by whom or wherein Thomas of Canterbury after some ages and upon a review of his life or actions and knowledge of his nefarious turbulencies and tragedies and of his intollerable arrogancy in raising himself above the royal power laws and dignity as he sayes was so condemn'd It seems he was either ashamed to name the person or raign of Henry the eight in such a matter and in opposition to such a Saint or verely he would impose on his unskilfull Reader and make him think it might peradventure have been so by a King and so in a time that was not reputed Schismatical by the Romanist's themselves and thereby would wholly undermine the credit of a Saint who certainly could be no true Saint if Parker was either a true Bishop in the truth and unity of the Catholick Church or true Christian in the truth and integrity of the Catholick Religion And I give it moreover to take notice of his wilful imposture where he sayes that that nameless King found out what kind of man Thomas was what evilt he had raised c. and sayes also that that nameless King found out all this in a great Conneil of all the Prelats and Peers of the Kingdom meaning so to impose on his Reader as a truth without as much as the authority of any writer for he quotes none in this nor could but against all truth that the Bishops of England in that Kings time concurr'd with him in his judgment or condemnation of Thomas of Canterbury for a traytor viz. against the Kings person or people of England or their laws or all three For certainly he could not be on any rational ground declared traytor or even to have been such at any time in his life not to speak now of the instance of his death or of any time after his reconciliation to Henry the Second but upon one of these three grounds or as having acted either against the Kings own person or royal rights or against the liberties of the people or against the sanctions of the municipal laws of England And O God of truth who is that is versed in the Chronicles of England can imagine any truth in this sly insinuation of Parker concerning that of the Bishops to have concurr'd with Henry the Eight in the condemnation or prophanation and sacriledge committed against St. Thomas of Canterbury so many hundred years after his holy life and death and so many hundred years after he had possessed not England alone but all the Christian world with the certain perswasion of his sanctity attested so even after his death by such stupendious miracles at his tomb and wrought there at or upon his invocation and by such stupendious and known miracles I say that Parker himself hath not the confidence as much as to mutter one word against the truth and certainty of their having been or having been such Nay who is it can upon a a sober reflection perswade himself that either Henry the Eight himself or any other whatever and how even soever atheistical Councellor of his could pretend any as much as probable ground in natural reason laying aside now all principles of Religion to declare this Thomas of Canterbury so long after his death to have dyed a traytor nay I say more or to have lived so or to have been so at any time in his life T is true that in all branches and each branch of the five membred complex of those first original and lesser differences which preceded that great one of the sixteen customs he for some part did not comply with the Kings expectation and for other parts positively refused to obey the Kings pleasure or even command But so might any other Subject and might I say without being therefore guilty of treason nay without being guilty of any other breach of law or conscience had he the law of the land and liberty of a Subject of his side as Thomas of Canterbury had in each of these five original differences And that he had so the law of the land for him even in that very point of them which Henry the Second took most to heart that I mean of the two criminal Clergymen besides all what I have given before at large of those very laws to prove it this also is an argument convincing enough that Henry the Second was not where he had the law of his side a man to be baffled by any Subject whatsoever nor would be so ceremonious as to call so many Councils or Parliaments of Bishops and other Estates to begg that which by law he had already in his power without their consent And therefore certainly had the law of the land been at that time for him that is for the ordinary coercion of criminal Clerks in his lay Courts and in what case soever or even in case of felony or murder committed by Clerks he had without any further ceremony at least after he saw the Archbishop refuse to comply with his desire or obey his command and after he saw also the Priest was in the very Ecclesiastical Court convict of murder sent his own Officials to force him away to and before the lay Judges and sent his Guards too or Souldiers were this necessary Neither of which he as much as attempted to do And therefore had we no other argument who sees not that it is clear enough out of this very procedure that the Archbishop committed no treason in this very matter wherein of any of also the branches of that whole five membred complex he most positively and plainly opposed that King though by such a kind of opposition as might become a Subject that is by an opposition of dissent without any interposition of arms or force 2. T is true also that after this Thomas of Canterbury opposed mightily but with such a kind opposition as I have now said all those sixteen heads of Henry the Second pretended by him to have been the Royal Costoms of his Grandfather and that after giving a forced consent and taking a forc'd oath to maintain them he retracted again freely and conscientiously his said consent and oath and refused to give his hand or seal for introducing or establishing them But I am sure there was no treason in this not only because he saw or apprehended they were against the former laws and for an evil end too press'd by that King so violently but also because he saw or apprehended that the very pretence was false that is that some of them had never been customes Is it not lawful without treason nay or other breach of law for any Peer and so great a Peer as the Archbishop of Canterbury to deny his own assent in Parliament or even to revoke and for as much as belongs to himself his own former assent at least when otherwise his conscience is wounded and when he proceeds no further by force of arms and that the laws is yet only in deliberation to be establish'd but not
by the sole vertue of their Sacerdotal or spiritual power for I did not then as much as dream of any such foolish consequence but against the pretence of an inherent natural civil and supream power in the people themselves as a people or civil society whether Priests otherwise or no Priests or mixt of both A farre more takeing though at least now under the new testament a false and vain pretence also To that precedent of the Macchabees alleadg'd out of the old Testament to justifie this pretence of such an inherent natural not spiritual power in Christian Subjects to rebell against their lawful Prince on pretext of oppression either in their religious or civil rights or both I answered briefly thus Pag. 94. of The More Ample Account That neither the praised valour noble attempts victories and atchivemenâ—s of the Machabees can prejudice this doctrine Because that as in their dayes yet the wisdome of the celestial Father our Saviour Christ was not come to enlighten the world or to teach the Jewes in particular the perfect understanding of their own law or to give a more excellent one to all Nations of the Earth so they relied still on the first donation of Palestine made by God himself immediatly to Abraham for the children of Jacob and made againe unto them in the Law of Moâ—es and doubtless were perswaded that no violence or force or conquering armes of the Asian Kings could devest them of that title which God himself appearing visibly had invested them with Is there any word here of such uncivil and â—rreverent language as ignorance of their own 〈◊〉 charged by me on the Macchabees Or who knows not that such perfect understanding thereof as the holy Jesus caught the world after is quite an other thing then ignorance simply spoken or such ignorance of the litteral sense of their law which would have been at that time or in the dayes of the Macchabees or any time before or after from the first giving of their law till Jesus came accounted ignorance by the knowing doctors of the said law and consequently have rendred those Macchabees guilty of a sinful neglect and hainous transgression And who sees not I made out their plea of justification not at all from such ignorance nor even from an imperfect understanding but from the immediate donation of Palestine to them as to their Predecessors and Successors by God himself appearing so visibly and manifoldly and by the clear express letter also of his Law unto them And therefore that I had sufficiently ruined all the strength of the argument built on this example by rebellious Christian Subjects for their pretence of such inherent supream natural power being they can pretend no such visible appearance donation law of God to themselves or to their Predecessors or Successors but know all to be quite contrary But after all suppose I had not made so clear demonstrations against such pretence of a temporal civil or natural power in the people or that I had not given so clear and satisfactory solution to this argument for it what can be thence concluded for the supernatural and purely spiritual power of Christian Priests just a meer nothing So that those Gentlemen might have spared themselves and me some labour in this point and particularly both in this fling they had here at my doctrine in my More Ample Account and in all that follows to no purpose in their own paper of that other answer which they say some do give but I am sure I never gave nor found my self necessitated to give Yet I profess my thanks unto them in this one respect here That they have given the occasion to clear yet more abundantly and perhaps too more satisfactorily at least to some that of the Macchabees I mean as it is urged for the pretended inherent right of the people as a civil or temporal Society though not as a spiritual or not as a Christian Church but still as a people purely or naturally considered I did verily intend to add in that same little Book of mine and to that now mentioned passage for a second answer what I shall here But having had no time to review that passage then when the Printer came to it I am now heartily glad of this occasion that I may yet with-all evidence and clearness imaginable ruine this very strongest argument out of Scripture whereof some especially of our Opposers make so much use as of the most specious argument can be for that right of the people at least as of a people though not as a Christian Church You are therefore good Reader to understand that this Antiochus against whom Mattathias begin the warr and his Sons the Machabeans continued it nobly and fortunatly was not that Antiochus the Great King of Asia who in the year of the world 3742 and before Christ 222. and either by title of conquest or of a just war against Ptolomey Philopater and his Son called Ptolomey the Famous King of Egypt and Jewry and against Scopas General to this Ptolomey the Famous or by title of the free and voluntary submission of the Jews themselves to him or by both titles was their lawful King as also a good bountiful and very favourable King unto them as long as he lived after I say that that Antiochus against whom Mattathias took arms and encouraged the rest of his Countreymen to take arms was not this Great and so good Antiochus but another many years after who was surnamed Epiphanes though King likewise of Asia who only and by the reasonable practiâ—es or some few Iews surprized Ierusalem in the year of the world â—79â— and before Christ 168. years That the Jews since their first free and voluntary submission to Alexander the Great himself in person and in the year of the world 3630 and before Christ 334. and since the death soon after of the said Alexander the year before Christ 322. were upon the partition of the Macedonias conquest and Empire peaceably subject first to Ptolomaeus Lagus and then after to his Son Ptolomey Philadelphus who had the Bible translated by the 72. Interpreters and so forth in a continual series to the other Ptolomeys Kings of Egypt only the few years excepted wherein Antiochus the Great prevailed so as I have said against Ptolomey Philopater or his Son Ptolomey the Famous and until this Great Antiochus contracted aliance with this Ptolomey by the marriage of Cleopatra upon which they were on both sides at peace again and all things restored to to their former condition and the command of Ierusalem and the rest of Iewry as likewise of Celosyria Phaenicia and other bordering Countreys returned to the Ptolomeys and the tributes as in former time since Lagus gathered by and paid to their Officers who were the very Jews themselves so it is plain and manifest in History that matters continued so until the dayes of this Antiochus Epiphanes King of Asia or Syria of whom our present
in the Title of it before the Introduction and in the Argument of the whole immediately following that Introduction yet when I came to the Censure of Louain and to their four chief grounds c I found it expedient to give there at length what in substance was for the greatest part on several occasions and for the rest might on other the like occasions be unanswerably said against all and every of the said four grounds of that nevertheless ungrounded Louain Censure the rather that Father Caian neither in his Remonstrantia Hibernorum not in any other Book had lifted any of the said grounds in specie VI. Pursuing this incidental matter I dispute against those Louain Divines nay expresly also and purposely too against their Leaders the most eminent Cardinals Bellarmine Baronius c from Sect. LII pag. 117. to Sect. LXXVIII pag. 487. First Part of the First Treatise that is throughout Fourstore and odd sheets consequently Which having done I return again to pure matter of Fact according to the principal design of the said First Treatise VII The searching throughly into the bottom of their Fourth Ground takes up Threescore and ten sheets of that long but necessary Insertion Which no man will admire it should who shall consider That by ruining that Fourth Ground onely which is the pretended Exemption of Clergymen from the Supreme Temporal or Secular and Civil both directive and coercive Power and consequently by proving the subjection even of all Clerks i. e. of all Ecclesiasticks Priests Monks Bishops Archbishops Primats Patriarchs and Popes nay of all Apostles Evangelists and Prophets c to the Supreme Temporal Magistrate to have been from the beginning de jure divino and never to have been after at any time altered or otherwise determined by any Laws of God or man I must without further trouble have both consequently and evidently ruin'd all and every the pretences of the Pope or Church to any Dominion Jurisdiction or Prefection whether direct or indirect over the Temporals of the Supreme Lay-Magistrate For natural reason shews every man That Subjection and Exemption how much more That Subjection and Prefection Jurisdiction Dominion in order to the same Temporal Magistrate and Temporal matters are incompatible in the same person or persons whatsoever Because they are such contrary Attributes as being affirm'd of any thing infer a manifest Contradiction v. g. To be subject and not to be subject at the same time and in the same respect to the self-same Temporal Powers And therefore by proving clearly no Exemption at all of any Ecclesiasticks whatsoever from the Supreme Civil either directive or coercive Power nay by proving consequentially and by no less clearly and positively evincing a total subjection of them to the said Power I must likewise of necessity evince that they can pretend no kind of Authority either direct or indirect in any case whatsoever to dethrone depose deprive suspend or lessen that same Power unless peradventure they can make Contradictories true VIII My purpose to pull up thus by the very root and overturn the sandy foundation of that so vain pretended Authority over the Temporals of Lay-Princes and States is it that made me unravel the whole matter of Ecclesiastical Immunity and dispute it so largely with all the exactness I could For I have therein proceeded first in a negative way answering all and every material Argument of Bellarmine yea and of others also to a tittle as well those in his Book de Clericis as those other in his latter Work against William Barclay and consequently as well those so unconsequentially derived by him either from the Laws of Nature or Laws of Nations or from the authority of Ethnick Historians or other Authors as those which he no less ungroundedly grounds partly on the divine and positive Laws of God in Holy Scriptures partly on the humane Laws of Christian Emperours in the Code of Theodosius or Institutions of Justinian partly on the Canons of either old or new Ecclesiastical Synods partly on the bare sayings of some ancient Fathers or even Popes in their own Cause and partly too on the bare Testimony or Authority of some of our Church-Annalists or Historians Next I have proceeded also on that Subject in a positive or affirmative way by proving manifestly and I think unanswerably too from all the same Topicks of the Laws of God and man of those of Nature and those of Nations of those of Holy Scriptures in the Old and New Testament and those not onely of Imperial Constitutions but Ecclesiastical Canons yea and meer Papal Canons too and from the judgment also of ancient Fathers in their Commentaries and the Testimony of other even Ecclesiastical Writers in their Histories and in the last place from and by the intrinsick Topick of pure natural and obvious Reason That never yet hath any such Exemption of Clerks i. e. Churchmen from the Supreme either directive or coercive Power of the Civil Magistrate had any being at all in rerum natura or any right to such being Nay I have shewed also by manifest Reason I think that neither at any time hereafter can Princes give such Exemption to Clerks their Subjects without either manifest contradiction in adjecto as Logicians speak or devesting themselves wholly and really of the name and authority of Kings or Princes over them IX If any except against my deriving of Arguments or alledging of Precedents from the Facts of Justinian the Emperour as you find I do Sect. LXXIII pag. 359. or shall out of ignorance or spleen follow the examples either of Baronius Spondanus and Alemannus or of Evagrius long before them so inconsiderately and falsely blasting the glorious memory of that most Christian most Catholick most pious and virtuous Prince as if he had been not only a violator of Ecclesiastical Immunity and an Usurper of the Sacerdotal Office in many respects but a Defender and Believer of manifest Heresie (a) Haeresis Apthartodocitarum sive Incorruptibilium vel Phantasiastarum viz. of that which believed or taught our Saviours flesh to have been alwayes incorruptible and as if he had therefore been eternally damn'd to Hell if any I say except or object thus against my alledging the Facts of Justinian it will be satisfaction enough at present to let him know 1. That Evagrius who is the first Author of this Relation and Invective against Justinian writ onely by hear-say of that matter as who both writ and ended his History long after Justinian's death viz. in the Twelfth year of Mauritius the Emperor * Justinian dyed an Chr. 565. The twelfth year of Mauritius was an Chr. 595. which was thirty years after Justinian's death 2. That the Christian World both East and West in those very dayes of Evagrius held a far other opinion of Justinian's Faith as may appear even out of Pope Agatho's Letter to the Emperours Constantinus Heraclius and Tiberius who Reigned both successively after Justinian and
off the sheets before I had the second reading of them And this was the chief cause of so many literal faults nay and mistake of some few words too 6. That I have not given any Errata for the Appendixes except one onely in the Latin Appeal which is in the Appendix of Instruments The reason is because I presume these Appendixes are all without mistakes exactly Printed For I took a more special care of them than I had done of the former Treatises and in my own perusing of them I have observed no faults i. e. no variation from the Copies which were fair enough some printed some written Those pieces in them not before Printed either in Latin or English or indeed as far as I know in any other Language are 1. The Supreme Councils Appeal from Rinuccini and his Censures to Innocent X. 2. The Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland his Long and Excellent Letter c. All the other publick Instruments contained either in the Appendix of Instruments or in that which follows it as well as the Book of Queries and Answers have been heretofore Printed either in English or Latin some in Ireland and the rest in France either by Father Ponce in his Latin Vindiciae Eversae or by Richard Belings Esq likewise in his Latin Book of Annotations return'd for Answer to that Work of Ponce's 7. That nevertheless I cannot warrant the Articles of the Peace of 1648 to be exactly as to every word according to the Original Had I had this or indeed any perfect either written or printed Copy of them I had surely taken the greatest care imaginable to Re-print them here as exactly But having had onely one of those printed Copies of the late Re-impression of them since His Majesties happy Restauration I was forc'd to be content with that although in my opinion Printed with several faults and yet not very material ones as to the main purpose of any of the Articles However I have Corrected here as many as I could of those faults whatever they were XXVIII Because the First Treatise in Two Parts is very long contains a great variety of matters and yet in both Parts is divided onely into Sections and these marked onely by Capital and Numerical Letters before them immediately in the middle of the space by which Capital and Numerical Letters all along I understand the number of Sections though the word Section be not added to them in the space and because those very Sections notwithstanding they also be commonly very long yet they have no Argument of the Contents following prefixed to them and the general Argument prefix'd to each of the above Two Parts gives not light enough to the Reader where he may easily find the several Heads of matters forasmuch as in those Arguments the Page or Section is not added therefore I have for thy ease in this point given after this Preface a short Table of the more general Heads of the Contents throughout all the foresaid Two Parts of the First Treatise marking the Page where such more general Heads and sometime also the less general or more especial matters begin as likewise sometimes where they end But for the Second Third and Fourth Treatise they are so short and the matters treated in them are so singular that I think the Title prefixâ—d to each of them may serve to incite thee to read them through and to see by thy own reading in a few hours what all Three contain And the same I say of the Three Appendixes which follow immediately after all the Four Treatises As for a general Index Rerum Verborum or a general Table of special words and matters contained in the whole Book or even of those contained onely in the Four Treatises nay or in any one of them if I thought it worth the while to give it yet I have no leasure now to attend it And therefore I must pray to be excused for so much XXIX I have elsewhere at large and of purpose answered the ignorant Objection of some against my Printing or Publishing either this present Book or any other on the Subject thereof without the Licence of the Ordinary of the Diocess or of the Censor of Books or of my own either General or Provincial Superiour nay without so much as the Approbation of any two Divines of my own Order yea or of any one Divine whatsoever Printed therein or prefix'd to it in the Frontispiece or Beginning thereof as if I had therefore in a heinous manner transgress'd not only against the Canons of the Lateran (a) Sub Leon. X. Sess Decret de Impress Libror and Tridentine (b) Sess 4. Decret de Edit us Sac. Lib. Councils but even the very Statutes (c) De Autor Libror of my own Franciscan Order In my Latin Work intituled Hibernica viz. in the Third Part thereof as well in my Second Preface which is to Francis Maria Rhini a Polizzo the present Minister General of the whole Franciscan Order throughout the World as in the Body of that Third Part where I refute not only in general the General Decree I mean the Decree issued and Printed at Madrid against me July 28. an 1670 but in particular that Paragraph wherein both I and Father Caron long after his death are on such account declared Transgressors of the General Statutes and the Survivor i. e. my self to be even also upon that account ipso jure (d) i. e. By vertue of a general Statute lately made at Victoria in Spain as they alledge But suppose there had been any such Statute made there i. e. at Victoria What was Caron or I concern'd We were and are onely subject to the General Statutes applied unto and received in the Belgick Provinces Amongst which Statutes there is none tying or even so much as directing us to have a Licence for Printing from any General Superiour No nor is any Statute there tying us to have a Licence from any other Superiour either Local or Provincial under pain of any Ecclesiastical Censure much less of Excommunication See this your self in the printed Book of those General Statutes applied unto and received in the Belgick Provinces amongst which Provinces England Ireland and Scotland are See I say Statuta Generalia Barchinonensia Provinciis Belgiis accomodata Cap. 7. §. 6. de Auctoribus Librorum Cap. 8. §. 4. de Nat. German by the same Statutes Excommunicated for having Printed Books without Licence from the General Superiour himself I have clearly solved all the Branches of this Objection And I have consequently vindicated both Father Caron and my self from having transgressed any either binding or so much as received Canon of the Roman-Catholick Church or Statute of the Franciscan Order or otherwise sinned against any Law Divine or Humane by Printing any of our Books even as we have caused them to be Printed in such manner i. e. without any such Licence or Approbation c.
of them I mean as treated of the subject untill at least the Schools began in Peter Lombards dayes or at least untill Gregory VII who was a little before nay and many Fathers Interpreters and great School Divines too after the said Gregory and Lombards dayes but that I would not without necessity be too tedious these whom I have given being both many and after the Apostles the chief Fathers of Christianity whose writings are extant LXXIV Having so done in pursuance of my promise in my LXXI Sect. with my fourth and grand argument indeed which is purely Theological and is that grounded on the 13. Rom. according to the general and vnanimous exposition of that passage by the holy Fathers untill the age of Gregory the VII I am now come to my LXXIV wherein I am to give according also to my promise in the said LXXI Sect. some Instances of the practise of the holy Fathers in pursuance of this their doctrine so given hetherto in the last Section or in the LXXIII going immediately before this present And therefore this present Section is an appendage of the former as containing the best confirmation can be of the holy doctrine of the Fathers by their as holy practise in all degrees But although for matter of Instance or practise the Instance or practise of Christ himself who after commanding Peter to put up and sheath his sword declared himself to have twelve legions of Angels at command to free himself and rest of his company from the both civil and Ecclesiastical power of those who apprehended him and yet would not resist but was obedient even to the civil powers even to death it self acknowledging the very power of an Idolater civil Lieutenant over his body and acknowledging it as given from above albeit I say this Instance or practise of Christ alone should be and is enough for matter of example as Christ himself alone is or should be the onely exemplar to us in all his actions omnis enim Christi actio nostra est instructio said one of those auncient Fathers very well and albeit after and besides that of Christ our Lord the practise of all his most blessed Disciples and great Apostles too those infallible expositors of his will and law those his own proper divine special extraordinary Embassadours to all Nations of the world for teaching them by word and deed his true and pure doctrine and no other should make up Instances enough being they all even Peter himself not excepted conformably to their express doctrine practised so that is obeyed so the civil and even Infidel Princes placed over the world by God that they appeared not onely at their tribunals nay sometimes also of their own free will appealed to them but suffered patiently death it self at their command and this without pleading any exemption without other reluctancy whatsoever nay and without attempting once to make use against these Princes of even their so divine extraordinary miraculous power whereby notwithstanding in other cases and against other men they could make and did make both men and Devils and the very elements to obey their commands and albeit after and besides this Instance too of all those immediate Disciples and Apostles of our Lord we read in general other innumerable examples of all Christians both Laicks and Clerks Priests Bishops Popes and Councils also of both other Bishops and Popes during the primitive Ages of Christianity and the first 300. years and read so in general such innumerable Instances of their practise in those Ages as well of purity as of persecution conformable in all points to that which I have shewn to be the doctrine of all even the holy Fathers who are after the Apostles most famous in the Church of Christ and read these general and innumerable instances in no worse Authors and witnesses then Tertullian Cyprian and St. Augustine albeit I say all this be true and absolutely certain yet it is not my purpose to take up this Section with discouse upon either that particular Instance of the practise of our Lord himself or of that other of his immediate Disciples and Apostles or even on that general one of the practise of all Christians the first 300. years till Constantine the great But my chief purpose here is to give some other and particular Instances of the practise according to that doctrine of very eminent and holy Fathers even Bishops Patriarchs and Popes after the said first 300 years and the conformable practise also of Christian Princes in their times However it may be worth your patience first to read over transiently this following note extracted out of My More Ample Account pag. 88. 89 90 91 92 93 94. inclusively concerning that general practise or that of all Christians in general within the very first 300. years as the said Tertullian in his Apologetick cap. 37. Lactantius l. 5. Cyprian ad Demetrianum and Austin de Civit. Dei l. 22. relate it But now that nothing may be wanting to confirme throughly and according to my first intent this necessary doctrine nothing desired more to illustrate or perswade it to be infallible truth of Christian Religion let us in pursuance of the maximes consider the practise of all primitive Christians for the space of many hundred years while the Church was most holy and most pure and let us consider this practise in the undubitable writings and clearest passages of the before named most famous primitive Fathers who delivered to after ages as well the letter as the sense of the new Testament and consequently the belief or judgment of the B. Apostles and Evangelists the Commandements of Christ and pleasure of God in our case Wherein if any thing be more evident then a religious holy Conscience or perswasion of suffering rather all losses the most grievous all tortures the most exquisite death it self the worst of evills in this world rather then take armes against the Soveraign Magistrate or against the lawes or any thing more evident then that the primitive Christians at least for three or foure the first and best ages of the Church did suffer accordingly and upon this account as well as that of glory and of Christian belief that God in his own time would revenge their quarrel as to whom alone it belonged to right them against the powers of the â—â—rth or any thing likewise more evident then that conscience constant practice belief even general throughout the whole world amongst Christians in Europe Asia Africk without any one exception whereever they lived and even there and then where and when they were so numerous that by secession onely without rebellion without armes without committing treason they might have ruined the greatest Empire in the world if I say any thing may be more evident then all this in the primitive practice Let eloquent Tertullian speake in the first place and in his Apologetick for those of his own Age to the Roman Emperors and Senate Quoties enim
they were shut up they were beaten they were racked burn'd killed tormented and yet they were multiplied They knew no other fight for safety but to contemne safety for safety Besides these let all other Fathers nay all Historians both sacred and profane both Christian and Heathen of those dayes that are extant speak their knowledg of this matter Let the raignes of Constantius Valens and even Julian the Apostat speak theirs And verily Mr. Prinn or Mr. Goodwin either or any else how industrious soever to except against the Rhetorick of Tertullian will find themselves mâ—te as to any colour against the number of Christians and ability according humane wayes of strength to carry on a design would their conscience permit them to entertain any against these persecuting Emperors Nor can it be denied that in their dayes the Catholicks and Christian Subjects had the greatest provocations and best opportunities could be thought on to carry it The orient and the occident the Nobility army Prelates and people were all Catholicks if you except a very few which in comparison made no number â—hen first Constance would have and really endeavoured with all his Authority to establish Arrianisme They were so for the matter when Valens thundered And upon Iulians entry on the Empire the world at least whereever the Roman Eagles spread their wings was altogether Christian unless peradventure you bring in competition a small inconsiderable number of Iewes and Pagans who had no command no force Yet we know they all suffered patiently with armes across all that which the fury of those heretick Emperours or the malicious cunning of even that Idolatrous Apostat could inflict on them and suffered the foundations to be laid again of Salomons temple to restore Judaisme and all the rites of Numa and sacrifices of heathen Gods to be reestablished rather then they would draw a sword against the Soveraign power Their Bishops and Clergie were more divinely principled then to infuse other maximes or lead them to any other practice then that which they read in the Apostles and Evangelists and which all the Christians ever since their dayes recommended to them by their lives and by their deaths Now to my before said purpose in this present Section or to that of my onely intended particular Instances here of some Bishops Patriarchs Popes and Princes after the first 300. years those Ages of the ten general persecutions wherein questionless all Christians almost every where had occasion and provocation enough to practice whatever they thought was lawfull for them to practise Of which particular Instances The first Instance shall be that of S. Athanasius one of the Fathers of the very first general Council was ever held soon after Patriarch of Alexandria I must confess I have already given this in my former Section but in latin onely and not so directly to my purpose there as to that of this present Section And therefore I repeat it here in English out of his Apology to the Emperour Constantius I have by no means resisted the commands of your Piety Farr be that from me For I am not hee that will resist as much as the City Questor and not onely not the Emperour Truly I prepared my self for going away For of this matter too Montanus is conscious that upon receiving your letters if he had vouchafed to write I had presently departed and by my promptitude in obeying had forerun your commandement For I am not so mad as to have thought such commands were to be contradicted Out of the Decree of your Majesty I studied to know your will But neither did I then receive what by right I postulated and yet now at this present I am not accused of any other cause For I have not resisted the Decree of your Piety Nor will I endeavour to enter Alexandria as long as it shall not by your Piety be lawfull for me And yet the matter in agitation here was the unjust exile of this great and holy Catholick Patriarch Athanasius and his just restitution to his own See as I noted before And yet he acknowledges that himself had been mad if he had not obeyed an Arrian that is a manifest Heretick Emperour by a bare decree or letter onely exiling him from his own proper Episcopal See And declares moreover plainly that he would never as much as endeavour to return to his said See without the same Emperours command or licence to return So conformable was his practise to the doctrine of all the holy Fathers as the doctrine of the Apostle in that precept Rom. 13. omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit The second Instance is of Eusebius Bishop of Samâ—sata that most holy and most laudable man of whom Theodoret Hyst l. 4. c. 15. tells and writes in these very words Cum edictum Imperatorium quo jubebatur in Thraciam proficisci c. When sayes Theodoret the Imperial Edict whereby he was commanded to go to banishment in Thracia was brought to him I think it very necessary to be known to such as are yet ignorant how he carried himself For the Messenger that brought this Edict arrived at twylight Whom Eusebius commanded to be silent and to conceal the cause of his coming For sayes he if the people educated in studies of piety shall understand of it they will drawn you in the river and I must answer for your death Having said this and according to custome done his office in the ministery of evening prayers then when sleep scizeth all men this good old man having trusted his secret to onely one servant departs the City His servant follows bringing onely a pillow and a book with him But when he came to the banks of the river for Euphrates runs by the walls of the City having entered a ship he bids the watermen steer directly to Zeugma where he arrives by morning Samosata is all in plaints and tears For his departure being discovered by means of that Servant's giving some necessary directions to some frends and who went in his company and what books were carried for him all the Cittizens universally lamented themselves as now being Orphanlike bereaved of their Father and Pastour Therefore in multitudes and vessels pursueing and searching for him up and down the river they overtake him at last And when first they mett and saw their desired Pastor nothing was to be heard or seen but plaints and sighs and a huge power of tears whereby to perswade him to remain with them and not suffer his sheep to be delivered to Wolves But when they could not perswade and had heard him reciting the precept of the Apostle wherein we are perspicuâ—â—sly enjoyned to obey the Magistrats and Powers some offer him Gold sâ—me Silver others Garments and others Servants being he was departing to a strange country and so farre distant from theirs But he having received some few things from such as were more intimately familiar with him and after he had by doctrine and by
this definition of Iohn the XXII against this last article of Marsilius and Jandunus doth not gainsay or contradict at all my main purpose or Thesis of a coercive power supream in Christian Princes over all Clerks and in all their criminal causes whatsoever For these two positions have no contradiction 1. There is a coactive power humane and corporal and civil too if you please in the Christian Church as a pure Christian Church 2. This coactive power humane corporal and civil too or not civil as you please is not altogether independent in it self but is subordinat to the higher humane and corporal powers of supream temporal Princes That they are not contradictory or inconsistent we see by the example of both civil and Ecclesiastical tribunals For the inferiour tribunals notwithstanding they have a true proper innate coactive power civil or spiritual respectively are subordinat to the superiour And so I have done at last with this long discourse occasion'd by the fourth objection or that of the conincidency of my doctrine with the condemn'd doctrine of Marsilius and Jandunus Which by a strict examen of all their five Articles and comparison of all and of each of them all to my own doctrine all along and to that which is the doctrine of the Catholick Church I have proved to be very false as I declared also that I hold no part of even their very true uncondemn'd doctrine as it was their doctrine but as it was and is the doctrine of the Catholick Church Which Catholick doctrine or doctrine of mine because it is that of the Catholick Church I am sure without any peradventure I have sufficiently nay abundantly demonstrated by reason Scripture and Tradition Therefore now to The fift and last of all these objections which I call'd remaining for the reason before given that objection I mean built upon the contrary judgment or opinion as t is pretended of St. Thomas of Canterbury and upon his Martyrdom or death suffered therefore and of his canonization also therefore and consequent veneration and invocation of him throughout and by the universal Church as of a most glorious martyrized Saint therefore This objection I confess is very specious at first as it makes the very greatest noyse and the very last essay of a dying cause But it is onely amongst the unlearned inconsiderat and vulgar sort of Divine or Canonists or both it appears to and works so T is onely amongst those who know no more of the true history of this holy mans contests and sufferings or of the particulars of the difference twixt him and his King or of the precise cause of his suffering either death at last or exile at first for a long time or many years before his death but what they read in their Breviary which yet is not enough to ground any rational objection against me though peradventure enough to solve any T is onely amongst those who do not consider duely nor indeed have the knowledg or at least have not the judgment discretion or reflection to consider duely what it amounts to in point of Christian Faith as to others or to the perswasion of others against me or my doctrine hetherto that any one Bishop how otherwise holy soever in his own life should have especially in these days of King Henry the second of England and of Pope Alexander the third of Rome suffer'd even death it self for the defence of true Ecclesiastical Immunities in general or of this or that Immunity in particular or for having opposed some particular laws either just or unjust I care not which made by a secular Prince against some certain Ecclesiastical Immunitie and whether made against those which are or were certainly true Immunities or those were onely pretended I care not also which T is onely amongst those who do not besides consider duely that not even the greatest Saints and greatest Martyrs have been always universally freed not even at their death for any thing we know from some prepossession of some one or other ilgrounded even Theological opinion or of moe perhaps and that such weakness of their understanding Faculty in such matters did not at all prejudice their Sanctity or Martyrdom because the disposition of their Souls or of that Faculty of their Souls which is called the Will was evermore perfectly obedient humble had the truth of such very matters been sufficiently represented to them because they had other sufficient manifold causes and Instances of their true Sanctity and true Martyrdom according to that knowledg which is saving though I do not averr any such prepossession here nor am forced by the objection to averr any such prepossession of St. Thomas of Canterbury in any thing which is material T is onely among such inconsiderat Divines I say that the objection grounded on his opposition to Henry the Secon'd laws concerning Clergiemen and on his exile death miracles canonization invocation appears so strong against the doctrine of a supream inherent power in secular Princes who are supream themselves to coerce by temporal punishments all criminal Clerks whosoever living within their dominions Whether the Divines of Lovain who censured our Remonstrance as you have that Censure of theirs page 120. of this first Part be to be ranked amongst such inconsiderat Divines I leave to the Reader 's own better consideration when reflecting once more both on it and all the four grounds of it he observes moreover particularly the day of the date of it so signally express'd by them in these tearms Ita post maturam deliberationem aliquoties iteratam censuimus ac decidimus Lovanii in plenu Facultatis Congregatione sub juramento indicta ac servata die â—9 Decembris gloriosi Pontificis Thomae Cantuariensis Angliae quondam Primatis mortyrio consecratae Anno Dominae Incarnationis 1662. And whether they did of purpose fix on this day of S. Thomas of Canterbury as most proper for such a censure I know not certainly but suppose undoubtedly it was not without special design they mention'd him and his primacy glory martyrdom and how that 29. day of December of their censure was consecrated to his martyrdom as I profess also ingenuously it was the reading of this so formal signal date of theirs made me ever since now and then reflect on the specious argument which peradventure some weak Divines might alleadg for their fourth ground Though to confess all the truth I never met any that fram'd it methodically or put it into any due or undue form of argument for them or of objection against me but onely in general objected that S. Thomas of Canterbury suffered for maintayning the liberties of the Church and of Clergiemen against Henry the second Which is the reason and that I may leave nothing which may seem to any to be material unsaid or unobjected cleerly and fully by my self against my self I put all which my adversaries would be at in this concern of St. Thomas of
vniversae personae regni qui de Rege tenent in capite habent possessiones suas de dominico Regis sicut Baroniam inde respondent justitiis ministris Regis sequuntur faciunt omnes consuetudines regias rectitudines sicut ceteri Barones debent interesse judiciis curiae domini Regis cum Baronibus usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem 4. Si quisquam de Proceribus Regni diffortiaverit Archiepiscopo vel Episcopo vel Archidiacono de se vel de suis justitiam exhibere Rex debet justitiare si fortè aliquis disfortiaverit domino Regi rectitudinem suam Archiepiscopi vel Episcopi Archidiaconi debent eum justitiare ut domino Regi Satisfaciat 5. Catalla eorum qui sunt in Regis forisfacto non detineat Ecclesia vel â—â—meterium contra justitiam Regis quia ipsius Regis sunt sive in Ecclesiis sive extra fuerint inventa 6. Filii rusticorum non debent ordinari absque assensu domini de cujus terra nati dignoscentur Fourthly you are to observe out of the same Authors Baronius Spondanus c That notwithstanding the principal or grand quarrel was concerning these and those in all sixteen heads yet the more immediat motive of the Saints death was only his refusal of giving absolution from Ecclesiastical censures but upon a certain condition to some Bishops after the King was reconciled to him For to pass by at present all other matters happen'd in prosecution of the said great difference from the year 1164. wherein the Saint presented those heads to Pope Alexander and 1170. wherein being reconciled to the King in France and with his licence return'd to England he suffer'd at Canterbury and to say nothing at all here of the Kings excessive cruelty against the favourers of St. Thomas during those six years after of his exile nor of the Saints earnest prosecution of the grand quarrel and of his own part against the King abroad in the Papal Court both in France and Rome when that Court was removed to Rome in the interim nor of the first meeting design'd 'twixt the Pope himself and the King to determine the controversie but frustrated or rather impeded wholly because the King would not assent to the Saints being present nor of that other meeting which came after to be held about the same controversy twixt the same King of England Henry the second and King Lewis of France even the Saint himself too being admitted to be present nor of three or four solemn Embassies even along to Rome about the same matter from the same Henry and so many more of Bishops Archbishops and Cardinals part of them French and part Italian sent from Pope Alexander to Henry nor of the different judgments or affections of the same Cardinal Embassadours or Legats and how some complain'd they were corrupted by the Kings money nor of King Lewis of France though otherwise both a pious Prince and great favourer of Thomas his having been dissatisfied with our Saint's rigour at the conference with Henry wherein Lewis interceded for him to Henry nor of the said Lewis's favouring again mightily the Saint and in his quarrel undermining closely at Rome King Henry nor of the Legantine power for the Kingdom of England excepting only the Diocess of York committed by the Pope to our Saint notwithstanding his being still a banish'd man in France nor of the revocation or moderation and suppression for a time of that same power upon new applications made to Rome by Henry not also of the renewed confirmation after all this of Thomas in all the fulness of the same power extending even to the Kings own person and to the inderdiction of his whole Kingdom if it pleased Thomas nor of Thomas's condemning while yet he was in France eâ—iled the controverted laws especially and namely some chief heads of them by virtue of his said Legantine power excommunicating also all the advisers upholders observers c. of them and absolving moreover all the Bishops from the oath they took firmly to observe them nor of the excommunications he moreover pronounced nominatim as well against the Kings Embassadours to the Emperour Frederick as against several others in England nor of the other difference happened twixt him and the Archbishop of York with his associat Bishops who joyntly consecrated the young King at the old Kings or Fathers command and consecrated him so in the Diocess of Canterbury against the express inhibition sent them both by himself the ordinary of that Diocess and whose right or priviledg such consecration was and by Pope Alexander too nor of the excommunication also and other censures fulminated partly therefore against the said Archbishop and his consecratours the Bishops of London and Salisbury and fulminated even by the very self same Pope Alexander and partly for having sworn to maintain or observe the 16. controverted laws nor of the preparations made by Thomas to interdict by his own Legantine power both King and Kingdom nor of the peremptory day prefixed the King even also by the Pope himself and by some other extraordinary Legats sent him to agree with Thomas at his peril by the said day nor of the final and terrible threat indeed sent also by them to the King from the said Alexander to witt that if he would not restore Thomas immediatly and without any condition at all of observing the controverted laws His Holyness would deal with him as he had all ready done with Frederick that is bereave him by a judicial sentence of his Crown and Dignity rayse both his own people and forraigners against him c nor of the absolute reconciliation of Thomas by such threats to the King on the Feast of Mary Magdalen and his solemn admission then to his Majesty by the mediation of the said last extraordinary Legats the Archbishop of Roan and Bishop of Nivern and without any condition at all on S. Thomas's side nor of the King 's falling off immediatly in some things from his promise to the Legats by denying to restore to the Church some lands which Thomas claimed as its proper right nor lastly of the new threats of Interdict from Pope Alexander for not restoring these lands I say that to pass by at present and say nothing here of all these and some other particulars happen'd in the prosecution of the principal controversy twixt the said King Henry and S. Thomas from the year 1164. until 1170 it is manifest even also out of Barâ—nius himself that after the King had newly promised Thomas to restore those lands when he I mean the King should be in person return'd from Normandy to England and that Thomas himself laying aside all further delayes of his own return to his own See of Canterbury having the Kings licence to return and the Dean of Salisbury to safe-guard him along by the King's command had accordingly embarked and was landed though
great strictness in his own way I mean according to the judgment of the Prelats and Nobles of that Assembly at Paris But for a judgment also given of purpose on that whole controversie and given by a contemporary Historian a Catholick by religion a Monk by profession and writer of very good repute Gulielmus Neubrigensis and a judgment given by him of this matter even after Thomas had been both martyrized and canonized you have it in his third Book cap. 16. and in these words Sane cum plerique soleant in iis quos amant laudant affectu quidem propensiori sed prudentia parciori quicquid ab iis geritur approbaâ—e planè ego in viro illo venerabili ea quae ita ab ipso acta sunt ut nulla exinde proveniret utilitas sed feruor tantum accenderetur Regius ex quo tot mala post modum pullulasse noscuntur laudanda nequaquam censuerim licet ex laudabili zelo processerint sicut nec in Beatissimo Apostolorum Principe arcem jam Apostolicae perfectionis tenente quod geâ—tes suo exemplo Judaizare coegit in quo eum Doctor gentium reprehensibilem deciatat fuisse licet eum constat laudabili hoc pietate fecisse Third reason That he might possibly be imbued with the doctrine which was growing then of the exemption of Clergiemen either by divine immediate right of the positive or even natural law of God or by that which is pretended to be mediatly divine and immediatly canonical or humane from the Canons of the Church or at least from the bad or false interpretation of those Canons or by some prescription and will and power of those Popes who so mightily in his dayes and for almost a whole age before his dayes immediatly and continually contested with the very Emperours themselves and all other Bishops for both the spiritual and temporal soveraignty of the world and this too by a pretence of divine right And that we must not wonder that even on so great a Saint as Saint Thomas of Canterbury himself the authority of the first Apostolick See and the numbers of her admirers adorers and followers then in what quarrel soever and the specious pretence of piety in the cause and education in such principles or amongst such people should work a strong pre-possession of zeale as for the cause of God being it was reputed the cause of the Church however that according to the veritie of things or true laws divine or humane as in themselves nakedly or abstractedly it might peradventure not have either the cause of God or the cause of the Church Fourth reason and it is a confirmation that is a very probable argument though nor perhaps throughly or rigidly demonstrative of the truth of the Third That in the speech or words of St Thomas of Canterbury in the time of his banishment to his King Henry the Second at Chinun which Honeden ad an 1165. calls Verba Beati Thomae Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi ad Henricum Regem Angliae in Concilio suo apud Chinun we find this sentence of his Et quia certum est Reges potestatem suam ab Ecclesia accipere c. Wherein I am certain this holy Bishop was point blanck contrary to the sense of ten thousand other holy Bishops before him in the more primitive ages of the Church and contrary to plain Scripture and universal Tradition of the Catholick Church for at least the ten first and best ages of Christianity Fift reason That it is not so clear in all respects that those sixteen heads of customs passed not legally and long before the Saints death into a just municipal law of the land or of England notwithstanding that St. Thomas denyed and even justly too denyed his own hand and seale or even justly also retracted his own former consent by oath yea and notwithstanding that it was meerly out of fear that the rest of the Bishop did at first consent or gave their own consent by oath likewise For it may be said first and said also upon very probable grounds out of the several ancient Catholick and even Ecclesiastick Historians who writ of purpose of those dayes and matters that they all freely after consented And secondly it may be said that the greater vote enacts a law in Parliament having the consent royal whether one Bishop or moe peradventure or even all the Bishops dissent And thirdly yet iâ— may be said that all laws most commonly or at least too often may be called in question upon that ground of fear of the Prince Sixt and last reason That we must rather give any answer that involves not heresie or manifest errour in the Catholick Faith or natural reason obvious to every man then allow or justifie the particular actions or contests or doctrine of any one Bishop or Pope how great or holy soever otherwise or even of many such or of all their partakers in such against both holy Scriptures plain enough in the case and the holy Fathers generally for the ten first ages in their explications of such Scriptures and consequently against that universal Tradition which must of necessity be allowed Nihil enim innovandum sed quod traditum est observandum Behold here six reasons which taken at least altogether may justifie my giving the two last Answers or my adding them to the other two former As for the rest I leave it to the Readers choice which of all four he will fix on though I my self and for my own part and out of a greater reverence to the Saint himself and to the Pope that canonized him or to that Pope I mean in as much as he canonized him for a martyr in such a cause if he did so or intended so taking the name of martyr properly and strictly whereof what we read in our very Breviary of the cause for which the Pope sayes he suffered may perhaps give some occasion of scruple being it is there said of those Laws of Henry the Second and only said that they were leges utilitati ac dignitati Ordinis Ecclesiastici repugnantes but not said that they were laws against the laws of God though I say I could wish for these reasons that all my Readers did fix as I do my self rather on the first and second Answer then on the two last But on which soever of all four they six I am confident none may infer that they or I question Thomas of Canterbury's sanctity in this world either in his life or at his death or his glory in heaven after his death or question the Bull of of his canonization or question the holy practice of the Catholick Church in her veneration or invocation or finally question as much as those miracles which I suppose were sufficiently proved in the process form'd for his canonization or even those which as wrought after that time at his Tomb or elsewhere are alledg'd upon sufficient grounds if any such be so alledg'd Though I cannot here
credit given to this ungodly suggestion or of any kind of proceedings after in pursuance thereof by the same young King against Thomas That the ground or colour of this suggestion was no other but that Thomas held those Bishops for excommunicated who did use Pontificals contrary to the Popes command and custom of the Church and of England also in the Consecration of the said young King and use them so in the Diocess of another Bishop without his Licence That no man is so blind or was then so blind as to hold that the young Kings being King depended of his being Consecrated at all by any Bishops whether excommunicated or not excommunicated And therefore that albeit I grant as I do verily grant That St. Thomas had been guilty of Actual Treason if he had sought in any wise or at any time against the Law of the Land to depose either of both Kings the young or old the Father or the Son yet nothing material is alledged to prove that ever he did so Besides I answer That on the other side there are so many and so strong Arguments and Presumptions in Law and in Reason to persuade us of the greatest unlikelihood may be of any such matter to have been whereas no kind of proof hath been or hath been offer'd That I see not how any rational indifferent person may or might have ever entertained any such thought of St. Thomas of Canterbury First Argument His wonderful austere holy devout life with so perfect a contempt of all that was pleasant gay or glorious in the world immediately upon his Election and ever after to the hour of his death and this life so devoted wholly to God attested even by the confession of Parker himself but seen particularly and exactly in all the contemporary Writers of the Saints own time as Hoveden and others whom I have before quoted Second Argument His having lived the most retired contemplative life could be in three several Monasteries in Flanders and France even all the time of his Exile first in St. Bertins at St. Omers in Flanders next at Pontiniacum in France and lastly in the Abby of St. Columb in another part of France when and after he was forc'd from Pontiniacum by the Threats of Henry the Second to the Abbot of this place to banish out of the Dominions of England all the Monks of his Order if he did any longer entertain or relieve Thomas In which Abby of St. Columb he for the four whole last years of his Banishment and until his Return to England led that life which merited as he was in prayer and after he was reconciled to his King to hear a voyce from Heaven saying to him Surge velociter abi in sedem tuam glorificabis Ecclesiam meam sanguine tuo tu gloriaberis in me Hoveden ad An. 1170. Third Argument That notwithstanding Henry the Second had Legates favourable enough to him and a Pope also yet neither before them nor in his Letters or Messages to the Pope himself he ever did for so many years of the Saints Banishment or after his Return during the Saints life as much as once insist upon any Treasonable practice of his against himself or Son or Crown or Kingdom nor even as much as once lightly charge him with any for ought appears out of History and that Histories tell how when the former Legates once lightly objected his raising the King of France c. whoever put that into their mouths The Saint answered so clearly and convincingly That there was not a word of proof or even as much as reply against him Fourth Argument That not even after the Saints death not even then when all Christendom with horrour and amazement looked upon and cryed against Henry the Second as a most impious Murtherer and execrable Tyrant thinking the Saint was murthered by his command or consent not even then when he was therefore taken for an excommunicated person and the worst of those excommunicated against whom as Actors any way or Authors of the Saints death Pope Alexander so formidably Thundered Curses and Anathems from Rome and this too at the passionate instance of both the King and Clergy of France That I say not even then or at any time after nor then when at his own earnest solicitation special entraordinary Legates came along from Rome to hear him plead his own excuse or what he could alledge for himself to extenuate the horrour of his guilt he or his Son did or the Bishops of their way did or any other for them or either of them did as much as once pretend any Treason or any other Misdemeanor at all of the Saint whereby as much as to extenuate the heinousness and hideousness of the Murther committed on him but only made it their work to justifie themselves by Oath That they never consented to nor as much as suspected his death upon any account whatsoever Fifth Argument That Henry the Second himself so great a King as he was and so passionately bent against the Saint in his life-time did for having been only unknown to himself or without design the occasion of the Saints death undergo such Pennance and perform'd it so devoutly and unfeignedly invocating the Saint at his shrine that 't is not any way probable the Saint was ever guilty of the least Treason or that the King ever entertained any such Thought of the Saint For what rational man much less so Royal and interested a person would have in such manner invoked a Traytor Sixth Argument That God shewed by so many prodigious signs and wonders incontinently and continually after the Saints death wrought above all the power of nature That he was no Traytor Amongst which though I do not rank those extraordinary temporal blessings poured from Heaven upon this penitent King and on that very day wherein he ended so devoutly his Pilgrimage and his Fasts and Watch and other corporal Afflictions endured first by coming in a penitent Weed and Bare-foot for Three whole Miles that is from the place where he first saw the Church of Canterbury where the Martyr was Enterr'd leaving the very print of his steps all bloody behind him the keen stones cutting his tender feet so that much blood ran from them all along continually and next in the Church of Canterbury by receiving there and on his naked shoulders so many sharp lashes of Disciplines as they call them from the hands of all the Bishops Priests and Monks present yet being those extraordinary temporal blessings were so signal as the overthrow of the whole Scottish power on that day and as the taking also of their King prisoner on that very same day too by his Armies in the North of England I cannot say but the Catholick Writers of that Time had Reason to attribute even these earthly favours of God to the Kings so exemplary and satisfactory Humiliation and to the Saints benign propitious and powerful intercession with God for
in defence of that Formulary and Subscription thereof according to the best and clearest dictates of his inward Conscience without having ever at any time since entertained the least thought of fear doubt or scruple of any errour sin or unlawfulness either in doing so or in not retracting what he had so done If not sayes he only in or as to some sharp words or not so respectful expressions against my Superiour the Pope if peradventure and wheresoever in my Writings or Books any such words or expressions are or by others may be apprehended to be For such unnecessary circumstantials of words any way savouring of passion I beg God heartily forgiveness But for other matters whatsoever that belong necessarily to the substance of the Doctrine I never had nor can have any remorse of Conscience because I believe it to be the Doctrine of our Saviour Christ by whose blessed merits I hope to be saved and before whose Tribunal I am now to appear And then in the fourth and last place converting himself to me and desiring me to sit by him on the Bed-side and I acordingly sitting there he further declared his Conscience to be That I was bound in Conscience to prosecute still even after his death that matter and continue that defence or advancement of that Doctrine which in his life-time I had for so many years and notwithstanding so much contradiction maintain'd So much truly of that learned modest pious man and so much I mean and such testimony given by himself at Deaths door of his own conscientiousness all along in that quarrel for which my Lord of Ferns great Roman termed him Apostate I can declare with as much assurance and confidence as any thing of my self And were it to purpose the like I could relate of another both learned person and illustrious Prelate too viz. Thomas Dese quondam Bishop of Meath and a Doctor of Paris who likewise in former times i. e. in the unhappy War-time had been no less engaged with me in the great Controversie against the Nuncio Rinuccini and all his Partizans and Censures of Interdict and Excommunication which great Controversie because it all was concerning the independency of the Supreme Temporal power as such from the Church in meer Temporal maâ—ters must consequently in effect have been the same with this other about the Remonstrance Of that excellent Bishop so much persecuted for several years by the rest of his contemporary Irish Bishops for not approving the Rebellion of the year 1641 as lawful in point of Conscience I could relate how when I had of purpose come to visit his Lordship on his death-bed in the Town of Galway and Colledge or House of the Jesuites there and then this was if I remember well when the Parliament Forces were of one side blocking up that Town and however I am sure it was much about the year 1650 or 1651. his Lordship taking me by the hand before all those were present declared in like manner his Conscience as Father Caron did many years after For although his Lordships every individual word then as to the bare literal sound I cannot at this distance of time exactly remember yet I am certain he spake the sense of these words Father Walsh I am heartily glad to see you before I dye that you may hear the Declaration of a dying man as you had his approbation when he was more like to live For I now declare That I have purely out of the internal sentiments of my Soul approved at large under my hand your Book of Queries That were it to be done again I would do it because I learned no other Doctrine from the Catholick Church on the subject of that Book but what is therein clearly asserted And therefore that especially as to that matter I now depart in peace of Conscience to appear at the great Tribunal where nevertheless I hope for mercy not for any justice of my own but through the merits of our common Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ This death-bed Declaration of this Learned man and constantly vertuous Prelate I could alledge with as great assurance as I could Father Carons were it to purpose to alledge either in this place against the foresaid great Roman who termed Me and Caron Apostates And yet I think it may be to some purpose if I tell him as I do now That the death-bed judgment of even only two such learned pious men so delivered to my self had more weight and strength to confirm me in my own former resolutions than the reviling terms of Two thousand even the very greatest Romans written or spoken by them in the dayes or time of their corporal health and worldly pomp and on the subject in controversie betwixt us could shall or ought to have for deterring me from or at all weakning me in the profession and defence of the Christian Doctrine I have learned from my youth and learn'd from the Catholick Church I mean on that same subject However and because I know or at least may rationally think such Romans and others too who have reviled me and Caron in such manner by terming us Apostates meant certainly to charge us with that which is properly commonly or usually imported amongst the vulgar by the abstract Apostacy taken in an infamous sense and some certain respect or species thereof and that nevertheless they only or at least principally and fixedly intend to charge us not in the first or second but third respect before given or third degree or rather indeed properly third species of Apostacy i. e. from the Regular Institute of St. Francis c. as likewise that so high a charge against us they ground solely upon our not appearing beyond Seas when summon'd by the Belgick Commissary General c. as if we had by such non-appearance yea notwithstanding any reason to the contrary forfeited and fallen utterly from that Regular Obedience whereunto by solemn Vow we tyed our selves and consequently turn'd Apostates ab Ordine Regulari or ab Instituto Religioso Divi Francisci and yet not only because this is not the proper place to handle that matter but also because the whole Third Part of my Latin Work intituled Hibernica c and my late printed Letter also in Latin ad Haroldum or to Father Harold are written chiefly to clear us from any sinful disobedience or contumacy in the case and by consequence from such Apostacy for without such disobedience or contumacy it is clear that such Apostacy as grounded only on sinful disobedience must of necessity vanish and further yet because I have some eight years since in my second long Letter to the Bruxel-Internuncio Hieronymus de Vecchiis which Letter may be seen Translated into English in this very Book Treat 1. Part. I. pag. 538. and from thence to pag. 555. sufficiently treated of the very subject therefore I will not give my self any further new and needless trouble on that same point again in this place but
indeed I repented to have had any Communion with them especially the Primat 1. Because that whatever lye T.T. told me before yet he I mean the Primat brag'd that being offer'd to be admitted and introduced at Bruxels to kiss the Kings hand he plainly refused it nor ever did nor would hereafter at any time either kiss his hand or otherwise be presented to Him 2. That in the hearing of many whereof my self was one and at a publick treat or dinner he was even so carelesly passionate as to boast also That he had never been friend or well-willer to any of the four naming the King and his Two Brothers with the Marquess of Ormond nor would ever be 3. That to ingratiate himself and his party with Thurlo and the young Protector and to obtain favours and graces for them even with the exclusion of the Royal Party of the Irish Catholicks he amongst other arguments alledged That to the Contrivances Arms and Divisions made by Owen O Neil the State of England owed their present Possession of Ireland and that the same party of the Irish Natives ought to be not only on that account favour'd and trusted but because also they never had affection for the King or his Family 4. Finally that he writ Precepts under his Seal to all his Province of Ardmagh to pray for the health prosperity and establishment of the said Protector and State and Government of England and Ireland as they were then To which four I might have added that N. B. as soon as he understood of the Communication betwixt his other two Associats and me advised them presently to have me secured by a Warrant from Thurlo and that T.T. on my reasoning with himself in some case till I put him into passion threatned to my face and in great fury too before a certain Lady he would have me speedily fast enough by the heels Yet not this but the former four made me at last venture to acquaint my self with one of the Council of State and so contrive their sudden dismiss out of England back to France without other harm done them but that of an injunction to be immediatly gone at their peril And forc'd so away to France they were all three suddenly when they least expected it In France the Primat stays not but passes over thence immediately by Sea to Ireland and there accosts or sends to his old friends Collonel Theophilus Jones and his Brother Doctor Jones the Protestant Bishop of Clogher roames up and down in several Provinces of that Kingdome and so and by what else I know not the particulars gives occasion to those that knew him well to inform against him to the English Court in the Lowcountries then in the year 1659. and beginning of 1660 that he was endeavouring all he could to animate the Fanaticks and some other Protestants in Ireland against the coming in or admitting of the King to return or be restored at all and that he promised them to that end great assistance from or a conjunction of the stronger party of the Roman Catholick Irish Immediatly before His Majesties departure out of Holland for England Don Stephano de Gamarro then Spanish Embassador with the States is spoken to desiring his Excellency to inform the Court of Rome 1. of such a Bishop in Ireland who if taken must suffer by the Law 2. That His Majesty desired not to be put to the stress of signing the Warrant of his Execution 3. And therefore that even by commands from Rome he should be revoked immediatly out of Ireland Next Winter after the Kings happy Restauration and immediatly also after my Procuratorium signâ—d by the same Prelat in the first place and sent to me from Ireland I received from some in England a Duplicat of Commands sent from Rome to him for retiring on sight Upon receipt of these in Ireland he passes thence again to France writes to me from Roan a pittiful Letter both denying flatly the last Accusation to have been true and complaining that himself alone amongst the whole Irish Nation should be forc'd to mourn in those days of general Jubilee for His Majesties Restauration and therefore prays my Intercession for His Majesties unparallelâ—d Clemency and Mercy I returned him the most comfortable answer I could but withal advising him to patience for three years more as also assuring him that by that time I hoped my intercession for him should be effectual To Rome he goes writes to me once or twice from thence see Sect. 6. pag. 14. of the First Part and stays there till the beginning of the year 1665. when he returns back to France and writes and minds me of my promise And after some few exchanges more of Letters at last and according to my advice for addressing himself by Letter to his Grace the Duke of Ormond then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland he sent to me for the said Duke this following Letter of extraordinary great Repentance Submission and Prayer of Pardon from His Majesties mercy To his Excellency the Duke of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of His Majesties Kingdom of IRELAND May it please your Excellency I Am the Publican standing a far off not daring to lift up mine eyes to the Heavens and your Grace but knocking my Breast humbly pray your Excellency be pleased to be favourable to me and make me partaker of His Majesties unparalle'ld mercies promising in the sight of God and his Angels that I will endeavour to comply in all points with his Soveraign Majesties most gracious Will and your Excellencies commands as far as shall become a modest faithful and thankful Subject If otherwise who am I but a Worm the reproach of Mankind the vilitie of the People a dead Dog a Flea And yet my gracious Lord Your Excellencies Most humble Servant Edmund Ardmach Paris Aug. 31. 1665. It is only to make the Reader understand first this Letter next some other passages hereafter which relate to a man of so great dignity in the Church and lastly what merits and considerations are most prevalent at Rome to procure the greatest Ecclesiastical preferments within His Majesties Dominions that I have given so large and particular account of this Prelate and not any hatred to or disesteem of his person or want of due veneration to his memory now that he is departed this life and I hope in a place of happiness and glory before this time I never had any private difference or quarrel with him in my life nor he with me for ought I know nay I found alwayes as some esteem and affection also in him for me so in my self I am sure no less to serve him where I could both unfeignedly and affectionately as I did all along for many years in all occasions And yet until the year 1669. a little before his death in France and his very last Letter thence to me I never knew of his having obliged me so much as he did hindring the
Assassination or murder of me design'd and so near execution in the Woods of Clanmalira in the year 1650 or 51. with the particulars of which his Lordship acquainted me so lately To proceed when the Duke of Ormond had besides the above Letter of submission and Petition of pardon writ to himself seen and read also many other Letters come continually with every Packet from the same Prelate to me importuning still a permission to return besides some other contents which are needless to be related and further had considered of what use it might be if he proved honest to suffer him to come to the National Congregation at last and as I remember about the beginning of March that same year 1665. S. V. but 1666. S. N. his Grace consented I should write to him the said Primate that he might safely come home provided that he would promise to sign even the very individual disputed or controverted Remonstrance Which consent of the Lord Lieutenant together with its signal proviso or condition I signified presently and by four several Packets the consent although but only by the second of them that proviso or condition to the Primate then at Paris On the 13th of April he writes to my self his own good wishes of all expected success in the National Assembly then anneering and in that Letter of mine another enclosed but open and with a flying Seal to be delivered by me to all the Fathers when assembled Whereof he sent me a Duplicat of the 16th same month at both times seeming not to know any thing of his own Licence for coming home However thus in Latin he writes to the Assembly Illustrissimi Reverendissimi Domini EX vestris literis ad nos huc transmissis percepimus quod conventurae sitis quadraginta circiter personae die undecimo proxime subsequentis Junii de modo methodo tractaturae quae tum ad Deum tum ad Regem placandos consequenter ad fideles tam in Fide Catholica quam in debita erga Serenissimum nostrum Regem fidelitate instruendos maxime conducent Proinde primum commendamus ut salva semper in omnibus punctis illaesa fidei professione unam insignem nostrae omnium fidelitatis erga Regiam Majestatem formulam componatis eidem subscribentes eamque ad amussim custodiatis solvatis praestetis ex necessitate non solum propter iram punitionem alioquin infligendam sed etiam propter conscientiam ne haec sit violata legis laesae Majestatis etiam divinae rea Deinde ut prosternentes vos ad pedes suae Regiae Serenitatis supplicetis humiliter pro plenaria condonatione indulgentia pro singulorum de Clero delictis offensis tam occultis quam notoriis ab annis viginti quinque commissis patrati memores ejus Quo se humiliat exaltabitur In dicta fidelitate praeferte facem omnibus subditis Regiis tanquam veri legitimi primogeniti SS Apostolorum filii ut inter optimi Regis meliores Vassallos anumerari possitis Tum commendamus ut inutiles odiosas quaestiones quae lites movent devitetis intra terminos fidei vos continentes tales siquidem magis destruunt quam aedificant Ex sententiis inter doctores catholicos controversis saniores sequamini sine juramento censura aut condemnatione aliarum quamdiu ab Ecclesia tolleratarum Vt oretis continuo pro Rege ut Deus dignetur dirigere eum in eam viam pacis aeterna ut donet ipsi prolem felicem qui sedeat post eum in ejus throno Vt oretis etiam pro duce Eboracensi tota stirpe Regia pro ducibus exercitibus populo ut ii qui adverso sunt vereantur nihil habentes malum dicere de nobis Postremo commendamus ut consideretis idemque expendant omnes Pastores per illud regnum dispersi zelum charitatem expensas ac labores Reverendi admodum Patris Fr Petri Valesii pro vobis omnibus exantlantos Cujus aliqua scripta licet videbantur quibusdam ingrata sicut medicina non raro amara insipida evadit agris salutaris tamen in vestram pacem tranquillitatem securitatem quietem quibus impraesentiarum laus Deo fruimini collimarunt Det quisque pro nunc aliquid condignum condecens boni Patris industriae expositis additurus ultra sequentibus annis quousque ad assem satisfactum fuerit saltim expensis bonam illius voluntatem labores Deo relinquens Ego in gratiarum actionem numero ipsi ex mea absentis tenuitate pro praesenti libras sterlingas 13 ultra non decrit bona voluntas superaddere si media votis respondeant orans meam objectam contributionem apud eundem vestras Illustrissimas Dominationes excusatum iri Reliquum est ut commendemus vos omnes sancto Dei Spiritui me vestris precibus Parisiis Die 13 Aprilis 1666. Illustrissimarum ac Reverendissimarum Dominationum Suarum Humillimus Servus Edmundus Ardmachanus Wherein because I saw that although some things were good yet others were bad as others impertinent or at least superfluous I am sure undesired and unexpected by me I judg'd the whole to be a piece of cunning and sophistry as abstracting still not only from the Remonstrance but from any kind of Oath of Fidelity to the King or even any Declaration that would censure the contrary pernicious either doctrines or practices Indeed his exhorting the Fathers to petition humbly for a general pardon and to pray for the King seem'd both necessary and specious but his desiring them to draw a new Formulary with all the conditions added by him was as much in effect as to exhort them not to sign at all the former And the rest concerning me was but an unwelcome cokeing of me as will appear hereafter For these Reasons I resolved presently never to deliver such a Letter from him whether he should chance to come timely himself in person after to the Assembly or not to come at all And this is all I knew then of the Primat's either approbation or opposition of such a National Assembly For until he landed when the Congregation was actually sitting I suspected not his correspondence with Burgat at Rome nor that he drove at procuring any Letters from Rome to hinder the bare convening or meeting of the Fathers V. MUch less did I at any time suspect any opposition should proceed as I think truly none did from the Bishop of Ferns living then at St. James's in Galicia in Spain of whom I will give this short account with all kind of respect to his person and dignity I have seen him Rector of a Parish-Church at Wexford a little after the War began in 1641. a Native of that place I think but I am sure of so good repute there both for elocution behaviour prudence integrity that although a Churchman yet he was chosen for and sate as one of their Burgesses in