1 benefit of justice, and thrown out of the protection of law *; divested of all clain to the performance of promifes, oaths, Robert king of France was excommunicated, all his fervants and domeftics fled from his prefence, and fcarcely could any be found to do him the fmallest offi. ces; whatever food had been fet before him, was caft to the dogs, none daring to partake of what he had touched; every dish and veffel he used, was purified by the fire. But of all other offenders, thofe condemned for impugning the tyranny, the errors, and multiplied fuperftitions of the church of Rome, have been held moft odious, and their fellowship most detestable. The council of Thouloufe in 1229 ordained, that thofe who recanted their herely through fear of death, or other means, fhould be shut up in close confinement, leaft they should corrupt others: fo that foon after, the archbishop of Narbonne was obliged to reprefent to the Pope that a fufficient number of prisons could not be built for the purpose. By many antichriftian edicts have fuch perfons been deprived of every civil right, none being allowed to buy or fell, fave be that had the mark, or the name of the beaft, or the number of bis name. Some Catholic ftates have fometimes acted fo far in the fpirit of their church as to forbid commerce with other nations, because they were heretical or infidel. Soon after the gunpowder plot, in a time of peace, the Spaniards feized fome English fhips, and detained them as prizes, upon this profeffed principle, that " their mafter would allow no commerce with infidels." A Latin declaration of war against Spain, in 1655, thus relates the fact :-Pacis tempore Gulielmus Stephenus Brifolienfis aliique mercatores aliquot Londinenfes, an. 1606, et 1607, cum per oram Mauritaniæ, eribus cum navibus commercium cum illis populis baberent; Hifpaniæ regis naves, quæ per illa littora prædabantur, eas na&tæ in Saphiæ et San&tæ Crucis ftatione, dum in anchoris ibi fiabant, di ipuerunt kac fola ratione reddita, nole regem dominum fuum cum infidelibus commercium permittere, quorum damna amplius duabus millibus librarum eftimata funt. Pierre de Damiens ap. Morer. Dupin. Dr. Kennet, Serm, un the 5th of Nov. 1715, p. 30. In the proceedings against those who have fallen under the imputation of herefy, the ordinary methods of law and common justice have been entirely laid afide-fufpicions or malicious charges admitted for proofs; no accusers or witneffes produced; infamous perfons, an perfons unknown allowed and liberally hired to give evidence or informations against them; perfons obliged to be their own accufers; no means of defence left them ;-no pleadings allowed in their behalf, or if at any time the favour has been permitted, they who have undertaken the task, have been reckoned sharers in their infamy, and styled the Devil's advocates: often have they been doomed to perifh without any form of trial; tortures have been applied to extort confeflions; and many of them compelled to prove their innocence by walking unhurt on red hot irons; as Trithemius relates, was the method of trial practised by Friar Conrad of Marpurg the Pope's inquifitor, in confequence of the cruel decrees of Lateran against the Albigenfes. In the time of St. Bernard these devoted people were tried by water, after the Devil had been exorcifed out of it; a custom which that ghostly father highly oaths, and compacts *; rendered incapable of any office, poft, or dignity, and deprived of all kind of authority, na ་་ tural, highly commended; and Pope Eugene established by a bull, wherein he injoins the water to be prepared for that use, " by conjuring it in the name of Jefus "who walked upon the waters, in the name of the Spirit who defcended "in Jordan, and by the whole facred Trinity, which made the people of Ifrael paf, through the Red Sea." The accused was also to be conjured "by the name of God, the angels, and all the invisible powers of heaven, and by the "number of 144,000 martyrs, and by the bleffed Virgin, to tell the truth." Then being fprinkled with holy water, and tied hand and foot, he was thrown into the water, and left to fink or fwim. Del rio, difquis mag. l. xiv. c. 4. 9. 5. f. 2. Mabill, an. 1. i. p. 47. Bafnage, Hift. de la Relig. tome i. p. 206, etc. * That engagements entered into with heretics, are not obligatory, but that faith may lawfully be broken with fuch, has been a current and established doctrine of that church; at least so far as they interfere with her laws and intereft. We have already produced the decree of Gregory VII. prohibiting "all to keep faith with excommunicated perfons until they make fatisfac❝tion.”—Martin V. in an epiftle to Alexander Duke of Lithuania, fays, "Be "affured thou finneft mortally if thou keep thy fai.h with heretics."-Gregory IX. makes the following law :-"Be it known unto all who are under "the jurifdiction of thofe who have openly fallen into herefy that they are "free from the obligation of fidelity, dominion, and every kind of obedience "to them, by whatever means or bond they are tied to them, and how fecure"ly foever they may be bound."-On which Bishop Simanca gives this comment: "Governors of forts and all kinds of vaffais are by this conftitution "freed from the bond of the oath whereby they had promised fidelity to their "lords and mafters. Moreover a Catholic wife is not obliged to perform the "marriage contract with an heretical husband. If faith is not to be kept "with tyrants, pirates, and other public robbers who kill the body, much less "with obftinate heretics who kill the foul. Ay, but it is a fad thing to break "faith. But, as faith Merius Salomonius, faith promifed against Christ, if kept, is verily perfidy. Juftly therefore were fome heretics burnt by the "moft folemn judgment of the council of Conftance, although they had been "promifed fecurity. And St. Thomas also is of opinion, that a Catholic might "deliver over an untractable heretic to the judges, notwithstanding he had "pledged his faith to him, and even confirmed it by the folemnity of an "oath." This is often faid by us, but it is neceffary inceffantly to repeat it." Contracts," faith Bonacina," made against the canon law are invalid, though confirmed by oath and a man is not bound to ftand to his promife "though he had fworn to it."-Pope Innocent VIII. in his bull against the Waldenfes in 1487, by his authority apoftolical declares, that "all those who "had been bound and obliged by contract, or any other way whatever, to grant "or pay any thing to them, fhould not be under any manner of obligation to "do fo, for the time to come."-Pope Pius V. by his legate Commendone endeavoured tural, civil and political*; their property is forfeited, and their endeavoured to perfuade the Emperor nec fidem aut facramentum infideli esse fervandum; that по faith nor oaths were to be kept with an infidel." And through his perfuafion Maximilian was induced to revoke the permiffion he had granted for the Lutherans to preach in Auftria, Charles V. having given his promise and fafe conduct to Luther to prevail on him to come to Wormes, was afterwards urged to violate it by arresting Luther on this ground, that "he was a man of that character to whom he was not obliged to keep his word:" to which he replied, "When good faith may be banished from all the earth, it "ought to be found with an Emperor." And further, it is well known that the council of Conftance adopted this pernicious tenet, and ratified it by an exprefs decree in the following terms :-"The holy fynod of Conftance declares "concerning every fafe-conduct granted by the emperor, kings, and other tem " poral princes, to heretics, or perfons accused of hercfy, in hopes of reclaim"ing them, that it ought not to be of any prejudice to the Catholic faith, or ❝to the ecclefiaftical jurifdiction, nor to hinder, but that fuch perfons may, " and ought to be examined, judged, and punished, according as justice shall require, if thofe heretics shall refuse to revoke their errors, although they "fhall have come to the place of judgment relying upon their safe conduct, and "without which they would not have come thither: and the perfon who shall have promised them fecurity, fhall not, in this cafe, be obliged to keep his promise, by whatever tie he may have been engaged, when he has done all that is in his power to do." To this we may subjoin as a proper appendix, the following clause in the safe conduct granted at laft, after great altercation, by the council of Trent to the Proteflants. Moreover all fraud and guile apart, the fynod faithfully and truly promises, that the will neither openly nor fecretly fearch for any pre tence, nor use, nor suffer any perfon to make ufe of any authority, power, « law, statute, privilege of laws or canons, or of any councils, particularly that of Conftance or Siena, in whatever form of words expreffed, to the prejudice "of this public faith, full fecurity, public and free audience, which is granted by the fynod; from all which it derogates in this inftance." The late attempt by a very difingenuous and petulant writer, to exculpate the Romish church from the charge of breaking faith with heretics, turns out in the end to nothing more than a laboured and self-inconfiftent vindication of the pofition and the fact, which he affects to represent as a grievous calumny; and his pitiful shifts and evafions are well expofed in the fenfible letters of his antagonist Mr. W. A. D. Greg. Deer. par. ii. ca. 16. 6. et lib. v. tit. 7. c. 16. Siman. Cathol Inftit. tit. 46. de pænis. Cochl. Hift. Hiff. 1. 5. Bonac, de prim. Prac. difp. iíi. qu. 2. Leger, Hift. gener, des Eglif. evangel. par. ii. p. 13. Polit. du Clerg. de Fran. p. 156. L'Enfant. tome i. p. 358. A&t. Conc, Trid. etc. qu. Simanca upon the conftitution of Gregory I. already quoted, obferves, that" from the words of the fame Gregorián conftitution it is manifeft, that a "heretic forfeits his title to all kinds of dominion what foever, natural; over " his children, who by his herefy become their own maiters; civil, over their "Alaves, their houfes and goods fubjected to confifcation *;* and themselves "flaves, who are thereby fet at liberty; and political over their fubjects, who are no longer obliged to obey him."-It is alfo the common doctrine of that fociety, that an excommunicated person is degraded from every office whether. in church or commonwealth; and all acts of authority exercised by him are null and invalid. Tolet's words are excommunicatus non poteft exercere actum jurifdiétionis abfque peccato, imo fi publica eft excommunicatio falta, fententia nulla funt Suarez declares, that herefy difqualifies all forts of perfons, clergy and laity, noble and ignoble, making them incapable of choofing or being chofen. The Archbishop of Lyons in the conference of Surene, about the fucceffion to the crown of France, maintained that "a heretic was not only "incapable of being king according to the fundamental laws of the king"dom, but also that by the civil and canon laws the people were a folved from "their oath of fidelity towards a prince, the moment he favoured or tolerated "heretics." And this was the general doctrine of the league and the groundwork of their affociation, in which, befides nobles and gentlemen, were car dinals, archbishops, bishops, doctors, and a whole regiment of ecclefiaftics, with the Pope at their head. The college of the Sorbonne, which Bellarmine fays, is toto orbe celeberrimum, and which, according to another writer, hath fill been regarded as one of the principal oracles of the church, and hath merited the name of Concile perpetuel des Gaules, confirmed the fame by their rebellious decrees in 1589. Siman. ut fupra, Tolet. Inftr. facerd, l. i, c. c. 3. Suar. de fide difp. xii. § 9. n. 5. 1. 2. c. 29. Aazov. tome i. 1. 8. c. 12. Confer. de Suren. impr. en 1593. p. 82, 100. Thuan. tome iv, 1. 93. et tome v. 1. 106. &c. • This penalty they incur, according to the canon law, ipfo jure et ipfo facto even as foon as they fhew themselves hereticks, before any legal fentence hath been paffed upon them. Bona hereticorum ipfo jure difcernimus confifcata. And the effects of this confifcation, the canonius agree are that all the profits made of their estate from the first day of their guilt are to be refunded ;—“ all aliena"tions by gift, fale or otherwife, before fentence are null and void; and all "contracts for that purpofe are refcinded children, heirs of heretics are deprived of their portions, even though they be Papists; he with whom a "heretic hath depofited any thing, fhall not be bound to reffore it to him but to the exchequer. -How rich and full will Rome's exchequer be, when the day arrives that the fhall be able again to enforce her yet unrepealed laws and decrees! When not only abbey lands, but all the lands, manfions and moveables of notorious heretics, fhall be refcued out of the hands of those who can lawfully enjoy no property, and revert to their rightful owners! How many fplendid crowns and opulent kingdoms, fair cities, manors, and eftates will then be, nay already are confifcated de jure, or de facto 2 where will ben be English liberty and property?Magna Charta which at its first drawing was fo folemnly condemned and execrated at Rome, will then be found little better than what Oliver bluntly called it, a magna f- -ta. Nor muft we think that Pope a Red extravagant y, who declared that all his Britannic Majefty's ་ themfelves appointed to extermination and death; nor are they reckoned worthy to die the common death of all men, "territories were his own, as forfeited to the Holy See by the herefy of prince and people." The faying was very canonical and ftrictly orthodox; and nothing remains but that he obey the voice fo often directed to him in this fenfe, Arife, Peter, kill and eat. "If it were poffible," fays Bellarmine, "to root out heretics, without doubt they are to be deftroyed root and branch."-The canon-law deter mines, that the person who doth not abjure his heresy, and immediately return to the orthod. x faith, fhall be given up to the fecular judge to receive the proper punishment of his crime." And that punishment is by the fame law exprefly determined; which is nothing more than burning alive; decernimus út vivi in confpeɛlu bominum comburantur flammarum commissi judicio. Though the laws inflicting capital punishment upon perfons for their religion are indeed found in the codes of ciminal laws enacted by fécular princes, and faid to be only borrowed from them, while the Romish church pretends to take no fhare in the making or executing of such penal laws; yet both the origin and execution of them is to be attributed to the bigotry, falfe zeal, the jealoufy, and rage of proud and imperious ecclefiaftics; who by their influence have moulded the laws and constitutions of kingdoms according to their pleasure and interefts, and made princes and judges their tools, their officers, and executioners. In this they have left them no choice, teaching that these penalties are. jure divino, and that it is not in the power of magiftrates to remit or relax them, nor to protect any either before or after the ecclefiaftical sentence, from undergoing the judgment and punishment decreed for the obnoxious heretic. Were they to do so, they would be in hazard of falling under the same cenfure and pains, and be instantly suspected, darned, or depofed as heretics or favourers of them. It has been often tau ht, and is avowedly taught to this prefent hour by the men of that faith in Britain, "that a promife to deliver heretics from the ju « rifdiction of the church and the punishment due to their crime, no prince "can give without breaking through all laws human and divine, and that by no tie can one be obliged to keep fuch a promise." And the Decretals exprefly prohibit all princes, temporal lords, &c. from oppofing the bufinefs of the Inquifition into heretical pravity, or hindering the execution of the judgment and fentences of the inquifitors, declaring fuch as prefumed to do fo to be fmitten with the fword of excommunication; which if he obftinately remained under for a year, he fhould then be condemned as a heretic." Parfons alfo informs us, that " a favourer of heretics forfeits both crown and "life" and the Pope every year lays all fuch under a curfe, from which none but himself can abfolve. And Becan, in few words, hath very elegantly expreffed the matter when he fays, "if a prince be a dull car, and fly not "upon heretics, he is to be beaten out, and a keener deg gutten in his ftead." Accordingly for being fuch dull curs, and not keen enough in following the scent of berefy, were the two Henrys fent a picking out of the world |