an error I thinke P. H. had better venture upon that error then upon the skill of a Prelat who never yet studied out of his owne Friary or tooke degree in any Vniversity But this Physician who is so liberall of his plasters offering his absolutions before the Penitents aske them Sith he can not cure himselfe let him seeke a remedy in time for his owne sores not being ignorant that himselfe is notoriously excommunicated ab homine and by authority of this present Pope Vrbanus 8. in the controversie twixt Patrick Cahil Patrick Brangan frō which to the great scandall of Gods Church we never heard that yet hee received an absolution And I pray God that not guilty of schisme and heresie he stands not also excommunicate De Iure But now ex abundanti Let it be supposed for granted it will never be that to draw Ecclesiasticall persons before Secular Tribunalls in all causes as well Civill as Ecclesiasticall Criminall is unlawfull and that the Canons inhibite the same under Excom Suppose also that this Law be received and in all times hath beene in viridi observantiâ practised in these Kingdomes I say all this being granted as most true undoubted P. H. is as cleare from all spot of Excom as the sun-beames or the water in the fountaine As how Forsooth upon this ground That before he convented those Ecclesiasticall men to wit the Priest the Friar above mentioned hee was denyed all audience and correspondencie with his Prelate the Archb. either by word or writing as before hath beene declared testified In which case it is lawfull not onely for a Priest but for a Layman to seeke for Iustice at the hands of the Temporall Magistrate against a Cleargy-man and to convent him before a Secular Tribunall I say in case his Prelate refuse to heare him or to admit his complaint or to doe him justice Reade for this De Iudiciis tit 1. cap. 7. Qualiter Quando together with the Gloss you will find these words Quod in defectum justitiae Clerici ad judicium seculare trahi possunt That for want of Iustice Clergy-men may be drawne to Secular Tribunalls Casus Titius a Priest is indebted one hundred Crownes to Sempronius Priest or Lay-man the debt cannot be denyed the day of payment is expired but Titius will not performe Sempronius is of our Friars opinion that it ought to bee tryed recovered before the Ordinary but the Ordinary will not heare him or receive his libell Where shall Sempronius sue his Bond against Titius At Rome But that hath not beene seene or heard of since the Capitoll was built Ergo he must either loose his debt or take the benefit of the Canon In defectum justitiae Clerici ad seculare judicium trahi possunt as before And S. Athanasius doubted not long before the Canon was thought of to convert the Arian Heretiques his false accusers of foule crimes before Constantius the Emperour Athan. in Apolog. ad Constant. And before him S. Paul Act. 25. appealed in the Controversies he had with his owne Nation the Iewes unto Caesar Appello Casarem But if you answer that in the aforesaid cases there was no spirituall superiour Prelat or Bishop to heare or to determine their causes I then reply And what distinction make you twixt a Prelat that will not heare a Priests cause and no Prelat at all Verily none And this was still is the case of P. H. who before his Ordinary never yet could be admitted either plaintiffe or defendant Wherfore I conclude that in conventing his Adversaryes though Priests before the Temporall Magistrate in Civill causes hee did not incurre any censure of Excom being warranted by the Canon above alleadged In defectum justitiae Clerici ad seculare tribunal trahi possunt For want of Iustice Cleargy-men may be convented before the Secular Iudgment Vnlesse wee will maintaine the Archb. Tho. Flemming to be above the Canon which is not onely absurd but hereticall And let my Reader whether Friend or Adversary observe that neither Brangan or Doyle can be excused from Excom De Iure in the conventing of P. H. before the Temporall Magistrate he never having to this day declined the jurisdiction or forum of the Ordinary So as the Canon De Iudiciis Qualiter Quando which hath excused P. H. for drawing them before Secular Iudgments namely In defectum justitiae can no sort militat in their behalfe who have suffered no defect of Iustice from their Ordinary In fine then they remaine absolutely excommunicated together with their Master and may say Iam sumus ergo pares CAP. V. Of the want of judgment and discretion in the Bishop and Friars the persecutors of Paul Harris IS it possible that man a reasonable creature made unto the Image of GOD should have his reason so over-ruled with passion and his judgment so over-mastered with malice as they should be powerfull not onely to obscure but in a sort to extinguish the light thereof For not to speake of conscience common honesty which as in every Christian ought chiefly to prevaile so especially in Church-men who are to be guides leaders of others unto their salvation How is it possible that wit capacity or common sense should not avert these men from such violent and out-ragious courses against P. Harris Is it because that glorious Greatnesse who sits at the Helme of Government is pleased most graciously to grant unto us some more favourable respect then in times past using us not with standing what difference soever with others in points of doctrine with all indiffērecie in the Politique government As if he should say Tros Tyriusque mini nullo dìserimine habetur Papists and Protestants are one to mee Who in subjects ducties so well agree Such is the influence of that blessed aspect in our dread and no lesse beloved Soveraigne with that gracious propitious Starre to their perpetuall glory and our unspeakable comfort O then what pitty is it That golden Peace and gowned Rest should be the parents of so foule an off-spring as is discord and dissention Is it That we have already surfetted of Ease and in so short a time become weary of so long-expected a well-fare that now the rod and rigour of State being removed we should embolden our selves upon domesticall broyles Is it For that a way is given nor onely to the freedome of our Consciences but even to the moderate discreet exercise of our spirituall Functions as well Episcopall as Priestly that we should contend also for Secular power and preheminencie to the encroaching upon our Caesars jurisdiction Is this the gratitude and thankfulnesse wee owe and shew for these our Halcyon dayes in which no storme is either for the present felt or for the furure feared If our owne ungraciousinesse and intemperate ambition doe not abbreviat and shorten the same Verily if our Friars had but read their Esops fables they might
that there wants not of these Countreyes in the Citty who are able to translate them into Italian This Congregation of Cardinalls I confesse have a glorious stile conferred upon them by his Hol. as to be Propagators advancers promoters of the Faith but surely their endeavors will never answere unto those honorable titles so long as giving eare to a company of turbulent malecontent Friars they shall seeke to disturb the peace tranquillity of those Kingdomes over or in which they have no principality I say by exercising a secular power over those who are none of their subiects For as his Majesty of Great Brittaine never attempted to exile any of the Popes subjects out of Rome or any other his Territoryes so neither ought they to banish any of his Majesties liege people either out of this or that City Province or Diocesse but to know their owne bounds and not to transgresse the same And truly were I either wise or learned I would endeavour to perswade those most eminent L. Cardinalls in acknowledgment of their error either to send an Embafsadour unto his Majesty or at least to direct a deprecatory Epistle unto him by which he might be induced to passe over that injurious entrenchment upon his Crowne Dignity And alas what lesse can they doe This truly would be a cōmendable act beseeming their greatnesse and answerable unto their high titles by this meanes the Faith might either be propagated or certs lesse scandalized And it may be hoped that in so generous a brest of our renowned Soveraigne it would find both a gentle admittance and remittance And as for the faithfull people here mentioned Surely as many as be of understāding capacity who I cōfesse are not the greatest part of your flock doe well see discerne that all these machinations of the Friars against Harris proceed meerely from malice who for his desire zeale of their reformation as well in their corrupt manners in life as abhominable errors in doctrine doe labour by all meanes to ruinate undoe him But P.H. is confident that Qui habitat in adjutorio altissimi in protectione Dei coeli commor abitur Hee that dwells in the helpe of the highest shall remaine in the protection of the God of Heaven Neither is he better then his predecessors so many worthy Prelats and Priests who for seeking to reforme abuses among Monkes Friars have suffered at their hands extreame persecutiō not alwayes ad exiliū but sometimes ad sanguinē Examples whereof both ancient and moderne our Ecclesiasticall Historyes doe recount And it is no smal comfort unto P.H. and an affront to his adversaryes that his bookes being by the Friars presented unto the Roman Censors and by them read perused tryed sifted bolted yet came off as Gold from the fire without the least note obeliske or asteris ke of reproofe which is also no small honour unto our holy Faith because hereby those who are otherwise perswaded in matters of doctrine may plainely see that the Catholique Church maintaines none of those fooleryes which the Friars profructu ventris doe daylie vent and were largely confuted in his aforesaid Booke It followeth in the Epistle And that some scandall arise not by meanes of this order your Lordship may give unto the said Bishop when he receiveth this enclosed such advertisements informations as you shall thinke fitting for prevention thereof But no advertisements or informations that Dublinensis could give seemed sufficiēt to Medensis to the prevention of scandall maturely considering that it was a thing impossible without notorious scandall indictâ causâ to banish a Priest out of the Diocesse wherein hee hath his habitation his friends acquaintance and benefactors and that in a continued residence of more then 20. yeeres and to be sent into Pontus I mean to uncouth unknowne places where being separated from his friends wel-willers he may with lesse difficulty have his throat cut by a malicious Friar or some suborned Wood-kerne O! but Harris might passe into his native Countrey of England True indeed and so he may but not for sic volo sic jubeo of a Prelate though as yet he is not so minded these 20. yeeres of a continued absence having made him well-neere as much a stranger in his owne Countrey as in the County of Tirconnell where as yet he never set foot Such are the fruites of time whose nature is as the Poet Menander saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to procure oblivion No no with the good leave of the State P. H. now of the age of 63. hath set up his rest and is resolved to say of Ireland and in particular of this Diocesse of Dublin Hic habitabo quoniam elegi eam Heere will I dwell for that I have made choyse thereof till such time as his better part bee translated into a better habitation Againe the Lo. Bishop of Meath no doubt doth well consider that a banishment inflicted without an examination of the cause without the bill of the Plaintiff and answer of the Defendant can not but be most injurious illegall and so by the same non-sense of a nolo that a party is removed from this Diocesse of Dublin he may also be excluded from any other Diocesse and so consequently out of all Christendome for that there is no place in any Countrey of the Christian world but is contained in some Diocesse and so perforce must bee cōpelled to live either vpon the Seas or among Turkes and Infidells Lastly the Lo. B of Meath had good cause to refuse to be imployed in such a piece of service viz. to pronounce sentence of exile against any of the Kings Subjects for hee being a Do. of that famous Vniversity of Sorbon as by profession a Divine so also seene in the Canons Lawes of holy Church doth well understand that Exile is a punishment beyond the spheare of Episcopall jurisdiction proper to the Crowne and not to the Miter and accordingly to be managed by the Secular and not by the Spiritual arme So S. Bernard in his 5. booke De consideratione unto Pope Eugenius tells us That as the Keyes belong unto the Prelats so the Sword unto the Civill Magistrate Forsitan tuo nutu non tua manu evaginandus Peradventure by your will sayth he not by your hand to be unsheathed Which doctrine is layde downe and canonized in the Decretals of Gregory lib. 5. de Cler. excom tit 27. cap. 2. Si quis presbyter aut alius clericus fuerit degradatus aut ab officio pro certis criminibus suspensus ipse per contemptum superbiam aliquid de ministerio sibi interdicto agere praesumpserit postea ab Episcopo suo correptus in incepta praesumptione perduraverit modis omnibus excommunicetur quicunque-cum co communicaverit similiter se sciat esse excommunicatum Similiter de Clericis Laicis vel foeminis excommunicatis observandumest Quod si aliquis omnia ista
remaines for the rest which with patience I will expect For the former reade as followeth Rev. Father Paul Harris VVHereas Fa. Thomas Dowd Fa. Richard Fortrell Priests chosen orderers between us two made an order against mee for the repayring of your good name that I alwayes refused neglected to performe the said order untill such time as the R. Ho. the Lord Deputy Generall commanded me thereunto Now then I being no lesse willing to shew mine humble obedience to his Honour then also sorry to have detracted of your fame I doe by these presents most willingly and submissively aske forgivenesse of your Rev. Fa. Paul Harris this being a point of the Order for all such abuses obloquyes detractions as I have done against you either by words or writings or otherwise And I doe hereby acknowledging my fault earnestly pray you in Christian charity to accept of this mine humble submission tending to the restitution of your good name And withall I doe hereby sincerely promise never hereafter to speake in any sort which may directly or indirectly tend to the obscuring of your good name Witnesse my hand this 23. of Feb. 1633. Edmund Doyle Being present Iohn Fitton Stephen Iellous Robert Nugent VVilliam Hechins How truely is it said Quae nocent docent Those things that doe hurt us doe instruct us And the Prophet Esay 28. Vexatio dabit intellectum Tribulation will give understanding And day lie experience sheweth that to those dutyes whom prosperity can not draw affliction drives even as froward children are forced to kisse the rod hand that whipt them It is observed that some sort of Birdes doe sing more sweetly imprisoned in a Cage then either in the fields or woods abroad Howsoever it fareth with Birdes I am assured these notes palinodious dittyes had never been sung but in a Cage but now the author of this submission being at liberty for all his Castle-promises redijt ad ingenium or rather ad vomitum hath returned to his old disposition or rather to his vomit Otherwise had he persisted in the accomplishment of what he solemnely promised his submission at this time had neither beene pressed on published CAP. VII Of the conveyance of these Letters from Rome into Ireland and by what meanes they came unto the hands of the Archb. Flemming BEing lately in the Country it was my chance in some communication with one of my acquaintance to ask of him if he knew or could guesse how the Cardinalls Letters were passed into Ireland and came to the hands of Dublinensis whether by the post of Paris or Antwerp c. He answered very pleasantly he could soone resolve mee in that point and that they neither came by the way of Paris or Antwerp but by the way of Loretto Your reason quoth I. Why quoth he wot you not that there passed from Ireland certaine Pilgrims for Loretto the last yeare so from Loretto to Rome and returned back this last Spring Now before they returned home from their pilgrimage there was not a word spoken of these Letters but since their arrivall all the Countrey hath sounded of them This discourse of my friend made mee remember a passage which I read some 50. yeares agoe in a Sermon of Hugh Latimer which as then so I now relate to parallell his conceit It hapned in the dayes of Henry 8. that many ships being cast away upon the coast of Kent especially in that place which to this day is called Goodwins sands The Councel thought good to grant a Cōmission to examin such as were of the most ancient inhabitants of those parts if there could be any cause found thereof who being called to Dover were required to say their opinions in that case what they thought might be the occasion of those dangerous seas sands now infamous for shipwracks which informer times had no such note of danger Among the examined one old man stood up told the Commissioners that for his part he wist well what was the cause of those troublesome sands which swallowed up so many ships and by my hood sayth he it is no other then Tenderton steeple I say quoth he and will abide by it that Tenderton steeple is the cause of Goodwin sands For I can well remember the building of Tenderton steeple and before it was built there was no Goodwin sands but soon after the building of that steeple I could heare the sea-faring men in the Church-yard after Even-song and in the Ale-house complaine much of those sands and they would tell how such a ship such a Barque or Pinnace was there sunke c. Well well quoth my friend interrupting me it is enough you have very strongly confirmed my opinion of the Letters but what matter is it whether the Pilgrims are the cause of Goodwins sands or Tenderton steeple brought the Letters frō Rome let those whō the matter concernes more then you me look to it For since they have the threed by the end they know how to wynde it up But since by this occasion we are fallen into mention of the Pilgrimage of Loretto I pray you resolve what opinion you hold of that strange House of our Ladyes of which there runneth so great a fame as it drawes us out of Ireland from our Houses Wives Children to the great danger of our persons expence of our purses unlesse for such as make a bon voyage of it receive fifteene for five at their returne home And as for the miracles we heare very much with our cares but wee see little with our eyes neither the blind or deafe to returne welsensed as for the halt and the lame I lesse marvaile for few of them can reach so farre Nay bi r lady I have known some to carry hence a paire of good leggs with them scarce have brought them so sound back again Besides they tell us that House did use to flye in the aire by sea land above a thousand leagues now it is strange to us that a House that hath no leggs to goe upon should have wings to flye withall Of these other matters no lesse wonderfull I pray you shew us the truth and how farre they may bee beleeved for I confesse God's above all c. And I thinke by this time there was as many gathered about to listen to our talke as were assembled in Queene Dido's Hall to heare Aeneas discourse of the Trojan warre Well then quoth I if so great a longing you have to heare the history of the Lauretan House the stupendious wonders of that holy place Albeit the lights upon yonder cup-bord are now spent farre below their wastes so invite us rather to retire our selves unto our lodgings then to begin any new discourse yet to satisfie your no lesse earnest then harmlesse curiosity I will begin Know then that I have not onely read and heard of this House but I have seen the same and which I more esteeme my selfe