of the Bodleian Library and of which Library he was the Head-keeper And in that Office very Diligent and Careful and was a Person of great Learning and Probity The Knowledge of this Rescript of that Vniversity and likewise of the other of Cambridge is necessary to all who will be Masters of the Knowledge of the History of those times For the Author of a Book in Quarto Printed in Oxford in the year 1645. called the Parliaments power in Laws for Religion having there in p. 4. said that the third and Final Act for the Popes Ejection was an Act of Parliament 28. H. 8th c. 10. entituled an Act extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome Saith it was usher'd in by the Determination first and after by the practice of all the Clergy for in the Year 1534. which was two years before the passing of this Act the King had sent this Proposition to be agitated in both Vniversities and in the greatest and most famous Monastery's of the Kingdom That is to say An aliquid authoritatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de Jure competat plusquam alii cuicunque Episcopo extero By whom it was Determined Negatively that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of Right in the Kingdom of England than any other Foraign Bishop which being Testified and return'd under their Hands and Seals respectively the Originals whereof are still remaining in the Library of Sir Robert Cotton was a good preamble to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy Assembled in their Convocation to conclude the like And so accordingly they did and made an Instrument thereof Subscribed by the Hands of all the Bishops and others of the Clergy and who afterward confirm'd the same by their Corporal Oaths The Copies of which Oaths and Instruments you shall find in Foxes Acts and Monuments vol. 2. fol. 1203. and 1211. of the Edition of John Day An. 1570. And this was semblably the ground of a following Statute 35. H. 8. c. 1. Wherein another Oath was devised and ratified to be imposed upon the Subject for the more clear asserting of the Kings Supremacy and the utter exclusion of the Popes for ever Which Statutes though they were all Repeal'd by one Act of Parliament 1st and 2d of Phillip and Mary C. 8. Yet they were brought in force again 1 Eliz c. 1. My Lord Herbert in his History of Henry the 8 th under the year 1534. and the 26 th year of his Reign p. 408. telling us that it was Enacted that the King by his Heirs and Successors Kings of England should be Accepted and Reputed the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of Eng. called Ecclesia Anglicana c. saith that that Act though much for the manutention of the Regal Authority seem'd not yet to be suddenly approved by our King nor before he had consulted with his Counsel c. and with his Bishops who having discussed the point in their Convocations declared that the Pope had no Iurisdiction warranted to him by Gods Word in this Kingdom which also was seconded by the Vniversities and by the Subscriptions of the several Colledges and Religious Houses c. Most certainly Hen. the 8 th's gaining this point that the Bp. of Rome hath no more power here by Gods Word than any other Foraign Bishop was of great and necessary use in order to the effectual withstanding the Papal Usurpations and was re verâ the gaining of a Pass and for which end he made use of intellectual Detachments from his Vniversities And suitably to the Wisdom of our Ancestors here in Henry 8 ths time any Popish Prince abroad who intends effectually to Combat the Papal Usurpations must first gain that Pass For the effect of the common sayings in Natural Philosophy that Natura non conjungit extrema nisi per media and that Natura non facit Saltum must likewise obtain in Politicks when the Nature of things is operating there toward a Reformation of Church or State And this weighty Rescript of the Vniversity of Oxford not being Printed in Dr. Burnets excellent Historical Books of the Reformation nor yet in Fox his Martyrology and now Published here as set down in English by Dr. Iames may perhaps serve usefully to illuminate the World abroad about the way of its Transitus from Popery But here I shall observe that though I find in Mr. Fox his Acts and Monuments Printed in 3 Volumes in London for the Company of Stationers An. 1641. the Iudgment of the Vniversity of Cambridge is there set down in p. 338. and relates to the same year with the Oxford Rescript namely the year 1534. yet it doth not there appear to be a Rescript to King Henry 8 th by way of return to a Letter from his Majesty and it begins thus Vniversis sanctae Matris Ecclesiae filijs ad quos praesentes literae perventurae sunt Caetus omnis Regentium non Regentium Academiae Cantabrigiensis salutem in omnium Salvatore Iesu Christo. Cum de Romani Pontificis potestate c. And then follows the Translation of the whole in English and which makes about half of that page 338 and wherein the same Judgment for substance is given with that of the Oxford Rescripts That the Bishop of Rome hath no more State Authority and Iurisdiction given him of God in the Scriptures over this Realm of England than any other extern Bishop hath That Instrument hath not there the Date of any Month to it as the Oxford Rescript hath But in the Body of the Instrument 't is mentioned that the Iudgment of that Vniversity was therein required though not by whom and towards the Conclusion of it 't is Styled an Answer in the Name of that Vniversity and 't is probable that the Iudgment of that Vniversity might have been required by some of the Ministers of King Henry 8 th and by his Order whereas the Oxford Rescript mentioned his Majesties having himself required the Iudgment of that Vniversity in that point What I have here mentioned of the Iudgment of our two Vniversities gives me occasion to take notice of an Oversight of my Lord Herbert in this place of his History by me Cited For he in this p. 408. makes the Vniversities Determining that the Pope had no Iurisdiction warranted to him by Gods Word in this Kingdom whereas he should have Represented their Sense of his not having more here than any other Foraign Bishop And thus you truly express the Sense of their Judgment in this Case when you say p. 70 th of your Book that the Popes Cards were by the Clergy that plaid his Game thrown up as to all claim of more power here by the Word of God than every other Foraign Bishop had And both our Vniversities sent their Iudgments about the same thing to the K. which methinks might make our Papists approach a little nearer to us without any fear of Infection For we allow the Bishop of Rome
Divine Worship on Men as much as your Description doth And the Venetians particularly opposing the Popes Interloping in their Jurisdiction that other thing referred to in your Description is sufficiently known But if by your Description of Popery you intend only to give us a Dictionary of your Sense of the word generally as used by you and that you intend by the Extermination of Popery the Banishing only of those Principles of it that are Irreligionary out of Mens Minds namely the Principles that tend to the Popes Spiritual and Temporal Vsurpations I am not to quarrel with your expressing your own meaning But as I Judge several Roman-Catholick Writers using the Term Popery to intend thereby the Religion of the Church of Rome as for example the Author of the Compendium saying what I before referred to that nothing but Popery or at least its Principles can make the Monarchy of England again emerge or lasting yet as to which a Divine Sentence was in the Mouth of the King when in his Gracious Expressions in Council concerning the Church of England he Judged otherwise and said I know the Principles of that Church are for Monarchy c. and meaning by Popery what was called la Catholicitè I shall say that according to the common acception of the Word Popery were I to explain what I usually mean by it I would declare that I mean not only the Power of the Bishop of Rome but of any General Councils in Imposing Creeds and Doctrines c. on me And I desiring to have all Religionary Errors banished out of my understanding and Loving my Neighbour as my self will desire they may be so out of his and particularly if after he knoweth he is bought with a price he shall think it lawful for him to be a Servant of Men And will not only weigh the Commands and Decrees of any Bishop But of any General Council whatsoever And if in Matters that Import my Salvation I find them contrary to the Bible with a Salvo to the Reverence I owe to all Lawful General Councils I will desire them to excuse me from obeying them Were it not for what you have so well in p. 48. said that the Protestant Religion not making the intention of the Preist essential to the Sacrament of the Eucharist is more strongly assertive of the Real presence there than the Popish Hypothesis and for that great and excellent Notion of yours in your Discourse viz. That Papists and others being bought with a Price that therefore they ought not to be the Servants of Men and my Judging that according to what I have mentioned out of Dr Iackson that you would separate your self from any Church that imposed any thing Magisterially on Mens Faiths I might think that perhaps had you lived in the Reign of Henry the 8 th you would not have separated from the Ecclesia Anglicana as then by Law Established And therefore when by your warm Expressions in p. 47. after you have said that the Protestation that the Protestant Religion requires is such a continual one as is Reiterated upon every fresh Act and Attempt of the Papal Religion upon ours and whereby it would impose Creeds and Doctrines on us contrary to the Liberty of the Church of England as now by Law Established You tell us that We are to shew no Mercy to these Principles of Popery that disquiet the World and on the several occasions offered protest against the Damages that both our King and Country may have from the Rage of Popery I may tell you that this PROTESTANCY amounts to no more than what we read of in the Review of the Council of Trent where in Book 1. and 12 th Chapter the Author refers to the French King by his Embassadors causing a PROTESTATION to be made against the Council of Trent and as appeared by the Oration there made by Mr. Arnold de Ferriers the 22 d. of September 1563. where among other things having mentioned many grievances he saith that according to the Commands of the most Christian King they were constrained CONCILIO INTERCEDERE VT NVNC INTERCEDEBANT by the same Token that that Book relates how thereupon a certain Prelate of the Council of Trent not well understanding the Propriety of the Word Intercedere which the Tribunes were wont of Old to use when thay made their Oppositions and Hinderances asked his Neighbour PRO QVO ORAT REX CHRISTIANISSIMVS But of the French Kings Embassadors protesting not only against Grievances in the Council of Trent but against it self as a Grievance and of some occasions thereof it will come in my way to speak hereafter Nor was there ever any Instrument or Paper Writ with more sharpness of Anger and Scorn in the way of Defiance against Papismus or Popery than H. the 8 ths Protestation against the Council of Trent and yet inclusive too of another Protestation I mean of his Adherence to the Faith then called Catholick That long Protestation calls the Pope by the Name of Bishop of Rome and saith surely except God take away our right Wits not only his Authority shall be driven out for ever but his NAME also shall be forgotten in England Nor did ever any Protestant Writer in Queen Elizabeths or King Iames the First 's time or in our late Fermentation so zealously press the Exterminating of the Papal Power as Henry the 8ths Proclamation about the Abolishing the same Triumph at its being here done And where he saith We have by Good and Wholsom Laws and Statutes made for this purpose EXâ—IRPED ABOLISHED Separated and Secluded out of this our Realm the Abuses of the Bishop of Rome his Authority and Iurisdiction of long time Vsurped c. And the King there Orders all manner of Prayers Oraisons Rubricks Canons of Mass-Books and all other Books in the Churches wherein the Bishop of Rome is NAMED or his Presumptuous and proud Pomp and Authority preferred utterly to be Abolished Eradicate and Razed out and his NAME and Memory to be never more except to his Contumely and Reproach remembred but perpetually suppressed and obscured The Act of 28 of Henry the 8 th before spoken of called an Act for Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome was here referred to and which Act and other Acts of Parliament Establishing the Kings Supremacy and Excluding the Pope for ever I mentioned as revived in Queen Elizabeths time after their being repeal'd in Queen Mary's I need not observe to you how this present French King hath likewise lately shewn a very Commendable Zeal for the Exterminating the Vsurpations of the Papal Power in the Business of the Regalia and that the Case of that Kings Power is much altered for the better since D' Ossat Writ to Villeroy from Rome with so much Joy for his having found out an expedient as to the difference between Henry the 4 th and the Pope about the granting to one a Church Dignity in France Namely to have the Words put
having in p. 284. of his Iust Vindication of the Church of England spoke of the Trent Council saith We have seen heretofore how the French Embassador in the Name of the King and Church of France protested against it and until this day though they do not oppose it but acquiesce to avoid such disadvantages as must ensue thereupon yet they never did admit it Let no Man say that they rejected the Determinations thereof only in point of Discipline not of Doctrine For the same Canonical Obedience is equally due to an acknowledged General Council in point of Discipline as in point of Doctrine Monsieur Iurieu in his Historical Reflections on Councils and particularly on that of Trent which were Translated into English and Printed in the year 1684. Saith that the French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of the Council of Trent and mentions as the Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France these following 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. It hath confirmed the Papal encroachments upon ordinary's by exemption of Chapters and priviledges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the priviledges of Bishops of being Judged by their Metrapolitan and Bishops of Provinces by permitting a removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to Name Commissioners to Judge the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in Setling and placing of Bishops 6. That it hath Empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil pains by Imprisonment and by Seisures of the Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious uses 8. That it hath given them a Superintendency over Hospitals Colledges and Fraternities with power of disposing their Goods notwithstanding that these matters had been always managed by Lay Men. 9. That it hath ordained that Bps. shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with power to Deprive or Suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of the Hospitals and to take away feudal Tithes belonging to Lay-Men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those who have the Care and Government of them are obliged to be accountable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholy ascribed to the Pope and Spiritual Judges all power of Judging the Causes of Accused Bishops as if Soveraign Princes had lost the right they had over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empower'd the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastick in Quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in Prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor or Prince as should shew favour to Duels should therefore be Excommunicated and Deprived of the Seignory of the place holding of the Church where the Duel was fought 15. that it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostoles in all Dioceses with Power to Judge of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Matters in prejudice of the Ordinary 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyn'd Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and entire possession of the jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the Principal Points Disputed in France These that tend to the Diminution of the Authority and Priviledges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman power are Rejected by the Bishops And those that would extend the power of Bishops to the Prejudice of the Civil Authority are Rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law He then shews that the Popes Superiority over Councils is a point of Doctrine and was decided in the Council of Trent And yet that the Gallican Church believes the contrary I know it will be said saith he that the Council of Trent hath not decided that the Pope is Superior to Councils Men may talk as they please but things for all that will continue as they are It is true that among the Decrees and Canons of the Council there is none that saith in express Terms that the Pope is Superior to Councils and can be judged by none But the effect of such Decision is apparent in all the Acts and through the whole Conduct of this Council And he afterward saith that the Clause of proponentibus legatis was a plain Decision of the Popes Superiority over the Council But to these 18 Reasons of Mr. Iurieu about the Reception of the Trent Council in France being neither practicable nor practised I might add that according to what my Lord Primate Bramhal observes in another place of that Book of his I Cited before the Obedience promised to the Bishop of Rome as Successor to St. Peter and Vicar of Iesus Christ pursuant to the Trent Council may seem to quadrate but ill with the liberty of the Gallican Church to set up a Patriarch For in p. 194. of that Book he mentions that in Cardinal Richelieu's Days it was well known what Books were freely Printed in France and publickly sold upon pont neuf of the lawfulness of Erecting a new or rather restoring an old proper Patriarchate in France as one of the liberties of the Gallican Church And thereupon saith It was well for the Roman Court that they became more propitious to the French Affairs And if we consider how in the 22 d. Session of the Council of Trent Chapter the 11 th all Kings and Emperors are Anathematized who hinder any Ecclesiasticks from the Enjoyment of any of their feudal Rights or other profits and that it might well be supposed that the Course and Vicissitudes of time would put Roman Catholick Princes on somewhat of that Nature and which so eminently influenced the French King in the Munster Treaty none need wonder at the Trent Councils not being received in France There was a Book called a Review of the Council of Trent written by a Learned Roman-Catholick and Printed A. 1600. and Translated by Dr
above them to him I commit you and in him I am Your Affectionate Friend and Servant ANGLESEY Memoirs Of the Late Earl of Anglesey c. SIR I Have not that time I wish to thank you particularly enough for your Discourse in a Letter to me and writ to me when I was Lord Privy Seal on the Occasion mentioned in your Preface I am so much a lover of my Country that I would be content to have all the Dirt and Shamm again thrown on me by any such Infamous Witness as He was if it might Occasion the Enriching it with the Treasure of such an other Discourse I did not account it a Solamen that not only the Earl of Peterburgh but his Majesty were participants with me in the Calumnious Affidavit Published against me but was sorry and ashamed for the Effrontery of the Infamous Swearer extending it self so far and likewise glad that after I was sufficiently vindicated by your Pen you took the pains so Learnedly to State the Notion of Infamous Witnesses for Illuminating the Age therein I know that in the Hot times of the Martyrocracy as you call it it would not have been for the Advantage of my self or others so unworthily then treated by it for you to have then used Personal Invectives to have rendred any Witness more odious and when likewise it would have proved more dangerous to you than Scandalum Magnatum You having mentioned what Authority of Testimony or real Weight and Worth there should be to Convict a person of such Authority and that Diamonds are not to be Cut but with the dust of Diamonds and that it is not for nothing that the Scripture Cautions the not receiving an Accusation against an Elder but by two or three Witnesses and how the Canon Law requires 72 Witnesses to Convict a Cardinal Bishop accused of any Crime but Heresie and 26 to Convict a Cardinal Deacon and 7 to Convict any Clerk did afterward very justly commend our Iudges for having at a known Tryal acquainted the Iury that they are carefully to weigh the Credibility of Witnesses Pardoned for Perjury and did learnedly shew out of the Canonists and Schoolmen that the Pope himself with the plenitude of his pretended Monarchical Power cannot by his Pardon wash away the infamia facti and thereby did sufficiently rescue my self and other Honest Men from the foul Hands of Infamous Witnesses And that one Notion of yours though softly insinuated and with the Gentleness of a Philosopher that a Man Pardoned for Infamy is to be allowed as a Credible Witness only after it hath been found that he hath acquired anhabit of Virtue by the Series of many Actions in the following part of his Life no Man being supposed able in a desultory way to leap out of a rooted habit of Vice into an Heroical Habit of Virtue and so è contrà was in effect a Thunderclap against the Testimony of the Infamous Person who Slandered me by his Affidavit and which too might serve to Deter all Infamous Persons in that Conjuncture from daring to try to run Men of probity down with the noise of Shamme And your afterwards rendring such Persons capable of being Accusers in the point of Treason and even as Hereticks are allowable by the Canonists to accuse a Pope of Heresy was enough pleasing to me As were likewise the Curious and Soft strokes of your Rhetorick and Reason in the following Page when on the grounds of the dark Colours of such Persons in general who cheated their Countrymen by Retail and who had long acted only Devils parts on the Stage of the World and been Malefactors you lay the bright ones of saving their Country by Whole-Sale and being Benefactors c. and whereby as I may say you have in effect gilded the Pillory for them and have added to the number of the Spectators of their shame and by those soft strokes provided for the Deletion of that Government of the Witnesses better than the most bold touches could then have done That Empire of theirs which you then weighed hath been since naturally destroyed And your having mentioned such having long acted the Parts of Devils brings into my mind what I somewhere met with Cited out of Melchior Adam's Livâ—s of the German Divines and with which I shall here Divert you as you have me with some apposit pleasant passages in your Letter Namely that Bucholeer said by way of Counsel to one of his Friends going to live at Court Fidem Diabolorum tibi commendo c. and take heed how you believe Men's promises there otherwise than warily and with fear Your weighty Notion of the Incredibility of any things sworn being to be much regarded in the Depositions of the most Credible Persons inclined me to a necessary Caution and Fear as to the Truth of those Oaths assertory when both Incredible Persons Swearing and Incredible things Sworn were in the Case I was therefore without any fear as I may say an Athanasius against the World of our three Estates when I did as you mention publickly give my Vote that there was no such IRISH PLOT as was Sworn by the Witnesses And what my Sense was of any Irish or English Papists PLOT I shall not here take occasion to express but yet as to some persons Convicted of the Popish Plot in England upon the Oaths of Witnesses who appeared in the Eye of the Law then probi legales homines I was so fearful of the Defects of some Witnesses and their sayings that I being then Lord Privy Seal interceded as earnestly as I could with the King my Master to grant his Pardon particularly in the Case of Mr. Langhorne and the Titular Arch-Bishop Plunkett and was as Active as any in the House of Lords in Exploding the Infamous Accusation of the most Vertuous then Queen Consort And though in the unfortunate Lord Staffords Case I going Secundum allegata probata I gave my Judgment as I did yet his late Majesty did publicly acknowledge that I was an Importunate Solicitor with him for his Lordships Pardon as well as for the Pardon of Langhorne and Plunkett above mentioned And you have done me but Iustice in mentioning that I interceded with his late Majesty for the Releasing of all Lay and Clerical Papists whatsoever out of the Prisons who were not charged with the Popish Plot And which I moved to his Majesty in the warmest time of the late Hot Conjuncture I was always of your Mind in what you mention that 't is easier to give our Account to God for Mercy than Iustice and do more thank you for the Representing my Habitual and Natural Inclination to do all the good I can to all Mankind and to make every miserable Man I know and cannot help yet sure of my Compassion than for your having ventured by your kind Opinion to Multiply or Magnifie any intellectual Talents in me I easily foresaw at that time that my then shewing the Humanity of
diligenza con amore con fortuna is what I find in your page 217 and 218. For 't is there that in your great picture of His Late Majesty as an Agonist and laying the Crown of Righteousness before him eo nomine and as Contending for the Succession You have interweaved the picture of your own Loyalty and Contention for it with such bold Touches as I shall not name but refer the Reader to them which it was pitty but your Index had done with a hand in the Margent There is no doubt but the very Curiosity of the Calculations in your Discourse would have brought it into the late Kings Cabinet and to his perusal had he lived till its Publication and your great Majestick Insinuations of perswasive Arguemnt there brought apparently wâ—th a Design to fortifie his great Mind against any possible further Batteries from Members of any of the three Estates to occasion his consenting to the Exclusion must necessarily have been soon perceiv'd by so quick an Apprehension as his Majesties and could not but have made deep impressions on him for the continuance in his former purpose And I will hereupon say that if any Loyal Roman-Catholick would not on the Account of what you have said in those two pages absolve you from his severe Censuring of the warmest passages against Popery in your whole Discourse he would injure his own Judgment And the Truth is Arch-Bishop Hutton's minding Queen Elizabeth so boldly from the Pulpit though yet with a Salvo to the Rules of Modesty and Decorum of what in Justice concerned her as to K. Iames's Succession which you have mentioned and which was by her so well taken was not a harder Task to be performed than what you presented to the consideration of his Late Majesty from the Press in the Affair of his preserving the Lineal Succession of his present Majesty As it is natural to Men on the sight of any Combatants or Wrestlers whom they had never before seen to wish better to the one than the other and to have their Fancy's by the Current of Nature constantly carryed along to favour the Fortunes of this or that Contender whom yet they never saw so I have during the course of our long acquaintance observed in you on all occasions a natural and constant tenderness in your Wishes of Happiness and good Success to his present Majesty when Duke of York And had not you on grounds of Nature and so like a Philosopher expressed the same and from the Knowledg of things in particular founded your Conjectural measures of Englands future Happy State if under his Government but had only presaged well of his Reign in general one might have thought that your natural Affection and Honour for his Person might have byassed you that way as a praedicter rather than the natural knowledge of things especially considering what you have well hinted that the very praediction of things is often a Natural cause in some degree of Men's being Animated to bring them to effect And indeed I receiving many of your printed Sheets during our late Fermentation when so many Writers seemed Associated in the praediction of the worst of Events under a Popish Successor was the more pleased to find one Man that was not like a dead fish carryed down with the stream of the Times as to the point of ill boding to the publick and the strength of whose fancy mixt with his great Reason and Judgment might be able to help to turn that stream And God be thanked that by his Majesties coming to inherit the Throne of his Ancestors with almost as equal Peace and Ioy of the People as his Royal Brother was Restored to the same and for your Description of the Figure I made in which latter or to speak more properly of my Duty I discharged therein I return you my Just Acknowledgments and by his so early and voluntary Gracious Declaration of his defending the C. of E. and the Civil Government as by Law Established and so publickly owning the Loyalty of the Principles of that Church and by his continuance of the prosperity of that Church and the Peace and Prosperity of the Kingdom while the whole Creation as I may say groans under the pressure of some of our Protestant Brethren abroad you have hitherto appeared so much a True Praedicter as you have I am likewise glad hereby that another Learned Person of our Church I mean Dr. Thomas Sprat the Lord Bishop of Rochester taking his view of the Future State of England in his History of the Royal Society and there saying as you have Cited it that we may safely conclude that what ever vicissitude shall happen about Religion in our time it will probably be neither to the advantage of implicit Faith nor of Enthusiasm has hitherto appear'd so fortunate in that praediction God be thanked that such as in the late Conjuncture troubled us with the being Lachrymists in another and the imagin'd nubecula est c. as to persecution have had some cause to be ashamed of their Fears And that you have hitherto had no more cause to be ashamed of praedicting Englands future pacifick State though yet we have had a * Monmouths Rebellion since But as to that it may be properly said that that persecution against the Throne nubecula fuit transivit We have had presently after the Kings coming to the Throne a little Cloud of Calumny cast on the Reputations of four of the most Eminent Divines of our Metropolis by some of their fellow Subiects supposed Roman Catholicks but it soon passed off And God brought forth their Righteousness as the Light and their Iudgment as the Noon-Day And the thing scarce deserves to be remembred that after they had thus misrepresented four such Protestant Divines with so much falshood some others of those published a Book called The Papist Misrepresented and Represented and which is lately answer'd with that Candour and Strength of Reason that ought to be in Theological Writings and wherein as the Lord Falkeland who was then Secretary was wont to say it was as absurd to mingle angry reviling expressions as to do so in a Love-Letter There was a despicable Childish Pamphlet and Writ with too much petulant insolence called An Address from the Church of England to both Houses of Parliament and which was by many of the Fathers of that Church held not worth the taking notice of And because it is very Ridiculous for any now to think to Re-Baptize the present Church of England with the Name of ROMAN Catholick I have here thought fit in pursuance of what you mentioned in p. 70. to let you and others have a Copy of the Rescript or Iudgment of the Vniversity of Oxford to Henry the 8 th whereby the Bishop of Rome was pronounced to have no more power here by the Word of God than any other Foreign Bishop I Judge that that Old Book of Dr. Iames's you refer to is
called A Manuduction or Introduction unto Divinity containing a Confutation of Papists by Papists c. by Tho. James Doctor of Divinity late fellow of New-Colledge in Oxford and Sub Dean of the Cathedral Church of Wells printed at Oxford 1625. The Book is full of great Learning and Dedicated to the then Lord Keeper Bishop of Lincoln And there under his third proposition viz. the King is not Subject to any Foreign Iurisdiction he tells us in p. 40. that K. Henry the 8th being at Variance with the Pope a Parliament was called within two years and a Motion was made therein that the King should be declared Head of the Church But his Majesty refused till he had Advised with his Universities of that point And whilst the Parliament Sate God in whose Hand the Hearts of Princes are so disposing it the King reflecting belike on Wickliffs former Articles directing his Letters to the University of Ox. about Electing the Bp. of Lincoln into the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford in the room of Arch-Bishop Warham lately Deceased After the Accomplishment whereof saith the King our Pleasure and Commandment is that ye as shall beseem Men of Vertue and profound literature diligently intreating examining and discussing a certain question sent from us to you concerning the Power and Primacy of the Bishop of Rome send again to us in writing under your common Seal with convenient Speed and Celerity your mind Sentence and assertion of the Question according to the mere and sincere Truth of the same willing you to give Credence to our Trusty and Well-beloved this bringer your Commissary As well touching our further pleasure in the premisses as for other matters c. Given under our Signet at our Mannor of Greenwich the 18 th Day of May. 'T is there said in the Margent Ex Registro Act. in archivis Academiae Oxon. Ad Ann. Dom. 1534. p. 127 c. The Doctor then thus goeth on Upon the Receipt of these Letters the University at that time for ought we know consisting all of Papists being assembled in Convocation Decreed as followeth That for the Examination Determination and Decision of this question sent unto them to be Discuss'd from the Kings Majesty whether the Bishop of Rome had any greater Jurisdiction Collated upon him from God in the Holy Scripture than any other Foraign Bishop that there should be Deputed thirty Divines Doctors and Batchelors of Divinity to whose Sentence Assertion or Determination or the greater part of them the Common Seal of the University in the Name thereof should be annexed And then sent up to his Majesty And the 27 th of June in the year of our Saviour 1534. this Instrument following was made and sent up Sealed with the Common Seal of the University The Instrument it self is in Latin but is in English thus To all the Sons of our Mother the Church to whom these present Letters shall come Iohn by the Grace of God Chancellour of the Famous University of Oxon and the whole Assembly of Doctors and Masters Regents and not Regents in the same greeting Whereas our most Noble and Mighty Prince and Lord Hen. the 8 th by the Grace of God of England and France King Defender of the Faith and Lord of Ireland upon the continual Requests and Complaints of his Subjects Exhibited unto him in Parliament against the intolerable exactions of Foreign Jurisdictions and upon divers Controversies had and moved about the Jurisdiction and Power of the Bishop of Rome and for other divers and urgent Causes against the said Bishop then and there expounded and declared was sent unto and humbly desired that he would provide in time some fit Remedy and satisfie the Complaint of his dear Subjects He as a most prudent Solomon minding the good of his Subjects over whom God hath placed him and deeply pondering with himself how he might make good and wholsom Laws for the Government of his Common-Wealth and above all things taking care that nothing be there resolved upon against the Holy Scriptures which he is and ever will be ready to Defend with Hazard of his Dearest Blood out of his deep Wisdom and after great pains taken hereabouts hath Transmitted and sent unto his University of Oxon a certain question to be Disputed viz. whether the Bishop of Rome hath any greater Jurisdiction granted to him from God in the Holy Scriptures to be exercised and used in this Kingdom than any other Foraign Bishop and hath commanded us that disputing the question after a diligent and mature Deliberation and Examination of the premisses we should certifie his Majesty under the Common Seal of our University what is the true meaning of the Scriptures in that behalf according to our Judgments and Apprehensions We therefore the Chancellor Doctors and Masters above Recited daily and often remembring and altogether weighing with our selves how good and godly a thing it is and Congrous to our Profession befitting our Submissions Obediences and Charities to foreshew the way of Truth and Righteousness to as many as desire to tread in her steps and with a good sure and quiet Conscience to Anchor themselves upon Gods Word We could not but endeavour our selves with all the possible care that we could devise to satisfie so Just and Reasonable a Request of so great a Prince who next under God is our most Happy and Supream Moderator and Governor Taking therefore the said question into our Considerations with all Humble Devotion and due Reverence as becometh us and Assembling our Divines together from all parts taking time enough and many days space to Deliberate thereof diligently religiously and in the fear of God with zealous and upright Minds first searching and searching again the Book of God and the best Interpreters thereupon disputing the said questions Solemnly and Publickly in our Schools have in the end unanimously and with joynt consent resolved upon the Conclusion that is to say That the Bishop of Rome hath no greater Jurisdiction given unto him in Scripture than any other Bishop in this Kingdom of England Which our Assertion Sentence or Determination so upon deliberation maturely and throughly discussed and according to the Tenor of the Statutes and Ordinances of this our University concluded upon publickly in the Name of the whole University we do pronounce and testifie to be sure certain and consonant to the Holy Scripture In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be written Sealed and ratified by the Seal of our University Given in our Assembly House the 27 th of the Month of Iune in the year of Christ 1534. I took care formerly to satisfie the Curious by my taking a Copy of this Rescript out of the Records in the Registry of the Vniversity of Oxford and which I not being able at present to find among my Papers have sent you this English Translation of it as Printed in that Book of Dr. Iames's That Book of his any one may see in the Catalogue
Canon Law giving the Pope a power to receive Appeals from the Dominions of Soveraign Princes and States Mastertius in his Book de justitiâ Legum Romanarum in the Summaries of his 20 th Chapter sets it down That 1. Ridetur Pontifex ab ipsâ Romanâ Curiâ 2. Credentes Constitutioni Pontificis a Regibus liberisque populis laesae Majestatis damnantur 3. Iterum dissentit a Pontifice Romana Curia 4. Mira pontificis caecitas notatur 5. Intellectus L. à proconsulibus 19. Cod de appellat 6. Ius Canonicum malè damnat in expensas tantum appellantem perperam Under which he saith Infelix fuit Romanus Praesul in Cap. 7. Cap. de priore 31. Cap. Ad audientiam 34. Cap. dilecti 52. Ext. de appellat quibus constituit adversus L. Imper. in princip D. de appellat licere pulsatae parti relictis medijs pontificalem cognitionem invocare nam ipsa Romana Curia id Iuris tanquam omnem bonum ordinem invertens ex merâ dissentiendi libidine promanans explosit neque procedit Canonistarum glossema quo videtur id constituisse pontifex ob specialem suae sedis praerogativam quâ fidelium omnium competens est Iudex Cap. si duobus 7. ibi D. D. ext de appellat Concil Trident. sess 24. Cap. 20. de reformat Nam cum id falsum sit totius Christiani Orbis Reges liberique populi laesae Majestatis reos agunt qui vel immediatè vel ab ipsorum sententiâ ad pontificem praesumunt appellare Eodem candore defert appellationi rei minimae iterum reluctante Romanâ Curiâ requirente ut litis aestimatio sit ut minimum coronatorum decem Praesec in praxi Episcop p. 2. Cap. 4. Art 15. N. 8. Mechlinensi 50. Flor. D. Zypaeus de Iure Pontif. novo tit de appellat N. 8. Mihi videtur quod pontifex de industria se voluerit risui propinare nam hic defert appellationi rei minimae suprà relictis mediis implorationi Pontificialis auditorij evocando Belgam aut Anglum in Causâ aliquorum obolorum ad urbem Romanam experiundi sui Iuris gratiâ But there is another use we may now well make of the publication of this Rescript of the Vniversity of Oxon and that is to observe how awkwardly and unseasonably the Author of The Papist Misrepresented and Represented hath thought fit to Represent the Pope as now deducing a Claim to a Higher Power here by the Word of God than what our Roman-Catholick Universities allowed him in Henry the 8 th's time For in his 18 th Chapter he tells us That the Papist believes that there is a Pastor Governor and Head of Christs Church under Christ to wit the Pope or Bishop of Rome who is the Successor of St. Peter to whom Christ committed the Care of his Flock c. and now believing the Pope to enjoy his Dignity he looks on himself obliged to shew him the Respect Submission and Obedience which is due to his place And afterward in this manner is he ready to behave himself towards his CHIEF PASTOR with all Reverence and Submission never scrupling to receive his Decrees and Definitions such as are issued forth by his Authority with all their due Circumstances and according to Law in the concern of the whole Flock His Answerer doth well reply to him in that point and with a Candour suitable to the Pacifick State of the Realm you have predicted under any Prince of the Roman-Catholick Communion say viz. How doth it appear that Christ ever made St. Peter Head of the Church or committed his Flock to him in contradistinction to the Rest of the Apostles This is so far from being evident by Scripture that the Learned Men of their Church are ashamed of the places commonly produced for it c. And afterward saith ' We need not insist on the Proof of this since the late mentioned Authors of the Roman Communion have taken so great pains not only to prove the Popes Supremacy to be an Encroachment and Usurpation in the Church but that the laying it aside is necessary to the Peace and Unity of it And until the Divine Institution of the Papal Supremacy be proved it is to no purpose to debate what manner of Assistance is promised to the Pope in his Decrees It was I think an undertaking that none but a very Sanguine Man could suppose fesable to engage us to believe in this Age that the Pope was by Divine Right Head of our Church under Christ. I say in this Age so generally Learned and when a Layman furnished but with an ordinary Library can shew that the Churches of the Brittish Islands England Scotland and Ireland as my Lord Primate Bramhal shews in Chap. 5. of his Iust Vindication of the Church of England by the Constitution of the Apostles and by the Solemn Sentence of the Catholick Church are exempted from all Foreign Iurisdiction and that if it be objected that the Bishop of Rome was ever our Patriarch that all Patriarchal Jurisdiction is of Human Institution and by the Statute of 35 C. 1. it was declared that the Holy Church of England was founded in the State of PRELACY not of Papacy within the Realm of Eng. not without it by the Kings and Peers thereof not by the Popes and when in the time of our late Civil Wars the Presbyterian and Independent Divines had by their Claims of Ius Divinum for their Models of Church-Government so much exercised the understanding of the People in general that at the time of his late Majesties Restoration restoring to our Church the best Constituted Government in the World many of our Virtuosi and Latitudinarians could not be brought expresly to own its excellence on an Universal Ius Divinum praeceptivum and would say that in any Church Government that by Divine Right would bind all Churches there must be not only praxis but institutio apostolica The Pryers into the Rabbinical Learning of the Iews have not been forced more to observe their Criticising on the Divinity of the Fire which burn'd the Sacrifices on the Brazen Altar as coming from Heaven both when the Tabernacle was erected and when the Temple was built and making the fire in the first Temple to be Divino-Divinus altogether Holy and the fire in the second Temple to be Divino-Humanus Human Holy as being kindled as our fire though still kept in as the fire of the first Temple was and the third fire that Nadab and Abihu offered to be Humanus and likewise called by them alienus as strange fire then the Readers of the late Controvertists of the Ius Divinum of several Forms of Church-Government among us have been forced to take notice of their nicety in distinguishing it And now after the Bishop of Rome had before Henry the 8 th's time made the figure of the fire Divino Humanus and whose Authority was then Extinguished for so the Style runs of the Act of
of his History tells us that at that time i. e. An. 1588. Magno Caloris aestu contentio de Tridentinâ Synodo toties agitata denuô renovata est and how stoutly the promulgation of it was opposed And there is the Work of another French Historian that may be here referred to viz. Historiarum Galliae ab excessu Hen. 4. Libri 18. Authore G. B. Gramondo in Sacro Regis Consistorio Senatore in Parliamento Tolosano Praeside Tolosae 1643. and where in p 57. the Author tells us that in the year 1615. the year in which Cressy out of Cabassutius says the Clergy received the Trent Council Proposita à Clero Concilij Tridentini promulgatio molliendae invidiae adjecta est haec clausula sine praejudicio Coronae Regiae Libertatum Gallicanae Ecclesiae c. and that Cardinal Peron spoke Elegantly and Learnedly for it but that after long debate about the Reception of that Council especially between the clergy and the 3 d. Estate the issue was that the third Estate carryed it against the Clergy and the Reception and Promulgation of the Trent Council was absolutely rejected and p. 69. PRAEVALVITQVE CLERO POPVLVS Where it is evident 1. That what Cabassutius in his Notitia Conciliorum p. 720. names only a Convention of the Clergy in that year 1615. as if that had been all was in Truth Conventus trium Regni Ordinum a Convention of the three Estates the greatest and Supream Convention of France and as Gramondus saith p. 58. 2 dly That whereas Cabassutius says the Trent Council was received in that General Convention of the Gallican Clergy De Marca saith and evidently proves that no such Convention of the Gallican Clergy had any Authority to Receive or Promulgate the Trent Council or any other Approve it they might but receive it they could not But it was so far from being recieved by the Convention of the French clergy that it was absolutely rejected by the Supream Convention of the three Estates and that after a long and free Debate It is true and most Notorious that not only in France but in England heretofore many of the Papal Clergy were generally more addicted to advance the Papal Power than the Just Prerogatives of their own Kings or the Rights of the Laity Because as by the Clergy's help and assistance the Papacy grew greater their Jurisdiction and Revenues were thereby encreased And thus Anselme and Becket being zealous for the Pope and Disobedient to their King found their account in the Pope's Assisting and Favouring them with his Power while they lived and Canonizing them and making them what their Loyalty could not while they lived Saints after their Death But as our Magnanimous Roman Catholick Princes did then bridle the Papal Power so likewise those of France have done and even where Cabassutius saith that the Trent Council was received in the year 1615. à Clero Gallicano sub Ludovico 13. he doth not say that the King received it and thus De Marca tells us in his De Concordiâ Sacerd. Imperij Lib. 2. Cap. 17. S. 7. p. 33. Decreta Conciliorum legis vim in Gallià non habent nisi recepta à Clero Regiâ Authoritate munita But De Marca had in that Book informed us that in the time the Trent Council Sate when it evidently appeared by the Decrees of that Councel the Liberty of the Gallican Church was in quamplurimis apitibus destroyed the Embassadors of Henry the 2 d. and Charles the 9 th left the Synod being called home by their Kings And had complain'd in that Council that the Liberty of the Gallican Church Regia dignitas erant imminutae and their recesse from and leaving the Council was a good reason as De Marca there proves non admittendae Synodi i. e. of their not receiving that Council Father Paul likewise in his History of that Council saith that the French Bishops left it on the same account But moreover De Marca in the same place tells us that the whole Clergy of France did most frequently in their Synods Petition their Kings that they would Publish and Recieve the Trent Council excepting those things which were repugnant to the Liberty of the Gallican Church and that they would never grant their Petition nor Publish or Recieve the Trent Council though with that Exception His words are Totius Cleri Gallicani Conventus Concilij Tridentini promulgationem à Regibus nostris supplicibus libellis postulaverit eâ lege ut ea Capita exciperent quae libertatibus Ecclesiae adversarentur Quorum desiderijs Principes toto hoc negotio saepe in Consilium prudentissimorum relato se accommodare non potuerunt From whence it is evident if that great Arch-Bishop says true that the Kings of France would never recieve any of the Trent Council no not that part of it which was not against the Liberty of their Church or their Kings Regalities But after all this I must not forbear to observe how here it appears that the Learned De Marca doth contradict himself For in the same page and Columne viz. p. 133. Col. 1. he saith that the Definitions of the Council of Trent concerning Faith were admitted in France by a publick Edict Anno 1579. which must be in the 6th year of Henry the 3 d. of France and yet he tells us in this same page and Columne that although the whole Clergy of France did most frequently Petition their Kings to Promulgate and admit only that part of the Trent Council which was not against the Liberties of the Gallican Church yet their Kings would never admit it If these words of his mean any thing I think they must mean the Definitions of Faith which De Marca saith were recieved by the Edict 1579. But if their Kings would never admit any of it though the whole Clergy did Petition them to do it then was it not admitted by any Publick Edict in the year 1579. I remember the Learned Author of the Nouvelles de la Republique des letteres for the Month of March 1685. there mentioning the Histoire critique du Vieux Testament par le P. Richard Simon Prêtre de la Congregation de l' Oratoire of the New Edition at Rotterdam that year saith that that New Edition contains a Letter of a Protestant Doctor who procured the 5 th Edition of that Critical History and further quotes that Protestant Minister for giving an Answer to the ordinary Distinction viz. that the Council of Trent hath been recieved in France in what concerns Faith but not in matters of Discipline and he speaks of an Assembly of the Clergy held which he saith Deliberated how to present a Petition to the King that that Council might be recieved as to what concerns Faith only and that whatever deliberation the Prelates made there upon the Court would not grant their Request And if that Council saith he hath been received let them produce us the publication of it
AGREED VNTO 6th That that which was made by the Clergy for the Publication of the Council of Trent without the Authority of the King be Repaired and Amended and all such things formerly done in the Estate be Reformed AGREED VNTO Yet if any one wants further Confirmation from Authorities about the Trent Council not having been received in France I may send him to the Synopsis of â—ouncils Writ by Dr. Prideaux sometime Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and afterward Bishop of Worcester where the Bishop Writing Chap. 5. and p. 29. of the Trent Council saith This Council cryed up by so many Acclamations and so Solemnly Confirmed by the Seal of of the Fisher the French admitted not But after all this said of the Council of Trent's not having been Published and Received in France if either by the Government or Clergy or Laity there any of the Religionary or Doctrinal points of Faith contained in that Council are inwardly believed and openly professed I leave them and all Mankind to the Exercise of the Liberty wherewith christ hath made them free and will suppose that if after all the Old Protestations of the Government against that Council Roman-Catholicks in France having found the Doctrinal Points of their Faith that were Stated and Determined by former General Councils to be more fully and clearly made out in the Tridentine one did prosess the belief of the same and did refer to that Council when they would give an exteriour Account or Reason of their Faith and did think themselves obliged for the supporting the Vnity of the Roman-Catholick Church to profess the same Doctrinal Points with these Countries where that Council had been received and published I will make this Charitable Construction that they did and do intend no more Diminution of the Regal Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church thereby than the Nations of Europe did intend a Diminution of their Freedom by receiving any part of the Civil Law of Rome and still continuing the Use and Authority of the same in their Commerce and in the Interpretation of their publick pactions and of the Ius gentium Nor than the Romans did intend to lessen the Rights of their Government by taking their Law of the twelve Tables from Athens nor their Maritime Law from Rhodes and no more than our Roman-Catholick Ancestors did intend a Subjugating of our Laws to the Popes Canon Law against several parts of which they openly protested by the receiving of some other parts of it they thought agreeable to the good of Church and State or than the Government at present intends any Recognition of Foraign Power by any parts of the Civil or Canon Law being still incorporated in our Laws and continuing here to be a part of the Lex terrae QVOAD certain causes Ecclesiastical or Maritime And indeed it must be acknowledged to be for the Honour of the Trent Council that in France and some other Countries where it hath not been received and published its Doctrinal Definitions have yet got ground in the Belief of many Roman-Catholicks on the supposed Merits of the things themselves therein contained and as it hath been for the Reputation of some things in the Civil or Canon Law that on their being thought reasonable our Laws have Adopted them as their own But as with all due Tenderness to all my fellow Christians in France or elsewhere whether Lay or Clerical I forbear to Censure or Reproach them in my most Secret Thoughts for Embracing the Belief of any such Tenets as may be called Religionary though taken up from Trent by them after they have used all the due means for the finding out Truth in the same and do most earnestly pray that God who hath been pleased in Scripture to express his Divine Philanthrophy by the Discreet Love of a Father and the Tender Love of a Mother would bestow the same Blessings on them that I wish for my self and my most near and dear Relations so I should have been glad to have found the like Spirit of Charity Breathing in the Acts of the French clergy with Relation to their Christian Brethren differing from them in points Religionary instead of pronouncing their breach made with them to be founded only on Calumnies after the Pastoral Advertisement of that Clergy to them in the year 1682 and instead of affording them their Compassion for not being able in the three following Years to receive that Faith of that Trent Council which I account from the year 1564. the time of its Confirmation to this Day not to have been Published or Received in that Kingdom and whose Publication may be said to be there yet but as it were in abbeyance and instead of further charging them as Calumniators because of the things Writ against the Romanists by our Whitaker and Downham a hardship I have observed complain'd of in some late Writings of the French Protestants But the great Royal goodness of our Gracious King and the fervent Zeal and Charity of the present Divines of England have made them an amends for what they suffered on the account of those our former great Clergy-Men Yet must it be acknowledged that in one point that Clergy in their Petition to the King doth the Huguenots this Justice as to say the pretended Reformed how great so-ever their Blindness is are not arrived to that height of Folly as to maintain their lawful practice of the Crimes of Imputations and Calumny And I am glad that since the 2 d. of March 1679. so much occasion hath been given by the Popes Condemning the Tenets of the Iesuits about the Doctrine of CALVMNY and their Sicarious Principles for the not charging them on the Church of Rome as approved by it as formerly But on the account of the Horrid Calumnies against Fathers and Councils still continued in the Decrets of the Canon Law and forged with as much Falshood as any could have been by the French Clergy observed in the Case of the pretended Reform'd as I have particularly enough shewn in the Case of Cyprian I may well urge it as an Argumentumad hominem that neither the Pope nor French Clergy should have been Authors of too much Severity to those Reformed on the pretence of their Calumniating the Doctrine of their Church And have been careful not to charge on the Catholicitè as the Term is the Falshood of Gratian and the lachesse of the Popes that so long suffer'd so much Trompery in him to pass for Law And were I at Rome now while the Pope is so worthily busy'd in strengthening the preparations against the Turk in this Conjuncture would not divert him from the same by importuning him to make a better Canon Law for his Flock Nor do I charge on the Gallican Church or State what I have mentioned out of Boerius a President of Parliament there If they hoped by the publication of their Book in France to effect a Reconciliation of Churches there or the Translators of it
Aristophanes whom you had said you had found Cited for that Sense of the word at the end of Cloppenburg de Sacrificiis and who Citing Aristophanes his Comedy of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aves where the Birds threaten Iupiter with a Holy War shews that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was meant Avis Seminilega and that the Athenians thought St. Paul would despoil the Altars of the Gods of the Provisions of their Offerings And in Fine you said that such various readings of that word would certainly meet in any ones being thought a Babler by those of the Religion Established if he would interlope in their Maintenance I doubt not but you have heard of the late Candidate Beyond-Sea for the Office of the Reconciler of Churches I mean the Author of TVBA PACIS ad universas Dissidentes in Occidente Ecclesias seu Discursus Theologicus de unione Ecclesiarum Romanae Protestantium nec non amicâ Compositione Controversiarum sidei inter hosce Caetus per Matheum Praetorium Memela Prussum Printed at Collen An. 1684. and which that Author Dedicates to the Emperor and to the Kings of Poland France England Denmark Sweden severally and to the Electors and other Princes of the Empire And just before he blows his Trumpet he warne thus of the two Old Pronouns that have so long troubled the World viz. Meum and Tuum and which will always continue so to do till all Men shall be of St. Francis his mind whom when a Fryar told that he came à cellâ tuâ St. Francis when he heard the word tuâ said he would Lodge no more there The Author tells us in his 10. Chapter Tentavit quidem Compositionem Vir ob studium pacis a plurimis principibus viris Longè Laudatus Georgius Cassander sed non fausto Successu Contradicentibus partim Romanis partim protestantibus and tells us there of the like Event that Marcus Antonius de Dominis and his Work for that purpose had But our Author had the Fortune to Catch a Tartar of an Objection in the last Paragraph of his Book save one viz. At dicet aliquis si unio nostrarum Ecclesiarum Cum Romanâ Ecclesiâ sieret Romanus Pontifex jus suum repeteret tot bona olim Eccliastica quae jam per pacta transacta in manus serenissimorum principum Cessere quae nunquam principes in aerarij sui damnum adimi sibi patientur And to this Objection he returneth this Answer viz. Respondetur Omninò aequum est Ius suum Cuique tribuere nec Romano Pontifici illud derogandum quod ipsi legitimè Competit Bona Ecclesiastica quae olim fuerunt nunc autem aerario principum adscripta jure gladij pactorum acquisita NON PVTAMVS Romanum Ponti ficem pro suâ quâ pollet prudentiâ repetiturum Frui Concedet ijs ad quaâ— admissi sunt possessionibus Nihil ijs vel decedere vel adimi cupiet This the good Man in his Embassy Speech to the World as its Reconciler tells us of this Pope but without shewing his Credentials either from the Pope or any one else And I believe on the account of what you have shewn of the Munster-Treaty the Princes and Electors of the Empire to whom he hath Dedicated his Book will not fear this Popes being either able or willing to give them any disturbance in their Church-Lands Nor need any of us in England more fear the Popes being able or willing to hurt our possessions of the Church-Lands We are sufficiently shewn it out of Mores Reports f. 1.282 that the Popes Bulls giving Monasteries to Wolsy with the consent of the King and the Surrender of the Priors to Wolsy would not serve the turn and that nothing but an Act of Parliament would alter the Property You have here an instance of our present Foraign Reconcilers of Churches being very poor Middle Region Men in Comparison of Cassander and Antonius de Dominis and others as our late little Reconcilers likewise have been Compared with the unfortunate ones of the Old Conjuncture The question of what will this Babler say is properly applicable to them from all Parties But one thing I cannot but here observe to you that as I was very well pleased with your Design that you Communicated to me after you had begun this long VOYAGE of your THOVGHTS as I may call it and writ the former part of your Discourse namely that because in your occasional Conversation with People of all sorts you have found that Mens Fancies were as you said Nail'd to POPERY and their Tongues Ty'd up as to any thing but POPERY and that they could not go beyond the Tedder of that in their Discourse and that POPERY's Monopolizing so much of their Discourse had been one of its VSVRPATIONS you intended to try to divert them from it and make them pass ad autres by laying before them such various Matters of Calculation relating to their own Country and many places of Christendom as might give them somewhat beside POPERY and PLOTS to think and speak of in Company So I am much better pleased with your Performance of that your Curious Enterprize and do think that your Book by containing in it so many MISCELLANEA must eo nomine prove highly useful to our English World in this Conjuncture It here occurs to me to observe to you that after an Erratum of the Press in Page 38. of your Discourse Namely where you referred to P. 325 in the Advocate of Conscience Liberty instead of Page 225 you make the last Letter of D'Ossats to be from Rome An. 1596 and I suppose you happened to do so by casting your Eye on the Old Date of the last Letter but one Printed in the Volume of his Letters in Folio of the Paris Edition An. 1625. and finding it to be An. 1596. But it came not into your Mind then to observe that the last of his Letters as they are Ranged in Order was the 199 th and in the End of Book 9 th and which was to Villeroy from Rome March the 6 th An. 1604 and in which Year he dy'd as you rightly refer to his Epitaph to shew But it seems after that last Letter in Book 9 th of the Paris Edition the Publisher saying that he had recovered some others of his Letters Prints them without respect to the Order of time and there makes the Date of the last Letter save one in the Volume to be in the Year 1596. as you have there done But however this Derogates not from the Iustice of your Animadversion in page 38. on the Roman-Catholick English Priest for making D' Ossat to have known the Gun-Powder Treason Plot to be a Sham one Eight Years before it was to be Executed For the Letter of D' Ossat that that Priest alledged to prove what I now mentioned was Dated as you justly say from Rome March 29 th An. 1596 and he never read the Letter that can find any thing of the Gun-Powder Treason in it I shall here take occasion to make my Excuse to the Reverend Divines of our Church assuring them that by adding Observations on the Writings of the Author of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented I intended not to Derogate from the Sufficiency of the Learning and Reason they have shewed in their Answers thereunto But the â—ruth is though as in our Parliaments frequently when â—ny have moved for some Additional Branch to be setâ—â—ed on the Revenue here afâ—er the Example of somewhat of the like Nature in France the Naming of France â—n the Case then for a Preâ—ident hath been observed â—o make many speak against the Vnseasonableness of the Motion who otherwise would not have done it so the writing of any thing that was contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England and after the Mode of the Bishop of Condom and the Acts of the French Clergy just at this time of Day was a thing that I could not but shew my Resentment against as very much unseasonable And moreover according to the saying that one ought not tâ— be Patient under charge of Hesie I may justifie the warmth of my Resentments against the Acts of the French Clergy charging some of ours both with Heresie and Calumny and bringing up our Whitaker and Downham there in the Van of the Calumniators under the first Article and our Raynolds under the Sixth I Remain SIR Your Affectionate Friend and Servant ANGLESEY FINIS