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divines have asserted it; but they confine it to concerns merely spiritual, and to those cases only in which the pope solemnly propounds, to the universal church, a specified proposition, to be a dogma of faith. Thus propounding it, he is considered to speak ex cathedrá, or from the chair of St. Peter, and with St. Peter's prerogative of inerrancy. For the infallibility of the decrees made by the pope under these circumstances, and with the limitation I have mentioned, some Transalpine divines strenuously contend; still, they universally admit, that the church has not decided this point, and therefore leaves it open to individual judgment. A contrary opinion is maintained by the "Declaration of the Gallican Clergy," in 1682. During the ancien régime this declaration was signed by all the archbishops and bishops, and all the secular and regular clergy, in France, and was taught in all the schools of divinity in the kingdom. It is supported, with the greatest learning and strength of argument, by Bossuet, in his "De

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fence of the Gallican Declaration;" by La Marca, archbishop of Toulouse; and by several other eminent writers; amongst whom our countryman, the abbé Hook, deserves particular mention. His "Principia Juris Naturalis et Reve"lati" contains an ample discussion of the subject, and deserves the attention of all persons who seek for full and accurate information upon it. The French jesuits, in 1757 and 1761, formally and explicitly avowed their adherence to "the De"claration of 1682," and caused their avowal of it

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to be certified to the court by the bishops of France. In all cases in which the pope does not speak ex cathedra, he has, in respect to doctrinal decision, only the character of a private doctor of the church *. In the year 1331-2, pope John XXII. preached, from a pulpit in Avignon, a doctrine that was novel in the church. A sturdy English Dominican monk, of the name of Vales, instantly ascended the pulpit, and denounced the doctrine: he was imprisoned; but the pope, finding that the Dominican was supported by a crowd of divines, explained what he had advanced, retracted his expressions, and released the Dominicant.

In a former page, I have cited lord, Liverpool's liberal expression, that "he had heard allusions "that night to doctrines which he did hope no one "then believed the catholics to entertain :" Is not the passage, which I have just transcribed from your work, a melancholy proof that there was not all the ground his lordship supposed for the hope, which his own honourable mind suggested to him?

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* Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics, chap. lxxv. sect. 8.

Fleury's Ecc. History, vol. xix. ch. 94.-Bossuet's "Defense de la Déclaration du Clergé en 1682,” liv. 9. chap. 46.

LETTER XVII.

CHARLES I.

SIR,

YOU are almost entirely silent on the condition of the roman-catholics during the reign of Charles 1. -I. You should have mentioned the artifices then used to inflame the public mind against them; their sufferings and loyalty:-II. And the solemn judgment of archbishops and bishops of Ireland, against the toleration of the roman-catholic religion.

XVII. 1.

Artifices then used to inflame the Public Mind against the Roman-catholics; their Loyalty and Sufferings.

THEY were very great.-Stories, the most absurd and ridiculous, were propagated to inflame the popular spirit against them.-Reports were spread of foreign fleets threatening the coasts; of an army of papists training to the use of military weapons under ground; of a plot for blowing up the Thames, and drowning the faithful protestant city* What should be said of the celebrated Hampden, who introduced into the house of commons a tailor of Cripplegate, who avowed that, walking in the fields, near a bank, he overheard, from the opposite side of it, the particulars of a plot, concerted by the

* Examination of Neale's History of the Puritans by Grey, vol. 2, p. 260.

priests and other papists, for a hundred and eight assassins to murder one hundred and eight leading members of parliament, at the rate of ten pounds. for every lord, and of forty shillings for every commoner, so murdered? Or of the house of commons who, upon this deposition, proceeded to the most violent measures against the catholics; and, under pretence of greater security, ordered the trainbands and militia of the kingdom to be in readiness, and placed under the command of the earl of Essex? Or of the house of lords, who adopted the tailor's report, and ordered it to be printed and circulated throughout the kingdom?

The monarch was, from nature and principle, averse to measures of cruelty and oppression; but was easily persuaded, when he thought his interest required it, to sacrifice the catholics to the fury of their enemies.

The consequences were such as might have been expected: proclamation after proclamation issued out against these unhappy victims of popular delusion; incarcerations, tortures and banishments, repeatedly followed; twenty-three priests were hanged and embowelled, and many others were condemned, and perished in prison.

As a specimen of the manner in which the executions of the priests were conducted, I shall transcribe the account given of the execution of the reverend Mr. Hugh Green, by an eye-witness.

Upon a proclamation of Charles I. commanding all priests to depart the realm by a certain day, he went for that purpose to Lime, in Dorsetshire, and

was going on board a vessel bound for France. But he was accosted by a custom-house officer, who asked him his name and business: Mr. Green freely told it him. The officer observed to him, that the day was passed; that he was not entitled to the benefit of the proclamation; and immediately caused him to be apprehended, and carried before a justice of peace. He there pleaded his good intentions of obeying the king's orders, and hoped that, as the mistake was only of a few days, advantage would not be taken of his candid, though unwary, discovery of his character. He was, however, sent to Dorchester gaol; and, after five months, was tried and condemned, as in cases of high treason, barely for being a priest.

The following account of his martyrdom is copied from Mrs. Willoughby's manuscript *.

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Upon Wednesday, upon the sentence of death being given against him by Judge Foster, he said, "Sit nomen Domini Jesu benedictum in secula, (may "the name of the Lord Jesus be for ever blessed). "He should have died upon Thursday; and, to that

end, the furze was carried to the hill to make the "fire; and a great multitude of people were in the "streets, and at the gates and lanes, to see the "execution. But our great martyr did desire to "die on Friday, the which was, by a friend of his, procured of the sheriff, though with very much "difficulty, being opposed by Millard, the master

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* Doctor Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, vol. 2, P. 217.

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