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NARRATIVE OF DR. SMITH'S AGENCY IN ROME
9. But the way for the restoration of peace which will be most effective and cause least friction will be to restore all our affairs to the condition which they were in under His Eminence Cardinal Allen, when we enjoyed mutual peace in England.52 If any should oppose such a restoration they will betray themselves as the authors of the troubles that have arisen . Let our Jesuits then have all the colleges, and all the authority over the students , that they possessed . But let them not steal our college at Douay under the cloak of Jesuits by desire .58 Let them not hinder the liberty of our priests to live where they will, or to go to Rome , or to attain honours .54 Let them make no attempt with His Holiness , or with the Cardinal Protector, or the Vice -Protector of England, to promote or to hinder the appointment of the superiors of the clergy in England or the college of Douay 55 Let the clergy have once more their own college of Douay and lecturers there as in the days of Cardinal Allen. Let them have the right to send students to the seminaries.56 Let them be free to acquire honours , or to live where it suits them, or to go to Rome without fear of imprisonment or danger from the Inquisition . In a word, whilst the Brief of Clement VIII and its interpretation made by the Holy Father remain in force, let all be brought back to the times of Cardinal Allen, and the
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peace that reigned will be restored .57
10. In fine, as those who are the complainants in the controversy are priests, let their petition be examined again and again . what they ask rightly belongs to the Jesuits , let them be non-suited and let perpetual silence be enjoined upon them. But if they are asking only that the aforesaid rights which they enjoyedunder Cardinal Allen, and which are similar to those enjoyed by the clergy everywhere else, should be ensured to them, surely they deserve to be granted so small and so just a boon, since they were the originators of this glorious English mission , and have poured out twenty times more blood in England for the defence of the faith and the Apostolic See than the Jesuits.58 Their gratitude for it will be unbounded . indeed peace, learning, piety and zeal for the conversion of England abound now more than in Cardinal Allen's time, by all means let the present conditions continue, but if the contrary is only evident let there be granted to us again , beg, that condition of affairs when we enjoyed not only peace but also so many other benefits in such great abundance .
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