which possess'd their Head in such a degree that upon the Resignation of the Emperour Charles the Fifth Ferdinand his Brother was rejected by the Pope who affirmed That none had power to Resign but into his hands and so it belong'd to him to nominate a Successor not to the Electors but he kept the Imperial Crown though the Pope would never acknowledge him for Emperour With the same Haughtiness did he demean himself towards Sir Edward Karn the English Agent at Rome who acquainting him by order from her Majesty of Queen Elizabeth's Accession to the Crown the Pope answer'd That the Kingdom of England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she being Illegitimate could not succeed and therefore it was great boldness in her to assume the Government without his leave yet if she would renounce her Title and refer all to him he would act as became his Honour But the Queen took no care to satisfie this blustering Gentleman who soon after dyed But the Pope who succeeded him Pius the Fourth issued out a strict Bull commanding all the Learned of that Church to find out Arguments to persuade Subjects to break their Oaths of Allegiance in favour of the Apostolick See in order to which he granted several Dispensations to preach among the Protestants of England and to marry if need were And the same year his good Sons in Ireland by their example shewed their Obedience to it for Shan O Neale Earl of Tyrone rebelled but finding himself too weak submitted and had his Pardon though not till two years after In the mean while viz. the next year the Pope's Nuncio in Ireland joyn'd himself to the Rebels publickly assisting them and by his Authority pronounced the Queen deprived of that Kingdom But the year following though the Irish submitted yet Arthur Pool and others contriv'd to joyn themselves with the Duke of Guise land an Army in Wales and Proclaim the Queen of Scots to which the following Pope afterwards added his endeavours to get our Queen Murthered as the Writer of his Life informs us But in the mean time that it might not be said of this that he neglected any thing for the advantage of his Supreme Power to keep his hand in ure he published a Monitory against the Queen of Navarre declaring That if she did not turn Romanist within six Months he would deprive her of her Dominions and give them to any that would conquer them but the King of France promising to stand by her his terrible Threat serv'd only to shew how ready he was to Depose all Princes that offended him if his Power had been equal to his Will. And in this year it was that the Council of Trent made that excellent Decree whereby they confirmed all the Canons of Popes and Councils which set the Pope above Princes gave him Power over them and exempted the Clergy from being subject to them thereby endeavouring to Depose all Princes who knew themselves and their Rights too well to truckle under the usurped Power of their Supreme Head. But though the Pope could not send any Sovereign Prince of his Errand to destroy the House of Navarre yet such obedient Sons were the Cardinal of Lorrain and the rest of the House of Guise that they resolv'd its Ruine To which End they sent Captain Dimanche into Spain to get Assistance there designing to fall upon Bearn seize the Queen of Navarre the young King and his Sister and send them to the Inquisition in Spain to be proceeded against as Hereticks but this Design was discovered and so came to nothing But in the same year we are informed by one of the English Spies at Rome That the Pope granted Indulgences and Pardons to any Person that should assault Queen Elizabeth either in private or publick or to any Cook Baker Vintner Physician Brewer Grocer Chirurgion or any other Calling that should make her away together with an absolute Remission of Sins to such Person 's Heirs and an Annuity for ever and to be one of the Privy Council successively whosoever Reigned To the Endeavours of the Pope O Neale likewise added his by rebelling again and murthering the English committing the most barbarous Cruelties imaginable but his Power was broken in a pitcht Battel the year following notwithstanding which he continued his Rebellion till two years after when he was Stabb'd by Alexander Oge whose Brother he had slain before But though the Rebels had such ill success yet the Pope will not be disheartened but the next year sends one Rodolpho a rich Florentine Gentleman into England to stir up the People against the Queen To him the King of Spain joins the Marquess of Cetona who under the pretence of an Embassy was sent over to countenance the Rebellion and command the Forces which the Duke of Alva should send from the Low Countries in order to which La Motte Governour of Dankirk had come privately iu the Habit of a Sailer to sound the Ports Rodolphâ— was furnished with plenty of Money from the Pope which he distributed to make a Party into which they drew the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland with others who perceiving their Plot discovered submitted and begged Pardon This Design the Pope was so zealous for that he assured the Spaniards he would go along with them himself if need were and engage all his Goods and Treasure in the Service Nor was this the only Design of the Pope at this time for in pursuit of his Predecessour's Bull against her he advised the Queen-Mother of France to seize on the Dominions of the Queen of Navarre because she was an Heretick offering if she approved of it by his Papal Authority to appoint one of the House of Valois to be King of those Territories which if she did not like he was resolved to give them to the King of Spain but that Prince knowing they must be won by the Sword declined accepting the Pope's Bounty Hitherto the Members of the Church of Rome made no scruple to resort to the Protestant Churches both for Prayer and Preaching but this Year Pope Pius Quintus published his Bull against the Queen upon which they all withdrew from any such Communion with us In this Bull the Pope calls the Queen the pretended Queen of England a Servant of Wickedness affirms that her Council consisted of obscure heretical Fellows declares her an Heretick and cut off from the Unity of Christ's Body that she is deprived of her Title to her Kingdoms and of all Dominion Dignity and Privilege whatsoever and her Subjects absolved from all manner of Duty and Obedience to her and that by the Authority of this Bull he doth absolve Them and depose Her and forbidding all her Subjects under pain of Anathema to obey her With this Bull he sends Morton a Priest into England to spread this
Censure and persuade the People to back it with an Insurrection upon which as Surius tells us out of Sanders many Persons of Quality resolved to execute it Accordingly the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland who were pardoned but the year before took Arms in the North trampled under feet the English Bible and Service-Book bearing in their Standard the Cross and five Wounds of our Saviour and being betwixt five and six thousand men they grew so insolent that they would give the Queen no better Title than the Pretended Queen but the Pope being too slow in sending the hundred thousand Crowns he promised them and they at length finding their numbers too small to cope with the Queens Army dispersed and every one shifted for himself The Earl of Westmorland escaped into Flanders where he dyed miserably but Northumberland being taken was beheaded at York who was nevertheless looked upon by the Romanists as a glorious Martyr and the drops of his bloud kept by them as holy Relicks That this Rebellion had no better success Sanders and from him Surius give this Reason Because the Catholicks had not timely notice of the Pope's Bull And the same Person informs us That those that were executed for this Treason refused to the very last to acknowledge the Queens Authority Among which Sanders mentions Plumtree and others as well as the two Earls who are termed glorious Martyrs of the Catholicks by Bristow in his Motives and several others To correspond with the Pope's Intentions in his Bull Ireland puts in for a share this year where Jame Fitz-Morice of the House of Desmond and two of the Botelers raised a Rebellion but the latter being drawn to a submission by the loyal Earl of Ormond Fitz-Morice after many shifts followed their Example and was pardoned But though the two Earls and their Accomplices had sped so ill yet Leonard Dacres renew'd the Rebellion in the North and fought a bloudy Battel against the Queens Forces with great obstinacy though in the end he was forced to fly into Scotland And now that the Catholicks might no longer remain in ignorance of the Queens being deprived of the Kingdoms by the Pope one Felton this year had the hardiness to fix the Bull at the Bishop of London's Gates for which being apprehended he confessed the Fact and gloried in it at his death affirming the Queen had no right to the Throne being deposed by the Sentence of the Pope Yet doth Surius affirm that he dyed a Martyr for the Catholick Faith justifying the Action as done out of Zeal for the Church and in Obedience to the lawfull Commands of the Pope The same is affirmed by Parsons Spondanus and Hilarion de Coste who styles him the valiant Soldier of Jesus Christ commends his invincible Courage and Zeal for the Faith and affirms that his Martyrdom is one of England's most glorious Trophies though the same Person can afford the Queen no better a Title than the Impious and wicked Queen the true Iezebel of our days And that all the World may see what they thought of him at Rome no sooner could Thuanus affirm that it was a very rash Action but the Index Expurgatorius commands that passage to be blotted out so jealous are they of the Honour of this grand Traitor With as great Encomiums do we find the Memory of Dr. Story celebrated by the Writers of that Church This man was one of the most violent Persecutours in Queen Mary's days for which cruelties being questioned in Parliament in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign he answered that he knew no Fault he was guilty of but only that he busied himself in cutting off the Branches while he neglected to pull up the Root it self which if he had done Heresie had not got up again For this being imprisoned he found means to escape into Flanders but being apprehended and brought into England this year he rejoiced that he should suffer Martyrdom Upon his Tryall he declined the Jurisdiction of the Court affirming that he was a Subject to the King of Spain and acknowledged no lawfull Judge in England for which he gave this Reason That seeing the Pope had declared the Queen deprived of her Right he durst not acknowledge her Authority lest he should fall under the Censures of that Bull And at the moment of his Execution being asked by an Earl whether the Queen was his Sovereign he replied She was not yet is he reckoned among the Martyrs for the Romish Faith. The next Year was that bloudy Massacre of Paris though contrived two years before wherein it being carried over all France above 100000 Protestants were butchered in cold bloud the Duke of Guise and his Party did all they could to have the King of Navarre and Prince of Conde slaughtered with the rest but they being preserved by the King the chief Design of the Papalins in that bloudy Action was prevented But four years after was that desperate Confederacy entred into by that Duke and his Adherents in France which they and the Pope afterwards termed the Holy League which had all the parts of a most desperate Rebellion and continued for so many years to the Destruction of one Prince and infinite vexation of another It was first begun at Peronne and afterwards formed into a more strict Union by which under a shew of maintaining the King they took from him all his Authority to confer it upon the Head of their Conspiracy Nay the zeal for this rebellious Association was so great that they subscribed it with their Bloud and in order to the prosecution of what they had there promised they sent Nicolas David an Advocate of the Parliament of Paris to Rome but he being slain by the way on his return Cardinal de Pellive afterwards managed their business with the Pope But among the Memoirs of that Advocate there was found an Account of the Transaction between the Pope and the Duke of Guise wherein the Design laid down is to pull down the House of Valois then reigning from the Throne and set up the Duke of Guise In this Transaction the Liberties of the Gallican Church are called a damnable Errour nothing else but the shift of the Waldenses Lutheranes and Calvinists and it is affirmed that France shall never prosper as long as the Crown continues in that line The whole Platform of the Design is there laid down and the Pope is to advance that Duke to the Crown of France as the Successour of Charlemagne in consideration whereof the Duke is bound to cause the See of Rome to be plainly acknowledged by the States of the Kingdom without Restriction or Modification abolishing the Privileges and Liberties of the Gallican Church Thus do we find the Pope promoting the most rebellious Designs to advance his own usurped Greatness And his Missionaries not desiring a better example than
themselves that the foundation of the Gun-powder Treason was laid the following year but it is very probable that there was a rough draught of it made in this as appears by the Case resolv'd by Delrio the Jesuite whether if one discover in Confession that he hath laid Gun-powder under an House by which the House is to be blown up and the Prince destroyed the Priest ought to reveal it upon which he concludes that he ought not it was a Case that had never happened before and so not likely to have been thought of by a Person not cautious of such a Design and this Resolution Garnet after served himself of alledging That all the Knowledge he had of the Treason was communicated to him in Confession which he was bound not to disclose upon any Account whatsoever Soon after his last Letter in Tyrone's behalf the same Pope sent his Breves into England commanding all the Roman Catholicks not to admit after the Queen's death any Prince whatsoever unless he would bind himself by Oath to promote the Roman Catholick Religion to his utmost Power In prosecution of which knowing that King James the next Successour was a firm Protestant several Designs were formed against his Life Hay and Hamilton two Papists were sent into Scotland to stir up the Jesuites there who were received and cherished notwithstanding the King had by his Proclamation forbidden any to harbour them affirming that if any did he would look upon them as Designers against his Life But while these Jesuites and others of the same stamp were endeavouring to prepare matters for a Rebellion one Mowbray Son to a Scotch Nobleman undertook to destroy the King but was apprehended at London and sent Prisoner into Scotland by the Queen and about the same time the Duke oâ— Tuscany by some Letters he had intercepted discovered another Design against his Life which was to be effected by Poison an Account of which he sent immediately to the King by Sir Henry Wotton then in his Court with several Antidotes against the Poison if it should be given him notwithstanding all his diligence to prevent it During these Designs in Scotland the Pope sent a Letter to Tyrone calling his Rebellion an Holy League assuring him that he was exceedingly pleased at their Courage and Zeal extolling his Piety exhorting him to go on as he had begun and praying that God would fight for him promising to write to all Catholick Princes to assist him and to send a Nuncio to reside with him and giving his Blessing to him and all his Followers who should hazard themselves for the Catholick Cause Besides which he sent a Breve to the whole Body of the Irish Nation requiring them to join with Tyr-Oen against the Queen and if we may believe Don Juan de Aquila General of the War in Ireland for defence of the Faith he went farther than this and excommunicated and as far as in him lay deposed Her Majesty This Spanish Commander arrived at Kingsall with a great Fleet and began to fortifie the Town and published a Declaration affirming That the War made against Queen Elizabeth by his Master in Conjunction with Tyr-Oen was just She having been excommunicated and her Subjects absolved from their Fidelity by several Popes exhorting them that now Christ's Vicar commanded them they would in obedience to him take Arms protesting that if any continued in obedience to the English they should be prosecuted as Hereticks and hatefull Enemies of the Church Soon after Don Alonso del Campo landed with a Supply of Soldiers but suddenly after his arrival was taken Prisoner the Army of the Spaniards and Rebells in conjunction routed and the former glad to be permitted to return home Yet were the English Papists as diligent as ever to introduce the Spaniards and therefore dispatched away Thomas Winter to trie what could be done for their assistance who were ready to sacrifice their Lives for the Catholick Cause and to assure the King of Spain that if he would send over an Army they would have in a readiness Fifteen hundred or two thousand Horses for the Service being introduced by the means of the Jesuite Creswell the Duke of Lerma assured him of Assistance and the Count de Miranda told him that his Master would bestow two hundred thousand Crowns for that use and would have an Army in England by the next Spring With this gratefull Account of the posture of Affairs he returned and great preparations were made that they might be ready against the arrival of the Forces but all their measures were broken by the Queen's death yet was Mr. Wright sent into Spain and Guy Faux after him but the King refused to meddle having sent his Ambassadour to conclude a Peace with King James upon which disappointment they entertained new Designs which we shall have account of in a little time While these Matters were transacting in Spain and England Tyr-Oen and Osulevan continued their Insurrection in Ireland the latter keeping the Castle of Dunboy for the King of Spain to whom he sent to desire him to accept it which he did and sent Osulevan twelve thousand pounds with a supply of Arms and Ammunition and the rest of the Rebells received Encouragement from their Correspondents in Spain who assured them his Catholick Majesty would not omit the winning of Ireland if it cost him the most part of Spain and that an Army of fourteen thousand men with a Nuncio from the Pope were set Sail for their Relief which News rendered them so obstinate that they endured all Extremities but the taking of Dunboy by the Lord Deputy put a stop to those succours there being no place for to receive them at their landing yet did Mac Eggan the Apostolical Vicar revive the fury of the Rebells but he was slain the latter end of this year fighting at the head of his Men with a Sword drawn in one hand and his Breviary and Beads in the other We have seen the Pope approving this Rebellion so that the Divines of his Church could doe no less than follow the Dictates of their Supreme Head which the Jesuites of Salamanca did this year by a Declaration of theirs in which they resolve That we must hold for certain that the Pope hath power to bridle and suppress those who forsake the Faith And having farther stated the Question they proceed to affirm That it is lawfull for any Catholick to assist Tyr-Oen and that with great Merit and good Hope of eternal Reward because it is by the Pope's Authority that all such Romanists as take part with the English sin mortally and cannot be saved or receive Absolution till they forsake the English Army and those are in the same condition who give the English any Tribute except such as the Pope hath given them leave to pay so that they are to be Subjects no longer than the Pope
that of their holy Father in prosecution of his Designs Cuthbert Mayne came into England dispersing Libells to maintain the Pope's Authority over the Queen and he confessed under his own Hand that he brought with him several holy grains to distribute among the Catholicks which they should keep as so many Preservatives by the producing of which they should be safe when the Protestants were to be destroyed In the same business several others were employed and one Hemford sent over with a Dispensation of the Pope's Bull whereby the Romanists had liberty to yield outward Obedience till an opportunity offered itself for the execution of that deposing Sentence And one Haydock was employed to prepare things against such a time and to note the fittest places for landing an Army as himself wrote to Allen the Jesuite Besides these one Paine a Priest and fifty others were furnished at the Pope's Charge who undertook to kill the Queen as she went to take the Air. And yet these are the men whom Sanders in his Letter to the aforenamed Jesuite terms chosen Vessels But our Countrey was not the onely Nation afflicted with these Plots and traiterous Contrivances for about the same time was Sebastian King of Portugal betrayed by the Jesuits to the loss both of his Life and Kingdom which they had before engaged to transfer to the Spanish King in which they were as good as their word though near fifty years since it is returned to the Obedience of its lawfull Heir during which War attempting to deliver one of the Isles of the Azores to the Spaniards they were discoved and treated as their Wickedness deserved but of this more hereafter The Pope's Designs upon the Queen's Life being by the good Providence of God frustrated the holy Father Gregory the 13th carried on the projects of his Predecessour who had willingly lent an Ear to the advice of Thomas Stukely an English Fugitive and in hopes of getting the Kingdom of Ireland for his own Son the Marquess of Vineola where we find though Popes do not marry yet they can get Children created Stukely Marquess of Leinster adding several other Titles and assisting him with Forces and a plenary Indulgence dispatcht him away for Ireland but by the way being persuaded by the King of Portugal to join with him against the Moors he was slain in the Battel together with that King. But though Ireland was delivered from this Danger yet soon after James Fitz-Morice who was pardoned in the Year 1569. went over into France where he desired Assistance to beat the English out of Ireland and reduce that Nation to the French Obedience but King Henry the Third then reigning having sufficient Employment for his Forces at home Fitz-Morice addressed himself to the Pope and the King of Spain the former embraced this opportunity and sent Sanders with him as his Nuncio with a consecrated Banner and the latter assisted them with Men and Money the Pope in the mean while raising Souldiers in his Countrey for their Assistance and Relief Fitz-Morice and Sanders with the Spaniards landed in Kerry in Ireland and committedall manner of Outrages in one of which Fitz-Morice was killed by the Sons of William a Burgh soon after made Baron of Castleconnel in his place succeeded his Brother John E. of Desmond to whom the Pope sent an Indulgence dated May 13. 1580. wherein he highly magnifies the Piety of James laments his Death and exhorts all the Nobility Clergy and People of the Land to follow this John in fighting against the Hereticks for the Catholick Cause and to encourage them in that good work he grants a Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all their sins in the same extent as was granted to those who were engaged in the Holy War. And when the Spaniards were required by the Lord Gray then Deputy of Ireland to express their Intention in thus invading her Majesties Dominions they returned Answer That they were sent from the Pope and King of Spain to whom his Holiness had given Ireland for that Elizabeth had justly forfeited her Title to the Kingdom by Heresie that they would keep what they had got and get more if they could But in a small time after they were glad to surrender upon Mercy the Earl of Desmond having been routed before and Allen the Priest who came with the Legate Sanders slain This ill success put a stop to the Recruits the Pope was preparing to send after them Sanders dyed of hunger in the Woods and the Earl of Desmond was slain two years after by a common Soldier And to encourage these Rebels and to excite to more such Attempts this Pope Gregory the Thirteenth the same year renewed the Bull of Pius Quintus against the Queen There were five hundred Copies of it printed at Rome and the Bull it self dispersed over all Italy Spain and part of Germany as is attested by one who was then in the English College at Rome who likewise assures us that one of their Readers in Divinity before above two hundred Scholars affirmed That it was lawfull for any man of Worship in England to give Authority to the vilest wretch that is to endeavour the Queen's death but that this Pope did excommunicate the Queen we find in our excellent Annalist and is acknowledged by the Romish Priests in their Important Considerations printed the last year of that Queen's Reign But though he pronounced that terrible Sentence against her yet as is observed by one who had been a great stickler for the Romish Church he dealt a great deal more subtilly and more dangerously than his Predecessour for finding the danger the Romanists were daily exposed to by their endeavouring the Destruction of the Queen whom they durst not obey or cease to hurt for fear of the Curses denounced in the Bull he qualified it in such a manner that the Jesuite Hart as the Lord Burleigh tell us acknowledg'd The Bull of Pius Quintus for so much as it is against the Queen is holden by the English Catholicks for a lawfull Sentence and a sufficient Discharge of her Subjects Fidelity and so remains in force but in some points touching the Subject it is altered by the present Pope For where in that Bull all her Subjects are commanded not to obey her and she being excommunicated and deposed all that do obey her are likewise accursed which point is perilous to the Catholicks for if they obey her they are in the Pope's Curse and if they disobey her they are in the Queen's Danger Therefore the present Pope to relieve them hath altered that part of the Bull and dispensed with them to obey and serve her without peril of Excommunication which dispensation is to endure but till it please the Pope otherwise to determine Here we have a plain Confession of that learned Gentleman who is by them termed a Noble Champion of
This Method of satisfying their Consciences with their Confessour's Authority was so generally taken by the zealous Assassins of those times that the Leaguers in France kept several Priests in pay who daily preached and asserted That Princes ought to be deposed who do not sufficiently perform their Duty and a Bachelour in Divinity of the Sorbonne maintained in a publick Disputation That it was lawfull for any private man to depose or kill any Prince who is a wicked man or an Heretick which opinion had so entirely possest the Cardinal of Bourbon that because the King of Navarre was an Heretick he had the Confidence to tell King Henry the Third that if his Majesty should dye the Crown would belong to him and he was resolved not to lose his Right But because these Doctrines without force to practise them would prove but empty speculations the Duke of Guise had the latter end of this year a Conference with the King of Spain's Commissioners whereby he associated himself with the Spaniards against his Sovereign obliging his party to maintain War against the King as long as the King of Spain pleased To promote which Design Cardinal Pellevee sollicited the Pope for his approbation of it and when the Duke of Nevers declared his Resolutions to have nothing to doe with them unless he had the Opinion both of Eminent Divines and the Pope too in favour of the Undertaking his Confessour and Monsieur Faber told him that he ought to take up Arms with the Leaguers by which he would be so far from sinning that he would merit highly and perform an Action very acceptable to God and the aforesaid Cardinal with other Divines assured him that the Pope approved of it declaring it lawfull to fight against Hereticks and such as favour or adhere to them though it were the King himself he indeed advised them not to attempt his Life but to seize his Person and force him to promote their Ends In obedience to which the Cardinal of Bourbon published a Declaration dated March 31. 1585. justifying his Arms but professing great Respect to the Royal Person This Pope dying his Successour Sixtus the Fifth was more open in avowing the Leaguers Cause and therefore published his Bull against the King of Navarre declaring him an Heretick depriving him and his Posterity of all their Rights absolving his Subjects from their Allegiance and excommunicating all such as should obey him While this Pope was making Tryall of his Thunderbolts in France he had his Agents privily endeavouring to execute the Commands of his Predecessour in this Nation for which Henry Piercy Earl of Northumberland being apprehended shot himself through the heart during his Imprisonment he had been pardoned for a former Rebellion and being found a prosecutour of Throgmorton's Design became this year his own Executioner But a more formidable because more threacherous and secret Design was managed by some English Seminaries at Rhemes who thought it meritorious to destroy the Queen where one Savage was so wrought upon by the Persuasions of Dr. Gifford the Rectour and two other Priests that he vowed to murther her to whom Ballard another Priest joining treated with Mendoza the Spanish Embassadour in France about an Invasion after which he drew in Mr. Babington a rich and well accomplish'd Gentleman who desired that five more might be joined to Savage to make sure work Babington affirmed that several Counties in England were ready and being assured of Assistance from Spain they resolved that the Usurper so they termed the Queen should be sent to the other World assoon as the Invaders landed but Ballard being taken Babington resolved to effect her death immediately though Divine Providence prevented it by his apprehension who with the rest of his Companions freely confessed the Fact for which sixteen of them suffered death Yet did not this deter Mr. William Stafford at the Sollicitation of the French Ambassadour from engaging in an Enterprise of the same horrid nature which though he refused to act himself yet he directed them to one Moody who willingly embraced the motion upon Promise of Preferment from the Duke of Guise but while he was contriving a way to effect it Stafford discovered all and justified it to the Ambassadour's Face who at first denied any knowledge of it With the same diligence were the Romanists in France driving on their treasonable Designs for at a Council held by the chief Conspiratours at the Jesuites College near St. Pauls in Paris they resolved to surprise Boloign there to receive the Spaniards who should land to their Assistance A Plot was laid to secure the King as he returned from hunting and another to seize the Bastile assault the Louvre and put the King into a Convent during which Action their word was to be Let the Mass flourish and the King of Navarre was to be cut off by the Spaniards but these Designs being discovered as also another Plot to seize the King in the Abby of St. Germains their hopes were disappointed in which Conspiracies Cardinal Pellevee a French man then at Rome was so deeply concerned that the King ordered his Revenues to be seized and distributed to the Poor But His Majesty going from Paris they proposed the seizing of the City in his absence the Duke of Guise designing to secure the King in the Countrey and for the exciting those rebellious Spirits to some Action the Preachers at Paris generally vented nothing but Sedition affirming that the King was a Tyrant and an enemy to the Church and People and when the King sent to apprehend one of these furious Leaguers he retired into the house of one Hatte a Notary where Bussy and his men fought in his defence against the King's Officers headed by the Lieutenant Civil And the Sorbonne Doctours made a Decree That Princes might be deposed from their Government if they did not what became them as the charge taken away from a negligent Guardian And that there might want no Encouragement the Pope presented the Duke of Guise the Head of the Rebels with a rich Sword thereby declaring his approbation of his Proceedings The same year Sir. William Stanley being made Governour of Deventer and Rowland York of Zutphen for the Queen they betrayed both these places to the Spaniard upon which the former beginning to sink in his Reputation lest the sense of his Treasons should put him upon thoughts of returning to his Loyalty Dr. Allan afterwards Cardinal wrote to him and his traiterous Accomplices telling them that the Queen being deposed by the Pope could make no just War and all her Subjects were bound not to serve or obey her in any thing And in another of his Books he affirms That God had not sufficiently provided for our Salvation or the Preservation of his Church if there were no way to restrain or deprive Apostate Kings
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