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tions, which were sent to him by the pope for the regulation of his conduct, described him as ordinary both of England and Scotland. At a subsequent time, however, he was admonished by the pope's nuncio at Paris to drop the style of ordinary; and this was afterwards enjoined him by two decrees of the congregation de Propaganda Fide. These also declared that the regulars were not obliged to apply to him for leave to hear confessions; yet that his approbation must be obtained for the administration of what are termed the three parochial sacraments, baptism, matrimony, and extreme unction.

A bull to the same effect was also said to have issued from Rome, by Urban the eighth. From its first word,-it was styled the bull "Britannia."Doubts were entertained of its authenticity, or at least of its canonical validity: the writer has not found it in any bullarium; he believes, that the terms of it had been settled, and that it had passed through all the regular stages; but that in conse quence of a remonstrance from the secular clergy, backed by the queen, it never was promulgated, and therefore had not, even in the Roman court, the force of a legal instrument.

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No objection appears to have been made to the institution of the chapter: neither does the see of Rome seem to have interfered, in any other respect, with Dr. Smith's administration of his diocese. Cardinal de Richelieu favoured him and his cause: his eminence bestowed on him the abbey de Charroux: the prelate devoted the whole of the income, which he derived from it, except a small portion,

which was appropriated for his decent support, to purposes of religion and charity. Still, his adver saries were too attentive to him; they prevailed on the cardinal de Mazarin, the successor of Richelieu, to take from the worthy prelate his abbey. On this distressing circumstance, for it left him without adequate means of subsistence, and afflicted many an object of his actual bounty, he was received by the English nuns of the order of St. Augustine in Paris, in the foundation of whose convent he had taken a principal part. They allowed him an apartment in a neighbouring house, which belonged to them. There, he spent his last years in prayer and quiet; and died in 1655, in the eighty-fifth year

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In the controversy, in which this prelate engaged, he found an able advocate in Dr. Kellison, the president of the English college at Douay. His work, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy," is written with learning and moderation; but some passages in it, apparently excluding the regulars from the hierarchy, were thought to be too loosely expressed. In father Knott, the superior of the English jesuits, who wrote under the name of Smith, and in father Floyd, another English jesuit, who wrote under the name of Daniel à Jesu, Dr. Kellison had able antagonists: but the works of both the jesuits were condemned by the archbishop of Paris, and afterwards by the Sorbonne. Two other publications of father Floyd, under the name of

* See Dodd, vol. iii.-Richard, bishop of Chalcedon, p. 4,Life, p. 76. Records, 138.

Hermannus Loemelius, were attended with more serious consequences: they produced the celebrated work of the abbé de St. Cyran and M. de Barcos, his nephew, intituled Petrus Aurelius. Few works have been received on their first appearance with greater applause; few at this time are less read; but it may be considered as the signal of that war of the press, which was carried on between the jesuits and the jansenists, from the time of which we are now speaking, till the present.

In 1635, this remarkable work was solemnly approved by the assembly of the clergy of France, after deliberating upon it by provinces. In 1641, 1642, 1645, and 1646, the assembly printed, at its own expense, separate editions of it, for general distribution, and, by their direction, M. Godeau, bishop of Vence, prefixed to the last a pompous eulogium of the performance :-the assembly also decreed to its author a gratification of 13,000 livres. These facts seem to prove that it was a work of extraordinary merit:-but M. l'Avocat*, whose opinion in this instance cannot be questioned, justly appreciates it, when he says, that, "if a person were to take away its invectives and "its slanders of the jesuits, very little of it would "remain." He declares that " a small work pub"lished on the same subject by M. Hallier, was "written with much greater learning and ability." The clergy, however, pursued their triumph: the bishops summoned the French jesuits to appear before them; the fathers disavowed the works of * Dictionnaire, art. Cyran.

their two English brethren, and expressed a strong wish that they had not been written.

The court of Rome, had, with its usual prudence, endeavoured to stop the controversy, while it was in its earliest stage: the congregation of the Index issued, in 1633, a decree, by which it suppressed all writings, in print or manuscript, upon the subject, or relating to it in any manner, and forbad the faithful to write, to print, or even to dispute upon it the pope afterwards confirmed the prohibition, and added the penalty of excommunication, to be incurred ipso facto, reserving absolution from it, except at the hour of death, to the holy see. But the congregation profess to express no opinion on the merits of the case, or the works of the writers. -We have seen how little attention was shown to this decree, by the clergy of France; and it is evident, from the continuation of the controversy on both sides, and the manner in which it was conducted, that, in England, quite as little attention was shown to it, by either party.

CHAP. LVI.

MISSIONS OF FATHER LEANDER A SANCTO MARTINO, AND SIGNOR GREGORIO PANZANI, FROM THE SEE OF ROME INTO ENGLAND.

1634.

WE return to the external concerns of the catholics. It has been mentioned, that the marriage of Charles the first with Henrietta-Maria of France,

produced a correspondence of courtesy between the pope and the monarch. Each used expressions, and each probably felt sentiments of esteem and regard for the other. To avail himself of this opening for the service of the catholic cause, to obtain an exact notion of the differences between the secular and the regular clergy, by which it was so much prejudiced, and to enable himself to find án effectual remedy for them, Urban the eighth, who then filled the Roman see, a man of talent, piety, learning, and prudence, determined on sending an accredited agent to England.arbe dang

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The project was favoured by sir Francis, afterwards lord Cottington, and by sir Francis Windebank: the former was under-treasurer and chancellor of the exchequer, the latter was secretary of state: both were distinguished for their ability and loyalty; both were suspected of having, before this time, embraced the roman-catholic religion, and both made an actual profession of it openly when they died*.

LVI. 1.

Father Leander.

THE first person, of whom the pope made choice for the important commission, we have mentioned, was father Leander à Sancto Martino. He was educated at Oxford, where he formed a friendship with archbishop Laud, which subsisted through their lives. Having entered into the benedictine order, he was appointed professor of Hebrew and * Dodd, vol. iii. p. 47, 592ya,

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