that they might be exempt from His Majesty's jurisdiction so very diligent he was in catching at any shadow which might seem to favour the Exemption of the Clergy Three Years after this Sanctarellus his Book was printed at Rome Anno 1625 wherein the Deposing Power was asserted in its utmost latitude and though Father Coto and two other Jesuites were required to answer it yet no reply appeared the former affirming before the Parliament that though he disapproved the Doctrine in France yet he would assent to it if he were at Rome The Oath of Allegiance being vigorously press'd in England Anno 1626 the Pope sent a Bull to the Romanists exhorting them to continue firm and let their Tongue rather cleave to the Roof of their Mouth then permit the Authority of St. Peter to be diminished by that Oath and commanding them strictly to observe the Breves of Pope Paul the Fifth and Father Fisher justified Suarez and the Doctrine of his Book asking what could be found prejudicial in it to Princely Authority and affirming that if it contained any such thing it would not be permitted in Catholick Kindoms We have mention'd that the exemption of the Clergy was desired by the Pope in the Treaty for Anno 1627 the Spanish Match and now his Emissaries in this Nation affirmed that the King could have nothing to doe with her Majesties Chaplains because he was an Heretick and his Holiness threatned to declare those to be Apostates who should seek their Establishment in the Queens Family from the King But though these were plain Indications of what they desired Anno 1628 yet they kept their Designs so secret that they were not discovered till some time after but there was a Conspiracy detected at Genoa which if it had not been prevented would have ended in the Murther of the Nobility and Alteration of the Government And the next Year a Plot was detected in Mantua against the Life of the Prince Anno 1629 and some Officers apprehended who would have betray'd Viadana to the Governour of Millan In Ireland the Papists assaulted the Archbishop of Dublin wounded several of his Followers and forced him to fly for his Life following him in a tumultuous manner along the streets and that they had several seditious Designs in hand at the same time Anno 1620 is evident from the Confession of Mac-Enerry a Dominican who for this very reason left the Church of Rome because of her rebellious Doctrines and the many Conspiracies he had taken an Oath of Secresie to conceal which he observed inviolably and though he informed the Bishop of Limrick that there were many Plots then contriving against his Majesty's Government yet for his Oaths sake he would not name any Persons who were concerned in them The Duke of Orleance had retired in disgust from Court some years since and was received by the Duke of Lorrain Anno 1632 but being forced this year to leave that retreat he went to Brussells from whence aided by the Spaniards he marched at the head of an Army into France but was defeated and several of his Adherents executed While France was thus almost continually pestered with Rebellions Anno 1633 the Designs of the Papists ripened apace in Ireland they had erected Friaries in the Countrey instead of those which were dissolved in the Dublin and even in that City they had a College of Students whereof Father Paul Harris was Dean and at a Synodical meeting of their Clergy they decreed that it was not lawfull to take the Oath of Allegiance If it were not that all the Designs of that Party from the Year 1630. to 1640. Anno 1640 were summed up and perfected in the Rebellion in Ireland and the execrable Civil Wars of England I should wonder how they came to be so still and that no more Conspiracies were discovered besides that great one which Andreas ab Habernsfield was informed of in Holland and of which he sent the King an Account under the hand of the Discoverer who affirms that one Maxfield was sent into Scotland to stir up a Rebellion there and that the King was to be poisoned for which end they kept a strong Poison in an Indian Nut which he had often seen They had likewise another Design if they could prevail upon the Scots or discontented English to rebell that thereby the King should be straitened and forced to depend on the Papists for assistance and then they would make their own Terms and secure to themselves a publick Liberty which if he refused to consent to they would not only desert him but dispatch him with the Indian Nut which they reserved on purpose He gives also an Account of the Persons concerned in the Plot among whom were several Ladies of Quality for whose Encouragement the Pope sent a Breve to Sir Toby Mathews one of the principal Conspiratours wherein he exhorts him and the Women engaged with him to proceed with diligence in the Design assuring them That he did not despair to see the Authority of the Holy See which was subverted in England by a Woman again restored in a very little time by the Endeavours of those Heroick Ladies This Breve is an unanswerable Evidence that the succeeding Troubles derived their original from the insatiate Lust of Rule which possessed the Pope Anno 1641 who herein approves of those very Methods which afterwards proved the Ruine of that excellent Prince and so miserably distracted these poor Nations But he appeared more publickly an Abbettor of the Irish Massacre and Rebellion wherein so many thousand Protestants were murthered in cold bloud sending his Nuncio to assist and affording them all the aid that he was able to give a Design laid with so much secresie and executed with so much cruelty that nothing but the very Spirit of Popery could be barbarous enough to engage in it in prosecution of which they did all they could totally to beat the English out of the Kingdom The same year the Marquess de Villa Real the Duke de Camina and the Marquess d' Armamar who by the Instigation of the Archbishop of Braga had undertaken to kill the King of Portugal Father to Her Majesty the Queen Dowager of England and to fire the Ships and the City in several places that they might have the better opportunity to promote the Interest of the Spaniards were put to death Nor did France yet enjoy any more quiet where the Count de Soissons and the Duke of Guise and others raised a Rebellion and routed the King's Army but the Count being slain with his own Pistol the Confederacy was soon broken Yet the very next Year the Duke of Orleance combined with the Spaniards Anno 1642 who were to assist him with Forces for a new Rebellion The Pope had involved Ireland in Bloud the former year and in this the Wars began in England where
satisfie the only Scope Design and End of this Discourse A Brief Account of the several Plots Contriv'd and Rebellions Rais'd by the Papists against the Lives and Dignities of Sovereign Princes since the Reformation IN the year 1520. Anno 1520 about three years after Luther began to preach was that almost universal Rebellion in Spain against the Emperour Charles the Fifth which lasted four years Three years after Anno 1523 the Earl of Desmond entred into a Conspiracy against our King Henry the Eighth and had procur'd a promise of assistance from King Francis the First of France the Articles of which Agreement are yet extant whereby it appears that the Design was to make the Duke of Suffolk then in France King but King Francis being taken Prisoner at the Battel of Pavia the year following Anno 1524 and the Duke of Suffolk slain the Design fell The next year the Irish rebell'd Anno 1525 and murther'd many of the English Inhabitants But Ten years after Anno 1535 the Pope drew up his Bull against K. Henry though he did not publish it till 1538. Anno 1538 wherein he asserts his Authority over Kings to plant and destroy as he sees good and then proceeds with the Advice of his Cardinals to summon the King and all his Adherents to appear before him at Rome on a day appointed threatening them with the greater Excommunication in case of Non-appearance and declaring Him and his Posterity incapable of any Honours Possessions or even of being Witnesses absolves all his Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity and commands them upon pain of Excommunication not to obey him or his Officers enjoyning all Christians to have no Commerce with him all Ecclesiasticks to leave the Land and all Dukes Marquesses c. under the same penalty to drive him out of his Kingdom declares all Leagues made with him by any Princes void exhorting them to endeavour his Ruine with their whole power bestowing all the Goods of his Adherents upon such as would seize them commanding all Bishops to declare the King and his Followers Excommunicate and denouncing the same Censures against whosoever should hinder the publication of this Bull. This piece of prodigious Impudence and Vanity would not satisfie the Pope but he immediately set his Instruments to work to prosecute the design of his thundering Bull so that the beginning of the next year this Letter was written from Paris to one Fryar Forrest Anno 1536 Brother WE behold how the King is changed from a Christian to an Heretick and how he hath robb'd Christ's Vicar of his Rights and Privileges by placing himself in his Holiness's Seat there as Supreme over the Catholick Church within the Realm It was the late damn'd Assembly of Lords and Commons furthered his Pride otherwise he could not nor durst not assume it to himself We have thought of these passages and do agree That there is no way to break this Tyrant's Neck but one Puff him up in his Pride and let our Friends say unto him That it is beneath so mighty a Monarch as he to advise with Parliaments but to act all in Person and that it behooveth his Majesty to be chief Actor himself If he assumes this it will take off great Blemishes from the Nation which the Church holds them guilty of and doe our Business For then the People it being contrary to their Laws will fall from him also the Catholick Party of his Council will be too strong for the Hereticks and then the Common sort will be the abler to declare his Tyranny This is to be contriv'd with the Church's Members and cautiously because it is observed that the Parliaments of England have hindred the Church in most of the Kings Reigns otherwise She had held her Party better than She does now You have our Convent's hearty Prayers for your Guide From St. Francis at Paris primâ— Id. Jan. 1536. Thomas Powell This Letter was found two years after among Father Forrest's Papers together with an account of vast Summes which he had expended for the Church of Rome and her Designs But this Design not being sufficient the Pope offered England to James the Fifth King of Scots and presented him with a Cap and consecrated Sword When that Offer of what was none of his succeeded not according to his Desires the same Pope Paul the 3d. by his Bull of the year following absolv'd in general Anno 1537 all Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance unto Heretical Kings Princes and States as they be Enemies unto the Holy See of St. Peter all Men from the tye of their Heretical Wives Wives from their Heretical Husbands c. which was accompanied with a Rebellion in Lincolnshire under the Conduct of one Mackarel a Monk to the number of Twenty thousand against whom the King prepar'd to march in Person but their first Fury being over they embraced the King's Pardon and returned home But this Commotion was succeeded by another more dangerous led by the Lord Lumley several Knights and Gentlemen with most of the Clergy this Army in the North consisted of 40000 Men well Armed who call'd themselves the Holy Pilgrimage and the Pilgrimage of Grace they had the Five Wounds of our Lord the Chalice and the Host painted in their Standard and the Name of Jesus upon their Sleeves their whole pretence was for Religion in their March they took Pontefract Castle but were at length appeas'd But soon after the same Persons raised another Insurrection in which several Monks came armed into the Field as Souldiers who were taken and with the Ring-leaders of the Rebellion Executed Two years after if not the next year to the last Rebellion Anno 1539 for some place it in the year 1538. the Marquess of Exceter the Lord Montacute and his Brother Sir Edward Nevill and others enter'd into a Conspiracy to depose the King and advance Reynold Pool then Dean of Exceter and afterwards Cardinal to the Throne for which the Marquess Lord Montacute and Sir Edward Nevill were Beheaded upon Tower-Hill In the year 1546. Anno 1546 Pope Paul the Third not content with his shewing his pretended Authority over Kings in the two Bulls mention'd before published another in favour of the Jesuits whereby he exempts them and their Goods from the Power of any but himself and commands all Princes to swear not to molest the Society or invade their Privileges and pronounces an Anathema against all who will not obey the Bull. Two years after this Anno 1548 King Edward the Sixth being settled in the Throne one Body a Commissioner pulling down Images by the King's Order was stabbed by a Priest and a Rebellion was rais'd in Cornwall Humphrey Arundell Governour of the Mount with other Gentlemen gathering together Ten thousand Men besieged Exceter and reduc'd it to very great Extremity declaring they would have Popery and the Six Articles restor'd They fought four several Battels with the
But four years after was that desperate Confederacy entred into by that Duke and his Adherents in France Anno 1576 which they and the Pope afterwards termed the Holy League which had all the parts of a most desperate Rebellion and continued for so many years to the Destruction of one Prince and infinite vexation of another It was first begun at Peronne and afterwards formed into a more strict Union by which under a shew of maintaining the King they took from him all his Authority to confer it upon the Head of their Conspiracy Nay the zeal for this rebellious Association was so great that they subscribed it with their Bloud and in order to the prosecution of what they had there promised they sent Nicolas David an Advocate of the Parliament of Paris to Rome but he being slain by the way on his return Cardinal de Pellive afterwards managed their business with the Pope But among the Memoirs of that Advocate there was found an Account of the Transaction between the Pope and the Duke of Guise wherein the Design laid down is to pull down the House of Valois then reigning from the Throne and set up the Duke of Guise In this Transaction the Liberties of the Gallican Church are called a damnable Errour nothing else but the shift of the Waldenses Lutheranes and Calvinists and it is affirmed that France shall never prosper as long as the Crown continues in that line The whole Platform of the Design is there laid down and the Pope is to advance that Duke to the Crown of France as the Successour of Charlemagne in consideration whereof the Duke is bound to cause the See of Rome to be plainly acknowledge by the States of the Kingdom without Restriction or Modification abolishing the Privileges and Liberties of the Gallican Church Thus do we find the Pope promoting the most rebellious Designs to advance his own usurped Greatness And his Missionaries not desiring a better example than that of their holy Father Anno 1577 in prosecution of his Designs Cuthbert Mayne came into England dispersing Libells to maintain the Pope's Authority over the Queen and he confessed under his own Hand that he brought with him several holy grains to distribute among the Catholicks which they should keep as so many Preservatives by the producing of which they should be safe when the Protestants were to be destroyed In the same business several others were employed and one Hemford sent over with a Dispensation of the Pope's Bull whereby the Romanists had liberty to yield outward Obedience till an opportunity offered itself for the execution of that deposing Sentence And one Haydock was employed to prepare things against such a time and to note the fittest places for landing an Army as himself wrote to Allen the Jesuite Besides these one Paine a Priest and fifty others were furnished at the Pope's Charge who undertook to kill the Queen as she went to take the Air. And yet these are the men whom Sanders in his Letter to the aforenamed Jesuite terms chosen Vessels But our Countrey was not the onely Nation afflicted with these Plots and traiterous Contrivances for about the same time was Sebastian King of Portugal betrayed by the Jesuits to the loss both of his Life and Kingdom which they had before engaged to transfer to the Spanish King in which they were as good as their word though near fifty years since it is returned to the Obedience of its lawfull Heir during which War attempting to deliver one of the Isles of the Azores to the Spaniards they were discoved and treated as their Wickedness deserved but of this more hereafter The Pope's Designs upon the Queen's Life being by the good Providence of God frustrated Anno 1578 the holy Father Anno 1579 Gregory the 13th carried on the projects of his Predecessour who had willingly lent an Ear to the advice of Thomas Stukely an English Fugitive and in hopes of getting the Kingdom of Ireland for his own Son the Marquess of Vineola where we find though Popes do not marry yet they can get Children created Stukely Marquess of Leinster adding several other Titles and assisting him with Forces and a plenary Indulgence dispatcht him away for Ireland but by the way being persuaded by the King of Portugal to join with him against the Moors he was slain in the Battel together with that King But though Ireland was delivered from this Danger yet soon after James Fitz-Morice who was pardoned in the Year 1569. went over into France where he desired Assistance to beat the English out of Ireland and reduce that Nation to the French Obedience but King Henry the Third then reigning having sufficient Employment for his Forces at home Fitz-Morice addressed himself to the Pope and the King of Spain the former embraced this opportunity and sent Sanders with him as his Nuncio with a consecrated Banner and the latter assisted them with Men and Money the Pope in the mean while raising Souldiers in his Countrey for their Assistance and Relief Fitz-Morice and Sanders with the Spaniards landed in Kerry in Ireland Anno 1580 and committedall manner of Outrages in one of which Fitz-Morice was killed by the Sons of William a Burgh soon after made Baron of Castleconnel in his place succeeded his Brother John E. of Desmond to whom the Pope sent an Indulgence dated May 13. 1580. wherein he highly magnifies the Piety of James laments his Death and exhorts all the Nobility Clergy and People of the Land to follow this John in fighting against the Hereticks for the Catholick Cause and to encourage them in that good work he grants a Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all their sins in the same extent as was granted to those who were engaged in the Holy War And when the Spaniards were required by the Lord Gray then Deputy of Ireland to express their Intention in thus invading her Majesties Dominions they returned Answer That they were sent from the Pope and King of Spain to whom his Holiness had given Ireland for that Elizabeth had justly forfeited her Title to the Kingdom by Heresie that they would keep what they had got and get more if they could But in a small time after they were glad to surrender upon Mercy the Earl of Desmond having been routed before and Allen the Priest who came with the Legate Sanders slain This ill success put a stop to the Recruits the Pope was preparing to send after them Sanders dyed of hunger in the Woods and the Earl of Desmond was slain two years after by a common Soldier And to encourage these Rebels and to excite to more such Attempts this Pope Gregory the Thirteenth the same year renewed the Bull of Pius Quintus against the Queen There were five hundred Copies of it printed at Rome and the Bull it self dispersed over all Italy Spain and part of Germany as is attested by one
but being prevented by a Discovery another Resolution was agreed on to secure his Person at his return from Bois de Vincennes slenderly accompanied but failing in this also the Duke of Guise came to Paris contrary to the King 's express Order where he was received with great joy and soon after his Party being numbred and found considerable he openly rebelled barricadoing the Streets and forcing the King to flie who made his Escape with very few Attendants Soon after the King of Spain sent six hundred thousand Crowns to the Rebels and the Pope by solemn Letters applauded the Duke's Zeal compared him to the Maccabean Heroes and exhorted him to go on as he had begun but here the insignificancy of the Pope's Blessing again appeared the Duke of Guise being soon after slain at Blois and so receiving the just Reward of his continued Rebellions Thus were the Designs of wicked men who prostituted the holy Name of Religion to serve their Lusts baffled and defeated both in their Attempts against the incomparable Queen Elizabeth and the French King as also in a Plot against the K. of Navarre which by the same Divine Providence was this year discovered But the Scotch Papists were so possessed with Spanish Promises Anno 1589 and influenced by their Gold and the persuasions of Holt Creighton and other Jesuites that several Noblemen conspired to seize the King afterwards King James the First of England at his Palace in Edinburg where Huntley coming before the others was upon Suspicion apprehended which terrified the rest but being set at liberty joined himself to the Earl of Crawford and others in open Rebellion entred Aberdeen but were so terrified by the approach of the Royal Army that they retreated were taken and after Tryall imprisoned And here I find such an Account of the Conversions made by the Jesuites in Scotland as fully confirms the Observation made before of their Design in their diligent Endeavours to make Proselytes For Mr. Bruce the chief Agent for the Spaniards in his Letter to the D. of Parma commending the Zeal of the Missionaries in Scotland tells him that they had converted the Earls of Arroll and Crawford who were very desirous to advance the Catholick Faith and Spanish Interest in this Island and resolved to follow entirely the Directions of the Fathers Jesuites whence it appears their main design is to enlarge their Empire for as the same Gentleman affirms no sooner any person of Quality is converted by them but they forthwith encline and dispose their affections to the Service of the King of Spain as a thing inseparably conjoined with the advancement of true Religion in this Countrey so that by the Confession of this great Man Popery and Treason were inseparable at that time the Romanists being so in love with it that they made their Address to the broken Fleet of the Spaniards the last year to land what Forces they had several great Persons being ready to receive them And the two new Noble Converts wrote to the Duke of Parma testifying their entire devotednes to the Spanish Interest Nor was Scotland alone thus infected for in England the Earl of Arundell was this year tried and dyed in the Tower who rejoiced at the Spaniards coming prayed for their Success and exceedingly grieved at their Overthrow And the Jesuite Parsons prevailed to have a Seminary wherein to instruct Youth in such treasonable Principles as his own founded at Valedolyd But though this Island was sufficiently pestered this year by the Papal Agents and Factours for Rebellion yet were we favourably dealt with in comparison of the Treasons and Insurrections in France against Henry the Third a Prince of their own Communion who after the Death of the Duke of Guise was opposed by an almost universal Rebellion the Priests calling on their Auditours to swear to revenge the Duke's Death and railing with all manner of virulency against the King insomuch that Father Lincestre affirmed that if he were at the Altar and the Eucharist in his hand he would not scruple in that very place to kill him The Rebels styl'd him Tyrant Heretick and to have his Picture or to call him King was crime enough to deserve death they threw down his Arms and Statues and practised all sort of Magick Incantations and Charms to hasten his death The Parisians wrote to the Pope desiring to be absolved from their Allegiance with several other requests of the same nature and in their Letters to the Cardinals styled their Sovereign The late King of France and sent Agents to Rome giving them among other Instructions Orders to desire the Pope not to entertain or hear the King's Ambassadours and Messages and to excommunicate all that join with him and having chosen the Duke of Mayenne for their General would have had him take the Title of King but he refused it yet they broke the King 's great Seal and made a new one To these the City of Lyons joined affirming that Kings ought to be resisted and they will resist the King in conjunction with the Holy Union to whom the Parisians sent a Letter exhorting them to defend their Religion c. against that prodigal perjured cruel and murthering Prince the Duke of Mayenne refusing to have any Peace or admit so much as of a Truce and prosecuting the War with the utmost vigour To these Attempts and Perseverance in them they were encouraged by the Sorbon Doctours who in a Decree made Jan. 7. 1589. resolved That the People were freed from their Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity and that they may legally and with a safe Conscience take Arms for the Defence of the Roman Religion against the wicked Counsels and Practices of the King Which Decree they ordered to be sent to the Pope for his Confirmation and this they affirm was concluded on and resolved by an entire consent of the whole Faculty not one dissenting And with the same Zeal and no more Loyalty they licensed a Book which asserted that the King ought to be assassined affirming that there was nothing in it contrary to the Roman Church To promote which they concluded that the King ought to be no longer prayed for declaring all such of the Body as should not agree to this to be guilty of Excommunication and deprived of the Prayers and Privileges of the Faculty And that there might remain no badg of Royalty to put them in mind of their Duty the Cordeliers struck off the Head of the King's Picture which was in their Church and the Jacobins defaced those in their Cloisters But this was done after the Pope had once more publickly owned the Rebels and their Cause who by his Bull asserted his Power of Rule over all Kingdoms and Princes of the Earth proceeded to admonish the King to release the Cardinal of Bourbon and Archbishop of Lyons in thirty days and within sixty days to make
yet in Scotland their Designs went on from whence William Creighton the Jesuite went into Spain into whose King he so insinuated himself that he resolved to be guided by his Advice both for the invading England and the alteration of Religion in Scotland which was the Account himself gave of his Negotiation by a Message to the Earl of Huntley desiring as many blanks and Procurations as could be had of the Scottish Noblemen for the greater Credit of his Agitations In the mean time the Duke of Mayenne solicited the Pope and Spaniard for aid Anno 1591 and entred into an Obligation with the Duke of Lorrain and others not to admit any to the Crown except he were of their Family but if they failed in that to exclude all who were not of the Roman Catholick Religion But the Leaguers drew up a Letter and sent it to the King of Spain affirming that it was the desire of all the Catholicks to see his Catholick Majesty sway the Sceptre of that Kingdom and reign over them or that he would appoint some of his Posterity offering the Crown to the Infanta Isabella that King's Daughter in particular And to make all sure within themselves they contrived a new Oath whereby not onely the King but all the Bloud Royal were excluded from the Crown and set up a Court of Justice to proceed against the Royalists In which rebellious Actions they were encouraged by the Pope Greg. 14. who sent a Nuncio into France with two Bulls one interdicting the Clergy if within 15 days they forsook not the obedience and Part of the King and depriving them of all their Benefices if they left him not within thirty days the other threatening the Nobility and all others with the Papal Curse if they assisted that Heretick Persecutour Excommunicated Person who was justly deprived of his Dominions which were the mild Expressions with which this meek Servant of Servants treated that great Prince And farther to shew his Fatherly care of the Rebels he sent an Army to their relief under the Command of his Nephew and allowed them fifteen thousand Crowns a month whose steps were followed by his Successour Innocent the 9th who remitted them fifteen thousand Ducats every month of his Popedom which was but short for he sate not much above eight weeks in that Chair Yet were not these Designs of the Leaguers and Mayenne sufficient to content the Pope but the young Cardinal of Bourbon hoped for the Crown and so formed another Party of seditious Persons called Thirdlings among whom was Perron afterwards Cardinal and this Faction also had the countenance of the last Pope who to advance this Cardinal exhorted the States to chuse a Roman Catholick for their King And his Example was so far approved of by Clement the Eighth Anno 1592 who was chosen in his room that he continued the same allowance to the Leaguers renewed the same Exhortations and declared any other but a Romanist incapable of the Crown The Parliament of Roan published a severe Edict against all who adhered to the King and Discourses were spread abroad maintaining That it was unlawfull to desire his Conversion and that such as proposed or endeavoured it were excommunicated and ought to be driven away lest they should infect the rest and the Parliament of Paris enjoined Obedience to the Pope and his Legate declaring that the Convention of Estates designed to chuse a Popish King And by this time those few Romanists who had continued with the King became rebellious too requiring him to change his Religion within a time which they prescribed otherwise protesting they would elect another of their own Persuasion Thus Rebellion and the Roman Catholick Cause went on prosperously in France but not having the same strength and opportunities in England the more secret Methods were made use of the Spaniard was importuned to make another Invasion which he prepared for but the Romanists unwilling to trust to that alone took a shorter course and by Mr Hesket's means attempted to persuade the Lord Strange afterwards Earl of Derby to take upon him the Crown which they pretended he had a Title to and soon after Father Holt and others employed Patrick Cullen an Irish Fencer to murther the Queen which he readily undertook and for a very small reward but his barbarous Intention was discovered and he upon apprehension confessing the Design and who set him on was executed Two years before this the Jesuite Creighton upon his going into Spain had desired blanks to be filled up with Credentials and Procurations from the Noblemen of the Popish Party in Scotland and this year he received them the Persons who sent them farther engaging that all the Romanists in Scotland should assist them upon the arrival of the Army which the King of Spain promised should be with them by the End of the Spring to the number of thirty thousand whereof some were to remain in Scotland and the rest march directly into England These Blanks were sent by a Servant of the King 's with Letters from several Jesuites but he was apprehended and some of the Conspiratours imprisoned and executed The Jesuites complained in their Letters that the Spaniards were too slow and therefore desired the Invasion with great earnestness Upon this Discovery the Earls of Angus Anno 1593 Huntley and Arrol rebell'd but the King's Army marching against them before they had formed any considerable Body they fled into the Mountains submitted and were imprison'd in Order to a Tryall At the same time Tir Oen in Ireland after having persuaded and underhand maintained several Insurrections openly declar'd himself for the Rebells taking on him the Title of O Neal which by an Act of Parliament was declared Treason for any to assume Nor was England long free from open Rebellion yet clear'd of a Treasonable Generation who were daily employ'd in new Conspiracies against the Queens Life for Lopez one of the Queens Physicians undertook to Poison her for which he was to have Fifty thousand Crowns but being discovered confessed all and with two of his Accomplices was Executed But being unwilling to depend wholly on this Doctour the Jesuite Holt Dr. Worthington and others employed Edmond York Nephew to him who six years before had betrayed Zutphen to the Spaniards and Richard William with others to Kill the Queen who upon their Apprehension confessed That after several Consultations among the Priests and Jesuites in Flanders Holt threatned That if this Plot failed they would take this honourable Work out of the Hands of the English and employ Strangers for the future that they had vowed to Murther the Queen and that one Young Tipping Garret with two others had undertaken the same Design While God was thus confounding the Designs of these bloudy Men in this Nation the Leaguers in France seemed to have forgotten that an all-seeing Eye beheld their Actions where the Duke of Mayenne put
forth a Declaration affirming That Henry of Bourbon could not be lawfull King because he was an Heretick and therefore they cannot be blamed for opposing him in obedience to the Pope's Bulls and Admonitions to which his Holiness's Legate added another assuring the Romanists that the Pope would never consent to the admission of an Heretick that such who assisted the King were in a desperate Condition and exhorting all to be obedient to the Pope and when the Estates were met he proposed that all should take an Oath never to acknowledge the King though he should be converted to their Church nay so great was his Fury that when the Romanists with the King sent to the States some Propositions for a Treaty he declared the very Proposals to be Heretical and by his influence the Doctours of Sorbon asserted the same as intimating a declared Heretick might be King but the Proposition was accepted and a Conference agreed on but with this Clause in the Answer to the Proposal That to fight against an Heretical King is not Treason yet the Legate entred his Protestation against the meeting and the Parisians attempted to make the young Duke of Guise King Nor were things better in the Royal Army where the Romanists whom the King most trusted were falling from him upon which resolving to change his Religion his Intensions were no sooner published than the Legate forbad all Bishops to absolve him pronouncing all that should be assisting to his reception into the Roman Church excommunicated and deprived and all their Actions in that Affair null and void But hower the King was reconciled and sent his Ambassadours to Rome but the Pope who had formerly refused to admit any Message from him prohibited their Entrance neither would he receive the Prelates that absolved him In the mean while the Leaguers stormed at the King's reconciliation and set themselves to destroy him by private Treason now Force could doe no good for which purpose one Barriere or Le Barr was employed who confessed that the Curate of St. Andrews of Arts in Paris commended the Design telling him he would merit Heaven and Glory by the Act and recommended him to Varade Rectour of the Jesuites College who affirmed that the Enterprise was most holy exhorting him with good constancy and courage to confess himself and receive the B. Sacrament and then leading him to his Chamber gave him his Blessing He mentioned also another Preacher of Paris who counted it meritorious Thus encouraged he bought a knife seven Inches long and went to St. Denis where the King then was but being discovered was executed affirming at his death that there were two black Friars that went from Lyons upon the same Account It is probable the Preacher at Paris mentioned in his Confessions was Father Commolet the Jesuite who two days before this Barriere's Execution at St. Denis in a Sermon at Paris which yet continued obstinate against the King exhorted his Auditours to have Patience for they should see in a few days a wonderfull Miracle of God But the next Year Paris was reduced to its obedience Anno 1594 soon after which the University endeavoured the Expulsion of the Jesuites accusing them of all manner of Injustice of the ruine of Families and many other Crimes but insisting particularly on their Treasons charging them with being abettors to the Spaniard Fomenters of Civil Wars and always ready to assassinate the French King whom they omitted to pray for while they extolled the Spaniard that they taught and asserted the Pope's deposing Power that they refused to give Absolution to several Persons of Quality because they would not renounce the King that they had been the cause of the Death of Twenty-eight Barons Fifty Noble-men of France and above Five hundred Monks and Friars in the Tercera Islands and had refused to renounce the League Which Spirit of Rebellion was so strong amongst the Leaguers that a little before the Seduction of Paris the Pope's Legate published a Declaration exhorting all Catholicks to oppose the King assuring them that the Pope would never grant him Absolution and upon the Rendition of Aix to his Majesty the famous Genebrard was so vext at the Loyalty of the Place that he left it resolving not to live among the Royalists nay when the King entered Paris the Cardinal Pellivee lying upon his Death-bed very angrily told those about him That he hoped the Arms of the Spaniards and good Catholicks would yet drive the Huguonots out of Paris And Hay a Scotch Jesuite affirmed That if the King passed by their College he would leap from the top of it upon him and did not doubt to go directly to Heaven But to return to the Jesuites who finding their Banishment out of the Kingdom thus zealously endeavoured and fearing lest the King to whom they had been such bitter Enemies should consent to it resolved to dispatch him * Francis Jacob one of their Scholars at Bourges had boasted that he would doe it but John Chastel who was bred under them at Paris went farther and with a knife struck the King in the Mouth and beat out one of his Teeth he was immediately apprehended and on Examination confessed That he esteemed it an Act highly conducing to promote Religion and that Father Gueret his Master in the Jesuites School had taught him those Doctrines upon which Sentence of Death was pass'd upon him by which also the Jesuites were banished as Corrupters of Youth Disturbers of the publick Peace Enemies to the King and Kingdom and enjoined to depart the Realm within fifteen days and all their Goods confiscated to be disposed of as the Court should see fit This Sentence was published after the search made in the Jesuites College wherein was found a Book of T. Guignard's which he confessed to be his own writing lamenting that the King was spared in the Parisian Massacre applauding the Murther of King Henry the Third affirming that if the King were shut up in a Monastery he would be treated more gently than he deserved and concluding that if he could not be deposed without force of Arms they ought to be taken up against him for which and his other Treasons he was executed but Gueret Chastell's Master of the same Order was only banished with the rest in memory of which Fact and to the perpetual Ignominy of that Order Chastell's House was demolished and a Pillar erected in the place on one side of which was engraven the Decree of the Court on another a Copy of Verses expressing the Crime and discovering to the World that it was attempted by the Persuasions of the Jesuites on the third another Inscription to the same purpose and on the fourth a summary Account of their banishment and the reasons of it wherein the Jesuites are termed A mischievous and novell sort of superstitious Men and Disturbers of the Nation by whom that young man
several Priests were found among the dead at Edghill Battle but the Endeavours of his Holiness to encrease those miserable Confusions were managed with all imaginable Secresie while the Irish were openly commended by him and assured of his Prayers for their success in his Breve to Owen O Neal dated Octob. 8. 1642. and so willing was he to lay hold on all occasions for the exercising his Deposing Power that because the Prince of Parma offended him he declared him to have incurred the greater Excommunication and deprived him of all his Dominions and Dignities But not content with sending the forementioned Breve to O Neal Anno 1643 his Holiness granted a Bull of plenary Indulgence May 25. 1643. to all the Catholicks in Ireland Anno 1644 who joined in the Rebellion which was prosecuted as fiercely as the Pope could desire and a defence of it set forth by an Irish Jesuite in Portugal Anno 1645 though the Title-page mentions Franckfort who asserts That the English Kings have no Title or Right to Ireland that if they had yet it is the Duty of the Irish to deprive them of their Rights seeing they are declared Hereticks Anno 1607 and Tyrants that this Power of deposing such Princes is inherent in every State but if the Authority of the Holy See be added to that Power none but a Fool or an Heretick will deny what the Doctours of Divinity and of the Civil and Canon Law do generally teach and which is confirmed by Reasons and Examples And so far did the Pope approve of the Contents of this Book that when soon after its publication the Irish had submitted to the King and promised to assist him in his Wars His Holiness by his Nuncio took upon him to be their General absolved them from their Oaths and imprisoned and threatened the Lives of those who had promoted the peace and desired to return to the King's Subjection which renewed the Rebellion again and brought infinite Miseries on that bigotted Nation At the same time above an hundred of the Romish Clergy were sent into England by Order from Rome who the better to promote the Divisions there were instructed in several Trades both handicraft and others these upon their arrival were ordered to disperse themselves and give Intelligence every month to their Superiours abroad accordingly they listed themselves in the Parliament Army and kept a constant correspondence with their Brethren Anno 1609 who for the same end served under the King The next year many of these Missioners were in consultation with those in the King's Army to whom they shewed their Bulls and Licenses for taking part with the Parliament about the best methods to advance their Cause Anno 1647 and having concluded that there was no way so effectual as to dispatch the King some were sent to Paris to consult the Faculty of Sorbonne about it who return'd this Answer That it is lawfull for Roman Catholicks to work Changes in Governments for the Mother Church's advancement and chiefly in an Heretical Kingdom and so they might lawfully make away the King which Sentence was confirmed to the same Persons by the Pope and his Council upon their going to Rome to have his Holiness's Resolution in the Point And now those of them who had before followed the King after his flight from Oxford agreed to desert the Royal Cause and as one of them inform us to ingratiate themselves with the Enemy by acting some notorious piece of Treachery and Father Carr who went by the name of Quarter-Master Laurence declared that he could with a safer Conscience join with and fight for the Round-heads than the Cavaliers in prosecution of which Resolve they dispersed themselves into all the Garisons of the King's Party to endeavour the Revolt of the Soldiers to the Parliament in which they succeeded as they had projected my Authour being one of those who seduced the Wallingford Horse from their Obedience and in Scotland the Lord Sinclare a pretended Presbyterian but a real Papist commanded a Regiment of his own Religion and it being a Maxim receiv'd among them That the surest way to promote the Catholick Cause was to weaken the Royal Party and advance the other they bent all their Endeavours to expedite and accelerate the King's Death and His Majesty having in the Treaty of the Isle of Wight consented to pass five strict Bills against Popery the Jesuites in France at a general meeting there presently resolved to take off his Head and this His Majesty had notice of by an Express from thence but two days before his removal from the Isle of Wight This Year Mr. Cressey published the Reasons of his leaving the Church of England and turning Romanist wherein obviating the Objection so often made against the Romanists about their rebellious Principles and Practices he sets down a Declaration which he affirms that they were all ready to subscribe and which differs but little from our Oath of Allegiance But here we may see what Credit can be given to the representations of their Doctrines which their Writers study to make as favourable as possible For though Mr. Cressy thought himself a good Representer in this point yet his Superiours were of another mind and therefore that Edition was soon bought up and in the next the Profession of Obedience quite left out and that this was not an omission of the Printer but the action of his Superiours we are assured by an honourable Person from Mr. Cressy's own mouth and we shall find in a little time that the same form hath been condembed by the Pope himself But the ensuing year Anno 1648 as it was dolefull to the English Nation so it brought great disturbances to the most potent Princes of Europe in France the Parisians rose in Arms shot at the Lord Chancellour Sequier and wounded his Daughter barricadoed the Streets and forced the King to set the Counsellour Broussell and other factious Persons at Liberty And at the Treaty at Osnebrugh when by several Articles of the Peace the possession of Church Lands were assured to the Protestant Princes the Pope displeased with it took upon him to make void the Peace by a special Bull declaring all those Articles unjust and of no Force and commanding the Princes concerned to observe his Bull in which he renews his Claim to the superiority over Princes and particularly the Emperour not only by the Bull in general but by asserting that ‖ the Electours of the Empire were established by the Authority of the Bishop of Rome But to come to their Contrivances in England where when several Papists had subscribed to some Propositions importing the unlawfulness of murthering Princes and breaking Faith with Hereticks and that the Pope hath no power to absolve Subjects from their Allegiance the very same with the Declaration published the year before by Mr. Cressy this Action was condemned at Rome
published a Declaration against all that should adhere to the D. of Ormond His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant in that Kingdom upon which my Authour makes this remark that if the Archbishops c. in Ireland will take upon them to declare against the King's Authority where His Majesty hath placed it they assume an Authority to themselves that no other Clergy ever pretended to and declare sufficiently to the King how far they are from being Subjects or intend to pay him any Obedience longer than they are governed in such manner and by such Persons as they think fit to be pleased with But not satisfied with refusing Obedience to the King's Commissioner the Confederates agreed that if compounding with the Parliament should be best for the People they should doe it And presently after the Marquess of Clauricard had at their request taken the Government upon him in his Majesty's Name it was proposed in their Assembly that they might send to the Enemy to treat with them upon surrendring all that was left into their hands Thus did they chuse rather to submit to the Parliament than obey the King for they were not forced to that Submission the army of the Enemy having made no progress at that time neither had it been flusht with any new Success As forward was Father Bret to persuade the Gentlemen who had defended the Castle of Jersey for the King Anno 1651 to renounce the Royal Family and Kingly Government by taking the Engagement affirming that they were not to acknowledge any Supreme but the prevailing Power All this while the Rebellion in France increased the Parisians took Arms designing to seize the King and the Prince of Conde fortified several places and confederated with the Spaniards whom under the Conduct of the Duke of Nemours he called into France to his Assistance with which he maintained the War all this Year to whom the Duke of Orleance joined himself and with all his Interest increased the Party The next year Mr. Tho. Anno 1652 White published his Book of the Grounds of Obedience and Government wherein he asserts That if a Prince governs ill he becomes a Robber and the People may expell him in which case they are not bound by any Promise made to him and that they have no Obligation to endeavour the Restauration of a Prince so dispossessed of his Dominions but rather to hinder it nay though he were wrongfully driven out and such a Prince is absolutely obliged to renounce all Right and Claim to the Government and if he doth not he is worse than an Infidel Thus after their Designs had effected the death of that good King and expulsion of his late and present Majesty they contributed their Endeavours to hinder their return and debauch those who might attempt it yet had some the confidence to commend this Gentleman to his late Majesty though the King knew him too well to take any notice of him That they designed to hinder the Restauration of the King by an absolute compliance with the usurping Power is affirmed by one of their Communion who tells them that they were refractory to the Queen's Desires at Rome for His Majesty's Assistance and that Collonel Hutchinson could discover strange Secrets about their treating with Cromwell And it is certain that in Ireland there were several Precepts granted by the Archbishop of Armagh and others to pray for the success of that Usurper's Forces while Dominick Decupsy a Dominican esteemed a Person of great Holiness and Long the Jesuite asserted that the King being out of the Roman Church it was not lawfull to pray for him particularly or publickly on any other day except Good Fryday as comprehended among the Infidels and Hereticks and then only for the spiritual Welfare of his Soul not for his temporal prosperity The Civil Wars continuing still in France our present Sovereign then Duke of York went into the King's Army and the Princes being straitened called in the Duke of Lorrain who with his Army marched to their Succour so that they kept the Field all this and the ensuing Year Anno 1654. Anno 1654 there was a Discourse written by Benoist de Treglies Collateral of the Council or Regent of the Chancery of Naples in which this Proposition was maintained That when a Pope intends to exercise any Jurisdiction in a Countrey he ought to let his Writs be examined by the temporal Prince that so it may be known whether the Causes and Persons contained therein be of his Jurisdiction Which Proposition having been examined by the Inquisition at Rome at the express command of the Pope that Congregation declared it to be Heretical and Schismatical prohibiting the Book and threatening the severest censures against the Authour The following year affords us a farther evidence of the hopes the Romanists had conceived of the restauration of their Religion here Anno 1655 for Dr. Baily at the end of the Life of Fisher Bishop of Rochester speaking of the Lord Cromwell and the great influence he had upon the proceedings in the beginning of the Reformation expresses their hopes of his Party from the Usurper and his Counsels in these words Who knows but that the Church may be healed of her Wounds by the same Name sit hence the Almighty hath communicated so great a Secret unto Mortals as that there should be such a Salve made known to them whereby the same Weapon that made the Wound should work the Cure Oliva vera is not so hard to be construed Oliverus as that it may not be believed that a Prophet rather than a Herald gave the common Father of Christendom the now Pope of Rome Innocent X. such Ensigns of his Nobility viz. a Dove holding an Olive Branch in her mouth since it falls short in nothing of being a Prophesie and fulfilled but only his Highness running into her Arms whose Embleme of Innocence bears him already in her mouth Three years after this Popish Loyal Flattery Anno 1658 Father Ferrall a Capuchin presented a Treatise to the Cardinals of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide proposing some Methods to revive the Rebellion in Ireland and drive out not only the English but also all the Irish who were descended from the old English Conquerours as not fit to be trusted in so holy a League and about the same time Father Reiley the Popish Primate coming through Brussels refused to kiss the King's Hand though some offered to introduce him And to obtain favour with Richard Cromwell Anno 1659 he alledged that the Irish Natives had no affection to the King and his Family and therefore were fit to be trusted by the Protectour and upon his Arrival in Ireland he made it his business to gain a party there to hinder the King's Restauration promising them great assistance upon which the King gave notice of those Contrivances to Don Stephano de Gamarro the Spanish Ambassadour in Holland so that he was
as putting it to the Question They offered indeed several Forms instead of the Remonstrance but in none of them renounced the Deposing Power in that the Assembly signed at their breaking up they disowned the Doctrine but would not declare that Doctrine which abetts it unsound and sinfull wherein they have been imitated by some late Writers who though called upon to affirm it such never did it Once indeed they seemed to come something near what was expected when their Chairman told Father Walsh That it was not out of any prejudice against the Remonstrance they would not sign it but because they thought it more becoming their Dignity and Liberty to word their own sense for the rest they were far from condemning that Remonstrance or the Subscribers thereof Yet would they not own this when desired under their Hands but refused so that no good being expected they were dissolved leaving an undeniable Evidence of their aversion to Loyalty and approbation of the treasonable Doctrine of the Ch. of Rome Soon after the Dissolution of this Synod the E. of Sandwich Ambassadour in Spain informed His Majesty that Primate Reilly was emplyed to stir up his Countrey-men to rebell upon which a Gurd was set upon him and in a little time was sent into France The Bp. Anno 1674 of Ferns still justified the Rebellion defending the Actions of the Clergy for laudable vertuous meritorious Deeds and becoming good Men Anno 1679 and therefore needing no Repentance And this is the last Account I find of him for he soon after dyed And now the Controversie about the Regale growing hot between the King of France and the present Pope His Holiness had so much of the Spirit of his Predecessours who were for asserting their Power over all the Kingdoms of the World as to threaten the King with Excommunication and that speedily if he would not renounce his Claim Anno 1682 and he was as good as his word for the King not being affraid of his Thunders and refusing to lose his Right and the Assembly of the Clergy joining with his Majesty the Pope sent a Bull of Excommunication to his Nuncio requiring him to publish it in the Assembly but by the diligence of the Cardinal d'Estree the Assembly was adjourned before the Arrival of the Bull. At the same time Szlepeche my Primate of Hungary with his Clergy maintained the Deposing Power by a Censure of the Contrary Opinion and the next year the Spanish Inquisition at Toledo did the same Anno 1687 which was followed three years after by four Theses Anno 1686 publickly maintained by the Jesuites at their College of Clermont in Auvergne wherein it was defended and even among our selves the Authour of Popery Anatomised defends the Decree of the Council of Laterane in that the Kings and Princes of Europe by their Ambassadours consented to it affirming that the Christian World apprehended no injury but rather security in that Decree FINIS Advertisement of two other Books writ by the Authour of this Book 1. THE Missionaries Arts discovered or an Account of their Ways of Insinuation their Artifices and several Methods of which they serve themselves in making Converts to the Church of Rome With a Letter to A Pulton 2. A Plain Defence of the Protestant Religion fitted to the meanest Capacity being a full Answer to the Popish Net for the Fishers of Men that was writ by two Converts wherein is evidently made appear that their Departure from the Protestant Religion was without Cause or Reason Fit to be read by all Protestants a Fowl p. 287. b Fowl p. 301. 302. c Fowl p. 315. See the Bull at the end of Brutuâ—… Fulmen Lond. 16. 4to * Hunting of the Romish Fox p. 3 4 5. * Fowlis Hist. of Romish Treas p. 316. †Foxes Firebrands part 2. p. 34. Dublin 1682. Mr. Mason Minister of Finglas in the year 1566. copied the substance of the Bull out of the Records at Paris ‖ Fowlis's Hist. p. 316. Surii Commentar p. 314. Speed's Chron. p. 1033. * Surii Comment brevis p. 314. Fowlis's Hist. p. 316. Speed's Chron. p. 1034. †Speed's Chr. p. 1041 1042. ‖ Speed's Chr. p. 1044. * Bulla Quarta Pauli Tertii Jesuitis concessa apud Hospin Histor. Jesuit p. 104 105 106. this Bull is called by the Jesuits Mare magnum * Speed's Chronicle p. 1110 to 1114. †Speed's Chronicle p. 1114 1115 1116. a Speed's Chron. p. 1116 1117. Fifth part of Church Government p. 139. Oxford 1637. b Hist. of the Council of Trent p. 262 263. London 1684. 8vo c Fowl Hist. of Romish Treasons p. 287. d Idem p. 329. * â—xes and Firebrands part 2. p. 20. * Fowlis's Hist. p. 302. †Idem p. 329. ‖ Idem p. 330. * Gabut Vit. Pii Quinti l. 3. c. 9. apud Fowl ubi supra Thuanus lib. 44. ibid. †Fowl Hist. p. 367. ‖ Concil Trid. Sess. 25. c. 20. Decemb. 4. 1563. * Fowlis's Hist. p. 366. Edward Dennum See his Letter to the Lord Cecil of April 13. 1564. in Foxes and Firebrands p. 51 to 56. out of the Memorials of the Lord Cecil †Speed's Chr. p. 1162. Fowlis Hist. p. 302. ‖ Fowlis's Hist. p. 130 131. Import Câ—â—sâ—d p. 57. * Id. p. 368. †Sir Ed. Coke at the Tryall of the Gunp. Trait Hist. of the Gunp. Tr. p. 109. ‖ See the Bull in Fowlis Hist. p. 331. and Speed's Chron. p. 1171. * Surii Comment p. 770. ‖ Il. * Speed's Chr. p. 1169 1170. Fowl Hist. p. 335. †Execut. of Justice for Treason Pr. Lond. 1583. 4to ‖ Surii Comment p. 770. Non illos habuere successus conatus illorum nobilium quos peraverant â—â—rtassis quod Catholicis omnibus ea denuntiatio necdum innotuisset * Idem p. 771. Noluerunt Elizabetham legitimam Reginam confiteri †Fowl Hist. p. 302 303. * Speed's Chr. p. 1170. Fowlis's Hist. p. 335. Speed's Chron. p. 1174. †Surii Com. p. 786 787 788. * Resp. ad Edict Regin Angl. †Ad An. 15â—0 Sect. 4. ‖ See Fâ—wlis ubi supra Surii Comment P. 794 795 796. â—owlis's Hist. p. 368. Fowl Hist. p. 371. * See the Instrument of that Confederacy in Maimbourg's Hist of the League p. 42. Lond. 1684. 8vo †See the Instrument in Fowlis p. 372 373 374. See the Account of this Transaction in the Appendix to the Vindication of the sincerity of the Prot. Relig. Speed's Chr. p. 1176. * Nelson Hance Lacies Briant c. †See his Letter in Speed ib. ‖ Hist. Jesuit p. 244 245. Anat of Popish Tyr. in the Ep. Dedic Lond. 1603 4to Fowlis's Hist. p. 303 304. †Fowlis ubi suâ—pra Fowl p. 305. See the Bull at large in Fowlis p. 306. ‖ Eandem plenariam Peccatorum vestrorum indulgentiam Remissionem quam adversus Turcas pro recuperanda terra Sancta bellantes consequuntur tribuimus