The Late APOLOGY In behalf of the PAPISTS Reprinted and Answered In behalf of the ROYALLISTS LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXIII TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Apology SIR ABout fourscore Years ago in a time when there were such Apprehensions of the Papists as now there are and howsoever they are now surely then they were not without cause some of your Predecessors to palliate the matter and to make their Governors more secure of them writ a Book to this effect that Catholicks are to imploy no other Arms against their Prince but the Arms of Christians viz. Tears and Spiritual Means daily Prayers and Watchings and Fastings So you begin My Lords and Gentlemen The Arms which Christians can use against lawful Powers in their severity are only Prayers and Tears We cannot say that you writ your Book for the same End as they did But we do not like it that you jump so together in the same Beginning Now since nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed but the cause viz. to see our dearest Friends forsake us we hope it will not offend you if after we have a little wip'd our eyes we sigh out our Complaints to you Of the Cause of your Tears we shall say more anon Of the Quantity of them you say very extravagantly Nothing can equal the infinity of those we have shed For you might have excepted those of the Protestants in Queen Maries dayes or of them that suffered in the late Irish Rebellion You ought to have excepted the Fears of your Fabulous Purgatory and yet those are said to be short of Infinity But you Jesuites love to be Hyperbolical whether ranting or whining as if that Religion which obliges you to damn all other Christians had likewise forbidden you to speak like other Men. We had spoke much sooner had we not been silent through Consternation to see you inflamed whom with reverence we honor and also to shew our submissive patience which used no slights nor tricks to divert the Debates of Parliament for no body can imagine where so many of the great Nobility and Gentry are concerned but something might have been done when as in all Ages we see things of publick advantage by the managers dexterity nipt in the bud even in the very Houses them selves Far be it from Catholicks to perplex Parliaments who have been the Founders of their I riviledges and all Antient Laws Nay Magna Charta it self had its rise from us which we do the less boast of since it was not at first obtained in so submiss and humble a manner In the same Roman Style you commend your owne silence and patience You boast that you have been the Founders of the Parliaments Priviledges and all Antient Laws Of the first let every man believe as he sees cause But the second we cannot allow in either sense whether you mean it of your selves or of your Predecessors For as now in your Church men are of two sorts even so they were heretofore in this Realm There were some that wholly minded the common interests of Christian Religion and Civil Government Others were Papalini asserters and promoters of the Popes usurpations They which acted in those first capacities were not more your Predecessors than Ours They which acted in the other were truly and only Yours You say We sung our Nunc Dimittis when we saw our Master in his Throne and you in your deserved Authority and Rule 'T is very well And yet some of you sung your Venite Exultemus when you saw his Blessed Father upon the Scaffold But what of that since the Son is King who is not glad that he is King or whom would it not grieve to have his Loyalty called in Question Nor could any thing have ever grieved us more but to have our Loyalty called into question by you even at the instigation of our greatest Adversaries If we must suffer let it be by you alone for that 's a double Death to men of Honor to have their Enemies not only accusers but for their insulting Judges also Sir he that is Loyal and a man of Honor has no cause to fear Death double or single For our Kings have alwayes Declared that they put no man to death for Religion Therefore if you Truly fear Death it is for Treason If you only pretend this it is a Calumny Either way you are no friend to the Government for all your pretences to Honor and Loyalty These are they that by beginning with us murthered their Prince and wounded you and shall the same method continue by your Approbation We are sure you mean well though their design be wicked but never let it be recorded in story that you forgot your often Vows to us in joyning with them that have been the cause of so great Calamity to the Nation How far it is true that the Kings Murtherers began with you we shall consider anon But it seems you take the Liberty of bestowing that Character upon whom you please that no man hereafter may dare move for the Execution of any Law against you for fear of being said to continue the Method of the Kings Murtherers As for any Vows that we have made to you whatsoever they are you are more sure of them than we can be of any that you make to us for we have no Pope to dispense with them Neither is it recorded in Story that English Protestants ever joyn'd with the Enemies of their Nation Of all Calumnies against Catholicks we have admired at none so much as that their Principles are said to be inconsistent with Government and they themselves thought ever proue to Rebellion 'T is a Calumny of yours to call those things Calumnies which are true and which you cannot Deny without such a Presumption as we should much admire in you if it were not so very Ordinary Concerning your Principles where should we look for them but in your Councils your Decretals and the Books of your Divines In each of these we are taught that the Pope has a Power to depose Kings and to discharge Subjects from their Allegiance which Doctrines are utterly inconsistent with Government for whosoever believes them no Prince can be secure of him But whosoever is a Papist is bound to believe them And he that has imbib'd this Faith may well be thought ever prone to Rebellion The Council of Lateran under Pope Innocent III. expresly Ordains that in case any Prince be a favourer of Hereticks after admonition given The Pope shall discharge his Subjects from their Allegiance and shall give away his Kingdom to some Catholick that may root out those Hereticks and possess his Kingdom without contradiction 'T is observable that this Pope was himself a deposer of Kings namely of John King of England and of Otho IV. the Emperor and also that this Council which made Rebellion a Duty was the first that made Transubstantiation
these single shots failed Father Parsons gave a broad-side to the Royal House of Scotland For he publisht a Book under the name of Dolman wherein he set up divers Competitours for the Succession and consequently so many Enemies to the unquestionable Right of that Family And to provide one sure Enemy upon the place he found out a Title for the Earl of Essex the most ambitious and popular Man in the Nation to whom also he craftily dedicated his Book In which he mentions among other Books of this nature one written by Lesley concerning the Queen of Scots Title another by Heghinton for the King of Spains Title and another concerning the Prince of Parma's But for his part before these and all others he prefers the Title of the Infanta And to shew that he meant as he said he caused their Scholars in the Seminaries abroad to subscribe to it and made them swear to maintain it and bound the Missionaries to promote it in those places whither they were to be sent Whereas for King James his Title he preferrs several others before it and tells us I have not found very many in England that favour it meaning sure of your Catholicks with whom his converse chiefly was and concerning whom he gives this remarkable testimony that the Catholicks make little account of his Title by nearness of Succession We have reason to believe he did not wrong them because when an answer was written to his Book the Arch-Priest Blackwel would not suffer it to be published And your next Head-Officer the Provincial of the Jesuites declared he would have nothing to do with King James his Title and 't was the common voice of the men of his Order that if King James would turn Catholick they would follow him but if not they would all die against him Which pious Resolutions were seconded with agreeable Actions For they endeavoured as far as Catholicks are obliged by their Principles viz. as far as they durst and were able at first to hinder him from coming in and afterwards to throw him out again or to destroy him in the place as we shall have occasion to shew you in the answer to the next Paragraph The mean while out of this present discourse in which you cannot deny any thing that is material to our purpose It appears that this hard Question of Right to the Crown was not between the Parties themselves in one or t'other of whom you confess the Right was It appears that your Infallible Judge of Controversies very easily and impartially resolv'd it by denying both sides of the Question and assuming the whole right to himself It appears that your Catholicks who are said to have sided with one against the other did in truth side with the Pope against them both And lastly it appears that their Misdemeanors were inexcusable Treasons if any Treason can be inexcusable that is befriended with such an Apologist 'T was for the Royal House of Scotland that they suffered in those days and 't is for the same Illustrious Family we are ready to hazard all on any occasion Sir we have found you notoriously False in that which you Affirm Pray God you prove True in that which you Promise Nor can the consequence of the former procedure be but ill if a Henry VIII whom Sir W. Raleigh and my Lord Cherbury two famous Protestants have so homely Characteriz'd should after twenty years cohabitation turn away his Wife and this out of scruple of Conscience as he said when as History declares that he never spared Woman in his Lust nor Man in his Fury This Character would better agree with many a Head of a Church whom we could name you than with Henry VIII of whom better Historians speak better things But if he were such a Monster as you would make him perhaps it was for want of a better Religion for he was perfectly of Yours except only in the point of Supremacy And you had no occasion for this flurt at him unless that having undertaken to put the best colours upon Treason you might think you did something towards it in bespattering of Kings We have a touch of the same Art in the next Paragraph Where having undertaken to excuse the Gun-powder-Treason you call it first a Misdemeanor then the Fifth of November and then a Conjuration soft words all of them but you deal wicked hardly with the great Minister of State whom you make to have been the Author of it as if the Traitors had not conspired against the State but the State against them But before we come to answer this It will be needful to set down the story as it appears out of the Examinations and Confessions of the Traitors themselves The rise of this Treason was from the before-mentioned Breves of Pope Clement VIII in which he required all his Catholicks that after the death of that wretched Woman Queen Elizabeth they should admit none but a Catholick to reign over them These Breves were by Garnet the Provincial of the Jesuites communicated to Catesby and others who in Obedience thought best to begin their Practices in her life time So they sent Father Tesmund and Winter into Spain to crave the assistance of that Crown The Spaniard sent them back with the promise of an Army But soon after Queen Elizabeth died and no Army came Therefore again they sent Christopher Wright into Spain to hasten iâ— and Stanley out of Flanders sent Fawks thither upon the same errand who finding the Councils of Spain at this time wholly enclined to peace returned quickly back and brought nothing but despair along with them Yet the Breves had so wrought upon Catesby that he could not find in his heart to give over but still casting about for ways he hit upon this of the Powder-Treason which as being much out of the common Rode he thought the most secure for his purpose He communicated this to Winter who approved it and fetcht Fawks out of Flanders to assist in it Not long after Piercy being in their company and offering himself to any service for the Catholick Cause though it were even the Kings Death Catesby told him that that was too poor an Adventure for him but saith he if thou wilt be a Traitor there is a Plot of greater advantage and such a one as can never be discovered Thus having duly prepar'd him he took him into the Conspiracy And the like he did with so many more as made up their Number thirteen of the Laity But where were the Jesuites all the while rot idle you may be sure The Provincial Garnet was privy to it from the beginning so were divers more of the Society Insomuch that when Watson endeavour'd to have drawn them into his Plot for the setting up of the Lady Arbella's Title in opposition to King James his they declin'd it saying They had another of their own then afoot and that they would
an Article of Faith Next for the Bulls and Decrees of your Popes which according to Bellarmine are sufficient to make that to be sin which is not sin or not to be sin which is sin it would be tedious to instance in all that could be produc'd to this purpose From Gregory VII downward such a Trade was driven of deposing Kings that no weak Prince could wear his Crown but at the Pope's Courtesie And that it might never be otherwise Pope Boniface VIII declares it for Law in these words We say and Define and Pronounce that it is absolutely Necessary to salvation for every humane Creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome Which Oracle is thus interpreted by Bertrand Every humane Creature i. e. Every Magistrate Must be subject c. i. e. Must submit himself to be deposed when the Pope thinks fit And that the Gloss doth not injure the Text it appears by the Tenor of the Decree especially by those words about the middle of it that the Spiritual Power is to order the Worldly Power and to Judge it if it be not as it ought according to that in Jeremy I have set thee over Nations and over Kingdoms c. In which suppletive c. these words are wound up To root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant All which powers this Law-giver of yours endeavoured himself to exercise He endeavour'd saith Platina to give and take away Kingdoms to expell men and to restore them at his pleasure Agreeably to this doctrine and practice your great Canonist Lancelottus teaches you That the Pope may depose Kings and Emperors and transfer their Kingdoms and Empires from one Line to another Which wholsome Doctrine no doubt as well as the rest of his Book Pope Pius IV. has made Authentick by his unerring Approbation Lastly for your Divines They have generally own'd it and many of them have written large Books in defence of it We do not tell you this as news for your Clergy-men know it already but that your Laity may not be ignorant of it we shall quote them some few of the greatest Doctors of your Church in this Age. And we shall leave it upon you to shew them when and where they were condemned what Justice has been executed on the Persons what Index Expurgatorius has censur'd the Writings of these Authors Nay if you deal honestly you cannot but confess that their Works are generally approved and that their Persons are had in admiration among you that are the guides of the Lay-mens Consciences We pass over the gross things of Mariana's Book because they which once licens'd it for love of the Doctrine have since condemned it for fear of their King 's heavy Displeasure But pray Sir who condemned your Cardinals Bellarmine and Baronius who teach you that the Pope may do with any King as Jehoiada did with Athalia that is he may deprive him first of his Kingdom and then of his Life Bellarmine indeed elsewhere expresses it more like a Jesuite and a man of distinctions in these words The Pope does not allow you not to obey your King but he makes him that was your King to be not your King as who should say when the Pope has done His part then you are free to do Yours Again who condemn'd your great School-Men Suarez and Valentia of whom the one writes against his Majesties Grand-Father that a King Canonically Excommunicated may be deposed or killed by any man whatsoever the other says that an Heretical Prince may by the Pope's sentence be depriv'd of his life much more of his Estate and of all Superiority over others Nay who has condemned our Country-man Parsons or Cresswel for the high-fliers of Popery have been those of our own Nation by whom this is laid down as a Conclusion of the whole School of Divines and Canonists and declar'd to be Certain and of Faith that any Christian Prince whatsoever that shall manifestly swerve from the Catholick Religion and endeavour to draw off others does immediately fall from all Power and Dignity c. and that even before any Sentence of the Pope is pronounced against him and that all his Subjects whatsoever are free from all obligation of any Oath of Obedience which they have made to him as their lawful Prince and that they may and ought if they be strong enough to eject such a one from the Government of Christians as an Apostate an Heretick a deserter of Christ and an enemy of his Common-wealth c. Cardinal Perron went not altogether so high but yet he held to the Roman Catholick Principle that Kings may be deposed by the Pope when he sees cause He seemed to be of another opinion while Henry IV. was alive but when He was dead and a Child was in the Throne then he ventur'd to declare this publickly in his Oration on behalf of the whole Clergy of France He maintained that this was the current Doctrine in France till the time of Calvin and for the contrary Doctrine viz That Kings are not deposable by the Pope Rossaeus calls it the Paradox of the Lutherans Perron calls it a Doctrine that breeds Schisms a gate that leads into all Heresie and to be held in so high a degree of detestation that rather then yield to it he and his fellow-Bishops would chuse to burn at a Stake But how has this Doctrine taken among the Papists in our Kings Dominions it has not taken with some of them either because you have not thought it seasonable for you to instruct them in it for Doctrines of this sort are then only proper to be Inculcated when they may do Execution or else because your Instruction has been over rul'd by some better Principle as we doubt not there have always been some of your Church in whose generous breasts the English man has been too strong for the Papist But yet this Doctrine has taken with others and many of them have practised according to it as we shall shew you hereafter and many more would have been practising if there had not been something to hinder them or deterr them For 't is allowed by your Divines as a very good Reason for Catholicks to omit the Duty of Rebellion if they are not strong â—nough to go through with it So Bannez excuses our English Catholicks and so Bellarmin does the Primitive Christians Nay your Casuists say If there be any notable danger of Death or Ruin without which you cannot perform it that then you are not bound to endeavour it Long may these Good Reasons continue for if these were remov'd we know not how far we may trust you For one of your Brethren another poisoner of the people has been so forward already since His Majesties Restauration as to declare in Print that in case your Pope should take upon him to Deprive our
fear of too much contradicting thee May it not be as well said in the next Catholick Kings Reign that the Duke of Guise and Cardinal Heads of the League were killed for their Religion also Now no body is ignorant but 't was their Factious Authority which made that jealous Prince design their Deaths though by unwarrantable means The Duke of Guise and his Brother were not killed for their Religion for they were killed by one of the same Religion and one that was bent against the Protestants as much as they Only because he spared the blood of the Protestants your Zealots hated him and so much the more because a Protestant being his Heir he would not declare him uncapable of the Succession For these causes by the Popes consent these Guises whom he called the Maccabes of the Church entred into an Holy League against their King and called in the Succors of Spain and Savoy which they paid for with the Rights of the Crown they maintained a sharp War against him and did all that was in their power to deprive him of his Kingdom and Life Whereupon that jealous Prince as you favourably call him for his own preservation was urged to deal with them as they had dealt with the Protestants from whose case this of the Guises is so vastly different that one would wonder why you should mention it But since you have led us thus far out of the way let us invite you a little farther The Pope Excommunicated the King for this Action and granted 9 Years of true Indulgence to any of his Subjects that would bear Arms against him and foretold as a Pope might do without Astrology that e're long he should come to a fearful Death The Subjects took Arms and earned the Indulgence A Friar took his Knife and fulfilled the Prediction by ripping up those Bowels that were always most tenderly affected with kindness to the Monkish Orders But what joy was there at Rome for this as if the news of another Massacre had come to Town one would think so by the Popes Oration to his Cardinals in which he sets forth this work of God the Kings Murther for its wonderfulness to be compared with Christs Incarnation and Resurrection And the Friars Vertue and Courage and fervent Love of God he prefers before that of Eleazar in the Maccabees or of Judith killing Holofernes and the murthered King who had profest himself to dye in the Faith of the Roman Catholick Apostolick Church he declared to have died in the Sin against the Holy Ghost Pray Sir may it not well be said that Papists cannot live without persecuting Protestants when we see a Popish King stabb'd and damned for not persecuting them enough or for doing the work of the Lord negligently If it were for Doctrine that Hugonots suffered in France this Haughty Monarch would soon destroy them now having neither Force nor Town to resist his Might and Puissance They yet live free enough being even Members of Parliament and may convert the Kings Brother too if he think fit to be so Thus you see how well Protestants may live in a Popish Country under a Popish King nor was Charlemain more Catholick than this for though he contends something with the Pope 't is not of Faith but about Gallicane Priviledges which perchance he may very lawfully do Iudge then worthy Tatriots who are the best used and consider our hardship here in England where it is not only a Fine for hearing Mass but death to the Master for having a Priest in his House and so far we are from preserment That by Law we cannot come within 10 miles of London all which we know your great mercy will never permit you to exact You say if this were true then this Hanghty Monarch would soon destroy his Hugonots now No such consequence Sir for he may persecute them and not destroy them he may destroy them but not so soon Princes use to go their own pace whilst they are upon their legs but if any misfortune throws them upon all four then the Pope gets up and rides them what pace he pleaseth Nor is this Monarch yet so Catholick as Charlemain was if he were he would do as Charlemain did He would be Patron of all the Bishopricks in his Empire even of Rome it self if it were there He would make the Pope himself know the distance between a Prelate and an Emperor He would maintain the Rights of his Crown and not chop Logick about Gallicane Priviledges which you say like a sly Jesuite that perchance he may lawfully do He would call a Council when he pleased to separate Errors from the Faith as Charlemain himself called a Council against Image-Worship which was then creeping into the Church This were a good way of destroying the Hugonots by taking away all causes of strife amongst Christians By any other way than this he cannot destroy them without the violation of his Laws which as they are the only Forces and Towers whereby Subjects ought to be secured against their King so since he is pleased to allow them no other these Laws backt with his puissance are forces enough to secure them against their fellow-Subjects We cannot pass this Paragraph without observing your Jesuitical ingenuity how you slight those favours that you have how you complain of those hardships that you have not and how you insult over the poor Hugonots by comparing with them who generally would mend their condition by changing with you Pray Sir do not Popish-Peers sit in our English Parliaments as well as Protestants in the French or have you not as free access to our Kings Brother as they have to theirs or would you have his Highness to Catechise as the Abbot had the Duke of Glocester perhaps that you would have Otherwise we know nothing but His Highness's Wisdom and care of his Conscience that guards him from you Of the Laws you complain hideously Worthy Patriots consider our hardship And yet those very Laws you complain of you never knew executed in your life and you tell us soon after that you know they never will be For what cause then were they enacted Plainly for this cause to guard the lives of our Princes against your traiterous practices It hath often been urged that our Misdemeanors in Queen Elizabeth's days and King James's time was the cause of our Panishment Your Misdemeanors We cry you mercy if they were no more but that comes next to be argued Whether they were Misdemeanors or Treasons We earnestly wish that the Party had more patience under that Princess But pray consider though we excuse not their faults whether it was not a question harder than that of York and Lancaster the cause of a War of such length and death of so many Princes who had most right Q Elizabeth or Mary Stuart for since the whole Kingdom had crowned and sworn Allegiance to Q. Mary they had owned her
Legitimate Daughter to Henry the Eighth and therefore it was thought necessarily to follow by many That if Mary was the true Child Elizabeth was the Natural which must then needs give way to the thrice Noble Queen of Scots Under Queen Elizabeth you wish your Party had more patience and we think they Needed none for in the first ten Years of her Reign they had no Business for it In all that space of time which was twice as long as Queen Maries Reign though it was fresh in memory what the Papists had done yet not one of them suffered Death till the Northern Rebellion which being raised against her only upon the account of her Religion it appears that She was the persecuted person She had the occasion for Patience and you would have wished Them more Loyalty if any such thing had been in your thoughts But perhaps you wish they had so much patience as not to have discovered their design before it was fully ripe for execution Not unlike For it appears you account Rebellion no fault by this that you say you excuse not their faults and yet you do excuse their Rebellion You excuse them by saying it was a very hard Question whether the Right of the Crown lay in her or in the Queen of Scots for that many thought Queen Elizabeth Illegitimate Pray Sir who Thought it or when arose that Question The Arch-Bishop of York though a Papist in his Speech at the publishing of Queen Maries Death said No man could doubt of the justness of the Lady Elizabeths Title to the Succession The whole Kingdom received her and owned her as Queen more generally and freely than eyer they did Queen Mary The Neighbour Kings of Spain and France and the Emperor offered Marriage to her in hopes to have got the Crown by her The Queen of Scots her self did acknowledge her and claimed nothing more than to be Heir to her and so did King James that was her Successor So that whosoever opposed Queen Elizabeths Right if they were English 'c is apparent they were Rebels and if they were Papists we may guess what led them to it For the first that Questioned her Title was Pope Paul IV. who would not acknowledge her for sundry causes the chief that he alledged were these First Because this Kingdom is a Fee of the Papacy and it was audaciously done of her to assume it without his leave The second was because she was Illegitimate for if her Fathers Marriage were good the Pope must let down his Mill. But after all this his Successor Pius IV did own her and would have done any thing for her so she would have owned him Which because she would not the next Pope Pius V. issued out his Bull against her and deposed her not for Bastardy but for Heresie that is for being a Protestant for which Heresie it was that the Northern men Rebelled against her and many more of her Subjects disowned her and some or other were every foot plotting how to take away her life True it is that some of these pretended to do it in favour of the Queen of Scots But how if that Queen had not been a Catholick or Queen Elizabeth had not Been thought Illegitimate would a legitimate Protestant have been so contended for or would a Popish Bastard have been rejected by them Pope Gregory XIII had occasion to consider this For his Holiness had a Bastard of his own to provide for and another of the Emperors no doubt good Catholicks both of them To one he gave the Kingdom of Ireland and set out Stukely with Forces to win it for him To the other he gave the Kingdom of England and gave him leave to win it for himself But what was all this to the thrice Noble Queen of Scots Possibly she might have been preferred to have married one of the rwo but then it must have been expresly with this condition That her Son King James who was a Heretick should have nothing to do with the Succession When their bubbles were broken and she was dead all her Right descended to King James who being as little to the Pope's mind as Q. Elizabeth was Sixtus V. only took no publick notice of Him but he proceeded with all his might against Her He curst her afresh and publisht a Croysade against her and gave the whole Right of Her Kingdoms to Philip the II. King of Spain But neither that Popes Bounty nor his three Successors Blessings nor the Spanish Arms nor the Italian Arts for no way was left untried could ever prevail against Gods Providence which till the end of her days kept that Queen always fast in her Possessions At last Pope Clement VIII seeing there was nothing to be done against her resolv'd to let her go like a Heretick as she was and to take the more care that another Heretick should not succeed her For which cause he sent over two Breves into England one to the Clergy and the other to the Laity commanding them not to admit any other but a Catholick though never so near in Blood to the Succession that is to say in plain words not to admit King James to Reign after Queen Elizabeths death So 't is clear that your Popes never stuck at that hard Question that you speak of Let us see what our Country-men did who as you say suffered for it in those days They did like obsequious Members at every turn as their Head directed them They acted for the Papal Interest as far as they were able They made the House of Scotland the Cloak for it as far as it would reach And it reacht pretty well as long as the Title was in Queen Mary But after the Title came to be in King James Pray Sir name us those Papists or but one single person of them that either died or suffered for Him and then you bless us with a discovery What then were they idle for so many years as past between the commencing of his Title and the Death of Queen Elizabeth Nothing less For they were as busie as Bees in contriving how to hasten her Death and how to put him by the Succession And if it were for his Service that they would have destroyed Her pray for whose service was it that they would have defeated Him but that will be known by the story Soon after his Mothers Death was the Spanish Invasion which would have defeated him with a Witness if it had sped and yet our Papists both Negotiated it and writ in Defence of it Afterwards in Scotland your Jesuites procured the Earl of Huntley and others to raise a powerful Rebellion against him In England they endeavoured to perswade the Earl of Derby to set up a Title to the Crown who honestly revealing it was poisoned soon after according to the prophetical threatning of Hesket whom they had made use of to perswade him When
not mingle designs with him for fear of hindering one another But Watson miscarried with his Plot and the Jesuites went on with theirs They absolv'd the Conspirators of the Guilt and extenuated the Danger of their design they perswaded them how highly Beneficial it would be in the Consequences of it they gave them their Oath by the Holy Trinity and the Sacrament which they did then receive that none of them should reveal it to any other or withdraw himself from it without common consent and for the pittiful scruple of destroying the Innocent with the Guilty Garnet answered they might lawfully do it in order to a greater good Yet it seems there was a spark of Humanity in some of them which the Divinity of this Casuist had not quite extinguish't as appear'd either by the absenting of some Lords that were afterward fined for it in the Star-Chamber or certainly by that Letter of warning to my Lord Monteagle which was the happy occasion of the Discovery of the whole Treason In Warwick-shire where the Princess Elizabeth then was they had appointed a meeting under the pretence of a Hunting-Match to seize upon her the same day in which the King and his Male Issue were to have been destroyed There met about fourscore of them which was a number sufficient for that business But the news of the Discovery coming among them they were so dismayed at it that they desisted from their enterprize and fled into Stafford-shire where the Countrey being raised against them they were some of them kill'd and the rest taken and those which were left alive of the prime Conspirators were sent up to London and there Executed This is the plain story now let us see how you colour it Now for the Fifth of November with hands lifted up to Heaven we abominate and detest What is it that you abominate and detest That day which is the Festival of our Deliverance We can believe you without your hands lifted up to Heaven Or mean you the Treason which was to have been acted upon that day why then do you not speak out and call it so For if you cannot afford to call it Treason it is not the lifting up of your hands that can make us believe you do heartily abominate and detest it And from the bottom of our hearts say that may they fall into irrecoverable Perdition who propagate that Faith by the Blood of Kings which is to be planted in truth and meekness only It was a good caution of a Philosopher to the Son of a common Woman that he should not throw stones among a multitude for fear of hitting his Father You might have had that caution when you threw out this curse for your Father the Pope stands fairest for it of all men that we know in the World But let it not displease you Men Brethren and Fathers if we ask whether Ulysses be no better known or who hath forgot the Plots Cromwel framed in his Closet not only to destroy many faithful Cavaliers but also to put a lustre upon his Intelligence as if nothing could be done without his knowledg Even so did the then great Minister who drew some few Desperadoes into this Conjuration and then discovered it by a Miracle Having spit and wip't your mouth now you make your speech And it begins with a mixture of Apostle and Poet to shew what we are to expect from you namely with much Gravity much Fiction and so far you do not go about to deceive us The scope of your speech is to make the world believe that your Catholicks were drawn into this Plot by Secretary Cecil You are so wise that you do not offer to prove this but you would steal it into us by an example that we are concerned in As Cromwel trepann'd many faithful Cavaliers even so Cecil drew in some few Desperadoes Comparisons they say are odious But to the business First admitting your Fiction as if it were true that Cecil did draw in those wretches into this Treason Was it ever the less Treason because he drew them into it For according to your own supposition they did not know that they were drawn in by him But they verily thought that they had followed their own Guides and they zealously did according to their own Principles They did what they would have done if there had been no Cecil in the world provided there had been a Devil in his room to have put it into their heads For your excuse only implies that they had not the Wit to invent it But their progress in it shews that they wanted not the Malice to have executed it So that according to your own illustration As those faithful Cavaliers whom Cromwel drew in had their Loyalty abused were nevertheless Faithful still so those Powder-Traitors whom you say Cecil drew in had their Disloyalty outwitted and were nevertheless Traitors still For as well in the one case as in the other this very thing that they could be drawn in is a clear demonstration that they were before-hand sufficiently Disposed for it Secondly When you have considered the absurdity of your excuse for your friends you may do well to think of an excuse for your Self For that which you affirm of Cecil's having drawn them into this Plot is a very groundless and impudent Fiction and you are properly the Author of it For though others perhaps may have spoken this in raillery yet you are the first that we know of that has asserted it in Print Pray Sir whence had you this tale By what Tradition did you receive it Or had you some new Revelation of the Causes threescore years after the Fact For 't is plain that King James knew nothing of it Bellarmin and his fellow Apologists in that Age never pretended it The parties themselves neither at their Tryal nor at their Execution gave any intimation of it Can you tell us which of the Conspirators were Cecil's Instruments to draw in the rest Or can you think he was so great an Artist that he could perswade his Setters to be hang'd that his Art might not be suspected For 't is well known that he sav'd not any of those wretches from suffering And they which did suffer charged none other but themselves in their Confessions Particularly Father Garnet said before Doctor Overal and divers others that he would give all the World if it were his to clear his Conscience or his Name from that Treason These are strong presumptions of the Negative but you ought to have proved your Affirmative or at least to have offered something toward it For if barely to say this be enough then here is an excuse indifferently calculated for all Treasons in the world that miscarry and if they prosper who dares call them Treasons Here is a never failing Topick for any one that would write an Apology in behalf of any Villany whatsoever For if the Traitors be discover'd by any kind of accident this
we do verily believe it was never said wisht or thought of by any one that lov'd the King and the peace of the Nation But what trick had this Jesuite in his head when he fram'd this One may guess at his design But let it pass Perhaps he only imagined this to heighten his Fancy that he might think and write the more Tragically toward the end of his Oration We know your Wisdom and Generosity and therefore cannot imagine such a thing nor do we doubt when you shew favour unto these but you will use mercy to us who are both your fellow Subjects and your own flesh and blood also if you forsake us we must say the world decayes and its final transmutation must needs follow quickly Here you un-imagine for the Souldiers and imagine for your self and as if you really thought your self in danger you beg for mercy of the Royalists in such words as your Predecessor us'd to the Rebels Only for the last strain we do not know that any one hit upon it before nor do believe that any one will ever use it again Little do you think the insolencies we shall suffer by Commitee men c. whom chance and lot hath put into petty Power Nor will it chuse but grieve you to see them abused whom formerly you loved even by the common enemies of us both It seems Committee-men are intrusted with his Majesties Authority or that none must use it against Papists for fear of being accounted Committee-men It is time to have done when we are come to the dregs of your Rhetorick When they punish how will they triumph and say take This poor Romanists for your love to Kingship and again This for your long doting on the Royal Party all which you shall receive from us Commissioned by your dearest Friends and under this Cloak we will gladly vent our private spleen and malice Sir though you set your self before to speak Tragically this does rather seem a piece of Drollery But you Have your design either way For no man can read it but he must either Laugh or Shake his head We know my Lords and Gentlemen that from your hearts you do deplore our condition yet permit us to tell you your bravery must extend thus far as not to sit still with pity only but each is to labour for the distressed as far as in reallity his ability will reach Some must beseech our Gracious Sovereign for us others again must undeceive the good though deluded multitude therefore all are to remember who are the prime raisers of the storm and how through our sides they would wound both the King and you for though their hatred to us our selves is great yet the enmity out out of all measure increases because we have been yours and so shall continue even in the fiery day of tryal Protect us we beseech you then upon all your former promises or if that be not sufficient for the sakes of those that lost their Estates with you many of which are now fallen asleep But if this be still too weak we must conjure you by the sight of this bloody Catalogue which contains the names of your murthered Friends and Relations who in the heat of the Battle perchance saved many of your lives even with the joyful lofs of their own Sir in answer to this Paragraph you oblige us to speak plainer what before we only intimated to you It was the policy of the Rebels in the beginning of the late War to harrass the Papists in all parts of the Kingdom One Reason of it was to make his Majesty Odious for the Papists being his Subjects and having none but him to fly to it was certain he would do what he could to Protect them and this would make many Zealous People believe that what the Rebels pretended was true viz. that his Majesty was a Friend to Popery Another Reason was to enrich themselves with their Spoils and to invite the Needy Rabble with a Prospect of Booty among which if they found a string of Beads or a Crucifix it serv'd them upon both Accounts both to fill their Pockets and to justifie the Cause By this Means you were driven into his Majesties Garrisons where besides those that Voluntarily offer'd themselves to his Service many of you were Necessitated to it for a subsistance and many more of you did not serve him at all but only shrowded your selves under his Protection Whereas the Protestant Royallists had no such Necessity for they might have been welcome to the Rebels to do as They did or they might have been Permitted to live quietly at their home But they chose to do otherwise and were hated the more for it by the Rebels because they preferr'd their duty before those Considerations From this account of the Motives that brought us together it is easie to Judge how far we are in Debt to one another First As for them which lost their Estates with us We remember those things were alledged in their Defence which we would have been loth to have admitted in ours But possibly it was not their Fault that these things were Alledg'd nor was it to our Advantage that they were not Accepted For the Rebels having devour'd these Gentlemens Estates fell to ours with the more Colour and never the less Appetite In your Catolague of those Papists which were Slain in the Service you have Omitted some names which we are able to Reckon But perhaps you did this in Design that you might the more excusably Reckon some names that you ought to have Omitted So you begin with my Lord of Carnarvon the onely noble man in your Catalogue who was indeed too negligent of his Religion till he came to be in view of Death But then in his extremities he Refus'd a Priest of yours and Ordered the Chaplain of his Regiment to pray with him If you take this libert of stealing Martyrs we have Reason to wonder that you had not taken in one that would have adorn'd your Cause indeed viz. his Majesty himself since Militiere was not asham'd to publish that that Blessed and Glorious Prince died of your Religion Him alone we might weigh against All that ever was good in your Church But besides we could reckon you a far greater number of Protestants than you pretend to do of Papists that lost their lives also in the Day of Battle They lost them joyfully in hopes to have sav'd his Majesty's Life and 't was an Accession to their Joy if perchance they sav'd any of yours But did they ever intend their sufferings should go for nothing or become Ciphers to yours in the day of Reckoning or that their blood should be made use of to stop the Execution of those Laws for which they shed it Did they think your condition was so deplorable or their own was superfluously fenced and secured against you before the late troubles Pray Sir do not perswade us to believe a thing so