LIII. 4. English Benedictine Monks,—Friars,―College at Lisbon. SOME English catholics, whom the religious troubles of the times had driven to Italy and Spain, having entered among the Benedictine Monks in some of the monasteries of that order in Italy and Spain, an application was made to Clement the eighth in 1603, to erect an English mission of Benedictines. With the permission of his holiness, this was accordingly done; and some religious of the two congregations of Monté-Casino and Valladolid, were sent for this purpose to England, to act in concert, but as different congregations. Father Butler, in his postscript to his first Letter on Bower's History of the Popes, "no sooner appeared, but the catholics called it "a dunghill of lies (Dr. Harding in his Refutation of the Apology, page 348.) The learned Richard Rawlinson, L.L.D. " & F.R.S. in The New Method of Studying History, tom. ii. "in the Catalogue of Historians, p. 48, says of this work: "The turn the author was biassed by, which is very evident "in the whole work, has given good reason to suspect his "honesty as well as his capacity. In troublesome and noisy "times, this author's reputation began to rise so high as to procure his work a post in the parochial churches almost "equal to that of the holy scriptures. But when some of his "martyrs appeared alive to confront their register, the book "was suppressed, new modelled, and came out in a larger, "though somewhat more modest dress, with a thinner red"lettered calendar.'-To complete the character of that author "and his work, I refer you," continues Mr. Alban Butler, "to the account which our most indefatigable historian and antiquary, Mr. Hearne, has given of both." 66 Augustine of St. John, first vicar-general of the Spanish mission, afterwards procured the establishment of two houses for the English benedictine missionaries, one at Douay, the other at Dieulewart in Lorraine. Father Bulkely was, at this time, the only survivor of the ancient benedictines of England: he had been professed in the abbey of Westminster. In 1607, he received into the order some new members, to form an English benedictine congregation. The proceeding was approved by the general chapter of the congregation of Monté-Casino in 1608, and confirmed by Paul the fifth in the following year. The economy of this new establishment was settled in 1616, by the same pope; and finally by Urban the eighth in 1637. All the ancient religious of the order of St. Francis in England, having become extinct, it was revived in 1617 by Mr. John Gennings, a clergyman, educated in the college of the secular English college at Douay; he established a small convent of Franciscan friars in that town. The number of them increasing, a bull from Rome formed them into a distinct and independent body, and nominated father Gennings for their first provincial. About the same time a college for the education of English secular clergy to serve on the English mission was established at Lisbon, by the munificence of Don Pedro Coutinto, a Portuguese merchant, who expended 5,000 crowns of gold in erecting the establishment, and endowed it with an annual pension of 500 like crowns. Here our account of the concerns of the English catholics during the reign of James the first, properly closes. Some circumstances in it, with which their history is particularly connected, as the rise of the puritans into political consequence, the negotiations for the marriage of prince Charles, first with the infanta of Spain, and afterwards with the princess royal of France, will be mentioned in our account of the catholics during the following reign. PRELIMINARY OCCURRENCES CONNECTED WITH THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLICS DURING HIS REIGN. THE English catholics entertained some hopes of an amelioration of their condition, while the marriage of prince Charles with the infanta of Spain was in agitation. The negotiations for it, and the wish of the monarch that the catholics might be relieved from the severer part of the penal code against them, were announced by him to his parliament in the speech, with which, in 1621, he opened the sessions. "As touching religion," said his majesty, "laws enough are made already. "It stands on two points, persuasion and compul"sion: men may persuade, but God must give the blessing. Jesuits, priests, puritans, and sectaries, 66 "erring both on the right hand and on the left “hand, are forward to persuade unto their own "ends; and so ought you, the bishops, in your "example and preaching: but compulsion to obey "is to bind the conscience.-There is a talk of a "match with Spain; but, if it shall prove a fur"therance to (her) religion, I am not worthy to be your king. I will never proceed, but to the glory "of God, and content of my subjects*." This was conciliating language; but it produced no effect. "The protestants," says Fuller †, grieved at the match, fearing that the marriage "would be the funeral of their religion; and their jealousies so descanted thereon, that they sus“pected, if taking effect, more water of the Tyber "than of the Thames would run down London 66 66 bridge." With these feelings the commons presented an address to his majesty, representing the alarming growth of the Austrian power, the confederacy of the catholic princes on the continent, the increase of catholics in England, and their expectations of advantage from the Spanish match: they urged his majesty to make war with Austria, to execute with severity the laws against the catholics, and to marry his son to a protestant princess. The king answered by a letter to the speaker, expressed in terms, which increased the flame‡. The account of the journey of prince Charles to Spain belongs to the general history of England; * Rushworth, vol. i. p. 21. Dodd, vol. ii. p. 444- Rushworth, vol. i. p. 40, 43. Dodd, vol. ii. p. 446, 448. some particulars of it, however, may properly find a place in these pages. The king was aware of the jealousy, which his subjects entertained of the match: "The matter of religion," he observed in one of his despatches to lord Digby, his ambassador at Madrid, " is, to us, of most principal considera"tion for nothing can be to us dearer than the "honour and safety of the religion, which we pro"fess. And therefore, seeing that this marriage, "if it shall take place, is to be with a lady of a "different religion from us, it becomes us to be "tender, as on the one part, to give them all satis"faction convenient, so, on the other, to admit "nothing that may blemish our conscience, or detract from the religion here established*" He recommended to the chaplains of the prince not to engage unnecessarily in religious controversy; and, in case of a challenge, to act on the defensive. He directed them to appropriate an apartment for the celebration of the divine service; to have it respectably fitted up; that prayers should be said in it twice a day; that, "in the sermons, there should "be no polemical preachings; that they should 66 only apply themselves to preach, in moral lessons, "Christ crucified;" and that they should take with them many copies of the thirty-nine articles, the books of common prayer in many languages,—and, -the king's own works in English and Latin." To recommend his son to the Spanish court, he issued an order to the lord keeper †, in which he * Collier's Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 726. + Dodd, vol. ii. p. 439. |
