of his Majesties Kingdoms that the belief of Transubstantiation amongst English Irish and Scottish Catholicks is no more a Sign or an Argument of a Puritan Papist than it is at present amongst the French XII That we have no cause to wonder at the Protestants Jealousie of us when they see all the three several Tests hitherto made use of for trying the judgment or affection of Roman Catholicks in these Kingdoms in Relation to the Papal pretences of one side and the Royal rights of the other I mean the Oath of Supremacy first the Oath of Allegiance next and last of all that which I call the Loyal Formulary or the Irish Remonstrance of the year 1661 even all three one after another to have been with so much rashness and wilfulness and so much vehemency and obstinacy declined opposed traduced and rejected amongst them albeit no other Authority or power not even by the Oath of Supremacy (z) Art 37. of the Church of England And Admonition after the Injunctions of Queen ELIZABETH it self be attributed to the King save only Civil or that of the Sword nor any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical power be denied therein to the Pope save only that which the general Council of Ephesus (a) In the year 431. under Theodosius the Younger in the Case of the Cyprian Bishops and the next Oecumenical Synod of Chalcedon (b) In the year 451 Can. 28. under the good Emperour Martianus in the case of Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople and the two hundred and seventeen Bishops of Africk (c) In the year 419. whereof Saint Augustine was one both in their Canons and Letters too in the Case of Apiarius denyed unto the Roman Bishops of their time and albeit the Oath of Allegiance was of meer purpose framed only to distinguish 'twixt the Loyal and disloyal Catholicks or the honest and Loyal party of them from those of the Powder-Treason Principles and albeit the Remonstrance of 1661 was framed only at first by some well meaning discreet and learned Roman Catholicks of the English Nation and was now lately signed by so many and such persons of the Irish Nation as we have seen before and was so far from entrenching on the Catholick Faith or Canons or Truth or Justice in any point that saving all these it might have been much more home than it is though indeed as from well meaning honest men it be home enough nay and albeit neither of these two later Tests the Oath of Allegiance or the Irish Remonstrance promiseth to the King any other than meer Civil obedience and this obedience too in meer civil or temporal Affairs only according to the Laws of the Land nor denyes any canonical obedience to the Pope in either Spiritual or Ecclesiastical matters purely such nor indeed in any matter at all wherein the Canons of the Catholick Church impower his Holiness and wherein his Key does not manifestly err How much more may it provoke them to see the few Ecclesiastical approvers of the said Tests especially of either of these two last to have been therefore persecuted amongst and by the foresaid generality of British and Irish Catholicks yea to have been look'd upon as Outcasts Excommunicants Schismaticks Hereticks and what not And that excellent man that most loyal and learned English Monk Father Thomas Preston for having formerly both under his own name and that of Roger Widrington so incomparably defended the foresaid Oath of Allegiance to have been forced nay content and glad at last to shelter himself in a (d) In the Clink at London prison from the furious persecution of the Opposers And after him so lately again Father Peter Walsh of Saint Francis's Order only for having promoted the said Loyal Irish Formulary of 1661 and for having Subscribed it himself and refused to retract his Subscription to have been reduced to a far worse condition than Preston even that of a Bannito or an Out-lawed man by publick denunciation and affâ—xion of him as an excommunicate person to be shun'd by all former Acquaintance except a very few and to be left alone at last for the matter one single person to maintain the justice of that Formulary and of his own defence and cause and carriage all along and consequently to grapple with a numberless number of subtle and powerful and implacable Adversaries How much more to see so many Books of Roman Catholick Doctors Italian Spanish German Dutch Candian English of Bellarmine and Becan and Suarez and Singleton and Sculkenius and Tortus and Eudamon Johannes and Gretser and Parsons and Fitzherbert c to have been written printed and published against the foresaid Oath of Allegiance enacted by King James And amongst the generality of the Roman Catholick Readers so many practical Students to have been indoctrinated by those very Books or some of them Although Books in truth wholly composed of lying Sophistry i.e. of very false Doctrines in point of Religion and very treasonable and pernicious in point of subjection as it hath been sufficiently proved concerning all the above mentioned Doctors by the foresaid indefatigable Writer Thomas Preston who has not left his Antagonists either place or possibility of saying a word to his last Pieces wherewith he so incomparably baffled all their Answers Replies Rejoinders c. How much more after all this and even since his present Majesties Restauration to see so much wrath and rage against so innocent a Formulary of their own and of professing Allegiance in meer temporal things only So many forreign Censures of Divines and forreign Letters of Inter-Nuncio's and Cardinals to have been procured And so many forreign both Citations and Excommunications to have been issued forth against the Subscribers of it with professed design both to suppress it utterly and either to silence them eternally or to destroy them for subscribing it yea so many Missionaries to have been employed and Commissaries authorized and for a dead lift and when opportunity served at last in the year 1669 besides Provincials instituted and Vicars Apostolical made even so many Bishops and Archbishops on a sudden to have been created in Ireland by his Holiness for that end chiefly And all this strange and late procedure against so harmless a profession of Allegiance to have been hitherto look'd upon by the generality of British and Irish Catholicks I mean by such of them as knew thereof not only with indifferent eyes and thoughts but by the far greater part of them received with complacency and by all for ought appears submitted unto with a perfect resignation of their Souls to the good pleasure of his Holiness and his Ministers I say it is not to be imagined that all these matters concerning those three several Tests one after another should have been and happened thus even publickly before the Sun and to the full Knowledge not of Catholicks onely but of Protestants but it must of necessity give very much ground to the more considering persons
as Thomas of Canterbury but also to shew and lay down before hand such evidences out of the very self same Annals of Caesar Baronius as may hereafter and forasmuch as depends of History be most abundantly sufficient to justifie in all points my solutions of and answers to the said objection when I come to answer it in form and each of the promisses apart therefore now I say and First you are to observe out of Baronius tom 12. ad an Christi 1162. and from that year all along to his year of Christ 1173. and out also of Rogerus Hovedenus and Gulielmus Neubrigensis both good faithfull ancient and Catholick Historians of England the first of them being even contemporary to St. Thomas of Canterbury and the last if not contemporary yet I am sure in the very next degree of time as likewise out of Herebertus one of the Saints own Clerks and Willelmus Cantuariensis Ioannes Sarisberiensis and Alanus Abbot of Decche the foure compilers of that life of his which is in five several books in the Vatican and all four the Saints own Disciples in his life time as one of them to witt Ioannes Sarisberiensis was his Secretary out of all these contemporary uncorrupt unbyassed wittnesses at least unbyassed to favour me as well as out of Baronius himself who quotes them all you are to observe that upon the death of Theobaldus the 37. Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket then great Chancellour of England but formerly Archdeacon to the said Theobaldus for as Polydore Virgil sayes in Henrico Secundo l. XIII Hystor Anglic. it was the very same Theobaldus that of himself at first chose this Thomas Becket to be his own Archdeacon and soon after recommended him to King Henry the Second for the great Chancellourship of England being in a Council of the Bishops in England held at London an 1162. the King himself Henry the Second present and at the same Kings desire and instance chosen to supply and succeed Theobald in his then vacant See and as Herebertus writes after some reluctance and a protestation made to the King himself by him that if he were chosen by his Majesty he must oppose him thenceforth in the point of Ecclesiastical Liberty being nevertheless perswaded at last sayes Ioannes Sarisberiensis by Henricus Pisanus Cardinal SS Nerei Achillei and Legat there and then at London and in that Council for Alexander the Third who was himself at that time in France and in Monte Pessulano being I say by this Cardinal Legat and President of the said Council perswaded to acquiesce in the election made of him and having sent immediatly after to Alexanander for his Pallium and received it the same year of Christ 1163. that is at such time as Ecclesiastical Immunity was scrued too high by reason of the temporal usurpations of Gregory the VII on the Empire and other Kingdoms also and of the continuance of the same temporal usurpations by all or most or at least many of his Successors ever since the year of our Lord 1076. or thereabouts when Gregory began to lay about him so strangely until the Papacy of this Alexander the Third who was nothing less backward against Frederick the Emperour and IV. of that name then Gregory was against Henry the III. and at such time nevertheless wherein the Norman Kings of England one after an other continually William the Conqueror William Rufus Henry the First King Stephen and our present Henry the Second were mightily favoured or at least strangely connived at even in the very matter of investiture of Bishops Abbots and Priors even by those very Popes who trampled under foot the Empire and Emperours and other Kings also by occasion partly of the like investitures and partly of other quarrels and were favoured or connived at so by those Popes not onely because these Norman Kings of England were somewhat farre from Rome and in an Iland so remote and consequently more out of their reach then others were stubborn and had the pretence of a late conquest to continue in their own hands that of investiture whereby to assure themselves the better of the English nation but also because it was the fortune or prudence rather of those five Norman Kings one after an other to side constantly with those very Popes and acknowledg them as true Popes against so many Antipopes and Emperours too who raysed or who favoured such Antipopes moreover because the Popes thought it no wisdom to cut out too much work at once for themselves or to fall out with all Kings at the same time but to keep still in hand some of the little Serpents while the Roman See and Pontiffs were destroying others of them and especially until they had quite destroyed the great Dragon for so Innocent the IV. called the Emperour by the name of the great Dragon and other Kings by the name of little Serpents if Matthew Paris relate such matters truly Anonnullis affirmative dicebatur sayes this ancient contemporary Monk of St. Albans pag. 142. quod Dominus Papa sitienter super omnia desiderabat ipsum quem magnum Draconem vocabat pessumdare ut ipso suppeditato conculcato Reges Francorum Anglorum nec non alios Christianitatis Reges quos omnes regulos serpentes esse dicebat facilius exemplo dicti Frederici perterritos cenculcaret and pag. 740. relating what the same Innocentius Quartus said upon an occasion to one Martin his own Collector of Peter-pence and other exactions in England but thrown out of England for his said intollerable exactions Expedit sayes this very Pope himself ut componamus cum Principe vestro ut his Regulos conteraâ—â—ts recalcitrantes contrita enim vel pacificato Dracone cito serpentuli conculcabuntuâ—â—at such time as this when albeit in many other parts beyond the seas where the Popes had power enough Ecclesiastical liberty as they call'd it was right or wrong grown to a prodigious height even over the very Imperial Crown yet in England both it and other undoubted rights of the Church were on the other side too much often depressed and oppressed by those first Norman Kings and particularly were endeavoured to be so by Henry the Second himself more then by any perhaps of all his predecessours for he relyed partly on the Schysme which he saw then in the Roman Church devided twixt Alexander the Third and true Pope as chosen canonically by the farre greater number of Cardinals and Octavianus alias Victor the Antipope as chosen uncanonically and by an inconsiderable number though allowed of by the Emperour and partly on his own merits or great obligations put on the said Alexander as 1. that when forced to retire from Rome to France he was not onely acknowledged by him as he was likewise by Lewis King of France but also the said Lewis of France was for his sake and in his quarrel received by him in person leading a powerfull army and rescued from
contemporary English man though Latin Writer and who might therefore have known the truth and was most likely to have writ but what he thought was the truth especially in a matter of such consequence being he is reputed to be a sincere Historian and as such quoted often by Baronius himself tels us in his Annals that S. Thomas and the other Bishops had Pope Alexander's consent to swear in that form however Baronius deny it for this reason forsooth that Alexander being some time after this accoasted by S. Thomas when he fled out of England and presented with the heads of those were called the Royal customs did soundly check him for ever having upon any tearms sworn to observe them That after this Parliament or great Council of Clarendon was broke up and upon S. Thomas his departure from the Court there it happening sayes Baronius out of a certain Supplement annexed to the Acts of S. Thomas that he was grievously rebuked by his Cross-bearer as having by such his carriage and oath betrayed the libertyes of the Church the Saint immediatly and most deeply sigh'd repenting what he did therein and presently also dispatch'd an express to Alexander craving an absolution and purposing in the mean while to abstain from all both Pontifical and sacerdotal office and ministery and that to his letter the Pope return'd him an other full of comfort whereby also after commanding him to confess his sins to a discreet Priest he absolved him from the said oath That when the King had heard how the Archbishop fell off the second time and refused to sign and seal the agreement of Clarendon according as it was there also agreed that he should sign and seal it nay and that he refused to stand at all to his oath whether seal'd or not seal'd being much more bitterly exasperated then ever he sent Embassadours to Alexander and to desire particularly two things of him viz. 1. that the Legantine Power Apostolick used to be entrusted to the Archbishop of Canterbury should be given for the time to the Archbishop of York and that his own Holyness would be pleased to confirm the foresaid Royal customs That Alexander upon this embassy finding himself in streights on each side that is on the point either of alienating for ever from himself that Kings good affections to whom nevertheless he owed so much for benefits receaved formerly on of granting his desire to the prejudice of the Church or Church liberty thought fit to use this mean for saving all viz. to bestow that Legantine power on the Archbishop of York whereby to satisfie the King in some degree and yet to deny him the confirmation of those Royal customs that the Church might not suffer writing withall at the same time to the Archbishop of Canterbury our S. Thomas and exhorting him earnestly that by all means he should endeavour to observe and please the King always and in all things Salva honestate Ecclesiastici â—rdinâ— That in a conjuncture wherein by other letters of a later date this Pope Alexander had restrained so that Legantine power of the Archbishop of York that he should have no power at all over Thomas of Canterbury's person or Diocess or to exempt the Suffragans of Canterbury from obeying him still as their own proper Metropolitan in all Metropolitical rights thereby frustrated the Kings great design in desiring that Legation for York being this design was no other but to get Thomas canonically deposed wherein the King being therefore in earnest angry even with the Pope himself had rendered the said Legaâ—tine Commission useless to all other lesser purposes now that the Pope had so rendred it to the said great purpose that I say in this conjuncture Thomas of Canterbury with the rest of the Bishops being called by the King to Northampton to give aâ— account of the revenues of the vacant Churches which he had while he was Chancellour administred and being accordingly brought to a strict account of these revenews and after demanding the advice of the rest of the Bishops when he had heard most of them advising that either he should renounce and give up his Archbishoprick or obey the King in all things having desired time to consider till next day and having also early on that next day celebrated the Mass of St. Stephen the Protomartyr as preparing himself for martyrdom which on that very day he hoped to suffer having carryed secretly about himself the most Sacred Hoast according to ancient custom but publickly carrying in his own hands his own Archiepiscopal cross and going in this manner to the Palace he was both scorn'd and derided by his own Suffragan Bishops and was by them and by others also of the Kings Council and as they saâ—e in Council condemned by a sentence of deposition as a perjured man and one disloyal to the King because he refused to stand to his former promise and oath to observe the Royal customs That S. Thomas having there in presence pleaded his own cause and shewed that when he was against his own will drawn by the King to the Church or Archbishoprick of Canterbury he was at that very time of his election and promotion declared by the King to be freed of and absolved from all tyes of the Court and further declining the judgment as well of the King as of his Council and appealing to the Pope and declaring also that he did by no means quit or give up his own Archiepiscopal See he reserved the further and universal cognizance of his whole cause to the See Apostolick of Rome to which he there also and then summon'd his fellow Bishops for having chosen rather to obey men then God that presently departing Court but loaden with contumelies and reproaches of Courtiers he soon after fled or parted the Kingdom for Flanders and to an Abbey of Monks called S. Bertin's in the Citty of S. Omers whence writing to the Pope of all things done and of his Appeal and flight he obtained from his Holyness an abrogation of all such proceedings against him That on the other side while all his other lesser Adversaries in England decryed him as a fugitive the King above all being wonderfully enraged sent the Archbishop of York and other Bishops of England to Alexander to accuse Thomas and to desire his Holyness to send a Legat a Latere to England to judg of the cause depending twixt him and Thomas provided also he sent Thomas in person back to be judg'd in England That albeit these Episcopal Embassadours press'd this matter vehemently in the name of their King and even to threats of Schysme on his behalf yet the Pope thought not fit to deliver so innocent a man to such cruel Adversaries but rather that he should be expected as he was called to be judg'd by himself that is by his own Holyness in their presence and that they refusing this offer of the Pope or not content with this answer departed with much indignation
vniversae personae regni qui de Rege tenent in capite habent possessiones suas de dominico Regis sicut Baroniam inde respondent justitiis ministris Regis sequuntur faciunt omnes consuetudines regias rectitudines sicut ceteri Barones debent interesse judiciis curiae domini Regis cum Baronibus usque perveniatur in judicio ad diminutionem membrorum vel ad mortem 4. Si quisquam de Proceribus Regni diffortiaverit Archiepiscopo vel Episcopo vel Archidiacono de se vel de suis justitiam exhibere Rex debet justitiare si fortè aliquis disfortiaverit domino Regi rectitudinem suam Archiepiscopi vel Episcopi Archidiaconi debent eum justitiare ut domino Regi Satisfaciat 5. Catalla eorum qui sunt in Regis forisfacto non detineat Ecclesia vel â—â—meterium contra justitiam Regis quia ipsius Regis sunt sive in Ecclesiis sive extra fuerint inventa 6. Filii rusticorum non debent ordinari absque assensu domini de cujus terra nati dignoscentur Fourthly you are to observe out of the same Authors Baronius Spondanus c That notwithstanding the principal or grand quarrel was concerning these and those in all sixteen heads yet the more immediat motive of the Saints death was only his refusal of giving absolution from Ecclesiastical censures but upon a certain condition to some Bishops after the King was reconciled to him For to pass by at present all other matters happen'd in prosecution of the said great difference from the year 1164. wherein the Saint presented those heads to Pope Alexander and 1170. wherein being reconciled to the King in France and with his licence return'd to England he suffer'd at Canterbury and to say nothing at all here of the Kings excessive cruelty against the favourers of St. Thomas during those six years after of his exile nor of the Saints earnest prosecution of the grand quarrel and of his own part against the King abroad in the Papal Court both in France and Rome when that Court was removed to Rome in the interim nor of the first meeting design'd 'twixt the Pope himself and the King to determine the controversie but frustrated or rather impeded wholly because the King would not assent to the Saints being present nor of that other meeting which came after to be held about the same controversy twixt the same King of England Henry the second and King Lewis of France even the Saint himself too being admitted to be present nor of three or four solemn Embassies even along to Rome about the same matter from the same Henry and so many more of Bishops Archbishops and Cardinals part of them French and part Italian sent from Pope Alexander to Henry nor of the different judgments or affections of the same Cardinal Embassadours or Legats and how some complain'd they were corrupted by the Kings money nor of King Lewis of France though otherwise both a pious Prince and great favourer of Thomas his having been dissatisfied with our Saint's rigour at the conference with Henry wherein Lewis interceded for him to Henry nor of the said Lewis's favouring again mightily the Saint and in his quarrel undermining closely at Rome King Henry nor of the Legantine power for the Kingdom of England excepting only the Diocess of York committed by the Pope to our Saint notwithstanding his being still a banish'd man in France nor of the revocation or moderation and suppression for a time of that same power upon new applications made to Rome by Henry not also of the renewed confirmation after all this of Thomas in all the fulness of the same power extending even to the Kings own person and to the inderdiction of his whole Kingdom if it pleased Thomas nor of Thomas's condemning while yet he was in France eâ—iled the controverted laws especially and namely some chief heads of them by virtue of his said Legantine power excommunicating also all the advisers upholders observers c. of them and absolving moreover all the Bishops from the oath they took firmly to observe them nor of the excommunications he moreover pronounced nominatim as well against the Kings Embassadours to the Emperour Frederick as against several others in England nor of the other difference happened twixt him and the Archbishop of York with his associat Bishops who joyntly consecrated the young King at the old Kings or Fathers command and consecrated him so in the Diocess of Canterbury against the express inhibition sent them both by himself the ordinary of that Diocess and whose right or priviledg such consecration was and by Pope Alexander too nor of the excommunication also and other censures fulminated partly therefore against the said Archbishop and his consecratours the Bishops of London and Salisbury and fulminated even by the very self same Pope Alexander and partly for having sworn to maintain or observe the 16. controverted laws nor of the preparations made by Thomas to interdict by his own Legantine power both King and Kingdom nor of the peremptory day prefixed the King even also by the Pope himself and by some other extraordinary Legats sent him to agree with Thomas at his peril by the said day nor of the final and terrible threat indeed sent also by them to the King from the said Alexander to witt that if he would not restore Thomas immediatly and without any condition at all of observing the controverted laws His Holyness would deal with him as he had all ready done with Frederick that is bereave him by a judicial sentence of his Crown and Dignity rayse both his own people and forraigners against him c nor of the absolute reconciliation of Thomas by such threats to the King on the Feast of Mary Magdalen and his solemn admission then to his Majesty by the mediation of the said last extraordinary Legats the Archbishop of Roan and Bishop of Nivern and without any condition at all on S. Thomas's side nor of the King 's falling off immediatly in some things from his promise to the Legats by denying to restore to the Church some lands which Thomas claimed as its proper right nor lastly of the new threats of Interdict from Pope Alexander for not restoring these lands I say that to pass by at present and say nothing here of all these and some other particulars happen'd in the prosecution of the principal controversy twixt the said King Henry and S. Thomas from the year 1164. until 1170 it is manifest even also out of Barâ—nius himself that after the King had newly promised Thomas to restore those lands when he I mean the King should be in person return'd from Normandy to England and that Thomas himself laying aside all further delayes of his own return to his own See of Canterbury having the Kings licence to return and the Dean of Salisbury to safe-guard him along by the King's command had accordingly embarked and was landed though
upon his landing all the Ports being by the Archbishop of York Bishop of Lendon and Bishop of Salisbury's directions beset with Souldiers his baggage was narrowly search'd of purpose to seize on all his Bulls and letters from the Pope it is manifest I say that presently after this affront when or assoon as he was come to Canterbury the Kings Ministers sollicited by the said Bishops of York London and Salisbury who were then also come to Canterbury of purpose to vex Thomas declared unto him in the Kings name that he should absolve the Bishops who were suspended and excommunicated by the Pope because what was so done against them redounded to the Kings injury and to the subversion of the customs of the Kingdom That to this declaration or demand Thomas answered first Non esse judicis inferioris soluere sententiam superioris that it was not the part of an inferiour judg to solve the sentence of a superiour And secondly answer'd when others more urgently press'd him and threatned him in the Kings behalf that for the peace of the Church and reverence he boare to the King he would run the hazard of giving absolution to those Bishops so they would swear in forma Ecclesia in the then usual form of the Church to obey the commands of the great Pontiff That hereupon when the rest of the Bishops began to yield as not thinking it safe to oppose themselves to the Church and impugne the Apostolical sanctions for the preservation of the customs of the Kingdom the man enemy of peace sayes Spondanus out of Baronius and author and propagator of all dissention from the very beginning of the troubles the Archbishop of York disswaded them advising that they should rather go to the King without whose consent sayes he such an oath could not be taken That following this advice they all immediatly crossed the Sea to the King then as yet in France and adding sin to sin sayes Baronius or his Epitomizer Spâ—ndanus sent messengers back to the young King in England â—â—o should perswade him That Thomas had sought to depose his Majesty That finally with the Father King Henry the Second himself having been otherwise before ill enough affected to Thomas though lately so as we have seen reconciled those ill advisers wrought so much by their accusations that wholy transported with rage he was heard often to let fall those fatal complaints and curses of all who had been bred with him whom he had so favoured and advanced that none of all would riâ— him of one Priest who so troubled the Kingdom and sought to despoyle him of his Royal Dignity And therefore also what is the scope of this fourth observation is manifest viz that notwithstanding the grand quarrel which continueâ— so long was about those 16. Heads of laws or customs yet the more immediat motive of the Saints death was onely that his refusal of giving absolution to those censur'd Bishops after the King was reconciled to him without any condition of tying him to the observation of the said Heads nay rather with express promise made by the King to the Pope and his said last Legats that he would no more urge their observance For as the said Baronius and Spondanus tel the particulars of this last motive out of the often mention'd Acts of his life and out of the 73. epistle of S. Thomas himself which was his last to Pope Alexander as they relate also out of the same Acts and other Historians and epistles of the Saint all other particulars given by me in this fift observation so they tell us out of the same Acts wherein as to this now all other Histories agree how the Courtiers being much moved to indignation against Thomas by these words of the King four of them conspiring the death of Thomas and immediatly therefore sayling into England and being come to Canterbury and with their swords drawn on the 29. of Dec. 1170. scarce a month after the Saint was return'd from his long exile then there broke violently into the Church when and where the good Archbishop was at evening prayers with his Monks and other Clerks and furiously calling for him by his name and the Saint hereupon being come towards them mildly and after reproving the Sextons for endeavouring to shut the Church doors and to keep out these murtherers saying that the Church was not to be kept or defended after the manner of camps non esse Ecclesiam castrorum more custodiendam telling the murtherers he was ready to suffer death for God and for asserting justice and the liberty of the Church and commanding them under excommunication not to hurt any other of his either Monk Clerk or Laick and lastly bowing down his head as in prayer and recommending himself and the cause of the Church to God to the blessed Virgin to the holy Patrons of that his own particular Church of Canterbury and to S. Denis by name and in this Christian posture expecting the fatal strokes he received them withall constancy whereby in an instant his bloud and brain mixed together with his dead trunk covered the sacred pavement Whence appears undoubtedly that whatever the former differences were twixt the King and our Saint the sole immediat later difference and onely cause of those fatal exclamations of the Kings which made or occasioned those four unfortunate gentlemen to commit so prodigious a Sacriledg was his above recited refusal of absolution to York and the other censur'd Bishops unless they would promise in forma Ecclesiae consueta to stand to the judgment of the Pope Fiftly you are to observe how it is so farr from appearing out even of Baronius or Spondanus that S. Thomas of Canterbury did break or would breake with the King or have any difference at all with him upon every of the above 16. Heads individually separatly taken as it is certain on the contrary 1. That even Pope Alexander himself even in a publick consistory where also Thomas himself was present allowed of the six last as tollerable 2. That the same Pope writing in the year 1169. epist 11. and epist 30. to the said King Henry the Second and his Bishops of England even then when the contest was in the very height took notice onely of two points in as much as he onely therein admonish'd the King most earnestly to suffer that the vacant Churches might be provided for by canonical election of Bishop and commanded the Bishops to excommunicate all both receivers and givers of lay investitures and to see that all such persons should be effectually shâ—nned by all the faâ—â—â—â— 3. That Polydore Virgiâ— in Henric. 2. â— XIII Histor Angl. tels us expresly and pâ—ainly that the grands or chief caâ—â—e of S. Thomas of Canterburys so great and long contest with his King Henry the second was that he observed this King daily advancing such Priests to Ecclesiastical dignities and even Bishopricks as were leâ—â— deserving and doing so as the King pleaded
immediately before the foresaid Mauritius Aemulator sayes that Roman Pontiff (b) Agatio was chosen Pope or rather Bishop of Rome an 678. Agatho verae Apostolicae fidei piae memoriae Augustus Justinianus cujus fidei rectitudo quantum pro sincera confessione Deo placuit tantum Rempublicam Christianam exaltavit Et ubique ab omnibus gentibus ejus religiosa memoria veneratione digna censetur cujus fidei rectitudo per augustissima ejus Edicta in toto orbe diffusa laudatur Would Agatho have said so of an Heretick * To Agatho I might add Gregory II. in several Epistles nay and a far greater Authority too viz. the Fathers of the Sixth Oecumanical Sâ—nod besides many others after them See Baâ—â—â—s himself and his Epitomizer Spâ—â—danus confessing so much ad an 565. 3. That if the Truth were known it would be found that Baronius and the rest following him were willing to make use of any malicious ungrounded Fictions whatsoever against Justinian not that they believed him to have either lived at any time or dyed at last in any wilful or imputable Errour or in any at all otherwise than St. Cyprian of Carthage did but that his Laws in Ecclesiastical matters even those of Faith are a perpetual eye-sore to them because these Laws are a Precedent to all other good Princes to govern their own respective Churches in the like manner without any regard of Bulla Coenae or of so many other vain Allegations of those men that would make the World believe it unlawful for Secular Princes to make Ecclesiastical Laws by their own sole Authority for the government of the Church and all orders and degrees of Church men under them even to the very Patriarchs inclusively as Justinian did and you may see in his very many Constitutions to that purpose he did X. Although I do ingenuously confess I had on the Subject of Ecclesiastical either Exemption or Subjection very much light and help from those excellent Authors that writ before me so well on that Subject I mean both the Barclayes the Father and Son yet the learned Reader may see I have been very far from borrowing all from them or any other who treated before or after on Ecclesiastical Immunity Wherever I make use of them I have commonly added everywhere i. e. in every Section to their Answers Animadversions and Proofs my own both reasoning and reading elsewhere I have also raised against my self the strongest Objections I could imagine which they had not nor consequently the Solutions Nay Canons also viz. those Paâ—al ones which the Barclayes do not mention I have both objected and answered at large because I observed our later Casuists or Moralists Azorius and Bonacina c or chiefly or onely or at least partly to quote them though they do no more but barely quote the Chapters not the words or Text for their false Positions about Ecclesiastical Immunity as you may see in my whole LXXI Section from pag. 230. to pag. 241. Besides the whole Affirmative or Positive way against Bellarmine and his Disciples the Louain Divines in five intire long Sections from pag. 243 to pag. 374 where I assume the person of the Opponent to prove the Subjection of all Clergy-men to the Supreme Temporal Magistrate and prove it by Scripture Tradition Fathers Councils and as well by Ecclesiastical yea very Papal Canons as Imperial Constitutions and by Practice also and Reason is wholly from other Collections of my own neither of both the Barclayes nor Withrington nor any other seen by me having so much proceeded in this Affirmative or Positive way but mostly in that which I call Negative as it which hath for principal scope to deny and solve the Arguments of Bellarmine c. XI As for the two grand Objections framed by me against my self the one from the condemnation of Marsilius de Padua and Joan. de Janduno the other from the Martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury or rather for my Answers and long material Discourses Sect. LXXVI from pag. 374 to pag. 436. nay to 462. upon and by occasion of each or either of the said two Objections I must no less ingenuously acknowledge that I was necessitated to be my self alone my own guide all along without either light or help from any Authour that handled either Subject For I never saw nor heard of any such Authour Which was the reason that I took more than ordinary pains to clear whatsoever might be alledged or pretended from either that Condemnation or this Martyrdom against the soundness of that Doctrine which maintains the Subjection of all Clergy-men whatsoever to the Supreme Temporal both directive and coercive authority even of meer Lay-Princes and States but more especially to clear the whole Intrigue of St. Thomas of Canterbury's quarrel with Henry II and the Cause for which he suffered and to shew it was no Divine right nor even other Humane save only that of the Civil Secular and Municipal Saxon Danish and Norman Laws of England which he grounded himself on when he refused to deliver at the Kings pleasure the Criminal Clerks to be punish'd or judg'd by the Secular Judges and Officers XII The veneration I have as I am bound to the Roman-Catholick Church or that Communion in general wheresoever diffused throughout the World and my knowledge of their having in all their Calendars on the 29th of December the Festival of St. Thomas of Canterbury made me the First also that for any thing I know ventures in a singular and long Discourse by way of Appendix after my four several Answers given to the grand Objection against c. from the Martyrdom of that holy Bishop of set purpose to vindicate him from having been a Traytor to the King whether or no he was a Martyr in the Church through the merits of his Cause and according to the more proper and stricter Ecclesiastical sense of the word Martyr Three hundred years indeed after his death he was under Henry VIII in a very unusual manner both judicially summon'd to appear and formally condemn'd for a Traytor Then which judgment if woâ—â— grounded nothing can be more prejudicial to the practice of all Roman-Catholicks in the World in keeping his Festivity and honouring his Memory and begging his intercession for them to our Lord and Saviour Christ That it hath been in-grounded I do my devoir to shew and prove from pag. 439 to pag. 462. where I answer first all that hath been or could be alledged against him and then produce eight several Arguments even very strong Presumptions both in Law and Reason for him I mean as to this controverted Point Whether he could be justly said to have either dyed or even at any time lived or been a Traytor against the King People or Laws of England XIII Where I seem pag. 438. somewhat too severe on Matthew Parker the First Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury under Queen Elizabeth you must not persuade your self I do at all
powred forth unsavouriness and those who should have enlightned others to have brought darkness on them Wherefore such as have kept themselves free from subscriptions or from this kind of infectious disease let them by all means beware they be not drawn into the pitt by their blind leaders and let them uphold the doctrine that is sound Who stands let him take heed he fall not But for such as are unhappily fallen let them rise without delaye And let them know so much as to acknowledg and take hold of that Right hand which their as well most Holy as most loving Father stretches forth in admonishing them Finally let all of you joyned together in the bond of peace yield those respects to the King which true Faith teaches In the mean time I in the name of the whole Congregation appointed overseers of your affairs do wish all things may be prosperous no you and withal exhort you to retain the same constancy of most valorous Resolutions which you have manifested in defending the purity of Religion That you beleive also that all Irish Catholicks are beloved in the bowels of Christ by our most Holy Lord and that his Holyness is even from his whole heart and out of that charity which is from God possessed with the greatest desires of the health and tranquillity of you all Given at Rome the 8. of July 1662. Your most addicted Francis Barbarine VIII Soon after the date of these Letters of Cardinal Francis Barbarine and of the Bruxels Internuntio Hieronimus de Veccbiis the Lord Lieutenant being come for Ireland and the Procurators duty bringing him thither after he had answered the man in the dark in the behalf of the Irish in general and in relation to their temporal Estates and had also in the Clergies name made his gratulatory address first to both their Majesties the King and Queen and next to the Lord Lieutenant also when His Grace had the second time that great charge of the Lieutenancy of Ireland put upon him and being arrived at Dublin and being commanded by His Grace to endeavour presently the subscriptions of those at home in the Countrey the first opposition he found was that of fine words and offers of money for his pains taken hitherto for them and three hundred pounds therefore if he would prevail with His Grace to accept of their subscriptions to another form such as themselves would frame because that signed at London was odious in the Court of Rome as lessening the authority of the most holy Father But when they found him unalterable and that he told them positively it was unworthy of them to move any such thing and of him to listen to it besides that they were much deceived in their judgment of His Grace or of the matter in it self as if it depended of the Procurator to perswade or disswade His Grace therein or as if His Grace did not sufficiently understand the consequence of any the least material change or the sense of English words and what imported or not the King or States security as from them presently he understands of a late and general resolution taken by all the Heads of the Clergy not to sign at all that Remonstrance nor suffer any under their respective charges to sign it And further understands that besides the three Provincials of the Franciscans Dominicans and Augustinians a little before his landing met at Dublin and entred into a confederacy together against it Anthony Mageoghegan Bishop of Meath and the Provincial of the Franciscans by name Anthony Docharty and besides him Thomas ma Kiernan Francis Ferral and others of the same Order with some Vicars General of the North had signed an Instrument and sent an express messenger one Father John Brady with it over Seas to procure Letters and Censures against the Remonstrance Subscribers That moreover Father Peter Aylmer a little before made Curat of St. Owens at Dublin aspiring further to be made Bishop or at least Vicar Apostolick for having lately been so eminent an opposer of the Remonstrances at London abusing the people with telling them though most falsely the Sorbonists were against it grounding himself only for this vain report upon simple letters from another Irish Priest at Paris a man as ignorant as himself and who seemed to know as little what the Parisians taught or taught not as himself that I say this Father Aylmer made himself very instrumental for such ambitious ends to encourage which he needed not the said Bishop of Meath and the said Father Dempsy Vicar General of Dublin and all others of both Secular and Regular Clergy to resolve absolutely against it Wherein he had the more credit that they were told he had lately been my Lord Aubignyes Confessor at Whitehall and surely therefore knew the King did not expect any such paper or subscription from them nor the Duke either but that as he and they gave out all was the Procurators own contrivance and importunity to further that wherein himself had once engaged That further they saw such as were even at Court and in the daily sight of His Majesty and greatest Ministers of State the Queens own Chaplins those that were natives of England and Ireland were not as much as once called to for their subscription And yet none other of that Clergy in such favour as they Nay that both the grand Almoners of both Queens the Lord Aubigny and Abbot Montague both of them so great and so considerable and the first so near in blood to His Majesty and both looked upon at least the former in a fair way to the greatest dignities in the Catholick Church next the Papacy that both those said they were known to be averse from it But I must advertise the Reader that although use was made of such arguments suggested by the said Father Aylmer some others whom I know very well yet the same Gentlemen could not but know as well then and all others have been long since or at least are now at last throughly convinced of this truth That it was both His Majesties my Lord Lieutenants earnest desires by His Majesties express positive directions to him The Irish Clergie should sign that Remonstrance as an argument of their purpose and firm resolution to be more faithful to Him hereafter than the generality of them had proved to his Father the same Lord Lieutenant heretofore in the late Warrs of that Country That Father Welsh their own Procuratour though zealous enough for the lawfulness Catholickness expediency and necessity also of such signature by them yet had never urged any when once he perceived their general opposition had not His Grace told him of His Majesties pleasure in the case and not seen withall the consequents of their refusal or delay would prove in time very prejudicial both to themselves and the Lay People instructed by them and that such their subscription must have been the only medium to procure them that
excuse their great dependence from the Ordinaries and Secular Clergy as to their future admission to the respective Districts or Diocesses and their establishment for houses in the Countrey Besides that they were but a very few and inconsiderable in respect of others That however their judgment affection or extraction lead them yet this cause alone might be sufficient for their excuse not to subscribe without encouragment by example from the Ordinaries And yet it is very well known that several of them as likewise of the other more ancient Orders laboured earnestly and mightily that there should be no such encouragment or example at all from Ordinaries or any other Whereof the reason is very obvious Because the later any religious Institution is and the newer in any Catholick Countrey the greater dependence it must have and the more support it wants from Rome Which those three last Orders amongst us were so far from putting to any hazard to be lost by subscription that they would assure themselves of it more and more by the greatest opposition they could make in favour of all pretences for the holy See and thereby also be sure to continue their yearly pensions of Missionaries such of them I mean as are pensionaries upon the account of mission as several are 9. That above all the Jesuits yet more particularly found themselves concern'd on this particular account that so many great and famous Writers of their Society and by consequence the whole Society it self had been all along these fourscore years at least throughly engaged to maintain the contrary doctrine and practises 10. That on the other side the Secular Clergy pretended there was no signing for themselves before the Regulars concurr'd who as being commonly the best Divines and Preachers and many in number and changeable from County to County and from one Diocess and Province to another at their Superiours will and in most parts in greater esteem with the lay people then the Secular Clergy would if not concurring with them cast such an aspersion on them as would be able to render them infamous and contemptible amongst their own Parishioners upon account of so specious a pretence amongst ignorant people as the renouncing the Papal power and acknowledging the King to be Supream Head of the Church would amount unto For so many and very many too of both Secular and Regular Clergy gave out to the common sort against their own knowledge and conscience the Subscribers mean'd and did by that Remonstrance of 61. representing it as the same thing with the Oath of Supremacy which Roman Catholicks generally have refused this hundred years and therefore lay under so many incapacities and other penalties Nay some of those Clergy-men did not stick to say and swear too they would sooner take the Oath of Supremacy than subscribe that Remonstrance And yet it is very clear those Gentlemen understand neither or if they do either that certainly they are out as to both in their explications of them as far as from East to West For in the sense wherein the sons of the Protestant Churches of England and Ireland take the Oath of Supremacy they acknowledge no spiritual Supremacy purely such or any such spiritual Headship or supream Government-ship in the King in any causes or things what soever even temporal so far are they from acknowledging such in causes or things Ecclesiastical or Spiritual not even in those which are by extrinsecal denomination only called Ecclesiastical or Spiritual but only a Supream Politick Civil or Temporal Head-ship or Government-ship in all things whatsoever by the power of the material Sword and this of this Sword over all persons generally as well Church-men as others Which sense is very Catholick and owned in relation to their Kings and 〈…〉 temporal Governours by all Catholicks in France Spain Germany Poland Italy 〈◊〉 wheresoever in the world Nor do they intend to deny by the 〈◊〉 Oath in the negative â—â—me any power purely spiritual to the Pope or other even 〈◊〉 Prelate 〈◊〉 that power only which 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—ugnant to that supâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 temporal or politick Government-ship be not said to be such as indeed it cannot justly And on the other side it is plain the Remonstrance o◠〈…〉 not a word or clause either defectâ—â—◠〈◊〉 directly or by any kind of consequence importing the 〈◊〉 wherein the Roman Catholicke have refused â—â—therto the â—â—nd Oath of Supremacy 〈◊〉 this sense is no other than 〈…〉 by the universality of the words or signs 〈◊〉 the affirmative and negative 〈◊〉 the Roman Catholick Vulgar understands ever also a spiritual Privacy or Supremacy purely such to be attributed to the King and denied to the Pope and other Bishops in those Dominions albeit this sense be plainly repugnant to the very Confession of Faith in the 〈◊〉 articles of the Prâ—â—estâ—â—â— Church England and Ireland and to those others of Queen Elizabeth in her Injuctions authorized and owned even by Parliament Now it is no less manifest and out of all controversie amongst such as do but even lead singly over the Protestation of 61. that there us not a word in it 〈◊〉 â—biâ—â—ting any such to the King or denying it to the Pope or intending at all any such thing nor indeed any thing else but what is allowed and approved by the doctrine and practice of all the Catholick world abroad iâ— peradventure the present Roman Court not the Roman Church be not excepted and the few sticklers for it although against the sense and inclination of all the wise and moderate Popes even I mean too such as governed that See in these latter times But however this be or be not such was the pretence of many for not concurring by their subscriptions albeit they confess'd withal the Remonstrance very catholick in it self And for this pretence or the scandal raised against the Remonstrance of renouncing the Pope or importing the same with the Oath of Supremacy besides the malicious or wilful stumbling of some at one word in it not construed or taken with the words immediatly following restraining that word as all men of never so little reason or sense must allow it ought to be I know not but the reprinting of the single sheet of that Remonstrance at London by some of purpose to gain by selling it when all the first Edition was immediately bought and the reprinting of it with a false Title cryed and sold so up and down the Streets which false Title imported the renouncing of the Pope by the Popish Clergy of Ireland whether I say this occasioned not at first that aspersion amongst some ignorant people I know not though I am sure it could not amongst the Clergy on Layety either that read the paper it self or what was therein contained 11. That some also of the leading men had a special pick to it only because advanced by the Procurator by whose means they would not even desire the freest exercise of their Religion because he had been all
all the power of the Emperour Frederick accompanied with such numerous and formidable legions and with all the Princes of Empire and Kings also of Denmark and Bohemia at Avignon whether this Emperour of purpose to entrap Lewis in a conference and force him to quit Alexander and 2. when immediatly after this he also personally visited this Pope Alexander apud Bobiense Monasterium where he was then retired presented him richly and did him so much honour and reverence that after kissing his toe he excused himself from sitting in the chayre prepared for him and with all his Barons sate on the bare ground at his feet and 3. That together with the said King Lewis of France at their meeting upon the River Loyre where this Pope mediated and concluded a peace betwixt them he out of exceeding reverence towards him and to countenance him the more against the Antipope Victor and Frederick the Emperour and for example to his own Subjects and those of France too and all others performed the office of a yeoman of the stirrop upon one side as the King of France did on the other leading his horse by the reyns both of them a foot on the right and left hand till they left him at his lodging as he after continued constant in his observance of this same Pope Alexander all along during the whole Schysme of three Antipopes created against him at such time and such a conjuncture as this Thomas Becket having been so elected by this Henry the Second as we have seen and so confirmed by this Pope Alexander the Third nay and immediatly upon his election and before any word sent to or received from Alexander though so neer him then as Mons Pessulanus in France having received investiture as the custom then yet was in England from a lay hand from that King 's own hand by receiveing from him a staff and a ring the first occasion spring or motive of all their following great long and fatal differences was very soon after unluckily happen'd even the very second year of his Archbishoprick that is immediatly after his return from that great Council of 17 Cardinals a hundred and four and twenty Bishops four hundred and fourteen Abbots and of an infinit number of other Priests and Clerks held in the month of May 1163. by Alexander at Tours in France concerning the Schysme where Alexander did such extraordinary honour to this our Canterbury Archbishop Thomas Becket as to send all his Cardinals two onely excepted who assisted himself out of town to receive him as he came to the Council But that which you are specially to observe here and first of all in order to our main purpose is what the particulars were of this first occasion spring or motives And indeed I confess that as Gulielmus Neuhrigensis tells us in the 16. Chapter of his History that at this Council of Tours though not publickly in the Council but privatly this our St. Thomas of Canterbury resigned his Archbishoprick to Alexander as not being able otherwise to bear the stinging pricks of his own conscience for having received the investiture of it from a lay hand and that Alexander again with his own hand invested him so he also tells us that the sole original cause of all the following fatal differences 'twixt St. Thomas and his King Henry the Second was that he would not suffer the King to proceed by law against criminal Priests that is would not suffer him to have them tryed sentenced and punish'd in the civil Courts or by the civil Judges according to that law which the King said was the law of the land the law and custom of his Predecessours But Cesars Baronius ad an Christi 11â—3 corrects Neubrigensis in both particulars And yet he or his Epitomizer Henricus Spondanus ad an Christi 1163 sayes that Neubrigensis was an Author of that time and both a faithful and accurat Writer Willelmus Neubrigensis sayes he hujus temporis scriptur fidelis aâ—â—enatus However Baronius corrects him in both the said particulars and sayes that as the first of Thomas of Canterburie's resignation happen'd in the year 1164. when being fled out of England he the second time accoasted the same Pope Alexander and presented the heads of those laws about which the consequent main contest was 'twixt the King and him so it appears out of the Acts of our Saints Life written by the before named four Authors of the said Acts that besides that of not suffering the King to proceed by law against criminal Priests which he confesses interceded yet several other causes preceded and most just causes too which imposed a necessity on the Saint to reprehend the King For sayes he these Acts relate how the King came to be incensed against him viz. because he endeavoured to recover from the hands or possession of Lay-men some lands which formerly belong'd to the Church of Canterbury and were unduly alienated by his Predecessors and because he endeavoured likewise to abolish the bad custom which had long prevailed in England that the revenues of vacant Churches should be payed in to and challenged by the Kings Exchequer whereby it came to pass that the Churches were too long of purpose kept vacant and yet because that being Archbishop he quitted his former office of Chancellorship against the Kings will who desired he should keep it still together with his Episcopacy which yet he would not reflecting on that of St. Paul Nemo militans Deo implicat se negotiis secularibus and because moreover he prohibited the exaction of an unjust assessement laid on the subjects and further also because he delivered not to the secular court a certain Priest condemn'd of murther but only degraded him and shut him up in a Monastery for his pennance nor delivered to secular punishment as the King desired another certain criminal Chanon but only laid him under Ecclesiastical Censures And these were the causes or springs of the great contest which followed as Baronius sayes out of the said Acts. And yet I must say that as he doth not as yet out of the same Acts or any thing here said by him out of them disprove what Neubrigensis said to be the only that is the first or sole first cause motive or spring for all these four or five did not happen altogether and that of not delivering the criminal Priest and Chanon to the secular court might have been the first of all for any thing related by him out of those Acts being they distinguish not or declare not particularly as he relates them which was first or last in time so it is clear by Baronius's own prosecution of the history of this Saints troubles and the Kings quarrel to him that this of not delivering those criminal Ecclesiasticks was that onely which occasion'd all the ensueing differences or that onely at least which the King took as the immediat pretence of his first publick quarrel with him and rest of the Bishops
any further practice in that Town yea to command him away as an Impostor or at least a Brain-sick man and that only at the earnest intercession of some few not to give thereby more advantage to Protestants they had forborn to put such thoughts in execution against him Yea Father James Tully a Franciscan and Connarght man both Nuntiotist and Anti-remonstrant living there told me himself was the onely man that strenuously interposed not for any opinion he had of Finachty's Gifts or Miracles but for the foresaid Reason chiefly and that he alone hindred that Decree which was earnestly press'd by others especially the Fathers of the Society Moreover I found that the Franciscan Convent whereof the Guardian and others mostly had subscribed the Remonstrance were the chiefest if not the onely men amongst all the Clergy whether Regular or Secular of that Capital City that shewed him most countenance as who several times had entertainâ—d him civilly and suffered him to practise publickly in their house Whether they did so out of any inward belief or great opinion they had of his Wonder-working gifts or whether only yielding to the Reports come from London or above all whether because they thought he had still especially in other remote parts of the Kingdom a great interest in the common people and knew themselves and the rest of their Fellow-subscribers to have been by some Anti-remonstrants strangely malign'd amongst the Vulgar and that his Authority also had been made use of to hurt them and therefore by Civilities towards him even where the greatest Anti-remonstrants were his greatest opposites and persecutors they would engage him now to be thenceforth of their side or whether for all these Reasons together or other whatsoever I know not But so it was that they were at that time his only publick Friends of the whole Dublin Clergy And so it was also that a young Protestant Irish Gentlewoman by name Mrs. Agnes ......... having come to him in their House when he was practising there was as her self gave out and both they and she after told my self Cured by him of some kind of inward pain in one of her limbs but which I do not remember now though I remember it was not visible to others and was thereupon reconciled to the Roman Church having confessed to one of the Priests of that House and received the Sacrament of Christs body there What this wrought on her might signifie I leave to the judgment of others But it was the onely miraculous Cure whereof as done there or at all in this Town in my absence I had even so much certainty given me as I tell here Hitherto my Lords and Fathers you have the sum of all which in so many years I heard of this good man from others as likewise of my own endeavours to know as well as I could from others the truth of matter of Fact concerning him What follows and that indeed I would be finally and principally at in this account is from my own certain knowledge even from that of my own eyes and ears and conversation with him here during five or six Weeks immediately after ending my said last enquiries For next day in the morning I went and found him out where I understood him to be at Father Ailmer's a Secular Priest's Chappel in St. Owens Arch where he was in the Vestry preparing to vest himself for the Altar I sent in my name and being admitted found him alone on his knees After salutes and sitting down together the introduction to our discourse was my saying I doubted not he had by report heard somewhat of me as I had of him very much albeit the subjects of talking of us had been very different He answer'd 'T was true Then I told him of my great longing for many years and that much greater of late to see him and be satisfied by himself of the grounds of such contrary relations concerning him And so proceeded from the first reports of him seen by me in a Letter to London from Ireland in the Protector 's dayes to the contradiction thereof by Father Mellaghlin thence to the Lord Lieutenant's Commands to me thence to my first inquisition at Dublin thence to Mr. Belings and Mr. Brown's relation thence to my Lord Clancarty's thence to that of his having learned his faculty of Exorcising from old Father Moor the Jesuit whose servant he had been thence to my ceasing from any further inquisition for that time thence to the late reports of such manifold miraculous Cures at London thence to what Father Plunket the Carmelite had told me at Kilkenny viz. of his failing now of late after his Landing where he practised publickly at the Earl of Fingalls thence to my own last inquisition through several Diocesses abroad in the Countrey as I returned and finally thence to what I heard since my coming to Town I ripped up and told him clearly all whatever I had heard either of the one or other side for him or against him Yet withal assuring him I did so without any prejudice of my own part and only to be satisfied by himself as being persuaded he would tell me but truth and being resolved to believe his own relation of himself Telling him besides That partly for his own sake and partly for my own but principally for that of the publick of Catholick Religion and the Professors thereof both Clergy and People of Ireland though more especially the Clergy I desired this favour and candor of him being he himself could but know my employment and that by reason thereof an account of him would be expected from me by the Lord Lieutenant and that moreover I could assure him he had been severely proceeded against even in publick Court ere then by the Protestant Officials had they not had some little regard of me or at least expected the Lord Lieutenants pleasure at his return This was the sum of what I spoke to him before he gave me his answers and spoke in truth with as much sincerity as ever I did any thing in my life And therefore I was inwardly much troubled when I found not the satisfaction in some of them which I expected For the substance of his Answers was 1. That he had formerly as he thought the general good opinion and approbation of the Clergy 2. That of late the Jesuits were the men who chiefly both in England and here since his Landing opposed him 3. That he never said any such thing as by my relation the Earl of Clancarty reported of him to me nay never to any or upon any occasion denied the gracious gift of God to himself for curing whatever even the most natural Diseases or Evils 4. That he learned no such matter as the knowledge of Exorcizing or other whatsoever of that Father Moor the Jesuit nor had been at any time his servant 5. That whatever he had formerly or lately done either in Ireland or England was all done by him as Gods Instrument
only or at least chiefly for the confirmation of the only true Church the Roman and conviction of all Dissenters 6. That as he at London desired my Lord Aubigny the Queens great Almoner he would be pleased to make in his behalf to the Court this offer viz. That the Protestants should pitch upon such a number as they pleased of all sorts of sick persons the places and Parishes where such infirm persons lived then bring them to the most expert Physitians to have their judgments of the truth and certainty of their being without question truly sick and of the quality and inverateness of their several Diseases then carry the same diseased persons to the Protestant Clergy Ministers and Bishops to be cured by their Prayers and when these had failed of doing those any good to bring them to him publickly before as many or such as they pleased to be present and they should see that by the invocation of God and for confirmation or evidence of the Roman-Catholick Church to be the only true Church and Religion of Christ he would cure them all the same saith he which I offered at London to my Lord Aubigny and by him to the Court but was not accepted there from me I do now here again offer to you and by you to the Lord Lieutenant and Council When he had so confidently and positively answered I was much troubled at the three last Articles For I believed my Lord Clancarty told me truth And I had much cause to believe those who related his having been servant in his youth to Father Moor and from him learned the manner of Exorcizing Nor did I want the fresh memory of many other Arguments to perswade me that what ever he had done of good to any though few was by Exorcism only and only where somewhat of Possession obsession or Witchcraft intervened Besides that I could hardly doubt he did but little to any of so many as came to him sick of natural diseases only I begun therefore now inwardly in my own mind to scruple both his veracity and humility vertues I think to be expected in a worker of wonders by the pure invocation of Christ And both I scrupled the more that I observed him to blush when I objected his learning from and being a servant to Father Moor and his gifts to be confined to the only effects of bare Exorcism Then besides I considered how I had never read of any Saint in former days that put himself so freely and purposely in all places and occasions upon working of Miracles by Exorcism or otherwise much less of any that undertook so boldly at least where so little need was But again remembring that in Matt. 7.22 23. * * Multi dicent mihi in illa die Domine Domine nonne in nomine tuo in nomine â—â—o damonia ejecimus in nomine tuo daemonia ejecimus in nomine tuo virtutes multas fecimus Et tunc confiteborillis Quia nunquam novi ves and withal considering the confidence of his offer I check'd my self However I desired him to consider well once more what he offer'd so and the consequence of his failure adding thus Father Finachty I am upon consideration of all I have from first to last heard of you inclined to think that in some occasions and to some few persons you have done some good that is that either your gift or their own Faith or at least their own strong imagination with some other natural helps hath been in some measure available to them when they came to you and you Exorcized or Crossed or Prayed over them or upon that occasion of your doing so but I am withal inclined to think you have failed the expectations of a thousand for one you have not Nay and moreover that the gift whatever it be is for Exorcizing only and not at all for curing natural Diseases I am sure Says he replying I have not failed one for a thousand I have cured and cured even of all sorts of pure Natural Diseases and what I offer I know and fear no tryal This reply made me fear the flattery or folly of some half sighted or half witted if not worse men had somewhat turn'd his brain for I dared not yet for all this entertain any determinat judgment or even scarce the least passing imagination of his being a willful Impostor Mr. Browns Relation besides the late reports and Letters from London and several other things told me for his advantage remaining still fix'd in my mind and making me rather shut my own eyes then see or freely entertain any such thought of him Which was the reason I would not any further at that time question what he had so positively averr'd himself But leaving that Subject prayed him nevertheless if not rather indeed the more to tell me when or how long since he first had found by real experience that God had bestowed these gracious gifts upon him was it then first in the Protector 's time when the reports came to us to London or was it before and what year After a little demurr he answered That long before that time when I further pressed to know was it in the time of the Confederat's and if said I so long ago it is strange I that lived constantly where the chief seat of the Confederate Assemblies and Councils and their Supream Power was even at Kilkenny whether all the Kingdom did resort did never hear one word of any such wonder-working man Notwithstanding says he it hath been so long since Pray said I hath it been as early as your being consecrated Priest Before I received any Orders at all greater or lesser Sacred or not answered he I am sorry for that said I and will give you my reason why For till now I was in good hopes your extraordinary gift in Exorcizing so effectually as you say you do might be in some measure attributed to or might be some Argument of the Authority and Power given to all Priests though given to them before they receive the Order of Priesthood or any of those called the Greater Orders even as soon as amongst the four former and lesser Orders they are ordained Exorcists But now I perceive you were a meer Lay-man and not so much as any sort of Clergy-man or Ecclesiastical person at all when first so gifted by God I was no other says he You will not be offended said I at one question more and then Iâ—le have done for this time What was I pray the very first particular whereby you assured your self experimentally then during your being a Lay-man That God had bestowed that extraordinary gift upon you Here again he demurred a little and then answered I had a brother of my own says he whose breeches the Devil stole away at night Whereupon I took a Book of Exorcisms and thence read a Prayer over him which was so effectual that the Devil restored his breeches And this was the first