among them 39. In Queen Elizabeths reign we have the Testimony of Doctour Bilson afterwards Bishop of Winchester whose expressions are these The Oath saith he expresseth not the duty of Princes to God but ours to them And as they must be obeyed when they joyne with the truth so must they be endured when they fall into errour Which side soever they take either obedience to their Wills or submission to their swords is their due by Gods Law And that is all which our oath exacteth Again This is the supreme power of Princes which we soberly teach and which you JESUITES so bitterly detest That Princes be Gods Ministers in their own Dominions bearing the sword freely to permit and publickly to defend that which God commandeth in Faith and good manners and in ecclesiastical discipline to receive and establish such Rules and Orders as the Scriptures Canons shall decide to be needful and healthful for the Church of God in their Kingdomes And as they may lawfully command that which is good in all things and causes be they Temporal Spiritual or Ecclesiastical So may they with just force remove whatsoever is erroneous vitious or superstitious within their lands and with external losses and corporal pains represse the broachers and abbettours of Heresies and all impieties From which subjection unto Princes no man within their Realms Monk Priest Preacher nor Prelate is exempted And without their Realmes no mortal man hath any power from Christ judicially to depose them much lesse to invade them in open field least of all to warrant their Subjects to rebel against them Moreover intending to explain in what sence Spiritual Jurisdiction seems by the oath to be given to Princes he saith first We make no Prince judge of Faith and then more particularly To devise new Rites and Ceremonies for the Church is not the Princes vocation but to receive and allow such as the Scriptures and Canons commend and such as the Bishops and pastours of the place shall advise not infringing the Scriptures or Canons And so for all other Ecclesiastical things and â—auses Princes be neither the devisers nor Directours of them but the Confirmers and establishers of that which is good and displacers and Revengers of that whiâ—h is evill Which power we say they have in all things and causes be they Spiritual Ecclesiastical or Temporal Hereto his adversary is brought in replying And what for Excommunications and absolutions be they in the princes power also To this he answers The abuse of Excommunication in the priest and contempt of it in the people Princes may punish excommunicate they may not for so much as the Keys are no paâ—t of their charge Lastly to explain the Negative clause in the Oath he sayes In this sense we defend Princes to be supreme that is not at liberty to do what they list without regard of truth or right but without superiour on Earth to represse them with violent means and to take their Kingdomes from them Thus Doctour Bâ—lson whose testimony may be interpreted to be the Queens own interpretation of the oath since as appears by the Title page of his book what he wrote was perused and approved by publick Authority And to such a sense of the Oath as this there is not a Catholick Clergy man in France Germany Venice or Flanders but would readily subscribe 40. In the next place suitable to him Doctour Carleton in King James his time thus states the matter Bellarmine saith he disputing of Jurisdiction saith There is a triple Power in the Bishop of Rome first of Order secondly of internal jurisdiction thirdly of external jurisdiction The first is referd to the sacraments the second to inward Government which is in the court of Conscience the third to that external Government which is practised in external Courts And confesseth that of the first and second there is no question between us but only of the third Then of this saith Carleton we are agreed that the question between us and them is only of Jurisdiction coactive in external courts binding and compelling by force of Law and other External Mulcts and punishments beside excommunication As for spiritual Jurisdiction of the Church standing in examination of Controversies of Faith judging of Heresies deposing of Hereticks excommunication of notorious offendours Ordination of Priests and Deacons Institution and Collation of Benefices and spiritual Cures c. this we reserve entire to the Church which Princes cannot give or take from the Church This power hath been practised by the Church without co-active jurisdiction other then of Excommunication But when matters handled in the Ecclesiastical Consistory are not matters of Faith and Religion but of a Civil nature which yet are called Ecclesiastical as being given by Princes and appointed to be within the cognisance of that Consistory and when the censures are not spiritual but carnal compulsive coactive here appeareth the power or the Civil Magistrate This power we yield to the Magistrate and here is the question whether the Magistrate hath right to this power or Jurisdiction c. This then is the thing that we are to prove That Ecclesiastical coactive power by force of Law and corporal punishments by which Christian people are to be governed in externall and contentious Courts is a power which of right belongeth to Christian Princes Again afterward he sayes Concerning the extention of the Churches Jurisdiction it cannot be denyed but that there is a power in the Church not only internal but also of external Jurisdiction Of internal power there is no question made External Jurisdiction being understood all that is practised in external Courts or Consistories is either definitive or Mulctative Authority Definitive in matters of Faith and Religion belongeth to the Church Mulctative power may be understood either as it is with Coaction or as it is referred to spirituall censures As it standeth in spirituall censures it is the right of the Church and was practised by the Church when the Church was without a Christian Magistrate and since But coactive Jurisdiction was never practised by the Church when the Church was without Christian Magistrates but was alwayes understood to belong to the civill Magistrate whether he were Christian or Heathen After this manner doth Doctour Carleton Bishop of Chichester understand the Supremacy of the King acknowledged in the Oath 41. In the last place Doctour Bramhall Bishop of Derry in our late Kings dayes and now Archbishop of Armagh thus declares both the Affirmative and Negative parts of the Oath touching the Kings supream authority in matters Ecclesiastical and renouncing the Popes Jurisdiction in the same here in England in his book called Schisme guarded c. The summe of which Book is in the Title-page expressed to consist in shewing that the great Controversie about Papal power is not a question of Faith but of interest and profit not with the Church of Rome but with the Court of Rome
by that of Allegiance Though how can Equivocation be excluded when according to them one Equivocation may be renounced by another A most horrid example whereof England has lately seen in the R. Padre Antonio Vais 72. Neither do Protestants think that a Declaration formerly made by the Pope and forbidding Catholicks to take those Oaths with any Interpretation whatsoever needs to be a hindrance to the taking of it in the forementioned sence so publickly avouched but onely in any secret meanings invented or mentally reserved by particular persons For surely the Pope intends not to take a power from Law-givers to interpret their own lawes nor to forbid their Subjects to admit their interpretations if they be agreable to truth and that the words be capable of being so interpreted as these are pretended to be Certain it is that the Pope was never informed of this so legal an interpretation For if he had he would never have forbidden that to distressed English Catholicks which to his knowledg all good Subjects in France Germany Venice c. neither will nor dare refuse to acknowledge and profess Besides say they is England now become the only Kingdom in Christendom where all manner of Briefs must be immediately submitted to without a publick Legal acceptation and without examination of the Motives or suggestions by which they wâ—re procured It is far otherwise now in the most Catholick Countries and was formerly even in England when it was most Catholick the Lawes then made against receiving or executing Bulls from Rome without a publick admission under the penalty of incurring a Praemunire are still in force 73. If Catholicks rejoyning say that there is another regard for which they are unwilling even to receive information touching any qualifications of these Oaths viz. because the mere admitting a probability that they may lawfully and without prejudice to Catholick Faith be taken would argue that so many vertuous wise and holy Men as have suffered death c. for refusing them have suffred without any necessary cause Such were Bishop Fisher Sir Thomas More c. in King Henry the eights dayes and many good Priests since 74. Notwithstanding say Protestants such a consequence is not necessary For first it hath been shewed that King Henry the eighth intended to exclude the purely spiritual Jurisdiction of the Pope his power of determining matters of Faith according to former Lawes of the Church c. And therefore no wonder that good Catholicks then would not betray their consciences But it is well known that Sir Thomas More advised the King to limit some excesses of the Popes Jurisdiction And an eminent writer tells us that Bishop Fisher offered to take the Oath if it might have been permitted him to explicate his sence of it which could be no other then this that he should deny the Popes temporal Jurisdiction Secondly as for those that suffred in Q. Elizabeths time it is certain that all good Catholicks would never have esteemed it a Martyrdom to dye for refusing to the King a supreme Kingly Power and attributing that to the pope They had therefore a quite different notion of what the state of England required by this Oath But of late good occasion has been given for a more exact examination of it For to make a sincere and ingenuous confession it was a Committee of the late rebellious parliament that probably first of all discovered what use they made of the foresaid proviso in the Act 5. Eliz. to warrant them to take this Oath without submitting their Religion to the King And the same use they judged that all other Sects might make of the same and justify their so doing by law even Roman Catholicks themselves 75. All these things considered it is no wonder that English protestants not being fully informed of the state of Catholicks should wonder at Roman Catholicks for their so Universal agreement in refusing an Oath so interpreted without the least prejudice to their faith but with so unexpressible a prejudice both to their estates and exercise of their Religion 76. The Authour of these Reflexions does freely acknowledge that he has been inquisitive with more then ordinary diligence into the grounds upon which Protestants do make no scruple at all to take an oath which if it had no Expounders to qualifie the sence properly imported by the words he knows they could not take it with a good conscience Nay moreover he has given all the advantage that he could to the proofes produced by them to justify that no other sence ought to be given therto by any English Subject in so much as he may apprehend that he shall incurr a danger to be esteemed by Catholicks to have a design to encourage them also to take it since that sence is such as is very convenient to the principles of Catholick Religion 77. But he protests the contrary His end in writing all this is besides a satisfaction given to his mind that he cannot now without breach of Charity charge Protestants with such an unsincerity in their taking this Oath as Presbyterians c. are apparently guilty of to afford unto the World an illustrious proof of the most perfect sincerity and the greatest tendernesse of conscience expressed on this occasion by the generality of English Catholicks that I believe ever was given by any Church since Christs time 78. They live here in their own native Country with lesse priviledg then strangers they are excluded from having any influence on any thing that concerns the Common-weale of which they are freeborn Subjects When laws are made against them as guilty persons they are not permitted to separate their cause from a few that only deserved the penalties of those lawes they are by lawes obnoxious to greater sufferings then enemies they see their families impoverished their houses invaded by savage officers their lives forfeited as Traytours for entertaining those without whom they could not live otherwise then as Pagans deprived of performing any service and worship to God c. All these miseries they groan under without proofe of any demerit on their parts the crimes of a few miserable seduced and seducing wretches and their bloody Doctrine by none in the Kingdom more detested then by themselves are made their guilt And these calamities they could avoid by taking an oath the present new acknowleded sence whereof as to his Majesties right is just and lawful And yet they dare not take it Why Because they fear God above all But do not Protestants fear him too They are no Judges of the consciences of others This they assure themselves of that if those that now take the Oath had been to have framed it they would have shewed a greater proof of their fear of God then to have expressed the Kings Supremacy in termes fit for none but K. Hen. the VIII 79. But moreover great difference there is between the case of Protestants and Roman Catholicks in regard of this Oath For
substance and intention of the oath and being present do render the whole ineffectual They are assured that the first framer of this Oath K. James never intended to intangle the consciences of his subjects and if he had foreseen that a few unnecessary words would have rendred them uncapable to serve him he would never have made choice of such unhappy expressions But so long experience having demonstrated what it is that wounds the consciences of Catholicks they confidently hope that this tendernesse will shew how infinitely more tender they will be to keep the Fidelity promised in the oath since they have kept it when they were treated as breakers of it only for I cannot say not daring to professe it for that have alwayes been ready to do but for not dareing to say things unnecessary to be said or that they understand not or are not permitted to Explicate their meaning 119. Never certainly was there a time when it was either more seasonable or more necessary to obstruct all passages of jealousies amongst English Subjects and to prevent all attempts of disturbing the Kingdomes peace As for other Sects the State will it is hoped and prayed for be assisted by a divine wisdom to provide against the particular tempers of each and as for Roman Catholicks no other expedient will be necessary but to afford them means to shew abroad that Fidelity which their Religion indispensably obliges them to This indeed will be a great affliction to other Sects among us who would rather forgive Catholicks for being real traytours then for manifesting themselves in the eyes and to the satisfaction of all to be good Subjects 120. Certainly that old policy of Queen Elizabeths Calvinistical Statesmen is now very unseasonable and was alwaies dangerous of first fomenting divisions among Catholick Subjects especially about principles of loyalty and disloyalâ—y and then exposing both the loyal and disloyal subjects indifferently to the same rigour of lawes Surely it is of greater concernment now for his Majesties security to unite all Catholicks with one heart to assist and defend him by casting out all principles of disloyalty inconsistent both with Catholick and Protestant Religion 121. Now what more efficacious mean or rather what other mean is there for this then that which his Majesty may if he please conferr upon them by allowing such an Ecclesiastical Government among them by which there will be produced a true Christian Unity and Uniformity both in opinions and practises and consequently by which without giving the least jealousy but on the contrary very great security to the State they may all be united to concurr in promoting his service 122. Now to what special parties both within and without the continuation of a defect so projudicial is to be imputed is but too well known It is not to be doubted but that the forementioned party will make use of all their skill and power to oppose all good correspondence among them upon more then one Motive For 1. A strong affection which they have to independence and to a promoting of their particular interests dividedly from all others by which means they have got great power abroad little for the publick good of this Kingdom this will make a common union very unwellcome to them 2. And again they will easily foresee that by this only means those wicked principles of disloyalty which made them heretofore eminent abroad must necessarily then be renounced They will no longer be looked upon as the only Apostles of a forraign temporal power either direct or which is as bad indirect the enormous writings and worse practices of their Forefathers which only procured the continuation of the Oath of Supremacy and the framing of that of Allegiance together with the sharp lawes not against them alone must be condemned to the same fate that they have suffered in other Kingdomes and lastly an advantage of corrupting good English Natures with Maximes of Morality odious to all Christenstom and condemned by supream Authority will be taken from them 123. These cannot chuse but prove unto such dispositions very great mortifications and as great as any of these would be the framing of Oaths which all good Catholicks could securely take For it is well known that they have been publickly told that it is for their advantage only that such Oaths are imposed here as cannot generally be taken and that worse newes cannot come to their brethren abroad then that such Oaths were taken away from Catholicks Because they have a strong apprehension that themselves having been the sole clauses of those rigours against the whole body of English Catholicks shall have but a small portion in any future indulgence without an explicite satisfactory renunciation of their principles and an assurance given to teach the contrary as they were obliged by an Arrest of the Parliament of Paris A. D. 1626. 124. And that this was no suspicion groundlesly taken or invented there was produced a well known verified story hapning toward the latter end of Queen Elizabeths raign For that Queen being at last satisfied of the loyalty of certain Catholick Priests had a purpose to shew some indulgence and qualification of the lawes to them Hereupon certain of their Brethren went to Rome to carry such good newes thither whither being come they were by that party branded with the names of Schismaticks Spies and Rebels to the See Apostolick and moreover there was by one of the party T.F. compiled a Treatise in Italian to advise his holyness That it was not good or profitable to the Catholick cause that any liberty or toleration should be granted by the Sâ—ate of England to Catholicks And why not good for the Catholick cause Because not for their own interest For having been persons never formerly admitted by publick authority into this Kingdom and having given sad proofs of their temper they did not without reason suspect that if only good loyal Catholick Subjects were tolerated their so dangerous and to themselves only advantageous principles must be abandoned 125. It is not therefore to be expected but that a charitable concurrence of several Ecclesiastical pastours here would be to them very unwellcome But the commodities and Benedictions flowing there-from are unexpressible For 1. Though perhaps by a hindrance thereby given to that parties divided way of agitation here the number of Catholicks among us might come to be diminished yet then there would be none but good charitable and obedient Catholicks in England free from all intelligence or designs abroad 2. Matters of discipline and Spiritual Government would not be only and immediatly ordered by a Court too far distant from us and too much suspected by the State here 3. English Catholicks would be freed from a burden and the King from jealousies to which no other in the World are obnoxious For in France c. none dare under utmost penalties execute orders or publish Mandats without express allowance from the State though such briefs touched only