SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION OF ANGLICAN BISHOPS DERIVED FROM CROWN

pudiates allegiance to any spiritual head save the lay governor for the time being. Thus Elizabeth, an excommunicated Catholic, Charles II, a concealed, and James II, a professed Catholic, as well as the protestant James I. and the profligate Georges, have been at times the official dispensers and authors of the spiritual jurisdiction pretended to be exercised by the bishops and ministers of the Anglican community or sect. How absurd and revolting must it seem to all who believe in the spiritual authority of the Church of Christ, thus to find a Catholic prince like James II, who as a Catholic believed the Pope to be the only source under Christ of ecclesiastical power, proclaimed by the English parliament and regarded by protestant bishops and clergy as their spiritual head! It is in vain for individual members of the Anglican Establishment to pretend that the declarations prescribed by parliamentary statutes and formally made by protestant bishops at their appointment, do not really define the Queen as the only giver of spiritual jurisdiction to Anglican ministers. The terms of those declarations are express and clear, and it is not long since an Anglican bishop, of high reputation, publicly declared his regret that he had been compelled to make the solemn declaration that he derived his spiritual authority from Her Majesty Queen Victoria.

ENGLAND UNDER CARDINAL ALLEN

A. D. 1585 TO 1594.

Thomas Watson, the last Catholic bishop of Lincoln, died in prison in Wisbeach Castle in September, 1584. Thomas Goldwell (See Vol. II, p. 317), bishop of St Asaph, died in Rome, April 3, 1585. They were the last survivors of the ancient Catholic hierarchy of England. On their deaths, the recognized head of the English secular clergy, was William Allen, whom Pope Sixtus V created a Cardinal in the month of August, 1587, with the express object of encouraging the English Catholics, who were in despair at the death of Mary, Queen of Scots. (See Vol. II p. 339.). When bishop Watson died, the Catholic religion in England seemed almost destined to perish along with its hierarchy. It appeared, so wrote Gregory Panzani, "as if no remedy could be applied to keep alive the few embers of Catholicism which had escaped extinction by the cruel storms of the long and severe persecution under Elizabeth. Even the few priests had expired, who, despising the fear of death, remained in the kingdom,

CARDINAL ALLEN 1585 TO 1594.

braving a thousand perils in order to aid their couragious Catholic flocks in their resistance. And the relics of Catholicism," according to Panzani, "were saved by William Allen." The unpublished Bulls for restoration of the Hierarchy in England, dated in November, 1847, state that Allen "succoured the spiritual wants of England from 1568 to his death in 1594."

John Allen, grandson of George Allen, of Brook-house, Yorkshire, and son of John Allen, and his wife Jane, or Johanna, Lister, of Westby, in Yorkshire, was born in 1532 in Lancashire. John Allen and Johanna Lister had issue (besides William, the Cardinal, and Gabriel, and a daughter who married Thomas Heskett) an eldest son, George, or Richard, Allen, of Rossall or Rossehall and Toderstaffe in Lancashire. The widow of this Mr George Allen, Elizabeth Allen, was driven into exile and lived many years at Louvain, where she died. Her three daughters were named Helen, Catherine, and Mary. Helen and Catherine became nuns at St Monica's in Louvain. Mary, the youngest, became the wife of Thomas, son of Richard Worthington of Birch (Blainscough) in Lancashire, and bore to him, inter alios, the Rev. Richard Worthington, who was Priest, at the Spanish Ambassador's House in London, "circa 1643." See "The Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers," by John Morris, S. J. London: Burns and Oates, 1872.

John Allen, when fifteen years old, was sent by his father to Oriel College, Oxford, where he was under the care of the Provost, Mr Morgan Philips. He was chosen Fellow of his College in 1550, and was made Master of Arts, July 16, 1554. In 1556, he was chosen Principal of S. Mary's Hall. He was elected a Proctor of his University in 1556, and in 1557; and was made a Canon of York, in 1558.

CARDINAL ALLEN 1585 TO 1594.

Dr Allen's zeal in opposing the changes in religion under Elizabeth, exposed him to the resentment of the socalled reformers, and he was obliged to leave Oxford and fly to Louvain. Here he wrote books of controversy and especially opposed Dr Jewell. One of his works at this period was entitled "De Purgatorio." Attending too closely the sick bed of a young friend, he caught a dangerous disorder, and his life was in peril. His physicians recommended him to return to England, in hopes that his native air might restore his health. He therefore returned home, and after some time of rest and quiet, became cured. Dr Allen now observed with pain that many Catholics, terrified by the penal laws and deceived by the craft of the protestants, complied with the laws commanding attendance at protestant sermons and services, maintaining that such an attendance was not a secession from the Catholic Church, nor a sin of much gravity. Dr Allen exposed this error, and induced many persons to cease to frequent protestant worship. He went sometimes to Oxford, and was instrumental in bringing many to the truth. He wrote, during his retirement in Lancashire, two books in English, concerning the Priesthood, and on Indulgences. Passing into Norfolk, he laboured much in the house of the Duke of Norfolk, and in the neighbourhood, with success. His small tracts, or brief reasons for the Catholic faith, were most useful. These pithy treatises, so suitable to the times, were not without great fruit, but they drew on the writer the animosity of the Protestants, and Dr Allen, after nearly three years residence in England, was again forced into exile. While waiting for a ship, he went to Oxford and there converted a former acquaintance, whom he thought to make a companion of his flight. But the parents of this young man cared for the temporal,

CARDINAL ALLEN 1585 TO 1594.

more than for the spiritual welfare of their son, and not only impeded his departure, but laid a snare to catch Dr Allen. The person who was employed for the arrest, thought he knew him well, and actually found him at supper and spoke to him. When he was about to effect the capture, he suddenly failed to see him, and actually suffered him to depart unharmed.

Dr Allen was accompanied in his exile by his brother, Gabriel Allen, and his nephew, Thomas Hesket. On his return to Belgium, in 1565, he taught Theology in the convent at Mechlin, the then capital of Flanders. He was desirous to visit Rome, and went thither, circa 1567, with Mr Morgan Philips, and with Dr Vendiville, then Regius Professor at Douay, and subsequently bishop of Tournay, and President of the King's Council. The object of Dr Vendiville in going to Rome, was to consult Pius V about his plans for converting the heathen to Christ. For a whole winter Dr Vendiville tried to gain the attention of the Pontiff to his considerations, but in vain, as the Pontiff was otherwise engaged on pressing matters of importance. In the next spring, Dr Vendiville found himself wearied and unable to find rest in Rome, and returned with Dr Allen to Belgium, having given heed to the advice of the latter, to direct his energies to the Christians in Flanders and Holland, and to give his thoughts to his own countrymen in preference to heathens in distant lands. By means of Dr Vendiville, D' Allen was appointed to an honourable post as Doctor and Professor of Sacred Scripture under Royal patronage in the Academy founded, in 1562, by Philip II of Spain at Douay in Spanish Flanders. The date of his appointment was January 31, 1570, and the stipend was 200 golden crowns. He was made also a Canon of Cambray in 1570, and Doctor in Divinity, July 16, 1571. Dr Allen now founded an English Sem