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 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 so 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 sit 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 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
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 devotedness 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 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 Novarre might the better appear they forbad any to accept him for their King. And not the Leaguers only who had been in open
Parliament Army and kept a constant correspondence with their Brethren 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 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. Cressy 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 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 where by a Congregation it was decreed unlawfull And now in prosecution of the Pope and Sorbon's Sentence the last year that excellent prince King Charles the Martyr was by their contrivances brought to the Block which though they were willing to disown now yet at that time they were very sollicitous to let the World know that they were the promoters of it the Friars of Dunkirk expressed great resentment that the Jesuites would engross to themselves the Glory of that Work whereas they had laboured as diligently and succesfully as any and in several other places the Friars were very jealous lest that Order should rob them of their part of the Honour And the Benedictines were not a little carefull to secure their Land in England from the Jesuites for they thought their return sure upon the King's Death so that the Nuns contended vigorously among themselves who should be Abbesses in their own Countrey At the time of His Majesty's Execution Mr. Henry Spotswood riding casually that way saw a Priest on Horseback in the Habit of a Trouper with whom he was well acquainted flourishing his Sword over his Head in triumph as others did he told Mr. Spotswood that there were at least forty Priests and Jesuites present in the same equipage among whom was Preston who afterwards commanded a Troup of Horse under Cromwell Father Sibthorp in a Letter to Father Metcalfe owns that the Jesuites were contrivers of this murther and that Sarabras was present rejoycing at it one of the Priests flourishing his Sword cryed Now our greatest Enemy is cut off When the News of this Tragedy came to Roan they affirmed that they had often warned hiâ— Majesty that if he did not establish the Romish Religion in England they should be forced to take such courses as would tend to his Destruction and now they had kept their words with him And in Paris a Lady having been perverted from the Reformed Church by a Jesuite upon hearing her Ghostly Father affirm that now the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy by whose Death their Cause was much advanced and therefore she had no reason to lament left that bloudy and rebellious Church and continues a Protestant ever since But though as Secretary Morris affirms there are almost convincing evidences that the Papists Irreligion was chiefly guilty of the murther of that excellent Prince yet we are beholden to the
written above this year but such was the Iniquity of the Times that they would not bear much less permit its then Publication however it s hoped 't is not too late the World in this point to satisfie the only Scope Design and End of this Discourse Advertisement of BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Richard Wilde at the Map of the World in St. Paul's Church-yard THE Child's Monitor against Popery written to preserve the Child of a Noble-man from being seduc'd by his Popish Parents now made publick to prevent others being drawn aside from the Protestant Religion By the Author of the Country Parsons Advice to his Parishioners Price 1. d. The Countrey Parson his Admonition to his Parishioners in Two Parts persuading them to continue in the Protestant Religion with Directions how to behave themselves when any one comes to seduce them from the Protestant Religion By the Authour of The plain Man's Reply to Catholick Missionaries in Two Parts Very fit to be given by Ministers and others to such as shall want such helps Price 2. d. The plain Man's Devotion in Two Parts being a Method of daily Devotion 24to A Defence of the plain Man's Reply to Catholick Missionaries 24to Mr. King Chancellor of St. Patrick's Dublin his full Answer to Peter Manby Dean of London-Derry his pretended Motives to embrace the Romish Religion clearly proving his Considerations were frivolous and groundless and that he had no just cause to leave the Communion of the Church of England 1687. The Missionaries Arts to gain Proselytes discovered worthy the perusal of all Protestants 4to A Defence of the Missionaries Arts being a brief History of the Romanists Plots Insurrections and Treasons carried on to extirpate the Protestant Religion and other evil Designs for the last 600 years wherein is fully proved that the Papists have far exceeded any that can be laid to the Protestant's Charge notwithstanding their false pretences of being free from Disloyalty and Rebellion By the Authour of The Missionaries Arts. 4to 1689. A plain Defence of the Protestant Religion fitted to the meanest Capacity being an Answer to 125 ensnaring Questions often put by the Papists to pervert Protestants from their Holy Religion By the Authour of The Missionaries Arts in 8vo Mr. Shaw's New Syncritical Grammar teaching English Youth the Latine Tongue according to the Rules in the Oxford Grammar 1687. Manuductio in Aedem Palladis quâ utilissima Methodus Authores bonos legendi indigitatur sive Tractatus utilissimus de Usu Authoris By Thomas Horne M. A. formerly chief School master of Tunbridge afterwards of Aeton School near Windsor This Book is highly approved of and recommended by the learned School-Masters to their Scholars for their Instructions not only in Reading good and usefull Authours but also for their Imitation of those excellent Authours recommended by this ingenious Authour who may well be esteemed a competent Judge of good Latine having by the consent of all Composed this Book so Elegantly that it 's admired by most Price 1s 6d 1687. All the Works of that famous Historian Salust containing the History of the Conspiracy and War of Catiline undertaken against the Government of the Senate of Rome 2dly The War which Jugurth many years maintained against that State with all his Historical Fragments Two Epistles to Caesar concerning the Institution of a Common-wealth and one against Cicero with Annotations with the Life of Salust This excellent Book written by so faithfull an Historian will certainly gratifie the Curious being written with greater fidelity than others and the Style of it being adapted to the present Idiom of Speech and the Orations worded in a Style not much inferiour to the sublime Originals 1687. The Academy of Sciences being a short and easie Introduction to the Knowledge of the Liberal Arts and Sciences with the Names of those famous Authours that have written on every particular Science a Book highly usefull for the end it proposes By D. A. Doctor of Physick 1687. Observations in Chirurgery Anatomy with a Refutation of Mistakes and Errours in Anatomy and Chirurgery Written chiefly for the benefit of Tyroes Students in Chirurgery By James Young Chirurgion 1687. Plutarch's Morals 3d. Vol. Translated from the Greek by sev Hands Wit Revived or A new way of Divertisement in Questions and Answers By Asdryasdust Tossoffacan The Vanity of the Creature By an eminent Hand Octavo Guy Miege's English Grammar 8vo Sir John Tlâ—yer's Touchstone of Medicines 8vo 1687. The complete Planter and Siderist or choice Collections for propagating all manner of Fruit Trees and making Sider The Art of Pruning Fruit Trees 8vo 1685. Guy Miege's present State of Denmark 8vo A New Three-fold Grammar for the English-man to learn French and Italian For the French-man to learn English and Italian For the Italian to learn French and English. 8vo 1688. Montaign's Essays the third and last Volume 8vo The Gentlewoman's Companion for Cookery and Behaviour Ovid's Epistles Englished by the Wits of the Age with the Addititions of three new Epistles and seven Cuts 8vo Dyer's Works 12mo Dr. Burnet against Varillas 12mo Cornelius Tacitus in 24to Juvenal Pertius 24to Mr. Petit of the Rights of Parliament 8vo Sir John Pettus of the Constitution A Brief Account of the several Plots Contriv'd and Rebellions Rais'd by the Papists against the Lives and Dignities of Sovereign Princes since the Reformation IN the year 1520. about three years after Luther began to preach was that almost universal Rebellion in Spain against the Emperour Charles the Fifth which lasted four years Three years after the Earl of Desmond entred into a Conspiracy against our King Henry the Eighth and had procur'd a promise of assistance from King Francis the First of France the Articles of which Agreement are yet extant whereby it appears that the Design was to make the Duke of Suffolk then in France King but King Francis being taken Prisoner at the Battel of Pavia the year following and the Duke of Suffolk slain the Design fell The next year the Irish rebell'd and murther'd many of the English Inhabitants But Ten years after the Pope drew up his Bull against K. Henry though he did not publish it till 1538. wherein he asserts his Authority over Kings to plant and destroy as he sees good and then proceeds with the Advice of his Cardinals to summon the King and all his Adherents to appear before him at Rome on a day appointed threatening them with the greater Excommunication in case of Non-appearance and declaring Him and his Posterity incapable of any Honours Possessions or even of being Witnesses absolves all his Subjects from their Oaths of Fidelity and commands them upon pain of Excommunication not to obey him or his Officers enjoyning all Christians to have no Commerce with him all Ecclesiasticks to leave the Land and all Dukes Marquesses c. under the same penalty to drive him out of his
them fifteen thousand Crowns a month whose steps were followed by his Successour Innocent the 9th who remitted them fifteen thousand Ducats every month of his Popedom which was but short for he sate not much above eight weeks in that Chair Yet were not these Designs of the Leaguers and Mayenne sufficient to content the Pope but the young Cardinal of Bourbon hoped for the Crown and so formed another Party of seditious Persons called Thirdlings among whom was Perron afterwards Cardinal and this Faction also had the countenance of the last Pope who to advance this Cardinal exhorted the States to chuse a Roman Catholick for their King. And his Example was so far approved of by Clement the Eighth who was chosen in his room that he continued the same allowance to the Leaguers renewed the same Exhortations and declared any other but a Romanist incapable of the Crown The Parliament of Roan published a severe Edict against all who adhered to the King and Discourses were spread abroad maintaining That it was unlawfull to desire his Conversion and that such as proposed or endeavoured it were excommunicated and ought to be driven away lest they should infect the rest and the Parliament of Paris enjoined Obedience to the Pope and his Legate declaring that the Convention of Estates designed to chuse a Popish King And by this time those few Romanists who had continued with the King became rebellious too requiring him to change his Religion within a time which they prescribed otherwise protesting they would elect another of their own Persuasion Thus Rebellion and the Roman Catholick Cause went on prosperously in France but not having the same strength and opportunities in England the more secret Methods were made use of the Spaniard was importuned to make another Invasion which he prepared for but the Romanists unwilling to trust to that alone took a shorter course and by Mr Hesket's means attempted to persuade the Lord Strange afterwards Earl of Derby to take upon him the Crown which they pretended he had a Title to and soon after Father Holt and others employed Patrick Cullen an Irish Fencer to murther the Queen which he readily undertook and for a very small reward but his barbarous Intention was discovered and he upon apprehension confessing the Design and who set him on was executed Two years before this the Jesuite Creighton upon his going into Spain had desired blanks to be filled up with Credentials and Procurations from the Noblemen of the Popish Party in Scotland and this year he received them the Persons who sent them farther engaging that all the Romanists in Scotland should assist them upon the arrival of the Army which the King of Spain promised should be with them by the End of the Spring to the number of thirty thousand whereof some were to remain in Scotland and the rest march directly into England These Blanks were sent by a Servant of the King 's with Letters from several Jesuites but he was apprehended and some of the Conspiratours imprisoned and executed The Jesuites complained in their Letters that the Spaniards were too slow and therefore desired the Invasion with great earnestness Upon this Discovery the Earls of Angus Huntley and Arrol rebell'd but the King's Army marching against them before they had formed any considerable Body they fled into the Mountains submitted and were imprison'd in Order to a Tryall At the same time Tir Oen in Ireland after having persuaded and underhand maintained several Insurrections openly declar'd himself for the Rebells taking on him the Title of O Neal which by an Act of Parliament was declared Treason for any to assume Nor was England long free from open Rebellion yet clear'd of a Treasonable Generation who were daily employ'd in new Conspiracies against the Queens Life for Lopez one of the Queens Physicians undertook to Poison her for which he was to have Fifty thousand Crowns but being discovered confessed all and with two of his Accomplices was Executed But being unwilling to depend wholly on this Doctour the Jesuite Holt Dr. Worthington and others employed Edmond York Nephew to him who six years before had betrayed Zutphen to the Spaniards and Richard William with others to Kill the Queen who upon their Apprehension confessed That after several Consultations among the Priests and Jesuites in Flanders Holt threatned That if this Plot failed they would take this honourable Work out of the Hands of the English and employ Strangers for the future that they had vowed to Murther the Queen and that one Young Tipping Garret with two others had undertaken the same Design While God was thus confounding the Designs of these bloudy Men in this Nation the Leaguers in France seemed to have forgotten that an all-seeing Eye beheld their Actions where the Duke of Mayenne put 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
Nassaw General of the Forces of the United Provinces But the indefatigable Romanists 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 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 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 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 Doway 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 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 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
pleases And then they proceed to shew That the Bull in favour of the Rebells was not procured by surreption but proceeded from the Pope's own Inclination to them and that the permission given to the Roman Catholicks to obey her extended only to such Obedience as doth not oppugn the Catholick Religion which the assisting Her against Tyrone doth And this Declaration is dated the seventh of March. 1602. And it could be nothing less than such an extraordinary encouragement that could render the Irish so audacious as they were upon the Queen's Death in Limrick they seized the Churches and set up Mass in them the same they did at Waterford in the Cathedral and at the Sessions House they pulled down the Seats of Justice in Cork they refused to proclaim the King and by Force opposed the Commissioners they went in a solemn Procession took the Sacrament to spend their Lives in defence of the Roman Catholick Religion wrote to several Cities to assist them seized upon the King's stores and assaulted his Forces alledging that he could not be lawfull King because he was not appointed by the Pope And for their farther satisfaction the University of Salamanca subscribed the Declaration which the Jesuites made the year before and the Divines of Valedolid did the same About this time the Jesuites laboured to get the Sentence of their Banishment out of France reversed the Pope interposing his Mediation in their Favours upon which the Parliament of Paris attempted to dissuade the King from consenting to it by a long Oration alledging That it was their avowed Doctrine That the Pope hath a Power of Excommunicating Kings that a King so Excommunicated by his Holiness is no other than a Tyrant whom the People may oppose that Clergy-men are exempt from the Prince's Power are none of his Subjects and cannot be punish'd by him for any Crimes And having enumerated several of their Treasons they affirm That it is absolutely necessary for them to renounce these Doctrines or else France cannot with safety admit them to return But though they were very desirous of Admission they would not renounce those Positions for it however by importunity and the solicitation of the Pope and others they were at length received but upon Conditions Two of which were That they should build no Colleges without express Permission from the King and that one of their number should be always near the King to be accountable for the Actions of the Society Thus were they admitted but marks of Distrust set upon them though they have by their Address turn'd the latter of these Conditions which was at first design'd for their Disgrace into a mark of Honour the King's Confessour being ever since a Jesuite Though the Gun-powder Plot was not ripe for Execution till two years after yet they were consulting about it at this time when after a long complaint of their Grievances Mr. Percy told Mr. Catesby that there was no way but to kill the King and he was resolv'd to doe it But to that Gentleman desired him not to be so rash for he had laid a surer Design which would certainly effect it without any danger to themselves and then imparted to him the Contrivance of blowing up the King and Parliament Which Design in May the following year the Conspiratours obliged themselves by Oath upon the Holy Sacrament to keep secret Catesby justifying the Action by the Breves which the Pope had sent to exclude King James it being as lawfull to cast him out as to oppose his Entrance and Bates another of the Conspiratours was assured by the Jesuite Greenwell that the Cause and Action were good and therefore it was his Duty to conceal it Upon the approaching of the Parliament they began to work endeavouring to make a Mine under the Parliament-house but soon after Percy hired a Cellar in which they stowed the Gun-powder with Billets heap'd upon it to hide it in case of search The May before the Plot was to be executed there was an Insurrection of the Romanists in Wales but it was soon supprest yet all things went on in order to the fatal blow when about a week before the Parliament was to sit the Design was discovered and so prevented upon which the Conspiratours flew into Rebellion but were all either killed or taken by the Sheriff of Worcestershire The King in his Speech to the Parliament soon after told them that Faux confessed that they had no other cause moving them to the Design but merely and only Religion which was acknowledged by Sir Everard Digby at his Tryall to be the chief Motive which enduced him to make one among them and which he resolved to hazard his Life his Estate and all to 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