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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19950	A letter vvritten from Paris, by the Lord Cardinall of Peron, to Monsr. Casaubon in England. Translated out of the French corrected copie, into English.; Lettre de Monseigneur l'illustriss. card. Du Perron. English	Du Perron, Jacques Davy, 1556-1618.; Owen, Thomas, 1557-1618.; Casaubon, Isaac, 1559-1614.	1612 (1612)	STC 6383; ESTC S122259	15,517	56

A LETTER VVRITTEN FROM PARIS BY THE Lord Cardinall of Peron TO MONSr. CASAVBON in England Translated out of the French corrected Copie into English Anno M.DC.XII GENTLE Reader This Epistle was cōposed by the Lord Cardinall of Peron without any purpose to haue it seene in publike but rather with deliberation not to impart it so much as to his very familiar friends But a Copie therof being by chance gotten it was presently printed in Paris with many faults yea and with some heresies And although the foresaid Cardinall vsed all diligence to haue it suppressed causing the Copies to be seyzed on by the Officers of Iustice and the Printer to be punished for publishing them without his knowledge yet was there soone after another impressiō made therof in Roan conformable to that faulty Copie of Paris and the like may also be done else-where For remedy therfore of the disaduantage which may arise hereof both to the doctrine of Catholikes and the reputation of the Author it hath seemed necessary to permit that it be printed entire and perfect according to the Copie which was written sent And this we do at this present disclayming from all the former copies and whatsoeuer else not cōformable to this SYR THE Letter which you deliuered to Monsieur de la Boderie to be giuen me I receaued when I was vpon my departure taking my iourney into Normandie Since my returne I haue bene allwaies sick which hath bene the cause that my Answer cōmeth no sooner to your hands But now that my infirmity alloweth me some little ease I will pay the arrierages of my former slacknesse And first I yield you many thankes for the pleasure you did me in shewing my Letter to his Maiesty of Great-Britaine and procuring me some part in his gracious fauour which I will endeauour so to increase by most humble seruices and particulerly by setting forth his Royall Praises the only fruite which good and vertuous Kings such as his Maiesty is do receaue of the thorny cares annexed to Royall Gouernement as he shall haue no cause to be sorie that Posterity know the honour which his Maiesty did me with his Royall fauour and the Reuerence and Admiration I had of his Princelie vertues As for the Translation of Virgils verse wherof you say his Maiesty desired a Copie that being lost which before I sent you I must differre for some daies the performance of this duty for that I haue caused it to be printed againe with an Addition of one part of the fourth which for his Maiesties sake I haue of purpose added to make therof vnto him a more ample and worthy present and as soone as some few Copies shal be finished I will not fayle to send you one that you may present it to his Maiesty in my name There resteth now the third point of your Letter which is that his Maiesty much meruailed at these wordes of mine where I sayd that excepting the only Title of Catholike there was nothing wanting in his Royall Person to expresse the liuelie patterne of a Prince completely endued with all Princely vertues and that he pretended the Title of Catholike could not be denied him since he belieued all those things which the ancient Fathers with vniforme consent esteemed necessary to saluation To this I answere that as on the one side I cannot but greatly praise the Christian humility of his Maiesty in that he refuseth not to submit his Iudgement adorned with so rare light of Nature and increased by Industrie to those bright shining Lampes of Antiquity imitating herein the prudence of the Great Emperour Theodosius who thought no other meanes more ready for the composing of those dissentions wherewith the Church was molested in his time then to demaund of both parties if they belieued that the ancient Fathers who flourished before their contentions began had the true faith which they confessing he required them to submit themselues to that which they should find to haue byn belieued by the ancient Fathers so on the other side there are diuers things to be obserued vpon the Premises before we come to the Conclusion which for that I haue not meanes to present to his Maiesty I shal be content to informe you of thē for your particuler satisfaction The first is that the Name of Catholike is not a Name of only Beliefe but of Communion otherwise the ancient Fathers would neuer haue refused to giue this Name to them that were separated from them not in beliefe but in the communion vnity of the Church Neither would they euer haue affirmed that out of the Catholike Church they might haue Faith and Sacraments but not Saluation Out of the Catholike Church saith S. Augustin in his Treatise of the Conference had with Emeritus a man may haue all things excepting saluation he may haue Orders he may haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluia he may answere Amen he may haue the Ghospell he may haue and preach the faith in the Name of the Father of the Sōne and of the holy Ghost but he can by no meanes obtaine saluatiō but in the Catholike Church And in his booke de vtilitate credendi There is one Church as all do confesse and if you looke on the whole compasse of the world it exceedeth all others in number and as they affirme that know it is more sincere in the doctrine of the Truth But this is another question That which sufficeth for our present purpose is that there is one Catholike Church to which diuers heresies haue giuen different Names when as euery of them haue their proper Names which they dare not deny by which it may easily appeare to whome the Name of Catholike of which all are desirous ought to be attributed And in his booke contra Epist Fundam And that I may omit this wisdome which you denie to be in the Catholike Church there are diuers other things which do most iustly retayne and hould me in her bounds vnity There doth hould me the consent of people and natiōs the authority which had her beginning by miracles nourished by hope augmented by charity confirmed by antiquity There doth hould me the Succession of Bishops vntill this present day from the very Seate of Peter to whom our Lord committed the feeding of his sheepe after his Resurrection to the Episcopall dignity of the present Bishop And lastly this very name Catholike doth hould me in the vnity of this Church which name this Church hath alwaies not without cause amongst so many different sects of heresies in such sort obtained that although all heretiks desire to be called Catholiks yet if a Stranger should demaūd where is the Assembly of the Catholike Church there is no Heretike that dareth to assigne him his Temple or his house And in his Treatise de fide symbolo We doe belieue the holy Church that is Catholike for the Heretikes and the Schismatikes do cal their Congregations Churches but

thing ought to be held in all reason for ancient which those whome we do accompt ancient did themselues esteeme to be ancient The fifth obseruation is about the Vnanimity and vniforme consent of the Fathers which some contentious spirits would haue to be vnderstood only when one and the selfe same thing is actually found in the writings of all the Fathers which is a most vniust and impertinent pretension For that any doctrine or obseruation be truly held by the Fathers to be Vniuersall and Catholike it is not needfull that it be found in the writings of all the Fathers when as many of them perhapps neuer treated of those matters and of whose writings some haue perished and neuer come to our hands but there are two other lawfull waies to assure and satisfy vs in this matter The one when the Fathers or greatest eminencie in euery Countrey do agree in the affirmation of one and the self same doctrine or practise and none of the others haue noted it as dissenting from the Church nor haue written against it In this sort when Saint Augustine had cited against the Pelagians the testimony of an eleuen Fathers eminēt in learning and agreeing in the same points of doctrine he thought he had sufficiently produced against them the beliefe of the Catholike Church and when the Councell of Ephesus had produced ten Fathers of former ages they thought they had sufficiētly expressed the cōsent of the Church in the precedēt tymes against the doctrine of Nestorius for that as Vincentius Lyrinensis noteth they doubted not but those ten Fathers held belieued the self same which all the rest of their brethren did The other way is when the Fathers do speake not as Doctours but as witnesses of the vse and practise of the Church in their ages do not say In my opinion this ought thus to be belieued or thus to be vnderstood or thus to be obserued but the Church from one end of the world to the other belieueth thus or obserueth this For then we do not hold that which they say as a thing sayd by them but as sayd by the vniuersall Church and principally in matters whereof they could not be ignorant by reason either of the condition of things as in matters of fact or in respect of the sufficiencie of the persons And in this case we do not draw from their words only a probable argument as we do when they speake as particuler Doctours but the argument we draw from hence is an absolute demonstration This therfore is to be held vndoubtedly for Vniuersall Catholike which the most eminent of the Fathers that liued in the time of the foure first Councells haue taught in diuers Countreys and different parts of the world and which none of the rest haue impugned or noted as disagreing from the doctrine of the Church or which the Fathers of these Councells haue witnessed to haue bene belieued and practised by the whole Church in their ages and that shall vndoubtedly remayne as ancient and Apostolike which the Fathers of those ages haue testified to haue bene obserued by the whole Church not as a thing newly begun in their time but descended to them by continuall and immemorable succession from former ages or from the expresse Tradition of the Apostles For those thinges hauing bene vniuersally obserued in the tyme of the foure first Councels they could not be instituted but by an vniuersall authority For in the Catholike Church was then exactly obserued the rule mentioned by Vincentius Lyrinensis to oppose Vniuersalitie against Particularitie And therefore one doctrine or obseruation of one particuler Prince could neuer come to be the beliefe or custome vniforme and vniuersall throughout all parts of the world especially in such sort as no one of the Fathers liuing neere the tyme of those vniuersall innouations should haue perceaued or noted but whatsoeuer was then vniuersally obserued in the whole Church must necessarily be instituted by some vniuersall Prince For according to the opinion of your Ministers there were in those ages but two principall and vniuersall authorities the one of the Apostles and the other of generall Councells For they will not admit that the Sea Apostolike had at those tymes any vniuersall authoritie and therefore whatsoeuer shal be found to haue bene vniuersally and vniformly obserued in the Church in all Countreys Prouinces of the earth in the tyme of the foure first Generall Councells and not to haue bene begun in that time but to haue bene formerly practised that is before there was any Generall Councell in the Church must necessarily be a tradition of the Apostles following those rules of S. Augustine Epist 18. Those things saith he which we keep not by writing but by Tradition which are obserued through the whole world are vnderstood to be receaued from the ordination and institution either of the Apostles themselues or of Generall Councells whose authority is most profitable to the Church And in another place That custome also which men looking vpwards could not find that it was instituted by posterity was iustly belieued to haue bene instituted by the Apostles And there are many other things which would be long to repeat And againe If any one in this do seeke diuine authority although that which the vniuersall Church obserueth and hath not bene instituted by Councells but alwayes retayned is iustly belieued not to haue bene deliuered by Tradition but by Apostolicall authority c. Which rules of S. Augustine if they haue place in those things which the Fathers who liued in the tyme of the foure first Councells do testifie to haue bene obserued in the Church before those Councells with how much more reason ought they to haue place in those matters which the same Fathers affirme not in doubtfull but in expresse termes to haue bene instituted and ordained by the Apostles These fiue Obseruations then thus made vpon the Premisses to passe now to the Conclusion I say that so farre of it is that your Ministers to whome his Maiesty doth exteriourly adhere doe hold the same thinges which the ancient Fathers haue belieued and practised as necessary to saluation that in the solemne Seruice or Liturgie of the Church which is the seale of Ecclesiasticall Communion the foure principall points for which they haue separated themselues frō vs which are the Reall Presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrament the Offering of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist Prayer Oblation for the dead Prayer to Saints the ancient Fathers haue vniuersally and vniformly belieued held and practised them all as thinges necessary to saluation although in different degrees of necessitie So as if your Ministers had liued in the time of the ancient Fathers they must as they haue now forsaken and renounced our solemnities and communion for these causes so also haue then renounced the solēnities cōmunion of the ancient Fathers and consequently the title society of the Catholike Church

I sayd the Reall Presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrament not because I thinke not to passe further to affirme the substantiall conuersion of the Sacrament into the body of Christ but it sufficeth for my purpose to say the Reall Presence For it is not precisely and particulerly the Transubstantiation of the Sacrament but the Reall Presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrament on which is grounded the importance of this article and the necessity of it to saluation to wit the Communion and substantiall Vnion to the body of Christ which Saint Cyrill calleth the knot of our Vnion with God Neither is it particulerly and precisely the Transubstantiation but the Reall Presence from whence those two inconueniences do proceed for which your Ministers in this article haue separated themselues from our Communion which are the one the adoration of the body of Christ in the Sacrament whome they would haue to be sought and adored only in heauen and the other is the pretended destruction of the Vnion of the body of Christ by being at one time in many places in the Sacrament I haue sayd nothing of the prerogatiue of the Roman Church which all the ancient Fathers haue held to be the Center and roote of Episcopall Vnitie and Ecclesiasticall communion For that I perswade my self that You are sufficiently conuersant in antiquity to know that the most ancient Fathers Councells and Christian Emperours haue perpetually giuen vnto her the Primacie and supereminent Authority in all Ecclesiasticall matters and such as concerne Religion which is as much as the Church requireth to be confessed as a point of faith by them that do returne to the Vnity therof that so this companie of the Faithfull may be discerned from the Grecians and others of their Sect who some ages since haue separated themselues from the visible and ministerious head of the Church These foure points therfore are the principall fountaines of our dissention if about these we were of accord it would be easy to agree about the rest I say that the Fathers who liued in the time of the foure first Councells haue all of thē held practised as necessary to saluatiō albeit in different degrees of necessity to wit the Reall Presence of the body of Christ the oblatiō of the Sacrifice as a meanes absolutely necessary to the whole body of the Church and conditionally necessary to euery one in particuler Prayer and Oblation for the dead as necessarie necessitate medij to them for whom they are offered to help thē by the prayers and Sacrifices of the Church to deliuer from temporall paines after this life those who hauing sinned after baptisme haue not done sufficient pennance nor fully satisfied the iustice of Allmighty God and they are necessary necessitate praecepti for the exercising of Christian charity piety both to the Church who maketh them and to the Ministers and Pastours by whom she maketh them And Praier to Saintes hath bene practised as necessary to the body of the Church and to the Ministers by whome she maketh them necessary I say necessitate praecepti for the communion and commerce betweene the Triumphant and Militant Church And as for particuler men than haue no office in the Church but vse their priuate deuotions it is not necessary necessitate actus but it is only profitable for the more easie obtaining pardon for their sinnes by making their recourse in praier to them that are allready in perfect and assured possession of the grace and fauour of God but to these and to all other it is necessary necessitate approbationis that is they are bound not to contradict it nor to condemne the vse and doctrine of the Church in this point nor to separate thēselues from the Church for this cause vnder paine of Excommunication and to be held and esteemed for Heretikes Of all which things I do not for the present vndertake the proof least in place of a Letter I should sēd you a booke but I oblige my self to performe it whensouer you shall require it and to shew vnto you both by the vniforme consent of the Fathers who flourished in the time of the foure first Councells and by the formes which they haue left vs in their writings of the ancient seruice of the Catholike Church in their ages vniuersally and vniformely were held belieued and practised through all the Prouinces and Countries of the earth these foure points in the same sense and in the same forme as they are vsed in our Liturgies and common Seruice and not as Obseruations which then had their beginning but as things which the same Fathers affirme to haue bene belieued and practised by all Antiquity and to haue come to them by a neuer-interrupted succession of the tradition or approbation of the Apostles So as no man can renounce the Communion of our Church vnder the pretext and colour of any of these things but they must also renounce the Communiō of the ancient Catholike Church and consequently the inheritance of saluation And this I will doe by authors and testimonies of good ranke and marke as you know I am curious not to vse others and with plaine and cleare answeres to all obiections taken out of the Fathers of those or former ages which thing will be vnto me so much the more easy forsomuch as the proofes which we bring out of the Fathers do containe in expresse tearmes the affirmatiue of what we say whereas on the contrary our Aduersaries shall neuer be able to find one passage which doth in expresse tearmes containe the negatiue but only by such inferences as in an equall and iust Tribunall deserueth not so much as once the hearing For who knoweth not how contrary to reason it is to alleage the consequences of passages and those also ill interpreted and vnderstood in whose inferences doth alwaies lye hidden some Paralogisme and fallacie against the expresse words and the liuelie and actuall practice of the same Fathers out of whom they are taken and that this is a ready way to accuse the Fathers of want of vnderstanding and memory not to take them for iudges and to submit ones selfe to the obseruation of that which they haue belieued and practised To this I will further adde when you shall desire it the present conformitie of all other Patriarchall Churches in these foure poynts with the Church of Rome and of all those which do yet remaine to this day vnder their iurisdiction that is of those that doe remaine vnder the Patriarchall Iurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople as the Grecians Russians Muscouites and Asians of the lesser Asia separated from vs some eight hundred yeares since of those also which are vnder the Patriarch of Antioch as the Syrians Mesopotamians and others that are further East For those that acknowledge the Patriarch of Syria as the Maronites do still perseuere in the Communion of the Church of Rome Of those also which rely and depend of the Patriarch of Alexandria as the naturall Egyptians whome they call Copthes and the Ethiopians deuided from vs and the Grecians more then eleuen hundred yeares agoe euen from the last of the foure first Councells that is from the Councell of Chalcedon these do hold these foure articles and with greater iealousie if it were possible then the Latins do and particulerly that of the Sacrament in which they do not only belieue the Transubstantiation which the Grecians at this day doe call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but do also adore it with externall actions full of much more humility then ours are which is a manifest signe that these foure poynts were vniformely held and obserued by the ancient Catholike Church seeing that all the partes into which the Catholike Church is deuided retayne them to this present day with great vniformity notwithstanding the distance separation and diuision of them through all Nations of the earth Behould heere in generall the causes which moued me in my Letter to vse that exception obiected vnto me in yours which if his Maiesty of Great-Brittaine had as well the leasure to consider in particuler as he hath capacitie to comprehend them I assure my selfe he would not thinke it strange that I should wish him the Title of Catholike but would also wish and desire it himself and put himselfe in state to obtayne it both to himselfe and his I meane he would to his other Crownes adde also this that he would become a Mediatour for the reconciliatiō of the Church which would be vnto him a more triumphant Glory then that of all Alexanders and Cesars and it would obtaine no lesse honour to his Iland to haue bene the place of his birth then to haue brought forth the Great Constantine the first deliuerer and pacifier of the Church of Christ I beseech the infinite goodnes of God that he would vouchsafe one day to increase with this the other graces which he hath giuen him and to graunt in this behalfe the prayers of the happy deceased Queene his Mother whose not only teares as did those of S. Augustines Mother but also her bloud doth make intercession and cry vnto heauen for him and allwayes preserue You in health and safety FINIS Cap. 7. Cap. 4. Cap. 10. Cap. 4. epist 152. ad Donat●st lib. de fid ad Pet. Diac cap. 29. Cap. 19. Cap. 33· Cap. 4. Cap. 24. Gen. 26. Isa 2. Matth. 23. Ioan· 3. lib. 3. de an eius orig c. 9. Isa 62.54 Matth. 16.18 1 Tim. 3. de vtilitate cred c. 17. De symb ad Catech. lib. 1. c. 5. Contra 〈…〉 Cap 42 De Bapt. cont Donat lib. 4. c. 6.