Chapter LX: Conclusion (5)

But, you may say, a conversion such as this is not much for the Church to brag of. Here you have a prince born a heretic, and becoming a Catholic so quietly that his people know nothing about it. The Church declares that faith without works is dead. Well, it is true that Charles's life was in perpetual discord with his faith. We certainly do not propose our neophyte as a model penitent; it is enough if the reasons which led to his conversion afford his countrymen another proof of the divine origin of Catholicism. It is surely a startling circumstance that this slave to voluptuousness should turn his back upon the easy-going Anglican Church, so complacent even to the monstrous passions of Henry VIII., and choose the most inflexible of all Christian communions, the one which preferred losing her hold upon the glorious and powerful Island of Saints to conniving at adultery; which defended the innocent Catharine of Aragon against her ferocious spouse, and might, one hundred and forty years later, have protected Catharine of Portugal also had a royal caprice again attempted to displace a virtuous queen in order to raise a vicious favorite to the throne of England. This monarch, timid by nature, and surrounded by sanguinary fanatics, knew that the bare accusation of "popery" would be enough to stir up his whole kingdom against him; yet he did not hesitate to become a "papist"--he upon whom the laws conferred the title, so much coveted by his predecessors, of supreme head of the Established Church. Do we not see in this a signal triumph of God over man, of truth over falsehood?

Should it be asked why this correspondence has remained so long unpublished, we answer that it was by its nature strictly confidential. So long, too, as the Stuarts maintained their pretensions to the English crown the publication of such letters would have seriously compromised them. Then came the suppression of the society, after which it would appear that all trace of the correspondence was lost, until it was recently brought to light by the learned Father Boero. [Footnote 87] The original letters form part of a collection of autograph manuscripts of Charles II., Father Paul Oliva, Christina of Sweden, James II., the queen-mother, Henrietta of France, Catharine of Braganza, and other celebrated persons of the time. The letters of Charles are impressed with the Royal seal.

[Footnote 87: _Istoria della conversione alla Chi?? Cattolica di
Carlo II., Re d'Inghilterra, caveta da ???trure autentiche ed
originali_.]

{579}

II.

It is easy enough to mention circumstances which would naturally have prepossessed Charles in favor of the Church. In the first place, he was indebted for his life, after the defeat of Worcester, almost entirely to Catholics, who at great risk to themselves concealed him from the soldiers of Cromwell and enabled him to escape to France. In Paris he must have seen many things to influence his religious sentiments. The most profound impression, however, was made upon him by the venerable M. Olier, the founder of St. Sulpice. "God opened to him," says his biographer, the Abbé Faillon, "the English monarch's heart. In the new conferences which he had with this prince, he showed him the beauty and truth of the Catholic religion with so much grace, force, and energy that Charles II. was constrained to acknowledge afterward to one of his friends that although many distinguished persons had spoken to him about these matters, there was none of them who had enlightened him so much as M. Olier; that in his words he recognized and felt an extraordinary virtue; in fine, that he had fully satisfied him. There can be little doubt that M. Olier had persuaded the king to abjure his errors and to take the first step toward a return into the bosom of the Church; that is to say, by sending a secret abjuration to the Pope, who, as has been said above, required nothing more. For, in the first place, it was rumored all through France and England that Charles had sent to the Pope a secret abjuration; and beside, M. de Bretonvilliers, after mentioning that his majesty recognized and felt an extraordinary virtue in his conversations with M. Olier on the truth of the Catholic religion, adds these significant words: 'At present, I can say no more.' This reticence naturally leads us to infer that Charles had taken some step toward becoming a Catholic which it was not then prudent to make known."

III.

Two years after his restoration to the throne, and under the influence, probably, of the queen-mother and the queen-consort, he resolved to open with the Holy See a negotiation which he hoped might lead to the restoration of the English people to religious unity. It was necessary to proceed with the greatest caution. He chose for his envoy Sir Richard Bellings--the same to whom he afterward intrusted the most secret and delicate of his missions to the court of Louis XIV. Sir Richard set out for Italy under pretext of attending to affairs of his own; and as soon as he could do so safely, he quietly went to Rome. His first business was to ask for a cardinal's hat for Louis Stuart, duke of Richmond and Lennox, better known under the name of the Abbé d'Aubigny. He was a near relative of the king's, and had been summoned from Paris to fulfil the functions of grand almoner to Queen Catharine. Charles wished to place under his charge the affairs of the Church in Great Britain. A memoir on this subject was drawn up for Bellings by Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and copied by Clarendon's son. It is dated October 25, 1662. Each leaf is authenticated by the royal signature. A minute of the instructions given by Charles to his ambassador is preserved at Rome. It can only have been drawn up by Sir Richard himself:

"1. His majesty solicits this promotion for the advantage of his
kingdom, and in order to give the Catholic party an authorized
chief, intimately united with the sovereign by the ties of blood,
and upon whom he can depend securely under all circumstances. The
king, to quote his own words, sees in the elevation of the Abbé
d'Aubigny to the cardinalship an essential condition to the good
understanding which ought to exist between {580} the Pope and his
majesty; he deems this a measure of the last importance for the
welfare of his Roman Catholic subjects throughout his dominions.'

"2. The cardinal once appointed, his majesty engages to support him
in the style which his dignity and his relationship to the sovereign
demand."

The Holy Father summoned a secret congregation of cardinals to consider the matter, and also appointed a council of theologians, who were instructed to draw up their opinion in a careful report. In this document we find a careful resume of the "Benefits which the Catholics of England have received from his Britannic majesty."' They approved of the proposed appointment; but unfortunately the Abbé d'Aubigny was given to the errors of the Port Royalists, and the Pope felt compelled to refuse Charles's request. He refused, however, with so much delicacy, and gave such good reasons for the refusal, that the king, instead of breaking off intercourse with the Holy See, as he had threatened to do, ordered Bellings to proceed to the second object of his mission. This was nothing less than the conversion of the king and the reconciliation of his realms to the Roman Church.

IV.

Sir Richard was instructed to treat directly with the Holy Father, and the number of counsellors whom the Pope might call to his assistance was to be strictly limited. On the side of the English there is every reason to believe that nobody was in the secret except the king, the two queens, the envoy, and the person--whoever he may have been--who drew up the document which we shall presently have occasion to quote. Clarendon certainly knew nothing about it; he was ready to assist in the promotion of d'Aubigny; but he was a stern enemy of the Catholics, and even before Sir Richard's return we find him opposing in parliament a proposal of his sovereign's for granting liberty of conscience to dissenters.

There is no doubt that Charles II. himself made known to the Holy Father his intention of becoming a Catholic and re-establishing Catholicism as an authorized form of worship in his kingdom. There is, moreover, no doubt that Pope Alexander VII. replied to him. This is all that we can now affirm with certainty; and we should not have known even this if the king had not mentioned it incidentally in one of his letters to Father Paul Oliva.

The absence of these two letters is much to be regretted; but we have fortunately at hand a document of still greater value. This is the profession of faith presented in the name of the English monarch as the basis of a concordat:

"Proposition on the part of Charles II., king of Great Britain, for
the much-to-be-desired reunion of his three kingdoms of England,
Scotland, and Ireland with the apostolic and Roman see.

"His majesty, the king, and all who aspire to the unity of the
Catholic Church, will accept the profession of faith drawn up by
Pope Pius IV. after the decisions of the Council of Trent, and with
it all the other decrees respecting faith or discipline enacted
either by the aforesaid council or by any other general council, as
well as the decisions of the last two pontiffs in the affair of
Jansenius; reserving to himself, however, as is done in France and
some other places, certain special rights and certain customs which
usage has sanctioned in our own particular Church. These various
decrees are to be understood with the restrictions which other
oecumenical councils have, prudently no doubt and after mature
consideration, imposed upon them, as the aforesaid profession of
faith proves. Whence it follows that, except within these limits,
nothing may henceforth be imposed upon or prescribed to either the
king or any of his Catholic subjects; and {581} that it shall not be
imputed to them as a crime or a favoring of heresy should they have
occasion to declare their mind upon matters of this sort. Under
these conditions his majesty is ready to break at once with all
Protestant societies and all sects separated from the Roman Church,
and to withdraw from their communion. He declares his detestation in
particular of the schism and deplorable heresies originated by
Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, Memnon, Socinus, Browin, and other equally
perverse sectaries. Better than any one else, he knows by sad
experience in his own kingdom what a deluge of calamities, what
revolutions, what a Babel-confusion this pretended Reformation
(which might better be called a _de_formation) has entailed in
politics as well as in religion; so much so that these three
kingdoms, and especially England, are, in both secular and sacred
affairs, nothing but a theatre of frightful disturbances, which hold
the entire world chained with attention and dismay."

This profession of faith is followed by twenty-four "notes" or "declarations," in which the king indicates more in detail the course which he proposes to follow in his difficult task of religious restoration. The reconciliation with Rome once effected, he would grant the Protestants complete toleration. The hierarchy should be re-established as it was in the time of Henry VIII., before the schism. Parishes should be established and seminaries founded. The king also described in what manner he would arrange for the introduction of the Roman liturgy, the preaching of the divine word, the teaching of the catechism, the administration of the sacraments, the celebration of provincial synods, and the admission of the religious orders of both sexes into Great Britain; he spoke of the festivals, beside Sunday, which it would be possible to make days of obligation, and of the precautions which ought to be adopted in bringing the people back to the veneration of the saints and their relics.

It may be suggested that Charles was not sincere; but it is difficult to understand what he could have hoped to gain by these representations, made in strictest confidence to the Pope, if he did not really intend to return to the bosom of the Church and hope to bring his people with him. Lingard says that he used to feign an inclination toward Catholicism, in view of the subsidies which he received from the king of France; but we must remember that at this time it was Louis who made all the overtures and evinced all the eagerness for an alliance between the two countries, and that Charles held back. Louis XIV. was ready to pay almost any price for his neighbor's friendship, and Charles was under no necessity of periling his crown and arousing all the fanaticism of his subjects in order to obtain what Louis was so ready to give him.

Just about the time of the departure of Sir Richard Bellings for Italy Charles made an attempt to obtain from parliament an act of indulgence in favor of the Presbyterians, Independents, and Roman Catholics. He met with the most violent resistance, even from his own ministers. Far from carrying this equitable measure, he soon found himself compelled, by the clamors of parliament, to issue a proclamation ordering all Catholic priests to leave the country under penalty of death. Disheartened by this ignominious defeat, he seems to have rushed more madly than ever into debaucheries, and stifled the voice of conscience until a providential incident, in 1668, aroused his better feelings.

V.

About the month of April, 1668, the king received a piece of news which awakened in his heart at once remorse and hope. A natural son whom he loved tenderly--a young man of great {582} intelligence and acquirements--had abjured Protestantism and consecrated himself to God's service in the Society of Jesus. This personage, who was destined to play a part in Charles's conversion as important as it was mysterious, is not unknown to our readers alone: no memoir of the time makes any mention of him. We must go back a little way to find out who he was.

The son of Lucy Walters, the intriguing and factious Duke of Monmouth, born in 1649, is generally regarded as the first fruit of Charles's illicit amours; but this is a mistake. It was not in the Netherlands, nor in Paris, but in the isle of Jersey, that the heir to the English crown began the career of licentiousness which ultimately proved so disastrous to his reign. This little island, rich and populous, had always remained faithful to the royal house; and it was probably with the hope of obtaining succor for the royal cause that Charles, while Prince of Wales, went there in 1647. But unfortunately he encountered, under the roof of one of the most illustrious, families of Great Britain, a temptation which extinguished all his warlike ardor. The young soldier reposed in the gardens of Armida, and gave not a thought to the terrible morrow which might follow his careless sleep. [Footnote 88]

[Footnote 88: In the multiplicity of more important events, English
historians have lost site of this abortive Jersey expedition; but if
they do not confirm, they at least do not contradict our statement.
After the battle of Naseby, Prince Charles fled to the Scilly Isles
and afterward to Jersey. The next three years he passed chiefly at
the Hague. He does not reappear in history until 1648, when he made
a fruitless demonstration with a royalist fleet at the mouth of the
Thames. In the meanwhile he used to pay occasional visits to his
mother at Paris, and what more likely than at her instigation he
should have made a trip to Jersey in the hope of doing something for
his father?]

The child born of this connection, who afterward was called James Stuart, was taken, in infancy, we know not by what name, to the continent. He was educated by the best masters in France and Holland, and as he grew up manifested great quickness of intellect, together with the most estimable qualities of the heart. Charles was proud of him and loved him; but when he came to the throne he durst not publicly recognize him. He was afraid of his parliament and afraid of the factions which encompassed him. Beside, the child's mother was still living, and no doubt had obtained from the monarch a promise not to compromise the honor of her noble family by acknowledging the son until there should no longer be any danger of her being suspected as the mother. So, when the young man, then about eighteen years of age, was summoned to London in 1665, he was commanded to present himself under the name of Jacques de la Cloche du Bourg de Jersey; and though he received from his father the most unequivocal marks of affection, he soon grew tired of his false position, and begged permission to return to the continent and resume his studies. Charles reluctantly consented. He gave his son at parting a document written in French with his own hand and impressed with the royal seal, which is still preserved at the Gesù in Rome. It runs thus:

"Charles, par la grâce de Dieu Roy d'Angleterre, de France, d'Ecosse
et d'Hibernie, confessons et tenons pour nostre fils naturel le
sieur Jacques Stuart qui, par nostre ordre et commandement a vescu
en France et auttres pays jusques à mil six cent soixante cinq où
nous avons daigné prendre soin de Luy. Depuis, la même année,
s'étant treuvé à Londres de nostre volonté expresse et pour raison.
Luy avons commandé de vivre sous auttre nom encore, sçavoir, de la
Cloche du Bourg de Jarzais. [Footnote 89] Auquel, pour raisons
importantes qui regardent la paix du Royaume que nous avons toujours
recherchée, deffendons de parler qu' après nostre mort [_i.e._, of
the secret of his birth]. En ce temps, Luy soit lors permis de
présenter au parlement cette nostre {583} déclaration que, de plein
gré et avec équité, nous Luy donnons à sa requeste, et en sa langue,
pour lui oster occasion de la monstrer à qui que ce soit pour en
avoir l'interpretation.--A Wthall, le 27 de septembre 1665. Escry et
signé de nostre main, et cacheté du cachet ordinaire de nos lettres
sans auttre façon.
L. S. CHARLES."

[Footnote 89: Charles wrote indifferently Jarzais, Jersais, or
Jersé]

(TRANSLATION.)

We Charles, by the grace of God king of England, France, Scotland,
and Ireland, acknowledge and hold as our natural son Sir James
Stuart, who by our order and commandment has lived up to the year
1665 in France and other countries, where we have seen fit to take
care of him. Thence after, on the same year, he resided in London by
our express will and for good reasons, we having commanded him to
live under a new name, to wit, La Cloche du Bourg de Jarzais. Whom,
however, for important reasons touching the peace of the realm,
whereof we are ever regardful, we forbid to speak _concerning the
secret of does birth_ until after our death. At that time be it then
permitted him to present to parliament this our declaration, which
of our own free will and in justice we grant him at his request and
in his language, in order to remove all occasion of his exhibiting
it to any one whatsoever for its better interpretation. At
Whitehall, the 27th of September, 1665. Written and signed by our
hand and sealed with the ordinary seal of our letters, without other
fashion.
L. S. CHARLES

With this acknowledgment of parentage, the young man returned to the Netherlands; but he soon reflected that in the event of his father's death the document was not likely to be of much service to him, for it mentioned no provision for his support. The English Parliament would be very apt, on one pretext or another, to refuse him any sum whatever. So he prevailed upon Charles to give him another paper, assigning to him £500 a year, "subject to the good pleasure of the next successor to the crown and of the Parliament." Coupled with this legacy were the conditions that James should live in London and remain faithful to the Anglican Church. This document, dated Feb. 7, 1667, is also preserved at the Gesù:

"Charles, by the grace of God king of England, France, Scotland, and
Ireland. The Sieur James Stuart, whom we have heretofore recognized
as our natural son, living under the name of La Cloche--having
represented to us that, should he survive our death, he would be
without means of support, if not recognized by parliament, beside
other difficulties which might occur in this affair; for this
reason, bending to his entreaties, we have seen good to assign him
and to leave him from our domain, if such be the good pleasure of
our successor to the crown and of our parliament, the sum of £500
sterling per annum. Which legacy it will not be lawful for him to
enjoy, except in so far as he shall reside in London, living
according to the religion of his fathers and the Anglican liturgy.

At Whitehall, the 7th Feb. 1667. Written and sealed by our proper
hand.
L. S. CHARLES"

When the king imposed the second condition he little imagined that his son was already on the point of abandoning the Established Church; but so it was; and on the 29th of the next July he was received into the Catholic communion at Hamburg. Very soon afterward he determined to enter the Society of Jesus; but there was one great obstacle in the way. He could not be received without telling the secret of his birth, for illegitimacy was an impediment from which it was necessary to obtain a dispensation. And if he told it, with no other {584} proof to show than the two papers just cited, which it would be impossible for an Italian Jesuit to verify, who would believe him? In this perplexity he had recourse to the ex-queen Christina of Sweden, who was then at Hamburg. There was a dash of romance in the story which pleased the eccentric princess; she was well acquainted personally with Charles II., and having obtained from him a confirmation of all that James Stuart had told her, she gave the young man a letter which secured a ready belief for the account that he gave of himself at Rome. This letter, written in Latin, is also among the documents lately discovered at the Gesù:

"James Stuart, who was born in the isle of Jersey, and of his own
free will assumed the name of La Cloche du Bourg, is the natural son
of Charles II., king of England, and so much has been secretly
confirmed to us by his Britannic majesty. Renouncing the sect of
Calvin, to which his birth and education had up to this time
attached him, he joined the Holy Roman Church at Hamburg July 29,
1667. In faith of which, contrary to our custom, we have written by
our own hand this declaration, to the end that James Stuart can, in
an extraordinary circumstance, open his conscience entirely to his
confessor and receive from him the necessary counsels for the
salvation of his soul.
L. S. CHRISTINA ALEXANDRA."

James Stuart was accordingly received into the Society in April, 1668, under the name of Jacques de la Cloche. The inventory of his personal effects, to which the novice, according to custom, affixed his signature on entering, gives us a curious idea of the wardrobe of a king's son. Here it is: "One hat; one ecclesiastical habit and mantle; one pair of breeches and a waistcoat of black cloth; one vest trimmed with yellow fur; a sword-belt of green leather; white silk stockings; two shirts and one undershirt; one pair of linen drawers," etc.

VI.

It was on the 11th day of April, 1668, that James Stuart commenced his religious life. On the 23d of April, 1668, the Marquis de Ravigny, the French ambassador at London, sent to the court of St. Germain an account of a conversation he had just had with Charles II. The King of England had said to him: "I am very desirous of effecting a strong union with France, but I must have help; for there are many people about me who are not of that way of thinking. As to myself, I have always been so disposed, as you know better than anybody..." Charles, after having repeated these words several times, had added more than once--"Leave it to me. I will speak with you about it before many days." M. de Ravigny, whose efforts toward the political unity of the two cabinets had, up to this time, been without result, received the overture with apparent coldness. Louis XIV. was equally incredulous, and M. de Lionne replied to the representative of France in England in these terms: "The king is of the opinion that your response was exceedingly judicious, when the King of Great Britain signified his desire of making a strong alliance with him, and hinted to you to make advances. His majesty has already made so many, and has been so poorly responded to, when requested to enter into the matter, that the prudence and dignity of his majesty forbid his committing himself further. . . ."

Charles waited to receive the propositions of the court of St. Germain; but the court of St. Germain was dumb. Driven to declare himself, therefore, he renewed the assurances he had already given, and the letter of the French ambassador, bearing date of May 21, 1668, describes the interview, and closes with these significant words: "It looks as though this will {585} come to something; for this reason I most humbly beg your majesty to send further instructions."

Thus, only a few days after the humble novice of the Quirinal had assumed the robes of his order, Charles and Louis were busily engaged in cementing that family pact which broke the Triple Alliance, and delayed, for many years, the formation of that formidable coalition under which France finally succumbed. Are we too bold in suspecting something more than a simple coincidence in the simultaneousness of these two events?

Hume, in his "History of the House of Stuart," attributes the action of the English monarch to his admiration for the gaiety, wit, and elegance of the French court. Let those who will, accept this frivolous explanation! The curious conjuncture of dates, together with a vast assemblage of other facts looking in the same direction, have convinced us that the true motive of this sudden change was the religions convictions of the king. The conscience of Charles had long been troubled. Even before assuming the crown, he had resolved to introduce larger religious liberty into the realm. Baffled in all his attempts, completely, disconcerted, he learns one day that his eldest son--a mind thoroughly serious and earnest--had separated himself utterly from the errors of Protestantism, and had deliberately devoted himself to a life of prayer, of silence, and of mortification. Then Charles took heart, and convinced that he could not attain his object without the help of France, he resolutely set aside all the obstacles of national sentiment, and entered at once upon the completion of the compact. While this was pending, the British sovereign was employed, for the three months which followed the entrance of his son upon the novitiate of the Jesuits, in strengthening himself against the insurrections and the civil war to which his conversion was certain to give rise. It is not, however, by political precautions alone that heresy is made to yield to the true faith. There must also be the discreet theologian, the wise master, the spiritual guide--assistance difficult to avail one's self of when Anglican intolerance watches menacingly at the gates of all the royal palaces! Such a guide, such an instrument of the divine pity, the prince felt that he possessed to-day in the novice of St. André. Resuming the dress of a gentleman, James Stuart, known by nobody at court, might readily obtain access to the king without exciting suspicion. To him Charles would joyfully become a disciple, joyfully become a penitent; from him he could receive the necessary religious instruction and absolution for his sins. In concert with the two queens, he therefore decided to write to the father-general of the Jesuits and request the immediate return of the novice to England. The prince wrote to Rome five autograph letters, all in French; four to P. Oliva, one to his son. The different envelopes have perfectly preserved the stamp of the royal seal. It is for the reader now to determine whether the author of these pages--so truthful, so ingenuous--was, as has been a thousand times asserted, only an accomplished cheat. It is for the reader to declare whether the brother of James II. merits those odious epithets of deist and atheist with which Protestantism has so freely bespattered him, doubtless in recompense for the scorn and aversion which Charles always felt in his deepest heart for the Establishment of Henry VIII.

Scarcely five months had elapsed since James Stuart began to practise the rules of St. Ignatius, when a stranger placed in the hands of Paul Oliva, father-general of the order, the following letter:

TO THE REVEREND FATHER-GENERAL OF THE JESUIT FATHERS:

REVEREND FATHER,--We write this to your reverence as to a person
whom we believe to be most prudent and judicious, inasmuch as the
{586} principal charge which you have of an institute so famous will
not permit us to think otherwise. We address you in French, a
language common to all persons of quality, wherewith we believe that
your reverence is not unacquainted, preferring this language to bad
Latin, in which we could with difficulty write so as to be
understood; it being our principal aim in this that no Englishman
may intrude himself as a translator--a thing which would otherwise
be exceedingly prejudicial to us, for the reason that we wish this
letter to be a secret between you and us.

And to commence, your reverence ought to know that for a long time,
amid the embarrassments of the crown, we had prayed God to grant us
the opportunity of finding at least one person in our realm in whom
we could confide touching the affair of our salvation without giving
our court grounds for suspecting that we are Catholic. And although
there have been here a multitude of priests, both in the service of
the queen (a portion of whom have dwelt in our palace of St. James
and at Somerset House) and also scattered throughout our whole city
of London; nevertheless we could not avail ourselves of any because
of the suspicion we should give to our court by conversation with
such people, who, whatever disguises of clothing they may assume,
are always known for what they are. Yet despite so many
difficulties, it seems as if the providence of God had provided for
and seconded our desires, by causing to be born to us in the
Catholic religion a son to whom alone we could confide ourselves in
an affair so delicate. And although many persons, perhaps better
versed than himself in the mysteries of the Catholic religion, might
be found for our service in this exigency; nevertheless we could not
make use of others as well as of him, who would be always capable of
administering to us in secret the sacraments of the confession and
of the communion which we desire to receive as soon as possible.

This our son is a young gentleman whom we know you have received
with you at Rome under the name of the Sieur La Cloche de Jersay,
for whom we have always had a peculiar tenderness, as much because
he was born to us when we were scarcely sixteen or seventeen years
old, of a young lady of the highest rank in our realm (rather from
the frailty of our early youth than from a bad heart), as also
because of the excellent nature we have ever remarked in him and of
that eminence in learning wherein he has advanced through our means.
For this makes us all the more esteem his conversion to the Catholic
religion, since we know that he has been led to it through judgment,
reason, and knowledge. Many important reasons touching the peace of
our realm have prevented us, up to the present time, from publicly
recognizing him as our son; but this will be for a brief time only,
because we presently design to make a kind of public recognition of
him ere many years, having, however, provided him, in 1665, with the
necessary assurances, in case we should come to die, so that he may
make use of them in due time and place. And as he is not known here
in anywise, saving by the queens--this affair having been managed
with great secresy--we could in all safety converse with him, and
exercise in secret the mysteries of the Catholic religion, without
exciting in any one of our court the suspicion that we are Catholic,
which we could not do with any other missionary; in addition to the
confidence that we should have in opening to him our conscience in
all freedom and sincerity as to a part of ourselves. Thus we see
that, although he was born in our tender youth against the
ordinances of God, the same God has seen fit to preserve him for our
salvation, since it pertains to himself alone to know how to bring
good out of evil.

We believe that the need we have {587} of him has been sufficiently
explained to your reverence, and if your reverence write us, you
will intrust your letters to our son alone, when he comes to us. For
although we do not doubt but that you would find secret ways enough to
do it, nevertheless you would disoblige us excessively by intrusting
your letters to anybody but to this our son, for many considerable
reasons whereof your reverence can conjecture apart, but especially
from the mischief which it would bring upon us, as we were subjected
to great hazard on account of our receiving a letter which we had from
Rome in reply to one we had written to the deceased Pope; and although
it was presented to us with all necessary circumspection and by a
Catholic person, nevertheless it could not be managed with
sufficient prudence to prevent the suspicion of our most
keen-sighted courtiers. But having found means to stifle the
suspicion which was abroad respecting our being Catholic, we were
obliged, through fear of renewing it in men's minds, to consent on
several occasions to many things that turned to the disadvantage of
numerous Catholics in our kingdom of Ireland. This is the reason
why--although we had written with all possible secresy to His
Holiness respecting our conversion to the Catholic Church at the
same time that we besought His Holiness to make our very dear
cousin, my Lord d'Aubigny, a cardinal, whereof we were refused for
good reasons--we have not been able to pursue our point.

And although the Queen of Sweden is very wise and discreet,
nevertheless it is enough that she is a woman to lead us to fear
that she cannot keep a secret, and, as she believes that she alone
knows the origin of our well-beloved son, we have written her again
and have confirmed her in that opinion. This is done in order that
your reverence shall manifest to her, upon occasion, that you have
no knowledge of his birth, if she should inquire of you. As also, we
pray your reverence not to make known to her or to anybody else, be
it whom it may, the design we have of becoming Catholic, or that we
send for our son for this object. If the Queen of Sweden asks where
he is gone, your reverence will find some pretext, either that he is
gone on a mission to our island of Jersey or to some other part of
our realm, or still another pretext, until we make our desires and
wishes in this matter again known to you.

We pray you, then, to send to us as soon as possible our very dear
and well-beloved son--that is to say, at the first time that this
season or the next permit. We believe that your reverence is too
zealous for the salvation of souls, and has too much respect for
crowned heads, not to accord to us a request so just. We had had
some thought of writing to His Holiness and disclosing to him what
we have in soul, and by the same means to pray him to send our son
to us. But we have believed that it would be sufficient for us this
time to make a declaration to your reverence, reserving for another
occasion--which we shall bring to pass as soon as possible--the
writing and declaring ourselves to the Pope by a very secret courier
sent post by us.

If our dear and well-beloved son, is not a priest, and if he cannot
become one without making publicly known his true name and origin,
or from other circumstances (which we say because we do not know
your mode of acting in these matters), in that case let him rather
not be made a priest at Rome than that he communicate aught of what
he is to the bishops or priests; but let him pass through Paris and
present himself to our very dear cousin the King of France, or, if
he prefer, to our very honored sister the Duchess d'Orleans, to whom
he can make manifest on our part our good desire in all safety. They
know well enough what is the wish of our soul, and will readily
recognize our very dear and well-beloved son by the tokens which we
gave to him in London in 1665, and, perceiving that he is Catholic,
they would endeavor {588} and would be able to make him a priest
without any one's knowing what he is, and with all possible secresy
as we believe. If, however, without so many crooks and turns, he
prefer to come to us without being a priest--which is, perhaps, the
better course--then we would do the same thing by means of the queen
our very honored mother, or of the queen-consort, who would have at
their service bishops, missionaries, or others to perform the
ceremony without any one's perceiving or knowing anything about it.
We say this in the event of his encountering difficulties in
effecting this at Rome.

And although we wish our very dear son to come to us, it is,
nevertheless, not our design to draw him away from your society. On
the contrary, we should rejoice if he remain in it all his life if
God inspire him to that vocation, and, after having put our
conscience in order by his means, we shall not prevent him from
returning to Rome, to live according to the society to which he has
attached himself; and even during the time that he shall be at our
service we shall not prevent him, if he so will, from pursuing, with
those of your body that are in our realm, the life commenced in
conformity with the religious vocation which he has embraced,
provided that it be not in London, but in some city or village not
far off from our city of London, to the end that when we need him he
can come with the greatest promptitude and facility. And the reason
why we do not wish him to reside in London among your people is
because of the danger of his being suspected as a Jesuit, from his
being seen to enter those places which are the residences of your
people, already too well known by many--a thing that would turn to
our prejudice. Now we are well content, after being absolved by him
of heresy, and after we are reconciled to God and to the Church,
that he return to Rome to lead the religious life which he has
begun, awaiting further orders from us--a scheme which seems to us
quite to the point, and we believe that your reverence will be of
our opinion and counsel in this last particular. Thus doing, when he
shall have been here some weeks or months, we will send him back to
Rome under the government of your reverence, to the end that, under
your care, he may the better fit himself for our service. And during
the short time that he shall be at London, when he speak to any one
of yours let him guard himself well in discoursing upon the object
of his coming. He can say that it is for some affair of importance
in our court, of which only your reverence and himself should have
cognizance.

In the meanwhile, though we cannot openly manifest to your
illustrious society the affection and the good-will we have toward
it, this does not prevent your reverence from making known to us, by
our very dear and well-beloved son, if there be any way in which we
can aid it, which we should do all the more willingly because we
know that everything which we can contribute will be employed in the
service of God for the remission of our offenses. For the rest, we
recommend to your prayers our realm and ourselves.

CHARLES, King of England.
At Whitehall, the 3d of August, 1668.

Enclosed in the communication addressed to the father-general was a second letter of the king's, which reads as follows:

TO OUR VERY HONORED SON
THE PRINCE STUART,
RESIDENT WITH THE JESUIT FATHERS UNDER
THE NAME OF SIEUR DE LA CLOCHE, AT ROME:

MONSIEUR,--We have written very fully to your reverend
father-general; he will tell you our pleasure. The Queen of Sweden
has asked of us, as a loan, the sum of money that we had taken care
to provide for your maintenance, which was sufficient for {589} many
years. We have ordered what was necessary in the matter; and this is
a reason why you need not put yourself to the trouble either of
writing to her about it, or of speaking more thereof.

If the autumn season be too disagreeable to get out on your journey
to us, and if you cannot venture upon it without putting yourself in
imminent danger of falling ill, wait till the commencement of next
spring, having especial care for the preservation of your health,
and keeping yourself in all quiet, writing us nothing, for we are
not a little suspected of being Catholic.

The queens are very eager to see you, as we have communicated to
them privately the news of your conversion to the Roman religion.
They have counselled us to tell you that we do not forbid your
living in the institute to which you have attached yourself, and we
should be rejoiced if you remain in it all your life; but desire you
to measure well your powers and your constitution, which has
appeared to us very feeble and delicate. One can be a good Catholic
without being a religious, and you ought to consider that we design,
before many years, to publicly recognize you as our son. But as
neither parliament nor the state of affairs has permitted it up to
the present moment, we have always been constrained to defer it. You
ought, moreover, to consider that you can aspire to the same titles
from us as the Duke of Monmouth, and perhaps to more ample ones.
Beside, we are without children by the queen and those of the Duke
of York are very feeble; while, for every reason and because of the
rank of your mother, you can lay claim on ourselves and on
parliament to be preferred to the Duke of Monmouth. In that case,
being young, as you are, if liberty of conscience and if the
Catholic religion be restored to this realm, you would have some
hope of the crown. For we can assure you that if God permit that we
and our very honored brother the Duke of York die without children,
the crown will belong to yourself and parliament cannot legitimately
oppose it, unless that the fact of your being a Catholic exclude
you; as liberty of conscience is not yet established, and since, at
present, only Protestant kings are eligible. This, then, we are
advised by the queens to tell you. If, in the meantime, all things
considered, you prefer to serve God in the Society of Jesus, we do
not wish to offer any resistance to the will of God, whom we have
already grieved too much by our offences. We do not, therefore,
forbid your pursuing that vocation, if God inspire you to it; but we
desire only that you think well of it.

We do not wish to write to the Pope until we have spoken to you by
our own mouth. We had written to the late Pope, to the end that he
should make our very dear and well-beloved cousin, my Lord
d'Aubigny, a cardinal; whereof we have not had the satisfaction that
we demanded. However, we are not offended in this. His Holiness
having made known to us manifold reasons why he could not
conscientiously create a cardinal in our realm, the affairs of
religion and other things being as they are.

Not long since we wrote to the Queen of Sweden, and advised her not
to write to you, and to treat you henceforth as simply a gentleman,
without manifesting that she has any knowledge of your birth. This
is a reason why you should not take it amiss if her majesty treat
you after that manner. It is a no light burden to us to see you
always constrained to live unknown, but have patience yet a little,
for before many years we shall try to so conduct affairs and
parliament that all the world will know who you are. You will no
longer live in these hindrances and restraints, and it will depend
only on yourself to live in the liberty and the pleasure of a person
of your birth, unless that God strongly inspire you and that you
should wish to continue absolutely the {590} religious life which
you have commenced.

Although we cannot, and ought not, to openly show the good-will that
we have for the Society of Jesus, who have received you, yet in the
meanwhile if we cannot publicly favor them with our royal
munificence, there may still be some place, room, or occasion
wherein they might need our aid, and where we could contribute
somewhat. We would do it all the more because we know that all will
be employed for the service of God and the remission of our
offences, and because, also, we could desire that no one of your
lineage should remain with them without founding something as a
memorial suitable to one of your extraction. We will talk about this
matter in London, if you persist in your design of living with them.

In the meanwhile, believe that we have always had you in our
peculiar affection, not only because you were born to us in our
tenderest youth, when we were scarcely sixteen or seventeen, but
particularly because of the excellent nature that we have always
remarked in you, because of that eminence of knowledge in which you
have been advanced through our means, because you have always borne
yourself as a virtuous man, and because you have been especially
obedient to our commands: the which, joined to the paternal love
that we have felt toward you, strongly governs our desires in
wishing all kinds of benefits for you, beside the pity that moves us
in seeing you so unknown and disregarded--a thing which shall
continue as brief a space as possible.

It is not easy for us to send privately to Rome a sum of money
adequate for a person of your birth and sufficient to put you in the
condition and estate of appearing before us, being, as we are, neither
willing nor able to noise it abroad that we have any one at Rome with
whom we have communication. It is not possible that you are not
everywise modest enough to come to us, if not in the condition of
one of your rank, at least as a simple gentleman when you put foot
in England. Finally, pray God for ourselves, the queen, and our
realm.
I am your affectionate father,
CHARLES
King of Eng., Fr., Scot, and Ire.
At Whitehall, 4th of Aug., 1668.

Charles II., in the letters we have just given, left his son at liberty to set out at the end of autumn or even at the winter season. Twenty-five days have not elapsed when his resolution changes. He wishes the novice at Rome to make haste to precipitate his departure. What was the cause of this serious disquietude? It was this: Queen Christina, repenting of her abdication and hating the north, resolved to seek an asylum for her remaining days in the shadow of the Vatican. Charles was informed of her intention, and at once took alarm. Christina would then witness the departure of James Stuart; entangling the inexperienced novice in a network of cunning questions, what secret could escape her? Everything would be discovered. Little by little the rumor would spread from Italy to England. Charles already saw his kingdom in revolution and himself reduced to the most grievous extremity. Such was the object of the second letter to the father-general:

TO THE REVEREND FATHER-GENERAL
OF THE JESUIT FATHERS AT ROME:

REVEREND FATHER,--We send, with the greatest diligence and with the
greatest secresy, an express to Rome charge with two letters, one to
your reverence to the end that our well-beloved son set out as soon as
possible; the other to the Queen of Sweden--having commanded the
messenger to await the arrival of her majesty in any Italian town
through which she may pass, not wishing even that the aforesaid
express should appear at your house, through fear of {591} being
recognized by some of your order who are English. As he is a person
of rank, we have in like manner forbidden his delaying more than one
day at Rome, fearing lest he should be recognized by certain
Englishmen who are at Rome.

We say, then, to your reverence that, since the first letter that we
wrote you, we have received trustworthy news that the Queen of Sweden
returns to Rome, contrary to the anticipations which we had
formed--the which has not a little embarrassed us in the matter of
our salvation. This is the reason that, upon this new accident,
having taken counsel with the queens, we have determined to write in
haste to the Queen of Sweden, feigning to her and persuading her
that our very dear and well-beloved son has represented to us that
he wishes assigned to him something fixed for life, to the end that
in case he should not pursue the religious calling he has commenced,
being now a Catholic, he may have something to fall back upon; and
that even if he should pursue it, he prays us to settle a sum of
money upon him which he may dispose of according to his devotion,
which petition we have granted him; but since this cannot be
effected at Rome, we have ordered him to go to Paris to find certain
correspondents of ours, and after that to proceed to Jersey or to
Hanton, [Footnote 90] where he will receive from us forty or fifty
thousand crowns in total, which may be deposited in some bank; and
that we have instructed him not to tell his superior of his birth;
but that he shall simply feign to your reverence that he is the son
of a rich preacher, who, being deceased some time since, his mother,
moved with a desire of becoming a Catholic and to give him the goods
which belong to him, has written to him, and that your reverence,
desirous of the salvation of this person, and of making her a
Catholic, and perceiving also that he can come by his estate, has
readily permitted him to go. This we have arranged in order that she
shall thus believe that she alone has the secret, and will therefore
not break the matter to your reverence from the friendship she bears
him. Thus we counteract any suspicion she might have of your letting
him come to us and of our being Catholic. But above all it is
necessary that our very dear son do not wait, but that he set out as
soon as possible; for, as she needs money (and so needs it that she
demanded at the last Swedish diet 35,000 crowns in advance), she
would embarrass him in such a way that the drama which we wish to
play would come off but illy. This we have arranged touching the
Queen of Sweden.

[Footnote 90: Now Southhampton.--Ed. C. W.]