forth a Declaration affirming That Henry of Bourbon could not be lawfull King because he was an Heretick and therefore they cannot be blamed for opposing him in obedience to the Pope's Bulls and Admonitions to which his Holiness's Legate added another assuring the Romanists that the Pope would never consent to the admission of an Heretick that such who assisted the King were in a desperate Condition and exhorting all to be obedient to the Pope and when the Estates were met he proposed that all should take an Oath never to acknowledge the King though he should be converted to their Church nay so great was his Fury that when the Romanists with the King sent to the States some Propositions for a Treaty he declared the very Proposals to be Heretical and by his influence the Doctours of Sorbon asserted the same as intimating a declared Heretick might be King but the Proposition was accepted and a Conference agreed on but with this Clause in the Answer to the Proposal That to fight against an Heretical King is not Treason yet the Legate entred his Protestation against the meeting and the Parisians attempted to make the young Duke of Guise King Nor were things better in the Royal Army where the Romanists whom the King most trusted were falling from him upon which resolving to change his Religion his Intensions were no sooner published than the Legate forbad all Bishops to absolve him pronouncing all that should be assisting to his reception into the Roman Church excommunicated and deprived and all their Actions in that Affair null and void But hower the King was reconciled and sent his Ambassadours to Rome but the Pope who had formerly refused to admit any Message from him prohibited their Entrance neither would he receive the Prelates that absolved him In the mean while the Leaguers stormed at the King's reconciliation and set themselves to destroy him by private Treason now Force could doe no good for which purpose one Barriere or Le Barr was employed who confessed that the Curate of St. Andrews of Arts in Paris commended the Design telling him he would merit Heaven and Glory by the Act and recommended him to Varade Rectour of the Jesuites College who affirmed that the Enterprise was most holy exhorting him with good constancy and courage to confess himself and receive the B. Sacrament and then leading him to his Chamber gave him his Blessing He mentioned also another Preacher of Paris who counted it meritorious Thus encouraged he bought a knife seven Inches long and went to St. Denis where the King then was but being discovered was executed affirming at his death that there were two black Friars that went from Lyons upon the same Account It is probable the Preacher at Paris mentioned in his Confessions was Father Commolet the Jesuite who two days before this Barriere's Execution at St. Denis in a Sermon at Paris which yet continued obstinate against the King exhorted his Auditours to have Patience for they should see in a few days a wonderfull Miracle of God But the next Year Paris was reduced to its obedience Anno 1594 soon after which the University endeavoured the Expulsion of the Jesuites accusing them of all manner of Injustice of the ruine of Families and many other Crimes but insisting particularly on their Treasons charging them with being abettors to the Spaniard Fomenters of Civil Wars and always ready to assassinate the French King whom they omitted to pray for while they extolled the Spaniard that they taught and asserted the Pope's deposing Power that they refused to give Absolution to several Persons of Quality because they would not renounce the King that they had been the cause of the Death of Twenty-eight Barons Fifty Noble-men of France and above Five hundred Monks and Friars in the Tercera Islands and had refused to renounce the League Which Spirit of Rebellion was so strong amongst the Leaguers that a little before the Seduction of Paris the Pope's Legate published a Declaration exhorting all Catholicks to oppose the King assuring them that the Pope would never grant him Absolution and upon the Rendition of Aix to his Majesty the famous Genebrard was so vext at the Loyalty of the Place that he left it resolving not to live among the Royalists nay when the King entered Paris the Cardinal Pellivee lying upon his Death-bed very angrily told those about him That he hoped the Arms of the Spaniards and good Catholicks would yet drive the Huguonots out of Paris And Hay a Scotch Jesuite affirmed That if the King passed by their College he would leap from the top of it upon him and did not doubt to go directly to Heaven But to return to the Jesuites who finding their Banishment out of the Kingdom thus zealously endeavoured and fearing lest the King to whom they had been such bitter Enemies should consent to it resolved to dispatch him * Francis Jacob one of their Scholars at Bourges had boasted that he would doe it but John Chastel who was bred under them at Paris went farther and with a knife struck the King in the Mouth and beat out one of his Teeth he was immediately apprehended and on Examination confessed That he esteemed it an Act highly conducing to promote Religion and that Father Gueret his Master in the Jesuites School had taught him those Doctrines upon which Sentence of Death was pass'd upon him by which also the Jesuites were banished as Corrupters of Youth Disturbers of the publick Peace Enemies to the King and Kingdom and enjoined to depart the Realm within fifteen days and all their Goods confiscated to be disposed of as the Court should see fit This Sentence was published after the search made in the Jesuites College wherein was found a Book of T. Guignard's which he confessed to be his own writing lamenting that the King was spared in the Parisian Massacre applauding the Murther of King Henry the Third affirming that if the King were shut up in a Monastery he would be treated more gently than he deserved and concluding that if he could not be deposed without force of Arms they ought to be taken up against him for which and his other Treasons he was executed but Gueret Chastell's Master of the same Order was only banished with the rest in memory of which Fact and to the perpetual Ignominy of that Order Chastell's House was demolished and a Pillar erected in the place on one side of which was engraven the Decree of the Court on another a Copy of Verses expressing the Crime and discovering to the World that it was attempted by the Persuasions of the Jesuites on the third another Inscription to the same purpose and on the fourth a summary Account of their banishment and the reasons of it wherein the Jesuites are termed A mischievous and novell sort of superstitious Men and Disturbers of the Nation by whom that young man
the Court of Her Majesties Bench hath no Power to enquire or judge of the Holy Fathers Authority and other Answer they would not make The very same Account with some other particulars is given us by the Secular Priests themselves of the Behaviour of Mr. Campion and the rest some of whom being asked which part they would take if the Pope or any other by his appointment should invade the Realm or which part ought a good Subject to take answered when that case happened they would then consider what they had best doe others that they were not yet resolved what to doe and others positively that if such a Deprivation or Invasion should be made for any Matter of Faith they were then bound to take part with the Pope Nay so zealous was Mr. Campion in defence of that rebellious Doctrine that being visited in Prison by some Gentlemen of Oxford one of them asked him whether he thought the Queen lawfull Heir or no to this he made no Answer but when the question was put whether if the Pope invaded the Land he would take part with him or the Queen he openly replied he would join with the Pope and very earnestly demanded Pen Ink and Paper with which he signed his Resolution which Principle he was so rooted in that he affirmed in the Tower to several Persons of Quality who demanded whether he did acknowledge the Queen to be a lawfull Queen or did believe her deprived of her Right that this Question depends much on the Fact of Pope Pius the Fifth whereof he is no Judge and therefore refused to answer farther The same loyal Doctrines were vented by several other Priests the ensuing year Anno 1582 who affirmed under their Hands to the Commissioners who examined them That the Pope had power to depose Princes and that Her Majesty was not be obeyed against His Holiness's Bull who hath Authority to discharge Subjects of their Allegiance which all of them viz. Kerby Cottom Richardson Ford Shert Johnson Hart and Filbee agreed in two of them only sheltring themselves with this General Assertion That they held as the Catholick Church held Johnson particulary affirming That if the Pope invaded her Majesty upon a civil Account he would take part with Her but if upon a Matter of Faith it was his Duty to assist the Pope In which diligence to poison the Members of their Church these zealous Priests did but follow the Example of their Holy Father who this very year as Mr Gage Agent for the Spanish Match at Rome informs us out of the Records of the Dominican Convent there laid out one hundred fifty two thousand pounds and some odd money for maintaining his Designs here of which Sixty thousand was allotted to foment Disturbances in Scotland and Ireland so very desirous was the Pope to regain his usurped Power over these Nations And it was not long before the end of all that Labour and Charge was found to be the Murther of that excellent Princess which one Sommerville of Elstow in Warwickshire undertook to effect at the instigation of Hall a Priest who finding this desperate young man to waver and that his Resolution was much shaken with the horridness and danger of the attempt Anno 1583 advised him to proceed promising his prayers for good success but the design being discovered Sommerville strangled himself after condemnation But this was not the only Plot which the Enemies of England had laid for its destruction for Throgmorton one of Sommerville's accomplices was the same year discovered having been employed to sound the Havens and procure a list of such Gentlemen in the several Counties as were disposed to joyn the Spanish Forces who were to land under the conduct of the Duke of Guise all which was confessed by Throgmorton before his death Thus we find how vast summs were expended by the Pope which had the same influence in Ireland where Desmond continued so desperately in rebellion that he swore he would rather forsake God than forsake his Men but neither the Pope's blessing nor purse could protect him from that deserved death which after long wandring in a miserable condition he suffered the latter end of this year But though the Pope could not preserve his rebellious instruments from the just punishment of their Treasons yet he would for the encouragement of others doe honour to their memories thus the Rector of the English College of Jesuits at Rome in presence of all the Students sung a Collect of Martyrs in honour of Campion of whose Treasons we gave an account before and his relicks with Sherwin's and others executed for Treason were kept and worshipped by our English Papists And because those positions which were found so usefull for the propagating Sedition Anno 1584 might if trusted only to the Missionaries to instill them into the People by their Sermons and Discourses be in time forgotten and neither believed nor obeyed the Romish Factors considering that Litera scripta manet to provide against the ill consequences which the fearfulness of the Priests or diligence of the State might produce by hindring the preaching of the former caused Gregory Martin's Treatise of Schism to be reprinted this year in which he exhorted the Ladies of the Court to deal with the Queen as Judith did with Holofernes for the Printing of which Carter the Romish Printer was executed and is reckoned among their Martyrs At the same time there was one Harper in Norwich a great Friend of Throgmorton's who was executed the year before who though pretending to be a zealous Puritan preaching with great diligence and fervour kept a constant correspondence with that Traitor among whose Papers was found a Letter in which he desired Throgmorton to let him know how their Friends in Spain and London did correspond and whether that King continued in his purpose that the Engagers might be satisfied and have notice upon this Discovery a Pursuvant was sent to apprehend him but he escaped just as the Officer arrived at Norwich And now was discovered a Design in which the Pope was particularly engag'd if we may believe Parrie's own Confession who in his Travels falling into acquaintance with Palmio a Jesuite told him that he had a great desire to doe something for the Romish Cause in England by whom he was encouraged his Zeal commended and the Lawfulness of Assassinating Her Majesty was maintained but being somewhat dissatisfied the Jesuite recommended him to Campeggio his Holiness's Nuncio at Venice by this means he wrote to Pope Gregory informing him of his Design and desiring a Passport that he might confer of it with his Holiness at Rome in the mean while he went to Paris where he was animated by Thomas Morgan who sollicited the Queen of Scots Affairs when receiving such a Passport as he desired he resolved to kill the Queen if it were warranted by some learned Divines and he could procure a
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
his Submission to His Holiness for the death of the Cardinal of Guise or he would proceed to absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance which so pleased the Leaguers that they reported Stories of God's immediate Judgment against the opposers of this Thundering Bull. But the King's Army pressing the Parisians and having reduced them to the last Extremity they found an instrument for their purpose who was so wrought upon by the fiery Preachers that he resolved to kill the King He was a Jacobin Friar and confessing it to Father Bourgoin Prior of the Convent he encouraged him in it telling him he should be a Saint in Heaven and accounted an holy Martyr by the Church which so emboldened him that with a Knife given him by that Father he stabbed the King into the Belly and was himself slain upon the place This Jaques Clement was accordingly honoured by the Clergy of the League as they had promised his Picture was made and shewed publickly and they were about setting up his Statue in the Churches instead of the King 's and pared off the very ground where he was slain to preserve as Relicks and several Divines preached and wrote in his Praise compared him to Ehud and affirmed he had done a greater work than Judith The Cardinal de Montalto rejoiced at it and the Pope made a long Oration in its Praise and decreed that no Funerals should be celebrated for the King Immediately upon this Murther the Leaguers at Paris would have made the Duke of Mayenne King but he declining it they proclaimed the Cardinal of Bourbon by the name of Charles the Tenth and the Parliament of Tholouse commanded all the Bishops within their Churches to give Thanks to God for this Deliverance and that the first day of August on which the King was slain should be kept for ever in remembrance of that Action and that their Rancour against the King of Navarre might the better appear they forbad any to accept him for their King And not the Leaguers only who had been in open Rebellion against Henry the Third but the Roman Catholicks of his Army refused to obey him any longer unless he would become a Romanist nay there were many of that Party found who absolutely renounced him and joined with the Rebels some few only remaining loyal by which defection of the greatest part of his Army he was forced to raise the Siege for his own Security Things standing in this posture the Pope fearfull lest any Rebellion should be prosecuted without his assistance sent a Legate into France with great Summes of Money for the Leaguers who was accompanied with Bellarmine afterwards Cardinal and a famous Defender of the Deposing Power To encourage them farther Anno 1590 the King of Spain by his Declaration exhorted all to join with him against the Hereticks of France protesting he designed nothing but the advancement of the Catholick Religion and Extirpation of Heresie And the Parisians were so poisoned in their Principles that the City being straitened by the King's Forces and Provisions failing they threw several into the River for murmuring at the hardships they endured About this time the Cardinal of Bourbon their pretended King dyed upon which the States were summoned to meet for the Election of another and for the encouragement of the People the Legate ordered a Procession of all the Religious Orders who to shew their Zeal marched in order armed like Soldiers the Bishop of Senlis leading them and their Relicks carried before them at which the Cardinal Legate was present in his Coach and the Parliament forbad any upon pain of Death to talk of any agreement with the King in which madness the Parliament of Roan had led the way who decreed That whoever joined with the King should be guilty of High Treason and put several Prisoners to death only because they were the King's Servants Nor could all the prodigious straits to which Paris was reduced incline that headstrong People to Obedience the Famine was so great as no Age can shew the like all eatable things were devoured and but one little Dog to be found in all the City which the Dutchess of Montpensier kept for her self and refused two thousand Crowns only for its Brains yet was the Rebels Obstinacy as great as ever accounting those who dyed of Famine Martyrs and continuing as intent upon the War as in their plenty but finding force not successfull they again employed Assassins of whom two Franciscan Friars and a Priest were seized by the King at St. Denis in a Secular Habit who confessed there were three and twenty more besides themselves who had sworn the King's Death at length the City was relieved by the Duke of Parma's Army and the King raising the Siege retired But as we have not hitherto found a Plot without a Priest in it so they contributed all they could to the vigorous resistance which the Leagues made For the Doctours of the Sorbon finding some Propositions spread about the City importing that Henry of Bourbon ought to be King and that the Pope hath no Power of Dominion over Sovereign Princes presently condemned them which Decree was confirmed by the Legate and sworn to by the Bishops and Curates But not content with this the same Faculty on May 7. this year decreed by an unanimous Vote That all Catholicks by divine Law are forbid to admit any Prince that is an Heretick or a favourer of Hereticks That if he should procure an Absolution for his Heresie yet if there be evident danger of his Hypocrisie he is by divine Law to be rejected That whosoever endeavours that he should be King ought to be opposed And then they apply all to Henry of Bourbon affirming That there is evident danger of Hypocrisie and therefore though he should obtain Sentence of Absolution yet the French are obliged to keep him from the Crown and abhor the thoughts of making peace with him That those who favour him are deserters of Religion and remain in continual mortal Sin but such as oppose him every way they can invent do merit very both of God and Man and they who are slain in the Cause are to be reputed Champions for the Faith and shall obtain an everlasting Crown of Martyrdom And soon after they renewed this and their former Decrees and when the City was so very much straitened they wrote a Letter to the Pope complaining that his Legate had not proceeded with severity enough against the King commending Bourgogn and other Rebels who were executed calling them Maintainers and Defenders of the Truth and earnestly supplicating for assistance from his Holiness who besides what Power he exerted by his Legate sent them fifty thousand Crowns for a Supply Thus they went on with an excessive Spleen against the King in France but the Jesuites attempting to doe the same things in Transilvania were expelled the Countrey
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
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
published a Declaration against all that should adhere to the D. of Ormond His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant in that Kingdom upon which my Authour makes this remark that if the Archbishops c. in Ireland will take upon them to declare against the King's Authority where His Majesty hath placed it they assume an Authority to themselves that no other Clergy ever pretended to and declare sufficiently to the King how far they are from being Subjects or intend to pay him any Obedience longer than they are governed in such manner and by such Persons as they think fit to be pleased with But not satisfied with refusing Obedience to the King's Commissioner the Confederates agreed that if compounding with the Parliament should be best for the People they should doe it And presently after the Marquess of Clauricard had at their request taken the Government upon him in his Majesty's Name it was proposed in their Assembly that they might send to the Enemy to treat with them upon surrendring all that was left into their hands Thus did they chuse rather to submit to the Parliament than obey the King for they were not forced to that Submission the army of the Enemy having made no progress at that time neither had it been flusht with any new Success As forward was Father Bret to persuade the Gentlemen who had defended the Castle of Jersey for the King Anno 1651 to renounce the Royal Family and Kingly Government by taking the Engagement affirming that they were not to acknowledge any Supreme but the prevailing Power All this while the Rebellion in France increased the Parisians took Arms designing to seize the King and the Prince of Conde fortified several places and confederated with the Spaniards whom under the Conduct of the Duke of Nemours he called into France to his Assistance with which he maintained the War all this Year to whom the Duke of Orleance joined himself and with all his Interest increased the Party The next year Mr. Tho. Anno 1652 White published his Book of the Grounds of Obedience and Government wherein he asserts That if a Prince governs ill he becomes a Robber and the People may expell him in which case they are not bound by any Promise made to him and that they have no Obligation to endeavour the Restauration of a Prince so dispossessed of his Dominions but rather to hinder it nay though he were wrongfully driven out and such a Prince is absolutely obliged to renounce all Right and Claim to the Government and if he doth not he is worse than an Infidel Thus after their Designs had effected the death of that good King and expulsion of his late and present Majesty they contributed their Endeavours to hinder their return and debauch those who might attempt it yet had some the confidence to commend this Gentleman to his late Majesty though the King knew him too well to take any notice of him That they designed to hinder the Restauration of the King by an absolute compliance with the usurping Power is affirmed by one of their Communion who tells them that they were refractory to the Queen's Desires at Rome for His Majesty's Assistance and that Collonel Hutchinson could discover strange Secrets about their treating with Cromwell And it is certain that in Ireland there were several Precepts granted by the Archbishop of Armagh and others to pray for the success of that Usurper's Forces while Dominick Decupsy a Dominican esteemed a Person of great Holiness and Long the Jesuite asserted that the King being out of the Roman Church it was not lawfull to pray for him particularly or publickly on any other day except Good Fryday as comprehended among the Infidels and Hereticks and then only for the spiritual Welfare of his Soul not for his temporal prosperity The Civil Wars continuing still in France our present Sovereign then Duke of York went into the King's Army and the Princes being straitened called in the Duke of Lorrain who with his Army marched to their Succour so that they kept the Field all this and the ensuing Year Anno 1654. Anno 1654 there was a Discourse written by Benoist de Treglies Collateral of the Council or Regent of the Chancery of Naples in which this Proposition was maintained That when a Pope intends to exercise any Jurisdiction in a Countrey he ought to let his Writs be examined by the temporal Prince that so it may be known whether the Causes and Persons contained therein be of his Jurisdiction Which Proposition having been examined by the Inquisition at Rome at the express command of the Pope that Congregation declared it to be Heretical and Schismatical prohibiting the Book and threatening the severest censures against the Authour The following year affords us a farther evidence of the hopes the Romanists had conceived of the restauration of their Religion here Anno 1655 for Dr. Baily at the end of the Life of Fisher Bishop of Rochester speaking of the Lord Cromwell and the great influence he had upon the proceedings in the beginning of the Reformation expresses their hopes of his Party from the Usurper and his Counsels in these words Who knows but that the Church may be healed of her Wounds by the same Name sit hence the Almighty hath communicated so great a Secret unto Mortals as that there should be such a Salve made known to them whereby the same Weapon that made the Wound should work the Cure Oliva vera is not so hard to be construed Oliverus as that it may not be believed that a Prophet rather than a Herald gave the common Father of Christendom the now Pope of Rome Innocent X. such Ensigns of his Nobility viz. a Dove holding an Olive Branch in her mouth since it falls short in nothing of being a Prophesie and fulfilled but only his Highness running into her Arms whose Embleme of Innocence bears him already in her mouth Three years after this Popish Loyal Flattery Anno 1658 Father Ferrall a Capuchin presented a Treatise to the Cardinals of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide proposing some Methods to revive the Rebellion in Ireland and drive out not only the English but also all the Irish who were descended from the old English Conquerours as not fit to be trusted in so holy a League and about the same time Father Reiley the Popish Primate coming through Brussels refused to kiss the King's Hand though some offered to introduce him And to obtain favour with Richard Cromwell Anno 1659 he alledged that the Irish Natives had no affection to the King and his Family and therefore were fit to be trusted by the Protectour and upon his Arrival in Ireland he made it his business to gain a party there to hinder the King's Restauration promising them great assistance upon which the King gave notice of those Contrivances to Don Stephano de Gamarro the Spanish Ambassadour in Holland so that he was