from the good understanding of their Duty towards God the Queen had by their Lewd and subtle Practices and Perswasions so far wrought that sundry persons had been reconciled to the said usurpt Authority of the See of Rome and did take Absolution at the hands of the said naughty and subtle Practicers whereby there was grown great disobedience and boldness in many not only to withdraw and absent themselves from all Divine Service but also did think themselves discharged from all Obedience Duty and Allegiance to her Majesty that thereupon most wicked and unnatural Rebellion had ensued and to the further danger of this Realm was likely to be renewed if the ungodly attempts in that behalf were not by severity of Laws restrained and bridled This Law therefore provides that they who by Bulls or other Instruments of the Bishop of Rome should reconcile any person to the Church of Rome and those also who should be so reconciled should incur the Penalty of High Treason That those who should relieve such as did so reconcile Men or should bring into England any Agnus Dei's or any Crosses Pictures Beads or such like vain and superstitious Things Consecrated by the Bishop of Rome should undergo the Penalty of a Premunire That they who should not discover such as did so reconcile should be guilty of Misprision of Treason From the precedent History of Fact and the Preamble of these two Acts of Parliament and the Acts themselves I observe three things 1 st That the Kingdom of England is in it self a Free State exempt from all Foreign Jurisdiction whatever by the Common Law of this Kingdom 2 dly That there had been deep Designs on foot before the making of these Acts of Parliament for the inslaving this Kingdom to the Bishop and See of Rome subverting the Protestant Religion and introducing Popery and in order thereunto there were several Plots laid to destroy the person of the Queen 3 dly That these were all laid and carried on by the Pope and some Papists that were the Queens own Subjects and others their adherents and therefore certainly it must be granted that it was very necessary at that time to make these Laws against the Papists And that it was but reasonable to make them The Secular Priests own the Reasonableness of making these Laws Collection of several Treatises concerning the reasons and occasions of the Penal-Laws The 1st printed in 1583. the second in 1601. the third in 1662. and all reprinted in 1688. fol. 36. even the Secular Priests themselves have owned in their important Considerations They confess that Pius V. did practise her Majesties subversion that Ridolpho was sent hither by the Pope under Colour of Merchandize to sollicit a Rebellion That Pius V. moved the King of Spain to Joyn in this exploit That the Bull was devised purposely to further the intended Rebellion for depriving her Majesty from her Kingdom That the Pope and King of Spain assigned the Duke of Norfolk to be head of this Rebellion That the Pope gave order to Ridolpho to take 150000 Crowns to set forwards this Attempt That some of this money was sent to Scotland and some delivered to the Duke That King Philip at the Pope's Instance determined to send the Duke of Alva into England with all his forces out of the Low-Countries to assist the Duke of Norfolk which they confess in this manner That these things their Adversaries the Protestants Charged on them as true and that they were in hand whilst her Majesty dealt so mercifully with them and therefore ask'd them how they could excuse these designs so Unchristian so unpriestly so Treacherous and so unprince-like To which they answer that when they first heard the aforementioned particulars they did not believe them but would have laid their Lives they had been false but when they saw them printed in the Life of Pius V they appeal to God they were amazed Collection f. 37 and say they can say no more but that his Holiness was misinformed and indirectly drawn to these courses They confess that there being several persons in Prison when the Rebellion in the North before mentioned brake forth that it was known that the Pope had Excommunicated the Queen that there followed a great restraint of the Prisoners but none of them were put to death upon that occasion the Sword being then only drawn against such Catholicks as had risen up actually into open Rebellion wherein say they we cannot see what her Majesty did that any Prince in Christendom in such a case would not have done and confess these things to have been the occasion of making 13 Eliz. ca. 2. against bringing in Buls c. thus they express themselves Collection f. 38. we cannot but confess as reasonable men that the State had great Reasons to make some Laws against us except they should have shown themselves careless for the continuance of it but be the Law as any would have it never so extream yet surely it must be granted that the occasions of it were most outragious and likewise that the Execution of it was not so Tragical as many have since written and reported of it for whatsoever was done against us either upon the pretence of that Law or of any other would never we think have been attempted had not divers other preposterous occasions besides the Causes of that Law daily fallen out amongst us which procured matters to be urged more severely against us And afterwards they accuse Saunders the Jesuit for writing a Book in 1572 de visibili Monarchia and therein justifying the Excommunicating the Queen and the said Rebellion in the North and do themselves own that the persons that suffered upon that account were Arraigned Condemned and Executed by the Antient Laws of the Country for High Treason As to the Acts themselves It is not to be denyed but they are very severe yet not severe enough to deter the Papists from carrying on their designs against the Queen and the Protestant Religion as I shall by and by make appear but before I do that let us a little enquire Story 's Plot. Cambd. Hist li 2. fol 168. Dyer 13 Eliz. fol. 298. Baker 's Chron. fol. 343. The Duke of Norfolk executed what proceedings there were upon these Laws after they were thus made In the year 1571 't is true one John Story Doctor in Laws one of the Duke of Alva's Servants an Englishman and a Papist was Executed but it was for High Treason not Religion for having conspired the Queen's Death cursed her daily in his Grace at Meals and shewing the Duke of Alva's Secretary the way to Invade England to put Ireland into Rebellion and to excite the Scots to break into England all at once The Duke of Norfolk was also Tryed Convicted and Executed and after his Condemnation and before his Execution one Barney and Mather were Executed for conspiring with one Herle to make away some of the Council and
a Committee to prepare Bills And that Session there was an Act of Parliament made that is intituled 23 Eliz. ca. 1. Rast Stat. 2. part f. 243. An Act to retain the Queens Majesties Subjects in their due Obedience which Act recites That where since the making of the 13th of the Queen Ca. 2. divers evil affected Persons have promised contrary to the meaning of the said Statutes by other means then by Bulls or Instruments written or printed to withdraw divers the Queens Majesties Subjects from their natural Obedience to Her Majesty and to obey the usurped Authority of Rome and in respect of the same to perswade great Numbers to withdraw their due Obedience to Her Majesties Laws established for the due Service of Almighty God. It is thereby enacted that they should be guilty of High Treason Treason in Reconciler and Reconciled to the Church of Rome who should diswade the Subjects from their Obedience to their Prince and from the Religion established in England or should reconcile them to the Church of Rome as also those who should be diswaded or reconciled those also who should say Mass were to be fined 200 Marks and to suffer Imprisonment for a Year or longer if they paid not the Money they who should be wittingly and willingly present at Mass were to be fined 100 Marks and to suffer Imprisonment likewise for a Year and they who refused to frequent Divine Service are to forfeit 20 Pounds a Month but there must in every Case a legal Conviction precede From the History of the Papists Conspiracies and the Queens Carriage towards them during these last ten Years whereof I have given an Account I cannot but observe 1. That the Papists are a most perverse and disingenuous Generation of Men who never have lived nor is it to be believed ever will in Obedience to any Prince who is not of their own Religion 2. That notwithstanding their many Treasons and Rebellions in England and Ireland against Queen Elizabeth yet in ten years time there were not above five executed upon any of the Penal Laws made against them and that she was hardly prevailed upon to execute any of them although for the most apparent Treason and would not have yielded but that it appeared necessary for the Preservation of her self her Protestant Subjects and the Protestant Religion 3. That therefore the Penal Laws were not made so much with design to offend the Papists as to defend the Queen and her Government from the Treasons Rebellions Outrages and Violences every where committed by the Papists stirred up and egged on by the Seminary Priests Jesuits and sent hither for that very Purpose 4. That notwithstanding all their Plots and Contrivances there was no restraint upon their exercising their Religion in their own private Families nor no Prohibitions of saying or hearing Mass till this last Act of Parliament was made which was extorted from the State by their horrid Abuse of their former Liberty So that he that denies the Reasonableness of those Penal Laws against Papists must one would think offer Violence to his own Reason But yet least the Papists should object and any weak Protestant think with too great Colour of Reason that these Facts are the Relation of Protestant Historians who will be sure to write all things with the greatest plausibleness and shew of Reason and Justice on their own side and will be sure to blacken and villifie the Papists as much as they are able although they have never so little reason so to do I shall to back what I have related from our own Historians and to convince all mankind that it is true subjoyn what the Seeular Priests themselves in their important Considerations have owned was the true ground and reason of making this Act of Parliament of 23 Eliz. Cap. 1. and because the Papists shall not say I bely mis-construe or misrepresent them take it in their own Words Col. f. 39. The Secular Priests Confession Of the Pope the Spaniard and Duke of Norfolk's Plot. Steukley's Plot. Furthermore about the coming out of the said Book of Mr. Saunders they had been in the Paragraph before complaining of Mr. Saunders his Writing a Book De visibili Monarchia whereby he justified the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus and the Rebellion in the North and many other such like things the whole Plots before mentioned of the Pope and the King of Spain with the Duke of Norfolk for the Disinheritance of her Majesty and other intended Mischiefs fell out to be fully disclosed afterwards within some four or five years it was also commonly known to the Realm what Attempts were in hand by Mr. Steukley assisted with Mr. Saunders and other Catholics both English Irish and Italians for an Enterprise by force in Ireland under a pretence to advance the Catholic Religion which for that time through some Defect succeeding not the Pope himself The Popes Invading Ireland in 1579. in the Year 1579. abused still by false Pretences did set forward that Course and sending thither certain Forces Mr. Saunders too much Jesuited did thrust himself in Person into that Action as a chief Ring-leader and to perswade the Catholics when he should come into Ireland to joyn with the Popes said Forces for the better assisting certain Rebels then in Arms against their Soveraign Now whilst these Practises were in hand in Ireland The Queen Excommunicated by Gregory 13th Gregory the Thirteenth reneweth the said Bull of Pius Quintus and denounceth her Majesty to be excommunicated with Intimations of all other particulars in the former Bull mentioned which was procured we doubt not by Surreptions the false Jesuits our Country-men daring to attempt any thing by untrue Suggestions and any leud Surmises that may serve their turns This Stratagem accomplisht and ground laid whereupon they imagined to work great Matters these good Fathers as the Devil would have it came into England and intruded themselves into our Harvest being the Men in our Consciences we mean both them and others of that Society with some of their Adherents who have been the chief Instruments of all the Mischiefs that have been intended against her Majesty since the beginning of her Reign and of the Miseries which we or any other Catholics have upon these Occasions sustained Their first repair hither was Anno 1580. when the Realm of Ireland was in great Combustion Parsons and Campians coming into England in 1580. and then they entred viz. Mr. Campian the Subject and Mr. Parsons the Provincial like a Tempest with sundry such great Brags and Challenges as divers of the gravest Clergy then living in England Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincoln and others did greatly dislike them and plainly foretold that as things then stood their Proceedings after that fashion would certainly urge the State to make some sharp Laws which should not only touch them but likewise all others both Priests and Catholics upon their Arrival and after these brags Mr.
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
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
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
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
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
Estates in her quarrel The Earls of Bath and Suffolk raised Forces and joyned with her so did the sons of the Lord Wharton and Mordant Hist Ref. 2. pt lib. 2. p. 237 238 239 240 242 245. with many more the Council raised Forces too but her numbers encreasing greatly and she growing very strong the Council laid down and submitted and the 10 th of July 1553 Proclaimed her Queen the 3 d of August in the same year she entred London and was setled in the Throne without effusion of Blood. A wonderful Mercy to her What returns to God Almighty the Author and to the Suffolk men the Instruments hereof Why the first thing was secret consultations for the overthrowing the Reformed Religion and introducing the Popish however there must be something externally done that may induce people to believe the contrary and therefore August the 12 th the Queen declares in Council that altho' her Conscience was stayed in the matters of Religion yet she was resolved not to compel or strain others otherwise than as God should put into their hearts a perswasion of that truth she was in and this she hoped should be done by the opening his word to them by Godly Learned and Vertuous Preachers And well she kept this Declaration for the next thing that she did was to inhibit all Preaching so that they were like to be prevail'd with by Preaching to be of the Queen's Perswasion But let us see how the Norfolk and Suffolk men were requited for their kindness to her in hazarding their Lives and Estates if not their Souls for her why Queen Mary's Requital they of the Protestants presuming upon what they had merited Hist Ref. 2. pt lib. 2. p. 246 247. and the Queen's promise to them took the Liberty to Preach notwithstanding the Queen's Inhibitions and she writes to have a strict Execution of her injunctions against any that should Preach without License they upon this apply themselves to her to put her in mind of her promise This was thought insolent and she return'd no other answer A Popish Head of a Protestant Church but that they being Members thought to rule her who was their Head but they should learn the Members ought to obey the Head and not to think to bear rule over it and as an instance of it she ordered one of them whose name was Dobb to stand three daies in the Pillory and afterwards the Suffolk men were the first in her Reign that tasted of the burning for Heresie Neither was she any kinder to Judge Hale who was the only Judge of the twelve that declared for her for he in his charge in the Circuit in Kent requiring an Execution of the Laws made in King Edward's Days which were still in force and unrepealed was first committed to the Marshalsea afterwards to the Fleet where being distracted attempted to have killed himself with a Pen-knife and being afterwards upon his submission discharged never came to his Wits but drowned himself from these things it was then said with a great deal of truth The Case of the Bishop of London Magdalen Colledge the Judges Holloway and Powel and the Officers in the Army in the Reign of James the 2d Hist Ref. part 2. f. 252. 1 Mar. ca. 1. Rast Stat. f. 1066. Keble 708. This takes away all Treasons made so by Act of Parliament after 25 E. 3. and restrains it to 25 Ed. 3. this done in favour of the Papists who were made Traitors by several Acts of Parliament as appears from very late instances that no merits or services can secure any from the cruelties of the Popish Religion These things together with Imprisoning divers of the Protestant Bishops and Ministers of Parishes were done from her entrance in July to October following in the which Month she was Crowned and having before summoned a Parliament the same opened the 10 th day of the same Month of October according to Doctor Burnet but the 5 th of October according to Rastal and Keeble's Statutes In the first Session of this Parliament a Law was made to repeal and take away certain Treasons Felonies and Premunires introduced with a most specious Preamble which is this Forasmuch as the State of every King Ruler and Governour of any Realm Dominion or Commonalty standeth and consisteth more assured by the love and favour of the Subjects towards their Soveraign Ruler and Governor then in the dread and fear of Laws made with rigorous pains and extream punishments for not obeying their Soveraign Ruler and Governors and Laws also justly made for the preservation of the Common-Weal without extream punishment or great Penalty are more often for the most part obeyed and kept then Laws and Statutes made with great and extream punishment and in special such Laws and Statutes so made whereby not only the ignorant and rude unlearned people but also learned and expect people minding honesty are often and many times trapped and snared yea many times for words only without fault or dred done or perpetrated The Queens Highness most Excellent Majesty calling to remembrance that many as well honourable as Noble Persons as others of good Reputation within this her Graces Realm of England have of late for words only without other Opinion Fact or Deed suffered shameful death not accustomed to Nobles her Highness therefore of her accustomed Clemency and Mercy minding to avoid and put away the occasion and cause of like chances hereafter to ensue trusting her loving Subjects will for her Clemency to them shewed love serve and obey her Grace the more heartily and faithfully then for dread or fear of pains of body is content and pleased that the severity of such like extream dangerous and painful Laws shall be abolished adnulled and made frustrate and void Then Repeals actually all Laws that made any thing high Treason but what is so made by the 25 th of Edward the 3 d except such as had incurr'd any guilt before the last day of September then last past or were excepted in her Highness Pardon and also repeals all Felonies and Premunires made so since the 1 st of Henry the 8 th O Blessed Preamble O Blessed Law full of Mercy full of Kindness but to whom To all her loving Subjects Who are they the Protestants No by no means they are Hereticks To none but those of her own Communion who must necessarily have been guilty of the Breach of those Laws and it was therefore necessary to repeal them that they might become serviceable in carrying on Popish Designs That the Protestants were not intended it 's plain by the Exception and the severe usage of them afterwards to make way for which in the Second Session of that Parliament after she had got her 1 1 Mar. Sess 2. ca. 1. Rast Stat. f. 1067. Title setled by Act of Parliament the next thing she aimed at and obtained was an 2 2 Mar. ca. 2. Rast Stat. f. 1068. Keble
Treason This Act declares what shall not and what shall be Heresie Hist Ref. pt 2. ib. 3. f. 386. that no matter of Religion or cause Ecclesiastical within this Act shall be Heresie Schism or Schismatical Opinion nor any thing but what is so adjudged by the Canonical Scriptures and the four first general Council or other Councils by the true and genuine sence of the Holy Scriptures or what should afterwards be declared Heresie by the Parliament with the consent of the Convocation From which Act. I observe that altho' it was a Premunire before this Law to own a Foreign Jurisdiction as bringing in Bulls doth yet the Queen was willing to inflict a less punishment for the first offence to see if she could gain upon the Papists by Clemency and made it not high Treason till a conviction of the third offence and that Conviction to be according to the Antient Laws of the Land and not in an Arbitrary way which is much more mild than any of the Popish Laws were neither was this Law put in Execution against them till they grew troublesome to the State as I shall plainly make appear hereafter The next Law was for the uniformity of Common Prayer and service in the Church and administration of the Sacraments Whereby 1 Mar. ca. 2. is repealed 1 Eâ—iz ca. 2 Rast Stat. p. 2 f 5. An Act of Vniformity Camd. Annal. fol. 27. and the last Book of Common-prayer c. made in Ed. 6 th time is established with the alteration of some few things By which Law it is provided that spiritual persons that shall use any other service or deprave or speak against the use of that for the first offence being legally Convicted shall lose the profits of his Benefice for a Year and shall suffer six months Imprisonment for the second Offence shall be deprived ipso facto for the third not only deprived but suffer Imprisonment during his Life a Lay person offending in the Premisses shall for the first Offence suffer Imprisonment for a Year without Bail or mainprize and for the second Offence shall suffer Imprisonment during Life Every one that by Enterludes Plays Songs Rhimes or other open words shall speak against any thing in derogation depraving or despising of the same Book or shall any ways maintain any person c. in using any other Service c. or shall hinder or interrupt the use of this Book For the first Offence shall forfeit 100 Marks for the second Offence 400 Marks and for the third Offence shall forfeit all his Goods and Chattels and suffer Imprisonment during Life and for non payment of the 100 Marks in 6 Weeks after his Conviction shall suffer six Months Imprisonment and for non payment of the 400 Marks shall suffer 12 Months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprize All persons are by this Act required having no reasonable Excuse to resort to their Parish Church or upon reasonable Let to some other place where the service is used upon Sundays and Holy-days upon the Penalty of punishment by the Censures of the Church and 12 d. for every Default And for due Execution of this Act the Queen il â—ean trying the Bishops for being guilty of a Misdemeanor iâ— not complying with a Popish Prince against this Law be justified the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in that Parliament assembled did in God's Name earnestly require and charge the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they should endeavour themselves to the utmost of their knowledges that the due and true Execution thereof might he had throughout their Diocess and charges as they would answer before God for such Evils and Plagues wherewith Almighty God might Iustly punish his People for neglecting that good and wholsome Law. All Laws for other Service are hereby made void But may the Papists say Are not imprisonment Premunire and High Treason very great Penalties What Greater To this I answer That there is not any of them inflicted for the first Offence But punishment for the first offence is still but a pecuniary molct The Penalty annâ—â—ed to this Law justified and extends to neither Pillory Loss of Ears striking off hands or death much less death by Fire and Fagor The second Offence is restraint of Liberty and that but Temporary except in one single Case where it is for Life The punishment for the first Offence is no where made a Premunire nor Treason and 't is but in one case that the Party offending is made Guilty of High Treason and that is upon being Convicted of the third Offence too and for that very Offâ—nce the Party incurr'd a Premunire by the Law before And if it be granted me that it is necessary that some kind of Penalties be annexed to inforce obedience to Laws which certainly cannot be denyed these being such gradual Penalties the Papists themselves cannot but own that they are reasonable 5 Eliz. ca. 1 Rast Stat. pt 2. f. 39. An Act to exclude the Popes Pretences to any Authority here in England The reasonableness of it and the Penalties annexed to it The next Act of Parliament I shall take notice of is the Act for the assurance of the Queens Majesties Royal Power over all States and Subjects within her Dominions by which Act it is provided That if any person dwelling inhabiting or resiant within the Queens Dominions should after 1 Apr. 1563 by writing c. advisedly and wittingly hold c. maintain or defend the Authority Iurisdiction or Power of the Bishop of Rome or of his See heretofore usurped within this Realm being lawfully Convicted thereof within a Year should incur a Premunire for the first Offence and High Treason for the Second the like Penalties are annexed to the Refusal of the Oath of Supremacy The reason of the making which Law appears from the Preamble of the Act and the History of those times The Preamble takes notice that Hures Perils Dishonours Inconveniences had before time befallen the Queens Majesties Noble Progenitors Kings of this Realm and the whole estate thereof by means of the Jurisdiction of the See of Rome unjustly claimed and usurped within this Realm and the Dominions thereof and also takes notice of Dangers the Queen and state was then in by the Faâ—ters of the said usurped Power at that time grown to marvellous outrage and Licentious Boldness and therefore it was necessary to have more sharp restraint and correction of Laws then before in the time of the Queens Majesties most mild and merciful Reign had been establish'd Hence it plainly appears that the Parliament thought the Queens Person and the Kingdom in great Danger from the Papists who are all favourers of the Pope's Authority in England and if Cambden may be believed not without reason Cambd Annals fol. 58. for he tells us That Anno Domini 1562 in France the Professors of the Reformed Religion were most grievously afflicted And that thereupon the Papists in England muttered
ingaging him at the little River Gelt after very many of the said Leonard Dacre's Men were slain he left the Victory to the Lord Hunsdon and withdrew himself to the next part of Scotland from whence shortly after he Crossed the Seas into the Low Countries and dyed a poor Man at Lovain The Queen by publick Proclamation pardoned the Multitude whom he had excited to Rebellion The third Rebellion was in Ireland in the same Year beaded by the Botelers Cambd. Annals f. 137. The Reason of these Rebellions was Pope Pius Quintus his Bull. Camb. Annals fol. 145. Baker's Chro. fol. 34. Foulis li. 7. ca. 2. fol. 325. Collection f. 3. Pope Pius Quintus his Bull. Cambd. Annals fol. 146. Fowlis 331. And as the Papists gave Queen Elizabeth these disturbances here in England so they were not wanting in Embroiling of Ireland So ungrateful were they for all the favour and kindness that she had from time to time shewn them Edmond and Peter Boteler the Earl of Ormond's Brethren engaged themselves with the Bishop of Rome and the Spaniard for maintaining the Popish Religion and outing Queen Elizabeth of her Kingdom of Ireland But their Brother the Earl of Ormond quenched this Flame by perswading his Brethren to submit themselves who by that means saved their Lives And no wonder it is that the Papists thus Rebel against Queen Elizabeth when Pius Quintus Bishop of Rome who had from the time he came to the See been continually plotting against her had the year before by his Bull declaratory without any previous admonition or Citation excommunicated her and did afterwards cause the same to be openly published and set up upon the Gates of the Bishop of Londons Palace in these words A Sentence Declaratory of our Holy Lord Pope Pius Quintus against Elizabeth Queen of England and the Hereticks adhering unto her wherein also all her Subjects are declared to be absolved from the Oath of Allegiance and whatever other Duty they owe unto her And those that from henceforth shall obey her are involved in the same Curse or Anathema Pius Bishop Servant to God's Servants for a future Memorial of the matter He that raigneth on high to whom is given all Power in Heaven and in Earth hath Committed his one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation to one alone upon Earth namely To Peter the Chief of the Apostles and to Peter's Successor the Bishop of Rome to be by him govern'd with plenary Authority Him alone hath he made Prince over all People and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build that he may preserve his faithful People knit together with the band of Charity in the Vnity of the Spirit and present them spotless and unblamable to their Saviour In discharge of which Function we who are by God's Goodness so called to the Government of the aforesaid Church do spare no pains labouring with all earnestness that unity and the Catholick Religion which the Author thereof hath for the tryal of his Childrens Faith and for our amendment suffered to be tossed with so great Afflictions might be preserved sincere But the number of the ungodly hath gotten such power that there is now no place in the whole world left which they have not assayed to corrupt with their most wicked Doctrines and amongst others Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England the Servant of Wickedness lendeth thereunto her helping hand with whom as in a Sanctuary the most pernicious persons have found a refuge This very Woman having seized on the Kingdom and monstrously usurped the place of Supream Head of the Church in all England and the chief Authority and Jurisdiction thereof hath again reduced the said Kingdom into a miserable and ruinous condition which was so lately reclaimed to the Catholick Faith and a thriving Condition For having by strong hand prohibited the exercise of the true Religion which Mary the lawful Queen of Famous Memory had by the help of this See restored after it had been formerly overthrown by Henry the Eighth a Revolter there-from and following and embracing the Errors of Hereticks she hath changed the Royal Council consisting of the English Nobility and filled it up with obscure Men being Hereticks suppressed the Embracers of the Catholick Faith Constituted lewd Preachers and Ministers of Impiety Abolished the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayers Fastings choice of Meats unmarried Life and the Catholick Rites and Ceremonies commanded Books to be read through the whole Realm containing manifest Heresie and appointed Impious Rites and Institutions by her self entertained and observed according to the Prescript of Calvin to be likewise observed by her Subjects presumed to eject Bishops Parsons of Churches and other Catholick Priests out of their Churches and Benefices and to bestow them and other Church Livings upon Hereticks and to determine of Church Causes prohibited the Prelates Clergy and People to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey the Precepts or Canonical Sanctions thereof compelled most of them to condescend to her wicked Laws and to abjure the Authority and Obedience of the Bishop of Rome and to acknowledge her to be sole Lady in Temporal and Spiritual Matters and this by Oath imposed Penalties and Punishments upon those which obeyed not and exacted them of those which persevered in the Vnity of the Faith and their Obedience aforesaid cast the Catholick Prelates and Rectours of Churches into Prison where many of them being worn out with long languishing and sorrow miserably ended their Lives All which things being so manifest and notorious to all Nations and by the serious Testimony of very many so substantially proved that there is no place at all left for excuse defense or evasion We seeing that Impiety and Wicked Actions are multiplyed one upon another as also that the Persecution of the Faithful and Affliction for Religion groweth every day heavier and heavier through the instigation and by means of the said Elizabeth and since we understand her Heart to be so hardened and obdurate that she hath not only contemned the Godly Requests and Admonitions of Catholick Princes concerning her cure and Conversion but also hath not so much as suffered the Nâ—ncio's of this See to cross the Seas for this purpose into England are constrained of necessity to betake our selves to the Weapons of Justice against her being heartily grieved and sorry that we are compelled thus to punish one to whose Ancestors the whole State of Christendom hath been so much beholden Being therefore supported with his Authority whose pleasure it was to place us tho' unable for so great a burthen in this Supream Throne of Justice we do out of the fulness of our Apostolick Power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth as being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurr'd the Sentence of Excommunication and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ And moreover we do
and Attempts against Her Majesties most Royal Person now for the explaining of all such Ambiguities and Questions which otherwise might happen to grow by reason of any sinister or wrong Construction or Interpretation to be made or inferred of or upon the Words or Meaning thereof Be it declared and enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament The Association approved and confirmed that the said Association and every Article and Sentence therein contained as well concerning the disallowing extending or disabling of any Persons that may or shall pretend any Title to come to the Crown of this Realm and also for the pursuing and taking Revenge of any Person for any such wicked Act or Attempt as is mentioned in the same Association shall and ought to be in all things expounded and adjudged according to the true Intent and Meaning of this Act not otherwise nor against any other Person or Persons The latter of the said two Acts of Parliament is intituled An Act against Jesuits Seminary Priests and such other like disobedient Persons The Preamble runs thus 27 Eliz. cap. 2. Rast Stat. 2. part f. 285. Treason for Priests and Jesuits to come into England Harbouring them Felony c. WHereas divers Persons called or professed Iesuits Seminary Priests and other Priests which have been and from time to time are made in the Parts beyond the Seas by or according to the Order and Rites of the Romish Church have of late years come in and been sent and dayly do come and are sent into this Realm of England and other the Queens Majesties Dominions on purpose as it hath appeared as well by sundry of their own Examinations and Confessions as by divers other manifest Means and Proofs not only to withdraw Her Highnesses Subjects from their due Obedience to Her Majesty but also to stir up and move Sedition Rebellion and open Hostility within the same Her Highnesses Realms and Dominions to the great indangering of the Safety of her most Royal Person and to the utter Ruine Desolation and Overthrow of the whole Realm if the same be not the sooner by some good Means foreseen and prevented For reformation whereof it is enacted That all Iesuits Seminary Priests and other Priests whatsoever Ordained within or without the Queens Dominions by virtue of the Popes Authority should depart within forty Days That those who should afterwards return into the Kingdom should be guilty of High-Treason That he who should wittingly and willingly Harbour Relieve and Maintain them should be guilty of Felony that those who were brought up in Seminaries if they returned not within six Months after Notice given and submitted not themselves to the Queen before a Bishop or two Iustices should be guilty of High Treason and if any so submitting themselves should within ten years approach the Quéens Court or come within ten Miles thereof their Submission should be void That those who should by any Means whatsoever send or convey over any Money to Students in such Seminaries should incur the Penalty of a Premunire That if any of the Peers of the Realm that is Dukes Marquisses Earls Viscounts or Barons of Parliament should offend against these Laws he should be brought to his Tryal by his Peers That if any should know of any such Iesuits or other Priests above said lurking within the Realm and should not discover them within twelve Days he should be Fined and Imprisoned at the Queens Pleasure That if any Man should be suspected to be a Iesuit or Priest as aforesaid and not submit himself to Examination he should for his Contempt be imprisoned till he did submit himself That he who should send his Children or any others to Seminaries and Colledges of the Popish Profession should be fined in an hundred Pounds of English Money and that those who were so sent thither should not succeed as Heirs nor enjoy any Estates which should any way fall to them the like for all such as should not return home from the said Seminaries within a year unless they did conform themselves to the Church of England That if the Wardens or Officers of the Ports should permit any others besides Sea-men and Merchants to cross the Seas without Licence of the Quéen or six Privy Councellors they should be put out of their Places and the Masters of such Ships as carried them should forfeit their Ships and Goods and suffer Imprisonment for a whole Year Reflections upon the foregoing Plots Treasons and Acts of Parliament occasioned by them From which said Plots Conspiracies and Treasons and the said Acts of Parliament occasioned by the same I observe these things amongst many others observable 1. That there are no Villanies that can be imagined so bad but the Romish Clergy even the Pope himself will tell you is lawful to be Committed to carry on the interest of that Religion and instruments enough are to be found amongst Men of that Communion to undertake the Committing thereof one instance whereof we have in this Parry who did not only think it lawful but undertook it to murder his own Lawful Soveraign and had Authority so to do from the Pope himself and that he might sit in the House of Commons must needs be Guilty of a Wilful Perjury for by 13. Eliz. cap. 2. none could sit in that House but he who first had taken the Oath of Supremacy and that he did sit there is plain from the History and tho it doth not appear that he had a Dispensation for it yet 't is not to be doubted but that he was sure of a Pardon in case he had not a Dispensation 2. That the Protestants in those days thought it not only lawful but their Duty to Associate for the preservation of their Prince and of their Religion and having so done they were so far from being blamed by the Parliament that the Parliament did esteem it not only as a Lawful but a Commendable Act and added their Sanction to confirm what before they judged Lawful 3. That the Parliament in the 27 th Year of Queen Elizabeths Reign were so far from questioning their own power of determining and limiting the Crown and the Succession thereof that they did not only think it in their Power but reduced it into Act too to make the Successor Guilty of High Treason that should imbrue His or Her hands in the Blood of the Predecessor and hereby altered the Law 1. H. 7.4 Fitz. Abr. tit Parl. 3. Bro. Abr. tit Parl. 37. Plowd 238. b. that the Accession to the Crown purges the Treason because all Persons named in Acts of Parliament even the King himself are bound by such Acts of Parliament wherein they are named they being no ways alterable but by the same power not Persons that made them 4. That the severity of the Laws hitherto made did not actually deter the Papists from Plotting and Conspiring the Death of the Queen and the subverting the Protestant Religion Nor was it likely 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
Obstacle by killing her altered his opinion but was for joyning five more to Savage to make sure of the Matter Which being agreed on they set forward the design of the Invasion The design was by Babington imparted to the Queen of Scots and she was to reward the Heroical Actors in this barbarous Attempt or else their Posterities in Case they perisht in it And he was Commanded to pass his word to the six Gentlemen and the rest concerning their reward for their Service In this Conspiracy were ingaged divers Gentlemen who were very Zealous for Popery Edward Windsor Brother to the Lord Windsor Thomas Salisbury of a Knights Family in Denbeighshire Charles Tilney of an ancient Family who was then but lately reconciled to the Romish Church Chideock Tichburn of Southampton Edward Abbington whose Father had been the Queens under Treasurer Robert Gage of Surry John Travers and John Charnock of Lancashire John Jones whose Father was Yeoman of the Wardrobe to Queen Mary Savage before named Barnwel of a noble Family in Ireland and Henry Dun Clark in the Office of first Fruits and Tenths and one Polley To every of these Gentlemen was a Part in this Conspiracy assigned and all things went according to their hearts desire as they thought Nothing perplexed Babington But his Fears of being failed in the Foreign Aid that was promised him therefore to make sure of it he resolved himself to go over into France and to that purpose to send Ballard privately before for whom by his Money under a Counterfeit name he procured a License to Travel And that there might not be the least Suspicion of himself he insinuated into Secretary Walsingham by means of Polley and earnestly besought him to procure him a License from the Queen to travel into France promising her to do her extraordinary good Service in pumping out and discovering the secret designs of the Fugitives in behalf of the Queen of Scots The Plot discovered but as we say forewarned forearmed he being a faithful and cunning Secretary by his Spies had discovered all and informed the Queen and therefore only commended Babingtons pretended design and made him fair Promises and so from time to time delayed him The chief instrument in discovering this Plot was one Gilbert Gifford who lurked in England under the Name of Lauson in mind Salvage of his Oath but had informed the Secretary what he was and to what purpose sent into England This having gone on for some time Ballard apprehended the Queen apprehending there might be great danger in letting it proceed further ordered Ballard to be apprehended who was seized on before he was aware in Babingtons House just as he was setting out for France Babington and some others of the Confederates being jealous the design was discovered hid themselves in St. Johns Wood near London Notice being given of their withdrawing they are proclaimed Traitors at last are found and seized on and the rest of their fellow Rebels fourteen of whom were executed in September 1586. in St. Giles in the Fields where they used to meer and consult about their intended murthering of the Queen and invading the Kingdom Mary Queen of Scots having been at the bottom in all these designs The Queen of Scots at the bottom Cam. Annals from f. 33 to f. 35. D' Ewes Journal f. 392 393 395 400 401 405 408. A Commission Issued for trying Mary Queen of Scots grounded on 27 Eliz. Cap. 1. Camb. An. l. 3. f. 347. and there being no probability of the Kingdoms continuing in the safe and secure exercise of the Protestant Religion under their Protestant Queen so long as she was in being The Papists being assured by her that in case she had the Crown she would introduce Popery Queen Elizabeth was advised to try her for Treason which she was with great difficulty prevailed to do and Issued out a Commission grounded upon 27 Eliz. Cap. 1. herein before set forth The Commissioners appointed to Try her were these viz John Archbishop of * Whitgift Bakers Chron. f. 369. Canturbury Sir Tho. Bromley Kt. Chancellor of England William Lord Burleigh Treasurer of England William Lord Marquess of Winchester Edward Earl of Oxford great Chamberlain of England George Earl of Shrewsbury Earl Marshal Henry Earl of Kent Henry Earl of Darby William Earl of Worcester Edmund Earl of Rutland Ambrose Earl of Warwick Master of the Ordinance Henry Earl of Pembrook Robert Earl of Leicester Master of the Horse Henry Earl of Lincoln Anthony Vicount Mountague Charles Lord Howard Lord High Admiral of England Henry Lord of Hunsdon Lord Chamberlain Henry Lord Abergavenny Edward Lord Zouch Edward Lord Morley William Lord Cobham Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports Edward Lord Stafford Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton John Lord Lumley John Lord Stourton William Lord Saunders Lewis Lord Mordant John Lord St. John of Bletnesho Thomas Lord Buckhurst Henry Lord Compton Henry Lord Cheney Sir Francis Knolles Kt. Controller of the Houshould Sir Christopher Hatton Vice-Chamberlain Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary William Davison Esq Sir Ralph Sadleir Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster Sir Walter Mildmay Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Amias Pawlet Captain of the Isle of Jersey John Woolly Esq Secretary for the Latin Tongue Sir Christopher Wray Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir Edward Anderson Chief Justice of the Bench Sir Roger Manwood Chief Baron Sir Thomas Gawdy and William Periam Judges The substance of their Commission was this The substance of the Commission Cambd. Annals f. 348. after the recital of 27. Eliz. Cap. 1. thus it followeth Whereas since the end of the Session of Parliament viz. since the first day of June in â—â—e 27 th Year of our Reign divers things have been compassed and imagined â—â—nding to the hurt of our Royal Person as well by Mary Daughter and Heir of James the Fifth King of Scots and commonly called Queen of Scots and Dowager of France pretending a Title to the Crown of this Realm of England 〈◊〉 by divers other Persons cum scientia in English with the Privity of the said Mary as we are given to understand And whereas we do intend and resolve that the aforesaid Act shall be in all and every part thereof duly and effectually put into Execution according to the Tenour of the same and that all offences abovesaid in the Act abovesaid mentioned as afore is said and the circumstances of the same shall be examined and Sentence or Judgment thereupon given according to the Tenour and Effect of the said Act to you and the greater part of you we do giâ—e full and absolute Power License and Authority according to the Tenour of the said Act to examin all and singular Matters composed and imagined tending to she hurt of our Royal Person as well by the aforesaid Mary as by any other Person or Persons whatsoever cum scientia in English with the Privity of the said Mary and all circumstance of the same and all
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
which perhaps he would not be very glad to see especially when he believes there is another way of doing his Masters business well enough without it Which is by a Dissolution of the Parliament upon which I know he mightily depends and concludes that if that comes to be Dissolved it will be as much as he needs care for proceeding perhaps upon the same manner of Discourse which he had this time twelve Months But with submission to his better Judgment I do think that our Case is extreamly much altered to what it was in relation to a Dissolution for then the Body of our Governing Ministers all but the Earl of Arlington were intirely United to the Duke and would have govern'd his way if they had been free from all fear and controul as they had been if the Parliament had been removed But they having since that time engaged in quite different Councels and Embarkt themselves and Interests upon other Bottoms having declared themselves against Popery c. To dissolve the Parliament simply and without any other step made will be to leave them to Govern what way they list which we have reason to suspect will be to the prejudice of France and the Catholic Religion And their late Declarations and Actions have Demonstrated to us that they take that for the most popular way for themselves and likliest to keep them in absolute Power Whereas if the Duke should once get above them after the Tricks they have plaid with him they are not sure he will totally forget the usage he has had at their hands Therefore it imports us now to advance our Interest a little further by some such Project as I have named before we dissolve the Parliament Or else perhaps we shall but change Masters a Parliament for Ministers and continue still in the same Slavery and Bondage as before But one such step as I have proposed being well made we may safely see them Dissolved and not fear the Ministers but shall be Established and stand firm without any Opposition for every body will then come over to us and worship the Rising Sun. I have here given you the History of three years as short as I could though I am affraid it will seem very long and troublesome to your Reverence among the multitude of affairs you are concern'd in I have also shewn you the present State of our Case which may by Gods providence and good Conduct be made of such advantage to Gods Church that for my part I can scarce believe my self awake or the thing real when I think on a Prince in such an Age as we live in converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of God * * The bringing in Idolatry and Superstition the invading of Liberty and Property and the inslaving the Nation Almighties Glory the Salvation of his own Soul and the Conversion of our poor Kingdom Which has been a long time opprest and miserably harrast with Heresie and Schism I doubt not but your Reverence will consider our Case and take it to heart and afford us what help you can both with the King of Heaven by your Holy Prayers and with his most Christian Majesty by that great Credit which you most justly have with him And if ever his Majesties affairs or your own can ever want the Service of so inconsiderable a Creature as my self you shall never find any Body readier to Obey your Commands or faithfuller in the Execution of them to the best of his power than Your Most Humble and Obedient Servant Coleman's Coleman's Second Letter The Copy of the Letter Written to Monsieur Le Chese the French Kings Confessor which Mr. Coleman confessed he himself wrote and Counterfeited in the Dukes Name â—oleman's â—ryal p. 66. THe second of June last past his most Christian Majesty offered me most generously his Friendship and the use of his Purse to the Assistance against the Designs of my Enemies and his and protested unto me that his interest and mine were so closely link'd together that those that oppose the one should be lookt upon as Enemies to the other and told me moreover his Opinion of my Lord Arlington and the Parliament which is that he is of Opinion that neither the one nor the other is in his Interest or mine And thereupon he desired me to make such propositions as I should think fit in this conjuncture All was transacted by the means of Father Ferrier who made use of Sir William Throgmorton who is an honest Man and of truth who was then at Paris and hath held correspondence with Coleman one of my Family in whom I have great confidence I was much satisfied to see his most Christian Majesty altogether of my Opinion so I made him Answer the 29 th of June by the same means he made use of to write to me that is by Coleman who addrest himself to Father Ferrier by the Forementioned Knight and entirely agreed to his most Christian Majesty as well to what had respect to the Union of our Interest as the unusefulness of my Lord Arlington and the Parliament in order to the Service of the King my Brother and his most Christian Majesty and that it was necessary to make use of our joynt and utmost Credits to prevent the success of those evil designs resolved on by the Lord Arlington and the Parliament against his most Christian Majesty and my self which of my side I promise really to perform of which since that time I have given reasonable good proof Moreover I made some proposals which I thought necessary to bring to pass what we were obliged to undertake assuring him that nothing could so firmly establish our Interest with the King my Brother as that very same offer of the help of his Purse by which means I had much reason to hope I should be enabled to perswade to this Dissolving of the Parliament and to make void the designs of my Lord Arlington who works incessantly to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and to lessen that of the King your Master notwithstanding all the protestations he hath made to this hour to render him Service But as that which was proposed was at a stand by reason of the sickness of Father Ferrier so our affairs succeeded not according to our designs only Father Ferrier wrote to me the 15 th of the last Month that he had Communicated those propositions to his most Christian Majesty and that they had been very well liked of but as they contained things that had regard to the Catholic Religion and to the offer and use of his Purse he gave me to understand he did not desire I should Treat with Monsieur Rouvigny upon the first but as to the last and had the same time acquainted me that Monsieur Rouvigny had order to grant me whatsoever the conjuncture of our affairs did require and have expected