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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63451	A true and plain declaration of the horrible treasons practised by William Parry ... being a papist, against Queen Elizabeth (of blessed memory,) because she was Protestant, and of his tryal, conviction, and execution for the same : being a full account of his design to have murthered the said Queen, with the copy of a letter written to him by Cardinal Como, by the Popes order, to incourage him to kill the Queen : and of his confession of his treason, both to the Lords of the Council, and at his tryal upon his indictment in Westmminster-Hall : together with his denyal thereof at the place of execution, and his manner of behaviour there : written in the year, 1584.	Parry, William, d. 1585, defendant.	1679 (1679)	Wing T2572; ESTC R1897	35,089	41

Person For if that be true where are then his Vows which he said were in Heaven his Letters and Promise upon Earth Why hath he stollen out of the Popes shop so large an Indulgence and plenary Remission of all his Sins and meant to perform nothing that he promised Why was his Devotion and Zeal so highly commended Why was he so specially prayed for and remembred at the Altar All these great favours were then bestowed upon him without cause or desert for he deceived the Pope he deceived the Cardinals and Jesuites with a false semblance and pretence to do that thing which he never meant But the matter is clear the Conspiracy and his traiterous intent is too plain and evident it is the Lord that revealed it in time and prevented their malice there lacked no will or readiness in him to execute that horrible fact It is the Lord that hath preserved her Majesty from all the wicked Practices and Conspiracies of that Hellish Rabble it is he that hath most gratiously deliver'd her from the hands of this Traiterous miscreant The Lord is her onely defence in whom she hath always trusted A Prayer for all Kings Princes Countries and People which do profess the Gospel and especially for our Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth used in Her Majesties Chappel and meet to be used of all persons within Her Majesties Dominions O Lord God of hosts most loving and merciful Father whose power no creature is able to resist who of thy great goodness hast promised to grant the petitions of such as ask in thy Sons Name We most humbly beséech thee to save and defend all Princes Magistrates Kingdoms Countries and People which have received and no profess thy holy Word and Gospel and namely this Realm of England and thy servant Elizabeth our Queen whom thou hast hitherto wonderfully preserved from manifold Perils and sundry Dangers and of late revealed and ftustrated the Trafterous Practices and Conspiracies of divers against her for the which and all other thy great goodness towards us we give thee most humble and hearty thanks beseeching thee in the Name of thy dear Son Iesus Christ and for his sake still to preserve and continue her unto us and to give her long life and many years to rule over this Land O Heavenly Father the practices of our Enemies and the Enemies of thy word and truth against her and us are manifest and known unto thee Turn them O Lord if it be thy blessed Will or overthrow and confound them for thy Names sake Suffer them not to prevail Take them O Lord in their crafty Wittness that they have invented and let them fall into the Pit which they have digged for others Permit them not ungodly to triumph over us Discomfort them discomfort them O Lord which trust in their own multitude and please themselves in their subtile devices and wicked Conspiracies O loving Father we have not deserved the least of these the Mercies which we crave For we have sinned and grievously offended thee we are not worthy to be called thy Sons We have not been so thankful unto thee as we should for thy unspeakable benefits powred upon us We have abused this long time of Peace and Prosperity We have not obeyed thy Word We have had it in Mouth but not in heart in outward appearance but not in deed We have lived carelesly We have not known the time of our visitation we have deserved utter destruction But thou O Lord art merciful and ready to forgive therefore we come to thy Throne of Grace confessing and acknowledging thee to be our only refuge in all times of peril and danger And by the means of thy Son we most heartily pray thee to forgive us our Vnthankfulness Disobedience Hypocrisie and all other our Sins to turn from us thy heavy wrath and displeasure which we have justly deserved and to turn our hearts truly unto thee that daily we may increase in all goodness and continually more and more fear thy holy Name So shall we glorifie thy Name and sing unto thee in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs And thy enemies and ours shall know themselves to be but men and not able by any means to withstand thee nor to hurt those whom thou hast received into thy protection and defence Grant these things O Lord of Power and Father of Mercy for thy Christ's sake to whom with thee and thy Holy Spirit be all Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen A Prayer and Thanksgiving for the Queen used of all Knights and Burgesses in the High Court of Parliament and very requisite to be used and continued of all her Majesties loving Subjects O Almighty and most merciful God which dost pitch thy tents round about the people to deliver them from the hands of their enemies we thy humble Servants which have ever of old seen thy Salvation do fall down and prostrate ourselves with Praise and Thanksgiving to thy glorious Name who hast in thy tender Mercies from time to time saved and defended the Servant ELIZABETH our most gracious Quéen not only from the hands of strange Children but also of late revealed and made frustrate his bloody and most barbarous Treason who being her natural Subject most unnaturally violating thy Divine Ordinance hath secretly sought to shed her blood to the great disquiet of thy Church and utter discomfort of our Souls his snare is heaven in pieces but upon thy Servant doth the Crown flourish The wicked and bloodthirsty men think to devour Iacob and to lay waste his dwelling-place But thou O God which rulest in Iacob and unto the ends of the world dost daily teach us still to trust in thée for all thy great Mercies and not to forget thy merciful Kindness shewed to her that feareth thy Name O Lord we confess to thy Glory and Praise that thou only hast saved us from destruction because thou hast not given her over for a prey to the wicked Her Soul is delivered and we are escaped Hear us now we pray thee O most merciful Father and continue forth thy loving Kindness towards thy Servant and evermore to the Glory and our Comfort kéep her in health with long Life and Prosperity whose rest and only refuge is in thée O God of her Salvation Preserve her as thou art wont preserve her from the snare of the Enemy from the gathering together of the froward from the insurrection of wicked Doers and from all the traiterous Conspiracies of those which privily lay wait for her life Grant this O Heavenly Father for Iesus Christs sake our only Mediator and Advocate Amen Io. Th. A Prayer used in the Parliament onely O Merciful God and Father forasmuch as no counsel can stand nor any can prosper but only such as are humbly gathered in thy Name to feel the swéet taste of thy Holy Spirit we gladly acknowledge that by thy favour standeth the peaceable protection of our Quén and Realm and likewise this favourable liberty granted unto us at this time to make our méeting together which thy bountiful Goodness we most thankfully acknowledging do withal earnestly pray thy Divine Majesty so to encline our hearts as our counsels may be subject in true obedience to thy Holy Word and Will And sithe it hath pleased thée to govern this Realm by ordinary assembling the thrée Estates of the same Our humble Prayer is that thou wilt graff in us good mindes to conceive frée liberty to speak and on all sides a ready and quiet consent to such wholesome Laws and Statutes as may declare us to be thy people and this Realm to be prosperously ruled by thy good guiding and defence So that we and our Posterity may with chearful hearts wait for thy appearance in Iudgment that art only able to present us faultless before God our Heavenly Father To whom with thée our Saviour Christ and the Holy Spirit be all Glory both now and ever Amen FINIS The Indictment Parry's answer to the Indictment Parry confesseth that he is guilty of all things contained in the Indictment Parry's Confession of his Treasons was read by his own assent A Letter of Cardinal di Como to Parry also read Parry's Letter of the 18th of February to the Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Leicester read The Queens Atturny requires Judgment Parry had for his credit aforetime said very secretly that he had been solicited beyond the Seas to commit the fact but he would not do it wherewith he craftily abused both the Queens Majesty and those two Counsellers whereof he now would help himself with these false Speeches against most manifest proofs Master Vice-chamberlains Speeches proving manifestly Parry's Traiterous intentions Parry reproved of false Speeches and so by himself also confessed The L. of Hunsdon's Speeches convincing Parry manifestly of his Treason The Lord Chief-Justices Speech to Parry The Form of the Judgment against the Traitor 2. Martii William Parry the Traytor Executed Parry Condemned for Burglary Pardoned of the Queen

keep such a Religion to her self and God preserve these Nations from it that we and our Posterity may enjoy our true Religion our Laws our Estates our Liberties and our Lives And let all good Protestants say Amen A true and plain DECLARATION OF THE Horrible Treasons Practised by WILLIAM PARRY Against the Queens Majesty AND OF His Conviction and Execution for the same The 2d of March 1584. according to the account of England THis William Parry being a man of very mean and base Parentage but of a most proud and insolent Spirit bearing himself always far above the measure of his Fortune after he had long led a wasteful and dissolute life and had committed a great Outrage against one Hugh Hare a Gentleman of the Inner-Temple with an intent to have murthered him in his own Chamber for the which he was most justly convicted seeing himself generally condemned with all good men for the same and other his Misdemeanours he left his natural Country and gave himself to travel into forreign parts beyond the Seas In the course of this his Travel he forsook his Allegiance and dutiful Obedience to her Majesty and was reconciled and subjected himself to the Pope After which upon conference with certain Jesuites and others of like quality he first conceived his most detestable Treason to kill the Queen whose life God long preserve which he bound himself by Promise Letters and Vows to perform and execute and so with this intent he returned into England in January 1583 and since that did practise at sundry times to have executed his most devilish purpose and determination yet covering the same so much as in him lay with a vail and pretence of great Loyalty to her Majesty Inmediately upon his return into England he sought to have secret Access to her Majesty pretending to have some matter of great importance to reveal unto her which obtained and the same so privately in her Highness's Palace at Whitehal as her Majesty had but one onely Counsellor with her at the time of his Access in a remote place who was so far distant as he could not hear his Speech And there then he discovered unto her Majesty but shadowed with all crafty and traiterous skill he had some part of the Conference and Proceeding as well with the said Jesuites and other Ministers of the Popes as especially with one Thomas Morgan a Fugitive residing at Paris who above all others did perswade him to proceed in that most devilish Attempt as is set down in his voluntary Confession following bearing her Majesty notwithstanding in hand That his onely intent of proceeding so far with the said Jesuites and the Popes Ministers tended to no other end but to discover the dangerous Practices devised and attempted against her Majesty by her disloyal Subjects and other malicious persons in forraign parts Albeit it hath since appeared most manifestly as well by his said Confession as by his dealing with one Edmond Nevil Esq That his onely intent of discovering the same in sort as he craftily and traiterously did tended to no other end but to make the way the easier to accomplish his most devilish and wicked purpose And although any other Prince but her Majesty who is loath to put on a hard Censure of those that protest to be loyal as Parry did would rather have proceeded to the punishment of a Subject that had waded so far as by Oath and Vow to promise the taking away of her life as he to her Majesties self did confess yet such was her goodness as instead of punishing she did deal so graciously with him as she suffered him not onely to have Access unto her presence but also many times to have private Confernce with her and did offer unto him upon opinion once conceived of his fidelity towards her as though his wicked pretence had been as he protested for her service a most liberal Pension Besides to the end that he might not grow hateful to the good and well-affected Subjects of the Realm from whom he could in no sort have escaped with safety of his life if his devilish purpose had been revealed her Majesty did conceal the same without communicating it to any creature untill such time as he himself had opened the same unto certain of her Council and that it was also discovered that he sought to draw the said Nevil to have been a party in his devilish and most wicked purpose A very rare Example and such as doth more set forth the singular goodness and bounty of her Majesties Princely nature than commend if it be lawful for a Subject to censure his Soveraign her providence such as ought to be in a Prince and person of her Majesties wisdom and quality And as the goodness of her Majesties nature did hereby most manifestly shew it self to be rare in so extraordinary a case and in a matter of so great peril unto her own Royal Person so did the malice of Parry most evidently appear to be in the highest and extreamest degree who notwithstanding the said extraordinary grace and favour extended towards him did not onely perswade the said Nevil to be an Associate in the said wicked Enterprize but did also very vehemently as Nevil confesseth importune him therein as an Action lawful honourable and meritorious omitting nothing that might provoke him to assent thereunto But such was the singular goodness of Almighty God who even from her Majesties Cradle by many evident Arguments hath shewed himself her onely and especial Protector that he so wrought in Nevil's heart as he was moved to reveal the same unto her Majesty and for that purpoce made choise of a faithful Gentleman and of good quality in the Court unto whom upon Munday the 8th of February last he discovered at large all that had passed between Parry and him who immediately made it known to her Majesty whereupon her Highnesses pleasure was That Nevil should be examined by the Earl of Leicester and Sir Christopher Hatton who in the evening of the same day did examine him and he affirmed constantly all which he had before declared to the said Gentleman In the mean time her Majesty continued her singular and most Princely magnanimity neither dismaid with the rareness of the Accident nor appaled with the horrour of so villanous an Enterprize tending even to the taking away of her most gracious life a matter especially observed by the Counsellor that was present at such time as Parry after his return did first discover unto her Majesty his wicked purpose who found no other alteration in her countenance than if he had imparted unto her some matter of contentment which sheweth manifestly how she reposeth her confidence wholly in the defence of the Almighty And so her Majesty following the wonted course of her singular Clemency gave order that Parry the same Munday in the evening though not so known to him should be sent to Mr. Secretaries house in London he being then there who

till to morrow And if one man be in the Town I will not fail to shew you the thing it self and if he be not he will be within these five or six days at which time if it please you to meet me at Chanon-row we may there receive the Sacrament to be true each to other and then I will discover unto you both the party and the thing itself Whereupon I prayed Parry to think better upon it as a matter of great charge both of Soul and Body I would to God said Parry you were as perfectly perswaded in it as I am for then undoubtedly you should do God great service Not long after eight or ten days as I remember Parry coming to visit me at my lodging in Herns rents in Holborn as he often used we walked forth into the fields where he renewed again his determination to kill her Majesty whom he said he thought most unworthy to live and that he wondred I was so scrupulous therein She hath sought said he your ruine and overthrow why should you not then seek to revenge it I confess quoth I that my case is hard but yet am I not so desperate as to revenge it upon my self which must needs be the event of so unhonest and unpossible an enterprise Unpossible said Parry I wonder at you for in truth there is not any thing more easie you are no Courtier and therefore know not her customs of walking with small train and often in the Garden very privately at which time my self may easily have access unto her and you also when you are known in Court Upon the fact we must have a Barge ready to carry us with speed down the River where we will have a ship ready to transport us if it be needfull but upon my head we shall never be followed so far I asked him How will you escape forth of the Garden for you shall not be permitted to carry any men with you and the Gates will then be locked neither can you carry a Dagge without suspition As for a Dagge said Parry I care not my Dagger is enough And as for my escaping those that shall be with her will be so busie about her as I shall finde opportunity enough to escape if you be there ready with the Barge to receive me But if this seem dangerous in respect of your reason before shewed let it then rest till her coming to St. James and let us furnish our selves in the mean time with men and horse fit for the purpose we may each of us keep eight or ten men without suspition And for my part said he I shall finde good fellows that will follow me without suspecting mine intent It is much said he that so many resolute men may do upon the suddain being well appointed with each his Case of Dagges if they were an hundred waiting upon her they were not able to save her you coming of the one side and I on the other and discharging our Dagges upon her it were unhappy if we should both miss her But if our Dagges fail I shall bestir me well with a sword ere she escape me Whereunto I said Good Doctor give over this odious enterprise and trouble me no more with the hearing of that which in heart I loath so much I would to God the enterprise were honest that I might make known unto thee whether I want solution And not long after her Majesty came to St. James's after which one morning the day certain I remember not Parry revived again his former discourse of killing her Majesty with great earnestness and importunity perswading me to joyn therein saying he thought me the onely man of England like to perform it in respect of my valure as he termed it Whereupon I made semblance as if I had been more willing to hear him than before hoping by that means to cause him to deliver his minde to some other that might be witness thereof with me wherein nevertheless I failed After all this on Saturday last being the sixth of February between the hours of five and six in the afternoon Parry came to my Chamber and desired to talk with me apart whereupon we drew our selves to a window And where I had told Parry before that a learned man whom I met by chance in the fields unto whom I proponed the question touching her Majesty had answered me that it was an enterprise most villanous and damnable willing me to discharge my self of it Parry then desired to know that learned mans name and what was become of him saying after a scornful manner No doubt he was a very wise man and you wiser in believing him and said further I hope you told him not that I had any thing from Rome Yes in truth said I. Whereunto Parry said I would you had not named me nor spoken of any thing I had from Rome And thereupon he earnestly perswaded me estsoons to depart beyond the Seas promising to procure me safe passage into Wales and from thence into Britain whereat we ended But I then resolved not to do so but to discharge my conscience and lay open this his most traiterous and abominable intention against her Majesty which I revealed in sort as is before set down Edmund Nevil After this confession of Edmund Nevil William Parry the 11th day of February last being examined in the Tower of London by the Lord Hunsdon Lord Governour of Barwick Sir Christopher Hatton knight Vicechamberlain to her Majesty and Sir Francis Walsingham Knight principal Secretary to her Majesty did voluntary and without any constraint by word of mouth make confession of his said Treason and after set it down in writing all with his own hand in his Lodging in the Tower and sent it to the Court the 13th of the same by the Lieutenant of the Tower The parts whereof concerning his manner of doing the same and the Treasons wherewith he was justly charged are here set down word for word as they are written and signed with his own hand and name the 11th of February 1584. The voluntary Confession of William Parry in writing all with his own hand The voluntary Confession of William Parry Doctor of the Laws now Prisoner in the Tower and accused of Treason by Edmund Nevil Esquire promised by him with all faith and humility to the Queens Majesty in discharge of his Conscience and Duty towards God and her Before the Lord Hunsdon Lord Governour of Barwick Sir Christopher Hatton Knight Vicechamberlain Sir Francis Walsingham Knight principal Secretary the 13th of February 1584. Parry IN the year 1570. I was sworn her Majesties servant from which time until the year 1580. I served honoured and loved her with as great readiness devotion and assurance as any poor subject in England In the end of that year and until Midsummer 1582. I had some trouble for the hurting of a Gentleman of the Temple In which action I was so disgraced and oppressed by two great men to

whom I have of late been beholden that I never had contented thought since There began my misfortune and here followeth my woful fall In July after I laboured for licence to travail for three years which upon some consideration was easily obtained And so in August I went over with doubtful minde of return for that being suspected in Religion and not having received the Communion in twenty two years I began to mistrust my advancement in England In September I came to Paris where I was reconciled to the Church and advised to live without scandal the rather for that it was mistrusted by the English Catholiques that I had Intelligence with the greatest Councellour of England I staied not long there but removed to Lions a place of great Traffick where because it was the ordinary passage of our Nation to and fro between Paris and Rome I was also suspected To put all men out of doubt of me and for some other cause I went to Millain from whence as a place of some danger though I found favour there after I had cleared my conscience and justified my self in Religion before the Inquisitor I went to Venice There I came acquainted with father Benedicto Palmio a grave and a learned Jesuite By conference with him of the hard state of the Catholicks in England and by reading of the Book De persecutione Anglicana and other discourses of like argument 1 I conceived a possible mean to relieve the afflicted state of our Catholicks if the same might be well warranted in religion and conscience by the Pope or some learned Divines I asked his opinion he made it clear commended my devotion comforted me in it and after a while made me known to the Nuntio Campeggio there resident for his Holiness By his means I wrote to the Pope presented the service and sued for a Pasport to go to Rome and to return safely into France Answer came from Cardinal Como that I might come and should be welcome I misliked the warrant sued for a better which I was promised but it came not before my departure to Lions where I promised to stay some time for it And being indeed desirous to go to Rome and loth to go without countenance I desired Christofero de Salazar Secretary to the Catholick King in Venice who had some understanding by conference of my devotion to the afflicted Catholicks at home and abroad to commend me to the Duke di Nova Terra Governour of Millain and to the County of Olivaris Embi then Resident for the King his Master in Rome which he promised to do effectually for the one and did for the other And so I took my journey towards Lyons whither came for me an ample Passeport but somewhat too late that I might come and go in verbo Pontificis per omnes jurisdictones Ecclesiasticas absque impedimento I acquainted some good Fathers there of my necessity to depart towards Paris by promise and prayed their advises upon divers points wherein I was well satisfied And so assuring them that his Holiness should hear from me shortly it was undertaken that I should be excused for that time In October I came to Paris where upon better opinion conceived of me amongst my Catholick Country-men I found my credit well setled and such as mistrusted me before ready to trust and imbrace me And being one day at the Chamber of Thomas Morgan a Catholick Gentleman greatly beloved and trusted on that side amongst other Gentlemen talking but in very good sort of England I was desired by Morgan to go up with him to another Chamber where he brake with me and told me that it was hoped and looked for that I should do some service for God and his Church I answered him I would do it if it were to kill the greatest subject in England whom I named and in truth then hated No no said he let him live to his greater fall and ruine of his house 2. It is the Queen I mean I had him as I wished and told him it were soon done if it might be lawfully done and warranted in the opinion of some learned Divines And so the doubt once resolved though as you have heard I was before reasonably well satisfied I vowed to undertake the enterprise for the restitution of England to the ancient obedience of the Sea Apostolick Divers Divines were named Doctor Allein I desired Parsons I refused And by chance came Master Wattes a learned Priest with whom I conferred and was over-ruled 3 For he plainly pronounced the case onely altered in name that it was utterly unlawful with whom many English Priests did agree as I have heard if it be not altered since the book made in answer of The execution of the English Justice was published which I must confess hath taken hard hold in me and I fear me will do in others if it be not prevented by more gracious handling of the quiet and obedient Catholick subjects whereof there is good and greater store in England than this age will extinguish Well notwithstanding all these doubts I was gone so far by letters and conference in Italy that I could not go back but promised faithfully to perform the enterprise if his Holiness upon my offer and letters would allow it and grant me full remission of my sins 4 I wrote my letters the first of January 1584. by their computation took advice upon them in confession of Father Anibal a Codreto a learned Jesuite in Paris was lovingly embraced commended confessed and communicated at the Jesuites at one altar with the Cardinals of Vandosmi and Narbone whereof I prayed certificate and enclosed the same in my Letter to his Holiness to lead him the rather to absolve me which I required by my Letters in consideration of so great an enterprise undertaken without promise or reward 5 I went with Morgan to the Nuntio Ragazzoni to whom I read the Letter and certificate enclosed sealed it and left it with him to send to Rome he promised great care of it and to procure answer And so lovingly imbraced me wished me good speed and promised that I should be remembred at the altar 6 After this I desired Morgan that some special man might be made privy to this matter lest he dying and I miscarrying in the execution and my intent never truly discovered it might stick for an everlasting spot in my Race Divers were named but none agreed upon for fear of beraying 7 This being done Morgan assured me that shortly after my departure the L. Fernehurst then in Paris should go into Scotland and be ready upon the first news of the Queens fall to enter into England with 20 or 30000 Men to defend the Queen of Scotland whom and the King her Son I do in my conscience acquit of any privity liking or consent to this or any other bad action for any thing that ever I did know I shortly departed for England and arrived at Rie in January 1583. from whence I

If her Majesty by this course would have eased them though she had never preferred me I had with all comfort and patience born it 13 but if she had preferred me without ease or care of them the Enterprise had held Parry God preserve the Queen and encline her merciful heart to forgive me this desperate purpose and to take my Head with all my heart for her better satisfaction After which for the better manifesting of his Treasons on the 14th of February last there was a Letter written by him to her Majesty very voluntarily all of his own Hand without any motion made to him The tenor whereof for that which concerneth these his Traiterous dealings is as followeth A Letter written by Parry to Her Majesty YOur Majesty may see by my voluntary Confession the dangerous fruits of a discontented minde and how constantly I pursued my first conceived purpose in Venice for the relief of the afflicted Catholicks continued it in Lions and resolved in Paris to put it in adventure for the Restitution of England to the antient Obedience of the See Apostolick You may see withal how it is Commended Allowed and Warranted in Conscience Divinity and Policy by the Pope and some great Divines Though it be true or likely that most of our English Divines less practised in matters of this weight do utterly mislike and condemn it The Enterprise is prevented and Conspiracy discovered by an honourable Gentleman my Kinsman and late familiar Friend Master Edmund Nevil privy and by solemn Oath taken upon the Bible party to the matter whereof I am hardly glad but now sorry in my very Soul that ever I conceived or intended it how commendable or meritoritous soever I thought it God thank him and forgive me who would not now before God attempt it if I had liberty and opportunity to do it to gain your Kingdome I beseech Christ that my Death and Example may as well satisfie your Majesty and the world as it shall glad and content me The Queen of Scotland is your Prisoner let her be honourably entreated but yet surely guarded The French King is French you know it well enough you will finde him occupied when he should do you good he will not loose a Pilgrimage to save you a Crown I have no more to say at this time but that with my Heart and Soul I do now honour and love you am inwardly sorry for mine Offence and ready to make you amends by my Death and Patience Discharge me à culpâ but not à poenâ good Lady And so farewel most gracious and the best-natured and qualified Queen that ever lived in England From the Tower the 14th of February 1584. W. Parry After which to wit the 18th of February last past Parry in further acknowledging his wicked and intended Treasons wrote a Letter all of his own hand in like voluntary manner to the Lord Treasurer of England and the Earl of Leicester Lord Steward of her Majesties house the Tenour whereof is as followeth William Parry's Letter to the Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Leicester MY Lords now that the Conspiracy is discovered the Fault confessed my Conscience cleared and Minde prepared patiently to suffer the Pains due for so heinous a Crime I hope it shall not offend you if crying Miserere with the poor Publican I leave to despair with cursed Cain My Case is rare and strange and for any thing I can remember singular A natural Subject solemnly to vow the Death of his natural Queen so born so known and so taken by all men for the Relief of the afflicted Catholicks and Restitution of Religion The Matter first conceived in Venice the Service in general words presented to the Pope continued and undertaken in Paris and lastly commended and warranted by his Holiness digested and resolved in England if it had not been prevented by Accusation or by her Majesties greater Lenity and more gracious Usage of her Catholick Subjects This is my first and last Offence conceived against my Prince or Country and doth I cannot deny contein all other faults whatsoever It is now to be punished by Death or most graciously beyond all common expectation to be pardoned Death I do confess to have deserved Life I do with all Humility crave if it may stand with the Queens Honour and Policy of the Time To leave so great a Treason unpunished were strange To draw it by my Death in example were dangerous A sworn Servant to take upon him such an Enterprize upon such a ground and by such a warrant hath not been seen in England To Indict him Arraign him bring him to the Scaffold and to publish his Offence can do no good To hope that he hath more to discover than is Confessed or that at his Execution he will unsay any thing he hath written is in vain To conclude that it is impossible for him in time to make some part of amends were very hard and against former Experiences The Question then is whether it be better to kill him or lest the matter be mistaken upon hope of his amendment to pardon him For mine own opinion though partial I will deliver you my Conscience The Case is good Queen Elizabeths the Offence is committed against her Sacred Person and she may of her Mercy pardon it without prejudice to any Then this I say in few words as a man more desirous to discharge his troubled Conscience than to live Pardon poor Parry and relieve him for life without living is not fit for him If this may not be or be thought dangerous or dishonourable to the Queens Majesty as by your favours I think it full of Honour and Mercy then I beseech your Lordships and no other once to hear me before I be Indicted and afterwards if I must dye humbly to intreat the Queens Majesty to hasten my Trial and Execution which I pray God with all my heart may prove as honourable to her as I hope it shall be happy to me who will while I live as I have done always pray to Jesus Christ for her Majesties long and prosperous Reign From the Tower the 18th of February 1584. W. Parry And where in this mean time Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary to her Majesty had dealt with one William Creichton a Scot for his Birth and a Jesuit by his Profession now Prisoner also in the Tower for that he was apprehended with divers Plots for Invasions of this Realm to understand of him if the said Parry had ever dealt with him in the parties beyond the Seas touching that Question Whether it were lawful to kill her Majesty or not the which at that time the said Creichton called not to his remembrance yet after upon better calling it to minde upon the 20th day of February last past he wrote to Master Secretary Walsingham thereof voluntary all of his own hand to the effect following William Creichtons Letter February 20. RIght honourable Sir when your Honour demanded me if Mr.