and
all the saints and hosts of heaven, and to you my ghostly
father, do declare from my heart, without mental reservation,
that his Holiness Pope ---- is Christ's Vicar General, and is
the true and only Head of the Catholic or universal Church
throughout the earth; and by the virtue of the keys of binding
and loosing, given to his Holiness by my Saviour Jesus Christ,
he hath power to depose heretical kings, princes, states,
commonwealths, and governments, all being illegal without his
sacred confirmation, and that they may safely be destroyed:
THEREFORE, to the utmost of my power, I shall and will defend
this doctrine, and his Holiness' rights and customs, against
all usurpers of the heretical (or Protestant) authority
whatsoever; especially against the now pretended authority and
Church of England, and all adherents, in regard that they and
she be usurpal and heretical, opposing the sacred mother Church
of Rome, I do renounce and disown any allegiance as due to
Protestants, or obedience to any of their inferior magistrates
or officers, I do further declare the doctrine of the Church of
England, the Calvinists, Huguenots, and of others of the name
Protestants, to be damnable, and that they themselves are
damned, and to be damned, that will not forsake the same. I do
further declare, that I will help, assist, and advise all or
any of his Holiness' agents, in any place wherever I shall be,
in England, Scotland, and Ireland, or in any other territory or
kingdom I shall come to, and do my utmost to extirpate the
heretical Protestant's doctrine, and to destroy all their
pretended powers, regal or otherwise. I do further promise and
declare, that notwithstanding I am dispensed with, to assume
any religion heretical, for the propagating of the mother
Church's interest, to keep secret and private all her agents'
counsels, from time to time, as they intrust me, and not to
divulge, directly or indirectly, by word, writing, or
circumstance, whatever, but to execute all that shall be
proposed, given in charge, or discovered unto me, by you my
ghostly father, or any of this sacred convent. All which, I, A.
B., do swear, by the blessed Sacrament I am now to receive, to
perform, and on my part to keep inviolable; and do call all the
heavenly and