cannot but judg that they design nothing less than my Ruine in Revenge for that Service I did my Country in discovering their more than abominable and hellish Conspiracy against the Life of the late King the Protestant Religion and the Government as by Law established both in Church and State I thought it my Duty in case of any harder Usage than I have yet met with to put something in Writing which my Friends I hope will publish for the Satisfaction of my dear Country-men for whose Cause I have been a living Martyr exposed to the Rage and Reproach of a Generation of Men who neither fear God nor reverence Man whose Religion is either the worst of Religions or their Morals so debauched that they are fit to be of any Religion except that of Christ Therefore in the first place I do declare my self to be a Protestant of the Church of England as by Law established both in Doctrine and Discipline yet I must confess she stands in need of a further Reformation and it would be happy if that by the Removal of some Ceremonies useless and dangerous a way might be made for a more perfect Union amongst all English Protestants that our Hands might be strengthned against the Common Enemy the Papists in order to the rooting out of Superstition and Idolatry from amongst us that we may avert those Judgments from this Nation that do so highly threaten our total Destruction It hath been the greatest Grief of my Heart to see Protestants contending one with another about the meaner Parts of Religion and Worship whilst the Enemy the Popish Party stands by and adds Fuel to our Flames and nourishes the Quarrel till we have exposed our selves to be devoured by them and have wounded those amongst us who are weak in the Faith I could likewise wish that our dissenting Brethren would lay aside their Scruples in some things and comply with their Brethren in those Ceremonies that are innocent and harmless and not inconsistent with the Word of God and the Law of our great Lord Jesus Christ and that they that can conform for Christ's sake do not persecute their Brethren who through Tenderness of Conscience cannot partake with them in those Advantages that some of them have enjoyed to their Hearts Content Truly I have been so far from being inclined to persecute any for Conscience sake that I would not have had the least Thought of having or advising the Prosecution of Popery or molesting of any that are in Communion with the Church of Rome but that the Religion of Rome is a Conspiracy against God and Christ and Mankind for shew me a Papist that is thorow-paced I will shew you a Murderer of the People of God a Firer of Cities a declared Enemy to the Peace and Tranquillity of the Sons of Men. Now Men that are so united together against God and all Goodness our Religion Lives and Liberties must be rooted out and not suffered to continue amongst a well governed People for they make it their Business to debauch our looser sort of Christians and reproach and calumniate those whose Firmness to their God and the Gospel of Christ renders them Men above their Temptations tho by their Allurements some have been seduced to their Destruction Therefore as for the Popish Religion I do declare that I do detest and abhor it as a Religion whose whole Foundation is Blood Cruelty Murder and Rapine a Religion that stands in opposition to the Rule and Law of Jesus Christ And the Bishop of Rome whom they call Pope I believe to be Antichrist that exalts himself in the Temple of God above God and all that is called God the Son of Perdition and everlasting Wrath. But that which is expected of me is that I do declare my self fully concerning the damnable Plot carried on by the Popish Party for the Destruction of the late King and the Protestant Religion I must confess the Acquaintance I had with some considerable Papists in the Year 1670. made me to suspect a Design carrying on by them to advance their own Religion and to pull down ours but I little thought that they had a Design of murdering the King which in process of time I found out There was one Cotton that was at Mr. Guilfourd's in Kent that was often very pleasingly tempting me to come over to their Church for saith he it will not be long before you must either burn or turn therefore come over in time that your coming over may be looked upon as meritorious This Cotton since I understood to be a Priest of the Society of Jesus and one that was ingaged in the Popish Plot and with him I had a better and more intimate Acquaintance From him at first I found that the Popish Party had a Design of promoting their Religion and making what Proselytes they could in order to the inlarging their Interest and Power in this poor Nation I from that time had a great Desire to get into them to see whither their Designs tended being very fearful that they designed no less than the Ruine of our Religion and Government Nay this Cotton had the Impudence to tell me that the King was engaged with them to advance their Cause and Religion and was resolved to bring in Popery it being a Religion that was most consistent with Monarchy and that his Majesty was resolved to be like his Neighbour-Princes this was in the Year 1670 about Christmass Which Discourse I did discover to Mr. Walter Drury whom I did assist in the Service of his Cure at Sandburst in the County of Kent and he told me that that Mr. Cotton had talked as badly or rather worse to him but he had sufficiently told him his own so that Cotton was shy of having any farther Discourse with hâ—â— about those Matters and withal Mr. Drury having threatned to complain of him Mr. Cotton did withdraw from that Family and another came in his room In the Year 1672 I was acquainted with one Keimash who was very perswasive in his Arguments to have brought me over to their Church he then frequented Arundell-house in the Strand and was a Fellow that had insinuated himself into the Acquaintance of several Divines of our Church and bragged that he had reconciled above thirty Ministers of the Church of England but I found him a debauched lewd Fellow and so my Acquaintance ceased with him for it was a hard Matter unless in a Morning to find him sober I found him afterwards to have been Chaplain to the old Countess of Arundell with whom he lived several Years under the Notion of her Steward In the Year 1672 I left Mr. Drury's Cure and held a Living of my own which I resided upon for some time called Bobbing in Kent and from thence I went and served his Majesty at Sea as a Chaplain where I found many Difficulties by reason of Sickness of Body I refreshed my self at Tangire There was one Gerard an Irish Dominican that
become may I say to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work ☞ That which we rely upon most next to God Almighty's Providence and the Favour of my Master the Duke is THE MIGHTY MIND of his most Christian Majesty I must confess I think his Christian Majesty's TEMPORAL INTEREST is so much attracted to that of his R. H. which can never be considerable but upon the Growth and Advancement of the CATHOLICK RELIGION that his Ministers cannot give him better Advice c. Now Gentlemen might not a Man have concluded that what you then read and find here repeated ought to have weaned your Party at least such of you as pretended to be of the Church of England for I well remember you scoffed at the Name of Protestant from your idolized Popish Successor What I could no King please such Churchmen as you but such AZEALOT as would not regard any thing in the World in comparison of overturning our Religion Could no one content you but a Prince whose Interest was avowed to be inseparably united to that of the Grand Tyrant of the Earth Who declared himself fully convinc'd that PARLIAMENTS were not only VNVSEFVL but very DANGEROVS to the JOINT INTEREST both of England and France None but him by whom the French King's Interest was to be secured in England None but him who undertook to give the greatest Blow to the Protestant Religion here that it ever received from its Birth None but him who should he once get above us after the Tricks we had then plaid him by the way he remembers we have plaid him a worse since WOVLD NOT TOTALLY FORGET the Vsage he has had at our Hands Finally could nothing please you but a King whose MIGHTY WORK as you were forewarned was to be no less than the Destruction of the Nations under the Notion of converting them and who was utterly to subdue our Religion as a PESTILENT HERESY One of whom our inhumane Enemies promised themselves greater Hopes than ever they had since the Death of cruel Queen Mary A Prince whom they boasted was become to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work as that of razing the Foundations of the Church of England Could I now believe that I discourse to rational Creatures and not to Brutes void of all Understanding I should hope to make you blush at your past Frenzies if not perswade you to cease doting on your old Bondage and hankering after the Flesh-Pots of Egypt to give over your Murmuring and no longer to foment Jealousies between the King and his People no longer to be throwing in Sparks of Discontent and endeavouring to blow them up into Flames of Mutinies and Rebellions Allow me to remember you in the Words of a loyal and learned Person that God has given our King a People who tho they may sometimes be practised upon to run into Vproars yet Loyalty is so inlaid in their Tempers and annealed to their Souls that the secret Enemies of our King and Peace could never yet make their Earnings out of them nay that God has converted our Danger into our Security that he has made the People not the Terror of the Government but of its Enemies That some ill Men have an ill and envious Eye upon the Throne but they fear the People Mr. Alsop's Thanksgiving-Sermon at Westminster 8 Sept. 1695. Run not then I caution you headlong to Destruction but be advised to consider what you are doing why will you be helping forward your Countries Ruine by labouring to subject it to that mighty Nimrod the securing whose Interest in England was the wicked Design so long since on foot 'T is evident to all the World that you under the Name of TORIES in which you gloried brought Church and State to the very Door of Destruction gave us the dismal Prospect of Slavery in our Persons Consciences and Estates and by your Procurement we beheld every thing that was dear and valuable to us upon the Brink of Subjection to a foreign Power and all by pleading for and adhering to your darling Popish Successor Nay 't is beyond Contradiction clear that you were blinded deluded and beguiled in that Point by the subtile Jesuits those Firebrands of all Europe Now seeing it has pleased God to bless us with the grateful Surprize of a Deliverance from such great Evils will you be perswaded to become a loyal quiet People disposed to Obedience To inforce this upon you as 't is your Interest as well as Duty I shall recount to you what was in vain laid before you when you first ran a madding after Popery and Slavery A sincere Lover of his Country then argued with you to this Effect You were then truly told that those who were for the Duke of York 's Interest were most certainly for these three Interests viz. 1. For the Popish Interest 2. For the French Interest 3. For Tyranny or Arbitrary Government term it as you will and by Consequence against these other three things 1. Against the Interest of the Church of England and the Protestant Religion 2. Against the Interest of England your native Country 3. Against the Interest of Parliaments and so against your own Freedoms as you were Englishmen You were then exhorted seriously to consider these things your Religion your Lives your Liberties your Estates your All being deeply concerned therein 1. You were rightly admonished that if you stood for the Duke's Interest you did undoubtedly so far stand for that of the Pope and would thereby give the greatest Blow to the Church of England it ever had since it was a Church The Matter was thus expostulated with you Can you once imagine that by bringing in a Popish Successor you will not inevitably set up Popery Will such a King think you have so great a Love for another Religion as his own or for those of another Profession whom he esteems Hereticks as for those of his own Nay then will it not naturally follow that he will advance the one and discountenance and depress the other Will it not be the only way to get into Office or Preferment to turn Papist What will the Effect of this be in a little time think you Will it not be a great weakning to the Church of England to have her Members allured and seduced from her and turn'd and kept out of Places of Trust Profit and Honour whilst her Enemies are placed in them Consider further whether in endeavouring to make a Papist Head of the Church of England you do not labour to make her a Monster for if our Head reckon us his Body rotten Hereticks where 's our Body Where will our Church be What Agreement between the Head and the Body Will it not inevitably run into Confusion Shall we have a Father of our Church who by his own Faith stands obliged to destroy her and is bound by the Romish Principles to deal with her
they will have Dr. Oates's Information to be Fictitious alledging that it is improbable he should come in so short a time to a distinct knowledg of so many Particulars or if he had heard or seen them that he should remember them and that if he went among them with an intent to discover them why did he not do it sooner These when well weighed will I am satisfied be found very frivolous When he was first admitted among the Jesuits they made him a Messenger for their Society which exactly fell in with his Design to detect their Villanies They sent him with Letters into Spain those he opened and thereby began to smell something of their Hellish Designs After this he was taken into their Consult and so had the liberty to see and hear what was then acting and to enquire how past Intrigues had been carried on Thus he came to understand that the City of London was fired by the Jesuits how that Plot was laid and who were the Actors in it He kept short Notes of all things that occurred from the time he was admitted into their Society with intent to produce them when they might be of use which enabled him to give so exact an Account of all Occurrences These were confirm'd by other Circumstances and collateral Evidence so that in some hundreds of Particulars no one thing has interfer'd with another nor with those Papers which have been found elsewhere or with those Informations which have been given in by others For instance He informs that Coleman was a principal Agent in this Conspiracy Letters found inform the same He informs that he delivered Commissions received from Langhorne Letters intercepted make mention of Commissions sent which they hope were delivered In short it was impossible that a Man should contrive such a Thing attended with so many hundreds of Circumstances and comparing them with so many Papers Informations and Examinations of so many other Men but they would interfere with one another if false therefore it may justly be concluded the whole is true till something be found to the contrary and then it follows that here was a most bloody devillish and hellish Design which hath been in some measure carrying on to this day I must here take the liberty to digress a little and lay before you what Observation the Lord-Chief-Justice Scroggs made upon Dr. Oates his Evidence of this Plot as you may read in the Trial of Ireland Pickering and Grove pag. 72. When the Matter says he is so accompanied with so many other Circumstances ☞ which are material Things and cannot be evaded or denied it is almost impossible for any Man to make such a Story or not to believe it after it is told I know not whether they can frame such a one I am sure never a Protestant ever did and I believe never would invent such a one to take away their Lives Now as to the time of this Discovery if on the first Intimation of the Design he had made a Discovery of it it is more than probable he had been rejected because he could not make out the Particulars as at length he did and yet found no small difficulty to be received Further He was not at his own Command when he was engaged in their Society had he moved any way without or contrary to their Order he had presently been suspected and might easily have been detected But being sent from St. Omers into England he laid hold of that Opportunity and shewed his real Intention to preserve the King's Life and his Native Countrey from this accursed Conspiracy Will you please now to allow me to lay before you the Opinion of the said Lord-Chief-Justice Scoggs as to this Ridiculed Plot as he delivered it in the before-mentioned Trial of Ireland Pickering and Grove It is said he most plain the Plot is discovered and that by these Men and that it is a Plot and a Villanous one nothing is plainer No Man of common Understanding but must see there was a Conspiracy to bring in Popery and to destroy the Protestant Religion and we know their Doctrines and Practices too well to believe they will stick at any thing that may effect these Ends They must excuse me if I be plain with them I would not asperse a Profession of Men as the Priests are with hard words if they were not very true and if at this time it were not very necessary If they had not murdered Kings I would not say they would have murdered ours but when it has been their Practice so to do when they have debauched Mens Understandings overturned all Morals and destroyed all Divinity what shall I say of them When their Humility is such that they tread upon the Necks of Emperors their Charity such as for to kill Princes and their Vow of Poverty such as to covet Kingdoms what shall I judg of them When they have Licence to Lie and Indulgences for Falshoods nay when they can make him a Saint that dies in one and then pray to him as the Carpenter first makes an Image and afterwards worships it and then can think to bring in that Wooden Religion of theirs amongst us in this Nation What shall I think of them What shall I say of them What shall I do with them I have said so much the more in this Matter because their Action are so very plain and open and yet so pernicious and it 's a very great Providence that we and out Religion are delivered from Blood and Oppression I believe our Religion would have stood notwithstanding their Attempts and I would have them to know we are not afraid of them nay I think we should have maintained it by destroying of them We should have been all in Blood it 's true but the greatest Effusion would have been on their Side and without it how did they hope it should have been done I return now to the the Fact which is proved by two Witnesses and by the concurrent Evidence of the Letter and the Maid and the Matter is as plain and notorious as can be that there was an Intention of bringing in Popery by a Cruel and Bloody Way I leave it therefore to you to consider whether you have not as much Evidence from these two Men as can be expected in a Case of this Nature ☞ and whether Mr. Oates be not rather justified by the Testimony offered against him than discredited Let Prudence and Conscience direct your Verdict and you will be too hard for their Art and Cunning. Now I am to observe to you that the Jury having brought in these Criminals guilty of the Treason for which they stood indicted the same Lord-Chief-Justice whom Blessed Memory promoted did express himself in these words You have done Gentlemen like very good Subjects and very good Christians that is to say like very good Protestants and now much good may their thirty thousand Masses do them Hear now the Opinion of your old and
most endeared Friend Jeffries to this Point at the time when he as Recorder of London pass'd Sentence of Death upon Langhorne and the five Jesuits his words were these Nor is there the least room for the most scrupulous Man to doubt of the Credibility of the Witnesses that have been examined against you And sure I am you have been fully heard and stand fairly convicted of those Crimes you have been indicted for Hearken once more and understand what the same Recorder Jefferies declared upon the Jury's giving their Verdict upon the five Jesuits it was this Vpon a long Evidence a full discussing the Objections made against it and a patient hearing of the Defence they made they are found Guilty And I do think that every Honest Man will say that they are unexceptionably found so and that 't is a just Verdict you have given Bear with me now before I conclude that I am your Remembrancer that in hope of stifling this Plot the Bloody Conspirators barbarously murdered a Worthy Magistrate Sir Edmundbury Godfrey who upon the 27th of Sept. 1678. took Dr. Oates's Information upon Oath and these inhumane Villains allowed him not to survive it above 14 days and I shall lay before you Scroggs's Declaration concerning it as made in the Trial of the five Jesuits While this Gentleman's Blood said he lies upon you it must be yet further told you that in what you did do you have given a Specimen of what you would do We have a Testimony that for promoting your Cause you would not stick at the Blood of Protestants you began with Sir Edmundbury Godfrey but who knows where you would have made an end It was this one Man you killed in his Person but in Effigie the whole Nation It was in one Man's Blood your Hands are embrewed but your Souls were dipt in the Blood of us all this was a Handsel only of what was to follow and so long as we are convinced you killed him we cannot but believe you would also have killed the King We cannot but believe you would make all of us away that stand in the way of your Religion A Religion which according to what it is you would bring in upon us by a Conversion of us with Blood and by a Baptism with Fire God keep our Land from the one and our City from the other To return says Scroggs ☞ The Letter that is found in Harcourt 's Papers does further confirm Mr. Oates in all the great and considerable Matters that he says that there was a Plot that that Plot was called by the name of a Design which was to be kept close and secret and this is an Evidence that cannot lie But after all I know you of the Jacobite Party will upbraid me that notwithstanding such strong Confirmation of all that the Doctor had witnessed and that by Evidence which could not lie it is well known he was afterwards convicted of Perjury So he was and I care not if I digress a little to remind you of the manner of doing it As an Introduction to it the virulent Pen of that Man of effronted Impudence L'Estrange I mean is employed to vilify nor only the Evidence but Parliaments nay the Protestant Religion it self Addresses of Thanks for the Violation of our Rights in the Dissolution of Parliaments were made and most graciously received the Presenters of them being usually honoured with Knighthood and rewarded with Preferment to Places of Trust and Profit I have the Name of one of you at my Tongue 's end but at this time for his Brother's sake I 'll spare him By these and such like Arts it became the common Cry of a profligate Party in every Corner of England Popery is better than Presbytery at least the Papists and Dissenters are equally dangerous if not all one 'T is therefore more than time that a Colledge be hang'd against a Pickering The Nation was almost put besides it self by the doleful Cry of Blood Blood Associations Conspiracies Rebellion Treason and what not that was frightful and terrible Rome it self could not possibly have ordered Matters better for the Service of Holy Church The Protestant Religion is now mock'd Parliaments derided the Witnesses of the Plot vilified and the Belief of any other than a Presbyterian Plot vanishes This Proceeding gave new Life and Heart to the Popish Conspirators and struck no small damp upon their Prosecutors Of the Witnesses some were bought off and others terrified from their Testimony But Dr. Oates being no way shaken but bearing with undaunted Courage and Constancy innumerable Reproaches and Slanders from the Pulpit and Press nay and from the Stage also Hell it self seemed to be engaged to discredit and batter down the Belief of his Evidence Knox and Lane to blast his Reputation were imployed to accuse him of an unusual but most heinous Wickedness that Plot not obtaining and Matters being prepared for placing unmasked Popery upon the Throne he was condemned in 100000 l. for affirming the Duke of York to be a Papist and thereupon secured against the desired Season for the Conspirators taking their full Revenge upon him The Way being thus prepared for the execution of their Design upon him on the 8th of May 1685. he was brought to Trial in the Court of King's Bench upon an Indictment for evidencing that there was a treasonable Consult at the White-horse-Tavern in the Strand the 24th of April 1678. at which Whitebread Fenwick and Ireland were present and that they there came to a Resolution to murder the King and that the Defendant carried the Resolution from Chamber to Chamber to be signed by the Jesuits whereas in Truth he was not present nor carried any such Resolution to be signed and so committed wilful Perjury I shall here lay down a summary Account of the Proceedings in this Trial and if the Reader be curious to have farther Information therein I refer him to a more ample Relation thereof in the Tract called A Display of Tyranny the first Part printed in 1689. The Names of the Judges then in Court were Lord Chief Justice Jefferies Mr. Justice Wythens Mr. Justice Holloway and Mr. Justice Walcot The Fame of the first will be ever remembred The second was advanced to a Seat upon the Bench for promoting and presenting an Address expressing an Abhorrence to petition for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments Holloway had been very instrumental in the Murder of brave Stephen Colledge which entitled him to this Promotion And Walcot was a mean Wretch and by consequence a fit Tool to serve the Purposes of that Juncture The Names of the Jury pack'd upon him were Sir William Dodson Sir Edmond Wiseman Richard Aley Thomas Fowle Thomas Blackmore Peter Pickering Robert Bedingfield Thomas Rawlinson Roger Reeves Ambrose Isted Henry Collyer and Richard Howard Every Man then of your own Gang I assure you The King's Counsel were Attorney General Sawyer Solicitor General Finch Recorder of London Mr. North Mr. Jones
upon the first sight of me required of me Whether the Catholick Religion was established in England this was in the Year 1674. in the Month of April and I told him No Why then said he the Dutch War is to no purpose Why said I was our engaging in a War against the Dutch to bring in Popery Well well saith the Friar you will see in time In some few Days we had notice of a Peace with the Dutch What then said he our great King of France is not at Peace with them and he must do the Work In the Year 1675 I had obtained an Interest with Henry Duke of Norfolk then Earl of Norwich and Earl Marshal of England who was very kind to me upon the Account of my contending earnestly for his Right of Presenting to a Living in the Diocess of Chichester to which Living the then Bishop a turbulent Man pretended a Right of Collating And in the Year 1676 I was made his Chaplain and I call the whole Family of the Norfolk Howards to witness to my Fidelity to him and to his Children tho I am but churlishly used by some of them for my Truth and Fidelity to my Lord and Master but God forgive them for their Ingratitude to me especially Charles Howard who owes me more than I shall mention here but I always had a Thought that Popery rendred a Man incapable of being grateful to his Friend I in the Service of the Duke of Norfolk came acquainted with several Priests and being then resolved upon a strict Inquiry into their Designs against us and our Religion and Laws and Liberties I met with one Berry a Priest that had been a Jesuit but had left that Order through some Discontent and Madness that had seized the poor Wretch as he hath told me He was a Scholar in Cambridg was a Minister in England if he told me the Truth then turned Jesuit and then as before left that Order and became a secular Priest and then came to the Church of England and was a Curate at Berking and since is gone to the Church of Rome again This Berry I found a poor zealous Man whose Zeal was far beyond his Knowledg and he fell upon me to come over to their Church and he brought me acquainted with Mr. Langworth a Jesuit who since is dead as he the said Berry hath told me and with Mr. John Keins a great Jesuit and one Mr. Morgan a Jesuit that lived with the Lord Powis in the Year 1676 1677 1678. till the Plot was discovered where he is now I know not I was by Langworth reconciled to the Church of Rome he was then Confessarius to the Ld Petre and his Family and upon my being reconciled I was brought to Mr. Strange the then Provincial of their Order who admitted me into the Society of Jesus when I was admitted it was resolved by the Jesuits that I should pass the time of my Novitiate abroad in dispatching Business for the Society which I chearfully accepted and therefore accordingly they provided for me When I had paid Mr. Luke Roch Commander of the Biscay Merchant Earnest for my Passage to Bilboa the said Strange then Provincial of the Order gave me 100 Pistols for my Supply in order for my Passage into Spain and for my necessary Expences there and ordered me what Money I should need exhorting me to be as good a Husband as I could for they had great Occasions for Money What Letters they sent by me I have set forth in my Narrative but when I had got a competent Knowledg of the Design I found the great Reason why they would murder the late King was because he had deceived them and in Spain they assured me he had been reconciled to their Church and that upon his Reconciliation the Society in Spain had contributed 3000 Pistols to his Support which was paid in by Father Courtney sometime Provincial of the Jesuits in England I say several Letters written to one Father Knot in which the late King did testify his Zeal for the Catholick Religion and promised to restore it whenever he should come to the Enjoiment of his Right in England and that till he had an Opportunity to do it they should have all the Connivance in the World and if the Case should be so hard with him when he came to the Crown that he could not bring about his Desires to make their Religion to be the Religion of the Government yet they should have an Indulgence that should be equivalent however they should not be excluded out of Offices and Employments under him and that they had his Heart and Soul When I found the late King not inclined to believe that he was to he murdered I did in private tell him these things and that the only reason why they did design to take away his Life was because that he had made such Promises to them and assured them he was theirs and that he was reconciled to the Church of Rome when beyond Sea as I had seen by his own Letters The King commanded me to take no notice of his being reconciled to the Church of Rome and declared to me upon the World of a King that now he did believe they had a Design to murder him acknowledging be had written those Letters I had intimated to his Majesty and withal told me if I had come to him privately and acquainted him with the Plot he could of himself have dashed it and though I designed well yet the Discovery of it had created a Jealousy in the People of him Then I acquainted him with his Letters to the Nuns of Ghent when he borrowed Money of them which they waited for several Years here in England now he in that Letter did declare to them he would restore their Religion when he came to his Right and that was another Reason that provoked the Party against him and that St. Germane a French Jesuit had a hand in the Murder of Killigrew's Man when he lay upon the Couch in his Majesty's Cloak Here the King interrupted me and commanded me to take no farther notice of that Business declaring he knew more than I could tell him in that Affair of Killigrew's Man but withal again repeated the great Jealousy the People had of him and that it was much encreased by ill Men that did labour to possess Peoples Minds against him and said unless an extraordinary Care were taken the Phanatick Party would rebel and very much inveighed against the Dissenters and thought himself in as much danger from them as from the Popish Party That upon the Discovery of several Papers found about January 167 8 9 at one Jolliff a Taylor 's I did observe that the late King Charles the First unless his Hand was counterfeited had commissioned several Irish to rise and withal I saw Instructions given to them to give the English no Quarter and I saw a Letter of his to a Titular Bishop the Bishop of Cassal as
Executed upon your Petitioner's Evidence together with the Evidence of Others the Attainders of which Conspirators remain as your Petitioner believes upon Record That four several Parliaments owned the said Discovery and passed several Votes wherein they did declare that there was a horrid Popish Plot for the Destruction of your Royal Person and your Government and for the Subversion of the Protestant Religion as by Law established That Roger L'estrange Esq whom your Petitioner hears is again a Justice of the Peace tho turned out for several Misdemeanours in the Year 1680 hath defamed and arraigned the Justice of the Nation in ridiculing the said Popish Plot the Discovery and Discoverers thereof in a certain Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlet of his called the Observator and in several other Pamphlets That he the said Roger L'estrange pretends in some of those Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlets that he is authorized so to do by one or both your Secretaries That the said Scandalous and Seditious Pamphlet appears to countenance Popery in your Protestant Government and the Popish Party hath been much encouraged by the same to revile and threaten your Petitioner That your Petitioner hath born those Scandalous Reflections and Aspersions upon the account of his Discovery of the said Plot from the said L'estrange these four Years with Patience and had the Scandals only touched your Petitioner he would not have complained to your Majesty and this Board but since the said L'estrange scandalously vilifies the said Discovery and calls in question the Justice of your Government your Petitioner thinks fit to apply himself to your Majesty and this Board for Relief The Premises considered Your Petitioner humbly prays your Majesty and this Honourable Board to relieve him and his Evidence against the Seditious Calumnies of the said Roger L'estrange and not suffer your Petitioner to be left to be daily Oppressed and Destroyed for those Services which your Majesty and Council and Parliaments and Courts of Justice have owned And Your Petitioner shall as in Duty bound pray for Your Majesty's Health and long Life and happy Reign c. Titus Oates A Copy of Dr. Oates's Letter to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury March 15. 1683. May it please your Grace I Having received several Kindnesses from you when I was at Lambeth-House do upon that Score think that this may not miss your Hand nor I lose my end in writing at this Time in which my Lord be pleased to understand that for my own Vindication I have written to Mr. Secretary Jenkins and in his Letter I have inclosed a Petition and Complaint to the King 's most Excellent Majesty and to the Lords and Others of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council against one Roger L'estrange who in several of his Pamphlets called the Observator and other Seditious Pamphlets hath vilified the Discovery of the Popish Plot and in that I humbly conceive he doth arraign and reflect on the Justice of the Government And God having called you to the Great Office of an Arch-bishop and Privy-Counsellor I thought my Application to your Grace would not at all be Improper and therefore I thought I might lay before your Grace the hard usage I have received from the said L'etrange and his Confederate Villains that neither fear God nor reverence Man Your Grace I suppose hath not forgot that Four Parliaments did enter upon the Examination both of Witnesses and Criminals concerned in the Popish Conspiracy I was the first that appeared to detect that Villany and received the Thanks of the Council and the Lords in Parliament and it was looked on as such a piece of Service that Your Grace was of the Opinion that some Mark of Favour should be conferred on me But I was not studious of my own Interest but was always careful for which I bless God to do my Countrey Justice and have reaped the Fruits thereof even the Testimony of a good Conscience And whereas I have been hardly used for the Service I did in the Discovery of that Plot I think the Government is bound in Honour and Conscience and Justice and Truth to maintain their own Proceedings and justify me from the scurrilous Reflections of so vile a Fellow as L'estrange appears to be in those his Pamphlets He pretends in one or two of them that he hath leave from one or both his Majesty's Secretaries for so doing that I think ought to be reason enough for his being stopt in his Career and Scribling and be for ever Silenced together with Argument of his Fallacy upon the whole Government in that particular Certainly my Lord the Church must be in a sad Condition that stands in need of L'estrange for a Supporter the Religion Established by Law will be very contemptible if Roger's Penny Observator must give it Life I am sure our Bishops have given such Testimonies of themselves and their Power that there is no need of his scurrilous and scandalous Pen to maintain their Authority and Reputation Our Clergy must be judged by the Popish Party to be Men of little Understanding if they stand in need of him to be their Guide Hath he not fallen upon the most considerable Clergy-men in the City Men that do not stand in need of his Trash to equip them for the work of the Ministry I dare by your Grace's leave be bold to say that your Grace upon Consideration will abhor and loath such a Fellow upon the account of these and other Aggravations and seeing I have been useful in my Day I beg your Grace would be instrumental in doing me the Justice that is due to a Man a Christian and a Minister of the Church If I have done any Man wrong let me suffer if I am innocent as I must be accounted till convicted of some Enormity or Irregularity then let me be protected and not left to be oppressed and destroyed by my Enemies for the Services that your Grace hath formerly owned in Council and in Parliament and likewise his Majesty in several Proclamations to his People and Speeches to his Parliament My Lord I shall say no more but beg your Grace's Pardon and Blessing and tho I have misrepresented to your Grace I shall study to appear My Lord Your Grace's most Affectionate Servant Titus Oates March 15. 1683. My Lord I would have waited upon your Grace but since the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford your Servants have put Affronts upon me of which I unwillingly take notice which have hindred my paying my Respects to your Grace And likewise I understand that some Evil Instruments by lies and Falshood have endeavoured to lessen me in your Grace's Affections which I have patiently born rather than put your Grace and my Self to the unnecessary trouble of a fruitless Vindication of my Innocency A Copy of Dr. Oates's Letter to the Bishop of London March 15. 1683. My Lord WHen the Popish Plot was first discovered your Lordship was very zealous in the prosecuting Popery and I
have heard you often express your hearty good will to root that Faction out of this Nation I hope your Zeal for the Protestant Religion is not a whit abated yet my Hopes are not without some Fears when I have it by some reported though I cannot give full Credit to it that your Lordship together with the Bishop of Canterbury do maintain R. L'estrange and encourage him in that vile Pamphlet called the Observator in which your Lordship may see the Justice of the Nation is arraigned and by Consequences of his own drawing the Blood of those that were executed upon the account of the Popish Conspiracy charged upon the Government and I do not find him lie under any Censure for that his vile Libel by your Lordship under whose Jurisdiction he is Is the Church in so low a Condition that she stands in need of Roger's Support Is the Government in such a state as none can cure it but he Is Episcopacy at such a point that it cannot be brought to its Pristine State without him Is the Ministry of the Church in such Contempt that none but he by his Penny-Observator can recover its Reputation and Credit How is all this done by Seditious Factious Scurrilous Lies by encouraging Popery by reviling the Protestant Interest by arraigning the Justice of the Nation by villifying the Discovery of the Popish Plot and endeavouring to expose the Discoverers by a heap of infamous Lies to the Nation as Impostors My Lord I am a Minister yea a Minister of the Church of England and have done her more Service than any Clergy-man in England and because I hate those Monsters that are amongst us who were bred in the Protestant Religion and have left this Religion and are reconciled to the Church of Rome and are by that means declared Traytors by our Law I am looked upon by our little Clergymen as a Dissenter from the Church of England But my Lord your Lordship hath I hope better Thoughts of me tho I am grieved to hear your Lordship should be concerned for a vile Observator that hath been so profuse as to call in Question the Truth of the Popish Plot of which your Lordship was convinced and satisfied and for the farther Discovery of which you were so diligent in Parliament and Council in your Examination both of Criminals and Witnesses I purpose to be heard in Council against this L'estrange in order thereunto I have written to Mr. Secretary Jenkins and in that Letter I have inclosed a Petition and Complaint against him and therefore I am an humble Suitor to your Lordship to do me Right and help me to my intended Hearing and if I cannot be heard I must print my Case which you know is an appealing to the People which some have not liked But what must I do I have born his scandalous Reflections so long that I can bear no longer and I conceive as I am a Minister I ought to have been protected by the Bishops and Prelates of the Church in whose Communion I am though I have been misrepresented by L'estrange and others of his Confederates therefore as your Lordship tenders the Justice and Honour of the Government I hope you will not only discountenance the vile Usage of me by L'estrange but also endeavour that he may be silenced for it s he and those of his Crew that have created such Animosities amongst the King's Leige People It hath been the Policy of the Synagogue of Rome to divide Protestants and he is the Tool they make use of to divide us There hath scarce been any one Sober Clergy-man of Note that hath escaped his Lash and what credit the Church can have by such an Elf I cannot conceive My Lord I will not detain you any longer but I shall only protest my Intergrity and Truth in what I have done in reference to the Popish Plot and I have had your Lordship's good word in that particular and question not but upon Consideration your Lordship will be a means of having Right done me in my Complaint 'T is true I lie under the King's Displeasure for what I know not to this Day I thank God I am not conscious to my self of any thing that I have said or done that might have done him any prejudice if I have I should be glad to understand my Error that I might make Reparation In a Word I shall study to appear My Lord Your Lordship 's Obedient Servant Titus Oates March 15. 1683. A Copy of Dr. Oates 's Letter to King Charles II. April 12. 1684. May it please Your most Excellent Majesty I Thought it my duty for the honour of Truth to whom all Men are Debtors and for my own Vindication to apply my self to your Majesty's Ministers and Counsellors for redress against the scurrilous Pamphlets of Roger L'estrange in which I find the Justice of your Majesty's Government arraigned for the Service I did in the Discovery of the Popish Plot. I am exposed by him and his Confederates to the Vengeance of those Men that carried on the Conspiracy against your Royal Person and Government but from them I could have no redress tho as I humbly conceive that the proper way for me to proceed considering the nature of my Complaint and the Circumstances under which I now am Your Majesty when this Popish Plot was first discovered was highly sensible of the danger your Person was in by reason of that Conspiracy so that you were pleased to press your Parliaments to examine it to the bottom and not only so but in all Humility your Majesty did address your self to the Majesty on High and commanded all your Loving Subjects to join with your Majesty in hearty and humble Supplication to Almighty God our Heavenly Father to give a Blessing to the then Discovery of the Popish Plot and to make a farther Discovery thereof and no Man but a Papist will judg any otherwise of your Majesty but that you were in earnest None Sir I say but such will so much as conceive you called Mock-Fasts hence it is that those Blasphemous Cut-throats did compare you to Ahab as I can produce in one of their Pamphlets And besides all this Sir Your Majesty hath been pleased to tell your Loving Subjects how fully you were satisfied in the reality of the Designs of the Popish Party and their Abettors against your Person and Government but by what means it is not yet known that Men have taken the boldness to arraign your Government and charge the Blood of those Jesuits and other Traitors that suffered in that Cause upon you and the Government especially Roger L'estrange who hath abused the Discoverers and Discovery of the Popish Plot And in his seditious Libel called the Observator he as I humbly conceive hath taken a great deal of pains to perswade the Nation that there was no Popish Plot but that it was a meer Fiction the Consequence of which I leave your Majesty to draw Certainly it