pontifici Romano tribuitis. Hoc nos per aliquot sæcula experti sumus; vos jam sentire debetis, qui, nescio quo insano ipsius beneficio, adeo commodam occasionem nacti estis, non tam ab illius decretis appellandi, quàm ab ipsius dominio ac potestate vos penitùs subducendi. Ipse vos pro schismaticis habet; qualem vos eum censere debetis. Ipse a vestrâ communione se suosque separandos publicè denunciat. Quid vobis in hoc casu faciendum? Liceat mihi veteris illius Cæsareæ episcopi Firmiliani verbis respondere; sic olim Stephanum papam acriter quidem, sed non ideo minus juste, castigavit: Vide quâ imperitiâ reprehendere audeas eos qui contra mendacium pro veritate nituntur. Peccatum verò quàm magnum tibi exaggerâsti, quando te a tot gregibus scidisti: excidisti enim te ipsum, noli te fallere ; siquidem ille est vere schismaticus qui se a communione ecclesiasticá unitatis apostatam fecerit. Dum enim putas omnes a te abstineri posse, solum te ab omnibus abstinuisti. Cypr. Op. Epist. 75.

Agite ergo, viri eruditi, et quo vos divina providentia vocat, libenter sequimini. Clemens papa vos abdicavit; a suâ et suorum communione repulit, rejecit. Vos illius authoritati renunciate. Cathedræ Petri, quæ in omnibus catholicis ecclesiis conservatur, adhærete: etiam nostram ne refugiatis communionem ; quibuscum si non in omnibus omninò doctrinæ Christianæ capitibus conveniatis, at in præcipuis, at in fundamentalibus, at in omnibus articulis fidei ad salutem necessariis, planè consentitis; etiam in cæteris, uti speramus, brevi consensuri. Nobis certè eo minus vos vel hæreticos vel schismaticos fore confidite, quod à papâ ejecti pro hæreticis et schismaticis Romæ æstimemini. Sed contrahenda vela, nec indulgendum huic meo pro vobis zelo, etsi sit secundùm scientiam. Prudentibus loquor; vos ipsi,

quod dico, judicate.

Ad literas tuas, præstantissime Domine, redeo; in quibus uti tuum de mediocritate meâ judicium, magis ex affectu erga me tuo, quàm secundùm me

rita mea prolatum, gratanter accipio, ita in eo te nunquam falli patiar, quod me pacis ecclesiasticæ amantissimum credas, omniaque illi consequendæ danda putem, præter veritatem. Quantum ad illam promovendam tu jamjam contuleris, ex sex illis propositionibus quas tuis inseruisti literis, gratus agnosco: ac nisi ambitiosè magis quàm hominem privatum deceat, me facturum existimarem, etiam eruditissimis illis confratribus tuis doctoribus Sorbonicis, quibus priores meas literas communicâsti, easdem per te gratias referrem. Sanè facultas vestra Parisiensis, uti maximum in his rebus pondus meritò habere debeat, sive numerum, sive dignitatem, sive denique eruditionem suorum membrorum spectemus; ita a vobis exordium sumere debebit unio illa inter nos tantopere desiderata, siquidem eam aliquando iniri voluerit Deus.

Interim gratulor vobis post illustrissimum card. Noaillium, alterum illum ecclesiæ Gallicanæ, fidei catholicæ, columnam et ornamentum, procuratorem regium D. D. Joly de Fleury; quem virum ego non jam primum ex tuis literis debito prosequi honore didici, verum etiam ob ea quæ vestri causâ his proximis annis publicè egerit, anteà suspicere, et penè venerari, consueveram. Sub his ducibus, quid non sperandum in publicum vestrum ac catholicæ ecclesiæ commodum? Intonet de Vaticano pontifex Romanus; fremant inter vos ipsos conjurata turba, Romanæ curiæ servi magis quàm suæ Galliæ fideles subditi. His præsidiis ab eorum injuriis tuti, vanas eorum iras contemnere valeatis.

Ego vero, uti omnia vobis publicè fausta ac felicia precor, ita tibi, spectatissime vir, me semper addictissimum fore promitto. De quo quicquid aliàs senseris, id saltem ut de me credas jure postulo; me sincere veritatem Christi et amare et quærere, et, nisi omninò me fallat animus, etiam assecutum esse. Nulli Christiano inimicus antehac aut fui aut deinceps sum futurus: sic de erroribus eorum, qui a me dissident, judico, ut semper errantes Deo judicandos

relinquam. Homo sum, errare possum; sic verò animatus audacter dicam, hæreticus esse nolo. Te verò, siquidem id permittas, fratrem; sin id minus placeat, saltem id indulgebis, ut me verè et ex animo profitear, excellentissime Domine, tui amantissimum.

W. C.

No. VII.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM ARCHBISHOP WAKE TO MR. BEAUVOIR.

Nov. 6, O. S. 1718.

YOUR last letter gives me some trouble, but more curiosity. I little thought, when I wrote to your two doctors, that my letters should have been read, much less copies of them given to any such great persons as you mention. I write in haste, as you know, and trust no amanuensis to copy for me, because I will not be liable to be betrayed. And upon a review of my foul, and only copy of them, since I had your account from Paris, I find some things might have been more accurately expressed, had I taken more time to correct my style. But I wish that may be the worst exception against them: I fear the freedom I took in exhorting them to do somewhat in earnest, upon so fair a provocation, with regard to the papal authority, though excused as well as I could, will hardly go down so effectually as I could wish with them. This raises my curiosity to know truly and expressly how that part of my letters operated on both your doctors; which, by a wary observation, you may in good measure gather from their discourse. I cannot tell whether they shewed my letters to you; if they did, I am sure you will think I did not mince the matter with them in that particular.

Of your two doctors, Dr. Piers seems the more polite he writes elegantly both for style and matter, and has the free air, even as to the business of an

rita mea prolatum, gratanter accipio, ita in eo te nunquam falli patiar, quod me pacis ecclesiastica amantissimum credas, omniaque illi consequendæ danda putem, præter veritatem. Quantum ad illam promovendam tu jamjam contuleris, ex sex illis propositionibus quas tuis inseruisti literis, gratus agnosco: ac nisi ambitiosè magis quàm hominem privatum deceat, me facturum existimarem, etiam eruditissimis illis confratribus tuis doctoribus Sorbonicis, quibus priores meas literas communicâsti, easdem per te gratias referrem. Sanè facultas vestra Parisiensis, uti maximum in his rebus pondus meritò habere debeat, sive numerum, sive dignitatem, sive denique eruditionem suorum membrorum spectemus; ita a vobis exordium sumere debebit unio illa inter nos tantopere desiderata, siquidem eam aliquando iniri voluerit Deus.

Interim gratulor vobis post illustrissimum card. Noaillium, alterum illum ecclesiæ Gallicanæ, fidei catholicæ, columnam et ornamentum, procuratorem regium D. D. Joly de Fleury; quem virum ego non jam primum ex tuis literis debito prosequi honore didici, verum etiam ob ea quæ vestri causâ his proximis annis publicè egerit, anteà suspicere, et penè venerari, consueveram. Sub his ducibus, quid non sperandum in publicum vestrum ac catholicæ ecclesiæ commodum? Intonet de Vaticano pontifex Romanus; fremant inter vos ipsos conjurata turba, Romanæ curiæ servi magis quàm suæ Galliæ fideles subditi. His præsidiis ab eorum injuriis tuti, vanas eorum iras contemnere valeatis.

Ego vero, uti omnia vobis publicè fausta ac felicia precor, ita tibi, spectatissime vir, me semper addictissimum fore promitto. De quo quicquid aliàs senseris, id saltem ut de me credas jure postulo; me sincerè veritatem Christi et amare et quærere, et, nisi omninò me fallat animus, etiam assecutum esse. Nulli Christiano inimicus antehac aut fui aut deinceps sum futurus: sic de erroribus eorum, qui a me dissident, judico, ut semper errantes Deo judicandos

relinquam. Homo sum, errare possum; sic verò animatus audacter dicam, hæreticus esse nolo. Te verò, siquidem id permittas, fratrem; sin id minus placeat, saltem id indulgebis, ut me verè et ex animo profitear, excellentissime Domine, tui amantissimum.

W. C.

No. VII.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM ARCHBISHOP WAKE TO MR. BEAUVOIR.

Nov. 6, O. S. 1718.

YOUR last letter gives me some trouble, but more curiosity. I little thought, when I wrote to your two doctors, that my letters should have been read, much less copies of them given to any such great persons as you mention. I write in haste, as you know, and trust no amanuensis to copy for me, because I will not be liable to be betrayed. And upon a review of my foul, and only copy of them, since I had your account from Paris, I find some things might have been more accurately expressed, had I taken more time to correct my style. But I wish that may be the worst exception against them: I fear the freedom I took in exhorting them to do somewhat in earnest, upon so fair a provocation, with regard to the papal authority, though excused as well as I could, will hardly go down so effectually as I could wish with them. This raises my curiosity to know truly and expressly how that part of my letters operated on both your doctors; which, by a wary observation, you may in good measure gather from their discourse. I cannot tell whether they shewed my letters to you; if they did, I am sure you will think I did not mince the matter with them in that particular.

Of your two doctors, Dr. Piers seems the more polite he writes elegantly both for style and matter, and has the free air, even as to the business of an