REMARKS, By way of ADVERTISEMENT Upon the Bishop of Grenoble's Letter TO THE CLERGY OF HIS DIOCESE, Concerning their Behaviour towards the New-Converts: Together with the Letter itself.  
LONDON, Printed for T. Jones, 1687.   

AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER.  
THE following Letter has made so great a noise in France, and other parts beyond the Seas, for more than these five Months past, since it was first published by the Illustrious Author, who is a Bishop of the Roman Church, that I have wondered it has not, in all this time, appeared in an English dress, till the other day; especially since the Press and the Public have been so long pestered with swarms of Insipid as well as Malicious Pamphlets, from Persons of that Communion, which daily fly abroad, and serve for no other end, but to expose the Folly or Wickedness of the Writers; and therefore I have some reason to be confident, that this excellent Letter, which is now sent into the World in our own Language, will be the more welcome, because the Instructions contained in it, and the Inferences that may be drawn from them, together with the Merit and Character of the Author, are of great use to give us a right Information in matters of the highest Importance, which hitherto have not been of such clear and unquestionable Credit.  
And because the Age wherein we live seems to be made up of Contradictions, there are two Things which will not be ingrateful to the Reader to take notice of, and which will farther serve to commend the Letter, and to Apologise for the present Publication of it: The one is, The great Opposition it has met with from the Jesuits, who have endeavoured all they could to suppress it; and the other is, The King's Approbation of it, who upon the reading it, was pleased to say, He saw nothing in it but what was very Innocent. Which shows who are the Authors of those Severities that have been of late used against the Protestants in France; and that the Grand Lewis himself, by whose Authority they Act, has not so wholly divested himself of all Principles of Humanity, but in his private Judgement he condemns those Proceed, to which it may be presumed, his Consent has been extorted by these men's Importunity.  
The Conformity of those Rules in the general, to the Doctrine of the Gospel, which this Reverend and most Worthy Prelate here lays down for the Direction of his Clergy, how to behave themselves towards the New Converts, and the Contrariety they bear, for the most part, to the constant Doctrine and Practice of the Roman Church, as it is a plain Demonstration that their Church, even in the Opinion of some of her chiefest Members, is not Infallible in all her Determinations, and that she stands in great need of a Reformation, which, as I am very well assured, is hearty wished, as it has been in part attempted, by the Author of this Letter; so it gives apparently the lie to some late Writer of the French Nation.  
Instances of this Contrariety are so visible, that they appear at first sight, without any wresting or forced Interpretation, in every Article of the Letter.  
In the First and Second Articles, the Bishop in Obedience to the Command of our Saviour and his Apostles, and in conformity to the Universal Practice of the Primitive Church, would have the Scripture (at least the Epistles and Gospels) and the Public Prayers read to the People in the Vulgar Tongue, whereas nothing is more strongly pleaded for, or more strictly enjoined and observed in the Church of Rome, than the contrary practice.  
The Third Article concerns, especially the Bishop of Meaum, and his Disciples, and some late Representers of our own Nation, who have found no way so effectual to gain Proselytes, as to disguise the Tenets of their own Church, which have so horrid an Aspect of themselves, that they would make any Man of common sense afraid to look upon them; and therefore they must be new dressed up, and made to come so near to that which they call Protestant Heresy, that the one can hardly be distinguished from the other, and when the turn is served, and the man by this means is persuaded to be of their Religion, than off goes the Vizard, and there is no more believing your own Senses, but you must believe as the Church believes, and like those Men who have had an old painted Strumpet imposed upon them for a Wife, instead of a young Beautiful Virgin, you must resolve to be pleased with your New Religion, with all her Deformities.  
The Fourth Article is a Rejection and Condemnation of several important Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome; as first, the Worship that is given to Saints and Angels, and the Prayers that are made to them, is here absolutely condemned as vain, insignificant, and superstitious, and every thing else that is contrary to the truth and sincerity of that Worship and Adoration which belongs to God only. Secondly, It condemns the Romish Doctrine of the Merit of Good Works, and Supererogation, by teaching us to place our Confidence in the Sole Merits of Christ, which is the true and saving Doctrine of the Gospel, and of the Reformed Churches: And lastly, It condemns that common belief in the Church of Rome, and all those Pilgrimages that are undertaken upon that account that there is a particular and extraordinary Virtue in Images and Relics, and a Virtue peculiar to some Images of the same Saint, more than there is in others; as is notorious to all the World in the different regard that is had to the Images of the Blessed Virgin at Loretto, Hall, Namur, and other places.  
The Fifth Article condemns that empty and ridiculous way of Preaching which is so common among the Priests of the Roman Church, and which is made up of nothing else, but either Sottish and Ill-contrived Stories of pretended Miracles, or else of Invectives, without any solid or convincing Arguments against the Reformation.  
The Sixth Article condemns the Barbarities that have been exercised in France against the Protestants, and the new Mission of Dragoons, which has been sent into all parts of the Kingdom, to ruin them in their Estates, to torment them in their Bodies, and so to convert them by forcing them against their Consciences to set their hands to a prescribed form of Abjuration; which, as I said before, gives apparently the lie to some late French Authors, as Maimbourg for example, who has the Confidence to publish to the World, in his Epistle Dedicatory to the King, which is before his Life of Gregory the Great, that there has been nothing but sweet and gentle Methods used to bring over the Protestants to the Catholic Church, and that his Majesty had found out the secret of Constraining his Subjects, without violence, to be of his Religion.  
The Seventh Article is a Confirmation of what is observed upon the former, and gives us sufficiently to understand, that among the great Numbers they boast of, who have abjured their Religion wherein they had been Educated, there are but very few sincere Converts, by their not coming to Mass, and refusing to participate of any of their Sacraments, when they are not compelled to it, (which the Bishop in this, and in the 8th and 11th Articles condemns) and by their taking all Opportunities to leave their Native Country, and to seek for Relief and Protection among Strangers; where, upon their Repentance, they may be again received into the Communion of that Church, from which, through Fear and Cowardice they had Apostatised, as appears by the vast numbers, who daily come out of France, and take Sanctuary in England, Holland, Suitzerland, and other Protestant Countries.  
The Ninth Article, is an Insinuation of the Abuses that are committed in Auricular Confession, and the Impurities which usually accompany it, and which are almost inseparable from it, when one of the frail Sex is forced upon pain of Damnation to lay open her own shame, with all the Circumstances that attended her sin, and especially when the gentleness of a favourable Penance is made a fresh encouragement to her for the Repetition of the same Crime.  
The Twelfth Article is a Condemnation of that barbarous Inhumanity which has been, and is still practised all over France, towards the dead Bodies of those pretended Converts, who refused their Sacraments before their death; by dragging them about the Streets, and not suffering their Friends to bury them, but carrying them into the Fields, and there setting a Watch over them till they are devoured by Dogs, and other ravenous Creatures. A Practice unknown to the most barbarous Nations, who never extended their malice even to their greatest Enemies beyond death; and which nothing but a Religion that delights in nothing but Cruelty, could ever prompt Men to.  
The remaining Articles are an earnest Exhortation of the Clergy of that Diocese, to whom the Letter is particularly addressed, to painfulness, and watchfulness in the discharge of their Duty; to meekness, forbearance, condescension, and a Universal Love and Charity, which shows that the Author is a Person of a truly Evangelical Spirit, and deserves a better fate than to live any longer in the Communion of that Church, which is by its very Essence and Constitution apt to inspire its Members with Principles of a quite different and contrary Nature.  
Those things which the Reverend Author mentions, as having been constantly of Faith and the Belief of his Church, in opposition to the Doctrine of the Schools, I must beg his Eminencies leave to say, that it will hardly be proved, that they were always the Faith of his Church, and that his meaning is, he wishes they had always remained in the same Purity wherein Christ and his Apostles left them.  
And now let N. Thomson, who was the first Publisher of this Letter in English, make the most of it he can, for the honour of his Church, which besides a little respect to his own gain, was the main design of Printing it in English, nor is it to be doubted but his Translation is as Catholic as the letter itself. But I have one word of Advice to him, and then I have done, That when he publishes a Second Edition of it, he would alter the Title, and call it, A Catalogue of some Corruptions of the Roman Church, both in Doctrine and Practice, by an Author of that Communion.   

A COPY OF A LETTER OF Cardinal Camus, BISHOP and PRINCE of GRENOBLE, TO THE CLERGY of his DIOCESE, Concerning the Conduct they are to observe, with regard to the New-Converts.  
SIR,  
THough I have sufficiently declared to you in our last Synod, the Method I would have you use in my Diocese, with respect to the New-Converts; nevertheless I have thought good to set down in Order the principal things to which I think you aught to give a more particular attention.  

1. You are to explain every Sunday the Gospel or Epistle for the Day, after having read it distinctly in the French Language, out of the time of Divine Service. And that you may be the better qualified to instruct those that are under your Care, you are to apply yourself, with all seriousness, to the study of the Word of God, being provided of a good Commentary, which explains the Text in a Literal and Moral Sense.  
2. Upon Holidays, and Sundays, you are to use the short Catechising, by way of Questions and Answers; and engage the New-Converts to bring their Children and Domestics to it. And do not fail to have the Prayers both Evening and Morning upon Holidays and Sundays in the French Tongue.  
3. You are never to disguise, or  the Doctrine of the Church, and the Truths which it proposes to be believed, by a false Condescension, under a pretence of obliging the New-Converts the more easily to come in to our Communion. Neither are you to teach them any other Doctrines, than such as are constantly of Faith, and have been decided in the Council of Trent; and have a care of proposing the Opinions of the School, as if they were the Doctrine of the Church.  
4. Make it your business to disabuse them of those false Prejudices which they have taken up against the Roman Church, by letting them see, that she does not give the Worship of a true and sincere Adoration to any but to God only; that it is in the alone Merits of Jesus Christ that she places her Confidence, that she puts no trust neither in Images, nor in the Relics of Saints; and that it was never her Belief, there was any particular Virtue affixed to these Images or Relics.  
5. You are to hinder in your Parishes any from Preaching up, or vouching for fabulous or uncertain Miracles, and that they do not speak of Indulgences after any other manner than they are spoken of in the Council of Trent. But Preach, and cause to be Preached solidly, the Truths of the Gospel, in all their Purity, and with the greatest plainness that is possible.  
6. Take care, that in some measure, every New-Convert does his Duty, as becomes a good Catholic, but without Constraint, and without Violence. God would have the Service that we render him, should be voluntary: And therefore you are never to use any harsh or reproachful Language, nor any threaten, in the publications you make in the Church, in your Sermons, or upon any other Occasions, to oblige them to come to Church, or to receive our Sacraments.  
7. Do all you can to bring them to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; but be not too severe in taking notice of them, and do not place Inspectors at the Church Doors, to observe those that fail to be present at it.  
8. You are never to administer the Sacraments but to such as you judge, in every respect, rightly and duly disposed to receive them; and who have declared to you, that they firmly believe all that the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church believes, and that they will live and die in her Communion. And let not any Humane Consideration prevail with you to give the Sacraments to those, whom you do not find to have all those dispositions that are requisite to the receiving of them worthily.  
9 You are to use great caution about the Inquiries you make in Confession, which concerns Sins against Chastity, above all, with regard to the Female Sex; and take care you speak with so much modesty, concerning these kind of Matters, that they may never have any reason to believe, that either Sensuality or Curiosity have any part in the Questions you ask them.  
10. In the beginning you may mitigate the Severity of those Penances which their Sins deserve, that they may not be discouraged.  
11. Never force them, neither in Health nor Sickness, to approach the Sacraments against their mind. Do not threaten them, nor cause informations to be brought in against them upon this account; and avoid, as much as you can, having any recourse to the Constables, or Governors of the place, or other Magistrates; but let it suffice to exhort them in the presence of Witnesses; let them know the great advantages they will receive by the Sacraments, and get their Relations and Friends to engage for them, that they will not go out of the World, without being fortified with the Holy Viaticum.  
12. In case any of them die, without being desirous ro receive the Sacraments, you are not to bury them in Consecrated Ground, nor to say the Public Prayers for them after they are dead; but I would not have you trouble yourself about the manner wherewith their dead Bodies are used to be treated, nor about the place where they are buried. Leave that care to the Officers of Justice, who are obliged to look after it; and do not you intermeddle in such kind of Affairs, nor in any other which may alienate their Affections from you, and by that means put you out of a condition to gain their Confidence, and their Feiendship, without which you will never be able to do any good upon them.  
13. When they shall fail to send their Children to School, and to Catechising, or shall eat Flesh upon days prohibited, admonish them of it Charitably in private, as a good Pastor ought to do; and if your Endeavours and Admonitions do not amend them; have a care you do not bring them before Justice, that you do not quarrel or fall out with them; or speak of them publicly with Contempt or Aversion; but be content to give them your Advice; and give us the names of those with whom you are not satisfied, that we may apply such Remedies, as the Spirit of God and Christian Charity shall suggest to us.  
14. Pray much to God, both in private and public, for their sincere Conversion. Edify them by your good Examples; and by a Holy, , Charitable, and Disinterested Conduct. Nourish them 
* Assiduement.  frequently with the Food of the Holy Scriptures. Do them affectionately all the good Offices that may be both for their Spiritual and Temporal good, which they may exact, or which are in your power. This is the best way to settle them in our Communion: for as St. Augustine says, nothing contributes more to make known which is the true Church, than the exact practice of those Truths which the Gospel Teaches. Ejus est Evangelium, ubi vivitur secundum Evangelium.  
15. Put in practice the Advice which the Prince of the Apostles gives to all Pastors, and which may be called the first and chief Rule of Christianity: 
* 1 Pet. 5. 2.  Feed the Flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre sake, but of a ready mind. And as St. Paul says, Him that is weak in the Faith receive, but not to doubtful disputations.  
16. Endeavour to imitate the Conduct which St. Augustine recommends to a Bishop of Carthage, which is, In all the Encounters that we meet with, to act and to behave ourselves without Sharpness, without bitterness, and without threatening; and to make this our study and design, that in all our Discourses and Exhortations, the Judgements of God may be more dreaded, than the Power of men, or than any thing we can do to them. Non asperè, quantum existimo, non duriter, non modo imperioso ist a tolluntur, sed magis docendo quam jubendo, magis monendo quam minando, ne nos ipsi in nostrâ potestate, & non Deus in suo sermone timeatur. Remember that the diseases of the Soul, are not cured in a moment, nor by Constraint or Violence; but by the fervour of Prayers, and the sweet Insinuations of Truth and Charity. And the better to gain their Confidence, and to bring them to be in love with the Church of Rome, tell them what St. Aug. said to the Manichees, to engage them by the ways of sweetness, to return to the Unity of the Catholic Church: Let those, says he, treat you with sharpness, who know not how difficult a matter it is to find out the Truth, and to avoid Errors. Let those treat you with rigour, who are ignorant how much pains there is required to raise one's self above those fantomes wherewith he has once been possessed. Let those treat you with severity, who are not acquainted with the great difficulties that are to be overcome, before the Eye of the inward Man can be made so clear and piercing, as to be able to see and look upon the Truth, which is the Sun of the Soul. But for us, we are far from being desirous to follow their Method or Conduct towards Persons who are separated from us, not by Errors of which they themselves have been the Authors, but only by having been found engaged in the mistakes of others. On the contrary, we offer up our Prayers to God, that in refusing the false Opinions of those whom you follow with a Prejudice, and Prepossession, which we condemn rather of In prudence, than Milice, he would give us grace, that we may bring along with us, no other than a Spirit of Peace, that may be touched or affected with no other Impressions than those of Love and Charity, nor with other Interests than those of Jesus Christ, nor with other desires than those of your Salvation. I am always,   
SIR, Your most Affectionate, Le Cardinal le Camus.  
FINIS.