Religion by no other way but by Arguments Into Scotland were sent three Sorbon Doctors with the Bishop of Amiens But with what safety might any Man dispute with them when he that did so was in the midst of his armed Enemies and there was greatest fear of violence from the Disputers themselves For the Bishop of Amiens counselled the Queen Regent that if any there were which should be found to dispute against the Romish Decrees he should be put to death yea even those who but seemed to be of another Mind only We are notinformed that the Queen Regent put in practice the foregoing counsels perhaps the time was not altogether seasonable nor do we take every single action which might conduce to the subverting of Religion to be a Conspiracy but we may well esteem by the Queens Words the Councellors and Commanders Intents and Purposes the placing of such a Regent all this to be a continued Conspiracy to strangle in the birth the Church of Scotland having yet scarcely taken breath in the World Not long after the Queen Regent dyeth and although it will perhaps be said there was no discovery of any Conspiracy which was in acting as to put to death all the Nobility or all that would dare dispute against the Bishop or Doctors could be no easy rask to go about the latter because the death of their last Martyr Walter Mille did seem so grevious unto them and if any more should suffer how would such a thing be taken by French-men People of another Nation It may be objected from the above named Arguments that there wanted no endeavour After the death of the Mother the Daughter returning into Scotland was married unto Henry Lord Darnley who being of the same Religion with the Queen and they both a Brothers and Sisters Children did strongly maintain Popery against the Protestant Religion We cannot imagine her that any thing should be contrived against the lives of those Princes by a Popish Party to overthrow Religion For to subvert Religion no way could be fourd better than by maintaining in life and honour such Princes as these two were who professed and maintained Popery as contrarily to subvert Religion Laws Liberties and the like the best means are through the sides of such Kings and Queens as are Projectors and Maintainers of them So the holy Scripture declareth by Word and Example I will smite the Shepheard and the Sheep shall be scattered For this Queen was so far from furthering the establishment of Religion nay from connivence at those who should go about any such matter that she professed she would follow the example of her Cousin Queen Mary of England which was no other thing than maintaining in her Dominions the Pope and Popery and pumshing the contrary minded as Hereticks It will not be thought I suppose that either the Papists at home in Scotland or those in France or elsewhere would go about to take away the lives of such Princes whose lives secured their Religion For what was attempted against the Life and most unhappily succeeded of the King was not any way to subvert Popery because the deed was committed and the Plot chiefly laid by Papists It rather was undertaken against the Life of this Prince by some to make way for their own Family to inherit the Crown of Scotland by others to get the Kingdom and admit any Religion But those that look farther into Matters judg this act to be committed against a Professor of the Romish Religion that he being taken out of the way another might succeed which had greater Power and Friends to bring to pass what King Henry the Queens Husband had a Mind but not Power enough to do And that made those who were no Enemies to the King in point of Religion not dislike the Treason for the Ends sake I cannot be of their Minds altogether who judg that of the Queen of Scots being now in restraint in England not long before married to Earl Bothwell and presently to desire a Devorce from him and to require that he should be summoned within the space of a very few days to return into the Kingdom to make answer and defence to the Queens Suit of Divorce to have proceeded from the changing Fancy of the Queen not so much from Conscience For it was as well known before her departure into England as after that Earl Bothwell had a Wife living when he married the Queen insomuch that at the publishing the banes of their Matrimony one stood up in the Church and forbad them It was generally thought that it was that a way might be open for the Duke of Norfolk who then made Suit unto her He indeed was such a Man as being of great Wealth mighty in Friends and singular Abilities of Mind could better bring about what was desired than a Man of no great riches at any time but was now in extream Poverty and Disgrace in the Dominions of the King of Denmark and notoriously infamous for his Crimes in Sctoland The Rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland AT this time the King of Spain wrote unto the Duke of Morfolk to join with the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland to raise a Rebellion in England and to the Earl of Ormond to do the like in Ireland These Letters were shown unto Queen Elizabeth by the Duke and the Earl that from hence at least might appear their Loyalty Nevertheless whether by the advice of the Bishop of Boss who lay as Ambassador at London for the Queen of Scots and one Rodolf a Florentine going in the appearance of a Merchant Factor or purposing of himself whatsoever he might pretend he privately sought to marry the Queen of Scots she being next Heir to the Crown of England contrary to his Promise made unto his Sovereign Queen Elizabeth The Queen of Scots and the Duke participate of one anothers Mind by Letters written in hidden Characters Neither was this a matter only supposed but the Dukes Secretary one Higford who was commanded by the Duke to burn such Letters as came from the Queen of Scots but did it not and hid them under a Mat in his Chamber and being under examination he caused them to be produced This was when the two Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland had secretly complotted to raise Arms and not long after the Dukes apprehension they fell into open Rebellion One of the Letters which was shewn at the Dukes arraignment was to this purpose That the Queen was sorry that the said Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland were in Arms before the Dukes Forces were ready This was undertaken after that Pope Pius Quintus had in Bulls from Rome printed and sent to Rodolf absolved Queen Elizabeths Subjects from their Allegiance The Pope perswaded the Spaniard to assist the Conspirators that his affairs in the Netherlands might prosper the better and the French did the like that the Queen of England might be less able to send aid to the
make haste to come in unto the Deputy and Tyrone beggeth pardon upon his Knees From Dublin Tyrone should have been carried into England but the Queens death hindred that and King James pardoned him Afterward he entred into another Conspiracy with O Cane but being sent for with a Process to answer a suit which the Bishop of Derry had against him and fearing he had bin sent for his Conspiracy he fled out of Ireland Garnet Catesby and others labour to invade England IN the last Year of Queen Elizabeth there was a Plot layed against her by Garnet Catesby and others that the Spaniard should join with the Papists here in the Invasion of England Winter was sent into Spain for that purpose and Creswel the the Leger Jesuite in Spain Don Pedro Francisco second Secretary of State and the Duke of Lerma afsured Winter that his Message would be very acceptable to the King of Spain Then had Winter an answer by Count Miranda that the King would bestow 100000 Crowns towards the expedition and at the next Spring at farthest would set his Foot in England Winter returneth and acquainteth Garnet Catesby and Tresham with all and they others but before the next Spring the Queen died The Gun-Powder Treason AT the Queens death Christopher Wright was sent into Spain and Guy Fauks also from Brussels by Sir William Stanley to advertise them there that King James was as violent against the Catholicks as Queen Elizabeth and therefore urged the Spaniard to prosecute the old design The Jesuits privately suggested that they should not admit him into England as being an Heretick Catesby held that the King being an Heretick forfeiteth his Kingdom before any sentence pronounced The Parliament was dissolved the 7th of July which the King held and prorogued till the 7th of February Catesby at Lambeth broke with Winter about blowing up the Parliament House Winter told him that it struck at the root but what if it should not take effect Catesby won Winter to consent but first said he go over and win the Constable to obtain more favour for Catholicks and if you may bring over some confident Gentlemen as Mr. Faux Winter went met with the Constable at Bergen and delivered his Message The Constable answered that his Master commanded him to do all good offices for the Catholicks but he shewed the Constable nothing of the matter Faux and Winter came both into England This plot of blowing up the Parliament House after an Oath of Secrecy and the Sacrament received upon it Catesby disclosed it to Percy and Winter and Wright to Faux Percy hired the House Faux was pretended to be Percy 's Man and names himself Johnson and kept the Keys of the House till the adjournment of the Parliament at which time all the Conspirators departed into the Country A House was hired at Lambeth by Percy to keep the Powder and Wood for the Mine to which it was to be conveyed When the Plot had taken effect what should they do Percy with two or three of them with a dozen more would seize on the Duke and carry him away The Lady Flizabeth was to be surprized at a hunting near the Lord Harringtons They would save from the Parliament first Catholicks then some particular Persons While they wrought in the Mine they fed on baked Meats that they might not go forth At Candlemas the Powder is brought over about which time working in the Mine they came against a Stone-wall when hearing a rushing noise of Coals they feared they were discovered But it was only the moving of Coals to be sold which Celler Faux hired 20 Barrels of Powder they had provided which they hid with Billets and Fagots Faux went into Flanders to acquaint therewith Stanley and Owen Stanley was not there Owen approved it Percy and Catesby met at the Bath and it was agreed that Catesby should call in whom he thought best The number being small He called in Sir Everard Digby and afterward Mr. Tresham The Parliament was a-new prorogued till the 5th of November Then the Conspirators all went into the Country and returned 10 days before the Parliament and hearing that the Prince would be absent from the Parliament said they would then seize on the Prince and let alone the Duke Saturday before the Kings return which was on Thursday a Letter in the Street was delivered to the Lord Mounteagle's Man to put it into his Masters Hand It had neither Date nor Superscription and by the Lord Mounteagle was that Night sent to the Earl of Salisbury who made acquainted with it the Lord Chamberlain the Lord Admiral the Earl of Worcester and Northampton The Letter was this My Lord OVt of the love I bear to some of your Friends I have a care of your preservation Therefore I would advise you as you tender your Life to devise some Excuse to shift off your attendance at this Parliament For God and Man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this Time And think not slightly of this Advertisement but retire your self into your Country where you may expect the event in safety For though there be no appearance of any storme yet I say they shall receive a terrible Blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurt them This counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm for the danger is past so soon as you shall have hurned this Letter and I hope God will give you the grace to make a good use of it to whose holy protection I recommend you Friday following the King read it who considering the Sentence therein expressed that they should receive a terrible blow this Patliament and yet should not know who hurt them and joining it to the Sentence for the danger is past so soon as you shall have burn'd this Letter did suspect the danger mentioned to be some sudden danger of blowing up with Powder Afterward it was determined the Lord Chamberlain should view both above and beneath the Parliament Houses Which the Lord Chamberlain having done found in a Vault under the upper House great store of Billers Faggots and Coals and casting his Eye aside a Fellow standing by which called himself Percy 's Man that had hired the Celler The King supposing that Gun-Powder might be hid under that Wood and Coals caused a further fearch to be made Whereupon Sir Thomas Knevet went about the Parliament House with a small number to search more narrowly the Mid-night next after where he found Faux standing without Doors booted and spurr'd and apprehended him then in search under the Wood and Coals 36 Barrels of Gun-Powder and about the Traitor three Matches and other Instruments fit for that wicked purpose were found which wicked intent of blowing up the House he instantly confessed affirming that if he had been in the House he would not have failed to blow up both himself and them In this Mine wrought Catesby Robert Winter Esquires Thomas
and should receive The King of Navarre besought the King to remember his promise of Alliance newly contracted and not to constrain him in his Religion The Prince of Conde also more fervently answered that the King had given his Faith unto him and to all those of the Religion with so solemn a Protestation and Vow Mark here the Vows of Romish Princes that he could not be persuaded that his Majesty would falsify such an authentick Oath and that thereupon he had thus far yeilded to his Majesties Demands and faithfully performed what he had required of him on this Assurance But as touching the Religion whereof the King had granted him the free exercise and God the true knowledg to whom he was to make an account therein for this his Religion he said he was fully resolved to remain most constant therein and which he would always maintain to be true although it were with the loss of his Life This answer of the Prince set the King into such a choller that he began to call him Rebel seditious and Son of a seditious Person with horrible threatnings to cause them to lose their Heads if within 3 days they took not better counsel and indeed these threatnings and other crafty carriages in this way so wrought on both these Princes at last that they forsook their Faith and first Love and turned to Romish abominations Now the King perceiving that this Massacre of Paris would not quench the Fire but rather kindle it the more fearing lest those of the Religion in his other Provinces and Towns might assemble and unite themselves together and so give them new work he with the speedy advice of his Counsellors sent two Messengers with two several Messages the one to the Governours and seditious Catholicks of his remoter Towns wherein were many of the Religion with express command to massacre them the other containing certain Letters to the Governors of Provinces by which he pretended this Massacre to be perpetated by the Duke of Guise and the Admiral to be murthered on a particular and private quarrel betwixt them two and that the King 's honest meaning and intention was utterly against these things and seriously to maintain his former Edict of a general Pacification and therefore that his care and vigilancy had ceased it the same day it began and yet as my Author recordeth in his History on the Tuesday following being the 26 of the same August the King accompanied with his Brethren and the chiefest of his Court went to the Court of Parliament and there publickly declared in express terms That whatsoever had happed in Paris was done not only by his consent but also by his Commandment and of his own motion And as for his other former mentioned Message and Letter to other Towns and Provinces for the massacring of those of the Religion among them also his bloody command herein was immediately put in execution at Lyons and many other places where the poor Protestants were murthered and massacred in most hideous and horrible manner by those merciless and inhumane Butchers of bloody Rome who knockt down the innocent Christians among them as so many Dogs cut their Throats mangl'd their Bodies slash'd off their Hands with great sharp Knives as on their Knees they held them up to the Villains praying for the sparing of their Lives yea and were known to rip up their Bellies and take out their Fat from their Bowels and to sell it to the Apothecaries to make Medicines Thus also in those remoter parts from Paris were very many thousands of the Religion murdered without any difference or distinction either of Sex or Age. And so deeply enraged was the King and his Adherents and so desperately resolved to root out and extirpate the memory of those of the Religion especially of any note or eminency that the King having at last got into his custody one Briquemant a noble French Gentleman of the age of seventy years one that had valiantly imployed himself in the Service of the Kings of France having been found in the House of the Ambassador of England then resident in France wherein he had hid himself whilst the greatest fury of the Massacre was executed was by the King's command put in close Prison together with another vertuous Gentleman Cavagnes Master of the Requests both which Gentlemen bare great affection both unto the Religion and also unto the renowned Admiral and were themselves of great esteem and reputation in France but the King having them now fast in hold threatned to tear them in pieces upon the Rack if they would not write and sign with their Hands that they had conspired with the Admiral to kill the King his Brethren the Queen and the King of Navarre But they having most constantly and justly refused to avouch so horrible a lye against their own and their godly Friends Innocencies were racked and cruelly tormented and by a most unjust sentence of the Court of Parliament in Paris they were both declared guilty of Treason and condemned to be hanged upon a Gibbet which was accordingly executed The Queen-Mother leading the King her two Sons and the King of Navarre her Brother-in-Law to see the Execution Her Counsellors thinking that at this last exploit what they had wickedly projected namely the false transferring of the cause of this bloody Massacre on a treasonable Plot intended by the Admiral and others of the Religion against the King as was fore-mentioned would now be wrought out and effected if Briquemant in presence of all the People now at the time of his expected Death would ask pardon of the King withal to work it on the more sending one to him to certifie and assure him that so he might easily save his Life for the King was merciful and that he should have pardon if he would desire it confessing this fact wherewith he was charged But Briquemant answered boldly and with a good courage that it belonged not unto him but to the King to ask pardon of God for such an heinious Offence That he would never ask pardon for a fault wherein he had not offended but knew himself to be most innocent whereof he called GOD to witness desiring him to pardon the King 's so great Disloyalty and Cruelty Cavagnes also the other noble Gentleman did the like until he died Insomuch that this execution contrary to the King's expectation served to no other end but more to publish the iniquity of all those cruel Homicides and of all their most pernicious Counsels The Papists Plots in reference to the late Troubles and particularly about the Death of King CHARLES the First of blessed Memory as proved by Doctor Du Moulin WHen the Businesses of the late bad Times are once ripe for an History and Time the bringer forth of Truth hath discovered the Mysteries of Iniquity and the depths of Satan which hath wrought so much Crime and Mischief it will be found that the late Rebellion was raised and fostered
by force and there is no means of Resistance The good Admiral then replied It is not long since I disposed my self to Die save you your selves if it be pessible for you cannot save my Life and therefore I commit my Soul into the Hands and Mercy of God Presently hereupon his Attendants began to shift for themselves and to flie for their Lives and some of them got up into the top of the House and found a Window to issue out of the Roof and so into Gutters but most of them were slain in the next Houses but Cornatan and Merlin a godly Minister escaped and were miraculously preserved The Admiral 's Chamber-door being now opened seven or eight Armed Men with their Targets entred into it and one Besmes Servant to the Duke of Guise with a naked Sword in his hand offered him the point Whereupon the good Admiral said unto him Young man thou oughtst to respect my Age and Infirmity yet shalt thou not shorten my life With that Besmes thrust his Sword into the Admiral 's Body and redoubling the blow upon the Admiral 's Head every one of the rest also gave him a blow in such sort that he sell upon the Ground and so lay gasping The Duke of Guise and others staying below in the Court and hearing the blows asked if they had done and commanded the Body to be thrown out of the Window which was presently done by that villain Besmes and his companions Now the blows that he had on his Head and the Blood covering his Face had so disfigured him that the Duke of Guise hardly knew him whereupon stooping down and wiping his Face with his Hankerchief he said Now I know him it is he indeed and therewith gave him a kick with his foot on his Face being dead whom all the Murtherers of France extreamly feared being alive Which done he left the Admiral 's House accompanied with his most bloody Train and began to cry about the Streets Courage fellow Souldiers we have made a good beginning let us now to the rest for the King commandeth it Repeating those words oft with great majesty For the King commandeth it it is his pleasure it is his express commandment Just as our Romish Clergy in the Irssh Massacre in the Year 1641 pretended the King's Authority for their Rebellion laying all the Odium of their impious Villanies and Cruelties on the King's Majesty saying still 't was his pleasure it should be so Now presently thereupon the Palace Clock struck and then a Noise was heard all about the Streets of Paris saying that the Hugonots for so the Romish Catholicks term the true Protestants in France were in Arms they being all alas in their Beds fir from any such thoughts and meant to kill the King just as our Powder-Traitors intended had their Plot taken effect to have slandered the Puritans in England to have been the Authors of that hellish-Treason to whom the Admirals Head was carried and presented See here the Holiness of Rome and Zeal of the Romanists and to the Queen-Mother of France and then imbalmed and sent to Rome to the Pope and Cardinal of Lorrain The Common-people like Priest like People ran to the Admirals Lodging where they cut off his Hands and his privy Members and drew his Body for the space of three days about the Town which done it was born to the Gibbet of Monifaucon and there hanged by the Feet The Gentlemen Officers of the Chamber Governours Tutors and houshold Servants of the King of Navarre the French King 's Brother-in Law lately married to his Sister and of the Prince of Conde were driven out of their Chambers where they slept in the Louvre and forced into the Court were there massicred in the Kings own presence The like was done to the Lords and Gentlemen that lay round about the Admirals Lodgings and then throughout the Town in such sort that the number slain that Sunday at Night and the two next Days ensuing within the City of Paris and Suburbs thereof was esteemed to be above ten thousand Persons Lords Gentlemen Pages Servants Justices of all sorts Schollars Lawyers Merchants Artificers Women Maids and Boys not sparing little Children in thier Cradles no nor in their Mothers Bellies The Courtiers of the Kings Guard and Strangers that massacred these Gentlemen said that in one day by Weapons and desorder they had ended those Processes which Pen Paper Sentences of Justice nor open War could not find the means to do or execute in 12 years space And thus these most honourable Protestant Lords and Gentlemen falsly accused and slandered of Conspiracies and Practices against the King being stark naked thinking only upon their rest scarce a wakened out of their Sleep utterly unarmed in the hands of infinite cruel crafty and most treacherous Enemies not having so much leasure as to breath were barbarously slain some in their Beds others on the roofs of Houses and in whatsoever other places where they might be found It would be too tedious to recite at large the Names and Sirnames of all the honourable Personages of divers Qualities that were then slain and butchered it sussiceth that their Names are written in Heaven and that their Death though shameful and despicable in the fight and presence of Men of this World is precious in the fight of the Lords most holy Majesty Now let the tender hearted Christian Reader but consider and ponder in his Heart how strange and horrible a thing it might be in a great Town or City to see at the least 60000 Men with Pistols Pikes Courtlasses Ponyards Knives and other such bloody Instruments run swearing and blaspheming the sacred Majesty of God throughout the Streets and into Mens Houses where most cruelly they massacred all whomsoever of the Religion they met without regard of Estate Condition Sex or Age the Streets paved with Bodies cut and hewed in pieces the Gates and Entries of Houses Palaces and publick places died with Blood A horrible Plague of shoutings and howlings of the Murtherers mixed with continual noise of Pistols and Calivers together with the pittiful cries of those that were murthered the Bodies cast out at Windows upon the Stones drawn through the Dirt with strange noise and Whistlings the breaking open of Doors and Windows with Bils Stones and other furious Instruments the spoiling and plundering of Houses Carts carrying away the spoils and dead Bodies which were thrown into the River of Soame all red with Blood which ran in great Streams through the Town and from the Kings Palace into the said River As for the King of Navarre himself and the Prince of Conde they were called into the King's presence who must himself speak with them who with his own Mouth certified them what had thus past all this while adding that he had saved their Lives only upon Condition that they should renounce their Religion and follow his otherwise that they must look for the like punishment that their Adherents had