now, either among the laity, or the clergy,-with the slight exception of a few, a very few aulici vaticani,-a single dissentient voice. Even the "Adversaires." And by the desire of Lewis the fourteenth, he afterwards composed his larger work, "Défense de la "Déclaration de l'Assemblée Générale de France, de 1682,` "touchant la Puissance Ecclesiastique." Neither of these works was published in his life-time; the last was written by him in Latin, and translated into French, by the abbé Leroy, under the direction of Bossuet's nephew, the bishop of Troyes

In the "Annales Philosophiques Morales et Litteraires; ou, "Suite des Annales Catholiques," tom. i. 503, mention is made of a manuscript of the celebrated Fleury, which contains an historical account of this important declaration. The annalist mentions, that it appears from this manuscript, that Bossuet wisely moderated the too ardent spirit of some of the leading members of the assembly, who proposed much stronger terms, for the language of the declaration, than those which were afterwards adopted by the assembly.

A good history of this interesting church document is wanting: a general notion of the points in dispute, of the import of the declaration, and the arguments for and against the opinions which it expresses, may be formed by perusing, on the cisalpine side of the question, the Report of the bishop of Tournay, and the Fourth, Seventh, and Twelfth Discourses of Fleury; and by perusing, on its transalpine side, the Mémoires Chronologiques et Dogmatiques of father d'Avrigni, and the celebrated treatise, Quis est Petrus ?

The pope's claim to temporal power by divine right, has not perhaps, at this time, a single advocate: but the other articles of the declaration are still a subject of dispute. It should be observed, that the members of the assembly never proposed to hold out their declaration as a decree respecting faith: they, indeed, considered it to be founded on the scripture, on tradition, on solid and unanswerable arguments, but still to be no more than an opinion. The ultramontanes predicate the same of their tenets. Moderate men, of neither side, tax the opposite tenets with heresy or schism. Each considers his own and his adversary's doctrine, on these points,

present pope, in his negotiation with Napoleon, expressed his willingness to acquiesce in the subscription of it, by the clergy of France.-How much, then, is it to be lamented, that this better spirit did not animate the pontiffs, Paul the third, Pius the fifth, Gregory the thirteenth, Sixtus the fifth, Clement the eighth, Paul the fifth, Urban the eighth, and (as we shall afterwards see), Innocent the tenth, when they published the unhappy, and evil-bearing briefs, bulls, and decrees, mentioned in the series of these pages!

To preserve the continuity of the subject, and bring it to its close, we have a little anticipated, in this chapter, the order of events: we shall now resume the historical thread.

CHAP. LI.

DECLINE OF THE PARTY OF THE ENGLISH FUGITIVES IN SPAIN. 1612.

THE correspondence, in Winwood's Memorials, of sir Charles Cornwallis, the resident minister of king James at Madrid, with the earl of Salisbury, contains much curious information respecting the state and dispositions of the English fugitives in Spain, during the first years of the reign of that

to be in the class of opinions, on which the church has not yet pronounced, and which, therefore, any individual may conscientiously hold.

monarch. Immediately after the conclusion of the peace between him and Spain, the fugitives showed a strong wish to return to their native soil. "The "jesuits," says the resident*, "would be well con"tented to be inclosed within any walls of England, "so they might enjoy the air of their native country. In like mind, (so far as words may find

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belief), I find most of the other pensioners and "feuditaries to the king of Spain: neither do any profess more obedience and love to the king my "master and his estate than the jesuits themselves; yet with retaining the condition of their profession, which is to go for England, when their "superior shall command them."

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The countenance, which Spain gave to the fugitives, displeased the resident: he frequently remonstrated against it, without effect: he mentions some interesting conversations which he had with father Creswell, and with the duke of Lerma, the prime minister of Philip the third †. Creswell was left at Madrid by Persons to manage the concerns of the English jesuits in Spain, when he quitted that country: the resident describes him as desirous of conciliating those, whom Persons's turbulence had alienated; as wishing "to take “hold of the advantage of the time, and build the "foundation of his greatness in preaching and

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persuading of obedience and temperance, and becoming a means to combine the two great "monarchs of Great Britain and Spain."

Creswell, however, was viewed by James and

his ministers with so evil an eye, that they directed their resident to hold no correspondence with him. Still, the resident, for the purpose of promoting disunion among the fugitives, and, as he terms it*, "to dive into their devices, and because no door "either of the king, the duket, or secretary, was "shut against him," continued to communicate with Creswell but the injunctions which the resident had received not to communicate with him, came to Creswell's knowledge, and gave him great offence: he caused the resident to be informed, that "his majesty had lately given a kind of tole❝ration to the catholics in Ireland; and that, until "he should do the like in England, he would "labour in vain either in working alliance, or in "endeavouring to continue the peace in Spain: "whereas they so much abhorred the king and his "manner of government in religion, as they would ." sooner bestow their daughter upon a son of the .“ "Turk, or upon the king of Morocco, than upon "the prince of England." He said, moreover, that "the archpriest in England had of late taken the "new oath, that therein he had done a thing "both evil and well; evil, to have assented to a "thing so contrary to his profession and deroga-, tory to the church; well, in declaring himself so plainly, as whereby he had put a kind of necessity on the people to declare both against himself and "the king himself, who however he or his majesty's "ministers esteemed of him, yet was in right and + Of Lerma.

* Vol. ii. p. 226.
See the preceding chapter.

"truth none other than an officer, and removable "at the pleasure of a superior power wheresoever "he should either tyrannise or abuse his office*." The resident expresses great indignation at this arrogant language: if Creswell really used it, (and it is the subject of two letters from the resident to the earl of Salisbury), Creswell deserved all the. indignation which it excited. The resident afterwards came to an open rupture with Creswell, whom he describes Creswell as a vain-glorious and says "he played on Creswell's vain-glory "to discover his secrets t."

man,

In a subsequent letter, the resident gives an account of a very curious conversation between him and the duke of Lerma. The latter expressed an earnest wish to effect a reconciliation between the pope and the British monarch: "Would the British * Vol. ii. p. 344, 345.

t

"Creswell became a man of great authority among those "of his order, being successively rector of the English col"leges at Rome and Valladolid; and vice-prefect of the "mission in Spain and Flanders. As he had a head well "turned for business, so he sometimes employed it in politics; "and, in imitation of father Persons, by corresponding with "statesmen and princes, gave a handle to his enemies to "misrepresent his labours upon several occasions. Philip "the second and third of Spain appear to have had a par"ticular respect for him; though I cannot find the interest " he had with them, was made use of any further, than to pro"mote the cause of his order and religion. If he was charged "with being too busy in other matters, it appeared not by

any overt act. Worn out with age and labour, towards the " latter end of his days, he was made superior of a small com26 munity of his order in Gaunt, where he died about 1623.” + Page 462.