SECT. 1.

As for Principles of the Church of Rome rela­ting to Government, and the Obedience to be paid to Secular Princes, where shall we look for them, but in the Canons of her Councils, the Decretals of her Popes, and the publick Writings of her appro­ved and most eminent Doctors?

In their great and (by them acknowledged) general, Lateran Council, held under Pope Innocent the Third, in the year of our Lord 1215, it is expressly and Synodically concluded, Can. 3. de Haereticis, That the Pope may Depose Kings, Absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance, Et Ter­ram exponere Catholicis occupandam, and give a­way their Kingdoms to Catholicks. And this is re­ceived into the Body of the Canon-Law by Pope Gregory the Ninth, cap. Excommunicamus, 13 Extrav. de Haeret.

The most famous of their School-men, Thomas Aquinas, l. 22. q. 12. Art. 2. affirms, That any man sinning by Infidelity, may be adjudged to lose all right of Dominion: and therefore so soon as anyone shall, for disowning the Faith, be judicially denounced Excommunicate, ipso facto, his Subjects are Absolved from his Government, and from any Oath of Allegiance whereby they were bound to him. Nay, another of [Page 3] their Doctors, Dominicus Bannes, is yet more hasty; for he will have the Subjects discharged from all Obedience, even before their Prince is so solemnly pronounced an heretick. His words are these: Num. 22. pag. 590. Where there is evident know­ledge of the Crime, [Heresie he means; that is, whatever the Pope and his Priests please to call so,] the Subjects may lawfully, if they have strength sufficient, [pray mark!] exempt themselves from the power of their Prince, even before the Sentence De­claratory. And this Conclusion (saith he) is followed by Cajetan, and is the more common opinion of the Thomists, who generally approve thereof.

If Kings become Hereticks, forthwith their Subjects are freed from their Government, saith Simancha in his Catholick Institutions, (a Book printed with great Approbation of Superiors,) Titul. 23. N. 11. Nay, less than down-right Heresie will serve turn to out them: for, Tit. 45. Num. 25. he tells us, If a Prince be unprofitable, (a Crime capable of a large extension) or make unjust Laws against Re­ligion or good manners, or do any thing to the detri­ment of Spirituals, the Pope may apply a fit Remedy, even by depriving such a King of his Government and Jurisdiction.

Their great Oracle, Cardinal Bellarmine, de Rom. Pontif. lib. 5. cap. 6. avers, That the Pope, as chief Spiritual Prince, may change Kingdoms, and take them away from one to give to another, if it be neces­sary for the salvation of Souls. And in the seventh Chapter, he advanceth a little further: for spea­king of Heretical Princes (as we know all Pro­testants are in their sence) he says, Omnium Con­sensu [Page 4] possunt ac debent privari suo Dominio: It is agreed by all, (all Roman Catholicks he means) That such Princes may, nay ought to be deprived of their Dominions. So that it seems 'tis the Popes duty (as well as in his power) to do it; and of all Roman Catholicks, not onely to approve there­of, but to be assisting therein.

Upon this ground, Suarez, a First-rate Jesuit, and one that was thought fit by his Party to Du [...]l the learnedest Monarch in the world, in his Book against King James, intituled, De Fide Catholic [...] adv. Angl. lib. 6. cap. 16. num. 14. speaks out more fully their Doctrine: We must know (says he) that after the Sentence Condemnatory is given against a King, by lawful [he means Papal] Au­thority, to deprive him of his Kingdom, or (which is all one) when by Sentence he is declared to be guilty of such a Crime as by the Law hath such a Penalty imposed; [as whatever they list to count Heresie hath by their Canon-Law] then he that pronoun­ced that Sentence, or he to whom it is committed, may deprive such King of his Kingdoms, even by Killing him, if he cannot otherwise do it. But then mark! how scrupulous and provident they are, that the Trayterous Murther be done methodically, and that none but Roman Catholicks be concern'd in the sacred Butchery: For thus he goes on; If the Pope depose a King, yet he may not be killed or ex­pelled, save onely by those to whom He shall commit the doing thereof. But if he commit the doing thereof to no-body, then it belongs to him that is next lawful [that is, Catholick] Successor to the Kingdom; or if there be no such Successor, or he ne­glect to do it, then the Community of the Kindom [Page 5] (provided always it be Roman Catholick) suc­ceed in that Right, viz. to Expel or Kill such Ex­communicated Prince.

Creswel, alias Philopater, sect. 2. num. 160. de­clares, Omnium Catholicorum Sententia, &c. That 'tis the opinion of all Catholicks, That Subjects are obliged to Depose an Heretical King. Nay, to drive the Nail home, he there adds, Num. 162. Prae­cepto Divino, & arctissimo Conscientiae vinculo, ac ex­tremo Animarum suarum Periculo, Haereticos Princi­pes debent Deturbare: That by the Law of God, by the most strict Bond of Conscience, and at the utmost peril of their Souls, they are bound to dethrone and drive out such Heretical Princes.

Pursuant to this Doctrine of their Teachers, it appears, Papists may lawfully, nay are bound un­der pain of Damnation, to Renounce, Resist, and Murther their Kings, whenever Excommunicated or Deposed by the Pope; and are not to account it any Treason to kill such a King after such Depo­sition: For neither is He then a King, nor are his people (being absolv'd from their Oaths of Fidelity) any longer his Subjects. Nor is it Murther: for their Supream and Infallible Judge, Pope Ʋrban the Second, hath clearly re­solved and determined it, and made it Law, Non esse Homicidas, qui adversus Excommunicatos, Zelo Matris Ecclesiae Armantur, cos [...], trucidant. Gratian, Lemma ad 47 cap. Excommunicatorum, Caus. 47. Quest. 5. That they are not Murtherers or Manslayers, who being stirred up with Zeal toward holy Mother-Church, against persons Excommunicated, do any way destroy them.

Now Simanea tells us, Heretici omnes ipso Jure [Page 6] sunt Excommunicati, de Excom. tit. 27. sect. 1. fol. 116. Every Heretick stands, and is to be reputed, as Excommunicated, if not de Facto, yet de Jure, in Law and Right: and therefore may be deposed, proscribed, and murthered. And that we may know who they mean by an Heretick, Father Creswell, in his said Book called Philopater, thus resolves the Case: Regnandi Jus amittit, qui Religionem Roma­nam deserit: Whoever forsakes or does not hold the Religion of the Church of Rome, is that Heretick we speak of, who is accursed, and loses all Right of Dominion.

Furthermore, by a Bull of Pope Paul the Fifth, dated Anno 1558, and now inserted in the body of their Law, lib. 7. Decret. tit. 3. de Haereticis & Schism. cap. 9. All Protestant Kings, Princes, and Subjects, and Quicunque bactenus à fide deviârunt, seu in Posterum deviabunt, seu in Haeresin incident, &c. Not onely all that at that time had swerv'd from the Roman faith, but all such also as should, at any time afterwards, deviate from the same, and sall into Heresie, are declared Excommunicated, and solemnly Cursed: and if they be Kings or Emperours, they are thereby totally and for ever deprived of their Kingdoms and Empires, and rendered incapable ever to enjoy them. So run the words expresly, Regnis & Imperio penitus & in tetum perpetuo sint privati, & ad illa de caetero inhabiles & incapaces. Hence it appears, that by the Tenor of this Babylonish Bull, our gracious King and his Protestant Subjects now, are as much under the cursed Cursing Sentence as Queen Elizabeth and her people were when it was first denounced; and consequently deposed, deprived, and lawfully to be Kill'd, &c. But to [Page 7] make sure work, the Curse is solemnly renewed every year on Maunday-Thursday, by reading the Bulla Coenae Domini; the words whereof are, Ex­communicamus & Anathematizamus, ex parte Dei, &c. We do, on the behalf of God, and by the Autho­rity of Peter and Paul, and also by our own, Excom­municate and Anathematize all Hussites, Wicklissists, Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, Hugonots, &c. (under which Nick-names they comprehend all Protestants) and whoever shall receive, defend, or favour them. So that if any Papist shall assist or defend his Prince, being Protestant, it appears he is by this Sentence Excommunicated and Cursed by the Pope, whom he verily believes (if he be a true Roman Catholick, and understands his Re­ligion) has right and power to do it.

A thousand other the like abominable Assertions, tending directly to Sedition and Rebellion, might be produced out of their Canon-Law, and the Works of Bellarmine, Suarez, Parsons, Allen, Cres­well, Ros [...]aeus (a Book Canoniz'd by the Pope in Consistory) and others; but these are sufficient. Nor can the subtlest Jesuit ever avoid this Evi­dence with any colour of Reason or Modesty: for here is the determination of one of their Infallible Councils, and that, confirmed by an Infallible Pope, and the concurrent Testimonies of several the most eminent Fathers of their Church agreeable thereunto; all printed with Approbation, and ne­ver judicially condemn'd, nor such their Opinions censured: for though so many Indices Expurga­torii have stifled, or at least maim'd and dismem­bred better Books, yet these pass openly abroad un­toucht, and are allow'd to be read, though the [Page 8] Bible be prohibited. And therefore, notwithstand­ing all their idle and impudent Evasions (that these are but the Sentiments of particular private men) 'tis evident that their Church holds, encourages, and is justly chargeable with maintaining these Tenets destructive to Civil Government, and en­joyning them to be believed, and (as opportu­nities shall serve) put in practise by her Chil­dren.

SECT. 2.

This will yet be more undeniable, if we consi­der the ill uses and applications of these Do­ctrines, and how frequently in many Ages they have actually been put in execution, to the great disturbance of Christendom, and embroiling King­doms in Bloud and Confusion: for never did sa­vage Bear or Tygre fill his Den with the Bones of men and beasts, as this Romish Wolf hath his Church with the Spoils of Princes; there being scarce any Age since his Teeth were grown, where­in he hath not, to the utmost of his power, made havock of their Lives and Estates. Take a few Examples.

Anno 729, Pope Gregory the Second Excom­municated Leo Isaurus the Emperour, because he would not admit of Images in Churches: and for that Crime of opposing Idolatry, forbad the pay­ment of his Tribute, and gave away his Territories to the Lombards; whereby he and his Successors lost all the Western Empire, which the Pope and the French-King afterwards shared between them. [And so they would do others Kingdoms now [Page 9] too, if they could master them.] This glorious Act of Rebellion in Gregory against his Soveraign Lord, Cardinal Baronius applauds, saying, Exemplum Po­steris dignum reliquit, ne in Ecclesiâ Christi regnare sinerentur Haeretici Principles: He left a worthy Ex­ample to Posterity, that Heretical Princes should not be suffered to Raign.

Soon after, Pope Zachary Deposed Chilperick King of France, and gave his Kingdom to Pepin, one of his Subjects and Servants, not so much (as we find the reason rendred in Gratian) for any Ini­quity Chilperick was guilty of, as for that his Ho­liness esteemed him, Tantae potestati inutilem, unfit, or unprofitable for so great a power; that is, Pepin was like (as he had reason, after such a kindness) to gra­tifie his Holiness more, and serve him better.

How lamentably and shamelesly was the Empe­rour Henry the Fourth vexed by three Popes suc­cessively? first, Hildebrand picks a causeless quarrel with him, (Confictis Criminibus, with alleadging false and feigned Crimes, say the Historians of that Age) Excommunicates him, absolves his Subjects from their Obedience, and sets up against him Ro­dulph Duke of Swaben and Burgundy, a Feudatary Subject to the Empire; sending him a Crown, with this verse engraven:

But for all the Popes Gift and Blessing, Rodolph miserably perisht in his Treason. However, Hilde­brand's [Page 10] Successour, Pope Ʋrban, carried on the im­placable quarrel, and unnaturally stirred up Conra­dus the said Emperours own Son, to make War against his Father; who dying in that Rebellion, another Son (who succeeded) was arm'd against him, who took him Prisoner, and forc'd him to resign the Empire. The Indignities offered to this Noble Prince, by the Romish Lucifers, have swelled divers Volumes. Amongst many other Insolencies, this was one, That Hildebrand would not Release him from his Excommunication, till on a time, in the midst of winter, he came Bare-footed to Ca­misium, where the Pope lay, and in that posture waited three days before the Gates of his Palace: nor had he scarce at last got Absolution, but for the intercession of a certain Dutchess, for whom his Holiness had a kindness.

Henry the Fifth his Son, for maintaining the Priviledges of the Empire, and Rights of his Predecessours touching the Investiture of Bishops, was Excommunicated by Pope Paschal the Second. and by him and his Successours miserably vexed till his death.

The Emperour Frederick the First was scarce ever free from the Treasons of the Pope and his Clergy; and at last to purchase his peace, was fain to cast himself groveling upon the Floor, whilst the Pope set his foot on his Neck, profaning that saying of the Psalmist—Thou shalt walk upon the Lion, and the Asp; the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet. And when the Bi­gotted Prince, to excuse that shameful servile sub­mission, was heard to mutter, Non tibi, sed Petro, I do not pay this Homage to you, but to Peter; the [Page 11] haughty Prelate sternly replyed, Et mihi & Petro; Sir, you shall do it both to Peter and me too.

The Emperour Henry the Seventh, after the Pope and his Cardinals had long opposed his Co­ronation, and instigated many Enemies against him, was at last poysoned by a Monk, (one of their Creatures) in the Sacrament. And cer­tainly, all the wit and malice of Hell and Rome club­bed together, could never have screw'd villany to an higher pitch, than these Miscreants did, by empoisoning their God, (as they pretend to believe it) on purpose therewith to destroy and Murther their lawful Sovereign.

Joan Queen of Naples was deprived of her King­dom by Pope Ʋrban, who consented to her Mur­ther. 'Tis well known how our King John was intolerably vexed and deprived by the Pope and his Agents, and at last poysoned by a Monk: as also our Henry the Second, about the death of that turbulent Traytor Becket, who had occasioned so many uproars in the State, was by Popish appoint­ment enforced to submit his Royal Back to the cruel Lashes of the Insolent Monks of Canterbury.

When our King Hen. 8. denyed, and by Law in the 24th and 25th years of his Reign, had ta­ken away the Popes Usurped Supremacy, though he and the Nation in general still continued in the Communion of the Church of Rome; Pope Paul the Third presently Curses and Damns him and all his good Subjects: for so is the Title of his Bull:—Damnatio & Excommunicatio He [...] ▪ 8. ejusque Fautorum & Complicum. The Dan­nation and Excommunication of King Henry the Eighth, and all his Adherents and Favourers. And [Page 12] so it might properly be Intituled; for therein he not only deprives him of his Kingdom and Ter­ritories, forbids him and all that should take part with him Christian Burial; but also declares him and them Eternally Damned. He likewise deprives all the Kings Children, born or to be born of Queen Anne, and all the Children of his Adhe­rents, of their Rights, Priviledges, and Goods; annuls all Oaths and Treaties made with the King, and commands all Christian Princes to make War up­on him and his people: and if they should take any of his Subjects, (who obey the said King, and dis­obey these his Holinesses Commands) then all and every such persons so taken, to be Slaves for ever to those that take them; with several other horrid Im­pieties, which you may see in Bullario Romano, Printed at Lions, 1655. Tom. 1. p. 704.

Since this, Henry the Third of France, after va­rious Treasons and Conspiracies of the Sorbonists against him, was at last, An. 1589. Murdered by Jaques Clement, a zealous young Friar; on which Assassination, Pope Sixtus the Fifth made a Pane­gyrical Oration in the Consistory, and commended the same as a most Heroick and Religious Exploit; and the Traiterous Assassinate being killed on the Attempt, a Statue of Brass was made for him, by the Command of the chief of the League; his Picture set up in Churches, & he was sometimes prayed to by the Title of Saint Jaques Clement. And to note the just Judgment of God, 'tis affirmed, that this [...]urther was committed in the self-same Chamber a St Clou, where a Council had been held, Anno 1572. wherein the horrid Massacre of the Prote­stans at Paris was resolved upon; this King, then [Page 13] Duke of Anjou, being one of the chiefest of that Bloody Cabal. See Thuanus, l. 51. and Serres, p. 789.

His Successour, the Great Henry the Fourth, (Grandfather to our present Gracious Sovereign) after by a desperate Rebellion, and Catholick League against him meerly on the account of his Religion, he found himself obliged to declare himself a Ro­man-Catholick; was, notwithstanding all that, first desperately wounded, by John Chastel, a Disci­ple of the Jesuites, and by them suborned there­unto; in memory whereof, a Pillar was erected in Paris, to the Infamy of the Jesuites, and they banisht the Realm, though not long after, by their subtilty and Interest they got in again, where their mischievous Influence hath not a little contributed towards Enkindling and Fomenting those fatal Flames which for divers years by-past have ra­ged through so great a part of Christendome; and particularly, that kindness of their Re-admissi­on did not at all abate their malice, or secure the Life of that great Prince; for afterwards, in the year 1610. he was Murdered out-right by Ravilliac, formerly a Monk, but at that time a Sollicitor; who was instigated to that divellish act by the Jesuits, as 'tis violently presumed, as well by the manner of the thing, as the constancy of his car­riage at death, and Confession that he made, that he did it onely because the King favoured Hereticks, and was preparing to make War against the Pope, which was to fight against God, &c. as also, for that he farther acknowledged, that he had inform­ed Father d'Aubigny, a Jesuite; of his intended Murder, and shewed him the Knife: but it was in [Page 14] Confession, and so by their Doctrine not to be re­vealed: and the said d'Aubigny being taken into examination, denyed that he knew any thing of it or could have discovered it if it were revealed to him in Confession, though he had never so much a mind to it: For he protested, that God had given him the Grace, that as soon as any thing was reveale [...] to him in Confession, the presently forgot it. 'Tis pity Father Garnet had not had such an excuse for his knowledge of the Powder-Treason, pretended to be communicated to him the same way.

SECT. 1.

THE Insolencies of Popes, and Treasons of Pa­pists, re-counted in the fore-going Chapter, were all against Emperours, Kings, and Princes, that generally owned the Church of Rome; whence 'tis abundantly apparent, to all that are not wil­fully blind, That Papists of themselves, and as such, even before the Society of Jesuits was hatcht, were a sort of very dangerous Subjects, always ready, nay oblig'd to Rebel against their Princes, though of the same Faith and Religion with themselves, when ever the Pope out of Interest or humour should put them upon it; being obliged by the principles of their Religion so to do. And can it then rea­sonably be expected, that they will ever be Faithful and Loyal to Protestant (in their account Heretical) Princes; especially, now the Jesuits have so vastly improved and advanced Maxims of Treason, Mur­ther, Equivocation, &c. as if they intended to ba­nish, not onely all Obedience to Kings, but together therewith, all kind of sincere Religion, Truth, and Moral Honesty between Man and Man, out of the World? Concerning the good Affection of this Society to Protestant Princes, we may take our [Page 16] measures from their own expressions. Father Cam­pian a Jesuite, and, though Hang'd at Tyburn, about the year 1581. for High-Treason, yet at Rome reputed a famous Martyr, and stiled by Ri­badeneira, (in Catalogo Scriptorum societatis Jesu, p. 377. in Indice Martyrum) Martyr Christi inclytus, sui seculi Clarissimus; A most renowned and famous Martyr of Christ; This holy man was not ashamed to declare in print, in the year 1583. (as is attest­ed by Hospinian) That all Jesuits in the world had entred into an holy Vow and Covenant, any way to de­stroy all Heretical Kings; nor did they despair of doing it effectually, so long as any one Jesuit should remain in the World. And Father Creswel (a bird of the same feather) in his Philopater, lays down this sweet Lesson; Ita informandos quoscunque Catholicos, ut oblatâ caedis occasione nullo impedimento se dimo­veri patiantur: That all Catholicks are to be taught and instructed, that when they have an opportunity to kill Hereticks, (Kings or others, 'tis no matter) they should not spare them, nor suffer any impediment to hinder them from the slaughter.

SECT. 2.

This is their Doctrine; now let us see their Practi­ces here in England ever since the Reformation.

The Raign of our good King Edward the Sixth was but short, (whether not shortned by Popish Arts, is deservedly questioned) and he himself a minor; yet during his time there were Rebellions and Commotions in Somersetshire and Lincolnshire, for which many were Executed; then in Cornwal and Devonshire, where above 4000 were slain and [Page 17] taken Prisoners by John Lord Russel, Lord Privy-Seal: then they Rebelled in Norfolk and Suffolk; against whom the Earl of Warwick advanced with an Army, and slew above 5000. About the same time there was a great Rising in the North and East-Ridings of Yorkshire, but suppressed by the Lord President. All these Insurrections were owned to be on the behalf of their R [...]gion, and fomen­ted and abetted by Popish Priests, of whom divers were taken amongst the Rebels, and deservedly pu­nished.

SECT. 3.

To set forth all the Popish Plots, Designs, and Conspiracies against the Life and Crown of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory, it would be ne­cessary to Transcribe a great part of the History of her Illustrious Reign; and therefore we shall take no­tice [...] of some of the most remarkable occur­rences of that kind, and the true Principles upon, and by which they were promoted.

1. As to the Original of Recusancy, and occa­sions which rendred the Law against Papists abso­lutely necessary, it must be remembred, that from the First to the Eleventh year of the Reign of that Queen, Papists generally repaired to our Churches; see the proceedings against the Powder-Traitors. p. 109. I my self, saith Sir Edward Coke, have seen Corn­wallis, Beddingfield, and others, (notorious and zealous Papists) at Church, making no doubt of Conscience to joyn with us in Prayer. But about the year 1569, Pope Pius the Fifth was no sooner seated in the Pontificial Chair, but he began [Page 18] practice to justle her out of her Royal Throne: to this purpose he employed one Bidolph a Florentine to raise a Faction here, and afterwards sent over Doctor Nicholas Morton to promote it; engaged the Spaniard to assist the Conspirators; and Cha­pinus Vitellius came privately over on other preten­ces, to observe the success, and head the Spanish Troops when they should arrive. Pursuant to these Counsels, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, with 4000 Foot and 600 Horse, ap­pear in open Rebellion, and declare for the Resti­tution of the Roman Religion; but were soon put to slight; and Sanders, de Schismate Angl. tells us the reason, viz. For that the rest of the Catholicks, because the Pope had not yet publickly denounced sen­tence of Excommunication against the Queen, so as they did not seem fairly absolved from her Obedience, declined to joyn with them; by which means they were easily chased by the Queens Forces into Scot­land, where afterward, Northumberland being ta­ken, was brought back to York, and there, faith he, happily ended his days by a glorious Martyrdome. So usual a thing it is, with these Popish Doctors, first to excite people to the blackest Treasons, and then guild over the deserv'd punishments which they suffer for the same, with that specious Title. His crafty Holiness was not insensible of the reason of this miscarriage; and therefore, to prevent the like failure, and the better to encourage all his Catho­lick Vassals to joyn in such pious Rebellion against the Queen, he early the next Spring sends forth his Roaring Bull, or Sentence of Anathema; where­in he first magnifies his own Office and Authority in these Rhodomontado's: He that Reigneth on [Page 19] high, to whom is given all power in Heaven and Earth, hath committed the One, Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church, (out of which there is no Salva­tion) to One alone on Earth, viz. to the Prince of the Apostles, Peter, and to Peters Successour the Bishop of Rome, to be governed in plenitude of power, &c. Sanders 3. de Schism. Angl. p. 368. Then having railed a while most Apostolically, and called that incomparable Princess Flagitiorum serva, the slave of wickedness and villanies, he proceeds to Curse her in these words: Therefore supported with his Authority who was pleased to place us (though unable for so great a burthen) in this Supreme Throne of Ju­stice, out of the plenitude of Our Apostolick power, We do declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, (being an He­retick and favourer of Hereticks) and all her Adhe­rents, to have incurred the Sentence of Anathema, and to be cut off from the unity of Christs Body; and by the Authority of these Presents, We do deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended Right to the King­dom, and of all Dominion, Dignity, and Priviledge whatsoever: And We do Absolve all the Nobles, Subjects and People of the said Kingdoms, and all others who have in any sort sworn unto her, from such Oath or Oaths; and all manner of Duty, Fidelity, and Obedience; and do forbid and command them, and every of them, that they presume not to obey her, [...] her Commands and Laws: those that shall do other­wise, to be lyable to the some Curse. Id. Ibid. This Bull towards the end of May 1570. was brought over, and fixed on the Gates of the Bishop of Londons Palace, by one John Felton; and Copies of the same sent to the aforesaid Bidolph, to be disper­sed throughout England. Then, and not till then [Page 20] it was, that those inclinable to the Romish Super­stitions, did presently refrain our Churches, would no longer hear the established Divine Service, nor have any more Society with us in Prayer; so that Reeusancy (so called from their refusing to come to Church, which as the word was scarce known till this time, so was it not specially or particularly pu­nished by any Law, till afterwards in the Twenty third year of the Queen) was not in them at first, nor can be now, for Religion, but for acknowledg­ing of, and stickling for the Popes usurping power. They absent themselves from our Churches, not because there is any thing there transacted in it self unlawful, or prohibited by the Word of God, for then they ought always to have kept away, but because the Pope, (in opposition to the Law of God, enjoyning both Obedience to our Gover­nours, and Charity and Brotherly Communion amongst each other) has forbidden them so to do: and this unrighteous siding with the Pope, against their lawful Sovereign, hath been the main founda­tion of all their Treasonable and Rebellious practi­ces, that have ensued from thence to this very day

2. Soon after this Anathema, Bidolph by the Popes Order having distributed amongst the Confede­rates, one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns, (as we are informed by Catena, who wrote that Popes Life, and was Secretary to his Nephew Cardina [...] Alexandrino) returned to give his Holiness an ac­count how far all things were ready, and by him is sent away to engage the King of Spain; offe­ring, if need should be, to expose all the Treasures of the Apostolick See, and even pawn the Chalices Crucifixes, and Sacred Vestments, to carry on so ho­ly [Page 21] an Enterprize. But whilst Spain was preparing for the Invasion, it pleased God to discover the whole Plot, by a Messengers being intercepted with Letters to the Queen of Scots, the Spanish Am­bassador, the Duke of Norfolk, (who was drawn into the Conspiracy by some under-hand promises, or hopes of Marrying the said Scotish Queen) and others, whereby all their Project was blasted, Norfolk seized, Tryed, found guilty, and some time after Beheaded.

Pope Pius Quintus, (whom Queen Elizabeth was wont to call Impius intus) died about the year 1572. Gregory the Thirteenth succeeded him, as in his Popedom, so in his endeavours to disturb Englands Tranquillity; which he was first for gi­ving away to Don John of Austria, base Brother to the King of Spain, and by him substituted Go­vernour of the Low Countries; but he being snatcht away by Death, another intrigue is carried on between the Pope and that King himself, the one providing Men, the other Money: England and Ireland are both to be Invaded at once, the latter by Forces under the Command of Tho. Stukeley an English Fugitive, whom the Pope had made Marquiss, Earl, Viscount, and Baron, (so pro­digal he was of his Honours) of several eminent places in that Kingdom. But Stukely in his Voyage from Italy, diverting to assist Sebastian King of Portugal in his Expedition in Africk against the Moors, was with most of his men slain, in that memorable Battle, where Three Kings were cut off in one day, Anno 1578.

But notwithstanding this discouragement, next year one James Fitz-Morice was sent into Ireland, [Page 22] with some Troops from Spain; and from the Pope, our late-cited Author Saunders, in the qua­lity of his Legate, and with a Consecrated Ban­ner; which were re-inforced in the year 1580. with 700 Italian and Spanish Souldiers, under one San Joseph, who likewise brought some Money and Arms for 5000 Irish; on whom, the better to encourage them in Rebellion, his Holiness be­stowed his Apostolical Benediction, and sent them a Bull, reciting, That whereas he had of late years by his Letters, exhorted them to the recovery of their Liberty, and Defence of it against the Hereticks, &c. and that they might more cheerfully do it, had grant­ed to all such as should be any ways assisting therein, a plenary Pardon and Forgiveness of all their sins: He now furthermore grants to all such, whom he ex­horts, requires, and urges in the Lord, to assist a­gainst the said Hereticks, the same plenary Indul­gence and Remission of their sins, which those who fight against Turks and Infidels do obtain. [Vide Hi­stor. Cathol. Hibern.] Though how much greater or more effectual that is, or can be, than a plenary Pardon of all sins, which he had promised them before, we do not readily apprehend; but it seems his Infallibility-ship did imagine that expression would be more taking amongst the Irish: nor did he onely egg them on with such fair words, but promised a Crusado, and to bestow, rather then fail, a Million of Crowns in the Expedition: but still all was blasted; for these Italians with their Irish Confederates, and whole Party, were happi­ly routed by the Queens Troops, at the very in­stant when divers Ships were at Sea to bring them more Forces and Assistance; and Sanders [Page 23] the Popes Legate miserably perished for hunger in the Woods, and (as some say) distracted and ra­ving mad, upon the ill success of this hopeful Rebellion.

SECT. 4.

Besides these open Secular Forces of Spain and Rome, the Pope about this time employed another Spiritual sort of Militia to promote his designs, viz. the Seminaries, who now began to swarm in great numbers, thereby laying then such a ground-work for future disturbances, not onely to Queen Elizabeth, but even to all her Succes­sours, and to this Nation, and the Protestant Re­ligion in general, that hitherto it hath wrought, and is still working by undermining restless Policies and Projects; the dangerous effects whereof we feel at this day, in this late discovered Plot, and so are like to continue, to all successive Generations, as long as the Seminaries and Jesuitism remain in the World, whose Trade and Business it is, to en­courage themselves and others in Mischiefs; or, (in the phrase of the Psalmist) To commune a­mongst themselves, how they may privily lay snares. The first of these Nests of Treason, or Randesvou­zes of Rebellion, was erected at Doway, in the year 1568. the English Fugitive Priests assembling themselves there by the design of William Allen, (the most learned amongst them) and living toge­ther in a common Colledge-like Discipline, the Pope allowing them an Annual Pension. Soon af­ter, another like Seminary was establisht at Rheims, by the bloody Guises, the Queen of Scots Kins­men; [Page 24] a third at Rome by Pope Gregory the Thir­teenth; and afterwards a fourth at Valledolid in Spain. That there might never want a successive Generation of men of corrupt minds, heady, high­minded, despisers of Dominion, Idolatrous and Trai­terous Priests, to poison England with their false Doctrines and pernicious Principles.

And because the before-mentioned Bull of Pius the Fifth had not yet sufficiently produced its intended effects, even with many Papists them­selves, who seeing the Neighbour Popish Princes and States not to forbear their wonted Negotiati­ons with the Queen, continued still in their Obe­dience to her, and were displeased at the said Bull, as a mischievous Snare, putting them upon this miserable Dilemma, either to be Executed for Treason against the Queen if they did resist, or be accursed by their Holy Father if they did obey her; therefore, for their satisfaction, and to extricate them out of that Labyrinth wherein they were thus involved, an Expedient was found out, and afterwards re-inforced by Pope Gregory the Thir­teenth, viz. A Decree, or Explanation, That the Bull aforesaid should always oblige Elizabeth and the Hereticks, but not the Catholicks, Rebus sic stantibus, whilst affairs remained in that posture, but that they might render their outward obedi­ence to her, Ad redimendam vexationem, & ad ostendendam externam obedientiam, donec publica Bullae Execretio fieri possit: To prevent their being troubled, for so long onely, until they might get into strength suf­ficient to put the said Bull publickly into execution. See Thuan. l. 74. and Camden, An. 1580.

[Page 25] And to the end that the same might in due time be effectually executed, Missions are daily made of the before-mentioned Seminarists, in dis­guised Habits, into England, to dispose Popish Subjects to Rebellion, and prepare a Party to joyn the Spaniard at his designed Invasion: and these Emissaries were to deal with people in their secret Confessions, and Absolve them particularly in pri­vate, from their Allegiance and Obedience to the Queen, so clandestinely, that one should not know of the others Engagements, which that Bull had done too openly and in general. The Doctrines spread, and every where inculcated by these A­gents in those days, are specified by that judicious pair of Historians, the Learned Camden, in Anno 1581. and the noble Thuanus, l. 74. to be as fol­low, viz. That all Princes not professing the Roman-Catholick Faith, have lost their Title and Royal Authority; and when once Excommunicated, are not to be obeyed, but ejected out of their Kingdoms; which to do, was a work of Duty and Merit. That the Clergy were exempt from the Jurisdiction of Se­cular Princes, not bound by their Laws. That the Pope had the chief and full Power and Authority over all throughout the World, even in Civil matters, in or­der unto Spirituals, and as far as might be conducive to the good of the Church. That the Magistracy of England was unlawful, and consequently Null. And that whatever since the Bull of Pius the Fifth published, had by the Queens Authority been transact­ed, was by the Law of God to be reputed altogether void, &c. When these pernicious Principles, in­dustriously sown and cultivated, had taken Root in prejudiced minds, there soon followed rank fruits [Page 26] of Treason and Rebellion, in desperate Attempts and Resolutions to Kill the Queen. As first by So­mervil, in the year 1583. who being Condemned with Hall a Priest, and others his Accomplices by him detected, was three days after found strang­led in the Prison; for fear, as was rationally con­jectured, le [...]t he should have discovered more of the gang. Then William Parry, a Doctor of Law, undertook it the next year, encouraged by Palmius a Jesuit, Ragazonius the Popes Nuncio in France, Cardinal Como, and the Pope himself; who sent him his Blessing and Pardon of all his Sins, as ap­pears in Thuanus, lib. 79. All which the said Par­ry confessed, producing the Letter from the Pope, written by Cardinal Como, and was for such his Traiterous Attempt Executed in March, 158 [...].

Soon after, John Savage, being perswaded by se­veral Priests that it was meritorious to cut off Ex­communicated Princes, and Martyrdom to die in such an Adventure, made a Vow to Assassinate the Queen. And anno 1586, (as if every year must be guilty of a new bloudy Treason) Mr. Anthony Babington, a very personable young Gentleman, and well-descended, espouses the like Resolve on the same Principles, re-enforc'd with other Collateral hopes, if he escaped the danger, suggested by Fa­ther Ballard a Jesuit; who not onely urg'd the lawfulness and merit of the Action, and a Crown of Glory, and everlasting Fame thereby to be ac­quired; but also not obscurely insinuated, that he might thereby render himself not unworthy a Royal Match with the Queen of Scots, by so ad­vantagious a piece of service: A most tempting Charm to a youthful ambitious minde. Which [Page 27] business the same Thuanus (a Catholick Author of unquestionable Veracity) tells us, was trans­acted with Mendoza the Spanish Embassador, pro­mising to second it with a Forreign Army; for ob­taining which, Paget, a Gentleman of an Honou­rable Family, was sent on a Negotiation into Spain; whereby all things being provided, both at home and abroad, St. Bartholomews day, as luckily ominous for the succesful Massacre at Paris, was agreed upon for giving the fatal blow; and a Project framed of making an Association, under pre­tence of fear of the Puritans, who were to bear the odiu [...] of the Murther: but before that Festi­val, the Conspiracy had taken Air, and both Bal­lard, Babington, and others, being apprehended, on their own Confessions were Convicted, and Exe­cuted on the Twentieth of September: yet so eager­ly were they set upon designs of Blood, that but in January following, L'Aubaspinaeus the French Lie­ger Embassadour here, a person entirely devoted to the Guistan Faction, did by his Secretary tempt William Stafford, a Gentleman likewise of a Noble Family, with mighty promises, to undertake the same Murder; but he declining so horrid a villa­ny himself, recommended one Moody as a fit in­strument, who in Consultation about the manner of doing it, proposed the laying a Bag of Gun-powder under the Queens Bed-chamber, and secret­ly to give fire to it: (whence we may observe, that the famous Fifth of November was not the first Popish Treason of that kind;) but this being divul­ged by Stafford, the said Ambassadors Secretary, endeavouring to fly home to France, was taken, and upon strict examination confest the whole [Page 28] Intrigue; the indulgent Protection of Heaven still miraculously bringing to light all their dark and cruel Machinations against the Life of this Pious and unparallel'd Princess.

SECT. 5.

The common excuse which Papists make for all the before-mentioned Treasons against Queen Elizabeth, is, to pretend her Illegitimate; and that what they did, was to advance the juster Ti­tle of Mary Queen of Scots, great Grandmother to our present Soveraign. Thus in their Apology publisht soon after their Burning of London, speaking of these pranks, they say: It was a question har­der than that of York and Lancaster, who had most right, Queen Elizabeth or Mary Stuart: for since the whole Kingdom had Crowned and sworn Allegiance to Queen Mary, they had owned her Lagitimate Daugh­ter to Henry the Eighth; and therefore it was thought necessarily to follow by many, That if Mary was the true Child, Elizabeth was the Natural; which must then give way to the thrice-Noble Queen of Scots. And a little after, 'Twas for the Royal House of Scotland that we suffered in those days, and 'tis for the same Illustrious Family we are ready to hazard all, &c. But this is a most false, though subtle insi­nuating pretence; and were not impudence a neces­sary virtue in any, that undertake to be Advo­cates for Treason, we should wonder with what face they can make this Allegation. For first, The Archbishop of York though a Papist, in his Speech at the publishing Queen Maries Death, declared, That no man could doubt of the justness of [Page 29] the Lady Elizabeths Title to succeed. Secondly, The whole Kingdom received and owned her more freely and generally than ever they did Queen Ma­ry. Thirdly, Forreign Princes and States owned her, the greatest Monarchs in Europe offering Mar­riage to her, in certain expectation of gaining the Crown by her; as Philip the Second of Spain, and Henry the Second of France, respectively for themselves; and the Emperour Maximilian, for his Brother Charles. Fourthly, the Queen of Scots herself did acknowledge her, and claimed no­thing more than to be Heir to her; and so did King James that was her Successour. The first that ever questioned her Title, was Pope Paul the Fourth, who would not acknowledge her, nor hear Sir Edward Kerne her Ambassadour, for several causes; of which the prime was, because (for­sooth) The Kingdom of England is a Fee of the Papacy, and it was audaciously done of her to assume it without his leave: [See the History of the Coun­cil of Trent, l. 5.] And then in the next place, he started her being Illegitimate, which indeed onely he had reason to do; for if her Fathers Marriage were good, the Popes power of Dispensation (one of the fairest flowers in the Triple Crown) must be naught. Fifthly, yet again, after all this, his Successour Pope Pius the Fourth, in his Letter by Parpaglia, dated the fifth of May 1560, did own her, and would have done any thing for her, so she would but have owned him; which she refusing, the next Pope, meerly for the same, Anathematiz'd and Depos'd her, as you have heard; there not being the least mention in that Bull of Bastardy, but onely for Heresie, that is, for [Page 30] being a Protestant, and refusing to truckle to the Romish See. Lastly, the Roman-Catholicks of England in general, in a large Petition to Queen Elizabeth, in the Twenty seventh year of her Reign, by them afterwards published in Print, in a Book with this Jesuitical Title: Protestants Plea and Petition for Priests and Papists, p. 39. do say and swear the words following: We do protest be­fore the living God, that all and every Priest or Priests, who have at any time conversed with us, have recog­nized your Majesty their undoubted and lawful Queen, Tam de Jure quam de Facto, as well in Right as Fact.

Wherefore 'tis evident, that their Conspiracies against her were not for any defect in her Title, but on the score of her Religion. And no less plain, that their boasted services for the Queen of Scots, were onely bottom'd on self-interest, not af­fection to her Person; and indeed, so far from be­ing of any advantage to her, that they caused the untimely ruine of that gallant Princess. Illegiti­macy, and the right of the Queen of Scots, was so little regarded at Rome, that his Holiness Pope Gregory the Thirteenth, having a Bastard of his own, James Buoncompagno, to provide for, and ano­ther of the Emperours, viz. Don John; to the first he gave the Kingdom of Ireland, and equipp'd Stukely, as aforefaid, to win it for him: to the last he gave the Kingdom of England, and gave him leave to win it for himself; and what then would have become of the Title of the Queen of Scots? They indeed made the House of Scotland their Cloke, and covered their Treasons, for some time, with pretences of gaining that Queens Li­berty, [Page 31] and advancing her Interest: but being at last out of hopes of restoring their Religion by her, or her Son, (whom they already perceived not to be for their turn) began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain, and employed one of their Society into England, (as is discovered by Pasquier a French Author) to draw off the Gentry from fi­ding with her, and to close with the Spaniard; and closely endeavoured to precipitate her into those fatal Counsels which hastned her end: for she being discovered to be privy to most of the former Conspiracies, and found guilty of that of Babington, was thereupon Condemned. And af­terwards, a fresh provocation being given by the said Attempt of Moody, which was found to have been designed on the same pretence, Queen Eli­zabeth by the repeated importunities of the Par­liament, (who had Ratified the Judgment) was over-perswaded to sign the Warrant for Executi­on; whereupon, she was Beheaded the eighth of February following. The Jesuits, that none of her Kindred might give her any assistance, ha­ing at the same time engaged the G [...]ises in new Enterprises against the King of Navar and Prince of Condé. And their jugling Treachery towards her is abundantly apparent from the manner of the Discovery of what she was Condemned for; the same being done by one Gilbert Gifford a Priest, sent into England to put Savage in mind of his Vow to Assassinate Queen Elizabeth, and to be a Messenger between the Queen of Scots and the Conspirators; who presently goes and offers his service to Walsingham, Secretary of State, to discover all their Transactions; so that by his per­fidious [Page 32] practice, their Letters were opened, tran­scribed, neatly sealed up, and returned to the said Gifford, who then conveyed them to the Queen of Scots, or who else they were directed unto. And this Discovery by him made, must be supposed to be done out of pure love (forsooth) to his Queen and Country; although but a little before, he was one of those very men, who instigated Savage to his Vow to Murder her. The whole conduct whereof, shews it to be a prosecution of their late-hatcht Spanish Design, by removing the true Heir apparent, and excluding the Scotish Race, to make way for the forg'd Title which they had started for some of the Austrian Fami­ly.

Which is farther demonstrated by their subse­quent carriage; for after her Death, whatever zeal they before pretended to her Title and Family, there were not the least effects, thereof shewed to her Son King James, to whom her Right devolv'd; but rather they used all Arts to put him by the Succession, as we shall shew in the next Chapter.

In the mean time we must observe, that still their Plots against Queen Elizabeth went on a­broad, by the Pope and King of Spain, in Warlick preparations both for Land and Sea-service; and at home by the Jesuits and other Emissaries, in providing for their reception. To amuse the English Council, they publish a Book, wherein their Brethren are very gravely admonished, not to at­tempt any thing against their Prince, but onely to make use of the old Christian Weapons, Prayers and Tears, humble petitions, and patient sufferings, &c. And a Treaty of Peace desired and kept on foot [Page 33] by the Duke of Parma, by the King of Spains or­der, till in the memorable year 88, all things be­ing compleated for execution; the Pope begins the Invasion with a Bull, by which, once again, The Queen is Cursed and proscribed, her Royalty and Right to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland ta­ken away; her Subjects not only absolved from their Oaths and Allegiance to her, but threatned under danger of the wrath of God, not to assist her in any wise, but to use all their power to bring her to wort by punishment. And therefore commands all Inhabitants of these Realms to joyn with the Spaniards, and be obedient to the Duke of Parma their General. And finally, out of the Treasury of the Church committed to his trust, draws out his liberality, and grants a full Pardon of all their sins, to all those that should engage in this Expedition: Which was to be looke upon as an Apostolick Mission against the Incorrigi­ble Hereticks, to reduce them to the Obedience of the Church, and execute his Holinesses, Sentence of Excommunication against that cursed Anathe­matiz'd Woman. After which, it was privately a­greed between them, That King Philip should hold these Kingdoms of the Pope in Fee, as of the Holy See, with the Title of Defender of the Faith. For the accomplishing this work, the Spaniard had Equipped the greatest Navy that ever before that time swam upon the Sea: for though there have been Fleets far more numerous, yet for Bulk and Building of the Ships, with the Furniture of great Ordnance and Provisions, never the like; consist­ing, in all, of 130 Vessels, (saith the Lord Ba­ [...]on in his Considerations touching a War with Spain, p. 41.) whereof seventy two mighty Galiasses [Page 34] and Gallions, like floating Castles. But Cicarella in vitâ Sexti V [...]reckons them 150 Ships of vast bur­then, besides an infinite number (saith he) of small Vessels. Amongst these; to let the world know it was an Holy War, as the Pope had bestowed his Benediction on the whole Fleet, so Twelve of the largest Ships were called by the Names of the Twelve Apostles. This Invincible Armado, (for so the Spanish Pride had Intituled it) was manned with Thirty Thousand Souldiers and Mariners, and furnisht with all sorts of Provision for six Months. And whilst this should (as they did not doubt) ride Master of the Seas, they had a vast Army (Fifty Thousand veterane Souldiers saith Bucon) in Flanders, under the Duke of Parma, ready to be Transported in Flat-bottom'd Boats into England, under the wing and protection of that great Navy.

But we are assur'd by Authority Divine, That the Curse causeless shall not come; the Popes Ana­theina, and Spains mighty Armade, proved equal­ly ineffectual and contemptible. Though his Pseudo-Holiness had made Philip a grant of Eng­land, he was not able to give him Livery and Seizin thereof. His boasted Navy by a few of the Queens Ships is baffled, battered, and dispersed, and almost totally ruined; God himself (whose Cause indeed it was) fighting against them by Fire and Seas, and Winds, and Rocks, and Tempests, scat­tering and destroying most of them: for, Offenso Creatore offenditur omnis Creatura: The Creator be­ing offended (as he cannot but be at such unjust, ambitious, and cruel Attempts) every Creature is ready Armed to revenge his Quarrel. In which re­spect, [Page 35] he is [...]ed The Lord of [...], so that the saying of Holy Scripture was here verified, They came forth against us one way, and fled before us seven ways, being chac'd by the English Fleer, till they were forc'd to give them over for lack of Powder. And having not so much as fired a Cottage of ours at land, nor taken a Cock-b [...] of ours at Sea, wandred through the Wilderness of the North-Seas, about all Britain, the Oreades, and Ireland, grievously afflicted with all kind of Disasters and Miseries; scarce Forty ships return­ing to their own Harbors, of all that prodigious Fleet, which had been at least five whole years in preparing, through Spain, Italy, Sicily, Flanders, &c. and had cost, as Thuanus heard the Spanish Ambassadour tell the French King, above Twelve Millions of Growns. A loss so fatal to the Spanish Monarchy, that some think it languishes under ill-Influences thereof to this very day; and a­mongst the prime causes of its declension since, may reckon that disaster.

SECT. 6.

Yet had not this signal Providence any Impressi­on on Popish Councils, but still they go on in their cruel designs, with an indefatigable, as well as implacable and most impious malice; onely finding by this Enterprize the difficulty of Inva­ding England by open Force, waved the prosecu­tion thereof, and applyed themselves to close and insidious Arts, and pitiful, base, unworthy, and unmanly practices, to trouble the Estate, and take away the Life of this Triumphant Queen. Thus [Page 36] in 1593, Hesket endeavours to perswade the Earl of Darby to assume the Crown, as descended from Mary Daughter of Henry the Seventh, pro­mising large assistance of Men and Money from the Spaniard; and withal, threatning him with sud­den destruction, if he did not do it, and conceal the business; which he honestly revealing, was accor­dingly, 'tis thought, not long after taken off by Poison, according to their Menaces.

About the same time divers persons were sub­orned and sent into this Realm, some English, some Irish, corrupted by Money and Promises, and Resolved and Conjured by Priests in Confession to Murder the Queen; of whom several were ta­ken, as Patrick Cullen an Irish Fencer, Richard Williams, and Edmond York; which two last were engaged by Holt a Jesuite, by Oath upon the Sa­crament to perform it, and he himself kissing the Consecrated Host, swore, That as soon as she was dispatcht, they should be paid Forty thousand Crowns. But amongst all these Execrable undertakings, they relyed most upon Doctor Lopez, sworn Physician of her Majesties Houshold, who was practised with by one Andrada, on the behalf of the King of Spain to Poison her, for which he was to have Fifty thousand Crowns; but the Letters from Count de Fuentes, and Secretary Juara, assuring the payment of the Money, being fortunately in­tercepted, The great service whereby should arise an universal benefit to the whole world, (for so those Letters expressed this intended Hellish Murder) was prevented, and Lopez (having not so good luck as some of his Quality since) was found guilty, and hang'd at Tyburn. As was likewise afterwards, in [Page 37] the year 1598, one Edward Squire, suborned to poison her by Walpoole and other Jesuits at Val­lodolid, encouraged thereunto by those Fathers, on the score of Merit, and promises of Eternal Salvation.

Thus we see, that for the last three and thirty years of her Reign, this good Queen was never free from one kind of Treason and Conspiracy or other; and in all of them, the Pope and Jesuits, or some Priests or others of the Popish Party, ever­more principally concerned as the Instruments; and the advancing the Roman Catholick Religion, always the end of their wicked undertakings. But neither the Popes Curses, nor the Spanish Arms, nor the Italian Arts could prevail; for this glori­ous Princess, victorious over all her Forreign and Domestick Enemies, having out-lived Philip of Spain her bitter Antagonist, Four French Kings; and Eight Popes, and having in spight of all the powers of Hell, the Plots of Rome, and wicked Machinations of men of most Traiterous, Turbu­lent, and Ancichristian Spirits, defended the Pu­rity of Religion at home, and succoured oppressed Protestants abroad, after an Illustrious Reign of Forty four years compleat, most happy in the love of her Subjects, and terrible to her Ene­mies, laden with Honours and the Applauses of good men, in peace and a good old Age, ex­changed this Temporal for an Eternal unmolesta­ble Crown.

SECT. 1.

AS for Popish Loyalty to King James, we may consider it, either before his coming to the English Crown, or afterwards.

1. Whilst yet he was in Scotland, and Queen Elizabeth living, besides what has been already said, we may observe, That the Papists having by various Instruments sounded his inclinations, and finding his Resolution firm to maintain the Prote­stant Religion, they (not regarding his undoubt­ed right, nor at all respecting him for the merits of his Incomparable Mother, whom their violent Councels had been instrumental to precipitate to Ruine as aforesaid) consult and use all Arts to exclude him from the Succession. To this purpose, Father Parsons, Cardinall Allen, and others, con­trive a mischievous Book, under the counterfeit Name of Doleman: wherein divers Titles are started, and 'tis laid down as a Fundamental Maxime, That none but a Roman Catholick, how near soever in Blood, ought to be admitted King; and therefore therein, by forged devices, the Title of the Infanta Isabella of Spain, is preferred before the indubitable Right of the said King James; and all the English in the Spanish Seminaries, were compell'd to Swear to maintain the same. And [Page 39] Tho. Winter, and Tesmond a Jesuit, were sent over, Anno 1601. into Spain, to manage this Design in that Court, by the Assistance of Father Cros­wel, Legier-Jesuit there.

2. In Farther pursuance of this, Pope Clement the Eighth sent privately over to Father Garnet, the then Pro [...]incial of the Jesuits, two Bulls, one to the [...]aiety, directed to the Nobles and Gen­tlemen of England that were Catholicks; the other to his Beloved Sons the Arch-Priest, and the rest of the English Catholick Clergy [...]: the effect of both was, That whoever after the death of Queen Elizabeth whether by course of nature, or otherwise, should claim the Crown of England, though never so directly and nearly interessed therein, by Descent and Blood-Royal, yet unless he were such an one, as would not onely Tolerate the Catholick [meaning Romish] Religion, but would likewise take an Oath to promote it with all [...] might and en­deavours, they should not admit or receive him for their King, but oppose his Entry and Claim with all their power. Which in plain English was meerly designed, and directly tended to obstruct King James, (though not particularly named) and Ex­clude him and his Family from the Crown. And was not this a sufficient tast of the Popes good­will, a notable earnest of the Papists Loyalty to him? 'Tis true, when the Conspirators saw him so unanimously Proclaimed, the State setled, and a Peace with Spain so far advanced, that that ge­nerous Monarch began to refuse them the expect­ed Assistances; then, and not till then, Garnet, as himself alleadged, burnt the said Bulls, and quitted the Project; but why? onely because they [Page 40] despaired of effecting it.

3. The more to prepossess the minds of the English against the said King James, that they might keep him out; or at least that themselves might have some colour for their future intended Conspiracies, if he should come in, Watson a Priest, (having some time heretofore got access once or twice to His Majesty at Edenburgh) did, with the Arch-Traitor Piercy, and others of the Popish Crew, most falsely devise and divulge a scandalous Report, as if His Majesty had pro­mised, that whenever he should come to the Crown of England, He would Establish, or at least Tolerate the Popish Religion. Than which, nothing was ever more remote from, or contrary to his Royal Thoughts. And Watson himself, but two days before his death, confessed it to be a Lie of their own forging, spread abroad meerly that they might kill two Birds with one stone, viz. bring an odium upon him from the Protestants for ma­king such a promise, and the like from the Pa­pists on pretence of breaking it. In which latter respect it took effect, though not in the former; for Sir Everard Digby at his death, and other Gun-powder Traitors made use thereof; alleadging, that they were exasperated to that horrid Attempt, because the King had not kept his promise with Catholicks.

SECT. 2.

These were the good Officer of the Pope, these the dutiful respects of the Priests and Papists paid to King James, before he was actually Estated in [Page 41] the English Throne. Whence we may judge, how little welcome they were like to afford him at his Entry; and of this, the worthy Authour of a Treatise published in the beginning of King James's Reign, (before the Gun-powder-Treason) Intituled,—A Consideration of the Papists Suppli­cation, gives us a notable instance from his own Experience and Observation, in these words, p. 3. My self can testifie, that here in Oxford, at what time His Majesty was proclaimed King of England, &c. a man might easily have traced and culled out every Papist within this City, by his extraordinary howling and sobbing for grief, that their hopes were frustrated, and their expectation all in vain; some of the simpler sort crying out in express terms, Alas! alas! How shall the poor Catholicks do now! we are all undone! we are undone! whereas all the rest of His Majesties Liege (and Loyal) Subjects, by manifold Tokens, declared their extraordinary rejoycing.

Their demeanor afterwards, was suitable to these beginnings; for soon after his arrival at London, the said Watson and Clark, two Secular Italianated Priests, wheadled in several of the No­bility and Gentry, as the Lords Cobbam and Gray, Sir Walter Rawleigh, Sir Griffin Markham, George Brooke, and others, into a dangerous Conspiracy, to have surprized the Kings Person, and his Son Prince Henry, and to keep them Prisoners in the Tower or Dover Castle, till by Duress they had ob­tained their ends, viz. A Toleration of Religion, and some other Projects; and then having ob­tained their Pardons, they were to share amongst them the grand Offices of the Realm, (just as [Page 42] their Successors, Whitebread, Coleman, &c. had lately designed) viz. Watson was to be Lord Chan­celour, the Lord Gray Earl Marshal of England, George Brooke Lord Treasurer, Sir Griffin Markham Secretary of State &c. But though several were found guilty, onely Watson, Clark, and Brooke were then Executed, and Sir Walter Rawleigh on the same Conviction many years after. 'Tis observa­ble, that Watson, though a Secular Priest, had yet learned the art of Equivocation, as well as the Jesuits; For he insisted, that this Conspiracy was no Treason against the King; and being at last put to explain himself, gave this doughty reason, That a King was no King before he was Anointed, and the Crown solemnly set on his head: and King James being not yet crowned, therefore they might lawfully conspire against him, without commit­ring any Treason.

Amongst other things which Watson Confessed, one was, that he had endeavoured to draw in se­veral of the Society of Jesuits into this Plot, but they declined it; saying, They had another of their own then on foot, and that they would not mingle Designs with him, for fear of hindring one the other. [Vide Watsons Confession.] What such their De­sign was, though he could not, yet time in few years after did discover: for in the next place appears that horrid never-to-be-forgotten Popish Powder-plot, a Treason that as it exceeded all that had ever been before in the World, so it was be­lieved, it would have surpassed in its mischievous Design, Extent, and Cruelty, all that teeming Hell and Rome could have bred at any time after­wards, had not this last Internal Conspi­racy, [Page 43] of the same Blo [...]y Tribe, against our pre­sent Gratious King Charles the Second, and the Establisht Religion and Government of England, vut-gone it in several Circumstances, as may (God willing) be shewed in the ensuing Discovery and History thereof.

This detestable Treason is generally esteemed the Contrivance of Catesby, and of no antienter Original, than their despair of Assistance, upon their last Negotiation with Spain; but that the same was of longer standing, and proceeded from other heads, and designed by the Jesuits even in the Queens days, but on further consideration of her Age, (unlikely by course of nature to trouble them long) defer [...]ed till the arrival of King James, is by a most rational probability made appear, as well by Watsons said words, and the odd hints thereof before given by Delrio the Jesuit, as other circumstances, mentioned in a solid and ingenious Treatise, Intituled, A Discourse concerning the Original of the Powder-plot, published 1674. which are suffi­cient to satisfie any impartial Reader in that point; however, we shall not here insist thereupon, nor stand to give any long Account of the horrid na­ture, close progress, and happy Discovery of that Hellish Conspiracy, the same being generally well known from our common Historians, but especi­ally by that Authentick Narrative, Intituled, The Gun-powder Treason, with a Discourse of the man­ner of its Discovery, lately Re-printed, with an ex­cellent Preface, by the Right Reverend (and of the Protestant Religion most highly deserving) Fa­ther in God, Thomas Lord Bishop of Lincoln; to which most useful and satisfactory Discourse, we [Page 44] refer the Reader. Onely shall note here, that whereas Papists of late years have endeavoured to whiffle off that cursed Attempt, as a contrivance of Secretary Cecils, or some other Politicians, that had, to make the Romanists odious, cunningly drawn in onely a few desperado's; and that but a very small number of the Romish Party, and those inconsiderable, were engaged therein; and so it ought not to be charged on their Church in general.

As to the first, the same is a most false and groundless Evasion, coyn'd some scores of years after the thing Transacted; none of those that suffered for it, alleadging or suspecting one sylla­ble, either at their Tryals or Deaths, of their be­ing so wheadled into the Conspiracy; who yet were most like to know how, and by whom they were (if at all they had been) so drawn in, whom undoubtedly they would have discovered. Besides, supposing it to be Truth, yet their guilt was ne­ver the less, for they acted on Popish Principles, proprio motu, and with a Traiterous Resolution to accomplish the Destruction of King, Parliament, and Kingdome.

As to the second, neither was the number even of those that after all their Oaths of Secresie, and close contrivances were discovered, so small, nor their Qualities so inconsiderable, as is now impu­dently suggested: for first, for Religious men there were many actually concerned in it, and persons of the greatest account, three or four of them e­specially being Legiers and States-men; as Henry Garnet, the Superiour or Provincial of the Je­suits, [the same place that Father Whitebread late­ly [Page 45] had, who succeeded him as therein, so in his bloody Treasonable Attempts, and deserved pu­nishment] Father Creswel Legier-Jesuite in Spain, Father Baldwin Legler in Flanders, and the no­torious Father Parsons at Rome. These are known to have dealt in the matter, and 'tis most proba­ble were the first Contrivers, Designers, and Di­rectors of the whole Plot, though they would not be seen in it, lest it might bring a scandal on their Order if it should miscarry, and they be dis­covered; and therefore Laymen must be put upon doing the Drudgery, (or rather Butchery) whilst the wily Priests stand aloof and give alm. So of late the Benedictines and others gave their Votes against employing Pickering in the horrid Attempt of Murthering the King: not that they disliked the thing, but because he waited at the Altar; and if prevented and found out, it might be the greater disgrace to their Party, (though they as­signed another very bad reason for it.) Thus 'tis plain, they study to avoid the discredit, not the villany; the scandal, not the wickedness. But be­sides these Mal-intelligences of an higher Jesuitical Orb, there were divers other inferiour Instruments, and Cursory Agents of the same Society, employed in this detestable Treason, as Gerard, Oswald, Tes­mond alias Greenway, Hamond, Hall, and others. Then as for the Lay-Conspirators, they were most of them Gentlemen of considerable Descent, and excellent parts, though most perniciously perverted, seduced, and corrupted, by the private instigations of the said Jesuits: for of those that were first engaged, and actually laboured in the Mine, there were Robert Catesby, and Robert Win­ter. [Page 46] Esquires, Thomas Piercy, of the Noble House of Northumberland, Thomas Winter, John Wright, Christopher Wright, and Guido Fawkes, all Gen­tlemen, with Thomas Bates Yeoman, Servant to Squire Catesby, who being somewhat scrupu­lous and doubting in Conscience, concerning so barbarous a Design, was resolved and assured of the lawfulness thereof by Tesmond the Jesuit. Then of those that were acquainted with it, though not personally labouring in the Mine or Cellar, there were Sir Everard Digby Knight, Ambrose Rookwood, and Francis Tresham Esquires, John Grant Gent, and Robert Keys; besides Sir William Stan­ley, who principally imployed Fawks into Spain, and John Talbot of Grifton, both within misprisi­on of the Treason, and both of great and Ho­nourable Families. Then Sir Edmand Baynam was appointed; to carry a Message from Garnet, and acquaint his Holiness with the said Plot; but not forsooth as Pope, but as he was a Temporal Prince. This Baynam was a man grievously de­bauched, and used to call himself, The Prince of the Damned Grew; a person fit for such an Errand, to be sent Ambassador between the Pope and tho Devil. There was likewise an Association to be made of Forreign Princes of the Popish Religion, by a Solemn Oath, like that of the holy League in France, to have assured the business. These are the very words in the Letters of Sir Everard Digby, (Exe­cuted for this Treason) which Papers were never discovered till September, 1675. and are since Printed as an Appendix to the Re-printed Disco­very and Narrative of the said Gun-powder Plot, under an Authentick Testimonial.

[Page 47] Thus evident it is, and not to be denyed, but by an effronted [...]awling Impudence, that the same was in effect a general Conspiracy of the Papists, actually carried on by a considerable num­ber, and which would have been approved by the rest had it succeeded. And though its happy Dis­covery, and the deserved odium thereby cast up­on their Party, disabled and hindred them from making any other publick Attempt of that kind here in England, during the rest of the Raign of King James, (for concerning his death we shall say nothing) yet 'tis notorious, that abroad they plyed their business vigorously, and gave both him and the Protestant Religion a considerable Wound, in the Affair of the Palatinate, unhappily, (to say no worse of so bad [...] matter) lost for want of timely assistance, to prevent and divert which, we were wheadled with fair promises, [...] cajoul'd into a tedious mischievous Treaty for a Popish Match with Spain, which some corrupt Statesmen were so [...]nd of, that, to facilitate the same, they not onely hazarded the Princes Person, in a perilous voyage to Madrid, but endeavoured to grant a Toleration to Papists in England, which, with a truely Christian Courage, was opposed by Arch-bishop Abbot, whose worthy Speech on this oc­casion, speaks him so sound a Divine, and so rule an Englishman, that it deserves here to be inserted, either to encourage or upbraid such as since in like Exigencies have bravely appeared for, or treacherously betrayed the Protestant Religion, and their Countries Liberty; or endeavour to destroy both by a kind of refined Popery, and Arbitrary Government, against both which this good man was so zealous an Advocate.

From these passages it appears, that their Pow­der-Plots being defeated had not so far discoura­ged them, but that they went forwards with the grand work of advancing their Superstitions, and undermining the Protestant Religion; and 'tis not to be doubted, but in all that silence afterwards, during King James's Raign, the Jesuits and their Agents were still like Moles, busie at work under-hand, and preparing matter for those dismal Con­fusions and Calamities which hapned to his most excellent, though unfortunate Successour.

SECT. 1.

Before ever the fatal disturbances and Rebelli­on broke out amongst us, the Popish Conspiracies were industriously prosecuted in the said King Charles the First's, as well as in his Fathers days. He began his Raign 27 March, 1625. the times were cloudy and distempered; two Parliaments had been called and Dissolved with dissatisfaction, and a third was ordered to be Summoned on the 17th of March, 1627. Some short time be­fore which day, the following Letter, addressed [Page 51] to the Rector of Brussels, was found amongst the Papers of some Jesuits taken in London, which will give us no small light, not onely how active and busie that Faction was in those times, for hatching mischievous Intrigues, and embroiling Affairs, for advancing their cause; but also points out some of the means they made use of; and therefore we think fit here to Re-print it entire, the rather, for that the same hath been most im­perfectly Published.

In this Letter we may behold the Cursed De­signs of the Jesuits and Romish Party, portray'd [Page 58] ad vivum by one of their own Pencils, in a pri­vate familiar Correspondence with one of their Forreign Confederates: their end (here, as in all other their attempts) is to Subvert the Govern­ment of these Nations, let in a Forreign Enemy to Conquer us, Re-establish Popery, and destroy the Protestant Religion. The Mediums projected and pursued therein, were the same, (mutatis mutandis, reading France instead of Spain) as they have pro­secuted since, viz. Fomenting mis-understandings between the King and his Parliaments, promo­ting and exasperating Factions, destroying Trade, advancing Arminianism and other divisions in the Church; and Arbitrary Government, a standing Army, and illegal Impositions in the State; there­by bringing all into confusion at home, and open­ing a door for an Invasion from abroad. And can it be imagined that a sort of people so principled and affectionated, and so eagerly set on such Traiterous Designes against King Charles the First, in 1627, should ever become such Innocent, Faith­ful, and Loyal Subjects to him, as they would be taken for in 1642? Let us trace their practices a little, and see if we can ever gather Grapes of Thorns, or Fig's of Thistles.

SECT. 2.

We shall silently pass by their clandestine Ma­chinations in several subsequent years. The fre­quent invasions of Propriety and Liberty, the vio­lent urging of indifferent and unnecessary Ceremo­nies on one side, and peevish opposition thereof on the other, the stirs in Scotland, and the Seditious [Page 59] murmurs in England, was not the hand of Joab in all this? But we hasten to a more evident de­monstration. A Plot of theirs, striking at no less than the Sacred Life of that Glorious Prince, before ever they had sufficiently prepared the Factious Rabble here to attempt any such wick­edness; whence it may most rationally be collect­ed and concluded, that what afterwards was vil­lanously perpetrated, was by these Romish Blood­hounds originally contrived and promoted.

In the Month of September 1640. (two Months before the fatal Parliament began) Sir William Boswel, being His Majesties Ambassadour in Hol­land, at that time Resident at the Hague, receiv'd intimation of a desperate Popish Plot, from a per­son of good Quality, at first at the second-hand, but soon after avowed by the principal Party, and the general scope delivered to him in Writing, in a Letter in Latine, directed to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury; taking an Oath of the said Am­bassador not to discover any thing thereof to any but the Arch-bishop and His Majesty. According­ly, Sir William in a Letter by an Express, dated the 9th of September New stile, 1640. transmit­ted the same to his Grace, who sent it to the King then at York, in a Letter; which His Majesty sent back Apostyled with Instructions how to pro­ceed therein: whereupon, Octob. 15. there was sent over a more large and particular Discovery in Latine from the Party, being one Andreas ab Ha­bernfeld, a Doctor in Physick, and Physician (as many affirm) to the Queen of Bohemia.

[Page 60]The general Contents whereof were:

1. That there was then on foot a Plot laid by the Jesuits and Papists, for Subverting the Realm and State of England, and the de­stroying and Murthering his most Excel­lent Majesty, p. 13.

2. That the Original Author of this Discove­ry, was born, bred up, and had for many years been Dignified in the Romish Church, and appointed by Cardinal Barberino to assist Con the Popes Legate in managing the said Conspiracy; the cruelty and wick­edness whereof so terrified his Conscience, that he abandoned that Communion, and embraced the Orthodox Religion.

3. That the said Con was the chief Patron and Director of the business, and had his Resi­dence at London, where he had endeavoured by various Arts to corrupt divers great men of the Kingdom; and particularly sought to practice on the Arch-bishop, by the offer of a Cardinals Cap; but finding no good to be done upon him, resolv'd to cut off both the King and him, Art. 6, 7.

4. That in order thereunto, they made it their business to inflame the Puritans in Eng­land, and stir up the people in Scotland to Commotions, Art. 9.

5. That having thus embroil'd the Kings Af­fairs, and reduced him to want of Money, they would order things so, that he should not obtain any, but on condition to grant [Page 61] a general Liberty to Exercise the Popish Religion; which if he should refuse, then the King was to be dispatcht; for an Indian Nut stuffed with most sharp poyson, was re­serv'd by the Society, (which Con at that time frequently in a boasting manner had shewed to the Informant) wherein a Dose was prepared for the King, after the ex­ample of his Father, Artic. 10.

6. That the Chaplain of the Marquess of Ha­milton, (who oft was employed without effect by the King, to appease the Scotish Tumults) held Correspondence with Con, who being once askt in joque by the In­formant, Whether the Jews also agreed with the Samaritans? the said Con answered with a wish, That all Ministers were but such as he.

7. That one Tho. Chamberlain was sent over from Cardinal Richlieu, and for four Months held Consultations with the Socie­ty, how to exasperate these Northern heats to the best advantage.

8. He discovers several of the Conspirators by name, as Sir Toby Matthews a Jesuit, whom he represents as a most indefatiga­ble and dangerous Traitor; one Captain Read a Scotchman, dwelling near the An­gel-Tavern in Long-Acre, in whose House the Conspirators met usually once a day, and there received and read their Letters from Rome, and elsewhere, and returned Answers; where he saith the Gang might be surprized commonly every Friday. He likewise names Porter, Windebank, Monta­gue [Page 62] the younger, and several others, with divers circumstances corroborating his In­formation; and particularly advises to in­tercept (when the Post goes out weekly) a Packet directed to Monsieur Strario Arch-Deacon of Cambray, and another coming weekly from Rome, which is brought under this Superscription; To the most Illustrions Count Rosetti Legate for the time, written in Characters, but interpretable by the said Read; whence farther light would be obtained.

All this was discovered to the Ambassador un­der an Oath of Secresie, and the most importu­nate Requests to the King and Arch-bishop to keep it close till the business might be ripe, and to conceal whence they had these Advertisements; for otherwise, the Discoverer would certainly be in danger of his life, from the Confederates and their Associates. And it appears by the Papers, that both Sir William Boswel and the Arch-bishop were fully satisfied, That it was real, and of great importance; care being ordered to be taken pri­vately for the sounding the depth and further cir­cumstances of the Design; but the Disturbances in Scotland, and afterwards in Ireland and England, coming on apace, branches of the same Treason, being all assisted and fomented, if not, as most of them, originally contrived by those Popish In­cendiaries, though disguised in other Factions, 'tis probable they might divert or forbear that part of the Poisoning the King and Bishop, to attend the event of the other more general Plot of ruining [Page 63] these Nations, which they saw then so hopefully advanced, that they might conclude without ha­ [...]arding themselves in the odium, there were enough other Ill-spirits which they had conjured up, [...]eady to do that execrable work for them another way. However, the Original Papers of the Dis­covery, and Letters relating thereto, being kept by the Archbishop, were, when his Study was ransackt [...]ound amongst his Writings, and then Published, and now lately Re-printed by Authority, under the Title of The grand Designs of the Papists in the time of King Charles the First, worthy the peru­sal of such as would be farther satisfied.

SECT. 3.

Next followed the horrid Butcheries in Ireland, beginning 23 Oct. 1641. concerning which, (how­ever some of the spawn of the barbarous Actors in that cursed Tragedy, or others their Relations or Accomplices of the Roman brood, would now palliate and excuse it, yet) nothing is more known to all the world, than that it was an open, direct, and most Traiterous Rebellion, on the score of their cursed bloody Religion, against their lawful and most gracious Prince; designing to usurp the whole Government into their own hands, root out the English Nation, and the Protestant Name, and (which was the main end of all) establish Popery in that Kingdom; as is testified upon Oath by se­veral persons examined, and their Depositions pub­lished by the Kings Warrant; all this begun and continued by Papists Onely, (not one Protestant amongst them.) But the Pope himself, the Head of [Page 64] their Church, in the person of his Nuncio Ri­nuceini, Generalissimo of all their Forces by Land and Sea, and all the Tribes of his Ecclesiasticks, contributing all Assistance and Encouragement imaginable thereunto; proceeding with that Inhu­manity, that above one hundred thousand innocent Protestants were by them basely, in cool blood and with exquisite Torments, and un-heard [...] Cruelties, Murthered and otherwise destroyed. And, which was even yet worse than that, to shew their malice as well as disobodience to his said Ma­jesty, with equal impudence and falshood, they pretended that it was done by his Commission, and vouched the Broad Seal for their Authority, pur­posely to enrage his Protestant Subjects in Eng­land and elsewhere against him. The Popes Nun­cio assuming nevertheless, and exercising there the Temporal as well as Spiritual power, granting out Commissions in his own name, breaking the Treaties of Peace between the King, and, as they then stiled themselves, the Confederate Catholicks; heading two Armies against the then Marquess, (now Duke) of Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant, and forcing him at last to quit the Kingdom; all which ended in the Ruine of His Majesties Go­vernment and Person; which, but upon occasion of that Rebellion, could never have happened. And was not all this a prodigious demonstration of their Obedience and Loyalty to King Charles the First, and the Crown of England?

It was constantly observed, that the lower and more unfortunate the King was in his Successes in England, the higher were the demands of the Irish; so that they used all their Treaties as Stra­tagems [Page 65] to trepan, not to serve His Majesty. In the year 1643. when a Cessation was concluded with them by the Kings Authority, and both English and Irish engaged by Articles to transport their Armies to England for His Majesties Service, the Irish onely pretended they would do it when the English were gone, and then treacherously [...]yet according to one of their old rules, Nulla fi­ [...]es servanda cum Haereticis) they plotted and at­tempted the ruine of the small remnant of English [...]eft behind in Munster, where the Lord Inchiquin Commanding by the Kings Commission, and the English with him, were necessitated to stand on their own defence against the Popish Army. In 45. the said Confederate Catholicks having enga­ged their publick Faith to send 10000 men to serve His Majesty, delayed, neglected, and failed [...]herein, to the great dis-service of His Majesty. Did they not in 46. after a Peace concluded with them, treacherously attempt to cut off the Lord Lieutenant and his Army, who marched out of Dublin on security and confidence of that Peace? did they not in 47 employ Commissioners to Rome, France, and Spain, to invite a Forreign power in­to Ireland? in the 9th Article of whose Instructi­ons, [to be seen in my Lord Orrerey's Answer to P. W.] they were ordered to make Application to his Holiness, for his being Lord Protector of Ireland, [so that they were beforehand with the Phanaticks in England with the Title] and if he should refuse, then to offer the same to either of the Kings of France or Spain; nay, to any Popish Prince, from whom (to use their own words) they might have most considerable Aids. [Page 66] Faithful and Meritorious Subjects still! if they may be their own Judges, though they desired and designed to submit to the Pope; nay, any King or Prince, rather than to the King of Eng­land, whose natural Subjects they were.

Nay more, the Rump, that infamous Rump, the fag-end of the Parliament, which Murthered the King, was much more beholding to these Irish Rebels than His Majesty was, for to them they made Petitions and Supplications, as unto the Su­preme Authority of the Nation, Entitling them, The Parliament of the Common-wealth of England; wherein they did readily subject, and put their Con­sciences, Lives and Fortunes, as in a secure Sanctua­ry, under the protection thereof: (these are their own words) and boasted, That several of them were able to make appear their constant good affection and adherence to them. See the Petitions of Sir Ra. Tal­bot Baronet, and Garret Moor Esquire, (who were not herein private, but publick persons, and so owned in the Title of their Petitions, being on the behalf of themselves and others, as Sollici­tors, Agitators, or Trustees for the Irish Papists;) which were Condescentions far greater than ever they would pay to King Charles the First, or His present Majesty. For with them, they always Treated upon the Swords point, upon as great terms of Defiance, Caution, and Reservedness, as if they had to do with the great Turk, and not with their lawful Soveraign. Vide Orrerey, fol. 14, 15. and Articles of Treaty.

If therefore to rise in Arms without the Kings Command or Privity, Murther so many thousands of his good Subjects, seize on his Towns and [Page 67] Forts, fight with and kill those that were Com­missionated by him, hold Correspondence with, and receive Supplies from Forraign Princes, cast off all Allegiance, and petition a Forraign Prince to be their Protector; and last of all, if to court his avowed Enemies and Murtherers, own their Uusurp'd Authority, and submit Consciences, Fortunes, Lives, and all to their pleasure, be Ar­guments of Faithfulness and Obedience, then may we allow the Irish Papists to have been His Majesties most Loyal Subjects; but till then, all the word shall justly detest them, as the most bar­barous and bloody Rebels.

SECT. 4.

But whatever they were in Ireland, the Roman Catholicks in England will swear they were all most punctually true to King Charles the First, and ventured their Lives and Estates in his Service. To determine how far this is true, and what merit we are to allow them on that account, we must consider,

1. That it cannot reasonably be expected, that we should so clearly discover the affections and more secret designs of the Papists in this English Rebellion, as in that of Ireland, for that here were not Papists fighting under the Popes Coun­tenance and Encouragement, against Protestants, but Protestants (though in that point Jesuitically principled) against a Protestant King and his true Subjects that were more Loyally minded. So that as the Papists Loyalty was not then so far tryed, as to see whether they would have taken part with [Page 68] the King, a Protestant, had the Pope forbidden them, or employed them against him, (which is the great thing in question, when we speak of their Loyalty as Papists:) so likewise were they never embodied apart by themselves, and there­fore could never assemble together in Battel to fight, or in full and open Council to Design and Plot; but what they did was covertly and in the dark, by fomenting Dissentions and Intestine Wars; which was long since their Campanella's Design, De Monarch. Hisp. cap. 24. p. 204. Jam verò ad enervandos Anglos nibil tam conducit quam dissentio & discordia inter illos excitata perpetuóque nutrita, quod citò meliores occasiones suppeditabit, si Angliam in formam Roipublice reducant, in imita­tionem Hollandorum. That nothing could more con­duce to weaken the English, than Dissention and Dis­cord stirred up, and perpetually nourisht amongst them; which would soon administer better occasions to intro­duce the Roman Catholick Religion, if England were reduced into a Republick in imitation of the Hollanders.

2. It may well be said, That it was not pure Loyalty, but self-interest, that attracted so many ominent Papists in unto his late. Majesties Standard. The violence of the people forced them to that side; they did not go, but were driven; the Par­limentarians were to make use of the cry against Papists, for one of their most taking pretences, so that the open Roman Catholicks could expect no acceptance from them; and though they did well, and but according to their Duty in serving His Majesty, yet accidentally they not a little pre­judiced his cause: for the other party thence [Page 69] took such occasions to raise lies and clamours, that we may say, for every Papist employed in His Ma­jesties Arms, [...] the hearts of half a dozen, seduced, though otherwise Loyal Protestants.—However, to discharge their duty in serving their King, against a Protestant, not a Popish P [...]ty, and at a time when their own safety and private Inte­rest obliged them so to do, was surely little mat­ter of merit: but rather, if we may guess at the Body of Hercules by his Foot, we may then by tracing some of the footsteps of our English Ca­tholicks as have casually come to light, discover their main design, especially of their Clergy, to have been wholly for the ruine of that King of happy memory, and thereby of the Protestant Religion: for,

3. The disloyal Principles on which the Pha­natick Rebels proceeded, they wholly learnt from the Jesuits: for example, did they say the Soveraign Power was lodged in the people, and that they may alter the Government of a State? Bellarmine taught it them, whose words in his Treatise De Laicis, l. 3. cap. 6. are these: Potestas immediatè est tan­quam in subjecto, in totâ multitudine, &c. The Su­preme power is in the whole multitude, as in its Sub­ject; and if there be cause for it, they may alter a Monarchy into an Aristocracle, or Democracie, &c. Did they affirm, that the People made the King, and may unmake him, and retain still the habit of power? they are the same Bellarmines own words. In Regnis bominum potestas Regis est à populo, quia po­pulus facit Regem: In the Kingdoms of men, the Kings power is from the people, for the people make the King, Bell. de Concil. l. 2. cap. 19. [Page 70] And again, In Rebuspublicis temporalibus, si Rex degeneret in Tyrannum, licet caput sit Regni, tamen à populo potest deponi, & eligi alius: In Temporal States, if a King degenerate into a Tyrant, though he be the head of the Kingdom, yet the people may Depose him, and choose another. Idem Ibid. cap. 10. Did our Rebels hold they might take up Defen­sive Arms against the King, and expel him? 'twas your Jesuite Suarez taught them that Doctrine: Si Rex legitimus tyrannicè gubernat, & Regno nul­lum aliud sit remedium nisi Regem expellere & depo­nere, poterit Respublica toto publico & communi con­sensu Civitatum & Procerum Regem deponere: If a lawful King govern as a Tyrant, and the Kingdom can be no other way relieved its grievances, the whole Common-wealth, by common consent of the Cities and Peers, may Depose such a King. Suarez Defens. Fid. l. 6. cap. 19. Sect. 15. Did they Levy a formal War, and were the first Aggressors against the King? the Jesuit Mariana chalkt them out the way, lib. 6. de Rege, cap. 6. p. 59. & 60. Expedi­ta maximè & tuta via est, &c. The readiest and safest way, (saith he) is, if the people can meet in a pub­lick Assembly, to deliberate by common consent what is to be done, and then inviolably to observe what is agreed on by common consent; the Prince must first be admonisht to amend, which if he refuse, it will be law­ful for the Common-wealth to refuse to obey him: and because a War must necessarily follow, counsel must be taken how to carry it on; Arms must be pro­vided, and Taxes laid upon the people to bear the Ex­pences thereof: and if it be requisite, and the Pub­lick cannot otherwise preserve it self, it will be lawful, both by the right of self-defence, and the pro­per [Page 71] Authority inherent in the people, to proclaim such a King to be a publick enemy, and then to cut off his Head. Nay, their infamous Court of Injustice, was but erected by the Jesuits Model; for so the same Mariana there goes on: Certè a Rep. unde ortum habet Regia po­testas, &c. 'Tis certain, the Common-wealth from which the Royal power hath its Original, may, when the case requires, (which we know is whenever they have a mind to it, and power to effect it,) bring the King to Iudgment, and deprive him of his Soveraignity: for the Common-wealth hath not so transferred the Right of power unto the Prince, but it hath reserved a power paramount unto it self.

The very Parricide and Execrable Mur­ther acted on the Kings Sacred Person, is allow'd, and the manner directed by another Jesuit, Lessius, l. 2. de Justitiâ & Jure, cap. 9. dubio 4. Principem qui Tyrannus est ratione Administrationis, non posse à privatis interimi quamdin manet Princeps; sed pri­mùm a Republica, vel Comitiis Regni vel alio habente Authoritatem, esse deponendum, & hostem declarandum, ut in ipsius personam liceat quicquam attentare: A rightful Prince who becomes a Tyrant by Male-Administration, ought not to be killed by a pri­vate person: (so far you see Gawen the Jesuit late­ly Executed, in his dying Speech was right) as long as he remains a Prince. But what then is to be done with him? why, he must first (saith this Popish Doctor) be Deposed, and declared an Ene­my by the Common-wealth, or the Parliament of the Kingdom, or some other [the Pope no doubt] having Authority, and then afterwards it will be law­ful to attempt what you please upon his person. Thus [Page 72] you see the Phanaticks drew all those Arrows which they shot at Royalty, out of the Popes Quiver; and if it be truely said, that the Presbyterians brought that good Prince to the Block, and the Independants cut off his Head; it may as truely be added, That the Papists lent them the Ax. And are these men after all this to boast their Loyalty? are these to be relyed upon by any Prince, to make himself an Absolute Monarch? who, not onely by their Religion are bound to esteem the Pope his Superiour in his own Dominions, but likewise by so many of their chief Doctors avow­ed and uncondemned Judgments publisht in Print, are taught to place the people above him; and that he may lawfully by them be questioned, De­posed, Judged, Condemned, and Murthered.

4. For a more clear and positive proof, if it be true, that many known and professed Roman Catholick Gentlemen sided with the King; 'tis no less true, that not a few of the Jesuits, and other disguised Romanists, mingled themselves a­mongst the Rebellious Troops; there they were Levellers, Agitators, &c. and the prime Authors of those damnable Councils which took away his precious Life. And that this may not seem to be spoken gratis, we shall produce two or three witnesses for it.

1. The first, a Treatise, Intituled, [...]: Or, a brief Narration of the Mysteries of State carried on by the Spanish Faction in England, &c. Printed by Samuel Brown at the Hague, 1651. who handles this matter gradatim, throughout all our late Civil Wars, and particularly p. 59. ob­serves, That about and after the Treaty in the [Page 73] Isle of Wight, 1648. when the bringing the King to a Mock-Tryal was in agitation, those of the Spanish Faction and notorious Papists who fled away at the very beginning of the troubles, did now again ap­pear (to the admiration of all that knew them) openly in London and at Westminster; as Sir Kenelm Dig­by, Sir John Winter, Walter Montague, Endymi­on Porter: [These very names we met with be­fore, in the Treason against the Kings Life, disco­vered by Habernfeld in 1640. which much con­firms the matter] and Sir Edward F. (who was Commissary-General Iretons Bed-fellow:) these who were Proclaimed Traitors by the Parliament, and some of them of the blood of the old Gun-powder-Traitors, these were now become the familiar Friends of the great men in the Army.

Again, p. 73. and 74. He hath these words, That the Jesuits and Spanish Faction did in Oxford, (immediately after the Kings going thence to the Scots) conspire together to ruine and destroy the King, I have it from a Jesuits own Confession in Print; Bernard, the onely Intelligencer at Court in those days, is the man that affirms it, in his Book called Polemo-mu­tatus. Which assertion, and many more circumstances, made me credit that Relation; which told me for certain, that Walter Montague, Endymion Porter, and the rest of those Papists who came at that time over into England, were they that were the designed men sent on purpose, (from Rome some of them) to manage the business in the Kings Tryal; and if the King had pleaded, they were to have come as Witnes­ses against him. This was laid particularly to Endy­mion Porters charge by some English Gentlemen, as also to Sir John Winters.

[Page 74] It is thought, that after Endymion Porter san his loving Master cut off, calling to mind the favours he had received from him, and his most unkind re­quital of them, his Conscience so smote him, that he went to his House in the Countrey, and there poisoned himself, falling down dead on a sudden as he sate in his Parlour. And hereupon also, (after the death of the King) Sir John Winter was so generally cryed out of as a Trayer and Conspirator in the business, that for fear of his life, (left some of the Loyal English Gentry should kill him) and to palliate the design, he had the favour to take up Lodgings in the Tower, which (by all means) went under the name of Imprisoning him. On the same score, Montague, Digby, and the rest of that designed Party, percei­ving their Treason was openly known, and fearing their just reward from some enraged hand, desired a Pass to return (since the work of killing the King was done) beyond the Seas; which that they might with less suspicion and more security pass, they pretended to Banish them.

A Noble person of this Kingdom, (of Sir K. ac­quaintance) told me, That he observed him in pub­lick to exclaim against the Hereditary Rights of Kings, as a most pernicious thing to a Kingdom; say­ing, That oft-times thereby, the Kingdom was Govern­ed by Children, Fools, and Women. And hereupon, took occasion to traduce the then Prince of Wales, (now King) saying, &c. [The Expressions are so base and foul-mouthed, that we dare not out of Reverence to Majesty, go on to repeat them from our Author.] At the same time highly commending Cromwel, as one of the ablest men in Europe, and Bradshaw (that sate as the Kings Judge) for a gal­lant man.

[Page 75] Thus far that Treatise; concerning the credit of which, we shall onely say, that the Author ap­pears by the Work to have been a man of no vulgar Intelligence or Conversation in those times, and all along expresses much Loyalty and Affecti­on to his present Majesty.

2. The Reverend and Learned Doctor Peter du Moulin hath long since declared in Print, That the Roman Priest is known, who when he saw the [...]atal stroke given to our Holy King and Martyr, flourished with his Sword and said, Now the greatest Enemy that we have in the World is gone. And that the year before the Kings Murder, a select num­ber of Jesuits out of England, had a Consult with their Confederates at Paris, where this questi­on in writing was by them put to the Faculty of Sorbon, then altogether Jesuited, That seeing the State of England was in a likelyhood to change Go­vernment, whether it were lawful for the Catholicks to work that change, for the advancing and securing of the Catholick Cause in England, by making away the King, whom there was no hope to turn from this Heresie? Which was answered affirmatively. And afterward the same question being transmit­ted to Rome, the said Resolution was likewise ap­proved and confirmed by the Pope and his Council, That it was both lawful and expedient for Catholicks, by such means to promote that alteration of State. But afterwards, when the Regicide was so univer­sally cryed down and detested, his Holiness con­sulting his credit, commanded all Papers about that question to be burnt; in obedience to which order, a Roman Catholick in Parts was demanded a Copy which he had of those papers, but having [Page 76] had time to consider and abhor the wickedness of that Project, refused to deliver it up; but shewed it to a Protestant friend of his, relating the whole carriage of this Negotiation. This passage the [...] Reverend du Moulin aforesaid, now Canon [...] Christ-Church, Canterbury, and one of His Majestie [...] Chaplains, did seventeen years ago set forth [...] print, in his answer to a scurrilous Popish pamphle [...] Intituled Philanax Anglicus; and there publickly offered to justifie the truth of it, if any should [...] him to an account for it before Authority; but That in all this time they have been afraid or asha­med to do; onely soon after the coming forth of his Book, the Gentlemen of Somerset-house, who were netled, & one eminent person of them it seems not a little concerned actually in the story, in­stead of having the truth thereof examined, pri­vately by interest obtained a Command from the King to the said Doctor, that he should write no more Books; which Prohibition the Doctor go [...] taken off, Anno 1668.—See the last Edition of the Doctors Answer, p. 60. where likewise, p. 64 we have the Testimony of that worthy judicious Gentleman Sir William Morris, late Secretary of State, who in a Letter to the said Doctor du Mou­lin concerning this matter, hath these words.—This I may say safely, and will do it confidently, That many arguments did create a violent suspicion, very near convincing Evidences, That the Irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the Murder of that excel­lent Prince; the odium whereof they would now file to the account of the Protestant Religion.

5. 'Tis notorious, that no sort of men truckled more servilely to the late Rebellious Powers; they [Page 77] adressed their Petitions to them, with the Stile of the Supreme Authority of this Nation, the Parlia­ment of the Common-wealth of England,—First Moderator, fol. 59. They affirmed, That they had generally taken, and punctually kept the Engagement. Second Moderator, fol. 41. They promised that [...] they might enjoy their Religion. They would [...] the most quiet and useful Subjects of England. First Moderator, fol. 31. which they proved in these words, viz. That the Roman-Catholicks of Eng­land would be bound by their own interest, (the strong­ [...] obligation amongst wise men) to live peaceably and [...]hankfully in private Exercise of their Consciences; and becoming gainers by such compassions, they could not [...] reasonably be distrusted as the Prelatick Par­ [...]y that were loosers. First Moderator, fol. 36.

6. 'Tis observable, That Tho. White a Popish [...]riest, in the height of Olivers Tyranny, set out [...] Book, Intituled, The grounds of Obedience and Go­vernment, purposely to confirm his usurpation, another His Majesties just Tale, and perswade people that they were not obliged to assist or re­ [...]ore him: Who was it (as Doctor Oates says in his Epistle to the King before his Narrative of the Plot, printed by Order of the House of Lords) [...]hat broke off the Uxbridge Treaty, but the Romish Interest and Policy? with what zeal and Interest did they perswade the Scots in 1650. to im­pose that upon your Majesty, which your Royal Law had forbidden others? for the effecting whereof, some Thousands of pounds were spent and given by them. Where he likewise sets forth, how they endeavoured to Betray and Sacrifice His Majesty, after his mira­culous escape as Worcester. And that those who [Page 78] were to pay the 1000 l. promised for his Discovery, were no other but Father Joseph Simmonds, and Father Carleton Compton, both Jesuits: and [...] whereas Mr. John Huddleston a Priest, having [...] instrumental in His Majesties Escape, (for whic [...] good Service he has been always excepted out [...] His Majesties Proclamations against Priests and Jesuits) several of the Jesuited Crew have often call'd him FOOL for his labour; and said, that the same was the worst days work that ever he did in his life.

That there is a Popish Lord, not forgotten or unknown, who brought a Petition to the late Regicide and Ʋsurpers, signed by above 500 of the principal Popists in England, wherein was promised, upon condition of a Toleration here by a Law, they would jointly resolve to Abjure and Exclude the Family of the Stuarts for ever from the Crown.

That a whole Convent of Benedictine Monks were Olivers Pensioners, to betray His Majesties Secrets and Counsels. That the Traitor Manning, taken [...] discovering such His Majesties Affairs, was a Roman Catholick, and had Masses sung for him after his [...] Execution: and that it was by their instigation and interest, that the French King was prevailed with [...] banish His Majesty out of France, &c.

From all which, the pretended Loyalty of the Papists to his late Majesty, and our present Soveraign during his Exile, is most evidently detect­ed; and by these brief Historical touches that we have given, (the matter whereof would have swell'd to a vast Volume, had it been worthily di­lated upon, as hereafter, if God send leave and opportunity may be done) it sufficiently appears how dangerous and insufferable the Principles of [Page 79] the Roman Church, and practices of Papists have been, and must always be to Princes in general, but Protestants especially. So that we may fitly shut up these Observations, with that Oraculous conclusion of judicious King James, in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament, Nov. 1605. That as it is not impossible but many honest man seduced with some Errours of Popery, may yet remain good and faith­ful Subjects; so on the other part, none that know and believe the grounds and School-conclusions of their Doctrine, can ever prove good Christians or faithful Subjects.

SECT. 1.

WE have hitherto seen the restless and im­placable malice of the Romish Priests and Emissaries, continually conspiring and endeavou­ring by all kind of Arts, ever since the Reforma­tion, to subvert the Protestant Religion, and there­with the Government in these Nations; so that we may reckon the Raigns of our late Princes, by a Succession of Popish Treasons. In displaying whereof we have been the larger, as well that the World may take notice that their late dam­nable Plot was nothing strange or incredible; (for what wonder is it to hear an Horse neigh, to find a Fox crafty, or a Tyger cruel, or see those con­cerned in Trayterous and bloody practices, whose Doctrines recommend the same as Duty or Merit, and who have for so many Ages been inured there­unto?) as also to satisfie the Reader, that the Conspiracy which now threatned us, is all of a piece with those under which our Ancestors la­boured, that 'tis still the same Tragedy, though the Scenes have been often shifted, and the Actors varied according to the different posture of Af­fairs; [Page 81] a continued stream of Treason flowing from the See of Rome, which though sometimes interrupted, diverted, or (like the River Arethusa) hid under ground, yet it perpetually, sometimes swifter, sometimes slower, kept on its course: but how and by what accessional Springs, Forreign Tides, or Domestick Land-floods, it came now to swell to so great and extraordinary an Head, just ready to ore-whelm us, may be worth inquiry. To give an exact account of all Circumstances at home and abroad, that contributed to the ripening and facilitating of this Plot, and which favouring the Design, encouraged the Conspirators to push forwards the same at this, rather then another time, requires more conversation in Court-In­trigues, than we dare pretend to. But most ob­vious it is, to an ordinary Eye, that there were not a few advantages which might much flush their hopes at this Conjuncture, and rendred their De­sign more probable and feizable, than at any other moment since the Reformation.

SECT. 2.

For as this Plot aim'd not solely at these King­doms of Great Britain and Ireland, but was truely Catholick, [general or universal] to root out the Protestant Religion from the face of the earth; so no man that considers the present State of Christendome, can be ignorant what a vast pro­gress within few years last past they have made, in order thereunto. The French Kings Arms no doubt are employed chiefly for Conquest and Glory; yet 'tis as unquestionable, that the Jesuits and [Page 82] Court of Rome know how to improve them like­wise to their advantage. For if we reflect on the late proceedings of the French, and their modern Irruption which they made into Holland few years since, the manner of the Attempt, and Manage­ment before and after; we may see that haughty Monarch hath plainly taken off his Mask, and is to be regarded in this Conjuncture, not onely in the same Character as Conquerors of former Ages, towards all Estates who had the unhappi­ness to be adjacent to their Frontiers; but that he ought also to be formally look'd upon, as the declared Protector of the Tyrannick Designs of the Papacy; and consequently, the pre-meditated and positive Enemy and destroyer of all the States and People whose Faith is opposite to that Tyranny. And though in his Declaration of War against the States-General, 27 March 1672. he was pleased to assign no reason but his Glory, yet 'tis averr'd in print, that by his Embassador to the Pope, he gave afterwards a more clear Account, viz. That he had not undertaken this War, but for the Extirpa­tion of Heresie: and to the Emperour declared, That the Hollanders were a people, who having for­saken God, and being Hereticks, all good Christians were in duty bound to associate for their Extirpation, and ought to pray to God for a blessing upon so pious an Enterprise. And to other Popish Princes, That it was a War of Religion, and in order to the propa­gation of the Catholick Faith. Pursuant to which, in the Second Article of his Demands afterwards to the Dutch at Ʋtrecht, it is in express words contained: That thenceforth there shall be, not onely an entire Liberty, but a publick Exercise of the Ca­tholick [Page 83] Apostolick Roman Religion, throughout all the Ʋnited Provinces, &c. And as he hath been thus active to promote Popery abroad, so he has been no less busie to destroy Protestants at home; having suppressed so many of their Churches, contrary to Solemn Edicts, put down their Academies, made them incapable of any Office or Preferment, and by all kind of discouragements and pressures, endeavoured to ruine them. The Conspirators therefore having such a powerful friend to Abet and Assist them, who besides the glorious Rattle of propagating Catholick Religion, a specious motive in publick, is also obliged by reason of State, (a more Sacred Tye amongst such Princes) to em­broil England and Holland by all Arts, that in the mean time he may sweep away the Trade of the World, (chiefly managed by these two) and put them both in a condition to be made absolutely his Slaves, wherever he should think fit to extend his yoak. 'Tis no wonder then, I say, if the Con­spirators venture bard, with such encouragement, to accomplish their Designs, in the drudging Secular Butchering part whereof, he hath already made so fair (or rather monstrously foul) an advance.

Long since have the Jesuits learnt how to shrowd themselves under the ambitious wings of the most potent active Princes, and by pretence of promoting their interests, to set up their own. When in the last Century the Austrian Family was in its ruffling grandeur grasping at Universal Mo­narchy, how entirely did they seem devoted to that House? But as soon as it declin'd, and the French Monarch, by the revolution of humane Affairs, grew more formidable, these subtle Steers-men, [Page 84] (who know how to catch every wind) presently shifted their Sails, varied their Course, though still bound for the same Port, (viz. The advancing of the Roman Churches power) and abandoning those old useless Patrons, embark their hopes in the Designs of France; thinking (though we trust in vain) that King may ere long give Laws to all these parts of the World. Thus are we threatned with a double Intertwisted Tyranny; by the one in Temporals, by the other in Spirituals; and at the same time, a Cursed Design by their Confederate Councils is carried on, to enslave both the Bodies and Souls of all the Christians in Europe.

SECT. 3.

England and Holland having with fierce and tedious Wars, (on what grounds, and by what Counsels occasioned, is not unknown) profusely wasted each others Blood and Treasures; and the latter being reduced to so low an Ebb, that had not providence strangely put an hook into the no­strils of Leviathan at Ʋtrecht, that Republick had been quite subjugated and over-run: The same French and Jesuitical Incendiaries, in the next place, engage the three grand Protestant Princes of the North, Sweden, Denmark, and Brandenburgh likewise in bloody Wars with each other, that the Protestant Religion may every where be pluckt down with their own hands, and owe its ruine as much to the indiscretion of its Professors, as the malice of its Enemies; whilst in the mean time the disturbances in Hungary are secretly fomented on one hand, and the Emperour exasperated against [Page 85] them on the other: so that the poor Souls of the Reformed Religion in those parts, lamentably suffer under a two-fold Injustice; the ignominy of Rebellion, and Cruelty of Persecution.

Thus was there not a Protestant Kingdom, State, or Interest in the World, (besides Geneva, and a few Cantons of Switzer-land, who like­wise have felt not a few drops of the storm) but had since the year 70. been most considerably weakned; whilst France, the present Hector of the Papacy, hath so mightily encreased in strength and reputation. So that in this respect, if ever Rome would re-gain its lost grandeur, and entirely Extirpate Heresie, (as they call it) now was the time.

SECT. 4.

But then besides these Forreign advantages, if we consider the several points they had gain'd at home in England, we shall find them much facili­tating the work: The countenance of two Roman Catholick Queens for divers years, and an opinion of the Papists Loyalty, Services, and Sufferings for King Charles the First; which they were never wanting to commemorate, and represent through false Opticks, to render them more great and ob­liging, (though in themselves little, or nothing, or worse than nothing, as before we have proved) gave them free Access and welcome at Court, as their plausible behaviour, and fair pretences, large Estates, and insinuating Arts, gave them reputa­tion in the Countrey, and drew over great numbers of their Dependants, Tenants, and Relations, sway'd by Interest, to their Communion, and ma­ny [Page 86] more to a kind of Neutrality and indifference, by a too general debauching of the younger Gen­try with Principles of Atheism, no small part of their Policy; for those that were really of no Re­ligion, were very fit to comply with theirs. To carry on the Intrigue, multitudes of Jesuits, Se­cular Priests and Monks of several Orders daily came over without any let or punishment, and appeared almost publickly, as if in Contempt of Law, they car'd not who knew them to be such; they said Mass up and down, and had their Ser­mous in English frequently at their pleasure; and the Popish Court-Merry-Andrew, that Buffoon-Priest Father Patrick, (who seemed to affect Father Ju­nipers Title of Joculator Christi, Christ's Jester, as their Book of Conformities, p. 106. most pro­sanely calls him) did not a little contribute to the mischief, by the great interest he had obtained amongst persons of very high quality, by whose influence they afterwards screw'd many of their Party into considerable Offices and places of Trust Civil and Military, at Land and Sea, being allow­ed Dispensations to go to Church, receive the Sacrament, or take any Test, the better to colour the matter; and on the contrary, who ever they thought was of a spirit to oppose their Designs, they procured to be turned out, and disgraced with the Title of a Fanatick, a Rumper, or disaffected to the Government.

This formidable increase of Popery, and Inso­lence of that Party, was not unregarded by judi­cious men, but lookt upon as a thing very omi­nous, and of dangerous consequence; insomuch, that the then Parliament (though oft-times [Page 87] thought remiss enough on such occasions) could not but take notice of it: for on Munday the 29th of April, 1678. these following Reasons were agreed to be used at a Conference with the Lords, concerning the dangers the Nation is in by the growth of Popery.

THe House of Commons taking into serious consi­deration the dangers arising to this Kingdom from the restless endeavours of Priests and Jesuits, and other Popish Recusants, to subvert the true Re­ligion planted amongst us, and to reduce us again under the Bondage of Roman Superstition and Idolatry; and finding how great boldness they have assumed to themselves, from the great remisness and connivance of His Majesties Officers and Ministers of Justice, both Civil and Ecclesiastical, whereby so many good and necessary Laws, heretofore made against them, have not of late times been put in any effectual exe­cution:

They do therefore think it requisite to apply same remedy to this growing Evil; especially at this time, wherein the unity of Affections, and the mutual con­fidence between His Majesty and his People, dath so much conduce to the preservation of the whole King­dom. And because they have found by experience, that all those applications they have sormerly made upon this Subject, have not produced any effects answe­rable to their expectations, they have endeavoured to discover the Causes and Grounds thereof, which they conceive are principally these.

1. The difficulty of convicting a Romish Priest by proving their Ordinations by Authority derived from [Page 88] the See of Rome; which makes them more confidently to appear in publick, and perform their Offices and Functions without fear of punishment.

II. That Justices of the Peace are discouraged, because those that have been forward in executing the Laws against Papists, in such Countries where they do most abound, have been turned out of Com­mission, without any apparent cause, whilst others who have been Popishly inclined, have been continued in Commission, or put in de novo.

III. That in several Countries many Protestant Dissenters have been Indicted under the notion of Popish Recusants, and the penalties of the Act levyed upon such Protestant Dissenters, when the Papists there have been either totally, or for the most part discharged.

IV. That the Papists do evade the penalties of the Laws, by making over their Estates, by secret Trusts, and fraudulent Conveyances, yet receiving the profits of them to their own use and benefit; whereas in former times, considerable Sums of money were raised by the Forfeitures of Popish Recusants. That now, by the remisness of some, and discouragements of others of His Majesties Officers and Ministers of Justice, little or nothing is levyed upon them, or like­ly to be levyed hereafter, unless the care thereof be committed to persons Commissionated in the several Countries for the advancement of the Protestant Re­ligion, which may encourage persons to see it exe­cuted.

[Page 89] V. That persons are not discouraged to bring up their Children, or suffer them to be bred up in the Popish Religion, because they are as capable of inhe­riting the Estates of their Parents, or Relations, as any other of His Majesties Subjects.

The Commons do therefore most earnestly desire your Lordships to consider the danger and sad consequences that may befal this Kingdom by the spreading of that Religion amongst us, and seriously and cordially to joyn with them in removing these and all other impe­diments, which obstruct the course of Justice, and the due execution of the Laws, either by expediting those Remedies which have been offered by them to your Lordships, or by proposing such others as may be more effectual; and that this may be done with all Expedi­tion, because the Commons cannot think it suitable to their Trust, for them to consent to lay any further charge upon the people, how urgent soever the occasions may be that require it, till their minds be satisfyed, that all care and diligence is used to secure the King­dom, and prevent the dangers that may arise from the prevalency and countenance that is given to that Party, by some more effectual course than hath been provi­ded.

But the Parliament being soon after by the ill influences of unhappy Councils Prorogued, nothing was done, so that the Conspirators went on with their Game more vigorously than ever; they had gain'd the Heir Presumptive of England to own their Religion; whence they assumed no small [Page 90] confidence; they had made sure of the French King for their Friend, and he made as sure of several English Courtiers for his Pensioners: they had formed their design, engag'd great persons in it at home, and setled Correspondencies abroad: an Army was on foot so Officer'd, as might give them hopes to debauch it; or if that fail'd, they had got Commissions from the Pope to raise one of their own; and to Crown the work, his Ho­liness had provided an English Cardinal [Howard] like a second Pool, to reconcile and receive us again into the bosome of Mother Church.—Thus all things were prepared; Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the Lamb? We cannot say here, Deus providebit; but we must say, these bloody Traytors had designed one for Sacrifice, even our gracious King; (whom God long preserve) as knowing they could never destroy our Religion, till they had first destroyed him, who is (and long may he live to be) the Defender of it.

And certainly whatever Papists may suggest, who because the Conspiracy did not take, would fain perswade us there never was any, that next time they may do their business more effectually: and how lowd soever some very indifferent Protestants, and men of droll, may laugh at the mention of a Massacre, and the general destruction of all that should not conform to the Romish Church in these Nations, as a thing more extravagant to be at­tempted, more impossible to be effected, than any Romance-Adventure; yet considerate men will ac­knowledge, that as things stood, and had not this Plot been discovered, nothing to an humane [Page 91] eye could be more feazable: for when the King had been destroy'd, and a Popish Successour so establisht, that all had been Traitors who should offer to oppose his pleasure; when all Offices of Trust should have been in the hands of Papists, who had got not a few of them already; as Hull was then of the Lord Bellasis, and P. of another, &c. when the Commonalty of England, on pre­ [...]ence of executing the Statute for preserving the Game, were generally disarm'd, and not left so much as a Musquet or pocket-Pistol, for fear (as one pleasantly expresses it) of killing a Popish Bird: When we had a mercenary Army on foot, [...]eady raised, and filled with Popish Officers, to have joyn'd that Party at an hours warning: when the French were ready to have assisted them with Men, Money, and Ammunition, being through their contrivance at peace with all the rest of the World, that they might be at better leisure to attend their Motions: When at the same time the Spaniards, (under the name of Pilgrims) had designed to land amongst us 12 or 1400 men, (which is not only attested by Mr. Bedloe, but confirmed by a Master of a Ship, who was aboard their Fleet before they were dispersed by ill-wea [...] [...]ther) when our own Ships had been bestowed up­on Popish Commanders, and our strongest Forts and Militia under the like Conduct: When at the same time our great City had been fired, and every man taking care of his own particular con­cerns, and none left to mind the Publick: When you might have search'd twenty good Houses, before you met with one that had more Arms in [Page 92] it than some old rusty Gun or Pistol, and that per­haps without either Flint, Powder, or Bullet: when all these things should concur together, you must needs confess they would have it in their pow­er to act Massacres, or any other villanies they pleased; and as nothing but Providence did, so nothing else could hinder them.

SECT. 1.

AS Hell and Rome had improv'd all their skill and force to manage this hideous Plot, and bring it to perfection; so Almighty God (notwith­standing all the provocations of our manifold sins) was graciously pleased to appear for our de­liverance, by blasting all their long-studyed en­deavours and Designs with a Miscarriage, just when they were ready for the Birth. The In­strument made use of by Providence, for this great work, was Mr Titus Oates, a Name which (not­withstanding all the Slanders and Calumnies of his, because our Religions and Nations Enemies) will be dear and honourable in after-Ages, as well as the present, to all true Protestants, especially of these Kingdoms, whom he hath been so emi­nently serviceable to preserve; and therefore it will be requisite here to give some brief account of him.

[Page 94] As for his Education, it was Liberal, in the course of Learning, being bred a Student in St. John Colledge in Cambridge, where he took his De­gree: and that as Heaven had endued him with good Natural parts, an inquisitive Genius, quick Apprehension, wary Judgment, and tenacious Memory; so he had not been wanting in impro­ving those Talents, and cultivating those happy seeds by pains and industry. For acquired Abili­ties, appears, by his proceeding Doctor in Divinity at Salamanca in Spain, no contemptible Univer­sity, where he performed all his Exercises, said by experienced persons to be more difficult than those that are commonly exacted elsewhere. He was formerly Vicar at Bobbing in Kent, to which he came in the year 1672. but the Air not being good, left it, and was sometime Minister near Chi­chester in Sussex, and afterwards came to be Chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, with an ample testimony of his Life and Conversation. In all these stations he was a person of a sober Life, and never charged with Debauchery: whence 'tis plain, that all those scandalous Aspersions since spread abroad by the Romanists, are false, and raised by malice, since they were never heard of before he was engaged in this Discovery. Nor can it be imagined, that the Jesuits would have esteemed him so much, or trusted him so far as they did, had they not found him a person, as of good parts, so of a discreet, sober deportment, fit to be employed in affairs of Moment.

The manner and occasion how he came enga­ged amongst them, is thus related. Whilst he was the Duke of Norfolk's Chaplain, he over-heard [Page 95] some whisperings amongst the Priests, (with whom that Family was sufficiently haunted) That there was some grand Design on foot, but could not learn what it was in particular. He had heard from his Protestant Friends, and read in Sir Hamond L'Estrange's History of King Charles the First, and other judicious Authors, That the Papists had for many years carried on a Design to introduce Popery again into these Nations; which created in him a longing desire to sound the depth of it, and, if it were possible, to Countermine it. To this end, he entred more freely into Conversa­tion with some of that Tribe concerning Religion; who greedy of gaining such a Proselyte, failed not to press him with variety of Arguments: in­somuch that at last he seemed as if he were dissa­tisfyed in some things concerning our Church, and desired an opportunity to discourse with some of their Jesuits, as being vogued the most Learn­ed and able Men of that Party. This on some preliminary cautions was procured; and after sundry Conferences with them, in which he suf­fered himself to be overcome, he was formally reconciled to the Church of Rome.

Shortly after this, seeming to aspire to the highest degree of perfection, (which to be sure the Jesuits place in their Society, to which they have blasphemously arrogated the Sacred Name of Jesus) he requested some of those Fathers that he might be admitted to their Order; which after three days consideration they were willing to consent to. And as a particular favour, because he was a man of years, (being then about eight and twenty) they told him, they would not em­ploy [Page 96] him as usually they did Novices, (for so they call their young Students) in drudgery for the first two years, but he should spend that time in being a Messenger for their Society.

This exactly fitted his Design; and so, soon af­ter, he was sent with Letters to Valladolid in Spain, which by the way he dextrously opened, and there­by began to smell something more of their Hellish Designs: he dispatcht this and some other affairs so much to their satisfaction, that after a little time, he was taken into their Consults, as they call them, as a very confiding instrument, and thereby had an opportunity to see all that was on the Wheel at present, and liberty without suspicion to enquire how any thing past had been carryed on. More particularly, he made it his business to inform himself of the beginning, progress, and conclusion of our late Wars; in all which he found the Jesuits and Popish Party had a great hand. The Rebellion that led to it, being began in Scotland, where it was first laid by Cardinal Richelieu, His Majesties irreconcileable Enemy: then it broke out in Ireland, where it was blest with his Holinesses Letters, and assisted by his Nuncio, whom he sent purposely to tend the fire there, as aforesaid: afterwards they plaid their parts in disguise in England, to unsettle the people, start new Phanatical opinions, furnish the Rabble with Arguments for Treason, raise needless occasions of jealousie, push on Rebellion, frustrate all endeavours of Accommodation, &c. till they had destroyed the King, the Government, the Church, and brought us all into confusion. By this means al­so he understood that the City of London in the [Page 97] year 66. was fixed by their contrivance, and was told how that Plot was laid, and who were the Actors in the several Scenes; Richard Strange, heretofore Provincial of the Jesuits, being Di­rector in Chief thereof, and how their Society got 14000 l. by the said Fire, &c.

He kept (but very privately) short Notes of all things of moment, that occurr'd from the time he was admitted amongst their Society, with an in­tent to produce them when they might be of use; by which means he was enabled to give an Account of so many hundred Particulars, which are con­firmed by other Circumstances and Collaterate E­vidence, and have not in the least Interfer'd with one another, nor with those Papers which have been found elsewhere; or with the Informations which have been given in by other Persons (though wholly Strangers to him) whom God hath since raised up further to clear and unmask this de­testable and Bloody Conspiracy.

SECT. 2.

Doctor Oates being thus qualified, and resolved, though with the great hazard of his Life, to pre­vent, if possible, the Ruin of these Nations, by a Discovery of the Plot, which was now so far ad­vanc'd, that his Majesties Life was daily in dan­ger; all their other Contrivances being ripe, and only wanting that Fatal Blow to bring them into Act: He therefore saw the greatest necessity of ex­pedition, lest the notice should come too late.

And whereas Father Whitebread, the Jesuits Provincial, having before his last return into Eng­land, [Page 98] engaged him to Assassinate Israel Tongue, Doctor of Divinty (because he had Translated a Book Intituled, The Jesuits Morals, into English, which severely reflected on the Society) and pro­mised him 50 l. Reward for the fame. He, after his coming over, having acquaintance with the said Doctor Tongue, and knowing him to be a person of Trust and Integrity, did Communicate to him, as well the said intended Assassination, as also some Heads of the general Plot; and they both having seriously consulted of the best method for managing of the Discovery, wherein they were sure to meet with mighty Opposition, and run no small hazards, concluded to acquaint one Mr. Christo­pher Kirby with the business; as one, who for his firm Fidelity, Zeal, and Courage for the Protestant Religion, and his Majesties safety, and the Inte­rest he had at Court, was the most capable and likely Person they could think of, to assist them, and therefore on Monday the 12th. of August, the said Dr. Tongue, See Mr. Kirbies Narrative of the manner of the Dis­covery. shewing him 43. Articles drawn up in writing; requested that (without acquainting any other person there with he would make the same known to the King; which Mr. Kirby generously under­took, but could not get any opportunity of seeing his Majesty (except in Company of the Duke of York) till the next Morning: Then in the Park he acquainted his Majesty that his Enemies had a de­sign against his Life, and humbly pray'd him to use all caution, for he did not know but he might be in danger in that very Walk. Tyrants are always haunted with suspitions and fears: But his Majesty [Page 99] arm'd with his Native Goodness and Innocence, seem'd more surpriz'd with the strangeness of the news, than any apprehension of the danger; and only askt how that could be? To which Mr. Kirby answered, that it might be by being Shot at; but to give a particular account, requir'd more privacy. His Majesty ordered him to attend his return out of the Park; and then taking him aside, laid his Commands on him, to tell him what he knew; who acquainted him that there were two Men, by Name, Grove and Pickering, that watch'd an op­portunity to Shoot his Majesty; and that Sir G. W. was hired to Polsoh him, as he had been the day before acquainted by a Friend, who had a more full account thereof in writing, and was near at hand, ready to appear when commanded, which his Majesty was pleased should be about Eight that Evening: Accordingly Mr. Kirby and Doctor Tongue did at that hour attend his Majesty; and in the Red Room at White-Hall, delivered unto him the said 43 Articles, Copyed out by the Doctor (keeping the Original for his own security) and both of them humbly begg'd that those Papers might be kept safe and secret, lest the full Discovery should otherwise be prevented, and their own lives indanger'd. His Majesty was pleased graci­ously to answer, That being to go next Morning to Windsor, he would safely deposite the said Pa­p [...]is in the hands of one whom he could Intrust, and with whom he would answer for their safety; ordering them to wait upon the Earl of Danby, then Lord Treasurer, the next Morning, which ac­cordingly they did, but it was After-noon before they could be admitted to speak with him. When [Page 100] being brought to his Closet, they found him with the Papers in his hand, saying he had received them from his Majesty Sealed up, and that they were of the greatest concern in the World: But after some few questions, very civilly for the present dismiss'd Mr. Kirby and the Doctor, who two or three days after, carried more Informations, but could hardly come to speak with him; only one of his Gentle­men was appointed to receive the Papers Sealed.

And about the 20th. of Aug. Doctor Tongue offered to bring the said Pickering and Grove into St. James's Park, that they might be taken with their Guns about them, his Informant having as­sured them he could do it at any time, if the King would please to be walking there; but this was not accepted, or neglected. However, shortly after, Mr. Kirby shewed Pickering, as he attended the Priests at Mass in Sommerset-House, to one of the Lord Treasurers Gentlemen.

The 26th. of Aug. Dr. Tonge told Mr. Kirby that he had Informed the Lord Treasurer how he might Intercept Letters that come to Grove (which if it had been honestly done, must of necessity have very much laid open their Traiterous practices, the Jesuits Letters being generally directed to him.) But having heard nothing of it, and the Treasurer being gone out of Town, he was resolv'd to know if any thing had been taken, or no: Accordingly, on the 31th. of Aug. he made an Interest in a certain Letter Carrier belonging to the Post-Office, who on the 3. of Sept. informed him, that the said Grove had usually Letters every week amounting to three or four pound; and that the very day be­fore he had as many Forreign Letters as came [Page 101] to 4 s. and some Inland Letters, but how many he could not positively tell, nor could give account of any offered to be intercepted.

Doctor Oates on the second of Septemb. first discover'd himself to Mr. Kirby, Lodging at Fox-Hall, who all the time before had never seen his face, nor heard his name; but from thenceforth they met together, and on the 4th. of Septemb. he acquainted the said Mr. Kirkby, that Whitebread. the Jesuits Provincial was come to Town, and having got intelligence that there was some Dis­covery made, had Beaten him, and charg'd him with having been with the King, with a Minister, and that he had Betray'd them. The means and occasion whereby they came to have this notice and suspicion, is thus set forth: One Bedingfield, a Jesuit, deeply conecrn'd in the Plot, and who had got (as is said) to be Confessor to the Duke of York, had related in a Letter to Blundel, another of the Gang, that his Royal Highness had intima­ted some such thing to him, viz. That a Gentle­man in such-colour'd Habit, and a Minister had been with the King and made some Discovery: Now it happened that Mr. Kirkby, when he waited on his Majesty, as aforesaid, had on a Suit much of the same colour, with what Dr. Oates then usually wore, which created such their jealousie: How­ever Dr. Oates denying it (for in truth he had then never been with the King) the Provincial at last seem'd Reconcil'd to him, and only ordered him speedily to prepare to go beyond the Sea, preten­ding he had some Business there for him to Nego­riate. Upon this discourse of Dr. Oates, Mr. Kirkby finding him partly discovered, and in danger, re­solved [Page 102] to go next day to Windsor, desiring Dr. Tonge in the mean time to get his Information Sworn before some Justice of the Peace, which on the 6th. of Septemb. was done before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey, yet without permitting him to read the particulars; only assuring him in general, that it contained matter of Treason, and other high Crimes, and that his Majesty had a Copy of it. In the mean time, on the 5th. Mr. Kirkby presented himself be­fore his Majesty at Windsor; but there having been some prepossessions to take away all belief of the Plot, used by Bedingfield, &c. he could not that day, or the next obtain Audience; and therefore on the 7th. repaired to the Treasurers Lodgings, and acquainted his Man, that the Original Infor­mant was discover'd and beaten, therefore desired his Lordships directions; who sent out word that he would hear him. But although Mr. Kirkby wai­ted all that day, was in his presence, and offered to speak, yet the said Treasurer declined it; and on the 9th. went away to Wimbleton. Mr. Kirkby receiving this discouragement, returned home: In the mean time Dr. Oates holding on his Cor­respondence with the Jesuits, on the 6th. of Sept. at night coming to the Provincials Lodgings, and attending at his Chamber door, over-heard him and some others discourse concerning the disposing of a person, saying, This man has Betray'd us; we will give 20 l. to a See Dr. Oate's Narrative, p. 55. Coach-man to take him up, who by By-ways shall carry him to Dover; and when we have got him beyond Sea, we will force him by Tortures to Confess who had been with the King, and inform'd him of the Business. Whereupon con­jecturing, [Page 103] as well he might, that they meant him­self, he privately got away with speed, and ab­sented himself from his Lodging in Drury-Lan [...] that night; and returning thither next night, for some necessaries, was like to have been Assassina­ted by one Stratford. On the 9th. at Night, he met Mr. Kirkby and Dr. Tonge at the Flying-Horse in Kings-Street Westminser, whither for the present he had retired; and then for his security went o­ver with Mr. Kirkby to Fox-Hall, where he and Dr. Tonge continued.

During this time, Dr. Oates wrote fair Copies of his Informations; and Dr. Tonge in vain sought to give in farther Informations to the Treasurer, but were both (and Mr. Kirkby also) much perplexed with apprehensions of the danger they were in, and discouragements they had met with: Till on the 27th. at Night, one of the Treasurers Servants meeting Mr. Kirkby, acquainted him he was come for Dr. Tonge to go to the Council, who with Mr. Kirkby immediately went, but the Council was risen before they came, and order given them to attend next day: Whereupon they resolved next Morning to get two more Copies Sworn unto, that each man might have an Authentick Copy, which accordingly they did (being 28th. of Sept.) before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey, who would needs keep one of them, having never before perused the said Informations: Then first Dr. Tonge and Mr. Kirkby, and afterwards Dr. Oates being sent for, attended the Council, who upon Examination of Dr. Oates, were pleased to order both him and Dr. Tonge, Lodgings in White-Hall for their [Page 104] Security; and proceeded to examine and enquire further into the matter.

SECT. 1.

THE design in general was by Fire and Sword, when all other means fail'd, to subvert the Establisht Government and Religion of these Kingdoms, and to reduce the same to Popery, so as no Toleration should be given to any Protestant, but all to be Extirpated, Root and Branch.

The chief Conspirators that design'd, and were to carry on this, were

1. The present Pope, Innocent the Eleventh, who in the Congregation, de propaganda fide (consisting of about 350 persons) held about December, 1677. Declared all his Majesties Dominions to be part of St. Peters Patrimony, as forfeited to the Holy See for the Meresie of the Prince and People, and so to be dis­posed of as he should think fit.

2. Our English Cardinal Howard, whom in pur­suance of such Declaration, his Holiness appointed [Page 105] as his Legate, to take Possession of England in his Name; he likewise made him Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, with an augmentation of Forty-thou­sand Crowns a year, for the maintenance of his Legantine Authority: He had also Constituted Bishops and Dignitaries for all or most of the Sees and Ecclesiastical promotions in England: As Perrot, Superior of the Secular Priests, to be Arch-Bishop of York; Corker, Bishop of London; White­bread of Winchester; Strange, of Durham; Dr. God­den of Salisbury; Napper, a Franciscan Fryar, of Norwich, &c. Removing all the Bishops in possessi­on from their present Dignities.

3. Johannes Paulus de Oliva, Father-General of the Jesuits Society, residing at Rome, who was to give directions to the Provincial of the Jesuits in London, how to proceed in this affair.

4. Pedro Jeronymo de Corduba, Provincial of the Jesuits in New Castile, who was to assist with Counsel and Money, and to mis-represent the Actions and Intentions of his Majesty of Great Britain in the Spanish Court, to create Jealousies and Feuds between the two Crowns; which like­wise was to be done by a Jesuit that is Confessor to the Emperour, in Relation to England and that Court.

5. Le Chese, a Jesuit, Confessor to the French King, with whom Coleman holding Correspon­dence, discover'd to him all the Secrets of State he could, and by his means endeavour'd to obtain a Pension from the French King for his good Services in betraying his Native Countrey.

6. The Provincial of the Jesuits for the time be­ing in England, which of late was first Strange, and then Whitebread.

[Page 106] 7. The Benedictine Monks at the Savoy', where they had erected them a Colledge; to such a de­gree of Confidence were they arriv'd.

8. Jesuits and Seminary-Priests, of whom there were about that time in England, the number of Eighteen-hundred, and were generally privy to the main design, though perhaps not all acquainted with particulars.

9. Several Lay-persons of Quality drawn in, out of Zeal, Ambition, Covetousness, Revenge, &c. to joyn with them, to Command the Forces they were to raise, and execute the great Offices of the Realm: As the Lord Arundel of Warder, to be Lord Chancellor of England: The Lord Powis, Lord Treasurer: Sir William Godolphin, Lord-Privy-Seal: Edward Coleman, Secretary of State: Lord Bellasis, General: Lord Peters, Lieutenant Gene­ral: Sir Francis Ratcliff, Major General: John Lambert, Adjutant-General: Langhorn, Advocate-General, &c. who had Commissions sent them, Sealed by Paulus d' Oliva, from Rome.

The work was so great, and in their appre­hension so glorious, that the most Eminent of the Popish Clergy in Europe were engaged in it; so that it cannot be said to be an Act or Contrivance of any few particular persons, but an Ʋnanimous undertaking of their whole Church, and so it must be Recorded to Posterity, to their everlasting shame.

SECT. 2.

The means whereby they resolv'd to accomplish it, were,

1. By Killing the King, finding they could not [Page 107] work him to their purpose, and therefore to re­move him, they laid several distinct Plots, and all to be kept unknown to each other: As 1. Grove and Pickering to Shoot him: 2. Conyers and Ander­ton Benedictine Monks, and four Irish Russians, to Stab him. 3. To Poison him; for which purpose 5000 l. was entred in their Books as paid to Sir George Wakeman in part of 15000 l. Reward, which he was to have for that Horrid work, by vertue of a Contract made with him, in the presence of Coleman and Dr. Fogarthy. As for the Duke of York, they concluded to make use of his Name and Interest, if he would comply with them. 1. To accept of the Three Kingdoms as a gift from the Pope, and hold them in Fee of him. 2ly. If he would Confirm their Settlement of the Church and State. 3dly. If he would Exterminate all Protestants. 4thly. If he would Pardon the Murtherers of his Brother, the Murtherers of the People, and those who should Fire the remaining part of the City and Suburbs.

2. For that was the second particular of their work, to Fire London and Westminster, and places adjoyning thereunto; as also other the chief Cities and Towns of England, immediately on the Killing of his Majesty; and lay the whole load, both of the Murther and Firing on the Presbyterians and Fanaticks, thereby provoking the Episcopal men to joyn with them to cut them off; that so Pro­testants being weakned by their own Feuds, they might have the better opportunities, and easier task to subdue them All.

3. By a general Massacre, to which purpose they had formed an Army, which was to consist of [Page 108] Fifty-thousand to be Listed about London: The Officers all resolute Papists, and for the most part French and Irish. These they gave out were enow to Cut the Throats of One-hundred-thousand Pro­testants, especially being taken upon a Surprize, when the Militia of London was unprovided and Undisciplin'd, and the Country generally Dis­arm'd as aforesaid. And besides, the Conspira­tors had the French, and also many thousands of Pilgrims and Lay-Brothers daily expected from Spain, to assist them.

4. The Prince of Orange was also Condemned, Scandaliz'd, and designed against by Name, and 12. Jesuits sent into Holland, on purpose to use means to put that People in a Mutiny against his Person and Government; by buzzing amongst them, that his Uncle of England, and himself had a design to make the said Prince Absolute, with the Title of a King over them, and so to bring them to a Slavery for ever, worse than they suf­fered heretofore under the Spaniard.

5. As for Ireland, the Pope had made Talbot the Titular Arch-Bishop of Dublin, his Legate, to take possession for him of that Kingdom; whose Brother Talbot was to be General of all the Forces there, which were to consist of 20000. Catholick-Foot, and 5000. Horse, besides the French Auxi­liaries. It was there to be carried on by a general Rebellion and Massacre of the Protestants, as in 41. which they call, Demonstrating their Zeal for the Ca­tholick Faith. In the first place the Duke of Or­mond was to be Assassinated, which four Jesuits had undertook to dispatch: And the better to en­courage this Rebellion, the Pope was to Contri­bute [Page 109] Eight-hundred-thousand Crowns, and the French had privately sent over some supplies of Men and Arms, and was to furnish them with more as soon as they should be in Action; Le Chese having a great Influence in promoting all these Trans­actions.

6. In Scotland likewise particular care was ta­ken to foment Discontents, and raise a Rebellion, to which end they divers times sent over several Jesuits, to mingle themselves if they could with the Dessenters, so as they might Preach in their Field­meetings, and inflame them to take Arms to Vindi­cate their Religion and Liberty against those Pres­sures they complained of, and which they were to aggravate; and also against Bishops. And for their encouragement, the Papists there were to raise Eight-thousand Men to joyn with such Dissenters, lest they should be too weak to oppose the Govern­ment; by which they would kill two Birds with one stone, make a difference and hatred between Protestants, and cast the Odium of Rebellion on the Presbyterians, if it should not succeed, or de­stroy the Government, if it should; nor have their Policies in this kind, been wholly ineffectual, as appears by the late Rebellion in Scotland, princi­pally occasion'd by these Romish Incendiaries, though happily suppress'd without doing that ge­neral mischief which they expected.

Towards the necessary Charge.

1. The Society of Jesus in England, are Credibly said to have above Threescore-thousand Pounds per Annum Estate in Land, managed by Trustees; in the securing and settling whereof, Mr. Langhorn the Councellor, was principally concern'd.

[Page 110] 2. They have One-hundred-thousand Pounds Stock in ready Money, imployed at Interest by Scriveners, and used in Trade by Persons of several occupations.

3. Eleven-thousand Crowns Paulus de Oliva was to send them from Rome. Ten thousand Pounds more from Pedro Jeronymo de Corduba, from Spain. Le Chese, the French King's Confessor, advanc'd Ten thousand Pounds more; and Six thousand pounds the Benedictines: Besides considerable sums of Money transmitted to Coleman by Foreign Ministers of State; and the Benevolencies of Ca­tholick Grandees at home, for promoting so meri­torious a work.

This is the general Scheme of this Bloody, Hellish Plot, which in the quality and number of the Con­spirators; the long time it hath been contriving and carried on; the Cruelties design'd; the vast­ness of the undertaking; the multitudes that would thereby have been destroyed, and other cir­cumstances, is not to be parallel'd in any History; and all this Treason, Blood-shed, and Villany, without any provocation, to be perpetrated under the colour of Religion.

SECT. 3.

As for particulars, and the several Letters and Negotiations, we refer the Reader that is so curious to Dr. Oates his Narrative Printed, as aforesaid, last Spring, by Order of the House of Lords, where­by it appears, that in April 77. he was imployed by Strange, the then Provincial; Fenwick, Hartcourt, and other Jesuits in London, to carry their Letters [Page 111] to one Father Suinam, an Irish Jesuit, at Madrid in Spain: That in his Journey he broke open the said Letters, and found therein an account given what Jesuits they had sent into Scotland to stir up Tu­mults, and that they feared not success in their de­sign, having got an Interest in his Royal High­ness, &c. That he saw several Students sent out of England to Valladolyd, who were obliged by the Jesuits of the College, to Renounce their Allegiance to his Majesty of Great Britain; and that one Armstrong, in a Sermon to the Students there, did with most false and black-mouth'd Scandals repre­sent his said Majesty, using such Irreverent base ex­pressions, as no good Subject can here repeat with­out horror; with several other Traiterous words and Correspondencies which he there discovered: from whence he returned in November.

That about the beginning of December, he was sent with another Treasonable Letter to St. Omers, wherein was expresly mentioned their design to Stab; or if that could not be done, to Poison the King; and that they had received Ten thousand Pounds from Le Chese, which was in the hands of one Worsley of London, Goldsmith. There was likewise Inclosed a Letter of thanks to Le Chese, which he carried from St. Omers to him at Paris. During this his Journey, and being abroad, he saw and read many other of their Letters, all ten­ding to one effect, viz. Of cutting off the King, Subverting the Government, and Restoning the Romish Religion; and were so confident as in some of them, to say, That his Majesty of England was so possest of their Fidelity, that if any Male­content amongst them should not prove true, [Page 112] but offer to discover, he would never belie [...] them.

That in April, 1678. he came over with others to the grand Consult which was held the 24th. of that moneth, by about 50 Jesuits, at the White-horse Tavern in the Strand, where they met suc­cessively in small Companies, and thence dispersed into distinct little Colloquies or Clubs, where they Signed a Resolve for the Death of the King, which Dr. Oates, as Messenger, carried from one Company to another to be Signed; and very shortly after returned to St. Omers, from whence he came again, (being the last time of his being abroad) the 23. of June for England; where in July, he became privy to the Treaty with Wakeman and the terms; as also heard John Keins a Jesuit, Preach a Sermon on the 13th. of August, to 12 persons in disguise, supposed to be of eminent quality; wherein he asserted, That Protestants and other Heretical Princes, were ipso facto, deposed because, such; and that it was as lawful to destroy them, as an Oliver Cromwel, or any other Ʋsurper; with several other Traiterous words and discourses from divers of the Conspin­tors at several times and places therein specified, till the time of his making the Discovery, as afore­said.

SECT. 1.

THE Discovery was made to the Council on Sa­turday the 28th of Septemb. (being Michael­mas Eve) as aforesaid, in the Morning, where Dr. Oates was a long time under Examination. In the Afternoon the Council sat again, and Dr. Oates was imploy'd with a Guard, that Night, to search after some Jesuits, whom he took. On Sunday, in the Afternoon, the Council sat again very long, and then he was Re-examin'd; and when they rose, he was sent abroad all that Night to Search the Lodgings of several Priests, and find out their Papers, which he did seize upon. On the said Sunday Sir George Wakeman (the Queens Phy­sician) before mentioned, was summoned to at­tend the Council, but was dismiss'd; being told by Sir Ph. Lloyd, that his Majesty would have the hearing of his business next day himself. On Mon­day Morning the Council sat again, and Dr. Oates was further Examined; and by reason of so long watching, and running up and down for two days and nights together, continually without any re­spit, [Page 114] and in bad rainy weather, he was reduced to such extream weakness and disorder of body, that he could hardly stand or speak: Then it was that Sir George Wakeman again appeared, and be­haved himself so strangely, that the whole Council were amazed at the manner of it, for he did not seem to deny what he was charged with so positively, as one that was Innocent would have done, but used ma­ny boasting expressions of his great fidelity and Loyalty to the King, and required Satisfaction and Reparation for the Injury done to his Honour. Dr. Oats did then set forth that he had seen a Let­ter from Whitebread to Fenwick, mentioning that Sir George had undertaken the Poisoning of the King for 15000 l. of which 5000 l. had been paid him by Coleman: But a question arose afterwards, at his Trial, Whether he then mentioned another Letter, which afterwards he insisted upon, written from Sir George himself to Father Ashby; Sir George denying that he then said any thing of it; but on the contrary, declared he had not any thing fur­ther to charge him with, and then endeavour'd to Invalidate his after-Evidence; whereas Dr. Oates alledged, the Council did not press him to his knowledge; and that the Omission of men­tioning that Letter, if he did omit it, as to the best of his memory he did not, was to be attribu­ted to his Weakness at that time; which the King and Council were so sensible of, that his Majesty himself had like to have sent him away once or twice before, because he found him so Ill. [See Wakemans Trial, p. 55, 56, & 59.] It not being improbable that a man under such Circumstances might forget to mention that, which at another [Page 115] time he might well know and remember. How­ever it was, things were so manag'd, that Sir George was not Committed at that time, nor till above three weeks afterwards. When Dr. Oates ac­quainting the House of Commons with that Letter under Sir Georges hand, they thereupon sent a Message to the House of Lords, wondring why he was not Confined: Whereupon their Lordships upon Examination of the matter, Committed him.

As for Priests, Jesuits, and Conspirators about this time secured, there were

On the 30th. of September, Committed to New­gate by Order of the Privy Council, for High Treason,

• Dr. William Fogarthy, Since dead in Goal.
• • William Ireland,
  • John Fenwick,
  • Thomas Pickering,
  All since Executed.
• • John Grove.
  • John Smith,
  • Tho. Johnson.
  Still in Newgate Untry'd.

On Sunday the 30th. of Septemb. Mr. Colemans House was Search'd, and some of his Papers seiz'd: On Munday the first of Octob. he voluntarily rendred himself to Sir Joseph Williamson, then Secretary of State, hearing there was a Warrant out against him: But there were so many other Prisoners un­der Examination, that he was not call d till After-noon, where he seem'd to hear these lewd things charg'd upon him, with Scorn and Indignation; insomuch, that though a blank Warrant was fill'd [Page 116] up, to send him to Newgate, he was only for the present Committed to a Messenger, and a special Warrant granted to the Messenger to secure him against the said first Order.

On Tuesday the 2d. of Octob. his Majesty went out of Town to New-Market; and a Committee being appointed to Examine several Papers, and Mr. Colemans amongst others, there were found in a Deal-box some, of such dangerous Consequence, as moved the Lords forthwith to Sign a Warrant for his Commitment to Newgate, dated the 4th. of October.

On the 7th. Mr. Richard Langhorn the Elder, a Councellor of the Temple; and on the 10th. Mr. Edward Peters, lately living at Sir Charles Shellies in Sussex (who Married the Lady Aber­gaveny) were both Committed to Newgate by the Council.

Hitherto the weight of this mighty work lay wholly upon Dr. Oats's shoulders and Reputation, and the design he mentioned, was in it self, and its tendency so Horrid and Bloody, that good men (who are always Charitable) could scarce perswade themselves of its reality: The fashionable men of the Town, that pretend to wit and humour, did but make a Jest of it, having long since learn'd to turn all things, though never so serious and sacred, into Drol and Ridicule; and on the other side, the Conspirators with Impudence, lies, noise, number, and the powerful Interest they had, did not doubt but to over-bear and crush his testimony; and upon this Confidence no doubt it was, and consideration that at worst he being but a single Evidence, they could not by our Law be Convicted of Treason [Page 117] for any thing he could say; that so many of them stood so long by it without flying, that at last they fell into the hands of Justice; which Indiscretion, these men who are excellent at turning Objections into Arguments, would afterwards have made an advantage of, as a sign of their Innocence, when in truth it was only a symtom of their Presumption.

SECT. 2.

But now the adorable Providence of God was pleased to take the Crafty in their own Net, and so far Infatuate these Romish Achitophels, that them­selves mortally wounded their own Cause, and became Accessary to promote a further Discovery and Confirmation, by venturing upon a Bloody Enterprize, which immediately Alarm'd the whole Nation, and left no room any longer for doubt, whether or no there were a Plot. This was the Murther of that worthy Magistrate, Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey, whose memory shall be dear to Po­sterity, as a Martyr for our Church, and a Ransom for the State: And though the manner of his death was not discovered till a considerable time after­wards; yet not to interrupt the Series of time, we shall relate it here.

Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, as is before related, took Dr. Oat's Depositions, which was no more than every Gentleman in the Commission of the Peace, was bound to do; yet for this necessary dis­charge of his duty, the Conspirators were so en­raged, that they resolved to cut him off; the ra­ther (as may reasonably be supposed) to deter all other Magistrates from inter-medling with any [Page 118] affairs relating to the Plot: How many there were in all, that Conspired his death, is not yet certain­ly discovered; for it appears, they accounted the Murthering of him so necessary, that they had im­ployed several Parties to do it, which knew nothing of each others designs. But those who are known to have been in it, were these, Father Girald and Father Felly, two Irish Priests, Robert Green, Cushion-man to the Queens Chappel; Laurence Hill, Doctor Godden's Man (which Doctor is Trea­surer of the said Chappel) Henry Berry, who was Porter of Sommerset-House, and Mr. Miles Prance, a Goldsmith in Covent-Garden, who workt to the Queen: These were actually present at the Mur­ther; and besides, they knew there were two more that were Privy to it, & should have been there, but were not, viz. one Father Lewson, a Priest, and one Phillip Vernatti, who belonged to the Lord Bellasis (who since fled.) Then of the other Gang, who were to have done it, but did not, there were Pritchard, Le Fair, Welch, Kains, and another (five Jesuits) and Mr. William Bedloe.

Of that Company that effected it, 'tis believed that Vernatti, and the Priests first undertook it, and drew in Green, Hill, and Berry first; and afterwards engaged Mr. Prance, which they did at the Plough-Alehouse by the Water-gate, by Sommerset-House, on a Sunday, after they came from Chappel; tell­ing him that Sir Edmundbury was a better Persecutor of Catholicks, and a particular Enemy to her Majesties Servants (whereof Mr. Prance counted himself one, as aforesaid) and that he had very lately Examined people against them, and got Depositions to fix base Crimes and Scandals on their Religion; and that [Page 119] Catholicks would be ruined, unless he were taken off; and therefore it was necessary for the Glory of God, and good of the Church, that it should be done; and that besides, they should have a good Reward from the Lord Bellasis; and when Mr. Prance scrupled it, the two Priests, Girald See Prance, Nar­rative. page 10. and the Tryals of Green, &c. p. 14. and Kelly told him, It was no sin, but a work of Charity; so far from being a Murther, that it was a Meritorious work, and he ought to assist in it.

Having thus fixt him, they had several Con­sultations how to accomplish the work: At last, on Saturday the 12th. of October, Hill went to Sir Edmundbury Godfreys House in the Morning, and spoke with him; but what he said, is not known: Then taking his leave, he went to Girald and Green, and with them staid hard by, waiting Sir Edmundbury Godfreys coming forth, which a­bout 10 or 11. a Clock he did, as he used to do all alone; they dog'd him up and down (as they said) all that Day, till about six or seven a Clock in the Evening, and then Green came to Prances House, and told him that they had Set him, but did not name where, any further than by saying near St. Clements; and that Prance must make all hast down to Sommerset-House, to the Water-gate (that is the furthermost Gate, or passage West ward, in the Strand, that goes into Sommerset-House, down to the Water-side) and there he should find Kelly and Berry, which he did, and they three waited there till about Nine a Clock at Night; then Hill came in hast, and told them he was coming, and that they must pretend a quarrel, and he would fetch him in; Kelly and Berry did begin a seeming [Page 120] quarrel; and just as Sir Edmundbury was passing by the Water-gate, Hill (who was acquainted with Sir Edmundbury, and Sir Edmundbury with him, as having dealt with him formerly) steps out in a great deal of hast, and entreated him for Gods sake to come in, for there were two men a quarrelling, and he was afraid there would be Bloodshed; whereas his presence, being a Magistrate, would presently quiet them: He refused at first; but the other was so importunate, that at last he consented, and Hill entred the Gate first; after him, Sir Edmund-bury; and just behind him followed Girald and Green: As soon as they were in, Prance went up to the Water-gate, to watch that no body should come in that way; and Berry was to secure the Stairs and passage by the Chappel; but first he and Kelly, the pretended Quarrellers, stood about the end of the Rail by the Queens Stables; and as Sir Edmundbury went down towards them, Green sud­denly threw a twisted Handkerchief about his neck, and forthwith all four of them pull'd him down and Throttled him, so as he could make no noise; then they threw him behind the Rail, and gave him many violent punches on the Breast with their Knees; and Green wrung his neck almost round, with all his force: Prance and Berry being come to them, when he was quite dead, they all help'd to carry the Body into Dr. Goddins Lodgings, where the said Hill liv'd, who went before and opened the door: When they were in, they carried him up five or six steps, into a little Room on the right hand, and there left him that night, and Sunday all day and night.

[Page 121] On Munday night, Hill and some others of them removed him into a Room in the upper Court; and Prance having a mind to see where they had laid him, they all went with a dark Lanthorn thi­ther, and lookt on the body; at which time Mr. Bedloe saw Mr. Prance, and knew him again, long afterwards, as in due place shall be men­tioned.

On Tuesday night they carried him to another Room in the said long Entry, over against Dr. God­dins Lodgings: And on Wednesday night, being removing it from thence to the Room where it was at first; Prance happening to come upon them at that instant, they all run away and left the Body in the Entry, till he call'd to them; and then they came back and laid it, as at first, in the little Room.

Then that they might Murther his Reputation, as they had his Person; the two wicked Pciests, Girald and Kelly, advised to carry him out into the Fields, and leave him run through with his own Sword, in some obscure place, that he might be supposed to have Murther'd himself, and therefore his Money, Rings, &c. were all to be left with him. This being agreed, they resolv▪d to carry him out at Night; and in order thereunto, Hill procured a Sedan, into which, about 12. a Clock, they put him; Prance and Girald carried him out at the great Gate, Berry the Porter opening the door, who to avoid the Soldiers taking any notice, had invited them into his House with Drink and Tobacco: Thus sometimes Girald and Prance, and sometimes Kelly and Green carried him up towards So-ho Fields, hard by the Grecians Church, and [Page 122] there Hill attended with an Horse, and they set the body up before him, and clapt the Sedan into an House that was Building there, but unfinish'd, till they came back; and then Girald the Priest said, I wish we had an hundred such Rogues as secure as we have this: Then Prance, because he was a House-keeper returned home, and the other four went away with him, one leading the Horse, Hill riding and holding the Body, and the other two walking by.

They carried him into an obscure place, about two miles out of Town, towards Hampstead, near a place call'd Prim-rose Hill, and there in a Ditch they left his Body, Girald having run Sir Edmonds own Sword through him, and left it in, but the Scabbard and his Gloves they laid on the Bank, at a small distance.

In the mean time Sir Edmund-burys Servants first, and then his Friends, and at last the whole Town were not a little concern'd for his abscence; and there was once a Proclamation ordered to disco­ver him, but Countermanded by reason of false Information given by some Papists, that he was living and well; and there were several persons that went up and down to Coffee. Houses to spread false Reports, that he was gone into the Country to be Married to such a Lady, whom they took up­on them to name; that they saw him at such or such a place, &c.

That Saturday the 12th. of October, the very Evening that Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey was so Murthered, did Father Harcourt the Jesuit, lately Executed, send away a Letter to Father Ewers, a Priest, at the Lord Astons in Stafford-shire, wherein [Page 123] were these words, This night is Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey dispatcht: This Letter was received there on the Munday, and shown to Mr. Dugdale, as he hath since made See the Tryal of Whitebread, &c. p. 26. Oath at several Tryals, which is further confirmed by Mr. Chetwin, a worthy Gentleman, who being then in that Countrey, heard a report of it there, by means of that Letter, on the Tuesday, which was before ever there was any discovery of it at London.

For here was no tidings to be heard what was become of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, till on the Thursday following, being the 17th. of Octob. and then two men passing over the Fi [...]ls by chance, spied the Gloves and Scabbard; and as they came back, going to the place, discovered the Body in the Ditch.

The 20th. of Octob. the King Issued his Procla­mation, Commanding all his Officers and Subjects to use their utmost diligence to find out and disco­ver the Murtherers of the said Sir Edmund-bury, Graciously promising 500 l. Reward, to any that should make such discovery; and if any one of the Murtherers should discover the rest, he should not only be pardon'd, but likewise have the said Re­ward.

But this Royal offer could not prevail with any of them to come in, for the present, but they seem'd more hardned in their wickedness by its success; for about a Fortnight afterwards, there was by them a Narrative of See Pran. Nar­rative, p. 18. this Heroick fact drawn up in Writing, which Vernatti read in a Triumphing manner, at a meeting they had at the [Page 124] Queens-Head at Bow; and said that the same was drawn up to be shew'd to the Lord Bellasis, and some other great persons that were the original Designers and Promoters of the business, for their satisfaction; and possibly it may since be sent to Rome, and there finds as great approbation, and causes as great Joy as the News of the Murther of King Henry the Third of France did, upon which Pope Sixtus the Fifth made a Panegyrical Oration, calling it the Work of God, and preferring the Ver­tue, Courage, and Zeal of the Fryar that did it, before that of Eleazer in the Macchabees, or of Judith killing of Holofernes.

The 21th. of Octob. the Parliament met, to whom his Majesty in his Speech took notice of the Plot in these words: I now intend to acquaint you (as I shall always do with any thing that concerns me) that I have been informed of a design against my Person, by the Jesuits, of which I shall forbear any Opinion, lest I may seem to say too much or too little; but I will leave the matter to the Law, and in the mean time will take as much care as I can to prevent all manner of practices by that sort of men, and others too, who have been tampering, in a high degree with Foreigners, and contriving how to Introduce Popery amongst us.

October the 24th. 1678. Mr. Oates was Exa­mined in the House of Commons six or seven hours; and about Nine a Clock at Night, the House sent for the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, and he took Mr. Oates's Examination upon Oath, and in the House | Sealed 26 Warrants against several Lords, and others that Mr. Oates had Sworn against; whereupon the five Lords, viz. The Lord Powis, the Lord Stafford, the Lord Arundel of Wardour, the [Page 125] Lord Petre, and the Lord Bellasis, and Sir Henry Tichburn, Baronet, were taken into Custody, and shortly after Committed to the Tower, and about the 30th. of Novemb. the Lords were Impeached of High Treason.

The same day James Corker was Committed to Newgate by Sir Charles Harbord, and Sir Thomas Stringer for a suspected Priest; who afterwards ap­peared to be one charged with the Plot: And the 26th. Matthew Medburn (formerly a Player) was likewise sent thither by the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs, for High Treason, who died in Custody the 19th. of March following.

The 30th. of October, the Parliament having by an Address desired that Papists might be Banish'd the Town, his Majesty set forth a Proclamation, declaring that there was a Bloody Traiterous design of Popish Recusants against his Majesties Sacred Person and Government, and the Protestant Religion; commanding them all, except settled House-keepers that would take the Oath of Alle­giance and Supremacy (which the Justices should be Impowered by Special Commission to Administer) to depart the Cities of London and Westminster, and all places within 10 Miles distance of the same. In pursuance of this Proclamation, many Papists pretending they could not in Conscience take the said Oaths, did go out of Town with great Lamen­tation, leaving their Trades and Dwellings; But within a Week or two, their Ghostly Fathers had fitted them with Dispensations, as appears by the sequel, and then they generally return'd again, and freely, without any Keckings of Conscience, offer­ed to swallow the said Oaths, or indeed any other Test that could be tendred them.

[Page 126] Octob. the 31th. Upon the further perusal of Mr. Colemans Papers, and the Examination of Mr. Oates taken upon Oath, it was Resolved by the House of Commons, Nemine Contradicente.

That there has been and is a Damnable and Hellish Plot contrived and carried on by the Popish Recusants, for Assassinating and Murthering the King, and for Subverting the Government, and destroying the Pro­testant Religion by Law Established.

The same day the Body of Sir Edmund. bury Godfrey was Honourably Buried, being carried from Old Bridewel, attended with a vast number of Per­sons of Quality, Ministers, and substantial Citizens, to the Parish Church of St. Martin in the Fields, wherein he dwelt, and there Enterr'd.

Novemb. 2. A Proclamation promising 20 l. Reward to any that should discover any Officer or Soldier of his Majesties Guards, who after taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, was per­verted to the Romish Religion, or should hear Mass.

On Saturday the 9th. of Novemb. his Majesty made a Speech to both Houses of Parliament, pur­posely to give them thanks for the care they took for the safety of his Person in these times of dan­ger; assuring them he would joyn with them in all the ways and means that might Establish a firm Security of the Protestant Religion, as their own hearts could wish, and this not only during his time, but in all future Ages to the end of the World.

Nov. 10. was a Proclamation to confine all Po­pish Recusants within five Miles of their respective dwellings. About this time to Corroborate and confirm Dr. Oates his Testimony, it pleased God [Page 127] to work upon the heart of Mr. William Bedloe, to come in and make a further discovery. He had formerly been (as 'tis said) a Servant to the Lord Bellasis, afterwards an Alpherez [or Ensign] in Flanders; and about Michaelmass, 1674. was sent for over by Harcourt, recommended by the Eng­lish Abbess at Dunkirk, and so by degrees be­came acquainted with the Jesuits, and was at last generally imploy'd as an Agent for them, and sent frequently with Letters into Forraign parts, where­by he became privy unto several of their Traiterous designs; and after the Plot discovered by Dr. Oates, he continued amongst them, who being somewhat jealous of his revolting, did, the better to keep him in awe, make him constantly twice every week take the See the Tryal of Green, &c. p. 33. Sacrament, and thereupon swear Se­cresie, and to conceal his know­ledge of the Plot. Before the Murther of Sir Ed­mund-bury Godfrey, Le Fair, Pritchard, Kains, and other Jesuits and Priests, treated with him about Killing a Gentleman, and said he should have a good Reward, but would not discover who it was: Af­terwards they imploy'd him to Insinuate himself into the Acquaintance of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey, which he accordingly did, pretending to take out Warrants for the good Behaviour against persons that were not in being, but what use they designed to make of such his Acquaintance, he knew not: But being with them the day before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey was Murthered, at the Gray-hound Tavern, the said Mr. Bedloe sent his Boy to his House to desire him to come to them; but he hap­pen'd not to be at home, else 'tis probable they had [Page 128] Poisoned, or otherwise Kill'd him then: Next day they told him it was to be done that night, and that there was to be 4000 l. Reward for doing of it, given by the Lord Bellasis, which Mr. Coleman had order to pay; therefore they engaged him to meet them that night in the Cloisters at Sommerset-House, but he fail'd in coming, for which Le Fair was angry, but told him on the Munday, that the business was done without him, and then endea­vour'd to engage him to help carry off the Body; and at this request some Priests shew'd him the Bo­dy, who then, and not before, knew it to be Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey: When they talkt of carry­ing him out, Mr. Bedloe told him it was yet too early, and about 12. would be a better time, at which time he would come to them, which Le Faire made him promise to do upon the Sacrament which he last took; but being much troubled to see their Cruelty, he returned no more to them, but went to Bristol very restless and disturbed in his mind; and at last being convinc'd it was his duty, he could no longer forbear discovery, but wrote to one of the Secretaries of State, and was sent for up; and though he had no acquaintance with, or to his knowledge ever saw Dr. Oates before; and that for a considerable time they were kept with Guards apart, and not suffered to have any Correspon­dence, yet he most exactly agreed in the Account he gave of the Plot, with what Dr. Oates had set forth, both as to things and persons. He also gave an account that Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey was Mur­thered at Somerset-House by the Contrivance of the Jesuits, but the particulars he could not fully set forth.

[Page 129] The 17th. of Novemb. upon this new Informa­tion received, his Majesty set forth a Proclamation for the Apprehension. of George Coniers, Le Phaire, Prichard, Symonds, Charles Walsh, and Biston, alias Beeston, late Servant of the Lady Bellasis, who were thereby required to render themselves, and that if they did not so do before the 10th. day of Decemb. next, a Bill should be presented to the House of Peers for Attainting them of High Treason; and further pro­mising 100 l. Reward to any Person that should Discover or Apprehend any of the said Offenders. The same Proclamation directs the Oaths of Su­premacy and Allegiance to be tendred to all Popish Recusants or Persons so reputed; and if they re­fuse, to bind them over to appear the next Sessions; and in case they cannot, or will not find Securities, then to Commit them: And all such Refusers to be Disarm'd, and 10 l. Reward promised to any that should discover any considerable quantity of Arms in any Popish Recusants House.

The 20th. of Novem. was another Proclamation, promising 20 l. Reward to any person that should Discover and Apprehend any Popish Priest and Jesuit, (except John Huddleston, signally Instrumental in his Majesties escape after the Fight at Worcester, Priests belonging to the Queen, whose names shall be Enrolled in the Kings-Bench, and those that attend upon Foreign Ambassadors) the said 20 l. to be immediately, paid upon such Discovery and Apprehension, and due proof thereof.

SECT. I.

THough Mr. Bedloe had given some general Ac­count of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey's Murther, sufficient to fix it on the Jesuits and Popish Priests, and their Confederates, and that the same was transacted at Somerset House; yet not being actu­ally present, he could not exactly set forth the Par­ticulars: But now it pleased God to give a more full Discovery thereof, and by means so strange and unexpected, that we must needs acknowledg it to be the act of a singular Providence.

The Murderers (as you have heard Chapt. the 8th.) had so closely carried that Bloody Villany, that now they had for ten Weeks slept in Security, and imagining Heaven as well as their Priests had approved so black a deed by this success, they had, no doubt, so far stifled all Convictions and Alarms of their Consciences, as not to dream of giving a­ny account for the same; when on a sudden all is wonderfully brought to light: The occasion thus,

[Page 169] There happening some mis-understandings be­tween Mr. Prance and a Neighbour of his, the latter knowing the former to be a Zealous Papist, and having understood by some of his Servants, that one time, about Michaelmas, he had absented himself two or three Nights from home; an Ima­gination came into his head, that he might be con­cern'd in Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey's Murder; though in truth such his Absenting was a Fort­night before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey's death, on the first noise of the Plot, when Penwick, Ireland, &c. were taken, whom he was so Zealous to defend in a publique. Coffee-House, that for some words then spoken, he was threatned to be Prosecuted, and on that score, only lay from home the said three Nights, as he could prove by Credible Wit­nesses, till the Business might be composed: How­ever this Neighbour, on the bare suspition afore­said, took out a Warrant against him to appear before the Council, which France readily obey'd, as knowing him not to be able to prove any thing of that nature upon him. But being taken by Vertue of that Warrant, on the 21th. of December, and being first carried into See Mr. Prances Narrative p. 20, 21. the Lobby, by the House of Commons, Mr. Bedloe (whom he did not know, having but once been seen him be­fore, viz. upon the view of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey's Body in Somerset-House before-menti­oned, at which time, Prance did not much observe him, yet) knew his face again, and Charg'd him with that Murther; whereupon, after Examina­tion, he was Committed to Newgate.

Next day, being the 22th. of December, he [Page 170] made a Discovery, and Charg'd the before named Girald, Dominick Kelly, Robert Green, Henry Berry, and Laurence Hill, of whom the three last were Apprehended, but the two first escaped; the subtle Priests shifting for themselves, and leaving those whom they had drawn in, to Answer for it; though Kelly was afterwards taken up in Surry, by the name of Daniel Edmonds, as a Recusant; but understanding Prances being taken, got out upon hired Bail, before he was known to be Kelly, though afterwards the same was discovered, as shall hereafter in its proper place be set forth.

The 24th. of December, Prance was Examined before the King and Council, and having given the particular Circumstances of the Murther, and in what respective Rooms and places the Body was kept, as aforesaid, several Lords were ordered to go with him, to see if there were such Rooms as he described, and whether he could readily go to them, which he did to their Honours full sa­tisfaction.

But sometime after, remaining in Prison, with­out any assurance of his Pardon, he was so far prevailed with, to retract by word of mouth what he had truly Confessed upon Oath; as once to say before the King and Council, That he was Inno­cent, and they All were Innocent. But as to the Temptations he was under, and the Circum­stances that sway'd him to that Ill Action, he hath since set them forth so ingeniously, as may satisfie any Impartial man, and take off that Ca­lumny wherewith the Papists load him, and in vain endeavour to Invalidate his Testimony on that account. In Answer to which, he offers [Page 171] these Considerations in his Book, pag. 23. which cannot be better express'd than in his own words, viz.

Thus far the words of Mr. Prances own Narra­tive, well worthy the Readers perusal, not only for his satisfaction in this behalf, but also for the several notorious Villanies of a great number of Po­pish Priests therein by name exposed: To which, as a very confirming Circumstance, we may add, that falling very dangerously Ill. soon after; he then, when he had nothing but a certain prospect of approaching Death before his eyes, he declared and asserted to divers, his first Confession to be true in all points; and also afterwards, as soon as he recovered his Health, he repeated the same with all stedfastness before the Kings most Excellent Ma­jesty, and the Lords of the Council: Whereupon, [Page 174] his Majesty was most gratiously pleased to grant him his Pardon.

From all which, 'tis most plain, that all this Dust which the Priests and Jesuits have raised a­bout this matter, is fairly blown away, and Truth is become perspicuous to any ingenious man that will but Impartially look into these Transactions, and consider them as they are, and not as they are represented by their false perspectives.

SECT. II.

On the 21th. of December, 1678. there was some Discovery relating to this Plot, given into a Committee of the House of Lords, by one Mr. Ed­mund Everard (a Scottish Gentleman) who had been kept four years Prisoner in the Tower; the ef­fect of which, and the occasions and manner of such his Confinement, was as followeth.

This Mr. Everard having been concern'd with the English Forces in France, and there having the Honour to be acquainted with his Grace, the Illustrious Duke of Monmouth, was employ'd as Agent for the concerns of the English Militia at the French Court, where he became acquainted with the Lady Ann Gourdon (Sister to the Marquess of Huntly in Scotland) living in a Popish Convent in Paris, who being a Lady very Zealous for Popery, of excellent Accomplishments, and great Correspondence, did in the moneth of Novemb. 1673. acquaint him,

That there was a grand design on foot in Eng­land, for settling Popery there; and a project ei­ther to dissolve the then Parliament, or sow mis-understandings between his Majesty and it; and that there was a considerable Party labouring to [Page 175] make the Duke of York King; and that his Ma­jesty would be made away, and shortly would not be in a case to hurt any body.

After this he was entertain'd to Introduce Peter Talbot, Popish Arch-Bishop of Dublin, to the Marshal Bellefond and the French King, into whose presence he was admitted, and allow'd half an hours Conference, presenting that King with a Letter, and other Papers.

That the said Talbot then told Mr. Everard, that the business he had to negotiate with that King, mightily concern'd the welfare of all the Catho­licks in England, but those of Ireland more espe­cially, being to propose ways to the French King to relieve them of their present Persecutions, and un­dertake their Protection; some of which Expe­dients he declared, were to Arm some of the Irish, and secure a Sea-port Town in Ireland for the French; for which Negotiation, he said he had good Warrant and Commission from some of the greatest persons in England.

Mr. Everard immediately discovered all this to one Sir Robert Welsh, hoping for his Assistance to Communicate it to his Majesty of Great Britain; but it seems Sir Robert re-acquainted Colonel Talbot the said Bishops Brother, both what Everard had said of his Brother, and of the Lady Huntly, and that he was designing for England, to make known such their Correspondencies, who thereupon threatned him, That if he offered to do any such thing, they would infallibly procure that he should forthwith be Committed to the Tower of London, or the Gatehouse: That notwithstanding Mr. Everard pri­vately getting away, not without great danger, be­ing [Page 176] desperately sought after and pursued in France, came over into England; but within three or four days, and before he could get to speak with the Duke of Monmouth, whom he intended to have Address'd himself unto, he was suddenly sent for to one of the Secretaries of State, and without any Examination or Crime proved, Committed to the Tower, where after some moneths, he was Examin­ed by the then Lieutenant, to whom he declared all the said particulars of the Traiterous Conspiracy, whereof he seem'd to take little knowledge, but threatned to Rack him next day, and afterwards Hang him, if he would not Confess some de­sign he had against the Duke of Monmouth; and several other Examinations he had before other persons to that purpose, but was continued Priso­ner on this false and malicious suggestion, occasion­ed by the Malice and Interest of the said Traitors beyond the Seas, and thereby their Conspiracy lay Concealed for the space of four years, till after the Plot was discovered by Dr. Oates, and then he gave in this Information first to the House of Lords, and afterwards to the Commons upon Oath, as by the Narrative thereof, Printed by it self, more at large appears.

It may here be noted, That afterwards, viz. but in August last, the before-mentioned Sir Robert Walsh, taking advantage of the Liberty of the times, adventured to Print some Papers, which he pre­tended to be an Answer to this Narrative; but it being found to consist of nothing material, but only certain Scurrilous and causeless. Reflections on Mr. Everards Person, the same upon Complaint was Ordered by Authority to be suppress'd.

[Page 177] As for other Occurrences, the most material were as follows, Decemb. 30th.—The Parlia­ment was Prorogu'd till the 4th. of February, and before that time, viz. Jan. 24th. Dissolv'd by Proclamation, as aforesaid.

January the Third, was an Order of Coun­cil made to Reinforce the Proclamation, of the 30th. of October, To keep Papists out of Lon­don, and 10 Miles distance.

January the Eigth, A Proclamation Com­manding the immediate Return of all his Maje­sties Subjects, who were in any Foreign Semina­rles, and forbidding any Releif to be sent to them.

About this time, Come in Herefordshire was dis­covered to be a College of Jesuits; and Mr. Ste­phen Dugdale formerly Servant to the Lord Aston in Staffordshire, came in and made a considerable Discovery, whereupon on the 15th. of January, a Proclamation was set forth against Francis Evers, aliàs Eurie, aliàs Ireland, of Tixal in the Coun­ty of Stafford. John Gaven, late of Wolver­hampton in the same County. Vavasor, aliàs Gifford, late of Boscobel, Edward Levi­son, late of Wilnot in the same County, All Jesuits, and Broadstreet, late of Hore-Cross in the same County, a Popish Priest, being charg­ed upon Oath, to be guilty of the Plot, and a promise of 100 l. to any that should Apprehend Evers, and 50 l. for each of the rest. Of these, Gaven was soon after taken into Custody, and since Executed, but the rest absconded.

[Page 178] January, 17th.

The Judges gave their Opinions in the Points following, relating to Recu­sants.

May it please your Majesty,

We have met, and considered of the Questions proposed to us, and do hereby humbly return our Opinions.

To the First, We are of Opinion,

That Foreigners (being Popish Recu­sants) and exercising ordinary Trades, (but not Merchants) are not excused from taking the Oaths, or finding Securities.

To the Second, That Foreigners, though certified by Ambassadors to be their Servants, except they are menial Servants, are not excused.

To the Third, That Foreigners, though settled House-keepers, being no Tra­vellers, or Foreign Ministers Servants, are not excused.

[Page 179] To the Fourth, That the King's Native Subjects, are not excused form taking the Oaths, by being menial Servants to Fo­reign Ministers.

To the Fifth, We find no Law that ex­cuses a Feme-Covert, being a Papist, from taking the Oaths, though her Husband be a Protestant.

To the Sixth, That a Popish Recusant, having taken the Oaths, is not bound to find new Sureties, unless upon a new tender of the Oaths, he shall refuse to take them.

All which, with great Humility we sub­mit to your Majesties judgment.

• Will. Scroggs.
• Fran. North.
• W. Mountagu.
• W. Wylde.
• Tim. Littleton.
• Hugh Wyndham.
• Robert Atkyns.
• V. Bertie.
• Fr. Bramston.
• Tho. Jones.
• W. Dolben.

At the Sessions in the Old-bailey, the 16th. and 17th. of January, One John Ayleworth, aliàs Adland, Committed to Newgate as a Preist, on the 23th. of Novemb. before, was Indicted of [Page 180] High Treason, upon the Stat. of 27 Eliz. cap. 2. And upon full Evidence of his having fre­quently said Mass, received Confessions, given Absolutions, and performed all other Priestly Functions, and that he had often appeared in her Majesties Chappel in Priestly Vestments, a­mongst the rest of the Preists, he was found guilty, and Condemned. But his Majesty tread­ing the merciful steps of his Ancestors, being most unwilling, to punish any for their Religion, or that any Preist, though even upon this odious provo­cation of their Parties plotting against his Life, should suffer purely for being a Priest, or meerly for their presumption and disobedience, for coming into his Dominions contrary to that Law; was graciously pleased to grant him a Re­preive.