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A53548
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A tragedy called the Popish Plot reviv'd detecting the secret league between the late King James and the French king, the popish conspiracy to murder His present Majesty King William, and the wicked contrivance for adulterating the coin of this kingdom : with many other hellish practices : dedicated to Sir Roger L'Strange, the Fellows of St. John's College in Cambridg, non jurors, and the rest of the Jacobite crew / by a sincere lover of his countrey.
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Oates, Titus, 1649-1705.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing O58; ESTC R7790
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47,612
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60
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and Mr. Hanses The last of whom was Sir Roger your Assistant in your malicious Scriblings and your Brother-Burgess in K. James's Parliament for Winchester They produced for Witnesses about 20 Jesuits and Students of St. Omers who all testified that the Defendant came to St. Omers in December 1677. and went not from thence until June 1678. I shall here observe how these Jesuited Sparks were caressed and cherished both by the Court and Counsel Their Evidence was received without the least Interruption not one cross thwarting or doubting Question being put to any one of them Nay there was not found so much Temper as to permit the Defendant to propose his Questions to them which made him with undaunted Courage cry out That his Defence was under a very great Prejudice and that there was a Turn to be served and therefore he was not admitted to ask the Witnesses Questions and said I do verily believe that at this rate it is more safe for Papists to be Traitors than for any Protestant to discover a Popish Plot. It seems also worth the noting that to insinuate that Oates's Evidence was not always true and credited the King's Counsel produced the Earl of Castlemain and Sir George Wakeman who declared that what he swore against them at their Trials was false Here Jeffries observing the Doctor 's Undauntedness said I wonder to see any one that has the Face of a Man carry it at this rate when he hears such Evidence brought against him To which the Doctor replied I wonder Mr. Attorney will offer to bring this Evidence Jeffries whose Character with K. Charles the Second was that he had the Impudence of ten Carted Whores in a raving Fit retorted Such Impudence was never seen in any Christian Nation you are a Shame to Mankind To which the Doctor 's Reply was No my Lord I am neither a Shame to my self nor to Mankind What I have sworn is true and I will seal it with my Blood if occasion be Ah Ah my Lord I know why all this is and so may the World but THIS WILL NOT DO THE WORK to make the Plot to be disbelieved things are not to be done by great Noises I will stand by the Truth He observed in his Defence that the Indictment against him was six Years after the pretended Perjury That most of the Witnesses who now gave Evidence against him were those who were brought to confront him at the Trial of the five Jesuits and tho there were some fresh Witnesses the Evidence of all of them was the same as then but their Testimony rejected as it was at Langborne's Trial and that the Jury upon convicting the Jesuits were told by the Court that their Verdict was unexceptionable and this by Jeffries himself And Then he produced four or five Witnesses who clearly proved his being in London as he had sworn at the time of the White-horse-Consult in April 1678. After this he offered Objections to the Validity of the Evidence against him As 1. That a Papist in a Cause of Religion is not to be received and believed as a good Witness Here Wythens interposed saying Is not a Papist as good a Witness as a Dissenter Which was answered by citing Bulstrode's Reports Part 2. 155. A Popish Recusant is not to be admitted a Witness between Party and Party which was also my Lord Coke's Opinion Wythens replied May a Presbyterian be a good Witness Mr. Oates And Holloway who had assisted the Blood-hounds to murder Colledge said Or would Colledge have been a good Witness Mr. Oates Most certainly by the Rules of Law the Testimonies of these Persons ought not to have been offered in this Case to delude the People and the Civil Law so fully concurs with our Common Law in rejecting Enemies to be Witnesses in the Cause of their Enemy that it denies Credit to what they may testify in the Cause of their Enemy with their dying Breath after they have received the Eucharist This is the general Conclusion of the Doctors of the Civil Law Inimicus etiamsi in Articulo Mortis constitutus accipisset Eucharistiam repellitur à Testimonio Causa sui Inimici He then urged the Judgments of Papists in Case of Conscience whereby they maintain the vilest Wickedness to be lawful for the Church's Service And they acknowledg they have Dispensations to swear Lies for promoting the Catholick Cause Then he concluded to this effect My Lord this I say The Evidence for which I am indicted is the same which I delivered six Years ago where there were 16 Witnesses against me but what Credit did they receive I do avow the Truth of the Popish Plot and will stand to it whilst I live Was ever Man dealt with as I am or had such Evidence offered against him My Lord this I am sure of if I had been a Witness against those who suffered in the late Fanatick Plot as 't was called I had never been called in question if my Evidence had been false but 't is apparent the Papists have now a Turn to serve and these St. Omers Youths are brought to falsify my Evidence and to bring off the Lords who stand impeached of High Treason for the Popish Conspiracy My Lord 't is not me they indict but the whole Protestant Interest is aimed at in this Prosecution For my own part I care not what becomes of me the Truth will one time or another appear Upon the Day following May 9. 1685. the Doctor was tried upon an Indictment for another supposed Perjury but that Prosecution being of the Complection with what is here presented I trouble not the Reader with it farther than to lay before him the Names of the Jury Sir Thomas Vernon Nicholas Charleton Thomas Langham Thomas Hartop Francis Griffith John Kent George Toriano Henry Loades John Midgley John Pelling Thomas Short and George Peck All Men of the same Kidney still The Juries having according as directed by that Man of Blood Jeffries brought the Doctor in guilty of both the Perjuries comes the Abhorrer of Parliaments the tender-hearted good natur'd Protestant Judg Wythens to pronounce the Sentence previous to it he tells the Defendant that no Christian 's Heart can think of the Innocent Blood which was shed by his Oath without bleeding That every knowing Man believed and every honest Man grieved for it He proceeds God be thanked our Eyes are now open The Judgment besides Imprisonment Fine c. was that on Wednesday next he be whipt from Aldgate to Newgate and upon Friday from Newgate to Tyburn This says Wythens I pronounce to be the Judgment of the Court upon you and I must tell you plainly If it had been in my Power to have carried it farther I should not have been unwilling to have given Judgment of Death upon you This cruel Sentence was executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity so that tho which Wythens lamented the Law did not allow them to condemn him directly to Death they
cannot but judg that they design nothing less than my Ruine in Revenge for that Service I did my Country in discovering their more than abominable and hellish Conspiracy against the Life of the late King the Protestant Religion and the Government as by Law established both in Church and State I thought it my Duty in case of any harder Usage than I have yet met with to put something in Writing which my Friends I hope will publish for the Satisfaction of my dear Country-men for whose Cause I have been a living Martyr exposed to the Rage and Reproach of a Generation of Men who neither fear God nor reverence Man whose Religion is either the worst of Religions or their Morals so debauched that they are fit to be of any Religion except that of Christ Therefore in the first place I do declare my self to be a Protestant of the Church of England as by Law established both in Doctrine and Discipline yet I must confess she stands in need of a further Reformation and it would be happy if that by the Removal of some Ceremonies useless and dangerous a way might be made for a more perfect Union amongst all English Protestants that our Hands might be strengthned against the Common Enemy the Papists in order to the rooting out of Superstition and Idolatry from amongst us that we may avert those Judgments from this Nation that do so highly threaten our total Destruction It hath been the greatest Grief of my Heart to see Protestants contending one with another about the meaner Parts of Religion and Worship whilst the Enemy the Popish Party stands by and adds Fuel to our Flames and nourishes the Quarrel till we have exposed our selves to be devoured by them and have wounded those amongst us who are weak in the Faith I could likewise wish that our dissenting Brethren would lay aside their Scruples in some things and comply with their Brethren in those Ceremonies that are innocent and harmless and not inconsistent with the Word of God and the Law of our great Lord Jesus Christ and that they that can conform for Christ's sake do not persecute their Brethren who through Tenderness of Conscience cannot partake with them in those Advantages that some of them have enjoyed to their Hearts Content Truly I have been so far from being inclined to persecute any for Conscience sake that I would not have had the least Thought of having or advising the Prosecution of Popery or molesting of any that are in Communion with the Church of Rome but that the Religion of Rome is a Conspiracy against God and Christ and Mankind for shew me a Papist that is thorow-paced I will shew you a Murderer of the People of God a Firer of Cities a declared Enemy to the Peace and Tranquillity of the Sons of Men. Now Men that are so united together against God and all Goodness our Religion Lives and Liberties must be rooted out and not suffered to continue amongst a well governed People for they make it their Business to debauch our looser sort of Christians and reproach and calumniate those whose Firmness to their God and the Gospel of Christ renders them Men above their Temptations tho by their Allurements some have been seduced to their Destruction Therefore as for the Popish Religion I do declare that I do detest and abhor it as a Religion whose whole Foundation is Blood Cruelty Murder and Rapine a Religion that stands in opposition to the Rule and Law of Jesus Christ And the Bishop of Rome whom they call Pope I believe to be Antichrist that exalts himself in the Temple of God above God and all that is called God the Son of Perdition and everlasting Wrath. But that which is expected of me is that I do declare my self fully concerning the damnable Plot carried on by the Popish Party for the Destruction of the late King and the Protestant Religion I must confess the Acquaintance I had with some considerable Papists in the Year 1670. made me to suspect a Design carrying on by them to advance their own Religion and to pull down ours but I little thought that they had a Design of murdering the King which in process of time I found out There was one Cotton that was at Mr. Guilfourd's in Kent that was often very pleasingly tempting me to come over to their Church for saith he it will not be long before you must either burn or turn therefore come over in time that your coming over may be looked upon as meritorious This Cotton since I understood to be a Priest of the Society of Jesus and one that was ingaged in the Popish Plot and with him I had a better and more intimate Acquaintance From him at first I found that the Popish Party had a Design of promoting their Religion and making what Proselytes they could in order to the inlarging their Interest and Power in this poor Nation I from that time had a great Desire to get into them to see whither their Designs tended being very fearful that they designed no less than the Ruine of our Religion and Government Nay this Cotton had the Impudence to tell me that the King was engaged with them to advance their Cause and Religion and was resolved to bring in Popery it being a Religion that was most consistent with Monarchy and that his Majesty was resolved to be like his Neighbour-Princes this was in the Year 1670 about Christmass Which Discourse I did discover to Mr. Walter Drury whom I did assist in the Service of his Cure at Sandburst in the County of Kent and he told me that that Mr. Cotton had talked as badly or rather worse to him but he had sufficiently told him his own so that Cotton was shy of having any farther Discourse with hâ—â— about those Matters and withal Mr. Drury having threatned to complain of him Mr. Cotton did withdraw from that Family and another came in his room In the Year 1672 I was acquainted with one Keimash who was very perswasive in his Arguments to have brought me over to their Church he then frequented Arundell-house in the Strand and was a Fellow that had insinuated himself into the Acquaintance of several Divines of our Church and bragged that he had reconciled above thirty Ministers of the Church of England but I found him a debauched lewd Fellow and so my Acquaintance ceased with him for it was a hard Matter unless in a Morning to find him sober I found him afterwards to have been Chaplain to the old Countess of Arundell with whom he lived several Years under the Notion of her Steward In the Year 1672 I left Mr. Drury's Cure and held a Living of my own which I resided upon for some time called Bobbing in Kent and from thence I went and served his Majesty at Sea as a Chaplain where I found many Difficulties by reason of Sickness of Body I refreshed my self at Tangire There was one Gerard an Irish Dominican that