from the good understanding of their Duty towards God the Queen had by their Lewd and subtle Practices and Perswasions so far wrought that sundry persons had been reconciled to the said usurpt Authority of the See of Rome and did take Absolution at the hands of the said naughty and subtle Practicers whereby there was grown great disobedience and boldness in many not only to withdraw and absent themselves from all Divine Service but also did think themselves discharged from all Obedience Duty and Allegiance to her Majesty that thereupon most wicked and unnatural Rebellion had ensued and to the further danger of this Realm was likely to be renewed if the ungodly attempts in that behalf were not by severity of Laws restrained and bridled This Law therefore provides that they who by Bulls or other Instruments of the Bishop of Rome should reconcile any person to the Church of Rome and those also who should be so reconciled should incur the Penalty of High Treason That those who should relieve such as did so reconcile Men or should bring into England any Agnus Dei's or any Crosses Pictures Beads or such like vain and superstitious Things Consecrated by the Bishop of Rome should undergo the Penalty of a Premunire That they who should not discover such as did so reconcile should be guilty of Misprision of Treason From the precedent History of Fact and the Preamble of these two Acts of Parliament and the Acts themselves I observe three things 1 st That the Kingdom of England is in it self a Free State exempt from all Foreign Jurisdiction whatever by the Common Law of this Kingdom 2 dly That there had been deep Designs on foot before the making of these Acts of Parliament for the inslaving this Kingdom to the Bishop and See of Rome subverting the Protestant Religion and introducing Popery and in order thereunto there were several Plots laid to destroy the person of the Queen 3 dly That these were all laid and carried on by the Pope and some Papists that were the Queens own Subjects and others their adherents and therefore certainly it must be granted that it was very necessary at that time to make these Laws against the Papists And that it was but reasonable to make them The Secular Priests own the Reasonableness of making these Laws Collection of several Treatises concerning the reasons and occasions of the Penal-Laws The 1st printed in 1583. the second in 1601. the third in 1662. and all reprinted in 1688. fol. 36. even the Secular Priests themselves have owned in their important Considerations They confess that Pius V. did practise her Majesties subversion that Ridolpho was sent hither by the Pope under Colour of Merchandize to sollicit a Rebellion That Pius V. moved the King of Spain to Joyn in this exploit That the Bull was devised purposely to further the intended Rebellion for depriving her Majesty from her Kingdom That the Pope and King of Spain assigned the Duke of Norfolk to be head of this Rebellion That the Pope gave order to Ridolpho to take 150000 Crowns to set forwards this Attempt That some of this money was sent to Scotland and some delivered to the Duke That King Philip at the Pope's Instance determined to send the Duke of Alva into England with all his forces out of the Low-Countries to assist the Duke of Norfolk which they confess in this manner That these things their Adversaries the Protestants Charged on them as true and that they were in hand whilst her Majesty dealt so mercifully with them and therefore ask'd them how they could excuse these designs so Unchristian so unpriestly so Treacherous and so unprince-like To which they answer that when they first heard the aforementioned particulars they did not believe them but would have laid their Lives they had been false but when they saw them printed in the Life of Pius V they appeal to God they were amazed Collection f. 37 and say they can say no more but that his Holiness was misinformed and indirectly drawn to these courses They confess that there being several persons in Prison when the Rebellion in the North before mentioned brake forth that it was known that the Pope had Excommunicated the Queen that there followed a great restraint of the Prisoners but none of them were put to death upon that occasion the Sword being then only drawn against such Catholicks as had risen up actually into open Rebellion wherein say they we cannot see what her Majesty did that any Prince in Christendom in such a case would not have done and confess these things to have been the occasion of making 13 Eliz. ca. 2. against bringing in Buls c. thus they express themselves Collection f. 38. we cannot but confess as reasonable men that the State had great Reasons to make some Laws against us except they should have shown themselves careless for the continuance of it but be the Law as any would have it never so extream yet surely it must be granted that the occasions of it were most outragious and likewise that the Execution of it was not so Tragical as many have since written and reported of it for whatsoever was done against us either upon the pretence of that Law or of any other would never we think have been attempted had not divers other preposterous occasions besides the Causes of that Law daily fallen out amongst us which procured matters to be urged more severely against us And afterwards they accuse Saunders the Jesuit for writing a Book in 1572 de visibili Monarchia and therein justifying the Excommunicating the Queen and the said Rebellion in the North and do themselves own that the persons that suffered upon that account were Arraigned Condemned and Executed by the Antient Laws of the Country for High Treason As to the Acts themselves It is not to be denyed but they are very severe yet not severe enough to deter the Papists from carrying on their designs against the Queen and the Protestant Religion as I shall by and by make appear but before I do that let us a little enquire Story 's Plot. Cambd. Hist li 2. fol 168. Dyer 13 Eliz. fol. 298. Baker 's Chron. fol. 343. The Duke of Norfolk executed what proceedings there were upon these Laws after they were thus made In the year 1571 't is true one John Story Doctor in Laws one of the Duke of Alva's Servants an Englishman and a Papist was Executed but it was for High Treason not Religion for having conspired the Queen's Death cursed her daily in his Grace at Meals and shewing the Duke of Alva's Secretary the way to Invade England to put Ireland into Rebellion and to excite the Scots to break into England all at once The Duke of Norfolk was also Tryed Convicted and Executed and after his Condemnation and before his Execution one Barney and Mather were Executed for conspiring with one Herle to make away some of the Council and
then called a Puritan and Sir Walter Raleigh a States-man and Souldier and Fowlis saith troubled with no more Religion than would serve his interest and turâ— The design it self Fowlis Hist. li. 10. ca. 1. f. 499 500. Bakers Chron. f. 405. VVilsons Hist f. 4. The design was to set the Crown on the Head of the Lady Arabella or to seize on the King and make him grant their desires and a Pardon to raise a Rebellion and alter Religion and Government and in order thereunto to procure aid and assistance from Foreign Princes to turn out of the Court such as they disliked and to place themselves in Offices Watson was to have been Lord Chancellor George Brook Lord Treasurer Sir Griffith Markham Secretary of State Lord Grey Master of the Horse and Earl Marshal of England for the more secure carrying on these designs Watson drew up an Oath of Secrecy which they all took But all is discovered they are Apprehended Examined and Tryed in November 1604 at their Tryal they insisted that this could not be Treason because the King was not then Crowned but this Plea was soon over-ruled and they legally Convicted of the Treason and Watson Clark and George Brook were Executed the rest finding Mercy the King being loath to soil his Throne with Blood and therefore spilt no more then was absolutely necessary The Lord Grey dyed in the Tower the last of that Line (a) Said to lose his Life to gratify Gondamor Bakers Chron. f. 516. Wilson f. 115 116 117. Raleigh was beheaded in 1618. The rest were discharged of Imprisonment but dyed miserably poor Markham and some others abroad but Cobham as we * Osborns Traditional Memoires of King James p. 12. are told in a Room ascended by a Ladder at a Poor Womans house in the Minories formerly his Landress dyed rather of Hunger than a Natural disease This Conspiracy gave occasion for the Kings looking about him and taking such measures as might secure his Person and Government against such attemps for the future and perceiving that swarms of Priests came every day over from the Foreign Seminarys he suspected some mischief was a hatching and therefore issued out his Royal Proclamation against Jesuits which I find related by Wilson in these Words Having after some time spent in setling the politick Affairs of this Realm of late bestowed no small Labour in Composing certain Differences we found among our Clergy about Rites and Ceremonies heretofore established in this Church of England King James 1st his Proclamation against Jesuits Wilsons Hist. f. 9. and reduced the same to such an Order or Form as we doubt not but every Spirit that is led only with Piety and not with Humour should be therein satisfied it appears unto us in debating these Matters that a greater Contagion to our Religion then could proceed from these light Differences was imminent by Persons common Enemies to them both Namely the great numbers of Priests both Seminaries and Jesuits abounding in this Realm as well of such as were here before our coming to the Crown as of such as have resorted hither since using their Functions and Professions with greater Liberty then heretofore they durst have done Partly upon a vain Confidence of some Innovation in Matters of Religion to be done by us which we never intended nor gave any Man cause to suspect and Partly from the assurance of our general Pardon granted according to the Custom of our Progenitors at our Coronation for Offences past in the Days of the late Queen which Pardon 's many of the said Priests have procured under our Great Seal and holding themselves thereby free from Danger of the Laws do with great Audacity Exercise all Offices of their Profession both saying Masses and perswading our Subjects from the Religion established reconciling them to the Church of Rome and by Consequence seducing them from their Duty and Obedience to us wherefore we hold our selves obliged both in Conscience and Wisdom to use all good means to keep our Subjects from being affected with superstitious Opinions which are not only pernicious to their own Souls but the ready way to corrupt their Duty and Allegiance which cannot be any way so safely performed as by keeping from them the Instruments of that infection which are Priests of all sorts ordained in Foreign parts by Authority prohibited by the Laws of the Land concerning whom we have thought fit to publish unto all our Subjects this open Declaration of our Pleasure c. Willing and Commanding all manner of Jesuits Seminaries and other publick Priests having Ordination from any Authority by the Laws of this Realm prohibited to take notice that Our Pleasure is that they do before the nineteenth of March next depart forth of Our Realm and Dominions And to that purpose it shall be Lawful for all Officers of our Ports to suffer the said Priests to depart into foreign parts between this and the said nineteenth Day of March admonishing and assuring all such Jusuits Seminaries and Priests of what sort soever that if any of them after the said time be taken within this or any of our Dominions or departing now upon this our Pleasure signified shall hereafter return into this our Realm or any of our Dominions again they shall be left to the Penalty of the Laws here being in force concerning them without hope of any Favour or Remission from us c. Which tho' perhaps it may appear to some a great Severity towards that sort of Our Subjects Yet doubt we not when it shall be be considered with indifferent Judgment what Cause hath moved us to this Providence all Men will justifie us therein for to whom is it unknown into what peril our Person was like to be drawn and our Realm into Confusion not many Months since by Conspiracy First conceived by Persons of that sort Which when other Princes shall duly observe we assure our selves they will no way conceive that this Alteration proceedeth from any Change of Disposition but out of Providence to prevent the Perils otherwise inevitable considering their absolute Submission to foreign Jurisdiction at their first taking Orders doth leave so conditional an Authority to Kings over their Subjects as the same Power by which they were made may dispense at Pleasure with the strictest bond of Loyalty and Love between a King and his People Among which foreign Powers though we acknowledge our self personally so much beholden to the now Bishop of Rome for his kind Offices and private temporal Carriages towards us in many things as we shall be ever ready to requite the same towards him as Bishop of Rome in state and condition of a Secular Prince yet when we consider and observe the Course and Claim of that See We have no reason to imagine that Princes of our Religion and Profession can expect any assurance long to continue unless it might be asserted by Mediation of other Christian Princes that some good Course might be
The Oath of Secrecy by Word or Circumstance the Matter that shall be proposed to you to keep Secret nor desist from the Execution thereof till the rest shall give you leave After this was done every Man betakes himself to the part assigned him some to provide Money other Materials and others a place to lay the Materials in The place pitched upon for placing the Materials in was Cellars under the Parliament House which Thomas Piercy had hired for that purpose the Materials were thirty six Barrels of Gun-Powder provided in Flanders carried into the Cellar from Lambeth in the Night covered over with Wood and Coals and all provided at the Charge of the English * Sr. Everard Digby 1500 l. Mr. Francis Tresham 2000. l. Piercy 4000 l. besides others Papists who promised themselves the extirpating this Northren Heresie as they called it and introducing in its Room Popish Superstition and Idolatry as we call it and the Divines of our Church have proved it to be to the Conviction of all 〈◊〉 who will not Wilfully shut their eyes against the Light. Things being thus prepared they looked upon the King and Prince Henry as already made a Sacrifice to attone the See of Rome for the revolt that England had made from her and Percy had undertaken for the slaying the Duke of York Charles the First that there might be no ingredient in the Sacrifice wanting to make it acceptable but because it was thought necessary for a Colour to their Bloody designs to preserve the Succession the Lady Elizabeth must be spared and made Queen Foulis Hist l. 10. cap. 2. f. 507. and the Odium of blowing up the Parliament cast upon the Puritans They designed the Accomplishment of this unparallel'd Cruelty on the 5 th of November 1604. when the King and both Houses of Parliament were to meet and that very day they appointed a great Hunting Match at Dunsmore Heath near Comb the Lord Harringtons House in Warwickshire where the Lady Elizabeth was upon which pretence divers Papists were to meet well Armed in order to seize and secure her with intention to marry her to a Papist and by that means to introduce Popery To carry on their Design of fixing this Plot upon the Puritans Foulis Hist l. 10. cap. 2. f. 508. they framed a Proclamation which they got printed and ready for publishing upon the Sign given which they supprest and burnt upon the Discovery though some of them by chance came to light and were seen and read by Dr. Parker Dean of Lincoln Sir William Ellis Recorder of the said City and others And that they might gain the greater Credit with the People in this Contrivance Keys Brother-in-Law to Mr. Pickering had a few days before either borrowed or bought the Swift-horse well known in London and thereabouts of Mr. Pickering of Tich March Grove in Northamptonshire a noted Puritan whom they also designed to kill upon which Faux having fired the Match and Touch-wood leading to the Train was to escape as they bore him in Hand But O Horrid Impiety their Design was to kill him as soon as he had imbrued his Hands in so much Innocent Blood just as he was to mount the Horse as being Pickerings Man which the People would easily believe seeing the Horse was so well known to them and the Multitude once perswaded of this would be more facile to joyn with them under notion of doing Justice upon such supposed Traitors and Wretches They also consulted how to keep the Romish Lords from going that Day to Parliament the better to strengthen their Cause by their Preservation But in the heighth of all their Hopes and Expectations a Discovery is made thus The Manner of the Discovery some of them supposed by Monteagle to be Piercy but Bishop * Answer to Sir Anthony VVeldon's Court of King James p. 73. M. S. Goodman saith it was Tresham who writ the Letter having a great Affection to the said Lord Monteagle Son and Heir to the Lord Morley had a mind to preserve him from the intended Slaughter So one Evening a Letter Sealed is delivered in the Street the Strand by an unknown Fellow to one of the Lords Foot-men charging him to deliver it with Care to his Lord. Monteagle opens it finds it without Date and Subscription writ with a very bad Hand and in a Stile he knew not what to make of The Letter was this My Lord OVT of the Love I bear to some of your Friends I have a care of your Preservation Foulis Hist l. 10. cap. 2. f. 508. Wilson's Hist f. 30. therefore I would advise you as you tender your Life to devise some Excuse to shift off your Attendance this Parliament for God and Man have concurred to punish the Wickedness of this time And think not slightly of this Advertisment but retire your self into your Country where you may expect the Event in Safety for though there be no Appearance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible Blow this Parliament and yet they not see who hurts them This Councel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm for the Danger is past as soon as you have burned this Letter and I hope God will give you the Grace to make good use of it to whose Holy Protection I commend you Monteagle wondred at the Letter and its Delivery and thinking it might relate to some Mischief thought it his Duty to make it known so away he goeth to White-Hall shows it to the Earl of Salisbury then Secretary of State who tells some other of the Privy Council of it and the King being returned from his Hunting at Royston they delivered it to him His Majesty having seriously considered it and all other Circumstances concluded that it might relate to some Design to blow up the Parliament and in this Jealousie ordered the Rooms and Vaults about the House to be searched which was done the Night before the Session when in the aforesaid Cellar under the Lords House were found the Barrels of Powder and at the Door standing Guido Faux booted and Spurred with a large dark Lanthorn now to be seen in Oxford Library with Matches Tinder-Box and other Materials for his Design Faux was presently carried to Court and examined where he appeared sturdy and scornful maintaining the Design to be lawful that James was not his King because an Heretic was sorry that the Plot failed and that he had not blown up the House with himself and those that were sent to search affirming that God would have had the Plot concealed but it was the Devil who revealed it at last Faux himself confest all that he knew of the Treasons Thus far discovered the King suspecting some Commotions or Risings sent with all speed to prevent them by timely Notice by Lepton and others This was that Mr. John Lepton of Yorkshire who rid so often betwixt London and York
Reputation with them and to become a perfect Favourite he sets himself all he could to Persecute the Catholick Religion and to oppose the French. To shew his Zeal against the first he revived some old dormant Orders for prohibiting Roman Catholicks to appear before the King and put them in Execution at his first coming into his Office of Lord Chamberlain And to make sure work with the Second as he thought prevailed with the King to give him and the Earl of Ossery who married two Sisters of Myne Heere Odyke's leave to go over into Holland with the said Heere to make a Visit as they pretended to their Relations But indeed and in truth to propose the Lady Mary eldest Daughter of his Royal H. as a Match for the Prince of Orange not only without the Consent but against the good liking of his R. H. Insomuch that the Lord Arlington's Creatures were forced to excuse him with a Distinction that the said Lady was not to be looked upon as the Dukes Daughter but as the Kings and a Child of the State was and so the Dukes Consent not much to be considered in the disposal of her but only the interest of State. By this he intended to render himself the Darling of Parliament and Protestants who look'd upon themselves as secured in their Religion by such an Alliance and design'd further to draw us into a close Conjunction with Holland and the Enemies of France The Lord Arlington set forth upon this Errand the 10 th of November 1674 and returned not till the 6 th of January following During his absence the Lord Treasurer Lord Keeper and the Duke of Lauderdale who were the only Ministers of any considerable Credit with the King and who all pretended to be entirely united to the Duke declaimed loudly and with great violence against the said Lord and his Actions in Holland And did hope in his absence to have totally supplanted him and to have routed him out of the Kings favour And after that thought they might easily enough have dealt with the Parliament But none of them had Courage enough to speak against the Parliament till they could get rid of him For fear they should not succeed and that the Parliament would Sit in spight of them and come to hear that they had used their endeavours against it Which would have been so unpardonable a Crime with our Omnipotent Parliament that no Power could have been able to have saved them from Punishment But they finding at his Return that they could not prevail against him by such Means and Arts as they had then tryed resolved upon new Councels Which were to out-run him in his own Course Which accordingly they undertook and became as fierce Apostles and as Zealous for Protestant Religion and against Popery as ever my Lord Arlington had been before them and in pursuance thereof persuaded the King to issue out those severe Orders and Proclamations against Catholicks which came out in February last By which they did as much as in them lay to extirpate all Catholicks and Catholick Religion out of the Kingdom Which Councels were in my poor Opinion so detestable being levelled as they must needs be so directly against the Duke by People which he had advanced and who had professed so much Duty and Service to him that we were put upon new thoughts how to save his R. H. now from the deceits and snares of those Men upon whom we formerly depended We saw well enough that their Design was to make themselves as grateful as they could to the Parliament if it must Sit they thinking nothing so acceptable to them as the Persecution of Popery And yet they were so obnoxious to the Parliaments displeasure in General that they would have been glad of any Expedient to have kept it off Though they durst not engage against it openly themselves but thought this Device of theirs might serve for their purposes hoping the Duke would be so alarm'd at their Proceedings and by his being left by every Body that he would be much more afraid of the Parliament than ever and would use his utmost power to prevent its Sitting Which they doubted not but he would endeavour And they were ready enough to work underhand too for him for their own sakes not his in order thereunto but durst not appear openly And to encourage the Duke the more to endeavour the Dissolution of the Parliament their Creatures used to say up and down That this Rigour against the Catholicks was in favour of the Duke and to make a Dissolution of the Parliament more easie which they knew he coveted by obviating one great Objection which was commonly made against it which was That if the Parliament should be Dissolved it would be said That it was done in favour of Popery Which Clamour they had prevented before hand by the Severity they had used against it Assoon as we saw these Tricks put upon us we plainly saw what Men we had to deal withal and what we had to trust to if we were wholly at their mercy But yet durst not seem so dissatisfyed as really we were but rather magnified the Contrivance as a Device of great Cunning and Skill All this we did purely to hold them in a belief that we would endeavour to dissolve the Parliament and that they might rely upon his R. H. for that which we knew they long'd for and were afraid they might do some other way if they discovered that we were resolved we would not At length when he saw the Sessions secured we declared that we were for the Parliaments meeting as indeed we were from the moment we saw our selves handled by all the Kings Ministers at such a Rate that we had reason to believe they would Sacrifice France Religion and his R. H. too to their own Interest if occasion served And that they were led to believe that that was the only way they had to save themselves at that time For we saw no Expedient fit to stop them in their Carreer of Persecution and those other destructive Councels but the Parliament Which had set it self a long time to dislike every thing the Ministers had done and had appeared violently against Popery whilst the Court seem'd to favour it And therefore we were Confident that the Ministers having turned their Faces the Parliament would do so too and still be against them And be as little for Persecution then as they had been for Popery before This I undertook to mannage for the Duke and the King of France's interest And assured Monsieur Rouvigny which I am sure he will testifie if occasion serves that that Sessions should do neither of them any hurt For that I was sure I had Power enough to prevent mischief though I durst not engage for any good they would do Because I had but very few Assistances to carry on the Work and wanted those Helps which others had of making Friends The Dutch and Spaniard spared no Pains or