ought to secure him from those Thunders, in s'egard of his Functions, yet His Holiness would not so much as hear or own him in that Quality, whatever Addresses hic has caus'd to be made for that purpose, and that in fine, the very Rules of the Canon Law requires that Persons of so eminent a Dignity, as is that of his, should be pointed out by Name in Bulls of that Nature, before they can incur the Penalties they utter.

But that the Pope in a Matter purely Temporal, as are these Franchises of the Kings Amþassadors, having made use of the Spiritual Arms, which he is only entrusted withal for the Conductand Edification ofthe Church,and having constituted himself Judge in his own Cause, the Excommunication which his Holinefs's Cardinal Vicar declares to have been incurr’d, is so null, that there is no occasion for any Proceedings to annihilate it, and those that are therein comprehended, ought not to receive Absolution, though it were even offered them at their own Homes.

And indeed the said King's Attorney General does with all the French expect from his Majesty's single Power the Reparation which these Proceedings challenge, and the Conservation of those Franchises which only depend on the Judgment of God, as all the Rights of this Crown, and which can admit of no Diminution but such as the King's Moderation and Justice may give them.

:

But

But as not any thing can contribute more to lessen in the Minds of Shallow Persons and Libertins the Veneration which People ought to have for the Power of the Church, than the ill use which its Ministers may make of it; the King's faid Attorney General declares, that lie is appealing, as indeed he appeals by the present Act from the abusive use that is made of it in the said Bull and Ordonance, not to our Holy Father Pope Innocent the nith better informed, fo as has been practised in respect of some of his Predecessors; when that they had true Ideas of their Power, that their Years allowed them to act of themselves; their might be hopes that in time they might be brought to know the Justice and Truth of the Complaints that were brought before them; and that neither the Preventions in favour of their Country, nor the Partialities of those they honoured with their Trust, did not prevail over the Obligations which the Quality of Cominon Father of all Christians does impose.

Protesting to carry on this his faid Appeal upon this Grievance, and upon the others, which he reserves to represent to the first General Council that shall be held, as the Tribunal truly Sovereign and Infallible of the Church, to which its visible Head must submit, as well as its other Members; and therein to further among other things á Regulation that shall prevent the Employing so Holy an Authority in Uses fo far from those for which it was confided in the Church in the Person of St. Peter ;

this may make the Pope be mindful, that God having separated the two Powers of the Priefthood; and of Empire, His Holiness cannot make use of the Authority of the first for the Rights that depend on the second; that according to Temporal Laws he ought to possess those large Territories which his Predecessors have received from the Liberality of Temporal Princes, and particularly from that of our Kings, and that in short, he would consider upon a Truth which a great Arch-bishop in France wrote to one of his Predecessors; that a Prelate that excommunicates a Christian contraty to the Rules, and for Rights of a Kingdom of the Earth, may, in such an Occasion well lose the Power of binding and unbinding which his Character gives him; but that he cannot deprive of eternal Life, him to whom he does this Injustice. if his Sins do not render him unworthy of the Mercy of God. Of which the faid Attorney General has required of us as an Act. Done in the Court, in the Presence of the Kings Council. on the 22d. day of January, in the Year 1688.

Monseignor. Sin. Not.

Printed at Paris by Francis Muquets, the King

and his Parliaments chief Printer, Street le Harp, 1688. With His Majesties Privilege,

que

Cleri Gallicani De Ec- The Declaration of tbs Gallican
clefiaftica Potestate

Clergy, concerning the Ecclefia

Aical Power in the Year 1682
Declaratio. A. D.
1682.

I. That God gave to

St. Peter and his Sucs
I. Beato Petro, ejufa ceffors Vicars of Christ,

successoribus Chri- and to the Church her
fti vicariis, iplique Ec- Self, the Power of Spiri-
clefiæ rerum Spirituali, tual things pertaining to
um, & ad Æternam Eternal Life, but not of
falutem pertinentium Civil and Temporal
non autem Civilium ac Matters. For the Lord said
Temporalium a Deo My Kingdom is not of
traditam Poteftatem, this World, And again,
dicente Domino, Reg. Render unto Cæfar the
num meum non eft de things that are Cæsar's,
boc Mundo. Et Iterum, and unto God the things
Reddite qua funt Cæfa that are God's. And there-
ris Cæfari, & quæ funt fore that of the Apostle
Dei Deo, ac proinde must stand, Let every
stare Apoftolicum illud, Soul be subject to the
Omnis anima Potestati- Higher--Powers, for
bus sublimioribus - fubdita ther is no Power but
fit. Non est enim Po. of God, the Powers that
test as wifi à Deo. Qua be are Ordained of God;
autem sunt, à Deo ordi- whosoever therefore
nat a sunt. Itaque qui Relifteth the Power,
Potestati Rejistit, Dei Relifteth the Ordi-
ordinationi Refiftit. Rc nance of GodThere,
ges ergo et Principes fore Kings and Princes
in Temporalibus nulli are not subject, in Tem-
Ecclesiasticæ Potestati porals, 10 any Ecclesia-
Dei ordinatione fubjici, itical Power, by the Or-

neque

nec

neque Autoritate. Cla- dinance of God,xeither can vium Ecclefiæ directe they, by Authority of the vel indirecte Deponi, Keys of the Church, Diaut illorum subditos rectly or Indirectly, be eximi a Fide, atque 0. Depos’d, or their Subbedientia, ac prxstito jeɛts Absolu'd from their Fidelitatis Sacramento Faith and Obedience, and folvi polle, Eamque sen. Oath of Allegiance which tentiam Publicæ Tran- they have taken. quillitati necessariam, And this is to be firm

minus Ecclelize ly Retain’d, as Necessaquam Iinperio utilem, ry to the Publick Peace, ut verbo Dei, Patrum and not lefs Useful to the traditioni,et Sanctorum Church iban to the State, Exemplis confonam as being Consonant to the omnino retinendam. Word of God, the Tra

dition of the Fathers, and

Practice of the Saints. II. Sic autem inesse II. But that the full Apoftolicæ sedi, ac Pe- Power of SpiritualThings tri successoribus Christi is so in the Apostolical vicariis rerum Spiritu- See, and the Successors alium plenam Potefta- of Peter, the Vicars of tem, ut fimul valeant Christ, that the Decrees atque immotá confie of the Holy and OecuItant Sanctæ Oecume menical Council

Council of nicæ fynodi Conftanti. Constance, concerning enfis a fede Apostolica the Authority of Genecomprobata, ipforum. ral Councils, which are que Romanorum Pon- contain’d in the 4th and dificum, ac totius Ec- sth Sessions, Approved clefiæ ufu confirmata, by the Apostolical See, arque ab Ecclesia Galo and Confirmed by the l'ufé 9,5

licana,