to be the father more than the commander of the flock, to be slow in condemning, and to stop the publication of libels: he suppresses the Treatise on Schism, and all the other publications to which the controversy had given rise. He exhorts all parties, in beautiful and affecting terms, to a general oblivion of offence, and a constant interchange of good offices, and imposes silence on all. He declines to admit the appeal, as the admission of it would, he says, produce perpetual contention.

This excellent letter did not entirely pacify the troubles. The clergy sent a third deputation to Rome. It produced a second letter from the pope to the archpriest, in the form of a brief, dated the 6th of October, 1602 *. His holiness observes to the archpriest, that sometimes, in the discharge of his office, he had exceeded his powers; that these were only to be exercised over the seminary priests, and did not extend over the laity; he blames him for proceeding by suspension and censures against the appellant priests; he declares that they had never lost their faculties by their proceedings. His holiness then, in virtue of his apostolical authority commands him, by holy obedience, to communicate no business of his office to the provincial of the society of Jesus, or to any members of the society in England :-lest it should be a cause of animosity and discord between the society and the appellants; and with the same view, he revokes the contrary injunctions given by cardinal Cajetan. --He enjoins the archpriest to have no communicaDodd, vol. ii. p. 262.

tion with the jesuits at Rome, respecting the English mission, or the concerns of his office.-But he observes that this injunction did not proceed from an unfavourable opinion of the society, whose zeal and piety he warmly commends; but for the sake of preserving peace and harmony, which, the jesuits themselves, he says, thought it would promote. Carrying this amiable spirit of conciliation still further, he provided, that, on the death of the three assistants, who should first depart this life, the archpriest should supply the vacancies from the appellants. He directs future appeals to be made to the cardinal protector, and orders the archpriest to transmit them to him. Publications for or against the jesuits, for or against the appellants, and every other publication of that description, without license from the cardinal, he prohibits under pain of excommunication. By the mercies of God and his "Son, we implore you to love one another; to take "offence at none, to render to none evil for evil, "lest it should bring your ministry into contempt: "to do good to all; and to do it both before God “and man, that, at length, with the help of God, "who is true peace and charity, you may reap with gladness the fruits of your hard labourings in "danger and dismay;-this we, with the whole "church, expect from you."

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Thus, in a manner highly honourable to the appellant priests, and to those, who acted or thought with them, the matters in dispute were settled by papal authority. Applications however to Rome for a bishop were still made. It appears, by a letter

of father Augustine, prior of the English benedictine monks at Douay, written in 1607*, that two clergymen, soliciting the appointment of bishops, were then at Rome. The pious father discusses, with much good sense and discrimination of character, two important questions,-whether bishops for the English mission were necessary; and, supposing the appointment necessary, on whom it should fall. To the first question, he answers in the affirmative, but with a salvo, that the person appointed should be acceptable, or at least not obnoxious to the party which favoured, or the party which opposed the jesuits. In answer to the second question he mentions Dr. Kellison, Dr. Smith, and some others as persons excellently qualified for the office. Paul V. filled at this time the papal chair: he rejected the application.

Blackwell having held the dignity of archpriest during ten years, was deposed in 1608, chiefly, it is supposed, for his advocation of the oath of allegiance, proposed by James I. On his decease, the same title and jurisdiction were conferred on Mr. George Birkett, a clergyman of wise and moderate councils, and of conciliating manners; "studious," says Dodd, " of the reputation of the clergy, yet not inclinable to lessen that of "others." He died in 1614; and Dr. Harrison, by an instrument dated the 11th of July 1615, was substituted in his place. From a manuscript, which belonged to the late Dr. Macro of Cambridge, it appears, that, by a formal injunction, Dr. Harrison

* In the Clarendon State Papers.

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forbade his clergy "to go to plays, acted by common "players in common stages, under pain of being deprived ipso facto of their faculties." Against this injunction three priests of the names of Like, Thules and Canon protested: Dr. Harrison justified his proceeding by a long and well-written letter.He mentions in it, that from tenderness for the three priests, he had made the inhibition general; but that, in fact, it had been particularly occasioned by them, as they were the only clergymen, under his jurisdiction, who frequented stage entertainments.

The form of government by an archpriest still was unpleasant to the seculars. It is not within our object to enter into a more than necessary detail of the little feuds, the jalousies d'amitié,-(for the writer wishes to believe them nothing more),which, in almost every stage of their history since the reformation, have distracted the councils of the English catholics, and weakened their efforts to obtain relief. Even when the wicked quarrel, it is an object of pain to the truly good man; but, when animosities and dissentions arise among the virtuous and the holy, who does not wish the agitation terminated and forgotten? who does not wish the arrival" of the reign of heavenly love, where," to use the words of Fénélon, "there will be no error,

no division, no scandal; where we shall breathe "the pure love of God, and he will communicate "to us, his everlasting peace *?"

"I protest," says Fuller, (Church History, book ix. p. 224), though uncertain to find belief, that I take no delight, in relating these discontents between the secular

LIII. 2.

Appointment of a Vicar Apostolic.

PERCEIVING the universal wish of the clergy, for episcopal government, Dr. Harrison with his twelve assistants, signed a petition petition for it to Rome, and Rome approved the proposal. It remained to settle what form of episcopacy should be established.

The canons of the church require, that no bishop shall be ordained, unless the flock of the place, for which he is ordained bishop, is committed to his care; and that his jurisdiction shall be confined to that precinct. At the consecration of every bishop the officiating prelate puts the gospel into his hands,—and says,-" receive the gospel-and "go! preach it to the people committed to thy "care! for powerful is God, to increase his grace " on thee!"

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But the calamities of christendom made frequent infractions of this rule necessary. The irruptions. of the barbarians, and particularly the conquests of

"and regular priests, much less shall my pen widen the wound "between them; for though I approve the opinions of neither, "yet am I so much a friend to the persons of both parties, as "not to make much to myself of their discords: the rather "because no christian can heartily laugh at the factions of his "fiercest enemies, because that, at the same time, paineth "him with the sad remembrance that such divisions have "formerly, at the present, or may hereafter be among those of "his own profession: such is the frailty of human nature on "what side soever."-A generous sentiment and a just observation!