us in maters more considerable than this not to have too high a Value for Nor can we suppose any thing else than that the fear of a further Correction kept it from being any more submitted to their Censure and that the Author would rather pass without the Honour of their Approbation than run the hazzard of a second Refusal But for this because we cannot speak any thing certain we will not pursue our Conjectures Certain it is that whatever the judgment of the Sorbonne would now have been of it many of the Church of Rome were still dissatisfied with it * See his Advertisement And how improbable soever Monsieur de Meaux would have us think that one of his Answerers affirms that a Papist should have written against him Yet not only the confessed sincerity of Monsieur Conrart who often declared that he had seen it but the undoubted integrity of some others by whom I have been assured that they had it in their hands obliges me to joyn in the assertion that Monsieur M one of the Roman Communion had finish'd an Answer to it before any of the Protestants were published however upon some certain Considerations it was thought fit to suppress it It will perhaps be looked upon that this confirmation of that Manuscript Answer deserves as little assent as Monsieur de Meaux has thought fit to give to Monsieur de la B 's first Assertion of it And therefore to shew that it is not impossible nor indeed very improbable that Papists should write one against another and that the Method of the Exposition how plausible soever to deceive Protestants has nevertheless offended the sincere and Vndesigning of the other Communion I will beg leave to produce two or three undenyable Witnesses upon some of the first and chiefest Points of it and which though not written purposely against it yet I am perswaded Monsieur de Meaux himself will be so just as to confess that he cannot be altogether unconcerned in them For his first Point The Invocation of Saints The great moderation of the Exposition tells us only That it is useful to pray to them and that we ought to do it in the same Spirit of Charity and in the same Order of Brotherly Society with which we intreat our Friends on Earth to pray for us that all the Prayers of the Church howsoever they may be worded yet must still be understood to be reduced to this form PRAY FOR US Now what Monsieur de Meaux here says in general concerning the Invocation of Saints another Tract Printed about the same time at Cologne and intituled Salutary Advertisements of the Blessed Virgin Avis salutaires de la bien heureuse Vierge à ses Devots indiscrets This Tract was publish'd first at Gand in Latin by Monsieur Widenfelt a German Intendant of the Affairs of the Prince of Suarzembergh afterwards Translated into French to her indiscreet Adorers particularly applied to that Service which with so much superstition is paid in the Church of Rome to the Mother of Christ The Book is every where full of Expressions of Honour and Respect for her and only speaks against that Worship which Monsieur de Meaux here declares in the name of the Council of Trent to be none of theirs It was sent abroad into the World with all the Advantage imaginable It had the Approbation of the Bishop of Mysia Suffragan to the Archbishop of Cologne of the Vicar General of the place of the Censure of Gant of the Canons and Divines of Malines of the Vniversity of Louvain and Lastly of Monsieur the Bishop of Tournay who recommended it as a Treatise full of solid Piety and very fit and necessary to draw people out of those Errours and Abuses into which their Superstition had led them Yet notwithstanding all this Applause if we enquire what success this Book had with others Father Crasset the Jesuit who wrote purposely against it * See his Book entituled La veritable devotion envers La St. Vierge 4o. his Book Printed at Paris 1679 Licensed by the Provincial approved by the three Fathers of the Society appointed to examine it and Lastly authorized by the King's Permission tells us †La Preface p. 1 2. That for fear of giving Scandal to Hereticks he had given a very great one to those he calls Catholicks That the Learned Men of all Nations had written against him that the Holy See had condemn'd him Spain had banish'd him out of its Dominions and forbid to Read or Print his Book as containing Propositions suspected of Errour and Impiety that abused the Holy Scripture and imposed upon Catholicks by taking them off from the Piety and Devotion due to the Mother of God In a word from the general Invocation of Saints and Worship of Images I shall not need to say how far the Fathers Zeal carries him in the Answer it self It is evident that what Monsieur de Meaux tells us is only Useful Pag. 31. c. the Jesuit declares to be absolutely Necessary That we are indispensably obliged to pray to her That it is the intention of God that we should obtain both Grace and Glory by her That all Men should be saved by the Merits of the Son and the Intercession of the Mother and that forasmuch therefore as God has resolved not to give any Grace but what passes through the Hands of Mary as we cannot be saved without Grace so it must be confessed that we cannot be saved without her This is I presume somewhat more than what Monsieur de Meaux expounds to us and I shall leave it to any one to judge whether this Father who has shew'd himself so zealous against the Author of the Blessed Virgins Salutary Advertisements could have been very well pleased with Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition The next Point which the Exposition advances is concerning The Worship of Images Monsieur de Meaux in the Edition suppressed See the Collection at the end of the Preface affirmed That the Church of Rome does not so much honour the Image of the Apostle or Martyr as the Apostle or Martyr in presence of the Image And though the Censure passed upon this new fancy obliged him to speak a little more plainly yet is it only thus even now ' that when the Church pays an Honour to the Image of an Apostle or Martyr her intention is not so much to honour the Image as to honour the Apostle or Martyr in presence of the Image Concerning which the Reader may please to observe that Cardinal Capisucchi one of the Approvers of Monsieur de Meaux's Exposition has lately set forth a Volume of Controversies at Rome with all the most solemn Permissions and Approbations that can be desired in which he formally contradicts the Doctrine of the same Exposition in this Point and concludes Art 8. p. 647. That the Church in the Councils of Nice and Trent forbids only such a Divine Honour to Images
Years only an Advertisement was prefix'd to a new Edition of the Book which neither touches at all the greatest part of the Exceptions that had been made against it nor gives any satisfaction to those it do's take notice of It has been the constant method of Monsieur de Meaux having once written to leave his Tracts to the World and take no care to defend them against those assaults that seem with success enough to have been sometimes made upon them We should think the great Employments in which he has had the Honour to be engaged might have been the cause of this did not he who takes no care to defend his old Books find still time enough to write new Perhaps he looks upon his pieces to be of a Spirit and Force sufficient to despise whatever attempts can be made upon them but sure he cannot be ignorant that Protestants make another and far different Conclusion and look upon those Opinions to be certainly indefensible which so able and eminent an Author is content so openly and if I may be permitted to add it so shamefully to forsake What other Answers besides those I have now mentioned have been made to it I cannot undertake to say Two others only that I know of have been publish'd the Author of the latter of which Monsieur de Brueys having in a very little time after his writing left his Religion might have made a new instance of Monsieur de Meaux 's Conquests did not his inability to answer his own arguments against the Exposition give us cause to believe that some other Motives than those of that Book induced him so lightly to forsake a Cause which he had so soundly and generously defended And now after so many Answers yet unreplied to if any one desires to know what the design of the present undertaking is they may please to understand that having by a long Converse among the Papists of our own and other Countries perceived that either by the ignorance or malice of their Instructors they have generally very false and imperfect Notions of our Opinions in the matters in Controversie between us I have suffered my self to be perswaded to pursue the Method of Monsieur de Meaux 's Exposition as to the Doctrine of the Church of England and oppose sincerely to what he pretends is the Opinion of the Roman Church that form of Faith that is openly profess'd and taught without any disguise or dissimulation among us I was not unwilling to take the Method of Monsieur de Meaux for my direction as well upon the account of the great Reputation both of the Book and of the Author as because it is now some years that it has pass'd in our Language without any answer that I know of made to it Besides that the late new Impression made of it with all the advantages of the Advertisement and Approbations which the later French Editions have added to it seemed naturally to require some such Consideration I do not pretend by any thing of this to treat Monsieur de Meaux as an Enemy but rather as both his great Learning and that Character which I have ever learnt very highly to reverence oblige me to follow him as my Guide To render an account to him and to the World what our differences are and point out in passing some of those reasons that are the most usually given amongst us wherefore we cannot totally assent to what he proposes I am perswaded the whole is done with that Charity and Moderation that there is nothing in it that can justly offend the most zealous Enemy of our Church If I knew of any thing in it that without dissembling the Truth might have been omitted I sincerely profess I would most willingly have done it being desirous to please all that so if it be the will of God I may by any means gain some For this cause chiefly have I forborn to set my name to it lest perhaps any prejudice against my Person might chance to injure the Excellence of the Cause which I maintain This effect at least if no other I would willingly hope such a Treatise may have upon those of our Country that have been taught to believe very differently concerning us That they would please no longer to form such horrible Ideas of our Profession as they have heretofore been wont to do at least till it can be shewn that I have either palliated or prevaricated the Doctrine of the Church of England in this Exposition Which I am yet so assured I have not done that I◠here intirely submit both my self and it to her Censure of whose Communion I esteem it my greatest Happiness that I am and for whose preservation and Enlargement I shall never cease as I ought to pray A Collection of some of those Passages that were corrected in the first Edition of the EXPOSITION suppressed by Monsieur de Meaux To which is added the Censure of the Faculty of Louvain upon some part of the Doctrine still remaining in it § I. MOnsieur de Meaux in the very beginning of his Book speaking of the design of it had these Words 1. Edit So that it seems then to be very proper to propose to them the Protestants the Doctrine of the Catholick Church separating those Questions which the Church has decided from those which do not belong to Faith p. 1. It is evident the meaning of Monsieur de Meaux in that passage must have been this That whatsoever was either not at all contained in his Exposition or was otherwise maintain'd by any particular Authors beyond the Exposition he gives us of those Points which are here mentioned was not to be look'd upon by us as any of the Church's Decision nor necessary to be received by us as matter of Faith I shall not need to say how many Doctrines and Decisions not only of private Writers but of the very Council of Trent it self this would have at once cut off It would perhaps have been one of the fairest Advances towards an Union that ever the Church of Rome yet offered But it seems whatever Monsieur de Meaux supposed this was thought too great a condescension by others and he was therefore obliged without changing any thing in his Book to give us a quite other account of the design of it Later Editions So that it seems then we can do nothing better than simply to propose to them the Protestants the sentiments of the Catholick Church and distinguish them from those Opinions that have been falsely imputed to her Which is but little to the Purpose II. 1 Edit p. 7 8. The same Church teaches That all Religious Worship ought to terminate upon God as its necessary End So that the Honour which the Church gives to the Blessed Virgin and to the Saints is religious only because it gives them that Honour with relation to God and for the love of him So that then so far ought one to be from blaming the Honour
consigned to Writing By which means the Word written and unwritten were not Two different Rules but as to all necessary matters of Faith one and the same And the unwritten Word so far from losing its Authority that it was indeed the more firmly Establish'd by being thus delivered to us by the holy Apostles and Evangelists We receive with the same Veneration whatsoever comes from the Apostles whether by Scripture or Tradition provided that we can be assured that it comes from them And if it can be made appear that any Tradition which the Written Word contains not has been received by All Churches and in All Ages we are ready to embrace it as coming from the Apostles Monsieur de Meaux therefore ought not to charge us as Enemies to Tradition or obstinate to receive what is so delivered Our Church rejects not Tradition but only those things which they pretend to have received by it But which we suppose to be so far from being the Doctrine of the Apostles or of All Churches in All Ages that we are perswaded they are many of them directly contrary to the Written Word which is by Themselves confessed to be the Apostles Doctrine and which the best and purest Ages of the Church adhered to ARTICLE XXV Of the Churches Authority THE Church i. e. The Vniversal Church in All Ages having been Establish'd by God the Guardian of the Holy Scriptures and of Tradition we receive from her the Canonical Books of Scripture It is upon this Authority that we receive principally the Song of Solomon as Canonical and reject other Books as Apochryphal which we might perhaps with as much readiness otherwise receive By this Authority we reverence these Books even before by our own reading of them we perceive the Spirit of God in them And when by our reading them we find all things conformable to so Excellent a Spirit we are yet more confirmed in the belief and reverence we before had of them This Authority therefore we freely allow the Church that by her hands in the succession of the several Ages we have received the Holy Scriptures And if as universal and uncontroverted a Tradition had descended for the Interpretation of the Scriptures as for the receiving of them we should have been as ready to accept of that too Such a declaration of the sense of Holy Scripture as had been received by all Churches and in all Ages the Church of England would never refuse But then as we profess not to receive the Scriptures themselves only or perhaps principally upon the Authority of the Roman Church which has in all Ages made up but a part and that not always the greatest neither of this Tradition so neither can we think it reasonable to receive the sense of them only from her though she profess never so much to invent nothing of her self but only to declare the Divine Revelation made to her by the Holy Ghost which she supposes has been given to her for her direction Whilst we are perswaded that neither has any Promise at all been made to any particular Church of such an infallible direction and have such good cause to believe that this particular Church too often instead of the divine Revelations declares only her own Inventions When the dispute arose about the Ceremonies of the Law Acts 15. the Apostles assembled at Jerusalem for the determination of it When any Doubts arise in the Church now we always esteem it the best Method to decide them after the same manner That the Church has Authority not only in matters of Order and Discipline but even of Faith too we never deny'd But that therefore any Church so assembled can with the same Authority say now as the Apostles did then Acts 15.28 It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to Vs This we think not only an unwarrantable presumption for which there is not any sufficient ground in Holy Scripture but evidently in its self untrue seeing that many such Councils are by the Papists themselves confessed to have erred Hence it is that we cannot suppose it reasonable to forbid Men the Examination of the Churches Decisions which may err when the Holy Apostles nay our Saviour Christ himself not only permitted but exhorted their Disciples to search the Truth of their Doctrine which was certainly Infallible Yet if the determination be matter of Order or Government as not to Eat of things offered to Idols c. or of plain and undoubted Precept as to abstain from Fornication and the like Here we fail not after the Example of Paul and Silas to declare to the faithful what her decision has been and instead of permitting them to judg of what has been so resolved teach them throughout all places to keep the Ordinances of the Apostles Acts 16.4 Thus is it that we acquiesce in the judgment of the Church and professing in our Creed a Holy Catholick Church we profess to believe not only that there was a Church planted by our Saviour at the beginning that has hitherto been preserved by him and ever shall be to the end of the World but do by consequence undoubtedly believe too that this Vniversal Church is so secured by the Promises of Christ that there shall always be retain'd so much Truth in it the want of which would argue that there could be no such Church We do not fear that ever the Catholick Church should fall into this entire Infidelity But that any particular Church such as that of Rome may not either by Error lose or by other means prevaricate the Faith even in the necessary Points of it this we suppose not to be at all contrary to the Promise of God Almighty and we wish we had not too great cause to fear that the Church of Rome has in effect done both It is not therefore of the Catholick Church truly such that we either fear this infidelity or complain that she hath endeavoured to render her self Mistress of our Faith But for that particular Communion to which Monsieur de Meaux is pleased to give the Name tho she professes never so much to submit her self to the Holy Scripture and to follow the Tradition of the Fathers in all Ages yet whilst she usurps the absolute Interpretation both of Scripture and Fathers and forbids us to examine whether she does it rightly or no we must needs complain that her Protestations are invalid whilst her Actions speak the contrary For that if this be not to render her self Mistress of our Faith we cannot conceive what is In a word tho we suppose the Scriptures are so clearly written that it can very hardly happen that in the necessary Articles of Faith any one man should be found opposite to the whole Church in his Opinion Yet if such a one were evidently convinced that his Belief was founded upon the undoubted Authority of Gods Holy Word so far would it be from any Horror to support it that it is at this day
AN EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE Church of England IN THE Several ARTICLES proposed by Monsieur de MEAVX Late Bishop of Condom IN HIS EXPOSITION of the DOCTRINE OF THE Catholick Church To which is prefix'd a particular account of Monsieur de Meaux's Book LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVI THE PREFACE THE smalness of this Treatise would hardly justifie the solemnity of a Preface but that it might be thought too great a rudeness to press without some Ceremony upon a Book which both the Merit and Character of the Author and the Quality of those Approbations he has prefix'd to it may justly seem to have fenced from all vulgar attempts as Sacred and inviolable It may perhaps be some satisfaction to the Reader too to know how it is come to pass that a Meer Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome pretending to contain nothing but what they have always professed and in their Council of Trent plainly declared to be their Doctrine should have become so considerable as not only to be approved by many Persons of the greatest Eminency in that Church but even to be recommended by the whole body of the Clergy of France in their Assembly 1682 Method 10. and whereever it has come done so many Miracles as not only common report speaks but even the Advertisement it self prefixed to it takes care to tell us that it has The first design of Monsieur de Meaux's Book was either to satisfie or to seduce the late Mareschal de Turenne How far it contributed thereunto I am not able to say but am willing to believe that the change that honourable Person made of his Religion was upon some better grounds than the bare Exposition of a few Articles of the Roman Faith and that the Author supplied either in his personal Conferences with him or by some other Papers to us unknown what was wanting to the first draught which we have seen of this The Manuscript Copy which then appeared and for about four Years together passed up and down in private hands with great applause wanted all those Chapters of the Eucharist Tradition The Authority of the Church and Pope which now make up the most considerable part of it and in the other points which it handled seemed so loosly and favourably to propose the Opinions of the Church of Rome that not only many undesigning Persons of that Communion were offended at it but the Protestants who saw it generally believed that Monsieur de Meaux durst not publickly own what in his Exposition he privately pretended to be their Doctrine And the Event shew'd that they were not altogether mistaken For in the beginning of the Year 1671 the Exposition being with great care and after the consideration of many years reduced into the form in which we now see it and to secure all fortified with the Approbation of the Archbishop of Reims and nine other Bishops who profess that Having examined it with all the Care which the importance of the matter required they found it conformable to the Doctrine of the Church and as such recommended it to the People which God had committed to their conduct it was sent to the Press The impression being finish'd and just ready to come abroad the Author who desired to appear with all the Advantage to himself and his Cause that was possible sent it to some of the Doctors of the Sorbonne for their Approbation to be joyn'd to that of the Bishops that so no Authority ordinary or extraordinary might be wanting to assert the Doctrine contained in it to be so far from the suspition the Protestants had conceived of it that it was truly and without disguise Catholick Apostolick and Roman But to the great surprise of Monsieur de Meaux and those who had so much cry'd up his Treatise before the Doctors of the Sorbonne to whom it was communicated instead of the Approbation that was expected confirmed what the Protestants had said of it and as became their faculty marked several of the most considerable parts of it wherein the Exposition by the too great desire of palliating had absolutely perverted the Doctrine of their Church To prevent the open Scandal which such a Censure might have cansed with great Industry and all the Secrecy possible the whole Edition was suppressed and the several places which the Doctors had marked changed and the Copy so speedily sent back to the Press again that in the end of the same year another much altered was publickly exposed as the first Impression that had at all been made of it Yet this could not be so privately carry'd but that it soon came to a publick knowledge insomuch that one of the first Answers that was made to it charged Monsieur de Meaux with this change I do not hear that he has ever yet thought fit to deny the Relation either in the Advertisement prefixed to the later Editions of his Book wherein yet he replies to some other passages of the same Treatise or in any other Vindication Whether it be that such an imputation was not considerable enough to be taken notice of or that it was too true to be deny'd let the Reader judge But certainly it appears to us not only to give a clear account of the Design and Genius of the whole Book but to be a plain demonstration how improbable soever Monsieur de Meaux would represent it That it is not impossible for a Bishop of the Church of Rome Advertisement Pag. 1. either not to be sufficiently instructed in his Religion to know what is the Doctrine of it or not sufficiently sincere as without disguise to represent it And since a Copy of that very Book so marked as has been said by the Doctors of the Sorbonne is fallen into my hands I shall gratifie the * See the Collection at the end of the Preface Readers curiosity with a particular View of some of the Changes that have been made that so he may judge whether of the Two were the Cause of those great advances which the Author in that first Edition had thought fit to make towards us It might perhaps appear a very pardonable curiosity in us after the knowledge we have had of the first miscarriage of this Book at the Sorbonne to enquire how it comes to pass that among so many other Approbations as have with great Industry been procured to the later Editions of it we do not yet see any subscription of theirs to it even now Monsieur de Meaux could not certainly be ignorant of what weight the Censure of that Learned Faculty is with us and that such an Approbation might not only have been more easily obtained but would also more effectually have wiped away the blot cast upon his Book by their former refusal than all the Letters and Complements that could come from the other side the Mountains and which France it self hath taught
as is Idolatrous i. e. says he which is paid to Images in and for themselves and by which the Image is worshipped as if some God or Divinity were contained in it But for that Divine Worship which is paid to the Images of the Holy Trinity of our Saviour Christ and the Holy Cross upon the account of the things represented by them and as they are in that respect one and the same with the thing which they represent and ascribes not any Divinity to the Images there never was nor can be any dispute of it Monsieur de Meaux may please to consider whether this be not sufficiently contrary to the Doctrine Expounded by Him and how we are to reconcile the Controversies of the Cardinal Capisucchi with the Letter and Approbation of the * So he was when he wrote to Monsieur de Meaux Master of the Sacred Palace In the mean time I will beg leave to add one instance more that is nigher home and I think still at this time depending and which the particular interest Monsieur de Meaux has more ways than one had in it will I suppose undoubtedly satisfie him that notwithstanding the Assembly of the Clergy have recommended so much both his Book and his Method all nevertheless at this day are not very well satisfied even in France it self either with the one or other Monsieur †The whole of this is taken out of the Factum which he printed of his Case Imbert Priest and Doctor of Divinity in the Province of Bourdeaux was not long since accus'd that upon Good Friday before he proceeded to the solemn service of that day which consists chiefly in the Adoration of the Cross He turned to the People and taking occasion from the rashness of some of the Fathers of the Mission whom he had with grief heard maintain That the Cross was to be adored after the very same manner as Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist profess'd to them that he could not enter on the service of that day without declaring truly to them what the real Doctrine of the Church as to this point was That the Church designed not that we should adore the Cross which we see but that we should adore Jesus Christ whom we do not see That there was a great difference between the Cross and the Holy Sacrament That in this our Saviour Christ was really present whereas that was only a simple figure or representation of him This was his Accusation and he confessed that his Opinion was That the Church adored not the Cross and that the contrary Opinion was not only false but Idolatrous That not only the Protestants made their advantage of those who maintain'd such Errours but that he himself was scandalized to converse every day with the Missionaries and others whom he had openly heard preach a hundred times ' That we ought to adore the Cross with Jesus Christ as the Humane nature of our Saviour with the Divine Being accused for this he defended himself with all the strength of Argument that he was able yet being still accounted a Heretick for it he finally alledged in his defence ' That the Exposition of Monsieur de Meaux defended the very same that he went upon his principles whose book was approved by the Pope and several Cardinals in Italy by the Bishops and Clergy of France and others of the greatest note in the Church of Rome Nevertheless he was suspended in a manner grievous and extraordinary He wrote to Monsieur de Meaux himself about it who presently sent to the Archbishop of Bourdeaux in his behalf He addressed himself besides to many other the most considerable Persons of the Kingdom to Monsieur the Chancellour Monsieur de Chatteau-neuf to the Intendant of the Province only that he might have justice in a cause which according to Monsieur de Meaux's principles was certainly very favourable But I do not hear that he has yet had any other Effect of all his supplications and the interest of those Honourable persons in his behalf than that they still draw more and severer menaces from his Judges and threats either of perpetual Imprisonment or even death it self for his Offence After this clear conviction I may reasonably hope it will appear no improbable matter to Monsieur de Meaux himself either that one Papist should have written against his Book or that many others should have expressed themselves to be of a mind very different from the principles and opinions of it Had it pleased him to have gratified the World with the sight of Cardinal Buillon's and Monsieur l'Abbé de Dangeau 's letters to Cardinal Bona and Cardinal Chigi as well as of their answers to them they would perhaps have shewn that not only the Protestants pretended such oppositions of his own party to his Book but that Monsieur de Meaux himself was not altogether unsensible of it No sooner was the first Impression of the Exposition which was permitted to pass abroad See the Advertisement finish'd but presently a Copy was dispatch'd to Rome with Letters and recommendations to prepare the way for its reception in that Court Cardinal Bona's Letter V. E. mi accenna che alcuni to Accusano de qual che mancamento And a little after Ne mi maraviglio che gli habbino trovato â dire perche turte le Opere grande e che Sormontano l'Ordinario sempre hanno Contradittori Answer to Cardinal Buillon and provide against those faults which some it seems accused it of if the Contradictors which opposed it at home should think fit to pursue it thither It is not to be supposed that either the dignity of the Cardinal who sent the Book or of him to whom it was address'd would have permitted them in such a manner to take notice of the faults and the Contradictors which their Letters speak of had they not been both things and Persons worthy their consideration But much less would Monsieur l'Abbé de Dangeau have used his interest with Cardinal Chigi to gain the favour of the Master of the Sacred Palace See the Answer of Cardinal Chigi to Monsieur L'Abbé de Dangaeau Parlai al Padre Maestro di S. Palazzo al. Secretario della congregatione dell'Indice e connobbi Veramente che non vi era stato chi havesse a questi padri parlato in disfavore del medesimo and of the Congregation del Indice if any one had or should speak against it had there been no cause to apprehend that any one would attempt either What other particular persons were employ'd upon the like Offices is a secret too close for us to be able to penetrate Only the Advertisement it self gives us cause to believe that great interest was made even by the French Ambassador himself to his Holiness about it See Advertisement c. and that the few Letters we see set out with so much Industry both in the Originals
and their Translation and the long History of them in the Advertisement were the effects of a labour and interest great as the long term of eight years that were spent in the procuring of them The second Answer to Monsieur de Meaux has so fully examined every one of these Approbations and so plainly shew'd how small account is to be made of them that we do not find that in four years that it has been publish'd any one has undertaken to reply to it I will therefore only add in general a remark or two that may serve to inform those of our own Country who are unacquainted with such intrigues what the Method of the Approbations of the Church of Rome is and how little stress is to be laid upon them It is a long time since it has been resolved by many of their Casuists that it is lawful to disguise the sentiments of their Religion not only in private Conferences but in the very Pulpit it self when there is a sufficient reason for the doing of it But I cannot tell whether it be yet so generally known that it is lawful for them to set their hands to and approve those Books whose Principles and Doctrine they dislike by an Art peculiar to themselves and which Protestants who are used to sincere dealing will find it a little difficult to believe The instance of Cardinal Capisucchi before mentioned is an undeniable proof of this for Italy Who about the same time that he sent his Letter and Approbation to Monsieur de Meaux of his Exposition wrote as we have seen directly contrary to the Doctrine of it and had his Book approved with no less solemnity at Rome than Monsieur de Meaux can pretend his to have been And for France a Person very justly esteemed both for his great Quality and his own worth Monsieur the Procureur General of the Parliament of Paris having clearly revealed the mystery of it I shall beg leave to represent it to the World under the advantage of so great and unquestionable an Authority Father Thomassin about twenty years since printed a Book which he called Notae in Concilia the design whereof was to set up the Authority of the Pope above all Councils which he renders in a manner useless to the decision of Ecclesiastical matters The Copies of this Book were all seized and look'd up in a Chamber of the Fathers Oratorians at Paris Ten or twelve years after with some changes to fill up the Leaves that had been censured and the Approbation of the Doctors of the Sorbonne he again attempted to have it publish'd But Monsieur the Procureur General opposed it and told him that but in consideration of Father Harlay his near Relation who interposed for him he would have had his Book burnt by the hand of the common Hangman The Father justified himself that his Book contained no other Principles than what were found in Cardinal Bellarmine's Controversies which had been printed with authority and were permitted to be every day publickly sold in France The Procureur General replyed That they suffered in France that an Italian should write according to the Principles of his Country and that this ought not to hinder but that a Book otherwise good might be publickly printed and sold with priviledge but that for a Frenchman to do the same was another matter and would have different consequences and that inshort The Italians used the same method towards them And indeed the late change of the Jesuits in their Approbations plainly shews that it is permitted to those of the Church of Rome to write and approve not so much according to their own Opinions as to the Principles and Genius of the Country in which they live For which reason the Fathers of the Society do no longer now as formerly they were wont take out their Licence from the General of their Order but from their respective Provincials who accommodate themselves to the current Doctrine of the place in which the Book is publish'd without which it would be almost impossible for them to write in France but they should be subject to the danger of a censure at Rome After this general account of the Nature of the Approbations of the Church of Rome I shall spare both my self and Reader the trouble of examining the several Letters before the Exposition though otherwise they lie open to many exceptions only concerning his Holiness 's Brief which Monsieur de Meaux so much triumphs in it may not be amiss to observe that the last Pope in whose time the Exposition came first to Rome with great Recommendation yet never gave any Approbation to it and that the present Pope did it upon occasion of †L' Auteur fit avec un tres profond respect ses tres humbles remercimens au Pape par une Lettre du 22. Nov. 1678. dont il receut reponse par un Bref de sa Sainteté du 4 Jan. 79. Avertiss And in the Brief it self Devotionem interim atque Observatiam quam erga sanctam hanc sedem nosque ipsos qui in eâ Catholicae Ecclesiae immerito praesidemus tuae ad Nos Literaeluculenter declarant mutuae charitatis affectu complectimur a submissive Letter of the Authors to him and after the reports that he had heard of the great * The Bishop of Strasburgh having accounted to his Holiness his design of Translating the Exposition into the German Language Sa Sainteté lui fit dire qu'il connoissoit ce livre qu'on luy raportoit de tous costez qu'il faisoit beaucoup de Corversions Avertissement Conversions that were every where made by it to which such an Approbation would be likely to add a new force So plain is the intrigue and design of this that were the Popes Briefs otherwise of as great consideration as the Papists themselves shew them to be of little value yet this could not be regarded by us as any other than a meer Artifice to deceive us not a sincere much less authoritative Approbation either of the Nature or Principles of Monsieur de Meaux's Book But whatever the Opinion either of the Pope or Papists has been of this Exposition certain it is the Protestants have openly enough declared their thoughts concerning it and the Exposition according to the fate of all other great and extraordinary things Card. Bona's Letter has found enough on this side to oppose it It was but a very little time after the first Edition of it that Monsieur Noguier and another Author well known yet whose name I spare because he has not thought fit himself to discover it wrote against it and with so much success that the Papists themselves confest ' That it was an ill Cause defended extremely well Monsieur de Turenne not long before that last Campagne in which he lost his Life made great boasts of a Reply that was speedily to be publish'd to them but after the long expectation of above eight