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A70986 A choice narrative of Count Gondamor's transactions during his embassy in England by that renowned antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton, knight and baronet ; exposed to publick light, for the benefit of the whole nation by a person of honour.; Vox populi Scott, Thomas, 1580?-1626.; Rowland, John, 1606-1660.; Cotton, Robert, Sir, 1571-1631. 1659 (1659) Wing S2083; ESTC R10208 19,163 38

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that poor miserable Country which had never more people and fewer men So that if my Master should resolve upon an invasion the time never fits as at this present security of this marriage and the disuse of Armes having cast them into a dead sleep a strong and wakning Faction being ever amongst them ready to asist us and they being unprovided of Ships or Arms or hearts to fight an universal discontentment following all men This I have from their Muster Masters and Captains who are many of them of our Religion or of none and so ours ready to be bought and sold and desirous to be my Masters servants in Fee Thus much for the State particularly wherein I have bent my self to weaken them and strengthen us and in all these have advanced the Catholick cause but especially in procuring favours for all such as favour that side crossing the other by all means And this I practice my selfe and give out to be generally practised by others that whatsoever success I find I still boast of the victory which I do to dishearten the Hereticks and to make them suspitious one of another especially of their Princes best States-men and to keep our own in courage who by this means increase otherwise would be in danger to decay Now for Religion and such designs as fetch their pretence from thence I beheld the policy of that late Bishop of theirs Bancroft who stirred up and maintained a dangerous Schisme betwixt our secular Priests and Jesuits by which he discovered much weakness to the dishonour of our Clergy and prejudice of our cause This taught me as it did Barnevelt in the Low Countries to work secretly and insensibly betwixt their Conformists and Non-conformists and to cast an eye as far as the Orcades knowing that business might be stirred up there that might hinder proceedings in England as the French ever used Scotland to call home the Forces of England and so to prevent their Conquests the effect you have partly seen in the Earl of Argile who sometimes was Captain for the King and Church against the great Marq. Huntley and now fights under our banner at Bruxels leaving the Crosses of St. George and St. Andrew for the Cross of St. James Neither do our hopes end here but we dayly expect more Revolters or at least such a disunion as will never admit solid reconcilement but will send some to us some to Amsterdam for the King a wise and vigilant Prince labouring for a perfect union betwixt both the Kingdomes which he sees cannot be effected where the least Ceremony in Religion is continued diverse sharp bitter brambles from thence arising whilst some striving for honour more then for truth prefers their own way and will before the general peace of the Church and the edification of souls he I say seeks to work both Churches to uniformity and to this end made a Journey into Scotland but with no such success as he expected for divers of ours attended the train who stirred up humors and factions and cast in scruples and doubts to hinder and cross the proceedings yea those that seem most adverse to us averse to our opinions by their disobedience and example help forward our plots and these are incouraged by a factious and heady multitude by a faint and Irresolute Clergy many false Brethren being amongst their Bishops and the prodigal Nobility who maintain these stirs in the Church that thereby they may safely keep their Church livings in their hands which they have most Sacrilegiously seized upon in the time of the first Deformation and which they fear would be recovered by the Clergy if they could be brought to a brotherly peace and agreement for they have seen the King very bountiful in this kind having lately increased their pentions and setled the Clergy a Competent Maintenance and besides out of his own Means which in that Kingdome is none of the greatest having brought in and restored whole Bishopricks to the Church which were before in Lay-mens hands a great part of the Nobilities estate consisting of spiritual Lands which makes them cherish the Puritanical Faction who will be content to be trencher fed with Scraps and Crums and contributions and arbitrary benevolence from their Lords and Lairds and Ladies and their adherents and followers But quoth the Inquisitor General how if this act of the Kings wherein he is most earnest and constant should so far thrive as it should effect a perfect union in the Church and Common-wealth I tell you it would in my conceit be a great blow to us if by a General meeting a general peace should be concluded and all their Forces bent against Rome and we see their politick King aims at this True quoth Gondamor but he takes his mark amiss howsoever he understands the People and their inclination better then any man and better knowes how to temper their passions and affections for besides that he is hindered there in Scotland underhand by some for the reasons above recited and by the other great ones of ours who are in great place and authority amongst them he is likewise deluded in this point even by his own Clergy at home in England who pretend to be most forward in the cause for they considering if a general uniformity were wrought what an Inundation would follow whilst all or most of theirs would flock thither for preferment as men pressing towards the Sun for light and heat and so their own should be unprovided these therefore I say howsoever they bear the King fairly in hand are under hand against it and stand stiff for all Ceremonies to be obtruded with a kind of absolute necessity upon them when the other will not be almost drawn to receive any when if an abatement were made doubtless they might be drawn to meet in the midd'st but there is no hope of this with them where neither party deals seriously but only for the present to satisfie the King and so there no fear on either side that affections and opinions so divers will ever be reconciled and made one Their Bishop of St. Andrews stands almost alone in the Cause and pulls upon himself the labour the loss and envy of all with little proficiency whilst the adverse Faction have as sure friends good intelligence about the King as he hath and the same Post perhaps that brings a packet from the King to him brings another from their abettors to them acquainting them with the whole proceedings and Councils and preparing them aforehand for opposition this I know for truth and this I rejoyce in as conducing much to the Catholick good But quoth the Nuncio are there none of the Heretical Preachers busie about this Match me thinks their fingers should itch to be Writing and their tongues burn to be Prating about this Business especially the Puritanical sort howsoever the most temperate and indifferent carry themselves The truth is my Lord quoth the Embassadour that
subjects in truth then theirs whom their birth hath taught to miscal Soveraign we see this in France in England especially where at once they learn both to obey the Church of Rome as their Mother to acknowledg the catholick King as their Father to hate their own King as an Heretick and an Usurper so we see Religion and the State are coupled together laugh and weep flourish and fade and participate of eithers fortune growing upon one stock of Pollicy I speak this the more boldly here in this presence because I speak here before none but Natives persons who are partakers both in themselves issues of these Triumphs of antient Rome and therefore such as besides their oaths it concerns to be secret Neither need we restrain this freedome of speech from the Nuncio his presence because besides that he is a Spaniard by birth he is a Jessuit by profession and order devised by the providence of Gods Vicar to accomplish this Monarchy the better all of them being approriate thereunto and as publick Agents and privy Counsellors to this end whereas the wisdome of this state is to be beheld with admiration that in temporal Wars it imployes or at least trusts none but Natives so in Castile Portugal or Aragon so in Spirituals it imployes none but the Jesuites and so imployes them that they be generally reputed how remote soever they be from us how much soever obliged to others yet still to be ours and to be of the Spanish Faction though they be Polonians English French and residing in these Countries and Courts the penitents therefore and all with whom they deal and converse in their spiritual traffick must needs be so too so our Catholick King must needs have an invisible Kingdome and an unknown number of subjects in all Dominions who will shew themselves and their Faiths by their works of disobedience whensoever we shall have occasion to use that Jesuitical vertue of theirs this therefore being the principal end of all our Councils according to those holy directions of our late pious King Phillip the second to his son now surviving to advance the Catholick Roman Religion and the Catholick Spanish Dominion together we are now met by his Majesties Command to take an account of you Signior Gondomor who have been Embassadour for England to see what good you have effected there towards the advancement of this work and what further project shall be thought fit to be set on foot to this end and this is briefly the occasion of our meeting Then the Embassdour who attended bare-headed all the time with a low obeysance began thus this most laudable custome of our Kings in bringing all Officers to such an account where a review and notice is taken of good and bad service upon the determination of their Imployments resembles those Roman Triumphs appointed for the Souldiers and as in them it provoked to courage so in us it stirs up to diligence our Master converseth by his Agents with all the World yet with none of more regard then the English where matter of much diversity is often presented through the several humors of the State and those of our Religion and Faction that no instruction can be sufficient for such negotiations but much must be left in trust to the discretion Judgment and diligence of the Incumbent I speak not this for my own glory I having been restrained and therefore deserved meanly but to forewarn on the behalf of others that there may be more scope allowed them to deal in as occasion shall require Briefly this rule delivered by his Excellency was the Card and compass by which I scaled to make profit of all humors and by all means to advance the State of the Romish Religion and the Spanish Faction together upon all advantage either of oath or the breach of them for this an old observation but a true that for our piety to Rome his Holiness did not only give but also bless us in the Conquest of the new World and thus in our pious perseverance we hope still to be Conquerors of the old And to this end whereas his Excellency in his excellent discourse seems to extend our outward Forces private Aims only against Hereticks and restrain them in true amity with those of the Romish Religion This I affirm sure because there can be no security but such Princes as are now Romish Catholicks may turn Hereticks hereafter my aims have ever been to make profit of all and to make my Master Master of all who is a faithful and constant son of his Mother Rome And to this end I beheld the endeavours of our Kings of happy memory how they have archeived Kingdomes and Conquests by this policy rather then by open Hostility and that without difference as well from their Allies and Kinsfolks men of the same Religion and profession such as were those of Naples France and Navarr though I do not mention Portugal now united to us and Savoy that hardly stept from us as of an adverse and Heretical Faith Neither is this rule left off as the present Kingdome of France the State of Venice the low Countries Bo●emia now all labouring for life under our plots apparently manifest this way therefore I bend my Engines in England as your honours shall particularly hear Neither should I need to repeat a Catalogue of all the service I have there done because this State hath been acquainted with many of them heretofore by the intercourse so wrought that the State should be rather rob'd and weakned which is our aim then strengthened as the English vainly hope Besides in a small time they should work so far into the body of the State by buying Offices and the like whether by Sea or Land of Justice Civil or Ecclesiastical in Church or State all being for Mony exposed to sale that with the help of the Jesuites they would undermine them with meer wit without gunpowder and leave the King but a few Subjects whose Faiths he might relie upon whilst they were of a Faith adverse to his for what Catholick body that is sound at the heart can abide a Corrupt and Heretical head With that the Duke of Medina dell Rio secco President of their Council of War and one of the Council of State rose up and said his Predecessors had felt the Force and Wit of the English in Eighty eight and he had cause to doubt that the Catholicks themselves that were English and not fully Jesuited upon any Forraign Invasion would rather take part with their own King though an Heretick than with his Catholick Majesty a Stranger The Embassadour desired him to be of another mind since first for the persons generally their bodies by long disuse of Arms were disabled and their Minds effeminated by Peace and Luxury far from that they were in 88 when they were daily flesh'd in our Bloud and made hearty by customary Conquests And for the affections of those whom they
call Recusants quoth he I know the bitterness of their inveterate Malice and have seen so far into their Natures as I dare say they will be for Spain a●ainst all the World yea quoth he I assure your Honours I could not imagine so basely of their King and State as I have heard them speak nay their rage hath so perverted their Judgements that what I my self have seen and heard proceed from their King beyond admiration even to astonishment they have sleighted misreported scorned and perverted to his disgrace and my rejoycing magnifying in the mean time our Defects for Graces Here the Duke Pastrana President of the Council of Italy steps up and said He had lately read a Book of one Cambdens called his Annals where writing of a treaty of Marriage long since betwixt the English Elizabeth and the French Duke of Anjowe he there observes that the Marriage was not seriously intended on either side but politickly pretended by both States counterchangably that each might effect their own ends There quoth he the English had the better and I have some cause to doubt since they can Dissemble as well as we that they may have their aims under hand as we have and intend the Match as little as we do And this quoth he I beleive the rather because their King as he is wise to consult and consider so he is a constant Master of his Word and hath Written and given strong Reasons against Matches made with Persons of contrary Religion which Reasons no other man can Answer and therefore doubtlesse he will not go from nor counsel his Son to forsake these Rules laid down so deliberately Your Excellency mistakes quoth the Embassador the advantage was then on the side of the English because the French sought the Match now it must be on ours because the English seek it who will grant any thing rather than break off and besides have no patience to temporize or dissemble in this or any other Design as the French have long since well observed for their Necessities will give them neither time nor rest nor hope elsewhere to be supplied As for their King I cannot search into his Heart I must beleive others that presume to know his Mind hear his Words and read his Writings and these relate what I have delivered But for the rest of the People as the number of those that are truly Religious are ever the least and for the most part of least account so it is there where if an equal opposition be made betwixt their truly Religious and ours the remainder which will be the greater number will stand indifferent and fall to the stronger side where there is most hope of gain and glory for those two are the gods of the magnitude and multitude now these see apparently no certain supplies of their Wants but from us Yes quoth the Duke for even now you said the general State loathing the Match would redeem the fear thereof with half their Estates it is therefore but Calling a Parliament and the business were soon effected A Parliament sayes the Embassadour Nay therein lies one of the chiefest Services I have done in working such a dislike between the King and the Lower House by the endeavours of that honourable Earl and admirable Engine a sure Servant to us and the Catholick Cause whilst he lived as that the King will never endure Parliament again but rather suffer absolute Want than receive conditional Relief from his Subjects besides the Matter was so cunningly carried the last Parliament that as in the Powder-Plot the fact effected should have been imputed to the Puritans the gteatest Zealots of that Calvinian Sect so the Propositions which dam'd up the Proceedings of this Parliament howsoever they were invented by Romish Catholicks and by them intended to disturbe that Session and yet were propounded in favour of the Puritans as if they had been hammered in their Forge which very Name and Shadow the King hates being a sufficient Aspersion to disgrace any Person to say he is such and a sufficient bar to stay any suit and utterly to cross it to say it smells of or enclines to that Party Moreover there are so many about him who blow this Coal fireing their own Stakes if a Parliament should enquire into their Actions that they use all their Art and Industry to withstand such a Council perswading the King he may Rule by his absolute Prerogative without a Parliament and thus furnish himself by Marriage with us and other Domestick Projects without Subsidies when Levying of Subsidies and Taxes have been the only use Princes have made of such Assemblies And whereas some free Minds amongst them resembling our Nobility who preserve the Priviledge of Subjects against Soveraign Invasion call for the Course of the Common Law a Law proper to their Nation these other Time-se●vers cry the Laws down and up the Prerogative whereby they prey upon the Subjects by Suits and Exactions milk the State and keep it bare procure themselves much Suspition amongst the better and more judicious sort and Ha●e amongst the oppressed Commons and yet if there should be a Parliament such a course is taken as they shall never Chuse their Shire Knights and Burgesses freely who make the greater half of the Body thereof for these being to be Elected by most Voices of the Free-holders in these Countries where such Elections are to be made are carried which way the great Persons who have Lands in these Countries please who by their Letters command their Tennants Followers and Friends to Nominate such as adhere to them and for the most part are of our Faction and respect their own Benefit or Grace rather than their Countries good yea the Country-people themselves will every one stand by the great Man their Lord or Neighbour or Master without regard of his Honesty Wisdom or Religion that which they aim at as I am assured by faithful Intelligence is to please their Landlord and so to renew their Lease in which regard they will betray their Country and Religion too and Elect any man that may most profit their particular Therefore it is unlikely there should ever be a Parliament and impossible the Kings Debts should be paid his Wants sufficiently repaired and Himself left full-handed by such a course and indeed as it is generally thought by any course but by a Marriage with us For which cause whatsoever Project we list to attempt enter safely at the Door whilst their Policy lies asleep and will not see the Danger I have made tryal of these Particulars and find few Exceptions in this general Rule Thereby I and their own Wants together have kept them from Furnishing their Navie which being the Wall of their Island and once the strongest in Christendom lies now at Road unarm'd and fit for Ruine If ever we doubted their Strength by Sea now we need not there are but few Ships or Men able to look abroad or live in a Storm much lesse
privately what they can and publickly what they dare both in England and Scotland all for the most part except such as be of our Faith oppose this Match to the uttermost by Prayers Counsels Speeches Wishes but if any be found longer tongued than his Fellows we have still Means to charm their sauciness and to silence them to expel them the Court to disgrace them and cross their Preferments with the imputation of pragmatick Puritanism For instance I will Relate this one particular A Doctor of theirs and Chapline in Ordinary to the King gave many Reasons in a Letter against this Marriage and Propounded a Way how to supply the Kings Wants otherwise which I understanding so wrought underhand that the Doctor was committed and hardly escaped the Danger of this presumptious Admonition though the State knew his Intent was honest and his Reasons good Wherein we on the other-side both here and with the arch-Duke have had Books penn'd and Pictures printed directly against their King and State for which their Embassadors have sought satisfaction of us in vain not being able to stay the Prince or so much as to touch the Hem of the Authors Garment But we have an evasion which Hereticks miss our Clergy being freed from the Temporal Sword and so not included in our Treaties and Conditions of Peace but at liberty to give any Heretical Prince the Mate when they list whereas they are lyable to accompt and hazard and are muzled for barking when ours may both Bark and Bite too The Council-Table and the Star-Chamber do so terrifie them as they dare not Riot but run at the stirrop in excellent command and come in at the least Rebuke they call their Preaching in many places standing up but they crowch and dare not stand not up nor Quest behave themselves like Setters silent and creeping upon their Bellies lick the dust which our Priests shake off from their beautiful feet Now quoth the Duke of Lerma satisfie me about our own Clergy how they fare for there were here Petitions made to the King in the Name of the Distressed Afflicted Persecuted and Imprisoned Priests that his Majesty would intercede for them to free them from the intollerable burdens they groan under and to procure their Liberties and Letters were directed from us to this end That you should Negotiate this Demand with all speed and diligence Most Excellent Prince replyed Gondamor I did your Command with a kind of Command my self not thinking it fit to make it a Suit in your Name and my Masters I obtained them liberty to walk up and down to face and out-face their Accusers Judges Magistrates and Bishops and to exercise their Functions almost as freely altogether as safely as at Rome Here the Nuncio objected That he did not well in procuring their liberty since they might do more good in Prison than abroad because in Prison they seemed to be under Persecution and so were pitied of others and pity of the person prepares the affection further besides then they were careful of their own Lives to give no offence but abroad they might be scandalous in their Lives as they use to be in Rome and Spain and other Catholick Countries and so the Opinion of their Holiness which upholds their Credit and Cause against the Married Clergy would soon decay But the Embassadour Replyed He considered thes● inconveniences and besides a superiour Command he saw the profit of their liberty more than of their restraint for now they might freely confer and were ever practising and would doubtless produce some work of Wonder and besides the reason of their Authority and Means to change places did apply themselves to many persons whereas in Prison they could only deal with such as came to be taught were their own before And this quoth he I added as a Secret that as before they were maintained by private Contributions from Devout Catholicks even to excess so much more now shall they be able to gather great Sums to weaken the State and furnishing them for some high attempt by the example of Cardinal Wolsey barrelling up Gold for Rome and this they may easily do since all Catholicks rob the Heretical Priests and with-hold Tythes from them by fraud or force to give to these of their own to whom it is properly due And if this be spied it s an easie matter to lay all upon the Hollander and say He carries the Coin out of the Land who is forward enough indeed in these practises and so ours shall not only be excused but a flaw made betwixt them to weaken their Amities and beget suspition betwixt them of each others Love But amongst all these Priests quoth the Inquisitor did you remember that old Reverend Father Bauldwin who had a finger in that admirable attempt made on our behalf against the Parliament House such as he deserving so highly and ventering their Liv●s so resolutely for the Catholick Cause must not be neglected but extraordinarily Regarded thereby to encourage others to the like Holy Undertakings Holy Father quoth Gondamor My principal care was of him whose Life and Liberty when I had with much difficulty obtained of the King I solemnly went in person atended with all my Train and divers other well-willers to fetch him out of the Tower where he was in durance as soon as I came in his sight I behaved my self after so lowly and humble a manner that our Adversaries stood amazed to see the Reverence we give to our Ghostly Fathers and this I did to confound them and their contemptuous Clergy and to beget an extraordinary Opinion of Holiness in the person and Piety in us and also to provoke the English Catholicks to the like devout Obedience that thereby at any time these Jesuites whose authority was somewhat weakned since the Schism betwixt them and the Seculars and the succeeding Powder-plot may work them to our ends as Masters their servants Tutors their Schollars Fathers their Children Kings their Subjests and that they may do this the more boldly and securely I have somwhat dash'd the authority of their high Commissioners upon which whereas there are divers Pursevants men of the worst kind and condition resembling our Flies and Familiars attending upon the Holy Inquisition whose office and employment is to disturb the Catholicks search their Houses for Priests holy Vestments Books Beads Crucifixes and the like Religious appurtenances I have caused the Execution of their Offices to be slackened so that an open way may be given to our Spiritual Instruments for the free Exercise of their Faculties and yet when these Pursevants were in greatest authority a small Bribe in the Country would blind their eyes or a little greater at the Court or in the Exchequer frustrate and cross all their actions so that their malice went off like Squibs making a great Crack to fright Children and new born Babes but hurt no old men of Catholick spirits and this is the effect of all other their Courses