those Decrees of doubtful Authority and do endeavour to restrain their Obligations only to a certain time of Schism and to invalidate the present Power thereof III. Hence it is that the third exercise of the Apostolical Power is to be regulated by Canons established by the Spirit of God and thereunto all the World is to bear Respect and Reverence likewise the Rules Manners and Institutions received by the Kingdom and Church of France as also the Customs of our Fore-fathers are to remain unalterable the which is a clear Demonstration of the greatness of the Apostolical See that the Statutes and Ordinances thereof are established and confirmed by and with the consent of the Churches IV. In Questions of Faith the Pope is chief Judge and his Decrees extend themselves to the Churches in general and to every one in particular nor can his Judgment be repealed unless by the consent and determination of the Universal Church V. These Particulars received from the Doctrin of our Fore-fathers we have by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost Decreed to send unto all the Gallican Churches and the Bishops residing over them and we do all concur in the same Sense and Meaning of them Subscribed by Archbishops and Bishops and Clergy as before related and Registred as required by the Kings Attorney General March 23. 1681 2. The French King used all means to gain this point of the Pope and thinking that the very bruit of any part of his Army marching into Italy might have a considerable Influence he sent a Protestant General Marshal Schomberg with an Army into Italy and the Fourth of October 1681. he entred Cazal The pretence was That the French King had bought that place of one of the Duke of Mantua's Ministers for three Millions which the Duke disown'd as done without his privity and would not receive the Mony and the Pope and all Italy by fortifying this place and several other apparent Designs of the French King were frequently Alarm'd so that in 1687. his Holiness durst not send his Gallies to assist the Venetians but was put to the charge of raising Forces for his Security The King caused the Declaration of the Clergy and his Edict for conforming it to be registred both in the Chamber of Accounts in France and in the Sorbonne without the Doctors Assent who shew'd their resentment of it and therefore the Parliament of Paris summoned twelve of the Doctors before them and gave them a sharp Reprimand and in June 1682. the King commanded several of the Doctors of the Sorbonne to leave the Society and repair to certain places distant which he appointed He also sent several of the Clergy to the Bastile who had spoke or wrote freely on this occasion The Pope was not idle in the mean time In January 1681. he did by several Briefs require the Jesuits to expel Father Maimburg a French Jesuit out of their Society for having wrote a Book offensive to his Holiness but the King took him into his protection In April 1682. He sent a Decree to the Carmelites at Paris to suspend one of their Members for publishing certain Theses Offensive to the Court of Rome which they performed but the Parliament of Paris commanded the Prior to take off the Suspension and forbad all the Religious Orders to execute any Mandates Letters or Orders which did not concern the internal Ordinary Discipline of their Convents The Assembly at Paris wrote to the Pope the third of February 1682. in unpleasing Terms touching the Regalia And the Pope by his Brief of April the 6th 1682. directed to his Venerable Brethren the Archbishops Bishops c. assembled at Paris check'd them for their Letter and argued his Cause in answer to theirs and reproved them for departing from their Rights and lastly rescinded and annull'd what had been done in their Assembly in the Affair of the Regale and withal excommunicated the Archbishop of Tholouse The Clergy of France before this Brief was made publick to them May the 6th made their Protestation against several Letters that the Pope had wrote into France to the Bishop of Pamiers c. and against all Acts done thereupon and were considering of ordaining that no Appeals should be made to Rome and of setting up a Patriarch of their own Hereupon the Pope sent a Bull of Excommunication of the Deputies of the Clergy of France to be published in their Assembly which the King having notice of stopt their meeting and a little after commanded them to repair to their several Charges and on the Doctors of the Sorbonne's Petition to the Parliament they are restor'd and order'd to give their Opinion on the Propositions of the Clergy wherein they spent much time even to May 1683. and still continued divided in their Opinions Cardinal D'Estree had spent his time in vain at Rome prevailing nothing upon the Pope In the Assembly before they separated the Archbishop of Paris offered several Proposals to accommodate the matter between the Pope and his Eldest Son which with many other things were debated upon 1. That those to whom the King in right of his Regalia shall give any Ecclestical Benifices shall in the Vacancy of the Sees have Approbation and Mission from the Vicars General 2. That the Chapters that are in possession of bestowing Prebends and other Dignities shall as formerly dispose of them in the Vacancy of the See 3. That in those Vacancies where the Collation is alternative between Bishops and the Chapters the same shall be observed during the Vacancies of the Sees that are under the Regality the King having the turn which the Bishops should have had 4. That where the Bishop joyntly with the Chapter disposes of the Prebends the King may in the Vacancy of the See appoint a Commissioner who shall have the same power and place in the Chapter as the Bishop had In January 1682. The French King order'd the Sieur Prior to visit the Monasteries c. where any Divinity Schools are kept and to require the Professors to teach the Propositions of the Clergy in their Assemblies several Books also were seized in France which asserted the Popes Authority and divers Ecclesiasticks and others suspected to be concerned therein were imprisoned thereupon and the Abbot of Meuard was committed to the Bastile for holding correspondence with some persons at Rome After this the French Kings Superintendant forbad the Professors of Divinity at Doway to teach or exercise their Functions because they had refus'd to subscribe the Propositions of the Clergy which so dissatisfied the Pope that the Bulls for confirmation of several Persons nominated by the King to Vacancies were not dispatched tho they were such as the Pope had no pretence against and as to the Abbot of Maupeau whom the King had named to be Bishop of Gastres he absolutely refus'd his Bull because he had signed the Declaration of the Clergy The Pope sent to divers Princes desiring them to cause their Clergy to assemble and
to consider of and give their Opinions touching the French Clergy's Propositions Those of Poland and part of Hungary met and condemned them And thus the Pope's Thunder having frighted the Clergy the Assembly was dissolved and these high Contests began to cool Nevertheless both Parties held their own pretences neither yielding to the other but while the two Heads strive many Churches remain vacant and that notwithstanding the cry and pretence that a vast number of new Converts stood in need of Instruction to be confirmed in their pretended Orthodox Belief And here I shall leave off this Affair untill the business of the Franchises comes together with it to be treated on having proceeded further than I ought to have done because I was willing to continue the Relation of this Affair with as little interruption by other matters as was possible 1681. The Colledge of Cardinals being diminished to twenty six and those in being many of them very Aged the Pope resolved to create sixteen new ones and reserve the other Ten either to gratifie Princes or please himself as he should afterwards see necessary occasion though he was backward to encrease the Number but rather lessen them looking on many to be a burthen to the Church And this was his first Creation tho many empty Pallaces in Rome craved Inhabitants and herein he shewed he would not fawn upon or flatter the French King by raising any of his Kingdom to that Dignity but chose Italians whose Names are as follow 1. John Baptista Spinola a Genoese aged Sixty Seven Governor of Rome and Secretary of the Congregation of Regulars 2. Anthony Pignatelli a Neapolitan Sixty Six years of Age Bishop of Lecca and Master of the Popes Chamber 3. Stephen Brancaccio a Neapolitan aged Sixty Four 4. Stephen Agostini Archbishop of Heraclea aged Sixty Five 5. Francis Bonvici of Lucca Archbishop of Thessalonica aged Sixty Three 6. Savo Mellini a Roman Archbishop of Cesarea aged Thirty Seven years 7. Frederick Visconti of Milan aged Sixty Three Archbishop of Milan 8. Marco Gallio of Como Bishop of Rimini aged Sixty Nine 9. Flaminio del Tayo of Siena aged Eighty years 10. Raymond Capizucci a Roman aged Sixty Nine 11. John Baptista de Luca a Neapolitan aged Sixty Four 12. Laurentio Brancati of Laurea in Calabria aged Sixty Four years Library-keeper of the Vatican 13. Urbano Lachetti of Florence aged Forty Four Auditor of the Apostolical Chamber 14. John Francisco Ginetti a Roman aged Sixty years Treasurer of the Chamber 15. Benedict Pamphilio aged Twenty Eight Grand Prior of Rome 16. Michael Angelo Ricci aged Sixty five years All these took their Promotions patiently and without much reluctancy only Tayo and Ricci were hardly brought to it The Pope being sensible that the Cheat of Indulgences was apparent to many of the common People and the first thing Luther made use of to encline great numbers to protest against the Encroachments and Superstitions of the Roman Church and also how ridiculous they are esteem'd by Protestants and scandalously made use of by their own Priests especially in remote Countries and particularly disliking that Indulgence of the Immaculate Conception a Controversie among the Dominicans and Franciscans thought it the best way in Reforming his own Church to begin with such things as the Reformers justly took offence at and therefore suppressed divers of them In the first place The Office of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin approved by Paul the First who granted That whosoever should devoutly recite the same should have an hundred days Indulgence as may appear by his Bull of July the 10th 1615. printed at Milan The Pope therefore now Decreed That no Person of what Order Degree or Condition soever should dare to keep read print or cause to be printed the said Book and requiring that whosoever should have the said Office in his keeping should forthwith deliver the same to the Ordinary or to the Inquisitors of the place which Decree was published Febr. 9. 1678. Then he set upon others and suppressed a multitude of idle and foolish Indulgencies which many cheating Priests raised Mony upon from the ignorant People of which kind were those Indulgencies granted by John the Second Sixtus the Fourth to those who should recite the Prayer of Charity of our Lord Jesus Christ by Eugenius the Third to the Revelation made to St. Bernard of a blow on the Shoulder of our Lord Jesus Christ By John the Twenty Second to those who kiss the measure of the Soal of the Foot of the Blessed Virgin By Leo the Tenth to those who wear the Cord of St. Francis printed first at Rome then at Milan 1663. To them that shall say the Angelical Prayer when the Clock strikes to the Image of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary printed in a Circle with the Moon under her feet By Paul the Fifth and Gregory the Fifteenth to those who say Blessed be the Holy Sacrament Likewise those Indulgences for fourscore thousand years copied out of the Ancient Table which is said to be kept in the Lateran Church to those who say this truly pious Prayer O God who for the Redemption of the World c. He also suppressed many others and declared That though according to the Doctrin of the Council of Trent the use of Indulgencies may be useful to the People and doth Anathematise such as shall deny that there is not a Power in the Church to grant them yet he is desirous that the Doctrin thereof be rightly understood and a Moderation used in granting them lest by too great facility or easiness the Discipline of the Church be corrupted and enfeebled It was indeed one of the main businesses that the Council of Trent should have handled that and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in both Kinds being two principal matters then contested in the German Churches but that Council's Inspiration being brough from Rome in a Cloak-bag the Spirit of the Papacy would not allow it and withal they could not but see that this Doctrin was not solid and would not hold water therefore they slightly touched thereon and nothing was determined in it than only That Indulgences be used with such moderation as was approved by the ancient Custom of the Church of God As this Pope endeavour'd to remove all Remora's of Justice that might hinder the due execution thereof in suppressing the pretended and long abused Priviledges of the Franchises and to take away those Temptations and seeming Encouragements to Vice which had been given by licensing of Stews had suppressed those places and expell'd both Strumpets and other debauch'd Persons out of the City and also had appointed such Magistrates for the due execution of Justice that Rome was become very regular and no publick Vice or Disorders to be seen or heard therein so considering that Men of evil Principles might yet act such things which no positive Law in being could reach That he might at least in some measure eradicate
Inquisitors as Molinos and some of his Followers had been in the year 1685 upon which Pasquin was made to speak pleasantly That in one week one Man had been condemn'd to the Gallies for somewhat he had said another had been hanged for somewhat he had writ and Molinos was clapt in Prison for standing Quiet What must we do then But to return to our present time the things laid to the Churchmens charge was their neglecting to say their Breviary and for the rest they were accused for going sometimes to Communion without Confession and that they neglected all the Exterior parts of their Religion being brought to answer the Countess Vespiniani's case made some noise for she said she had never revealed her Method of Devotion to any Mortal but to her Confessor and so it was not possible that it should come to their knowledge any other way but by his betraying that secret and she said it was time for People to give over going to Confession if Priests made this use of it to discover those who trusted their most secret thoughts to them and therefore for time to come she would make her Confessions only to God This had got vent so that the Inquisitors thought it more fitting to dismiss her and her Husband than to give such an occasion to lessen the Credit of Confession but that which more immediately concerns this History and is the most surprizing part of this account is that on the 13th of February some were deputed by the Court of Inquisition to Examine the Pope himself suspected to be guilty of this Heresy not in the Quality of Christ's Vicar or St. Peters Successor but as Benedict Odescalchi what was done in it is too great a secret to penetrate into but it procur'd Discourses at Rome touching his pretended Infallibility and the power of his own Court to Examine him A Circular Letter was now sent by the Inquisitors to Cardinal Cibo as chief Minister to be sent by him about Italy to all Prelates That whereas many Schools and Fraternities were formed in which some persons under pretence of leading People into the way of the Spirit and to the Prayer of Quietness they instilled into them many abominable Heresies therefore a strict charge was given to dissolve all these Societies and requiring the Bishops to oblige all the Spiritual Guides to tread in the known Paths And particularly that care be taken that none of that sort should be suffered to have the Direction of the Nunneries and the Books tending thereto were sent for out of the Nuns Hands and they were requir'd to return to the use of their Beads The Inquisitors then drew up 19 Errors which they said they had abstracted out of the Quietists Books Writings and Letters though some were unjustly ascribed unto them to calumniate them to the People these were refuted and condemned After two years gentle Imprisonment of Dr. Molinos on the third of September 1687. he was brought into the Dominicans Church the Minerva and set upon a Scaffold erected on purpose and the whole Process read against him wherein he was taxed of many Enormities in Life as well as Errors in Doctrine digested into 68 Propositions and then his Sentence was also read condemning him to close Imprisonment during his Life and to say his Credo and the fourth part of his Rosary every day All that he was heard to say was That they saw a Man that was defamed but was penitent he was chained and a Wax-light put into his hand and some Persons were prepared to cry Fire Fire he was carried then to his little Cell which he entred with great Tranquility and had in all his Deportment appeared free and calm and took leave of his Priest in these words Adieu Father we shall meet again at the Day of Judgment and then it will appear on which side the Truth is whether on my side or on yours As to what concern'd Cardinal Petrucci it was accommodated thus That upon his arrival at his Bishoprick he should write a Letter to the Pope acknowledging That he was unhappily enclined to Molinos's Doctrine and therefore desired his Books treating of that Subject might be prohibited submitting himself to such Penance the holy Office should think sit to impose and promising in a short time to publish a Book in Refutation of their Errors And now since the Doctrines had been condemn'd and Books and Writings call'd in several came in and abjured their Errors and the Pope either out of Kindness to them as Persons he liked well or willing to shew Mercy to Offenders grants a general Pardon remitting such as are in Prison to their Liberty and a Discharge from further Prosecution the Errors being supposed to be dead by the Inquisitors condemning them and Molinos's Imprisonment Yet many of his Followers says he abjured nothing of his own Doctrine considerable but such false things as were put upon him And as to his Defamation touching a scandalous Life they believed not a word of it both because they never were assured any such thing was proved neither had those of both Sexes that conversed with him any ground to believe him Guilty of such Scandal or Hipocrisie as he was charged with and also the Bull that condemns his Books and Doctrines makes no mention of his ill Life which it would very probably have done if the matter had been well proved And it is known that People do yet follow his Method of Devotion in Rome it self On July the 7th Cardinal Sluze Native of Liege after a long Sickness in the 60th year of his Age died And also in August Cardinal Nicolo Albergeti Ludovish died in the 79th year of his Age which made five Places void in the College of Cardinals he had been 43 years a Cardinal his Generosity and Piety having drein'd his Coffers he coyn'd his Plate when the Turks besieged Vienna and sent it unto the Emperor In the end of October the Pope bestowed the long expected Provisions or Benefices on the Cardinals of the late Promotion In December he ordered the 40 hours Prayers to be reviv'd for the Peace of the Church About December the Cardinal of Furstemberg by the French King's Interest in opposition to what the Pope or the Emperoror could effect was chosen to the Coadjutorship of Cologne whereupon the Pope delay'd his Confirmation In January the Pope was indisposed by a strong Desâ—uction so that he kept his Bed admitting none to speak with him but his Nephew Don Livio and the Treasurer In the later end of this year about November began the great Revolution at Constantinople which considering what has pass'd before will not be impertinent to this History The Ottoman Army having received so great a defeat this Summer and their Arms succeeding no where the Soldiers in stead of being ashamed that they had done no better began to mutiny against the Great Men of the Port complaining that they had not been well paid and that the Visier
this may with better reason be imputed to his great Abstemiousness and Temperance than to any thing of a covetous Temper with which I know he has been charged though his large Contributions for carrying on the War against the Turks render him fairly excusable as to that Point In short his Piety and Vertue and continual care for the common Good was such that it may be truly said The World for many Ages has not seen a better Pope than Innocent XI An ELEGY on the late Holy Father Pope Innocent XI Written by T. D. STrange power of Piety when Virtue is So strong it can disarm our prejudice When Luther's Sons Rome's prizeless loss bemoan Less than a Miracle can there be shown Yet see they Mourn and those our Doctrin bred Hating the Body yet adore the Head This Truth tho Ages past scarce understood Ours boldly may affirm one Pope was Good Not Partial nor to private Int'rest sold Nay what 's more strange than all not fond of Gold But durst against the Stream of Avarice swim St. Peter's Keys were never gilt by him Nor did the Churches Biggots till his sway Ever so little for Salvation pay His mellow'd Wisdom prop'd Rome's tottering State His moderate Judgment stemm'd the Clergies Hate Willing the Churches Variance to attone Rail'd not at ours nor lessen'd not his own When Heathens did in swarming Numbers list And War began 'twixt Mahomet and Christ The imprison'd Treasure which he then set free Shew'd him refin'd from former Papacy The Gold which to that Holy War he threw Declar'd him more than Pope a Christian too When France observ'd him scourge the Infidels Quite different from his Pagan Principles His Mother Church th' Apostate durst condemn And slight her Power to make his own Supream Nor longer own'd Rome's Doctrine his Souls guide When its Ambition was unsatisfi'd This Faultless Prelate if e'er Pope was so Sounded his Wiles and Plots did overthrow Lent th Golden Mattock to this pious Work And balk'd both Pagan and the Christian Turk Who stily did like snarling Blood-hound lurk To snap the Prey and gorge himself alone When th' rest were tir'd with fighting for the Bone Mourn all ye neighb'ring Princes Sigh and Mourn Old Rome will now to her old Sins return Her Scarlet Robe has for a time been clean But with new Errors will new Spots be seen Now each Ambitious Cardinal Bribes high To fill the Conclave for the Prelacy Which gain'd th inchanted Purse strait shuts as close As if the strings were never to unloose The Fish is caught farewel Hypocrisie The Vizor banish'd and the Net laid by Religion late was beyond Gold preferr'd But Profit now 's the only sound is heard Vile Sores o'er Rome's corrupted Body grow Her Trunk is filthy now her Head lies low For when as some Rich Honest Farmer Dies Leaving behind him Lands and Legacies His Brainless Off-spring by their Vice allur'd Destroy the Crop which he with care Manur'd His Garden 's Fruitless and his Vineyard bleeds Th' one yields no Grapes the other only Weeds So Rome her pious Farmer being gone Is left to her leud Race to be undone FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is lately Published The Amours of Anne Queen to Lewis XIII With the Chevalier de Roan the True Father of the Present Lewis XIV King of France In which the whole Cabal and Intriegue of Raising this Heir to the Crown is fully Detected and Exposed together with the Engines and Instruments of that Grand Imposture Richly adorned with a Copper Plate