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Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80304	The Condemnation of the cheating Popish priest: or, A brief account of the tryal of Father Lewis, the pretended bishop of Landaff, at the last assizes at Monmouth, March 28. Who lately cheated a poor woman of 15 l. and got a warrant of attorney to confess judgement against her for 15 l. more; on pretence of praying her fathers soul out of purgatory. : With the condemnation of another Popish priest at Gloucester.		1679 (1679)	Wing C5721; ESTC R233556	3,254	12

THE Condemnation of the Cheating POPISH PRIEST OR A brief Account of the TRYAL OF Father Lewis The pretended Bishop of Landaff At the last Assizes at Monmouth March 28. Who lately Cheated a poor woman of 15 l. and got a Warrant of Attorney to Confess Judgement against her for 15 l. more on pretence of Praying her Fathers Soul out of PURGATORY WITH The Condemnation of another POPISH PRIEST at Gloucester And through Covetousness shall they with feigned words make Merchandise of you whose Judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their Damnation sleepeth not 2 Pet. 2 3. LICENSED April 7. 1679. LONDON Printed for L. C. 1679. The CONDEMNATION of the Cheating POPISH PRIEST THe Two main Hinges that support Popery or the Poles on which it turns are Ignorance in their Common People and wicked Craft in their Priests and other Guides that call themselves Religious Nor is it any difficult task to demonstrate That every one of those Innovations wherewith they have Corrupted the ancient Faith and wherein they differ from the Protestants were at first hatcht and still are continued out of sinister Respects either to Pride or Covetousness but I shall at this time instance but in one as most pertinent to our Subject viz. Their Fable of Purgatory and the fraudulent devices depending thereon What vast sums of Money have been drain'd or rather forcibly squeez'd out of peoples pockets on that account for Pardons Indulgences Masses satisfactory Trentals Anniversaries Obits Requiems Dirge's Placebo's Tapers and such-like Trumperies by the wheadling Arts of Purse-milking Priests and Romish Locusts is not so easie to be imagined as intollerable to be born withal or endured Nay so excessively greedy have these Spiritual Vultures that prey upon departed Souls as others on dead Carcasses been in their Exactions that they have studied the basest and most indirect Courses in the world to gratifie their rapacious desires of which we have a multitude of Examples in History but none more arch and fraudulent than that notorious prank acted very lately near Herefordshire by a Ghostly Cheat called Father Lewis and by the Popes Authority stiling and pretending himself The Bishop of Landaff in Wales concerning whom there was in February last published a Narrative annext to the Discovery of a Colledge of Jesuits at Come in the said County of Hereford a Book that very well deserves the Reading from whom I shall take leave to give a short Breviat of the matter of Fact because otherwise the Reader cannot well apprehend the following Account of that Impostors Tryal This Father Lewis being one of the Jesuits of the before-mentioned Colledge at Come and skulking up and down amongst Popish Families in that Neighbourhood the Father of a poor seduced woman that was a Papist happening to die about half a year since the Daughter being very ignorantly devout but of a very good nature having oft heard the frightful stories of the Torments endured in Purgatory dismally set forth by the Priests and fearing by his dissolute life that her Father might be dropt in there for dying however a true Roman Gatholick she thought there was no fear of any worse matter she applied her self to this good Father intreating his Prayers and Assistance to deliver her dear Fathers Soul out of those Tortures He received the Proposal with the right Wheadles of a Popish Trappan and after several preparatory discourses said it might be done but would be very chargeable For which he gave her divers notable reasons and after diligent counting up particulars conceiv'd it could not be undertaken under 100 l. The poor woman higgled with him as well as she could and got several abatements but finding his demands still exceed her ability very truely and with tears assured him That 35 l. was all that she had in the world Whereupon at last because it was an Act of Charity he would take but 30 l. of her and so they came to a Bargain taking not onely a Bond but a Judgment thereupon for the money promising to do the Feat in six weeks time and then the money to be paid without further delay Accordingly that time being up he sends for his Ghostly Child and with solemn protestations assur'd her her Fathers Soul was Infallibly in Heaven The woman was mightily pleas'd and overjoy'd but Father Lewis not so when demanding the Pence she told him that she could not possibly get in her money and therefore had brought him but 10 l. at present This so nettled him that he threatned to Excommunicate her and also fling her into Goal c. yet at last took the 10 l. in part and gave time for the rest 5 l. of which she made shift to pay soon after But afterwards happening to marry a Protestant and he inquiring what was become of her money after some importunity she declar'd the whole Intreague and that she was 15 l. in debt to him still The Husband and some friends took pains to convince her of the absurdity and knavery of such pretences together with the falsity of other Popish Doctrines whereupon she was brought over to the Protestant Church and a Magistrate having examined her upon Oath search was made for Father Lewis who by her directions was found lurking in a cunning though now no longer safe Sanctuary contriv'd under ground in a poor Cottage and thence committed to Monmouth-Goal And now this Lent Assizes there coming on he was brought to his Tryal being Indicted for Treason for that having received orders from the pretended Authority of the See of Rome he yet came over into and continued in His Majesties Dominions contrary to the Statute in that case made and provided There was very full and sufficient Evidence against him but 't is said either through negligence or designe several Papists or such reputed ad been returned both on the grand Inquest and on the Jury of Life and Death However notice being given thereof to the Judge his Lordship presently discharged them of their service and caused other Gentlemen to be impannelled Father Lewis made a great and long argument in endeavouring to disprove some petty circumstances in the Book that was written concerning him and alleadged that the same and the Evidence did differ in some particulars though as to the material points of the story he could not deny but they agreed and although the Court told him that it signified nothing to make his objections to the Book it being no Evidence against him yet he would proceed and make an end of his tedious speech to that purpose And as to the Evidence that was given against him he with the usual Confidence Impudence and Obstinacy of those hypocritical Impostors positively denied it with may solemn protestations making this plea for himself 1. That the Evidence did not prove him a Priest because none could directly say that they saw him receive Orders from the See of Rome But if that should be admitted and their exercising priestly Functions as saying Mass consecrating the Eucharist taking Confessions prescribing Penances giving Absolutions and the like acts which none but a Priest may perform and this at several times and places amongst the most zealous and intelligent Roman Families If these acts I say should not be a concluding proof then that necessary Law would be totally eluded and it would be impossible to convict a popish Priest The Ghostly Father urged this point further insisting ' That if his Priesthood were not proved he then did appear but as a Cheat and so ought not to be convicted as a Priest It seems he was content to be a Lay-cheat but very loth for the honour of the Brotherhood to be known to be a cheat Ecclesiastical He also ignorantly alleadged that the Act wherein he stood indicted was repealed by a succeeding Act the penalty of which was onely fine and imprisonment but all these pleas being in themselves frivolous and the last false they were over-ruled by the Court and being fairly convicted on full evidence by an impartial Jury he received Sentence but for the present Execution was suspended till further order Another Priest was likewise Convicted at Gloucester against whom there was positive Evidence that he in his priestly Habits did administer the Sacraments took Confessions gave Dispensations and Pardons undertook to pray the Souls of persons deceased out of Purgatory but whether on cheaper or dearer terms than Father Lewis I cannot say But that which was most remarkable in his Tryal as we hear is that several persons lately Romanists who had taken the Oaths and seemed Converts did yet deny that he was a Priest and that they ever received absolution of Sins or the Sacrament from him though the contrary was by others sufficiently proved Which if so we may thence judge at the reality of such peoples pretences to disown the Church of Rome when at the same time they count the saving of a rascally Priest from Justice such a meritorious work as to over-ballance and acquit them from the guilt of horrid perjury But of these folks honestly and the asseverations of traiterous popish Priests when at their Tryals or Executions they would outbrazen their guilt with pretensions of innocence we may take honest Luther's advice Nemo eorum obtestationibus jaculationibus quicquam credat namees Mentiri dupliciter Mentiri Certissimum est Let no man he so weak as to believe their protestations and vaunts for it is most certain they lye and that most loudly and abominably Luth. Defens verb. Coenae Fol. 381. FINIS