Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	church_n	king_n	2,752	5	4.0125	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66435	A vindication of the history of the gunpowder-treason and of the proceedings and matters relating thereunto, from the exceptions which have been made against it, and more especially of late years by the author of the Catholick apologie, and others : to which is added, A parallel betwixt that and the present popish plot.	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1681 (1681)	Wing W2741; ESTC R214885	71,695	100

Laws c. Now supposing 1. that thus it was that the King had before promised favour to them and instead of that had permitted the horrid and cruel Laws as he calls them to have their course is this sufficient to excuse their cursed Design or to prove that Religion was not concerned in it Was it upon any other account if we grant this than Religion when they hoped for Toleration and was it not Religion that put them upon Rebellion because they had not that Toleration But 2. indeed there was no such reason for their Conspiracy for they had no such assurances from the King Such a report was spread abroad by themselves as Watson doth acknowledge but with what truth will appear not only from Watson's Confession who two days before his death protested upon his Soul to the Earl of Northampton that he could never draw the smallest comfort from him in those degrees but also from Watson's Treason who would never have attempted that if he had been satisfied of the King 's good intentions towards those of his Religion It is not unlikely but that the King who after his coming in did receive them freely and favourably might before treat them after the same manner but how far it was from any promise Watson further declares I could never draw more from the King saith he than that he would have the Catholicks apprehend that as he was a stranger to this state so till he under stood in all points how those matters stood he would not promise favour any way But how far the King was from affording them any such favours as they pretend is further declared in a Memorandum in the Star-Chamber For some of the Puritans having spread a rumour that the King intended to grant a Toleration to Papists the Lords severally declared how the King was discontented with the said false rumour and had made but the day before a Protestation to them that he never intended it and that he would spend the last drop of blood in his body before he would do it and prayed that before any of his Issue should maintain any other Religion than what he truly professed and maintained that God would take them out of the World As false also and less ground is there for that of their Persecution For he was so far from it that he gave honour at his first coming to many of them and did admit all without distinction to his presence upon just occasion of access as the Earl of Northampton shews and took away the Mulcts that were laid upon them And in his first Speech in Parliament Mar. 19. 1603 the King did make a proposal of clearing the Laws of such interpretations as might tend to the hurt of the innocent as well as the guilty as he saith which Speech was made after the Treason of Watson was discovered that not provoking the King to change his behaviour toward any other of them than those that were Confederates in it So that if we truly enquire into the case unless Lenity and Favour is Persecution we shall hardly find what may be so called And so much indeed doth Suarez say that King James's kindnesses inasmuch as they proceeded from political reasons may be well esteemed part of their Persecution But 3. There could be no such reason for this Conspiracy for they had laid the foundation of it and were carrying it on before the King was settled in his Throne This Watson confess'd and it s also manifest for Christopher Wright was dispatched into Spain to engage that Kings assistance immediatly upon Queen Elizabeths death and the Powder Treason it self was formed in the first year of King James's Reign We see then they had no such provocation given them as is pretended and that if they had it doth not at all infer that they engaged upon this Design not upon the account of Religion But if we should grant that they had such a provocation and that the provocation and Religion did not go together in it Yet we have other reasons to shew that it was upon a religious account that this was undertaken and that I shall make evident 1. From the Principles which they went upon 2. From their own Declaration From their Principles As 1. They held that an Heretical Prince might and ought to be deposed So Faux said he was moved to this because the King was not his lawful Sovereign or the Anointed of God in respect he was an Heretick 2. That the Pope had sufficient power by vertue of his Supremacy to depose such This was Catesbye's reason for saith he if the Popes Breves were of force to keep him King James out they are also of no less Authority to thrust him out 3. That it was lawful for the good of the Church and the furtherance of the Catholick Cause to kill and to destroy This was the reason upon which Catesby and all the rest were satisfied and from whence Sir Everard did with a great confidence affirm I could give unanswerable reasons for the good that this would have done for the Catholick Cause Which it seems he was furnished with from a Latin Book that he met with perhaps Delrio If these and the like be not principles of their Religion then we are to seek for them and if these are the Principlss upon which they were satisfied then it was the Cause of Religion that they fought in 2. But if this will not do let us attend to their own Declarations I was moved hereunto said Faux only for Religion and Conscience sake the King not being my lawful Soveraign c. So Sir Everard Digby no other cause drew me to hazard my Fortune and Life but Zeal to Gods Religion From all which we have reason to say with King James that it cannot be denied that it was the only blind Superstition of their errors in Religion that led them to this desperate device And must think the Author of the Catholick Apology let fall a great Truth though against his own mind that when Dr. Stillingfleet had asserted that the Plotters motives were from their Religion doth reply ' T is as true that the Plot had its rise from Clem. 8. Breves For so it had in a great measure as I have before shewed SECT V. THey never gave to the World any real and good satisfaction of their abhorrency of this bloody Design The Catholick Apology doth tell us that Cardinal Bellarmin doth express the Treason not only by the name of Horrid but also adds I excuse not the Fact I abominate King-killing I detest Conspiracies And presently adds of his own Did ever Writer whether Priest or Lay-man English-man or Stranger own the real Plotters not to be Villains But the Question is First who are those he calls real Plotters not the Jesuits or hardly Catesby whom they do so much applaud not only for his Parts but his Piety

in the Tower from the nearness of their Lodgings Robert Winter said to Faux that he and Catesby had Sons and that Boys would be Men and that he hoped they would revenge the Cause Nay that God would raise up Children to Abraham out of stones And they added that they were sorry that no body did set forth a Defence or Apologie of their Action but yet they would maintain the Cause at their deaths And so it 's likely they did for King James saith that some of them continued 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 Of this we have a particular example in Grant when being admonished just before his death by a learned and reverend Person to ask pardon of God for his offence he confidently and readily replied That he was so well satisfied that there was no sin in the case that on the contrary he thought that he deserved so well for that generous and brave Attempt that it would abundantly suffice for a satisfaction for all the sins of his whole life So little did they generally repent of the Fact and so little reason have we to think that what they confessed proceeded from compulsion of Conscience but rather that it was from some other reason as fear of the Rack or surprize or because others had confessed or that they themselves had given occasion from what they had before confessed for a further enquiry c. So it happened with Faux and Th. Winter who at the first accused none of the Jesuits but having confessed that they received the Sacrament that led the way to a further Examination about the Priests whom they at last confessed also This Sir Everard foresaw and therefore he took another course as is before observed and denied that he had received the Sacrament at all upon this occasion Now that what I have before said is true will appear from the behaviour of Stephen Littleton who though he had confessed that he sent to Hall after their defeat for advice whither to retire and had with others acknowledged that he and the rest had confessed to Hammond a little before yet he absolutely refused to answer whether he received Absolution from him for the Fact or had his Conscience satisfied by him about it and added that he would rather dye than reveal the secrets of that matter And Robert Winter who had at first confessed that all the Jesuits named were privy to and engaged with them in the Conspiracy yet as is before observed did maintain their Cause and resolve to defend it at his death Truly I find none of them that had any touch of Remorse but Rookwood and Tho. Winter and for the latter it is observable that when he said I shall set down mine own Accusation c. which I shall the faithfuller do since I see such courses are not pleasing to Almighty God Yet was so far from doing so that he speaks there not one word of Gerard whom upon a further Examination he discovered or any other Jesuit so that his Confession at that time seems rather to be owing to his second reason that he there gives than his first and that is because the most material parts had bin already confessed To conclude this when the Traitors did accuse their Confessors either they did this sincerely and because compelled by their Conscience or not if not as I have shewed then what doth the Argument signify that if the tenderness of their Conscience did compel them to expose their own Confessors then they would not have spared others But if they did thus confess them sincerely and out of Conscience then their Confessors were guilty of what these charged them with And then let them take their choice I shall now proceed to the consideration of the last Argument by which they would endeavour to prove that it was not a Popish Plot and that not any besides the abovesaid Conspirators were concerned in this Treason viz. that all the Catholick Lords were to have undergone the same barbarous Fate with the rest Supposing this was true as it is not yet is not the Pope's Interest to be promoted and the cause of the Jesuits maintained though the Nobility of their own way be destroyed Was there not a time when in an intended Invasion to be carried on by force from abroad and a secret Conspiracy at home that it was not the Persons they regarded but Interest It was to make room place and space for my Master said the Duke of Medina And might not this be the case in 1605 as well as it was in 88 And so their Religion be thereby settled and place and space made for the Master of Rome as well as Spain and Authority and Power gain'd to the Society it is no matter though the Innocent perish with the Nocent and Friends as well as Foes fall by the same Stroak This was foreseen in the present Conspiracy and when it was made a case of Conscience by Catesby it was resolved in the affirmative by Garnet that for the good and promoting of the Catholick Cause against Hereticks the necessity of time and occasion so requiring it was lawful among many Nocents to destroy and take away some Innocents also So that it might be a popish Plot though the Catholick Lords and all the Catholick Lords were to perish with the other But notwithstanding what these Writers do say that the Catholick Lords and all the Catholick Lords were to be thus barbarously dealt with yet we shall find that this is a great mistake in matter of Fact also The Confession of Thomas Winter if they had read it would have informed them otherwise for whilst we were in the Vault we discoursed saith he what Lords we should save from the Parliament which was first agreed in general as many as we could that were Catholicks or so disposed but after we descended to particulars And Sir Everard Digby doth give a clear account of this matter I dare not saith he take that course I could to make it appear less odious for divers were to have been brought out of the danger which now would rather hurt them than otherwise I do not think there would have been three worth saving that should have been lost To this purpose one of them that was privy to it took the way of writing to the Lord Monteagle Other Lords as the hour drew on might be admonished of it or called off as an Author of theirs saith they were to be or perhaps such a kind of Letter might have been thought of also as the Author of the Catholick Apology hath drawn up to serve upon such an occasion and which he thinks would certainly have kept the Person to whom