Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A29610
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Francis Broccard (secretary to Pope Clement the Eighth) his alarm to all Protestant princes with a discovery of popish plots and conspiracies, after his co[n]version from popery to the Protestant religion / translated out of the Latin copy printed in Holland.; De foedere contra Protestantes. English
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Brocardo, Francisco.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing B4833; ESTC R21110
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17,576
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28
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know very well that the Protestant Cause is a good Cause and that God will be assistant to them to defeat the assaults which Satan and Antichrist make upon them yet ought not these things to be despised nor they to sleep securely on such perswasions but ought to believe that it is a providence of God that stirs up any to make discovery thereof to those whose life and safety is in hazard that they may the better secure themselves from those enemies who thus assault them To the end therefore that all Protestant Princes and all Professors of the true Religion may have warning to avoid these Conspiracies of the Pope of Rome and all Popish Princes I will through the help of God clearly and undauntedly declare and make known the most wicked Confederacies and devilish Arts and Machinations of the Popish Confederates against the Protestant Religion And what I shall relate are not slight and trivial stories picked up from the discourse of ordinary persons or idle Monkish dreams but what I have heard my self from the Pope's own mouth and from the Cardinals themselves and which have come to my knowledge from the authentick Writings of Popish Princes under their own hands and seals Nor am I frighted with the wrath and indignation which I am like to sustain from Kings and Potent Princes incensed by this discovery For I ought to be more afraid of God who is able to destroy both body and soul than of those who have power only to kill or torment a frail and mortal body Be they inraged and full of indignation and if God so permit fall fierce upon me I am sensible I do acknowledge that it is from God that I am hereunto moved and incited and shall notwithstanding their rage undauntedly make known their treacherous Conspiracies Hear therefore all ye that bear a good will to the Protestant Cause and take good heed to what you hear Pope CLEMENT the Eighth who is at this time Pope of Rome having by strange Artifice obliged to himself well-nigh all the Princes in Europe not willing to neglect so fair an opportunity to establish his tyrannical Power doth endeavour with might and main to carry on and establish the holy League as they call it of all Popish Kings and Princes against the Protestant Interest and which as to the greatest part is already concluded 1. For the Emperour the King of Spain the Archdukes of Austria Albert and Ferdinand the Dukes of Bavaria Lorrain and Savoy and almost all the rest of the Popish Princes except the French King and the great Duke of Tuscany have already consented and subscribed the League and the Pope moves every stone to engage the rest to concur with them and is in hope to effect it 2. This League consists of divers heads The way of proceeding the Time the Preparation the Proportion which each of them is to contribute to this holy War they are plotting and contriving against the Protestants And on this they are in all points agreed that all these Confederates shall with joynt force endeavour the extirpation of Protestant Religion by all the means they can 3. The Emperour about a year ago was earnest with the Pope for money and Aid against the Turk whereby he might be able either to repress his insolence or at last bring him to honourable terms of Peace or some lasting Truce promising that so soon as he shall have dispatched his business with the Turk he will employ all his strength and forces for the Pope against the Protestants or as they call them the Hereticks 4. The Pope is very much inclined to a Peace with the Turk and for this reason would not last year give ear to the Embassadors of the Persian King who pressed him to a general Confederacy against the Turk For the Pope reckons that the Protestants are a greater hinderance to his affected Tyranny than is the Turk And doth oft complain that a long War hath now been managed for forty years together against the Turk to no advantage whereas in the same time with far less expence the Church of Rome might have recovered her Authority in Europe And he doth therefore endeavour to perswade the Turk to seek a Peace and perswades the Emperour to let him have it on reasonable terms 5. In the year 1601. Cardinal Dietrichstein Bishop of Clomute came in great haste from Prague to Rome and brought Letters to the Pope from the Emperour promising the Pope to put in execution by force of Arms the sentence which the Emperour had given in behalf of the Pope against the Protestants in the Cause concerning goods Ecclesiastick which he commanded to be in all places restored to the use of the Church of Rome And from thence the Pope conceived hopes of some occasion to be offered of beginning some broils and commotions in Germany and it was agreed between them that the greatest part of those goods should be distributed amongst those who should be most active in that War 6. The same Cardinal did at the same time promise as he said in the Emperours name that in the mean time while things were getting in readiness for an open War the Emperour and the Princes of Austria would wholly turn out all Protestants within their hereditary Dominions as in Austria Tyrole Croatia Carinthia Stiria and the like places and that they would in like manner fall upon them in Moravia Silesia and Bohemia first without noise if it may be and then by force of Arms especially of those souldiers which come back from the War of Hungary For in such cases they do not think fit to trust the German souldiers and that he had already granted to them the spoiling and pillaging those people in case they return not to the Church of Rome 7. The Popes Legate now resident at Prague did write some months ago that all these things are in great part already dispatched that the Protestants were cast out of those Provinces and the Jesuites by the Emperors permission possess'd of most of the Protestant Churches and places not only in Austria and Carinthia but likewise in Silesia and Moravia And that the French souldiers under the command of one Count Benegrave had already burnt some Villages in the borders of Bohemia and that they intended this year to make more progress therein especially by the assistance of the Italians which the Pope sends into Hungary chiefly for this end to spoil and destroy the Protestants 8. The Emperour hath also promised that he will not henceforth confer any chief Offices whether in Civil or Military Affairs on any that are Hereticks or do in any wise favour them And moreover that all lesser Offices now enjoyed by Protestants shall be taken from them unless within a time limited they return to the Church of Rome And by this means the Popes Legate informed that daily many of the Nobility in Germany do renounce the Lutheran and turn to the Romish Religion and that on such
behalf of the said Duke treated of divers things with the Pope and Cardinals concerning the manner of proceeding and taking an opportunity for beginning of that holy War He pressed also the business of the Election and to obtain the Popes favour toward him he gave great hopes that by the Colloque at Ratisbone which was then under consideration some of the Protestant Princes might be brough over to the Romish Church Which notwithstanding the Pope could not be induced to grant that it should be held with his consent but had given command to Claudius Aquaviva that things being hazardous it should be broken off 20. The Citizens of Ausburg among whom were Mark Velsarus and George Fucherus were instant with the Pope to obtain from the Emperour that the Protestant Ministers might be expelled and cast out of the City of Ausburg which at that time they said might easily be done for that the chief inhabitants and the Magistrates of the place were Popish and the Neighbouring Princes very zealous for the Roman Religion The cause was managed in their name by Cardinal Palavicini and by the said Fucherus who the last year came to Rome on purpose And with him was one Dr. Brandanus who suggested to them by what means it might most easily be brought to pass And it was thus far brought about that the Emperour at the Popes instance consented to the ejection of those Pastors in case it could be done without commotion and sedition and did openly declare that he desir'd nothing more than that it might so be done in all the Cities of the Empire 21. In a Congregation held at Rome beginning in Jan. 1602. It was there decreed with the Emperours concurrence thereunto that there should be Jesuits plac'd and maintain'd in all Cities of the Empire by whose means the way might be prepar'd for the designed persecution For they hoped that by the Artifices of the Jesuits they might so far prevail as to get many to favour them in those Cities who were otherwise Protestants by whose assistance they hoped with more ease to suppress the Protestants The Question then was only concerning their maintenance For the Germane Bishops complained of the smalness of their Revenue And the Pope at length concluded to maintain them for the present at the charge of the treasury of the Church till some other course should be found out 22. Arch-Duke Ferdinand Prince of Stiria and Carinthia did lately make complaint to the Pope that whereas he had expelled of his Provinces all the Protestants many of them notwithstanding continued yet to live there by the indulgence of the Ecclesiastick Princes who held some places in his Provinces as for instance the Bishop of Bomberg and the Arch-Bishop of Salisbury who received and entertained them wherefore he prayed the Pope straitly to charge and to compel them utterly to cast those out otherwise he threatned to use his Soveraign Authority which he pretends to have in those places and to cast them out by an armed force even whether those Bishops would or not with which the Pope was well pleased 23. While things are in preparation for an open War against the Protestants the Popish Party are contriving how to make attempts on the Protestant Interest and have this year sent into the Countries of the Netherlands and of England a great number of Spies and Seducers by whose means many of all sorts are seduced and wrought over to their party who are then maintained in Protestant Cities at the Popes charge to be serviceable unto him in what he is designing Some of these Emissaries about a month ago went through Lipsia in a disguise in their passage into Prussia where they hope to nestle as shall afterward be shew'd If the actions of these Emissaries were well observed it would not be hard to take some of them and by their notes and memorials these and many other things might be discovered 24. A few years since the Pope erected here in Rome two Congregations or Senates whereof one is called Congregatio ad propagationem Fidei The Congregation for the propagating of the Faith the other Congregatio sacri Foederis The Congregation of the holy League In each of which are nine Cardinals and as many Councellers who meet together once every week and there they act meditate and study nothing but how to contrive propose and consider all means of propagating the Popish Tyranny and how to prepare the way for the persecution and the butchering of the Protestants and how to lay hold of all advantages of beginning that cursed War designed against them From this Congregation are sent forth those Spies and Emissaries who every year in great numbers are imployed to make broils in Protestant Countries and seduce the Professors of the true Religion And these two Congregations are the shops wherein they form all their instruments and contrive all their Machinations Treacheries Plots Villanies and all mischiefs against the Protestants These Congregations hold particular correspondence with the Jesuites and those bred up in the Colledges or Seminaries of the German English and Moravians from whence as out of a Trojan Horse come forth those Traiters and Seducers whom as we said they send out into all Protestant Countries For those of all others are judged the fittest for subtle frauds and 〈…〉 For by reason of the languages they understand their fashions kindred and relations which they have in all Protestant Countries they can easily insinuate and get into the Courts and acquaintance of Princes and persons of quality and if they find any pliable and easie to be wrought upon they make it their business by little and little with hopes and promises as in the name of the Emperour or Pope of Rome of honours dignities and great things to allure seduce and work upon them and many times with great success as we may see in those Lords and Nobles whom they have lately perverted as Baron Terrisle the younger Cicendorff the Knight Audechan the younger Baron Dermensdorff Baron Thona and many others in Germany I omit what they have done in France England and other Countries 25. There is a great number of them every day flocking to Rome to renounce the true Faith of Christ but much greater of those who do privately at home abjure it and are by these Emissaries instructed in the Popish Idolatry and are maintained in the Country and Cities of Germany that liveing covertly and under disguise amongst Protestants they may have the better opportunity of promoting the Popish Interest and do it effectually For by their means it is perfectly known to Rome what are the Protestant designs differences and inclinations 26. Part of these Apostates who flock to Rome and are of the most part of mean condition are entertained in the City of Rome and the Court it self and there maintained to be serviceable against the Protestants who resort to Rome and for many other purposes of which we shall speak by and by Others of