baptifm, and the caufe of our Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom kings reign, and princes rule; and that they afford help to the faid archbishops, bishops, to you, to their vicars, or offi cials, and to the inquifitor, by fuitable aids, and by their fe cular arm, according as they understand to be needful for executing fuch a neceffary and falutary perquifition; and that they vehemently and vigorously fet themfelves in oppofition to thefe heretics, for the defence of the faith, the fafety of their country, the prefervation of themfelves and of all that belong to them, that fo they may make them to perish, and entirely blot them out from the face of the earth. And if you fhould think it expedient, that all the faithful in thofe places fhould carry the falutary crofs on their hearts and on their garments, to animate them to fight refolutely against thefe heretics,-to caufe preach and publish the creifade by the proper preachers of the word of God, and to grant unto thofe who take the crofs, and fight against thefe heretics, or who contribute thereunto, the privilege of gaining a plenary indulgence, and the remiffion of all their fins once in their life, and likewife at the point of death, by virtue of the commiffion given you above; likewife to command, upon their holy obedience, and under the pain of the greater excommuni cation, all fit preachers of the word of God, fecular and regu. Jar, of whatever order they be, mendicants not excepted, exempt and non-exempt, that they excite and inflame (excitare et inflammare) thefe faithful to exterminate utterly by force and by arms that plague, fo that they may affemble with all their strength and powers for repelling the common danger; further, to abfolve those who take the crefs, fight, or contribute to the war, from all ecclefiaftical fentences and pains, whether general or particular, by which they may in any manner be bound, excepting thofe which fhall be specially inflicted hereafter, from which the offenders are only to be loofed by previous fatisfaction, or the confent of the party; as likewife to difpenfe with them as to any irregularity they may be chargeable with in divine things, or by any apoftacy, and to agree and compound with them as to goods which they may have clandeftinely or by ftealth acquired, or which they difhoneftly or doubtfully poffefs, applying them only for the fupport of the expedition for extirpating the heretics; in like manner to commute all vows whatever, though made with an oath, of pilgrimage, abftinence, and others, (excepting only thofe of chastity, of entering into a religious life, vifiting the Holy Land, the fepulchres of the apoftles, and the church of St. James in Compoftella), to thofe who come forth to this warfare, or who contribute thereto, or who only give as much 28 as the performance of their vows of pilgrimage might probably have coft them, having a refpect to the diftance of the places, and the condition of the perfons, according as fhall appear proper to you, or to the confeffors deputed by you for that purpose; in the mean time to chufe, appoint, and confirm, in our name, and in the name of the Romish church, one or more captains or leaders of the war over the croffed foldiers, and the army to be convened, and to injoin and command, that they undertake that charge, and faithfully acquit themfelves in it for the honour and defence of the faith, and that all the rest be obedient to him or them; to grant, further, to every one of them a permiffion to feize and freely poffefs the goods of the heretics whether moveable or immoveable, and to give them, for a prey, whatever the heretics have brought to the lands of the Catholics, or, on the contrary, have taken or caused to be taken from them; to command likewife alt those who are in the fervice of the faid heretics, wherever they be, to depart from them within a limited time which you fhall prefcribe to them, under whatever pains you fhall judge proper; to admonifh and require them, and all perfons ecclefiaftical or fecular, of whatever dignity, age, fex, or order they be, under the pains of excommunication, fufpenfion, and interdict, reverently to obey and obferve the apoftolical mandates, and to abftain from all commerce with the forefaid heretics; and, by the fame authority, to declare, that they and all others, whoever they be, who may be bound and obliged by contract, or in any other manner whatever, to affign or pay any thing to them, fhall not henceforth be obliged to do fo, nor can they be compelled in any manner of way to it; moreover, to deprive all thofe who do not obey your admonitions and mandates of whatever dignity, ftate, degree, order, or pre-eminence they be, ecclefiaftics of their dignities, offi ces, and benefices, and fecular persons of their honours, titles, fiefs, and privileges, if they perfift in their disobedience and rebellion; and to confer their benefices on others whom you fhall account worthy of them, and even on those who may already poffeffed of, or expecting any other ecclefiaftical benefices, in whatever number, or of whatever quality foever they may be; and to declare thefe deprived as aforefaid, for ever infamous, and incapable, for the time to come, of obtaining the like or any others; and to fulminate all forts of cenfures, according as juftice, rebellion, or disobedience, fhall appear to you to require; to inflict an interdict, and, when inflicted, either to remove it finally, or only to fufpend it for a time, according may be found expedient, on good reafons and confideration, as you may know to be ufeful and neceffary; but chief as it be ly on thofe days on which perhaps indulgences are to be pub lifhed, or the croifade to be preached; and to proceed directly and fimpliciter, without the noife and form of justice, having only regard to truth, against thofe who carry to these heretics,, or their accomplices, provifions, arms, or other things prohibited, and other aiders, abetters, advifers, or entertainers of them, whether open or fecret, or who by any means hinder or disturb the execution of fuch a falutary enterprize; and to declare all and every one of the tranfgreffors to have incurred the cenfures and pains, both fpiritual and temporal, which are inflicted, of right, upon those who do fuch things;-as alfo to rettore and abfolve those who are penitent, and willing to return again to the bofom of the church as formerly, even though they fhould have taken an oath to favour the heretics, or had received their pay to fight for them, or had fupplied them with arms, fuccours, victuals, and other things forbidden; providing they promife by taking an oath of a different kind, or otherwife give fufficient fecurity, that for the time to come they will obey our mandates, those of the church, and yours, whether they be communities, universities, or particular perfons, of whatever ftate, order, or pre-eminence they be, or in whatever dignity, ecclefiaftical or civil, they may be elevated; and to re-establish and put them in poffeffion of their honours, dignities, offices, benefices, fiefs, goods, and other rights, of which they were formerly poffeffed; and, in fine, to concede, difpofe, eftablifh, ordain, command, and execute, all and every other matters neceffary or in any refpect conducive to this falutary business, even though they fhould be fuch as require a particular order, and are not comprehended in your general commiffion; and to check and reftrain all oppofers thereof, by ecclefiaftical cenfures, and other fuitable and lawful remedies, without regard to any appeal whatever; and, if need be, to call in to your affiftance the aid of the fecular arm. And our will is, that all privileges, exemptions, apoftolical letters, and indulgences of any kind, granted by us, in general or particular, or in manner aforefaid, under any form of words or expreffions, fhall be held void, and as letters not granted, fo far as they are inconfiftent with, and tend to hinder or retard thefe prefents,—we hereby deprive them of all force, together with all other things whatever that are contrary, though the Holy See thould have granted to any, either generally or particularly, that they could not be interdicted, fufpended, or excommunicated and deprived of their dignities and benefices, or fmitten with any other apoftolical pain, if in the apoftolical letters there be not full full and exprefs mention made, word for word, of fuch an indulgence. Thou, therefore, my dearly beloved fon, undertaking with a devout mind the charge of fuch a meritorious work, fhew yourself diligent, folicitous, and careful in word and deed to execute it, fo that, from your labours attended with the divine favour and grace, the expected fuccefs and fruits may follow, and that by your folicitude you may not only merit for reward the glory which is beftowed on thofe who are employed in defigns and affairs of piety, but also that you may obtain, and not undeservedly, the more abundant commendations from us, and from the Apoftolic See, on account of your most exact diligence and faithful integrity. And, because it may be difficult to tranfmit thefe prefent letters to all places where they may be neceffary, we will, and by apoftolical authority appoint, that to a copy which may be taken and fubfcribed by the hand of any public notary, and attefted by the subscrip tion of any ecclefiaftical prelate, entire faith may be given, and that it fhould be held as valid, and the fame regard paid to it as to the original letters, if they had been produced and thown. Given at Bome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 1477, the 5th of the kal. of May, in the 3d year of our pontificate. No. VII. A Letter of Pope Pius V. to the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, for encouraging them in the Rebellion againfi their lawful Sovereign Queen Elifabeth. To our beloved Sons Thomas Earl of Northumberland,, and Charles Earl of Westmoreland, in England. Beloved Sons, Noblemen, health to you, and apoftolic benediction. Y your letters dated to us the eighth day of November, (which being brought to us the eighth of February, we have speedily returned anfwer), understanding more certainly and particularly the miferies and calamities of that moft flourithing kingdom not unknown to us before, we were affected with that grief of mind, wherewith both the indignity of thefe evils which we fuffer in you, and our paternal affection towards both you and other Catholics in that kingdom, ought to affect us for befides that common duty of paftoral charity wherewith we ought to rejoice at, the welfare, or to be grieved at the calamity of all the 3 E faithful P faithful of Christ, and of every province in which the Chriftian name is profeffed, we are affected with an especial prerogative of love and benevolence towards that kingdom, both because we remember it was heretofore, by the labour and induftry of our predeceffor the bleffed Gregory bishop of Rome, (next after God Omnipotent), converted from the worship of wood and ftones to the Chriftian faith, and, by fit men fent thither from him, inftituted in manners, and in the Catholic doctrine, and also because it used to exhibit to the Apoftolic See an excellent faith, and fincerity of devo. tion. Therefore, how much we grieve and are troubled at thefe your evils, and the evils of that kingdom, which you in the fame letters not lefs truly than miferably lament, cannot eafily be expreffed in words. We grieve that fo many and so great poisonous infections of wicked herefies, and fo deadly wounds of the Chriflian commonwealth, fhould chiefly happen in the times of our pontificate. We are troubled, because we are compelled to be folicitous about the danger of you and other Catholics: but yet when we remember the power of his prayers, who entreated for St. Peter that his faith might not fail, and who, enlarging his church in trillation, does by fo much the more admirably govern it by the providence of his fecret counfel, by how much the more he fees it toffed by the waves of troubles, we despair not but what we have heard to have been done in former times may also by the divine affiftance be done in ours, that the church, which often feems by the prevailing perfecution of heretics to be trodden down, may return to its state of ancient felicity, (the Lord confpiring with her to a good omen), and may receive increase from that wherein the feemed to have fuffered lofs-for behold even now, he that of old things makes new ones, and of new things old ones, our Lord Jesus Chrift, hath by you, (men dear to us and eminent, as well by the ftudy of Catholic piety as by nobleness of birth), determined, peradventure, to renew and confirm the ancient union of the Roman church with that kingdom, and therefore hath infused into you that mind moft worthy of the zeal of your Catholic faith, that you should attempt to reduce back that kingdom (delivered from the most vile fervitude of a woman's luft) to the ancient obedience of this holy Roman See. Which pious and religious endeavour of your minds, we commend (as is fit) with jutt praifes in the Lord, and giving it that our bleffing which you defire, we do, with the benignity which becomes us, receive your honours flying to the power and protection of us and of this Holy See, to whofe authority they fubject themselves; exhorting you in the Lord, and |
