had no other fault but that it is placed by you in the same line and predicament as to the lawfulness of taking it with the oath of Suprecacy Catholiks are bound to refuse it neither can a Franciscan Friar who reproaches Roman Catholiks with rashness and obstinacy for not taking the oath of Supremacy expect to be their Spiritual Director but rather to be concluded by them an Apostat and must not take ill if his writings should be reiected and burnt as heretical Seing therfore Mr. Walsh your arguments pretending to proue that the two general Councells of Ephesus and Calcedon as well as the Prouincial of Afrik taught the doctrin which Roman Catholiks except against in the oath of Supremacy are found to be mistakes what other arguments do you produce to conuince Catholiks of rashness and obstinancy for not taking that oath None but your own authority nothing but your saying that the Roman Catholik Church hath err'd rashly and obstinatly for these 600. last years because it admitted not a Spiritual Supremacy in temporal Soueueraigns Realy Mr. Walsh I do not belieue your sole authority is a sufficient argument to proue the Church hath erred To proue so rash an assertion you would fain make us mistrust the testimonies of holy and learned Authors of the Church History as Baronius Bellarmin and others They are Impostors you say hired by the Court of Rome to diuest Emperors and Kings of their right of gouerning spiritual and ecclesiastical affairs and to place it in the Pope Your words page 40. to the Reader are If the truth were known it would be found that Baronius and the rest fallowing him were willing to make vse of any malitious vngrounded fictions whatsoeuer against lustinian the Emperor This Justinian was in the later end of his dayes an heretik and took vpon him to make lawes in matters of Faith but he dyed sudenly before he could publish them Yet before he was an heretik he made good Edicts in fauor of the true Faith and for this he is commended by Popes and Councells as a Catholik as also because it s sayd he was reconcil'd at his death Now you Mr. Walsh say that the ancient and modern writers knew well enough he was neuer an heretik but that they diffame him as an heretik because his laws in Ecclesiastical matters euen those of Faith are a perpetual eysore to them because these laws are a precedent to all other good Princes to gouern their own respectiue Churches in the like manner without any regard of Bulla Caenae or of so many other vain allegations of those men that would make the world belieue it vnlawfull for secular Princes to make ecclesiastical lawes by their own sole authority Truly Mr. Walsh I haue endeuored to know the truth of those two Cardinals Bellarmin and Baronius and do find they were both holy humble men so farr from being hir'd by the Court of Rome that neither of them could be persuaded by it to accept of more for their maintenance than what was absolutely necessary for their dignity They liued and dyed in the list of the poor Cardinals both were named Cardinalls against their will both industriously sought to make themselues vncapable of the Popedom Twenty dayes did Baronius resist in the Conclaue the offers and importunities of the Cardinals his friends who were able and resolued to make him Pope vntill at length he persuaded them to choose Leo 11. Both these Cardinals virtues are so conspicuous that many press for their Canonization and it s belieued it will be obtain'd God working Miracles to testify that they deserue it This is the truth Mr. Walsh and the world blames you very much for calling such men Hirelings Impostors c. What shall your friends say to excuse you when they heare you call'd an ignorant spitefull heretik for calumniating such holy men as these Som who obserue your actions say you are hired to write these calumnies and that you haue chosen rather so base and mercenary a way to damn your self and others than to liue quiet and serue God in your Cell according to your rule and profession Good God Mr. Walsh is this possible Can you sell your own soul and the reputation of Saints for such paltrey stuff and at so low a rate as 200. per an If this be true you are vnhappy but Gods mercy expects your repentance for which we your friends can but pray Others think you despair not by your litle bookes and this great Volume to gain the fauor of temporal Soueraings I can not belieue they will by your persuasion degenerat from the example of their renown'd Predecessors and particularly from that of Constantin the great who was so far from making laws for ecclesiastical matters or persons or medling with matters of Faith that his saying and maxim was a Rufinus lib. 10. hist cap. 2. S. Gregor lib. 4. epist 45. speaking to the Bishops Ves Dij estis a summo Deo constituti aequum non est vt homo iudicet Deos I do not think I say Mr. Walsh that Christian Princes will degenerat from this example applauded by all the world when Christianity was in its primitiue purity to follow that of the Emperor Iustinian when he fell from the Faith of Christ Would it not be rashness both in Soueraigns and Subiects to preferr your bare testimony who are to my griefe reported to be the greatest lyar and Impostor in the world before the joint testimony of all orthodox writers and the practise of the whole Roman Catholik Church euer since it began to florish vnder Constantin the great Many except against your stile as well as against the matter You excuse page 43. of your Preface the meanness or rather sadness of your stile all along your book you took no care you say of the language though you took enough of the matter In my opinion you are more faulty in the choice of your matter than in your expression of it But you thought perhaps the matter was so good and necessary for the Saluation of souls that you b Ibidem pag. 43. enlarged often and repeated the same things not seldom where you needed not were your design to write only for the learned or those of quick apprehension But seing those you intended chiefly to speak vnto were the Roman Catholik Clergy of Ireland wherof very few are great Clerks you chose that manner of writing for their sake that the meanest of them might vnderstand whateuer you would be at I am sory to heare this Mr. Walsh will you disgrace your own nation One of them spoke thus to me of you How comes none of the Roman Catholik Clergy of Ireland to haue as quick an apprehension and as much learning as Peter Walsh their Countreyman and one who spent his time more idely than most of them Is it because his forwardness in promoting protestancy against his conscience and his importuning great men to be made an instrument
his King and Countrey by preaching and publishing Excommunications against the peace of 46. to the vain hopes of obtaining a Bishoprik from his master the Nuncius would make no scruple to haue three brothers put to death for a feign'd conspiracy against the life of a priuy Councellor What troubled me most in this intrigue was the loss of Sir Robert Talbots Estate and of a considerable summe for ten years Agency setled by Act of Parliament vpon him and the other Agents into which was inserted I know not how an obscure odd kind of clause of preference of payment in fauor of Mr. Milo Power as if he had bin a mor meriting and suffering Caualeer before Sir Robert Talbot and others both Agents and Caualiers And though euery one knowes Mr. Milo Power to be a very worthy gentleman and pleasant company it s also well knowen that though his affection to the Kings seruice be as great as any mans yet the possibility of shewing it or of loosing much for it was not comparable to the sufferings and seruices of those who lost the benefit of the Act vpon his account And indeed Sir Robert Talbot ought to be pittied because hauing bin employd by the publik he neglected his own particular concern meerly out of honor least it should be thought as it was reported but groundlesly of others that to secure his own estate he concurr'd to the ruin of his Countrey As for Friar Walsh his no less ridiculous than malitious obseruation and Comments vpon the most R. Father Olina his letter to me and my deuotion and respect to him and the whole Society I must own to the whole world I should be as ill a man and as great a lyar as Wash himself and that is the worst can be sayd of any man if I did not esteem very much and speake well of the virtue and learning of that Society Few can speake with more knowledge and none shall with less partiality I haue bin in most of their Prouinces of Europe I haue liued in their most famous Colleges and taught in som I neuer was in any College or Community of theirs where there was not one or more of known eminent Sanctity many of extraordinary virtue and none that I knew vicious I alwayes found their Superiors charitable and sincere their Procurators deuout their Professors humble though learned their yong masters of humanity and students of Philosophy or Diuinity very chast and if any gaue the least suspicion of being otherwise he was presently dismissed It is my greatest admiration how so great a body so generaly employ'd and trusted by the greatest Princes so conuersant in the world according to their holy institut can sauor so litle of it and liue so innocently as they do and euen forsake the best part of it Europe their many conueniencies and relations which are illustrious and banish themselues to Asia Afrik and America vpon no other account but that of sauing souls In their Schools they teach not those infamous doctrins which that foulmouthd Friar Walsh asperseth their Authors with and sayes I do practise but are very reserued in deliuering any larger opinion euen of the most famous writers for feare men should abuse and misapply their authority This is the substance of what I alwayes said and must say if I will speake truth of an Order wherin I haue liued many years with great content and truly so innocently through Gods grace and their example that the greatest sin I can charge my self with during my abode amongst them is the resolution I took of leauing them though perhaps erroneously I framed then a iudgement that the circumstances wherin I found my self did excuse it from being mortal But afterwards reflecting with more maturity and less passion vpon the positiueness of that my resolution notwithstanding the charitable offers of the Superiors aboue mentioned as soon as I knew I was design'd to be made Bishop I offerd to F. General Oliua and F. Ioseph Simons then Prouincial of England to re-enter into the Society but they thinking perhaps I could not be of any great seruice to it and edified with my sincere resignation of being directed in that particular as they iudged best for my saluation did of their own accord forward by fauorable informations and a better caracter than I deserued the promotion which the Court of Rome had design'd for me I hauing notice of this ciuility could do no less than write a letter of thanks to Father General Oliua and he answerd me in those vsual vnsignificant and general terms wherwith Generals of Regular Orders congratulat new made Prelats and wherupon Peter Walsh makes very silly but malicious reflexions to persuade the simpler sort of people that my promotion was carried on by the Iesuits as if it had bin a buisness of great importance for their Order or as if their Order had bin hugely concern'd in the discredit of his ridiculous Remonstrance which needed not be disgrac't otherwise than by saying it was his As for my answer to his petition against me presensented to the Councel in England I could not excuse answering it hauing bin commanded by the Lord Lieutenant and Councel of Ireland where I was to put in my answer which containd nothing but truth and so it appear'd to that honorable Bord which declared me innocent It was no other but that I neuer persecuted him nor any of his seuen Friars Remonstrants in whose behalf he petitioned neither did I nor could I excommunicat any Regulars who by the Roman Canons are exempted from the Ordinarys iurisdiction neither indeed did their own regular Superiors punish them for signing the Remonstrance but for cheating the people of money and for exacting it from the Kings Subiects by virtue of a counterfeit commission from the Pope I did afterwards tell som of the priuy Councellors and others that I was surprised to see such criminal persons countenanc't in prescribing ruler of loyalty to men whose families an well old Irish as old english had for these 500. years past stuck according to duty to the Crown of England and themselues had suffer'd so particularly vpon the same account That as to my own family the Nuncius and his Dean of Fermo endeuored to haue myself banisht out of Rome as an Ormonian that Sir Robert Talbots houses and Tenants were destroyd by the Nuncius party in Ireland his command taken from him himself imprison'd as hauing bin the only man in Ireland euen of the Ormonian party who would not giue his voto in a subsequent general Assembly for reiecting the peace of 46. notwithstanding that General Oneals Army was at hand and the Bishop of Clogher enraged at his speeches for the Assemblies reassuming the same peace which Peter Walsh had so disloyaly cry'd down from pulpit and press by commending so seasonably for the Nuncius and so seditiously against the Kings interest and safety D. Enos his libel against that peace and the proceedings of my Lord of
take his pass as the other Colonells did Hereby the Bishop incurr'd his Kings displeasure and ruin'd the fortune of his Brother a very loyal worthy gentleman and a good Commander After the Kings happy restauration this vndutifull carriage of the Bishop was not forgot at whitehall and he not knowing how to liue in France hauing also a desire to return to his own Countrey writ to you Mr. Walsh that he would do any thing you would haue him do so he might be permitted to return and liue at home A large offer and an argument of a large conscience in circumstances wherin he knew you wanted and sought at this very time a Bishop to head your vpstart Church You took him at his word and he set his hand to to your Remonstrance Whether he repented or no at his death I know not but I am sure Friar Redmund Caron whom you canonize for a Saint pag. 759. ought to haue retracted the doctrin of his Remonstrantia Hibernorum which was stuff't with so notorious and palpable falsifications that he can not be presumed to haue bin ignorant of them But his last aduice and Adieu to you is sad and remarkable for he declared as you say pag. 760. That you were bound in conscience to prosecute still euen after his death that matter of the Remonstrance and continue the defence or aduancement of that doctrin which in his life time you had for so many years and notwithstanding so much contradiction maintain'd You do a great iniury Mr. Walsh to the memory and merit of that Illustrious and Catholik Prelat Thomas Dease quondam Bishop of Meath in ioyning him in the same page with Caron as approuing at his death of your Remonstrance and doctrin What if he did approue of the book of Queries Was there any thought or knowledge then of your Remonstrance Is there any thing in that book of Queries asserting a spiritual supremacy in Princes or denying it to the Pope Doth it say that Secular Princes by their own sole authority may gouern the Church and make Ecclesiastical lawes euen in matter of Faith Doth it maintain that Catholiks both rashly and obstinatly deny to take the oath of Supremacy and by consequence commit a sin for not taking it Doth it say the General Councells of Ephesus and Calcedon gaue as much to temporal Princes and as litle to the Pope of spiritual authority as the oath of Supremacy doth Doth it say that som Catholiks hold Generall Councells are fallible Where will you find in the book of Queries that the Roman Catholik Church hath err'd enormously in its principles and practises these last 600. years and that all the Bishops thereof are either Traytors to their Princes or periur'd to the Pope in taking the vsual oath at their consecration Doth the book of Queries teach that if Bishops as Bishops help their Soueraigns with money or armes against Rebells or Vsurpers they offend God As also that temporal Soueraings offend God in exempting the Clergy from their Secular Supreme Courts Doth the book of Queries teach that God may work Miracles to confirm a falshood or at least the Sanctity of a man who has a good intention and zeale in maintaining it or dying for it thinking it to be a truth Or that a man who dyes so for maintaining an error is properly though not strictly a Martyr Or that the whole Church when it celebrats the feast of a Saint as properly and strictly a Martvr may be mistaken in declaring and belieuing him such a Martyr though not in belieuing him a Saint in Heauen All this you maintain in Saint Thomas of Canterberies case as necessary consequences flowing from the doctrin of your Remonstrance Did Bishop Thomas Dease nay did Caron himself defend these heresies The book of Queries only asserted the lawfullness of making peace and Confederacies with Protestants and that the Popes Nuncius could not validly excommunicat the Irish Catholiks for doing so and that it was lawfull to appeal to the Pope in those circumstances and that the said Appeal did suspend the Nuncius Censures No learned Catholik denyes this doctrin But not one Catholik in the world doth or can maintain your doctrines now mention'd and therfore you are not only heretik but an Impostor pretending that they who opposed the Nuntius his Censures and practises in Ireland were your Remonstrants ANIMADVERSION 9. Whether temporal Soueraigns can exempt from their Supreme coerciue power the Clergy of their Dominions THAT they haue don so de facto is euident by the lawes and practise of all Christian Emperors and Kings especialy in England euer since Christianity florished But what 's that to the purpose if Friar Walsh say they could not de iure or in conscience Pardon me 't is somthing For though Friar Walsh his authority be very great Especialy when he hath Barclay the Poet or Romantik writer to back him yet I hope the persuasion and practise of the whole Catholik Church the belief of all Christian Princes and Prelats for so many hundred years will weigh more than the opinion of a Romantik Poet or a Remonstrant Friar Excuse then I pray Mr. Walsh poor Cardinal Belarmin whose ignorance you so much pitty for being mightily startled at this position of yours and Barklay's The temporal a Friar Walsh 1. part of his first Treatise pag. 267 Seq Princes themselues how otherwise Supreme soeuer could not can not by any law right authority or power giuen them by God or man exempt from themselues that is from their own Supreme Ciuil and euen coerciue power the Clergy men of their Dominions Sure you must needs haue a very cleer demonstration for this Tenet that forces you to hold it being so contrary to the doctrin and practise of the Church You say you haue Out with it then Mr. Walsh and let not the Faithfull be any longer foold Good Reader be attentiue 't is a profound acute argument you will find it pag. 271. cit in these words Whosoeuer haue and continue any office which essentially inuolues a power Supreme both directiue and coerciue of all Clerks within their Dominions may not deuest themselues of the power of directing and coercing the same Clerks vnless they do withal deuest themselues of that office as towards the self same Clerks Because they can not deuest themselues of the essence of that which they hold still this arguing a plain contradiction But the Office of Kings inuolues a power supream both directiue and coerciue of all Clerks within their Dominions Ergo. The Minor you must proue Mr. Walsh I haue already don that saith he and at large by very natural reason I find none but that desinition of a King for which you quote your great claslik Author Almainus de sup potest c. cap. 5. thus Aliquem esie Regem nihil aliud est quam habere Superioritatem erga subditos in subditis esse obligationem pariendi Regi c. This is all you set