— 21") — 



werestowed in publick librarie? ... long befnre the présent dispute? bad 

 Iheir origin- 



I fear I hâve troubled too uiucb on your patience in delaining you so long on 

 a subject of so little importance to you ; but j know how desirous you 

 are of coming at the truth of tliings, and that your Immanity is .so great 

 thaï you would spare no pains to do justice to the meanest of the human 

 species; this is what has eniboldened me to adress you in so long and , 

 i fear, so tedious a letter, and it is this humanity of yours . which encou- 

 rages me to désire your patience a little longer. 



It would seem unjust in me to insinuatc that M '' Hume had his notion 

 about S. Dunstan'.s bringing the bénédictin order into England from our 

 secular clergy, either directly or indirectly ; I fairly own it is only a sur- 

 mise, but from what I shall ad it may perhapsnot appear groundless. 

 But that such a thing might happen 1 hâve good grounds to believe, 1 hâve 

 known a similar case on a similar occasion ; and I bave no reason to think 

 but that the some people would repeat the samc again , if the occasion 

 offer'd. The case was as follows : 



About seven years ago was published in France a new ecclesiastical his- 

 tory (1), in wliich Iwasmuch surprised to find a \ery long paragraph 

 concerning the above mentioned disputes; for I esteimed the french gene- 

 rally ignorant of any such disputes having ever been carryed on among 

 us; but what had most weight with me , was that the clandestine disputes 

 of so inconsiderable a body, as theenglish roman oatholics make with res- 

 pect to the whole church, did not seem to me to deserve so great a propor- 

 tion in a gênerai ecclesiastical history. In it the regular clergy of England 

 are represented in the most unjust light. They are accused of fomenting 

 disturbances araong the roman oatholics , undermining the clergy, and of 

 bringing on a persécution againsl D."" Smith (2), bishop of Calcedon m parli- 

 bus and vicar apostolik in England. This bishop was sent into England by 

 the court of Rome. The missionars, bolh secular and regular, uniling to de- 

 mand a bishop to assist them intheir mission, fatherRudesindBarlow,then 

 superior gênerai of the english bénédictins, was consulted by the congré- 

 gation de propaganda fide in Rome , about a proper person to be made 

 bishop and sent into England with such missionary faculties as were neces- 

 sary in those circumstances-F. Rudesind thereupon wrotc to the said con- 

 grégation. His letter is dated december 2 1625, and proposed n.f Smith as 



(1) D s'agit sans doute de Y abrégé de l'Histoire Ecclésiastique , de l'abbé 

 Bonav. Racine, 13 vol. in-12 , Paris, 17S2, 1762. Cet ouvrage fut considéré comme 

 •ntaché de jansénisme. 



(2) Richard Smith, auteur de plusieurs bons ouvrages en faveur de l'unité catho- 

 lique , professa durant quelque temps la théologie à Douai. Ses efforts pour sounieltie 

 les réguliers à la juridiction épiscopale donnèrent lieu à de vives répliques de la part 

 du P. Ployd, Jésuite et du Bénédictin Rudisind Barlow. Smith est mort en lG3o , 

 igé de 8â ans. 



