Note 143 — Chapter VII

Whitelocke, when Ambassador to the Court of Sweden, had the following conversation with the Archbishop of Upsala. Archbishop: "No one must vent his private fancies or new opinions contrary to the doctrine of the Church. If he does, we severely punish it." Whitelocke: "That is somewhat strict, and may be construed to a kind of assumption of infallibility." Archbishop: "We take no such thing upon us, but desire to preserve peace and unity in the Church and its members." Whitelocke: "Those are good things, but I doubt hardly to be settled in this world, where offences must come." Archbishop: "But woe to those by whom they come." Whitelocke: "They may possibly come by imposing too much on men's consciences as well as by new opinions."—Memoirs of Whitelocke, 375.