A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN OF THE Romish Religion To his BROTHER a Person of Quality of the same RELIGION Perswading him to go to Church and take those Oaths the Law directs Proving the lawfulness thereof by Arguments not disagreeable to Doctrines of the ROMAN CHURCH LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Mitre within Temple-Bar MDCLXXIV Dear Brother THE business of your pleasant Letter I can no ways judge could be the motive of its jocular style Is conviction for Recusancy so slight a matter that it is only to be laught at or is it that you have a mind to give his Majesty two of your three thousand a year I fear not but it may be then you have been reading Mr. Cowley's Verses out of Hesiod lately Vnhappy they to whom God han't reveal'd By a strong light which must their sense controul That half a great Estate 's more than the whole Vnhappy from whom still conceal'd does lye Of Roots and Herbs the wholesom luxury But truly Brother believe me if these Verses were Canonical Scripture yet would they be too little to keep body and soul together when the seisure is made by the Sheriff Yet is not 2000 a year worth inquiring after at least to know some small reason for parting with it Methinks it should be so I 'm sure if it was mine I should cry two words to a Bargain before I parted with a souse of it except some body would secure me Terra firma in Heaven for Reprisals And for your sake I am resolved to argue the point with our Holy Father the Pope a little to know why we his poor despised Children in England are bound to do some things at his commands he no ways expects from his more indulged ones in other Nations and such things too that practised produce our utter ruines Now good honest Friend Mr. Jesuit mind not me but follow your more necessary Imployments of answering the Doctors Stilling fleet Tilleson and Floyd with the rest of the Papist-Grinders For I am no ways denying the Popes Infallibility but will give him fair play and allow him to be a more considerable person of Honour than consists with the posture of the times or my present affairs Nay if it will do him any service I will grant him at present to be not only Supreme Bishop chief Ruler universal Head or sole Head of the universal Church but let him be as great magnificent and powerful as his most flattering Courtiers would have him that is as great indeed as the Devil himself pretended when he proffered the whole Earth and consequently universal Monarchy to our Saviour for a little worship Let him be all this at present if he pleases say I yet I hope to prove that an English Roman Catholick and consequently you Brother may go to Church as the Law directs nay ought to do it notwithstanding any commands or pretended commands from him or his holy Predecessors to the contrary For let us consider that this Omnipotency of his power be it more or less must needs terminate in this that he has no power where he will have no power and cannot command where he will not command Nay I may safely conclude That a good Catholick may believe he does not command where he plainly openly and solemnly says he will not command till he unsays that saying This in plain terms is the Popes fate now in England they have long since by an unrepeal'd publick Act of their Authority Excommunicated in the highest manner this whole Nation interdicting to the very ground that feeds us and the air we breath any spiritual Blessings or Benefits Now this solemn Excommunication not only casts out of the Fatherly protection and care of the Pope those who fall under it but deprives them of the use of Sacraments Masses Indulgences Churches Succession of Bishops Priests and Holy Orders and all other Christian Rights and Priviledges whatsoever as plainly appears from the very form used in doing it as likewise in the practice of this Kingdom in King John's Time as is proved by our Histories when for six years this Kingdom remained under it and lately in Venice when the Jesuits left that State rather than obey the Senate in performing Holy Offices contrary to his Holinesses intention which Act of theirs they to this day justifie I might instance many more Examples to prove the sad Condition of Countries Excommunicated if the Exalters of the Popes Authority were Infallible Heavenly Oracles But I having nothing to do in that point shall only glance at those things necessary to my present purpose which is to save your Estate Brother and therefore shall still allow the Pope his most extended Infallibility since that makes not at all against me in this Argument For 't is not material to me that Father Paul Author of the History of the Council of Trent does in his defence of the State of Venice against the proceedings of Pope Paul the Seventh prove that Excommunication is a spiritual punishment which implies there ought to be an offence and that except there be the Censure cannot reach the Person against whom it was intended I say though this be reasonable nay may be unanswerable as to the thing then pleaded for yet it will be no ways satisfactory to the point now in hand which is whether the Pope has any Authority left in England or no for that is plain he has not for though at first it may be all our Grandfathers did not justly incur so rigorous a sentence as to be wholly lopt off from the Catholick Church yet that Pope that excommunicated them and those ever since have absolutely refused to have any Spiritual care of them and consequently command over them renouncing it then and Annually renewing that Renunciation ever since so that there has been no continuation of Bishops in this Kingdom nor cannot be according to the Institutions of the Roman Catholick Church till that solemn Excommunication be taken off In this Condition is England and Scotland put by the Pope whilst Ireland our neighbour and fellow Subject Kingdom still continuing in his Holinesses good Grace enjoys all the Priviledges from him of the most Catholick Country So that I conclude the Pope's Infallibility will certainly reach this at least That he has Power to refuse to Govern Command or Protect all he pleases and wheresoever he pleases amongst which Places I take England to be since he and all his Predecessors since Pius Quintus's Time have solemnly declared it to be so Then Good Father Clement since you will have nothing to do I desire you will still stand by and let us shift for our selves as well as we can As for the Gentlemen Missionaries you have sent to convert us I hope we shall be able to deal with them well enough for all we go to Church which I am about to prove to you Dear Brother we may lawfully do First The thing in it self is by all Casuists in the World
directed to obey for conscience sake he would commit a grievous sin against God Now what excuse can we make for our obstinacy in refusing to go to the Churches at times commanded The Popes pretended Commands will not do for were they more binding than the Laws of a Nation which certainly they are not yet can we have none such from him having no Bishops or Spiritual Superiours left whom we might or ought to trust for the truth of them when they came and we have his too too solemn promise that he will have nothing to do with us This being so I am afraid the private discourses and false pretences of private mercenary Jesuits and Missionaries will not be a sufficient Basis to rely upon before the last Tribunal for such obstinate resistance against lawful Authority in things in themselves wholly indifferent Now Brother I know Mr. Politick the Jesuit if you shew him this will presently bless himself with the sign of the Cross desire all to joyn in a Pater noster and Ave Maria against the infection and then dogmatically affirm I am turned a rank nay dangerous Heretick Your Daughters must be desired to visit me no more for fear of perversion nay you will be perswaded to double my Annuity on condition I never see your face again Well if these afflictions should happen I cannot help it but for the mind I am in it must be stronger Arguments shall hinder me from avoiding conviction as long as with a safe conscience I can And I think there are none such for I have considered all I ever hitherto have heard and to me they appear weak and impertinent But that I may not be thought only to affirm this I will sum up all I know any thing to the purpose To begin first then with scandal which is one Argument mainly urged I suppose it can never be intended that if a weak Brother id est perhaps a Fool shall be troubled in mind that I have six dishes of meat at my Table and himself and many better Christians than I have it may be scarce half a one That I must therefore for fear of being an eye-sore to him retrench my self to his fragments And yet S. Paul as to his own practice seemed to resolve this since he says he would never eat meat whilst he lived rather than offend the weak brethren So I suppose and reasonably that his Doctrines of Scandals were calculated for the use of Christian Teachers and those that sought to be Rulers in the Church For had he intended them for all Christians I am afraid they would have proved heavier burdens on Believers than ever were imposed on the Primitive observers of the Mosaical Law and would have but ill accorded with the great Argument for Conversion which was Christian liberty from duties which they and their forefathers were not able to undergo Nor is it reasonable to think I am bound to part with two thirds of my Estate because some fool my neighbour may think me an Heretick by my going to Church no let him think on the sin is his not mine who do nothing but what in it self is lawful and what becomes my duty by the Laws commanding it But he judges amiss of my interiour Faith by my outward actions though lawful and therefore sins in want of Charity Thus much I believe may serve for Scandal though much more might be said The next Objection proceeds from this that it is made the sign of Faith and therefore he that complies in it owns the Church of Englands Doctrine but this must be by all rational men positively denied if they will consider these following Circumstances First when going to Church was commanded in England by a Penal Statute it was designed rather for opportunity to instruct people educated Roman Catholicks in the Principles of the Protestants than as an Act of general Uniformity in Faith which could not so suddenly be expected Next it would have been a vain way of trying the Faith of Papists by a thing they might lawfully according to their own Religion do nor can we believe the people of England assembled in Parliament could be so ignorant had they been minded then to have known the hearts of persons as to have fallen upon so impertinent a test For to my sorrow we find when they intended that they knew a ready and infallible way to do it But suppose the worst that the Law designed it as a tryal of Faith and a discovery of persons Popishly inclined permitting still the thing in it self to be no sin that can no ways oblige you to the refusal of it for I would desire Mr. Jesuit to tell me why you are more obliged openly to declare your self a Catholick than he is to owne himself a Priest fear of death I am sure should not deter him since if he dyes his Faith calls it Martyrdom which gains a Crown of Glory a temptation sufficient and much beyond what any of them will secure you for your Estate But if he like S. Paul thinks it lawful to get down in a Basket you may as advisedly come to Christ by night For is it reasonable that because the Law says Every Popish Recusant shall be convicted that therefore I should be bound presently to run and confess my self a Papist at the next Sessions For 't is as rational to affirm that as to say I am bound when the Law prescribes a thing to be done for tryal of my Faith which I may in Conscience do presently to cry out against it and refuse it for that cause only If that were so then it would be no hard matter by another trick to banish us all the Realm by declaring whosoever should be within this Kingdom on the 25 of March next should be esteemed to all intents and purposes no Roman Catholicks but good Sons of the Church of England whether they communicated in it or no. Now I am afraid Brother if such a sign of Faith as this were by the Law made yet Mr. Jesuit would find many excuses for staying after that time But if he would not I wish with all my heart the Parliament would make such a Statute that we might be rid of them But they know better their Principles than to hope so fair a riddance by so easie a way no these are but weak Arguments to lead the too believing Laity by the noses it must be stronger toyls that shall catch their Elephant understandings Therefore good Brother let you and I be no longer held by them For 't is plain neither scandal nor signum fide ought to be a hindrance to me from doing a thing in it self indifferent and which becomes my duty by the Law 's commanding it The next material Objection I have from some of our Spiritual misleaders met with is That as Faith comes by hearing so does Heresie therefore we ought to avoid the place where it is taught lest we should be misguided into it If you answer
allowed to be no Sin but wholly Indifferent as is plain from the Practice in France and all other Nations But this is such a Truth that should I bring Arguments to prove it so it would appear as impertinent in me as a long Harangue would be to prove there are such things as Penal Laws against Recusancy in England which I suppose to you Brother would be very needless Now this granted That it is not Malum in se how then can it be a Sin Certainly it must be against some express Command to the contrary and so it will fall under that Head of Malum Prohibitum Now if I prove it not under this last then it can be no Sin at all And this will be no hard Task to perform For Dear Brother do but bestow a very little thinking Half as much as a Meditation before a Mass will serve of that Authority which the Pope has left himself in England and you will find that all Bulls formerly sent or hereafter to come from Rome during the continuance of this Excommunication are to be lookt on here as fraudulent false and forged ones no ways binding the most zealous of his Holinesses Children nay rather as things that in a most abusive manner give the lye to the solemnest Discipline and Rights of holy Church For in no Action can his Holiness so clearly express his intention and power as in those of solemn Excommunications against Nations they being the most visible and publick demonstrations of his pretended Omnipotency in governing the Earth Now is it not more than Schismatical Insolence to affirm that his Holinesses Empire and the Church is so divided in it self as that one personal Act of his should positively contradict and give the lye to another as it must plainly do if he after the solemn Excommunication of a Nation shall during that censure send any Bull of Direction to guide the people thereof in their journey to Heaven whither he openly declares they never shall arrive having as much as in him lies sealed up the Gates of Glory to them For to this purpose or none tend all Excommunications which are pursuant to the promise of Binding and Loosing Therefore from this reason I gather that several things done and taught by the Jesuits and Missionary Priests here not only fall under Protestant Laws of Treason and Catholick National Laws of Praemunire but are also contrary to the Fundamental Rules and Practices of the Roman Catholick Church it self For an instance Indulgences given by his Holiness to the Catholick Church in general these are often published at Mass and in Sermons by Missionaries here and the means to obtain the benefits of them zealously pursued and performed by Catholicks Now allowing the utmost benefit to be really in them that ever Pardon-seller in Spain pretended yet to English Roman Catholicks they can be nothing worth for by that infallible power resides in the Church best exprest in lawful general Councils of which sort we all say the Council of Trent was I say by this infallible Power and in that Council is taught That the intention of the Agent is absolutely necessary to the performance or end of any Religious Action or the benefits to arise thereby Insomuch that the intention of the Priest directed to the contrary shall null or rather make absent the Sacrament of Baptism or any other Rite notwithstanding all Ceremonies necessary were performed Now if this be truly so as you and I nay all Roman Catholicks are bound to believe how much more will it operate in this trick of Indulgences which flow only from the Fountain of the Popes good pleasure and can certainly operate no farther than he intends them which cannot be to England or any English man they being put wholly out of his Fatherly care and protection by his grand Interdiction the best discovery of his intention that can be except when he expresses himself in a general Council Pardon this short digression concerning Indulgences it being only to illustrate this infallible Truth That these Indulgences or any other Bull in general or directed in particular to this Kingdom cannot be supposed to flow from the Popes intention since they so palpably are against his more solemn declared pleasure which he annually renews Nor ought any Roman Catholick here look on them but as the tricks of private Missionaries for their own advantage since they perfectly contradict not only the Laws of the Nation but the Fundamental Laws of the Romish Church it self We may indeed speak of Popes Bulls Brother as of Letters Patents obtained from Princes of course which though when according to Law are binding not only to Subjects but against themselves and Successors yet when they proceed contrary to the Fundamentals of their Government then are they of no value but in themselves void Mankind always in such cases supposing the Prince to be deceived in his Grant So stands the Case here Till his Holiness takes off the Excommunication of this Nation which is an effect of his plenitude of Power and accords with the Fundamentals of his Regiment no Bull sent hither ought to be taken notice of they being in themselves apparently void as well as contrary to the Laws of the Nation made in Catholick times near two hundred years before the Pope cast off it or it the Pope Bringing in a Bull to this Kingdom without the Kings leave being then made Praemunire which Law was for all that time complied with by very many and as we say Good Popes To sum up all it comes to this Things in themselves no sins cannot become such but by some lawful prohibition Going to Church in it self is no sin nor can it become so by the Popes Command to a Country in which he renounces all Power England is such a Country therefore till he or his Successors take off the Excommunication no Catholick is obliged to take notice of that or any other pretended Command sent from him hither but perfectly è contrà Therefore going to Church is lawful in England for Roman Catholicks But not to leave the point thus I begin to doubt extremely whether we are not obliged in Conscience to go to Church as the Law directs or at least when we omit it freely to pay the penalty For it is granted on all hands that a thing not malum in se may become malum prohibitum if commanded by lawful Authority which I hope none of us will deny the Government in England to be I 'm sure he that should would deserve the severest execution provided by the most sanguinary Law Now the Government of England requires all the Subjects thereof to meet together at such a time and such a place no matter where suppose it Salisbury Plain doth any man think he would deserve the protection thereof that should obstinately without lawful excuse refuse to come thither no certainly he would not only incur deservedly the penalty provided but speaking like Christians who are
the well-merited death of a Traitor or if a Lay-man all the Law has in that case too easily provided I need not instance which Bulls I mean they are so often brought against the Catholick Religion it self by Protestant Writers and sufficiently to the shame though not of the Popish Religion yet of those Popes who granted them and of those Papists that adhere to or defend such Roman Court Doctrines But from such Catterpillers of the Christian Faith as those did arise amongst many more dangerous new Positions this of being not lawful for Roman Catholicks to go to Church as the Law requires in England And for the sakes and on the wise Authority of such desperate Casuists have many of our foolish Forefathers lost two thirds of their Estates rendred themselves suspected to the people and incapable of serving as they ought to do their lawful Prince in his extraordinary occasions which when they have attempted to do this their open unnecessary dissention has cast an Odium unjustly both on himself and his actions for imploying them Now if it be inquired by you or your Confessaries what Arguments could move Pope Pius Quintus or his immediate Successor to send a Bull of Prohibition to the Catholicks in England for going to Church the thing being in it self no fault and as I affirm so positively against the Rules and Practices of their Predecessors nay against the Fundamentals of their Government To this I must answer There were divers Motives in Policy as they observed things of this Island in Rome though none in Religion First they were perswaded by such Traitors as fled hence thither that almost the whole Nation remained Catholicks notwithstanding the Queen had altered the Government And that they would find them such ignorant ones too as their Holy Predecessors had known them when they made this Nation the Pack-horse to their pride and a perpetual Fountain of Money to their Treasuries which some of them with admiration boasted could never be exhausted Upon these suppositions they were made to believe that such a Bull would cause this mighty Party to be visible not only to their Enemies but themselves to the terrour of one and incouragement to the uniting of the other Party This was one and it may be the grand motive of that Proceeding so contrary to all President The next and in all likelihood not the least motive might be the perswasion of those Traitors that there would be found in England many as desperate as themselves to bandy together take Arms against or assasinate the Queen when they saw their Party so considerable as this would prove it besides the blessing must needs attends such pious endeavours warranted by his Holinesses care and direction But all these Policies and Practices did by the wisdom of that Queen and her Council only tend to the discovering such desperates as being of the like Principles thereon took Arms and were for it deservedly executed or forced to increase the numbers of those Fugitives in voluntary Banishment But notwithstanding this might like a Message from Heaven sufficiently have warned the Catholicks of England from hearkening any more after News from Rome at least till the Popes should have been so charitable to re-admit them into the Congregation of the Faithful by taking off the Excommunication from them yet have the private Missionaries being all sent into the Nation under the title of Traitors by the Law so adhered to the Tenets of the Court as well as Church of Rome which sends them that they have by degrees instilled into the Laity here many Principles of Adherence to the Pope that would be laught at in France and some few other rational Catholick Kingdoms Amongst which this of thinking the Popes Commands can make that a sin which in it self is none ought to be accounted one Upon which ground alone they refuse to obey the Law in the thing now in debate for which I think they are but justly punisht with the loss of their Estates But Brother be you wiser study the Catholick Doctrine as it is taught by Fathers and Councils and not as it would fain be made by the novel Positions of Ignatius's Followers between whom and you there is a vast difference both in the duty you owe to the King and his Laws as likewise in those you stand obliged in to Rome For first they and all other Missionaries being the hour they set foot here become Traitors and so consequently in all the business they come about not only out of the protection but under the severest censure of the Law no wonder they have not the same respect for it other Subjects ought to have but dare practise lesser contradictions that offend in the greater Nay it may be against their going to Church Scandal would prove a good Argument since they pretend to be ready always to lay down their lives for the increase of their Faith but this is no ways your or any other Lay Catholicks case the Law if you obey in some particulars prescribed giving you equal protection with others of the National Principles Another thing to be considered is That the hour they receive Holy Orders they take an Oath of Subjection to the Pope and so by the same Act become Renouncers of their Allegiance to the King and Subject to his Holiness Now how far this may be consonant to Christian Religion I will not examine here but I am sure it puts them in a very different posture as to the Popes designs to what any other Catholicks are in They being according to their vow upon the least summons to leave the Country and to go where his Holinesses good pleasure appoints them which I hope none of them will be so impudent to say you are obliged to do Brother except it be such as hold the mad Doctrine of Popes having power to depose Princes For though the other doth not sound so ill yet is it in effect the same for to be able to command a Princes Subjects out of his Dominions doth imply a power of leaving him none there which would produce an effectual deposing of him in the end Another considerable difference between Lay Catholicks and Missionary Priests in this Kingdom arises from the ones having Estates and the other none For no body can blame the last sort of Gentlemen to desire their power over the Consciences of the other should be as far extended as might be if one consult as most of mankind does their private interest Alas what is it to Mr. Politick your Ghostly Father that you shall lose by your Conviction 2000 l. a year his Allowance will be never the less he knows but his power will be much more For in the first place that is a sure sign you are as firmly resolved to live and die a Catholick as if he saw you at the stake to receive Martyrdom for it Do you think after that he will not take upon him to direct you what Servants it is