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
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
and whose Inquisitiveness in Religion is not at its Journeys end in Rome and whom you have found inclined to return to the Church of England if the Tenent I shewed you discussed by Gundissalvus and asserted in the gloss and Text of the Canon Law can be charged on the Church of Rome as approved by it I know not but shall here send you a Transcript of the same and shall first observe that the sedes materiae for this Tenet that a whole City may be burned with fire if the Major part thereof were Hereticks is in the Body of the Canon Law namely in the Text of the Decrets it self Can. si audieris 23 Caus. Q. 5. And if any one will consult the Body of the Canon Law with the gloss and Case of the Edition at Turin in the year 1620 he will find it there as followeth SI AVDIERIS CASVS Cyprianus fuit interrogatus an mali post adventum Domini in hunc mundum morte sint puniendi Et certe respondet quod sic quia si ante adventum Christi hoc fuit ut probabitur autoritate Deuteronomij exemplo Matathiae Multo fortius post adventum Christi hoc fieri debet Autoritas durat a principio usque ibi cujus praecepti Postea sunt verba Cypriani SI AUDIERIS Haec verba sumpta sunt de Deuterono usque ad illum locum hujus praecepti Necabis Tu quicunque sis Et sic quandoque ille qui non est judex potest punire malesicos c. OMNES QUI si Ergo aliqui haeretici sunt in una civitate tota civitas possit exuri sic ecclesia vel civitas punitur pro delicto personarum ut 25. q. 2. ita nos c. NVNC id est in futurum c. CVIVS haec suntverba Cypriani MATATHIAS ut legitur in libro Machabeorum Item Cyprianus lib. de exhortatione Martyrij cap 5. Principes saeculi pessimis parcere non debent 34. § Si audieris in unâ ex civitatibus quas dominus deus tuus dabit tibi inhabitare illic dicentes eamus serviamus dijs alijs quos non novisti interficiens necabis omnes qui sunt in civitate caede gladij Et incendes civitatem igni erit sine habitaculo in aeternum non reaedificabitur etiam nunc ut avertatur dominus ab indignatione irae suae dabit misericordiam tibi miseribitur tui multiplicabit te si exaudieris vâ—cem dom dei tui observaveris praecepta ejus Cujus praecepti rigoris memor Matathias inteâ—fecit eum qui ad aram sacrificaturus accesserat Quod si ante adventum Christi circa deum colendum idola spernenda haec praecepta servata sunt quanto magis post adventum Christi servanda sunt quando ille veniens non tantum verbis nos hortatus est sed factis To this place in the Canon Law Gundissalrus refers in his Discourse against Heretical Pravity and which I shewed you in my Study among the Tractatus Criminales published by Franciscus Maria Passerus at Venice in the year 1556. and where in p. 158. he hath discussed the Tenet at large and ex professo 'T is among those Criminal Tractates called Tractatus contra haereticam pravitatem per Gundissalrum de villa diego Sacri Palatij Apostolici Auditorem char 158. and where it follows thus viz. Summarium 1. Civitas in qua aliqui insunt Haeretici an tota possit igne exuri aut alias destrui latissimè usque ad questionis finem 2. Civitas quando dicatur Haeresim committere ut universe destrui possit 3. Vniversitate punitâ de Haeresi an singuli quoque puniti videantur ita ut amplius puniri non possint Questio 24. Vigesimo quartò quaeâ—o an si aliqui Haeretici sunt in unâ civitate possit tota civitas exuri sive alias destrui glo in c. Si audieris 23. q. 5. arguit quod sic per illum tex videntur ibi velle Ioan. Laur. quod quilibet possit hoc facere sed in Contrarium inducitur ea q. si non licet ver quasdam versi his igitur q. 4. ver non ergo q. â—ult quodcunque quod no. 33. q 1. inter haec in 1. glo Archi. in c. praesidentes de haere l. 6. dicit quod Ecclesia concedit generalem authoritatem exterminandi haereticos 23. q. v. si vos c. Si audieris Quae non tantum diriguntur principibus Et facit eadem causa q. legi de haeretici communicamus § Catholici ubi etiam ad eos exterminandos conceditur cruce signat indulgentia ultra-marina tamen occifio spoliatio talium tutum est quod fiat ex edicto principis aut Ecclesiae c. cum secundum leges eo titu lib. 6. ne ex cupiditate vel ultione potius quam ex justitia vel obedientia pugnare videantur 23. q. 1. quid culpatur q. 11. c. 1. q. 111. Sex differentiae quod etiam tenuit in summa eo titu versic Sed nunquid Goffre in summa eo titu § sed nunquid Catholici Hostien in summa eo titu qualiter evitentur vers sed nunquid Catholici idem sequitur Joan. And in novel in d. c. praesidentes domi qui subjungit oportere necessario praecedere judicis declarationem super crimine haeresis ad hoc ut ista executio fieret per d. c. cum secundum leges Sed ista videntur mihi cum supportatione nimis crudè indigeste dicta in tantâ questione ubi de tantorum periculo agitur praesertim ubi innocentes pro nocentibus puniiuntur gravius profundius scribendum calamus magis temperandus fuisset quapropter ego dicerem quod etiam si aliqui de civitate sint Haeretici dummodo civitas ipsa haeresim non incurrerit adeo quod delictum istud universitati civitatis ascribi possit non propterea civitas possit uxuri aut alias destrui Nullo enim jure hoc reperitur cautum omnia jura clamant in contrarium scilicet quod peccata suos debent tenere Authores C. de pae sancimus de his quae fiunt a Majori parte c. quaesivit Ad jura quae in contrarium inducuntur stat responsio ad C. si audieris per quod glo praefata se fundat dici potest multipliciter Primo quod illud erat praeceptum legis veteris judiciale ut patet clare nam habetur originaliter Deutero 13. talia in lege novâ cessaverunt nisi de novo fuissent instituta nec legitur nova institutio Nam Cyprianus cui inscribitur ille tex in decretis non habuit facultatem jura generalia concedenai cum non fuerit Ro. Ponti eo Maxime ubi de incendio morte inferendis disponitur ut patet in illo tex quae paenae ab ecclesiâ non
Divine Worship on Men as much as your Description doth And the Venetians particularly opposing the Popes Interloping in their Jurisdiction that other thing referred to in your Description is sufficiently known But if by your Description of Popery you intend only to give us a Dictionary of your Sense of the word generally as used by you and that you intend by the Extermination of Popery the Banishing only of those Principles of it that are Irreligionary out of Mens Minds namely the Principles that tend to the Popes Spiritual and Temporal Vsurpations I am not to quarrel with your expressing your own meaning But as I Judge several Roman-Catholick Writers using the Term Popery to intend thereby the Religion of the Church of Rome as for example the Author of the Compendium saying what I before referred to that nothing but Popery or at least its Principles can make the Monarchy of England again emerge or lasting yet as to which a Divine Sentence was in the Mouth of the King when in his Gracious Expressions in Council concerning the Church of England he Judged otherwise and said I know the Principles of that Church are for Monarchy c. and meaning by Popery what was called la Catholicitè I shall say that according to the common acception of the Word Popery were I to explain what I usually mean by it I would declare that I mean not only the Power of the Bishop of Rome but of any General Councils in Imposing Creeds and Doctrines c. on me And I desiring to have all Religionary Errors banished out of my understanding and Loving my Neighbour as my self will desire they may be so out of his and particularly if after he knoweth he is bought with a price he shall think it lawful for him to be a Servant of Men And will not only weigh the Commands and Decrees of any Bishop But of any General Council whatsoever And if in Matters that Import my Salvation I find them contrary to the Bible with a Salvo to the Reverence I owe to all Lawful General Councils I will desire them to excuse me from obeying them Were it not for what you have so well in p. 48. said that the Protestant Religion not making the intention of the Preist essential to the Sacrament of the Eucharist is more strongly assertive of the Real presence there than the Popish Hypothesis and for that great and excellent Notion of yours in your Discourse viz. That Papists and others being bought with a Price that therefore they ought not to be the Servants of Men and my Judging that according to what I have mentioned out of Dr Iackson that you would separate your self from any Church that imposed any thing Magisterially on Mens Faiths I might think that perhaps had you lived in the Reign of Henry the 8 th you would not have separated from the Ecclesia Anglicana as then by Law Established And therefore when by your warm Expressions in p. 47. after you have said that the Protestation that the Protestant Religion requires is such a continual one as is Reiterated upon every fresh Act and Attempt of the Papal Religion upon ours and whereby it would impose Creeds and Doctrines on us contrary to the Liberty of the Church of England as now by Law Established You tell us that We are to shew no Mercy to these Principles of Popery that disquiet the World and on the several occasions offered protest against the Damages that both our King and Country may have from the Rage of Popery I may tell you that this PROTESTANCY amounts to no more than what we read of in the Review of the Council of Trent where in Book 1. and 12 th Chapter the Author refers to the French King by his Embassadors causing a PROTESTATION to be made against the Council of Trent and as appeared by the Oration there made by Mr. Arnold de Ferriers the 22 d. of September 1563. where among other things having mentioned many grievances he saith that according to the Commands of the most Christian King they were constrained CONCILIO INTERCEDERE VT NVNC INTERCEDEBANT by the same Token that that Book relates how thereupon a certain Prelate of the Council of Trent not well understanding the Propriety of the Word Intercedere which the Tribunes were wont of Old to use when thay made their Oppositions and Hinderances asked his Neighbour PRO QVO ORAT REX CHRISTIANISSIMVS But of the French Kings Embassadors protesting not only against Grievances in the Council of Trent but against it self as a Grievance and of some occasions thereof it will come in my way to speak hereafter Nor was there ever any Instrument or Paper Writ with more sharpness of Anger and Scorn in the way of Defiance against Papismus or Popery than H. the 8 ths Protestation against the Council of Trent and yet inclusive too of another Protestation I mean of his Adherence to the Faith then called Catholick That long Protestation calls the Pope by the Name of Bishop of Rome and saith surely except God take away our right Wits not only his Authority shall be driven out for ever but his NAME also shall be forgotten in England Nor did ever any Protestant Writer in Queen Elizabeths or King Iames the First 's time or in our late Fermentation so zealously press the Exterminating of the Papal Power as Henry the 8ths Proclamation about the Abolishing the same Triumph at its being here done And where he saith We have by Good and Wholsom Laws and Statutes made for this purpose EXâ—IRPED ABOLISHED Separated and Secluded out of this our Realm the Abuses of the Bishop of Rome his Authority and Iurisdiction of long time Vsurped c. And the King there Orders all manner of Prayers Oraisons Rubricks Canons of Mass-Books and all other Books in the Churches wherein the Bishop of Rome is NAMED or his Presumptuous and proud Pomp and Authority preferred utterly to be Abolished Eradicate and Razed out and his NAME and Memory to be never more except to his Contumely and Reproach remembred but perpetually suppressed and obscured The Act of 28 of Henry the 8 th before spoken of called an Act for Extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome was here referred to and which Act and other Acts of Parliament Establishing the Kings Supremacy and Excluding the Pope for ever I mentioned as revived in Queen Elizabeths time after their being repeal'd in Queen Mary's I need not observe to you how this present French King hath likewise lately shewn a very Commendable Zeal for the Exterminating the Vsurpations of the Papal Power in the Business of the Regalia and that the Case of that Kings Power is much altered for the better since D' Ossat Writ to Villeroy from Rome with so much Joy for his having found out an expedient as to the difference between Henry the 4 th and the Pope about the granting to one a Church Dignity in France Namely to have the Words put
AGREED VNTO 6th That that which was made by the Clergy for the Publication of the Council of Trent without the Authority of the King be Repaired and Amended and all such things formerly done in the Estate be Reformed AGREED VNTO Yet if any one wants further Confirmation from Authorities about the Trent Council not having been received in France I may send him to the Synopsis of â—ouncils Writ by Dr. Prideaux sometime Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford and afterward Bishop of Worcester where the Bishop Writing Chap. 5. and p. 29. of the Trent Council saith This Council cryed up by so many Acclamations and so Solemnly Confirmed by the Seal of of the Fisher the French admitted not But after all this said of the Council of Trent's not having been Published and Received in France if either by the Government or Clergy or Laity there any of the Religionary or Doctrinal points of Faith contained in that Council are inwardly believed and openly professed I leave them and all Mankind to the Exercise of the Liberty wherewith christ hath made them free and will suppose that if after all the Old Protestations of the Government against that Council Roman-Catholicks in France having found the Doctrinal Points of their Faith that were Stated and Determined by former General Councils to be more fully and clearly made out in the Tridentine one did prosess the belief of the same and did refer to that Council when they would give an exteriour Account or Reason of their Faith and did think themselves obliged for the supporting the Vnity of the Roman-Catholick Church to profess the same Doctrinal Points with these Countries where that Council had been received and published I will make this Charitable Construction that they did and do intend no more Diminution of the Regal Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church thereby than the Nations of Europe did intend a Diminution of their Freedom by receiving any part of the Civil Law of Rome and still continuing the Use and Authority of the same in their Commerce and in the Interpretation of their publick pactions and of the Ius gentium Nor than the Romans did intend to lessen the Rights of their Government by taking their Law of the twelve Tables from Athens nor their Maritime Law from Rhodes and no more than our Roman-Catholick Ancestors did intend a Subjugating of our Laws to the Popes Canon Law against several parts of which they openly protested by the receiving of some other parts of it they thought agreeable to the good of Church and State or than the Government at present intends any Recognition of Foraign Power by any parts of the Civil or Canon Law being still incorporated in our Laws and continuing here to be a part of the Lex terrae QVOAD certain causes Ecclesiastical or Maritime And indeed it must be acknowledged to be for the Honour of the Trent Council that in France and some other Countries where it hath not been received and published its Doctrinal Definitions have yet got ground in the Belief of many Roman-Catholicks on the supposed Merits of the things themselves therein contained and as it hath been for the Reputation of some things in the Civil or Canon Law that on their being thought reasonable our Laws have Adopted them as their own But as with all due Tenderness to all my fellow Christians in France or elsewhere whether Lay or Clerical I forbear to Censure or Reproach them in my most Secret Thoughts for Embracing the Belief of any such Tenets as may be called Religionary though taken up from Trent by them after they have used all the due means for the finding out Truth in the same and do most earnestly pray that God who hath been pleased in Scripture to express his Divine Philanthrophy by the Discreet Love of a Father and the Tender Love of a Mother would bestow the same Blessings on them that I wish for my self and my most near and dear Relations so I should have been glad to have found the like Spirit of Charity Breathing in the Acts of the French clergy with Relation to their Christian Brethren differing from them in points Religionary instead of pronouncing their breach made with them to be founded only on Calumnies after the Pastoral Advertisement of that Clergy to them in the year 1682 and instead of affording them their Compassion for not being able in the three following Years to receive that Faith of that Trent Council which I account from the year 1564. the time of its Confirmation to this Day not to have been Published or Received in that Kingdom and whose Publication may be said to be there yet but as it were in abbeyance and instead of further charging them as Calumniators because of the things Writ against the Romanists by our Whitaker and Downham a hardship I have observed complain'd of in some late Writings of the French Protestants But the great Royal goodness of our Gracious King and the fervent Zeal and Charity of the present Divines of England have made them an amends for what they suffered on the account of those our former great Clergy-Men Yet must it be acknowledged that in one point that Clergy in their Petition to the King doth the Huguenots this Justice as to say the pretended Reformed how great so-ever their Blindness is are not arrived to that height of Folly as to maintain their lawful practice of the Crimes of Imputations and Calumny And I am glad that since the 2 d. of March 1679. so much occasion hath been given by the Popes Condemning the Tenets of the Iesuits about the Doctrine of CALVMNY and their Sicarious Principles for the not charging them on the Church of Rome as approved by it as formerly But on the account of the Horrid Calumnies against Fathers and Councils still continued in the Decrets of the Canon Law and forged with as much Falshood as any could have been by the French Clergy observed in the Case of the pretended Reform'd as I have particularly enough shewn in the Case of Cyprian I may well urge it as an Argumentumad hominem that neither the Pope nor French Clergy should have been Authors of too much Severity to those Reformed on the pretence of their Calumniating the Doctrine of their Church And have been careful not to charge on the Catholicitè as the Term is the Falshood of Gratian and the lachesse of the Popes that so long suffer'd so much Trompery in him to pass for Law And were I at Rome now while the Pope is so worthily busy'd in strengthening the preparations against the Turk in this Conjuncture would not divert him from the same by importuning him to make a better Canon Law for his Flock Nor do I charge on the Gallican Church or State what I have mentioned out of Boerius a President of Parliament there If they hoped by the publication of their Book in France to effect a Reconciliation of Churches there or the Translators of it
that Iohn Bishop and refers to Dr. Vane's Vindication of the Council of Lateran and shews how and when the Canons of that Council were allowed and confirmed in the National Synod held at Oxford 1222. When therefore I consider how one said that Custom having once through Continuance Naturalized it self into any sublunary things it is then to speak properly no more Custom but Nature and that Custom according to Galen is a kind of adscititious Nature and that Origen tells us that of all Customs none stick so fast in the mind when once setled there and none so hard to be wiped and washed off as those which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Customs of Opinion and Doctrine be they right or wrong and have found Gregory the Pope Cited for ascribing to Custom a power to make things that are bad in themselves to become Iust and Legal viz. Si pravae rei aditus antequam diu patescat non clauditur usu fit latior erit consuetudine licitum quod ratione Constat esse prohibitum Greg. Reg. Epist. P. 7. Ind. 2. Ep. 120. and do consider how far and how long your instances were extended of the Lateran Council having lost its Nature by the Customs of Opinion and Doctrine contrary thereto obtaining much in the Papal World any Philosopher or indifferent Man must say that you have said something of Substance and indeed the best thing that can fairly be said to shew Men the vanity and illogicalness of their former fears of Roman Catholick Princes being bound by their Religion to Exterminate their Heterodox Subjects by your shewing the Treaty when and place where and named the Year and Month in which that Irreligionary Principle of Popery was it self Exterminated by them and a custom contrary to the Lateran Laws been there firmly Naturalized 'T is said in Ieremiah 2.24 concerning the Wild Ass all they that seek her will not weary themselves in her Month they shall find her alluding to the Hunters being able to take her in her Month when she was burdened and so near Foaling And the endeavours of the Wise to Hunt down that Foolish and Cruel thing called Bigotry were not ineffectual when its Month was come and when it grew so Burthensom to it self and you have led us to the Month in which the Monarch of Spain was put to it to Relinquish his Right and Soveraignty in those Provinces from whence so many Nominal Hereticks had been formerly exterminated You have in your Discussion been very kind to the Character of a very Pious and Loyal Gentleman on the account of what you had been informed of as to his Signalising the Weight of his Political Remarks and Learning as well as of his Loyalty as your words are by his Speech he made against the Exclusion and his instancing in some Princes and their Subjects of different Religions living very happily together But whether you have not over-acted your part of praising that performance of his I am to leave you to consider for if that Speech of his was truly related in the Printed Collection of the Debates of the House of Commons at the Parliament held at Westminster on October 1680. there was nothing to justifie the Learning of his Political Remarks to the purpose you spake of but his saving that it was no such strange thing to have the Prince of one Religion and People of another and his instancing that the late Duke of Hannover was a Papist and yet lived in Peace with his People though Lutherans It was pitty but on that occasion he had open'd the prospect of a larger Scene than what the Case of the quiet living of that Duke and his Subjects could import and that both he and all the Speakers and Writers against the Exclusion that I took notice of omitted the referring to the happy effects of the Treaty of Munster that provided for so many great Popish Princes and the vast Numbers of their Protestant Subjects living well together though yet it happened that there was an occasion fair enough in all Conscience for all Mens taking notice of it who mind the Affairs of Christendom and that was that in the first project or platform of Conditions of Peace made by the French King in order to the Peace at Nimeghen and in which project as Dated at St. Germans the 9 th of April 1678. 't is said expresly that as to what concerns the Empire that he will insist only on the restoring of the Munster Treaties in all their points and to have them once more to be the means of restoring Peace to Germany and in the Peace between the Emperor and the French King Signed at Nimeghen and which mentions the Settlement of that Peace as Resulting from the Successful Mediation of his Majesty of England there are these words in the Second Article viz. and for as much as the Peace concluded at Munster in West Phalia is to be the Foundation and basis of this present Treaty and publick Tranquillity the said Peace shall from henceforth be restored in all and every its points and remain in full force and vigour as if the same were word for word inserted herein except in such points as are Derogated from it by this present Treaty And as to that we know that exceptio firmat regulam and thus too in the Articles between the Emperor and the King of Sweden Signed at Nimeghen on the same Day with the former Articles viz. February 5. 1679. The third Article runs thus According to this Foundation of an Vniversal and Vnlimited Anmesty and to the end a more certain Rule of Friendship and Peace may be setled between the Parties it hath been by mutual consent agreed on between them that the Peace Concluded in West-Phalia shall remain the Basis and Rule of the preâ—ent pacification in such manner that it shall be restored to its first Force and Vigour and inviolably kept hereafter and continue as it was before the present War a Pragmatick Sanction and Fundamental Law of the Empire c. And in the Articles between the Emperor and the French King as likewise in those between the Emperor and the King of Sweden there are some to include the King of Great Brittain in the Treaty after the best and most effectual manner that may be and to admit his Guaranty for the Execution and Performance of the Pacta Conventa herein And his present Majesty hath in the past time of his Reign appeared as tender of the Performance and Stabiliment of them as of the Apple of his Eye and on an Emergent occasion was as I am informed heard to say to a great Foraign Minister but I WILL have the Nimeghen Peace OBSERVED and with a paralel bravery to that in those words of Henry the Fourth you have mentioned but I WILL have my own Thus is the Munster Treaty and the Liberty thereby given to Protestants and Calvinists both as to the Enjoyment of their Religion
both in the Close of your Discourse as well as your Discussion to do the Persons as well as Tenets of Papists all the Justice you could From your having in that Discussion occasionally so much dilated on the Moral Offices of Loyalty to our Princes without respect to their Religion and what ever Religion they may profess different from that by Law Established I shall be glad if the thoughts of all his Majesties Protestant Subjects will Receive deep Impressions of the peculiar Duties we owe to him our Great and Gracious Soveraign particularly eo nomine When ever we pray for him at the Prayers of our Church or our private Devotions let us think of him with the Honour due to a King and Gods Vicegerent Let us not Slander the Footsteps of Gods Anointed in what ever way to Heaven he hath placed the same nor yet by Reproaches make the few of this great populous Nation uneasie who as Viatores attend him in the same way but be the more Civil to them for being part of his retinue therein Since it is Rudeness for any Man to be Curiously Inquisitive into the Speculative points of Religion held by Subjects it may be thought both that and Profanation of Gods more than ordinary Care over the Hearts of Kings to be prying and intruding into the Sentiments of our Soveraign As there are peculiar Moral Offices that concern Subjects when the Prince is not in the External Communion of the same Church with them so there are such likewise incumbent on those Subjects that are in the External Communion of the same Church with their Prince and which oblige them particularly to promote the Ease and Tranquillity of his Reign It having pleas'd God by the Course of the Executive power of the Law in his Majesties Hands to free them from many Hardships to which they were before liable and to put a great price into their Hands if they have Hearts to make use of it and to give them an opportunity by their Moderation and by their Complaisance with his Majesties Measures in the Defence and Supporting of the Church of England and by their knowing in this their Day the things that belong to their Peace to compass an Universal and lasting Tenderness in the great Body of the English People toward their Persons and making the Laws and the whole Hive of the English People to guard them and the very Anger and Zeal of the Protestants to be a Defensive Wall of Fire round about them as your words are it becomes them to contribute to the ease of his Majesties Royal Cares by their being what you say they generally are and by their not Misrepresenting or Calumniating those who are of the Religion different from theirs which yet you have shew'd Father Parsons predicted they must necessarily do and by their not affecting such an excessive internal Power in the Government as you say in the distant Reighnes of some of our Protestant Princes they did It concerns them by their Reverently using their present Temporary Indulgence to effect for his Majesty that in the Case of his easing their Consciences and their Estates from some Penal Laws it may be as was in the Reign of David viz. that whatsoever the King did pleas'd all the People There is none desires more than my self that among the various Opinions in Religion all exasperations against each others Persons and Misrepresentations of each others Doctrines may for ever cease And therefore according to the expressions us'd in the Acts of the General Assembly of the French Clergy complaining of Calumny publish'd against the Doctrine of the Church and the Faith of the Catholick Church and their seeming there to restrain that Doctrine and that Faith to the Decisions of the Council of Trent and such as are of the Nature with those printed in one Column apart I in what I have Written in my private Papers concerning the Religion of the Church of Rome have observ'd the Measures that our great Writer Mr. Chillingworth hath done in his Book forecited and where he saith Chap. 6. N. 56. I do not vnderstand by your Religion the Doctrine of Bellarmine or Baronius or any other private Man among you nor the Doctrine of the Sorbon or of the Jesuits or Dominicans or of any other particular company among you but that wherein you all agree or profess to agree the Doctrine of the Council of Trent And tho in your Explication of what you mean by Popery you seem to restrain your aversion to it as comprising only the Papal Usurpations or what is Congrous to the known Distinction of the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome and profess to follow the Measures of the late Earl of Clarendon of whom Cressy in p. 101. of his Epistle Apologetical saith that he makes the Popes Temporal power to be the Hinge upon which all other Controversies between Protestants and English Catholicks do hang and depend so entirely that if that only were taken off all the rest would quickly fall to the ground I am pleas'd with his Lordship or yours having gone so far with me in my way against Popery for if any Friend bears me Company good part of my way in any Journey I shall be pleas'd therewith tho he accompany me not to my Journeys end I am yet to tell you that in my way to Heaven I have further to go than merely so far as the leaving that Temporal Power of the Pope behind me And must freely pass the bounds of Trent but yet strictly observing the Moral Offices of not injuring or troubling or Misrepresenting or Miscalling any Man for not going my way and if I find the profess'd observers of the Doctrines of the Council of Trent seeming but tacitly to reject the Disloyal Principles propp'd up formerly by the Council of Lateran and owning expresly only the Doctrines of the Council of Trent I shall not trouble my self or them to charge them with the Odious Matter of the former Council or to Recant by Words what you say so many and so great Papists have done by Actions And if the Roman Catholicks who were suppos'd to have publishâ—d that Translated Book of the Acts of the French Clergy intended only thereby to caution us against the Misrepresenting them and the Doctrine of their Church I shall be glad if the Caution may be justly pursued by all Men. But some Criticks on that Translation have presumed to Judge their publishing the French Kings Edict of the 14 th of Iuly last for Restraining the French Protestants former Liberty of Writing and Speaking against the Doctrines of the Council of Trent or as the words there are from speaking directly or indirectly after what manner soever of the Catholick Religion was perhaps done with an ill intent by some who with an Evil Eye look'd on the Kings goodness to the Church of England I am far from Attributing the Heat or Indiscretion of particular Persons to the Body of any Religionary Party
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