No faith or credit to be given to Papists being a discourse occasioned by the late conspirators dying in the denyal of their guilt : with particular reflections on the perjury of VVill. Viscount Stafford, both at his tryal, and in his speech on the scaffold in relation to Mr. Stephen Dugdale and Mr. Edward Turbervill / by John Smith Gentleman ...

No faith or credit to be given to Papists being a discourse occasioned by the late conspirators dying in the denyal of their guilt : with particular reflections on the perjury of VVill. Viscount Stafford, both at his tryal, and in his speech on the scaffold in relation to Mr. Stephen Dugdale and Mr. Edward Turbervill / by John Smith Gentleman ...

Table of contents

Title page

To the Right Honourable Heneage Finch, Baron of DAVENTRY, Lord High Chancellor of ENGLAND.

Reflections on the Sincerity of the Papists, Occasioned by the SPEECH of William Late Viscount Stafford, On the Scaffold at Tower-Hill.

The Examination of Edward Howcott of the City of Lichfield, taken at the said City, the first day of Jan. 1680/1 before me Francis Bayly, one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace forth County of the said City.

The Information of Simon Ansell, as it was taken before one of His Majesties Justices of Peace in Staffordshire, and transmitted to Edmund Warcup Esq &c.

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NO Faith or Credit To be given to PAPISTS.

BEING A DISCOURSE Occasioned by the Late Conspirators Dying in the Denyal of their Guilt. With Particular Reflections on the Perjury of UUill. Uiscount Stafford, Both at his Tryal, and in his Speech on the Scaffold In Relation to Mr. STEPHEN DUGDALE, AND Mr. EDWARD TURBERVILL.

By JOHN SMITH Gentleman, Discoverer of the Popish Plot.

LONDON, Printed for Tho. Cockerill at the Three Leggs in the Poultry over against the Stocks-Market. 1681.

To the Right Honourable Heneage Finch, Baron of DAVENTRY, Lord High Chancellor of ENGLAND.

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THE August Character which your Lordship bore, and the Lofty place which you filled at the T [...]yal of my Late Lord Stafford, render it the indisp [...]nsible duty of your Servant, with the humblest prostration to deposit these Pape [...]s at your feet. And if ever my Lord Chancellor Finch had a Theater adopted to these Qualifications of Nature and Acquisition which he is indued with. It was then that he was furnished with an Illustrious occasion of displaying and celebrating of them. And the most indelible Records of succeeding times, will transmit to the admiration, as well as instruction of future Ages, with what Wisdom and Justice you acquitted your self, and what Honour to the Envy—of such as may be called to Sit there in the like capacity, you entailed upon that High and Reverable Court. The Speech which accompanied the Sentence pronounced upon the Criminal before you, did at once declare the Courage, as well as the Righteousness of him that spake it. And for any now to doubt of a Popish Conspiracy against the King, the Protestant Religion, and the Government Established by Law in England, is not onely to Arraign the most impartial, as well as the greatest Tribunal under Heaven, but to contradict a person who contrary to a thousand Secular Byasses, proclaimed the Sentiments of his own Soul, in publishing the Sentence of that tremendous Judicature. Onely let me with all becoming humility, suggest to your Lordship the Sensations and Resentments of the Papal Party, namely, That by the Condemnation of this one Conspirator, you have not onely Impeached, but in effect convicted the whole Body of the Romish Faction in England; And for your Lordship henceforth to hope to skrene your self from the effects of their Exasperation and Rage, but by a zealous prosecution of them according to the demerit of their Crimes, were not onely to abandon your self to the neglect of your friends, but the Triumph of your Enemies. For among all the sins which are enrolled for venial by the Roman Church, there is no provision of pardon for him that condemns a Votary to the Triple Crown, or adjudgeth those to the Gibbet, whose obedience to the Infallible Chair obliged them to destroy Heretical Kings and Kingdoms. Nor was it to the diminution of your Glory, that you made your Eloquence, wherewith at other times you have blazoned many great and Noble Subjects, vail in that Oration to the strength and uncontrollableness of Reason. And did not the Formalities of Law require the Attestation and Testimony of Oral Witnesses, the Arguments demonstrative of a Horrid Conspiracy, wherein the Papists are imbarkt and involved,—which enliven that great and solemn Speech, might without the accession of any other Evidence, be sufficient to [Page] ground a Verdict upon of a most execrable Treason against the whole Papal Community in these Kingdoms. The Nation is now instructed upon whom to charge the Burning of London, and that from the mouth of him, the Authority of whose Decrees give for the most part, a terminative and final decision in more dubious cases; only let me subjoyn, that you have hereby kindled those sparks in the hearts of all English men, as well as Londoners, as nothing but the shedding the blood of the Authors, and Instruments of that Conflagration by the hand of Justice, will be ever able to quench or extinguish them. My Lord, that true Christian and Protestant Charity, which taught you to give that Viscount an Interest in your prayers to God for the pardon of those Crimes above, which the Law could not remit here below, and who withall, neither begged, nor put any value upon them, will, I hope, influence your Lordship to forgive the confidence of this Address.

Your Lordships most dutiful and obedient Servant, JOHN SMITH.

Reflections on the Sincerity of the Papists, Occasioned by the SPEECH of William Late Viscount Stafford, On the Scaffold at Tower-Hill.

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§ 1. TIS matter of no small surprize, that not withstanding the Discovery of a horrid Popish Plot against the King's Person, the Protestant Religion, and the Government Established by Law, yet the Nation after the Expiration of two years since the first Detection of it, doth still lie as much exposed to all the dangers which it threateneth, as the first hour when it was revealed. And that which encreaseth the amazement is, that neither the advantages which we have by enjoying a Protestant King, nor the Counsels and assistance which three several Parliaments have faithfully and chearfully contributed, have been hitherto able to secure our Religion, Lives and Liberties, from the hazards which this Papal Conspiracy travelleth with, and would involve us under. But that which is most of all astonishing, is the endeavour to discredit the belief of the Plot, and this after it hath not only been so fully and legally made evident by the Papers and Letters of some of the Conspirators, the positive and concurring Testimonies of many Witnesses; the Murders and Assassinations committed upon several Magistrates, as well as others, for discharging their duty in the detecting of it; but after it hath been put beyond all rational contradiction as well by the votes and resolves of so many Parliaments, as by the conviction and Execution of divers of the Traitors. And when the hiring and suborning infamous persons to defame and weaken the credit of the witnesses, and the tampering with some of themselves to corrupt and make them retract their Depositions, had failed them in the accomplishing what they proposed unto themselves, they thereupon persevere to foment and cherish a disbelief of the Plot, by arguments derived from the Curses and Imprecations, whereby those that were convicted of, and executed for it, did in the affirmation of their Innocency, affront the Justice of the Nation with their last and dying breath. For having found all their other Arts, and their manifold subornations, to issue only in the prejudice of their Cause, and the punishment of those whom they had employed; they are therefore forced to stake the Reputation of their Religion and Church, and the Safety of their whole Party, upon the Oaths and Curses, whereby those that were condemned, have in the contempt and defiance of the clearest Evidence, and most Impartial Justice, endeavoured to outface us into a persuasion that they were guiltless, and suffered unjustly.

Now, though this may affect some easie and weak persons, with an opinion that they died not so criminal as their Indictment and Sentence bore; yet it can make no impression upon men acquainted with Books, or conversant and experienced in the affairs and transactions of the world: Seeing it is easie for such to know, that false Asseverations and Oaths are not only consistent with, and justified by the Principles of the Papal Religion, but that they are agreeable to what Popish Traitors, and other Malefactors within the Roman Communion, have practised upon less important Motives and Occasions; and that likewise in their last hours when they were immediately after to appear before the Divine Tribunal. And if the Romish Party in England, were not Judically left to betray the highest Folly, as well as perpetrate the greatest Villanies, it were not possible that after the two Learned Answers, which were published against the Speeches of the five Jesuits, who suffered, June the 20th 1679. And notwithstanding all the Infamy which hath thereby redounded to their Cause, they should still take Sanctuary in Falshood and Perjury. But having no other Vindication of their Innocency to betake themselves unto, they must either acknowledge their Guilt to the eternal Reproach of their Religion, and the hazard of their total Extirpation out of His Majesties Dominions; or they must successively as they come to be arraigned and executed, retreat [Page] to false and horrid Oaths and Imprecations, for the preserving the credit of their Church, and the protecting their friends from the punishments to which this Hellish Conspiracy hath made the greatest number, as well as the most considerable of them obnoxious. Accordingly the Late Viscount Stafford hath for the honour of Mother Church, and the promoting the blessed Design of overthrowing the Protestant Religion, and destroying such as profess it in these Nations, been prevailed with to shut up the Course of a Traiterous and Criminal Life, with most stupendous and astonishing Perjury, by assuming the Impudence to protest and swear that he was Innocent of what he was brought to suffer for. And all this after that the most Righteous and Impartial, as well as the highest and most August Court in the World, had on the fairest Trial, and most convincing Evidence that ever Offender was convicted or sentenced upon, found and pronounced him guilty.

§ 2. Now, though the Principles of the Papists be such, and the Tyes they are under from their interest so strong, that there is no hope or probability left that any regard to Truth or Justice should influence the consciences of any in that Communion to act otherwise, should they be brought to tread a Scaffold, or mount a Ladder upon the score of the Present Plot, yet we will not Despair but that the Infamy which by uncontrollable Evidence we shall fix and entail upon the memory of the Late Viscount Stafford, may prevent such as hereafter may come to suffer for this Conspiracy, from the indiscretion of dying like Fools, and men regardless as much of their Names here, as of their Salvation hereafter. But if that Infatuation and Obstinacy which hath hitherto prevailed over the Minds and Consciences of those of the Papal Faction, should so powerfully continue upon them, as to render that part of my Design unsuccessful, yet I comfort my self with the hopes of being able so far to undeceive and instruct the rest of mankind, as to preserve and secure them from giving faith and credit to Papists in any thing they shall say or swear for the future; especially when their Personal Interest, or that of their Church dependeth upon, or is concerned in it.

And indeed this Plot is already both so far unvailed and laid open, and so demonstratively confirmed and proved, that none pretending to the name of a Protestant, can bring into question either the Truth or Execrableness of it, unless he be really a Papist, and assume the appellation of a Protestant only as a safe and fashionable Vizard. Moreover, the Vindicating the Justice of the Nation, and the clearing the Integrity and honour of that high, and so much to be renowned Court of Judicature, before whom the Late Viscount Stafford was arraigned, and by whom he was with so great solemnity pronounced guilty and condemned, is a matter worthy of our utmost Zeal and Diligence, and the due performing whereof we shall alwaies esteem a piece of the greatest usefulness we were capable of applying our selves unto in this World.

In fine, by discoursing this matter as it ought, and placing things in that light and clearness which are due to them, we hope to render the Conviction of those other Traitors, who either already are, or may come hereafter to be Impeached upon the account of this Conspiracy, not only less liable to private Censures and Obloquies, but more easie and dispatchable. For there are some persons, who though they fully believe a Plot, that from the reverence which they would be thought to bear to the solemn Appeals which the Accused make to God of their Innocency, are withheld from giving that entire credit to the Witnesses for the King, which the Authority of the Deponents Oaths, the coherence of their Testimonies, the intrinsick Evidence of their Depositions, the correspondence of one part with another, and many material and circumstantial proofs seem to exact from them. But though not only weak and well meaning men, but persons of great prudence and circumspection, and throughly acquainted with all the measures according to which Justice is to be administred, and publick Trials of Offenders transacted, may suffer themselves to be imposed upon by audacious Asseverations, before the guile and falshood of them be discovered; yet if they continue in their credulity after that the highest blasphemy against whatsoever is and should be preserved sacred, comes to be detected and laid open, they must not take it amiss if the generality of mankind not only charge them with easiness of belief, and folly, but father upon them Accusations that are more Gross and Criminal. Nor is there any character so black, but that they deserve their names should be eternally loaded with it, who not only suffer themselves to be wheedled by Asseverations destitute of all grounds which should command respect and deferrence, but which through the palpableness of their falshood ought to raise a detestation and horror in the minds of all those who maintain any veneration for God, whose name is so audaciously and sacrilegiously prostituted to the attestation of lyes and perjuries.

§ 3. And seeing the Papists have hitherto produced nothing towards their Vindication from the Plot, that is material or consistent with it self, but that those who have [Page] been brought to suffer for it, have asserted their Innocency and denyed their guilt when in the Immediate prospect of Death and Eternity. It will not therefore be an unfit remarque in our very entrance on the discourse of this matter, that their criminalness is not only made Evident by the Testimony of many persons, who through the hopes they enjoy of the continuation of their lives are capable of being tempted by the Expectation of profit and greatness, but that it is confirmed and established upon the Authority of Expiring and dying persons, who as they felt and saw themselves out of all hopes of enjoying the pleasures of Life any longer, or compassing riches or advancement to their friends or posterity, so they ought to be judged delivered from the Impression of all sublunary Allurements in what they said, and no man can suppose that any thing else should influence them to speak falsly: Accordingly Mr. Bedlo in the view and approach of Death, affirmed both upon the Faith of a Christian, and as he hoped for Salvation, that he had wronged no man by his See his Examination in his last Sickness, p. 10. Testimony, but that whatsoever he had testified concerning the Plot was true. Shall the Advocates for the Conspirators, account themselves mightily advantaged in weakning the Credit of the King's Witnesses, from this that there is not that Faith to be given to men not only in the possession of Health, but having all Legal security of their Lives, as there is to persons who both know that they must immediately die, and that they are to appear before the great and righteous God, who hath threatned to punish all Falshood and Perjury with unconceivable torments? And shall not we esteem our selves mightily confirmed as to the truth of the whole Evidence concerning the Plot, by finding that so considerable a Witness both in detecting the parts and degrees of it, as well as those that were engaged in its contrivarce and prosecution, should so solemnly seal what he had before deposed with his last and dying Breath? Here is one that hath declared their Guilt, in the same Circumstances wherein the advocats for Rome glory so much, that the condemned affirmed their Innocency. So that all their Harangues concerning the Credit that is due to the Asseverations of dying persons, are much more applicable to our Belief of the Plot, on the dying Testimony of Mr. Bedlo, than it is possible they should be to the weakening our Faith about it, upon their affirming themselves Guiltless, who were so Legally Convicted and Condemned for it. For their Concernment to Preserve the Reputation of their Religion, Secure the Libertïes of many of their Party, and the Hopes which they might flatter themselves with, to save their own, together with a Desire of Recommending their memories to the favorable Opinion of future Generations, may be conceived Sufficient Grounds and Inducements to influence them to a Denial. Whereas Mr. Bedlo had no Concernment of his own, no Expectations of advantage to accrue to his Friends or Relations, no hopes of avoiding approaching Death, which might be conceived to prevail upon him, to breath out his last words in the Affirmation of their Guilt. Besides, the Principles of their Religion are such, as do both countenance their Denial, and Justifie them in it; whereas the Principles of the Protestant Religion, wherein this Gentleman Dyed, do both prohibit and condemn the asserting every thing that is false, let the Motives be never so great and important. The disparity between the Asseverations of the one and of the other, is so considerable upon this single and alone Account, that should it be admitted that their Circumstances were the same in all other things, as well as in that of Death immediately in their view, yet there can be no just Competition between the weight and Authority of what they said in the Attestation of their Innocency, and what he affirmed in the Confirmation of their Guilt. And it is remarkable, that he not only Dyed in the profession of the Protestant Religion, which precludeth all hopes of pardon to any that shall persevere in malice, hatred, lying and slandering; but that during his whole Sickness, he was in the Exercise of all seeming contrition and remorse, and so far as any one could judge, in the practice of sincere and unseigned Repentance, for all the sins whereby he had offended God, or injured Men. So that upon all that can rationally sway or determine our belief, entire credit ought to be given to Mr. Bedlo, upon the Declaration he made of their Guilt in the Juncture and Circumstance of Dying; whereas there is nothing that can be justly or rationally alledged, which without abandoning our selves to weakness and easie Credulity, can obtain from us the giving the least Faith to them, notwithstanding their affirming their Innocency in expiring Circumstances. And therefore though the Publick hath sustained great loss by the removal of a Witness, that could have not only testified against so many of the Conspirators, but so particularly, and with so many corroborating Circumstances; yet the Deposition which he made in his last Sickness, whereby in the prospect of approaching Death, and in the belief and sense of his speedy appearing at the Tribunal of God, he confirmed and ratified upon Oath all that he had declared before, hath done more to establish the Credit of the Plot, and ruine the Reputation of the Papal Party in the [Page] minds of all unbiassed men, than ever he could have effected by never so many reiterated Testimonies against them at Bars, and in Courts of Judicature.

§ 4. Nor in the next place ought any man to be surprized, that such of the Traitors as nave been convicted and condemned for this Hellish and Damnable Plot, should Die professing their Innocency as to what they were condemned for; seeing they bound and obliged themselves by such Oaths which they account most solemn, and vowed by whatsoever according to the Principles of their Religion, is esteemed more sacred than other, that they would never discover the Conspiracy which they were engaged in. For all those to whom this Bloody Design was See Ireland's Tryal, p. 10. p. 28. Dugdal's further Information, p. 16. communicated; and especially such who were to be assisting in it, had taken an Oath of Secrecy, and the Sacrament upon it, as all the Witnesses do inform us, never to reveal or disclose what they were either engaged in, or acquainted with. And the tenor of this holy and Catholick Oath, by which they most sacredly and indispensibly bound themselves, was this, as it was found very happily amongst Mr. Rusten's Papers, a Priest, in Sir Thomas Gascoyne's House. I A. B. being in the presence of Almighty God, the Blessed Mary Ever Virgin, the Blessed Michael the Archangel, the Blessed The Papists Oath of Secrecy by Mr. Robert B [...]leron, printed by Order of the House of Commons. St. John Baptist, the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and all the Saints in Heaven, and to you my Ghostly Father, do declare, and in my heart believe the Pope, Christ's Vicar General, to be the true and only Head of Christ's Church here on Earth; and that by virtue of the Keys of binding and loosing given his Holiness by our Saviour Christ, he hath power to Depose all Heretical Kings and Princes, and cause them to be killed: Therefore to the utmost of my power, I will defend this Doctrine, and his Holinesses Rights, against all Usurpers whatsoever; especially against the now pretended King of England, in regard that he hath broke his Vows with his Holinesses Agents beyond Seas, and not performed his promises in bringing into England the holy Roman Catholick Religion. I do renounce and disown my Allegiante as due to the said pretended King of England, or obediente to any of his inferiour Officers and Magistrates; but do believe the Protestant Doctrine to be heretical and damnable; and that all are damned who do not for sake the same; and to the best of my power, will help his Holinesses Agents here in England, to Extirpate and Root out the said Protestant Doctrine, and to destroy the said Pretended King of England, and all such of his Subjects as will not adhere to the holy See of Rome, and the Religion there professed. I do further promise and declare, That I will keep secret and private, and not divulge directly or indirectly, by word, writing, or circumstance, whatsoever shall be proposed, given in charge, or discovered to me, by you my Ghostly Father, or any other engaged in the promoting of this pious and holy Design: And that I will be active, and not desist from the carrying of it on: And that no hopes of rewards threats or punishments, shall make me discover the rest concerned in so pious a work: And if discovered, shall never confess any accessaries with my self concerned in this Design. All which I do swear by the Blessed Trinity, and by the Blessed Sacrament, which I now purpose to receive, to perform, and on my part, keep inviolable: And do call all the Angels and Saints in Heaven, to witness my real intention to keep this Oath. In Testimony whereof, I do receive this most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist.

Now besides that there is nothing more probable or fuller of moral Certainty, than that; in a business, should it be discovered, of so fatal Consequence to their Religion and themselves, they would use all Imaginable waies and means to bind the Consciences of those that were trusted with it from revealing and detecting what was committed unto them; so the Methods which they took in Promoting former Plots and Treasons, and for the prevention of their Discovery, having been by the prescription and imposition of an Oath of Secrecy, may give us all desirable Assurance that they were equally careful to [...]der the detection of this, and that accordingly they made use of some solemn Oath of secrecy to that purpose. And that by the Engine of such an Oath they have endeavoured to setter the Consciences, and stop the mouths of their Proselytes and Complices heretofore, we are abundantly Informed in a book stiled A true and perfect Relation of the whole proceedings against Garnet the Jesuit and his Confederates, which was Published by Authority Anno 1606 where we have the Sum of the said Oath thus conveyed unto us and recorded; viz. You shall Swear by the Blessed Trinity, and by the Sacrament you now purpose to receive, never to disclose directly or indirectly, by word or circumstance, the matter that shall be proposed to you to keep Secret, nor desist from the Execution thereof, until the rest shall give you leave. Which Oath was administred by Gerrard the Jesuit to Catesby, Percy, Wright, Winter and Fawkes, in the Second year of the Reign of King James, and by Greenwell the Jesuit to Bates in the same year, though in the following month. And as this was an unquestionable Copy for our present Conspirators to write after; so we may easily inform our selves from [Page] hence, by virtue of what tyes those found guilty of the late Plot dyed in the asseveration of their Innocency; for if we do but suppose them to have lived in the practical belief of their own Religion, or that they were possessed with any hopes of attaining happiness in the way of it, we must then perswade our selves, that they would not depart out of the world in the violation of an Oath which they had so solemnly taken, and which the principles of their Faith doth not only approve of, but makes the keeping of it meritorious. As to other Oaths, they might be easily dispensed with, both to make and break them, but there was no Expectation of any dispensation for, or absolution upon the violation of this Oath. For can it be so much as once apprehended, that after they have brought persons under a bond which they esteem so sacred and unviolable, they should then indulge and allow them to transgress against an obligation so necessary to the compassing of their ends, and in the punctual observation whereof they have stated so much of their Religion and the future happiness of their Proselytes? To act dissonantly to this Oath which so admirably framed and calculated for the good of Mother Church, and the grandess of the triple Crown, were a perjury not to be expiated; but to forswear themselves in subserviency to the gainful and Religious ends of this Oath, is at once not only venial, but worthy of Immortal Glory. I readily grant, that partly by the Antecedent Oath of Secrecy which they had so ceremoniously and augustly taken, and partly by the circumstances under which the papal cause and faction laboured when they came to dye, they were brought into a strait or dilemma of perjuring themselves on the one hand, or upon the other. But now, can we reasonably think that they would perjure themselves by detecting the Plot, when they knew that upon so doing, they were both by the principles of their Faith, and the Sentence of their Church, to stand adjudged to Eternal Torment? And ought we not rather to assure our selves, that under the security which they had of happiness in the keeping inviolate their first Oath, they would in defiance of all Truth, attest God above, and call Men below to witness, they were altogether Innocent of what they were charged with. For against the dread and apprehension of all that this might render them obnoxious unto, they might secure themselves by a dispensation beforehand to do it, or provide for their salvation by an Absolution afterwards, or trust to their Martyrdom in so holy a Cause for the expiation of so small a Crime, or at the worst they could but expect that their punishment in Hell for so beneficial a perjury to the Church, should be only for a season; and that the prayers of Catholicks, the superlative prevalency of Masses, and the boundless and unquestionable Power of Christ's Vicar, who hath both the Keys of Heaven and Hell, would soon release them thence, and translate them to happiness.

§ 5. But that we may the better understand how far Papists may lawfully not only endeavour by bare Affirmations to impose falshoods upon the world, but forswear themselves for the good of the Catholick Church, and the grandeur of the Papal Chair; we will briefly unfold and lay open how far they allow themselves, and are justified by their Writers and Ghostly Fathers to do so, in subserviency meerly to their own credit and reputation, or at most, in order only to their own personal safety. And without enquiring, till afterwards, upon what maxims of Divinity, the Roman Casuists indulge their Disciples and Converts to do so, we shall at present produce an Instance or two, and those very remarkable, by which it will appear, that this is allowed by the Ghostly Fathers, and practised by the Members of the Papal Communion; the first then shall be that which Robert Perkins gave an Information of upon Oath, and which Sir Robert Atkins▪ one of the Judges at Stafford Assizes 1679. took as followeth.

This Informant saith, That about seven or eight years since Mr. Arthur This is to be had Printed by it self, being fold by Rich. Baldwin in Boult-Court near the Black Bull in Old Baily. Fox (then Servant to the present Lord Aston) came to him, and to another of his friends, and told them that there was a Bastard-child laid to his charge, by one of his Lords Tenants Daughters, and did acknowledge to them that he did several times Lye with her, and that by the best computation of time he could make, he had just grounds to believe she had done him no wrong in this her charge; and that he verily believed himself to be the Father of the Child, and therefore came to them as his particular friends, for their Advice in the case, how to prevent the noise and scandal, and great charge that was like to ensue hereupon, and desired them to treat with the Young Womans Father and Mother about it, and to offer them a certain sum of money to free him from all future charge from, or by reason of this business. In pursuance of this request this Informant and his friend addressed themselves to the Young Woman, and to her Father and Mother. The Young Woman with the greatest Asseverations and Protestations did affirm, that she had never Layn with any man whatever, but the said Mr. Fox, and that he was the real Father of the Child. Then they came to a Treaty with her Father about ascertaining the charge, and agreed that Mr. Fox [Page] should pay thirty pounds, to be for ever discharged from the said Child; part of which sum was accordingly paid. When they returned to Mr. Fox, and had acquainted him with what agreement they had made for him with the Father and Mother of the Young Woman, he seemed exceeding well satisfied therewith, and returned them many thanks, owning himself very much obliged to them both, for their great care and pains in transacting this Affair for him, and bringing it to an Issue so much to his content.

Mr. Evers the Priest belonging to the Lord Astons house, was abroad whilst this business was in agitation, but returning in few days before all the said thirty pound was paid, was informed by Mr. Fox himself what agreement was made for him by this Informant, and his friend as aforesaid. Mr. Evers having thus understood the whole case told Mr. Fox that what he had done was not sufficient to take off the scandal from their Church, for to his knowledge this story was much talkt of abroad, and that with very severe reflections upon the Roman Catholicks in general; and therefore as his Ghostly Father, he would advise him what was to be done in order to the taking off so great a scandal from their Church, and added that he had consulted Mr. Peters another Priest, about it, and that they were come to a resolve what method should be used, and therefore required him to prepare himself for Confession. Accordingly Mr. Fox came to Confession to the said Mr. Evers, and owned the whole matter as aforesaid; then Mr. Evers told him again, he continuing upon his knees, that the scandal which was hereby brought to their Church, was very great, and therefore for the taking it off, and preventing further scandal for the future to their Church, to my Lord Aston, or to himself; Mr. Peters and he had agreed upon this course; viz. that he should go immediately to his Lord Aston, and on his knees before his Lord and Lady, with solemn Oaths and Asseverations deny that ever he had any thing to do with the said Young Woman in that nature, and that he was altogether innocent of the Crime laid to his charge; and that after this he should go up to the Chappel where the Congregation was met, and there in like manner deny it with the like Asseverations, and to confirm them in the belief of it, he should then before them receive the Sacrament. When Mr. Evers had finished these Instructions, he gave him Absolution before he rose from his knees, telling him, That if he observed these Instructions, he was absolved from the said Crime, and therefore innocent of it altogether, and might so declare himself as aforesaid. All which Instructions in every particular the said Mr. Fox punctually observed. His friend aforesaid being in the Chappel when he disowned the Fact with solemn Oaths, and received the Sacrament upon it. Here we have not only an instance what little credit is to be given to the Oaths and Asseverations of Papists, but how they prostitute what themselves account most sacred, namely Confession, Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Eucharist to their base and secular ends. And if the preserving the Reputation of one Fellow, or the avoiding the Censures which might be reflected upon the Papal Religion, because of sin of one of the Members of their Communion, which the Doctrine of their Church pronounceth at worst to be but venial, could be esteemed motives and inducements weighty enough, and sufficient, for the Authorizing of Perjury, and the prophaning the Institutions of their Religion; can we then judge it strange, or ought we to entertain it with any surprise, that for the saving not only the honour of their Church, but the Estates and Lives of so many of their Faction in England, from the Just Imputations and deserved Punishments, which so horrid a Treason as that now charged upon them, must both render their Religion and Party obnoxious unto, they should not only allow, but oblige their Votaries, to use the like Imprecations and Oaths towards the wheedling the unthinking and credulous sort of Protestants into a belief of their Innocency.

The second Instance I shall give of the Freedom they assume unto themselves of abusing the Faith of Mankind by Oaths, and how for they are from reckoning it any crime to forswear themselves for the advantage of the Catholick Cause, shall be that of a Souldier lately admitted into one of the Companies of the King's Guards under the Command of a Captain, who is well known to be an abhorrer of such practice. This Fellow having taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, the only Legal Test whereby the Government hath provided for the distinguishing betwixt Protestants and Papists among persons of that degree and Employ, was nevertheless suspected by some of his Companions, who knew what Religion he had been of before, to be still a Papist, and that he had only swallowed those Oaths for ends which he was willing to conceal, but which according to the Romish Religion, might sanctifie a prophanation of the name of God. Accordingly having resolved for their own satisfaction, and their better instruction what that vile Religion countenanceth men in, to have a watchful and observant Eye over him, they were so fortunate as the last February, to trace him to the Portugal Ambassadors, where they saw him not only present at Mass, but kneel at the Elevation of the Host. Which from the Regard which they bear to His Majesties Honour, did so inflame their Zeal, that they immediately seized him after he was come out of the [Page] Chapel; and having carried him whither they thought fit, they first stript him to the middle, and then poured a Pale of Water leisurely down his body, as a testimony of their Resentment, and as a kind of Military correction. To this I might subjoyn the known Story of one John Cummin, who having swallowed the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, in order to his being Listed also in His Majesties Guards, was lately seized upon Duty in the Tower, and Committed to New Prison, not only as a Papist, but as a Priest; and though there was not Legal Evidence to Evince the last, yet the first is indubitable. However, we see that the Papists can forswear as well as dissemble their Religion, when it is so much for the Interest of the Catholick Cause, as the winding themselves into the Guards, must needs be esteemed. And as we have reason to believe this not the only person who hath had a Dispensation to take the aforesaid Oaths, in order to the furthering the holy Designs of the Infallible Chair; so no man can be so ignorant, as not to understand that through their being Listed under His Majesties Ensigns, they are ready for the Subversion of our Religion, and the Destruction of our Lives, whensoever they hear of the King's Death shall come, which they have so long waited for, and used so many waies to hasten. And besides, this Justifies the Jealousies of those Noble and Renowned Peers, who in their Address to His Majesty January the twenty fifth last, told him that they had reason to fear and apprehend that neither Lords nor Commons will be in Safety at Oxford, but will be daily exposed to the Swords of the Papists and their Adherents, of whom too many, is to be feared, are crept into his Guards.

§ 6. And whereas some may possibly imagine, that though men may be influenced to perjure themselves, while in a probability to live and enjoy not only the beneficial fruits of their perjuries, but may be ready to delude themselves with hopes of repenting of their Villanies afterwards, if they shall at any time arrive at such a persuasion of mind, as to think it necessary; we shall therefore in the next place give an account of some condemned for crimes, less dangerous to the Papal Cause, should they be acknowledged, than Treasons against the King and Government are likely to prove, who yet trusting to the blessed provisions of their Religion, and in an Implicit Obedience to their Ghostly Fathers, have ventured the going boldly off the Stage, affirming and swearing their Innocence, when they knew their own guilt. The Relations were sent to the Right Honourable the Earl of Essex, in a Letter from Dublin bearing Date the fifth of March, 1679. and Printed at London for Langley Curtis, 1679. The first contains an account of one John Curphy, a Papist, who at Lent Assizes seven years before, was tryed before Baron Hene (then His Majesties Serjant) for Burglary committed in the County of Monaghan, and being found guilty, was condemned to dye. And that the said Curphy denyed the fact with great confidence and asseverations of his Innocency at the Gallows, and [...] turned off the Ladder persisting in his denials, but that the Rope breaking by chance after he had hung some little space, and he coming again to himself, thanked God who had given him time to declare the Truth, and not go out of the world with a lye in his mouth, and then confessed himself guilty of the fact for which he was condemned. Adding, that a Priest had given him Absolution, upon condition not to discover any thing, nor to declare his accomplices; and that he needed not doubt of his salvation, the fact not having been committed against God's people, meaning as he supposed the Papists. So that no doubt had but the Rope been strong enough, he had in the esteem of our Papal Notaries and Agents, died as Innocent of the Burglary for which he was condemned, as the late Conspirators did of the Plot against His. Majesties person, the Protestant Religion, and the Government Established by Law. But there fall out sometimes unhappy accidents, that no humane wisdom could foresee, which contribute to the unfolding and detecting the tricks and villanies of these vile men the Priests,—who have prostituted all that is Religious and Sacred, to a subserviency to worldly ends and designs. Yet it were unreasonable that we should in the face and defiance of all Evidence demonstrative of the guilt of persons, suffer our selves to be imposed upon to a belief of their Innocency, unless convinced of their criminalness by the interposure of a thing so wonted and fortuitous, For though it was the lot of this Curphry to be made participant of a providence so merciful to himself, and so instructive to us of the base and wicked Artifices of the Papal Clergy, and with what obduracy and implicitness the Laity resign themselves to their hellish and imperious dictates; yet we must not expect that every malefactor amongst them, who upon the Authority of their Ghostly Fathers, and security of Absolution, ventures dying with his mouth full of falshoods and blasphemous Execrations, should be reprieved by so unusual a method, or thereupon awakened to an acknowledgment of their guilt. And for this one person, that hath been trusted with such an opportunity of confessing, how many may we conceive to have ended their Lives in a guilty silence. And of this we have two Instances afforded us in the aforesaid Letter to the same Honourable Peer, whereof one is, that there being a special Commission directed to Mr. Justice Johnson, to try several Malefactors [Page]for Murders and Robberies, committed in the County of Canan; there were thereupon two of the Duffies, and one of the Plunkets, all Irish Papists, indicted: The Duffies confest that they were guilty of the crimes laid to their Charge, and gave the same Evidence against Plunket, upon which and other most undeniable circumstances, he was condemned, having also at his first apprehension owned to Sir John Edgworth, that he was guilty: But yet when he came to suffer for the fact, he died absolutely denying it, and that with curses upon himself, and renunciation of Salvation, if he were not innocent.

We may be sure by whose Influence, and upon what Inducements, and in the Confidence of what security he did it, in that one Brady a Priest had accosted the Duffies in Prison, who were also condemned for the same fact, using arguments to induce them to recant their Evidence, and renounce their Testimony against Plunket. And though his Importunities and Ghostly Authority was unsuccessful upon them, the one of them that suffered, (the other being reprieved) persevering in his accusation of Plunket, and in the confessing, that himself was guilty of the crime for which he was condemned, yet we may be justly confident, that his applications prevailed with Plunket, and that through Bradys persuasions, he dyed obstinate in the denial of what was not only proved against him, but what himself had before acknowledged. The other instance mentioned in the same Letter, is a Narrative, how that one Neile O Neile an Irish Papist, being tryed before Sir Richard Reynell one of the Judges of the Kings-Bench in that Kingdom, upon a Commission of Oyer and Terminer, for a murther committed at Rathrum in the County of Wicklow, and the fact clearly proved upon him, for which he was accordingly condemned; did nevertheless, notwithstanding the fullness of the Evidence against him, and that he himself had both in Prison, and at his Tryal, owned the fact to several persons, at the Gallows utterly deny it.

§ 7. But that it may more evidently appear, that there is nothing in the Exit and manner of the late Traitors taking their farewell of the world, that should surprise any true English man, or thinking Protestant, we shall endeavour to give an original Copy of it in the Practices of others, who suffered for the like crimes in a former Reign. And we will at present take it upon the acknowledgements of our adversaries, that there was such a Conspiracy as the Gunpowder-Plot. Though by the way it may be observed as an argument of what sincerity the Romish Party is of, and how that all they say or print, is only accommodated to the posture of times and seasons, and calculated in subserviency to depending Designs, in that many of the Papal Communion have had the Confidence to obtrude upon the World oftner than once, that the Gunpowder Conspiracy was only a State Trick and Contrivance, to make them seem guilty and criminal, who were truly innocent.

But besides that none of all those who were then convicted and executed for it, did so much as ever pretend, that they were wheedled into it by the cunning and dexterity of a publick and Protestant State-Minister; so it must be acknowledged, that they were well disposed and prepared by vertue of Romish Principles, and throughly inclined of themselves to the committing of Treason, otherwise they had never entertained nor complyed with so horrid an overture, as the destroying at once, the King, Parliament, and Kingdom. But that which I shall insist upon, is the denial of their Guilt upon their Examinations, and the falshood of their asseverations at their very death, though there was unquestionable Evidence both of the Treason, and how far the whole Papal Party was interested in it, not only by the seisure of some of them, when ready to accomplish the execrable villany, and by the insurrection of others in Arms, to have protected themselves from the Law, and commenced a Rebellion, but by the discoveries which had been made from their own scanty and partial Confessions upon Examination, and by the freer discourses which they were overheard to use one to another in Prison, when they little apprehended that there were any near to observe what they said. And I shall the rather insist upon this, because they who have been condemned for the late Plot, and such who have undertaken the justification of their Innocency, are pleased to tell us, That those executed for the Powder-Treason did confess their fact at the time of their execution, whereas they that have been See the new Plot p. 74. and the Compendium p. 75. executed for the present Conspiracy, have at their deaths denied the fact, and resisted all temptations of Pardon and Reward. Nay the late Lord Stafford was pleased to alledge at his Trial, that as it was so horrid a thing, that it cannot be expressed or excused: So he had been told, that all who See the Trval of William Viscount Stafford, pag. 53. and p. 200. were engaged in that wicked fact, were heartily sorry for it, and repented of it before they dyed; and that he never heard any of the Church of Rome speak a good word of it, and that the men concerned in it, did all acknowledge and confess it, and begged pardon of the King, and God, and all good men for it, and that therefore he thought it was not the interest of Religion, but a private Interest put [Page]them upon it. In which words there are no fewer than four egregious Falshoods, which whether they be excused upon the account of the smallness of his Converse with men and Books, or upon the score of the weakness of his aged memory; or whether they be not chargeable upon the badness of his Conscience intoxicated by ill Principles, I leave the Reader to judge and determine. The first is, That he never heard any of the Church of Rome speak a good word of it, Whereas Widdrington assures us, that Garnet had his Picture soon after his Execution, set up in the Jesuits Colledge at Rome, with this Inscription over it, Verus Christi Martyr. And if this be not enough to convince after ages, what Opinion the Jesuites have, and still maintain of that Plot, we will farther add, that both Ribadewira hath reckoned Garnet, Southwell, and Oldcorn, all Gun Powder Traitors, among the Martyrs of the Society In Catalog. Scriptorum societ. Jesu. p. 377. in Biblioth. script. societ. Jesu. of Jesus. And Alegambe hath likewise inserted Garnet's and Oldcorn's names amongst the Martyrs of the Catholick Church, and that Order. Yea not only Father Parsons, Rector of the English Colledge at Rome, speaking of Father Garnet, saies, He was an innocent man, and suffered In his book against the Oath of Allegiance, called. The Discussion of the Answer, p. 22, 23. unjustly, and that he lived a Saint's life, and accomplished the same with a happy death. But the Pope himself preferred Greenwell and Gerrard, two of the Conspirators that escaped, the one to be a Confessor in St. Idem Apology. p. 151. Peters in Rome, and the other to be his Penitentiary. Now whether these were Testimonies of a detestation of the Plot, or Evidences of the approbation, which nothing but its miscarriage, Prevented their declaring more publickly, I leave all mankind to judge. The second is, That he hath been told, that all who were engaged in that wicked act, were heartily sorry for it, and repented of it before they died. Whereas Thuanus tells us, that some of the Traitors having escaped to Calice, and being pittied, and assured by Hist. An. 1605. the Governour, of the French King's favour, and that though they had lost their own Country, they might be received there; how that one of them thereupon replyed, that the loss of their Countrey was the least part of their grief, but that which sensibly afflicted them, was that they could not accomplish so brave and generous a design. Nay, Sir Everard Digby, even when a Prisoner in the Tower for the Plot, stiles it, in one of his Papers Pap. 4. Pap. 9. since come to light, a good Cause, and that if it had succeeded, there would not have been three worth the saving, that should have been lost, and that he had some friends who would have been in danger, but that he had prevented it. The third is, That he thought it was not the Interest of Religion, but a private interest put them upon it. Whereas not only Faux declared, that he was moved into it only for the sake of Religion and Conscience, because he thought the King not to be his lawful Soveraign, seeing he was an Heretick. But Sir Everard Digby professed upon his Tryal, that it was not ambition, See the Proceedings against the Traitors. nor discontent with his Estate, nor malice to any in Parliament, but zeal for his Religion, and the hopes of restoring it in England. The fourth and principal thing wherein my Lord Stafford did either mistake himself, or greatly prevaricate, was in these words, That the men concerned in the Powder-Plot, did all acknowledge and confess it, and begged Pardon of the King, and God, and all good men for it. Nor shall I here insist upon this, that I do not see how it was possible for my Lord Stafford to be assured, that all the Persons who were in it, were known and found out, or that he could ever throughly understand, whether even those that confessed after their apprehension, did not conceal much more than they discovered. But I shall confine my self to two things, whereof the first is this, that the conspirators, when under Examination, did with Oaths and Asseverations deny what themselves had full knowledge of, and whereof the State had sufficient Evidence: For Garnet having by the pretended favour of his Keeper, an opportunity allowed him to discourse with Hall, and being the next day charged by several Lords of the Privy Council, with divers things which had passed betwixt them two, in that conference, he See the Proceedings against the Traitors. not only denied the whole upon his Soul, and the word of a Priest; but with so many repeated Protestations, and terrible Execrations, that my Lord of Salisbury who was then present, said, it wounded all their Lordships hearts to hear him. And yet, when confronted by Mr. Fauset, who was both a learned person, and a Justice of Peace, and by Mr. Lockerson one likewise of known Reputation, who had overheard all they said, having conveniently placed themselves before hand to that purpose, and withal understanding that Hall had confessed what they had discoursed, he then acknowledged what with so many asseverations he Ibid. had immediately before denied, and begged mercy of the Lords, saying, he had offended if Equivocation did not help him. And that we may not Abboti Antilogia p. 110. think Equivocations and Perjuries peculiar only to the Jesuits, we have [Page] an Example of the like carriage in Sir Everard Digby, who being upon his first apprehension examined, did with most solemn Protestations, and all kind of Execrations, deny his being privy to the Powder-Plot; and yet being afterwards confronted by the Testimony of Faux, who had confessed, that being at Sir Everards house in the Country, some months before the intended Session of Parliament, that Sir Everard having taken him aside, told him he was afraid the Powder in the Cellar was grown dank, and that some new must be provided, lest that should not take fire; he did thereupon not only acknowledge it, notwithstanding all his former Execrations to the contrary, but when he came to be indicted, he confessed it upon his Arraignment. Whence we evidently see, that they not only with horrid Oaths and astonishing Asseverations, denied what they knew themselves guilty of; but that the Confessions they made did not proceed from any tenderness of Conscience, or remorse for what they had been engaged in, but were extorted from them by the uncontrollableness of the Evidence, and by improving the confessions of some of themselves to oblige others to an acknowledgement.

The second thing I would have observed in the Gun-powder Conspirators, is that several of them went out of the world in the same manner that our late Traitors did, denying divers things to their last, which they knew themselves to be guilty of. And of this to avoid prolixity, I shall give but two Instances; See the proceedings against the Traitors. one whereof shall be that of Francis Tresham Esq who not only gave it under his hand, but took it upon his Soul, and as he hoped for Salvation, within three hours before his Death, that he had not seen Garnet the Provincial of the Jesuits in sixteen years before; and yet Garnet himself afterwards declared that they had enjoyed frequent conversation with each other within less than the space of three years; and that he supposed Mr. Tresham meant to equivocate in denying it. Where was now the sense of the Omnisciency of God? or the dread of the future Tribunal? which the Advocates, for the late Traitors derive their Topicks to persuade the world of their Innocency from. Alas! the reputation and Interest of the Catholick Cause, and the Confidence they reposed in Equivocations, Dispensations and Absolutions, had stifled all such Impressions.

The other Instance shall be Sir Everard Digby, who not only endeavoured to clear all the Jesuits from being any waies concerned in that Treasonable See his Papers published in the end of the late Editions of the proceedings against the Traitors. Plot, but gloried in the venturing his Salvation and Happiness upon it; Whereas they themselves, to the eternal reproach of that poor Gentleman's memory, confest and acknowledged it. And as if this had not been enough to witness his own insincerity, and to instruct future Generations what little Faith is to be given to Papists, either living or dying; he with the same Impudence, and to his very last denied that ever Father Wally (i. e. Garnet) had been at Coughton with him, or that he knew Darcy to be See the proceedings compared with Digby's Papers. the same with Garnet, or understood that he was a Priest. Whereas it appeared that he was not only very well acquainted with him, but even Garnet himself confessed that he had been at his house. Let our many pleading Orators for the late Traitors, continue now to argue from the Confessions of the Gun-powder Conspirators, that they acknowledging their guilt, while the others dyed in the denyal of theirs; as those were criminal, so these must be innocent: Whereas we cannot desire a more convincing proof, how little the Oaths and Asseverations of Papists in the very circumstances of dying are to be depended upon, than the assurance which we have from Authentick Records of the behaviour of those engaged in the Gun-powder Plot, whom we have mentioned. And that no danger which might arise to particular Romanists, may be conceived to have discouraged our late Conspirators, I shall subjoyn the case which Catesby propounded, namely, Whether for the Promotion of the Catholick Cause against Hereticks (the necessity of time See the Proceedings against the Traitors. and occasion so requiring) it were lawful among many nocents to take away some innocents? To which Father Garnet with the greatest seriousness and utmost fixedness of Judgment answered, That if the advantage to Bellarmin's Opinion Published and approved of by the holy See. the Catholick Party, were greater by taking away some Innocents together with many Nocents, then doubtless it was lawful to kill and destroy them all: So that if we do but apprehend, that they were possessed with the least probability of prevailing in the issue, the lives of multitudes of their own faction, that would have been last in the Interim, were to be esteemed a small price, for so great a commodity, as the re-establishing Popery in England, the rooting out the Protestant Religion, and destroying of Hereticks.

§ 8. But to make a nearer approach to the present Plot, can there be a greater Evidence of the Papists readiness to forswear their own guilt, than the many Examples of hiring and suborning persons to perjure themselves, to make the Innocent Criminal. A design more horrid in itself, and more destructive to Government, and the safety of Mankind, [Page] than for one that is guilty to protest his Innocency with the highest Execrations: For by the Arraignment of one innocent person upon a countenanced subornation, all who deserve the same character are virtually indicted, and the whole Law becomes perverted from its true end, which is to justifie the guiltless, and is turned into an Engine to condemn the Innocent. And it will prove of such fatal consequence, should it be connived at, or allowed, that all the ligaments of society will become dissolved, and all obligations not only between man and man, but betwixt Rulers and People finally cancelled. For who can be so innocent, that it is not in the power of a suborned Villain to slander; or so Loyal, whom on the encouragement of a Reward, and at the suggestion of a prompter, he will not brand for a Traitor. And we may be sure that they who are so void of all Conscience, as to undertake so horrid an Employment, will be furnished with Impudence to swear any Charge that their Masters dictate and prescribe unto them. And what a damnable Religion must that be, that at once inspires them to seek the destruction of Protestants, and justifies them in all kind of subornations and falshoods for the accomplishing of it. Now besides many Instances not yet come to light of this treacherous and Romish Practice, we have several accounts of their endeavours of this kind, which deserve our observation and remark. The first is that of Netternille, an Irish Papist, his attempting to corrupt Mr. William Brooks, one of the Aldermen of Dublin, and Captain Bery, to swear what should be prescribed unto them, for the fixing of scandalous Crimes on Dr. Oats, and Mr. Bedloe, and charging See the Narrative of this Deposition. the Plot on Dissenting Protestants. The next is, Readings Attempt upon Mr. Bedloe, to have obtained of him the renouncing all the material part of his Depositions against the Lords in the Tower, for which he promised See Reading's Tryal See the Tryal of Mr. Tasbrough. him in Money and Estate a great Reward. The third is Mr. Price's and Mr. Tasbrough's labouring to persuade Mr. Dugdale to recant whatsoever he had said concerning the Plot, and to call the Almighty God to witness that no motive had induced him to retract the Testimonies he had given, but remorse of Conscience for the Mischiefs which he had done, though they were in the mean time to give him a great sum of money in hand, besides a further Reward which they assured him of afterwards. The fourth is their suborning Thomas Knox, and John Lane to swear such Crimes against Dr. Oats, as they supposed would not See the Tryal of Knox and Lane, and Dr. Oats's Printed Narrative. only weaken the Credit of all his Evidence, but bring him under a sentence of Death, and so rob the Nation of the most considerable Witness in reference to the Plot. A fifth is Longmores and Draxtons endeavouring to bribe Simon Wright, to declare upon Oath, that Mr. Dugdale had promised to protect him, and give him money as one of the King's Evidence, if See my Lord Staffords Tryal, p. 158. See Coll. Mansfield's Narrative, and Mr. Dangerfield's Narrative. he would swear against Sir James Symons, and Mr. Gerrard. The last which I shall mention, is their Employing Mr. Dangerfield to charge a Plot on the Presbyterians, wherein they intended to involve most of those that appeared active and zealous for the Protesant Religion, and English Liberty. And to conclude Instances of this nature at present, I shall only add two Depositions, which may serve to instruct us that they still persevere in the Practice of the same Villany. The Tenor of the first is as followeth.

The Examination of Edward Howcott of the City of Lichfield, taken at the said City, the first day of Jan. 1680/1 before me Francis Bayly, one of The City of Lichfield. His Majesties Justices of the Peace forth County of the said City.

The said Examinant upon his Oath saith, That Joseph Salt of Utoxeter Feltmaker, about the month of June last, told this Deponent that one John Murrall a Barber in Rugby, in the County of Stafford, would have had the said Joseph Salt to have gone with him to London, and be a witness against Mr. Stephen Dugdale, one of the King's Evidence in the late Horrid Plot, the said Murrall pretending as the said Salt told this Deponent, that he knew as much of the Plot as Mr. Dugdale did; and if he would but testifie three or four words which Murrall would direct him to swear against Mr. Dugdale, he should live better than ever he did in his life, telling the said Salt, that he now lived meanly, but if he would do what he desired him, he should never want whilst he lived; for in this Juncture of time the Oath of a Protestant would be better accepted than twenty Oaths of a Papist. And further this Deponent saith, That the said Murrall had sworn him never to confess what he said to him, and threfore Salt said, He would be hanged, and drawn, and quartered, before he would discover the saying of Murrall. And this is not only sworn by Edward Howcott, but by his Wife Mary Howcott, and by one Edward Blakesly, who were all present when Salt declared and acknowledged as is above deposed. The second Information declarative also of the like Practices, is that of Thomas Lander of Shutborrow in the County of Stafford, as it [Page]was taken upon Oath the 24 of Decemb. 1680/1. before Edmund Warcupp Esq one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, &c.

This Informant saith, that having been employed as a workman several times at the house of my Lord Aston, at Tixall in the County aforesaid, he was solicited by Mr. Francis Hind Steward to the Lord Aston, to become a Witness against Stephen Dugdale, any way to invalidate or take off his Evidence in relation to the Popish Plot, and he served this Informant with a Supena to come up to London for that purpose, at the late intended Tryal of the late Lord Aston in June last past. But before his coming up, the said Hind, Francis Aston, Son to the Lord Aston, Thomas Sawyer servant to the said Lord Aston, sent for this Informant into a private room in the said Lord Aston's house, and there told him, That if he would swear such things as should be dictated to him by the Persons aforesaid, to invalidate or take away the Evidence of the said Mr. Dugdale, he should have such reward, as should be to his own content, and not want for Money or house, as might become a man of better quality than himself. Can any man now have horror enough for that Religion, which doth at once both authorise and sanctify such subornations and treacheries; or can we without abandoning our reason, but believe, that they who labour to suborn, bribe, and persuade others to swear falsly for the safety of Persons to whom they have no relation, and the hopes of some small rewards which they propose unto them; will be ready to perjure themselves for their own sake, the advantage of their posterity, and the interest of the Catholick cause, and whole Papal party. He that swears falsly, or labours to have another to do so, for the taking away of his neighbours life, will not scruple to perjure himself, in order to avoid infamy upon his name, and to divert ruine from his own person and offspring: For however offensive it be to God, to preserve ones self by unlawful means; it is both much more provoking to the Lord, and prejudicial to the World, first to frame, and then support a Plot, by Perjury, wherein so many thousand innocent persons must have suffered, as in all probability would have done, in that which Mr. Dangerfield was suborned and imployed about.

§ 9. As all the Conspirators have been ingaged in the same Treason, and influenced thereunto by the same Principles; So it is not unreasonable to conceive, that they should be all instructed to act a like part in the denial of it; for they that could enter into so bloody a design, as to destroy their lawful King, ruine their native Country, and cut the throats of many of their Kindred, as well as of their friendly and innocent neighbours may very well be supposed to reckon themselves discharged from all those ties of Divine Laws and Obligations of Conscience, which should restrain them from lying and Perjury: But the holy God who sometimes leaves men to such wickedness and obduracy, for ends alwaies righteous but often hidden, seldom fails to display his Power and Wisdom, in affording such means and opportunities of detecting their Villanies, as may be improved and managed to the preserving the Peace, and securing the safety of Nations and Societies, if Magistrates and People be not wanting to themselves. And accordingly hath the allseeing Majesty over-ruled, and strongly infatuated the minds of all the Traitors who have suffered for the late Plot, that though they have had the impudence to deny their guilt, yet they have left Evidences of it, either in their own Papers which have come to light, or in the very particulars which they have alledged for the asserting of their Innocency.

For to begin with Coleman, it is to be rationally believed, that having established a correspondence with the French King's Confessor, in order to so mighty a work as the Conversion of three Kingdoms, and the utter subduing of a pestilent See Coleman's Letters in his Tryal, p. 69. and Published since by Sir Geo. Treby. Heresie, which had domineered over a great part of this Northern World a long time; should immediately give over all forreign Correspondence subservient to so blessed a work, after the writing of those Letters 1675. Alas! it was enough that he discovered what he knew his own hand attested by his Servants, would betray and detect him in; but this man of so seigned Candor and Ingenuity, thought it meritorious as well as lawful to deny whatsoever he saw could not be proved against him by his own Papers. And had not his former Letters been taken, he would have denied all kind of Correspondence with the Confessor, as well, and with much more probability, than that any such communication was afterwards maintained betwixt them. Nor Secondly would the Consult April 24. 1678. have ever been acknowledged, but that it was mentioned in a Letter written by one Peters a Jesuite to one Tonstal of the See the Tryal of the five Jesuits. same Society, to meet at the said Consult, which Letter was taken among Harcourt's Papers, when his Chamber was searched: For had it not been for the finding of that Letter, they would have confidently denied the whole thing; and I am sure with more reputation to their wisdom, than by the endeavouring now to impose upon the World, that the said Consult was only upon the score of a trivial [Page] Meeting. For had that been all the reason for their Assembly, what necessity was there for these words; Every one is also to be minded not to hasten to London long before the time appointed, nor to appear much about the Town till the Meeting be over, lest occasion should be given to suspect the design. Finally secrecy as to the time and place is much recommended, to all those that receive summons, as it will appear of its own nature necessary.

The whole strain of the Letter intimates, that there was more then to be transacted, than it is for their Interest to have known. What less doth the Judication of design, which was to be industriously concealed, and the giving an account that the nature of the thing, which they were to meet about, required the utmost secrecy, impart and signifie to all Impartial men than what Dr. Oats had declared to be the business of that Consult, long before this Letter was found. Thirdly, When some things which men have affirmed with the highest Asseverations, shall be found notoriously false, it is a just ground of suspecting their Truth and Integrity in other things, though the Evidence upon which we disbelieved them be not so apparent and palpable. Now, did not Gavan acquit all the Jesuits save Mariana from allowing King-killing Doctrine; and that in near as positive and emphatical, as those wherein he expressed and declared his own Innocency with reference to the Plot, because the Jesuits (saith Gavan) are so falsly charged for holding King-killing Doctrine, I think it my duty to protest to See Mr. Gauans Speech before his Execution at Tyburn. you with my last dying words, that neither I in particular, nor the Jesuits in general, hold any such Opinion, but utterly abhor and detest it. And I do assure you, that amongst the vast number of Authors which among the Jesuits have Printed Philosophy, Divinity Cases, or Sermons, there is not one, to the best of my knowledge, that allows of King-killing Doctrine, or holds this position, that it is lawful for a private person to kill a King, although a Heretick, although a Pagan, although a Tyrant; there is not I say one Jesuit that holds this, except Mariana the Spanish Jesuit, and he defenas it not absolutely, but only problematically, for which his book was called in, and that Opinion expunged and censured.

Let us now joyn Issue with Gavan on this point, and refer it to the Readers to judge of this Jesuits sincerity and truth in all the rest that he said, by his falshood in this particular. What! not one Jesuit that allows the King-killing Doctrine? when Father Campian tells us expresly, That all the Jesuits have entred In Epist. ad conciliarios Reginae Augliae, p. 22. into a Covenant to destroy all Heretical Kings, by whatsoever waies and means they are able best to effect it? What! not one Jesuit but Mariana, that maintains this, and that his Book was called in upon that account, whereas that Book of Mariana was never called in by the Authority of the Alegambe in Biblioth. script. societ. Jesu, p. 258. Church. And that Sanctanellus is known to have written a Book containing the same principles, which was therefore condemned to be burnt by the Parliament of Paris? What! not one Jesuit that holds it lawful for a private person to kill a King, although a Heretick, although a Pagan, although a Tyrant! whereas not only Suarez assures us, That a King being In defens. fidei lib 6. n. 14, &c. Aphorism. p. 115. de Instit. Tom. 4. T. 3. disp. 6. Vid. Less. de Instit. lib. 2. c. 9. dub. 4. deposed by the Papal Sentence, he may be slain by any private person; but Emanuelsa, Molina, and many others do affirm, that the Pope having Excommunicated and Deposed a Prince, any one may thereupon kill him, and be the Executioner of the Judgment pronounced by the Universal and Infallible Father. It were easie to produce a large Catalogue of Jesuits, who have all written in Justification of the same Opinion, but that these are enough to demonstrate how little credit is to be given to the Dying Speech of this audacious and impudent Person, who having the confidence to tell the world, that if he should say any thing falsly at that season, he must expect nothing but eternal damnation, should nevertheless endeavour to impose so grosly upon the world, and that in a matter of fact which is so obvious and palpable. Nay, this very Gavan, who renounceth all King-killing principles, did nevertheless tell Mrs. Skipwith that the Queen might lawfully kill the King meerly for violating her Bed; yea that she was bound See Mr. Serjeants and Mr. Morrices Informations. to do it, and that if she did not, she was guilty of his greater damnation in suffering him to continue in sin. And when we doubt but that he who thought it lawful to advise the Murdering of his Prince for Adultery, would much more pursue the destroying of him for Heresie. But when men have renounced all fear of God, and regard to truth, and do only consult what may be most subservient to the wicked Designs which they have had in agitation, and the Accomplishment whereof they would transmit, with as much hopefulness and security as they can to others; it is righteous with the Lord, whose name they so daringly prophane, to suffer them to betray and discover themselves beyond all excuse and palliation in some one particular, that the easie and credulous part of mankind may be cautioned and instructed to distrust as well as suspend believing them in all the rest.

[Page] Nor are Coleman and Gavan the only persons, who in the Asseveratious of their Innocency, have betrayed their guilt, and left evident footsteps of their falshood, when they pretended by all that might obtain credit among men, to speak nothing but truth. For Mr. Harcourt, a man whose Age and Experience should have rendred him more wary, though his Religion did not teach him Integrity and Candor, hath been left under the same Infatuation, and in reference to some particulars of which he would have acquitted himself, hath discovered as much folly as villany. For whereas among other things deposed against him, to prove his being guilty of the Plot, Mr. Dugdale testified that he had seen a Letter written with Father Harcourt's own hand to Father Evers, declaring the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, and dated the very night wherein it was done, being the 12th of October 1678. and that upon this Intelligence he had declared at one Elds, who keeps an Ale-house in Tixall, on Monday October 14. that a Justice of the Peace who lived at Westminster was murdered in London.

Now as it was not possible that he could have notice of it there so soon, but from one that was accessary to it, and a Conspirator in it, not being known in London till the Thursday following; is there any thing more probable, than that he arrived at the certainty of it, in the way and by the means which he declares. This all the Papists seemed sensible of, and therefore attempted to prove by some witnesses in whose presence this news was said to be reported by Mr. Dugdale, that there was no such thing said by him, or heard by them. They have Wit enough to understand, that there was no other way to prevent peoples believing their being guilty of that horrid Murther, or to discharge Harcourt from a suspicion of having given the Information that it was effected, but by affirming that there was no such Intelligence arrived there, till the Saturday sevennight after. And on the confidence that they could bribe the persons in whose presence it was said to be told, to testifie the contrary; and that there could be no other Evidence given of it but Mr. Dugdales bare Affirmation; Mr. Harcourt not only assumed the confidence to deny it upon his Tryal, but to declare at his See the Speeches of the five Jesuits. Death, That as he hoped, by the merits and passion of Jesus Christ, for salvation, that he was as innocent as the Child unborn, of what was laid to his charge. And yet two Gentlemen of known worth, and unquestionable reputation, namely, Edward Birch Esq and John Turton Esq have deposed upon Oath that the aforesaid Murther was commonly discoursed of about Tixall in Staffordshire, before it was known here in London, that Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was killed; nay, as if this were not demonstrative and convincing enough how the Intelligence behoved to reach thither, and by whose means that Loyal and Protestant Magistrate was so barbarously Massacred; there are other two persons, viz. James Ansell of Haywood in Staffordshire, and Mr. William Hanson of Wilnal in the same County, who testifie likewise See my Lord Staffords Tryal, p. 134, 135. upon Oath, that Mr. Dugdale published the News of the said Murder, in their hearing at Elds, the Alehouse-keeper in Tixall, on Monday morning; and as they are of unspotted fame, though of no great Rank or Quality, so they inform not only as to the time, the house, and the particular place in it where this was declared, but they mentioned divers other circumstances corroborative of the Truth of what they say. And whereas my Lord Stafford thought himself so secure of overthrowing Mr. Dugdale's credit in reference to all he had testified besides, by detecting him a Lyar in this particular, that he not only charged him with Perjury in it, but bore himself most confidently in, when upon his defence of having fully disproved this part of his Evidence; it will not be amiss to consider the Witnesses he produced, and what they alledged for the invalidating Mr. Dugdale's Testimony in this matter.

Now the Persons he relied so much upon, for this service, and whose Authority he ascribed so much unto, as to have expected, that all men should have submitted to what they said with an implicite faith, were Mr. Phillips Incumbent at Tixall, and one Mr. Sambitch who being reported to have been present when Mr. Dugdale communicated the foresaid Intelligence, declared in Court that there was no such thing spoken or related in their hearing. But sure it is more rational to receive the Testimony of those who depose an Affirmative, than those who take upon them to justifie a Negative, and especially after the Expiration of two years since the thing was said: And it is likewise more agreeable to all the measures of Justice, that they are rather to be believed who deposed upon Oath, than they who did not. And for one of my Lords two Witnesses, namely, Mr. Sambich his deafness might excuse him, in saying he heard no such thing, though at the same nearness to Mr. Dugdale when the words were spoken, as Mr. Hanson or Mr. Ansell were. And besides though his deafness hindred his hearing Mr. Dugdale when he communicated that morning the news of the Murther, nevertheless he had so far arrived at the knowledge of it some time or other that day, that he acquainted [Page] Charles Chetwyn Esq with it in the Afternoon, as the said Charles Chetwyn Esq deposed upon Oath at the Tryal of the Jesuits, and upon the occasion I have mentioned this Gentleman. I shall crave Liberty to rectifie one mistake in the Printed Relation of that Tryal, which is, that whereas Charles Chetwyn Esq swore, this was told him by Sambich on Monday, as Edward Smith Esq and Bencher of the Middle Temple, and Justice Warcup, who were both present at the said Tryal, are ready to depose; yet through the fault either of the Printer, or of him that took the Tryal, Tuesday is set down in the Published Account.

But to proceed to Mr. Phillips, the other witness produced to detract from the credit of Mr. Dugdale in this matter, where we desire to observe, that together with the denyal of his having heard any such words, he denyed likewise his being at that Ale-house either that day, or the following, which as none about Tixall who know his constant custom of visiting Eld's once or twice a day, can easily believe; so he appears plainly to be a very bold and venturous person in taking upon him to say that he was not such a day in a house where he used constantly to resort, and this after such a compass of time wherein without reflection upon the weakness of his memory, he may be supposed not to remember what he either did, or where he was so long before. But besides this, we have something else to add, whereby the Authority of this Parson against a Protestant is everlastingly blasted and supplanted. For whereas he thought to recommend his Testimony by pretending himself a Minister of the Church of England, there is an Information given upon Oath before Justice Warcup against him, that he the said Phillips declared his readiness to renounce the Protestant Religion, and forsake the Communion of the Church of England, providing a competent Annual Provision could be settled upon him for the maintenance of himself and his Wife and Children: And pursuant hereunto he employed a friend to treat with my Lord Aston about it, who being very fond of a Proselyte of such a character, undertook to charge himself with the care of him and his family: But at the same time under the influence of Father Evers counsel, he advised him to continue his station for a season where he was; for by pretending himself still a Minister of the Church of England, he remains better qualified, and more capacitated to promote the Romish Interest, than if he should immediately pull off his Mask, and vouch himself openly for a Papal Convert.

And surely no man can believe him to be a competent witness against the Credit and Reputation of a Protestant, that is first willing to abjure his Religion upon so base motives, and then proceeds upon as ill inducements to dissemble the Profession of a Religion, which he hath declared himself unsatisfied in, and ready to renounce. He that is not afraid to deal falsly in a matter of so great importance as Religion, will not scruple to transgress the rules of Justice, and prevaricate from the lines of Truth in moral Concernments. And especially when the acquitting himself as he did, may be supposed his Probationership for his plenary admission into the bosom of the Roman Church, and the Compensation he was to make for the annual Pension that was to be settled upon him; nor ought it to surprise any Protestant or True Englishman, that they have been able to muster up some few persons to detract from the esteem of Mr. Dugdale, if we do but consider the Methods they have used by Bribery and Subornation to effect and accomplish it; or that they have proceeded further than to lessen his Reputation, namely, by offers of money to engage men to destroy him; and in reference to the first I shall produce the Testimony of Simon Wright one whom I briefly mentioned before; this person being known to have been well acquainted with Mr. Dugdale, for that he used in quality of a Barber frequently to trim him, was accordingly applied unto by Mr. Plessington, and proffered seven hundred pounds See my Lord Stafford's Tryal, p. 141, 142. if he would appear as a Witness to take off his Evidence; or if he would destroy and assassinate him. And for his security as to the obtaining of the money if he would have complied with the proposal, both Mr. Reeves an Apothecary in Chancery-Lane, and Mr. Deway the Scriviner tendred him their several obligatory notes. Yea they framed a Paper for him, wherein he was to testifie that Mr. Dugdale had suborned and hired him to swear against Sir James Symons, and Mr. Gerrard, two Persons accused about the Plot, which Ibid. p. 142, 158. they prevailed with him by money and promises to set his hand unto, and would have persuaded him to make an Affidavit upon it before a Justice of Peace; the tenor of which Paper being directed to Sir James Symons, was as followeth; I can, bless God, with a safe Conscience, declare upon Oath, that Mr. Dugdale hath been [Page]unkind to me in taking his opportunity of my poverty by reason of a private meeting of us two by his appointment. He did at that time preffer Ibid. p. 158. if I would swear against you and Mr. Gerrard, he would protect me as one of the King's Evidence, and I should not want money. And now as this Paper alone is sufficient to detect the waies and methods they have used for overthrowing the Reputation of Mr. Dugdale; so the Providence of God is to be acknowledged in the infatuation of my Lord Stafford, who to the blasting of the Papal Cause, and the evidencing of his and others guilt, in the present Conspiracy produced it. For being in their hands, it was in their power to have suppressed it, as it appears by the Testimony of Wright they did another Paper of much more consequence, to which Ibid. p. 158. also they had suborned, hired, and wheedled him to set his hand.

And as if it had not been enough to endeavour to corrupt persons to swear falsly against him, they have dealt with some to assassinate and kill him, as appears not only by the Informations of the aforesaid Simon Wright, who was to have stabbed him, and by the Informations of Thomas Lander, who they would have perswaded to put fire to the Room where Mr. Dugdale lay, and to burn him in his Bed; both which Informations are published lately by Thomas Symmons at the Prince's Arms in Ludgate-Street, but also by the following deposition of Simon Ansell.

The Information of Simon Ansell, as it was taken before one of His Majesties Justices of Peace in Staffordshire, and transmitted to Edmund Warcup Esq &c.

This Informant saith, That he was at my Lord Astons Black-Smiths to have his Horse shodd there, and that in the mean time Mr. Francis Aston eldest Son to the Lord Aston, came to the said Black-Smith's Shop, and calling to this Informant, took him apart, and told him, that if he would he might with ease do his Father and him the greatest kindness imaginable: He this Informant answered he would use all possible means to serve him and his Father; if you do, said Mr. Francis Aston, and be true as to what I shall instruct you, you shall have that piece of ground which you hold of my Father in Brinsh Rent-free for seven Years, and Ten Pounds in present Money besides. He this Informant answered, that he would be true and faithful to him and his Father, and desired to know what they would have him to do: Mr. Francis Aston then told this Informant, that Mr. Dugdale was coming into the Country, and that he would have him the said Informant go from place to place with the said Dugdale, and to watch his opportunity till he could find a convenient place to kill the said Dugdale, being his Fathers greatest and only Enemy: And that the surest way of accomplishing this, was to charge a Pistol with a brace of Bullets: and as this Informant should find conveniency to shoot him in the back, saying he will so certainly kill him: And withal he advised me that thereupon, that I should ride to the next Town in a great fright, and tell there, that Dugdale and I, being riding on the Rode together, were met and assaulted by two men, one of which shot Mr. Dugdale and killed him: And this, said he, will both oblige my Father, my self, and all our Friends for ever, and also remove all suspition from your self, considering what the Papists think themselves allowed to do against the Enemies of their Church.

And considering how the Nation is filled with men of ill Principles and profligate lives; it is no wonder that they have been able to produce some persons to detract from the Credit of the Kings Evidence, but it is rather to be accounted matter of wonder, that they have not found Instruments to assassinate every man of them.

But to proceed, these Conspirators whom we have already mentioned, are not the only persons who have left uncontrollable Evidence of their guilt, when with the highest Confidence they asserted their Innocency; for Mr. Ireland also had the Fate to betray himself in the same way of Indiscretion and Folly; for thinking to have invalidated the Testimony of Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe; he affirms, he protests, he calls God to Witness, that he was in Staffordshire, from the fifth of August, till the fourteenth of September: Whereas they had sworn that he was, and that they had seen him at Lonaon within that time. And as if it had not been enough to have insisted upon it at his Tryal, he sealed it with most solemn Asseverations at his death And yet it hath appeared since by the Testimony of Mr. Jennison, a person of an ancient and considerable family, and of an unquestionable Reputation, and Mr. Irelands own Relation and Kinsman; that Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe's Credit deserved not to be impeached on this account; (nor by any other Asseverations or Oaths, by any of the Papal Communion offered against them, or either of the King's Evidences) [Page] seeing as he affirms, he had both seen and Conversed with him at his Lodging in Russel-Street on the 19th. of August, and this he not only affirms upon the Word and Oath of a Gentleman and a Christian, but by such particular and undeniable Circumstances, that there is no man of sense but must acknowledge himself convinced, that the Jesuit dyed with a Lye in his Mouth; He that hath (or will) read his several Narratives concerning this, and what I have observed in mine in reference to it, will soon see that Ireland discovered his being in Town, not because he was not there, but because the Errand he came, and Employed himself about was so black and detestable, and with all so positive sworn against him, that he knew no way to vindicate himself from it, but by swearing point blank that he was not so much as upon the spot where these things charged upon him were said to have been transacted. But because there is no Sore—and men live to be further confirmed and established in these very things, whereof they are already sufficiently persuaded. I shall subjoyn one Testimony more of an honoured and worthy Gentleman and a Kinsman of Mr. Ireland, who also saw and discoursed about several things with him in London, when he so positively calls God to witness that he was elsewhere, which confirms Mr. Jenisons, Dr. Oats, and Mr. Bedlow's Evidence; The Gentleman is desirous for a season to have his Name concealed, but is a Person of known worth, and will be ready to Confirm what is here said before any Magistrate when called thereunto. And whosoever considers, not only the many reproaches fastned upon the Names, but the attempts made upon the Lives, of several of those who have concerned themselves in detecting and obstructing this Hellish Plot, will think it no matter of surprise or amasement that Gentlemen should be shy in concerning themselves in it, especially when the life of their Prince, or the safety of the People doth not so much depend upon it, but that all which their Discovery will amount unto, is only the detecting the Perjury of a Romish Priest. Nay is it not come to that, that it is very little less than a dishonour to be a Discoverer, even where the Kings life is eminently in danger? So that if you would in some Company, design the Exposing of a man, you can not do it with a greater Emphasis, and more to the general gust, than by proclaiming him an Evidence: Which as it may serve for an Apology, why this Gentleman conceals his Name, so I do here pledge my Faith, that the World is not shamm'd by a Counterfeit Information, but that what is here subjoyned, is no more, than what a Person of entire Credit and very good Quality, will be ready to Justifie; Namely, That this Gentleman, being about the beginning of Bartholomew Fair 1678. going up Holborn, with an intention to carry a Lady and a Relation of his to the Fair, to entertain her with what the place could afford, or at least what she would principally have a mind to see, he accidentally met with Mr. Ireland who was also his Relation, and between whom and him there had intervened a long Acquaintance. And that Mr. Ireland of whose Company, because of their different Principles he was never fond, not only accosting him, but being importunate to drink with him, he accordingly attended him into an adjoyning Ale-House at the Sign of the Three Pipes. Where they not only continued almost an hour together, but had much Discourse concerning Religion: And that Mr. Ireland by way of sounding his Inclination to the Papal Church, asked him, whether if their Religion were Established by Law and publickly owned in England, he would not then embrace it, and come over to their Communion; To which the Gentleman replied, That the Popish Religion was so repugnant to the first Principles of Reason, that he could never abandon his understanding so far as to espause or entertain it, but that if things should come to that pass as Mr. Ireland suggested, he would submit to the Government in Popish hands, but not to Popery. So that there can be nothing more evident, than that Ireland was in London; when he calls God and Angels to witness, and pawns his Salvation upon it, that he was in Staffordshire. Who could have believed that a Person not only pretending to be a Christian, but of a sacred Order in the Church, and trusted with the Dispensation of Sacred Mysteries, and assuming the Conduct of the Souls of Men, durst have had the boldness and impudence to dare Heaven, and affront the Omniscient Majesty, as well as abuse Mankind, in so horrid a manner. This is a new way of leaving the World with hopes and expectations of Happiness, to renounce all right to, and interest in future blessedness, if Dissimulation and Perjury may not entitle them to it. We may justly conceive, that they think themselves dispensed with to Blaspheme the Name of God, whensoever their doing so is subservient to the benefit and advantage of the Church of Rome. And that they reckon, such impieties will not only be forgiven them, upon the account of the End which they are perpetrated for, but become Sanctified and commence Meritorious. However, I think he forfeits his Discretion, as well as proclaims himself unworthy the name of a Protestant, that can believe the Asseveration of a Priest or Jesuit in reference to his own Innocency, after we have so demonstratively detected Mr. Ireland, as well as those we have already mentioned, to be such horrid Impostors. And we may also gather, with what Resignation the Popish Laity subject themselves [Page] to the Commands of their Ghostly Fathers, being so ready to Sacrifice their Souls to Eternal Punishments, in their protesting that to be true which they know to be false, rather than to dispute or decline obedience in whatsoever they require of them. For by the amazing prevarication in the first Principles of Morality, which we find those that they had mustered up from the Countrey, guilty of in this matter, we may very well conclude that they had implicitly trusted both their Reputations and Souls, into the hands of their Priests; And that they account it a Criminal Matter to enquire how they dispose of them.

§. 10. Having thus far Detected not only the villanous Perjuries of Romanists which are of a more ancient date, but made some fresh Reflections upon, and given ample Discoveries of the blasphemous falshoods; that several Executed for this late Plot, have dyed guilty of; We now proceed to lay open the unparallell'd Impudence, and brasen Impostures of the late Viscount Stafford. And the first thing we shall take notice of is this, that he renounceth in his last breath all hope of Salvation, if ever he were guilty himself, or knew of any that were, of the Crimes whereof he was Accused. And yet by a Letter directed to my Lord Aston, which was found in his Study at Tixall when searched, and to which was subscribed Stafford, and the Letter dated from Stafford October 8. 78. the Plot is both confessed under his own hand, and his particular Interest and Co-operation in it acknowledged. The words of which Letter were as followeth. My Lord the Plot is discovered, and we are all undone. And I am going into Shropshire to stifle it as much as I can; and I pray do you the same in Staffordshire. This Letter was seised by Captain Thomas Lane a Justice of Peace and Deputy Lieutenant in Staffordshire. And accordingly he Deposed before the Committee appointed as Managers for the Tryal of my Lord Stafford, and was ready to have proved it openly in Court if he had been called thereunto. But those worthy Gentlemen, that were entrusted by the House of Commons to prosecute the Impeachment of Treason against Stafford, did upon some prudential Considerations decline the mentioning of this matter; And the rather because they had other sufficient Evidence for the Convicting of that Criminal.

And they were not willing to make any Critical Enquiry, how this Letter under my Lords hand came to be suppressed or lost, as it seems it was, from its not being Communicated neither to the Committee of Secrecy, nor to the Committee of Managers of the Tryal. But this Mr. Lane Deposeth, That having shewn it to Mr. Mosely a Gentleman of Quality in the foresaid County, and to diverse others who have attested the same before a Committee of Parliament, he did transmit it to one of the Clerks of the Council, and that he received a Letter concerning the receipt of it from one of the Clerks. Had the Plot succeeded this late Lord would have been proud of it, and endeavoured to derive glory to his Family from it; but being discovered, and it appearing so full of horror to all the sober part of Mankind, they have no way left for the preventing the ruine of themselves and Posterities, but, though to the loss of their Souls, to disclaim and abjure it. Alass! We needed no Witnesses to tell us of a Plot carried on by the Papists for many years past against our Religion; the Caballing of the chief Factors of the Romish Party, the raising Money upon their Estates at home, and promoting Collections amongst the Papal Zealots abroad, the putting themselves under the Conduct of Forreign Councils, and the industriously providing and furnishing themselves throughout the whole Kingdom with Horse and Arms, were so many uncontrollable Evidences of it to all Persons of ordinary Converse and Observation. And the Depositions of such as have come in to make detection of this Conspiracy, do so correspond with what most men have seen and took notice of, that the utmost they amount unto, is only to afford us a legal proof of that, whereof we had before a moral assurance. Can it be imagined that Coleman, Throgmorton, Leyborn, should only be acquainted with so great and important a Design: and that Powis, Bellasis, Arundel, and Stafford should be ignorant of it. Who knows not that the former were too inconsiderable to give either Authority to so weighty an undertaking, or yield that assistance which was necessary to the effecting and accomplishing of it. None below those of the highest Quality in the Papal Party, were furnished either with Wisdom to conduct it, Interest to obtain Forreign Countenance unto it, or Treasure and Power to possess the meanest with the least hope of success. Could Coleman judge that their Design made so happy an advance, that they should quickly see the ruine of the Protestant Party; as his Letter to the Nuncio bearing date the 9th. of August testifieth; If there had not been a general Confederacy among all the Papists in England, to cut off and extirpate those modern Hereticks: Or is it possible to fasten any other sense upon Father Irelands Letter from St. Omers, wherein he tells his Correspondents here, that all things were in a readiness there, as soon as the Blow should be given here, but that they had both projected the murdering of the King, and having once accomplished that, to proceed immediately to the extirpation of the Protestants. I should not have published the foregoing Letter, but that the safety as well as the Honour of the King, and the [Page] Vindication of the Justice of the Nation upon this Traiterous Malefactor, exacted it of me. And I wish some Persons may be advised and instructed, how they behave themselves in reference to Papers and Informations which arrive with them for the future, seeing they may hereby find and observe, that their carriages and transactions lie not so hid and concealed, as they may to their own ruine at last, though to our danger at present, believe and imagine. But let us in the next place consider how many Witnesses have testified my Lord Stafford's share and part in the Plot, and you will possibly be astonished, how he durst shut up his dying Speech in saying with so little concernedness with relation to the righteous Tribunal he was immediately to appear before; I do with my last breath truely assert my Innocency, and hope the Omniscient All-seeing just God will deal with me accordingly. Were they not so many, that for any to hope to be acquitted upon bare denying what such a number have Deposed, were to make the Conviction of Malefactors and Criminals a thing wholly impossible. And were they not all Papists and purposed so to live and dye, if the consideration of this Plot had not filled them with horror concerning a Religion that justified so Execrable a Conspiracy. Nor was it originally any hatred against the Popish Religion, that made them accuse the principal Members of the Roman Communion of those Villanies and Crimes; but it was the Treasons which the Roman Catholicks were engaged in, that made them renounce that Religion which put them upon it, and whose Principles made it Meritorious to prosecute it with Fire and Sword. Besides, these Witnesses were Persons whom this Lord is never said to have disobliged, so that they can not be thought to have accused him out of Malice and Revenge; And which is very material for obtaining belief to their Testimony, they were wholly Strangers one to another till after the Discovery of the Plot, so that the charging my Lord Stafford and others with such and such Crimes, was not any contrivance among themselves, nor a thing they can be supposed to have concerted between them. And if we consider the nature and quality of their Evidence, it is such that it is impossible any man should have ever ventured upon the giving of it, unless it had been true, and that they had personal and particular knowledge of all the Circumstances of it. For they not only declare all with the greatest plainness and distinctness, but whensoever there was any attempt to distract or entangle them by cross Questions, they both persevere to answer with the greatest presence and sedateness, and by their Replies to reflect further light and certainty on what they said before; For as the particulars they insisted upon, are too many for the most fertile Imagination to have invented, so as to be able to make them cohere, much less to cause one of them support and fortifie another; So notwithstanding the number of the things they have Deposed, and that there was no previous acquaintance amongst them, yet they have in nothing contradicted one another, nor hath any one by endeavouring to support the truth of what himself said, undermined or supplanted the certainty of what others have alledged. Or can it be supposed that though they had been never so wicked, and would not have scrupled the destroying the lives of innocent Persons in order to profit and advantage, that yet they should not only be such fools but so perfectly mad, as to assault the lives of so many of the chiefest Peers of the Nation, and so befriended not only in their numerous Relations, but in the interest which they had as well in his Majesty as those of greatest Authority about him. Surely nothing but an assured knowledge of the things which they inform concerning, and a conscientious desire to prevent the mischiefs which these great persons in combination with others, were hastning to involve the Nation under, could have ever prevailed with them to expose themselves to so many visible dangers, as they must needs have foreseen, the accusing so many Peers, would make them obnoxious and liable unto.

§. 11. But this is not the only particular wherein we shall detect and lay open this false and perjured Person, and therefore we hasten to a second thing wherein this late Viscount hath prostituted his Conscience by asserting that for a truth, which we shall prove by undubitable Testimony to be a gross and impudent falshood. And it is some advantage that we can deal with the Papists on a subject, that relates wholly to matter of Fact; for here both the meanest and those of the narrowest Understanding, are as capable of being Umpires betwixt us and them, and of comprehending what is proved, or what is not, as those of a more elevated Condition, and improved Abilities. This Lord then having both protested upon his Tryal, that he never spake with Mr. Dugdale but once, and averred it upon his Death and Salvation, that he never spake unto See his Speech upthe Scaffold. him of any thing save about a Foot-boy, or Foot-man, or Foot-race, and never was then alone with him; We shall therefore by some of the many undeniable Depositions which we could produce, demonstrate that he hath been often with him, and that at times and seasons when there could be no occasion to discourse of any such affair or business betwixt them, And this Viscount See Page 78. having also upon his Tryal solemnly attested God, that he detested [Page] Dugdale, as so mean a Knave, that often and often, when dry at my Lord Aston's Table, he would not call for Drink when he saw him by him, but often refused to take Drink at his hands; I shall therefore prove by the Testimonies of several Persons whose Credit can no ways be impeached, that the time was, when he had another kind of value for Mr. Dugdale, and that he hath withdrawn from the Society of very considerable Persons to converse with this very Dugdale, whom he is pleased to represent as so mean a Knave, and that he frequently declined to take Drink at his hands.

§

The Information of William Skelton late of Horecross in the County of Stafford, now of St. Martins in the Fields in the County of Middlesex Gent. taken upon Oath this 17th. day of January 1680. before me Edmond Warcupp Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said County and City.

Middle. & Westm. ss.

THis Informant saith, that he waited on Robert Howard of Horecross in the said County of Stafford Esq to the House of the Lord Aston at Tixall in the said County of Stafford, on the 12th. of September 1678. and then and there saw William late Lord Viscount Stafford talking with Mr. Stephen Dugdale. And on the 13th. day of the said month of September 1678. this Informant stepping by accident into a Room there called the little Dining-Room or little Parlour, some time before Dinner, he then and there saw the said William late Viscount Stafford, and the said Stephen Dugdale, talking and discoursing together in private, no other person then being in the said Room besides themselves, whereupon this Informant soon withdrew lest he should interrupt their Conference. And this Informant is most assured of the Premisses, by a certain Memorandum, which he then wrote down in his own Pocket Book, which at the time of this Information is produced. And he likewise saw the said William late Viscount Stafford, and the said Stephen Dugdale, discoursing together in Tixall Park in the Buck season of the same year 1678. no other Person being with them, while the Gentry then Assembled, were hunting the Buck in the said Park. And this Informant further saith, that as he was walking in Tixall Hall about the 18th. or 19th. day of September 1678. he observed the said William late Lord Viscount Stafford go into a Room called the great Parlour, or the Dining-Room which adjoyned to his Lordships Lodging Chamber, and immediately the said Stephen Dugdale followed him into the said Room, and this Informant saw them two alone discoursing together, but how long they continued there, or what their Discourse was, he knoweth not. And by these and other Observations, this Informant did believe that the said Stephen Dugdale, was in good esteem, and in some trust with the said late Viscount Stafford. And he further saith, that the said Stephen Dugdale was then Steward to the Lord Aston, and had great Power and Command in the said Lord Astons Family at Tixall, and bought and sold all things relating to the Family or Estate at Tixall, and was the Chiefest man in the Lord Astons Family, and paid the Wages of Labourers, and had a very good Name and Reputation among the Gentry of that Countrey, as well Papists as Protestants, and was frequently termed Honest Stephen Dugdale. And this Informant further saith, that he hath observed the said William late Lord Viscount Stafford, own the said Stephen Dugdale with respect, calling him Mr. Dugdale at Dinners and Suppers before the said Lord Astons face, both when they did eat in private, and when they did eat in publick with other Gentry and Persons of Quality in the said House, to which there was great resort in that year. And this Informant likewise observed the said Stephen Dugdale was well respected and very civilly treated by the said William late Lord Viscount Stafford in other Companies and Places, where they Occasionally met. And further saith not,

William Skelton.

Jurat' die & Anno supradict' coram me,

Edm. Warcupp.

Vera Copia Ex' per me,

Edmond Warcupp.

The Information of Walter Collins of the Burrough of Stafford Gent. taken upon Oath the 19th. day of January 1680. before Tho. Blacks, and Sampson Byrch, his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the said Burrough.

[Page]

Stafford Burrough ss.

WHo saith, that in or about the year of our Lord Christ 1678. he saw the late Lord Stafford, and Mr. Stephen Dugdale, walk together in the Court Yard belonging to Tixall Hall, between the Gate-house and the said Hall, about the space of a quarter of an hour, and that no other Person did walk with them, or was in hearing of them.

Wal. Collins.

Signed in presence of William Southall.

Jurat' die & Anno predict' coram

Tho. Blake, Sam. Byrch.

Thomas Jordan of Little-Haywood in the County of Stafford Gent. one of the High-Constables for the said County,

Staff. ss.

SAith, that in the Summer time in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred seventy and eight, on a Thursday, being a Bowling day at Tixall in the said County, he this Informant saw the Lord Stafford and the Lord Aston stand together on the side of the Bowling-Green, a distance from the rest of the Company there, and out of their hearing: And while their Lordships stood at that distance, this Informant saw Mr. Stephen Dugdale go to their Lordships and stand with them in that place out of hearing of the rest of the Company about a quarter of an hour, and their Lordships and Mr. Dugdale did Discourse together all that time as this Informant verily believes, (this Informant being in their sight all that time, but not in their hearing.)

Thomas Jordan.

15 die January 1680.

Signed then in the presence of Thomas Whitbey, Edward Foden.

The Information of William Suelson of Great-Haywood Nailer, taken upon Oath before Sir Bryan Broughton Knight and Barronet Jan. 13. 1680.

WHo saith, that about Michaelmas was two years, he saw the Lord Stafford walking alone with Mr. Stephen Dugdale upon Tixall Bowling-Alley: And this Informant saith, that he knew the Lord Stafford as well as the one hand from the other, for he hath often seen him at Tixall.

William Suelson.

Jurat' coram me,

B. Broughton.

The Information of Richard Parkin of Shutburrough in the County of Stafford taken upon Oath in Stafford before James Lewes of the Burrough of Stafford, and Thomas Blake and Sampson Byrch Justices of the said Burrough.

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Staff. ss.

WHo upon his Oath saith, that in the Summer time in the year of our Lord Christ 1677. he saw William late Viscount Stafford, and Mr. Stephen Dugdale together by themselves and none else with them in the Court at Tixall betwixt Tixall Hall and the Stables there. And also that he this Informant saw the said Lord Stafford, and the said Mr. Dugdale together, and none else with them upon a Hempland belonging to Walter Eld of Tixall.

Rich. Parkin his [A] Mark.

Signed in the presence of William Southall.

15. Jan. 1680.

Jurat' coram

James Lewes, Tho. Blake, Samp. Byrch.

Vera Copia.

The Information of Tho. Creswell of Little-Haywood Cordwayner Januar. 11. 1680.

Staff.

WHo saith, that in the Summer time in the year of our Lord 1676. he was at Tixall to ride Horses, and about a month before Michaelmas the Lord Stafford took him to be his Page, with whom he lived a year and a quarter, within that time my Lord Stafford was three or four times at Tixall, and staied sometimes two or three nights together, and three or four mornings he hath sent this Informant to see for Stephen Dugdale and bid him come to him for to speak with him: And this Informant saith, that he hath seen him at the least three times go into the Parlour to my Lord Stafford and his Gentleman, and as soon as Mr. Dugdale came in, his Gentleman came out, and he remained single with the Lord Stafford, and at several other places he hath seen my Lord Stafford with Mr. Stephen Dugdale.

The Information of Sampson Rawlins of Tixall in the County of Stafford Taylor.

Staff.

WHo informeth, that in the latter end of Summer in the year of our Lord 1678. the Lord Stafford being then at Tixall, he this Informant saw the said Lord Stafford and Mr. Stephen Dugdale walk together in Tixall Hall, and after some time they had been together walking themselves, the said Mr. Dugdale went and fetcht the Lord Aston to the said Lord Stafford.

The Informations above written were taken upon Oath the 11th. of January 1680. before Henry Vernon Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Stafford, in the presence of me,

William Southall.

The Information of Thomas Robinson of Ingestry in the County of Stafford Husbandman, taken upon Oath the two and twentieth day of January in the year 1680. before James Lewes Mayor of the Burrough of Stafford, and Sampson Byrch Justice of Peace for the said Burrough.

Staff. ss.

THis Informant saith, that in the month of September 1678. he this Informant being then at Tixall Hall, he saw William late Viscount Stafford and Mr. Stephen Dugdale come together and none else with them out of a Garden belonging to Tixall Hall, [Page] and afterwards they both walked together themselves in the Walks nigh to the said Garden, but what Discourse they had this Informant knows not. And at another time after the time aforesaid, the said late Viscount Stafford came to Tixall Hall on Horseback, and the said Mr. Dugdale meeting his Lordship, and after he had saluted him and shewed his obedience to his Lordship they both did walk themselves together into Tixall Hall and none else with them.

Thomas Robinson his Mark.

Jur' apud Stafford vicesimo secundo die Januarii Anno Regni Caroli secundi nunc Ang. xxxii. coram nobis,

James Lewes Mayor, Sampson Byrch.

The Information of Ann Hinckley (Wife of Samuel Hinckley of Penckrich in the County of Stafford Cordwayner) taken upon Oath the ninth day of Febr. 1680. before Richard Congreve Esq one of his Majesties Justices of Peace for the County aforesaid.

VVHo saith, that in or about the month of August one thousand six hundred seventy and eight, this Informant went with her Husband to Tixall in the said County, to speak with Mr. Stephen Dugdale, and coming to one Elds House in Tixall, her Husband desired her to go into Tixall Hall to look for the said Mr. Dugdale, and when she came into the said Hall, she saw the said Mr. Dugdale with an ancient Gentleman in the said Hall, standing both together and talking, and after some time this Informant asked one Joseph Tarbox (who stood with this Informant) who that Gentleman was, who told her it was the Lord Stafford, And she saw at that time the said Lord Stafford pull a Paper out of his Pocket, and gave it to the said Mr. Dugdale to read, and after Mr. Dugdale had looked on the said Paper, he gave it again to the said Lord Stafford, And she further saith, that she continued in sight of the said Lord Stafford and Mr. Dugdale above the space of half an hour, and during that time there was no person with them: And she further saith, that afterwards Mr. Dugdale came to this Informant, and bid her go to one Dorothy Aldridges in Tixall aforesaid and he would come to her, which she did, taking her Husband with her, and being there with Mr. Dugdale, he the said Mr. Dugdale after some Discourse, told this Informant that he must go again to the said Lord Stafford, for he had earnest business with him: And further saith, that both in the said Hall and the said Aldridges House she heard Mr. Dugdale say, that the Person he was talking with was the Lord Stafford.

Anne Hinkley, [A] her Mark.

She is a Papist.

Die & Anno predict' Jurat' coram me,

Rich. Congreve.

The Information of John Boulton of the Burrough of Stafford Sadler, taken upon Oath at Stafford aforesaid before Tho. Blake and Sampson Byrch his Majesties Justices of the Peace for the said Burrough, on the 19th. day of January 1680.

Stafford Burrough. ss.

VVHo saith, that in the Summer time about the year of our Lord Christ 1678. he saw the Lord Stafford on a Bowling-day on the Bowling-Green at Tixall amongst many Gentlemen, and saw Mr. Stephen Dugdale come to the said Green, and saw the Lord Stafford go from the other Gentlemen and meet the said Mr. Dugdale, and ask him where he had been; Mr. Dugdale answered he had been at Haywood and had got some Betts about a Race; after which this Informant saw the said Lord Stafford and Mr. Stephen Dugdale withdraw themselves at a further distance from the said Company, and there continued without any other Company than themselves for the space of almost a quarter of an hour.

John Boulton.

Signed in the presence of William Southall.

Jurat' die & Anno predict' coram

Tho. Blake, Sam. Byrch.

The Information of Semer Ansell of Shutburrough in the County of Stafford Skinner, taken upon Oath in the Burrough of Stafford the two and twentieth day of January 1680. before James Lewes Esq Mayor of the Burrough of Stafford, and Sampson Byrch one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace of the said Burrough.

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Staff. ss.

VVHo saith, in the Summer time in the year of our Lord 1678. he saw William late Lord, alias Viscount Stafford and Mr. Stephen Dugdale talking together at a place called Ruffecroft-Gate in Tixall and no other Person with them, and they both continued together themselves there above a quarter of an hour in the sight of this Informant, who staied to speak with the said Mr. Dugdale, and within few days after he this Informant saw the said late Lord Stafford and Mr. Dugdale together themselves and none else with them in the place called the Hall in Tixall for the space of above half an hour, and afterwards both of them went together into the great Parlour into Tixall Hall.

Semer Ansell.

Jur' apud Stafford xxxii. die Januarii Anno Regni Caroli secundi nunc Ang. xxxii. coram nobis,

James Lewes, Sampson Byrch.

Now though these be but a few of the many Depositions which we could have produced to this purpose, yet they are enough to detect the Imposture and Perjury of the late Viscount Stafford, and to convince the World what little Credit is to be given to a Papist in the solemnest appeals which he makes to God, and that in those very Circumstances, when the worst of men are usually found to be candid and ingenuous. For whereas Mr. Dugdale hath been represented as an infamous Person, and one that neither my Lord Aston, nor any other Gentlemen put the least confidence in, or esteemed worthy of common Respect; it is made fully evident by these Depositions, that he had not only more than an ordinary Reputation in my Lord Aston's Family, the management of my Lords chiefest Concernments being entrusted with him, but that he was highly valued by the whole Countrey for Candor, Integrity, Justice and Truth, beyond what other Papists under all the Recommendation of Birth, Breeding and Inheritance could arrive unto. And as to be accounted and stiled Honest Mr. Dugdale was the greatest honour that a virtuous ambition could make him aspire unto, so his Temper and whole Conduct, since called forth to appear on a more publick Theatre, do proclaim him every way worthy of that Compellation. And this Character which he obtained in Staffordshire doth so correspond with what we have seen and observed of him in London, that all impartial men do readily acknowledge the justness of it. And whereas my Lord Stafford protested in the presence of God, that as he was never with him alone, so he never spake to him but once, and that only concerning a Foot-man; Here are proofs neither to be distrusted nor contradicted, that he had both frequent conversation with him, and admitted him into those privacies which others were debarred and shut out from. And indeed by the familiarity he entertained him with, and the sequestring themselves from all other Company whensoever they discoursed together, we may easily imagine what was the Subject they treated about. For what else should recommend another Persons Servant to those Privacies which my Lord Stafford vouchsafed Mr. Dugdale, or prefer one of so mean a Rank to be selected from among the company of the best Gentlemen to be discoursed with apart, but that there was some important Design on foot of which they two were particularly conscious. And could this in probability be any other, than the mighty Affair of destroying the King, and overthrowing the Protestant Religion, which the whole Papal Party had so long designed, and were at that time filled with the highest confidences of accomplishing.

§. 12. The next thing that lies before us is the consideration of this late Lords renouncing all knowledge of Mr. Turbervill, and with what solemnity he abjured the having so much as at any time seen him. For having at his Trial not only declared, that he never saw him before in his life, he repeats it in his Speech See Page 50. upon the Scaffold, and withall avers upon his Death and Salvation, that [Page]he never spake one word to Mr. Turbervill, or to his knowledge ever saw him until his Trial. Some possibly may be ready to believe that my Lord Viscount Stafford had the gift of forgetfulness, and that the Papists by a peculiar Donation remember nothing that may either asperse themselves or the interest of the Catholick Cause. But as they can not tell us where such a priviledge is bequeathed unto them, so we shall make it appear by irrefragable Testimonies that he was well acquainted with Mr. Turbervill, and that the spring of this misadventure in denying it, was not the weakness of his Memory, but the badness of his Conscience. Nor shall I insist upon the Testimony of Mr. Mort, who being produced at the Trial of my Lord Stafford, deposed, that being acquainted with Mr. Turbervill at Paris, the said Turbervill (did to the best of his remembrance) tell him that his Brother who was a Monk had introduced him into the favour of my Lord Stafford, and that once being in company with Mr. Turbervill, the said See the said Trial Page 151. Mr. Turbervill withdrew from him to speak with that Lord, and that he the said Mort walk'd about Luxemburg-house till his return. For though this Testimony doth mightily strengthen Mr. Turbervills Evidence, being agreeable in several circumstances with what he declared; yet forasmuch as the whole is to be found in the Printed Relation of my Lord Staffords Trial, together with the great and convincing improvement which an excellent Person made of See Page 181. it, I shall therefore decline enlarging upon it, and shall proceed to advance two other Depositions demonstrative of this late Lords insincerity and falsehood in renouncing before God and men the having had any former knowledge of Mr. Turbervill.

§

The Information of John Showter Gent. one of the Clerks in the Crown-Office in Chancery, taken upon Oath this 3th. day of January 1680. before me Edmond Warcupp Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said County and City.

Middl. & Westm. ss.

THis Informant saith, that about six or seven years ago he did frequently resort to the Chappel at Tart-Hall to Mass, the then House of William late Viscount Stafford, and one of those times he met there one Mr. Glassie, who asked this Informant a List of the Names of the Justices of the Peace in Shropshire, which List some few days afterwards this Informant carried to Tart-Hall and delivered it to the said Glassie, who in kindness invited this Informant to drink a Glass of Wine in the Cellar, and two other Gentlemen went to drink with them, and after some time this Informant asked the said Mr. Glassie, who a Tall thin Gentleman was, who was then one of the Company, who answered his name was Turbervill, and that he belonged to the Lady Molineux, and this Informant cannot positively say that Mr. Edward Turbervill now produced was the same Person then in his Company, but believes he may be the same by his stature and thinness, only his Hair did then look like a Perriwig, and was much longer than it is now. And he further saith that he verily believes, he saw the said Mr. Turbervill at least forty times in the said House, up and down so commonly, that he believed the said Turbervill to be one of the Lord Staffords Family, and did likewise see him several times at Mass at the said House.

John Showter.

Jurat' die & Anno supradicto coram me,

Edmond Warcupp.

Vera Copia Ex' per me,

Edmond Warcupp.

The Information of Colonel John Scott, taken upon Oath the 13th. day of February 1680. before me Edmond Warcupp Esq one of his Majesties Justices of the Peace in the said County and City.

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Middl. & Westm. ss.

THis Informant saith that he was at Paris in France in the month of November 1675. and there met William late Viscount Stafford (whom this Informant was well acquainted with) in a Cedan, in the Street called Rue de Neuf Fosse, about the 18th. or 20th. of the said November, who called to this Informant, inviting him to his Lodgings which he then said was in a Street called La Rue de Pornoung at a Corner House at the lower end of that Street, the upper end whereof is fronted by Luxemburgh-house, to which Lodging this Informant went the next day, and was introduc'd into his Lordships Chamber, who complain'd of a lameness which the Informant judg'd to be the Gout, and this Informant visited him several times afterwards in his Chamber which was a lower Room in the said Corner House, about the latter end of the said month of November 1675. when a certain Person came in whom this Informant took to be one of his Lordships Domesticks, and told his Lordship that one Mr. Turbervill would speak with him, whereupon this Informant having no other business but visit and respect, and believing his Lordship might have some business with that Gentleman offer'd to withdraw, but his Lordship would not permit it, saying, Mr. Turbervill might come another time, but before answer was return'd the said Gentleman came into the Room, which his Lordship perceiving, said, Mr. Turbervill you have not so much hast, or so much to do but I may see you again to morrow, upon which the said Gentleman bow'd his body and retir'd. And this Informant further saith that Mr. Edward Turbervill now produc't is very like to the said Gentleman in Stature, whom the said Lord Stafford then called Mr. Turbervill, but this Informant cannot positively say he is the same man by reason he had so short an Interview, and his Hair is shorter than that Gentlemans was, but he believes him to be the same Gentleman he saw in my Lord Staffords Room as aforesaid, and this Informant was so much satisfied that Mr. Edward Turbervill is the same Person that he saw in Paris in November 1675. that he offer'd Justice Warcupp a day or two before his Lordships Execution to go with him to the said Lord in the Tower, or with any other Person to endeavour to Convince his Lordship that one Turbervill, and probably Mr. Edward Turbervill was the same Person he saw at Paris in November 1675. as is aforesaid.

John Scott.

Jurat' die & Anno supradict' cor'me,

Edmond Warcupp.

Nor let any object that these Gentlemen are not positive that the Mr. Turbervill who testified against my Lord Stafford, is the same person whom they saw in the places forementioned and referred unto; seeing all the peculiar and descriptive accidents which they observed in the one are found in the other; except that his Hair differs in length and cut (which any mans may do in two days time) from what it then did. Nor are they able to assign any other Gentleman of that Name, unto whom we may apply what is here Sworn and Deposed. And the modesty with which these Persons do express and deliver themselves, instead of detracting from the probability of their Testimony doth greatly add to the weight and moral certainty of what they say. If this therefore be true, that my Lord Stafford not only frequently saw Mr. Turbervill, as his being a kind of Domestick in his House, as Mr. Showters Deposition doth imply, but that he treated him with that familiarity which Colonel Scotts Information doth import: there can then be nothing more evident than that my Lord Stafford was wholly regardless of the truth of what he said, and that he died guilty of a high prophanation of the Name of God, and in a desperate contempt of all that should be preserved sacred, by taking it upon his Salvation, that he never spake one word to Mr. Turbervill, or to his knowledge ever saw him until his Trial. And if he could assume the impudence to aver that he never saw Mr. Turbervill, when the acknowledging of it, would of it self have derived no danger upon him, we may very reasonably believe that notwithstanding his being never so Criminal, he would abjure the Treasons which Mr. Turbervill charged him with, it being so much his interest to do so. So well assured was Colonel Scott that this very Turbervill who gave Evidence against my Lord Stafford at the Bar, is the same Person whom he heard my Lord call by that Name [Page] in his Lodgings at Paris, that he offered to go with Justice Warcupp to the Tower to convince the said Lord of it, and this Mr. Justice Warcupp is not only ready to testifie to any that shall enquire of him, but hath been pleased to declare it in the Paper that is here subjoyned.

§

I Do humbly certifie, that Colonel John Scott did according as he hath Sworn in an Information hereunto prefixed, offer me in a Coffee-House commonly called Richard's Coffee-House near Temple-Bar, a day or two before the Execution of William late Viscount Stafford, to go to him in the Tower for the purposes contained in the said Information: But I told him, I had no access to the said Lord, and therefore advised him to wait on the Right Honourable William Lord Howard of Escrick, who being the Kinsman of the said late Viscount Stafford, might have access to him in the Tower, and his Lordship being a great lover of Truth, would without doubt upon his the said Colonel Scott's application to his Lordship, go with him to the Tower before the Death of the said William late Viscount Stafford. Witness my hand this 24. of February 1680.

Edmond Warcupp.

§. 13. Having laid open the Perjuries as well as the Insincerity of this late Lord in reference to Mr. Dugdale and Mr. Turbervill, that which we are next to apply unto, is, how far his word ought to be relied upon in reference to the Characters which he fastens upon Dr. Oats, and how far we are to give credit to him in his renouncing the having seen the Doctor before he appeared at the Bar to testifie against him. Various have been the endeavours to stain and eclipse the Reputation of Dr. Oats, but all of them have been over-ruled unto, and issued in the raising his Honour and Esteem. They very well knew that could they but once undermine and supplant the credit of that Person, the detracting from the credit of all the other Witnesses would be a province which with some probability of success they might then go about and attempt. For as all the rest do but confirm and explain what he at first revealed and detected, so were the Papal Party but once able to convince the World that he were an Impostor, most men, though it would be never so contrary to the Rules of Justice, would immediately entertain suspicions of all the rest.

And if we may believe the Papists in the Account and Reports which they divulge either of the Doctors Intellectuals or Prudentials, we can not apprehend that he was able to invent and frame this Plot, and consequently that the most which his Parts are adopted unto, is only to be a Discoverer of what more Politick heads had contrived and projected. And by how much they think to reproach him by detracting from the comprehensiveness of his Understanding, or the discretion of his Conduct; by so much do they assure all the World that this Conspiracy was not invented or forged by him. And though I very much question whether any that reflect upon his Conduct, would have comported themselves so well under his Circumstances and Provocations; yet his very failours and infirmities are useful to confirm us that he found this Conspiracy laid and formed to his hand, and that the meer disclosure and detection of it, is all that can be ascribed unto him, or that he can be allowed to bear himself upon. Besides it is not to be thought that any one would pretend to discover a Plot of his own framing, till he had before hand secured persons that should vouch and confirm all that he should say. For as the whole that a single Testimony could amount unto, was only to awaken the Government to a watchfulness in reference to it self, and an enquiry into the actions, and after the Papers of those that were complained of; so he could not be unsensible that the very bringing under a suspicion of Treason, Persons of that Quality and Temper that he had taken upon him to accuse, would infallibly bring him into manifold dangers, and expose him to eminent hazards. And yet it is plain, that this honest Doctor whom the World doth so traduce, was so far from concerting with any before hand, the matter which he appeared about, that he knew not whether there was one man whom fear or conscience would influence to confess, acknowledge, or any way confirm what he had said. Besides were the Doctor an Impostor, as the Papists represent him to be, he hath acted with as much imprudence as falsehood, in taking upon him to depose such a vast number of Particulars, and all of them relating to matter of Fact, whereas could he be but disproved in any one of them, there would be reason and cause for disbelieving him in all the rest. And if we do but consider how impossible it is to lay so many Accusations against any sort of men, and those declarative of things done at different times and distant places, without leaving some one particular incoherent with the rest, if not inconsistent with the whole; we must necessarily conclude that the Doctor is no Impostor, seeing among all the things which he hath Deposed, there is not any one [Page] that interfers with, or weakens the belief of another. Whereas had this Plot been a forgery of the Doctors, it had been as effectual to the design of ruining the Papists, and more fafe for himself as well as more agreeable to common prudence, to have charged them only with two or three Articles importing a Conspiracy against the King, the Government, and the Protestant Religion, and not to have ventured to give a History of so many years Transactions of the Papal Party, name so many Consults, instance in so many matters of Fact, and mention the places and persons where and by whom such Designs were debated and resolved upon. Besides, some of those whom he undertook to Charge and Impeach have been found by their own Papers which were seized, not only to be guilty of all he charged them with, but of a great deal more than he pretended to know or accuse them of. And some others whose Conspiracies fell not within the Acircle of the Doctors knowledge, and of whom therefore he presumed to say nothing; have been detected by their own Letters to be guilty of the Plot; which is both an argument of the Doctors Modesty and Conscience in not Impeaching men at peradventure meerly because they are Papists, and an infallible assurance of his sincerity in reference to all whom he hath Impeached, and a convincing proof of the truth of those things which he hath deposed against them. Moreover, whatsoever he hath said that is either any way material in it self, or most severe against the Romish Faction, hath been confirmed by others whom he had neither foreknowledge of, correspondence with, or influence upon, yea, these very things which were most improbable, and of the truth whereof his Friends were most suspicious, and concerning which his Adversaries have taken occasion to Ridicule and Expose him, namely his intimacy with, and his esteem among the Jesuits, his having been in Spain and in favour with the Archbishop of Tuam, and his integrity in reporting my Lord Castlemain to be in Sacred and Religious Orders; have all of them been confirmed by other Witnesses, and his Credit fully cleared and vindicated in those matters that were most unlikely to be true, and which occasioned some to take so great advantage not only to traduce but lampoon him. And whereas there was one particular wherein they ventured their whole cause towards the overthrowing his Reputation, namely, that he was at St. Omers all Aprill, May, and till towards the latter end of June 1678. and consequently could not have been at the Consult in London, April 24 as he had positively Deposed and Sworn; it is remarkable that the Striplings who were brought from St. Omers to testifie that he had not stirred out of that Colledge all those months, differed greatly among themselves, some affirming that he left St. Omers the 10th of June, others saying that he came from thence about the latter end of it, and one proffering to swear that he was there in July, who being told that he varied from the rest, cried out, he was sure he was there till after the Consult, which served to discover what they were pre-instructed to speak unto by the Jesuits, whose Morality can dispense with a thousand lies, when the interest of the Catholick Church, or the preserving the honour of their Society, doth bespeak a kindness at their hands. But besides there were no less than seven Witnesses of unsuspected credit, and who cannot be supposed to have been under the impression of any inducements influencing them to appear in favour of Dr. Oats, that deposed upon Oath his being in London both in Aprill and May, the time that the Popish Youths had averr'd his being at St. Omers. And whensoever Mr. Dudley's Depositions (who is both a Papist and a Gentleman of good Quality and of an ancient Family) which lye at present before his Majesty, having been transmitted to one of the Secretaries by the Justices of the Peace who took them in the Countrey, come to be published and communicated to the Kingdom; it will then more fully appear what a horrid Plot hath been carried on by the Papists against the life of the King, the Protestant Religion, and the safety of his Majesties best and most Loyal Subjects, and how much the Nation is indebted to Dr. Oats for the timely and seasonable detection of it, and by consequence for preventing the Execution of their Hellish Treason against his Majesty, and the glutting their brutish rage in the blood of his Innocent, and at that time secure an unapprehensive People. And it is to be hop'd that if this unthankful age should not reward him in some proportion to what he doth deserve, that yet our Posterity will, if not erect Monuments unto him, at least Record him in History, as a signal Instrument whom God hath made use of and honoured to save his Countrey. And I am not yet sunk into that despondency, but that I both hope to see him receive the acknowledgements, and participate of the rewards which the Kingdom oweth him, and that some elegant Pen will Enroll his Memory in the Registers of Time, and thereby leave a Pattern to succeeding Generations of the Loyalty which Dr. Oats hath expressed to his Prince, and of the Compassion and Duty which he hath testified to his Native Countrey, which had it not been for him, would not only have been involved in blood, but buried in its own ruines. And in the mean time the Credit which not only a great and impartial Prince, but the whole Kingdom in its Representatives in four successive Parliaments, and [Page] the highest as well as the lowest of the judicial Courts of the Kingdom, have after the strictest and most critical Enquiry given unto him, is enough to vindicate his sincerity, and to leave an indelible Stamp of Truth upon all his Depositions. Nor can the asseveration of any Papist whose Conscience allows him, and whose safety makes it needful for him to protest his Innocence, tho he know himself guilty, lessen the Reputation of this honest and plain hearted Doctors Testimony, who in the face of a thousand Temptations to the contrary, and in the prospect of innumerable hazards, swears that they are horrid Criminals.

§. 14. Having dispatched all I intend from matter of Fact, towards the convincing the World that there is no faith in Papists, and that we bewray a very great weakness in giving any credit unto them; I shall in the last place enquire into those Maxims of their Religion, by which Lying and Perjury are legitimate, and made lawful unto them. And here I shall premise two things, whereof the first is this, that in whatsoever cases they may lawfully speak that which is false, they may likewise without the hazard of making themselves guilty of Perjury swear it. The Parsons Mitig. cap. 11. sect. 9. Lessius de jure & Justit. cap. 42. dub. 9. Sanctius Select. Disput. 46. p. 330. And therefore Father Garnet gave it under his hand, that every Speech which by Equivocation might be saved from a Lye, the same Speech might without Perjury be confirmed by an Oath, or by any other way, though it were by receiving the Sacrament. See Casanbons Epist. ad Front. Duc. p. 202. The second thing I would premise is this; That howsoever a matter may be unlawful and sinful, if measured with respect to the Rule, it is nevertheless safe in the practick and may be done without sin, if it be but justified or countenanced by the Opinion of one Doctor. And this they stile, the Doctrine of Probability, avowing, That whatsoever is supported by the Authority of any one Catholick Writer, is good and lawful for any man to venture upon the practice of, though both the generality of other Casuists, and the Person who is concerned immediately in the case depending, be otherwise minded. See Layman lib. 1. Tract. 1. cap. 5. Escobar in Praefat. Theologiae, Problematicae, Filutius Mor. Quest. Tract. 21. cap. 4. Bonacina, Tom. 2. Disp. 2. §. 4. Accordingly if any Priest pronounce it lawful to kill the King, or to swear falsely to take away the life of a Protestant, or to call Heaven and Earth to witness that he himself is innocent of a matter, whereof he knows he is guilty; all these and a thousand such things may be done upon the Authority of our Father, and that without deriving any guilt upon the conscience of him that doth them. Now these two things being suggested, I shall in the first place enquire by what Maxims they have provided that a man may speak dissonantly to what he knows and believes, and yet not lye. Secondly, I shall call over some of their Theological Principles, by which a person may lie and yet not sin. And thirdly, I shall recount some of the blessed provisions of the Catholick Church, by vertue of which in case one hath both lied and perjured, yet he doth no ways endanger his salvation.

§. 15. There are various Maxims provided by the Roman Casuists, according to which those in the Papal Communion may speak otherwise than they believe, and yet not to be chargeable with Imposture or Lying, or to have transgressed any command of God, whereby one man is obliged to speak truth to another.

(1.) When a Person expresseth himself in words significant of things and thoughts, but yet intends not to signifie any thing by them. Thus say they, One may pronounce a whole Oration articulatly, and yet properly not at all speak; and if he do not formally speak, he doth not, saith their Casuists, lye. Praeter modos AEquivocandi supra positos addunt aliqui quartum ut nimirum, si quis de re aliquâ interrogatus verba exterius proferat, in quibus plena & integra continetur responsio, qui tamen haec verba profert intendit vel per aliqua illorum, vel etiam per omnia non loqui. Unde inquiunt qui his utitur quantumvis verba illa sunt falsa, non tamen mentitur quia non loquitur, nec quidquam intendit per ea significare, sed mere illa profert materialiter, & animi gratia, seu ad exercendam vocem, aut quid simile. Citante Comptono Tom. Poster. Disput. 24. Sect. 3. These aliqui or some whom our Author citeth, though he pretend to differ from them, are sufficient according to the Doctrine of Probability to justifie this in the practick, and to acquit him that doth it from sin. As if words were not invented to be the signs of things, and the conveyancers of the thoughts of him that useth them! How shall we know but by mens speaking proper and significative words, that they intend to represent things, and communicate their minds unto us? And if once men may be justified in speaking words without designing to intimate any thing by them, all converse among men is rendred cousenage and meer cheat. And if when any one uttereth words which are apt to be declarative of such a matter, and proper to represent his mind who speaketh concerning it, and which the hearer can no otherwise construe than as expressive of such a thing and purpose; I say if the speaker may salve himself from lying by pretending that he designed not to signifie any thing by those words, there is not that abuse imposeable upon men by speech, that here is any way left for them to escape or avoid. For example, suppose that one charged with a Crime, make a long [Page] harrangue in terms materially fit to vindicate his innocency, and which in the acceptation of every hearer can not be otherwise interpreted, than as a justification of the speaker from the Crime charged upon him; and though he be highly Criminal and his Hearers meerly abused by believing him guiltless, he hath not according to this Maxim of Jesuitical Morality told a lye, because he never designed that the words which he used should signifie any thing, but only pronounced to exercise his lungs and make a noise.

2. When one tells a falsehood and knows it to be so, but supposeth that none will believe him in this case, say some of our Papal Casuists, he doth not lye. For a lye say they, is, Verbum falsum cum intentione fallendi, A falsehood uttered with an intent to deceive, Filucius Tom. 2. Tract. 40. cap. 2. And therefore if he that speaks think that no body will believe him, he cannot be supposed to have a purpose to deceive and consequently is not to be said to lye. Thus let what a person speaks disagree never so much with the mind of the speaker, yet if it can be but supposed that the hearers will not believe what the words are expressive of, there is no lye in such case. So that let a man be but of a broken credit, he is of all persons securest from lying, though he never spake a true word from one end of the year to the other. And according to this Doctrine the Papists are least in danger, of all men in the World, of lying to Protestants, notwithstanding every thing they say to them be false, seeing they may very well suppose that Protestants will not believe them, as indeed nothing but folly and simplicity can lead them to do it. And by this Principle of Popish Divinity, I can make a shift to justifie that the late Romish Traitors who have suffered did not lye in their last Speeches, though all that they said and sealed with Oaths and Protestations was false, because they might very well imagine that we had reason to know them better than to believe them.

3. When though all that a Person audibly saith be false, yet if with something to be added to, which is concealed in the mind of the speaker, it may be rendred and made true, in that say the Roman Casuists the Person doth not lye. Quando verba exterius prolata sunt falsa, juncta nihilominus verbis quibusdam internis quae quis in mente retinet, faciunt sensum verum. Compt. Carlet. Tom. 2. Disp. 24. Sect. 1. Non est mendacium cum quis utitur Restrictione tacita, Less. de jure & justit. lib. 2. cap. 47. Dub. 6. Qui habet justam causam celandi mentem suam tacitâ Restrictione, non peccat etiamsi alienu sensu juret, quod intellige si necessitas vel utilitas juramentum exigat idem ibid. Dub. 9. Thus saith Sanches, a man may swear that he hath not done a thing though he really have, by understanding within himself, that he did it not on such or such a day, or before he was born, Op. Mor. lib. 3. cap. 6. And this is what they call the Doctrine of Mental Reservation, than which alone there is nothing more needful to avoid lying, though a person never speak truth to his Neighbour. For example, if one should ask another whether he knows any news, he may by this art though he know never so much, yet both affirm and swear that he knows none, providing he have but this reserve in his mind, viz. to tell him; Or if a Priest be asked whether such a one did not in Confession acknowledge such a Sin unto him, he may notwithstanding that the person did so, yet deny it and that with an Oath, providing that he have but such a mental reserve as this, namely that it was not confessed to him as a meer man but as God. Thus if any Papist be examined concerning a Design against the State which he not only knows but is a Conspirator in, he may nevertheless swear that he knows of no such Design, understanding in himself that he doth not know it as a thing which every Porter in the Town is acquainted with. Now if lawful thus to abuse the faith of mankind, it was to no purpose to forbid lying, seeing every one that is not an Idiot may save himself in the most solemn asseverations of a falsehood, by some secret reserve in his own mind. And while this Doctrine doth obtain, it is impossible to know whether a Papist at any time speaks truth. One resolved to poyson his Prince, may yet swear that he never designed any such thing, reserving in his own mind that he did not purpose to do it with Henbane. So one fully resolved to stab his Soveraign, may yet deny it with all the Asseverations and Oaths imaginable, and never all this while be guilty of lying, providing he have but such a reserve as this, in his mind, namely, that he did not intend to do it with a Lath. To what useful purposes, may this sacred knack of mental Reservation serve the Romanists especially while the necessity of the Papal Cause, or their own Personal safety render it expedient.

(4.) As if this were not secure, nay to avoid lying, though a Person never speak truth, they have found another which they reckon more safe, namely, when one hath said that which is false aloud, he shall whisper to himself that which being joyned to it will serve to make and render it true, Filutius Moral. Quest. Tom. 2. Tr. 25. Cap. 11. N. 331. Thus having sworn aloud that he was not at such a Consult, he may add by way of whispering to himself with the Secretary of State. Or that after he hath said aloud I swear, he then whispers that I say, and so proceeds aloud that I was not in a Conspiracy against the King and the Government. Thus they speak truth only to themselves, but lye to all others.

(5.) When though what one says be false in the intention of the speaker, and he knows that the heavens will be imposed upon by such a form of speech, yet if through some ambiguous, [Page]or aequivocal terms the proposition be capable of a true sense, in that case say the Casuists there is no lye. See Compt. Carlet ubi prius, & Lessius de jure & justit. lib. 2. cap. 46. Filutius Tom. 2. Tr. 25. Cap. 11. And is that which they call AEquivocation in a proper sense, and by which the Papists have sought themselves by lying in innumerable cases, wherein they have been found to abuse the faith of mankind. Nor is it to be imagined what feats this may do, when one hath his mind and memory furnished with ambiguous terms. But so much hath been said against the Papists on this head, that I shall satisfie my self in having barely mentioned it.

§. 16. And as they have Theological Maxims by which a man may speak dissonantly to what he knows and believes and not lye, so in the second place, they have found out Methods and laid down Principles according to which a person may lye and not sin.

(1.) First, when a person tells a falsehood and knows that the world will be imposed upon by it, yet if in the telling of such an untruth he doth not direct his intention to the deceiving of any body, in that case say the Roman Casuists, though the party lies yet he doth not sin. The Papists have found a mystery which will allow men in committing all the villany in the World, and yet secure them from sinning, and this they call the directing of the intention. For example, if a man say the Papal Casuists wilfully kill another that either hath, or may hereafter injure him, it is not Murder providing he did it not out of malice or revenge, but meerly to repel an injury done him, or prevent one that may be done him. By which Maxim I know what account to give of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey's death, namely that though the Papists killed him, yet they were far from murdering of him, unless they who did it were such fools, as not to know how to direct their intention to the securing the Popish Cause, without designing revenge for his being so busie to defeat and obstruct them in their designs. Thus by this directing of the intention, it is no sin to calumniate another falsly, or to charge him with Crimes which may both reach his life and his honour, although you know him altogether innocent of what you accuse him of, providing the end you purpose in doing so be some such good thing, as the preserving your safety or the reputation of the holy Catholick Church, and not the defaming or destroying the party whom you slander and accuse. Thus the giving a false Testimony in Court upon Oath, is no sin, if you can but direct your intention in doing it to the saving of one that he hath a kindness for. Thus one may say and swear that which is most false, providing he do not direct his intention to the deceiving men, but only to hinder them from doing hurt, namely, their preventing the Plot from going on, or their hanging a Popish Lord or Jesuit who had conspired against the King, the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom. By this I think I'm able to salve the St. Omers Youths from having sinned in their lying Testimonies at the Old-Bayley: For the Striplings did not formally design the abusing the Judge or Jury, or the discrediting Dr. Oats, these things would have proved but accidental consequences of what they deposed, had their Testimony been believed; seeing alaz all that they intended was the bringing off their Friends and the supporting the Credit of their Church. And the command of God forbids only a false Testimony against my Brother, but not a false Testimony for him. And thus we know easily how to vindicate the late Papal Martyrs from having sinned in their last lying Speeches; for poor innocent men they did no ways intend to deceive, but only to prop up the credit of the Popish Cause and hinder the Plot from being believed. Welfare Diana who tells us in the third part of his Casuistical Divinity Tr. 6. Resol. 3. That in his Casibus, animus affirmantis aut jurantis non debet esse fallere proximum, sed occultare veritatem quam manifest are non expedit.

(2.) If they lye and forswear themselves from a custom and a habit which they have acquired of lying and perjury, in that case to lye or swear falsly is not according to the greatest of our Modern Casuists any mortal sin, and as some of them say any sin at all. Consuetud. blasphemandi, ne vel peccatum, nec falsa juramenta ita prolata. Escobar Tr. 1. Ex. 3. N. 36. 48. Talis non peccat, nec proprie blaspemat Laiman lib. 1. Tr. 2. cap. 3. So that for a Papist to acquit himself from sinning by lying Oaths and Asseverations, it is but before hand to habituate himself never to speak or swear what is true. And the more profligate and obdurate any person hath been in daily blasphemies and perjuries, the more secure he is from sinning in doing so, especially if the advantage of the Papal Church require such a curtesie at his hand, as to blaspheme the name of God, and perjure himself. Nor is it strange that a Lord who had contracted as great custom of sinning, as most men of this age had done, should venture to dye with a lie in his mouth upon this blessed security of the supream Directors of Conscience, that the custom of lying had made it no sin for him to do so.

(3.) A Lye according to the Morality of the Romish Divines is in such cases no sin, when he that delivers it, though he confirms it with never so many Asseverations to be true, is not bound to speak truth. Sylvester Sum. verb. Mendacium, with many others. Now they assign several cases, wherein those of their Communion are not obliged to speak truth; (1.) If the Pope should forbid them to speak what they believe and know, and on the contrary command them to Lye. In that case the Authority of the holy Father legitimates lying, [Page] and to speak truth becomes a Crime, Si Papa erraret praecipiens vitia, & prohibens virtutes, Ecclesia credere tenetur vitia esse bona, & virtutes esse malas. Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. cap. 5. (2.) If they be prohibited by their lawful Superior to speak truth, and enjoyned by him to affirm a falshood, the latter becomes thereby sanctified, and the first commenceth an offence and is rendred a sin. For whatsoever a Superior commands, those under his conduct are bound implicitly to obey, and how unlawful soever the thing which he requires may be in it self, yet obedience in that case hallows the action. See Ignatius Epist. de virtute Obedientiae ad Lusitanos Sect. 11. And what a door this sets open to lying, if any Ghostly Father think it convenient either for his own safety, or the interest of the Church to require, may be easily imagined. (3.) It becomes legitimate for them to lye, and they are not bound to speak the truth, if any one Doctor or Casuist interpose his judgment that it is safe in the practick, and for the advantage of the Church that they should aver a falshood. This follows upon their Doctrine of Probability, for according unto that, whatsoever any one Casuist affirms to be lawful, a person may venture upon it without running any hazard of sinning. And is it to be conceived but that some Priest or other will in this juncture, not only give liberty for a Member of the Roman Communion in England to lye, especially when their Cause can not otherwise subsist, but that he will frame lying Speeches for them, which as occasion is, others shall pronounce? (4.) They are not obliged to speak the truth, when they are before an Uncompetent Authority. And such are all Heretical Magistrates, in reference to Roman Catholicks. Or if they be speaking to Hereticks, it is the same thing, for they are not under any obligation to entertain them with what is true. Alaz, they may cheat such without dishonesty, violate Oaths made unto them, without perjury, rob them without theft, kill them without murder, and surely much more may they lye unto them without the violation of the measures of Truth and Justice. For they whom they may meritoriously destroy, they may innocently deceive. And by the same Principle that no faith is to be kept with Hereticks, no faith nor truth are due unto them.

(4.) Lying in a Papist is no sin, when he hath beforehand a Dispensation for it. For the nature of a Dispensation is, that it doth not change the quality of the Fact, but makes it cease to be sin to him who hath a Dispensation for it. And surely if a Papal Dispensation may make Incest lawful, it may make Lying and Perjury lawful also. But so much hath been said on this Subject by others, that I shall wave enlarging on that particular.

Sect. 17. And as if it had not been enough to obtrude Maxims on the World, by which a man may speak dissonantly to what he knows and believes, and yet not lye; and by which a man may be guilty of lying and perjury and yet not sin; They have also made provision that what they themselves both acknowledge to be a lye, and confess to be a sin, yet that it shall no ways endanger the Salvation of him who contracted such a guilt. And surely what the Papists may do without the hazard of future blessedness, and in subserviency in the mean time to many great and secular ends, they will not much scruple the doing of it. Now the provisions which that tender and compassionate Church hath made for her Children, by vertue of the benefit of which they may be as wicked as they can desire, and yet be in no danger of the Vindictive Justice of God, or Eternal Punishments, are such as these.

(1.) She allows them the benefit of Absolution. Now the nature and end of Absolution is not to render a thing to be no sin which in it self is a sin, but the making that which is sin not be punishable by the Divine Tribunal. It doth not make a man to be free from having done that which he hath done, but it secures him from the Justice of God though he did it. Though a Papal Pardon doth not make that not to be which is, yet it renders the Person as safe as if it were not, or never had been. And guilt implying an obnoxiousness to punishment, they reckon that being by absolution discharged from all obnoxiousness to punishment they are no more guilty than if they had never committed such a Fact. And so they aver themselves to be as Innocent as the Child unborn, not of the Fact, but with respect to the demerit of it. How far this Popish Engine hath served the interest of the Papal Party, and emboldned them to deny that which they were justly accused of, hath been abundantly declared by many learned Pens, and therefore my further pains about it, are superseded by the foregoing labours of others.

(2.) The second provision of this kind made by the Church of Rome, for the Votaries of the Triple Crown and the Subjects of the Infallible Head, is that of Indulgences, by which whole Orders and many Families as well as Individual Persons, are pardoned not only of all the sins that they have committed, but of all that they shall commit as well for ages as years to come. No doubt but they who could give Indulgences of all sins to such as heretofore fought in favour of the Pope, and the Court and Church of Rome against Emperors or Kings that quarrelled with his Highnesses Usurpations, or that listed themselves under the Papal Banners for the extirpation of Hereticks; but that they will be as ready to give Indulgences of the same form and extent, to such as are engaged for the rooting out of the Northern Heresie which hath so long tyrannised over these Kingdoms.

(3.) To this we may subjoin their Doctrine of Purgatory, Supererogations, Masses for the dead, which are all calculated to secure the everlasting happiness of Papists though they dye in known sins.

(4.) Of Alliance to this, is their opinion concerning the vertue and Power of the Eucharist, which being received though only with attrition, justifieth any one that is in Mortal Sin. And for securities sake they may keep it by them, and administer it to themselves, if they should fail of an opportunity of having another to administer it to them▪ And this course took Mary Queen of Scots.

(Lastly.) Their Doctrine that Martyrdom doth Ex opere operato confer grace, is highly useful and subservient to the same purpose. And what a blessed condition are our Tyburn and Tower-hill Martyrs in, though the last things they did was the forswearing of themselves and the invoking God to bear witness to falshood as an authentick and solemn Truth. And it is but hanging or losing ones head for the interest of the Triple Crown, and all is safe. And may many of them have the good fortune to go this secure way (as they believe) to Heaven.

FINIS.

[Page]

Information about this book

Title statement

No faith or credit to be given to Papists being a discourse occasioned by the late conspirators dying in the denyal of their guilt : with particular reflections on the perjury of VVill. Viscount Stafford, both at his tryal, and in his speech on the scaffold in relation to Mr. Stephen Dugdale and Mr. Edward Turbervill / by John Smith Gentleman ...

Smith, John, of Walworth.

Edition statement

1681

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Text Creation Partnership,

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Date

2005-12 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A60497

ID [STC]

Wing S4128

ID [STC]

ESTC R12871

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

11914273

ID [OCLC]

ocm 11914273

ID [VID]

50881

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A60497)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 50881)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 513:16)

Source

— No faith or credit to be given to Papists being a discourse occasioned by the late conspirators dying in the denyal of their guilt : with particular reflections on the perjury of VVill. Viscount Stafford, both at his tryal, and in his speech on the scaffold in relation to Mr. Stephen Dugdale and Mr. Edward Turbervill / by John Smith Gentleman ..., Smith, John, of Walworth..

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[4], 32 p.

Printed for Tho. Cockerill ...,. London :: 1681.. (Reproduction of original in University of Pennsylvania Library.)

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