of that very Person whom you quote for your Relation 27. Having thus given us a proof either of your Skill or your Integrity in the account of the first Conversion of our Island under Pope Gregory the Great you next make a very large step as to the progress of your Religion and such as still confirms me more and more how very unfit you are to turn Historian 28. Add pag. 8. Reply This Faith and these Exercises say you taught and practised by St. Austin were propagated down even till King Henry the VIIIth's time Answ In which account whether we are to complain of your Ignorance or your Vnsincerity be it your part to determine this I am sure they cannot both be excused 29. I have already shewn you that that Faith which was found in the Church of England in King Henry the VIIIth's time could not have been propagated down from the time of Austin's coming hither seeing that Monk neither taught nor practised the greatest part of those Corruptions which were afterwards by degrees brought into ours as well as into the other Churches of the Roman Communion But however not to insist upon this Fundamental Mistake Can you Sir with any Conscience affirm that the Doctrine which you now teach was till King Henry the VIIIth's time without interruption received and practised in this Country 30. First For the Brittish Bishops whom you before bring in as submitting themselves to Austin your own Author Bede expresly declares that in his time which was an hundred Years after the Death of Austin they entertain'd no Communion with them Lib. 2. cap. 20. Seeing says he to this very day it is the Custom of the Britains to have no value for the Faith and Religion of the English nor to communicate with them any more than with Pagans Which Henry of Huntingdon thus confirms Lib. 3. Hist That neither the Britains nor Scots i. e. Irish would communicate with the English or with Austin their Bishop any more than with Pagans So that for one Age at least the British Bishops then neither own'd the Authority of your Church nor had any manner of Communion with the Members of it But 31. Secondly Have you never heard of some other Kings of England who with their Parliaments have most stifly opposed the Pretences of the Pope and refused all Messages from Him and made it no less than High-Treason for any one to bring his Orders or Interdicts into the Kingdom What think you of another Henry no less brave than his Successor whom you so revile in his Defence of himself against his Rebellious Subject but your Saint Thomas a Becket I could add many Acts of Parliament made long before King Henry the VIIIth's time to shew you that tho he indeed proved the most successful in his Attempts to shake off the Pope's Authority yet that several other of our Princes had shewn him the way and that the Usurpations of that See were neither quietly own'd nor patiently submitted to by his Royal Predecessors And then 32. Thirdly For the matter of your Doctrine it must certainly be a great piece of Confidence in you to pretend that this came down such as you now believe and practise from the time of Austin the Monk to King Henry the VIIIth's days I speak not now of the great Opposition that was made to it by Wickleffe tho supported by the Duke of Lancaster the Lord Marshall of England and divers others of chiefest note in this Kingdom in the time of Edward the Third and Richard the Second I need not say in how many Points he stood up against the Doctrine of your Church what a mighty Interest he had to support him against the Authority of the Pope and the Rage of the Bishop of London and his other Enemies on that account so as both freely to preach against your Errors and yet die in Peace in a good old Age. The number of his Followers was almost infinite and tho severe Laws were afterwards made against them yet could they hardly ever be utterly rooted out But yet least you should say that Wickleffe was only a Schismatick from your Church which constantly held against him I will rather shew you in a few Instances that even the Church of England it self which you suppose to have been so conformable to your present Tenets was in truth utterly opposite to your Sentiments in many Particulars And because I may not run out into too great a length I will insist only upon two but those very considerable Points 33. The first is the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which as it came but late into the Roman Church so did it by Consequence into ours too Certain it is that in the 10th Century the contrary Faith was publickly taught among us Now not to insist upon the Authority of Bede who in several parts of his Works plainly shews how little he believed your Doctrine of Transubstantiation this is undeniably evident from the Saxon Homily translated by Aelfrick and appointed in the Saxons time to be read to the People at Easter before they received the Holy Communion and which is from one end to the other directly opposite to the Doctrine of the Real Presence as establish'd by your Council of Trent And the same Aelfrick in his Letters to Wulfine Bishop of Scyrburne and to Wulfstane Archbishop of York shews his own Notions to have been exactly correspondent to what that Homily taught The Housell says he is Christes Bodye not bodelye but ghostlye Not the Bodye which he suffred in but the Bodye of which he spake when he blessed Bread and Wyne to Housell a night before his suffring and said by the blessed Bread Thys is my Bodye and agayne by the holy Wyne This is my Bloud which is shedd for manye in forgiveness of Sins Vnderstand nowe that the Lord who could turn that Bread before his suffering to his Bodye and that Wyne to his Bloude ghostlye that the self-same Lorde blesseth dayly through the Priestes handes Bread and Wyne to his ghostlye Bodye and to his ghostlye Bloud All which he more fully explains in his other Letter H. de Knyghton de Event Anglice l. 5. p. 2647 2648. Nay it appears by a Recantation of Wickleffe mention'd by Knyghton that even in the latter time of that Man's Life there was no such Doctrine then in England as Transubstantiation publickly imposed as an Article of Faith. By all which it is evident that your great Doctrine of the Real Presence with all its necessary Appendages was not as you pretend propagated down from Austin's to King Henry the Eight's time but brought in to the Church some hundreds of Years after that Monk died 34. The other Instance I shall offer to overthrow your Pretences is no less considerable viz. the Worship of Images It is well known what Opposition was made not only by the Emperor Charles the Great and the Fathers of the Synod of Franckfort but by the French
apprehension of his being every where present And tho much of it is due to the natural Impressions which God has left of himself in our Souls yet the Reflexions we make upon it are chiefly owing to the frequent Addresses we make every where publickly and privately to the Invisible Being the Lord of All of whom we have some knowledge by Nature and more by Christian Instruction But when Prayer is made to other Invisible Beings as generally as to God how can it be otherwise but that the People should conceive them to be as Omnipresent as God himself is Especially if it be considered that when their Educated and Philosophical Men come to vindicate their Practice and Doctrine from this imputation they cannot so much as speak sense about it but with all their Art talk more meanly and confusedly than meer Nature would instruct an Honest man to do The difference between the People and the blind guides on the one side and between the Seers on the other being only this That the Worship and the Notions of the former go together and are of a piece but the latter with as bad a Worship have better Notions and give that Honour to the Saints by their Practice which their Notions as they would have us think at least deny to them But for that reason they are the more to blame and tho their Idolatry be not so gross as the Peoples yet it is more inexcusable 13. And yet if we may judge of their thoughts by their words some of the refined Controvertists do not come much behind the Common People in this stupidity If they think otherwise than they say they are to answer to God for that too Cardinal Bellarmine and others De Cultu ss lib. iii. c. 9. who had none of these Expounding designs to carry on speak out freely and tell us that the Saints are Dii per participationem God's by participation and upon that account he justifies the Practice of the Church of Rome in swearing by them and making Vows to them Expos §. IV. p. 7. Nor indeed do I see how that differs very much from Monsieur de Meaux's giving them the Knowledge which the hearing of all Prayers requires as by a light communicated to them by God. For what is that but to say that God has in effect made them partakers of his Immensity Nay the Representer if we may conclude any thing from his arguing seems plainly to yeild that the Saints have a Natural Knowledge of our Prayers Part 1. §. ii p. 3. For says he Abraham heard the Petition of Dives who was yet at a greater distance from him than the Saints are from us even in Hell and told him likewise the manner of his living whilst as yet on Earth Nay since 't is generally allow'd that the very Devils hear those desperate Wretches who call on them why should we doubt that the Saints want this priviledge 14. No wonder therefore if Bellarmine makes a greater difference between the Prayers to the Saints and our desires of good mens Prayers upon Earth than Monsieur de Meaux seems willing to acknowledge and looks upon it to be a Worship due to them Conc. Trid. Seff ult thus in the words of your Synod of Trent suppliantly to call upon them For what can be more reasonable than to esteem that Prayer the Invocation of Suppliants and the Worship of Invocation which is made with such deference of respect from the very Nature of the Act as is due to God the only Omnipresent Being And what more unreasonable and foolish than to call our desires of each others Prayers by such Titles as these And hitherto have I shewn that in the very Act of praying to the Saints without any regard had to the form or substance of your Petitions or the circumstances with which you call upon them you give proper religious Worship to them which you acknowledge it is unlawful for you to do I proceed Secondly to shew this yet more plainly II. From the Circumstances of it 15. And here to avoid if it be possible all your little Cavils so usual upon this occasion as in speaking to the former part of this Argument I have managed it so as not to concern my self with any of your distinctions of Supreme and Inferiour Religious Worship Reply p. 7. so here I will not insist on those Exteriour Actions of the Body which you tell me are Equivocal and of which Monsieur de Meaux roundly affirms Expos p. 8. That the Nature of that Exteriour Honour which you render to the Saints must be judged from the internal Sentiments of the Mind The Circumstances I shall now insist upon are such as are not liable to any of these Evasions but will if not silence a Contentious Spirit yet I am confident satisfie any unprejudiced Christian that the Prayers which you make to the Saints are properly a Religious Act and not only called so by an external denomination from the Cause and Motive of them 16. For 1. What else can be gathered from those outward Circumstances of the Place Time and Manner to say nothing of the Gestures of the Body with which you call upon them Do not all these speak plainly to us what the Nature of this Worship is You pray for instance to the Saints in the House of God it may be in a Temple which you have consecrated at once to the Service of God and to the Honour of the Saint whom you invoke You accompany these Prayers with Incense smoking before their Images a Circumstance which was once reckon'd as a peculiar instance of External Religions Adoration and which was therefore thought so appropriate an Act of Divine Worship among the Primitive Christians that they chose to die rather than to throw a little Incense into the fire upon the Heathen Altars You call at the same instant upon the One and upon the other and too often place them in an equal rank with one another Thus Missal R. in ord Miss if you confess your sins you do it to God Almighty to the B. Virgin to St. Michael the Archangel to S. John Baptist to the Holy Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul and in short to All the Saints If you commend a departing Soul Rituale R. Ord. Comm. An. you bid him go out in the Name of God the Father Almighty who created him and of Jesus Christ Son of the living God who suffer'd for him and in the Name of the Holy Ghost who was poured out upon him in the Name of Angels and Archangels of Apostles Evangelists c. If you conjure a Tempest Ritual Fr. de Sales p 77. in fin you call upon God and the Holy Angels you adjure the Evil Spirit you contradict him by the Vertue of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary In the Offices of the Church your Addresses to God and the Blessed Virgin are so inter-woven with each other
that there is no alteration but only in the manner of the Expression and very often not in that neither As when you pray for instance That the Virgin Mary and Her Son would Bless you Offic. B. V. pag. 84. In the Doxologies of your greatest Men at the End of their Works nothing more frequent than to see Glory and Praise return'd to God and the Blessed Virgin and in your ordinary Conversation no exclamation more frequent than that of Jesu-Maria Pontific R. Ord. Excom Absolv p. 196 197. Even your solemn Excommunications and Absolutions are made in the Name and Authority of the Holy Trinity the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints and the Passion of Christ joyn'd in equal rank with the Merits of the Virgin Mary for the remission of their sins By all which it undoubtedly appears that either your Invocation of God himself is not properly a Religious Act or if that be strictly a Religious Worship the other will be so also 17. Secondly Another Circumstance which plainly shews your Invocation of Saints to be in the very Nature of the Act a Religious Service is that you offer not only your Prayers but your very Sacrifice too to their Honour and Veneration And this I am sure you will not deny to be truly a Religious Act. Thus in the Missal of Salisbury In Ord. Missae fol. 146. Accept O Holy Trinity this Oblation which I unworthy sinner offer in Honour of thee and of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of All Saints And in the Common Roman Missal Ord. Miss p. 311. Paris 1616. Accept O Holy Trinity this Oblation which we offer to thee in memory of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and in Honour of the ever Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Blessed John the Baptist and of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. And in the Post-Communio of the Mass of the B. Virgin. Rituale Fr. de Sales par post p. 19. Lyon. 1632. Having received O Lord the defence of our salvation grant we beseech thee that we may every where be defended by the Patronage of the Blessed Virgin for whose Veneration we have offer'd this to thy Majesty Now not to enter on an Enquiry how far these Expressions will in some measure apply the very Sacrifice it self to those Saints it being hardly intelligible otherwise what Honour can be done to the Saints by a Sacrifice offer'd solely to God it cannot be doubted but that this being confessedly a proper Religious Act whatever Honour is hereby done the Saints must be strictly and properly a Religious Honour not meerly in denomination but in the very Nature of the thing it self And I desire Monsieur de Meaux to tell us whether this too be done with the same Spirit of Charity and in the same Order of Brotherly Society with which we intreat our Brethren upon Earth to pray for us And what would be thought of him that out of kindness or respect to his fellow Christian should offer up the Son of God for his Honour or as the last Prayer has it in his Veneration I do not pretend that this is properly an Act of Prayer to Saints and therefore I propose it only as a Circumstance from whence to conclude what the true Nature of your Invocation of them is For if it appear that the other parts of that Worship you pay to the Saints are properly Religious Acts it will not be doubted but that your praying to them is certainly so too And tho you have restrain'd the terms of our Question to this one particular Instance of calling upon them yet it suffices me in general to conclude against you that you do give proper Religious Honour to others besides God if it appear that any part of that Worship you pay to the Saints is such 18. Nor is it by any means to be forgot here that in almost every one of these Masses you desire to be accepted by the MERITS of that Saint in whose Honour or Veneration the Mass it self is offer'd I will give you an instance or two of this Regard we most humbly beseech thee O Lord Missale in usum Sarum Fest Januarii fol. x. these things which we offer to thee and by the MERITS of thy Blessed Bishop Julian deliver us from all sin Let the MERITS of S. Bathildis obtain that these gifts may be accepted by thee We load thy Table O Lord with mystical gifts Ibid. fol. xiii in commemoration of S. Agatha thy Virgin and Martyr humbly beseeching thy Majesty that by the help of HER MERITS we may be freed from all Contagions Thus as I have heretofore observed do you joyn the MERITS of Christ whom you suppose to be the Offering with the MERITS of your Saints and make a Bathildis or a Julian joynt Intercessors with the Son of God for your forgiveness What is this but truly to ascribe to the Creature the Honour of the Creator and to worship them with a Religious Worship in the utmost propriety of the Expression 19. I shall add but one Circumstance more and that of another sort of Service with which you sometimes accompany your Prayers to the Saints and which I think will undeniably convince you that you do give them the most strict Acts of Religious Service and that is Your making of Vows to them That this is a proper Act of Religion Numb XXX Deutr. XXIII both the Holy Scripture evidently shews and the reason of the thing it self declares A Vow being in its own Nature nothing else than a Promise made to God and such by which he is acknowledged to be the Searcher of the Heart and the just Avenger of all perfidious Promisers as he is the bountiful Rewarder of those who are faithful in his Service Aquinas 22ae Qu. 88. A. 5. And your own Authors unanimously acknowledge it to be an Act not only of Proper but of Supreme Religious Worship 20. And yet even this too is paid by you to the Saints and I desire you to consider what you then did when at the entry into your Order if you herein as I suppose agree with the manner of your Brethren the Dominicans Vid. Annot. Cajet in D. Th Qu. 88. Ar. 5. p. 313. Lugd. 1562. you solemnly vow'd to God to the B. Virgin to S. Benedict and to All the Saints that you would be obedient to your Superiors Now this I the rather remark because the Answer that is made by your Writers to justifie this Practice plainly condemns you not only in this Point but in that of your Prayers too upon your own Principle as Idolaters They acknowledge the Act to be PROPERLY RELIGIOUS That these Vows are made after the very SAME MANNER to God and the Saints Ibid. And Card. Cajetane anticipating this Objection That to Vow is an Act of Supreme Religious Worship and how then may it be given to the Saints Answers That it is an Act of
Doctrine as to the Invocation of Saints must be For 35. Fourthly Had the Council of Trent been of the same Opinion with Monsieur de Meaux I shall leave it to any reasonable man that will but be at the pains to examine your Offices to say whether there was not great need of some such Advertisement as I before said As for example In the Office of the Blessed Virgin you thus address to Her Officium B. Virg. p. 84. Antw. 1631. We fly to your protection O Holy Mother of God despise not our Prayers which we make to you in our Necessities but deliver us from all dangers O Glorious and ever Blessed Virgin And again Ibid. p. 103. Vouchsafe that I may be worthy to praise thee O Sacred Virgin Give me strength and power against thine Enemies Now that these Prayers are conceived in as formal terms as any can be to God himself is not to be deny'd I desire you therefore to tell me by what Rules of Interpretation by what Publick and Authentick Decree of your Church we are to expound a Prayer made to the Blessed Virgin that She would give strength and power into a desire that she would pray to God that He would do this 36. But however let us for one moment suppose this to be reasonable and try whither such a method of interpreting will carry us For instance thus you * Ibid. p. 497. Pray to the Apostles O ye just Judges and true Lights of the World we pray unto you with the Requests of our Hearts that ye would hear the Prayers of your Suppliants That is to say We do desire you in a friendly way and only after the Order of Brotherly Society though in complement we call our selves indeed your Suppliants and intreat you to hear our Prayers that you would Pray for us Ye that by your Word shut and open Heaven deliver us we beseech you by your COMMAND from all our sins That is you who by your Prayers to God are able to incline him either to shut or open Haven we intreat you that by YOUR COMMAND meaning only your Prayers you would deliver us that is to say would Pray to God that He would deliver us from all our sins You to whose COMMAND the Health and Sickness of all men are submitted Heal us who are sick in our Manners and restore us to vertue That is to say O ye Holy Apostles to whose command as far as Prayers may be so called the Health and Sickness of all is subjected forasmuch as your Requests can prevail with God to submit it to you Heal us i. e. Pray to God that He would Heal us who are sick in our manners and Restore us that is to say intreat God that He would restore us to Vertue 37. Such according to your Principles is the Paraphrase of this Prayer If this be a natural way of Expounding then be also your Pretences allow'd of But if to pray in such words as these meaning no more than what I have express'd be a downright mocking both of God and his Saints then let the World judge what we are to think of your Interpretations 38. But however for once let us allow even this too What shall we do with those Prayers where God and the Saints are both join'd together in the same Request As for instance Let Mary and Her Son bless us Officium B. Virg. pag. 105. Here I doubt it will be something difficult to reduce them to what you call the Churches Sense PRAY FOR US unless you pray to God too as well as to the Saints to pray to whom I cannot imagine for you 39. I shall add but one Consideration more from your Service of the Saints to overthrow your new Expositions but that such as I shall be very glad to receive an Honest Answer to For be it that in defiance of all Sense and Reason your Prayers to the Saints in what terms soever they be conceived must all be interpreted as you pretend Yet what shall we do in those Cases where the very Nature of the Service utterly refuses such kind of Colours As I. When in your Vows you vow'd as I before observed To God and the Blessed Virgin and to St. Benedict and to all the Saints that you would be obedient to your Superiours II. When in your Doxologies you give Glory to God and the B. Virgin Mary and last of all to Jesus Christ So Greg. de Valencia Praise be to God and the Virgin Mother Mary also to God Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father be Praise and Glory So Card. Bellarmine closes this very Dispute of the Worship of Saints Honour and Glory be to God and to the most Holy Virgin Mary and to all the Saints So your Collector of the Lives of the Saints Contemplat pag. 23. Vers Open my lips O Mother of JESUS Resp And my soul shall speak forth thy Praise Vers Divine Lady be intent to my aid Resp Graciously make haste to help me Vers Glory be to JESUS and MARY Resp As it WAS IS and ever SHALL be So Dr. J. C. Now what you will think of all this I cannot tell See below but sure I am S. Athanasius pronounces it to be downright Idolatry and what no good Christian would ever be guilty of III. When in your Commendation of a departing Soul you bid him Rit Rom. Ord. Comm. Anim. Depart out of the World in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost of Angels and Archangels of Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and of all Saints as I have before at large recited it IV. When in the Confession of your sins you confess To God Almighty and the Blessed Virgin Mary Missale R. in Ord. Miss to S. Michael the Archangel to S. John Baptist to the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and to all the Saints V. When in absolving your Penitents from them you join The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ Rituale Rom. de Sacr. Poenit. and the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and of all the Saints together for the remission of all his sins VI. When in your Conjurings against storms You contradict the Evil Spirit by the Vertue of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Virgin. Rituale Fr. de Sales p. 77. VII When in your Excommunications you shut men out of the Church In the Authority of God Almighty the Father Son Pontific Rom. Ord. Excom Absol and Holy Ghost and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of all the Saints VIII When in Absolving them from this Sentence you Remit this bond in the same Authority of God Almighty Ibid. and of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. Lastly When in consecrating of a Church or Altar you Bid this stone be Sancti ✚ fied and Conse ✚ crated Ibid. de Consecrat Ecclesiae p. 124. in the Name of the Fa ✚ ther and of the S ✚ on and of the Holy ✚
for the obtaining the Help of their Reliques this is what will need no proof to those who are but never so little acquainted with your Superstition And have seen with what Zeal you touch your Beads and Psalters at the very Shrines in which they are contain'd to sanctify them thereby How upon all occasions they are brought forth by you To cure your Sickness to preserve you from Tempests at Land and in Storms at Sea but especially to drive away Evil Spirits for which they are the most beneficial The Messieurs du Port Royal Reponse à un Ecrit publié sur les Miracles de la St. Espine p. 15. Pag. 18 22. have given us a whole Volume of the Miracles wrought by the Holy Thorn. There you may see how Sister Margaret one of the Nuns being ill of the Palsy was carried to ADORE the Holy Thorn. How another being sick recurr'd to it for its help and found it too having no sooner ADORED the Holy Thorn and kissed it but she was well of her Infirmity Infinite Examples of the like kind might be produced but I shall content my self to shew what Opinion you have of the Power of your Reliques Pontific Rom. pag. 164 165. from the very Prayer that you make at the blessing of those little Vessels in which they are put We most humbly beseech thee Almighty God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that thou wouldst vouchsafe to bless these Vessels that are prepared for the Honour of thy Saints through the Intercession of the same Saints That all those who shall venerate their Merits and humbly embrace their Reliques may be defended against the Devil and his Angels against Thunder Lightning and Tempest against the Corruption of the Air and the Plagues of Men and of Beasts against Thieves and Robbers and Invasions of Men against evil Beasts and against all the several kinds of Serpents and creeping things and against the wicked Devices of evil Men. Here I hope are benefits enough to invite a Man to seek to them and if they can help in all these Cases we need not doubt but they shall have Votaries enough to recur to them for it 131. But that which is most admirable is that in all these Cases false Reliques are every jot as good as true ones and which makes somewhat for the Opinion of Vasquez that provided a Man do's but think 't is the Relique of a Saint he may securely worship it tho it may be 't is no such thing We have before heard what mighty Cures were wrought at the Monument of the famous Bishop and Martyr VIARVM CVRANDARVM See above Art. 3. And whether the Council of Trent prescribed it or no Ressendius assures us all the Country round about did come to the Monument of this pretended Saint for the obtaining Help and Assistance and fancied at least that they found it too Tho it afterwards appear'd that 't was an old Heathen Inscription and those words far enough from signifying either the Name of a Man or the Character of a Bishop Many have been the Cheats of the like kind and which ought very much to lessen the Credit of those Miracles that you pretend are wrought in your Church But I shall finish all with one so much the more to be considered in that it was the happy occasion of undeceiving a very great Person and disposed him to receive that Truth he afterwards embraced And may it please God that the recital I shall here make of it may move those who are yet in Captivity to these Superstitions to deliver themselves from the like Impositions 132. Prince Christopher of the Family of the Dukes of Radzecil a Prince much addicted to the Superstitions of your Church Drelincourt Response à M. le Landgrave Ernest p. 348. §. lx having been in great Piety at Rome to kiss his Holiness's Feet the Pope at his departure presented him with a Box of Reliques which at his return soon became very famous in all that Country Some Months had hardly pass'd when certain Monks came to him to acquaint him that there was a D. Man possess'd of the Devil upon whom they had in vain try'd all their Conjurations and therefore they humbly intreated his Highness that for his relief he would be pleased to lend them his Reliques which he had brought from Rome The Prince readily complied with their desires and the Box was with great Solemnity carried to the Church and being applied to the Body of him that was possess'd the Devil presently went out with the Grimaces and Gestures usual on such occasions All the beholders cry'd out A Miracle and the Prince himself lifted up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven and blessed God who had favour'd him with such a Holy and powerful Treasure It happen'd not long after that the Prince relating what he had seen and magnifying very much the Virtue of his Reliques One of his Gentlemen began to smile and show by his Actions how little Credit he gave to it At which the Prince being moved his Servant after many promises of Forgiveness ingenuously told him that in their return from Rome he had unhappily lost the Box of Reliques but for fear of being exposed to his Anger had caused another to be made as like as might be to the true one which he had filled with all the little Bones and other Trinkets that he could meet with and that this was the Box that his Monks made him believe did work such Miracles The Prince the next Morning sent for the Fathers and enquired of them if they knew of any Demoniaque that had need of his Reliques They soon found one to act his part in this Farce and the Prince caused him to be exorcised in his presence But when all they could do would not prevail the Devil kept his Possession he commanded the Monks to withdraw and delivered over the Man to another kind of Exorcists some Tartars that belonged to his Stable to be well lash'd till he should confess the Cheat. The Demoniaque thought to have carried it off by horrible Gestures and Grimaces but the Tartars understood none of those Tricks but by laying on their Blows in good earnest quickly moved the Devil without the help of either Hard Names Holy Water or Reliques to confess the truth and beg Pardon of the Prince As soon as Morning was come the Prince sent again for the Monks who suspected nothing of what had pass'd and brings their Man before them who threw himself at the Princes Feet and confess'd that he was not possess'd with the Devil nor ever had been in his Life The Monks at first made light of it and told the Prince it was an Artifice of the Devil who spoke through the Mouth of that Man. But the Prince calling for his Tartars to exorcise another Devil the Father of LIES out of them too they began presently to relent and confess'd the Cheat but told him they did it with a