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DOCUMENTS Document 1. The Mission Oath [edited by Mgr Henson] Two different forms of the mission oath survive . Oath A is that prescribed by the constitutions of the College , 1 April 1600 , the original of which,
signed and sealed by Cardinals Borghese and Farnese, is preserved in the College archives (S 1 ) . The Seville oath and constitutions are identicalwith those of Valladolid (cf CRS 30/252 ) . This oath was amended under Urban VIII, by a decree of the S.C. de Propaganda Fide dated 19 September 1625, to include a new clause stipulating renunciation of the right to enter a religious order ( cf CRS 10 242,409) . This amended oath was later reimposed with some variationsunder Alexander VII , by a decreeof Propaganda dated 20 July 1660 (cf Knox, Douay Diaries , p 47) . However there is no evidence that the amended oaths of Urban VIII or of Alexander VII were ever used either at Seville or Valladolid. Oath B was used at Seville indiscriminatelywith the constitutionoath. was introduced before 1613, no doubt as the result of some internal unrest at the college . An analysis of the oaths preserved in the college archives (S XVII, B 67 1-37) is given below . The dates marked with an asterisk are those when Oath B was used . The constitution Oath A wasused in theother years. 1660 (5) *c 1686(1)
.
/
.
.
.
It
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c 1662 1 c 1663 (1) * 1667 ( 1 )
. .
.
()
*c.1687 (2)
1672 9
1713 ( ) 1720 (2)
()
*c.1673 ( 1)
*c.1681 ( 1 )
*c.1683 (1 )
*c.1712 ( 11) * 1721 ( 1) 1725 (3) 1766 (4)
undated (1)
Oath A: (S XVII , B 67 13) Ego Joannes Langleus Collegii Anglorum Hispalensis alumnus considerans divina erga me beneficia , et illud in primis quo me ex patria heresi laboranti duxit, et Ecclesiae suae Catholicae membrum effecit, cupiensque tantae Dei misericordiae non penitus me ingratumpraebere, statui me totum divino ejus famulatui, in quantum possum, pro fine hujus Collegii exequendo offerre, et promitto juroque Omnipotenti Deo me paratum esse animo, ac futurum semper, quantum divina ejus gratia me adiuverit, ut suo tempore sacros ordines suscipiam, et in Angliam ad proximorum animas lucrandas revertar , quandocumque Superiori hujus Collegiipro sui instituti rationemihi praecipere visum fuerit in Domino. Interim vero dum hic vivo, promitto me quiete et pacifice victurum, et Collegii institutiones regulasque
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pro meo virili observaturum .
Januarii40, 1660
Joannes Langleus