the erring into a way of amendment What a disrespect then is it towards the Inquisition and the Pope in them who dare impute such an uncharitable procedure to those prudent personages After another fashion were the Jesuits Books and that in true Latin too lately condemn'd of which I doubt they speak very seldom and very gingerly to their Devotes several Lists of particular errors were collected out of their Authors and diligently conferr'd with the books themselvs and this in almost every Diocesse of France and at last the whole Apology written by the Jesuits in defence of those errours not onely condemn'd by the Bishops and Diocesan Clergy there but by the Roman Inquisition too notwithstanding all their power in that Court which they stretcht to the utmost Some few of these kind of Errours I have here onely to give a tast of the rest transcrib'd As That I may kill a man to prevent his giving me a box on the ear or a stroke with a staff and if he have struck me I may kill him though he fly from me That an Ecclesiastick or Religious man may kill him who shall attempt or but threaten to take away his honour by slanders or calumnies That 't is no Simony to give or take any thing for a Benefice if it be given or taken as a motive not as a price That an Astrologer if he have only consulted the stars is bound to restore the mony he has received but not if he have taken the pains to conjure and the thing be come to pass by the Devils Art That a man is neither by the Law of nature nor any positive Law oblig'd to restore what he has receiv'd to give an unjust sentence or to commit Murther or Adultery That to hear two halfs or four quarters of a Masse at once which is easie where many Masses are saying at the same time satisfies the Precept of the Church That he who keeps a Concubine is not to be deny'd Absolution though he will not put her away if he say he pretends not to sin with her and that the case be so that without her his life would be but melancholy That probably it is no mortal sin to impose on another a false crime indefence of one 's own honour which of all the rest is in my opinion the most horrible as stubbing up by the roots all charity and veracity out of the hearts of all the world These among many more of the same kind were particularly condemn'd and recondemn'd in France and lest you should doubt their Apologies being condemn'd at Rome too wherein all these are defended go on and read the Copy Thursday 21 August 1659. In the General Congregation of the Holy Roman and Vniversal Inquisition holden in the Apostolick Palace at St. Mary the Greater before his Holinesse Pope Alexander 7. and the most Eminent and most Reverend Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church deputed by the See Apostolick Inquisitors General against Heresy in the whole Christian Commonwealth His Holiness Pope Alexander 7. by this present Decree prohibits and condemns the Book entitled Apologie for the Casuists c. and wills that it be held for condemn'd and prohibited And his Holinesse farther commands that none of what degree or condition soever though dignifyed with special or even most special Qualfication keep or read the said book nor presume to print or cause to be printed as well under the Penalties and Censures contain'd in the Holy Council of Trent and in the Index of prohibited Books as others to be inflicted at the will of his Holyness But whoever now hath or shall hereafter at any time have the said Book shall under the same penalties be bound to deliver it up to the Ordinary or the Inquisitors And now what Substantial difference do you find betwixt this Censure and that against Mr White all I can see is only the precept to clear himself which for want of a particular charge seems to have little legal signification so that as to the general Censures of Rome the Jesuits have tasted of them as well as Mr. White and as to particular Ones of other places far more in the proportion that almost all France and Lovain exceed in Learning and Authority the single pitiful University of Doway which clearly argues Evidence against the Jesuits and against Mr. White My last exception and which makes me confident those words of accurate examination mentioned in that paper are either of course or falsifi'd and so not arguing an Act of the Inquisition is that I see plainly they were so far from accurately examining the Books that they never lookt so much as into the Titles but have most strangely mistaken and Condemned for a Book of Mr. White 's one that was writ against him by another Authour and hath Authore I. S. on the Title-page Mr. White writ Statera Morum Another writ against one part of it and entitled his book Statera Appensa Mr. White reply'd and call'd his Reply Staterae Aequilibrium Now these accurate Examiners which this paper tells us of examin'd so accurately that they mistook one Book for another nor onely disparate Books but opposite ones that is the Objection for the Answer nor needed they look far to have avoided the mistake had they but us'd the patience to have read quite thorough the Title-page before they condemn'd the whole Book it had been sufficient to have prevented their errour Is not this enough to disgrace the whole Processe and Pretence Nor can they shelter the mistake by Aequilibrium's being bound in the same with Appensa For had all the Treatises there been Mr. White 's or at least Mr. White 's the first which entituled the Book it had been some colour but when 't is known Appensa was writ by another Authour who shew'd it to divers Ecclesiasticks of credit in the first foul Copy constantly own'd it himself and sent one of his Copies to the Internunce of Brussels before it was printed and had the two first Letters of his name put in the Title-page challenging it which Letters were no way competent to Mr. White 't is too evident the accurate Examiners read not nor car'd to read the very Title-page thorough but condemn'd at a venture they knew not what And was it not think you a laudable piece of service in that zealous Promooter who thus misinform'd the Inquisition if this Censure truly proceeded from It Or if it be counterfeit is it not an intollerable impudence to father such grosse mistakes on so diliberate and prudent a Tribunal These are my Reasons why I conceive no true respecter of that Inquisition will blaze this Act for Theirs Other Exceptions too perhaps might be made but I desire to publish no more than I hear already reflected on I onely add this word and conclude were this truly the Roman Inquisition's Act were it legally sent legally receivved and promulgated here in England and binding according to it 's full Import when all 's done it can onely command those Books to be look't on as prohibited that is not to be read without Licence which who in England either needs or at least may not easily have nay to read even those written by profest Hereticks and that too against Catholicks Yet this is all the wool got by this great Cry FINIS 16 Ric. 2.
CHECK OR INQUIRY into the Late ACT OF THE Roman-Inquisition Busily and pressingly disperst over all ENGLAND by the JESUITS JOS. 7.1 Praevaricati sunt mandatum usurpaverunt de Anathemate LONDON Printed in the Year of our Lord 1662. Check OR Inquirie into the late Act of the Roman Inquisition ME thinks it should be time to speak out with as little care as we have need of apologizing when the orderly Discipline of the Church the just right of the Civil Magistrate the priviledge of immediate Ecclesiastical Superiours and the common good of Catholicks now in hand are at once attaqu't I only declare this resolution at my first setting Pen to Paper which really springs from the conceit of my own unworthiness that if while I am writing this I understand any other bends his endeavours to prevent the mischiefs threatned I shall withdraw my hand and wholly rely on his But if I hear of none 't is my hope the Motives I have mentioned are abundantly sufficient to ingage any honest and couragious heart without any further congèd'escrire to attempt the hinderance of such ruinous effects To the point then Mr Thomas White whose eminent learning may justly expect to be blustred at and overthrown too if its Basis be not proportionably solid and its structure well compacted had publisht divers Treatises attempting the rigorous rationality of Philosophical and Theological Truths The tenour of his Doctrine ran thus For Faith he endeavoured to advance its growth by lopping off all excrescencies of erroneous opinions how general soever interest or mistakes of Probablists had made them and to render it not only defensible but infallibly victorious by separating uncertain opinions from the certain Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles pledged to us as such by Universal Tradition This was apt to anger those who drove a great trade in decrying all for Hereticks who were not of their mind that is indeed who advanc'd not those Tenets which made for their Politick Interest For Christian Practice his way was to place no goodness in external actions but as they conduc'd to interiour perfection and advanc'd charity which was apt to spoil all Pharisaical cleansing the out-side of the platter as also all superstitiousness and superficial devotions the gainful trade of too many Was not this enough think you to set on fire a world of byast men and all those weak though good persons too who were apt to be led by their cry Or do we wonder after all this the general noise should be against him and onely learned and unpassionate Examiners on his side To proceed Subsuming under this method he cast his eye on that point of Faith which concerns the Churches government by the Hierarchy and saw that under a speciously-pious shew of making the Pope infallible in defining and omnipotent in acting all Episcopacie in the Church but his was destroyed and onely the bare name left He saw also that General Councils were all at once cast out of doors For to what end should those assemble with such trouble to themselves and the whole Christian world if the Pope alone could define Faith and appoint Discipline as certainly and efficaciously as with them Nay be infallible even in matters of fact with which new mad Heresie the Jesuites whose flattering Policie is now come to direct blasphemy are indeavouring to possess all the ignorant or timorous or ambitious in France Hereupon to give the most natural that is the most advantageous growth to the ordinary or true Authority of the Pope as constituted by our Saviour inherited from S. Peter and claim'd by the Title and Tenour of Universal Tradition and to make it more defensible he was oblig'd to seperate it from the opinionative point of the Pope's Extravagant Authority lately introduc'd by flatterers or the human policy of that Court and also that he might maintain disperst Episcopacy to oppose the engros'd one which was inconsistent with the former Beginning then at the root as his way is he confuted and in the quality of a private Divine censur'd that dangerous Principle of the Popes personal Infallibility as Heretical and Arch-heretical Hence his Sonus Buccin◠which censur'd it and his Tabulae Suffragiales which proved at large the justness of that censure by all imaginable Arguments a Catholick Divine could use were both condemn'd indeed but neither of them confuted which done the angry rod of Condemnation was laid by a while till of late a Jesuite oppos'd his Middle State Mr. White answer'd the three years Labour for so long I am sure 't is at least since the Jesuits began to write against that Book of that Author and in likelihood of the whole Society in three weeks Must their credit sink and any one thrive that presumes to be learneder then they No If Reason refuse them her Patronage Authority shall step in and maintain them in despight of Reason And indeed 't is well known they neither love nor care to defend themselves by Evidence of Reason Authority is their best weapon and the more blindly and confusedly it is carry'd the better for their turn If they with any sleights can get some great Men or a multitude of inferior folks to say as they do your Arguments are answered and they protect themselves by crying up those great Few or smal Many for Infallible Instead of Reason then out comes from the Roman Inquisition a Condemnation of all his Books together good and bad Printed and Manuscript examin'd and unexamin'd seen and unseen And this brought in huggar-muggar into England is prest by the passionate men for Faith to their weak Adherents who are made believe that they are forbidden under heavy Censures to read his books nay perhaps bound to hold him an Heretick or what else they list to propose to their blindly-obedient Subjects This abstracting from the truth or falsehood of Mr. Woite's Doctrine is the subject of my present complaint In preferring which to all Candid lovers of Truth and good Subjects to our English Laws I make this FIRST DEMAND SUpposing this Condemnation be no personal Act of the Pope's as Bulls and Breves are but only an Act of the Roman Inquisition which of course bears the Popes name as all other Acts of the Courts of Judicature in Rome do where the Pope is both Spiritual and Temporal Lord whether it be not most absurd preposterous and dissonant even to the distinctive procedure of the Roman Court to confound and equalize those two sorts of Actions which 't is known the Church and that Court look upon with so great a difference SECOND DEMAND VVEre it indeed a Bull or Breve or which is a thousand times more a Decree of a Council belonging to Discipline yet whether it at all obliges till legally sent or brought into the Country where they pretend to bind either by the domestick Bishops who assented to it if it be a Councils Canon or by known officers of the Court of Rome appointed for such
formerly Their Information given they trust it and proceed upon it but yet very gingerly and abstractedly In common that Court sees that Mr White opposes their Paramount Authority by which they project the domineering over both Princes and Hierarchy this is enough to make them think fit to blemish him If then those good Divines tell them that he has Erroneous or Heretical Propositions in his Books and what will not they call so if against their Interest all the branding words shall in but you may sooner squeeze water out of a Flint than get these Divines determine which are erroneous only and which heretical for fear Mr White should prove the better Divine and justifie the points to be both Catholick and needful to be spoken which would quite spoil all SEVENTH DEMAND VVHether it argue not that the passion and Interest of these men is above their love of maintaining Catholick Religion to blast not only the name of an Author who has written so advantagiously and solidly for Faith but even those very Books which so incomparably defend Faith and its Rule Let Rushworths Dialogues Apology for Tradition and Controversie-Logick be examined to omit others and see whether ever the Heterodox party were either so solidly confuted or Faith so radically stated yet are these Books condemn'd too with the rest what more disgrace to our Cause could even a Prebyterians heart wish Consider how manfully the Catholick Controvertists who have followed those Principles have defended Faith and triumpht over opposite Errors and then judge whether it be consistent with these mens pretended zeal for Religion to sacrifice the best champion and strongest fortresses of our Faith as controverted to their politick Interest and to endeavour the overthrowing such rampires of the Popes Faith-taught ordinary and lawful power that they may flatteringly advance his opinionative unlawful and arbitrary one On the other side look on the pittiful Defences these men substitute in stead of those solid ones evidenc'd infallibility of Authority shall be beat down and all Faith finally resolved into a blind afflatus a hole as dark as the worst Fanaticks private spirit Solid reason shall be laid aside and aierie quibbling in a wordish Testimony taken up in its stead which can conclude nothing What miserable tossing of words too and fro to the extream prejudice of the Catholick cause is found in Schism unmaskt yet considering their way we have reason to beleeve that the nerves of their whole Body were all swelled by their most vigorous spirits to advance so feeble a stroke Nor can any see how we may expect better helps from their Principles which tend to the disgrace of Universal Tradition and fix their best hopes on personal Infallibilities Knots voluminous Encounter with Chilling-worth and Fishers with B. Land remain sad Instances of the Catholick cause left dangerously exposed not through want of grounds but by a voluntary desertion of Catholick Principles to follow those of Interest and Flattery EIGHTH DEMAND VVHat is to be said of those who when they list get any thing condemn'd at Rome to blast Catholike Writers that oppose their trampling down the Hierarchy then press that Condemnation hotly and advance it as highly as it were a young point of Faith and yet when it lights on themselves which happens sometimes though not so often as they deserve they slight and vilifie it as nothing worth Poza a Spanish Jesuite that fine fellow who made that excellent Creed printed before the Mystery of Jesuitism was commanded both by the Popes and his Generals Orders to appear at Rome which by the way Mr. White never was yet and legally cited too to answer there for some extravagant Tenets He flies for refuge to the Kings Council and got his cause already overthrown in the Roman Inquisition to be reveiwed by that of Madrid and there found Defence without either his or the State 's or the Madrids Inquisition scrupling at all to cast off the heavy burthen of obedience to the Roman Inquisition which the Jesuites when 't is for their turn use to lay upon other mens shoulders That abominable Apology for the Casuists set out by the Jesuites after it had been most deeply and particularly censur'd by almost each Bishop in France and his Diocesan Assembly was for fear of too manifest shame condemned at Rome and yet was printed by them afterwards and defended both in France and England Stubrochius the disguised Jesuite gives you the full allowance of the force such Decrees are to have in these words If nothing says he be particularly condemned but the Book only in general forbidden no wise man can deny but that the onely reason of its Prohibition is that it was publisht against the rules of the Council of Trent Si nihil prorsus in â—o singillatim configatur sed prohibeatur generatim nemo sapiens neget eo duntaxat nomine prohibitum fuisse quod contra Regulas à Concilio Tridentivo praescriptas editus sit which Rules though in themselves excellent are so unsuitable to the present circumstances of England that very few Catholick writers can observe them so that almost all the Catholick Books in English are subject to the censure of the Roman Inquisition as well as Mr. White 's were there any peevish Informer uncharitable enough to prosecute ' em But you must think it was the Jesuits own case else he had not been so candid so that you see they deal with their Believers as men do with little Babies or Jack-dawes they propose things for Bug-bears or Scare-crows which themselvs fear not at all but onely set up to fright others NINTH DEMAND VVHether to press the obligatorinesse of this Inquisition's Act be not Schismatical in those pressers For since where a legal order is not observ'd in sending accepting and enjoyning observance of Decrees 't is not to be expected all should act alike it will follow that the more zealous and credulous who think every foppery Faith will quickly take fire and accept it and discharge their zeal by spreading it to others and railing at the Authour and the Readers of his Books The more solid discerning and intelligent persons who know how to distinguish things will carry themselves as formerly towards both the Author and the Books Hence difference in actions and mutual animosities are apt to arise and fierce ones too in regard one party is made foolishly to believe all is Faith which their interessed Governours tell them the other party conceive as high an indignation to see the Sacredness of Faith made ridiculous by such a blundering and confounding zeal in the simple believers and paltry interest in the Teachers Now who sees not that the explication of this matter of Fact and it 's immediate consequences speak direct spiritual breach distance difference and disunion of minds affections words and actions which sound schismaticalness enough in all Conscience The Result of all hitherto is this that since this Condemnation is neither legally sent nor