or such answers as expressed their belief of the deposing doctrine, or at least a hesitation of opinion respecting it. We may add, that among the six questions there is not one which the catholics of the present times have not fully and unexceptionably answered, in the oaths which they have taken, in compliance with the acts of the 18th, 31st, and 33d years of the present reign. The unsatisfactory tenor of the answers of the priests was lamented by several catholics. Among these, Mr. John Bishop, "an hearty papist," says Collyer*, " particularly distinguished himself." "He wrote," says Collyer," against these high "fliers of the court of Rome; made it plainly ap 66 pear that the canon of the council of Lateran, "for absolving subjects from their allegiance, was plainly a forgery --That this authority was nothing more than the doctrine of pope Innocent "the third; And that, 'twas never received in "England."-The Important Considerations and Decachordon of Mr. Watson,-which, in other respects, are very reprehensible, abundantly show this division of opinion; and that in the reign of Elizabeth several priests, and the bulk of the laity, would have answered the six questions with the same candour and integrity of principle, as all the present catholic clergymen and laity of England would now answer them, and have in effect answered them. However unfortunate or provoking we may con* Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 574. sider the answers of the seven priests, they did not convict them of disloyalty in the opinion of Elizabeth. "The queen herself," says Camden, 66 ge"nerally disbelieved their guilt; and did not con"sent to the trial of Campion, and his companions, "till she was brought by her ministers to think "that the sacrifice of them was necessary to quiet "the ferment, to which the report of her intended marriage with the duke of Anjou had given "occasion." After all,-every reader of these pages must admit, that a steady adherence to principle, from conscientious motives, however erroneous, in the face of torments and death, is always entitled to respect. Now, to whom, more than to these venerable sufferers can this respect be due ? Aware of the racks, the fires, the cauldrons, and the fatal rood, to which unsatisfactory answers to the questions then proposed would probably lead; still,—rather, than express an acquiescence in a doctrine, which, -let it be supposed erroneously, but certainly conscientiously, they believed to be untrue, or rather believed to be doubtful, they risked death itself in its most hideous form. To whom can the noble description given by the pagan poet, of unshaken constancy under the severest trials—— Ambiguæ si quando vocabere testis, be more justly applied ? JUVENAL. XIX. 4. Fourth reason, alleged in defence of the sanguinary laws against the Catholics;—the establishment of the foreign Seminaries, and the Missionary Labours of their Priests. FROM the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, until the 31st of his present Majesty, no school for the education of catholic youth, in catholic principles, could be conducted, without subjecting the master to the penalties inflicted by the statute of the second year of Elizabeth,-forfeiture of goods and chattels, with one year's imprisonment, for the first offence; the penalties of a præmunire, for the second; and death for the third. Even in the case of domestic educatiou, the parent was liable to the same penalties. Seminaries, the object of which was to qualify persons for the sacred ministry in the catholic church, were still more obnoxious to the law. Thus, catholics were deprived of every means of education; and, in the course of a few years, the catholic priesthood must, under the operation of such laws, have been extinguished. In these circumstances, foreign education was the sole resource left to the catholics; to this consequently they had recourse. In 1568, cardinal Allen established a college at Douay, for the instruction of youth, and the education of priests for the English mission. In 1578, this establishment was removed to Rheims. In 1593, it returned again to Douay.There, felix prole virúm, it continued, till the general wreck of all that was good in the French revolution. Another establishment on a similar plan, was founded at Rome in 1578. About the year 1579, it was placed under the direction of the Jesuits, but still continued a seminary for the education of secular priests. Similar establishments were formed at Lisbon and Valladolid; and some time about the year 1598, father Parsons founded the college at St. Omer's. The account given by Hume, (chap. 41), of these seminaries, is extremely imperfect and inaccurate. But something beyond imperfection and inaccuracy may be justly imputed to him, when he informs his reader, that "sedition, rebellion, some"times assassination, were the expedients by which they intended to effect their purposes against the queen." To this atrocious charge, six unquestionable facts may be opposed.-In the first place, the circumstance which has been already mentioned, -that, of the two hundred catholics who suffered death for religion in the reign of Elizabeth, one only impugned her title to the throne,-next, that they all, to the moment of their deaths, persisted in denying every legal guilt, except the mere exercise of missionary function: thirdly, that their accusers were uniformly persons of bad lives, and of the lowest character: fourthly, that there is not an instance, in which the tortures inflicted on them produced from any one of them, either a confession of his own guilt, or a charge of guilt on others: fifthly, that the barbarous irregularity, with which their trials were conducted, has seldom been exceeded; and sixthly, that even this irregularity never furnished legal evidence of the commission of any legal guilt, except, as we have already noticed, the mere exercise of missionary function. It must be added, that even the exercise of missionary function was seldom proved on them by regular evidence. Most bitterly did the pious and learned inmates of these seminaries,-(for pious and learned they certainly were),-bewail their exile from their nativę land. 66 "Thou knowest, good Lord! says cardinal Allen, in his eloquent Apology, and true declaration of the Institution, and endeavours of the two English colleges, the one in Rome, the other now residing at Rheims, against certain sinister informations given up against the same;" "Thou knowest how often we have lamented together, that for our sins we should be constrained "to spend either all, or most of our serviceable years, out of our natural country, to which they 66 66 66 66 are most due; that our offices should be accept able, and our lives and services agreeable to "strangers, and not to our dearest at home. Thou "knowest how earnestly we have desired thee to "incline our prince's heart to admit us into our country, into what state soever; and that we might, in poverty and penance never so extreme, serve the poor souls to their salvation; voiding our cogitations of all honours, commodities, prefer"ments, that our forefathers and the realm yielded "and gave to such functions; acquitting them, "for our own parts, to the present possessors and "incumbents, or to whomsoever God shall permit. 66 66 |