"I would first beg leave to observe that my three reviewers, in their zeal to speak for Cardinal Bellarmine, have not allowed him to speak for himself. They seem not to have remembered that this very passage was severely censured in his life-time, and that in the _Review_ which _he_ wrote _of his own works_, by way of explanation, he endeavoured to set up a defence for it, which is _wholly at variance with their apologies_ for him. He says, 'When I affirmed that, if the Pope commanded a vice or forbad a virtue, the church would be bound to believe virtue to be evil and vice good, I was speaking concerning _doubtful_ acts of virtue or vice; for if he ordered a _manifest_ vice, or forbad a _manifest_ virtue, it would be necessary to say with St. Peter, We must obey God rather than man.' Recognitio Librorum omnium Roberti Bellarmini ab ipso edita, Ingolstad, 1608, p. 19. 'Ubi diximus quod si Papa præciperet vitium aut prohiberet virtutem, Ecclesia teneretur credere virtutem esse malam et vitium esse bonum, locuti sumus de actibus _dubiis_ virtutum aut vitiorum; nam si præciperet _manifestum_ vitium aut prohiberet _manifestam_ virtutem, dicendum esset cum Petro _obedire oportet magis Deo quam hominibus_.' "This is his own defence; let it be received for what it is worth; it differs entirely from that which the reviewers make for him." It would occupy too much of your valuable space to insert the whole of Dr. Wordsworth's observations, which, however, every one who is desirous of thoroughly investigating the subject, _ought_ to read and consider. TYRO. Dublin. THE GOOKINS OF KENT. (Vol. i., pp. 385. 492.) In the 1st volume of the _New England Historical and Genealogical Register_, pp. 345., &c., and in subsequent volumes, an interesting account, by J. W. Thornton, Esq., of Boston, may be found of the "Gookins of America," who are descendants of Sir Vincent Gookin, Knt., to whom your correspondents refer.