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
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
submit themselves to the Romish Bishops and Prelates and the Histories of those times acquaint us that they were the Professors of the true Religion afterwards called Protestants By Colour of this supposed Act certain persons that held that Images were not to be worshipped Co. Inst 3 d. fol. 40. and such like Doctrines which the Protestants now hold were detained and tormented in Prison till they were compelled before the Masters of Divinity as they called themselves to take an Oath and did swear to worship Images which was against the Moral and Eternal Law of Almighty God. This these Popish Bishops and Prelates did by vertue of this Law which indeed was none for it was onely signed by the King at the instance of the Bishops and Prelates and never assented to by the Commons and therefore in the next Parliament the Commons preferred a Bill reciting the said supposed Act and constantly affirmed that they never assented thereunto and therefore desired that the same might be made void for they protested that it was never their intent to be justified and to bind themselves and their Successors to the Prelates more than their Ancestors had done in times past whereto the King gave his Royal Assent in these words y pleist au Roy. But in the Proclamation of the Acts of that Parliament Co. 12.58 and 3. Inst f. 41. which was 6. R. 2. the said Act of 6. R. 2. whereby the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. was declared to be void is omitted and afterwards the said supposed Act of 5. R. 2. ca. 5. was continually printed and looked on as a Good Law and the said Act of 6. R. 2. was by the Prelates from time to time kept from the Print Such pious Frauds have been always practised by the Popish Clergy and always found necessary for the supporting of the credit of that Church CHAP. II. Hen. IV. THe Rage of the Popish Clergy against the Wicklivites or Professors of the true Religion increasing with the increase of the light of the Gospel and they fearing that the said contrivance might be detected to the end that they might be yet more able effectually if it were possible to suppress the truth when they had requited R. 2. for granting them that supposed Law with deposing him and assisting H. 4. to usurp the Crown they in the 2 d. H. 4. apply themselves to him for a further Law for the preservation of the Catholick Faith as they called it against Christ's true Religion by them miscalled Heresie and he in gratitude to them in assisting him in his coming to the Crown granted them a Law to their Hearts content which follows as it is printed in Rastal 's Statutes in these words Whereas it is shewed to our Soveraign Lord the King on the behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of this Realm of England in this present Parliament 2 H. 4. ca. 15. Rast Stat. f. 180. By this Law the Professors of the true Religion were to be burnt as Hereticks that although the Catholick Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the holy Church sufficiently determined declared and approved hath been hitherto by good and holy and most noble Progenitors of our Soveraign Lord the King in the said Realm amongst all the Realms of the World most devoutly observed and the Church of England by his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors to the honour of God and of the whole Realm aforesaid laudably endowed and in her Rights and Liberties sustained without that that the same Faith or the said Church was hurt or grievously oppressed or else perturbed by any perverse Doctrine or Wicked Heretical or Erronious Opinions Yet nevertheless divers false and perverse people of a certain new Sect of the Faith of the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same damnably thinking and against the Law of God and of the Church usurping the Office of Preaching do perversly and malitiously in divers places within the said Realm under the colour of dissembled Holiness preach and teach these dayes openly and privily divers new Doctrines and wicked heretical and eronious Opinions contrary to the same Faith and blessed determinations of the Holy Church And of such Sect and wicked Doctrine and Opinions they make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies they hold and exercise Schools they make and write Books they do wickedly instruct and informe people and as much as they may excite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection and maketh great strife and division among the people and other Enormities horribly to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit in subversion of the said Catholick Faith and Doctrine of the Holy Church in diminution of God's Honour and also in destruction of the Estates Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England by which Sect and wicked and false Preachings Doctrines and Opinions of the said false and perverse people not only most greatest peril of the Souls but also many other harts flanders and perils which God prohibit might come to this Realm unless it be the more plentifully and speedily holpen by the King's Majesty in this behalf namely whereas the Diocesans of the said Realm cannot by their Iurisdiction Spiritual without aid of the said Royal Majesty sufficiently correct the said false and perverse people nor refrain their malice because the said false and perverse people do go from Diocess to Diocess and will not appear before the said Diocesans but the same Diocesans and their Iurisdiction Spiritual and the Keys of the Church with the Censures of the same do utterly contemn and despise and so their wicked Preachings and Doctrines doth from day to day continue and exercise to the hatred of Right and Reason and utter destruction of Order and good Rule Vpon which Novelties and Excesses above rehersed the Prelates and Clergy aforesaid and also the Commons of the said Realm being in the said Parliament praying our Soveraign Lord the King that his Royal Highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient Remedy The same our Soveraign Lord the King gratiously considering the premises and also the laudable steps of his said most noble Progenitors and Ancestors for the conservation of the said Catholick Faith and sustentation of God's Honour and also the safeguard of the Estates Rights and Liberties of the said Church of England to the laud of God and merit of our said Soveraign Lord the King and prosperity and honour of all the said Realm and for the eschewing of such Dissentions divisions hurts slanders and perils in time to come and that this wicked Sect preachings doctrines and Opinions should from henceforth cease and be utterly destroyed by the assent of the States and other discreet men of the Realm being in the said Parliament hath Granted Established and Ordained from henceforth and firmly to be observed That none within the said Realm or any other Dominions subject to his Royal Majesty presume to preach openly
or privily without the Lycense of the Diocesan of the same place first required and obtained Curates in their own Churches and persons hitherto priviledged and other of the Cannon Law granted only except Nor that none from henceforth any thing preach hold teach or instruct openly or privily or make or write any Book contrary to the Catholick Faith or determination of the Holy Church nor of such Sect and wicked Doctrines and Opinions shall make any Conventicles or in any wise hold or exercise Schools and also that none from henceforth in any wise favour such preacher or maker of any such and like Conventicles or holding or exercising of Schools or making or writing such Books or so teaching informing or exciting the people nor any of them maintain or any wise sustain and that all and singular having such Books or any Writings of such wicked doctrines and opinions shall really with effect deliver or cause to be deliverd all such Books and Writings to the Dyocesan of the same place within forty days from the time of the Proclamation of this Ordinance and Statute And if any person or persons of whatsoever kind estate or condition that he or they be from henceforth do attempt against the Royal Ordinance and Statute aforesaid in the premises or in any of them or such books in the forme aforesaid do not deliver then the Diocesan of the same place in his Dyocess such person or persons in this behalf defamed or evidently suspected and every of them may by the Authority of the said Ordinance and Statute cause to be arrested and under safe custody in his prisons to be detained till he or they of the Articles laid to him or them in this behalf do canonically purge him or themselves or else such wicked Sect Doctrines Preachings and Heretical and Erroneous Opinions do abjure according as the Laws of the Church do require so that the said Diocesan by himself or his Commissaries do openly and judiciously proceed against such persons so arrested and remaining under his safe Custody to all effect of the Law and determine that same business according to the Canonical Decrees within three months after the said arrest any lawful impediment ceasing And if any person in any case above expressed be before the Diocesan of the place or his Commissaries Canonically convict then the same Diocesan may do to be kept in his prison the said person so convict for the manner of his default and after the quality of the offence according and as long as to his discretion shall seem expedient and moreover to put the same person to the secular Court except in cases where he according to the Canonical Decree ought to be left to pay to our Soveraign Lord the King his pecuniar fine according as the same fine shall seem competent to the Diocesan for the manner and quality of the offence in which case the same Diocesan shall be bound to certifie the King of the same Fine in his Exchequer by his Letters Patents sealed with his seal to the effect that such Fine by the King's Authority may be required and levyed to his use of the goods of the same person so convict And if any person within the said Realm and Dominion upon the said wicked preachings doctrines opinions schools and heretical and erroneous informations or any of them be before the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries sententially convict and the same wicked Sect preachings doctrines and opinions schools and informations do refuse duely to abjure Or by the Diocesan of the same place or his Commissaries after the abjuration made by the same person pronounced fall into relaps so that according to the holy Canons he ought to be left to the secular Court whereupon credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place or to his Commissaries in this behalf then the Sheriff of the County of the same place and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff or Mayor and Bayliffs of the City Town and Burrough of the same County next to the same Diocesan or the said Commissaries shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences when they by the same Diocesan or his Commissaries shall be required and they the same persons and every of them after such sentence promulgate shall receive and them before the people in a high place do to be burnt that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of other whereby no such wicked Doctrine and Heretical and Erronious Opinions nor their Authors and Fautors in the said Realm and Dominions against the Catholick Faith Christian Law and Determination of the holy Church which God prohibit be sustained or in any wise suffered in which all and singular the premises concerning the said Ordinance and Statute the Sheriffs Mayors and Bayliffs of the said Counties Cities Burroughs and Towns shall be attending aiding and supporting to the said Diocesans and their Commissaries From the Preamble of which Act of Parliament and the Act it self I observe three things 1 st That it being soon after the death of Wickliffe the persons there mentioned to have had a new Faith about the Sacraments of the Church and the Authority of the same and that Preached without authority that gathered Conventicles taught Schools and wrote Books against the Catholick Faith with many other hainous aggravations had been the followers of Wickliff and were then of John Huss and Jerom of Prague and the rest of the Reformers from Popery and were carrying on that Blessed Work as fast as they could 2ly That the end and Design of this Law was That that Sect as the Act calls them their Preachings Doctrines and Opinions should from thenceforth Cease and be utterly destroyed And 3dly That in order thereunto by this Statute The Sheriffs or other Officers were immediately to proceed to the burning of Hereticks i. e. Protestants without any Writ or Warrant from the King without which Writ as I observed before they could not proceed to burn any Person and accordingly they proceed in burning the Professors of the true Religion all the Reign of King H. the 4th CHAP. III. Hen. V. IN the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the 5th by reason of a pretended Conspiracy a more severe Act was made against the Professors of the true Religion whom they then called Lollards by which Act all Officers of State Judges By this Law the Lollards or Professors of the true Religion forfeit real and personal Estate to the King. Justices of the Peace Mayors Sheriffs and Bailiffs were to be sworn when they took their Imployments to use their whole Power and Diligence to destroy all Heresie and Errors called Lollardies and to assisst the Ordinaries and their Commissaries in their Proceedings against them and that the Lollards should forfeit all the Lands they held in Fee simple and their Goods and Chattels to the King. Which Act that the Papists may not have the least colour to contradict what I say I
Eliz. QUeen Mary dyed the 17 th of November Queen Elizabeth's Birth-Day Anno Domini 1558. Whose Death put an end to this severe Persecution The Parliament then assembled in the sixth and last year of her Reign Queen Elizabeth her Accession is the Crown and her râ—â—â—eâ—â—ete calling of a Parliament D'Ewes Journal of Q. Eliz. Reign f. 1. Cambd. Anceâ—s f. 12. Hist R. f. 2 pt f. 373. being by her demise Dissolved The thrice Excellent and Prudent Princess Queen Elizabeth according to her Right and Hereditary Title saith Sir Simon D'Ewes true and lawful Heir to the Crown according to the Act of Succession of 35 H. 8. saith Cambden the next and indisputed Heir to the Crown saith Doctor Burnet and Heath the then Lord Chancellour so called her without any opposition or difficulty King Philip being then very happily beyond the Seas succeeded to all the Realms and Dominions of Mary her Sister excepting Calais and those other inestimable places in France which had been most dishonourably and vainly lost in the time and towards the end of the Reign of the said Queen Mary and finding also the Innocent Blood of God's Saints Arch-Bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper and the rest shed for the Witness of the Truth to have stained the former Government with the just brand and stygma of Persecuting and Tyrannical and that her Realms and Dominions were much impoverished and weakned as Doctor Burnet in his Letters hath made evident almost all places abroad are where Popery is the prevailing Religion Popery and Slavery being inseparable Companions she therefore in the very entrance of her Reign applyed her first are to the restoring of the Protestant Religion which she verily perswaded her self was most true Cambd. Hist f. 13. and consonant to the Sacred Scriptures and the sincerity of the Primitive Church and well considering and foreseeing that the surest and safest way to establish the Truth to abolish all Foreign and Usurpt Authority to repair the weaknesses and breaches of her said Realms and Dominions to strengthen her Kingdom with Shipping and Munition and to revive the decayed Trade thereof was by the common Advice and Counsel and with the publick Assent did summon her first Parliament to begin on Munday the 23 d day of January in the first year of her Reign But before I give any Account of what Laws were thereby made relating to the Papists I shall 1 st Shew how the Law stood at to the Papists when she came to the Crown 2 d. I shall show that the Protestant Religion was restored by much more lenil and mild Methods towards the Papists in Queen Elizabeth's time than the Popish Religion was introduced by in Queen Mary's 3 d. I shall make it fully appear that they gave just occasion for making the severe Laws against them that were made in Queen Elizabeth's time and when in time the occasion was given and the Laws made which last thing will run through the whole thread of the following account As to the first whoever will give himself the trouble to consult our Statute and Law-Books will find 1 How the Laws stood as to the Papists before any new ones were made 25 F. 3. ca. 2. that long before her Reign it was Treason to compass or imagine the death of the King the Queen or their Eldest Son and Heir or to levy War against the King or to adhere to the King's Enemies or to give to them Aid or Comfort 2 Rog. Hov. in Hen. 2. 13 R. 2. sta 2. ca. 2 Co. Inst 3.100 ca. 36. That it was Treason and afterwards Felony to bring or send into this Kingdom or the King's Power which is the same with Dominions any Summons Sentence or Excommunication against any person of what Condition soever he be 3 16 R. 2 ca. 5.3 Inst 120 121 126.12 Co. 37.40 Davis 84. that he incurr'd a Premunire that purchased Bulls from Rome and that the Crown of England even in the Popish times was subject to none 4 Co. Rep. 5. f. 12 15 17 21 22 23 27 28. and Co. Inst 3. Ca. 36. It was of old Treason by the Common Law of the Land to procure or bring in any Bull of Excommunication against any Subject much more certainly against the King or Queen because it gives way to Foreign Authority 5 Co. Inst 3. ca. 67. f. 144. And by the Laws of England all Subjects are prohibited to take any Pension c. of any Foreign King Prince or State without the King's License altho' in League with England Thus stood the Laws when that Glorious Queen of ever Blessed Memory ascended the Throne and one would have thought these would have guarded her against all attempts of the Papists and 't is not unreasonable to believe that she her self was of that mind if we consider 2 ly That the Methods taken by Queen Elizabeth for restoring the Protestant Religion were much milder than those taken by Queen Mary to introduce the Popish This will appear by the Laws themselves of which I come now to give an account and of the occasion of their making The first is That which restores to the Crown 1 Eliz. ca. 1. Rast Stat. 2. part f. 1. The Crown restored to its Antient Jurisdiction in causes Ecclesiastical a power given to delegate the exercise of it the Oath of Supremacy and what shall be taken for Heresie ascertained the Antient Iurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual and abolisheth all Foreign Powers repugnant to the same Which it doth by reviving the Laws of Henry the 8th against the See of Rome and of Edward the 6th for the Protestants Which Laws were repealed by Queen Mary and Laws for Convicting and Burning Hereticks i. e. Protestants in an Arbitrary way revived which had been Repealed in Edward the 6th's time This Law therefore particularly repeals 5 R. 2.5 5 H. 4.15 2 H. 5.7 made against the Protestants then called Hereticks and Lollards and then doth abolish Foreign Iurisdiction wherein it is but declarative of the Antient Laws of the Kingdom and annereth Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction to the Crown and gives a power of delegating the Exercise of it establisheth the Oath of Supremary but in tenderness to the Papists leaves out Supream Head of the Church and provides that all Ecclesiastical Persons Temporal Iudges Iustices Mayors or other say or temporal Officers and every other person having her Highness Fee or Wages shall take the said Oath upon the penalty of forfeiting their places Ecclesiastical or Temporal upon an obstinate refusal and disability to hold the same for the future the penalty of maliciously maintaining a Foreign Iurisdiction is for the first offence the loss of Goods and Chattels only and if he be not worth 20 l. then over and above the forfeiture of his Goods and Chattels he shall suffer twelve Months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprize the second offence is made a premunire the third offence high
to the King not to the use of the King Conditioned not to be reconciled to Rome nor to enter into any Plot against the King or Government But after Knowledge thereof to Reveal the same the Bond to be taken and the Ooth Administred by the Customer and Controuler of every Port Haven or Créek or one of them Which Bond and Oath are to be certifyed into the Exchequer once a Year upon Penalty of five pounds for every Bond and twenty pounds for every Oath not certifyed Treason in Reconciler and Reconciled to the Church of Rome All Persons reconciling and reconciled to the See of Rome are Traytors Every Person that Maintains Retains Relieves Kéeps or Harbours in his or their House any Servant Sojourner or Stranger that absents from Church for a Month forfeits ten pounds the same Forfeiture for Retaining or Keeping in his her or their Service Fee or Livery any such Person or Persons Father Mother Wards and Persons Committed by Authority are excepted Sheriffs and other Officers may break open Doors to Apprehend Papists Excommunicate No Forfeiture for the Wives Offence The Lords of the Privy Councel or any six of them whereof the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer or the principal Secretary to be one are impowred to Administer the said Oaths before mentioned to any Noble Man or Noble Woman above the Age of Eighteen Years refusing to take them they incur a Premunire In the Cinque Ports the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports are to take the said Bond and Oaths What cause there was for the compiling this Oath and imposing it upon the Papists King James himself tells us in his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance take it in his own words But now having sacrificed if I may say so to the Manes of my late Predecessor Queen Elizabeth whose Government and Moderation he vindicates I may next with St. Paul justly vindicate my own fame from those innumerable calumnies spread against me This King declares his favourableness towards the Papists and their ingratitude to him Apol. p. 18 19 20. in testifying the truth of my behaviour towards the Papists wherein I may truly affirm that whatsoever was her just and merciful Government over the Papists in her time my Government over them since hath so far exceeded hers in mercy and clemency as not only the Papists themselves grew to that height of pride in confidence of my mildness as they did directly expect and assuredly promise to themselves Liberty of Conscience and equality with other of my Subjects in all things but even a number of the best and faithfullest of my said Subjects were cast in great fear and amazement of my Course and Proceedings ever Prognosticating and justly suspecting that sowr Fruit to come of it which shewed it self clearly in the Powder-Treason How many did I honour with Knighthood of known and open Recusants how indifferently did I give audience and access to both sides bestowing equally all Favours and Honours on both Professions How free and continual access had all ranks and degrees of Papists in my Court and Company and above all how frankly and freely did I free Recusants of their ordinary payments Besides it is evident what strait order was given out of my mouth to the Judge to spare Execution of all Priests notwithstanding their Conviction joyning thereunto a Gracious Proclamation whereby all Priests that were at Liberty and not taken might go out of the Country by such a day my general Pardon having been extended to all Priests in Prison whereupon they were set at Liberty as good Subjects and all convicted Priests that were taken after sent over and set at Liberty there But Time and Paper will fail me to make ebnumeration of the benefits and favours that I bestowed in general and particular upon Papists in recounting whereof every scrape of my Pen would serve but for a blot of the Popes ingratitude and injustice in meeting me with so hard a measure for the same Yet notwithstanding all this Mildness and Clemency exercised towards them by the King he himself in his Monotory Preface to all Christian Monarchs tells us That Monotory Preface p. 6 7 8 9. The never-enough wondred at and abhorred Powder-Treason though the Repetition thereof grieveth I know the gentle hearted Jesuite * The same Parsons that I have before taken notice of and who had the good luck all this while to scape the Gollows Parsons This Treason I say being not only intended against me and my posterity but even against the whole House of Parliament plotted only by Papists and they only led thereto by a preposterous zeal for the advancement of their Religion some of them continuing so obstinate that even at their death they would not acknowledg their fault but in their last words immediately before the expiring of their breath refused to condemn themselves and crave pardon for their deed except the Romish Church should first condemn it And soon after it being discovered that a great number of my Popish Subjects of all Ranks and Sexes both Men and Women as well within as without the Country had a confused Notion and an obscure knowledge that some great thing was to be done in that Parliament for the weal of the Church altho for secrecys cause they were not acquainted with the particulars certain Forms of Prayer having likewise been set down and used for the good success of the great Errand Adding hereunto that divers times and from divers Priests the Arch Traytors themselves received the Sacrament for confirmation of their heart and observation of Secresie Some of the principal Jesuites likewise being found Guilty of the foreknowledge of the Treason it self of which number some fled from their Tryal others were apprehended as holy Garnet himself and Oldcorn were and justly Executed upon their own plain Confession of Guilt If this Treason now clad with these circumstances did not minister a just occasion to that Parliament House whom they thought to have destroyed couragiously and zealously at their next sitting down to use all means of Tryal whether any more of that mind were yet left in the Country I leave it to you i.e. the Emperors Kings and Princes to judge whom God hath appointed his highest Deputy Judges upon Earth And amongst other things for this purpose this Oath of Allegiance so unjustly impugned was then devised and enacted And in case any sharper Laws were then made against the Papists that were not obedient to the former Laws of the Country if ye will consider the time place and persons it will be thought no wonder seeing that occasion did so justly exasperate them to make severer Laws then otherwise they would have done The Time I say being the very next sitting of the Parliament after the Discovery of that abominable Treason The Place being the same where they should all have been blown up and so bringing it freshly into their Memory again The Persons being those very Parliament Men whom
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