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catholicos vero nullo modo obliget, rebus sic stantibus, sed tum demum quando publica ejusdem bullæ executio fieri poterit: which was granted by faculties bearing date Ap. 14, 1580. They were

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⚫ taken about one of their complyces, immediately after Campion's death,' and are confirmed by the confession of Hart, who adds, that the pope' dispenced with them to obey and serve her, without peril of excommunication: which dispensation is to endure but till it please the Pope otherwise to determine*.' Thus the true vicar of Him, who was a murderer from the beginning, and knew no compassion for the lives of his subjects when the supposed interest of his kingdom required the

* Sign. B iiii., and 2 seq. This tract has been frequently reprinted, and is in Bp. GIBSON's Collection. WILLIAM WATSON, Secular Priest, in his curious and important work, A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibetical Questions, &c., 4to., 1602, has supplied a strong confirmation of the substance of this fact in the following passage relative to the bull of Pius V. 'When the Pope his holinesse perceived what bloody tragedies and massacres on all sides were like to ensue thereupon, by commaund of withdrawing our naturall allegiance from our native soveraigne upon wrong information given (as before we have touched at large), the said Bull was called in againe, and all catholikes throughout England left as free to obey her Majesty in all things due to her princely regalitie, as they were before.' P. 327. This indeed is but half the truth; but I do not think the other half was intentionally suppressed.

sacrifice, was induced, with the flexible policy of the serpent, to spare them when that interest changed its aspect. But, independently of all circumstances and reasonings of this description, can it be believed by any one who has not imbibed the present infected atmosphere of papal ratiocination, that true, consistent, and obedient sons of the Italian church can, in their consciences, allow themselves to disregard, or do otherwise than reverence, the formal, solemn decrees of their spiritual sovereign, uniting with his own supreme personal authority that of councils the last and most authoritative; of congregations constituted of the most eminent members of the ecclesiastical state, expressly providing for the general security of the faithful against heresy, and enforcing the whole with, what must be esteemed by the individuals concerned, the most formidable denunciations? How can he who accepts the creed and oath of Pius IV. as the rule of his faith, or actually professes and swears it, and therein solemnly engages to believe and profess all things defined, more especially by the Council of Trent, from which

all the subsequent Roman Indexes flow, feel himself at liberty, not as to the respect, but as to the degree of respect, due to the deliberate and constantly renewed expression of judgment on religious subjects by the most sacred of all human authorities? The thing is not to be believed, whatever respectability may assert it. And, therefore, the caution which was needed, and which never forsook the gentlemen of Maynooth College, when upon their examination before the Commissioners in 1826, allowed Dr. Slevin, Præfect of the Dunboyne establishment, to admit, 'All Catholics will respect the prohibition of the Congregation of the Index*.' If this were not the case, how shall we account for the present publication of the Roman Index in France, where the encroachments of the papal see are resisted with the utmost jealousy, and at Brussels? Is it for the edification or conviction of heretics, or to supply them with matter of scandal? Or is it to direct and control the timid and obedient of the faithful? If it be said that the Company of Jesus are reco

* Eighth Report, p. 209.

vering their power and influence on the continent, this is not only a solution but a confirmation of the fact. And the position stands unshaken, that no influence but such as is extraneous and foreign restrains the most submissive and unlimited obedience to the censorial decisions of Rome in every country, whether totally or partially, and then as far as partially, subject to her dominion. ROME HAS SPOKEN: AND WILL NOT HER CHILDREN HEAR?

Perhaps no proof more practical and decisive of the good will of the devoted servants of the Italian see to confer on this nation the benefit of her literary restrictions, with the sufficient sanctions seldom overlooked by her, together with that of a sound Inquisition, although under another name, could be devised, than that which is furnished by a work, valuable for other important purposes, and naturally of very rare occurrence. It is a production of the celebrated Robert Parsons, and is thus entitled: A MEMORIAL of the REFORMATION OF ENGLAND: containing certain Notes and Advertisements, which seem might be proposed in the First Parliament and National

Council of our Country, after God, of his mercy, shall restore it to the Catholick Faith, for the better Establishment and Preservation of the said Religion. GATHERED AND SET DOWN BY R. P., 1596. I quote the only accessible edition of the work, by E. GEE, Rector of St. Benedict, &c., London, 1690, who affirms that the original was presented to James II. by the Jesuits, and that he, the editor, had obtained it, with permission to publish it, from Lloyd, Bp. of St. Asaph, to whom it is dedicated. In addition to the internal evidence of authenticity which occurs in the book itself, and which, for such evidence, will be satisfactory to those who know how to weigh it, the testimony of the anonymous historian of the Church History of England, from the year 1500, &c., who passes under the name of DoD, although his real name is said to be TOOTELL, is of peculiar force, from the natural and evident prejudices of the writer. He writes, under his account of Parsons and his Works, of this in particular*: I remember to have seen an abstract of this book in a manuscript

* Vol. ii., p. 405.

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