An Address Given in to the Late King James by the Titular Archbishop of Dublin / From the General Meeting of the Romish Bishops and Clergy of Ireland, Held in May Last, by That King's Order. Wherein Several Things Relating to the Popish Designs upon These Three Kingdoms, Are Discovered. The Original Whereof Was Found in the Late King James's Closet, in the Castle of Dublin, at His Leaving That City: And the Copy Whereof Was Found in the Titular Archbishop's Lodgings. Now Publish'd with Reflections on Each Paragraph.

by Unknown

Reflections.

In the last Reign we were industriously told over and over again, by the Late King’s Emissaries, That there was never any thing of a Design to invade the Livings or Revenues of the Church, or of applying of them to any body else, but those of the Church of England. Here the Mask is taken off, and the true Design of appropriating the Revenues of the Church, to the use of the Roman-Catholicks alone, is downright confest. This was really design’d long before: And we had Bishops consecrated by the Pope, for almost all the Bishopricks of England and Ireland: But the Affair was not ripe enough to install them in their Livings. These Bishops by the Canon-Law, and by the acknowledgment of all the Lawyers of Rome, Had an undoubted legal Right to the Revenues of their Titular Bishopricks, and that immediately upon their being nominated by the Pope: Likeas the Protestant Bishops were but Usurpers and illegal Possessors of those Revenues, if we believe Romish Casuists. Now they put King James in mind of his gracious Declaration to them upon that Subject; And they must have their Foot in, and the new Possessors (as they take the Protestants to be) must be set a packing for good and all. At the end of this Paragraph, our Irish Bishops and Provincials, do formally contradict their so much cry’d-up Vow of Poverty; And tell us plainly, That the People will not have regard to the Advices of their Ghostly Directors, when they see them reduced to so low an ebb of indigence, as to depend of themselves for their spiritual Power and Authority. Here they plainly insinuate, that Poverty is obstructive of the Peoples profiting by their directions; And thence it is, They must have the Livings of the Clergy restor’d to them, to give a greater lustre to their spiritual Power and Authority. At this rate, the Clergy of the first three Centuries, and the Mendicant Orders of their own Church of Rome, must have very little success in their Ministerial Functions, since they of old did absolutely depend, and these new Orders do yet, upon the sole Charity of the People.