infatuated as ever to put power into their Hands who have so often given such palpable Demonstration and Testimony how they have used it already and such pregnant presumptions how they would use it again could they obtain it Even they that run may read what the Papists like Jehu drive so furionsly at even to make England once more Issachar like to couch and carry the Saddle Vah Papae shall it ever be again the style and reproach of England Glorious England that is scituate among the Rivers whose Rampart is the Sea and whose God is the Lord to carry the Saddle again God forbid But if so unhappy so unfortunate I 'le prophesie that not the Pope only but the Devil will ride her Pardon these Expressions I have encouragement from St. Jerome Neminem volo patientem esse in causalaesae fidei and from Moses the Mirror of meekness who knows no patience in Israels Idolatry Numb 12.3 Exod. 22.19 26 27. Idem manens idem semper facit idem THE REAL MERITS OF THE PAPISTS SUch hath the Confidence of the Papists of these latter times been as to claim a Right unto the Kings Majesties favour for a tolleration of their Religion upon the account of their great Merits as having best deserved of His Majesty because of all they were the most faithful to him and his Father The purport of this hath not only been averred by the generality of them in their ordinary discourses but also set out in print by several of them P. W. R. P. J. S. H. M. and others At which confident Assertion of theirs when I consider how boldly and feircly the contend for meritorious works nay for works of super-errogation even with God himself I do not so much wonder that such Merit-mongers broach it so confidently now as that they have not done it all this while § He that is first in his own Cause seemeth just but his Neighbours cometh and searcheth him Prov. 18.17 Which that we may the better do we will only a little look back into our own Chronicle without cloying the Reader with like Foreign Stories which would fill Volumes and first see how true and trusty Trojans the Papists have been to the Kings of England no Protestants but Papists and if they shall be found to have been neither true nor trusty but Traytors and Rebels to the Kings of their own Religion can it then ever be believed or hoped that they ever will be Loyal and Faithful to Protestant Princes when a neat opportunity offers the contrary and that Maugre all Roman Mandates to the contrary what Prince or other Sovereign foberly considers the new founded Society of Jesuits erected by Pope Paul the 3d. about 1540. who although at first but 10 in Number yet so wonderfully encreased since that they bragged not a few years ago that they were 1300010. they lived in Colledges and places of residence besides those that trotted up and down that they had 359. Colledges or Schools 18 Domus professae 40 Domus probationis 8 Seminaries 1010 Residentiaries Vide speculum Jesuiticum Runninge Register And what their Principles and Doctrins are and what their practices have been for the destroying of all Princes quacumque Arte that will not become Vassals to the See of Rome and and acknowledg a Spiritual Monarchy in that Roman Chair paramount all temporal Crowns and Scepters and how strict and of what extant their vow of Obedience is to the Roman Bishop and how it is decreed by several Popes that the Institutions and Doctrins of the Jesuits must not be contradicted or disputed by any Ordinary Delegate Judg or Magistrate and how vastly that society is enlarged both in their Clergy and Layety since these great brags of theirs will be sufficiently convinced that neither their persons or their Kingdoms can ever be secure where either one sort or other are suffered to flourish § Let us now see matter of Fact Did not Pope Alexander the 3d. by violence and tyranny force King H. the II. to surrender his Crown Imperial into the hand of his Legate and afterwards be content with a private Condition for a while to the great regret and Indignation of his Subjects Did not Innocent the 3d. stir up the Nobility and Commonalty of this Kingdom against King John and gave the Inheritance and Possession of all his Dominions unto Ludovicus the French King What were those 52 000. but Papists that rebelled against Richard the I. Anno 1196. And all those that rebelled against Edward the II. Anno 1316 1317 1321 1322 1326. Amongst whom was Robert Baldock Bishop of Norwich and Lord Chancellor of England And all those that consented to the Murder of Edward the Third's Father and fought to kill john of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Edward the Third's Son Anno 1330.1372 And those in Richard the Third's time Anno 1381. Annimated by John Ball a Priest who at his Execution refused to ask the King forgiveness and despised him so peremptory was he Jack Straw confessing that when he sent for the King to Black-Heath they purposed to have murdered all Knights Esquires and Gentlemen that should have come with him and when they had got sufficient force they would suddenly then have put to death in every County and Lords and Masters of the Common people in whom might appear to be either Council or Resistance one Argument used by some of the late Protectorians for the death of our Glorious King and Martyr that he was too knowing and too intelligent to be suffered to live and especially they would have killed the Knights of St. John and all Men of any Possessions only Begging Fryars should have lived that might have Administred the Sacraments throughout the Realm and lastly the would have killed the King himself and made Kings in every Shire Thomas Arrundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury traiterously practiced the deposing of the said Richard his lawful Sovereign § It were no very mild conjecture to Divine that our late Generation of Levellers Major Generals Quakers and Phanaticks were spawned from them and that they are still but Badgers plotting and digging Holes for Romish Foxes to lie couchant and covertly in for their more subtile contrivances § What were those but Papists that rebelled against H. the 4th designing to Murder him under the colour of Justinge and other pastimes pretended 1399. And also those who raised Arms against him among whom was John Madelyn a Priest who had been Chaplain to King Richard and impudently personated the King They were Priests and Friars that suborned a False Richard whereof 8 being Miners were hanged at Tyburne Oswald Bishop of Galloway was the chief Plotter against Richard the 2d in the Year 1403. A Priest of Warwick and also Walter Waldock a Prior of Laud in Leicester-Shire and one Richard Freseby a Dr. in Divinity was Executed in his Religious Habit and Weede and not long after 10 Grey Fryars were executed all for Treason In the year 1404. Tho. Percy
Treatises and Writings endeavoured to defame their Sovereign and their own Countrey labouring to have many of their Books translated into divers Languages whereby to shew their own disloyalty If Cardinal Allen and Parsons had not published the Renovation of the said Bull by Sixtus Quintus If thereunto they had not added their scurrilous and unmanly Admonition or rather most prophane Libel against Her Maj sty If they had not sought by false perswasions and unghostly Arguments to have allured the hearts of all Catholicks from their allegiance If the Pope had never been urged by them to have thrust the King of Spain into that barbarous Actions against the Realm If they themselves with all the rest of that Generation had not laboured greatly with the said King for the Conquest and Invasion of this Land by the Spaniards who are known to be the cruelest Tyrants that live upon the Earth If the Pope had not ordered Ridolphi to distribute 150000. Crowns to advance the attempt whereof some was sent to Scotland some to the Duke of Norfolk alias And King Philip to send the Duke of Alua and his Forces into England to assist the Duke of Norfolk If in all their whole proceedings they had not from time to time depraved irritated and provoked both Her Majesty and State with those and many other such like their most ungodly and unchristian practises there had been no Speeches amongst us of Racks and Torments nor any cause to have used them for none were ever vexed that way simply for that he was either Priest or Catholick but because they were suspected to have had their hands in some of the said most traiterous designs And most assuredly the State would have loved us or at least born with us and we had been in much better condition than now we are Important Considerations c. fo 39 40 41. printed 1601. Furthermore another in answer to a Letter of a Jesuited Gent. by A. C. fo 89. complains of the Jesuits averring That Her Majesty is an Heretick an Excommunicated Princess and consequently to be deposed What Jesabelling of her have I heard them used What questioning whether no Jehu have subdued her why yet she prospereth why yet she Reigns why yet she lives what defaming her what throwing Soil at her Picture what avowing her Rohal Lyons and Flower-de-luze no better worth than to serve for Signs to Baudy-houses Thus do the Jesuits and Jesuited use Her Majesty to my express knowledg and worse which for good manners I omit fo 90. nay they sent one to me in the nature of an Engineer from beyond the Seas to perswade my assisting his firing the Queens Navy throughout England against the next years coming of another Spanish Armado f. 90. Was it not Fa. Parsons and Fa. Creighton F. 9. That with much vehemency and bitterness contended for the disposing of the Crown of England the one for the Lady Infanta the other to his King of Scotland Were they not Jesuits which plotted with the Duke of Parma for surpriseing or stealing awayof the Lady Arabella and sending her into Flanders who imployed the Messenger into England about that affair but Fa-Holt Jesuit who but the same Jesuit was consenting with Sir William Stanley to the sending in of Richard Hesket for soliciting Ferdinando Earl of Darby to rise against Her Majesty and claim the Crown was it not the same Jesuit that entertained York and Young in the Plot of firing Her Majesties Store-houses that set on work Mr. Francis Dickinson and others to perswade Watermen to fly with Ships and all into the service of the Spaniard f. 93. their Conspiracies were not confined to England only but they were extended also to Scotland whereupon were the Three Catholick Earls Angus Arrol and Huntley convicted of High Treason by Act of Parliament about 1593. if not upon certain plots laid by Fa. Creighton Fa. Gourdon and upon hopes given them of succour from Spain Why was the Lord of Fentry Executed but for the same designs imparted to him by Fa. Ro. Abereronii a Jesuit Was it not the principal cause of Fa James Gordons travel to Rome about the same time to solicite the Pope and other Princes to assist the King of Scots if he enterprise any thing either against England or in his own Countrey 93 94. And yet these matters will not be believed at this day by the Papists though it be their own voluntary confession in several of their printed Books yet extant Priests and Jesuits each deservedly accusing other of Treasons and Conspiracies against the Queen Her Person Crown and Dignity with this difference only that the Priests mostly the Jesuits seldom acknowledged the Queens great favours and lenity towards them the Queen had great reason to believe them both not barely because they peached one the other but because thereof she really found the sad effects And indeed because she and her Council did very wisely consider that Papists some Centuries of Years before ever Jesuits were thought of did universally incline unto and side with the Pope against their temporal Princes usurping many great and exorbitant authorities and priviledges over them whereof Histories are full and therefore it was but high time that the Queen should by wholsom Laws inflicting moderate pains and mulcts provide against both one and the other This is no small Bedrall of Treasons Conspiricies provocations Vide Important consider f. 16 17 18. c. and yet as many more they might have urged nay to do the Secular-priests right they have done it particularly sparsim both in this and divers others their Books and also made large very large acknowledgments of the Queens Bounty Moderation and Clemency towards those Papists that were quiet and faithful a gratefulness that I have not found in any of the Jesuits and in so doing they did the Queen but right for from the year 1. Eliz. unto 11. Papists came to our Church and Service without scruple so that for 10 years they made no Conscience nor Doubt to Communicate with us in prayer But when once the Bull of Pius Quintus often called by the Queen Impius Intus was published wherein the Queen was accursed and deposed and Her Subjects discharged of their obedience and Oaths of Fealty yea cursed if they did obey Her Then and not till then they refrained our Churches and Service so that recusancy in them the name of Recusant being never heard of until the 11. Year of Eliz. as if evident by the very Acts of Parliament is not for for Religion but in an acknowledgment of the Popes power which was little regarded here our famous Kings being never afraid of Popes Bulls no not in the very midnight of Popery as Edward the Confessor Henry I. Edward I. Rich. II. Henry IV. Henry V. c. And in the time of Henry VII and in all their times the Popes Legate never passed Callais but staid there and came not to England until he had taken a
day with as much Indulgence and Favour as he could without Offence or Scandal to the tender Consciences of his own Church which as he ought so he did chiefly regard § Neither were King James his Favours confined to the Papists of Great Britain only but were extended also to those never to be obliged Catholicks in Ireland For he resolved not to take any advantage of great Forfeitures and Confiscations which he was most justly Entitled unto by Tyrones Rebellion but out of his Royal Bounty restored all the Natives to the Intite possession of their own Lands in hope this would for ever have engaged their Obedience to him and his at least if not unto the Crown of England And yet he had not Reigned 6 Years e're the Earl of Tyrone not long before obliged by the Queen with Titles of Honour great store of Lands Commands of Horse and Foot in her pay was designing afresh the raising of another Rebellion into which he easily drew the whole Province of Vlster then entirely at his Devotion But his Design being prevented he with his chief Adherents fled into Spain from whence he never returned which impious and ungrateful Act of his and his Adherents rendred them justly suspected to be Irreconcilable to a Protestant Prince which forced the King to cause their persons to be attainted their Lands to be seized those Six Conntries within the Province of Vlster to be Surveyed c. And the same course to be taken likewise in Lemster where the Irish had made Incursions and violently repelled the Old English And though the King was by due course of Lavv justly Entituled to all their vvhole Estates there yet vvas he gratiously pleased to take but part of their Lands vvhich coming to Brittish undertakers made them to flourish vvith costly Buildings 21. b. and vvith all manner of Improvements so that the very Irish seemed to be very much satisfied with the flourishing and peaceable Condition of the whole Kingdom and yet could not Acquiesce therein but Rebel they must against King Charles the Son who besides many other Favours and Connivances had so far gratified the Natives Anno 1640. that he grants unto the Commissioners then sent unto him out of Ireland the Act of Limitations so vehemently desired by the Natives and the Act for the rilinquishment of His Majesties Right and Title to the Four Counties in Connaught Besides at this time the Papists privately enjoyed the exercise of their Religion throughout the whole Kingdom by the Indulgence and Connivance of the late Governours they having their Titular Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Abbots c. who all lived freely though obscurely yet without controll and exercised a voluntary Jurisdiction Multitudes of Priests Jesuits and Friars returning out of Spain and Italy where the Irish Natives that way devoted were thither sent for Education and now returned lived in the chief Towns and Villages and in the Houses of the Nobility and Gentry exercising their Religious Rites and Ceremonies none of the severer Laws being put in Execution whereby great penalties were to be inflicted on Transgressors in that kind Were they ever the more faithful for these great Indulgencies nothing less For in August 1641. after about forty years peace the Popish party in both House of Parliament then sitting in Dublin grew so insolent as being scarce compatible with the present peaceable Government they were forc'd to adjourn for 3 Months before which time viz 23. Octob. 1641. they brake out into that detestable and desperate Rebellion as is not to be matcht in any Story wherein in less than Two Years they murdered in cold Blood above 200000. English Protestants destroyed some other ways and expelled out of their Habitations nay moreover they threatned to burn Dublin destroy all Records and Monuments of the English Government to make Laws against speaking English and that all names given by English to places should be abolished and the antient names restored And was not this also a great demonstration of their Faithfulness to the King and Crown of England Let every man judg as he sees cause how faithfully they requited King Charles the first for his favours towards them which were many and great which I will not here enumerate it being super-abundantly done already in print in divers Pamphlets though I fear with no good intention towards that glorious Martyr but rather to raise an Odium towards him from some of his weaker Subjects willing happily for other ends to be so seduced many whereof I hope have lived to see and consider that his pious life and death gave a just contradiction to those false Imputations and Jelousies And yet I must not forget one remarkable kindness of his who loved not to punish scrupulous peaceable Consciences sanguinarily towards Papists who being sent unto by both Houses of Parliament Anno 1640. for the Execution of John Goodman a Condemned Priest did in answer to them 3. Febr. 1640. own that he had reprieved him not without giving them great reasons for his so doing viz. For that neither his Father nor yet Queen Eliz. did ever avow that any Priest in their times was Executed meerly for Religion and therefore did remit this particular cause to both the Heresies cautionating them withall That happily his Execution might seem a severity in other States 22. b. and might draw inconveniences on his Subjects in other Countries and therefore held himself discharged from all inconveniences that might ensue upon his Execution And this did he notwithstanding the Popes Directions unto the then Superior of the Catholicks in England Anno 1638. were expresly to command them suddenly to desist from making such offers of Men towards the Northern Expedition then under consideration as we hear they have done little to the Advantage of their Discretion and that they be not more forward with Money than what Law and Duty enjoyns them to pay § Such was the kindness and faithfulness of those Irish Papists to the King and Crown of England that indeed they did rise I must needs say most Catholickly in Rebellion against both from all parts of the Kingdom designing thereby to monopolize the whole Government of that Kingdom into their own hands exclusive of the King if several Oaths are to be credited published by the Kings Warrant to enjoy the publick profession of their Idolatrous Religion and to Expell all the English by whose protection countenance favours and purses that Kingdom was so beautified and inriched as it then was and is at this day though now by them miserably pejorated by that Intestine War raissed by themselves in the midst of their happy enjoyments and that without any provocation ground or colour against the King as himself expressed under his Great Seal To this give Testimony those early instructions privately sent over into England by the Lord Dillon of Costeloe presently after the breaking out of the Rebellion by the Remonstrance of the county of Longford pretended about the same time
and clamorous they will be Such is their Nature that it must devour or trample down all before it or else it will never rest satisfied Such is the unsatiableness of this Scarlet Lady so often drunk with the Blood of the Saints that no Blood could yet satisfie but that she still cries Give Give In all Histories from Generation to Generation they that run may read prodigious Examples of Exorbitant Papal Claims and pride over Kings Emperours Princes and Free States even against right reason and to the Indignation of all Mankind and these justified by their Popes Councils Decretals Canons and Divines of the first Magnitude ascribing to the Pope power of deposing Kings if Hereticks and they are all so when his Holiness pleaseth so to tearm them by as good Logick as the Foxes Ears are Horns if the Lyon please to call them so And if yet there be any Papists that in Word or Writings do disown such Doctrins as the Seculars did in Queen Eliz. days of whom notwithstanding it is observed That they never discovered any traiterous design until it was first discovered by others and that in several Treasons though many of the Seminary Priests were active and forward yet they are as little to be confided in as those that own and justifie them for that by so doing they contradict and disclaim the very Faith they own and profess and unto which they are sworn thereby forsaking their Popes Councils Canons Divines and Decretals nay their Doctrins of Supremacy of believing as the Church i. e. as the Pope believes of Infallibility and Probability of Equivocation of no Faith to be kept with Hereticks c. all Doctrins of the Church of Rome which alone are in their esteem of power sufficient to warrant and justifie their blind obedience and to null all the security that can possibly be given between Prince People whether Oaths or Laws Civil or Ecclesiastical nay Divine And if we may prognosticate of practises to come by practises past let the said Experience of former Ages and of all Countries and of ours in particular rise up in Judgment against them that they never have been never will be Loyal Subjects to our Protestant Princes the Reasons are strong for that they are ever incited to such evil Machinations and practises by the strong impulse and impetuous zeal of their own Doctrins and Superstitions and all proceeding from causes pecular unto Romish Religion and Principles which they have not in the least as yet changed nor disclaimed nor yet their Interest § Besides if the Papists of England have merited any thing from the King and his Father in these late troubles it is no thanks to their Religion and therefore no reason they should be gratified in their Religion for had it proceeded from the undoubted principles of their Religion it would have held as well in Ireland as in England nay it would have held as well in Queen Elizabeths and King James his time as in the time of King Charles Father and Son a Postscript to an Answer to a Jesuited Gent. and also in a sparing Discourse It being confessed by themselves that none of them have in all the times of persecution dyed expresly for Religion but all for Treason b Answer to a Letter to a Jesuited Gent. f. 45. And that Irish Papists would have been as little Loyal to Queen Mary as unto Queen Eliz. But the continual Plots against the Life and Crown of that Queen and that horrid Gun-powder Plot against King James and all his Race and Nobles and the late Rebellion in Ireland against King Charles do demonstrate the contrary and their Religion where that and the Pope are concerned teaching the contrary but they thought not their Religion in that case concerned if they had then it would have appeared whether their Loyalty would have born up against it or no more than it hath done in former times Therefore if any such Merits have been they have been only personal and so may be and no doubt so have been and will be requited with personal favours but in no case with such as may tend to the advantage of the Popish and consequently to the disadvantage of the Protestant Religion Power and Interest of our Princes But let us a little examin what in truth have been the Merits of the Papists in the late Wars To say the Papists were the Formal Causes of the late War upon what hath been before written were happily not quite besides the Cushion However the former matter and grounds administers good Reasons to believe and affirm that they were great occasions both of the rise growth and continuance of our late Wars Some and those not a few of the wisest and most sober Cavaliers thought that the Papists did look upon the War as their great Interest and Hahvest either by opening unto them occasions to pretend something in favour of their party in case the King prevailed or otherwise by fomenting of the War between Protestant and Protestant they should have gained an Interest through their divisioos when they had weakened one another and that by fishing in troubled Waters they should gain some advantage by the confusions which as the Law stood in a setled State of Affairs they could not expect § However if the Papists did not design those divisions and the breaking in pieces of the Antient Government of this Kingdom and that wherein they hoped to find their Interest it is certain they were great occasions thereof for what on the one hand with their Negotiations before the War by Seignior Con and other the Popes Agents and the State tampering with the Pope and King of Spain about the INfanta not yet out of the Minds and Memories of his Subjects and their boldness upon the favour they might happily expect from the Kings Mother and the Clemency which they found from his Father no way desirous to have the Sanguinary Laws Executed upon them and what by the Rebellion of those of that Religion in Ireland they created so great Jealousies in the minds of the Protestant party in England that it rather weakened the Royal party than fortified it and made the Adverse party so numerous and so successful as a long time it was And it may be truly said there was never a Papist in the Kings Army but it lost him the Hearts of many Protestants and as it cannot be supposed that they brought a Blessing on the Kings Armies so it is certain they brought a very ill reputation upon them and where one fought against the Kings party upon a serious Examination of the State of the Quarrel Hundreds took the other party because they saw so many Papists on his side and possibly things had never grown to that height as to have broken out into a War had it not been for the Jealousies which were partly given and partly taken from the Insolent Carriage of that party both in England and Ireland And yet for
Earl of Worcester with others Rebelled in the year 1406. Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland R. Scroope Arch-Bishop of York with others Rebelled and were Beheaded in the Year 1414. Sir John Beverley an Anointed Priest with others conspired the death of H. the 5th other Conspiracies there were in the Year 1416. and 1417. against the same King by the like Generation of Men. And by such also several other Rebellions were raised against H. the 6th in the year 1433. 1442. 1447. 1450. 1451. and so against Edward the 4th in the Year 1461. 1472. 1478. his Two Sons were after his death murdered by the contrivance of Sir James Tyrrel by the appointment of the Duke of Gloucester their Uncle who then procured himself to be Crown'd King by the name of Rich. the 3d. but both the Duke of Gloucester Sir James Tyrrel and Miles Forrest one of those that smothered the Innocents came all to untimely and shameful deaths according to Psal 55. The Blood-thirsty and deceitful Men shall not live out half their days King Richard himself Slain in Battle hacked hewed and hurried on Horse-back dead most ignominiously being tugged torn and dragged like a Dog They were Priests and Friars that 1. Ed. 4 conspired with Jasper Earl of Pemhrooke for which they were Executed There were likewise several Treasons and Conspiracies against H. the 7th in the Year 1494 1497 1498 1499. Asa a Priest of Ireland was a chief Complotter against the union of the Two Roses So Two Priests Greenwell and Garnet would have destroyed that Blessed Vnion in King James During the Reign of H. the 8. many were executed for several Treasons as 29 April 1536. The Prior of the Charter-house at London the Prior of Bevall the Prior of Exham Reignolds a Brother of Sion and John Haile Vicar of Thissleworth were Condemned and Executed the 4th of May following 18 Junii Three Monks of the Charter-house at London named Exmew Midlemore and Nidigate were Executed for Treason and that without any exclamation in those days that they were executed for Religion a late trick taken up only since the days of Queen Elizabeth though no more reason for that Calumny now than was then § There were also Two Rebellions raised in the North the same year against the King and one in Lincolnshire 1537. for which Twelve were Executed 29 March whereof Five were Priests one Abbot a Suffragan Dr. Mackerel the Vicar of Louth in Lincolnshire and Two Priests In the Year 1538. there was another rebellious commotion in Somersetshire Lawrence Cooke a Prior of Dancalfe William Horne a Lay-Brother of the Charter-house with six others were Executed for Treason The same Year there was a new Rebellion in Yorkshire Many more such good Works have we done for which of them will you stone us or deny us a tolleration or liberty to do more By this short Survey witout travelling beyond Seas which would fill Volumes of like Presidents it s abundantly apparent to all that are not wilfully blind that Papists themselves even before Jesuitism was hatched made it their usual practise to Rebel against their Princes though of the same Faith and Religion with themselves and can it then be reasonably expected that they will ever be Loyal and Faithful to Protestants in their account Heretick Princes especially now Jesuitisme is founded established nay vastly increased and advanced so that indeed they are the only great Apolloes in the See of Rome whose Doctrin it is to Excommunicate depose nay destroy Princes quacumque arte and that uncontrollably for that several Popes have decreed that the Jesuits are Immediate Subjects only to the See of Rome free and exempt from all other Jurisdictions whatsoever and that the Institutions and Doctrins of the Jesuits must not be oppugned nor contradicted directly or indirectly no not by way of Disputation or otherwise Spec. Jesuit 27. However let us see what have been their practises since Jesuitisme first sprung up wkich was about the 31. Year of of H. the 8th in whose time several Papists submitted to death rather than they would quit the Popes Supremacy and acknowledg the Kings which yields certain demonstration of the impossibility of such so principled being faithful Subjects to Protestant Caesars that own the Pope to be his and their Superiour In the Reign of King Edward the 6th which was very short and he himself a Minor there were Rebellions and Commotions in Somersetshire and Lincolnshire for which many were Executed then in Cornwall and Devon where above 4000 were Slain and taken Prisoners by John Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal Then they Rebelled in Norfolk and Suffolk against whom Sir John Dudley Earl of Warwick went with an Army and slew above 5000. and took their Ring Leader About the same time 3090 rose in Rebellion in the North and East-riding of Yorkshire but were suppressed by the Lord President Amongst those Western Rebels Humphrey Arundel was Chief Leader who amongst others with 8 Priests were taken and Executed therefore What were those but Church-men that by their Doctrin in the Pulpit and subscription of Hands to Traiterous Decrees Embassed the Two Daughters of H. 8. both before and after the death of Ed. 6. for satisfaction to the Pride and Ambition of an aspiring Humour In the days of Queen Mary though there were few Treasons committed yet was there much Innocent Christian Blood shed Concerning which I shall make this Observation and Comparison between the Marian and Elizabethian days § In Queen Elizabeths days the Papists put out many traiterous infamous and lying Libels in sundry Languages and reported in other Princes Courts that she put a multitude of persons to torments and death only for professing the Roman Catholick Religion when in truth none of them were questioned for matters of Religion but justly by order of Laws openly condemned as Traytors for treasonable practises against Her Person and State maintaining and adhering to the Pope the Capital Enemy of Her Majesty Camb. 213 214. and her Crown who was not only the cause of several Rebellions in England and Ireland but in one of Ireland did manifestly maintain at his own charge Commanders and Souldiers under the Banner of Rome against the Queen so as no Enemy could do more and that not not by force of new Laws either for Religion or against the Popes Supremacy as the slanderous Libellers would have it seem to be but by the Ancient Laws of the Realm made in Edward the Third's time about the Year 1330. above 200. Years before even when the Popes were suffered to have some Authority-Ecclesiastical in this Realm as he had in other Countries They gave out also that they dyed because they would not acknowledg Her the Supreme Head of the Church which was a most apparent untruth visibly to be contradicted by the very Acts of Parliament For at the beginning of Her Reign that very Title was omitted in Her Style And to make the matter seem more horrible and
lamentable they printed the particular names of all the persons which by their own Catalogue did not exceed 60. to the Year 1583. whereof not above 30 Priests nor above 5 Receivers and Harbourers and for Religion not any one Executed whereof not any one at all till about the 12th Year of Her Reign And J. W. their own Martirologist for Her whole Reign which was above 44 Years doth not reckon above 180. whereas in the short Reign of Queen Mary which was little above 5 Years there were by Imprisonment Torments Famine and Fire almost 400 destroyed besides such as were secretly murdered in Prisons and of that number above 20 that had been Arch-Bishops Bishops and Principal Prelates or Officers in the Church lamentably destroyed and of Women above 60 and of Children above 40 and amongst the Women some great with Child and one out of whose Body the Child by Fire being expelled alive was yet most barbarously thrown into the Fire again and burned Examples Cruel beyond the Cruelty of Heathens § It is further observable that they which suffered in Queen Maries days though they dyed constant unto and professing the Protestant Religion yet were there no traiterous Machinations nor Assassinatious laid to their charge nor did they ever at their deaths deny their lawful Queen or maintain any of Her open and Forrein Enemies or procure any Rebellion or Civil Wars nor did Sow any Sedition in secret Corners nor withdrew any of her Subjects from their obedience as the Papists being sworn Votaries to the Pope did continually do against Queen Elizabeth countenancing and avowing the Popes Excommunications Bulls and other publick Writings denouncing the Queen not to be Queen charging and upon pain of Excommunication commanding all Her Subjects to depart from their Duties and natural Allegiances encouraging also and authorizing all persons of all degrees in both Kingdoms to Rebel and upon this Antichristian Warrant contrary to all the Laws of God and Man and nothing at all agreeable to a pastoral Officer they sought by all ways and means to justifie and to put in Execution that traiterous Warrant of the Popes Bull. And yet of these kind of Offenders as many of them as after their Condemnations on second and better thoughts were contented to renounce their former traiterous Assertions so many were spared from Execution such was Her Majesties Clemency and unwillingness to have any Blood spilt without very urgent just and necessary cause proceeding from themselves I must make this further observation Merits of Papists by their own Confession That in the days of Queen Eliz though the Jesuits and Secular Priests fell strangely foul one upon the other with black Pens and Mouths with Language scarce to be match at Pitchbatch or Billingsgate yet the Seculars commended highly the Queens clemency and justified her proceedings against the traiterous Jesuits Avowing That they themselves knowing what they did know how under pretence of Religion the life of Her Majesty and subversion of the Kingdom was aimed at if they had beeen of Her Highness Council they would have given their consent for the making of very strict and rigorous Laws to the better suppressing and preventing of such Jesuitical and wicked designments Important Considerations c. f. 57. They did also complain even to the Pope and Cardinals That the Jesuits were the Fire-brands of all Seditions That by right or wrong they did seek simply and absolutely the Monarchy of all England That they were the causes of all the discords in England That Fa. Holt did not only intend but would indeed give wreteched England in Conquest to himself and his Favourites and many other Complaints there were of this nature Extracted out of the Memorials and other Letters dated at Rome 8. Novemb 1597. Relation of the faction at Wisbich 74 Though I say the Seculars were so violent against the Jesuits and such stout Assertors of the Queens moderate dealing with the Papists yet were some of them found guilty of like traiterous practises so little are any of them to be trusted for that though they have Mel in ore yet have they Fel in Corde Call to mind the great and serious Protestations that Watson the Priest made in his Quodlibetical Questions That albeit he differed in Religion from that which was professed in the Church of England yet if either Pope or Spaniard should seek by hostile means to invads his Countrey he would willingly spend his substance nay his dearest Blood against any such as should attempt it Yet he himself with Clark his fellow Seminary were the first that I read of that came to the Gallows for violating it which considered together with what they confessed upon their apprehension viz. That the Jesuits continually negotiated with Spain preparing for a Forrein Aid leavied great Sums of Money bought Horses Powder Shot Artillery c. and conveyed them secretly to their friends wishing not to stir but to be quiet till they heard from them c. These things I say considered do argue that Secular Priests and Jesuits and those that favoured them were all Traytors in Heart though their malice one towards the other made them discover and rayl and libel each other both at home and abroad which Queen Eliz. wisely considering would not confide in them notwithstanding all their books and promises but by her Proclamations banished both one and the other For in truth both Seculars and Jesuits were in this like Sampsons Foxes though they differed in many other things very bitterly yet in this they joyned their Tayles their main Ends to be Fire-brands to kindle dissention and withdraw her Subjects from her obedience and to reconcile them to Rome So as Joab kissed Abuer whilst he stab'd him and as Judas kissed our Saviour whilst he betrayed him to the Pharises So these men pretended Loyalty by their Tongues and Pens and yet acted traiterously by their Plots and Contrivances What could they print more than they did viz. We are fully perswaded in our Consciences and by Experience That if the Catholicks had never sought by indrect means to have vexed Her Majesty with their designs against her Crown If the Pope and the King of Spain had never plotted with the Duke of Norfolk who was to have been the head of a Rebellion if the Rebels in the NOrth had never been heard of if the Bull of Pius Quintus had never been known if the Rebellion had never been justified If neither Stukeley nor the Pope had attempted any thing against Ireland If Gregory the 13th had not renewed the said Bull and Excommunication If the Jesuits had never come into England If the Pope and King of Spain had not practised with the Duke of Guise for his attempt against her Mafesty If Parsons and the rest of the Jesuits with other our Countrey-men beyond the Seas had never been Agents in those traiterous and bloody designs of Throckmorton Parry Cullen York Williams Squire and others If they had not by their
of Scots Certainly not which is demonstrable by their Actings and Endeavours to hinder King James from the English Crown And it is plain that it was not Bastardy but Heresie i. e. for being Protestant that made their malice so implacable and this is apparent by the Bull of Pope Pius V. Dated 25. Febr. 1570. in which there is not the least mention of Bastardy No No Illegitimacy is not so monstrous a Gudgeon but that it will easily be swallowed at Rome Gregory XIII had a Bastard James Buon Compagna and to him he gave Ireland and impowred Stewkely with Men Arms and Money to Conquer it for him And England he gave to Don John the Emperors Bastard both admirable Catholicks without all peradventure and gave him leave to Conquer it for himself Christs brave Vicard give that which was none of his own or had any thing to do withall But that perverse Queen had no occasion to part with either on such ridiculous Nods And his Successor Sixtus Quintus took no Notice at all of King James proceeded against her with all his Italian Scarcrows curst her afresh and publisht a Croysade against her and gave all her Dominions to Philip II. King of Spain but forgot to give his Benedictions of Craft and Cunning to get them and so they still remain vested in the hands of the right owners and long may they so do even till time shall be no more Now if Romish zeal for Qu. M. of Scots had had its Rise and Original from her more rightful Title to the Crown of England then it would have continued unto King James also but their Actings being Diametrically opposite and contrary it was visible to all the World that it was Popery not the Title that they contended so furiously for And it was the common voice amongst the Jesuits of those days That if King James would turn Catholick they would follow him but if not they would all die against him Watson Quodlib p. 150. The mtual love and amity that was between Queen Elizabeth and King James his immovable constancy in Religion the strict Laws made against Jesuits and such kind of Men the Execution of Graham of Feutre the forwardest of all those that affected the Spanish party the granting of Supreme Authority in matters Ecclesiastical to the King by the States and the assotiations against the Papists did so quash all hope of restoring Popery in England and Scotland that some of them in England which most of all favoured his Mothers Title began to project how to substitute some English Papists in the Kingdom of England when they could not agree upon a fit man of their own Number they cast their Eyes upon the Earl of Essex who never approved the putting of Men to death in the cause of Religion seigniug a Title from Thomas of Woodstock King Edward the Third's Son from whom be derived his Pedigree Indeed rather for any Body then for King James who they foresaw would be Malleus Hereticorum such was their faithfulness to him as also witness the designs of Gordon Creighton Abercromy Jesuits and others plotting the ruine of King James of Scotland And also the Two Breues sent by Clement the 8th to exclude King James from the Inheritance of the Crown of England unless he would take an Oath to promote the Roman Catholick Interest But the Fugitives favoured the Infanta of Spain although they feared lest the Queen and the States would by Act of Parliament prevent it by offering an Oath to every one and they held it sufficient if they could set the King of Scots and the Earl of Essex at Enmity To which purpose a Book was Dedicated to Essex under the Counterfeit name of Doleman but wrote by Par2ons Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefeild as was believed In this Book despising the right of Birth they project that the Antient Laws of the Land concerning Hereditary Succession to the Crown of England are to be altered that new Laws are to be brought in concerning Election That no man but a Roman Catholick 14. b. of Blood soever they be is to be admitted King And was not this another piece of meritorious service to King James like the rest no doubt of those that went before and of those that will follow They traduced most of the Kings of England as wrong possessors and all in England of she Blond Royal as either Illegitimate or uncapable of the Crown The most certain right of King James to the Crown of England they most unjustly sought to overthrow and did by forged Devices most falsely Entitle thereunto the Infanta Isabella of Spain because she was a Roman Catholick Yea they proceeded with that violence herein that they compelled the English in the Spanish Seminaries it they themselves are to be credited to subscribe to the forged title of the Infanta therein set down and exacted an Oath of the Students in the Seminaries to maintain the same brave Blade They rested not in their Pens and Tongues but prosecuted the same by Actions For Thomas Winter as he himself confessed and Jesmund a Jesuit being come into Spain from Garnet and others of them privily plotted to cast off Queen Eliz. and exclude James King of Scots from his most just Title to the Crown of England Yet not long after when King James was proclaimed this Impudent Parsons excused by Letters to a Friend of his as proceeding not from a mind to do King James wrong but out of an earnest desire to draw him to the Romish Religion and he hoped he should be excused for that these Injuries did not prejudice the King because forsooth they failed of success As in the Year 1592. Patrick Cullens Treason who was incited by Sir William Stanley Hugh Owen Jaques Frances a base Laundress Son who said That unless Mrs. Elizabeth be suddenly taken away the State of England is and will be so settled that all the Devils in Hell will not be able to prevail with it or shake it Hitherto a true Prophet I hope will be so still And Holt the Jesuit vvho resolved to kill the Queen vvas accompanied vvith a Book called Philo-pater written for the abetting and warranting of such a Devilish Act in general by Creswel the legicr Jesuit in spain so was Tesmunds Treason accompanied with Two bulls or Breues from Pope Clement the 8th when the Queen was full of days and infirm one to the Clergy the other to the Laiety unto H. Garnet superior to the Jesuits in England which as they were sent privily so were they kept very closely and Communicated unto very few The tenor and purport of them was that they should admit no Man how near soever in Blood for King after the Queens death unless he would not only tollerate the Roman Catholick Religion but also promote the same with his whole might and undertake by Oath according to the manner of his Ancestors to perform the same which in true understanding was directly to exclude King
Imperial Crown and Scepter I shall not trouble you with the repetition of many store of the disguised and dark Actings of the Papists against the King and Crown of England they being already extant in several Treaties viz. In hidden works of darkness brought to light Jus Patronatus Mr. Prinne his Speech in Parliament his Memento his Epistle to a reasonable and legal vindication c. Quakers unmarked In which and other Books many particulars may be seen of their secret undermining Actings In the Year 1638. when the Kings had great need both of Men and Money and the Hearts of all his Subjects and their contributions whether Popish or Protestants his Holiness gave directions to his Catholicks in England whereof these following were part viz. You are to command the Catholicks of England in general that they suddenly desist from making such offers of Men towards his Northern Expedition as we hear they have done little to the advantage of their direction And likewise it is requisit considering the penalties already imposed they they be not forward with Money more than what Law and Duty enjoyns them to pay without any Innovation at all or view of making themselves rather weaker Pillars of the Kingdom than they were before Declare unto the best of the Peeres and Gentry by word of mouth or Letters that they ought not at this time to express any averseness in case the High Court of Parliament by called nor shew any discontents against the Acts which do not point blank aim at Religion being in general the most sundamental Law of this Kingdom Advise the Clergy to desist from the foolish nay rather illiterate and childish Custom of distinction in the Protestant and Puritan Doctrin and especially this Error is so much the greater when they undertake to prove that Protestanisme is a Degree nearer to the Faith-Catholick For since both lye without the verge of the Church it is a needless Hypocrisie yea it begets more malice than it is worth All busie Inquirers are defended but especially into Arcanes of State It is affirmed by in a printed Speech before a great Assembly 4. September 1654. p. 16 17. That he knew very well that Emissaries of the Jesuits never came over in those Swarms as they have done since these times That divers Gentlemen could bear witness with him that they had a Consistory and Council abroad that Rules all the Affairs of the things of England That they had fixed in England in the limits of most Cathedrals of which he was able to produce the particular Instruments an episcopal power with Arch-Deacons and other persons to perverâ—◠〈…〉 the midst of all our sad Distractions And I presume it will not be denied Inde quod nuper veteres comgravere Coloni that very many of them have been sent or come over from Forrein Seminaries into England under the disguises of Converted Jews Phisitians Chyrurgians Independants Quakers Fifth Monarchy Men Agitators Mechanicks Merchants Factors Travellers Souldiers that they might the more unsuspectedly have an Influence on the Committees Agitators and Officers of the Army It was confessed to one of the English Nobility at Rome by the English Provincial there that they had then above 1500. of their Society in England able to work in several professions and Trades which they had there taken upon them the better to support and secure themselves from being discovered Who ever considers the fore-mentioned Plat-form laid subtilly by F. F. Parsons and othes to work insensibly our Ruine Vide Smiths Preface fo 12. the Swarms of Papists here ready to joyn Heads and Hands and Hearts on all occasions and opportunities to bring it to pass the new printing about the time of that horrid matchless Murder of thier Dolman that Infamous and Traiterous Libel against our Kings under a new Title of several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the powers of Parliaments to proceed against their Kings for mis-government together with what is averred for truth and offered to be justified when ever called thereunto by that learned and worthy Divine Du Moulin in his Vindication Se. 58 59 60. c. will easily conclude that their Merits have not been of that Nature as to be used as Arguments for a Tolleration no nor yet for the least of kindness viz. When the business of the late bad times are once ripe for an History and time the bringer of Truth to light hath discovered the Mysteries of Iniquity and the depths of Satan which have wrought so much crime and mischief it will be found that the late Rebellion was raised and fostered by the Arts of the Court of Rome That Jesuits professed themselves Independent as not depending on the Church of England and Fifth Monarchy Men that they might pull down the English Monarchy and that in the Committees for the destruction of the King and the Church they had their Spies and their Agents § The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when he saw the fatal stroke given to our Holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy we have in the World is gone When the News of that horrible Execution came to Roan a Protestant Gentleman of good credit was present in a great company of Jesuited persons When after great Expressions of Joy the gravest of the Company to whom all gave ear spake much after this sort The King of England at his Marriage had promised us the re-establlshing of the Catholick Religion in England and when he delayed to fulfil his promise we summoned him from time to time to perform it we came so far as to tell him That if he would not do it we should be forced to take those courses which would bring him to his destruction We have given him lawful warning and when no worning would serve we have kept our Word to him since he would not keep his Word to us That grave Rabbies Sentence agreeth with this certain Intelligence which shall be justified whensoever Authority will require it That the Year before the Kings death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole party in England first to Paris to consult with the faculty at Sorbon then altogether Jesuited to whom they put this Question in writing That seeing the state of England was in a likely posture to change Government whether it was lawful for the Catholicks to work the change for the advancing and securing the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie which was answered affirmatively After which the same persons went to Rome where the Question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope and his Council That it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote the alteration of State What followed that Confultation and Sentence all the World knoweth and time the bringer forth of Truth will let us know But when that Horrible Paricide committed on
consent to the worship of Idols or other superstitious or prophane Ceremonies for God will not be deceived nor mocked who scarcheth all things even the secrets of our Hearts Ambrose lib. 5. Ep. 30. Now what account will God exact for his Name blasphemed his Word exiled and wrested his Decalogue dockt his Sacraments curtal'd and prophaned And what answer must be made for the ruine of Faith harvest of sin murder of Souls consequent always to the publick freedom of Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship and Heresies which ought to be fully considered and wisely prevented by Christian Magistrates who must as well as the meanest of their Vassals give an account of their Stewardships when called thereunto at the day of their Account § When Mary afterwards Queen of England earnestly besought her Brother King Ed. 6. both by her own Letters and by the mediation of the Emperour That she might have the free use of Mass in her Family alledging her Conscience for it that her House was her Flock c. The King by his Council made answer that it was well liked that her Grace should have her House or Flock but not exempt from the Kings Laws and Orders neither may there be a Flock of the Kings Subjects but such as will hear and follow the voice of the King their Shepherd God disalloweth Law and Reason forbiddeth it Policy abborreth it and her Honour may not require it However at her earnest intreaty and desire made in the Emperors Name thus much was granted and no more that for his sake and hers also it should be suffered and winked at if she had the private Mass used in her own Closet for a season until she might be better informed whereof was some hope having only with her a few of her own Chamber so that for all the rest of her Houshold the Service of the Realm should be used and no other After this was granted in Words the Emperors Ambassador desired some Testimony of the Promise under the Great Seal which being denied he desired to have it by a Letter which was also denyed but not without shewing sound reason that he perceiving it to be denyed with Reason might be the better contented with the answer But when there was ill use made of this Indulgence and Connivance her Chaplian taking too great a liberty by publick Celebration of the Mass out of her Presence was sent for by the Council imprison'd c. for whom though her Grace mediated by many earnest Letters both to the King and his Council yet did his Majesty signifie to her by a Letter dated 24. January 1550. That though he had for a while connived that she might be brought as far towards the Truth by Brotherly love as others were by Duty and in hope of her amendment yet now if there be no hope why should there be sufferance Alledging also That his charge was to have the same care over every mans Estate that every man ought to have over his own And that in her own House as she would be loath openly to suffer one of her Servants being next her most manifestly to break her Orders so must she think in his state it would prejudice him to permit her so great a Subject not to keep his Laws that her nearness to him in Blood her greatness in Estate and the condition of the Time made her fault the greater The Example is unnatural that our Sister should do less for us than our other Subjects the Case slanderous for so great a person to forsake our Majesty And therefore 24. Aug. 1551. He sent Commissioners to signifie to her That His Majesty did resolutely determine it just necessary and expedient That her Grace should not in any ways use or maintain the private Mass or any other manner of service than such as by the Law of the Realm was authorized and allowed So resolute was this young Josiah this Noble pious Prince though his dear Sister and the next Heir of the Crown had divers times offered her Body at the Kings Will rather than to change her Conscience § Queen Eliz. as in other things so in Religion was according to her assumed Motto semper eadem never suffering the least Innovation thereof and therefore as in the first Year of her Reign she took great care that those Protestants which then began to frame a new Ecclesiastical Policy being transported with a humour of Innovation should be repressed betimes and that but one only Religion was to be tollerated lest diversity of Religions amongst the English a stout and Warlike Nation might minister continual Fuel to Seditions Angli Bello in trepidi nec mortis sensu deterentur So in the Second Year of her Reign when the Emperor and Catholick Princes by many Letters made earnest intercession that the Bishops and other Ecclesiasticks displaced for refusing the Oath of Supremacy which notwithstnading most of them had Sworn unto and taught in their Sermons and writ in defence thereof in the Reign of King H. 8. might be mercifully dealt withall there being as themselves had written and calculated above 9400. Ecclesiastical preferments and not above 189. displaced whereof 14 were Bishops that Churches might be allowed to the Papists by themselves in Cities she answered That although those Popish Bishops had insolently and openly repugned against the Laws and Quiet of the Realm and did still obstinately reject that Doctrin which most of them under H. 8. and E. 6. had of their own accord with heart and hand publickly in their Sermons and Writings taught unto others when they themselves were not private Men but publick Magistrates yet would she for so great Princes sakes deal favourably with them though not without some offence to her own Subjects But to grant them Churches wherein to celebrate their divine Offices apart by themselves she could not with the safety of the Common-Wealth and without wrong to her ovvn Honour and Conscience neither vvas there any cause vvhy she should grant them seeing England embraced no nevv or strange Doctrin but the same vvhich Christ commanded the Primitive and Catholick Church received and the ancient Fathers vvith one Mind and Voice approved and to allovv Churches with contrary Rites and Ceremonies Besides that it openly repugned the Lawsestablished by Authority of Parliament were nothing else but to sow Religion out of Religion to distract good Mens minds to cherish factious Mens humours disturb Religion and the Common-Wealth and mingle Divine and Humane things a Thing Evil in Deed but in Example worst of all to her own good Subjects hurtful and unto themselves to whom it is granted neither greatly commodious nor yet at all safe She was therefore determined out of her natural Clemency and especially at their request to be willing to heale the private insolency of a few by much Connivance yet so as she might not encourage their obstinate minds by her Indulgence § When Sussex treated with the Emperor Maximilian on the
of the Crown read the Indictment viz. William Parry thou art here Indicted by Oaths of Twelve good and lawful Men of the County of Middlesex before Christopher Wray alias for that thou as a Traytor against the most Noble and Christian Princess Queen Eliz. the most Gralious Sovereign and Liege Lady not having the fear of God before thine Eyes nor regarding the due Allegiance but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil and intending to withdraw and extinguish the hearty love and due obedience which true and faithful Subjects should bear unto the same our Sovereign Lady didst at Westminster in the County of Middlesex 1. Febr. in the 26. Year of Her Majesties Reign and at divers other times and places in the same County malitiously and traiterously conspire and compass not only to deprive and depose the same our Sovereign Lady of Her Royal Estate Title and Dignity but also to bring her Highness to death and final destruction and sedition in the Realm to make and the Government thereof to subvert and the sincere Religion of God established in her Highness Dominions to alter and subvert And that whereas thou William Parry by thy Letters sent unto Gregory Bishop of Rome didst signifie unto the same Bishop the purposes and intentions aforesaid and thereby didst pray and require the same Bishop to give thee Absolution that thou afterwards that is to say the last of March 26. Year aforesaid didst traiterously receive Letters from one called Cardinal de Como directed unto thee William Parry whereby the said Cardinal did signifie unto thee that the Bishop of Rome had perused the Letters and allowed of thine intent and that to that end he had absolved thee of all thy sins and by the same Letter did animate and stir thee to proceed with thine Enterprize and that thereupon thou the last day of August in the said 26. Year at St. Gyles in the Fields in the same County of Middlesex didst traiterously confer with one Edmund Nevil Esq uttering unto him all the wicked and traiterous devises and then and there didst traiterously move him to assist thee therein and to joyn with thee in those wicked Treasons aforesaid against the peace of our said Sovereign Lady the Queen her Crown and Dignity Which being Read and William Parry being asked whether guilty of these Treasons whereof thou standest here Indicted or not guilty He confessed that he was guilty of all that is therein contained both in matter and form as the same is set down and all the Circumstances thereof Which being Recorded and though confessed willingly by Parry yet because the Justice of the Realm had been of late very impudently slandered That such like Traytors were Executed for Religion and not for Treason the Justice of that Court deemed it necessary to satisfie the World more particularly that though his Confession in Court served sufficiently to have proceeded thereupon to Judgment yet Parry's Confession taken the 11 and 13. Feb. 1584. before the Lord Hunsdon Mr. Vice-Chamberlain and Mr. Secretary and Cardinal de Como's letter and Parry's Letter to the Lord Treasurer and Lord Steward should be openly read to which also Parry himself agreed so readily that he offered to read them himself for the better satisfying of the people All which Letters and his own voluntary confession written and subscribed with his own Hand he acknowledged to have Confessed freely without any constraint and that it was all true and more too And that there is no Treason that hath been sythence 1 Eliz. any way touching Religion saving receipt of Agnus Dei and perswading others wherein he hath not much dealt but he had offended in it And that he had demanded his opinion in writing who ought to be Successor to the Crown which he said to be Treason also All which Letters and Confession being first shewed to him Leaf by Leaf were openly and distinctly read by the Clark of the Crown Which done Parry having obtained favour of the Court to speak in discharge as he pretended of his Conscience assuring them that he would not go about to excuse himself and that he intended to utter more He said my Cause is rare singular and unnatural conceived at Venice presented in general Words to the Pope undertaken at Paris commended and allowed of by his Holiness and to have been Executed in England I have committed many Treasons for I have committed Treason in being reconciled and Treason in taking Absolution and yet never intended to kill Queen Eliz. Which said Mr. Vice-Chamberlain retorted upon him in that he both in Court and else where under his Hand voluntarily confessed That he did mislike Her Majesty for that she had done nothing for thee how by wicked Papists and Popish Books thou wert perswaded that it was lawful to kill Her Majesty how thou wert by reconciliation become one of that wicked sort that held Her Majesty for neither lawful Queen nor Christian and that it was Meritorious to kill her And didst thou not signifie that thy purpose to the Pope by Letters and receivedst Letters from the Cardinal how he allowed of thine intent and Excited thee to perform it and thereupon didst receive Absolution And didst thou not conceive it promise it vow it swear it and receive the Sacrament that thou wouldst do it And didst not thou there upon affirm that thy Vows were in Heaven thy Letters and Promises on Earth to bind thee to do it And that whatsoever Her Majesty would have done for thee could not have removed thee from the intention or purpose unless she would have desisted from dealing as she hath done with the Catholicks as thou calledst them And didst thou not confess besides that which thou didst set down under thine own Hand that thou hadst prepared Two Scottish Daggers fit for such a purpose Notwithstanding all these and more Demonstrations of his Bloody Intentions against the Queen by Sir Christopher Hatton Lord Hunsdon and others of the Lords Commissioners he thereupon in a furious manner cry'd I never meant to kill Her I will lay my Blood upon Her and you before God and the World and so fell into a great rage and rayling Which madness of his the Lord Hunsdon thus rebuked This is but thy Popish pride and ostentation which thou would have to be told to thy Fellows of thy Faction to make them believe that thou dyedst for Popery when thou diedst for most horrible and dangerous Treason against Her Majesty and the whole Countrey Thus you see what little Faith is to be given to such who flatter with their Lips and dissemble with their double Hearts These things rightly considered I do not doubt but that all good Subjects will clearly see and all deluded and wavering persons will perceive how they have been seduced to wander out of the right way and that all strangers especially Christian Princes having Sovereign Estates being hereby acquainted with the true just and necessary Grounds and Reasons of His Majesties late Act of Parliament for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants made purely for the defence of His Majesties Crown Religion and People and for prevention of Intestine Jars that otherwise might be occasioned through different Religions Religions as discrepant as light and darkness good and evil which naturally occasions disputes and sometimes btows that all the World perceiving upon how great Reasons of State and Grounds of Religion that Act was made may be satisfied that no prudent State could do less especially the concern of Religion being a considerable Ingredient therein which often sets variance between nearest Relations And I cannot doubt but that this His Majesties just Act will have the like happy entertainment and success as had King James of ever blessed memory his Monitory Preface unto his Apology upon the coming forth of which Book there were no States that disavowed the Doctrin of it in the point of the Kings power the Venetians justified it both by Pen and Practise the Sorbons maintained it and Bellarmine and Suarez their Books to the contrary were burnt in France with scorn and disdain Passus damna semel cautior esse solet Romam vade liber sed Nescis Heu nescis Dominae fastidia Romae Mujores nusquam Ronchi Juvenesque Senesque Et pueri Nasum Rhinocerotis habent I fuge sed poteras tutior esse domus ERRATA PAge 11. Line 16. r. potest l. 21. r. sentiamus p. 2. l. 19. r. that p. 18. l. 4. r. Domini p. 29. l. 2. r. against p. 37. l. 12. r. if it had taken p. 44. l. ult r. Houses p. 58. l. 15. r. stories l. 31. r. discretion p. 74. l. 3. r. thou shall not plough p. 112. l. 3. r. likes of one bread l. 28. r. and add 14 new p. 127. l. 5. for Confession r. profession FINIS