I Do Appoint Robert Boulter to Print this my Narrative Entituled A Further DISCOVERY of the late Horrid and POPISH-PLOT c. and that no others Print the same JOHN SMITH October 12. 1679. THE NARRATIVE OF Mr. John Smith OF Walworth in the County-Palatine of Durham Gent. Containing a further DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid and POPISH-PLOT With an Account of 1 st The inconsistency of the Popish-Principles with the Peace of all States 2 ly Their Destructiveness to all Protestant Kingdoms 3 ly The Incouragements upon which the Papists undertook so Hellish a Design against England 4 ly The Progress they had made in it 5 ly The Reasons of their endeavouring more especially the Death of His present Majesty 6 ly With a Vindication of the Justice of the Nation upon the Traitors already Executed LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Robert Boulter at the Turks-head in Corn-hill 1679. To the KING AS I owe my Allegiance and have Dedicated my Life to Your Majesty so I desire with all Humility in my self and Zeal for Your Happiness to offer up these Papers unto You. Many of Your Subjects are capable to present You with what is more sutable to the Greatness of Your Understanding but nothing can be laid at Your Feet which more nearly concerns the Preservation of Your Sacred Person the Safety of Your Crown and Security of Your Royal Dignity The danger of Conspiracies lies in their being concealed none ever perished by a detected Plot but such as have wilfully abandoned themselves to be destroyed And therefore while some of your Subjects to defeat the Hellish Machinations of the Papists against your Majesty and People are contented to expose themselves not only to secret Assassinations but to the vow'd Revenge of a disloyal and desperate Party It is hoped that you will not at once both desert your Self and de-relinquish the care of three Kingdoms as well as Sacrifice those Loyal Souls to gratifie implacable Enemies Sir 'T is past the Malice and Strength of your Adversaries either to destroy your Life or subvert your Government unless which God avert you joyn in the Conspiracy by some Personal accession And against dangers that you voluntarily expose your self unto there is no promise that the immense Wisdom or Almighty Power should interpose to save you The Conspirators find it convenient to alter the Methods of accomplishing their Treason but they remain unchangeable in their Traiterous Designs But Sir it is in your own Power not only to Reign in defiance of their violent Attempts but to render your People happy while you live and relinquish them safe when you dye For to all this there is no more required but your hearkning to the Advice of your Parliament who as they are best able to Counsel you so their own interest and the welfare of those they represent will always oblige them to it Might your Popish Adversaries but once divide betwixt you and your People and dispossess you out of the hearts of your Subjects the next thing will be having left you none to stand by you to wrest your Crown from you and deject you from your Throne As it is impossible you should miscarry while you and your People agree so no humane means can prevent the Destruction of these Kingdoms and the Unhappiness of your Royal Self and Family in their Ruines if through the Clamours of the Popish Party you should be divided from your People as represented in Parliament and to be withdrawn from hearkning to their Advice Your Majesties Most humble and most loyal Subject JOHN SMITH TO THE READER HAd the many Discoveries of the Plot already communicated to the World served either to dismay the Conspirators from their further proceeds or to awaken the Nation proportionably to its danger The Conveying of this to the knowledge of the Kingdom had been wholly forborn 'T is true that the offering this Information to His Majesty and the Council was an indispensible Duty which could not be superseded without Disloyalty to the Government but the divulging it to the Kingdom is to be resolved into that Lethargy as the motive of it which too many still lye under Shall it be said that our supine folly and unreasonable unbelief promote our ruine beyond what the malice of our Enemies was able to accomplish Shall their Address in impudent Pamphlets wheedle a company of easie and silly Souls to disbelieve what the King the Council and two Parliaments being first assured themselves have both recommended it to the Faith of these Kingdoms and consigned it over to Posterity as an unquestionable certainty It is not without astonishment that I observe how a generation of men whose interest makes it necessary and whose principles makes it lawful to Lye are able by meer impudence to out-face the fullest Evidence and most uncontrollable Convictions of their Guilt Reader Thou wilt therefore find in these following Sheets not only a further Attestation given to prove a Hellish Conspiracy against His Majesty the Protestant Religion and the Government by Law Established but thou wilt meet with some account both of the Advantages which did facilitate them in their designs and of the several steps which they had taken to accomplish them And if after all this the Protestant Inhabitants of these Nations will suffer themselves to be destroyed by continuing their Divisions notwithstanding such fair warning I will only say that they deserve to perish without Compassion and Pity A further DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid and Popish-PLOT WHat disturbances and fatal mischiefs the claim and exercise section 1 of Papal Authority and Jurisdiction have caused even in Kingdoms where both Princes and People were in all things else of the Romish Faith the Histories of foregoing Ages do sufficiently inform us The alone demurring to the Usurpations of the Roman Pontife hath derived from the pretended Infallible Chair the Excommunication of Princes the discharging Subjects from their Allegiance the Alienation of Crowns and Kingdoms the interdicting the performance of all Divine Services in Nations which according to their own stile were in all things else Catholick For besides the manifold instances which all parts of the Western World afford us to this purpose such as Gregory the seventh his Excommunicating Henry the fourth Sylvester the third his Anathematizing Henry the fifth Gregory the ninth his cursing Frederick the second Emperour of Germany And Innocent the third his Excommunicating Philip August and setting his Kingdom under an Interdict Benedict the thirteenth Charles the sixth and Boniface the eighth Philip the Faire Kings of France I say besides these and many other Forraign instances of this nature the Kingdom of England alone hath afforded us too many woful proofs of the Papal Vsurpation and falsly pretended Jurisdiction over Temporal Monarchs and their Dominions So that towards the recommending the Romish Religion and the Authority of the See of Rome to the love of my Country-men I need only put them in mind of the
Entertainment that William Rufus Henry the second King John and Henry the eighth Princes of this Kingdom met with from the Universal Father For even that Prince whom I mentioned last not only lived and died himself in the Romish Faith but put to death all such as were Arraigned for being otherwise minded So that the only reason why he was Excommunicated by two Popes one after another his Kingdom interdicted his Subjects absolved from the Fealty they owed him and a disposal made of his Crown to others who were intrusted with the Exemption of the Papal Censure was nothing but his declining the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Pope and his vindicating those Rights which by our ancient Law appertained to the Imperial Crown of this Land Let Princes and People be never so zealous in all other points of the Roman Faith if they do but dispute the Universal-Jurisdiction of the Triple Crown they expose themselves to Depositions Interdicts and whatsoever else it pleases his Holiness to denounce against them It is but for a Monarch or State to thwart the Capricio and cross the humour of the Pope or disoblige the Court of Rome and they immediately run the hazard of being destroyed under the very Countenance and Allowance of those Doctrines which have the stamp of Articles of Faith The Interdict of the State of Venice by Paul the fifth the Murther of Henry the third of France and the Assassination of Henry the fourth likewise of France were some of the late Commentaries upon the foregoing Principles and Items to the world that though they did not think fit to act up to them at all times yet they reserved them in their Petto to be made use of upon occasion And it may not be altogether unworthy of our observation that the Murther of Henry the third by James Clement a Dominican was not only magnified in a solemn Oration by Sixtus the fifth which was afterwards Printed and Published at Rome but it hath been lately translated by some Romish Priest or other with the Latin in one Column and English in another and that in all likelihood to inflame some Papal Votary to the like attempt upon His Sacred Majesty section 2 So that were there no dishonour to arise to God danger to the Souls of men by the re-introduction of Popery amongst us the hazard of enslaving these Nations to a Forraign Power and of making the Crown truckle to the Papal Mitre may awaken every generous as well as Loyal Soul both to watch against and oppose all secret tendencies as well as open attempts towards a matter of so pernicious a Consequence Nor is it unworthy of our remark that besides those foregoing advantages which the Pope would have over this Nation in common with other Nations by virtue of his Monarchy over all persons and things in ordine ad spiritualia upon which alone he might as heretofore he hath done Anathematize our Kings Divest them of their Royal Power and not only Absolve their Subjects from Fidelity and Obedience but Commissionate and Impower them to make War upon their Soveraigns and both to Depose and Murder them under the encouragement of meriting Heaven by so doing I say it is not unworthy of our reflection what other latent claims besides these as he may be likely to revive of an absolute and uncontroulable Temporal Jurisdiction over these Kingdoms The King of England saith Bellarmine is subject to the Pope by a two-fold right first by reason of his Apostolick Power and secondly by right of proper Dominion For as to England he may be ready to plead if not King Henry the second his submitting his Crown to the Pope yet King John's resignation of it into the hands of the Popes Legat and receiving it again as a Feudatory to the See of Rome And for Scotland he may possibly revive that title which so long ago as Boniface the Eighth he pretended over that Kingdom namely That the Kingdom of Scotland belongs of right to the Church of Rome and that it is in the Popes power alone to give it to or take it from whom he pleases And lastly for Ireland who knoweth but that they may start as a pretence for a temporal Jurisdiction over that Nation Henry the thirds swearing homage to the Pope for it and obliging himself to pay a Tribute in recognition of the Papal right It s true these things are impertinent and ridiculous in themselves yet were Popery re-established in England and the people brought under the conduct of the Jesuites who as they labour most effectually in the perversion of the Nation so being the Janizaries of the Holy See its easie to apprehend how far they may mis-improve them towards the serving the interest of the Pope in case any difference should arise either between the King and him or any other Forraign Prince that his Holiness for secular ends shall think fit to befriend Surely it s with respect to these pretensions that Bellarmine so solemnly declareth That these Kingdoms are the Diminions of the Church and that the Pope is our natural and direct Lord and the King at best but his Vassal And it was in pursuance of this right that Gregory the thirteenth Commissioned Tho. Stukeley an English Rebel against Queen Elizabeth to conquer the Kingdom of Ireland for his Holiness's Bastard-Son James Boncompagnon And by virtue of the same pretension did Innocent the tenth during the late Wars usurp a Royal Power over that Nation and accordingly gave forth all kind of Commissions by the hands of his Nuncio And if divers principles of Popery are unfriendly to the safety of Monarchs section 3 and quiet of Kingdoms even where their Religion is Nationally received and submitted to we cannot imagine that the Peace and Security of these Nations who not only are of a different Religion but declare against them as Antichristians and Idolaters should be better provided for if occasion serve to do mischief For besides the liableness of all Protestant Princes and People to the fatal consequence of the foregoing Doctrines of the Papal Usurpation and Jurisdiction over all Nations they have others particularly and especially calculated to Authorise and Justifie their destruction and ruine Such as that we are all Hereticks and thereupon are not only de jure Excommunicated by the Lateran Councel under Innocent the third but de facto pronounced such for ever by Paul the fourth anno 1558. And as if that were not sufficient we are in de Bulla Coenae Domini read commonly on Maunday Thursday solemnly Cursed And thereupon the Papists in the several Dominions where the Protestant Religion obtains are not only discharged from all Allegiance to Princes but all Catholicks are obliged by the strictest bond of Conscience and under the penalty of the utmost hazard of their Souls to depose such Heretical Princes They are so far from being guilty of murder saith Vrban the third that kill any who are Excommunicate that
as not to know how upon the like hopes from Mary Queen of Scots being next Lineal Successor to Queen Elizabeth the Romish Party did from time to time contrive and design the death of that Excellent Princess of ever Blessed Memory And was it not the sense which our Ancestors had of this that influenced them to enter into an Association through the whole Kingdom even in an Interval of Parliament wherein they mutually obliged themselves in case the Queen should be taken off by any undue means to avenge it upon the Papists And this Association was so far then from being apprehended a Seditious or Illegal Bandying of Persons together that the Parliament that assembled the Year after did not only Approve it but Ratifie it into a Law Well do the Papists know that should they loose this Advantage which they have from the Duke's being a Papist and of such legal hopes of the Crown for the Reestablishment of their Religion they may never enjoy so fair and probable an Opportunity again They perceive the King as likely to live as the Duke and therefore reckon it absolutely necessary to Anticipate the Course of Nature and not trust matters of so great Consequence as the seeing these Nations once more subjugated to Rome to such a contingency as the Kings Dying in a natural way before the Duke And that which Mr. Dugdale divulgeth every where to this purpose deserveth a serious Remark namely That the Jesuits having calculated the King's and the Duke's Nativities which by the way is Treason by Law and finding that the King would in a course of Nature outlive the Duke they thereupon agreed and resolved to have him cut off by violence The having a Popish King again in England would be of so great concernment to the See of Rome that we may easily conceive especially seeing the Principles of their Religion do befriend them that they will not boggle at the Murder of his Present Majesty to compass and effect it And whatsoever security the Protestants may flatter themselves with as to their Religion from the Promises which his Highness may make unto them yet this may serve to undeceive them that not only the Council of Constance hath determined that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks but that Martyn the 5. told Alexander Duke of Lithuania that if he kept his Oath with such he sinned mortally Secondly the advantage which they reckon upon the Kings Death ariseth not only from the consideration that the Presumptive Heir is a Papist but that he is more zealous for that Religion than Princes of the same Religion either are or use to be It is of great concernment to their Interest to see a Papist how lukewarm and indifferent so ever in that Profession exalted to the English Throne But to have a Prince of burning Zeal and Ardour for the dignity of the Triple Crown to be advanced to sway the English Sceptre is of far greater consequence to them than most Persons are willing to apprehend I know that there are some Monarchs of the Faith of the Church of Rome that are not of the Faith of the Court of Rome and therefore though they give all due protection and incouragement to the Romish Religion yet it is still without suffering it to undermine the State or to introduce the Papal Jurisdiction Though they countenance their Subjects in the Papal Worship yet they are not willing to see them inslaved to the Popes Usurpation But whether the Duke of York should he once arrive at the Crown would think it enough to allow the Pope only his power in Spirituals without granting him the right which he challengeth in Temporals I cannot tell but this I can say that the hopes which the Jesuits have of seeing the whole Papal Jurisdiction established by his means and as fruits of his Zeal to the Holy See over these Kingdoms is a great motive to precipitate his advancement to the Monarchy and for their conspiring the Destroying of His Majesty who is the only Remora in the way Thirdly the advantage which they count upon by the Kings Death ariseth not only from their Assurance of the Presumptive Heir's being a Papist and one of zeal and ardor for the Papal Chair but that he is moreover under the conduct of the Jesuits For I do remember that Father Campian and Father Anderton did not only frequently declare that the Duke of York was of the Romish Religion but that he was brought over by their Body and that they had the greatest influence over Him And as this was the common discourse in the Jesuits College at Rome so it was received with great joy and acclamation by the whole Society Now as there can be nothing more fatal to any State than to have the Prince under the Conduct of the Jesuits so the power they pretend to have obtained over the Duke of York hath its share in the animating them to hasten his Reign and in order thereunto to destroy His Majesty And to this purpose I shall here add what I heard some of the Fathers say For Father Campian having intimated that many set themselves against the Establishment of the Popish Religion in England he added that nevertheless it must flourish again in that Nation and we are do the great Work and restore it And Father Warner upon whom I had a Bill of Exchange from Rome he being Procurator for the Jesuits at Paris having paid me the Bill did thus declare himself unto me Religion must be set up in as high a manner as ever in England and we must be the Promoters of it though many set themselves in opposition to us Blessed Promoters and Restorers of Religion who conspire the Murder of Kings and Overturning of Kingdoms in order thereunto And are they not fit men to have the Guidance of the Consciences of Princes who besides all the other ill Principles which they are imbued with are more sworn Vassals to the Jurisdiction of the Pope than any other Order of the Roman Church I do moreover declare That when I was about to leave Rome and section XVIII return into England both Father Anderton Father Campian and Father Green assured me that there would suddenly be great Alterations in Church and State in this Kingdom And that there was but one Man in the way meaning the King who might be soon removed out of it Yea the same Fathers informed me That they were assured from the most Eminent persons of this Nation that their Religion should be Established again in these Dominions in as great Glory as at any time heretofore and whosoever opposed the Establishment of it should be removed And I do withall remember that waiting upon Abbot Montague at Paris as I was in my return homeward the said Abbot after he had congratulated the seeing me in a Religious Habit and told me that being of the Order of Secular Priests I was in the Apostolical way of Teaching he further subjoyn'd That
this Informant asked him what he thought of him Who answered I doubt there is some Guilt in him because he had enquired of him when he came from Windsor how the King diverted and how he went attended Whereunto he answered in Hawking and Fishing attended only with three or four Persons Mr. Ireland replied he wondred He would go so slenderly Guarded He were easily taken off and then he paused But sometime after Mr. Robert Jenison repeated that he feared there was something in that Plot for that Mr. Ireland said to him at another time that there was but One in the way and were He remomoved the Catholique Religion must flourish again in England Whereupon this Informant said those were damnable suspitious things which Mr. Ireland had spoken about the King And thereupon old Mr. Jenison rose up and swore Mr. Ireland was a Rogue and so left the Room and determined the discourse at that time But some time after in this same Month this Informant walking on the Leads with Mr. Robert Jenison discoursing of the Jesuits being in the Plot the said Robert Jenison told this Informant that Mr. Ireland had at another time told him that Sr. George Wakeman was a Fit person to Poyson the King being the Queens Physician and a Papist upon which this Informant said he hoped the King would not take Physick of any Papist in regard they might be Jesuitically inclined and the Jesuits were against Monarchy in Temporal Princes though appointed by God himself Upon which the said Mr. Robert Jenison asked are the Jesuits against Monarchy Whereto this Informant replied you may easily judge that by their taking off many Kings and Princes and by their holding it lawfull for the Pope to deprive Kings of their Kingdoms and to dispose of them at his pleasure so that though a King be Anointed of the Lord and one that should not be touched by violent Hands yet not only His Kingdom but His Sacred Life lie at the Popes pleasure Mr. Jenison answered does the Pope allow of this This Informant answered yes they have often practised it in this and other Kingdoms and thereby brought more Schism and Division into the Church than ever was before such Damnable things were practised by the Pope and his Emissaries Whereto Mr. Jenison replied you Seculars are generally against the Jesuits and in many things against the Pope Whereunto this Informant replied if you please to consider the Frauds and Devilish Artifices the Jesuits use in their practice and teaching their Politick Interest and industrious Self-seeking all under the Hypocritical zeal and Characters of Religious though none so Irreligious you would not admire why all Secular Priests are against them and the Pope for upholding them and their Practices and Principles Mr. Jenison replied thereunto he beleeved they were Crafty men upon which this Informant asked him how he came now to say they were Crafty men having formerly spoke so much of their Sanctity He replied because he considered several odd and suspicious Expressions Mr. Ireland had spoken to him Whereupon this Informant replied you will not only give the King and Country satisfaction in Declaring the odd and suspicious Expressions of Ireland who is now imprisoned for the Plot but also discharge the duty of a Christian and Obligation of a Subject urging many other reasons to perswade Mr. Jenison to make a full Discovery to the Council Whereunto Mr. Jenison replied he doubted the Jesuits would prove as Black as their Habits adding that his Brother Mr. Thomas Jenison the Jesuit told him there was a Design in hand in which if he plaid his part he might with ease and safety raise his Fortune and that he answered his Brother he would use all lawfull means and that he thereupon replied the means were not only Lawfull but Meritorious otherwise their Body and the Chief Catholicks of England would not be therein concerned as now they were Whereupon this Informant asked him what he understood by his Brothers discourse and whether he did not understand that the Jesuits and Papists had some design against the King and Religion Who answered he might well understand and suspect they had some such Design in hand And thereupon this Informant again pressed him to make a full Discovery to the Council when he came to London if his Evidence were judged material And this Informant told him that he held himself bound in Conscience to discover all that he heard from him if he omitted to do it himself urging that his Evidence would at least wise be fortifying to others Testimony And this Informant very well remembers that coming about a Week afterwards with Mr. Robert Jenison from Mr. Fenwick's House at Baywell Mr. Bowes met them and drew Mr. Jenison aside all discoursed together some time after which Mr. Jenison singled out this Informant and told him that he believed his own Brother Mr. Thomas Jenison would be Hanged and several other Persons of Quality who were concerned in this Horrible Design Thereupon this Informant asked why Who answered a Handfull of Jesuits could not carry on such a Design without the assistance of Persons of Note and Power and the Pope himself must be in because of his Purse and he believed the Plot was Universal because his said Brother had told him the Greatest Catholiques in England were concerned in that Design wherein he would have had him to have plaid his Part. Declaring he had reason to believe it was to destroy the King and Government Whereunto this Informant replied can you swear it Who answered I will not swear it now and thereunto this Informant replied will and can are two things Mr. Jenison further added he was once in Company of Five or Six Jesuits and that all their discourse was then tending to the Destruction of the King and Government all agreeing to the self-same end but himself but that he had not contradicted them in regard he was young and inferiour in Scholarship And this Informant asked him what he meant by Persons of Note and Power ingaged in the Plot He answered the Chiefest Catholiques in England but refused to name them saying in passion do you think I am privy to it But added by God they will have a Bout with the Duke whereby this Informant did believe there was a Hellish Plot and that the greatest Catholiques in England were in it and that Mr. Robert Jenison knew more of it than he did at that time lay open And this Informant speaking something of the Popish Emissaries ingaged in the Plot meaning the Jesuits and Monks Mr. Jenison asked him whether he was not a Popish Emissary Wherunto this Informant replied No he did abhor the Name and that he was a Preacher after the Ancient Apostolical Way which teacheth all to fear God and honour the King and to be obedient to all Superiour Laws and Magistrates To which Mr. Jenison replied the Jesuits hold it lawfull to Depose and Murder any Heretick Kings and to dispose of
thereupon arrived at more respect as well as enjoy'd more peace in their Persons and Estates than they were in possession of at any time since the Reformation Nor do I believe that there is any Protestant that would have envied them the security they enjoyed or the favour they had attained to provided they had not abused them to the destruction of His Majesties Person the supplanting of His Government and the extirpating the Religion which was Legally established But alas good and peaceable Souls such an opportunity of promoting the Catholick interest was not to be lost They might now carry on their designs for the Triple-Crown none daring to suggest any thing to bring them under a jealousie who would not be immediately aspersed as maligners of the Kings best friends And it is not to be apprehended what improvement of that little stock of credit which some of the Popish Gentry had gotten by their being on the late Kings side in the last War the Jesuits Priests and Friars made to the furtherance of the subjugating these Nations again to Rome For now were all the principles of the Papal Religion by which those that espouse it are obliged to root out Heresie and Establish the Jurisdiction of the Pope inculcated from day to day upon persons of one quality and another of the Papal Profession A second thing which gave them no less advantage for the carrying on section 5 of their designs was the division among the Protestants themselves And here two things greatly ministred to the sub-serving the design of the Papal Agents 1 The parties divided were come to a more equal ballance as to numbers on each side respectively than at any season heretofore For during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first the Dissenters from the Established way of the Church of England were but few in comparison of those who were for Episcopacy and the Rites and Ceremonies required by Law in Divine Worship So that there being then little jealousie of any danger to the Church of England from the Protestant Dissenters how zealous soever they might even in those days be for their way the watchfulness of the Dignitaries of the Church and the labours of the inferiour Clergy were chiefly exercised and laid out in reference to the Papists But those who stile themselves Non-conformists being now multiplied to that degree as that they seem to bear a much nearer proportion to the other party than heretofore they did The main care of the Over seers of the Church hath thereupon much abated towards the Papists and been exerted towards them 2 The Animosities between the Protestants thus divided into two parties were become higher and their mutual exasperations grown fiercer than heretofore For partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the retaliation they have measured to Protestant Dissenters since they had the Authority of the Law and assistance of the Government to befriend them they are wonderfully inflamed in mutual heats towards and disgust of one another Of which it is easie to imagine what manifold uses the Factors for the Roman See have made to the furthering of their own designs which tend equally to the ruine of both For as the pretence of these Divisions hath served as a plea to proselyte such who know not that the Divisions of the Church of Rome are more numerous and their feuds more irreconcileable so the subtile Ministers of the Papacy have by winding themselves into all Companies if not the mustering themselves in all parties endeavoured both to heighten the differences and to make their Animosities against each other not only hotter but more immortal And while the one party of Protestants hath been crying out of Schism and the other party of persecution the Papists have to the reproach of both been undermining that common Faith which they equally centre in and carrying on a design of destroying the one as well as the other being in their account both equally Hereticks I would be loath to believe that through the grandure which the Clergy are exalted unto the possession of in the Church of Rome that therefore our Protestant Bishops and other Dignitaries of the English Church should think them the less dangerous but this I know that those vulgarly stiled Phanaticks have judged themselves highly justified in their clamours against the Conformable Clergy in that they are so severely treated while in the mean time no difference in any fundamental Doctrine from the Church of England can be objected unto them And as the Jealousies which the differences betwixt dissenting Protestants have caused have made every overture though for the preservation of Religion in general and the safety of the Nation wherein they are both alike interested if proposed by one party to be suspected by the other so the distrust which these Divisions have caused in one Protestant towards another hath in no small measure emboldned the Papists to hope that in whatsoever they should attempt there could be no confederation among Protestants either to resist or oppose them And though I cannot say it upon my own knowledge yet I have cause to believe it from the reason of the thing as well as upon the Testimony of Mr. Dugdale that they were the more confident in their design privately to Assassinate the King as hoping when they had so done to have Fathered it upon the Phanaticks And as they might very rationably believe that would the Nation have been so possest they would have avenged it upon that party even to the extirpating of them so they assuredly knew that thereby their own design of destroying the Episcopal Protestants would have been rendred much the more facile section 6 A third thing that equally contributed with the former to the introduction of Popery into these Kingdoms was the general prophaneness which hath greatly over-spread these Nations beyond what at any time heretofore hath been observed For besides that every prophane person is truly of no Religion and therefore indifferent to seem to be of any as interest and temptation sways him so no man can care much to be of that Religion which not only condemns all the ways he is resolved upon but the more because he is of such a Religion that doth not allow them And withall there is this further whereby such men are disposed for Popery more than others viz. That it can both allow them in all the sins which they have a mind to and secure them from the fears of Eternal punishments in the practice of them For partly by making many things which Christ hath forbid and men from the power of their Lusts and the influence of their interest have a desire to commit to be no sins and partly by making such things which the Gospel stiles enormous
crimes to be but venial offences which even in the Justice of God do deserve Eternal punishment and partly by that security from future wrath which they propose to them who are guilty of the most daring and prodigious Enormities through their Doctrines referring to Pennances Absolutions and Papal Indulgencies They had all imaginable grounds of confidence that no profane Protestants whatsoever others did would withstand them in their designs of introducing a Religion which had so carefully provided for them Now being furthered by these several advantages for the introducing section 7 their Religion into these Kingdoms again and the overthrowing the ancient and legal Government The next thing to be discoursed of is the several steps which they had actually taken and the progress which they had made for the final compassing of those direful and tragical designs And their first remarkable advance was their merciless and cruel burning of the City of London whereof as they were evidently proved the Authors and Instruments by many Depositions taken by Order and Authority of Parliament Anno 1667. so it hath been further testified against them by Mr. Oates and Mr. Bedloe with an enumeration of many particulars clearly demonstrative beyond all controll of their Guilt in that particular And though they were prevented and disappointed of what they further intended at that time and whereunto the burning of London was only designed as a Prologue yet the compassing the devastation of the City was in it self alone no small attainment in the matter of their Catholick and main project For besides the greatly impoverishing the whole Nation as well as the Inhabitants of the said City thereby the re-building of London and the providing of Bread for distressed Families was subject enough to employ the thoughts and cares of most men for divers years without affording them leisure to watch observe and provide against the Designs of the Papists Besides it may not be improbably conceived that through Londons lying in Ashes and the whole Kingdoms being distressed through the influence which this Metropolitan hath upon all parts of the Nation both the War which His Majesty was then engaged in with the Dutch was the less vigorously prosecuted and they emboldned to that which they perpetrated in burning some of the Royal Navy in His Majesties Chambers And which hath been more fatal from this Fountain of Distress that the Kingdom laboured under as an effect of the burning of London was the French King encouraged to the aggrandising himself by those Conquests which he made upon the Spanish Provinces in the Netherlands And His Majesty whose Wisdom sufficiently instructed him that it was the interest even of His own Dominions to have the ballance of Europe kept even found himself disabled from giving that Check and Opposition to that Princes designs which we may very well conceive that otherwise he would have done A second step which the unwearied Enemies of the Protestant Religion section 8 in these Dominions had taken towards both the extirpating of it and subverting the Government was their having interested the French King in their Councels and their having in a great measure engaged him to assist them with Money and what else might be convenient for the executing their Designs and Attempts As the Jesuits heretofore laboured in nothing more effectually than the advancing the King of Spain to the universal Monarchy of Europe So that Crown being by various ways and means not here to be insisted upon much weakned and rendred wholly uncapable of aspiring any further in that matter The pragmatical and treacherous Jesuits have of late years entirely applied themselves to the serving the interest and promoting the grandure of the French Monarch And when time the revealer of truth shall have discovered the mysterious workings of those Sons of pride and deceit it will then appear how they have both kindled those flames of War which have for some years past laid many flourishing Provinces in Europe wast and rendred all the Neighbouring Kingdoms and Lands fields of Blood but that they have by the interest which they have obtained in all Courts influenced some Princes to a Neutrality and others to an open Confederacy with France so that the French Monarch is now justly become the dread of all his Neighbours But that which I am observing is this namely that the French King being arrived at that formidable greatness which he now stands in the Plotters and Contrivers of the ruine of England drew him into their Councels and obtained promises of Assistance towards the rooting out of Heresie as according to the Roman stile they call the Protestant Religion and nourishing a mis-understanding betwixt His Majesty and His People And as they do conceive this to be a great advance towards their main project otherwise they would neither have so laboured to compass it nor bear themselves so much upon it having gained that point so in case that other means for the enslaving of these Nations and subversion of Religion should fail them which at present they nourish their hopes with the success of we may rationally look for no better consequences and effects from what I have mentioned than that the King being Excommunicate and the Nation cursed with him Lewis the 14 th should be intrusted to execute the Papal Bann And that Innocent the 11 th having made a donation of these Kingdoms to him as Pius the 5 th did to Philip the 2 d. King of Spain he should with a strength proportionable to the extent of his own Dominions and the greatness of his preparations for less designs endeavour to take possession of them as Philip the second once did And how ready they will be to animate the French King to contribute the assistance of his Treasure and Arms for the rooting out of English Hereticks we may justly fear and presume from the Councels they give him in reference to his own Subjects that are of the Reformed Religion For in a late Book to the maxims of which the conduct of his whole affairs seems very much adapted he is not only informed that his Ancestors never failed to be Protectors of the Apostolick See and the Church but that they turned their Arms and exposed their Lives against the Albigenses they vanquished them they destroyed them they imprisoned the poor men of Lyons And he is further told that both by principles of Christianity and maxims of Policy it is necessary for him to reduce all his Subjects to one and the same belief and that the Edict of Nantes as being extorted from his Predecessors by violence and with Sword in hand ought to be no obstruction in the execution of so blessed a design but that the said Edict is to be revoked or at least neglected Now his compliance with this advice against the Protestants in France evidenced in many instances whereby he hath endeavoured to extirpate them and their Religion though by degrees and in the ways of Fraud and Art
as well as by Power and Force may at once and instruct us what measure and favour his Heretical Neighbours are to expect from him if incited against them by the Pope and invited to the Undertaking by the English Papists If neither the advancing his Granfather Henry the Great to the Crown nor the securing himself in his Royalty when sought to be dethron'd by the Prince of Condy deserve or obtain better measure of Requital that what the Hugonots in France daily meet with what may these of the Protestant Religion in England look for from a Prince that besides his knowing the pretensions of the Kings of England to the Dominion of France and his remembring the Conquests that our Ancestors made upon that Monarchy and his sensing that his present Majesties Council and Arms have hindred the Carrere of his late Successes I say what may we look for from a Prince who besides all this is at once encouraged by the Pope invited by the Roman Catholiques in England and inflamed by his own ambition and pride as well as animated by his zeal to the Catholique Cause to turn his Formidable Preparations against these Lands But to conclude this I do particularly affirm that the success of the French Arms abroad hath emboldned the Papists in England in their designs of Subverting not only Religion but the Government A Third great step they had made to the subjugating these Kingdoms to section IX their Idolatrous Religion and the Tyranous yoke of the Roman Court was their preventing the Presumptive Heir to the Crown For howsoever they can here affirm with all the Asseverations imaginable especially when in conversation with credulous and easie Protestants that the Duke of York is still of the Established Religion only that he is a Prince of more generousness than to comply with the Capricioes of a Parliament in renouncing this or Swearing to that as they shall in an humour Enact Yet they not only know and beleeve the contrary but both make their boasts of it and erect their further hopes upon it Father Anderton Rector of the English College of Jesuits at Rome Father Campion Minister of the same College and Father Green Procurator for their Order at Monto Portio have often told me when I was in Italy that the Duke of York was of their Religion And as the Perversion of his Royal Highness gave them nearer prospects of their Establishing their Superstition and Tyranny once again in these Kingdoms and Dominions so it contributed to too effectually to the bringing over many of all Ranks and Qualities to them For as I have when abroad frequently heard the Jesuits glory both in the acquisition of such a Convert and that many Gentlemen through his example had renounced Protestancy and embraced the Roman Catholique Doctrine so the thing carries a self Evidence in it nothing being more familiar in the observation of Ages than that the influence of a Person of the rank quality and legal hopes of his Royal Highness should sway vast and large numbers of people to espouse the Persuasion that he had taken up There is a great part of mankind that seems to own this or that Religion who yet do it not upon any rational grounds or motives of conviction but with respect of Secular interests wordly advantages and accomodations And persons of this Figure being in truth of no Religion will not publickly avow themselves but vigorously impose that upon others which appears suited and calculated unto their carnal an worldly Ends. And the Atheistical Principles which I am afraid too many have imbib'd from a great pretender to Philosophy and Politicks namely that all the obligations of the Law of God upon the consciences of men may be violated by the Authority of the Sovereign in his own Dominions and that no person is accountable at the Tribunal of the Lord for renouncing Christianity it self and much less for the disclaiming Protestancy providing he hath the command of a Ruler to authorise him in what he doth I say I am justly apprehensive that these and the like abominable Notions which many have suckt in from Mr. Hobbs do not only dispose men to be of the Roman Faith if at any time the Sovereign proves to be so but that not a few under the meer prospect of what is likely to be have judged it most convenient to antidate themselves of that Religion which they foresee that in a little time they must be of Moreover it is not easie to be conceived how the Duke of Yorks being a Papist hath encouraged vast numbers of Romish Emissaries to come over hither afforded them security while here and emboldned them in their addresses to all ranks and degrees of Persons And as the City and Country never swarmed so much with all sort of Romish Ecclesiasticks both Secular and Regular as since the perversion of his Royal Highness so by their accosting the hopes of some and addressing the fears of others from the Duke's being a Papist they have and that upon my own personal knowledge prevailed upon many to conform to his Example For I very well remember that Father Campian being returned from England to Rome where I then was did not only confirm them that were here in the belief of the Duke of Yorks being a Papist and of his having been often at Mass but withall affirmed that through his Example many Gentlemen were not only turned Roman Catholicks but Jesuits Surely it was upon a due knowledge as well as mature deliberation that the Great Senate of the Nation April 27. 1679. Resolved Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York 's being a Papist and his hopes of Coming to the Crown such hath given the greatest Incouragement to the present Conspiracy and Designs of the Papists against the King and the Protestant Religion section X Nor was this either the only progress they had made to the Reinslaving the Nations to Rome but through the interest of the Duke of York and the universal influence he had both at Sea and Land and likewise at Home and Abroad they obtained divers of these persons who were most zealous for the Papal Jurisdiction and in whom they could best confide to be advanced and preferred into places of Power and Trust. And of this there needs no further Evidence though many more instances might be assigned but the advancement of my Lord Clifford to be Lord High Treasurer and Sr. William Godolphin to be his Majesties Embassador in Spain and my Lord Bellasis to be Governor of Hull 'T is true that by the late Tests which His Majesty and the Parliament have provided for such as were to be Imployed in publick Trusts that Papists might be the better and more effectually known and distinguished from Protestants There are both some removed who had been advanced to places of Trust Authority and profit and some others kept from arriving at those stations in the Commonwealth and in the attaining that place and interest in
ill of them And this they have not only declared in their Books but maintained in the Theses which they have proposed to be disputed in their Schools I know that which surprizeth many who know not the Rules and measures the Papists act by is the men not only pretending to some Religion themselves but intrusted with the conduct of the Consciences of others should publish and divulge such and such things if they were not true when alas the Principle they act by is not whether the thing they affirm be true but whether it be for their advantage honour and secular interest to have it believed I do maintain saith Dicastellus That Calumny when it is used against a Calumniator i. e. one that doth them or their Order a mischief though grounded on absolute falsities is not for that any mortal sin either against Justice or Charity That is is only any mortal sin to Calumniate falsly to preserve ones honour is no doubt saith Caramuel a probable opinion It is a probable Opinion that we may lawfully slander that person by charging him with crimes that are false against whose Testimony we are not able otherwise to defend our selves saith Sambourin Nor is it any ways strange that they should hold it lawfull to Calumniate any one that accuseth them seeing they declare it lawfull to kill such a one We may without mortal sin saith Lessius kill an accuser though the crime whereof he accuseth us be true so it were secret It is lawfull even for an Ecclesiastick or Monk saith Amicus to kill that person who threatens to produce great crimes against him or his Order Now having established Maxims by which they make it lawfull not only to Calumniate without endangering their Salvation but destroy those that injure them is it any thing strange that they should practise what they esteem lawfull especially when their doing it is so necessary not only to the preservation of the credit and safety of their Order but of their Church and all their Party in England Can any man imagin but that having made it lawfull to Calumniate they should at this time if ever act accordingly there being no way left to vindicate themselves or discredit their Accusers save the making their recourse to lies slanders and revilings I desire in reference to all they say to bring the business to this issue with them either their Casuists teach such Maxims or they do not As to their teaching them let them deny it if they dare I both assign the Men that do so and the places where And besides those I have mentioned shall be ready if called thereunto to produce many more concurring in the same Doctrine And seeing they do teach these Maxims let them if they can give but any Rational person satisfaction that any credit is due to such who may lawfully act as every Papist may upon these Principles Let them not then offer to abuse the World any more by Discourses demonstrative of the Unlawfulness of lying and Calumniating by arguments from natural light and Divine Revelation seeing neither Scripture nor the light of Reason are the measures which they Govern themselves by And all Treatises of that nature are but fresh instances of their lying and deceiving while they are declaring it unlawfull to do so And let me add this that the late Pamphlets most adapted to impose upon the World a belief of the credibility and sincerity of the Jesuits such as the Letter to the Two Houses the Jesuits Plea and the New Plot to transform Jesuits into Martyrs c. Do overlook all those Maxims of their Casuists which have been advanced against them by the Authors both of the Impartial Consideration of the Speeches of the five Jesuits and of the Letter intituled Lying allowable with Papists to deceive Protestants and do only insist upon other Principles which by their Maxims they are not obliged to govern themselves by And whereas they are pleased to ask us whether we take those who have been either Condemned or only Arraigned to have been Atheists that they should do that which not only the Principles of the Gospel but the common Sentiments of Mankind not only forbid under the greatest penalty but teach us to detest I answer that I take them to have been worse namely Jesuits or their Disciples who under the names of Christians to the reproach of Religion as well as the debauching of Mankind and ruine of all Societies and Government have established that as lawfull which the Gospel threatens with eternal Wrath and with all states punish either with the Gibbet or the Pillory A second Reason why it is not only every ones duty but at this time section XIII indispensally necessary to contribute to the further detection of the Popish Plot is the awakening the Kingdom to provide in all legal and due ways for the Protection of His Majesties Person and its own defence and Security The Lethargy that the generality of the Nation laboureth under is that which amaseth its Friends and incourageth its Enemies They are greatly deceived that think the Papists have laid their design alas they do more industriously than over pursue it The Case is so stated that there is no retreat and rather than miss their hopes they are resolved to stake lives fortunes and all upon a venture They have laboured too long to bring things to the pass they are in to loose in a moment the fruits of all their toyls and indeavours Though the Protestants should be willing to forgive them yet they know that they have proceeded too far to rely upon Mercy and therefore their guilt lightning their fears makes them desperate The death of Traytors who have suffered instead of dismaying the Party hath greatly enflamed them to revenge They know too well that many more both deserve and may meet with the like measure and rather than tamely suffer it they will all run on in the same fortune They are at present negotiating with all Foreign States for Assistance and he must needs be a stranger to conversation that hath not heard of the liberal Contributions providing for them in all Popish Countries The boldness they every where express is not the effect of their Innocency but of their Villany and confidence of Success through the Aids which they look for Nor hath their slandering the King to his People and their misrepresenting many of his Protestant Subjects to him any other tendency but to prevent mutual confidence between them which if they can but hinder its impossible as things stand that they should miscarry in their design or that either His Majesty or his Protestant Subjects should escape To tell us by one hand that the King laughs at the Plot as a matter wholly fabulous and by another that the Two late Parliaments were a Company of Factious Men What design can this have but to beget a distrust betwixt His Majesty and his People and deprive us of that
Religion and induced to Espouse the Faith of the Church of Rome I was accordingly received with great Ceremony into the said Church by Cardinal Grimaldi Archbishop of Aix in Provence 'T is true they do not think meet to celebrate the reception of every one that goes over to them with so much solemnity but yet it is not without many and considerable reasons that they think meet sometimes to do it For though in effect they have only cause of glorying over the ignorance weakness or lusts of the Party they have Proselited yet they would have it pass for a Triumph over the Religion which he hath forsaken And though all that they can truly boast of be the ensnaring some Person that neither understood the Religion which he relinquished nor that which he espoused but was meerly captivated with the hopes of Pleasure Profit and Preferment Yet Protestancy must be brought upon the stage as weary of it self and the Popish Religion must be recommended to the Ignorant multitude from the Victory it hath obtained over such a thinking learned and conscientious Man Thirdly I would suggest this that being received into the Bosom of the Romish Church I went thereupon to Rome and was entertained in the Jesuits College Where by my continuance four years and running through my whole course of Philosophy and at last taking Orders of Priesthood and through my being sometime Prefect of the Study I injoyed these opportunities of knowing their Sentiments and Doctrines concerning Protestant Princes and of their Designs against these Nations with their hopes of Reenslaving them which I shall now declare Nor will it I hope be reckoned a piece of Immodesty and I do affirm that partly through my success in my Scholastick Exercises and partly through the favour I had with Cardinal Rochi Major Domo to the Pope to whom I had dedicated all my Theses and partly from the familiarity I had with all the principal Fathers of the Jesuits in the English College I had not only the advantage of Hearing what was publickly said either in Schools or Refectory but was allowed Access to private Discourse with the most Eminent Fathers in the College where I had their Opinions concerning the King of England and an account of their Purposes towards Him and the Kingdom inculcated to me These things being briefly premised and intimated That which I have section XV next to offer is that whilest I was at Rome I frequently heard the Jesuits both teach in Schools and preach in Pulpits the Doctrine of the Pope's power to depose Kings So that according to them no King doth Reign but at the pleasure of the Pope And from hence we may learn these two things 1. That it is not only lawfull but necessary in order to the preservation of the peace and safety of the Kingdom that all who have imbib'd these Doctrines should be accounted Traytors and accordingly proceeded against though never convicted to acting up to them The Principle it self is the highest of Treasons and therefore there needs no further Over-act for the condemning such Criminals So far as the Popish Religion hath only an influence upon the future state of men it was never punished with death in England it is only upon the foot of those Doctrines which instruct and countenance them to overthrow the State and Government that Romish Priests are justly made liable to suffer And therefore the Priests who were lately Executed without being Arraigned for any thing save for their being so and their withdrawing His Majesties Subjects from the Religion by Law Established were as reall Traytors as those who were convinced for Conspiracy against the Kings Life 2. I would further infer from the foregoing Doctrine that no security can be had of the Loyalty of any Person that is so possest For so long as he holds that any one hath Authority to depose the Prince under whose Government he lives it is impossible that such a Prince can be secured of the fidelity and allegiance of that Subject And it is very remarkable that whereas some of the Irish Papists since His Majesties Restauration had in a Remonstrance prepared for the persuading the Government of their Loyalty only acknowledged though they had not sworn it that King Charles is their Lawfull King and the Pope hath no power to Depose him how thereupon they are told from Rome that they had renounced the Catholick Faith and that they were fallen under the Condemnation of the Apostolick See For as the Popes Nuncio at Brussels by a Letter dated July 21. 1662. informs them how that their Remonstrance being examined at Rome by Cardinals and Divines was found to contain Propositions condemned by Paul the Fifth and Innocent the Tenth and that the Pope was so far from approving it that he did not so much as permit or connive at it and therefore condemned it in this Form that it could not be kept without breach of Faith according to the Decrees of Paul the Fifth and that it denied the Popes Authority in matters of Faith according to that of Innocent the Tenth I do further declare that during my abode at Rome I heard the Jesuits section XVI often affirm and publish that it was not only lawfull to Kill any Prince or Person Excommunicated and declared a Heretick but that it was meritorious to do so Nor was this the Opinion only of one or two or of such as might be esteemed Rash and Giddy but it was the common Doctrine of all the Jesuits there And I do by all that may obtain credit with Mankind testifie that I have heard it Asserted by Father Anderton Rector of the English College of the Jesuits at Rome Father Campion Minister of the said College Father Robert Southwell Assistant to the General of the Jesuits Father Buckley Pentionary for the Pope Father Green Procurator for the Jesuits at Monto Portio within fifteen Miles of Rome And from this I desire to make these three Remarks 1. That every Protestant Prince is hereby exposed to the mercy of any one that under the encouragement of meriting Heaven will take the boldness to Assassinate Him For all such Princes both by the Decrees of their Councils and the Cannons of their Church as well as by the Bulls of divers Popes are not only pronounced Hereticks but actually Excommunicate Nor are the Jesuits singular in this Opinion that it is lawfull to kill Heretical Princes for the Pope himself by a Decree in their Canon Law hath taught and declared the same We do not esteem them Murderers saith Pope Vrban who shall happen to kill any Excommunicate person out of an ardour and zeal to the Catholick Church their Mother Secondly I would observe from hence what opinion we are to have of all that the five Jesuits declared upon their Salvation in their late dying Speeches God was equally invok'd to be a Witness of all they said and their Salvation was alike pawn'd upon the truth of one
thing as well as another And whereas then we find them evidently Tardy by their saying that there is not one Jesuit except Mariana that holds it lawfull for a private person to kill a King although an Heretick although a Pagan although a Tyrant we may very rationally suspect their sincerity and Truth in all the rest What! is there not one Jesuit but Mariana who maintains King-killing Doctrine Yes I do affirm that I have frequently heard Anderton Campion Southwell c. in their daily Discourses Lectures and Sermons at Rome teach the same And though all that know me will receive more upon the credit of my Word than this comes to yet to put it out of doubt that the Jesuits died Liars I shall convince the World of their Teaching the King-killing Doctrine from their publick Writers Was not Cardinal Tolet a Jesuit and doth he not declare That Subjects are not bound to maintain unviolate their Oath of Allegiance to an Excommunicate Person Was not Cardinal Bellarmine a Jesuit and doth he not affirm That the Pope hath the same right and power over Kings as Jehoiada had over Athalia Was not Gregory Valentia a Jesuit and doth he not teach that the Pope may deprive Heretical Kings of all Dominion and Superiority over their Subjects Was not Creswell a Jesuit and doth he not affirm that if a Prince be not of the Romish Religion he looseth all Right and Title to Govern and his Subjects are discharged from all obligation of Obedience and that he may be proceeded against as the Enemy of Mankind Was not Franciscus Varona Constantinus a Jesuit and doth he not in his Apology for John Chastel who wounded Hen. 4. of France tell us That it is lawfull for a private man to murder Kings and Princes condemned of Heresie Is not this a Point so evident that De Harlay the first President of the Parliament of Paris who both knew the Doctrine of the Jesuits and had seen the wofull Effects of it in the murder of Two Kings of France publickly avow it to be their common Opinion in all their Writings That the Pope hath a right to Excommunicate Kings and that thereupon their Subjects may with Innocency assault and destroy them Have Englishmen learned from the Jesuits the guilt of Forgetfulness so as not to remember that Cardinal Allen wrote a Book to prove that Princes Excommunicate for Heresie not only might but were to be deprived of their Kingdom and Life And was not William Parry provoked thereby to kill Queen Elizabeth which though before he had promised at Rome to do yet he was Hesitating in his mind about it till incouraged by that Book Or is it past into Oblivion with us that Father Gifford instigated one John Savage to kill the same Queen and that upon the Bull of Pius 5. And which is remarkable at the same time that they might be the less suspected and the Queen the more secure they wrote a Book wherein they admonished the Papists in England not to attempt any thing against their Princess but to fight against their Adversaries only with the Weapons of Christians viz. with Tears Spiritual reasonings Prayers Watchings and Fastings To all this I shall only add that going in the company of Capt. Richardson to visit Mr. Thomas Jenison the Jesuit then in Newgate but since deceased the said Mr. Jenison acknowledged in Discourse That the Jesuits both held for lawfull and taught in their Writings that an Excommunicate King might be lawfully either Deposed or Murthered but that he himself would not have accession to the practice of these Principles Thirdly I desire to recommend this further to the Reader viz. That though it be both the Doctrine of the Court of Rome and commonly maintained by the Jesuits in their Writings that it is lawfull to kill an Heretical Prince yet it is not usual to press it upon their Youth and inculcate it to their Scholers but upon the prospect of some great occasion They have it always ready in the Books of their Scholasticks and Casuists to teach their Votaries what may lawfully be done but it is not their custom to urge it in their Common discourse nor to recommend it to their Disciples in private or publick Conferences but with respect to something of that Nature to be speedily transacted Thus when they had a purpose to murder Hen. 4. of France Father Generet a Jesuit instructed John Chastell in this King-killing and Heretical Doctrine And Father Fayre did the same by Francis Veron to dispose him for the same Design Yea when they were ready to perpetrate that barbarous Villany upon that Generous Prince the very Sermons of the Jesuits were all fram'd to instigate men to so Bloody an attempt so that Ravilliack when examined about the Causes why he stabb'd the King answered that they might understand them by the Sermons of the Preachers I do further declare that during my residence at Rome I heard the Jesuits section XVII frequently affirm that the King of England was an Heretick and so in Form condemned And when I was leave to the College and return to England which was about June 1676. the said Fathers did both severally and together Teach and Instruct me that I was not to pay Obedience to an Heretical or Excommunicated Prince Now whereas there are divers other Protestant Kings and Princes in Europe beside the King of Great Brittain that which both then gave me amazement and hath also cost me some thoughts since is why only the King of England should be upon all occasions represented as an Heretiek and that no other Protestant Prince should be so much as once mentioned under that Character Nor am I able to resolve it into any thing but this that it was likely to be more for the advantage of the Church of Rome to have the King of England murthered than any other Prince besides For whatsoever ill-will they may bear to them all yet they are not so foolish as to undertake a thing that carries a hazard of scandal and danger in it if the success in the Attempt may not recompence the difficulties in the Atchievement Now there being no Prince of the Reformed Religion at this day in the World whose Death would turn so much to the profit of Rome as that of the King of England it is the less to be marvelled that they should be contented to allow others to live and are only sollicitous to get him removed And the gain which they promise themselves from the Death of his Majesty ariseth from a Consideration of these three things First That the Duke of York the pesumptive Heir to the Crown is a Papist And ought it then to be a matter of any surprize that to further and hasten his Succession they should conspire the destruction of His Majesty who is the only obstacle in the Duke's way to the Throne Are we so unacquainted with the History of our own Nation