supremacy, and condemned the contrary opinion as treasonous, impious, and heretical? and how can these men then excuse themselves from giving this necessary security to the king under whom they live, because it is against the catholic religion? what prince or catholic state can think themselves or their religion concerned, because the king of England requires his catholic subjects to disclaim those opinions, which no subject of their own dares harbour in his thoughts; or, if he be known to do it, shall pay the penalty of his life? let this therefore, which comprehends and would remove all the mischief which the state complains of, be pressed and exacted from them; and which they cannot refuse to consent to upon any catholic principle, upon any doctrine of the church of Rome, but out of a tame and stupid submission and resignation to the court of Rome, and to the individual person of the pope: all which ought to be rooted out of the imagination of all the subjects of the world, of what church soever. And if this satisfaction, and security, and submission, were given to the law and to the state, which cannot confidently enjoy peace without it, there would be clergy enough, and of the best amongst them, of the same faith, who, if they were sure never to be exposed to that jurisdiction they disclaim, would be ready to renounce it, and to perform their function in all other parts

with all requisite integrity; and then it may be the state would think its peace and tranquillity in no more danger from their other opinions, than from the contradictions which have risen upon the circulation of the blood, or the heresy denounced at Rome upon Galileo's optics, or any of those differences which are debated between Roman catholics themselves with so much virulency and animosity; and which if they are not of equal impor tance with those between the protestants and them, they are the more to blame to handle them with so little modesty or charity, that the reproachings and revilings they entertain each other with, are not inferior to what Celsus or Porphyry used against the primitive Christians, and to which the wisdom of the civil state hath put an end, at least a suspension, by obliging both parties to silence, when the determination and authority of the church rather added spurs than a bridle to the fierceness of the contention. So far the crown of France and the Gallican church are from acknowledging the person of the pope to be the catholic church; and yet his sole personal authority must serve to withdraw the obedience of the Roman catholics of England from the king, and to restrain them from submitting to the wholesome laws of their country:

A kingdom divided in itself cannot stand. Not that such a union is necessary to the peace there.

of, that all men must think the same thing, or concur in the same action; such a unity is not necessary nor requisite in private families, and would obstruct all growth of knowledge and improvement of virtue in all public kingdoms and states: but the division is most prodigious, when all the kingdom will not obey one sovereign; when one part of it will submit to a sovereignty which their sovereign forbids, and which pretends to a power to depose the other. I am sure he must have an understanding more subtle than any of those with whom I am acquainted, who can so far reconcile those two powers, that they may consist together, and the king be safe or the kingdom in peace. It is no answer, nor hath any good meaning in it, to say that the king shall have the same authority over his subjects that all catholic princes have, and the pope no more than he enjoys in those princes' dominions; I say, this answer hath no good meaning in it, for besides that it is a pretty imposition upon any king to put him to enquire into the pleasure of other kings, and the laws of other countries, that he may be able to govern his own subjects, they well know that there are no two kingdoms in which the pope's authority is the same, and none in which he hath more than is given him by contract from the crown, and for which it receives a valuable compensation; nor is any doubt left what or how much it is; and

whatever it is, it is upon any emergent occasion limited or taken away according to the pleasure of the crown. What is this to England? where by the laws of the land he hath no power at all, but is justly excluded, and is or ought to be looked upon as a public enemy by the law of nations; since he will not admit that intelligence, and correspondence, and alliance, with that crown, by ambassadors and public ministers, which is necessary for the establishing of peace, and without which all acts of hostility may be committed upon each other: and yet the catholics of England must have liberty, for the satisfaction of their conscience, not only to introduce this foreign power, but to make it as large and ample as they please. For who can restrain it? for the king and the law hath done all

they can to shut it out; so that they who in spite of them will bring it in, may extend it to what they please; nor have they yet in any degree defined what it is, or what they would have it to be. There are amongst them, of the most valuable of their clergy and their laity, who would be content to renounce all the pope's temporal authority in the king's dominions; which none of the jesuits and few of the regulars will be brought to; but then they all insist alike (at least till they are put to it, then, as hath been said before, you shall find enough of another resolution) upon his spiritual power and

jurisdiction, which their conscience will not suffer them to decline. Ask them, what general council or catholic consent hath defined what that spiritual power is? they answer nothing clearly or directly, but desire you to believe, that it can never do the king hurt, or endanger the peace of the kingdom; and then they utter some sturdy words against the pope, and how resolutely they would fight against him, if he came or sent to invade England: and yet they will not say that he hath not authority to depose the king, or absolve them from their obedience; and keep it still within their own breasts what this spiritual power, which they are peremp tory and obstinate to reserve for him, shall signify; time must determine that, they will not presume to do it. And if you speak with them who are of the best parts severally, so that they cannot avoid making you some answer, there is no more coherence in what they say, than there would be in the description of any other thing in which they had only a superficial understanding; so that you would reasonably conclude that they either have not the true key to the cypher, or that they are obliged not to make you acquainted with it. They will not deny, that the power of the mission, the au. thority of sending such priests as he judges necessary for the advancement of catholic religion, is a part of that spiritual jurisdiction; and if that be