title of the MISSION IN IRELAND.

same seminaries, and to every individual person of them, grant and ratify by virtue of these presents, absolution from all sentences, judgments, and penalties, of excommunication, suspension, or interdict, or other church censures, incurred actually or virtually, from whatsoever occasion or cause, supposing them to have been involved in any such, howsoever the case may have been :-so far as may be needful merely towards obtaining the benefit of the privileges herein conveyed.

and in parTo the pupils therefore of these Colleges for the naticular all tion aforesaid, founded in the realms and provinces aforefacility for admission to said, and in all other places wheresoever they may be, Holy Or- now and for the time being, we of our special favour grant ders, on the permission, that on receipt of letters testimonial from the rectors of those seminaries in which they pursue their studies, commendatory of the life, probity, and morals of the said pupils, they may be promoted to the holy orders of subdeacon, deacon, and priest, by any Catholic bishops whom they may choose, possessing the favour and communion of the Apostolic See, and being in their own dioceses, or exercising episcopal functions in the dioceses of other bishops by their permission, either on a single day, or on any four holidays or not holidays-successive, or with others intervening-without any title of Church benefice or patrimony, but merely on the TITLE OF THE MISSION IN IRELAND, [sic.] even out of the periods canonically assigned for the purpose, and within a single year, or without waiting for a year's completion, or observing the intervals appointed by the Council of Trent, provided however that the said scholars so to be promoted be fit for the post, and merely till the kingdom of Ireland shall have returned to the bosom of the holy Roman Church :-and the persons thus promoted shall by virtue of these presents, have lawful power and liberty to exercise the ministry of the altar also in that king

The dura tion of such a privilege determined,

dom;-for all which contained in the premises, we give our proper license and faculty to the prelates and pupils therein concerned: notwithstanding that the said pupils, before being promoted from one order to another, may have had no opportunity of exercising themselves in the orders first received by them; notwithstanding also any other apostolical ordinances, constitutions, &c., to the contrary, whatsoever.

&c.

To no man therefore living shall it be lawful to in- The ratififringe, or by rash adventure to contravene, this page of cation, date, our absolution, dispensation, and permission. And if any shall presume to attempt such infraction, let him know that he shall incur the anger of Almighty God, and of Blessed Peter and Paul His apostles.

Given at St. Peter's Rome, in the year of our Lord's Incarnation, one thousand six hundred and twenty three, the 11th of the Kal. of January, in the first year of our Pontificate.""

No. LXXI.

BULL OF P. URBAN VIII. AGAINST THE OATH OF K. JAMES I.

(Foulis's "History of Romish Treasons, &c." p. 583.)

"In King James his time there were several such Urban VIII, papers: nor were they discontinued in king Charles I. writes to his days. In the beginning of whose reign Pope Urban encourage the English VIII., one said to have some affection to the English recusants. nation, sent over a bull of comfort to the Romanists; A.D. 1626. part of which relating to the Oath take as followeth :

'Urban VIII., Pope, to our beloved children the Catholics of England.

'Beloved children health and apostolical benediction.

The righteous often afflicted, and v.v.

The Oath of Allegiance to be utterly rejected;

and the pa

'Happiness on earth is not always a benefit of heaven, or an accompaniment of true piety; for the Church witnessing the peace enjoyed by sinners, has not unfrequently observed in her experience, that the power attained to by mortals is often a recompense of crime. Wherefore we prefer the chains of the martyrs to the spoils of triumphing heroes; and the Eternal King promises the principalities of heaven, not to those who trample with haughty foot on the rights of others, but to them that suffer persecution for righteousness sake, &c.

And if their violent measures are pressed so far as to compel you to the taking of that noxious and unlawful oath of Anglican allegiance, remember that your language is heard by the full assembly of angel witnesses. And let your tongue cleave to your jaws, before that you attempt to infringe the authority of B. Peter by an oath of that form. For the object of it is not merely to secure allegiance to the king, but to wrest from the Vicars of Almighty God the Sacred Sceptre of the Universal Church.

What was decreed after such grave deliberation by pal decrees our predecessor Paul V., of happy memory, that you are obeyed at all fully bound to observe [beloved children,] as the decree

hazards.

of truth itself. Let no threats nor blandishments of men ever extort from you this tribute which you owe to the prince of the apostles: those who advise you otherwise are prophesying to you a lying vision and a divination of deceit for sooner should the sword of the mighty deprive a Christian man of his life than of his faith. And if even an angel descending from heaven were to teach you doctrines contrary to apostolic truth, let him be accursed, &c.

Given at St. Peter's Rome, under the Fisherman's ring, the 30th day of May, 1626, in the third year of our Pontificate.""

of this Epis

The entire of the document, given here in an The whole abridged form, may be seen (in Latin and En- tle, where glish) in the Rev. Geo. Townsend's Accusations visible. of History against the Church of Rome. (pp. 314, 445, of the Rev. J. E. Cox's Edn. London, 1845.)

No. LXXII.

FATHER P. WALSH ON THE POPE'S DEPOSING power.

Walsh's

papal claim

over

To the instances already adduced, at pp. Father P. 1324-229 sup., of respectable and eminent writers condemnaof the Roman communion who have expressed tion of the sentiments condemning strongly the arrogance to a depos and injustice manifested in the papal claim to a ing power power of deposing princes, we may add one more, princes. in giving to the reader a few passages from the writings of the learned Franciscan, Father Peter Walsh, whose name has become so famous in connection with the history of the Irish Remonstrance. The extracts here subjoined are taken from the introductory letter "To the Catholics of England, Ireland, Scotland, &c.," which occupies pp. i.-xxxvi. of the remarkable and voluminous production entitled The History and Vindication of the Loyal Formulary or Irish Remonstrance so graciously received by his Matie. an. 1661 . . .

Origin of the "Irish Remonstrance."

with a true account and full discussion of the Delusory Irish Remonstrance, &c. framed and insisted on by the National Congregation at Dublin An. 1666, and presented to.. the duke of Ormond, but rejected by his Grace. The author Father Peter Walsh

of the order of St. Francis, Professor of Divinity .. 1674.

[The Loyal Formulary, Walsh says, was first conceived about 35 years before the date of this Letter, i.e. A.D. 1673 (p. ii.) After much public and private debating, in 1661 and 1662, it was signed by 70 of the clergy, including a bishop, and 164 of the lay gentry, &c., including 21 peers, but was soon after traduced and impugned by sundry Ecclesiastics of the Roman Communion, who laboured by reproaches and calumnies to make it odious, and got it "censured and condemned in formal terms as unlawful, detestable, sacrilegious, yea in effect as schismatical and heretical, by the public censures of the Louvain Theological faculty," &c. &c. (ib.) Having thus gotten the face of authority on their side, they have not ceased ever since, he says, to proceed with the vilest acts of malicious cabals, conspiracies, plots and most lying slanders, to persecute the Remonstrants, with a manifest design to force them to renounce their allegiance to the king by retracting their subscriptions. Every where throughout Europe these persons were backed with the made, and special authority of the court of Rome. "But no where so effectually as in the kingdom of Ireland, where his holiness made 13 prelates, viz. 4 archbishops and 9 bishops in a very short time of meer purpose for that very apostolical work. So dangerous a thing is it reputed at Rome for the subjects to give their natural prince any pledge of their faith which the pope cannot undo."]

Thirteen Romish Prelates

for what.

* 1669

1670

1671