Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

1636 and 1866. 123
over-sanguine for having sincerely entertained
the Re-union idea,* which he evidently con
templated putting into practice when a fitting
opportunity should arise. Of his zeal for true
religion there can be little doubt.
<*
On the other hand two obvious reasons ex
isted why Pope Urban should send an Envoy
to England. First, to appease the disquiet
which controversies concerning the Catholic
o
Oath had notoriously created : and, secondly, to
i/ / ** /
obtain correct information regarding the con-
~ o
nicting opinions with reference to the necessity
of continued Episcopal government for the
English Roman Catholics, who, up to the year
1623, had been superintended by an arch-priest.
But other causes evidently gave rise to this act.
The Pope was most anxious to be accurately
informed of the true state of the Church of
England ; and the conditional offer of a Car
dinal s hat to Archbishop Laud, immediately on
his elevation to the
primatial see of Canterbury,
together with the ventilation of the Re-union
idea amongst Anglican prelates, by the Papal
Envoy, sufficiently prove the Holy Father s sin
cerity, foresight and good- will on this subject.
Fattier Leander, an English Benedictine
monk,!
was first commissioned to come to
* Vide a Letter from King Charles to Captain Arthur
Brett, the Queen s agent in Rome. State Papers A.D. 1635.
t F. Leander de S. Martlno, Congregationis Anglian Bene-