Supplementary memoirs of English Catholics : addressed to Charles Butler, Esq., author of the Historical memoirs of the English Catholics

UPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

ENGLISH CATHOLICS,

ADDRESSED TO

CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ.

AUTHOR OF THE

HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS.

t'.r'M * *

BY THE REV. J. M., D.D. F. S. A.

LONDONi

Printed aud published by KEATING and BROWN, Duke Street; Grosvenor
Square: sold also by MURRAY, Albemarle Street; BOOKER, Bond
Street ; ANDREWS, Drake Street ; SHERWOOD and Co. Pater-noster
Row; NOLAN, Dublin; FERGUSON, Cork; aud PHELAN, Waterford.

1820.

•

CHARLES BUTLER, ESQ. OF LINCOLN'S-INN,

^^

LEARNED SIR:

WH E N a poet of the Augustan age was about
to celebrate the events of the grand Civil War,
which was but just then terminated, his friend
and fellow bard, the immortal Horace, wisely
strove to avert him from his design in the fol-

lowing strains :

..... . Arma

Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus ;
Periculosce plenum opus alece ;
Tractas, et incedis per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso.

HORAT. Od. I. Lib. ii*

The fact is, learned Sir, that few writers can

describe

* " Of warm commotions, wrathful jars,
" The growing seeds of civil wars,
" Of mighty legions, late subdu'd,
" And arms with Latian blood imbru'd ;
" Yet unaton'd (a labour vast !
" Doubtful the dye, and dire the cast !)
" You treat advent'rous, and incautious tread
" On fires, with faithless ashes overspread."

HORACE, translated by P. Francis.

iv PREFATORY ADDRESS.

describe with faintess, and as few readers can
estimate with impartiality, the transactions in
which they themselves, their relatives, or friends,
have borne a part. Hence it is far better to
leave the Historical Memoirs of such transac-
tions to be written by posterity, when the pas-
sions and prejudices of those who bore a part
in them will be extinct in the grave, than
themselves to undertake to write them. Never-
theless, if, on a contested subject, one party
should be obstinately bent on recording a de-
fective and false account of contemporary
events, it would become a duty incumbent on
the other to publish a full and true history of
them ; especially, if the misrepresentations in
question should regard the interests and truths
of Religion, and should be seen to palliate and
defend past irreligious conduct for the sake of
continuing it in future. On such occasions, the
Holy Fathers represent those, who have it in
their power to refute such mis-statements, and
who neglect to do it, as partaking in their
guilt;* and, if scandal should arise from such

* " Merito causa nos respicit, si silentio foveraus erro-
" rem. Ergo corripiantur hujus-modi : non sit iis liberum
" habere pro voluntate sermonena."— S. Vincent Lervn.
Common, c. ult. ex. S. Cosiest,

PREFATORY ADDRESS. v

detection, they declare that, not the detectors,
but those who have rendered the exposure ne-
cessary, are answerable for it.*

It is plain, from what is here stated, that the
present writer considers the work which he is
about to review, though it professes to be The
Historical Memoirs of the English Catholics from
the Reformation to the present Time, as being,
in reality, a covert apology for the measures in
which their author, with a few of his friends,
has been engaged, during the thirty years of
his direction of Catholic affairs in this country.
And whereas the concealing and disguisin-g
referred to, are calculated to produce a fatal
effect on the still subsisting contest between
Policy and Religion, the temporal and the eter-
nal, the writer considers himself imperiously
called upon to furnish the present Supplement to
the growing editions of the Historical Memoirs.
How sincerely desirous the writer was to
obviate the necessity of the present irksome

* " Cum carpuntur vitia et inde scandalum oriatur ipse
" sibi scandal! causa est qui facit quod argui debet, non qui
" arguit. Denique non sum cautior in verbo nee circum-
" spectior in sensu illo, qui ait : Melius est ut scandalum oria-
" turquam, utveritas relinquatur." S. Bernard ad Suger.
Abbat.

TI PREFATORY ADDRESS.

discussion, appears by his letters to this effect,
in the Catholic periodical publications. In
these he used every argument he thought most
effectual, to deter the learned gentleman from
publishing his threatened history; and, when
these attempts failed, he tried to alarm the
Catholic Nobility and Gentry, with the appre-
hension of their honourable names, or those of
their relatives and friends, getting implicated in
the unpleasant scenes, which such a history
would probably bring forward. Unfortunately
this apprehension did not produce the same
effect, of late, on those honourable personages,
which it did at the suggestion of the same
writer in 1792, when they obliged the learned
gentleman to suppress his intended History of
the then recent Act of Parliament.* Actuated,
as the writer sincerely is, with the apprehension
here suggested, that of giving offence to honour-
able persons of the Catholic body, the writer
will suppress many interesting circumstances
relative to the cause he is bound to espouse,
when these are not necessary to its vindication ;
and in his quotations from the letters he means

* See the last note in the Mediator's quarto pamphlet,
called, from the colour of its covering, The Biiff Book.

PREFATORY ADDRESS. vii

to make use of, he will suppress the names of
the writers of them, and every circumstance, as
far as this is possible, which can lead to a
knowledge of them.* Finally, in condemning
certain publications and writings, to which
several honourable names are affixed, as he is
in duty bound to condemn them, he will con-
tinue to cherish the supposition, which he ori-
ginally took up on no slight grounds, that
several of the personages in question never
perused the faulty books and instruments bear-
ing their signatures,-)* and that the rest of them

* The present writer has made free use of a large collec-
tion of MSS. which have come legitimately into his posses-
sion, classed and labelled, as it seems for the benefit of Re-
ligion, and infuturam rei memoriam. He has not, however,
published a line written to himself in confidence (for the
letter of the learned gentleman, respecting The Protesta-
tion, was not of a friendly but a hostile nature), neither has he
published any thing which, in his opinion, is calculated to
injure the spiritual or temporal interests of the Catholics.

•f No stronger proof of the ignorance in which the mem-
bers of the Catholic Committee were frequently left, even as
to the most important instruments published under their sig-
natures, by its Secretary, and one or two of his confidents,
than the following extract of a letter, written by one of these
confidents to an Episcopal member of their Board, and dated
April 10, 1792 : " We certainly are printing a third Blue
" Book (the Bishop had remonstrated against this mea-

via PREFATORY ADDRESS.

were deceived, both as to facts and doctrine, by
their lawyers and divines. Almost all of them
have now stood before their judge, and have
taken their respective lots in an unchangeable
eternity ! It is time, learned Sir, that yon and I
should prepare in earnest for the same awful
change, by acknowledging and reforming our
several errors and misdeeds : whoever helps us
to the knowledge of them, is, what I am to you,
a true friend.

J. M.

" sure). And as it is necessary it should be printed soon,
" and, as it is our custom not to send letters to be signed by
ft absent members of the Committee, probably it will not be sent
" to you'' Now, if even a Bishop's name could be affixed
in print to doctrinal matter, such as constitutes a considerable
part of the Blue Books, by the publisher of them, and his
two or three lay associates, who can affirm that the other
members of the Committee, whose names are unfortunately
signed to these books, and to a great number of other cen-
surable publications, had previously read any of them ?

SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS,

#c. Sgc.

PART I.

AMBIGUOUS CHARACTER OF THE
HISTORICAL MEMOIRS.

THAT the learned author of the Historical
Memoirs, besides vindicating his own con-
duct, means to serve the Catholic cause, accord-
ing to his own conception of it, cannot be doubt-
ed. But, by the Catholic cause, many of its advo-
cates, now-a-days, understand, not the safety
and prosperity of the Catholic Religion itself,
as our forefathers understood it, but the exemp-
tion of its professors from certain civil disad-
vantages under which they labour : and to ob-
tain this, too many of them seem to consider
that the end justifies the means ; and accord-
ingly they employ a variety of disguises and
other artifices, unworthy of an honourable cause,
and much more of the Catholic religion. The
writer will be under the necessity of exposing
too many of such artifices in the course of the
present review, and he actually sees some of

1

2 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

them in the very beginning of the work he is
now reviewing. In fact, what uninformed per-
son., on perusing the first pages of the Memoirs
concerning Cf the (alleged) great ignorance
ec and the many superstitious practices in the
Cf Catholic Churches, the great dissoluteness
fc in the lower, and the great luxury in the
" higher ranks of the clergy, the exorbitant
ff pretensions of the ecclesiastical body in gene-
" ral and particularly the claims of the see of
(C Rome/' previously to the Reformation ;*
as likewise what is here quoted from Gibbon
concerning ff the numerous portion of Chris-
ec tians, who had long anxiously wished to sim-
e{ pliry both the religious creed and the religious
cc observances of the times ;"f in which num-
ber the filthy Paulicians appear to be included,
with the other accompanying matter, would not
suppose that the learned author meant to vindi-
cate the pretended Reformation ? In like man-
ner, if such uninformed person were to judge
of our historian's sentiments by the whole of
what he writes concerning the divorce of Henry
from his lawful consort, J concerning " the Pope's
ce encroachments on the Sovereign and Church

o

" of England, and his abuse of his spiritual
" power,"§ as also concerning the statute, de-
claring " the King to be heac[ of the Church/'U

* Page 15, second Edition. f Page 16.

J Page 28, &c. § Page 39. |j Page 10*.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 3

would he not doubt whether the historian ap-
proved or disapproved of these several mea-
sures? and finally, would he not hesitate to
pronounce whether the author is, in fact, a Ca-
tholic or a Protestant ? And yet, it may be
safely affirmed, that the uncertainty in question
consists more in the language than in the mind
of the historiographer ; and that it is to pro-
mote his views of the Catholic cause, that he
thus compromises with the prejudices of Pro^
testants. This observation holds equally good
with respect to a passage of the Memoirs, more
glittering than substantial, concerning the sepa-
ration of England from the Catholic church,
where the author thus expresses himself; fc may
<c the writer be permitted to suggest, that,
" amidst the various causes of this great cala-
" mity, not any, perhaps, had greater influence
' f than the mistaken notions entertained on both
fe sides respecting the nature of spiritual and
" temporal power. When the Pope assumed
" the temporal, and the King assumed the spi-
" ritual, each was equally in the wrong. If, by
" a happy anticipation, a Bossuet had arisen
" and explained to the Pope that he had no
" right to legislate in temporal concerns, or to
" enforce his spiritual legislation by temporal
" power, and to the monarch, that he had no
" right to legislate in spiritual concerns, or to
" enforce his temporal legislation by spiritual

"

4, SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

rf power, it is possible that the schism might
' ' have been avoided, and a moderate scheme of
" reformation adopted, which would have sa-
(f tisfied the wise and the good of both par-
" ties."* Does then Mr. C. B. mean seriously
to charge the illustrious Popes of the sixteenth
century with not understanding the nature of
their divine commission ? Does he really be-
lieve that it was through ignorance of the limits
of his temporal power, that Henry VIII. as-
sumed the jurisdiction of the Sovereign Pontiff?
So far from this, he himself represents the King
as originally entertaining too high notions of
tke Papal power. f Again, if Henry had want-
ed theological instruction, does not he think
that Cardinal Pole or Bishop Fisher could have
given it full as well as Bossuet ? Finally, does
he affect to doubt, whether, if these three pre-
lates had combined to lecture the monarch, the
allurements of Anna Boleyn would not have si-
lenced them all ? Leaving our author, therefore,
at full liberty to descant on the progress of lite-
rature, the nature and variety of monastic in-
stitutions, and a great number of other inci-
dental subjects, as he does through many unin-
teresting pages, the present writer will confine
his observations to the chief points of that
" moderate scheme of Reformation," which
the learned gentleman has long aimed and con-

* Page 104-. f Page 23.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 5

tinues to aim at introducing among the English
Catholics.

THE SPIRITUAL SUPREMACY OF THE
CROWN.

It might be thought that the explicit terms of
the act and oath of supremacy., the professed
object of Henry and Elizabeth in getting them
enacted, and the blood of Fisher, More,, and a
full hundred more of other English martyrs,
shed in testimony of their unlawfulness,, would
have precluded for ever,, among Catholics, all
inquiry concerning their meaning. But these
arguments, which carried conviction to the
breasts of our religious forefathers, have lost
their force on too many of their worldly-minded
descendants. Among the Catholic advocates
of the condemned oath of 1791, it is not sur-
prising that many were found to maintain the
lawfulness of taking the abovementioned test
of Protestantism. One of these, a titled gentle-
man, stifly maintained that, as the King is a
civil character, so the supremacy sworn to him,
as head of the Church, must be civil also ! *
Another writer, and he an ecclesiastic, who had
sworn to the creed of P. Pius IV, has allured
the Catholic body to reduce this doctrine to
practice ; telling them, in a publication re-

* Second Letter to the Catholic Clergy, by a Layman —
Further Considerations, by Ditto.

6 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

peatedly cited by our historian ; that : ee One
" bold man, by taking the Oath (of Supremacy)
" may dissipate the whole charm of prejudice,
ff and restore us to the most valuable privilege
" of British citizens."* Another professing
Catholic maintains, that: " The objections
" of Catholics to the Oath of Supremacy, relate
ff more to the wording of it than to its sub-
" stance."f He then adopts the pretence of
the Jansenist heretics, where he says : " The
(C lawfulness of religious tenets, expressed in an
(f oath, is a question of theology, but the mean-
" ing of words, or the sense of any particular
" passage is a matter of personal judgment. "J
He then complains that: " Few of our mis-
" sionaries possess what is so necessary to the
" study of the Canon Law, a juridical mind. "§
Other Catholics of the present age have ex-
pressed themselves equally favourable to that
oath, the taking of which, in the two last ages was
considered as a formal abjuration of the Catholic

* Memoirs of Panzani, Introd. page 1 1 .

f Two Memoirs by J. J. Dillon, Esq. page 23.
j Ibid, page 27.

§ Append, page v. — It is presumed that the learned
Barrister will allow that Lord Chief Justice Cook, at least,
possessed a juridical mind : now this noble Author, writ-
ing about the King's Supremacy, affirms that he is : " Per-
sona mixta et unita cum sacerdotibus." — The above quoted
learned Barrister with the help of his juridical mind profes-
ses to have made a " discovery'' in theology and the Canon

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 7

Religion. But the circumstance that most alarms
the sincere professors of it is the very great inte-
rest which so many of their brethren took in the
fate of Lord Grey's motion in the House of Lords,
last year, and of General Thornton's in the pre-

La\v, which he justly terms novel, but which " he trusts he
" shall be able to prove correct." Having then stipulated
with the Legislature, " in favour of the Irish Catholics, for
*' the ministry of BisJiops in Holy Orders, " he proceeds to
his discovery as follows: " The character or faculty of the
." ministry, it is true, emanates from and can be conferred
" by the Church alone; and the clergy of "whatever order in
c< the Church, Lectors, Acolyths, Regular Clergy, fyc. fyc.
** hold their abstract spiritual functions solely under a divine
" commission as successors of the Apostles ! these faculties not
" being of human institution. — But, although the state en-
'*• joy not the power of conferring the abstract faculty of
" divine ministers, it is invested by the fundamental rules of
" society, and in virtue of its civil supremacy, and plenum
" dominium, with a right of controul over all persons who
" are its subjects, of ordering its domestic polity; and,
" therefore, with a right of declaring by what persons, in
" what places, and under ii'hat qualifications, that spiritual
" power, which it cannot confer, shall be exercised within its
" dominions !" Two Memoirs, page 41 .—Now, as the deter-
mination of the above-mentioned three points precisely
constitutes spiritual Faculties, or divine jurisdiction, arid as
the Protestant clergyman in most parts of England pos-
sesses the authority of the state, it would follow, according
to the discovery of the acute Barrister, that the Catholic
Priest ought to take out his faculties from the neighbouring
parson, instead of his Vicar Apostolic !— Yet has this writer
been publicly thanked, and munificently rewarded for his
publications, by a certain description of Catholics I

8 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

ceding year, for suppressing the present Decla-
ration against Transubstantiation and the Invo-
cation of the Saints, leaving the oath against the
Pope's Supremacy as it has always stood since the
reign of Elizabeth : for, say these good Catho-
lics, of \vhat avail to our brethren is the getting
rid of one chaiiij if they are to continue equally
confined by the other ? nor is it conceivable,
that the gallant General and the noble Lord
Avould take so much pains to free the Catholics
from one of these bonds, if they had not suffi-
cient grounds for believing that many of the
latter were disposed, by their own efforts,, to
throw off the other.

The above-stated observations were neces-
sary, in order to shew the circumstances under
which the author of the Historical Memoirs
brings forward his " Inquiry into the Nature
fc and Extent of the Spiritual Supremacy con-
" ferred by the Legislative Acts on Queen
tf Elizabeth." * It is trae, the author does not
profess to argue from himself, in favour of the
Oath of Supremacy ; he bearly adduces
the arguments of other professing Catholics
for the lawfulness of it ; but he must be con-
scious, that he is thereby diminishing the hor-
ror which Catholics in general have entertained
of it, and furnishing the ambitious and avari-
cious among them with pretexts for taking it.

* Page 157.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 9

However this may be, the writer will proceed
to examine the validity of these pretensions.

The first of them, mentioned by the

learned gentleman, stands briefly thus : there
having been an alliance between the Church
and the State in this as well as in other
Christian countries, in virtue of which the
latter conferred on the former a certain tempo-
ral power, the Act of Supremacy is to be under-
stood, as barely resuming this temporal power,
and therefore the oath barely means an ac-
quiescence in this resumption. — But can any
man of common sense and honesty explain in
this sense the principal clause of the Act,
which professes to confer on the Sovereign*
<c all manner of spiritual or ecclesiastical juris-
ec diction to visit, reform, redress, order, correct
ec and amend all such heresies, schisms, &c.
" which,byfl/z^ manner of spiritual or ecclesiastical
" power, can or may be lawfully reformed:" all
which spiritual power it expressly denies to the
Pope?* — The second pretext is grounded on
Elizabeth's Proclamation, disclaiming for her-
self the ecclesiastical ministry, and on the 37th
of the XXXIX Articles repeating that Procla-
mation. But what is the plain sense of all
this ? Barely that the Queen had no intention
of mounting the pulpit and administering the

* 1 Elizabeth, c. i.

10 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS
Sacraments herself; not that she disclaimed
the right and jurisdiction, by which her clergy
were to exercise these faculties. In fact, dur-
ing the whole of her reign, she rigidly claimed
to be the only source of all spiritual, as well as
temporal power in her dominions, and she ex-
ercised a more absolute authority over her
clergy in doctrinal as well as disciplinary mat-
ters, than any Pope ever challenged over the
clergy of his communion. The third pre-
tence consists of a self-refuting quotation, from
the inconsistent Protestant Bishop, Bramhall.
The fourth and last plea is made up of historical
falsehoods, where it states, that the clergy of
Henry's and Elizabeth's reigns, took the Oath
of Supremacy, and that " objections to it were
" first made by the priests, who came to Eng-
ff land from the foreign seminaries."* True it
is that many of the clergy especially in the
former reigns, deceived by delusive exposi-
tions of the oath, or acting in opposition
to their avowed sentiments, took the oath, to
save their lives and fortunes ; but that hundreds
of them suffered imprisonment, exile, and death
itself, for refusing to swear to the royal spi-
ritual supremacy, before one seminary priest
arrived in England, can hardly be unknown

* Page 162.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 1 1

to the learned historian himself.* — Having de-
tailed these arguments in favour of the oath,
the author proceeds to give, what he calls, " his
" own impressions on the subject/' which are
briefly these, that fc were it quite clear that the
" interpretation contended for is the true in-
" terpretation of the oath, and quite clear also
" that the oath was and is thus universally in-
" terpreted by the nation, then the author
ff conceives, that there might be strong ground
ff to contend that it was consistent with Ca-
" tholic principles to take the oath of supre-
" macy. — He also thinks it highly probable
<f that, if a legislative interpretation could now
" be obtained, the interpretation would be adopt-

c 2

* The historian Dodd gives us a list of fifty-nine Catho-
lics, chiefly Priests, Carthusians and Franciscans, exclusive of
Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, who were put to death
for opposing Henry's spiritual supremacy ; besides an equal
number of them who were starved to death in prison, and
without reckoning the vast number of Priests and Religious,
who were turned adrift on the world, without any provision,
on the same account. Vol. i. p.p. 34-2, 34?3. At the be-
ginning of Elizabeth's reign all the Bishops, " except the
calamity of his see," Kitchin pfLandaff, were turned out of
their bishopricks, for refusing the oath, at the same time, that
the Universities and Cathedrals were stripped of all their
brightest ornaments from the same cause as Anthony Wood,
Collier and other Protestant writers testify. Now all this
took place several years before the Seminaries were
founded.

13 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" ed."* Such are the historian's impressions
with respect to this subject., the tendency of
which impressions on the minds of the Catho-
lics, who are influenced by him is unfortunately
too obvious ; in the mean time, he does not
appear to be at all conscious that his pastors,
or the church herself has any right to pronounce
in a question which implicates the very foun-
dation of her faith and discipline.

THE TEMPORAL POWER OF THE
POPE.

The alleged usurpation and abuse of this
power are the never-ending theme of modern
philosophers, interested Protestants, and tem-
porizing Catholics ; they are the deafening
burden of both of our author's volumes of
Historical Memoirs, as they were heretofore of
his three quarto Blue Books. Let us endeavour
to form just and accurate ideas on this misre-

* Page 162. A similar decision was delivered by an eccle-
siastic of great weight in the English mission, when being
asked by a noble Lord, whether it is lawful for Catholics to
take the Oath of Supremacy ? his answer was : If the twelve
judges will declare, that it bears such and such a sense, it may
betaken. On the writer's observing to him, that, If such an
interpretation of the oath could make it toilful, our holy
martyrs need not have lost their heads for re/using 'ft ; be
replied, They tuould not be such fools as to lose their
heads on this account noto-a-days !

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 13

presented subject. First : then do St. Thomas
Aquinas, Turrecremata, Bellarmin, and the
other advocates of this power represent the
Pope as an universal monarch,, who has a right
to take and give away the kingdoms of the
earth ? No. So far from this, they teach that,
as Pope, he has no direct power 'or temporal
property whatsoever. Secondly : has any Pope
pretended to depose or otherwise to molest any
of our sovereigns, under pretence that they
were Protestants and persecutors of the Catho-
lic Religion, since the reign of Elizabeth ? No :
and if a bull of deposition was issued against
her, it was because she was illegitimate ; be-
cause she was an apostate ; because she was
the murderer of her royal guest and sister :
because she was a general pirate and firebrand
among the sovereigns of Europe. Finally:
this very bull was of no serious detriment even
to her, as her Catholic subjects were univer-
sally faithful to her, and this with the consent
of the Pope himself. Thirdly : have not the
heads of the Reformation been in the habit of
issuing bulls of deposition against their respec-
tive princes, for opposing their doctrine ?
have they not carried them into execution as
far as they were able ? Yes : for such was the
conduct of Luther in Germany, of Calvin in
France, of Zuinglius in Switzerland, of Knox
in Scotland, and of Cranmer, and the other first

14 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

Protestants, bishops and clergy, as well as
laity in England. In short, it is demonstrable
that more sovereign princes were dispossessed
of the whole or a part of their dominions by
Protestants, within the first fifty years after
their defection from the church, than were de-
posed by the pontiffs during the whole period
of their temporal power. It might be expected
that a due consideration of these well known
facts would have prevented a Catholic writer
at least, from being so prone to display and
exaggerate the alleged abuses of the papal
power, as our author always shews himself
to be.

But to explain the nature and origin of the
indirect temporal power which the Pope exer-
cised throughout Christendom during several
centuries : it is the law of nature and of the
gospel that we should obey the constituted
authority of the state under which we are
placed, according to the laws of that state.
Our Saviour, Christ, was obedient to the au-
thority of the Roman Emperors, though this
had been founded not many years before his
birth, in manifest usurpation. Still this obe-
dience has its limits, and men are not bound
in conscience to submit to the capricious and
sanguinary tyranny of a Nero, or a Helioga-
balus, when they can disengage themselves
from it. But who is to determine the impor^

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. «5

tant and nice question when the duty of sub-
mission ceases,, and the lawfulness of resistance
begins ? During a great part of the middle
ages,, and while the kingdoms and states of
Europe were united in the same religion, and
formed a sort of Catholic Republic, its different
members, princes as well as people, agreed in
referring this grand question to their common
pastor and father, the Pope, and thereby con-
curred in bestowing a paramount temporal
power upon him. Accordingly they were in
the habit of applying to the Roman pontiff to
settle their differences, to obtain redress for
their respective wrongs, and, finally, to pro-
nounce what princes or kings had been guilty
of such excesses against their subjects, or
against each other, or against the common
bond of their community and principal interest,
Religion, as to be unworthy and unfit any more
to reign. In the comparatively happy ages
here spoken of, when the Latin Christians at
least, were nearly all of the same religious com-
munion, and the contemporary heretics, such
as the Albigenses, Turlupins, Lollards, and
Hussites, were infamous for their immorality,
impiety, murders, and devastations, it was con-
ceived that a sovereign could not be guilty of a
greater injustice towards his subjects than to se-
parate himself, or to merit separation by the
chief pastor from the communion of the faithful.

16 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

Hence the sentence of excommunication was
considered as entailing that of deposition, and
the former being in the hands of the Pope, he
was understood to possess the power of inflict-
ing the latter as a thing of course. Accordingly
his indirect temporal power over princes was
taught in all the schools throughout their domi-
nions, on this side of the Alps as well as on the
other, without opposition on their part ; but it
was taught merely as a scholastic opinion., not as
an article of faith. Our Henry VIII. learnt
this doctrine with his other theological lessons
from his master, St. Thomas Aquinas, and even
the capricious emperor Henry the IV. sometimes
acknowledged it, and claimed the benefit of it
from the holy Pope Gregory VII.

When that Catholic republic or confederacy
was dissolved by the disorganizing doctrines of
Luther and Calvin, the Protestant princes and
states, of course, abjured the Pope's temporal,
together with his spiritual power. In process
of time, most of the Catholic princes and states
successively renounced it. Hence the English
Catholics have, of late years, abjured the opi-
nion that " Princes excommunicated by the
fc Pope and council may be deposed or mur-
" dered by their subjects, &c."* But what
additional stability have princes acquired for

* Oath required by the Act of 1791.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 17

their thrones, and what additional security have
good subjects obtained for the public peace by
the above-mentioned change ? Instead of these
being guaranteed to them by the wisdom, the
honour, and the conscience of their head
pastor, the first character in Christendom, they
are now exposed to the folly and wickedness
of every popular assemblage, and more or less
of every individual in the country. When
the lawyer of Lincoln's-Inn shall have digested
the truths here suggested to him, it is presumed
he will wish to withdraw the everlasting con-
demnation which he has pronounced against a
canonized Pope,* the saviour of Christian Eu-
rope, for letting himself be <e fascinated," and
for " acting in direct opposition to the com-
" rnands of Christ :" as likewise his censure
against eight other holy pontiffs, the brightest
ornaments of St. Peter's chair hi their times, f

D

* Page 195. — Elizabeth having apostatized from the
Catholic faith, in which she was baptized and educated,
having broken her coronation oath, and proved herself to
be the firebrand of Europe, and universal pirate, especially
in Scotland, France, the Low Countries, Spain, the West
Indies, and South America ; Pope Pius V. thought it a duty
he owed to the Church and its Princes to excommunicate
her, which he did in the usual form ; but he neither expect-
ed nor required, indeed as his conduct proved, that her
Catholic subjects should rebel against her. The same was
explicitly declared by his successor, Gregory XIII.
f Page 359.

18 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

for " publishing (what he calls) unhappy evil-
ce bearing briefs/' and for being wan ting in that
" better spirit " which he ascribes to his present
holiness. Thus much however he may rest
assured of, that neither Pius VII. nor his ad-
vocates, will ever acknowledge him to be
animated with a better spirit than St. Pius V.
was ; nor will he accept of any compliment
whatever, at the expense of Gregory X11L,
Urban VI1L, and the other Popes whom Mr.
B. so freely condemns. But to put an end,,
for the present, to this favourite subject of our
author's declamation : it is hoped that, before
he takes it up agam, he will answer the fol-
lowing plain question : Is the deposing doctrine
on the score of religion, so impious and damnable
in Catholics alone ; or is it equally criminal in
Protestants? — If he answer, as I presume he
will, that the two parties are upon a level in
this respect, then let him withdraw, either his
invectives against our ancestors, or his defence
of the Revolution.

IMPUTATION ON THE MARTYRED
PRIESTS.

It is true that the Memoir writer does not run
the length which a friend and fellow -labourer of
his does, who calls these holy martyrs, to
whose labours and blood we are all, under God,

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 19

indebted for the true faith, " the victims of
Roman ambition ;" nevertheless he spends near
iprty pages of his work to prove that they were
not good subjects, and he expressly charges
them with giving " unsatisfactory — unfortu-
nate and provoking answers/'* to the captious
questions put to them by their enemies and
rack-masters, concerning the deposing power,
and other matters connected with that subject.
On this head, it is to be observed, first, that the
question of the deposing power which was
generally treated of in other schools, was abso-
lutely proscribed in those of the foreign semina-
ries,, of our English missionaries, and that they
were strictly commanded by Cardinal Allen
and their other superiors never to treat of them
in public or in private, upon their return to
England. f This injunction not one of them
is charged with having violated. Secondly,
on their trials and at their execution, they
universally acknowledged the apostate and
persecuting Elizabeth to be their lawful Queen,
as much as her predecessor Mary had been.J;
Thirdly, it is to be observed, that their ene-

D 2
* Page 236.

f Cardinal Allen's Responsio ad Persecutors Anglos,
apud Bridgwater, fol. 323.

J See the genuine history of these martyrs, in Bishop
Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, vol. i, page
86, &c.

20 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

mies had neither law nor justice on their side,
in extorting answers from the martyrs on ab-
stract questions, and complicated matters of
fact and doctrine, which some of them had
never inquired into, and none of them had given
any occasion for, either by act or word. How,
for example, could any of them on a sudden,
amidst stretching racks and torturing hoops
and needles, give a full and conscientious deci-
sion concerning the works of Dr. Bristow and
Dr. Sanders, which probably they had never
before seen ? Again, how could they pro-
nounce that the sentence of Pope Pius wras un-
just in itself, acting as he did, on behalf of the
whole Church and of Christian Princes in ge-
neral ? It was sufficient that they themselves
disclaimed obedience to it, and engaged to per-
form and did perform every duty of allegiance
to their unnatural Sovereign, however excom-
municated.— But be these matters as they may,
our Catholic historian ought not to have hunt-
ed out,* and detailed the unfaithful relations
of remorseless tyrants, which they put forth
in extenuation of their guilt, in sending inno-
cent and holy men to the gallows, and the
butchery, for pretended plots that they knew
them to be guiltless of,f in preference to the

* Page 211.

f Elizabeth's feed historian, Camden, speaking of these
priests, executed for pretended plots, but whose only <;rime

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 21

original records which he himself testifies are
authentic." * For example, in the declaration
published by the persecutors.f P. Campion is
made to refuse answering the question,
cc whether her Majestic be a true and lawful
" Queene, and in possession of her crowne
ff onely de facto." J Whereas in the genuine
Memoirs, which he himself cites, the holy
martyr says on his trial: " I acknow-
fe ledged, before the commissioners, her Majes-
tf ty, bothrfe facto etdejure, to be my Queen :"
and when interrogated under the gallows by
Lord Charles Howard, ' f what Queen he prayed
for?" F. Campion replied, "For Elizabeth,
your Queen and my Queen."% Such an answer,
made by the blessed martyr, in favour of a
tygress, who was on the point of literally tear-
ing out his bowels and his heart, whilst she
was convinced of his innocence, || so far from
being "unsatisfactory and provoking" expresses

was their religion, says : " Plerosque exmisillis his sacerdo-
" tibus exitu in patriam conflandi conscios f'uisse non credidit
" Elizabetha."— Annal.Eliz. An. 1581.

* P. 18*. f p- 211. J P, 224.

§ Bridgw, Concert. Eccl. fol. 66. Mem. Miss. Pr. vol. i.
p. 63. Butler's Hist. Mem. vol. i. p. 191.

|| See the note above from Camden, who adds, that F.
Campion and his companions were put to death in order to
appease the popular fury, which had been excited by the
report that the Queen was about to marry the Catholic
Duke of Anjou.

22 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

the perfection of loyalty, and the heroism of

Christianity.

THE POWDER PLOT.

Our Memoir writer's preference of bad hete-
rodox materials, to good Catholic ones, is again
proved in the choice he makes of the romancing
Hume's account of this plot, which is highly
injurious to the Catholics, and evidently false
in many particulars, at the same time that he,
(Mr. C. B.) acknowledges the most interesting
part of this account to be mere fiction.* It has
been the constant belief of Catholics, as likewise
of many intelligent Protestants, f and has now
been carried up to a pitch of moral evidence^
that the chief manager and promoter of this con-
spiracy, if not the original inventor of it, was
Secretary Cecil, who had been inured, in the
reign of Elizabeth, to the forging of false plots
against the Catholics, and the invention of true
ones [to serve as pitfalls for the rash and ill-
disposed individuals among them] under the
superior management of Leicester, Walsing-

* Note, page 279.

•{• See Lord Castlemain's Catholique Apology, p. 400, and
his reply to the answer, p. 207. Bevil Higgon's Short View,
p. 207. The Hon. P. Talbot's Politician's Catech. Dr. Chal-
loner's Miss. Pr.

| Letters to a Prel. Let. VII.

'. .„ . .

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 23

ham, and his father,, Burgley.* A contrivance
of this sort was necessary for him at the acces-
sion of James I., for turning the tables upon
the Catholics, who had been the firm friends of
the Queen of Scots and her son, as he himself
had ever been their declared enemy. In these
circumstances it was an easy matter to find some
dozen or half dozenf mad, lawless youths of
the Catholic party, [but not of the Catholic
Religion] who, for the gratification of their
resentment at the King's overlooking them,
were capable of contriving and executing any
mischief whatever ; and it was equally easy, by
means of a confidant, such as Tresham was to
Cecil, to endeavour to envelope persons of
greater consequence than themselves in their
conspiracy. This was clearly the object of the
letter to Lord Monteagle : a letter, which no
reader of discernment ever believed to have
been written by one who was anxious for
the success of the ostensible plot. After
the communication of this letter to Cecil,

* These practices are acknowledged to have been in
frequent use by Elizabeth's ministers. Camden Annal :
An. 1584-, 1586. They were particularly resorted to in the
carrying on of Babington's plot.

f Only sixteen conspirators are mentioned in the Act
of Attainder : of these, three were totally innocent, and six
were unacquainted with the worst part of the plot, namely,
the intended explosion.

24 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

by that Catholic Nobleman, which was ten
days before the meeting of Parliament, it is
agreed on all hands, that the plot was com-
pletely in the power of the Secretary, however
he concealed his knowledge of it from the
conspirators, that " it might run to ripeness,"
according to his expression ;* namely, that as
many more persons as possible might be drawn
into it, he concealed it from the King during *
the first five days, till he met with an oppor-
tunity of flattering the royal mind with its
pretended sagacity in explaining the letter, and
he concealed it from Parliament and the public,
till within a few hours of the intended explosion
of the gunpowder, in order to increase their
horror and hatred of the devoted Catholics. —
Unable to meet the strong arguments which
our faithful advocates have adduced to vindi-
cate us from the most odious charge ever
brought against us, our modern Catholic bar-
rister tries, at least, to invalidate them,f and

* Winwood's Memorials. Vol. II.

f P. 302. Our author says, that Osborn barely calls the
letter to Lord Monteagle, not the plot itself, " a neat device
of the secretary.1' But was not the letter a leading feature
of the plot? and will any sensible man hesitate to pro-
nounce that the author of the former was a conductor of the
latter ? The utmost Mr. B. allows is, " That it is probable
*' that he (Cecil) knew of it (the plot) before the seizure
" of Fawkes;" namely, a few hours before the intended
catastrophe !

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 25

appears, on the whole, to have taken a brief
against us, rather than for us.

THE OATH OP ALLEGIANCE.

The author of the Historical Memoirs intro-
duces the present article with observing that,
<f The circumstances attending this oath form
J{ one of the most interesting events in the
" history of the English Catholics."* Ne-
vertheless, in enumerating these circumstances,
he omits to mention that which principally
concerns him and his friends; namely, that
this oath constitutes the platform,, and, in a
great measure, the substance of the condemned
oath of 1789, in defence of which he wrote the
Blue Books, and laboured indefatigably for
the greater part of three years. This cir-
cumstance accounts for our author's strong
partiality for King James's oath, and this par-
tiality accounts for the many errors he has
fallen into, of late, as well as heretofore, con-
cerning it. What he published on this subject,
in hisjirst Blue Book, stands thus, " He himself
<e (King James I.) drew up a test, by which he
" might discriminate the legal and conscien-
" tious .Catholic from the dangerous bigot,
" who was actuated by fanatic zeal, or
" driven from his duty by the predomi-
" nance of foreign politics, lie proposed an

* P. 303.

26 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" oath of allegiance, and with elaborate care
tf and the nicest exactness separated spiritual
" from temporal concerns/'* In conformity
with these assertions., he says, in his Memoirs,
" Nothing-, in the opinion of the writer, could
" be iciser or more humane than the motives of
fe James in framing the oath."^ It is repeated
in both the letters which form the first Blue
Booh, that " this oath, this very oath, (con-
" demned by Paul V.) with the exception that
" it declares the deposing doctrine to be here-
cc tical, is, in substance, the same as the oath
ft of 1778, taken by the Vicars apostolic."£
Agreeably with this doctrine of the Blue Books,
their author repeatedly says,, in his Memoirs,
that the deposing- power was " the Petra
ff Scandali among our ancestors, and the only
S( essential point on which they were really
ff divided."§

In opposition to the above-quoted assertions,
it is the duty of the present writer to observe,
first, that all Catholic writers, previously to the
unfortunate Blue Book controversy, state that
the persecuting Archbishop Bancroft, with the
help of Sir Christopher Perkins, an apostate
priest, (not King James) drew up the oath; If

* Blue Book, p. 13. f P. 304.
J 1 Blue Book, p. 4. p. 14. § P. 310.

|| Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester, cited by Ant. Wood.
Athen. (he died a Catholic) Lord Castleraain. Cath,

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 27

that some of these writers,, besides being well
informed, were contemporary with the event
they speak of, and that our modern historian
has neither argument or authority for his novel
assertion. Secondly : the same credible au-
thors concur in asserting, that the object of the
framers of the oath, so far from being wise and
humane was diabolically malicious, namely to
cause a division among the Catholics, and to
sharpen the sword of persecution against far
the greater part of them.* In fact, these conse=-
quences soon followed the enactment of the
oath,— But to look at the oath itself, had its
object been public safety or private humanity,
would its authors have loaded it with those
" speculative points arid false notions/' which

E2

Apol. Card. Bentivoglio, cited by Rev. C. Plowden, Dodd,
B. Challoner, to whom maybe added Osborne, in his Secret
Hist.

* See the above-quoted writers. Among these Lord
Castlemain, who was an eminent statesman, as well as a
good Catholic, writes as follows : " 'Tis the ill wording of
" the Oath we scruple at : for it was framed by one Perkins,
" an apostate Jesuit, who, knowing what we could, and
" what we could not take, mingled several truths with seve-
" ral speculative points, and, what is more, with false
u notions, on purpose to make us fall within the law of re-
" fusal." Cath. Apol. p. 98. See also the testimony of the
contemporary and intelligent Cardinal Bentivoglio to the
same effect, cited by the Rev. C. Plowden, in his answer to
Panzani's Memoirs.

28 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

Lord Castlemain complains of in the note
below? and would they not have satisfied
themselves with exacting from the Catholics,
an engagement of fidelity to the king, even
though the Pope should attempt to depose him ?
— Thirdly, it is theologically certain, that in
those times and countries, in which the deposi-
tion of a Prince was considered to follow, as of
course a just and lawful excommunication,
which was the case in most Catholic countries
at the beginning of the 17th century, (though
certainly this is not the case in our age and
country), no orthodox Catholic could uncon-
ditionately swear that the chief Pastor had
no indirect power of deposing Princes, in any
case or country whatever, as for example in the
feudatory states of Parma, Urbino, &c. An ac-
quaintance with these maxims would have en-
abled our historian to understand certain points
in the brief of Paul V, and the works of Bel-
larmin and other divines better than he appears
to have done. — Fourthly, it is for want of an
acquaintance with this science of theology,
that our English Barrister makes so light, as
he does, of swearing a position to be heretical,
which no one man ever really believed to
be such. On this head, he ought to be in-
formed of what a celebrated Doctor of theo-
logy teaches, namely, that, " It is no less heresy
" to maintain an article to be of faith, which

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 29

<c is not so, than it is to deny an article to be
fc of faith which is really so."* Or instead of
studying this divine, he may listen to what Lord
Castlemain says on the sublet, in plainer terms :
{f How can a man affirm, with an oath, that it
' ' is an heretical doctrine., that, excommunicated
(C princes may be deposed, since it \vas never
" declared by any Christian council, that it was
" such ?"f The only defence of this qualifica-

* Joannes Major in iii. Sent. Dist. 37-
f Cath. Apol. p. 99- — What our martyred missionaries
thought on this subject, appears by the following extract
from Mr. Almond's examination by Dr. King, Bishop of
London, in the reign of James I. at his commitment. Bishop :
«' Will you take the oath of allegiance ?" — Almond : " Any
<f oath, if it contain nothing but allegiance." — The Bishop
then offering the common oath, Mr. Almond said : " That
" oath, you cannot offer with a good conscience." — B. " I
" have taken it myself seven times." — A. " Then you have
" been seven times perjured." — B. " Wherein?" — A. " In
" taking this false clause : / swear that I do from my heart
" abhor, detest, and abjure, as impious and HERETICAL
" this damnable doctrine, and position, that Princes excom-
" municated or deprived by the Pope may be deposed, fyc.
" For if, in taking it, you abjure that position as HERETI-
" CAL, tohich is not heretical, then is it perjury to take it."
See the whole interesting account of Mr. Almond's life and
death in B. Challoner s Memoirs, Miss. Pr. vol. ii. p. 73.
See also Dodd's Ch. Hist. vol. ii. This blessed martyr was
one of those whom an intimate friend and associate of our
historian terms : " Victims of Roman ambition, whose me-
'f mory might perish with their atonement to violated laws."
Append, to Layman's Second Letter, p 8.

30 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

tion (which equally occurs in the Committee
oath and James's oath), set up by the Barrister,
is found in the first Blue Book, as follows :
fc We beg to call your attention to the distinc-
ff tion in the schools between a material and a
" formal heresy. A doctrine contrary to the
fC word of God, if not expressly condemned
" as such by the Church, is said to be materi-
" ally heretical : when it has been expressly
<e condemned as such by the Church, it is said
" to be for mally heretical."* But who is the pro-
found theologian, that thus ventures to antici-
pate a decision of the Church, and to pronounce,
upon oath, what she will Jind to be heretical ?
If there is any man, who is authorized to do this,
there will be no occasion for consulting the Holy
See or calling together General Councils. —
Much of what is said respecting the qualifica-
tion of Heretical, may also be said respecting
those of Impious and Damnable, which are
equally applied in the oath to the deposing
doctrine : now what Christian Catholic heart
does not palpitate and faint at the idea of
swearing, that St Thomas of Aquin, St. Bona-
venture, and a thousand other saints or holy
Doctors of the Church, lived and died profess,
ing impious and damnable doctrine ! — Lastly, tq
consider the matter in a different light : ' f Who,

* 1 B. B. . 7.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS, 31

" says Lord Castlemain, can swear that the
(r Pope neither by himself, nor by any othtr
tc means, with any other person, can depose the
Cf king, whereas the king of Swedeland may
ee lawfully depose the king of Danemark, if,
" being injured by him, they fall out and he
" conquer him ? In like manner, may the king
cc of England justly serve the king of Spain,
cc or other enemy."* Again, after all the pira-
cies and invasions which Elizabeth had prac-
tised against Philip II., could any Christian
deny upon oath, that the Pope might authorize
the latter to make reprisals upon her ? Lord
Castlemain likewise takes a just exception to
the following clause in the oath : " And I do
ec believe, and in my conscience am resolved
ef that neither the Pope, nor any other person
" whatsoever, hath power to absolve me of the
rc oath or any part of it." — "" With what con-
ff science," argues his Lordship, " can this be
ee sworn, whereas the king himself may do it,"
(by abdicating the crown, as Charles V., Queen
Christina, and the king of Poland, had recently
done). A more weighty objection against the
lawfulness of the oath is this : the party, after
being forced to swear that such and such doc-
trines are impious, damnable, and heretical, is re-

* Call). Apol. See also the present writer's arguments on
this subject, in Democracy Detected, p. 208, &c.

32 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

quired by the state to swear in its own favour
thus : cf Which oath 1 acknowledge by good and
"full authority to be lawfully ministered to
" me." What is this, but to call God to wit-
ness, that James and his Parliament had good
and full authority to pronounce what doctrines are
and are not damnable and heretical ? The last
clause requires the oath to be sworn, " plainly
'*' and sincerely, according o the express words
te of it ;" whereas we shall soon see what
scandalous quibbles and what perversion of
language its advocates were forced to have re-
course to, in excuse for their taking it. — The
learned gentleman has now seen how much he
has deceived himself, and many readers of his
Blue Books and Historical Memoirs, in his ima-
ginary triumph over P. Paul V., and six or
eight of his Apostolic successors, as having
erred in pronouncing, that king James's oath
" contained many things contrary to faith and
" salvation ;" as well as over the Vicars Apos-
tolic, in having, as he falsely asserts, tc taken
" this oath, this very oath ;" namely, by taking
the oath of 1778. In short, he has seen that
the oath in question is as unlawful to be taken
iiow, as it was in the year 1607, and that of
course, it affords no sort of defence for the con-
demned oath of 1789, in favour of which he
has published so many and such lengthened
dissertations.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 33

To make as short work as possible with the
authorities that our author appeal^ to, in de-
fence of the oath : the present writer will barely
quote the words of the celebrated Dr. Kellison,
respecting the two chiefs of them., with both of
whom he was intimately acquainted : <f It is
ef well known/' says this fourth President of
Douay College, " that Mr. Black well, whilst
ff he was at liberty, was so zealous for the
Cf Pope's authority of deposing, that he thought
ff it a matter of faith. And Widdrington
" knoweth, that he himself was zealous for this>
" the Pope's authority ; though, after his im-
Cf prisoriment, and his chief Pastor's Briefs,, he
" has altered his opinion. Let then the reader
" judge of what authority the words of a fear-
" ful old man, then a prisoner and straitly
fc examined, are; he having averred the con-
ff trary when at liberty. And Widdrington
<f himself, who before his imprisonment was so
" zealous for the Pope's authority and against
"' the oath, hath now, perchance, not so much
" altered his mind, as his tongue."*— With re-

F

* Right of Prelate and Prince. 2. Ed. p. 285.— That Dr.
Kellison's opinion of F. Preston's (alias Widdrington's) real
sentiments was well grounded, appears by his Second Apo-
logy for the Oath. In this, Preston teaches that, though the
king cannot depose.an heretical prince himself, he may oblige
the people to do it : — that the clause which abjures the doc-
trine of deposing OR wwrefemg^excommunicated princes,

34 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

spect to the decision of certain Sorbonists,
respecting the lawfulness of the oath, the pre-
sent writer has elsewhere proved :*«— 1st. That
an essential part of the oath was altered in the
Latin version of it, which was presented to
them for examination : 2dly. That only a part
of the doctors, and those of the younger sort,
thought proper to deliberate on the subject, the
rest, and among them the six Divinity Profes-
sors, withdrawing themselves from the consulta-
tion : 3dly. That those young doctors who did
consult together upon it, did not in reality give
sentence in its favour : what they said was to
this effect : You may take the oath, provided you
alter it : that is, provided you turn a disjunctive
clause of it into a conjunctive one. To con-
clude this whole matter : the Pope's nomination
of Dr. William Bishop (who had drawn up and
signed the Declaration against the deposing
power), to be the first Catholic Bishop in Eng-
land, and the death of the Priests Drury and
Cadwallador, who had signed it, yet refused
to save their lives by taking the oath, clearly
demonstrate, in opposition to Mr. B., that the
simple denial of this power was not considered,
either at Rome or in England, as the Petra
Scandali, or the worst part of it.

excludes nothing but the liberty of choosing between these
two crimes, &c. See Dem. Detect, p. 220, &c.
* Divine Right of Episcopacy, p. 99, &c.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 35

STEADY LOYALTY OF THE CATHOLIC
BODY.

The second volume of the Historical Memoirs
of the English Catholics, 8$c. opens with the
reign of Charles I., in speaking of which, the
historian could not fail to applaud the unrivalled
loyalty of the calumniated and persecuted
Catholics. On this subject he quotes, with com-
mendation,, a passage from the published letters
of a living Catholic ;* but he omits to mention
a very important remark of the latter., namely,
that these loyal subjects, who so freely spent
their fortunes and their lives in defence of their
king and country, were the same men who had
refused to take the common oath of allegiance, f
Such indeed have always been the principles
and conduct of the great body of English
Catholics ; namely, to prove their loyalty by
their conduct, rather than by vapouring profes-
sions of it, and by belying their Religion, which
was the principle from which it flowed. On the
other hand, there never has been wanting a
small faction of politicians among them, who
have laboured to pare this religion to the very
core, under the false pretext of proving their
loyalty, while in fact they cared for nothing
but their own temporal interests. Whatever

* Hist. Mem. vol. ii. p. 15. t Letters to a Prebendary.
Letter vii. F 2

36 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

form of words is brought forward on behalf of
the civil power, though false, and of the most
fatal tendency with respect to their religion,
these lax Catholics are sure to find out some
pretext or other to cloak their malignity ; and
under that cloak, they fail not to cry out to their
unsuspecting brethren, Sign, sign; — swear,
swear. — But the hollowness of their boasted
loyalty fails not to appear, when it becomes
their interest to violate it.

The truth of the latter assertions is manifest,
in the publications of a Reverend gentleman
whom our historian extols,* and professes to
follow in his account of most of the subsequent
reigns.f He too is an ultra-royalist, and a
stickler for James's oath of allegiance,^ and for
every formula of the same nature which has
subsequently been brought forward : neverthe-
less, coming to speak of the usurpation of
Cromwell, he roundly says, fe I really think
<! that Catholics, as matters then stood, would
<e have done well to have joined the Protector,
" had he given them certain assurances of sup-
" port." He then lays down his principle of
loyalty, where he says, " The government,
<e which is best inclined to give us protection,
" has the only fair claim to our allegiance."§

* Memoirs of Pan zani.— State and Behaviour of the Eng.
Cath. by the Rev. J. B— n. f P. 53.

+ Mem. Panz. p. 74. § Page 44. p. 45. See Edit.

;

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 37

The learned historian furnishes grounds, both in
his Blue Books and in his Memoirs, too substan-
tial for believing that he goes along with his
Reverend guide in this accommodating system
of loyalty. In fact, he blames the Catholic
body for not signing,, and the Pope for censur-
ing what he calls a new Declaration of alle-
giance ;* the obvious tendency of which was to
allure the Catholics from their fidelity to their
unfortunate king, then a prisoner to the rebels,
and to transfer it to the usurped government,
then . f established, or to be established in this
nation, both in civil and political affairs^ But
the loyalty of the Edge-hill heroes, was not of
that flexible nature as to be turned to Bradshaw,
or Cromwell, or any other successful villain
of the times ; and we are still free to believe,
that the conduct of the chief Pastors, in fre-
quently censuring faulty instruments In Globo,
without specifying the grounds of their censures,
\\asright; though our Catholic lawyer peremp-
torily pronounces it wrong, and describes the

* Page 16. f Namely, in 164-7.

J The historian suppresses in his Memoirs, for an obvious
reason, the clause printed in Italics, though it is found in
Walsh's original work, and even in his own Blue Books ;
Second B B. p. 20 —The present writer has given else-
where the true character of our historian's favourite author,
the irreligious and excommunicated traitor, Father Peter
Walsh. Democ. Detect, p. 236, &c.— Burnett calls Walsh,
" The honestest Papist he ever knew, as being in all points
" nearly a Protestant" Hist, of his Own Times.

38 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

Popes themselves as deficient in justice, as well

as humanity.*

Following the same rash guide, in his account
of Charles the Second's reign, our author repro-
bates what he calls, " the perverse opposition of
" some weak heads of the (Catholic) party to a
" design of making a (legislative) distinction,
<c between those who, being of ancient extraction,
1 ' had continued of the same religion from father
" to son, and those who had become proselytes
c ' to the Catholic Church. In the new Bill, it was
(c intended to provide against such changes of
" religion. The king had likewise resolved to
fc contract and lessen the number of priests —
" Moderate men, says Mr. Berington, who de-
" sired nothing but the exercise of their religion
<c in great secrecy, and a suspension of the
" laws, were cruelly disappointed. From this
" view, it may be justly inferred, that the
" Catholics at this time were their own greatest
" enemies. "f Such were the sentiments of
a Missionary Priest, bound by oath to labour in
the conversion of erring souls, and such are
now recommended by the historian of English
Catholics to them !

Treating of " The dreadful something, "J as
the historian calls Oates's plot, he proves him-
self to be the first Catholic writer, and the first

* Page 20. f Memoirs, pp. 29, 30. State and

Behaviour, pp. 52, 53. j. Page 3*.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 39

respectable writer of any description to extenuate
" the popular delusion/' say rather the national
bigotry and thirst of Catholic blood, which
gave credit and effect to it. The defence set up in
the Memoirs for the upright and betrayed James
II., is generous, and does honour to its author :*
still it is defective. This king acted against the
Constitution, such as it was defined at the Revo-
lution ; not such as it had existed ever since the
reign of Henry VIII. f And even had it been such
as the author describes it, the judges by whom he
caused the extent of his prerogative to be tried,
and his ministers, who acted conformably with
their decision, not the king himself, ought to
have been punished.

PRINCIPLES OF CATHOLICS SINCE
THE REVOLUTION.

Our historian continues to copy the words of
his Reverend tutor, when he writes as follows :
(f As the Revolution, in the year 1688, took
" place in opposition to James's wild projects
" of introducing popery, the Catholics, it
f should seem, had much to apprehend from
" the event. But William was too good a
' f politician to be inclined to ways of violence
ff or persecution. Catholics, therefore, soon
" experienced the lenity of his government."^ —

* Page 4-7.

t See Hist, of Winchester, 2d, Edit. vol. i. p. 439. Lett.
to Preb. Lett. vii. J Vol. ii. pp. 52, 53.

40 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

It must be owned that this language is new to
Catholics, and notwithstanding the authority
of these gentlemen, we may be allowed to ask
where the instances of this alleged lenity of
William are to be met with ? Is it in the mas-
sacre of the men of Glencoe, executed by an
order under his own hand ? Is it in the infrac-
tion of the treaty of Limerick, and the conse-
quent misery of Irish Catholics, down to the
present time ? Is it in the act for expelling all
Catholics out of London, for seizing their
horses and arms, and imprisoning their priests
for life, with the bribe of j€100. to every in-
former who should betray one of them.* If
this be lenity, we may ask what is cruelty ?
The good sense of the historian caused him to
suppress one extravagance of his Reverend
tutor, respecting Queen Anne's reign, f but

* The Rev. Mat. Atkinson O. S. F. became a victim of
this law, being sentenced in 1699 to perpetual imprison-
ment, in the dreary castle of Hurst, where he remained a
prisoner during the remaining 30 years of his life.

f The extravagance alluded to is the following: " At
" this time a Catholic, with Sacheverel's sermon in his hand,
" might have preached all the doctrines of Rome, at Charing
" Cross." — So far from being allowed to preach the Catholic
Religion at Charing Cross, English Catholics were in some
instances restrained from practising it, through ministerial
influence, on the continent. Six young ladies, (one of them
of the Bishop family), having landed at Ostend to enter into
a convent, they were detained prisoners for several months

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 4,1

not an inconsistency of principle which the lat-
ter falls into in speaking of the reign of George
I. In short, though they represent the Catho-
lics of that period as conscientiously devoted
to the cause of the Stuarts, which they certainly
were, yet they agree in charging them, " laity
<e as well as clergy with narrowness of mind/'
in not acceding to the proposal of Dr. Strick-
land, to purchase some relaxation of the penal
laws by swearing allegiance to the reigning
king.* Had their principle of loyalty been
that described above, namely, their own in-
terest, they would indeed have been narrow
minded in rejecting the proposal ; but, as this
never was the principle of our religious forefa-
thers, and as their oaths and their hearts were
always in unison with each other, their refusing
the oath was the proof of enlarged and noble
minds.

The ill success of the Stuarts in their at-
tempts under both George I. and George II.
not only convinced the Catholics that their
cause was hopeless, but also obliged the poor
remnant of that hapless family, Prince Charles,
silently to relinquish his claim. On the other

G

by the Queen's agent at that port, and afterwards forcibly
shipped off for England in stormy weather, when the vessel
was wrecked at the mouth of the harbour, and they all
perished.

* Page 59.

42 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

hand, his late Majesty being acknowledged
King by all the world except the British Ca-
tholics and a few Protestant non-jurors,, and
this sovereign proving himself to be a kind
father to them, no less than to his other sub-
jects (especially in his screening them through
his ministers and judges from a most malicious
and active persecution, set on foot against them
during the year 1766 and the following years,
by some powerful enemies, but in which a me-
chanic, one Paine, was the ostensible agent),
the Catholics one and all, clergy and laity,
gave their entire allegiance to him and his
successors ; an allegiance the more valuable,
as it was grounded on principle, and had been
proved to be of standard quality under another
dynasty. In return, they were sometime after,
permitted to present a loyal address to the
throne, which was graciously received. This
was followed by an Act of Parliament, repeal-
ing the penal laws that most aggrieved them,
being precisely those which had been imposed
by the pretended lenity of King William.
This remarkable event took place in the year
1778, and, what rendered it more remarkable,
it took place without opposition in Parliament,
or dissention among the Catholics themselves.
The latter circumstance was chiefly owing to
the proper conduct of the Catholic leaders, in
timely submitting the religious part of the bill

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. *S

to the judgment of their prelates, and to the
religious, honourable, and straightforward con-
duct of William Sheldon, Esq. a gentleman of
ancient family, who acted as secretary on the
occasion. One passage of the learned historian
requires severe animadversion : he describes our
modern prelates as being animated with (C a
ff better spirit " than their predecessors were:
a compliment which they will disclaim with
disgust : and he pronounces that ff ultra-catho-
" licism is one of the worst enemies of catho-
" licity."* There is reason to believe, from
what has gone before and what will follow,
that what the learned gentleman is pleased to
term Ultra-catholicity, is genuine Catholicism-
at all events, who are to pronounce in this all-
important matter! Are they, the lawyers of our
Inns of Court ! Or are they, the Bishops and
Pontiffs of the Catholic Church !

CONSEQUENCES OF THE LEGAL
RELIEF.

It is the remark of ecclesiastical writers that
the termination of the Pagan persecutions, by
the conversion of the Emperor Constantine,
and his laws for the protection of Christianity,
were the era of the relaxation of Christian fer-
vour, and the signal of a new and more violent

G 2
* Page 85.

4* SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

assault on the faith of the Church by the most
impious heresies. This was,, in some measure,
the case with the English Catholics on the

O

blunting of the penal laws about the beginning
of his late Majesty's reign, and still more mani-
festly by the subsequent repeal of different parts
of them. Then it was that our people, who had
been so rigid in their faith, so respectful to
their clergy, so pure in their morals, and so
fearful of the infection of the world, while the
sword of persecution hung over their heads,
on this being withdrawn, became, at least,
many of them, and especially those of the
higher orders, lax in their belief, neglectful of
their religious duties, disdainful of the priest-
hood, immoral and worldly in the general tenor
of their lives. Several of them, at different
periods even apostatized from their religion ;*
and others who did not run this length, took
such liberties with its doctrine, its discipline,
and its authority, as demonstrated that either
they had never learnt their religion, or that
they equally disregarded its tl treats and its pro-
mises. Then it was that laymen took upon
themselves to dictate professions of faith to

* About this time fell from the Catholic faith, the Lords
Gage, Faaconberg, Teynham, Montague, Nugent, Kings-
land, Dunsany, their Graces of Gordon, Norfolk, &c. the
Baronets Tancred, Gascoign, Swinburn, Blake, &c. the
priests Billinge, Warton, Hawkins, Lewis, Dords, &c.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 45

their bishops,,* and to correct their Catechisms,f
and even to call upon the Apostolic See to ab-
rogate the celibacy of their clergy. Nor was
this all, but, to prove what they called their
liberality, they even presented Protestant
churches with communion cups and dishes.J
The same mock liberality, in compliment to
their patrons, but with far heavier guilt, was
affected by some of the priesthood. One of
them published as follows, (f many things in
" the Catholic belief weigh rather heavy on my
" mind, and I should be glad to have a freer
' ' field to range in ; " § and being invited to
preach at the meeting-house of Socinian dis-
senters, he excused himself on the sole grounds
of the novelty tf of the proposal — and that his
" complying with it would give offence to the
tf society of which he is a member," adding,
" I would not willingly shock the prejudices of
" others, unless, by that shock, / might rea-
" sonably hope to surmount them. The temper
" of the times likewise must be weighed, lest

«t

* See B. James Talbot's letter below.

f A certain layman of title condemned Bishop Challo-
ner's most excellent Rule of Christian Life, at the end of
his Catechism, and actually suppressed it in a new edition
of it, which he gave for this purpose.

J This fact was communicated to the writer by the great
man's chaplain, who was charged with drawing up the letter
to Rome-

§ Reflections addressed to J. Hawkins, page 56-

46 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" by precipitance, we rather check than encou-
f( rage that happy tendency to benevolent and
" generous sentiments, which rapidly advances
fc among those of my persuasion. — We differ, it
(C is true, in points to which men, I think,
<f have given an undue weight."* The chief
of these, it is to be observed, are the doctrines
of the Blessed Trinity and the Divinity of
Jesus Christ ! — Another priest, and he protect-
ed and pensioned by the leading Catholics,
set at open defiance, not only the doctrine and
authority of the Catholic Church, but also the
fundamental maxim of all Christians respect-
ing the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures,
which, at the same time, he undertook to
translate and to mend. The sequel of the pre-
sent work will furnish too many proofs of the
continuation of this worldly spirit in several
Catholics; but particularly in their secretary
and director, with some of his lay associates
and clergymen.

FORMATION OF THE CATHOLIC
COMMITTEE.

Our learned historian, in speaking of this
eventful circumstance, says, it took place on
May 3, 1787 :f whereas an original paper

* Dr. Priestley published the whole correspondence in
the Preface to his Discourse on the Resurrection of Jesus.
f Page 100.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 47
dated " May 24, 1783," and signed under the
hands of the five persons, chosen at the first
mentioned date, now lies before the present
writer, in which they declare themselves to be
at that time, " the Committee appointed to
" manage the public affairs of the Catholics
" in this Kingdom." Why is the prior exist-
ence of the Committee so called, concealed
from the public ? Was it from the historian's
ignorance of the fact ? — But he himself acted
as secretary to the first junta, and was compli-
mented by it with a piece of plate of the value
of «£"50., and <£%Q. to his clerk for his services
rendered to it — was it because this pretended
Committee of the Catholics had no commission
whatever from any one except themselves?
Or was it because they did nothing in our
affairs of sufficient consequence to be mention-
ed ? But, unfortunately, the writer has in his
hands pregnant proofs to the contrary : — and
here properly begins that system of lay-inter-
ference and domination in the ecclesiastical
affairs of English Catholics, which, under the
direction of the secretary alluded to, has per-
petuated disorder, divisions, and irreligion,
among too many of them for near the last forty
years.

The paper in question contains a series of
assertions, highly derogatory to the spiritual
government of the Vicars Apostolic, which rest

4-8 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

entrely on the authority of those few laymen
and on the theological learning of their juri-
dical secretary. These assertions are accompa-
nied with an offer of theirs (the laymen), " to
" aid and support in taking such measures as
" may be effectual to constitute them (the V. V.
" A.) with full power of ordinaries; in order
"• that the frequent recurrence to Rome for dis-
" pensations, and other ecclesiastical matters,
" might cease." There is no doubt but the
recurrence to Rome each time a new Bishop
was to be made constituted the first head of our
five laymen's projected retrenchment. They
may be excused from the intention of schism,
by their ignorance of theological matters : but
how daringly presumptuous must their scribes
and advisers have been ! The same may be
said of a printed letter of the same committee,
so called, which is dated London, April 10,
1787, and addressed to the Catholics of Eng-
land. In this they complain that : " They are
" governed, not by Diocesan Bishops,* but by
" superiors, commissioned from Rome, — who
" are appointed by the court of Rome, without
" any election of the clergy or the laity. — But
<c (say they) we beg leave to observe that the
" ecclesiastical government by V. V. A. is by

* The Apostles themselves were not, in general, Diocesan
Bishops.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 49

" no means essential to our religion, and that
' c it is not only contrary to the primitive practice
<( of the church* but is in direct opposition to
ff the Statute of Pramunire and Promisors :
" and when you reflect that it is the duty of
" Christians to make the discipline of their
ee Church to conform as near as may be to the
" laws of their country, your committee doubt
(c not but you will concur with them in think-
" ing that it is incumbent on us to use our
C( endeavours to procure the nomination of
" Bishops in ordinary. Your committee think
" it would be useless to point out the advan-
ef tages which would result from having pastors
" thus chosen by the flock they are to teach
" and direct, and in conjunction with which they
" would be competent to regulate every part of
ff our national Church discipline." — This letter
(though it bears intrinsic evidence of the pen
that wrote it) might certainly pass for a speech
of Mirabeau, in the French National Assembly,
particularly where it insinuates that the people
have an equal authority with their pastors in
regulating every part of church-discipline, and
that they are competent to make whatever

H

* The Bishops Fugatius and Duvianus, sent into this
Island by Pope Eleutherius, as likewise St. Augustine,
Paulinus, &c. sent afterwards by Pope St. Gregory, to con-
vert and govern it, were all Vicars Apostolic, till regular
dioceses were canonically erected.

.50 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

changes they please, in conformity with the
laws of the State, without either Pope or Coun-
cil ; yet it is seen by its date to have preceded
that schismatical and impious Assembly by
the space of two years.

It is not to be supposed the V. V. A. of that
period looked with indifference on these pro-
jected invasions of their own and the chief pas-
tor's just authority, and on the fatal precipice
to the brink of which a precious portion of their
flock had been led blindfolded by blind guides.
This appears by their letters to each other,
while the attempts were making, many of
which letters are still remaining. The follow-
ing extracts are taken from letters of the Hon.
and Rt. Rev. Bishop James Talbot to his bro-
ther Bishop Thomas Talbot, under date of Feb.
1, 1786. Speaking of an alteration which he had
made, the preceding year, in the regulations
for Lent, he says : " I do not think that the
" same change will happen this year, unless I
fc was disposed to follow implicitly the direc-
ec tions of our committee in that matter, more
ff than in subscribing a doctrinal test., chosen by
Cf them. If such a test is necessary, they should
<c have told us why, and asked the thing of us,
" instead of chusing for us. Hence I have
(C declined subscribing theirs, and sent them
" one, which I think is better and more likely
" to be accepted, as corning through the pro-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 51

(C per channel, vi%. my predecessor (Bishop
<c Challoner), who published it about the time
(C of the Act in our favour, (1778.) As to the
{C other, the late publisher (Mr. Joseph B-~ — n)

(f has much altered it. Mr. Th n wishes

ff for other alterations ; people here for more ;
f ' so that, on these and other accounts, it must,
fc I think, undergo a thorough revision, before
<f we can allow ,it to be a standard of our belief;
fc and thus much I have signified to the com-
" mittee-man. What will be the event I know
ef not, but this I know, that some there are who
Cf want to put us (Bishops) in leading strings,
<c and themselves to hold them." The prelate
then speaks of the sentiments of Bishop Mathew
Gibson as agreeing with his own. He then
mentions certain changes proposed to be made
in the Ritual, on which he sarcastically remarks,
" But sure we (Bishops) forget ourselves, or
Cf we should have applied to the committee,
" who have just as much business with Rituals as
" they have with doctrinal tests and scriptures."
The doctrinal test here spoken of is the ever-
varying Exposition of Catholic Principles with
reference to God and the Country, which the
Rev. Joseph B n had a little before re-pub-
lished, though with great alterations, from a
collection of old anonymous tracts, in his Re-
flections addressed to J. Hawkins * Had it nqt

H2

* See Appendix A.

52 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

been for the decided opposition of the above-
named and other Bishops, one of whom was the
learned Scotch Bishop, Dr. Hay, whose letter
on the subject is preserved,, there can be no
doubt but that this faulty Exposition would have
been chosen by the lay theologians of the com-
mittee,, instead of what is called The Protes-
tation, as the test of Catholic religious and civil
principles. In a subsequent letter,, dated March
22, 1788, from the same Rt. Rev. and Honour-
able personage, to his brother, the Bishop,
giving an account of the Meeting, which had
just taken place at the Thatched House, in
order to address the King, and of the Catholics
who attended it, Bishop James says, Cf But the
et Church is excluded, and therefore, I have
fc never been summoned ; though I had some
" title, as a gentleman, and could have given
" some useful information relative to an appli-
ce cation lately made us." — After all, it is not
at all surprising that the brother of the first
English Earl should not be allowed a voice in
the concerns of the religion of which he was a
Bishop, as a leading member of the Committee
had publicly declared, that if any clergymen
were admitted into it he would withdraw himself
from it. — However, when the above-mentioned
declaration was made it was not foreseen that
the assistance of the clergy would be requisite
to get a public instrument, which was soon

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 53

afterwards brought forward, generally signed by
the Catholics. Accordingly at a lay-meeting^
held May 15, 1788, it was resolved, that three
clergymen should be added to the Board, as Re-
presentatives of the Clergy. The latter, how-
ever, were not permitted to choose their own
Representatives, but the lay members chose for
them, namely, the Rt. Rev. Coadjutor Bishop,
Charles Berington, and the Rev. Joseph Wilkes,
men who had gone along with them in all their
past measures, to whom they added the Rt.
Rev. Bishop, James Talbot, because they could
not pass him by, and hoped to hoodwink
him.*

* As the learned historian has in different passages of his
Blue Books and Memoirs, represented the truly Apostolic
Bishop, James Talbot, as countenancing the proceedings of
the Committee, the present writer, who was intimately con-
nected with him, feels it his duty to shew that the contrary
was the case. In proof of this, he refers, 1st to the letters
quoted above, which may be seen by any person of honour.
2dly. It is a fact, that when the writer had drawn up a paper,
shewing the schismatical tendency of the Committee's
printed letter, the Bishop made him suppress it, because he
admitted the utility of having a Committee. When after-
wards the Bishop was chosen a member, he assured the
writer, that he had accepted of the nomination for the sole
purpose of restraining the others, and that he had prepared
a formal protest against them. Lastly, when he was on his
death-bed, he told his spiritual friend, the Rev. Mr. Lin-
dow, that if he recovered, he would write against the Com-
mittee.

5* SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

THE PROTESTATION.

This instrument so loudly and so frequently
extolled in the Blue Books and the Historical
Memoirs, is in the latter work expressly at-
tributed to the pen of the late Lord Stanhope,
who is there stated to have " framed it with
" long consideration, and after having perused
te the works of some of the best Catholic
" writers."* The present writer is satisfied
that his Lordship patronized the Protestation ;
but that he composed it, he can no more believe,
than that he wrote the Summa Theologice of St.
Thomas of Aquin. But, be this matter as it
may, the instrument is drawn up in ungram-
matical language, with inconclusive reasoning
and erroneous theology. Its worst feature,
however, is that it is expressly contrived for the
purposes of a twofold deception, the one on
Protestants, the other on Catholics. Our histo-
rian speaks of some communications between
the V. V, A. and the Committee on the subject
of this instrument, " in consequence of which,
ff some alterations were made in it,"f without
giving any insight into the nature of that
communication. Writing, however, to those
personages themselves in his Red Book, he ac-
knowledges that, " All of them, at first, made

* Vol. ii. page 112. f Ibid.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. SS

" some difficulties to the signing of it."* The
circumstance of ALL THE v.v. A. objecting to
the Protestation at the first sight of it, certainly
forms a strong prejudice against its orthodoxy,
or at least its accuracy,, and leads the reader to
believe that, if it was afterwards signed by them,
it was under the cover of glosses and salvos. -j-
The Catholic clergy throughout England, in
general, felt the same repugnance to sign the
Protestation that their superiors did ; but what
with the explanations, assurances, and promises
of the different agents of the Committee, cleri-
cal as well as laical, who were employed in the
Metropolis., and sent throughout the country
for this purpose, at a great expence, they them-
selves, as well as their flocks were mostly in-
duced to subscribe it. The theological inaccu-
racy of the instrument, was generally admitted

* Folio 14. The Red Book is so called, because it Is
bound in red morocco. It is a MS. work in folio, signed
with the name and in the hand writing of its author, Mr.
Charles Butler. Its contents are much the same with those
of the first Blue Book ; however they differ from each other
in some particulars.

f Bishop Walmsley complained, that he was surprized
into the signature and withdrew it. Bishop Matthew Gib-
son gave directions, -that if his name were absolutely neces-
sary, it should be affixed, " In sensu Catholico." Dr. Wil-
liam Gibson did not sign his name at all. B. J. Talbot's
vicar, Mr. Barnard reproached Dr. C. Berington with having
forced him to sign.

56 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

by these agents, but they contended, that
Protestants were not sensible of these, and
therefore., that the latter would not be deceived
by the subscribers. The argument, however,
which was most effectual with many conscien-
tious Catholics, was the positive assurance given
them by some very respectable and well in-
formed persons, that the Protestation ivould not
befolloioed by any new oath.

It would occupy too much time and paper to
discuss all the errors and inaccuracies of this
boasted instrument : but it seems proper to
point out one or two of them, by way of a sam-
ple.— One vulgar accusation against Catholics,
which the Protestation disclaims, is that, " The
" Pope can dispense with the obligation of any
" compact or oath taken or entered into by a
" Catholic, and that, therefore, no oath of alle-
tf giance or other oath can bind us." — Now in
what manner is this accusation repelled in the
Protestation ? — Instead of simply denying that
the Pope can dispense with our oath of alle-
giance, or any other compact between man and
man ; which was all that the occasion required,
and which no Catholic would have hesitated to
swear, we were called upon in the words of the
instrument to protest that, " Neither the Pope,
fc nor any Prelate, nor any Priest, &c., can
fc absolve us, or any of us from, or dispense
<( with the obligation of any compact or oat/i

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 57

rf whatsoever."* This is protesting more than
is strictly true ; for the Pope and other Prelates
can dispense with the obligation of a rash oath,
which is merely of a religious nature, (such as
that of immoderate fasting or prayer), and every
Priest as well as every other man can dispense
with a compact (such as that of giving him
a sum of money), which is merely in his own
favour. In vain., however,, did we plead for
a small alteration in the wording of this passage,
in order to reconcile it with theological accuracy:
again in vain did we beg that the word Mere
might be prefixed to the word Will, in the pro-
position which denies that ff any sin whatever
' ' can be forgiven at the will of any Priest ;"
barely to express that the consent of the Priest
to administer baptism, for example, is a condi-
tion for the forgiveness of original sin, in in-
fants : the patrons of the Protestation laughed
at our arguments, and told us, that we must
either sign the denial of the charges against us,
as they stand in the Protestation, or sit down
quiet under the imputation of them.

* For the original text of the Protestation, see the
printed sheet circulated throughout England in 1789, and
certified by Mr. Butler to be correct : as also Lord Petre's
publication of it, in his pamphlet against Dr. Horsley : for
the altered copy of it, see the parchment in the Museum,
the Appendix to the 3rd Blue Book, and that to Hist. Mem.

I

58 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

FORMATION OF A NEW OATH.

The Historian tells us that : " Soon after the
" Protestation and its signature became known,
ce the proposal of a new oath was made to the
" Committee,, and that far from promoting,
" they were at first backward in acceding to the
" proposal."* When the learned gentleman
wrote this in 1819, he certainly forgot what he
had written to the V. V. A. in 1790, in his Red
Book, concerning the urgent reasons there were
for '.' closing with the adversaries of the Catho-
" lies, and trying the cause on their own ad-
fc mission." These, he says, induced the Com-
mittee ff to adopt the form of an oath} in which
(C the Catholics renounce such of the doctrines
tc imputed to them, as are morally or politically
" evil."f He equally admits in the same work,
what their official advocate, Mr. Mitford, (now
Lord Redesdale), proclaimed in Parliament that
these Catholics had assumed the name of PRO-
TESTING CATHOLIC DISSENTERS.
And he further states, in the Red Book, what is
kept out of sight in the Blue Books, that the
Bill (" new modelled, after the Protestation
" had been signed, which Bill contained the
" new oath and description) was shewn to the
<e first Ecclesiastical Dignitary, (the Arch-
<f bishop of Canterbury), the first minister, and

* P. 119. f Folio 13.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 59

*f the first law officer. All of whom suggested
fe some alterations. These were accordingly
" made ; and thus altered, the heads of it were
" mentioned in Parliament/'* by Mr. Mitford.
They were also published at full length in
Woodfall's Register of June 26th, 1789, and
other papers. — In the mean time, (will it be be-
lieved by Catholics in distant times and places !)
this oath containing a raetc Profession of Faith
and a new name, for the unchangeable one of
Catholics was never once communicated by
the Committee to the V. V. A.! It was shewn
to the Head Protestant Bishop, and altered at
his suggestion, but the Catholic Bishops were
left to learn its contents from a Newspaper !
The truth is, it was easy to gather from their
objections to the Protestation, that they never
would consent to the oath.

But though the first order of Pastors were
not consulted, some of the second order were,
that is to say, an attempt was made to form
a party among the latter. For this purpose
several leading clergymen of the Metropolis
were invited by Mr. Secretary to a dinner at the
Portland Tavern, where, among plates and
glasses, he produced a copy of the new oath, and
even called upon the company to sign a decla-
ration that the oath contained nothing but what is
contained in the Protestation. However, this

* Red Book, fol. 5:

60 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

insidious and irreligious attempt was defeated
by the piety and firmness of the venerable
Dean Lindow, who protested against signing
any declaration regarding religion in a tavern
and over wine.

That the oath contains nothing as to its
sense, but what is in the Protestation, is con-
stantly asserted in the Blue Books and other
writings of the Secretary and his partisans.
The falsehood of this assertion is evident, on
comparing them together. For example : is the
deposing doctrine qualified in the Protestation^
Impious, — Heretical, and Damnable., — as it is in
the Committee oath,* no less than in king
James's oath ? Does the Protestation deny
that any foreign Prelate has any spiritual juris-
diction in this realm, that can directly or indi-
rectly interfere with its laws, (such as Acts of
divorce), or with its ecclesiastical government, in
the manner that this is abjured in the oath ? It may
be added, with respect to the errors, in general,
of the instruments, that conscientious Catholics
made a great difference betwreen a declaration
made to their fellow creatures, and an Oath made
to God. Being deluded to believe that all the

* So the oath stands in the Appendix to the first Blue
Book, Woodfall's Register, and the Bill itself, as drawn up
by Mr. Butler and introduced into Parliament by Mr. Mit-
ford ; two years afterwards, these epithets were given up by
the Board, but this amendentm was not sufficient.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 61

first characters in the nation understood cer-
tain expressions,, as the Secretary explained
them ;* they thought at first, that it was lawful
to subscribe them : but when the question was
about swearing to the truth o/them, " in the plain
" sense of the words/' their consciences revolted
at the proposal.

Finally, it is most certain that no Catholic,
unconnected with the Committee, whether cler-
gyman or layman, entertained an idea that by
signing the Protestation, he obscured one of
the marks of his religion, the pure unmixed
name of CATHOLIC, and became a PRO-
TESTANT DISSENTER. This doctrine,
however, is stiffly maintained both in the Red
Book and the Blue Books ..f no less than in
Mr. Mitford's speeches, and in the head of the

* Such declarations, as the following, which occurr in the
first Blue Book, p. 6. were constantly in the mouths of the
advocates of the two instruments: " We have had repeated
" conversations on this subject (the Pope's spiritual power)
" with the first men in the kingdom 5 men whose lives are
" spent in attending to great legislative questions, &c. ; from
" men of this description the people of England are ac-
" customed to derive their notions both of words and
" things : now we have not found a man of this description
" who does not understand, and reason on the expression,
" (namely that the Pope's spiritual power means his tempo-
" ral power), in the manner we speak of." — The utter false-
hood of these pompous assurances was shortly after proved
by the Bishop's agents, but, for a time, they deceived many,
f R. B. fol.7. l.B.B.p.2.

62 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

bill itself. The latter was so contrived that
no Catholic could have availed himself of it,
without subscribing in a court of justice
as follows : " lt A. B., do hereby declare
" myself to be a Protesting Catholic Dis-
" senter."* — How strongly bent the Secretary
and his Committee friends were on the legal
metamorphosis, by which Catholics were to be
turned into Protestant Dissenters, appears
from the following passages in the first Blue
Book.f " The prominent feature of the Pro-
fc testation and the oath, is their introducing to
ef the notice of our laws, and that in a very
" marked and pointed manner, a description of
Cf persons, wholly unknown to them before ;
fc The Protesting Catholic Dissenters ; on the

* In the first stage of the Bill the learned Secretary used
to entertain his friends with the following dialogue, which
had passed between a rigid Peer and Chancellor Thurlow. —
Peer. " You must take care, my lord, that these people
" are not allowed by the Act to call themselves Catholics."
— Chancellor. " Why not ?"— Peer. " Because tve are the
" Catholics." — Chan. " I thought you had been Protes-
" tants." — Peer. " Why so we are, but we are at the same
" time Catholics." — Chan. " This surpasses my understand-
«' ing." — Who could have imagined that the learned gen-
tleman would so soon have adopted the absurdity which he
had ridiculed !

•J- N. B. One of the clauses of the Committee's original
Bill provides against the child of any Protestant Catholic
being educated a Papist.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 63

f( propriety of its description and its peculiar
" efficacy the merit of the plan adopted by us
" principally rests/' The learned Secretary
then argues, at great length, on the propriety
of Catholics adopting this misnomer. What
he says to them is briefly this : " you protest
{e against certain charges brought against you ;
ec therefore you are Protestants ! and you Dis-
" sent from the established Church, therefore
tf you are Dissenters!" In the last place, our
author sets forth " the probable efficacy of the
ef adopted plan :" this, he says, would be : " to
fc slip from under the operation of the penal
ff laws, unheeded and unobserved."* It is in
this instance, that the double deceit mentioned
above, is most apparent. Attempts are made
to deceive a Protestant legislature into conces-
sions which it did not intend to make ; and the
Catholic body to profess tenets which they do
not hold ! The plan, however, failed in both
its parts, to the great confusion of the most
honourable personages, rather than of its in-
ventor ; and thereby transferred the fate of the
Bill into the proper hands, those of the V. V. A.

CONDEMNATION OF THE OATH.

After various communications with each other
on the state and prospects of the Catholic reli-

* l.B. B. p. 4.

64 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

gion in this country, the four truly venerable
Apostolic Vicars, Bishop Walmesley, B. James
Talbot, B. Thomas Talbot, and B. Mathevv
Gibson,, met together at Hammersmith, October
19,, 1789. There were also present the two
coadjutor Bishops/ Dr. William Sharrock and
Dr. Charles Berington, as also the Rev. Robt.
Bannister, S. T. P. and the present writer. In
this synod eight resolutions were passed by the
four V. V. A.* ; the original of which, under
their respective hands, lies before the writer
The main substance of them is contained in
the following " Encyclical Letter addressed
to " all the faithful of the four Districts,"
which, two days afterwards those four V. V. A.
signed.

(f Dearly beloved Brethren and Children in
" Christ.

" We think it necessary to notify to you,
" that, having held a meeting on the 19th of

* It is remarkable that the coadjutor, Dr. Charles Bering-
ton, approved of the Resolutions, though he was not called
upon to sign them. Returning, however, to London, and
associating with his former friends of the Committee, he
soon after revoked his approbation. It is due to the ortho-
doxy and courage of the present Vic. Ap. of the North,
Dr. William Gibson, then President of Douay College, to
record that he was among the most vigorous opponents of
the oath, especially at the meeting of June 6, 1790, the
minutes of which are in the writer's hands.— He never sign-
ed the Protestation.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 65

" October 1789^ after mature deliberation and
fc previous discussions, we unanimously con-
" demned the new form of an oath intended for
" the Catholics, published in Woodfall's Re-
" gister3 June 26, 1789, and declared it unlaw-
" ful to be taken. We also declared that none
cc of the faithful, clergy or laity, under our care,
" ought to take any oath, or subscribe to any
" new instrument, wherein the interests of reli-
Cf gion are concerned, without the previous ap-
" probation of their respective Bishops. These
cc determinations we judged necessary, to the
" promoting of your spiritual welfare, to fix an
" anchor for you to hold to, and to restore peace
" to your minds. To these determinations,,
" therefore, we require your submission.

" ^ CHARLES RAMATEN, V.A.

{C 4- JAMES BIRTHAN, V.A.

" •%• THOMAS ACON, V. A.

(f * MAT. COMAN, V.A/1
cc Hammersmith, Oct. 21, 1789."

Thus, through the mercy of God, and the
vigilance and firmness of these truly Apostolic
Prelates, were schism and heresy detected and
repressed among English Catholics at their
first appearance. In fact, the avowed promi-
nent feature of the bill, the novel and inconsis-
tent title of Protesting Catholic Dissenters was
itself an ensign of schism ; and among the nu-

K

66 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

merous errors of their distinguishing symbol,
the oath ; some there \> ere either directly or
indirectly heretical.

The above quoted decision of our V. V. A.
which fixed the faith and conduct of their
flocks, in general., \vas echoed back to them in
accents of applause from the prelates of Scot-
land and Ireland, as likewise from the Holy
See.* Still, it is to be lamented, that it did
not produce its intended eftect upon the small
but respectable members of the .Committee,
and that their learned Secretary, in particular,
should have so far forgotten the pious example
of his nearest relatives and the virtuous lessons
of his enlightened tutor, f as to misemploy his

* In a letter to the prelates, dated Jan. 26, 1790, the
truly eminent Prefect of the Propaganda, writing to the Pre-
lates, says of the oath: " Formula juramenti non erat fidei
" ac Patrum regulis consentanea.'' Writing at a subse-
quent time in commendation of the second Encyclical Let-
ter of the V. V. A. as well as the first, as also of their
Pastoral Letter of Dec. 26, 1792, in condemnation of the
Layman's Letters, 8$c. the Cardinal says : ;' Jam probe novit
" Sanctitas sua sedulam vestram operam quani abhinc bien-
" nium impendistis iis Encyclisis literis in lucem editis, ac
" salutari doctrina refertis, quibus late pervagantia adver-
" sus Apostolicam Sedem errorum monstra, valide in sec-
" tanda ac profliganda curastis, ne greges custodiae vestrae
" concredite aliorum scabie ac contagione misere corrum-
" perentur.''

•f- The distinguished Professor of Divinity and Spiritual
Director of the Pontifical Seminary of Douay. On the
occasion, here spoken of, he withdrew his former confidence

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 67

talents in writing an appeal from the judgment
of the Bishops to the opinion of the people, as
also an Address to the four Bishops them-
selves, in which they and the Holy See are
grossly insulted and calumniated. Both these
letters are dated Nov. 25, 1789. They bear
the names of the two ecclesiastical members,
and of five lay members of the Committee,
and they form, what is called the first Blue
Book.

DEATH OF TWO VICARS APOSTOLIC.

Within a few months after the synod of Ham-
mersmith, it pleased Almighty God to render
the crown of glory, laid up for them, to two of its
venerable heads, the V. V. A. of the North and
the South. This event revived the spirits of
the Catholic Dissenters, who now depended
upon carrying their Bill, including the con-
demned oath, together with those " regula-
" tions of our national discipline/' which they
had been so long intent upon making, if they
could but get Bishops to their mind for the two

K 2

from the Secretary, as did pious Catholics in general. One
of them, a V. A., printed a hand-bill, now before the writer,
in which he terms him " a Lay Vicar General,1'— who " mo-
" destly requests that Ecclesiastical Assemblies in the North
" will not come to any Resolutions till he shall have the ho-
" nour of attending them /'*

68 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

vacant districts, or even, if they could only
raise the coadjutor Bishop of the Middle Dis-
trict [who had been a member of the Com-
mittee for two years, and had unhappily given
into all its measures] to the mitre of the Lon-
don District. To effect this, numerous meet-
ings were held, especially in the metropolis,
cabals formed among the clergy as well as the
laity, ambassadors and ministers of state can^
vassed, and attempts made to intimidate as \vell
as to deceive Rome. The means, however,
most relied upon, were the publications, which
were then put forth and gratuitously distribut-
ed, to persuade the clergy and people that they
had a natural and divine right to choose and
appoint their own bishops (as the French schis-
matics were doing, at that very time, in their
own country), and to get them consecrated by
any man in episcopal orders, who could be in-
duced to lend his ministry for this purpose,
without any intervention of the Pope whatever.
One leading member of the Committee, in par-
ticular, our secretary's chief confident, was
most strenuous and indefatigable in this cause
of schism. He published three several works
in support of it, during the vacancy of the
Districts, in which he maintained that : <c the
<f Vicars Apostolic are foreign emissaries, who
(f preside in virtue of an authority, delegated
( ' by a foreign prelate, who has no pretensions

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 69

te to exercise such an act of power."* He
therefore called upon the Northern and Sou-
thern clergy to assemble, and in conjunction
with the laity, to appoint their Bishops in de-
fiance of Rome ; and he called on the Western
and Midland Clergy to meet and invest their
actual Prelates [if they pleased] with the au-
thority^ which, he asserted, they were not then
possessed of.f True it is, that other writers
better informed and better principled,^ opposed
the schismatical innovators, one of whom the
present writer answered, in detail, each of the
misguided Layman's books, and at last reduced
him to silence,§ still these pestilential pub-

* A Letter addressed to the Catholics of England by a
Layman, 1790. In his second letter, page 3, he recom-
mends the example of the French schismatics in denying
the necessity of the Pope's confirmation.

f First Letter.

^ The Rev. Dr. Strickland, Charles Plowden, and J.
Milner.

§ The Clergyman's Answer to the Layman s Letter. — The
Divine Right of Episcopacy — and Ecclesiastical Democracy
detected. — In the summer of the year 1792, the V. V. A.
Walmesley, William Gibson and Douglas, attended by their
Divines, Charles Plowden, R. Bannister, J. Barnard, and J.
Milner, held a synod in Ormond Street, London, in which
they censured twelve propositions, extracted from the Lay-
man's Letters, as erroneous, inducing to schism and heresy,
contrary to the definition of a General Council and the Faith
of the Church.

70 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

lications had numerous abettors, even among
the clergy, one of whom., a distinguished cha-
racter, publicly declared that he would rather
be the author of the Layman's first letter than
of all his own publications.

APPOINTMENT OF TWO NEW
BISHOPS.

None of the above-mentioned disorderly
movements however, had the effect of removing
the apostolical Walmesley, and the faithful Car-
dinal Antonelli from the straight line of their
duty : accordingly in the latter part of the year
1790, Dr. William Gibson was appointed, ac-
cording to the canons of the Church, and the
rules of the English Mission, Vicar Apostolic of
the Northern District, and Dr. John Douglas,
Vicar Apostolic of the Southern District. The
first news of this event drove the Committee
and their adherents to the verge of an open
rupture with the Holy See. One great per-
sonage of that association, in a letter to Bishop
Berington, dated Nov. 16, {C entreats him to
fc stand firmly to his (pretended) election."
Another gentleman of family and talents, then
a pupil of No. 12, Lincoln's Inn, in a pamphlet
subscribed with his name, and under the title
of A Protesting Catholic Dissenter., pledges
himself to propose at the next Catholic Meeting,
that " No other person but Dr. Berington

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 71

" should be acknowledged as Bishop of the
ef London District." He had friends who were
pledged to support him. The measure,, how-
ever., which was most approved of, and finally
adopted by the party., was to depute the Rev.
Mr. Hussey to Rome., to ce protest against the
" appointment which (they apprehend) may have
<c taken place/' of the Bishops Gibson and
Douglas, and which they add, " is as easily
" revoked as made/'* The Holy See was
timely warned of this intended deputation., and
was prepared to give it a proper answer, f when

* The present writer does not here quote the alleged
Instructions of the Committee to Mr. Hussey, as published
by the Historian, p. 129, though these are sufficiently in-
sulting to his Holiness, but a M.S. copy of them, apparently
in the hand writing of a clerk, and corrected by the learned
Secretary. In these the subscribers claim an absolute right,
on behalf of the clergy, to choose their prelates, and declare
those appointed to be obnoxious and improper, threaten to
withdraw pecuniary supplies of the Mission, and pronounce
the object of their choice to be a paragon of all the virtues
they number up " beloved of God and man." The writer
must observe, once for all, that the minutes (so called) of
our Committees and Boards being privately made, and with-
held from public inspection, are not of the smallest autho-
rity. He has met with abundant proofs of their being made
considerably after their alleged dates, and altered to suit
occasional circumstances.

f In an official letter from the Prefect of the Propaganda
to Bishop T. Talbot, dated Jan. 29, 1791, His Eminence
writes : " QuoJ ad gliscentes controversias attinet, non
" ignorabit Amplitude tua nupcr a Clero et Magnatibus Ca-

72 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

the deputy himself, through a regard for his
own reputation and conscience, not from the
refusal of the Spanish ambassador to part with
him for a short time,, as is stated in the Historical
Memoirs,* resigned his commission,, and ac-
knowledged Bishop Douglas. A resignation,
however, of far more importance for the peace
and unity of the English Mission, was that of
Bishop Berington, who, in a printed letter to
the London clergy, dated Nov. 4, 1790, re-
signed every pretension to be their superior,
and entreated them to receive as such, Dr.
Douglas. In fact he was an unambitious, sweet-
tempered prelate, of strong natural parts, and
qualified for the highest station in the Church,
had he been resolved to support her necessary
authority against the prevailing encroachments
and aberrations of powerful laymen. Every ob-
stacle being now removed, the two new Bishops
were consecrated, at the invitation of that pa-
tron of orthodoxy and piety, the late Thos. Weld,
Esq. in his eleg-ant chapel at Lulworth Castle.

ts tholicis Romam expeditum esse D. Thomatn Hussey, ut
tc dictus controversias Smo. Dno. nostro et huic Congni
" exponat, atque interim orasse ne quidquam statuatur.
" Itaque videndum erit quid novi afferat, quibusque rati-
" onibus aut juramenti formulam, aut dissentientium opini-
" ones sustinere possit. "

* The present writer has sufficient reasons to assert this,
from his communication with the Rev. Mr. Hussey at the
time in question.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 73

The Northern prelate was consecrated Dec. 5,
by Bishop Walmesley, assisted by the Rev.
Charles Plowden, and the present writer, who
also preached the Consecration Sermon. Bishop
Douglas was consecrated by Bishop Gibson,
December 19, when the Rev. Charles Plow den,
who had been a main support to the common
cause of them both, delivered a discourse, now
in print, suitable to the occasion.

FRESH CONDEMNATION OP THE
OATH.

As the former Condemnation of the oath by
the V. V. A. did not withhold the Committee
from continuing their fc exertions to obtain the
' c passing of the Bill, or induce them to take any
ce steps for obtaining an alteration of the Oath/'
as the historian, for their and his own disgrace,
avows,* and as there was every appearance
that a Catholic Bill, of some sort, would pass
in the course of a few months, the new Bishops
saw that their proper station was the seat of
Government. Thither, therefore, they hastened
at the beginning of the year, carrying with
them Bishop Walmesley's proxy, and a fresh
Encyclical letter, which they had agreed upon
and signed before they left Lulworth. Their
first attempt was to induce the Committee, and

* P. 1, 25.

L

74, SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

especially their Secretary and Manager, to
enter into sentiments of Religion and Catholic
unity ; but these failing, and the person last
alluded to ridiculing the idea of their finding
support in Parliament,* they then published
the above-mentioned encyclical letter, the copy
of which will be found in the Appendix.f This
letter, which is dated Jan. 19, 1791, rehearses
the former encyclical letter of Oct. 21, 1789,
condemning the proposed oath, and states that
no alteration of any moment had been made in it
since that time. It repeats the declaration that
no new oath ought to be taken, or instrument
regarding Religion ought to be signed by Catho-
lics without the approbation of their Bishops, and
thence argues that, as they themselves had not
approved of the oath in question, it could not be
conscientiously taken. It denies that the Com-

* The present writer is witness to this happening in his
presence, when acting as agent to the Bishops. — The Secre-
tary, writing in the name of the Committee, in his third
Blue Book, p. 8, asserts that they " never refused any

unobjectionable oath proposed to them." This is a false-
hoed, as an oath of this description, signed by the three
Bishops in the heat of the contest, which is now before the
writer in print, together with the Irish oath, was sent by the
Bishops to the Committee, through their Secretary. This
gentleman returned for answer, that he did not think ike
legislature would accept of them. The legislature, however,
did accept of the latter, namely, ibejirst Irish oath.
f See Appendix B.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 75

mittee have any right to determine on oaths or
instruments containing doctrinal matters, and
claims that right for the Bishops. Finally,
it rejects the appellation of Protesting Catholic
Dissenters.

SCHISMATICAL PROTEST.

From the past conduct of the Committee,, on
a similar occasion, there was too much reason
to fear that they might now refuse submission to
their Bishops, though directing them and the
rest of their flocks in a concern of the utmost
importance to Catholic faith and unity, and to
their own salvation ; but no Christian of any
sort was prepared to hear or read that stunning
complication of profaneness, calumny, schism
and blasphemy, which was published against
the Bishops in their name, within a fortnight
from the date of the encyclical,* and which
forms the conclusion of the Second Blue Book.
Not content with publicly ajid schismatically
disclaiming submission to their Bishops, acting
in the strict discharge of their pastoral duty,
and this on the mere ground of their (the Com-
mittee's) own private judgment ; they protest
and call on the awful name of God, again and
again> to witness their schismatical protest,

* See Appendix C«

76 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

against every clause, determination, matter,
and thing, contained in the first as well as the
second encyclical: whereas there are several
matters and things contained in them both,
to which they cannot consistently with com-
mon sense avoid yielding their assent. Not
content with condemning their Bishops as
being " arbitrary and unjust/' they calum-
niously charge them,, in the face of the public,
with ff inculcating 'principles hostile to so-
" ciety and government, derogatory from the
" allegiance due to the state !" — O what tears
of contrition, what explicit retractions are not
requisite to expiate so much guilt and scan-
dal !*

The Bishops had little else to trust to for the
success of their cause, but its native goodness,

* Though this most scandalous Protest was drawn up
and signed in a moment of irritation, yet could not the chief
subscribers be induced to recal it sixteen months afterwards,
as appears by their common letter to the Mediators. See
Buff Book, p. 22. In like manner, the learned Secretary
who published it, after an interval of several months, testi-
fied his adherence to it in the following terms : " The Pro-
" test and appeal (against the Bishop's two Encyclicals) has
" been the subject of my most serious consideration : but
" the reasons which make me think it a defensible measure,
" would swell this letter into a dissertation." — Persisting in
this opinion, he tried sixteen years afterwards, to induce Mr.
Coyne and other printers to republiih the whole of the
Blue Books in Ireland.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 77

and the divine assistance. The venerable
Senior trusted entirely to the latter. He used
to repeat with confidence, " I have asked my
Master that this bad oath may not pass ; and he
will grant my prayer :" which prediction of the
holy man was a subject of pleasantry to the
learned gentleman. The two junior prelates
were followed to London by their religious
host, Mr. Weld, and the Rev. C. Plowden.
The former was of great service to them in
diminishing the horror with which the Prime
Minister, Mr. Pitt, had been inspired against
a Papist, as contradistinguished from a Pro-
testing Catholic Dissenter: the latter vindicated
their cause with his victorious pen in his View
of the Oath, and his Answer to the Second Blue
Book. The present writer also went up to town
at this time, being called thither by the two
Bishops to act as their agent, in making what
interest he could among Members of Parlia-
ment in favour of unity and orthodoxy. He
was already known by character to Mr. Burke,
who introduced him to Mr. Fox and Mr.
Windham. By his advice he also waited on
Mr. Dundas, and held a conference with him
in the presence of Mr. Pitt. He had likewise
an introduction to three of the established
Bishops, to Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. William
Smith, and other Members of the legislature,

78 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

all of whom listened to his arguments with the
utmost kindness, and interpreted the oath in
the plain sense of its words, and not in the lax,
unnatural manner they were said to do in the
Blue Books.*

INTRODUCTION OF THE BILL INTO
PARLIAMENT.

The day of trial came on in the House of
Commons, March 1, where the writer attended,
amidst a crowd of exulting adversaries, while
his friends were on their knees at home praying
God to protect his own cause. Mr. Mitford,
in presenting the Bill, said, in the style of his
profession, a great many fine things in favour
of the Protestant Catholic Dissenters, whom he
associated with the Remonstrants in King
Charles's reign, and against the Papists, who,
he said, had, heretofore, " starved the Remon-
strants." The illustrious Fox spoke with his
accustomed enlargement of sentiment, and

* 1st. B. B. p. 6. The last named M. P. who was con-
sidered as the head of the Dissenting interest, expressed
himself in these terms to the writer : " The chief objection
" of our people to yours is, that we consider them as not
" sufficiently observant of the obligation of an oath : but as
" it now appears that your party are so much more scrupu-
" lous on this head than the opposite party, yqu shall
" have our support in opposition to them."

OF f HE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 79

Burke dissipated the gathering mists of bigo-
try with the bright rays of his glowing imagi-
nation, and benevolent heart. Mr. Pitt spoke
at great length, but in such obscure and am-
biguous terms that Fox was obliged twice or
thrice to call upon him for an explanation of
his meaning. The fact is, he had not then
made up his mind, whether there should be
one Act, to comprehend both parties, or two
Acts, one in favour of the Protestant Catholic
Dissenters, whom, in a former speech, he had
praised as good subjects, the other, barely to
save from the gallows the traiterous, perfidious,
and bloody-minded Papists, as he then con-
sidered them. At length the Attorney-General,
afterwards the Lord Chief Baron, Sir Archibald
Macdonald, rose and said, amongst other
things to the same effect, that, as he was enter-
ing into the house,, a paper had been put into his
hands which proved that one of the Catholic par-
ties were as good subjects and as much entitled
to favour as the other. This paper, which will
be found in the Appendix,* is entitled : " Facts
" relating to the Contest among the Roman
cf Catholics." It had been drawn up by the
writer on his journey from Winchester to Lon-
don, and had been distributed by his friend, an
officer of the House, among the members of it.

* See Appendix D.

80 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

This declaration of so distinguished a person
as the Attorney-General, drew the attention
of the Prime Minister., among others, to the
contents of that paper, and caused him to
express himself, soon after, in these words :
" We have been deceived in the great outlines
" of the Bill ; and either the other party must
" be relieved, or the Bill not pass."

STRAITS OF THE COMMITTEE.

From this time forward the fate of the
Bill, though the passing of it was delayed
for three months, may be said to have been
in the hands of the V. V. A. In the meantime
certain Catholics of high birth and the purest
honour found themselves reduced to the greatest
straits in consequence of their names appearing
affixed to publications, which perhaps they had
not perused,* but which, at all events, bore on
their foreheads the marks of a twofold decep-
tion ; that of cheating Catholics out of a por-
tion of their Religion, a/id that of swindling
the legislature out of concessions which it had
not an idea of granting; namely, by our
" Slipping," as the Secretary terms it, " from
" under the operation of the laws, unheeded,

* See the Letter to an Episcopal Member of the Com-
mittee, quoted near the beginning of this Supplement,

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 81

<( and unobserved."* In fact, the above-men-
tioned paper, or hand-bill of the writer, consists
of quotations from the Blue Books, and of
answers to those passages. It was impossible
to deny the fidelity of the citations,, and it was
equally impossible to refute the writer's obser-
vations on them. The only resource, then., of
the learned Secretary was, to dispute the autho-
rity of the writer in distributing his paper. For
this purpose a paper was drawn up and pre-
sented to the writer, signed by twenty-six indi-
viduals of various descriptions, requiring him to
give proof of his being authorized to act in the
concerns of any other Catholics. He did not
shrink from the challenge : but barely required
to give his answer in writing, that it might not
be misrepresented, and to have an hour's
leisure for composing it. To be brief: he
proved that the great body of Catholics through-
out England looked up to their Bishops, to
procure for them in the existing juncture an
unobjectionable and proper form of an oath,
that two parts in three of the London clergy
had signified this to them in a formal manner
but a few days before, that fifty-three in Lanca-
shire had called upon them, in a printed paper
now before the writer to this effect, testifying at
the same time, that very few of their laity would

M

f 1 B. B, p.*.

82 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

take the Committee's oath. Lastly, he pro-
duced a formal deputation to him from the
Bishops, to act as their agent in the present
business. Never was an attorney more fully
authorized to transact another person's business
than the writer proved he was to circulate the
unanswerable hand -bill, which had produced
so great an effect in the House of Commons :
yet, as Mr. Secretary had no other line to move
in, than that of disputing the writer's commis-
sion, he proceeded to print and circulate among
Members of Parliament, sanctioned as usual
with respectable names, a counter ' ' Statement
" of Facts," in which he denies that the sup-
porters of the Oath, which he fraudulently
identifies with the Protestation, are the minor
part of the Catholic body, and that real scru-
ples exist among the Catholics as to its lawful-
ness : adding that one John Milner, who had
asserted these things in a hand -bill on behalf of
thousands, being called upon for his authority
in making these assertions, " could only pro-
" duce the names of three persons — and those
" never chosen to transact business in their,
" the Catholics names." He concludes that,
" it remains with the wisdom of Parliament,
" whether it will accommodate itself to the
" scruples of a few individuals ; but that the
:c Committee and those in whose trusts they
tc have acted will repeat the Protestation (that

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 85

" is to say the Oath), as often as called upon."
This Statement., so disgraceful and disgraced,
the Secretary, as if anxious to raise a trophy to
his adversary, reprinted the year following
in the third Blue Book.* To support that fraud
in the Statement, which represents the Protes-
tation and the Oath to be one and the same
thing, a splendid edition of the former was
printed by the Secretary on elephant paper,
and a copy of it circulated with each copy of
the hand-bill. But as the grand object of the
whole policy was, to induce a belief in Members
of Parliament, that the supporters of the Oath
consisted of all the respectable Catholics in
England, and that the party which opposed it
consisted only of John Milner, and three name-
less individuals, therefore the name of John
Milner was left out of the elephant edition,
though unfortunately it had been affixed to the
original Protestation, in the manner that has
been explained above !f

Pudet hcse oppro&ria nobis
Et did potuisse, et non potuisse refelli. — OVID.

* Appendix, No. vii.

f Several weeks after this fraudulent transaction, and
when it had totally failed of its intended* effect, the learned
gentleman gave another edition of the Protestation on ele-
phant paper, in which he; inserted the name of the writer.
Fortunately the latter got sight of both editions : after which
he waited on the Secretary, required to know why his name
M 2

8* SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

FINAL ISSUE OF THE CONTEST.

In conclusion, those fraudulent artifices stated
above., so unworthy of the Catholic religion,
and so detrimental to the real interest of those
•who practised them, served only to augment
this mortification. Soon after the Bill was
brought forward, the ministry, probably un-
willing to augment the strength of the Dissen-
ters, obliged the Committee-men to drop that
obnoxious appellation ; and the arguments con-
tained in the writer's hand-bill caused it to be
still more peremptory, in proscribing the insi-
dious and inconsistent title of Protesting or
Protestant Catholics. Accordingly, in all their
Memorials and other papers which appeared
after the first of March, the Committee are
found to resume their family name of Roman
Catholics* Finally, the Committee Oath, which
had undergone many alterations in the House
of Commons, but still remained unsatisfactory

was suppressed in one edition and appeared in the other.
The gentleman tried long to evade the writer's question ; at
length, being urged with it, he answered, that in printing the
former edition, certain skins of signatures had slipped aside!
— The next day he wrote a letter to the same person, of
which the following is an extract : " It was not in my power
" to superintend the press, — and to what accident the omis-
" sion in question was owing 2 know not"— Lincoln's Inn,
May 11,1792.

* See Appendix to 3d B. B,, N. vi. N. vii, &c.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 85

to the Bishops, was totally discarded in the
House of Lords, and the Irish Oath of 1778, in
conformity with the Bishops' petition, was sub-
stituted in its place. How sorely mortified the
learned Secretary and his party were at these
events, and especially at the little credit given
by the Legislature to their high sounding assu-
rances, that the Catholics of England, with the
exception of four unaccredited individuals, wefe
ready to take the oath, may be conceived from
the following extracts of that gentleman's letter
to a venerable character in the country. It is
dated Lincoln's-Inn, June 6th, 1791, and now
lies before the writer. fc Our Bill came before
" the House of Lords on Tuesday. The busi-
" ness" was opened by Lord Rawdon. I was
ff thunderstruck to hear him set out with de-
" claring, that, in the joy he felt in the pros-
(C pect of the happy success of our business,
" it gave him real concern to find that the Bill
" would not extend to relieve a considerable num-
" her, perhaps a majority of the Catholics. He
ee was followed by the A. B. of Canterbury.
cf His Grace was succeeded by their Lordships
cc of St. David's and Salisbury. All professed
<c to respect the principle of the Bill, but all
{e thought it vastly imperfect. The Bishop of
" St. David's spoke most at length. He called
ef on God to witness his wishes to serve the
" Catholics : but the present Bill was very im-

86 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" perfect : so imperfect, that he doubted whe-
" ther it could be mended. He then repeated,
" with very little variation, the whole of Mr.
" Milner's last publication at the door of the
" House of Commons. If the Bill passed, with
" the oath in its present form, one set of Ca-
{f tholics were at the mercy oj the other. He
" saw the streets full of informers, the prisons
" crowded, &c. The Duke of Leeds, though
" a friend of the Bill, thought it should go
ec over to the next sessions : so also thought
" Earl Fauconbergh. Je croyais que le Diable
" s'en melait. — On Thursday, Mr. Douglas sent
" in his ultimatum, consisting of- four altera-
" tions ; but the Irish oath, he said, would be
" agreeable to every one. On Friday, the
" critical debate came on. The Bishop of St.
" David's proposed the Irish oath ; Lord Guild-
<c ford and Lord Grenville insisted on a clause
" being inserted, by which we swear allegiance
" to the succession in the Protestant line.*
" The Duke of Leeds and Bishop of St. Da-
" vid's had read all the papers published on the
" occasion, and thought both parties equally
tc violent and equally blameable.f With the

* The Secretary does not tell the Catholic public at
whose suggestion, nor for ix/hat purpose, Lord Guildford was
induced to move the insertion. These things, however,
must one day be made manifest.

f The Secretary omits to mention, that the Duke of
Leeds declared, that the ivriters on the side of the Bishops

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 87

(C alterations mentioned the Bill was carried.
" What remains is matter of form."

MEETING AT THE CROWN AND
ANCHOR TAVERN.

Two days after the passing of the Bill, name-
ly, on June 9th, a Meeting of near 200 Catho-
lics took place at the Crown and Anchor
Tavern, in the Strand, of which the Secretary
published a long account a few days afterwards,
but of which he says little in his HISTO-
RICAL MEMOIRS, except as to the resolu-
tion of depositing the original Protestation,
with its signatures, in the British Museum.
The present SUPPLEMENT will furnish se-
veral important particulars respecting the Meet-
ing, which are wanting in both those publi-
cations.

Dr. Douglas having been informed, on the
eve of the Meeting, that a vote of thanks to
the Committee for their conduct in the affair of
the Bill would be proposed at it, called toge-
ther those clergymen of his confidence who
resided in his neighbourhood, to deliberate
whether or no such thanks could conscien-
tiously be given to persons who had so long

had much the better of the argument, and that the Bishop of
St. David's (Dr. Horsley) protested that there are things in
the Committee's Oath, 'which he, as a Protestant, could not
swear !

88 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and so violently endeavoured to impose a con-
demned oath of heterodoxy and schism on the
Catholics of England. He himself declared
for the negative side of the question, as did a
majority of the company : whereas the writer
contended that the Committee might properly
be thanked for their exertions in procuring the
civil benefits of the Act., provided the Bishops
were thanked for their vigilant zeal in obtaining
an orthodox oath. This being agreed to,, it was
settled that when the vote in favour of the Com-
mittee was brought forward at the Meeting,
the Rev. Vicar General, J. Barnard, should
move an amendment to include the Bishops,
and that the present writer should, after suit-
able observations, second the amendment.
This was accordingly done with strict forma-
lity. Mr. Barnard, after moving his amend-
ment, presented it to the chair in writing, and
the present writer, after making his speech
and seconding the amendment, continued to
remind the chair and the company of the esta-
blished rule of deliberative assemblies, which
requires that a proposed amendment of a mo-
tion must be disposed of before the original
motion itself. But this was all in vain : certain
gentlemen who surrounded the chair insisted
upon it that the amendment should not be put
to the votes, and accordingly it was not put to
them. The learned Secretary takes no notice

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 89

of this business in his Memoirs ; what he says
of it in his printed sheet is briefly this : " The
Cf original motion was carried without the
<f amendment, and ordered to be inserted in the
<e public papers." Had he given a full and
faithful account of the transaction, he must
have stated that the supporters of the Bishops,
present at the Meeting of June 9, 1791, when
peaceably and orderly proposing a measure of a
conciliatory nature on the part of those Bishops,
were silenced by unrestrained clamour. — This
circumstance decides the character of the Crown
and Anchor Meeting. It was a disorderly cabal,
and none of its acts were entitled to any autho-
rity or respect,

FRESH CONTEST ABOUT THE
PROTESTATION.

It was reasonably expected by all peaceable
persons of every description, that the passing
of the Act, containing an oath of allegiance,
*to be taken by the Catholics, would have set the
above-named equivocating instrument, which
for two whole years had been the source of
contention arid division among them, at rest for
ever. The legislature, after mature delibera-
tion, had decided in what terms we should ab-
jure the odious charges brought by our ene-
mies against us. In short, Parliament had
dictated to us the proper form of our Protesta-

N

90 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

tion. But this did not satisfy the noble mind?
of our Committee. They had been defeated
before the public iu a contest which they them-
selves had provoked by opponents whom they
had despised, and., as routed armies often do,
they were resolved to sing a Te Deum after their
defeat. This was the real motive of the motion
for depositing the battered Protestation in the
British Museum, the carrying; of which was the
principal object of the Meeting at the Crown
and Anchor. The ostensible grounds of this
measure, alleged in the motion for it, were
because " the oath in the Bill is not expressed
in the words " of the Protestation,"* (so neither
is the Committee's oath with which they were
so well satisfied), and because " the Protesta-
" tion is an explicit declaration of civil and so-
" cial principles :"f just as if the oath pre-
scribed by Parliament were deficient iu these
respects, at the same time that it was free from
those ambiguities and errors, which had drawn
down the censure of the Catholic Prelates upon
it ! However, as the Secretary and other
leaders of the Committee were conscious of
their influence in such a Meeting as that of the
Crown and Anchor, and were acquainted with
the talents of their ever ready orators, Priests
as well as laymen, they insisted on dividing the

* Hist. Mem. ii. p. 136. f Ibid.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 91

company, when there appeared,, according to
the Secretaries printed sheet, 21 Priests and
83 laymen for the motion of depositing the Pro-
testation in the Museum, and 30 Priests, in-
cluding Bishop Douglas and B. Walmesley's
deputy, the Rev. Mr. Coombes, with 42 laymen
against it. But though the learned gentleman
was in such great haste to get the Protestation
voted to the Museum, he let more than six
months pass before he carried any instrument
of that nature thither, and what he did then
carry was not the original Protestation of 1 789^
but a new copy of it.*

FURTHER TRANSACTION AT THE
TAVERN MEETING.

It is useless to say any thing of the pecuniary
accounts of the Committee, which were laid

* The present writer and the Rev. Charles Plowden hav-
ing in the heat of the Committee contest cast some imputa-
tions on the authenticity of the Instrument in the Museum,
they were challenged in 1795 by the Cisalpine Club, in a
printed hand-bill, to make good their charge. This they
performed in two unanswerable pamphlets which they res-
pectively published. See a Reply to the Report of the Cisal-
pine Club, by I. M., and Letter to the C. C. by C. P. How-
ever, as the learned Secretary is pleased in his Historical
Memoirs to recal the attention of the public to this antiquated
controversy, the writer intends to add an Appendix to the
present work on this subject (see additional Appendix), a
copy of which he will, with permission, deposit in the Mu-
seum, with several authentic documents in support of it.

N 2

92 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

before the company for their assistance in liqui-
dating them, further than that Dr. Douglas and
the present writer subscribed and advised their
friends to subscribe what they could afford for
this purpose ; though,, as they observed,, there
was no one to indemnify them for the ex-
penses they had incurred in opposing the
Committee. — A far more important business
than the last mentioned,, which is detailed at
great length in the Secretary's printed sheet,,
though it passed over in the Memoirs, was
brought forward at the Tavern Meeting. A
Reverend member of the Committee, who had
gone all its unlawful lengths, who continued
to promote its oath after it had been censured
by his Bishop, who had signed the two Blue
Books with the schismatical Protest at the end
of the latter of them, and who obstinately
refused to retract these scandalous measures,
had been interdicted the sacred ministry by
that Bishop in his District. Different laymen
and women had used their efforts in vain, to
oblige the Prelate to reverse a sentence which
he had conscientiously pronounced. The case
was clearly an ecclesiastical one, and therefore
Priests were solicited to interfere in it. The
principal clergyman applied to for this purpose
was one who had always shewn his obsequious-
ness to the Secretary and leaders of the Com-
mittee. He was not long in getting 13 other

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 93

Priests to join him in signing a letter, dated
May 2d, and addressed to the Committee,
pledging themselves, though belonging to a
different District, to interfere in an ecclesiastical
case between a private clergyman and his
Bishop, and ' ' to make the cause" of the inter-
dicted Priest fc their own." Never was there
an ecclesiastical proceeding more irregular and
disedifying; and, as one false step generally
occasions more, they afterwards signed other
publications equally reprehensible ; one of which
contains implied heresy.* These rash signa-
tures, which were made by some of the 13
without any knowledge, and by the rest with
only an imperfect knowledge of the cause which
they had made their own, were the source of
disquietude and misery to them for several years,
till by the grace of God they successively,
either in health or on their death-beds, fully
retracted them. Eight other Priests of the Lon-
don District, who with two others not belonging
to it, are stated in the third Blue Book, p. 45,
to have at Castle Street, Feb. 2. 1790, in sup-

« * " Of this (Catholic) Church we believe the Bishop of
" Rome to be the head, supreme in spirituals by divine ap-
" pointment, supreme in discipline by ecclesiastical institution"
Appeal to the Catholics of England, p. 22.— It may be
further observed, that B. Walmesley's conduct in this busi-
ness was decidedly approved of by the other V. V. A. and
by the Holy See herself.

94 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

port of the Committee's oath approved of a pro-
position condemned by the Church as heretical*
declared to their Bishop, that " They never af-
ff fixed nor allowed their names to be affixed to
ff the heterodox proposition. "f

More important and unfortunate still was the
case of the other ecclesiastical member of the
Committee., the coadjutor Bishop of the Midland
District ; endowed with superior talents and the
sweetest temper, he wanted the firmness requi-
site for the episcopal character in these times,
to stem the tide of irreligious novelty and
lay influence,, and so lent his name and autho-
rity to the Oath, and the Blue Books, and every
other measure which his fellow Committee-men
deemed these might serve. Hence when his
worthy principal in 1795 quitted a station,
together with his life, which he had, with unexr

* Damnatio Propos. Synod. Pistoj. Propos. IV.
f See a certificate of three V. V. A. in the Directory for
1799. — One of the clergymen being appointed to a Bishop-
ric in Ireland, published a letter to Mons. Erskine,
dated Hampstead, May 1, 1798, of which the following is an
extract. " I never saw the proposition until the late V. A.
«' mentioned it in his letter to me. Though my name is
" gratuitously affixed to it, I was not even -present at the
<: time it was deliberated, otherwise I would not sanction a
'•' proposition the apparent meaning of which is heterodox."
The abovementioned certificate and the present declaration,
overturn the authority of the Blue Books, and implicate
either the learned publisher of them or some of his friends,
in the guilt of literary forgery.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 95

am pled vigour, endeavoured to avoid. Dr.
Charles Berington found he could obtain the
spiritual faculties necessary for a V. A. without
renouncing the Oath and the Blue Books, which
the Holy See exhorted him, and his episcopal
brethren entreated him to do. But the powerful
laymen with whom he was unfortunately con-
nected, and who exercised an absolute power
over him, even in his episcopal concerns, would
not allow him to submit to the Holy See in this
business,* while certain clergymen, in whom

* One of the Prelate's Friends, a leading man of the Com-
mittee, writes to him thus under date of April 15, 1797.
" After the receipt of your letter, I applied to N — and N,
" and N, who were all of the late Committee in town. They
l( all agree with me in thinking that you cannot of course
" accede to the present form sent you from Rome." — In
another letter the same person sets down a preliminary form of
words, which he says N — and N — , both great men of the
Committee, had agreed with him were to be prefixed by the
Bishop to any submission he might make to the Holy See,
in order to obtain his faculties. — In a third letter, he gives
an account of an unsuccessful attempt which a noble friend
of his had made on the Duke of Portland, to engage his in-
terest in this business of spiritual faculties. He at the same
time mentions his own success in engaging Mr. Pitt, through
Sir John Mitford, to stir in the affair, adding : " Do not
*' mention any thing about Pitt's message till the whole
** business is finished." He speaks in the same letter of a
petition to Rome, " to be numerously signed:" that usual
attempt to intimidate the Holy See! — In a different letter,
the same personage refers the Prelate to another Commit-
tee-man of higher rank than himself, who, he says, '< will

96 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

he placed great confidence, with far less honour
pressed him to make a fraudulent submission.*
Finding, however, after a vigorous resistance
of more than three years continuance, that a
renunciation of the Committee's cause was una-
voidable, he signed the retractation to this effect,
which is copied below. f Unfortunately, how-
ever, he did not act quite in the spirit of the re-

" inform you of what he has done in your business :" adding,
" We have endeavoured to get Ministry to interfere on ac*
" count of the confusion you"r removal would occasion."—-
Speaking of the interdict under which the V. A. of London
had laid a clergyman, their common friend, he tells the co-
adjutor : " You must take care that Mr. T. (his V. A.) does
" not withdraw his leave (from that clergyman) on account
" of this circumstance."

* Writing to the Prelate, under date of April 12, 179*7,
concerning the formula of retractation, sent from Rome for
his signature, he says : " You consider that formula as a re-
" nunciation of every thing in the Blue Books, and even of
" the Protestation : I think, if ever I saw any thing clearly
" in my life, that it implies nothing of the kind ; but merely
" a revocation of such semina, £c. as the H. See thinks cen-
" surable in them. If in consequence of your signing it,
" your enemies should say that you have condemned the Blue
" Books, Sfc., they will tell an infamous falsehood: but you
" by signing it will put an end to a malicious persecution,
" and will bless your District with a liberal and enlightened
" Prelate, instead of a N— , or a N — , or some such fanatic.
" I write this with tears in my eyes."

f " Ego Carolus Berington ad normam declarationis mihi
" per S. Congregationem, probante Summo Pontifice, pro-
" scripts, ad S. Congregationem perferendee, pro reproba-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 97

nunciation, and died suddenly before he re-
ceived his faculties.

THE MEDIATION.

This was set on foot in April 1792 by three
respectable and religious Catholic gentlemen.,
John Webbe Weston, of Sutton Place, Francis
Eyre, of Workworth Castle, and William Shel-
don, Esq. of Brailes, in order to reconcile
the Committee with the Vicars Apostolic,
against whom they continued to be irritated on
different accounts. When requested by the
Mediators to state their grievances, with a pro-
mise that they would use their best endeavours
to get them redressed, five members of the
Committee, by a letter dated April 30, 1793,
mentioned the following : 1st. ff The depriving
ce Mr. W. (one of their ecclesiastical colleagues)
ff of his faculties : — 2d. The publishing of
" the Answer to the Second Blue Book by the

" tiohe formulae Juramenti a S. Congregatione reprobatae,
" una cum Libellis, qui vulgo Turchini (Blue Books) dicun-
" tur, atque adeo pravae qualiscunque, noxise, pericu losse
" que doctrinae in illis, sive Formula, sive Libellis contentae
" praesenti hoc meo scripto declaro me revocare, revocatam-
" que haberi velle subscriptionem praedictis scriptis ac Li-
" bellis a me appositam. Profiteorque me Apostolicse
" Sedis judicio libenti, vereque sincero animo submittere,
'* et quas hactenus exea prodierint, quae que in oosterum
" prodibunt dograaticas decisiones amplecti et amplexurum
« esse'."

o

98 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

<c Rev. C. P., in which the author asserts that
ff he wrote at the request of three V. V. A. :—
" 3d. That the ecclesiastical government of
" the Catholic Bishops in this country is not
" conformable to the known rules and canons
cf of the Church, by which the clergy of the
" Mission ought to possess the rights of paro-
" chial clergy."* These complaints being laid
before the Bishops, they answered as to the first
point, that if the Rev. gentleman under an
interdict would express his submission to their
decision, they would respectively concur to the
removal of it. But this condition his colleagues

o

" unanimously and decidedly rejected. "f
Respecting the second point, the Bishops
answered agreeably to the wishes of their ad-
vocate, that they had requested the R.C.P.
to answer the Blue Book, but that if he had written
any thing amiss, he himself was to answer
for it. But the Secretary of the Committee had
no stomach to come to close quarters, and
in such a cause, with the Rev. C. P. As to the
third alleged grievance, the Bishops contented
themselves with saying that they would con-
sider of it. In fact, these lay gentlemen did
not understand the ecclesiastical business they

* See a quarto pamphlet of 26 pages published by the
Mediators, and called The Buff Book, because the copies of
it were stitched up in Buff coloured paper.
I Page 16.

Or THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 99

had embarked in. They wished our scattered
missionaries to be changed into Parish Priests.,
before there were any parishes founded for
them to govern ! They were all of them to be
alike Rectors without any Vicars ; like an army
of officers without any soldiers ! — and this to re-
strain the Bishops from deciding doctrinal ques-
tions, or at least from censuring those of their
clergy who might refuse obedience to their
decisions !

THE CISALPINE CLUB.

The term of five years, to which the duration
of the Committee was originally limited,, being
to close on May 3, 1792, the leading members
of it, with their Secretary and a few of their
chosen friends, to the number of thirteen in
all, held a Meeting, April 12, at Free Masons
Tavern, when they formed themselves into a
CASALPINE (or Anti-Papal) CLUB, under
fourteen rules, which they printed. The last
of these declares, that ff every Member of the
" present C. Committee shall be an original
" member of this club, unless he declines it."
The professed object of this club was to op-
pose the alleged usurpation of the Pope and
the tyranny of the V. V. A. It was, in fact, a
continuation of the Committee, though without
the pretence of a delegation, and those leading
members of it, alluded to above, pledged them-

100 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

selves to the mediators, in a letter, now in
print, dated Lincoln's-Inn, June 22, that is to
say, when they were Club -men, not Committee-
men, in the following terms : " We beg leave
te to repeat, that we are determined in all
" similar situations to resist any ecclesiastical
" interference, which may militate against the
{( freedom of English Catholics."* They had
before said : " the Protest we cannot recall,
ce while the Encyclical Letters remain unrecal-
" led."f That the spirit of the Club had not
evaporated two years after its foundation, ap-
pears by the following extracts from a letter,
dated March 12, 1794, and written by one of
its principal founders and patrons to a digni-
fied friend of his : " We had yesterday a great
fc meeting of the members of the Cisalpine
" Club, when some resolutions were agreed to,
(f which I hope will put an end to all the non-
' ' sense that has been talked about that society.
{c You will soon see them, and I am sure they
" are such as will meet with your approbation.
<f The principles of our Protestation must be
" kept up and made visible. I experience the
tf advantage of that strong ground we then
" took, in every application we make to our
" friends. The merits of it would soon be
" frittered away, if the spirit of that Protes-

* Buff Book, p. 23.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 101

" tation were not preserved by such a meeting1,
" where the young men may continue to sup-
" port their father's principles, who signed the
" Protestation before they came into the pub-
" lie world."

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC MEETING.

The notorious anti -catholic spirit of the
Cisalpine Club caused another Club to be
formed under the above-mentioned title, in
effecting which the respectable Mediators,
named above, were mainly instrumental The
first Meeting was held, and the eighteen rules
of it settled at the Crown and Anchor Tavern,
on May 1, 1794, when the following members
of it were present : Bishop Douglas, the Lords
Newburgh, Stourton, Arundell, and Clifford :
the Baronets Fletewood, Jerningham, Blount,
and Haggerstone, with about forty other re-
spectable gentlemen. The greatest hopes of
general benefit to the Catholic Religion and the
Catholic cause were conceived from the conti-
nuance of this Society ; but, owing to some
mismanagement or jealousy, which the writer
has not fully discovered, it fell to pieces in the
course of a very few years. In the mean time,
the Cisalpines have increased their numbers
and perpetuated themselves, with very slight

102 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

interruptions,* down to the present time. The
fact is, that several well-intentioned Catholics
who now belong to it, are unacquainted with
the history of it here given, and they are un-
conscious of the irreligious nature of the sen-
timents to which they pledge themselves at its
meetings, f

RESULTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLU-
TION TO ENGLISH CATHOLICS.

Among the many other events of late years,
relating to the Catholics of England, which
their historian has left to be supplied by the
present writer, are those which resulted to them
from the French Revolution. Of the 50,000
priests,! who after the assassination of several
thousands of their brethren were expelled from
their native country, 8,000 sought refuge in
England,^ where they served many Catholic

* While the Cisalpine Republic existed the Club sup-
pressed its title ; and, when its members have addressed
Rome, they have tried to conceal the existence of such a
club.

f The first sentiment given and adopted at the annual
Meetings of the Cisalpine Club is in honour of the Old
Committee [alas, its members are ingulphed in eternity, all
except the Secretary and two others] ; now this sentiment,
if it signifies any thing, signifies continued approbation of
the Protestant- Catholic-Dissenters' Oath, of the three Blue
Books, and the schismatical calumnious Protest !

j Baruel's Hist. Clerg. § Ibid.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 103

congregations and families, who from the defi-
ciency of English priests, were destitute of the
benefits of their religion, and edified persons of
every description by their modesty, piety, and
strict morality. They were soon followed by a
whole convent of French religious women, as
these were in succession by different female
communities of our countrywomen. They were
universally received not only with generous
hospitality, but also with beneficent kindness.
The King gave up his house at Winchester for
the reception of 1,000 of the clergy. His pre-
sent Majesty supplied the nuns of Montargis
with provisions during the whole time of their
residence in London ; Ministry remitted the
Custom-house dues on whatever books, altar-
plate, or other valuables, any of them brought
with them, and our fellow -subjects in gene-
ral cheerfully contributed (none more cheer-
fully than the established clergy) to their
relief. The only persons who did not partake
of this benevolent spirit were the Jacobins of
England, a few bigots among the Dissenters,
and certain Catholic Cisalpines. In proof of
what is said of the last-mentioned, it will be
sufficient to quote what a great leader of the
Club wrote to a venerable character (who could
not but disapprove of his sentiments), under
date of Sept. 8, 1794 : " What a quantity of
" Nuns, Monks and Friars, are arrived ! What

104 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" is to be done with them ?•— It is well wor-

" thy the consideration of the V. V. A. how

" far it is advisable, safe, and prudent to en-

ff courage their establishment : how far we

(f are bound, by our oath, by our honour, not

" to connive at a wilful transgression of our

" Act of Parliament. Let us consider, &c."— —

When it is known that Catholics of power were

thus disposed in regard of the most inoffensive,

the most pure and pious, and the most useful

description of English Catholics ;* next to the

officiating clergy, it is easy to account for a

circumstance which took place respecting them

in 1800. A religious controversy had taken

place in one of the Cathedral Cities between a

Prebendary and the Catholic Pastor of that city,

in which the latter, owing to the advantage

of his cause, was allowed to have had greatly

the advantage. In this posture of affairs, it

was resolved on, by the worsted party, to have

recourse to Parliament, for an Act to annoy

the Catholics, though it was not settled on

which side to attack them. At one time it was

intended to lay restraints on the French Clergy,

some of whom had been actually sent out of

the kingdom for making converts ; but at

length it was resolved on to torment the poor

* Allusion is here made to the virtuous and religious
education given by the ladies to the youths of their own
sex.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 105

Nuns., by putting them under a species of Alien
Act : accordingly a Bill was brought into the
House of Commons for this purpose,, and, as it
was at first countenanced by the Minister, it
seemed sure of succeeding. At length., how-
ever, being opposed by Messrs. Sheridan,
Hobhouse, Windham, &c. it became weaker
and more relaxed in every stage of its progress,
and was likely to be totally lost, when the
first-mentioned member proclaimed to the
Commons, that cc a compromise had taken
place." Accordingly the Bill met with no fur-
ther opposition among them, though, after all
its changes, it was still in such a state, that, as
O'Leary said, in his excellent pamphlet on the
subject,* " The Ladies would say of it : Send
ff us back to the French guillotines, rather
" than subject us to the conditions proposed
" in the Bill." The fact is, Mr. Sheridan, who
was extremely intimate with the Cisalpines in
question, never doubted of their being autho-
rized to make terms for the poor recluses : and
to give a colour to such a pretence, they had
actually written to them for their certificates
and other documents, with a promise of pro-
tecting them. The upshot of the business was,
a real friend of theirs informed them that they
were betrayed, and advised them to throw

* Remarks on Sir Henry Mildmay's Bill.
P

106 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

themselves on the humanity of the House of
Lords, without any Cisalpine interference what-
ever. This they did, and the Bill was quashed
at once.

The historian has wisely passed over certain
transactions, which caused a gentleman of his
confidence to be sent to P. Pius VI. at the time
of the first invasion of Rome by the French,
and at a time when the Holy Father himself
was detained in the Carthusian Convent at
Florence. When that heroical pontiff had
finished his martyrdom in the prison of Valence,
in August, 1799, the infidels of France and the
fanatics of England equally boasted that the
Popedom was annihilated : but, He icho dwel-
lethin heaven derided them, and the Lord laughed
them to scorn: he had built his Church, against
ivhich the gates of hell shall not prevail, upon the
Rock of Peter ; accordingly at that crisis, God
gave a temporary triumph to the arms of the
allies, which enabled the Cardinals to hold a
regular conclave at Venice, in which, on March
14, 1800, His present Holiness, Pius VII. was
canonically elected ; after which victory re-
sumed her former course, and Napoleon Buo-
naparte became master of France and Italy,
under the title of First Consul, a title which,
with its annexed power, was acknowledged by
this country, and all Europe. The Pope em-
braced the opportunity which these circum-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 107

stances afforded him of reuniting France to the
unity of the Catholic Church. To effect this,
however, a new circumscription of Dioceses
throughout that kingdom became necessary,
and, of course, the resignation of the surviving
Bishops, who were then in the tenth year of
their exile, in different parts of Europe, with
an understanding at the same time that those
among them who chose to return to France
would be promoted to some of the intended
new Bishoprics. The greater number gave in
their resignation : the rest from motives of
loyalty to their sovereign, whose cause the
restoration of Religion in France was thought
to injure, refused to comply. Of the second
order of exiled clergy resident in England, nine
parts in ten of them returned to France to
acknowledge the existing government, and to
labour in restoring Religion and morality there,
which, by that time, were almost equally
extinct, and they were furnished with money
by our Government for their voyage home.
Among those who remained in England, several
unfortunately adopted schismatical principles,
refusing to acknowledge the Church of France,
restored by P. Pius VII. to be part of the Ca-
tholic Church, or to communicate with it. The
most conspicuous man among these was a Mon-
sieur Blanchard, who published many works in
support of the schism. In opposition to these

p 2

108 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

Perele Point, S. J. and Abbe Robert, published
some short tracts, and Dr. Milner one of greater
extent, which is entitled : An Elucidation of the
Briefs of the Holy See, respecting the Church of
France.

PEACE RESTORED TO THE ENGLISH
MISSION.

The disturbance occasioned by the Blue
Book controversy still continued, especially in
the Midland District, which had been in a kind
of hostility with the other Districts for several
years. There was even a dispute concerning
the legitimate source of jurisdiction there ; the
senior Vicar Apostolic, Dr. Gibson, claiming to
be this source on one hand, and the late B.
Berington's Vicar, Dr. Bew, claiming to be it
on the other. One of the first concerns of the
new Pope was to settle this important contro-
versy. Accordingly the Archbishop of Nisibis,
by his authority, in a letter, dated Venice,
April 23, 1800, decided the matter in favour
of the former claimant. Still it continued a
great subject of contention between that pre-
late (he being the regular presenter) and the
Cisalpine party, who should be the future V. A.
In the meantime the Rev. Gregory Stapleton,
a gentleman of ancient family, and unimpeach-
able orthodoxy and morality, having accom-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 109

panied the Rev. Mr. Nassau to Rome, on a
deputation of equal secresy and importance, he
was appointed to the vacant District, Nov. 1 ,
1800.* By his exertions peace and order were
restored in his department. These, however,
did not continue long, as Dr. S. died in May,
1802, when a fresh contest arose between the
Senior V. A. and certain powerful Cisalpines,
concerning the choice of a Bishop for the va-
cant District. The latter had recourse to the
means they had employed in the vacancy of
the London District : the former satisfied hiin-
self with claiming his right, which was support-
ed by Cardinal Erskine, then at Rome.f By
their united influence, Dr. John Milner was ap-
pointed Bishop of Castabala, and V. A. of the
Middle District, March 1, 1803 :J but here a
new obstacle occurred. The latter conceived

* Date of the Brief.

•f Letter from his Eminence to the writer. In another
letter to a Protestant, he claims the whole business to
himself.

J Date of the Brief. — Six years before this time, Card.
Gerdil, then Prefect of the Propaganda, wrote to Bishop
Walraesley, signifying that, if the V. V. A. approved of the
measure, he would recommend Dr. M. to be Coadjutor to
Dr. C. B. in order to exercise those faculties which were
denied to the latter, for his refusal to retract. One of them
did not approve of it, still hoping that Dr. B. would com-
ply. Upon the death of the latter, Dr. M. was regularly
presented to succeed him ; but the superior merit of Dr. S.
caused him to be preferred.

110 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

it his duty to decline such a promotion altoge-
ther, and he had the strongest antipathy to a
residence in that country, where he saw he
must reside in case he accepted of it. He con-
sulted with his friends, and remained long
undecided; at length one of those friends*
having made him sensible, that if he refused
the situation, probably it would fall into the
hands of some one who would perpetuate the
dissentions and innovations to which it had
been so long subject, he consented to receive
consecration, which was administered to him
by Bishop Douglas, in St. Peter's chapel,
Winchester, May 22, 1803, the Bishops Gibson
and Sharrock assisting, besides Dr. Poynter,
Bishop elect of Halia, the destined Coadjutor
of the London District, the Rev. Thomas
White, who preached the Consecration Sermon,
the Rev. Mr. Perry, V. G., Mr. Richard South-
worth, S. T. P., Messrs. Hodgson, Griffiths,
Walmesley, Grafton, P. John Baptist Prior,
Abbe Carron, &c. The following week the
same august ceremony was performed on Dr.
Poynter, with the same assistance and com-
pany, for the most part, in the chapel of Old
Hall, when Bishop Milner delivered a Discourse
in honour of the consecrated Prelate. The
happy meeting of the four V. V. A., the Coad-

* The Ven. Prior of Acton Burnel.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. . Ill
jutor Prelate., and of so many respectable
Priests., gave occasion to the holding of a regu-
lar synod, in which many things regarding
Religion were settled with perfect unanimity.
Among these was an answer to the following
question then proposed : What are the chief
practical grievances under which the Catholic
Religion labours in England, from the present
state of the laws, and which we ought to get re-
dressed, when this can be effected ? The answer
unanimously given in the Synod was this : The
following are the chief grievances in question :
1 . Some Catholics, such as Soldiers, Sailors, fyc.
are still debarred the exercise of our Religion.
— 2. Catholic marriages, though publicly per-
formed in licensed chapels, are not valid in law. —
3. Though Catholic Chapels and Schools are
licensed by law, yet the property for their support
is subject to confiscation.*

* The first of these grievances is in some degree re-
dressed by the toleration of Government ; still it requires
the addition of half a dozen words in the Annual Mutiny
Act, to protect Catholic Officers and Soldiers, even from
capital punishment, for refusing to attend the established
worship. With respect to the second grievance, we have
been publicly told by Mr. Percival, Lord Colchester, and
every parliamentary speaker on the subject, that we have
but to ask for redress in this most conscientious matter in
order to obtain it. If even the V. V. A. would unite for
this purpose, they could not fail of success. As to the third
and most difficult point, it may be presumed there would

1 12 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS.

be no objection, on the part of the legislature, to put our
ecclesiastical property on the same footing with that of the
Wesleyan Methodists, and of other Dissenters, which is
practically secure. In a Book called, A Sketch of the Pro-
ceedings of the Deputies for protecting the Civil Rights of the
Dissenters, Burton, Leadenhall Street, 1814, is the form of
a Trust-Deed, by means of which the Meeting-Houses and
other common property of the Dissenters are put under the
protection of the law.

END OF PART I.

SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS,
§-c. fyc.

PART II.

THE VETO.

HAVING so long parted company with the
historian of the English Catholics, for the
purpose of gathering* up his omissions, the Sup-
plementary writer rejoins him at this new and im-
portant aera of modern Catholic history. He fore-
sees, however, that as the learned author's object,
in the subsequent part of his work, is the same
that it has been in the preceding part of it,
namely : to palliate and defend the conduct which
he himself has held in Catholic affairs, not to
give a full and true account of them, it will be
impossible they should continue long together,
and that his excursions in collecting materials
overlooked by the historian, will henceforward
be even more frequent than they have been. In

Q

1 U SUPPLEMENTA RY MEMOIRS

doing this, he is really sorry that he must so
often be under the necessity of speaking of
himself: but without doing this, he could not
do justice to his subject.

It has been asserted by a great many ill-
informed or self-interested writers and speakers,
that the Irish Prelates, who, to the number of
ten, met together at Dublin in 1799, were the
original authors of the Veto, and that Dr. Mil-
ner, as agent to the Catholic Bishops of Ireland,
authorized the Rt. Hon. Mr. Ponsonby to pro-
pose it to Parliament in 1808: no assertions,
however, can be more false than these are, as
the writer will proceed to shew. The falsehood
of the former is proved by the historian him-
self, where, on the positive testimony of Lord
Grenville,* Mr. Pitt's confidential friend and
fellow minister, and of Lord Castlereagh, his
agent in the transaction, he traces up the plan
of a Royal interference in the appointment of
Catholic Bishops to the above-named author of
the Union. f — First, then, the original plan was
that of government, not of any Catholic

* Lord Grenville speaking on the Catholic question in
1810, said, " to me, it (the plan of a Veto) is not new. It
" formed part of the plans intended to be brought forward
" at the period of the Union." — Keating's Report.

•J- Lord Castlereagh said on the same occasion : " Upon
" the ecclesiastical part of the arrangement, I was autho-
" rized in 1799 to communicate with the Catholic clergy."—
Ibid.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 115

Bishops ; and as the negociation began on th«
part of government, so it went off on their part,
every promise made and every hope held out to
the Catholics to gain their consent to the Union,
being set aside, when that point was carried.—
Secondly, the ten Bishops, who were induced to
enter into the negociation, were not " The Pre-
lates of Ireland/' as our historian chooses to
term them,* nor were they a majority of them,
being little more than a third part of their
whole number ; neither were they on this occa-
sion the representatives of the Prelates of Ireland,
for they did not so much as inform their absent
brethren of the business in question, either
before or after their communication with the
Secretary of the Castle. In short, they were
barely the episcopal trustees of Maynooth Col-
lege, who having assembled in Dublin to attend
to its concerns, that Minister took occasion to
consult them on the double plan of a state pro-
vision for the Catholic clergy, and of a govern-
ment interference in the appointment of their
successors. Hence the answers which they
gave to the Secretary's questions were never
considered by them, nor can they in justice be
considered by others, as expressing anything
more than their own private opinion, in the ex-
isting circumstances, on the points proposed to
them.— Next, then, as to the purport of these

* Page 145.

116 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

very answers they will be found, on a strict exa-
mination, to fall very short of that contained
in the Veto, as it was generally understood : for
the Maynooth trustees approved of the inter-
ference of government in episcopal elections,
barely as far as was necessary to ascertain the
loyalty of candidates. They moreover stipulated
for their f( own just influence," and also for the
consent of the Pope in this important business.
Finally, to prove that the answers of the May-
nooth trustees had no connection with the Veto,
proposed in the House of Commons in 1808, it
is sufficient to mention that these were never
once referred to in the debates on the Catholic
Question, either in 1805, or in those of 1808,
nor indeed in any publication previously to
the autumn of the last mentioned year. The
following is the true account of the way by
which they become known to the public. — A
nobleman of high rank, and one who was
much acquainted with the affairs of Ireland.,
conversing \\ith the present writer on Mr. Pon-
sonby's proposal in Parliament, the day after it
was made, namely, on May 26, 1808, said that
something, he knew not what, had passed on the
same subject several years before, between cer-
tain Catholic Prelates and the government of Ire-
land, and he directed the writer to procure for
him a full account of the same from one of them,
whom he named. Accordingly the Paper of

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 117

Resolutions, which our historian,, Sir J. Ilippis-
ley, and other writers have so often published,
was sent to his Lordship,, who in return,, urged
the writer to print it. This the latter refused to
do, saying : " I know full well what a scourge
" to my brethren in Ireland this paper will
" prove : but I will not be the executioner to
" apply the scourge/' The paper was then put
into the hands of two Catholic gentlemen, who
were preparing A Report of the Debates on the
Catholic Question, in the last named year, and
they published it as an Appendix to their work.

INTERMEDIATE NEGOCIATIONS.

Though the Resolutions of the ten Prelates
in 1799 were equally unknown to Catholics and
Protestants in both islands, yet the subject
of them \vas frequently discussed by leading
men of both communions, at least on this side
of the water. Sir John Hippisley, in particular,
was continually raising alarms in the minds
of his Catholic acquaintances, about what he
called the long sleepers,, meaning the obsolete
laws of Elizabeth's reign, by which all manner
of correspondence or intercourse with Rome is
prohibited under pain of death : his meaning in
this was to dispose them to accept with cheer-
fulness, certain legislative restraints on the
appointment of Catholic Bishops, and their

118 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

intercourse with the Apostolic See, the manage-
ment of which, by means of an office to be
created for that purpose, he expected would be
put into his hands. The Baronet gave a sketch
of his plan, in his speech on the Catholic Ques-
tion in 1805, an excellent speech, and deservedly
applauded by Dr, Troy, Dr. Milner, and other
Catholics in other respects, but severely con-
demned among themselves, as far as regarded
the proposed restrictions on their Religion.*
The fact is, they never imagined that any of
their Protestant advocates could speak for a
length of time on their subject in such manner
as to merit their unqualified approbation, and
they conceived the Ba onet to be so warmly and
disinterestedly their friend, that he would when
desired give up any project of his own, which
they should instruct him was injurious to their
feelings Soon after Sir John Hippisley had
printed his speech, a Catholic Baronet of great
talents and proportionable weight, among Pro-
testants as well as Catholics, published a work

* The historian has a section, p. 171, to shew that tb«
Prelates, including the writer approved of Sir J. Hippisley's
speech} whence he infers, that they approved also of the
latter's new plan of discipline, which forms a very small
part of it. The inference does not hold good : and the
writer is authorized to aver, that Dr. Troy in particular was
deterred from giving a new edition of the speech, as be once
intended to do, by reflecting on the mischievous tendency
of that plan.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 119

in which, presuming no doubt on the support
of several other Cisalpine Catholics, he made
the following ample offer : " If Government
ce wishes to have the appointment of our
" Bishops, it has but to signify its intention,
fc in order to its being complied with."* Two
other Catholic gentlemen, to the knowledge of
the writer, waited on certain great Statesmen,
engaging to procure a tender of the Veto from
the laity of their communion, if it would be ac*
cepted of. There can be no doubt that it was
from his communications with Catholics of this
description,, that the able writer who disguised
himself under the name of Peter Plimley,
thought himself justified in publishing that he
was f( authorized" to say, that {e the Catholics
cf Were ready to invest the Crown with the right
<c of appointing their Bishops ;"f and that Mr.

* Considerations on the Cath. Debate of 1805, by Sir
J. T.

f The writer's words are these : " To my certain know-
V ledge, the Catholics have long since expressed to his
" Majesty's ministers their perfect readiness to vest in his
" Majesty, either with the consent of the Pope, or without
<f it if it cannot be obtained, the nomination of the
" Catholic Prelacy." Letter ix. p. 30. — Counsellor
McKenzie, a Catholic Barrister, expressed the same senti-
ments in a publication about the same time ; and the Rt. Hon.
8anders Dundas, now Lord Melville, declared in Parlia-
ment, that to his knowledge many English Catholics would not
be satisfied with Emancipation for themselves, unlett their
dtrgy -were laid under the proposed restrictions.

120 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

Ponsonby himself made the offer in Parliament
which will be mentioned hereafter.

Other members of the establishment, but of
far greater weight than the last mentioned,
frequently conferred with the writer on the best
means of serving the Catholics. These, how-
ever, in their opinion, required some alteration
in the mode of appointing Catholic Bishops.
Their several plans for effecting this, the writer
communicated to his brethren and the Apostolic
See ! He has now lying before him a Biglietto
from the latter, dated Sept. 7, 1805, which an-
swers in a luminous and satisfactory way all his
queries concerning these plans. First, the
state-pension is strongly deprecated : 2dly, it is
proved that no Concordat can be made with
an A-Catholic Sovereign, investing him with
power to nominate Catholic Prelates ; in confir-
mation of which the letter of Benedict XIV. to
Frederick the Great is quoted : 3dly, it is denied
that an A-Catholic Sovereign can be permitted
to make a choice, even among the General
Vicars of the actual Bishops : lastly, it is ad-
mitted that a mere negative power of objecting
to episcopal candidates by an A-Catholic
Sovereign admits of fewer difficulties than the
former schemes (though even this is objected
to) : but it strongly asserted, that in case such
negative power should ever be granted, effec-
tual precautions would be requisite to prevent

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 121

this negative power from growing into a positive,
one. — In 1807 the writer visited Ireland for the
first time, when, being in company with eight or
ten Catholic Prelates, he warned them of the
storm that was gathering over their heads on
the subject of episcopal appointments, to which
admonition one of them answered in the hear-
ing of the rest : cc We cannot allow Ministry to
" choose our Bishops, but we will choose
" none whom they object to ;" namely, on
civil grounds, for so the writer understood the
answer. During the interval between 1805 and
1808, that most worthy Catholic Nobleman
Lord Fingal, being obliged frequently to pass
through the town of the writer's residence, in his
way to and from Ireland, on the business of the
Petitions with which he was charged, never
failed to honour him with a visit : the latter,
in return, never failed to recommend caution
to his Lordship against entangling himself in
the projects going forward for altering our
Church-discipline.

THE RIGHT HON. MR. PONSONBY'S
PROPOSAL IN 1808.

This subject is introduced by the historian in
his Memoirs under the following title : " The
ec proposal of the Veto in the House of Com-
' ' mons by Mr. Ponsonby ; and in the House of

R

122 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" Lords by Lord Grenville, at the suggestion of
" Dr. Milner, Bishop of Castabala &c.,"* which
announcement to be sure is not quite so
injurious to the writer as it is to proclaim
him the author of the Veto, and to assert that he
authorized Mr. Ponsonby to make an offer of it
in Parliament according to the vulgar rumour,
but it is hardly less so. The real fact is, that
the Rt. Hon. Gentleman was prepared and
resolved to make the proposal which he did
make, before he had any communication with
the Bishop's agent, being encouraged to do so
by his acquaintance with the sentiments of
many English Cisalpine gentlemen, and with
the declaration which he refers to of Lord Fin-
gal and other Irish Catholics. f Being, however,
unexpectedly called to an account for hisautho-

* P. 173.

f " I asked Lord Fingal if I had permission to state
such proposal at the present time? " He said," certainly:
but he added, " thai the Irish Bishops had one of the Catho-
" lie Bishops who was their agent." — Report of Mr. Ponson-
by's Speech in 1810. — See Keating's Report, p. 136. In
other respects the M. P. makes numerous mistakes. He
says, " Lord Fingal stated to me, that Dr. M. was in War-
" wickshirc, and would write to me. " No such communi-
cation took place. He adds : " Before the 3d of May
" Lord Fingal wrote to me to say, that Dr. M. was in
" London, and that he and Dr. M. would tvait upon me the
" next day — the conversation lasted some hours, t-voo or
ie three hours at least." — Dr. M. did not arrive in London till
Friday, May the 22d, and the conversation did not last
above a quarter of an hour.

I

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 123

rity by the Hon. Mr. Yorke, rather than intro-
duce other names, he in a manner threw the
whole responsibility for what he had said upon
Dr. Milner,* confirming; it with particulars still
more detrimental to the latter's character as
a Catholic agent and divine, f

* In Faulder's Revised Report, p. 115, which is far less
offensive to Catholic ears than the real language of the Rt.
H. Gentleman, he is made to say : " The Catholics con-
" sidered among themselves about giving to the Pope a
" power over the clergy, and the government no controul
" over them, and they determined to give government every
" information upon the subject, and to make their superior
" clergy subject to the Crown." — Does it appear on the face
of this very statement, that the Bishops with their agent " con-
" sidered among themselves, and determined to make their su-
" perior clergy subject to the Crown ?" — This language plain-
ly indicates some lay Catholics. — Why, then, cite Dr. M. ?

f The following is the explanation which the Rt. Hon.
Gentleman gave to Mr. Yorke. " My authority is derived
" from several of the most respectable Catholics in Ireland.
" I have had conversation with Dr. Milner, appointed to act
*' here for the Catholic Bishops. He informed me that such
" is their determination ? he believes, that if the prayer of
" their petition be granted, they ivill not have any objection
<e to make the King virtually the head of their Church ! ! ! for
" so I think he must become : and that no man shall be-
" come a Catholic Bishop who has not received the appro-
" bation of his Majesty ; and that, although even appointed
" by the Pope, if disapproved by his Majesty he shall not be
" allowed to act, or take upon himself his spiritual functions !"
— Most assuredly Dr. M. was never before or since accused
of uttering so much inconsistency, heterodoxy and schism.
—Ibid. p. 133.

R 2

12* SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

The following is a plain unvarnished account
of the above-mentioned business, which the
writer has often before published, without ever
being contradicted, and which now will go down
to posterity and be believed by it. — Having ar-
rived in London from Staffordshire on Friday,
May 20, 1808, five days before the Catholic
Question was to be brought forward in Parlia-
ment, he was the next day conducted by Lord
Fingal to the Rt. Hon. Mr. Ponsonby, without,
however, being informed of the subject that
was to be treated of between them. To be
brief: the Rt Hon. Gentleman asked him as
agent to the Irish Prelates : What power they
were disposed to attribute to His Majesty in the
choice of future Catholic Bishops ? To this
question the writer distinctly answered as fol-
lows: ff I know very well that they cannot,
' f conformably with their Religion, attribute to
fe His Majesty a positive power in this busi-
" ness : but I believe, on good grounds, that
" they are disposed to attribute a negative power
ec to him However, as I have no instructions
" from them on the subject, I cannot positively
tf answer for them/' This admonition the
writer repeated several times. It is to be
observed, that the word VETO was not then
known, for it was not till some months later
that it was invented in Ireland. It is also to be
observed, that the Rt. Hon. M. P. did not say

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 125

a word intimating an intention of making a
proposal of any kind in Parliament, and that
he was so little satisfied with the writer's answer
respecting the disposition of the Prelates, that
he requested him to write out of hand to them
on the business, which he did by sending letters
to five of them that very evening. Reflecting,
however, as he returned from the conference,
that the necessity of the Pope's authority in
any new regulation of discipline had either not
been mentioned, or not sufficiently enforced, he
wrote a hasty note to Mr. P. to supply the
defect, into which, however, he introduced
several unconnected subjects, on which he had
conversed with the Member, and among others
the process by which, in case the Pope and
the Prelates agreed to the plan, the Catholic
Bishops of Ireland would be appointed in
future. That this ill-digested paper was a
mere hypothesis, and not a fixed plan for Mr. P.
to act upon, is plain from the concluding
words of it, which are these : (C Dr. M. has not
ff of course had an opportunity of consulting
" with the Prelates of Ireland on the important
fr subject of the Catholic Presentations, but
fc he has every reason to believe that they will
tf cheerfully subscribe to the plan traced out in
<c the first page of this note."*

* See the Hon. Rebt. Clifford's Origin and Progress of the
Veto, p. 3.

126 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

The debate took place on the day fixed for
it, May 26, in the course of which the Rt.
Hon. gentleman, in the warmth of his zeal to
procure the Emancipation, and his anxiety to
disengage himself from Mr. Yorke's importu-
nity, advanced those strange positions, that
" the Catholic Bishops had no objection to
" make the King virtually the Head of their
" Church, — and that a Bishop appointed by the
" Pope, if disapproved by his Majesty, should
" not be allowed to take upon himself his spi-
l< ritual functions." These assertions, as they
filled every one else who heard them with
astonishment, so they pierced the writer's
heart (who equally heard them, and on whose
authority they \\ere stated to be made)
with grief and confusion. Indeed, the Rt.
Hon. gentleman himself appeared conscious
that he had gone too far in what he had said,
and therefore, when he had concluded his
speech, he sent for Lord Fingal and Dr. M.
to meet him in the lobby of the House, where
he asked them both the question if he had not
gone too far ? He has stated, on a subsequent
occasion, that the Noble Lord answered him :
" No you are quite exact."* " Certain it
" is, that the writer hung his head down, and
made no answer at all, being resolved early the

* See Keating's Revised Report of the Debates in 1810,
page 139.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 127

next morning to print a disvowal of the hetero-
dox sentiments which had been ascribed to
him on so solemn an occasion. This he per-
formed in a Protest to this effect, dated May
26, copies of which he sent to the Catholic
Prelates of Ireland and England and to many
other persons, carrying one of them in his
hand to Mr. Ponsonby. TheRt. Hon. Gentleman
immediately said to him : " I am not surprized
cc at your alarm : I do not pretend that you
cc authorized me to say all that I did say : but I
" was at liberty to argue as best suited my
' c cause. For the rest, this paper (the Protest)
ee is a fair paper,, and you have my consent to
" to circulate it."* — As to the historian's as-
sertion, that " Lord Grenville made a proposal
" of the Veto in the House of Lords, at the
<( suggestion of Dr. Milner,"f the latter is
perfectly confident that his Lordship will flatly
deny it if it be advanced in his hearing. The
only communication Dr. M. ever had with that
Nobleman, relating to the subject in question,
was when he presented him with a copy of the
Protest, and all that then passed consisted in
his Lordship's objecting to the restriction on
government proposed in that paper, namely,
that its negative power should be confined to
avowed civil grounds.

* See Orig. &c. p. 4. f P. 173.

128 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

SENTIMENTS OF THE IRISH PRE-
LATES RELATIVE TO THE VETO.

The warm debates in Parliament on the
Catholic Question, were followed in Ireland by
a still warmer discussion of Mr. Ponsonby's
unauthorized proposal, which all Catholics
there disapproved of, and none so decidedly as
the Catholic Bishops. Of this latter fact the
writer received abundant evidence, in the letters
which several of them addressed to him at this
period, when the proposed negative power of the
Crown, as it had hitherto been called, received
the name of the Veto. But, independently of
all such external evidence, the inconsistency of
zealous Catholic Bishops agreeing to make their
King virtually the Head of their Church must
strike every reasonable person to whom it is
mentioned, and of course the implied falsehood
of the followino; title to one of the Historian's

0

articles : <e continued adherence of the Irish
" Prelates to their Resolution of 1799 until the
" meeting in September 1808."* True it is,
they wisely abstained from publishing any
thing on the momentous subject, till they could
hold a General Meeting, to agree on the same
form of sound icords to be held by them con-
cerning it : but in their conversation and cor-

* P. 182.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 129

respondence, they universally disavowed Mr.
Ponsonby's language, and regretted that the
proposal of Government in 1799, with which
the far greater part of them now became ac-
quainted for the first time, had been acceded
to. — In conclusion, the Prelates met in solemn
synod at the Dominican's house in Dublin, and
there, on the 14th of September in the above-
mentioned year, having first agreed that ef Dr.
" Milner's account of his conduct as their
ee agent is satisfactory," they passed those two
ever memorable Resolutions, equally expressive
of their pastoral watchfulness and their civil
loyalty, as follow :

f Resolved, that it is the decided opinion of

" the Roman Catholic Prelates of Ireland, here

" assembled, that it is inexpedient to intro-

" duce any alteration in the canonical mode,

' hitherto observed, in the nomination of Ro-

ee man Catholic Bishops, which mode, by long

' experience, has been proved to be unexcep-

' tionable, wise, and salutary.

" Resolved, that the Roman Catholic Pre-
" lates pledge themselves to adhere to the rule
" by which they have been hitherto uniformly
" guided : namely, to recommend to his Holi-
" ness only such persons, as candidates for
' vacant Bishoprics, as are of unimpeachable
" loyalty and peaceable conduct/'

130 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

THE WRITER'S SENTIMENTS RE-
SPECTING THE VETO.

This subject is treated by the historian in a
manner he knows to be the most offensive to
the writer. The following is the title under
which he introduces it : (f Dr. M.'s Advocation
of the Veto, in a pamphlet, intitled '' A Letter.
" to a Parish Priest." He then goes on :
(f In Dr. M. the Veto found both an able and
<c a zealous advocate."* Mr. Butler has been
frequently assured., that the letter was not
written as a serious advocation of any kind of
Veto., but merely as a mooting essay, to use a
lawyer's term, for the perusal of his friend,
a Catholic Prelate of Ireland, who had written
too sharply and indignantly to him on the sub-
ject. Only fifty copies of it were printed, and
those were distributed exclusively among the
higher order of the clergy, with the exception
of a single copy given to Lord Fingal. One
of these copies unfortunately fell into the hands
of the writer's adversaries, who published it to
his indescribable mortification. Rather than
explain his essay, which he might have done,
he not long after publicly retracted and con-
demned it.

The measure of a Royal Veto on the ap-
pointment of Catholic Bishops was precipi-

* Page 184.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 1S1

tately brought forward by Mr. Ponsonbyand his
opposition friends in 1808, as an experiment to
effect the emancipation ;* and the refusal of the
Catholics to grant it, was taken up by Ministry
as a pretext for withholding the desired relief.
Certain it is, that neither party thought it of
any real utility to the safety of the State ; as it
was notorious that no class of subjects had
given more pregnant proofs of their loyalty in
the most trying times of public danger, both
from without and within, than the Catholic
Bishops, f On the other hand, they were evi-
dently the best qualified persons, from their ac-
quaintance with their clergy, to keep up the
spirit of loyalty in their body. Nevertheless,
as the measure was brought forward in Parlia-

* Mr. Whitbread, speaking in the Debate of 1810,"con-
ccrning the Veto, said : " Its importance has been much
" over-rated ; I confess, I think it was prematurely brought
" forward by my lit. Hon. Friend. I do not believe it
" made one convert to the cause of justice." Keating's
Revised Report, p. 174>. — Mr. Butler himself, in his address
to the Catholics of Ireland in 1809, called the Veto " a
" mere make-tveight," adding : " If you are unable to gain
" your cause without the Veto, you are unable to gain your
«' cause with it."

+ The steady loyalty of the Catholic Bishops of Ireland,
and of their Clergy in general, was proved in the great Re-
bellion of 1798, at the invasion of Humbert, the threatened
invasion of Hoche, and on many other occasions, on some
of which it has been publicly acknowledged by Government.

9 2

132 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

ment, and, to the writer's great astonishment
and mortification,, grounded on his authority,
he considered within himself by what means it
might be effected, without violation of the
Catholic discipline or danger to it. This he
thought he had discovered, in the following
checks on the exercise of the negative power.
First, if this exercise were restrained to a due
number of times, for example, to three times :
secondly, if the name of one candidate only
were proposed at a time (to prevent the virtual
choice of a Catholic Bishop by an A-Catholic
Ministry) : thirdly and principally, if the Civil
Power were confined to its own proper grounds,
namely, to a care of loyalty and the public
peace, in such manner, that if his Majesty's
Ministers objected to any Catholic clergyman's
becoming a Prelate, they should assign, as the
reason of their objection, a well grounded
doubt respecting the candidate's loyalty or
peaceable disposition. Without this last re-
striction, it was easy to foresee that such
Ministers as were then in power, Mr. Percival
in England, and Dr. Duigenan in Ireland,
would employ the new prerogative for the ex-
tirpation of the Catholic Religion. Such were
the writer's fond speculations : but, in the end,
he found them to be impracticable and vain,
and he then heartily condemned his own folly,
in having given his conditional consent to a

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 1S3
change of situation,* for the purpose of resid-
ing in the capital, with a view of bringing them
to effect. In a word, he found the leading Catho-
lics of Ireland jealous not only of their religious
discipline, but also of the independency of their
Prelacy, as the only remaining monument, as
they called it, of their national freedom ; and
the Prelates themselves, from the best of mo-
tives, resolved to admit of no ecclesiastical
change whatever. He found, on the other
hand, the great Statesmen of both parties
determined to admit of no restriction or modi-
fication of the proposed Veto whatsoever,!

* While these plans were on the carpet, certain leading
Irish Prelates, being desirous that their agent should fix his
residence in or near the seat of government, proposed to
him to exchange his independent and comfortable situation,
in the centre of the kingdom, for one the reverse of this, in
London, by getting an exchange to be made between him
and the Coadjutor of that District. A certain Protestant
gentleman and Card. Erskine were also parties to" this plan.
The Prefect and Secretary at first approved of it ; and
Bishop D., when it was proposed to him, was far from being
averse to it : but, having consulted with some of his friends,
he declared strongly against it, greatly to the comfort and
peace of mind of the writer. In return, his Holiness, by an
indult under his own hand, now before the writer, granted
him a dispensation to fix his residence in the capital.

f The personage, whose opinion he considered to be of
the greatest weight in this business, explained the effect of
the Veto, so as to make it exactly correspond with the
Conge d'tlire, by which Protestant Bishops are appointed.

1S4 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and that a very considerable number of them re-
quired of us that we should actively concur to the
support of t'ldr Chunk, as well as of our com-
mon State, and that the Veto,, when obtained,
was to be directed to this precise object. Now,
though we are prepared to swear that we will
not attempt, by secret fraud or openforce, to over-
turn or disturb the established Church, yet,
believing the separation of it from the Great
Catholic Church, by Henry and Elizabeth, to
have been sinful, we cannot actively promote
that sin by any wilful deed of our own whatso-
ever. To add to the writer's trials, both the
great political parties declared against him,
because he could not go the lengths of either of
them,* and they seemed to vie with each other

" I will suppose (he said) myself to be His Majesty's
" Minister, to whom you present a list of three candidates,
" whom your Prelates judge worthy of the vacant chair.
" Very likely I may say to you : neither Mr. A. nor Mr. B.
" nor Mr. C. is approved of, but if you choose Mr. F. he
" will be accepted of.'*

* A writer, supposed to be a member of the Ministry,
about this time inserted a letter in The Morning Post, high-
ly complimentary to Dr. M., and tempting him to deny that
he had held any conference at all with Mr. Ponsonby. Dr.
M. answered him in The Morning Chronicle, declaring the
truth, namely, that the conference had taken place, but that he
himself had not said in it what he was reported to have said.
Both parties were equally offended, and united their obloquy
against him, especially during the Debates of 1810.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 135
which should abuse him most, both in Parlia-
ment and out of it. Still was he supported by
the conviction, that His Majesty had not a
more loyal subject than himself, nor the Church
a more consistent Catholic, in as much as, in all
his writings and negotiations, he had uniformly
adhered to the declaration which he made and
published at the beginning of them, rather to
give his life, than to give any A- Catholic State or
person a real power over any portion of the
Catholic Church. His conviction, as to the lat-
ter part oi it, was confirmed by the judgment
which he understood the Holy Father about
this time passed upon it. *

FORMATION OF THE ENGLISH
CATHOLIC BOARD.

In the account which the writer gives of suc-
ceeding events, he follows, as nearly as he can,
the order in which they took place : this the his-
torian frequently inverts. In 1807 certain lay
Catholics, to the exclusion of their clergy,

* The writer having, in the month of November 1808,
published a letter in The Morning Chronicle, detailing at
great length the plan which is sketched out above, some un-.
known person sent a copy of it to Rome, where it wa«
translated into Italian, and much approved of by the Car-
dinals, and the Pope himself, who is reported to have said,
that if any change of discipline was made for England) it
should be on the plan traced out by Dr. M .

136 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

associated together as a literary club, for the
purpose of defending their cause and religion
against the shoals of pamphlets and para-
graphs which the press poured out against
them. It does not appear, however., that the
Association produced any work in support of
their learned pretension; and it is probable that
the experienced gentleman who planned it, our
present learned historian, intended it for nothing
else but the nucleus of a new Catholic Com-
mittee, in which he preferred being an osten-
sible member and the secret director, to the
more invidious office of public secretary. To
fill this, he succeeded in withdrawing a gentle-
man of distinguished talents and family from
the fairest prospects of his honourable profes-
sion, to the dullest and most irksome drudgery
of an attorney's clerk. Accordingly this new
Committee formed itself the following year
upon a larger scale, and with a more ample sup-
ply of ways and means, under the name of
The Catholic Board. The writer was applied
to from different parts of England, by the most
respectable Catholics, for his ad vice, whether they
should join the Board or not ? And his answer
was given, though with doubts and fears, in
the affirmative. In fact, it was too much to
hope, as the writer then did, that the surviving
and unreclaimed members of the old Committee,
with their Secretary, the author of the Blue

ON THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 137
Books, who were now the leading members of

• o

the Board, would be actuated by a different
spirit from that by which they had hitherto
been led. No doubt the Society comprehends
many orthodox, good and pious Catholics, but
experience proves that they have not the means
of preventing or opposing the heterodox or irre-
ligious Resolutions of the Board itself.* How
far they are individually answerable for these,
will one day appear. In the meantime it is
necessary to observe, that the list of names set
down in the Historical Memoirs, as members
of the Board,f is swelled out with those of
the dead, with those of all the Catholic Peers
of Ireland, with those of Vicars Apostolic who
never consented to belong to the Board,! and

* Among these are to be reckoned their different resolu-
tions and contributions in support of the schismatical Bill
of 1813, with the distinct thanks to the several parliamen-
tary movers of the schismatical clauses ; their published
censure on one of their Apostolic Vicars, for his exertions in
saving them from schism ; their thanks and pecuniary grant
to J. J. D — , Esq. for his heterodox publications ; their
continued support of the Blue Book writer ; their insti-
tution of the Catholic Bible Society, and suppression of
Bishop Challoner's notes in their stereotype Testament, &c.

f Vol. II, p. 4-98.

ij: The writer having signified by letter to his friend, Dr.
John Chisholm, V. A. of the Highlands, that, in quality of
Member of the Board, he was answerable for such and
such of their schismatical resolutions, the latter answered,

T

138 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

even with that of one such Vicar Apostolic, who
was expelled from it by public advertisement.*
In addition to the printed names, it is added
that ef every Catholic clergyman resident in
" Great Britain" f is a member of the Board ; a
circumstance which nineteen in every twenty of
them never heard of, and would disavow if they
did hear of it, especially on being informed of
the above-mentioned Resolutions.

THE FIFTH RESOLUTION.

This our historian entitles, at the head of
his article on the subject, " the conciliatory
" resolution of the English Catholics," a re-

" neither I nor my brother (the present V. A.) ever autho-
tr rized any person to make us members of the Board,
" and therefore we are not answerable for its doings."

* It is alleged that the writer is not dismissed from the Ge-
neral Board, but only from that superior Board to which his
brethren are associated ! — N.B. The learned author begins
his history of the Board with a lofty panegyric on a noble
Baron, and an honourable Baronet, both deceased, who, he
says, " for half a century had a principal part in directing
" the exertions of the English Catholics for the repealing
" of the penal laws, and were his friends." How far these
circumstances exalt the panegyric, will be judged by the
nature of those exertions, as stated in this Supplement.
If they were so laudable as the historian supposes them to
have been, he has done a manifest injustice to himself, as
the principal director of them.

j- P. 191.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 139

solution which separated the Irish from the
English Catholics,, divided the last-mentioned
among1 themselves, carried discord into the
bosom of the sanctuary, distressed the See
Apostolic -beyond description, and, at length,
brought forth the persecuting and schismatical
Bill of 1813. In short, this pretended conci-
liatory measure has caused more dissention and
mischief among the Catholics of England, than
any other measure (not excepting King James's
oath and Mr. Butler's protestation) since the
divorce of Henry VIII. from his Queen Catha-
rine. The historian gives us to understand,
what indeed we should otherwise believe, that
he was a party to the framing of the Fifth Re-
solution,* especially where he cc invokes the
" testimony of every one present at the meet-
fe ings (where it was framed), that they were
" most anxious to frame it in such terms as
" should not be thought objectionable by the
fc Irish Prelates :"f this also will be readily
believed. But bow a man of his experience,
being also a Catholic, should undertake " to
tc allay a ferment" among five millions of peo-
ple, by modifying the synodical resolution of a
whole nat ional Prelacy, on the strength of his
own judgment and skill in theology; and how he

* P. 102.

f Mr. Butler's Letter to an Irish Catholic Gentleman^ p. 12.
T 2

140 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

should profess to '"' hold most sacred the pledge/'
which he and his Board had just before
given to the Catholics of Ireland ' ' to adopt no
" measure affecting the general interest with-
ff out their concurrence ;"* when it is notorious
that the latter, one and all, bishops, priests,
and people, the instant they heard of the Fifth
Resolution, proclaimed that they were betrayed,
and broke off all connection with him and his
friends ; these things would surpass belief, if
they had not actually taken place before our
eyes. The historian's account of this business,
as might be expected, is obscure and defec-
tive : the present writer will endeavour to fur-
nish one clear and full.

The synodical Resolution of the Irish Pre-
lates, September 14, 1808, as to the " inexpe-
(f diency of making any alteration in the exist-
ef ing discipline of the Catholic Church of Ire-
" laud," could not fail of proving most embar-
rassing to those Protestant Statesmen, who had
founded their plan of a civil emancipation on
the ruins of our religious freedom, and equally
mortifying to those Catholics, who were anxious
to purchase the former at any price whatever
of the latter. Accordingly it was concerted
between the parties to get rid of that Reso-
lution at the approaching session of Parliament

* P. 103.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 141

ill 1810; when the present writer accidentally
caused the scheme to explode sooner than was
generally intended. Having complained in a
weekly publication, under the signature of his
initials, of the persecution of the Catholic sol-
diers of Sir John Moore's army in Spain, then
going on under the auspices of Mr. Percival ;
he lamented also the perseverance of the advo-
cates of emancipation, in urging what he termed
(f those useless and vexatious restrictions upon
" it," which he foretold (but in terms not suffi-
ciently respectful) would drive the Irish to a
choice of evils between them and their adver-
saries. Inquiry was made from a high quarter,
whether or no the writer would disavow the
letter ? He apologized for its offensive terms,
but maintained its sentiments, when, in less
than a fortnight from the date of it, appeared
Lord Grenville's celebrated Letter, dated Jan.
25, to the Earl of Fingal, which from the pub-
lic declarations of Lord Grey, Lord Erskine,
and his other friends in its favour, was called
by Ministry The Creed of the Party * It is
of consequence to attend to the terms and sen-
timents of this letter, because the important
Fifth Resolution being an extract of the essen-
tial part of it, the former throws a blaze of

* See Secretary Ryder (Lord Harrowby's) Speech, in
Keating's revised Report, p. 131.

H2 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

light on the latter. — What, then, says the letter?
His Lordship having1 premised that his " deci-
fc sion had been taken in concurrence with
tc some of the most distinguished advocates of
f( the Catholic cause/' says : " with the just
<f and salutary extension of civil rights to your
' ' (the Catholic) body, must be combined other
" extensive and complicated arrangements. All
tc due provision must be made for the inviola-
(f ble maintenance of our religious and civil
" establishments. Among other measures, I
" pointed out the proposal of vesting in the
fc crown an effectual negative on the appoint-
f< ment of your Bishops. That adequate ar-
" rangements may be made for all these pur-
(( poses, consistently with the strictest adhe-
(t rence, on your part, to your religious tenets,
ff is the persuasion you have long been labour-
ff ing to establish. Were it otherwise, 1 should,
" indeed, despair. But that these objects may
Cf be reconciled, in so far as respects the appoint-
Cf ment of Bishops, is known with undeniable
fc certainty."

In the course of three days after the publi-
cation of this letter, the learned gentleman,
with two or three of his lay friends, is found,
from his own confession,* treating with Lord

* Letter to an Irish Gentleman, by C. B. Esq. N.B. No
sooner were the contents of this letter known in Ireland,

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 143

Crenville and Lord Grey, on a proposition to
be brought forward at a Meeting of English
Catholics, fixed for Feb. 1, in support of the
above-quoted letter, and in contravention to
the Resolution of the Irish Bishops. The pro-
position which he then adopted, as " perfectly
ff reasonable and free from objection,"* on the
part of the wlwle Catholic body of both islands,
but without an atom of authority from any
individual, ecclesiastic or layman, among them,
was this : " the Catholics are ready to enter into
Cf any arrangement, consistent with their faith
" and discipline, which may be required of
ec them for securing the loyalty of persons to
*f be raised to the rank or office of Bishops."
It does not appear to have struck the learned
historian, that the very term " the Catholics are
" ready to enter into arrangements respecting
" the appointment of their Bishops/' whether
by CATHOLICS is to be understood all the
men, women, and children of the Catholic com-
munion, or only himself and his few friends,
are themselves inconsistent with Catholic disci-
pline; for where has Christ or his Church given
them authority to arrange ecclesiastical disci-

than the writer's prediction was verified. The Committee
met, and voted to reject the able advocacy of its noble au-
thor. P. 10. Here the historian essentially falsifies the
terms of the Resolution.
* Ibid.

144 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

pline ? Such,, however, was The Fifth Resolu-
tion in its first form, and such it would have
been proposed at the Meeting of February 1 st,
had not a Gentleman, who had lent himself as
Secretary to the Board, and who in that qua-
lity had pledged hinlself to the Irish Catholics
that the hated Veto would not be brought for-
ward at the English Meeting, declared that he
could not in honour consent to the resolution in
that form, and had he not threatened to resign
his situation, if the Resolution were not alter-
ed. In consequence of this opposition, and
after much negociation, the formula was chang-
ed on the very day preceding the Meeting, for
another more conformable to the words of his
Lordship's letter, but of the self same meaning
with the former. The terms now adopted, after
a useless preamble, were these: cc We, whose
fc names are underwritten, Roman Catholics of
<c England, — are firmly persuaded that ade-
<c quate provision for the maintenance of the
" civil and Religious establishments of this king-
" dom may be made, consistently with the strict-:
" est adherence on their part, to the tenets and
" discipline of the Roman Catholic Religion; and
" that any arrangements, founded on this basis
" of mutual satisfaction and security, and
tc extending to them the full enjoyment of the
" civil constitution of their country, will meet
" with their grateful concurrence." The broad

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. US

sense of this Resolution was evidently to ex-
press a readiness to accept of the Veto, and its
object evidently was to nullify the synodical
determination of the Irish Bishops : but as
the learned historian insists on its being tried
by the precise terms of it, the present writer
maintains that, if the terms, printed above in
Italics be examined by any sound Catholic
divine, he will pronounce first., that the Roman
Catholics of England, promiscuously taken, are
not competent to declare their judgment as to
what is or is not consistent with the tenets of
the Catholic Religion : secondly, that no assem-
bly of Bishops, nor even the Pope himself, is
capable of pronouncing that provisions to be
made for the maintenance of the Religions esta-
blishments of the country, will be consistent with
the Catholic tenets and discipline, before it is
known what these provisions will be. — N.B.
1°. The last Act of the Legislature for this pur-
pose confirms the preceding Acts, by which
all subjects of any respectability are required
to receive the Protestant Sacrament.* — N. B.
2°. Among the existing Religious establish-
ments of this kingdom, there is one for buying
up the children of poor Catholics, and educat-
ing them in the Protestant Charter schools;

* 10 Anne, c. 2. An Act for preserving the Protestant
Religion, by better securing the Church of England.

u

146 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and there is another for paying £4:0 yearly
to every Catholic Priest, conforming to the
established religion.— -Lastly, every such Ca-
tholic divine will decide that, be the future
provision and arrangements ever so consistent
'with, Catholic faith and discipline in them-
selves, no Catholic can, with a safe conscience,
give his grateful concurrence, or any con-
currence at all} to them, for the purpose as-
signed in the Resolution, namely, for the main-
tenance of the Religious establishments of this
kingdom. — However, the historian and his two
or three friends having pledged themselves to
this Resolution, their business now was to get
as many English Catholics as they could, and
especially their Bishops, to pledge themselves
to the same, with the ultimate view of getting
it accepted of by the Catholics of Ireland.

THE TAVERN MEETINGS.

The object of the first of these meetings was
to get over the present writer's assent to the
Resolution, and there can be no doubt that the
business was planned by the same learned
gentleman, who, in 1790, invited the leading
priests of London to a dinner at the Portland
Tavern, in order to gain their signatures to the
Committee's Oath. Having arrived in London
from Staffordshire, on Tuesday, January 30th,
the writer received, early the next morning, a

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 147

note from a Right Hon. personage, inviting
him to dine with him that day., to meet some of
his Dorsetshire friends. It was added,, how-
ever, in the note, that the place of dining was
not then fixed, but might be learnt by noon,
at such and such places. At length, he under-
stood it was fixed at Doran's Hotel, in Dover
Street, the then residence of a respected Catho-
lic Baronet, of Yorkshire. He afterwards met
the Secretary of the Board, who told him that
he should be at the dinner, but never signified
that any business was to be settled at it ; hence
he continued in his vain persuasion that the
invitation was a mark of civility and respect
towards him. It is necessary to mention, that
the writer considered it as his principal business,
on that first day of his arrival in London, to
wait on his brother Vicar Apostolic of the Dis-
trict, in order to act in concert with him, for
the safety of the common Religion, as he un-
derstood that soine new measure, though he
did not know precisely what, wras in agitation
concerning it. He was happy to find the
Bishop's Coadjutor Prelate in company with
him, when, on his mentioning that some fresh
engagement or Resolution was to be brought
forward, at the meeting of the next day, the
latter spoke with great energy against it, affirm-
ing that our Oath of Allegiance was a sufficient
pledge for our principles and conduct, (N.B. a

u 2

1*8 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

copy of the Fifth Resolution, in its first shape,
was then lying on the table before him), nor
did his energy relax, when a Reverend gentle-
man* brought into the room a copy of the
Resolution in its second form, as settled that
very morning, which he had just received from
the Secretary. The writer, agreeing with the
Prelate in his sentiments, had no occasion to
say more than this : " very well, let us then
" stick to that ;" he added, however, in leaving
the room, " at all events, let us Prelates act in
" concert on this occasion;" which sentiment
the Right Rev. Coadjutor confirmed in terms
still more emphatical than he had employed on
the former subject.

Proceeding to the hotel in Dover Street, the
writer met there at dinner, besides the Northern
Baronet, two Catholic Peers, the Secretary of
the Board, and several Catholic gentlemen of
distinction ; still, however, supposing himself to
be the guest of a mere convivial party. But the
dinner was no sooner removed, and the waiters
withdrawn, than the Secretary stood up and
read aloud the Resolutions prepared for the
next day's meeting, when several voices at
once asked the writer, " Dr. M. will you sign
" these Resolutions ?" He then perceived the
object of this extraordinary dinner, and though

* The Rev. Mr. Chamberlaine.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 149

taken by surprise, yet as he clearly saw the
Veto in its most hideous form, couched in the
Fifth and last of the Resolutions, he immediate-
ly answered that he could not sign that parti-
cular Resolution. Much altercation on the
subject took place, in the course of which the
writer maintained, among other things, that
the signing of the Fifth Resolution by English
Catholics would infallibly commit them with the
Catholics of Ireland. He was answered by an
assertion, that the case of the former stood on
different grounds from that of the latter; to which
he replied, that, at all events, Catholic Bishops
ought to hold the same language on a business
of Religion all the world over. He was next
interrogated whether, in case he were a mere
English Vicar Apostolic, and not agent for
the Irish Prelates, he would sign the Resolution ?
To this he answered, that he hoped to give an
answer on this point, in common with his English
brethren, trusting to the engagements entered
into that morning. — He was then desired to pro-
mise that he would not use any arguments to
influence the opinions of his English brethren ;
which proposal he indignantly rejected ; saying,
that, when he met his brethren, he would use such
arguments as his conscience dictated. In con-
clusion, one of the company cried out, " May
" I sign the Resolution ?" to whom the writer,
not by way of solving a case of conscience

150 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

(for it is not over wine, and in promiscuous com-
panies,, that conscientious Catholics ask for
spiritual advice),, but merely to put an end to
an importunate interrogatory,, knowing, at the
same time, that this lay personage's signature
could have no effect in altering the discipline of
the Church., while the Bishops continued firm in
supporting it, as he had then reason to suppose
they all would, he briefly answered, " you may
" sign it if you will." Had the question, in-
stead of the former, been, 6f may I sign a deed
ff conveying away your land in Staffordshire ?
the writer would have given the same answer,
" you may sign it if you will;" adverting, in
this case, to the inefficacy of the signature, not
to the morality of it. There is a necessity of
detailing the particulars of this Tavern conver-
sation to contemporaries, and of consigning
them to posterity, as they have been so grossly
and repeatedly misrepresented, both at home
and at Rome.*

* The gross misrepresentation of the writer's answer to the
second question, put to him at the Theologico-political din>
ner, at Doran's Hotel, will be seen in the subsequent account
of the St. Alban's Tavern meeting. That his answer to the
fourth question, put to him at the dinner, was not less grossly
misrepresented to Mgr. Quarantotti's mutilated Propaganda,
appears by the following extract from one of its official in-
struments, apparently grounded on that misrepresentation :
" Lagnavasi quest! che Mgr. M. tanto in voce che con le

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 151

On Thursday, February 1st, 1810,, the ever
to be lamented Meeting of about a hundred
Catholics, took place at the St. Alban's Tavern :
the chief object of which was to procure signa-
tures to the Fifth Resolution. Seeing the Coad-
jutor Prelate enter the room, together with the
Western V. A., who had but just before arrived
in town, the writer made up to them, and asked
them, ff Will you sign this Resolution ?" They
answered, ({ no/' He then asked the former,
<f Do you act for your Bishop (who was too
" infirm to attend the meeting), as well as your-
<c self?" he answered, (C yes." The three
brethren then sat down together, and, during
an hour or more, spoke and acted in concert
with each other. The business of the first or

" stampi, li sereditasse et infirmasse, come schismatici, per
*' aver sottoscritta la delta Quinta Resolutione. Remanevano
" pero sorpresi come M. M. avesse coragio di opporsi tanto
*' al Veto del Re, quando priraa n' era sempre stato il sos-
" teni tore. Quin imo (cosi scrivano) ille ipse D. M. pridie
** istius diei illud salvd conscientia & Catholicis accipi posse,
** multisfide dignis testibus audientibus, consultus statuit ;
" idemque consilium, eo ipso die 10 Feb ; iterum consultus
'" deditr It is difficult to conceive a more dishonourable
and immoral conduct than that of Mgr. Quarantotti's infor-
mants, in representing the writer to him,£trf deciding at the
public dinner in Dover Street, in favour of the Fifth Reso-
lution, when they knew full well what disgrace he incurred
with the heads of the dinner party, from that day forwards,
for having so firmly opposed it !

152 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

General Petition being settled, when The Ac-
companying Petition, as it was called, or The
Fifth Resolution was brought forward, the wri-
ter heard just the same kind of glosses, pro-
testations, and promises in its favour, from
different orators, as he had heretofore been ac-
customed to hear in defence of the condemned
oath, all which he knew would be dispersed in air
the moment after they were uttered, while the
littera scripta of the subscribers would remain,
as a pledge for their concurring in the arrange-
ments alluded to in the Resolution. Among
other censurable speeches then delivered, one
of them, uttered by a priest, was of so hetero-
dox a nature, accompanied with a challenge to
the Prelates to contradict him, if what he said
were wrong, that the writer proposed to his
brethern to adjourn immediately to the house
of the absent Bishop, there to consider of the
whole business, and to take measures accord-
ingly. The Coadjutor answered, that the next
day would be time enough, and fixed on eleven
o'clock as the hour for the synod. This Right
Rev. Prelate having published an account of
what he said in the Tavern, on the main busi-
ness there transacted, with an appeal to the
persons present, for their testimony as to its ac-
curacy, the writer will here transcribe his own
words : fc I thought it my duty to address the
' ' Chair, before the Fifth Resolution was put to

(OF* THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 153

fc the votes of the assembly. I then begged leave
" to observe, that this Resolution would pro-
(e bably involve in its consequences questions that
<c would affect the spiritual interests of all the
ff four Districts, and which, consequently*
fc must be referred to the judgment of the four
(f Vicars Apostolic. I then proposed it to the
^ consideration of the Chair, and of the com-
ef pany, whether it would not be advisable to
<c wait for the signatures of the Vicars Apos-
" tolic, until Bishop G. could come up to
te town."* On this short, but important
speech, the present writer cannot refrain from
making the following obvious remarks. 1st :
If the consequences of the Resolution might
affect spiritual interests^ they might conse-
quently injure them.— -2dly : If they might affect
the spiritual interests of the four English Dis-
tricts, they might equally affect those of the
Church of Ireland ; and accordingly the writer
moved that the business of the Resolution
should be adjourned, till the synodical decision
of the Irish Bishops, which was fixed for that
day week, was known : his motion, however,
was overruled. — 3dly : If the questions involved
in the consequences of the Resolution, ought
to ff be referred to the judgment of the four V. V.
" A./' this was a sufficient reason, not only why

* See the printed Letter to the Rcv.J. M , ('. A., p. 2.
X

164, SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

none of the latter ought to sign it, till they had
consulted together concerning it, but also why
no consistent lay Catholic ought to sign it pre-
viously to the decision of the Bishops. — 4thly :
The Prelate who saw that spiritual interests,
&c. might probably be affected by the Resolu-
tion, so far from being justified in signing it
by the alleged defection of one of his bre-
thren, would not be justified in doing this,
though all the three others had abandoned him,
and actually signed the perilous instrument. To
be brief: the two Prelates joined with the
writer, in voting against the motion for signing
the Resolution ; yet, strange to tell, within half
an hour afterwards, while he was engaged in
conversation in another part of the room (with-
out waiting for the synod, which they had agreed
to next day on the business^ without even con-
sulting with the absent Vicar Apostolic, for
whom one of them said he was acting), they
suffered themselves to be over-reached and
over-persuaded, so as to affix their names to the
fatal instrument ! — As they have jointly pub-
lished their motives for this sudden change
of conduct, they will speak for themselves,
in the following words, addressed to the present
writer: " The declaration (of a Noble Lord)
" gave the greatest satisfaction to me and
" Bishop C., yet, for the sake of obtaining the
'*' concurrence of the four V. V. A., we wished

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 155

" to wait the arrival of Bishop G. (who was
fc not then expected, and who at that time, and
et for several days afterwards, was quite as
ef averse to the Resolution as the writer was).,
" and thus did riot hold up our hands, when
{C the Resolution was put to the votes. A
ec Noble Lord beckoned to me, and told me,
" that you (Dr. M.) had declared, in his pre-
" sence in public company, on the last day
(f of January, that you would not act in this
<e business as V. A. of the Midland District :
fe but that you should only act as agent of the
" Bishops of Ireland : and he asked me what
tf was to be done ? If this information was
ff correct, and I had every reason to believe
ce that it was strictly so, having also heard
(f it from others, who were present the day
" before, when you made this declaration, our
ef design of waiting for the united concurrence
te of the four V. V. was defeated by you, &c."*
To this Tavern tale, on which these grave per-
sonages represent themselves to have grounded
the most important act of their Ministry, the
writer opposes a solemn protestation, that it is
not only false, but also destitute of a pretence
to justify its falsity. Besides this, he was pre-
sent in the room when the beckoning took place,

* See the printed Letter to the Rev. J. M., V. A., p. 2.
X 2

156 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and the tale was whispe ed : of course he
might have been asked in a minute : Is it true,
that you will not act in this business as a V. A?
In which case, he would most assuredly
have held an open language, that would have
shamed the whispers into perfect silence.
Lastly, if the Midland Pastor had abandoned
his post, this was no reason why the two other
Pastors should do the same; as the question
avowedly was concerning the spiritual interests
of their Districts. — But the real cause of these
good men's change has been assigned above :
they were over-reached and over-persuaded,*
a misfortune that has befallen many other good
Pastors, even in Synods, as witness St. Dyoni-
sius at Ariminium. With respect to the wri-
ter, he was so ignorant of what had been doing
in another part of the room, that seeing his
brethren leaving it, he called after them : '" Re-
f( member to-morrow at eleven, o'clock ;" and
when their signatures were afterwards shewn
to him, for the purpose of extorting his, he for
a considerable^ time believed and maintained
that they were forgeries.

* In confirmation of the cause here assigned, it may be
mentioned, that one of the most active gentlemen in soliciting
the signatures of the Prelates, meeting the writer a day or
two after the Tavern-meeting, addressed him as follows :
" Do not be angry with your brethren ; they resisted as long
" as they could, but ive jockeyed them."

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 157

A third Tavern meeting of Catholics took
place at the Clarendon Hotel, on the evening
of the same 1st of February, where some un-
pleasant scenes took place, none of which,
however, need be recorded in these Memoirs,
except the following.— A Northern gentleman,
exceedingly intimate with a Noble Earl, who at
that time was expected, every day, to be ap-
pointed Secretary of *b§- State, detailed to the
writer the plan of a Veto, on the appointment
of English V. V. A., which he had formed on the
model of Sir J. Hippisley's Vetoistical project,
on the appointment of Irish Catholic Bishops,
He mentioned, at the same time, that it had
been communicated to the expected Secretary,
who agreed with the gentleman, that it would
be proper to settle £500 per annum on each of
the V. V. A, on their agreeing to it. To this
proposal the writer answered roughly: " I do
ff not approve of your plan, and I do not want
fc your money/' This answer provoked the
gentleman to call out to him across the table,
at dinner time : " You will not take our £500
fc a year, because you expect £1,000 a year
" from Ireland/' He afterwards proceeded to
greater coarseness. An erroneous account of
this conversation having gone abroad, caused
certain respectable personages, first in a News-
paper, and afterwards, by Sir J. Hippisley's

158 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

voice in the House of Commons,* to disclaim
their being in any treaty with Government for
money, in terms which insinuated that the
writer was implicated in such a treaty.

The morning after the fatal 1st of February,
the infirm London Vicar was easily prevailed
upon, without so much as hearing what his old
friend and tried counsellor might suggest in
opposition, to sign the Resolution. Still the
number of English Prelates on each side of
the question was balanced ; there being two
V. V. A. and a Coadjutor in favour of the Re-
solution, and the same number against it : for
it is to be observed, that Bishop G., during the
whole time that he remained in the North, and
for some time after his arrival in London, that
is, t^ll about the middle of February, was
among the enemies of every kind of . Veto,
or other ecclesiastical restriction, the most

* This gentleman asserted in the Newspapers, and after-
wards in a pamphlet, that the writer heretofore solicited
money from Government : True, he sent up a Memorial to
Lord Grenville, when first Lord of the Treasury, and this,
by the advice of a noble relative of his, in the name, and
'with the concurrence of the other V. V. A., stating the ruinous
losses which the officiating clergy of England had suffered
by the French Revolution, and praying for aid, in support of
our domestic colleges : but never did he either seek, or
wish for any money for himself, either from Government, or
his own body.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 159

determined. He never ceased reproaching the
writer with what he had formerly written con-
cerning the most restricted kind of negative.
In fact., his maxim was, as he expressed it in his
letters : " It is better to have no emancipation
" at all., than one clogged with conditions,"
Having understood that there was a question of
joining some kind of accompanying Petition to
the General Petition,, he wrote thus, to the
Secretary, to the present writer., and to others :
(e Take notice, that if any thing is added to
ff our Petition (the General one) all our signa-
<( tures (those of the North) are withdrawn."
When he learnt that some of his brethren had
signed the Fifth Resolution, and that the writer
had refused to do so, he lamented, by letter,
the former event, and expressed his hope that
the Irish Prelates, by their firmness, would
prevent the mischief which it might otherwise
occasion ; and he even claimed to himself the
merit of the latter event in these terms, ad-
dressed to the writer : " It was I that rallied
" you, and brought you back to your post." — It
is still more difficult to account for this zealous
and worthy Prelate's change of conduct, after
he came to London, in his signing the Resolu-
tion, which he had so strongly reprobated,
than for that of any of his brethren . It has been
asserted, on good authority, that those jockeying

160 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

gentlemen , by whom his lodgings were generally
besieged, made him believe., that the change of
ministry, the welfare, and the very safety of the na-
tion, depended on his compliance with their wishes :
all that his friend, the present writer, could
extort from him, when the secret transaction
became, at length., known, was that, " Lord
(e Grey had explained the Resolution in a cer-
fe tain sense," contrary to that which we are
going to see he did explain it in, when he pre-
sented it to the House of Lords. — In addition
to the reasons assigned above, for the writer's
being so diffuse on this subject of the St.
Alban's Tavern meeting, may be added, the
defective and erroneous account of it given by
the historian, and his insinuation against the
writer, where he says : ' ( At a numerous meet-
tf ing of the British R. Catholics, the Resolu*
<c tion was, with the single exception of the
f{ V. A. of the Midland District, the agent of
ff the Irish Prelates, unanimously adopted."*

PRESENTATION OP THE RESOLUTION
TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

The following is the most material part of
our historian's account of this transaction . ec O n
ee the 23d (say the 22d) of the same month of
" February, this petition (containing the Re.

* Page 194.

§

. OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 161

ff solution) was presented to the House of
-" Lords by Earl Grey. In this single circum-
ce stance the part which the English Roman
ff Catholics (or any individual of their commu-
ft nion) took in the Veto began, with this it
ff ended ! — The propriety of this Resolution be-
tc came a subject of controversy. We leave
(C the language to speak for itself. It is a mere
<c general expression of good humour, &c. This
(c was perfectly understood and has been re-
fc peatedly declared by every person present at
" the meeting :" namely,, that between the Lords
GrenvHle and Grey, on one hand, and Mr. But-
ler and his friends, on the other.* What Lord
Grenville's sense of the Resolution was, has
been demonstrated above, by referring to the
explicit words of his Lordship's published Let-
ter to the Earl of Fingal, and this sense his
Lordship confirmed in terms equally explicit,
on presenting to the House of Peers the Wa-
terford Petition, on the 8th of March following.
It remains to see how far the other noble framer
of the Resolution, Earl Grey, has declared his
sense of it to correspond with that of the
historian, where the latter terms it a mere ge-
neral expression of good humour, and with that
of several respectable subscribers of it, who
maintain that it is nothing but a compliment, or

* P. 195.
Y

'\,. . •:

162 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

an offer to treat with the Legislature on terms of
mutual satisfaction and security * The follow-
ing is the report of Earl Grey's speech,, as
published in the British Press, the Board's feed
paper, on the morning after it was pronounced ;
with which account that of his Lordship's fa-
voured print, the Morning Chronicle, agrees.
ec I have the satisfaction of being authorized to
" add, that while they (the Catholics) pray for
(f relief, they are willing to accept it, accom-
tc panied with such provisions, not contrary to
<c their feelings,, as you may think necessary to
ee the security of your own establishment, and
ec that any arrangement on this basis will be
" thankfully accepted by them. The declara-
f{ tion of what I have stated is contained in the
ff Second Petition (consisting of the Fifth Reso-
" lution) which I have presented to your Lord-
te ships. It was adopted lately at a Meeting
" in the Metropolis, and is signed by several
" Bishops, and by no less than six Peers. It
ef is on the principle stated in this petition
" alone, and with a view to arrangements such
" as I have described, that the measure has my
" support. In extending to them the enjoy-
" ment of civil liberty, I consider it as not
" existing in an exemption from all restraint

* See Lord Erskine's speech in 1810. Revised Reports,
pp. 45, 46, where he says: " the Legislature never treats
" with subjects."

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 163

" whatever, but from all restraint other than
"" what the common interest and safety of our
ec own Establishments essentially and indispen-
" sably require. With regard to other consi-
<c derations, I am content to refer myself to
f{ the excellent letter of my noble friend (Lord
" Grenville's to the Earl of Finga.1), to every
" letter, principle and word of which / beg to
ef be considered as implicitly subscribing."-^- On
this view of the original,, unalloyed speech of
the noble advocate of the Catholics, the first
question that presents itself for inquiry is this :
is the noble Earl to be believed, when he tells
the House of Peers that he is authorized by the
Catholics, or by some of them, to say for them
what he does say ? It is presumed that no
decent person will dispute his Lordship's honour
in this point. — The next question is, what did
they authorize him to say ?-~- Why, that they are
willing to accept of relief, accompanied with
such provisions as a Protestant Legislature may
think necessary for the security of its own esta-
blished Church, provided these are consistent
(not with the decisions of their Bishops and the
Pope but) with their own feelings, or sense of
honour. Thirdly, his Lordship positively de-
clares, that this is the meaning of the Reso-
lution which he presents to his assembled com-
peers, and certainly he must be allowed to be
the best judge of his own composition. — Lastly,

Y 2

164- SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

he subscribes to every principle and word of his
noble friend's letter to Lord Fingal, which re-
quires " extensive and complicated arrange-
" ments" of our religion, to be made by the
civil power., for the maintenance of the establish-
ed Protestant Religion, and, among other ar-
rangements, an " effectual negative on the ap-
" pointment of Catholic Bishops." And all this
the subscribers explain into a mere compliment!
ancj the historian publishes, in the face of the
noble Lords who heard Lord Grey, and read
Lord Grem ille's Letter, that it is " a mere ex-
(C pression of good humour!"

FALSIFICATION OF LORD GREY'S
SPEECH.

It was readily conceived how much the vast
majority of those who had signed the Fifth
Resolution, as well as of Catholics in general,
would be shocked at reading the fair exposition
which its noble author gave of it, on present-
ing it to the House of Lords : hence the little
party who respected it as their charter, and
were resolved to abide by its consequences,
whatever these mio-ht be, found themselves

O * '

driven to the disgraceful expedient of the Blue
Book writers, that of falsifying a public record !
The British Press, though the feed paper of
this party, had given on the morning of Feb.
23d, a fair report of Lord Grey's Speech, de-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 165
Jivered the preceding evening to the Lords,
and this report was confirmed by that of his
Lordship's print. The Morning Chronicle ; but,
whereas T/ie Globe is the self-same newspaper
as The Press, barely changing its name, and
with such alterations as may seem requisite be-
tween an evening and a morning edition, that
part of Lord Grey's speech which regards the
Resolution was found curtailed and essentially
altered in the evening edition, namely, The
Globe, from what it had appeared in the morn-
ing edition, or The British Press, and the Re-
port of The Globe itself was still more essen-
tially altered in two neat folio editions of it,,
which the party successively gave under the
title of R. Catholic Petitions, &c. 1810. In
these the condition of our willingness to ac-
cede to provisions for securing the Protestant
Religion, namely, that c( they are not contrary
ff to our feelings," is thus changed : provided
they are " consistent with a strict adherence on
" their part to the tenets and discipline of the
" R, Catholic Religion." The important cir*
cumstance mentioned by Lord Grey, of the
Resolution having been <c signed by several
tf Bishops (The Morning Chronicle says five
" out of six Bishops) and six Peers," is, with
equal caution, suppressed in the editions of the
Board ; to pass over several other omissions
or alterations, in the latter, Lord Grey's ener-

163 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

getic declaration, of his subscribing to every
principle and word of Lord Grenville's letter., is
totally suppressed,and, what greatly aggravates
the imposture of these publications,, they pro-
fess in their title to give Lord Grey's Speech
" as reported in The Globe! " — The writer was
told by a well informed M.P. that application
was made to Lord Grey, requesting him to
alter his speech, and that his Lordship an-
swered he could not alter matter of fact ; upon
which the personages in question took the
disgraceful task of falsifying it into their own
hands.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE RESOLU-
TION IN IRELAND.

The effects of our historian's ' ' Conciliatory
" Resolution/' or, as he afterwards calls it,
" the mere general expression of good humour,"
must now be pursued to the sister-island.
There is no question but that the first and
main object of the Resolution was to conciliate
the Catholics of Ireland, by bringing off the
Bishops, with their clergy, and also the laity,
from their strong opposition to the subjugation
of their religious rights, to the civil power of
the state. Accordingly, no doubt was enter-
tained, that if an English Catholic meeting were
to adopt the ambiguous long-winded Resolu-
tion, concerted for this meaning, the Irish

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 167

Catholics would follow the example, and
thus pledge themselves to consent to those
(( complicated arrangements/' including " the
<e effectual negative on the appointment of their
fc Bishops/' which were considered as the sine
qua non of Emancipation, and wagers were ac-
tually laid at the St. Alban's Tavern, that the
Resolution there signed would be followed with
these effects. So far, however, from this
proving to be the case, all Ireland was up in
arms, as soon as the tenor of the alleged Con-
ciliatory Resolution became known there. The
Dublin Committee summoned the Aggregate
Meeting, which they had countermanded on
being officially assured by the English Board,
under date of January 26, that " the latter
" would adopt no measure but as auxiliary to
" the more effectual exertions of the Catholics
' c of Ireland, as in England (it was added) the
<f Catholics are not the people ;" the Bishops
equally resumed their plan of a General Synod,
which they had laid aside on the same account,
and from Cape Clear to The Giant's Causeway
nothing was heard but that " the English Ca-
" tholics had betrayed their brethern of Ire-
ce land." Impatient as the Committee was to
express their feelings and determinations, yet,
with a proper Catholic spirit, they deferred
their Meeting till the Bishops should decide on
the religious part of the business at issue. Ac-

168 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

cordingly, these truly vigilant and faithful
Prelates, being; assembled together at Dublin,
to the number of fifteen, and furnished with
the proxies of the remaining twelve of their
number, on Saturday the 24th, and Monday
the 26th of February, " invoking Christ (they
" say), and having only God before our eyes/'
passed seventeen Resolutions, well worthy of
them, on the state and dangers of their Churches.
They assert their claim to discuss and decide
upon subjects of Religion, without any lay in-
tervention : they confirm their Resolutions of
September 14, 1808 : they prove themselves
to be strictly loyal, at the same time that they
vindicate the rights of the Apostolic See and
their own rights in the choice and appointment
of Catholic Bishops. Two other Resolutions
of the Prelates, the one passed on the 24th, the
other on the 26th of February, require to be
cited at full length.

" Resolved, that we neither seek nor desire
" any other earthly consideration for our Spiri-
" tual Ministry to our respective flocks, save
" what they may, from a sense of religion and
" duty, voluntarily afford us."

" Resolved, that the thanks of this Meeting
" be, and are hereby given to the Right Rev.
" Dr. Milner, Bishop of Castabala, for the
" faithful discharge of his duty, as agent to thfi
" Roman Catholic Bishops of this part of the

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 169

cc United Kingdom, and more particularly for
" his Apostolical firmness in dissenting from
fc and opposing a general, vague,, and indefinite
" declaration or Resolution, pledging the R.
ff Catholics to an eventual acquiescence in ar-
ee rangements, possibly prejudical to the inte-
<f grity and safety of our Church discipline.
ee Signed, by order,

" P. RYAN,
" Bishop of Germanicia, Secretary."

OPPOSITION IN ENGLAND TO THE
ACTS OP THE IRISH SYNOD.

When the foregoing Resolutions became
known to the principal laymen and ecclesiastics
who had signed that of the St. Alban's Tavern,
it is incredible what pains they took to conceal
them from the knowledge of the public, and
more particularly of the English Catholics, es-
pecially the seventeenth or last of them. This
attempt, however, in the end, failing, each of
those descriptions of Catholics had recourse to
a distinct method of nullifying that Resolution,
of the most extraordinary nature. The first of
these consisted in an attempt to bully the whole
Catholic Prelacy of Ireland into a base and im-
moral disavowal of their solemn Synodical act,
by testifying that their vote of thanks to their
agent was & forgery. For this purpose, a letter,
post-marked March 17, was sent to them, in

170 . SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

the name of the Board of all the Catholics of
Britain, first inquiring whether Dr. M. was
their agent? and then qualifying the vote of
thanks to him, on the part of twenty-seven
Bishops : a libel, an awkward attempt of malice,
published to forward dangerous views and scan-
dals* The letter-writer then, on the part of
the British Catholics, professes to tc anticipate
" the sentiments of the Bishops/' as " to the
'" author of so much malice," and their " im-
ef patience to contradict" the alleged vote;
adding, that " any delay, on their part," in
furnishing the anticipated declaration, " must
ee prove injurious to the character and interest
."" of Dr. M. himself, who, as long/' it is said,
ff as he continues exposed to such uncontra-
" dieted libels, will be precluded from holding
cc any communication with his Catholic coun-
ec trymen." It is added, " the line we have
ce now adopted is entirely consonant with the
" wishes of our public friends, and particularly
" of Lord N." It is needless to mention what
the answer of the Catholic Bishops, men, not
less honourable than they were conscientious,

* The writer ever must believe, as other judicious per-
sons do, who have seen the letter, that there is but one man
in the Catholic body capable of drawing up such a letter,
the same who assured the Legislature that no Catholic, ex-
cept J. M. and his two nameless friends, objected to the
condemned oath and the appellation of Protesting Catholic
Dissenters.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 171
was to this barefaced attempt at hectoring them
into a falsehood of complicated guilt and in-
famy. In two words, the M. Rev. Dr. Troy, in
the name of himself and his episcopal brethren,
avowed that Dr. M. was their agent, and that
the vote of thanks to him was authentic.* As to
the person against whose character and peace
of mind this extraordinary attack was levelled,
he did not so much as complain of it either to
the public or to the board, but he contented
himself with barely requesting a friend of his,
who was a leading member of the latter, not to be
offended with him if he printed the extraordinary
letter just as it stands, without preface or com-
ment of any kind whatever ; to which request
an answer was returned, that if he did print it
(namely, a letter from all the Catholics of Bri-
tain to all the Prelates of Ireland) the door of
every gentleman in the former island would be
shut against him, with other threats of a still
more serious nature ; and though he neither
published the letter, nor the threats alluded to,
he found that the former menace was actually
put in force against him, as far as this was
practicable. The conduct of a certain English
Prelate supported, as he affirmed, by two or
three of his brethren, to nullify the synodical
Acts of the twenty-seven Prelates of Ireland,

* March 26.
z 2

172 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and the solemn declaration of the Midland
Vicar in support of them,, respecting the hasty
resolve of the St. Alban's Tavern, was hardly
less extraordinary than that of the leading
Board men. ,To be brief, he called upon the
former to acknowledge that their synodical act,
declaring the Tavern Resolution to be vague,
indefinite, and possibly injurious to Religion,
was " grounded in an error of fact ."* His
requisition on the latter, for having published
that decision, was still more imperative : ' ' we
" demand that you retract and correct the false
" statements you have given of our conduct.
" We expect that you will inform us of the
' c means you have taken to do us the justice we
" require."* It was an easy matter to demo-
lish the flimsy pretexts on which these lofty
requisitions were built : accordingly, the ac-
cused party shewed that the unanimous decision
of a whole national Prelacy, convened in a ca-
nonical synod, without any lay intervention
whatever, was preferable in every point of view
to the hasty signature of one V. A. and one
Coadjutor in a Tavern, deceived and overawed
as they were by laymen, even though they were
afterwards supported by two other V. V. A.,
separately gained over by the same party : he
observed, that the synodical decision of Feb.

* Aug. 9. f July 18.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 173

26, was made in support of the same Prelate's
prior decision of Sept. 14, 1805,which latter,
the Tavern Resolution, was fabricated for the
express purpose of overturning ; and that, of
course, the aggression lay with the accusers,
not the accused : finally, he demonstrated that
the publication of the existing unfortunate
difference among Catholic Bishops, originated
in the same assailing quarter, by a minority of
five Prelates sending up a petition to the Houses
of Parliament, thence to pass into all the news-
papers of -both islands, in opposition to the
synodical Resolutions of near thirty Prelates,
passed eighteen months before.*

PACIFIC OVERTURES.

Convinced that no greater evil can befall the
Church, than disunion among her principal
Pastors, except their abandoning or exposing
to danger her faith or discipline, the Bishops of
Ireland, and their episcopal agent in England,
employed every means in their power to close
the existing breach between them and the
small number of their dissenting English
brethren. For this purpose, they did not
demand of the latter a retractation of their pre-
cipitate Resolution, but barely a public expla-
nation of it, conformable with that which they

* Sept. 19. Nov. 16, &c.

174 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

were accustomed to give to Catholics in private;
knowing well, that such a public explanation
of their meaning, would deter Protestant
Statesmen, and Catholic politicians,, from build-
ing on their authority the mischievous arrange-
ments of the common Religion, which the
latter were known to be planning. This
formed the main object of many different
letters from the Prelates of Ireland, to their
English brethren. With respect to the present
writer, not content with arguments and entrea-
ties, he sacrificed his personal interests, and
those of his station, to gain this important
point. Three several times did he kneel to
the same number of his brethren ; not, indeed,
to acknowledge any fault, as he was not con-
scious of having committed any, but to heal
their wounded feelings, and to induce them, as he
expressed it to one of them in a printed letter,
" to act with perfect unanimity, and a combi-
." nation of strength, in the cause of our Great
rf Master/'* The writer was satisfied, that
each one of his brethren was, at the bottom, as
averse as he himself was, to the meditated ar-
rangements, or securities, as they were imp/o-
perly called, and that they were only deterred
from publishing this their sentiment by an ill-
judged respect for a certain party. Hence he

* Feb. 19/1810.

ON THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 175
thought it would be for the common good of
all parties,, in a religious point of view,, to do
what he had otherwise a right to do,, as public
agent to the Prelates, who professed to trans-
mit their letters on the business to him, namely;
to publish in a work of his own on the sub-
ject, which at this period made its appearance,*
some extracts from the letters, which these
Prelates had lately received from England.
The writer disregarded the misrepresentation
of his own and his friend's conduct, contained
in the letter, in hope that their writers would
be bound by the promises they made. — In one
letter, without a date, but post-marked London,
Aug. 9, 1810, the respectable author writes :
te We have had nothing to do with the Veto,

* Instructions to the Catholics. — This is the writer's
most useful work on the subject of it, which maybe gathered
from the following declaration of a certain Protestant Ba-
ronet to the writer concerning it. ** You have been spoil-
" ing," he said, " the work which I think of by day, and
" dream of by night : I would have spent 5,000 guineas to
" prevent the publication of that work." Another highly
useful work of the writer, on the whole business of our
unfortunate dissentions, is, The Explanation tvith D. P. ; but
this he has hitherto kept back from the public at large, from
respect to the person to whom it is inscribed. A copy of it
having, by some adventure, reached one of the leading Car-
dinals, then a prisoner in France, he wrote a regular criticism
on it, strongly supporting it, and echoing back to the writer
his concluding sentence : " With me stand the Prelates of
" the Catholic Church."

176 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" but to condemn it. — We lament that the
" Irish Prelates, and their agent,, have had any
" concern in it : and we think it peculiarly
" unjust, that the odium of it should be thrown
" from them, who were concerned in it, upon
" us, who grounded our Resolution on the rejec-
" turn of it." The same person writes,, in another
letter, dated Aug. 29 : " If it be true, that
" the Lords Grenville and Grey had any ar-
ee rangements in contemplation, relative to a
ce Veto, or to any measure inconsistent with
(e the integrity and safety of the R. C. Religion,
fc we declare, that we consider such arrange-
ce ments as foreign to the obvious meaning
<f of the Resolution we have signed ; that we
" are free to reject them, and should absolutely
ef reject them, if proposed to us." These
edifying sentiments were brought forward
by the present writer, as the ground-work of a
complete pacification, in the quarter were it was
most wanted ; and, indeed, as a demonstra-
tion to the Catholic public, that it already
existed, as far as concerns the Fifth Resolution :.
unfortunately, however, they were not openly
supported by the subsequent conduct of those
who really entertained them ; hence Sir John
Hippisley, at the period in question, namely,
on the last of May 1811, speaking in Parlia-
ment of the alleged " uniformity of seuti-
(C ment«," between the Irish Prelates and their

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 177

agent on one hand,, and five English Prelates
on the other, said., that " if the fact itself were
<c true, little reliance was to be placed on the
tc declarations of the latter;" but he added,
" the fact is not true., the English Prelates
{f deprecated the ungenerous tendency of such
ft assertions."* This solemn declaration., made
on their alleged authority, was never contra-
dicted by them. — In the summer of the follow-
ing year, 1812, a more powerful effort was made
by the Bishops of Ireland, to restore peace and
harmony between them, and the five dissenting
Prelates of England : but, before the means
they used for this purpose are stated, it is neces-
sary to describe a second subject of disunion^
in actual existence between the parties ; whereas>
the Tavern-Resolution barely argued evils to
came.

THE BLANCHARDIST SCHISM.

It has been mentioned above, that His Holi-
ness had embraced an opportunity, which
occurred at the beginning of his pontificate, to
restore the Church of France to the communion
of the Universal Church ; that, to facilitate
this most important work, a majority of the
lawful Bishops of France resigned their sees,
and that the minority who refused to do this

* Summary of Speech, p. 11.

178 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

were influenced by motives of loyalty to their
Sovereign,, as judging that the restoration of
the Catholic Religion in their country would
strengthen the cause of the usurper ; finally,
that of the numerous band of French emigrant
clergy in England, nine-tenths of it returned
to their own country,, with the approbation and
assistance of our Government, to prosecute the
work of religion and humanity., begun by the
Pope. Among those who chose to remain in
exile., a considerable proportion were found to
be actuated by resentment and envy ; they would
not allow the Church of their country,, to the
honours of which many of their adversaries
and persecutors were now promoted, to be
any part of the Catholic Church : hence they
refused to hold communion with it, and cen-
sured the Sovereign Pontiff himself, as the
author of schism and impiety. These senti-
ments, which w^ere privately patronized by
several of the emigrant Bishops, and openly by
a few of them,* wrere for seven years preached
from the French pulpits of the Metropolis, and
propagated from the public presses, without
any contradiction or opposition, except what
they met with in the writer's Elucidation of the

* The Bishops of Blois, Usez, Rodez, &c. These were in
the schismatical habit of giving faculties, where they had no
jurisdiction. See JJ Ami dela Religion et du Roi, May 15,
1819.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 179

Pope's Briefs respecting the Church of France,
and two or three small pamphlets by Pere le
Pointe, S. J. and Abbe Robert. Their osten-
sible defender in England was Abbe Blancliard,,
a writer of considerable talents, as in France
was an Abbe Clement. Hence the members of
the new Petite Eglise were called in the former
country,, Blanehardists ; in the latter., Clemen-
tines. In 1808,, the city of Rome having been
seized upon, and the Pope confined by Napo-
leon, the writer was encouraged and assisted
by Mgr. Calleppi, Nuncio to the Court of
Lisbon, who was then in England, to address a
public Pastoral, dated June 1st, to his flock,,
calling upon them to pray for their Holy Father,
and complaining of the above-mentioned scan-
dalous calumnies preached and published
against him. In less than a month from the
last date, appeared a pamphlet, published by
Blanchard, under the title of Defense du Clerge
Francois contre I' Inculpation de Monsgr, Milner,
in which, among other schismatical and im-
pious doctrines, the author proclaimed, that
." P. Pius VII. had violated the canons of the
" General Councils, and the divine right of
ec Bishops, and that, by forming the Church of
" the Concordat, he had revoked the Briefs of
" his predecessor, admitted the fundamental
c principles of the Civil Constitution of the
' Clergy, and formed a phantom of a Church,
2 A 2

ISO SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" on the bases which Pius VI. had condemned,
"e as impious, heretical, and schismatical." In
the course of a few weeks, the writer addressed
a second Pastoral to his Clergy,, dated Aug.
10th, in refutation of the Defense, censuring
the above quoted positions., and others to the
same purport., as being respectively false, "scan-
dalous, injurious to the successor of St. Peter,
as insinuating, and tending to schism, and as
being ACTUALLY SCHISMATICAL. He,
as the same time, cautioned his Clergy, Cf not to
ff permit any person who rejects the commu-
ff nion of P. Pius VII., or who persists in as-
cc serting that he has fallen into heresy or
fc schism, or that he has led any part of the
ff Church into it, and the Abbes Blanchard,
" and his auxiliary, Gaschet by name, to ad-
" minister or receive any sacrament in their
" respective chapels." About a fortnight after
the date of the latter Pastoral appeared another,
dated Aug. 24th, from the London V. A., in
which, without citing any particular positions,
he censured the Defense du Clerge, $c. par M.
Blanchard, and the Lettre de M. Gaschet a Mgr.
Milner, as being respectively ee scandalous t
cc derogatory to the respect due to P. Pius VII. >
cc true and lawful successor of St. Peter, injuri-
" ous to his character and authority, LEADING
(f TO SCHISM, and one of them as actually
" schismatical, Lettre de Gaschet." — Here was

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 181

laid a fundamental ground of difference., be-
tween the Midland and the London Districts,
namely : the work of Blanchard, which had
been pronounced SCHISMAT1CAL in the
former., was, a fortnight afterward., censured in
the latter as barely LEADING TO SCHISM.
—But another stronger ground was soon after
laid.

Blanchard having undertaken to reply to the
London V. A., engaged seven French Priests of
the London District, most of whom had been
ecclesiastical dignitaries in their own country,
to sign a formal approbation of his work, the
Defense, as orthodox, and defending the sound doc-
trine against the attacks upon it in latter times.
This approbation Blanchard published in his
Reponse a Mgr. Z)., in consequence of which a
short letter was written, Sept. 23, to the London
Vicars General, directing that spiritual faculties
should not be given or continued to these
sacerdotal subscribers. The controversy be-
tween the writer and Blanchard, supported as
he was by associates of various descriptions,*

* Among these was Count Phaff, of Phaffenoven, who
having teased Ministry to prosecute the writer, under pre-
tence, that to defend the Pope is to endanger the life of the
Sovereign, was advised by them to cite the writer to the
Pope's tribunal. They even furnished him with an attorney
to draw up the citation. This consisted of eleven folio
pages, the first of which was entirely made up of the
Count's titles.

182 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

was continued in different publications on each
side, during two or three years. In one of
these, the French schismatic had the hardihood
to appeal to the Prelates of Ireland , a# abettors
of his doctrine. This roused those vigilant
and faithful pastors, to take part in the contest.
Accordingly, being assembled together in Dub-
lin, July 3, 1809, to the number of seventeen,
they decided {and their decisions were in the
course of a fortnight confirmed by the remain-
ing thirteen members of their college), that
the various positions of Blanchard are false,
calumnious, scandalous, schismatical, &c. The
year following, the four V. V. A. of England,
with the two Coadjutor Prelates and their
chosen divines, having met together in London,
unanimously adopted, on the 24th of February,
the following test against Blanchardism :
namely, they resolved, that cc No French
" Priest be allowed to hold spiritual faculties,
" or to say Mass in any of the Districts, who,
" being called upon, refuses to acknowledge
" that His Holiness P. Pius VII. is not a he-
" relic or a schismatic, or the author or abettor of
(i heresy or schism." This was equivalent to ac-
knowledging that the Church of France, restored
by Pius VII., is not heretical, or schismatical, but
Catholic. This test was accordingly put in force
throughout the fifteen counties of the Midland
District, and accepted of by every French clergy-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 183
man resident in it, among whom was the late
Bishop of Moulins, since Archbishop of Bour-
ges, with the exception of a single individual,
who changed his District in order to avoid it :
whereas in the London District, where it ought
to have been first published, from an ill-judged
condescension to certain wrong-principled
French personages, in violation of the syno-
dical decree, it was never published at all.
Thus a difference, not only of doctrine but
also of practice, respecting the Sacraments,
became manifest in these different portions of
the Catholic Church. That doctrine which was
proclaimed Heretical, throughout Ireland and
the Midland District, was declared only to lead
to heresy in that of the Metropolis ; and those
Clergymen who were forbidden to administer or
receive any Sacrament in the former places,
were allowed to live and die in their errors
throughout the latter. Nor did the mischief end
here : for one of those seven Priests, by name
J. Trevaux, who had been interdicted in the
London District, for publicly approving of those
Blanchardist principles, which so many hundreds
of his colleagues were known privately to maintain,
was, from the same ill-judged condescension, re-
stored to his faculties without any retractation of
his schisrnatical act whatever ; true it is he apolo-
gized to the V. A. himself; as not knowing,
when he approved of Blanchard's Book, that

184 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

it had been censured by his Prelate ; but as to
any retractation of the schismatical doctrine
itself, which goes to signify that Pius VII. is
not the author of schism and heresy, and that
the Church of France, restored by him, is not a
phantom, but a real portion of the Catholic
Church : this., first and last, he refused to con"
fess, either to his friends in private, or his supe*
riqrs in public. Then,, what exuberant joy,, and
triumph., and insolence., did not Blanchard
publish to the world, in his Verite proclameepar
ses Agresseurs ! And then,, what grief and con-
fusion overwhelmed the faithful defenders of
Catholic faith and unity, throughout both
islands ! — But the Prelates of Ireland, whatever
they felt, did not sink under the calamity ; on
the contrary, the four Archbishops and three
other Bishops, having met together in Dublin^
having considered the whole of the present
case, resolved, that " Trevaux had been guilty
" of an overt act of schism ; " — that " in con-
' ' sequence of this, he was deserving of the piir
" nishment inflicted on him by his Bishop, in
cc depriving him of his faculties ;" — that " this
" Bishop could not, consistently with what he
" owed to Religion, &c., release him from his
tf censure, without an act of retractation on
" his part, no less public than his approbation
" of schism had been ; — that it does not appear
" (by the Prelate's own defence) that such re-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 185

" tractation ever took place : " — consequently,
that " by the re-admission of Trevaux to the
" sacred ministry in the L — District, schism is
<e openly countenanced there, to the great injury
fe of Religion and Catholic unity, though con-
ec trary to the intention of the V. A." — Such
were the twofold grounds of dissention between
five Prelates on one side, and thirty on the
other : namely, the impending consequences of
the Tavern -pledge, and the open countenance
given to schism in one of the Districts.

PACIFICATORY PROGRESS OP BISHOP
MOYLAN.

While the state of the Catholic Religion in
the British islands was such as is described
above, the pious, the prudent, the sweet-tem-
pered Francis of Sales of modern times, as he
was called, Dr. F. Moylan, Bishop of Cork,
undertook, with the approbation of his epis-
copal brethren, to negociate with the dissent-
ing Prelates of England, for the purpose of
reconciling them together upon proper grounds.
Taking, therefore, with him the Dean of his
chapter, and intended successor, Dr. Macarthy,
he set sail from Ireland in July 1812, and land-
ed in the Western District of England, where
he began his meritorious mission by treating
with the Pastor of it : but not meeting with a

2 B

186 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

reception congenial with his own feelings, he
proceeded to the capital, where be experienced,
from the ecclesiastics in power, a quite different
kind of reception ; namely, the most courteous
usage and the fairest promises ; so that, writing
to his friends, he expressed great confidence
that he should be enabled to establish a right
understanding in this important quarter : these
hopes, however, proved delusive : for whereas,
his first and main object was to be able to
assure his brethren in Ireland, from the testi-
mony of his own senses, that the notorious
schismatic, Abbe Trevaux, had retracted his
schism ; the act of which retractation, he was
assured, lay in a bureau then before him : and
though he was sometimes promised that this
important document would be exhibited to him,
he found in the end that no such satisfaction
was to be afforded him : in fact, the retractation
of the schism itself did not exist, but only a
personal apology to the V. A. Coming into the
Midland District, the venerable Bishop had no
terms to make there : he and the writer having
been in all occurrences, for a long course of
years, of one heart and one mind. To com-
plete his mission, it was necessary he should
proceed into the North, as far as Durham, whi-
ther he begged the writer to accompany him
and Dean Macarthy. The writer, however,
would not accede to the request, but upon con-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 187

dition that his Western and Southern brethren
•would be invited to the meeting; not wishing,
as he declared,, to form a party, but to inves-
tigate truth. The invitation was accordingly
given, and accepted of by the Southern Prelate,
who with his General Vicar, the Rev. Mr. Bram-
ston, met Bishop Moylan, Dean Macarthy,
Dr. Milner, Bishop Gibson, Dr. Smith, and the
Rev. Mr. Gillow, at Durham, on the 20th of
August 1812, in order to concert with them a
general plan of pacification. After much talk
on both sides, it was at length agreed upon that
each party should bring forward a project for
the above-mentioned purpose. Accordingly,
on the following day, the senior V. A. produced
the following brief formula : ef we, the under-
e< signed, &c. are all of one faith and one
" communion." To this proposal, Bishop
Moylan answered, that he could not carry back
with him, to his brethren in Ireland, so vague a
declaration in answer to their specific corn-
plaints. He then produced the following coun-
ter-project, which had been drawn up and
agreed to that morning by himself, Dean Mac-
arthy, and Dr. Milner. C{ We, the undersigned
ff Prelates, being assembled together at Dur-
'f ham, this 21st of Aug. 1812, for the purpose
" of preserving the integrity and security of
cc our ecclesiastical jurisdiction and discipline,
" and for consolidating our Catholic unity with
2 B 2

188 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

<e the See Apostolic,, and among ourselves,
" by and with the advice of our theologians
ff here present, have resolved : 1st. That we
" deem it inexpedient to concur in or consent
" to any changes or change in the present ca-
" nonical form of appointing Bishops V. V. A.,
f( and their respective Coadjutors, observed
" within the United Kingdom ; which mode
" experience has proved to be wise, salutary,
" and unexceptionable ; unless a different dis-
ff cipline should be established by the autho-
" rity of the Holy See. But we are resolved
<e not to concur in promoting any ecclesiastic
tf to any of the aforesaid offices, of whose
" loyalty to his King and country, and peace-
" able conduct and disposition, we are not
" fully persuaded.

" Resolved, 2dly., That we will not permit
" any ecclesiastic, within the limits of our re-
" spective jurisdictions, to exercise any sacer-
" dotal functions, who shall, when called upon,
" refuse publicly to acknowledge that His Ho-
ff /mess, P. Pius VII. is not a heretic nor a
te schismatic j nor the author or abettor of heresy
" or schism ; or to declare himself in communion
ff with His Holiness, and with all those who hold
<f communion with him ; and that we will call
ff upon all those ecclesiastics, as above, whom
" we have, or shall have reason to suspect of

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 189

rf holding or abetting a contrary doctrine, to
" make this acknowledgment.

" Resolved, 3dly. That we will cause these
" Resolutions to be published in the next Di-
" rectory, published by Keating and Co."

Had these Resolutions, proposed by the
Bishop of Cork, and his two friends, been adopt-
ed and adhered to by the senior V. A. and his
two friends, perfect peace and harmony would
have been immediately restored among the
Catholic Pastors of the two Islands ; the mis-
chievous Resolution of the Tavern-meeting
would have been rendered innoxious ; the schis-
matical clauses of the ensuing Bill would not
have been brought forward ; the Blanchardist
schism would have been suppressed ; and hun-
dreds, if not thousands of the emigrant French,
who, during the following six years, died in
acknowledged schism, without any other chance
for eternity but that which invincible igno-
rance afforded, would have died in the open
communion with the Catholic Church. Unfor-
tunately, the Resolutions were not adopted ;
and the meeting broke up without any thing-
taking place in it worth being recorded, except-
ing the Apology printed in the Appendix,*
which the writer made to those of his brethren
who might be indisposed against him, and ex-

* See Appendix E.

190 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

cepting an engagement, in a private letter, on
their part,* of being " vigilant in preventing,
" and firm in resisting any innovations, or mea-
" sures prejudicial to the unity or authority
" of the Catholic Church, to the sacred rights
" of the Apostolic See, or to the integrity or
." security of our holy Religion, in its faith,
" morality, or discipline." — But, alas ! in
rejecting the counter-project, they rejected the
means of accomplishing this.

THE BILL OP 1813.
There can be no doubt but the venerable
persons who made the above quoted declara-
tion, meant what they said, just as the honour-
able personage who, in persuading them to
sign the Fifth Resolution, meant what he said,
in promising them that, <c If any specific terms
te should be proposed, affecting the interests

* Letter to Dr. Moylan, Aug. 23, 1812. N. B. In the
original it is asserted, that no person who had charged the
Pope with heresy, &c. had been admitted -without Retracta-
tion, or who might so charge him, &c. should be admitted
•without Retractation : now in the printed copies of this let-
ter, circulated by its author, far and wjde, at the beginning
of the year 1813, in both instances the word Retractation
is altered into the word Satisfaction. On the difference
between these two terms, the whole important controversy
concerning the restoration of Trevaux hinges : of course, k
was utterly unwarrantable to substitute one of them for the
other, in professing to publish an original document,

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 191

" of Religion,, they should be submitted to the
" deliberation and judgment of the V. V. A."*
The same, however, cannot be said in favour
of the learned historian's defence of that Reso-
lution, where he protested that, ({ If govern-
(C ment should propose to us any thing which
{< affected our spiritual concerns, it would be
" our duty to submit that part of it to the
" Church. "f In fact, our experienced mana-
ger knew full well that, as this line of conduct
never before had been observed by him and his
cabinet, so least of all was it their intention to
observe it with respect to the Bill, then in con-
templation. Accordingly, the writer, animad-
verting on the passage here quoted, predicted
as follows : ef he, Mr. C, B. and two or three
" of his lay friends, will settle the arrangements
cc (of the Bill) with Protestant Statesmen, and
ec then he will write a new Red Book, similar to
IC that of 1789, to prove that f he was most
c{ c anxious to frame the arrangements in such
<( r manner as should not be thought objection-
Cf f able by the venerable Prelates.' "J In fact,
secresy was the very character of the Bill in
question. That such would be its character,
together with the motive for this secresy, was

* Letter to the R. R. J. M. by D. P., p. 2.

f Letter to an Irish Cath. Gent, by Mr. B., p. H, 1811.

t Letter to a R. C. Prelate, A.D. 1811, p. 57.

192 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

known to Mr. Perceval himself, who, speaking
for the last time on the Catholic affairs, said :
" They (the Emancipators) tell us that they
'-'- have a project, but that they will not bring it
" forward, for fear of its being sifted. What,
" do they then intend to carry their Bill through
" Parliament in a single night ? " — To be brief,
so far from being consulted on the numerous
and complicated arrangements and changes in
the Catholic discipline proposed to the Legis-
lature in this Bill, the Bishops were not even
informed of the tenor or nature of the oath,
containing a variety of doctrinal articles, which
they themselves would have been required to
take, under the expected Act; but the whole
ecclesiastical, as well as civil business of the
Bill, including a fresh profession of Catholic
faith, was settled between Mr. C. Butler, with
his two or three confidential lay friends, and
certain Protestant Statesmen. But, though the
Bishops bore this degradation of their divine
authority in silence., several of the lay Catho-
lics were far from being- so passive, under the
violation of their civil rights. A meeting of
the Board had been called in London, chiefly
to provide the way and means which are al-
ways wanted, when several respectable gentle-
men, who had come up from the country to
attend it, and who happened to lodge at the
same Hotel in Oxford Street, seeing an article

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 193

in The Pilot newspaper, purporting that Mr. C.>
B. was engaged with the lit. Hon. Mr. Canning1
in settling the terms of the expected Act for the
relief of the Catholics,, expressed their common
surprise that they had never been informed of
so much as the outlines of this all-important
Bill, and agreed together that one of them,
in the name of the rest, should, at the Board-
meeting to beheld the same day, read the news-
paper article, and demand of the learned gen-
tleman an account of the terms he had been
settling for them. This was accordingly done,
when the spokesman was silenced in so autho-
ritative a style by the ostensible head of the
Board, as to rouse the feelings of the whole
company present. He was asked, ee If Mr. B.
{C was not at liberty to visit whom he pleased ?"
And " whether he was obliged to give an ac-
" count to any one of his private conversa-
c: tions?" It may be readily conceived how
much the gentleman in question, and several
others, were disgusted with this style of lan-
guage addressed to them ; and still more with
the clandestine manner of managing their most
important, civil as well as ecclesiastical, affairs
adopted by Mr. B. and his confidents. Accord-
ingly, they indignantly asked one another,
fe what is this Board but a voluntary associa-
cc tion, or club of individual gentlemen ? It
<c has no superiority over us of the Catholic

2 c

191 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" body ; nor has it received any deputation,
" to think, and to act for us, and them, in what-
" ever concerns our common welfare, fortune,
" and eternity."

The learned historian and manager begins
his account of " The memorable campaign of
ef 1813, for Catholic Emancipation/' to use his
own terms,* with a long dissertation, partly
political, and partly theological, under the title
of " Mr. Butler's Address to the Protestants of
tf the United Empire, "f It fills twenty-eight
close pages, but does not appear to have any
connection whatever with the Bill itself, or to
concern any one, but the author of it. He then
presents his readers with a copy of the old

* Page 254.

f In republishing this Address, in his Memoirs, Mr. B.
has thought proper to suppress the curse with which he con-
cludes it. In the original pamphlet, after mentioning the
abolishment of the Spanish Inquisition by the Cortes, Mr.
Butler exclaims : " so perish every mode of Religious per-
" secution, by whom or against whomsoever raised !" In
fact, that curse attaches not only to the Pope, who is always
the necessary immediate head of the Roman Inquisition,
but also to the civil courts of our own country, which are
in the habit of punishing the authors of doctrines that they
judge to be impious and blasphemous. — A certain advocate
of impiety, by name Aspland, defending his friend Carlile
in The Times Newspaper of last November, appeals with
high praises to Mr. C. B — 's theological works, and particu-
larly to his new Apostles' Creed of eleven Articles, published
in hjs Confessions of Faith, and his Life of Fenelon.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 195

Petition to Parliament for relief; signed in 18 10,
by the writer, as well as other Catholics, eccle-
siastics and laymen. After this, he mentions
the days on which the Bill itself, and the dif-
ferent sets of clauses to restrain it, and to sub-
jugate the Catholic Religion and its ministers
to worldly interests or purposes, were moved,
but does not point out the motives there were*
for assigning different parts in this legislative
drama to different actors, and why the most
important of the Religious restraints were kept
out of sight, till within three or four days
of the last reading of the Bill in the lower
House. Lastly, he gives such a view of the
whole Bill, as suited his purposes to give. The
present writer will present another view of it,
which he hopes will be more useful, when the
business of Emancipation is next brought forr
ward.

CHIEF CONTENTS OF THE BILL OF
1813.

On the last day of April, Mr. Grattan pre-
sented to the House of Commons, and thereby
to the view of the Catholic as well as the Pro-
testant public, the long expected Bill, that is to
say, the pleasing side of it, that of Emancipa-
tion. On the same occasion Mr. Canning gave
notice, as had been settled, of his intention to
2 c 2

SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS
move for certain clauses or restrictions to be
added to it, without mentioning any thing more
6f their nature, than that they were (c perfectly
" conformable to the spirit of it." These
proved to consist chiefly of the presbyterian
plan of subjugating the Bishops, and, through
them, the whole business of the Catholic
Religion, to the controul of the leading lay-
men of that communion ; being the same which
he had been concerting, for months before-
hand, with the theological lawyer of Lincoln's
Inn. In conclusion, Lord Castlereagh pro-
duced a different set of clauses, which gave
ministry the power of an effectual Veto over
the whole. Altogether, the Bill fairly printed,
forms a considerable volume. It contains four
or five different sets of galling restrictions,
so as to constitute k a Bill of pains and penal-
ties, rather than that of relief, and it enjoins no
fewer than six new oaths, adapted to the pur-
poses of the restrictions. From the circum-
stances and terms of its forerunner, The Fifth
Resolution, there was reason to fear that the
Bill of Relief, as it was termed, would turn out
to be a Bill of persecution ; but no Catholic
Alarmist ever conceived it would be of so op-
pressive a nature as it proved to be.

The first striking feature in the Bill, is the
long theological Oath, appointed to be taken by
all persons who were to derive any advantage

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 197

from the Bill, and also by " every person, now
ff exercising, or who shall hereafter exercise
" any of the spiritual duties or functions
ff usually exercised by persons in H. Orders,
•" professing Catholic Religion;" which oath
is three times the length of the odious declara-
tion, called The Long Oath; besides a profession
of civil allegiance, it contains alleged tenets of
the Catholic Faith, on ten different articles, all
of them more or less inaccurately, and some of
them erroneously expressed. The historian
informs us, that <e this oath was chiefly formed
" from the oaths in the Acts passed for the re-
" lief of the Catholics in 1791 and 1793 :"*
but he does not tell us who it was that had
that confidence in his character and theological
learning, as to form an oath out of two other
oaths, to be taken by his Bishops and Clergy,
as well as by the Catholics of both islands in
general ! -However, without such information,
it may be safely affirmed, from the experience of
1789, that among them all there is but one
man, and he a common English lawyer, of Lin-
coln's Inn, who was capable of the under-
'taking. This long oath is immediately followed
in the Bill by another of considerable length,
framed exclusively for the Catholic Clergy, by
which they would have been precluded from

198 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

corresponding with all foreign Prelates, in
every part of the world, on subjects of litera-
ture, health, civility, &c., as well as on pro-
fessional business. This oath was to be taken
by them within six months from the passing
of the act, under the penalties of a misdemea-
nour, for neglecting to take it ; but without any,
the least benefit to themselves., from complying
with it. Such was the relief, and the emanci-
pation held out by this Bill, to the loyal, meri-
torious Catholic Clergy of both islands ! — One
only act of favour is shewn them in it, which is,
that if they are incapable of writing their names,
the clerk of the court may write for them, and it
will be sufficient for them to make their marks !
Other restrictions and penalties follow, par-
ticularly attaching to the exercise of episcopal
jurisdiction and functions, which no Catholic
could concur in without an overt act of schism.
The principal of these go to transfer the due
influence and canonical right of the Episcopal
college to a lay aristocracy in each island,
under the controul of a Protestant Supremacy.
To be brief : the Bill goes to create such an
heterogeneous assemblage of men as never
existed, nor was even imagined. The King
was to appoint one Committee for England,
and another for Ireland. Each of them was to
consist of some Catholic Peers, and rich com-
moners, and one Catholic Bishop ; likewise of

OP THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 199
some Protestant Privy Counsellors,, under a
Protestant Secretary of State, who was also to
be President of the Committee, with full power
of dissolving it, and forming another ! To this
Secretary the name of each Catholic candidate
for episcopacy was to be sent ; who., all power-
ful as he was, with respect to the Committee,
could not himself pronounce on the candidate's
merits or demerits, but was required to remit
the case to their judgment, he himself at the
same time presiding at their consultation. . The
junta thus framed, pronounces absolutely, yet
secretly, on the character of the Priest whose
name is before them, and this, without any
fixed rule for guiding their decision, and with-
out any opportunity afforded the accused of vin-
dicating his fair fame, supposing it to be blasted
at the Board, by calumny, or whispered away
by malice : and yet the contriver of this scheme,
as we have heard, curses the Inquisition !

The last clause of this cumbrous Bill, though
aimed at the Catholic Bishops and Clergy,
strikes at the freedom of every British subject.
It requires, that, " As often as any subject
" shall receive any instrument from the See of
".Rome, or from any person or body in
". foreign parts, acting under the authority of
". the said See, or under that of any other
C( spiritual superior, that they shall deliver
" the same in the original, to the President of

120 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS
" the Board/' namely, the Secretary of State,
who, though he be its absolute head, is not to
judge of its contents, by his own lights and in-
formation., but must send it them, to judge
whether there is any thing in it " injurious to
" the safety of the kingdom, or to the Protes-
'•' tant establishment." Any contravention of
this clause, by the party receiving the instru-
ment, or by any other person, subjects them to
be sent out of the kingdom, that is, to be trans-
ported. Thus a Protestant merchant, corres-
ponding with a public commercial company at
Civita Vecchia, or a Protestant Nobleman,
receiving letters from the Pope's Banker, Tur-
lonia, or his statuary, Canova, on his private
concerns, if he fails to send the original papers,
which he has so received, to the Secretary of
State, is liable to be seized upon by a King's mes-
senger, and clapped on board a transport, bound
to Botany Bay, or Baffin's Bay, at the discretion
of the minister. But to consider the matter
barely as it relates to Catholic Bishops : by a
subsequent clause, it is provided that, in case
the Bishop makes oath that the contents of
any letter which he may receive from Rome, or
elsewhere, regards only spiritual matters, he
shall be exempt from producing it. — Now, in
the name of common sense, was there ever
a greater inconsistency ? You believe the Bishop
on his oath, that the letter he has received from

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 201

Rome., relates only to spiritual matters, but you
do not believe him, on the oath you had just
before extorted from him, that he will corres-
pond with Rome on no other but spiritual mat-
ters ! — In a word., the Legislature., by acting
justly and consistently,, as 1 trust it will, when-
ever the relief is actually afforded, may save the
public an annual thousand pounds in each
island, may prevent the accumulated perjuries,
which the numerous oaths proposed are cal-
culated to produce, may free its Catholic sub-
jects from the unmerited disgrace, of having
whatever they deem most sacred exposed to the
ridicule of clerks and servants, perhaps even
of stage-players,* and may still be more secure
for their establishments against secret fraud,
and open force, than by the complex oppression
contained in the Bill : that is to say, by trusting
to the unsullied honour of conscientious men,
and to the existing laws, which are as effica-
cious against treachery and disloyalty in the
persons of Catholic Bishops, as against the

* It may not be improper to mention here, that the writer
is (without detriment to his honour) in possession of certain
papers, transmitted from an office in Lincoln's Inn, to a
foreign ecclesiastical court, which, though not of conscien-
tious secresy, could not be answered through a public office
or a Committee Board without injury to the peace of our
first Catholic families ; perhaps also to the credit of that
office.

202 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

same crimes in other subjects. Should sincere
and intelligent Catholics be reduced to a choice
among the three evils in question, they would
prefer Sir John Hippisley's tribunal of aMim'sfre
du Culte, to Mr. Butler's domestic Committee of
Inquisition; and they would prefer Lord Gren-
ville's (effectual negative in the Croicn to either
of them. — Yes, they would wisely " fly from
" petty tyrants to the throne."

OPPOSITION TO THE BILL.

Notwithstanding the powerful support of the
Bill, by members of the Cabinet, as well as by
the Opposition, and notwithstanding the expe-
dition of its managers, in hurrying it on, after
its contents became known, in order to prevent
its being sifted, yet resisted and even sifted
it was, during the three or four days of its lying
complete before the House of Commons. Dr.
JDuigenan, and the other professed enemies of
Emancipation, could not fail of opposing it,
with a virulence proportioned to its prospect of
success; and Sir J. Hippisley made a separate
attack, of a tendency no less fatal to it than the
former. The learned historian expresses his
surprise at the alleged inconsistency of the
Baronet, compared with his past professions
and conduct : yet it could not escape that
author's sagacity, that after all, Sir John and he

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 203

\vere rival candidates, for the same controul
over the Catholic clergy and religion ; the for-
mer by means of the intended office of a Catho-
lic Commissary, which he intended for himself;
the latter by means of Mr. Canning's new Board,
proposed in the Bill, of which Board he foresaw
that he would have as usual the chief manage-
ment. No wonder, then, that the Baronet,
seeing his own project, which he studied by
day, and dreamed of by night, in danger of
being supplanted by Mr. Butler, should make
all the opposition in his power against the
latter, even at the risk of appearing to change
sides on the main question.

Still as the clauses of the Bill, besides being
generally injurious to the Catholic Religion,
were in some instances clearly schismatical,
namely, where they attributed spiritual jurisdic-
tion to a quarter in which it does not exist,
^nd rejects it in another where it does exist, the
chief opposition to it, was naturally to be ex-
pected from the Catholic Prelates, as soon as
they should become acquainted with its con-
tents. Certain it is, that they universally re-
probated the Bill, in their hearts ; and we can-
not question the declaration of some of them,
that they opposed it as soon as it became known
to them, either wholly or in some of its parts :
but for such opposition to be effectual, it was
necessary, first, to be openly made and avowed ;
2 D 2

204- SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and secondly, to be well concerted and simulta-
neous ; neither of which conditions could be
reckoned upon in England, after the fatal signa-
ture of the Fifth Resolution. The writer, how-
ever, did the utmost in his power to procure
them both. For this purpose, the day after his
arrival in London, May 19, he sent a note to his
brother Prelate, the contents of which are re-
peated in the answer to it, now before him :
ec In reply to your note, by which you ask me,
<c whether I will join you in openly opposing
ff Mr. Canning's clauses ?* 1 beg leave to say,
(( that 1 do not know what Mr. Canning's

c?

" clauses are." May 20, 1813. It is to be ob-
served, that at the date of this correspondence,
Mr. Canning's oppressive clauses had not only

* This question, suggested by a sincere wish of procuring
the cooperation of his brethren, in securing the ministry and
persons of the Catholic clergy from injury and oppression,
was foully misrepresented by a certain foreign agent, on al-
leged authority, as a call upon a Prelate to pass an official
censure on a measure which was not then exactly defined."—
" Due giorni prima che le clausole del Bill fossero publicate
" o cognoscute, Mgr. M.miscrisse un biglietto, dimandando
" che io me unisse conlui a censurarle, e se trovo molto offe-
" so perche gli resposi che non poteva censurarle prima de
" sapere quali fossero." — A more injurious misrepresentation
to the writer's character, as a gentleman, a theologian, and a
Prelate, than this, considered in all its circumstances, he
does not remember to have ever suffered. No doubt but it
will be disavowed by those respectable persons on whose
alleged authority it was advanced.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 205
been printed, by order of the Commons, but
also published in the Newspapers : but, whereas,
Lord Castlereagh had proposed some further re-
strictions, it was ordered, that the whole of the
proposed restrictions should be incorporated in
the Bill and printed altogether. This was done,
and the whole instrument, with its fresh terrors,
was circulated in print on Friday, May 21, on
which day the writer sent his brother a second
letter, to the following purport : as by this time
you must have seen what the clauses are, will you
now, at least, join me, in openly opposing them ?
To this question no answer whatever was
given ; which circumstance induced the writer
hastily to draw up his BRIEF MEMORIAL.*
It was written, printed, and partly circulated
among Members of Parliament, on the same
21st of May.

Being in company, the following day, May
22, with a Catholic Nobleman, who seemed to
consider his Prelate as approving of the Bill,
the writer lamented that the V. V. A., then
in London, did not meet together, and unequi-
vocally declare to their flocks their judgment
upon it ; to whom the Nobleman replied : " The
" Bible Society is to meet next Monday by
"• 12 o'clock, at the house of (one of them,
" whom he named) : if you will call there

* See Appendix F.

206 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" at one o'clock, you may confer with your
'• brethren on the subject,, in the presence of
u other respectable company." — The writer was
punctual in his attendance, at the time and
place assigned,, where he found assembled two
V. V. A., two Noble Lords, a distinguished
Baronet, and four or five other Catholic gentle,
men, all members of the Bible Society,

Having declined the fresh overtures then made
him, to take a share in the business of the Bible
Society, there going forward, he embraced the
earliest opportunity of stating that other busi-
ness, for the sake of which, at the invitation of
the noble Lord, there present, he waited on the
meeting ; namely, that the distinguished lay
personages, who attended it, might learn for
certain what the sentiments of their Prelates
were concerning the Bill before Parliament.
AS no one else seemed disposed to ask any
questions, or make any remarks on this subject,
the writer proposed the three following queries,
which he read from a paper lying before him :
*' First : is there any thing contrary to the inte-
<c grity or safety of the Catholic doctrine or
fe discipline, contained or involved in the Bill
" now before Parliament? — Secondly: can a
" Catholic Bishop or Layman, conscientiously
*c accept of; or act under the Commission pro-
" posed by the Bill? — Thirdly: is not an En-
" glish Vic. Ap. obliged to speak out openly,

OP THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 207
<c so as to be clearly understood by the Catholic
" Public, and especially by the Legislature, in
" opposition to the Bill?" — To these questions
one respectable character present answered,
that he did not like the BUI, for the reasons con-
tained in THE BRIEF MEMORIAL, and for other,
reasons ; but that he did not think it prudent to
answer the above questions : another answered,
that he had endeavoured, through a M. P.
whom he named, to get a certain alteration
made in the proposed process of appointing
Bishops; but without success. Finally, all the
company concurred in asserting, that, as the
Bill was to be read, for the third time, on that
very day, May 24th, it was too late to make
any opposition to it. The writer then declared
his Protest against the Bill, as containing
clauses contrary to the integrity and safety of the
Cat/wlic Religion. He asserted, moreover, that
no Catholic Bishop or Layman could accept of a
place in the commission proposed by the Bill,
without committing an ACT OP SCHISM,*

* A misrepresentation of this part of the writer's declara-
tion, nearly as gross and injurious to his character as that
mentioned above, was made on the same alleged authority,
by the foreign agent alluded to, in the following words of
an official document: " Nel giorno fissato per la terza ed
" ultima lettura Mgr. M. fece circolare tra i Membre del
" Parlamento un foglio, da lui scritto e stampato, nel quale
** inveisce contra tutte le clamole del Bill, ma piu, in par-
" ticolare, contra quella che stabilisce il sopradettb Comi-

208 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and that no Catholic Bishop, in particular, could
take the oath proposed for a commissioner with-
out infringing his Consecration Oath* Lastly/
he maintained it, as incontestible, that., if any
two of the company present would go down to
the House of Commons,, and inform Mr. Grattan
that the Vicars Apostolic had found clauses in
the Bill incompatible with the integrity., or
the safety of the Catholic Religion., it wrould
even then be stopped in its progress. — How-
ever., as this was the event which was dreaded by
most of the company, much more than the re-
ligious evils with which it was pregnant, the
writer's protestations and arguments were
equally disregarded, and the instrument of
schism was left to take its course.

FAILURE OF THE BILL.

When the above-mentioned assembly of
Bishops and noble and honourable laymen

" tato per attestare lajideUta de chi si ha da fare Vescovo.
" Afferma, con gran vehemenza che nissuno Catolico puo
" directe o indirecte accudere atale statute senza essere
" ipso facto schismat ico /" 21 Giugn. 1813. — Happily the
writer knows the difference between teaching or committing
schism, which may be done through ignorance, inattention,
and becoming ipso facto schismatico !

* Acting as a commissioner under the Act, the Bishop
would be sworn to keep the King's secrets regarding the
appointment of Bishops, &c. whereas he is previously bound
by oath to keep the Pope's secrets in all such matters.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 209

broke up, the success of the Bill, on its third
reading, was as confidently anticipated to take
place in the course of a few hours, as the rising
of the sun the next morning: but God was
pleased to have mercy of the remnant of his
Holy Religion in this kingdom, and particularly
on the individual Catholics who were blindly
rushing forward to the brink of schism ; accord-
ingly, under his providential care, a stone of
the long laboured edifice being torn from its
place, the whole fell in ruins on the heads of
the builders. Our historian gives a literal and
true account of this important event in the fol-
lowing words : " On Monday, May 24th, the
" house was called over, according to order :
," after which it resolved itself into a Com-
" mittee to consider of the Bill. The Speaker,
Cf having left the chair, moved that the words in
" the first clause : to sit and vote in either house
" of Parliament, should be left out of the
" Bill. After a long debate, the question was
" called for. On a division, the numbers were :
(f for the clause 247, against it 251. Thus
" the majority against the clause was four.
" Upon the numbers being declared, Mr. Poir-
<e sonby said, that as the Bill, without the
" clause, was neither worthy the acceptance of
" Catholics, nor of the support of the friends
<( of concession, he would move that the chair-
C( man should leave the chair. The Bill was,

210 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

." of course,, given up."* The resentment of
the disappointed party fell chiefly on the Ca-
tholic Prelates and their episcopal agent. The
Newspapers, in the pay of the Board, pro-
nounced the death-blow of the Bill to be an
act of Felo de se ; while the other Protestant
prints inveighed against that agent,, as a main-
taincr of the old Popish superstition against the
liberal Protestant sentiments of his more en-
lightened brethren.-^ The same language was
heard in Parliament, particularly from the mem-
ber of the Cabinet, who was chiefly concerned
with Mr. C. Butler in framing the Bill. Speak-
ing of the exclusion of the writer by the Board,
he congratulated the members of it on their
alleged Emancipation of themselves from the
thraldom of the Priesthood. The Board itself
met, day after day, and various attempts were
made to get Dr. M. to attend it, in order to
hear the speeches and resolutions which its
orators had prepared against him. At length,
being solicited by a great personage whom he

* Page 267.

f Two Catholic gentlemen having waited on the late
Duke of Norfolk, to ask him what he thought of their con-
duct, in expelling Dr. M. from their Board ; the Duke an-
swered them : " I think you have acted perfectly right.
."- I have left the Religion ; and I wish you to leave it.
" This you are doing : for certainly Dr. M. is defending
" the old system. Had it been such as you make it to be,
." I should have had no occasion to change."

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS: 21 1

respected, and other well-disposed Catholics,
he promised to attend a Meeting which was4
fixed for the 29th of the current month. Late
on the preceding evening, he was informed by
two friends of his, who waited on him for this
purpose, that he was to be expelled from the
Board at the meeting in question, for having
written and circulated his Brief Memorial, and
he was advised to avoid the blow by resigning
his place in it. This he refused to do, however
little he valued the distinction of itself, as it
would have been to disavow his cause : he pro-
mised, however, to take no notice of any reso-
lutions the Board might pass against him, pro-
vided they did not publish them : which com-
promise, however, the gentlemen said they
were not authorized to enter into. The writer,
accordingly, was punctual to his promise, and
listened with temper to the harangues, and sen-
tence of exclusion pronounced against him;
when, drawing from his pocket & Protest, which
he had drawn up for the occasion, he read as
follows : Cf My Brief Memorial was published,
' e not on behalf of the present company of 65
" persons, nor of their constituents, they not
" being chosen to represent any other Catho-
te lies, nor does it profess to speak their senti-
" ments. In short, I have spoken and acted
" on behalf of thirty Bishops, and of more than
fe five millions of Catholics, whom the Bill con-

212 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" cerns, and whose religious business I am au-
" thorized to transact/' Moving then to the
door, instead of acting as he was authorized
by his Master to act, on such an occasion,
Mat. x. 14, he satisfied himself with saying :
" I hope you will not turn me out of the Ca-
" tholic Church, nor shut me out of the king-
" dom of heaven." — Thus ended this unparal-
leled scene of inconsistency and violence, which
stands briefly thus. A society of Englishmen,
having formed themselves to petition the Legis-
lature against oppression and the denial of their
civil rights, fall foul of their fellow Englishman,
for exercising the common right of subjects,
that of representing his case to Parliament !
And again, it stands thus. A society of Catho-
lics, acknowledging their Bishops to be the
divinely-constituted judges and - guardians of
their Religion, publicly insult and persecute a
Bishop for doing his duty in these particulars !
The writer's claim to speak, on behalf of the
Prelates and Catholic millions of the kingdom,
was very soon justified. On the very day, and
at the very hour that about two dozen out of an
assembly of 65 Catholics were trying to dis-
grace Dr. M. for defending the common Reli-
gion, the Bishops of Ireland, to the number of
27, being synodically assembled, were passing
a vote of approbation in his favour, too lofty to
be here inserted. Shortly after this, the laity

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 213
of Dublin, being assembled to the number of
4,000, bestowed upon him equal commenda-
tions ; whose example was quickly followed by
numerous other Catholic assemblies throughout
the other parts of Ireland. After these came an
address of thanks to the writer from Liverpool,
signed by above 4,000 names. But what was of
far greater consequence than all these praises,
was the decision of the above-mentioned Prelates
respecting the Bill, passed three daysbefore their
commendatory resolution. In this they declare
that, <e Certain ecclesiastical clauses or securi-
" ties contained in the Bill are utterly incom-
" patible with the discipline of the Catholic
" Church ;" and that they <c cannot assent to
" those regulations without incurring the heavy
" guilt of SCHISM/' It is the more remark-
able, that the historian should pass over all
this matter in his Memoirs, as the same Board
Meeting which censured Dr. M. passed a vote
of thanks to him.

THE NEW PLAN OF PROCEEDING.

There always had been a party in the Board,
who were exceedingly desirous of following
their pastors in matters of religion ; but they,
in fact, claimed to direct these pastors in the
road by which they would be led ;, whereas our
learned historian and his little party, with
greater consistency, took the crpsier into their

214- . f SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

own hands on every occasion, and dictated^
equally to pastors and people new doctrinal
oaths and resolutions, together with whatever
changes of discipline suited their politics to
devise, without consulting with any ecclesias-
tical authority whatever. Whether the latter
party yielded to the former spontaneously or by
force is not known to the writer, nor does he
know when or by what precise means it was
planned to make ecclesiastical authority subser-
vient to the purposes of worldly politics : all
that he presumes to vouch for, are the facts
themselves, as they appeared in the face of the
public, and all his reasoning on those facts is
confined to the maxim of eternal truth : The
children of this world are wiser in their genera-
tion than the children of light. — Luke xvi. 8.
According to the present plan, there were three
points to be carried ; the first was to collect a
synod of Prelates, who, by their number might,
in some degree equipoise the Irish Prelature :
for which purpose it was necessary to engage
the twoScotch V. V. A. to meet the three English
V. V. A. with their two coadjutors. The second
was to get the parent stock of the late Bill,
namely, the Tavern Resolution, which had been
censured by the thirty Prelates, including the
English agenjt, approved of and adopted by
the British synod. The last was, on the credit
of this synod, to get the Bill itself sanctioned

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 215
by Mgr. Quarantotti, Secretary of the Propa-
ganda., who, during the banishment of the Pope
and Cardinals from Rome, was supposed to
possess sufficient authority for this purpose.
These being objects of so much importance to
•the Board, its Secretary, by a new precedent,
was empowered to defray the travelling and
other expenses of the personages concerned in
them ; which was done accordingly.* After all,
this far-fetched assembly was demonstratively
not a Canonical Synod but a party meeting,
irregularly and fraudulently collected together,
,or, as theologians express it, a Conciliabulum.
For, first, it was not summoned by the proper
officer, the senior Prelate, as the latter after-
wards assured the writer by letter. His account
,of the meeting was, that certain Prelates wrote
to tell him that they were coming to pay kirn a
visit in the North, and that he could not refuse
their company. In the next place, the second
V. A., though under no disqualification except
the frowns of the Board, so far from being in-
vited to the assembly, was studiously excluded
from it. Lastly, certain other Prelates, who
made it the condition of their attending the
meeting, that the writer should be invited to

* " The Board promised to pay the expenses, but I was
" out of pocket."— Letter from one of the parties present
Dec. 10, 1813.

216 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

it, were decoyed and imposed upon in that

particular.*

With respect to the wordy Pastoral, com-
posed in the South, and palmed on the unsus-
pecting Pastor of the North, under date of
Oct. 27, 1813, enough has been said above, to
shew that no garbling of sentences, or other
arts of logic, can ever justify that fatal Fifth
Resolution of the St. Alban's Tavern, which
not only the Irish Prelates had censured as
"• eventually prejudicial to our Church-dis-
" cipline," but which the English Prelates
themselves had voted against, as f( involving
" the spiritual interests of the Districts;"
much less can they prove it lawful, for Catholics
" to concur in arrangements for securing the
" establishments" of a heterodox Religion, f

* " Having only arrived here (at Durham) the night pre-
" ceding, I was very much disappointed indeed when I
" did not find you here : having written to N. N. before I
" left home, expressing my most sincere wishes of your
" attending the meeting. On my arrival at Newcastle, I
" had the satisfaction to learn that you were here, and was
" only undeceived on my arrival. Though the Board had
" not used you as I wished, had not you a right to join your
" brethren wherever they happened to assemble?— Agree-
" ably to your request, I asked : why you had not been in*
*' vited to this meeting ? and even took pen and ink to return
" you their precise answer. — I received no explicit answer."
Letter from one of the parties present. Durham, Nov. 1, 1813.

f In the refinement of his logic, the Pastoral-writer has
fallen into a fresh theological error, where he asserts that,

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 217

Such is the first part of this unfortunate Pasto-
ral : the rest consists in its obvious meaning of
very ill-timed encomiums on the piety of cer-
tain persons, who., a little before,, had disedified
the Catholic public, by their disregard of eccle-
siastical unity and authority. — What passed at
the meeting respecting the business which next
follows, and which our historiographer con-
nects with the Tavern-Resolution,* the present
writer is not informed of: most certainly nothing
passed at it authorizing falsehood, misrepresen-
tation, or deception of any kind.

MGR. QUARANTOTTPS RESCRIPT.

The writer had received a letter, dated Feb.
15, 1813, from this pious and well-meaning
Secretary, containing a catalogue of com-
plaints, which had been forwarded to him from
England, respecting certain differences between
the writer and one of his brethren. These are
detailed in his, unanswerable hitherto, but un-
published work, The Explanation with D. P.

" It belongs to the province of the Legislature to make ade-

" quate provision for the maintenance of the religious esta-

" blishments of the kingdom."— For, as an able Divine, who

refused to read the Pastoral in his chapel, argued : If the

Religious establishments of the kingdom are contrary to Christ's

institution, it can belong to the province of no one to provid

for their maintenance : atqui—ergo.

* Page 196.

218 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

The Secretary's letter was satisfactorily an-
swered by the twenty-nine Prelates of Ireland,
in their synodical epistle of Nov. 12, 1813,
addressed to the then Prefect of the Congrega-
tion, Cardinal de Pietro, whicli is too precious
and luminous a monument of the ecclesiastical
history of this age and country, to be omitted
in the present Supplement.* The Rescript in
question is dated a year later than the former
letter, namely, Feb. 16, 1814, and was fraudu-
lently obtained from the unsuspecting good old
man by a practised Scotch agent at Rome,f
through a series of gross falsehoods and mali-
cious misrepresentations,, which he professed to
derive from high authority in England, but

* See Appendix G.

f Possessed of great sagacity, experience, and industry,
this agent contrived to gain the confidence both of the
usurped and the legitimate government of Rome, likewise
of Napoleon, and of the British ministry. Crossing the
channel, on one occasion, when the ports were almost
hermetically sealed, with Lord Castlereagh's passports in
his pockets, he no sooner reached Paris than, giving himself
out to be " directly the agent of all the British Prelates, and
" indirectly of all the Irish Prelates" he claimed a right to
regulate that nursery of treason, Napoleon's English Col-
lege in Paris, and asserted that the Ex-emperor, by founding
it had laid SEVEN MILLIONS of British Catholics under
obligations to him. Could he say any thing more effectual
to promote the threatened invasion ? On the restoration of
Louis XVIII., the Memorial alluded to was published from
the State Records.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 219

which the writer hopes will still be disavowed
by the personages to whom he imputed them.
As these were public in Rome, and the know-
ledge of them in these islands will clear the
character of a venerable Prelate., now a Cardi-
nal,, and vindicate the cause of the Roman See
itself, the writer will give a brief analysis of-
the documents he alludes to. — Professing to
translate into Italian letters of great authority^
which he had received from England, the agent
says., in one of them., dated June 21, 1813 :
cf In my last 1 told you that our petition for
Cf Emancipation was debated during four whole
" days* in the House of Commons, and
(f that we obtained, by a great majority of
" votes, that it should be committed., and
"• Messrs. Grattan, Canning, &c. were ap-
(( pointed to extend the Bill. — By the tenor of
' c this, Catholics are admitted into both Houses
ff of Parliament. An oath is required of the
" Catholics, with some CHANGES FOR THE
« BETTER of the Irish Oath.— There was a
c( clause by which no one could be made a
<e Bishop in these kingdoms, who was not born
" of British or Irish Parents, and who had not
" resided in these kingdoms for some years.
" This was the ONLY CLAUSE which to
<< us — of England and Scotland — gave the

* " Per quatro giorni intieri."
2 F 3

220 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" greatest offence,,* because it limited the juris-
ee diction of the H. See; and we strongly pro-
fc tested that, without the leave of Rome, we
ee could not adhere to that Unitation. — The two
te first times the Bill was read, we had a great
" majority of votes : on the day fixed for the
cc third reading, Mgr. M. caused a printed
<f paper, which he had written, to be dis-
ff tributed among the Members of Parliament,
' ' in which he inveighs against all the clauses of
" the Bill, but particularly against that which
<f appoints a Committee to certify the loyalty
(C of persons to be made Bishops. He affirms,
e: with great vehemence, that no one can, directly
ff or indirectly, adhere to that statute, without
" becoming, ipso facto, a schismatic. Partly
" owing to this, and partly to the opposition
" made in Ireland, the Bill, after a long speech
" of Abbot, was rejected by a majority of four
" votes. Mgr. M., in his other publications
" during the discussion of the Bill, has said
ef many things injurious to our friends. Among
" these, the Knight Hippisley, &c. &c. The
" Irish Catholics make a great noise and se-
f{ ditious threats. You know the object of a
ff great part of them, which is total separation
'' of Ireland from England. And yet, with
" all their clamour for the abrogation of the

* " Questaera Tunica clausola che a noi— d'Inghilterra
" e de Scotia dava il maggior fastidio."

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 221

" penal laws, they would be very sorry that this
fc were granted, because then they would want
f' a pretext for rioting, and inveighing against
" Government."

The same Scotch agent presented the trans-
lation of another letter, dated July 28, 1813, as
from the same personage who had written the
former. If this be the fact, his sentiments on
the subject of the Bill must have undergone a
great change in the course of five weeks. " I
" wrote to you," he is made to say, "last month
ef that the Bill for our Emancipation was re-
ce jected at the third reading of it which to us

cc and Clergy, considering the circum-

ff stances, was a subject of great pleasure, as
f( there were several clauses in it, which could
(C not be admitted without the consent of the
ef H. See. As it is in a manner certain that,
" next year, the same Bill, but we hope modi-
Cf fied, will be proposed, and in all probability
ce passed into a law, it is necessary to take the
tc first opportunity of submitting it to the de-
cf cision of the Apostolic See. I remark in
ee your last, of May 18, the following words :
" If the oath of the Bill is the same which circu*
cc lates in our Gazettes, the Propaganda will
" find much difficulty in approving of it. I do
ec not know how the oath has been represented
' c on the Continent ; but this I know that it con-
ff tains nothing but what is in the oath which ice

222 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" have always taken., with the approbation of the H.
" See, or which the Irish Catholics have takers for
" the last twenty years."* The present writer
will not sift the reasoning in defence of the new
oath, which is contained in the letter., much less
will he detail the long theological dissertation
on appointing Bishops,, which the letter-writer
professes to have received from the lips of a Pro-
testant minister of state,, especially as this is re-
ported as a great secret : he will, therefore, con-
tent himself with observing that, if the Bill con-
tained " several clauses which could not be ad-
" mitted," under the circumstances in which it
was proposed, and if the failure of it was " a sub-
" ject of great pleasure," to the letter- writer, his
friends and the Clergy, some little mercy, if
not merit, might be conceived to be due to the
unfortunate Mgr. M., to whose opposition that
failure had in the preceding letter been chiefly
ascribed. Instead, however, of any thing like
this, he is spoken of, in the second letter, with
much the same disrespect as in the first, f The
letter next details the substance of a very or-
thodox and religious declaration on the part of

* The assertions in italics are all untrue.

f The following is one of the passages respecting the
present writer, alluded to above. " E inutile di ricordarvi,
" que scrivo in nome di tutti della Gran Brettagna eccet-
*' tuato Mgr. M. Questo punto fu stabilito in presenza
" vostra prima che partisse de costi."

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 223

certain laymen; which, however/had not been
supported by the recent conduct of some of
them. This is introductory to a petition for
the indulgence of the Apostolic See* In conclu-.
sion, the letter-writers are introduced begging
for Mgr. Quarantotti's directions in the follow-
ing terms, accompanied with the false descrip-
tion of the Bill that will be seen : C( the Bill
" in all probability will, early in the next ses-
<c sion, pass into a law. The punishment of
ff the refractory is banishment. In case the S.
ce Congregation should not approve of the
cc clauses, how are we to act ? Are we to tell
ec all the Catholics of these kingdoms that, ra-
" ther than consent to those clauses, they must
' f go with us into perpetual exile and leave Great
fc Britain without a single Catholic in it ? We,
Cf with the divine grace, will be obedient children
" of the H. See ; if she commands us to go to
" the gallows, we will go thither cheerfully."-^
In a third letter, the principal writer is intro-
duced complaining of the grievous weight on

* " Sperano che in quanto puol la Sede Apostolica sera
" indulgente."

•j- " Debbiamo dire a tutti i Cattolici di questi Regni, che
" piutosto che consentire ad essa clausole, devono, insieme
" coil noi, andiare in perpetuo essilio e lasclar la Gran Bret'
" tagna senza un solo Cattolico ? Noi colla divina grazzia
" saremo obbedienti figli della S. Sede : se si comraanda
" di andare alpatibolo, con alacrita vi anderemo."

224 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

his shoulders, by being employed to execute the
commissions of his brethren, as well as his
own ;* as likewise, amusing the Romans with
an account of the triumph of the Catholic Reli-
gion in England, by the prayers which the
writer affirmed are offered up for the Pope in
the Protestant Churches, f

Thus deceived in all the leading circum-
stances of the case, by letters which the Scotch
agent professed to have received from the most
respectable authority in England ; and made to
believe, in particular, that the Bill which had
been thrown out of Parliament in 1813, would
be brought into it, or had been brought into it
again at the beginning of the current year
1814, that the long oath, contained in it, was
nothing but an amendment of the Irish oath
(for at the date of the Rescript he had not seen
the Bill itself nor so much as the oath) ; that
the most ostensible opposer of the Bill was an
irrational Prelate, who censured propositions
before he knew what they were, and pro-
nounced sentence of schism against Catholics
for mere ignorance or inadvertence, and above

* " Oltre il peso di questo— che, da se solo e troppo per
" le mie spalle, mi si addossono mille affari degli alteri.''

•{• «* Vi non si cessa da noi di porgere giorno e notte, le
*' nostre pregiere pernostro amalo Padre. L'istesso, lo cre-
" dereste ? si fa da molti chiesi Protestanti di questo regno.
" Che triomfo per la Religione ! "

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 225

all, persuaded that the question before him \vas
concerning the great exaltation of the Catholic
Religion in the British islands, on one hand,
and its total ruin, by the transportation of
every man, woman, and child,* professing it
on the other ; f no wonder that the humane

* Had the good Prelate seen the Bill itself, instead of
the'report of its contents presented to him, he would have
discovered that only the Clergy, and the other Catholics
who were to derive benefit from the Bill, were to be called
upon to take the oath ; and that, of course, there was no
danger of the Catholic millions being transported for refus-
ing it, even though Government had resolved on depopulat-
ing Ireland. It is rather surprising, however, that neither
the Scotsman, nor any of the parties concerned in drawing
up the Rescript, should have calculated how many years it
would take the Royal Navy of England (supposing they
could have been withdrawn from the defence of our coasts
in the heat of the war) to transport foe millions of people,
with their necessary provisions, to Botany Bay or Canada.
When the infamous Oates had deposed in Parliament that
30,000 Spanish pilgrims were about to invade England from
Compostella, he was sadly disconcerted by a member's ask-
ing him, -where the ships were, to convey them ?

•{• The sense in which the letters were understood at .home
is ascertained by the following official report of their con-
tents, drawn up by the intelligent Minutantc of the Congre-
gation. " Un oggetto de la pin. alta importenza dal quali
" puo dependere o 1'esaltazione o la totale rovina del Catto-
" licismo nelle Isole Brittanichi, esige per parte della S.
" Sede un prompto provedimento— per non esporre 37 Ves-
" covi, un floridissitno clero e presso cinque miglione di
" Cattolicial pericolo dell' esilio, e vedere affatto bandita
" de quei Regni la Cattolica Religione." — Ex Ristretto.
2 G

226 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

and pious old man should have been prevailed
upon to outstep his authority and his province,
and to sign his name to the document prepared
for him. It may easily be conceived with what
exultation and speed the negotiator hastened to
convey this laboured instrument to his em-
ployers in London, still hoping to arrive there
before the passing of the Bill to which it re-
lated. However,, on reaching that city, at the
end of April, he found every thing quiet respect-
ing Catholic politics, and the Bill itself put off
sine die. In these circumstances, he consoled
himself and his party with detailing the titles of
the four Prelates, including Mgr. Quarantotti,
and of the four theologians who had sanction-
ed the Rescript, and with assuring them that
the Pope himself, on his return to Rome, could
not revoke it. Our learned historian, in his
account of this transaction, has fallen into an
egregious error, where he describes the Secre-
tary of the Propaganda, Mgr. Q., who had been
left in Rome by Napoleon,, when all his supe-
riors were banished from it, as possessed of all
the ecclesiastical spiritual powers of the See of
Rome, "the appointment of the episcopal order
" alone excepted."* The fact is, he had only the
ordinary powers of the congregation : but was
not authorized to change the canonical discipline

•
* Page 196.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 227

of the Church of Ireland, or, the Pontifical Re*
gulations of the English Mission., or to unite the
Scotch with the English V. V. A. in presenting
to vacant Districts, as is attempted in the Re-
script. Another error of the historian's is, that
" It does not appear that the Congregation of
" the Pope's venerable brethren has taken the
" Rescript into consideration/' as he promised
they should do.* The truth is, it was consi-
dered of and rejected by them, at an early
stage of the business ; and this rejection was
notified in the letter from Genoa, which declares
that all former plans had been rejected. Final-
ly, it is matter of surprise, that Mr. C. B., who
is so sharp-sighted in seeing, and so severe in
reproving all interference of the ecclesiastical
power with civil concerns, should have taken
no notice of the Roman Secretary's mandate
to the English Catholics, in the event of the
Bills having passed, to present " an address
" of thanks to His Majesty, and his most mag-
' nificent Council, for so great a benefit."

RESTORATION OF THE POPE.

The bearer of the Rescript, on his journey to
England, must have passed very near to the
Confessor of the Faith, P. PIUS VII., on the
latter 's return from a French prison to his ca^

* Pp. 197, 198.

223 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

pital. The scourge of God had been broken
to pieces, and the delivered kingdoms and
states were joyfully singing : How hath the op-
pressor ceased !* when the writer of these pages
resolved to have recourse to the true Apostolic
See., in order to give it an account of his own
conduct and of the state of Catholicity in these
regions ; both which had been so much misre-
presented to it. A month later an Irish Prelate,
of greater dignity and merit than himself, was
associated with him in the latter part of his
commission. The same tide, which conveyed
him across the channel, conveyed one of his
brethren, who was bound to Paris on business,
unconnected with the English mission, but
which proved in the end to have great in-
fluence upon it. Landing on the opposite coast,
he passed through the several camps of the
conquering armies from Boulogne to Parma:
namely, Russian, Prussian, Austrian, and Eng-
lish camps ; and he viewed with horror the
dire effects of war, which appeared throughout
a great part of his journey ; bridges broken
down, forests shot to shivers, villages laid in
ruins, dead horses infecting the air, and human
bodies floating down the rivers. Arriving at
the Christian capital, a few days after the Pope,
he found all the four Prelates and all the four

* Isaias, xiv. 4.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 229

theologians who had sanctioned the Rescript,
in disgrace and penance. They had acted
wrong in that business, for which they pleaded
in excuse the wrong information they had re-
ceived in the translated letters ; and they had
acted worse in taking the prohibited oath to the
Usurper, for which they had no excuse at all,
but human infirmity. It will readily be con-
ceived that Mgr. Q. should decline conversation
with the writer concerning each of his letters,
namely, that of Feb. 15, 1813, and his recent
Rescript of Feb. 16, 1814. This, however, was
not the case with the other Prelates and Car~
dinals : they were, without exception, cheerful,
communicative, and friendly.

The writer would not, to save his right hand,
commit to paper a line injurious to Religion,
or the Holy See ; such, however, he does not
conceive to be the few following circumstances
of his nine months' residence at that See. — He
was received by a certain venerable personage,
at his first audience, with more than that per-
sonage's accustomed benevolence ; the latter
saying, that he had heard much of the writer,
and wished much to see him. He then hastily
exclaimed : " Has the Act of Parliament pas-
ct sed ? Have the Catholics taken the oath ?"
Adding: ef he (Mgr. Q.) ought not to have
1 ( written that letter without authority from the

230 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" H. See." To the inquiries the writer an-
swered : " there is no question, Holy Father,
" about an oath or an Act of Parliament :
fe the Emancipation will take place, but not
(f till there is a great change in his Majes-
fc ty's counsels. In the mean time, schisma-
" tical measures have been carried on among
" our Catholics, as I am prepared to prove
" to your Cardinals." — The remainder of the
conversation related to the personages before
whom these proofs were to be laid. The head
of these, the writer found to be the experienced
and religious Cardinal Litta, whom the Pope
commended, among his other qualifications, for
his knowledge of the English language. The
writer had numerous interviews with this vener-
able Cardinal, in one of the first of which he
was directed to draw up a Memorial of the
whole case, to be laid before the Pope's Coun-
cil. This he executed in the course of two or
three days, concluding his Memorial in words
to this effect : ef I know I have numerous and
ff powerful enemies, Catholics as well as Pro-
" testants, whom 1 have provoked by my in-
ff flexibility in defending and securing our
fc Holy Religion : if on this, or on any other
" account, the See Apostolic judge it to be for
" the advantage of Religion, that I should
" retire from my situation, 1 make an unre-

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 231

" served tender of resigning it." A sufficient
number of days for the examination of the
Memorial having elapsed, on the eve of S. S.
Peter and Paul's festival, the writer was sum-
moned to an official audience, when he was
assured that his Memorial had given great satis-
faction, and that the writer of it ivas in high
favour with the venerable College, and the Holy
Father himself; that he had well defended his
cause, and that of the Church, and this on its
true ground ; finally, that his resignation could
not be accepted of. On various other occasions,
it was signified to the writer, by the above-
named other personages of equal dignity, that
he had done his duty, and ought to proceed
in the track he had hitherto pursued ; but it was
added, that this ought to be done with modera-
tion, and without irritating the feelings of others.*

* In deference to so high an authority, the writer de-
clares that if in defending the cause of Religion, he should,
in any instance, have exceeded the moderamen justae tutela,
he is sorry for it, and ready to make satisfaction to the in-
jured party, at the discretion of an intelligent and conscien-
tious arbiter, to be indifferently chosen. It appears to him,
that in the present work, and his other works, the writer has
spared the character and feelings of his adversaries to the
best of his power, with the exception of one domestic enemy
of the Church, whom he despairs of reclaiming, and there-
fore thinks it his duty to disarm.

232

CARDINAL LITTA'S LETTER FROM
GENOA.

With all the Scotch agent's assurances that
the Rescript was irrevocable., his paymasters of
the Cisalpine Club were far from being easy on
this head., now that the Pope and the genuine
Propaganda were restored. They therefore
obliged him to retrace his steps back to Rome,
in order to get that instrument renewed ; and
they furnished him, for this purpose., with one
of those addresses from the manufactory of
Lincoln's Inn, which are there fabricated at
a short notice, for all sorts of purposes, and in
particular, either for the Pope or against him.
The present address,* which is dated June 17,
1814, of course was of the former kind. It
complains of <f bosom enemies," who had re-
presented the addressers, or some of them, as
£f ready to barter for the temporal, the eter-
Cc nal:" whereas, they profess that " there is
" not one among them all who would not have
" turned with disdain and horror, from the im-
fc pious and foolish traffic." The " bosom
ec enemies" here spoken of, are the Prelates,
who, in the discharge of their duty, had la-
boured to restrain the addressers from cornmit-
ing the high acts of schism above described, at

* See Appendix to Hist. Mem. p. 473.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 233
a time when they had not even the sanction of
Mgr. Quarantotti in their defence; and the
whole language of the Address seems to argue
a confidence, that the existence of The Blue
Books, and of the attempts to propagate The
French Constitution of the Clergy in England,
and of The Cisalpine, or Anti-papal Club, and
of the votes of thanks to the proposers of the
late schismatical clauses, was totally unknown
at Rome. However, as the only ground as-
signed for this confidence was the fraudulent
Rescript, the petitioners earnestly pray that
they " may receive an assurance from His
" Holiness, that the depositaries of his autho-
ff rity have spoken the genuine and full senti-
fc ments of his paternal heart."* The answer
to this address was paternal, though tardy ; it
was, however, made known to the writer, from
the time of its reception, that its prayer could
not be granted, and he himself, though glanced
at in it, as a prime bosom-enemy, continued to be
treated by the Holy See as her and the Catho-
lics' genuine friend. f On the other hand, the

* Page 477.

f The writer had received many proofs of the favour and
confidence of the Holy See during his residence there, none
of which was so gratifying to him as the following. There
being question about the practice of English Catholics for a
great number of years past, in order to settle an important
point of discipline, some time about the beginning of March,

2 H

23* SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS
procurer and bearer of the Rescript, on his
return to the Christian Capital, had to digest
many a severe and humiliating mortification,, in
return for his agency.

At length the time was come for the H.
Father to say something explicit concerning the
discipline of the Churches., and Missions of
these Islands. This he did through Cardinal
Littay in a letter dated Genoa, April 26, 1815,*
copies of which were sent to Archbishop Troy,
of Dublin., and to the present writer, a third
copy being delivered to Dr. Poynter, who was
on the spot. The Pope and Cardinals were
then completely in the power of the British
Government,, having been obliged to take re-
fuge from the overwhelming arms of Murat in
a city defended by its troops and navy : never-
theless, no dereliction of principles, or other
unworthy concession of Catholic discipline, to
Protestant prejudices, is to be found in that
letter. It consists of three parts. The first
regards a form of oath to be taken by Catholics,
instead of the awkward and bigotted forms now
required of them in both islands ; forms which
the Holy See justly regards as injurious and in-

wheh Rome was full of English Catholics, ecclesiastics as
well as laics, the Pope said to the Cardinal Prefect of the Pro-
paganda, as the latter testified to the writer : " Let us ask
" !Dr. M., he will tell us the truth.''

* Page 198. Append, pp. 481.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 235

suiting to the Catholic Religion., and to herself
in particular.* It is probable that some terms
respecting this change had been proposed and
agreed upon between a certain British minister
and a certain Cardinal, at the Congress of
Vienna. — The second part of the letter relates to
the long contested article of the appointment of
Catholic Bishops in the British Isles. Treating
of this matter, the Holy See begins with reject-
ing all former plans that had been suggested to
her concerning it ;f namely. Sir John Throck-
morton's direct appointment by the Croivn; Mr.
Ponsonby's unlimited negative for making the
king head of the Catholic Church ; the present
writer's limited negative, confined to avowed
charges of disloyalty or sedition, against the
candidate; Mr. Charles Butler's Presbyterian
scheme of a lay domination in a divinely consti-
tuted Episcopal Church; and, lastly, the favourite
domestic nomination of the Irish Catholics, which
supposes a Concordatum between the Pope and
the Catholic Bishops.— Ali these plans being
rejected, His Holiness proceeds to GIVE

* It is much to be wished that one of the three forms
here proposed were substituted to the present oaths of alle-
giance : at the same time it is to be regretted that the person
who drew them up, for want of sufficient knowledge of the
British Constitution, should propose in each one of them, to
make us swear, Obedience to the Sovereign. Good subjects of
this realm are loyal to the King, but they only obey the laws.

t " Omnino rejectis aliis quibuscunque propositis."
2 H 2

236 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

LEAVE to the ordinary presenters to vacant
Episcopacies, who in Ireland are the Bishops and
Clergy, in England and Scotland the Vicars
Apostolic, to send up to Government on each
vacancy a list of those clergymen whom they
deem qualified to Jill it to the end, that, if Govern-
ment have any thing to object against any of
them, their names may be struck off the list ; yet
so that a sufficient number of those whom the
Bishops have thought qualified may be left on
the list,, for the Pope to exercise his free judg-
ment and choice in the appointment of one of
them. This plan, which is nothing but a pro-
ject in the existing circumstances,, His Holiness
promises to publish in a Brief, addressed to the
Catholic Bishops and Faithful of the British
Islands., whenever the Emancipation is granted*
according to the terms which he signifies have
been agreed upon between him and the British
Ministry. — The third part of the letter turns on
the proposed examination of Rescripts and other
documents coming from the Holy See by the
Civil Power. On this head the Cardinal says,
on the part of his Holiness : ef As for the exa-
" mination of the Rescripts, to which I have
" alluded,, or to what is called the Regium Ex-
tf equator, it cannot even be made a subject of
f( negociation ! As such a practice must essen-
tf tially affect the free exercise of that Supremacy
" of the Church which is given in trust by God,

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 237

re it would assuredly be criminal to permit or
te transfer it to any lay power : and indeed such
(f power never has been granted (even to
ef Catholic States) — The Church cannot give
ee up its right." — And yet have we not recently
witnessed the chief of those Catholic addressers.,
who boast so loudly to His Holiness of their
religious zeal, and express so much indignation
at the charge of " impiously trafficking and
tf bartering the eternal for the temporal/' ac-
tually concurring to the transfer of this Divine
right of the Supremacy to a lay power for their
own temporal advantage, arid treating as bosom
enemies their authorized Pastors, who at-
tempted to withdraw them from that traffic.

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS TO THE
PRELATES OP IRELAND.

It was a considerable time before the Letter
from Genoa was published to the Catholics of
Ireland ; and when published, it was far from
satisfying the greater part of them, as they
dreaded that the least interference of a Protes-
tant Ministry with the appointment of their
Pastors, would, in the end, prove ruinous to
their Religion. Hence it was judged expedient,
by the venerable Prelates of that island, to de-
pute two of their body to make certain repre-
sentations to His Holiness on the subject

238 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

which occasioned the long letter, in the Pope's
own name, of Feb. 1, 1816.* It contains
nothing new, but is merely an explanation and
defence of the former letter from Genoa. His
Holiness proves that he has not conferred any
power of nomination, presentation, or post ulation
on the British Government, contrary to the
tenor of the declaration of Benedict XIV. made
to the King of Prussia ; but that he had barely
signified to the Prelates themselves how far,
and no farther, he was willing to proceed in the
event of a complete Emancipation taking
place ; namely, that when they themselves had
in each instance made out lists of clergymen,
qualified in every respect for the episcopal
functions and dignity, the Civil Government,
if it suspected the principles of any of them,
might object to the promotion of a certain
number of them, yet so as to leave a suffi-
cient number of names on the list, for the Holy
See to exercise its judgment in the appointment
of one of them. His Holiness strongly argues
that as all the candidates are to be chosen by the
Catholic Prelates, and as the ultimate appoint-
ment of some one among them in every instance
will rest with himself, there can he no danger of
unfit or unworthy candidates being promoted to
the detriment of the Catholic Religion. — Thus

* Append, to Hist. Mem. p. 486.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 239
this grand cause is at last settled, as far as con-
cerns Catholics, by the only power competent
to make a change in their discipline, and the
change which it eventually engages to make is
seen to be slight in itself and safe in its conse-
quences. But as Protestant Statesmen do not ac-
knowledge that power, it will require all the
firmness of the Catholics, in the event of a new
Emancipation-Bill, to save themselves from
being hurried away by those Statesmen, beyond
the bounds marked out in the letters just men-
tioned. In proof of this, it may be mentioned that
when the present plan was first made known to
the writer at Rome, by the eminent personage
who wrote the letter from Genoa, he observed
what had happened at the late restoration of
the Church of France. His Holiness entered
mto a Concordat with Napoleon, highly bene-
ficial to Religion, when presently the latter
tacked to it The Organic Laws, exceedingly
injurious to Religion.

THE CATHOLIC BIBLE SOCIETY.

So strange and unheard of an institution as
that of a Catholic Bible Society, announcing in
its very title a departure from the Catholic
Rule of Faith, the powerful patronage of this
Society by many of the leading men of the
body, and the conspicuous part which the

240 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

learned historian acted in promoting and direct-
ing it : these circumstances seem to entitle it to
a distinguished place in The Historical Memoirs;
but as it is not so much as mentioned in them,
it is proper to give some account of it in these
Supplementary Memoirs.

It was in ISOi that the Bibliomania seized on
the imagination of a large proportion of Eng-
lish Protestants. They fancied that reading the
Bible., in whatever sense the readers might un-
derstand it, whether in that of the Unitarians,
or the Trinitarians; whether in that of the Cal-
vinists or the Arminians ; finally, whether in that
of the Anabaptists or the Quakers, was the grand
specific against the errors and irreligion of the
times; whereas its obvious tendency isto multiply
errors, and to make men indifferent about the
specific truths of divine revelation in general-.
With equal inconsistency they persuaded them-
selves that men, however ignorant or ill-dis-
posed, would be reclaimed from their vicious
habits by the bare lecture of the sacred text ;
nor did the frantic, the impious, and the san-
guinary scenes of the Grand Rebellion, which
are universally traced to the unrestrained read-
ing and exposition of the Scriptures, in any
degree damp the ardour of the Bible-associators.
In short, they have now during these fourteen
years had full scope for their experiment. They
have raised millions of money in support of

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 2*1
their scheme, and have distributed among the
people millions of Bibles and Testaments : yet
so far from any amelioration in the religion or
morals of the people, that never was impiety,
and blasphemy so ripe among them as at the
present day, while the records of the courts
of justice demonstrate that public crimes go on
year by year, in proportion to the progress of
the Bible Societies, four-fold and even six-fold,
till the very principles of society and morality
seem nearly obliterated in a great proportion of
the population. — Still it cannot be denied, that
the unrestrained lecture and interpretation of
the Bible is the corner-stone of Protestantism ;
whereas the Word of God, unwritten as well as
icritten, and announced by the authorized, Pastors
of Christ's Church, is the eternal Rule of Catho-
lic Faith. How portentous a sight, then, must
it have been to the pious and well informed
Catholics of the Continent, to see their English
brethren (all of them at that time laymen),
forming themselves into a Bible Society, for the
avowed purpose of instructing the poor of their
communion in their religion from the bare text
of the Scripture ! Still these Catholics had not
altered their Rule of Faith; but having been
reproached by a certain powerful party in Par-
liament that they were enemies of the Bible,
they took the abovementioned extraordinary
step, to compound with the prejudices of that

2*2 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

party, in order to gain their votes for the
Emancipation. However, being subsequently
instructed that they had invaded the province of
the Priesthood, by resolving as they did at their
setting out, March 8, 1813; first, that: " It is
Cf highly desirable to have a subscription en-
(C tered into by the R. Catholics of Great Bri-
ff tain, for the purpose of promoting a gratuitous
<e distribution of the Holy Scriptures — second-
te ly, that a Committee for carrying the above
" Resolution into effect be appointed at the
' c next meeting of the Board" — they resolved, on
the 27th of the same month, that " the Vicars
ce Apostolic of Great Britain be invited to be-
" come Patrons of the said Society." It is
probable, that one or more of those Prelates
may have accepted of the Society's invitation,
vf ith the view of keeping it in order ; certain it
is, that the present writer rejected all the over-
tures of this nature that were made to him,
some of them from a high ecclesiastical quarter,
referring at the same time to what he had
recently published concerning Catholic Bible
Societies* The Board next proceeded to orga-
nize its Society by appointing (e a President,
" twelve Vice-presidents, a treasurer, a secre-
fc tary, a Committee of twenty-five members,
Cf besides the officers to be chosen by the sub-
tc scribers and the governors." The subscrip-
* See Appendix H.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 243

tioiis were to be from one guinea to thirty
guineas annually, and to be solicited of the
Catholics throughout Britain. — Yet the whole
of this mighty preparation ended in the produc-
tion of a small stereotype edition of the New
Testament., without the usual distinction of
verses, and nearly without notes.* It was the
most incorrect edition of the Testament that,
perhaps, ever was published; and, instead of
being distributed gratis, it was offered for sale
in boards, at a much higher price than the
common Catholic edition, with the notes and
verses, was sold for bound. It was spurned at
by the Catholics, who scarcely bought a copy of
it ; and, instead of conciliating Protestants, it
excited their heavy indignation and complaints
against the Board in general, and our historian
in particular, as having wilfully deceived them.f

* A serious difference is understood to have taken place
in the Board, respecting their Stereotype Testament, Mr.
C. B. contending that it ought to be published without any
notes, the London V. A. insisting that there should be notes.
At length a compromise seems to have taken place on the
subject, at the Meeting of May 10; when it was resolved,
that " all such notes as are offensive to the just feelings of
" our Christian brethren be omitted." In consequence of
this, almost every note of Bishop Challoner's edition, which
was necessary for rendering the Testament safe in the hands
of the ignorant, was left out of the stereotype edition.

f See Correspondence on the formation, objects and plan
of the Roman Catholic Bible-Society passim, also the con-

% i 2

244 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

In conclusion, the stereotype Testament be-
came a bankrupt concern., and the plates of it
are supposed to have been [sold to the pew-
terers. At length appeared the Pope's Brief of
June the 29th, 1816, "which designates the insti-
tution of Bible-Societies as " a crafty device
" for weakening the foundations of Religion."*

THE BIBLE SCHOOLS.

Besides the above-mentioned Catholic Bible
Society, there was another, under the same name,
and formed about the same time, consist-
ing, for the most part, of Methodists and other
Protestant Dissenters, who, in the exuberance
of their bigotry for withdrawing Catholics from
their religion, associated and established a fund
for publishing and distributing the Catholic
Translation of the Scriptures, but without its
notes; in order, as they afterwards declared in
print, <f to afford the benefit of a turbid stream
ef to a thirsty and perishing people. "f Defeat-
ed in their primary object, which was to get
the Catholics, and especially the Catholic clergy,
to co-operate with them, in substituting the
dead letter of the text for the living voice of
the Pastors, which manoeuvre they knew to be

troversy carried on between Mr. Charles Butler and Mr.
Blair, in the Gentleman's Magazine for the year 1814.
* Catholicon, vol. v.page 102. f Correspondence, p. 4.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 2*5

the ready means of undermining the Catholic
faith, they had recourse to another device,
which needed not the assistance of the Catho-
lics; this was the establishment of Bible Schools.
Their first establishment of this sort was in
St. Giles's Parish in London., where most of the
poor Catholics of the West end of that town
reside. Having1 found an Irishman, an apostate
from Catholicity, who, however, passed him-
self off for a Catholic as long as this was prac-
ticable, they opened a free school under his
direction, for Catholic children ; the fundamen-
tal rules of which are, that no Catechism or
other book be allowed in it, but the Bible
alone ; and that no clergyman, on any account,
be permitted to set his foot writhin it. Raising
money as they did, by public advertisements,
in support of this Anti-Catholic institution (by
which means they were enabled to bribe the
poor children into a partiality for their system
with victuals and clothes), how great was the
astonishment of the whole Catholic body to see
the name of Charles Butler, Esq. advertised in
the Newspapers, as an annual subscriber of
two guineas towards promoting it! From the
West end of London this institution was car-
ried to the East end of it, where, on the banks
of the Thames, the great mass of labourers
consists chiefly of Irish Catholics and their
families. Here also the Catholic director and

246 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

historian exerted his talents and influence in
behalf of this Anti-Catholic system. Having
laboured in vain to get the Vicar Apostolic of
the London District to sanction or countenance
the Bible schools of that quarter [in praise of
which he had got up a formal harangue., to be
delivered at a public dinner], he contrived to
have him summoned before a Parliamentary
Committee of Education, then sitting, in order
to extort answers from him to certain questions
which the Prelate had very properly refused to
give to the historian himself. To be brief:
the plot exploded prematurely, to the great
confusion of its contriver.* From England
this insidious establishment has been carried
into Ireland, and was widely diffused there, till
it was seasonably checked by the vigilance and
zeal of the Apostolic See.f The promoters of

* See the Examination of Dr. P. by the Committee,
f " Information has reached the Sacred Congregation,
" that Bible Schools, supported by the funds of the hete-
t: rodox, have been established in most parts of Ireland,
" in which, under pretence of charity, the inexperienced
" of both sexes, but particularly the peasantry and the
*' poor, are allured with the blandishments and gifts of the
" masters, and infected with the fatal poison of false doc-
' trine. Every exertion, therefore, must be made to keep
" the youth away from these destructive schools. In the
" bowels of Jesus Christ we exhort you to guard your flock,
" &c." Circular of the Propagand. signed Card. Fontana,
Sept. 18, 1819.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 247
it clearly shew by their conduct, that they
would rather see the Irish destitute of every
species of Religion, than continue members of
that One Holy Catholic Church, which they
themselves profess to believe in.

RESTORATION OF A RIGHT UNDER-
STANDING AMONG THE PRELATES.

It has been seen above, that ever since the
beginning of the year 1810, there had been a
misunderstanding among the Catholic Prelates
of these islands, the first subject of which was
that fatal FIFTH RESOLUTION of Feb. 1,
hastily settled by Mr. Butler, on the last day of
January, and still more hastily signed the next
day, by certain Prelates at a Tavern. This the
Bishops of Ireland pronounced to be (f an
" eventual acquiescence in arrangements, pos-
cc sibly prejudicial to the integrity and safety of
" our Church discipline;"* and their episcopal
agent declared, in print, that it covered f{ ma-
" nacles and fetters for Catholic Bishops and
ff Priests, which, when brought to view, they
ee would beg with tears to be excused from
" wearing, "f On the other hand, the few sub-
Prelates denied that the Resolution

w

.* Synod Resol. Feb. 29, 1810.
Letter to an English Catholic Peer, Feb, 5, p. 6.

248 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS,

contained any engagement whatsoever, saying,
that it meant nothing but a conciliatory disposi-
tion towards Protestants. And when, three
rears afterwards, the true character of the Reso-

«

lution appeared glaringly written in the schis-
matical and persecuting Bill of 1813, they did
not seem, even then, sensible of its full import.
But, when Sir John Hippisley's Parliamentary
Report, consisting with its Supplement of 595
close printed folio pages, and containing all
the Jansenistical and irreligious ordinances,
•which had been extorted by Deistical Ministers
and Parliaments from unsuspecting Catholic
Sovereigns, during the last century, appeared,
their Catholic zeal was fully awakened and
roused to action. Year after year the busy
Baronet had been calling for a Committee to
examine the papers he had collected, through
his interest in the Secretary of State's office ;
and the persons whom he had in his eye, with
the view of shewing that, in granting the
Emancipation, it was necessary to establish a
public office, for himself to fill, in order to
manage the Catholic Clergy and discipline. His
calls were long disregarded, and in 1813 they
experienced the full force of Mr. Canning's
caustic wit ; but in 1817, that Minister . and
many of his colleagues changed their opinion,
and accordingly Sir John carried his motion,
as far as regards his portentous Report. The

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 249
present writer met it with a work entitled,, An
Expostulation with the Honourable Members of
the House of Commons , in which he shewed that
the laws and practices of Catnolic states are no
proof of the doctrine or discipline of the Catholic
Church, unless they are received and acknow-
ledged by her; and, in short., that to enact
against English Catholics the edicts of the Em-
peror Joseph II. and other ill-principled or de-
ceived Princes of Catholic states, would be,
not only to deprive them of their constitutional
Religious liberty, but also to inflict upon them
a real Religious persecution. — But, what was
of far greater consequence than this publica-
tion, was the determination of the three V. V.A.
to step forward before the public, in opposition
to the threatened mischief. Accordingly, the
London Pastor drew up a paper of Resolutions.,
which was adopted and signed by the senior
V. A. and transmitted by him to the Midland
Prelate, for his signature, in order that it might
be published as the common act of the V. V. A.
Its contents are too important, and too credi-
table to its author, to be omitted int his Supple-
ment.

Resolutions of the undersigned R. C. Bisliops,
V. V. A.

" 1st. That it is our duty, in the present cir-
ff cumstances, to warn the R. Catholics com-

2 R

250 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

" milled to our charge,, against the opinion
ff that they may conscientiously assent to regu-
" lations respecting the concerns of their Re-
" ligion, on the mere ground that similar regu-
" lations have occasionally been made and en-
(f forced in Foreign States. — 2dly. That among
" the regulations made in foreign States by
" arbitrary Sovereigns, there are some, which
fc are and have been declared by the Bishops
fc of such states to be inconsistent with the doc-
" trine and discipline of the Catholic Church. —
'•" Sdly. That regulations, which concern the
cc Civil establishment of the Catholic Church
fc in other countries, are totally inapplicable to
' ' the. state of the Catholic Church in this coun-
<c try, where it has no civil establishment.—-
" 4thly. That, as official guardians of the Ca-
(f tholic Church,, we deprecate the surrender of
" the nomination of Catholic Bishops to a
" Prince, who is, by law, the head of a diffe-
ec rent religious establishment : nor can we as-
'•' sent to the interruption of the free intercourse
" in ecclesiastical matters, which must subsist
<c between the Chief Bishop and the other
" Bishops, subordinate Pastors of the R. C.
<c Church.— 5thly. That in framing these Re-
'•' solutions, we have been actuated by an im-
" perious sense of duty, and by the purest
" spirit of conciliation, regulated however by
" the subjoined document of the present autho-
" ritative guide of our conduct." [N.B. Here

OP THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 231

follows a copy of Card. Litta's letter from
Genoa, of April ^6, i -15.]

« * WIL. GIBSON."
" Durham, March 1, 1817."

These Resolutions,, it has been sail, were for-,
warded to the writer for his signature. In re-

zy

turn he expressed his warm approbation of their
general tendency, but signified that the wording
of some of them, in his opinion, needed im-
provement, which he hoped would be admitted.
No alteration, however, in this respect being
proposed, and the writer, on the other hand,
conceiving that his judgment concerning the
Report, and the whole matter connected with it,
was sufficiently known to the Public and to
Parliament by his Humble Expostulation, and by
the Petitions, signed by himself and about a
thousand of his neighbours, which he had re-
cently sent up to the two Houses of Parliament,
in which he prayed that, in the event of an
Emancipation- Bill, no change whatever might
be attempted in the Catholic discipline.* Owing

* Similar Petitions were presented the following year
from the same Catholics to the Houses of Parliament. That
to the Peers was printed by their order. These and other
corresponding Petitions from Liverpool, Manchester, Nor-
folk, &c. exciting the jealousy of certain Gentlemen who are
used to meet and discuss Catholic affairs in Stone Buildings,
Lincoln's Inn, they formed a Resolution of establishing what
they call Affiliated Societies throughout England, under the
direction of one or more of their associations, to prevent any
2 R 2

252 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

to these circumstances, the intended Circular
containing the Resolutions fell to the ground,
an event which the writer has never since
ceased to lament, and to reproach himself with,
as far as he was the cause of it.

But though the Resolutions themselves were
not published by more than one of the four
Prelates, in whose joint names they ought to
have appeared, yet it is plain, from what has
been stated, that they had nov> come to a right
understanding of the whole business among
themselves and with the Bishops of Ireland;
namely, not to go beyond what had been settled
at Genoa. The Prelate who did publish the
Resolutions was the Western V. A., who, on this
occasion, wrote more warmly against religrous
innovations than the Midland Vicar had done
in the Memorial, for which he had been expelled
from the Board by the leaders of it. Not con-
tent with warning his flock against admitting
the changes in question, he charges them to
exert themselves actively in preventing them.
Thus he writes in the conclusion of his pastoral :
" Wherefore we most earnestly exhort and
" strictly charge all those among you, icho may
f have influence to employ the same, by every
*f legal and peaceable means, to prevent the

British Catholics from petitioning, addressing, or resolving,
but through their agency !

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 25S
ff insertion of clauses in any eventual Bill for
(f Catholic Emancipation, that may be any
(C way repugnant to the present discipline of
fe the Church, and most particularly such as
(f may tend to give., in any degree, the power
rc of nomination of Catholic Bishops to a Prince
f f who is, by law, the head of a different Reli-
fc gious establishment, or to impede the free
cc intercourse on all ecclesiastical matters which
ff must subsist between the chief Bishop and
fe the members of the Catholic Church."
" Taunton, April 18, 1818."

CLOSING OF THE FRENCH SCHISM
IN ENGLAND.

The other cause of dissention among the
Catholic Prelates of the United Kingdom, was
their different mode of judging and acting with
respect to a very large proportion of the French
ecclesiastics resident in it, who, under the name
of Blanchardists, preached and published that
His Holiness Pius VII. had, by his Concordat of
1801, formed a phantom of a Church on the
basis which Pius VI. had condemned, as impious,
heretical, and schismatical, and who, therefore,
refused to hold religious communion with the
Church of their country, acknowledged as it is
to be a part of the true Church by all Catholics
throughout the world. To detect and repress

254 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

this fatal system was the principal object of the
last Synod of English Prelates, held in Fe-
bruary 1810, in which it was resolved unani-
mously, that : No French Priest should be per-
mitted to hold faculties, or to say Mass, wfio
refused to acknowledge that His Holiness P.
Pius VII. is not a heretic, nor a schismatic, nor
the author, nor the abettor of heresy or schism.
The latter clause implies that the Church of
France, restored and supported by Pius VII,
is not schismatical, but truly Catholic. This
test was soon after promulgated and enforced,
throughout the Midland District, where every
French Priest (including a Bishop) resident in
it, except one, who precipitately withdrew him-
self, subscribed it. In another District, how-
ever, in which the Test ought to have been
first published, it was, without any known
cause, wholly suppressed. Thus it happened
that Priests who were interdicted in one Dis-
trict were competent to officiate in another ;
corresponding with which difference of disci-
pline, there was a difference of doctrine. The
Blanchardist system, which was condemned in
the Pastorals of the London District, as leading
to schism, was pronounced in those of the Cen-
tral District, and in a synod of the Prelature of
Ireland, to be actual schis?n, which the writer
proved to be the fact by the Angelic Doctor's
definition of a schismatic. Here then was a

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 255

most grievous and notorious subject of com-
plaint and disunion on the part of forty Prelates,
against some one or two of their brethren in
England; which subject was greatly aggravated,
when it became known that a notorious and
censured abettor of schism had been re-admitted
to the exercise of Priestly faculties, without any
retractation of that schism. It has been shown
above what the solemn judgment of the Irish
Prelacy was on this unexampled transaction.
At length, however, through the mercy of God,
and in consequence of the restoration of the
French Monarchy, this subject of offence and
disunion was happily removed. This event
took place on Septuagesima Sunday, in the
year 1818, when an ordinance was published in
that District, which had, all along, been the
focus of the mischief, requiring all French
Priests, as the condition of holding spiritual
faculties or saying Mass, to subscribe a test,
the same, in effect, as that which had been
agreed upon in the synod, and grounded on the
above-mentioned definition of St. Thomas of
Aquin.

PROJECT OF PERPETUAL PEACE,

The first requisite for this purpose is evi-
dently that the two grand divisions of Catholics,
the Clergy and the Laity, should each keep

256 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

within its respective province. The Catholic
Church is essentially Episcopal, its Bishops
being appointed by the Holy Ghost to rule the
Church of God. Acts,, xx. 28. Hence, in exe-
cution of this their divine commission, the Vi-
cars Apostolic of England have twice solemnly
and publicly declared, that : ef None of the
ff faithful, clergy or laity, ought to take any
ff new oath, or sign any new declaration in
" doctrinal matters, or subscribe any new in.
" strument, wherein the interests of Religion
<c are concerned, without the previous approba-
" tion of their respective Bishops."* — Yet it is
notorious that, both before and since these so-
lemn declarations, our historian,, and a small
party of lay Catholics of his marshalling, have
been in the habit of framing and publishing
doctrinal Protestations, Resolutions, Bills, and
Oaths, affecting the religious interests and the
consciences of the Catholics in general, and of
their very Clergy and Bishops, not only " with-
" out the previous approbation of the Bishops,"
but also without consulting them, or so much as
informing them of the steps they take. The
inevitable consequence is that, as the Prelates
cannot, if they were desirous of it, desert their
charge, a collision between the two parties
must in every instance, sooner or later, happen.

* Oct. 21, 1789. Jan. 19, 1791.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 257
But, though the Catholic Church were not, by
divine institution. Episcopal, would it be decent*
or conformable to the practice of any society of
Christians, even of those who choose uneducated
mechanics for their Pastors, and confer upon
them whatever authority the latter pretend to
possess, to treat their clergy from the lowest to
the highest in the manner above described ? or>
what is a greater affront, to print their names in
uncial letters, at the head of such Protestations,
Resolutions, and oaths, as if these instruments
originated with them, at the same time that they
are not permitted so much as to know their
tenor or nature, till they are called upon to
subscribe them? — Nor will it suffice to leave
the judgment of ecclesiastical subjects to eccle-
siastical authority, unless lay dictation, guid-
ance, and influence of every kind is withdrawn
from them. Hence the consideration of these
matters must be left to the Prelates in their
synods and their oratories ; without the instruc-
tions or advice of lay orators or politicians, and
still more without the fascination of popular
applause, social banquetting, or private com-
pensation for travelling or other expenses. In
case all lay influence is withdrawn, the Pastors
are sure to decide and act right.

On the other hand, it is every way proper
that the Catholic Nobility and Gentry should
stand forward, as the representatives of the

2 L

258 SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS

laity, to transact the public business of the
body ; and, in the first place, that of Religion
itself, when this is made known to them by the
Prelates. It has been mentioned that the latter,
in one of their late synods, unanimously agreed
that there are three principal grievances af-
fecting the exercise of the Catholic Religion,
to remove which every effort ought to be made :
1st, the situation of Catholic soldiers and
sailors : 2dly, the legal invalidity of Catholic
marriages : 3dly, the confiscation of funds for
the support of Catholic chapels and schools.
Now, it does not admit of a doubt that if the
Catholic leaders had but half the ardour for
promoting the glory of God and the salvation
of souls, which they have for advancing their
own temporal honours and emoluments, the
two first of these grievances would speedily be
redressed, and material relief obtained for that
which is last mentioned*. Another observation,
of great importance to the internal peace of the
Catholic body, and to the credit and honour of
its Nobijity and Gentry, deserves here to be
recorded : which is that, while the latter stand
forward as the representatives and agents of the
body in general, they should faithfully and
zealously do their business as well as their own.

* See Mr. Abbot's (now Lord Colchester) speech, as
reported by Mr. Butler, p. 257.

OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS. 259

Hence, if they cannot obtain for themselves
seats in Parliament, and other very high and
lucrative places, to which a very trifling number
of Catholics can aspire, they ought not to au-
thorize their Parliamentary agents, as was done
in 1813, to reject the elective franchise, and
the numerous other boons to which thousands
of their brethren in the middling and lower
ranks of life would rise, if the prohibitory oaths
and declarations were dispensed with in their
regard, as they certainly would be if the poli-
tical leaders would remain satisfied with this,
till times become more favourable for their im-
mediate objects. It is certain and notorious,
that the conduct alluded to in the above-men-
tioned year, has left a wound that rankles in
the bosom of many a respectable Catholic mer-
chant and farmer, and that nothing is wanting
but a man of commanding abilities to snatch
the helm of our affairs from the hands that at
present guide it, and to gain a Bill for the re-
lief of the whole body, to the disgrace of those
personages who have an hereditary claim to its.
veneration.

2

POSTSCRIPT.

THE Supplementary Memoir writer having
followed the author of the Historical Me-
moirs to the end of his account of the English
Catholics, declines taking notice of the few
anecdotes which the latter has extracted from
Monsieur Picot's last Memoirs relative to the
Scotch Catholics, and from Father Peter
Walsh's and Dr. Columbanus O'Conor's pub-
lications relative to those of Ireland. Much
less will the writer contest the learned Barris-
ter's opinions of the Catholic Theologians,
Historians, Poets, and Musicians of England,
during the three last centuries. His praises
of them are profuse and equally distributed
to the good, the bad, and the indifferent ;
which circumstance renders them not merely
insipid, but absolutely distasteful in particular
to sound Catholic Theologians, who cannot
help feeling themselves uneasy in such com-
pany, as, for example, that of Mr. Eustace and
Dr. Geddes.

The writer has made use, in the present
work, of various letters and documents, which,
without any breach of confidence, have come
fairly into his possession ; the greater part of
which he found arranged and labelled, in fu-
turam rerum memoriam. He has, however, been

POSTSCRIPT. 261

careful to suppress the names of the writers of
them, and of the persons mentioned in them,, as
likewise of all circumstances which might lead
to a knowledge of them, as far as this has been
practicable. To shew., however, the uncertainty
there is whether even the generality of the old
Committee-men approved of, or were acquainted
with the papers to which their names are affixed,
it may be sufficient to state the following fact :
Among the old letters in the writer's possession
is one from a leader of the Committee to an
episcopal member of it, who appears to have
been extremely averse to a continuation of the
Blue Books. The letter is dated London, April
10, 1792, and contains the following passage :
" We certainly are printing a third Blue Book.
tf As it is necessary it should be printed soon,
cc and as it is our custom not to send letters to be
" signed by absent members of the Committee,
" probably it will not be sent to you." If even
a Bishop's name could be signed by Mr. B. and
his lay confidents to theological writings, such
as the Blue Books are in some respects, without
his consent or knowledge, who will charge any
particular Noblemen or Gentlemen with the
errors contained in them, merely because he
sees their names printed at the end of them ?

ERRATA.

Page Line

17 antepenult, dele indeed.

44 ulf./or Dords read Doran.

81 25 for fifty-three read fifty-five.

83 < 9 and 18/or Elephant read Royal.

154 18 after to add hold.

194-— 3 for fortune, read for time.
206 . 22 after paper fl«W now.

211 27 <fe7<? profess to.

217 20 read unanswerable but hitherto unpublished.

220 4 for imitation read limitation.

231 14 after abovenamed add and.

255 2 for forty read thirty.

TO

SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS,

&c. &c.

APPENDIX A.

Copy of a Letter from the Vicar Apostolic of the
Midland District to a General Vicar of the same
District.

Dear and Rev. Sir,

THERE are rights which we may laudably sur»
render for the sake of peace and charity ; for thus our
Saviour admonishes us : If any man will go to law with
thee to take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
Matt, v, 40. But there are other rights, which no pre-
texts whatever can justify us in relinquishing : such is
that of us, divinely commissioned Pastors of the Church,
to teach her doctrine on all occasions, but particularly
•when this is contested by any of the laity. An instance
of such contest exists now, and has existed for a few
years past, between your friend the Vicar Apostolic of
this Midland District, and the celebrated Catholic law-
yer of Lincoln's Inn, respecting the accuracy and or-
thodoxy of the profession of faith, sometimes entitled,

2 M

264

APPENDIX A.

Roman Catholic Principles in reference to God and the
King, or, God and the Country ; at other times entitled,
TJte Faith of Catholics. The former, in an official
" charge to his clergy/' dated April 30th, 1813, has pro-
nounced that this treatise "is not an accurate exposition
of Roman Catholic principles, and still less the Faith of
Catholics :"* the latter, in three several works, of
splendid form, and alluding to the episcopal charge,
has proclaimed that the treatise is " a just and fair
exposition of the principles of the Catholics," and " a
clear and accurate exposition of the Roman Catholic
Creed." f The question now is, whether the Bishopr
or the Barrister shall give way in a contest respecting a
profession of Catholic faith. The Prelate, it is true, is
not infallible, and therefore may be corrected by a
superior ecclesiastical tribunal ; but were he to submit
to the lay authority of the Lawyer, he would not only
betray hts own professional character, but also the
divine jurisdiction of the Catholic Church. On the
other hand, if the latter persists in dogmatizing, he will
not only belie his general protestations, contained in
his Blue Books, of being among " the most docile
members of Christ's Church, "J but also his particular
profession made to this Vicar Apostolic, on a memorable
occasion, of belonginy to his midland flock, in conse-
quence of his estate being situated in Lincolnshire.

* Pastoral Charge, Part II. p. 8*

f Third Essay subsequent to Confessions of Fait fit 2d edit,
pp. 219, 225. Historical Memoirs of the English, $c. Catho-
lics, 1st and 2d edit. vol. I.— N. B. Among the Confessions of
Faith, or Creeds, which the author publishes, is one of his
own composition, consisting of eleven articles, for the common
use of Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Socinians, and Uni-
tarians, p. 274.

j Second Blue Book, p. 5.

APPENDIX A. 265

The first known appearance of this new creed was in
an anonymous book, now before me, called Stafford's
Memoires, which was published in 1680, but without
the name or sanction of any Bishop, or other ecclesias-
tical person, qualified by his station or his theological
learning to judge of it. This single defect, by the
decrees of the councils of Trent and the last Lateran,*
suffices to deprive it of all authority, and to place it in
the rank of doubtful or suspected publications. The
next appearance of it, that I am acquainted with, is in
a detached pamphlet, printed in 1805, but still wkhout
the name of an;y author or approver. Mr. Butler pre •
tends, f that a dozen other editions of it were pub-
lished about the latter date, and as many as six of them
by Mr. Gother ; but he asserts all this without eitheV
authority or probability : for if the work had been at all
popular among the Catholics, how could it happen that
our indefatigable and intelligent historian Dodd should
have been unacquainted with it ? and that not one of the
Protestant host of controversialists of that period, who
attacked every catholic work of celebrity, should have
taken no notice of it ? Again : if Gother had been so
partial to this work, as to have given six editions of it
in two years, is it to be believed that neither his above
mentioned biographer, nor the contemporary editor of
his works, \ should have discovered the pretended
relation between them ?

The resuscitation of this obscure pamphlet is owing
to the Rev. Joseph Berington, who published it in his
Reflections addressed to the Rev. John Hawkins in 1785,
with this account of it : " Tlfe following short Exposition
of Catholic Principles I have had by me for some years.

* Tri.l. Sess. IV. Regula VI. Lib. Prohib. Lateran Sess. X,
t Confess. &c. p. 220. 1 Memoirs, p. 391.
J Gother's Spiritual Works, Vol. I.
2 Mi

266 APPENDIX A.

I took it from an old collection of controversial tracts,
and I presume there may be other copies of it. Who the
author of it was, I know not, nor when it was published ;
but I fancy about the middle of the reign of Charles II.
Its conciseness and precision of expression are admira-i
ble. In few words it says all we wish to say, because
it contains all we profess to believe. They to whom it
has been read, admired it as much as I do, and they
wished it might be given to the public."* The per-
son here alluded to was probably that leading member
of the Committee, and intimate friend of Mr. Butler as
well as of Mr. Berington, who, upon the publication of
the Reflections, containing the Exposition of Roman
Catholic Principles, plied each of the Vicars Apostolic to
approve and sign the latter. This Mr. Butler affirms to
have been done by Bishop James Talbot of the London
District ;f whereas I have an original letter of his to
his brother Bishop Thomas Talbot, of the Midland Dis-r
trict, now before me, which, after stating some altera-
tions respecting the manner of keeping Lent made in the
preceding year, proceeds thus : " The same may also
happen this year, but I can't think it will, unless I was
disposed to follow implicitly the directions of our Com-
mittee in that matter, more than in subscribing a doc-
trinal test chosen by them. If such a test is necessary
at this time, they should have told us why, and asked
the thing of us, instead of choosing for us. Hence, /
have declined subscribing theirs, and sent them one,
which I think better and more likely to be accepted, as
coming through the proper channel, viz. my prede-
cessor, (BISHOP CHALLONER) who published it about the
time of the Act in our favour. As to the other (Roman
Catholic Principles} the late publisher (Mr. J. Bering-
ton) has much altered it, &c. — Hammersmith, Feb. 4th,

* Reflect, p. 105. f Confess, p. 222. Mem. p. 392,

APPENDIX A. 267

1786." That Bishop Thomas Talbot followed the
example of his brother James in declining to subscribe
the test, proposed by the Committee-man, namely, Mr.
Berington's Exposition of Roman Catholic Principles,
will be easily conceived from the letters of two other
Vicars Apostolic, whom he had consulted, no less than
his brother James. One of these is from the learned
Bishop Matthew Gibson, dated Stella Hall, Jan. 29th,
1786, in which, among other things to the same purpose,
he says : " The Exposition is, in its present form, and
even with the alterations mentioned by Mr. N." the
Committee-man in question, " in some places objection-
able." Bishop Hay, the other Prelate consulted by
Bishop Thomas Talbot concerning the Exposition^
writes thus : " Though you do not ask my opinion of
the Reflections, I cannot help expressing my particular
disapprobation of some of them. He," the author,
" appears in some things to advance very dangerous
propositions, and not at all becoming a Catholic clergy-
man.* The Exposition of Catholic Principles appears
very just in general, but there are two passages in

* The following are some of the passages in the Reflections
alluded to by Bishop Hay : " What liberty of discussion, or,
if you will, of doubting, does any Christian possess that we
have not ?" p. 31. " Many things, I confess, in the Catholic
belief weigh rather heavy on my mind, and I should be glad to
have a freer field to range in. Can you wish for a reader with
better dispositions than these ?" p. 56. " The representative
body are our Prelates, the represented are the people, and at
the head of this constitution is the Pope. But to him belongs
no absolute or despotic jurisdiction. — He has indeed bis pre-
rogatives ; but we have our privileges, and are indcpendant on
him, excepting where it has pleased the community, for the sake
of unity and good order, to surrender into his hands a limited
superintcndance." P. 69. — N. B. This proposition, in the Synod
of Ormond-street, A. D. 1792, was censured as heretical. " It

268

APPENDIX A.

them, which I cannot say so much for. I therefore
must decline signing them. — Aberdeen, April 8th,
1786."*

Notwithstanding the pointed disapprobation of the
Committee's test on the part of the Bishops, those gen-
tlemen, or, rather, their secretary, Mr. C. Butler, in
their names, sent a copy of it to Mr. Pitt, and distri-
buted two hundred other copies of it among members
of the establishment and dissenters, rashly asserting
that, in their opinion, " every Catholic would readily
subscribe it."f I am witness how much this unau-
thorized act, when it came to the knowledge of the
Bishops, by the publication of the Second Blue Book, in
1791, offended them, and how decidedly they continued
to disapprove of the Exposition itself.

is very generally agreed tbat the alteration of the Latin lan-
guage, in the public service of our Church, would be a most
salutary amendment. But it has not been done, because it was
asked in too insolent a manner ; because we are daily irritated
by petulant reflections, and because we are not disposed to pray
in the language of a Luther, a Calvin, or a Queen Elizabeth."
P. 74. — Such is the work which Mr. Butler commends, " for
bringing to public notice the Creed, called Roman Catholic
Principles." Hist. Mem. Confessions of Faith, p. 222.

* Mr. Butler asserts in his Memoirs, p. 391, and his Confes-
sions, p. 221, that Bishop Horny old gave " a partial edition of
th£ Principles," merely because, in his Catechism for the Adult,
he denies three or four vulgar charges against Catholics, in
terms partly resembling the corresponding articles in the
former work ! He even signifies that Bishop Walmesley was
an approver of this his friend's and his own favourite creed !
Not only the present writer, but the whole Catholic public is
witness, that, among all the opposers of the writings and the
conduct of them both, Bishop Walmesley was, at all times, the
most strenuous.

f Second Blue Book, p. 14,

A P P E N D I X A. 269

To complete the history of this unaccredited creed :
about eight years ago I understood there was an inten-
tion of republishing it in a more extended form, and of
illustrating it with authorities from the holy fathers,
collected by a learned clergyman of this district. You,
dear Sir, will recollect what I repeatedly and publicly
said on the occasion, namely, " Let that gentleman
employ his learning and his talents in illustrating the
doctrine of the Church ; but let him choose a sound text
to work upon, such as The Creed of Pope Pius IV, OF
Bossuefs Exposition; at all events, let him not be
concerned in republishing that faulty profession, called
Roman Catholic Principles, which I must ever reject
and oppose as former Prelates have done." My admo-
nitions, however, were disregarded, and the work was
published at Birmingham, in the centre of our district,
in a thick volume of above five hundred pages, under
the new title of The Faith of Catholics. Some time
after this, it was again published at Birmingham by the
clergyman alluded to, in its more contracted form, and
under its original title of Roman Catholic Principles.
The latter edition is accompanied with notes, which
point out some of the numerous variations in point of
doctrine, no less than of language, which are manifest
in the different editions of this pretended Faith of
Catholics. St. Hilary reproached the Arians that they
made new creeds every year and every month, whereas
Catholics have always the same creed: which observation
suffices alone to make us reject this ever-varying Ex-
position, which is the subject of Mr. Butler's commen-
dations. For the present, he prefers the edition of
1815 to the other modern editions, and even to the
original text of the 17th century, which he supposes to
be that of Abbot Corker and Mr. Gother; but without
intimating the slightest motive for this inconsistent
preference.

270 ^ APPENDIX A.

The title of the edition which Mr. Butler chooses to
adopt is, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES IN REFERENCE TO
GOD AND THE KING : yet what Catholic could believe it,
without seeing the new creed, that in treating of God
and of Christ, there is no declaration, nor so much as
an intimation, respecting the Trinity of the former, or
the Divinity of the latter ! Whenever a profession of
faith appears without an explicit declaration of belief in
these two all-necessary articles, it is, of course, consi-
dered as a symbol of Unitarians or Socinians : at all
events, without this declaration, it most certainly is
neither " Roman Catholic Principles in reference to
God" nor " the Faith of Catholics." Not content,
however, with leaving these and other articles of the
Apostles' creed out of this his new creed, Mr. Bering-
ton expressly declares of it, in the above mentioned
book, commended by Mr. Butler : " In a few words it
says all we wish to say, because it contains all we pro-
fess to believe"*

Well, my dear Sir, as Mr. C. Butler, of the Midland
District, is pleased to play the theologian, and to con-
tradict the official declarations of his Bishop, I shall
expect that, on the sight of this letter, which I shall
take an early opportunity of publishing, he will answer
the following positive objections against his Clear and
accurate Exposition of the Roman Catholic Creed, as
he proclaims it to be, in opposition to that Bishop's
censure, and likewise that he should lay before me and
the public, his motives for adopting Mr. Berington and
Mr. Kirk's numerous alterations of this creed, in pre-
ference to the original text of the alledged Father
Corker and Mr. Gother. Mr. Butler will see, that I
do not, in this instance, " crush him with the mill-stone
of authority," as his friend Dr. Geddes complained of

* Reflect, p. 105.

APPENDIX A 271

•

another Prelate, but that I give him an opportunity of
defending himself with equal weapons.

The second Proposition in the first section is this :
" The merits of Christ, though infinite in themselves*,
are not applied to us otherwise than by a right faith ia
him." — This position, however orthodox may have
been the meaning of its Author and its Editors, is very
far from being " a clear and accurate exposition of the
Catholic Creed" in itself: for, 1st, The merits of
Christ are efficaciously applied to the souls of infants
in the sacrament of baptism, (and the same may be said
of confirmation, as likewise of penance, and extreme
unction, in certain cases, with respect to the adult)
though they are incapable of forming an act of right
faith in himf. The position,, as it stands, evidently
insinuates the error of the Anabaptists. 2dly> Gratia
prseveniens is not applied to our souls by means of a
right faith, because it precedes faith, and all other
good dispositions, as the Church teaches against the
Semipelagians J. 3dly, With respect to gratia justi-
jficans, it is far from being accurate, to say that this
is not applied to us OTHERWISE than by a right faith,
since the Church teaches, in opposition to Methodists
and other enthusiasts, that hope and incipient charity
concur to its effect, no less than faith §. Sensible of
the erroneousness of this position, the Irish editor has
changed it in the following manner ; " The merits of
Christ are applied to us chiefly by the sacraments, &c."

* These words in italics are an addition of Mr. Berington,
no way necessary to the sense of the proposition.

f " Si quis dixerit parvulos, eo quod actum credendi non
habent, suscepto baptismo, inter fideles computandos non esse,
anathema sit." Trid. Sess. VII. can. 13.

t Trid. Sess. VI. cap. 5.

§ Ibid. cap. 6.

2 N

272 APPENDIX A.

)g the twelve articles which constitute the first
section or paragraph of this creed, there are few which
have not been altered from the original text by Mr
Berington ami Mr. Butler, sometimes in the same way
and sometimes in different ways r however, as my pre-
sent business is with the latter gentleman, I wish to ask
him, in particular, the two following questions : — The
original text of Article VIII. says, " The qualifications
of unity r in deficiency, visibility, succession, and uni-
versality, are applicable to NO OTHER church or assembly
but the Roman Catholic Church." This, learned Sir,
you change in your three editions of it thus : " The
qualities unity, indeficiency, &c. being evidently ap-
plicable to the Roman Catholic Church, &c." NowySir,
does not this studied diminution of the sentence insi-
nuate, that though the Catholic Church has the marks
of truth, yet that other communions have them like-
wise ? Again, the original text of Article X. says :
" All and only divine revelations, delivered by God
unto the Church, and proposed by her to be believed asr
such, are and ought to be esteemed articles of faith ;
and the contrary opinions heresy.'1'' Among your other
changes of this article, is the entire suppression of the
last clause: what else can we conclude from this, ex-
cept that your boasted profession of faith is, in your
opinion, false, and that to believe contrary to divine
revelation, proposed by the Church, as such, is not
heresy.

The second paragraph or section in the original, be^-
gins thus : " General Councils, which are the Church
of God representative, have no commission from Christ
to frame new matters of faith." This text, following
your usual guide, Mr, Berington, you thus alter :
" The pastors of the Church, who are the body 'Represen-
tative, either dispersed or convened in council, have re-
ceived no commission from Christ to frame new arti-

.

APPENDIX A. 273

«les of faith.1' — True it is, that Catholic Bishops, cano-
nically assembled in general councils, represent their
absent brethren ; but in Mr. Berington's system, as
expressed in his Reflections, where this alteration was
first made, it is erroneous, and an insinuation of he-
resy. We have seen, that in his system, " The repre-
sentative body are our Prelates ; the represented are
the people ; and at the head of this Constitution is the
Pope, into whose hands it has pleased the community to
surrender a limited super intenda nee*. In short, this
plan, which subverts the divine authority of the apostles-
and their successors with respect to their llocks, and
even the supremacy of St. Peter and his successors
with respect to -the whole church, aad which, derives
all ecclesiastical jurisdiction from a delegation of the
Christian community, in tlte heresy of Richer, and of
•the Synod of Pistoija, and stands condemned by the
Church under tiiat qualification f-

The next Proposition, which, however, stands in the
original, as well as in Mr, Butler's edition, affirms, that
if It is no article of faith, that the church cannot err
in matters of fact or discipline, alterable by circum-
stances of time and place." If this proposition, thus
generally laid down, be true, then may it be affirmed,
that the apostolic council erred, in forbidding the Gen-
tile converts to eatblood,and the fifth general council, in
condemning the Three Chapters, and the council of Flo-
rence in defining that the Pope is the successor of St.
Peter, and the church of our days in declaring, not on-

* Reflections addressed to J. Hawkins, p. 69.

t " Propositio quae statuit: Potcstalem d Deo datum Ec-
clesiie ut communicaretur Pastoribus, qiti sunt ejus ministri ; sic
intellect?, ut '••• connnunitate fidelium in Pastores derivetur
ecclesiastic! rnirmterii ac rcgiminis potestas — H.ERET1CA."
Damnat. Synod. Pistoj. Prop. II.

2 N2

274

APPE

ND

IX A.

ly that Jansenism is a heresy, but also that this heresy
is contained in the book of Jansenius. If Mr. Butler
had studied divinity in a regular manner, and not by
way of relaxation from his study of the Law, as he sig-
nifies in so many of his works *, he would have learnt
the difference between mere positive facts and dogmati-
cal/acts.

The fourth article of this second section declares,
that the king's subjects may renounce UPON OATH the
doctrine of deposing kings, excommunicated for heresy,
(which so many saints and holy doctors have taught)
as IMPIOUS and DAMNABLE, in the very same breath in
which he declares his disapprobation of the term damna-
ble, thus applied, and states, that the terra, on account
of its impropriety, is omitted by the Irish editor. But
to pass over this inconsistency, as well as impiety, why
does he, as well as Mr. Berington, suppress and take
no notice of that important passage in the original text,
which declares, that the deposing doctrine "is not pro-
perly heretical, taking the word heretical in that con-
natural genuine sense it is usually understood in the
Catholic Church ; on account of which, and other ex-
pressions nowise appertaining to loyalty, it is, that
Catholics of tender consciences refuse the oath com-
monly called the Oath of Allegiance :" why, I repeat
S4t, does Mr. Butler suppress and keep out of the sight
of Catholics this most important part of his boasted
" Clear and accurate Exposition of the Roman Catholic
Creed ?" — The reason, is obvious, to persons acquaint-
ed with his writings and transactions : the insertion of
this single passage would have refuted a large propor-
tion of his Historical Memoirs, and have condemned
his conduct, in labouring, during two whole years of

* See the usual motto of Mr. B/s theological publications,
borrowed from Cicero pro Archia.

APPENDIX A. 275

his life, to force the Catholics, contrary to the instruc-
tions of their Bishops, to swear that the deposing doc-
trine is heretical, in the terms of King James's oath of
allegiance.

In like manner, I may demand of Mr. Butler, why,
writing of the Pope, in the fifth article, he suppresses
the important words of the original, which pronounce
him to be " Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth ?" Does
not this suppression argue, that our juridical di-
vine does not admit of the justness of this title ? And
yet it is attributed to the Pope by the council of
Trent*.

In the third paragraph, or section, Mr. Butler, pre-
ferring the modern theology of Mr. Berington to the
ancient theology of the alledged Mr. Corker and Mr.
Gother, flies off from the original text of his boasted
" accurate Exposition of the R. Catholic Creed," in
a great number of omissions, additions, and alterations,
which my present limits will not allow me to discuss, or
even to enumerate : I shall therefore satisfy myself with
pointing out one error which occurs in the original of
this section, as well as in the copies of it. It is this :
" Indulgences are nothing else than a mitigation or
relaxation, upon just causes, of canonical penances,
enjoined by the Pastors of the Church on penitent sin-
ners."—If this were sound doctrine, a General Coun-
cil would have erred in declaring Indulgences to be
" heavenly treasures f," and that " the use of them is
highly beneficial to Christian people J." So far from
this doctrine of the council being true, Indulgences,
according to this system of the principles, would be a
mere carnal pampering, and would be detrimental to

* Trid. Sess. VI. De Ref. c. 1.
t Ibid. Sess. XXI, cap. 9.
Ibid. Sess. XXV. De Indulg.

276

APPE

Christian people, in withdrawing them from works of
penance. But there is no occasion for any argument
on this pointy since his late Holiness Pius VI. in a
dogmatical decree, received by the whole Church, has
condemned the above-stated doctrine, as Jake, rash,
injurious to the merits of Christ, and long since con-
demned in Luther*.

The tract professes to exhibit the civil as well as the
religious principles of Roman Catholics. Of the for-
mer I have no pretensions to pronounce a judgment;
still I am at liberty to observe of them, that they ap-
pear to be as unsettled as the latter. In the reign of
the Stuarts, when they were first published, they were
of the Tory cast. Accordingly, they were then en-
titled, " Roman Catholic Principles IB reference to
God and the King ;"' but being brought to light by
Mr. Berington in 1785, they were republished by him,
under the whiggish title of " Roman Catholic Princi-
ples in reference to God and the Country:" under
which title the treatise was sent by Mr. Butler, in
1788, to Mr. Pitt and other leading Protestants, as he
himself avows t. He BOW, Ikuow not why, brings it back
to its old title. Conformably to the Tory principles of
dirine right and non-resistance in every case whatever,
the original of the 17th century declares, that " Kings,
magistrates, and superiors on earth, are Vicegerents
of God." The latter clause Messrs. Berington and

* " Propositio asserens Indulgentiant, sccundum suam prse-
cisam notionemt aliud non esse, quam remissionem partis ejus
pecnitentise , qux per canoncs statuta erat pcccanti : — Quasi
Indulgentia, praeter nudam remissionem poenae canonic*, non
etiam valeat ad remissionem pee me temporal is pro peccatis
actuatibus, debits- apud diviuam just itiain : — Falsa, temeraria,
Ckruti mentis Injuriosa, chtdum in Art. 9. Lutheri Damnata."
Condemn. Synod. Pistoj. Prop. 40.

f Second Blue Book, p. 13.

APPENDIX A. 277

Butler, on rrhiygith principles, expunge from their
civil creed. On the same principles, where the origi-
nal declares absolutely, that " Catholic subjects arc
bound to defend then* king- and country at the hazard
of their lives and fortunes" these modern editors q«a-
lify the declaration with the following clause : " As far
as Protestants ironld be bound.'"'

But to confine myself within my own province : I
hereby declare, in a more explicit manner than I here-
tofore did, in my Pastoral Charge, that the altered
treatise, which the Rev. Joseph Bering-ion republished
35 years ago in his Reflections addressed to tfie Rev. J.
Hawkins, under the title of Roman Catholic Princi-
ples in reference 4o God and the Country, and, with
the help of another Reverend Gentleman, seven years
ago, under the title of Tfte Faith of Catholics, and
which Charles Butler, Esq. Barrister at Law, has since
republished in three different works, under the title of,
Roman Catholic Principles in reference to God and the
King, at the same time proclaiming, that "it is a
clear and accurate exposition of the Roman Catholic
Creed*,11 and " a Just and fair exposition of the
principles of the Roman Catholics t -'" I declare, I
say, under correction of the Catholic Church and the
Holy See, that the said treatise is not worthy of *fe
above-mentioned titles and commendations ; but that it
is inaccurate and censurable in many respects. This
declaration you will be pleased to make known to our
clergy as opportunities may serve, at the same time in-
forming them, that if these pretended Roman Catholic
Principles, printed on a large sheet, are fixed up in any
of their chapels, (as I have witnessed them so affixed
in some of them) I require they should forthwith be

•* Sequel to Confessions of Faith, p. 2 19.
t Appendix to Histor. Man. vol.i. p. 393.

NDIX

278 APPENDIX B.

removed ; moreover, that it is my earnest desire, that
such persons of the clergy as may be possessed of or
have controul over any copy or copies of the above-
mentioned works, would insert a note or memorandum
in them, containing the present official judgment and
sentence.

I am, dear Rev. Sir,
Your friend and servant in Jesus Christ,

•%• J. MILKER, Bp. of Castab.

V. A. M. D.
Wolverhampton, Oct. 14, 1819.

APPENDIX B.
ENCYCLICAL LETTER.

CHARLES, Bishop of Rama, Vicar Apostolic of the
Western District; WILLIAM, Bishop of Acanthos,
Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District ; and JOHN,
Bishop of Centuria, Vicar Apostolic of the Southern
District;

To all the Faithful, Clergy and Laity, of those respec-
tive Districts.

WE think it necessary to lay before you the follow-
ing Articles and Determinations.

1st, We are informed that the Catholic Committee
has given in, or intends to give in, a Bill, containing
an Oath, to be presented to Parliament, in order to
be sanctioned by the legislature, and the oath to be ten-
dered to the Catholics of this kingdom.

2dly, The four Apostolic Vicars, by an Encyclical
Letter, dated October 21, 1789, condemned an Oath

APPENDIX B. 279

proposed at that time to be presented to Parliament, and
tvhich Oath they also declared unlawful to be taken.
Their condemnation of that oath was confirmed by the
Apostolic See, and sanctioned also by the Bishops of
Ireland and Scotland.

3dly, Some alteration has been made by the Catholic
Committee in that condemned oath ; but, as far as we
have learned, of no moment ; consequently the altered
oath remains liable to the censure fixed on the former
oath.

4thly, The four Apostolical Vicars, in the above
mentioned Encyclical Letter, declared, that None of
the faithful, clergy or laity, ought to take any new Oath>
or sign any new Declaration, in doctrinal matters, or
subscribe any new instrument, wherein the interests of
Religion are concerned, without the previous approba-
tion of their respective Bishop, and they required sub*
mission to those determinations. The altered oath has
not been approved by us, and therefore cannot be
lawfully or conscientiously taken by any of the faithful
of our districts.

Sthly, We further declare, that the assembly of the
Catholic Committee has no right or authority to deter-
mine on the lawfulness of Oaths, Declarations, or
other instruments whatsoever containing doctrinal mat-
ters ; but that this authority resides in the Bishops,
they being, by divine institution, the Spiritual Go-
vernors in the Church of Christ, and the Guardians of
Religion.

In consequence likewise of the preceding observa-
tions, we condemn, in the fullest manner, the attempt
of offering to Parliament an oath, including doctrinal
matters, to be there sanctioned, which has not been
approved by us : and if such attempt be made, we ear-
nestly exhort the Catholics of our respective districts
to oppose it, and hinder its being carried into execu-

2 o

280

APPENDIX C.

tion ; and for that purpose to present a Protestation or
counter-petition, or to adopt whatever other legal and
prudent measure may be judged best.

Finally, We also declare, that conformably to the
letter written to the Catholic Committee by the four
Apostolical Vicars, October 21, 1789, we totally dis-
approve of the appellation of Protesting Catholic Dis-
senters, given us in the Bill, and of three provisoes
therein contained, and expressed in the said letter of
the four Apostolical Vicars.

We shall here conclude with expressing to you our
hopes, that you have rejected with detestation some
late publications, and that you will beware of others
which may appear hereafter. Of those that have been
published, some are schismatical, scandalous, inflam-
matory, and insulting to the supreme Head of the
Church, the Vicar of Jesus Christ.

»j« CHARLES RAM ATEN, V. A.

»J« WILLIAM ACANTHEN, V. A.

•%• JOHN CENTURIEN, V. A.
London, Jan. 19, 1791.

APPENDIX C.

PROTEST of the COMMITTEE against the EN-
CYCLICAL LETTERS of the V.V. A. extracted
from the SECOND BLUE BOOK, p. 30.

" THEREFORE, my Lord Bishop of Rama, V. A.
of the Western District ; my Lord Bishop of Acanthos,
V. A. of the Northern District; my Lord Bishop of
Centuria, V. A. of the Southern District; — your
Lordships having brought matters to this point :— con-

APPENDIX C. 281

vinced that we have not been misled by our clergy ;
convinced that we have not departed from the princi-
ples of our ancestors ; convinced that we have not
violated any article of Catholic faith or communion : —
We the Catholic Committee, whose names are here
underwritten, for ourselves, and for those in whose
trusts we have acted, do hereby, before GOD, so-
lemnly protest, and call upon GOD to witness our
protest against your Lordships' Encyclical Letters of
the 19th day of October, 1789, and the 21st day of
January last, and every clause, article, determination,
matter, and thing therein respectively contained : as
imprudent, arbitrary, and unjust ; as a total misre-
presentation of the nature of the Bills to which they
respectively refer, and the Oaths therein respectively
contained ; and our conduct relating thereto respec-
tively ; as encroaching on our natural, civil, and reli-
gious rights ; inculcating principles hostile to society
and government, and the constitution and laws of the
British empire ; as derogatory from the allegiance we
owe to the state and the settlement of the crown ; and
as tending to continue, increase, and confirm the
prejudices against the faith and moral character of the
Catholics, and the scandal and oppression under
which they labour in this kingdom. — In the same man-
ner we do hereby solemnly protest, and call upon GOD
to witness this our solemn Protest against all proceed-
ings had, or hereafter to be had, in consequence of
or grounded upon your Lordships' Encyclical Letters,
or either of them, or any representations of the Bills or
Oaths therein respectively referred to, given or to be
given by your Lordships, or any of you. — And from
your Lordships' said Encyclical Letters, and all pro-
ceedings had, or hereafter to be had, in consequence
of, or grounded upon the same, or either of them ; or
in consequence of, or grounded upon any representa-

2 o-2

282 APPENDIX D.

tion of the said Bills or Oaths or either of them, given
or to be given by your Lordships, or any of you ; we
do hereby appeal, and call on GOD to witness our
appeal, for the purity and integrity of our religious
principles, to all the Catholic Churches in the uni-
verse, and especially to the first of Catholic Churches,
the Apostolical See, rightly informed."

Signed by two ecclesiastical and eight lay
Members of the Committee-,

APPENDIX D,

FACTS

Relating to the present Contests among the ROMAN
CATHOLICS of this Kingdom concerning the Bill to
be introduced into Parliament for their Relief.

IT is now more than a year and a half since an
Abstract of the said Bill containing the Copy of an
Oath to be taken by those Roman Catholics, who desire
to receive benefit from the intended Act, was first cir-
culated amongst persons of that communion, and ever
since that time it has been the subject of warm debates
both by word of mouth and by writing amongst them.
The Gentlemen of what is called the Roman Catholic
Committee, by whom the said Abstract and Copy of an
Oath were first sent abroad, have uniformly maintained,
that it is in every part strictly conformable to the doc-
trine of the Roman Catholic Church. On the other
hand the four Prelates who are at the head of the EC-

APPENDIX D. 283

clesiastics of that persuasion in this kingdom, namely,
Mr. Charles Walmesley, the honourable James Talbot,
the honourable Thomas Talbot, and Mr. Matthew
Gibson, by a common printed letter bearing date the
19th October, 1789, condemned that form of Oath as
unlawful to be taken by Roman Catholics : and two of
those Gentlemen being since dead, viz. the honourable
James Talbot and Mr. Matthew Gibson, their success-
ors, who are Mr. John Douglass and Mr. William
Gibson, in conjunction with the aforesaid Mr. Charles
Walmesley, did, by a common printed letter dated Jan.
19, 1791, concur in the same censure ; in which deci-
sions the far greater part of the Roman Catholics of
this kingdom have acquiesced. It may be added, that
the three Roman Catholic Bishops in Scotland, and the
twenty-six in Ireland, together with the Lay- Gen tie-
men of the Irish Committee, have concurred in the
propriety of the above mentioned decision. It is true,
one slight alteration has been adopted in the Oath since
it was first censured, but that is precisely the change
which the Committee prove in the under mentioned
work, p. 5, to be a change in words but not in meaning.
At the present time, when the Legislature has
thought proper to inquire into the situation and doc-
trines of his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in
England, it is conceived to be a duty owing to the
Legislature itself, as well as to a great majority of that
body, to state

THE LEADING QUESTIONS IN DEBATE CONCERNING THE

PROPOSED OATH between the Gentlemen of what is called
the Roman Catholic Committee on one hand, and of
the majority of the Roman Catholics who adhere to
the decision of their Bishops on the other, together
with a summary account of the arguments on which

they have grounded their respective opinions. The

arguments of the Committee are precisely those which

284

APPENDIX D.

they themselves have published to the world in a com-
mon printed letter, dated London, 25th Nov. 1789,*
which was circulated by them amongst the Roman
Catholics in every part of the kingdom. It is signed
by two ecclesiastical and five lay members of the
Committee.

1. The first question in debate is concerning the
adoption of the new assumed title of Protesting Catholic
Dissenters, instead of the name which persons of that
Communion have always assumed of Catholics or of
Roman Catholics.

In favour of the change, the Committee who have
adopted it alledge in the aforesaid common letter, p. 2,
first, as to its propriety, that it is strictly proper for
Roman Catholics to call themselves Protesting Dis-
senters, because in fact they do protest against certain
pernicious doctrines attributed to them, and because
they dissent in certain points from the established
church. Secondly, p. 4, with regard to the " Probable
efficacy of this plan adopted by the Committee," that it
is calculated " for conciliating the minds of the public.'*
" The operation of the Bill," they say, p. 4, " is to
leave those ideal numbers of Catholics who persist to
hold the tenets in question (mere non-entities, we hope)
to continue victims to the laws enacted against all
Communicants with the See of Rome indiscriminately,
and to the animosities that gave rise to them ; but at
the same time to make an opening through which such
Communicants with that See, as protest against the
doctrines in question (that is, we hope, the whole body
of English Catholics) may slip from under the operation
of the laws in question unheeded and unobserved."

In opposition to this language the majority of the Ro-
man Catholics plead, that they have always hitherto

* The first Blue Book, so called.

APPENDIX D. 285

taught, in their theological books, that it was of essen-
tial consequence not to abandon their old hereditary
name, and that therefore if they defend it upon principle,
they will not give it up for conveniency. — They add,
that the disguise of dropping their own name in order
to conceal their essential connection with the See of
Rome in spiritual matters, does not appear to them
consistent with that plain dealing which ought to cha-
racterize their transactions with the Legislature ; and
that the disguise of assuming the distinctive name,
recognized by the laws as descriptive of those who
protest against the doctrines of the Roman Catholic
Church, is not grounded in good policy, in as much as
it may raise an alarm in the nation on the most delicate
of all subjects.

2. The next question in debate is concerning the
theological qualification of heretical, not as applied to
the king-killing, but merely to the deposing doctrine,
which latter however false, pernicious, seditious, and
traiterous, does not fall within the definition of heresy
as received in the Roman Catholic Church.

On this head the Gentlemen of the Committee ac-
knowledge, p. 7, that the epithet in question, as here
applied, " is the last that would have occurred to
them :" nevertheless they maintain, that it may be
sworn to with a safe conscience by a Roman Catholic,
because though the deposing doctrine is not formal, it
is at least material heresy, p. 7.

In answer to this the majority of the Roman Catho-
lics urge, that the distinction here brought has no real
foundation in the nature of things, being a mere quibble
of the schools, (an ens materiale being according to the
logicians who adopt this distinction, such a kind of
existence as a watch possesses in a piece of rude metal,
in as much as a watch may be made of it) and that
therefore, as the doctrine in question, even in the opt-

i

286

APPENDIX D.

hion of the Committee, is not proper heresy, they the
Roman Catholics cannot reconcile it to their consciences
to condemn it as such. They moreover conceive it tor
be an object of perfect indifTerency to the Legislature,
under what qualification they reject the above men-
tioned dangerous doctrine, provided it is satisfied that
they do actually reject it. Hence they recommend as
more satisfactory, as well as being more consistent with
their doctrine, the form in which the contested clause is
worded in the Oath of Allegiance prescribed to be taken
by his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in Ireland.

3. The third question turns on the meaning of that
passage in the Oath, in which it is denied that any
Church, Prelate, &c. has any jurisdiction whatsoever
that can even indirectly interfere with the laws, &c. of
the kingdom ; namely, whether or no the person who
swears to this clause abjures the spiritual authority of
his Church and Pastors, as merely confined to consci-
entious matters, there being several laws even against
this modified admission of the authority of the Roman
Catholic Church.

The interpretation of this passage given by the
Committee is as follows, p. 5 : " It is not meant to
deny by these words the spiritual authority of the
Church to preach her faith, administer her sacraments,
punish by spiritual censures, &c. all that is meant to be
denied is the right to legislate in temporal concerns, or
to enforce spiritual legislation by a coercion of a tempo-
ral nature" They proceed, p. 6, " We beg leave to
assure you, (the Catholics of England,) that we know
for certain that the leading men of the nation under-
stand that nothing contained in the Oath is meant as
a denial of the Catholic belief of the Pope's spiritual
supremacy." In the sequel these Gentlemen allow the
Church and its Pastors, by their spiritual censures, &c.
to interfere in points which the Roman Catholics main-

APPENDIX D. ., 287

tain arc totally out of their jurisdiction. " If any
state," say they, p. 6, " were to exercise undue sove-
reignty over another, if the constitution of a state were
essentially wicked, if the government of a state were to
be tyrannical and unjust, are not these as much sins in
the eye of God, as they are crimes in the eye of man ?
As such are they not subject to the Church, to her
teaching, preaching, and censures r"

In return, the Roman Catholics profess their readi-
ness at all times to swear, that the Church has no right
to legislate in temporal affairs, or to enforce spiritual
legislation by a coercion, of a temporal nature ; but they
say that this does not appear to them to be that obvious
meaning of the words in which they are called to swear.
They are not satisfied with appeals to authority, and
ask how it is possible to conceive that the laws of the
Church which command and the laws of the state which
forbid them the distinctive practice of their religion, do
not interfere with each other. The principle on which
this doctrine has been defended by the original proposer
of it, namely, that spiritual and temporal authority
never can interfere with each other, they conceive to be
pernicious, as on that ground it could not be said that
even the deposing doctrine interfered with the safety
of the state. It is for the learned to determine which
of the two parties argue the best. In the mean time,
it is plain from the above citations, that the Roman
Catholics claim no other exemption in favour of their
consciences than the Catholic dissenters do, than other
descriptions of dissenters do, and than persons of the
establishment do in Roman Catholic countries, namely,
to withhold their obedience precisely to those laws
which are enacted against the exercise of their religion.

4. The fourth question is also concerning the mean-
ing of a clause. It is agreed on both hands that there
is no power on earth that can dispense with or absoh-e

2r

288 APPENDIX D.

a Christian from the obligation of any Oath in which
the most trifling right or interest of another person is
concerned, but still that certain promises, accompanied
with an attestation of the Divinity, which are entirely
between God and the conscience, such as would be that
of saying a certain number of prayers each day, may in
certain cases be dispensed with by the power which it
is supposed Christ left to the Church. The question
then is precisely, Whether a Roman Catholic holding
this doctrine can with a safe conscience swear, in. the
words of the Oath, that no ecclesiastical power what-
soever can at any time dispense with the obligation
of — any Oath whatever ?

The Committee say, p. 7, " by the oaths and com-
pacts here referred to, the Bill does not refer to vows
or other promises made to God, and which do not
affect the rights of third persons."

The Roman Catholics answer, that the words being
general and comprehending all Oaths, whether civil or
merely religious, they cannot see upon what ground
the explanation of the Committee can be admitted. As
to the insinuation here conveyed, which they have
heard more fully stated on other occasions, that such
religious oaths as have been mentioned are not proper
oaths, but vows, they say it is a new doctrine, which
appears to them to be invented to answer the present
purpose ; and that in conformity with the definition of
divines, and that laid down in the standard book of the
English language, an Oath is an affirmation, or nega-
tion, or promise, to which, the Almighty is called to
witness.

Such are the chief contested points in the present
Oath, being the only ones which the Gentlemen of the
Committee have noticed in the above mentioned circu-
lar Letter addressed to the Catholics of England.
It remains for the Legislature to determine whether

APPENDIX D. 289

there is any thing in the objections, as here stated and
explained, of the major part of the Roman Catholics
against the wording of the present Oath, that is detri-
mental to the state, or to society, or that renders them
worthy, instead of participating in the favours which
are expected by their dissenting brethren, of all the
severity of the penal laws, which by the passing of the
present Bill will receive a new edge in their regard, the
sharpness of which they fear they should soon experience.
They humbly conceive that the same Oath which is
judged to be a sufficient test of the allegiance of his Ma-
jesty's numerous Roman Catholic subjects in Ireland
might be esteemed a sufficient pledge of their loyalty,
as that Oath has been recommended in a printed Me-
morial, signed by fifty-five Roman Catholic Clergymen
in the county of Lancaster, as proper to be proposed
to Government, and as they are confident that not an
individual Catholic would object to the taking of it.
In the mean time, whether the Legislature does or does
not look down upon them with an eye of indulgence,
they hope it will be remembered that they actually are,
and that thev are convinced they are equally bound to
the Legislature by an indissoluble bond of allegiance,
contained in the Oath they cheerfully took in the year
1778 ; by the tenor of which they conceive themselves
to be obliged in conscience, as they are ready now to
declare more explicitly by a fresh Oath, to support to
the utmost of their power his Majesty's Government
and the Constitution of their country, should all the Ca-
tholic powers in Europe, with the Pope himself at their
head, invade this country for the express purpose of
establishing the Roman Catholic religion, and to reveal
every conspiracy of this nature that may come to their
knowledge.

Abandoned as the majority of Roman Catholics are
by those Gentlemen who professed to serve them, taken

490 APPENDIX E,

by surprise as they now are on the present occasion*
and inferior to those with whom they have to contend in
every thing except their numbers and their loyalty, they
still entertain a hope, that if there be any thing worthy
the inquiry of the Legislature in the above statement,
the inquiry will take place, In the mean time, the
writer of this signs his name as a pledge of his readiness
to answer, by whomsoever called upon, for every point
he has here asserted, and particularly to prove, if re-
quired, that he speaks the sense of the Roman Catholic
Clergy in general, and of many thousands of his Ma-
jesty's other loyal subjects, no less than his own.

JOHN MILDER,
\Vinchester, Feb. 24, 1791,

Copy of Dr. Milner's Apology offered at the Meeting in
Durham, Aug. 23, 1812.

BEING sincerely desirous of giving every kind of
satisfaction to my brethren, consistently with truth
and my principles, for the purpose of advancing, as far
as is within my power, the work of peace and harmony
among ourselves and the Catholics of both islands, (not
meaning, however, to retract any fact or reasoning
contained in my different publications and writings
within the last three years, until it shall be disproved,
which I think none of them all can be,) I hereby apo-
logize to them, my said brethren, and to — — in

particular, for any mere expression, contained in those
publications or writings, which they themselves shall

APPENDIX E. 291

deem offensive to them, and for the term Colkge-Usher
in particular, which, however, as used by me, meant
nothing else hut an inferior Professor. And whereas

appears to he much hurt at the opinion which

I expressed in print, that a certain letter, bearing his
name, was composed by a certain Law- gentleman, and
whereas he has, with peculiar energy, affirmed that the
letter, in question, was wholly composed by himself, I
here abandon my above mentioned supposition, and
am willing to express thus much in my next publication,
in case he should wish me to do so. — And whereas this

my • . brother and others brethren have

treated me, in my view of things, very disrespectfully
by word of mouth, writing, and even through the press,
*— I hereby acquit them of all obligation of retracting
these assertions or insinuations.

J. M.
Durham, Aug. 23, 1812.

P. S. I must add, that the formulary of pacification,
offered by Dr. Moylan and myself to the present meet-
ing, does not, in my opinion, contain any censure on
their past conduct; but simply a plan of cooperating, fof
preventing the subjugation of our jurisdiction and disci-
pline, on which too many politicians, Catholics as well
as Protestants, are evidently intent, and for suppressing
that fatal schism* which exists in the bosom of our little
English flock. And, whereas, I deem it my bounden
duty to persevere in opposing both these evils, to the
utmost of my power, I am resolved to do this, as I have
hitherto done, without invading the jurisdiction of any
of my brethren, and with giving them as little offence
as it shall be in my power to do. J. M.

* Elanchardism, which had irtfected many English as well a*
French.

292

APPENDIX F.

•'} «r • ' • ji f ' i * , ' r

A BRIEF MEMORIAL on the CATHOLIC
BILL.

THE Bill, with its attendant Clauses, concerning the
Roman Catholics, now before Parliament, professes to
" put an end to all religious jealousies between his
Majesty's subjects ;" whereas, if carried into execution,
it will certainly cause more jealousy, animosity, and
confusion among them, than any religious innovation
has done since the Revolution : it will even certainly
be attended with all the evils of religious persecution.
It professes " to communicate to the Catholics the
blessings of our free form of government;" whereas it
is expressly calculated to exclude from the benefits of
the Constitution, and to oppress, in their civil as well
as religious capacity, a numerous description of them,
who, from the services which they have rendered to
their King and Country, and which they may justly be
expected again to render to them in cases of emergency,
might expect to be particularly protected and concili-
ated, the R. Catholic Bishops and Clergy.

1st, By the tenor of the present Bill, the last men-
tioned persons are left entirely to the judgment, discre-
tion, and mercy of a few lay persons, chiefly of their
own body, to decide (in a tribunal more secret and
arbitrary in its forms, than the Star-Chamber or the
Inquisition) upon their loyalty and peaceable conduct,
without any fixed principles, and much less without
those of the law, as to what constitutes loyalty and
peaceable conduct, and without that legal redress or
appeal from a decision that may deprive them of their

APPENDIX F. 293

character, and eventually of their country, to which all
British subjects are entitled.

2dly, By appointing certain lay persons, professing
the Catholic Religion, to secure the loyalty of the
Catholic Prelature and Clergy, (whereas it is the office,
as it has been the practice of the latter, by their minis-
terial duty, to secure that of the former) and by admit-
ting the Oath of a few lay Catholics as a sufficient
security, and rejecting that of the whole Catholic Pre-
lature and Clergy as insecure, these would be unde-
servedly degraded in their civil and social characters,
before their own body and the public at large.

3dly, The Constitution of the Catholic Church is
essentially Episcopal ; whereas the tendency of the
proposed clauses is to render it, in this kingdom, in a
great degree, democratical, by making the Bishops and
Clergy dependent on their laity, both as to their ap-
pointment and their ministry. Thus, for example, if
the Clergy should not preach, or minister, or write
according to the opinions or the sentiments of the Lay
Commissioners, it is out of the order of things that
they should be judged worthy by the latter of a testi-
monial of peaceable conduct.

4thly, To be a Catholic Commissioner it is sufficient,
according to the clauses of the Bill, " to profess the
Roman Catholic Religion :" now this may and has
been done by many persons who have set its essential
doctrines, discipline, and spiritual authority at open
defiance. The tendency therefore of the clauses in
question is to subvert the Religion, which the Bill
professes to protect.

5thly, It would be an act of schism against the Ca-
tholic Religion, for any member of it, by word or act,
to concur to that clause which declares, that " persons
in Holy Orders, appointed, according to the usages of
the R. Catholic Church, to exercise episcopal duties,

«94 APPENDIX F.

shall not be capable of exercising such duties— in whose
favour a major part of the Commissioners shall have
refused to certify their loyalty and peaceable conduct."
Of course, no Catholic, and still more no Catholic
Bishop, can, consistently with his religion, accept of or
act under the Commission in question.

Notwithstanding all this, it is humbly presumed that
no danger to the Establishment in Church or State can
arise from the proposed admission of Catholic laymen
to civil or military privileges, in consequence of their
Bishops and Clergy continuing to elect other Bishops,
(as they have hitherto done, without restraint or com-
plaint from the Legislature, and conformably to the
practice of the different classes of Dissenters) because
they are all his Majesty's sworn and approved loyal
subjects ; because they are ready to swear that " they
they will choose none but those whom they conscienti-
ously believe to be such," (and it must be admitted
that they know one anothers conduct and dispositions
better than any layman, whether Catholic or Protestant,
can know them,) and because it is evidently their inte-
rest and that of their religion, as well as it is their
duty, to provide, to the best of their power, that their
Prelates should not only be loyal and orderly, but
also, as much as possible, acceptable to his Majesty's
Government.

Gthly, With respect to any communication between
the Catholic Prelates and Clergy, and the Head Bishop
and other Prelates of their religion, it is incompatible
with their character and duty to subject this to the
opinion of their laity ; nevertheless, they are ready to
swear that they " will not communicate, directly or
indirectly, with the Pope, &c. or with any other person
in foreign parts, on any matter or thing affecting the
safety and peace of his Majesty's Government, or of
the Establishment in Church and State, or on any other

APPENDIX P.

political subject whatsoever,* and that in case they
should receive any letter or other document, relating to
the same, they will transmit it within days to one of
his Majesty's Secretaries." They are also perfectly
content that this Oath should be followed up, in the
usual manner against felony or treason, by correspond-
ing penalties, whether of transportation or of death,
should they infringe this their Oathk This approved
and constitutional remedy against illegal correspond-
ence with foreigners, if accompanied with due powers
to ministers, (the post-office being already in thefr
hands,) and with the offer of an adequate premium to
informers, would, it is humbly presumed, not only be a
sufficient security against the alledged new dangers,
but also a much more effectual one than that of the
proposed Catholic Lay Commission*

The Catholic Bishops of Ireland having been of late
confined to their Dioceses by certain professional duties,
and having but recently been informed of the tenor of
the proposed Bill and Clauses, have not yet been able
to meet for the purpose of discussing the same. They
will, however, meet in Dublin for this purpose on the
25th instant) and their sentiments concerning them are
already sufficiently known to the undersigned agent
"who writes this on their and his own and his Clergy's
behalf.

J. MlLNER, D. D.

May 21, 1813.
12, Titchfi eld- Street, Cavendish- Square.

* It would be too harsh a measure to require the Bishops
and Clergy to swear that they " Will not correspond or com-*
municate with the Pope, or with any person authorized by
him, on any matter not purely ecclesiastical," to the exclusion
of mere literary subjects, or those of humanity, or pure
civility.

296

APPENDIX G.

Copy of Si/nodical Letter of the Prelates of Ireland.
(COPIA.)

Eminentissime et Reverendissime Domine,

QUANDQQUIDEM " Aliquas delats sunt ad S.
" Congregationem de Propaganda Fide querelse," ut
patet ex literis Pro-Praefecti ejusdemy Illustrissimi
nempe D. Quarantotti, sub die 15 Februariihujus Anni,
adversus Illustrissimum D. Milner, Episcopum Casta-
balcnsem, nostrum apud civile Britanicum gubernium
Procuratorem, " utpote [prosequitur lllustrissimus
" Quarantotti] qui in aliena Vicariorum Apostolicorura
" Negotia se immittere velit, eorumque judicia dam-
*' narc, non sine magna eoruradem turn Auctoritatis,
'* turn etiam famae lesione," ad nostrum officium perti-
nere judicavimus, ipsius defensioneoa apud S. Congre-
gationem suscipere, prsesertim cum ejus Causam. agen-
do, nostram etiam agamus. " Nunciatum est enim,"
" scribit Illustri&simus Quarantotti, " praedictum D.
V J. Milner turn Voce turn publicis Typis- criminal!

*' non dubitasse praestantem Virum J. D , Vicariuna

" Apostolicum, jam vita sublatum, ejusque eximium

" , quod ii facultatem Presbytero

" Gallo (Trevaux) reddiderunt excipiendi iideliura
*' Confessiones ; quodque in publicis quibusdam con-
<c troversiis, quae istius Regni Catholicos afficiunt,
** illorum sententia, cum suet miuime convenit." De
his Controversiis, utpote tempore prioribus, primo
agemus.

Yertente Anno 1808, mult urn deceptatum fuit, tarn
intra quam extra Parliamentuiii, de quadam pericu-

APPENDIX G. 297

losa inimutatione circa raodum histitutionis Episcopo-
rum nostrorum per Sedem Apostolicam ; circa quam
dictus Castabalensis Episcopus duobus antea annis S.
Congregationem consulerat. His litibus ut finem hn-
poneremus, utque disciplmam, & S. Sede sancitam,
sartam tectam conservaremus, Nos omnes, simul in
hac Civitate, die 14 Mensis Septembris ejusdem Anni,
congregati, v.nanhniter decreviimis, " Non expedire ut
" qusecunque immutatio disciplmie actualis Jieret ;'*
quod decretum ab Illustrissimo D. Milner receptum
fuit, et a nostris Catholicis fere universis summis lau-
dibus elatum. Hoc decretum graviter tulerunt quidam
Viri politici, tarn Catholici quam Protestantes, in An-
glia^ unde, ut illud retunderent, quamdam propositi-
onem artificiosam et dolosam, quae Quinta Resolutio
vocatur, excegitabaut, eamque quibusdam Cathx)licis
Anglis in Taberna, (ad iiistar C<jfugressus Emensis,)
adunatis subscribendam proponebant, qua declaratur,
*' Se (Catholicos nempe) persuasum habere, quaedam
<l esse Media pro stabiliendo statu Civili et Ecclesiastico
" hujus Regni, salva fide et disciplina Catholica, et se
" paratos esse alacriter concurrere ad Jixc media
" adhibenda:*

Huic Quiiittc Resolutioni, primuna omnes Vicarii
Apostolici mutuo consensu restiterunt, sed Artibus

quorumdam laicorum decepti, prim6 —r.

in ipsa taberna, die 10 Februarii, 1810, postea casteri

, unico D, Milner excepto, illi Nomina sua

apposuerunt j adeoque, paucos post dies, Parliamento
est oblata, et in omnibus Nunciis public-is proclamata.
Eadem resolutio ad Nos transmissa, " uti nimium ge~
" neralisj indeterminata, et indefinata, Catholicosqiie
" obstringens ad consentiendwn futuris Parliaments
" placitis seu provisionibus, Ecclesue disciplinx inte-
" gritati et incolumitatifor$an noxiw" die 26 ejusdem
Mensis Februarii, ab omnibus hisce Episcopis unaniuu

298 APPENDIX G.

Voce rejecta fuit in Comitiis eorum generalibus tuno
celebratis ; aliaque ab ipsis decreta pro firmandis S.
Sedis juribus et Episcoporum auctoritate ; simulque
gratias egerunt eorum Procuratori, Illustrissimo D.
Milner, " ob Apostolicam suam Constantiam in dicta
" resolutione obsistenda"

En, Eminentissime Domine, prima mail labes, Origo

et Caput querelarum , quas in pluri-

bus literis ad Nos et D. Milner missis decantabat,
quasi ipsorum famae his decretis et eorum publicatione
laeserimus ! At nobis non licuit, juribus Sedis Aposto-
licae, et saluti nostrarum Ecclesiarum (quas ilia Reso-
lutio przecipue respiciebat) providere, simulque nostrum
decretum, quindecem antea mensibus factum, sustinere ?
Interim, si eorum fama laederetur, hoc ex eorum publicis
Actibus evenit, et Nos, cum D. Milner, non cessavimus
illos admonere, se facile posse illam resarcire, si velleut
solummodo illam resolutionem suam, vel revocare pub-*
licb in facie Parliament, vel ita explicare, ut simul
declararent se nulli disciplinae Ecclesiastics; immuta-
tioni consensuros esse sine Auctoritate Sedis Aposto*
licae. At hoc salutare Consilium, neque pro sua fama
recuperanda, neque pro Religione Catholica tuenda,
per tricnniuin et amplius sequi voluerunt. Tandem,
Mense Majo praeterito, verus Sensus hujus Quinta:
Resolution is, simulque prudentia nostrorum Praesulum
et D. JMilner in ilia respuenda innotuit ; quando lex
quaedam, a quibusdam poh*ticis Viris, tarn Catholic-is
quam Protestantibus, concinnata, in Parliamento pro-
posita fuit, et ferme condita, non solum injuriosa S.
Sedis Auctoritati, et Catholicae Religionis immunitati,
sed plane schismatica, (utpote a Catholicis accipienda)
sine ullo istim Sedis consensu. Huic profanae legi adeo

non obstiterunt , quin potius, a D. Milner ad

resistendum invitati, eidem per conniventiam — — - —
sufFragari videbantur, Catholicosque laicos ad earn

APPENDIX G.

amplectendam incitare. Verum Dei miseratione, ob-
sistentibus Episcoporum nostrorum et D. Milner cona-
tibus, prseter omnium expectationem, salvae factae sunt
Ecclesiae nostrae pro hac Vice. Verum novae similes
imminent procellae, in quibus sedandis S. Sedis sub-
sidium et auctoritatem desideramus.

Quod ad alteram — — querelam attinet : nulla est aut
fuit unquam qutcstio de jure tribuendarum facultatum

in Districtu ; sed de unitate Catholicd servanda

per Vinculum commune, Successorem scilicit Petri,
quod Nos, cum D. Milner, defendimus, quando ipse
Sanctissimus Pater, ob temporum calamitates, nee per
se, nee per suos Ministros, illud defendere potuit. Per
multos Annos, plures Exules Gallicani, praesertim Lon-
dini, non cessaverunt Beatissimum Patrem nostrum
per Typos publicos impiis conviciis schismaticis laces-
sere, quibus (sicut caeteris hostibus S. Sedis per hos
20 Annos) sese opposuit D. Milner. Inter alias hujus-
modi impietates, non dubitavit quidam Sacerdos Gallus
publicare, " PIUM VII. phantasma Ecclesiae finxisse
" super Bases, quas PIUS VI. ut impias, heereticas,
" et schismaticas condemnaverat ;" itemque "PIUM
*' VII. fingendo Ecclesiam Concorditati, revocasse
(t Brevia Praedecessoris sui, et admisisse principia fun-
" damentalia Civilis Constitutions. " Librum quern-
dam Defensio Clerici Gallicani dictum, et has ipsas
propositiones continentem, per suam subscriptionem
Typis mandatum, approbavere Septem Presbyteri Gal-
licani, Loiidhii degentes, quorum idcirco facultates re-
novari prohibuit Vicarius Apostolicus Londinensis, 23
Sept. 1808, relictS. tamen iisdem Missam celebrandi
licentia. Tandem, 24 Feb. 1810, Universi Vicarii
Apostolici cum Coadjutoribus et Theologiis suis coad-
unati, sequens edidere decretum : " li Presbyteri, qui
" renuunt agnoscere Papam PIUM VII. non esse
" hsereticum aut Schismaticum, siue Auctorem velfau-

300 APPENDIX G.

" terem hsewsis aut Schismatis, interdicendi sunt ab
" omnibus functionibus Ecclesiasticis et ab ipsa Missae

** celebratione in singulis districtibus." Hoc modo

schisma illud repressum fuit ; praesertim postquara Nos
omnes (ad quos Blanehard pro\oca\erat) ipsius doc-
trinam, ut schismaticam, condemnaveramus : verum ab
hoc salutari decreto, nulla omnino assignata caus£,

infeliciter resiluit ; quin imo, quorundam Epis-

coporum Gall or ura Assentations, ut Nobis videtur,

perlinitus, facultates reddidit (nam tune Negotiis

succumbebat) cuidam Presbytero, De Trevaux dicto,
ex illis publicis Schismatis Approbatoribus, sine ulld
ejusdem retractatione ; quod suimni Scandali bonis,
et insignis triumphi mails, prstsertim ipsi Blanehard,
ejusque fautoribus, causam prrobuit. Hoc D, Milner
immediate respiciebat, cum ex regulis Missionis An-
gliae,* " Quilibet Presbyter, qui facultates habet in
" unp districtu, iisdem in alio quocumque versans uti
" potest per integrum mensem, imo iis perpetuo gaudet,
" si in confiniis alterius districtus habitet :" sed, alio
modo, hoc respiciebat singulos Prassules Catholicos,
praccipue vero Hibernos, qui aeque ac Angli schismati-
cam Blanchardi doctrinam ejusque fautores jam con-
demnaverant, utpote qui certi esse debent se, jn com-
munione Ecclesiastica, cum aliis conjunctos esse, per
Unionem suam cum Supremo EcclesiaB Capite, Unitatis
Centro, quae Unio graviter lasditur ab iis qui docent,
aut (maxime si Episcopi sint) eonnivent damnatiu
doctrina?, a Beatissimuni Pontificem PIUM VII. esse
" Auctorem aut fautorem Schismatis, hsreseos, aut

*' impietatis." At non duriter egimus cum , sed

honestis verbis (tarn Nos quam D. Milner) inquisivhnus,
An hasc ita se haberent ? Prim6 respondit, Jisec nos
non respicere ; postea, dictum Trevaux retraxisse ; et

* Ex pacto mutuo V. V. A.

APPENDIX G.

301

tandem,, die 18 Jan. hujus Anni, in Epistola nolns data,
Typisque mandata, scripsit, Presbyterura Trevaux suo
Praelato satisfeeisse, nulla facta de satisfactionis modo
vel terminis mentione. Interim, Nos persuasum habe-
mus, hunc Presbyterum schisniaticam suam doctrinam
nee retraxisse, nee retractare velle ; idemque dicendum
de quamplurimis aliis ejus Collegis.

De hisce controversiis omnibus pluries scripsit Ar-
cfiiepiscopus Dubllniensis Illustrissimo D. Quarantotti
S. Congregationis Vice-Praefecto, et fusiori calamo D.
Milner in Explanations cumD. P. Mense Martio 1812,
Typis impressa sed non vulgata, quam ad Emiuentissi-
muni D. Card, della Sommaglia pervenisse scimus : ad
eamdem igitur,, et inclusam nostram Epistolam Pas-
toralem Eminentiam Vestram remittimus pro pleniori
informatione.

Interim fausta quaeque Eminentiae Vestrae, debito
cum Obsequio, subscribimur, Dublinii, in Cen-
ventu nostro generali, die 12 Novembris, 1813,

Eminentissime Domine,
Vestri humillimi et obedientissimi in Christo Servi,

Ricardus O'Reilly, Archie-
piscopois Artnacanus, &c.

Thomas Bray, Archvepiscopws
Casseliensis.

Franciscus Moylan, Episco-

pus C orcagiensis.
P. J. Plunkett, Episcopus

Midensis.
Thomas Castello, Episcopus

Clonfertensis.
Patricias Mac Mullan, Episc.

Dunensis et Connorensis.
Carolus O'Donnell, Episcopus

Derrensis.

Fr. Joannes Thos. Dublini-

ensis, &c.
Daniel Murray, Archiepisco-

pus Hieropolis, Coadjutor

Dubliniensis.

Jacobus, Episcopus Fernensis.
P. Ryan, Episcopus Germa-

niciendsis, Coadjutor Fey-

nensis.
Daniel Delany, Episcopus Da-

rensis.

Gulielmus Coppinger, Episco-
pus Cloynensiset Rossensis.
N. I. Episcopus Duacensis et

Fenaberensis.

302

APPENDIX G.

Jacobus Murphy, Episcopus

Clogherensis.
Jacobus O'Shaugnessey,Epis-

copus Laonensis.
Edmundus Derry, Episcopus

Dromorensis,
Petrus Mac Loglin, Episcopus

Rapotensis.
Fergallus O'Reilly, Episcopus

Kilmorensis.
Andreas Multowny, Vic. Cap.

Alladensis.
Carolus Tuohy, Vic. Cap. Lim-

dricensis.

Carolus Sughrue, Episcopus

Kerriensis.
Joannes Flinn, Episcopus A-

cadensis.
Joannes, Episcopus Waterfor-

diensis et Lismerensis.
Fr. Edvardus French, Wardi-

anus Galsiensis.
Oliverius Kelly, Vic. Cap.

Tuamcnsis.
Georgius Thos. Plunkett, Vic*

Cap. Elphinensis.
Petrus Daly, Vic. Cap. Arda-

cadensis.
Ricardus Mansfield, Vic. Cap.

Ossoriensis.

Eminentissirao D. Cardinali di Pietro S.
Congregationis de Propaganda Fide
Praefecto.

Concordat cum Autographo,

FR. JOANNES THOMAS,
Archiepiscopus Dubliniensis, &c.

APPENDIX H.

Extract from Dr. MUner's PASTORAL CHARGE
of March 30, 1813.

ON THE CATHOLIC BIBLE SOCIETY.

HAVING said thus much to you, my Brethren, con-
cerning the doctrine of the Church, I must subjoin a
few words concerning the right way of inculcating this

APPENDIX H. 303

to the people, Of late years you know that numerous
Societies have been formed, and incredible sums of mo-
ney raised throughout the United Kingdom, amonjj
Christians of other communions, for the purpose of dis-
tributing Bibles gratis to allpoor people who are willing
to accept of them. In acting thus they act conformably
to the fundamental principles of their religion, which
teach, that " the Bible contains all things necessary for
" salvation, and that it is easy to be understood by every
" person of common sense." But who could have
imagined that Catholics, grounded upon quite oppo-
site principles^ should nevertheless show a disposition
to follow the example of Protestants, in this particu -
lar ; by forming themselves also into Bible Societies,
and contributing their money for putting the mysteri-
ous letter of God's Word into the hands of the illite-
rate poor, instead of educating Clergymen, even in the
present distressing scarcity of Clergy, to expound the
sense of that word to them. Yet such has been the
influence either of public opinion or of politics upon se-
veral Catholics of both Islands at the beginning of this
19th Century ! As it is highly probable that the pre-
vailing Biblio-mania may soon reach this district, I
think it my duty to lay down a few maxims on this
subject, which, in the supposed case, you will not fail,
my Dear Brethren, to impress upon the minds of your
people.

1. When our Saviour, Christ, sent his Apostles to
convert the world, he did not say to them : Go and dis-
tribute volumes of the Scripture among the nations of
the world ; but : Go into the whole world and PREA Cff
the gospel to every creature. Mark xvi. 15.

2. It is notorious that not one of the nations, con-
verted by the Apostles or their successors, nor any
part of a nation, was converted by reading the Scrip-
tures. No, they were converted in the way appointed

gii

304 APPENDIX M.

by Christ, that of preaching the Gospel, as is seen in
the Acts of the Apostles, Bede's History, &c.

3. The promiscuous reading of the Bible is not cal-
culated nor intended by God as the means of convey-
ing religious instruction to the bulk of mankind. For
the bulk of mankind cannot read at all ; and we do
not find any Divine commandment as to their being
obliged to study letters. In the next place, the Bible
is a book, which, though inspired, is more or less ob-
scure in most parts of it, and full of things hard to be
understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest to
their own destruction. 2 Pet. iii. 16. Some texts seem
to contradict others : several appear to inculcate the
very vices which God condemns. Hence the worst
of crimes may be perpetrated and defended, as they
very frequently have been, on the supposed authority
of Scripture ; when scripture is left to the interpreta-
tion of the ignorant or ill-disposed. Thus all the hor-
rors and follies of the Grand Rebellion, even to the
murder of the King, were supposed by the people
to be authorized by certain texts of Scripture.* In
a •word, it is evidently a much more rational plan
to put the Statutes at large into the hands of the
illiterate vulgar, telling them to become their own
Lawyers, than it is to put the text itself of the mys-
terious Bible into their hands, for enabling them to
hammer their religion and morality out of it.

4. Even the learned among those Christians who
make the text alone their rule, cannot agree on the
sense of Scripture in its fundamental points ; as the end-
less variations of Protestants on all religious subjects
prove. Hence we may infer, what experience prove*

* This is acknowledged by Dr. Hey in his Norrisian Lec-
tures, Vol. I. p. 77, and by other ingenuous Protestant
writers.

305

to be the case, that a plain, well meaning man, follow-
ing that rule, may spend a great deal of time, every
day of his life, in reading the Scriptures, without ac-
quiring any clear, consistent plan of religion whatso-
ever from it. The adoption of the rule and practice in
question will indeed unsettle and pervert ignorant Ca-
tholics ; and on this very account the Bible Societies
are so very industrious in deluging Ireland with Bibles ;
but they will never make a believer in the 39 Articles,
or in any other existing or possible Confession of Faith
whatsoever.

5, We perfectly agree with the Bibliomanists that the
word of God is the bread of life, and an inestimable
treasure, brought from heaven itself, and which ought
not to be locked up from the most illiterate of mankind,
but which rather ought to be more largely imparted to
them in proportion to their ignorance : but then we
know, and we force our opponents occasionally to ad-
mit, that the Word of God is twofold, the written word
and the unwritten word, or tradition. We shew that
both these are, and ever have been, carefully preserved
in the Catholic Church, and are communicated to the
faithful in a manner adapted to their comprehension,
by the viva voce instructions of her Pastors, whose^/**£
and most essential duty she declares it is * to break
the word of God to them by preaching, as likewise in
her approved Catechisms, and other books of instruc-
tion and morality. In these all the necessary truths of
Revelation, whether contained in the Written or the
Unwritten Word of God, have been collected together,
digested in a regular order, and expressed in the clear-
est terms by the most learned and pious Prelates and
other Divines, under the inspection and authority of
the Infallible Church of Christ. Hence it appears,

* Trid. Sept. v. DC Ref. c. 2. Sept. xxiv. De Ref. c. 4.
2R2

305 APPENDIX H.

and it really is, that a plain Catholic peasant, who ia
well grounded in the knowledge of his Catechism, re-
ally knows more of the Word of God, as to the sense
and substance of it, than a Methodist Preacher, who
can repeat the words of the whole Bible by heart. — As
to the text itself of the Bible, the Catholic Church, sa
far from locking that up, requires her Pastors to study
the whole of it assiduously, as being, by excellence,
the Liber Sacerdotalis ; and she imposes an obligation
upon them, under the guilt of a grievous sin, as you
•well know, to recite no small portion of it every day of
their lives. She moreover recommends the reading of
it to all persons who have some tincture of learning,
and an adequate knowledge of their religion, together
with the necessary humility and docility to dispose
them (in common with her first Pastors and the Pope
himself) to submit their own private opinion upon all
articles of faith, to the belief qf the Great Church of
all ages and all nations.

In conclusion, my Dear and Beloved Brethren, I am
confident you will not encourage or countenance the
distribution of Bibles or Testaments among the very
illiterate persons of your respective congregations, as
proper initiatory books of instruction for them. Rather
procure for them, if you can, a sufficient number of
copies of the First and Second Catechism) the Catholic
Christian Instructed, &c.

J. MILKER, Bp. of Castab. V. A.
W. H—n, March 30, 1813.

ADDITIONAL APPENDIX.

DISSERTATION ON THE COPY OF

THE PROTESTATION
IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

THE Deed of Protestation was drawn up, at the
latter end of the year 1788, by the late Lord Stanhope,
as Mr. Charles Butler asserts *; and thus much the
writer is willing- to allow, that his Lordship and Ro-
bert Lord Petre were greatly concerned in the compo-
sition and patronage of it. Being a composition
equally faulty in grammar, logic, and theology, it
was generally disapproved of by the Catholics at its
first appearance. This will be concluded from Mr.
Butler's confession, where he writes : " All of them,"
the four Vicars Apostolic, " made some difficulties to
the signing of it ; but all of them, except perhaps Mr.
Gibson," the Rt. Rev. Mat. Gibson, S. T. P. " wav-
ed their objections, and signed it f." The writer well

* Historical Memoirs of the English Catholics, vol. ii.
p. 112.

f Mr. C. Butler's MS. Letter to the V.V. A. p.28, called The
Red Book, because the copies of it are bound in red Morocco,

308 ADDITIONAL

remembers the principal arguments with which he and
the rest of the Catholic Clergy, who objected to the
theological inaccuracies of the instrument, were plied
by the divines and other agents of the Committee, and
in the end prevailed upon to sign it. These said :
This is not an oath, and me have an assurance that it
will not be followed by any oath : it is merely a treaty
between man and man. Now, in such treaties, if there
be no deception, there is no moral guilt. True it is,
that certain clauses of the Protestation are not expressed
with the accuracy of our scholastic theology ; but the
Protestants, to whom it is to be presented, are not ac-
customed to the nicety of our schools. To judge of the
sense in which they will understand your declarations,
you must look at the accusations against you, which the
declarations deny. Finally, as the Committee have
procured this instrument to be corrected, as far as it
was possible to obtain the admission of corrections, you
must either sign it as it is, or sit down under the impu-
tation of perjury, treason, and regicide.

When, by these and other arguments, but most of
all by the influence of example, (one leading man being
followed by a great many others of less weight) the
greater part of our Prelates, Clergy, and Gentry, had
signed the Protestation, Mr. Secretary, and the other
agents of the Committee, gave themselves no further
trouble about the sentiments of the body ; but totally
omitting the accusations contained in the instrument,
which accusations they had described as the hey to the
answers in it, and essentially changing the answers
themselves in other respects *, they proceeded, con-
trary to their late positive engagement, to reduce these

* A printed copy of the condemned oath, in its original
shape, will be lodged in the Museum, to be compared with
the assertions in the Protestation.

APPENDIX. 309

into the form of an oath, without consulthig with their
Prelates or Clergy, or with any other description of
Catholics whomsoever. This oath they inserted in the
Relief Bill, which they published in the newspapers,
and got Mr. Mitford, now Lord Redesdale, to pro-
pose in Parliament. The Prelates, however, were on
their guard for the safety of their Religion ; and ac-
cordingly, having met together, first on the 19th of
October, 1789, and secondly, on the 21st of January,
1V91*, they condemned the Committee's form of oath,
as unlawful to be taken by Catholics. These condem-
nations were followed, each time, by what is called
A Blue Book-\-, subscribed with the respectable names
of the members of the Committee, but chiefly composed,
and wholly published by Mr. Secretary Butler, of Lin-
coln's Inn. The contest now became formal and
earnest, between a small, but compact and powerful
set of Catholics, under the direction of this Secretary,
and the great body of Catholics throughout England,
under their Vicars Apostolic, concerning the tenets of
the common Religion ; as, in fact, the Oath of the
Bill contained many more articles of religious belief,
than of civil allegiance.

The present writer was the accredited agent of the
Catholic Bishops ; in which capacity he got printed
and distributed among the members of the House of
Commons, the very day on which the Bill containing
the censured oath was formally brought into it, a
paper entitled FACTS, &c. which produced the most
happy effect on the minds of Mr. Pitt and other mem-

* A copy of the latter letter, which quotes all that is ma-
terial in the first, will be sent to the Museum.

t They were so called because they had no titles, and
were covered with blue paper.

310 ADDITIONAL

bers of the Legislature, in favour of the main body of
Catholics. It consisted of the objections of the Ca-
tholic Clergy to certain passages in the oath, as
also to the adopted title of PROTESTING DIS-
SENTERS ; of Mr. Butler's answers, in the name
of the Committee, to those objections ; and of a com-
plete refutation of those answers *. To rejoin, the

learned Secretary's cause did not permit him ; his only
resource, therefore, was to dispute the writer's autho-
rity to memorialize Parliament. Accordingly, he
printed and circulated a paper among members of Par-
liament, which he has since reprinted in his Third
Blue Book-^, (still concealing himself behind the names
of the Committee) of which the following is the sub-
stance : We who are the Committee of the English Ca-
tholics, approve of and are ready to take the Oath and
new title contained in the Bill before you : whereas one
J. M. who prof esses to object, in the name of thousands,
to that Oath and title, when called upon for his autho-
rity, could only produce the names of three individuals,
who, themselves, are not authorized to speak for any other
Catholics but themselves J . If you choose to make an
Act of Parliament for these four individuals, you may
do so ; but we the PROTESTING DISSENTING

* See above APPENDIX D.

f This paper is printed in the Appendix to the Third Blue
Book, No. VII. and a copy of it will be deposited, together
•with this Dissertation, in the Museum.

} The author conceals that these three individuals were
Vicars Apostolic, whom the whole Catholic body looked up
to and invoked, to procure for them an orthodox form of
oath. A clear proof of this fact is seen in the printed letter
of the 55 priests of Lancashire to their Bishop, which will be
sent to the Museum.

APPENDIX. an

€4 THOLICS of England will take the Oath as often
as it is offered to us. In aid of this deception, a splen-
did edition of The Protestation, on royal paper, con-
taining the names of most of the well-known and
respectable Catholics who had signed it, was circulat-
ed with the above-mentioned hand-bill, under the pre-
tence that the condemned Oath and the Protestation
are the same thing-, and that all, who signed the latter,
were supporters of the former. It will be readily con-
ceived that the present writer's name, though it had
unfortunately been signed to that instrument, was left
out of the splendid edition in question ; as its appear-
ance in it would have destroyed the illusion, namely,
that he and his three friends (the Vicars Apostolic)
made a party against all the other Catholics of Eng-
land *. Several weeks however afterwards, when the
fraudulent attempt had totally failed of success, the
learned gentleman thought it prudent to print and
circulate another royal edition of the Protestation^ in.
which he restored the writer's name, and those of other
Catholics, which he had suppressed in the former edi-
tion f. Being called, on the 10th of May, 1792, to
an account by the writer, for this variation with respect
to his name in the two editions, the Secretary pretend-
ed to account for it, by alledging that, on the former
occasion, some of the skins of parchment had slipt
aside in printing : but not liking that account, he
wrote a letter the next day to the writer, saying that
he " did not superintend the press, and was

* A copy of this royal paper edition will be sent to the
Museum.

f A copy of this edition also will be lodged in the same na»
tional repository.

2s

112 ADDITIONAL

rant to what accident the omission in question was
owing *."

To be brief : the Legislature was not to be imposed
upon, either by pompous pretensions or shallow arti-
fices. The House of Commons rejected the new title,
and endeavoured to accommodate the oath to the con-
sciences of the prelatic party, that is to say, of the Ca-
tholics in general j and the House of Lords, after a tho-
rough investigation of the whole controversy, flung the
faulty oath entirely out of their doors f, and gave the
Catholics, in its stead, the oath they prayed for. that
of their brethren in Ireland. Thus Parliament having
interfered, and prescribed to us, in the Oath of our
Act, the precise terms in which we are henceforward
to abjure the noxious doctrines and practices imputed
to us, a legal end was put to the Protestation, and
both peace and common sense required that we should
argue no more about it. But such was not the will of
Mr. Butler and his party : they were resolved to sing a
Te Denm after their defeat ; and therefore, having col-
lected their strength at the Crown and Anchor Tavern,
on the 9th of June, 1791, a motion was made, that as
the OatJicontained in the Act is not expressed in the words
of the Protestation, the Catholics adhere to the latter,
and will endeavour to get it deposited in the Museum.
The company divided on the motion, when there ap-
peared, according to Mr. Butler's printed account, 21
clergymen and 83 laymen for it, and 30 clergymen
(including Bishop Douglass, and Bishop Walmesley's

* The original letter, in the hand-writing of Mr. C. B.
being not a confidential, but a hostile one, and relating to a
national establishment, is sent to the Museum.

f See an account of the speeches, made on the occasion,
in the Parliamentary Reports, and in the Supplementary Me~
moirs.

APPENDIX. 3la

representative, the Rev. W. Cooinbes, and the writer,
who was agent to the Vicars Apostolic) with 42 lay-
men, against it *. In the mean time, it is unquestion-
ably true, and may be gathered from the printed letter
of the Lancashire Clergy, that 99 in every 100 Catho-
lics hold the Protestation, and ever since its malice
became manifest in the proscribed Oath, have held it
in the utmost detestation. — Such is the history of the
Protestation, and such the occasion of a copy of it
being lodged by Mr. C. Butler in the British Museum.
——Two words more are necessary for completing this
narrative. Certain members of the Cisalpine Club, so
called, being the succession or continuation of the old
Lincoln's Inn Committee, having formed a design, in
1795, of summoning all those who had signed the
Protestation to stand forward in defence of its errors,
they began with calling the present writer and the Rev.4
Charles PlowJen to an account, in a printed paper f,
for certain imputations which they had severally cast,
three or four years before, on the authenticity of the
copy in the Museum. These authors answered the
challenge, each of them in a work of some length J; and
the Cisalpine lawyers made a feeble reply §, taking

* Mr. Butler's account of this meeting, printed on a broad
sheet, will accompany the other papers to the Museum.

f Both the papers of the Cisalpine Reporters, as received
by the writer from them, are sent to the Museum.

* A Reply to the Report published by the Cisalpine Club. By
the Rev. J. M. p. 36. A Letter from the Rcc. Charles Plowden
to C. Butler, W. Cruise, &c. p. 44.

§ The present writer was led into one mistake, in his
Reply to the Report of the Cisalpine Club, by supposing that
the list of names signed in 1789 had been affixed to the
copies of the Protestation presented to Parliament, and of

2s2

114 ADDITIONAL

care as they did, not to notice the writers* posit ice
proofs of the spuriousness of the copy, which proofs
•will be stated below. Mr. Charles Butler has thought
proper, within these two years, to renew the subject*,
but without mentioning the names of his opponents ; and
the present writer has answered him in the above
SUPPLEMENTARY MEMOIRS.

It is not to be supposed that those strict Catholics,
who object to The Protestation , as an inaccurate expo-*
sition of their principles on the five heads to which it
refers, hold any one of the noxious doctrines rejected
rn it ; they only object to the loose, inaccurate terms in
which those doctrines are there denied ; for, 1st, They
do not believe that the Pope or a General Council can
depose His Majesty, or absolve them from their allegiance
to him ; nor, 2dly, that the Pope or Council can autho-
rize them to take up arms against their Sovereign ;
nor, 3dly, that the Pope can dispense with the obli-
gations of an Oath of Allegiance, or any other oath
or compact between man and man ; nor, 4thly, that
the Pope or other Priest has power to pardon sins at
his arbitrary will and pleasure ; nor, Sthly, thai faith
need not be kept with heretics or infidels. Still, for exam-
ple, they believe, contrary to the terms of the Protesta-
tion, that some oaths, and vows, (such as those of immo-

eourse, that they had afterwards been disannexed, Over this
mistake the reporters triumph ; yet the writer was led into
it by trusting implicitly to Mr. Butler's account of the busi-
ness in his Blue Books. In the first he says, p. 13, " An
instrument was generally signed and presented to both Houses :"
in the third B. B. he says, p. 8, " The Protestation was
a solemn instrument, signed, with a few exceptions, by all
the Clergy, &c. : to the Houses of Parliament your Com-
mittee had solemnly presented it."

* Memoirs of Eng. Cath, vol. ii. p. 136.

APPENDIX. 315

derate prayer or fasting) may be dispensed with by the
Pope, and that sin (for example original sin) may, in
some circumstances, be remitted at the will of t he Priest,
as the condition of the remittance ; in as much as it
may depend on the will of a Priest to administer the
Sacrament of Baptism to an infant or not.

Nor is it to be supposed that, in charging the instru-
ment in the Museum with being a spurious copy of the
Protestation, instead of being " the identical original
signed in 1789," as Mr. C. Butler and the three other
law-members of the Cisalpine Club maintain it to be,
the present writer disputes the honour of the Noble-
men and Gentlemen who have stood up in its de-
fence. The fact is, they have been deceived by their
lawyers, and have not taken the right method to detect
the imposition.

Lastly, however minute and trivial the proofs of
spuriousuess against the Museum copy may appear to
many persons, (as indeed most diplomatic criticism is
liable to this objection) and however unimportant they
may consider the whole question ; namely, which is the
original, and which is the copy ; yet is this question of
importance to the peace and harmony of the Catholic
body, in as much as upon its decision another question
hangs : Whether they shall, at any future period, be
called upon to support and vindicate their signatures to
the fraudulent instrument ? It is of importance also
to the writer, who, 25 years go, was formally chal-
lenged on the subject by Mr. Butler, and who latterly
has been virtually challenged by that Gentleman to a
contest concerning it. Lastly, the question is of great
importance to THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM,
as Guardians of the National Archives ; in as much as
they ought not to be imposed upon, in the discharge of
their high trust, with impunity.

No attestation can be more positive than that of

316 ADDITIONAL

Mr. Butler in his late publication. He says : " The
instrument of Protestation, deposited at the Museum,
is the identical instrument, which was subscribed by
the Gentlemen who attended the general meeting of
Catholics at the Crown and Anchor in 1789*." This
is conformable to what he and his three law-brethren
of the Cisalpine Club had avowed in their Further
Report, dated May 12, 1795 : " The question is, whe-
ther the instrument, lodged in the Museum, be au-
thentic ; that is, not a copy, but the identical, original
instrument f?" To confirm his assertion, he adds,
in the quoted page : " From the time it was signed to
the present moment, (December 30, 1791, when the
copy was delivered to Dr. Morton, the Librarian of
the Museum) it has been in my custody j!"— And yet
it can be proved to have been frequently, since the be-
ginning of 1789, in the custody of persons who carried
it about London to get signatures affixed to it. Such
proofs, however, are by no means wanting, since the
gentleman's own hand-writing is extant, and will be
left in the Museum, in which he declares as follows,
•with respect to the instrument at the printing of it :
" It was not in my power to superintend the press,
and therefore it was entrusted to another person, and
to what accident the omission in question (of Dr.
Milner's name, and above 300 other names in the first
royal paper edition) was owing, / know not." — Such
was the vigilance of the Learned Gentleman over his
precious charge ! or else, such is the weight of his
testimony for the authenticity of the instrument!

On inspecting the instrument itself, which is pre-
served in a tin box at the Museum, it will be found
to contain no one signature on either of the two
skins of parchment on which it is written ; so that

* Mem. vol. ii. p. 138. f P. I. + P. 138.

APPENDIX. 317

the list of names may possibly have been affixed to dif-
ferent copies of the Protestation, or to other instru-
ments. This defect alone would disqualify a petition
from being received by either House of Parliament :
some names must appear signed on the parchment or
paper which contains the petition, or else it incurs the
suspicion of fraud. This suspicion is increased in the
present instance, by the appearance of 33 empty needle-
holes at the top of the third sheet, where the signatures
begin*, as that circumstance proves that it has been
sewed to some other parchment or paper besides the
one to which it is now affixed.

In the next place, every inspector of the Museum
copy must be struck at the superior freshness of the
two skins containing the instrument itself, compared
with those containing the signatures ; whereas, sup-
posing it to be the original, [from its general interest,
and therefore, from its being inspected and handled by
a great number of persons, and being carried about iu
town and country] it might be expected to be much more
soiled than the skins containing each of them nothing but
a certain number of names. Nor do these two skins
agree with the others in their quality, their dimensions^
or in the perpendicular lines drawn down them. Now
it is not to be supposed that Mr. Butler, in taking
measures for the formation of one and the same impor-
tant instrument, at the beginning of the year 1789,
bought parchment of one quality, size, and decorati-
on, for one part of it, and of another quality, size, and
decoration, for another part of it. No, this is not to be
believed ; but rather, that the learned Secretary, being
dissatisfied with the numerous faults in grammar,

* The original letter of the Rev. Samuel Ayscough, an offi-
cer of the British Museum, to the writer, dated March 4,
1795, concerning this matter, -will be left at the Museum.

318 ADDITIONAL

punctuation, &c. which disgrace the original, and also
with some slight ones in the context, did [in the early
part of the year 1791, when he gave his corrected edi-
tion on royal paper] cause a fresh manuscript copy
to be made on such parchment as he then found, and,
that he sewed it, but accidentally in fresh needle-holes,
at the top of the list of signatures.

But to proceed to proof positive against the authen-
ticity of the Instrument in the Museum : I now hold in
my hand that printed copy of the Protestation, which
Mr. Butler circulated throughout England in the mouth
of April, 1789, with skins of parchment, to obtain
signatures to it, as likewise the identical printed paper
that accompanied the printed copy and skin of parch-
ment which I then received from the said Gentleman.
In this printed paper the Secretary vouches for the
accuracy of the said copy, in the following words:
" You receive with this a printed "copy of the PRO-
TESTATION, which has been attentively compared
with the original, now in my custody, and with it a
skin of parchment, upon which you, and those whose
signatures you procure, are requested to write your
names, and I am, &c. Charles Butler. Lincoln's Inn,
April 7, 1789." These two papers will be deposited
in the Museum. The purport of what is here stated,
is confirmed by Mr. Butler and his three law colleagues
of the CISALPINE CLUB, in their Furtlt»r Report, dated
May 10, 1795, which will equally be left at the Mu-
seum. This Report says : " When the signatures were
collected, and, by reason of the distance of the parties,
the original instrument could not be sent, a printed
copy of it was transmitted, together with a skin of
parchment, and, in some instances, the printed copy
was sewed to the parchment*.'* Thus it is demon*

* Page 3.

APPENDIX. 319

strated, not only that the printed copies in question
were conformable to the original, as it stood in 1789,
but also that they were, with respect to the great body
of Catholics, dispersed throughout England, THE
ORIGINAL itself which they signed. This point being
settled, 1 carry my attested copy to the Museum, and
compare it with the Instrument deposited there by Mr.
Butler, Dec. 30, 1791, when I presently discover
several striking differences between one of them and
the other. That which first strikes my eyes, is, that
the different sections in the attested copy of 1789, are
all marked with Roman numericals thus, I. II. III.
IV. V. ; whereas the same are marked, in the present
parchment at the Museum, with Arabic jigures, and
corresponding letters, thus : 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th.—
Surely Mr. Butler will not say, that any printer in.
England would, of his own authority, presume to
make, or that he himself, as an attentive collator^
would have overlooked the five conspicuous changes in
question.

I now proceed to collate the text of Mr. Butler's
attested copy with the pretended original. In para-
graph the second of section II. I read thus in the
former : " We believe that no act, that is in itself im-
moral or dishonest, can ever be justified by or under
colour that it is done either for the good of the Church,
OR OBEDIENCE to any ecclesiastical power whatever." —
To do a thing/or obedience, is avowedly ungrammati-
cal, and therefore Mr. Butler, in the parchment at the
Museum, and in the several printed editions which he
gave in 1791 and the following years, corrected the
clause FOR OBEDIENCE into IN obedience.

In the next paragraph of the same second section,
another solecism occurs in Mr. Butler's collated text of
1789, in these words : " And we do solemnly declare,
that no Church OR any Prelate, nor any Priest, nor

2 T

320 ADDITIONAL

any assembly of Prelates or Priests, &c." It is
plain that, according to the rules of grammar, the
positive particle OR ought to be changed into the nega-
tive particle NOR ; and accordingly Mr. Butler has so
changed it in the parchment, and iu all his late edi-
tions.

At the beginning of section V. in the attested co-
py, the charge against Catholics stands thus : " And
we have been accused of holding, as a principle of our
Religion, that " Faith is not to be kept with Here-
tics."— This charge is more broadly put, and, of
course, the text altered in the Museum parchment and
the four different editions which Mr. Butler has
given of the Protestation since the spring of 1791 *,
thus : " No Faith is to be kept with Heretics/*

What confirms the fact already proved, and ren-
ders it equal to mathematical demonstration, namely,
that the Original Protestation in 1789 was conformable

* The four editions are, 1st, The folio edition on royal
paper, distributed to Members of Parliament, with a hand-
bill, dated March 31, 1791, being the edition in which Dr.
Milner's name, with those of above 300 other subscribers to
the Protestation, are omitted; — 2dly, Another royal paper
folio edition, containing the omitted names, and circulated
about six weeks after the former ; — 3dly, The quarto edition,
published in 1792, as an Appendix to the Third Blue Book ;
4thly, The octavo edition, lately published in TJie Memoirs of
English Catholics, vol. it. p. 113. In this last edition, be-
sides all the varieties m the Museum-Parchment, and his
printed editions since the beginning of 1791, Mr. Butler has
adopted some fresh alterations. For example, in page 115,.
Une 29, for owe, he puts hold ; and line 9, for thereof, he
puts of if. At p. 117, 1.3, and, whereas, in all former edi-
tions, the charge against us is, that "we can give no security
for our allegiance to ANY government," Mr. B. in the present
edition strikes out the word any, &c.

APPENDIX. 321

to the attested copies of it then circulated throughout
the Catholic body, and signed by a great proportion of
them, and that, of course, the Instrument deposited
by Mr. Butler in the Museum, Dec. 30, 1791, is not
that Original but a corrected copy of it, is the cir-
cumstance which follows : — Robert, Lord Petre, who,
by Mr. Butler's account, in his late Historical Me-
moirs*, was the first Catholic in possession of the Ori-
ginal Protestation, having received it from its sup-
posed author, the late Lord Stanhope, and who, as the
ostensible head of the Committee, had always access to
it, choosing himself to give an edition of it in 1790, as
an Appendix to his Letter to Dr. Horsley, Bishop of
St. David's f, agrees, in everyone of the above-men-
tioned particulars, with the attested copy. His secti-
ons throughout are marked with Roman, not Arabic
numericals. His text contains each of its solecisms,
FOR obedience, instead of IN obedience, — NO Church OR
any Prelate, instead of NO Church NOR any Prelate.
Finally, he quotes the charge at section V. as the at-
tested copy does, " Faith is NOT to be kept with Here-
tics," instead of, " NO Faith is to be kept, 8fc." as the
text has been altered in the Museum copies, and the edi-
tions printed since the beginning of the year 1791.
These facts shew, not only that the Parchment in the
Museum is an altered copy, instead of the " identical
original Protestation, signed in 1789," but also they
point out, within a twelvemonth, when the former was
fabricated ; namely, the fabrication must have happened
between March 22, 1790, the date of Lord Petre's
letter to Bishop Horsley, and March 31, 1791, the

* Page 112.

t The letter is dated March 22, 1790, Faulder, Bond-
street, 1790.

2x2

322 ADDITIONAL

date of the hand-bill which accompanied the first
corrected edition, circulated among- Members of Par-?
liament.

The above-mentioned variations of the modern Pro-
testation in the Museum, from the attested copy of the
Original, has long been known to the writer; but hav-
ing visited London within these few days, he once more
Tisited the National Archiveum, namely yesterday, June
12, 1820, for the purpose of collating the two instru-
ments together with greater nicety than he had hereto-
fore done. The variations between them he has marked
in the manner that printed proofs are corrected, on the
margins of the attested copy, which copy a few days
hence will be deposited with the other documents in the
Museum. On numbering them up, he finds they
amount to above 170 in a single page 1 To be brief:
the fabricator of the Museum copy has followed quite a
different system of pointing, dividing, using capital
and small characters, and, in two instances, of spell-
ing, from that of the attested copy, and therefore of
the Original Protestation itself; and almost all of these
170 alterations, as they stand in the Museum Parch-
ment, and the four editions since 1791, are manifest

improvements of the old text of 1789. — In short :

as evidently true as is the mathematical axiom, Quas
non sunt aequalia uni tertioy ea non sunt sequalia
inter se : so evidently true is it, that the Instrument in
the Museum is not the Original Protestation of 1789,
but a corrected copy of it of a later dale, to which the
signatures of the former instrument have been annexed,
by sewing them on to it. This, however, it is evident,
could not be done without a gross injury to the 1500
subscribers in question, to the 104 individuals, who, in
opposition to 72 other individuals, voted to place the
Original in the Museum ; as likewise to the Trustees

APPENDIX. 323

of the National Archives, to whom it was delivered, in
the person of the late Dr. Morton, on the 30th of De-
cember, 1791, as the said Original.

The present writer cannot quit this subject without a
remark on the needle-holes at the top of the first skin.
These seem to argue that it was preceded by another
skin, now cut away, and which he supposes to have
contained the title that Mr. Butler gave to the two
royal folio editions, and to the Blue Book quarto edition
of it, namely, " The Declaration and Protestation signed
" by the ENGLISH CATHOLIC DISSENTERS in
<( 1789, with the names of those who signed «'£." This
title, however, being extremely odious to Catholics, and
rejected by Parliament some time before the Act of Re-
lief passed, the Secretary was obliged to abandon it.

But, whatever may be said of the top of the scroll,
Mr. Butler has most decidedly vitiated its character, as
a genuine instrument, at the bottom of it, by affixing1
to it, as a part belonging to it, (and this without the
authority or the knowledge of any description of Ca-
tholics whomsoever,) an additional skin of parchment,
containing an account of the Protestation, which sup-
presses the truth and insinuates falsehood in many
particulars. In giving this account, in fairness he
ought to have recorded what he has elsewhere confessed,
the unwillingness of the Prelates, Clergy, and other
Catholics, to sign that Instrument in the first instance,
and the explanations under which they unwillingly
signed it afterwards ; which fair statement would, at
once, have undermined the boast of its being " A mo-
nument of political and moral integrity !" Ought he
not also to have informed posterity, that the Legisla-
ture, having weighed the objections of conscientious
Catholics against the faulty instrument, was pleased,
in its humanity and wisdom, to appoint the test or form
of Protestation against bad doctrine, which it deemed

324 ADDITIONAL

proper for Catholics to adhere to, and that the parch-
ment in the Museum was brought thither from no
honourable motive ? But, whereas he represents, as
certain facts, that only four Catholics wished to with-
draw their names from the Protestation, and that a
General Meeting of them resolved to place it in the
Museum ; ought he not to have signified, that even at
that partial and influenced assembly, thirty Priests and
forty-two laymen voted against twenty-one Priests and
eighty-three laymen, that it should not be there depo-
sited, or held in further remembrance, and that the
fame was and is the well-known general sentiment of
English Catholics ?

Relative to the list of signatures, the writer will say
but two words. The learned Gentleman professes, in his
additional skin, containing his letter to Dr. Morton, and
in the title to all his later editions of the Instrument, to
give " The Declaration and Protestation signed by the
English Catholic Dissenters in 1789, with the names of
those who signed zY." This, in its plain sense, means
that he gives all the names of those who then signed it,
and no other names but those" Now it has been de-
monstrated from the documents presented to the Mu-
seum, that the learned editor printed and circulated
among Members of Parliament, in the spring of 1791,
ft splendid edition of the Protestation, with a professed
list of tftose who signed it, which list, however, was
deficient in more than 300 names ! and that, in excuse
for this, he alledged he did not know to what accident
the omission was owing ! On the other hand, on com -
paring the last skin of signatures in the Museum-instru-
ment, with the second Royal paper and the Blue Book
editions, which are represented as containing a full and
perfect list of the subscribers' names, certain names are
seen in the first mentioned which do not appear in the
latter, and among others that of the noted Dr. Alex-

APPENDIX. 325

ander Geddes. The admission of this Scotch unbeliever's
name into a public Register of English Catholics is a
peculiar injury to them ; as, when they were reproached
with having a writer among them, who did not believe in
the inspiration of the Scriptures, they were accustomed
to answer that Dr. Geddes did not belong to them, being
suspended as a priest and excommunicated as a Catholic.
This plea, however, Mr. Butler attempts, by his own
authority, to deprive them of; at the same time that he
imposes, on the Guardians of the National Archives,
an interpolated list of names, as well as a spurious
record.

J. M. D. D.

List of Papers respecting The authenticity of the Pro-
testation of the Catholics in the British Museum,
presented to the M. Rev., JR. Rev., Rt. Hon., and
other Trustees of that Archireum, with a Disserta-
tion on the subject by Dr. Milner, June 1, 1820.

No 1. The first printed copy of the Protestation,
circulated among Catholics by Charles Butler, Esq.
in the Spring- of 1789, and signed, as an original, by
most Catholics out of London. With this edition agrees
that of Lord Petre, published by him in his Letter to
Dr. Horsley, March 22, 1790.

No. 2. Accompanying printed letter of Mr. Butler,
dated April 7, 1789, in which he certifies, that his
printed letter "has been attentively compared with
the original."

No. 3. First royal paper edition of the Protesta-
tion, circulated among Members of Parliament lit

326 ADDITIONAL

April 1791. In this edition certain changes are made,
and the name of Dr. Milner, with those of above three
hundred other subscribers, is left out.-

No. 4. Copy of a hand-bill, called State of Facts,
circulated with the last mentioned edition, and after-
wards republished in The Appendix to the Tliird Blue
Book. No. VII. The object of this hand-bill, and of
the imperfect list of names, was to make it appear that
the Committee-party were all the Catholics of England,
and that Dr. Milner was supported only by three name-
less persons (the Vicars Apostolic.)

No. 5. Printed letter from the Clergy of Lanca-
shire, to the number of fifty-five, dated Jan. 1, 1789.
In this they testify, that " few either of the Ecclesias-
tics or the Laity will take the Oath," grounded on the
Protestation ; and they call upon their Prelate, with
his brethren, " to strike out some other line."

No. 6. Printed Copy of Heads of the Bill for the
relief of Protesting Catholic Dissenters, with the Oath
it contained, as settled by Mr. B. &c. and advocated
by him in his first Blue Book. The Oath is far more
objectionable than the Protestation.

No. 7. Second royal paper edition, for the use of
Parliament, containing a perfect list of names, as they
then stood, and circulated about six weeks after the
first edition on Royal-paper.

No. 8. Original letter (hostile, not confidential)
from Charles Butler, Esq. to Dr. Milner, in which he
confesses \hatanother person, and not himself, superin-
tended the press, when the mutilated list of names was
printed ; and that he knows not how the omission hap-
pened.— Of course the Protestation was not at that time
in his custody.

No. 9. Mr. Butler's printed account of the Tavern
Meeting, June 9, 1791, when a majority of the laity

APPENDIX.

327

present, in opposition to their Bishops and a majority
of the Clergy, voted to send the (supposed) Original
Protestation to the Museum.

No. 10. First Report of Mr. Butler and three other
lawyers of the Cisalpine Club, on the authenticity of
the parchment sent to the writer 28 Feb. 1795.

No. 11. Further Report of ditto, May 12, 1795.

No. 12. Original letter of the Rev. Samuel Ays-
cough, Sub-librarian of the Museum, to the writer, on
the state of the Museum Parchment.

No. 13. Mrl Butler's fourth edition of the Protes-
tation, printed as an Appendix to the ThirtTBlne Book;
which, though it was printed after the parchment con-
taining the name of Dr. Geddes, was delivered by him
to the Museum ; yet, as this edition was intended for
the use of Catholics, that name has been left out of it
by the Editor.

CONTENTS,

PART I.

PACE

AMBIG UO US Character of the Historical Memoirs , 1

t/ie Spiritual Supremacy of the Crown 5

The Temporal Power of th? Pope .... ,.« 12

Imputation on the martyred Priests 18

The Powd-r Plot 22

The Oath of Allegiance 25

Steady Loyalty of the Catholic Body ... 35

Principles of Catholics since the Revolution 39

Consequences of the legal Relief 43

Formation of the Catholic Committee „, 46

The Protestation » 54

Formation of a new Oath 58

Condemnation of the Oath -. 63

Death of two Vicars Apostolic 67

Appointment of two new Bishops , 70

Fresh Condemnation of the Oath 73

Scldsmatical Protest 75

Introduction of the Bill into Parliament 78

Straits of the Committee. 8Q

Final Issue of the Contest 84

Meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern 87

Fresh Contest about the Protestation, 89

Further Transactions at tlte Tavern Meeting ,... 91

The Mediation „ ., 97

The Cisalpine Club ., ... 99

The Roman Catholic, Meeting 101

Results of the French Retolution to English Catholics ... 102

Peace restored to the English Mission 108

f

CONTENTS. 329

•

PART II.

PAGE

The Veto 113

Intermediate Negotiations 117

The Right Hon. Mr, Ponsonby's Proposal in 1808 ...... 121

Sentiments of the Irish Prelates relative to the Veto .. 128

Th e Writer's Sen timcn ts respecting the Veto 1 30

Formation of the English Board 135

The Fifth Resolution ,, ,,,.., ,,,.. 138

The Tavern Meetings , 146

Presentation of the Resolution to the House of Lords 1 60

.Falsifications of Lord Grey's Speech ~ 1 64

Consequences of the Resolu tion in Ireland , , . , , « . . 1 65

Opposition in England to the Acts of the Irish Synod , 169

Pacific Overtures ....,., ,, 173

The Blanchardist Schism 177

Pacificatory Progress of Bishop Moylan 185

The Bill of 1813 190

Chief Contents of the Bill of 1813 195

Opposition to the Bill 202

Failure of the Bill 208

The new Plan of Proceeding 213.

Consignor Quarantofti's Rescript 217

Restoration of the Pope , 227

Cardinal Litta's Letter from Genoa , 232

Letter of his Holiness to the Prelates of Ireland 237

The Catholic Bible Society ., 239

The Bible Schools 244

Restoration of a right Understanding amongst the Prelates 247

Closing of the French Schism in England 253

Project of perpetual Peace 255

Post script ...... M.. .......,M •. :•'••' 260

APPENDIX.

A. Copy of a Letter from the Vicar Apostolic of the Mid-

land District to a General Vicar of lite same District 263

B. Entyclical Letter of the four Vicars Apostolic 278

330 CONTENTS*

PACE

C. Protest of the Committee against -the Encyclical Letters

of the V. V. A. extracted from the Second Blue Book 280

1). Facts relating to the present Contests among the Roman
Catholics of this Kingdom concerning the Bill to be
introduced into Parliament for their Relief 282

£. Copy of Dr. Milner's Apology offered at the Meeting in

Durham, August 23, 1812 290

F. A brief Memorial of the Catholic Bill 292

G. Copy of a Synodical Letter of the Prelates of Ireland 296
H. Extract from Dr. Milner's Pastoral Charge of March

30, 1813 , 302

P

ADDITIONAL APPENDIX.

Dissertation on the Copy of the Protestation in the British

Museum .. 307

List of Papers respecting The Authenticity of the Protesta-
tion of the Catholics in the British Museum, presented
to tJie M. Rev., R. Rev., Kt. Hon., and other Trustees
of that Archiveum, with a Dissertation on the Subject
by Dr. Milner, June 2, 1820 32-5

ERRATUM— Append. G.— P. 299, 1. 23, lege Concordat!.

Keating and Brown, Printers, 38, Duke-street,
Grosvenor-square, London.