formerly a suffragan of the said Archiepiscopal See, but now, by fraud (as is alleged), subjected to the Archbishops of S. Andrews by the afore-cited Bulls.

MOST REVEREND LORD (SCArchbishop of Nidros),-The last matter, entrusted to me remained, concerning the Bishop of Orkney, who has slipped away from the obedience of his mother, the metropolitan Church of Nidros, and gone over against what is due to reason and equity to the Archbishop of S. Andrews in Scotland, by that deed robbing your Church of its subject, and other rights due from the Bishop of Orkney to your Eminence and the Church of Nidros, by right of its being metropolitan. And because I wish to consider the matter, and transcribe to your Eminence my advice respecting it, and my ideas of this affair (which seems to me very prejudicial and important on account of other Churches, your suffragans), being very mindful, and wishing to come to the very bottom of this case, I caused search to be made, and searched myself many days, first, in the Register of the Pope's Bulls, where we found nothing, after wasting much labour to no purpose; and afterwards, in the Apostolic Chamber, we met with the erection, or the bulls of the erection, of S. Andrews into a metropolitan see, which we found at last in the Registers of Sixtus IV. All this was done in order that I might see from them, whether, in the bulls of the erection of the said Church of S. Andrews into a metropolitan, and of the subjecting of other suffragan

dictoe sedis Archiepiscopalis, sed nunc fraudulenter (sicut allegatur) a bullis supracitatis, Archiepiscopis Sancto Andreœ subjectam.)*

Reuerenissime domine (Archiepiscope Nidrosiensis silicet†) restabat ultimum negotium, michi commissum, de Episcopo Orkadensi qui se subtraxit ab obedientia matris sue metropolitane Nidrosiensis, et transmigrauit contra debitum rationis et juris, ad Archiepiscopum Sancti Andree in Scotia, spoliando de facto ecclesiam uestram, subiectione alijsque juribus suis ab Episcopo Orkadensi p. v. et ecclesie Nidrosiensi jure metropolitico debitis. Et qvod velim desuper cogitare, et p. v. consilium meum super hoc transcribere Jdeosque huius negotij (quod mihi videtur satis preiuditiale et importans propter alias ecclesias suffraganeas vestras) non immemor existens, et volens peruenire ad verum fundamentum huius cause, requiri feci et egomet requisiui multis diebus, primo in Registro Bullarum Pape (ubi nihil repertum multis laboribus frustra consumptis) Et deinde in Camera Apostolica erectionem siue bullas erectionis Sancti Andree in metropolitanam, quas tandem jnuenimus in Registris Sixti IV. ut ex illis viderem, an in bullis erectionis dicte ecclesie Sancti Andree Jn metropolitanam et subiectionis aliarum ecclesiarum suffraganearum, aliquid diceretur de ecclesia et diocesi Orkadensi, Et quo iure illa subijceretur metropolitano Sancti Andree, an etiam fieret mentio quod * Additamentum manu. + Additamentum manu.

eadem Orkadensis ecclesia Nidrosiensi prius fuisset subiecta. Sed tandem repertis Bullis, nihil de hoc inueni nisi quod * Orkadensis esset in Regno Scotie et immediate Sedj apostolice subiecta, ac nulli antea suffraganea, et per talem fraudem deceptus fuit Sixtus papa, prout p. v. ex preced

Churches, any mention might be made of the Church and Diocese of Orkney, and by what right it was subjected to the metropolitan of S. Andrews; or even whether mention was made that the said Church of Orkney had been before subject to that of Nidros. But at last, when the bulls were found, I discovered nothing re-enti copia melius videre poterit. specting this, but that Orkney Jtaque extraxi sumptum omnium was in the realm of Scotland, and Bullarum, quarum copiam p. v. immediately subject to the Apos- mitto in presentibus, ut consulat tolic See, and never before suf- cum suo Capitulo de premissis fragan to any Church, and that pro recuperatione dicte ecclesie. Pope Sixtus was taken in by this Ne tandem propter lapsum longi deception, as your Eminence will temporis et diuturnam possessiosee better from the preceding nem pacificam Archiepiscopus abundance of proofs. Therefore Sancti Andree prescribat contra I took an extract of all the bulls, ecclesiam vestram. Videretur of which I send a copy to your mihi opportunum, ut ReuerendisEminence in these presents, to sima p. v. mitteret mihi copiam, consult with your chapter of the ex Bullis erectionis ecclesie sue premises for the recovery of the Nidrosiensis in metropolitanam said Church Lest at last on ac- ut consulerem cum aliquo Aduocount of the long lapse of time, cato ex doctoribus huius Romane and continued uninterrupted pos- Curie et quod etiam ipse suum session, the Archbishop S. And-consilium daret in scriptis p. v. rews have prescription against mittendum quatenus inuenientur your Church. It would appear in eisdem Bullis de Orkadensi to me convenient that your Most ecclesia, inibi vobis et pro temReverend Eminence should send Nidrosiensi Archiepiscopo pore me a copy of the bulls of the subiecta. Etsi etiam essent alierection of your Church of Nidros qua instrumenta, vel documenta, into a metropolitan, that I might ex quibis constare posset, Episcoconsult with some advocate from pum et diocesem Orkadiensem, among the doctors of this Roman recognovisse semper Nidrosiensam Court, and that also he might ecclesiam, et illius Archiepiscogive his advice on the writing to pum fuisse in possessione pacifica be sent to your Eminence, so far illius juris, et recepisse subsidia as there shall be found any in the pallij ab Episcopo et ecclesia Orsaid bulls concerning the Church kadensi, ex quibus constaret de of Orkney, subjected therein to possessione pacifica prius. you and the Archbishop of Nidros for the time being. Though there might also be some instruments or documents, from which it might be evident that the

Et

* Additum in margine manu ipsius Zutpheldi Allegatur in presentibus

'Bullis quod ecclesia.'

+ Additamentum manu ipsius Zutpheldi scriptum.

2 Q

* Hæc verba, qucis inclusa, adjecta sunt manu ipsius Zutpheldi.

tion, in the Archives of the king- Arch. regu. Norveg.

dom of Norway. No. VI.

1472

1

and MDCXXXVIII.

NOTE. We here conclude the documents sent to us by our correspondent at Stockholm, whose interesting communication respecting some ancient points in the Scottish Episcopate appeared in the number for August, page 354. Should any of our readers consider these fragments as dry and uninteresting, we beg them to remember, that historical as well as doctrinal matters, pertaining to the Church, form part of our design; and every ancient record preserved by the press from the chance of perishing, adds a mite to history.

LETTERS AGAINST SECESSION TO ROME.

LETTER IX.

August 29, 1848.

MY DEAR --I proceed now to consider your last series of extracts, selected from the writings of Tertullian, St Cyprian, St Gregory of Nyssa, and St Augustine, which will not, I am in hopes, detain us very long, the more so, as the subject will probably be afterwards discussed when we have occasion to examine some of the opinions in Dr Challoner's work. The subject of our present consideration is the long-established Romish error of Purgatory, with which a multitude of other erroneous opinions and practices are connected.

And on this occasion I must adopt a different method from what I have hitherto employed when considering the preceding extracts, supposed by the Romanists to sanction some errors of their Church. To all who are conversant with the current traditions of the later Jewish and earlier Christian writers, it is known, that certain notions were entertained, without much or any warranty from Scripture, of which traces are discernible in the writings of Plato, and many more in the later Platonistic school, about the commencement of the Christian era, favourable to the belief in the existence of a still farther probation after death in the invisible state, after the separation of