late they have been to see how far you should venture on such Wonderful undertakings nay nor doubt or at least am not without hope of the return of your former Miraculous gifts if ever at any time indeed you had any such even in any sort of degree or measure As for the rest know there is nothing could happen in this World I would be more heartily glad to hear than the absolute certainty of true Miraculous or Supernatural Wonder-working gifts indeed either again returned or anew bestowed on you or in truth on any other person whatsoever in this Country where I might see with my own eyes the Miracles done This was my last discourse with and those or other to such purpose my very last words to Father Finachty which he answered by promising to do so as I desired viz. to go directly to his home in Connaught to hold no meetings in the way to attempt no further cures at all before he had first recollected himself c. And then remembring how he had though indirectly but the last night insinuated some want I gave him what money I had in my pocket i. e. about fourteen shillings which having taken he departed from me yet he had the confidence within two hours after even that very morning before he left the Town to send me a little Printed English Book in Twelves or Sixteens of his own Miracles lately done at London My Lords and Fathers this is the account which ever since that Book of Miracles given or rather sent by him to me I intended to give you all whensoever it pleased God I should have the honour of speaking to you Assembled together For I held my self bound in several respects to give it you And now that I have discharged my self of that obligation see you whether it be not fit by universal consent to obstruct all such future both attempts and pretences of Father Finachty and not only of him but of any other * * I know two more the one an Augustinian in the County of Catherlogh the other a Franciscan in the County of Wexford who were about 1664 c. by some weak people cryed up for some such wonder-working graces But I knew withall the Augustinian to have been a meer Knave and a Nonsensical Ass to boot The Franciscan was Father Anthony Stafford a Gentleman born and very devout man in his profession and therefore easily adored and cryed up even by some Gentlemen though I think himself never gave way to such reports if other such there be for Miraculous curing either any kind of meer natural disease or any sort of Possessed or Bewitched Person that so you may as much as lies in you vindicate your selves and your Church and Religion from the scandal reproach ignominy of such manifest arguments either of crazy heads or vile Impostors or both Thus having done with what I intended to say on the second of those three Heads before mentioned in the former Section pag. 706. and none having contradicted a word of what either I had so related of that weak man or advised concerning him but rather all condemning his follies and some also telling That notwithstanding his having been so convinced and confounded at Dublin yet he attempted afterwards to practise and did practise on some weak Creatures in Connaught especially Women or Maids whereof some as Demoniacks but reputed such by him he shut up in Portumna and by Discipline and Fasting made almost mad as likewise that for his further saying That all the Women of Ireland were possess'd i. e. by the Devil specially possess'd the Archbishop of Tuam within whose jurisdiction he was had forbid him all such Exorcisms and Exercise others relating that he came into and attempted to practise somewhere in Westmeath but was discountenanced there and in fine all the rest either by their words or silence appearing to be utterly dissatisfied with him and concurring to what I desired even a general opposition and prohibition of his feats everywhere thenceforth I pass'd on to the third and last of the foresaid three Heads And yet I must let my Reader know here 1. That notwithstanding so publick and general notice taken of him the same Father Finachty I have been told in the year 1649 before I left Ireland last he had got himself lately made Vicar-general by the Clergy of the vacant See of Elphin in the foresaid Province of Connaught though whether that report was true or no I cannot avert nor did I enquire 2. That no sooner had this Roman-Catholick Irish Priest Finachty been so discovered at Dublin but at Cork a Town also in Ireland starts up one .......... Gratrix an English Lay-Protestant to supply the formers place by making People believe he himself too had a Gift from God to Cure all Diseases by Praying and Stroaking and accordingly practises everywhere on many even also at London whither he came at last to Cheat the World as the former was thought to have done What became of this Gratrix I neither know nor care Only this I know That not long after his practises on Folks at London he went out like the Snuff of a Candle just as Finachty did XXII VVHat I discoursed on the third and last Head was not long because the two Books were extant and the Authors known and the designs and effects of them such as none of all the Fathers how otherwise willing soever at least some of them of that Congregation durst publickly in that place open his lips to justifie And therefore my relation of that discourse shall be answerable i. e. very short For as to the first of these Books I thought enough to let them know 1. The Title of it which is Disputatio Apologetica De Jure Regni Hiberniae pro Catholicis Hibernis adversus Haereticos Anglos 2. That it hath another small Treatise annexed as an Appendix which bears this Title Exhortatio ad Catholicos Hibernos 3. That both pieces are own'd by the same Author though under the Capital Letters only of C. M. as he owns himself to be an Irish man For in the Frontispiece or Title-page of the Disputation he sayes and only sayes Authore C. M. Hiberno Artium Sacrae Theologiae Magistro and after the second Title or that of his Appendix or Exhortation he adds again Authore C. M. Hiberno 4. That in the former Title-page 't is pretended to have been Printed at Francfort Francofurti Superiorum permissu typis Bernardi Gourani Anno Domini 1645 though we had reason to think 't was Printed in Portugal 5. That albeit the Author was unknown to me for so many years after I had seen the Book yet at last I came to know certainly and this from the there present Lord Bishop of Ardagh That he was an old Irish Jesuit living in Portugal by name Constantine or Cornelius in Irish Con or Cnochoor and by Sirname O Mahony a Munster and County Cork man of the Barony of
stile onely of the address changed for the Province of Ardmagh was to the foresaid Dr. Patrick Daly himself as exercising the exiled Archbishop and Primate Edmund Reilly's Jurisdiction over the whole Province of Ardmagh containing in all ten Diocesses to wit Ardmagh Clogher Dune Conâ—er Derry Raphoe Kilmore Ardagh Meath and Cluaâ—macnoise Fourth Letter to the foresaid James Dempsy as likewise during the vacancy exercising Metropolitical Jurisdiction in the whole Province of Leinster i.e. the five several Diocesses of Dublin Kildare Leighlin Ferns and Ossory all those Sees being then vacant except onely Ferns the Bishop whereof Nicholas French having retired in the War-time about the year 1650. and as yet in 1665. living in S. Jago of Galicia in Spain thought not fit to return home to his charge in Ireland without first having obtained His Majesties or the Lord Lieutenants Licence to that purpose Fifth Letter was to another John Burk then Vicar-Apostolick of the Archiepiscopal See of Cashil in Munster to be in the same manner as the other Letters were to be to those of other Provinces respectively communicated to the several Vicars-General of all the vacant Sees under the Jurisdiction of Cashil which are Imly Waterford and Lismore Cork Rosse Cluan Limmerick Acadensis in Kerry Killaloe and Finiborensis or Kilfinuran in Tomond For albeit the Bishop of this last See was then as he is still alive yet being in France and so in effect vacant his Vicar-General was to have particular intimation As for all and every of the other Sees of the Province they were absolutely vacant their Bishops being all dead before that time whereof the last was Robert Barry of Cork who also however in former times an earnest zealous Nuntiotist upon receipt of Letters and Books from London in the year 1662. giving an account of the Remonstrance approved it as you have seen before Sect. V. page 13. of the First Part of this Treatise Sixth Letter was to Antony Docharty Minister Provincial of the Franciscans the most numerous Order in Ireland as being even at that time so soon after the Tyranny of the late Usurping powers at least 400 at home besides those not only in their own Irish Collegiate Convents at Rome Prague and Louain but dispersed in other Convents amongst the Native Italians French Spaniards Germans c. in the several Kingdoms States and Nations of Europe Seventh Letter to John O Hairt Prior Provincial of the Dominicans the Order for number in that Kingdom next to the Franciscans even at that time being near 200. Eighth Letter to Stephen Lynch Prior Provincial of the Augustinians or those called Hermits of St. Augustine in all about an Hundred Ninth Letter to _____ Sall Superiour Provincial of the Jesuits some 25 or thereabouts in number Tenth Letter to Thomas Dillon Prior Provincial of the Discalceat Carmelites much about the number of the Jesuits or rather not so many Eleventh Letter to Gregory Mulchonry Commissary or Superiour of the Mission of Cappuccins making in all about some Twenty or near Twelfth Letter to _____ Abbot of _____ Superintendent of the Monks of St. Bernard's Order in all a few Titular Abbots Nine or Ten perhaps or thereabouts who served in some Parishes as Curates or Parish-Priests But who that Superiour of theirs was I do not remember now yet remember notwithstanding that one Father Bartholomew Fitz-Gerrald titular Abbot of Baltinglass appeared in the Congregation and none other of them As for the Calceat Carmelites there was but one onely of them in the Kingdom as of the Chanons Regular of St. Austin but peradventure three or four Titular Priors and then officiating as Parish-Priests tyed to the Cure of Souls in one Parish onely for those others then at home in Ireland called Titular Priors of some of the anciently great and rich Monasteries of the Order of Chanons Regular we know to have been onely such by Commendam as not otherwise professed Chanons but onely Priests of the Secular Clergy who had got Bulls from the Pope to be Priors of such or such of those rich Cloysters hoping one day or other to enjoy the Revenues of them Of this sort I knew one and but one yet withal such an one as truly was unworthy the name not only of Prior but even of either Chanon-Priest or Clerk Others said they knew two or three more such in other remote parts of the Kingdom I mean such as to the Title of Commendatory Priors though not as to the indignity of their persons or qualities however otherwise for parts obscure enough And in the last place for what concerns the Benedictin Monks who if I had ranked the Orders according to their Antiquity should be together with those Chanons-Regular Treated of before any of the Mendicant Orders they were not known to be above two or three in the whole Kingdom if so many Which paucity and withal obscurity there and then of these three Orders lastly Treated of viz. Calceat Carmelites Chanons Regular of St. Augustin and Monks of St. Benedict's Institute was the reason there was no particular Letter of intimation to them or any of them But for the Bishop of Ardagh himself who sign'd the Letters being he was to reside constantly in Dublin where the Congregation was to meet and that he pretended no Jurisdiction over any other Diocess but his own of Ardagh he would have none to himself but excused that needless trouble of having a Copy written and sign'd for himself promising nevertheless to acquaint his own Vicar-General and Clergy with the tenour and purpose of such Letter And for the other Bishops then surviving and remaining in forreign Parts viz. Edmund Reilly Archbishop of Ardmagh and Primat of all Ireland Nicholas French Bishop of Ferns and Andrew Lynch Bishop of Kilfinuran they were only by the Procurator's own Letters or perhaps moreover by some Duplicats of that to Tuam to be acquainted with the whole design and transaction of it and to be so invited home to that National meeting if themselves should think fit to venture coming and the Procurator promise them protection or a safe connivence from the Lord Lieutenant Those Twelve Letters and some Duplicats also of that to Tuam being at last sign'd by all four and by their own proper hands and consequently even by James Dempsy himself the most reluctant of all and so reluctant verily that after expressing his consent as being over-rul'd yet he declined signing all he could and therefore chang'd his Lodging and writ a Letter excusing himself as necessitated to depart suddenly out of Town but withal pretending that he would Cemmission some other to sign in his name although being found out and the originals sign'd by the other three brought to him he could not for shame but sign also with his own hand as he did then presently those original Letters and Duplicats I say being so sign'd and endorsed and by the said Bishop of Ardagh sealed with a flying Seal being also ordered by
distinction of Countrey or Degree or Sex or Age Men Women Children from the most illustrious Peer to the most obscure Plebeian wheresoever in any of His Majesties Kingdoms or Dominions even at this present lie under all the rigorous Sanctions and all the severe Penalties of so many incapacitating so many mulctative Laws nay and so many sanguinary which reach even to life in several cases And your Predecessors before you have well nigh a whole Century of years been continually under the smart or apprehension of the severity of them And so may your Successors and your Children and Posterity after you for so long more if the true causes of Enacting at first those Laws and continuing them ever since be no better considered i.e. no more narrowly search'd into nor more effectually regarded by you than they have been by your Fathers for you or themselves But whatever Gods providential care of or goodness to your Posterity after you may be I am sure it cannot be denied but all Roman-Catholicks universally now living any where in England Ireland or Scotland must upon due reflection find themselves highly concern'd in having the Sword-point of those penal Constitutions hanging continually and even perpendicularly over their heads Do not we all manifestly perceive they are with-held at present from execution by a very small and weak Thred not only of one life that is mortal but even of one will alone that yet may be alter'd of a sudden upon many occasions which may happen when least expected Now seeing you are all every one thus concern'd in those Laws surely so you must all be in the causes of them i.e. in those genuine true proper and onely causes which continued must necessarily continue those very Laws and which removed will naturally remove them But if in those causes your concernment be such how can it be other or indeed how can it be any way less in the Subject of this Book All the several Treatises and Parts thereof and all the several Relations Discourses Disputes Animadversions therein occasion'd by either of the two Formularies drive ultimately at a plain and full discovery of those very causes and of their continual dependance on your own proper will alone and how lawfully and justly you may or rather how strictly you are even by all the known Maxims of Christian Religion Catholick Faith and Natural Reason bound in Conscience to remove them Your Concern therefore above all others in the Subject being thus at last clearly manifested I need no further Apology for the Dedication A Consecratory Address to you appears now evidently enough to have been required by the Nature of the Work it self as a necessary Appendage of that real duty which I have endeavoured to the best of my understanding all along in this Book to pay the most sacred name of Catholicks And in truth to whom other than to your selves ought or could I upon any sufficient ground dedicate a Book of so universal and weighty a Concern of yours Yet after all I must acknowledge that besides your propriety in the Subject I had the current of my own desires and my own Ideas to exact this Duty I have in truth these many years had continually even passionate desires of some fair opportunity to offer unto you but with all due submission still some farther and more particular thoughts relating both to the proper causes and proper remedies of all your foresaid evils And have at last entertain'd the pleasing Idea of a Dedicatory as the fairest occasion I could wish to speak directly and immediately to your selves all whatever I think to be for your advantage on that Subject and sutable to the measures of a Letter and what I moreover know some others think who yet have not the courage to speak or to inform you And therefore to pursue my old method I call it old having held these 26 years of delivering my thoughts fully and throughly in all Points which I conceive to be material though at the same time expecting from some contradiction and from others worse but comforting myself nevertheless with the conscience of very great Truth with the zeal of your highest advantage and with the certain expectation that all judicious good men will approve what I shall say and lay all to heart as they ought I must now tell you that if we please to examine things calmly with unprejudiced reading and unbyass'd reason we may find without any peradventure I. That the rigour of so many Laws the severity of so many Edicts and the cruel execution of both many times against even harmless People of the Roman Communion have not intentionally or designedly from the beginning aim'd nor do at present aim so much at the renunciation of any avowed or uncontroverted Articles of that Christian or Catholick Religion you profess as at the suppression of those Doctrines which many of your selves condemn as Anti-catholick and for the prevention of those practises which you all say you abhor as Antichristian II. That it is neither the number of Sacraments nor the divine excellency of the Eucharist above the rest either by the real presence in or Transubstantiation of the Consecrated Host nor the communion thereof in one kind onely nor the more holy and strict observance of Confession nor the ancient practice of Extreme Vnction nor the needless Controversies 'twixt Vs and the Protestants if we understood one another about Faith Justification Good Works or those termed Supererogatorie or about the Invocation of Saints Veneration of Reliques Worshipping of Images Purgatory and Pardons nor is it the Canon of the Bible or a Learned Liturgy or Continency of Priests and obligation of certain Vows or holiness of either a Monastick or Cloystered life in a well-ordered Community of devout Regulars nor is it either a Patriarchical power in the Bishop of Rome over the Western Church according to the ancient Canons and Customs or which is yet somewhat more an universal Pastorship purely spiritual acknowledg'd in Him such I mean as properly flows from the Celestial power of the two Keyes of Peter as far as ever it was acknowledged by all or any of the ancient Councils I say it is not any of all these Articles or Practises nor all together not even join'd with some others whether of lesser or greater note that is the grand Rock of scandal or that hath been these last Hundred years the cause of so many Penalties Mulcts Incapacities of shameful Deaths inflicted and more ignominious Characters given us III. That of our side the original source of all those evils and perpetual spring of all other misfortunes and miseries whatsoever of the Roman-Catholicks in England Ireland Scotland at any time since the first change under Henry VIII hath been a System of Doctrines and Practises not only quite other than your selves do believe to have been either revealed in Holy Scripture or delivered by Catholick Tradition or evidenced by Natural Reason or so much as defined by
could moreover with the Apostle (i) Rom. 9.3 wish himself were accursed from Christ and with Moses pray to be blotted out of the Book (k) Exod. 32.32 My Lords Fathers and Gentlemen Your most humble and most devoted Servant in Christ Peter Walsh London Octob. 28. 1673. TO THE READER READER I Have but now amongst so many other Heads in my Epistle given the ends both intrinsick and extrinsick of all my Writings on the Subject of this Book And I suppose you also have already there observed those intrinsick ends to be no other than 1. A necessary defence of some important yea Evangelical Christian Truths and 2. A just vindication of some few honest men who are strangely persecuted for declaring signing and not retracting those very Truths Neither do I question but you have likewise there i. e. in the said Epistle seen and observ'd at large my onely chief extrinsick ends to be the Ease of Roman-Catholicks and the Peace of both Churches I say now with some remark my onely chief c. because I cannot deny but that whil'st I chiefly or finally aimed so far off at those greater ends of Ease and Peace I intended nevertheless to drive more immediately at the nearer and necessary either means or dispositions to attain them That is I would not onely in the first place drive at the convincing of the Roman-Catholick Clergy in general of Ireland how unreasonably their Representatives viz. the Fathers or Members of the National Congregation held at Dublin anno 1666 determin'd in their general concerns and how mightily if not even irrecoverably in our dayes the very name of Roman-Catholick is prejudiced in these Nations by that Irish Synod but I would also drive at the consequential preparing of them all with better principles affections and resolutions against their next Ecclesiastical and National Meeting if peradventure God in his great mercy shall vouchsafe to give them once more such an opportunity of doing themselves and others directed by them and their Religion above all that greatest right which they ought to do by correcting throughly what the former Dublin Congregation did amiss And this in truth of convincing and preparing so as I have now said the Roman-Catholick Clergy in general of Ireland was I must confess one of the more immediate ends of my writing this Book albeit still with due subordination to those other no less excellent than remote or even ultimate which I proposed to my self in this life As for the more immediate Contingencies also which in their kind really and properly occasion'd it I mean this present Work I can assure you on the word of an honest man they were no inclinations in me to scribling or publishing my own private sentiments nor were they any effects at all of prejudice or passion much less of malice on my side to any man or number party or faction of men But the unhappy counsels of the foresaid National Irish Congregation held at Dublin and the just demands of those who had lawful Authority to command me and the peculiar obligations on me as being Procurator of the whole Clergy both Secular and Regular of Ireland to satisfie in what I could all such demands were the immediate and concurring Contingencies that not only gave me occasion but even put me under a very great necessity of writing the Publick Transactions as well of as relating to and necessary for understanding fully the Intrigues of that Ecclesiastical Irish Synod But neither the Contingencies that occasioned nor the Ends that induced me to write are to my purpose now The design of this different Preface to thee Reader is to give briefly such other Advertisements as I think necessary and you will not I hope think superflubus concerning 1. The several Treatises of this Book their number method and some particular matters either examined throughly or but incidentally reflected on in them and 2. concerning also the several Appendixes annexed to the said Treatises Know therefore now that I. Immediately after the foresaid National Synod of Dublin was ended without having done any thing answerable to the end for which they were permitted to convene and sit with all freedom for fifteen dayes and after also the Provincial Chapter of the Franciscan Order was within another moneth both held for six or seven dayes together in the same place and with the same freedom and dissolved in the same manner without giving the State any satisfaction I took pen in hand and as it was expected from me writ those three small Treatises which make the Second Third and Fourth of this Book I writ them if not in answer at least to consider the vanity and shew the insignificancy of so many i. e. of three several Papers presented from the foresaid National Congregation to the then Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom His Grace the Duke of Ormond Of which Papers two were subscribed by many hands but the third by none at all II. As in these Three later Treatises I related to a former although not then written viz. the First which you have now here in its due place so I did also to a Fifth and Sixth as following in the same Book These two last I intended should be on the Fifth and Sixth of the Six Sorbon Declarations of the year 1663. Because the foresaid Irish National Congregation refused to subscribe them applied c. albeit they had subscribed the first Three of the said Six of Sorbon and promised to subscribe all the Six 'T is true they declined also the signature of the Fourth of them But having by me then upon the subject of the same Fourth a Latin Treatise which I intended to publish separately by it it self least otherwise the Book should swell bigger than I would have it and considering also that for what concerned these Sorbon Declarations the grand Contest in that Dublin Synod was not concerning the Fourth but concerning only the Fifth and Sixth of them I confined my thoughts to the Design of Six Treatises only for this Book without farther addition III. I had no thoughts of lessening this number of Six Treatises until by writing the First Treatise I found that contrary to my expectation the bulk would swell too much if I should annex the said Fifth and Sixth because these alone would contain about Sixty sheets and that however I thought it necessary to add some other Appendixes IV. For these Considerations beside other I have abridg'd here the said first intended number of Six Treatises and do remit the Fifth and Sixth of them to another Tome Whereof I thought fit particularly to advertise thee good Reader because in the Second Third and Fourth Treatise or in some of them I am sure printed before I took this resolution I remit thee to the said Fifth and Sixth as if they did follow in this present Book V. Albeit the design of the First Treatise was onely to give a Narrative of matter of Fact c as you may see
reflect upon his Ordination as if indeed that had been not only uncanonical or unlawful but really void and null or as the Schoolmen speak invalid Were I to deliver my opinion of that matter or were it to my purpose to speak thereof I would certainly hold my self obliged in Conscience for any thing I know yet to concur with them who doubt not the Ordination of Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Protestant Church of England to be at least valid And yet I have read all whatever hath been to the contrary objected by the Roman-Catholick Writers whether against the matter or form or want of power in the first Consecrators by reason of their Schism or Heresie or of their being deposed formerly from their Sees c. But I have withal observed nothing of Truth alledg'd by the Objectors which might in the least persuade any man who is acquainted with the known Divinity or Doctrine of our present Schools besides what Richardus Armachanus long since writ and with the Annals of our own Roman Church unless peradventure he would turn so frantick at the same time as to question even the validity of our own Ordination also in the said Roman Church on pretence forsooth either of the Form of the Sacrament altered at the pleasure of men or Succession of Bishops interrupted by so many Schisms or of Stephen VII (a) 〈◊〉 ad an Christi 893. condemning all the Ordinations of his Predecessor Formosus and John IX (b) ad an 904. rescinding all the Acts of that Stephen and then Sergius III (c) ad an 908. rescinding likewise all the Acts of the said John IX and the former Ordinations of Formosus Upon occasion of which horrible Hurly Burly of Ordinations Exordinations and Superordinations an Author of that time called Auxilius (d) cod anno 908. writ an excellent Book intituled De Ordinationibus Exordinationibus Superordinationibus Romanorum Pontificum Ordinatorum ab eis Exordinationibus Superordinationibus XIV Notwithstanding this Book have so many Treatises and be so bulky yet it brings the History of the Loyal Remonstrance and its Vindication against all Censures but to the end of the year 1666 or rather to the end or breaking up of the Irish National Congregation which was held at Dublin in the said year from the 11th of June when it convened to the 25th of the same Month when it dissolved The prosecution of the History and Vindication of the Subscribers of the said Loyal Formulary against all other sorts of Censures and illegal proceedings wherewith they have been ever since the year 1666 to this present 1673 more violently than before persecuted belongs to the Second Tome If you think this other Tome in English will be long a coming and it may be it will you may see in the mean time enough to satisfie you partly in my Latin three several Pieces intituled Hibernica and partly in my First and long Latin Epistle to Haroldus which hath been already published in Print XV. And yet however as I have now said it be not the scope or design of this Volume to give any part of the Sufferings of the Remonstrants since the year 1666 from their Antagonists and Persecuters much less to give instances of what in former times i. e. before the King's Restauration the Loyal Party of the Irish Clergy suffered from the Nuncio Party all along at least from the year 1646 to the year 1660 upon meer account of their having opposed and not observed the said Nuncio's Excommunication and Interdict nevertheless such i. e. so malicious hath been the indefatigable industry of Father Peter Talbot the Titular Archbishop of Dublin and Ring-leader of the Irish Anti-remonstrants all along these five or six years past in persecuting the said Remonstrants to death as far as in him lay that in the LXXXIV Section of the First Part First Treatise and contrary or at least much beside my former purpose he extorted from me some few reflections in general on his very Archiepiscopal but withal very disloyal unconscientious and unâ—hriâ—â—ian endeavours in that matter if not withal somewhat though but obscurely on his former actings in other matters at London in the year 1659. And such also that is so manifestly untrue have his Answers been at Dublin some 2 or 3 years since to a Petition of mine presented here at London in behalf of the foresaid persecuted Remonstrants and Loyal Party of Irish Clergy-men who had likewise in former times on the other account of opposing the Nuncio suffered that for disproving him where amongst many other untruths in his said Answers he would insinuate there had not been any such former suffering of any of the Remonstrants from the Nuncio Party I judged it expedient to take likewise in this very Book or Second Part of the First Treatise thereof an occasion of Treating incidentally and giving all those many and manifold notorious instances you may see there Sect. II. from pag. 579 to pag. 601. of the grievous Persecutions which the said Loyal Irish Ecclesiasticks that opposed the Nuncio suffered therefore continually from 1646 to 1660 both at home in Ireland and abroad in all other Catholick Countries of Europe wheresoever they lived or whether they were driven after the Parliament Arms had prevailed in their own Countrey XVI Nothing less than nor yet any such thing as a design to undervalue the miracles reported on any sufficient ground to be wrought either in former or later times by any Saint or person of the Roman Church induced me to give that large Account of the famed wonder-working Irish Priest James Fienachty which you may read likewise in the said Second Part c Sect. XXI from pag. 710 to pag. 735. Beside the duty of an Historian which even alone might require that Narrative in that very place I had all the reason in the world to invite me to give it that Protestants may be convinced there are yet remaining of the Roman Church at least some even Irish Ecclesiasticks that desire not to maintain the truths of Christianity or Catholicism by Cheats or Tricks and Lyes and Mountebankries XVII I was mistaken in my Third Treatise of this Book pag. 29 where I supposed Father Nicholas Nettervil the Jesuit Doctor of Divinity had amongst others sign'd the Three first of the Six late Sorbon Propositions or Declarations applied c. For now looking by chance on the original Instrument of the said Three first Propositions c Sign'd by the General Congregation at Dublin and comparing the number and names of the Subscribers there to those who Sign'd their First Paper or Remonstrance I find Nine of those Remonstrators not to have subscribed to the foresaid later Instrument of their Three Propositions and that amongst these Nine N. N or the said Father Nicholas Nettervil of the Society of Jesus is one Which may seem as strange as it is true he having been the first man that offered to Sign even all
Three thousand pounds to build a Colledge I had no sooner put these two questions to them but they took Pen in hand and Signed that very Approbation of theirs which you see amongst those of others prefix'd to that little Book * Some years after but not before the Kingdom had been quite over-run by the Parliament I was told that one of the Society had reported I had in my Printing of this Book added much which was not in my Original written Copy and consequently which they had not approved To which the Answer is 1. That I was by the Colledge authorized to add in the Printing of it what I further pleased for strengthning or confirming by Law and Reasons their Resolves 2. That I added not a word in the Printing but onely out of the very Canons and Classick Authors what every one judged necessary I should add viz. very brief and very clear Solutions of some few Objections or rather Quotations brought me in two several Papers as from the Nuncio's Canonists or Learned Council the one Paper from Waterford the other from Galway and both against the validity of the Appeal and both also brought me just then when the Press was employed on that very point 3. That the general satisfaction which even all as well the Answerers as the Approvers of it yea those very Fathers of the Society found in it as soon as it came out in Print and continually after without objecting for so many years any such matter is a sufficient Argument that I dealt both fairly and conscientiously as I ought in Printing of this little Work with their Approbation XXV To understand more clearly what these other instances were besides those of the Insurrection in 1641 and continuation of the War till 1646 and breach of the First Peace made that same year 1646 and opposition after not only to the Cessation but to the Second Peace and both concluded in the year 1648 in which and for which other instances and I mean those hinted in general but not specified by me before the generality or any considerable part of the Roman-Catholick Irish Clergy of those dayes were obnoxious to the Laws there is very much to enlighten you in the Appendix of Instruments but much more in the Duke of ORMOND's long and excellent Letter which makes the last Appendix And therefore I would advise you to read that Letter in the first place i. e. before you read any other Part or Treatise of this Book although it be in order the very last Piece or Appendix of it XXVI Certainly it was no design that made me not give in the Appendix of Instruments as well the publick Acts of the Congregation of the Irish Clergy at Waterford under the Nuncio in the year 1646 against the Peace of that year as I gave those against both the following Cessation and other Peace concluded in the year 1648. The onely reason why I did not give them is That I had them not by me nor could have them from any other when I was Printing that Appendix Wherefore I must remit thee for them partly to honest Doctor Callaghan alias Philopater Irenaeus his Latin Vindiciae and partly to the English and both complete and accurate History of the whole last unhappy Wars of Ireland which is now preparing and you will suddenly see I hope XXVII This present Book not only as it now contains Four Treatises besides the Appendixes but as it was intended first to have also the Fifth and Sixth Treatise had been published at Dublin and in Easter Term there 1669 but that I was before viz. in September 1667 admonish'd for some prudential reasons to hold my hand for a time at least from going on with the Second Part of the First Treatise which is altogether of matters of Fact What those reasons were it 's needless to mention It sufficeth to tell here 1. That they related not to my self and consequently that they were no apprehensions of my side or of any other of my Friends that I had written or maintained any Doctrine or Proposition in this Book which might not very well abide the light and publick Censure of any Roman-Catholick Schools or Doctors proceeding on the grounds of Christianity or undoubted Catholick Truths 2. That soon after the foresaid Admonition I desisted from prosecuting any further study of this Book and suspended the Press when I came to pag. 442 which is in the First Part of the First Treatise having before that seen the Second Third and Fourth Treatises Printed there also at Dublin 3. That when after four years more the cause of that Admonition and those Reasons were wholly over I at the importunity of some judicious worthy Friends last year 1672. much about this time Twelve-month resumed here at London my intermitted-study of this Book to finish it as you see and so have added and Printed here what follows from the foresaid pag. 442 to the end of the Second Part of the First Treatise or to pag. 765 for some Fourscore sheets 4. That for this cause or the different places where this Book was Printed so by Parts you must not wonder at the difference of the Paper Ink and Character in those same Parts thereof The Dublin Printing-house was not furnish'd well with any of them but very ill at least with Paper and Letter when I Printed there and as ill with a Corrector too Albeit I must confess the London either Corrector or Printer which my Copies here lighted on hath also not seldom partly overseen and partly mistaken horribly And yet I think there are not any such over-sights or mistakes of either Correctors or Printers in any Part of this Book which alter the sense in any material thing though perhaps there may be some few that may a little retard some Readers 5. That to help this matter as well as I can at present I have in the preceding Leaf of the Body of the Book given those Errata or at least the most considerable of them which I have my self upon my own review observed leaving to thy discretion many lesser And perhaps too I leave some as great as any other but leave these onely because they escaped my observation as they easily might the Author For certainly as to literal faults nay and as to some verbal too any Author commonly speaking must be not the best Corrector of his own Work because he lightly runs over what he hath already in his head And yet after all I must confess I have been forc'd commonly all along to be my own Corrector such mean ones they were I lighted on in the Printing-houses and withal so ill written and blotted and crossed my own Copies i.e. my rough draughts were The greatest mischief was the Composers were sometimes pragmatical and sometimes impatient Which made them not to stay my reading of their amendments i.e. my seeing whether they had precisely observed my Corrections of every word and letter They often struck
off the sheets before I had the second reading of them And this was the chief cause of so many literal faults nay and mistake of some few words too 6. That I have not given any Errata for the Appendixes except one onely in the Latin Appeal which is in the Appendix of Instruments The reason is because I presume these Appendixes are all without mistakes exactly Printed For I took a more special care of them than I had done of the former Treatises and in my own perusing of them I have observed no faults i. e. no variation from the Copies which were fair enough some printed some written Those pieces in them not before Printed either in Latin or English or indeed as far as I know in any other Language are 1. The Supreme Councils Appeal from Rinuccini and his Censures to Innocent X. 2. The Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland his Long and Excellent Letter c. All the other publick Instruments contained either in the Appendix of Instruments or in that which follows it as well as the Book of Queries and Answers have been heretofore Printed either in English or Latin some in Ireland and the rest in France either by Father Ponce in his Latin Vindiciae Eversae or by Richard Belings Esq likewise in his Latin Book of Annotations return'd for Answer to that Work of Ponce's 7. That nevertheless I cannot warrant the Articles of the Peace of 1648 to be exactly as to every word according to the Original Had I had this or indeed any perfect either written or printed Copy of them I had surely taken the greatest care imaginable to Re-print them here as exactly But having had onely one of those printed Copies of the late Re-impression of them since His Majesties happy Restauration I was forc'd to be content with that although in my opinion Printed with several faults and yet not very material ones as to the main purpose of any of the Articles However I have Corrected here as many as I could of those faults whatever they were XXVIII Because the First Treatise in Two Parts is very long contains a great variety of matters and yet in both Parts is divided onely into Sections and these marked onely by Capital and Numerical Letters before them immediately in the middle of the space by which Capital and Numerical Letters all along I understand the number of Sections though the word Section be not added to them in the space and because those very Sections notwithstanding they also be commonly very long yet they have no Argument of the Contents following prefixed to them and the general Argument prefix'd to each of the above Two Parts gives not light enough to the Reader where he may easily find the several Heads of matters forasmuch as in those Arguments the Page or Section is not added therefore I have for thy ease in this point given after this Preface a short Table of the more general Heads of the Contents throughout all the foresaid Two Parts of the First Treatise marking the Page where such more general Heads and sometime also the less general or more especial matters begin as likewise sometimes where they end But for the Second Third and Fourth Treatise they are so short and the matters treated in them are so singular that I think the Title prefixâ—d to each of them may serve to incite thee to read them through and to see by thy own reading in a few hours what all Three contain And the same I say of the Three Appendixes which follow immediately after all the Four Treatises As for a general Index Rerum Verborum or a general Table of special words and matters contained in the whole Book or even of those contained onely in the Four Treatises nay or in any one of them if I thought it worth the while to give it yet I have no leasure now to attend it And therefore I must pray to be excused for so much XXIX I have elsewhere at large and of purpose answered the ignorant Objection of some against my Printing or Publishing either this present Book or any other on the Subject thereof without the Licence of the Ordinary of the Diocess or of the Censor of Books or of my own either General or Provincial Superiour nay without so much as the Approbation of any two Divines of my own Order yea or of any one Divine whatsoever Printed therein or prefix'd to it in the Frontispiece or Beginning thereof as if I had therefore in a heinous manner transgress'd not only against the Canons of the Lateran (a) Sub Leon. X. Sess Decret de Impress Libror and Tridentine (b) Sess 4. Decret de Edit us Sac. Lib. Councils but even the very Statutes (c) De Autor Libror of my own Franciscan Order In my Latin Work intituled Hibernica viz. in the Third Part thereof as well in my Second Preface which is to Francis Maria Rhini a Polizzo the present Minister General of the whole Franciscan Order throughout the World as in the Body of that Third Part where I refute not only in general the General Decree I mean the Decree issued and Printed at Madrid against me July 28. an 1670 but in particular that Paragraph wherein both I and Father Caron long after his death are on such account declared Transgressors of the General Statutes and the Survivor i. e. my self to be even also upon that account ipso jure (d) i. e. By vertue of a general Statute lately made at Victoria in Spain as they alledge But suppose there had been any such Statute made there i. e. at Victoria What was Caron or I concern'd We were and are onely subject to the General Statutes applied unto and received in the Belgick Provinces Amongst which Statutes there is none tying or even so much as directing us to have a Licence for Printing from any General Superiour No nor is any Statute there tying us to have a Licence from any other Superiour either Local or Provincial under pain of any Ecclesiastical Censure much less of Excommunication See this your self in the printed Book of those General Statutes applied unto and received in the Belgick Provinces amongst which Provinces England Ireland and Scotland are See I say Statuta Generalia Barchinonensia Provinciis Belgiis accomodata Cap. 7. §. 6. de Auctoribus Librorum Cap. 8. §. 4. de Nat. German by the same Statutes Excommunicated for having Printed Books without Licence from the General Superiour himself I have clearly solved all the Branches of this Objection And I have consequently vindicated both Father Caron and my self from having transgressed any either binding or so much as received Canon of the Roman-Catholick Church or Statute of the Franciscan Order or otherwise sinned against any Law Divine or Humane by Printing any of our Books even as we have caused them to be Printed in such manner i. e. without any such Licence or Approbation c.
upon his known virtues and great merits Whether the said Father Talbot now that he is in France will in plain express words glory there amongst his Privadoes That himself alone was the principal Author of the forementioned Libel I know not certainly But hereof I am very certain that could those good Fathers so much injured by that lying Libel attributed commonly by all men to him have any indifferent I mean Ecclesiastical Judges of their own Communion before whom they might be allow'd to prosecute him throughly according to the Canons they would produce such and so many strong at least presumptions of matter both of Fact and Right or Law as would compel him no less than his Complices to Canonical Purgation In order to which Purgation I believe he would hardly find even the very smallest number of Compurgatoâ—s which is prescribed by the Canons i. e. by Pope Innocent in cap. Quotiens de Purgat Canon And if not What then would become of his Titular Archbishoprick Deficientem in Purgatione omni officio beneficio Ecclesiastico privare procures sayes Pope Alexander III (a) Cap. Cum P. Manconella de Purgat Cano. Besides let him see what other even incapacities too he must lie under still for the special note of Infamy viz. that he cannot be either Advocate or Procurator (b) 3. q. 7. Infamis or an Accuser or a Witness (c) 3. q. 4. Nulli q. 5. Omnes 4. q. 1. Diffinimus 6. q. 1. Beatus c. sequeâ—t But I suppose that for his good service to the Court of Rome in Libelling against the Remonstrants and me above all and now that out of my Writings he knows the penalties of the Canons he may by way of prevention de plenitudine potestatis Apostolica be easily and perhaps thankfully too not only absolved from all both spiritual Censures and corporal Punishments but dispens'd with in all incapacities and restored in integrum even as to both Tribunals viz. the internal of Conscience as far as they can and external of the Church And yet I see not how after all he can clear his Accounts with God until he truly repent before Him and consequently before men repair the injuries done me and my Friends not only by his foresaid lying Libel but even by several lying Letters and other both malicious and disloyal endeavours of his Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum is a known and infallible Maxim even of the very Canon Law * 14. q. 6. Si ves it self as taken from St. Augustine Ep. 54. ad Macedonium Farewell Reader London Nov. 3. 1673. An Abridgment OF CONTENTS IN THE Four Treatises of this Book In the First Part of the First Treatise PRocuration to Father Peter Walsh Page 5. Irish Remonstrance 7 8 9. Names of the first Ecclesiastick Subscribers thereof at London 9. When where by whom and upon what occasion made 7. Signed by Ninety Seven of the Irish Nobility and Gentry at London 11. Approved by the Bishop of Kilfinuragh 12. by the Bishop of Cork 13. by the Bishop of Ferns how far 14. The Little Book called The More Ample Account by whom and upon what occasion made 11. The other called Loyalty Asserted why written 12. Remonstrance opposed and in what terms by the Apostolick Internancio Hierom de Vecchiis in his several Letters from Brussels whereof one dated 21 July 1662 you have 16. And by Cardinal Francis Barberin by his Letters of the eighth of July 1662 written to the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland ad Praestantes Viros Hiberniae 17. Confederacy amongst the Clergy both Secular and Regular in Ireland against the Remonstrance 19. The Procurator dealt with by fair offers to relinquish or at least decline the promoting of the Remonstrance 19. Father Peter Ailmer stickles against the Remonstrance 20. Of the Lords Aubigny and Montague as likewise of the rest of the English and Irish Chaplains to either Queen and the grand mistake i. e. omission at first in passing them by and the great use made of that omission 20 21. Sixteen several reasons causes or pretences thereof and all and each of them regarding onely temporal ends or worldly interest and this too mistaken 22. from thence to 27. As many several Answers which were given by the Procurator to those Reasons 27. and from thence to 41. Neither uncatholickness nor other unlawfulness in subscribing all the while so much as pretended by any in Ireland not even of those that alledged so many other excuses 42. The More Ample Account Translated at Rome in order to be Censur'd yet not Censured 43. The general Argument insisted on still by the Procurator but never answer'd by them 44. Father Macedo a Portuguez Divine pitched on at Rome to write against the Remonstrance and to answer Father Caron and Father Walsh but nothing published if he hath written Pag. 43. Father Bonaventure Bruodin an unconstant man and a great Intriguer against the Remonstrance even after he had on his knees asked pardon for his unconstancy of the Procurator 42. The Pope viz. Alexander VII refuses to meddle by Censures with the Remonstrance if the Primat 's Letters from Rome be true * But understand you that His Holiness would not by Himself or any Censure immediately from Himself meddle For certainly he did meddle by others or his Interâ—uncio De Vecciâ—â—is and Cardinal Bâ—riâ—â—ia belâ—ed him under their own proper hands 43. Names of those Ecclesiasticks who subscribed to the Remonstrance in Ireland 47. The Procurator attempts to break the Confederacy against the Remonstrance 46. Writes to the Provincial Assemblies of the Franciscans and Dominicans 48. What ensued upon these Letters 48 49. Dominicans debate the Remonstrance in a Provincial Assembly with what success 49. Treat ill the Subscribers of their Order 52. Franciscans refuse to treat of the Remonstrance in their Provincial Assembly 49. Letter of the Prior Provincial of the Dominicans in the name of his Body to the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant with an enclosed Form of Fidelity 50. His Letter to the Bishop of Dromore 52. Augustinians universally oppose the Remonstrance 54. Letter from the Dean of the Chapter of the Roman-Catholick Clergy of England as from himself and them approving the Remonstrance 55. William Burgat then Vicar-General of Imly but now Titular Archbishop of Cashel refuses to subscribe the Remonstrance and why 57. John Burk Archbishop of Tuam excuses himself at Dublin from Signing the Remonstrance upon what pretences 57 58. Jesuits treated with by the Procurator to subscribe the Remonstrance with what success 59. Queries and Reasons given to him by them against the Remonstrance 60 c. Answers to their said Papers and their first Allegation proved false 64. Their second Allegation concerning the Fourth Lateran Council under Innocent III and Council of Lyons under Innocent IV likewise proved false 65 c. Their third also concerning the Authority of General Councils to be undervalued by the
day of the Congregation the Fathers being assembled to hear from their Commissioners Kilfinuragh and Ardagh an account of their last Address on Saturday night to the Lord Lieutenant the Procurator gives them His Grace's positive Commands to dissolve that morning Ardagh on the other side endeavours to make them believe I know not what and misrepresents His Grace's words He is by the Procurator immediately and publickly to his face opposed in his relation 704. That matter being over the Primat seconded by Father Oliver Deesse Vicar-General of Meath and others stands up and in behalf of the House offers the second time to the Procurator Two thousand pounds sterl to bear his Charges for the next three years to come And when the Procurator had on such account refused to receive any money from them the Primat with the rest desires him to receive the said Sum at least for his re-imbursement of what he had already expended in their service the five years past He offers besides all kind of commendatory Letters from the Congregation to the Court of Rome in behalf of the said Procurator All which the Procurator thanking them first refuses and why 705. Three several matters of importance moved then by the Procurator to the Congregation 706. On the First viz. concerning not only Publick Prayers for both the Spiritual and Temporal prosperity of the King but moreover a due observance amongst them and their respective Flocks the Roman-Catholick People of the Publick dayes of Humiliation or Fasts and Prayers which the King or His subordinate chief Governours of Ireland should thenceforth command all His Subjects to observe the Procurator discourses at large 706 707 708 709. On the Second viz. concerning the famed wonder-working Priest Father James Fienachty he discourses far more largely in the Account given by him then of the said Father Fienachty to the Congregation 710. and from thence to 735. On the third viz. concerning two Books written by two Irish Churchmen the one a Jesuit the other a Cappuccin against the Rights of the Crown of England in or to Ireland he discourses 736. and from thence to 742. What the Fathers determined on the first of those three matters 709. What on the second 739. What on the third and last of them 741. The Secretary of the Congregation his Letter to the Procurator from Rosse of the 7th of July viz. a Fortnight after the Congregation had been dissolved 742. The Congregation dissolved ib. Lord Lieutenant's Declaration of the experience he had for twenty years of the Roman-Catholick Irish Prelates made to Ronan Magin Vicar-General of Dromore and to the Procurator the very same morning the Congregation dissolved 743. His Grace commands the Procurator to tell the Bishops of Ardagh and Kilfinuragh He would speak to them before they departed the Town and why 744. Kilfinuragh removes his Lodging flies out of Town and privily out of the whole Kingdom though he might have stayed without any hazard there having been no harm intended to him 744 747 748. The Lord Lieutenant understanding that Kilfinuragh could not be found sent William Sommers to leave an Order at the Lodgings both of the Primat and Ardagh in case he could meet neither at home enjoining them not to part out of Town without His Grace's leave 744. Within a few dayes more He sends the Procurator to tell the Primat of some dangerous Intelligence come against him from beyond Sea Soon after the said Primat is put under a Guard but within a very little time more according to his own election sent safely away through England from Dover to Callice in France 746. Ardagh freed from all Confinement ib. Both he and all the rest of the Members of the Congregation even after 't was ended and however they carried themselves in it were free to depart whithersoever they pleased and live where they would in Ireland onely the Primat excepted and he also excepted onely because of the positive information come against him out of Spain from the English Ambassador there Pag. 747 749. The Procurator's judgment of the said National Congregation leading Members thereof and of their several interests and ends 749 750 751. How presently after that National Congregation had dissolved the Doctrine of Allegiance in those Fifteen several Propositions or Paragraphs which you find in this Book immediately after the end of the Fourth Treatise pag. 80 81 82 83. was debated for a Month by a number of Divines convening daily at Dublin and in the same place where the foresaid National Congregation sate 752 753 754 755. The Names of the Divines that debated so the said Fourteen Propositions 755. Animadversions on and Answers to two passages of a late Letter viz. of the 6th of Octob. 1669. from the Bishop of Ferns at Gaunt to the Procurator at London The former passage this Father Peter Walsh is said to have used fraud and force in the Congregation of the Clergy at Dublin anno 1666 and that he kept an Anti-Congregation of his own Faction I saw a Relation sent over of that I saw also severe Lines of a great Cardinal to that purpose The latter this viz. It was ill taken by all That after Cardinal Franciscus Barberinus 's Letter in His Holinesse's Name to the Clergy he viz. Father Peter Walsh no way lowr'd his Sail but remained obstinate and insolent I likewise saw a great mans Letter I mean a Roman termed him and Caron Apostates 756 757 758 759 760 761. The Death-bed Declaration of the said Reverend Learned and Pious Father Redmund Caron ib. Another likewise but of the Right Reverend Father in God that excellent man Judicious Prelate and Loyal Subject Thomas Desse Lord Bishop of Meath who dyed at Galway in the year 1651. 670. A Paper of Animadversions on the insignificant Remonstrance of the foresaid National Congregation written by the Right Honourable the Earl of Anglesey now Lord Privy Seal and by himself given to the Lord Lieutenant 762. The Lord Lieutenant's commands on that occasion to the Procurator These and some remembrances also of other matters relating to the said Earl of Anglesey i. e. of some kind indulgent words upon a certain occasion spoken by his Lordship of the former and Loyal even Ecclesiastical Remonstrators and of his further intentions relating to them declared to His Grace the Duke of ORMOND then Lord Lieutenant were at least one moyety of the most immediate inducements the Author i. e. the said Procurator had to write this Book 763 764 c. In the Second Treatise Which contains Exceptions against the Remonstrance of the National Congregation c. THE National Irish Congregation varied in their Remonstrance of the year 1666 not only as to single words but as to entire clauses and their sense in the most material parts from the former Protestation subscribed by those others of the Irish Clergy and of the Nobility also and Gentry at London in the year 1661 S. V. And varied so of set purpose
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
the branches of the Protestation and diserte to this Proposition Non potest summus Pontifex deponere Reges Principes in ullo tandem casu If this you cannot do why seek you me to join with you and forsake those Seventy one Doctors who were all of them good and loyal Subjects and taught others to be so or why do you affirm my Intellect is ill principled I return to the submissive Letter or to a more submissive than that I sent My will you may be well assured doth not stick to write any thing may give satisfaction to the King and Duke that my Conscience can agree unto yea and to change my understanding as to the actings past and to the future if you will give reasons and arguments strong enough for making such a change You may also further understand That I have consulted with very learned Divines who after serious ponderation of the matter told me I could not safely change the Principles I keep to It is also my full resolution that luminare majus the Pope and luminare minus my King shall ever receive from me all honour submission obedience due to their lights majesty and greatness respectively with all candor and fidelity I likewise advertise you That I am disposed to take light and instructions for changing any error that I shall find in my understanding Finally when I shall come to a place of repose and quietness I shall think of that other Letter for I have now quitted my settlement in Galicia much to the grief of my Lord Archbishop and am now thinking to put my self as near home as I can until God will be pleased to give an end to this difficulty I have not seen that work of Father Caron in folio perhaps I shall see it in Paris I would be glad to see your Apologia if perhaps the Romans will remain satisfied therewith who albeit they have as yet decreed nothing against the Protestation yet are offended with you and all that sign'd it God give those Prelates and Clergy that meet in Dublin Spiritum consilii fortitudinis Spiritum scientiae pietatis Though our Principles about the main question are different I heartily thank you for your affection promising you the like candor if in any thing I may be able to serve you I conclude assuring you the Duke will not find more sincerity and Christian affection in any of his own Bishops than in me and even so I remain Reverend Father with all my Soul Your affectionate Servant Nico Fernensis Another also of his to my self from Paris July the 18th the same year 1606. Father Walsh Paris 18 July 1666. I Hope you had ere this my Answer from St. Sebastian of the 10th of May to yours of the 10th of March sent away by a little Spanish Vessel I had adventured over with the same but for your Letter which had it overtaken me in St. James's I had not come to France By the said Answer I briefly told you That I have for my opinion against yours touching some Tenets of the Protestation Seven Saints and St. Thomas one of them Seven Cardinals One Patriarch Three Archbishops Ten Bishops and Thirty one Classical Authors with other eminent Divines All of these were persons of great learning and authority and good and faithful Subjects and taught others to be so I wonder then how you would have me forsake such grave and learned Sages or say my understanding is ill principled following those men Seeing the Duke is satisfied as you write for any thing done at Paris which was the most done by me against him and that he thinks I am a good man good Priest good Bishop candid and without cheat and yet will not have me come to my Countrey and in the mean time calleth Ardmach home of whom he had not so good an opinion certainly he never did his Excellency so good a service as I have done nor had intention to do I know not what to say but must tell you this is a mystery all that hear thereof wonder at and none can penetrate or understand it I say not this envying that afflicted man this happiness if he will find it to be so After the great heats we have here I intend to give reason more at large why I may not with quietness of mind sign the Protestation as the Duke and you demand at the more substantial parts thereof I do not scruple or stagger I will also answer some parts of your Letter which intrencheth much upon me when this is done the Duke and you will learn clearly my sense and why I cannot give a more submissive than my former Letter And seeing for ought to my appearing I cannot satisfie my Conscience and the Duke together nor become profitable to my flock at home nor live quietly and secure his anger not being appeas'd you may know hereby that I am resolved after Dog-dayes to go to Louain and there end my dayes where I began my studies I shall thereby free you from giving further trouble to the Duke in mediating for me and free his Grace from being troubled about me and give my self a freedom from many personal afflictions and troubles good men indure there though my heart shall still have a share in their sufferings Do me the friendship and right of shewing this Letter to the Duke and send your answer to this City in the form beneath written God pour a blessing of peace and tranquility upon the people of that Nation and even so I remain Sir Your affectionate Servant Nico Fernensis Behold the chief Letters of this good Prelate which I thought might be of some use here For albeit the last was written after the National Congregation in Ireland had been held yet relating to the former matter without much distance of time in the date I would give it here As for the subject of them or rather I mean any answer to or animadversion upon the Contents of them where any thing is said against the Remonstrance none is to expect here what is not the design of this Historical Part of the Book Enough hath been said already to that purpose in my former Part of this Treatise especially where I dispute against the Fourth ground of the Censure of Louain but more particularly Sect. Lxxiv pag. 340. where I treat of cap. novit de Judic or that very place of Innocent the III. which the Bishop alludes to Enough by Father Caron in his Remonstrance c. Enough before our dayes by the Learned Barclays the Father and Son and by the Son particularly enough even also as to the Bishops 70 or 72 Authors quoted by him out of Bellarmin's last work against Barclay the Father Enough by the excellent English Benedictin Writer Thomas Preston under the name of Widdrington And finally and long before their dayes by the ancient Divines of Paris Maior Almainus and even holy Gerson himself That I may say nothing now either of the vast
on ill terms that very year 1663 as it was likewise most certainly known That the University of Paris headed by the Archbishop of the same City went in body and May 8. 1663 presented to his said Majesty the foresaid Six Declarations against the pretended Authority of Popes Which was in Substance what I then answered the Primat who had not a word more to reply but sate down and was silent To Father Nettervil whose confidence or rather want of ingenuity and candor in making in such a Consistory in Publick an objection so notoriously false and even to all Divines who had been any way conversant in the question or in Histories or in other Authors that treated of it at any time in the succession of so many Ages since Gregory the VII commonly known to be notoriously false I much more admired than the Primats because this Father I knew to be not only a Noblemans Son but also as he was for Elocution truly one of the best Speakers in that whole Congregation so he had amongst his own Society the repute of a great Divine as having been both by Title a Doctor and by Office too for some years an actual Professor i. e. Teacher of Divinity in one of their Colledges in France I answered 1. That I could not sufficiently admire his little regard not only of truth but of himself or his own credit when in such an Assembly where there could not be wanting some at least indifferently Knowing Learned and Ingenuous men he durst venture to take an exception so notoriously false against my discourse 2. That he needed not go far to see himself manifestly convinced but open the Books there in that very Room prepared for the conjunction of all such and whatever other false exceptions obiections allegations or arguments of any Dissenters 3. That he might see there in Father Carons both English Loyalty Asserted and Latin Remonstrantia Hibernorum above 250 Roman Catholick Authors who had never been either Schysmaticks or Poets and might see them declaring constantly for that Doctrin which he said was Patronized only by one Schysmatick Historian and one Italian Poet and might see amongst them many even Classical Schoolmen Doctors and Divines of the very first rank and greatest Fame 4. That although he mentioned not the names of those Authors he spoke of so unjustly with contempt yet for as much as I doubted not he mean'd only Sigebertus Gemblacencis and Dante 's Aligherius I must tell the Fathers that not even Bellarmin himself dared once to charge Sigebert with having been a Schysmatick Bellarm. de Scriptor Eccles in Sigeberto although he the said Bellarmin charged this Sigebert to have been for the Emperous sake iniquior Gregorio Septimo and that Dante 's Aligherius notwithstanding his being a great Poet had shewed himself withal to be a great Philosopher Divine Historian Civilian c. in that work he writ against the vain pretences of the Pope in Temporal matters above the Emperour where he gives such arguments as are unanswerable by any would undervalue him for being a Poet. Nay That St. Gregory Nazianzen might be undervalued upon the same account being he was so great and excellent a Poet yea so much addicted to Poetry as his Divine Works do shew 5. That if any doubted of the truth of Father Caron's quotations of Authors or would besides enter into and dispute of the Merits of the main Cause viz. of the Doctrin of the Remonstrance I was ready to justifie all there in publick before the whole Assembly and to that end to bring out of my own partly and partly out of the Dublin Colledg Library all those other Books whatsoever they demanded besides Holy Scriptures viz. Councils Fathers Ecclesiastical Historians the Bodies of the Canon and Civil Laws Scholastick Divines and even the late Expositors of Scripture c. 6. And Lastly That there was nothing I desired more than such a serious and Publick debate if any pretended yet unsatisfaction being it was chiefly for that end I drew the Letters of Indiction or invitation of them to this National Assembly in such form as obliged the Superiours to bring along with them a competent number of professed Divines who should and might be able as well to find out all errors of the Formulary if any were as to declare there was none in case they should be convinced of no Error at all therein And such indeed as to the substance was my answer to Father Nettervil Against which neither he nor any other replyed a word Wherefore I returned back to the prosecution of my former discourse beginning where I was interrupted and continuing to the end as I have shewn before Having done I took leave of the Fathers that day giving them so the more freedom to debate in my absence For I will not trouble the Reader now with the Chairmans complements acknowledgments thanks given me after I had ended and before I went forth Nor will I mention how I had that morning taken care to lay on the publick Table before the Fathers as many Printed Copies both of the Remonstrance it self and of not only my own little book entituled The More Ample Account which gives a full account thereof and answers all the first Objections or Exceptions made at London by the First Dissentors but also of Father Carons Loyalty Asserted as there were Members of the Congregation besides some few Copies more of Carons Latin Folio Book against the Louain Censure dispersed amongst them and one to remain still in a publick place for them to consult and besides also a Copy for every one of them of all other Printed Papers and little Books of my own which came forth for their good since the Kings most happy Restitution But that which is more material to give at length here is a true exact Copy of those Six Sorbon Declarations in the year 1663. and of the most Christian Kings Royal Publick and Printed Declaration in pursuance of the said Academical ones Of both I have by me still the Printed Copy brought to Ireland in the year 1664. out of France by the R. Father Thomas Harold of the Franciscan Order Reader Jubilat of Divinity Out of which genuin Printed French Copy take this other following as agreeing word by word with that very individual Copy of Father Harolds DECLARATION DU ROY Pour faire enregistrer au Parlement de Bretagne celle contre les Maximes des Vltramontains Verifiee audit Parlement le 21. d' Aoust 1663. LOUIS par la grace de Dieu Roy de France de Navarre A tous ceux qui ces presentes Lettres verront Salut La Faculte de Theologie de notre bonne Ville de Paris qui depuis son establissement a este le plus ferme apuy de la Religion de la saine doctrine dans nostre Royaume qui a toujours fait profession des opposer fortement a ceux qui ont voulu en alterer la purete
Princes and Interests Kilfinuragh conscious to himself how highly he had deserved this reproof returns not a word in answer but very much dejected quits his Chair and coming towards me only says that he was content to leave it since I would have it so I who never thought of any such matter or to presume to bid him leave his Place answered That because he had already done his worst even all the mischief he could have design'd by sitting in that Chair he should for my part sit therein as he pleased or the Fathers continued their present Congregation And that I had no other end in expostulating with his Lordship so plainly and publickly too than that I might in such matters both discharge my own Conscience to God and man and have as many witnesses also of such performance of my duty as there were Members present in this National Assembly Which contest between the Chairman and me being over not to mention here what more besides I told and freely then did speak to all the Fathers in general a clean copy was produced again of the Three first Sorbon Declarations applyed c to be signed and accordingly was then sign'd even as I my self did then also think by every individual Member of the Congregation in order to be presented to His Grace the Lord Lieutenant because the former Copy presented to Him together with their Remonstrance had been sign'd only by three of their hands viz the Primat's Chairman's and Secretaries and because that even His Grace had in his last message to them taken notice how all the same hands which had subscribed their Parchment Roll of Recognition were not put unto their Paper of three Propositions c delivered at the same time And this was all wherein this National Irish Council would comply with His Grace And yet in this very matter how unconsiderable soever they all would not nor did comply For on a later and better scrutiny that is by comparing more exactly all the hands or names subscribed to their parchment Roll of Recognition with all those subscribed to this other Instrument of Three Propositions I find nine of the former number wanting in this viz 1. Andrew Bishop of Kilfinuragh the Chairman 2. John O Hart Provincial of the Dominicans 3. Andrew Sall the Provincial or Superiour of all the Jesuits in Ireland 4. Nicholas Nettervil the Jesuit Doctor of Divinity 5. Bernardinus Barry the Franciscan Reader Jubilat of Divinity 6. John Brady of the same Order and Professor too of Divinity he that formerly was Agent in procuring the Censure of the Louain Faculty Theological against the first Remonstrance or that of the year 1661. 7. Christopher Dillon the Augustinian Professor Jubilat of Divinity 8. John Welden Cappuccin 9. James Dowdal Cappuccin 'T is true that the first of these Nine viz. Kilfinuragh was one of the three that signd the former Copy of the three first Sorbon Propositions delivered together with the Parchment Roll to His Grace the Lord Lieutenant But so was the Primat and so also was the Secretary and yet those two are found subscribed to this second Paper of the same Propositions Now whether out of change of judgment or design Kilfinuragh subscribed not the same Second Paper as well as they I know not However supposing the best of him yet we find without any peradventure the other eight not complying so much as in this inconsiderable particular Amongst which eight or nine as you please I must singularly taken otice how Father Nicholas Nettervil the Jesuit Doctor of Divinity is one yea notwithstanding that he himself as I have said before was the very first who as the mouth of the Committee sent to perswade me offered even to my self That the whole Congregation would sign all the Six Declarations yea also notwithstanding that after his return from France and Flanders whether the Congregation being dissolved he went in the year 1667 to Ireland even himself told me that he had been persecuted and mortified by his own Order viz. the Jesuits in France and even to the loss or deprivation of his Divinity Chair at Amiens where he had taught in the Colledge of the Society punished for having concurred with the Congregation at Dublin to the signature of those Declarations of Sorbon although more singularly for having approved in that Assembly the Sixth Declarations which Sixth is only against the Popes Infallibility and that he was forced after to go to Brussels of purpose to satisfie in these matters the then Internuncio now Cardinal Rospigliosi But as you have seen already he deserved rather to be rewarded by the Roman Court for having jugled so as he did nay contrary to his own offer and promise fallen off presently and both opposed stifly the signing of the Three last and not concurred at all with those who signed the Three former albeit I must confess I my self thought otherwise a long time of him for what concerns these Three But on a more exact scrutiny and review of the names subscribed I found at last my own errour in that Which I have thought fit to remark here singularly because I would ingenuously confess my own mistake elsewhere in this Book Tract 3. pag. 29. where I relate this Gentlemans Subscription to the aforesaid Three former Propositions of Sorbon because when I writ and Printed that Third Treatise for I did both write and Print it before this First Treatise yet in hand I never once suspected at all but those who had signed the Parchment Roll of Recognition did also the other Paper of the Three First Sorbon Propositions and I had both seen and read his name to that Parchment Roll as you also your self may see in the Printed Copy thereof which you have already page But in this other now following though an exact Copy of the very Original Paper of those Three former Propositions which was on the 22 day of June generally signed by the Congregation and consequently of all the hands or names subscribed thereunto I am sure you will not find any Father Nicolas Nettervil The Paper of the Three first of the Six Declarations of Sorbon as applyed c. which was and as it was generally by the Congregation i. e. by all those hands indeed wherewith it was subscribed on the 22 of June 1663. Certain Propositions of the Roman Catholick Clergy of Ireland being the same of the Faculty of Sorbon and other Universities and received by most Parliaments of France in the year 1663. I. WE the undernamed 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 yea we promise that we shall still oppose them who shall assert any Power either direct or indirect over Him in Civil or Temporal Affairs II. That it is our Doctrine That our gracious King Charles the Second is so Absolute and independent that he doth not acknowledge nor hath in Civil and
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
which they make or intend to make there if any at all indeed they make or intend together with so many quibbles and fallacies yet this Remonstrance at least as from them does no way bind them after such declaration of the Pope to hold as much as to such however inconsiderable acknowledgements or promises Fourteenth Exception That further yet as from them and without relation to any such matter declared by the Pope it leaves them alwayes at liberty upon another account not to hold to their said however inconsiderable acknowledgments and promises Videlicet upon account of their maximes of extrinsick probability or of their perswasion of the lawfulness of changeing opinions and of practising too according to the contrary opinion of others and consequently of practising against all their acknowledgments ownings Declarations promises and oaths in this their own Remonstrance according to the doctrine of such Catholick Authors as maintain all oathes of Allegiance made to a Heretick Prince to be rendred absolutely void by the very Canons of the Roman Church in corpore Juris Canonici Fifteenth Exception That finally as from them it leaves them still at liberty to say they framed and subscribed it according to the very largest rules of equivocation and mental reservation and with as many and as fine abstractions exceptions constructions restrictions and distinctions too especially that of the specificative and reduplicative sense as any the most refined Authors and most conversant in such matters Canonists or Casuists or School-divines could furnish them with in time of need And these being the most obvious material Exceptions against this Remonstrance of 66. the Reader may judge of their reasonableness or unreasonableness as he please if he hath already or when he shall have read through not only the former part of this Second Treatise but both the first and second part of the first Treatise of this Book To which if he add the reading also of all the other four he may without any question judge the better of these Exceptions whether they be well grounded or not THE THIRD TREATISE CONTAINING The three propositions of Sorbon considered as they are by this Dublin Congregation applyed to His Majestie of Great Britain and themselves And what they signifie as to any further or clearer assurance of their fidelity to the King in the cases controverted HAving given in my Narrative the occasion upon which and the persons by whom after a long dispute these propositions with the other three of the six late of Sorbon were first offered to be assented to and signed in a distinct or different instrument or paper from that of their Remonstrance and how after those very persons hindered the signing of the other or last three and further in my exceptions to instances against and observations upon that Remonstrance of theirs upon their wording of and meaning by and in the several passages or clauses all along having noted their voluntary and contradictory omissions of what was necessary and what was both expected and demanded from them on the particular points and noted their abstractions reservations exceptions equivocations illusive expositions and yet no less if not more destructive constructions I need not say much here to shew the unsignificancy of the said three propositions I mean as to the publick end for which these Assembly subscribers would impose on others or flatter themselves they were subscribed by them For it will be obvious and easie to any understanding man that shall first read those fore-going small Tracts of mine to see evidently there can be no more assurance of the present or future faith of those Congregational subscribers or from their subscriptions to the said three additional propositions than was besorâ— intended by them in or could be from their sole Remonstrance taken according or in that sense of theirs which I have so declared at large I confess that in the state primitive or in that of the innocency of Christians these alone peradventure might have been sufficient to that end Nay and at this very present are very significant as proceeding from and applyed by the Sorbon-faculty and Gallican Church to their own most Christian King and themselves To wit amongst a People and in a Country where no other doctrine is taught or believed or as much as scarce thought upon if not by a very few privâ—tly in corners but that which they have learned from the express Canons of their own ancient Councils and of that particularly of Paris well-nigh a thousand years since in pursuance of the Tradition of their yet more ancient Fathers all along to the Apostles of Christ and Christ himself That kingly power is immedietly from God alone as from the primary and only efficient cause and no way depending of the Church or People Where the practice was so frequent when occasion was offered to resist the usurpations and incroachments of Popes on the Jurisdiction Royal and to oppose and contemn their Sentences of Deposition Deprivation Excommunication and other attempts whatsoever of the See of Rome against their Kings Parliaments or People Where Pithou's most Catholick and voluminous Books of the natural and genuine liberties of the Gallican Church and so many other great Catholick Writers on that subject are extant and frequent and conversant with them daily Where finally that King in their opinion is both their own and really most Christian and themselves of the same Religion with him and by him all their interests both religious and civil spiritual and temporal in the greatest latitude and height they can desire maintained exactly I confess that from such men of such principles in such a Country and to such a Prince these three Propositions barely as they are worded might peradventue do well enough But to conclude hence or that because the French King was pleased or satisfied with them so as coming from and presented to himself by Sorbon His Majesty of Great Britain our Gracious King must be or should be in our present case and on the points controverted amongst us pleased or satisfied with the self same resolutions or propositions aâ—d in the self same words only the application changed without any further addition explanation or descent to particulars and so pleased with them as coming from us were a very great fallacie and very great folly The cases are different in all particulars And therefore it must be consequent in reason that more particulars may and should be required and in other words that is in words expresly and sufficiently declaring as well against all equivocations and other evasions as particularly to the particular points in our own case The design having been as it is and must be yet to get us to resolve and declare satisfactorily and our own Interest and that of our Religion too especially as now in Ireland leading us thereunto But alas the private Interests of some very few men of that Congregation blew durst in the eyes of all the rest so as they
their future fidelitie hereafter in the cases or contingencies wherein they are suspected I leave the indifferent reader to be judge I know what their answer will be to these two last Objections They will say the Propositions of Sorbon had no such exception against equivocation no censure of the contrary positions But the reply is no less obvious and shews the answer in both parts unsatisfactory Because the disparity is as great as the divinity and doctrine and loyalty of that famous Colledge nay and of all the Gallican Church is known to be such that their Propositions as from them and to their King or people needed no such additional exception or censure at such time as they gave those very Propositions in the year 1663. So many books lately before written by the Divines of that Faculty and Church and by the Curats of Rouen and Paris against the whole mass of casuistical opinions amongst which that of equivocations in such cases at least as ours as likewise the other of extrinsecal probability maâ—ch in the first rank and their general horror of such vile Sophistrie and withal the settledness of the generality of the French Nation both Ecclesiasticks and Lay-men in the true honest and obvious meaning of the said Propositions as comprising without further addition or specification those very cases which our congregational Divines would by their distinctions and reservations except alwayes and yet further the very penalties enacted in the rules of Sorbon and other French Universities against any that would maintain the positions of Bellarmine or the doctrine of a power in the Pope for deposing Kings all these four arguments I say to speak no more shew there was no need that the Sorbonists in the said Propositions to their own King should expresly or any other way than by the bare Propositions in themselves protest they declared them sincerely without equivocation or mental reservation And so many former no less known heavy and home censures not only of Sorbon and Paris but of all other Universities in France against that very doctrine of any power whatsoever and consequently against that which is called by new names direct or indirect ordinary or extraordinary and casual or supernatural spiritual celestial divine c. in the Pope for deposing Kings evict this confession likewise That there was no need Sorbon should to those their own propositions in the year 1663. add any new censure at all of the contrary doctrine To all which and as well concerning that of equivocation as this of censure may be added that the Sorbon-Facultie's purpose in determining and presenting the foresaid six propositions to the French King on the eighth of May 63. was only to wipe off the false aspersion which some had lately and groundlesly cast upon them as if they had held the contrary in terminis Which to have been their chief purpose may be seen by that Title of theirs prefixed to the same six propositions Declaratio Facultatis Sorbonicae contra quasdam propositiones falso impositas eidem Facultati Now who sees not that to this end it was sufficient to give the contrary or contradictory propositions without any kind of addition or explication And who sees not that our case or that of our said Congregation of Dublin of the Irish Roman Catholick Clergy was wholy different in all particulars both the doctrine and practice contrary to the plain sincere and obvious meaning of the said six propositions conceived by men that are no Sophisters hath been and is with all truth and justice grounded on sad long and manifold experiences as withal the doctrine and practice of equivocation and mental reservation charged on the generality that is on the far greater part for number of the said Irish Clergy and their Representatives And neither of them have ever yet except only those few Subscribers of the Remonstrance of 61. for ought appears either in this age or any former since the debates arose first by Books Declarations Propositions or otherwise under their hands or names any way censured that pernicious doctrine or practices following it of the Pope's power or pretence of power for deposing Kings c. as neither the doctrine of equivocation or mental reservation in such cases as ours or in any other soever But to shew what only now remains that Sorbon had that all the rest of the Catholick Universities of the Gallican Church and kingdom had lately before and both sufficiently and smartly too censured the positions contrary to the foresaid three or that of any power or pretence of power in the Pope to deprive or depose Kings raise their Subjects or the people otherwise subject in rebellion against them I will give here out of very many others those censures only of the said Faculty of Sorbon fourth of April 1626. and of the whole University of Paris the 20th of April the same year against the said uncatholick doctrines And further only add the prosecution of the same censure by the other seven Universities of France the same year too All which the late Author of the Quaeries on the Oath of Allegiance hath rendred in English and prepared to my hand as extracted out of a Book lately before printed at Paris Entituled A Collection of divers Acts Censures and Decrees as well of the Vniversity as of the faculty of Theology at Paris The Title of that of Paris and consequently of that of Sorbon therein is A Decree of the Vniversity of Paris made by the Rector Deans Proctors and Bachelors of the said Vniversity in a General Assembly had on the 20th of April 1626. at the Matutines And then immediatly follows the Decree it self in these words to a tittle It having been represented by the Rector that the sacred Faculty of Theologie moved as well by their ardent zeal and fidelity towards the Church His most Christian Majesty and his Kingdoms as also by the true and perfect love which they bear to right and justice and following therein the illustrious examples left by their Predecessors in like cases upon mature examination af a certain Latin Book Entituled A Treatise of Heresie Schisme Apostasie c. and of the Popes power in order to the punishment of those crimes printed at Rome 1625. had in the 30. and 31. Chapters of Heresie found these propositions 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 and exempt their Subjects from the obedience due to them and that this custom has been alwaies practised in the Church c. and thereupon had by a publick just and legal sentence on the 4th of April censured these propositions of that pernicious Book and condemned the doctrine therein contained as new false erroneous contrary to the law of God rendring odious the Papal Dignity opening a gap to Schisme derogative to the soveraign authority of Kings which depends on God alone retarding the conversion of