Father Parsons to Dr. Worthington. "RIGHT REV. SIR,-I have receaved (yours) of the 29th of October, in answer whereof I hoped I should have byn able to have satisfied you of some resolution concerning your chiefe suite between your neighbours and your colledge: but hitherto nothing being as yet determined, I must refer you to the nexte; for we thinke certainly the matter will be ended now out of hand. The letters you sent by the last are receyved, and are well liked. If the others you mention in these come in tyme (added in the margin, now they be come in very good tyme) they will be to good purpose, if not Almighty God will supply with the rest, for we have had letters enough to shew the truth, and we doubt not but Almighty God will worke by them that which shall be to his greater glory; although not perhaps in such sorts as seames best to us. you men Concerning F. Gibbons, I am very glad to see him willinge to spend his labours in reading that lesson of tion in the colledge. And as I am desirous to please you eyther in that or any other sorte, so if his superiours there be contented, I shall be glad you may enjoye his labours, which I know his learning and experience will make very proffitable to your scollars. I have not heard (any thing) of Mr. Christopher Haresborough, but when (I do) I will not fail to advertise you, commending (your great) circumspection, which for the good of them ( ) cannot be easily to greate in these tymes. will) answeare you about the mony matter for With my hartest commen (F. the (Colledge from) S. Omers. dations for (your health) commit you to the protection of Al mighty God. R(ome or Reverend Sir,) Al. mto. Illre. et. Rdo. Sare. Your's, ROB. PARSONS. PERAMBULATION THROUGH LONDON. LETTER III. - SIR, My last letter conducted us to the Minories: let us now cross the spot where once was the city ditch, with the ancient wall, and enter that part of Hart-street which is now called Crutched-friars, from a convent of friars of the Holy Cross, which was there founded about the year 1298, by Ralph Hosier and William Sabernes, who hired of Stephen, the tenth prior of the convent of the Holy Trinity, in Aldgate, three tenements, at the yearly rent of thirteen shillings and eightpence; these buildings were afterwards purchased by the friars of Richard Wimblush, the twelfth prior of the Holy Trinity, and the king confirmed the purchase. To hasten the dissolution of this community, for the yearly revenue was valued at no more than fifty-two pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence, Cromwell's visitors drew up a false charge against the prior, which may be seen at length in Howel, and presented it to the lay vicar-general; the immediate suppression of the house was the consequence, which took place on the twelfth of November, 1539, in the thirtieth year of king Henry the eighth's reign. The church was converted into a carpenter's shop, and into a tennis-court, and the friar's-hall into a glass-house, for the manufacture of drinking-glasses. Amusements and good cheer suited the taste of our worthy reformers, better than the mortified and penitential lives of the friars; of this we have an example in the delicate Elizabeth herself, who, when liberated from the tower, could travel no further than Fenchurch-street without taking some refreshment; for it is recorded, that she entered the king's-head tavern, at the corner of Star-alley, and there regaled herself and her attendants upon pork and pease. Turning to our left we should soon reach Barking church; here Richard the first founded a chapel, which was afterwards greatly enlarged by several of our kings. John lord Tiptost established in this chapel a brotherhood for a master and brethren, and bestowed upon it a rich endowment, giving it the name of The King's Chantry in capella Beatæ Mariæ de Barking falling into decay, Richard the third rebuilt it, and set excite a sufficient degree of hatred against both the opinions and persons of those who inflict it; in short, to do that which has been done, and is still doing, towards the Catholic subjects of the British empire. On the head of intolerance it cannot be necessary to say much, but I cannot help noticing some erroneous representations that have been made concerning it. The church of Rome is, it is true, both arrogant in her pretensions and most positive in the declarations of her articles of faith. But the harshness of interpretation which we give to those declarations is very generally disclaimed by Catholics, and their practice is unquestionably, as I have before intimated, infinitely more tolerant than our own; for the government of Great Britain is, I again repeat it, the only government in the world that makes religious opinions the test of civil allegiance, and shuts out from the common advantages of society eight millions of its subjects, without any act of disobedience to its laws, or disloyalty to its throne and constitution, being proved against them. Nor is the dogma of "Nulla salus extra ecclesiam" peculiar to the church of Rome. It was equally the maxim of Calvin, by whose tenets was fashioned the Kirk of Scotland, which we acknowledge to be "a true church," and which the monarch of this country pledges himself to maintain inviolate. Even our church of England proceeds to very nearly the same length, for her canons declare those who impugn any part, either of her faith or discipline, to be "guilty of wicked errors, and ipso facto excommunicate ;" and her 18th article pronounces those "accursed who presume to say that every man shall be saved by the law or sect that he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law and the light of nature." Another of your lordships* has indeed, in his commentary on this article, endeavoured to give the passage a sense somewhat different to that which the words so obviously convey, and to soften down the doctrine they may seem to inculcate, so as to place it at a farther distance from the corresponding opinions of the church of Rome. He has told us that "it is important to observe the exact words here used * See bishop Tomline's "Christian Theology," "that every man shall be saved by the law or sect which he professeth," "that is," says he, "by virtue of his religion, whatever it may be." But as the articles were originally published both in Latin and English, for the purpose of any expression which might be doubtful in one language being interpreted by the other, his lordship would have found, upon turning to the Latin articles, that such a construction was entirely forbidden and excluded, and that the corresponding words were not " per legem aut sectam," as they must have been in the case of such an interpretation being admissible, but "in lege aut sectâ quam profitetur esse survandum." If then the learned prelate could feel anxious thus to strain the interpretation of our own article, in order to get rid of the seeming asperity of its doctrine, should not common charity lead us to consider these expsessions in other churches, as well as in our own, as instances of the authoritative manner in which it is the usage of each to lay down its own dogmas of faith, but yet with the understanding that they are subject to be modified by a variety of circumstances in their particular application. It is thus we understand the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian creed, or we should never read them. My lords, I have one argument more to notice, which a learned prelate* already alluded to has urged, as another ground of charge against the Catholics, namely, that "as they only render to the civil authorities a divided allegiance, they cannot be as good subjects as those whose allegiance is unbroken." Now, if this were really true, yet the office of wis dom and prudence in any state would be, rather to avail itself of even that portion of allegiance which is offered, than to reject it, and then trust to the uncertain and odious issue of enforcing obedience by the heavy hand of stern authority alone. But the distinction thus attempted to be made is perfectly untenable at the bar of sober reason. It may point an argument, but it vanishes at once upon calm enquiry. The Catholic does not divide his civil allegiance, and civil allegiance is all that can be necessary, or justly required from him as the citizen of a free state. He is ready to take the very strongest oaths by Bishop of Petersborough. which you can bind him to do an act at variance with the loyalty and submission due from a good subject. But the error is, that we choose to legislate upon principles and opinions, instead of reflecting that actions only are the fit and proper matter for political regulations. For instance, we have all of us a great and separate account, independent of earthly tribunals, to settle hereafter with our God, but no one will presume to say in these days that a man cannot be a good subject unless he be ready to place his conscience and his faith at the sole disposal of a minister of state. To say nothing of the great body of dissenters amongst us in England, would the Presbytery of Scotland allow their faith or discipline to be either modified or guided by our civil authorities? They shewed a very different spirit at the time of their union, and that spirit was most wisely respected by our government. But the plain fact of the longtried loyalty of the whole Catholic body is the best criterion, and sets at rest all idle speculations. I have traced their conduct in the early periods of our history, and shewn that they were never wanting either in loyalty to their prince, or attachment to civil freedom, when any fair opportunity called for their exertions, and that we owe to them our gratitude for forming and transmitting to us the noble inheritance of our constitution. Even when Henry the eighth cast off the Papal supremacy, and ravaged the monastic institutions, he found a quiet and peaceable submission from his Catholic subjects, under circumstances which must be admitted to have been most trying. Queen Elizabeth found it difficult to force an unprincipled compliance with the forms of a faith which they did not and could not conscientiously adopt; but she never complained of a want of loyal attachment to her throne, and found, like her father, many proofs of zealous co-operation from the Catholics in defending her authority and her crown. They had a share allowed them even in the highest offices of the state, and by a Catholic commander the Spanish armada was dissipated. The Catholics firmly adhered to Charles, even amidst all the penal and bloody statutes in force against them. They fought for him with their persons, and they supplied him with money, in some instances even impoverishing themselves to serve him. Their attachment to the Stuarts, which no historian seems to |