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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34790	A letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret powers from which it appears, that it was never intended to confirm the alienation that was made of abbeylands : to which are added, two breves that Card. Pool brought over, and some other of his letters, that were never before printed.	Coventry, William, Sir, 1628?-1686.; Pole, Reginald, 1500-1558.	1685 (1685)	Wing C6631; ESTC R17149	17,951	40

A LETTER Written to Dr. BURNET Giving an Account of Cardinal POOL's Secret Powers From which it appears That it was never intended to confirm the Alienation that was made of the Abbey-Lands To Which are Added Two BREVES that Card. POOL brought over and some other of his Letters that were never before printed LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin in the Old-Baily-Corner on Ludgate-Hill 1685. A LETTER TO Dr. BURNET Giving an Account of Cardinal Pool's Secret Powers SIR I Have fallen on a Register of Cardinal Pool's Letters which carries in it all the Characters of Sincerity possible The Hand and the Abbreviatures shew that it was written at that time It contains not only the two Breves that I send along with this but two other Breves besides several Letters that past between Card. Pool and the Bishop of Arras that was afterwards the famous Cardinal Granvell and others that past between Pool and the Cardinal de Monte and Cardinal Morone and Soto the Emperor's Confessor There are also in it some of Pool's Letters to the Pope and to Philip then King of England and of these I have sent you two the one is to the Pope and the other is to Philip But with these I shall give you a large account of some Reflections that I have made on these Papers since I hear that you desire I would suggest to you all that occurs to me upon this occasion You have given the World a very particular Account in your History of the Reformation of the Difficulties that were made concerning the Church-Lands in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign and of the Act of Parliament that past in her Reign confirming the Alienation of them that was made by King Henry the Eighth and of the Ratification of it made by Cardinal Pool who was the Pope's Legate and was believed to have full Powers for all he did You have observed there were two Clauses in that very Act of Parliament that shew there was then a Design form'd to recover all the Abbey-Lands The one is a Charge given by Pool to all People that had the Goods of the Church in their hands to consider the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazzar for profaning the holy Vessels even tho they had not been taken away by himself but by his Father Which set the matter heavy upon the Consciences of those that enjoyed these Lands The other was the Repeal of the Statute of Mortmain for twenty Years for since that Statute was a Restraint upon the profuse Endowments of Churches the suspending it for so long a time gave the Monks Scope and Elbow-room and it is not unlike that within the time limited of twenty Years the greatest part of the Work would have been done for Superstition works violently especially upon dying Men when they can hold their Lands no longer themselves And so it is most likely that if a Priest came to tell them frightful Stories of Purgatory and did aggravate the Heinousness of Sacrilege they would easily be wrought upon to take care of themselves in the next World and leave their Children to their Shifts in this But I go now to give you some account of the Papers that accompany this Letter The first is the Breve that contains the Powers that were given to Cardinal Pool besides those general Powers or Bulls that were given him as Legate This bears date the 8th of March 1554 and so probably it was an Enlargement of the Powers that were as it is likely granted him at his first dispatch from Rome and therefore these carry in them very probably more Grace and Favour than was intended or allowed of at first For Pool had left Rome the November before this and no doubt he carried some Powers with him but upon the Remonstrances that were made by the Emperor as well as from England it seems those were procured that I now send you The most uneasy part of this whole Matter was that which related to the Church-Lands For it is delivered in the Canon-Law That the Pope cannot alienate Lands belonging to the Church in any manner or for any necessity whatsoever And by that same Canon which was decreed by Pope Symmachus and a Roman Synod about the Year 500 The Giver and Seller of Church-Lands as well as the Possessor is to be degraded and anathematized and any Church-Man whatsoever may oppose such Alienations and these notwithstanding may recover the Lands so alienated The Pope according to this Decree could not confirm the Alienations that had been made by King Henry and if he did confirm them the Act must be null in Law and could be no prejudice to the present Incumbent or his Successor to claim his Right Therefore pursuant to this the Powers given to Pool authorize him only to indemnify and discharge the Possessors of the Church-Lands for the Goods that they had embezelled and for the Rents that they had received for it runs in these Words which I have mark'd in the Breve it self that you may readily turn to it And to agree and transact with the Possessors of the Goods of the Church for the Rents which they have unlawfully received and for the moveable Goods which they have consumed and for freeing and discharging them for them they restoring first if that shall seem expedient to you the Lands themselves that are unduly detained by them By these Powers it is plain that the Pope only forgave what was past but stood to the Right of the Church as to the restitution of the Lands themselves And that Clause if that shall seem to you expedient belongs only to the Order and Point of Time so that the discharging what was past might have been done by Cardinal Pool before or after Restitution as he pleased But Restitution was still to be made and he had by these Powers no Authority to confirm the Alienations that had been made by King Henry the 8 th for the time to come But these Limitations were so distasteful both in England and at the Emperor's Court that Pool found it necessary to send his Secretary Ormanet to Rome for new Instructions and fuller Powers He addressed him to Cardinal de Monte for procuring them Ormanet was dispatch'd from Rome in the end of June 1554 and came to Pool in the end of July as appears by the Date of Pool's Letters to the Cardinal de Monte which is the 29 th of July upon the receipt of the two Breves that Ormanet brought him bearing date the 26 th and 28 th of June The first of these is only matter of Form empowering him to act as a Legate either about the Emperor or the King of France in as ample manner as former Legates had done The second relates almost wholly to the Business of Abbey-Lands in it the Pope sets forth That whereas he had formerly empowered him to transact with the Possessors of Church-lands and to discharge them for the Rents unjustly received or

after Ormanet came to him his Letter bears date from Bouchain the 3 d of August 1554. By Ormanet's Letter is appears that these last Powers gave the Emperor full satisfaction and were not at all excepted against only Granvell made some difficulty in one Point Whether the Settlement of the Church-Lands should be granted as a Grace of the Pope's by the Cardinal's hands immediately to the possessors or should be granted to Philip and Mary and by their means to the possessors For it seems it was thought a surer way to engage the Crown to maintain what was done if the Pope were engaged for it to the Crown with which he would not venture so easily to break as he might perhaps do with the possessors themselves But Ormanet gave him full satisfaction in that matter for the manner of setling it being referred wholly to the Cardinal by his powers he promised that he would order it in the way that should give the Nation most content The Emperor's Delays became very uneasy to Cardinal Pool upon which he wrote to Soto that was the Emperor's Confessor the 12 th of August and desired to speak with him By the place from whence the Cardinal dates most of these Letters it appears he was then in a Monastery called Diligam near Brussels I will not determine whether it may not be a Mistake that passes so generally that no wonder you have gone into it that he was stopt at Dilling a Town upon the Danube by the Emperor's Orders which might have been founded on his being lodged in this Monastery for as he dates some of his Letters from Diligam and others from Brussels so he dates one from Diligam-Abbey near Brussels but this is not of any great importance After some Letters of no great consequence there comes a long one writ by Pool to the Pope bearing date from Brussels Octob. 13. 1554. which I send you In it Pool gives him an account of the first Conference that he had with the Emperor on this Subject He told the Emperor That tho as to Matters of Faith the Pope could slacken nothing nor shew any manner of Indulgence yet in the Matter of the Church-Lands in which the Pope was more at liberty he was resolved to be gentle and indulgent And as to all the Pains and Censures that the possessors had incurred and the Rents that they enjoyed which were points of great importance he was resolved to use all sort of Indulgence towards them and to forgive all Nor had he any design of applying any part of these Goods either to himself or to the Apostolick See of which some were afraid tho he might pretend good reason for it considering the Losses that that See had sustained by reason of the Schism but he would give up all that to the Service of God and the Good of the Kingdom And such regard had the Pope to the King and Queen of England that he was resolved to grant upon their Intercession whatsoever should be thought convenient to such Persons as they should think worth gratifying or were capable to assist in the Design of Petling the Religion To all this the Emperor answered with a new delay He was expecting to hear very suddenly from England and it was necessary to have that Difficulty concerning the Church-Lands first cleared which by his own Experience in Germany he concluded to be the chief Obstacle For as to the Doctrine he did not believe they stuck at that and he thought that they believed neither the one nor the other Persuasion and therefore they would not be much concerned in such points Yet since these Goods were dedicated to God it was not fit to grant every thing to those that held them and therefore the Pool had told him how far his Powers extended yet it was not fit that it should be generally known But as the Emperor was putting in new Delays Pool prest him vehemently that the Matter might at last be brought to a Conclusion The Emperor told him that great regard must be had to the ill Dispositions of the Parties concerned since the Aversion that the English Nation had to the very name of Obedience to the Church or to a Red Hat or a Religious Habit was so universal that his Son had been advised to make the Friers that came over from Spain with him change their Habits but tho he had done it yet the danger of Tumults deserved to be well considered Pool replied That if he must stay till all Impediments were removed he must never go Those that were concerned in the Abby-Lands would still endeavour to obstruct his coming since by that means they still continued in Possession of all that they had got In conclusion it was resolved that Pool should stay for the return of the Messenger that the Emperor had sent to England Two things appear from this Letter one is that Cardinal Pool intended only to grant a general Discharge to all the Possessors of the Abby-Lands for what was past but resolved to give no Grants of them for the future except only to such as should merit it and for whom the Queen should intercede and whose Zeal in the matter of Religion might deserve such a Favour and it seems that even the Emperor intended no more and that he thought that this should be kept a great Secret The other is that the Aversion of the Nation to Popery was at that time very high so that Tumults were much apprehended yet the whole Work was brought to a final Conclusion within two Months without any Opposition or the least Tumult so inconsiderable are popular Discontents in Opposition to a Government well established and supported by strong Alliances Pool being wearied out with these continued Delays of which he saw no end writ a long and high-flown or according to the stile of this Age a canting Letter to Philip then King of England I send it likewise to you because you may perhaps desire to see every thing of Pool's writing for whose Memory you have expressed a very particular esteem he tells the King that he had been knocking at the Gates of that Court now a Year tho he was banished his Country because he would not consent that she who now dwelt in it should be shut out of it but in his Person it was S. Peter's Successor or rather S. Peter himself that knock'd and so he runs out in a long and laboured Allegory taken from S. Peter's being delivered out of Prison in the Herodian Persecution and coming to Mary's Gate where after his Voice was known yet he was held long knocking tho Mary was not sure that it was he himself c. Upon all which he runs division like a Man that had practised Eloquence long and had allowed himself to fly high with forced Rhetorick And to say the truth this way of enlarging upon an Allegory from some part of Scripture-story had been so long used and was so early practised that

the moveable Goods that were consumed by them yet since the perfecting of the Reduction of England would become so much the easier as the Pope gave the greater hopes of Gentleness and Favour in that matter he therefore not being willing to let any worldly Respects lie in the way of so great a Work as was the Recovery of so many Souls and in imitation of the tender-hearted Father that went out to meet the Prodigal Child empowers the Cardinal according to the Trust and Confidence that he had in him to transact and agree with such of the Possessors of them by the Pope's Authority for whom the Queen should intercede and to dispense with them for enjoying them in all time coming But the Salvo that comes in the end seems to take all this off For he reserves all to the Pope's Confirmation and good pleasure in all those things that were of such importance that the Holy See ought first to be consulted by Pool By these Powers all that Pool could do was only provisional and could not bind the Pope so that he might disclaim and disown him when he pleased And the Agreements that he made afterwards with the Parliament were of no force till they were confirmed by the Pope And as the Pope that succeeded Julius the Third who granted these Breves but died before the Execution of them was brought to him for his Confirmation would never confirm them so this whole Transaction was a publick Cheat put on the Nation or at least on the Possessors of the Abbey-Lands nor did it grant them either a good Title in Law I mean the Canon-Law or give any Security to their Consciences in enjoying that which according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is plain Sacrilege And therefore I cannot imagine how those of that Church can quiet their Consciences in the possession of those Lands It is plain by the progress of this matter that the Court of Rome never intended to confirm the Abbey-Lands for all that was done by Pool was only an Artifice to still Mens Fears and to lay the Clamour which the Apprehension of the return of Popery was raising that so it might once enter with the less opposition and then it could be easy to carry all lesser Matters when the great Point was once gained as the Saddle goes into the Bargain for the Horse And indeed tho a poor Heretick may hope for Mercy notwithstanding his Abbey-lands because it may be supposed to be a Sin of Ignorance in him so that he possesses them with a good Conscience and is that which the Law calls bonae Fidei Possessor yet I see no Remedy for such as go over to the Church of Rome for if there is a Sin in the World that is condemned by that Church it is Sacrilege so that they must be malae Fidei Possessores that continue in it after the enlightning which that Church offers them A Man may as well be a Papist and not believe Transubstantiation nor worship the Host as be one and still enjoy his Church-Lands Nor can any Confessor that understands the principles of his own Religion give Absolution to such as are involved in that Guilt without restitution So that it is a vain thing to talk of securing Men in the possession of those Lands if Popery should ever prevail For tho the Court of Rome would to facilitate our Reconciliation offer some deceitful Confirmation as was done by Cardinal Pool yet no Man after he went over to that Church could suffer himself to enjoy them Every Fit of Sickness or cross Accident would by the Priests Rhetorick look like the beginning of the Curse that fell on Ananias and Saphira The terrible Imprecations that are in the Endowments of Monasteries would be always tinging in his Ears and if Absolution were denied especially in the hour of Death what haste would the poor Man make to get rid of that Weight which must sink him into Hell For as he must not hope for such good Quarters as Purgatory so if he happened to go thither he would be so scurvily used by the poor Souls which have been kept frying there for want of the Masses which would have been said for them in the Abbey-Church if he had not with held the Rents that he would find so little difference between that and Hell that even there he might be tempted to turn Protestant again and believe that Purgatory was no better than Hell If any will object that at least Cardinal Pool's Settlement secures them till it is annulled at Rome To this as these Papers will offer an Answer since his Settlement was to have no force till it was confirmed by the Apostolick See which was never yet done So if our English Papists go into the Opinion that is now generally received and asserted in France That the Pope's power is limited by the Canons and subject to the Church then the Confirmation given by Cardinal Pool is null of it self tho it had been granted exactly according to the Letter of his Instructions Since there has been in several Ages of the Church so vast a number of Canons made against the Alienations of Church-Lands that if they were all laid together they would make a big Book For in the Ages of Superstition as the Church-men were mightily set on enriching the Church so they made sure Work and took special care that nothing should be torn from it that was once consecrated But I return from this Digression to give you some account of the other Letters that are in my Register There is a Letter of Cardinal Morone's to Pool of the 13 th of July sent also by Ormanet in which he tells him That tho the Emperor had writ very extravagantly of him to the Pope yet the Pope said he was sure there was no just occasion given for it And whereas the Emperor prest that Pool might be recalled the Pope continued firm in his resolution not to consent to so dishonourable a thing He adds That the Pope was not yet determined in the Business of the Church-lands but had spoken very often very variously concerning that matter After this there follows another Breve of the 10 th of July by which the Pope upon the consideration of the Prince of Spain's being married to the Queen of England enlarges Pool's Powers and authorizes him as his Legate to treat with him but this is meerly a point of Form Pool sent Ormanet with an account of this Dispatch that he had received from Rome to the Bishop of Arras to be presented by him to the Emperor All the Answer that he could procure as appears by Ormanet's Letter was That the Emperor had no News from England since his Son's Marriage but that he would send an Express thither to know the State of Affairs there which he thought must be done first before the Legate could go over And of this the Bishop of Arras writ to Pool three days