they are bound to exterminate Hereticks as they would be esteemed Christians themselves saith the Decree of the Lateran Councel under Innocent the third Yea by the late Bull of Clement the tenth for any Papist to be Loyal to an Heretical Prince is publickly declared to be a crime and such are solemnly cursed in the view of all the world for that which the principles of Reason and Revelation and without which no Government is safe oblige them unto Bellarmine speaketh intelligibly when he saith That Hereticks are to be destroyed root and branch if it can possibly be done but if it appear that the Catholicks are so few that they cannot conveniently with their own safety attempt such a thing then it is best in such a case to be quiet least upon opposition made by Hereticks the Catholicks should be worsted Hereupon Bannes hath no other Apology to make for the English Papists that they do not forcibly rise against the King and his Protestant Subjects but that they are not powerful enough for such an undertaking and therefore the Attempt would be to their own prejudice and damage So that upon the whole Protestants do only hold their lives at the courtesie of the Papists till they be in a condition by number and strength to destroy and extirpate them Good natur'd people that forbear to kill us forasmuch as one of our lives may cost three of their own And yet though at sometimes they seem to judge it convenient either to conceal the foregoing principles or to suffer them for a season to lye dormant by them yet in reality such hath been their faithfulness to their Doctrines that they have never suffered us to be any considerable while without some testimony of the good will they maintain for Hereticks and how ready they are to do all those meritorious offices of killing and destroying us which their Religion obligeth them to do I shall not mention here the vast numbers of Christians that have been butchered by the sentence of the Roman Inquisition of which it is reported that Paul the 4 th should say that the Authority of the See of Rome depended upon that office and that it was setled in Spain by the inspiration of the holy Ghost But surely he meant not that which came down from Heaven but that which was sent from Rome in a Cloak-bag Nor shall I insist upon the infinite slaughters of such as professed Jesus Christ in sincerity by Crusado's and sanctified Wars though Authentick Authors tell us that in France alone there were slain ten hundred thousand persons in the persecution raised against the Waldenses upon no other account but their dissenting from the Church of Rome Neither shall I dwell upon the Parisian Massacre by which in a few days there were murdered above forty thousand persons and that for no other cause but because the Church of Rome had adjudged them Hereticks but I shall rather call over some of the attempts against these Nations commenced upon and justified by the foregoing principles of the Papal Church in reference to those who differ in Religion from them No sooner was Reformation established in England under Edward the sixth than divers Rebellions in several parts of the Land were by the influence of the aforesaid Doctrines and the instigation of Priests and Friars raised against the King and Government as every one may read in our vulgar Chronicles The number of those Rebels may be guessed at by the lists of the killed and taken at some of the defeats given unto them And if we will believe our Histories there were above five thousand slain and taken Prisoners of those that rebelled in Cornwall and Devon-shire and above five thousand slain of those that rose in Norfolk and Suffolk besides those which were taken Prisoners there and who were cut off and apprehended in suppression of the Rebellion in York-shire Now this excellent Prince being dead and Queen Mary Established on the Throne though she was not of a bloody or of an ill disposition in her self yet her Religion obliged her to those Cruelties which have at once left an indelible stain upon her memory and given us to fear what we may expect if the Government should at any time fall into the hand of one infected with the Papal Doctrine For though her Reign was but short yet there were in the compass of a few years two hundred seventy seven publickly burnt besides near as many more who perished by imprisonment torment and famine And all these meerly for Religion not so much as one of them being chargeable with any traiterous Machination against the Government Upon her removal by a natural death and Queen Elizabeth succeeding on the Throne the Reformed Religion was again re-established in the Kingdom And whereas notwithstanding the severity which had been expressed to her self and the cruelty which had been exercised upon those of the same Faith with her She not only buried all resentments but was willing to suffer the Papists to live quietly both in the injoyment of their Estates and the private exercise of their Religion yet it is not to be expressed by what ways of Assassination Conspiracy Rebellions at home and Invasions from abroad they endeavoured to destroy Her Person overthrow the Government and make the Kingdom a Field of blood In pursuance of what by their Religion they owe to Hereticks Pius the 5 th did not only solemnly Excommunicate and Damn her self and all her Protestant Subjects but likewise cursed all the Papists that should give any Obedience to her or her Laws That whole Bull proceeds upon her being a Heretick and for being so the holy Father deprives her of all Dominion and Dignity absolves all her Subjects from any Obligation of Allegiance and includes them under the same Curse though Papists that should yield any Subjection to her Here was a Paraphrase upon the Principles of the Romish Religion towards Hereticks which the Papists from time to time exemplified by practices sutable to the Doctrines of their Faith and the infallible Commentaries of the Roman Mufti For I may confidently say that the Treasons of one kind and another that were contrived against her and her Protestant Subjects were more for number than the years of her Government But all their Machinations and Attempts being by the infiâ—ite wisdom and goodness of God detected disappointed and defeated and She laid in her Grave accompanied with the Tears of her People The like Conspiracies continued against King James who succeeded her For as they had endeavoured by a Book published under the counterfeit name of Doleman but wrote by Parsons by communication with Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield to disprove at least Sully his Title to the Crown so they obtained two Breve's from Clement the 8 th to exclude him unless he would swear to promote the Romish Religion Nor is it any matter of amazement or surprise that the Roman See should act in that manner to King
in danger by a Conspiracy against his Sacred Life malitiously contrived and industriously carried on by the Seminary Priests and Jesuits and their Adherents who think themselves under some obligation of Conscience to effect it and having vowed the Subversion of the True Religion amongst us find no way so likely to compass it as to wound us in the Head and kill the Defender of the Faith And besides what the last Parliament declared to that purpose did not the House of Commons of the Parliament which was then sitting when the Plot was first discovered with the Approbation of the House of Lords resolve That that House was of Opinion that there hath been and still is a Damnable and Hellish Plot contrived and carried on by Popish Recusants for Assassinating and Murdering the King and for Subverting the Government and rooting out and destroying the Protestant Religion So that now upon the whole matter He that dare assume the boldness to tell us that the King laughs at the Plot as a ridiculous and ill contrived Story doth Brand the King the Lord Chancellor and Two Parliaments for a company of Impostors And if this be not enough to stigmatise such Rascals for the worst of Slanderers and overthrow their credit with all Mankind surely nothing in this World can be alledged more effectual to do it Thirdly need we more to satisfie us that there is any thing to be expected from men of a Papal Complexion by lies and calumnies if we will but consider that after they had inhumanly murdered Sr. Edmund-bury Godfrey fastned divers slanders upon him before he was found and afterwards endeavoured to impose plain impossibilities upon our Faith namely that he had killed thimself when the place where he lay the manner of his laying and many other circumstances uncontroulably demonstrated the contrary so at last one of these scandalous and villainous Scriblers dare now solemnly avouch That he was an entire Friend to the Popish Party and that he had performed the utmost service in their behalf that friendship it self could suggest Can there be any thing said more effectual at once to convince this Fellow of being a Slanderer or to disabuse those men of little understanding that are inclined to believe him in any thing he says than that he should offer to obtrude upon the Faith of Englishmen that Sr. Edmund-bury Godfrey was a Papist or at least a very friend to the Papal Party It were to abase the patience of all who knew that worthy Gentleman and are masters of Sense or Honesty to offer to prove that Sr. Edmund-bury Godfrey was a Protestant or that he was far enough from supposing himself inrolled in the number of the friends of the Popish Faction Alas poor Gentleman as he little dreamed that a professed Member of the Church of England and a liberal Asserter of the Protestant Doctrine and constant Reliever of the necessities of those that were of the Reformed Religion but one as himself frequently related that expected to be the first Martyr under the Popish Rage should be consigned down to Posterity as the Cordial friend to those avow'd Enemies of his own Religion or a principal Confident of those Bontefeus of the Kingdom for whose peace and safety he was a watchfull Magistrate Nothing allyed to truth can be expected from such who after they had barbarously Murdered an innocent Gentleman do by robbing him afterwards of his honour credit and reputation assassinate him a second time It is a great effect of the Divine Wisdom to give up Impostors to the venting some palpable falshoods that the easie and credulous World may be the better fortified against those other reports which they cannot so easily disapprove For they who are found wilfull and evident Slanderers in some things ought not to be credited in any thing unless it be accompanied with better Credentials than the authority of their Testimony These few Remarks are sufficient to take off the credit of those Popish Scriblers that have attacked the Reputation of the Kings Witnesses and slandered the Justice of the Nation so a reply being preparing to all the particular instances in which they are slandered may discharge me from calling those Pamphletters to a further Account Yet forasmuch as I do not think it enough to have these Advocates section XII of the Plot proved meerly to be Slanderers I shall therefore moreover show that the Papists may not only be publick Defamers with a Consistancy to their Religion but that the Doctrines of their chief Casuists instruct and incourage them to be so And this I shall perform in a brief consideration of two Particulars First in that they teach the Members of their Church to be under no obligation to speak Truth either to or of Hereticks but that they may calumniate them without the fear of guilt or Divine wrath It is the common opinion of the Jesuits in all their Scholastick and Casuistical Writings that it is no sin to Calumniate those who speak ill of them or the Roman Church They are under no moral Obligation to Hereticks but may cheat them without dishonesty violate Oaths made unto them without perjury rob them without theft kill them without murder and lie to them or concerning them without the violation of the measures of Truth or Justice Nor is it any ways strange that while they may meritoriously destroy us they should with innocency defame us For by the same Principles that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks no Faith is due to them When we meet with such Maxims as that Servants owe no fidelity to Heretical Masters nor Children obedience to Heretical Parents nor Wives conjugal duty to Heretical Husbands nor Subjects loyalty to Heretical Princes ought we after this to be surprised upon finding it established as a received Doctrine at least of the Jesuits that they may innocently slander and defame Hereticks of whatsoever quality and degree And as by the knowledge of their Principles in this matter I can make a shift to understand Balsec Cocleus Sanders c. in their virulent and slanderous Books against Calvin Luther and other blessed Reformers without finding my self obliged to believe them in any one word they speak to the defamation of those whom they accuse so by the same means I judge my self conducted not to give credit to any Papist speaking to the prejudice of an Heretick unless I be otherwise assured of the Truth of what he declares But secondly if you will add to this that they are countenanced by the maxims of their Divines to defame any one of what Religion soever he be that doth them an injury we may then be fully armed against all Impressions of disbelieving the Plot that the late Scriblers are designed to raise or beget In all the Casuistical Divinity of the Jesuits there is hardly a case wherein they do so unanimously conspire and agree as in this That it is lawfull to invent crimes to ruine their credit who speak
as they are pleased to stile the Protestant Religion they were at last as they apprehended come within view of infallibly compassing their design Now there were some things which afforded them advantages for the attaining these Ends which at no time since the Reformation were they before now possessed of the assistance of The first was That Interest at Court and universal esteem through the whole Kingdom which the pretented Loyalty of many Catholicks during the late unhappy War betwixt His late Majesty and many of His People who acted under the influence and supposed Authority of a Parliament reconciled and gave unto them This together with the Assistance which some of the Papists contributed to the escape of his present Majesty and the seeming readiness of many of them to co-operate with others in his Restauration gave them not only a share in the peace and quiet which these Kingdoms were restored unto but procured a further degree of respect to them than had been either usually or universally shown them since the Reformation And though I would not endeavour to lessen their Loyalty at any time when they might but seem to pretend to it yet to deal plainly I know very little reason for their pretences of Loyalty to King Charles the first more than to His Majesty who now happily Reigns yea I know very much why they ought at least to supercede all right of merit on that foot of account For not to insist upon what preceded the unhappy War though antecedently to that we are told of a Conspiracy to destroy the Kings Life whereof the discovery was found in Archbishop Land's Library being declared by Andreas ab Haberfeld to Sir William Boswell Embassador then at the Hague who revealed it to the Archbishop But I say not to dwell upon this nor upon that that I am now to say namely that it is affirmed and that with all the moral certainty imaginable that the Romish Emissaries were both the principal Authors of that Vniformity with England which was pressed upon Scotland and also prime sticklers to prevent its being entertained there and all to foment a War betwixt the two Kingdoms The Priests names have been oftner then once published to the world who were sent by Cardinal Richlieu into that Kingdom to raise and inflame differences betwixt the two Nations And the motives upon which that great Boutefeu of Europe was so earnest to kindle a War in His Majesties Dominions are sufficiently understood by all who are not wholly strangers to the affairs of that time But there are two things which overthrow all their pretences of Loyalty to his late Majesty of which they so confidently boast and have made so large advantages One is their commencing that bloody War in Ireland in the massacring so many of His Majesties Protestant Subjects which as it increased the Jealousies that the like might be designed against those of the same Religion in this Kingdom so the making all Assistances by the War which they had begun there from thence impossible gave confidence to the Parliament to be the more peremptory in those demands which His Majesty finding it necessary to refuse to comply with proved the causes of that unnatural War which fell out among our selves and of all the fatal consequences of it And as a further Testimony of their Loyalty to that Prince they not only renounced all Allegiance to Him and banished His Lieutenant but assumed the Royal Authority to themselves owing only a dependance upon the Pope and his Nuncio The second is that accession which they had to the murder of His late Majesty For as the principles upon which those seem to have acted who publickly destroyed the King are not only countenanced but most especially taught by the Doctors and Casuists of the Church of Rome so the effects of those principles are to be charged as well upon them that teach Doctrines of such pernicious consequence as upon them that practise them Hear then what the greatest Authors in the Romish Church declare to the purpose before us The Power of a Nation saith Bellarmine is setled in the whole multitude as its true and proper Subject and accordingly they may change a Kingdom into an Aristocratical or Democratical state whensoever they find cause for it If a Prince be a Tyrant saith Lessius he may be deposed or declared a publick enemy by the Common-wealth and thereupon it may be lawful to attempt any thing against his Person When the Common-wealth saith Mariana cannot other ways secure and preserve its own peace and safety it may by a right inherent in it self declare the King to be the common Enemy and then destroy him with the Sword Thus we plainly see that whatsoever others did the Jesuits had first taught them the principles upon which they might justifie the doing of it But this is not all for over and above this they have not only been openly charged to have had a hand in the contriving and actually compassing the late Kings death but the person that doth thus accuse them undertakes the Justification of it either before his present Majesty or before any one who can legally require it of him And which is an evident demonstration of their Guilt notwithstanding all the interest which they have had of late years from which they might at least promise themselves Justice if they could not expect Favour yet though challenged to bring this matter to a hearing they have not so much as once dared to attempt it Yea the late King himself was informed a little before his death that the Jesuits at a general meeting in France in revenge for his condescending in the Treaty at the Isle of Wight to pass some Bills in prejudice of them and the Romish Religion had unanimously resolved by the power interest and influence that they had in and upon the Army to bring him to Justice and get him Executed Accordingly when the stroke was given both one that was a Romish Priest and a Confessor namely Sarabras brandished his Sword and proclaimed That now their greatest Enemy was cut off and destroyed I suppose that the Judgment of Sir William Morrice late Secretary of State will bear some weight with all English men as well upon the account of his great Integrity as the many opportunities he enjoyed beyond others of satisfying himself in a matter of this importance hear then what he declares in a Letter to Dr. du Moulin August the 9 th 1673. This I may say safely and will do it confidently that many Arguments did create a violent suspition very near convincing Evidences that the irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the murder of that excellent Prince the Odium whereof they would file to the account of the Protestant Religion However the Papists having not only escaped Legal Arraignments upon this account but having since the Kings return been esteemed by some His late Majesties best friends they have
thereupon arrived at more respect as well as enjoy'd more peace in their Persons and Estates than they were in possession of at any time since the Reformation Nor do I believe that there is any Protestant that would have envied them the security they enjoyed or the favour they had attained to provided they had not abused them to the destruction of His Majesties Person the supplanting of His Government and the extirpating the Religion which was Legally established But alas good and peaceable Souls such an opportunity of promoting the Catholick interest was not to be lost They might now carry on their designs for the Triple-Crown none daring to suggest any thing to bring them under a jealousie who would not be immediately aspersed as maligners of the Kings best friends And it is not to be apprehended what improvement of that little stock of credit which some of the Popish Gentry had gotten by their being on the late Kings side in the last War the Jesuits Priests and Friars made to the furtherance of the subjugating these Nations again to Rome For now were all the principles of the Papal Religion by which those that espouse it are obliged to root out Heresie and Establish the Jurisdiction of the Pope inculcated from day to day upon persons of one quality and another of the Papal Profession A second thing which gave them no less advantage for the carrying on section 5 of their designs was the division among the Protestants themselves And here two things greatly ministred to the sub-serving the design of the Papal Agents 1 The parties divided were come to a more equal ballance as to numbers on each side respectively than at any season heretofore For during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first the Dissenters from the Established way of the Church of England were but few in comparison of those who were for Episcopacy and the Rites and Ceremonies required by Law in Divine Worship So that there being then little jealousie of any danger to the Church of England from the Protestant Dissenters how zealous soever they might even in those days be for their way the watchfulness of the Dignitaries of the Church and the labours of the inferiour Clergy were chiefly exercised and laid out in reference to the Papists But those who stile themselves Non-conformists being now multiplied to that degree as that they seem to bear a much nearer proportion to the other party than heretofore they did The main care of the Over seers of the Church hath thereupon much abated towards the Papists and been exerted towards them 2 The Animosities between the Protestants thus divided into two parties were become higher and their mutual exasperations grown fiercer than heretofore For partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the retaliation they have measured to Protestant Dissenters since they had the Authority of the Law and assistance of the Government to befriend them they are wonderfully inflamed in mutual heats towards and disgust of one another Of which it is easie to imagine what manifold uses the Factors for the Roman See have made to the furthering of their own designs which tend equally to the ruine of both For as the pretence of these Divisions hath served as a plea to proselyte such who know not that the Divisions of the Church of Rome are more numerous and their feuds more irreconcileable so the subtile Ministers of the Papacy have by winding themselves into all Companies if not the mustering themselves in all parties endeavoured both to heighten the differences and to make their Animosities against each other not only hotter but more immortal And while the one party of Protestants hath been crying out of Schism and the other party of persecution the Papists have to the reproach of both been undermining that common Faith which they equally centre in and carrying on a design of destroying the one as well as the other being in their account both equally Hereticks I would be loath to believe that through the grandure which the Clergy are exalted unto the possession of in the Church of Rome that therefore our Protestant Bishops and other Dignitaries of the English Church should think them the less dangerous but this I know that those vulgarly stiled Phanaticks have judged themselves highly justified in their clamours against the Conformable Clergy in that they are so severely treated while in the mean time no difference in any fundamental Doctrine from the Church of England can be objected unto them And as the Jealousies which the differences betwixt dissenting Protestants have caused have made every overture though for the preservation of Religion in general and the safety of the Nation wherein they are both alike interested if proposed by one party to be suspected by the other so the distrust which these Divisions have caused in one Protestant towards another hath in no small measure emboldned the Papists to hope that in whatsoever they should attempt there could be no confederation among Protestants either to resist or oppose them And though I cannot say it upon my own knowledge yet I have cause to believe it from the reason of the thing as well as upon the Testimony of Mr. Dugdale that they were the more confident in their design privately to Assassinate the King as hoping when they had so done to have Fathered it upon the Phanaticks And as they might very rationably believe that would the Nation have been so possest they would have avenged it upon that party even to the extirpating of them so they assuredly knew that thereby their own design of destroying the Episcopal Protestants would have been rendred much the more facile section 6 A third thing that equally contributed with the former to the introduction of Popery into these Kingdoms was the general prophaneness which hath greatly over-spread these Nations beyond what at any time heretofore hath been observed For besides that every prophane person is truly of no Religion and therefore indifferent to seem to be of any as interest and temptation sways him so no man can care much to be of that Religion which not only condemns all the ways he is resolved upon but the more because he is of such a Religion that doth not allow them And withall there is this further whereby such men are disposed for Popery more than others viz. That it can both allow them in all the sins which they have a mind to and secure them from the fears of Eternal punishments in the practice of them For partly by making many things which Christ hath forbid and men from the power of their Lusts and the influence of their interest have a desire to commit to be no sins and partly by making such things which the Gospel stiles enormous
the manage of publick Affairs which they not only aspired after but stood recommended unto Yet give me leave to say that there are some that have taken these Tests who notwithstanding continue still Votaries to the Church of Rome and are only Protestants in Masquerade For as it was for the Credit of the Roman Church that some should rather resign their employes and places than renounce the Papal Jurisdiction or any part of the Tridentine Faith so it being their interest at least for a while to have it concealed what persons universally were Papists and it being also for their advantage to have some of their Party continued in publick Offices without suspicion of their Religion the better to promote their further designs they have accordingly made provision for the one as well as the other And as the losses which some of the party have appeared willing to undergo upon the Foregoing occasion have served to enhance the reputation of their Church so others being best qualified by their taking the Tests for the enjoying Preferments and Revenues under the present Government are not only Spies upon the Councils of the Nation but Vipers nourished with the profits of the Land to betray and undermine the Government And whereas some may think that no person cordial in any Religion should for Secular accommodations and worldly Advantages offend against God and indanger their own Souls by Renouncing their Faith and forswearing that upon which they superstruct all their hopes for Salvation The Church of Rome hath by more methods than one secured such not only from all fear and hazard of future wrath but from all danger of sinning against God by so doing And as to this purpose the Doctrines of Papal Absolution and Indulgence are admirably suited supposing their should be sin in such a case so the Doctrines of Equivocation Mental Reservation and Authoritative Dispensations are no less calculated for preserving them from all Guilt notwithstanding their taking the Oaths and making the Declarations which the Law requires Having now made these happy proceeds as they thought towards the section XI overthrow of the Protestant Religion and the Established Government there remained only for the Accomplishment of these and all other their Execrable Designs but the destroying the Life of the King And there are these ensuing Reasons which not only justifie such endeavours in all that are furnished with Evidence for the making a further detection but which do indispensably oblige them not to conceal any thing that may serve to unravel and unvail the Conspiracy 1. The vindication of the Justice of the Nation on those Traitors that have suffered doth bespeak and require this at every mans hand For though the utmost Candor imaginable was extended to the Criminals and the stricktest scrutiny by interrogations in favour of the Malefactors exercised towards the Kings Witnesses and the several Juries that were Impannelled for their Tryal were of the most knowing honoured and Impartial Persons that either the City of London or the neighbouring County could afford yet all these have not been sufficient to prevent the arraignment of the Justice of the Kingdom for Condemning those Conspirators For not to mention what their surviving Friends do as falsly as reproachfully give out in favour of their Innocency in all Companies the very Press almost to the Ignominy of the Government that suffereth it hath swarmed with Pamphlets in justification of their having died Guiltless Such Pamphlets are the Letter to both Houses the sober and seasonable Queries in order to the Choice of the New Parliament the second Edition with Additions c. The Jesuits Plea in answer to a Letter entituled Lying allowable with the Papists to deceive Protestants The Plot of the Papists to transform Traitors into Martyrs The Compendium of the late Tryals in relation to the present Plot besides divers other Prints equally scurrilous as well as filled with pernicious Reflections upon the Honour and Justice of the Nation so that every man of Sense is surprised at their impudence and every person of Loyalty roused to a zeal of vindicating the King and Kingdom from the obloquies of Injustice cast upon them And though the Kings Witnesses do intend publickly to vindicate themselves from the Calumnies with which they are aspersed and will I doubt not perform it both to the universal satisfaction of the Nation and the utter confusion of their Adversaries yet let me offer these two or three Remarks upon the foregoing Pamphlets which I judge not only sufficient to baffle them but eternally to expose them to contempt as so many infamous Libels First then what credit ought to be given to him that shall dare publish in the view of all the Nation That not one Person accused in this pretended Conspiracy did either fly or abscond except only the Priests who were obnoxious to the Law for their Priesthood when in the mean time besides many others of all ranks and qualities who upon their being some of them accused and others suspected have withdrawn themselves the four Villains who are charged for conspiring to Assassinate the King do notwithstanding his Royal Proclamation requiring their appearance either by flight or concealment absent themselves Secondly who pretending to be either a good Christian or a faithfull Subject can have any Faith for such a person who is not afraid no more than ashamed openly thus to slander the King himself namely That though he be both most concerned and has had the best opportunities of examining the Discovery of the Plot yet he is so far from believing it that he openly laughs at it Vile Impostor that dares thus accuse the King both to the World and his own People How often hath His Majesty told us in his Royal Proclamations that he is fully convinced of a Hellish and Popish Conspiracy against his own Person the Protestant Religion and the Government And yet this impudent Generation of Romish Votaries do not blush to affirm that He laughs at it as a fabulous and Romantick Story Doth not the King in his Proclamation Octob. 30. 1678. call it a Bloody and Traiterous design of Popish Recusants against his Majesties Person and Government and the Protestant Religion And doth he not by his Proclamation Nov. 20. 1678. declare that the Popish Priests and Jesuits lurking within this Realm have contrived and set on foot divers traiterous Plots and Designs against His Majesty his Government and the Protestant Religion by Law Established And doth he not also by his Proclamation for a Fast March 28. 1679. declare that through the impious and malicious Conspiracies of the Popish Party there is a Plot not only intended to the Destruction of his Royal Person but the total Subversion of the Government and of the true Protestant Religion within the Realm by Law Established And doth not my Lord Chancellor in his Speech to both Houses of Parliament March the 6. 1678 9. assures us That his Majesties Royal Person hath been
Religion and induced to Espouse the Faith of the Church of Rome I was accordingly received with great Ceremony into the said Church by Cardinal Grimaldi Archbishop of Aix in Provence 'T is true they do not think meet to celebrate the reception of every one that goes over to them with so much solemnity but yet it is not without many and considerable reasons that they think meet sometimes to do it For though in effect they have only cause of glorying over the ignorance weakness or lusts of the Party they have Proselited yet they would have it pass for a Triumph over the Religion which he hath forsaken And though all that they can truly boast of be the ensnaring some Person that neither understood the Religion which he relinquished nor that which he espoused but was meerly captivated with the hopes of Pleasure Profit and Preferment Yet Protestancy must be brought upon the stage as weary of it self and the Popish Religion must be recommended to the Ignorant multitude from the Victory it hath obtained over such a thinking learned and conscientious Man Thirdly I would suggest this that being received into the Bosom of the Romish Church I went thereupon to Rome and was entertained in the Jesuits College Where by my continuance four years and running through my whole course of Philosophy and at last taking Orders of Priesthood and through my being sometime Prefect of the Study I injoyed these opportunities of knowing their Sentiments and Doctrines concerning Protestant Princes and of their Designs against these Nations with their hopes of Reenslaving them which I shall now declare Nor will it I hope be reckoned a piece of Immodesty and I do affirm that partly through my success in my Scholastick Exercises and partly through the favour I had with Cardinal Rochi Major Domo to the Pope to whom I had dedicated all my Theses and partly from the familiarity I had with all the principal Fathers of the Jesuits in the English College I had not only the advantage of Hearing what was publickly said either in Schools or Refectory but was allowed Access to private Discourse with the most Eminent Fathers in the College where I had their Opinions concerning the King of England and an account of their Purposes towards Him and the Kingdom inculcated to me These things being briefly premised and intimated That which I have section XV next to offer is that whilest I was at Rome I frequently heard the Jesuits both teach in Schools and preach in Pulpits the Doctrine of the Pope's power to depose Kings So that according to them no King doth Reign but at the pleasure of the Pope And from hence we may learn these two things 1. That it is not only lawfull but necessary in order to the preservation of the peace and safety of the Kingdom that all who have imbib'd these Doctrines should be accounted Traytors and accordingly proceeded against though never convicted to acting up to them The Principle it self is the highest of Treasons and therefore there needs no further Over-act for the condemning such Criminals So far as the Popish Religion hath only an influence upon the future state of men it was never punished with death in England it is only upon the foot of those Doctrines which instruct and countenance them to overthrow the State and Government that Romish Priests are justly made liable to suffer And therefore the Priests who were lately Executed without being Arraigned for any thing save for their being so and their withdrawing His Majesties Subjects from the Religion by Law Established were as reall Traytors as those who were convinced for Conspiracy against the Kings Life 2. I would further infer from the foregoing Doctrine that no security can be had of the Loyalty of any Person that is so possest For so long as he holds that any one hath Authority to depose the Prince under whose Government he lives it is impossible that such a Prince can be secured of the fidelity and allegiance of that Subject And it is very remarkable that whereas some of the Irish Papists since His Majesties Restauration had in a Remonstrance prepared for the persuading the Government of their Loyalty only acknowledged though they had not sworn it that King Charles is their Lawfull King and the Pope hath no power to Depose him how thereupon they are told from Rome that they had renounced the Catholick Faith and that they were fallen under the Condemnation of the Apostolick See For as the Popes Nuncio at Brussels by a Letter dated July 21. 1662. informs them how that their Remonstrance being examined at Rome by Cardinals and Divines was found to contain Propositions condemned by Paul the Fifth and Innocent the Tenth and that the Pope was so far from approving it that he did not so much as permit or connive at it and therefore condemned it in this Form that it could not be kept without breach of Faith according to the Decrees of Paul the Fifth and that it denied the Popes Authority in matters of Faith according to that of Innocent the Tenth I do further declare that during my abode at Rome I heard the Jesuits section XVI often affirm and publish that it was not only lawfull to Kill any Prince or Person Excommunicated and declared a Heretick but that it was meritorious to do so Nor was this the Opinion only of one or two or of such as might be esteemed Rash and Giddy but it was the common Doctrine of all the Jesuits there And I do by all that may obtain credit with Mankind testifie that I have heard it Asserted by Father Anderton Rector of the English College of the Jesuits at Rome Father Campion Minister of the said College Father Robert Southwell Assistant to the General of the Jesuits Father Buckley Pentionary for the Pope Father Green Procurator for the Jesuits at Monto Portio within fifteen Miles of Rome And from this I desire to make these three Remarks 1. That every Protestant Prince is hereby exposed to the mercy of any one that under the encouragement of meriting Heaven will take the boldness to Assassinate Him For all such Princes both by the Decrees of their Councils and the Cannons of their Church as well as by the Bulls of divers Popes are not only pronounced Hereticks but actually Excommunicate Nor are the Jesuits singular in this Opinion that it is lawfull to kill Heretical Princes for the Pope himself by a Decree in their Canon Law hath taught and declared the same We do not esteem them Murderers saith Pope Vrban who shall happen to kill any Excommunicate person out of an ardour and zeal to the Catholick Church their Mother Secondly I would observe from hence what opinion we are to have of all that the five Jesuits declared upon their Salvation in their late dying Speeches God was equally invok'd to be a Witness of all they said and their Salvation was alike pawn'd upon the truth of one