such Principles as these be not dangerous inconsistent with Loyalty and to Protestant Princes pernicious let the World judge Sure I am our Kings and Parliaments knowing by sad experience the fatal and pernicious Consequences of such Popish Principles have publickly declared this their sense and detestation of them I shall give an Instance or two 1. Our Gratious King in a Proclamation having spoken of the Intestine Divisions amongst us it follows ....... Which are CHIEFLY OCCASIONED by the Undermining Contrivances of POPISH RECUSANTS whose Numbers and INSOLENCIES are of late GREATLY increased and whose RESTLESS PRACTICES threaten SUBVERSION to the CHURCH and STATE The restless Practices are the mischievous Consequents of their impious Principles 2. A full Parliament and a Popish one too takes notice of and condemns the Papal Usurpations in taking upon them to dispose of inheritances and Kingdoms in these words .......... The Pope CONTRARY to the inviolable Grants of Jurisdictions BY GOD IMMEDIATELY to Emperors and Kings hath PRESUMD to invest who should please him to inherit in other Mens Kingdoms and Dominions which we your Loyal Subjects SPIRITUAL and TEMPORAL ABHORRE and DETEST Such were the Popes Usurpations then but as in Parliament they confess abhorred and detested by Clergy and Laity But now as evidently appears by the lately discovered damnable Conspiracy the Pope and his Party take upon them to Murder our Gratious King whom God preserve and dispose of His Kingdoms Which Practices and Principles which cause and encourage them I do and justly may call Dangerous and when they take effect which I hope they never will Destructive and Pernicious And here further because many of our Popish Party seeing the horridness of this Damnable and Hellish Conspiracy and in reality I hope or at least seem to condemn both it and the Authors of it laying the blame upon the Persons only of some few and with great confidence to give it no worse name denying the Roman Church to approve or receive any Principles which can encourage such Conspiracies or prove pernicious or dangerous to Princes their Persons or Government I shall briefly give you an account of some more of their received Doctrines and Principles besides those already named which have been and while they are believed ever will be prejudicial to Princes and the Peace and Quiet of their Subjects and Dominions For instance 1. The Church of Rome expresly declares it unlawful for Secular Princes to require any Oath of Fidelity or Allegiance of their Clergy and as expresly forbids all their Clergy to take any such Oath if it be required ...... Nimis dâ— Jure DIVINO quidam LAICI Usurpare cenantur cum Viros Ecclesiasticos nihil temporale continentes ad praestandum sibi FIDELITATIS JURAMENTUM compellunt ...... Sacri Authoritate Concilii PROHIBEMUS ne tales CLERICI personis SECULARIBUS praestare cogantur hujusmodi Juramentum c. This is the Constitution of their great and Oecumenical Council under Innocent the Third and is referr'd into the Body of their Canon Law by Pope Gregory the IX and remains in the best Editions of it commended and confirm'd by Pope Gregory the XIII So that by the Popish Canons and their approved and received Laws no Secular Prince may require any Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity of any of the Clergy or Ecclesiastiques nor are the Clergy to take any such Oaths And if a Clergy-man should take any such Oath it is by their Canon-Law for several reasons declared null and not obligatory For 1. They tell us That no Oath which is against the Ecclesiastical Utility and Benefit of the Church is valid and binding Nay the Law it self there says That all such Oaths against Ecclesiastical Utility are not Oaths properly but Perjurics And the case is put in their Law of a Prince who fearing some CONSPIRACY against him took an Oath of some that they should not for the future be in any Conspiracy against him They who had taken this Oath desired to know how far they were bound by this Oath And that Law and Innocent the Third gives this Answer That they were not so bound by that Oath but that they might stand against the Prince to whom they had so Sworn in the lawful defence of the rights and honors of the Church and their own Now 't is certain that the Pope with them is the sole Supreme Judge in all Ecclesiastical Causes and such this is concerning the Rights and Honors of the Church and therefore if he Judge as we are sure he will that our Oathes of Allegiance and Supremacy be against the Rights and Honor of that Church of which he pretends to be the Head neither those nor any such Oathes will be obligatory to any of his party at least they will think them not to be so and so they will think that notwithstanding any such Oath they may for the benefit of the Church and the Catholique Cause oppose and conspire against their Prince 2. It is a Rule in their Law and in reason too That in all Oathes it must be understood that the right of the Superior is excepted and must be preserved So if a Tenent Swear Fealty to his Landlord how great soever so he be a subject it must be salvo jure dominii principalis the Royal Rights of his Prince must not cannot be prejudiced by that Oath This is true in Thesi. Now we know that the Pope and his party who acknowledge him thinks that he is far superior to all Kings and therefore if he think and declare as we know he has done that our Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy are prejudicial to his rights then neither he nor his party will think them binding 3. If they were confess'd to be obligatory yet they of the Popish Church believe he can dispence with them and null the obligation This is the constant Tenet of the Canonists who tell us That the Pope does usually and easily dispence with Involuntary but not with voluntary Oaths yet if he do dispence with voluntary Oaths it is valid Nor is it any wonder if the Pope dispence with Oathes voluntary or involuntary if it be true which John Semeca the Glossator there tells us ....... That the Pope can dispence against the LAW OF NATURE and against the APOSTLE And that we might take notice of it those words in the old Editions of the Canon-Law are put in the Margent ..... Papa contra Apostolum dispensat the Pope dispenses against the Apostle And in the latter Editions of that Law with the Gloss even those confirm'd by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth as most Correct and purged from Errors they are so far from disowning that irrational and impious Gloss that in a Note there in the Margent they explain and justifie it ... It is not absurd sayes the Author of that Note for the Pope to dispence
purpose yet they clearly prove that they own that Doctrine which is all I aim at and though they cannot gladly would make it appear probable and have us and all others to believe it 6. And further from this unlimited Supremacy of the Pope they conclude and publickly profess his power to depose Kings absolve their Subjects from all Oathes of Allegiance and dispose of their Kingdoms That this may appear I consider 1. That to cite particular Popish Writers would be endless and needless that Bellarmine Emanuel Sa Suares Mariana Turrecremata c. that the Canonists Casuists Schoolmen Summists Jesuits c. are generally if not universally of this opinion That the Pope may depose Kings c. is notoriously known to all who know them I shall onely instance in two or three to give you a taste of that impious doctrine which all of them profess assert and so far as they are able vindicate c. And here 1. Celsus Mancinus a learned Canon-Regular of the Order of St. Augustine tells us that It is EVIDENT TO ALL THAT EMPERORS ARE DEPOSED and DEPRIVED by the Pope and that not ONELY FOR things pertaining TO FAITH but ALSO for things pertaining to MANNERS and the CIVIL LAW And Abraham Bzovius more fully sayes as generally the rest do 1. That the secular power IS SUBJECT to the SPIRITUAL so that it is no usurpation if the Spiritual JUDGE the Secular 2. The Pope has SUPREME POWER over Christian KINGS and PRINCES who may CORRECT DEPOSE and PUT OTHERS in their PLACES 3. The Pope may DEPRIVE a KING of his Royal Dignity for HERESY SCHISM for any intolerable crime negligence or laziness if in great matters he break his Oath or oppress the Church c. So that in all these cases by him there mention'd and they are Eight or Nine the Pope may depose a Supreme Prince and the Pope himself is SOLE JUDGE both of the CRIME and Condemnation And to make all this good 1. he gives us a Catalogue of above Thirty Kings and Princes who have de facto been Deposed or by Excommunications and Anathema's Damn'd by the Pope 2. And then he cites the Canon of a General Council of their own of which anon and above an hundred eminent Authors of their own Church who assert and justifie that Impious Opinion 3. And then he further adds that AN INNUMERABLE company of ENGLISH MARTYRS following their Captain Edmund Campian a Villain Condemned and Executed for High Treason did with their Pens and Blood maintain the same Opinion INNUMERABILES etiam Anglicani MARTYRES DUCEM Edmundum CAMPIANUM secuti pro PRIMATU Roniani Pontificis ab Hen. 8. Elizabetha caesi Sanguine profuso stilo exerto idem doâ—uerunt So that we may see the Doctrine of the Pope's Power to DEPOSE KINGS must be de Fide an Article of Divine Truth and They Martyrs who die in defence of it for Campian is with them a Most FAMOUS MARTYR These Positions asserted publickly and in Print by Popish Authors with so much confidence and without any check of the Romish Church of which they are Members may justly seem impious and horrid to any sober Christian who wishes well as all good Subjects should to Kings and Monarchy yet I shall shew you greater Abominations One of their Authors writing against King James of happy Memory tells us 1. That the Pope's Power in the BELIEF of CATHOLICKS is not barely Ministerial but IMPERIAL CATHOLICI says he non tantum MINISTERIO sed IMPERIO Papam praesidere CREDUNT And this Papal Power is SUPREME so that there resides in the Pope a night to direct and COMPEL and a POWER OF LIFE AND DEATH And to shew the reason of this he adds That the POPE is the SUPREME VICAR of GOD the Emperor Supreme ADVOCATE of the Church than which NOTHING can be more HONOURABLE for any KING Surely Kings are much bound to him for that Honourable Office The POPE as he goes on is THE HEAD of Christ's Body The Emperor and Kings are ARMS and HANDS And therefore it is MADNESS to say That the HEAD has not EMPIRE over the ARMS The POPE who is the Head and Top of the Ecclesiastical Body is govern'd by the INSPIRATION of the Holy Ghost The ARMS can do nothing but what pertains to the Food Rayment and Protection of the Body And St. Paul forbids us to doubt that the Government and Prescription of all these belongs to the Head and from thence is derived to the ARMS And therefore if Kings do not feed and cloath the Body if the ARMS or HANDS do not do their Office they may by the Command of the HEAD be CUT OFF as unprofitable Members These are his words or the English of them So that by this Popish Doctrine the Pope being Head of the Body may when he pleases for he is Supreme and Sole Judge in the case cut off Kings and Emperors who are but the Hands or Arms of that Body And yet so hard is the Forehead of that Author that he is not ashamed to say and put it in the Margent that all might take notice of it That this great Power of the Pope is NOT AT ALL dangerous or prejudicial to Princes How dangerous this Doctrine of this Papal Supremacy has been to Princes the many Excommunications and Depositions of Kings and Emperors in the six last Centuries are evident and sad Witnesses and what mischief if not carefully prevented it may do for the future it will concern Princes and all who are Loyal and love Them and their own Preservation seriously to consider It was a Wise Mans saying That Protestant Princes may be too secure but never safe while any Jesuite dwells in their Dominions Thuanus speaking of the fatal and by them too secure not fear'd Tragedy of Hen. 3. and 4. of France he seems to blame their too great Security and then adds MISEROS PRINCIPES QUIBUS DE CONJURATIONE NON CREDIâ—UR NISI OCCISIS But to proceed 2. Another of their Authors and he a Learned Bishop Jacobus Simanca by Name tells us that which concerns all Protestant Princes to consider and what they must expect from the Pope when he has Power to put their Traiterous Principles in execution The thing he tells us is this Heretiques says he and we know who are meant by that hard word are actually DEPRIVED OF ALL DOMINION and JURISDICTION and their SUBJECTS FREED FROM THEIR OBEDIENCE and this comprehends KINGS OTHER LORDS So Simanca Nor is this his private or singular Opinion For 1. He proves it expresly out of a Decretal of Pope Gregory the Ninth extant in the Body of their Canon-Law 2. He cites Alphonsus a Castro who also proves the Position of Simanca by evident Testimonies of many and eminent Popish Authors 3. It is to be considered too that Simanca's Book is Priviledg'd and Licenc'd to be Printed by Publick Authority and with
Forbid all the Peers People and Subjects of England to dare to give any Obedience to the Queen her Monitions Commands or Laws And if any do otherwise we involve them in the same Sentence of Anathema and Excommunication Whence it evidently appears 1. That the Pope in this Authentique Bull and Decretory Sentence does so far as he is able Depose the Queen 2. Absolve all her Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance 3. And under pain of Excommunication command and require them contrary to their Natural Allegiance to give no Obedience to their undoubted Soveraign Nor is this all for 6. When he had done all this he gave away the Queens Kingdom and Dominions to Philip the Second King of Spain as is notoriously known and ingeniously confess'd by an honest Roman Catholick Father R. Caron an Irish Priest Many more such impious Bulls there are in the Roman Bullary in all which Kings and Princes and Anathematiz'd and deposed by the Pope and their Subjects absolved from their Oaths of Allegiance on pretence of that vast and extravagant Supremacy and Dominion over all the World which they challenge by Divine Right though without any and against all Reason even over Kings and Emperors For instance the Excommunication and Deposition of the Emperor Henry the Fourth who was twice Anathematiz'd by Gregory the Seventh Of Frederique the Second By Gregory the Ninth and Innocent the Fourth Of our King Henry the Eighth by Pope Paul the Third And to omit all others we have an Excommunication of all Heretical Kings and Princes and Heretiques in general in that famous Bullà Coenae wherein on Maundy-Thursday an Anathema is solemnly denounced against all Heretiques even Emperors Kings Dukes and all of what Dignity soever and this Anathema is repeated every year So that amongst others our Gracious King and all his Protestant Subjects are Anathematiz'd and Curs'd once every year at Rome as if their Mons Vaticanus were become Mount Ebal from whence all Curses were to come Now whether this Doctrine and Practices of Popes be not dangerous and pernicious to Kings let the World Judge Well but if all this will not do if the Testimonies of their own Writers which both for learning and dignity in their Church are most eminent nor their receiv'd and establish'd Laws and Canons nor their Authentique Papal Bulls and Decretal Constitutions I say if all these be not evidence enough to intitle the Church of Rome to this Seditious Impious and to Kings especially if they be Protestants Pernicious Doctrine yet the Decrees and Canons of their own General Councils which by their own Principles and Confessions are Representatives of their whole Church and Infallible I say the Decrees of such Councils if there be any such will and must be undeniable Evidences of what I have said in this particular And that their approved General Councils have approved this Doctrine of the Popes Power to depose Kings and Emperors and absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance I shall give you two or three evident Instances I. In the General Council of Lions for a General Council they do universally acknowledge it Pope Innocent the Fourth deposed the Emperor Frederique the Second That he deposed him in that Council is undeny'd by any I have yet met with and that it was after diligent deliberation had with his Brethren and the Council appears by the form of the Excommunication registred and upon Record in the Body of their Canon-Law Where 1. He deprives him of all his Honor and Imperial Dignity 2. And then absolves all his Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity 3. And Excommunicates all who should acknowledge him King or Emperor or should counsel assist or favor him II. In the great Lateran Council for so they commonly call it in which if they misreckon not there were no less than 1215. Fathers it was Synodically and Categorically concluded That the Pope might depose Kings absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and give away their Kingdoms The Series and Sum of the Canon is this First It is decreed That all Secular Powers shall expel all whom the Pope and his Party shall call Heretiques out of their Dominions and they were to be admonish'd to do this Moneantur seculares potestates c. Secondly But in case they obey'd not that Monition they were to be COMPELL'D And not only the Lateran but the Trent-Council a most Apocryphal Conventicle as I shall when required make evident to you useth the same Saucy Language to Princes and Supreme Powers even Emperors Kings Princes and all other of what State or Dignity soever for all these are COMMANDED to observe all the Sacred Canons and ALL GENERAL COUNCILS and so even the Lateran Council and this Canon we are speaking of which are in favor of Ecclesiastical Persons and the Liberties of the Church and they are to observe all these and ALL OTHER PAPAL SANCTIONS as the PRECEPTS OF GOD and DIVINE ORDINATIONS And the Lemma or Title to that Chapter is this ..... COGANTUR c. LET ALL CATHOLIQUE PRINCES and much more Heretical be COMPELL'D to observe ALL the SANCTIONS concerning Ecclesiastical Liberty c. And this is the common and usual Language of their most eminent Writers of their Popes and Councils as you may see to omit all others in Cardinal Tuschus the life of Pope Gregory the Seventh by Platina and in the Lateran Council under Leo the Tenth where the Pope in his Monitory against the Gallican Pragmatical Sanction faucily says .... We PEREMPTORILY COMMAND KINGS c. Secondly Well then by this Lateran Council and Canon we are speaking of Kings are to be COMPELL'D by the Pope to do their duty and that is as the Canon tells us to expell all Heretiques out of their Kingdoms And if you ask Who or What Heretiques those are The same Canon tells you That it is all those whom the Pope and his Party shall be pleased to call Heretiques Thirdly And they Kings and Princes must be COMPELL'D to take an OATH and swear they will Expel such Heretiques and this Oath they must take publickly that all may see and know that Princes obey the Pope for the words of the Canon are .... Praestent JURAMENTUM PUBLICE quod universos Haereticos AB ECCLESIA NOTATOS exterminare studeant Fourthly And if any King or Prince neglect this duty and when it is tendred refuse the Oath or to expel Heretiques out of his Dominions Then the Metropolitan and the Bishops of his Province must Excommunicate him Fifthly And then if he persist contumacious and refuse to give satisfaction by expelling all Heretiques they must signifie it to the POPE that he may DEPOSE HIM ABSOLVE HIS SUBJECTS FROM THEIR OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE and GIVE HIS KINGDOM TO CATHOLIQUES So the Canon So that if the Pope and a
Popish General Council very great for number but as for Learning and Loyalty little enough consisting of 1215. Fathers I say if these may be Judges Kings and Princes are Subjects and Slaves to the Pope who may COMPEL them to expel as many of their own Subjects as he shall call or miscall Heretiques out of their Dominions and impose an Oath upon them to bind them to obedience and unless they obey such Papal commands the Pope may depose the Prince who disobeys absolve his Subjects from all Oaths of Allegiance and his Kingdom forfeited to the Pope by his disobedience may be given away to any to whom the Pope shall please to give it Now whether such impious and rebellious Positions approv'd and own'd by the Roman Church in her greatest General Councils which she believes at least would have us believe infallible be not dangerous and pernicious to Princes and destructive of their just rights let the World Judge I know that although the Jesuites and Canonists publickly approve and own the Doctrine of this Canon and the Lateran Council and the consequences of it yet some more sober Papists do not And therefore two Answers or insignificant shifts are brought by some to evade or mollifie and lessen the impiety of those consequences which are by Protestants inferr'd from it 1. First then say they that the Lateran Canon is to be meant only of Feudatary or Subordinate not of Absolute or Supreme Princes But this is an evident mistake of the meaning of the Lateran Canon and in terminis contradicts the express words and sense of the Canon For 1. By the Canon All Princes Supreme and Subordinate and Feudatary if they refuse to expel all Heretiques out of their Dominions are to be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and the Bishops of his Province and then Depos'd by the Pope but with this difference express'd in the Canon When any Subordinate Prince was Deposed it was with a Salvo or Proviso for the Rights of his Superior Lord. The Inferior Lord Deposed loses only what was his own proper Right his Superior Lord loses nothing If the Inferior Lord was to pay any Rents or ought any Services to his Supreme Lord those he did not forfeit but those remain'd due as before to the Supreme Lord. But on this condition That the Supreme Lord himself did not concur to hinder the expulsion of all Heretiques out of the Dominions of the Feudatary or Inferior Lord that is if he hindered not the Execution of the Popes commands For if he did then even he the SUPREME LORD must be Deposed too as well as the Inferior Lord. The Law and Decree of that Council involves both the Inferior and Supreme Lords if both be guilty and negligent in expelling Heretiques in the same Punishments of Deposition and loss of their Dominions For the Canon says ...... That THE SAME LAW MUST BE OBSERVED CONCERNING THOSE who have and have no SUPERIOR LORDS That is the Supreme Lords be it King or Emperor if they Obey not the Pope's command and effectually expel all Heretiques out of their Dominions they must by this Canon be Deposed 2. But admit which is evidently untrue that the Canon meant only Feudatary and Inferior Princes should be Deposed by the Pope The mischief and injustice is less as a Subordinate Prince is less than the Supreme but very great and even upon this false Supposition this Power challenged by the Pope and approved by the Lateran Canon and Council will be not only dangerous but pernicious to Subordinate and Feudatary Princes This is too plain to need any further proof The second Answer some bring to what we urge against Rome from the Lateran Canon is this They deny that Council to be a General One or if it were that it made any Canons and therefore the Doctrine of that Canon whatever it be cannot be imputed to the Church of Rome as Approved by it But this is as void of Ground or Truth as the former For this Lateran Council and the Canons of it have been and are universally received in the Church of Rome the Council as Oecumenical and the Canons attributed to it as Genuine and not Supposititious and Spurious That this may appear consider 1. That all their Writers de Conciliis which I have hitherto met with do universally acknowledge it to have been a General Council and commonly call it Concilium Lateranense Magnum and cite the Canons attributed to it as Genuine 2. All the Popish Writers who have publish'd the Councils or Epitome's and Sum of them as Crabb Surius Binius Joverius Caranza c. publish it as a General Council And Joverius confidently says .... That he cannot see with what Face any Man dare deny it to be a General Council 3. In their last and best Editions of their Canon-Law there is in the beginning a distinct Catalogue of their General and Provincial Councils acknowledged to be such and this Lateran is ever reckoned amongst those which they admit as General 2. There is a commonly received distinction amongst their Writers de Conciliis wherein they tell us That Concilia Generalia sâ—nt 1. Approbata 2. Reprobata 3. Partim approbata partim reprobata 4. Nec approbata nec reprobata of which last sort they make the first Council of Pisa. Now this Lateran Council we are speaking of they always reckon amongst the General Councils of the first Order or those which are approv'd by their Church Though this distinction of Councils be ridiculous and inconsistent with Truth or their own Principles as were it my business now or pertinent might evidently be proved yet by it it manifestly appears that the Lateran Council was in their Opinion and Judgment a General Council which is that for which I produce it But further I say 5. In their own Canon-Law and as in others before so in a late and approved Edition of it this Lateran Council under Pope Innocent the Third is acknowledged to be a General or Oecumenical Council For in the Decretals publish'd by the Authority and Command of Pope Gregory the Ninth for the common benefit and with command that they and none else without Papal Authority should be used by all Judges in Judicature and by Readers of Law in the Universities and all this confirm'd by a Bull of Gregory the Thirteenth In the very first Chapter of those Decretals the Lemma or Title prefix'd to it is thus Innocent the Third in a General Council And that we may be sure 't is the Lateran Council he means a great Lawyer in his Annotations subjoyn'd to that Bull of Gregory the Ninth before mentioned tells us That this Council was held at Rome in the Lateran in the Year 1215. in the Eighteenth Year of Innocent the Third The Patriarchs of Jerusalem and Constantinople and the Bishops of almost the WHOLE WORLD
c. So that if the Title of a Decretal publish'd by Pope Gregory the Ninth or the Annotation upon it by Naldus an eminent Lawyer and the Approbation and Confirmation of both by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth be true it will evidently follow that the Lateran Council was a General or Oecumenical Council And afterwards in the same Canon-Law and Decretals we meet with this Title to another Chapter ...... Idem in Concilio Generali And it appears both by the former Chapters of that Title and the Annotation on this that Innocent the Third was the Pope and that in the Lateran was the Council which is there call'd General And afterwards several times to the very same purpose especially in the Fifth Book of Gregories Deeretals and the Seventh Title where this Impious Canon for Deposing Kings and Absolving their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance is intirely Registred for Law referr'd to Pope Innocent the Third in his Lateran Council and that Council declared Oecumenical 6. Lastly To put the matter out of doubt that the Lateran Council was Oecumenical and made Canons the Council of Constans does testifie it several times and expresly names it amongst those General Councils to the observation whereof the Popes were to swear at their coming to the Papal Dignity And although these Authorities be abundantly sufficient to satisfie our more sober Adversaries yet I shall add one more which may I hope silence the more Confident It is the Authority of the Trent-Council which does expresly call it a General Council and confirms one of its Canons The sum of this Discourse is That if the Concurrent Testimonies 1. Of their own most learned and for Dignity most eminent Writers de Conciliis 2. Or their Publishers of their Councils General and Provincial 3. Or many Decrees of their Popes generally approved and received into their Canon-Law of the last and as they tell us of the most correct Editions 4. Or of their General Councils for such they esteem them of Constance and Trent I say if all these be of any validity and with them some of those Testimonies are infallible then it will evidently follow 1. That this Lateran Council under Pope Innocent the Third is and with them must be an Oecumenical or General Council 2. And so those Impious and Damnable Positions in the Third Canon of that Council 1. That Kings and Emperors may be Excommunicated by their own Bishops for not obeying the Pope 2. And Deposed by the Pope 3. And their Subjects Absolved by him from their Oaths of Allegiance 4. And their Kingdoms given away to those who Obey and please the Pope I say all those Positions must be acknowledged to be the Doctrines of the Roman Church being Decrees and Constitutions of her received General Councils which she professeth to be infallible and therefore obliging her to a firm belief of them 3. This being evidently so that the Pope and his Party obliged thereunto by their approved and received Canon-Law and their General Councils do believe and publickly profess such Impious Traiterous and Damnable Doctrines it will be easie for all who have good Eyes and will use them to see how Dangerous and Pernicious such Principles are to all especially Protestant Kings Princes and their People and Subjects And that 1. In point of Conscience and in respect of their Souls and Salvation if they believe and receive such Impious Positions and Principles 2. In point of Civil Prudence in respect of their Persons Honors and Estates if they receive them not 1. In point of Conscience if they submit to the Pope and believe and receive such Heretical Positions and Damnable Doctrines it must of necessity be Dangerous and Pernicious to their Souls For this Argument will be both consequent and evident To believe Heretical and Damnable Opinions and Doctrines is Dangerous and Pernicious to the Soul this all Sides confess But to believe that the Pope can Excommunicate and Depose Kings absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance so as they may lawfully murder and kill their Kings so Excommunicated and Deposed is Heretical and Damnable Doctrine as is declared in a great and full Parliament on occasion of that horrid and bloody Gun-powder-Treason in the Fifth year of King James In the Oath of Allegiance which Oath not onely you and I but all the Clergy the Nobility Magistrates all Graduates in the University c. have or should have taken and so by a Solemn and Sacred Oath hâ—ve Sworn such doctrine to be Impious Damnable and Heretical Other Arguments I need not use to you or any who love truth and the Church of England to prove the error and impiety of such Opinions and the danger those poor deluded Souls are in who believe and practice them The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Original Error from which the rest follow is that vast Supremacy which the Pope as Peters Successor challengeth and when he has ability Usurps over Kings A power St. Peter never had nor pretended to who knew no power in himself or any other meer Man superior to Kings Submit your selves sayes he to every humane Ordinance whether to the KING AS SUPREME c. He who sayes the KING IS SUPREME does with the same breath and undeniable consequence say he has no Superior It being a manifest contradiction to say any thing is SUPERIOR to that which is Supreme St. Peter commands all to SUBMIT themselves to their Kings and there were none then but Pagan and Idolatrous Princes and obey them as SUPREME Governors the Pope commandâ— Subjects to disobey their Kings if he miscall them Hereticks to refuse any assistance or subjection to them to take Armes against them and tells them that if in zeal to the Catholick Cause they kill them or any Heretique it is no Murder and threatens them with Excommunication if they do not what he commands them Now let any sober person tell me whether they can in this case disobey the Apostle and obey these impious commands of the Pope without great and apparent danger to their Soules Our blessed Saviour whose Vicar the Pope pretends to be does himself pay Tribute to Caesar though a Pagan and Idolater leaving us an admirable and most pious example of that Obedience and Loyalty due even to impious and Pagan Princes nor is this all for he further gives express command That all should render unto CAESAR THE THINGS WHICH ARE CAESARS He acknowledgeth the Imperial Rights of Caesar of which his Impiety and Idolatry did not deprive him St. Paul both by his practice and precept confirms the same doctrine 1. He acknowledges the Emperors power superior to his though he was an Apostle not inferior to Peter or any Apostle which he twice affirms to the Corinthians I stand at Caesars Judgment-Seate saith he WHERE I OUGHT TO BE JUDGED if I have done any thing worthy of
what they did not approve 2. But although the Popish Positions and Principles we are speaking of are dangerous to all Supreme Powers even Roman Catholiques as appears by what is already said yet more especially to all Protestant Princes and People For 1. All Protestant Kings and Subjects being declared Heretiques are Excommunicated and solemnly Cursed by Pope Paul the Fourth about 120 years ago and that we may take notice of it it is lately referr'd into the Body of their Canon-Law Now this Excommunication contains many considerable particulars As 1. All Heretiques of what dignity soever Barons Earls Marquesses Dukes Kings and Emperors none excepted they are all involved in the same Curse and Anathema 2. Nor is it onely those Heretiques who then were in being but ALL also which AFTERWARDS SHOULD BE. So that our gracious King and his Protestant subjects now are as much under the Curse as Q. Elizabeth and her subjects were in the First of her Reign when that Bull was first publish'd 3. Nor was this Bull rashly made but after mature deliberation with the Cardinals and by their Counsel and unanimous consent It was it seems a premeditated and deliberate as well as an Impious Act they were about for impious it was and by all sober and impartial Judges ever will be thought so 4. The punishments which this Bull tyes upon Heretiques are Excommunication Suspension Deprivation and all other punishments which any Pope in any Papal Canon or Constitution howsoever made denounced against Heretiques all which Canons and Constitutions he approves confirms and will have PERPETUALLY observed 5. And for Kings and Emperors the same is for Barons Earls Marquisses and Dukes they are TOTALLY and FOR EVER DEPRIVED of their Kingdomes and Empires and made incapable ever to enjoy them The same Censure passeth upon Bishops Archbishops which were Heretiques then when the Curse was publish'd vel in posterum in Haeresin incident or for the future EVER SHOULD BE Heretiques Nor is this Constitution which denounceth this Curse temporary But CONSTITUTIO IN PERPETUUM VALITURA a Constitution and a Curse to be in force and effectual against Heretiques for ever Nor is there any need of any Legal Process to convict any person of Heresie before the Curse come upon him but EO IPSO ABSQUE ALIQUO JURIS VEL FACTI MINISTERIO they are the words of this impious Excommunication All Heretiques by being so without any accusation or legal conviction are actually under that curse So that our gracious King all his Protestant Nobility all Archbishops and Bishops Eorum etiam receptatores fautores c. and all who shall receive or any way favor them stand actually Excommunicated and Accursed And here I desire to know of our Papists who do as much as any pretend to Loyalty do they as good subjects should favor their King or do they not If not then they neither are nor can be good subjects If they do then they disobey their Supreme and Infallible Judges and are as well as we under the Excommunication and the Popes Curse and so no members of their so much and with so little reason magnify'd Roman Church 2. But lest this Excommunication and Curse might not prove so effectual as they desire to blast all Protestants which they make for they are not so the worst of all Heretiques the Curse to make Sure Work as they think and would have it is solemnly renewed every year in that famous and impious Bulla Coenae Domini read every year on Maundy-Thursday Wherein all Protestants are by name curs'd whether Princes or People We Excommunicate and Curse sayes the Pope in that Bull All Hussites Wickliffists Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists Hugonots c. And whosoever shall RECEIVE DEFEND or FAVOR them And here again it will concern our Roman Catholicks seriously to consider into what straits the ambition and unparallel'd pride of their Popes has brought them For if according to their duty they defend their King they are cursed at Rome And if they do not defend him then they do not perform that duty of Allegiance and Fidelity to their King to which by the Law of God and Nature they are indispensably bound and so will be according to their desert accused in Heaven And here It is a short Question which they are concern'd to Answer Whether they resolve to obey God or the Pope 3. But this is not all for after this Excommunication and Curse laid upon all Protestant Princes after their deposition and total deprivation of all their royal power and dignity and a perpetual incapacity brought upon them disabling them for ever to return to those lost rights another Curse is consequent and immediately follows such Excommunication Their Subjects are declared free from all Obligations of Loyalty and Fidelity due to such Princes while they stand Excommunicate This the Decretal of Pope Honorius the Third and 't is made Law by Pope Gregory the Ninth and approved and confirmed by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth tells us That while any Lord remains Excommunicate his SUBJECTS OWE HIM NO ALLEGIANCE or FIDELITY That 's the Title and then it follows in the Decretal speaking of a Count who was Excommunicate that the Pope commands those to whom he writes That they should declare to the Subjects of that Excommunicated Count that they were FULLY ABSOLVED FROM THEIR OATH OF FIDELITY while their Lord continued Excommunicate How dangerous this Doctrine may be to our Gracious King and all Protestant Princes who stand actually Excommunicated at Rome and how little trust they can repose in their Popish Subjects I need not tell you Seeing such subjects by their Authentique laws and the declared and definitive sentence of their supreme and Infallible Judge are assured that they owe no Allegiance or Fidelity to their Excommunicated Soveraigns 4. Nor is this all for there is at least in the judgment and belief of our Adversaries a far greater and more pernicious consequent and effect of their Excommunication and Curse of Protestant Princes For the mischiefs of their Excommunications hitherto mention'd are onely temporal though the greatest in that kind possible as loss of their Royal Power Livelyhood and Life it self But they say there is an other a Spiritual effect which concerns the Soul and is the greatest mischief and misery it is capable of For they say that Heretiques Protestants with them are declared such dying Excommunicate as all good Protestants do are eternally damn'd For 1. A very great Canonist of our own Nation while Popery unhappily prevailed here tells us that every Excommunicated person is a MEMBER OF THE DEVIL And for further proof of this he cites Gratian and the Canon-Law And a far greater Author than Lindewood or Gratian and in our dayes long after them more plainly tells us that Pope Gregory the Seventh did not onely depose the Emperor Henry the Fourth but Excommunicate
and DECREE HIM TO BE ERETNALLY DAMND And for this he cites Pope Gregories own Epistles who best knew his own mind and the meaning of his own Decree So that in the Popes and Cardinals Judgment such an Excommunication is a definitive sentence and a Papal Decree whereby the persons Excommunicate are consign'd and doom'd to Eternal Damnation Whence we may understand the meaning of the Titles usually prefix'd to such Damnatory Bulls of Excommunication such as these .... DAMNATIO Excommunicatio Hen. 8. by Pope Paul the Third DAMNATIO Excommunicatio Elizabethae by Pius the Fifth where it seems by what the Pope and Cardinal before told us that it is not any temporal or not that only but the eternal damnation of Soul and Body which is intended and desired by them in their uncharitable and impious Anathema's and Excommunications Whence also it manifestly follows that all Protestants Kings and Subjects Princes and People who by many Papal Bulls and Anathema's stand actually Cursed and Excommunicated are in a damnable condition and if they die as they do and should without Popish Absolution by this Roman Uncharitable and Unchristian Divinity they are eternally damn'd This I say not that I think such Papal Bulls and Excommunications either have or can have any such effects or bring such danger to Protestants Kings or Subjects as is pretended for I believe and know that they are bruta fulmina insignificant Squibs of false Fire which can neither hurt their Souls here nor hinder their Salvation hereafter But notwithstanding this they may prove dangerous and pernicious to Protestant Princes as they may be and are great incouragements to their Popish Subjects to rebel and disobey their Soveraigns and securely as to any thing of Conscience or Injustice in it act any thing to their ruine For they who believe the Popes pretended Power that he can deprive their Prince of all Royal Power and Dignity and that he has actually done it that he has absolved them from all Obligations of Allegiance and Fidelity due to him that he is a Member of the Devil here and surely to be damn'd hereafter and that to kill him is no Murder I say those who submit to the Pope and believe these Erroneous and Impious Doctrines as all must who believe the Pope or the Roman Church Infallible have too much incouragement not only to disobey and rebel but when they have power and opportunity to take away their Princes Life as being a Person odious to God and Man and by the Pope their Infallible and Supreme Judge by their approved Laws and their General Councils declared to be such especially seeing that if they miscarry in that attempt and while they seek their Princes Life lose their own yet their Names shall in Red Letters be Register'd in the Calendar and they by their Party shall be reputed Martyrs as all know that Campian Garnet and our Powder-Traytors are An honor I am so far from envying them that I should be very glad and so would many thousands more to see our present Conspirators according to their merit referr'd into their Calendar amongst such Martyrs that so we might be freed from the fears of those Prodigious Villains and mischiefs they intended and indeavoured to act here against their Gracious Soveraign the Church and State and there is too much reason to believe that while they live and have ability and opportunity they will prosecute those Black Designs Dirum omen misericors qui solus potest averruncet Deus These are the known Positions and Doctrines of the Church of Rome approved and received by the Supreme Authority of that Church which in Thesi when they are believ'd may be very dangerous and when in Praxi put in execution and they who believe such impious Doctrines act accordingly pernicious to all Kings Princes and People especially Heretiques as they miscal them who imbrace not all their Popish Errors in which number all Protestants Kings and Subjects are by them always included And that the Popish Party especially Jesuits since their unhappy appearing in the World as also their Ecclesiastiques Secular and Regular with their adherents have acted according to those Principles for some Ages last past and what Barbarous Murders Depositions of Princes and Fatal Tragedies have been the sad consequences of such belief and actings both our own and Forreign Historians abundantly testifie And here 1. I shall pass by the horrid Murders and Massacres of the poor Waldenses who upon prosecution of the foresaid Principles have been persecuted with Fire and Sword Armies and Inquisitions and very many thousand nay infinite numbers of them as some of their own Writers testifie have been inhumanely murdered Causà indictà inaudita many times especially in France to say nothing of other Countries 2. I desire you to consider that barbarous and prodigious Villany the great Massacre of Protestants in France Ann. 1572. where and when above 30. or 40000. Innocent Protestants in Paris and other parts of France were suddenly and inhumanely Murdered by Papists acting upon such Popish Principles as I have before mentioned And this Horrid Villany was so far from being publickly disapproved and damn'd by the Church of Rome or the Impious Actors punish'd that the news of it was received at Rome with great Joy and giving Thanks to God for it Quasi author consors sceleris fuisse Deus nor was it so at Rome only but in other places too Papists received that news with great joy An evident argument that they approved both that Impious Doctrine and the pernicious effects of it 3. To omit the many Seditions and Rebellions in the time of Henry the Eighth after he had deny'd the Popes Supremacy and Edward the Sixth caused by such Persons and Principles it is notoriously known that the same Party in prosecution of the same Principles and Popish Interest did in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth continually conspire and endeavour to take away the life of that good Queen by Poison Pistol and such other impious and to persons of such Principles usual ways of Assassination to raise Rebellions and Armies having the Popes Assistance and Blessing to incourage them to that Villany to destroy her and her Religion And when all this would not do Heav'n Blessing what Rome Impiously Curs'd Pope Pius the Fifth gives the Kingdoms of England and Ireland to Philip the Second King of Spain and he with the Popes Assistance and Blessing sends his as he and his Holiness imagin'd Invincible Armado to take possession But that vast Armado and the Popish Impious Design were utterly defeated not so much by the Queens Fleet which was very inconsiderable as by great storms and tempests the immediate Hand of Heaven and a most Gracious and Miraculous Providence And this was so evident that the Admiral of that Armado the Duke of Medina Sidonia blasphemously swore That he feared Jesus Christ was turned Lutheran But
Philip King of Spain hearing of the strange defeat and ruine of his Fleet and seeing the Hand of Heaven in it said more soberly ...... That he did not send his Fleet to fight against God to whose Power and Providence he attributed the loss of it but against Men. 4. The Queen being dead Popish Conspiracies did not die with her the Pope and his Party continue as industrious and as to their Designs and Plots as impious as before They saw and knew that King James a Protestant was Legal Successor and Heir to the Crown of England yet used all Roman Arts to hinder his having possession of it and to this end Father Parsons the Jesuite writes a Book to prove what was evidently untrue and he could not chuse but know it That King JAMES had no just Title to the Crown of England though the whole Right of the Saxons and Normans and of the Houses of York and Lancaster were intirely and evidently united in him But when these Popish and Jesuitical Arts prevailed not having neither true Reason or Religion to further their Designs which were impious and irrational they contrive and resolve to execute such a Conspiracy as for barbarous and prodigious Villany neither Heathens nor Hell had till that time ever put in execution I mean the Gun-Powder-Treason which was not any ordinary or before-known Wickedness as the Killing a King or Poysoning a Prince c. but a black and unparallell'd Villany worthy Rome and a Jesuite the Blowing up of a whole Parliament King Lords and Commons the Murdering of a Kingdom in its Representatives and this in a moment before they could see or dream of any danger But though this for its impiety was a prodigious Conspiracy carried on with sworn secrecie and lay hid in the dark and under ground yet there is no Power or Policy against Providence nor concealing any thing from the All-seeing Eye of our God he saw and gratiously discover'd that horrid Popish-Powder-Treason to the Preservation of his People the Confusion of their Adversaries and nisi periisset pudor if they had any to the Eternal Shame of Papists and Popery their Religion which approves and encourages such abominable Impieties When King James slept with his Fathers and was translated to a better Kingdom out of the reach of such Popish Conspirators and whither without a serious and timely repentance of such inhumane Villanies they can never come their Designs slept not they prosecute their Plots and Conspiracies to ruine our Church and establish'd Religion as much in Charles the First 's as in his Fathers time And at last it came to this issue that other means failing the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury must be made away This was conceived the likeliest means to compass their Ends and bring in that Religion they miscal Catholique and Christian. For certainly such barbarous Murders and Assassinations may possibly promote Turcism and the Errors of Mahomet and if you will Popery but never were nor can be any just means to propagate true Christianity This Traiterous Conspiracy to Murder Charles the First and the Archbishop c. was discovered by an honorable Person to the English Ambassador in Holland and by him to the Archbishop and by him to the King And the Original Copy of the Discovery being found in the Archbishop's Library after his death was then publish'd and is in Print in many hands and amongst others in mine In the mean time our unhappy Civil Wars began and our Popish Conspirators animated by a belief of such Rebellious Doctrines and Principles as I have before mentioned and incouraged and assisted by the Pope are first in Arms and the bloody Rebellion and in Ireland murdered above 100000 Protestants in cold blood without any provocation given but to kill Heretiques which according to their impious and erroneous Principles was lawful and meritorious and thereby promote the Catholique Cause This is notoriously known to both Kingdoms England and Ireland And further when in the process of that fatal Rebellion carried on openly by English and covertly by Popish Rebels that good King was taken imprison'd with design to bring His Sacred Head to the Block for the distance is seldom great between a Princes Prison and His Grave our Popish Conspirators had a Council of Priests and Jesuites which sate in London and signifi'd the condition of their Affairs here to a Council of their Confederates at Paris and they transmitted the Case to Rome from whence Directions and Commands were return'd by the same way back again to London In short it was determin'd that it was for the Interest of the Catholick Cause that the King should die and accordingly their Council of Priests and Jesuites in London Voted His Death This is now Notoriously known to be true and in Print publish'd to the World by a Reverend and Learned Person who if any shall call him to an account for it is so convinc'd of the truth of what he writ that he in scriplis publickly offers and promises to make it good I do not hear that he has as yet been call'd to any account to prove what he publickly and in Print has profess'd and promised to do Nor do I think he will be call'd to any such account because I have reason to believe that he can and will produce such Proofs as will evidently demonstrate both their bloody Conspiracies and the undeniable truth of what he affirm'd 6. By the Premises it may sufficiently appear That the Rebellious Popish Principles and Practices have been very dangerous to all our Protestant Princes and their Loyal Subjects ever since the Reformation and had they taken that effect which they designed and with unwearied wickedness industriously endeavoured they would have proved destructive and both to Prince and People pernicious Nay which I have omitted while this whole Nation continued actually in the Communion of the Church of Rome when Henry the Eighth his Parliament and Convocation all Roman-Catholiques and far from being Protestants had deny'd and lege latâ taken away the Popes Usurped Supremacy that we may be sure the Pope's Practices are suitable to his pernicious Principles Pope Paul the Third Excommunicates Curses and Damns the King and all his Good Subjects Commands him to Abrogate and Null the Laws made against his Supremacy and to appear before him at Rome within Ninety Days and his Adherents and Favorers which were all his Loyal Subjects especially his Parliament and Convocation within Sixty Days They not appearing he Ratifies the Excommunication Deprives him of his Kingdom and Dominions Prohibits peremptorily the King or his Adherents if they die as they did before he Absolved them to have any CHRISTIAN BURIAL and declares them ETERNALLY DAMND Then he layes that most impious Interdict upon the whole Nation forbids all Publick Prayers Masses and Divine Offices Nor this only but he Deprives the Children of Henry the Eighth Born
or to be Born of Queen Anna and all the Children of his Adherents and their Descendents none excepted of all their Rights Priviledges and Goods Moveable and Immoveable and makes them for the future incapable and deprived of all Dignities Honors Offices Rights Fees c. which otherwise they might have obtain'd and this he does knowingly and by the Plenitude of his Power Then he goes on and declares the King and his Adherents and Descendents to be Infamous Persons disabled to be Witness to make any Will or Testament or to receive any Legacy or Benefit by the Testament of any other Forbids all Men to have any Conversation Commerce or Trade with them on pain of Excommunication and loss of all their Goods c. And further Commands all Christian Princes quacunque dignitate Imperiali aut Regali fulgeant Kings and Emperors no way to favour the King and his Adherents and Nulls all Oaths Compacts Treaties c. made or to be made to or with the King or in favour of him or his Adherents and gives Authority and express COMMAND to all Christian Princes and their Armies by Sea or Land to turn their Arms against the King and his Adherents and compel them to return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience to the Pope And whoever acknowledges Henry the Eighth to be King or any way Obeys him and will not in Obedience to the Popes Command expel him and them out of the Kingdom and their Dominions all their Goods Moveable and Immoveable Moneys Merchandizes whether within or without England are to be seiz'd on and by the Popes Authority possess'd and kept by any who can catch them And he there gives them such Thieves and Robbers full power to enjoy and possess such Plunder'd Goods of the Kings or his Loyal Subjects as in their own Right and Propriety And if they take any Inhabitants in England Native or Alien who Obey the King and Disobey the Pope then all so taken are to be Slaves to those who take them So that impious Bull in contradiction to the Laws of Nature and Scripture Reason and Christian Religion Our Blessed Saviour the Prince of Peace came not to destroy but to save not to Depose Kings and Emperors Absolve their Subjects from the Obligations of their Natural or Sworn Allegiance or to Arm them against Governors and as his pretended Vicar does promise them a Reward Remission of Sins here and an higher place in Heaven hereafter for Rebellion and Murdering their Brethren Fellow-Subjects and Christians for believing and maintaining that Truth which by the Pope and his Party should be miscall'd Heresie No he was the good Shepherd who laid down his own life for his Sheep and when they stray'd and err'd from his Fold he did not hire and send Dogs or Wolves to worry them but with infinite Patience and Mercy went himself to seek them and being found though erring and out of his Fold laid them on his own shoulders and with great love and labor brought them home to his Fold from which as his Sheep may and yet not cease to be his Sheep they had erred We read indeed that our Blessed Saviour gives Peter Commission to FEED HIS SHEEP and his LAMBS But we never read that he whose Kingdom was not of this World gave any Commission to Peter or his pretended Vicar to raise Armies to kill and indictà causà to Murder them Though I know there are some who from pasce oves with bad Logique and worse Divinity conclude that the Pope has Power to kill Heretiques Like that Monk Erasmus mentions who with great Zeal for the Catholique Cause and greater Ignorance endeavoured to prove that the Church might kill Heretiques from that passage in the Apostle HAERETICUM DEVITA that is says the Monk who had no Greek and little Latine DE VITA TOLLE take him out of this life that is kill him Sed è diverticulo in Viam 7. From the aforesaid reasons I think we may with good consequence conclude that the Pope and his party ever since Henry the Eighth de facto assum'd the Supremacy which de jure was his before have been in a perpetual Conspiracy against the Lives and Religion of our Protestant Princes at least till the Happy Return of our Gracious Soveraign whom God preserve who being by the good and Miraculous Providence of Heaven Restor'd to His Fathers Throne His own Right and Inheritance a blessed Peace and all the happy effects of it did immediately follow to the great comfort and benefit of the whole Nation The Government of Church and State before shatter'd and ruin'd by a horrid Rebellion Begun Incourag'd and Promoted by the Pope and his Jesuitical Party was happily Restored and by Law establish'd the Just Rights and Liberties of the Subjects assured to them and confirm'd a Gracious Act of Oblivion and Pardon of Illegal Seditious and Rebellious actions against the King and His Laws granted and the blessing and benefit of all these extended to Papists as well as other So that beside their Obligation to Obedience and Loyalty by their Natural or Sworn Allegiance there lay upon them an Obligation to Gratitude for those signal favors they received from the goodness of a gratious Prince So that it was the beliefe and hope of some that the foremention'd Popish Principles and Practises had been forgot or laid aside and that the Roman Catholiques as both in words and writings they publickly pretended would be very Loyal Subjects But these were vain hopes for notwithstanding all obligations to obedience and gratitude even since His Majesties Happy Return the Popish Party have carried on their Plots and Conspiracies against their gracious Prince the establish'd Religion and the Peace of our Church and State with as much industry and impiety as formerly Which now evidently appears by their impious Conspiracy by the blessing of God very happily though lately discover'd That you may in the General know what this Plot is and that I do not miscall it when I say it is an Impious Conspiracy I shall give you two Authentique Testimonies I. Our gratious King calls it A BLOODY TRAITEROUS design of POPISH Recusants against His MAJESTIES Sacred PERSON the GOVERNMENT and the PROTESTANT RELIGION II. The House of Commons in a Vote of that House approved by the Lords say thus ........ Resolved c. That this House is of Opinion that there HATH BEEN and STILL IS a DAMNABLE and HELLISH PLOT contrived and carried on by POPISH RECVSANTS for horresco referens ASSASSINATING and MURDERING THE KING and for SUBVERTING the GOVERNMENT and rooting out and DESTROYING the PROTESTANT RELIGION By what is already said I suppose you may see what the Roman-Catholick or Popish Principles and Practises have been are and while there is a Pope and a Party to believe and incourage such Practises ever will be and how dangerous such Principles are and when put in execution how pernicious they