as I have said hitherto they have already made and will hereafter make of the words to such as they please and when they find it opportune and if notwithstanding they have been expresly and often desired even by his Majesties Lieutenant and for his Majesties assurance of them to descend by clearer and more expressive words to the particular cases wherein the doubt was or would be yet of their future loyalty they all and their Agents for them even to his own face after long consultation for so many dayes expresly refused to descend so or assure his Majesty by those or any other additional Propositions of their future faithful carriage in such particular or specifical cases or I mean to assure His Majesty under their hands and by words comprehending expresly and specifically those very cases then it must follow evidently that they were both absolutly and obstinatly resolved to give no more assurance by the foresaid three Propositions no more satisfaction by them to the King or his great Ministers in coming home to the point or to the particular or specifical cases wherein their loyalty might be and was and is with reason doubted of than they had given before in their Remonstrance as I have in my Exceptions layd open their meaning in and by it But the foresaid three Propositions of Sorbon applied by the said Congregation c. are in the judgment of the chief Divines and leading-men of that Congregation lyable rationally all circumstances considered to such constructions as I have said hitherto c. and notwithstanding they have been expresly and often desired even by His Majesties Lieutenant and for His Majesties assurance of them to descend by clearer c. they all c. expresly refused to descend so c. Therefore it must evidently follow that they were both absolutely and obstinatly resolved to give no more assurance c. I see not I confess what their best or worst Sophisters can say that may ridd them out of the Briars And for the first I think verily none of them that understands reason will have the confidence to speake a word to the matter of either of the premisses the Major being such as in morals and in a Country where such disputes are and so many great and sad experiences relating to the matter of it may be well accounted of the nature and assume the name of that which Logicians call or tearm propositionem per se notam And the Congregation of the Clergie of Ireland at Waterford under the Lord Nunciu's presidencie withal the Decrees and consequents thereof against the peace of 46. and the meeting of the Bishops at James-town and their declarations and decrees there against the peace of 48. and all other consequents of that meeting evidently prove the Minor As for the illation and form or frame of the whole I give them leave to consult with Aristotle in his first figure and fourth moode To the second I beleive indeed they will peradventure attempt some kind of answer but such a one notwithstanding as will not abide the tryal They will perhaps denie the Minor as to the first part if they with any kind of colour denie any thing or make any answer at all to either Minor Major or conclusion They will say the foresaid propositions are not lyable rationally to such constructions c. And they must consequently disavow those abstractions distinctions c and therefore say also consequently that I impose on them And this is all they can say with any kind of colour though a very bad one But for conviction of the first branch of this answer I appeal to all judicious Readers of Bellarmines several pieces on this Subject both of those in his own proper name set forth and of those also in other mens and to the daily practice of the Schools and besides to so many other printed authors of Bellarmine's way and brethren that stiffly maintain the doctrine of equivocation and mental reservation And for the conviction of the second branch I appeal even unto Father N. N. the chief speaker and interpreter as a divine of the sense of that Congregation though he was not chaire-man and the very first proposer and to my self also of the said propositions of Sorbon even of all the six to be signed by them though of purpose only to decline the approbation or signature of onely one proposition offered them by me as I have observed in my Narrative Nay and for the conviction of this second branch of such answer I appeal to the whole Congregation and even to all and singular the members thereof whither it be not true that really they denied all along and even on the contradictory question to approve the propositions parts or clauses of the former Remonstrance that I mean of 61. Which in plain tearms disclaims and renounces any power in the Pope to deprive or depose the King or to raise his Subjects in Rebellion c by virtue of any sentence of Excommunication Deprivation Deposition or Declaration or in any other manner soever or under what pretext soever and whether they denied not to declare that there was nothing contained in that Remonstrance of 61. that might be deemed Heretical Schismatical or sinful and whether it was not upon the sole account of such particulars therein contained they did so and whether it was not therefore because they could not approving it pretend any latitude for the former evasions interpretations abstractions exceptions distinctions reservations equivocations for as much as the expressions of that were too plain and
comprehensive and gave them no way to affirm that they meaned not to signifie their own obligation to obey the King in case he were excommunicated by name deprived or deposed by the Pope or others in any of the particular cases or pretences of Apostacie Heresie Schisme publick oppression or tirannical administration It is too notoriously known to them all if not such perhaps as had no braine at all to understand or have no memory to remember that they must answer these queries affirmatively And therefore that the second branch of that answer whoever shall give it for them must be admitted by themselves to be not onely unreasonable but manifestly false Or that they must themselves confess that they cannot disavow those abstractions exceptions distinctions c intended to be used by them when and to whom they should think fit in their glosses and interpretations of their foresaid three propositions And consequently also must confess the third or last branch of such answer if any give it to be no less manifestly false that is confess that I have not imposed but conscientiously related and charged these glosses on them to shew and verily for their own good and for the publicks the unsignificancie of those propositions to the King as from them And so I have done with my third argument and with my answer also to the onely though improbable objection the most pervicacious can make against that second form of my said third argument My two last arguments which shall be very brief are grounded as the two first were on extrinsecal considerations Therefore my Fourth argument is that whatever assurance these propositions can import either with or without any such glosses yet for as much as so many of our known Casuistes and even the most famous of our late school-Divines teach the lawfulness of equivocation and principally in such cases as the Divines of the Congregation will doubtless affirm theirs then was and for as much as neither before nor after the said propositions the Congregation declared that they intended such propositions to be without any equivocation or mental reservation understood in the true plain and obvious meaning it cannot be said that in this age and from persons instructed in such Divinity and the practices consequent such propositions so nakedly given without any such preamble or sequel as indeed without any other at all of even as much as a complement either to His Majestie or Lieutenant nay without the least line of admonition to any others of the use or end of such propositions it cannot I say be rationally affirmed that they import any more assurance to the King of the fidelitie of the proposers then their Remonstrance alone In which Remonstrance notwithstanding they have expresly and even on the contradictory question refused to insert as likewise they refused to annex to it before or after any kind of expression against that pernicious doctrine pernicious I call it at least in such publick declarations of Loyaltie as in all contracts either publick or private betwixt man and man and so refused to signifie at all or any kind of way their own disclaiming and renouncing it as much as in relation to their said publick declaration of Allegiance to their Prince Fift and last argument is that by the said propositions or any other they past no censure on the contrary doctrine They not onely not declare it Heretical or Schismatical or Impious or erroneus or against the word of God or Seditious or Rebellious or Scandalous or any way sinful unlawful or false but not so much as dehort others whatsoever lay or Ecclesiastick not even such as are Subjects to themselves in spiritual affairs from teaching holding practiceing or following it So far have they been and are from laying any injunctions on them in that behalf What use therefore can be made of their Subscriptions to them in case I mean they signified any thing material no other certainly but that could be made of so many other particular or private men teaching or asserting or declaring in a problematical way the opinion they chose in such and such an occasion and onely too in the nature of a meer Scholastical opinion or to be declared by them as such without any prejudice at all to that of others which on the very point is both manifestly contradictory and contrary and this also with a farr greater authority to back it in every particular Nor other certainly therefore but that would be made of such an opinion signed onely by so few and in the qualitie of so many individuals for themselves alone without any obligation of a Sacred or any kind of Oath on them to teach and preach it for Christian doctrine to others Nay without as much as a promise or any other kind of engagement of theirs to tell the rest of the Clergie or People the contrary doctrine and practice thence consequent were damnable or unconscionable or wicked or unsafe or any way unholy in the Christian Religion And what assurance hence to the King of the fidelitie of the Clergie of Ireland it is well known they are about 1500. or 2000. more at home That they generally approve of the contrary positions That they have besides their own inclinations the authority not onely of so many School-writers of the later times but of so many Popes and their Ministers and very lately and upon the very point the letters of Cardinal Francis Barberin and of the two Internuncius's of Bruxels to confirm them in their way And if notwithstanding all this the congregation would make others believe or such as they thought fit to impose upon that they intended to give His Majestie assurance enough as farr as declarations or propositions under their hands could give him such in their own behalf and in that also of the rest of the Clergie and People against I mean the contrary doctrine and practices and yet at the same time abstract from nay refuse to give any censure of the said contrary doctrine or practices who can be perswaded that such propositions of theirs or so barely signed by them and I mean too still even in case of no such explications or glosses as above could signifie any more than a meer blindation of the State a meer temporary declaration of the choyce made by them in such an occasion of one of the two contrary opinions and made by them yet in the nature of a meer opinion and for themselves alone and this onely too untill His Holyness or Ministers commanded them the contrary or declared unto them they had done ill and bid them retract and side with the rest nay if not an express at least a tacit approbation and that too as ample and sufficient as could be from them of the very same contrary doctrine and practices If this be to intend or at all to give by the said propositions any better satisfaction or assurance to the King than their Remonstrance which went before did of
but in the margent of their Paper the three Propositions or those not inserted as they speak and give them truely word by word for what concerns the sense as they are in the French or Latin original and as applied by the Sorbone Faculty to themselves and French Monarch and as you have them here Fourth Proposition That the same faculty doth not approve nor ever did any propositions contrary to the French Kings authority or true liberties of the Gallican Church and Canons received in the same Kingdom for example that the Pope can depose Bishops against the said Canons Fifth Proposition That it is not the doctrine of the faculty that the Pope is above the general Council Sixth Proposition That it is not the doctrine or dogme of the faculty that the Pope without the consent of the Church is infallible After giving so these Propositions in the margent they proceed to a special observation of each and to shew either the impertinency or unsignificancy of such to their present purpose that is to any further assurance to our Gracious King of their fidelitie hereafter in the suspected contingencies or cases than hath been already given by them in the former three Propositions and in their Remonstrance taken at least joyntly together In truth were it so were those two general reasons true as they alleage them or were the proofs they give such as might be allowed for even but probable but yet withal to purpose I would my self before any if not approve yet at least not disprove a modest and rational excuse and save my self to boot some study and some paines But finding those general reasons and further specifical proofes and applications of them to be meer pretences only without either truth or colour of such to the purpose I found it an obligation on me to undeceive as farr as I can all such as are willing to be undeceived or not to be cheated by appearances and impostures And to this further end only that the peevish ill advised resolution and obstinacy of those leading men of the Roman Catholick Irish Clergie if any other such occasion be ever offered at any time hereafter as that was they had of late may no more pretend to impose on others on the account of such unreasonable reasons Wherefore now to come up close and joyn issue with them they must give me leave to tell here that when my Lord Lieutenant demanded in effect by his message sent in writing by Richard Beling Esq their Subscriptions to the three last as to the three former of Sorbone their own Procurator Father Peter Walsh gave them in their publick assembly and in his Speech then and there on the Subject both cleer and evident reasons at large for the pertinencie in our case or as to the points controverted of their Subscriptions to those three last And such cleer and evident reasons too as manifestly evict this further truth that neither Remonstrance nor former three Propositions could signifie any thing at all to the King of an assurance of their fidelitie hereafter if they decline as the case then stood the Subscription of those other three Propositions The sum of which reasons given so by me though not joyntly all together but separatly as occasion shall require I mean to give the Reader that I may not seem to obtrude my bare word on him for proof as I answer their following Paragraphs and particular distinct observations therein of each of the said three last Propositions or which is the same thing where I refute hereafter their specifical proofes of those two general pretences So that in this place I have only first to except in general against such general allegations of theirs Secondly to taxe the penman with unsincerity in wording those pretences against his own knowledge and conscience He knew very well that both himself and generalitie of the Congregation understood these three last Propositions to be many ways appertaining and very material also to the points controverted And no less understood that they had not already cleared sufficiently all scruples either by their former Remonstrance separatly or joyntly with those three first Propositions they had before subscribed And yet he would penn those his own and the said Congregations two general answers in these words Because we conceive them not any way appertaining to the points controverted And though we did we thought we had already sufficiently cleared c. Thirdly to mind the Reader that in my two former tracts I have proved evidently and at large that the Congregation neither had already cleared all Scruples nor thought they had so either by their former Remonstrance separatly or joyntly with the three first Propositions they had already subscribed And consequently that their second general reason or pretence being so already and more than abundantly refuted what must be moreover expected from me now is That without any further taking notice of or reflexion on that unsincerity of the pen-man I no less evidently refute his or their specifical proofes of the above first general reason or allegation whether he or they conceive it to be true or false though I will not altogether so confine my self as not to be at liberty where I find cause given by them in their prosecution to shew by other particular Instances different from those I have before given but as the Subject now in hand shall require that even their second general reason or allegation must be also false whether he or they conceived it to be so or no. But for the more ample satisfaction and lesser trouble of the Reader as I have purposed I repeat here in their own words their first specifical proof which takes up intirely the second paragraph of their Paper And as to the fourth they mean the 4th French Proposition above given We looked upon it as not material in our debate For either we should sign it as it was conceived in the French original copie and we thought it impertinent to talke of the French Kings authority the Gallican privileges and Canons from whence they derive their Immunities c. or that we should have inserted them mutatis nominibus the names being onely changed and then we conceived not what more we might have said than had been touched already positively in the Remonstrance neither do we admit any power derogatory to His Majesties authority rights c. yea more positively than doth the French proposition as may appear To pass by now their expression That they looked upon it c. or not to inquire whether it be true or false that they did verily so look upon that French Proposition as not material I consider the matter or proof in it self abstracting from their looke That fourth Proposition as by Sorbone applied to themselves and French King is in these words That the same Faculty doth not approve or ever did any propositions contrary unto the French Kings authority or true liberties of the Gallican Church and Canons
received in the same Kingdom for example that the Pope can depose Bishops against the same Canons But as applicable to the Roman Catholick Congregation Clergie of Ireland and in pursuance of the manner the said Congregation expressed themselves in the three former Propositions signed by them should be in these other or like words That we do not approve nor ever shall any Propositions contrary to our Gracious Kings authority or true liberties of the Irish Church and Canons received in the same Kingdom for example that the Pope can depose Bishops against the same Canons This being the first of the three Propositions against the Subscription of which the Congregation gave in the first place and in their first Paragraph those two general reasons and being that to which in the next place or in their second Paragraph they have specifically applied those self same general reasons by the above dilemma who sees not but that with the first horn of this horned argument they push at shaddowes only or dreams for certainly it cannot be said by them that any man ever yet desired or intended their subscribing that Proposition as it lyes in terminis in the French or Latin original or as applied to or presented by Sorbon to the French King To what purpose then this first branch or indeed their whole dilemma as such if not to push at shaddowes or dreams to no other verily but to wast ink paper and time and make the vanity of a Sophister that composed it appear to the life All said therefore to any kind of purpose which yet is not much at all as shall be seen presently or with any kind of truth in this argument or in the assumption or conclusion of it or indeed in the whole Paragraph is comprised in the second part of the disjunctive antecedent where they deliver it thus or that we should have inserted them mutatis nominibus the names being onely changed By which names to be changed must be understood the words Faculty French King and Gallican Church Now marke the Sophistry for I take no notice of their incongruity of Speech of that or them or being only changed As by the former branch of the disjunctive and their animadversions on it they conclude against an imaginary Antagonist for they knew none else and were certain there was none or as they shew thereby or in that case and false imaginary supposition their first general reason excused their non-subscription to this 4th of Sorbone in the very tearms of that Faculty without any change or as they prove that proposition as such or in such tearms did not any way appertain unto the points controverted with them or with assuring sufficiently their own King of their own Allegiance in all matters so by the second branch of their said dilemma and what follows they would seem to conclude against a real opposer the sufficiency of their second general reason to excuse likewise their non-subscription to the self same fourth proposition applied as it should be mutatis nominibus the names being only changed as they speake So that as by the first branch they conclude an impertinency though only against an imaginary opposer even so by the second they would seem to evict a superfluitie against a real one And no man will press them in reason to an address or declaration or any kind of Subscription that is either impertinent or superfluous Behold the whole stress of their horned argument But I have said enough to their conclusion of impertinency And therefore now only to that other of superfluity And first that although I understand not wherefore they would rather break than bend to his Majestie 's or the Lord Lieutenants pleasure in subscribing even an impertinent or superfluous proposition if no other exception could be made as it seems they could not make any yet I will grant them freely that they should not subscribe any such either impertinent or superfluous proposition not even out of any kind of earthly respect for fear or favour But what then have they yet shewen against a real adversary the said fourth proposition applied as it should in our case mutatis nominibus to be such Themselves pretend not in such cases and so applied to make it seem impertinent Their only pretence as their whole strength is to make it when so applied to appear superfluous But how do they prove this pretence or this proposition to be superfluous in this case First indeed they tell us that in case the fourth proposition were so applied they conceive not what more they might have said by subscribing it than had been toucht already positively by them in their Remonstrance But this is idem per idem or petitio principii Next they add That they admit not any power derogatory to his Majesties Authority Rights c. Lastly they say if I understand their mind aright for the words are ill enough coucht for any good construction That they have more positively expressed themselves before in relation to the Kings Authority and Rights than is done by this French Proposition I confess here are in some semblance two sorts of new mediums for proving their purpose But the answers to all and each are obvious clear and evident And first to their first where they say That they conceive not what more they might have said than hath been toucht already positively in their Remonstrance it is answered that judicious men will hardly believe them That if any will be so credulous yet he will or can withal assure nay evidence unto them they might notwithstanding on better consideration have truly and certainly conceived the contrary That their Remonstrance and three former Propositions have been already proved in the two precedent tracts so vnsignificant as they needed very much to be added to them That allowing even the very best meaning which the very Congregation or the most sincere or most cunning of them can give the words of either of the said instruments or both together yet it is plain and manifest that they could and ought to have said more if they would have the King fully that is rationally satisfied or assured of their Allegiance in all suspected contingencies That even in that very best meaning both their Remonstrance and former Propositions dwelled in generals but this fourth came to very specifical and particular cases That we may very well conceive and acknowledge an undeprivable undeposable undispensable authority in the King even in those most extraordinary cases of Schisme Heresie Apostacy Tyranny c. and such an authority too and in such cases or any other whatsoever imaginable as is not de facto or de jure subject or accountable even to that extraordinary divine power pretended to be in the Pope at least in such extraordinary cases and at least also in him by way of declaration that I say we may very well conceive and acknowledge such an authority in the King or to govern as King and yet
vary about the many particulars to which his Royal Authority could extend it self and out of error attribute some such particulars to the Pope That besides notwithstanding our being right in our judgment or doctrine of the Kings supream power in Temporals and his independency in all kind of cases from any but God alone as to his said Temporals we might erre about the Temporals themselves and think many of them spirituals that are not such at all and consequently out of that error deny the Kings Authority where we should not That of this kind are all benefices Ecclesiastical as to the Lands and Revenues and all other earthly Goods any way belonging to the Church Nay and of this kind too the very bodies of ecclesiastical Persons how spiritual soever by denomination That we might also and out of errour notwithstanding our attributing sincerely the supream independent power to the King in all Temporals think or teach peradventure against the native liberties of the Irish Church such an unlimitted spiritual power in the Pope over the spiritual things or spiritual persons in this Kingdom as might be not only against the ancient spiritual Canons received in the said kingdom but against equity and reason and Religion too and very enormously also though indirectly or by consequence only but that an infallible one against the King and Kingdom even in their Temporals purely such As for example a power of election to all kind of benefices even Episcopal and Archiepiscopal Sees as well as Parochial Churches and to all these as well as those And a power of translation at his pleasure And a hundred others which may be read at large in Monsieur Pierre Pithou's great and most accurat work intituled Les Liberties de l'Eglise Gallicane and more briefly in Father Redmond Carons second Appendix to his Remonstrantia Hibernorum that last and most learned work of his and all without the Kings consent nay contrary to his express will and the fundamental Laws of the Land That it was therefore the Sorbon-Faculty who are men understand very well what is superfluous and what not and whether the matter of this fourth Proposition contained or not any thing different from the three former or from any other consisting of a general acknowledgment of their Kings most absolute independent Supremacy in Temporals it was I say therefore they would give immediatly after the three former this fourth as specifically declaring against those injuries might be otherwise done by the Pope to their Church Kingdom or King under pretence of such a spiritual power and right only which could not be said to be of its own nature either ordinarily or extraordinarily inconsistent with the supream absolute and independent power of their King in all contingencies whatsoever and yet per se would be unquestionably most injurious and grievous to them and per accidens might prove their utter bane and even as fatal to them as Bellarmine's indirect power in temporals which they protested against in their first proposition That Finally an ordinary person may understand it is one thing and much less to declare our indispensable Allegiance to the King and his independent power in all temporals and an other and much more to declare we understand that Allegiance so as we ought to hold it an incroachment on the Kings said temporal rights and authority and on the both temporal and spiritual rights also of his Catholick Subjects that the Pope should attempt in many or any particular within his Kingdoms to dispose for example sake of goods or persons though by title otherwise Ecclesiastical or Spiritual against the Canons by them received or which is the example of Sorbone to depose a Bishop within his Dominions against the said Canons And therefore it must be clear that by Subscribing the said fourth proposition duely applied mutatis nominibus the Congregation might very well and truly and rightly too have conceived they had said more than they had already or before by subscribing the former three Propositions and Remonstrance even in case I say their said Remonstrance and three Propositions had a full cleer and sufficient expression as from them to obviat all reservations abstractions distinctions equivocations c much more when it is apparent out of my two former Tracts there is no expression at all sufficient as from them to obviat such delusions So much for their first allegation or proof Though as I have before noted if it be intended a proof of the applicableness of their first general reason to the particular of this fourth Proposition it be no new medium but idem per idem and a petitio principij To their second which is that they admit not any power derogatory to His Majesties authority the answers are That I could wish 't were so indeed That they have given as yet no sufficient proof they do not if we understand what they here say as plain honest sincere men would understand these words That understanding by His Majestie 's authority what they do indeed which in effect is a very pittiful authority an authority at best and at most subordinat to that of the Pope Church and People when either please to declare against it in any of those extraordinary cases of Schisme Heresie Apostacie Tiranny c. and an authority also which even out of such cases hath no power to hinder the Pope's absolute disposition of all Ecclesiastical benefices and persons at his pleasure understanding I say this kind of authority their medium is new indeed but vain and inconclusive For how doth it follow we admit no power derogatory to such His Majesties authority Therefore we have already by saying so attributed to our Gracious King whatever the Sorbone Doctors in truth and reallity have to their own in this fourth proposition Or therefore we shall never approve any propositions contrary to His Majesties authority meaning such as it is indeed not such as by fiction curtayled nor approve any propositions contrary to the genuine liberties of the Irish Church and Canons received in the same Kingdom as for example that the Pope can depose Bishops against the same Canons Or therefore our second general reason for not subscribing the three last Propositions is specifically applicable to the first of them being in order the fourth of the six Which reason was that we thought we had already sufficiently cleared all Scruples If any of these consequences follow then hath Aristotle failed much in his Topicks As for their third allegation to prove this applicableness and consequently their subscription to this fourth to be not necessary but Superfluous which allegation is in effect as I understand it that they had already more positively declared themselves for the Kings authority rights c. and they should add too or at least mean if they would alledge any thing here to purpose that they had so declared themselves also for the true or genuin liberties of the Irish Church and Canons received in
this Kingdom and in that particular too that the Pope could not depose Bishops in Ireland against the same Canons for that their third allegation I say it appears already out of all hiterto said to be even as to both branches of this fourth proposition or in relation to the said branches more than positively more than abundantly false especially if we understand by the Kings authority rights c. what honest men without Sophistry understand For if we do not the allegation must be to no purpose though it should relate only to the first branch as appears manifestly out of what is before said to their first and second allegation And for the second branch or part of the said fourth proposition they have not as much as any kind of colour to say that in their Remonstrance or three first Propositions they have as much as glanced at it Which the Reader may see with his own eyes and of himself without any further proof of mine conclude evidently by comparing together this fourth Proposition and their said three former Propositions and Remonstrance What ground then had they for this third Sophistical allegation of a more positiveness I confess that notwithstanding I have read and read again ten times over and over their said Remonstrance and three Propositions signed by them and compared both to this fourth I see none at all but that very vnsignificant and sorry one which is by a little inconsiderable change of the first Proposition which the Congregation was absolutly necessitated unto if they would not be convinced by every Soul that knew their former actions of a manifest untruth and lye For the first Proposition of Sorbone declaring in the second part that the said Faculty had always or at all times thitherto resisted or opposed even such as attributed to the Pope as much as an indirect authority or an indirect authority alone over the temporals of the most Christian King it is manifest our Congregation could not imitate Sorbone as to that part or I mean for what concerned the time past or could not have said as those of that Faculty did in these words immo semper obstitisse Pacultatem eriant ijs qui indirectam tantummodo voluerunt esse illum authoritatem Which was the reason that forced them to change the Precerpâ—â— perfect tense of the infinitive moode which tense the Sorbonists did and justy could make use of as they framed that first Proposition and change it to the future tense of the Indicative moode and put it into this form we promise that we shall still oppose them who shall assert any power either direct or indirect over him in Civil and temporal affairs Now what more positiveness hath this of the future tense argued I would fain know of any man And other argument than this sorry though necessary change I see none if not peradventure the words natural and just added to obedience in the third Proposition Epithets not made use of here by Sorbone be not thought by Father N. N. to be arguments of more positiveness But if he do and shew himself herein less than a Sophister every understanding man can tell him presently that where Sorbone sayes and declares in the said third Proposition their doctrine to be quod Subditi fidem et obedientiam Regi Chriâ—â—tae nissim it a debent ut ab ijs nullo praetextu dispensari possint it was needless to add those or any other Epithets to that faith and obedience which they profess there to be so due from his own Subjects to the most Christian King that under no pretext soever they may be dispensed with therein For certainly every man knowes there is no faith or obedience due from them to him but natural and just as neither can be from us to our own King So that albeit those Epithets be good yet they and nothing to the French proposition much less more positiveness in the declaration And whither the word faith which the Sorboniâ—â— have in this their third Proposition and yet is omitted in the same by our Congregation whither purposely or not I know not certainly do argue a less positiveness of less â—ye or obligation I leave it to others to determine Having done with their second Paragraph we are now come to their third Which I give likewise at length and in then own words As to the 5th they mean the 5th Sorbone Proposition as here in terminis that it is noe the doctrine of the Faculty but applied to the Congregation That it is not our doctrine that the Pope is above the general Couneâ— We thought it likewise not material to our affaire to talke of a School-question of Divinity controverted in all Catholick Vniversities of the world whether the Pope be above general Councils or no whether he can annul the Acts of a general Council or no dissolve the general Council or whither contrary-wise the Council can depose the Pope c. Secondly we conceive it not onely impertinent but dangerous in its consequence and unseasonable to talke of a question which without any profit either to the King or his Subjects may breed jealousy between the King and his Subjects or may give the least overture to such odious and horrid disputes concerning the power of Kings and Common-wealths as our late sad experience hath taught us Where I observe two Specifical reasons and no more given by them for the applicableness to their present purpose here of their above first general pretence The first is that whether the Pope be above a general Council or no is disputed in all Catholick Vniversities The second that their subscription to the fifth Proposition of Paris or to their resolve on this question would give others to understand it must consequently follow it is not their doctrine that the King is above the Parliament It seems they were put to very narrow shifts when they stuffed their Paper with such weak arguments But the illness of the cause afforded them no better and their resolution not to subscibe having been so unalterable as it was they must have pretended the most specious they could not certainly out of any hope to render by such pretences their obstinacie excusable with any judicious knowing men much less to impose on the Lord Lieutenant for whose immediat satisfaction they would have others believe these reasons and arguments were so digested but for a quite other design which was to abuse the multitude or vulgar by pretences of reasons and arguments whereof the common People could not understand the weakness whom therefore I have thought paines-worthy to disabuse by these following answers And first to their first argument which sayeth it is disputed in all Catholick Vniversities whether the Pope be above a general Council or not and therefore concludes the immaterialness and impertinency of their subscription to that 5th of Paris or to this It is not our doctrine that the Pope is above a general Council it is answered That those of
and scandalously taught nay taught farr worse than ever Bellarmine did in that Howse or Colledge of the Society the chiefest of all that moved Sorbone at that time and juncture in 1663. was indeed as all the rest without any kind of inclination to or even the least immaginable approbation of Iansenisme But certainly was the removing out of their Kings brest in that suspicious conjuncture all kind of jealousie of a doctrine which being not disclaimed by them at that very time might render all their five former declarations or propositions wholy unsignificaâ—t as to any assurance of them to their King when it should please the Pope That be the immedâ—â—t or mediat occasion or both in part or in the whole too what Father N. N. sayes or at least by his invidious and no less truely impertinent unprofitable and odious digression to those disputes of the Iansenists and Anti-Iansenists would insinuat or impose on the reader be it that very debate betwixt them on the quaestio facti as he speaks whither the propositions condemned as heresie by the Pope be condemned in the true sense and meaning of the Iansenists or no whether in the book of Iansenius or no or be it also either in part or in the whole that contest of the Iansenists for the first way that is for the fallibility of the Pope declaring any matter as of faith without a general Council and be it this contest or allegation of theirs was onely to vindicate themselves from the censure and be it moreover that there was no other occasion moved the Faculty of Sorbone to this sixth declaration or proposition granting all and giving thereby to Father N. N. all the advantage he can desire I am content to joyn issue with him and leave it to all prudent men to judge whether hence must follow that the doctrine of the Popes infallibility as in it self and of it self abstractedly considered without any relation to Iansenisme or any other error or as considered by us does not touch our scope or that none can declare against the same thing but for the same cause that another doth I am sure all prudent men that withal are sufficiently knowing for I suppose it is onely to such Father N. N. appeals will confess that as there is often a vast difference betwixt the occasion and the thing occasioned so that which is occasioned may touch an other controversie although the occasion do not That whatever the occasions be of the declarations of Councils or Vniversities in doctrinal points yet the declarations must be always understood generally or indefinitly as the words are and without any limitation or restriction to particulars or to such occasions especially when and where such particulars or such occasions are not mentioned at all either concomitantly subsequently or precedently in the same or other instrument of such declarations as none are in this 6th or any of the other five precedent declarations of Sorbone or in the Instrument of them but such occasion onely as make them general That for the reasons above given neither the same cause nor the same end which the Iansenists had in asserting the Popes fallibility or declaring against his infallibility can be presumed of Sorbone and the rest of the Vniversities of France declaring against the same infallibility nor that limitation or restriction of their meaning to the case of Iansenisme alone That it has been always and must have been very often the practice even of general Councils to assert Christian â—aiths in a good cause and for a good end which truths even manifest notorious obstinat and condemned Hereticks had formerly and as stiffly maintained whether the cause or end they had therein was good or evil and that thereof are late examples enough in the very Council of Trent which defined many Catholick verities against Iohn Calvin and other Sectaries although Martin Luther had earnestly before and at the same time asserted the same truths and against the very self same other Sectaries And therefore it can be no prejudice to a declaration against the doctrine of the Popes pretended infallibility that the Iansenists had done the same already not even I say were it confessed of all hands the Iansenists were manifest notorious and convicted Hereticks That now and to come up closer yet to Father N. N. in the main debate I am content that either with or without any supposition at all or admittance or grant of any occasion either mediat or immediat or of any thing else but what the matter according truth bears along with and in or of it self only to leave that very main debate or quaerie to all prudent men to judge whether the Universities of France saying as Father N. N. here confesses of them and not of Sorbon only or whether they declaring publickly to the world in plain words That it is not their doctrine that the Pope without the consent of the Church is infallible whether I say this touched our scope or no But withal that as I have put the quaerie in Father N. N. his own words and in his own sense and as near his purpose too as himself could possibly frame it so I desire all such prudent men to consider that our scope is to assure his Majesty of the hearts and hands of all the Roman Catholicks of Ireland both Clergy and Laylty in all dangerous contingencies whatsoever but more especially in those wherein the Pope would peradventure concern himself on the account or pretence of Religion and in pursuance of such pretence though really for other ends declare against the lawfulness of the congregations Remonstrance or Oath of Allegiance or any other such former or latter of Allegiance though in temporal things alone and against the three first Propositions or any other in pursuance thereof signed by the said congregation or by any others for his Majesties greater assurance of their loyalty in temporal things only That whoever maintains the Popes infallibility where and when declaring by his papal Authority and without a General Council any doctrine sentence opinion proposition declaration acknowledgment engagement oath or promise to be unlawful or to be against the Catholick Faith or salvation of Souls or who refuseth in such a case as the congregation did refuse to disown that infallibility must be consequently resolved or at least must be supposed to be resolved to conform himself in practice when ever the occasion is offered to whatever Declarations of that nature shall at any time issue from his Holyness And consequently resolved to retract at his pleasure any form or any subscription to any form of Remonstrance Declaration or other writing whatsoever obliging them to be true liege-people to the King in temporal things only That it is no new thing with the Popes by their own immediat authority and with their Ministers on pretence of their authority whether truly granted or not granted to declare so against forms of Oathes Remonstrances or Declarations of Allegiance
hisce subscripsimus Kilkenniae 28 Januarii 1648. Jo Archiepiscopus Tuamen Fran Aladen Ed Limericensis THE ARTICLES OF PEACE Made and Concluded by his Excellency JAMES LORD Marquess of Ormond LORD LIEUTENANT GENERAL AND General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland on the behalf of His Majesty WITH THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the Roman-Catholicks of the said Kingdom on the behalf of His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects of the same Re-printed in the Year M.DC.LXXIII BY THE LORD LIEVTENANT GENERAL AND General Governour Of the Kingdom of IRELAND ORMONDE VVHEREAS Articles of Peace are made concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between Vs JAMES Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland by vertue of the Authority wherewith We are entrusted for and on the behalf of His Most Excellent Majesty of the one part and the General Assembly of the Roman-Catholicks of the said Kingdom for and on the behalf of His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects of the same on the other part A true Copy of which Articles of Peace is hereunto annexed We the Lord Lieutenant do by this Proclamation in His Majesties Name publish the same and do in His Majesties Name strictly charge and command all His Majesties Subjects and all others inhabiting or residing within His Majesties said Kingdom of Ireland to take notice thereof and to render due Obedience to the same in all the parts thereof And as His Majesty hath been induced to this Peace out of a deep sense of the miseries and calamities brought upon this His Kingdom and People and out of a hope conceived by His Majesty that it may prevent the further effusion of His Subjects Blood redeem them out of all the miseries and calamities under which they now suffer restore them to all quietness and happiness under His Majesties most gracious Government deliver the Kingdom in general from those Slaughters Depredations Rapines and Spoils which alwayes accompany a War encourage the Subjects and others with comfort to betake themselves to Trade Traffick Commerce Manufacture and all other things which uninterrupted may increase the wealth and strength of the Kingdom beget in all His Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom a perfect unity amongst themselves after the too long continued division amongst them So His Majesty assures Himself that all His Subjects of this His Kingdom duly considering the great and inestimable benefits which they may find in this Peace will with all duty render due Obedience thereunto And We in His Majesties Name do hereby declare That all persons so rendring due Obedience to the said Peace shall be protected cherished countenanced and supported by His Majesty and His Royal Authority according to the true intent and meaning of the said Articles of Peace Given at Our Castle of Kilkenny the Seventeenth day of January 1648. GOD SAVE THE KING ARTICLES of Peace made concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between his Excellency JAMES Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of Ireland for and on the behalf of His Most Excellent Majesty by vertue of the Authority wherewith the said Lord Lieutenant is intrusted on the one part And the GEMERAL ASSEMBLY of the Roman Catholicks of the said Kingdom for and on the behalf of His Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects of the same on the other part HIS Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects as thereunto bound by Allegiance Duty and Nature do most humbly and freely acknowledge and recognize their Sovereign Lord King Charles to be lawful and undoubted King of this Kingdom of Ireland and other His Highness Realms and Dominions And His Majesties said Roman Catholick Subjects apprehending with a deep sense the sad condition whereunto His Majesty is reduced as a further humble Testimony of their Loyalty do declare That they and their Posterity for ever to the uttermost of their power even to the expence of their blood and fortunes will maintain and uphold His Majesty His Heirs and lawful Successors their Rights Prerogatives Government and Authority and thereunto freely and heartily will render all due obedience OF which faithful and loyal Recognition and Declaration so seasonably made by the said Roman Catholicks His Majesty is graciously pleased to accept and accordingly to own them his loyal and dutiful Subjects and is further graciously pleased to extend unto them the following graces and securities I. IMprimis It is concluded accorded and agreed upon by and betweeen the said Lord Lieutenant for and on the behalf of His most Excellent Majesty and the said General Assembly for and on the behalf of the said Roman Catholick Subjects And His Majesty is graciously pleased that it shall be Enacted by Act to be past in the next Parliament to be held in this Kingdom That all and every the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion within the said Kingdom shall be free and exempt from all Mulcts Penalties Restraints and Inhibitions that are or may be imposed upon them by any Law Statute Usage or Custom whatsoever for or concerning the free exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion And that it shall be likewise Enacted That the said Roman Catholicks or any of them shall not be questioned or molested in their Persons Goods or Estates for any matter or cause whatsoever for concerning or by reason of the free exercise of their Religion by vertue of any Power Authority Statute Law or Usage whatsoever And that it shall be further Enacted That no Roman Catholick in this Kingdom shall be compelled to exercise any Religion Form of Devotion or Divine Service other than such as shall be agreeable to their Conscience and that they shall not be prejudiced or molested in their Persons Goods or Estates for not observing using or hearing the Book of Common Prayer or any other Form of Devotion or Divine Service by vertue or colour of any Statute made in the second year of Queen Elizabeth or by vertue or colour of any other Law Declaration of Law Statute Custom or Usage whatsoever made or declared to be made or declared And that it shall be further Enacted That the Professors of the Roman Catholick Religion or any of them be not bound or obliged to take the Oath commonly called the Oath of Supremacy expressed in the Statute of Secundo Eliz. cap. 10. or in any other Statute or Statutes and that the said Oath shall not be tendred to them and that the refusal of the said Oath shall not redound to the prejudice of them or any of them they taking the Oath of Allegiance in haec verba 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
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 shall for the present agree upon such persons who are to be authorized bay Commission under the Great Seal to be Commissioners of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in and throughout the Kingdom to continue during pleasure with such power as Justices of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in former times of Peace have usually had which is not to extend unto any crime or offence committed before the first of May last past and to be qualified with power to hear and determine all Civil Causes coming before them not exceeding Ten pounds Provided that they shall not meddle with Titles of Lands Provided likewise the authority of such Commissioners shall not extend to question any person or persons for any Shipping Cattel or Goods heretofore taken by either Party from the other or other injuries done contrary to the Articles of Cessation concluded by and with the said Roman-Catholick Party in or since May last but that the same shall be determined by such indifferent persons as the Lord Lieutenant 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 shall think fit to the end that speedy and equal justice may be done to all Parties grieved And the said Commissioners are to make their Estreats as accustomed in time of Peace and shall take the ensuing Oath viz. YOV shall Swear That as Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in the Counties of A. B. C. in all Articles of the Commission to you directed you shall do equal Right to the Poor and to the Rich after your cunning and wit and power and after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and in pursuance of these Articles And you shall not be of Council of any quarrel hanging before you And the Issues Fines and Anerciaments which shall happen to be made and all Forfeitures which shall happen before you you shall cause to be entred without any concealment or imbezling and truly send to the Court of Exchequer or to such other place as His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom shall appoint until there may be access unto the said Court of Exchequer You shall not let for gift or other cause but well and truly you shall do your office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in that behalf And that you take nothing for your office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery to be done but of the King and Fees accustomed And you shall not direct or cause to be directed any Warrant by you to be made to the Parties but you shall direct them to the Sheriffs and Bayliffs of the said Counties respectively or other the Kings Officers or Ministers or other indifferent persons to do execution thereof So help you God c. And that as well in the said Commission as in all other Commissions and Authorities to be issued in pursuance of these present Articles this Clause shall be inserted viz. That all Officers Civil and Martial shall be required to be aiding and assisting and obedient unto the said Commissioners and other persons to be authorized as abovesaid in the execution of their respective powers XXIX Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That His Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects do continue the possession of such of His Majesties Cities Garrisons Towns Forts and Castles which are within their now Quarters until settlement by Parliament and to be commanded ruled and governed in chief upon occasion of necessity as to the Martial and Military affairs by such as His Majesty or His chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom for the time being shall appoint and the said appointment to be 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 And His Majesties chief Governour or Governours is to issue Commissions accordingly to such persons as shall be so named and appointed as aforesaid for the executing of such Command Rule or Government to continue until all the particulars in these present Articles agreed on to pass in Parliament shall be accordingly passed only in case of death or misbehaviour such other person or persons to be appointed for the said Command Rule and Government to be named and appointed in the place or places of him or them who shall so dye or misbehave themselves as the chief Governour or Governours for the time being by 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 shall think fit and to be continued until settlement in Parliament as aforesaid XXX Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That all Customs and Tenths of Prizes belonging to His Majesty which from the perfection of these Articles shall fall due within this Kingdom shall be paid in to His Majesties Receipt or until recourse may be had thereunto in the ordinary legal way unto such person or persons and in such place and places and under such Comptrollers as the Lord Lieutenant shall appoint to be disposed of in order to the defence and safety of the Kingdom and the defraying of other the necessary publick Charges thereof for the ease of the Subjects in other their Levies Charges and Applotments And that all and every person and persons who are at present entrusted and employed by the said Roman-Catholicks in the Entries Receipts Collections or otherwise concerning the said Customs and Tenths of Prizes do continue their respective employments in the same until full settlement in Parliament accomptable to His Majesties Receipts or
Roman-Catholicks the 17th day of January 1648 and in the 24th year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. ORMONDE The DECLARATION intituled thus A Declaration Of the Archbishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Secular and Regular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland AGAINST The continuance of His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject the ill Conduct of His MAJESTIES Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace Dated at Jamestown in the Convent of the Fryers Minors August 12. 1650. THE Catholick People of Ireland in the year 1641. forced to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel intention made a Peace and published the same the 17th of January 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from His Majesty or from His Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now CHARLES II. hereby manifesting their Loyal thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when His Majesty was in restraint and neither He nor His Queen or Prince of Wales in condition to send any supply or relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were obtained by the above Pacification and thereby freed themselves from the danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the Power of England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and his Enemies in the Three Kingdoms Let the World judge if this be not an undeniable Argument of Loyalty This Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates ran sincerely and chearfully under His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast sums of Monies well nigh half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other Materials for War After his Excellency the said Lord Lieutenant frustrating the expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Natives which he began by violating the Peace in many parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the World I. FIrst The foresaid Catholicks having furnished his Excellency with the aforesaid Sum of Money which was sufficient to make up the Army of Fifteen thousand Foot and Two thousand five hundred Horse agreed upon by the Peace for the preservation of the Catholick Religion our Sovereigns interest and the Nation his Excellency gave Patents of Colonels and other Commanders over and above the party under the Lord Baron of Inchiquin to Protestants and upon them consumed the substance of the Kingdom who most of them afterwards betrayed or deserted us II. That the Holds and Ports of Munster as Cork Youghal Kingsale c. were put in the hands of faithless men of the Lord of Inchiquin's Party that betrayed these places to the Enemy to the utter endangering of the KING's interest in the whole Kingdom This good service they did His MAJESTY after soaking up the sweet and substance of His Catholick Subjects of Munster where it is remarkable That upon making the Peace his Excellency would no way allow His Loyal Catholick Subjects of Cork Youghal Kingsale and other Garrisons to return to their own Homes or Houses III. Catholick Commanders instanced by the Commissioners of Trust according to the Pacification and hereupon by his Excellencies Commission receiving their Commands in the Army as Colonel Patrick Purcel Major General of the Army and Colonel Peirce Fitz-Gerald alias Mr. Thomas Commissary of the Horse were removed without the consent of the said Commissioners and by no demerit of the Gentlemen and the said places that of Major General given to Daniel O Neil Esq a Protestant and that of Commissary of the Horse to Sir William Vaughan Knight and after the said Sir William â—s death to Sir Thomas Armstrong Knight both Protestants IV. A Judicature and legal way of administring Justice promised by the Articles of Peace was not performed but all process and proceedings done by Paper Petitions and thereby private Clerks and other corrupt Ministers inrich't the Subject ruined and no Justice done V. The Navigation the great support of Ireland quite beaten down his Excellency disheartning the Adventurers Undertakers and Owners as Captain Antonio and others favouring Hollanders and other Aliens by reversing of Judgments legally given and definitively concluded before his Commissioners Authority By which depressing of Maritime affairs and not providing for an orderly and good Tribunal of Admiralty we have hardly a Bottom left to transmit a Letter to His Majesty or any other Prince VI. The Church of Cloine in our possession at the time of making the Peace violently taken from us by the Lord of Inchiquin contrary to the Articles of Peace no Justice nor redress was made upon Application or Complaint VII That Oblations Book monies Interments and other Obventions in the Counties of Cork Waterford and Kerry were taken from the Catholick Priests and Pastors by the Ministers without any redress or restitution VIII That the Catholick Subjects of Munster lived in slavery under the Presidency of the Lord of Inchiquin these being their Judges that before were their Enemies and none of the Catholick Nobility or Gentry admitted to be of the Tribunal IX The Conduct of the Army was improvident and unfortunate Nothing hapned in Christianity more shameful than the disaster at Rathmines near Dublin where his Excellency as it seemed to ancient Travellers and men of experience who viewed all kept rather a Mart of Wares a Tribunal of Pleadings or a great Inne of Play Drinking and Pleasure than a well ordered Camp of Souldiers Droghedagh unrelieved was lost by storm with much bloodshed and the loss of the flower of Leinster Wexford lost much by the unskilfulness of a Governour a young man vain and unadvised Ross given up and that by his Excellencies order without any dispute by Colonel Luke Taffe having within near upon 2500 Souldiers desirous to fight After that the Enemy make a Bridge over the River of Ross a wonder to all men and understood by no man without any let or interruption our Forces being within Seven or eight Miles to the place where 200 Musqueteers at Rossberkine being timely ordered had interrupted this stupendious Bridge and made the Enemy weary of the Town Carrig being betrayed by the
gathered to that purpose to some other service And so VVe bid you heartily farewell from Shanbuoly the 14th of June 1650. Your loving Friend ORMOND To Our very loving Friend the Mayor of the City of Lymrick These But neither that nor all VVe could do upon subsequent Treaties and Overtures moving from themselves could at all prevail with them no not Our offer of putting Our self into the City and running the fortune of it when Ireton was encamped before it But to return to the proceedings of the Bishops whose next action was a meeting at Jamestown of their own meer motion and power where whether they have not taken upon them somewhat beyond the regulation of their Clergy and spiritual affairs upon which perhaps it is thought they may so meet though stretched to the remotest possibility of strained consequence will appear by the acts of that clandestine Assembly at the very entrance whereunto a Letter signed by the Archbishops of Dublin and Tuam gave Us some doubt what kind of Congregation that would prove Their said Letter and Our Answer to it follows in these words viz. May it please Your Excellency THis Nation become of late the fable and reproach of the Christianity is brought to a sad condition Notwithstanding the frequent and laborious meetings and consultations of the Prelates we find jealousies and fears deep in the hearts of men thorns hard to take out We see most men contributing to the Enemy and rendring their persons and substance useful to his malice and destructive to Religion and the Kings interest This kind of men if not timely prevented will betray irremediably themselves and us We find no stock or substance ordered for maintaining the Souldier nor is there an Army any way considerable in the Kingdom to recover what is lost or defend what we hold So as humanely speaking if God will not be pleased for his mercies sake to take off from us the heavy judgments of his anger we are fair for losing Sacred Religion the Kings Authority and Ireland The four Archbishops to acquit their own Consciences in the eyes of God have resolved to meet at Jamestown about the sixth day of the next month and to bring along as many of the Suffragans as may repair thither with safety The end of this consultation is to do what in us lyeth for the amendment of all Errors and recovery of this afflicted People If Your Excellency shall think fit in Your wisdom to send one or more persons to make Proposals for the safety of the Nation we shall not want willingness to prepare good Answers nor will we despair of the blessing of God and of his powerful influence to be upon our sincere intentions in that place Even so we conclude remaining Your EXCELLENCIES Most humble Servants Fr Thomas Dublin Jo Archiepiscopus Tuamen 24th July 1650. For his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland AFter Our hearty Commendations VVe received yours of the 24th of July on the first of this Month and do with much grief acknowledge That this Nation is brought into a sad condition and that by such means as when it shall be known abroad and by story delivered to Posterity will indeed be thought a Fable For it will seem incredible That any Nation should so madly affect and violently pursue the wayes leading to their own destruction as this People will appear to have done and that after the certain ruine they were running into was evidently and frequently discovered unto those that in all times and upon all other occasions have had power to persuade or compel them to what ever they thought fit And it will be less credible when it shall be declared as with truth it will be that the temporal spiritual and eternal interest and safety even of those that had this power and that have been thus forewarned did consist in making use of it to reclaim the People and direct them into the wayes of preservation To be plain it cannot be denied but the disobedience VVe have met with which VVe at large declared unto many of you who with divers others of the Nobility and Gentry were assembled at Loghreogh in April last were the certain ready wayes to the destruction of this Nation as by Our Letter of the first of May to that Assembly VVe made apparent Ancient and late experience hath made evident what power those of your Function have had to draw the People of this Nation to what they thought fit VVhether your Lordships have been convinced That the obedience which VVe desired should be given to His Majesties authority in Us pursuant to the Articles of Peace was the way to preserve the Nation VVe know not or whether your Lordships have made use of all the means at other times and upon other occasions exercised by you to procure this necessary obedience VVe shall not now determine Sure VVe are That since the said Assembly not only Lymerick hath persisted in the disobedience it was then in and aggravated the same by several affronts since fixed upon the Kings authority but Galway hath been seduced into like disobedience For want of due compliance from those places but principally from Lymerick it hath been impossible for us to raise or employ an Army against the Rebels For to attempt it any where on the other side of the Shannon but near Lymerick and without the absolute Command of that City to secure it could be no other than the certain ruine of the design in the very beginning of it the Rebels power being such as to dissipate with ease the foundation that should be laid there And to have done it on this side the Shannon was impossible since the ground-work of the Army must be raised and supported from thence which whil'st it was in forming would have exhausted all the substance of these parts and not have effected the work For want of such an Army which with Gods assistance might certainly have been long since raised if Lymerick had obeyed Our Orders the Rebels have without any considerable resistance from abroad taken Clonmel Tecroghan and Catherlagh and reduced Waterford and Duncannon to great and We fear irrecoverable distress The loss of these places and the want of any visible power to protect them hath doubtlesly induced many to contribute their substance and personal assistance to the Rebels from which whether they might have been with-held by Church Censures We know not but have not heard of any such which issued against them And lastly for want of such an Army the Rebels have taken to themselves the Contribution which might considerably have assisted to support an Army and preserve the Kingdom If therefore the end of your Consultation at Jamestown be to acquit your Consciences in the eyes of God the amendment of all Errors and the recovery of this afflicted People as by the Letter giving Us notice of your meeting is professed We have endeavoured briefly to shew That the Spring of Our past losses and
approaching ruine arises from disobedience and it will not be hard to shew That the Spring of those disobediences arises from the Forgeries invented the Calumnies spread against Government and the incitements of the People to Rebellion by very many of the Clergy That these are Errors are frequently practised and fit for amendment is no more to be doubted than that without they be amended the affliction of the People will continue and as is to be feared end in their utter destruction Which if prevented by what your Consultation will produce the happy effect of your meeting will be acknowledged without questioning the Authority by which you meet or expect Proposals from Us which other than what ye have formerly and now by this Our Letter made We hold not necessary And so We bid your Lordships farewell from Roscomon the second of August 1650. Your Lordships very loving Friend ORMOND In their said Letter they tell Us the end of their consultation was to do what in them lay to mend all Errors and recovery of the afflicted People And as if they had absolute power of Government they write to Us to send one or more persons to make Proposals to them for the safety of the Nation to which they say they shall not want willingness to prepare good Answers We leave it to the judgment of that Assembly whether the most absolute Monarch in Christendom could after a more Kingly manner have required the advice of His Subjects or with a more negligent State have promised gracious Answers Our Answer to the said Letter produced the expressions you will find in a Letter of theirs from Jamestown dated the 10th of August viz. May it please Your Excellency WE received Your Excellencies Letter of the second current Where to Our grief and admiration we saw some expressions that seem meant for casting a blame upon us of the present sad condition of the Kingdom which we hope to answer to the satisfaction of Your Excellency and the whole Nation In the mean time we premit this Protestation as we are Christian Catholick Prelates that we have done our endeavours with all earnestness and candor for taking away from the hearts of the People all jealousies and diffidences that were conceived the occasion of so many disasters that befel the Nation and that in all occasions our actions and co-operations were ready to accompany all Your Excellencies designs for preservation of all His Majesties interests in this Kingdom Whose State being in the present desperate condition we thought it our duty to offer unto Your Excellency our sense of the only possibility we could devise for its preservation and that by the intervention and expression of my Lord of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly Dean of Tuam who shall clearly deliver unto Your Excellency our thoughts and good intentions as to this effect praying Your Excellency to give full credit to what they will declare in our names in this business which will be still owned as our command laid upon them and the declaration of the sincere hearts of Jamestown dated the 10th of August 1650. Your EXCELLENCIES Most humble Servants H Ardmach Jo Archiep. Tuamen Jo Rapotensis Eugenius Killmore Nich Fernensis Procurator Archiepiscopi Dubliniensis Walt Clonferten Procurator Leghlin Fr Anto Cloanmacnosensis Episcopus Arthurus Dunensis Connerensis Th Higgin Procurat Ossor Fr Ricardus Kelly Procurat Kildar Rathbran Ord. Praed For His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland These Now let it be judged whether by this Letter We couâ—d suspect The satisfaction they intended to give Us and the whole Nation that they were free from working the disobediences We complained of and which they grieved and admired to be charged with could be their Declaration and Excommunication dated the 11th and 12th of August the very next day after they had sent the above recited Letter If We could have guessed at their purpose by their words and deep protestations We should rather have expected their sentences would have been fulminated generally against all of their Religion in this Kingdom that would not give Us full obedience and particularly against Lymerick and Galway if they persisted in the disobedience they were in than that an Excommunication should be published against any that would feed help or adhere unto Us. If this be a manifestation of the candor of their endeavours with all earnestness to take away from the hearts of the People all jealousies and diffidences We are much to seek for an argument of the contrary or how to understand protestations premitted in the name of Christian Catholick Prelates But to proceed here followeth their message sent by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly with Our Letter and Answer to their said message May it please Your Excellency WE being intrusted from the Clergy met at Jamestown to deliver a message to Your Excellency purporting their advice what the only means is as they conceive that may serve to free the Nation from the sad condition whereunto it is reduced at present do in obedience to Your Excellencies command signified for giving in the substance of the said message in writing humbly represent the same to be as followeth That whereas they doubt not Your Excellency hath laboured by other hands to bring the best aids that possibly could be had from abroad for relief of this gasping Nation yet finding now in their Conscience no other expedient or remedy for the preservation thereof and of His Majesties interests therein more prevalent than Your Excellencies speedy repair to His Majesty for preventing the ruine and desolation of all and leaving the Kings authority in the hands of some person or persons faithful to His Majesty and trusty to the Nation and such as the affection and confidence of the People will follow by which the rage and fury of the Enemy may receive interruption They humbly offer this important matter of safety or destruction of this Nation and the Kings interest to Your wisdom and consideration hoping the Kingdom by Your Excellencies presence with His Majesty and entrusting safely the Kings authority as above may with Gods blessing hold out until relieved with supplies from His Majesty The Prelates in the mean time will do what lieth in their power to assist the person or persons so entrusted The great trust His Majesty doth repose in Your Excellency the vast interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred You have in the Nation and Your experience in the management of affairs of greatest consequence will we doubt not added to other the reasons proposed by us induce You to embrace this advice as proceeding from our pious intentions that look only on the preservation of the Catholick Religion the support of His Majesties Authority and the Estates Liberties and Fortunes of His Subjects of this Kingdom Which we humbly offer as Your EXCELLENCIES Most humble Servants Fr Ol. Dromore Cha Kelly August 13. 1650. AFter Our hearty Commendations The Letter of Credence of the
10th of August from the Bishops met at Jamestown being delivered to Us on the 12th of the same by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly Dean of Tuam We desired them for the more sure and easie understanding and answering a Proposition of so high importance to reduce the substance of their message unto writing which on the 13th of the said month they accordingly did Which after We had considered and imparted to the Commissioners of Trust We found could not be so well answered in writing as We hoped it might be by a free and personal Conference with the said Prelates which on the 26th of this month We hoped might have been had In which hope We travelled hither at a time when Our presence towards the passages upon the Shannon betwixt Killaloe and Lymerick was very necessary for the defence of that part of the Kingdom lying on this side that River But finding now that the said Prelates have not found it convenient to be here We do according to your desire return Our answer to the foresaid Proposition by the Bishops of Cork and Clonfert And so We bid you heartily farewell from Loghreogh the 31 of August 1650. Your Lordships very loving Friend ORMOND To Our very loving Friends the Prelates met at Jamestown These An Answer to the Message delivered to Vs by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelâ—y Dean of Tuam from the Prelates met at Jamestown by vertue of their Letter desiring us to give full Credence to the said Bishop and Dean dated at Jamestown the 10th of Aug. 1650. The substance of which Message may be reduced to these particulars I. THe Message or Advice which is Our speedy repair to His Majesty to procure Supplies for the relief of the Kingdom leaving the Kings authority in the hands of some person or persons faithful to His Majesty and trusty to the Nation than which they say they can find no other expedient or remedy for relief of this gasping Nation and preservation of His Majesties interests therein or to prevent the ruine and desolation of all II. The reason of this Advice which is That thorough the Trust reposed in Us by His Majesty and our own interest in Fortune Alliance and Kindred in the Nation they hope those Supplies may more easily and speedily be obtained by Our mediation than by any other means III. The Prelates promise undertaking that in the mean time which We understand to be during Our absence they will do what lieth in their power to assist the person or persons that shall be entrusted with the Kings authority Whereunto We answer That as the principal motives inducing us thorough some hazards and many difficulties to come into this Kingdom were the obedience We owe to His Majesties command and Our earnest desire to preserve this Nation in their Allegiance to Him wherein We alwayes have and ever shall place Our interest and the interest of such Kindred and Allies as will be guided by Our advice or example so We shall alwayes readily expose Our Self to the like or greater hazards and difficulties to remove out of the Kingdom when We receive His Majesties command for it or shall be convinced that our removal tends more to His service and the preservation of the Nation than our stay We confess That observing the destructive disobedience and obstinacy of divers persons and places We were once of opinion That We might have done Our King and Countrey better service by withdrawing Our Self than by continuing here by how much there would then have been less ground for division when the Nation should be governed by one or more of their own Religion And sure We were That the stronger the resistance were that should be made against the Rebels under what conduct whatsoever the better it would be for the King and for the Nation And though We held it not fit for Us even in point of Honour in flat terms to propose Our removal which might have met with as great misinterpretation as other actions and propositions of Ours intended for the good of the People have done yet in a Discourse had with many of the Prelates first at Lymerick and afterwards here VVe did in a manner lead them to the Proposition they have now made And VVe freely acknowledge That if they and the Nobility and Gentry here met in April last had not in writing and in discourse given Us assurance That they not only desired Our stay but would endeavour to procure such obedience to Us as might enable Us with hope of success to have gone on in the VVar VVe should have made use of the liberty given Us or command then laid upon Us by His Majesty to have freed Our Self from the vexation We have since endured and the dishonour VVe foresaw VVe should be subject unto for want of that power without which as We then told the said Bishops c. VVe should be able to do nothing considerable for the King or Nation Those assurances VVe have transmitted to His Majesty as also Our resolution to attend the effects of them But those disobediences still continuing VVe have again acquainted Him with the state of His Affairs here and do daily expect His pleasure upon the representations VVe have made to him without which unless forced by inevitable necessity VVe cannot answer Our removal out of the Kingdom VVhich is our first and principal reason why VVe may not comply with the advice given Us. Another reason is That VVe plainly observe That though the division is great in the Nation under Our Government yet it will be greater upon Our removal For which in a free conference VVe should have given such pregnant evidence as VVe hold not fit this way to declare The third is That though since the meeting here where we were assured of such effectual endeavours to procure obedience to the King's authority placed in Us the particular disobediences VVe then instanced have continued and been improved by many other affronts yet it hath pleased God to raise His Majesties affairs elsewhere to so hopeful a condition that may occasion His Majesties sending Us such commands as VVe should be sorry should not find Us upon the place In the last place it is most certain That no mediation of Ours will prevail so much with His Majesty for sending relief and supplies hither as the representations VVe desire to be enabled to make of the dutifulness and obedience of the People whereunto to dispose them VVe do again call upon you to make use of all the means within your power Given at Loghreogh the 31 of August 1650. ORMOND By which VVe conceive it appears That neither from that message had VVe cause to fear that such terrible Declarations and Excommunications should so suddenly without any more warning have followed Our refusal or delay to remove out of the Kingdom The moderation and civility of their message and the reasons set down by Us for Our not going considered
the People should be deprived of the King's authority and the benefit of the Articles of Peace is apparent by this Declaration and Excommunication wherein they direct the People to return to their Association which is inconsistent with both and by the Answer of the Bishops at Galway to the Commissioners whereof We shall have occasion to speak hereafter And where they charge Us with Envy to the Nation for doing Our Duty to the King VVe hope to have given such proof of the contrary as hath satisfied the most interested men in the Nation And VVe conceive We could not have manifested Our affection to it by a more signal instance than by offering to leave His Majesties authority in the person of the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard and to withdraw Our Self to sollicite for Supplies when it was most probable they might be got finding that Our being a Protestant gave these Declarers some advantage to withdraw the People from their obedience to Us. Twelfth Article of the Declaration That his Excellency and the Lord Inchiquin when Enemies to the Catholicks being very active in unnatural execution against us and shedding the blood of poor Priests and Churchmen have shewed little of action since this Peace but for many months kept themselves in Connaught and Thomond where no danger or the Enemy appeared spending â—heir time as most men observed in Play Pleasure and great merriment while the other parts of the Kingdom were bleeding under the Sword of the Enemy This was no great argument of sense or grief in them to see a Kingdom lost to His Majesty ANSWER We are not willing to look back so far as to the time when by His Majesties Command and Commission We bore Arms in the War against the Confederates but must justifie Our Self That We were never active in unnatural execution against them but have many times suffered much Calumny for Our desire of preserving many of them that fell into Our hands as some in that Assembly can witness who were by Our means preserved and if they think fit may testifie as much But if the Declarers oppose Our being active then to Our unactivity this last Summer as an argument of Our want of desire to oppose the Enemy We answer That in the time they mention We had free Election of Officers the absolute power of Dublin and other Garrisons where We caused the Souldiers to be continually exercised their Arms kept in order and could in a short time when We pleased have drawn the Army together and marched with it where We pleased Advantages which rendred the Victories We gained full as easie as those gotten by the Enemy against Us have been upon the like advantage on their part It is true That all this last Summer We and the Lord Inchiquin have continued in Connaught and Thomond where there was no Enemy But it is also true That We were not suffered to have the means of preparing an Army fit to seek or oppose an Enemy as We have set down in Our Letter of the second of August to the Bishops at Jamestown recited formerly upon another occasion And since they here mention the Lord Inchiquin with Us We think fit to mind divers in that Assembly to whom it is well known that many of the Bishops did long since upon several occasions declare That all their suspition and the suspition the People held of Us was by reason of the power the Lord Inchiquin had with Us. And that during his continuance in employment or the continuance of any of his Party in the Army it was not possible for them to remove that suspition out of the minds of the People But that if his Lordship were once out of Command and his Party removed they doubted not full and chearful obedience would be given Us. Hereupon his Lordship voluntarily withdrew himself from having to do with the conduct of the Army yet is he by these men charged for want of activity When his Lordship had thus waved his employment and his Party were gone off and that they had wrought the like distrust of the remainder of the Party that came off to Us from Dublin and other parts so that now We were forced likewise to send them away then they judged it a fit time for them to declare also against Us. Then divers Bishops and other Churchmen changed their note and dealt underhand with the Lord Inchiquin to stay in the Kingdom though We should go saying That the distrust and dislike of the People was only against Vs and not against him Then they fell first to call their meeting at Jamestown and then to publish this Declaration from which they were with-held for fear all the time the foresaid Parties were with Us. This We suspected would be the issue of their working away the Protestant Party and of all their promises Yet to leave them wholly without excuse and to satisfie some that believed better of them We consented to part with those men of whose courage and fidelity to His Majesty and affection to Us We had good experience and cast Our Self wholly upon the assurances these Bishops and others had so often and so solemnly made to Us of giving Us and procuring for Us all possible compliance and obedience the result whereof appears in their Declaration Yet it is very well known That whenever the Enemy drew towards the Shannon side We drew together all the men We could to the defence of the passages which otherwise the Enemy had gained And whatever Our play and merriment was We had certainly as great cause to grieve at the loss of a Kingdom to His Majesty as these Declarers who have not carried themselves so towards him as to expect a greater proportion of His favour than We. Thirteenth Article of the Declaration That his Excellency when prospering put no trust of places taken in into the hands of Catholicks as that of Drogheda Dundalk Trym c. and by this his diffidence in Catholicks and by other his actions and expressions the Catholick Army had no heart to fight or to be under his Command and feared greatly if he had mastered the Enemy and with them the Commissioners of Trust or the greater part of them and many Thousands of the Kingdom also feared he would have brought the Catholick Subjects and their Religion to the old slavery ANSWER In answer to this Article VVe say that Drogheda was put into the hands and trust of Sir Arthur Ashton a Roman-Catholick and that of the Souldiers and Officers of that Garrison the greater part were of that Religion That for Trym it was governed by Mr. Daniel O Neil who though a Protestant was yet a Native of this Kingdom and one that had manifested great affection to the Nation That the greater part of the Officers and Souldiers with him were Roman-Catholicks and that the Lord Viscount Dillon a Roman-Catholick had Command over the said Daniel O Neil For Dundalk it is known that place was given up
and for his own Names sake will deliver us Deus Eliae the God of wonders and miracles erit etiam nunc apud Hibernos if our Faith prove strong and our actions sound and sincere We will conclude with St. Paul that Ocean of Wisdom and Doctor of Nations Si Deus pro nobis quis contra nos Quis accusabit adversus electos Dei Deus qui justificat quis est qui condemnat Quis ergo nos separabit a charitate Christi Tribulatio an angustia an fames an nuditas an periculum persecutio an gladius sed in his omnibus superamus propter eum qui dilexit nos Let nothing separate you from the burning charity of Christ and God will ever preserve protect and bless you SIGNED Nicolaus Fernensis Procurator Dubliniensis Fr Antonius Cloanmacnoisensis Walterus Clonfertensis Procurator Laghlinensis Fr Arthurus Dunensis Connorensis Procurator Dromorensis Carolus Kelly S. T. D. Decanus Tuamensis Fr Bernardus Egan Procurator R. admodum P. Provincialis Fratrum Minorum Fr Ricardus O Kelly Procurator Vicarii Generalii Kildariensis Prior Rathbran Ordinis Praedicatorum Lucas Plunket S.T.D. Protonot Apostol Rector Collegii de Kilecu Exercitus Lageniae Capellanus Major Hugo Ardmaghanus Joannes Archiepiscopus Tuamensis Joannes Rapotensis Eugenius Kilmorensis Franciscus Aladensis Fr Gulielmus de Burgo Provincialis Ordinis Praedicatorum Jacobus Abbas de Conga Commissarius Generalis Can. Reg. S. Augustin Walterus Enos S. T. D. Protonotarius Apost Thesaurar Fernensis Procurator Ecclesiae Collegiatae Galviensis Thadaeus Eganus S. T. D. Praepositus Tuamensis Joannes Doulaeus Juris Doctor Abbas de Cilmanagh unus ex Procuratoribus Capitali Cleri Tuamensis And we the undernamed sitting at Galway with the Committee authorized by the Congregation held at Jamestown the 6th of Aug. currentis do concur with the above Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries in the above Declaration and withal do now make firm the same as an Act of our own by our several Subscriptions this 23d of August 1650. Fr Terentius Imolacensis Jacobus Fallonus Vicarius Apostolicus Accadensis Thomas Casselensis Joannes Laonensis Edmundus Lymericensis Robertus Corcagiensis Cloanensis ANSWER This Conclusion of their Declaration is a general recapitulation of the miseries and desolation fallen upon the Kingdom and People in Tragical and passionate expressions endeavouring to infuse into them a belief that all those Afflictions are thorough Our means fallen upon them whereas We suppose We have made it evident That next to the good pleasure of God to chastise the Nation the reason thereof may most reasonably be attributed to the Sedition Disloyalty Pride Covetousness and Ambition to Rule of these Declarers whom VVe challenge to instance whom VVe have born down that would have fought for them or whom cherished or advanced that would or did betray them And where they say That some are inclining to submit to those they call the Parliament persuading themselves that there can be no safety under Our Government attended by fate and disaster as they express themselves more like Heathen Poets than Christian Bishops and Churchmen it is known to some there That to Our certain knowledge divers persons and places of consideration would have submitted to the Enemy if We had gone rather than live under the Tyranny and confusion of the Government projected by these Declarers which was the principal reason of Our stay as will We fear be too evidently verified when We are gone unless that Assembly prevent it by more prudent temperate and solid determinations than these men are capable of giving or receiving Next they say That for prevention of those evils and that the Kingdom should not be utterly lost to His Majesty and His Catholick Subjects they found themselves bound in Conscience to declare against the continuance of His Majesties Authority in Vs and accordingly in their own Name and in the Name of the rest of the Catholicks of the Kingdom they do declare against the continuance of His Majesties Authority in Vs having by Our misgovernment and ill conduct of the Army and breach of Publick Faith rendred Our Self uncapable of continuing that great Trust any longer To which We answer That to prevent the loss of the Kingdom to His Majesty they take the Kingdom to themselves and without so much as making any address to Him or pretending to have received any direction or Commission from Him they declare to the People that they are no longer obliged to obey any Orders or Commands of the person by Commission authorized from him but until a General Assembly may conveniently be called or until upon application to His Majesty he settle the same elsewhere to observe the form of Government the said Congregation shall prescribe Whereby is to be observed That as they take it upon them when they please and in the highest Temporal affairs in the world to declare the sense of the People without their consent a thing that We have never read or heard was ever till now pretended to by King Pope or Clergy so they evidently assume the power of dissolving and erecting the Temporal Government of the Kingdom And this they say they found themselves bound in Conscience to do Which being a pretence inscrutable and at all times readily to be taken up can only be answered by the Laws of the Land that will not allow the excuse of Conscience for taking a Purse on the Highway or to come home to this matter for Acts of High Treason For the Clause viz. or until upon application to His Majesty he settle the same elsewhere it is inserted with purpose to abuse the People with a belief of their Loyalty when they have first incited them to Rebellion Touching the complaint they say will make against Vs to His Mejesty it should in reason and justice have preceded their Declaration And if either His Majesty had refused them hearing and justice or if We had not submitted to His determination there had been some colour for their proceeding as they did In the last part of their Conclusion they prepare the People with an Apology of the desperate state the Kingdom is left in by Us to bear the more patiently the utter loss of it under the Government they would set up and with a touch indeed of Episcopal counsel to amend their lives and depend upon Gods providence and protection they dismiss them Wherein what example they have given them We leave to the judgment of God the Searcher of hearts and the impartial Judge of the thoughts and actions of men In the Order attested by the Bishop of Clonfert for publication of the Excommunication which publication was made at Laghreogh the 15th of September it is expressed that the Order given to the Committee of Bishops at Galway by the Congregation at Jamestown was That in case VVe would not depart the Kingdom upon their advice and depute the Kings Authority with persons of Trust or that We denied to depart
the Kingdom and no demonstration could be made how the Kingdom could be preserved under Our Government that then the said Declaration should be published It is further expressed in the said Order That VVe being sollicited to the effect aforesaid with urgent reasons absolutely denied to consent thereunto and that VVe neither did nor could demonstrate unto them any way of preserving the remainder of the Kingdom under Our Government and therefore according to the Trust reposed in them by the said Congregation they did publish the said Declaration denouncing to all Archbishops Bishops c. This is all VVe observe in this Order of Publication more than is contained in the Declaration at Jamestown VVhat We have to answer in this Order for Publication is briefly this They held it fit VVe should quit the Kingdom and depute the King's Authority with some person or persons of Trust that is pleasing to them We refuse so to do upon their advice giving them some reasons why We refuse and promising them more if they would at a free Conference hear them For not following this advice without refuting the Reasons We gave for Our not going and without hearing or so much as asking what other reasons those were which We were unwilling to write and yet would tell them at a free Conference by which caution they might imagine they were of moment they proceded to their Declaration and Excommunication Here though We have formerly touched it let it be observed That having several times and upon several occasions offered to leave the Kingdom and to depute the Kings authority not to disparage the Nation with the onely person in all respects fit for it and a Roman-Catholick This was not accepted of but We are made believe the Lord of Inchiquin being removed from any charge of the Army and the Protestant Party gone there remained no further distrust or dislike of Us and that then all obedience would be given Us. All this and whatever else they advised being done on Our part Our Frigat which lay in Ire-Connaught whence We might have securely gone being sent away and the Harbours blocked up by the Rebels ships they impose upon Us to effect an impossibility namely to go out of the Kingdom without means of Transportation or else as far in them lies We are rendred infamous throughout the world and to all Ages by their defamatory Libel Whatever Our demerit had been and if We were the faithless the negligent the every way unworthy person they have described Us to be certainly they cannot free themselves from the guilt of so mean and base a Treachery Let it be next considered That if when a company of Bishops or a Congregation of Archbishops Bishops c have a mind to set up themselves or any others as Governours over the Kingdom and this power they assume at least in the interval of Assemblies and have now twice practised it and the Governour appointed by Royal Authority or when that is absent which should never be supposed by a just Representative of the Nation will not give them room by quitting the Government he is placed in at their desire without direction from the Power whence he derives his Authority or without unavoidable necessity inforcing him if We say for his not doing a thing so contrary to the Trust reposed in him to the sense of those intrusted by the People as the Commissioners of Trust were and contrary to the sense of the most interested persons of the Kingdom the foresaid company of Bishops or Congregation may therefore with impunity deliver all men to Satan that shall feed help or adhere to him it is in this case easie to discover that Bishops or a Congregation thus doing do aim at and will if so permitted easily compass the Supreme Temporal Power If it be said They only do it upon evident necessity for the preservation of the People in apparent hazard of being lost and that in this case only of so absolute necessity they pretend to such power and when informed or convinced will lay it down to the King or Assembly We believe no King or State careful of their own preservation will allow they have this power even in this case For instance if the Bishops or Congregation of both Clergies of the Kingdom of Naples or of any Signiory under the State of Venice should pretend to a power upon any necessity whatsoever whereof the said Bishops and Congregation to be Judges of discharging the Subjects of the King of Spain from obeying the Vice-Roy of Naples or the Subjects of any Signiory under the State of Venice from obeying the Governour of any such Signiory appointed by the State directing them in the mean time to observe and obey such Form of Government as the said Congregation should prescribe till it should be otherwise ordered by the said King or State VVe suppose it would not pass for Orthodox Doctrine in that Roman-Catholick Kingdom or State That a Congregation is qualified with such power Nor would the necessity of their so doing nor yet the sanctity of their function or persons protect them from severe punishment That Our Kings Prerogative in that particular is as great in this Kingdom as the King of Spains in Naples or that of the State of Venice in any Signiory of theirs it is Treason to deny as it is to affirm That in this particular such a Congregation here hath more authority than a like Congregation in that Kingdom or State But these men have not only in this case exceeded whatever at any time or in any place was pretended to by any of their Function but had less ground if less might be for such a pretension than any others For here in a solemn Assembly of the Nation a Peace was concluded most of the Bishops signing this Declaration were actually there consenting to the Peace and all the Congregation either at or after the conclusion of the Peace subscribed to it So that by the general consent of the Congregation first or last Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery c were to look to the performance of the Articles of Peace and thereby had greater pretence to be proper Judges of the violation of the said Articles than this Congregation Yet without consulting them they publish this Declaration and fulminate their Excommunication against any that should adhere to Us among other things for pretended violations of the Peace and would not by the said Commissioners be persuaded to retract it VVhere they say We neither did nor could demonstrate unto them any way of preserving the remainder of the Kingdom under Our Government it was a question never asked of Us either by the Bishop of Dromore and Dr. Charles Kelly who brought Us the message or by the Bishops of Cork and Clonfert that were sent to Us for Our Answer or indeed by any other If such a question had been moved to Us VVe should doubtless have answered That the most probable
will not agree with the Parliament for not having it We are of opinion the best remedy the King 's Authority being taken away as was said of meeting this inconvenience of the Peoples closing with the Parliament is returning to the Confederacy as was intended by the Nation in case of breach of the Peace of His Majesties part This will keep an union amongst us if men will not be precipitantly guilty of breach of their Oath of Association which Oath by two solemn Orders of two several Assemblies is to continue binding if any breach of the Articles should happen of His Majesties part The King 's Authority and the Lord Lieutenants Commission being recalled by the Declaration abovesaid we are of opinion the Lord Lieutenant hath no such Authority to leave If we must expose Lives and Fortunes to the hazard of fighting for making good that Peace seeing the danger and prejudice is alike to defend that or get a better Peace why should we bound our selves within the limits of those Articles so disavowed Answer To this VVe answer That if they were alwayes of opinion all their endeavours should be employed to keep the King's Authority over them their Declaration and Excommunication is a strange way of manifesting that opinion which Declaration and Excommunication bears date before His Majesties Declaration wherein they say He throweth away the Nation as Rebels So that whatever His Majesty hath done in withdrawing His Authority it is apparent their endeavour to drive it away was first in time In their advice of returning to the Confederacy appears the scope of their dilemma's and arguments against the continuance of the King's Authority over them which that they may be sure to be rid of they say VVe have not Authority to leave Their Reasons why in Conscience they cannot consent to the revocation of their Declaration and Excommunication follow Vpon consideration of the whole matter we may not consent with safety of Conscience to the Provisoes of revoking our Declaration and Excommunication demanded by his Excellency or granting any assurance to him or the Commissioners of Trust for not attempting the like in the future and that for many Reasons especially for First Reason That the King's Authority is not in the Lord Lieutenant nor power in us to confer a new Authority on him being also destructive to the Nation to continue it in him and preservative if in another And that was our sense when we declared against the King's Authority in his person Answer The King's Authority was to Us when the Declaration and Excommunication was framed by them they acknowledge And that it is still in Us notwithstanding His Majesties said Declaration VVe are able to make good if We could find it of advantage to His service or the safety of His good Subjects But that they confess It is not in them to confer a new Authority upon us is one of the few Truths they have set down Yet why they may not pretend to give as well as take away Authority and why they may not to Us as well as to others We know not They further say It is destructive to the Nation if continued in Vs and preservative if in another and this they say was their sense when they declared against the King's Authority in Our person We would gladly know what We have done to change their sense since the time that by their many professions formerly recited they seemed to be of another opinion If it be for doing little or nothing We believe We have made it appear they are principally guilty of Our being out of action That it will be preservative to the Nation to have Authority to govern it in another We shall be glad to be convinced in the event Second Reason We much fear we should lose the few Churches remaining under his Government as we lost under him all the Churches of the Cities of Waterford and Kilkenny and the Towns of Wexford Rosse Clonmel Cashel Fethard Kilmallock c. In this agreeing with the Maccabees Maximus vero primus pro sactitate timâ—r exat templi Answer The loss of the places mentioned here is answered elsewhere We shall only add That as Cashel was lately deserted by some of those these men esteem obedient Children of Holy Church so the same men could neither be persuaded nor forced into Kilkenny when they had orders for it and by that means both places were lost Third Reason His Excellency having declared at Cork That he will maintain during his life the Protestant Religion according to the example of the best Reformed Churches which may be the same in substance with the Oath of Covenant for ought we know we may not expect from him defence of the Catholick Religion Answer Whatever We declared at Cork in this particular was before the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and was published in Print and then well known to many of these Bishops So that they ought then to have been aware how they had concluded a Peace with one that had made such a Declaration rather than now after almost Two years to make it a ground of breaking the Peace What Our opinion is of the Covenant or the best Reformed Churches We hold not Our Self obliged to declare Resolved We were to defend the Peace concluded by Us in all the parts of it Which We have faithfully endeavoured to do and should still have endeavoured it if We had not been interrupted affronted and wholly disabled therein by the contrivement of those very Bishops their Brethren and Instruments Fourth Reason The scandal over all the world to make choice of one of a different Religion especially in Rome where His Holiness in His Agreement or Articles with the Queen of England had a Catholick Governour granted though not performed And we do fear the scourges of War and Plague that have fallen so heavy upon us are some evidences of Gods anger against us for putting Gods Causes and Churches under such a hand whereas that Trust might have been managed in a Catholick hand under the King's authority Answer Now at length they are come plainly to shew the true ground of their Exception to Us which they have endeavoured all the while to disguise under the personal scandals they have endeavoured to cast upon us They are afraid of scandal at Rome for making choice as they call it as if they might choose their Governours of one of a different Religion If this be allowed them why they may not next pretend to the same fear of scandal for having a King of a different Religion and to the power of choosing one of their own Religion We know not Touching any agreement made between the Queen of England and His Holiness for a Governour for this Kingdom We have never heard of any such and We are most confident That in the agreement and consequently in the want of performance Her Majesty is falsely aspersed by the framers of this Paper Fifth Reason That we shall
find no succour or countenance from any Catholick Prince of the Church or Laity he governing but reproach and disgrace Answer We believe that no Prince or State that could not be induced to succour or countenance this Nation being under obedience to their natural King will succour or countenance it if it suffer it self to be seduced into Rebellion upon the motives suggested by these men and their Brethren which were to give evil example to their own Subjects and hazard the quiet of their Kingdoms or States Sixth Reason That the Souldiers by the ill success of his conduct have not the heart to fight under him and so we shall be lost if we come to fighting Seventh Reason We find the People generally in great fear to be lost under his Government and are of opinion That the greater part of the People will agree with the Parliament if the Authority were continued in him despairing of defence under him Answer To these We have answered elsewhere * * From page 109. to page 115. in this Discourse Eighth Reason That we declared against him having the King's Authority out of no spleen or malice against his person so save us God but for the fear we had upon good deliberation of the utter ruine and destruction of the Nation under his Government and that now finding no reasons or wayes of preservation by him we may not with reason be induced to alter our opinion especially the Kings authority being not in him Answer We cannot sufficiently wonder That men having no spleen or malice to our person have yet been so Transported by their desire to have a Governour to their mind as to asperse us with so many untruths as they have been detected of in this Discourse Or why if their charity be such as they speak of they chose not rather to deal freely with Us in private when VVe so often provoked them to it than to join with others to keep Us here against Our inclination as if it were on purpose to send Us away irrecoverably blasted in Honour and Reputation by their publick Declaration Ninth Reason That those two considerable Corporations remaining are at great distance with his Excellency for giving Commissions to take away their Goods and other Reasons and are thought to be resolved not to submit to him though they resolve to appear as in their intentions and actions they conceive they are faithful to the Crown and to the Kings authority obedient if placed in another person Answer As to the Commissions here mentioned to be given by Us against Lymerick the many provocations disobediences affronts and challenges of dues by the Commissioners applotted on them required much more at Our hands than VVe did VVhich you will find by the ensuing Discourse though therein VVe are necessitated to re-assume in part what VVe formerly said of the demeanour of that City That VVe having for a long time observed the great disadvantage His Majesties service in the conduct of the VVar hath been subject unto for want of Garrisoning the Army in the principal Cities and Towns of this Kingdom whereby the Army could not but be undisciplin'd and unfit for action the Countrey where VVe have been forced to quarter them at large burthened and destroyed and the said Cities and Towns on the defence whereof depended the preservation of the Kingdom with the lives liberties and fortunes of all His Majesties good Subjects therein in apparent hazard of being lost upon the approach of an Enemy as by sad experience hath been verified in the loss of some places of importance for the want of the seasonable admitting into them of fitting Governours and Garrison Souldiers VVe did on the 14th of January last propose unto the Commissioners authorized by Us in pursuance of the Articles of Peace That then immediately Lymerick and other places should be strongly Garrison'd and Fortifi'd and in pursuance of the said Articles VVe offer'd unto them the names of three persons of the Roman-Catholick Religion that out of them they might choose one for the Command of Lymerick But the Plague increasing at Kilkenny together with the necessity of dissolving the meeting then there and for other important Reasons the Election of a Governour of the said City of Lymerick was deferred to the end that at Our coming thither VVe might in the manner prescribed by the Articles of Peace make choice of such a Person and Garrison as might be at once fit for so important a Charge and beyond all possibility of being lyable to just Exception from that Corporation We leave it to the Commissioners and others that then attended Us to witness what pains We there took to satisfie those of that City in the necessity of their speedy receiving a Governour and Garrison in relation to all the interests that can be of value with any people what Our patience was in passing by many disrespects and marks of an unworthy distrust put upon us there as particularly the Officer commanding the City Guards neither came to Us for orders nor imparted any to Us That no Officer of the Army nor any other person could without special leave and that hardly obtained from the Mayor be admitted to come to Us to receive Our commands and directions for resisting the Rebels than by this means prevailing in the County of Lymerick and other places and That the Lord Viscount Kilmallock a Peer of the Realm and an Officer of the Army was We being upon the place restrained of his liberty for no other reason than for quartering by Our orders for one Night some few Horse under his Command in the liberties of the City When thorough such their deportment We despaired of persuading them to the wayes leading to their proper safety and also judged it far beneath the honour of Our Master to remain any longer in a place where such Affronts were put upon His Authority intrusted with Us We determined to remove from thence to Loghreogh appointing the said Commissioners and as many of the Roman-Catholick Bishops as were within any convenient distance to meet Us there on the 19th of March Where being met We declared unto them the necessity of Garrisoning that City and gave them some notice of Our resentment of Our usage there yet sparingly in hope that by their means they might be brought to consent to what was so necessary for their own preservation and in time to a better understanding of their duty to His Majesties Authority Whereupon the said Commissioners by two of their number directed very pressing and rational Letters to that Corporation to the effect proposed by Us offering to them their choice of five persons for the Martial Government of that City all of the Roman-Catholick Religion of considerable interest in the Kingdom and of unblemished Reputation And the Bishops do affirm That they accompanied those Letters with others from themselves persuading that obedience should be given to what was required by Us with the advice and consent of
and criminal nature Fourthly That in the Month of September last there was published and declared in the Town of Galway a false scandalous and trayterous Excommunication and Declaration against any that should obey or adhere unto His Majesties Government and Authority in Us who are onely therewith trusted as Lord Lieutenant of this His Majesties Kingdom and another Power and Government without and against His Majesties said Government set up and practised and that the Mayor and Aldermen with a multitude of others of the said Corporation were present countenancing and abetting the said trayterous Excommunication and Declaration and do yet countenance and abett the same by entertaining relieving and cherishing the contrivers and publishers thereof Which by the Laws in force in this Land is High Treason Fifthly That in the said Month of September last or in the Month of October the Captain of the Guards of that Town commonly called the Captain of the young Men did make search for Us in the said Town as after a Criminal person or Fugitive thereby endeavouring to bring scorn and contempt upon Us and His Majesties Authority placed in Us. Lastly There were divers Sums of Money put aboard the Ship called the Seven Stars to be Transported out of the Kingdom without Licence there were Fells and divers other Commodities put aboard un-entred in the Custom-house for which Goods no Custom was paid to His Majesty Which were sufficient grounds to cause the said Ship and Goods to be seized on the Goods belonging to Merchants of Lymerick and Galway as was acknowledged in Letters from the Mayors of both Corporations desiring restitution Eleventh Reason The vast Sums of money and the stock of the people consumed more being spent to lose the Kingdom than the Enemy bestowed to conquer us not accompted for though often demanded doth disanimate the people to come again under His Government Answer For as much of this as concerns Us VVe have answered in Our Answer to the Declaration of the Bishops and shall onely add That VVe are neither by the Articles of Peace to accompt for Monies spent nor to bring any Receiver to accompt but that power is in the Commissioners by the 28th Article of the Peace Here again they take upon them to declare the sense of the People without Authority from them Twelfth Reason The event of War being uncertain if the Nation should be reduced to the condition of agreeing with the Enemy His Excellency were not a fit man to agree for the exercise of our Religion Churches Altars or any thing concerning the same Answer VVe acknowledge Our Self no fit person in any event of War to agree with the Enemy for the People committed by His Majesty to Our Government without Licence from His Majesty Conclusion The best way offered unto us in this pressing exigent for the union of the Nation and keeping them from agreeing with the Enemy is That the Marquess of Clanricard in whom according to the sense of the Congregation at Jamestown we desired the Kings Authority should be left before the coming of the King's Declaration may govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and the King's Authority from the Lord Lieutenant which he conceives is in him until an Assembly and to that end that a free and lawful Assembly be made to sit to judge upon the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what shall be best and safest for the defence of the Nation touching the King's Authority to be kept over them the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they shall find best and most expedient To this we willingly submit For we never intended to hinder Assemblies or to give Law to the People All we endeavoured was to defend the Altars and Souls entrusted to us As we are of opinion the Souldier will follow the Marquess of Clanricard and the People obey him so will we contribute our best endeavours to this effect We further give assurance hereby That if a free and lawful Assembly upon due consideration of their own state and condition shall find it the best way for their safety and preservation to make agreement with the Enemy as we intend never by the Grace of God to grant away from us by an affirmative assent our Churches and Altars if forced from us we are blameless so will we not hinder the People from compounding with the Enemy for the safety of their Lives and Estates when no way of offence is appearing though upon such Agreement we see that we alone shall probably be the losers of Sees Estates Churches Altars Immunities and Liberties But in such Contracts with the Enemy if any shall happen which God avert we shall pray and conjure the Catholicks of Ireland that That of the Maccabees may be recorded of them to future Ages Erat enim pro uxoribus filiis itemque pro fratribus cognatis minor sollicitudo maximus vero primus pro sanctitate timor erat Templi This is the Answer delivered unto Us * * Understand the six Commissioners that undersign this Attestation the 5th of this instant November by the Bishops of Killalla Fearnes Kilmacduogh Clonfert Kilfenora and Dromore after several Conferences upon the Proposals made unto them at Galway the 7th of November 1650. SIGNED Gerald Fennell Rich Bellings Geffr Browne Lucas Dillon Rich Barnewall Rich Everard Answer Touching the wayes advised by them for preservation of the Nation it is also referred by Us unto the consideration of the Assembly We being disabled by the practises before set down to act any thing towards it in the way of opposition to the Enemy But where they say they never intended to hinder Assemblies or give Law to the People it is plain that they declared the People were not longer to obey Our orders who only even by the Articles of Peace had power to call an Assembly And if to give and take away Governours at their pleasure from the People as these men have done be not to give Law to them it is yet the highest Prerogative exercised by the Kings and States of the world And if they can no otherwise than by assuming this power endeavour to defend the Altars and Souls trusted to them the world hath long wanted the example given by them and the Apostles and primitive Bishops and Fathers of the Church have been wanting in example and precept The necessity inforcing this Declaration from Us and the reason why We have made it thus long and particular We have before given you And now that We are come to a Conclusion We desire that when you find We are any thing sharper in Our expressions than sutes with the Respects you have to these Prelates and other Clergymen you would then likewise consider the provocation they have given Us. And that as to compass their ends they have not forborn falsely to charge Us with the highest Crimes imaginable and with the greatest
all the Municipal Laws and Oecumenical Canons too summon'd to Rome by His Holiness and are bound in Conscience to obey yea notwithstanding any command of the King or supreme temporal Magistrate to the contrary That not only the Commands of His Holiness but those also of His Delegates for example the Generals of Orders are to be in the same manner punctually obey'd by their respective Inferiours notwithstanding any contradiction of the Laws or King or any other onely the Pope excepted still who countermands all both men and Laws at His pleasure That He can suspend correct alter and utterly abolish any Imperial Royal or Municipal Constitution Custom or Law whatsoever in any State or Kingdom of the World as He shall think expedient That even so He may all Church-Canons of Discipline or Reformation whether they were made by a Diocesan or Provincial or National or even Oecumenical Synod truly such That neither the very Canons of Faith agreed upon by the most truly Oecumenical Council that ever was or can be are of any force if He alone dissent though otherwise all the Bishops Priests Doctors and People too of the Christian World every one had unanimously consented to them That His Papal Decretals Constitutions or Bulls from the instant that they are publish'd or fix'd up in acie Campi Florae or wherever else He ordains do according to their tenour presently oblige in Conscience all the Faithful throughout the whole Earth or such as are respectively concerned That He alone hath the absolute power of bestowing all Ecclesiastical Titles Benefices Offices Jurisdictions Cures from the Patriarchical to the Parochial and that being otherwise given than from Him or assumed otherwise than by His Authority they are Nullites before God and ought to be so reputed by all men and that whosoever denies this to be so is an Heretick That He alone hath likewise the absolute power not of translating only but of suspending excommunicating deposing and degrading all of them even the very Patriarchs themselves without being tyed in such procedure to the formality of Laws or Canons That He alone hath power to erect New Bishopricks unite and divide the Old give the Pall priviledge Vniversities create new Religious Orders multiplies them to what number He please extinguish them when He will c. exempt them and whom He please besides from the jurisdiction of Bishops Ordinaries and all other Persons and Powers except from Himself and His Authority That finally He alone is the Vicar of Christ on Earth And therefore in the first place He must have not a Paternal power only but a Despotical Princely and absolute Lordly power in and over the Church Militant and consequently over all General Councils to do therein what seems fit to Him in the second place His jurisdictional Authority must extend to Heaven and Hell and Purgatory thirdly without any question He hath a never-failing assistance of the Holy Ghost so that all His definitions at least in matters of Faith (a) The Colledge of the French Jesuites a Clermont in their printed Theses of the 12th of December 1662 held That the Pope is Infallible also in matters of Faith XIX Christum nos ita caput agnoscimus ut illius Regimen dum in Coelos abiit primum Petro tum deinde Successoribus commiserit eamdem quam habuit Ipse Insallibilitatem concesserit quoties ex Cathedra loquerentur XX. Datur ergo in Ecclesia Romana Controversiarum Fidei Judex Infallibilis etiam extra Concilium Generale tum in Questionibus Juris tum Facti c. Propagnabuntur Deo Duce auspice Virgine in Aula Claromontani Collegii Societatis Jesu die xii Decembris 1661. are and must be universally and perpetually true and Himself an infallible Judge in them in the fourth place which is consequent to the other He hath owing to Him from all Mortals such a perfect nay such a blind obedience That if He define Virtue to be Vice and Vice to be Virtue they ought to believe Him and if they do not they cannot be saved unless peradventure invincible ignorance excuse them and lastly to sum all in a word He is Dominus Deus noster Papa our Lord God the Pope as the Glossator (b) Zenzelinus de Cassanis in fine Glossae extravag Cum inter de verb. signif of His own Canon Law stiles Him * Aâ—stimant Papam esse unum Deum qui habet potestatem omnem in Coelo in Terra Johan Gerson Tom. ii circa materiam Excommunicationum Irregularitat Consider 11. V. That notwithstanding the incredibility of these and some other such vain Positions and of all and every of their necessary antecedents and consequents yet they all and especially the Monarchical or Despotical or rather indeed Tyrannical I am sure unreasonable and very destructive Powers ascribed in them to the Pope are every one with no lower pretence than of Divine Right and Immediate Institution of Christ maintain'd either in formal or virtual terms nay in formal the chiefest of them and such as infer the rest not only by too many of our most Famous and most Classical Authors (c) For Authors at this time Cardinal Peter Bertrand onely who lived 300 years ago may suffice whom a numberless number have ever since followed in his pernicious Doctrine which you may read Addit ad Gloss Extr. unam Sanctum de Major Obed. of all sorts Canonists Historians and Divines since the Schools began but also by the far greater authority of the Roman Bishops (d) For Popes also in this place let Boniface VIII alone suffice both in his said Extravag unam Sanctam and in many other Decretals but especially in his famed Letter to Philip Le Bel of France themselves since Pope Hildebrand's time And three only but wretchedly abused Texts of the Gospel viz. Ecce duo gladii Luc. 22.38 and Quodcunque ligaveris c. Mat. 16.19 and Pasce Oves meas Joan. 21.17 must serve the turn however against the plain design of the whole Gospel it self to drive directly by such Positions at the proper scope of the Alcoran and establish in the Church of Christ a worser Tyranny than that of Mahumetans and Mamalukes VI. That Cardinal Caesar Baronius the famous Ecclesiastical Annalist who seems in truth to have had no other end so much to heart in writing his twelve laborious Tomes as to heap together how well or ill soever all the Topicks he could imagine for asserting to the Bishops of Rome the foresaid universal Monarchy both in Spirituals and Temporals over the whole Earth yet fearing his Arguments driving at and deriving from or grounding it on a Jus Divinum or Divine Right and immediate institution of Christ would not convince any labours at last exceedingly though all in vain in several of his said Tomes of Annals to entitle His Holiness at least by Humane Right or Humane Title as for Example by Donation or Oblation or Submission or Prescription
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 Canons or Laws of the Catholick Church viz. fidelity and obedience in spiritual things and pure spiritual commands which are just or which are given according to the Canons clave non errante Now being that both these Declarations are lawful just and honest in point of Conscience because they are both warranted by the Laws of God and Reason and the latter without any diminution of the true Royal power or any opposition to His Majesties just Laws or Commands and the former also without prejudice to the true Papal power or just Papal commands and whereas the very self-same form of expression is observed in them which you have seen in the above third Clause of our Remonstrance it is plain by all consequence of Reason that for such expression that Clause or the Remonstrance for it may not justly be censured to signifie at all or even as much as by any kind of probable consequence how far fetch'd soever to signifie any thing against the Popes true power or against his just sentence declaration or determination whatsoever being indeed it declares for no other power in the King or faith or obedience in the Subjects to the King but for such as are at the same time consistent without any contradiction contrariety or opposition with acknowledging the true Papal power and obeying all just Papal commands or being it declares only for a Supreme temporal power in the King and for the obedience of His Subjects to Him in Temporal things neither of which nor both together oppose a pure and true Supreme spiritual power in the Pope above the same Subjects and King too nor their obedience to the just commands of the Pope in meer spiritual matters Fourth Period or Clause is in these words 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 In which Clause or words of it albeit the Clause and the words of our Remonstrance which above any other in it our Adversaries pretend to be the stumbling Block and Rock of Scandal to the more ignorant Readers yet even not only our said very Adversaries do confess but are forced by manifest Reason and Construction of those very words to confess that herein is neither Block nor Rock but to such as wilfully frame one to themselves nor as much as a virtual declaration for any other power in our King or obedience due by His Subjects but for the Supreme politick Civil or Temporal in Him in His own Kingdoms For no Forreign power Papal or Princely Spiritual or Temporal or other specificatively taken as Logicians speak but only reduplicatively taken is at all openly or not openly disclaimed or renounced in this Clause or words or sense thereof that is none at all simply or absolutely taken or taken without any modification or restriction is disclaimed or renounced but diminutively conditionally and modificatively taken or taken with that extreme modification and restriction imported by the words Inasmuch as it may seem able or shall pretend to free discharge or absolve us from this Obligation For who sees not that these additional words are meerly and purely reduplicative that is diminutive modificative restraining and limiting the sense of the former words Papal Princely Spiritual Temporal and confining it to that only of such Forreign power pretending or of such only as pretending to dispense with Subjects in their natural or bounden Duty of Allegiance and Subjection to their Prince And who sees not but that the two examples given a little before by me in my explanation of the former third Clause may as well be made use of here nay and many other such to justifie this expression too of this fourth Clause As for instance or example here If any should say and subscribe this Proposition We disclaim and renounce all either Forreign or even not Forreign power Papal or Princely Spiritual or Temporal inasmuch as it may seem able or shall pretend to free discharge or absolve us from the Obligation we have on us by the Law of God and Nature to honour our natural Parents to sanctifie the Lords day as we are bound by his Law to worship God alone with divine worship not to take his Name in vain not to Kill Steal commit Adultery nor hear false Witness nor covet our Neighbours Goods c. not to do I mean any such thing in any case wherein we are prohibited by the Law of God I say That if any should say so and subscribe this grand complex Proposition or any one single therein contained I am sure there is none of our Opposers but must notwithstanding confess That such Subscribers could not therefore be said to disclaim or renounce at all simply or absolutely or any way indeed the true either Papal or Royal power And why so marrie because they would say and truly say the words Inasmuch as it may seem able or shall pretend both diminish restrain limit and determine the signification of the former words Papal and Royal Power to another thing quite different from that which is truly such and determine it to that which is only such in a false imagination as the word pictus added to homo in this Oration or Complex homo pictus alters the signification of homo or signifies not a true man but a painted man only Besides who sees not that the words shall free discharge or absolve us from this Obligation or even these last two words this Obligation as in this fourth Clause import no other kind of Obligation but that of Allegiance and Loyalty as formerly mentionâ—d in Temporal or Civil Affairs for the word this must be Relative and the relation of it as in this clause and whole form can be to no other obedience but what is in meer Temporal and Civil Affairs being no other obedience is expresly or tacitly mention'd before as neither any where after And who sees not moreover That the following last words or part of this same fourth Period to wit these 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 confirm all what I have said hitherto on this self-same whole fourth Period That is to say That they shew manifestly we disclaim not simply nor absolutely renounce thereby any other proper but only secundum quid or inasmuch as they are falsly pretended powers for such a wicked sinful end And yet shew manifestly we do not own or acknowledge other power in the King or State or other obedience due from our selves to either but that power in Temporals which is in all Kings and States over their own respective