A master-key to popery

Front matter

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Preface

WHEN I first designed to publish the following sheets, it was a matter of some {h)uljt with me, whether or' no I should jnit u\y name to them; for if I did, I considered that I exposed myself to the malice of a great body of men, who wouhJ endeavour on all occasions to injure me in my reputation and fortune, if not in my life; which last (to say no more) was no unnatural suspicion of a Spaniard, and one in my rasi^ to entertain of some fiery zea° lots of the church of Rome.

But on the other hand, T foresaw, that if I concealed my name, a great part of the benefit, intended to the public by this work, might be lost. For I have often observed, as to books of this kind, where facts only arc related, (the truth of which in the greatest measure must depend on the credit of the relater) that wherever the authors, out of caution or fear, have concealed themselves, the event commonly has been, that even tlie friends to the cause W'hich the facts support, give but a cold assent to them, and the enemies reject them entirely, as calumnies and forgeries, without ever giving themselves the trouble of examining into the truth of that which the relater dares not openly avow.' On this account, wdiatever the consequences may be, I resolved to put my name to this, ahd accordingly did so to the first proposals which were made for printing it.

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But, by this means, I am at the same time obliged to say something in vindication of myself from several aspersions which I lie under, and which, indeed, I have already in a great degree been a sufferer by, in the opinion of many worthy gentlemen. The first is, that I never was a priest, because I have not my letters of orders to produce. This, it must be confessed, is a testimonial, without which no one has a right, or can expect to be regarded as a person of that character; unless he has very convincing arguments to oiler the world, that in his circumstances, no sucli thing could reasonably be expected from him; and whether or no mine are such, I leave the world to judge. My case was this:

As soon as it had pleased God by his grace to overcome in me the prejudices of my education, in favour of that corrupt church, in which I had been bred up, and to inspire me with a resolution to embrace the protestant religion, I saw, that in order to preserve my life, I must immediately quit Spain, where all persons, who do not publicly profess the Romish religion, ai*e condemned to deatb. Upon this I resolved to lose no time in making my escape, but how to make it was a matter of the greatest difficulty and danger : however, I determined ratlier to hazard all events, than either to coiitinue in tliat church, or expose myself to certain death ; iun\ accordingly made choice of disguises as tiie most piH>- bable method of favouring my escape. The first 1 made nse of was the habit of an officer in the army : and, as I was sure there would be strict inquhy and search made after me, I durst not bring along with me my letters of orders, which, upon my being suspected in any plac* for the person searched after, or on any other unhappy accident, would have been untlcniable evidence against me, and consequently would liave c^ndemned me to the inquisition. By this means I gat safely to London, where I was most civilly received by the late Eari Stanhope, to whom 1 had the honour

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fo be known when he was in Zaragossa* He told mc^ that there were some other new converts of ray nation in town, and that he hoped I would follow the commandment of Jesus to Peter, viz. '' Wlien thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren/^

Upon this I went to the late Lord Bishop of London, and by his lordship's order, his domestic chaplain examined me three days together ^ and as I could not produce the letters of orders, he advised me to get a certificate from my Lord St?aihope, that he knew me, and that I was a priest, which I obtained on the very same day; and upon this certificate, liis lordship received my recantation after morning prayers, in his chapel of Somerset house, aiid licensed me to preach and officiate in a Spanish congregation composed of my lord Stanhope, several English ofiicers, and a few Spanish officers, new converts. My first sermon I had the honour to dedicate to my lord Stanhope, and was printed by Mr. William Bowyer, and was sold afterwards, by Mr. Dcnoyer, a French bookseller, at Erasmus' head, in tiie Strand. By virtue of this license, I preached two years and eight months, first in i\i^^ ehap? 1 of Queen's-square, Westminster, and afterwards in Oxenden's chapel, near t!ie hay-market. But my benefactor, desirous to settle me in the English church, advised me to go chaplain to the Preston man of war, where 1 might liave a great deal of leisure to learn tlie language ; and being presented and approved by the Bisliop of London, the lords of t!ie Admiralty granted me the warrant or commission of chaplain. Then his lordship, though he had given me his consent in writing, to preach in Spanisli, did enlarge it in the warrant of the Admiralty, which license \ sliall take leave to insert here at large.

^' Wliereas tlie Reverend Mr. Anthony Gavin was recommended to me, by the right honourable lord Stanhope; and by the same, and other English gentlemen, I was certified tirat the said Reverend Mr. Giavin viii PREFACE.

was a secular priest, anil master of arts, in tiic ixhi versify of the city of Zaragossa, in the kin^^dom oi Arragoii, in Spain, and that they knew him in the said city, and conversed with him several times: tliis is to certify, tliat the said Reverend Mr. Gavin, after having publicly and solemnly abjured the errors of the Romish religion ; and being tiiereupon by me reconciled to the church of England, on the 3d day of January, 1715-16: he had then my leave to officiate, in the Spanish language, in the chapel of Queen's-square* Westminster; and now being appointed chaplain of his majesty's siiip, the Preston, has my licence to preach in English, and to administer the sacraments, at home and abroad, in all the churclies and chapels of my diocess. Given under my hand, in London, the 13th of July, 17 W.

Signed, JOHN, LONDON/^

The certificate, license, and warrant, may be seen at any time, for I have them by me.

After that, the ship being i)ut out of commission, and my lord Stanhope being in Hanover with the king, I came over to Ireland on the importunity of a friend, with a design to stay here till my lord's return into England: But when I was thinking of going over again, I heard of my lord's death, and having in him lost my best patron, I resolved to try in this kingdom, whether I could find any settlement : and in a few days after, by the favour of his grace my lord archbishop of Cashel, and the Reverend Dean Percival, I got the curacy of Gowran, which I served almost eleven months, by the license of my lord bishop of Ossory, who afterwards, upon my going to Cork, gave me his letters dismissiory.

I was in Cork very near a year, serving the cure of a parish near it, and the Rev. Dean Maule being at that time in London, and I being recommended to him, to preach in his parish church of Shandon, he went to Inquire about me to the bishop of London, who, and 9€-

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A^^Fal other persons of disthiction, were pleased to give me a good character, as tlic dean, on my leaving him, did me the favour to certily under his hand, together with my good behaviour durisig my stay in Cork.

Now my case being such as I h.ave re})resented it, I freely submit it to the judgment of every gentleman of ingenuity and candour, to determine, whether it could ho expected from me, that 1 should have my letters of orders to shew; and yet whether there can be any tolerable reason to suspect my not having been a priest. I think it might be enough to silence all suspicions on this account, that I was received as a priest into the church of England, and licensed as such, to preach and administer the sacraments both in that kingdom and this : and I hope no one can imagine, that any of the bishops of tiie best constituted and governed churches upon earth, would admit any person to so sacred a trust, without their being fully satisfied that he was in orders.

I shall, on this occasion, beg leave to mention what the bishop of London said to me, when I told him I had not my letters of orders, but that my lord Stanhope, and other gentlemen of honour and credit, who knew me in my native city of Zaragossa, would certify, that I there was esteemed and officiated as a priest. Bring such a certificate, said he, and I will receive and license you ; for I would rather depend upon it, than any letters of orders you could produce, which, for ought I could tell, you might have forged.

i hope what I have here said may convince even my enemies of my being a clergyman : and how 1 have behaved myself as such, since I came into this kingdom, I appeal to those gentlemen I conversed with in Gowran, Gortroe, and Cork, and for this last year and an half, to the officers of Col. Barrel, Brigadier Napper, Col. Hawley, Col. Newton, and Col. Lanoe's regiments, who, I am sure, will do me justice, and I desire no more of them ; and upon an inquiry into my beiiaviour, I flatter myself, that the public will not

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lightly give credit to the ill reports spread abroad, by my enemies.

Another objectify raised against me is, that I have ])erjured myself in Mscovering the private confessions which were made to me. In one point indeed they may call me perjured, and it is my comfort and glory, that I am so in it, viz. That I have broke the oath I took, when I was ordained priest, which was to liv^e and die in the Roman Catholic faith. But as to tlie other perjury charged upon me, they lie under a mistake; for there is no oath of secrecy at all administered to confessors, as most protestants imagine. Secresy indeed is recommended to all confessors by the casuists, and enjoined by the councils and popes so strictly, that if a confessor reveals, except in some particular cases, what is confessed to him, so as the penitent is discovered, he is to be punished for it in the inquisition ; which, it must be fawned, is a more effectual way of enjoining sccresy than oaths themselves.

However, I am far from imagining, that because in this case I have broken no oath, I should therefore be guilty of no crime, tiiough I revealed every tiding which was committed to my trust as a confessor, of whatever ill consequence it might be to the penitent; no, such a jn^actice I take t^, be exceedingly ci'iminal, and 1 do from my soul abiKtr it.

But nevertheless there :*re cases v>iier^^>- by llie constitution of the chiircli of Rome itself, the most dangerous secrets may and ought to be revealed; such as those which are called reserved cases^ of Vv hich there are many ; some reserved ta the pope himself, as heresy; some to his apostolic comnYissary or his deputy, as incest m the first degree : some to the bishop of the diocess, as the setting a neighbour's house on fire. Now in such cases thu confessor cannot aiisolve Uie penitent, and therefore he is obliged to reveal tlie confession to the person, to whom the absolution of that sin is reserved^ though indeed he never mentions the penitent's namci Qr any circumstance by ^vhich he may be discoverer}.

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Again, there are other cases, such as a conspiracy against the life of the prince^ or, a iraiterous design to overturn the government, which the confessor is obliged in conscience, and for the safety of the public, to reveal.

But besides all these, whenever the penitent's case happens to have any thing of an uncommon difficulty in it, common prudence, and a due regard to the faithful discJiarge of his office, will oblige a confessor to discover it to men of experience and judgment in casuistry, that he may have their advice how to proceed in it: and this is what confessors in Spain not only may do, but are bound by the word of a priest to do, wherever they have an opportunity of consulting a college of confessors, or (as it is commonly called) a moral academy.

I believe it may be of some service on the present occasion, to inform my readers what those moral academies are; which are to be met with through Spain, in every city and town, where there is a number of secular and regular priests: but I shall speak only of those in the city of Zaragossa, as being the most perfectly acquainted with them.

A moral academy is a college or assembly consisting of several father confessors, in which each of them proposes some moral case which has happened to him in confession, with an exact and particular account of the confession, without mentioning the penitent's name: and the proponent having done this, every member is to deliver his opinion upon it. This is constantly practised every Friday, from two o'clock in the afternoon, till six, and sometimes till eight, as the cases proposed happen to be more or less difficult. But when there is an extraordinary intricate case to be resolved, and the members cannot agree in the resolution of it, they send one of their assembly to the great academy, which is a college composed of sixteen casuistical doctors, and four professors of divinity, the most learned and experienced in moral cases that may be had ; and by them the case in debate is resolved, and xii PREFACE.

the resolution of it entered in the books of the academy by tlie consent of the president and members.

Tlie academy of tlie holy trinity, founded, and very nobly endowed by Archbishop Gamboa, is one of the most famous in tiie city of Zaragossa ; and of it I was a member for three years, I was very young and unexpert in cases of conscience, when I was first licensed to be a confessor; for the pope having dispensed with 13 months of the time required by the canons for tiie age of a prkst (for which I paid 60 pistoles) I was ordained before I was 23 years old, by Don Antonio Ibannez de la Rivia de Herrera, archbishop of Zaragossa and viceroy of Arragon; and at tlie same time licensed by him to hear confessions of both sexes. In order then the better and more speedily to qualify myself for the oflice, I thought it my prudentest way to apply, as so(m as possible, to be admitted into this learned society, and as it happened, 1 had interest enough to succeed.

Now among many statutes left by the founder to this academy, one is this, viz. That every person, who is Ciiosen a member of it, is, on his admission, to promise upon the word of a priest, to give the whole assembly a faithful account of all the private confessions he has heard the week before, which have any thing in tliem difficult to be resolved; yet so as not to mention any circumstance t)y which the penitents may be known.

And for this end there is a book, where the secretary enters all the cases proposed and resolved every Friday ; and every third year there is, by the consent of the president and members of tlie academy, and by the approbation of the great one^ a book printed, containing all the cases r. solved for three years before, and which is entitled, Compendium Casuum Mondiuin JlcademiiEf S. S. Tnniiatis. The academy of the holy trinity is always composed of twenty members, so tliat every one may easily perceive, that each of the members may be acquainted in a year or two, with niany hundreds of private confessions of all ranks and condi-

PREFACE. xiii

tioiis of people, besides those wliich were made to themselves : which remark I only make by tlie by to satisfy some men, who, 1 am told, find fault with me for pretending; to impose on the public for genuine, several confessions which were not made to myself, and consequently for the reality of wliich, I can have no sufficient authority.

Now after all that has been said on this head, I be« lieve 1 need not be at much trouble to vindicate myself from the imputation of any criminal breach of secresy ; for if the reader observes, that on the foregoing grounds, there is no confession whatever which may not lawfully be revealed (provided the confessordoth not discover the penitent) he cannot in justice condemn me for publishing a few, by which it is morally impossible, in the present circumstances, that tlie penitents should be known. Had I been much more particular than I am in my relations, and mentioned even the names and' every thing else I knew of the persons, there W'ould scarce be a possibility (considering the distance and little intercourse there is between this place and Zaragossa) of their suffering in any degree by it : and I need not observe tliat the chief, and indeed only reason of enjoining and keeping secresy; is the hazards the penitent may run by a discovery, but I do assure the reader^ that in every'^confession I have related, 1 have made use of feigned names, and avoided every circumstance by which I had the least cause to suspect the parties might be found out. And I assure him further, that most of the cases here published by me, arc, in their most material points, already printed in the Gompendiums of that moral academy of w hich I was a member.

As for the reasons which moved me to publish this book, I shall only say, that as the corrupt practices, w^hich are the subject of it, first set me upon examining into the principles of the church of Home, and by that means of renouncing them ; so I thouglit that the mak-

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ing of them public might happily produce the same effect in some others.

I did design on this occasion to give a particular account of the motives of my conversion, and leaving Spain ; but being confined to 300 pages, I must leave that and some other tilings relating to the sacraments of the church of Rome, to a second part, which I intend to print, if the public thinks fit to encourage me.

1 must beg the reader's pardon for my presuniption in writing in his own language, on so short an acquaintance as 1 have with it. I hope lie will excuse the many mistakes I may have committed in the book : I shall he v<"ry well pleased to be told of, and I shall take the greater care to avoid them in the second part.

A

MASTER-KEY

TO

POPERY.