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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29408	A Brief account of the proceedings of the French clergy, in taking away the Pope's usurp'd supremacy, shewing by what steps or degrees the same was effected by way of introduction to the Pope's letter, written to the clergy of France, 11th of Apr. 1682, and their protestarion [i.e. protestation] thereupon, 6th of May following, the letter condemning, and the protestation justifying and ratifying the said proceedings : both which are here published in Latine ... and in English ...		1682 (1682)	Wing B4516; ESTC R14707	15,396	53

Dei jura ac libertatem hujus sedis sanctae Authoritatem Dignitatemque defendere nihil de nobis sed omnia de eo presumentes qui nos confortat operatur in nobis qui jussit Petrum super aquas ad se venire Praeterit enim figura hujus Mundi Dies Domini appropinquat Sic ergo agamus venerabiles Fratres ac dilecti Filii ut cum summus Pater familias Princeps Pastorum rationem ponere voluerit cum servis suis sanguinem pessundatae Laceratae Ecclesiae quam suo acquisivit de nostris manibus non requirat Vobis interim omnibus Apostolicam Benedictionem cui Caelestem accedere optamus intimo Paterni amoris affectu impartimur Datum Romae c. The Popes Letter to the Clergy of France To the Reverend Brethren the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. IT hath been an extream grief and disturbance to that Paternal affection which we have for our dear Son Lewis the Most Christian King your Churches your selves and the whole Kingdom to understand by your Letter to us dated Feb. 3. that the Bishops and Clergy of France which heretofore were the Crown and joy of the Apostolick See should now so demean themselves as to compel us with many tears to use the saying of the Prophet The Sons of my Mother have fought against me though indeed you rather fight against your selves while you oppose us in that Cause in which the Welfares and Liberties of your Churches are involved and in which being called upon by some pious and couragious men of your Order we immediately appeared for the defence of the Episcopal Rights and Dignity in that Kingdom and we have already begun to act not regarding our own private Interests but shall give due satisfaction to all the Churches and also to our own care of and Affection toward you That your said Letter contains nothing in it either pleasing to us or worthy of your selves the very beginning of it discovers for besides what it mentions of a Rule observed in calling and holding Assemblies we take notice that it proceeds from Fear which Gods Priests were never wont to choose for their Counsellor in matters of Difficulty and importance relating to Religion and Ecclesiastical Liberty either in attacking the valiant or compleating the constant which fear you falsly supposed you could have infused into our breast For the love of Christ which casts out and drives away fear ought always to dwell there and with what affection our fatherly bowels have yearned toward you and the Kingdom of France hath been manifested by many Signal instances which it will be needless here to insert But if our love merits well of you in any thing we think it doth particularly in the business of the Regalia on which if you seriously consider it the whole Dignity and Authority of your order depends So that you have seared where no fear was whereas you should only have feared the just censure both of God and Men for having been wanting to your Duty Honour and Pastoral Office you should often have called to mind the holy Prelates of old whose examples of Episcopal constancy and courage were followed by many in after ages In such cases the lives of your Predecessors are proposed for your Imitation not only those who flourished in your Fathers days but even within your own Memory And you who commend the sayings of Ivon Carnocensis should also have imitated his actions where occasion required it you know what he did and suffered in that turbulent and dangerous Contention between Pope Urban and King Philip thinking it his Duty to incur the Kings displeasure to be deprived of his goods and indure imprisonment and exile while others deserted that Righteous cause It is your Duty to joyn your Endeavours with the Authority of the Apostolick See and with a Pastoral heart and Priestly humility to plead the cause of your Churches before the King by informing his Conscience of the whole matter though it be with the danger of Provoking his indignation against you that so you may hereafter be able without blushing to sing daily the words of David I have declared thy Testimonies before Kings and was not ashamed How much rather then ought you to have done the like having had large experience of the Justice and Piety of the best of Kings who as your selves have written and we with great delight have read in your letter of his singular goodness hearkens to the Bishops favours the Churches and preserves the Episcopal Power inviolate so that had you pleaded with the King in the defence of so just a Cause we doubt not either that you would have wanted words to express your desires or he inclinations to grant them But having as it were forgot your own duty and the Kings equity you have been silent in a business of so great moment and we cannot imagine upon what probable ground you say you were induced to it that you were overuled in the controversy and that you fell in the cause for how can he fall who never stood Did any of you ever plead in so just so weighty and so sacred a Cause before the King And yet your Predecessors when they were in the like danger have many times with great freedom defended this Cause in the presence of former Kings of France yea before this very King too and have returned victorious bringing with them the reward of a Pastoral Office from that just Prince Who among you enters the Lists to fight for the House of Israel who dares expose himself to envy who hath spoken so much as one word in memory of the Antient Liberty They have indeed as you write spoken loud enough but it was in a bad Cause and when the Kings Ministers cried aloud for the Kings Right you in the best of Causes viz. for the Honour of Christ were silent Nor is it of any more validity that when you give us an account of or more truly make your excuse for what you had done in such Assemblies you aggravate the jealousie that the Ecclesiastical and Secular Powers were like to clash and that great mischeifs might follow thereupon both to Church and State and therefore you thought it your Duty to consider how a stop might be put to the growing differences and that none seem'd more Proper to you than that which was prescribed by the Fathers of the Church viz. a wholesome Condescention for moderating the Canons according to the necessity of the time when neither the verity of the Faith or honesty of manners will be endangered thereby Then you declare that your Order the Gallican Church yea the Universal Church owes very much to your renowned King who you say has already merrited highly of the Catholick Religion and strives dayly to merit more by which Act you have relinquished your right and have given it to the King We forbear here to mention what you tell us of the Secular Magistrate you appealed

without Reason Pretends that he is not Subject to a Council for a Right meerly Temporal doth not own that Authority of the Council alleaged against him but on the contrary His Magisty maintains that his Predecessors could not prejudice his Rights and that if they had reason to suspend the Execution of the Regalia in the four Provinces he had much more reason to revive it there that the Bishops had acknowledged him for their Judge and that having pronounc'd Judgment he is oblig'd to give an account of it to God only Then the Bishop of Troyes another of the Commissioners commended to their Favour and Protection a certain Doctor of the Sorbonne for a Book written by him wherein said he he justifies the Right which we have to decide matters of Faith and Discipline and to oppose the Authority which we have immediately received from Jesus Christ against the novelties which might arise in our Dioceses and Provinces Secondly he demonstrator that the Gallican Church is not departed from the Discipline of the Council of Sardica the Execution of which the Councils and Ancient Popes have so often recommended and according to which the Bishops ought to be tryed first by their Brethren in their Provinces And these two Maxims are Canonical and conformable to the Spirit of the Church and to the Sacred Rules Establish'd by ancient Councils and Authorized by the Holy See When he had ended the Arch-Bishop of Reims continued his Speech and said that the Commissioners had examin'd the Pope's Letters and first that the occasion of those two written to the Nuns of Charonne was thus Their Monstery was founded 1643. By the Duchess of Orleans who desired the Pope that the first Abbess might be continued daring life and it was granted After her decease the King nominates one to succeed her but she dying before she was confirm'd he nominates another who was Established Abbess by the Arch-Bishop of Paris in 1679. That the first Letter of 7th of August 1680. forbids the Nuns to obey this Abbess and commands them to choose another which they did without observing the Rules of Elections which as soon as the Pope was informed of he wrote another Letter to them dated 15th October following by which the defect of Formalities is supplyed and this irregular Election of the new Abbess confirmed That the several Letters which the Pope had written to the Arch-Bishop of Tholouse to the since deceased Bishop of Pomiez and to the Chapter of that Church since its vacancy having been caused by the dispute about the Regalia are to be taken as one ahd the same and that the Dispute happen'd as follows viz. The said Bishop refusing to submit to the Declarations of 1673 and 1675. form'd several Processes against such Clergymen who by vertue of the Regalia possess'd some of the Prebends of his Church which the Archbishop of Tholouse upon the Appeals brought before him made void That on 7th August last the Bishop dyed and the old Canons Regular of his Church Elected after his decease some Officers to govern it That these new Officers continued the Process against the Regalists which the Bishop had begun and the Archbishop of Tholouse made them void complaint whereof being made to the Pope he wrote two Letters one to the Archbishop and the other to the Chapter of Pamiez which are of no moment But by a Letter of 2d October following to the Chapter and Conons Regular of Pamiez the Pope confirms the Officers nominated by the Chapter and engageth to confirm such as shall be chosen he forbids them to own any others he declares null whatever shall be done by Vicars General which shall not be chosen by the old Canons and orders this Letter to be read in the Diocess of Pomiez That a Letter of Newyears-day last confirms a second time the Officers Elected by the Chapter and declares that the Pope will confirm such as this Chapter shall Elect that it Excommunicates with the greater Excommunication which is immediately incurr'd without any other Declaration all such as shall favour the Grand Vicars chosen by the Archbishop and the Canons that are Regalists or shall favour the said Metropolitan and in fine that it Excommunicates the Metropolitan himself In the next place he tells them that the first Parliament of the Kingdome having pass'd a Decree 24th Sept. against the Pope's Letter of 7 Aug. to the Nuns of Charonne the Commissioners were of opinion that it was their Interest to joyn with the Parliament therein tho the said Decree was Condemned by a Letter of 18th December following which forbids the reading of it upon pain of Excommunication and Commands the Bishops or Inquisitors to burn all the Copies of it that can be found c. Then he mentions the reflections of the Commissioners upon these matters some of which are that by the Pope's two Letters to the Nuns of Charonne granted upon their bare Relation and in their own Cause all is vacated that their Archbishop had done without hearing or so much as summoning him That by reason of a Clause Inserted in the second Letter viz. that the Pope hath power to supply all formes that may be omitted even such as are Essential it is pretended that he can supply the want of that very knowledg of a matter which by the Law of Nature is absolutely necessary before a judgment can be given of it That the Proceedings against the Archbishop of Tholouse were contrary to Equity and the Rules of their Profession and also to the Treaty call'd the Concordat which was made between Leo 10. and the Holy See on the one part and Francis 1. and his Kingdome on the other part and being Authoris'd by both Parties is become a Law both in Church and State and consequently cannot in the least be debilitated by any pretended Power from the Pope And having proved these things excellently and at large he proeeeds to acquaint the Assembly with the Resolutions which their Commissioners had judg'd fit to be taken in that conjuncture viz. That a Letter be written to the Pope to represent to him that the business of the Regalia deserved not so much heat as is expressed in his Letters it being look'd upon by the King's Officers as a Temporality and that it is in itself a thing of no great consequence to the Church That by the Letters to the Nuns of Charonne and Chapter of Pamiez the Order of Jurisdictions had been disturb'd and the Right of Ordinaries and Metrapolitans violated that he had been exalted above the Canonical Constitutions and that these Designs against Rules the most Sacred might weaken that Union which the Churches of France ought inviolably to keep with the holy See And lastly that the King be desired to permit the Prelates of his Kingdome to meet in a National Council or to call a General Assembly of the Clergy to consist of two Deputies of the first Order and two of the second in every Province and

to and were overcome by him for we desire that the memory of that action may be oblitterated and would have you expunge those words out of your Letter that they may not remain among the Acts of the Gallican Clergy to the perpetual infamy of your Names As for what you alledge in your defence concerning Innocent 3. Benedicti 12. and Boniface 8. Some have not been wanting who have shewed you how frivolous and foreign it is to this Cause And it is so well known that it needs not to be mentioned with what Zeal and constancy those famous Popes defended the Liberty of the Church against the Secular Power so farr are their examples from favouring your errour But we freely allow and commend the advice of moderating the discipline of the Canons according to the necessity of the times when it may be done without any injury to Faith and Manners yea I add with St. Augustin That may sometimes be allowed for the sake of Unity which for the sake of equity ought to be abhorr'd Nor are the tares to be plucked up when there is danger of plucking up the Corn with them Yet this ought so to be understood as that it is Lawful in some purticular cases only and for a time and when necessity requires as the Church did when she restored the Arrians and Donatist Bishops to their Churches as soon as they had renounced their errours that she might keep the people which had followed them in their due obedience to her But it is otherwise when the Discipline of the Church is destroyed throughout so great a kingdom without any limitation of time and when there is manifest danger that the infection will spread farther yea the very foundation of Discipline and of Ecclesiastical Hierarchy it self is subverted and this must needs be if you connive at yea consent to those things which the most Christian King has lately Ordered in the business of the Regalia contrary to the Authority of the Sacred Canons and particularly those of the General Counsel of Lyons contrary to our mind in that affair long since signified to you and contrary to the very obligation of that Oath with which you bound your selves to God and to the Roman and your own Churches when you received the Episcopal Character Should the Holy See suffer this mischief to be put in execution and to get ground by farther Delays or shall we not according to the supream Power over the Church Universal given by God to our humility and treading in the steps of our Predecessors solemnly damn it and the rather since it plainly appears that not only the Discipline of the Church is subverted by the abuse of the Regalia but that the soundness of the Faith is also called in Question may easily be discovered by the very words of the King's Decrees which claim for him that Right of conferring Benefices not as being derived from any concession of the Church but as connote and coeval with the Regal Crown but I could not without extream horror of mind read that part of your Letter which tells us that you have quitted your Right and have transferred it to the King as if you had the absolute disposal not the Gaurdianship of the Churches committed to your charge and as if the Churches themselves and their Spiritual Rights might be subjected to the yoke of Seeular Power by the Bishops who for the Liberty thereof ought to undergo the greatest Servitude And indeed you your selves confess this truth by saying elsewhere That the Right of the Regalia is a kind of Servitude which especially as it relates to the collation of Benefices cannot be imposed but by the Grant or at least by the consent of the Church By what Right then have you transferred that Right to the King And since the sacred Canons prohibit the alienation of the Rights of your Churches how could you bring your minds to alienate them as if you could lawfully derogate from the authority of those Canons Remember what is what is written by your famous Countrey-man Clarevalensis Abbas by you deservedly called the Light not only of the Gallican but of the Universal Church who admonishing Pope Eugenius of his duty tells him that If he was the person to whom the Keys and to whom the Sheep were committed tho' there were other keepers of Heaven Gates and Pastors of Flocks yet while they had each their particular Flocks designed them all of them and they themselves also were committed to him alone and that Eugenius was the sole Shepheard not only of the Sheep but of the Shepheards too and therefore according to the Decrees of the Canons whereas other Bishops were called to take part of the care and charge he was called to the full power By which words as you are admonished of that duty and obedidience which you owe to the holy See of which by the divine Authority we though unworthy are President so is our Pastoral care excited to begin at length to execute our Apostolick duty in this affair which perhaps our too much patience in giving space for repentance has hitherto defer'd wherefore according to the Authority given unto us by Almighty God we do by these Presents damn abolish and utterly make void all that has been done by your Assembly in the business of the Regalia and all that has since ensued thereupon together with whatsoever shall hereafter be done And we do declare the same to be forever null and void tho' being manifestly null of it self it needed no such damnation or declaration But we hope that upon better consideration you your selves will by a voluntary recantarion consult the quiet of your own Consciences and the reputation of the Gallican Clergy among whom as there never has been so I trust there never will be wanting some who after the Example of the good Shepherd will readily lay down their lives for the Sheep and for the Testament of their Fathers And as for our own part we are ready according to the duty of our Office to offer up the Sacrifice of Righteousness by the assistance of the Divine Grace and to defend the Rights and Liberties of God's Church and the Authority and Dignity of this Holy See not presuming on our own strength but expecting all from him who strengthens us and works in us and commanded Peter to come to him upon the water For the fashion of this world passeth away and the Day of the Lord is at Hand Wherefore Reverend Brethren and dear Sons let us so demean our selves that when the great Master of the Househould and Prince of Pastors shall call his Servants to an account he may not require at at our hands the Blood of his afflicted and dismembred Church which he hath purchased with his own In the mean time with our dearest affection and Paternal Love we send Apostolick benediction to you all to which we pray that Gods Blessing may be added Dated at Rome 11th April 1682. Protestatio