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and afterwards by the Sorbonne. Two other publications of father Floyd, under the name of 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 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.

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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 expence, separate editions of it, for general distribution, and, by their direction, M. Godeau bishop of Vençe, prefixed to the last of them a pompous eulogium of the performance :—the assembly also decreed its author, a gratification of 13,000 livres. These facts seem to prove that it was a work of extraordinary merit :-but M. l'Advocat*, 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."

* Dictionnaire, art. Cyran.

The clergy however pursued their triumph the bishops summoned the French jesuits to appear before them; the fathers disavowed the works of 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 forbade 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 professes to express no opinion on the merits of the case, or the works of the writers. We have seen how little attention was shewn 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 shewn 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 have seen that the marriage of Charles I. 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 an effectual remedy for them, Urban VIII, who then filled the Roman see, a man of talent, piety, learning and prudence, determined on sending an accredited agent to England.

The project was favoured by sir Francis, afterwards lord Cottington, and 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 suspected of having, before this time, embraced the roman-catholic religion, and both made an actual profession of it openly when they died *.

* Dodd, vol. iii. p. 47, 59.

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LVI. 1.

Father Leander.

THE first person, of whom the pope made choice for the important commission, we have mentioned, was father Leander a 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 divinity, prior of the monastery in Douay, and, on two occasions president of the English benedictine congregation of Mount Cassino. To this, and to the general cause of the English catholics he was sincerely attached; he appears to have been conciliating in his manners, and to have possessed wise and liberal principles. Lord Clarendon's State Papers * contain several letters from him to the pope, to cardinal Bentivoglio, cardinal Barbarini and secretary Windebank, and several other epistolary documents of importance, respecting the English catholics. His correspondence with the pope and cardinals is in the Latin language; the style of it is remarkably clear and elegant.

"State Papers collected by Edward earl of Clarendon, commencing from the year 1621, containing the materials, " from which his history of the great rebellion was composed, "and the authorities on which the truth of his relation is "founded. 3 vols. fol. Oxford, at the Clarendon printing "house, 1767."

He arrived in London in the spring of the year 1634, and passed by the name of Jones †, which was that of his family, or by that of Scudamore or Skidmore. Some time after his arrival, he wrote a letter to cardinal Bentivoglio ‡, in which he mentions, that two subjects, at that time, engaged the attention of the catholics, and split them into parties, the oath of allegiance proposed by James I, and the appointment of one or more prelates over them. He notices two publications, one for the oath, and the other against it; he says they were written by two roman-catholic gentlemen of distinction, and that the former || was much approved, and the latter as much condemned by the king §. He observes

* Cla. State Papers, vol. i. p. 106.

↑ Under this name an account is given of him by Dodd, vol. iii. p. 112.

Cla. State Papers, vol. i. p. 129.

The title of the work is, "A pattern of Christian Loyal"tie: whereby any prudent man may clearly perceive in what "manner the new oath of allegiance, and every clause there"of, may, in a true and catholike sense, without danger of "perjurie, be taken by the roman-catholikes: and all the "chief objections, which are usually made against the said "oath, either in particular or in general, may according to "the grounds of the catholike religion bee easily answered. "Collected out of authours, who have handled the whole "matter more largely. By William Howard, an English ca"tholike, 4to. London, 1634."

§ The writer has not been able to ascertain the title of this publication, or its author,-but, suspects it was the work of father Courtenay, which Leander notices in the following terms. (Cla. State Papers, vol. i. p. 258.) “Remarks upon

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