Percy Thomas Winter John Wright Christopher Wright Guido Faux Gentlemen and Bates Catesby's Man Sir Everard Digby Ambrose Rockwood Francis Trisham Esquires John Grant Gentlemen and Robert Keys were made acquainted with the Plot but wrought not in the Mine After Faux's apprehension the Traitors post away and pretending Religion they would fight for gathered in open Rebellion all they could which number never exceeded 80. They wandred through Warwick-shire to Worcester shire and thence to the borders of Stafford-shire and having gotten themselves into a House they obstinately refused to yeild to the Sheriff but through God's Providence a less quantity of Powder than 2 pounds taking Fire did so mangle some disable others that having begged pardon on their knees for their crime of God they desperately exposed themselves to the peoples fury there of the chief joined Back to Back and two of them were killed with one shot Catesby and Percy Winter was taken alive So all of them were killed beaten or taken The Conspirary of Sir Griffin Mackham and others ANno Domini 1603 George Brook Sir Griffin Markham Watson and Clerk Priests entred into a Conspiracy against King James it was said to surprise Prince Henry to keep the King and Prince in the Tower or to carry them to Dover Castle and there to obtain their own Pardons a toleration for Religion and removal of some Councellors Divers beside these were accused and condemnd but Brook confessed he did it but by a Commission from the King to try the faithfulness of the Kings Subjects but he could produce no such Commission Sir Griffin Markham confessed that he intended forreign Invasion and Alteration of Religion but not to destroy the King as was in the Inditement Watson and Clerk confessed they drew the Gentlemen into the Plot holding the King for no King till he was Crovned Of them all only Watson Clerk and Brook suffered Death The Massacre and Treason in Ineland extracted out of Irish Remoustrance and Irelands Tears UPon the 23d day of October 1641 a most Prodigious and Nefarious Viper gnawing the Bowels of its Native-parent Ireland burst out of the Womb thereof and visibly appeared most epidemically destructive to that whole State and Kingdom It had lien long as some of the Rebels reported undiscovered but was all that while hatching by many hot and high-built hopes both by Forraign and Domestick Encouragements The accursed Midwives of this Bastard-birth were Popish Priests Friars and Jesuits together with other Fire-brands and Incendiaries of that State and Kingdom Their hideous and hellish hopes were mightily supported and corroborated by strong assistance from Spain France and Flanders together with deeply engaged assurance of full correspondency in England and an equivalent party in Scotland besides their great encouragements by Popish Bulls from Rome authorizing the speedy and immediate Surrender of all such places of strength as they had Beleaguered promising free Pardon of all Sins whatsoever before-hand committed by any of them tending to the advancement of this great Work Thundering or rather Roaring out Excommunications against any that should refuse so to joyn with them therein terming themselves the Catholick Army and the ground of their work as all their abominable and bloody Plots are the Catholick Cause Their desperate and most devilish resolution was therein not to leave a drop of English Blood in Ireland and so consequently not the least spark or glimpse of Gospel and pure Protestant Religion giving out in words and designing in their hearts that the Tower of London the Castle of Edinburgh and the Castle of Dublin were to be surprized by their Faction in all these places all upon one day In all which time this therefore might the more easily have been done especially in Ireland there was not the least fear or suspition of Treachery yet there were a little before the day of this Bloody-birth secretly gathered together about 400 Irish Papists elected out of most parts of Ireland desperate and damnably bloody-minded persons designed for this horrid and hellish Attempt who had all privately conveyed and sheltered themselves in several places of the City and Suburbs of Dublin waiting and expecting the time and Watch-word when to give the on-set In this Plot all the Popish Nobility and Men of quality in Ireland were interessed and it was professed by that most impious and barbarous Arch Rebel Sir Philem O Neal that what he and they did was by the consent of the Parliament in Ireland Yea some of them have been so impiously audacious as to profess and persuade others of their accursed Confederates to believe that they had Regal Authority for it and were so bold as to term themselves the Queen's Army And for the more violent prosecution of this their most exorbitant Villany the Conspirators and Traitors entred into a most accursed Covenant just as our Popish-Powder-Traitor did in their damnable Design and bound themselves by an Oath of Confederation and Secrecy Reily a prime Popish Priest and others like his Father the Devil compassing the Earth far and near to draw into their Conspiracy such as had not before been therewith acquainted as also to satisfie all scruples if any arose in any of their minds about the lawfulness of their Actions just as Garnet that old Romish Jesuitical Fox did with his Powder-Conspirators 1605. And whereas they falsly have masked this their most inhumane Treason and Rebellion under the King's Name pretending his authority and all they did or do in obedience to his Majesty and tender respect to his Royal Prerogative yet it hath been by some others of them professed that they intended to have a King of their own yea that they had one already some saying Tyrone was he others Sir Philem O Neal who hath been audaciously and traiterously honoured woth the stile of his Majesty and that they will with the assistance of Spain and France set footing in England having compleated their own devilish Irish work and after that in Scotland where all things being setled to their desires the whole Forces in Ireland in way of Retribution and acknowledgment of Gratitude were intended as hath been confessed for the King of Spain against the Hollanders Such mighty and invincible Conquerors had they made themselves in their own conceits and most bold and bloody imaginations Unto which their horrid Disloyalty and unparalleld Treachery and Rebellion they added most execrable expressions of unheard of hatred and inhumane Barbarity to the Subjects of the English Nation Banishment or perpetual Slavery were the greatst favours that would have been afforded them their general profession being for a general Extirpation even to the last and least drop of English-blood from among them Yea and that which transcends all former extents of rage and unpattern'd wrath and malignity not so much as an English Beast or any of that Breed was to be left alive in that whole Kingdom And as the Hearts and Tongues of these most base and abominable Traitors and
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE Several PLOTS CONSPIRACIES and Hellish ATTEMPTS of the Bloody-minded PAPISTS against the Princes and Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland from the Reformation to this present Year 1678. AS ALSO Their Cruel Practices in France against the Protestants in the Massacre of Paris c. WITH A more particular Account of their Plots in relation to the late Civil War and their Contrivances of the Death of King CHARLES the First of blessed Memory LONDON Printed for J. R. and W. A. 1679. Plots Conspiracies and Attempts of Domestick and Foraign Enemies of the Romish Religion against the Princes and Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland c. THose which make descriptions of large Countries in small Tables offend not against truth though somewhat against quantity so Pliny telleth us Notwithstanding with much convenience ease to the beholder and truth of observation things are presented to our Eyes in those little Draughts that the very places themselves being viewed with great Trouble and loss of Time cannot yeeld more benefit to the most diligent oftentimes not so much Wherefore especially because the Argument cannot be now unseasonable for the abridgment of the Commentaries of large Histories is not unlike Maps of Kingdoms I have here collected out of divers Authors which have severally handled parts of this subject into one The chief Conspiracies and Attempts against the Kingdoms alone and immediately of great Britain and Ireland or else mediately through the sides of the Princes of these Countries by Traytors at home or abroad of the Romish Religion or foraign Enemies by treacherous courses of those of the same bloody superstition The beginning I make the first time of Reformation of Religion here in England under Queen Elizabeth and the extent unto this present Year I begin no higher than Queen Elizabeth because the Reformation of Henry the eight was but in part and the other of King Edward was an interrupted one by the sudden succession of his Sister Queen Mary the rather because for ought we know there was no great matter plotted against this hopeful young Prince that was not rather from Ambition if there was any such than from a defire of subverting Religion Not but that the Enemies of our Religion and Kingdom had us then in their Minds but other ways there were before bloody and desperate Practises were to be taken in hand to be first entred into of less difficulty and more hopeful success And these are the steps the Adversaries of our Religion use to tread who thirsting after England labour first to bring us back to Rome by striving to make our selves hate our own Religion and leave that God which brought us out of the Land of Egypt bewitching us with glorious Idolatry of the golden Calves of Rome introducing Ignorance and Blindness that we may when our Eyes are out patiently grind in the Mill of Slavery If this course fail the next is by Poyson Murder and force of Arms to draw us to Sodom and Egypt The Reformation of England and Ireland fall under one time and because that of Scotland also differeth not many years in age they may all be brought in one account With the Plots are jointly handled the Deliverances which in some respect or other may very well be called great either in regard of the Misery we had fallen into if God had not prevented them of the slavery of Soul and Body and this agreeth with all Or else for the strangeness of the discoveries of their mischiefs sometime almost miraculous before they have come to their birth or disappointing them of their purposes when the Authors have put them in practise and these two respects the one or the other which may well denominate God's goodness to us in disappointing them to be great may be found in all likewife So that for these Mercies received we ought to ascribe to our Deliverer that which is due unto him the praise of his own Work and continual thanks for his Mercies which even to this day is from those Deliverances of the days of old extended we should have bin then betrayed but we had now bin Slaves both we our selves and ours one Plot had it succeeded had bin the betraying of England at once to them who love themselves too well to have it lost easily and are so wise that they endure no Traitors but for themselves nor can endure any that loves his Country but a Spaniard We may learn also to trust in him even now particularly who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever nor is his hand shortned that he cannot save nor his Ear heavy that he cannot hear those that call upon him lifting up pure Hands in sincerity of Heart although the Sins of our Nation in general may justly provoke our God to punish us by them that hate us for that cause that instead of extirpating Popery and Superstition a thing not hard to be done in human Reason if the Children of Papists were carefully educated under Protestant Tutors we think their Religion tolerable and nothing so dangerous to Soul or Body as some Men seem to make it Should we not detest and abhor the Religion of such a Generation as count they do God good service by killing us witness the bloody Persecution under Queen Mary and the damnable Plot of the Gun-Powder Treason Yet some there are that would seem Protestants and yet deny that their cruelty was such as the Author of the English Martyrology makes the Marian Persecution to be Others of no small esteem in the Church of England instead of acknowledging Foxes History a Monument of Martyrs call it a Book fraught with Traitors and Hereticks And for the Gun-Pouder Conspiracy some affirm it the deeds of a few Male-Contents far from the approbation of the Catholicks others as falsly that there was no such Treason intended but that it was an invention of him whom in reverence I forbear to name But yet this may incourage us that God will still preserve us for their sakes that have now and heretofore stoutly defended God's true Religion and that in very many places of this Land we have had those that with all their power have opposed the very beginnings of Popery But wonderful it is and scarcely credible that any should so much have forgotten the Gun-Powder Treason as to say that they would rather trust a Papist than a Puritan as if they believed not there was any such Treason or had forgotten it or that they thought that those whom Men call Puritans were traiterously minded and bloody Persons In the most Reverend and Judicious Assembly of this Kingdom a Member of that Assembly declared in particulars how the best Men have bin branded with the name of Puritan it was where any Man might freely have spoken yet no Man contradicted him If it be given sometime to the best without question those ordinarily called by that bie-name are none of the worst because from likeness at
and sent under his command 800 Italians the Spaniard paying the Soldiers Stucley then went to Sebastian King of Portugal to intreat him to be chief Conductor out was perswaded by the said King and the King by Abdalla's Son Mahomet to go first unto the African War where both King Sebastian and himself lost their lives And thus God overthrew their wicked counsels for that time Fitz-Morris his second attempt against Ireland ANno Domini 1579 James Fitz-Morris formerly having fled into France being pardoned for a former Rebellion in Ireland goeth now to the Spaniard and is by him sent unto the Pope to consult with him about his request which was to reduce that Kingdom by force of Arms unto Popery The Pope at the earnest suit of Nicholas Sanders and English and Alan an Irish Priest gave Fitz Morris some Money to that intent and sendeth him back to the Spaniard from whence with his Priests three Ships and a few Soldiers he arrived at Smerwick in Kerry in Ireland and raiseth a Fort there Thomas Courtney an Englishman presently surpriseth the Ships John and James Brethren to the Earl of Desmond join themselves to Fitz-Morris who was their Kinsman The Earl of Desmond although he pretended the contrary favoured them drew forces together and by this pretence of Desmond caused the Earl of Clanrickard who came to oppose them to withdraw himself Fitz-Morris seeing few Irish come to his aid under pretence of going in Pilgrimage to the holy Cross of Tipperary went toward Conaught and Vlster to draw Forces together whose Horses being tired he took some Horses from the Plough of William a Burgh his Kinsman and being pursued by the Sons of William a Burgh Fitz-Morris perceiving that told his Cousin Theobald a Burgh that it was no time now to fall out about Horses but to joi with him in the business of Rebellion for which he was come into Iroland These Brethren had bin in a sormer Rebellion but now declared unto Fitz-Morris their sorrow for it yet now fighting with Fitz-Morris to recover the Horses both the Brethren and some others were slain Sor William Drury was then Lord Deputy who sent for the Earl of Desmond who made a promise by his Wife to the Deputy that he and his Men would fight against the Rebels He dissembled long but after that Malbey had defeated John his Brothers Forces and had sent for Desmond to come unto him about Rekel a Town of Desmond he plainly discovered his Rebellion That Night the Rebels set upon Malbeys Tents butwere disappointed Afterward Desmond was sent for to come in person by the Lord Deputy Pelham who succeeded the deceased Sir William Drury but excuseth himself by a Letter sent by his Wife The Earl of Ormond was sent unto him that he thould deliver Sanders the Priest the Castles of Carigofoile and Asketton and to submit himself absolutely The prosecuting of him was committed to the Earl of Ormond who ruined Conilo the Rebels only refuae he hanged the Bayliff of Youghall at his Door for refusing to take an English Garrison into the Town besieged the Spaniards in Strangical but they withdrew themselves and after were all killed and so hard he pressed Desmond and his Brethren that madly they intreated the chief Justice to take their parts Afterward the Justice sent for the Nobility of Munster to come to him and would not dismiss them till they had given pledges that they would assist against the Rebels They made the Baron of Lixenaw yield himself took Carigofoil Castle killed and hanged all the Spaniards in it and the Captain also an Italian San Josephus with 700 Spaniards sent into Ireland THe next Year 1580 700 Spaniards and Italians came to divert the Queens Forces rather than to conquer Ireland they landed at Smerwick under the command of San Josephus an Italian they fortified it and called it Fort Delor but being followed by the Earl of Ormond they withdrew thence into a Valley called Glammingel Some Prisoners of them were taken who confest they were 700 and that Arms were brought for 5000 and that more were expected from Spain that to conquer Ireland the Spaniard and Pope had resolved and therefore sent into the hands of Sanders Desmond and his Brother John a vast sum of Money That Night the Spaniards and Italians returned to their Frot which so soon as Ordnance could be brought and Winter was returned with the Ships of War from England was on every side besieged and after the five days taken The common Soldiers Italians and Spaniards were put to the Sword the Irish hanged only the Captains of the former were preserved Three Years after Desmond wandring like a Vagabond had his Arm almost cut off by a common Soldier before he was known and after was slain Nicholas Sanders was almost famished in the Woods and died stark mad This Year 1580 Priests and Seminaries much increasing in England severe Laws were enacted against them These were for the most part bred in the English Colledg of Doway founded by the procurement of Alan somtimes a Student in Oxford afterward Priestand Cardinal in the Year 1568. Afterward under Requesenius's Government in the Low Countries when the Wars were bet ween England and Spain the Fugitives were thrust from thence and two Colledges erected for them one at Rhemes the other at Rome the first by the Guises the second by Gregory the 13. From these places rose in England Hanse Nesson Main Sherward Priests whoreported Queen Elizabeth to the Heretick and so ought to be deposed for which they suftered In the aforesaid Year 1580 Robert Parsons a Man of a turbulent Spirit and impudent Campian a more modest Man both Jesuits they to serve the Catholicks turns obtained of Pope Gregory an interpretation of Pius his Bull against Queen Elizabeth that it bound the Queen and Hereticks always but not Catholicks till a convenient season Campian wrote a Book intituled 10 Reasons in defence of Rome Mr. Chark answered him soberly Parsons wrote against Chark virulently but Campian's 10 Reasons were thorowly answered by Dr. Whitaker Campian and others condemned EDmund Campian Ralf Sherwin Luke Kerby Alexander Briant were taken in the year 1581 as Traitors to the Queen and State and condemned for coming into England to stir up Sedition Still more and more Priests came into England and for their dangerons Doctrine That Princes excommunicated were to be thrown out of their Kingdoms that Princes of any other than the Roman Religion had lost their Kingly Dignity that those who had taken Orders were freed from Princes Jurisdiction and not bound by their Laws it was enacted 1582 That it thould be Treason to disswade any Subject from his Allegiance and from the Religion established in England c. Somerviles attempt to kill the Queen AN. Dom. 1583 divers Priests and Jesuits wrote dangerous Books against Q. Eliz. and certain other Princes excommunicated which prevailed so far that one Somervile a Gentleman breathing out nothing but Blood
Rebels were boundlessly and extreamly cruel in Intention and Profession So it pleased the Lord for the Sins of his People there to permit power unto these barbarous Rebels to act with their Hands the most accursed and prophane Perpetrations that ever Christian Eyes beheld or Ears ever heard of both for Impiety against God and his holy Gospel and almost unexpressible Inhumanity toward the true Professors thereof among them blaspheming our God stripping his Servants stark naked and then bidding them go to their God to be clothed again breaking into Churches burning Pulpits with extream hatred to our Religion and exceedingly triumphing in all their Impieties Dragging some Professors of the Gospel by the hair of their Heads through the Streets into the Churches and there Stripping and Whipping them and with most cruel and taunting Terms abusing them telling them if they came to Morrow they should hear the like Sermon Yea so excessively impious was their hatred to the Gospel of Christ that they took the Sacred Books of the holy Scriptures and cast them into Kennels and Puddles of Dirt and Mire treading them under foot and Leaping and Skipping on them and O horrid Impiety causing a Bagpipe to play all the while and bidding a Plague upon them saying they were the cause of all Quarrels and Burning some and saying it was Hell fire that was then flaming and wishing they had all the Bibles in christendom that they might use them so And as for the most Inhumane and more than Scythian Cruelties of those Irish Canibals and most barbarous Blood-sucking Tygres of whom we may most properly say as Jacob did of his bloody Sons Simeon and Levi in their Massacre of the Shechemites Gen. 49.7 Cursed be their Anger for it was fierce and their Wrath for it was cruel Yea certainly more cruel than ever any Eye did see or Ear did hear yea I say past the most exquisite historical expressions of any Ancient or Modern Relations Witness their stripping stark naked Men Women and Children even Children sucking their poor Mothers Brests whereby multitudes of all sorts Ages and Sexes in the extremities of that cold season of Frost and Snow have most lamentably perished Women being dragged up and down Naked Women in Child-bed drawn out thence and cast into Prison one delivered of a Child while she was hanging one ripped up horesco referens and two Children taken out of her and all cast and eaten up by Swine One stabb'd in the Brest her Child sucking An Insant cruelly murthered whom they found sucking his dead Mother slain by them the day before A Child of fourteen years of Age taken from this Mother in her sight cast into a Bog-pit and held under-water while he was drowned Together with many other yet more horrible hideous and more than Savage or Beast-like Barbarities too terrible for me any farther to relate but may be more fully found in that most lamentable Remonstrance of this Irish Rebellion and all there proved by Testimonies on Oath whereunto I refer the Reader Which makes me call to mind that old Observation proverbially spoken of Ireland which is That no poisonous Serpent will live on Irish ground which how true in the Historical meaning I know not but now I am sure 't is most false in the mystical meaning of it for here it seems that Satan's Serpentine seed a brood of most poisonous Native Serpents Adders and Snakes of Villany and Cruelty do live yea and thrive there also but I trust but for a season for certainly the Lord the most righteous Judg of all Men and severe Revenger of all Wrongs will not suffer such horrible Impieties and unpattern'd Cruelties to go unpunished but will undoubtedly ruinate such a pestilent Generation of Romish Vipers and Babylonish Blood-suckers as these are which he hath already most blessedly begun First By his most gracious and timely discovery of their main Plot the taking of the City of Dublin which was indeed the Master-piece of their intended Epidemical Mischief but prevented I say by the Lord 's great Mercy and good Providence in a most strange manner by a native Irish Gentleman one Mr. Owen Mack-Connel once Servant to that pious and most worthy Gentleman Sir John Clotworthy and this also by a most remarkable way and work of the Lord 's special Providence as is more particularly and punctually related in the Preamble of Irelands Tears to which I refer the Reader And secondly By the Lord's most Glorious and Victorious over-powering the out-ragious Power and Petulancy of those barbarous Miscreants now in open Rebellion by the hands of a very small remnant of poor Protestants there among them who by reason of the most unhappy Distractions unnatural Civil-discords raised up among us in England by the Popish Faction also and their Pontifician Abettors cannot be by us so sufficiently supplied with Men and Arms as is fit and much desired therefore I say the Lord of Hosts abhorring and abominating such atrocious and hell-fomented Blasphemies Murthers and merciless Cruelties makes his just Indignation and Wrath to prosecute and pursue them at the heels giving those small and inconsiderable Companies such admirable and even almost miraculous Victories over them as most evidently declare the Hand of the Lord to be against them and his gracious Purpose utterly to supplant and exterminate such devilishly desperate and intolerably barbarous and bloody Rebels and Traitors the lively Limbs and Lineaments of that bloody Strumpet of Rome The most bloody Massacre at Paris Anno 1572. extracted out of the French History truly and briefly related ANd now good Reader give me leave a little to seem to digress not so much from the Matter as from the Persons and Places at first propounded and to look but a little into our Neighbour Kingdom of France where I say I shall only vary from Personages but the subject Matter the same with the former setting forth the Bloody Plots and Conspiracies of the Popish Faction among them also against those of the reformed Protestant Religion in France and especially in that most butcherly and barbarous Massacre at Paris where it primarily and chiefly began to be cruelly acted and executed on God's innocent Lambs marked out to the slaughter before-hand And thus it was in brief In the years 1571 and 72 Charles the 9th then King of France the said King the then Duke of Guise and others of the Romish Faction bearing a most inveterate hatred which was craftily concealed against those of the Religion and in especial against the then most renowned Admiral of France whose Piety Prudence and Prowess was such and in so high esteem of all both Friends and Foes also that whilst he subsisted and survived the Popish party maugre their malice could do nothing to any purpose to the prejudice of the Cause of Religion At last a Plot was laid most craftily and cruelly under the pretence of a Marriage between the Prince of Navarre a Noble and Pious Prince of the Religion
and the King's Sister by which snare to bring the said Prince the Admiral and the rest of the Heads of Religion to the Court and City of Paris that so these Heads being first smiten off the inferiour Members thereof might the more easily be destroyed Under this colour I say the King invites the Admiral to the Court at Paris pretends a fair Correspondence and Agreement of all matters in Difference betwixt his Majesty and those of the Religion especially himself and the Admiral and a Reconcilement also between this noble Admiral and the Duke of Guise In which interim one Lignerolles a French Gentleman was openly slain in the Court for discovering some secrets concerning this Plot against those of the Religion and the Cardinal of Chastillon then in England and ready to depart thence for France Brother to the Admiral of France was poisoned by one of the Chamberlains and died thereof to the great grief of all his Friends and Servants The most Noble and Religious Admiral on the King's Invitation comes to Paris was with extraordinary fair shows of love and regal respect most welcomely entertained both he and divers others of the Religion that came with him The foresaid Marriage was not long after Solemnized in Paris with great presences of joy and content on all sides expressed in most sumptuous and liberal Feasts and Banquets Masks and Dances the sweet innocent Princes little dreaming of such a Dance to be now a leading by the King Queen-Mother and Duke of Guise with the rest of the Romish bloody Faction as stain'd nay steep'd all their dainties in streams of their Hearts-blood in so much as 't was admired to see such a seeming friendly mixtute of those of the Religion with the Romish Catholicks just like so many Lambs among so many greedy Wolves Now whilst every one imployed himself in such like Mirth and Jollity divers that were sent for by the King Queen-Mother and Duke of Guise that so they might be sure to be the stronger party speedily arrived in Paris the Catastrophe of all that follows having been made not long before among them the Dukes of Guise and Anjou being the principal Actors openly seen in this wicked Work who resolved not to let the Admiral depart out of Paris but there to dispatch him and all such as should endeavour to defend him Now it so fell out that one Morning the Admiral coming out of the Louvre and going to Dine at his Lodging being on foot and without least suspicion of any Villany to be attempted against him as he was reading a Petition one shot at him with a Harquebuss the Bullet whereof took away the Fore-singer of his Right-hand and hurt him in the left Arm the Villain that shot escaped by flight a Horse standing ready to post him away after he had done the deed The noble Admiral being thereupon brought to his Lodging shewed most singular Piety Constancy and Patience under his Surgeons hands was visited by divers Lords and Gentlemen of the Religion the King of Navarre now the King of France his Brother-in-Law and the Prince of Conde The French King also though a main Plotter in the work craftily complained to these Princes of the Mischief thus happened protesting his sorrow and swearing revenge and severe execution of sustice on the Offender whosoever he were The King himself also went to visit the Admiral making many serious and deep protestations of his high esteem of his loyalty and fidelity to his Person and Crown always and that he held and esteemed him a most discret and valiant Commander in Arms and that therefore he much respected him with many such like French Complements Immediately after the King's departure the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were certainly but very secretly enformed of the intended Massacre on all of the Religion and advised as speedly as they could to get out of Paris and to be assured that that blow given to the Admiral was but the beginning of the Tragedy but alas good Princes they so much confided on the King's Vows and Promises that they reject this Advise and Counsel and staied there still About Saturday-evening being the 23d of August 1572. certain Protestant Gentlemen offered themselves to watch that Night with the good Admiral but Teligny his Son-in-Law would not suffer them but dismissed them with many thanks little suspecting still any approaching or precipitating danger on his Father Night being come on the Duke of Guises Lieutenant in this Action which now at this present was to be declared to the Duke of Anjou sent for all the Captains of the Switzers and companies of Strangers which still increased into the Town shewing them his Commission to kill the Admiral and all his partakers exhorting them to be couragious in shedding of Blood and making Spoil of them and appointed their Troops to be placed where he thought meetst About Midnight it was informed to all the Popish Assemblies in the Town That the like to this Massacre should be done to all of the Religion throughout the whole Realm and that the Watch-word of the general Massacre should be the great Bell of the Palace which should be rung at the break of Day and the badg of the Executioners should be a white Handkerchief tied upon their sleeves and a white Cross in their Hats The Duke of Guise with his bloody-minded Associates had charge to begin at the Admiral 's Lodgings The mighty noise of Armour and running up and down with very many lighted Torches soon after Midnight made many of those of the Religion that were longed near the Admiral to come out of their Lodgings and to go into the Street to enquire of their Acquaintances what this noise meant at such an undue Hour but being anxiously answered they went on still toward the Louvre where the Duke of Guise and his bloody Comrades were attending the deed where those innocent Lambs of the Religion were first set upon and assaulted by the Duke's guard Then presently they rang St. Germaines Bell in the Palace whereupon one Cosseins a French Fury perceiving the Duke of Guise coming with his Troops knocks at the Admirals Gate between two and three of the Clock in the Morning being Sunday the 24th of August 1572. Lahonne one of the Admiral 's attendants opens the Gate and was instantly stabb'd by Cosseins the second Door going up the Stairs being soon burst open they came to the Admiral 's Chamber where his own Guard of Switzers were one of them was slain with an Harquebuss And while Cosseins was jumbling at the Chamber-door one Cornatan ran up into the Chamber and being asked by the Admiral who had caused his Men to lift him out of his Bed and in his Night-gown having assisted his Ministers in fervent Prayer and most humbly commended his Soul to his Saviour Christ Jesus what all this hurly burly meant Cornatan his Servant answered My Lord It is God that calls for us the House is entred
by force and there is no means of Resistance The good Admiral then replied It is not long since I disposed my self to Die save you your selves if it be pessible for you cannot save my Life and therefore I commit my Soul into the Hands and Mercy of God Presently hereupon his Attendants began to shift for themselves and to flie for their Lives and some of them got up into the top of the House and found a Window to issue out of the Roof and so into Gutters but most of them were slain in the next Houses but Cornatan and Merlin a godly Minister escaped and were miraculously preserved The Admiral 's Chamber-door being now opened seven or eight Armed Men with their Targets entred into it and one Besmes Servant to the Duke of Guise with a naked Sword in his hand offered him the point Whereupon the good Admiral said unto him Young man thou oughtst to respect my Age and Infirmity yet shalt thou not shorten my life With that Besmes thrust his Sword into the Admiral 's Body and redoubling the blow upon the Admiral 's Head every one of the rest also gave him a blow in such sort that he sell upon the Ground and so lay gasping The Duke of Guise and others staying below in the Court and hearing the blows asked if they had done and commanded the Body to be thrown out of the Window which was presently done by that villain Besmes and his companions Now the blows that he had on his Head and the Blood covering his Face had so disfigured him that the Duke of Guise hardly knew him whereupon stooping down and wiping his Face with his Hankerchief he said Now I know him it is he indeed and therewith gave him a kick with his foot on his Face being dead whom all the Murtherers of France extreamly feared being alive Which done he left the Admiral 's House accompanied with his most bloody Train and began to cry about the Streets Courage fellow Souldiers we have made a good beginning let us now to the rest for the King commandeth it Repeating those words oft with great majesty For the King commandeth it it is his pleasure it is his express commandment Just as our Romish Clergy in the Irssh Massacre in the Year 1641 pretended the King's Authority for their Rebellion laying all the Odium of their impious Villanies and Cruelties on the King's Majesty saying still 't was his pleasure it should be so Now presently thereupon the Palace Clock struck and then a Noise was heard all about the Streets of Paris saying that the Hugonots for so the Romish Catholicks term the true Protestants in France were in Arms they being all alas in their Beds fir from any such thoughts and meant to kill the King just as our Powder-Traitors intended had their Plot taken effect to have slandered the Puritans in England to have been the Authors of that hellish-Treason to whom the Admirals Head was carried and presented See here the Holiness of Rome and Zeal of the Romanists and to the Queen-Mother of France and then imbalmed and sent to Rome to the Pope and Cardinal of Lorrain The Common-people like Priest like People ran to the Admirals Lodging where they cut off his Hands and his privy Members and drew his Body for the space of three days about the Town which done it was born to the Gibbet of Monifaucon and there hanged by the Feet The Gentlemen Officers of the Chamber Governours Tutors and houshold Servants of the King of Navarre the French King 's Brother-in Law lately married to his Sister and of the Prince of Conde were driven out of their Chambers where they slept in the Louvre and forced into the Court were there massicred in the Kings own presence The like was done to the Lords and Gentlemen that lay round about the Admirals Lodgings and then throughout the Town in such sort that the number slain that Sunday at Night and the two next Days ensuing within the City of Paris and Suburbs thereof was esteemed to be above ten thousand Persons Lords Gentlemen Pages Servants Justices of all sorts Schollars Lawyers Merchants Artificers Women Maids and Boys not sparing little Children in thier Cradles no nor in their Mothers Bellies The Courtiers of the Kings Guard and Strangers that massacred these Gentlemen said that in one day by Weapons and desorder they had ended those Processes which Pen Paper Sentences of Justice nor open War could not find the means to do or execute in 12 years space And thus these most honourable Protestant Lords and Gentlemen falsly accused and slandered of Conspiracies and Practices against the King being stark naked thinking only upon their rest scarce a wakened out of their Sleep utterly unarmed in the hands of infinite cruel crafty and most treacherous Enemies not having so much leasure as to breath were barbarously slain some in their Beds others on the roofs of Houses and in whatsoever other places where they might be found It would be too tedious to recite at large the Names and Sirnames of all the honourable Personages of divers Qualities that were then slain and butchered it sussiceth that their Names are written in Heaven and that their Death though shameful and despicable in the fight and presence of Men of this World is precious in the fight of the Lords most holy Majesty Now let the tender hearted Christian Reader but consider and ponder in his Heart how strange and horrible a thing it might be in a great Town or City to see at the least 60000 Men with Pistols Pikes Courtlasses Ponyards Knives and other such bloody Instruments run swearing and blaspheming the sacred Majesty of God throughout the Streets and into Mens Houses where most cruelly they massacred all whomsoever of the Religion they met without regard of Estate Condition Sex or Age the Streets paved with Bodies cut and hewed in pieces the Gates and Entries of Houses Palaces and publick places died with Blood A horrible Plague of shoutings and howlings of the Murtherers mixed with continual noise of Pistols and Calivers together with the pittiful cries of those that were murthered the Bodies cast out at Windows upon the Stones drawn through the Dirt with strange noise and Whistlings the breaking open of Doors and Windows with Bils Stones and other furious Instruments the spoiling and plundering of Houses Carts carrying away the spoils and dead Bodies which were thrown into the River of Soame all red with Blood which ran in great Streams through the Town and from the Kings Palace into the said River As for the King of Navarre himself and the Prince of Conde they were called into the King's presence who must himself speak with them who with his own Mouth certified them what had thus past all this while adding that he had saved their Lives only upon Condition that they should renounce their Religion and follow his otherwise that they must look for the like punishment that their Adherents had
and should receive The King of Navarre besought the King to remember his promise of Alliance newly contracted and not to constrain him in his Religion The Prince of Conde also more fervently answered that the King had given his Faith unto him and to all those of the Religion with so solemn a Protestation and Vow Mark here the Vows of Romish Princes that he could not be persuaded that his Majesty would falsify such an authentick Oath and that thereupon he had thus far yeilded to his Majesties Demands and faithfully performed what he had required of him on this Assurance But as touching the Religion whereof the King had granted him the free exercise and God the true knowledg to whom he was to make an account therein for this his Religion he said he was fully resolved to remain most constant therein and which he would always maintain to be true although it were with the loss of his Life This answer of the Prince set the King into such a choller that he began to call him Rebel seditious and Son of a seditious Person with horrible threatnings to cause them to lose their Heads if within 3 days they took not better counsel and indeed these threatnings and other crafty carriages in this way so wrought on both these Princes at last that they forsook their Faith and first Love and turned to Romish abominations Now the King perceiving that this Massacre of Paris would not quench the Fire but rather kindle it the more fearing lest those of the Religion in his other Provinces and Towns might assemble and unite themselves together and so give them new work he with the speedy advice of his Counsellors sent two Messengers with two several Messages the one to the Governours and seditious Catholicks of his remoter Towns wherein were many of the Religion with express command to massacre them the other containing certain Letters to the Governors of Provinces by which he pretended this Massacre to be perpetated by the Duke of Guise and the Admiral to be murthered on a particular and private quarrel betwixt them two and that the King 's honest meaning and intention was utterly against these things and seriously to maintain his former Edict of a general Pacification and therefore that his care and vigilancy had ceased it the same day it began and yet as my Author recordeth in his History on the Tuesday following being the 26 of the same August the King accompanied with his Brethren and the chiefest of his Court went to the Court of Parliament and there publickly declared in express terms That whatsoever had happed in Paris was done not only by his consent but also by his Commandment and of his own motion And as for his other former mentioned Message and Letter to other Towns and Provinces for the massacring of those of the Religion among them also his bloody command herein was immediately put in execution at Lyons and many other places where the poor Protestants were murthered and massacred in most hideous and horrible manner by those merciless and inhumane Butchers of bloody Rome who knockt down the innocent Christians among them as so many Dogs cut their Throats mangl'd their Bodies slash'd off their Hands with great sharp Knives as on their Knees they held them up to the Villains praying for the sparing of their Lives yea and were known to rip up their Bellies and take out their Fat from their Bowels and to sell it to the Apothecaries to make Medicines Thus also in those remoter parts from Paris were very many thousands of the Religion murdered without any difference or distinction either of Sex or Age. And so deeply enraged was the King and his Adherents and so desperately resolved to root out and extirpate the memory of those of the Religion especially of any note or eminency that the King having at last got into his custody one Briquemant a noble French Gentleman of the age of seventy years one that had valiantly imployed himself in the Service of the Kings of France having been found in the House of the Ambassador of England then resident in France wherein he had hid himself whilst the greatest fury of the Massacre was executed was by the King's command put in close Prison together with another vertuous Gentleman Cavagnes Master of the Requests both which Gentlemen bare great affection both unto the Religion and also unto the renowned Admiral and were themselves of great esteem and reputation in France but the King having them now fast in hold threatned to tear them in pieces upon the Rack if they would not write and sign with their Hands that they had conspired with the Admiral to kill the King his Brethren the Queen and the King of Navarre But they having most constantly and justly refused to avouch so horrible a lye against their own and their godly Friends Innocencies were racked and cruelly tormented and by a most unjust sentence of the Court of Parliament in Paris they were both declared guilty of Treason and condemned to be hanged upon a Gibbet which was accordingly executed The Queen-Mother leading the King her two Sons and the King of Navarre her Brother-in-Law to see the Execution Her Counsellors thinking that at this last exploit what they had wickedly projected namely the false transferring of the cause of this bloody Massacre on a treasonable Plot intended by the Admiral and others of the Religion against the King as was fore-mentioned would now be wrought out and effected if Briquemant in presence of all the People now at the time of his expected Death would ask pardon of the King withal to work it on the more sending one to him to certifie and assure him that so he might easily save his Life for the King was merciful and that he should have pardon if he would desire it confessing this fact wherewith he was charged But Briquemant answered boldly and with a good courage that it belonged not unto him but to the King to ask pardon of God for such an heinious Offence That he would never ask pardon for a fault wherein he had not offended but knew himself to be most innocent whereof he called GOD to witness desiring him to pardon the King 's so great Disloyalty and Cruelty Cavagnes also the other noble Gentleman did the like until he died Insomuch that this execution contrary to the King's expectation served to no other end but more to publish the iniquity of all those cruel Homicides and of all their most pernicious Counsels The Papists Plots in reference to the late Troubles and particularly about the Death of King CHARLES the First of blessed Memory as proved by Doctor Du Moulin WHen the Businesses of the late bad Times are once ripe for an History and Time the bringer forth of Truth hath discovered the Mysteries of Iniquity and the depths of Satan which hath wrought so much Crime and Mischief it will be found that the late Rebellion was raised and fostered
Religion by no other way but by Arguments Into Scotland were sent three Sorbon Doctors with the Bishop of Amiens But with what safety might any Man dispute with them when he that did so was in the midst of his armed Enemies and there was greatest fear of violence from the Disputers themselves For the Bishop of Amiens counselled the Queen Regent that if any there were which should be found to dispute against the Romish Decrees he should be put to death yea even those who but seemed to be of another Mind only We are notinformed that the Queen Regent put in practice the foregoing counsels perhaps the time was not altogether seasonable nor do we take every single action which might conduce to the subverting of Religion to be a Conspiracy but we may well esteem by the Queens Words the Councellors and Commanders Intents and Purposes the placing of such a Regent all this to be a continued Conspiracy to strangle in the birth the Church of Scotland having yet scarcely taken breath in the World Not long after the Queen Regent dyeth and although it will perhaps be said there was no discovery of any Conspiracy which was in acting as to put to death all the Nobility or all that would dare dispute against the Bishop or Doctors could be no easy rask to go about the latter because the death of their last Martyr Walter Mille did seem so grevious unto them and if any more should suffer how would such a thing be taken by French-men People of another Nation It may be objected from the above named Arguments that there wanted no endeavour After the death of the Mother the Daughter returning into Scotland was married unto Henry Lord Darnley who being of the same Religion with the Queen and they both a Brothers and Sisters Children did strongly maintain Popery against the Protestant Religion We cannot imagine her that any thing should be contrived against the lives of those Princes by a Popish Party to overthrow Religion For to subvert Religion no way could be fourd better than by maintaining in life and honour such Princes as these two were who professed and maintained Popery as contrarily to subvert Religion Laws Liberties and the like the best means are through the sides of such Kings and Queens as are Projectors and Maintainers of them So the holy Scripture declareth by Word and Example I will smite the Shepheard and the Sheep shall be scattered For this Queen was so far from furthering the establishment of Religion nay from connivence at those who should go about any such matter that she professed she would follow the example of her Cousin Queen Mary of England which was no other thing than maintaining in her Dominions the Pope and Popery and pumshing the contrary minded as Hereticks It will not be thought I suppose that either the Papists at home in Scotland or those in France or elsewhere would go about to take away the lives of such Princes whose lives secured their Religion For what was attempted against the Life and most unhappily succeeded of the King was not any way to subvert Popery because the deed was committed and the Plot chiefly laid by Papists It rather was undertaken against the Life of this Prince by some to make way for their own Family to inherit the Crown of Scotland by others to get the Kingdom and admit any Religion But those that look farther into Matters judg this act to be committed against a Professor of the Romish Religion that he being taken out of the way another might succeed which had greater Power and Friends to bring to pass what King Henry the Queens Husband had a Mind but not Power enough to do And that made those who were no Enemies to the King in point of Religion not dislike the Treason for the Ends sake I cannot be of their Minds altogether who judg that of the Queen of Scots being now in restraint in England not long before married to Earl Bothwell and presently to desire a Devorce from him and to require that he should be summoned within the space of a very few days to return into the Kingdom to make answer and defence to the Queens Suit of Divorce to have proceeded from the changing Fancy of the Queen not so much from Conscience For it was as well known before her departure into England as after that Earl Bothwell had a Wife living when he married the Queen insomuch that at the publishing the banes of their Matrimony one stood up in the Church and forbad them It was generally thought that it was that a way might be open for the Duke of Norfolk who then made Suit unto her He indeed was such a Man as being of great Wealth mighty in Friends and singular Abilities of Mind could better bring about what was desired than a Man of no great riches at any time but was now in extream Poverty and Disgrace in the Dominions of the King of Denmark and notoriously infamous for his Crimes in Sctoland The Rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland AT this time the King of Spain wrote unto the Duke of Morfolk to join with the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland to raise a Rebellion in England and to the Earl of Ormond to do the like in Ireland These Letters were shown unto Queen Elizabeth by the Duke and the Earl that from hence at least might appear their Loyalty Nevertheless whether by the advice of the Bishop of Boss who lay as Ambassador at London for the Queen of Scots and one Rodolf a Florentine going in the appearance of a Merchant Factor or purposing of himself whatsoever he might pretend he privately sought to marry the Queen of Scots she being next Heir to the Crown of England contrary to his Promise made unto his Sovereign Queen Elizabeth The Queen of Scots and the Duke participate of one anothers Mind by Letters written in hidden Characters Neither was this a matter only supposed but the Dukes Secretary one Higford who was commanded by the Duke to burn such Letters as came from the Queen of Scots but did it not and hid them under a Mat in his Chamber and being under examination he caused them to be produced This was when the two Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland had secretly complotted to raise Arms and not long after the Dukes apprehension they fell into open Rebellion One of the Letters which was shewn at the Dukes arraignment was to this purpose That the Queen was sorry that the said Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland were in Arms before the Dukes Forces were ready This was undertaken after that Pope Pius Quintus had in Bulls from Rome printed and sent to Rodolf absolved Queen Elizabeths Subjects from their Allegiance The Pope perswaded the Spaniard to assist the Conspirators that his affairs in the Netherlands might prosper the better and the French did the like that the Queen of England might be less able to send aid to the
against the Protestants secretly sought entrance into the Queens Presence with a drawn Sword set upon one or two in his way and being apprehended confessed that he purposed to have killed the Queen Ed. Ardern his Father-in-Law a Gentleman of Warwick-shire and Arderns Wife and their Daughter Somervil's Wife and Hall a Priest were condemned as guilty of Somervil's practice After three days Somervile was found strangled in Prison for fear of revealing it as was thought where he lay and Ardern was hanged the next day Mendoza the Spanish Amhassador thrust out of England IN 1584 some English Gentlemen began to practise the delivery of the Queen of Scots Francis Throgmorton was suspected by Letters written to the Queen of Scots and intercepted Presently Thomas Lord Paget and Charles Arundel a Courtler left the Land secretly Henry Earl of Northumberland and Philip Earl of Arundel were commanded to their Houses And there was great cause of circumspection for the Papists by printed Books incited the Maids of Honour to do that against the Queen that Judith did against Holofernes Yet was the Queens Mercy such that she caused 70 Priests to be sent out of England The chief of them were Gasper Heywood who of all the Jesuits 〈…〉 England James Basgrave John Hare and Edward Rishton who presently after wrote a Book against the Queen At this time Bernardinus Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador was thrust out of England for practising Treason against the State He having dealt with Throgmorton and others to bring in strangers to invade the Land as appeared by Throgmorton's action who being apprehended sent one of his Packets to Mendoza His other Packets being searched there was found a Catalogue of all the Havens in England fit to land in and another of all the Noblemen in England which favoured the Romish Religion And he did not deny that he had promised his help to Mendoza and the help of those Nobles it was fit he should deal with A Popish practice against Q. Elizabeth discovered not without a Miracle by Creighton's torn Papers a Scotish Jesuit QUeen Elizabeth that rare Paragon of her Sex and that fairly flourishing Flower which Traitors though oft attempted could never nip nor crop up being a Princess both Prudent Pious and Pitiful seeking therefore a fair opportunity and sutable means to set the Queen of Scots at those Times tainted with some Treasonable Practices against her Crown and Person at liberty And for that purpose sent Sir William Wade who was then returned out of Spain to confer with her of the means thereunto And the good Queen was about to send Sir Walter Mildmay to bring this aim of hers to further issue But some further terrors and fears in the interim brake out between them which disturbed that intention especially by a notable discovery by certain Papers which one Creighton a Jesuit sailing into Scotland did then tear in pieces when he was apprehended in the Ship by Dutch-Pirates at Sea whose person being by them seised on he took forth his Papers wherein it seems the project of a Traiterous Plot against Queen Elizabeth at that time was described tore them into small pieces and with all his force threw them into the Sea But see how the Lord 's good Providence ordered it as they flew in the Air the Wind blew stifly by force whereof they were all blown back again into the hip even in a miraculous manner as the Jesuit himself confessed when he saw it Which Papers were all kept and gathered together sent to England to Sir William Wade aforesaid and with much labour and singular skill so joyned and set together again that he found they contained a notable new Plot among many other of the Popes the Spaniards and the Guise's resolution to Invade England Whereupon and by reason of many other rumours of dangers intended against the Queen and whole Kingdom of England a great number of all sorts of Men out of common charity and to shew their love and affectionate care of the welfere of the Queen and State bound themselves by an Association as then it was called by mutual promises and subscriptions of Hands and Seals to prosecute all such by all their sorce and might even unto death that should attempt any thing against the Life of the Queen or Welfare of the Kingdom Now the Queen of Scots took this as a thing devised to bring her into danger and she also was so continually set upon by seditious spirits who if they may but have access are able to draw the greatest Princes to destruction And what have been their practices from time to time but to bring great Persons and greatest Families to ruin Lamentable experience shews openly the fruit of their malice and mischevous plots of Treason which they impiously and audaciously call and count nothing else but advancing of their Catholick Cause Now the Scots Queen led on by her blind guides dealt most importunely with the Pope and Spaniards by Sir Francis Englefield that by all means they would with speed undertake their intended Business namely the Invasion of our Realm For the advancing whereof the Pope and Spaniard had resolved on these points 1. That Queen Elizabeth should be deprived of her Kingdom 2. That the King of Scots a manifest favourer of Heresie should utterly be dis-inherited of the Kingdom of England 3. That the Scots-Queen should Marry some Noble-Man of England that was a Catholick 4. That this Man must be chosen King of England by the Catholicks of England 5. That this choice so made must be confirmed by the Pope 6. That the Children of him so chosen begotten of the Scots-Queen must be declared Successors in the Kingdom All these things were confirmed to be true by the testimony of one Hart a Priest Who was that noble English-man that should marry the Scots-Queen was much enquired after by Sir Francis Walsingham with all diligence but not certainly found out yet there was strong suspicion of Henry Howard Brother to the Duke of Norfolk who was Noble by birth unmarried and a fast favourer of that Religion and in great grace and favour with them All these things were discovered by this Creighton the Jesuite's torn Papers as aforesaid And all this their plotting and contriving of France Spain and the Pope against Queen Elizabeth and King James sor no other cause but for their Religon which they had now sairly begun to establish among their People Parry Executed for Treason IN the year 1585 William Parry a Welchman and Doctor of Law spake against that Law which in the Parliament then held was Exhibited and called it a Bloody Law Presently after he was accused of practizing the Queen's death He confessed voluntarily in the Tower that having obtained the Queen's pardon for breaking into the Chamber and wounding one Hare for which he was Condemned he being a sworn Servant to the Queen from England he went into France and was reconciled Afterward at Venice in consultation with Benedict
by the Arts of the Court of Rome That Jesuits professed themselves Independent as not depending on the Church of England and Fifth-Monarchy-Men that they might pull down the English Monarchy and that in the Committees for the destruction of the King and the Church they had their Spies and their Agents The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when he saw the fatal stroke given to our holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy that we have in the World is gone When the news of that horrible Execution came to Roan a Protestant Gentleman of good Credit was present in a great Company of Jesuited Persons Where after great expressions of Joy the gravest of the Company to whom all gave ear spake much after this manner The King of England at his Marriage had promised us the Re-establishing of the Catholick Religion in England Which is false and when he delayed to fulfil his promise we summoned him from time to time to perform it We came so far as to tell him that if he would not do it we should be forced to take those Courses which would bring him to his Destruction We have given him lawful warning and when no warning would serve we have kept our word to him since he would not keep his word to us That grave Rabby's Sentence agreeth with this certain Intelligence which shall be justified whensoever Authority will require it That the year before the King's Death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole party in England first to Paris to consult with the Faculty of Sorbon then altogether Jesuited to whom they put this Question in writing That seeing the state of England was in a likely posture to change Government whether it was lawful for the Catholicks to work that Change for the advancing and securing of the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie Which was answered Affirmatively After which the same Persons went to Rome where the same Question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope and his Council that it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote that alteration of State What followed that Consultation and Sentence all the World knoweth and how the Jesuits went to work God knoweth and Time the bringer forth of Truth will let us know But when the horrible Paricide committed on the King's sacred Person was so universally cried down as the greatest Villany that had been committed in many Ages the Pope commanded all the Papers about that Question to be gathered and burnt in obedience to which Order a Roman Catholick in Paris was demanded a Copy which he had of those Papers But the Gentleman who had had time to consider and detest the wickedness of that Project refused to give it and shewed them to a Protestant Friend of his and related to him the whole carriage of this Negotiation with great abhorrency of the practices of the Jesuits In pursuance of that Order from Rome for the pulling down both Monarch and the Monarchy of England many Jesuits came over who took several Shapes to go about their work but most of them took party in the Army About Thirty of them were met by a Protestant Gentleman between Roan and Diep to whom they said taking him for one of their Party that they were going into England and would take Arms in the Independent Army and endeavour to be Agitators A Protestant Lady living in Paris is the time of our late Calamities was persuaded by a Jesuite going in Scarlet to turn Roman Catholick When the dismal news of the King's Murther came to Paris this Lady as all other good English Subjects was most deeply afflicted with it And when this Scarlet Divine came to see her and found her melting in tears about that heavy and common disaster he told her with a smiling countenance that she had no reason to lament but rather to rejoyce seeing that the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy and that the Catholick Cause was much furthered by his Death Upon which the Lady in great anger put the man down Stairs saying If that be your Religion I have done with you for ever And God hath given her the Grace to make her word good hitherto Many intelligent Travellers can tell of the great joy among the English Convents and Seminaries about the King's Death as having overcome their Enemy and done their main work for their settlement in England of which they made themselves so sure that the Benedictines were in great care that the Jesuits should not get their Land and the English Nuns were contending who should be Abbesses in England An understanding Gentleman visiting the Friars of Dunkirk put them upon the discourse of the King's Death and to pump out their sense about it said that the Jesuits had laboured very much to compass that great work To which they answered that the Jesuites would engross to themselves the glory of all great and good Works and of this among other Works whereas they had laboured as diligently and effectually for it as they So there was striving for the glory of that Atchievement and the Friars shewed themselves as much Jesuited as the Jesuites In the height of Oliver's Tyranny Thomas White Gentleman a Priest and a right Jesuit in all his Principles about Obedience set out a Book Entituled the Grounds of Obedience and Government Wherein he maintains that If the People by any Circumstance be devolved to the State of Anarchy Dr. Moulin pag. 122. their promise made to their expelled Governour binds no more That the People are remitted by the evil managing and insufficiency of their Governour to the force of Nature to provide for themselves and not bound by any promise made to their Governour That the Magistrate by his miscarriages abdicateth himself from being a Magistrate and proveth a Brigand Pag. 123. 124. or Robber instead of a Defender The word Defender he writes with a greot D that the Reader may take notice whom he means If the Magistrate saith he have truly deserved to be dispossessed or if it be rationally doubted that he hath deserved it and he actually out of possession Pag. 133. In the former case it is certain the Subject hath no Obligation to hazard for his Restitution but rather to hinder it For since it is the Common Good that both the Magistrate and the Subject are to aim at and clearly out of what is exprest it is the common harm to admit again of such a Magistrate every one to his power is bound to resist him The next Case is if he be Innocent and wrongfully Deposed Pag. 135. nay let us add One who had Governed well and deserved much of the Commonwealth yet he is totally Dispossessed And so that it is plain in these Circumstances It were better for the Common Good to stay as
they are than to venture the restoring him because of the publick hazard And now to set down all his words and follow his stile which is affectedly intricate and obscure he maintaineth that a Dispossessed Prince whether by right or wrong is obliged absolutely to renounce all Right and Claim to Government and if he does not Pag. 136. he is worse than an Infidel He tells us That Pope Vrban the 8th published a Decision That after five Years quiet possession of an Estate the Church was not bound to take notice whether the Title were lawful or no Pag. 151. but acknowledg the Possessor in Ecclesiastical Business That when the Peoples Good stands on the Possessors side then clearly he begins to gain Right and Power That when the People think themselves well they manifestly consent to the present Government Besides saith he who can assure they shall be better by the return of the Dispossessed Party Pag. 145. Surely by common presumption the Gainer is like to defend them better than he who lost it He comes so far as to conclude That if the Old Magistrate offer to return he must be repulsed by force of Arms. His reasoning is this What if an open Enemy should come could or ought the Subjects joyn against him with their New Magistrate Pag. 157. If not the whole Publick must perish If they may then their Case is the same against their Old Magistrate since his Right stood upon the Common Peace and that transferred from him to his Rival by the title of Quiet Possession This was the Philosophy of that Contemplative Gentleman when the King lived in Exile and Oliver sate on the Throne Having so well deserved of the King he was not long since highly recommended to his Majesty by a Man of great Note But the King who hath a Royal insight in Persons and Businesses stopt him with this short answer No more of that I know what Man he is Father Bret was of Mr. Whites Opinion for the Castle of Jersey being surrendred after that resistance which for the length of standing out and the height of Vallour shall be memorable in all Ages When the Gentlemen who had defended it were prest to take the Engagement contrary to the Articles of their Rendition That goodly Divine was very earnest with them at St. Malo to take it maintaining That they were not to acknowledg any Supreme but the prevailing Power When his Majesty cast himself upon the Spaniard the Jesuitical Party thought they had him sure enough from ever returning but God disappointed their hopes and deceived our fears by his Miraculous Mercy For it is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our Eyes that he escaped out of those hands I cannot leave un-observed That in th height of the late Tyranny two Heads of the Gun-powder Traitors that were set upon the House of Lords were taken down not by the high Winds but by the same Zeal which had plotted that Treason and with the leave of Traitors of another Feather We may hear in time that those holy Reliques are shrined up in Gold and are working Miracles The King 's happy Restauration did somewhat as the Learned Bishop Vsher Prophesied stop the Papists Carreer so that they were constrained a while to demur and alter their Measures yet the same restless and ambitious Spirits have acted all along ever since the Restauration to this very Day And this present year 1678 may be called a Year of Amazing and Stupendous Discovery For the Parliament meeting in October 1678 after some Intimations given by his Majesty in his Speech and after severe Examinations of Mr. Oats and Mr. Bedlow two active Persons in the Popish Cabal but now deserters of such notorious Villanies has here declared that there has been and still is a most Hellish and Damnable Plot contrived and carried on by the Popish Recusants to Assassinate the King destroy the Protestant Religion and to subvert the Ancient Government of the Kingdom On which account several Lords are committed to the Tower on Suspicion and several Persons of lower degree to Newgate Two of the latter sort viz. Stayley and Coleman late Secretary to the Dutchess of York and one that assumed to be Principal Secretary of State have received their Rewards as notorious Traitors This Plot in the general Opinion is thought to be the greatest and most Dangerous that ever was since the Reformation For as it has been of long Continuance so it is laid Universal for no less than these three Northern Kingdoms were designed to be delivered from that which they call Pestilent Heresie so Coleman in one of his Letters has told us all the Power and Wealth of the Popish Party was laid out to carry on the Catholick Cause Witness what the Burning of London in 1666. cost them viz. 14000 l. and the Burning of Southwark 2000 l. and what Doctor Wakeman was offered to poison the King viz. 15000 l. besides other unknown Charges which in time we hope will be Discovered together with the depths of their Notorious Villanies In the mean time by what we have seen felt and heard the Reader may see that the Religion of the Papists is not from above which is Pure Peaceable and Gentle and easie to be Entreated but from the Devil who was a Murtherer from the Beginning and like a Roaring Catholick Lion goes up and down seeking whom he may devour FINIS