cry down and they cannot but know that Coleman and the rest had a fair Trial that the proofs were home and evident against them and that they suffered justly and by due course of Law But it is their interest to seem of another mind and notwithstanding they have endeavoured to render the Lord Chief Justice odious and cunningly to insinuate his illegal proceedings with Mr. Coleman those of their own party could not but acknowledge the words that I shewed them in the seventeenth Page of his printed Trial to be full of honour and integrity For there speaking to Mr. Oates who was then to be sworn as evidence against Mr. Coleman he gives him warning to speak nothing but the truth not to adde the least tirtle that is false for any advantage whatsoever for that since the Prisoner's Bloud and Life was at stake he should stand or fall be justified or condemned by Truth He also then puts Mr. Oates in mind of the sacredness of an Oath and that to falsily it and thereby to take away a man's Life was Murther Therefore he desired he would speak nothing but the down-right Truth that he may not be condemned by any Circumstances but by plain evidence of Fact and so that not onely Mr. Coleman may be satisfied in the justness of his Trial but all people else I think this is sufficient to manifest the uprightness of the Judge and that Mr. Coleman had a free and legal Trial for his Life according to the Laws of England But that they should so boldly and with a consident Brow assert that nothing could be made out against him that should render him guilty of Treason or worthy of Death is very strange when not onely the witnesses that are brought against him do prove sufficient matter of fact but his own Letters produced and read before his face which he acknowledges for his own do in plain words say that he is about a great work no less then the Conversion of three Kingdoms and the total and utter Subversion and Subduing of that pestilent Heresy the Protestant Religion which hath reigned so long in this Northern part of the World and for the doing of which there never was such great hopes since our Queen Marie ' s days as at this time pag. 69. Now can there be any thing more clear then that this subversion of a Religion so generally received in those three Kingdoms and so long and thoroughly established could not be effected but by the subversion of those three Kingdoms and by the destruction of the established Laws the Liberties and the Lives of many thousands within those three Kingdoms and all this could not have been done without bringing in of forein Force or raising a Rebellion amongst your selves or both In his long Letter to Monsiour Le Chese he says pag. 53. He would willingly be in everlasting disgrace with all the world if by the assistance of 20000. li. to be obtained from the FRENCH KING he did not regain to the DVKE his MASTER his former Offices and especially that of being ADMIRAL of the FLEET and again pag. 54. he tells you for what end this design is that it might give the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion in England that ever it received since its birth and therefore in the conclusion of one of his Letters to Le Chese the French King's Confessour he desires the power and assistance of France which next under God he relies upon So that his own hand convicts him of endeavouring to bring in Forein Powers into England to establish the Roman Catholick Religion and to overthrow that now there established This was but one way to bring his designs about the other most horrid and bloudy was the taking away the Sacred Life of the King which Mr. Oates swears against him pag. 21. that he was privy to the Consult at the White-Horse Tavern in the Strand wherein it was resolved that Grove and Pickering should be employed to effect it and that Mr. Coleman did approve of the same so that by this the proof was plain against him for by the Laws of England his assent made him equally guilty with the Assassinates there being no Accessories in Treason And this Resolve he swears was communicated to Mr. Coleman in his hearing in Wild-house and pag. 22. he swears he heard him say the design was well contrived And pag. 24. Oates swears that Mr. Coleman knew of the four Irish Russians sent to Windsor to kill the King and in his hearing asked Harcourt at Wild-house what care was taken for those four Gentlemen that went last night to Windsor who replied there was So. li. ordered to be sent to them which he saw there on the Table most part of it in Guinies and that Mr. Coleman gave a Guiny to the Messenger who was to carry this reward to be nimble and to expedite his journey Then pag. 25. he swears again that Mr. Coleman was privy to the instructions sent by White Provincial of the Jesuits from these parts to impower the Consulters to propose 10000 li. to Sir George Wakeman to poyson the King and that he not onely saw and read these Instructions but copied them out and transmitted them to several Conspirators in this Plot within the Kingdom And pag. 26. he swears Mr. Coleman said he thought 10000. li. was too little and that it would be necessary to adde 5000 li. more that they might be sure to have it done And pag. 27. he swears that he saw Mr. Coleman's Commission for to be Secretary of State from the General of the Society of Jesus by virtue of a Brief from the Pope and that in Fenwick's Chamber in Drury-Lane he saw him open it and own the receipt of it saying it was a good exchange One witness is not enough in this case but I find also Mr. Bedlow a second to strengthen the other's Evidence he swears pag. 43. that he heard Mr. Coleman say at his own house That if he had an hundred Lives and a sea of Bloud to swim through he would spend it all to carry on the Cause of the Church of Rome and to establish that Church in England and if there were an hundred heretical Kings to be Deposed he would see them all destroyed so that both swear to the killing of the King and subverting the Government I cannot find that Mr. Coleman could make any good or satisfactory defence for himself but would have sought starting-holes and shifts to have amazed the minds of the Jury with putting the witnesses to have proved to a day what they averr which is in most things done and would take that advantage where Mr. Oates says pag. 72. he will not be positive that it was such a day but Mr. Coleman cannot bring any positive proof that it was not that day or that the witness contradicted himself as he attempted to doe And indeed though Mr. Coleman was never so wise a man sufficient to be Secretary of
by that means they have lost more from the Catholick Cause then ever they have gained thereto by these pernicious courses For where the dint of Argument cannot prevail and where the Conscience cannot be allured the dint of Sword Oppression and Persecution will never be able to overcome nor Plots and Contrivances though never so well laid will prevail as we have often experimentally found And though by these means any Religion may seem for a time to be establish'd yet at last it will quickly burst out into a flame for it is impossible with the greatest Tyranny to establish the greatest Truth unless it be received into the Minds and Consciences of the people I must therefore once again acknowledge the great satisfaction I have received by those Books Papers and Letters which you have sent me and which have rectified my doubtfull thoughts and made me very sensible that there has not onely been a very great Conspiracy and most horrid Plot but also they have made me see who were the contrivers and carriers on of the same and now I likewise rest satisfied in the punishment of some of the Offendours being assured that they died not for the Cause of Religion as they would here make us believe but as Criminals and Traytors to their King Country and Laws I must confess there has nothing more troubled my Conscience and made me question the verity of the Romish Faith in which I was bred then the laying open of these horrid Designs and the constant practices of these Brothers of Jesus in all parts and it has so far awakened me that I now make it my resolution to satisfie all those scruples that have arisen thereupon and to inform my self farther and to try if those Arguments that the Protestants have used to justify their Separation be according to those Rules laid down in the Scriptures or not and to make a more diligent scrutiny into all those differences between us that I may be no longer in the dark and grope after uncertainties And therefore I shall desire still your assistance and correspondence in furnishing me with those Books and Writings that may be fit for this intention for as I am an English-man I have a natural love to my Country and notwithstanding any difference in point of Religion and distance at present from the same I constantly wish as I ought its prosperity and felicity as I believe all true English Catholicks not Jesuited or perverted by their horrid and destructive principles doe the same and truely hate all these undue and unrighteous ways of propagating Religion and the Romish Faith And I cannot but take notice of that cruel and detestable malice of the Brothers of the Society who would have cut off Berry a Priest for writing in favour of the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy which I think any true Catholick may take without any wrong to his Conscience and for that end as I find in your Depositions they offer'd 10 li. as a reward to the said Deponent to kill the said Berry I cannot therefore blame my Countrymen if after all these doings which have appeared so horridly unjust cruel and bloudy in all respects they are grown severe and bitter against all Romish Catholicks and many thousands though innocent must suffer in your thoughts and opinions for the sake of these wicked wretches And the Plot hath now appeared so general and universal through the Nation and not onely there but in France Flanders Spain and Italy that I cannot but wonder at the extent thereof and admire at the great and abundant mercy of God that has almost miraculously brought it to light and prevented it when even ready to be effected and even in the height of their security And this certainly shews that God does not own such wicked and undue ways and practices as to bring in any Religion whatsoever by Bloud Plots Murthers and Designs And I must here take notice and acknowledge that long before the discovery of this Plot I have observed in discourse with many on this side the Water that there was a more then usual expectation of something to be done in England and sometimes they would darkly intimate that e're long we should see the true Catholick Religion flourish again in that Kingdom as much or more then ever so that no doubt many more here knew of this secret and had great expectations besides those who were intrusted in carrying on the Design As to what you seem to desire how this Plot is resented here among us and what people say thereof I must answer that the stream seems to run two ways and is divided according to the humour of the people For the more moderate and just do extreamly blame the Authours and Promoters of it and look upon them as the Ruiners of the Catholick Religion in England who had such indulgence such favour and kindness shewed them both from Prince and People that notwithstanding the severe penal Laws against them in that Kingdom they enjoyed fully their own liv'd quietly without molestation reproach and distinction were admitted into all Offices and places in the Commonwealth and Army enjoying all the liberty they could expect or justly desire and therefore these extreamly blame the Jesuitical Party and all those who were Conspiratours and promoters of this Plot and horrid Design as wicked and ungrateful persons that should abuse so much mercy and indulgence shewn to them and that they could not see their own quiet and happiness in enjoying their Liberty and Estates without interruption in a Kingdom wholly Protestant and where they are but a handful in comparison of the others so that they could not hope to prevail without horrid Massacres much Bloud War and Devastation So that these men seem to be odious and detested by all that have or make any profession of Godliness Religion and Piety who do verily believe that they have thereby utterly subverted and ruined the Catholick Cause in England believing that you will now urge all those penal Statutes in force against them and make others more severe where they are desicient or banish them wholly out of the Land And that this will justly open the mouths and awaken the Pens of all the Protestants against them and rip up all their former Cruelties to set the teeth of the people on edge against them and to render them odious by shewing their former bloudy doings which had else been forgotten and were raked up under the ashes of Time As I perceive by one Book you sent called The Antichristian Principle Discovered in a brief and true account of all the hellish Plots bloudy Persecutions and horrid Massacres and most inhumane Cruelties and Tortures exercised by the Papists throughout Europe c. Which shews how much the Spirits of people are awakened against them by those new Machinations and that all their former Errours Faults and Cruelties will be anew laid open and brought out of the Grave of Oblivion to testifie against
State in matters of Fact so plainly and quite blank proved against him it is a very hard matter to make a good defence nay impossible unless he can any ways prove the witnesses perjur'd or some impossibility or contradiction in their Testimony which Mr. Coleman was not able to doe And therefore I cannot but admire that any can say he had not a fair and legal Trial and that nothing could be made out against him worthy of death for if knowing of this Conspiracy of subverting Religion established by Law in the Kingdom of an intent of murthering the King to promote that Cause and also of endeavouring by Letters and Correspondence to engage a Foreign Power to assist to bring in this Cause be not worthy of death nothing is And when such proof is made out so clearly whatever Mr. Coleman may say at his death of his Innocency it ought not to be believed for he may have many evasions and as Mr. Prance says in pag. 23 and 24. of his Narrative it is according to the sense of the Jesuiticol Doctrine I will not say Popish to be Innocent when the Priests had solemnly declared the fact they were accused of to be no sin or crime as they look'd on this of bringing in the Romish Religion by the death of an Heretical Prince to be or he might be Innocent having received full Absolution for the same But what-ever he meant by those words of Justification I believe few will ever believe him innocent of the Fact for which he was accused that either have heard or read his Trial. And though he had the considence to deny this Plot hoping perhaps that it might yet take effect things then not being so fully discovered as since or as I heard expecting a Pardon or Reprieve to the last moment yet it is now too generally received and all the circumstances more fully appear since his death and that he was instrumental therein That he fled not at first for the same argues not his innocency so much as the confidence he had that it was not so much known as he found afterwards it was and relying too much on the hopes of being brought off But herein also he was deluded and perhaps repented too late having been heard to say with great passion at his Execution There is no Faith in Man The next who came upon their Trial were Ireland Pickering Grove Whitebread and Fenwick being accused of this horrid Plot and Conspiracy and though the two last were by the oath of Mr. Oates sufficiently proved to have a great hand in the Plot and contrivance of the murther of the King yet because there wanted another concurrent Testimony they were set by till further evidence might be produced and because these also are said to be innocent and that the matters of fact were not proved as they ought against them I shall briefly charge my memory with what I have read in the Printed Book of their Trials and as it gave me full satisfaction in that case perhaps if diligently considered it may doe the like to others But first I shall observe to you because many or most of these Conspirators are Priests and Jesuits and that Ireland if not Pickering is so they have given forth abroad and no doubt spread the same amongst the ignorant at home that they were tried and suffered quatenus Priests upon the Statute of the 27 Eliz. by which Statute it is made Treason for any person that is a Subject born in England to take Orders from the See of Rome and afterwards to come into England and remain here 40 days and ipso facto for that offence he shall be found guilty and suffer as a Traytor so that they would endeavour to perswade the ignorant that they suffer onely as Roman Catholicks being Priests doing their Function obeying the orders of their Superiours and the dictates of their own Consciences and not as Plotters Traytors and Disturbers of the Publick Peace But that they might not fancy to themselves that they suffered Martyrdom for their Religion nor perswade others to the same as many have had the vanity to believe and others the confidence to assert it was declared by the King's Council in open Court that these men though liable to be punished by that Statute were not Indicted as Priests nor upon that Statute of 27 Eliz. but of a more horrid and detestable Crime The killing of the King and subversion of the Government And to prove this two witnesses are produced Mr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow and though both cannot perhaps speak to one and the same Consultation nor to one and the same time yet are they in Law two witnesses to one and the same Crime for thus several witnesses to several overt Acts are so many witnesses to the Treason and the several overt Acts which declare the Intention are but as so many evidences of the Treason and this was openly declared to be Law in Court upon the Trial of these persons And there is a great deal of reason that it should be so for men that run the hazard of their lives in such Consultations will hardly suffer two persons to meet twice together whom they are not well assured of but so dispose them that they may meet severally at several times and in divers places as Mr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow did As to the proof Mr. Oates swears pag. 19. and 20. that in a Consult begun at the White Horse Tavern in the Strand and prosecuted at the Meetings at their several Chambers it was Resolved that Pickering and Grove should go on in their attempt to murther the King that Grove should have 1500 l. for his Reward and Pickering 30000. Masses for his which at 12 d. a Mass comes to the same sum in their account And this Resolve was signed by Whitebread Fenwick and Ireland and by several others at four Clubs He swears punctually that he saw them sign it and carryed the Instrument from one to another and that they signed it severally at their Chambers He also swears pag. 23. that Pickering and Grove accepted to murther the King on those terms and that in his presence they took the Sacrament and the Oath of Secrecy upon it and did agree to effect the bloudy proposal Farther the same Deponent swears that he saw Pickering and Grove walking in the Park at several times watching for an opportunity of committing their bloudy design of murthering his Majesty having with them screwed Pistols which were longer then ordinary and furnished also with Silver Bullets and pag. 24. he swears that Grove would have the Bullets champt to make the wound incurable And farther that in the Month of March having a fair opportunity of effecting their design the Flint in Pickering's Pistol being loose he durst not make an attempt for which negligence Grove was chidden and Pickering received twenty or thirty strokes of Discipline by way of Pennance for his carelesness Page 22. he swears against Whitebread
at Windsor and mark the great Providence of God in preserving the Life of His Majesty that being on his way thither with this bloudy design in his heart his Horse fell lame that he was forced to return being almost five miles on his way The several other attempts upon the Life of His Sacred Majesty by Groves Pickering and the Russians and the intention of Wakeman and reward to poison him were spoke to before and sufficiently evidenced Thus having given you at large an account of my Thoughts concerning this horrid Plot and bloudy Conspiracy with the reasons and proofs that appeared sufficient to convince me and to make me believe that these Traytors that have suffered were guilty and justly deserved the punishment the Laws inflicted upon them for the same and which has in some measure convinced others who have seen and read them I shall conclude with my Prayers for the prosperity of the King and the whole Nation that the one may enjoy an happy Peace Liberty and Prosperity and that the other may continue with long life and all manner of felicity and that the care and providence of Heaven will protect them both from all evil Conspiratours and wicked Plotters and that God will work upon the hearts of some of those who are yet in Prison for this Conspiracy and e're it be too late cause them to make a generous and free Confession of the whole design that the world may be better satisfied and that there may be no scruple left of the verity of these things And I also hope it will be the care of the Parliament when they meet to goe on with their good intention of securing the Nation for the time to come and the Person of His Sacred Majesty from the Machinations and Conspiracies of the Jesuits and their Emissaries by not onely reviving all the poenal Laws in that Case but by making others that may give a certain security to the Peace of the Nation I will not stand to beg your pardon since your commands drew on you the trouble of this long Letter and therefore I shall onely tell you that I am Sir Your Humble Servant D. G. S. Omars June 24. New Style An APPENDIX to the foregoing Letter THE foregoing Letter being wrote and received before the Trials of the five Jesuits last executed upon the account of the horrid Plot and Conspiracy and of Mr. Langhorn for the same and being thought by some judicious persons and lovers of the peace and welfare of their Country fitting to be published for the satisfaction of the people the strange obstinacy and denial of these five Jesuits Whitebread Harcourt Fenwick Gawin and Turner at their Execution calling God and Angels to witness of their innocency and taking it upon their salvation that they were falsly accused and knew nothing of any such Plot as is pretended against them having made a strange impression upon the minds of some ignorant and some well-minded people who cannot believe they could go out of the world with such a lie in their mouths to the damnation of their Souls I thought it requisite to abbreviate also the Trials of these men that the truth may appear that they had a just equal and legal Trial and that they could not be guiltless and unknowing of this horrid Plot as they pretend but were legally and by full proof condemned for the same for that many people will not go to the price of their Trials that would however give six-pence to be satisfied And therefore I shall follow the same method my Friend at S. Omars did in the foregoing Trials and point out to the plain proof and evidence in the printed Trials more fully expressed But I also advertise that here you shall find some evidence that has since come to light and has made things yet more apparent First take notice that these Priests and Jesuits are not tried upon the Statute of 27 Eliz. which would have made them guilty for being in Orders and remaining here in England but they are tried as Traytors in conspiring the death of the King's Majesty and the utter subversion of the Protestant Religion and the bringing in of Popery which was the end of this great Plot and now judge how it is proved against them The Evidences are long and tedious but the main proof and what is positive appears first against Mr. Whitebread pag. 12. where Mr. Oates swears that in April 1678. Old Style or May New Style according to the order of the said Whitebread Provincial there was a Consult in which were Whitebread Fenwick Harcourt and Turner and that all these did in his presence sign the resolve for the death of the King Against these four he swears positively and that Whitebread should say after he was returned to S. Omars in the Deponent's hearing words to this effect That he hoped to see the King's Head laid fast enough And pag. 16. he swears that Fenwick on the 25. of August 78. at his Chamber in London did deliver Mr. Oates some money for necessary charges and did then admonish him to procure some Masses to be said for a prosperous success upon the Design Then pag. 22. he swears that Turner was at the Consult in Fenwick's Chamber in London and that there he saw him sign the resolve of the King's Death And pag. 15. he swears against Gawen that though he did not see him at the Consult in April yet he saw his hand and makes it out how he knew it to be his hand and that he gave them in London an account how affairs stood in Staffordshire and Shropshire July 1678. and how the Lord Stafford was very diligent and how prosperous their affairs were in those Countries and that there was two or three thousand pound ready there to carry on the design and farther swears that sometime in July he met Gawen at Mr. Ireland's Chamber in London where he gave to Father Ireland the same account as he had before written in his hearing The next thing I observe is a new Evidence one Mr. Dugdale whom the prisoners do not endeavour to bespatter as they had done Mr. Oates and Bedlow and this man had no knowledge or acquaintance with Mr. Oates and Bedlow and could not conspire with them to take away the Lives of men that were innocent You will see how far he agrees with them and what a positive proof he is against the prisoners Pag. 22. Mr. Dugdale swears against Whitebread that he saw a Letter from him to Mr. Ewers a Jesuit and Confessour to Mr. Dugdale in which he gave him a caution to be sure to chuse those that were trully and resolute no matter whether they were Gentlemen if stout and couragious and then shews how he knew it to be Whitebread's hand And this he swears too again that he saw the words in express terms under his hand pag. 29. to kill the King Against Gawen he swears positively that he entertained him to be of the
A LETTER FROM S t. OMARS IN Farther Confirmation of the Truth OF THE POPISH PLOT UPON A Consideration of divers Circumstances IN THE TRIALS TOGETHER With several new Matters relating to a farther Discovery thereof AND PARTICULARLY A LETTER from Mr. JENNISON Proving Mr. Ireland to have been in London the 19 th of August contrary to the Staffordshire Witnesses and what the five Jesuits lately Executed insisted upon at their Trials With REMARKS upon the said Letter LONDON Printed in the Year MDCLXXIX A LETTER FROM SAINT OMARS TO A Friend in LONDON SIR I Should be unworthy of that care and friendship which you have expressed towards me if I should not gratefully acknowledge the satisfaction I have taken not onely in your several Letters from time to time giving me an account of the Discovery of that most hellish and horrid Plot so lately made known in England for the alteration of Religion and subversion of Government by Massacre War and Fire but also the great pleasure I have received in the present which you sent me of all the printed and written papers publickly made known and privately dispersed concerning this Plot. I must therefore after I have acknowledged the favour therein let you know the satisfaction I have taken how much it has wrought upon my Conscience what impressions they have made on others the Objections some have made and the Answers I have been enabled to give them grounded on those publick Trials and Transactions which you have sent me And as you have truly convinc'd me of the great Errour I was run into so no doubt by your Argument and Assistance I have been able to do the like on this side the Water to many who erred not wilfully but were led aside by the cunning Discourses of the Adverse Party and to stop the mouths of some of the most malicious and violent Enemies of the Protestants in England who here have endeavoured to make us believe there has been no such Plot contrived by the Jesuits and Papists in England or else that the Plot is onely of the making and contriving of those you call Sectaries and Fanaticks in England and that all this is wrought through their Cunning and Contrivance to scandalize and extirpate the Catholicks and their Religion in England and other stories to the discrediting the King's Evidence as if they had falsely accused and took away the lives of many holy men and Catholicks innocent and unknowing of any such Plot or Massacre thereby begetting a general Odium and Evil-speaking against the Sectaries and Hereticks as they call them in England By these cunning Artifices and sedulous Insinuations they have been very carefull in these parts to take away the scandal and reproach so horrid a design might lay upon the Catholick Party and to invalidate as much as they are able all reports and proofs thereof and therefore have endeavoured to stop and suppress all the light thereof and all Books or Papers that may any way inform the Judgements of the people who are made to believe quite contrary to what you have made me to see And I question not but that also in some measure the same skill and artifice of the Jesuitical Party is used amongst you as well as here and that by their cunning Insinuations and Contrivances they have been able as you seem to intimate to pervert the minds of many in England and to fix on them a strange blindness and disbelief of the Plot not onely of those of their Religion and well-affected to their way but also of many of the more moderate and simply honest of the contrary Party who have been led aside by their specious pretences and sedulous insinuations and diligent aspersions of the Witnesses and startled and confirmed by the pertinacious denying and seeming Innocency of those that suffer'd for the same If then in England where these things are transacted they are able to alienate the minds of many and to keep them in the mist of ignorance and unbelief you may be sure that at this distance and where the power of your Adversaries has more force and strength and where they have far greater means to stifle the breaking forth of the least Ray of the light of Truth that the people are much more ignorant and by that means more prejudiced against you though there are none almost to whom I have made known and communicated those Papers and Letters you sent me but are either convinc'd or know not how to raise any just Argument against the Truth of what they assert It has always been the way of these sedulous Emissaries of the Society to palliate great miscarriages with specious pretences and to daub over the most notable deformities with an holy paint and religious fucus and to colour their detected Crimes by pious frauds lies and perjuries And it is not now they begin to practice those things you seem to hint at in your Letters as may by several instances and known eveniments be made appear and which indeed has been a scandal to many good Catholicks and knowing Christians who have not at all approved of the ways of these Jesuitical Brethren who have converted Religion to principles of State and changed Christianity to meer Policy and by endeavouring to maintain their own greatness and by unjust and politick ways striving to attain their ends of Power and Dominion have lost much the opinion not onely of those of the contrary Religion or Reformed but also of many of those who are Roman Catholicks who have been distasted at their principles and practices For as there were Roman Catholicks before there were Jesuits so were that Order not in being I am apt to believe that their number would not be less for though by their Artifices and Policies they have made themselves great and kept up the power of the Bishop of Rome and by their insinuations into all the Courts of the Princes of Christendom made themselves formidable and knowing of all affairs yet on the other hand by the many miscarriages and detections of many of their Plots and Contrivances and their wicked and evil Machinations they have opened the mouths of the Protestants against the Roman Catholicks too justly and also opened the Eyes to see and alienated the Hearts of many of the Roman Catholicks themselves from their detested ways and abominable courses which they have manifestly taken to establish themselves or as they say to propagate Religion and to extirpate Heresie But certainly Truth does not need the hand of Policy and especially evil and immoral Maxims and unvertuous Contrivances to defend it and as it is far from the Doctrine and Method of Christ and his Apostles and their immediate Successours to propagate his Religion or Christianity by Plots Massacres Force or Cruelty or by any unjust way or means so always the attempt thereof has ever prov'd pernicious and has raised up evil thoughts of Religion in many making some Atheists and others Hereticks and Schismaticks and
detecting this horrid design exposed him to their malice and fury and they who had gone so far as to endeavour to murther their King and subvert the Government of their Country would not stick at the little murther of one that was so active a minister in bringing the business to light and unravelling the bottom of their wicked designs But the murther of this person strangely awakened the minds of people who were before in a great Security and looked but lightly on the Plot as I am inform'd by Relations from England and the cry of his bloud call'd down God's Vengeance on the Plotters and no doubt they gave themselves a mortal blow when they strangled this Innocent person And since it was requisite that there should be more Evidence then one God made use of this Murther so far as to awaken thereby the Conscience of Mr. Bedlow who was to have been engaged in the Murther of this Gentleman and who knew of it and was one in the great Conspiracy and Plot and who also though fled for the same was at last compelled by the force of his troubled Conscience to come in voluntarily to second Mr. Oates and to detect both the Murther and the Plot. I cannot hear that they have any thing to object against Mr. Bedlow in particular to take off his Evidence but that they asperse him in general terms as if he were hired to the same but if any one of an unbiass'd Judgment shall seriously reade and weigh all the several proofs made out against the Criminals by Mr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow agreeing in all Circumstances though no intimacy was ever known to be between them he must needs acknowledge that nothing is more clear and evident then that there could not be any such Conspiracy between them to invent and frame so many strange stories and relations as they have given in under their Oaths with all Circumstances as to Places Time and Persons without betraying themselves or being intrapped by those quick ey'd persons by whom they have been examined and of which we should quickly have heard So that I cannot but admire at the strange impudence of those persons who still buz into the ears of the people that 't is no Plot but of Oates and Bedlow's making giving the lie in the face of a whole Nation to the Justices that have taken the Examinations to the Judges that have sate on the Tryals to the Council that have sifted and looked into the Papers and Writings belonging to these Plotters Traitours and Murtherers and to the Lords and Nobility of England and to the Parliament the Representative of all the People of England who in their Vote die Lunae 24. Martii 1678. declared nemine Contradicente That they were fully satisfied by the proofs they had heard That there now is and for divers years last past hath been a horrid and Treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the Murthering of his Majestie 's sacred Person and for Subverting the Protestant Religion and the Ancient and well-established Government of this Kingdom I say that after all this clear Evidence against them and that nothing can be made out more plain and perspicuous that they should still endeavour to press upon the belief of people that 't is a fictitious Plot is the most strange piece of Impudence I ever heard or read of Can any that entertain such a thought believe that the whole Nation are deceived and that all these the wisest of the Kingdom are deluded or can be made Fools and Asses of by Mr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow or in reason think or suppose that all these persons are so wicked to frame a Plot against the Papists and to take away the several Lives of these wretches onely to extirpate a few Papists out of the Kingdom One of these must consequently follow if there be not in reality any such Plot as these sort of men would have people believe But God seeming to resolve to discover fully the bottom of this design and to make it apparent to all the world he has given a cloud of Witnesses and wholly to take away that scruple hath raised up Prance and Dugdale two more to second and confirm the truth of Oates and Bedlow's assertions As to Mr. Dugdale I have heard that they have been so far from aspersing him that they have some of them been forc'd publickly to acknowledge him a sober honest man yet he was drawn into the Plot for Religion's sake till he came to know of the intended Murther of the King and then the alarm-Bell of his Conscience rung so loud that it awaken'd him out of his Lethargy and brought him to a confession of his Crimes and to be an Evidence against them As to Mr. Prance God suffer'd him to goe on and to be zealous as I observe by his own Book in this Plot and to be one of the Instruments assisting in the murther of that worthy Knight Sir Edmundbury Godfry and to continue without remorse till he was taken onely upon a bare surmise of his being from home some nights which caused him to be brought before the Council where he was discovered by Mr. Bedlow to be one of those persons that he had seen in the Room where Sir Edmundbury Godfry lay murthered which Mr. Prance himself acknowledges to be the immediate hand of God which so far pressed upon his Conscience as afterwards to make a full and ingenuous Confession both of the Murther and Plot for which he received the King's Pardon And this is a strenuous evidence against them and strong confirmation of the Assertions of Mr. Oates and Bedlow and that what they had delivered was not by Combination or any Conspiracy between them But against Mr. Prance I find they had raised three several objections thinking thereby to make his testimony inconsiderable The first was that he was Mad. But as to this I think all that have read his Depositions and the Evidence he hath given as to the Plot with the circumstances of his being engaged in the same and the punctual account of the Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfry will not judge him to be bereft of his senses The things too well cohere together to proceed from a distracted person The second is that he was tortur'd and ill used in Prison to make him Confess against his Conscience and that all he had said as to the Plot and Murther was through fear and terrour But I shall onely mention his own words sufficient to clear this Aspersion pag. 25. of his Narrative That the Report was wholly false and scandalous but that on the contrary he had received all the kind usage and civilities imaginable from Captain Richardson the Keeper of Newgate where he was confined all the time of his stay and that nothing of compulsion or force was put upon him to declare any thing but that what he did was freely and voluntarily not byassed by any
that he saw his Letter in which he expressed a great deal of Joy that Sir George Wakeman had accepted the 15000 l. to poison the King and also that he was by when Harcourt another of these Jesuits and Fenwick the Prisoner were at a Consult and agreed to the Proposition of Fogarthy of sending four Irish Russians to kill the King at Windsor and that they were sent accordingly And pag. 29. swears that Whitebread had sealed some hundreds of Commissions which they called Patents to raise an Army to be in a readiness upon the Death of the King which Seals were then produced in Court naming one Commission in special which he the Deponent delivered himself to Sir John Gage of Sussex Pag. 22. he swears against Fenwick that he told him that he the Prisoner and three Irishmen more fired Southwark and that he had 400 l. for his share and the rest 200 l. a piece And pag. 20. to shew the great Malice of these men Whitebread ordered Mr. Oates to come purposely from S. Omars into England to Murther D. Tongue for Writing the Jesuits Morals and pag. 21. the same Whitebread sent by him Instructions that care should be taken for the Murther of D. Stillingfleet and the Bishop of Hereford These are the chief things observable in Mr. Oates his Depositions and which are sufficient to prove this horrid Plot. Then the Second Witness Mr. Bedlow swears pag. 37. that he was employed for the space of near five years as a Messenger by these Conspiratours for the carrying their Letters to several beyond the Seas and returning others back all or most relating to this Plot for pag. 38. he swears he had a way to open the Letters and reade them whereby he fully informed himself of matters He swears pag. 37. that he heard some of these Conspiratours say they would not leave any member of an Heretick in England that should survive to tell in the Kingdom hereafter that there ever was any such Religion in England as the Protestant Religion He swears also the manner of his coming to be first employed by them and then he brings his Brother James Bedlow to confirm his being their Agent or Messenger who knew nothing of the Plot. He swears pag. 48. and 49. his being so long employed by them and that he had received oftentimes from these Jesuits and Priests several summs of money in his Brothers behalf sometimes 50. or 60. pounds at a time so that by this you may see Mr. Bedlow must be knowing in this design employed under them so long in it Pag. 41. He swears that about the latter end of August the very day he confesses he cannot swear to at Mr. Harcourts Chamber one of the Conspiratours he there met Ireland Pickering and Grove the Prisoners with some others where he heard them discourse that the four Russians missing of killing the King at Windsor that Pickering and Grove should go on in their design and that one Conyers was to be joyned with them to Assassinate the King in his Morning-walks at New market And that Mr. Grove was more eager or forward then the rest saying since it could not be done clandestinely it should be attempted openly and that those that do fall had the Glory to die in a good Cause but if the Discovery should be made it could never come to that height but their Party would be strong enough to bring it to pass All this he swears very punctually to and pag. 48. he farther swears that Harcourt told him that Grove was to have 1500 l. for his Reward and that Pickering was to have so many Masses as came to that money And pag. 45. he swears that at the same time he heard them discourse of the killing several noble Persons and of several Persons that were to execute it and in particular names one Knight assigned to kill the Earl of Shaftsbury Pritchard and Duke of Buckingham O-Neal the Earl of Ossory and O-Brian the Duke of Ormond So that by these two Testimonies the Evidence is very full against Ireland Pickering and Grove The Defence they have to make against this is first the denial of the Fact though they can bring no Witnesses to make any thing out but their own Asseverations but they who can have a Dispensation for the breaking of any Oath may be easily indulged for the telling of a lie to save their Lives and to keep off a Scandal from their profession In the next place they would endeavour to seem not to know Mr. Oates and make as if they had scarce seen him to this he swears by many several circumstances which they are forced to acknowledge and pag. 32. swears Fenwick was his Father Confessour But Ireland raised some little appearance of contradiction or mistake in Mr. Bedlow's Evidence for he brings two or three to prove pag. 56 57. that he was not in London all the month of August Mr. Bedlow swearing that he was at the Consult held at Harcourts Chamber in the latter end of August concerning the Death of the King And indeed two positively say the contrary and that he was from the third of August to the first or second of September in Staffordshire and Westchester and by circumstance that he was in the beginning of September at Wolverhampton But were this granted that he should mistake in the point of Time yet this is nothing as to the matter of Fact expresly sworn against them and so destroys not the Evidence unless it were necessary to the substance of the thing for this Meeting and Treasonable Contrivance might be some days or weeks after and so true And though such a mistake may somewhat weaken the Evidence in the opinion of the Jury it ought not to invalidate the truth of the thing it self which may be true in substance though not in circumstance of Time But against the asseverations of these Persons there is the Oath of Mr. Bedlow who swears it positively and besides Mr. Oates pag. 60. swears positively that ten days at least within August he was with him at Fenwick's Chamber in London and that in the beginning of September either the first or second day he was to his knowledge in London and that he had 20 s. of him Then a third person is produced that had been Grove's Maid-servant who very well knew Ireland and the swears positively and by good circumstances pag. 57 and 58. that she saw him at a Scriveners Door in Fetter-lane where he lodged about the twelfth or thirteenth of August So that these three concurrent Testimonies might very well be credited by the Jury in this case and make them justly bring in their Verdicts as they did Guilty without any deinur or hesitation As for Pickering and Grove they could not make any defence besides the denial of all that was sworn against them to be true and that they were innocent and not guilty And now let all the world judge who are to be believed in this
till 1666. when they fully effected it by his means and by the assistence of Gray Pennington and Barton Jesuits and Keimash a Dominican Frier with one Fitz-Girald an Irish Jesuite and one Neal of White-Chappel and 50 or 60 Irish-men hired for that purpose to ply the work and sling about the Fire-Balls and that one Everard kept them for them being one then in the King's Service and look'd after the Ammunition that was carrying down to the Fleet in the Dutch War That this Strange went then by the name of Walker and lay in Fanchurch-street and with him lay Keimash the Dominican that Pennington and Barton lay in Shoe-lane and that Gray and Fitz-Girald lay at Neal's house in White Chappell which Neal was one that was to see the Fire carried along Thames-street and also that as soon as the Fire was begun the said Neal knockt them up and gave them notice about 12 a clock in the night and that there were in all about 80 or 86 persons employed in the service and that 700 Fire-Balls were spent in the service and also that they had others both men and women who were employed to plunder and that they got in Jewels Plate Fine Linens Money and other things to the value of 14000 li. and that they had a Ware-house in Wild-street to lay up such goods with many other particulars so that you may now see by what means that famous Fire was effected Then Artic. 49. the same Deponent swears that he had it from John Grove's own mouth in Wild-House Garden that he with 3 Irish men having purposely prepared certain Fire-Works went into the Borough of Southwark where finding an Oyl-Shop they set it on Fire and that they had among them 1000 li. reward that these Irish-men were procured by Dr. Fogarthy and that they got 2000 li. by that Fire the same being also told to the Deponent at another time by Richard Strange This is not sufficient they had designed another general Fire as the Deponent swears Artic. 71. that one Blundell that was engaged in this Conspiracy shewed him in Fenwick's Chamber a draught of London and the manner how it was to be fired anew and to be carried on from Wapping to Westminster or from Westminster to Wapping according as the wind sate and named the several parties who were to carry it on from place to place and that the Deponent with 7 others had order to ply the business about the Armitage and for his reward he was to have 1000 li. and 80 li. more for former services and this paper was signed by Whitebread in the name of the whole Society And Artic. 77. he swears that Richard Blundell after that the Deponent had begun to be discovered to desert them was appointed to supply his place and to take care of carrying on the Fire at Wapping in his room These must be very strange and formal inventions of Mr. Oates his framing or horrid and black designs of these mens effecting and certainly it appears by all the agreeing Circumstances that the latter is true and that there appears nothing to make the first likely but the stout denial of those who suffer'd for the same Artic. 28. he swears that to the number of 50 Jesuits met at the Consult at the White-horse Tavern in the Strand being on purpose called by Whitebread for the effecting this Plot and horrid Conspiracy now brought almost to an head and that from thence they all adjourned to several Clubs or private Meetings at their several Chambers And Artic. 72. he deposes that the Pope had issued out a Bull shewed to him the 30. of August and bearing date in November or December before wherein he disposes of several dignitaries in England and there are named the several Archbishops Bishops Abbats Deans c. He also gives you a list of the chief of the Conspiratours pag. 58. both of the Jesuits and the other Orders of Priests Secular and Lay persons both in England and beyond the Seas concerned in this most horrid Conspiracy and also pag. 61. gives you a list of the several Lords and other Commanders or general Officers Colonels Captains c. in the Militia making a full and ample discovery of the same to the great satisfaction of all people excepting those that are wilfully blind and no doubt to the great trouble and consternation of the Conspirators And indeed it was no wonder that the Provincial Whitebread was so very angry and enraged against him as he deposes Artic. 77. and that when they had begun to suspect Mr. Oates upon the first noise of the discovery of a Plot he ask'd him with what face he could look on him having betrayed them and box'd him and caned him in his passion having thereupon taken an order for the sending him the Deponent immediately beyond the Seas to secure him which they had done had he not hid himself out of the way and been secured ever since from their Clutches 'T is very strange that after all this any in England especially shall openly say and seem to averr that this is no Plot but a feigned thing and Chimaera But it is too manifest and you ought to give God thanks and solemnly to acknowledge his great care and mercy to your Nation Government and Religion and also to reward those who have been the instruments of this discovery what-ever they were before for by sin grace doth abound Much bloud and many murthers have been prevented which it is plain they intended for otherwise they could not have effected their design and more especially the Death of his Sacred Majesty was aimed at and contrived by these wicked and execrable men as appears by these Depositions of Mr. Oates and they had contrived several ways to doe it either to Stab him Shoot him or Poison him For the first they had chosen Conyers and Anderton Benedictine Monks and four Irish Russians for the second Groves and Pickering are prepared and for the last Wakeman is hired Artic. 13. the Deponent swears he saw and read the Letter from Whitebread and others the chief of the Society wherein they gave order that Father Leshee should be wrote to and informed that they were resolved for the advancement of their happy design to find an opportunity to take the King from his Kingdom or if they could not do that they would take his Kingdom from him And Artic. 29. not long after the great Consult at London about murthering the King Whitebread being then come to S. Omars he the Deponent heard him say in his Chamber on the 11. of June to this effect That he hoped to see the King laid fast enough for that he was grown secure and would hear no complaints against them Artic. 68. Mr. Oates likewise swears that Conyers employed by these Jesuits to stab the King shewed the Deponent the Dagger which he had bought on purpose to effect it and cost him 10 s. declaring the manner how he intended to effect it
Conspiracy to murther the King as one of those resolute fellows mentioned by Whitebread And pag. 23. he swears that they had several Consultations in the Country in several places which he names and particularly at Boscobel for the murthering of the King and the bringing in of Popery this sure proves the Plot in which Gawen was a chief Oratour to perswade people into this design Another meeting to this purpose he swears was at Tixal where Gawen also was in Septemb. 1678. and that the Consult then was for the introducing of Popery and the taking away the Life of the King and that he being a person chosen for that purpose was to be sent to London by Mr. Harcourt to be under the tuition of one Parsons and that Mr. Gawen discoursed of it to him and incouraged him in it pag. 24. And that he had given them 400 li. for the carrying on of this design and to pray for his Soul and that he had promised them 100 li. more for which they told him he should be canoniz'd a Saint And that this discourse of killing the King and introducing Popery was in the Parlour in the Lord Aston's House and in Ewers Chamber And pag. 25. Mr. Dugdale farther swears he heard them discourse at one of these Consults that it was the opinion of those at Paris who were concerned in this Conspiracy that as soon as the deed was done that is the killing the King they should lay it on the Presbyterians that they might by that means provoke the other Protestants to cut them off and then they might the more easily cut their throats and that they should have an Army in readiness to cut off all such as were not or would not be Papists and also that Mr. Gawen should tell him neither men nor money should be wanting from beyond the Seas and endeavoured by several Arguments to prove the design lawfull and also by Scripture that it was lawfull and good to destroy any for the advantage of their Religion and shewed the example of Father Garnet and how that several of his Reliques beyond Sea had done great Miracles And pag. 26. he swears that he had intercepted and read for their Letters came under his Cover an 100 Letters to the same purpose all tending to the introducing Popery and the killing the King And now I am to take notice to you of a most clear and manifest evidence that Sir Edmundbury Godfry was murthered by the knowledge and contrivance of these men and which till now never came to light and proves it as plain as the Sun at Noon for pag. 26. the same Mr. Dugdale swears that on the Monday next after the murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfry he received a Letter directed to Mr. Ewers the Jesuit being in the Countrey and which Letter came from London by the Saturday-nights Post the same night Sir Edmundbury Godfry was murthered from Mr. Harcourt signed W. H. his usual mark and that he knew his hand in which Letter these words were wrote This night Sir Edmundbury Godfry is dispatch'd and that then he the Deponent should say to Ewers that very thing would overthrow their design and this was three days before any in London except those privy to the murther could tell what was become of this Knight so as the thing is plain Harcourt knew of it Then to prove this is none of Dugdale's invention one Mr. Chetwin was sworn pag. 27 28. who says that being at that time in the Country near where Mr. Dugdale was the next day being Tuesday October the 15. another Gentleman came to him and asked him if he had any news of a Justice of Peace in Westminster that was kill'd for that he had heard it so reported at one Eld's House by Mr. Dugdale Chetwin replied he heard nothing of it but that the next Saturdays Post brought him the news of Sir Edmundbury Godfry's murther and tells by good circumstances how he knew it to be that very day and also that he was not in Town when the murtherers of Sir Edmundbury Godfry were tried or else he would have witnessed the same This is a clear evidence these men knew of this murther Against Turner Mr. Dugdale swears pag. 30. that he saw him with others at Ewers his Chamber where they consulted together to carry on this design and that he agreed to all that he had sworn as to the Plot that is the bringing in of Popery and the killing of the King Then pag. 30. Mr. Prance swears against Harcourt that he told him such a day when he bought an Image of the Virgin Mary of him to send into Mary-Land that there was a design of killing the King Against Fenwick he swears pag. 31. that he told him in Mr. Ireland's Chamber in Russel-street Ireland and Grove being by that there should be 50000 men in a readiness to carry on the Cause and settle their Religion and that he asked Fenwick who should govern them who then replied the Lord Bellasis the Lord Powis and the Lord Arundel The next witness is Mr. Bedlow who gives an account why he did not before give in his evidence against Whitebread and Fenwick because he was then finding out the Bribery of Reading in behalf of the Lords in the Tower But now he positively swears pag. 32. that he had seen both Whitebread and Fenwick at the Consults about this Plot and that he heard Whitebread tell Coleman the manner of sending the four Russians to Windsor to kill the King and this was in Harcourt's Chamber and also that he saw Harcourt take the money out of a Cabinet about 80. or 100 li. and give it the Messenger by Mr. Coleman's order with a Guiny for the Messenger to drink Coleman's Health which Coleman left as Harcourt himself said And pag. 33. he swears that Whitebread told him that Pickering was to have a great number of Masses and that Grove was to have 1500 li. for killing the King And pag. 35. he swears that Harcourt employed him several times to carry their Consults beyond the Seas and that he received in Harcourt's presence Mr. Coleman's thanks for his fidelity and that Harcourt recommended him to the Lord Arundel who promised him great favour when the Times were turned Also that he saw Harcourt give Sir George Wakeman a Bill to receive 2000 li. in part of a greater sum and that he heard Sir George say 15000 li. was a small Reward for the settling Religion and preserving three Kingdoms from Ruine These are the chief proofs which are punctually sworn to besides some Letters found among Harcourt's Papers that gave some light of this Design and strengthened the Evidence very much which I pass over And in this Evidence you may observe that there is the Testimony of three Mr. Oates Dugdale and Bedlow against Whitebread And likewise three quite blank against Fenwick viz. Oates Bedlow and Prance And against Harcourt very fully four Oates Pugdale Bedlow and Prance Against Gawen