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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30395	News from France in a letter giving a relation of the present state of the difference between the French king and the court of Rome : to which is added the Popes brief to the assembly of the clergy, and the protestation made by them in Latin : together with an English translation of them.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Innocent XI, Pope, 1611-1689. Ad archiepiscopos, episcopos, totumque clerum in regno Galliae. English & Latin.; Fall, James, 1646 or 7-1711.; Catholic Church. Assemblée générale du clergé de France. Cleri Gallicani de ecclesiastica potestate declaratio. English & Latin.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5839; ESTC R21875	22,511	40

but I assure you whatever the Popes presumption might be in former Ages in comparing himself to the Sun and the Temporal Princes to the Moon that would now pass here for a piece of high presumption for this Glorious Monarch would think it a strange degradation if he to whom so many of the Glories of the Sun have been ascribed by hungry Flatterers were now to be compared to the Moon It is reported that these two Illustrious Princesses have expressed their Zeal on this occasion and have told the Arch Bishop of Paris That they were informed he and some others of the Clergy intended to break with the Pope they might do what they pleased but for their parts they were resolved to continue to be good Roman Catholicks Others say the King is a Good Catholick the Most Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church full of Zeal for it but he sees by other mens eyes and as the common style in England of those who are displeased with the Government is only an arraigning of the Ministers the King himself being treated with the respect of Civil words even by those who study most to expose his Government so here the Zealots take the freedom to speak very liberally of the Clergy Indeed the Arch-Bishop of Paris carries the heaviest load the former parts of his life have been such that he is not proof against censure and upon all such occasions if there has been just grounds given for some ill reports malice and envy improves these with great industry even to a pitch that is scarce credible But I love not to dwell much on so unfavoury a subject I shall therefore say no more of him but that as he is certainly a man of great and polite thoughts and a very dexterous Courtier so there is nothing to be imagined neither for impiety nor lewdness with which he is not openly charged here not only in discourses but in Prints of which the Authors are known and some that are in the Bastile for them offer to justifie all that they have aspersed him with For the rest of the Clergy I understand they may be reduced to three Ranks or Classes The first and greatest is of those who have neither Learning nor Piety nor common Morality Some of the greatest of them where they think they may use freedom speak of Religion with all the Insolence of blasphemous scorn possible they are men of quality who have taken Orders meerly for the Dignity and Wealth that they aspired to and do scarce observe the common decencies of their profession In short the King is all the God they serve and so they are ready to advance any thing that will recommend them to his favour or contribute to their promotion The second Class is of the Cartesian Philosophers who approve of the Morals of the Christian Religion but for Miracles or Mysteries they believe very little and consider the several Institutions of Religion only as they do Laws and received Customs which are not to be rashly changed for fear of the Convulsions that may follow but as to their own perswasions of things all opinions and practices in the Ritual part of Religion seem indifferent to them So that when some gross things are objected to them they are Ingenuous enough to confess there is a great deal of reason in the Objection but after all they will comply with their Interests and this not so much out of an Atheistical temper as because they consider all the Institutions of Religion only as matters of Policy and Law A third Class which as it is much the best so it is much the least is of those who are both Learned and Good Men and are fully convinced of many Errors in their Church which they think need Reformation but what by a weakness of temper what by some principles which they have carried too far against every thing that seems to lead to Schism they have not Spirit enough to own the freedom of their thoughts and say they hope that God will forgive their temporizing since they know not how to emancipate themselves Nor do they see a party to which they can turn They have great prejudice against the Hugonots both as to the first Constitution of their Churches and several other things that are among them but I am confident if they were in England they would be more inclined to come over to the Church there and indeed I hear only two exceptions to the Church of England among them the one is the positive definition against the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament which they wish were left in general terms without positive definitions either one way or another the other is that there is not such a Spirit of Devotion and Mortification and exemplary Piety among the Church-men as ought to be They speak of Pluralities and Non-Residence and of the Aspiring and Pomp of Church men with horror And it is certain that this Church could not have subsisted so long if the gross scandals that are given by the Bishops and Abbots of the Court were not counterballanced by the shining examples of some of their Prelates which I must confess is far beyond any thing I ever saw You may wonder that in this Enumeration I do not reckon up the Bigots but really there are so few of those among the Superiour Clergy that they scarce make a Classis I have not heard of one of them that believes the Pope Infallible or is perswaded of Transubstantiation I heard one pleasantly declaim against the folly of the Messieurs of Charenton for writing such Learned Volumes in confutation of these things which said he none of the Catholicks believed any more than They did so they might well spare the pains But he reckoned the Revenues of the Ecclesiasticks in their communion were fifty Millions a year In that said he is the strength of our cause Let Mr. Claude answer that and then Mr. Arnauld will be a feeble party to him Among the Monks and Fryars there is something very like Bigotry though there is so little sincerity among them that it is very hard to know when they may be believed I confess one thing I heard put to one of them that seemed unanswerable and it pressed them hard in this point of the Popes Infallibility The great Topick they use and that is in every bodies mouth against the Hereticks is that men must not trust to their own opinions but submit all to the Church and that truth could not be preserved if there were not a living Infallible Judge on earth and by this great numbers of well meaning Hugonots are drawn over It has an appearance that is apt to work on an humble and well disposed mind Now the people alwayes thought that this was to be understood of the Pope to whom all the Bishops were to make their application for the resolution of such controversies as might arise and so the argument had still some effect but now that the

significatis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à vobis Seculari Magistratu a quo victi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim ejus facti memoriam aboleri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vos verba ex literis vestris expungere nè in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gallicani resideant ad dedecus nominis vestri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quae de Innocentio 3. Benedicto 12. 〈◊〉 8. in vestram defensionem adducitis Non defuerunt qui doctis lucubrationibus ostenderint quàm frivola extranea sint huic causae magis notum est quàm ut opus sit commemorari quo Zelo quâ constantiâ eximii illi Pontifices Ecclesiae libertatem defenderunt adversus seculares potestates tantùm abest ut eorum exempla possint errori vestro suffragari Caeterum ultro admittimus laudamus consilium relaxandi Canonum Disciplinam pro temporum necessitate ubi fieri id possit sine fidei morum dispendio Immo addimus cum Augustino Toleranda aliquando pro bono unitatis quae odio hadenda sint pro ratione aequitatis neque eradicanda Zizania ubi periculum sit nè simul etiam triticum eradicetur sed ità tantùm accipi oportet ut in aliquo tantùm peculiari casu ad tempus ubi necessitas urget licitum sit Factum est ab Ecclcsiâ cùm Arianos Donatistas ejurato errore Ecclesiis suis restituit ut populos qui secuti eos fuerunt in officio contineret Aliud est ubi Disciplina Ecclesiae per universum amplissimi regni ambitum sine temporis termino cum manifesto periculo nè exemplum latius manet labefactatur immo evertitur ipsius disciplinae Hierarchiae Ecclesiasticae fundamentum sicuti evenire necesse est si quae à Rege Christianissimo in negotio Regaliae nuper acta sint una etiam consentientibus vobis contra Sacrorum Canonum praesertim Generalis Concilii Lugdunensis authoritatem contra notam jam pridem vobis in ea re mentem nostram contra ipsam jurisjurandi Religionem qua vos Deo Romanae vestrisque Ecclesiis obligastis cum Episcopali charactere imbuti eramini haec exsecutiom mandari malum invalescere diutius differendo permittamus ac non nos pro datâ divinitus humilitati nostra suprema in universam Ecclesiam potestate praedecessorum nostrorum vestigiis inhaerentes improbaremus Cum praesertim per abusum Regaliae non solum everti disciplinam Galliae res ipsa doceat sed etiam fidei ipsius integritatem in discrimen vocari facilè intelligatis ex ipsis regiorum decretorum verbis quae jus conferendi beneficia Regi vendicant non tanquam profluens ex aliqua Ecclesiae concessione sed tanquam ingenitum coaevum regiae coronae Illam vero partem literarum vestrarum non sine animi horrore legere potuimus in quâ dicitis vos juri vestro decedentes illud in Regem contulisse quasi Ecclesiarum quae curae vestrae creditae fuére essetis arbitri non custodes quasi Ecclesiae ipsae spiritualia ipsaram jura possent sub potestatis secularis jugum mitti ab Episcopis qui se pro illarum libertate in servitutem dare deberent Vos sanè ipsi hanc veritatem agnovistis confessi estis dum alibi pronunciâstis jus Regaliae servitutem quandam esse quae in eo praesertim quod spectat Beneficiorum Collationem imponi non potest nisi Ecclesiâ concedente vel saltem consentiente Quo jure ergo vos illud in Regem contulistis Cúmque sacri Canones distrahi vetant jura Ecclesiarum quomodo ea vos distrahere in animum induxistis quasi eorundem Canonum authoritati liceat vobis derogare Revocate in memoriam quae Inclytus ille Clarevallensis Abbas non Gallicanae modo sed etiam Ecclesiae universalis lumen à vobis merito nuncupatus Eugenium Pontificem officii sui admonens praeclarè scripta reliquit meminisse esse cui claves traditae cui oves traditae sunt esse quidem alios coeli Ianitores gregum pastores sed cum habeant illi assignatos greges singuli singulos ipsi universos creditos uni unum nec modo ovium sed pastorum Eugenium esse pastorem Ideóque juxta Canonum Statuta alios Episcopos vocatos fuisse in partem solicitudinis ipsum in plenitudinem potestatis Quantum vos admoneri par est de obedientiâ obsequio quod debetis huic sanctae sedi cui nos Deo authore quanquam immeriti praesidemus tantum pastoralis nostra solicitudo excitat nos ad inchoandam tandem aliquando in hoc negotio quàm nimia fortasse longanimitate nostrâ dum poenitentiae locum damus hactenus distulit Apostolici Muneris executionem Quamobrem per praesentes literas tradita nobis ab omnipotente Deo authoritate Improbamus Rescindimus Cassamus quae in istis vestris comitiis acta sunt in negotio Regaliae cum omnibus inde secutis quae in posterum attentari continget eáque perpetuò irrita inania declaramus Quamvis cùm sint ipsa per se manifestè nulla cassatione aut declaratione hujusmodi non egerent Speramus tamen vos quoque ipsos re melius considerata celeri retractatione consulturos conscientiae vestrae Cleri Gallicani Existimationi ex quo Clero sicuti huc usque non defuere ita in futurum non defuturos confidimus qui boni Pastoris exemplo libenter animam suam parati sint pro ovibus suis pro testamento Patrum suorum dare Nos quidem pro officii nostri debito parati sumus Dei adjutrice gratiâ sacrificare sacrificium justitiae Ecclesias Dei jura libertatem hujus sanctae sedis authoritatem dignitatémque defendere nihil de nobis sed omnia de Deo praesumenda sunt qui nos consortat operatur in nobis qui jussit Petrum super aquis ad se venire Praeterit enim sigura hujus mundi dies domini appropinquat Sic ergo agamus venerabiles fratres dilecti filii ut cùm summus paterfamilias cùm princeps pastorum rationem ponere voluerit cum servis suis sanguinem pessundatae laceratae Ecclesiae quam suo acquisivit de suis ipsorum manibus non requirat Vobis iterum omnibus Apostolicam benedictionem cui coelestem accedere optamus intimo amoris affectu impertimur Dat. Romae 11. Aprilis 1682. The Translation of the former Brief directed to his Venerable Brethren the Arch-Bishops and Bishops c. assembled at Paris bearing date the Eleventh of April 1682. IT was very uneasie and bitter to us by reason of the Fatherly affection which We bear to our dearest Son in Christ Lewis the most Christian King and to your Churches and Persons and that whole Kingdom To perceive by your Letters directed to us on the third of February that a great many of the Bishops of France who were anciently a Crown and rejoycing to this most Eminent See should now

behave themselves so toward it that We are sorced with many Tears to make use of these words of the Prophet My Mothers Children have fought against me Though in truth you rather fight against your selves when you set your selves in opposition to us in a Cause in which the welfare and freedom of your Churches is so much concerned and for which some pious and resolute men of your Order having appealed to us We did without delay stand up for defence of the Episcopal Rights and Dignity in that Kingdom which now for a great while We have maintained having in that sought no private ends of our own being set on to it meerly by that care that We owe to all the Churches and the love that We bear to you which is so deeply rooted in our hearts We perceived from the very beginning of your Letter that there was nothing in it that could be either welcome to us or worthy of that name you bear in the world For not to insist on what you said of the Rule that was observed in the calling and managing of Councils We observed that your Letter began from your fears and that is a motive by which Gods Priests are never animated to undertake any difficult or weighty cause that concerns either Religion or the Liberty of the Church with that Courage that becomes them at first or to persevere in it with that constancy which they ought to hold to the last And you were much mistaken when you thought you might pour out your fears into Our breast for the Love of Christ ought always to dwell in Our breast which casts out fear and keeps it at a great distance We have already demonstrated in many and signal instances that Fatherly Love that is kindled in Our hearts towards you and the Kingdom of France which We need not here reckon up And if there is any thing in which our affection has deserved well at your hands We think it has chiefly appeared in this business of the Regale upon which if the matter is well considered it will appear that the whole Dignity and authority of your Order doth depend You were therefore in fear where no fear was Whereas this only was that of which you ought to have been afraid lest you might have been justly accused before God and men for having been wanting to your Station and Honour and the duty of your Pastoral charge And you ought to have remembred the examples of Episcopal Constancy and Courage which in the like cases the ancient and most holy Bishops have set before you for your instruction and which have been imitated by many Bishops in every age from their days You ought also to have reflected on your own Predecessors not only those who flourished in the times of our forefathers but in Our own days You cite the words of Ivon of Chartres but you ought also to follow his actions when there is occasion for it You know what he both did and suffered in those troublesome dangerous contests that were between Pope Urban and King Philip. He thought it became his Function to endure the Kings displeasure to bear the spoiling of his goods and to suffer both Imprisonment and Banishment It became your Function even when others were forsaking the better cause to have joyned your endeavours to the Authority of the Apostolick See and to have pleaded the cause of your Churches before the King joyning the resolution that became Pastors with the humility of Priests and to have informed his Conscience of the whole matter even though you had apprehended the danger of drawing his Displeasure upon you That so for the time to come you might without blushing use the words of David when you address your selves to God in the daily Psalmody I did speak of thy Testimonies before Kings and was not confounded But how much more ought you to have done this when you had so well known and so often tryed the justice and piety of your excellent Prince of whom you your selves write that he hears the Bishops with a singular gentleness and that he is resolved to maintain the Episcopal Authority without suffering it to be entrenched upon which We read in your Letter with great joy We do not doubt that in the defence of so just a cause you could either want Arguments fit to be used or the King a heart tractable and inclined to grant your desires But now since you seem to have forgot both your own duty and the Kings justice and that you have been silent in a matter of so great consequence we do not see upon what probable ground you can found that which you represent to us that you have been induced to do what you have done because you have been overcome in this Dispute and have lost your cause But how could he lose it that never stood to it And how could he be overcome that never struggled Who of you all did plead this weighty this just and this most Sacred Cause before the King Whereas your Predecessors even in the like danger did defend it oftner than once with all freedom both before the former Kings of France and even before this King himself And having carried their cause they were dismist by their most just King with rewards for having so manfully performed the duty of the Pastoral charge But who of you have ingaged in this contest that he might raise a Wall for the house of Israel Who has had the boldness to expose himself to envy Who has uttered so much as one word that savoured of the freedom of former times The Kings Officers have indeed cryed aloud as you write they have cryed aloud in an ill cause for the Rights of the Crown whereas you in the best cause that was both for the Honour of Christ and the Church have been silent Nor is there any more weight in what you say when you render us an account or indeed rather offer us an excuse for the things that have been done by you in this Assembly You aggravate the danger of a breach between the Priesthood and the Civil Power and the ill effects that may follow from thence both in Church and State And inferr that therefore you thought it became you to find out a mean for removing the difference that was encreasing and that no mean appeared more convenient than those remedies proposed by the Fathers of the Church for tempering the Canons by a prudent condescention according to the necessity of the times in such things as might no way endanger either the truth of Religion or the Rules of Morality and that you thought your Order and the whole Gallicane and indeed the Universal Church owed so much to a King that had merited so eminently of the Catholick Religion and who was daily desiring to merit further of it and that therefore you passed from your Rights and resigned them to the King We forbear to mention what you represent to us of the Appeal