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An English Gallican: Henry Holden, (1596/7–1662) Part I (To 1648)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Antony F. Allison
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Extract

THE writings of the seventeenth-century English theologian, Henry Holden, played a small but significant part in the development of western religious thought in the centuries following his death. His most important work, Divinae fidei analysis, first printed in Latin at Paris in 1652 and afterwards translated and published in English, was several times reprinted in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was later incorporated in two theological collections, J. P. Migne's Theologiae cursus completus (tom.6, 1839), and Josef Braun's Bibliotheca regularum fidei (tom.2, 1844). It influenced the thinking, in the nineteenth century, not only of avowed liberals such as Dôllinger and Acton, but also, in some degree, of moderate progressives like Newman. In recent years, specialist studies on different aspects of Holden's thought have appeared in English and in French. So far, however, no serious attempt has been made to revise his bibliography: we still have to rely, in large measure, on that published by Joseph Gillow more than a century ago. In this article I want to bring together material that has come to light since Gillow's time and to examine Holden's works afresh against the background of his life and the religious and political developments in England and France at that period. I shall devote particular attention to two themes that run through all his work. One is gallicanism, that amalgam of mediaeval theories limiting the authority of the papacy in relation to secular states and their rulers and national churches and their bishops. It will be seen that plans which Holden advanced in the 1640s for the reform of the Catholic Church in England along gallican lines are based largely on ideas developed in his Divinaefidei analysis published a few years later. The other is his analytical and critical approach to doctrine, aiming always to distinguish truths solidly based on Scripture and tradition from the mere speculations of theologians. It is an approach that had been made popular in France by the Catholic controversialist, François Véron, whose Régula fidei catholicae was first published at Paris in 1644 when Holden was probably already at work on his Divinae fidei analysis. It reveals itself in all Holden's writings and distinguishes him from many of the other Catholic apologists who were drawn into controversy with the Anglican divines of the post-Chillingworth era.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , May 1995 , pp. 319 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1995

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References

Notes

1 The following have appeared during the last thirty-five years:— Crehan, J. H. S.J. [on Holden and biblical inspiration], in A Catholic Dictionary of Theology, London, 1962, etc., vol. 3, p. 132,Google Scholar and in The Cambridge History of the Bible, Cambridge, 1963, ch. 6, pp. 221–2; Tavard, G. H. [on Holden's teaching on tradition], in the author's La tradition au XVIIe siècle en France et en Angleterre, Paris, 1969, pp. 421–38,Google Scholar and in his The Seventeenth-Century Tradition. A study in recusant thought, Leiden, 1978, pp. 180–96;Google Scholar Le Brun, Jacques, ‘L'Institution dans la théologie de Henry Holden’, in Recherches de sciences religieuses, torn, 71, 1983, pp. 191–202;Google Scholar Bruno Neveu [on Holden and censorship, and on Holden's teaching on infallibility and the supreme judge of controversies], in the author's L'Erreur et son juge, Napoli, 1993, pp. 322–24, 640–43.

2 Gillow, Joseph, A Literary and Biographical History, or Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics. 5 vols. London [1885–1902]. vol. 3 [1887], pp. 332–38.Google Scholar

3 Published as tom. 3 of his Epitome controversiarum, 1644. A French translation was published in 1645. (BN B476[2]).

4 For his family, see Anst., vol. 2, p. 158, and Gillow (op.cit. note 2), vol. 3, pp. 330; 332; 338. The exact date of his birth is not known, but the entry in the Douay Diary recording his arrival at the College on 17 September 1618 says that he was then in his twenty-second year.

5 See this article, pp. 326–7.

6 i.e. his fees were paid by his family and not out of clergy funds.

7 for White's early career, see Anst., vol. 2, p. 349. The stir caused by his teaching at Douai is documented in Essex Recusant, August 1965, p. 82, and in RH, October 1979, p. 118.

8 Particulars of his early career are provided by Anst., vol. 2, p. 158, based on the Douay Diaries and other original sources.

9 An account of Arras College appeared in RH, May 1989, pp. 254, et seq.

10 The letter (holograph) is preserved among the papers of the secular clergy (AAW A19 no. 61). For the English priest, Richard Ireland, referred to by Holden, see Anst., vol. 2, p. 167.

11 For White's relations with Smith at this period, see Essex Recusant, August 1965, p. 83.

12 For Marillac, until DBF reaches letter M we have to rely on 19th century works of reference. Accounts of him will be found in Michaud, M., Biographie universelle, Paris, 1843, etc., torn. 26, p. 660,Google Scholar and in Nouvelle biographie universelle, Paris, 1855, etc., tom. 33, col. 764. There is a fulsome tribute to his work in founding the French province of the Reformed Carmelites in Chroniques de l'ordre des Carmélites de la réforme … depuis leur introduction en France, ser. 1, Troyes, 1846, etc., tom. 1, pp. 204, et seq. This last includes some original documents. I owe my information on Holden's relations with the Carmelites of Pontoise to a note by Raymond Triboulet, M., editor of Gaston Jean-Baptiste de Renty. Correspondence. Texte établi et annoté, Paris, 1978, p. 668,Google Scholar note b. Triboulet says that Holden (whom Renty mentions briefly in a letter) was, from 1626 onwards, ‘aumônier et directeur’ to Marillac and that, through his patron's daughter who became a nun at Pontoise (soeur Marie du Saint-Sacrement), he came to play a part in the convent's affairs. Marie du Saint-Sacrement died in 1642. Holden's relations with the convent continued to remain close through his friendship with Jeanne Séguier (Jeanne de Jesus), prioress intermittently from about 1627 onwards, who spent several years working in Paris. Jeanne was sister to Pierre Séguier, Chancellor of France, whose family were generous benefactors to the English Augustinian nuns at Paris from the early 1650s onwards. (See RH, Oct. 1993, p. 464 and notes). She outlived Holden, dying in 1675.1 have so far been unable to trace the source of M. Triboulet's statements. In reply to a letter of enquiry, he wrote with great courtesy but without providing the information for which I had asked. The present archivist of the Carmelite convent at Pontoise, soeur Anne-Thérèse, O.C.D., has very kindly searched the convent archives for me but has so far found nothing on Holden. She tells me there is a contemporary life of Marillac by his great friend, Nicolas Le Fèvre, sieur de Lézeau, preserved in manuscript at the Bibliothèque Nationale, and gives the reference: n.a.f.82. I have not had the opportunity to consult this work.

13 Triboulet, op.cit. note 12, p. 303, n. 8.

14 Brémond, Henri, Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France, Paris, 1925, etc., tom. 2, pp. 221–22.Google Scholar

15 There is a notice of Harlay in DBF, tom. 17, col. 664–6. For his gallicanism, see Fouqueray, H., Histoirede la Compagnie de Jésus en France, Paris, 1910,Google Scholar etc., tom. 5, pp. 68–79; Chesneau, C., Le Pére Yves de Paris et son temps, Paris, 1946,Google Scholar tom. 1, passim; von Pastor, L., The History of the Popes, from the close of the Middle Ages, English translation, London, 1891, etc., vol. 28, p. 437, n. 3.Google Scholar

16 Triboulet, Raymond, Gaston de Renty 1611–1649, Paris, 1991, p. 63,Google Scholar n. 10.

17 AN XIA 8650. Transcript at AAW, Avery Catalogue, large volume, pp. 5–7.

18 Letters of 6 and 13 September 1647. Pugh, pp. 26, 30–31.

19 Cottineau, L. H., Répertoire topo-bibliographique des abbayes et prieurés. Maçon, 1935,Google Scholar etc., tom. 1, col. 306.

20 See this article, p. 325.

21 See note 12.

22 On 29 January 1633 ‘Pierre de Marillac, chevalier de l'ordre du Roy, seigneur de Beaulieu et de Rademont, demeurant à Servon en Brie, estant de present en ceste ville de Paris’ transferred to Holden certain rentes coming from the families of Gueldrop and de I'Espine. On 9 January Holden had these re-transferred to the Arras College community. AN Etude Herbin LI, liasses 100, 103. Transcripts at AAW, Avery Catalogue, large volume, pp. 16–21.

23 See RH, May 1989, p. 262.

24 See RH, May 1989, pp. 275–76; Oct. 1993, p. 459.

25 See RH, May 1989, pp. 262–63.

26 In AAW A28 & A29.

27 AAW A28 no. 84.

28 Smith to Southcote, 19 March and 26 March 1626. AAW A28 nos. 102, 104.

29 On 1 October 1637 he stood surety for an English boy, William Roberts, apprenticed to a French barber-surgeon. Holden is described in the deed as ‘Mre … Henry Holden pbre [priest] docteur en la sacrée faculté de théologie à Paris y demeurant au College d'Arras fondé en l'Université dudit lieu’. AN Etude Quarre XVIII, liasse 22. Transcript at AAW. Avery Catalogue, large volume, p. 24.

30 AAW A28 no. 104.

31 See RH, May 1992, p. 15.

32 AAW A28 no. 186.

33 AAW A28 no. 171.

34 AAW A29 no. 8.

35 ARCR vol. 2, no. 801.

36 For Gage, see Anst., vol. 2, pp. 121–24.

37 For Champney, see Anst., vol. 1, pp. 70–71.

38 See Smith's letter to Champney of 5 August 1639. AAW A29 no. 80.

39 See Chaney, Edward, The Grand Tour and the Great Rebellion. Richard Lassels and ‘The Voyage of Italy’, Genève, 1985, pp. 34–36.Google Scholar

40 Ibidem —p. 282, quoting from BV MS.Barb.Lat. 8620.fol.II: ‘Vir … insignis inter nos existimationis, pietatis, doctrinae rerumque gerendarum dexteritate commendatus, e schola Parisiensi Magister, et religioso illi Galliae Cancellario Marillaco constantissimus minister’.

40A Calendar of Clarendon State Papers, 1869, vol. 2, p. 21.Google Scholar

41 Ibidem —pp. 245, et seq., 282–83. Some Milton scholars have tried to identify the ‘D.N. Fortescue’ of the College diary as Sir Nicholas Fortescue, but, as Chaney points out, the initial ‘N.’ is frequently used by the diarist when he does not know the Christian name or the initial of a visitor. There are notices of George Fortescue in Gillow (op. cit. note 2, vol 2, pp. 325–26) and in DNB (vol. 20, p. 41). The latter incorrectly gives his date of birth as 1578? instead of 1588? The correct approximate date is established by the Liber Ruber of the English College, Rome, which says (CRS vol. 37, no. 474) that he entered as a student near the end of October 1609 in about his 21st year. Smith speaks of Holden's entertaining him at Arras College, and of being very friendly with him (Smith to Fitton, 11 February 1633. AAW B27 no. 116). For George Fortescue's estrangement from the Jesuits, see RH, April 1959, pp. 58–59.

42 AAW A29 no. 65.

43 Walter Montagu (16037–1677), second son of Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, became a Catholic in 1634. At the time of Holden's agency at Rome, he was confidential adviser to Henrietta Maria at Somerset House. In 1647 he was one of the lay Catholic leaders who negotiated with the Independents for toleration (see pp. 329–35 above) but he seems to have become a priest not long afterwards for he filled the vacancy created by the death in that year of Robert Philip as confessor and grand almoner to Henrietta Maria. He was evidently a priest before September 1651 when Holden is reported as recommending that he be made coadjutor to Bishop Smith (AAW A30 no. 142). Through Henrietta's influence he became commendatory abbot of Nanteuil-en-Vallée (in Poitou) and of Saint-Martin (near Pontoise), both in 1654 (Gallia Christiana, vol. 2, col. 1694, and vol. 11, col. 261). He was not a Benedictine (pace Gillow, op.cit., note 2, vol. 5, pp. 73–78) but a priest of the secular clergy. He kept on friendly terms with several members of the Chapter but was not himself one of that body (the note in RH, May 1992, p. 24, n. 8, should be corrected). Robert Philip, of Sanquhar, joined the French Oratory, became confessor to Henrietta Maria in England in 1626, accompanied her abroad and remained with her in France until his death in 1647. Accounts of him in Gillow (vol. 5, pp. 304–05) and DNB (vol. 45, p. 181) should be supplemented by reference to Gordon Albion, Charles I and the Court of Rome, Louvain 1935, passim.

For Leyburn, George (1600–77), see Anst., vol. 2, pp. 191–95.Google Scholar At the time of Holden's agency at Rome (1638) he was a chaplain to Henrietta Maria at Somerset House.

44 For the structure of the Chapter and the manner in which it functioned, see RH, May 1989, pp. 278–79, n. 27.

45 OBA I, pt. 2, no. 155. See RH, May 1989, p. 266 and p. 283, nn. 165, 166

46 Gage to Smith, early 1643. The letter is among the documents intercepted by the English government and printed in the anti-Catholic tract, The Popes Briefe 1642 [o.s., i.e. before 25 March 1643 n.s.]. The letter as printed bears no signature, address or date but internal evidence shows it to have been written by the secretary of the Chapter to Smith in France, in the first few months of 1643.

47 He was at Paris on 7 April 1640 when he signed the approbation of White's edition of Rushworth's Dialogues (ARCR, vol. 2, no. 678). He was evidently in England when Champney wrote to Muscoli (recently appointed President of the English College, Douai) on 5 September 1641, complaining of the difficulty of assembling the Consult in London: ‘Holden is out of town, as I hear, not to return hastily’ (AAW A30 no. 23). He was back at Paris by early 1643, for Gage names him, in the letter referred to in note 46, as being among the canons now living there.

48 See RH, May 1989, p. 267.

49 AAW A30 no. 95. See p. 332 of this article and n. 63 below.

50 Aubineau, Léon, in his edition of the Mémoires of René Rapin (Paris, 1865, tom. 2, p. 321)Google Scholar, says that Holden completed his studies at the Collège de Navarre, and this is repeated by some more recent writers. Holden's name does not appear in the lists of those who took courses at the College published by de Launoy, Jean in his Histoire du Collège de Navarre (Paris 1677,Google Scholar 2nd ed. Paris 1682), and Dr. Jacques Gres Gayer of the Catholic University of America, who has made a special study of the Paris Faculty of Theology in the 17th century, informs me that he was, in fact, an ‘ubiquist’, i.e. one of those entitled to take the doctorate without being a member of one of the major colleges.

51 Archivum Historicum Societatis lesu, vol. 40, 1971, pp. 67–90.

52 Clancy (art.) p. 76. There is a copy of the three propositions, in Gage's hand, at AAW A30 no. 93. For Catholic attitudes to the deposing power, see RH, Oct. 1961, pp. 114–40, April 1962, pp. 205–27, Jan. 1963, pp. 2–10.

53 Clancy (art.), pp. 77–78.

54 Anst., vol. 2, pp. 121–24, 58, 245–46. For Pinckney, see also RH, May 1992, pp. 11–25, Oct. 1993, pp. 451–95.

55 Part of AAW A30.

56 See Gabrieli, V., ‘La missione di Sir Kenelm Digby alla Corte di Innocenzo X (1645–1648)’, in English Miscellany, IV (1954), pp. 247–88.Google Scholar

57 My account of the history of the dossier is based, to a large extent, on what Pugh says in his preface to Blacklo's Cabal.

58 Anst., vol. 2, p. 258. McCoog, T., English and Welsh Jesuits: Catalogues, Rome, 1992 (Monumenta Histórica S.J., vol. 143), p. 437.Google Scholar

59 Clancy (WW.) 811. Wing 4186. Facsimile reprint, with introduction by T. A. Birrell, Gregg International, 1970. The copy of the original in the library of the Jesuits at Mount St., London, is in an early binding with a Jesuit Latin tract of 1683 bearing the imprint of Pierre Danthez of Liège. The two tracts bear a strong typographical resemblance to each other.

60 For Warner, see CRS vol. 70, p. 258; Foley, vol. 7, p. 816; Birrell's introduction to the facsimile of Blacklo's Cabal and his edition of Warner's History of English Persecution (CRS vols. 47, 48).

61 In his Remarks on … Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani, Liège, 1794, pp. 270–71, note (a). For Plowden, see CRS vol. 70, p. 195; Foley, vol. 7, p. 601.

62 Pugh, pp. 26–27.

63 AAW A30 no. 95. Forming part of Gage's dossier.

64 Pugh, p. 31.

65 The printed proposals (here headed ‘Instructions’) are in Pugh, pp. 32–34, the manuscript elaborations on them (here headed ‘Larger Instructions’) are in Pugh, pp. 36–40.

66 Pugh, p. 26.

67 AAW A30 no. 84.

68 Clancy (bibl.) 261. The proposed oath formula is printed on pp. 76–78. It was removed from the second edition of 1653 (Clancy, bibl., 262) but was reprinted by Peter Walsh in The History and Vindication of the Loyal Formulary, or Irish Remonstrance, 1674 (Clancy, bibl., 1026), where it occurs on p. 7. Cressy's relations with Holden will be discussed in Part II of this article.

69 Pugh, p. 57.

70 Pugh, p. 31.

71 Pugh, pp. 22–25. For Harlay see p. 321 of this article and n. 15 above.

72 Richer's defence of his De ecclesiastica et politico potestate, though not printed till many years after his death, circulated freely in manuscript from the time when he wrote it, c. 1615, onwards. See RH, Oct. 1987, p. 331 and p. 395, n. 8.

73 Pugh, pp. 55–56. Coville, H. (Etudes sur Mazarin et ses démêlés avec le Pape Innocent X, Paris, 1914)Google Scholar does not record the incident.

74 Pugh, p. 55.

75 Stonyhurst MSS. Anglia V, no. 27. Photocopy at AASJ. I am grateful to Fathers F. Turner S.J., archivist at Stonyhurst, and T. McCoog S.J., archivist at AASJ, for help in locating it. The text was printed, without reference to its source and with no attempt at identification, by Charles Plowden S.J., op.cit. note 61 above, Appendix XL, pp. 380–83. More recently, Hay, M. V. (The Jesuits and the Popish Plot, n.d., p. 44,Google Scholar n. 3) has correctly identified the Latin as a translation of the English original in Blacklo's Cabal. Hay goes on, however, in his note, to mention a contemporary letter in the Stonyhurst collection which, he says, states that Holden has been censured by the Holy See. This is an error. The letter (Anglia V, no. 28), from George Duckett (vere Holtby) S.J., Rector of Ghent, to the General at Rome, dated 20 March 1648, does not, in fact, refer to Holden at all. Duckett is writing to the General about the papal censure of those in England who signed the declaration concerning the three propositions ‘de quibus [i.e. the propositions] Paternitas Vestra fuit iam saepe informata’. For Holtby, see CRS 74, p. 159. The Stonyhurst Anglia collection was originally part of the Anglia collection in the Jesuit General Archives at Rome. In the eighteenth century, some documents from the latter were sent to the English Jesuit house at Liège for the use of historians of the English Province. When the Liège community (officially secularised since the suppression of the Society in 1773) escaped from the advancing French revolutionary army in 1794 and sought refuge in England, it brought part of its archives with it. The community settled at Stonyhurst. The documents it had brought with it became the nucleus of the archives of Stonyhurst College.

76 ARSJ Anglia 34, fol.119v. Microfilm at AASJ. Subscriptiones Theologorum Collegii Romani. Licite possunt Caîholici in Anglia obligationem in quarto articulo propositam suscipere, eo quod ea omnia quae in eo continentur, non sint ad salutem necessaria necessitate medii ut theologi aiunt. Licite possunt Catholici Doctores, Concionatores atque Ecclesiae Ministri ab his abstinere ad [something missing?] idque sine ullo scandalo atque orthodoxae religionis offensione obligari, cum omnibus Catholicis compertum sit, id non fieri eo quod illam doctrinam eo facto velint tamquam falsam aut minus sanam —tare [partly illegible], aut quod conentur tali silentio antiquare, sed potius ut aliis bonis spiritualibus et temporalibus in eo Regno cum pace servantur. [Dated 21 October 1647. Signed by Francisco de Lugo, Pietro Sforza Pallavicino, Juan Alvarado, Sebastian d'Abreu, Leo Sanchez, Théophile Raynaud, Antonio Perez.]

77 Clancy (art.) p. 79.

78 Francesco Albizzi, 1593–1684. Assessor of the Holy Office, 1635. Created cardinal, 1654, in recognition of his work against the Jansenists (Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, Roma, 1960, etc., vol. 2, pp. 23–26.)

For his anti-Jansenist activities, see Lucien Ceyssens, ‘Le Cardinal Albizzi et la liberté de professer l'augustinisme’ (Franziskanische Studien, tom. 59, 1977, pp. 214–25) and the same author's Le Cardinal François Albizzi … Un cas important dans l'histoire du jansénisme, Roma, 1979. Albizzi's report to Innocent X on England is summarised by Mazière Brady, W., Annals of the Catholic Hierarchy in Englandand Scotland, London, 1883, pp. 56–80.Google Scholar For Leslie's remarks about Albizzi, see RH, Oct. 1989, pp. 473–74.

79 Pugh, p. 21.

80 Pugh, p. 71.

81 See Neveu, Bruno, L'Erreur et son juge, Napoli, 1993, p. 480.Google Scholar

82 ARSJ Anglia 34, ff. 186–89. Microfilm at AASJ. Clancy (art., p. 79, n. 44) identifies the hand as de Lugo's. I have not been able to verify this.

83 Recueil de pièces touchant l'histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus, Liège 1713. 2nd éd., Liège, 1716. BLhas both editions (shelfmarks: 860.d.18; 4785.b.31). Cambridge University Library has the first edition (Acton's copy), the Bodleian Library has the second (Charles Butler's copy). Published anonymously by [Nicolas Petitpied]. The purpose of the collection was to justify the condemnation by the Parlement of Paris (24 March, 1713) of Joseph de Jouvancy's continuation (tom. 5, Rome, 1711) of Orlandini's history of the Society of Jesus. Jouvancy's work, covering the period 1590–1616, was critical of the absolutist claims of the French monarchy. Petitpied aimed to publish documents showing that the Jesuits had exercised a malign influence on the Church in the 17th century. He believed—mistakenly, as now appears—that the Jesuits were behind the Holy Office condemnation of the English Catholics who signed the declaration of 1647. He prints a French translation of Albizzi's account on pp. 410–12 and the original Latin on pp. 442–44. I have used the second edition, 1716.

84 Albizzi gives the date: ‘Die prima Januarii 1648’ and this is corroborated by de Lugo's note referred to on p. 338 of this article and in note 82 above.

85 Printed in T–D, vol. 4, Appendix, p. cxl.

86 See Hughes, Philip, Rome and the Counter-Reformation in England, London, 1944, pp. 321–25.Google Scholar

87 Quoted in Albion, op.cit. note 43, p. 259.

88 Contemporary copy of the decree at AAW A30 no. 101. The manuscript is badly decayed and in places illegible. Clancy says it dates the commission's meeting as 10 January 1638 but he seems to have misread the date. See note 84 above.

89 Clancy, (art.), pp. 85–86.

90 AAW A30 no. 93.

91 See note 3. The passage referred to here occurs in cap. 2, S 15 of the Latin (I have used the Paris edition of 1774).

92 See p. 343 of this article, and note 99 below.

93 AAW A30 nos. 89, 91, 92.

94 Shelfmark E458(9).

95 There is an account of the Santarelli affair in Fouqueray (op. cit. note 15), tom. 4, pp. 141–90. See also Blet, Pierre S.J., ‘Jésuites gallicans au XVIIe siècle’ (Archivum Historicum S.J., vol. 29, 1960, pp. 55–84).Google Scholar

96 The attribution was strongly denied at the time and has never been confirmed. See Fouqueray (op. cit. note 15), tom. 4, pp. 19–30.

97 La grandeur de l'Eglise romaine establie sur l'autorité de S. Pierre et S. Paul … contre … Dom Pierre de Saint-Joseph, Mr. Habert et M l'evesque de Lavaur was published anonymously in 1645. It was placed on the Roman Index, together with two other works of de Barcos, on 24 January 1647. See Neveu, Bruno, op. cit. note 1, pp. 615–21.Google Scholar M. Neveu has kindly written to provide me with another reference which I have not so far been able to follow up: Adriano Garuti, O.F.M., S. Pietro unico titolare del primato. A proposito del decreto del S. Uffizio del 24 gennaio 1647, Bologna, Edizioni Francescane, 1993.Google Scholar

98 The main question at issue was whether the papal nuncio was simply the ambassador of the Pope as a sovereign prince, with no authority other than that possessed by all ambassadors, or whether he represented the Pope as head of the Church, with power to set up a papal jurisdiction in France. The case for the latter had been argued by Cardinal Du Perron in 1617 and by Cardinal de la Valette in 1626, on both occasions unsuccessfully. See Mémoires de Orner Talon (in Collection de mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France, tom. 60–63, Paris, 1827–28), tom. 2, pp. 59, etc., under the years 1646–47.

99 Du Perron, Jacques Davy, Harangue faicte de la part de la Chambre Ecclesiastique, en celle du Tiers Etat, sur l'article du serment, Paris, 1615, p. 97.Google Scholar Le Pape tolère & patiente pour le bien de la paix ecclesiastique, que les François, c'est à dire, aucuns des François, tiennent en ce poinct une doctrine contraire à la sienne, et à celle de tout le reste de l’Eglise, pourveu qu'ils ne la tiennent que comme problématique en matière de foy, c'est à dire, qu'ils ne la proposent poirict pour necessaire de nécessité de foy, et ne déclarent poinct l'autre contraire à la parole de Dieu, & impie, & detestable. Et encore qu'aux cas cy dessus spécifiez, il ayt dix nations contre une partie d'une, cent docteurs contre un, dix conciles contre nul; néanmoins, soit d'autant que ces conciles-la n'expriment pas leur intention par forme de decision de foy, mais par forme de supposition soit pour autre cause; il se contente de la tenir pour vraie, sans nous obliger de la tenir pour necessaire de nécessité de foy: il se contente de tenir l'opinion contraire pour erronée, sans nous obliger de la tenir pour hérétique, ny excommunier comme hérétique ceux qui la tiennent.

100 Di Bagno’s correspondence for 1648 is in AV Nunziatura di Francia, vols. 96 and 97. Microfilm at Paris, AN MI 129, bobines 92, 93.

101 ARSI Anglia 34, fol. 163. Quoted by Clancy (art.) p. 86.

102 AAW A30 no. 104. The plea was presented to the Cardinal by Richard White, Thomas White's brother, who, with his wife and family, was living at Rome from c. 1642 onwards. See Essex Recusant, August 1966, p. 55.