introduce protesting that if he had thought there had been the least sin in the Plot he would not have been of it for all the World and the Reason why he kept it secret was because those who were best able to judge of the Lawfulness of it had been acquainted with it and given way unto it and therefore afterwards he calls it the best Cause The Persons upon whose Authority he so much relied were the Jesuites who asserted the holiness of the Action for Garnet their Superiour had affirmed that it was lawfull and Father Hammond absolved them all after the Discovery when they were in open Rebellion and Greenwell the Jesuite rode about the Countrey to excite as many as he could to joyn with them nay Garnet confessed that Catesby in his name did satisfie the rest of the Lawfulness of the Fact Parsons had kept a Correspondency with that Jesuite to promote it and at the same time not willing to discover it to them and yet desirous of their Prayers ordered the Students of his College at Rome to pray for the Intention of their Father Rectour And after the Discovery Father Hall encouraged some of the Traitors who began to doubt that the Action was unlawfull seeing God had defeated it in so providential a manner telling them that we must not judge of the Cause by the Event that this was no more than what happened to the Eleven Tribes when they went up at first to fight against Benjamin and that the Christians were often defeated by the Turks nay so highly was it approv'd by that Order that not to mention here the Honours done to the Conspiratours since their Deaths several Jesuites gloried in and bragg'd of it for a little before the Discovery Father Flood caused the Jesuites at Lisbon to spend a great deal of Money in Powder on a Festival day to try the force of it and persuaded one John How a Merchant and other Catholicks to go over into England and expect their Redemption there And Father Thompson was wont afterwards to boast to his Scholars at Rome how oft his Shirt was wetted with digging under the Parliament House And that the Pope himself was concerned in the Design is more than probable for it is confessed by a Jesuite that there were three Bulls granted by him which should have been published if the Conspiracy had succeeded and Sir Everard Digby hath left it under his hand that it was not the Pope's mind that any Stirs should be hindered which were undertaken for the Catholick Cause The Pope's carriage after the Discovery is another shrewd Argument that he was privy to the Plot for he not only made no Declaration either by Word or Writing in abhorrence of it but when Greenway one of the Conspirators escaped to Rome he advanced him to the Dignity of Penitentiary and †Gerard another was a Confessour at St. Peters in the same City This execrable Conspiracy appeared so horrid and unworthy not only of religious Men but contrary to humane Nature that sixteen of the Students under the Jesuites at Rome forsook the College and some of them renounced the Roman Church and Mr. Copley who had been a Priest some years as appears by his Reasons one of sound Learning and judgment assures us that it was one of the Causes of his Conversion Yet were there many found among the Romanists who justified the Design hardly any condemning it Thus the same Gentleman professes that though some termed it an inconsiderate Act yet he could never meet with any one Jesuite who blamed it The Conspiratours justified themselves and even at their deaths would acknowledge no fault And when Faux and Winter were admitted to discourse together in the Tower they affirmed they were sorry that no body set forth a Defence or Apology for the Action but yet they would maintain the Cause at their Deaths nay there was one who had the hardiness to attempt to justifie the Design from the imputation of Cruelty because both Seeds and Root of an evil Herb must be destroyed And when some of the Plotters escaped to Callis the Governour assured them of the King's Favour and that though they lost their Country they should be received there they replyed That the loss of their Country was the least part of their Grief but their sorrow was that they could not bring so brave a Design to perfection And notwithstanding Garnet was so deep in the Conspiracy yet Mr. Wilson placed him among the Martyrs in his English Martyrology and it is affirmed by one who liv'd among them that he and Campion are beatified by the Pope which is the next degree to Canonization and that every one of them is painted in the Jesuites Churches with the Title of Blessed Father and we are assured that Garnet's Picture was set up in their Church at Rome among their Martyrs several years after and St. Amour a Doctour of Sorbon found his Pictures commonly sold at Rome in the year 1651. with this Inscription Father Henry Garnet hang'd and quarter'd at London for the Catholick Faith by which they shew themselves either Approvers of the Design to that degree as to count it a point of their Faith or else they must appear Deceivers of the People and Slanderers of the English Nation in affirming that he dyed for his Religion when he justly suffered for the most hellish Conspiracy that was ever laid yet Delrio and Gordon two Jesuites went farther the first in Prosecution of his Determination in the point which we mentioned before compares him to Dionysius the Areopagite the latter placing him in Heaven desires him to intercede there for the conversion of England and it was once publickly prayed in Louvain O holy Henry Intercede for us But they had designs elsewhere at the same time that this their holy Martyr was promoting their Cause in England King Henry of France his Life was so burthensome to the Jesuites that they were impatient so that Father Coton the King's Confessour or rather Hostage for his Society to be satisfied in the point wrote down several questions which he had propounded to a Maid said to be possessed one of which was how long the King should live which is a capital Crime in itself For as Tertullian long since argued who hath any business to make such an Enquiry except he hath designs against his Prince or hath some hopes of advancement by his death And as busie was the Pope Paul the Fifth for the advancement of the Roman Cause he fell out with the Duke of Savoy this Year for presenting an Abbey to Cardinal Pio and to shew his Authority over Princes and States which is a kind of deposing them and clear Evidence of Popish Principles when the Commonwealth of Luca made an Edict against the Protestants though he liked the thing yet he pretended they
was to be cut off by the Spaniards but these Designs being discovered as also another Plot to seize the King in the Abby of St. Germains their hopes were disappointed in which Conspiracies Cardinal Pellevee a French man then at Rome was so deeply concerned that the King ordered his Revenues to be seized and distributed to the Poor But His Majesty going from Paris Anno 1578 they proposed the seizing of the City in his absence the Duke of Guise designing to secure the King in the Countrey and for the exciting those rebellious Spirits to some Action the Preachers at Paris generally vented nothing but Sedition affirming that the King was a Tyrant and an enemy to the Church and People and when the King sent to apprehend one of these furious Leaguers he retired into the house of one Hatte a Notary where Bussy and his men fought in his defence against the King's Officers headed by the Lieutenant Civil And the Sorbonne Doctours made a Decree That Princes might be deposed from their Government if they did not what became them as the charge taken away from a negligent Guardian And that there might want no Encouragement the Pope presented the Duke of Guise the Head of the Rebels with a rich Sword thereby declaring his approbation of his Proceedings The same year Sir William Stanley being made Governour of Deventer Anno 1587 and Rowland York of Zutphen for the Queen they betrayed both these places to the Spaniard upon which the former beginning to sink in his Reputation lest the sense of his Treasons should put him upon thoughts of returning to his Loyalty Dr. Allan afterwards Cardinal wrote to him and his traiterous Accomplices telling them that the Queen being deposed by the Pope could make no just War and all her Subjects were bound not to serve or obey her in any thing And in another of his Books he affirms That God had not sufficiently provided for our Salvation or the Preservation of his Church if there were no way to restrain or deprive Apostate Kings Therefore saith he let no man marvel that in case of Heresie the Sovereign loseth his Superiority and Right over his People and Kingdom And now we are come to the Year Eighty eight Anno 1588 wherein as the Conspirators acted more publickly having prepared all things ready for their designed Subversion of the Government and being aided by that Armado of the Spaniards which they vainly thought invincible so the Divine Providence as openly declared against them notwithstanding their Navy was blessed by the famous Nun of Lisbon and the Assistance given by the fiery Pope who published his Crusado as against the Turks and promised to contribute a Million of Gold to which he added the Apostolical Benediction covenanting that the Crown of England should be held as feudatary to the See of Rome and for encouragement to those who should assist his Cause he gave plenary Indulgences to them all neither did he stop here but having provided for the Invaders by securing them of Money and Heaven he thundred out his Bull against the Queen whereby he deprived her again of her Dominions confirming the Censures of Pope Pius and Gregory his Predecessours commanding all under penalty of God's Wrath to render her no obedience or assistance and enjoining them to aid the Spaniards against her concluding all with declaring it both lawful and commendable to lay hands on her and granting a full Pardon to all Undertakers To second which Bull Cardinal Allen advanced to that Dignity the year before published a Book at Antwerp wherein he enlarges upon the Bull and tells the World that it was at the vehement desire of some English men that the Pope engaged the Spaniard and appeared in the Cause himself This Book is said to be written by one Parsons though it was owned by the Cardinal and therein it is affirmed That the Roman Catholicks in England were destitute of Courage and erroneous in Conscience or else they had never suffered Her Majesty to reign so long over them The way thus prepared the Spanish Armado put to Sea while the Prince of Parma was preparing a great Army in Flanders where the Earl of Westmorland and the Lord Pagit and Sir William Stanley lay with seven hundred English ready to be transported and the hopes of the Romanists came nothing short of what was to be expected in men elevated by such great Preparations insomuch that the Jesuites at Rome had appropriated several Palaces in London to themselves and were so sure of Success that they would have had Te Deum sung in the College Church for joy upon the news of the Spaniards being arrived in the narrow Seas and the secular Priests acknowledge the like Disposition in the Party here We had some of us greatly approved the said Rebellion many of our Affections were knit to the Spaniard In all these Plots none were more forward than many of us that were Priests With the same zeal towards the Action were the foreign Clergy actuated among whom Johannes Osorius the Jesuite preached two Sermons in Defence of the Attempt and in Commendation of the Spaniards for thus fighting against Hereticks in one of which his Confidence of the Success transported him so far as to give Thanks for the Victory but he and his Party trusted too much in the Arme of Flesh they thought themselves so powerfull that they forgot one that was above them who made that terrible Fleet the scorn of the world and so protected the just Cause of the Queen and assisted her Navy that most of that Armado perished in the Sea or were taken or burnt so vain a thing it is to forget and fight against the Almighty who blessed where the Pope cursed and turned the Harangues of the Thanksgiving-Jesuite into three Sermons of Humilâ—ation for so great a Disappointment of the Papal Designs and the entire Destruction of its strongest Forces In the beginning of the year several Missionaries were sent into Scotland to get the Assistance of the Papists there The Lord Maxwell actually took the Field with a small Party who were defeated The Lord Bothwell secretly listed Soldiers and Collone Sempill arriving at Leith in order to the Design was seized but soon rescued by the Earl of Huntley Yet could not these wonderfull Disappointments work any remorse in the Papists who still laboured by means of the Jesuite Holt and others to persuade the King of Spain to another Invasion which Parma comforted the Romanists in Scotland with promises of effecting and sent them ten thousand Crowns to prepare matters against the next Spring As busie were the Leaguers in France prosecuting their intended Rebellion with all diligence the Duke of Guise and his Council resolved to put the King in a Monastery in order to which when he went his usual Processions in the time of Lent they designed to seize him
but being prevented by a Discovery another Resolution was agreed on to secure his Person at his return from Bois de Vincennes slenderly accompanied but failing in this also the Duke of Guise came to Paris contrary to the King 's express Order where he was received with great joy and soon after his Party being numbred and found considerable he openly rebelled barricadoing the Streets and forcing the King to flie who made his Escape with very few Attendants Soon after the King of Spain sent six hundred thousand Crowns to the Rebels and the Pope by solemn Letters applauded the Duke's Zeal compared him to the Maccabean Heroes and exhorted him to go on as he had begun but here the insignificancy of the Pope's Blessing again appeared the Duke of Guise being soon after slain at Blois and so receiving the just Reward of his continued Rebellions Thus were the Designs of wicked men who prostituted the holy Name of Religion to serve their Lusts baffled and defeated both in their Attempts against the incomparable Queen Elizabeth and the French King as also in a Plot against the K. of Navarre which by the same Divine Providence was this year discovered But the Scotch Papists were so possessed with Spanish Promises Anno 1589 and influenced by their Gold and the persuasions of Holt Creighton and other Jesuites that several Noblemen conspired to seize the King afterwards King James the First of England at his Palace in Edinburg where Huntley coming before the others was upon Suspicion apprehended which terrified the rest but being set at liberty joined himself to the Earl of Crawford and others in open Rebellion entred Aberdeen but were so terrified by the approach of the Royal Army that they retreated were taken and after Tryall imprisoned And here I find such an Account of the Conversions made by the Jesuites in Scotland as fully confirms the Observation made before of their Design in their diligent Endeavours to make Proselytes For Mr. Bruce the chief Agent for the Spaniards in his Letter to the D. of Parma commending the Zeal of the Missionaries in Scotland tells him that they had converted the Earls of Arroll and Crawford who were very desirous to advance the Catholick Faith and Spanish Interest in this Island and resolved to follow entirely the Directions of the Fathers Jesuites whence it appears their main design is to enlarge their Empire for as the same Gentleman affirms no sooner any person of Quality is converted by them but they forthwith encline and dispose their affections to the Service of the King of Spain as a thing inseparably conjoined with the advancement of true Religion in this Countrey so that by the Confession of this great Man Popery and Treason were inseparable at that time the Romanists being so in love with it that they made their Address to the broken Fleet of the Spaniards the last year to land what Forces they had several great Persons being ready to receive them And the two new Noble Converts wrote to the Duke of Parma testifying their entire devotednes to the Spanish Interest Nor was Scotland alone thus infected for in England the Earl of Arundell was this year tried and dyed in the Tower who rejoiced at the Spaniards coming prayed for their Success and exceedingly grieved at their Overthrow And the Jesuite Parsons prevailed to have a Seminary wherein to instruct Youth in such treasonable Principles as his own founded at Valedolyd But though this Island was sufficiently pestered this year by the Papal Agents and Factours for Rebellion yet were we favourably dealt with in comparison of the Treasons and Insurrections in France against Henry the Third a Prince of their own Communion who after the Death of the Duke of Guise was opposed by an almost universal Rebellion the Priests calling on their Auditours to swear to revenge the Duke's Death and railing with all manner of virulency against the King insomuch that Father Lincestre affirmed that if he were at the Altar and the Eucharist in his hand he would not scruple in that very place to kill him The Rebels styl'd him Tyrant Heretick and to have his Picture or to call him King was crime enough to deserve death they threw down his Arms and Statues and practised all sort of Magick Incantations and Charms to hasten his death The Parisians wrote to the Pope desiring to be absolved from their Allegiance with several other requests of the same nature and in their Letters to the Cardinals styled their Sovereign The late King of France and sent Agents to Rome giving them among other Instructions Orders to desire the Pope not to entertain or hear the King's Ambassadours and Messages and to excommunicate all that join with him and having chosen the Duke of Mayenne for their General would have had him take the Title of King but he refused it yet they broke the King 's great Seal and made a new one To these the City of Lyons joined affirming that Kings ought to be resisted and they will resist the King in conjunction with the Holy Union to whom the Parisians sent a Letter exhorting them to defend their Religion c. against that prodigal perjured cruel and murthering Prince the Duke of Mayenne refusing to have any Peace or admit so much as of a Truce and prosecuting the War with the utmost vigour To these Attempts and Perseverance in them they were encouraged by the Sorbon Doctours who in a Decree made Jan. 7. 1589. resolved That the People were freed from their Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity and that they may legally and with a safe Conscience take Arms for the Defence of the Roman Religion against the wicked Counsels and Practices of the King Which Decree they ordered to be sent to the Pope for his Confirmation and this they affirm was concluded on and resolved by an entire consent of the whole Faculty not one dissenting And with the same Zeal and no more Loyalty they licensed a Book which asserted that the King ought to be assassined affirming that there was nothing in it contrary to the Roman Church To promote which they concluded that the King ought to be no longer prayed for declaring all such of the Body as should not agree to this to be guilty of Excommunication and deprived of the Prayers and Privileges of the Faculty And that there might remain no badg of Royalty to put them in mind of their Duty the Cordeliers struck off the Head of the King's Picture which was in their Church and the Jacobins defaced those in their Cloisters But this was done after the Pope had once more publickly owned the Rebels and their Cause who by his Bull asserted his Power of Rule over all Kingdoms and Princes of the Earth proceeded to admonish the King to release the Cardinal of Bourbon and Archbishop of Lyons in thirty days and within sixty days to make
was encouraged and persuaded to that horrid Fact This Pillar as appears by the date of the Inscriptions was not erected till the following year however having such a relation to their banishment which was decreed the 29th of December 1594. I thought it most proper to give an account of it in this place One would think that if any Fact would render men ashamed this murtherous Attempt was so horrid as to make those concerned in it blush but so far were they from that that Francis Veron a Jesuite wrote an Apology for the Murtherer calling the Enterprise a most holy most humane most laudable and worthy Act that it is acceptable to God and conformable to all Laws and Decrees of the Church and in the same Book he extolls Clement that stabbed the former King Thus Fruitfull were the French Romanists in their Contrivances of Rebellion and Murther and as willing were their Brethren in these Nations to promote Enterprises of the same nature for Tir-Oen in Ireland continued in the Rebellion which he began the year before but distrusting his own power submitted himself to the Lord Deputy yet the very same Month he rebelled again several Provinces revolting to him by which accession of Forces he grew very powerfull And in Scotland the Noblemen who were imprisoned and condemned for their Insurrection the last year having been pardoned by the King took Arms again being assisted with Money from the Spaniards and defeated the King's Forces under the Earl of Argyle though much superiour in number to them but were at length reduced so low that they begged leave to depart the Land which was granted them so promising to enterprise no more against the King they left the Kingdom Bothwell the chief of them went to Naples where he lived miserably the rest about three years after got their Pardons and returned home Yet were not these all the Popish Enterprises upon the Estates and Persons of Princes which were discovered this year for I find that about this time they employed Le Four and others to murther Prince Maurice of Nassaw General of the Forces of the United Provinces But the indefatigable Romanists Anno 1595 though so often disappointed would once more apply themselves to the Spaniard to favour their cause in England who to correspond with their Desires and satisfie his own Ambition sent Diego Brocher upon the English Coast who with four Gallies put into Mounts Bay in Cornwall fired St. Paul's Church and three small Fish Towns and this was all the King of Spain made of his vast expences and preparations against England Tyr-Oen having the two last years strengthned himself Anno 1596 writes this year to the King of Spain desiring him not to give ear to those who affirmed that he design'd any Accommodation with the English assuring him that he was resolved never to submit to or have any Treaty with them About the same time the Jesuites at London had laid a Plot to seize the Tower and keep it till the Spaniards arrived to their Assistance in one of their Letters from their Correspondents in Spain dated June the 20th 1596. they are put in hopes that the Spanish Armada should be with them about the August following cautioning them to advise all the Romanists of the Design before-hand and Proclamations were ready Printed in Spain to be dispersed at their Arrival here and the better to secure the Spaniards landing in Scotland the Conspiratours fortified the Isle of Elsay in the Western Seas for their Reception but were surprized before they had proceeded far so the Enterprize miscarried And now we are come to the last Conspiracy that hath been discovered against the Life of Queen Elizabeth which was the attempt of Edward Squire a Servant in her Stables to whom Walpoole Anno 1597 the Jesuite gave a very strong Poison which Squire undertook to press out upon the Pommel of her Saddle but before he could bring himself to undertake so horrid an Action he had several conflicts in his own mind which the Jesuite perceiving told him That the Sin of Backsliding did seldom obtain pardon and if he did but once doubt of the lawfulness or merit of the Act it was enough to cast him down to Hell exhorting him to go through with it †for if he failed he would commit an unpardonable Sin before God and at parting after having bless'd him he used these words My Son God bless thee and make thee strong be of good courage I pawn my Soul for thine and being either dead or alive assure thy self thou shalt have part of my Prayers Thus satisfied with the Jesuites he upon the first opportunity poisoned the Pommel of the Queens Saddle but it pleased God the Poison had not the expected effect upon which the Jesuites not hearing of her Death in some time suspected Squire of Unfaithfulness and got him under-hand accused of some Design against the Queen upon which being apprehended he confessed all and was executed But Tyrone created more trouble to the Queen in Ireland where daily he encreased his strength took fortified Places from the English and in several Skirmishes got the better of the Queens Forces And continuing his Rebellion Anno 1598 slew Sir Henry Bagnall and routed the English under his Command took the Fort of Black-water and in it great store of Ammunition and Arms and created James Fitz-Thomas Earl of Desmond and got several Advantages over the Forces of the Kingdom In England Anthony Rolston was employed by the Jesuite Creswell to prepare things for an Invasion which the Spaniard intended to make very suddenly in order to which a Fleet was prepared and a Proclamation drawn up by the Admiral justifying the Action and declaring his Intention to be to reduce these Kingdoms to the Obedience of the Catholick Roman Church This year also was apprehended in Holland one Peter Pan a Cooper of Ipres who confess'd That his Design was to murther Prince Maurice of Nassaw that the Jesuites of Daway for his encouragement promised to make his Son a Prebend and the Provincial gave him his Blessing in these Words Friend go thy ways in peace for thou goest as an Angel under God's safeguard and protection But almost innumerable were the Conspiracies against King Henry of France against whom after Mayenne and all others had submitted the Dukes of Aumale and Mercent continued obstinate refusing to acknowledge him and the Pope's Agent at Brussels first employed Ridicove a Dominican of Ghent to murther the King assuring him That the Pope and Cardinals approved of the Action but he after two Journeys into France about it was apprehended and executed confessing That the daily Sermons he had heard in praise of Clement who stabb'd the former King and was esteemed a Martyr among them had so enflam'd him that he resolv'd to follow his steps Besides this Man one Arger of the same Order
undertook the same Exploit to whom the Pope's Agent added Clement Odin another Son of St. Dominick but God defeated all their Designs and preserv'd that great King's Life some years longer In the mean while Tir Oen continued his Rebellion in Ireland Anno 1599 having received Assistance from the Spaniard and a Plume of Phoenix Feathers from the Pope and the new Earl of Desmond wrote two Letters to the King of Spain begging his Assistance to drive the English out of Ireland and to advance the Catholick Cause which he was resolved to maintain What effect these and other Addresses had we shall see presently But Tir Oen not resting wholly on the Spaniard Anno 1600 wrote a very earnest Letter to the Pope subscribed by himself Desmond and others Desiring his Holiness to issue out a Bull against the Queen as Pius the Fifth and Gregory the Thirteenth had done which they press him to doe because the Kingdom belonged to his Holiness and next under God depended solely on him In the mean while the Rebellion went on and daily conflicts happen'd but lest the tediousness or danger of the War should discourage them Pope Clement the Eighth sent a Letter directed to all the Prelates Noblemen and People of Ireland wherein he owns That they had taken up Arms by his advice for recovering their Liberty and opposing the Hereticks commends the Fitz-Geralds who headed former Insurrections highly extolls Tyrone and grants a full remission of all Sins to him and his Assistants Yet could not this Concurrence and Benediction of the Pope preserve their strength from being broken by the Lord Mountjoy who this year arrived Lord Deputy in Ireland insomuch that several of the chief Rebels submitted but at the same time sent to Rome to crave Pardon for their outward compliance but Tyrone continued obstinate which forced the Lord-Deputy to proclaim him Traitor setting a Reward of Two thousand Marks upon his Head however the Spaniard sent a Ship to his Relief laden with Arms and Monies as an earnest of more Supplies It is certain from the Confession of the Traitors themselves that the foundation of the Gun-power Treason was laid the following year but it is very probable that there was a rough draught of it made in this as appears by the Case resolv'd by Delrio the Jesuite whether if one discover in Confession that he hath laid Gun-powder under an House by which the House is to be blown up and the Prince destroyed the Priest ought to reveal it upon which he concludes that he ought not it was a Case that had never happened before and so not likely to have been thought of by a Person not cautious of such a Design and this Resolution Garnet after served himself of alledging That all the Knowledge he had of the Treason was communicated to him in Confession which he was bound not to disclose upon any Account whatsoever Soon after his last Letter in Tyrone's behalf Anno 1601 the same Pope sent his Breves into England commanding all the Roman Catholicks not to admit after the Queen's death any Prince whatsoever unless he would bind himself by Oath to promote the Roman Catholick Religion to his utmost Power In prosecution of which knowing that King James the next Successour was a firm Protestant several Designs were formed against his Life Hay and Hamilton two Papists were sent into Scotland to stir up the Jesuites there who were received and cherished notwithstanding the King had by his Proclamation forbidden any to harbour them affirming that if any did he would look upon them as Designers against his Life But while these Jesuites and others of the same stamp were endeavouring to prepare matters for a Rebellion one Mowbray Son to a Scotch Nobleman undertook to destroy the King but was apprehended at London and sent Prisoner into Scotland by the Queen and about the same time the Duke of Tuseany by some Letters he had intercepted discovered another Design against his Life which was to be effected by Poison an Account of which he sent immediately to the King by Sir Henry Wotton then in his Court with several Antidotes against the Poison if it should be given him notwithstanding all his diligence to prevent it During these Designs in Scotland the Pope sent a Letter to Tyrone calling his Rebellion an Holy League assuring him that he was exceedingly pleased at their Courage and Zeal extolling his Piety exhorting him to go on as he had begun and praying that God would fight for him promising to write to all Catholick Princes to assist him and to send a Nuncio to reside with him and giving his Blessing to him and all his Followers who should hazard themselves for the Catholick Cause Besides which he sent a Breve to the whole Body of the Irish Nation requiring them to join with Tyr-Oen against the Queen and if we may believe Don Juan de Aquila General of the War in Ireland for defence of the Faith he went farther than this and excommunicated and as far as in him lay deposed Her Majesty This Spanish Commander arrived at Kings all with a great Fleet and began to fortifie the Town and published a Declaration affirming That the War made against Queen Elizabeth by his Master in Conjunction with Tyr-Oen was just She having been excommunicated and her Subjects absolved from their Fidelity by several Popes exhorting them that now Christ's Vicar commanded them they would in obedience to him take Arms protesting that if any continued in obedience to the English they should be prosecuted as Hereticks and hatefull Enemies of the Church Soon after Don Alonso del Campo landed with a Supply of Soldiers but suddenly after his arrival was taken Prisoner the Army of the Spaniards and Rebells in conjunction routed and the former glad to be permitted to return home Yet were the English Papists as diligent as ever to introduce the Spaniards and therefore dispatched away Thomas Winter to trie what could be done for their assistance who were ready to sacrifice their Lives for the Catholick Cause and to assure the King of Spain that if he would send over an Army they would have in a readiness Fifteen hundred or two thousand Horses for the Service being introduced by the means of the Jesuite Creswell the Duke of Lerma assured him of Assistance and the Count de Miranda told him that his Master would bestow two hundred thousand Crowns for that use and would have an Army in England by the next Spring With this gratefull Account of the posture of Affairs he returned Anno 1602 and great preparations were made that they might be ready against the arrival of the Forces but all their measures were broken by the Queen's death yet was Mr. Wright sent into Spain and Guy Faux after him but the King refused to meddle having sent his Ambassadour to conclude a
several Priests were found among the dead at Edghill Battle but the Endeavours of his Holiness to encrease those miserable Confusions were managed with all imaginable Secresie while the Irish were openly commended by him and assured of his Prayers for their success in his Breve to Owen O Neal dated Octob. 8. 1642. and so willing was he to lay hold on all occasions for the exercising his Deposing Power that because the Prince of Parma offended him he declared him to have incurred the greater Excommunication and deprived him of all his Dominions and Dignities But not content with sending the forementioned Breve to O Neal Anno 1643 his Holiness granted a Bull of plenary Indulgence May 25. 1643. to all the Catholicks in Ireland Anno 1644 who joined in the Rebellion which was prosecuted as fiercely as the Pope could desire and a defence of it set forth by an Irish Jesuite in Portugal Anno 1645 though the Title-page mentions Franckfort who asserts That the English Kings have no Title or Right to Ireland that if they had yet it is the Duty of the Irish to deprive them of their Rights seeing they are declared Hereticks Anno 1607 and Tyrants that this Power of deposing such Princes is inherent in every State but if the Authority of the Holy See be added to that Power none but a Fool or an Heretick will deny what the Doctours of Divinity and of the Civil and Canon Law do generally teach and which is confirmed by Reasons and Examples And so far did the Pope approve of the Contents of this Book that when soon after its publication the Irish had submitted to the King and promised to assist him in his Wars His Holiness by his Nuncio took upon him to be their General absolved them from their Oaths and imprisoned and threatened the Lives of those who had promoted the peace and desired to return to the King's Subjection which renewed the Rebellion again and brought infinite Miseries on that bigotted Nation At the same time above an hundred of the Romish Clergy were sent into England by Order from Rome who the better to promote the Divisions there were instructed in several Trades both handicraft and others these upon their arrival were ordered to disperse themselves and give Intelligence every month to their Superiours abroad accordingly they listed themselves in the Parliament Army and kept a constant correspondence with their Brethren Anno 1609 who for the same end served under the King The next year many of these Missioners were in consultation with those in the King's Army to whom they shewed their Bulls and Licenses for taking part with the Parliament about the best methods to advance their Cause Anno 1647 and having concluded that there was no way so effectual as to dispatch the King some were sent to Paris to consult the Faculty of Sorbonne about it who return'd this Answer That it is lawfull for Roman Catholicks to work Changes in Governments for the Mother Church's advancement and chiefly in an Heretical Kingdom and so they might lawfully make away the King which Sentence was confirmed to the same Persons by the Pope and his Council upon their going to Rome to have his Holiness's Resolution in the Point And now those of them who had before followed the King after his flight from Oxford agreed to desert the Royal Cause and as one of them inform us to ingratiate themselves with the Enemy by acting some notorious piece of Treachery and Father Carr who went by the name of Quarter-Master Laurence declared that he could with a safer Conscience join with and fight for the Round-heads than the Cavaliers in prosecution of which Resolve they dispersed themselves into all the Garisons of the King's Party to endeavour the Revolt of the Soldiers to the Parliament in which they succeeded as they had projected my Authour being one of those who seduced the Wallingford Horse from their Obedience and in Scotland the Lord Sinclare a pretended Presbyterian but a real Papist commanded a Regiment of his own Religion and it being a Maxim receiv'd among them That the surest way to promote the Catholick Cause was to weaken the Royal Party and advance the other they bent all their Endeavours to expedite and accelerate the King's Death and His Majesty having in the Treaty of the Isle of Wight consented to pass five strict Bills against Popery the Jesuites in France at a general meeting there presently resolved to take off his Head and this His Majesty had notice of by an Express from thence but two days before his removal from the Isle of Wight This Year Mr. Cressey published the Reasons of his leaving the Church of England and turning Romanist wherein obviating the Objection so often made against the Romanists about their rebellious Principles and Practices he sets down a Declaration which he affirms that they were all ready to subscribe and which differs but little from our Oath of Allegiance But here we may see what Credit can be given to the representations of their Doctrines which their Writers study to make as favourable as possible For though Mr. Cressy thought himself a good Representer in this point yet his Superiours were of another mind and therefore that Edition was soon bought up and in the next the Profession of Obedience quite left out and that this was not an omission of the Printer but the action of his Superiours we are assured by an honourable Person from Mr. Cressy's own mouth and we shall find in a little time that the same form hath been condembed by the Pope himself But the ensuing year Anno 1648 as it was dolefull to the English Nation so it brought great disturbances to the most potent Princes of Europe in France the Parisians rose in Arms shot at the Lord Chancellour Sequier and wounded his Daughter barricadoed the Streets and forced the King to set the Counsellour Broussell and other factious Persons at Liberty And at the Treaty at Osnebrugh when by several Articles of the Peace the possession of Church Lands were assured to the Protestant Princes the Pope displeased with it took upon him to make void the Peace by a special Bull declaring all those Articles unjust and of no Force and commanding the Princes concerned to observe his Bull in which he renews his Claim to the superiority over Princes and particularly the Emperour not only by the Bull in general but by asserting that ‖ the Electours of the Empire were established by the Authority of the Bishop of Rome But to come to their Contrivances in England where when several Papists had subscribed to some Propositions importing the unlawfulness of murthering Princes and breaking Faith with Hereticks and that the Pope hath no power to absolve Subjects from their Allegiance the very same with the Declaration published the year before by Mr. Cressy this Action was condemned at Rome