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
James forasmuch as Gregory the 14 th had a little before by two Monitory Bulls declared Henry the 4 th uncapable of the Crown of France and that upon no account but because he was a Heretick yea which may be a little more startling to those who are not acquainted with transactions of this nature notwithstanding that Henry the third was both a loyal Son of the Church of Rome and had been a bloody and severe prosecuter of the Hugonots and had more adored the Pope than ever any King of France did yet the Pope did both covenant and agree with the Duke of Guise to depose the said Prince and to transfer the Crown from those to whom by the Laws of France it was to descend and to settle it on the said Duke and his Posterity only with this proviso That he would cause the Estates of France to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Roman See and without modification or restriction to abolish the Liberties and Priviledges of the Gallican Church But to return King James being in defiance of all Papal contrivances Established in the Throne The first fruits of their Loyalty to an Heretical King and the first Evidence of their Principles to such as renounce the Communion of the Church of Rome was to welcome him with a Plot contrived by Watson and Clarke two secular Priests but wheedled into it by the Jesuits as I have heard themselves often declare and afterwardâ— discovered in revenge for their writing two Books the one stiled Quodlibets and the other Important Considerations I know the Jesuits and their Factors have of late the impudence to say that they were drawn into that Conspiracy by Gray Cobham and Rawleigh Protestants who having been Queen Elizabeths old Favorites disliked King James his succession to the Crown and that Watson acknowledged his infamous death to be a Just Judgment for his Factious Writings and designs against their Order and Society Things as wholly false in themselves so recorded by no authentick Historian of the times when they were transacted But to pass this That Plot miscarrying the Jesuits the great Crafts-masters in all Conspiracies designed another and that such a one as might every way correspond to the Principles of the Roman Religion and bear proportion to the good will which by vertue of those principles they bear to Hereticks And accordingly they contrived the blowing up the King Lords and Commons the whole Kingdom as well in Epitome as in its Representatives And this they did meerly in pursuance of what their Religion obliged them unto being withall quickned to the design by the two Briev's received some years before but hitherto kept dormant to operate upon a convenient occasion and good opportunity But being disappointed in that also through its having been discovered by means that I now enquire not into and the Prodigiousness of the Conspiracy having awakened England to a more signal watchfulness and effectual care for its own preservation as it had astonished the whole world Pagan as well as Christian where the report of it arrived the Kingdom had some reprieve for a few years from the publick workings of the Popish principles in the Catholick Service and office of destroying and murthering Hereticks But even in that interval wherein they seemed to lye most dormant they gave us instances enough how acceptable those Heretick murthering Doctrines are at Rome For while all the world stood amazed at the former attempt and many of the Papists abroad seemed to express their detestation of the Principles which produced it The Pope and Court of Rome took all imaginable care to have the Traytors magnified and honoured For Garnet the Provincial of the Jesuits though by his acknowledgment under his own hand he dyed for Treason yet had his name inserted into the English Martirology and his Bones were reserved for Reliques and his Image erected over Altars and two Jesuits who had been principal Conspirators in that Hellish Plot and had by misfortune escaped the Halter which was the reward due to them for their barbarous Conspiracy were upon their arrival at Rome both of them advanced to be the Popes Penitentiaries And moreover when the King and Parliament for the security of the Kings person and preservation of the Government and the lives of his Subjects were forced to enact and impose on the Papists the Oath of Allegiance Paul the 5 th published divers Bulls against it and both Becanus and Bellarmine besides many more wrote expresly in opposition to the taking of it But the next impression of their Faith in its sutable and proper works made amends for their laziness and barrenness during that interim for through the influence of the same principles and being animated by the Pope they murdered above two hundred and fifty thousand in Ireland without any other inducement to it save that they were Protestants and that in killing of them the Catholick cause was promoted For at no time did the Irish enjoy more liberty as to their Religion and more tranquility as to their Persons and Estates than immediately before they broke out into that horrid Rebellion Nor was that quiet and security they possessed the fruits only of a connivance but the effects of many Acts of Grace which had a little before past in favour of them And as there was no alarm given of this either by foregoing Citations to return into the bosom of the Mother-Church nor by any solemn publication of their being Excommunicated nor by any proclaimed Crusadoes or a holy War least the secure Hereticks being numerous and not willing to part with their lives tamely might have been roused to self-defence so this barbarous massacring of so many thousand persons who had laid innumerable obligations upon their Popish Irish Neighbours can be resolved into nothing but the principles of the Romish Religion and the Obligations that Papists are under by vertue of their very Faith to root out Hereticks when a conveniency offereth And take possession of their Estates which by the Decree of the Lateran Councel under Innocent the third are forfeited to the Roman Catholicks and which not only may but ought to be seized whensoever it comes within the Circle of their Power to accomplish it There are many other instances which might be re-collected of their readiness to be as kind and merciful to Hereticks as their Religion not only instructeth but obligeth them were it not that this damnable and hellish Plot which hath been for some years last past and still is carried on for murthering the King subverting the Government and rooting out the Protestant Religion supercedeth all further need of insisting upon those things To make then a nearer approach to the present Plot the Agents of section 4 the Church of Rome having with the utmost diligence as well as all imaginable craft and art especially since the Restoration of His Majesty projected and pursued the re-introduction of Popery into these Kingdoms and the Extirpation of Heresie
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
their Kingdoms And this Informant further saith that Mr. Jenison told him also at Walworth that Mr. Ireland had lent him Twenty pounds which he desired the Informant to send him to London to pay Mr. Ireland again This being the Narrative of the Information so far as it relates to this Purpose which was given in by me to Edmund Warcup Esquire one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex and City of Westminster I shall only make these few Remarks upon what is here declared 1 It strongly and most effectually serveth to Corroborate all the Depositions which Mr. Robert Jenison hath made For all these Discourses past betwixt him and me whilest he was a Papist and before ever he had entertained a thought either of Changing his Religion or Informing concerning the Plot. He must be very obstinate as well as an incredulous Person that can after this deny Mr. Irelands being in London in August seeing the very Party that conversed with him told it to so many credible Witnesses within so few days after And which is most remarkable all this was declared to his Father Sister and my self when neither he nor any alive could apprehend that ever there would be an occasion of bringing this Circumstance upon the Stage And this being therefore so demonstratively made out none but Conspirators or Abettors of this Conspiracy can either bring into question the Truth of the Plot or give credit to Papists in any thing they say Nor can there be a greater Evidence of the Combination of the whole Papal Party to destroy the Nation then that rather than the Design should miscarry they will sacrifice their Souls and Consciences in the justification of a most palpable Lie 2. It may both induce us to believe that Mr. Jenison hath more to discover than he hath yet declared and also oblige us to give all credit to what he shall further say For it is plain from many passages which dropt from him that his Acquaintance with the Conspirators and his knowledge of their Devilish Machinations are more considerable than as yet he hath divulged T is true he hath neither done wisely nor with that simplicity which became a Christian either in delaying his Informing at first or in those Reserves which he still maintains Yet if we will observe the influence he was under partly from the regard he bore to the credit of the Romish Religion which himself then profest partly from the love he had to many of the Papists as his Kinsfolk and Friends partly from the concernment he had for his own Reputation which he knew upon his Discovering would be assaulted not to insist upon the apprehensions he might entertain concerning the danger and hazard to his Life which would ensue we may be not only the less surprized at his backwardness to discover but admire the over-ruling power of God in conquering his passions and jealousies so far as that he should make any Discovery at all And besides the Divine Wisdom which can serve it self both of our sin and folly hath turned it to wonderfull advantage that he informed not sooner For had he appeared before the Trial of Mr. Ireland there would never have been any such thing mentioned as Ireland's being in Staffordshire all the month of August No it was from an Opinion that none who knew of his Being in London would appear against him save Mr. Oates that gave him the confidence of betaking himself to that Shift And the Confounding them since in this particular hath both been and will hereafter prove of wonderfull Consequence 3. The discourses mentioned in the foregoing Depositions may serve to testifie my own Innocency as to any thing that relates to this Horrid Plot. For though I had prevailing Reasons to persuade me to believe that there was a design carrying on against the King the Protestant Religion and the Government of the Kingdom yet I neither directly nor indirectly had Accession to it nor assisted in it Yea so soon as I arrived at that measure of knowing it as Mr. Jenisons Conferences with me helpt me unto I did from thence forward not only by all means promote his coming to Inform but threatned the having himself in case he continued obstinate and refractory apprehended and proceeded against For besides those Letters of mine to that purpose Printed by himself in his own Narrative I wrote him many more upon the same Occasion which as they had the success upon him which I aimed at so having been designed for no other end but what is already accomplished I shall not trouble the World with them FINIS Page 13. l. 21. read perverting p. 14. l. 10. dele not p. 18. l. 47. for only r. not p. 19. l. 48. r. indispensably Lib. cui Titulus Tortus p. 19. See Baron ad Ann. 1172. Matth. Westm. lib. 2. Polyd. Virg. lib. 17. Hist. Angl. ubi supra De Laicis lib. 3. cap. 22. In 2.2 Th. qu. 12. See Compend of the Plot p. 73. See Prynt Discovery of a Popish Plot by Haberfeld De Laicis lib. 3. ca. 6. De jure Instit. lib. 2. cap. 6. De Rego lib 6. ca. 6. See Moulins Vindicat See Colemans Trial and therein his Letters Politicks of France cap. 5. See Persecution of the Protestants in France So the New Plot to Transform c. p. 15. Letter to both Houses p. 2. Compendium of the Trials p. 69. See the Mystery of Jesuits Let. 15. De Justit lib. 1. Tr. Disp. 12. Theolog. Fundamen N. 1151. Lib. 9. Decol 2. Sect. 2. De Justit lib. 2. c. 9. See also Escobar Morus Theolog. Tract 1. Exam. 7. cap. 2. Amicus de Justit Disp. 36. Sect. 5. Vbi supt Sect. 7. Seasonable Queries p. 1. Causa 23. q. 5. Canon Excommunicatorum See Gavans Speech Lib 1. Instruct. c. 13. Lib. 5. de Rom. Pontif c. 8. Tom. 3. in Th. Disp. 1. q. 12. Part 2. c. 2 Vide Thuan lib. 130 ad Ann. 1604. See Cambdens Life of Queen Eliz. See Anti-Coton Vide Crab. Tom. 2. p. 4. Cochl Hist. Hussitar lib. 5.
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
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
the manage of publick Affairs which they not only aspired after but stood recommended unto Yet give me leave to say that there are some that have taken these Tests who notwithstanding continue still Votaries to the Church of Rome and are only Protestants in Masquerade For as it was for the Credit of the Roman Church that some should rather resign their employes and places than renounce the Papal Jurisdiction or any part of the Tridentine Faith so it being their interest at least for a while to have it concealed what persons universally were Papists and it being also for their advantage to have some of their Party continued in publick Offices without suspicion of their Religion the better to promote their further designs they have accordingly made provision for the one as well as the other And as the losses which some of the party have appeared willing to undergo upon the Foregoing occasion have served to enhance the reputation of their Church so others being best qualified by their taking the Tests for the enjoying Preferments and Revenues under the present Government are not only Spies upon the Councils of the Nation but Vipers nourished with the profits of the Land to betray and undermine the Government And whereas some may think that no person cordial in any Religion should for Secular accommodations and worldly Advantages offend against God and indanger their own Souls by Renouncing their Faith and forswearing that upon which they superstruct all their hopes for Salvation The Church of Rome hath by more methods than one secured such not only from all fear and hazard of future wrath but from all danger of sinning against God by so doing And as to this purpose the Doctrines of Papal Absolution and Indulgence are admirably suited supposing their should be sin in such a case so the Doctrines of Equivocation Mental Reservation and Authoritative Dispensations are no less calculated for preserving them from all Guilt notwithstanding their taking the Oaths and making the Declarations which the Law requires Having now made these happy proceeds as they thought towards the section XI overthrow of the Protestant Religion and the Established Government there remained only for the Accomplishment of these and all other their Execrable Designs but the destroying the Life of the King And there are these ensuing Reasons which not only justifie such endeavours in all that are furnished with Evidence for the making a further detection but which do indispensably oblige them not to conceal any thing that may serve to unravel and unvail the Conspiracy 1. The vindication of the Justice of the Nation on those Traitors that have suffered doth bespeak and require this at every mans hand For though the utmost Candor imaginable was extended to the Criminals and the stricktest scrutiny by interrogations in favour of the Malefactors exercised towards the Kings Witnesses and the several Juries that were Impannelled for their Tryal were of the most knowing honoured and Impartial Persons that either the City of London or the neighbouring County could afford yet all these have not been sufficient to prevent the arraignment of the Justice of the Kingdom for Condemning those Conspirators For not to mention what their surviving Friends do as falsly as reproachfully give out in favour of their Innocency in all Companies the very Press almost to the Ignominy of the Government that suffereth it hath swarmed with Pamphlets in justification of their having died Guiltless Such Pamphlets are the Letter to both Houses the sober and seasonable Queries in order to the Choice of the New Parliament the second Edition with Additions c. The Jesuits Plea in answer to a Letter entituled Lying allowable with the Papists to deceive Protestants The Plot of the Papists to transform Traitors into Martyrs The Compendium of the late Tryals in relation to the present Plot besides divers other Prints equally scurrilous as well as filled with pernicious Reflections upon the Honour and Justice of the Nation so that every man of Sense is surprised at their impudence and every person of Loyalty roused to a zeal of vindicating the King and Kingdom from the obloquies of Injustice cast upon them And though the Kings Witnesses do intend publickly to vindicate themselves from the Calumnies with which they are aspersed and will I doubt not perform it both to the universal satisfaction of the Nation and the utter confusion of their Adversaries yet let me offer these two or three Remarks upon the foregoing Pamphlets which I judge not only sufficient to baffle them but eternally to expose them to contempt as so many infamous Libels First then what credit ought to be given to him that shall dare publish in the view of all the Nation That not one Person accused in this pretended Conspiracy did either fly or abscond except only the Priests who were obnoxious to the Law for their Priesthood when in the mean time besides many others of all ranks and qualities who upon their being some of them accused and others suspected have withdrawn themselves the four Villains who are charged for conspiring to Assassinate the King do notwithstanding his Royal Proclamation requiring their appearance either by flight or concealment absent themselves Secondly who pretending to be either a good Christian or a faithfull Subject can have any Faith for such a person who is not afraid no more than ashamed openly thus to slander the King himself namely That though he be both most concerned and has had the best opportunities of examining the Discovery of the Plot yet he is so far from believing it that he openly laughs at it Vile Impostor that dares thus accuse the King both to the World and his own People How often hath His Majesty told us in his Royal Proclamations that he is fully convinced of a Hellish and Popish Conspiracy against his own Person the Protestant Religion and the Government And yet this impudent Generation of Romish Votaries do not blush to affirm that He laughs at it as a fabulous and Romantick Story Doth not the King in his Proclamation Octob. 30. 1678. call it a Bloody and Traiterous design of Popish Recusants against his Majesties Person and Government and the Protestant Religion And doth he not by his Proclamation Nov. 20. 1678. declare that the Popish Priests and Jesuits lurking within this Realm have contrived and set on foot divers traiterous Plots and Designs against His Majesty his Government and the Protestant Religion by Law Established And doth he not also by his Proclamation for a Fast March 28. 1679. declare that through the impious and malicious Conspiracies of the Popish Party there is a Plot not only intended to the Destruction of his Royal Person but the total Subversion of the Government and of the true Protestant Religion within the Realm by Law Established And doth not my Lord Chancellor in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament March the 6. 1678 9. assures us That his Majesties Royal Person hath been
mutual confidence in one another which is so absolutely necessary to our Preservation When I have told you as I shall anon that the Kings Person is more in danger than any of his People it may serve to promote your confidence in the Government and to unite among your selves in order to His Majesties Preservation For as His Majesty hath most just cause to apprehend the designs of the Papists against his Life so we may not only fear but too groundedly conclude that both our Religion and Civil Liberties with whatsoever else is dear unto us will become a Sacrifice to the lusts of the Romish Party if they succeed in their Conspiracies against his Life Whoever he be that maketh profession of the Protestant Religion and will not seem to believe there is a Plot nor acknowledge the Nation to be in danger he ought to be listed under one of these three Ranks of Men. First he is either of the number of those weak Fools whom God hath given riches to in consideration for having denied them understanding For there are a kind of silly Coxcombs that are first pusled and then missed by Insinuations which none but Knaves would suggest and Idiots be swayed with Or secondly he is reduceable to them whose fears make them both dissemble and ready to deny what they too well know for there are a great many whose dread prescribes to their reason and Conscience Now these apprehending it impossible to prevent the Designs on foot though they were not at first in them and possibly intend not actually to be yet having a mind to preserve themselves they are therefore not only willing to connive at that which they judge impossible to be defeated but to make an interest with the Conspirators in serving them as far as they can without running the hazard of the Halter Or thirdly he may be numbred amongst them who rather than a Company of discountenanced Protestants should be a little indulged they will sacrifice the very Protestant Religion to the pleasure and lusts of the Papists Through an apprehension which they have that should the Plot be believed the Nonconformists may meet with some degree of Favour in order to their better encouragement to ingage among others for the defence of the Government they are resolved so that they may have the pleasure of seeing them destroyed to expose at least as far as in them lies the Nation to be ruined with them Nor can I apprehend why the late House of Commons comes to be aspersed by some publick Scriblers as well as in Coffee-house Twatlers unless it be that they did not think meet whilest they were providing for the security of the Kings Person and safety of the Kingdom from the Conspiracies of the Papists at the same time to Enact new Laws and those written in Blood against persons of the same Religion with themselves and who do only differ from them in some few Rites and Ceremonies nowise essential to the Protestant Religion He can therefore be no friend to the Protestant Religion to the King or to the Government that when our Ruine is conspired by a company of desperate Popish Enemies at home and threatned by a Combin'd Power of Papists from abroad endeavoureth then to disunite and weaken us by groundless Aspersions and Calumnies cast upon men sound in all the Fundamentals of the Protestant Doctrine and ready to venture their Lives and Fortunes as soon as any for the defence of His Majesty and the Government And therefore among other reasons for my contributing all I can to the further Detection of the Plot to the Nation having first discovered what I know of it to His Majesty and the Privy Council I do plainly deliver this to be one that they who question it from principles of Weakness and Simplicity may be more fully informed and they who endeavour to shame it upon base corrupt and perverse Considerations may be taken notice of and esteemed Abetters of the Popish Conspirators in their most Hellish Designs And that the Light I arrived at concerning the Design against His section XIV Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion in these Nations may be conveyed to others with the more Intelligibleness as well as the greater Credibility it is convenient that I should intimate these three things 1. That I was originally a Protestant being both trained up in that Faith whilest a Child here at home and further instructed in the Reformed Doctrine whilest at Geneva abroad But being Travelling in France I was by the art craft and unwearied persuasions of Abbot Mountague and Mr. Thomas Carr perverted from the Protestant Religion and allured into the Communion of the Romish Church And as none are so industrious in Foreign Nations to debauch his Majesties Protestant Subjects whom they occasionally there meet with as the English Scotish and Irish Papists residing in those Parts So the various methods they take to inveigle those whom they have opportunity to meet with and address are not easie to be expressed For by suting their Temptations sometimes to the Necessities and at other times to the lusts and Ambitions of those they accost they prove more successfull in their Attempts for Seducing young Travellers than can readily be imagined For if they be persons of Quality they allure them with hopes of esteem in Foreign Courts the favour of Access to and Correspondence with Princes and Potentates abroad and especially with promises of being Exalted at home upon the Alteration which they give themselves out as prepared to introduce into these Nations And if they be Persons of Scholastick abilities then they assault them with assurances of Preferment and that they shall not only be accomodated and esteemed sutably to their Parts in their Colleges abroad but that they shall be made Dignitaries of the Church here upon the Revolution that is ready to take place in these Kingdoms And if the Persons are indigent then they attack them with offers not only to supply their present wants but to provide for them even to their own wishes and desires for the future Yea if those they meet with chance either to be Malefactors that have fled beyong Sea for their crimes or Bankrupts who have withdrawn thither to escape their Creditors unto such they offer either a Sanctuary in their Monasteries or to recommend them to some Grandee that may imploy them agreeably to their inclination and humour So that what in one way and what in another there are none come within their Circle whom they have not Temptations prepared for and futed unto And I wish that the sad experience of their success upon my Self as well as the many conquests I have seen them make of others might not only influence Parents to be less forward in sending their Sons beyond Sea but awaken the Government to provide if not against the thing yet against the dangers that attend it Secondly I would intimate this that being after manifold persuasions perverted from the Protestant
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
I should suddenly see great Changes for the better both in Church and State in England and that I should receive signal Imployment there So that now from all this these Four things do immediately fall under the view of every Person that is but so much as capable to understand Common Sense First That the Kings Life is judged the only obstruction to the Reenslaving these Nations to Rome and that so long as he lives they do utterly despair of subjugating these Kingdoms to the Papal Tyranny Which as it should make His Majesties Life the more dear to all his Subjects So it should influence Himself from that regard which he hath so often Solemnly profest to bear to the Protestant Religion to be the more carefull of his own Safety Secondly notwithstanding their despair of being ever able to impose their Faith and Worship upon these Nations whilest His Majesty liveth yet they are at the same time confident of seeing this all accomplished Which is in effect as much as if they had told us that they were resolved and prepared to remove Him and that by some horrid Attempt upon His Life Thirdly That the Confederacy against the Protestant Religion and these Kindoms is powerfull and strong For neither any Forreign Combination nor the Encouragement which they can have from so small a Number as the open and avowed Papists in the Land amount to could ever give matter for such Towring hopes nor administer ground for so high a Confidence no less than the Engagement of many of the most Eminent Persons of the Nation to use their own Phrase could be Foundation sufficient to erect so vast Expectations upon And as it is the Interest of the Kingdom to have these hitherto unknown Persons detected so it should be the Prayer of all and the Endeavour of those Chosen to sit in the Great Senate of the Nation that the Kingdom may be secured from their Treacherous Designs Fourthly That understanding the Size of the Persons who have renounced their Allegiance to His Majesty as well as the Religion by Law Established instead of being thereby Intimidate we would grow sensible of the dangers which threaten us and provide Remedies to withstand them And seeing there are some Persons of the foregoing Bulk and Character actually Impeached let us by Prayers and Intreaties sollicit His Majesty that he would not abandon Himself His Government and People to the hazards which a further Procrastination of their Tryals may occasion For if they be Innocent besides the honour of being Vindicated not only from the Suspicions they lie under but the Treasons they are charged withall they will reap the happiness of being restored both to their Liberty and the good Opinion of their Fellow Subjects And if they be Guilty it is both His Majesties Interest as well as the Nations and what his Subjects may expect from the Justice he oweth His People as well as the Grace he hath hitherto exercised towards them that such villanous Conspirators as would subjugate these Kingdoms to Popish Idolatry and Slavery may undergo the severest Punishments which by Law are due unto their Crimes section XIX There is one thing more which I learned from the aforementioned Fathers both at Rome and Paris namely That He being removed who alone stood in the Gap their Religion must needs flourish again in these Nations Forasmuch as the Duke of York and the Queen were of their side Now though this way seem to such as know not how to knit two Thoughts together matter of no great moment yet to Persons accustomed to use their Understandings in a rational train of Discourse it suggests that which may give us a very sad apprehension For besides as I have already observed that the Duk 's being a Papist is the Fountain of all Attempts upon the Kings Life and the alone rise of all the Danger which His Person is daily exposed to There is something further and that of a most Tragical Consideration wrapt up as the sense of those Expressions For supposing the Duke to be a Papist and that he should come to the Crown which God by the Prolongation of His Majesties Life avert yet without a trampling upon all our Laws our Religion being incorporate into them and settled by them Popery cannot flourish again in these Nations Protestancy is not only now the Religion of the Kingdom but it is become a part of the Polity and an Essential Ingredient of the constitution of our Legal Government Nor can any as matters are by Law Established supplant Religion which is our legal Right without Overthrowing all those Laws which secure us of it So that to tell us that through having the Duke on their Side were the King once Dead their Religion should be exalted to its greatest heigth and flourish in these Nations as much as at any time heretofore is in Effect to say that our whole Government shall be Changed and all those Laws subverted which Entitle us to the Protestant Religion and protect us in it What Provision His Majesty and his Two Houses of Parliament may think fit to make to give the Nation security in this matter as it is to be left to their Wisdom so it is our duty quietly to acquiesce in what they Agree about and Enact to this purpose But if there be any Sense in what I have related from the Jesuits Mouths they intend not that Protestants shall enjoy much benefit by any Law that shall be made to such an End They may improve it indeed to facilitate in the minds of short-sighted People the Duke's Accession with quiet to the Crown but they have told us beforehand that our Religion shall be never the more secured unto us by a Law of that kind It is needfull for the Papists at this time to talk of such a Law to promote that which they themselves first aim at but having under the favour of it once compassed that it will be as needfull to destroy it that they may accomplish the rest Having related whatsoever may give light to the Horrid Plot against section XX these Nations and especially His Majesties Life so far as my Informations beyond Sea inable me to do I am in the next place to give an account of the further Knowledge I arrived at concerning it after my Return into England Being then after divers Years absence come into my Native Countrey about December 1676. and being recommended as a Secular Priest to Minister and Officiate in the Family of John Jenison Esquire in the County Palatine of Durham The first thing that I did was to recollect the Disloyal and Traiterous Doctrines which I heard the Jesuits Teach at Rome and elsewhere For as these Principles had given me such a disgust against their Order before that though highly tempted and frequently importuned to be One of that Society I absolutely refused it and chose rather to be a Secular so the reflecting upon them at leasure and with sedateness of
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
as they are pleased to stile the Protestant Religion they were at last as they apprehended come within view of infallibly compassing their design Now there were some things which afforded them advantages for the attaining these Ends which at no time since the Reformation were they before now possessed of the assistance of The first was That Interest at Court and universal esteem through the whole Kingdom which the pretented Loyalty of many Catholicks during the late unhappy War betwixt His late Majesty and many of His People who acted under the influence and supposed Authority of a Parliament reconciled and gave unto them This together with the Assistance which some of the Papists contributed to the escape of his present Majesty and the seeming readiness of many of them to co-operate with others in his Restauration gave them not only a share in the peace and quiet which these Kingdoms were restored unto but procured a further degree of respect to them than had been either usually or universally shown them since the Reformation And though I would not endeavour to lessen their Loyalty at any time when they might but seem to pretend to it yet to deal plainly I know very little reason for their pretences of Loyalty to King Charles the first more than to His Majesty who now happily Reigns yea I know very much why they ought at least to supercede all right of merit on that foot of account For not to insist upon what preceded the unhappy War though antecedently to that we are told of a Conspiracy to destroy the Kings Life whereof the discovery was found in Archbishop Land's Library being declared by Andreas ab Haberfeld to Sir William Boswell Embassador then at the Hague who revealed it to the Archbishop But I say not to dwell upon this nor upon that that I am now to say namely that it is affirmed and that with all the moral certainty imaginable that the Romish Emissaries were both the principal Authors of that Vniformity with England which was pressed upon Scotland and also prime sticklers to prevent its being entertained there and all to foment a War betwixt the two Kingdoms The Priests names have been oftner then once published to the world who were sent by Cardinal Richlieu into that Kingdom to raise and inflame differences betwixt the two Nations And the motives upon which that great Boutefeu of Europe was so earnest to kindle a War in His Majesties Dominions are sufficiently understood by all who are not wholly strangers to the affairs of that time But there are two things which overthrow all their pretences of Loyalty to his late Majesty of which they so confidently boast and have made so large advantages One is their commencing that bloody War in Ireland in the massacring so many of His Majesties Protestant Subjects which as it increased the Jealousies that the like might be designed against those of the same Religion in this Kingdom so the making all Assistances by the War which they had begun there from thence impossible gave confidence to the Parliament to be the more peremptory in those demands which His Majesty finding it necessary to refuse to comply with proved the causes of that unnatural War which fell out among our selves and of all the fatal consequences of it And as a further Testimony of their Loyalty to that Prince they not only renounced all Allegiance to Him and banished His Lieutenant but assumed the Royal Authority to themselves owing only a dependance upon the Pope and his Nuncio The second is that accession which they had to the murder of His late Majesty For as the principles upon which those seem to have acted who publickly destroyed the King are not only countenanced but most especially taught by the Doctors and Casuists of the Church of Rome so the effects of those principles are to be charged as well upon them that teach Doctrines of such pernicious consequence as upon them that practise them Hear then what the greatest Authors in the Romish Church declare to the purpose before us The Power of a Nation saith Bellarmine is setled in the whole multitude as its true and proper Subject and accordingly they may change a Kingdom into an Aristocratical or Democratical state whensoever they find cause for it If a Prince be a Tyrant saith Lessius he may be deposed or declared a publick enemy by the Common-wealth and thereupon it may be lawful to attempt any thing against his Person When the Common-wealth saith Mariana cannot other ways secure and preserve its own peace and safety it may by a right inherent in it self declare the King to be the common Enemy and then destroy him with the Sword Thus we plainly see that whatsoever others did the Jesuits had first taught them the principles upon which they might justifie the doing of it But this is not all for over and above this they have not only been openly charged to have had a hand in the contriving and actually compassing the late Kings death but the person that doth thus accuse them undertakes the Justification of it either before his present Majesty or before any one who can legally require it of him And which is an evident demonstration of their Guilt notwithstanding all the interest which they have had of late years from which they might at least promise themselves Justice if they could not expect Favour yet though challenged to bring this matter to a hearing they have not so much as once dared to attempt it Yea the late King himself was informed a little before his death that the Jesuits at a general meeting in France in revenge for his condescending in the Treaty at the Isle of Wight to pass some Bills in prejudice of them and the Romish Religion had unanimously resolved by the power interest and influence that they had in and upon the Army to bring him to Justice and get him Executed Accordingly when the stroke was given both one that was a Romish Priest and a Confessor namely Sarabras brandished his Sword and proclaimed That now their greatest Enemy was cut off and destroyed I suppose that the Judgment of Sir William Morrice late Secretary of State will bear some weight with all English men as well upon the account of his great Integrity as the many opportunities he enjoyed beyond others of satisfying himself in a matter of this importance hear then what he declares in a Letter to Dr. du Moulin August the 9 th 1673. This I may say safely and will do it confidently that many Arguments did create a violent suspition very near convincing Evidences that the irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the murder of that excellent Prince the Odium whereof they would file to the account of the Protestant Religion However the Papists having not only escaped Legal Arraignments upon this account but having since the Kings return been esteemed by some His late Majesties best friends they have