Bellarmine · Apologia pro Responsione sua · Apology for His Answer to the Book of James, King of Great Britain, Entitled Triplici Nodo Triplex Cuneus
Chapter 0: Dedication to the Emperor Rudolf II and the Catholic Kings and Princes
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. XII, Apologia pro Responsione sua ad Librum Jacobi Magnae Britanniae Regis, an apology of 1609. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
To Rudolf II, Emperor, Caesar ever Augustus, and to the other kings and princes who acknowledge God as Father and the Catholic Church as Mother, his most clement lords, Robert Cardinal Bellarmine prays everlasting happiness from the Lord.
About three years ago James, king of Great Britain, proposed to his English Catholic subjects an oath to be taken, in which, under the appearance of the fidelity which is owed by peoples to princes, a denial of the Catholic faith was contained. Warned of this matter, the Supreme Pontiff Paul V, to whom the care of all the Churches belongs, in his pastoral office gave two letters, in the form of a Brief, to the English Catholics, instructing and teaching them to beware of the snares; for that oath could not be taken without the ruin of souls. And because the Archpriest of the English, who ought to have been the leader of the rest in avoiding the danger, was the first to fall into the pit, I wrote to him, with whom I had once had a close acquaintance, an exhortatory letter. When these offices of piety had been reported to the king, they stung his mind in a wonderful way. So he published a book, the name of the author being suppressed, in which he vehemently attacked both the Briefs of the Supreme Pontiff and my letter. The title of the book was: Triplici nodo triplex cuneus, a threefold wedge for a threefold knot. To that book, as soon as it came into my hands, I strove to answer briefly and modestly, lest perhaps the royal pamphlet should snatch from us that fruit which the Briefs of the supreme Shepherd and my letter had begun to bring forth in the minds of the faithful English. But because the royal book did not bear the name of its author, it seemed good to me also, for just causes, so to cover my name that nevertheless, according to the ecclesiastical rules, the book should bear the name of some learned man who, if need were, would give account of the book published. This necessary defence of mine the king, interpreting it for the worse, flared up, and coming down again into the arena, not only ordered the former pamphlet to be reprinted, professing himself its author, but also added a monitory preface, in which he so carps at my answer rather than refutes it, that at the same time he has not hesitated to solicit your Majesties and Highnesses to perfidy, and to draw you from the embrace of the Catholic Church, and to entice you to the bosom of the adulteress. I therefore have judged that this my Apology, in which I have resolved to refute the monitory preface and the refutation of my book, should be dedicated to you, orthodox and most powerful kings and princes; not to offer an antidote against a poison, of which I most certainly know that your Majesties and Highnesses, founded and rooted in the right faith, have no need at all; but because, since in the whole preface, and indeed in the whole royal book, it is I who am pricked, I who am carped at, I who am brought into ill will before your Majesties and Highnesses, it is fair that before the same I should defend myself, and give account of my writing, and at the same time (which is the proper office of the priests of the Lord) resist with all my strength those who attack the doctrines of our most holy faith. Nor ought it to seem new or unusual that we write against a king and royal pamphlets, where the necessity of the faith requires it, since there exist not a few books of ancient bishops, our forefathers, of Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, and Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, against the heretical emperor Constantius; of Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus, and Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, against the apostate emperor Julian. I shall set about, then, by your good leave, to examine the monitory preface, and I shall make my beginning from its inscription.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
' . ■ m mo iMcyi&M; oh". ' . i ' . : « u jv. -> • ■ ■ : ’!• ' ■ i ■: • ! Vi&HiaW amifrott . 1 ' \ RUDOLFO SECUNDO IMP. CjESARI semper augosto C/ETERISQUE REGIBUS, AC PRINCIPIBUS, QUI DEUM PATREM, ET ECCLESIAM CATHOLICAM MATREM AGNOSCUNT, DOMINIS SUIS CLEMENTISSIMIS ROBERTUS CARDINALIS BELLARM1NUS Felicitatem a Domino sempiternam precatur. Ante annos circiter tres Jacobus Magnas Britanniae rex juramentum subditis suis Anglis Catholicis suscipiendum proposuit, in quo sub specie fidelitatis, quae principibus debetur a populis, fidei Catholicae abnegatio continebatur. Admonitus de hac re summus Pontifex Pau¬ lus V, ad quem sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum pertinet, pro suo pa¬ storali munere binas litteras, in forma Brevis, ad Anglos Catholicos dedit, instruens eos, et docens, ut caverent insidias ; juramentum enim illud sine pernicie animarum suscipi non posse. Et quoniam Archi- presbyter Anglorum, qui cae teris dux esse debuerat ad periculum vi¬ tandum, primus in foveam cecidit; ego ad eum, cum quo mihi olim necessitudo intercesserat, exhortatoriam Epistolam scripsi. Haec officia pietatis cum ad regem delata fuissent, mirum in modum ejus animum pupugerunt. Itaque librum edidit, tacito nomine auctoris, quo et Brevia summi Pontificis, et Epistolam meam vehementer exagitavit. Libri inscriptio erat : Triplici nodo triplex cuneus. Ad eum librum, cum primum is ad manus meas pervenit, breviter, et modeste respondere studui ; ne forte libellus regius fructum illum nobis eriperet, quem Brevia summi Pastoris, et Epistola mea in animis fidelium Anglorum gignere ceperant. Quia vero regius liber nomen auctoris non praefere¬ bat; visum etiam mihi est justis de causis, nomen meum ita tegere, ut tamen juxta regulas Ecclesiasticas nomen alicujus docti viri liber gere¬ ret, qui, si opus esset, de libro edito rationem redderet. Hanc meam necessariam defensionem rex in deteriorem partem interpretatus, 7 ‘j t 9 118 APOLOGIA CAP. I. excanduit, rursusque in arenam descendens, non solum priorem libel¬ lum recudi jussit, se auctorem professus ; sed etiam addiditmonitoriam praefationem, qua ita responsionem meam carpit potius, quam refellit, ut simul Majestates, et Celsitudines Vestras ad perfidiam sollicitare, at¬ que ab Ecclesiae Catholicae complexu abstrahere, et ad sinum adulterae pellicere non dubitaverit. Ego igitur Apologiam hanc meam, qua prae¬ fationem monitoriam, et refutationem libri mei, refellere statui : Vobis reges, et principes orthodoxi, et potentissimi, dicandam esse censui : non ut antidotum contra venenum propinem, quo Majestates, et Cel¬ situdines Vestras in recta fide fundatas, et radicatas nequaquam egere, certissime scio ; sed quia cum in tota praefatione, atque adeo in toto re¬ gio libro ego pungar, ego carpar, ego apud Majestates, et Celsitudines Vestras in invidiam adducar, aequum est, ut apud easdem ipse me de¬ fendam, et scriptionis meae rationem reddam, et simul (quod Sacerdo¬ tum Domini proprium officium est) dogmata sanctissimae nostrae fidei impugnantibus pro viribus resistam. Neque debet novum, aut insolens videri, quod scribamus adversus regem, et regios libellos, ubi necessi¬ tas fidei id requirit, cum exstent libri non pauci veterum Episcoporum, majorum nostrorum, Hilarii Episcopi Pictaviensis, et Luciferi Episcopi Calaritani adversus Constantium imperatorem haereticum; Gregorii Episcopi Nazianzeni,et Gyrilli Episcopi Alexandrini adversus Julianum imperatorem apostatam. Aggrediar igitur, vestra bona venia, praefa¬ tionem monitoriam excutere, atque ab inscriptione principium faciam.