I 
 
 mi 
 
THE SUBSTANCE 
 
 OF 
 
 A SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 Sir JOHN COX HIPPISLEY, Bart. 
 
 3(n tije tyotw of Commons , 
 On TUESDAY, MAY 11, 1813, 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 Appointment of A SELECT COMMITTEE on the Subject 
 
 OF 
 
 WITH NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX 
 
 CONTAINING THE 
 
 PONTIFICAL RESCRIPTS 
 
 OF 
 
 P. Clement XIV. and P. Pius VII. 
 
 respecting the abolition and restoration of the order of 
 
 JESUITS; 
 
 Eon&on: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY NURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET ; RO DWELL, BOND STREET; 
 HATCH ARD, STOCKDALE, AND RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY; 
 AND RICHARDSON, CORN HILL. 
 
 1815. 
 
J. Brettell, Printer, Rupert Stctet, 
 Hajmuket, London. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 London, May 23, 1815. 
 
 The substance of the following pages is little more 
 than a transcript of the original Reports, given in 
 vol. xxvi of Hansard's Parliamentary Debates: — 
 the principal typographical errors are corrected, and 
 particularly a line of the MS. restored, which omis- 
 sion, in the numerical statement,* of the original 
 Report, had confused the sense Of a passage relating 
 to an important fact : — with these, and a few other 
 trifling corrections — some additional notes (distin- 
 guished between [ ] ), and an Appendix of Docu- 
 ments, the Report is now given in the detached form 
 which was originally intended. 
 
 The motion of Sir Henry Parnell, which has oc- 
 casioned the call of the House, on the 30th instant, 
 has supplied an additional motive for this republica- 
 tion. It will be recollected that the brilliant and 
 powerful talents of a Right Hon. Gentleman, whose 
 memorable Resolution was adopted by the House, 
 in the preceding Session of Parliament, were after- 
 wards, not less successfully, employed in defeating the 
 motion, which is the subject of the present report ; — 
 but, as the same Right Hon. Gentleman, at the 
 commencement of the ensuing Sessions, pledged his 
 
 * Page25, after line 16, Hansard's Parliamentary Debates. 
 
IV 
 
 cordial support of the same motion, if revived; it 
 must be inferred that his prior opposition to it had 
 not resulted from any intrinsic objectionable matter 
 in the motion itself, but had been influenced by other 
 considerations: — the chief of which, indeed, he can- 
 didly avowed, was a persuasion that if the motion for 
 a Select Committee had been carried, it might have 
 been fatal to Mr. Grattan's Bill (at least for that 
 Session), and, consequently, to his own supplementary 
 Clauses which had beenengrafted on that Bill. Sir J. 
 H.'s Motion for a Select Committee, though support- 
 ed by 189 Members, was negatived by a majority of 
 48 ; — and, in the following week, the first Clause of 
 Mr. Grattan's Bill being also rejected, the Bill 
 itself was withdrawn. 
 
 Since that period many important transactions, 
 connected, more or less, with the general subject, 
 have taken place. The Letter, or Rescript, for such 
 it must be considered, of Mon? r - Quarantotti, when 
 the chief organ of the Pontifical Government, has 
 been communicated to His Majesty's Ministers, un- 
 der such circumstances, as have authorised its official 
 production, and it has been printed by order of the 
 House of Commons.* The Bull of P. Pius VII. for 
 
 * It is to be regretted that, in addition to the valuable docu- 
 ments supplied by Sir Charles Stuart, when accredited to the 
 Court of Lisbon, and which, in part, have also been printed, 
 by order of the House, [Official Papers relating to R. Catholics, 
 No. I.] — the interesting information, subsequently transmitted by 
 His Majesty's Ministers at the Courts of Palermo— the Brazils- 
 Stockholm and Munich, is not yet rendered equally accessible, 
 
the restoration of the Order of Jesuits has alio ap- 
 peared ; — Mr. Plowden has given it to the Public in 
 the Appendix of a second voluminous Letter,, ad- 
 dressed to Sir John Hippisley, printed at Paris, 
 styling it, ec The Constitution, by which the Society 
 ff of Jesus is re-established, in its ancient State, 
 " throughout the entire Christian World." Great 
 animadversion has been bestowed on Sir J. H. by Mr. 
 Plowden, for having raised any question affecting 
 the Society, thus revived : — He is left in the full en- 
 joyment of his imaginary triumph, while the follow- 
 ing pages will supply his omission of the Brief, or 
 Rescript of P. Clement XI V. which, properly, should 
 accompany the Bull of the reigning Pontiff. It will 
 then be for Mr. Plowden to consider, — after he has 
 exhausted his censure upon Mons r Quarantotti, and 
 those who are the advocates of qualified concession 
 — whether he can advantageously take the field against 
 the memorable Rescript of Ganganelli, and enter 
 the lists with the living writers, of his own commu- 
 nion, who espouse that deliberate pontifical Act, — 
 for it does not appear that the denunciation pro- 
 nounced by the Bull of Pius VII. has extinguished 
 the ardour of the opponents of the Constitution, 
 which he has so solemnly re-embodied. Two 
 publications on the subject have issued from the 
 French Press, since the date of this Bull, namely, 
 " Du Pape ct des Jesuites," and " Les Je suites tels 
 " qu'ilsont ete dans I' Ordre politique, religieux, et 
 " moral." — The first is ascribed to the pen of a 
 
vi 
 
 " Pere de VOratoire;" the other, announced as the 
 work of " M. S***, Ancien Magistral" A pe- 
 rusal of these Tracts, and especially the Brief of 
 ^titfrVII. will lead to the discovery, whether the 
 Society have been most successfully attacked or de- 
 fended, by the French writers, or by Mr. Plowden.* 
 
 * In combating the Rescript of Clement XIV. it will be well that 
 Mr. Plowden should recollect that he is not opposed to a solitary 
 impugner of his favourite order, but also to a most formidable 
 array of other highly venerated PontitTs. He is distinctly told, 
 on the authority of the Rescript, that Urban VII. Cement IX. 
 X. XI. XII. Alexander VII. VIII. Innocent X. XI. XII. XIII. and 
 Benedict XIV. in addition to Pius IV.V. and Sextus V. employed, 
 " without effect, their efforts to restore the peace of the Church 
 in reference to the disturbances arising from the Order of 
 Jesuits ; and also of " the infinity of appeals and protest, against 
 " the Society, which so many Sovereigns had laid at the foot of 
 " the Pontifical Throne: — of the undue interference in secular 
 " affairs, and of the use and application of certain maxims, pro- 
 " scribed as scandalous, and manifestly contrary to good mo- 
 " rals, &c." [Vide Brief, P. Clement XIV.] Whether these 
 charges have been substantiated, is not the present object to in- 
 quire ; they must rest upon the authority which adduced them. 
 No disposition is manifested, in the following pages, to give ear to 
 unfounded imputation, but the cursory observations on the mea- 
 sures of the Ex-Jesuits, subjects of His Majesty, were dictated 
 wholly by prudential considerations, not less friendly to them, 
 than to the general interests uf the public. 
 
 The Rescript of Clement XIV. is properly a Bi ief, being »i§«ed 
 t.y tin. Eope. "" J under the seal of the " Fisherman." This dis- 
 tinction will be observed at the conclusion of the two docu- 
 ments, and, consequently, the translation of the Rescript of 
 Clement XIV. as copied in the Appendix, is erroneously entitled. 
 
vii 
 
 In speaking of recent publications, connected with 
 the question of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, it would be 
 little excusable to omit noticing a Tract,* which has 
 been published within a few days, by Mr. Brown, of 
 the Inner Temple; — few publications have stronger 
 claims to the attention of those, whose province it is 
 to decide, with reference to the Claims of the Catho- 
 lics, what parliamentary course will be most consis- 
 tent with a sound and liberal policy, and with the 
 strong claims of the establishment. " Whenever 
 this great measure shall be adopted" — (again to 
 advert to the impressive words of a noble Baron — 
 and they cannot be too often repeated) — " let it 
 " not be one of hasty or inconsiderate adoption, on 
 " which the pressure of the times shall stamp the 
 " character of weakness ; — consider with what mea- 
 " sures it ought to be accompanied — what course of 
 " policy is necessary to render its benefits effectual — 
 " what safeguards its adoption may require." 
 
 * An Historical Inquiry into the ancient ecclesiastical juris- 
 diction of the Crown, by J. B. Brown, Esq. of the Inner Temple, 
 sold by Underwood, 32, Fleet Street. 
 
 *** The Letters of Sir J. C. Hippisley to the Earl of Fingall, 
 and his former Speeches on the subject of the Claims of the 
 Catholics, may be had of the publishers of this work.' 
 
SUBSTANCE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 Sir J. C. HIPPISLEY, Bart. 
 
 ON THE APPOINTMENT OF A SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS. 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, — Tuesday, May 11, 1813. 
 
 Motion for a Select Committee on the State of the 
 Laws affecting the Roman Catholics. J In pursuance of his 
 notice, Sir John Cox Hippisley rose and addressed the House as 
 follows : 
 
 Before I proceed, Sir, upon the notice, which I sometime 
 since gave for this day, I would ask my right hon. friend, the 
 member for Dublin, whether he wishes to have it understood, 
 that the House should also enter upon the discussion of the 
 order, which, on his motion, stands among the orders of the 
 day ? — if such be his intention, I think I have some cause to 
 complain, as my notice was given anterior to that order. The 
 notice, I am aware, is entitled to precedence ; but, nevertheless, 
 if it be not understood that the order should stand over till to- 
 morrow, some impatience may probably be excited, little suited 
 to that deliberate discussion, to which, I conceive, the object of 
 my notice has some pretension. 
 
 [Mr. Grattan rose and intimated that he did not think himself 
 warranted to move the postponement of the discussion of the 
 order, as so many other gentlemen were anxious it should not 
 be delayed— but that the House would be regulated probably 
 by circumstances, according to the time which might be occu- 
 pied in the discussion of the motion for the Select Committee.] 
 
 B 
 
Sir J. C. liippisley.— From the answer of my right hon. 
 friend, I fear I can promise myself but little of his assistance in 
 acquitting the task I have undertaken ; and I am penuaded 
 that it will be received with still less indulgence by many, with 
 whom I have been accustomed to act, on former occasions, when 
 the subject, upon which my present motion so materially bears, 
 has been before the House. I am naturally led to this painful 
 anticipation from the questions put to me, and the observations 
 made, since I entered the House, by many of those gentlemen : 
 — to institute any inquiry is now considered, by them, as wan- 
 tonly opposing obstacles to those concessions which, accompa- 
 nied with due regulation, I contend that I am not less disposed 
 to support, than my right hon. friend. I must however, Sir, 
 remind those who are now so strenuous in resisting investiga- 
 tion, and regard this great question as on the eve of being pro- 
 bably carried by the physical force of numbers — for so confident 
 are they of their strength, — I must remind them, 1 repeat, of 
 the uniformity and consistency of the course I have pursued in 
 reference to this question, whenever it has been agitated, from 
 the period of the motion of Mr. Fox in 1805, and on all the suc- 
 cessive motions of my right hon. friend, the member for Dublin ; 
 
 whenever I have pressed my opinions on the House, or given 
 
 publicity to them elsewhere, I must claim the admission that I 
 have invariably contended for the qualification of concession, by 
 restriction and regulation, urging also, as indispensable, the 
 most deliberate investigation of the grounds on which those con- 
 csrffina should be granted. In the early debates on this sub- 
 ject. I certainly did consider that such an investigation might 
 have taken place in a committee of the whole House; but after 
 the collision of opinions which was excited in consequence of 
 the discussion in 18CH, on the motion of my right hon. friend, 
 and principally among the Catholics themselves, in reference to 
 those provisions which I ever considered as constituting an in- 
 dispensable qualification of further concession, I have, from that 
 period, uniformly insisted, from the sincerest conviction of my 
 mind, that the adoption of a select committee affords the only 
 practicable means by which any satisfactory result can be ob- 
 tained. A committee of the whole House is but ill adapted to 
 the examination of the various documents which, in the existing 
 
3 
 
 circumstances, ought to be produced to constitute the basis of 
 equitable and permanent legislation. No information whatever 
 has hitherto been put upon record; — assertions indeed have not 
 been sparingly made, but wholly unsubstantiated, and it is 
 surely too much to demand credit to mere assertion as to the 
 facts and points at issue, in a question of such vital interest. 
 
 Before I enter, Sir, upon the grounds of the motion, I shall 
 beg to state its component parts distinctly to the House, in the 
 order I propose to move them, namely : 
 
 " That a Select Committee be appointed to examine and 
 report the state of the laws ailecting his Majesty's Roman Catho- 
 lic subjects within the realm : — the state and number of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy, their religious institutions, and their 
 ♦intercourse with the See of Rome, or other foreign jurisdictions : 
 — the state of the laws and regulations affecting his Majesty's 
 Roman Catholic subjects in the several colonies of the United 
 Kingdom : — the regulations of foreign states as far as they can 
 be substantiated by evidence, respecting the nomination, colla- 
 tion, or institution of the episcopal order of the Roman Catholic 
 clergy, and the regulations of their intercourse with the See of 
 Rome." — If this be conceded, I propose to move that the com- 
 mittee do consist of twenty-one, and that the following members 
 be of the said committee, namely, lord viscount Castlereagh, 
 Mr. Fonsonby, Mr. Yorke, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Ryder, Mr. Can- 
 ning, Mr. Bathurst, Mr. Tierney, sir William Scott, sir John 
 Newport, sir John Nicholl, Mr. M. Fitzgerald, Mr. Peel, Mr. 
 Plunkett, Mr. Bankes, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Barry, Mr. Brogr 
 den, sir Samuel Romilly, and Mr. Barham : that they meet to- 
 morrow morning, in the Speaker's Chamber, and have powers 
 to send for persons, papers and records : — that five be a quorum : 
 — that they have leave to sit notwithstanding any adjournment 
 of the House, and that they have power to report, from time to 
 time, the minutes of the evidence taken before them. 
 
 The object of the motion, Sir, thus distinctly stated, is to 
 collect and report a body of evidence which may best afford the 
 means of legislating, on such a subject, with more accuracy and 
 effect than could otherwise be obtained; and to facilitate this 
 object, should the motion be acquiesced in by the House, I shall 
 move for the production of various documents to be put upon 
 
4 
 
 record. In the selection of members to constitute the com- 
 mittee, I think it must be admitted that those I have named are 
 fully competent to such investigation ; I have had in view an 
 equal selection of those who have been considered as supporters 
 or opposers of farther concession to the claims of the Catholics. 
 It is not my object to ask for powers to report any specific 
 opinion upon the evidence which may be adduced, or to pre- 
 scribe the course or limits of concession, but merely that the 
 evidence should be distinctly stated to the House, which, by 
 having such a tangible body of information before it, may, as I 
 have observed, proceed with more accuracy and effect to ulti- 
 mate and adequate legislation. An hon. member near me (Mr. 
 Wilberforce) who I conceived would have been the last to have 
 objected to so rational a procedure, observed in a former night'9 
 debate, when I mentioned the object of my present motion, 
 that such an investigation, he feared, might lead to " darkness 
 visible" — intimating aho that we should be involved in a 
 labyrinth of theological discussion, tending to no profitable 
 result. Were it, Sir, my object to enter into such discussions, 
 which in fact it is not, I might again remind my honourable 
 friend, that accustomed as he has been himself to theological 
 inquiries, he has not always manifested, as far as they have been 
 connected with the Catholic subject at least, great accuracy of 
 information. As a proof, he must allow me also again to ad- 
 vert to the circumstance, — when I was stating, some years 
 since, a fact in reference to the constitution of the established 
 church, he observed, " that I had cited a canon of the church 
 of Rome." I had the satisfaction however of convincing my 
 hon. friend that I had quoted, verbatim, that part of the 113th 
 canon of James I. which enjoins the ministers of the established 
 church, to conceal all crimes revealed to him, in confession, as 
 scrupulously as is practised in the church of Rome, for the 
 exception made in the canon, or constitution of 1603, has not 
 now, nor had it then, any legal weight, — there being no species 
 of offence — not even that of high treason, the bare concealment 
 of which subjects the person concealing it, to the penalties of a 
 capital offence, which was the only exception to secrecy enjoined 
 by the canon. 
 
 But, Sir, entreating pardon of the House for these repetitions, I 
 
5 
 
 must say also that though it is not my object to introduce theolo- 
 gical discussion, yet, in a question which must involve frequent 
 reference to some of the most essential tenets of the doctrine and 
 discipline of the church of Rome, it is impossible altogether to 
 avoid it, especially as the civil allegiance of Catholics is considered, 
 by the opponents of their claims, to be so intimately blended 
 
 with, and dependent upon, the tenets of their religion In this 
 
 view, doubtless, it was that a right hon. gentleman (Mr. Ryder) 
 who moved the call of the house for this day, moved for the pro- 
 duction of the documents constituting the course of education 
 v pursued in the college of Maynooth. As I was not in the House, 
 Sir, when the motion was acceeded to, and as the tracts which 
 were in use, in that college, were familiar to me, I thought it my 
 duty to move on the following day, for the production of the 
 "Tractatus de Ecclesia" — "de Religione" and de "Sacramentis" 
 —the latter including also " a Dissertation on General Councils:" 
 — these tracts chiefly comprehend the course of the theological 
 studies at Maynooth, and were all compiled by the Professor de 
 la Hogue, who is now professor of divinity at that college, and 
 who formerly filled the chair of a professor, with just celebrity, 
 for twenty years, at the Sorbonne. I cannot, Sir, name this 
 venerable ecclesiastic, who has now attained, I believe, his 
 eightieth year, without paying my willing tribute to his estima- 
 ble character and exemplary conduct in the exercise of his pro- 
 fessional charge. I had an additional motive for moving for the 
 production of his tracts, as so much misconception had prevailed 
 respecting one of them. It will be recollected, Sir, that, in thr 
 last parliament, a right hon. gentlemen, whose "untimely and 
 calamitous loss we must all deplore, (the late Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer) quoted a passage from the " Tractatus de Ecclesia," 
 inferring from it that the Professor had enjoined a scrupulous 
 observance of the whole discipline, as well as doctrine, enjoined 
 by the council of Trent. In the same error a right reverend 
 prelate (the bishop of Lincoln) has addressed his clergy in a 
 pastoral charge, referring to the same passage — but it is due to 
 the memory of Mr. Perceval to state, that he immediately avowed 
 his error when, (as he had made a pointed reference to me 
 across the House,) I indicated to him the various passages, in the 
 same work of the professor, by whieh it was evident that he 
 
6 
 
 reierred to those regulations of discipline which were compre- 
 hended in the preceding compendium, and were substantially 
 sanctioned by the Gallican church. In fact, the several tracts 
 which have been laid before the House, in consequence of the 
 motion I have noticed, are no other than the same course of 
 ecclesiastical studies, which were pursued in the Sorbonne, in 
 which university it is well known that no person can graduate 
 without defending the four memorable propositions of the Gal- 
 lican church, which maintain its independence, and w holly reject 
 the interference of the see of Rome, in temporals — in a word, 
 which reject all those imputed, obnoxious tenets, which it is the 
 object of the several oaths of our statutes of toleration to abjure. 
 I should add that the professor de la Hogue cites the authority 
 of the celebrated Bossuet, affirming that many of the discipli- 
 nary regulations of general councils are merely to be considered 
 as applicable to times and circumstances. " Multu etium sunt 
 decreta qua non pertinent ad invariabilem fid-i rtgulam, sed sunt 
 uccommodatu temporibits atque negotiis."' — It is scarcely neces- 
 sary, Sir, that I should say, that the history of those days informs 
 us, that although a division obtained among the Gallican clergy 
 respecting the acceptation of the discipline of the council of 
 Trent, it was unanimously rejected by the French parliaments ] 
 indeed many of its disciplinary regulations have since become 
 constitutions of the state; but therein they derive their authority 
 from the state itself. I cannot but recollect, Sir, some light and 
 taunting observations thrown out when I moved for the produc- 
 tion of these tracts — which was considered as intended, on my 
 part, injuriously to operate as an obstacle to the Bill proposed 
 by my right hon. friend. With all veneration for his exalted 
 character and pre-eminent talents, I regTet to say that I cannot 
 feel the same respect for the Bill which he has introduced. Our 
 ultimate object, Sir, may, in substance be the same, but the Bill 
 does not, in my humble estimation, point out an unexceptionable 
 course to attain it. — I cannot therefore say of the Bill — or of the 
 clauses suggested by another right hon. gentleman, « materiam 
 superabat opus' — I admit the substance, or principle of both his 
 clauses to be in conformity with my own views of regulation ; 
 but I cannot bring my mind to assent to the circuitous, and, as I 
 view them, untenable means, by which the end is proposed to 
 
7 
 
 be produced. After the House had consented to the printing of 
 those clauses, on their first introduction, I thought it my duty, 
 Sir, to put in the same course of circulation, though not under 
 the same sanction, a paper which I had drawn up, some years 
 since, as pointing to the object sought to be secured by the first 
 of those clauses. I mean, Sir, the modification of that interpo- 
 sition of government, whioh is now stiled the Veto, in the ap- 
 pointments of the Prelates of the Roman Catholic communion. 
 I must apologize to the House for recurring so often as I have 
 done in the several debates upon this subject, to what may be 
 termed the history of the Veto ; but it appears to me to be so 
 necessary to be accurately understood, as scarcely to require 
 apology for the repetition, especially as we are now circum- 
 stanced, in a new parliament, wherein the subject also must be 
 new to so large a proportion of the members, in their represen- 
 tative character, at least. After the introduction of bishop 
 Milner's proposition in the session of 1808 — many months it is 
 well known had elapsed before we heard any objections raised 
 against it, and those who introduced it in parliament, had re- 
 ceived the thanks of the chiefs of the Catholic prelacy: — at 
 length some writers under the assumed names of Sarsfield — 
 Inimicus Veto, and others, assailed bishop Milner and the Irish 
 Catholic prelates as the authors of a measure subversive of the 
 popular religion of their country. Mr. Clinch, a gentleman at 
 the Irish bar, soon after coalesced with those writers ; and as 
 Mr. Clinch's pen had been often exercised in defence of the 
 Irish Roman Catholic hierarchy, and was known to possess con- 
 siderable talents and much practised in ecclesiastical polemics, 
 his " Inquiry" or " Brief for the Bishops," as it is commonly 
 stiled, published at the eve of the convention of the Catholic 
 prelates, in September 1808 (assembled expressly to consider 
 the proposition of Dr. Milner) had great popular weight, and 
 has been avowed also to have bad a material influence upon the 
 deliberations of the prelates themselves. 
 
 The result of those deliberations was a vote " that it was 
 inexpedient to introduce any alteration in the canonical mode 
 hitherto observed in the nomination cf the Irish Roman Catholic 
 bishops." It is well known that when lord Southwell and sir 
 Edward Bellew called upon the Roman Catholic primate Dr 
 
8 
 
 Reify, for an explanation of this vote— that Prelate maintained, 
 in a letter since published, " that it involved no departure from 
 the principle of the bishops' resolutions of 1799, which had con- 
 ceded the Veto; — that such concession was not contrary to the 
 doctrine of the Roman Catholic religion— but that it might be 
 eventually attended with consequences dangerous to the Roman 
 Catholic religion ;" but adds the archbishop, " such danger is 
 of a temporary nature resulting from existing circumstances." 
 — To the same effect also was the answer of the Roman Catholic 
 archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Troy, two months after the date of 
 this resolution of "inexpediency:" both prelates having reference 
 only to the temporary influence of an administration considered, 
 by them, as inimical to the claims of the Catholics. I will not 
 go further, Sir, into the details of that controversy, I have often 
 expressed my opinion upon the subject in this House, and I 
 thought it also incumbent upon me not to withhold those 
 opinions from the public — as it is a question upon which the 
 public mind has been much agitated, and must naturally con- 
 tinue to be agitated, while it involves the consideration of so 
 material a departure from the systematic policy of our ancestors 
 from the period of the Reformation, but more especially from 
 the Revolution— for we know, that, between those periods, during 
 four reigns, Catholics were not deprived of the representative 
 franchise, but continued to sit in parliament till the epoch of 
 the imaginary, or grossly exaggerated plot, supported by the 
 perjuries of Oates and Bedloe. 
 
 Those opinions, Sir, which I have so often expressed, had 
 the good fortune to be in concurrence with those of a great 
 number of gentlemen near me, if I am to collect their sen- 
 timents from their repeated declarations both within and 
 without the doors of parliament: from those opinions, Sir, I 
 have never swerved. I can reproach myself with no inconsis- 
 tency,— I have been uniform in declaring that I can never be 
 the advocate of further concession, but as the result of deliberate 
 investigation; and that investigation, I conceive, can only be 
 effected by the institution of a select committee, such as is the 
 object of the motion which I have this day the honour to submit 
 to the House. The report of such a committee, I must repeat, 
 as I have contended for, year after year, would constitute the 
 
9 
 
 best ground work of legislation ; but antecedent to any conclu- 
 sive act of legislation, I must also contend that the report of the 
 committee should circulate not only among the members of this 
 House, but throughout the country. We do not want authori- 
 ties for such a procedure, and even in the discussion of this sub- 
 ject, on the motion of my right hon. friend, some weeks since, 
 it seemed to meet the views of the warmest advocates of con- 
 cession, that the Bill should not, in the present session, pass 
 into a law. 
 
 With respect to the two clauses which are now engrafted on 
 the Bill, I have said that the end sought for in both, is in per- 
 fect conformity with my own view — but differing as to the 
 means, — and the object of the second of those clauses, especially, 
 demands the most deliberate investigation of a committee, as 
 the several authorities adduced from the practice of other states, 
 are of great importance, with reference to the security of the 
 establishment, and to be supported, as the basis of legislation, 
 upon the uniform principles maintained even in Catholic states, 
 not less jealous of the encroachments of a foreign jurisdiction, 
 than those of the Protestant communion. 
 
 I will suppose, Sir, for a moment, that we immediately pro- 
 ceed to legislate in the very letter of the Bill introduced by my 
 right hon. friend, with the addition of the restrictive clauses 
 now introduced. We have already observed enough of the 
 temper and language held in some assemblies of Catholics in 
 Ireland, to anticipate the result — " let us alone," they say, 
 " rather than impose upon us such shackles — we will have 
 nothing short of unqualified concession." — The uninformed 
 member of the establishment will not be less hostile to the far- 
 ther extension of privileges to the professors of a religion which 
 our state policy demands should be circumscribed with such 
 apparent precautionary fences. He will not readily separate, 
 in his apprehension, the Roman court from the Roman see. He 
 may have yet to learn that one of the stoutest defenders of our 
 establishment, has gravely and truly admitted that "our contro- 
 versy about Papal power is not a question of faith, but of interest 
 and profit; not with the see of Rome, but with the court of 
 Rome." So archbishop Bramhall defines it; and I need not 
 eke authorities in support of the orthodoxy of that prelate on 
 
 c 
 
10 
 
 the strictest principles of the establishment. But, Sir, I am dis- 
 posed to think that the opinions of the great mass of the less 
 informed Catholics as well as Protestants, might receive diffe- 
 rent impressions, if, from the information derived from the inves- 
 tigation and report of a select committee, they should learn that 
 the primitive church, in the early ages, long anterior to the Re- 
 formation, was ever jealous of its independence, and that the 
 municipal enactments of our ancient sovereigns and their par- 
 fiaments were sedulously directed to maintain that independence 
 in reference to the frequent and systematic encroachments of 
 the court of Rome. A weak deference to the intrusive spirit of 
 the Court of Rome, by bigotted or timid princes, is not to be 
 confounded with the abstract principles of the religion of Catho- 
 lics, though such examples are but too often found in the history 
 of our country. The most irrefragable documents might be 
 produced in a committee to evince the frequent and successful 
 resistance to such encroachments, both in ancient and modern 
 times, on the part even of those states which are supposed to 
 have been most blindly devoted to the see of Rome. The spirit 
 of the Gallican church has been pre-eminent — but Spain and 
 Portugal, — Naples and Austria, — Savoy, Venice and Tuscany — 
 in a word, every Catholic state, even on the other side of the Alps, 
 with an exception to the Roman territory itself, have afforded 
 distinguished proofs of this spirit of independence in the pro- 
 ceedings of their governments, not only by maintaining the 
 freedom of their nominations to the prelacy, but have, also, under 
 various appellations, whether of the placet, the regium exequatur, 
 or some analogous term, asserted the right of the sovereign to 
 the inspection and licensing of all rescripts emanating from the 
 see of Rome (those of the penitentiary only, under certain guards 
 excepted) before they were allowed to have circulation or vali- 
 dity within their respective states. Surely, Sir, the well attested 
 documents in support of such instructive facts are of no light 
 estimation, but of practical utility, as salutary precedents; and 
 it will be difficult to assign a satisfactory reason why they should 
 not be recorded, in the report of a committee, as an incontro- 
 vertible answer to those misguided zealots who denounce all 
 measures of state regulation as inconsistent with the integrity 
 of the Roman Catholic religion. Let us, Sir, again revert to the 
 
11 
 
 solemn admission of the four metropolitans and six senior bishops 
 of Ireland, of the Roman communion : — have they not admitted 
 that the interference of the crown is not incompatible with the 
 integrity of t heir religion, and, with a view to ascertain the loy- 
 alty of a candidate, " it is just and ought to be acceded to?" 
 Let us examine all their subsequent resolutions to the present 
 hour :• — I maintain that they have not attempted, in any one of 
 them, to controvert the principle of their admission of 1799, al- 
 though, indeed, they have set up a qualification of it as to the 
 ' inexpediency' of present adoption. — Let us again advert to the 
 several publications of bishop Milner, the accredited agent of 
 the Catholic prelates of Ireland; — to his Letter to a right hon. 
 member of this House (Mr. Ponsonby) which he has read in his 
 place; — to the Letter, also, of the same prelate to a Parish Priest, 
 in which he details the striking instances, in various states, Ca- 
 tholic and Protestant, of the exercise of that prerogative of the 
 crown ; — " The exercise of ecclesiastical power" (says bishop 
 Milner) " being of so much consequence to the welfare of a state, 
 there is perhaps no civilized Christian country, in which the go- 
 vernment does not interfere in the appointment of the prelates, 
 who are to exercise this power; and it is judged that there is no 
 country in which this interference is so necessary as in Ireland, 
 In Catholic countries the prince nominates without any controul, 
 and the Pope gives jurisdiction as a matter of course; — in almost 
 every uncatholic country, means are provided and care taken, 
 both by those who have a right to present, and by the holy see 
 herself, that no person obnoxious to the sovereign shall be raised 
 to the prelacy. The sovereigns of Russia and Prussia will be 
 found to have exercised a power, in this respect, which far ex- 
 ceeds that which the Irish Prelates have offered to his Majesty." — 
 Such are the precise words of bishop Milner ; but, Sir, I have 
 quoted and requoted these pointed admissions, in former debates, 
 — admissions on the part of bishop Milner, not merely to be 
 found in bis Letter to a Parish Priest, but in various other of his 
 letters published under his signature, in the newspapers at that 
 period, and addressed to their several editors. In speaking of 
 this prelate, I must not pass over his salutary admonition to the 
 Catholic Prelacy in Ireland, on the eve of their convocation in 
 1808. — " If," 5 ays he, " the prelates should abide by what they 
 
12 
 
 have solemnly resolved upon, they will have nothing more to do 
 than what is probably within their sphere, and what is compa- 
 ratively easy to be done ; namely, to enlighten their people and 
 shew them how grossly they have been imposed upon, both as to facts 
 and reasoning." — It is, Sir, in concurrence with this sentiment 
 that I anticipate the salutary effects of the report of a select com- 
 mittee going forth to the public eye — that the Protestant and 
 Catholic should have equally the advantage of the information 
 to be derived from it, by emancipating themselves from the 
 force of their prejudices. Of bishop Milner's subsequent change* 
 of opinion we are pretty well informed by himself, and he has 
 not failed to announce to us the vote of the Roman Catholic bi- 
 shops of Ireland, recognizing his *' apostolical firmness" in re- 
 sisting the fifth resolution of the English Catholics assembled on 
 the 2d of February, 1810. So extraordinary a vote, however, I 
 am persuaded would not have passed, had not much great misre- 
 presentation of facts been conveyed to that venerable body; 
 they could not have qualified the negative conduct of bishop 
 Milner, on that occasion, with such extravagant eulogy, if they 
 had known that he had declared that he would not interpose to 
 prevent any priest, of his own district, from signing this reproba- 
 ted resolution : and that to a question put to him by an Engli»h 
 Catholic peer, demanding whether he might conscientiously sign 
 the resolution, his lordship was answered in the affirmative ! — 
 As an agent of the Irish prelacy, merely, bishop Milner withheld 
 his own signature (for such was the motive he assigned) when 
 every other prelate of his church who was present — namely, five 
 in number, subscribed their approbation of the temperate and 
 loyal resolution. — And here I may observe that the ecclesiastical 
 character with which Dr. Milner is clothed by the see of Rome, 
 may with propriety become one of the subjects of consideration 
 in such a committee as I have in view, as I am persuaded it wi!i 
 be found much more congenial with the spirit of our constitu- 
 tion, to exclude the admission of such delegated authority than 
 to connive at it. I do not contend that the recent conduct of 
 bishop Milner has been influenced by his delegated character of 
 apostolical vicar; — I have said that all his colleagues, inveited 
 w ith the same character, pointedly contrasted their conduct to 
 that of bishop Milner, by signing the temperate and loyal reso- 
 
13 
 
 lwtion of the 2d of February— nor do I impute disloyalty to Dr. 
 Milner in withholding his signature ;— but the absolute depen- 
 dency of the character of an apostolic vicar upon the see of 
 Rome, is an objection taken by the most enlightened Catholics 
 themselves;— bishop Milner himself is well aware of it— and in 
 one of his publications contrasts the dependent state of himself 
 and colleagues, upon the see of Rome, to that of bishop's ordina- 
 ries — in other words — with the condition of prelates whose fa- 
 culties are not revocable at the mere will of the Sovereign Pon- 
 tiff. I have often, Sir, adverted to this material distinction, and 
 shewn the facility of removing the objection.— Every loyal Ca- 
 tholic prelate, thus circumstanced, would rejoice in the change, 
 and we should hasten to remove this delegated, representative 
 authority, whose incompatibility with the spirit of our govern- 
 ment, must be more felt in proportion to the nearer approxima- 
 tion of the Catholic and Protestant to each other. In saying this, 
 it is due from me, also, to observe that the change will never be 
 resisted, when the see of Piome is filled by a Pontiff who has only 
 the integrity of his religion at heart. I have proofs, and have 
 before stated them, that it would not have been opposed by 
 Pius VI •~ -nor would it be, I am persuaded, by his successor, if 
 he possessed the freedom of action. 
 
 When, Sir, I animadvert on the conduct of bishop Milner, as 
 an individual, I do it with pain,— but the cause of truth exacts 
 it from me. Bishop Milner is no insignificent person — he cannot 
 be kept in the back ground, nor the eccentricities of his conduct 
 be disregarded. He is unquestionably a prelate of great learn- 
 ing,— of a warm and forward spirit, — and he presides over the 
 Catholics of fifteen English counties, of great Catholic popula- 
 tion. I will not here recur to his controversies at the period of 
 the Act of 1791 — they were successful to the cause he espoused, 
 but I will look to his subsequent Letters to a Prebendary, and 
 his Case of Conscience ; — the former addressed to the late Chan- 
 cellor Sturges, in defence of the civil principles of Catholics, and 
 the latter written in refutation of the opinion that a further con- 
 cession to the claims of the Catholics was incompatible with the 
 obligation of the coronation oath. His liberal opponent Mr. Chan- 
 cellor Sturges, admitted that bishop Milner'* argument, in the 
 latter tract, was unanswerable; — such too was the opinion of 
 
14 
 
 Mr. Pitt, who countenanced the publication of that tract. It is 
 to be regretted, Sir, that this learned prelate should, of late, 
 have travelled so much out of his course, — for his recent publica- 
 tions are as much calculated to keep alive the dissentions between 
 our Catholic fellow subjects and the members of the establish- 
 ment, as those which I have noticed, were to extinguish them. 
 Of his exceptionable works, Sir, I have in my hand one, which 
 considering the moment when it is given to the public, though 
 more particularly addressed to the Catholic clergy of his dis- 
 trict, I cannot but consider as deserving of marked reproba- 
 tion — and indeed no composition can be less calculated to pro- 
 mote the object which every rational and loyal Catholic must 
 have at heart, by removing those prejudices which are opposed 
 to further legislative concessions in his favour. — I hope, Sir, I 
 may claim the indulgence of the House in adverting to a few 
 passages of this extraordinary pamphlet. 
 
 [Sir J. H. here read several exceptionable passages from the 
 Pastoral Charge of Bishop Milner of the 24th of March, 1S13, 
 addressed to the Clergy of the Midland District.] 
 
 The learned prelate has also done me the honour to make my 
 conduct, in respect to this question, the subject of near twenty 
 pages of this Pastoral Charge. — He calls upon me to produce 
 any authentic document that the church has acknowledged any 
 right in the sovereigns of Prussia to nominate to the Catholic 
 »ees of Silesia, or for the appointment of a bishop of Quebec, when 
 presented by the English crown ; — " What then have we not to 
 expect," he adds, " should he (meaning himself) draw over a 
 majority of his colleagues, in parliament, to adopt his senti- 
 ments ?" — Of the fact of the unresisted practice of such nomi- 
 nations, having the proof in my possession, (as I have repeatedly 
 stated, and a practice the learned prelate has himself admitted) 
 — it is not material whether his church have acknowledged the 
 right, — it is sufficient that the practice is established in those and 
 other states, and invariably acquiesced in by his church ; we 
 know that his church protested against all the reservations in 
 favour of Protestant sovereigns and their Prelates, as conceded 
 by the treaty of Westphalia — and that Innocent X. by a Pon- 
 tifical Bull, pronounced the treaty, to that effect, null and void, 
 as an encroachment on his spiritual jurisdiction ; — but we know 
 
15 
 
 also that neither Catholics nor Protestants paid the least attention 
 to the annulling Bull :— that the Emperor and all the States, ec- 
 clesiastical as well as civil, ratified the treaty,— and that it remains 
 as a constitution of the empire, if it can be said to have a consti- 
 tution, at the present hour. 
 
 In reply to my assertions that our Catholic ancestors esta- 
 blished similar barriers to those now contended for, against the 
 encroachment and abuse of the Papal power, Bishop Milner 
 observes " supposing the English and Irish Catholics choose to 
 have a species of Catholicity of our own, one more analogous to 
 the present freedom of our constitution, and to the freedom lat- 
 terly enjoyed by all other dissidents from the established church, 
 how can this concern the honourable Baronet, provided we are 
 good and loyal subjects?"—" The statutes of Provisors and 
 Premunire (he continues to observe) were devised merely to 
 prevent the court of Rome from bestowing temporal fiefs, an- 
 nexed to bishoprics, on foreigners." — To this part of his argu- 
 ment I shall only repeat that we are to look to the practical 
 course of nominations as followed by other slates — and indeed 
 in some instances, we may add our own, for the Catholic bi- 
 shop of Quebec, who is actually nominated by the governor of 
 Quebec, has no temporal fief attached to his see ; — nor have the 
 Apostolic Vicars, where licenced, in other Protestant States, to 
 exercise their spiritual functions : — the same may be said of the 
 coadjutor Bishops of the Russian Empire, and I am yet to learn 
 whether there be any such Fief attached to the archiepiscopal 
 See of Mohilow — I suspect it to be otherwise. But this, Sir, is 
 a new objection raised since the debate of 1S08, for no such 
 reasoning occurred to the Irish Catholic Prelates in 1799, when 
 they pronounced in favour of the justice and propriety of the 
 interference of the crown ; nor did this objection occur to bishop 
 Milner himself when, heretofore, exercising his pen in various 
 publications in defence of those resolutions of the Irish prelates. 
 — The bishop in this charge, as in other of his recent publica- 
 tions, is very diffuse of his epithets of condemnation of any at- 
 tempt to institute a control upon the intromission and publication 
 of Papal rescripts.—" Star-chambers and Inquisitions" are the 
 terms of description by which he attempts to convey to his 
 clergy an idea of the reg ulations te this end, which it is proposed 
 
16 
 
 to provide by legislation. — Here, Sir, we have only to refer the 
 bi»hop to the uniform legislation of every other state, — Catholic 
 or Protestant, — wherein a dominant religion is established — and 
 we can see no reason why our own should set the example 
 of unprecedented forbearance. But, says the bishop—" By 
 what kind of regulation can the Baronet prevent the transmis- 
 sion of that spiritual jurisdiction, which can no more be torn 
 away or handled than a beam of the sun ? — Is he ignorant 
 that it can be communicated not only by the pen, but also by 
 word of mouth, by sign — by signal ? I should be curious to 
 learn how the hon. Baronet would propose to regulate these 
 intricate and subtle matters in the Secret Committee which he 
 is incessantly calling for?" — 
 
 I believe, Sir, that this sort of argument is calculated rather to 
 promote, than to check the institution of such inquiries as I have 
 proposed to the House. Other States have found no difficulties 
 in establishing regulation — I have no visionary Theories to re- 
 commeHd — I wish only to establish the proof of existing autho- 
 rities, and to act upon them ; in this wish I carry with me the 
 sentiments of the best informed Catholics, who are not less tena- 
 cious of the integrity of their religion, than the learned Prelate 
 who seeks so industriously to alarm and unsettle their consciences. 
 — The bishop, at length, proposes a new form of oath which 
 offers a security, as he avers, much more effectual than the se- 
 curity proposed by me — but in respect to those securities which 
 are already proposed for enactment, as modified in the clauses 
 introduced by the right hon. member opposite to me ; he tells 
 us that — " thirty bishops, with their clergy, and a numerous 
 u laity, are ready to mount the scaffold and submit to the axe or 
 a the halter, rather than submit to them." 
 
 The House will judge whether such declarations proceeding 
 from an ecclesiastic, possessing, as bishop Milner necessarily 
 must possess, a great influence over the minds of so considerable 
 a population of his extended district — may not be considered as 
 pregnant with mischievous results ? The learned Prelate insists 
 upon the paramount security of his oath : — I am ready to admit 
 that where oaths will not bind, human provisions are but too 
 hkely to be evaded — but the effort must be made, and precau- 
 tionary guards must still continue to be the objects of enact- 
 
17 
 
 ment:— a state must do its best to protect itself by the means 
 within its disposal. — My right hon. friend, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, will feel great obligation to the learned prelate, if he 
 can frame an oath which shall dispense with the necessity of 
 keeping up our onerous establishment of revenue officers. I 
 own that I am disposed to give credit to no man upon his oath, 
 whom I would not willingly believe upon his word of honour. 
 Such, also, it should seem, was the impression that influenced the 
 councils of a government, proverbially cautious, in framing regu- 
 lations similar to those I would provide on the present occasion: 
 — the States of the United Provinces were content to receive a 
 disavowal of those obnoxious tenets which have been imputed to 
 the See of Rome, merely on the priestly word of an ecclesiastic— 
 but they did not stop here; I have often stated the regulation, 
 that every Catholic priest should be presented to the civil ma- 
 gistrate for approval, and the provisions respecting the controul 
 upon Papal rescripts which existed, similar to those of other 
 states. — These facts I stated on the authority of the Cardinal Arch- 
 bishop of Siena, who is now living, from letters addressed to 
 myself : — his Eminence was, also, for many years, Secretary of 
 the college of Propoganda Fide. 
 
 And here, Sir, I think it opportune to observe respecting the 
 administration of the oaths prescribed by the English and Irish 
 Statutes, that the universality of compliance with that test is not 
 such as is assumed by those advocates who think the security 
 conclusive. An effort was recently made, in another place, to 
 ascertain the extent of the compliance with the provisions of the 
 English Act of 1791, as far as respected the prescribed oath, but 
 the information was not drawn from the best source.* When 
 
 * A return was made to the House of Lords, on the motion of lord 
 Kenyon, of the number of Catholics, who had, within the last ten 
 years, taken the oaths prescribed by the Act of 1 791 ; only one name 
 was returned. Lord Kenyon limited his motion to the returns made 
 to the privy council, to which the Act directs that the returns should 
 be transmitted from the offices of the clerks of the peace, but which 
 injunction is not duly observed- The offices of the clerks of the peace 
 supply the information, in the first instance, and they were resorted Ed 
 by sir J. H. as 'tated by him in speaking to his motion. 
 
 v 
 
IS 
 
 the test of an oath is assumed to be the enly test which we have 
 a right to demand, and if, upon an averment that this test has 
 been generally given, we are now called upon to concede to the 
 claims of the petitioners, in their fullest extent, can inquiry, as 
 to this fact, be deemed unjustifiable, or a work of supereroga- 
 tion? If it should appear, that the averment is not sustained by 
 the fact, but on the contrary, that the numbers of those who 
 have submitted to this test are comparatively few — it may be 
 asked, if there be not some ground of objection, in this respect, 
 conceded to the opposers of the Bill, especially in reference to 
 the arguments of those who contend for this test as the best se- 
 curity ?— I do not believe, Sir, that the majority of Catholics ob- 
 ject to the prescribed oaths, but we know that objections have 
 been taken to those oaths by some of them, and it could be 
 wished that a test were framed, which could afford no ground 
 of cavil. When the Bill of 1791 was introduced in this House, 
 a great controversy took place, as I have heretofore stated, re- 
 specting the oath as originally framed. Bishop Milner was one 
 of those most loud in condemning it; his objections, though dis- 
 regarded in this House, were nevertheless countenanced in the 
 other House of Parliament, and the late Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. 
 Horsley, decried the oath with scarcely less vehemence than 
 Bishop Milner himself. 
 
 The oath, as it stood in the Bill, was altered in the upper 
 House, at the suggestion of Bishop Horsley, so as to become 
 unobjectionable to the English Roman Catholic prelates of that 
 day,* and so amended, is that which stands on the face of the 
 
 * In the Irish Act the succession clause is differently worded. Bi- 
 shop Milner in a note to his brief Memorial, circulated in the lobby of 
 the House of Commons on the night Mr. Grattan's Bill was withdrawn 
 (dated 20th May, 1813) declares, " that many Catholics in England 
 havu refused to take the oath appointed for them by the Act of 1791, 
 in consequence of the terms in ultich the succession clause is couched, 
 and it is presumed that mauy more in Ireland, where it never yet has 
 been proposed, will refuse to take it, on the same account, namely, 
 from au idea that they thereby would be obliged to take up arms 
 against the sovereign, in case he was to profess their religion, which 
 nobody can believe they would do." He then proposes a change el 
 
19 
 
 Act of 1791. When we advert, Sir, to the great mass of Catho- 
 lic population, even of this part of the United Kingdom, and 
 observe such questions raised on the subject of this test; — when 
 we find also, that comparatively, so few have complied with the 
 provisions of the several Acts of Toleration in this respect — can 
 we wonder that objections are urged against further concession? 
 — May we not expect complaint of the negligence, at least, mani- 
 fested by the majority of Catholics in not complying with this 
 essential provision of the Act — especially as many of the penal 
 laws must continue in force against those who possess, and are in 
 the habitual observance of the ostensible rites of their religion, 
 without conforming to the provisions of the legislature, as the 
 condition of exemption ? 
 
 The Petition of the Irish Catholics in 1805 states—" That the 
 petitioners have solemnly and publicly taken the oaths, by law 
 prescribed to his Majesty's Catholic subjects, as tests of political 
 and moral principles." — In the year 1812, the Catholics of Ire- 
 land assert : — " We have publicly and solemnly taken every 
 oath of fidelity and allegiance which the jealous caution of the le- 
 gislature has, from time to time, imposed as tests of our political 
 and moral principles:" — again — " By those awful tests we have 
 bound ourselves, in the presence of the all-seeing Deity, whom 
 all classes of Christians adore, to be faithful and bear true alle- 
 
 the terms of the oath — substituting the words " to submit to the Act 
 of Settlement, &c." The Irish Prelates, it is well known, have often 
 urged the removal of the same obstacle — and Bishop Milner urged It 
 in their behalf, in his letter to Mr. Ponsonby in 1810. In the Bill 
 introduced by Mr. Grattan, the words " the heirs of her body (the 
 princess Sophia) being Protestants" form part of the oath— the autho- 
 rity therefore of Bishop Milner, speaking from his experience, as an 
 Apostolical Vicar of England, and also as agent for the Catholic bishops 
 of Ireland, is adverse to the oath, as introduced in the present Bill. 
 The votes of the Catholic prelacy of Ireland of the 29th of May, 1813, 
 and of the aggregate meeting of the Catholics of Ireland, 15th June, 
 1813, have since appeared, by which Dr. Milner is again thanked for 
 " his manly and conscientious opposition" to Mr. Grattan's Bill : — 
 with these facts before the public— concession, without inquiry, does 
 not seem to afford the best means to promote the object proposed by 
 the Bill. 
 
20 
 
 giance to our most gracious sovereign."— The English Catholic*, 
 also, in their petition of the present sessions, declare, that they 
 have " cheerfully and readily taken the oaths, and signed the 
 declaration prescribed in the Acts which have been passed for 
 their relief, — they humbly conceive that further securities cannot 
 be requirerl from them." — What can be collected from these 
 solemn allegations but that the Petitioners themselves were fully 
 impressed with the propriety and even the necessity of a general 
 conformity to the provisions of the legislature, so far as to shew 
 that they had submitted to the test, of which they speak with 
 so much reverence, in order thereby to substantiate their claims 
 to concessions for which they now apply to parliament ? — not 
 merely for themselves, but on behalf of the whole Catholic popu- 
 lation of the United Kingdom r And upon this principle their 
 most strenuous advocates have uniformly urged those claims. 
 Let us also revert, Sir, to the period which I have before 
 noticed, namely, the year 1791, after the Act had passed — let us 
 look to the invitation given by a venerable Roman Catholic Pre- 
 late who then presided over the London district (or the ten 
 southern counties) — The late Bishop Douglas, in reference to 
 the oath prescribed by the Act of 1791, thus addressed the 
 Catholics of that district : " As our emancipation from the 
 pressure of the penal laws* must awaken every feeling of a 
 grateful mind, hasten to correspond, on your part, with the 
 
 * As many of the speakers in assemblies of the Catholics in Ireland 
 seek to impress upon the public feeling a sense of injuries sustained by 
 Catholics from an exaggerated violence offered to the rights of con- 
 science, the following Extracts of the Pastoral Charges of Archbishop 
 1 roy, and Bishop Moylan are subjoined : — the candid representations, 
 of the Prelates, at that period, very little correspond with the language 
 held' in these assemblies. 
 
 Extract from Appendix No. V. to Sir J. C. Hippidey's Letters to thr 
 Earl of Fingall. [Murray, 1813.] 
 
 The following Extracts from the Pastoral Addresses and Remon- 
 strances of Archbishop Troy and Bishop Moylan, manifest their 
 .ludable efforts to disabuse the Roman Catholics of their Dioceses, at 
 a period of great public danger ; and also denote the sentiments of 
 those Prelates respecting the political, as well as ecclesiastical , con- 
 dition of the Reman Catholics of Trcland. 
 
 / 
 
21 
 
 benignity of government ; hasten to give our gracious sovrr< tgq 
 that test of loyalty which the legislature calls for, and to disclaim 
 
 Extract of a " Pastoral Letter of Dr. Troij, R. C. Archbishop cf 
 Dublin, to the Catholics of his Diocese;" dated Dublin, 25tk May, 
 1798. 
 
 " Compare your present situation with the past. Twenty years ago 
 the exercise of your religion was prohibited by law ; the ministers of 
 it were proscribed ; it was penal to educate Catholic youth at home 
 or abroad ; your property was insecure, at the mercy of an informer; 
 your industry was restrained, by incapacity to realize the fruits of it. 
 At present you are emancipated from those and other penalties and 
 disabilities, under which your forefathers, and some among yourselves, 
 had laboured You are now at liberty to protess your religion openly, 
 ind to practise the duties of it ; the ministers of your religion exercise 
 their several functions under the sanction of law, which authorises 
 Catholic teachers ; a college for the education of your clergy has beeD 
 erected at the recommendation of his Majesty ; it is supported and 
 endowed by parliamentary munificence; the restraints on your indus 
 try are removed, together with the incapacity to realize the fruits of it 
 for the benefit of your posterity. What, let me ask you, has effected 
 this favourable change — this great difference between your past and 
 your present situation ? I answer, your loyalty, your submission to 
 the constituted authorities, your peaceable demeanour, your patience 
 Under long sufferings. — It was this exemplary and meritorious conduct, 
 invariably dictated by the principles of your religion, which pleaded 
 j cur just cause, and determined a gracious king and a wise parliament, 
 to reward it by restoring you to many benefits of the constitution. 
 
 " You will, perhaps, reply, that some legal disabilities still exclude 
 the most loyal and peaceable Roman Catholic from a seat or vote in 
 parliament, from the privy council, from the higher and confidential 
 civil and military departments of the state. — I grant it. But is it by 
 -ebellion, insurrection, tumult, or seditious clamour, on your part, that 
 these incapacities are to be removed?" 
 
 " Extract from the Remonstrance of Dr. F. Moylan, R. C. Bishop of 
 Cork, addresstdto i/ie Catholics of his Diocese, " and particularly 
 the loiuer Orders." Dated Cork, \Qth April, 1798. 
 
 " But whilst I exhort you, my brethren, patiently to endure what- 
 • ver portion of evil, in the general distribution of Providence, may fail 
 to your share ; I would have you not unmindful of the blessings you 
 
'22 
 
 every principle dangerous to society and civil liberty, wbich has 
 been erroneously imputed to you." — Such was the salutary ad- 
 monition of Bishop Douglas on the 14th of June, 1791, and he 
 was immediately followed by the hon. Bishop Talbot, Bishop 
 Walmesly, and Bishop Gibson, in pastoral charges to their 
 several districts — they all speak of it " as a test required by the 
 legislature from the Catholics of England" and " to be sub- 
 scribed," to use Dr. Talbot's words, " without scruple or diffi- 
 culty." If scruples and difficulties be now raised therefore — 
 
 enjoy, and the favours you have received : certain privileges excepted, 
 you possess the advantages of the constitution. The penal laws, under 
 which our fathers groaned, have been almost all clone away. You have 
 the comfort of exercising your holy religion without control ; and to 
 the benignity of government, and to the liberality of parliament, we 
 are indebted for the establishment and endowment of a Roman Ca- 
 tholic college, on an extensive plan, which will afford a liberal educa- 
 tion to our youth, and a supply of clergy to our church, when the pre- 
 sent generation have finished their career: these are blessings — these 
 are favours, that shouid excite and call forth our gratitude ; and this 
 gratitude we should evince by a steady attachment to the constitution, 
 and unshaken loyalty to our gracious sovereign, — a sovereign, who has 
 done more for the Roman Catholic body, and, indeed, for this king- 
 dom in general, than any, or all of his predecessors. I know, beloved 
 brethren, that efforts have been made by evil-minded men, to weaken 
 your attachment to the constitution of your country, and your allegi- 
 ance to the best of kings, by circulating impious and seditious writings, 
 and encouraging you to outrage and riot; but, in the name of God, 
 why should you be the dupes and tools of these wicked incendiaries?" 
 
 The Declaration of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, in the year 1791, 
 when they were exposed to the pressure of a great part of the penal 
 laws, since repealed, was also highly creditable to their feelings and 
 conduct at that period, when they asserted, " That it was not for the 
 Irish Catholics, like public foes, to take advantage from public cala- 
 mity : they ought to advancctheir claims at a time favourable to dis- 
 cussion, when the condition of the empire is flourishing and tranquil. 
 They might seem culpable to their country, if, affecting to dissemble 
 v-hat it is unmanly not to feel, they reserved their pretensions in am- 
 busca'de to augment the perplexities of °ome critical emergency." 
 
and if those scruples and difficulties be imputed to Catholics by 
 their opponents as justifiable grounds for withholding from them 
 the objects of their petition, is it unreasonable or superfluous t» 
 institute inquiry ? What, Sir, is the language of the legislature 
 in contemplation of this precise object? Our English Act of 
 1791, declares it to be expedient that such persons as shall take 
 the Oath of Allegiance, Abjuration and Declaration, shall be 
 relieved from some of the penalties and disabilities of former 
 statutes.— The Irish Act of 1782 declares, that those who have 
 taken the prescribed oaths " ought to be considered as goed 
 and loyal subjects." — It is therefore, Sir, in the letter and spirit 
 of these Acts that we are called to inquiry, and if it can be 
 shewn that the non-compliance with the provisions of them have 
 resulted from causes within our power to obviate, consistently 
 with security to the establishment, in the name of God, let us 
 hasten to remove them, and by every effort in our power seek 
 to unite every fellow-subject " to each other by mutual interest 
 and affection;" — but, let not the inquiry be stigmatised with 
 imputed motives, resulting from the very opposite principles to 
 those which dictate it. 
 
 Sir J. H. then proceeded to state that he had requested infor- 
 mation from the several clerks of the peace of twenty-nine of the 
 forty English counties, including those of the most considerable 
 Catholic population — such as Lancashire — Yorkshire — North- 
 umberland — Staffordshire — Shropshire, &c. — also the metropolis 
 and its vicinity. — It had been admitted, he observed, by a Roman 
 Catholic Prelate, that the Catholic population of Great Britain 
 was little short of half a million ; Bishop Milner had indeed 
 stated it only at half that amount — of the accuracy of either he 
 would not pretend to judge, but he would state such facts as 
 did not admit of a doubt :-— there was no doubt but that the 
 Catholic population comprehended within a circle extending 10 
 miles from the metropolis, as its centre, exceeded 80,000 ; yet 
 the number of those who had taken the oaths since the year 1791 
 (the date of the English Act) in the county of Middlesex, and en- 
 rolled by the clerks of the peace, did not exceed 97 ; and includ- 
 ing the neighbouring counties of Surrey, Kent and Essex, only 77 
 more were to be added. In stating this fact, sir J. H. observed, 
 that it wa3 incumbent upon him to observe also, that he was fully 
 
24 
 
 persuaded that no admonitions have been wanting on the part of 
 the Catholic Prelate who presided over the London district : — 
 the King had not a more loyal subject than bishop Poynter, no: 
 the church of Rome a Prelate more exempt from any bigotry or 
 religious prejudices which could injure him in the estimatiu;. 
 even of a Protestant. — It is assumed by Catholics that the Ca- 
 tholic population of the county of Lancaster exceeds 140,000. 
 yet by the returns of the clerk of the peace within the sam- 
 period, 454 only had taken the oaths. — fn the county of North 
 umberland 96. — Of the fifteen counties of the Midland district, 
 subject to Bishop Milner's spiritual charge, in Staffordshire (th< 
 most populous of Catholics) -35 only were enrolled as having 
 f aken the oaths since 1791 — in Lincolnshire 85 — in Derbyshir - 
 48 — in Norfolk 10— in the whole Midland district 504. — Sir 3 
 H. then adverted, particularly to the city of Bristol, because, it. 
 addition to the return of the clerk of the peace, he had beer- 
 supplied with the information of the senior priest who presided 
 in the Catholic congregation in that city, and who stated that 
 the number of Catholics within his charge were about 1,500, 
 though upon the medium calculation of registered deaths, sir J. 
 H. observed, that they ought to amount to a population of 2,790 
 — but taking it at one or the other number, those who had taken 
 the oaths at the sessions of the city and county of Bristol, since 
 the Act of 1 791 , amounted only to 4 persons; in the neighbour- 
 ing county of Somerset 33, and in the county of Gloucester 1. 
 After particularizing other counties, sir J. H. observed, that tht 
 whole English Catholic population of the 29 counties, from 
 whence the returns had been received from the clerks of the 
 peace, those who had taken the oaths amounted to 1,- 35, and 
 that the remaining counties of England and Wales must, in 
 respect of Catholic population, be comparatively incon>iderable 
 Of the number recorded as having taken the oaths in Ireland 
 sir J. H. observed that he had no accurate information. The 
 result as far as respected the county and city of Cork, obtained 
 from the office of the clerk of the peace by a friend whom he re- 
 quested to make the inquiry, amounted, in the city, to 918. 
 and in the county, to 5,500, from which last number, about l-5th 
 was to be deducted as having taken the oaths, more than once. 
 9ti account of qualifying to exercise the elective franchise, — th<* 
 
2b 
 
 whole population of the city and county of Cork was mode- 
 rately estimated at 650,000; from the city and county of Dublin, 
 sir J. H. said he had no particular returns — as the fee of a shil- 
 ling per name had been demanded of the person making inquiry, 
 but it was generally asserted, at the office, that the number of 
 those who had taken the oaths amounted to between 3 and 4,000. 
 Such is the result, Sir, of the information (continued sir J. H.) 
 that I have received — information doubtless, as far as it goes, of 
 apparent accuracy— but very remote from affording- the proof 
 or presumption of that universality of compliance with the test 
 which has been so generally asserted. — Need I ask, will such 
 evidence satisfy parliament and the country — and has not par- 
 liament a fair claim to be satisfied as to the extent of confor- 
 mity to its legislative provisions, when that conformity is assumed 
 as the rational and exclusive ground uf concession ? I have not, 
 indeed, introduced this inquiry among the heads of information 
 enumerated in the motion, although it may be considered as a 
 proper subject of investigation. I am not however disposed to 
 infer from this deficiency of numbers of those who have sub- 
 scribed the test, a consequent deficiency of loyalty among the 
 Catholic subjects of his Majesty. 1 know many have considered 
 the prescribed oath as objectionable on principles purely con- 
 scientious, and wholly unmixed with any disloyal prepossession; 
 but the facts which I have stated must nevertheless be consi- 
 dered by many to be of grave consideration, — at least while they 
 are not supplied with adequate information to account for the 
 deficiency to reconcile it with the principles of loyalty.* 
 
 * The following is a more particular return from the communica- 
 tions above referred to: — In Cambridgeshire, 2; Derbyshire, 43; 
 Huntingdonshire, 0 ; Leicestershire, 2 priests, 9 lay Catholics ; Lincoln- 
 shire, 85 ; Norfolk, 2 priests, 8 lay Catholics ; Northamptonshire, 1 ; 
 Nottinghamshire, 13; Rutlandshire, 0 ; Shropshire, 19 priests, 9 lay 
 Catholics ; Staffordshire, 35 ; Suffolk, 4 priests, 39 lay Catholics ; War- 
 wickshire, 97 ; Worcestershire, 5 priests, 21 1 lay Catholics ; from Ox- 
 fordshire no return was made. The preceding fifteen counties con- 
 stitute the middle district, of which Bishop Zdilner has the spiritual 
 charge as Vicar Apostolic. — Total 504. 
 
 In Bristol, 1 priest, 4 lay Catholics ; Co. Chester,' 3 priests, *J laj 
 
 6 
 
26 
 
 With these observations, Sir, I shall dismiss this part of the 
 subject, and return to the more immediate objects of the 
 motion:— and here, Sir, I must call to my aid the recorded 
 opinion of a noble Baron (lord Grenville), who has given so 
 much consideration to this subject — and who, with so much 
 eloquence and force of argument, has so often supported the 
 claims of the Catholics in another place. "Whenever this great 
 measure shall be adopted"— said the noble Baron, in moving the 
 question on the 27th of May, 1303 — " let it not be one of hasty 
 and inconsiderate concession, on which the pressure of the times 
 shall stamp the character of weakness, — consider with what mea- 
 sures it ought to be accompanied — what course of policy is ne- 
 cessary to render its benefits effectual : — what safeguard.- its 
 adoption may require." — My right honourable friend, who in- 
 troduced the Bill, may possibly say,—" Have we not provided 
 such safeguards on the face of the Bill, and in the proposed 
 clauses I must answer, Sir, that agreeing in the principle of 
 those safeguards, I cannot but object in the unprecedented, and 
 I think, inadequate, manner in which they are proposed to be 
 applied : — and here I would ask, has there yet been a single 
 document produced to satisfy the House, and the public, (who are 
 not inattentive observers of our proceedings,) that we are pursuing 
 the most advisable means to secure the object of our legislation 
 — to demonstrate, to Catholics and Protestants alike, that the 
 safeguards we seek are of unobjectionable and reciprocal opera- 
 
 Catholics ; Devon, 5 priests, 27 lay Catholics ; Dorset, 104; Essex,nuns 
 9, priests 6, lay Catholics 13; Gloucestershire, 1 ; Hants, 124 ; Kent, 
 16 ; Lancashire, 93 priests, 361 lay Catholics ; Middlesex, 14 priests, 
 33 lay Catholics; Northumberland, 13 priests, 83 lay Catholics; 
 Somerset, 2 priests, 31 lay Catholics; Wilts, 138 ; York, West Riding, 
 15, (North and East Riding returns not received) — Total of all of the 
 preceding counties of England, 1,835.— In Ireland, in the county and 
 city of Cork, 4,400; in Dublin (computed) between; 3 and 4,000. 
 The period fixed for the inquiry, in England, was from the date of the 
 Act of 1791 ; and, in Ireland, from the date of the Act of 1793.— Some 
 addition to the preceding numbers, and, probably, considerable, must 
 be assumed for those who may have taken the oaths in the superior 
 Courts at Westminster.. &c. 
 
27 
 
 tion — that they offer security to the Catholic, as well as to the 
 Protestant, against the encroachment of a foreign jurisdiction, 
 and are sanctioned, by irrefragable authorities ? — It is scarcely 
 less incumbent upon us to convince our Catholic fellow-subject 
 that we seek not the degradation of his religion than it is to 
 assure the members of the establishment and other denomina- 
 tions of Protestants, that we are zealously watchful over their 
 security. It is to this end, Sir, that I wish to call the attention 
 of the House, and I will pledge myself to produce such docu- 
 ments as shall have a just claim to influence our proceedings, 
 from being sanctioned by the unerring test of experience. 
 
 If there ever were a period of our history when cautious pro- 
 cedure was enjoined by peculiar and existing circumstances, 
 such is the present hour! — Inasmuch as intelligence from 
 France, in its actual state, can be relied upon, we are informed, in 
 the official paper, the Monitcur, that a new Concordat um has been 
 signed, at Fontainbleau, and published on the 13th of February 
 last, and that the Pope has, in effect, sanctioned the investiture 
 of the bishops of France by the French metropolitans, indepen- 
 dently of the exercise of his own spiritual jurisdiction, in the 
 event of it being withheld beyond the term of six months — an 
 admission, which, if substantiated, clearly demonstrates the un- 
 qualified influence Napoleon must have obtained, by intimidation 
 or otherwise, and supplies an additional motive for our zealou-- 
 circumspection, in reference to communications with the Roman 
 Pontiff, in such cases as have been often adverted to. As to the 
 specific stipulations of this Concordatum , they amount to no more 
 than have been assumed by many Catholic sovereigns when in a 
 itate of warfare with the court of Rome, or when the ordinary 
 intercourse with the see of Rome has been, from other causes, 
 interrupted. — At a period which has bten generally considered 
 as an era of bigotry and superstition, we have found even Ca- 
 tholic sovereigns asserting the independence of their national 
 church, as our Catholic ancestors have done — and of which the 
 sovereigns of Spain and Portugal, and many other States, have 
 also afforded instructive examples : but of these facts I shall have 
 occasion hereafter more particularly to speak ; I will therefore, 
 with permission of the House, revert to the order in which I 
 shall beg to move the principal objects of inquiry, and beg to 
 call their attention to the substantive grounds of that inquiry. 
 
c 28 
 
 The first object — is to examine and report the laws affecting 
 his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects — Under this head, — I 
 should diating+mb those statutes which were enacted antecedent 
 to the Reformation, from those of subsequent legislation; — in- 
 cluding also ;uch regulations as were considered as deriving 
 their authority from the ancient common law of the realm. In 
 this part of the investigation we should have little more to do 
 than to have recourse to the perspicuous tract of lord chief justice 
 Coke, introduced in the fifth part of his Reports, under the title 
 of Cuudrey's Case, Pe Jure Regis Ecchsiastico, which I noticed 
 on a former occasion, and wherein is to be found the clearest 
 information on this subject, traced from the earliest period of 
 our history, down to the time in which he wrote, citing the 
 judgments and resolutions of the judges, and other sages ot 
 the law, together with the several acts of the legislature: — of 
 this valuable work, it is unnecessary for me, especially in this 
 place, to pronounce an eulogy, and we cannot render a more 
 acceptable service to the pubiic, than by recognizing it in our 
 report, should we go into a committee, and thereby giving a 
 more extended notoriety to facts which are but little known to 
 many of those who are so deeply interested in the issue of this 
 question. — In developing the principles of the Reformation, 
 as far as it was supported by legislative acts, we can have no 
 higher authority than my lord Coke, who will conduct us to the 
 period when he wrote, with the same luminous precision. And 
 here, Sir, I cannot forbear to call the attention of the House to one 
 iact, namely, — that, although some of the strongt«t legislative pro- 
 visions against the encroachments of the see of Rome, are to 
 be found in our statutes anterior to the reign of Henry VIII. the 
 efforts of queen Mary to destroy the work of Reformation, were 
 limited to the repeal of those Act*, only, which passed subsequent 
 tothe20th year of the reign of her father, leaving the statutes of 
 Premunire and Provisors, of Mortmain, and every other act of 
 jealous limitation of the Papal influence, in full force. In addi- 
 tion to the aid we may derive from the continuation of the 
 labours of lord Coke, in reference to the latter period, we shall 
 nave the assistance of many highly useful compilations of the 
 statutes, as far as they affect the Catholics — those of a profound 
 lawyer, Mr. Butler, sir Henry Pa m ell, and others, will direct us 
 
29 
 
 to the statutes themselves, both of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 with very little industry on our part, and bring us down to the 
 periods of the latest Acts of extended to'eration— those of 1791 
 and 1793— statutes indeed abounding with anomalies, and which, 
 did there exist no weightier cause for the institution of such a 
 committee as I propose to move, would, in themselves, abun- 
 dantly supply a motive. We know that both these Acts passed 
 the Houses of Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland with 
 very little discussion— certainly with no adequate discussion. 
 I have often adverted to the monstrous anomaly of leaving the 
 statute of the 13th of Elizabeth in force, which inflicts all the 
 penalties of high treason on the procurers or receivers of any 
 Pontifical hulls or rescripts *' written or printed, containing any- 
 thing, matter, or cause whatever," while we hold a tolera- 
 tion of all "the rites, practice, and observance of the Roman 
 Catholic religion :" — a correspondence with the see of Rome in 
 certain case*, we know to be considered, by Catholics, as essen- 
 tial to their religion : we know also that their prelates must re- 
 ceive confirmation by Pontifical instruments. In the forum in- 
 ta*i\um, or penitentiary, we likewise know that Catholics hold 
 such a recourse to their spiritual chief as essential to the disci- 
 pline of their church. — The Bill indeed, on the table, seeks a 
 remedy for this oversight in the Acts of 1791 and 1793, but it 
 seeks it in a mode which I am persuaded would cease to be 
 urged, if we were to g© into a committee of investigation : we 
 should then be enabled readily to distinguish, from the docu- 
 ments that would be produced, where to draw the line, with 
 security to the establishment, without violence to the feelings of 
 those professing the Roman communion. The oaths also, as 
 prescribed by those Acts, would necessarily become a subject of 
 inquiry, not only with reference to such parts already noticed as 
 objectionable in the estimation of many Catholics, but in other 
 respects.* Many other provisions of those Acts, and of the 
 
 * In the Committee of the House on the 9th of March, sir J. H. in 
 answer to a reference from the Speaker, stated the interpretation which 
 had been given by some Catholics to the last clause of the oath, in the 
 Irish Bill of 1793; namely, " I solemnly swear that I will not exercise 
 any privilege to which I am, or may become entitled to disturb and 
 
30 
 
 English Act especially, will be found extremely i\i calculated to 
 answer the proposed end, as I so recently noticed on the motion 
 
 weaken the Protestant religion and Protestant government in this king- 
 dom." — The construction in a printed note subjoined to the oath, is the 
 following: — "All here are agreed, that to violate the above clause it is 
 necessary to disturb and weaken, not only the Protestant religion but 
 likewise the Protestant gorernment. They are connected by the con- 
 junction and, without any comma after ' religion.' Both must be dis- 
 turbed and weakened not in any manner ; but precisely by the exercise of 
 the privileges now granted. — In other respects, we are in our former situa- 
 tion as to preaching, teaching, writing, Sec. ' Weaken' cifter 'disturb,' 
 appears rather an expletive than a word conveying a distinct meaning, 
 for it is implied in ' disturb,' as whoever intends to disturb, afortiori, 
 intends to weaken : hence the expression is generally understood, and 
 U) it has been explained by every one consulted on it — ' to weaken by 
 disturbance :' — indeed if or was between disturb and the word weaken, 
 as it was proposed to be, the signification would be changed and inad- 
 missible." This note is given, literally, from the printed Act [Coglan, 
 1793]. Sir J. H. observed in the Committee, that this was a sort of 
 special pleading upon the construction of an oath which ought to have 
 been avoided, and that an oath of so complicated a nature, as that of 
 1793, ought not to have been proposed : — an oath should be so sirr.pl? 
 and explicit as not to be open to such subtle distinctions. Sir J. H. 
 observed also, that on the review of these oaths he would ask, whether, 
 when the Catholic priest swears to the disclosure of all traitorous con- 
 spiracies, it is not generally understood that if treason be disclosed to 
 him in confession, he is bound to reveal it ? The Catholic priest in his 
 own honest conception of his duties considers he is not so bound, and 
 in point of fact he is fortified by the established canonical discipline cf 
 tke Church of England, which enjoins the minister of the Church cf 
 England to conceal all crimes revealed to him in confession: — the only 
 exception, in the canon, being done away, as there is no crime the 
 concealment of which endangers the life of the person concealing it — 
 not even high treason. Sir J. H. then proceeded to details elucida- 
 tory of this position. This part of the discussion, which occurred in 
 the Committee of the House on Mr. Grattan's Bill is here repeated, 
 to evince the necessity of investigation as to the subject of the oaths 
 imposed by both the Acts— that of 1791 and 1793. 
 
31 
 
 of my right hon. friend (Mr. Grattan) when I declared, that it 
 was scarcely possible, under the known existing circumstances, 
 that those Acts should be permitted to remain in their present 
 slate, — so replete were they with errors and anomalies, — the 
 revision of them, consequently, became a measure of necessity 
 rather than of choice. This revision of the laws bearing upon the 
 Catholics has always been avowed by the friends even of the most 
 limited concession, as of paramount necessity — it was so avowed 
 also by my right hon. friend as the ground of his motion iu 
 the present session, and we went into a committee of the whole 
 House for that purpose: — need I ask any gentleman what was 
 done in that committee ? — was a single document produced to 
 enlighten our inquiries ? I may rather ask did we inquire at 
 all? Assertion was opposed to assertion, but no effort was made 
 to substantiate any allegation by proof, and a triumphant ma- 
 jority in favour of the Bill was deemed conclusive that inquiry 
 was an unnecessary expedient. Still, Sir, I must contend that 
 inquiry is not less necessary, concurrently with the progress of 
 the Bill, and in my own estimation, as I have often contended, 
 no measure should have been taken for the introduction of a 
 Bill, until a detailed report of a Select Committee had gone forth 
 to the public, demonstrating the necessity of further legislation, 
 and the grounds on which that legislation should be maintained : 
 as it is, Sir, the Bill may lie over while the inquiry proceeds.] 
 
 The second head of inquiry is — the state and number of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy — their religious institutions, and their 
 intercourse with the see of Rome or other foreign jurisdictions ; 
 such as, the heads of monastic orders residing in foreign states. 
 — With the great measure in contemplation, which the Bill of 
 my right hon. friend is framed to effect, a measure involving so 
 wide a departure from our ancient state policy — it is scarcely 
 possible to imagine that this part of the investigation should be 
 deemed superfluous, but, on the contrary, that it must be con- 
 sidered as indispensable. How often have I read, and indeed 
 recently heard within these walls, of the supposed dangerous 
 doctrines contained in the college of Maynooth. I have befoie 
 adverted to the erroneous opinions and judgment pronounced, 
 in this respect, by the most elevated characters, and I have aho 
 observed that the production of the class books of that Seminary 
 
32 
 
 w ill afford the best test of the truth or error of such opinions : 
 but being produced, as they have been, is it sufficient that they 
 merely lie upon the table of the Bouse ? — We have those of the 
 professor De la Hogue, so often and so erroneously quoted as 
 having adopted all the exceptionable canons of the council of 
 Trent , and held them forth as the unerring guides and manual 
 of the priest and student: — it was sufficient to turn to the con- 
 text of the quoted passage to detect the error of the assertion.* 
 Can we forget the recent and reiterated pastoral charges of some 
 of the most distinguished Prelates of our church r Charges 
 maintaining that idolatry, and sacrilege, and blasphemy, are 
 inseparable from the tenets of the Roman Church — that dis- 
 pensing wiih all oaths of allegiance to a sovereign of a different 
 religious communion, and the deposition of such sovereigns, arc 
 also held as tenets obligatory upon Catholics, and consequently 
 disqualify them from exercising any charge, civil or military, in 
 a Protestant state. — Is the effort to bring these allegations to 
 the test, and examine how far they attach upon the doctrines 
 and discipline maintained in their class bc*.ks, and inculcated in 
 their seminaries; to be held of no estimation or utility ? — I can- 
 not, Sir, but think otherwise, and in that conviction must con- 
 tinue to be the advocate of efficient but dispassionate inquiry. 
 
 To ascertain the state of the Catholic clergy — that of the 
 episcopal order especially, having so great an influence upon 
 those subjected to their jurisdiction, together with the body ol 
 parochial clergy, who have the immediate spiritual direction of 
 »o great a mass of the population, should necessarily be an 
 object of such an investigation. — These inquiries have heretofore 
 been made under the authority t of government, nor will it be 
 
 * The following passage from the professor Dela Hogue's Tractatus 
 de Ecclesia (which was laid before the House on the motion of sir J. 
 Hippisley) was read by the late Chancellor of the Exchequer, " Itaquc 
 maximo in pretio illud Concilium (Tridentinum) habere debent 
 omnes Clerici cum ratione Dogmatum sit veluti omnium precedimtium 
 synodorum compendium, et ratione discipline merito dici possit 
 Manuale Sacerdotiuni, vel eorum qui Sacerdotio sunt initiandi." 
 P. 442. 
 
 f In the year 1800, immediately preceding the union, the govern- 
 
33 
 
 difficult to fill up the interval that has elapsed, and to bring the 
 whole in view of acommittee. Under this head the state ofthe 
 monastic orders, though greatly reduced, will also become a 
 subject of inquiry. The policy of the chief continental states, 
 Catholic and Protestant, has long since regarded monastic in- 
 stitutions with a scrutinizing eye, and great reforms were con- 
 sequently made in every part of Europe. — If the prayer of the 
 petitioners were acceded to, with an exception merely to the 
 restrictive clauses which form part of the Bill, we should 
 virtually recognise all these ecclesiastical establishments. — I am 
 not disposed to reject them under due limitation, nor refuse 
 such a retreat to those of either sex, whose zeal is warm enough 
 to dedicate themselves to such ascetic abstraction from the world 
 — but I cannot assent to this with my eyes shut — I would ask, 
 Sir, would you admit processions of monks and friars to parade 
 the streets of the metropolis? — Is the public mind prepared 
 to tolerate such novel exhibitions ? — yet this you must be pre- 
 pared to witness, if you extend the restriction no further than 
 it exists in the present Bill, for I should but little calculate 
 upon the influence of any prudential consideration in re- 
 straining the impulse, or even the phrenzy of religious zeal. 
 Thus, Sir, we may also prepare ourselves to witness the proces- 
 sion of the insignia of municipal magistracy to a Catholic 
 chapel instead ofthe churches of our establishment.* — However 
 
 raent of Ireland required of the Roman Catholic Prelates, answers to 
 I queries of minute detail, in regard to their bishoprics — their emolu- 
 ments, and from what arising — the dignitaries of their church — their 
 income, and from what arising — the number of parishes and their 
 averaged income— the number of curates and their income — of chap- 
 ters of religious and their income, and from what arising, — and the 
 returns were made to government. It was in contemplation of an ar- 
 rangement taking place respecting the Catholics, concurrently with the 
 union, that this information was required — and the same motive may 
 be reasonably allowed to operate at the present hour. The returns 
 which were then made may be called for by a committee, with such 
 additional information as may be deemed adviseable to require. 
 
 * Mr. Canning, in reply to this part of Sir J. H.'s speech, read the 
 statute of the 5th Geo. I. c. 4, § 11, incapacitating all persons from 
 
34 
 
 wc may be disposed to avoid interference with the religion of 
 the individual magistrate, we are to consider the municipal 
 body, m jhe construction of the legislature, as an integral 
 branch of the establishment : — but, if unconditional repeal, in 
 the construction of the petitioners, is to be conceded, we must 
 concede all restraints upon the Catholic, civil and ecclesiastical. 
 Of the monastic societies of female institution, we have had a 
 salutary example of restriction afforded us by a regulation of the 
 French parliaments, which, in some of the provinces (I do not 
 recollect whether in all) restricted the profession of females to 
 the age of twenty-five, which was a great step towards averting 
 the chagrin inseparably attendant upon premature or constrained 
 profession. But, Sir, in looking to this part of the subject, 
 before we give a legal countenance to institutions of monastic 
 dedication, it surely behoves us to examine to what extent the 
 concession is to be made. We have the authority even of the 
 greatest Catholic states for the exercise of caution, I may say, 
 generally, of all, and I can produce sufficient proofs, in my 
 possession. Can we, too, look with indifference to the recent 
 proceedings of that once powerful body, the Jesuits— or rather 
 the ex-Jesuits, in reference to their reputed condition in this 
 country, and whose conduct, at the present hour, is regarded 
 with suspicion, and even considered objectionable by the Pre- 
 lates of their own communion ? I am ready to admit the merit 
 of that body of Catholics as far as they are exercised in the 
 secular walk of philosophical and classical instruction — their 
 schools and seminaries have been the most celebrated— and their 
 mind* are habituated to the task. — We have such a Seminary, 
 highly protected and deservedly celebrated, in this country ; but, 
 in some respects, their zeal has outstripped their discretion, and 
 must endanger, at least ought to endanger, their existence as a 
 
 holding offices " who should resort to any place of religious worship 
 other than the church of England in the gown or particular habit, or 
 attended with the ensigns of his office." If the unqualified repeal of 
 all restrictions whatever be admitted, — and such is the avowed object 
 of the greater part of the resolutions of the Catholic assemblies of 
 Ireland — this restrictive statute must also be abrogated, as far as it may 
 affect the Catholics, 
 
35 
 
 Seminary of ecclesiastical education, if not checked in their 
 efforts to step beyond the pale of their duties.— It pains me, 
 Sir, to speak in these terms of a community comprehending 
 many highly respected ecclesiastics, and, in the bosum of which 
 many of my valuable friends have received their education ; 
 but, Sir, I cannot sacrifice a sense of duty to individual partiali- 
 ties when a question of this nature is before the House. I 
 should have preferred indeed to have reserved the statement 
 connected, with this part of the subject, for the consideration of a 
 Select Committee, but such a committee may not be conceded, 
 although I can scarcely offer a stronger ground for the conces- 
 sion than the existence of the facts to which I allude.* I am 
 speaking- in contemplation of the English ex-Jesuits as reviving 
 the original constitution of their order— which, I understand, 
 they are but little solicitous to conceal. The general abolition 
 of the order, by Pope Ganganelli, is well known, but it is not so 
 generally understood, that the Empress of Russia countenanced 
 the reorganization of the society within her dominions, and a 
 General of the Order was appointed, though under marked 
 restrictions, which suited the views of her policy.f — It has been 
 
 * An exception was taken in the course of the debate, that sir J. H. 
 should have chosen this occasion for the communication of these facts 
 to the House respecting the ex-Jesuits, rather than have made it to the 
 King's ministers.— Sir J. H. however intimated, that on the day fol- 
 lowing the receipt of the most material part of the intelligence, he had 
 communicated the original letters to his Majesty's principal Secretary 
 of State for the Foreign Department, and also to several members of 
 the House. 
 
 f The Empress Catherine named the ex-Jesuit Benislasshi, coadjutor 
 bishop of Mohilow. — Father Carew was appointed provincial of the 
 order, and the habit was reassumed and novices admitted. It had 
 been asserted that Pius VI. secretly countenanced the restoration of 
 the order, but to avoid giving offence to the Catholic sovereigns of 
 Europe, in whose states the order had been suppressed, had authorised 
 his nuncios to disavow it; and it is indeed certain that when the news 
 of the appointment of the general of the order arrived at Rome, the 
 Pope directed the publication of an article in a Gazette authorized by 
 the Secretary of State, expressing his disapprobation of the measure in 
 
36 
 
 asserted by some ex-Jesuits that since the election of the present 
 Pontiff, Pius VII. a verbal permission, " viva vocis oraculo," has 
 been obtained, from him, for the restoration of the order of 
 Jesuits within this realm, and it seems to be generally admitted 
 that the Russian general of the order is acknowledged by the 
 British ex-Jesuits: — if this be the fact,* here is an instance 
 
 very strong terms, and that "so far from it being authorized by a 
 Pontifical act, it was to be considered null and void, because directly 
 opposed to the declarations of the Pope, and to the intentions evidently 
 manifested by his holiness." 
 
 * [Additional note. — Mr. Plowden has repeatedly attempted to 
 eulogize the liberality of Russia, at the expense of his own country, 
 with reference to its conduct towards the Society of Jesuits; and would 
 lead his readers to believe, that the Order enjoys, in Russia, the un- 
 restricted sway of its original institute. It may be here opportune to 
 remark, that the empress Catherine, and her successors, as well as the 
 great Frederick, were, probably of the opinion of Cardinal Fleury, with 
 particular relation to their new conquests and annexationi of territory : 
 that the members of the Society might be regarded as *' useful ser- 
 vants, though bad masters:" — and those sovereigns had the will and 
 the power to enforce their restraints. A correspondent, of great consi- 
 deration, who had many opportunities to be well acquainted with the 
 spirit of Catherine's government, observed, that the empress was well 
 pleased to avail herself of this opportunity to " narguer" the Courts of 
 Versailles and Madrid, and, moreover, to shew to them and the world, 
 that an Institution, which had been so formidable elsewhere, could be 
 rendered perfectly tractable under her superior authority and manage- 
 ment. She took the best precaution to secure that tractability, by the 
 sine qua non of the residence of the Jesuit general, a subject, within the 
 state. In Russia, particularly, we know the restrictions which attach, 
 generally, upon the exercise of the Roman Catholic discipline — an in- 
 terdiction of all unlicensed intercourse with the See of Rome — the di- 
 rect nomination of the Roman Catholic Prelates in the person of the 
 sovereign, &c. The provided discernment of the empress Catherine 
 anticipated the possibility, and legislated against the recurrence of a 
 conflict of authorities. 
 
 The Jesuits, it is true, are permitted to open Seminaries of Education, 
 and they are obliged to receive those who offer, under the authority 
 
37 
 
 of that actual dependence upon a foreign jurisdiction, which 
 it is our business to circumscribe at least, if not wholly to 
 interdict. We are, at this hour, on terms of amity with Russia ; 
 — within how short a period was it otherwise ? But, Sir, this 
 is not all that is objectionable : we find that students in 
 divinity, educated in the English college of ex-Jesuits for 
 the priesthood, are, from time to time, sent to the Jesuits in 
 Sicily, to obtain ordination,* instead of receiving it at the hands 
 of their own national Prelates ; the Prelates, consequently, have, 
 with respect to them, no responsibility ; and, in this view, the 
 practice militates against the principle we are seeking to esta- 
 blish by the Bill on the table, namely, by securing the loyalty of 
 the Prelates, who are authorised to exercise their functions within 
 the realm, thence to obtain security also for the loyalty of those 
 
 of government, of every nation and communion. The superinten- 
 dence ofjheir Seminaries is consigned to the State Ministry of Public 
 Insp£cUe»;-ner can any instruction be given therein, which is not pre- 
 viously approved by that superintending establishment. The Priests 
 of the Greek national church are directed to attend the Jesuit Col- 
 leges, and administer religious instruction to the pupils of the Greek 
 communion ; and the Jesuits are interdicted from interfering with the 
 religion of such students. ^Visitations are, from time to time, made by 
 the Officers of Public Inspection^— at periods unfixed ; that they may 
 be more efficacious ; in a word, the system, on the part of the state, is 
 a system of vigilance and restraint. The motives which induced Fre- 
 derick to retain the Jesuits in Silesia, after the Papal bull of abolition, 
 are known to have resulted from the same principles which influenced 
 the measures of the empress Catherine, and the evidence is fully on 
 record. 
 
 The Papal rescript of the 7th of Aug. 1814, and which will be found 
 in the Appendix to these pages, by re-establishing the Order in the 
 plenitude of its original Institute, now puts this question beyond a 
 doubt. The Russian General of the Order is also expressly recognised 
 and invested with all the ancient authority of his office.] 
 
 * The number of English and Irish who had been received in Sicily 
 by the ex-Jesuits since their restoration, with a view to obtain holy 
 orders, was nineteen — of these live have returned in ord'-n, two died 
 at Palermo, and nine remained at Palermo in January 18)3. 
 
3S 
 
 who it ive ordination at their hands. I have good authority 
 in stating, that this procedure of seeking foreign ordination by 
 the cx-.lcsuits, as well as the attempt to reorganize their body, 
 produced an application from certain English Roman Ca'holic 
 Prelates to the See of Rome for information as to the facts ; and 
 it is well understood that the restoration was disavowed by the 
 cardinal Borgia, when at the head of the congregation of Propa- 
 ganda Fide, in his answer to the application of those Prelates. 
 It should also be stated that the Jesuit procurator general, Ange- 
 lini, was sent from Russia to Rome, during the present pontifi- 
 cate, and, supported by the influence of the queen of Naples, 
 obtained the restoration of the order in Sicily. But, Sir, this 
 spirit of extending an influence thus considered so exceptionable 
 even by Prelates of their own communion, reasoning, as they do, 
 that the restoration of the order must necessarily augment the 
 force of prejudice against the whole Catholic body — this spirit, I 
 say, Sir, is discoverable in another transaction of the present 
 ' «.ui', which may well awaken also our further inquiries. On 
 the suppression of the order, the property of the Jesuits was 
 every where, considered to be the property of the State, and, as 
 such, assumed by the respective governments, allowing stipends 
 a» r.nnuities to those of the professed w ho survived the abolition.* 
 No public act of confiscation, of this description, took place in 
 
 * We may readily suppose that the proceedings against the Jesuits 
 in many parts of Europe were governed by much prejudice, — the 
 influence of that prejudice, nevertheless, has been so permanent and 
 general, that Catholics must have very little discretion, who could wish 
 to revive an establishment of professed Jesuits within a Protestant state. 
 By an Arret of the parliament of Paris, of the 6th of August, 1761, 
 more than fifty publications of Jesuit authors were condemned, and 
 burped by the common hangman; among them many of the works of 
 caruinal Bellarmine, Molina, Mariana, Suarez, Tanner, Parsons, Esco- 
 bar, &c. — The judgment was in these terms — " Seront laceres et brides, 
 en la cour da Palais, par I'cxecuteur de la haute justice, comme sedi- 
 ueux, dtstruciifs de tout principe de la morale Chretienne, enseignant 
 une doctrine meurtriere et abominable, non seulemeut contre la surete de 
 la vie des citoyens, mats ineme contre celle des personnes sacrecs des 
 souverains^ The list is given in the 1st vol. ot Seabra's Provas da 
 Dcduccao, &c. — Lisbon, 1 768. 
 
39 
 
 Great Britain or Ireland, for in neither could Jesuits be recog- 
 nised as then having existence within the realm, in contempt of 
 the penal laws. A considerable sum of money, however, had 
 been secured, by the Jesuits, arising from the wreck of their 
 society, and a sum amounting to about 30,000/. has been 
 recently transmitted from hence to Ireland, for the purpose of 
 being appropriated to the uses of a seminary of education. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary, Sir, to insist upon the obvious impo- 
 licy of countenancing a measure so opposite to the principle 
 which gave birth to the institution of Maynooth, where authority 
 is vested in the great Officers of State, conjointly with the supe- 
 rior Prelates of the Catholic communion, to superintend the esta- 
 blishment. What better appropriation can be made of funds, 
 arising from such a source, than to encrease the means of the 
 College of Maynooth, in providing a nationally educated clergy 
 to administer to the encreased demands of the great Catholic po- 
 pulation of Ireland ? — the means annually voted by government 
 are known to be inadequate to supply a sufficient number of 
 clergy to answer the reasonable claims of the encreasing popula- 
 tion, especially for the service of a Church, wherein the ritual 
 offices are so multiplied, and where the conscientious scruples of 
 those in communion with it, have also a just claim to considera- 
 tion. I own, Sir, I cannot account for the policy of restricting 
 the means of Maynooth, in the manner we have seen it re- 
 stricted, as every sound purpose of government is to be obtained, 
 rather by its augmentation than by its reduction. 
 
 The third head of inquiry comprehends the state of the laws 
 and regulations affecting his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects 
 in the Colonies of Great Britain. — His Majesty's instructions to 
 our several governments, together with extracts from the acts of 
 the colonial assemblies, will readily supply the information re- 
 quired under this head. I have, heretofore, adverted to the re- 
 gulations in Canada, as far as they respected the monastic insti- 
 tutions, and particularly those of the Jesuits, and it is my pur- 
 pose to move for the production of such parts of the instructions 
 as apply to this subject, in order that they may be referred to a 
 select committee.* 
 
 * Sir J. H. on a subsequent day moved for various documents under 
 this head, which have since been printed by order of the House: — His 
 
40 
 
 The fourth, and last subject of inquiry, comprehends, the re- 
 gulations of foreign states (as far as they can be substantiated by 
 evidence), respecting the nomination, collation, or institution of 
 the Episcopal Order of the Roman Catholic Clergy, and also their 
 intercourse with the See of Rome. If this, Sir, be considered as 
 a wide field of inquiry, it must be allowed that it comprehends in- 
 formation of the highest interest and utility with reference to 
 the question before us. But, Sir, to demonstrate how readily 
 that information may be produced in a Committee, I have se- 
 lected the documents already procured on the subject, and 
 which in themselves are competent to answer every purpose of 
 the inquiry. In fact, Sir, I have brought them to the House — 
 many of them are upon the table, by order of the House, and 
 the whole readily accessible.* And here, Sir, it is incumbent 
 upon me to inform the House, that a great part of this interest- 
 ing information has been procured with the concurrence, and, 
 I may add, by the express authority ©f the noble viscount on 
 the opposite bench — the Secretary for the Foreign Department. 
 I have often adverted to my correspondence with that noble 
 lord, during a considerable period antecedent to the Union, 
 chiefly on the subject of the regulations, which his lordship 
 
 Majesty's instructions to the governors of Canada, particularly referring 
 to the monastic ordars and the property of the Jesuits, &c. are among 
 these papers. — Also the instructions to the governor of Jamaica, to shew 
 that colonial governors are vested with the office of ordinary, or eccle- 
 siastical judge, with the collation to church livings— an office held to 
 be incapable of delegation. [Many other papers have since been 
 added.] 
 
 * It will be recollected that the series of documents stated by sir 
 J. H. to be ready for production, was represented, in the course of the 
 debate, to consist of a fanciful series of polemical works, involving an 
 endless labyrinth of pursuit. The fact was, that no such object was in 
 contemplation, but such documents only adduced as contained the 
 ordinances and regulations of foreign states, relating to this head of in- 
 quiry, together with the regulations of our colonial governments. The 
 class books had originally been moved for by Mr. Ryder, without any 
 concert with sir J. EL; and Mr. Ryder had also moved the call of the 
 House. 
 
41 
 
 concurred with me in thinking were of adviseable adoption in 
 contemplation of the arrangements which were then considered 
 to be on the eve of taking place ; — regulations, which, in sub- 
 stance, were countenanced by the precedents of every State 
 upon the Continent, of whatever religious communion, wh^e a 
 dominant religion was upheld by the laws. Conceiving, Sir, 
 that the production of such evidence, in support of these facts, 
 might eventually be of useful resort, especially in such a Com- 
 mittee as is the object of the present motion, I requested of the 
 noble viscount to be supplied with his official introduction to 
 each of our ministers accredited to foreign courts, which might 
 countenance my efforts to procure the verification of such in- 
 formation as I had obtained by less accredited means, and also 
 to supply me with such further documents as could be obtained 
 on the same subject. The noble viscount readily favoured my 
 request, and the result has been the acquisition of many valu- 
 able documents, and information of unquestionable authority, 
 extending to the civil and ecclesiastical polity of every state in 
 Europe, in reference to the See of Rome, and in confirmation of 
 the principles I have uniformly maintained to be of indispensa- 
 ble obligation in legislating upon the subject before us. The 
 valuable and extensive information afforded by sir Charles 
 Stuart, his Majesty's Envoy, and a constituent member of the 
 regency of Portugal, I am bound upon this occasion to acknow- 
 ledge, as, in itself, it nearly comprehends the extent of what was 
 desirable to be ascertained, and supplies the proofs that every 
 Catholic state in Europe has acted upon those principles, and 
 promulgated, at various periods, such ordinances as might be 
 usefully consulted, in framing secui - ities against the encroach- 
 ments of a foreign jurisdiction. The same mass of information 
 supplies the proofs also, that where, as I have before noticed, 
 the sovereigns themselves, from bigotry or pusillanimity, have 
 shewn but too ready a propensity to bend to the yoke of the 
 Roman Pontiff, a spirited resistance has been manifested by their 
 people, and even by the immediate organs of iheir governments 
 — such as the French parliaments — ever ready to support the 
 national independence : — such also has been the spirit pretty 
 generally shewn by the stales of the German empire. But 
 Austria, and Spain, and Portugal, and Naples, — the states of 
 
 c 
 
42 
 
 Venice, of Florence, of Savoy and Piedmont — in a word, as I 
 have often noticed, every Catholic state has given proofs that 
 they have known how to repel the encroachments of the See of 
 Rome, by interposing such barriers as we now seek to accom- 
 pany the grant of further concession to the claims of the 
 petitioners. I am the more anxious, Sir, to substantiate these 
 facts by evidence, as the cry of the day on the part of the Catho- 
 lics, especially in another part of the United Kingdom, and who 
 seem to be but bad supporters of the real interests of the Catho- 
 lic body — is concession without restriction — " simple repeal" as 
 they term it — unqualified accpiiescence in their demands : and 
 a learned prelate of the Roman communion whom I have often 
 had occasion to name, Bishop Milner, who but a few years ago 
 was so forward to arraign such unprecedented pretensions, seems 
 now to be equally forward to support them. Is is not necessaxy 
 to retrace the aberrations of this learned Prelate from the course 
 which he for a time so laudably pursued, — it is sufficient to 
 repel such pretensions by demonstrating that, at no period, is 
 there any precedent that can be truly considered as authority, 
 of collation or institution being given to Prelates of the Roman 
 communion, in the unqualified terms that such Catholics would 
 prescribe : — that there is no example of an intercourse being 
 maintained between the See of Rome and the subjects of any 
 State, whether in communion with Rome or otherwise, where 
 the government of that state — I mean to be understood where 
 there exists any dominant church establishment — does not main- 
 tain its right of control over such an intercourse, by the licence 
 and inspection of rescripts at its pleasure : — the exception of the 
 forum internum, or penitentiary, is to be construed as a concession 
 from the crown, not as an abstract right to be maintained inde- 
 pendently of the State. 
 
 In proof and illustration of these positions we have the evi- 
 dence of the most accredited Catholic writers — the luminous 
 ecclesiastical historian Dupin, and most of the class books which 
 prescribe the course of ecclesiastical education : those of the 
 Sorbonists, Hooke, Bailly, Collett, and Tournelly. I mention 
 these, as I before mentioned professor De la Hogue, because 
 those authors are expressly named in the returns to parliament 
 from the president of the College of Maynooth. So I may quote 
 
43 
 
 the German writers Zalwein and Schram— Benedictine monks 
 —whose works have been long sanctioned, as class books, by all 
 the Catholic universities ef Germany : — both those authors con- 
 tend for the right of the sovereign in these points, or for the 
 right of the chapters, as in Germany, where the election of the 
 Prelates is, for the most part, vested in the chapters, inde- 
 pendently of the See of Rome. — The latter of those writers, — 
 Schram in his Institutiones Juris Ecclesiastics, speaking of the 
 'placitum regium,' or the right of the sovereign to inspect and 
 authorize the promulgation of Papal rescripts, observes, — "that 
 its use is established in France, — in Spain, — in Portugal, — in the 
 kingdom of Naples and Sicily — the Belgic provinces, and, for- 
 merly, in England, — and its necessity was asserted by the Em- 
 peror Rodolphus, in an edict of 15S6, accompanying the pro- 
 mulgation of the bull in cand domini, wherein the emperor 
 decrees generally that no Pontifical bulls shall thereafter be com* 
 mitted to execution without his previous knowledge and appro- 
 bation." — Father Schram concludes this head, with this obser- 
 vation, — " Nor can we admit that the- 'placitum' is a concession 
 from the apostolical see, for we maintain that it is an essential 
 and inherent right of sovereignty, which no individual monarch 
 can surrender to the prejudice of his successor in the state of 
 which he holds the government." — This, Sir, is the inquisitorial 
 power — " the Star Chamber" process so loudly denounced by 
 Bishop Milner, and by assemblies of Catholics in another part of 
 the United Kingdom. Let it, nevertheless, Sir, be our office to 
 act upon the salutary advice which Bishop Milner himself held 
 out to his colleagues in Ireland : let us, by a digested report of 
 a select committee, "enlighten their people, and shew them how 
 grossly they have been imposed upon, both as to facts and rea- 
 soning." Such was the wise counsel given by that Prelate, 
 when the anonymous writers in Ireland first denounced the 
 temperate resolutions of their own Prelates and himself, and 
 unfortunately the same misguided spirit is but too manifest in 
 the recent proceedings of many provincial assemblies in oppo- 
 sition to the sound principles and authority upheld in every 
 other State. 
 
 Sir J. H. then detailed the resolutions of the four metropolitans 
 and six senior Roman Catholic Bishop* of Ireland in 1799, in 
 
44 
 
 consequence of their official communications w ith lord Castle- 
 reagh,* then chief secretary, and which corresponded precisely 
 with the concessions which Bishop Milncr in 1808 declared he 
 had no hesitation to say, that the Prelates were still disposed to 
 ratify : — the substance of those resolutions, as had been asserted 
 by the noble viscount, was not imposed by government on the 
 Prelates, but resulted from their own spontaneous act ; — and, 
 that to the present hour, by no solemn or formal declaration had 
 the Prelates controverted the principle thus solemnly admitted : 
 that it was impossible, for a moment, seriously to entertain the 
 distinction of " inexpediency " in the view of the Irish Catholic 
 Prelates, as applicable to the principle of that admission : and that 
 they could scarcely suppose that the concession was to be main- 
 tained or withdrawn, ad libitum, according to their construction 
 of " a friendly or unfriendly administration," though upon this 
 hinge alone it was, that the question of expediency or inexpe- 
 diency was made to turn. — Sir J. H. then proceeded to state, 
 that he was ever averse from treating with the Prelates upon 
 these points, as there would always be found persons who were 
 ready to give a sinister construction to their admissions, and to 
 refer their motives, as had been done, to a timid, and even a 
 corrupt acquiescence in the mandates or wishes of a court • — 
 it was sufficient to ascertain the boundaries of the essential dis- 
 cipline of the Roman church, and it was unnecessary to overstep 
 them, or to resort to the Prelates to obtain that information : — 
 nor was it necessary to exercise the imagination in devising novel 
 Securities, as we had only to look to authentic precedents — to 
 precedents established even by Catholic States, and practically 
 adopted by Protestant governments. The regulations which he 
 had so often noticed, contained in the Edict of the Empress 
 Catherine in 1782, were but the transcripts of ordinances sub- 
 sisting in many Catholic States. Such too were the regulations of 
 Prussia— of the states of the United Provinces — of Sweden, &c. 
 But to satisfy the minds of Catholics as well as Protestants on 
 this head, it was only necessary to advert to the works he had 
 already mentioned, of authors whose orthodoxy, as Catholics, 
 
 * [These resolutions are since printed, by order of the House of 
 Commons.] 
 
could not justly be questioned, as they had been sanctioned by 
 the first ecclesiastical and juridical authorities. — The Tentam.cn 
 Theologicum of Pereira — a Divine and Royal Censor of the Court 
 of Lisbon — the " Dcduccao Chronologica" of the jurist Seabra* 
 
 * Many extracts from these publications of Seabra and Pereira 
 will be found in sir J. H.'s second Letter to the earl of Fingall— 
 [Murray, 1813.] It has been observed that these works were compiled 
 under the influence of a court violently opposed to the Jesuits : — let the 
 objection have all its weight, but let the documents of regulation also be 
 adverted to in the same works, which were promulgated in other Slates, 
 and which are not less decisive in support of the same principles, than 
 the edicts of the court of Portugal at the period of the abolition of the 
 oTder of Jesuits. — In the Appendix of documents annexed to the Speech 
 of an illustrious personage, in the course of the last session, we find 
 copious extracts from the works both of Seabra and Pereira. " I have 
 heard it stated (said his Royal Highness in his speech) that this was 
 not the moment for granting what they ask: my answer is— that 
 without limitation, which can only be taken into consideration 
 Vokcn we go into a committee — certainly n«t." His Royal Highness 
 proceeds to state facts which are well to bear in memory, as the speech 
 has been so often the subject of grateful panegyric in assemblies, 
 which almost in the same breath have voted resolutions diametrically 
 opposed to the sentiments and facts recorded in the speech itself. — 
 The avowal of subjection to the Emperor Mauritius by Pope Gregory : 
 the admonition of St. Bernard to Pope Eugenius not to interfere in 
 temporal concerns : — the oaths of fidelity taken by Popes to the Em- 
 perors, cited by Charlemagne: — the abolition of all Papal authority in 
 Spain by Charles V. when Pope Clement VII. made a league with 
 Francis I : the fact of queen Mary, who, in repealing the latter statutes 
 of Henry VIII. applied the pointed safeguard, that the Pope's bulls 
 and briefs were merely to be confined to spirituals. — Such are the 
 facts stated by his Royal Highness, in this speech, and the docu- 
 ments in the Appendix go further to prove that sovereigns have taken 
 upon themselves to become the paramount judges of their rights, and 
 have exercised them at their discretion, authorizing an unlimited eccle- 
 siastical jurisdiction in the persons of their metropolitans, without re- 
 course to the See of Rome, whenever Popes have been in declared 
 hostility to them — or have been inaccessible from other causes, or 
 when a schism has prevailed in the church. Where arc to be traced, 
 
46 
 
 might be added, as well as the succession of theses uniformly 
 maintained in the universities of Coimbra, and the Sorbonne, all 
 which inculcate the soundness of the principle contended for — 
 namely, — domestic security from foreign encroachment : To ef- 
 fect this end, all those regulations have been invariably sanc- 
 tioned by foreign states, and are no other than what sir J. H. 
 said, he had often proposed as the basis of regulation at home, 
 and the principles of which, in fact, are recognised in the draft 
 of the additional clauses now engrafted on the Bill before the 
 House, though hampered with qualifications, which, in his judg- 
 ment, rendered them of objectionable, if not of impracticable 
 operation. Those which the wisdom and policy of other states 
 had adopted were simple and unfettered — they were rooted in 
 the indefeasible rights of the crown as the guardian of the state, 
 and were not to be weakened by clamour or bigotry. The 
 member of the establishment who entertained doubts upon this 
 subject, would find them satisfied by resorting to the tract, 
 already cited, of lord chief-justice Coke — f de Jure Regis Eccle- 
 siastico,' in the 5th Report — and also in the tracts of archbishop 
 Bramhall, particularly in that entitled * Schism guarded' printed 
 at Dublin, in 1G75, — the regulations so often adverted to are 
 therein detailed, and asserted to be sanctioned by the practice 
 of every considerable State of Europe. The same facts are re- 
 cognized in an interesting work first printed in 1704, entitled 
 ' A Proposal for Catholic Communion,' and recently reprinted : 
 it is stated to be written by a minister of the church of Eng- 
 land — but it is well known to have been written by Dr. Brett, 
 who afterwards became a Catholic ; consequently the work de- 
 rives an additional authority from that circumstance, as the 
 rights of the sovereign are strenuously maintained in all the 
 essential points which are now at issue in this question. 
 
 in these authorities, the sanction of a de jure unqualified concession > 
 But is endless to advert to the inconsistencies of such vague declaimers, 
 with whom there can be felt no common principle of accord, except in 
 the manifestation of respect for the illustrious personage, who has 
 guarded a speech of so much ability and information, with sucb high 
 and apposite authorities of wholesome precedent. 
 
47 
 
 With such lights in our hands, (continued sir J. H.) it surely 
 is not difficult to direct our steps to ultimate and equitable legis- 
 lation, although in contending for a negative upon the appoint- 
 ments of the Roman Catholic prelacy — a principle conceded as 
 equitable, by the most elevated and ancient of the Roman Catholic 
 Prelates — we find it resisted, with clamour, by those who have 
 taken upon themselves to become the arbiters of the will of the 
 Catholic population of Ireland. The King, it is well known, has 
 exercised even the direct appointment, through the organs of 
 the governors of our colonies, where the Roman Catholic episco- 
 pacy has been recognized : no objections were then taken to this 
 exercise of his authority — the See of Rome has invariably expe- 
 dited the spiritual faculties of institution demanded in conse- 
 quence of such nominations : I have heretofore stated an instance 
 where these were withheld by the See of Rome, at the desire of 
 the crown, to give time for further consideration of the eligi- 
 bility of a candidate — Canada, St. Domingo, and Malta furnish 
 the examples — and the King's instructions, and correspondence 
 of his governors, will supply the official proofs and details. We 
 can recur to the joy expressed by the Canadian Catholics on his 
 Majesty's appointment of M. de Briaud to the see of Quebec : 
 in addition to the official correspondence announcing It, the 
 account is given in the Chronicle of the Annual Register, and 
 every Roman Catholic Bishop and coadjutor has since been ap- 
 pointed by the same authority. 
 
 Such are the facts, Sir, that I wish to see recorded on the 
 report of a select committee. I have sketched the outlines of 
 the four heads of inquiry to which I am desirous to call the at- 
 tention of the House, and I should hope that it is unnecessary 
 to insist much farther, on the utility of such a report going forth 
 to the public under the authority of parliament, — thus opposing 
 uncontrovertible facts to the idle declamation and unfounded as- 
 sertions which we read, from day to day, in the public prints, 
 — the results of ignorance, or of something less pardonable, but, 
 which operating upon the uninformed public mind, are capable 
 of disquieting many conscientious Catholics, and ultimately to 
 lead many turbulent spirits to acts of open violence. By urging 
 such a measure, I am told, Sir, that I seek delay, and that delay 
 may be injurious to the Bill now on your table : — I seek, Sir, 
 
4S 
 
 adequate information — and for the benefit of the uninformed, of 
 whatever religious communion, my object is to see it embodied 
 in the report of a select committee. — In avowing my purpose, I 
 wish to ask of the candour of the House whether I have not been 
 uniform in my declarations. I need only advert to the detailed 
 statement of the objects of such a committee which I pressed 
 upon the attention of the House in the debate on the motion of 
 my right hon. friend two years since — at a period when I was 
 honoured with the confidence of a large proportion of the Eng- 
 lish Catholics, and was induced, at the instance of a deputation 
 of that body, of the highest consideration, to become the advo- 
 cate of their claims in parliament. Differing in opinion with 
 some of them as to the mode and extent of concession, I have 
 since thought it my duty to withdraw myself from that respon- 
 sibility, but they will do me the justice to own that I have never 
 swerved a tittle from my original view of the subject, nor held a 
 different language than that which I hold at the present moment. 
 In speaking to the motion of my right hon. friend, at that 
 period, I made use of the same arguments, and had recourse to 
 many of the facts which I have stated this night. I then urged 
 that I considered the circulation of such a report, in the interval 
 of the sessions, as an indispensable measure — and that I trusted 
 that a similar Committee would be constituted in another place, 
 with the assistance of the Prelates of the Establishment, who 
 necessarily ought to take a material part in such an investigation. 
 The differences of opinion among the Roman Catholic Prelates 
 themselves, I then urged as a further motive to such an investi- 
 gation — not, Sir, from a fondness of polemics, but to ascertain the 
 facts, on which they were at issue, and how far they were cogni- 
 zable by municipal regulation. — Those differences, at any rate, 
 confirmed the soundness of the opinion I had ever entertained that 
 negotiation with the Prelates, in the view to a satisfactory ad- 
 justment, could be but of little promise. The answers of the six 
 Universities, recognizing the integrity ©f the social, civil, and 
 political principles of Catholics, — as Catholics, and as subjects of 
 a Protectant state — I then also noticed would become an impor- 
 tant subject of examination, as far as respected the authority by 
 which they were substantiated, especially after the doubts ex- 
 pressed by a right hon. and learned member (Dr. Duigenan) as 
 
49 
 
 to their authenticity. — It will be recollected that I then produced 
 the original documents in the House, and suggested the utility of 
 recognizing them, when verified, in the report of a select com- 
 mittee, together with similar documents of different periods, but 
 of perfect uniformity as to the paramount obligation of civil and 
 political duties. Such, Sir, was my declaration at that period, 
 with an intimation also that the adoption, qualification, or even 
 rejection of the claims of the petitioners would thus derive a 
 sanction — if in conformity to -evidence — not to be found in the 
 result of loose discussions, whether in the Howse itself, or in a 
 Committee of the whole House — and that the expedient was too 
 rational to be questioned by any but those who were determmed 
 to resist inquiry in any shape whatever. I now think it fortunate, 
 Sir, that these declarations remain on record, where they will 
 bear me out by their uniformity with the opinions which I have 
 this night avowed, and which have influenced me to submit my 
 present motion to the judgment of the House. It has been my 
 object, attended with no inconsiderable labour, to simplify these 
 inquiries, and to render the production of the necessary evidence 
 as light to others, as the collection of it has been onerous to my- 
 self. I have said, Sir, that there now lies upon the table and in 
 my possession, all that is essentially necessary to accomplish the 
 object of such an investigation, though it may be desirable offi- 
 cially to verify some of the Papers by recourse to the public 
 offices, and viva voce evidence.* Such testimony, indeed, I am 
 myself competent to give in support of a great part of the neces- 
 sary information, derived under peculiar advantages, to which I 
 have frequently adverted. In differing in opinion with so many 
 of my friends with whom I have long run the same course, I 
 must necessarily feel much regret ; but as I am conscious, in no 
 respect, of swerving from the uniformity and consistency of my 
 original principles, I must be content to bear with their re- 
 
 * The official intercourse between lord Castlereagh and the Irish 
 Catholic bishops in 1799 is clearly stated, and some of the documents 
 are subjoined to the speech of the noble viscount on the 25th of May, 
 1810: His lordship's evidence, in a Committee, to verify the facts be- 
 fore they were stated in a report, would be of necessary recourse. 
 
 H 
 
50 
 
 proache9, rather than sacrifice my feelings to participate in the 
 momentary triumph of a possible majority, which may be ready 
 to sanction concession without such an inquiry. But, Sir, fixed 
 as I am in my own opinions, I am yet wholly unapprised of the 
 intention of any individual member to second the motion I have 
 stated to the House. An honourable friend near me, some time 
 since, intimated an inclination to render me that service, and if 
 high personal character and intelligence could have given addi- 
 tional weight to the object of such a motion, I should have had 
 an unquestionable right to have claimed it, had I been so fortu- 
 nate as to hare had his concurrence ; but, Sir, I am to forego 
 that advantage ; my honourable friend thinks that the motien 
 should have been earlier made, so as not to have risked, in his 
 estimation, the progress of the Bill now before the House. I will 
 not arraign his motives for declining his proffer'd support; I own. 
 nevertheless, that I have been anxious to delay the inquiry till 
 the call took place, wishing to submit it for discussion in the 
 fullest House. I have invariably proposed to report the evi- 
 dence taken in a select committee for the purpose of affording 
 the most satisfactory information to the public, before we pro- 
 ceeded to legislation — and even considered that the interval of 
 the sessions was little enough to allow that information to take 
 its full course. If I fail this night in my object,* I shall never- 
 theless think it my duty to revive the motion, in the same terms, 
 in the ensuing session, in the conviction that such an inquiry is 
 essential to give effect to the memorable resolution of the last 
 parliament. Its object is not the object of a party; and the 
 advocate and opposer of the claims of the Catholics may equally 
 give their support to the motion, — each in the persuasion that 
 
 • Such was Sir J. H's intention until the commencement of the fol- 
 lowing year, when he addressed the noble viscount, who among his 
 Majesty's confidential ministers had taken the most prominent part in 
 these discussions, stating the motives for abandoning that purpose, 
 at the same time wishing not to appear to shrink from any service or 
 labour connected with such an investigation, in the conviction, how- 
 ever, that the weight of his Majesty's Government could alone give 
 such an inquiry- a substantial and adequate effect. 
 
his own opinion will be sustained by the results of the inquiry, 
 On whichever side the weight of evidence lies, it should be our 
 object to develop it. To secure the proceedings of the Com- 
 mittee from any embarrassing results — by a conflict of opinions 
 — its duties should be limited (as indeed it would necessarily be, 
 unless further authorized by the House) to the report of facts and 
 evidence submitted to them ; namely, the authenticated docu- 
 ments in support of the distinct heads of inquiry which are enu- 
 merated in the motion, and which, I conceive, must be admitted 
 to bear an interesting and important relation to the ultimate ob- 
 ject of our deliberations. Let us, Sir, call to our recollection 
 how seriously some of the most eminent Prelates of the esta- 
 blishment are at issue, even on facts, as well as opinions, materially 
 affecting the civil integrity of so large a portion of their fellow- 
 subjects, — amounting, as often stated, to a fourth or fifth part 
 of the whole population of the United Kingdom. — Can we forget 
 their parliamentary speeches, and diocesan charges so pointedly 
 contrasted to each other ? What, Sir, is to determine the 
 public mind, — so uninformed as it is — but the result of such 
 an inquiry? — Let us look, Sir, at the publications daily 
 issuing from the press, — representations circulated through the 
 channel of the post also, addressed to the members of this 
 House, with a view to influence the decision of the question, and 
 even the very walls of our streets defaced with calumnies. And 
 here, Sir, I think it my duty to say a few words in reference to 
 a paper circulated under the name of Crowley, stating himself 
 to have been a student of Maynooth, and to have abjured the 
 Catholic religion, — disavowing and denouncing all its tenets; — 
 also, particularizing tenets which the established church hold in 
 equal veneration with the church of Rome, as identified with its 
 existence. The power of the keys is of this description, though 
 abjured in its extent, by this zealous reformist ! — The church of 
 England has little cause to pride itself on the acquisition of such 
 converts, and the church of Rome has little to regret its loss. 
 Looking also, Sir, on the other side of the question, to the pro- 
 ceedings of aggregate and provincial assemblies of Catholics ; — 
 to the Resolutions of their episcopal synods ; — to the declarations 
 of the avowed agent of their Prelates ; — circulated as they have 
 been in the public prints, and not without considerable impres- 
 
52 
 
 sion on the public mind ; — when we view, Sir, the reprobating 
 comments of this learned prelatical agent, on the pending 
 proceedings of this House, and consider also, as before sta- 
 ted, that he presides over the Catholic population of fifteen Eng- 
 lish counties, I would ask, shall we proceed without inquiry, 
 indulging the vain hope of pacification by giving legislative en- 
 actment to the Bill before the House, while its most essential 
 provisions are thus reprobated, and while we are told by Catho- 
 lics themselves, that the re-enactment of the penal laws would, 
 in their estimation, be more eligible than the chains with which 
 we are about te bind them ? It is not, Sir, that our progress is 
 to be thus peremptorily arrested by such vague and ill-founded 
 clamour; but, I contend, Sir, that inquiry — minute, substantive 
 inquiry, is enjoined upon us as a duty, whether we proceed to 
 legislation, or withold, for a time, our purpose. We are in can- 
 dour bound to designate the ground on which we would fix our 
 barriers, and demonstrate to the Catholic and the Protestant, that 
 %ve wish to consult the fair feelings and even the allowable pre- 
 judices of both, respecting alike their conscientious scruples and 
 their security. The Catholic has already gained much by the 
 cursory discussions of his claims in parliament. It is well known 
 that a noble earl, who bears great sway in his Majesty's coun- 
 cils, has avowed that the question has been much 7iarroived by 
 discussion, and that none of those obnoxious tenets were in his 
 estimation, imputable to Catholics, for which they are stigma- 
 tized by the voice of popular prejudice. If the Catholic con- 
 ceives that it is prejudice alone which opposes the accomplish- 
 ment of his object, it is for him, at any rate, to invite the mi- 
 nutest inquiry : the obstacles which remain may be found to 
 exist rather in the apprehension, than in reality; by inquiry 
 we shall command a knowledge of their substance and bearings 
 — our path would be comparatively smooth — we should no longer 
 have occasion to shift our ground, nor to shape our course in 
 deference to popular prejudices, but disregard them in whatever 
 order of the people they might be excited. We have only to 
 look back to the course we have already pursued to satisfy our- 
 selves that much is yet wanting to insure the steadiness, and 
 mark the dignity of our proceedings. In one session we contend 
 lor concession, regulated by the Veto of the crown : — we are 
 
53 
 
 then told that the mass of Catholics are determined to resist this 
 measure which their Bishops had assured us " was just, and 
 ought to be acceded to :" — in the next session we bend to the 
 popular feeling of ihe Irish Catholic and take the ground of do- 
 mestic nomination as the sure bond of peace —The Catholic Pre- 
 lates meet in synod, and they resolve that this popular desidera- 
 tum borders on schism, and that the " idea of making the elec- 
 tion of Bishops national, by confining the election to chapters, 
 or to chapters and metropolitans, would subject their religion 
 to the most serious disadvantages." — Here, Sir, we see the Pre- 
 lates are at issue with the great mass of their own clergy, and 
 both orders are at issue with Parliament. I own, Sir, I cannot 
 feel the force of these apprehensions of the Prelates respecting 
 domestic nomination by chapters, and still less can I admit the 
 inference, " that such elections, by chapters, would most proba- 
 bly, lapse into the sole and positive appointment of the Crown."* 
 — I should reason very differently, and were it necessary to in- 
 terfere in those details of their discipline, — but to which inter- 
 ference I am averse, — I certainly should feel myself disposed to 
 countenance the elections of the prelacy by Chapters, subject to 
 the approval of the crown, as the most congenial with the ob- 
 jects, which both Catholics and Protestants might rationally pro- 
 pose to themselves in the ultimate adjustment of this great ques- 
 tion. 
 
 But, Sir, to return to our parliamentary course — foiled in both 
 these propositions, so far, at least, as being obliged to abandon 
 the pleasing anticipation of gratifying the fair feelings of the 
 Catholic — it is next proposed to support unrestricted concession — 
 for such, in fact, was the tendency of the arguments of the prin- 
 cipal advocates of the claims of the Catholics in the last session of 
 parliament. In the present session, the Bill, as originally intro- 
 duced, has evidently the same tendency — restrictions were after- 
 wards suggested by aright hon. member; — then withdrawn and 
 modified, — and at length, incorporated with the Bill, though op- 
 posed to the opinions of many who support it. I would ask, Sir, 
 had the whole subject been before us, in the digested report, of a 
 select committee, is it probable that such would have been our 
 
 * Resolutions of the Roman Catholic Prelates of Ireland assembled 
 at Dublin, February 26th, 1310. 
 
54 
 
 course i I think otherwise — for we should have readily distin- 
 guished the line of demarkation' — how far to proceed without 
 trenching on the essential discipline of the Catholic, and hy what 
 means to give rational and substantial security to the Protestant: 
 — we should have found that both the objects were strictly com- 
 patible, and have regulated our progress, not by popular clamour, 
 from whatever side proceeding, but by the prescriptive sound 
 authorities of other States, as zealous to maintain their civil and 
 religious freedom, as our own. I could say much on the subject 
 of the oaths already prescribed, and that which is again pro- 
 posed. — In answer to a call from great authority in this House," 
 on a former occasion, I stated the interpretation of an essential 
 part of the oath of 1793, as held by many Catholics, though, as 
 I conceive, but little according with the construction and opinion 
 of the House. I will not, at present, go further into this part of 
 the question, though most essential to be distinctly understood, 
 and I certainly shall think it incumbent upon me to move an 
 amendment of the oath whenever it comes in discussion, before 
 us. After trespassing upon the House, at such length, I neces- 
 sarily must feel a due sense of their indulgence, although from 
 the murmurs I have heard near me, I canDot but express my 
 fears, with my regrets, that I shall be deprived of the support of 
 so many of those with whom I have been accustomed to act, on 
 many former occasions, with an unity of sentiment in the dis- 
 cussions of this great national question. Reserving myself, Sir, 
 for any further observations which I may think it necessary 
 to make upon what may occur in the course of the debate, I 
 shall conclude by moving, " That a select committee be ap- 
 pointed to examine and report the state of the laws affecting his 
 Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, within the realm : — the state 
 and number of the Roman Catholic clergy, their religious in- 
 stitutions, and their intercourse with the See of Rome, or other 
 foreign jurisdictions: — the state of the laws and regulations af- 
 fecting his Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects in the several co- 
 lonies of the United Kingdom : — the regulations of foreign states 
 
 v Vide sir J. H.'s observations on the oaths, in reply to a reference 
 made to him by the Speaker in the committee of the House. Hansard's 
 Parliamentary Debates, vol. 24, p. 12C3. 
 
55 
 
 (as far as they can be substantiated by evidence*) respecting the 
 nomination, collation, or institution of the episcopal order of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy, and the regulations of their intercourse 
 with the See of Rome." 
 The right hon. Richard Ryder seconded the motion. 
 After a debate, Mr. Grattan moved an amendment for pro- 
 ceeding to the order of the day for the second reading of his 
 Bill. On a division, — 
 
 For the amendment, including Tellers. 237 7 , f • ^ , D 
 For Sir J. H.'s original motion , - 189 j Ma J orit y 48 
 On the 24th of May, in a Committee on Mr. Grattan'e Bill— 
 For the first Clause, ... 249 7 , , . . 
 Against it, ..... 253j Ma J° nt y 4 
 The Bill was then withdrawn. 
 
 * Various official papers have since been produced, on the several 
 motions of sir J. H. and printed by order of the House, containing the 
 regulations respecting the Roman Catholic clergy, in several states of 
 Europe, and in the province of Canada, &c — particularly as to the 
 exercise of a controlling power to regulate the intromission of ponti- 
 fical rescripts, the resolutions of the Irish Prelates in 1799, &c. &c. 
 
 To the report in Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. xxvi. the 
 following Note was annexed:— 
 
 " The Editor is requested by sir J. H. to subjoin the following note, 
 received with the corrections of the preceding report: 
 
 " The notes of the preceding report of sir J. H.'s speech, were 
 originally taken, in short-hand, by Mr. Farquharson (whose ability is 
 well known), as it was then proposed to have given it to the public in 
 a detached form -.—the misrepresentation of the object of the motion 
 was so general and predetermined, that such a course seemed advise>> 
 able, especially as the object involved considerations of the deepest 
 interest. The variation from Mr. Farquharson's report has been 
 chiefly in transposition, to bring the subject more distinctly in view. 
 No fact has been suppressed, or superadded. If the concession of a 
 Select Committee might involve delay as affecting the progress of 
 Mr. Grattan's Bill, it must be recollected that, in Mr. Canning's view 
 of the subject, on the 2d of March, preceding, — the Bill, as was 
 stated by him, might advantageously stand over to the following sessio?i 
 of parliament, after it had attained the length of a second reading. Mr. 
 Plunkett's opinions were also declaredly in favour of qualified, and, in 
 some respects, of protracted legislation. It is scarcely necessary to 
 
I><5 
 
 insist upon the advantage to have been obtained from the circulation 
 of such a report, as was proposed by sir J. H.'s motion, in preference 
 to the mere copy of a Bill, with the proposed restrictions, unsupported 
 by any authority or precedent to relieve the apprehensions of the un- 
 informed and misguided public, whether Protestant or Catholic. But 
 for a moment let us admit that the Bill had passed into a law : — how 
 little would it have produced that spirit of conciliation, so warmly con- 
 tended for by the advocates of the Bill. Let us advert to the resolu- 
 tions of the Catholic Board, and of the aggregate and provincial meet- 
 ings of Catholics in Ireland : — to the synodical resolutions of their 
 prelacy — all diffusely circulated through the public prints — " No re- 
 striction" — " No security" — " No concession" — " Simple, unquali- 
 fied repeal" — these v- ere the conditions of submission pronounced in 
 all these assemblies, and accompanied with terms of the strongest 
 reprobation of the conduct of these public men, who fall short of these 
 conditions, in their estimate of the measure of concession. The re- 
 corded language in condemnation of the Bill, in its progress in the 
 House, held by a Roman Catholic Prelate, accredited as the agent 
 and organ of the body of the whole Catholic Prelacy of Ireland, and 
 himself an apostolic vicar, in England, — has been adverted to in the 
 preceding pages : — we know that his efforts to defeat the Bill have 
 been sanctioned by the unanimous suffrage and grateful acknowledge- 
 ments, not only of his immediate constituents, but likewise of the 
 Catholic Board and aggregate and provincial meetings in Ireland. 
 Such then is the predominant feeling of the Catholic body, as far as 
 can be collected from the voice of those assemblies, with respect to the 
 Bill, — and we find no contrasted voice to raise a doubt respecting the 
 generality of that feeling. By an extended circulation of a report of 
 such documents and evidence, as might have been recognized by the 
 authority of parliament, — the uninformed or misguided Catholic might 
 have been instructed that the essentials of his religion were not com- 
 promised in a question of legitimate jurisdiction; — and the apprehen- 
 sions of the candid Protestant might likewise have been relieved, in 
 the contemplation of securities, sanctioned by the soundest precedents 
 of civil polity, enabling him, in the spirit of one of the most en- 
 lightened Protestant divines (Archbishop Bramhall), to distinguish 
 be tween the tenets and essential discipline of the Church of Rome and 
 the usurpations of the Roman Curia." 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 S. BrttteU, Printer, Rupert Street, Hajmarket, London, 
 
THE BULLS 
 
 OF 
 
 POPES CLEMENT XIV. AND PIUS VII. 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 SUPPRESSION AND RE-ESTABLISHMENT 
 
 OF 
 
 tqje DtDer of $tmtt8. - 
 
 J. Mojes, Greville Street, London. 
 
Of the two following Bulls, the Latin version of that of Pius VII. is taken 
 from an authorized copy, printed at the Government Press of Florence; the 
 English translation, from " The Orthodox Journal, or Catholic Monthly Intelli- 
 " gencer," for September 1814. The translation of that of Clement XIV. is 
 copied from " The London Chronicle" of the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st of 
 September, 1773 ; though, from the length of the document, it was not thought 
 advisable to add the original Latin, v? hich has been lately received from Florence. 
 
BULL OF POPE PIUS VII. 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 RESTORATION OF THE ORDER OF JESUITS. 
 
 SANCTISSIMI IN CHRISTO PATRIS, ET DOMINI NOSTRI DOMINI 
 PII DIVINA PRO VIDENTIA PAPS SEPTIMI CONSTITUTIO QUA 
 SOCIETAS JESU IN STATUM PRISTINUM IN VNIVERSO ORBE 
 CATHOLICO RESTITUITUR. ROMS MDCCCXIV. APUD FllAS- 
 CISCUM, ET FELICEM LAZZARIXI. FLORENTINE TYPIS RE- 
 GIS CELSITUDINIS SUPERIORIBUS ANNUENTIBUS. 
 
 PIUS EPISCOPUS SERVUS SERVORUM DEI 
 
 An rERPETUAM REI IIEMORIAM. 
 
 " Sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum humilitati Nostra?, meritis 
 
 " licet et viribus impari, Deo sic disponente concredita, Nos 
 
 " cogit omnia ilia subsidia adhibere, quae in Nostra sunt potestate, 
 
 " quaeque a Diviua Providentia Nobis misericorditer subminis- 
 
 " trantur, ut Spiritualibus Christiani Orbis necessitatibus, quan- 
 
 " turn quidem diversse, multiplicesque temporum, Locorumque 
 
 " vicissitudines ferunt, nullo Populorum, et Nationum habito 
 
 * discrimine, opportune subveniamus. 
 
 BULL 
 
 FOR THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 PIUS, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD. 
 
 (AD PEBPETUAM REI JIEMOKIAM.) 
 
 " The care of all the churches confided to our humility by the 
 
 " Divine will, notwithstanding the lowness of our deserts and 
 
 " abilities, makes it our duty to employ all the aids in our power, 
 
 " and which are furnished to us by the mercy of Divine Provi- 
 
 " dence, in order that we may be able, as far as the changes of 
 
 " times and places will allow, to relieve the spiritual wants of the 
 
 " Catholic world, without any distinction of people and nations. 
 
 A 2 
 
4 
 
 BULL FOR THE 
 
 " Hujus Nostri Pastoralis Officii oneri satisfacere cupientes 
 " statim ac tunc in vivis agens Franciscus Kareu, et alii Saecu- 
 " lares Prcsbyteri a pluribus Annis in amplissimo Russiaco Im- 
 " perio cxistentes, et olim addicti Societati Jesu a felicis recorda- 
 " tionis Clemente XIV. Praedecessore Nostro suppressa;, preces 
 " Nobis obtulcrunt, quibus facultatem sibi fieri supplicabant ut 
 " Auctoritate Nostra in unum Corpus coalescerent, quo facilius 
 " Juventuti Fide rudimentis erudiendas, et bonis moribus im- 
 " buendae ex proprii Instituti ratione operam darent, munus 
 " pranlicationis obirent, Confessionibus excipiendis incumberent, 
 " et alia Sacramenta administrarent : eorum precibus eo libentius 
 
 annuendum Nobis esse duximus, quod Imperator Paulus 
 " Primus tunc temporis Regnans eosdem Presbyteros impense 
 " Nobis commendavisset humanissimis Litteris suis die undecima 
 " Augusti Anni Domini Millesimi Octingesinii ad Nos datis, 
 " quibus singularem suam erga ipsos benevolentiam significans 
 " gratum sibi fore declarabat, si Catholicorum Imperii sui bono 
 • Societas Jesu Auctoritate Nostra ibidem constituerctur. 
 
 " Quapropter Nos attento animo perpendentes quam ingentes 
 " utilitates in amplissimas illas Regiones, Evangelicis Operariis 
 " propemodum dostitutas, essent proventurae, quantumque incre- 
 
 " Wishing to fulfil this duty of our Apostolic Ministry, as 
 " soon as Francis Kareu (then living) and other secular Priests 
 " resident for many years in the vast empire of Russia, and who 
 " had been members of ihe Company of Jesus, suppressed by 
 " Clement XIV. of happy memory, had supplicated our permis- 
 " sion to unite in a body, for the purpose of being able to apply 
 *• themselves more easily, in conformity with their Institution, to 
 " the instruction of youth in religion and good morals, to devote 
 " themselves to preaching, to confession, and the administration 
 " of the other sacraments, we felt it our duty more willingly to 
 " comply with their prayer, inasmuch as the then reigning 
 " Emperor Paul I. had recommended the said Priests in his 
 " gracious dispatch, dated the 11th of August, 1800, in which, 
 " after setting forth his special regard for them, he declared to us 
 " that it would be agreeable to him, to see the Company of Jesus 
 -tablished in his empire, under our authority : and we, on our 
 " side, considering attentively the great advantages which these 
 ,; vast regions might thence derive ; considering how useful those 
 
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 5 
 
 " mentum ejusmodi Ecclesiastici Viri, quorum probati mores 
 " tantis laudum praeconiis commendabantur, assiduo labore, 
 " intenso salutis Animarum procurands studio, et indefessa 
 " Verbi Divini praedicatione CatholicEe Religioni essent allaturi, 
 " tanti tamque benefici Principis votis obsecundare rationi con- 
 " sentaneum existimavimus. Nostris itaque in forma Brevis 
 " Litteris datis die septima Martii Anni Domini Millesimi Octin- 
 ".gentesimi primi prasdicto Francisco Kareu, aliisque ejus Soda- 
 " libus in Russiaco Imperio degentibus, aut qui aliunde illuc se 
 " conferre possent, facnltatem concessimus, ut in unum Corpus 
 " seu Congregationem societatis Jesu conjungi, unirique liberum 
 " ipsis esset, in una vel pluribus domibus arbitrio Superioris, intra 
 " fines dumtaxat Imperii Russiaci designandis ; atque ejus Con- 
 " gregationis Prapositum Generalem eumdem Presbyterum 
 " Franciscum Kareu ad Nostrum, et Sedis Apostolicse beneplaci- 
 " turn deputavimus cum facultatibus necessariis et opportunis, ut 
 Sancti Ignatii de Loyola Regulam a felicis recordationis Paulo 
 " Tertio Pra?decessore Nostro Apostolicis suis Constitutionibus 
 " approbatam, et confirmatam retinerent et sequerentur : atque ut 
 " hoc pacto Socii in uno Religioso Cretu congregati Juventuti Re- 
 " ligioni, ac bonis Artibus imbuenda? operam dare, Seminaria, et 
 " Collegia regere, et probantibus ac consentientibus Locorum 
 
 " ecclesiastics, whose morals and doctrine were equally tried, 
 " would be to the Catholic religion, thought fit to second the wish 
 " of so great and beneficent a Prince. 
 
 " In consequence, by our Brief, dated the 7th of March, 1801, 
 " we granted to the said Francis Kareu, and his Colleagues re- 
 " siding in Russia, or who should repair thither from other 
 " countries, power to form themselves into a body or congregation 
 " of the Company of Jesus : they are at liberty to unite in one or 
 " more houses to be pointed out by their Superior, provided these 
 " houses are situated within the Russian Empire. We named the said 
 '* Francis Kareu general of the said congregation ; we authorized 
 " them to resume and follow the rule of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 
 " approved and confirmed by the constitutions of Paul III. our 
 " predecessor, of happy memory, in order that the companions, 
 " in a religious union, might freely engage in the instruction 
 " of youth in religion and good letters, direct seminaries and col- 
 " leges, and with the consent of the Ordinary, confess, preach the 
 
6 
 
 BULL FOR THE 
 
 " Ordinariis Confcssioncs excipere, Verbum Dti annunciare, et 
 " Sacramenta aclministrare libcre possent; et Congregationem 
 " Societatis Jesu sub Nostra et Apostolicae Sedis immediata 
 u tutela, et subjectione reccpimus, et qua; ad illam firmandam et 
 " comuniendam, atque ab abusibus et corruptelis, qua? forte 
 " irrepsissent, repurgandam visum fuisset in Domino expedire, 
 " Nobis ac Successoribus Nostris prsescribenda ct sancienda reser- 
 " vavimus : atque ad hunc effectum Constitutionibus Apostolicis, 
 " Statutis, consuetudinibus, privileges, s et Indultis quomodolibet 
 " in contrariuin praemissorum concessis, et confirmatis, prasertim 
 " Litteris Apostolicis memorati Clementis XIV. Praedecessoris 
 " Nostri incipientibus Dominvs, ac Redeviptor Noster expresse 
 " derogavimus in iis tantum qua? contraria csscnt dictis Nostris in 
 " forma Brevis Litteris, quarum initium Catholiccc et dumtaxat 
 " pro Russiaco Imperio elargitis. 
 
 " Consilia, qua? pro Imperio Russiaco capienda decrevimus, ad 
 " utriusquc Sicilian Regnum non ita multo post extendenda cen- 
 " suimus ad preces Charissimi in Christo Filii Nostri Ferdinandi 
 " llcis, qui a Nobis postulavit, ut Societas Jesu eo modo, quo in 
 " prafato Imperio stabilita a Nobis fuerat, in sua quoque 
 
 " word of God, and administer the sacraments. — By the same 
 " Brief we received the congregation of the Company of Jesus 
 " under our immediate protection and dependence, reserving to 
 " ourselves and our successors the prescription of every thing that 
 " might appear to us proper to consolidate, to defend it, and to 
 " purge it from the abuses and corruption that might be therein 
 " introduced ; and for this purpose we expressly abrogated such 
 " apostolical constitutions, statutes, privileges, and indulgences 
 " granted in contradiction to these concessions, especially the 
 " apostolic letters of Clement XIV. our predecessor, which begin 
 •' with the words, Dominus ac Redemptor noster, only in so far as 
 * they are contrary to our Brief, beginning Catholics, and which 
 " was given only for the Russian empire. 
 
 " A short time after we had ordained the restoration of the 
 " order of Jesuits in Russia, we thought it our duty to grant the 
 " same favour to the kingdom of Sicily, on the warm request of 
 " our dear son in Jesus Christ, King Ferdinand, who begged that 
 •" the Company of Jesus might be re-established in his dominions 
 " and states as it was in Russia, from a conviction that, in these 
 
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 7 
 
 " Ditione ac Statibus stabiliretur ; quoniam luctuosissimis illis 
 " teraporibus ad Juvenes Christiana pietate ac timore Domini, 
 " qui est initium Sapientise, informandos, Doctrinaque, et Scien- 
 " tiis instruendos prascipue in Collegiis, Scholisque publicis 
 " Clericorum Regularium Societatis Jesu opera uti in primis 
 " opportunum ubi arbitrabatur. Nos ex muneris Nostri Pastorali 
 " debito piis tam Illustris Principis desideriis, quae ad Majorem 
 " Dei Gloriam, Animarumque salutem unice spectabant, morem 
 " gerere exoptantes Nostras Litteras pro Russiaco Imperio datas 
 " ad utriusque Sicilian Regnum extendimus novis in simili forma 
 " Brevis Litteris incipientibus Per alias expeditis die Trigesima 
 " Julii Anni Domini Millesimi Octingentesimi Quarti. 
 
 " Pro ejusdem Societati Jesu restitutione unanimi fere totius 
 " Christiani Orbis consensu instantes, urgentesque petitiones a 
 " Venerabilibus Fratribus Archiepiscopis, et Episcopis, atque ab 
 " omnium insignium Personarum Ordine, et Coctu quotidie ad 
 " Nos deferuntur : prassertim postquam fama ubique vulgata est 
 " uberrimorum fructuum, quos haec Societas in memoratis Regi- 
 " onibus protulerat, quaeque prolis in dies crescentis fcecunda, 
 " Dominicum Agrum latissime ornatura, et dilatatura puta- 
 " batur. 
 
 " Dispersio ipsa Lapidum Sanctuarii ob recentes calamitates, v 
 
 " deplorable times, the Jesuits were instructors most capable of 
 
 " forming youth to Christian piety and the fear of God, which is 
 
 " the beginning of wisdom, and to instruct them in science and 
 
 " letters. The duty of our pastoral charge leading us to second 
 
 " the pious wishes of these illustrious Monarchs, and having only 
 
 " in view the glory of God and the salvation of souls, we, by our 
 
 * Brief, beginningrPer alias, and dated the 30th of July, 1804. 
 
 ¥ extended to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies the same conces- 
 
 f sions which we had made for the Russian empire. 
 
 " The Catholic world demands with unanimous voice the 
 
 " re-establishment of the Company of Jesus. We daily receive 
 
 " to this effect the most pressing petitions from our venerable 
 
 f brethren, the Archbishops and Bishops, and the most distin- 
 
 f guished persons, especially since the abundant fruits which this 
 
 " Company has produced in the above countries have been 
 
 " generally known. The dispersion even of the stones of the 
 
 " sanctuary in those recent calamities (which it is better now to 
 
8 BULL FOR THE 
 
 " et vicissitudines, quas deflere potius juvat, quam in memoriam 
 " revocare, fatiscens Disciplina Regularium Ordinum (Religionis 
 " et Ecclesiae Catholicae splendor, et columen) quibus nunc repa- 
 " randis cogitationes cura?que Nostras diriguntur, efrlagitant, ut 
 " tarn acquis et communibus Votis Assensum Nostrum praebcamus. 
 u Gravissimi enim criminis in conspectu Dei reos Nos esse crede- 
 " remus, si in tantis Reipublicze necessita.ibus "a sanitaria auxilia 
 " adhibere negligcremus, qua? singulari 1 1 >videntia Dcus Nobis 
 u suppeditat, et si Nos in Petri Navicula assiduis turbinibus 
 " agitata, et concussa collocati expertes et validos, qui sese Nobis 
 " offerunt, Remiges ad frangendos Pclagi naufragium Nobis et 
 " exitium quovis momento niinitantis fluctus respueremus. 
 
 " Tot, ac tantis rationum momentis, tamque gravibus causis 
 " anium Nostrum moventibus id exequi tandem statuimus, quod 
 11 in ipso Pontificatus Nostra exordio vehementer optabamus. 
 " Postquam igitur Divinum auxilium ferventibus precibus implo- 
 " ravimus, Suffrages et Consiliis plurium Venerabilium Fratrum 
 " Nostrorum Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalium auditis, ex 
 " certa scientia, deque Apostolica; Potestatis, plenitudine ordinare 
 " et statuete decrevimus, uti revera hac nostra perpetuo valitura 
 
 " deplore than to repeat) ; the annihilation of the discipline of the 
 
 * regular orders, (the glory and support of religion and the Catho- 
 
 " lie church, to the restoration of which all our thoughts and cares 
 
 " are at present directed,) require that we should accede to a wish 
 
 " so just and general. 
 
 " We should deem ourselves guilty of a great crime towards 
 
 " God if, amidst these dangers of the Christian republic, we 
 
 ■' neglected the aids which the special providence of God has put 
 
 " at our disposal; and if, placed in the bark of Peter, tossed and 
 
 " assailed by continual storms, we refused to employ the vigorous 
 
 " and experienced rowers who volunteer their services, in order 
 
 " to break the waves of a sea which threatens every moment ship- 
 
 " wreck and death. Decided by motives so numerous and power- 
 
 " ful, we have resolved to do now what we could have wished to 
 
 " have done at the commencement of our Pontificate. After 
 
 " having by fervent prayers implored the Divine assistance, after 
 
 ' : having taken the advice and counsel of a great number of our 
 
 " venerable brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman church, 
 
 " we have decreed, with full knowledge, in virtue of the plenitude 
 
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 9 
 
 " Constitutione ordinamus et statuimus, ut omnes Concessiones, 
 " et facultates a Nobis pro Russiaco Imperio, et utriusque Siciliee 
 " Regno unice data?, nunc extensae intelligantur et pro extensis 
 " habeantur, sicut vere eas extendimus, ad totum Nostrum Statura 
 " Lcclesiasticum, asque ac ad omnes alios Status et Ditiones. 
 " Quare concedimus et indulgemus Dilecto Filio Presbytero 
 Thadda?o Borzozowshi moderno Prseposito Generali Societatis 
 " J esu > aliisque ab eo legittime deputatis omnes necessa- 
 " rias et opportunas facultates ad Nostrum et Sedis Apostolica; 
 " beneplacitum, ut in cunctis prcefatis Statibus, et Ditionibus 
 " omnes illos, qui Regularem Ordinem Societatis Jesu admitti 
 " et co-optari petent, admittere et co-optare libere ac licite 
 " valeant: qui in una, vel pluribus domibus, in uno, vel pluribus 
 " Collegiis, in una, vel pluribus Provinciis sub Praspositi Genera- 
 " lis pro tempore existentis obedientia conjunti, et prout res feret, 
 " distributi, ad praescriptum Regulae Sancti Ignatii de Loyola 
 " Apostolicis Pauli Tertii Constitutionibus approbatae et confir- 
 matae suam accomodent vivendi rationem : concedimus etiam, 
 " et declaramus, quod pariter Juventuti Catholics Religionis 
 " rudimentis erudienda?, ac probis moribus instituenda; operam 
 " dare, nec non seminaria et Collegia regere, et consentientibus 
 
 " of Apostolic power, and with perpetual validity, that all the 
 
 " concessions and powers granted by us solely to the Russian em- 
 
 * pire and the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, shall henceforth 
 " extend to all our Ecclesiastical States, and also to all other 
 " States. We therefore concede and grant to our well-beloved 
 " son, Taddeo Barzozowski, at this time General of the Com- 
 « pany of Jesus, and to the other Members of that Company 
 " lawfully delegated by him, all suitable and necessary powers, 
 " in order that the said States may freely and lawfully receive all 
 " those who shall wish to be admitted into the regular order of 
 " the Company of Jesus, who, under the authority of the general 
 " ad inttrim, shall be admitted and distributed, according to 
 " opportunity, in one or more houses, one or more colleges, and 
 
 * one or more provinces, where they shall conform their mode of 
 " life to the rules prescribed by St. Ignatius of Loyola, approved 
 " and confirmed by the constitutions of Paul III. We declare 
 " besides, and grant power, that they may freely and lawfully 
 " app'y to the education of youth in the principles of the Catholic 
 " faith, to form them to good morals, and to direct colleges and 
 
10 
 
 BULL FOR THE 
 
 44 atque adprobantibus Ordinariis Locorum in quibus eos dcgere 
 " contigcrit, Confessiones audire, Vcrbum Dei praedicare, et 
 " Sacramenta administrare libcre et licite valeant : omnia vcro 
 " Collegia, Domus, Provincias, Sociosque sic conjunctos, et quos 
 " in posterum conjungi et aggregari contigerit, jam nunc sub im- 
 " mediata Nostra et hujus Apostolicas Sedis tutela, praesidio, et 
 " obedicntia recipimus ; Nobis et Romanis Tontificibus succes- 
 " soribus Nostris reservantes ac prascribere, qua; ad eam.dem 
 " Societatcm magis magisque constabiliendam et communiendam, 
 " et ab abusibus, si forte (quod Deus avertat) irrepserint, repur- 
 " gandam, statuere ac prjescribere visum fuerit expedire. 
 
 " Omnes vero et singulos Superiores, Praepositos, Rectores, 
 " Socios, et Alumnos qualcscumque hujus restitutse Societatis 
 u quantum in Domino possumus commone facimus, et exhorta- 
 " mur, ut in omni loco ac tempore scse fideles Asseclas et imita- 
 " tores tanti sui Parentis ct Institutoris exhibeant, Regulam ab 
 " ipso conditam et praescriptam accurate observent, et utilia 
 " monita ac consilia quas Filiis suis tradidit summo studio exequi 
 u concntur. 
 
 " Denique dilectis in Christo filiis Illustribus et Nobilibus 
 
 " seminaries; we authorize them to hear confessions, to preach 
 " the word of God, and to administer the sacraments in the places 
 " of their residence, with the consent and approbation of the 
 " Ordinary. AVe take under our tutelage, under our immediate 
 *' obedience, and that of the Holy See, all the colleges, houses, 
 " provinces, and members of this Order, and all those who 
 " shall join it; always reserving to ourselves and the Roman 
 " Pontiffs our successors, to prescribe and direct all that we may 
 *' deem it our duty to prescribe and direct, to consolidate the said 
 " Company more and more, to render it stronger, and to purge it 
 " of abuses, should they ever creep in, which God avert. It now 
 " remains for us to exhort with all our lieaK:, and in the name of 
 " the Lord, all Superiors, Provincials, Rectors, Companions, and 
 M Pupils of this re-established Society, to shew themselves at all 
 " times and in all places, faithful imitators of their father; that 
 " they exactly observe the rule prescribed by their great founder ; 
 " that they obey with an always increasing zeal the useful advices 
 " and salutary counsels which he has left to his children. 
 
 " In fine, we recommend strongly, in the Lord, the Company 
 
RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 11 
 
 * Viris, Principibus, ac Dominis temporalibus, nec non Venera- 
 " bilibus Fratribus Archiepiscopis et Episcopis, aliisque in quavis 
 " Dignitate constitutis saepedictam Societatem Jesu, et singulos 
 " illius Socios plurimum in Domino commendamus, eosque 
 
 * exhortamur, ac rogamus non solum ne eos inquietari a quocum- 
 " que permittant, ac patiantur, sed ut benigne illos, ut decet, et 
 " cum charitate suscipiant. 
 
 " Decernentes praesentes Litteras, et in eis contenta qurecum- 
 " que semper ac pcrpetuo firma, valida, et efficacia existere et 
 " fore, suosque plenarios, et integros effectus sortiri et obtinere, et 
 " ab illis, ad quos spectat, et pro tempore quandocumque 
 " spectabit inviolabiliter observari debere, sicque, ct non aliter per 
 " quoscumque Judices quavis potestatc fungentes judicari et 
 " definiri pariter debere ; ac irritum, et inane si secus super his a 
 " quoquam quavis auctoritate scienter vel ignoranter contigerit 
 " attentari. 
 
 " Non obstantibus Constitutionibus et Ordinationibus Aposto- 
 " licis, ac praesertim supramemoratis Litteris in forma Brevis 
 " felicis recordationis Clementis Decimiquarti incipien : Dominus 
 " ac Redemptor Noster sub Annulo Piscatoris expeditis die 
 " vigesima prima Julii Anni Domini millesimi septingentesimi 
 " scptuagesimi tertii, quibus ad praemissorum eflectum expresse 
 
 " and all its members to our dear sons in Jesus Christ, the illustri- 
 " ous and noble Princes and Lords temporal, as well as to our 
 " venerable brothers the Archbishops and Bishops, and to all 
 " those who are placed in authority; we exhort, we conjure 
 " them not only not to suffer that these religious be in any way 
 " molested, but to watch that they be treated with all due kind- 
 " ness and charity. 
 
 " We ordain that the present letters be inviolably observed 
 " according to their form and tenour, in all time coming; that 
 * they enjoy their full and entire effect; that they shall never be 
 " submitted to the judgment or revision of any Judge, with what- 
 
 ever power he may be clothed ; declaring null and of no effect 
 " any encroachment on the present regulations, either knowingly 
 " or from ignorance ; and this notwithstanding any apostolical 
 " constitutions and ordinances, especially the Brief of Clement 
 " XIV., of happy memory, beginning with the words Dominus ac 
 " Redemptor noster, issued under the seal of the Fisherman, on 
 
12 
 
 BULL OF PIUS VII. &C. 
 
 " ac speciatim intcndimus derogare, caeterisque contrariis quibus- 
 K cumque. 
 
 " Volumus autcm, ut earundem praesentium Littcrarum Trans- 
 *' umptis, sive exemplis, ctiam impressis, manu alicujus Notarii 
 " publici subscriptis, et sigillo Persona? in Ecclesiastica Digniiate 
 " constituta? munitis eadem prorsus fides in Judicio et extra 
 " adhibeatur, quas ipsis prajsentibus adhiberetur, si forent exhibita; 
 " vel ostensas. 
 
 " Nulli ergo omnino homiuum liceat hanc paginam Nostrae 
 " Ordinationis, Statuti, Extensionis, Concessionis, Indulti, Decla- 
 " rationis, Facultatis, Receptionis, lleservationis, Moniti, Exhor- 
 " tationis, Dccreti, et Derogationis infringere vel ei ausu temerario 
 u contraire ; si quis autem hoc altentare prasumpserit indigna- 
 ** tionem Omnipotentis Dei ac Beatorum Petri et Pauli Aposto- 
 " lorum ejus se noverit incursurum. 
 
 " Datum Romre apud Sanctam Mariam Majorem Anno Incar- 
 " nationis Dominicaa Millesimo Octingentesimo Quartodecirao 
 " Septimo Idus Augusti Pontificatus Nostri Anno quintodecimo. 
 " A. Card. Pro-Datarius R. Card. Braschi Honesti. 
 
 VISA 
 " De Curia D. Testa 
 
 " Loco >J< Plumbi 
 
 " F. Lavizzarius. 
 " Registrata in Secretaria Brevium." 
 
 <: the 22d of July, 1773, which we expressly abrogate, as far as 
 " contrary to the present order. 
 
 " It is also our will that the same credit be paid to copies, 
 u whether in manuscript or printed, of our present Brief, as to the 
 " original itself, provided they have the signature of some notary 
 :< public, and the seal of some ecclesiastical dignitary ; that no 
 " one be permitted to infringe, or by any audacious temerity to 
 " oppose, any part of this ordinance ; and that should any one 
 li take upon him to attempt it, let him know that he will thereby 
 " incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of the holy Apostles 
 " Peter and Paul. 
 
 " Given at Rome, at Sancta Maria Major, on the 7th of 
 " August, in the year of our Lord, 1814, and the 15th of our 
 " Pontificate. 
 
 (Signed) " Cardinal PROD ATA I RE, 
 
 " Cardinal BRASCHI." 
 
TRANSLATION 
 
 OF y 
 
 THE BULL 
 
 FOR THE EFFECTUAL 
 
 SUPPRESSION OF THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 " Clement XIV. Pope, &c. 
 
 " Jesus Christ our Saviour and Redeemer was 
 " foretold by the prophets as the Prince of Peace : the angels pro- 
 " claimed him under the same title to the shepherds at his first 
 f appearance upon earth; he afterwards made himself known 
 " repeatedly as the sovereign pacificator ; and he recommended 
 " peace to his disciples before his ascension to heaven. 
 
 " Having reconciled all things to God his father, having pacified 
 " by his blood and by his cross every thing which is contained in 
 " heaven and in earth, he recommended to his apostles the 
 " ministry of reconciliation, and bestowed on them the gift of 
 " tongues, that they might publish it; that they might become 
 " ministers and envoys of Christ, who is not the God of discord, 
 " but of peace and love; that they might announce this peace to 
 " all the earth, and direct their efforts to this chief point, that all 
 " men being regenerated in Christ, might preserve the unity of 
 " the spirit in the bond of peace; might consider themselves as 
 " one body and one soul, as called to one and the same hope, to 
 " one and the same vocation, at which, according to St. Gregory, 
 " we never can arrive, unless we run in concert with our brethren. 
 " This same word of reconciliation, this same ministry, is recom- 
 " mended to Us by God in a particular manner. Ever since 
 " we were raised (without any personal merit) to the chair of St. 
 " Peter, we have called these duties to mind day and night, we 
 
14 
 
 BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF 
 
 u have bad them without ceasing before our eyes ; they are 
 " deeply engraven on our hearts, and we labour to the utmost of 
 " our power to satisfy and fulfil them. To this effect we 
 " implore without ceasing the protection and the aid of God, 
 " that he would inspire us and all his flock with counsels of 
 
 * peace, and open to us the road which leads to it. We know, 
 " besides, that we are established by the Divine Providence over 
 " kingdoms and nations, in order to pluck up, destroy, disperse, 
 " dissipate, plant, or nourish, as may best conduce to the Tight 
 " cultivation of the vineyard of Sabaoth, and to the preservation 
 " of the edifice of the Christian religion, of which Christ is the 
 " chief corner-stone. In consequence hereof we have ever thought, 
 " and been constantly of opinion, that as it is our duty carefully to 
 " plant and nourish whatever may conduce in any manner to the 
 " repose and tranquillity of the Christain republic, so the bond of 
 " mutual charity requires that we be equally ready and disposed 
 w to pluck up and destroy even the things which are most agree- 
 " able to us, and of which we cannot deprive ourselves without 
 " the highest regret and the most pungent sorrow. 
 
 " It is beyond a doubt, that among the things which contribute 
 " to the good and happiness of the Christian republic, the religi- 
 
 * ous orders hold as it were the first place. It was for this reason 
 " that the apostolic see, which owes its lustre and support to these 
 " orders, has not only approved, but endowed them with many 
 " exemptions, privileges, and faculties,in order that they might be 
 " so much the more excited to the cultivation of piety and religion: 
 " to the direction of the manners of the people, both by their 
 " instructions and their examples; to the preservation and confir- 
 " mation of the unity of the faith among the believers. But if at 
 " any time any of these religious orders did not cause these abund- 
 
 * ant fruits to prosper among the Christian people, did not pro- 
 " duce those advantages which were hoped for at their institution ; 
 
 * if at any time they seemed disposed rather to trouble than 
 " maintain the public tranquillity ; the same apostolic see, which 
 " had availed itself of its own authority to establish these orders, 
 " did not hesitate to reform them by new laws, to recall them to 
 ,: their primitive institution, or even totally to abolish them where 
 " it has seemed necessary. Upon motives like these, Innocent III. 
 " our predecessor, having considered that the too great multipli- 
 " city of regular orders served only to bring confusion into the' 
 " church of God, did, in the fourth Council of Lateran, forbid all 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 " persons to invent any new religious institution ; and counsel all 
 " those who were called to the monastic life to embrace one of the 
 « orders already established. He determined, also, that whoever 
 " was disposed to found any new religious house, should submit it 
 " to some of the rules or institutions already approved. From 
 " hence it results that no one has a right to found any new order, 
 " without the special permission of the Roman Pontiff, and that 
 " with very good reason ; the rather, as the end of new institutions 
 " being the attainment of a greater degree of perfection, it is pro- 
 " per that the Apostolic See should previously and carefully 
 " examine the rules of conduct proposed to be laid down, lest 
 " great inconveniences, and even scandals, should be introduced 
 " into the church of God, under the specious appearance of a 
 " greater good. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the wisdom of these dispositions of Inno- 
 " cent III., in after times excess of importunity wrung from the 
 " Holy See the approbation of divers regular orders ; nay, such 
 " was the arrogant temerity of many individuals, that an infinite 
 ¥ number of orders, especially mendicants, started up without any 
 " permission at all. To remedy this abuse, Gregory X., likewise 
 " our predecessor, renewed the constitution of Innocent III. in the 
 " General Council at Lyons, and forbid every one, under the most 
 " severe penalties, to invent thereafter any new orders, or to 
 " wear the habit of them. And as to the new institutions and 
 " mendicant orders, established after the Council of Lateran, 
 " and not then approved by the Holy See, he abolished them 
 " all ; and with regard to those which had then been con- 
 " firmed by the Apostolic See, he ordained, that those who had 
 " already taken the vows might, if they saw good, remain in them, 
 " on condition that they received no new members, that they 
 " acquired no new houses, lands, or possessions whatever, and 
 " that they did not alienate the possessions they then had, without 
 " the express permission of the Apostolic See. And further, he 
 " reserved to the said See the disposition of all the goods and pos- 
 " sessions, to be carried to the subsidies destined for the Holy 
 " Land, or for the poor, or for other pious uses, and that through 
 " the channel of the ordinary of the place, or of such other 
 " person as the Holy See should appoint. He prohibited, 
 " likewise, the members of the said orders to preach, confess, or 
 " even inter any other dead, except those of their own order. He 
 " declared, however, that the ordeis and preachers called 
 " ' Fratres Minores,' should be exempted from this constitution, 
 
BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION 01 
 
 " inasmuch as the evident advantage the Catholic church 
 " reaped from them entitled them to an entire approbation. He 
 " ordained, likewise, that the order of the Hermits of St. Augus- 
 " tine, and that of the Carmelites, should remain on their ancient 
 " footing, inasmuch as their institution was prior to the Council 
 " of Lateran. And finally, he permitted the individuals of the 
 " orders, comprised in the said constitution, full liberty of trans- 
 
 * porting themselves and their effects into any other order already 
 " approved ; provided only that no whole order or convent 
 u should pass with all their effects into any one other order, 
 " without a previous and express permission of the Holy See. 
 
 " The other Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, followed the 
 " same steps, as circumstances required. Among others, Cle- 
 " ment V. by a letter sub plumbo, expedited the 3d of May in the 
 " year 1312, induced thereto by the general discredit into which 
 " the order of Templars "was fallen, did entirely suppress and 
 " abolish the said order, though it had been legally approved, 
 " and though, on account of the services it had rendered to the 
 " Christian republic, the Holy See had heretofore bestowed on it 
 " many and important privileges, faculties, and exemptions ; and 
 M thou»h the General Council of Vienna, to whom the examina- 
 " tion of this affair had been committed, had not thought proper 
 " to pronounce a formal and definitive sentence. 
 
 " St. Pius V., likewise our predecessor, whose eminent virtues 
 " are honoured by the church, suppressed and entirely abolished 
 " the order called ' The Humble Brothers,' though it was anterior 
 " to the Council of Lateran, and had been approved by Inno- 
 " cent III. Honorius HI. Gregory IX. and Nicholas HI. pontiffs 
 " of blessed memory, and our predecessors ; his reasons for which 
 " were, that the disobedience of this order to the apostolic decrees, 
 " their quarrels among themselves and with strangers, left no 
 " room to hope from them any example of virtue; and that, 
 «' besides, some individuals of this order had made an infamous 
 " attempt on the life of St. Charles Boromaeus, a cardinal of the 
 
 * holy church, and apostolic visitor of the said order. 
 
 " The Pope Urban VIII. our predecessor, of blessed memory, 
 " did in the same manner, by a Brief dated the 6th of February, 
 '* abolish and for ever suppress the congregation of Fratres Con- 
 " ventuales reformatio though this order had been approved by 
 " PopeSixtus V., who had distinguished it by particular benefac- 
 
 * tions and favours. Urban VIII. suppressed it, because the 
 church of God did no longer receive any spiritual advantages 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 17 
 
 " from it; and because violent disputes had arisen between this 
 *< order and those of the < Fratres Ccnventuales non reformatio 
 " He ordained that the houses, convents, and goods, moveable and 
 " immoveable, belonging to their congregation, should be assigned 
 " over to the ' Fratres Minores Conventuales ' of St. Francis, 
 " except only the house at Naples, and that of St. Anthony of 
 " Padua, called < de' Urbe.' This last he incorporated, and 
 f applied to the apostolic chamber, leaving the disposition of it to 
 " his successors. Lastly, he permitted the brothers of the said 
 " congregation to pass into the h ouses of the Capuchins, or into 
 " those of the brothers called * de observantid.' 
 
 " This same Urban VIII. by another letter in the form of a 
 " Brief, dated the 2d of December 1643, suppressed for ever, 
 " extinguished, and abolished the regular order of the Saints 
 " Ambrose and Barnaby, ad nanus, submitting the regulars of the 
 " said order to the jurisdiction and government of the Ordinary, 
 " permitting the individuals thereof to pass into other regular 
 *' orders approved by the Holy See. Innocent X. confirmed this 
 " abolition afterwards by his letter sub plumbo of the 1st of April 
 " 1645. He farther secularized all the benefices, monasteries, 
 " and houses of the said order, which were heretofore regular. 
 " The same Innocent X., our predecessor, having been informed of 
 " the great disorders which had arisen among the regulars of the 
 " order of the pious schools of the mother of God; and notwith- 
 " standing the said order had been solemnly approved by Gregory 
 " XV., did, after a mature examination, and by his brief, dated 
 " March 16, 1645, reduce the said order to a simple eongrega- 
 " tion, dispensing with all obligation to make any vow, in imita- 
 " tion of the institution of the congregation of secular priests of 
 " the Oratory, in the church of St. Mary, at Valicclla d-e Urbe, or, 
 " as it is commonly called, of St. Philip of Neraea ; he granted 
 " the said regulars the permission of passing into any other order, 
 " forbid the farther admission of novices; and the administration 
 " of the vows to the novices already received. And, lastly, he 
 " transferred to the ordinaries all the superiority and jurisdiction 
 " which had heretofore been vested in the minister general, the 
 " visitors, and superiors. And these dispositions had their full 
 " effect for some years ; till at last the Holy See, convinced of the 
 " utility of this institution, recalled it to its first form, re-ordained 
 " the ancient solemn vows, and reinstated it as a fixed regular 
 " order. 
 
IS 
 
 BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF 
 
 " By another Brief of the 20th of October 1650, this same 
 
 " Innocent X. totally suppressed the order of St. Basilicus of the 
 
 " Armenians; and that on the same account of dissensions and 
 
 ' troubles arisen therein, he invested the Ordinaries with full 
 
 ' power and authority over the members of the orders thus sup- 
 
 ' pressed, commanding them to take the dress of the secular 
 
 ' clergy, and assigning them annuities out of the revenues of the 
 
 ' suppressed convents, granting withal the permission to enter 
 
 ' into such other orders as they should see tit. 
 " The same Innocent X. having considered that no spiritual 
 
 • advantages could be derived from the regular congregation of 
 1 the Priests of the good Jesus, did, by another brief of the 2?d of 
 ' June 1651, abolish the same for ever. He submitted the said 
 • 4 regulars to the jurisdiction of their Ordinary, assigned them a 
 " convenient portion of the revenues of the congregation, permit- 
 " ting them to enter into any other approved order, and reserving 
 ' to himself the disposition of the goods of the said congregation, 
 
 • to be applied, as he should see lit, to works of piety. 
 
 " Lastly, Clement IX., our predecessor, of blessed memory, 
 
 ' having considered that the three regular orders of the regular 
 
 • canons of Saint Gregory in Alga, of the Jeromites of Fiesole, 
 ' and of the Jesuits instituted by St. Colombanus, were of no 
 ' further use to the Christian world, and that no hopes remained 
 ' of rendering them hereafter useful, resolved to abolish them, and 
 ' did actually do so, by his Brief, bearing date the fjth of Decem- 
 ' ber, lb'6S. With regard to their- goods and revenues, which 
 ' were very considerable, at the request of the republic of Venice, 
 ' he assigned them for the carrying on the war of Candia against 
 ' the Turks. 
 
 " Our predecessors, in taking and executing these resolutions, 
 
 ' have very wisely preferred this method to all others ; they 
 
 ' regarded it as the only one calculated to calm the agitation of 
 
 ' men's minds, and to stifle the spirit of party and dissension. 
 
 ' They, therefore, avoided the slow and fallible method of pro- 
 
 ' ceeding in ordinary contestations before the courts of justice, 
 
 ' contenting themselves to follow the laws of prudence, and rely- 
 
 " ing wholly on that plenitude of pow er which they possessed in 
 
 • so eminent a degree as vicars of Christ upon earth, and as 
 ; sovereign moderators of the Christian republic; they executed 
 
 " all these changes without giving the regular orders, which they 
 
 : proposed to suppress, the faculty of producing any arguments in 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 19 
 
 their defence, or of clearing themselves from the heavy accusa- 
 tions brought against them, or of opposing the powerful mo- 
 tives by which the holy Pontiffs were induced to take such 
 resolutions. 
 
 " We therefore having these and other such examples before 
 our eyes, examples of great weight and high authority, animated 
 besides with a lively desire of walking with a safe conscience, 
 and a firm step, in the deliberations of which we shall speak 
 hereafter, have omitted no care, no pains, in order to arrive at a 
 thorough knowledge of the origin, the progress, and the actual 
 state of that regular order, commonly called The Company of 
 Jesus. In the course of these investigations, we have seen that 
 the holy founder of this order did institute it for the salvation of 
 souls, the conversion of heretics and infidels, and, in short, for 
 the greater advancement of piety and religion. And in order to 
 attain more surely and happily so laudable a design, he conse- 
 crated himself rigorously to God, by an absolute vow of 
 evangelical poverty, with which to bind the society in general, 
 and each individual in particular, except only the colleges, in 
 which polite literature, and other branches of knowledge, were 
 to be taught, and which were allowed to possess property, but 
 so that no part of their revenues could ever be applied tn the use 
 of the said society in general. It was under these and other holy 
 restrictions, that the Company of Jesus was approved by the Pope 
 Paul III., our predecessor, of blessed memory, by his letter sub 
 plumbo, dated October 2.9, 1540. He granted them, besides, the 
 power of forming laws and statutes, to secure the advantages, 
 stability, and good order of the society, on a more solid footing. 
 And though Paul III. did at first restrain this company to the 
 number of sixty ; yet, by his letter of the 27th of March, he 
 gave the superiors of the said company power to admit as many 
 members as they pleased. Afterwards the same Pontiff by his 
 brief, dated May 15, 1549, favoured the said company with 
 many and extensive privileges : among others, he willed and 
 ordered, that the indult, which he had already accorded to the 
 preceding generals, should be extended to all such as the 
 generals should think worthy of it. This indult has hitherto 
 been restrained to the power of admitting only twenty priests, as 
 spiritual coadjutors, to whom were to be granted all the same 
 privileges, and the same authority, as to the professed com- 
 panions of the order. Farther, he exempted and withdrew the 
 said order, its companions, persons, and possessions whatever. 
 
 E 2 
 
20 BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF 
 
 " from all dominion and jurisdiction of all ordinaries whatever, 
 ** taking them under the immediate protection of himself and the 
 * holy see. 
 
 " The munificence and liberality of other Pontiffs, our pre- 
 " decessors, towards this society, have not been less remarkable. 
 " It is well known that Julius III. [1550], Paul IV. [1560], Pius 
 " IV. and V. [1566], Gregory XIII. [1572], Sixtus V. [I5S5], 
 " Gregory XIV. [1590], Clement VIII. [1592], Paul V. [l605], 
 " Leo XL [1605], Gregory XV. [1621], Urban VIII. [J 623], 
 " and other lloman Pontiffs, of blessed memory, have either con- 
 " firmed the privileges already granted to the society, or have 
 " explained and augmented them. 
 
 " Notwithstanding so many and so great favours',- it appears, 
 " from the apostolical constitutions, that almost at the very 
 " moment of its institution there arose in the bosom of this society 
 " divers seeds of discord and dissension, not only among the com- 
 " panions themselves, but with other regular orders, the secular 
 " clergy, the academies, the universities, the public schools, and, 
 " lastly, even with the princes of the states in which the society 
 " was received. 
 
 " These dissensions and disputes arose sometimes concerning 
 " the nature of their vows, the time of admission to them, the 
 " power of expulsion, the right of admission to holy orders with- 
 " out a sufficient title, and without having taken the solemn vows, 
 " contrary to the tenor of the decrees of the council of Trent, and 
 " of Pius V. our predecessor. Sometimes concerning the absolute 
 " authority assumed by the general of the said order, and on mat- 
 " ters relating to the good government and discipline of the order. 
 " Sometimes concerning different points of doctrine, concerning 
 " their schools, or such of their exemptions and privileges as the 
 " ordinaries, and other civil or ecclesiastical officers, declared to be 
 " contrary to their rights and jurisdiction. In short, accusations 
 " of the greatest nature, and very detrimental to the peace and 
 " tranquillity of the Christian republic, have been continually 
 " received against the said order. Hence the origin of that infinity 
 " of appeals and protests against this society, which so many 
 " sovereigns have laid at the foot of the throne of our predecessors, 
 " Paul IV., Pius V., and Sixtus V. 
 
 " Among the princes who have thus appealed, is Philip II. 
 " King of Spain, of glorious memory, who laid before Sixtus V. 
 " not only the reasons of complaint, which he had, but also those 
 " alleged by the inquisitors of his kingdom agaiust the excessive 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 21 
 
 " privileges of the society, and the form of their government. He 
 " desired likewise that the Pope should be acquainted with the 
 " heads of accusation laid against the society, and confirmed by 
 " some of its own members, remarkable for their learning and 
 " piety, and demanded that the society should undergo an aposto- 
 " lie \isitation. Sixtus V. convinced that these demands and 
 " solicitations of Philip were just and well founded, did, without 
 " hesitation, comply therewith; and, in consequence, named a 
 " bishop of distinguished prudence, virtue and learning, to be 
 " apostolic visitor, and at the same time deputed a congregation 
 " of cardinals to examine this matter. 
 
 " But this Pontiff having been carried off by a premature death, 
 " this wise undertaking remained without effect. Gregory XIV. 
 " being raised to the supreme apostolic chair,' approved, in its ut- 
 " most extent, the institution of the society, by his letter sub plumbo. 
 " dated the 28th of July, 1591. He confirmed all the privileges 
 " which had been granted by any of his predecessors to the 
 " society, and particularly the power of expelling and dismissing 
 " any of its members, without any previous form of process, infor- 
 " mation, act, or delay ; upon the sole view of the truth of the 
 " fact, and the nature of the crime, from a sufficient motive, and 
 " a due regard of persons and circumstances. He ordained, and 
 " that under pain of excommunication, that all proceedings 
 
 against the society should be quashed, and that no person 
 " whatever should presume, directly or indirectly, to attack the 
 " institution, constitutions, or decrees of the said society, or 
 " attempt in any manner whatever to make any changes therein. 
 " To each and every of the members only of the said society, he 
 " permitted to expose and propose, either by themselves or by the 
 " legates and nuncios of the holy see, to himself only, or the 
 " Popes his successors, whatever they should think proper to be 
 " added, modified, or changed in their institution. 
 
 " Who would have thought that even these dispositions should 
 " prove ineffectual towards appeasing the cries and appeals against 
 " the society ? On the contrary, very violent disputes arose on 
 " all sides, concerning the doctrine of the society, which many 
 " represented as contrary to the orthodox faith, and to sound 
 " morals. The dissensions among themselves, and with others, 
 " grew every day more animated ; the accusations against the 
 " society were multiplied without number, and especially with 
 " regard to that insatiable avidity of temporal possessions, with 
 " which it was reproached. Hence the rise not only of those 
 
BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF 
 
 " well-known troubles which brought so much care and solicitude 
 i* upon the holy see, but also of the resolutions which certain 
 u sovereigns took against the said order 
 
 " It resulted, that instead of obtaining from Paul V. of blessed 
 " memory, a fresh confirmation of its institute and privileges, the 
 " society was reduced to ask of him, that he would condescend to 
 " ratify and confirm by his authority, certain decrees formed in 
 " the fifth general congregation of the company, and transcribed 
 " word for word in the brief of the said Pope, bearing date 
 " Sept. 4, 1606. In these decrees it is plainly acknowledged 
 " that the dissensions and internal revolts of the said companions, 
 " together with the demands and appeals of strangers, had obliged 
 " the said companions assembled in congregation to enact the 
 " following statute, namely : — 
 
 " The Divine Providence having raised up our society for the 
 " propagation of the faith, and the gaining of souls, the said 
 " society can, by the rules of its own institute, which arc its 
 " spiritual arms, arrive happily, under the standard of the cross, 
 " at the end which it has proposed for the good of the church, and 
 " the edification of our neighbours. Put the said society, would 
 " prevent the effect of these precious goods, and expose them to 
 " the most imminent dangers, if it concerned itself with temporal 
 " matters, and which relate to political affairs, and the adminis- 
 " tration of government: in consequence whereof it has been 
 " wisely ordained by our superiors, and ancients, that, confining 
 " ourselves to combat for the glory of God, we should not con- 
 " cern ourselves with matters foreign to our profession : but 
 " whereas in these times of difficulty and danger it has happened 
 " through the fault perhaps of certain individuals, through ambi- 
 " tion and intemperate zeal, that our institute has been ill-spoken 
 " of in divers places, and before divers sovereigns, whose affection 
 " and good-will the lather Ignatius, of holy memory, thought we 
 " should preserve for the good of the service of God : and whereas 
 " a good reputation is indispensably necessary to make the vine- 
 " yard of Christ bring forth fruits; in consequence hereof our 
 " congregation has resolved that we should abstain from all 
 " appearance of evil, and remedy, as far as in our power, the 
 " evils arisen from false suspicions. To this end, and by the 
 " authority of the present decree of the said congregation, it is 
 " severely and strictly forbidden to all the members of the 
 " society, to interfere in any manner whatever in public affairs, 
 " even though they be thereto invited ; or to deviate from the 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESE1TS. 
 
 " institute, through entreaty, persuasion, or any other motive 
 " whatever. The congregation recommends to the fathers- 
 " coadjutors, that they do propose and determine:, with all dili- 
 " gence and speed, such farther means as they may think necessary, 
 
 " of remedying this abuse." 
 
 " We have seen, in the grief of our hearts, that neither these 
 * remedies, nor an infinity of others since employed, have pro- 
 " duced their due effect, or silenced the accusations and com- 
 " plaints against the said society. Our other predecessors, Urban 
 " VII. Clement IX, X, XI, and XII, Alexander VII. and VIII. 
 " Innocent X, XI, XII, and XIII. and Benedict XIV. 
 " employed without effect all their efforts to the same purpose. 
 " In vain did they endeavour, by salutary constitutions, to restore 
 " peace to the church ; as well with respect to secular affairs 
 " with which the company ought not to have interfered, as with 
 " regard to the missions; which gave rise to great disputes and 
 u < oppositions on the part of the company with the ordinaries, 
 " with other religious orders, about the holy places, and com- 
 " munities of all sorts in Europe, Africa, and America, to the 
 " great loss of souls, and great scandal of the people; as likewise 
 " concerning the meaning and -practice of certain idolatrous 
 " ceremonies adopted in certain places in contempt of those 
 " justly approved by the Catholic church ; and, farther, concern- 
 " ing the use and explication of certain maxims, which the holy 
 " see has, with reason, proscribed as scandalous, and manifestly 
 " contrary to good morals ; and lastly, concerning other matters 
 " of great importance and prime necessity towards preserving the 
 " integrity and purity of the doctrines of the gospel, from which 
 " maxims have resulted very great inconveniences and great 
 " detriment, both in our days and in past ages; such as the 
 " revolts and intestine troubles in some of the Catholic states, 
 " persecutions against the church in some countries of Asia and 
 " Europe, not to mention the vexation and grating solicitude 
 " which these melancholy affairs brought on our predecessors, 
 " principally upon Innocent XI. of blessed memory, who found 
 " himself reduced to the necessity of forbidding the company to 
 " receive any more novices; and afterwards upon Innocent XIII. 
 " who was obliged to threaten the company with the same 
 " punishment ; and lastly, upon Benedict XIV. who took the 
 " resolution of ordaining a general visitation of all the 
 " houses and colleges of the company in the kingdom of our 
 
I 
 
 24 BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF 
 
 " dearly beloved son in Jesus Christ, (lie most faithful King of 
 " Portugal. 
 
 " The late apostolic letter of Clement XIII. of blessed memory, 
 " our immediate predecessor, by which the institute of the com- 
 " pany of Jesus was again approved and recommended, was far 
 " from bringing any comfort to the holy see, or any advantage to 
 " the Christian republic. Indeed this letter was rather extorted 
 " than granted, to use the expression of Gregory X. in the abova 
 " named general council of Lyons. 
 
 " After so many storms, troubles, and divisions, every good 
 " man looked forward with impatience to the happy day which 
 " was to restore peace and tranquillity ; but under the reign of 
 " this same Clement XIII. the times became more difficult and 
 " tempestuous ; complaints and quarrels were multiplied on every 
 " side; in some places dangerous seditions arose, tumults, dis- 
 " cords, dissensions, scandals, which weakening or entirely break- 
 " in" the bonds of Christian charity, excited the faithful to all the 
 " rage of party, hatreds, and enmities. Desolation and danger 
 " grew to such a height, that the very sovereigns, whose piety and 
 " liberality towards the company were so well known as to be 
 " looked upon as hereditary in their families, we mean our dearly 
 " beloved sons in Christ the Kings of France, Spain, Portugal, 
 " and Sicily, found themselves reduced to the necessity of expel- 
 " ling and driving from their states, kingdoms, and provinces, these 
 " very companions of Jesus ; persuaded that there remained no 
 " other remedy to so great evils ; and that this step was necessary 
 " in order to prevent the Christians from rising one against 
 " another, and from massacreing each other in the very bosom of 
 " our common mother the holy church. The said our dear sons 
 " in Jesus Christ having since considered that even this remedy 
 " would not be sufficient towards reconciling the whole Christian 
 " world, unless the said society was absolutely abolished and 
 " suppressed, made known their demands and wills in this matter 
 " to our said predecessor Clement XIII. They united their com- 
 " mon prayers and authority to obtain that this last method 
 " might be put in practice, as the only one capable of assuring 
 " the constant repose of their subjects, and the good of the 
 " Catholic church in general. But the unexpected death of the 
 " aforesaid Pontiff rendered this project abortive. 
 
 " As soon as by the divine mercy and providence we were 
 " raised to the chair of St. Peter, the same prayers, demands, and 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 
 
 25 
 
 * wishes, were laid before us; and strengthened by the pressing 
 ** solicitations of many bishops and other persons of distinguished 
 " rank, learning, and piety. But that we might choose the wisest 
 " course, in an affair of so much importance, we determined not 
 " to be precipitate, but to take due time not only to examine 
 " attentively, weigh carefully, and wisely debate, but also by 
 " unceasing prayers to ask of the Father of lights his particular 
 " assistance under these circumstances; exhorting at the same 
 " time the faithful to co-operate with us by their prayers and good 
 " works in obtaining this needful succour. 
 
 " And first of all we proposed to examine upon what grounds 
 " rested the common opinion, that the institute of the clerks of the 
 " company of Jesus had been approved and confirmed in an 
 " especial manner by the council of Trent. And we found, that 
 " in the said council nothing more was done with regard to the 
 " said society, only to except it from the general decree, which 
 " ordained, that in the other regular orders, those who had 
 " finished their noviciate, and were judged worthy of being 
 " admitted to the profession, should be admitted thereto ; and that 
 " such as were not found worthy, should be sent back from the 
 " monastery. The same council declared, that it meant not to 
 " make any change or innovation in the government of the clerks 
 " of the company of Jesus, that they might not be hindered from 
 " being useful to God and his church, according to the intent of 
 " the pious institute approved by the holy see. 
 
 " Actuated by so many and important considerations, and, as 
 " we hope, aided by the presence and inspiration of the Holy 
 " Spirit, compelled besides by the necessity of our ministry, which 
 " strictly obliges us to conciliate, maintain, and confirm the 
 " peace and tranquillity of the Christian republic, and remove 
 " every obstacle which may tend to trouble it : having farther 
 " considered that the said company of Jesus can no longer pro- 
 " duce those abundant fruits and those great advantages with a 
 " view to which it was instituted, approved by so many of our 
 " predecessors, and endowed with so many and extensive privi- 
 " leges ; that on the contrary it was very difficult, not to say 
 " impossible, that the church could recover a firm and durable 
 " peace so long as the said society subsisted ; in consequence 
 " hereof, and determined by the particular reasons we have here 
 " alleged, and forced by other motives, w hich prudence, and the 
 '•' good government of the church have dictated, the knowledge of 
 " which we reserve to ourselves; conforming ourselves to the 
 
26 
 
 BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OT 
 
 " examples of our predecessors, and particularly to that of 
 " Gregory X. in the genera' council of Lyons ; the rather as, in 
 " the present case, we are determining upon the fate of a society 
 " classed among the mendicant orders, both by its institute, and 
 " by its privileges. — After a mature deliberation, we do, out of 
 " our certain knowledge, and the fulness of our apostolical power, 
 
 " SUPPRESS AND ABOLISH THE SAID COMPANY I VVC deprive it of 
 
 " all activity w hatever, of its houses, schools, colleges, hospitals, 
 " lands, and in short every other place whatever belonging to the 
 '* said company in any manner whatsoever, in whatever kingdom 
 " or province they be situated; we abrogate and annul its 
 f statutes, rules, customs, decrees, and constitutions, even though 
 " confirmed by oath, and approved by the holy see, or otherwise: 
 " in like manner we annul all and every its privileges, indults, 
 * general or particular, the tenor whereof is, and is taken to be, 
 " as fully and as amply expressed in the present brief, as if the 
 " same were inserted word for word : in whatever clauses, form or 
 " decree, or under whatever sanction their privileges may have 
 " been conceived. We declare all, and all kind of authority, the 
 " general, the provincials, the visitors, and other superiors of the 
 " said society, to be for ever annulled and extinguished; of what 
 " nature soever the said authority may be, as well in things 
 " spiritual as temporal. We do likewise order that the said 
 " jurisdiction and authority be transferred to the respective 
 " ordinaries, fully and in the same manner as the said generals, 
 " &c. exercised it, according to the form, places, and circum- 
 " stances, with respect to the persons, and under the conditions 
 " hereafter determined. Forbidding, as we do hereby forbid, the 
 " reception of any person to the said society, the noviciate or 
 " habit thereof. And with regard to those who have already been 
 " admitted, our will is, that they be not received to make pro- 
 " fession of the simple solemn absolute vows under pain of 
 " nullity, and such other penalties as we shall ordain. Fart kef 
 " we do will, command, and ordain, that those who are now 
 " performing their noviciate, be speedily, immediately, and 
 " actually sent back to their own homes: we do further forbid, 
 " that those who have made profession of the first simple vows, 
 " but who are not yet admitted to either of the holy orders, be 
 " admitted thereto under any pretext or title whatever: whether 
 " on account of the profession they have already made in the 
 " said society, or by virtue of any privileges the said society has 
 " obtained, contrary to the tenor of the decrees of the council of 
 " Trent, 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 27 
 i 
 
 " And whereas all our endeavours are directed to the great end 
 " of procuring the good of the church, and the tranquillity of 
 " nations ; and it being at the same time our intention to provide 
 " all necessary aid, consolation, and assistance to the individuals 
 " or companions of the said society, every one of which in his 
 " individual capacity we love in the Lord with a truly paternal 
 " affection; and to the end that they, being delivered on their 
 " pari from the persecutions, dissensions, and troubles with which 
 " they have for a long time been agitated, may be able to labour 
 u with more success in the vineyard of the Lord, and contribute 
 " to the salvation of souls: therefore, and for these motives, we do 
 " decree and determine, that such of the companions as have yet 
 " made professions only of the first vows, and are not yet pro- 
 " moted to holy orders, being absolved, as in fact they are 
 " absolved from the first simple vows, do without fail, quit the 
 " houses and colleges of the said society, and be at full liberty to 
 " choose such course of life as each shall judge most comfortable 
 " to his vocation, strength, and conscience, and that within a 
 " space of time to be prescribed by the ordinary of the diocese; 
 " which time shall be sufficient for each to provide himself some 
 " employment or benefice, or at least some patron who will 
 " receive him into his house, always provided that the term thus 
 " allowed do not exceed the space of one year, to be counted from 
 " the day of the date hereof. And this the rather, as, according 
 " to the privileges of the said company, those who have only 
 " taken these first vows, may be expelled the order upon motives 
 " left entirely to the prudence of the superiors, as circumstances 
 " require, and without any previous form of process. As to such 
 " of the companions as are already promoted to holy orders, we 
 " grant them permission to quit the houses and colleges of the 
 " company, and to enter into any other regular order, already 
 " approved by the holy see. In which case and supposing they 
 " have already possessed the first vows, they are to perform the 
 " accustomed noviciate in the order into which they arc to enter, 
 " according to the prescription of the council of Trent; but if 
 " they have taken all the vows, then they shall perform only a 
 " noviciate of six months, we graciously dispensing with the rest. 
 " Or otherwise we do permit them to live at large, as secular 
 " priests and clerks, always under a perfect and absolute obedi- 
 " ence to the jurisdiction of the ordinary of the diocese, where 
 " they shall establish themselves. We do likewise ordain, that to 
 " such as shall embrace this last expedient, a convenient stipend 
 
28 
 
 BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF 
 
 " be paid out of the revenues* of the house or college where 
 " they resided ; regard being paid, in assigning the same, to the 
 " expenses to which the said house shall be exposed, as well as 
 " to the revenues it enjoyed. 'With regard to those who have 
 " made the last vows, and are promoted to holy orders, and who 
 " either through fear of not being able to subsist for want of a 
 " pension, or from the smallness thereof, or because they know 
 " not where to fix themselves, or on account of age, infirmities, or 
 " other grave and lawful reasons, do not choose to quit the said 
 " colleges or houses, they shall be permitted to dwell therein, 
 " provided always that they exercise no ministry whatsoever in 
 " the said houses or colleges, and be entirely subject to the 
 " ordinary of the diocese; that they make no acquisitions what- 
 " ever, according to the decree of the council of Lyons, that they 
 " do not alienate the houses, possessions, or funds, which they 
 " actually possess. It shall be lawful to unite in one or more 
 " houses, the number of individuals that remain; nor shall others 
 " be substituted in the room of those who may die; so that the 
 " houses, which become vacant, may be converted to such pious 
 " uses as the circumstances of time and place shall require, in 
 " conformity to the holy canons, and the intention of the founders, 
 " so as may best promote the divine worship, the salvation of 
 " souls, and the public good. And to this end a member of the 
 " regular clergv, rccominendable for his prudence and sound 
 " morals, shall be chosen to preside over and govern the said 
 " houses; so that the name of the company shall be, and is, for 
 « ever extinguished and suppressed. 
 
 " In like manner we declare, that in this general suppression of 
 " the company shall be comprehended the individuals thereof 
 " in all the provinces from whence they have already been expel- 
 " led ; and to this effect our will is, that the said individuals, even 
 " though they have been promoted to holy orders, be ipso facto 
 " reduced to the state of secular priests and clerks, and remain in 
 " absolute subjection to the ordinary of the diocese, supposing 
 " always that they are not entered into any other regular order. 
 
 " If among the subjects heretofore of the company of Jesus, but 
 " who shall become secular priests or clerks, the ordinaries shall 
 " find any qualified by their virtues, learning, and purity of morals, 
 " they may as they see fit, grant or refuse them the power of con- 
 " fessing and preaching; but none of them shall exercise the said 
 " holy function without a permission in writing ; nor shall the 
 " bishops or ordinaries grant such permission to such of the 
 
THE ORDER Of THE JESUITS. 
 
 29 
 
 society, who shall remain in the colleges or houses heretofore 
 belonging to the society, to whom we expressly and for ever 
 prohibit the administration of the sacrament of penance, and the 
 function of preaching ; as Gregory X. did piohibit it in the 
 council already cited. And we leave it to the consciences of 
 the bishops to see that this last article be strictly observed ; 
 exhorting them to have before their eyes the severe account 
 which they must render to God of the flock committed to their 
 charge; and the tremendous judgment, with which the great 
 Judge of the living and the dead doth threaten those who are in- 
 vested with so high a character. 
 
 " Farther we will, that if any of those who have heretofore 
 professed the institute of the company shall be desirous of 
 dedicating themselves to the instruction of youth in any college 
 or school, care be taken that they have no part in the govern- 
 ment or direction of the same, and that the liberty of teaching 
 be granted to such only whose labours promise a happy issue, 
 and who shall shew themselves averse to all spirit of dispute, 
 and untainted with any doctrines, which may occasion or stir 
 up frivolous and dangerous quarrels. In a word, the faculty of 
 teaching youth shall neither be granted nor preserved but to 
 those who seem inclined to maintain peace in the schools, and 
 tranquillity in the world. 
 
 " Our intention and pleasure is, that the dispositions which vvc 
 have thus made known for the suppression of this society, shall 
 be extended to the mcmhers thereof employed in missions, 
 reserving to ourselves the right of fixing upon such methods as 
 to us shall appear most sure and convenient for the conversion 
 of infidels, and the conciliation of controverted points. 
 " All and singular the privileges and statutes of the said company 
 being thus annulled and entirely abrogated, we declare, that as 
 soon as the individuals thereof shall have quitted their houses 
 and colleges, and taken the habit of secular clerks, they shall 
 be qualified to obtain, in conformity to the decrees of the holy 
 canons and apostolic constitutions, cures, benefices without 
 cure, offices, charges, dignities, and all employments whatever, 
 which they could not obtain so long as they were members of 
 the said society, according to the will of Gregory XIII. of 
 blessed memory, expressed in his bull, bearing date Sept. 10, 
 1548, which brief begins with these words, ' Satis superque,' &c. 
 Likewise we grant them the power, which they had not before, 
 of receiving alms for the celebration of the mass, and the full 
 
JO 
 
 BULL FOR THE SUPPRESSION O !• 
 
 ' enjoyment of all the graces and favours from which they were 
 ' heretofore precluded, as regular clerks of the company of Jesus. 
 " We likewise abrogate all the prercgatives which had been 
 granted them by their general and other superiors, in virtue of 
 the privileges obtained from the sovereign Pontiffs, and by which 
 they were permitted to read heretical and impious books pn*- 
 scribed by the holy see; likewise the power they enjoyed of not 
 observing the stated fasts, and of eating flesh on fast days ; like- 
 wise the faculty of reciting the prayers called the canonical 
 hours, and all other like privileges, our firm intention being, 
 that they do conform themselves in all things to the manner of 
 living of the secular priests, and to the general rules of the 
 church. 
 
 " Farther, we do ordain, that after the publication of this our 
 letter, no person do presume to suspend the execution thereof, 
 under colour, title, or pretelice of any action, appeal, relief, 
 explanation of doubts which may arise, or any other pretext 
 whatever, foreseen or not foreseen. Our will and meaning is. 
 that the suppression and destruction of the said society, and of 
 all its parts, shall have an immediate and instantaneous effect, 
 in the manner here above set forth : and. that under pain of the 
 greater excommunication, to be immediately incurred by who- 
 soever shall presume to create the least impediment, or obstacle, 
 or delay, in the execution of this our will: the said excommu- 
 nication not to be taken off but by ourselves, or our successors, 
 the Roman Pontiffs. 
 
 " Farther, we ordain and command, by virtue of the holy obe- 
 dience, to all and every ecclesiastical person, regular and secular, 
 of whatever rank, dignity, and condition, and especially those 
 who have been heretofore of the said company, that no one of 
 them do carry their audacity so far as to impugn, combat, or 
 even write or speak about the said suppression, or the reasons 
 and motives of it, or about the institute of the company, its form 
 of government, or other circumstance thereto relating, without 
 an express permission from the Roman Pontiff, and that under 
 the same pain of excommunication. 
 
 " We forbid all and every one to offend any person whatever on 
 account of the said suppression, and especially those who have 
 been members of the said society, or to make use of any injuri- 
 ous, malevolent, reproachful, or contemptuous language towards 
 them, whether verbally or by writing. 
 
 " We exhort all the Christian pr.n^es to exert all that force, 
 
THE ORDER OF THE JESUITS. 3! 
 
 *' authority, and power which God has given them for the defence 
 " of the holy Roman church, so that in consequence of the respect 
 " and veneration which they owe to the apostolic see, things may 
 *' be so ordered, that these our letters have their full effect, and 
 " that they attentively heeding all the articles therein contained, 
 " do publish such ordonnances and regulations, as may prevent 
 " all excesses, disputes, and dissensions among the faithful, 
 " whilst they carry this our will into execution. 
 
 " Finally, we exhort all Christians, and entreat them by the 
 ** bowels of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to remember that we have 
 u all one Master, who is in heaven, one Saviour, who has pur- 
 " chased us by his blood ; that we have all been again born in the 
 " water of baptism, through the word of eternal life ; that we have 
 
 all been declared sons of God, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ; 
 " all fed with the same bread of the Catholic doctrine, and of the 
 " divine word ; that we are all one body in Jesus Christ, of which 
 " we are members ; consequently it is absolutely necessary, that 
 " united by the common bond of charity, they should live in 
 " peace with all men, and consider it as their first duty to love 
 " one another, remembering that he who loveth his neighbour 
 " fulfilleth the law; avoiding studiously all occasion of scandal, 
 " enmity, division, and such like evils, which were invented and 
 " promoted by the ancient enemy of mankind, in order to disturb 
 " the church of God, and prevent the eternal happiness of the 
 " faithful, under the false title of schools, opinions, and even of 
 " the perfection of Christianity. On the contrary, every one 
 " should exert his utmost endeavours to acquire that true and 
 " sincere wisdom of which St. James speaks in his canonical 
 " epistle, ch. iii. v. 13. 
 
 " Farther, our will and pleasure is, that though the superiors 
 " and other members of the society, and others interested therein, 
 " have not consented to this disposition, have not been cited, or 
 " heard, still it shall not at any time be allowed them to make any 
 " observations on our present letter, to attack or invalidate it, to 
 " demand a farther examination of it, to appeal from it, to make 
 " it a matter of dispute, to reduce it to the terms of law, to pro- 
 u ceed against it by the means of restitutio/lis ad integrum, to open 
 " their mouth against it, to reduce it ad uam et termitios juris ; or, 
 " in short, to impugn it by any way whatever, of right or fact, 
 " favour or justice : and even though these means may be granted 
 " them, and though they should have obtained them, still they 
 " may not make use of them in court, or out of court ; nor ihall 
 
32 
 
 BULL FOR SUPPRESSING THE JESUITS. 
 
 " they plead any flaw, subreption, obreption, nullity, or invalidity,. 
 " in this letter, or any other plea, how great, unforeseen, or sub- 
 
 • " stantial it may be, nor the neglect of any form in the above pro- 
 " cecdings, or in any part thereof, nor the neglect of any point 
 " founded on any law or custom, and comprised in the body of 
 " laws, uor even the plea of enormia enormissimce et totalis Icesionis, 
 " nor, in short, any pretext or motive, however just, reasonable, or 
 " privileged, not even though the omission of such form or point 
 " should be of such a nature as, without the same being expressly 
 " guarded against, would render every other act invalid. For all 
 " this, notwithstanding, our will and pleasure is, that these our 
 " letters should for ever and to all eternity be valid, permanent, 
 " and cllicacious, have and obtain their full force and effect, and 
 " be inviolably observed by all and every to whom they do or 
 " may concern now or hereafter, in any manner whatever. 
 
 " In like manner, and not otherwise, we ordain, that all the 
 " matters here above specified, and every of them, shall be carried 
 " into execution by the ordinary judge and delegate, whether by 
 " the auditor, cardinal, legate a latere, nuncio, or any other person 
 " who has or ought to have authority or jurisdiction in any matter 
 " or suits, taking from all and every of them ail power of inter- 
 " preting these our letters. And this to be executed, notwith- 
 *' standing all constitutions, privileges, apostolic commands, &c. 
 " &c. &c. And though to render the abolition of these privileges 
 " legal they should have been cited word for word, and not com- 
 
 . " prised only in general clauses, yet for this time, and of our 
 " special motion, we do derogate from this usage and custom, 
 " declaring, that all the tenor of the said privileges is, and is to be 
 " supposed, as fully expressed and abrogated as if they were 
 " cited word for word, and as if the usual, form had been observed. 
 
 " Lastly, our will and pleasure is, that to all copies of the 
 " present brief, signed by a notary public, and sealed by some 
 " dignitary of the church, the same force and credit shall be 
 " given as to this original. 
 
 " Given at Rome, at St. Mary the Greater, under 
 " the seal of the Fisherman, the 21st day of 
 " July, 1773, in the fifth year of our Pontificate." 
 
 Piinced by J. Moyes, Urtville Street, London. 
 
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