of Parliament because they yet strengthen and confirm the Truth of the said Conspiracy and that they do so must be confest unless Men will fly in the Face of that Parliament I have here inserted as I find the same in Rastal's Statutes The First is Intituled An Act for publick Thanks-giving to Almighty God every Year on the Fifth Day of November FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath in all Ages shewed his Power and Mercy 3 Jac. 1. ca. 1. Rast Stat. 2. Part. f. 588. The Act for keeping the Fifth of November yearly as a Day of Thanks-giving in the Miraculous and Gracious Deliverance of his Church and in the Protection of Religious Kings and States and that no Nation of the Earth hath been blessed with greated Benefits than this Kingdom now enjoyeth having the true and free Profession of the Gospel under our most gracious Sovereign Lord King James the most Great Learned and Religious King that ever reigned therein enriched with a most hopeful and plentiful Progeny proceeding out of his Royal Loyns promising Continuance of this Happiness and Profession to all Posterity and the which many malignant and devilish Papists Iesuits and Seminary Priests much envying and fearing conspired most horribly when the Kings most excellent Majesty the Queen the Prince and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons should have been assembled in the upper House of Parliament upon the fifth Day of November in the Year of our Lord 1605. suddenly to have blown up the said whole House with Gun-powder an Invention so inhuman barbarous and cruel as the like was never before heard of and was as some of the principal Conspirators thereof confess purposely devised and concluded to be done in the said House that where sundry necessary and religious Laws for preservation of the Church and State were made which they falsly and slanderously term cruel Laws enacted against them and their Religion both Place and Persons should be all destroyed and blown up at once which would have turned to the utter Ruine of this whole Kingdom had it not pleased Almighty God by inspiring the Kings most excellent Majesty with a Divine Spirit to interpret some dark Phrases of a Letter shewed to His Majesty above and beyond all ordinary Construction thereby miraculously discovering this hidden Treason not many Hours before she appointed time for the Execution thereof therefore the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all His Majesties faithful and loving Subjects do justly acknowledge this great and infinite Blessing to have proceeded meerly from God his great Merry and to his most Holy Name do ascribe all the Honour Glory and Praise And to the end this unfeigned Thankfulness may never be forgotten but be in a perpetual Remembrance that all Ages to come may yield Praises to his Divine Majesty for the same and have in Memory This joyful Day of Deliverance Be it therefore enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same that all and Angular Ministers in every Cathedral and Parish Church or other usual Place for Common-prayer within this Realm of England and the Dominions of the same shall always upon the fifth Day of November say Morning-prayer and give unto Almighty God Thanks for this most happy Deliverance and that all and every Person and Persons inhabiting within this Realm of England and the Dominions of the same shall always upon that Day diligently and faithfully resort to the Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or to some usual Church or Chappel where the said Morning-prayer Preaching or other Service of God shall be used and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the the said Prayers Preaching or other Service of God there to be used and ministred And because all and every Person may be put in mind of this Duty and be the better prepared to the said Holy Service be it enacted by Authority aforesaid that every Minister shall give Warning to his Parishioners publickly in the Church at Morning-prayer the Sunday before every such fifth Day of November for the due Observation of the said Day And that after Morning-prayer or Preaching upon the said fifth Day of November they read publickly distinctly and plainly this present Act. The Second is intituled An Act for the Attainder of divers Offendors in the late most barbarous monstrous detestable and damnable Treasons The Preamble of which Act runs thus 3 Jac. 1. ca. 2. Rast Stat 2. part f. 589 An Act for the Attainder of the Conspirators IN most humble manner beseeching your most excellent Majesty your most Loyal Faithful and true Hearted Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled That whereas Arthur Creswel Jesuite who at the time of his Profession to be a Iesuite took upon him the Name of Joseph Creswel Oswald Tesmond Jesuite and Thomas VVinter late of Huddington in the County of VVorcester Gent. the last Day of June in the four and fortieth Year of the late Queen Elizabeth of famous Memory at Valedolide within the Kingdom of Spain and at divers other days within the same four and fortieth Year of the said late Queen at Valedolide aforesaid and elsewhere within the same Kingdom of Spain by the Means Procurement and Privity of Robert Catesby late of Ashby in the County of Northampton Esq Francis Tresham late of Rushton in the said County of Northampton Esq and Henry Garnet Iesuite assuming upon him to be Superior of the Iesuits within this Ream of England and others being all natural born Subjects of this Realm did Traiterously and against the Duty of their Allegiance move and incite Philip then and yet King of Spain then being at open Enmity and Hostility with the said late Queen with Force to invade this Kingdom of England and to joyn with the Papists and discontented Persons wiâ—â—in this Realm of England to depose and overthrow the same late Queen of and 〈◊〉 her Crown and of and from all Her Royal Estate Title and Dignity and to suppress and abolish the true Religion of Almighty God truly and sincerely professed within this Kingdom and to restore the Superstitious Romish Religion within the same and to bring this Antient Famous and most renowned Kingdom to utter Ruine and miserable Captivity under Forreign Power and for that the greatest Impediment unto the same Invasion would be the want of Help of good Horses the said Thomas VVinter the rather to incourage the said King thereunto was to offer unto the same King on the Behalf of the Papists of England to give him Assistance presently upon the Landing of his Forces with one thousand five hundred or two thousand Horses and that for their better accomplishing thereof he should move the said King to furnish the Papists of England with a good Sum of Money partly to be employed to
Doctrine to their own Sex in England i. e. to Alienate their Hearts from their Soveraign if he be not of their Religion or will not at least connive at it to engage them in Plots Conspiracies and Treasons for the destroying Heretical i. e. Protestant Kings and Heresie that is Protestantism that they do or should defend This project took so as any thing doth that tends to promoting Mother Church that in a short time this Mrs. Ward by the Popes indulgence who will indulge any thing that tends to destroy what he calls Heresie became the Mother General of no less then two Hundred English Damsels of good Birth and Quallity whom she sent abroad to Preach This Story and many other Jesuitical exploits are more particularly related in Wadsworths Spanish Pilgrim to which I refer the Reader The Parliament meet Wilsons Hist f. 193. Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 23. On the 30 th of January 1620. the Parliament met according to the Summons and notwithstanding the King 's smooth Speech to them they petitioned him for the due Execution of the Laws against Jesuits Seminary Priests and Papists which evidences that there was either none or at least a very slender Execution of those Laws They rip up Grievances They rip up many Grievances that the People had groaned under during the Intervals of Parliament by Monopoly Patents and otherwise punished the great Managers of them with exemplary Punishments and to make the Redress of these Grievances pass the more easily with the King they gave him two Subsidies which was very acceptable to him The Parliament adjourned without taking care of the Palatinate or Protestant Religion Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 35. Wilsons Hist f. 164. He having got this Supply when the Parliament had sate about four Months he sent them word by the Lord Treasurer that he would have them adjourn as being more expedient than a Prorogation that he had redressed Corruption in Courts of Justice by his Proclamation called in the Patents of Inns of Osteries and of Gold and Silver Thread and cherished the Bill against Informers and Monopolies but not a word of Care taken to recover the Palatinate or putting the Laws in execution against the Papists The Commons take it amiss which the King resents and on the fourth of June 1621. in the ninteenth Year of his Reign Wilson saith till February he declared for an Adjournment till November following and that he will in the mean time of his own Authority redress Grievances The House of Commons immediately before this Recess taking to heart the Miseries of the Palatinate and knowing how much the Protestant Religion was concerned in it resolved that the drawing back in so good a Cause should not be charged on their Slackness and therefore made the Declaration following with an universal Consent The Commons Declaration touching the Palatinate Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 36. Wilsons Hist f. 164. THE Commons assembled in Parliament taking into most serious Consideration the present State of the Kings Children abroad and general afflicted Estate of the true Professors of the same Christian Religion professed by the Church of England in foreign Parts and being touched with a true Sense and Fellow-feeling of their Distresses as Members of the same Body do with unanimous Consent in the Name of themselves and the whole Body of the Kingdom whom they represent declare unto His most Excellent Majesty and to the whole World their hearty Grief and Sorrow for the same and do not only joyn with them in their humble and devout Prayers to Almighty God to protect his true Church and to avert the Dangers now threatned but also with one Heart and Voice do solemnly protest That if His Majesties pious Endeavours by Treaty to procure their Peace and Safety shall not take that good Effect which is desired in Treaty wherefore they humbly beseech His Majesty not to suffer any longer Delay that then upon Signification of His Majesties Pleasure in Parliament they shall be ready to the utmost of their Powers both with their Lives and Fortunes to assist him so as that by the Divine Help of Almighty God which is never wanting unto those who in his Fear shall undertake the Defence of his own Cause he may be able to do that with his Sword which by a peaceable Course shall not be effected Soon after this the King was plyed from Spain and Rome The King plied for Favour to Papists to enlarge his Favours to Popish Recusants and it could not be otherwise expected so long as there was any thoughts of so near an Alliance between Spain and England The Parliament met again the twentieth of November The Parliament meet and because the House of Commons found that though the King declared for War he pursued Peace and resolved to close with Spain They resolved to try the Kings Spirit by the following Petition and Remonstrance wherein they laid open the Distempers of those Times with their Causes and Cures The Causes they told him were these The Vigilance and Ambition of the Pope A Remonstrance by the Parliament against Popery Wilson f. 167. Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 40. and his Son the Spanish Prince The Devilish Doctrines of the Romish Church The distressed Estate of the Protestants abroad The disasterous Accidents to his a The Count Palatines Family Children abroad The strange Confederacy of the Popish Princes to subvert the Protestant Religion here The great Armies raised by the Spaniard The Papists Expectations of the Spanish Match Foreign Princes interposing for Favour to Papists here The Papists open Resort to Foreign Ambassadors Their Concourse to London and their Conventicles there The Education of their Children in Seminaries The Grants of their Forfeitures to Persons who take little or nothing of them The printing Popish Books The Swarms of Priests and Jesuits The common Incendiaries of all Christendom disperst in all parts of the Kingdom The growing Mischiefs to Church and State they told him were these The Popish Religion is incompatable with ours and draws with it an unavoidable Dependance on Foreign Princes It opens a wide Gap for Popularity to any who shall draw too great a Party b We have lately seen the Truth of this verified when the Papists from Connivance actually got a Toleration and that with an Equality and had got the Superiority and subverted our Religion had not God in his Providence interposed it hath a restless Spirit and will strive by these Gradations If it get but a Connivance it will press for a Toleration if that should be obtained they must have an Equality from thence they will aspire to Superiority and will never rest till they get a Subversion of the true Religion The Remedies proposed were That the King would take his Sword into his Hand that he would therewith assist the Protestants abroad not to rest upon a War in these Parts only but give a Diversion otherwise That this War
See of Rome confer any Ecclesiastical function whatsoever toward or upon your Majesties natural Subjects within your Dominions Answ This is fit to be ordered according as is provided and it shall be so published by Proclamation 8. That your Majesties learned Councel may receive Order and Commandment to consider of all former Grants of Recusants Lands that such of them may be avoided as are made to the Recusants use or interest out of which the Recusant receiveth any benefit which are either void or voidable by the Law. Answ The King will give Order to his learned Councel to consider of the Grants and will do according as is desired 9. That your Majesty will be likewise pleased strictly to command all your Judges and Ministers of Justice Ecclesiastical and Temporal to see the Laws of this Realm against Popish Recusants to be duly executed and namely that the censure of Excommunication be declared and certified against them and that they be not absolved upon publick satisfaction by yielding to Conformity Answ His Majestys leaves the Laws to their course and will order in the point of Excommunication as is desired 10. That your Majesty will be pleased to remove from Places of Authority and Government all such Persons as are either Popish Recusants or according to direction of former Acts of State to be justly suspected Answ ' This his Majesty thinks fit and will give order for it 11. That present order be taken for disarming all Popish Recusants legally convicted or justly suspected according to the Laws in that behalf and the Orders taken by his late Majesty's Privy Councel upon reason of State. Answ The Laws and Acts in this Case shall be followed and put in due Execution 12. That your Majesty be also pleased in respect of the great resort of Recusants to and about London to command forthwith upon pain of your indignation and severe Execution of the Laws that they retire themselves to their several Countrys there to remain confined within five Miles of their Places Answ ' For this the Laws in Force shall be forthwith Executed 13. And whereas your Majesty hath strictly commanded and taken Order that none of the natural born Subjects repair to the hearing of Masses or other Supersttious Services at the Chappels or Houses of foreign Ambassadors or in any other places whatsoever we give your Majesty most humble thanks and desire that your Order and Commandment therein may be continued and observed and that the offenders herein may be punished according to the Laws Answ The King gives consent thereto and will see that observed which herein hath been commanded by him 14. That all such insolencies as any that are Popishly affected have lately Committed or shall hereafter commit to the dishonour of our Religion or to the wrong of the true Professors thereof be exemplarily Punished Answ ' This shall be done as is desired 15. That the Statute of 1 Eliz. for the payment of twelve pence every Sunday by such as shall be absent from Divine Service in the Church without a lawful excuse may be put in due Execution the rather for that the penalty by Law is given to the Poor and therefore not to be dispensed withal Answ It is fit that this Statute be Executed and the Penalties shall not be dispensed withal 16. Lastly that your Majesty would be pleased to extend your princely care also over the Kingdom of Ireland that the like courses may be there taken for the restoring and establishing of true Religion there Answ His Majesties Cares are and shall be extended over the Kingdom of Ireland and he will do all that a Religious King should do for the restoring and establishing of true Religion there And thus Most Gracious Soveraign according to our duty and zeal to God and Religion to your Majesty and your safety to the Church and Common-wealth and their Peace and Prosperity we have made a Faithful Declaration of the present Estate the Causes and Remedies of this encreasing disease of Popery Humbly offering the same to your Princely care and wisdom The Answer of your Majesties Father our Late Soveraign of Famous Memory upon the like Petition did give us great comfort of Reformation but your Majesties most Gracious Promises made in that kind do give us confidence and assurance of the continual performance thereof in which comfort and confidence reposing our selves we most Humbly pray for your Majesties long continuance in all Princely felicity Rushw Coll. 1 pt 191. The 10 th of August the King sends to the Commons to have a present supply and promises to let them meet again in Winter and redress their greivances then they insist to have both go on together The Parliament dissolved but withal make a most submisive Declaration of their affection and duty to him Which notwithstanding he by Commission 12 August 1625. dissolved them Rushw Coll. 1. pt f. 191.192 The King soon after issued out a Proclamation to call home Papists Children and soon after Disarmed the Papists but as this was pleasing so his Letter soon after sent to the Leivetenants for the loan of Money upon Privy Seals and other things of the like kind were as distastful to the People A Parliament called Papists proceeded against But these Courses not having the wisht for success and the King being pressed with his own necessities summoned a Parliament to meet in February and enjoyned the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in both Provinces to proceed by Examination and other Church censures with the utmost severity against the Papists and those more especially who were Popishly affected and did encourage and advance the growth of Popery and issued out a Proclamation to confine Convicted Papists to their dwelling Houses or within five Miles thereof On Candlemas Day he was Crowned and at the time of his Coronation took the Coronation Oath in manner following Sir says the Arch-Bishop will you grant and keep K. Charles 1. Crowned The Coronation Oath Rushw Coll. 1. part f. 200. Arch-Bishop and by your Oath confirm to the People of England the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the Glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient Customs of the Realm I Grant and Promise to keep them Sir Will you keep Peace and Godly Agreement according to your Power both to God The Kings Answer the Holy Church the Clergy and the People I Will keep it Sir Will you to your Power cause Law Justice and Discretion to Mercy and Truth to be executed to your Judgment I Will. Sir Will you grant to hold and keep the Laws and Rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this your Kingdom have and will you defend and uphold them to
the Honour of God so much as in you lyeth I Grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops read this passage to the King. Our Lord and King we beseech you to Pardon and to Grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to your Charge all Canonical Privildges and do Law and Justice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King to his Kingdom ought to be a Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government The King Answereth With a willing and devout Heart I Promise and Grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your Charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government Then the King arose and was led to the Communion Table where he takes a solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe all the Promises and laying his hand upon the Bible said The things which I have here Promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book The sixth Day of February the Parliament met The Parliament meets Papists are prohibited from going to Mass at Ambassadors Houses the Judges are ordered to put the Laws in Execution againsts Papists which notwithstanding the Committee of Grievances reported to the Commons House That one general evil was the encrease and countenancing of Papists The Marshal of Middlesex meeting with resistance in seizing of Romish Priests Goods and complaining of the matter the then Arch-Bishop writ to Mr. Attorney General on behalf of the Priests which Letter was as followeth Good Mr. Attorney I thank you for acquainting me what was done Yesterday at the Clinck But I am of opinion The Arch-Bishops Letter on behalf of the Priests Rushw Coll. 1. part f. 243. that if you had curiously enquired upon the Gentleman who gave the Information you should have found him to be a Disciple of the Jesuites for they do nothing but put Tricks on these poor Men who do live more miserable Lives then if they were in the Inquisition in many parts beyond the Seas By taking the Oath of Allegiance and writing in defence of it and opening some points of high consequence they have so displeased the Pope that if by any cunning they could catch them they are sure to be burnt or strangled for it and once there was a Plot to have taken Preston By this Letter it appears how unwilling the Government was to be in any sort cruel even the Priests and yet how ungrateful are the Papists to this Day as he passed the Thames and to have shipped him into a bigger Vessel and so to have transported him into Flanders there to have made a Martyr of him in respect of these things King James always gave his Protection to Preston and Warrington as may be easily shewed Cannon is an old Man well affected to the cause but medleth not with any Factions or Seditions as far as I can learn they complain their Books were taken from them and a Crucifix of Gold with some other things which I hope are not carried out of the House but may be restored again unto them for it is in vain to think that Priests will be without their Beads or Pictures Models of their Saints and it is not improbable that before a Crucifix they do often say their Prayers I leave the things to your best Consideration and hope that this deed of yours together with my word will restrain them for giving offence hereafter if so be that lately they did give any I heartily commend me unto you and so rest Your very Loving Friend G. Canterbury The Parliament Petition the King against Papists Rushw Coll. 1. part f. 391. In this Parliament the Commons Petitioned the King to remove the Papists or justly suspected out of Places of Government Authority and Trust and named them of the Nobility and Gentry to the number of sixty one who were got into such Offices and prayed they might be displaced The Petition and Names take as followeth To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The Parliaments Petition against Papists with the names of the Persons who were crept into Offices notwithstanding the severity of the Laws against them YOur Majesties most Obedient and Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do with great Comfort remember the many Testimonies which your Majesty hath given of your sincerity and Zeal of the true Religion established in this Kingdom and in your particular gracious Answer to both Houses of Parliament at Oxford upon their Petition concerning the Causes and Remedies of the increase of Popery that your Majesty thought fit and would give Order to remove from all places of Authority and Government all such Persons as are either Popish Recusants or according to direction of former Acts of State justly to be suspected which was then presented as a great and principal Cause of that Mischief But not having received so full Redress herein as may conduce to the peace of this Church and Safety of this regal State they hold it their Duty once more to resort to your Sacred Majesty humbly to inform you that upon Examination they find the Persons under written to be either Recusants Papists or justly suspected according to the former Acts of State who now do or since the sitting of the Parliament did remain in places of Government and Authority and trust in your several Counties of this your Realm of England and Dominion of Wales The Right honourable Francis Earl of Rutland Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln Rutland Northamton Nottingham and a Commissioner of the Peace and of Oyer and Terminer in the County of York and Justice of Oyer from Trent Northwards His Lordship is presented to be a Popish Recusant and to have affronted all the Commissioners of the Peace within the North Riding of Yorkshire by sending a License under his Hand and Seal unto his Tenant Thomas Fisher dwelling in his Lordships Mannor of Hemsley in the said North Riding of the said County of York to keep an Alehouse soon after he was by an Order made at the Quarter Sessions discharged from keeping an Alehouse because he was a Popish Convict Recusant and to have procured a Popish Schoolmaster namely Roger Conyers to teach Schollars within the said Mannor of Hemsley that formerly had his License to teach Scholars taken from him for teaching Scholars that were the Children of popish Recusants and because he suffered these Children to be absent themselves from the Church whilst they were his Schollars For which the said Conyers was formerly complained of in Parliament The Right Honourable Vicount Dunbar Deputy Justice in Oyer to the Earl of Rutland from Trent Northward and
Estates of the Realm of England choice Men for their Nobility Vertue Prudence and Piety Yea they have very inconsiderately uttered such Words in the French Kings Name as if they meant by threats to terrifie the Queen and the Estates of the Land. The English-men use not to be terrified by the French-mens threats from taking Courses to secure their own Tranquility when they in the mean time could direct them no proper way to avoid the instant and threatning Dangers The Answer to these Reasons not leaving the French Ambassador Room for a Reply from Words he was resolved to fall to Blows and that he might save one Queens Life enters into a Plot to take away anothers A Plot by the French Ambassador to take away the Queens Life Camb. Annal. f. 377. Stafford engaged in it but refused it and proposed one Moody who undertook it And in order to this he at first more closely tampers with one William Stafford a young Gentleman whose Mother and Brother were Servants to the Queen the former of the Queens Bed Chamber the Latter Ambassador in France and afterwards more plainly and openly by Trappy his Secretary who promised him if he would effect it not only great Glory and vast Riches but special favour with the Pope the Duke of Guise and all the Papists Stafford refused to do it himself but recommended one Moody who undertook the Matter and as to the Manner propounded to do it either by Poison or by a bag of Gunpowder of twenty pounds weight to be conveyed under her Bed and secretly fired But soon after Stafford discovered the whole Trappy was taken and Confessed the Matter the Ambassador was sent for and rebuked but he insisted that he being an Ambassador was not bound to make any Discovery to any but his Master Camb. Annal. f. 379. Bakers Chron. f. 371. The Queen privately signed a Warrant to execute the Queen of Scots and delivered the same to Davison Camb. Annal. f. 387 389 383. Bakers Chron. f. 371. Davison Acquaints the Council with it The Councel execute her before the Queen knew it Queen Elizabeth Resents it Camb. Annal. f. 388. Bakers Chron. f. 372. At this time there were divers Rumors and terrifying Reports spread over England viz. that the Spanish Fleet was already arrived at Milford Haven that the Scots were broken into England that the Duke of Guise was Landed in Sussex with a strong Army that the Queen of Scots was escaped out of Prison and had raised an Army that the Northern Parts were up in Rebellion that there was a new Conspiracy on foot to kill the Queen and set the City of London on Fire These Reports hastned on the Queens signing a Warrant for the Execution of the Queen of Scots to do which she being by her Courtiers as before she had been by the Parliament pressed both by Reasons and also by Examples did command a Warrant to be drawn up for her Execution which Command she delivered in Writing to Davison one of her Secretaries but commanded him to acquaint no Man therewith But the next Day having changed her Mind she commanded Davison by William Killigrew that the Warrant should not be drawn He came presently to the Queen and told her that it was drawn and under the Seal already whereat she was greatly moved but notwithstanding he acquainted the Council with it and they believing that the Queen commanded it should be Executed without any delay sent down and had it done on the 8 th Day of February 1586. As soon as the Report was brought to Queen Elizabeths Ears who little thought of such a thing that the Queen of Scots was put to Death she heard it with great Indignation her Countenance altered her Speech faltered and failed her and through excessive Sorrow she stood in a manner astonished insomuch as she gave her self over to passionate Grief puting her self into mourning Habit and shed abundance of Tears Her Council she sharply rebuked and commanded them out of her Sight causing them to be Examined Davison she commanded to appear and be tryed in the Star Chamber A great fine in those days Her Councel she forgave but Davison was tryed fined a thousand Pounds and imprisoned during the Queens pleasure Yorks Plot. Camb. Annal. f. 397. Foulis Hist l. 7. cap. 7. f. 356. Bakers Chron. f. 373. After the Queen of Scots was executed the first piece of Treasonable Practice of the Papists I meet with is that of York who drew Stanley to betray Deventer a strong and wealthy Place to the Spaniards contrary to Oath solemnly taken to Leicester and to satisfie his Conscience against the imputations of Treason he pretended that he had restored that place to the true Lord and Owner which had been kept from him by Rebels and being a ranck Papists he soon after sent for Papists to instruct his Regiment consisting of thirteen hundred English and Irish in the Popish Religion giving out that this should be a Seminary Regiment of Souldiers to defend the Romish Religion by their Swords as the Seminary Priests did by their Writings And for this purpose Allen who was not long after made Cardinal not only dispatcht Priests to him with all expedition but set forth a Book also wherein according to Pius Quintus his Bull against Queen Elizabeth he both commended the Treason and excited others to the like perfidiousness as if they were neither bound to serve nor obey an Excommunicate Queen And now let us see what the Parliament are doing after the Death of the Queen of Scots That great Root of Rebellion and Treason even in their opinion At the meeting of the Parliament 22 d. of February to which the same was adjourned the Queen acquainted them by Sr. Christopher Hatton that the Nation was in great danger and what the danger was you will find laid down in an excellent Speech The Parliament met 22d Feb. 28 29. Eliz. made in the House of Commons by the said Sr. Christopher Hatton which I have here inserted that you may see that tho' the Queen of Scots was dead yet the Papists were not but as active against the Queen and the Protestant Religion as ever The Speech take as it is set down in Sr. Simon D' Ewes his journal which is as followeth That it was Her Majesties pleasure to have dangers disclosed and to have the House know that she thanked God for the Goodness of the House Sr. Christopher Hattons Speech D'Ewes journal f. 408. that she wished the Session mistaken for Meeting to be short that Men of Government might go home for matter of Government Hospitality and Defence and to take another time for making of Laws saving such as be now of necessity The dangers which Her Majesty meaneth proceed of ancient Malice and are to be prepared for and God called for Aid The Principal Heads of the Dangers The Catholics abroad the Pope the King of Spain the Princes of the League the Papists
at home and their Ministers The Principal Root hereof The Councel of Trent which agreed to extirpate Christian Religion which they term Heresie whereunto divers Princes assented and bound themselves in solemn Manner Pope Pius Quintus sent his Excommunication against Her Majesty Dr. Mourton and Mendoza a Spanish Ambassador bestirred them a Northren Rebellion was bred the Pope and the rest Practiced for the Scottish Queen and she being acquainted proceeds by her means Pope Paulus the thirteenth proceeds and sends Jesuites and Seminaries to England and Ireland and they proceed to inveagle the the Subjects and disswade them from obedience Viska beginneth a Rebellion in Ireland James Fitz Morris furthereth the Execution thereof Doctor Saunders and Desmond stir new Rebellion there and wrote into England c. Parry was moved to kill Her Majesty and perswaded it was Meritorious Pope Sixtus the fifth imitateth the other Popes to execute their former Devices and writeth to the Cardinal of Lorain and Guise that he will overthrow the Gospel which Mr. Vice Chamberlain honourably termed the glorious Gospel and therefore moved them to joyn with the Princes of the League and to practice to win the King of Scots and to set up the Scottish Queen in England and make his reckoning of the Cantons that were Popish the Switzers the Duke of Savoy they Duke of Ferara King of Spain and King of France A chief Instrument to work this was one Carew called also Father Henry He was sent into Germany and over Italy and France wrote to the Scottish Queen that the Powers will joyn to overthrow England and make known the effect of his Labour to the Pope Invasion should have been made into England and Ireland the last year and not like to be unattempted this year The Pope Excommunicateth the King of Navar the Pope accounteth not of Popish Preaching and perswasions that way But nevertheless moveth all to use the Word and for maintenance thereof spareth his Treasure otherwise and withdraweth maintenance from Jesuites Seminaries and divers other Letters were found with the Scottish Queen which prove all these to be true If we serve Almighty God in sincerity of Heart we need not to fear It is to be remembred that the King of Spain sought to recover some part of his Fathers Credit by using our Treasure and Force to get St. Quintines but he soon made his advantage of it and regarded not our Territories in France But suffered the loss of Calice and all our Territories and after the Death of Queen Mary what he could Her Majesty sought for his Good-will sending the Lord Mountague the Lord Cobham Sr. Thomas Chamberlain Knight Mr. Maun and others and they were but hardly used some of them were offered great indignity and Mr. Mauns Son forced by strength to do a kind of Pennance He comforted the Queens Enemies he giveth Colour of Wars he Chargeth the Queen that her Subjects have aided his Rebels in the Low Countries with the countenancing Mounsieur with many at Cambray with sending her Nobility with him into the Low Countries with the Actions of Sr. Francis Drake with assistance of the Low Countries Of the purpose of the Combined Princes Their shew is to deal with the King of Navar to extirpate him but their drift is to ruinate Religion not only there but to set upon and to work the ruin of it here also Wherein the King of Spain and Guise are now very busie Their Malice is the more for the executing the Scottish Queenâ— But their hope is the less The King of Spain his Designments are to invade England and Ireland His Preparations Three hundred sixty Sail of Spain Eighty Gallies from Venice and Genoua one Galliass with six hundred armed Men from the Duke of Florence Twelve thousand Men maintained by Italy and the Pope Six thousand by the Spanish Clergy twelve thousand by his Nobility and Gentlemen of Spain It is reported that ten thousand of these be Horsemen I think it not all true but something there is We must look to the Papists at home and abroad It hath touched us in the Blood of the Nobility and the Blood of many Subjects They practice to frame Subjects against all Duty and bring in Doctrine of Lawfulness and Merit to kill the Queen and have sent their Instruments abroad to that purpose Notwithstanding things stood thus yet the Parliament having made so many Laws thought convenient to make but one Law this Session against the Papists which was not made Provisory of any new Remedy against them but to enforce the Execution only of a former Law. It is entitled An Act for the more speedy and due Execution of certain Branches of the Stat. 23. Eliz. intitled An Act to retain the Queens Majesties Subjects in their due obedience 29. Eliz. cap. 6 Rast Stat. 2. Part. f. 338. An Act to enforce the Execution of 23. Eliz. By which Act For the avoiding all Frauds and Delays in hinderance of the Execution of the said Act it is provided that certain assurances made by Papists shall be void against the Queen That the Conviction shall be at the Kings Bench or at the Assizes or general Goal Delivery and certified into the Exchequer The twenty pounds a month for not going to Church is to be paid into the Exchequer every Easter and Michaelmas Term In default of Payment the Queen may take all the Goods and two parts of the Lands and Leases of the Offenders The indictment sufficient tho it mentions not the Parties being within the Realm Vpon Proclamation made if the party renders not his Body he stands Convicted no forfeiture if the party submits or dies Assurances made bona fide not to be impeached nor Lands for Life or in the Wives right after the Offendors Death Thus did the Plots and Conspiracies of the Papists from time to time force the State to make either New Laws against them or else Laws for the more effectual executing the old for the truth of the Plots and Conspiracies before mentioned I shall here insert the very words of the Secular Priests in their important Considerations as hereunto followeth The Secular Priests Confession of the Plots before-mentioned Collect. f. 45. Babingtons Plot. We might add the notable Treasons of Mr. Anthony Babington and his Complices in the Year 1586. Which were so apparent as we were greatly abashed at the shameless Boldness of a young Jesuit who to excuse the said Traitors and qualifie their offences presumed in a kind of supplication to Her Majesty to ascribe the Plotting of all that mischief to Mr. Secretary Walfingham the Treachery also of Sr. William Stanley the year following 1587. in falsifying his Faith to Her Majesty and in betraying the trust Committed unto him by the Earl of Leicester who had given him the honourable Title of Knighthood as it was greatly prejudicial to us that were Catholicks at home Stanley's Treason so was the defence of that Disloyalty made by a
* Allen before named worthy Man but by the perswasions as they think of Parsons greatly disliked of many both Wise and Learned And especially it was wondred at a while until the Drift thereof appeared more manifestly in the year 1588 that the said worthy Person laid down this for a ground in justifying the said Stanley viz. that in all Wars which may happen for Religion every Catholick Man is bound in Conscience to employ his Person and Force by the Popes Direction viz. how for when and where either at home or abroad he may and must break with his Temporal Soveraign Let us now see what was further doing by the Pope and the Papists against the Protestant Queen and the Protestant Religion in England in the Year 1588 and we shall doubtless see very good reason for making the Statute of 35 Eliz. Ca. 2. which was the last Law that was made against them in Queen Elizabeths time The Pope some Religious Persons in Spain and several English Fugitives The Pope plotting again Camb. Annal. f. 402. Baker's Chron. f. 374. had called back the Spaniard to his former Designs for the Conquest of England which had been interrupted by the Portugal Wars earnestly exhorting him that seeing God had given him Success in laying Portugal and the East-Indies to his Dominions he would do something which should be acceptable to God and becoming the Grandeur and Majesty of the Catholic King that nothing could be more then the propagating and enlarging the Church of God which could not be more gloriously nor more meritoriously done then by the Conquest of England re-planting the Roman Catholic Religion and abolishing Heresie there They suggested that this War would be just because it was necessary as also because it was for the Maintainance of Christs Religion in regard That the Queen of England being excommunicate persisted contumaciously against the Church of Rome supported his Rebels in the Netherlands annoyed the Spaniards by continual Depredations suppressed and sackt his Towns in Spain and America and had very lately put the Queen of Scots to Death violating thereby the Majesty of all Kings That it would be no less profitable than just for so he should add to his Empire those three Kingdoms quell the Rebellion in the Low Countries secure his Voyages to the Indies without the Expence of Convoys To prove this they suggested that the Spanish Navy did far exceed the English in Number Largeness of Ships and Strength especially considering the Addition of the Portugal Fleet that England had no Forts nor defences that it was unprovided of Commanders Souldiers Cavalry and Munition bare of Wealth and Friends that there were many Papists who would presently joyn with him that so great was the Strength of Spain and so unmatchable their Valour that none durst oppose them and confidently assured themselves of Victory That this Opportunity was offered by God himself a Peace being then concluded with the Turk and the French embroiled in a Civil War That the Conquest of England would be far easier than the Netherlands in respect the Cut from Spain to England was much more short and convenient than from Spain to the Netherlands That in order to the Conquest of the Netherlands it was necessary first to conquer England and that England being once conquered the Low-Countries must of necessity be subdued The Spanish King being perswaded to believe all this resolves on the Attempt The Contrivance of the Spanish Invasion Camb. Annal f. 403 404. and the next thing considered was in what Way and Means to effect it And the Method agreed on was to do it with a well-provided Army from Spain and the Low-Countries to be landed by a powerful Navy at the Thames Mouth in order to surprize the City of London by a sudden Assault this being resolved on the Preparation was made which was so great throughout all Spain Italy and Scicily that the Spaniards themselves were amazed at it and named it the Invincible Armada Their Cause the Armada and Army they recommended to the Pope and to the Prayers of the Catholics to God and the Saints and set forth a Book in Print for a Terror wherein the whole Preparation was set down The Prince of Parma also in the Netherlands by the Spanish Kings Command built Ships and many Flat-bottomed Boats and other great Preparations in the Sea Towns of Flanders he had an Army of an hundred and three Companies of Foot and four thousand Horse amongst which were one thousand English Fugitives who of all others were least esteemed neither was * Sir William Stanley before named Stanley who had the Command of them nor others who offered their Service and Council once heard but for their unnaturalness to their Country they were debarred from all access and as most inauspicious Persons worthily and with Detestation rejected The Spanish Navy in the whole consisted of one hundred and thirty Ships whereof Galliasses and Galleons seventy two in which were Souldiers nineteen thousand two hundred and ninety Camb. Annal. f. 410. Baker's Chron. f. 374. The Number of the Armada Marriners eight thousand three hundred and fifty Gally Slaves two thousand and eighty great Ordinance two thousand six hundred and thirty for the greater Holiness of their Action twelve of their Ships were called the twelve Apostles the chief Commanders were Don Alphonso Duke of Medina and John Recalde a great Sea-man Sixtus Quintus Curseth Queen Elizabeth Foulis Hist li. 7. ca. 6. f. 350. Camb. Annals f. 410. Sixtus Quintus the Pope that he might not seem to be wanting in so good a Cause did not only assist with his (a) Ant. Cicarella in vità Sexti V. Allen sent into the Netherlands to carry on the Design Treasure but his Papal Curse to boot whereby he excommunicated the Queen dethroned her absolved her Subjects from all Allegiance and published his Croisado in Print as it were against Turks and Infidels wherein out of the Treasure of the Church he granted plenary Indulgences to all that gave their Help and Assistance with this goodly Stuff William Allen a little before made a Cardinal an English-man and an old Traitor to the Queen was sent into the Netherlands the better to encourage the English Romanists to Rebellion Allen pulls out his Papal Tool which he forgeth into a Pamphlet in the English Language which he prints at Antwerp calling it The Declaration of the Sentence of Sixtus Quintus Their Methods And as a farther Interpretation of the Papal Intent and the better to ingage the English to Rebellion he joyns a second Part to it called An Admonition to the Nobility and People of England And that the Reader may better understand the Honesty of the Paper take the Sum of it thus Em. Meteram Hist Belg. lib. 15. p. 473 474. Sam. Purchas Pilgrims vol. 4. l. 10. c. 11. p. 1895 1896. It begins with Calling the Queens Government impious and unjust her self an
provide and furnish the Horses and partly in Pensions to be employed upon some such as were to be prepared for that Service all which the said Thomas VVinter did relate to the said King of Spain who the said Kingdoms of England and Spain then standing in Hostility took that Offer in very good part saying that he would respect and account of the Catholicks of England meaning the Papists as of his own Castilians and thereupon agreed that he would make Invasion and set foot in England about the Spring then next following and would by way of Exchange send over unto the Papists of England one hundred thousand Crowns to be paid at two several Days agreed upon all which particulars are extant in the Confession of some of the chief Offenders at which time sundry Papists of England did extraordinarily furnish themselves by the traiterous and wicked Perswasions and Means of sundry Iesuits both with Horse and Armour But before these things could be effected Almighty God called the said late Queen to his mercy Immediately after whose decease that is to say in the same Month of March wherein she departed out of this World Christopher Wright late of London Gentleman was imployed by the said Robert Catesby Francis Tresham Henry Garnet and others into Spain to Negotiate with the said King of Spain by the means of the said Creswel the Iesuit and others to proceed in that Invasion which the said Thomas Winter had before Negotiated with him And afterwards on the two and Twentyeth day of June in the first Year of your Majesties Reign over this Realm of England Sir William Stanley Kt. Hugh Owen Esq William Baldwin Iesuit and others did by and with the Traiterous procurement and consent of the Offendors aforesaid from and out of Handers in the parts beyond the Seas under the Government of the Arch-Duke Traiterously employ and send Guy Fauks sate of London Genelman unto the said King of Spain to Negotiate with him on the behalf of the said Papists of England for Invasion to be had against this Realm of England to the same effect as was committed to the said Christopher Wright as is aforesaid And the said Guy Fauks and Christopher Wright though they had all the furtherance of the said Creswel the Iesuit that he could give yet finding no such entertainment with the said King who as by the sequel appeareth grew into detestation with the said Propositions and Negotiations as they expected or desired But being wholly disappointed of all their hopes concerning that Matter the said Robert Catesby and divers other Persons within this Realm did send over the said Thomas Winter into the said Country of Flanders to procure the said Guy Fauks a Natural Born Subject of this Realm and yet a most Traiterous desperate and cloudy minded Person then serving as a Souldier in the Low-Countries to come over into this Realm and by and with the Traiterous conspiracy and consent of the said Henry Garnet Oswald Tesmond John Garrard and other Iesuits and Thomas Pearcy late of London Esq John Wright late of London Gent. the said Christopher Wright Francis Tresham Robert Winter late of Huddington aforesaid Esq John Grant late of Norbrook in the County of Warwick Esq Ambrose Rookwood late of Staningfeild in the County of Suffolk Esq Everard Digby late of Gorehurst in the County of Buckingham Kt. Robert Keys late of London Gentlman and Thomas Bates late of London Yeoman to undertake the Execution of the most wicked Barbarous execrable and abominable Treason that ever could enter into the Heart of the most wicked Man by blowing up with Gun-Powder the House of Parliament at such time as your most excellent Majesty and your dearest Consort the Queen and the most Noble Prince Henry together with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Iudges of the Realm and the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament should be in said Parliament-House Assembled for which most Traiterous and Barbarous purpose there were secretly laid in a Vault or Cellar under the Parliament-House Thirty six Barrels of Gun-Powder or thereabouts to the utter overthrow and subversion of the whole State of this flourishing and renouned Kingdom If God of his infinite Mercy had not most Miraculously by your Majesties blessed direction Discovered the same in finding out the said Barrels of Gun-Powder in the said Vault or Cellar but few hours before the time appointed for the Execution thereof All which most Heinous Horrid and Damnable Treasons are most manifest and apparent by the voluntary confession and acknowledgments of the Offenders themselves Of which most Barbarous Bloody and detestable Treason for Conspiring and preparing to blow up the Parliament-House with Gun-Powder The said Robert Winter Thomas Winter Guy Fauks Robert Keyes Ambrose Rookwood John Graunt and Thomas Bates have been lately indicted and during this present Sessions of Parliament Arraigned convicted by Verdict and thereupon attainted And the said Sir Everard Digby Kt. hath likewise been indicted and during this present Sessions of Parliament Convicted and Attainted by his own confession of Record upon his Arraignment according to the Laws of this your Majesties Realm as by the Records of their several Indictments and Attainders it doth and may more plainly appear and for the which Offences the said Sir Everard Digby Robert Winter Thomas Winter Guy Fauks Ambrose Rookwood John Graunt Robert Keyes and Thomas Bates have suffered pains of Death according to their demerits And the said Robert Catesby Thomas Piercy John Wright and Cristopher Wright were Slain in open Rebellion by them and others the said most wicked Traytors moved and stirred within divers Parts and Counties of this Realm shortly after the Discovery of their most detestable and Damnable Treason in Conspiring and preparing to blow up the said Parliament-House as aforesaid and the said Hugh Owen doth of purpose and for fear of condign punishment according to his demerit reside and kéep himself beyond the Seas by means whereof he cannot in respect of such his voluntary absence be Arraigned and publickly by due Tryal of Law upon apparent Testimony and proof against him be proceeded with for such his hainous and abominable Treasons and the said Francis Tresham being one of the said most detestable Traitors and being apprehended and imprisoned in the Tower of London having by sundry his Examinations confest himself a principal Traytor in all the said most abominable Treasons Dyed in the Tower during the time of his said imprisonment and before he could be Indicted of the said Treasons They therefore desired that the King of his blessed care and disposition to and for the continuance of Gods true Religion and Service and for that preservation and safety of his Person the Queen the Prince and the rest of the Royal Progeny and for the intire Love and Affection that his Majesty had always thentâ—fore born and did then bear to the Common-wealth and safety of this Realm of England to the end that all others might then
continue your daily Plotting of so Tragical Stratagems against Recusants It is ordered that none of these Five knoweth who the other Four be for the better preventing the discovery of the rest if so any one by attempting and not performing should be apprehended It is also already agreed who shall first attempt it by shot and so who in order shall follow In accomplishing of it there is expected no other than assurance of Death yet it will willingly be embraced for the preventing of those general Calamities which by this your transcendent Authority and Grace with His Majesty are threatned unto us And indeed the difficulties herein are more easily to be digested since Two of the intended attempters are in that weak estate of Body that they cannot live above three or four Months The other Three are so distressed in themselves and their Friends as that their present griefs for being only Recusants do much dull all aprehensions of Death None is to be blamed in the true censuring of Matters for the undertaking hereof Nor are they to be blamed for it for we protest before God we have no other means left us in the World since it is manifest that you serve but as a Match to give Fire unto his Majesty to whom the worst that we wish is that he may be as great a Saint in Heaven as he is King on Earth for intending all mischiefs against the poor distressed Catholics Thus giving your Lordship this charitable admonition the which may perhaps be necessary hereafter for some others your inferiours at least in grace and favour if so they run on in their former inhumane and unchristian rage against us I cease putting you in mind For 't is true and Spiritual Resolution that where once True and Spiritual Resolution is there notwithstanding all dangers whatsoever the weak may take sufficient revenge of the great Your Lordships well admonishing Friends c. A. B. C. c. It may be your Lordship will take this but as some forged Letter of some Puritans thereby to incense you more against Recusants But we protest upon our Salvation it is not so Neither can any thing in humane likelihood prevent the effecting thereof but the change of your Course towards Recusants This Letter at the beginning affords fair seeming to detest the Gun-Powder-Plot as Watson did the Popish Treasons in Queen Elizabeths time and was hanged for Treason in the beginning of the Reign of King James but little credit is to be given to what they say if it be considered that the very design of it is to apoligize for Murther and that they therein assert that although they Murther Privy Counsellors yet the Murtherers may be good men nor are they to be blamed for it for it is a true and spiritual resolution What influence this Letter had the sequel will evince for the said Oath was immediately confirmed by Act of Parliament and the Papists injoyned to take it in the Circumstances and upon the Penalties in the Act for that purpose mentioned the sum and substance of which Act followeth it is Intitled An Act for the better discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants The Preamble of the Act runs thus 3. Jac. 1. c. 4. Rast Stat. f. 591. Papists must receive the Sacrament and take the Oath of Allegiance c. upon pecuniary mulcts if neglected FOrasmuch as it is found by daily Experience that many His Majesties Subjects that adhere in their hearts to the Popish Religion by the infection drawn from thence and by the Wicked and Divelish Councel of Iesuits Seminaries and other like Persons dangerous to the Church and State are so far perverted in the point of their Loyalty and due Allegiance to the Kings Majesty and the Crown of England as they are ready to entertain and Execute any Treasonable Conspiracies and Practices as evidently appears by that more then barbarous and horrible Attempt to have blown up with Gun-powder the King Queen Prince Lords and Commons in the House of Parliament Assembled tending to the utter Subversion of the whole State lately undertaken by the instigation of Iesuits and Seminaries and in Advancement of their Religion by their Schollars Taught and Instructed by them to that purpose which Attempt by the only goodness of Almighty God was discovered and defeated And where divers Persons Popishly affected do nevertheless the better to cover and hide their false Hearts and with the more safety to attend the opportunity to execute their mischievous Designs repair sometimes to Church to escape the Penalty of the Laws in that behalf provided Then for the better discovery of such Persons and their Evil affections to the Kings Majesty and to the State of the Realm to the end that being known their Evil Purposes might be the better prevented It was enacted that every Papist that Conforms shall Yearly receive the Sacrament upon twenty pounds Forfeiture upon the first Years neglect forty pounds the second sixty pounds the third and so forwards sixty pounds Yearly until he or she shall have received it That Papists their Children of Nine Years and Servants shall be once a Year presented at the general or Quarter Sessions Which presentments are to be recorded at the Sessions That the Iustices of Assize and Goal Delivery and Iustices of Peace shall hear and determine the Offence That Proclamation shall be made at the Assizes or Sessions for the Offender to render his body to the Sheriff Bayliff or Keeper of the Goal of the Liberty before the next Assizes or Sessions c. And if the Offender doth not he stands Convicted and forfeits twenty pounds a Month for every Month contained in the Indictment whereon he his Convicted That every Conviction shall be certified into the Exchequer that the King may refuse twenty pounds a Month and take two parts of the Papists Lands save their Mansion House That the Kings two parts shall not be Leased to Papists Noblemen and Noblewomen are excepted That the Oath of Allegiance shall be tendred to all Persons of the Age of Eighteen Years or above Convicted or Indicted for Recusancy for not going to Church for not receiving the Sacrament or that pass through any Country Shire or Liberty and unknown Who refuse taking this Oath incur a Premunire except Women covert who are to be Committed to the Common Goal without Bail or Mainprize till they take the Oath No Indictment or other Proceedings against the Papists shall be discharged or reversed for default of Form but Conformity discharges all Proceedings whatever Felony in any that go beyond Seas to serve any Forreign Prince c. or being there shall voluntarily serve such Prince not first having taken the Oath Felony in any Gentleman or Person of higher Degrée or any that is or hath born Office in Camp Army or Company of Souldiers to go beyond the Seas voluntarily to serve a Foreign Prince or shall voluntarily serve any Prince unless he first enters into Bond
might be against him that had maintained the War in the Palatinate That he would put the Laws in Execution against the Papists That the c Charles the First Prince might be married to a Protestant That the Children of the Nobility and Gentry beyond Seas might be called home That Papists Children and their Children whose Wives were Papists might be educated by Protestant School-Masters and Teachers That the King would revoak all former Licences for Youth to travel beyond Sea and grant no more after That all former Grants of Papists Lands might be avoided if by Law they could and no such Grants made afterwads The Commons had no small reason to take notice of the State of the Protestant Interest abroad seeing besides the great Wound made in Germany Protestants persecuted abroad Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 43. and the Cruelties of the prevailing House of Austria the Protestants in France were almost ruined by Lewis the Thirteenth and yet notwithstanding the King understanding they were preparing the above mentioned Remonstrance writ a Letter to Sir Thomas Richardson Speaker of the House of Commons December the 3 d. 1621. Wherein he let him know He heard to his Grief that his Absence being sick had emboldned some fiery and popular Spirits of the House to argue and debate Matters far above their Reach and Capacity The King is angry at the Remonstrance and writes to the Speaker to prevent it Rush Coll. Ibid. tending to his Dishonour and Breach of Prerogative Royal. Therefore commanded him to make known to the House that none should presume to meddle with any thing concerning his Government or deep Matters of State and particularly that they should not deal with his dearest Sons Match with the Daughter of Spain or any other his Friends and Confederates That except they did reform it before it came to his Hands he would not hear nor answer it Another Remonstrance Rush Coll. 1 pt f. 44. And he was as good as his Word as will appear afterwards for upon the Receipt of this Letter the House drew up another Remonstrance with the greatest Submission imaginable wherein they lay the Ground of their former Remonstrance upon the deplorable Estate of his own Children in the Palatinate and the apparent Danger and almost unavoidable Ruine of the Protestants and the Protestant Religion at Home and abroad evidenced by Transactions an Account whereof they had received from his Majesty himself by three Honorable Lords and tackt their former Remonstrance to the latter and so presented them but the former he rejected utterly and gave a long Answer to the latter but granted nothing whereof they complained as may be seen by the Answer it self printed in Wilson f. 178. and Rushworth f. 46. In the said Answer he discovered his great Concern for the Spanish Match and his Backwardness to proceed against Papists however the same is blended by specious Pretences of the Necessity of shewing Favour to the Papists here to procure the gentle Usage of the Protestants abroad VVilson's Hist f. 188. Rushw Coll. 1 pt 53 54 55. The Parliament dissolved He denied in his Answer the Rights and Priviledges of the Commons to be their Birth-right they protest them so to be he tears the Protest out of the Journal Book of the House of Commons and the sixth of January 1621. by Proclamation dissolves the Parliament And whether that were the way to recover the Palatinate or secure the Protestant Religion at home or abroad needs no great Sagacity to determine Papists discharged from Imprisonment VVilson's Hist f. 195. Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 62 63. In the twentieth Year of this Kings Reign the Prisons were opened Priests and Jesuits walked about at Noon And Gondamore who did what he pleased vaunts of four thousand Papists that his Intercession had released either to make his Service the more acceptable to his Master or to let him see how willing the King was to do any thing to advance that Match which they never intended The King was not so nice but that he could stay for * Car. Bandino Car. Lode visio a Dispensation from Rome To expedite which he wrote to some of the most active Cardinals there and received Answers from them full of alluring Hopes And that he might give some more publick Testimony of his Indulgence to the Papists the mortal Enemies of the Protestants he commanded Doctor Williams Bishop of Lincoln then Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England to pass Writs under the Great Seal to require the Judges of every Circuit to enlarge all such Papists as were imprisoned for Recusancy accordingly the Writs were issued forth under the Great Seal and the Lord-Keeper wrote to the Judges on this manner which Letter take Verbatim as printed in Wilson The Lord Keeper Williams his Letter to the Judges in Favour of the Papists VVilson's Hist f. 196. AFter my hearty Commendations to you His Majesty having resolved out of deep Reasons of State and in Expectation of like Correspondence from Foreign Princes to the Professors of our Religion to grant some Grace and Connivance to the imprisoned Papists of this Kingdom hath commanded me to pass some Writs under the Broad Seal to that purpose requiring the Judges of every Circuit to enlarge the said Prisoners according to the Tenor and Effect of the same I am to give you to understand from His Majesty how His Majesties Royal Pleasure is that upon receipt of these Writs you shall make no Niceness or Difficulty to extend that His Princely Favour to all such Papists as you shall find Prisoners in the Goals of your Circuits for any Church Recusancy whatsoever or refusing the Oath of Supremacy or dispersing Popish Books or hearing saying of Mass or any other Point of Recusancy which doth touch or concern Religion only and not Matter of State And so I bid you farewel Your Loving Friend Jo. Lincoln Westminster Coll. 2. Aug. 1622. In order to the Match with Spain the King agreed to such Articles of Religion The Spanish Match the Nature of the Articles Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 66 67. as were Satisfactory in the Judgment of the learnedest and greatest Clergy of Spain That they declared their Opinion that upon the Offer of such Conditions the Pope ought not to with-hold the Dispensation and the Pope himself was satisfied that he had in a manner done already all that was desired No wonder then that the Papists were quiet here in England and not engaged in Plots and Contrivances against the Kings Person for the Reason is plain the whole Substance of the Spanish Treaty was a Plot for ruining the Palatinate and thereby weakning in order to destroy the Protestant Interest abroad which they effected by feeding the King with the Hopes of that Match and thereby diverting him from taking the Parliaments Advice in order to recover the Palatinate You may read the whole Story in VVilson and Rushworth and when they had
and to employ the Power he left him to restablish him in the Estate and Dignitys of his Father on the 27th of March in the Twenty third Year of his Reign he gave up the Ghost From what Account I have given of Matters relating to the making the Penal Laws and the Reasons of not putting them in Execution in this Kings Reign I gather these things 1. That there is no heed to be taken to any promises made Advice given nor Oaths taken by Papists for if the Interest of the Popish Religion Intervenes the Promises Advice yea even the Oaths themselves must give way and 't is Meritorious too 2. That when it is to serve the Popish Interest they are allowed to deny the plainest truths although confest by Men in Articulo Mortis at the very point of Death 3. That whenever they are detected of any Conspiracy or Treason they immediately set their Wits to work to throw the odium of it upon some sort of Protestants or other nay sometimes they make it an essential part of the Conspiracy it self 4. That when they found themselves lost as to more private Conspiracies they involved Christendom in War to destroy the Protestant Interest upon the Colour of the Elector Palatines having Usurped the Crown of Bohemia notwithstanding he was legally Elected and made use of the Cowardise of King James to carry on that Design 5. That they want not Arts to deceive even Protestants themselves if they look not narrowly to them so much can they transform themselves into the likeness of Truth 6. That the loss of the Palatinate the differences between King James the first and his Parliaments the Spanish Treaty and at last the compleating the French Match were all carried on by Popish Intregues and to serve the Popes turn Certainly then there was good reason for the making the Penal Laws in this Kings Reign and the Parliament are greatly justified in pressing an Execution of them which had it been granted a Man may with good reason believe all the Civil Wars in the succeeding Reign had been prevented And this might lead me to show the share the Popish Party had in the beginning managing and carrying on that unhappy and ever to be lamented War but my design being only to show the reasonableness of making the Penal Laws against the Papists and there being but one Law made against them in this unfortunate Princes Reign I shall only give the grounds of making that Law and pass on to the Reign of his Son King Charles the Second CHAP. IX K. Ch. I. King Charles 1. His Accession to the Crown Bakers Chron. f. 451. Rushw Coll. 1 Pt. f. 165 167 170. KIng James the First being dead King Charles the First was immdiately Proclaimed he buried his Father the 7th of May 1625. The 13th of June in the same Year the Match between him and the French Kings daughter was consummated here in England A Chappel at Sommerset House was built for the Queen and her Family with conveniences thereunto adjoyning for Capuchin Fryers who were therein placed and had permission to walk abroad in their Religious Habits Thence forwards greater multitudes of Seminary Priests and Jesuites repaired into England out of foreign Parts then before The Parliament meet The 18th day of June the Parliament opened they after the usual Proceedings at the first sitting down Petitioned the King concerning Religion and against Papists he by his Answer gave them assurance of his real performance of what they desired in every particular Papists Pardon'd contrary to promise Rushw Coll. 1 Pt. f. 280. But notwithstanding this soon after his Majesty granted a Pardon to one Alexander Baker a Jesuite and unto ten other Papists which was gotten as there was information given by the importunity of some Foreign Ambassador and passed by immediate Warrant and was recommended by the Principal Secretary of State without the payment of the ordinary Fees. And divers Copys of Letters and other Papers found by two Justices of Peace in the House of one Mary Estmonds in Dorsetshire were stifled by the Secretarys means The Commons upon these passages made observations First that the Pardon was dated the very next day after his Answer to their Petition Secondly That the Pardon dispensed with several Laws as 21. and 27. Eliz. and 3. Jac. provided to keep the Subjects in due obedience Thirdly That the Pardon was signed by the Principal Secretary of State. The Commons therefore declared that these actings tended to the prejudice of true Religion his Majesties dishonour the discountenancing of Ministers of Justice the grief of the good People the animating of the Popish Party who by such Examples grew more proud and insolent and to the discouragement of the High Court of Parliament The Petition concerning Religion and the Kings Answer take as they are printed in Rushworths Collection First Part f. 281. To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty Most Gracious Sovereign IT being infallibly true that nothing can more establish the Throne and assure the Peace and Prosperity of the People then the unity and sincerity of Religion we your most humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of this present Parliament assembled and hold themselves bound in Conscience and Duty to represent the same to your Sacred Majesty together with the dangerous consequences of the increase of Popery in this Land and what we conceive to be the principal cause thereof and what may be the Remedies The Dangers appear in these Particulars 1. In their desperate ends being both the Subversion of the Church and State and the restlessness of their Spirits to attain these ends the Doctrine of their Teachers and Leaders perswading them that therein they do God good Service 2. Their evident and strict dependency upon such Foreign Princes as no way affect the good of your Majesty and this State. 3. The opening a way of popularity to the Ambition of any who shall adventure to make himself head of so great a Party The Principal Cause of the increase of Papists 1. The want of the due Execution of the Laws against Jesuits Seminary Priests and Popish Recusants occasioned partly by the Connivency of the State partly by defects in the Laws themselves and partly by the manifold abuse of Officers 2. The interposing of Foreign Princes by their Ambassadors and Agents in favour of them 3. Their great Concourse to the City and frequent Conferences and Conventicles there 4. The open and usual resort to the House and Chappels of Foreign Ambassadors 5. the Education of their Children in Seminaries and Houses of their Religion in Foreign Parts which of late hath been greatly multiplied and enlarged for the entertaining of the English 6. That in some places of your Realm your People be not sufficiently Instructed in the Knowledge of the true Religion 7. The Licentious Printing and Dispersing of Popish and Seditious Books 8. The Employment of Men ill affected in Religion in
made the Papists were ingaged in a most Horrid Plot against the Protestant Religion and the Parliament having now made this Act whereby the Papists are excluded from all Places of Profit and Trust it is not hard to believe that their Malice was thereby greatly heightned and their Rage very much increased against the Protestants and their Actings put it beyond doubt that it was so For this Act passed in the Year 1673. and then it is we find them deeply ingaged in contriving our Destruction and so inhumane were they that notwithstanding the late King Charles the Second's Kindness to them yet unless he would fully comply with them in the butchering his Protestant Subjects extirpating the Protestant Religion which they called a * Coleman's Tryal p. 69. Pestilent Heresie and the introducing of the Romish Superstition and Idolatry he must be taken out of the way to make room for one that would I confess I have met with very many that have owned the Dis-believing of any such Design but when I seriously reflect upon the Letters that were produced against Mr. Coleman and owned by himself to be his when I consider the Evidence that was given by all the Witnesses that proved the Horrid and Treasonable Popish Plot that was discovered in 1678. and the Agreement that there is in the Substance of the thing although there may be some Variations as to Circumstances when I consider the Witnesses were Strangers to one another that did so agree in their Testimony and that the Discovery was so sudden and the Witnesses came in so quick one after another after the Discovery that it is not to be presumed there could be any Subornation when I consider the Credit they had with the King himself and with four Parliaments when I consider the great Attempts notwithstanding to take the Odium off the Papists and cast it upon the Protestants when I consider the unwearied Pains taken by the Papists and some that are much worse because they espoused their Cause under a Protestant Vizar to lay the Murther of Sir Edmond-Bury-Godfrey at the Protestants Door and to wipe off the Stain thereof from the Papists when I consider the Methods that were taken in the late King James the Seconds his Reign so exactly pursuant to what was designed in case Charles the Second had fallen as was contrived * Either by Shooting Poison or Stobing the first of which Methods was by granting a general †The Declaration for Liberty of Conscience Designed to be published in case the Popish Plot had then taken effect you may find printed in Coleman's Trial p. 58. Liberty of Conscience and thereby deluding divers Protestants to serve a Popish Interest although against their Wills it is to me matter of Amazement that there should remain the least doubt of the Truth of that Plot in the Minds of any that are really Protestants especially when I consider that there wanted nothing in the late King James's Reign but a Parliament to take off the Penal Laws and Tests to bring that Popish Plot to the highest Perfection that the Papists ever designed and what Endeavors there were to obtain that is sufficiently known To run through the whole Series of that Popish Plot would be to draw out this Account of the Grounds of making the Penal Laws to a Length beyond what its Design can warrant which is the publick Good and therefore as a Confirmation of the Truth of that Plot and to refresh the Memory of those who perhaps are willing to forget it I shall here only insert Coleman's Letters as you will find them printed in his Tryal and also Bedloes Depositions as they were taken before and printed by Sir Francis North then Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and afterwards made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England for the good Services he had done the Crown Coleman's Letters are as followeth Mr. Coleman's First Letter SInce Father St. German has been so kind to me Coleman 's Tryal p. 44. as to recommend me to your Reverence so advantagiously as to encourage you to accept of my Correspondency I will own to him that he has done me a Favour without consulting me greater than I could have been capable of if he had advised with me because I could not then have had the Confidence to have permitted him to ask it on my Behalf And I am so sensible of the Honour you are pleased to do me that though I cannot deserve it yet to shew at least the Sense I have of it I will deal as freely and openly with you this first time as if I had had the Honour of your Acquaintance all my Life And shall make no Apology for so doing but only tell you that I know your Character perfectly well though I am not so happy as to know your Person and that I have an Opportunity of putting this Letter into the Hands of Father St. Germans Nephew for whose Integrity and Prudence he has undertaken without any sort of Hazard In order then Sir to the plainness I profess I will tell you what has formerly passed between your Reverences Predecessor Father Ferryer and my self About three Years ago when the King my Master sent a Troop of Horse Guards into his most Christian Majesties Service under the Command of my Lord Durass he sent with it an Officer called Sir William Throckmorton with whom I had a particular Intimacy and who had then very newly imbraced the Catholic Religion to him did I constantly write and by him address my self to Father Farryer The first thing of great Importance I presumed to offer him not to trouble you with lesser Matters or what passed here before and immediately after the fatal Revolution of the Kings Declaration for Liberty of Conscience to which we owe all our Miseries and Hazards was in July August and September 1673. when I constantly inculcated the great Danger the Catholic Religion and his most Christian Majesties Interest would be in at our next Sessions of Parliament which was then to be in October following at which I plainly foresaw that the King my Master would be forced to something in prejudice to his Alliance with France Which I saw so evidently and particularly that we should make Peace with Holland that I urged all the Arguments I could which to me were Demonstrations to convince your Court of that Mischief and pressed all I could to perswade his most Christian Majesty to use his utmost Endeavor to prevent that Session of our Parliament and proposed Expedients how to do it But was answered so often and so positively that his most Christian Majesty was so well assured by his Embassador here our Embassador there the Lord Arlington and even the King himself that he had no such Apprehensions at all but was fully satisfied to the contrary and looked upon what I offered as a very zealous Mistake that I was forced to give over arguing though not believing as I did
the effects of it to this very hour But nothing being done in it and seeing on the other hand that my Lord Arlington and several others endeavoured by a thousand deceits to break the good Intelligence which is between the King my Brother his most Christian Majesty and my self to the end they might deceive us all three I have thought fit to advertise you of all that is past and desire of you your assistance and friendship to prevent the Rogueries of those who have no other design then to betray the concerns of France and England and who by their pretended Service are the occasion they succeed not As to any thing more I refer you to Sir William Throgmorton and Coleman whom I have commanded to give an Account of the whole State of our affair and of the true condition of England with many others and principally my Lord Arlington's endeavours to represent to you quite otherwise then it is The two first I mentioned to you are firm to my interest so that you may Treat with them without any apprehension Coleman's Third Letter SIR I Sent your Reverence a tedious long Letter on our 29 th of September Coleman's Tryal p. 68. to inform you of the Progress of affairs for these two or three last years I having now again the opportunity of a very sure hand to conveigh this by I have sent you a Cipher because our Parliament now drawing on I may possibly have occasion to send you something which you may be willing enough to know and may be necessary for us that you should when we may want the conveniency of a Messenger When any thing occurs of more concern other than which may not be fit to be trusted even to a Cipher alone I will to make such a thing more secure write in Limon between the lines of a Letter which shall have nothing in it visible but what I care not who sees but dryed by a warm Fire shall discover what is written so that if the Letter comes to your hands and upon drying it any thing appears more then did before you may be sure no Body has seen it by the way I will not trouble you with that way of writing but upon special occasions and then I will give you a hint to direct you to look for it by concluding my visible Letter with something of Fire or Burning by which mark you may please to know that there is something underneath and how my Letter is to be used to find it out We have hear a mighty Work upon our Hands no less then the Conversion of three Kingdoms and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a Pestileat Heresie which has domineered over great part of this Nothern World a long time 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 alike to be great So that it imports us to get all the Aid and Assistance we can for the Harvest is great and the Labourers but few that which we rely upon most next to God Almighty's providence and the favour of my Master the Duke is the mighty mind of his most Christian Majesty whose generous Soul inclines him to great undertakings which being managed by your Reverence's exemplary Piety and Prudence will certainly make him look upon this as most suitable to himself and best becoming his Power and thoughts so that 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 Catholic Religion that his Ministers cannot give him better advice even in a Politic Sence abstracting from the considerations of the next World 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 That 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 but we are a little unhappy in this that we cannot press his Majesty by his present Minister here upon these latter Arguments which are most strong but only upon the first Mr. Rouvigny's sence and ours differing very much upon them though we agree perfectly upon the rest And indeed though he be a very able Man as to his Masters Service in things where Religion is not concerned yet I believe it were much more happy considering the posture he is now in and his temper were of such a sort that we might deal clearly with him throughout and not be forced to stop short in a discourse of Consequence and leave the most material part out because we know it will shock his particular Opinion and so perhaps meet with dislike and Opposition though never so necessary to the main concern I am afraid we shall find too much reason for this Complaint in this next Session of Parliament for had we had one here from his most Christian Majesty who had taken the whole business to Heart and who would have represented the State of our Case truly as it is to his Master I do not doubt but his most Christian Majesty would have engaged himself further in the affair then at present I fear he has done and by his approbation have given such Councels as have been offered to his R. H. by those few Catholics who have access to him and who are bent to serve him and advance the Catholic Religion with all their might and might have more Credit with his R. H. then I fear they have found and have assisted them also with his Purse as far as 10000. Crowns or some such Sum which to him is very inconsiderable but would have been to them of greater use than can be imagined towards gaining others to help them or at least not to oppose them If we had been so happy as to have had his most Christian Majesty with us to this Degree I would have answered with my Life for such success this Sessions as would have put the Interest of the Catholic Religion his R. H. and his most Christian Majesty out of all Danger for the time to come But wanting those helps of recommending those necessary Councels which have been given his Royal Highness in such manner as to make him think them worth his accepting and fit to Govern himself by and of those advantages which a little Mony well managed would have gained us I am afraid we shall not be much better at the end of this
without any evasion equivocation or mental reservation whatsoever and without any dispensation already granted me for this purpose by the Pope or any other Authority or Person whatsoever or without any hope of any such dispensation from any Person or Authority whatsoever or without thinking that I am or can be acquitted before God or Man or absolved of this Declaration or any Part thereof although the Pope or any other Person or Persons or Power whatsoever should dispence with or annul the same or declare that it was null and void from the beginning The same Oaths and Declarations to be made in every succeeding Parliament in full House that all members of Parliament not swearing and declaring as aforesaid and Popish Recusants convict are forbidden the Kings and Queens presence That if any Member of the House of Peers or Commons do any thing contrary to this Act or shall offend in any of the Cases aforesaid such Member should be thenceforth judged a Popish Recusant Convict and should be disabled to hold or execute any Office in any of his Majesties Dominions and likewise to sit and â—ote in either House of Parliament or make his Proxy in the House of Peers or in prosecute any suit in Law or Equity or to be Guardian to a Child or Executor or Administrator to any Person and uncapable of any Legacy Deed or Gift and should fofeit for every willful offence against this Act the sum of Five hundred Pounds to be recovered by whomsoever would sue for the same and to be prosecuted in any of his Majesties Courts where no Essoin Protection or Wager of Law should lye that either House of Parliament may cause any of their Members to swear and subscribe as aforesaid and upon their sitting without taking the same they should be adjudged disabled in Law to all intents whatsoever to sit or vote in the said Houses during that Parliament That the Places of Members of the House of Commons disabled to vote should be void and new Writs issue out for new Elections that the King and Queens sworn Servants should swear as aforesaid and subscribe the Declaration and that if after refusal of the same they presumed to come into their Majesties presence they should be disabled to hold any place and incur the Penalties aforesaid Nothing contained in this Act to relate to the Subjects of the King of Portugal being in the Queen Dowagers service not exceeding the number of eighteen at one time That during the taking the Oaths all proceedings in Parliament should cease and the Oaths c. and Names of the Persons who should take them should be entred in Parchment Rolls and for every such entry not above the sum of Twelve pence to be paid This Act not to extend to such who come into the King or Queens presence being Licensed by six Privy-Counsellors upon some urgent occasion therein to be expressed and such License not to exceed Ten days at a time and not above Thirty days in a Year That all offenders against this Act that shall take the said Oaths c. shall be discharged and freed from all Penalties and Incapacities incurred thereby but such freedom and discharge not to extend to restore any such person to any office or place filled upon voidance by this Act nor to any other Officer till after the Expiration of one Year from taking the said Oath c. nor to discarge the said forfeiture of Five hundred Pounds as aforesaid nothing in this Act to extend to the then Duke of York Thus I have given an Historical Account of the making of these Laws and of the Laws themselves and as they were highly reasonable in their Making so certainly it is as highly reasonable to continue them if the attemps of the Popish party under King James the Second be duly weighed which were carried so far that the Protestant Religion had been inevitably destroyed with the Professors thereof had not we been redeemed out of their hands by the Conduct and Valour of his present Majesty to whom under God we owe our Deliverance and therefore can never sufficiently express our gratitude He hath given sufficient Testimony of his Zeal for the Protestant Religion and therefore it is reasonable to believe that he will readily concur to the Making any Laws that shall be thought fit to preserve it I know of but one and that is Castration of all Priests and Jesuites when ever they are found here and breeding up the Children of Papists in the Protestant Religion Which I humbly offer to the Consideration of the Parliament for I believe this will terrify them more than Gallows or Galleys And how necessary it is for this Kingdom to rid themselves of this Vermin every one sees but they that are either Papists or so blinded with hopes or expectations of the late Kings return that they neither can nor will see And now methinks I hear some of the Church of England tell me I have shewn the reasonableness of the Laws against the Papists but have not said one word in vindication of the Laws against the Dissenters who have been as violent against the Church of England as ever the Papists were and the Laws against them are equally as just To this I give this Answer that I ways alwas of Opinion that the differences between the Church of England and the Dissenters have been made and carried on by the Papists And I wish there were not too much truth in it that the Papists influenced the Counsels when the Laws were made against the Dissenters I am sure a very Learned Pen * Dr. Sherlock of the Church England own'd the putting them in severe Execution the last seven or eight years to have proceeded from Popish Councils And I doubt not but the severe usage of the Church of England by the Dissenters when in Power was promoted by the same Party Since therefore the Papists can transform themselves into all shapes to promote differences amongst Protestants in order to their Ruine it can't certainly but be honest Policy for the Protestants in order to the preservation of the whole to unite against them as the common Enemy And therefore as we who are Lawyers never love to go to Law especially with one another so the Protestants in England under the denomination of the Church of England and Dissenter being now pretty even as to severities on both hands let them no more quarrel but shake hands and be friends which will tend more to the preservation of the true Religion amongst us than all the Laws that can be made FINIS
An Historical ACCOUNT Of Making the PENAL LAWS By the PAPISTS against the PROTESTANTS And by the PROTESTANTS against the PAPISTS WHEREIN The true Ground and Reason of Making the Laws is given the PAPISTS most Barbarous Usuage of the PROTESTANTS here in England under a Colour of Law set forth and the Reformation Vindicated from the Imputation of being Cruel and Bloody unjustly cast upon it by those of the Romish Communion By Samuel Blackerby Barrister of Grays-Inn Summa est ratio quae pro Religione facit Co. 5.14 b. LONDON Printed for William Churchill at the Black-Lyon in St. Paul's Church-Yard and John Weld at the Crown between the Temple-Gates in Fleet-Street MDCLXXXIX Licensed By Command of the Right Honorable the Earl of Shrewsbury Principal Secretary of State. The 10 th of May 1689. JA. VERNON To the Right Honorable CHARLES EARL of MONMOUTH VISCOUNT MORDANT OF AVILAND BARON of RIGATE ONE of their MAJESTIES most Honorable PRIVY-COUNCIL And the FIRST of the LORDS COMMISSIONERS Of their MAJESTIES TREASURY c. This Historical Account of making these Penal Laws is most humbly Dedicated by the Author His Lordships Most Humble and most Obedient Servant AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT Of making the Penal Laws By the Papists against the Protestants and by the Protestants against the Papists CHAP. I. Rich. II. BY the 1 Mirror of Justices f. 152. Common Law of England the punishment of Heresie was burning the Heretick by vertue of the Writ de Haeretico comburendo 2 Fitz. Natur. Brev. f. 269. which was first to issue What was accounted Heresie before the time of Ed. the 3 d I shall not enquire That the Church of Rome hath always termed those Hereticks who have opposed her Innovasions and Corruptions can't be denyed and is sufficient to my purpose The first of these that apppeared in England was John Wickliffe in the latter end of the Reign of King Ed. the 3 d in the year 1371. And therefore there was no occasion for putting the Law in Execution till his time but upon his appearance he Preaching and Teaching several Doctrines that tended to a Reformation the Romish Clergy fond of their Diana presently endeavours to silence him which they had done had not the favour of some great men at that time stopt their proceedings against him so that notwithstanding their Rage and Malice against him he at last dyed in his Bed But such an Implacable Hatred they bore to his Memory because he had begun to dispel those Clouds of Darkness and Ignorance with which this Church of England was then overspread that they 3 Ex actis Consilii Constan Procured a Decree of the Synod of Constance for the taking up his Body and Bones to be burnt one and forty years after he was buried for being an obstinate Heretick In obedience to which Decree the Popish Clergy in the time of King Richard the 2 d took up his Bones out of his Grave and burnt them and cast the Ashes into a River Such Enemies were they then to Christ's Religion that they would not suffer the Ashes of this great Luminary to rest lest as they were superstitious enough to think they should again revive to make a further discovery of their Works of Darkness In this 4 Trussel's Continuation of Daniel's History of England fol. 49. King's Reign execution by Fire was first put in practice within this Realm for opposing the Superstition and Idolatry of the Church of Rome Before this time there being no Statute to punish the Oppugners of the Romish Innovasions and Corruptions in matters of Doctrine and Worship The Clergy of the Romish Church made use of the weakness of R. 2. and prevailed with him to consent to the owning a supposititious Law of their own contriving and drawing up without the consent of the Commons Co. Inst 3. p. fol. 40 41. That Commissions should be by the Lord Chancellor made and directed to Sheriffs and others to arrest such as should be certified into the Chancery by the Bishops and Prelates to be Preachers of Heresie and notorious Errors their Fautors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in strong Prison until they would justifie themselves to the Law of Holy Church Which Act of Parliament was the first that was made against them that preached against the Church of Rome under the Notion of their being Hereticks who were then called Wicklivites The Act it self I have here inserted as it is Printed in Rastal's Statutes 5 R. 2. Ca. 5. Rast Stat. f. 140. The Wicklivites to be imprisoned Forasmuch as it is openly known that there be divers evil persons within the Realm going from County to County and from Town to Town in certain habits under dissimulation of great Holyness and without the Lycens e of the Ordinacies of the places or other sufficient Authority Preaching daily not only in Churches and Church-yards but also in Markets Fairs and other open places where a great Congregation of people is divers Sermons containing Heresies and notorious Errors to the great embleamishing of the Christian Faith and destruction of the Laws and of the estate of Holy Church to the great peril of the souls of the people and of all the Realm of England as more plainly is found and sufficiently proved before the Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishops and other Prelates Masters of Divinity and Doctors of canon and of civil Law and a great part of the Clergy of the said Realm especially assembled for this cause which persons do also preach divers matters of slander to engender discord and dissention betwixt divers Estates of the said Realm as well Spiritual as Temporal in exciting of the people to the great peril of all the Realm which Preachers cited or summoned before the Ordinaries of the places there to answer of that whereof they be Impeached will not obey to their Summons and Commandments nor care not for their Monitions nor Censures of the Holy Church but expresly despise them and moreover by their subtil and ingenious words do draw the people to hear their Sermons and do maintain them in their Errors by strong hand and by great Routs It is ordained and assented in this present Parliament that the King's Commissions be made and directed to the Sheriffs and other Ministers of our Soveraign Lord the King or other sufficient persons Learned and according to the Certifications of the Prelates thereof to be made in the Chancery from time to time to arrest all such Preachers and also their Fautors Maintainers and Abettors and to hold them in Arrest and strong Prison till they will justifie them according to the Law and Reason of Holy Church and the King will and commandeth That the Chancellor make such Commissions at all times that he by the Prelates or any of them shall be certified and thereof required as is aforesaid By this Act it appears that there were then several persons who would not
submit themselves to the Romish Bishops and Prelates and the Histories of those times acquaint us that they were the Professors of the true Religion afterwards called Protestants By Colour of this supposed Act certain persons that held that Images were not to be worshipped Co. Inst 3 d. fol. 40. and such like Doctrines which the Protestants now hold were detained and tormented in Prison till they were compelled before the Masters of Divinity as they called themselves to take an Oath and did swear to worship Images which was against the Moral and Eternal Law of Almighty God. This these Popish Bishops and Prelates did by vertue of this Law which indeed was none for it was onely signed by the King at the instance of the Bishops and Prelates and never assented to by the Commons and therefore in the next Parliament the Commons preferred a Bill reciting the said supposed Act and constantly affirmed that they never assented thereunto and therefore desired that the same might be made void for they protested that it was never their intent to be justified and to bind themselves and their Successors to the Prelates more than their Ancestors had done in times past whereto the King gave his Royal Assent in these words y pleist au Roy. But in the Proclamation of the Acts of that Parliament Co. 12.58 and 3. Inst f. 41. which was 6. R. 2. the said Act of 6. R. 2. whereby the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was declared to be void is omitted and afterwards the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. ca. 5. was continually printed and looked on as a Good Law and the said Act of 6. R. 2. was by the Prelates from time to time kept from the Print Such pious Frauds have been always practised by the Popish Clergy and always found necessary for the supporting of the credit of that Church CHAP. II. Hen. IV. THe Rage of the Popish Clergy against the Wicklivites or Professors of the true Religion increasing with the increase of the light of the Gospel and they fearing that the said contrivance might be detected to the end that they might be yet more able effectually if it were possible to suppress the truth when they had requited R. 2. for granting them that supposed Law with deposing him and assisting H. 4. to usurp the Crown they in the 2 d. H. 4. apply themselves to him for a further Law for the preservation of the Catholick Faith as they called it against Christ's true Religion by them miscalled Heresie and he in gratitude to them in assisting him in his coming to the Crown granted them a Law to their Hearts content which follows as it is printed in Rastal 's Statutes in these words Whereas it is shewed to our Soveraign Lord the King on the behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of this Realm of England in this present Parliament 2 H. 4. ca. 15. Rast Stat. f. 180. By this Law the Professors of the true Religion were to be burnt as Hereticks that although the Catholick Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the holy Church sufficiently determined declared and approved hath been hitherto by good and holy and most noble Progenitors of our Soveraign Lord the King in the said Realm amongst all the Realms of the World most devoutly observed and the Church of England by his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors to the honour of God and of the whole Realm aforesaid laudably endowed and in her Rights and Liberties sustained without that that the same Faith or the said Church was hurt or grievously oppressed or else perturbed by any perverse Doctrine or Wicked Heretical or Erronious Opinions Yet nevertheless divers false and perverse people of a certain new Sect of the Faith of the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same damnably thinking and against the Law of God and of the Church usurping the Office of Preaching do perversly and malitiously in divers places within the said Realm under the colour of dissembled Holiness preach and teach these dayes openly and privily divers new Doctrines and wicked heretical and eronious Opinions contrary to the same Faith and blessed determinations of the Holy Church And of such Sect and wicked Doctrine and Opinions they make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies they hold and exercise Schools they make and write Books they do wickedly instruct and informe people and as much as they may excite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection and maketh great strife and division among the people and other Enormities horribly to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit in subversion of the said Catholick Faith and Doctrine of the Holy Church in diminution of God's Honour and also in destruction of the Estates Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England by which Sect and wicked and false Preachings Doctrines and Opinions of the said false and perverse people not only most greatest peril of the Souls but also many other harts flanders and perils which God prohibit might come to this Realm unless it be the more plentifully and speedily holpen by the King's Majesty in this behalf namely whereas the Diocesans of the said Realm cannot by their Iurisdiction Spiritual without aid of the said Royal Majesty sufficiently correct the said false and perverse people nor refrain their malice because the said false and perverse people do go from Diocess to Diocess and will not appear before the said Diocesans but the same Diocesans and their Iurisdiction Spiritual and the Keys of the Church with the Censures of the same do utterly contemn and despise and so their wicked Preachings and Doctrines doth from day to day continue and exercise to the hatred of Right and Reason and utter destruction of Order and good Rule Vpon which Novelties and Excesses above rehersed the Prelates and Clergy aforesaid and also the Commons of the said Realm being in the said Parliament praying our Soveraign Lord the King that his Royal Highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient Remedy The same our Soveraign Lord the King gratiously considering the premises and also the laudable steps of his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors for the conservation of the said Catholick Faith and sustentation of God's Honour and also the safeguard of the Estates Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England to the laud of God and merit of our said Soveraign Lord the King and prosperity and honour of all the said Realm and for the eschewing of such Dissentions divisions hurts slanders and perils in time to come and that this wicked Sect preachings doctrines and Opinions should from henceforth cease and be utterly destroyed by the assent of the States and other discreet men of the Realm being in the said Parliament hath Granted Established and Ordained from henceforth and firmly to be observed That none within the said Realm or any other Dominions subject to his Royal Majesty presume to preach openly
or privily without the Lycense of the Diocesan of the same place first required and obtained Curates in their own Churches and persons hitherto priviledged and other of the Cannon Law granted only except Nor that none from henceforth any thing preach hold teach or instruct openly or privily or make or write any Book contrary to the Catholick Faith or determination of the Holy Church nor of such Sect and wicked Doctrines and Opinions shall make any Conventicles or in any wise hold or exercise Schools and also that none from henceforth in any wise favour such preacher or maker of any such and like Conventicles or holding or exercising of Schools or making or writing such Books or so teaching informing or exciting the people nor any of them maintain or any wise sustain and that all and singular having such Books or any Writings of such wicked doctrines and opinions shall really with effect deliver or cause to be deliverd all such Books and Writings to the Dyocesan of the same place within forty days from the time of the Proclamation of this Ordinance and Statute And if any person or persons of whatsoever kind estate or condition that he or they be from henceforth do attempt against the Royal Ordinance and Statute aforesaid in the premises or in any of them or such books in the forme aforesaid do not deliver then the Diocesan of the same place in his Dyocess such person or persons in this behalf defamed or evidently suspected and every of them may by the Authority of the said Ordinance and Statute cause to be arrested and under safe custody in his prisons to be detained till he or they of the Articles laid to him or them in this behalf do canonically purge him or themselves or else such wicked Sect Doctrines Preachings and Heretical and Erroneous Opinions do abjure according as the Laws of the Church do require so that the said Diocesan by himself or his Commissaries do openly and judiciously proceed against such persons so arrested and remaining under his safe Custody to all effect of the Law and determine that same business according to the Canonical Decrees within three months after the said arrest any lawful impediment ceasing And if any person in any case above expressed be before the Diocesan of the place or his Commissaries Canonically convict then the same Diocesan may do to be kept in his prison the said person so convict for the manner of his default and after the quality of the offence according and as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and moreover to put the same person to the secular Court except in cases where he according to the Canonical Decree ought to be left to pay to our Soveraign Lord the King his pecuniar fine according as the same fine shall seem competent to the Diocesan for the manner and quality of the offence in which case the same Diocesan shall be bound to certifie the King of the same Fine in his Exchequer by his Letters Patents sealed with his seal to the effect that such Fine by the King's Authority may be required and levyed to his use of the goods of the same person so convict And if any person within the said Realm and Dominion upon the said wicked preachings doctrines opinions schools and heretical and erroneous informations or any of them be before the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries sententially convict and the same wicked Sect preachings doctrines and opinions schools and informations do refuse duely to abjure Or by the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries after the abjuration made by the same person pronounced fall into relaps so that according to the holy Canons he ought to be left to the secular Court whereupon credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place or to his Commissaries in this behalf then the Sheriff of the County of the same place and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff or Mayor and Bayliffs of the City Town and Burrough of the same County next to the same Diocesan or the said Commissaries shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences when they by the same Diocesan or his Commissaries shall be required and they the same persons and every of them after such sentence promulgate shall receive and them before the people in a high place do to be burnt that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of other whereby no such wicked Doctrine and Heretical and Erronious Opinions nor their Authors and Fautors in the said Realm and Dominions against the Catholick Faith Christian Law and Determination of the holy Church which God prohibit be sustained or in any wise suffered in which all and singular the premises concerning the said Ordinance and Statute the Sheriffs Mayors and Bayliffs of the said Counties Cities Burroughs and Towns shall be attending aiding and supporting to the said Diocesans and their Commissaries From the Preamble of which Act of Parliament and the Act it self I observe three things 1 st That it being soon after the death of Wickliffe the persons there mentioned to have had a new Faith about the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same and that Preached without authority that gathered Conventicles taught Schools and wrote Books against the Catholick Faith with many other hainous aggravations had been the followers of Wickliff and were then of John Huss and Jerom of Prague and the rest of the Reformers from Popery and were carrying on that Blessed Work as fast as they could 2ly That the end and Design of this Law was That that Sect as the Act calls them their Preachings Doctrines and Opinions should from thenceforth Cease and be utterly destroyed And 3dly That in order thereunto by this Statute The Sheriffs or other Officers were immediately to proceed to the burning of Hereticks i. e. Protestants without any Writ or Warrant from the King without which Writ as I observed before they could not proceed to burn any Person and accordingly they proceed in burning the Professors of the true Religion all the Reign of King H. the 4th CHAP. III. Hen. V. IN the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the 5th by reason of a pretended Conspiracy a more severe Act was made against the Professors of the true Religion whom they then called Lollards by which Act all Officers of State Judges By this Law the Lollards or Professors of the true Religion forfeit real and personal Estate to the King. Justices of the Peace Mayors Sheriffs and Bailiffs were to be sworn when they took their Imployments to use their whole Power and Diligence to destroy all Heresie and Errors called Lollardies and to assisst the Ordinaries and their Commissaries in their Proceedings against them and that the Lollards should forfeit all the Lands they held in Fee simple and their Goods and Chattels to the King. Which Act that the Papists may not have the least colour to contradict what I say I
ten days if he may by any means for sickness and every Ordinary shall have sufficient Commissaries or Commissary dwelling in every County in a place notable so that if any such person so indicted be taken that the said Commissaries or Commissary may be warned in the notable place where he dwelleth by the Sheriff or his Officers to come to the King's Iayl in the same County there to receive the same persons so indicted by Indentures as before And that in the inquest in this case to be taken the Sheriffs and other Officers to whom it belongeth shall do to be Impannel'd good and sufficient persons not suspected nor procured that is to say that every of them which shall be so Empanell'd in such Inquest have within the Realm of England an hundred Shillings of Lands Tenements or of Rent by the year upon pain to lose to the King's use 10 l. and they which shall be Impannell'd in such Inquests in Wales every of them shall have to the value of 40 s. by year and if any such person be arrested be it by the Ordinary or by the King's Officers or Ministers and escape or break the prison before that he be acquit before the Ordinary the Goods and Chattels which he had the day of such arrest shall be forfeit to the King and his Lands and Tenements which he had the same day seized also in the King's hands the King shall have the profits thereof from the same day until he be yeilden to the prison from which he escaped and that the aforesaid Iustices have full power to enquire of all such Escapes breaking of Prison and also of Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels of such persons so indicted provided also that if any such person indicted do not return to the said prison and dieth not convict it shall be lawful to his Heirs to enter into the Lands and Tenements of their Ancestor without any other pursuit making to the King for this cause and that all they which have Liberties and Franchises Royal in England as in the County of Chester the County and Liberty of Durham and other like and also the Lords which have Iurisdiction and Franchises Royal in Wales where the King's Writs do not run have power to execute and put in due execution these Articles in all points by them or by their Officers in like manner as the Iustices and other the King's Officers before declared should do By which Act it plainly appears that the Professors of the true Religion were not only to suffer in their own persons by being most inhumanly burnt but their very Wives and Children must feel the effects of Popish Cruelty having nothing left by this Law whereby to support their Families CHAP. IV. Hen. VIII THE three Laws in the precedent Chapters mentioned were put in severe Execution during the Reigns of R. 2. H. 4. H. 5. H. 6. E. 4. R. 3. H. 7. and to the twenty fifth year of Henry the 8 th during which time the Whore of Babylon made her self drunk with the Blood of the Saints not only halling them to prison but burning their Persons and ruining their whole Families In which time divers were Martyred purely to please and gratifie the Popish Clergy for whatever they said was Heresie must be so upon which Account they run the Persecution so high that in 25 H. 8. about which time the Professors of the true Religion were first called Protestants the Parliament began to consider That Heresie was no where defined and made an Act of Parliament for the Punishment of Heresie but by it repealed the Statute of 2 H. 4. ca. 15. the preamble of which Act doth declare That the Clergy did upon their suggestions obtain the said Act 25 H. 8. ca. 14. Rast Stat. fo 537. By this Law Protestants were to abjere or be burnt but that the same did not in any part thereof declare what was Heresie and that the word Canonical Sanctions are so general that it was difficult to avoid the Penalties of the Act in case he should be examined upon captious interrogatories as the Ordinaries did then use to persons suspect of Heresies and that all such proceedings were against the antient Laws of the Kingdom and for those reasons did repeal the said Act of 2 H. 4. ca. 15. and for redress of Heresie did establish 5 R. 2.5 and 2 H. 5.7 and did enact that Sheriffs in their Turns and Stewards in their Leets Rapes and Wapentakes should have Authority to enquire of Hereticks and every such Presentment made in any Turn Leet Co. Inst 2.658 Bulst 3.51 c. concerning Hereticks should be certified to the Ordinary and every person presented or indicted of any Heresie or duly accused by two lawful Witnesses might be cited arrested or taken by an Ordinary or other of the King's Subjects and committed to the Ordinary to answer in open Court and being convict should abjure his Heresies and refusing so to do or falling into a relapse should be burnt in an open place for Example of others By this Act indeed some part of the Common Law as to the Tryal of the Parties guilty seems to be restored but they could not yet think of parting with the severity of the Penalties I mean burning their Persons and confiscating their Estates and that the World might at length know who were deemed Hereticks and who not for before it was no where defined what Heresie was in the 31 st of H. 8. ca. 14. 31 H. 8. ca. 14. Rast Stat. fol. 652. By this Law Protestants are made Traytors Felons and guilty of a premunire An Act of Parliament was made called an Act for abolishing of Opinions in certain Articles concerning Christian Religion six Articles were agreed on and consented to viz. 1. That in the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty word it being spoken by the Priest is present really under the form of Bread and Wine the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesu Christ Conceived of the Virgin Mary and that after the Consecration there remaineth no substance of Bread or Wine nor any other substance but the substance of Christ God and Man. 2. That the Communion in both kinds is not necessary ad salutem by the Law of God to all persons and that it is to be believed and not doubted of but that in the Flesh under the form of Bread is the very Blood and with the Blood under the form of Wine is the very Flesh as well a part as though they were both together 3. That Priests after the Order of Priesthood received may not marry by the Law of God. 4. That Vows of Chastity Widdowhood by Man or Woman made to God advisedly ought to be deserved by the Law of God and that it exempts them from other Liberties of Christian People which without that they might enjoy 5. That it is meet and necessary that private Masses be continued and
minding the Governance and Order of his most loving Subjects 1 Ed. 6. ca. 1. Rast Stat. f. 902. The Administration of the Lords Supper restored and the punishment inflicted on despisers and neglecters of it more moderate than what the Papists inflicted on the Protestants to be in most perfect unity and concord in all things and in especial in the true Faith and Religion of God and wishing the same to be brought about with all Clemency and Mercy on his Highness part towards them as his most Princely Serenity and Majesty hath already declared by evident proof to the intent that his most loving Subjects provoked by Clemency and Goodness of their Prince and King should study rather for love than fear to do their duties first to Almighty God and then to him and the Commonwealth nourishing concord and love amongst themselves yet considered and perceived that in a Multitude all were not of that sort that Reason and the Knowledge of their Duty could move them from Offences but many had need of some bridle of fear and that same were men most contentious and arrogant for the most part or else most dlind and ignorant by the means of which sort of men many things well and godly instituted and to the Edification of many were perverted and abused and turned to their own and others great loss and hindrance and sometime to extream destruction the which doth appear in nothing more or sooner than in matters of Religion and in the great and high Mysteries thereof and particularly instanceth in the most comfortable Sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour Iesus Christ and sets forth that the same was Instituted by Christ himself the words of the Institution and for what end and then saith that notwithstanding this the said Sacrament had been marvelously abused by such manner of men before rehearsed who of wickedness or else of ignorance and want of learning for certain abuses then-to-fore committed of some in misusing thereof had condemned in their hearts and speech the whole thing and contemptuously depraved despised or reviled the same most holy and blessed Sacrament and not only disputed and reasoned unreverently and ungodly of that most high Mystery but also in their Sermons Preachings Readings Lectures Communications Arguments Talks Songs Plays or Iests name or call it by such vile and unseemly words as Christian Ears do abhor to hear rehearsed From this preamble I gather that the Popish Clergy had been greatly guilty of defaming the administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as used by the Protestants according to our Saviour's Institution and that this Law was made to inhibit such defamations and to effect the same with as much Clemency and Gentleness as the nature of the thing and the circumstances of time would bear as will appear by what was Enacted for Reformation of such abuse which was That whoever was guilty of the like abuse after the time in the Act for that purpose mentioned should be imprisoned and make fine and ransome at the King's Will and Pleasure That three Justices of the Peace at least whereof one to be of the Quorum should have power to take Informations and Accusations by the Oaths and Depositions of two able honest and lawful Persons at the least and then to trye the party accused by a Jury at their Quarter Sessions From which I observe First that the Reformers did not make any Offence relating to the Sacrament high Treason as the Papists had done denying Transubstantiation 2. That they did not leave it to the Clergy to examine in a Summary way and convict and then deliver the Offender over to the Secular power to be burnt but left the Party to be accused by Legal Witnesses and Tryed by a Jury of Honest and Legal Men according to the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Nay 3 dly They were so far from restraining the party accused of his Liberty That it is particularly provided by the said Statute that they might take Bail for his appearance After which it was Enacted by the same Act and which I desire you to take in Doctor Burnet's own words That it being more agreeable to Christ's first Institution and the practice of the Church for five hundred years after Christ Hist Reform pt 2. p. 41. that the Sacrament should be given in both the kinds of Bread and Wine than in one kind only it should be commonly given in both kinds except necessity did otherwise require and it being also more agreeable to the first Institution and the Primitive Practice that the People should receive with the Priest than that the Priest should receive it alone Therefore the day before every Sacrament an Exhortation was to be made to the People to prepare themselves for it in which the benefits and dangers of worthy and unworthy Receiving were to be expressed and the Priests were not without a lawful Cause to deny it to any who humbly asked it From which I observe That this Act was made to restore the Administration of the Lords Supper to its Antient and Primitive usage in both kinds with the Priest and that the Priest had not power to refuse giving it to any without just ground and that however here is no Penalty annexed either Spiritual or Temporal Several other Laws were made in order to carrying on the Reformation which inflicted no Penalty upon the Popish Clergy or Layety but were made for the well governing the Church of England as it stood then Reformed and put it out of the power of the Papists to hurt them Rast Stat. f. 904. as the 1 E. 6.2 for the Election of Bishops 1 Ed. 6.12 for repealing 5 R. 2.6 2 H. 5.7.25 H. 8.14.31 H. 8.14 34 H. 8.1 and 35 H. 8.5 Which were the severe Laws that the Popish Bishops and Prelates had obtained against the Professors of the true Religion whom they had nick-named in derision Lollards Hereticks and Gospellers When the Reformation in Edward the 6 th's time had restored the right Administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper they rested for two years before they reformed the Liturgy to the end they might by degrees and with all Acts of Clemency and Kindness draw the Papists off from their Innovations and Corruptions but finding that would not do in the 3 d. year of Ed. 6. An Act for Vniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm was made and enjoyned upon much milder penalties than any Laws relating to Religion that were made by the Papists for the Excellency of the Preamble of which Act and that the truth of the Penalties may appear I have inserted both 23 E. 6. Ca. 1. Rast Stat. f. 932. An Act for Vniformity upon mild Penaltus injoyned Whereas long time there hath been had in this Realm of England and in Wales divers forms of Common-Prayer commonly called the Service of the Church that is to say the use of Sarum of York of
Bangor and of Lincoln and besides the same now of late much more divers and sundry forms and fashions have been used in the Cathedral and Parish Churches of England and Wales as well concerning the Mattens or Morning Prayer and the Even-Song as concerning the Holy Communion commonly called the Mass with divers and sundry Rites and Ceremonies concerning the same and in the administration of other Sacraments in the Church and as the Doers and Executors of the said Rights and Ceremonies in other form than of late years they have been used were pleased therewith so others not using the same Rites and Ceremonies were thereby greatly offended and albeit the King's Majesty with the Advice of his most entirely beloved Vncle the Lord Protector and other of his Highness Council hath therefore divers times assayed to stay Innovations or new Rites concerning the premises yet the same hath not had such good success as his Highness required in that behalf whereupon his Highness by the most prudent advice aforesaid being pleased to bear with the frailty and weakness of his Subjects in that behalf of his great Clemency hath not been only content to abstain from punishment of those that have offended in that behalf for that his Highness taketh that they did it of a good Zeal but also to the intent an uniform quiet and Godly Order should be had concerning the premises hath appointed the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and certain of the most learned and Discreet Bishops and other Learned Men of this Realm to consider and ponder the premises and there upon having as well eye and respect to the most sincere and pure Christian Religion taught by the Scripture as to the usages in the Primitive Church should draw and make one convenient and meet order right and fashion of Common and open Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments to be had and used in his Majesties Realm of England and in Wales the which at this time by the aid of the Holy Ghost with one Vniform Agreement is of them concluded set forth and delivered to his Highness to his great comfort and quietness of mind in a Book intituled The Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies after the use of the Church of England From which Preamble I observe 1 st That notwithstanding all the endeavours used by the King and his Council to stay Innovations and throughly to reform the Administration of the Sacraments of the Lord's Supper divers of his Subjects would not comply 2 dly That their non-complyance was attributed to their frailty and weakness And 3 dly that his Clemency was such towards them that he abstained from punishing them because he took it that they did it of a good Zeal This Book of Common-Prayer being compiled further to shew tenderness to the Papists it was Enacted That all and singular person and persons that had offended concerning the premises other then such person and persons as were then in the Tower of London or in the Fleet should be pardoned thereof and that all and singular Ministers in any Cathedral or Parish Church or other place within this Realm of England Wales Callis and in the Marches of the same or other the King's Dominions should from and after the Feast of Pentecost then next coming be bounden to say and use the Matins Evensong celebration of the Lord's Supper commonly called the Mass and Administration of each of the Sacraments and all their common and open Prayer in such Order and Form as is before mention'd in the said Book and none other or otherwise and it was further Enacted That if any manner of Parson Vicar or other whatsoever Minister that ought or should sing or say Common-Prayer mentioned in the said Book or Minister the Sacraments should after the time therein prefixt refuse to use the said Common-Prayers or to Minister the Sacraments in such Cathedral or Parish Church or other places as he should or minister the same in such Order and Form as they be mentioned and set forth in the said Book or should use wilfully and obstinately standing in the same any other Rite Ceremony Order Form or manner of Mass openly or privily or Mattins Evensong Administration of the Sacraments or other open Prayer then is mentioned and set forth in the said Book Open Prayer in and throughout this Act is meant that Prayer which is for others to come unto or heat either in common Churches or private Chappels or Oratories commonly called the Service of the Church or should Preach Declare or speak any thing in derogation or depraving of the said Book or any thing therein contained or of any part thereof and should be thereof lawfully convicted according to the Laws of this Realm by verdict of twelve men or by his own Confession or by the notorious Evidence of the Fact should lose and forfeit to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors for his first Offence the profits of such one of his Spiritual Benefites or Promotions as it shall please the King's Highness to Assign or appoint coming or arising in one whole year next after this Conviction And also should suffer six Months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprize And should for his second offence suffer a years Imprisonment and be deprived ipso facto of all his Spiritual Promotions and that it should be lawful to all Patrons Donors and Grantors of all and singular the same Spiritual Promotions to present to the same any other able Clerk in like manner and form as though the Party so offending were dead And for the third offence should suffer Imprisonment during his life And that Lay persons offending in the premises should for the first offence suffer Imprisonment during six Months without Bail or Mainprize and for his second offence suffer Imprsonment during his Life And it is further thereby Enacted that if any person should in any Interludes Plays Songs Rhymes or by other open words declare or speak any thing in the derogation depraving or despising of the same Book or of any thing therein contained or any part thereof or should by open Fact Deed or by open thréatnings compel or cause or otherwise procure or Maintain any Parson Vicar or other Minister in any Cathedral or Parish Church or Chappel or in any other place to sing or to say any common or open Prayer or to Minister any Sacrament otherwise or in any other manner or form than is mentioned in the said Book or that by any of the said means shall lawfully interrupt or let any Parson Vicar or other Minister in any Cathedral or Parish Church Chappel or any other place to sing and say common and open prayer or to minister the Sacraments or any of them in such manner and form as is mentioned in the said Book they should forfeit to the King our Soveraign Lord his Heirs and Successors ten pounds for the first offence and for non-payment should suffer three months Imprisonment without
Bail or Mainprize and for the second offence twenty pounds and for want of payment should suffer six months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprise and for the third offence should forfeit all his Goods and Chattels and suffer Imprisonment during his life time From which Act it is evident that all the mild Methods were taken that could be thought on to win over the Papists to the Reformed Religion for the Penalties incurred were not only suspended but the offender pardoned after they had been so long winkt at and the Penalties upon which Conformity was injoyned must be by all considering men adjudged reasonable to be inflicted upon those that remained obstinate after such kind usage and the rather for that it is apparent they made it their business to compel persons to go to Mass One thing I can't let pass without a remark That in this as well as the Statute of the 1 st of Edward the 6 th the tryal of the offence is to be according to the Antient Laws of the Land by a Jury and that till then they could incur none of the Penalties so careful were the Reformers for the Liberties even of Papists Hist Ref. pt 2. p. 115 116 117 118. Bâ—ker 's Ch on p. 303 304. But notwithstanding all this favour shewn to the Papists in one year they broke out into open Rebellion in four Counties in England viz. in Oxfordshire Devonshire Norfolk and Yorkshire So restless and unquiet are the Popish party and such implacable Enemies to the Protestants that if they be in power nothing but destroying them by Law will serve and if not then Plots Conspiracies and open Rebellions are their Methods Hist Ref. pt 2. p. 140. 3 4 E. 6. ca. 5. Rast Stat. f. 989. 34 E. 6. ca. 10. Images taken away Keeble's Stat. f. 676. Rast Stat. f. 994. these four Insurrections gave just occasion to make that severe Law against unlawful Assemblies and rising of the Subjects that if any to the number of twelve should meet together unlawfully for any matter of State and being required by any lawful Magistrate should not disperse themselves it should be Treason The next Act of Parliament that I shall take notice of and indeed but just touch it is the 3 d. and 4 th of Edward the 6 th ca. 10. Whereby divers Romish Books and Images were abolished and put away and that without any punishment of the Papists that used them but only a Penalty on the Officers and Ministers of Justice who did not put the said Law in Execution Thus things stood till the 6 th of Edward the 6 th and then an Act was made for the confirmation of the Liturgy which takes notice in the Preamble 5 6 E. 6. ca. 1. Keehâ—e 's Stat. f. 676. Rast Stat. f. 1009. The Liturgy confirmed That a great number of people in divers parts of the Realm following their own sensuality and living either without knowledge or due fear of God did wilfully and danmably before Almighty God abstain and refuse to come to their Parish Churches and other places where Common-Prayer Administration of the Sacraments and Preaching of the Word of God was used upon Sundaies and other daies ordained to be holy daies and doth thereby Enact that uniformity of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments shall be used in the Church requires Conformity thereunto and leaves them who come not to Church to be punished by the censures of the Church And Enacts March. Ref. 93. That all persons that are present at any other Common-Prayer or Sacraments for the first offence shall suffer six months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprise for the second offence a years Imprisonment and for the third Imprisonment during life But none to have this inflicted but they who are legally convicted according to the Laws of the Land which cannot be esteemed severe seeing they were occasioned by the Treasons and Rebellions of them upon whom they were inflicted CHAP. VI. Q. Mary HAving shewn how kind and merciful King Edward the 6 th was to the Papists all his Reign notwithstanding their severe usage of the Protestants in his Predecessours Reigns Queen Mary her accession to the Crown and how she used the Protestants before she had a Parliament 35 H. 8. ca. 1. Rast Stat. f. 835. Hist Ref. 2. pt li. 2. p. 235. and their Treasons and Rebellions against himself and the then Established Government I shall now give an Account what usage the Protestants had in the Reign of his Successour Queen Mary Upon the Death of King Edward the Crown devolved upon Queen Mary according to the settlement of it by 35 H. 8. but she being a Papist and King Ed. the 6 th having by his Letters Patents limited the Crown to the Lady Jane Daughter of Frances Dutchess of Suffolk who was a Protestant the Council Proclaimed the Lady Jane Queen which Proclamation sets forth that the late King had settled the Crown as aforesaid and declared that it should not descend to his two Sisters since they were both Illegitimate in the Spiritual Courts and by Acts of Parliament and were only his Sisters by the half blood who tho' it were granted they had been Legitimate are not Inheritable by the Law of England it was added that there was also great cause to fear that the King's Sisters might marry Strangers and so change the Laws of the Kingdom and subject it to the Tyranny of the Bishops of Rome and other Foreign Laws for these Reasons they were excluded from the Succession and the said Lady Jane was Proclaimed Queen as aforesaid she promising to be most Benign and Gracious to all her people to maintain God's Holy Word and the Lavvs of the Land requiring all the Subjects to obey and acknowledge her And now all had been well and the Reformed Religion was in a likely way to flourish could the Protestants have been all of a mind and the common sort of People been as well satisfied as the Council great part of the Nobility and all the Judges but one were in what was done But oh the Calamities that divisions bring upon a Kingdom Suffolk and No folk 's mens kindness to Queen Mary Hist Reform part 2. p. 233.237 Baker 's Chro. p. 312. The Earl of Arundel having given Queen Mary notice of the Death of her Brother and the design of setting up the Lady Jane she retires to Framlingham Castle in the County of Suffolk whither many from Norfolk and a great body of Suffolk men gathered about her who were notwithstanding all for the Reformation they before they would assist her desired to know of her whether she would alter the Religion set up in King Edward's days to whom she gave full assurances that she would never make any Innovation or Change but be contented with the Private Exercise of her own Religion upon this they were all possest with such a belief of her sincerity that it made them resolve to hazard their Lives and
many and Great matters in secret talk amongst Companies of suppressing in like manner the Protestants in England And every one that is acquainted with the History of those times knows that at the same time that these things were bruited about the Papists here the Guises in France and the Queen of Scots that restless and unwearied Enemy of the Protestant Religion were plotting and Contriving against the Queen and that those Plots and Contrivances of the Queen of Scots were never at an end till the Axe put a period to her Life and them together And how forward the Priests of the Romish Church especially of the Order of Jesuits are to assert the Pope's jurisdiction and bring in and Execute his Bulls here in England is well known amongst Protestants And that this is laid by the secular Priests themselves to the Charge of the Jesuits I shall hereafter make appear So that certainly it must be owned that there was very good reason to make this Law and as for the Penalties they were annexed in terrorem rather than with any design to be inflicted to the ruine of them against whom the Laws were made as plainly appears from the History of the first 12 years of this Queens Reign during which time the Persons of the Papists The Queens mild usage of the Papists notwithstanding these Laws remained in the Kingdom quiet and undisturbed till they themselves gave just occasion for putting these and the Antient Laws of the Kingdom in Execution against them and making further provision by the adding new Laws with more severe Penalties or rather inforcing the Execution of the old ones 1 Foulis Hist of Romish Treasons li. 7. cap. 2. fol. 325. The secular Priests in their important considerations confess not above 12 in 10 years and of those 12 some were attainted of Treason Collections f. 41. Lord Treasurer Burleigh hasserts the same f. 28. Abr. Bzov. de Rom. Pontif. c. 46. p. 621. We don't read in our English Histories of twelve Papists that suffered Death in the 10 first Years of the Reign of Q. Elizabeth nor of any that at any time were executed purely for exercising their Religion But those of them that have been executed have dyed for Treason and Rebellion and Mr. Fowlis tells us that it is confest by Bzovius their Papal Champion that there was not any that suffered in Queen Elizabeths time but did teach the dangerous doctrine that the Pope could depose Kings That the Papists both Clergy and Laity were used by the Queen in the Beginning of her Reign with all the kindness and even tenderness imaginable must be believed if one of the greatest Statesmen of his Age and one of the Wisest Persons this Nation ever bred viz. The Lord Treasurer Burleigh who writ in this Queens Reign can challenge any Credit he saith thus 2 Execution for Treason not for Religion p. 6.7 And though there are many Subjects known in the Realm that differ in some Opinions of Religion from the Church of England and that do also not forbear to profess the same yet in that they do also profess Loyalty and Obedience to her Majesty and offer readily in her Majesties Defence to impugn and resist any foreign force tho' it should come or be procured from the Pope himself none of these sort are for their contrary Opinions in Religion prosecuted or charged with any Crimes or Pains of Treason nor yet willingly searched in their Consciences for their contrary Opinions that savour not of Treason They were not Closetted 3 Dr. Burnet in his Hist of the Ref. gives much the same Account of the usage of these Men. pt 2d lib. 3. f. 396. Cambd. doth so likewise fol. 28 29. his Annals And he instances in several Dr. Heath Arch Bishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England in Queen Mary's time who saith he at the first coming of her Majesty to the Crown shewing himself a faithful and quiet Subject was continued in both the said Offices tho' in Religion then manifestly differing and yet was he not restrained of his Liberty nor deprived of his proper Lands and Goods but leaving willingly both his Offices lived in his own House and enjoyed all his purchased Lands during all his natural Life until by very Age he departed this World and then left his House and Living to his Friends An Example of gentleness never matched in Queen Mary's days The Like did Dr. Pool who had been Bishop of Peterborough Dr. Tonstall Bishop of Duresme these of quiet behavior There were others he tells us Dr. White and Dr. Oglethorp the one Bishop of Winchester the other of Carlisle and Dr. Thurlby and Dr. Watson one Bishop of Ely the other of Lincoln not pressed with any Capital Pain though they maintain'd the Pope's Authority against the Laws of the Realm Mr. Fecknam an Abbot is also Instanced in Some Deans as Dr. Boxall Dean of Windsor a Person of great Modesty and Knowledge Dr. Cole Dean of Pauls a Person more earnest than Wise Dr. Reynolds Dean of Exeter and many such others having born Office and Dignities in the Church and had made profession against the Pope which they began in Queen Mary's time to change yet were they never to this day burdned with Capital pains nor yet deprived of any of their Goods or proper Livelyhoods but only remov'd from their Ecclesiastical Offices which they would not Exercise according to the Laws And most of them for a great while were retained in Bishops houses not in Cole-holes and Dungeons as Bonner entertained the Protestants in the Marian daies in very civil and curteous manner without charge to themselves or their Friends until the time that the Pope began by his Bulls and Messages to offer trouble to the Realm by stirring of Rebellion about which time only some of those aforenamed being found busier in Matters of State tending to stir troubles than was meet for the common quiet of the Realm were removed to other more private places not into Smithfield to be burnt after a pretended Conviction of Heresie in an Arbitrary and Illegal manner Cambd. Annals f. 28. In all England where there are 9400 Ecclesiastical Promotions there were turned out of their Livings Dignities and Bishopricks not above 800 Parsons of Churches 50 Prebendaries 15 Presidents of Colledges 12 Archdeacons as many Deans 6 Abbots and Abbesses 14 Bishops Baker 's Chron. f. 395. Until the twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign the Papists in England were mercifully connived at while they solemnized their own Rites within their private houses tho' that also were against the Laws The Priests confess the Queen 's mild usage of Papists Lord Burleighs Execution for Treason The Secular Priests important considerations and the Jesuits reasons unreasonable f. 34. The Secular Priests themselves Watson and Bluet confess in their important Considerations wherein they make the Jesuits Plottings and Treasons to be the occasion of making and Executing the
declare her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever and also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdom and all others who have in any sort sworn unto her to be for ever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of Duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience and we also do by Authority of these Presents absolve them and do deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdom and all other things before named And we do command and charge all and every the Noblemen Subjects People and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Orders Mandates and Laws And those which shall do the contrary we do include them in the like Sentence of Anathema And because it would be a difficult matter to convey these Presents to all places wheresoever it shall be needful Our Will is that the Copies thereof under a Publick Notaries hand and Sealed with the Seal of an Ecclesiastical Prelate or of his Court shall carry altogether the same credit with all men judicially and extrajudicially as these Presents should do if they were exhibited or shewed Given at Rome at St. Peters in the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1569 the fifth of the Calends of March and of our Popedome the fifth year Cae. Glorierius One Felton hung up this Bill upon the Bishop of London's Palace Gates Cambd. Annals f. 148. Fowlis Hist lib 2. ca. 3. f. 327. Collections f. 24 Felton hanged as a Traytor for publishing the Bull. and scorning to seek an escape boldly vindicates the Pope and himself in what was done defying the Queen and her Authority for which he was Arraigned Condemned and Hanged near the same place in St. Paul's Church-yard Now for any thus to contemn and villifie his Soveraign nul her Authority renounce his Allegiance and so far to submit himself to a Foreign Jurisdiction even in Temporalities as to declare his own Soveraign deprived and deposed from her Kingdom what punishment this man incurr'd let the Reader Judge provided he will also consider That had a Protestant thus renounc'd his Obedience in Queen Mary's daies the party must have dyed for it and those who commend Felton would have called the other Traytors and yet Felton did it to procure a National Rebellion Besides this in the beginning of the 13 th year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth The 4 th Rebellion was in Ireland begun in the beginning of 13 Eliz. by Conogher O Brien Earl of Twomond Cambd. Annals f. 153. in Ireland Conogher O Brien Earl of Twomond closely contrived a Rebellion which just as it was ready to break forth was by meer chance blown over and Thomas Steukley an Englishman a Ruffian a notorious Spendthrift and a notable vaporer who having consumed his Estate fled over into Ireland after he had first vomited forth most undeserved disgraces against his Princess to whom he was extraordinarily bounden soon after slipt out of Ireland into Italy to Pius V. Bishop of Rome where incredible it is into how great grace and favour he wrought himself by his Flatteries with that old man who breathed after the destruction of Queen Elizabeth This Steukley saith the Lord Treasurer Burleigh was a defamed person almost thro' all Christendom and a faithless Beast rather than a Man Collections f. 2 3 fleeing first out of England for notable Piracies and out of Ireland for Treacheries not pardonable and that he and the said Charles Nevil Earl of Westmerland were the Ring-Leaders of the rest of the Rebels the one for England the other for Ireland But notwithstanding the notorious evil and wicked Lives of these and others their confederates void of all Christian Religion it liked the Bishop of Rome as in favour of their Treasons to animate them to take Arms against their lawful Queen to invade her Realm with Foreign Forces to pursue all her good Subjects and their Native Country with Fire and Sword for maintenance whereof the Bull aforesaid had proceeded And the Pope the Guises the King of Spain Contrivances by the Pope the King of Spain the Guises and the Queen of Scots against Queen Elizabeth and the Protestant Religion Fowlis p. 330 331. Cambd. Annals lib. 2. f. 154. and the rest of the confederates against the Queen and the Protestant Religion the better to carry on their designs did soon after Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown set up a Title thereto in the Queen of Scots as aforesaid which was one principal cause that there were so many Plots and Conspiracies during her Reign tho' none gave her any great trouble till about the 10 th or 11 th year of her Reign It appears by Letters from the Pope to the Queen of Scots written in the year 1571. 13 Eliz. that there was a design on Foot to introduce Popery and to subvert the Protestant Religion here in England which Letter was delivered by Ridolpho the Florentine before mentioned his means to the Queen of Scots And Ridolpho by his own particular Letters to the Queen of Scots desired her to acquaint the Duke of Norfolk and her Friends with the Design but there being at that time a Treaty begun in order to her being restored to her Kingdom of Scotland whereof she was at that time dispossest she defer'd answering the Letter but the Treaty afterwards coming to nothing she privately sent a large commentary or draught of her Counsels and Affairs to the Duke of Norfolk before mentioned written in Cyphers known only to them two as also other Letters to be conveyed by Ridolpho to the Pope and the Spaniard Camd. Hist lib. 2. fol. 157. Baker's Chron. f. 344. Ridolpho greatly pressed the Duke to enter into the Confederacy and as an encouragement affirmed That the Pope so that the Catholick i. e. the Popish Religion might be promoted would bear the charge of the whole War and that he had to that purpose laid down 1 Some Writers say 150000. Crowns an hundred thousand Crowns the last year when the Bull was Published whereof twelve thousand he the said Ridolpho had distributed amongst the English Fugitives He promised that the Spaniard would supply him with 4000 Horse and 6000 Foot which might be sent over to Harwich near whereunto the Duke had many Potent Adherents and that most commodiously and without suspicion in the beginning of Summer when the Duke of Medina Caeli was to come with a strong Fleet into the Netherlands And concluded that such Caution might be used that the Duke might be cleared from all Suspition of affecting the Crown and the Queen of England safely might be provided for so as she would Embrace or tollerate the Romish Religion and give her assent to the Queen of Scots Marriage with the Duke Which Conspiracy the Duke at that time refused to enter into Cambd. Annals p. 158. Baker Chron. fol. 844. Camb. Annals li. 2. fol. 162.
his submission having most religiously vowed his Fidelity and Obedience to the Queen pardoned He having at the earnest solicitations of Saunders an English Priest and Allen an Irish one both of them Doctors in Divinity gotten a little Money of the Pope the Authority of a Legate granted to Saunders a consecrated Banner and Letters of recommendation to the Spaniard went to Spain and thence into Ireland where he landed the first day of July with those two Romish Priests three Ships and a small body of men who were all soon disperst and Fitz Morris slain There is one story relating to this Rebellion that for the Cruelty of it I can't let pass As soon as the Lord Deputy had certain intelligence of Fitz-Morris his being landed he commanded the Earl of Desmond and his Brothers jointly by Henry Davil an English Gentleman and a stout Souldier and very familiar with the Desmonds that they should forthwith assault the Fort which when they shifted off as a thing full of Danger Davil departed in order to obey the Deputy's Commands and John Desmond followed after him at Trally a small Town he overtook him at his Inn and in the dead of the night having corrupted his Host broke into his Chamber with certain Cut-Throats having their Swords drawn where Davil slept securely with Arthur Carter Lieutenant to the Marshal of Munster a stout old Soldier but being awakened with the noise when he saw John Desmond in the Chamber with his Sword drawn he raised himself up saying what 's the matter my Son for so he was wont familiarly to call him I will no longer be thy Son says he nor shalt thou be my Father thou shalt dye and therewithal they slew both him and Carter that lay with him stabbing them in many places after that Davil's Lackey by interposing his naked body had done the best he could for a while to defend his Master and had receiv'd some wounds then he slew all Davil's Servants one after another who were lodged here and there in several Chambers and so returning all begored with Blood he boasted amongst the Spaniards of the Murther And let this said he be a pledge to you of my faithfulness towards you and the * They were then ingaged in a Conspiracy for the Subversion of the Protestant Religion Desmond carries on the Rebellion Camb. Annals f. 238 239 240. Baker's Chron. f. 355. Cause you are ingaged in This Fact Sounders commended as a sweet Sacrifice in the sight of God. This may be a warning to all Protestants how they enter into any familiar Friendship with Papists or trust them seeing when they butcher them they think they do God good Service and offer up their Blood to him as an acceptable Sacrifice and seeing that 't is their avowed Principle that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks as they esteem Protestants of all perswasions to be This Rebellion ended not with John Fitz-Morris but was after his death carried on by John Desmond and notwithstanding the Earl of Desmond had promised Drury then Lord Deputy his fidelity and obedience to the Queen and bound himself by Oath that both himself in person and his would serve her against the Rebels yet he afterwards pulled off his Vizzard and openly went over to the Rebels and the Lord Deputy dying and the Council of Ireland having made Sir William Pelham Justicer of Ireland he admonished the Earl of Desmond and demanded the delivery up of Saunders the Foreign Souldiers and the Castles of Carigo Foyle and Asketten but he refusing was Proclaimed a Traytor and guilty of High Treason for having dealt with Foreign Princes for the Conquest and Destruction of his Native Country reliev'd Saunders and James Fitz-Morris Rebels harboured the Spaniards which escaped out of the Fort at Smerwick hanged up divers faithful Subjects displayed the Pope's Banner against the Queen and brought Foreigners into the Realm And then the Lord Justicer committed the prosecution of the whole War to Ormond which he prosecuted so vigorously that this Desmond and his Brethren were forced to lurk and hide their heads yet they added so much Popish Impudence to their former base Treachery and Perfidiousness that they signified to the Lord Justicer in a long Letter that they had undertaken the protection of the Catholick Faith i. e. Popery in Ireland and that by Authority from the Bishop of Rome and direction of the Catholick King i. e. the King of Spain and therefore they do kindly advise him to joyn with them in so pious and meritorious a Cause for the Salvation of his own Soul O horrid Impiety To make the committing Treason Rebellion Murder Rapine and all manner of Cruelties to be the direct way to Heaven Camb. Annals f. 241 and 256. Another Conspiracy in Ireland for the destruction of the Protestant Religion Arthur Lord Grey in the year 1580 being made Lord Deputy of Ireland after a great deal of blood spilt happily supprest that Rebellion which he had no sooner done but another dangerous Conspiracy was detected and crusht in the Bud for divers of Noble Families in Lemster most of them descended of English Blood partly out of Affection to the Romish Religion and partly out of hatred against the new English had conspired together to surprize the Lord Deputy with his Houshold to take the Castle of Dublin at unawares where all the Provision for War lay and to put the English in Ireland every man to the Sword And so close they were in carrying on their Conspiracy that they never confer'd or discoursed about it more than two and two together But amongst so many that were privy to it it came at last to light and was by the Execution of a few timely prevented Colledges framed abroad fâ—r breeding up Seminary Priests to be sent hither to alienate the hearts of the Queens Subjects from her Camb. Annals f. 244 245. Baker's Chron. f. 356. These Plots and Conspiracies not answering the Designs of the Papists To the intent that they might the more effectually carry on their Treasons and Conspiracies for the future in order to the Extirpation of the Protestant Religion out of the Queen's Dominions and the introducing Popery in its room They thought it very necessary to alienate the Hearts of the Queen's Subjects from her by the secret and crafty insinuations of Priests and Jesuits and that they might be furnisht with enough for that end even of the Queens own Subjects certain English Priests who had fled into the Netherlands for their Treasons committed here by the procurement of the Romish Party formed themselves into a Collegiate Form of Government at Doway and to these the Pope allowed a yearly Pension But Tumults arising in the Low Countries and the English Fugitives being commanded by the King of Spain's Deputies to depart from thence other the like Colledges for the training up of the English Youth were erected one at Rheimes by the Guises and another at Rome by Pope
was taken a Year after and put to the Rack and afterwards being brought forth to Dispute he scarcely answered the expectation raised of him Neither wanted there others also of the Popish Faction for Religion was then grown into faction as it was very lately here in England who Laboured Tooth and Nail at Rome and elsewhere in Princes Courts to raise War against their own Country Yea they published also in Print that the Bishop of Rome and the Spaniard had Conspired together to Conquer England and expose it for a Spoil and Prey And this they did on purpose to give Courage to their own Party and to terrifie others from their Allegiance to their Prince and Country This forced a Manifesto from the Queen Camb. Annals f. 247. wherein after acknowledgment of the goodness of God towards her She declareth that she had attempted nothing against any Prince but for preservation of her own Kingdom nor had she Invaded the Provinces of any other tho she had been sundry times thereunto both provoked by Injuries and invited by Opportunities that if any Prince go about to attempt ought against her she doubts not but to be able by the Blessing of God to defend her People and to that purpose she had Mustered her Forces both by Sea and Land and had them now in readiness against any Hostile Invasion her faithful Subjects she Exhorts to continue immoveable in their Allegiance and Duty towards God and their Prince the Minister of God not their absolute Supream Lord to dispose of them and theirs according to will and pleasure the rest who had shaken off their Love to their Country and their Obedience to their Prince she commands to carry themselves modestly and peaceably and not provoke the severity of Justice against themselves for she would no longer be so imprudent as by sparing the Bad to prove cruel to her self and her good Subjects By this Manifesto all Men may see how tender and compassionate the Queen was to her worst Subjects even them who had renounced their Allegiance to her and very hardly was she brought to put the Laws in Execution against them although they so justly deserved it of which take the following account from Mr. Cambden Camb. Annals f. 270. The Queen to take away the fear which had possest many Minds that Religion would be altered and Popery tollerated being overcome by importunate Intreaties permitted not furiously Commanded as if she thirsted after Blood That Edmund Campian aforesaid of the Society of Jesus Ralph Sherwin Luke Kirby and Alexander Briant Priests should be Arraigned who being Indicted upon the Act for Treason made 25 Ed. 3. and charged to have compassed and imagined the destruction of the Queen and Realm to have adhered to the Bishop of Rome the Queens Enemy to have come into England to disturb the Peace and Quiet of the Realm and to have raised forces to that end were condemned to dye and persisting obstinately to defend the Popes Authority against the Queen were Executed And not for professing the Popish Religion or exercising it barely as some of the Romanists and a few ignorant Protestants pretend For Campian after he was condemned being askt first whether Queen Elizabeth were a true and lawful Queen refused to answer then whether he would take part with the Queen or the Pope if he should send Forces against the Queen he openly professed and testified under his hand that he would stand for the Pope Afterwards some others also were Executed for the same Reasons whereas in full ten Years time after the Northern Rebellion But five Papists put to death in ten Years there had been no more then five Papists put to death But such now were the times that the Queen who never was of opinion that Mens Consciences were to be forced complained many times that she was driven of necessity to take these Courses unless she would suffer the ruin of her self and her Subjects upon some Mens pretence of Conscience and the Catholic Religion i. e. the Abby Lands and a Cardinals Cap yet for the greater part of these silly Priests she did not at all believe them guilty of Plotting the destruction of their Country but their Superiors were they she held Camb. Annals f. 271. Lord Burleigh saith the same thing Collection f. 28. to be the Instruments of this villany for these inferior Emissaries committed the full and free disposure of themselves to their Superiors And when those of the Superiors that were then and afterwards taken were asked whether by the Authority of the Bull of Pius V. Bishop of Rome the Subjects were so absolved from their Oath of Allegiance towards the Queen that they might take up Arms against her whether they thought her to be a lawful Queen whether they would subscribe to Saunders and Bristow's opinion concerning the Authority of that Bull whether if the Bishop of Rome should wage War against the Queen they would joyn with her or him they answered some of them so ambiguously some so resolutely and some by prevarication or silence shifted off the matter in such a manner that divers ingenious Papists which are rare to find in thâ—t Age began to suspect they fostered some treacherous disloyalty and John Bishop a Man otherwise devoted to the Bishop of Rome wrote against them and solidly proved that that Constitution obtruded under the Name of the Lateran Council upon which the whole Authority of absolving Subjects from their Allegiance and deposing Princes is founded is no other then a Decree of Innocent the III. and was never admitted in England yea that the said Council was no Council at all nor was it at all there decreed by the Fathers But of the Priests themselves owning all this I shall give a further account hereafter Camb. Annals f. 272. Suspicions were daily increased by the great number of Priests creeping more and more into England who privately felt the Minds of Men spread abroad that Princes Excommunicate were to be deposed notwithstanding their former prohibition of Preaching that Doctrine and whispered in Corners The Popish Terets spread abroad that such Princes as professed not the Romish Religion had forfeited their Regal Title and Authority that those who had taken holy Orders were by a certain Ecclesiastical priviledge exempted from all jurisdiction of Princes and not bound by their Laws nor ought they to reverence or regard their Majesty that the Bishop of Rome hath supream Authority and absolute Power over the whole World yea in Temporal Matters that the Magistrates of England were no lawful Magistrates and therefore not to be accounted for Magistrates yea that whatsoever was done by the Queens authority since the time the Bull declaratory of Pius V. was published against her was by the Laws of God and Man altogether void and to be esteemed as of no validity and some of them were not ashamed to own that they were returned into England with no other intent then by
out the Religion of the Gospel in all Places and to begin here as their greatest Impediment is Cause sufficient to make us the more vigilant and to have a wary Eye to their Doings and Proceedings how smoothly soever they speak or dissemble their Friendships for the time for let us think surely that they have joyned Hands together against us and if they can they will procure the Sparks of the Flames that have been so terrible in other Countries to fly over into England and to kindle as great a Fire here And as the Pope by open Hostility as you see hath shewed himself against her Majesty so the better to answer in time the Purposes that he hath set down in the mean Season till they may come to Ripeness he hath and doth by secret Practices within the Realm leaving nothing unprovided emboldning many undutiful Subjects to stand fast in their Disobedience to her Majesty and her Laws For albeit the pure Religion of the Gospel hath had a free Course and hath been freely preached now many Years within this Realm by the Protection of Her Majesties most Christian Government yet such have been the Practices of the Pope and his secret Ministers as the obstinate and stiff-necked Papist is so far from being reformed as he hath gotten Stomach to go backward and to shew his Disobedience not only in arrogant Words but also in contemptuous Deeds To confirm them herein and to increase their Number you see how the Pope hath and doth comfort their hollow Hearts with Absolutions Dispensations Reconciliations and such other things of Rome You see how lately he hath sent hither a sort of Hypocrites naming themselves Jesuits a Rabble of Vagrant Fryars newly sprung up and running through the World to trouble the Church of God whose principal Errand is by creeping into the Houses of Men of Behaviour and Reputation not only to corrupt the Realm with false Doctrine but also under that Pretence to stir up Sedition to the Peril of Her Majesty and her good Subjects How these Practises of the Pope have wrought in the disobedient Subjects of this Land is both evident and lamentable to consider for such Impressions hath the Estimation of the Popes Authority made in them as not only those which from the Beginning have refused to obey but many yea very many of these who divers years together did yield and conform themselves in their open Accounts since the Decrees of that unholy Council of Trent and since the publishing and denouncing of that Blasphemous Bull against Her Majesty and since those secret Absolutions and Reconciliations and the swarming hither of a number of Popish Priests and Monkish Jesuits have and do utterly refuse to be of our Church or to resort unto our Preaching and Prayers The sequel whereof must needs prove dangerous to the whole State of the Common-wealth By this you see what Cause we have justly to doubt great Mischief threatned to this Realm and therewith you may easily see also how far the preventing and withstanding of the same it behooveth her Majesty not only to provide in time sufficient Laws for the continuing of this Peaceable Government but also to be ready with Forces to repress all Attempts that may be enterprised either by Enemies abroad or by evil Subjects at home What Difference there is between the Popes Persecuting Church and this * The Church of England Mild Church of the Gospel hath been seen in all Ages and especially in the late Government compared with the merciful time of Her Majesties Reign The Continuance of which Clemency is also to be wished so far as may stand with Gods Honour and the Safety of the Realm But when by long proof we find that this favorable and gentle Manner of Dealing with the Disobeyers and Contemners of Religion to win them by fair Means if it were possible hath done no good but hath bred in them a more arrogant and contemptuous Spirit so as they have not only presumed to disobey the Laws and Orders of the Realm but also to accept from Rome secret Absolutions Reconciliations and such like and that by the Hands of leud Runnagates Priests and Jesuits harbouring and entertaining them even in their Houses thereby shewing an Obedience to the Pope by their Directions also nourishing and training up their Children and Kinsfolks not only at home but also abroad in the Seminaries of Popery Now I say it is time for us to look more narrowly and strictly to them least as they be corrupt so they prove dangerous Members to many born within the Entrails of our Common-wealth And seeing that the Lenity of the Time and the Mildness of the Laws heretofore made are no small Cause of their arrogant Disobedience 't is necessary that we make a Provision of Laws more strict and more severe to constrain them to yield their open Obedience at the least to her Majesty in Causes of Religion and not to live as they lift to the perillous Example of others and to the encouraging of their own evil affected Minds but if they will needs submit themselves to the Benedictions of the Pope they may feel how little his Curses can hurt us and how little his Blessings can save them from that Punishment which we are able to lay upon them letting them also find how dangerous it shall be for them to deal with the Pope or any thing of his or with those Romish Priests and Jesuits and therewith also how perillous it shall be for those Seditious Runnagates to enter into the Land to draw away from Her Majesty that Obedience which by the Laws of God and Man are due unto her This then is one of the Provisions which we ought to take care of in this Council whereby we may both enjoy still that happy Peace we live in and the Pope take the less Boldness to trouble us by any Favour he shall find here Therefore seeing the Malice of the Pope and his Confederates are so notorious unto us and seeing the Dangers be so great so evident and so imminent and seeing that Preparations to withstand them cannot be made without support of the Realm and seeing that our Duty to God our Queen and Country and the Necessity that hangeth upon our own Safeguards be reason sufficient to perswade us let us think upon these Matters as the Weight of them deserveth and so provide in time both by Laws to restrain and correct the evil affected Subjects and by Provision of that which shall be requisite for the Maintainance of Forces as our Enemies finding our Minds so willing and our Hands so ready to keep in order our Country and to furnish her Majesty with all that shall be necessary may either be discouraged to attempt any thing against us or if they do they may find such Resistance as shall bring Confusion to themselves Honour to our most Gracious Queen and Safety to all of us Mr. Norton seconding the Motion it was referred to
be effected so long as the Jesuits Seminary Priests and other Priests were tollerated here for it hath been observed by some with a great deal of Truth that there was never yet a Plot against the Government but the Popish Priests had their share in it It was therefore thought necessary to follow the example of Swedeland the State of Venice and other Countries who have banisht the Jesuits and wisely to carry it a little further and banish Priests too they being such Disturbers of the State which was accordingly done by 27. Eliz. cap. 2. But least the Papists should again object against the Authorities I cite for the History of the Fact I shall here insert the very Words of their Secular Priests in their important Considerations whereby the truth of the Fact is Confest the Words are these About the time of the overthrow of the Popes Forces in Ireland The Secular Priests confess the truth of all the foregoing Account Collect. f. 44. The Popes Plot with King of Spain and Duke of Guise Mendoza his Holiness by the false instigation of the Jesuits plotted with the King of Spain for the assistance of the Duke of Guise to enterprize upon the sudden a very desperate design against Her Majesty and for the Delivery and advancement to the Crown of the Queen of Scotland For the better asserting whereof Mendoza the Jesuit and Ledger for the King of Spain in England set on work a worthy Gentleman otherwise one Mr. Francis Throckmorton and divers others And whilst the same was Contriving as afterwards Mr. Throckmorton himself Confessed 1584 the Jesuitical humour had so possessed the hearts of sundry Catholics as we do unfeignedly rue in our hearts the remembrance of it and are greatly ashamed that any Person so intitl'd should ever have been so extreamly bewitched Two Gentlemen about that time also viz. Anno 1583. Mr. Arden and Mr. Somervil were convicted by the Laws of the Realm Throgmortons Confession you have Printed Camb. Annal l. 3. f. 297. Arden and Somervil Dr. Parry Earl of Northumberland for having purposed and contrived how they might have laid violent hands upon Her Majesties sacred Person Mr. Somervils Confession therein was so notorious as it may not be either quallified or denied And Dr. Parry the same Year was plotting with Jesuits how he might have effected the like Villany How the worthy Earl of Northumberland was about this time brought into the said Plot by the Duke of Guise then still in hand we will pretermit Mr. Parsons that was Actor in it could tell the Story very roundly at Rome it wrought the Earls overthrow in 1585 which may justly be ascribed to the Jesuitical Practices of the Jesuite Mendoza and others of that Crew They mentioned several other Treasons which I shall not here take Notice of but reserve them till I come to give the further Account of their Treasons and only set down the Conclusion of this Paragraph These things say they we would not have touched had they not been known in effect to this part of the World and that we thought it our Duties to shew our own dislike of them and to clear Her Majesty so far as we may from such imputations of more then barbarous Cruelty towards us as the Jesuits in their Writings have cast by Heaps upon her They themselves as we still think in our Consciences and before God having been from time to time the very Causes of all the Calamities which any of us have endured in England since Her Majesties Reign which we do not write simply to excuse Her Highness altho we must Confess we can be contented to indure much rather then to seek her Dishonour but for that we think few Princes living being perswaded in Religion as Her Majesty is and so provoked as she hath been would have dealt more mildly with such their Subjects all Circumstances considered then she hath done with us Let us now see what reason can be given for making the rest of the Penal Laws that were made against the Papists in this Queens Reign The Earl of Arund tryed and fined only Camb. Annals f. 330. He was in 1589. tryed for high Treason and Condemned but the Queen spared him Camb. Annals f. 424.429 The first thing I meet with remarkable after the making these Laws forementioned is the fining the Earl of Arundel 5000 pounds in 586. for holding Correspondence with Allen and Parsons the Jesuit the Queens Enemies for that publickly in writing he had questioned the Justice of the Kingdom and that he had intentions of departing the Realm without License The Earl protesting his obedience to the Queen and his Love to his Countrey modestly excused himself by his Love to the Catholic Religion and his ignorance of the Law Confessed his fault and submitted In the * Gifford Savage Ballard and others Plot to kill the Q. Camb. Annals f. 336. Foulis Hist l. 7. cap. 5. sec 1. f. 343. Bakers Chron. f. 367. same year a very dangerous Conspiracy was discovered against Queen Elizabeth in the English Seminary at Rheimes there were some who were so bigotted to the Popish Religion that they thought the Pope could by his Authority do any thing and that the aforementioned Bull of Pius Quintus for deposing the Queen was dictated by the Holy Ghost and thought it a Meritorious Act to take away her Life and doubted not of a Canonisation as Martyrs if they fell in the Attempt William Gifford Doctor in Divinity Gilbert Gifford and one Hodgson Priests did so infuse this treasonable Doctrine into the mind of one John Savage a Bastard as was reported that he readily Vowed to kill the Queen One Ballard an English Priest at Rheimes bestirs himself in England and Scotland for carrying on the Design and for that purpose prepares Disciples then goeth into France and treats with Mendoza before named Charles Paget and others about invading of England judging they could never have a fairer opportunity then at that Juncture of time forasmuch as the Pope the Spaniard the Duke of Guise and the Prince of Parma were all resolved to set upon England thereby to divert the War from the Netherlands Having delivered the Message there he returns for England to promote the design here gets to London where in a Souldiers habit under the false Name of Captain Fescue he agitates the Plot. Babington and divers other Gentlemen engaged in this design of taking off the Queen At London he discovered this Affair to one Mr. Anthony Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire a young Gentleman greatly addicted to the Romish Religion and who had in France Commenced an Acquaintance with the Bishop of Glascow the Queen of Scots Ambassador and one Thomas Morgan an English Fugitive and a busie Agent for her Babington at first was of opinion that as long as the Queen lived an Invasion would signifie little or nothing but when he understood that Savage had undertaken to remove that
streight Camb. Annal. f. 363 364 365. between her Natural inclinations to mercy backt with the consideration of the near Relation the Queen of Scots stood in to her and the danger her Person and the Protestant Religion were in sufficiently evidenced by an Oath which she her self said she had seen wherein some had bound themselves to kill her within a Month. By which she said she saw her Subjects danger in her Person which she would be careful to prevent she told them she had not forgot the Association they had entred into for her safety which was a thing she never somuch as thought of till a great number of Hands and Seals to it were shewn her that it had laid a perpetual tie and obligation upon her to bear them a singular good Will and Love That she had no greater comfort then in the Common-Wealths respect and affection towards her and promised them that whatsoever the best of Subjects might expect at the hands of the best Princes they might expect from her to be performed to the full After this she sent to the Lords by the Chancellor and to the Commons by their Speaker Puckering to enter anew into the consideration of this Matter A message from Qu. Eliz. to the Parliament Camb. Annal. l. 3. f. 365. and to find out a more pleasing expedient whereby both the Queen of Scots Life might be spared and her own security provided for They Concur again in their former Opinion for these Reasons The Parliament Concur in their former Opinion their Reasons for it the Queens safety they said could no ways be secured so long as the Queen of Scots lived unless she should either seriously repent and acknowledge her offence or were kept with a closer or stricter Guard and sufficient security given by Bond or Oath for her good Demeanour or delivered Hostages or else departed the Realm They proved by invincible Reasons that neither by expectation of Reformation in the disposition of the Queen of Scots if the Queens Majesty should spare her Life Nor yet by safer or stronger Garding of her Person nor by her promise upon word or Oath D' Ewes Journal f. 405. nor by the Hostages of other Princes or Allies nor by her Banishment nor by the revocation of the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus nor yet by the Bond or Word of a Prince or of any or all the Princes her Allies nor by any other way or means whatsoever other then by the speedy Execution to Death of the said Scottish Queen the safety or continuance of the true Religion of the most Royal Person of the Queens Majesty and all the peaceable State of this Realm could in any ways be provided for and Established As for her repentance they were out of all hopes of it considering that she had so ill requited the Queen who had saved her Life yet would not acknowledge her fault as for a surer Guard stricter Custody Bonds Oaths and Hostages they esteemed them all as nothing worth because if the Queens Life were once taken away all these would presently vanish and if she should depart the Realm they feared least she should presently take up Arms and Invade the same therefore they pressed hard that the Sentence might be put in Execution because as it were injustice to deny Execution of the Law to any one of her Subjects that should demand it so much more to the whole Body of her People of England unanimously and with one Voice humbly and Instantly suing for the same The Answer to this Speech will I hope give the Reader great satisfaction as to Queen Elizabeth's proceedure in this weighty concern and therefore I have here inserted it verbatim as I find it in Cambden which is as followeth The Queens Speech in Answer to the Parliaments Reasons Camb. Annal. f. 366. Very unpleasing is that way where the setting out Progress and Journeys end yield nothing but trouble and vexation I have this day been in greater conflict with my self then ever I was in all my Life whether I should speak or hold my peace If I should speak and not complain I shall dissemble if I should be silent all your Labour and Pains taken were in vain and if I should complain it might seem a strange and unusual thing Yet I confess that my hearty desire was that some other means might have been devised to provide for your security and my own safety then this which is now propounded So that I cannot but complain tho not of you yet to you since I perceive by your Petition that my safety dependeth wholly upon the ruin of another If there be any that think I have spun out the time on purpose to get commendation by a seeming shew of Clemency they do me wrong undeservedly as he knoweth who is the searcher of the most secret thoughts of the Heart or if there be any that are perswaded the Commissioners durst pronounce no other Sentence for fear they should displease me or seem to fail of their Care for my preservation they do but wrong me with such injurious conceits for either those whom I have put in Trust have failed of their Duties or else they acquainted the Commissioners in my Name that my will and pleasure was that every one should act freely according to his Conscience and what they thought not fit to be made publick that they should communicate to me in private It was of my favourable inclination towards her that I desired some other way might be found out to prevent this mischief But since it is now resolved that my security is desperate without her death I find a great reluctancy and trouble within me that I who have in my time pardoned so many Rebels wincked at so many Treasons or neglected them by silence should now seem to shew my self cruel towards so great a Princess I have since I came to the Government of this Realm seen many defamatory Libels and Pamphlets against me Queen Elizabeth foresaw she should be reflected upon for this Action but by the Papists only She could not suspect the Protestants would judge hereby of her or censure her taxing me to be a Tyrant wellfaret he Writers hearts I believe their meaning was to tell me News and News indeed it was to me to be branded with the note of Tyranny I would it were as great news to hear of their wickedness and impieties But what is it which they will not venture to write now when they shall hear that I have given my consent that the Executioners hands should be embrewed in the Blood of my nearest Kinswoman But so far am I from cruelty that though it were to save my own Life I would not offer her the least violence Neither have I been so careful how to prolong mine own Life as how to preserve both hers and mine which that it is now impossible to do I am heartily troubled I am not so void of sence and
Manuel Andrada a Portugal Lopez his Confession an Agitator under Don Bernardino Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador in France 2. That the said Andrada brought him from Christophero de Mora a Portuguese but a great favorite of King Philips and an especial instrument for reducing Portugal under the Spanish Crown a Rich Jewel an encouragement from Philip himself 3. That he was informed of the King of Spains hopes of him not only by Andrada but by Roderique Marques a Portuguese also but employed by the Spaniard on such wicked designs 4. That he the said Lopez did assent to these wicked Councels 5. That he did secretly advertise the Spaniards divers times of such affairs of the Queens as he could learn. 6. That he did also assent to take away the Queens Life by Poyson upon a reward promised him of 50000 Crowns 7. That he sent Andrada to confer with Count Fuentez about it 8. That he directed Stephano Ferreira de Gama to write Letters to Stephano Iberra that he would undertake as he had promised to destroy the Queen by Poyson provided that he might have the said 50000 Crowns 9. That he sent these Letters by one Gomez Davilla a Portugal that the reason why the Murther was not Executed according to promise was because he perceived the delivery of the 50000 Crowns defer'd tho promised him from day to day That to take away this delay of the Execution Count Fuentez by the King of Spains Order did sign and deliver Bills of Exchange for the said Mony. A Nunnery founded with the very Mony that was given to Poyson Queen Eliz. Tho Robinsons Anatomy of the Nunnery of Lisborn p. 9. * This Mony or part of it for security to Lopez was delivered to the Custody of the English Nuns then at Roan in France which Money the Plot failing and Lopez Executed was given to the said Nuns who carried it with them to Lisbon in Portugal where they settled themselves in a Nunnery as appears by their Register Book These Plots and Conspiracies against the Queens Person and for the Extirpating Heresie as they called the Protestant Religion moved the Queen to call a Parliament which she did in the thirty fifth Year of her Reign A Parliament called to secure the Queens Person and the Protestant Religion against the Plots and Conspiracies of the Papists and recommended the preservation of her Person and the Protestant Religion to them that they would put her into a posture of defending her self and these Kingdoms against any further attempts that might be made by the Pope the Spaniard or any other which was done by giving her large supplies and making an additional Act to the many that had been before made against the Papists which is Intituled an Act for restraining of Popish recusants to some certain places of abode The preamble runs thus For the better discovering and avoiding all Traiterous and most dangerous conspiracies and attempts as are daily devised and practised against our most Gracious Soveraign Lady the Queens Majesty 35. Eliz. c. 2. Rast Stat. part 2. f. 399. Papists not to remove above 5 miles from the place of their abode and the happy State of this Common-weal by sundry wicked and seditious Persons who terming themselves Catholics and being indeed Spies and Intelligencers not only for her Majesties Foreign Enemies but also for Rebellious and Trayterous Subjects Born within her Highnesses Realms and Dominions and hiding their most detestable and divelish purposes under a false pretext of Religion and Conscience do secretly wander and shift from place to place within this Realm to corrupt and seduce her Majesties Subjects and to stir them to Sedition and Rebellion Then it is enacted that every Papist Convict dwelling or having a place of abode should repair to such his dwelling house or place of abode and not remove above five miles from thence upon the penalty of forfeiting his Goods and Chattels absolutely and his Lands Tenements and Hereditaments and his Annuities during his Life and they that have none are to repair to the places where they were Born or where their Father or Mother should be living upon the same penalty Popish Coppy-holders convict to forfeit their Coppy-hold to the Lord if he be not a Papist if he be a Papist then to the Queen Papists shall notifie their coming within Twenty days after their coming and present themselves and deliver their true Names in writing to the Minister or Curate and Constable c. which is to be certified to the Sessions and Inrolled there All Persons not being Feme Covert and not having Free hold Lands of twenty Marks per annum above all charges or Goods and Chattels above the vallue of Forty Pounds If they do not obey this Act by repairing to their places of abode c. shall abjure the Realm and the abjuration shall be entred on Record and certified Refusing to abjure or after abjuration not going away within the time appointed is made Felony A Jesuit Seminary or Massing Priest refusing to Answer directly whether he be so or no shall be imprisoned till he do make Answer There is a saving in the Act to Persons Licensed or Commanded by the Kings Process or bound to yield their Persons to the Sheriff Vpon open submission the offendor is to be discharged the submission to be entred into a Book by the Minister he that relapseth shall be in the same condition he was before such submission Married Women are bound by this Act save in the Case of abjuration Cullens Treason Foulis Hist l. 7. c. 7. f. 356. At the same time that Lopez was dealing withal about the Queens Murther the Papists to make more sure persuaded one Patrick Cullen an Irishman and a Fencer to commit the same Villany against her Royal Person In this Treason Stanley was very active who with Sherwood and Holt two Jesuits confirmed him in the lawfulness of the action giving him thirty Pounds towards his Journey into England being then in the Low-Countries but he was taken confessed all and is Executed York and Williams Conspiracy to kill the Queen Fouils Hist l. 7. c. 7. f. 356. Camb. Annals f. 495. Bakers Chron. 382. Their Confession The English fugitives beyond Seas persuaded one Edmund York and one Richard Williams with others to kill the Queen And this wicked Treason was agitated the same time that Lopez and Cullen were consulting about theirs But these Traytors were also seized on and suffer'd The truth of which Conspiracy appears from their own confession which take as followeth 1. They confessed that for an encouragement Hugh Owen a noted Traytor at Bruxells had an assignation subscribed by Ibara the Spanish Secretary of 40000 Crowns to be given them if they would kill the Queen 2. That the said assignation was delivered to Holt the Jesuit who shewed also the same to York and produced the Sacrament and kissed it swearing that he would pay the said Monies when the Murther
undertook to take this rub out of the way by killing the King to which purpose he went for Scotland but took England in his way At London one Daniel an Italian Fencing Master discovers the Plot to the Queen she seized them and sent them into Scotland Mowbray supposed Guilty is cast into Edenburgh Castle whence thinking one Night to escape out of a Window by his Bed sheets they proved too short and he fell upon the Rocks and so dyed his Body was hanged for sometime then quartered 1601. and set upon the Gates and several places of the City This Design failing another is in hand in Italy A design to poyson King James the First Ferdinando I. the Grand Duke of Tuscany by the intercepting some Letters discovereth a Plot to poyson the said King James The Duke by what reasons induced is not material but 't is conjectured in hopes to convert him rather pervert him to the Romish Religion resolved to discover and prevent it At this time one Mr. Henry Wotton sojourned in Florence 1602. and was well acquainted with Seigniour Vietta the Dukes Secretary upon whose Commendations Wotton is pitched on to be the Messenger The Letters and excellent Antidotes against Poyson such as were not then known in Scotland were delivered to him who disguised under an Italian Garb and Name of Octavio Baldi hasteth into Scotland cometh to the King discovereth himself and the Conspiracy and after some stay returneth to Florence he was afterwards Knighted by King James As the Popes are never without Designs for promoting some of their Nephews The Pope designs to exclude King James the First so Clement the VIII the then Pope in these Designs against the said King James his succeeding Queen Elizabeth was not wanting intending the Crown of England for some of his friends and perceiving that some in England English Papists to be sure were tampering to promote the Interest of the Lady Arabella in this case he thought it best to deal warily he was very desirous that the Duke of Parma should wear the Crown of England but finding that this was not feasible by reason Arabella's Interest was too strong for him he steers another course and thinks of Cardinal Farnese who being unmarried might take to Wife Arabella and so unite Forces and Interests to carry the Crown To carry on this design it was advised that all the Romanists in England should unite that their Cause might not suffer by any dissentions about this Succession amongst themselves a good Caution may hence be given to all Protestants in England that they do not divide upon their present Majesty's King William and Queen Mary's accession to the Crown who under God are the preservers of the Protestant Religion amongst us for vis unita fortior and nothing but division can hurt us to promote this union the Romish Clergy who then had and still have a great awe and authority over the Layety were exhorted by the Pope to be all of a Mind as to this Succession and to press it home upon the Layety that so the Layety might not be divided To which purpose it was concluded that there should be an Arch Priest who should have a Jurisdiction over the rest who are to â—it according to his Rules and Directions and in these designs Father Parsons who was not yet advanc'd according to his merit was a main stickler and contriver the Pope also had drawn up some Bulls and sent to his Nuncio in the Netherlands to Divulge and spread them abroad at convenient times wherein he declared that not any though never so near in blood should after Queen Elizabeths death be admitted to the Crown but such an one as would not only tollerate the Roman Religion but would swear to promote and resettle it and that in the mean time Cardinal Farnese might in this Island have the greatest vogue the Pope made him Protector of England as Pope Pius V. had before made Mary Queen of Scots Queen of England to carry on the same design as he was of other Countrys Nay rather then fail the same Pope had formerly exhorted the French and Spaniards to unite invade England and divide it between them nor did they neglect to instigate the Family of the Pools to have a Right Divers other Attempts were made by Winton Desmond and other Priests and Jesuits to exclude King James the First but all proved abortive as did the Treasons plotted against him after his Accessions to the Throne Queen Elizabeth's death Camb Annals f. 651. Bakers Chron. f. 403. On the 24th of March 1603. the Virgin Queen Elizabeth of every Glorious Memory exchanged her corruptible for an incorruptible Crown after she had Reigned Forty four Years and Four Months and in the Seventieth Year of her Age of whom her Successor gave this Character that she was one who in wisdom and felicity of Government surpassed all the Princes since the days of Augustus King James the First Proclaimed Camb. Annals f. 661. Bakers Chron. f. 403. A Conspiracy against him She being dead some few hours after King James was Proclaimed King of England the First of Scotland the Sixth and no sooner is he set upon his Throne even before he could well get the Crown upon his Head but we find a Plot laid against his Life for though the Papists could not keep him from the Throne they were resolved if possible that he should not sit long there This Plot I must confess is prima facie of a strange Complection but when 't is well viewed if we look upon the Majority of the Persons concerned we shall find them to be Romish Priests and Lay Papists and therefore if a thing may take its denomination from the greater part this may sure and we may safely call it a Popish Conspiracy for although some Protestants were inveigled into it Yet they were the smaller number and at that time under a discontent (a) Bakers Chron. f. 404. VVilsons History of Great Brittain f 4. which oftentimes carries Men beyond the Principles of their Religion and to do things contrary to the Rules of right Reason Whither their discontent was well grounded or not is not my purpose to enquire but taking it for granted they were Male-contents I shall now give an account of who were Actors in this Design and what the Design it self was The Names of the Conspirators Fowlis Hist li. 10. cap. 1. f. 499. VVilsons Hist. f. 4. Bakers Chron. f. 404. The main Actors in this Conspiracy were William Watson and Clark who had both writ against the Jesuits for their Treasons and Conspiracies Sir Griffin Markham Count Aremberg Ambassador from the Arch Duke of Austria Mathew de Lawrency a Merchant but an Instrument employed by Aremberg all zealous Papists Sir Edward Parham a Papist Bartholomew Roskesby and Anthony Coply Papists Henry Brook Lord Cobham and George Brook his Brother who seemed to be Protestants Thomas Lord Grey of Wilton a Protestant
then called a Puritan and Sir Walter Raleigh a States-man and Souldier and Fowlis saith troubled with no more Religion than would serve his interest and turâ— The design it self Fowlis Hist. li. 10. ca. 1. f. 499 500. Bakers Chron. f. 405. VVilsons Hist f. 4. The design was to set the Crown on the Head of the Lady Arabella or to seize on the King and make him grant their desires and a Pardon to raise a Rebellion and alter Religion and Government and in order thereunto to procure aid and assistance from Foreign Princes to turn out of the Court such as they disliked and to place themselves in Offices Watson was to have been Lord Chancellor George Brook Lord Treasurer Sir Griffith Markham Secretary of State Lord Grey Master of the Horse and Earl Marshal of England for the more secure carrying on these designs Watson drew up an Oath of Secrecy which they all took But all is discovered they are Apprehended Examined and Tryed in November 1604 at their Tryal they insisted that this could not be Treason because the King was not then Crowned but this Plea was soon over-ruled and they legally Convicted of the Treason and Watson Clark and George Brook were Executed the rest finding Mercy the King being loath to soil his Throne with Blood and therefore spilt no more then was absolutely necessary The Lord Grey dyed in the Tower the last of that Line (a) Said to lose his Life to gratify Gondamor Bakers Chron. f. 516. Wilson f. 115 116 117. Raleigh was beheaded in 1618. The rest were discharged of Imprisonment but dyed miserably poor Markham and some others abroad but Cobham as we * Osborns Traditional Memoires of King James p. 12. are told in a Room ascended by a Ladder at a Poor Womans house in the Minories formerly his Landress dyed rather of Hunger than a Natural disease This Conspiracy gave occasion for the Kings looking about him and taking such measures as might secure his Person and Government against such attemps for the future and perceiving that swarms of Priests came every day over from the Foreign Seminarys he suspected some mischief was a hatching and therefore issued out his Royal Proclamation against Jesuits which I find related by Wilson in these Words Having after some time spent in setling the politick Affairs of this Realm of late bestowed no small Labour in Composing certain Differences we found among our Clergy about Rites and Ceremonies heretofore established in this Church of England King James 1st his Proclamation against Jesuits Wilsons Hist. f. 9. and reduced the same to such an Order or Form as we doubt not but every Spirit that is led only with Piety and not with Humour should be therein satisfied it appears unto us in debating these Matters that a greater Contagion to our Religion then could proceed from these light Differences was imminent by Persons common Enemies to them both Namely the great numbers of Priests both Seminaries and Jesuits abounding in this Realm as well of such as were here before our coming to the Crown as of such as have resorted hither since using their Functions and Professions with greater Liberty then heretofore they durst have done Partly upon a vain Confidence of some Innovation in Matters of Religion to be done by us which we never intended nor gave any Man cause to suspect and Partly from the assurance of our general Pardon granted according to the Custom of our Progenitors at our Coronation for Offences past in the Days of the late Queen which Pardon 's many of the said Priests have procured under our Great Seal and holding themselves thereby free from Danger of the Laws do with great Audacity Exercise all Offices of their Profession both saying Masses and perswading our Subjects from the Religion established reconciling them to the Church of Rome and by Consequence seducing them from their Duty and Obedience to us wherefore we hold our selves obliged both in Conscience and Wisdom to use all good means to keep our Subjects from being affected with superstitious Opinions which are not only pernicious to their own Souls but the ready way to corrupt their Duty and Allegiance which cannot be any way so safely performed as by keeping from them the Instruments of that infection which are Priests of all sorts ordained in Foreign parts by Authority prohibited by the Laws of the Land concerning whom we have thought fit to publish unto all our Subjects this open Declaration of our Pleasure c. Willing and Commanding all manner of Jesuits Seminaries and other publick Priests having Ordination from any Authority by the Laws of this Realm prohibited to take notice that Our Pleasure is that they do before the nineteenth of March next depart forth of Our Realm and Dominions And to that purpose it shall be Lawful for all Officers of our Ports to suffer the said Priests to depart into foreign parts between this and the said nineteenth Day of March admonishing and assuring all such Jusuits Seminaries and Priests of what sort soever that if any of them after the said time be taken within this or any of our Dominions or departing now upon this our Pleasure signified shall hereafter return into this our Realm or any of our Dominions again they shall be left to the Penalty of the Laws here being in force concerning them without hope of any Favour or Remission from us c. Which tho' perhaps it may appear to some a great Severity towards that sort of Our Subjects Yet doubt we not when it shall be be considered with indifferent Judgment what Cause hath moved us to this Providence all Men will justifie us therein for to whom is it unknown into what peril our Person was like to be drawn and our Realm into Confusion not many Months since by Conspiracy First conceived by Persons of that sort Which when other Princes shall duly observe we assure our selves they will no way conceive that this Alteration proceedeth from any Change of Disposition but out of Providence to prevent the Perils otherwise inevitable considering their absolute Submission to foreign Jurisdiction at their first taking Orders doth leave so conditional an Authority to Kings over their Subjects as the same Power by which they were made may dispense at Pleasure with the strictest bond of Loyalty and Love between a King and his People Among which foreign Powers though we acknowledge our self personally so much beholden to the now Bishop of Rome for his kind Offices and private temporal Carriages towards us in many things as we shall be ever ready to requite the same towards him as Bishop of Rome in state and condition of a Secular Prince yet when we consider and observe the Course and Claim of that See We have no reason to imagine that Princes of our Religion and Profession can expect any assurance long to continue unless it might be asserted by Mediation of other Christian Princes that some good Course might be
is the Center and perfection of all things For if they would leave and be ashamed of such new and gross Corruptions of theirs as themselves cannot maintain nor deny to be worthy of Reformation I would for my own part be content to meet them in the mid way so that all Novelties might be renounced on either side For as my Faith is the true Ancient and Apostolick Faith grounded upon the express word of God so will I ever yeild all reverence to Antiquity in the points of Ecclesiastical Policy And by that means shall I ever with Gods Grace keep my self from either being an Heretick in Faith or Shismatick in Matters of Policy But of one thing would I have the Papists of this Land to be admonished that they presume not so much upon my Lenity because I would be loath to be thought a Persecutor as thereupon to think it lawful for them daily to encrease their number and strength in this Kingdom whereby if not in my time at least in the time of my Posterity they may be in hope to erect their Religion again No As they were very lately let them assure themselves that as I am a Friend to their Persons if they be good Subjects so am I a vowed Enemy and do denounce Mortal War to their Errors And as I would be sorry to be driven by their ill Behaviour from the Protection and Conservation of their Bodies and Lives so I will never cease as far as I can Suffering the increase of Popery called by Jam. 1. a betraying England and Scotland to tread down their Errors and wrong Opinions For I could not permit the increase and growing of their Religion without betraying my self and my own Conscience and this whole Island as well the part I am come from as the part I remain in in betraying their Liberties and reducing them to the former slavish Yoke which both had cast off before I came among them as also the Liberty of the Crown in my Posterity which I should leave again under a new Slavery being left free to me by my Predecessors And therefore I would wish all good Subjects that are deceived with this Corruption if they find any beginnings in themselves of Knowledge and Love to the truth to foster the same by all lawful Means and to beware of quenching the Spirit that worketh within them And if they can find as yet no Motion tending that way to be studious to read and confer with Learned men and to use all such means as may further their resolutions assuring them that as long as they are disconformable in Religion to us they cannot be but half my Subjects be able to do but half service and I shall want the best half of them which is their Souls After which the Parliament considering the said Proclamation and Speech and that notwithstanding the Jesuites and Seminary Priests flockt over in great numbers into England made an Act of Parliament intituled 1 Jac. cap. 4. Rast Stat. 2. part f. 550. An Act for the due Execution of the Statutes against Jesuites Seminary Priests Recusants c. By which it is Enacted THat all Statutes made against Iesuites Priests and Recusants should be put in due Execution but conforming himself should be discharged If the Heir of Papists be a Protestant An Act for puting the Laws against Papists in Execution and for punishing the Heirs of Papists he shall be discharged of all the Penalties Charges and Incumbrances happening upon Him or Her in respect or by reason of any of His or Her Ancestors Recusancy But if the Heir of a Papist shall happen to be within the Age of sixteen Years at the time of the Death of his Ancestor and shall after such Age be or become a Papist such Heir shall not be freed of the Penalty c. Unless He or She Conforms that the two parts of a Papists Lands shall go towards the satisfaction of the twenty pounds per Month forfeiture and after his Death shall remain in the Kings hands until the Arrears be satisfied that none shall send or cause to be sent any Person to any Colledge Seminary or house of Iesuites Priests or any other Papist Popish Order Professing or Calling whatsoever upon the Penalty of a hundred Pound forfeiture they that go or are sent are disabled to inherit purchase take have or enjoy any Estate whatever real or personal and all Estates or Terms conveyed to their Vse or in Trust for them are thereby made void and null That no Woman or Child under the Age of 21 Years shall go beyond Seas without License of the King or of six of the Privy Councel first had under their hands the Officer of the Port that suffers such to pass forfeits his Office and all his Goods and Chattels the Owner of the Ship his Ship and Tackle and the Master and Marriners their Goods and shall suffer twelve Months imprisonment without Bayl or Main prize Keeping School contrary to the Act forty Shillings forfeiture The Gunpowder-Treason in 1604. King James having by his Proclamation before the Parliament met and in his Speech at the opening of the Parliament thus freely declared against the Papists especially the Priests and Jesuites and the Parliament having made the said Law against them and they dispairing of any Tolleration in Matters of Religion which they had Petitioned for now to their old Work of Plotting again and a Plot they laid they did I say It was of that Nature that it is next to incredible that such a Complicated Villany should ever enter into the heart of Man quà Rational much more quà Christian but one would rather think it had been the product of a Consult in Hell amongst the Devils themselves and if degrees of wickedness can be allowed to be there amongst the worst of Devils too The Plot it self Foulis Hist l. 10. cap. 2. f. 507. Wilsons Hist f. 28. Bakers Chron. f. 507. The Actors in it The Plot was this with one blow to destroy King Queen Prince Nobles and Commons who were not Papists this is designed to be effected by blowing up the Parliament House when the King and Parliament were sitting and killing those of them who were not in the House The Persons concerned in this Plot were Robert Catesby the Contriver hereof Henry Garnet John Gerrard Oswald Tesmond and other Jesuites the Advisers thereto Thomas Piercy Robert Winter John Grant Ambrose Rookwood John Wright Francis Tresham Sir Everard Digby Guy Fauks Robert Keys Thomas Bates and others Assistants in carrying it on To carry on this Design when it was laid first an Oath of Secrecy was compiled and afterwards the Conspirators took the same and not only so but Garnet confest them and they afterwards received the Sacraments to bind them to the greater Secrecy the Oath was this You shall swear by the Blessed Trinity and by the Sacrament you now purpose to receive never to disclose directly or indirectly
after fear to enter into any cogitation to attempt the like Barbarous and detestable Treasons that the Convictions and Attainder of the said Robert Winter Thomas Winter Guy Fauks Ambrose Rookwood John Graunt Robert Keyes Thomas Bates and Sir Everard Digby might be confirmed which was confirmed by Authority of Parliament accordingly and then it was Enacted that as well the said Robert Winter Thomas Winter Guy Fauks Ambrose Rookwood John Graunt Robert Keyes Thomas Bates and Sir Everard Digby as also the said Robert Catesby Thomas Piercy John Wright Hugh Owen and Francis Tresham should be attainted of High Treason and forfeit as in Cases of High Treason according to their several and respective Convictions and Attainders When the Parliament had thus first acknowledged Gods goodness in this deliverance and made the said Act of Attainder The consideration of the Treachery and Villany of this Gun-Powder-Plot undertaken under the pretence of maintaining and restoreing Popery engaged the State to consult the preservation of the Government and the Protestant Religion and considering the furious Zeal and wicked Principles of the Papists in affirming the lawfulness of deposing and killing all Heretical Kings and such they esteem all Protestant Kings to be that the Pope had Power to deprive Temporal Princes absolve Subjects from their Obedience and such-like Villanous Positions with the many wicked Practices against the Crown and Life of Queen Elizabeth and King James Upon these and such like considerations after several serious deliberations and consultations in Parliament to prevent the like mischiefs they thought fit to draw up a solemn Oath whereby every one should Abjure such Treasonable Doctrines and Swear for the future to behave themselves as became good Subjects which Oath was this The Oath of Allegiance Anno Tertio Jacobi primi Foulis Hist. l. 10. c. 2. f. 522. I A. B. Do truly and sincerely acknowledge profess Testifie and Declare in my Conscience before God and the World that our Soveraign Lord King is Lawful and is Rightful King of this Realm and of all other his Majesties Dominions and Countries And that the Pope neither of himself nor by any Authority of the Church or See of Rome or by any other means with any other hath any Power or Authority to depose the King. Or to dispose any of his Majesties Kingdoms or Dominions Or to Authorize any Forreign Prince to Invade or annoy him or his Countries Or to discharge any of his Subjects of their Allegiance and Obedience to His Majesty Or to give License or leave to any of them to bear Arms raise troubles c. Or to offer any Violence or Hurt to his Majesties Royal Person or Government or to any of his Majesties Subjects within his Majesties Dominions As also I do swear from my Heart that notwithstanding any Declaration or Sentence of Excommunication or Deprivation made or granted or to be made or granted by the Pope or his Successors or by any Authority derived or pretended to be derived from him or his See against the said King his Heirs or Successors or any Absolution of the said Subjects from their Obedience I will bare Faith and true Allegiance unto his Majesty his Heirs and Successors And him and them will defend to the utmost of my Power against all Conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which shall be made against his or their Persons their Crown and Dignity by Reason or Colour of any such Sentence or Declaration or otherwise And will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known unto His Majesty his Heirs and Successors all Treasons and Traiterous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear of to be against him or any of them And I do further Swear that I do from my Heart Abhor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this damnable Doctrine and Position that Princes which be Excommunicated or deprived by the Pope may be Deposed or Murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do believe and in Conscience am resolved that neither the Pope or any Person whatsoever hath Power to Absolve me of this Oath or any part thereof Which I acknowledge by good and full Authority to be Lawfully Ministred unto me And do Renounce all Pardons and Dispensations to the Contrary And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and Swear according to the express Words by me spoken according to the plain and common sence and understanding of the same words without any Equivocation or Mental Evasion or Secret Reservation whatsoever And I do make this Recognition and acknowledgment heartily willingly and truly upon the true Faith of a Christian So help me God. A. B. Unto which Oath so taken the said Person shall subscribe His or Her Name or Mark. The Papists lookt upon the (a) Cecil Earl of Salisbury principal Secretary of State to be the chief promoter of the Oath of Allegiance and therefore used all their endeavours to deter him from Prosecuting it thinking that if they could take him off these Parliamentary transactions would fall to the ground they therefore sent the following Letter to him viz. My Lord VVHereas the late unapproveable and must wicked design The Papists threatning Letter to the Earl of Salibury Foulis Hist l. 10. c. 3. f. 521. for destroying of his Majesty the Prince and Nobility with many other of worth and quality attempted through the undertaking Spirits of some more fiery and turbulent then Zealous and dispassionate Catholics hath made the general State of our Catholic Cause so scandalous in the Eye of such whose corrupted Judgments are not able to fan away and sever the fault of the Professor from the profession its self as that who now is found to be of that Religion is persuaded at least in mind to allow tho God knoweth as much abhoring as any Puritan whatsoever the said former most inhumane and Barbarous project And whereas some of His Majesties Councel but especially your Lordship as being known to be as the Philosopher termeth it a Primus Motor in such uncharitable proceedings are determined as it is feared by taking advantage of so foul a scandal to root out all the Memory of Catholic Religion either by suddain Banishment Massacre Imprisonment or some such unsupportable vexations and pressures and perhaps by decreeing in this next Parliament some more cruel and horrible Laws against Catholics then already are made In regard of the premises there are some good Men Good men and Roman Catholics who through their earnest desire for the continuing the Catholic Religion and for saving many Souls both of this present and of all future posterity are resolved to prevent so great a mischief tho with a full assurance aforehand of the loss of their dearest Lives You are therefore hereby to be admonished May Murther Privy Councillors that at this present there are Five who have severally undertaken your Death and have vowed the performance thereof by taking already the Blessed Sacrament if you
they thought to have destroyed And yet so far hath both my Heart and Government been from any bitterness as almost never one of those sharp additions to the former Laws have ever yet been put in Execution And that ye may yet know further for the more convincing these Libellers of wilful Malice who impudently affirm that this Oath of Allegiance was devised for deceiving and intrapping of Papists in point of Conscience The truth is that the Lower-House of Parliament at the first framing of this Oath made it contain that the Pope had no Power to Excommunicateme which I caused them to reform only making it to conclude That no Excommunication of the Popes can warrant my Subjects to practice against my Person or State denying the deposition of Kings to be in the Popes lawful Power As indeed I take any such Temporal violence to be far without the Limits of such a spiritual Censure as Excommunication is So careful was I that nothing should be contained in this Oath except the profession of Natural Allegiance and Civil and Temporal obedience with a Promise to resist all contrary uncivil violence This Oath now grounded upon so great and just occasion set forth in so reasonable Terms and ordained only for making a true distinction between Papists of quiet dispotion and in all other things good Subjects and other Papists such as in their hearts maintained the like violent bloody Maxims that the Powder Traytor did * And here I can't but take notice that the very design of the Oath of Allegiance was to make a distinction between Papists of unquiet and turbulent and of quiet and peaceable Minds and had not in its original any influence upon the Protestants nor did at the time of making concern them and that after Protestants were enjoyned to take it the same was intended to no other purpose then to difference them from Papists and therefore the taking the new Oaths to their present Majesties cannot but be well consistent with the former Oath of Allegiance especially if it be considered that the late King is himself a Papist So that it is evident King James thought the said Plots Treasons Conspiracies and other unbecoming and undutiful words and practices was ground sufficient to make the said Law. And doubtless The Powder-Treason justifies the State in making another Act of Parliament the same Session Intitled An Act to prevent and avoid danger which may grow by Popish Recusants The preamble of which Act making it further to appear that the Powder-Treason was the occasion of making this Law I shall here insert the Preamble verbatim and then the substance of the Act. WHereas divers Iesuits 3 Jac. 1. ca. 5. Rast Stat. f. 597. Papists banished the Court and the City of London upon a pecuniary Mulct Seminaries and Popish Priests dayly do withdraw many of his Majesties Subjects from their true Service of Almighty God and the Religion established within this Realm to the Romish Religion and from their Loyal obedience to his Majesty and have of late scretly perswaded divers Recusants and Papists and encouraged and embolâ—ned them to commit most damnable Treasons tending to the overthrow of Gods true Religion the destruction of his Majesty and his Royal Issue and the overthrow of the whole State and Common-wealth if God of his Goodness and Mercy had not within few hours before the intended time of the Execution thereof revealed and disclosed the same wherefore to discover and prevent such secret and damnable Conspiracies and Treasons as hereafter may be put in use by such evil disposed Persons if remedy be not therefore provided Then the Law provides That the discoverer of Iesuites or Priests or harbourers of them shall have the third Part of all that is recovered against them so as the same exceeds not One hundred and Fifty Pounds and Fifty Pounds only where it exceeds the sum of One hundred and Fifty Pounds No Papist shall come to Court upon the Penalty of a Hundred Pounds for every default Papists not to come into London nor ten Miles compass of the same upon forfeiture of One hundred Pounds Papists confined to their Houses or Places of above and not to remove above five Miles from thence Not to Travel without Licence how Licence to be obtain'd and no License to be given to enable them to the contrary but such as are prescribed by this Act His Majesty Three of the Privy-Council Four Iustices of the Peace with the Privity may License and assent of the Bishop Lieutenant or Deputy Lieutenant under Hand and Seal the cause of removing must be inserted in the Warant and Oath made of the truth of it Papists disabled from Practicing as Lawyers Common or Civil c. All Papists convict are disabled from practising as a Counsel Clark Attorney or Sollicitor Advocate or Proctor as Physician using the Trade of an Apothecary from being Iudge Minister Clark or Steward of or in any Court or keeping any Court or being Town Clark or other Minister or Officer in any Court from bearing any Office or Charge as Captain Lieutenant Corporal Serjeant Antient Bearer or other Officer in Camp Troop Band or Company of Souldiers from being Captain Master Governour or bearing any Office or Charge A Man having a Wife a Papist Convict is disabled from exercising any public Office or Charge Feme Covert Convict looses part of her Joynture c. of or in any Ship Castle or Fortress and forfeits one hundred pounds for every Offence besides the disability No Popish Recusant Convict nor any having a Wife being a Popish Recusant Convict shall exercise any public Office or Charge in the Common-wealth but are utterly disabled Feme Covert Convict looses two parts of her Ioynture and Dower is disableâ— from being Executrix or Administratrix to her Husband and to have any Part of his Goods or Chattels A Popish Recusant Convict is disabled as an Excommunicate Person But notwithstanding it he may sue for or concerning only such of his or her Lands c. or the issues thereof which are not to be seized or taken into the Kings Hands his Heirs or Successors by force of any Law for or concerning his or her Recusancy or any part thereof Every Man that is a Papist covict Marrying contrary to the Orders of the Church of England is disabled from being Tenant by the courtesie if any Lands c. of his Wives and if she hath no Lands forfeits a hundred Pounds a Woman Papist convict so marrying is disabled to Claim Dower Papists must Marry according to the usage of the Church of England Papists must Bapt. according to the usage of the Church of England Their Children must not be sent beyond Seas Papists shall not present to Livings Popish Books inhibited Papists to be disarmed Ioynture and Widows Estate and Franck Bank in customary Lands Papists must baptize their Children according to the Rites of the Church of England upon a hundred Pounds
by her Authority from any other whatsoever c. Dated at Rome at St. Peters c. 1. Feb 1608. Birket upon the Receipt of this Breve draws up and sends abroad this admonishing Letter To all the Reverend Secular Priests of ENGLAND Most Dearly beloved Brethren WHereas I have always desired to live without molesting or offending others Birkets Letter to the Popish Clergy against taking the Oath and going to Church Foulis Hist l. 10. cap. 3. f. 530. it cannot be but a wonderful corosive Sorrow and Grief unto me that against mine own inclination I am forced as you have seen by the Breve it self to prescribe a certain time for such as do find themselves to have been contrary to the Points which are touched in the said Breve concerning the Oath and going to Church that they may thereby return and conform themselves to the Doctrine declared by his Holiness both in this and the other former Breves And therefore now by this Present do give notice unto you all that the time which I prefix and prescribe for that purpose is the space of two Months next ensuing after the knowledge of this Admonition Within which time such as shall forbear to take or allow any more the Oath or going to Church I shall most willingly accept their doing therein Yet signifying unto you withal that such as do not within the time prescribed give this Satisfaction I must tho much against my Will for fulfilling his Holinesses Commandments deprive them and denounce them to be deprived of all their Faculties and Priviledges granted by the See Apostolick or by any other Authority thereof unto them or to any of them and so by this Present do denounce hoping that there is no Man will be so wilful or disobedient to his Holinesses Order but will conform himself as becometh an obedient Child of the Catholick Church And so most heartily wishing this Conformity in us all and that we may Live and Labour together Unanimes in Domo Domini I pray God give us the Grace to effect that in our Actions whereunto we are by our Order and Profession obliged Your Servant in Christ George Birket Arch-Priest of England and Protonotary Apostolical This 2d of May 1608. There was by reason of these Bulls great Writing against the Lawfulness of Papists taking the Oath And it can't be but all of them who writ against it make this their Foundation That it takes away the Popes power of depriving Kings and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance So that certainly it was high time for the State to take care of the safety of their Religion and their Prince the Defender thereof The Parliament therefore in the Seventh Year of King James the First that they might know who were Friends to a Foreign power and consequently Enemies to the established Government made an Act of Parliament Intitled An Act for Administring the Oath of Allegiance and Reformation of married Women Recusants Which is the last Law I find made in this Kings Reign relating to the Papists The Preamble runs thus 7. Jac. 1. cap. 6. Rast Stat. 2. part f. 666. For taking the Oath of Allegiby Protestants as well as by Papists And Feme Courts Papists to Penalties VVHereas by a Statute made in the third Year of your Majesties Reign intituled An Act for the better discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants The form of an Oath to be ministred and given to certain Persons in the same Act mentioned is limited and prescribed tending only to the Declaration of such Duty as every true and well affected Subject not only by Bond of Allegiance but also by the Commandment of Almighty God ought to bear to your Majesty your Heirs and Successors which Oath such as are infected with Popish Superstition do oppugne with many false and unsound Arguments the just defence whereof your Majesty hath heretofore undertaken and worthily performed to the great Contentment of all your Loving Subjects notwithstanding the Gain-sayings of contentious Adversaries And to shew how greatly your Loyal Subjects do approve the said Oath they prostrate themselves at your Majesties feet beseeching your Majesty that the same Oath may be Administred to all your Subjects To which end we do with all humbleness beseech your Highness that it may be Enacted And then To shew how greatly they approved the said Oath they desired it might be Administred to all the Subjects of England and accordingly it was Enacted That it should be taken by all Persons above the Age of eighteen Years The penalty for the refusâ—ing upon tender is Imprisonment without Bayl or Main-prize and disability to execute any place of Iudicature to bear any other Office to use or Practice the Common or Civil Law Physick or Chirurgery the Art of an Apothecary or any Liberal Science for His or Her gain By this Act a married Woman that is a Papist convict if she doth not within three Months after Conviction conform shall be committed to Prison without Bayl or Main-prize unless her Husband will pay ten Pounds a Mouth for the Wives offence or the third part of all his Lands c. for so long time as she remaining a Papist convict shall continue out of Prison during which time and no longer she may be at Liberty The Penal Laws in this Reign justified And certainly Watson and Clarks Plot the Gun-Powder Treason and the restless endeavours of the Pope and the Jesuits by his sending and their bringing over Bulls to alienate the Kings Subjects from their Allegiance will highly justifie the State in making these Laws against the Papists that were made in this Kings Reign And the more reasonable will they appear to be if it be considered that we do not find that he ever Executed one Person Priest Jesuit or other for Religion but all Died for Treason even Garnet himself was sorry that he could not Dye for Religion his guilt of Treason being so notorious And therefore these Plots Conspiracies and Treasons carry in the Face of them the greatest ingratitude imaginable The King in the Tenth Year of his Reign being affrighted with Henry the Fourth of France his being Stabbed by Ravilliac ventures upon a Proclamation King James his last Proclamation against the Jesuits Wilsons Hist f. 51 52. strictly commanding all Jesuits and Priests out of the Kingdom and all Recusants to their own Houses not to come within ten Miles of the Court and secures all the rest of his Subjects to him by an universal taking of the Oath of Allegiance which the Parliament both Lords and Commons then sitting began and the rest of the People followed (a) Wilsons Hist f. 25. Soon after this Parliament was Dissolved and Prince Henry was created Prince of Wales after which the Kings first Treaty for disposal of any of his Children was by his Leiger Ambassador in Spain with that King for the Lady Elizabeth (b) Wilsons Hist f. 91. Rushw Col. 1 part f. 1. and
afterwards another Treaty was set on foot for Prince Henry with a Daughter of Spain What Religion the Spaniard was of is well known and what effect the Crown of England Matching into Popish Families abroad hath had is more to be lamented then remembred any other ways then to avoid the like mischiefs for the future In the 12 th Year of his Reign there were a generation about the Court Camb. f. 77. A Parliament called and dissolved because they complained of grievances and particularly of the increase of Papists that undertook for the calling such a Parliament as the King would have these were Men that presumed they had friends in every County and Borough who by their power among the People could make Election of such Men for Knights and Burgesses as should comply solely with the Kings desire and Somerset was the head and chief of these undertakers but these projects against the Fundamentals of the English Government proved an abortive for the Parliament meeting such Faces appeared there as was no ways pleasing to the Court who instead of contributing to the Kings wants lay open his wasts especially upon the Scots with whom they desire a share of Favour The Bread by our Saviour's Rule properly belongs to the Children of the Kingdom and they beseech his Majesty to stop the Current of future access of that Nation to make residence here having enough to eat up their own Crums they enquire into the Causes of the unexpected increase of Popish Recusants since the Gunpowder Plot the detestation whereof they thought should have utterly extinguished them and they attribute it to the admission of Popish Nobility into his Councels the silencing of many watchful and dilligent Ministers the divers Treaties his Majesty had entertained not only for the Marriage of Prince Henry but for Prince Charles with the Daughters of Popish Princes which disheartned the Protestant and encouraged the Papist they laid open with these many other miscarriages in Government the King desirous to conceal these Matters dissolves the Parliament and Committed to the Tower and other Prisons such as were most active for the common good and who can deny but that this must needs give encouragement to the Papists In the 15 th Year of his Reign he put out a Book to Tollerate Sports on the Lords Days this Book came out with a Command injoyning all Ministers to read it to their Parishoners and to approve of it A Book of Sports obtruded and those that did not were brought before the High Commission Imprisoned and Suspended This was a contrivance of the Papists and their adherents to trap the most Conscientious Men of the Church of England who were in all other matters exactly conformable and to lay them aside and good reason the Papists had for this because no Nation will ever receive their innovations in Matters of Religion where there is a Sound Orthodox Learned and Pious Clergy Wilsons Hist. f. 105. Wilson says that some of the Ministers that were Suspended said that they would Preach the Gospel in a Fools Coat rather then be silent for a Surplis and the Conjuring of them with the Cross in Baptism and the Circle of the Ring in Marriage could not make a well composed Reason and a sound Conscience then start at it But when so frighful an Aparition as the Dancing Book appeared some of the Ministers left all for fear others by force they were so terrified by it This I have set down in Willsons own words because it appears by this that the Men that were suspended were proceeded against not for Puritanism or Nonconformity to the discipline of the Church of England but for non-complying with things obtruded on them by right down Papists or those who whether they saw it or no I cannot tell were carrying on the Popish designs The King having all along had a design of Matching his Son Rushw Col. 1. part f. 11. either to Spain or France it is no wonder that the Priests and Jesuits swarm here and much less a wonder that they endeavour to promote their own Religion for if they will do it when the Edge of Justice is sharpned against them much more when he that should make use of the Sword is so merciful that let them do what they will he will not or so fearful he dares not strike As Prophanness by reason of the Book of Sports crept in by their means so did Idolotry and Superstition for their was now more enmity against Ministers of the Gospel then Popish Priests and no wonder for let a Peoples Morals be once throughly debauched and 't will not be very difficult to make them outwardly of what Religion you will. The Jesuits Jugling with the Boy of Bilson Wilsons Hist. f. 107. The Popish Priests and Jesuits having now more liberty then they had had for above fifty Years resolve to make much of their time and because they cannot much boast of real holiness pretended Miracles must recommend them to the People for this purpose the Boy of Bilson was set up by them as he himself afterwards confest to Act the part of one possest with a Divel and they were to come and disposes him that so it might appear how much Gods Power was exprest in their weakness and to difference the truth and holiness betwixt the Catholic Religion and the Heresie profest among Protestants such Godly cheats are they always making use of to deceive the Hearts of the simple This Boy Bishop Morton discovered to be an imposture and when he had made the discovery and the Boy found he was detected he confest the whole Matter to be thus That he was inticed to one Mr. Giffords House in Stafford-shire where there were four Romish Priests who gave him Mony and many fair words promising him great matters if he would be conformable to their instructions In three days time they had taught him to practice his tricks so well that they ventured him home to his Fathers to exercise them publickly He came home in a very distracted manner to his Parents amazement and in a short time the thing was noised and a great deal of Company coming to see him his Parents got Money by it which was an incouragement to him to persist so that when the Priests came to disposes him he would not be disposest but went on and as they had instructed him accused a poor Old Woman of Witchcraft for which she was Tryed and Condemned and had been Executed had it not been for Bishop Morton detecting this imposture The whole story you may read at large in Wilson from f. 106. to 111. Wilsons Hist. f. 130. Henry Earl of Northumberland who was Sentenced in the Star-Chamber Thirty Thousand Pounds and Imprisoned in the Tower for harbouring in his House the aforenamed Thomas Piercy his Kinsman who was one of the Plotters of the Gunpowder-Treason was in the Seaventeenth Year of this Kings Reign set at liberty The
Spaniards gives the overture of the Match Rushw Col. part 1. f. 4. The King having had thoughts of a Match for Prince Charles with France and the Duke of Savoy having been before him and prevailed for his Son the Prince of Piedmount The Spaniard giving the overture of a Match King James embraceth it and Articles of Religion between the King of England and Spain were agreed on which were these c. Articles of Religion agreed upon between the Kings of England and Spain That the Popes Dispensation be first obtained by meer Act of the King of Spain That the Children of this Marriage be not constrained in Matters of Religion nor their Title prejudiced in case they prove Catholics That the Infanta's Family being Strangers may be Catholics and shall have a decent place appointed for all Divine Service according to the use of the Church of Rome and the Ecclesiasticks and Religious Persons may wear their own proper Habits That the Marriage shall be Celebrated in Spain by a Procurator according to the instructions of the Councel of Trent and after the Infanta's Arival in England such a Solemnation shall be used as may make the Marriage valid according to the Laws of this Kingdom That she shall have a competent number of Chaplains and a Confesser being Strangers one whereof shall have Power to Govern the Family in Religious Matters But none of the People of England but were averse to this Match except the Papists whose interest indeed it was to carry it on After the Bohemians had chosen the Count Palatine King of Bohemia he craved advice of his Father in Law King James touching the acceptation of that Royal dignity But before he could receive his advice he was prevailed upon to accept it Count Palatine chose King of Bohemia Wilsons Hist f. 132. Rushw Col. 1. part f. 12. because the emergency of the Cause would admit of no delay and afterwards sent to King James to excuse it When this important business of the Count Palatines accepting the Crown of Bohemia was related in the Kings Councel to evince of what advantage it was to the Protestant Cause I shall here insert Arch-Bishop Abbots Letter to Sir Robert Nauton the Kings Secretary the Arch-Bishops infirmities not permitting him at that time to attend the Councel That God hath set up this Prince his Majesties Son in Law Arch-Bishop Abbot's Letter touching the Count Palatines accepting the Crown of Bohemia as a mark of Honour throughout all Christendom to propagate the Gospel to help the oppressed that for his own part he dares not but to give advice to follow where God Leads apprehending the Work of God in this and that of Hungary that by Peece and Peece the Kings of the Earth that gave their Power to the Beasts shall leave the Whore and make her desolate that he was satisfied in Conscience the Bohemians had just cause to reject that Bloody Man who had taken a course to make that Kingdom not Elective in taking it by the donation of another the slighting of the Viscount Doncaster in his embassage gave cause of just displeasure and indignation therefore let not a Noble Son be forsaken for their sakes who regard nothing but their own ends our striking in will comfort the Bohemians Honour the Palsgrave strengthen the Princes of the Vnion draw on the United Provinces stir up the King of Denmark and the Palatines two Vncles the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Bovillon together with Termoville a rich Prince in France to cast in their shares The Parliament is the Old and honourable way for raising of Money and all that may be spared is to be returned this way and perhaps God provided the Jewels that were laid up in the Tower by the Mother for the preservation of the Daughter who like a Noble Princess hath professed that she will not leave her self one Jewel rather then not maintain so Religious and Righteous a Cause certainly if countenance be given to this Action many brave Spirits will offer themselves therefore let all our Spirits be gathered up to animate this business that the World may take notice that we are awake when God calls By this Letter it plainly appears that it was the Arch-Bishops Opinion that it tended much to the promoting the Reformation that the Count Palatine should accept the Crown of Bohemia and the Crown of England should stand by him in it and whoever reads the most impartial writers of those times will find that the Spanish Match which was then a foot and Popish Councels at home was the true Cause of the loss of the Palatinate and the ruine of that Protestant Prince and how could things be expected otherwise so long as Gondamor had so far the ascendant of the King that when the Earl of Essex solicited the King after the War was begun to send more Forces Gondamor obstructed it whatever he desired was done and few or none were well respected at Court but Spanish * Wilsons 144. Rushw 1. part f. 18. vide the private instructions to the Spanish Ambassador sent into England Pentioners under whom the Papists flourished After the Palatinate was lost the King outwardly seemed willing to assist towards the Recovery of it and therefore proposes it first to the Privy Councel and afterwards called a Parliament which was to meet the thirteenth of January in the 18 th Year of his Reign proposing to himself that the People for regaining the Palatinate would open their Purses which he might make use of and that a good agreement Between him and his People would induce his Brother of Spain to be more Active and so he should have supply from the one and dispatch from the other i. e. Mony and the Spanish Match were the ends he aimed at let the Palatinate Sink or Swim 't was no matter This the Jesuits and Seminary Priests knew well enough and therefore they Wilsons Hist. f. 151. rangeing up and down like Spirits let loose did not now as formerly creep into Corners using close and cunning Artifices but practised them openly having admission to our Councellors of State. And when Secretaries and such as manage the intimate Councels of Kings are Jesuits and Clients to the Pope there can be no tendency of affection to a contrary Religion or Policy Yet these were the Men that carried all before them at Court And the Protestant interest must needs flourish under such Ministers of State especially if it be considered that England was not only Man'd with Jesuits all Power now failing to oppose them but the Women also began to practice the Trade Women Jesuitrices calling themselves Jesuitrices This Order was first set on foot in Flanders by Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Twitty two English Gentlewomen who Cloathed themselves in Ignatian Habit and were Countenanced and Supported by Father Gerrard Rector of the English Colledge at Leige with Father Flack and Father More Their design was to Preach the Popish
brought their Designs about and the Palatinate was irretrievably lost they broke off the Match and left the King and Prince in the Lurch Right Popish Jugling After this Treaty was dissolved the King thinks of a Match with France The French Match Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 114. A Parliament called and the Lord Kensington was sent Ambassadot into France to feel the Pulse of that Court touching it and gives an Account that it would be accepted soon after which a Parliament was called to meet the twelfth of February in the 21 st year of this King 1623. and now the King is of the Mind to take the Parliaments Advice about his Sons Match as he told them and is grieved for the Increase of Popery if after all the foregoing Passages it be to be believed and promises a great deal and porforms never a whit And here I cannot omit what Wilson saith speaking of this Parliaments Petition against Papists and the Kings Answer both which he hath printed at large f. 272.273 274 275. to which I refer the Reader If the King saith he had seriously and really considered the very last Clause of this Petition wherein the Glory of God and the Safety of his Kingdoms so much consisted as the Parliament wisely express and foresee and which the King saith is the best Advice in the World and which he promised so faithfully to observe in the next Treaty of Marriage for his Son it might perhaps have kept the Crown upon the head of his Posterity But when Princes break with the People A good Caution for all Christian Princes and States in those Promises that concern the Honour of God God will let their People break with them to their Ruine and Dishonour And this Maxim holds in all Powers whether Kingdoms or Common-wealths as they are established by Justice so the Justice of Religion which tends most to the Glory of God is principally to be observed The Parliament followed the Chase close The Parliament displaceth Papists and bolted out divers of the Nobility and Gentry of Eminency popishly affected that had earthed themselves in Places of high Trust and Power in the Kingdom as if they meant to undermine the Nation Their Names Wilson saith were these Francis Earl of Rutland the Duke of Buckinghams Wives Father Sir Thomas Compton Their Names VVilson's Hist f. 276. that was married to the Dukes Mother and the Countess her self who was the Cynosure they all steered by the Earl of Castle-haven the Lord Herbert after Earl of Worcester the Lord Viscount Colchester after Earl of Rivers the Lord Peter the Lord Morley the Lord Windsor the Lord Eure the Lord Wotton the Lord Teinham the Lord Scroop who was Lord President of the North and which they omitted the Earl of Northampton Lord President of Wales who married his Children to Papists and permitted them to be bred up in Popery Sir William Courtney Sir Thomas Brudnell Sir Thomas Somerset Sir Gilbert Ireland Sir Francis Stonners Sir Anthony Brown Sir Francis Howard Sir William Powel Sir Francis Lacon Sir Lewis Lewkner Sir William Awbury Sir John Gage Sir John Shelly Sir Henry Carvell Sir Thomas Wiseman Sir Thomas Geâ—rard Sir John Filpot Sir Thomas Russel Sir Henry Beddingfield Sir William Wrey Sir John Counwey Sir Charles Jones Sir Ralph Conyers Sir Thomas Lamplough Sir Thomas Savage Sir William Mosely Sir Hugh Beston Sir Thomas Riddall Sir Marmaduke Nivell Sir John Townesend Sir William Norris Sir Philip Knevet Sir John Tasborough Sir William Selbie Sir Richard Titehborn Sir John Hall Sir George Perkins Sir Thomas Penrodduck Sir Nicholas Saunders Knights besides several Esquires popishly addicted either in their own Persons or by means of their Wives too tedious to be expressed here and these were dispersed and seated in every County who were not only in Office and Commission but had Countenance from Court by which they grew up and flourished so that their Exuberancy hindred the Growth of any Goodness or Piety their Malice pleased to drop upon Soon after which the Parliament was adjourned after they had made thirty five publick Acts and seventy three private ones but nothing was done with relation to the Papists Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 154 155. VVilson f. 277. saith the King desired this Match above all Earthly Blessings The King admiring the Alliance of mighty Kings though of a contrary Religion desired the Match with France unmeasurably notwithstanding his Promise to the Parliament which the French perceived and though they were very forward before yet now abated of that Forwardness And whereas they were at first very modest in their Demands in favour of the Papists yet now inlarged those Demands and strained the King to the Concession of such Immunities as he had promised the Parliament he would never grant In August 1624. this Match was concluded and in November the Articles were sworn unto by King James Prince Charles and the French King the Articles concerning Religion were not much short of those for the Spanish Match Papists encouraged by the Treaty with France Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 154. The Papists formerly daunted by the Breach of the Spanish Match were now again revived by the Marriage Treaty with France And at this time upon the Death of William titular Bishop of Calcedon most of the English Secular Priests did petition the Pope that another Bishop might be sent over into England there to ordain Priests give Confirmation and exercise Episcopal Jurisdiction Among others Matthew Killison and Richard Smith were presented And though the Regulars were opposite to the Seculars in this Matter yet those of the Order of St. Benedict joyned with the Seculars and Rudesin Barlo the President of the English Benedictines of Doway wrote a Letter in their Behalf at the Congregation at Rome named of the Propagation of the Faith. Dated the 12 th of December 1624. In which Letter was this Passage That there were above sixty Benedictine Monks in England and that it is not to be doubted said he for that it is already seen the good Success under the first Bishop that another Bishop being constituted there would be more joyful Fruits within two Years in the English Mission than hitherto hath been for sixty years now lapsed But not long after the Episcopal party of the Romish Church prevailing Pope Vrban the VIII created Richard Smith Bishop of Calcedon and sent him into England with Episcopal Authority over the Priests within the English Dominions The Close of this Kings Reign Rushw Coll. f. 155. And now I am come to the Close of this Kings Reign for after he had notwithstanding all his connivance at the Papists out of either Ambition or Cowardise recommended the Protection of the Church of England to the then Prince of Wales Charles the First advised him to love his Wife but not her Religion and exhorted him to take special care of his Grand-Children the Children of the Elector Palatine by his Daughter
Places of Government who do shall or may Countenance the Popish Party The Remedies against this Outragious and dangerous Disease we conceive to be these ensuing 1. That the Youth of this Realm be carefully Educated by careful and Religious Schoolmasters and they to be enjoyned to Catechize and Instruct their Schollars in their Grounds and Principles of true Religion And whereas by many Complaints from divers Parts of the Kingdom it doth plainly appear That sundry Popish Schollars dissembling their Religion have craftily crept in and obtained the Places of Teaching in divers Counties and thereby infected and perverted their Schollars and so fitted them to be Transported to the Popish Seminaries beyond the Seas that therefore there be great care in choice and admitting Schoolmasters and that the Ordinaries make diligent enquiries of their Demeanours and proceed to the removing of such as shall be faulty or justly suspected His Majesties Answer THis is well allowed of and for the better performance of what is desired Letters shall be Written to the two Archbishops and from them Letters to go to all the Ordinaries of their several Provinces to see this done the several Ordinaries to give account of their doings herein to the Archbishops respectively and they to give account to his Majesty of their Proceedings herein 2. That the Antient Discipline of the Universities be restored being the famous Nurseries of Literature and Vertue Answ This is approved by his Majesty and the Chancellor of each University shall be required to cause due Execution of it 3. That special care be taken to enlarge the Word of God through all the Parts of your Majesties Dominions as being the most powerful means for planting of true Religion and rooting out of the Contrary to which end among other things let it please your Majesty to Advice your Bishops by fatherly intreaty and tender usage to reduce to the peaceable and orderly Service of the Church such able Ministers as have been formerly silenced that there may be a profitable use of their Ministry in these needful and dangerous times and that Non-residencies Pluralities and Commendams may be moderated where we cannot forbear most humbly to thank your Majesty for diminishing the Number of your own Chaplains not doubting of the like Princely care for the well bestowing of the rest of your benefices both to the Comfort of the People and the incouragement of the Universities being full of grave and able Ministers unfurnished of livings Answ This his Majesty likes well so as it be applied to such Ministers as are peaceable orderly and Conformable to the Church Government For Pluralties and Non-residencies they are now so moderated that the Arch Bishops affirm there be now no dispensations for Pluralities granted nor no Man now is allowed above two benefices and those not above thirty Miles distant and for avoiding Non-residence the Cannon in that case provided shall be duly put in Execution For Commendams they shall be sparingly granted only in such case where the exility and smalness of the Bishopprick requireth also his Majesty will cause that the Benefices belonging to him shall be well bestowed and for the better propagating of Religion his Majesty recommendeth to the House of Parliament that care may be taken and provision made that every Parish shall allow a Competent Maintenannce for an able Minister and that the owners of Parsonages Impropriate would allow to the Vicars and Ministers Curates in Villages and places belonging to their Parsonage sufficient stipend and allowance for Preaching Ministers 4. That there may be stricct provision against Transporting of English Children to the Seminaries beyond the Seas and for the recalling of them who are already there placed and for the Punishment of such your Subjects as are maintainers of those Seminaries or of the Schollars considering that besides the seducing of your People great sums of Money are yearly expended upon them to the impoverishing of this Kingdom Answ The Law in this Case shall be put in Execution and further there shall be Letters written to the Lord Treasure and also to the Lord Admiral that all the Ports of this Realm and the Creeks and Members thereof be strictly kept and strait searches made to this end A Proclamation shall be to recal both the Children of Noblemen and the Children of any other Men and they to return by a day also maintainers of Seminaries of Schollars there shall be punished according to Law. 5. That no Popish Recusant be permitted to come within the Court unless your Majesty be pleased to call him upon special occasion agreeable to the Statue of 3. Jac. and whereas your Majesty for the preventing of apparent mischiefs both to your Majesty and the State hath in your Princely wisdom taken order that none of your natural born Subjects not professing the true Religion as by Law established be admitted into the Service of your Royal Consort the Queen we give your Majesty most humble thanks and desire that your order herein may be observed Answ If his Majesty shall find or be informed of any concourse of Recusants to the Court the Law shall be strictly followed And his Majesty is pleased that by a Proclamation the Brittish and Irish Subjects shall be put in the same Case and as his Majesty hath provided in his Treaty with France so his purpose is to keep it that none of his Subjects shall be admitted into his Service or into the Service of his Royal Consort the Queen that are Popish Recusants 6. That all the Laws now standing in force against Jesuites Seminary Priests and others having taken Orders by Authority derived from the See of Rome be put in due Execution and to the intent they may not pretend to be surprised that a speedy and certain day be prefixed by your Majesties Proclamation for their departure out of this Realm and all other your Dominions and not to return upon the severest Penalties of the Laws now in force against them and that all your Majesties Subjects may be thereby admonished not to receive comfort entertain or conceal any of them upon the Penalties which may be lawfully inflicted and that all such Papists Jesuites and Recusants who are and shall be imprisoned for Recusancy or any other cause may be so strictly restrained as that none shall have conference with them thereby to avoid the Contagion of their corrupt Religion and that no Man that shall be suspected of Popery be suffered to be a Keeper of any of his Majesties Prisons Answ The Law in this case shall be put in Execution and a Proclamation shall be to the effect desired and such restraint shall be made as is desired and no Man that is justly suspected of Popery shall be suffered to be a Keeper of any of his Majesties Prisons 7. That your Majesty be pleased to take such order as to your Princely Wisdom shall be expedient that no natural born Subject or strange Bishops nor any other by Authorty from the
the Mercenary Army subjugate the Country then the Souldiers and Projectors shall be paid out of the Confiscations if the Country be too hard for the Souldiers then they must consequently mutiny which is equally advantagious unto us our superlative Design is to work the Protestants as well as the Catholicks to welcome in a Conqueror and that is by this Means We hope instantly to dissolve Trades and hinder the building of Shipping in devising probable Designs and putting on the State upon Expeditions as that of Cadiz was in taking away the Merchant Ships so that they may not easily catch and light upon the West-India Fleet c. This produced a Fast and a Petition from the Parliament to the King against the Papist which Petition and the Kings Answer are as followeth The Parliaments Petition to the King and the Kings Answer all relating to the Papists Most Gracious Sovereign Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 516. WE Your most Loyal and Obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled having to our singular Comfort obtained Your Majesties Pious and Gracious Assent for a publick Fast to appease the Wrath of Almighty God kindled against us and to prevent those grievous Judgments which God doth apparently press upon us do in all Humility present unto Your Sacred Majesty all possible thanks for the same And because the publick and visible Sins of the Kingdom are the undoubted Causes of those visible Evils that are fallen upon us amongst which Sins as is apparent by the Word of God Idolatry and Superstition are the most heinous and crying Sins To the end that we may constantly hope for the Blessing of God to descend upon this our publick Humiliation by abandoning those Sins which do make a Wall of Separation betwixt God and Us. 1. Article WE most humbly and ardently beg at the Hands of Your most Sacred Majesty that Your Majesty will be pleased to give continual Life and Motion to all those Laws that stand in force against Jesuits Seminary Priests and all that have taken Orders by Authority of the See of Rome by exacting a more due and serious Execution of the same amongst which Number those that have highly abused Your Mejesties Clemency by returning into the Kingdom after their Banishment contrary to Your Highness's express Proclamation We humbly desire may be left to the Severity of Your Laws without admitting of any Mediation or Intercession for them and that such of Your Majesties unsound and ill-affected Subjects as do receive harbour or conceal any of their viperous Generation may without delay suffer such Penalties and Punishments as the Laws justly impose upon them His Majesties ANSWER unto the First ARTICLE of this PETITION TO the first Point His Majesty answereth that he will according to your Desire give both Live and Motion to the Laws that stand in force against Jesuits Seminary Priests and all that have taken Orders by Authority of the See of Rome and to that end His Majesty will give strict Orders to all His Ministers for the Discovering and Apprehending of them and so leave them being apprehended to the Tryal of the Law. And in case after Tryal there shall be Cause to respite Execution of any of them yet they shall be committed according to the Example of the best Times to the Castle of Wisbich and there be safely kept from exercising their Functions or spreading their Superstitious and Dangerous Doctrine and the Receivers and Abettors they shall be left to the Law. THat Your Majesty would be pleased to command a surer and streight Watch to be kept in and over Your Majesties Ports and Havens 2. Article and to commit the Care and Charge of Searching of Ships for the Discovery and Apprehension as well of Jesuits and Seminary Priests brought in as of Children and young Students sent over beyond the Seas to suck in the Poyson of Rebellion and Superstition unto Men of approved Fidelity and Religion and such as shall be convicted to have connived or combined in the bringing in the one or conveying of the other that the Laws may pass upon them with speedy Execution His Majesties ANSWER to the Second ARTICLE TO the second Article His Majesty granteth all that is in this Article and to this end will give order to the Lord Treasurer Lord Admiral and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports that in their several Places they be careful to see this Article fully executed giving strict Charge to all such as have Place and Authority under them to use all Diligence therein And His Majesty requireth them and all other His Officers and Ministers to have a vigilant Eye upon such as dwell in dangerous Places of Advantage or Opportunity for receiving or transporting of any such as are here mentioned And His Majesty will take it for good Service if any will give Knowledge of any such as have connived or combined or shall Connive or Combine as is mentioned in this Article that Justice may be strictly done upon them THat considering those dreadful Dangers never to be forgotten which did involve Your Majesties Sacred Person 3. Article and the whole representative Body of Your Majesties Kingdom plotted and framed by the free and common Access of Popish Recusants to the City of London and to Your Majesties Court Your Majesty would be graciously pleased to give speedy Command for the present putting in practise those Laws that prohibit all Popish Recusants to come to the Court or within ten Miles of the City of London as also those Laws that confine them to the Distance of five Miles from their dwelling Houses and that such by-past Licenses not warranted by Law as have been granted unto them for their Repair to the City of London may be discharged and annulled His Majesties ANSWER to the Third ARTICLE TO the third His Majesty will take order to restrain the Recourse of Recusants to the Court and also for the other Points of this Article His Majesty is well pleased that the Laws be duly executed and that all unlawful Licenses be annulled and discharged 4. Article THat whereas it is more than probably conceived that infinite Sums of Money have within this two or three Years last past been extracted out of the Recusants within the Kingdom by Colour of Composition and a small Proportion of the same returned into Your Majesties Coffers not only to the sudden enriching of private Persons but to the emboldning of Romish Recusants to entertain Massing Priests into their private Houses mimick Rites of their gross Superstition without fear of Controul amounting as by their daily Practice and Ostentation we may conceive to the Nature of a concealed Toleration Your Majesty would be graciously pleased to entertain this Particular more neerly into your Princely Wisdom and Consideration and to dissolve this Mystery of Iniquity patched up of colorable Leases Contracts and Preconveyances being but Masks on the one part of Fraud to deceive
Your Majesty and States on the other part for private Men to accomplish their corrupt Ends. His Majesties ANSWER to the Fourth ARTICLE TO the fourth Article His Majesty is most willing to punish for the time past and prevent for the future any of the Deceits and Abuses mentioned in this Article and will account it a good Service in any that will inform himself his Privy Council Officers of his Revenue Judges or learned Council of any thing that may reveal this Mystery of Iniquity and His Majesty doth strictly command every one of them to whom such Information shall be brought that they suffer not the same to dye but do their utmost Endeavour to effect a clear Discovery and bring the Offenders to Punishment and to the intent no concealed Toleration may be effected His Majesty leaves the Laws to their Course 5. Article THat as the Persons of Ambassadors from Foreign Princes and their Houses be free for the Exercises of their own Religion so their Houses may not be made free Chappels and Sanctuaries unto Your Majesties Subjects popishly affected to hear Mass and to participate in all other Rites and Ceremonies of that Superstition to the great Offence of Almighty God and Scandal of Your Majesties People loyally and religiously affected that either the Concourse of Recusants to such Places may be restrained or at least such a vigilant Watch set upon them at their return from those Places as they may be apprehended and severely proceeded withal Vt qui palam in Luce peccant in Luce puniantur His Majesties ANSWER to the Fifth ARTICLE TO the fifth His Majesty is well pleased to prohibit and restrain their coming and Resort to the Houses of Ambassadors and will command a vigilant Watch to be set for their taking and punishing as is desired THat no place of Authority and Command within any the Counties of this Your Majesties Kingdom or any Ships of Your Majesties 6. Article or which shall be employed in Your Majesties Service be committed to Popish Recusants or to Non-communicants by the Space of a Year past or to any such Persons as according to Direction of former Acts of State are justly to be suspected as the Place and Authority of Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Justices of the Peace or Captains or other Officers or Ministers mentioned in the Statute made in the third Year of the Reign of Your Father of Blessed Memory and that such as by Connivance have crept into such Places may by Your Majesties Royal Command be discharged of the same His Majesties ANSWER to the Sixth ARTICLE TO the Sixth His Majesty is perswaded that this Article is already observed with good Care nevertheless for the avoiding as much as may be all Errors and escapes in that kind His Majesty will give Charge to the Lord Keeper that at the next Term he call unto him all the Judges and take Information from them of the State of their several Circuits if any such as are mentioned in this Article be in the Commission of the Peace that due Reformation be made thereof and will likewise give Order to the Lord Admiral and such other to whom it shall appertain to make diligent Inquiry and certificate to His Majesty if any such be in place of Authority and Command in His Ships or Service THat all Your Majesties Judges Justices and Ministers of Justice unto whose Care and Trust Execution which is the Life of Your Majesties Laws is committed may 7. Article by Your Majesties Proclamation not only be commanded to put in speedy Execution those Laws which stand in force against Jesuits Seminary Priests and Popish Recusants but that Your Majesty would be further pleased to command the said Judges and Justices of Assize to give a true and strict Account of their Proceedings at their Returns out of their Circuits unto the Lord Keeper by the Lord Keeper to be presented unto Your Majesty His Majesties ANSWER to the Seventh ARTICLE TO the seventh His Majesty doth fully grant it 8. Article AND for a fair and clear Eradication of all Popery for the future and for the breeding and nursing up of a Holy Generation and a peculiar People sanctified unto the true Worship of Almighty God that until a Provisional Law be made for the Training and Educating of the Children of Popish Recusants in the Grounds and Principles of our Holy Religion which we perceive will be of more Power and Force to unite Your People unto You in fastness of Love Religion and Loyal Obedience then all Pecuniary Mulcts and Penalties that can possibly be devised Your Majesty would be pleased to take it into Your Princely Care and Consideration these our humble Petitions proceeding from Hearts and Affections Loyally and Religiously devoted to God and Your Majesties Service and to the Safety of Your Majesties Sacred Person we most zealously present to Your Princely Wisdom craving Your Majesties chearful and gracious Approbation His Majesties ANSWER to the Eighth ARTICLE TO the eighth His Majesty doth well approve it as a Matter of necessary Consideration and the Parliament now sitting he recommendeth to both Houses the Preparation of a fitting Law to that effect And His Majesty doth further declare that the Mildness that hath been used towards those of the Popish Religion hath been upon Hope that Foreign Princes thereby might be induced to use Moderation towards their Subjects of the Reformed Religion but not finding that good Effect which was expected His Majesty resolveth unless he shall very speedily see better Fruits to add a further degree of Severity to that which in that Petition is desired The Parliament after this made a Law against the Papists Intituled An Act to restrain the Passing or Sending of any to be Popishly bred beyond the Seas The Substance whereof take as followeth That 3 Car. 1. ca 2. Keebles Stat. f. 1098. By this Law Papists are prohibited sending their Children or others beyond Seas to be instructed in the Popish Religion FOrasmuch as divers ill affected Persons to the true Religion within this Realm had sent their Children into Foreign Parts to be bred up in Popery notwithstanding the Restraint of it by 1 Jac. 1. It was enacted That that Law should be put in Execution and further that if any Person or Persons being Subjects should pass over or go convey or send or cause to be sent or conveyed any Children or other Person beyond Seas to the Intent and Purpose to enter into or be resident or trained up in any Priory Abbey Nunnery Popish Vniversity Colledge or School or Houses of Iesuits Priests or in any Private Popish Family and shall be there by any Iesuite Seminary Priest Friar Monk or other Popish Person instructed perswaded or strengthned in the Popish Religion in any sort to profess the same or should convey or send or cause to be conveyed or sent any sum or other thing towards the maintenance of any already gone or sent under any
Pretence of Charity or otherwise c. is disabled to sue to be Commitee of any Ward or Executor or Administrator is not capable of any Legacy or Deed of Gift or to bear any Office within the Realm forfeits all his Goods and Chattels forfeits his Lands and other real Estate for his Life In case of Conformity these Penalties are not to be incurred and in case the Lands have been seised they shall be restored And now I think I may appeal to the Reader himself whether there was not ground enough for the making this Law if there had been nothing more done in this Kings Reign then the Writing the Letter before mentioned which makes so full a Discovery of a Design they were driving on of subverting our Religion and introducing their own And if it be considered that there is no Penalty annexed to this Law that relates to the Loss of Life Member or Liberty it cannot be thought severe after such continued and restless Endeavors of that Party for our Destruction and bringing us back to our former Bondage under a foreign Yoke And let the Share they had in blowing up the Differences between King Charles I. and his Parliaments which at last ended in the late unnatural Civil War and in a Temporary Destruction of our Monarchy be considered that after Charles the First was beheaded Charles The Second they attempted the Perverting of his Sons when in Exile to the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church And that they at last prevailed effectually with one at least to go over to their Communion and that it was known to the Parliament in the twenty fifth Year of the Reign of Charles the Second that he was so reconciled Let I say these things be considered and it cannot be thought hard that that Law passed the Parliament the Substance of which I have here inserted It is intitled An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants WHereby for preventing Dangers which might happen from Popish Recusants 25. Ca. 2. ca. 2. Papists made uncapable of any Place or Office of Profit or Trust in the Kingdom and quieting the Minds of His Majesties good Subjects it was enacted That all and every Person and Persons as well Peers as Commoners that should bear any Offices or Places of Trust or that received any Sallery from His Majesty or any his Predecessors or were in the Service or Employment of his Highness the Duke of Yoâ—k being within the City of London or thirty Miles distant from the same should take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy in the Court of Chancery or Kings-Bench before the end of Trinity Term then next following or at the Quarter Sessions for the Place where they should reside and should likewise receive the Sacrament according to the Vsage of the Church of England at or before the first Day of August 1673. that all Persons who should be admitted into any Office or Place as aforesaid after the first Day of Easter Term to take the said Oaths either in the said Courts or in the Quarter Session for the County where he or they should reside and receive the Sacrament within three months after their Admittance to such Office c. And should deliver a Certificate into the Court where he takes the said Oaths of the receiving the Sacrament That whosoever should refuse to take the said Oaths should be adjudged incapable of any other Office and if after his Refusal he shall exercise any Office he shall not prosecute any Suit in Law Equity or be Guardian to any Child or Executor or Administrator of any Person or be capable of any Deed or Gift or to bear any Office and shall forfeit five hundred Pounds to whomsoever will sue for the same in any of His Majesties Courts where no Protection or Wager of Law should lye That the Names of all such Persons as should take the said Oaths be in the Courts of Chancery and Kings-Bench and Quarter Sessions inrolled with the Time of taking the same in Rolls for that purpose and that none should pay above the Sum of twelve Pence to any Officer for their Entry of the taking the said Oaths That no Person not bred up in the Popish Religion by his Parents should breed up or suffer his Children to be bred up in the Popish Religion under Penalty of being disabled from bearing any Office or Places of Trust and all such Children so brought up and educated shall be disabled from bearing any such Offâ—ces until they be reconciled to the Church of England take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance and receive the Sacrament And that all Persons taking the said Oaths shall at the taking the same subscribe the Declaration following I A. B. do declare that I do believe that there is no Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper or in the Elements of Bread and Wine at or after the Consecration thereof by any Person whatsoever And of this Subscription a Register to be kept as of taking the Oaths this Act not to extend to prejudice the Peerage of the Realm or take away Creation or Bills of Impost or any Salary for Life or Years granted for sufficient Consideration nor to make void any Estates of Inheritance not being Offices or to make void any Pension granted to any Person instrumental in preserving the King at Worcester that all Persons refusing to take the Oaths having Offices of Inheritance must appoint Deputies to take the said Oaths and subscribe the said Declaration that all Peers may take the Oath in Parliament if the Parliament be sitting within the time for doing thereof No married Woman or Person under the Age of eighteen Years or being beyond the Seas or found to be Non Compos Mentis shall by Vertue of this Act lose or forfeit his or her Office other then such married Women during the Life of her Husband only for any Neglect of taking the Oaths so as the respective Persons within four Months after the Death of the Husband coming to the Age of eighteen Years returning into this Kingdom and becoming of sound Mind shall take the said Oaths in manner as is thereby appointed provided that any Person who by his or her Neglect or Refusal according to this Act should lose or forfeit any Office might be capable by a new Grant of the said Office or of any other and to have and hold the same again such Person taking the said Oaths and doing all other things required by this Act so as such Office be not granted to and actually enjoyed by some other Person at the time of the re-granting thereof This Act not to extend to Commission Officers in the Navy if they subscribe the Declaration This Act not to extend to prejudice the Earl of Bristol and his Lady in the Pensions granted to them Likewise not to extend to Constables Tything-men Church-Wardens or other like private inferior Officers Before this Act of Parliament was
but confidently appealed to Time and Success to prove who took their Measures rightest When it happened what I foresaw came to pass the good Father was a little surprised to see all the great Men mistaken and a little one in the Right and was pleased by Sir William Throckmorton to desire the Continuance of my Correspondence which I was mighty willing to comply with knowing the Interest of our King and in a more particular manner of my more immediate Master the * * James the Second Duke and his most Christian Majesty to be so inseparably united that it was impossible to divide them without destroying them all Upon this I shewed that our Parliament in the Circumstances it was managed by the timerous Councels of our Ministers who then governed would never be useful either to England France or Catholic Religion but that we should as certainly be forced from our Neutrality at their next Meeting as we had been from our active Alliance with France the last Year That a Peace in the Circumstances we were in was much more to be desired than the Continuance of the War and that the Dissolution of our Parliament would certainly procure a Peace For that the Confederates did more depend upon the Power they had in our Parliament than upon any thing else in the World And were more encouraged from them to the continuing of the War So that if they were Dissolved their measures would be all broken and they consequently in a manner necessitated to a Peace The good Father minding this Discourse somewhat more then the Court of France thought fit to do my former urg'd it so home to the King that his Majesty was pleased to give him Orders to signifie to his R. H. my Master that his Majesty was fully satisfied of his R. H's good intention towards him that he esteemed both their Interests but as one and the same That my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were both to be lookt upon as very unuseful to their Interest That if his R. H. would endeavour to dissolve this Parliament his most Christian Majesty would assist him with his Power and Purse to have a new one as should be for their purpose This and a great many more Expressions of kindness and confidence Father Ferryer was pleased to Communicate to Sir William Throckmorton and commanded them to send them to His Royal Hhighness and withal to beg his Royal Highness to propose to his most Christian Majesty what he thought necessary for his own Concern and the advantage of Religon and his Majesty would certainly do all he could to advance both or either of them This Sir William Throckmorton sent to me by an Express who left Paris the Second of June 1674. Stilo novo I no sooner had it but I Communicated it to his R. H. To which his R. H. commanded me to Answer as I did on the twenty ninth of the same Month That his R. H. was very sensible of his most Christian Majesties Friendship and that he would Labour to cultivate it with all the good Offices he was capable of doing for His Majesty That he was fully convinced that their Interests were both one That my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not only unuseful but very dangerous both to England and France That therefore it was necessary that they should do all they could to dissolve it And that his R. H's opinion was that if his most Christian Majesty would write his thoughts freely to the King of England upon this Subject and make the same proffer to his Majesty 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 And that if this Parliament were dissolved there would be no great difficulty of getting a new one which would be more useful The Constitutions of our Parliaments being such that a new one can never hurt the Crown nor an old one do it good His R. H. being pleased to own these Propositions which were but only General I thought it reasonable to be more particular and come closer to the Point we might go the faster about the work and come to some issue before the time was too far spent I laid this for my Maxim The dissolving of our Parliament will certainly procure a Peace Which Proposition was granted by every Body I conversed withal even by Monsieur Rouvigny himself with whom I took Liberty of conversing so far but durst not say any thing of the Intelligence I had with Father Ferryer Next that a Sum of Money certain would certainly procure a Dissolution this some doubted but I am sure I never did For I knew perfectly well that the King had frequent Disputes with himself at that time whether he should dissolve or continue them And he several times declared that the Arguments were so strong on both sides that he could not tell to which to incline but was carried at last to the continuance of them by this one Argument if I try them once more they may possibly give me Money if they do I have gained my Point If they do not I can dissolve them then and be where I am now So that I have a possibility at least of getting Money for their continuance against nothing on the other side But if we could have turn'd this Argument and said Sir their Dissolution will certainly procure you Money when you have only a bare possibility of getting any by their continuance and have shewn how far that bare possibility was from being a Foundation to build any reasonable hope upon which I am sure His Majesty was sensible of And how much 300000 Pounds Sterling certain which was the Sum we propos'd was better than a bare possibility without any reason to hope that that could ever be Compassed of having half so much more which was the most he design'd to ask upon some vile dishonourable Terms and a thousand other hazards which he had great reason to be afraid of if I say we had had Power to have argued this I am most Confidently assured we could have Compassed it for Logick in our Court built upon Money has more powerful Charms than any other sort of reasoning But to secure his most Christian Majesty from any hazard as to that Point I propos'd His Majesty should offer that Sum upon that Condition and if the Condition were not perform'd the Money should never be due If it were and that a Peace would certainly follow thereupon which no Body doubted His Majesty would gain his Ends and save all the vast Expences of the next Campaign by which he could not hope to better his Condition or put himself into more advantagious Circumstances of Treaty then he was then in But might very probably be in a much worse considering the mighty opposition he was like to meet with and the uncertain Chances of
War. But admitting that His Majesty could by his great Strength and Conduct maintain himself in as good a Condition to Treat the next Year as he was then in which was as much as could then reasonably be hoped for he should have saved by this Proposal as much as all the Men he must needs lose and all the Charges he should be in a Year would be valued to amount to more than 300000 Pounds Sterling and so much more in Case his Condition should decay as it should be worse than it was when this was made And the Condition of his R. H. and of the Catholick Religion here which depends very much upon the success of his most Christian Majesty delivered from a great wany frights and real hazards Father Ferryer seemed to be very sensible of the benefit all Parties would gain by this Proposal But yet it was unfortunately delayed by an unhappy and tedious Fit of Sickness which kept him so long from the King in the France Comte and made him so unable to wait on His Majesty after he did return to Paris But so soon as he could compass it he was pleased to acquaint His Majesty with it and wrote to the Duke himself and did me the Honour to write unto me also the 15 th of Septemb. 1674. and sent his Letter by Sir William Throckmorton who came Express upon that Errand In these Letters he gave his R. H. fresh assurance of his most Christian Majesties Friendship and of his Zeal and readiness to comply with every thing his R. H. had or should think fit to propose in favour of Religion or the business of Money And that he commanded Monsieur Rouvigny as to the latter to Treat and deal with his R. H. and to receive and observe his Orders and Directions but desired that he might not at all be concerned as to the former but that his R. H. would cause what Proposition he should think fit to be made about Religion to be offered either to Father Ferryer or Monsieur Pompone These Letters came to us about the middle of September and his R. H. expected daily when Monsieur Rouvigny should speak to him about the Subject of that Letter But he took no notice at all of any thing till the 29 th of September the evening before the King and the Duke went to Newmarket for a Fortnight and then only said that he had Commands from his Master to give his R. H. the most firm assurance of his Friendship imaginable or something to that purpose making his R. H. a general Complement but made no mention of any particular Orders relating to Father Ferryer's Letter The Duke wondring at this Proceeding and being obliged to stay a good part of October at Newmarket and soon after his coming back hearing of the Death of Father Ferryer he gave over all other further prosecuting of the former Project But I believe I saw Monsieur Rouvigny's Policy all along who was willing to save his Masters Money upon assurance that we would do all we could to stave off the Parliament for our own sakes that we would struggle as hard without Money as with it And we having by that time upon our own Interest prevailed to get the Parliament Prorogued to the 13 th of April he thought that Prorogation being to a day so high in the Spring would put the Confederates so far beyond their measures as that it might procure a Peace and be as useful to France as a Dissolution Upon these Reasons I suppose he went. I had several Discourses with him and did so far open my self to him as to say I could wish his Master would give us leave to offer to our Master 300000 Pounds for the Dissolution of the Parliament And shewed him that a Peace would most certainly follow a Dissolution which he agreed with me in and that we desired not the Money from his Master to excite our Wills or to make us more industrious to use our utmost Powers to procure a Dissolution but to strengthen our Power and Credit with the King and to render us more capable to succeed with his Majesty as most certainly we should have done had we been fortified with such an Argument To this purpose I press'd Monsieur Pompone frequently by Sir William Throckmorton who returned hence again into France on the 10 th of November the Day our Parliament should have met but was Prorogued Monsieur Pompone as I was informed by Sir William did seem to approve the thing But yet had two Objections against it First that the Sum propos'd was great and could be very ill spar'd in the Circumstances his most Christian Majesty was in To which we answer'd That if by his Expending that Sum he could procure a Dissolution of our Parliament and thereby a Peace which every Body agreed would necessarily follow His most Christian Majesty would gain his Ends and save five or ten times a greater Sum and so be a good Husband by his Expence And if we did not procure a Dissolution he should not be at that Expence at all For that we desired him only to promise upon that Condition which we were content to be obliged to perform first The second Objection was the Duke did not move nor appear in it himself To that we answer'd That he did not indeed to Monsieur Pompone because he had found so ill an effect of the Negotiation with Father Ferryer when it came into Monsieur Rouvigny's hands But that he had concern'd himself in it to Father Ferryer Yet I continued to prosecute and press the Dissolution of the Parliament detesting all Prorogations as only so much loss of time and a means of strengthening all those who depend upon it in opposition to the Crown the interest of France and Catholick Religion in the Opinion they had taken that our King durst not part with his Parliament apprehending that another would be much worse Second that he could not live long without a Parliament therefore they must suddenly meet The longer he kept them off the greater his necessity would grow and consequently their Power to make him do what they listed would increase accordingly And therefore if they could but maintain themselves a while the Day would certainly come in a short time in which they should be able to work their Wills. Such Discourses as these kept the Confederates and our Male-contents in heart and made them weather on the War in spight of all our Prorogations Therefore I press'd as I have said a Dissolution until February last when our Circumstances were so totally Changed that we were forced to change our Councels too and be as much for the Parliaments sitting as we were before against it Our Change was thus before that time the Lord Arlington was the only Minister in Credit who thought himself out of all danger of the Parliament He having been accused before them and justified and therefore was Zealous for their Sitting And to increase his
Reputation with them and to become a perfect Favourite he sets himself all he could to Persecute the Catholick Religion and to oppose the French. To shew his Zeal against the first he revived some old dormant Orders for prohibiting Roman Catholicks to appear before the King and put them in Execution at his first coming into his Office of Lord Chamberlain And to make sure work with the Second as he thought prevailed with the King to give him and the Earl of Ossery who married two Sisters of Myne Heere Odyke's leave to go over into Holland with the said Heere to make a Visit as they pretended to their Relations But indeed and in truth to propose the Lady Mary eldest Daughter of his Royal H. as a Match for the Prince of Orange not only without the Consent but against the good liking of his R. H. Insomuch that the Lord Arlington's Creatures were forced to excuse him with a Distinction that the said Lady was not to be looked upon as the Dukes Daughter but as the Kings and a Child of the State was and so the Dukes Consent not much to be considered in the disposal of her but only the interest of State. By this he intended to render himself the Darling of Parliament and Protestants who look'd upon themselves as secured in their Religion by such an Alliance and design'd further to draw us into a close Conjunction with Holland and the Enemies of France The Lord Arlington set forth upon this Errand the 10 th of November 1674 and returned not till the 6 th of January following During his absence the Lord Treasurer Lord Keeper and the Duke of Lauderdale who were the only Ministers of any considerable Credit with the King and who all pretended to be entirely united to the Duke declaimed loudly and with great violence against the said Lord and his Actions in Holland And did hope in his absence to have totally supplanted him and to have routed him out of the Kings favour And after that thought they might easily enough have dealt with the Parliament But none of them had Courage enough to speak against the Parliament till they could get rid of him For fear they should not succeed and that the Parliament would Sit in spight of them and come to hear that they had used their endeavours against it Which would have been so unpardonable a Crime with our Omnipotent Parliament that no Power could have been able to have saved them from Punishment But they finding at his Return that they could not prevail against him by such Means and Arts as they had then tryed resolved upon new Councels Which were to out-run him in his own Course Which accordingly they undertook and became as fierce Apostles and as Zealous for Protestant Religion and against Popery as ever my Lord Arlington had been before them and in pursuance thereof persuaded the King to issue out those severe Orders and Proclamations against Catholicks which came out in February last By which they did as much as in them lay to extirpate all Catholicks and Catholick Religion out of the Kingdom Which Councels were in my poor Opinion so detestable being levelled as they must needs be so directly against the Duke by People which he had advanced and who had professed so much Duty and Service to him that we were put upon new thoughts how to save his R. H. now from the deceits and snares of those Men upon whom we formerly depended We saw well enough that their Design was to make themselves as grateful as they could to the Parliament if it must Sit they thinking nothing so acceptable to them as the Persecution of Popery And yet they were so obnoxious to the Parliaments displeasure in General that they would have been glad of any Expedient to have kept it off Though they durst not engage against it openly themselves but thought this Device of theirs might serve for their purposes hoping the Duke would be so alarm'd at their Proceedings and by his being left by every Body that he would be much more afraid of the Parliament than ever and would use his utmost power to prevent its Sitting Which they doubted not but he would endeavour And they were ready enough to work underhand too for him for their own sakes not his in order thereunto but durst not appear openly And to encourage the Duke the more to endeavour the Dissolution of the Parliament their Creatures used to say up and down That this Rigour against the Catholicks was in favour of the Duke and to make a Dissolution of the Parliament more easie which they knew he coveted by obviating one great Objection which was commonly made against it which was That if the Parliament should be Dissolved it would be said That it was done in favour of Popery Which Clamour they had prevented before hand by the Severity they had used against it Assoon as we saw these Tricks put upon us we plainly saw what Men we had to deal withal and what we had to trust to if we were wholly at their mercy But yet durst not seem so dissatisfyed as really we were but rather magnified the Contrivance as a Device of great Cunning and Skill All this we did purely to hold them in a belief that we would endeavour to dissolve the Parliament and that they might rely upon his R. H. for that which we knew they long'd for and were afraid they might do some other way if they discovered that we were resolved we would not At length when he saw the Sessions secured we declared that we were for the Parliaments meeting as indeed we were from the moment we saw our selves handled by all the Kings Ministers at such a Rate that we had reason to believe they would Sacrifice France Religion and his R. H. too to their own Interest if occasion served And that they were led to believe that that was the only way they had to save themselves at that time For we saw no Expedient fit to stop them in their Carreer of Persecution and those other destructive Councels but the Parliament Which had set it self a long time to dislike every thing the Ministers had done and had appeared violently against Popery whilst the Court seem'd to favour it And therefore we were Confident that the Ministers having turned their Faces the Parliament would do so too and still be against them And be as little for Persecution then as they had been for Popery before This I undertook to mannage for the Duke and the King of France's interest And assured Monsieur Rouvigny which I am sure he will testifie if occasion serves that that Sessions should do neither of them any hurt For that I was sure I had Power enough to prevent mischief though I durst not engage for any good they would do Because I had but very few Assistances to carry on the Work and wanted those Helps which others had of making Friends The Dutch and Spaniard spared no Pains or
expence of Money to animate as many as they could against France Our Lord Treasurer Lord Keeper all the Bishops and such as called themselves Old Cavaliers who were all then as one Man were not less industrious against Popery and had the Purse at their Girdle too Which is an excellent Instrument to gain Friends with and all united against the Duke as Patron both of France and Catholick Religion To deal with all this Force we had no Money but what came from a few private hands And those so mean ones too that I dare venture to say that I spent more my particular self out of my own Fortune and upon my single Credit then all the whole Body of Catholicks in England besides Which was so inconsiderable in Comparison of what our Adversaries commanded and we verily believe did bestow in making their Party that it is not worth mentioning Yet notwithstanding all this we saw that by the help of the Non-conformists as Presbyterians Independants and other Sects who were as much afraid of Persecution as our selves and of the Enemies of the Ministers and particularly of the Treasurer who by that time had supplanted the Earl of Arlington and was grown sole Manager of all Affairs himself we sheuld be very able to prevent what they design'd against us and so render the Sessions ineffectual to their Ends though we might not be able to Compass our own Which were to make some brisk step in favour of his R. H. to shew the King that his Majesties Affairs in Parliament were not obstructed by reason of any Aversion they had to his R. H. Person or Apprehensions they had of him or his Religion But from Faction and Ambition in some and from a real Dissatisfaction in others that we have not had such Fruits and good Effects of of those great Sums of Money which have been formerly given as was expected If we could then have made but one such step the King would certainly have restored his R. H. to all his Commissions Upon which he would have been much greater than ever yet he was in his whole Life or could probably ever have been by any other Course in the World than what he had taken of becoming Catholick c. And we were so very near gaining this Point that I did humbly beg his R. H to give me leave to put the Parliament upon making an Address to the King that His Majesty would be pleased to put the Fleet into the hands of his R H. as the only Person likely to give a good Account of so important a Charge as that was to the Kingdom and shewed his R. H. such Reasons to perswade him that we could carry it that he agreed with me in it that he believ'd we could Yet others telling him how great a damage it would be to him if he should miss in such an undertaking which for my part I could not then see nor do I yet he was prevail'd upon not to venture though he was perswaded he could carry it I did Communicate this Design of mine to Monsieur Rouvigny who agreed with me that it would be the greatest advantage imaginable to his Master to have the Dukes Power and Credit so far advanced as this would certainly do if we could Compass it I shew'd him all the Difficulty we were like to meet with and what Helps we should have But that we should want one very material one Money to carry on the Work as we ought And therefore I do Confess I did shamefully beg his Masters help and would willingly have been in everlasting Disgrace with all the World if I had not with that Assistance of twenty thousand Pounds sterling which perhaps is not the tenth part of what was spent on the other side made it evident to the Duke that he could not have missed it Monsieur Rouvigny used to tell me that if he could be sure of succeeding in that Design his Master would give a very much larger Sum But that he was not in a Condition to throw away Money upon uncertainties I answered That nothing of that Nature could be so infallibly sure as not to be subject to some Possibilities of failing but that I durst venture to undertake to make it evident that there was as great an assurance of succeeding in it as any Husbandman can have of a Crop in Harvest who sowes his Gound in its due Season and yet it would be counted a very imprudent piece of wariness in any body to scruple the ventring so much seed in its proper time because it is possible it may be totally lost and no benefit of it found in Harvest He that minds the Winds and the Rains at that rate shall neither Sow nor Reap I take our Case to be much the same as it was the last Sessions If we can advance the Dukes Interest one step forward we shall put him out of the step of Chance for ever For he makes such a Figure already that cautious Men do not care to Act against him not always without him because they do not see that he is much out-power'd by his Enemies Yet is he not at such a pitch as to be quite out of danger or free from Opposition But if he could gain any considerable new addition of Power all would come over to him as to the only stedy Centre of our Government and no body would contend with him further Then would Catholics be at rest and his most Christian Majesty's Interest secured with us in England beyond all Apprehensions whatsoever In Order to this we have two great designs to attempt this next Sessions First that which we were about before viz. To put the Parliament upon making it their humble request to the King that the Fleet may be put into his R. H ' s. care Secondly to get an Act for general Liberty of Conscience If we carry these two or either of them we shall in effect do what we list afterwards And truly we think we do not undertake these great points very unreasonably but that we have good Cards for our Game Not but that we expect great opposition and have great reason to beg all the Assistance we can possibly get and therefore if his most Christian Majesty would stand by us a little in this Conjuncture and help us with such a Sum as 20000 l. Sterling which is no very great Matter to Venture upon such an undertaking as this I would be content to be Sacrificed to the utmost Malice of my Enemies if I did not succeed I have proposed this several times to Monsieur Rouvigny who seemed always of my Opinion and has often told me that he has writ into France upon this Subject and has desired me to do the like But I know not whether he will be as Zealous in that point as a Catholic would be because our prevailing in these things would give the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received since its Birth
Sessions then we are now I pray God we do not loose ground By my next which will be er'e long I shall be able to tell your Reverence more particularly what we are like to expect In the mean time I most humbly beg your Holy Prayers for all our undertakings and that you will be pleased to Honour me so far as to esteem me what I am entirely and without any reserve The Examination of Capt. William Bedlow taken upon Oath before the Lord Chief Justice North at Bristol on Monday the 16th of August 1680. Bedlows Examination before the then Lord Chief Justice North taken immediately before his death THe Examinant saith that the Duke of York hath been so far engaged in the Plot as he hath seen by Letters in Cardinal Barbarines's Secretarys Study that no part hath been proved against any Man already that hath suffered but that to the full those Letters have made him guilty of it all but what tended to the Kings death And at Rome I asked Father Anderton and Father Lodge two Jesuites what would the Duke do with his Brother when he was King and they answered me they would find a means for that they would give him no trouble about it Then I told them I believed the Duke loved his Brother so well he would suffer no violence to be done to him they said no if the Duke could be brought to that as he had been Religiously to every thing else they might do their work their other business was ready and they might do it presently But they knew they could not bring him to that point but they would take care for that themselves they had not begun with him to leave him in such scruples as that But they would set him in his Throne and there he should reign blindfold three or four days * * According to the old Game the Protestants must hear the odium of the Papists villanies for they had settled some they should pitch the action upon should clear their Party And then he should fly upon them with the Sword of Revenge And this Examinant doth further adds that the Queen is not to this Examinants knowledge nor by any thing that he could ever find out any way concerned in the Murther of the King But barely by her Letters consenting and promising to contribute what Money she could to the introducing the Catholic Religion nay 't was a great while and it made her weep before she could be brought to that The Narrative of Sir Francis North Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas at the Council-board AT my first coming to Mr. Rumsey's House where I was to Lodge at Bristol upon Monday the 16th day of August in the Afternoon being the first day of the Assizes Sir John Knight came to me and said That Mr. Bedlow lay dangerously ill of a Fever and had little hopes of Life and desired that I would give him a Visit that he might impart something of great consequence to me before his death I told him I would give him a Visit that Night after Supper about Nine a Clock if I might be satisfied of two things first that there was no infection in his distemper Secondly that the time would not be inconvenient but he might discourse to me without prejudice to his Condition After a little while two Physitians came to me and assured me that there was no danger of Infection and that the time I had appointed would be most proper for commonly he took his repose in the Afternoon and at nine a Clock he would in all probability be refreshed and fit to Discourse with me thereupon I declared my resolution of going and desired the company of the two Sheriffs and my Brother Roger North and appointed my Marshal William Janes to go with me to him As we were upon the way Mr. Crossman a Minister in that City told me Mr. Bedlow had desired him to come with me to him I said it was very well and I should be glad of his Company whereupon we went altogether and being come into the Room where Mr. Bedlow lay I saluted him and said I was extream sorry to find him so ill I came to visit him upon his own desires I did imagine he had something to impart to me as a Privy Counsellor and therefore if he thought fit the Company might withdraw He told me that needed not yet for he had much to say which was proper for the Company to hear and having saluted the Sheriffs and Mr. Crossman he discoursed to this purpose That he looked upon himself as a dying man and found within himself that he could not last long but must shortly appear before the Lord of Hosts to give an account of all his actions and because many Persons had made it their business to baffle and deride the Plot he did for the satisfaction of the World there declare upon the Faith of a dying Man and as he hoped for Salvation that whatever he had testifyed concerning the Plot was true And that he had wronged no Man by his Testimony but had testifyed rather under that over what was truth That he had nothing lay upon his Conscience upon that account That he should appear chearfully before the Lord of Hosts which he did verily believe he must do in a short time He said he had many Witnesses to produce who would make the Plot as clear as the Sun and he had other things to discover which were of great importance to the King and the Country Hereupon he making some pause I told him the Plot was so evidently made out that no reasonable Man no Protestant I was sure could doubt of the Truth of it but he ought not to have concealed any thing that concerned the King so highly he ought to discover his whole knowledge in Matters of Treason that Traytors may be apprehended and secured who otherwise may have opportunity to execute their Treasonable Designs To this he reply'd that much of that which he had not discovered was to coroborate his former Testimony that he had concealed nothing that was necessary to the Kings preservation That he thought it not fit to accuse more Persons till he had ended with those whom he had already accused He expressed great grief and trouble at the the Condition of this poor King and Country so he termed them whom he knew at that time to be in eminent Danger from the Jesuites who had resolved the Kings death and he was sure they would spare him no longer then he continued to be kind to them he said he was privy to their Consultations at Salamanca and Valadolid where they used to observe the favourable Conjuncture they had to introduce their Religion into England which consisted in their having a Head he must be set up what ever came of it and if they let slip that opportunity they should never have such another for without a Head they could do nothing he said further he knew the