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in this part of its history. I then mention. that "its fall was suspended for a time by the French

league and other events, which divided many "European states into a Roman Catholic and a "Protestant party. The influence," I then observe, "which this gave the Popes, made them CCA venture on those ENORMITIES which now excite so "much astonishment, the bulls by which they ab"solved the subjects of Henry IV of France, AND OUR ELIZABETH, from their allegiance and "their concurrence in the league.'

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4.-I then notice, 1st, The successful resistances of the temporal states in communion with the see of Rome, to the claims of the Popes to temporal power, in spiritual concerns. 2d, Those perticularly of the Venetians to the claim of Pope Paul V. to the exercise of temporal power in their territory. 3d, I observe, that the falling fortunes of the claim induced Cardinal Bellarmine to propose a middle opinion upon it. 4th, I afterwards mention the attempt of Pope Innocent to annul by a protesta tion, in the form of a bull, several articles in the treaty of Westphalia, and the absolute inattention shown to this protestation, by the Catholic as well as the Protestant powers of Europe. I then mention the celebrated declaration of the clergy of France, in 1682. "It is," I say, 66 expressed in "Four Articles :" by the first, "they declare, that "kings and princes are not subject in temporal concerns, to ecclesiastical power; and eannot "be deposed directly or indirectly by the authority

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"of the keys of the church; nor their subjects "discharged from the allegiance and duty which "they owe them."* I then observe, that the three other articles became subjects of dispute; but that, in the declaration of the independence of the civil powers upon the spiritual, the Roman Catholics "on this side of the Alps, universally " acquiesced."

I conclude with these words," that such a "claim should have been made is one of the greatest misfortunes which have befallen Chris"tianity."

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I must now add, that up to the very moment of the French Revolution, the Gallican declaration of 1682 was signed in France by every bishop, by every secular and regular ecclesiastic, by all professors of theology, and batchelors of divinity and canon law, and taught in all the schools; and that the Pope granted institution to all the prelates, and

* It may not be improper to transcribe in this place, the language of the original :-" Nous declarons en consequence,

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que les rois et les souverains ne sont soumis a aucun puissançe "ecclesiastique, par l'ordre de Dieu, dans les choses tempo"relles; qu'ils ne peuvent etre deposée directement ou in"directement, par l'autorité de clefs de l'eglise; que leur "sujets ne peuvent être dispenser de la soumission et de "l'obeissance qu'ils leur doivent, ou absous du serment de "fidelité; et que cette doctrine, necessaire pour la tranquillité "publique, et non moins avantaguese a l'eglise que l'etat, "doivent etre inviolablement suivie comme conforme, a la “parole de Dieu, a la tradition des saints peres, et aux ex"amples des saints."

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acknowledged himself in communion with all the ecclesiastics and others who thus signed it.

In the negociations between Pius VII and Napoleon, the latter vehemently urged the Pope to sign the articles of 1682. The Pope pertinaciously refused to sign the three last, but declared that his signature of the first was attended with no difficulty.*

I also beg leave to refer You to the statutes passed in this country before the Reformation, against the temporal power of the Pope, † and to the frequent instances of resistance by the Roman Catholic sovereigns of these realms to the Pope's temporal pretensions.‡

Permit me to mention further, the answers of the foreign universities to the questions proposed to them, by the direction of Mr. Pitt, and to the oaths taken by all his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects.

At the end of my letters to Doctor Southey, I have inserted these questions, and the answers:

Fragmens relatifs a l'histoire ecclesiastique du XIX siécle, page 307. Le Saint Pere nous a repété plusieurs fois, qu'il n'etait pas dans son intention de rien faire de contraire a la declaration en 1682; ajoutant, que si il ne s'agissait que du premier article, qui concerne la temporalité, et qui seul importe a la tranquilité des etats, il y souscriverait sans difficulté. Derniere lettre addressée par les Eveques Deputés A. S. E. le Ministre des Bulles, a leur retour de Savonne.

+ See Historical Memoirs of the English, Irish and Scot Cath. Vol. I. ch. VI.

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I have also inserted the oath of allegiance taken by his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects; I shall insert them at the end of the present publication.— We swear by our oaths, "true allegiance to his Majesty, his heirs and successors, according to the act of settlement;—we renounce obedience and allegiance unto any other person, pretending a right to the crown of these realms ;-we reject what we there expressly term, the unchristian and impious principle, that faith is not to be kept with heretics;-the deposing doctrine ;the belief that the Pope, or any other foreign potentate, hath any temporal or civil jurisdiction, power or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly within these realms ;—we protest against all equivocation and mental reservation, and against believing ourselves to be acquitted before God or man, or absolved of the declaration, by the Pope or any other authority."

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LETTER IX.

KING JOHN.

JUSTICE is due even to the devil: and therefore although I condemn the conduct of King John quite as much as Yourself, and have declared, in the letter to which You now refer, that both the monarch and the Pope were " inexcusable," and that the ceremony, by which the former transferred his crown to the latter, was "ignominious," I thought myself obliged to mention some circumstances attending it, not sufficiently noticed by historians, which appeared to me to show, that, although the conduct of the pontiff was highly blameable, and deserved the severest reprobation, the conduct of the king and his spiritual and temporal lords, merited at least an equal share of reproach.

IX. 1.

Your declaration, that You are almost tempted to believe all the accusations of Protestants against the fairness and candour of the Church of Rome; and could also accuse me of insiduous Jesuitism, for my representation of the conduct of king John, in the cession of his kingdom to the Pope :

Addressing yourself to me, You say (page 86),—

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