of Winchester Henry Lord Marquess of Worcester Henry Earl of Arlington Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold James Earl of Salisbury John Earl of Bridgewater Robert Earl of Sunderland one of his Majesties principal Secretaries of State lately made in the room of Sir Joseph Williamson Arthur Earl of Essex first Lord Commissioner of the Treasury John Earl of Bath Groom of the Stole Thomas Lord Viscount Faulconberg George Lord Viscount Hallifax Henry Lord Bishop of London John Lord Roberts Denzil Lord Holles William Lord Russel William Lord Cavendish Henry Coventry Esq one of his Majesties principle Secretaries of State Sir Francis North Kt. Lord Cheif Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir Henry Capel Kt. of the Bath first Commissioner of the Admiralty Sir John Earnley Kt. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Thomas Chicheley Kt. Master of the Ordnance Sir William Temple Baronet Edward Seymour Esq Henry Powle Esq The 30th of April His Majesty made a Speech to both Houses of Parliament wherein he recommended three things to them The prosecution of the Plot The disbanding of the Army and the providing a Fleet which was followed by a larger signification of his Majesties mind by the Lord Chancellor That His Majesty had considered with himself That 't is not enough that his Peoples Religion and Liberty be secure during his own Reign but thinks he ows it to his People to do all that in him lies that these Blessings may be transmitted to Posterity And to the end that it may never be in the power of any Papist if the Crown descend upon him to make any change in Church or State his Majesty would consent to limit such Successor in these points 1. That no such Popish Successor shall present to Ecclesiastical Benefices 2. That during the Reign of such Popish Successor no Privy Councellors or Judges Lord Leiutenant or Deputy Leiutenant or Officer of the Navy shall be put in or removed but by Authority of Parliament 3. That as it is already provided That no Papist can sit in either House of Parliament so there shall never want a Parliament when the King shall happen to die but that the Parliament then in Being may continue Indissoluble for a competent time or the last Parliament Re-assemble c. But it seems all these Provisions were not thought a sufficient Fence for such dear and precious things as Religion and Liberty and that in the progress of their Debates upon this most important Subject they could not resolve upon any certain Expedient of safety less than the Exclusion of his Royal Higness For on Sunday April the 27th 1679. It was Resolved by the House of Commons Nemine Contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the hopes of his coming such to the Crown hath given the greatest Encouragement and Countenance to the present Conspiracies and Designs of the Papists against the King and Protestant Religion And on Sunday May the 11th the better Day the better Deed we use to say but whether it will hold here will be the Question they Ordered That a Bill should be brought in to disable the Duke of York to Inherit the Imperial Crown of this Realm which was brought in accordingly and twice read in the House the preamble thereof being to this effect That forasmuch as these Kingdoms of England and Ireland by the wonderful Providence of God many Years since have been delivered from the Slavery and Superstition of Popery which had despoiled the King of his Sovereign Power for that it did and doth advance the Pope of Rome to a Power over Sovereign Princes and makes him Monarch of the Universe and doth with-draw the Subjects from their Allegiance by pretended Absolutions from all former Daths and Obligations to their lawful Sovereign and by many Superstitions and Immoralities hath quite subverted the Ends of the Christian Religion But notwithstanding That Popery hath been long since Condemned by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm for the detestable Doctrine and Traiterous Attempts of its Adherents against the Lives of their lawful Sovereigns Kings and Queens of these Realms Yet the Emissaries Priests and Agents for the Pope of Rome resorting into this Kingdom of England in great numbers contrary to the known Laws thereof have for several Years last past as well by their own Devilish Acts and Policies as by Counsel and Assistance of Foreign Princes and Prelates known Enemies to these Nations contrived and carried on a most Horrid and Execrable Conspiracy To destroy and Murther the Person of his Sacred Majesty and to Subvert the ancient Government of these Realms and to Extirpate the Protestant Religion and Massacre the true Professors thereof And for the better effecting their wicked Designs and encouraging their Uilainous Accomplices they have Traterously Seduced James Duke of York Presumptive Heir of these Crowns to the Communion of the Church of Rome and have induced him to Enter into several Negotiations with the Pope his Cardinals and Nuntio's for promoting the Romish Church and Interest and by his means and procurement have advanced the Power and Greatness of the French King to the manifest hazard of these Kingdoms That by the descent of these Crowns upon a Papist and by Foreign Alliances and Assistance they may be able to succeed in their Wicked and Uillainons Designs And forasmuch as the Parliaments of England according to the Laws and Statutes thereof have heretofore for great and weighty Reasons of State and for the publick Good and common Interest at this Kingdom directed and limited the Succession of the Crown in other manner than of Course it would otherwise have gone but never had such important and urgent Reasons as at this Time press and require their using of their said Extraordinary Power in that behalf Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same And it is hereby Enacted accordingly That James Duke of York Albany and Ulster having departed openly from the Church of England and having publickly professed and owned the Popish Religion which hath notoriously given Birth and Life to the most Damnable and Hellish Plot by the most gracious Providence of God lately brought to light shall be Excluded and is hereby Excluded and Disabled c. On the 19th of May the House of Commons attended his Majesty with this following Address Most Dread Sovereign WEE your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled do with all humble gratitude acknowledge the most gratious assurances your Majesty hath been pleased to give us of your constant Care to do every thing that may preserve the Protestant Religion of your firm resolution to defend the same to the utmost and your Royal endeavours that the security of that blessing may be transmitted to posterity And we do humbly represent to your Majesty That being deeply sensible that the
THE HISTORY OF THE Damnable Popish Plot In its various Branches Progress Published For the satisfaction of the present and future Ages BY The AUTHORS OF The Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome Nil erit ulterius quod vestris moribus addat Posteritas LONDON Printed for B.R. L.W. H.C. and are to be sold by Langley Curtiss on Ludgate-hill 1680. TO Both Houses OF THE PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND Right Honourable Honourable and Worthy Patriots AFter the Gospel in its freedom and restored Purity had for above a hundred years gloriously shone in our Meridian sealed with the Bloud of Martyrs watered with the painful Industry of many thousands of learned pious Divines asserted by the Pens of some and Power of several Illustrious Princes firmly established by so many Laws passed within those venerable Walls whose signal Preservation from the Gun-powder Devastation is enough to inspire every Breast that enters them with just Indignation against the barbarous Treacheries of Rome After the Popish Errours destructive of all Christianity have been so unanswerably confuted their vile Practices so notoriously display'd their horrid Treasons so clearly and miraculously detected who could have thought it possible that these Kingdoms should again have been in danger from the so-oft-defeated Popelings That ever that loathsome baffled Cause should dare lift up its bruised Head to disturb our Tranquility That those groveling Serpents should presume one more to Hiss and spit their Venome to such a perillous degree or that there should be found amongst us any such indifferent Protestants of so absurd irregular Appetites as loathing the Celestial Manna to long for the Onions and Garlick of Egypt or that could be content not only to submit unto but with their own hands endeavour to put about their own Necks that accursed York which our Noble Ancestors with so much Zeal and generous Disdain had shaken off But too plain it is that our own over-great Security the restless Conspiracies of those sworn Enemies of our Peace and the Connivance and base Practices of a too prevalent Faction have within some years past by dark Intrigues and silent Steps so far advanc'd their Hellish Designes as justly to awaken our most serious Apprehensions Their late discovered and still growing Plots are such and so effrontedly carried on that we stand in need of the most prudent Councils and the greatest Zeal and the most active Courage to prevent the accomplishment of their Contrivements viz. the Murder of our King the Extirpation of our true Religion the Violation of our Liberties and Properties and the final Confusion and Destruction of these once-happy Kingdoms The main Policy of these Engineers of Hell is to conceal their Stratagems out-brazen their Villanies and create a Disbelief or at least raise Misrepresentations of their detestable Designes To obviate which and possess all good Subjects with a true sense of Affairs at one entire view and for a small Charge we have in the following Leaves set forth a punctual Summary of their Actings and all Proceedings that have hitherto been had for bringing some of the Conspirators to Justice and to prevent the Mischiefs threatned by the Rest 'T is true my Lords and Gentlemen some Prints have already pretended to give the world such an Account but we conceive upon impartial perusal they will be found not to answer that End The several TRYALS of the Malefactors carefully taken and published by Authority are 't is acknowledged very satisfactory as to the Judicial proceedings but besides that many other Collateral passages are most requisite to a true understanding of this voluminous Plot the said Tryals for we know not whose private advantages are swel'd to such a price that every honest man can neither spare money to buy nor time to peruse them With pretence to remedy the latter there was some time since emitted an Abridgment of those Tryals under the Title of THE HISTORY OF THE PLOT though many cannot apprehend how it should deserve that Name since it mentions not one word of the Original Contrivance the Preparatives manner of Discovery and other Remarkables essential to an History but onely epitomizes the Tryals and even of them omits Staley's and Reading's which yet sure had some relation to the Plot. Besides the witty Epistle prefixt seems to drown the Popish Plot with Suggestions of an Imaginary one of the Protestants no less forsooth to be dreaded and yet even the amusing people with such Stories is notoriously a Part of the grand Popish Designe And whereas it tells us That not one material point is omitted most Readers cannot finde the substantial part of Mr. Bedloe's Evidence against Wakeman p. 46. of the Tryal so much as hinted at not to mention the gross Shuffles and Omissions in p. 77. and elsewhere So that had not the Ingenious Mr. Roger L'Estrange in a late Pamphlet intituled The FREE-BORN SUBJECT been pleased to own himself Compiler of that petite History its Author might have lain under Ill Suspitions And yet even there he happens to give but an unhappy Reason for his undertaking that pains viz. Because he found in the printed Tryals MANY gross Incoherences and VERY MATERIAL MISTAKES yet instances but One and corrected too as an Erratum at the end of the next Tryal printed Now though the Gentleman being so well a known Protestant meant no doubt very honestly yet 't is not impossible a scurvy mischief may thence happen For when our Posterity shall urge these Tryals for proof against Papists which certainly was the designe of taking them so curiously and not a little paltry profit how easily may the subtle Villains stop their mouths by alleadging from this Author That no heed is to be given to the said Tryals being so publickly own'd by a person of his Note and late Qualification to be guilty of so many and such very MATERIAL MISTAKES But the Gentleman that discovers so many Errours may be allow'd to make some especially since he was so perplext in the mighty business that he assures us That reflecting upon the Errours of the printed Tryals together with the almost-inextricable difficulty of retriving the Truth out of such a confusion of Tautologies and Forms the Collection being so bulkie too and the Particulars lying so scatter'd it was next to the Work of a RESVRRECTION to set every part in its right place Free-born Subject p. 15. The POPISH COMPENDIUM was the next that attempted any thing of this kinde whose Author in the Preface scandalizes the last-mentioned by saying That he jumpt with him in the same Designe and addes That he has past by or slubber'd over several things which the Parties concern'd may justly insist upon to be of great force in their business This we are sure of The Designe of this Compendium is to vilisie the King's Evidence slubber over the Plot and make people as stupid in Politicks as they would have them in Divinity even to believe contrary both to their Reason and their Senses What we have
the revolution of humane Affairs grew more formidable these subtle Steers-men who know how to catch every wind presently shifted their Sails varied their Course though still bound for the same Port viz. The advancing of the Roman Churches power and abandoning those old useless Patrons embark their hopes in the Designs of France thinking though we trust in vain that King may ere long give Laws to all these parts of the World Thus are we threatned with a double Intertwisted Tyranny by the one in Temporals by the other in Spirituals and at the same time a Cursed Design by their Confederate Councils is carried on to enslave both the Bodies and Souls of all the Christians in Europe SECT 3. England and Holland having with fierce and tedious Wars on what grounds and by what Counsels occasioned is not unknown profusely wasted each others Blood and Treasures and the latter being reduced to so low an Ebb that had not providence strangely put an hook into the nostrils of Leviathan at Vtrecht that Republick had been quite subjugated and over-run The same French and Jesuitical Incendiaries in the next place engage the three grand Protestant Princes of the North Sweden Denmark and Brandenburgh likewise in bloody Wars with each other that the Protestant Religion may every where be pluckt down with their own hands and owe its ruine as much to the indiscretion of its Professors as the malice of its Enemies whilst in the mean time the disturbances in Hungary are secretly fomented on one hand and the Emperour exasperated against them on the other so that the poor Souls of the Reformed Religion in those parts lamentably suffer under a two-fold Injustice the ignominy of Rebellion and Cruelty of Persecution Thus was there not a Protestant Kingdom State or Interest in the World besides Geneva and a few Cantons of Switzer-land who likewise have felt not a few drops of the storm but had since the year 70. been most considerably weakned whilst France the present Hector of the Papacy hath so mightily encreased in strength and reputation So that in this respect if ever Rome would re-gain its lost grandeur and entirely Extirpate Heresie as they call it now was the time SECT 4. But then besides these Forreign advantages if we consider the several points they had gain'd at home in England we shall find them much facilitating the work The countenance of two Roman Catholick Queens for divers years and an opinion of the Papists Loyalty Services and Sufferings for King Charles the First which they were never wanting to commemorate and represent through false Opticks to render them more great and obliging though in themselves little or nothing or worse than nothing as before we have proved gave them free Access and welcome at Court as their plausible behaviour and fair pretences large Estates and insinuating Arts gave them reputation in the Countrey and drew over great numbers of their Dependants Tenants and Relations sway'd by Interest to their Communion and many more to a kind of Neutrality and indifference by a too general debauching of the younger Gentry with Principles of Atheism no small part of their Policy for those that were really of no Religion were very fit to comply with theirs To carry on the Intrigue multitudes of Jesuits Secular Priests and Monks of several Orders daily came over without any let or punishment and appeared almost publickly as if in Contempt of Law they car'd not who knew them to be such they said Mass up and down and had their Sermous in English frequently at their pleasure and the Popish Court-Merry-Andrew that Buffoon-Priest Father Patrick who seemed to affect Father Junipers Title of Joculator Christi Christ's Jester as their Book of Conformities p. 106. most prosanely calls him did not a little contribute to the mischief by the great interest he had obtained amongst persons of very high quality by whose influence they afterwards screw'd many of their Party into considerable Offices and places of Trust Civil and Military at Land and Sea being allowed Dispensations to go to Church receive the Sacrament or take any Test the better to colour the matter and on the contrary who ever they thought was of a spirit to oppose their Designs they procured to be turned out and disgraced with the Title of a Fanatick a Rumper or disaffected to the Government This formidable increase of Popery and Insolence of that Party was not unregarded by judicious men but lookt upon as a thing very ominous and of dangerous consequence insomuch that the then Parliament though oft-times thought remiss enough on such occasions could not but take notice of it for on Munday the 29th of April 1678. these following Reasons were agreed to be used at a Conference with the Lords concerning the dangers the Nation is in by the growth of Popery THe House of Commons taking into serious consideration the dangers arising to this Kingdom from the restless endeavours of Priests and Jesuits and other Popish Recusants to subvert the true Religion planted amongst us and to reduce us again under the Bondage of Roman Superstition and Idolatry and finding how great boldness they have assumed to themselves from the great remisness and connivance of His Majesties Officers and Ministers of Justice both Civil and Ecclesiastical whereby so many good and necessary Laws heretofore made against them have not of late times been put in any effectual execution They do therefore think it requisite to apply same remedy to this growing Evil especially at this time wherein the unity of Affections and the mutual confidence between His Majesty and his People dath so much conduce to the preservation of the whole Kingdom And because they have found by experience that all those applications they have sormerly made upon this Subject have not produced any effects answerable to their expectations they have endeavoured to discover the Causes and Grounds thereof which they conceive are principally these 1. The difficulty of convicting a Romish Priest by proving their Ordinations by Authority derived from the See of Rome which makes them more confidently to appear in publick and perform their Offices and Functions without fear of punishment II. That Justices of the Peace are discouraged because those that have been forward in executing the Laws against Papists in such Countries where they do most abound have been turned out of Commission without any apparent cause whilst others who have been Popishly inclined have been continued in Commission or put in de novo III. That in several Countries many Protestant Dissenters have been Indicted under the notion of Popish Recusants and the penalties of the Act levyed upon such Protestant Dissenters when the Papists there have been either totally or for the most part discharged IV. That the Papists do evade the penalties of the Laws by making over their Estates by secret Trusts and fraudulent Conveyances yet receiving the profits of them to their own use and benefit whereas in former times considerable Sums of
money were raised by the Forfeitures of Popish Recusants That now by the remisness of some and discouragements of others of His Majesties Officers and Ministers of Justice little or nothing is levyed upon them or likely to be levyed hereafter unless the care thereof be committed to persons Commissionated in the several Countries for the advancement of the Protestant Religion which may encourage persons to see it executed V. That persons are not discouraged to bring up their Children or suffer them to be bred up in the Popish Religion because they are as capable of inheriting the Estates of their Parents or Relations as any other of His Majesties Subjects The Commons do therefore most earnestly desire your Lordships to consider the danger and sad consequences that may befal this Kingdom by the spreading of that Religion amongst us and seriously and cordially to joyn with them in removing these and all other impediments which obstruct the course of Justice and the due execution of the Laws either by expediting those Remedies which have been offered by them to your Lordships or by proposing such others as may be more effectual and that this may be done with all Expedition because the Commons cannot think it suitable to their Trust for them to consent to lay any further charge upon the people how urgent soever the occasions may be that require it till their minds be satisfyed that all care and diligence is used to secure the Kingdom and prevent the dangers that may arise from the prevalency and countenance that is given to that Party by some more effectual course than hath been provided But the Parliament being soon after by the ill influences of unhappy Councils Prorogued nothing was done so that the Conspirators went on with their Game more vigorously than ever they had gain'd the Heir Presumptive of England to own their Religion whence they assumed no small confidence they had made sure of the French King for their Friend and he made as sure of several English Courtiers for his Pensioners they had formed their design engag'd great persons in it at home and setled Correspondencies abroad an Army was on foot so Officer'd as might give them hopes to debauch it or if that fail'd they had got Commissions from the Pope to raise one of their own and to Crown the work his Holiness had provided an English Cardinal Howard like a second Pool to reconcile and receive us again into the bosome of Mother Church Thus all things were prepared Behold the fire and the wood but where is the Lamb We cannot say here Deus providebit but we must say these bloody Traytors had designed one for Sacrifice even our gracious King whom God long preserve as knowing they could never destroy our Religion till they had first destroyed him who is and long may he live to be the Defender of it And certainly whatever Papists may suggest who because the Conspiracy did not take would fain perswade us there never was any that next time they may do their business more effectually and how lowd soever some very indifferent Protestants and men of droll may laugh at the mention of a Massacre and the general destruction of all that should not conform to the Romish Church in these Nations as a thing more extravagant to be attempted more impossible to be effected than any Romance-Adventure yet considerate men will acknowledge that as things stood and had not this Plot been discovered nothing to an humane eye could be more feazable for when the King had been destroy'd and a Popish Successour so establisht that all had been Traitors who should offer to oppose his pleasure when all Offices of Trust should have been in the hands of Papists who had got not a few of them already as Hull was then of the Lord Bellasis and P. of another c. when the Commonalty of England on preâ—ence of executing the Statute for preserving the Game were generally disarm'd and not left so much as a Musquet or pocket-Pistol for fear as one pleasantly expresses it of killing a Popish Bird When we had a mercenary Army on foot â—eady raised and filled with Popish Officers to have joyn'd that Party at an hours warning when the French were ready to have assisted them with Men Money and Ammunition being through their contrivance at peace with all the rest of the World that they might be at better leisure to attend their Motions When at the same time the Spaniards under the name of Pilgrims had designed to land amongst us 12 or 1400 men which is not only attested by Mr. Bedloe but confirmed by a Master of a Ship who was aboard their Fleet before they were dispersed by ill-weaâ—â—â—ther when our own Ships had been bestowed upon Popish Commanders and our strongest Forts and Militia under the like Conduct When at the same time our great City had been fired and every man taking care of his own particular concerns and none left to mind the Publick When you might have search'd twenty good Houses before you met with one that had more Arms in it than some old rusty Gun or Pistol and that perhaps without either Flint Powder or Bullet when all these things should concur together you must needs confess they would have it in their power to act Massacres or any other villanies they pleased and as nothing but Providence did so nothing else could hinder them CHAP. VI. An Account and Vindication of Doctor Oates the first Discoverer of the Plot how he became Engaged amongst the Romanists the prudent course he took for the said Discovery and the difficulties he met with therein SECT 1. AS Hell and Rome had improv'd all their skill and force to manage this hideous Plot and bring it to perfection so Almighty God notwithstanding all the provocations of our manifold sins was graciously pleased to appear for our deliverance by blasting all their long-studyed endeavours and Designs with a Miscarriage just when they were ready for the Birth The Instrument made use of by Providence for this great work was Mr Titus Oates a Name which notwithstanding all the Slanders and Calumnies of his because our Religions and Nations Enemies will be dear and honourable in after-Ages as well as the present to all true Protestants especially of these Kingdoms whom he hath been so eminently serviceable to preserve and therefore it will be requisite here to give some brief account of him As for his Education it was Liberal in the course of Learning being bred a Student in St. John Colledge in Cambridge where he took his Degree and that as Heaven had endued him with good Natural parts an inquisitive Genius quick Apprehension wary Judgment and tenacious Memory so he had not been wanting in improving those Talents and cultivating those happy seeds by pains and industry For acquired Abilities appears by his proceeding Doctor in Divinity at Salamanca in Spain no contemptible University where he performed all his Exercises said by experienced
that is by the aid and power of the French King whom next to God who might as well have been left out and the Duke they rely on and expect the greatest help they can hope for from and this to be obtained by the Interest of Le Chese his Confessor inspiring him with the glory and piety of the business There were also read divers other Letters written by the Prisoner and one especially of Aug. 21. 1674. to the Popes Internuncio at Brussels where in so many words he owns his design to be the utter Ruin of the Protestant party in general But these were never thought fit to pass the Press and indeed the others which are published are sufficient alone to satisfie any rational man nay I durst almost say a Papist himself not only that Coleman was Guilty of the Treason in the Indictment for endeavouring to Subvert the Government and Establish'd Religion of England but also to convince him of the truth of the Plot in general and that what Dr. Oates testifies is real for had he seigned or guess'd at things how was it possible that he should tell the Council before hand that if Mr. Colemans Papers were search'd there would be found that in them which would cost him his Neck as Sir Robert Southwell positively Swears he did p. 36. of the Tryal And indeed it was digitus dei a most signal Providence that these few Papers were left behind to be produced If we consider what grounds and opportunities Mr. Coleman had to abscond all his Papers as t is plain he did the most of them none of his Letters of this Subject since 1675 being to be found For being a man of that Interest and Intelligence as he was and being expresly Charged by Name in Dr. Oates's Informations which were delivered to the King and transmitted to the Treasurers perusal and had lain in his hands almost 50 days before this seizure of Colemans Papers as aforesaid and since it appears Bedingfield his R. H s. Confessor had notice of the Discovery of the Plot almost as soon as ever it was made to his Majesty We cannot after all this reasonably imagine Mr. Coleman could so long be Ignorant of it at least he must needs have some Inkling of the business on the Saturday-night when almost all the Town knew of it which was time enough for him to have remov'd all as well as some of his dangerous Papers had not Providence Infatuated him that his own Hand-writing and which he could not nor did deny to be so might be brought in Evidence against him and undeniably justifie both his Treasons and the Witnesses Integrity The defence he made for himself consisted in these Particulars 1. That Dr. Oates who now pretended such Acquaintance with him declared before the King and Council That he never saw him before or did not know him To this the Dr. Answered That it being by Candle-light and his sight weak and Coleman altered in Habit and Wig he did indeed at first say That he would not Swear that was the Man or that he had ever seen him before but as soon as he heard him speak he knew him well and could then have Sworn it had he been demanded 2. That had the things Dr. Oates now alledged been true he would have Charged the same before the Council But then he charged him only with a Letter which he thought was his hand and such slender matters that the Council was ready to let him go at large and therefore all the rest must be Invented since To this the Dr. replied That he was then so weak and weary that he cannot tell particularly all he then said and possibly in that condition might forget something besides his design then was to lay no more to his Charge than might serve for Information for Prisoners may supplant Evidence when they know it and when he saw Mr. Coleman was secured he had no need to give a further Account for he never apprehended the Council inclined to let him go at large if he had he should certainly have charged him home And so in truth it appears he did as weak as he was for in full Answer to this Objection Sir Robert Southwell Swears that Dr. Oates did then pag. 38. declare that Coleman paid Wakeman 5000 l. of money which he was to have for Poisoning the King 3. Whereas Dr. Oates charg'd him with consenting to Wakemans Poisoning the King and that it was consulted by him in August and as he remembred about the 21th day Mr. Coleman alleadged that he was then in Warwickshire and one of his Men and he was all August there as he thought but was not sure of it and after Conviction he talkt of a Book that would shew he was out of Town from the 15th to the 31. of August But as this was no Evidence in it self and offered too late so it did not contradict Dr. Oates for he was not positive to the day but only to the moneth and it might as well be before the 15th day And this was all he had to object against Dr. Oates's Testimony Against Mr. Bedloe he had nothing to say but that he never saw him in his life To which Mr. Bedloe replied Yes you saw me in the Stone-Gallery in Somerset-House pag. 40. when you came from a Consult where were great Persons whom I am not to name here that would make the very bottom of your Plot tremble then you saw me Then as to his Papers he would excuse himself by alleadging there was no Treason in them though very extravagant Expressions and that his design thereby was so far from Killing the King that it was only to make the King and Duke as great as could be But to Answer to this It was observed that it is apparent he was Guilty of Contriving and Conspiring the Destruction of the Protestant Religion and how could this be done without the Death of the King He that will Subvert the Protestant Religion and would bring in Popery that is a Forraign Authority does an act in Derogation of the Crown and in Diminution of the Kings Title and Soveraign Power and endeavours to bring a Forraign Dominion both over our Consciences and Estates which in it self is no less than Treason Lastly He pleaded the Act of General Pardon but in vain because his Papers were written since the last Act of that kind pass'd Then the Jury going together after some time returned and brought him in Guilty The next day he was again brought to the Bar and there received Sentence the Lord chief Justice advising him to Confess the whole Truth and not to be deluded with the sond hopes of having his Sentence respited to which purpose amongst others he used this Expression Trust not to it Mr. Coleman you may be flattered to stop pag. 99. your mouth till they have stopt your breath and I doubt you will find that to be the event However he did not think
greatest hopes of Success against our Religion in the Enemies thereof the Papists are founded in the execrable Designs which they have laid against the Sacred Person and Life of your Majesty which it is not onely our Duty but our Interest with the greatest hazards to preserve and defend We have applyed our selves to the making such provision by Law as may defeat these Popish Adversaries their Abettors and Adherents of their hopes of gaining an advantage by any violent attempts against your Majesty and may utterly frustrate their expectation of Subverting the Protestant Religion thereby in time to come And further to obviate by the best means we can all wicked practices against your Majesty whilest any such Lawes are in preparation and bringing to perfection It is our resolution and we do Declare That in defence of your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion we will stand by your Majesty with our Lives and Fortunes and shall be ready to Revenge upon the Papists any violence offered by them to your Sacred Majesty in which we have your Majesty will gratiously please to be the more assured as We our Selves are the more encouraged in that the Hearts of all your Majesties Protestant Subjects with the most sincere affection and zeal joyn with us herein But this Zeal of the House of Commons running to so high a pitch touching the Succession together with some unhappy misunderstandings arising between them and the House of Lords concerning the Tryal of the Popish Lords and Earl of Danby as shall be related in the next Chapter His Majesty to allay the same was pleased first to Prorogue and then to put a period to them by a Dissolution of that Parliament by a Proclamation dated at Windsor the 12th of July 1679. But therein graciously declaring that a New one should be called to begin and be holden on Tuesday the 7th which was afwards altered to Friday the 17th of October CHAP. XVII The Proceedings against the Popish Lords in the Tower WE have before related the Commitment of these Lords to the Tower for High Treason after which followed this Vote in the House of Commons in the old Parliament Decemb. 5th 1678. Resolved That the House do proceed by way of Impeachment of High Treason and other High Crimes and Misdemeanours against the Lord Arundel of Warder Lord Powis Lord Petre Lord Bellasis and Viscount Stafford and a Committee appointed to draw up Articles of Impeachment against them Which Vote was Communicated to the House of Lords and the several Lords Charged by several Members in these words The Commons in Parliament having received Information of divers Traiterous Practices and Designs of a great Peer of this House Henry Lord Arundel of Warder have Commanded me to Impeach the said Henry Lord Arundel of Warder of High Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanours They have further Commanded me to acquaint your Lordships that they will within a convenient time exhibit to your Lordships particular Articles of the Charge against him Thus standing Impeached they continued in the Tower all the Interval of Parliament and as soon as the next Parliament was settled to Business they forgot not their Lordships For March 20th 1678. it was Ordered That a Committee of Secrecy be appointed to take further Evidence and prepare Articles against the Lords in the Tower who stand Impeached of High Treason and take such further Informations as they shall receive touching the Plot in general and the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and that this Committee have power to send for Persons Papers and Records and that they sit de die in diem and the Quorum to be Three The Articles at last Exhibited were as follows Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and other high Crimes and Offences against William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis now Prisoners in the Tower THat for many Years now last past there hath been contrived and carried on a Traiterous and Execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England and other places to alter change or subvert the Antient Government and Laws of this Kingdom and Nation and to suppress the true Religion therein established and to Extirpate and destroy the Professors thereof which said Plot and Conspiracy was contrived and carried on in divers places and by several ways and means and by a great number of Persons of several Qualities and Degrees who acted therein and intended to execute and accomplish the aforesaid Wicked and Traiterous Designs and Purposes That the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis together with Philip Howard commonly called Cardinal of Norfolk Thomas White aliàs Whitebread commonly called Provincial of the Jesuits in England Richard Strange late Provincial of the Jesuits in England Vincent commonly called Provincial of the Dominicans in England James Corker commonly called President of the Benedictines Sir John Warner aliàs Clare Baronet William Harcourt John Keines Nicholas Blundel Pole Edward Mico Thomas Beddingfield Bazil Langworth Charles Peters Richard Peters John Conyers Sir George Wakeman John Fenwick Dominick Kelly Fitz Gerald Evers Sir Thomas Preston William Lovel Jesuits Lord Beltamore John Carrel John Townely Richard Langhorn William Foggarty Thomas Penny Matthew Medbourn Edward Coleman William Ireland John Grove Thomas Pickering John Smith and divers others Jesuits Priests and Fryars and other persons as false Traitors to his Majesty and this Kingdom within the time aforesaid have Traiterously consulted contrived and acted to and for the accomplishing of the said wicked pernicious and Traiterous Designs and for that end did most wickedly and Traiterously agree conspire and resolve to Imprison Depose and Murther his Sacred Majesty and to deprive him of his Royal State Crown and Dignity and by malicious and advised speaking writing and otherwise declared such their Purposes and Intentions and also to subject this Kingdom and Nation to the Pope and his Tyrannical Government And to seize and share amongst themselves the Estates and Inheritances of his Majesties Protestant Subjects and to Erect and Restore Abbies Monasteries and other Convents and Societies which have been long since by the Laws of this Kingdom supprest for their Superstition and Idolatry and to deliver up and restore to them the Lands and Possessions now Invested in his Majesty and his Subjects by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And also to Found and Erect new Monasteries and Convents and to remove and deprive all Protestant Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons from their Offices Benefices Preferments and by this means to destroy his Majesties Person extirpate the Protestant Religion overthrow the Rights Liberties and Properties of his Majesties good Subjects Subvert the Lawful Government of this Kingdom and subject the same to the Tyranny of the See of Rome That the said Conspirators and their Complices and Confederates Traiterously had and held several Meetings
death of His Majesty and a vindication of the justice on those Traitors already Executed Particularly by an Affidavit taken the eighth of September 1679. before the pre-named Justice Warcup he corroborates the Testimony of the said Mr. Jennison junior as to his seeing Ireland in London at the time before-mentioned for that soon after viz. in September he going into the North young Mr. Jennison did relate the same and acquainted them therewith at his Fathers house and likewise of so much of the said Irelands discourses to him touching taking off the King c. as gave them cause to believe that there was a Jesuitical Plot the apprehension whereof put Loyal old Mr. Jennison at that time into a great passion c. He likewise in his Narrative p. 23. sets forth That he being not long since at Rome heard the Jesuits affirm That the Pope had power to depose Kings and that it was lawful nay meritorious to kill any Prince or person Excommunicated and declared an Heretick and that he being then to return to England ought not to pay Obedience to any Heretical or Excommunicated Prince and that Father Anderton Father Campian and Father Green did then and there as likewise Abbot Montague at Paris assure him there would suddenly be great alterations in Church and State in England and that there was but one man in the way meaning the King who might soon be removed and that they were assured from the most eminent persons of this Nation That their Religion should be Establisht again here in as great glory as at any time heretofore and whoever opposed it should be removed And that particularly they bottomed their hopes on the Duke of York's being a Papist who they declared was brought over by the Jesuits and that they had the greatest influence over him And p. 30. as a pregnant Circumstantial Evidence of the Plot he sets forth an universal collection of Money made to his knowledge though he discouraged it amongst the Papists under pretence of repairing Doway Colledge but so general and in such large sums as twenty pound and ten pound a man that it was apparent to be for the carrying on some greater design c. Furthermore as Mr. Jennison in his Narrative hath answered all Objections as why he did not come in sooner c. so it thereby appears that he hath reserved some farther particularities to be yet discovered in time convenient In the interim upon such his information his Majesty was graciously pleased to issue forth his Royal Proclamation commanding the before-named Four Irish Gentlemen or rather Russians to render themselves and proposing rewards to any that shall seize them or any of them but they are fled or abscond a shrewd Argument of their guilt and the truth of his information so that at the time of writing hereof there was none of them come in or apprehended CHAP. XXIII The endeavours of the Papists to cast the Guilt of their Plot on the Protestants and the Providential Discovery of such their Designe in several Particulars An Account of the Rebellion in Scotland The Attempt on Colonel Mansel c. THat it was part of the Original Popish Plot when they had Murder'd the King to cast the odium thereof on the Dissenters from the Church of England thereby at once to have shifted off the scandal of the horrid Treason from their own Party and heated the Episcopists with a colourable pretence to have fallen upon and with their help to have destroyed all that they should think fit to call Presbyterians or Fanaticks under which ignominious Titles the soundest Protestants and most regular Sons of the Establisht Church should at last have suffer'd is apparent from what we have recited of Doctor Oates's Depositions and Master Dugdale's Testimony Which is no more than what their Predecessors intended For even their Gunpowder-Plot if it had succeeded was to have been charged on the then Puritans as the famous Thuanus in his History testifies Now in order to plaining the way for this suggestion in the present Case it must be noted that some time before the first Discovery of the Plot which was about August 1678 as aforesaid the Conspirators had fixt a groundless Accusation on one Mr. Claypool who though a Gentleman of a most innocent peaceable Deportment and far enough from intermeddliug with Intrigues of State having for many years wound himself up in a private Recess devoted to Books and Study yet he having formerly been Married to a Daughter of the quondam Protector Cromwel they fancied from the prejudice of that Alliance he might be a person fit for them to designe upon and make him a property for Suspicions Having therefore Charg'd him with high Crimes in general against the Government they caused him to be clapt up in the Tower And had not the Hand of Heaven soon after confounded their measures would no doubt have prosecuted him by suborn'd Witnesses But being so happily intercepted after a long Durance and no particular Crime chargeable he obtained his Liberty About the same time also they endeavoured to Trepan an eminent worthy Citizen of London under pretence of doing a kindness for an unknown Gentleman viz. To convey certain Letters to be left with him to a place beyond the Seas but he discreetly mistrusting the Project open'd one of them in presence of substantial Witnesses and finding therein Expressions of a dangerous nature communicated the same to a Magistrate and thereby frustrated their devilish Designe Nor is it to be forgot that near the same time there were certain riotous persons who with Horse and Arms were said to come out of Scotland represented for Presbyterians flying from the Justice of that Kingdome committing some Violences in the Marches of England of whom a dreadful Account was published in the Gazette but no more Tydings heard either of the Men or the matter These were some of their specious Preparatives that whenever they should strike the Accursed Blow their Clamours against the Fanaticks might appear credible And though their Plot in general was soon after so Miraculously discovered and the reality thereof confirm'd as well by their Murther of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey as by several fresh Evidence that came in yet they resolved still to push on the same Contrivance Nor had they indeed any way to amuse the People startle Authority and divert just Prosecution against themselves other than by starting a fresh scent and raising imaginary Jealousies But such was the peaceable Loyal temper of people in general in England that they could not yet hope to brand them with any such Imputation Towards the North therefore they must plant their Engines Scotland must be made the Scene to begin the Tragedy And this too Doctor Oates if you remember had before set forth and told us what and how many Jesuitical Instruments those common Boutefeus and Nursers of Rebellion had thither been delegated and fet on work Under what Circumstances that Kingdome had lain for some
triumphed at the Murder of King Charles the first telling us that it was one Sarabrass the then Queens Confessor who being present at the Kings death tossed up his Cap in the air and brandished his sword and being with admiration askt what he did there answered that there were twenty more Priests there besides himself and that the greatest Enemy to their Religion fell that day SECT 2. In page the 30. he recites the methods to be used for restoring Popery in England from Father Contzen's printed directions for that purpose in his Politicks l. 2. p. 16 17 and 18. in these words 1. That things be carried on by slow but sure Proceedings as a Musician tunes his Instrument by degrees lose no opportunity but yet do not precipitate the work 2. Let no Prince that is willing despair for it is an easie thing to change Religion For when the common people are a while taken with Novelties and diversities of Religion they will sit down and be aweary and give up to their Rulers wills 3. The Doctors and leading Pastors must be put out if it may be all at once sure he means some Bartholomew-business but if this cannot be let it be by some and some When the Leaders are down all will submit 4. The purpose of changing Religion and extirpating Lutheranism must be concealed not but that some of the wiser sort Coleman and a few more may know but the people must not lest it should move them 5. Some must be suborn'd to beg importunately of the Prince for liberty to exercise their Religion and that with many and gentle words that so the people may think the Prince is not enclined to novelty but onely to lenity and to a tenderness for tender consciences and that he doth it not as from himself For the vulgar use to commend a Prince that cannot deny the Subjects their desires though they are such as were fit to be denied 6. One or two Churches onely must be desired at first for the exercise of Popery he means as being so small a matter that the people will not much regard 7. When the zeal of Professors begins to rise against the Change they are to be pacified by admitting both Parties to a Conference before the Governours 8. Let there be a Decree for Pacification that one Party do not rail at the other nor calumniate them And so the Doctrines that are to be brought in will have great advantage when they are covered and may not be contradicted or so much as named And so the Rulers will be thought to be onely lovers of Peace and not to intend a change of Religion 9. Next that let there be some publick Disputation between the Parties but with some disadvantage to them that are to be outed 10. Let all this be done but on pretence that the several Parties may be joyned lovingly together in Peace And when the Ministers refuse this let them be accused of Unpeaceableness and Pride and Obstinacy and Disobedience against the Magistrate and not for their Religion When it comes to the putting out of some Ministers and the People begin to Petition for them let the matter be carried silently and in the mean time let the People be told that it is because those Ministers are heady obstinate men that the people may be perswaded that the Ministers are faulty and have deserved it and may be put only to desire Liberty for the more peaceable men 11. When thus the People are deluded and there is no danger of a Resistance then turn the Ministers out of the Churches and put in those that you would set up in their stead 12. Then change the Vniversities and tell all the Fellows and Scholars that they shall hold their Places if they will turn else not many will change Religion with the Rulers Next he instanceth in Asia where a Prince pretended that all the Professors and Ministers places were void at the Death of his Predecessor and he had the disposal of them by Law And the Change was there made as he saith by slow degrees one or two Opinions of Religion quarrel'd at first and so the people will think it but a small matter to yeild in one or two Opinions and be easily brought to obey At last let them fall to writing against each other but be sure let those that have the Court-favour be cryed up as Victors and that the others are ignorant and shamefully baffled 13. To put out of Honours Dignities and publick Offices all those that are most adverse to Popery it is just that those that hinder the safety of the Common-wealth should be deprived of the Honours and Riches of the Common-wealth If men are deposed for heynous Crimes why not for Blasphemy and contempt of Truth you must believe the Jesuite that this is the Protestant case If those of a contrary Religion be left in Honour and Power they will be able to cross the Prince in many things and encourage the people of their own Religion 14. That when a Heresie that is the Protestant Religion is wholly to be rooted out and that this must be done by degrees and in a way of reason and cannot be done by meer Command and Power by a Massacre he means or so forth then you must first fall on those Opinions that the common people are most against and which you can quickly make them think absurd So he instanceth in some that would work out Lutheranism that speak honorably of Luther but fall on his followers only under the name of Flaccians So the Arminians at Vtrecht when they would extirpate Calvinism made a Decree that no man should Preach any thing that seemed to make God the Author of sin Thus a Magistrate that would bring in Popeny must impute to the opposers fall upon such heinous Opinions which the impudent themselves are half ashamed of bring these into he light that they may be odious and so the Teachers will lose all their Authority when the people imagine that they are taken in a manifest fault 15. To make use of the Protestants Contentions How easie is it saith he in England to bring the Puritans into order if they be forced to approve of Bishops or to reduce the Puritans in the Low-countries if the Prince adhere to the Arminians For the variety of Opinions makes them doubtful that before seemed certain so that when the Magistrate joyneth with one side he easily overturns the other and leaves the whole obnoxious As Paul did by the dissention between the Pharisees and Sadduces joyning to one side he escaped This saith he I would principally perswade an Orthodox Magistrate to that is a Papist for he may to as much advantage make use of the Protestants Disagreements as of the Papists Concord to extirpate Protestants As in Wars it is not onely the skill and strength of the General but often also the carelesness of the Enemy or his mistake that gives very great advantages for success To
by reason thereof hath so often been perpetrated or at least attempted heretofore by the Votaries of that Communion SECT 1. As for Principles of the Church of Rome relating to Government and the Obedience to be paid to Secular Princes where shall we look for them but in the Canons of her Councils the Decretals of her Popes and the publick Writings of her approved and most eminent Doctors In their great and by them acknowledged general Lateran Council held under Pope Innocent the Third in the year of our Lord 1215 it is expressly and Synodically concluded Can. 3. de Haereticis That the Pope may Depose Kings Absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance Et Terram exponere Catholicis occupandam and give away their Kingdoms to Catholicks And this is received into the Body of the Canon-Law by Pope Gregory the Ninth cap. Excommunicamus 13 Extrav de Haeret. The most famous of their School-men Thomas Aquinas l. 22. q. 12. Art 2. affirms That any man sinning by Infidelity may be adjudged to lose all right of Dominion and therefore so soon as anyone shall for disowning the Faith be judicially denounced Excommunicate ipso facto his Subjects are Absolved from his Government and from any Oath of Allegiance whereby they were bound to him Nay another of their Doctors Dominicus Bannes is yet more hasty for he will have the Subjects discharged from all Obedience even before their Prince is so solemnly pronounced an heretick His words are these Num. 22. pag. 590. Where there is evident knowledge of the Crime Heresie he means that is whatever the Pope and his Priests please to call so the Subjects may lawfully if they have strength sufficient pray mark exempt themselves from the power of their Prince even before the Sentence Declaratory And this Conclusion saith he is followed by Cajetan and is the more common opinion of the Thomists who generally approve thereof If Kings become Hereticks forthwith their Subjects are freed from their Government saith Simancha in his Catholick Institutions a Book printed with great Approbation of Superiors Titul 23. N. 11. Nay less than down-right Heresie will serve turn to out them for Tit. 45. Num. 25. he tells us If a Prince be unprofitable a Crime capable of a large extension or make unjust Laws against Religion or good manners or do any thing to the detriment of Spirituals the Pope may apply a fit Remedy even by depriving such a King of his Government and Jurisdiction Their great Oracle Cardinal Bellarmine de Rom. Pontif. lib. 5. cap. 6. avers That the Pope as chief Spiritual Prince may change Kingdoms and take them away from one to give to another if it be necessary for the salvation of Souls And in the seventh Chapter he advanceth a little further for speaking of Heretical Princes as we know all Protestants are in their sence he says Omnium Consensu possunt ac debent privari suo Dominio It is agreed by all all Roman Catholicks he means That such Princes may nay ought to be deprived of their Dominions So that it seems 't is the Popes duty as well as in his power to do it and of all Roman Catholicks not onely to approve thereof but to be assisting therein Upon this ground Suarez a First-rate Jesuit and one that was thought fit by his Party to Duâ—l the learnedest Monarch in the world in his Book against King James intituled De Fide Catholicâ— adv Angl. lib. 6. cap. 16. num 14. speaks out more fully their Doctrine We must know says he that after the Sentence Condemnatory is given against a King by lawful he means Papal Authority to deprive him of his Kingdom or which is all one when by Sentence he is declared to be guilty of such a Crime as by the Law hath such a Penalty imposed as whatever they list to count Heresie hath by their Canon-Law then he that pronounced that Sentence or he to whom it is committed may deprive such King of his Kingdoms even by Killing him if he cannot otherwise do it But then mark how scrupulous and provident they are that the Trayterous Murther be done methodically and that none but Roman Catholicks be concern'd in the sacred Butchery For thus he goes on If the Pope depose a King yet he may not be killed or expelled save onely by those to whom He shall commit the doing thereof But if he commit the doing thereof to no-body then it belongs to him that is next lawful that is Catholick Successor to the Kingdom or if there be no such Successor or he neglect to do it then the Community of the Kindom provided always it be Roman Catholick succeed in that Right viz. to Expel or Kill such Excommunicated Prince Creswel alias Philopater sect 2. num 160. declares Omnium Catholicorum Sententia c. That 't is the opinion of all Catholicks That Subjects are obliged to Depose an Heretical King Nay to drive the Nail home he there adds Num. 162. Praecepto Divino arctissimo Conscientiae vinculo ac extremo Animarum suarum Periculo Haereticos Principes debent Deturbare That by the Law of God by the most strict Bond of Conscience and at the utmost peril of their Souls they are bound to dethrone and drive out such Heretical Princes Pursuant to this Doctrine of their Teachers it appears Papists may lawfully nay are bound under pain of Damnation to Renounce Resist and Murther their Kings whenever Excommunicated or Deposed by the Pope and are not to account it any Treason to kill such a King after such Deposition For neither is He then a King nor are his people being absolv'd from their Oaths of Fidelity any longer his Subjects Nor is it Murther for their Supream and Infallible Judge Pope Vrban the Second hath clearly resolved and determined it and made it Law Non esse Homicidas qui adversus Excommunicatos Zelo Matris Ecclesiae Armantur cosâ—â— trucidant Gratian Lemma ad 47 cap. Excommunicatorum Caus 47. Quest 5. That they are not Murtherers or Manslayers who being stirred up with Zeal toward holy Mother-Church against persons Excommunicated do any way destroy them Now Simanea tells us Heretici omnes ipso Jure sunt Excommunicati de Excom tit 27. sect 1. fol. 116. Every Heretick stands and is to be reputed as Excommunicated if not de Facto yet de Jure in Law and Right and therefore may be deposed proscribed and murthered And that we may know who they mean by an Heretick Father Creswell in his said Book called Philopater thus resolves the Case Regnandi Jus amittit qui Religionem Romanam deserit Whoever forsakes or does not hold the Religion of the Church of Rome is that Heretick we speak of who is accursed and loses all Right of Dominion Furthermore by a Bull of Pope Paul the Fifth dated Anno 1558 and now inserted in the body of their Law lib. 7. Decret tit 3. de Haereticis Schism cap. 9. All Protestant Kings
do it both to Peter and me too The Emperour Henry the Seventh after the Pope and his Cardinals had long opposed his Coronation and instigated many Enemies against him was at last poysoned by a Monk one of their Creatures in the Sacrament And certainly all the wit and malice of Hell and Rome clubbed together could never have screw'd villany to an higher pitch than these Miscreants did by empoisoning their God as they pretend to believe it on purpose therewith to destroy and Murther their lawful Sovereign Joan Queen of Naples was deprived of her Kingdom by Pope Vrban who consented to her Murther 'T is well known how our King John was intolerably vexed and deprived by the Pope and his Agents and at last poysoned by a Monk as also our Henry the Second about the death of that turbulent Traytor Becket who had occasioned so many uproars in the State was by Popish appointment enforced to submit his Royal Back to the cruel Lashes of the Insolent Monks of Canterbury When our King Hen. 8. denyed and by Law in the 24th and 25th years of his Reign had taken away the Popes Usurped Supremacy though he and the Nation in general still continued in the Communion of the Church of Rome Pope Paul the Third presently Curses and Damns him and all his good Subjects for so is the Title of his Bull Damnatio Excommunicatio Heâ— 8. ejusque Fautorum Complicum The Dannation and Excommunication of King Henry the Eighth and all his Adherents and Favourers And so it might properly be Intituled for therein he not only deprives him of his Kingdom and Territories forbids him and all that should take part with him Christian Burial but also declares him and them Eternally Damned He likewise deprives all the Kings Children born or to be born of Queen Anne and all the Children of his Adherents of their Rights Priviledges and Goods annuls all Oaths and Treaties made with the King and commands all Christian Princes to make War upon him and his people and if they should take any of his Subjects who obey the said King and disobey these his Holinesses Commands then all and every such persons so taken to be Slaves for ever to those that take them with several other horrid Impieties which you may see in Bullario Romano Printed at Lions 1655. Tom. 1. p. 704. Since this Henry the Third of France after various Treasons and Conspiracies of the Sorbonists against him was at last An. 1589. Murdered by Jaques Clement a zealous young Friar on which Assassination Pope Sixtus the Fifth made a Panegyrical Oration in the Consistory and commended the same as a most Heroick and Religious Exploit and the Traiterous Assassinate being killed on the Attempt a Statue of Brass was made for him by the Command of the chief of the League his Picture set up in Churches he was sometimes prayed to by the Title of Saint Jaques Clement And to note the just Judgment of God 't is affirmed that this â—urther was committed in the self-same Chamber a St Clou where a Council had been held Anno 1572. wherein the horrid Massacre of the Protestans at Paris was resolved upon this King then Duke of Anjou being one of the chiefest of that Bloody Cabal See Thuanus l. 51. and Serres p. 789. His Successour the Great Henry the Fourth Grandfather to our present Gracious Sovereign after by a desperate Rebellion and Catholick League against him meerly on the account of his Religion he found himself obliged to declare himself a Roman-Catholick was notwithstanding all that first desperately wounded by John Chastel a Disciple of the Jesuites and by them suborned thereunto in memory whereof a Pillar was erected in Paris to the Infamy of the Jesuites and they banisht the Realm though not long after by their subtilty and Interest they got in again where their mischievous Influence hath not a little contributed towards Enkindling and Fomenting those fatal Flames which for divers years by-past have raged through so great a part of Christendome and particularly that kindness of their Re-admission did not at all abate their malice or secure the Life of that great Prince for afterwards in the year 1610. he was Murdered out-right by Ravilliac formerly a Monk but at that time a Sollicitor who was instigated to that divellish act by the Jesuits as 't is violently presumed as well by the manner of the thing as the constancy of his carriage at death and Confession that he made that he did it onely because the King favoured Hereticks and was preparing to make War against the Pope which was to fight against God c. as also for that he farther acknowledged that he had informed Father d'Aubigny a Jesuite of his intended Murder and shewed him the Knife but it was in Confession and so by their Doctrine not to be revealed and the said d'Aubigny being taken into examination denyed that he knew any thing of it or could have discovered it if it were revealed to him in Confession though he had never so much a mind to it For he protested that God had given him the Grace that as soon as any thing was revealeâ— to him in Confession the presently forgot it 'T is pity Father Garnet had not had such an excuse for his knowledge of the Powder-Treason pretended to be communicated to him the same way CHAP. II. A brief Account of the many Popish Treasons from time to time against Queen Elizabeth SECT 1. THE Insolencies of Popes and Treasons of Papists re-counted in the fore-going Chapter were all against Emperours Kings and Princes that generally owned the Church of Rome whence 't is abundantly apparent to all that are not wilfully blind That Papists of themselves and as such even before the Society of Jesuits was hatcht were a sort of very dangerous Subjects always ready nay oblig'd to Rebel against their Princes though of the same Faith and Religion with themselves when ever the Pope out of Interest or humour should put them upon it being obliged by the principles of their Religion so to do And can it then reasonably be expected that they will ever be Faithful and Loyal to Protestant in their account Heretical Princes especially now the Jesuits have so vastly improved and advanced Maxims of Treason Murther Equivocation c. as if they intended to banish not onely all Obedience to Kings but together therewith all kind of sincere Religion Truth and Moral Honesty between Man and Man out of the World Concerning the good Affection of this Society to Protestant Princes we may take our measures from their own expressions Father Campian a Jesuite and though Hang'd at Tyburn about the year 1581. for High-Treason yet at Rome reputed a famous Martyr and stiled by Ribadeneira in Catalogo Scriptorum societatis Jesu p. 377. in Indice Martyrum Martyr Christi inclytus sui seculi Clarissimus A most renowned and famous Martyr of Christ This holy man was not ashamed to declare in
print in the year 1583. as is attested by Hospinian That all Jesuits in the world had entred into an holy Vow and Covenant any way to destroy all Heretical Kings nor did they despair of doing it effectually so long as any one Jesuit should remain in the World And Father Creswel a bird of the same feather in his Philopater lays down this sweet Lesson Ita informandos quoscunque Catholicos ut oblatâ caedis occasione nullo impedimento se dimoveri patiantur That all Catholicks are to be taught and instructed that when they have an opportunity to kill Hereticks Kings or others 't is no matter they should not spare them nor suffer any impediment to hinder them from the slaughter SECT 2. This is their Doctrine now let us see their Practices here in England ever since the Reformation The Raign of our good King Edward the Sixth was but short whether not shortned by Popish Arts is deservedly questioned and he himself a minor yet during his time there were Rebellions and Commotions in Somersetshire and Lincolnshire for which many were Executed then in Cornwal and Devonshire where above 4000 were slain and taken Prisoners by John Lord Russel Lord Privy-Seal then they Rebelled in Norfolk and Suffolk against whom the Earl of Warwick advanced with an Army and slew above 5000. About the same time there was a great Rising in the North and East-Ridings of Yorkshire but suppressed by the Lord President All these Insurrections were owned to be on the behalf of their Râ—â—â—gion and fomented and abetted by Popish Priests of whom divers were taken amongst the Rebels and deservedly punished SECT 3. To set forth all the Popish Plots Designs and Conspiracies against the Life and Crown of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory it would be necessary to Transcribe a great part of the History of her Illustrious Reign and therefore we shall take notice 〈◊〉 of some of the most remarkable occurrences of that kind and the true Principles upon and by which they were promoted 1. As to the Original of Recusancy and occasions which rendred the Law against Papists absolutely necessary it must be remembred that from the First to the Eleventh year of the Reign of that Queen Papists generally repaired to our Churches see the proceedings against the Powder-Traitors p. 109. I my self saith Sir Edward Coke have seen Cornwallis Beddingfield and others notorious and zealous Papists at Church making no doubt of Conscience to joyn with us in Prayer But about the year 1569 Pope Pius the Fifth was no sooner seated in the Pontificial Chair but he began practice to justle her out of her Royal Throne to this purpose he employed one Bidolph a Florentine to raise a Faction here and afterwards sent over Doctor Nicholas Morton to promote it engaged the Spaniard to assist the Conspirators and Chapinus Vitellius came privately over on other pretences to observe the success and head the Spanish Troops when they should arrive Pursuant to these Counsels the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland with 4000 Foot and 600 Horse appear in open Rebellion and declare for the Restitution of the Roman Religion but were soon put to slight and Sanders de Schismate Angl. tells us the reason viz. For that the rest of the Catholicks because the Pope had not yet publickly denounced sentence of Excommunication against the Queen so as they did not seem fairly absolved from her Obedience declined to joyn with them by which means they were easily chased by the Queens Forces into Scotland where afterward Northumberland being taken was brought back to York and there faith he happily ended his days by a glorious Martyrdome So usual a thing it is with these Popish Doctors first to excite people to the blackest Treasons and then guild over the deserv'd punishments which they suffer for the same with that specious Title His crafty Holiness was not insensible of the reason of this miscarriage and therefore to prevent the like failure and the better to encourage all his Catholick Vassals to joyn in such pious Rebellion against the Queen he early the next Spring sends forth his Roaring Bull or Sentence of Anathema wherein he first magnifies his own Office and Authority in these Rhodomontado's He that Reigneth on high to whom is given all power in Heaven and Earth hath committed the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation to One alone on Earth viz. to the Prince of the Apostles Peter and to Peters Successour the Bishop of Rome to be governed in plenitude of power c. Sanders 3. de Schism Angl. p. 368. Then having railed a while most Apostolically and called that incomparable Princess Flagitiorum serva the slave of wickedness and villanies he proceeds to Curse her in these words Therefore supported with his Authority who was pleased to place us though unable for so great a burthen in this Supreme Throne of Justice out of the plenitude of Our Apostolick power We do declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and favourer of Hereticks and all her Adherents to have incurred the Sentence of Anathema and to be cut off from the unity of Christs Body and by the Authority of these Presents We do deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended Right to the Kingdom and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever And We do Absolve all the Nobles Subjects and People of the said Kingdoms and all others who have in any sort sworn unto her from such Oath or Oaths and all manner of Duty Fidelity and Obedience and do forbid and command them and every of them that they presume not to obey her 〈◊〉 her Commands and Laws those that shall do otherwise to be lyable to the some Curse Id. Ibid. This Bull towards the end of May 1570. was brought over and fixed on the Gates of the Bishop of Londons Palace by one John Felton and Copies of the same sent to the aforesaid Bidolph to be dispersed throughout England Then and not till then it was that those inclinable to the Romish Superstitions did presently refrain our Churches would no longer hear the established Divine Service nor have any more Society with us in Prayer so that Reeusancy so called from their refusing to come to Church which as the word was scarce known till this time so was it not specially or particularly punished by any Law till afterwards in the Twenty third year of the Queen was not in them at first nor can be now for Religion but for acknowledging of and stickling for the Popes usurping power They absent themselves from our Churches not because there is any thing there transacted in it self unlawful or prohibited by the Word of God for then they ought always to have kept away but because the Pope in opposition to the Law of God enjoyning both Obedience to our Governours and Charity and Brotherly Communion amongst each other has forbidden them so to do and this unrighteous siding with the Pope against
their lawful Sovereign hath been the main foundation of all their Treasonable and Rebellious practices that have ensued from thence to this very day 2. Soon after this Anathema Bidolph by the Popes Order having distributed amongst the Confederates one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns as we are informed by Catena who wrote that Popes Life and was Secretary to his Nephew Cardinaâ— Alexandrino returned to give his Holiness an account how far all things were ready and by him is sent away to engage the King of Spain offering if need should be to expose all the Treasures of the Apostolick See and even pawn the Chalices Crucifixes and Sacred Vestments to carry on so holy an Enterprize But whilst Spain was preparing for the Invasion it pleased God to discover the whole Plot by a Messengers being intercepted with Letters to the Queen of Scots the Spanish Ambassador the Duke of Norfolk who was drawn into the Conspiracy by some under-hand promises or hopes of Marrying the said Scotish Queen and others whereby all their Project was blasted Norfolk seized Tryed found guilty and some time after Beheaded Pope Pius Quintus whom Queen Elizabeth was wont to call Impius intus died about the year 1572. Gregory the Thirteenth succeeded him as in his Popedom so in his endeavours to disturb Englands Tranquillity which he was first for giving away to Don John of Austria base Brother to the King of Spain and by him substituted Governour of the Low Countries but he being snatcht away by Death another intrigue is carried on between the Pope and that King himself the one providing Men the other Money England and Ireland are both to be Invaded at once the latter by Forces under the Command of Tho. Stukeley an English Fugitive whom the Pope had made Marquiss Earl Viscount and Baron so prodigal he was of his Honours of several eminent places in that Kingdom But Stukely in his Voyage from Italy diverting to assist Sebastian King of Portugal in his Expedition in Africk against the Moors was with most of his men slain in that memorable Battle where Three Kings were cut off in one day Anno 1578. But notwithstanding this discouragement next year one James Fitz-Morice was sent into Ireland with some Troops from Spain and from the Pope our late-cited Author Saunders in the quality of his Legate and with a Consecrated Banner which were re-inforced in the year 1580. with 700 Italian and Spanish Souldiers under one San Joseph who likewise brought some Money and Arms for 5000 Irish on whom the better to encourage them in Rebellion his Holiness bestowed his Apostolical Benediction and sent them a Bull reciting That whereas he had of late years by his Letters exhorted them to the recovery of their Liberty and Defence of it against the Hereticks c. and that they might more cheerfully do it had granted to all such as should be any ways assisting therein a plenary Pardon and Forgiveness of all their sins He now furthermore grants to all such whom he exhorts requires and urges in the Lord to assist against the said Hereticks the same plenary Indulgence and Remission of their sins which those who fight against Turks and Infidels do obtain Vide Histor Cathol Hibern Though how much greater or more effectual that is or can be than a plenary Pardon of all sins which he had promised them before we do not readily apprehend but it seems his Infallibility-ship did imagine that expression would be more taking amongst the Irish nor did he onely egg them on with such fair words but promised a Crusado and to bestow rather then fail a Million of Crowns in the Expedition but still all was blasted for these Italians with their Irish Confederates and whole Party were happily routed by the Queens Troops at the very instant when divers Ships were at Sea to bring them more Forces and Assistance and Sanders the Popes Legate miserably perished for hunger in the Woods and as some say distracted and raving mad upon the ill success of this hopeful Rebellion SECT 4. Besides these open Secular Forces of Spain and Rome the Pope about this time employed another Spiritual sort of Militia to promote his designs viz. the Seminaries who now began to swarm in great numbers thereby laying then such a ground-work for future disturbances not onely to Queen Elizabeth but even to all her Successours and to this Nation and the Protestant Religion in general that hitherto it hath wrought and is still working by undermining restless Policies and Projects the dangerous effects whereof we feel at this day in this late discovered Plot and so are like to continue to all successive Generations as long as the Seminaries and Jesuitism remain in the World whose Trade and Business it is to encourage themselves and others in Mischiefs or in the phrase of the Psalmist To commune amongst themselves how they may privily lay snares The first of these Nests of Treason or Randesvouzes of Rebellion was erected at Doway in the year 1568. the English Fugitive Priests assembling themselves there by the design of William Allen the most learned amongst them and living together in a common Colledge-like Discipline the Pope allowing them an Annual Pension Soon after another like Seminary was establisht at Rheims by the bloody Guises the Queen of Scots Kinsmen a third at Rome by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth and afterwards a fourth at Valledolid in Spain That there might never want a successive Generation of men of corrupt minds heady high-minded despisers of Dominion Idolatrous and Traiterous Priests to poison England with their false Doctrines and pernicious Principles And because the before-mentioned Bull of Pius the Fifth had not yet sufficiently produced its intended effects even with many Papists themselves who seeing the Neighbour Popish Princes and States not to forbear their wonted Negotiations with the Queen continued still in their Obedience to her and were displeased at the said Bull as a mischievous Snare putting them upon this miserable Dilemma either to be Executed for Treason against the Queen if they did resist or be accursed by their Holy Father if they did obey her therefore for their satisfaction and to extricate them out of that Labyrinth wherein they were thus involved an Expedient was found out and afterwards re-inforced by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth viz. A Decree or Explanation That the Bull aforesaid should always oblige Elizabeth and the Hereticks but not the Catholicks Rebus sic stantibus whilst affairs remained in that posture but that they might render their outward obedience to her Ad redimendam vexationem ad ostendendam externam obedientiam donec publica Bullae Execretio fieri possit To prevent their being troubled for so long onely until they might get into strength sufficient to put the said Bull publickly into execution See Thuan. l. 74. and Camden An. 1580. And to the end that the same might in due time be effectually executed Missions are daily made of the
most considerable Aids Faithful and Meritorious Subjects still if they may be their own Judges though they desired and designed to submit to the Pope nay any King or Prince rather than to the King of England whose natural Subjects they were Nay more the Rump that infamous Rump the fag-end of the Parliament which Murthered the King was much more beholding to these Irish Rebels than His Majesty was for to them they made Petitions and Supplications as unto the Supreme Authority of the Nation Entitling them The Parliament of the Common-wealth of England wherein they did readily subject and put their Consciences Lives and Fortunes as in a secure Sanctuary under the protection thereof these are their own words and boasted That several of them were able to make appear their constant good affection and adherence to them See the Petitions of Sir Ra. Talbot Baronet and Garret Moor Esquire who were not herein private but publick persons and so owned in the Title of their Petitions being on the behalf of themselves and others as Sollicitors Agitators or Trustees for the Irish Papists which were Condescentions far greater than ever they would pay to King Charles the First or His present Majesty For with them they always Treated upon the Swords point upon as great terms of Defiance Caution and Reservedness as if they had to do with the great Turk and not with their lawful Soveraign Vide Orrerey fol. 14 15. and Articles of Treaty If therefore to rise in Arms without the Kings Command or Privity Murther so many thousands of his good Subjects seize on his Towns and Forts fight with and kill those that were Commissionated by him hold Correspondence with and receive Supplies from Forraign Princes cast off all Allegiance and petition a Forraign Prince to be their Protector and last of all if to court his avowed Enemies and Murtherers own their Uusurp'd Authority and submit Consciences Fortunes Lives and all to their pleasure be Arguments of Faithfulness and Obedience then may we allow the Irish Papists to have been His Majesties most Loyal Subjects but till then all the word shall justly detest them as the most barbarous and bloody Rebels SECT 4. But whatever they were in Ireland the Roman Catholicks in England will swear they were all most punctually true to King Charles the First and ventured their Lives and Estates in his Service To determine how far this is true and what merit we are to allow them on that account we must consider 1. That it cannot reasonably be expected that we should so clearly discover the affections and more secret designs of the Papists in this English Rebellion as in that of Ireland for that here were not Papists fighting under the Popes Countenance and Encouragement against Protestants but Protestants though in that point Jesuitically principled against a Protestant King and his true Subjects that were more Loyally minded So that as the Papists Loyalty was not then so far tryed as to see whether they would have taken part with the King a Protestant had the Pope forbidden them or employed them against him which is the great thing in question when we speak of their Loyalty as Papists so likewise were they never embodied apart by themselves and therefore could never assemble together in Battel to fight or in full and open Council to Design and Plot but what they did was covertly and in the dark by fomenting Dissentions and Intestine Wars which was long since their Campanella's Design De Monarch Hisp cap. 24. p. 204. Jam verò ad enervandos Anglos nibil tam conducit quam dissentio discordia inter illos excitata perpetuóque nutrita quod citò meliores occasiones suppeditabit si Angliam in formam Roipublice reducant in imitationem Hollandorum That nothing could more conduce to weaken the English than Dissention and Discord stirred up and perpetually nourisht amongst them which would soon administer better occasions to introduce the Roman Catholick Religion if England were reduced into a Republick in imitation of the Hollanders 2. It may well be said That it was not pure Loyalty but self-interest that attracted so many ominent Papists in unto his late Majesties Standard The violence of the people forced them to that side they did not go but were driven the Parlimentarians were to make use of the cry against Papists for one of their most taking pretences so that the open Roman Catholicks could expect no acceptance from them and though they did well and but according to their Duty in serving His Majesty yet accidentally they not a little prejudiced his cause for the other party thence took such occasions to raise lies and clamours that we may say for every Papist employed in His Majesties Arms 〈◊〉 the hearts of half a dozen seduced though otherwise Loyal Protestants However to discharge their duty in serving their King against a Protestant not a Popish Pâ—â—ty and at a time when their own safety and private Interest obliged them so to do was surely little matter of merit but rather if we may guess at the Body of Hercules by his Foot we may then by tracing some of the footsteps of our English Catholicks as have casually come to light discover their main design especially of their Clergy to have been wholly for the ruine of that King of happy memory and thereby of the Protestant Religion for 3. The disloyal Principles on which the Phanatick Rebels proceeded they wholly learnt from the Jesuits for example did they say the Soveraign Power was lodged in the people and that they may alter the Government of a State Bellarmine taught it them whose words in his Treatise De Laicis l. 3. cap. 6. are these Potestas immediatè est tanquam in subjecto in totâ multitudine c. The Supreme power is in the whole multitude as in its Subject and if there be cause for it they may alter a Monarchy into an Aristocracle or Democracie c. Did they affirm that the People made the King and may unmake him and retain still the habit of power they are the same Bellarmines own words In Regnis bominum potestas Regis est à populo quia populus facit Regem In the Kingdoms of men the Kings power is from the people for the people make the King Bell. de Concil l. 2. cap. 19. And again In Rebuspublicis temporalibus si Rex degeneret in Tyrannum licet caput sit Regni tamen à populo potest deponi eligi alius In Temporal States if a King degenerate into a Tyrant though he be the head of the Kingdom yet the people may Depose him and choose another Idem Ibid. cap. 10. Did our Rebels hold they might take up Defensive Arms against the King and expel him 't was your Jesuite Suarez taught them that Doctrine Si Rex legitimus tyrannicè gubernat Regno nullum aliud sit remedium nisi Regem expellere deponere poterit Respublica toto publico
Execution and that it was by their instigation and interest that the French King was prevailed with 〈◊〉 banish His Majesty out of France c. From all which the pretended Loyalty of the Papists to his late Majesty and our present Soveraign during his Exile is most evidently detected and by these brief Historical touches that we have given the matter whereof would have swell'd to a vast Volume had it been worthily dilated upon as hereafter if God send leave and opportunity may be done it sufficiently appears how dangerous and insufferable the Principles of the Roman Church and practices of Papists have been and must always be to Princes in general but Protestants especially So that we may fitly shut up these Observations with that Oraculous conclusion of judicious King James in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament Nov. 1605. That as it is not impossible but many honest man seduced with some Errours of Popery may yet remain good and faithful Subjects so on the other part none that know and believe the grounds and School-conclusions of their Doctrine can ever prove good Christians or faithful Subjects CHAP. V. The Preparatory Circumstances at home and abroad encouraging the Papists to this Plot and facilitating their Designe SECT 1. WE have hitherto seen the restless and implacable malice of the Romish Priests and Emissaries continually conspiring and endeavouring by all kind of Arts ever since the Reformation to subvert the Protestant Religion and therewith the Government in these Nations so that we may reckon the Raigns of our late Princes by a Succession of Popish Treasons In displaying whereof we have been the larger as well that the World may take notice that their late damnable Plot was nothing strange or incredible for what wonder is it to hear an Horse neigh to find a Fox crafty or a Tyger cruel or see those concerned in Trayterous and bloody practices whose Doctrines recommend the same as Duty or Merit and who have for so many Ages been inured thereunto as also to satisfie the Reader that the Conspiracy which now threatned us is all of a piece with those under which our Ancestors laboured that 't is still the same Tragedy though the Scenes have been often shifted and the Actors varied according to the different posture of Affairs a continued stream of Treason flowing from the See of Rome which though sometimes interrupted diverted or like the River Arethusa hid under ground yet it perpetually sometimes swifter sometimes slower kept on its course but how and by what accessional Springs Forreign Tides or Domestick Land-floods it came now to swell to so great and extraordinary an Head just ready to ore-whelm us may be worth inquiry To give an exact account of all Circumstances at home and abroad that contributed to the ripening and facilitating of this Plot and which favouring the Design encouraged the Conspirators to push forwards the same at this rather then another time requires more conversation in Court-Intrigues than we dare pretend to But most obvious it is to an ordinary Eye that there were not a few advantages which might much flush their hopes at this Conjuncture and rendred their Design more probable and feizable than at any other moment since the Reformation SECT 2. For as this Plot aim'd not solely at these Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland but was truely Catholick general or universal to root out the Protestant Religion from the face of the earth so no man that considers the present State of Christendome can be ignorant what a vast progress within few years last past they have made in order thereunto The French Kings Arms no doubt are employed chiefly for Conquest and Glory yet 't is as unquestionable that the Jesuits and Court of Rome know how to improve them likewise to their advantage For if we reflect on the late proceedings of the French and their modern Irruption which they made into Holland few years since the manner of the Attempt and Management before and after we may see that haughty Monarch hath plainly taken off his Mask and is to be regarded in this Conjuncture not onely in the same Character as Conquerors of former Ages towards all Estates who had the unhappiness to be adjacent to their Frontiers but that he ought also to be formally look'd upon as the declared Protector of the Tyrannick Designs of the Papacy and consequently the pre-meditated and positive Enemy and destroyer of all the States and People whose Faith is opposite to that Tyranny And though in his Declaration of War against the States-General 27 March 1672. he was pleased to assign no reason but his Glory yet 't is averr'd in print that by his Embassador to the Pope he gave afterwards a more clear Account viz. That he had not undertaken this War but for the Extirpation of Heresie and to the Emperour declared That the Hollanders were a people who having forsaken God and being Hereticks all good Christians were in duty bound to associate for their Extirpation and ought to pray to God for a blessing upon so pious an Enterprise And to other Popish Princes That it was a War of Religion and in order to the propagation of the Catholick Faith Pursuant to which in the Second Article of his Demands afterwards to the Dutch at Vtrecht it is in express words contained That thenceforth there shall be not onely an entire Liberty but a publick Exercise of the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion throughout all the Vnited Provinces c. And as he hath been thus active to promote Popery abroad so he has been no less busie to destroy Protestants at home having suppressed so many of their Churches contrary to Solemn Edicts put down their Academies made them incapable of any Office or Preferment and by all kind of discouragements and pressures endeavoured to ruine them The Conspirators therefore having such a powerful friend to Abet and Assist them who besides the glorious Rattle of propagating Catholick Religion a specious motive in publick is also obliged by reason of State a more Sacred Tye amongst such Princes to embroil England and Holland by all Arts that in the mean time he may sweep away the Trade of the World chiefly managed by these two and put them both in a condition to be made absolutely his Slaves wherever he should think fit to extend his yoak 'T is no wonder then I say if the Conspirators venture bard with such encouragement to accomplish their Designs in the drudging Secular Butchering part whereof he hath already made so fair or rather monstrously foul an advance Long since have the Jesuits learnt how to shrowd themselves under the ambitious wings of the most potent active Princes and by pretence of promoting their interests to set up their own When in the last Century the Austrian Family was in its ruffling grandeur grasping at Universal Monarchy how entirely did they seem devoted to that House But as soon as it declin'd and the French Monarch by
persons to be more difficult than those that are commonly exacted elsewhere He was formerly Vicar at Bobbing in Kent to which he came in the year 1672. but the Air not being good left it and was sometime Minister near Chichester in Sussex and afterwards came to be Chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk with an ample testimony of his Life and Conversation In all these stations he was a person of a sober Life and never charged with Debauchery whence 't is plain that all those scandalous Aspersions since spread abroad by the Romanists are false and raised by malice since they were never heard of before he was engaged in this Discovery Nor can it be imagined that the Jesuits would have esteemed him so much or trusted him so far as they did had they not found him a person as of good parts so of a discreet sober deportment fit to be employed in affairs of Moment The manner and occasion how he came engaged amongst them is thus related Whilst he was the Duke of Norfolk's Chaplain he over-heard some whisperings amongst the Priests with whom that Family was sufficiently haunted That there was some grand Design on foot but could not learn what it was in particular He had heard from his Protestant Friends and read in Sir Hamond L'Estrange's History of King Charles the First and other judicious Authors That the Papists had for many years carried on a Design to introduce Popery again into these Nations which created in him a longing desire to sound the depth of it and if it were possible to Countermine it To this end he entred more freely into Conversation with some of that Tribe concerning Religion who greedy of gaining such a Proselyte failed not to press him with variety of Arguments insomuch that at last he seemed as if he were dissatisfyed in some things concerning our Church and desired an opportunity to discourse with some of their Jesuits as being vogued the most Learned and able Men of that Party This on some preliminary cautions was procured and after sundry Conferences with them in which he suffered himself to be overcome he was formally reconciled to the Church of Rome Shortly after this seeming to aspire to the highest degree of perfection which to be sure the Jesuits place in their Society to which they have blasphemously arrogated the Sacred Name of Jesus he requested some of those Fathers that he might be admitted to their Order which after three days consideration they were willing to consent to And as a particular favour because he was a man of years being then about eight and twenty they told him they would not employ him as usually they did Novices for so they call their young Students in drudgery for the first two years but he should spend that time in being a Messenger for their Society This exactly fitted his Design and so soon after he was sent with Letters to Valladolid in Spain which by the way he dextrously opened and thereby began to smell something more of their Hellish Designs he dispatcht this and some other affairs so much to their satisfaction that after a little time he was taken into their Consults as they call them as a very confiding instrument and thereby had an opportunity to see all that was on the Wheel at present and liberty without suspicion to enquire how any thing past had been carryed on More particularly he made it his business to inform himself of the beginning progress and conclusion of our late Wars in all which he found the Jesuits and Popish Party had a great hand The Rebellion that led to it being began in Scotland where it was first laid by Cardinal Richelieu His Majesties irreconcileable Enemy then it broke out in Ireland where it was blest with his Holinesses Letters and assisted by his Nuncio whom he sent purposely to tend the fire there as aforesaid afterwards they plaid their parts in disguise in England to unsettle the people start new Phanatical opinions furnish the Rabble with Arguments for Treason raise needless occasions of jealousie push on Rebellion frustrate all endeavours of Accommodation c. till they had destroyed the King the Government the Church and brought us all into confusion By this means also he understood that the City of London in the year 66. was fixed by their contrivance and was told how that Plot was laid and who were the Actors in the several Scenes Richard Strange heretofore Provincial of the Jesuits being Director in Chief thereof and how their Society got 14000 l. by the said Fire c. He kept but very privately short Notes of all things of moment that occurr'd from the time he was admitted amongst their Society with an intent to produce them when they might be of use by which means he was enabled to give an Account of so many hundred Particulars which are confirmed by other Circumstances and Collaterate Evidence and have not in the least Interfer'd with one another nor with those Papers which have been found elsewhere or with the Informations which have been given in by other Persons though wholly Strangers to him whom God hath since raised up further to clear and unmask this detestable and Bloody Conspiracy SECT 2. Doctor Oates being thus qualified and resolved though with the great hazard of his Life to prevent if possible the Ruin of these Nations by a Discovery of the Plot which was now so far advanc'd that his Majesties Life was daily in danger all their other Contrivances being ripe and only wanting that Fatal Blow to bring them into Act He therefore saw the greatest necessity of expedition lest the notice should come too late And whereas Father Whitebread the Jesuits Provincial having before his last return into England engaged him to Assassinate Israel Tongue Doctor of Divinty because he had Translated a Book Intituled The Jesuits Morals into English which severely reflected on the Society and promised him 50 l. Reward for the fame He after his coming over having acquaintance with the said Doctor Tongue and knowing him to be a person of Trust and Integrity did Communicate to him as well the said intended Assassination as also some Heads of the general Plot and they both having seriously consulted of the best method for managing of the Discovery wherein they were sure to meet with mighty Opposition and run no small hazards concluded to acquaint one Mr. Christopher Kirby with the business as one who for his firm Fidelity Zeal and Courage for the Protestant Religion and his Majesties safety and the Interest he had at Court was the most capable and likely Person they could think of to assist them and therefore on Monday the 12th of August the said Dr. Tongue See Mr. Kirbies Narrative of the manner of the Discovery shewing him 43. Articles drawn up in writing requested that without acquainting any other person there with he would make the same known to the King which Mr. Kirby generously undertook but could not
have the better opportunities and easier task to subdue them All. 3. By a general Massacre to which purpose they had formed an Army which was to consist of Fifty-thousand to be Listed about London The Officers all resolute Papists and for the most part French and Irish These they gave out were enow to Cut the Throats of One-hundred-thousand Protestants especially being taken upon a Surprize when the Militia of London was unprovided and Undisciplin'd and the Country generally Disarm'd as aforesaid And besides the Conspirators had the French and also many thousands of Pilgrims and Lay-Brothers daily expected from Spain to assist them 4. The Prince of Orange was also Condemned Scandaliz'd and designed against by Name and 12. Jesuits sent into Holland on purpose to use means to put that People in a Mutiny against his Person and Government by buzzing amongst them that his Uncle of England and himself had a design to make the said Prince Absolute with the Title of a King over them and so to bring them to a Slavery for ever worse than they suffered heretofore under the Spaniard 5. As for Ireland the Pope had made Talbot the Titular Arch-Bishop of Dublin his Legate to take possession for him of that Kingdom whose Brother Talbot was to be General of all the Forces there which were to consist of 20000. Catholick-Foot and 5000. Horse besides the French Auxiliaries It was there to be carried on by a general Rebellion and Massacre of the Protestants as in 41. which they call Demonstrating their Zeal for the Catholick Faith In the first place the Duke of Ormond was to be Assassinated which four Jesuits had undertook to dispatch And the better to encourage this Rebellion the Pope was to Contribute Eight-hundred-thousand Crowns and the French had privately sent over some supplies of Men and Arms and was to furnish them with more as soon as they should be in Action Le Chese having a great Influence in promoting all these Transactions 6. In Scotland likewise particular care was taken to foment Discontents and raise a Rebellion to which end they divers times sent over several Jesuits to mingle themselves if they could with the Dessenters so as they might Preach in their Field-meetings and inflame them to take Arms to Vindicate their Religion and Liberty against those Pressures they complained of and which they were to aggravate and also against Bishops And for their encouragement the Papists there were to raise Eight-thousand Men to joyn with such Dissenters lest they should be too weak to oppose the Government by which they would kill two Birds with one stone make a difference and hatred between Protestants and cast the Odium of Rebellion on the Presbyterians if it should not succeed or destroy the Government if it should nor have their Policies in this kind been wholly ineffectual as appears by the late Rebellion in Scotland principally occasion'd by these Romish Incendiaries though happily suppress'd without doing that general mischief which they expected Towards the necessary Charge 1. The Society of Jesus in England are Credibly said to have above Threescore-thousand Pounds per Annum Estate in Land managed by Trustees in the securing and settling whereof Mr. Langhorn the Councellor was principally concern'd 2. They have One-hundred-thousand Pounds Stock in ready Money imployed at Interest by Scriveners and used in Trade by Persons of several occupations 3. Eleven-thousand Crowns Paulus de Oliva was to send them from Rome Ten thousand Pounds more from Pedro Jeronymo de Corduba from Spain Le Chese the French King's Confessor advanc'd Ten thousand Pounds more and Six thousand pounds the Benedictines Besides considerable sums of Money transmitted to Coleman by Foreign Ministers of State and the Benevolencies of Catholick Grandees at home for promoting so meritorious a work This is the general Scheme of this Bloody Hellish Plot which in the quality and number of the Conspirators the long time it hath been contriving and carried on the Cruelties design'd the vastness of the undertaking the multitudes that would thereby have been destroyed and other circumstances is not to be parallel'd in any History and all this Treason Blood-shed and Villany without any provocation to be perpetrated under the colour of Religion SECT 3. As for particulars and the several Letters and Negotiations we refer the Reader that is so curious to Dr. Oates his Narrative Printed as aforesaid last Spring by Order of the House of Lords whereby it appears that in April 77. he was imployed by Strange the then Provincial Fenwick Hartcourt and other Jesuits in London to carry their Letters to one Father Suinam an Irish Jesuit at Madrid in Spain That in his Journey he broke open the said Letters and found therein an account given what Jesuits they had sent into Scotland to stir up Tumults and that they feared not success in their design having got an Interest in his Royal Highness c. That he saw several Students sent out of England to Valladolyd who were obliged by the Jesuits of the College to Renounce their Allegiance to his Majesty of Great Britain and that one Armstrong in a Sermon to the Students there did with most false and black-mouth'd Scandals represent his said Majesty using such Irreverent base expressions as no good Subject can here repeat without horror with several other Traiterous words and Correspondencies which he there discovered from whence he returned in November That about the beginning of December he was sent with another Treasonable Letter to St. Omers wherein was expresly mentioned their design to Stab or if that could not be done to Poison the King and that they had received Ten thousand Pounds from Le Chese which was in the hands of one Worsley of London Goldsmith There was likewise Inclosed a Letter of thanks to Le Chese which he carried from St. Omers to him at Paris During this his Journey and being abroad he saw and read many other of their Letters all tending to one effect viz. Of cutting off the King Subverting the Government and Restoning the Romish Religion and were so confident as in some of them to say That his Majesty of England was so possest of their Fidelity that if any Malecontent amongst them should not prove true but offer to discover he would never belieâ— them That in April 1678. he came over with others to the grand Consult which was held the 24th of that moneth by about 50 Jesuits at the White-horse Tavern in the Strand where they met successively in small Companies and thence dispersed into distinct little Colloquies or Clubs where they Signed a Resolve for the Death of the King which Dr. Oates as Messenger carried from one Company to another to be Signed and very shortly after returned to St. Omers from whence he came again being the last time of his being abroad the 23. of June for England where in July he became privy to the Treaty with Wakeman and the terms as also heard John Keins a
Recusants for Assassinating and Murthering the King and for Subverting the Government and destroying the Protestant Religion by Law Established The same day the Body of Sir Edmund bury Godfrey was Honourably Buried being carried from Old Bridewel attended with a vast number of Persons of Quality Ministers and substantial Citizens to the Parish Church of St. Martin in the Fields wherein he dwelt and there Enterr'd Novemb. 2. A Proclamation promising 20 l. Reward to any that should discover any Officer or Soldier of his Majesties Guards who after taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy was perverted to the Romish Religion or should hear Mass On Saturday the 9th of Novemb. his Majesty made a Speech to both Houses of Parliament purposely to give them thanks for the care they took for the safety of his Person in these times of danger assuring them he would joyn with them in all the ways and means that might Establish a firm Security of the Protestant Religion as their own hearts could wish and this not only during his time but in all future Ages to the end of the World Nov. 10. was a Proclamation to confine all Popish Recusants within five Miles of their respective dwellings About this time to Corroborate and confirm Dr. Oates his Testimony it pleased God to work upon the heart of Mr. William Bedloe to come in and make a further discovery He had formerly been as 't is said a Servant to the Lord Bellasis afterwards an Alpherez or Ensign in Flanders and about Michaelmass 1674. was sent for over by Harcourt recommended by the English Abbess at Dunkirk and so by degrees became acquainted with the Jesuits and was at last generally imploy'd as an Agent for them and sent frequently with Letters into Forraign parts whereby he became privy unto several of their Traiterous designs and after the Plot discovered by Dr. Oates he continued amongst them who being somewhat jealous of his revolting did the better to keep him in awe make him constantly twice every week take the See the Tryal of Green c. p. 33. Sacrament and thereupon swear Secresie and to conceal his knowledge of the Plot. Before the Murther of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey Le Fair Pritchard Kains and other Jesuits and Priests treated with him about Killing a Gentleman and said he should have a good Reward but would not discover who it was Afterwards they imploy'd him to Insinuate himself into the Acquaintance of Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey which he accordingly did pretending to take out Warrants for the good Behaviour against persons that were not in being but what use they designed to make of such his Acquaintance he knew not But being with them the day before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey was Murthered at the Gray-hound Tavern the said Mr. Bedloe sent his Boy to his House to desire him to come to them but he happen'd not to be at home else 't is probable they had Poisoned or otherwise Kill'd him then Next day they told him it was to be done that night and that there was to be 4000 l. Reward for doing of it given by the Lord Bellasis which Mr. Coleman had order to pay therefore they engaged him to meet them that night in the Cloisters at Sommerset-House but he fail'd in coming for which Le Fair was angry but told him on the Munday that the business was done without him and then endeavour'd to engage him to help carry off the Body and at this request some Priests shew'd him the Body who then and not before knew it to be Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey When they talkt of carrying him out Mr. Bedloe told him it was yet too early and about 12. would be a better time at which time he would come to them which Le Faire made him promise to do upon the Sacrament which he last took but being much troubled to see their Cruelty he returned no more to them but went to Bristol very restless and disturbed in his mind and at last being convinc'd it was his duty he could no longer forbear discovery but wrote to one of the Secretaries of State and was sent for up and though he had no acquaintance with or to his knowledge ever saw Dr. Oates before and that for a considerable time they were kept with Guards apart and not suffered to have any Correspondence yet he most exactly agreed in the Account he gave of the Plot with what Dr. Oates had set forth both as to things and persons He also gave an account that Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey was Murthered at Somerset-House by the Contrivance of the Jesuits but the particulars he could not fully set forth The 17th of Novemb. upon this new Information received his Majesty set forth a Proclamation for the Apprehension of George Coniers Le Phaire Prichard Symonds Charles Walsh and Biston alias Beeston late Servant of the Lady Bellasis who were thereby required to render themselves and that if they did not so do before the 10th day of Decemb. next a Bill should be presented to the House of Peers for Attainting them of High Treason and further promising 100 l. Reward to any Person that should Discover or Apprehend any of the said Offenders The same Proclamation directs the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance to be tendred to all Popish Recusants or Persons so reputed and if they refuse to bind them over to appear the next Sessions and in case they cannot or will not find Securities then to Commit them And all such Refusers to be Disarm'd and 10 l. Reward promised to any that should discover any considerable quantity of Arms in any Popish Recusants House The 20th of Novem. was another Proclamation promising 20 l. Reward to any person that should Discover and Apprehend any Popish Priest and Jesuit except John Huddleston signally Instrumental in his Majesties escape after the Fight at Worcester Priests belonging to the Queen whose names shall be Enrolled in the Kings-Bench and those that attend upon Foreign Ambassadors the said 20 l. to be immediately paid upon such Discovery and Apprehension and due proof thereof CHAP. IX The Proceedings against William Staley Goldsmith and his Execution for speaking Treasonable words THE late Discovery had so unexpectedly frustrated the designs of the Papists that being therewith enraged they could hardly contain themselves within any bound of patience or moderation but the Traiterous Poison which had long rankled in their hearts began now to blister out at their tongues and since they were prevented from Acting they descended with a kind of Female malice to vent their Resentments in talking and uttering lewd Expressions and Menaces Of this kind of Traitors was William Staley a Goldsmith in Covent-Garden a Strict and Zealous Papist bred beyond the Seas at one of the English Seminaries intended for a Priest in order to which he took the degrees of a Deacon as is related by those that well knew him but afterwards altered his resolutions and began to study Physick in which Art he took his Degree
Poison And at another time did say to Fenwick at the said Fenwicks Chamber in Dr. Oates's hearing that he had found a way to Transmit 200000 l. to carry on the Rebellion in Ireland 4. That in the same moneth of August Mr. Coleman knew of the four Irish Ruffians sent to Windsor to Kill the King and in his pag. 24. hearing askt Father Harcourt at Wild-House what care was taken for those four Gentlemen that went lastnight to Windsor who reply'd that there was 80 l. ordered to be sent them which he saw there on the Table most of it in Guinies and that Mr. Coleman was so Zealous to promote the work that he gave a Guinny to the Messenger who was to carry this Reward to expedite the business 5. That in July 78. Mr. Coleman was privy to the Instructions brought by Ashby sometimes Rector of St. Omers from Father pag. 25. Whitebread to Impower the Consulters to propose 10000 l. to Sir G. Wakeman to Poison the King provided Pickering and Grove fail'd to do the work That he read and Copied these Instructions and transmitted them to several others of the Conspirators who were gathering Contributions about the Kingdom and would thereby be the more encoâ—rag'd to give largely both because hereby they were assured the business would be soon dispaâ—cht and that they might see they had assistance from beyond the Seas and that Mr. Coleman was so far from disapproving this Treason that he said it was too little and advised to add 5000 l. more to it that they might be sure to have it done 6. That in May New Stile April Old Stile 78 he saw Mr. Colemans Patent or Commission to be Secretary of State from pag. 27. Paulus de Oliva General of the Society of Jesus by Vertue of a Brief from the Pope and that in Mr. Fenwicks Chamber in Drury-Lane he saw Mr. Coleman open it and heard him say it was a good exchange meaning to come from being the Dutchesses Secretary to be Secretary of State This was the substance of Dr. Oates's Testimony but by our merciful English Laws no man can be Condemned by a single Evidence But here was sufficient proof for in the next place Mr. Bedloe Witnessed 1. That Sir Henry Tichbourn told him he brought a Commission for Mr. Coleman to be principal Secretary of State when he brought pag. 27. over the rest of the Commissions for the Lords and others from the principal Jesuits at Rome by Order of the Pope 2. That in April 75. he carried over a large Packet of Letters from Mr. Coleman to Monsieur Le Chese about carrying on the Plot and brought back an Answer And May 24. or 25. 77. he received another Packet of Colemans to carry to Paris to the English Monks 3. That upon his return with Answers to the last Letters which were delivered to Coleman by Harcourt he heard Mr. Coleman at pag. 39. his House behind Westminster-Abbey at the foot of the Stair-case say That if he had an hundred lives and a Sea of blood to swim through to carry on the cause of the Church of Rome and to establish that Church in England he would venture it all and if there were an hundred Heretical Kings to be Deposed he would see them all destroyed This was the Oral Testimony in confirmation whereof in the next place were produced several of Mr. Colemans Papers taken at his House by Mr. Bradley the Messenger by vertue of a Warrant from the Council the 29th of Septemb. at which time he was not to be found but surrendred himself next day as aforesaid The Messenger Swore he seiz'd them there and Seal'd them up and brought them to the Clerks of the Council who Swore these were the same Papers and they were all that were made use of proved to be his own Hand-writing by Mr. Boatman his Servant and Mr. Cattaway a Sub-secretary that used to write many things for him and were both well acquainted with his hand and also by his own Confession so that it was impossible there could be any firmer proof And if there had been no other Evidence in the Cause his own Papers were as good as an hundred Witnesses to Condemn him Where also note by the way that one of these Servants acknowledged upon his Oath that a Packet of Letters from beyond the Seas was directed to Mr. Coleman two or three days after he was made Prisoner and that his Master kept a large Book of Entries for his Letters and News which he saw on Saturday the 28th of Septemb. but not since nor knew what was become of it by which it appears both that he still maintain'd a Correspondence beyond the Seas even to the time of his Commitment and that he had made away with most of his dangerous Papers however through hast or inadvertency he had left these behind which probably being old and long since laid by he might forget The first Paper read was the draught of a long Letter to Monsieur Le Chese dated the 29th of of Septemb. 1675. Subscribed thus Your most humble and most obedient Servant but no name This did contain a deduction of a three years History of his former Traiterous Negotiations for the most part with Father Ferrier the Predecessor of Le Chese by means of Sir William Throckmorton and has many insolent and dangerous exprssions as pag. 44. of the Tryal in which it is inserted Verbatim The fatal Revocation of the Kings Declaration for Liberty of Conscience to which we owe all our miseries and hazards p. 45. I pressed all I could to persuade his most Christian Majesty to use His utmost endeavours to prevent that Session of our Parliament and proposed Expedients how to do it pag. 46. That it was his Royal Highnesses opinion that if his most Christian Majesty would make the same proffer to his Majesty of England of his Purse to dissolve this Parliament which he had made to his R. H. to call another he did believe it very possible for him to Succeed with the Assistance we should be able to give him here p. 47. Logick in our Court built upon Money has more powerful Charms than any other sort of Reasoning again speaking of the 300000 l. that he would have had of the French King he says Thereby the Condition of his R. H. and of the Catholick Religion which depends very much upon the Success of his most Christian Majesty would thereby have been delivered from a great many frights and real hazards p. 53. he says He would willingly be in everlasting disgrace with all the World if by the assistance of 20000 l. to be obtained from the French King he did not regain to the Duke his Master his former Offices and especially that of being Admiral of the Fleet. p. 54. If we can Advance the Dukes Interest one step forward we shall put him out of the reach of Chance for ever then would Catholicks be at rest and his
most Christian Majesties Interest secured with us in England beyond all apprehensions whatsoever We have two great designs this Sessioâ—â— to put the Fleet in his R. H's Care and to get an Act for general Liberty of Conscience If we carry on these two or either of them we shall in effect do what we list afterwards And if his most Christian Majesty would but help us with 20000 l. I would be content to be Sacrific'd to the utmost Malice of my Enemies if I did not succeed And then he speaks out presently afterwards for what end this design is and why he presses it so earnestly Because saith he in the same place our prevailing in these things would give the greatest Blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received sâ—nce its Birtâ— He draws to a Conclusion with these words p. 55. I have shewn you the present State of the Case which may by Gods Providence and good Conduct by made of such advantage to Goods Church that I can searce believe my self awake or the thing real when I think on a Prince in such an Age as we live in Converted to such a Degree of Zeal as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of God Almighty's glory the Salvation of his own Soul and the Conversion of our poor Kingdom which has been a long time opprest and miserably harrast with Heresic and Schism These passages need no Comment to shew what he would be at in all these urgent Solicitations for Foreign Assistance viz. To Dissolve or Influence our Parliaments at his pleasure so as may most make for the French Interest and that of Popery to Convert our Nation from its present Heresie that is to give the fatal Blow to Protestantism An Answer to this Letter from Le Chese was read next dated the 23. of Octob. 1675. wherein he promises Mr. Coleman to assist in seconding his good intentions c. Then was read a Declaration which Mr. Coleman looking it seems upon himself already as establish'd in his Office of Secretariship had drawn up in the Name of the King for as he would have the Parliament Dissolv'd so this was to satisfie the People and give Reasons for its Dissolution promising to call another charging all persons to forbear talking Irreverently of the proceedings of his Majesty there and offering 20 l. to the discoverer of any Seditious Talker against it unto a principal Secretary whereof he counted himself one as aforesaid There was likewise produced and read a Letter written in the Name and Stile of the Duke of Y. to Monsieur Le Chese declaring that the Interest of the French King and those of his Royal H. were so clearly linkt together that those that opposed the one should be lookt upon as Enemies to the other That Propositions had been made to the French King that had regard to the Catholick Religion and to the use of his Purse and refers a further Account to be had from Throckmorton and Coleman who he says are firm to his Interest and may be treated with without any apprehension 'T is true upon a Committee of Lords going to Newgate and Examining Mr. Coleman touching this Letter he confessed That it was prepared without the Order or Privity of the Duke and that when he was so bold as to shew it to him the Duke was very angry and rejected it But it seems his displeasure did not long continue for Coleman remained still a Favourite and certainly had he not made some extraordinary Apology for such an Insolence as Counterfeiting a Letter in his Masters Name he must have lost his Royal Highnesses favour for ever But that which gave the most clear Light to his designs was a Letter to Le Chese without date but appearing to be written soon after his long Letter of the 29th of Septemb. wherein after his apprehensions of the approaching Session of Parliament and care taken for a Cipher and secret writing besides with juice of Lemon because their Correspondence would be of things not fit to be trusted even to a Cipher alone He hath these words We have here a mighty work upon our hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms p. 69. and by that perhaps the utter subduing a Pestilent Heresie which has domineer'd a long time over great part of this Northern World There were never such hopes of success since the death of our Queen Mary as now in our days when God has given us a Prince who is become may I say a Miracle Zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so Glorious a work But the opposition we are sure to meet with is also like to be great so that it imports us to get all the aid and assistance we can For the Herbest is great and the Labourers but few That which we relie 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 whose generous soul inclines him to great undertakings so as I hope you will pardon me if I be very troublesome to you upon this occasion from whom I expect the greatest help we can hope for I must confess I think his Christian Majesties 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 even in a politick sense abstracting from the considerations of the next world than that of our Blessed Lord To seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof that all other things may be added unto him Yet I know his most Christian Majesty has more powerful motives suggested to him by his own Devotion and your Reverences Zeal for Gods Glory to engage him to afford us the best help he can in our present Circumstances c. Scarce could any words more significantly express the whole Intrigue of the Plot For 1. Here is the immediate End they aim at The Conversion of these three Kingdoms that is destroying the Religion Establish'd and introducing Popery 2. Here is their main and ultimate scope that by thus reducing these Nations they may root out Protestant Religion throughout the world and by that perhaps the utter Subduing c. 3. Their Malice is shown by calling the Protestant Religion A Pestilent Heresie 4. The favourable Conjuncture for them Never such hopes of success since Queen Maries days whom for her good Bloody Services for the Roman Church he cannot mention without an endearing and appropriating title Our Queen Mary 5. The reason for such their confident hopes because they have Seduced his R. H. and made him Zealous for doing their drudgery 6. That they expect great Opposition but resolve to meet it so that of necessity here must War Blood-shed and Desolation ensue before they could accomplish this their mighty work 7. The means whereby they hope to over-bear this opposition and
before or know how he came by it yet he began his Speech with these very words and repeated as much thereof as he had got without book but certainly a man under his Circumstances would never have troubled his mind with a parcel of formal words if the Awe of the Preist or some Absolution on that Condition had not been more prevalent with him than Truth or Conscience the strain of it shewing a malicious Spirit in the Inditer towards the Evidence and Court as it does his uncharitableness towards the Prisoner to impose thus on a poor ignorant dying man And whereas the Papists do generalâ—y report That Berry was always or at least died a Protestant The same is no toriously false for he had many Years been a Papist cheifly led thereunto for Lucre and to get an Employment as he acknowledged to Mr. Ordinary to whom 't is true he declared a little before his Execution That he did not believe many things which the Doctors of the Romish Church teach as necessary to be embraced for Articles of Faith which is no more than what many other Papists will affirm But the said Berry neither in Prison nor at the Gallows would ever disown the Romish Church nor in the least declare himself a Protestant CHAP. XV. The Proceedings in Parliament touching the Plot with the discovery of Mr. Reading's ill practice and the substance of the Proceedings against him for attempting to stifle the King ' s Evidence relating thereunto AT the beginning of March his Majesty sent his Royal Highness the Duke of York a Letter Ordering him to withdraw for some time who thereupon set forwards on the third of March towards Flanders and on the sixth of the same the new Parliament met whom the King entertain'd with a Speech setting forth what had been done in prosecution of the Plot disbanding the Army c. during the interval and concerning the Duke of York's being so withdrawn beyond the Seas his Majesty was pleased to take notice thereof in these words And above all I have Commanded my Brother to absent himself from me because I would not leave the most Malicious Men room to say I had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence Me towards Popish Counsels But some unhappy Traverses happened about settling a Speaker which stumbling at the Threshold was even then look'd upon by observing men as an Ominous Presage That little good would be attained or effected by that Assembly though undoubtedly it was composed as of men of the best Estates so generally of the most able Understandings and most publick-spirited Gentlemen that over served their Country in that Capacity To allay and compose these Animosities which were unhappily started by the Treasurer and his Interest purposely to render this Parliament ineffectual which he knew would otherwise prove Fatal to him There was a short Prorogation and then they fell to Business and on the 24th of March 1678. Resolved Nemine Contradicente That this House doth declare That they are fully satisfied by the proofs they have heard that there now is and for divers Years last past hath been an 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 Antient and well-Establisht Government of this Kingdom And the Concurrence of the House of Lords being desired herein the next day their Lordships sent a Message to the Commons That their Lordships did immediately and unanimously Concur with the House of Commons in the Declaration as to the Plot. Thus have we the Judgment of Two Parliaments in the Case solemnly and publickly declared The same 25th of March One Mr. Sackvile a Member of the House of Commons and Burgess for East Greenstead in Sussex being charg'd by Dr. Oats to have said That they were Sons of Whores who said there was a Plot and that he was a lying Rogue that said it the matter was examined and Resolved That the said Mr. Edw. Sackvile be sent to the Tower and that he be Expelled the House and made incapable of bearing any Office and though the next day on his Knees at the Bar of that House he desired to have the last part of this Sentence remitted yet the House would not Retract what they had done About the same time Mr. Bedloe made a complaint of harsh usage and discouragements to the House of Commons and upon Oath set forth That going to the Lord Treasurer for some money by virtue of an Order from the Council my Lord took him into his Closet and asked him Whether the Duke of Buckingham or Lord Shaftsbury or any of the Members of the House of Commons had desired him to say any thing against him and to tell him who they were and he would well Reward him and to know if he would desist from giving Evidence against the and the Lords in the Tower c. To which he answered That he had once been an ill man and desired to be so no more To which the Treasurer replied You may have a great sum of money and live in another Countrey as Geneva Suâ—den or New-England and should have what money he would ask to maintain him there But Mr. Bedloc refusing such Temptations his Lordship began to threaten him saying There was a Boat and a Yatch ready to carry him far enough for telling of Tales and after this Guards were as Spies upon him and he very ill used till by an Address to the King the same was remedied and better Care taken And at the same time Dr. Oats declared to the House That one day he being in the Privy Garden the said Lord Treasurer passing by and reflecting on him said There goes one of the Saviours of England but I hope to see him hang'd within a Month all which Complaints as to the Earl of Danby were referred to the Consideration of the Committee of Secrecy We have before Chapter the 13th set forth a kind of Counter-plot laid for opposing and vilifying the Evidence of Dr. Oats and Mr. Bedloe but now we must give an account of another kind of Design still aiming at the same end but manag'd more privately to mollifie aad sweeten Mr. Bedloe in his Evidence and stifle his Testimony by his own consent that it might not fall too heavy upon the Lords in the Tower but this too proved Abortive for though they had chosen a notable Agent for the Work viz. One Mr. Reading a Council at Law famous for his Adventures in the Isle of Axolme yet Mr. Bedloe out-witted him and brought him to deserved Infamy for that corrupt practice for after he had long held him in hand got several sums of money of him procured by a stratagem sufficient Witnesses to prove it out of his own mouth and under his hand and made the Business full ripe Then on the third of April the Committee of Secrecy to whom
Mr. Bedloe had from time to time communicated this Intrigue and from them took his measures of proceeding in it inform'd the House of Commons that they had something of moment lately come to their knowledg wherein they desired the Assistance of the House hereupon it was immediately Ordered That all Persons who were not Members should be put out of the Speakers Chamber and that no Person should be suffered to go out of the House and that the Keys be brought in and laid upon the Table which being done and the business discovered and debated it was Ordered That Mr. Speaker immediately issue out his Warrant against Nathaniel Reading Esquire who being then walking in the Lobby for he had much Practice in Soliciting Causes in Parliament and commonly attended there was taken into Custody and the Secret Committee Ordered to take his Examination which being dispatch'd and Reported the House on the 8th of April made the following Address to the King for bringing him to his Tryal May it please your Majesty WEE your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled having according to our Duty made equiry into the Damnable and Hellish Plot against your Majesties Sacred Person and Government and for the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion have upon examination discovered that Nathaniel Reading Esq hath Industriously and against the Duty of a Loyal Subject held frequent Correspondencies with several Lords and other Persons that stand Committed for High-Treason and also used his utmost endeavours to prevent and suppress your Majesties evidence and as much as in him lay to stifle the discovery of the said Plot and thereby to render the same Fallacious and of no reality and by such undue means to prevent the Malefactors from coming to Justice Therefore We your said Commons do most humbly beseech your Majesty that you will be Gratiously pleased to command That a Commission of Oyer and Terminer do immediately Issue forth for the Tryal of the said Nathaniel Reading for the said Offence that he may be brought to publick Justice Accordingly a Commission was granted and on Thursday the 24th of April Mr. Reading was brought to his Tryal before Sir Francis North Lord Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas and most of the other Judges except the Lord Cheif Justice of the Kings-Bench who was in the Country and several other Persons of Quality in the Commission named at the Kings-Bench-Bar at Westminster When the Jury came to be Sworn Mr. Reading desired the Liberty of a Peremptory Challenge which the Court could not allow he standing Indicted only for a Misdemeanour not Treason then he replied with a great deal of Submission and Eloquence seeming to urge that the nature of the Crime as it was laid was Treason and thence descended to crave the Opinion of the Court whether he might not be Indicted again for Treason for the same matter but in this the Court refused to gratifie him only telling him that the laying of it but as a Misdemeanour was a favour and ought so to be by him accounted and so proceeded to Swear the Jury as follows Sir John Cutler Kt. Joshuah Galliard Esq Edw. Wilford Esq Thomas Henslow Esq Thomas Earsby Esq John Serle Esq Thomas Cass Esq Rainsford Waterhouse Esq Matthew Bateman Esq Walter Moyle Esq Richard Pagett Esq John Haynes Esq The Effect of the Evidence 1. Mr. Bedloe set forth how he came acquainted with Mr. Reading whom he employed in some Concerns See Reading's Tryal P. 15. That he never went about to have him stifle the whole Plot but only to make him easie towards some particular People that he Solicited for to which purpose he would tell him it was not for his safety to run at the whole Herd and if he could do a kindness he should be well gratified 2. That the cheif Persons he Solicited for were the Lord Petre the Lord Powis the Lord Stafford and Sir Henry Titchborn in whose name he promised great Rewards both in money and Estate for shortning the Evidence and bringing them off from the charge of High Treason and particularly that he made him easie towards Whitebread and Fenwick when they were first Arraigned which was to be an Assurance that he would accomplish what he promised and an example what kindness might be done wherein the Witness was willing to comply to carry on the Intreigue with the Lords till it might properly be discovered he esteeming that of greater Consequence then two old Priests whom he might charge further another time 3. He did not know but Reading had laid a Trap for him and therefore discovered these Conferences to Prince Rupert the Earl of Essex Mr. Kirkby and others and Mr. Reading being to give him a meeting at his Lodgings on the 26th of March he had planted one Mr. Speke a Gentleman of good Quality behind the hangings and making an hollow place in the Bed laid his man there cover'd over smooth with a Rugg as if it had been new made that they might over-hear what passed and not be descryed There he agreed to bring the Final Answer of the Lords and told him That he had Authority to draw blank Deedes both for Sums and Estates which they would settle on him and that the Lord Stafford was Felling of Timber to sell to raise money for him c. 4. That the Monday following the Witness and the Prisoner drew up a Paper of what the Witness had to charge the aforesaid Lords with which was carried to the Lords and then return'd by Reading in his own hand writing but minc'd so as not to signifie any thing material against them This paper Mr. Reading own'd and it was read in Court 5. Mr. Speke sets forth the Conference between Mr. Bedloe and Mr. Reading which he over-heard and that Mr. Ibidem P. 28. Reading said The Lord Stafford would settle an Estate in Glocestershire on Mr. Bedloe and Sign and Seal a Deed thereof within ten days after he should be discharged and several other discourses plainly proving the matter of the Indictment too long here to be recited And the same was sworn by Henry Wiggins Mr. Bedloes man 6. Mr. Bedloe swore positively That Mr. Reading had given him several Sums of money amounting in all to 56l or upwards and all to dispose him to this matter To all this Mr. Reading had very little to say in his own defence that was pertinent or material but only endeavoured with a multitude of fine words to cloud the matter and asperse the Evidence yet in the process of his discourse he did in effect own the whole matter of Fact he stood charged with but would have had it beleiv'd that Mr. Bedloe first proposed it to him and that all that he did was not in the least to shorten lessen or stifle any thing of Truth which Mr. Bedloe had to say but only to prevent him from the guilt of Perjury and Innocent Blood c. All which being sufficiently
Assemblies and Consultations wherein it was Contrived and Designed amongst them what means should be used and what Persons and Instruments should be employed to Murther his Majesty and did then and there resolve to effect it by Poisoning Shooting Stabing or some such like ways or means and offered Rewards and promises of Advantage to several Persons to Execute the same and hired and employed several Wicked Persons to go to Windsor and other places where his Majesty did reside to Murther and destroy his Majesty which said Persons or some of them accepted some Rewards and undertook the Perpetrating thereof and did actually go to the said places for that end and purpose That the said Conspirators the better to compass their Traiterous Designs have consulted to Raise and have procured and raised Men Money Horses Arms and Ammunition and also have made Application to and Treated and Corresponded with the Pope his Cardinals Nuncio's and Agents and with other Foraign Ministers and Persons to raise Tumults within this Kingdom and to Invade the same with Foraign Forces and to surprize seize and destroy his Majesties Navy Forts Magazines and places of Strength within this Kingdom Whereupon the Calamities of War Murthers of innocent Subjects Men Women and Children Burnings Rapines Devastations and other Dreadful Miseries and Mischiefs must inevitably have ensued to the Ruin and Destruction of this Nation That the said Conspirators have procured accepted and delivered out several Instruments Commissions and Powers made and granted by or under the Pope or other unlawful and usurping Authority to raise and dispose of Men Money Arms and other things necessary for their wicked and Traiterous Designs and namely a Commission to the said Henry Lord Arundel of Warder to be Lord High Chancellor of England and to the said William Earl of Powis to be Lord Treasurer of England another Commission to the said John Lord Bellasis to be General of the Army to be raised and the said William Lord Petre to be Lieutenant General of the said Army and a Power to the said William Viscount Stafford to be Paymaster of the Army That in order to encourage themselves in prosecuting their said wicked Plots Conspiracies and Treasons and to hide and hinder the discovery of the same and to secure themselves from Justice and Punishment the Conspirators aforesaid and Confederates have used many wicked and Diabolical Practices viz. They did cause their Priests to Administer to the said Conspirators an Oath of Secrecy together with their Sacrament and also did cause their said Priests upon Confession to give their Absolutions upon condition that they should conceal the said Conspiracy And when about the Month of September last Sir Edmundbury Godfrey a Justice of Peace had according to the Duty of his Oath and Office taken several Examinations and Informations concerning the said Conspiracy and Plot the said Conspirators or some of them by Advice Assistance Councel and Instigation of the rest did incite and procure divers Persons to lie in wait and persue the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey several days with intent to Murther him which at last was perpetrated and effected by them for which said horrid Crimes and Offences Robert Green Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill have since been Attainted and Dominick Kelly and Gerald are fled for the same After which Murther and before the Body was found or the Murther known to any but Complices therein the said Persons falsely gave out That he was alive and privately Married and after the Body was found dispersed a false and malicious Report that he had Murthered himself Which said Murther was Committed with design to stifle and suppress the Evidence he had taken and had knowledg of and to discourage and deter Magistrates and others from acting in the further discovery of the said Plot and Conspiracy for which end also the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey while he was alive was by them their Complices and Favourites threatned and discouraged in his Proceedings about the same And of their further Malice they have wickedly contrived by many false Suggestions to lay the imputation and guilt of the aforesaid horrid and detestable Crimes upon the Protestants that so thereby they might escape the Punishments they have justly deserved and expose Protestants to great Scandal and subject them to Persecution and Oppression in all Kingdoms and Countries where the Roman Religion is received and professed All which Treasons Crimes and Offences above mentioned were Contrived Committed Perpetrated Acted and done by the said William Earl of Powis William Lord Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis every of them and others the Conspirators aforesaid against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and against the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom Of all which Treasons Crimes and Offences the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled do in the name of themselves and of the Commons of England Impeach the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves that liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusations or Impeachments against the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them and also of replying to the Answers which they and every of them make to the Premises or any of them or to any other Accusation or Impeachment which shall be by them exhibited as the Cause according to course and proceedings of Parliament shall require do pray that the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them may be put to Answer all and every of the Premises and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon them and every of them had and used as shall be agreeable to Law and Justice and Course of Parliament To these Articles of Impeachment the said Lords soon after put in their several Answers as follows The several Answers of William Lord Petre now Prisoner in the Tower to the Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and other Crimes and Offences exhibited to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled Whereas the Lord above named stands Impeached by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled in the name of themselves and all the Commons in England THE said Lord in the first place and above all other protesting his Innocency The said Lord doth with all humility submit himself desiring above all things the Tryal of his Cause by this Honourable House so that he may be provided to make his just Defence for clearing of his Innocency from the great and hainous Crimes charged against him by the said Impeachment this being prayed as also liberty to correct amend and explain any thing in the
said Plea contained which may any way give this Honourable House any occasion of Offence which he hopes will be granted The said Lord as to that part of the Impeachment that contains the matter following Namely That for divers Years last past there hath been contrived and carried on by the Papists a most Traiterous and Execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England and other places to alter change and subvert the Ancient Government and Laws of this Kingdom and Nation and to suppress the true Religion therein Established and to extirpate and destroy the Professors thereof and that the said Plot and Conspiracy was contrived and carried on in divers places and by several ways and means by a great number of Persons of several Qualities and Degrees who acted therein and intended thereby to execute and accomplish their aforesaid Wicked and Traiterous Designs and Purposes That the said William Lord Petre and other Lords therein named together with several other Persons threin likewise named and mentioned as false Traitors to his Majesty and this Kingdom within the time aforesaid have Traiterously acted and consulted to and for the accomplishing the said Wicked Pernicious and Traiterous Designs and for that end did most wickedly and Traiterously Agree Consult Conspire and Resolve to Imprison Depose and Murther his Sacred Majesty and to deprive him of his Royal Estate Crown and Dignity and by malicious and advised speaking and otherwise declaring such their purposes and intentions as also to Subject this Kingdom and Nation to the Pope and his Tyrannical Government and to seize and share among themselves the Estates and Inheritances of his Majestie 's Protestant Subjects and to erect and restore Abbies Monasteries and other Convents and Societies which have been long since by the Laws of this Kingdom suppressed for their Superstition and Idolatry and to deliver up and restore to them the Lands and Possessions now Vested in his Majesty and his Subjects by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm and also to Found and Erect new Monasteries and Convents and remove and deprive all Protestant Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons from their Livings Benefices and Preferments and by this means to destroy his Majesties Person extirpate the Protestant Religion overthrow the Rights Liberties and Properties of all his Majesties good Subjects Subvert the lawful Government of this Kingdom and Subject the same to the Tyranny of the See of Rome And the said Conspirators and their Complices and Confederates Traiterously had and held several Meetings Assemblies and Consultations wherein 't was contrived and designed amongst them what means should be used and the Persons and Instruments which should be imployed to Murther his Majesty and did then and there resolve to effect it by Poisoning Shooting Stabbing or some such like ways or means And to that part of the Impeachment named The better to compass their Traiterous Designs have consulted to raise Money Men Horses Arms and Ammunition The said Lord saving to himself and which he humbly prays may be reserved to him the liberty of Answering over and denying all and singular the said Crimes and Offences charged on him Saith And humbly offereth to this Honourable House that the charge of those Crimes and Offences so imposed on him by the said Impeachment are so general and uncertain that he cannot possibly give any direct Answer thereto or make any just or lawful defence upon his Tryal for that the said Charge had no manner of certainty in point of time it being laid only for many Years now last past which may be for 5 10 20 30 or more Years whereby though the said Lord knoweth himself to be altogether innocent of any such horrid and detestable Crimes as by the said Impeachment are objected against him Yet 't is impossible for him on any Tryal thereof to be prepared with his just and lawful defence by Witnesses to prove himself absent or in any other place at the time of such Meetings or Consultations to or for any of the wicked Designs and Purposes in the said Impeachment mentioned as on his Tryal may be suddenly objected against him when he cannot by any care or foresight whatever have such Witnesses ready as would speak thereunto if they were certainly charged for any Traiterous Design Act or Crime at any time certainly alleadged in the said Impeachment Nor is the said Charge in the said Impeachment more certain as to the place of any such Traiterous Meeting or Consultation laid down in the said Impeachment it being only alledged to be at divers places in this Realm of England and elsewhere which for the Cause aforesaid is so utterly uncertain that it deprives the said Lord of his defence on his Tryal Likewise the uncertainties of the number of Meetings or Consultations to the wicked purposes in the Impeachment and the not shewing how many times the Lords met and consulted and with whom in particular doth likewise deprive him of all possibility of making his defence in producing Witnesses for the said Lord being wholy innocent cannot suppose or imagin what Meeting or Consultation either to raise Money or Men for carrying on of a Traiterous Design or to any other wicked intent or purpose in the said Impeachment mentioned shall or may be objected against him on his Tryal and 't is as impossible for him to bring Witnesses to prove all the Meetings he hath had with others in his life time as 't is for him to foresee on this general Charge what Meetings or Consultations may on his Tryal be objected against him as Traiterous Consultations And whereas 't is in the said Impeachment charged on the said Lord That he hath uttered Treason by malicious and advised speaking and otherwise declaring the same The said Lord saith That never any Traiterous Thoughts entered into his Heart and therefore cannot possibly know what words or writings he ever spoke uttered reveal'd or declared which are now charged on him as Treason their being no words or writings at all specified in the Impeachment whereby the said Lord might know how to prepare his defence against them So as this Honourable Court may or might judg whether the same words or writings are in truth Treasonable or not ALL WHICH incertainties and eminent and apparent Dangers of the said Lord being there-upon surprized in a Cause of this Consequence wherein his Life and Honour more dear to him than his Life and all else that is dear to him in this World are immediately concerned being seriously weighed and considered by your Lordships he humbly prayeth as by his Councel he is advised that your Lordships will not put him to Answer the said Impeachment herein above recited till the same be reduced to such compleat certainty that the said Lord may know how to Answer thereunto and may thereby be enabled to make his just defence accordingly ALL WHICH notwithstanding he humbly submitteth to whatsoever your Lordships in Justice shall order and think fit and as
signe the Resolve for the King's Death 5. That as for Gavan alias Gawen though he could not positively say he saw him at the Consult yet he saw his hand subscribed to it and makes it out how he knows it to be his hand And that he in July 78. gave P. 15. them in London an account how prosperous their affairs were in Staffordshire and Shropshire that the Lord Stafford was very diligent and that there was two or three Thousand Pound ready there to carry on the Designe And that some time in July homet the said Gawen at Ireland's Chamber where in his presence he gave Father Ireland the same account as before he had written The next Witness was Mr. Dugdale that never gave Evidence before at any of their Tryals who had no knowledge of either Mr. Oates or Mr. 〈◊〉 when he first came in and so could not conspire with them to charge the very same persons as they had done He swears 1. Against Whitebread That he saw a Letter under his hand and tells you how he knew it to be his to Father Ewers a Jesuit and the said Mr. Dugdale's Confessor in which he ordered him to be sure to chuse men that were hardy and trusty no matter whether they were Gentlemen p. 22. and p. 29. he swears it again and what they were to do that the words under his hand were in express terms For Killing the King 2. Against Gawen he swears directly that he entertain'd him the said Mr. Dugdale to be of the Conspiracy to Murther the King as one of those resolute Fellows prescribed by Whitebread and that they had several Consultations in the Countrey at several places which he names for Murdering of the King and bringing in Popery as at Boscobel and at Tixal in Sept. 1678. And that he heard them discourse at one of these Consults that it was the opinion of the Monks at Paris who were concern'd in the Conspiracy and were to assist That assoon as the Deed was done that is the Killing of the King they should lay it on the Presbyterians thereby to provoke the other Protestants to cut their P. 25. Throats and then they might the more easily cut theirs And p. 26. That he hath intercepted and read for all their Letters in those Parts came under his Cover above 100 Letters to the same purpose all tending to the Introducing of Popery and Killing the King which being without any Names only directed to Mr. Dugdale and to be delivered by marks known to Father Ewers if they had been intercepted by the way only Dugdale could have been called in question for it 3. That himself was so zealous in the Cause that he had given them 400 l. for carrying on this Design which Gavan had made him believe was not only lawful but meritorious and that he was to be sent up to London by Harcourt there to be instructed for Killing the P. 23. King 4. That the same Harcourt whose hand the Witness well knows did write word of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's being Murthered that very Night it was done to Father Ewers so that they knew of it in Staffordshire several days before any except those privy to the Murder at London knew what was become of him And to confirm his Testimony herein he produceth Mr. Chetwin a Person of Quality who swears That he did hear it then reported as from Dugdale and that he was not in Town when the Murderers of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey were Tryed or else he would then have witnessed the same 5. Against Turner he positively swears That he saw him with others at Ewers's Chamber where they consulted together to carry on this Design and that he agreed to the Plot that is bringing in of Popery by Killing the King Then Mr. Prance gave Evidence 1. Against Harcourt That such a day when he paid him for an Image of the P. 30. Virgin Mary to send into Maryland he told the Witness that there was a Design of Killing the King 2. Against Fenwick That he told him in Ireland's Chamber Ireland and Grove being by that there should be 50000 Men P. 31. in Arms in a readiness to settle their Religion and that they should be commanded by the Lords Beliasts Powis and Arundel Lastly Mr. Bedloe was sworn who first gives a satisfactory account why he did not before give in his Evidence against Whitebread and Fenwick because he was then finding out the Bribery and Subornation of Reading in behalf of the Lords in the Tower but now he positively swears 1. That he hath seen both Whitebread and Fenwick at several Consults about this Plot and that he heard Whitebread at Harcourt's Chamber tell Coleman the manner of the sending the four Russians to Windsor to kill the King 2. That he saw Harcourt take out of a Cabinet about 80 or 100 l. and give it to a Messenger to be carried to the said Russians P. 32. with a Guiney to drink Mr. Coleman's health 3. That Whitebread told him That Pickering was to have a great number of Masses and Grove 1500 l. for killing the King P. 33. 4. 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 P. 35. that Harcourt recommended him to the Lord Arundel who promised him great favour when the times were turned Also that he saw Harcourt give Wakeman a Bill to receive 2000 l. in part of a greater sum and heard Sir George say 15000 l. was a small Reward for the settling Religion and preserving three Kingdomes from Ruine Thus we see there is the positive Testimony of three viz. Dr. Oates Mr. Dugdale and Mr. Bedloe against Whitebread Of three quite blank against Fenwick viz. Oates Bedloe and Prance And against Harcourt four very fully Oates Dugdale Bedloe and Prance Against Gavan there is positively Dugdale's and Oates's and the same directly against Turner Whereby the matter of Fact is plainly proved and the Evidence full and legal against them all There was also the before-mentioned Letter read found amongst Harcourt's Papers which did much fortifie the Evidence as to the certainty and nature of the Consult of the 24th of April It was written from one Petre a Jesuit to another of their Society to let him know there was to be a Consult on the said 24th of April in which were these words Every one is minded also not to hasten to London long before the time appointed nor to appear much about the Town till the meeting be over lest occasion should be given to suspect the Design Finally Secrecy as to the Time and Place is much recommended to all those that receive Summons as it will appear of its own nature necessary Now as to what the Prisoners had to say against all this it was well observed by the Lord Chief-Justice p. 89. That they defend their Lives as they do their Religion with
the horror and detestation of this hellish Plot carried on by the Romanists having induced him to quit their communion Three days after the Execution of Whitebread and the other four Jesuits viz. 23 June was Apprehended by Captain Rich one of his Majesties Justices of Peace for Surry one Caryl alias Blunden supposed to be a Popish Priest at Lambeth-Marsh at the House of one Mr. Woodinbrook formerly an Haberdasher of Small Wares in the Burrough of Southwark in whose Chamber was found the following Letter prepared to give an Account thereof to their Correspondents beyond the Seas wherein 't is observable what liberty they take to scandalize the proceedings of Justice and invent so many palpable notorious Lies as that of the Reprieve being brought to the Gallows c. to keep up their Reputation with their Party The words of the Letter were as follow onely in the Margent we have added some necessary Observations IHS MR. 23 June 1679. My Dr. C. ON the Thirteenth of June being Friday Mr. Whitebread Mr. Harcourt Mr. Turner Fenwick and Gaven of the Society and Mr. Corker were brought to the Bar in the Old-Baily Mr. Corker moved the Court for a longer time being onely warned the night before whereas the other Prisoners had eight days warning to prepare themselves whereupon he was re-manded to prison till the next day Then was the Indictment read against the Five above-named Jesuits for conspiring the Kings Death subversion of Government and Protestant Religion Then Mr. Oates swore that on the Twenty fourth of April there was a Consult held in London where the Kings Death was Conspired and that he carried this Resolve from one to the other for their subscribing and swore particular Circumstances against each To Corroborate this Testimony other Witnesses Bedloe Prance Dugdale and Chetwind came in with 1 1 A pretty way of expressing plain positive Evidence of several Overt Acts of Treason Overtures to the matter sworn by Oates Then did the Prisoners after a most solemn and 2 2 It might be solemn but could not be counted Religious by any but you whose Religion consists in Lies and Blasphemous Hypocrisie Religious Protestation of their Innocence and ignorance of any Conspiracy against His Majesty desire that their Witnesses might be heard which could demonstrate that Mr. Oates was actually at St. Omers in all April and May and most of June when he swears he was in London at the Consult To prove this about twenty Witnesses were produced who did shew evidently by several remarkable passages how Oates was at St. Omers all the whole time But the Judge Scroggs asked each Witness as he did appear of what Religion he was of and upon answer that he was a Catholick the whole Court gave a shout of laughter Then the Judge would say to them 3 3 All absolutely false though it might have been the most proper way of Examining such bold young Villains for 't was apparent they did not speak their knowledge but their Masters dictates Well what have you then been taught to say and by many scoffing Questions which moved the Court to frequent laughter he did endeavour to take off the Credibility of their Witnesses Then the Butler Taylor and Gardiner of St. Omers offered to swear that they saw Mr. Oates all that time at St. Omers when he swore he was in London After this the Prisoners at the Bar produced Sixteen Witnesses more that proved Oates 4 4 Another impudent Lie and sure the Jesuits themselves and the Staffordshire Vouchers if they have any shame left will now blush at the story forsworn in Mr. Irelands Tryal because he was in Shropshire when he attested he was in London Then did Gaven one of the Prisoners with a great deal of clearness and Eloquence and with a cheerful countenance draw up their justification shewing the force of their Evidences and how fully their Witnesses had proved Mr. Oates 5 5 Not the least pretence for this old baffled Scandal perjured then he did lay open the improbabilities of such a Plot and how unlikely that Mr. Oates should be entrusted in delivering Commissions to Persons of Honour and Estates whom he never as he acknowledges had seen before or since This was delivered by Mr. Gaven 6 6 O brave Orator sure this Recommendation of such brave service don the Church will hasten Gavens Canonization at least one score or two of years with a Countenance wholly unconcered and in a voice very audible and largely and pertinently exprest The Judge was incensed at this Speech in which he often interrupted him but Gaven still urged My Lord I plead now for my Life and for that which is dearer to me than life 7 7 Ay and Soul to boot the honour of my Religion and therefore I beseech you have a little patience with me After this Plea of Mr. Gaven ' s the Judge made his Harangue to the Jury telling them that what the Prisoners had brought was onely the bare assertions of Boys who were taught it as a point of their Religion to lye for the honour of their Religion whereas Mr. Oates Bedloe and others were upon their Oaths and if Oaths were not to be taken no Courts could subsist Then Mr. Oates brought forth four 8 8 These four were no less than seven Witnesses which he had kept in reserve an old Parson in his Canonical Gown an old Dominican Priest 9 9 Is he so The honester man he to speak the truth and shame the Devil and the Jesuits But Proh dolor Alas how this grieves you that any one of your Religion should speak Truth when it makes against you Proh Pudor Dolor and two old women that swore they saw Mr. Oates in the beginning of May 1678. At this the whole Court gave a shout of 10 10 And who could forbear to hear how undeniably your Novices were proved to be like their Masters most egregious LIARS Nor yet did the Court laugh but the crowd of people whom the Court took order to silence laughter and hollow that for almost a quarter the Gryers could not still them Never was Bear-baiting more rude and boisterous than this Tryal Vpon this the Judge dismiss'd the Jury to consider and bring in their Verdict who after half an hours absence brought in the Five Prisoners at the But all guilty of High-Treason Thereupon the whole Court clapt 11 11 Better so than that you clap your hands at the murder of the King as some of your Tribe did at that of your Enemy his blessed Father their hands and gave a great hollow It being now eight at night the Court adjourned till next day at seven of the clock which was Saturday I was present from five in the morning till the Court broke up The Prisoners comported themselves 12 12 Bravely said Who would confess now To be thus Apostolified would make one venture Purgatory most Apostolically at
promote all kind of Virtue and particularly solid piety and devotion in Religion The lamentable increase of Atheism and prophaness which of late years more than ever hath like a deluge overwhelm'd so many thousands especially of the young Gentry in these Kingdomes must be lookt upon as one of the preparatives to this Plot and a fore-runner of Popery for as Vice and Debauchery nay even coldness and indifferency in matters of Religon in any man makes him the more obnoxious to the Delusions of the Papists whose Mock-religion is accommodated to the sensual desires and Lusts of mankind So they well knowing this by experience do endeavour first the debauching of the Nation that the people being thereby the more disposed to receive their impressions they may by that means the more easily compass their design as Physitians who cannot immediately master the present distemper of their Patient are forc'd many times to divert it by art into some other disease which they hope more easily to cure sink people into voluptuousness and then tell them of Indulgences Pardons c. whereby they may both keep their Dalilahs retain their sins and yet gain Heaven and the news shall be exceeding welcome to their corrupted Nature And then the down-right Atheist he is at least taken off from being an Enemy if he be not a Friend for why should he trouble himself to preserve any Religion that laughs at all But the strict adherence to the Gospel-precepts of Holiness as it is a means naturally efficacious to obviate and obstruct the endeavours of the Papists so 't is of all others most likely to be effectual by the blessing of God which we may groundedly hope will attend it nor need Governours to fear that their people will prove less obedient and ruleable by their being more devoted to Religion but may well hope the contrary provided they will require nothing of them contrary to Religion which certainly they need not the Statutes of the blessed Jesus containing nothing inconsistent with any solid principle of Policy the best Christian is always the best Subject and for that very reason the Papist is the worst And since a main part of these Romish Traitors hopes is built on the division of the Protestants how much does it concern all the reformed Princes and States to fortifie their Interest by most strict Alliances and a Cordial espousing of the common Cause wherein all their safeties and very subsistance is so nearly concern'd but especially in their respective Dominions if they will regard either the Adviso's of Christanity or true Reason of State those that are of Authority in the Church may finde cause to be very cautious of administring unnecessary occasions of Separation to the weakness of their brethren which may be and frequently is done by these two means especially 1. By too strict an imposition of things in their own Nature indifferent For though these things be left to the prudent ordering of each particular National Church yet when through the weakness of many they are become matter of Offence and Scandal and so occasions of Separation it seems that they then cease to be indifferent and it would be no less contrary to Prudence than to Charity to impose or longer strictly to require them And repugnant to the Apostolical Doctrine Rom. 8. 8. 9. But meat and so of indifferent Ceremonies commendeth us not to God for neither if we eat are we the better neither if we eat not are we the worse Whose practice was suitable Cap. 9. 19. c. Though I be free from all men yet have I made my self servant unto all that I might gain the more to the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that is I yeild to them in all Iawful and indifferent things that by all means I might save some Therefore in so dangerous a circumstance as we are under when it gives so great an advantage to such an Adversary who so studiously and industriously endeavours our divisions as a peevish and obstinate Supercilious or Pharisaical Separation for trifles is no way warrantable so neither can it be approved as consistent with Christian Prudence and that care of the Flock which all faithful Over-seers and Pastors ought to have not to allow at least such liberty and condescention in such things as is necessary to the preservation of Vnity in the Church 2. By Scandalous coldness in Religion and worldly-mindedness especially in the Clergy There is scarce any more general or powerful though not always just occasion of Separation and Faction than this especially with devout people and best inclin'd for men seldome judge by any other rule in this case than that of our Saviour By their fruits ye shall know them Mat. 9. 16. and are therefore most apt to judge of the truth of a Ministers Doctrine by the virtue or impiety of his actions There is a certain authority of Reputation or Reverence which ought always to accompany authority of Jurisdiction and is in truth the more charming and powerful of the two to retain people in a sweet voluntary and consequently more durable and perfect obedience And this being lost the other which alone holds them onely in a kind of violent and forced not natural and genuine obedience is very difficult to be managed liable to be cast off and seldome of long duration Now the former which is the proper authority of the Church and Clergy for what is Coercive more than bare Excommunication is in truth a branch of Civil authority can never be acquired or retained by onely abstaining from those we call Scandalous sins but by the constant sincere and vigorous exercise of those great Evangelical Virtues Humility Meekness Heavenly-mindedness Contempt of the World Devotion in Religion ardent Love of God and Zealous endeavours for the salvation of Souls for without these the observance of the rules onely of ordinary moral vertues may well be counted Heathen Civility rather than Christianity and attributed as much to humane prudence as to Religion To see men fiery zealous for the accidents and formalities of Religion and cold in the practice of these great essentials and substantial parts the very business of Christianity to hear them make lofty Harangues and cry up Morality as if there were nothing more in Religion than that and yet in the Practice even of that to come short of the very Heathen Moralists To see men prophanely turn the sacred Profession into a kind of Trade to design it and apply themselves to it no otherwise than others do to common Secular Imploys as a means onely to get a Lively-hood Honour and Preferment in the world and when they have perhaps by indirect means too heaped Living upon Living and one Preferment on another they accordingly use indeed abuse the Charity of our Ancestors and the Revenues of the Church in such indulgence to Pride Ostentation voluptuous or delicious Living as would not
Respondents part and not the Opponents It 's not so easie to prove as to wrangle against proofs 2. Follow them with certain Questions which the vulgar are not verst in As 1. Where was your Church before Luther or where hath it been visible in all Ages 2. How prove you that you have a true Scripture that is the Word of God among you 3. What express Word of God do the Catholicks contradict 4. How prove you that you have a truely called Ministry that is to be heard and believed by the people 5. By what Warrant did you separate from the Catholick Church and condemn all your Forefathers and all the Christian World 6. If you will separate from the Catholick Church what reason have you to follow this Sect rather than any one of all the rest 7. What one man can you name from the beginning that was in all things of Luthers or Calvins opinions 8. Do you not see that God doth not bless the labours of your Ministers but the people are as bad as they were before what the better are you for hearing them Our hearty Prayers are for your Success And Sir I am yours to command F. B. These were part of the subtle and more innocent Platforms laid by the Jesuites to undermine the Protestant Religion and introduce Popery which were discovered and set forth in Print now almost twenty years ago yet have they still ever since vigorously traced the same methods with mischievous success and without any great opposition till finding all these not enough to accomplish their main work they applied themselves to more bloody and violent Counsels and the hatching of that Master-piece of villany the horrid Plot whereof we have in the precedent sheets given you a summary account which being so far detected nothing but Gods Judgments on these sinful Nations in suffering the spirit of infatuation to possess us can hinder its being prevented The following Transactions happening after the Printing this History be pleased to take a summary account thereof as follows THe 10th of December 1679. was published a Proclamation signifying the Kings pleasure that the Parliament formerly Prorogued to the 26th of January should at that time be Prorogued again to the 11th of November 1680. About this time several persons Endeavouring to promote Petitions and Nine Lords in the names of several other Peers of the Realm actually presenting a Petition to his Majesty for the Parliament to continue to sit on the said 26th of January his Majesty thought fit to publish his Proclamation for the preventing of tumultuous Petitions yet many conceiving such humble Petitioning not to be forbidden by any Law of this Kingdome did proceed therein and on the 20th of December three persons of the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields sending for some others that were promoting such a Petition and having it produced did tear the same for which being carried before a Justice of the Peace since discharged of the Commission they were bound over and the next Sessions a Bill being preferred against them reciting That whereas the subjects and liege people of England by the Laws and Customes thereof have used to represent their grievances by Petition or by any other way And whereas such a Petition reciting the words was prepared and subscribed by many of the Kings Subjects and liege People the Persons indicted being ill-affected and contriving devising and intending as much as in them lay to hinder the sitting of the said Parliament as was prayed in the Petition and also to hinder the Tryal of the Offenders and redress the Grievances therein mentioned did as Rioters and disturbers of the Peace c. with Force and Arms c. unlawfully riotously and injuriously the said Petition being delivered to them at their request and for the subscribing of their Names thereto if they should think fit did tear in pieces in Contempt of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Laws to the evil Example c. and against the Peace c. Which Bill was found by the Grand Jury And on the 13th of January a Petition was presented to his Majesty by Sir Gilbert Gerrard Baronet Son in the Law to the late Bishop of Durham Thomas Smith Bencher of the Inner-Tempel and eight other Gentleman and Citizens of considerable Estates and Qualities the words whereof were as follows To the King 's most Excellent Majesty the humble Petition of your Majesties most Dutiful and Loyal Subjects Inhabitants in and about the City of London whose Names are hereunder subscribed Sheweth THat whereas there has been and still is a most Damnable and Hellish Plot branched forth into the most horrid Villanies against Your Majesties most Sacred Person the Protestant Religion and the well-established Government of this your Realm for which several of the principal Conspirators stand now Impeach'd by Parliament Therefore in such a time when Your Majesties Royal Person as also the Protestant Religion and the Government of this Nation are thus in most eminent danger Your Majesties most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects in the deepest sense of our Duty and Allegiance to your Majesty do most humbly and earnestly pray That the Parliament which is Prorogued until the 26th day of January may then Sit to try the Offenders and to Redress all our Grievances no otherwise to be redressed And your Petitioners shall ever pray for Your Majesties long and prosperous Reign To this Petition was annexed a Roll of above 100 Yards long containing many thousand Names of many of the most eminent Citizens and Inhabitants in and about London that had subscribed the same His Majesties Answer was to this effect I know the substance of it already and as I am Head of the Government I shall take care of it The Papists though so often bastled resolve still to play a new Game and therefore on the 7th of January John Gadbury Prisoner for the Popish High-Treason as we have before related sent to acquaint the Lords appointed a Committee for Examination that he had something to communicate to them whereupon he was immediately sent for but being perhaps not sufficiently tutor'd he then excused himself that he did not expect to be so suddenly called and therefore desired further time whereupon he was ordered to put what he had to say into writing And on the 9th of January being again examined before His Majesty did declare That about September last Sir Robert Peyton desiring to be reconciled to the Interests of his Majesty and the Duke of York Gadbury acquainted Mrs. Celier the Midwife therewith between whom and Sir Robert there grew an intimate Correspondence and that Sir R. Peyton did then say he should hereby lose a considerable Interest which could put him in the Head of 20000 men in two days time and that could raise 60000 men in little more than a Week And that these people in case the King had died the last Summer at Windsor would have seized the Tower Dover-Castle c. secured the