DOCUMENTS

AFTER

THE REFORMATION.

SUCH were the sentiments of our catholic ancestors before the reformation: but it is of more importance to ascertain whether these sentiments continued to prevail among their catholic descendents, after the protestant had been established on the ruins of the catholic faith, and the sceptre had been placed in the hands of protestant princes. I shall therefore proceed to shew, that, on many occasions since the reformation, the catholics have offered to government the most convincing proofs, that they did not believe the pope to possess, in virtue of his spiritual supremacy, the right of deposing kings, or of absolving subjects from their allegiance, or of exercising any temporal jurisdiction whatsoever within this empire.

As soon as Elizabeth was firmly seated on the throne, the oath of supremacy, which had been originally framed by her father, and repealed under her sister

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Mary, was re-enacted, and ordered to be taken by all ecclesiastics, and by all persons receiving fee or wages from the crown. As it contained a declaration that no foreign prelate had any ecclesiastical or spiritual authority or pre-eminence within the realm, it was refused by all those who professed to adhere to the ancient creed. In the fifth year of the queen's reign, the obligation of taking the oath was extended to the lower house of parliament: the members of the upper house were exempted, and this exemption was grounded on the following remarkable reason," that the queen's majesty was otherwise sufficiently assured of the faith and loyalty of the temporal lords of her high court of parliament." Hence, (for among these temporal lords were to be found all the principal patrons of the ancient faith,) I think it may be fairly inferred, that, in the opinion of Elizabeth and her ministers, the acknowledgment of the papal supremacy did not necessarily include the admission of any temporal superiority, and that in well-informed catholics, at least, it was easy to unite the spiritual submission which they thought due to the pope as the head of their church, with the temporal allegiance due to the sovereign as the head of the state.

In 1569, Pius V. prepared a bull against the queen, in which he pronounced her excommunicated, deposed her from the throne, and absolved her subjects from their allegiance. In the same year broke out the rebellion in the north under the earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, who by their emissaries endeavoured to secure the co-operation of the principal catholic families in the rest of England. Yet, notwithstanding their solicitations, these catholics persevered in their allegiance, and many of them spontaneously delivered up to justice the messengers from the rebel earls: an instance of loyalty which called from Elizabeth the warmest expressions of satisfaction and gratitude.

In 1570 the bull was published, and some of the principal among the deprived catholic prelates were

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required to give an answer to the following question : "Whether by the bull of the pope, or by any other "declaration or sentence pronounced or to be pro"nounced, they believed the queen to be divested of "her right to the crown, or her subjects freed from the duty of fidelity and obedience?" They unanimously answered, that," notwithstanding the said bull, or any "other declaration or sentence of the pope, pronounced "or to be pronounced, they held queen Elizabeth to "be the lawful sovereign of England and Ireland, and "that to her, as such, obedience and fidelity were due "from all Englishmen and Irishmen." This declaration was subscribed by Dr. Watson, bishop of Lincoln; Feckenham, abbot of Westminster; Cole, dean of St. Paul's; and the two Harpsfields, dean, and archdeacon of Canterbury. To the same question similar answers were given by Dr. Heath, archbishop of York, and Drs. Pool, Tunstal, White, Ogelthorpe, and Thirlby, the deprived bishops of Peterborough, Durham, Winchester, Carlisle, and Ely: who with many others readily professed their obedience to her majesty, and "offered readily in her majesty's defence to impugn "and resist any foreign force, though it should come "or be procured from the pope himself."†

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*

In 1588, Philip II. of Spain, irritated by the assistance which Elizabeth had afforded to the inhabitants of the Netherlands, and the execution of Mary, queen of Scots, determined to attempt the invasion of England. On this trying occasion, the English catholics gave the most convincing proofs of their loyalty. "The catholics," says Hume," generally expressed great zeal for the public service. Some gentlemen of that sect, conscious that they could not justly expect any trust or authority, entered themselves as volunteers in the fleet or army: some equipped ships at their own charge, and gave the command of them to protestants and others were active in animating

*Caron Remonstrantia Hibernorum, p. 38.

+ Lord Burleigh's Execution of Justice, p. 10, II.

During the long reign of Elizabeth, more than one hundred and fifty persons were executed for their attachment to the ancient faith. At last the queen appeared to feel remorse for the effusion of so much blood: aud a few months before her death, held out to the catholics, in a proclamation, some hope of relief from the pressure of the penal laws, provided they would make a satisfactory declaration of their allegiance. The offer was readily accepted. The heads of the catholic clergy, on the thirty-first of January, presented to the council a protestation of allegiance, from which I shall extract the principal passages.

After acknowledging the queen to be their sovereign, and that no authority, cause or pretence can be a sufficient warrant to them, more than other protest. ant, to disobey her majesty in any civil or temporal matter, they proceed thus: "And we do sincerely protest, and by this our public fact make known to all the Christian world, that in cases of conspiracies, of practising her majesty's death, of invasions, and of whatsoever forcible attempts, which may hereafter be made by any foreign prelate, prince or potentate whatsoever, either jointly or severally, for the disturbance or subversion of her majesty's person, estate, realms or dominions, under colour, shew, or pretence or intendment of restoring the catholic religion in England or Ireland, we will defend her majesty's person, estate, realms, and dominions from all such forcible and violent assaults and injuries. And, if upon any excommunications denounced or to be denounced against her majesty, upon any such conspiracies, invasions, or forcible attempts to be made, as are before expressed, the pope should also excommunicate every one born within her majesty's dominions, who would not forsake the aforesaid defence of her majesty and her realms, and take part with such conspirators or invaders; in

* Hume's Hist. Elis.

these, and all other such-like cases, we do think ourselves, and all the lay-catholics born within her majesty's dominions, bound in conscience not to obey this or any such-like censure, but will defend our prince and country, accounting it our duty so to do; and notwithstanding any authority, or any excommunication whatsoever, either denounced or to be denounced, to yield unto her majesty all obedience in temporal

causes.

At the accession of James, the catholics flattered themselves with hopes of relief from the oppressive statutes of the preceding reign. They were disappointed. The nobility and gentry of that persuasion presented an address to the king, in which, 1. they acknowledged him for their sovereign, and declared their readiness to defend his rights against all opponents whatsoever.-2. They promised to reveal, and resist with all their might, every conspiracy and attempt against the king and his successors, and to defend with all their power his realms and dominions against all foreign invasions, attempted under any pretext whatsoever.-3. They acknowledged that they owed to the king whatever a subject owes to his prince by the light of nature, or the word of God, and whatever English catholics in former times had owed to his catholic predecessors: and this declaration they were willing to confirm upon oath, and to see that it was also confirmed upon oath by their chaplains before they admitted them to officiate in their houses.†

But James had imbibed too powerful an antipathy to the catholic cause to be softened by this address, and the enactment of a new law to suppress the growth of popery soon convinced the petitioners of the fallacy of their hopes. Whether it was from resentment for

* Dodd, Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 292.—It is remarkable that the person, whose name appears first on the list of subscribers to this protestation, was chosen by the court of Rome for the first catholic bishop in England after the demise of the prelates deposed by Elizabeth: a sufficient proof that nothing in their protestation was considered even in Rome itself contrary to the catholic faith.

+ Caron, Remons. Hibernorum.