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
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
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
to have as much power by the Word of God here as any other Foraign Bishop and 't is pity but that the Iudgment of our Vniversities were shewn the World in Print and sent to the French King and particularly the Iudgment or Rescript of the Vniversity of Oxford as not being any where in Print as I know of But in an Old Book of Dr. James's against Popery But as to your thought of having that Rescript of the Vniversity of Oxford sent to the French King I for my part am disinclined to it The printing of it here may probably bring it to the notice of his Ministers and so perhaps to his I have heard how the French Embassador not long ago applyed to a Learned Friend of ours of the long Robe and of the Church of England and one who is a great Antiquary and desired him to furnish him with Copies of Records not printed in Dr. Burnets Works that related to Henry 8 th's withstanding the Papal Usurpation and no doubt but the Copy of this Oxford Rescript would have been as welcom to him and as necessary to Compleat his Collection as any could have been and the publication of it may perhaps be of use in some places of the Roman Catholick World abroad But I fear that the present French King will never without some strange unexpected provocation received from the Papacy advance so far towards the confines of Reformation as Henry 8 th did I know it was but Congruous to Worldly Politicks however contrary to Justice for French Kings formerly to use very high Severities to their Protestant Subjects in the Conjunctures of their quarrelling with the Pope and this you well observe in p. 329. out of the Book called the Policy of the Clergy of France Namely that the French Kings never made any Assaults on the Papal Power but what cost their Protestant Subjects very dear And of the like Nature were the Political Measures of Henry the 8 th here who at the same time burn'd his Protestant Subjects for what he called Heresy that he hang'd some of his Popish ones for what he called Treason in abetting the Papal Supremacy I know we should not presume to limit the most Holy God as to what Instruments he shall or shall not use in the Melioration of the Affairs of Church or State But the French King is one I never think of without Horror Nor do I entertain any idea of Gods making any right Lines in the World by so crooked an Instrument If David must not be allowed by the Course of Providence to build the Temple because his Administration of the Government had been so much dipp'd in Blood what good to Religion can we presage from such a Monarch as has made all Christendom almost one great Aceldama The great God will I believe take his time to make this Monarch share in the usual fate of Persecutors how prosperous soever he may be at present according to what is commonly observed out of the Heathen Moralist That the Divine Wheels are grinding and will grind to powder though they are slow in Motion Nor did God think fit to use our Henry 8 th as an Instrument to contribute towards the building his House here further than by removing the Rubbish of the Papal Vsurpations and by so Signally Acting therein by compassing the Popes power to be here reduced to the level of that of every other Foraign Bishop This was a Momentous thing and worthy the Sagacity and Politicks of King Henry and his Ministers and it must however be for his Honour acknowledged in our English Story The truth is that it having been so Customary for the Bishops of Rome when they met with a weak King here or one whose Affairs were Embarrassed to interlope in their Temporal Concerns and to presume to dispose of their Crowns and Regalities it was but Natural for such a Magnanimous Monarch as Henry the 8 th was to Stake down the Popes Spiritual power to that short tedder he did out of the Scriptures and to allow it to go no further there than any other Foraign Bishop's And thus I for my part would never prefer any Divine to be my Spiritual Pastor who claimed my Temporal Estate And as I think no Lords of Mannors who had the right of Advowson would present any one to a Living in their gift who without Sense or Reason did set up a title to the Mannor But the very thought of waters not rising higher than their Springs might well serve to mind Henry 8 th and some of our former Roman Catholick Princes that the Power of the Bishop of Rome in Temporals however Claimed by Popes was not allowed to rise higher than St. Peter's nor St. Peter's higher than his who said his Kingdom was not of this World and that St. Peter's Successor is not like Tamberlain to tread on the Heads of Christians nor like Alexander the Third to Tread on the Neck of an Emperor and Burlesquing one of King Davids Psalms Super aspidem basiliscum ambulabis conculcabis lâ—onem Draconem when it may be said that the Holy Iesus did tread so gently in his passage through the World that if he had trod on a bruised Reed he would not have broke it or if on smoking Flax he would not have quenched it A Man cannot throughly Write of the Old Papal Usurpations here without being as voluminous as Mr. Prynne and our Statute-Book doth sufficiently instruct us out of Hen. 8 th's Reign and former ones in the Fact of the Papal Arrogance and in the Fact and Right of their being withstood But I need not tell you of the common Observation that those Statutes in Henry 8 th's time that were most warm against the Papal Usurpations were but Declarative of our old Laws and Customs and as for example the dernier Ressort that the Cannon Law gives the Pope of Appeals from our Ecclesiastical Courts was an Usurpation long before the Statute of Henry the 8 th's time for prohibiting all Appeals out of England to the Court of Rome And thus the Constitutions at Clarendon plainly speak out how our Old Laws and Customs were to be observed in this point viz. That all Appeals must proceed regularly from the Arch Deacon to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Arch-Bishop and if the Arch-Bishop failed to do Justice the last Complaint must be to the King to give Order for Redress i e. by proper delegates and Mathew Paris A. 1164. thus tells us that in the Reign of Henry the Second the Custom then about Appeals was viz. Si emerserint ab Archidiacono debet procedi ad Episcopum ab Episcopo ad Archiepiscopum si Archiepiscopus defuerit in justitiâ exhibendâ ad Dominum Regem perveniendum est postremo ipsius in Curiâ Archiepiscopi controversia terminetur ita quod non debet ultrà procedi absque assensu Domini Regis But as to the Ridiculousness of the Papal Usurpations by the
Parliament I mentioned of 28 of H. 8 th viz. An Act for Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome and as to whose Authority we are told by More 463. that all the power of the Pope was not by the 25 of H. 8th given to the King but was extinct in Holy wells Case for any Writers without the Heat and Light of much clear Learned Argumentation to rekindle that extinguished ignis alienus a strange fire of Foreign power in our Beliefs will I may modestly say be a strange Attempt and not to be Effected by any Rhetorical Representer But here I cannot forbear observing that the Author of the Papist Misrepresented c. doth in his Reflections upon the Answer to his Book in p. 13. refering to Dr. Hickes his Iovian call him a Worthy Divine and Cite him for saying that in Case a Popish Julian indeed should Reign over us he should believe him uncapable of Repentance and upon that Supposition should be tempted to pray for his Destruction and then in seeming Charity to the Church of England deny that because the Doctor used those Words it is honest hence to blacken the Church of England with this Disloyal Principle as if she allowed her Members though not to fight against yet to pray for the Destruction of such a Prince The Doctor whose great Learning and Pains taken in doing right to the Succession you have so particularly Represented in your Preface and whereupon if we reflect on the little or nothing ex professo writ by any Romanists against the Exclusion it will be no Complement to â—ay that he hath therein laboured more abundantly than THEY all might if it had pleased this Representer have been deservedly referred to by him with a higher Character And if in any expressions warmer than ordinary against the principles of Popery he had erred by any little Transports in any of his Books he sufficiently Merited from any Roman Catholick Criticks their mildest Representation of them And it had been but Justice in the Representer to have Cited the former part of the Doctors Sentence viz. and if it should please God to plague the Church with such a Spightful Enemy of Christ c. And if he had done so it would have invited the Reader to look back to what the Doctor had written from the 140 th page to the passage which he Cites and then his Reflection would have come to nothing By what I have heard of the Doctors Loyalty I believe him to be one who with Effectual Fervent Prayers doth Importune Heaven for his Majesties long and prosperous Reign and doth his Duty of praising God for his Majesties being so far a Nursing Father to the Church of England And I have that opinion of the largeness of his Christian Charity and Justice that he is ready to retaliate with the Representer in not blackning the whole Church of Rome with the principles lately held by some Iesuits and others Casuists referred to in the Popes Decree of March 2 d. 1679. in § 13 14 15. by the 1 st of which it is rendred no Mortal Sin to be troubled for the Life of another so it be done with due Moderaton and by the second it is made Lawful to desire the Death of ones Father by an absolute desire and by the 3 d. Lawful for a Son to rejoyce at the same and perpetrated by a Son in Drunkenness I suppose you could not but take notice how that Answerer of the Papist Mis-represented c. reflects on the unlucky instance there in Caiaphas and saying was not Caiaphas himself the Man who proposed the taking away the Life of Christ at that time was he assisted in that Councel Did not he determine afterward Christ to be guilty of Blasphemy and therefore worthy of Death For you have well observed the ill Luck that the Famous Hosius as he is called by you had in this case of Caiaphas as to which Dr. Crackanthorp exclaims against Hosius O Hominem Sacrilegum ac Blasphemum Illene reus Mortis qui innocens innoxius vitam dedit An Blasphemus etiam Ea judicij pars You may in Bishop Iewels Apology find this blot of Hosius hit where speaking of the Pope p. 151 152. of the London Edition in the â—ear 1581. he saith Petrus quidem á Soto ejus astipulator HOSIVS nihil dubitant affirmare concilium illud ipsum in quo Christus Iesus adjudicatus est morti habuisse spiritum propheticum spiritum sanctum spiritum veritatis Nec falsum aut vanum fuisse quod Episcopi illi dixerunt Nos habemus Legem secundum legem debet mori illos judicasse Sic enim scribit HOSIVS judicij veritatem omninóque justum fuisse illud decretum quo ab illis pronuciatum est Christum dignum esse qui moreretur Mirum verò est non posse istos pro se dicere propugnare causam suam nisi uná etiam Annae Cajaphaeque pratrocinentur Nam qui illud ipsum concilium in quo filius Dei ad crucem ignominiosissime condemnatus est legitimum dicent fuisse ac probum quod tandem illi concilium decernent esse vitiosum Tamen qualia sunt istorum concilia ferè omnia necesse illis fuit ut ista de Cajaphae Annaeque concilio pronunciarent c. He there had Cited in the Margin Hosius contra Brentium lib. 2. But if so great a Divine as Hosius who was a Polonian Bishop and Cardinal of Rome and one of the Popes Legates in the Councel of Trent did thus err in this point the mistake of an other therein who was of an inferior Character is not to be much wondered at However as I am an Honourer of Learned Men I Derogate not from the Talents of Wit and Learning shewn in his Book and do suppose that somewhat of the Moderation he shews therein may be attributed to the Candour of that Church he was first Educated in And am sorry that he should find any Cause in his Papist Misrepresented Chapter 31. Of wicked Principles and Practices to say take but a view of the Horrid practices She i. e. the Church of Rome hath been engaged in of late years consider the French and Irish Massacres the Murder of Hen. the 3 d. and 4 th Kings of France the Holy League the Gunpowder Treason the Cruelty of Queen Mary the Firing of London the late Plot in the year 1678. to Subvert the Government and destroy his Majesty the Death of Sir Edmund Godfrey c. And then tell me whether that Church which hath been the Author and Promoter of such Barbarous Designs ought to be esteemed Holy c. and let never so many pretences be made yet 't is evident that all these Execrable practices have been done according to the known Principles of this Holy Church and that her greatest Patrons the most Learned of her Divines her most Eminent Bishops her Prelates Cardinals and even the Popes themselves have been
something under-board and from thinking there MAY BE something they will think it is very LIKELY there is something and from LIKELY THERE IS they will conclude THERE IS surely there is some PLOT working hath still since inclined me to be cautious how in my most private thoughts I charged any Men and especially any great Bodies of Men with PLOTS And I think the Author of the Papist Mis-represented c. will find enough Protestants as ready as you and my self to avoid troubling them with the Witnesses Plot. But since the Author hath in this case thought fit to invite us to a view of the Principles APPROVED and Conform to the Religion taught by his Church I shall reflecting on the Principles approved by so many in that Church tell him I cannot but Judge them short of that unconditional Loyalty you have so clearly asserted in your Discussion and shall judge as the L. Falkland the Secretary did in the Letter to Mr. Mountague I before referred to where his Lordship on Mr. Mountagues making POPERY the way to Obedience having had these words viz. I cannot but say that though no Tenet of their whole Church which I know makes at all against it yet there are prevailing opinions of that side which are not fit to make good Subjects when their Kings and they are of different perswasions and having quoted D' Ossat for saying that it is the Spaniards Maxim that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks and more that the Pope intimated as much in a Discourse intended to perswade the King of France to forsake the Queen of England and that they hold at Rome that the Pope to avoid a probable Danger of the encreasing of Heresy may take away a Territory from the true owner and dispose of it to another and many also defend that he hath power to Depose an Heretical Prince and of Heresy he makes himself the Judge His Lordship with a profound Charity and Iudgment thus goeth on viz. So that though I had rather my Tongue should cleave to the Roof of my Mouth than that I should deny that a Papist may be a good Subject even to a King whom he accounts an Heretick since I verily believe that I my self know very many very good Yet Popery is like to an ill Air wherein though many keep their Healths yet many are Infected so that at most they are good Subjects but during the Popes pleasure and the rest are in more danger than if they were out of it Moreover as to the firing of London which the Author referreth to in his Papist Misrepresented as well as the Death of Godfrey I was always as careful as you were to charge no more Papists with the Odium of it than such as the Justice of the Nation Criminated therewith Moreover if any one will have it that Hubert and Peidelow were not Papstis I shall not account it tanti to contend with him about it and as you told me lately that you would not I remember when we were long since Discoursing of that fire you shewed me a Book of Vigelius a Civilian who treating de praesumptionibus quaestionum facti laid it down as a particular Rule viz. Si de causâ incendij quaeritur culpâ inhabitantium praesumitur factum and saith quae regula approbatur l. 3. § 31. ff de officio praefecti vigilum ubi Paulus plerumque inquit incendia fiunt culpâ inhabitantium Moreover you once shew'd me it represented as a Rule in Magerus his Advocatia armata that damnum quod ignoratur à quo provenerit ab inimico illatum esse praesumitur which doth partly agree with the presumption of the causer of the damage mentioned in the parable of the tares an enemy hath done this And you have with Candour in the Papists behalf in p. 180. to shew that the Pope was not the inimicus Homo helped them to the Testimony of an adversary I mean of Marvil in his growth of Popery You have likewise done Iustice to the Papists in p. 181. Exploding the great popular Argument of London being designedly fired by many Popish Persons because of the flames breaking out at once in several places distant from one another An Argument that the Author of Pyrotechnica-Loyolana printed in London in the year 1667. doth in p. 130. lay great stress on and saith that as at Cracow in Poland which he had before accused the Iesuits for having fired the flames did break out there in several places of the City at the Tops of Houses so here the fire did break first out at the Tops of several Houses which were every way at a considerable distance from the contiguous burning in the main Body c. And therefore on the Account of the thing you mentioned and which is obvious enough in Nature a fire first caused in London or Cracow culpâ inhabitantium might afterward appear breaking out in several distant places thereof And I have several times told you how I was in the behalf of the Roman Catholicks troubled at the Votes of the House of Commons that threw the Guilt of the fire of London on the Papists in general and likewise at what was spoke by an Eminent Son of our Church and Minister of his late Majesties that at the Condemnation of the Lord Stafford in effect did so for there as you have truly said in p. 179. the Evidence did not rise High and Clear enough for the charging any Papist with it Nor need I now tell you that I was in the year 79 sorry to find that a Pamphlet against Popery that charged the Papists in general with the Fire of London and with that particularly of the Temple caused by a Non-Papist Debauchè who was burn'd in it was then Licenced by a very Loyal and Learned Licenser But since our Roman-Catholick Author in his Papist Misrepresented doth partly found the Mis-representation on these execrable practices having been done according to the known Principles of the Church of Rome I shall take this occasion he hath given me to offer it to him to consider how far any known principle founded on the Papal Usurpations and approved either BY or IN that Church might have Legitimated a practice of the like Nature As for Example the Firing of the Heretical Villages at the Massacre of Merindol affirm'd by Heylin and Maimbourg and the designed one of the City of Westminster in the Gunpowder-Treason And shall leave it to the ingenious Author to Recollect whether any Divines or Divine of the Church of England he withdrew from and much more whither any of its Canons approved any princiciple of that extravagant Nature Whatever Impressions it may make on his Thoughts or those of the Gentleman you refer to in p. 173. and there mention with Honour and as one though having forsaken the Communion of the Church of England yet being a Pious and Learned Roman Catholick and of a nice tenderness of Conscience and a lover of Truth as such
and their Estates and many of which Estates were Church-Lands notwithstanding the Popes Declaration of the Nullity of that Peace supported by his Present Majejesty and as I doubt not but it always will be as well as by other Roman-Catholick Crown'd Heads And the figure the present French King made in the Munster Treaty in the year Forty Eight and in the Restauration of its effects and Vigor in Christendom in the year Seventy Nine is a sufficient Demonstration of his thinking it lawful for the Lateran Council to be Disobey'd by Popish Princes as to the point of Exterminating their Heretical Subjects I do therefore account this your Manly way of Confuting the Fears and Iealousies founded on that Council to have been at this time the more opportune and the more worthy of your Loyalty because as you have mentioned it after the End of your Discussion It may seem the Design of some People in the World abroad to encrease our Divisions and the popular hatred against Papists and Popery here by the usage that Protestants meet with there as if the Religion of Popery did necessarily Cause the same You have therefore well reputed it the opus diei here in England to shew the contrary and have done it more effectually than any late Writer of the Church of Rome I know here hath done or perhaps was able to do And your quoting for this purpose in p. 208. D' Ossats Speech to the Pope and wherein he so Argumentatively both like a Divine and a States-Man asserted the Lawâ—ulness of Henry the 4 th's of France observing the EDICTS in favour of his Protestant Subjects and wherein he mentioned how other Roman Catholick Princes had done what was tantamount to it and how that the Pope made no Reply to him thereupon may much help to shew our Timid and Iealous People that the Religionary part of Popery or Doctrine of the Church of Rome doth not oblige Roman-Catholick Princes to make the Lives of their Protestant Subjects uneasie to them It here falls in my way to acknowledge to you that the great Instances you have given in your Discourse concerning the Consummat Loyalty of great numbers of Henry the 4ths Popish Subjects to him while a Protestant and under the Popes Excommunication have been very useful for the enlarging Peoples Charitable Thoughts as to the Persons of some Papists and the tendency of their Principles to Loyalty and to the shewing that though in the Great Lateran Council wherein were 1215 Fathers it was Synodically and Categorically concluded that the Pope might absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance that yet great Numbers of Henry the 4ths Roman-Catholick Subjects knew and Practised better things and that their great Absolute and Unconditional Loyalty to him lives in the Records of the Impartial Thuanus And that notwithstanding any principles Chargeable on the Church of Rome the Faith of many particular persons in it hath by its Works shewn it self very perfect for Loyalty But here I am likewise obliged to gratifie you by my Complaisance with your Temper in differing somwhat in Opinion from you for you say you are better pleased in Conversation with those who in many points differ from you than with those who in all agree with you and am frankly to tell you that tho' I am sufficiently satisfied with your discharging of the Moral Offices of Honouring all Men and giving Honour particularly to some Roman Catholicks to whom it was due and particularly where in p. 360. You have with so great a Height of Expression Celebrated the Virtue of the Queen Dowager and from whom I had the Honour to receive Thanks by the late Earl of Ossory for the Justice I did her Majesty in a late Conjuncture Yet there is one thing at the end of your Discourse and another after the end of your Discussion wherein you are pleased to give your Judgment concerning the Papists here in geral as I would not have given mine in the Case You say in p. 285. That after the Various Intervals in which the Discourse was Written it having happened that the Papists are to the General Satisfaction of Impartial Judges of Men and things become as sound a part of this Nation as they were and are of the Dutch States and as throughout the Discourse you always supposed them Capable of being and in p. 361. You say that it is with Justice to be by all Men to our Popish Fellow Subjects acknowledged that what ever petulance some of them were formerly guilty of or of any Ambitious Design of making too great a Figure in the Internal Government of the Nation yet that the Deportment of the Generality of them hath lately appeared with such a Face not only of Loyalty but of Complaisance with his Majesties Measures in imploying the Hands and Heads of Protestants of the Church of England in the Management of great Matters of State as is necessarily Attractive of our Christian Love and Compassion c. But tho' I account my self Morally obliged to Judge several Papists of my Acquaintance to abound in Loyalty and to be such whose Moderation is known to all Men and to be no Exorbitant Affecters of making too great a Figure in the Internal Government of the Kingdom and do hope that many others are so with whom I am not acquainted and will Judge no particular Papist to believe or practise Principles of Disloyalty without particular grounds and tho' on the account of the Trite Rule that Interest never lyes I will hope that the generality of them will in his Majesties Reign and afterward be neither Disloyal nor Heady nor High-Minded nor affecters of Preheminence Yet if I were required to give my present Judgment in short of the present Temper of the generality of them as to the Qualifications about which you have given your Judgment in the Case and that too relating to future times I considering the Formulary of the Letters denoting Judgment given in the Mode of the Old Roman Laws viz. A. and C. and N. L. would not presume either to Absolve or Condemn the gross of their Numbers as to those Qualifications but would interpose the Non Liquet in their Case and much less will I Condemn your Judgment of Charity to them and say that some of your Sharp Reflections on Popery and some Papists have favoured of the Common way of some Partial Judges Byassed with an intent to bring off some Criminals Namely to make some disobliging rough Language previous to the obliging them with their Sentence at last But taking every thing in the best Sense it will bear shall suppose that your Information of the Temper of the Generality of them might be what arrived not at my Knowledge and that therefore you pronounced thereof as you have done And moreover your Discourse being Writ before the Late Kings Death I shall account it was for several Reasons a strengthening of Loyalty and weakening of the Fears of Timid Protestants for you