of his secretary to the king's Triplici Nodo, Triplex Cunaus, prudence and dignity alike suggested that his Majesty should stand aside and leave the battle to be finished by a man who was for such conflict the strongest in his realm. He must be of the strongest who could hope to stand in argument against the trained skill of the famous champion of the Papacy.

Robert Bellarmine, an Italian Jesuit, born in Tuscany in 1542, was the great controversialist on the side of Rome. He had taught divinity at Louvain, and read. lectures at Rome on points of controversy, had been sent also as legate to France, when, in 1599, he was made cardinal, and, in 1602, Archbishop of Capua. In 1605 he resigned the archbishopric that he might be near the Pope, and do battle for the Papacy on the great question of the day. He was learned, acute, and so honest in avoiding misrepresentation of the arguments he sought to answer, that his works, in three folio volumes, put very fairly upon record the positions of his opponents as well as his own.

King James's pamphlet was first published in English by Robert Barker in 1607, as "Triplici Nodo, Triplex Cunaus, or, an Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance against the two Breues of Pope Pavlvs Qvintus, and the late Letter of Cardinal Bellarmine to G. Blackwel the Archpriest." It was then issued, within the same year, in Latin, for the use of readers on the Continent; and again, from a London press, in 1609, in French; for the definition of the Pope's Primacy belonged then to the questions of the day in France.

Bellarmine's reply on behalf of the Papacy was published in 1608 in two editions-the first at Cologne, another, without name of place or printer, probably in London. Its full title was-"Matthæi Torti Presbyteri et Theologi Papiensis Responsio ad Librum Inscriptum Triplici Nodo, Triplex Cunaus, sive Apologia pro Iuramento fidelitatis : aduersus duo Breuia Papa PAULI V. et recentes litteras

Cardinalis Bellarmini ad Georgium Blackvellvm, Angliæ Archipresbyterum. Qua ostenditur Iuramentum illud ab hostibus fidei Catholica excogitatum, iniquissimè à subditis Catholicis, sub gravissima bonorum omnium amissione, perpetuorumque carcerum pana, postulari atque exigi." In this little quarto of one hundred and forty pages each brief of the Pope's is again given before the answer to it, the first of the two briefs including in itself the full text of the Oath in question. The full text also of Bellarmine's letter is given, and in the justification of it, which forms the larger half of the book, Bellarmine is evidently speaking for himself in the third person. There is no suggestion that the reply is to King James. His Majesty had not set his name to his work; it is treated, therefore, as by an unknown author. The issue is simple. The king of England claimed that he asked nothing of his Catholic subjects beyond obedience in civil affairs, and that he did. not touch their allegiance to the Pope in spiritual things. The essence of the reply was that the Primacy of the Pope gave him unlimited authority for the protection of the Faith, to bind and loosen, to excommunicate heretic kings, and absolve their subjects from obedience to them; that to believe this, was an article of religion which no good Catholic could put aside without peril to his soul; and that the English Catholics, of whom many had borne, as martyrs, noble witness of their fidelity to conscience, must suffer martyrdom for this cause also, and thus help to maintain the Pope's authority. It was observed also in the reply to King James that if the Oath were for security against civil rebellion, "rebels," not "Catholics," would have been the word to use; but that the Oath was required of Catholics as such, and was defended by men who professed themselves not Catholics, who were therefore heretics, in whom no trust could be put.

The reply by Lancelot Andrewes, published in 1609,

was in a larger quarto of four hundred and two pages, with more in a page. In its title-page it announces the king's authorship of the book answered by Tortus: "Tortura Torti; sive, Ad Matthæi Torti Librum Responsio, qui nuper editus contra Apologiam Serenissimi Potentissimique Principis, Iacobi, Dei Gratia Magna Britannia, Francia et Hiberniæ Regis, pro Ivramento Fidelitatis." This was issued from the house of the king's printer, Robert Barker, and was dedicated to James I. by Lancelot Andrewes as Bishop of Chichester and the king's chaplain and almoner. The king, says Andrewes, is in the forefront of the battle begun by a Pope, supported by a Cardinal, then left to a chaplain who is not worthy to fall by the right hand of great Æneas. The chaplain is met, therefore, by a chaplain who hopes to add one syllable to his name that he may become Retortus. Andrewes indicates that he sees Bellarmine behind Tortus, but whether it be true or feigned, says Andrewes, I accept the name and the omen: tortus enim certe est, quisquis est. Then he proceeds with much acuteness to the argument, sometimes seasoning his learning with light strokes of controversial wit.

John
Donne.

In the next year (1610) John Donne supported the king's policy in requiring the Oath of Allegiance from his Roman Catholic subjects, with an English book, arguing that they could take the oath without hurt to their consciences, and that if they incurred pains and penalties for their refusal, such obstinacy did not entitle them to be considered martyrs. They were false martyrs. The book was entitled "Psevdo-Martyr. Wherein out of certaine Propositions and Gradations, This Conclusion is euicted, That those which are of the Romane Religion in this Kingdome may and ought to take the Oath of Allegeance." The publication of this book, which was dedicated to King James, brought Donne into high favour at the age of thirty-seven.

John Donne was born in 1573, the son of a London merchant. He was taught at home till, in his eleventh year, he was sent to Hart Hall, Oxford. At fourteen he left Oxford for Cambridge, where he remained till he was seventeen, but took no degree because his family was Roman Catholic and would not let him take the required oath. He left Cambridge for London, and studied law at Lincoln's Inn. His father died at that time, leaving him three thousand pounds. His mother sought to bring him to the faith of his parents, and unsettlement of mind caused him to make a special study of the controversies of the time between the Roman Catholics and the Reformers. As a storehouse of opinion on the controversy, young Donne fastened upon the works of Cardinal Bellarmine.

Donne went with the expeditions of the Earl of Essex, in 1596 and 1597, and spent afterwards some years in Italy and Spain. When he returned to England he became chief secretary to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere. He held that office five years, during which he fell in love with a niece of Lady Ellesmere-Anne More-who lived in the family. Her father, Sir George More, heard of this, and carried away the young lady to his house in Surrey, but a secret marriage was effected. When this was told to Sir George he caused Lord Ellesmere to dismiss his secretary, whom apparent ruin could not keep from a play on words, according to the fashion of the time; for in writing the sad news to his wife he added to his signature the line, "John Donne, Anne Donne, Un-done." Donne was imprisoned for a time, and when he was free his wife was kept from him. He sued at law to recover her.

She came to him when his means were almost gone, and a family grew fast about the young couple, who were living in the house of a kinsman, Sir Francis Woolly, of Pirford, Surrey. It was then urged upon Donne that he should take orders in the Church, but he hesitated, and

preferred study of civil and canon law. Sir Francis Woolly died, but before his death he had persuaded Donne's father-in-law to cease from wrath and pay a portion with his daughter, at the rate of eighty pounds a year. Donne remained very much dependent on the liberality of friends, and was still studying points of controversy between the English and the Romish Church, when a home was given to him in the London house of Sir Robert Drury, which has left its name to Drury Lane.

"Pseudomartyr."

Influential friends who appreciated Donne's genius sought to advance him at court in some secular employment, for he had not yet entered the Church. The king liked his presence and conversation, but gave him no substantial help until "Pseudo-martyr" appeared in 1610. The book had an ingenious dedication to his Majesty. Then it began by distinguishing between the dignity of true martyrdom and the inordinate and corrupt affectation of it. It then argued that the Roman religion encouraged this vicious affectation of danger by erroneous doctrines: as the interference with secular magistrates, the undue extolling of merits, especially the merit of martyrdom, and by the doctrine of Purgatory, from which martyrs are promised an escape. It set forth that the Jesuits especially encouraged this corrupt desire of false martyrdom; and that they could not have the comfort of honest martyrdom because they obeyed the Pope, if they disobeyed other laws. Then Donne proceeded to the question of the several obediences due to princes and claimed by the Roman Church. The way was thus laid open for detailed argument in support of the Oath of Allegiance.

Donne even now condemned rather the worldly than the spiritual element in the creed to which he had been bred. Of his "Divine Poems," part certainly were written while he was a Roman Catholic. And when King James, delighted with his "Pseudo-martyr," urged him to enter