and should receive The King of Navarre besought the King to remember his promise of Alliance newly contracted and not to constrain him in his Religion The Prince of Conde also more fervently answered that the King had given his Faith unto him and to all those of the Religion with so solemn a Protestation and Vow Mark here the Vows of Romish Princes that he could not be persuaded that his Majesty would falsify such an authentick Oath and that thereupon he had thus far yeilded to his Majesties Demands and faithfully performed what he had required of him on this Assurance But as touching the Religion whereof the King had granted him the free exercise and God the true knowledg to whom he was to make an account therein for this his Religion he said he was fully resolved to remain most constant therein and which he would always maintain to be true although it were with the loss of his Life This answer of the Prince set the King into such a choller that he began to call him Rebel seditious and Son of a seditious Person with horrible threatnings to cause them to lose their Heads if within 3 days they took not better counsel and indeed these threatnings and other crafty carriages in this way so wrought on both these Princes at last that they forsook their Faith and first Love and turned to Romish abominations Now the King perceiving that this Massacre of Paris would not quench the Fire but rather kindle it the more fearing lest those of the Religion in his other Provinces and Towns might assemble and unite themselves together and so give them new work he with the speedy advice of his Counsellors sent two Messengers with two several Messages the one to the Governours and seditious Catholicks of his remoter Towns wherein were many of the Religion with express command to massacre them the other containing certain Letters to the Governors of Provinces by which he pretended this Massacre to be perpetated by the Duke of Guise and the Admiral to be murthered on a particular and private quarrel betwixt them two and that the King 's honest meaning and intention was utterly against these things and seriously to maintain his former Edict of a general Pacification and therefore that his care and vigilancy had ceased it the same day it began and yet as my Author recordeth in his History on the Tuesday following being the 26 of the same August the King accompanied with his Brethren and the chiefest of his Court went to the Court of Parliament and there publickly declared in express terms That whatsoever had happed in Paris was done not only by his consent but also by his Commandment and of his own motion And as for his other former mentioned Message and Letter to other Towns and Provinces for the massacring of those of the Religion among them also his bloody command herein was immediately put in execution at Lyons and many other places where the poor Protestants were murthered and massacred in most hideous and horrible manner by those merciless and inhumane Butchers of bloody Rome who knockt down the innocent Christians among them as so many Dogs cut their Throats mangl'd their Bodies slash'd off their Hands with great sharp Knives as on their Knees they held them up to the Villains praying for the sparing of their Lives yea and were known to rip up their Bellies and take out their Fat from their Bowels and to sell it to the Apothecaries to make Medicines Thus also in those remoter parts from Paris were very many thousands of the Religion murdered without any difference or distinction either of Sex or Age. And so deeply enraged was the King and his Adherents and so desperately resolved to root out and extirpate the memory of those of the Religion especially of any note or eminency that the King having at last got into his custody one Briquemant a noble French Gentleman of the age of seventy years one that had valiantly imployed himself in the Service of the Kings of France having been found in the House of the Ambassador of England then resident in France wherein he had hid himself whilst the greatest fury of the Massacre was executed was by the King's command put in close Prison together with another vertuous Gentleman Cavagnes Master of the Requests both which Gentlemen bare great affection both unto the Religion and also unto the renowned Admiral and were themselves of great esteem and reputation in France but the King having them now fast in hold threatned to tear them in pieces upon the Rack if they would not write and sign with their Hands that they had conspired with the Admiral to kill the King his Brethren the Queen and the King of Navarre But they having most constantly and justly refused to avouch so horrible a lye against their own and their godly Friends Innocencies were racked and cruelly tormented and by a most unjust sentence of the Court of Parliament in Paris they were both declared guilty of Treason and condemned to be hanged upon a Gibbet which was accordingly executed The Queen-Mother leading the King her two Sons and the King of Navarre her Brother-in-Law to see the Execution Her Counsellors thinking that at this last exploit what they had wickedly projected namely the false transferring of the cause of this bloody Massacre on a treasonable Plot intended by the Admiral and others of the Religion against the King as was fore-mentioned would now be wrought out and effected if Briquemant in presence of all the People now at the time of his expected Death would ask pardon of the King withal to work it on the more sending one to him to certifie and assure him that so he might easily save his Life for the King was merciful and that he should have pardon if he would desire it confessing this fact wherewith he was charged But Briquemant answered boldly and with a good courage that it belonged not unto him but to the King to ask pardon of God for such an heinious Offence That he would never ask pardon for a fault wherein he had not offended but knew himself to be most innocent whereof he called GOD to witness desiring him to pardon the King 's so great Disloyalty and Cruelty Cavagnes also the other noble Gentleman did the like until he died Insomuch that this execution contrary to the King's expectation served to no other end but more to publish the iniquity of all those cruel Homicides and of all their most pernicious Counsels The Papists Plots in reference to the late Troubles and particularly about the Death of King CHARLES the First of blessed Memory as proved by Doctor Du Moulin WHen the Businesses of the late bad Times are once ripe for an History and Time the bringer forth of Truth hath discovered the Mysteries of Iniquity and the depths of Satan which hath wrought so much Crime and Mischief it will be found that the late Rebellion was raised and fostered
against the Protestants secretly sought entrance into the Queens Presence with a drawn Sword set upon one or two in his way and being apprehended confessed that he purposed to have killed the Queen Ed. Ardern his Father-in-Law a Gentleman of Warwick-shire and Arderns Wife and their Daughter Somervil's Wife and Hall a Priest were condemned as guilty of Somervil's practice After three days Somervile was found strangled in Prison for fear of revealing it as was thought where he lay and Ardern was hanged the next day Mendoza the Spanish Amhassador thrust out of England IN 1584 some English Gentlemen began to practise the delivery of the Queen of Scots Francis Throgmorton was suspected by Letters written to the Queen of Scots and intercepted Presently Thomas Lord Paget and Charles Arundel a Courtler left the Land secretly Henry Earl of Northumberland and Philip Earl of Arundel were commanded to their Houses And there was great cause of circumspection for the Papists by printed Books incited the Maids of Honour to do that against the Queen that Judith did against Holofernes Yet was the Queens Mercy such that she caused 70 Priests to be sent out of England The chief of them were Gasper Heywood who of all the Jesuits 〈…〉 England James Basgrave John Hare and Edward Rishton who presently after wrote a Book against the Queen At this time Bernardinus Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador was thrust out of England for practising Treason against the State He having dealt with Throgmorton and others to bring in strangers to invade the Land as appeared by Throgmorton's action who being apprehended sent one of his Packets to Mendoza His other Packets being searched there was found a Catalogue of all the Havens in England fit to land in and another of all the Noblemen in England which favoured the Romish Religion And he did not deny that he had promised his help to Mendoza and the help of those Nobles it was fit he should deal with A Popish practice against Q. Elizabeth discovered not without a Miracle by Creighton's torn Papers a Scotish Jesuit QUeen Elizabeth that rare Paragon of her Sex and that fairly flourishing Flower which Traitors though oft attempted could never nip nor crop up being a Princess both Prudent Pious and Pitiful seeking therefore a fair opportunity and sutable means to set the Queen of Scots at those Times tainted with some Treasonable Practices against her Crown and Person at liberty And for that purpose sent Sir William Wade who was then returned out of Spain to confer with her of the means thereunto And the good Queen was about to send Sir Walter Mildmay to bring this aim of hers to further issue But some further terrors and fears in the interim brake out between them which disturbed that intention especially by a notable discovery by certain Papers which one Creighton a Jesuit sailing into Scotland did then tear in pieces when he was apprehended in the Ship by Dutch-Pirates at Sea whose person being by them seised on he took forth his Papers wherein it seems the project of a Traiterous Plot against Queen Elizabeth at that time was described tore them into small pieces and with all his force threw them into the Sea But see how the Lord 's good Providence ordered it as they flew in the Air the Wind blew stifly by force whereof they were all blown back again into the hip even in a miraculous manner as the Jesuit himself confessed when he saw it Which Papers were all kept and gathered together sent to England to Sir William Wade aforesaid and with much labour and singular skill so joyned and set together again that he found they contained a notable new Plot among many other of the Popes the Spaniards and the Guise's resolution to Invade England Whereupon and by reason of many other rumours of dangers intended against the Queen and whole Kingdom of England a great number of all sorts of Men out of common charity and to shew their love and affectionate care of the welfere of the Queen and State bound themselves by an Association as then it was called by mutual promises and subscriptions of Hands and Seals to prosecute all such by all their sorce and might even unto death that should attempt any thing against the Life of the Queen or Welfare of the Kingdom Now the Queen of Scots took this as a thing devised to bring her into danger and she also was so continually set upon by seditious spirits who if they may but have access are able to draw the greatest Princes to destruction And what have been their practices from time to time but to bring great Persons and greatest Families to ruin Lamentable experience shews openly the fruit of their malice and mischevous plots of Treason which they impiously and audaciously call and count nothing else but advancing of their Catholick Cause Now the Scots Queen led on by her blind guides dealt most importunely with the Pope and Spaniards by Sir Francis Englefield that by all means they would with speed undertake their intended Business namely the Invasion of our Realm For the advancing whereof the Pope and Spaniard had resolved on these points 1. That Queen Elizabeth should be deprived of her Kingdom 2. That the King of Scots a manifest favourer of Heresie should utterly be dis-inherited of the Kingdom of England 3. That the Scots-Queen should Marry some Noble-Man of England that was a Catholick 4. That this Man must be chosen King of England by the Catholicks of England 5. That this choice so made must be confirmed by the Pope 6. That the Children of him so chosen begotten of the Scots-Queen must be declared Successors in the Kingdom All these things were confirmed to be true by the testimony of one Hart a Priest Who was that noble English-man that should marry the Scots-Queen was much enquired after by Sir Francis Walsingham with all diligence but not certainly found out yet there was strong suspicion of Henry Howard Brother to the Duke of Norfolk who was Noble by birth unmarried and a fast favourer of that Religion and in great grace and favour with them All these things were discovered by this Creighton the Jesuite's torn Papers as aforesaid And all this their plotting and contriving of France Spain and the Pope against Queen Elizabeth and King James sor no other cause but for their Religon which they had now sairly begun to establish among their People Parry Executed for Treason IN the year 1585 William Parry a Welchman and Doctor of Law spake against that Law which in the Parliament then held was Exhibited and called it a Bloody Law Presently after he was accused of practizing the Queen's death He confessed voluntarily in the Tower that having obtained the Queen's pardon for breaking into the Chamber and wounding one Hare for which he was Condemned he being a sworn Servant to the Queen from England he went into France and was reconciled Afterward at Venice in consultation with Benedict
Palmeus he told him that he had found out a way to help the afflicted Catholicks in England if the Pope or some learned Divines would approve it as lawful The Jesuit Palmeus approved it Next in France one Morgan drew him to consent to murder the Queen if it should prove lawful This Act the Pope's Nuncio Ragazonius commended Parry afterward having access to the Queen shewed her all and not long after Cardinal Come his Letter approving the enterprize Now he taketh a new resolution to perform it encouraged especially by Doctor Alen's Book teaching that Princes Excommunicated are to be spciled of their Kingdoms and Lives These with many other things Parry confessed before the Lord Hunsdon Sir Christopher Hatton and Sir Francis Walsingham in Westminster-Hall the heads of his Accusation being read he confessed himself guilty He died in the Palace-yard before Westminster-Hall not once calling upon the Name of God At this time also Henry Earl of Northumberland for entring into Traiterous Counsels with Paget and the Guises to invade England was cast into the Tower where he was found dead being shot with three Bullets under the left Pap the Chamber-door belted in the inside A Pistol was found in his Chamber and himself the author of his own death Thus from time to time the most noble Families of England have been Seduced and Ruined by the false and bewitching coundsels of Jesuits and Seminaries Savage's attempt to kill the Queen NOw again there was a most abominable Treason conspired and voluntarily confessed by the Conspirators One Gifford a Doctor in Divinity Gilbert Gifford and Hodgeson Priests persuaded one John Savage a bloody Fellow to undertake to kill Queen Flizaheth To hide their mischievous intents more conningly from the Queen's Council who were very careful to foresee all Danger they wrote a Book in which they advise the Papists in England not to go about to hurt the Queen For they were to use no other Weapons against their Prince than the Christian Weapons of Tears Fasting Prayers and the like And most cunningly also these Foxes spread a Rumour that George Gifford one of the Queen's Pensioners had sworn to kill the Queen and for that cause had gotten from the Guises a very great sum of Money The Easter following John Ballard an English Priest of the Colledg of Rhemes was come into England who had been trying the minds of Papists in England and Scotland He had dealt with Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador in France Charles Paget and others for the Invasion of England And although it seemed to be a very hard work yet he had sworn to use his utmost endeavour in it and also for the liberty of the Queen of Scots At Whitsuntide in a Souldiers habit and under the name of Captain Fortescue he had a conference in London with Anthony Babington a young Gentleman of Darby-shire Romishly affected who not long before in France had conference with Thomas Morgan and the Bishop of Glasco the Scotch Queen's Ambassador He was drawn by them shewing him most assured hopes of Honour from her to addict himself to them and by their means had favourable Letters from her Ballard and Babington conferred together concerning the Invasion of England but it was not deemed a thing could be done Queen Elizabeth being alive Then Ballard informed Babington that Savage had undertaken to kill her Babington's advice was that it should not be committed to Savage alone lest perhaps he might be hindred but to six resolute Men of which number Savage should be one Upon this Babington took into his consideration the Ports in which the Invaders should land the Confederates that should joyn in the act of murdering Q. Elizabeth and delivering the Scots-Queen In the mean time a Letter was brought from the Imprisoned Queen to Babington in a secret Character blaming Babington's long silence but he excused it because she was under the custody of Sir Amice Paulet a severe Keeper declared unto her that which Ballard and he had resolved before and that himself with one hundred more would deliver her The purpose by her Letters unto Batington was commended And it was advised that it should be undertaken considerately and that nothing should be moved before they were sure of External Forces that they should make an Association as if they feared the Puritans that some Tumults might be raised in Ireland while the thing should be done here That Arundel and his Brethren and Northumberland should be drawn to their side Westmerland Paget and others called Home The way to deliver the Scots-Queen was appointed to overthrow a Coach in the Gate or set the Stables on fire or intercept her as she rode to take the air betwixt Chartly and Stafford Babington undertook for rewards to all that should give their help He had gotten unto him Edward Windsor the Lord Windsor's Brother Thomas Salisbury Charles Tinley the Queens Pensioner Chidioc Tichbourn Edward Abingdon whose Father was the Queen's Cofferer Robert Gage John Travers John Charnick John Jones Savage Barnwel an Irish Gentleman Henry Dun Clark of the First-fruits Office and one Polly also joyned himself who was thought to reveal all to Sir Francis Walsingham Abingdon Barnwel Charnick and Savage took an Oath to kill her with their own hands Babington enjoyned that whosoever was admintted into the Conspiracy should take an Oath of secrecy They were so confident of the success that they did not fear to cause the undertakers of the Treason to be Pictured together which Picture being seen of the Queen she knew only Barnwel and seeing him a good way off she blamed the neglect of guarding her Person This Fellow afterward gave it out that if the Conspirators had been present the deed might easily have been done That the aid from France might not be wanting leave was obtained for Ballard to pass over thither for Money under a false name and Babington was to follow who that he might the more cunningly work his ends pretended to Sir Francis Walfingham that he had a desire to go into France to discover what the Fugitives plotted for the delivery of the Scots-Queen Walsinghom seemed very much to like the matter and to commend Babington's resolution but upon pretences delayed his going This was known to Walsingham either out of a fingular faculty he had to find out Treasons or else by the means of Gilbert Gifford a Priest who was sent out of France to incourage Savage in his wicked resolution and that Letters might safely be transmitted by him to the Queen of Scots Gifford corrupted with Money or for fear revealed the Plot to Walsingham and promised to communicate unto him all his Letters Walsingham kindly used him sent him into Staffordshire to Sir Amice Paulet in a Letter persuading Sir Amice to suffer some of his Servants to be corrupted by him Gifford for some Gold prevailed with Sir Amice his Brewer who conveyed the Letters to and from Gifford which by Messengers for that end appointed came
ever to the hands of Sir Francis Walsingham who coppied out the Letters and by the Art of Thomas Philips found out the Character and by the help of one Gregory sealed them up that none could suspect them opened and then sent the Letters as they were directed The Qu en hereupon commanded Ballard to be apprehended which was done Babington advised presently to send Savage and Charnick to kill the Queen Babington intreateth leave of Walsingham to go into France and sueth for Ballard's liberty who would be of use to him for discovery and to avoid suspition Sir Francis keepeth him back with delays and draweth him to his own House Skidmore Sir Francis's Servant was commanded to observe him strictly and to go with him pretending lest he should be taken with Messengers This Letter being read for the Command was written by Skidmore was perceived and read also by Babington sitting by him who Supping with Sir Francis's Man in a Tavern pretending to rise to go pay the Reckoning left his Cloak and Rapier and fled Then Barnwel Gage Dun Charnick being in the mean time proclaimed Traitors fled into the Woods and after were concealed fed and clothed in a rustical habit by one Bellamy at Harrow on the Hill After ten days they were found and brought to London Salisbury was taken in Staffordshire and Traverse also Jones in Wales not privy to the Conspiracy but he concealed them and furnished Salisbury and his Man with a changed Cloak Windsor was not found Gilford was sent into France as an Exile and there died Sept. 13. Seven of the Conspirators being brought to Judgment confest themselves guilty and were condemned of Treason other seven the next day pleaded not guilty but were guilty and condemned Polly though guilty yet for confessing something to Sir Francis Walsingham was not brought to Judgment on the 20th the first seven were hanged and quartered in St. Giles's Fields where they used to meet The French Ambassador's Plot to kill the Queen IN the Year 1587 Obespineus the Freuch Ambassador of the Guisian faction conferred with William Stafford to kill Q. Elizabeth Stafford refused it but commended one Moody in Prison Trappius Secretary to the said Ambassador in the absence of Stafford conferred with Moody about the deed Moody proposed Poison or a bag of Gun-powder Trappius disliked it and wished rather for such a Man as the Burgundian which killed the Prince of Orange this thing Stafford revealed to the Council Trappius was apprehended going into France and afterward the Ambassador Moody Stafford Trappius all accused the Ambassador before the Lords who sent for the Amoassador Stafford beginning to speak was interrupted by the Ambassador saying that Stafford first proposed it to him who if he did not desist threatned to send him bound Hand and Foot to the Queen Stafford upon his Knees with great protestations affirmed that the Ambassador first moved it The Ambassador was admonished to take heed of such Crimes and dismist by Burley insinuating unto him that it was more the Queen's Clemency than that his Office claimed any such favour The Spainsh Armada IN the Year 1588 was set out by the King of Spain for the Conquest of England the Invincible as they called it Navy For this purpose the Duke of Parma had an Army in Flanders of one hundred and three Companies of Foot and three thousand Horse among which were seven hundred English Fugitives the Bull of Pius Quintus for Excommunicating Q. Elizabeth is renewed by Sixtus Quintus and a plenary Indulgence granted to all who would joyn against England The Queen prepared a Navy also and makes the Lord Charles Howard Admiral and sends him into the West to joyn with Sir Francis Drake Vice-Admiral Henry Seymor second son to the Duke of Somerset with 40 Ships English and Dutch is appointed to stop Parma's coming forth upon the Land Southward were placed 20000 Men another Army of 22000 Foot and a 1000 Horse at Tilbury under Leicester another Army guarded the Person of the Queen consisting of 34000 Foot and 2000 Horse under Henry Lord Hunsdon The Council of War decreed that all places commodious to land in should be strengthened with Men and Ammunition which places should be defended with the Trained-Bands in the Maritime Countries to hinder the Enemies landing if he should land then they should waste the Country round about that he might find no more relief than he brought and that they should keep him in continual Alarms To secure the Queen at Home from Papists some were committed to Wisbitch Castle There was in the mean time a Treaty of Peace from the Spaniards even till the Fleet was almost come to the English Coast The Spanish Fleet consisted of 130 Ships 19290 Souldiers Mariners 8350 chained Rowers 2080. Great Ordnance 2630. They loosed out of the River of Tagus three of their Ships by the help of David Guin an English Servant and the Turkish Rowers were carried into France the rest of this mighty Fleet was by God's help overthrown and dispersed with eight Fire-ships made to cut their Cables weigh their Anchors and flie confusedly and the Admiral Gallyasse was taken when they began again to gather together they were battered and torn divers of them perishing in the Sea So a Navy three years in preparing was overthrown in a Month many of their Men being slain and drowned divers of their Ships sunk and taken not 100 Englishmen lost and but one Ship driven about Scotland Orcades and Ireland much inpaired and returned with shame God's Name be honoured Lopez his undertaking to poison the Queen IN the Year 1593 one Stephen Ferrera de Gama which came with Don Antonio the expulsed King of Portugal into England and afterwards sought to be reconciled to the King of Spain being of inward familiarity with one Roger Lopez a Portugues the Queen's Physician prevailed with him to promise to poison Q. Elizabeth Ferrera writeth to Ibarra the King of Spain's Secretary at Wars about the promise of Lopez and his requiring for the undertaking 50000 Crowns Ferrera promised him that there should one come in the habit of a Mariner to him who should bring him the value of 50000 Crowns in Rubies and Diamonds this was Lopez's own confession who added also that it could not be but that the King of Spain was acquainted with the matter for the Money was to come from the King of Spain He further confessed that Stephen Feerera told him that if he would offer to the Count Fuentes this great service to poison her Majesty he should want no Money and hereupon he was content that Ferrera should write to the Count Fuentes or Secretary Ibarra to assure them that the Doctor would undertake to poison her This secret was discovered by Letters which were intercepted for all Letters to any Portugues and every Portugues coming from beyond Sea was to be staied superscribed to Diego Hernandes from Francis Torres Diego Hernandes Ferrera confessed to be himself Francis Torres
and the King's Sister by which snare to bring the said Prince the Admiral and the rest of the Heads of Religion to the Court and City of Paris that so these Heads being first smiten off the inferiour Members thereof might the more easily be destroyed Under this colour I say the King invites the Admiral to the Court at Paris pretends a fair Correspondence and Agreement of all matters in Difference betwixt his Majesty and those of the Religion especially himself and the Admiral and a Reconcilement also between this noble Admiral and the Duke of Guise In which interim one Lignerolles a French Gentleman was openly slain in the Court for discovering some secrets concerning this Plot against those of the Religion and the Cardinal of Chastillon then in England and ready to depart thence for France Brother to the Admiral of France was poisoned by one of the Chamberlains and died thereof to the great grief of all his Friends and Servants The most Noble and Religious Admiral on the King's Invitation comes to Paris was with extraordinary fair shows of love and regal respect most welcomely entertained both he and divers others of the Religion that came with him The foresaid Marriage was not long after Solemnized in Paris with great presences of joy and content on all sides expressed in most sumptuous and liberal Feasts and Banquets Masks and Dances the sweet innocent Princes little dreaming of such a Dance to be now a leading by the King Queen-Mother and Duke of Guise with the rest of the Romish bloody Faction as stain'd nay steep'd all their dainties in streams of their Hearts-blood in so much as 't was admired to see such a seeming friendly mixtute of those of the Religion with the Romish Catholicks just like so many Lambs among so many greedy Wolves Now whilst every one imployed himself in such like Mirth and Jollity divers that were sent for by the King Queen-Mother and Duke of Guise that so they might be sure to be the stronger party speedily arrived in Paris the Catastrophe of all that follows having been made not long before among them the Dukes of Guise and Anjou being the principal Actors openly seen in this wicked Work who resolved not to let the Admiral depart out of Paris but there to dispatch him and all such as should endeavour to defend him Now it so fell out that one Morning the Admiral coming out of the Louvre and going to Dine at his Lodging being on foot and without least suspicion of any Villany to be attempted against him as he was reading a Petition one shot at him with a Harquebuss the Bullet whereof took away the Fore-singer of his Right-hand and hurt him in the left Arm the Villain that shot escaped by flight a Horse standing ready to post him away after he had done the deed The noble Admiral being thereupon brought to his Lodging shewed most singular Piety Constancy and Patience under his Surgeons hands was visited by divers Lords and Gentlemen of the Religion the King of Navarre now the King of France his Brother-in-Law and the Prince of Conde The French King also though a main Plotter in the work craftily complained to these Princes of the Mischief thus happened protesting his sorrow and swearing revenge and severe execution of sustice on the Offender whosoever he were The King himself also went to visit the Admiral making many serious and deep protestations of his high esteem of his loyalty and fidelity to his Person and Crown always and that he held and esteemed him a most discret and valiant Commander in Arms and that therefore he much respected him with many such like French Complements Immediately after the King's departure the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were certainly but very secretly enformed of the intended Massacre on all of the Religion and advised as speedly as they could to get out of Paris and to be assured that that blow given to the Admiral was but the beginning of the Tragedy but alas good Princes they so much confided on the King's Vows and Promises that they reject this Advise and Counsel and staied there still About Saturday-evening being the 23d of August 1572. certain Protestant Gentlemen offered themselves to watch that Night with the good Admiral but Teligny his Son-in-Law would not suffer them but dismissed them with many thanks little suspecting still any approaching or precipitating danger on his Father Night being come on the Duke of Guises Lieutenant in this Action which now at this present was to be declared to the Duke of Anjou sent for all the Captains of the Switzers and companies of Strangers which still increased into the Town shewing them his Commission to kill the Admiral and all his partakers exhorting them to be couragious in shedding of Blood and making Spoil of them and appointed their Troops to be placed where he thought meetst About Midnight it was informed to all the Popish Assemblies in the Town That the like to this Massacre should be done to all of the Religion throughout the whole Realm and that the Watch-word of the general Massacre should be the great Bell of the Palace which should be rung at the break of Day and the badg of the Executioners should be a white Handkerchief tied upon their sleeves and a white Cross in their Hats The Duke of Guise with his bloody-minded Associates had charge to begin at the Admiral 's Lodgings The mighty noise of Armour and running up and down with very many lighted Torches soon after Midnight made many of those of the Religion that were longed near the Admiral to come out of their Lodgings and to go into the Street to enquire of their Acquaintances what this noise meant at such an undue Hour but being anxiously answered they went on still toward the Louvre where the Duke of Guise and his bloody Comrades were attending the deed where those innocent Lambs of the Religion were first set upon and assaulted by the Duke's guard Then presently they rang St. Germaines Bell in the Palace whereupon one Cosseins a French Fury perceiving the Duke of Guise coming with his Troops knocks at the Admirals Gate between two and three of the Clock in the Morning being Sunday the 24th of August 1572. Lahonne one of the Admiral 's attendants opens the Gate and was instantly stabb'd by Cosseins the second Door going up the Stairs being soon burst open they came to the Admiral 's Chamber where his own Guard of Switzers were one of them was slain with an Harquebuss And while Cosseins was jumbling at the Chamber-door one Cornatan ran up into the Chamber and being asked by the Admiral who had caused his Men to lift him out of his Bed and in his Night-gown having assisted his Ministers in fervent Prayer and most humbly commended his Soul to his Saviour Christ Jesus what all this hurly burly meant Cornatan his Servant answered My Lord It is God that calls for us the House is entred
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE Several PLOTS CONSPIRACIES and Hellish ATTEMPTS of the Bloody-minded PAPISTS against the Princes and Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland from the Reformation to this present Year 1678. AS ALSO Their Cruel Practices in France against the Protestants in the Massacre of Paris c. WITH A more particular Account of their Plots in relation to the late Civil War and their Contrivances of the Death of King CHARLES the First of blessed Memory LONDON Printed for J. R. and W. A. 1679. Plots Conspiracies and Attempts of Domestick and Foraign Enemies of the Romish Religion against the Princes and Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland c. THose which make descriptions of large Countries in small Tables offend not against truth though somewhat against quantity so Pliny telleth us Notwithstanding with much convenience ease to the beholder and truth of observation things are presented to our Eyes in those little Draughts that the very places themselves being viewed with great Trouble and loss of Time cannot yeeld more benefit to the most diligent oftentimes not so much Wherefore especially because the Argument cannot be now unseasonable for the abridgment of the Commentaries of large Histories is not unlike Maps of Kingdoms I have here collected out of divers Authors which have severally handled parts of this subject into one The chief Conspiracies and Attempts against the Kingdoms alone and immediately of great Britain and Ireland or else mediately through the sides of the Princes of these Countries by Traytors at home or abroad of the Romish Religion or foraign Enemies by treacherous courses of those of the same bloody superstition The beginning I make the first time of Reformation of Religion here in England under Queen Elizabeth and the extent unto this present Year I begin no higher than Queen Elizabeth because the Reformation of Henry the eight was but in part and the other of King Edward was an interrupted one by the sudden succession of his Sister Queen Mary the rather because for ought we know there was no great matter plotted against this hopeful young Prince that was not rather from Ambition if there was any such than from a defire of subverting Religion Not but that the Enemies of our Religion and Kingdom had us then in their Minds but other ways there were before bloody and desperate Practises were to be taken in hand to be first entred into of less difficulty and more hopeful success And these are the steps the Adversaries of our Religion use to tread who thirsting after England labour first to bring us back to Rome by striving to make our selves hate our own Religion and leave that God which brought us out of the Land of Egypt bewitching us with glorious Idolatry of the golden Calves of Rome introducing Ignorance and Blindness that we may when our Eyes are out patiently grind in the Mill of Slavery If this course fail the next is by Poyson Murder and force of Arms to draw us to Sodom and Egypt The Reformation of England and Ireland fall under one time and because that of Scotland also differeth not many years in age they may all be brought in one account With the Plots are jointly handled the Deliverances which in some respect or other may very well be called great either in regard of the Misery we had fallen into if God had not prevented them of the slavery of Soul and Body and this agreeth with all Or else for the strangeness of the discoveries of their mischiefs sometime almost miraculous before they have come to their birth or disappointing them of their purposes when the Authors have put them in practise and these two respects the one or the other which may well denominate God's goodness to us in disappointing them to be great may be found in all likewife So that for these Mercies received we ought to ascribe to our Deliverer that which is due unto him the praise of his own Work and continual thanks for his Mercies which even to this day is from those Deliverances of the days of old extended we should have bin then betrayed but we had now bin Slaves both we our selves and ours one Plot had it succeeded had bin the betraying of England at once to them who love themselves too well to have it lost easily and are so wise that they endure no Traitors but for themselves nor can endure any that loves his Country but a Spaniard We may learn also to trust in him even now particularly who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever nor is his hand shortned that he cannot save nor his Ear heavy that he cannot hear those that call upon him lifting up pure Hands in sincerity of Heart although the Sins of our Nation in general may justly provoke our God to punish us by them that hate us for that cause that instead of extirpating Popery and Superstition a thing not hard to be done in human Reason if the Children of Papists were carefully educated under Protestant Tutors we think their Religion tolerable and nothing so dangerous to Soul or Body as some Men seem to make it Should we not detest and abhor the Religion of such a Generation as count they do God good service by killing us witness the bloody Persecution under Queen Mary and the damnable Plot of the Gun-Powder Treason Yet some there are that would seem Protestants and yet deny that their cruelty was such as the Author of the English Martyrology makes the Marian Persecution to be Others of no small esteem in the Church of England instead of acknowledging Foxes History a Monument of Martyrs call it a Book fraught with Traitors and Hereticks And for the Gun-Pouder Conspiracy some affirm it the deeds of a few Male-Contents far from the approbation of the Catholicks others as falsly that there was no such Treason intended but that it was an invention of him whom in reverence I forbear to name But yet this may incourage us that God will still preserve us for their sakes that have now and heretofore stoutly defended God's true Religion and that in very many places of this Land we have had those that with all their power have opposed the very beginnings of Popery But wonderful it is and scarcely credible that any should so much have forgotten the Gun-Powder Treason as to say that they would rather trust a Papist than a Puritan as if they believed not there was any such Treason or had forgotten it or that they thought that those whom Men call Puritans were traiterously minded and bloody Persons In the most Reverend and Judicious Assembly of this Kingdom a Member of that Assembly declared in particulars how the best Men have bin branded with the name of Puritan it was where any Man might freely have spoken yet no Man contradicted him If it be given sometime to the best without question those ordinarily called by that bie-name are none of the worst because from likeness at
Religion by no other way but by Arguments Into Scotland were sent three Sorbon Doctors with the Bishop of Amiens But with what safety might any Man dispute with them when he that did so was in the midst of his armed Enemies and there was greatest fear of violence from the Disputers themselves For the Bishop of Amiens counselled the Queen Regent that if any there were which should be found to dispute against the Romish Decrees he should be put to death yea even those who but seemed to be of another Mind only We are notinformed that the Queen Regent put in practice the foregoing counsels perhaps the time was not altogether seasonable nor do we take every single action which might conduce to the subverting of Religion to be a Conspiracy but we may well esteem by the Queens Words the Councellors and Commanders Intents and Purposes the placing of such a Regent all this to be a continued Conspiracy to strangle in the birth the Church of Scotland having yet scarcely taken breath in the World Not long after the Queen Regent dyeth and although it will perhaps be said there was no discovery of any Conspiracy which was in acting as to put to death all the Nobility or all that would dare dispute against the Bishop or Doctors could be no easy rask to go about the latter because the death of their last Martyr Walter Mille did seem so grevious unto them and if any more should suffer how would such a thing be taken by French-men People of another Nation It may be objected from the above named Arguments that there wanted no endeavour After the death of the Mother the Daughter returning into Scotland was married unto Henry Lord Darnley who being of the same Religion with the Queen and they both a Brothers and Sisters Children did strongly maintain Popery against the Protestant Religion We cannot imagine her that any thing should be contrived against the lives of those Princes by a Popish Party to overthrow Religion For to subvert Religion no way could be fourd better than by maintaining in life and honour such Princes as these two were who professed and maintained Popery as contrarily to subvert Religion Laws Liberties and the like the best means are through the sides of such Kings and Queens as are Projectors and Maintainers of them So the holy Scripture declareth by Word and Example I will smite the Shepheard and the Sheep shall be scattered For this Queen was so far from furthering the establishment of Religion nay from connivence at those who should go about any such matter that she professed she would follow the example of her Cousin Queen Mary of England which was no other thing than maintaining in her Dominions the Pope and Popery and pumshing the contrary minded as Hereticks It will not be thought I suppose that either the Papists at home in Scotland or those in France or elsewhere would go about to take away the lives of such Princes whose lives secured their Religion For what was attempted against the Life and most unhappily succeeded of the King was not any way to subvert Popery because the deed was committed and the Plot chiefly laid by Papists It rather was undertaken against the Life of this Prince by some to make way for their own Family to inherit the Crown of Scotland by others to get the Kingdom and admit any Religion But those that look farther into Matters judg this act to be committed against a Professor of the Romish Religion that he being taken out of the way another might succeed which had greater Power and Friends to bring to pass what King Henry the Queens Husband had a Mind but not Power enough to do And that made those who were no Enemies to the King in point of Religion not dislike the Treason for the Ends sake I cannot be of their Minds altogether who judg that of the Queen of Scots being now in restraint in England not long before married to Earl Bothwell and presently to desire a Devorce from him and to require that he should be summoned within the space of a very few days to return into the Kingdom to make answer and defence to the Queens Suit of Divorce to have proceeded from the changing Fancy of the Queen not so much from Conscience For it was as well known before her departure into England as after that Earl Bothwell had a Wife living when he married the Queen insomuch that at the publishing the banes of their Matrimony one stood up in the Church and forbad them It was generally thought that it was that a way might be open for the Duke of Norfolk who then made Suit unto her He indeed was such a Man as being of great Wealth mighty in Friends and singular Abilities of Mind could better bring about what was desired than a Man of no great riches at any time but was now in extream Poverty and Disgrace in the Dominions of the King of Denmark and notoriously infamous for his Crimes in Sctoland The Rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland AT this time the King of Spain wrote unto the Duke of Morfolk to join with the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland to raise a Rebellion in England and to the Earl of Ormond to do the like in Ireland These Letters were shown unto Queen Elizabeth by the Duke and the Earl that from hence at least might appear their Loyalty Nevertheless whether by the advice of the Bishop of Boss who lay as Ambassador at London for the Queen of Scots and one Rodolf a Florentine going in the appearance of a Merchant Factor or purposing of himself whatsoever he might pretend he privately sought to marry the Queen of Scots she being next Heir to the Crown of England contrary to his Promise made unto his Sovereign Queen Elizabeth The Queen of Scots and the Duke participate of one anothers Mind by Letters written in hidden Characters Neither was this a matter only supposed but the Dukes Secretary one Higford who was commanded by the Duke to burn such Letters as came from the Queen of Scots but did it not and hid them under a Mat in his Chamber and being under examination he caused them to be produced This was when the two Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland had secretly complotted to raise Arms and not long after the Dukes apprehension they fell into open Rebellion One of the Letters which was shewn at the Dukes arraignment was to this purpose That the Queen was sorry that the said Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland were in Arms before the Dukes Forces were ready This was undertaken after that Pope Pius Quintus had in Bulls from Rome printed and sent to Rodolf absolved Queen Elizabeths Subjects from their Allegiance The Pope perswaded the Spaniard to assist the Conspirators that his affairs in the Netherlands might prosper the better and the French did the like that the Queen of England might be less able to send aid to the
Protestants in France Northumberland and Westmerland having thus taken Arms Supplies and Moneys failing withdrew themselves into Scotland Norfolk was thrown into Prison Rodolf being in Custody for whom the Pope had appointed 150000 rowns to help the Conspirators was for want of clear proof dismissed Rodolf being got out of Prison asterward distributeth the 150000 Crowns to the Partners in the Treason He being with the Pope is sent by him to the Spaniard to press him to give assistance to the King of Portugal also for the same purpose He wrote alse to the Duke of Norfolk promising to send him aid The Popes Letter to the Spaniard was That he should send an Army out of the Low-Countries to invade England And this very thing the Spaniard endeavoured There was now a difference betwixt Queen Elizabeth and the Spaniard about Money sent by him to the Duke of Alva but was intercepted by the Queen and that was one pretence that the Spaniard had for his dealing against our Queen and Kingdom But the Duke of Norfolk was put to death Nor is this the Relation of an English Protestant but of a Panist a good part whereof had not been known but for him one Hieronimus Calena The Book was printed at Rome by the priviledg of Pius Quintus 1588. The Earls of Northumbrland and Westmerland seduced by one Morton a Priest and at Duresme set up the Mass thence they marched to Clifford-moore where hearing that the Queen of Scots was removed to Coventry that the Earl of Sussex was sent with strong Forces against them and that Sir George Bowes was behind them and had fortified Bernards Castle that Scroupe and Cumberland had fortified Carlile and had also an Army in readiness that the Souldiers of Barwick and the power of Northumberland were in New-castle besieged Bernards Castle and took it on Conditions Then for fear of the Earl of Sussex they fled to Hexam thence by by-ways to Naworth Castle from that place into Scotland and from thence was Northumberland sent and here behcaded Westmerland escaped into the Netherlands where with a poor Pension under the Spaniard he lived poorly all his Days Dacres his endeavour to deliver the Scots Queen IN the Year 1569 Leonard Dacres second Son of William Lord Dacres of Gillesland being grieved to see a very great Patrimony go from him to the Daughters of the Baron whom the Duke of Norfolk their Father-in-Law had joined in marriage with his Sons grew revengeful and joining with the Rebels endeavoured to deliver the Queen of Scots yet a little before being at the Court promised to assist the Queen his Soveraign against the Rebels but treacherously he undertook to kill the Lord Scroup and Bishop of Carlisle to whose custody the Scottish Queen was committed but he failing in the performance took Grastock Castle holding it as his own and gathered Soldiers The Lord Hunsdon met him with the trained Souldiers of Barwick and after a sharp conflict overcometh him and Dacres fled into Scotland from thence into the Netherlands were at Lovaine he lived and died poorly Fitz-Morris raiseth Rebellion in Ireland IN this Year Edmund and Peter Butler Brethren to the Earl of Ormond joining with James Fitz Morris of the House of Desmond entred into a Conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth and to further it came Joannes Mendsza secretly out of Spain The Earl of Ormond going into Ireland caused them to submit they were imprisoned and for their Brother the Earls sake not brought to Tryal The Lord Deputy and Sir Humphry Gilbert through Gods assistance appeased that rebellion It is clear enough that this Rebellion in Ireland arose from the Spaniard as the first mover for to this end he sent Mendoza into Ireland and had not long before written to the Earl Brother to the two Rebels to raise a Rebellion in Ireland Stanleys Conspiracy IN the Year 1570 under a colour of delivering the Queen of Scots Thomas Stanly and Edward younger Sons of the Earl of Darby Thomas Jerard Rolston Hall with others in Durby shire conspired but the Son of Rolston which was Pensioner to the Queen disclosed the Conspiracy All but Hall were imprisonce Hall escaped into the Isle of Man thence by the commendation of the Bishop of Ross he was sent into Dunbritan whence the Castle being won he was brought to London and suffered Death Dissimulation of Don John of Austria IN the Year 1576 Don John of Austria coming into the Low-Countries as Governour sent Gastelius to Queen Elizabeth pretending a perpetual Edict for Peace Teh Queen as if ignorant of any bad intent sent Rogers to congratulate Don John's Edict yet she knew that Don John had conceived a certain hope of marrying the Queen of Scots and of enjoying Scotland and England intending to invade the Isle of Man that from thence he might out of Ireland the North of England and Scotland also where he knew were many Papists invade England This Man to help forward this great design practised secretly with the Pope and with the King of Spain for the Havens of Biscay But the King of Spain neglected him in this desire accounting England and Scotland a Morsel sitter for his own Palate During this Treaty of perpetual Peace this treacherous Don treateth secretly with the Scottish Queen about the Marriage and the better to work his own ends took divers Towns and Castles in the Low-Countries by treachery and wrote into Spain that for the invasion of the Netherlands it would be best to seize on first the Towns of Zealand before the more inland places and that England might with the more ease be first invade The Queen in the mean while prepareth for War but God cut off this her Enemy very suddenly before the fruits of his high thoughts were ripe Stucley's design against Ireland Not long before this time in Ireland Thomas Stucley a prodigal riotous and needy English man discontented for that he lost the Stewardship of Wexford breaths out Contumelies against the Queen and betaketh himself to the Pope with whom he treateth and boasteth that he will subdue Ireland with 3000 Men and burn the Queen's Navy Pope Pius Quintus ahd a great opinion of him After him Gregory the 13 and the King of Spain consulted together to invade England and Ireland at once The Pope aimed to get for his Son James Boncompayno the Kingdom of Ireland and the Spaniard chiefly to imitate the course of Queen Elizabeth who to keep the Spaniard busy abroad secretly sent aid to the Dutch that he migth with-draw her help from the Low-Countries But because the strength of England consisteth chiefly in the Navy the King of Spain setteth the Merchants of Italy and the Netherlands a work to hire the Merchants ships of England and so to send them away in very long Voyages that the Ships being from home and Stucley joining with the Rebels of Ireland the Queen's Navy might be overthrown by a greater The Pope gave him very great Titles in Ireland
make haste to come in unto the Deputy and Tyrone beggeth pardon upon his Knees From Dublin Tyrone should have been carried into England but the Queens death hindred that and King James pardoned him Afterward he entred into another Conspiracy with O Cane but being sent for with a Process to answer a suit which the Bishop of Derry had against him and fearing he had bin sent for his Conspiracy he fled out of Ireland Garnet Catesby and others labour to invade England IN the last Year of Queen Elizabeth there was a Plot layed against her by Garnet Catesby and others that the Spaniard should join with the Papists here in the Invasion of England Winter was sent into Spain for that purpose and Creswel the the Leger Jesuite in Spain Don Pedro Francisco second Secretary of State and the Duke of Lerma afsured Winter that his Message would be very acceptable to the King of Spain Then had Winter an answer by Count Miranda that the King would bestow 100000 Crowns towards the expedition and at the next Spring at farthest would set his Foot in England Winter returneth and acquainteth Garnet Catesby and Tresham with all and they others but before the next Spring the Queen died The Gun-Powder Treason AT the Queens death Christopher Wright was sent into Spain and Guy Fauks also from Brussels by Sir William Stanley to advertise them there that King James was as violent against the Catholicks as Queen Elizabeth and therefore urged the Spaniard to prosecute the old design The Jesuits privately suggested that they should not admit him into England as being an Heretick Catesby held that the King being an Heretick forfeiteth his Kingdom before any sentence pronounced The Parliament was dissolved the 7th of July which the King held and prorogued till the 7th of February Catesby at Lambeth broke with Winter about blowing up the Parliament House Winter told him that it struck at the root but what if it should not take effect Catesby won Winter to consent but first said he go over and win the Constable to obtain more favour for Catholicks and if you may bring over some confident Gentlemen as Mr. Faux Winter went met with the Constable at Bergen and delivered his Message The Constable answered that his Master commanded him to do all good offices for the Catholicks but he shewed the Constable nothing of the matter Faux and Winter came both into England This plot of blowing up the Parliament House after an Oath of Secrecy and the Sacrament received upon it Catesby disclosed it to Percy and Winter and Wright to Faux Percy hired the House Faux was pretended to be Percy 's Man and names himself Johnson and kept the Keys of the House till the adjournment of the Parliament at which time all the Conspirators departed into the Country A House was hired at Lambeth by Percy to keep the Powder and Wood for the Mine to which it was to be conveyed When the Plot had taken effect what should they do Percy with two or three of them with a dozen more would seize on the Duke and carry him away The Lady Flizabeth was to be surprized at a hunting near the Lord Harringtons They would save from the Parliament first Catholicks then some particular Persons While they wrought in the Mine they fed on baked Meats that they might not go forth At Candlemas the Powder is brought over about which time working in the Mine they came against a Stone-wall when hearing a rushing noise of Coals they feared they were discovered But it was only the moving of Coals to be sold which Celler Faux hired 20 Barrels of Powder they had provided which they hid with Billets and Fagots Faux went into Flanders to acquaint therewith Stanley and Owen Stanley was not there Owen approved it Percy and Catesby met at the Bath and it was agreed that Catesby should call in whom he thought best The number being small He called in Sir Everard Digby and afterward Mr. Tresham The Parliament was a-new prorogued till the 5th of November Then the Conspirators all went into the Country and returned 10 days before the Parliament and hearing that the Prince would be absent from the Parliament said they would then seize on the Prince and let alone the Duke Saturday before the Kings return which was on Thursday a Letter in the Street was delivered to the Lord Mounteagle's Man to put it into his Masters Hand It had neither Date nor Superscription and by the Lord Mounteagle was that Night sent to the Earl of Salisbury who made acquainted with it the Lord Chamberlain the Lord Admiral the Earl of Worcester and Northampton The Letter was this My Lord OVt of the love I bear to some of your Friends I have a care of your preservation Therefore I would advise you as you tender your Life to devise some Excuse to shift off your attendance at this Parliament For God and Man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this Time And think not slightly of this Advertisement but retire your self into your Country where you may expect the event in safety For though there be no appearance of any storme yet I say they shall receive a terrible Blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurt them This counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm for the danger is past so soon as you shall have hurned this Letter and I hope God will give you the grace to make a good use of it to whose holy protection I recommend you Friday following the King read it who considering the Sentence therein expressed that they should receive a terrible blow this Patliament and yet should not know who hurt them and joining it to the Sentence for the danger is past so soon as you shall have burn'd this Letter did suspect the danger mentioned to be some sudden danger of blowing up with Powder Afterward it was determined the Lord Chamberlain should view both above and beneath the Parliament Houses Which the Lord Chamberlain having done found in a Vault under the upper House great store of Billers Faggots and Coals and casting his Eye aside a Fellow standing by which called himself Percy 's Man that had hired the Celler The King supposing that Gun-Powder might be hid under that Wood and Coals caused a further fearch to be made Whereupon Sir Thomas Knevet went about the Parliament House with a small number to search more narrowly the Mid-night next after where he found Faux standing without Doors booted and spurr'd and apprehended him then in search under the Wood and Coals 36 Barrels of Gun-Powder and about the Traitor three Matches and other Instruments fit for that wicked purpose were found which wicked intent of blowing up the House he instantly confessed affirming that if he had been in the House he would not have failed to blow up both himself and them In this Mine wrought Catesby Robert Winter Esquires Thomas
Percy Thomas Winter John Wright Christopher Wright Guido Faux Gentlemen and Bates Catesby's Man Sir Everard Digby Ambrose Rockwood Francis Trisham Esquires John Grant Gentlemen and Robert Keys were made acquainted with the Plot but wrought not in the Mine After Faux's apprehension the Traitors post away and pretending Religion they would fight for gathered in open Rebellion all they could which number never exceeded 80. They wandred through Warwick-shire to Worcester shire and thence to the borders of Stafford-shire and having gotten themselves into a House they obstinately refused to yeild to the Sheriff but through God's Providence a less quantity of Powder than 2 pounds taking Fire did so mangle some disable others that having begged pardon on their knees for their crime of God they desperately exposed themselves to the peoples fury there of the chief joined Back to Back and two of them were killed with one shot Catesby and Percy Winter was taken alive So all of them were killed beaten or taken The Conspirary of Sir Griffin Mackham and others ANno Domini 1603 George Brook Sir Griffin Markham Watson and Clerk Priests entred into a Conspiracy against King James it was said to surprise Prince Henry to keep the King and Prince in the Tower or to carry them to Dover Castle and there to obtain their own Pardons a toleration for Religion and removal of some Councellors Divers beside these were accused and condemnd but Brook confessed he did it but by a Commission from the King to try the faithfulness of the Kings Subjects but he could produce no such Commission Sir Griffin Markham confessed that he intended forreign Invasion and Alteration of Religion but not to destroy the King as was in the Inditement Watson and Clerk confessed they drew the Gentlemen into the Plot holding the King for no King till he was Crovned Of them all only Watson Clerk and Brook suffered Death The Massacre and Treason in Ineland extracted out of Irish Remoustrance and Irelands Tears UPon the 23d day of October 1641 a most Prodigious and Nefarious Viper gnawing the Bowels of its Native-parent Ireland burst out of the Womb thereof and visibly appeared most epidemically destructive to that whole State and Kingdom It had lien long as some of the Rebels reported undiscovered but was all that while hatching by many hot and high-built hopes both by Forraign and Domestick Encouragements The accursed Midwives of this Bastard-birth were Popish Priests Friars and Jesuits together with other Fire-brands and Incendiaries of that State and Kingdom Their hideous and hellish hopes were mightily supported and corroborated by strong assistance from Spain France and Flanders together with deeply engaged assurance of full correspondency in England and an equivalent party in Scotland besides their great encouragements by Popish Bulls from Rome authorizing the speedy and immediate Surrender of all such places of strength as they had Beleaguered promising free Pardon of all Sins whatsoever before-hand committed by any of them tending to the advancement of this great Work Thundering or rather Roaring out Excommunications against any that should refuse so to joyn with them therein terming themselves the Catholick Army and the ground of their work as all their abominable and bloody Plots are the Catholick Cause Their desperate and most devilish resolution was therein not to leave a drop of English Blood in Ireland and so consequently not the least spark or glimpse of Gospel and pure Protestant Religion giving out in words and designing in their hearts that the Tower of London the Castle of Edinburgh and the Castle of Dublin were to be surprized by their Faction in all these places all upon one day In all which time this therefore might the more easily have been done especially in Ireland there was not the least fear or suspition of Treachery yet there were a little before the day of this Bloody-birth secretly gathered together about 400 Irish Papists elected out of most parts of Ireland desperate and damnably bloody-minded persons designed for this horrid and hellish Attempt who had all privately conveyed and sheltered themselves in several places of the City and Suburbs of Dublin waiting and expecting the time and Watch-word when to give the on-set In this Plot all the Popish Nobility and Men of quality in Ireland were interessed and it was professed by that most impious and barbarous Arch Rebel Sir Philem O Neal that what he and they did was by the consent of the Parliament in Ireland Yea some of them have been so impiously audacious as to profess and persuade others of their accursed Confederates to believe that they had Regal Authority for it and were so bold as to term themselves the Queen's Army And for the more violent prosecution of this their most exorbitant Villany the Conspirators and Traitors entred into a most accursed Covenant just as our Popish-Powder-Traitor did in their damnable Design and bound themselves by an Oath of Confederation and Secrecy Reily a prime Popish Priest and others like his Father the Devil compassing the Earth far and near to draw into their Conspiracy such as had not before been therewith acquainted as also to satisfie all scruples if any arose in any of their minds about the lawfulness of their Actions just as Garnet that old Romish Jesuitical Fox did with his Powder-Conspirators 1605. And whereas they falsly have masked this their most inhumane Treason and Rebellion under the King's Name pretending his authority and all they did or do in obedience to his Majesty and tender respect to his Royal Prerogative yet it hath been by some others of them professed that they intended to have a King of their own yea that they had one already some saying Tyrone was he others Sir Philem O Neal who hath been audaciously and traiterously honoured woth the stile of his Majesty and that they will with the assistance of Spain and France set footing in England having compleated their own devilish Irish work and after that in Scotland where all things being setled to their desires the whole Forces in Ireland in way of Retribution and acknowledgment of Gratitude were intended as hath been confessed for the King of Spain against the Hollanders Such mighty and invincible Conquerors had they made themselves in their own conceits and most bold and bloody imaginations Unto which their horrid Disloyalty and unparalleld Treachery and Rebellion they added most execrable expressions of unheard of hatred and inhumane Barbarity to the Subjects of the English Nation Banishment or perpetual Slavery were the greatst favours that would have been afforded them their general profession being for a general Extirpation even to the last and least drop of English-blood from among them Yea and that which transcends all former extents of rage and unpattern'd wrath and malignity not so much as an English Beast or any of that Breed was to be left alive in that whole Kingdom And as the Hearts and Tongues of these most base and abominable Traitors and
by the Arts of the Court of Rome That Jesuits professed themselves Independent as not depending on the Church of England and Fifth-Monarchy-Men that they might pull down the English Monarchy and that in the Committees for the destruction of the King and the Church they had their Spies and their Agents The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when he saw the fatal stroke given to our holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy that we have in the World is gone When the news of that horrible Execution came to Roan a Protestant Gentleman of good Credit was present in a great Company of Jesuited Persons Where after great expressions of Joy the gravest of the Company to whom all gave ear spake much after this manner The King of England at his Marriage had promised us the Re-establishing of the Catholick Religion in England Which is false and when he delayed to fulfil his promise we summoned him from time to time to perform it We came so far as to tell him that if he would not do it we should be forced to take those Courses which would bring him to his Destruction We have given him lawful warning and when no warning would serve we have kept our word to him since he would not keep his word to us That grave Rabby's Sentence agreeth with this certain Intelligence which shall be justified whensoever Authority will require it That the year before the King's Death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole party in England first to Paris to consult with the Faculty of Sorbon then altogether Jesuited to whom they put this Question in writing That seeing the state of England was in a likely posture to change Government whether it was lawful for the Catholicks to work that Change for the advancing and securing of the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie Which was answered Affirmatively After which the same Persons went to Rome where the same Question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope and his Council that it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote that alteration of State What followed that Consultation and Sentence all the World knoweth and how the Jesuits went to work God knoweth and Time the bringer forth of Truth will let us know But when the horrible Paricide committed on the King's sacred Person was so universally cried down as the greatest Villany that had been committed in many Ages the Pope commanded all the Papers about that Question to be gathered and burnt in obedience to which Order a Roman Catholick in Paris was demanded a Copy which he had of those Papers But the Gentleman who had had time to consider and detest the wickedness of that Project refused to give it and shewed them to a Protestant Friend of his and related to him the whole carriage of this Negotiation with great abhorrency of the practices of the Jesuits In pursuance of that Order from Rome for the pulling down both Monarch and the Monarchy of England many Jesuits came over who took several Shapes to go about their work but most of them took party in the Army About Thirty of them were met by a Protestant Gentleman between Roan and Diep to whom they said taking him for one of their Party that they were going into England and would take Arms in the Independent Army and endeavour to be Agitators A Protestant Lady living in Paris is the time of our late Calamities was persuaded by a Jesuite going in Scarlet to turn Roman Catholick When the dismal news of the King's Murther came to Paris this Lady as all other good English Subjects was most deeply afflicted with it And when this Scarlet Divine came to see her and found her melting in tears about that heavy and common disaster he told her with a smiling countenance that she had no reason to lament but rather to rejoyce seeing that the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy and that the Catholick Cause was much furthered by his Death Upon which the Lady in great anger put the man down Stairs saying If that be your Religion I have done with you for ever And God hath given her the Grace to make her word good hitherto Many intelligent Travellers can tell of the great joy among the English Convents and Seminaries about the King's Death as having overcome their Enemy and done their main work for their settlement in England of which they made themselves so sure that the Benedictines were in great care that the Jesuits should not get their Land and the English Nuns were contending who should be Abbesses in England An understanding Gentleman visiting the Friars of Dunkirk put them upon the discourse of the King's Death and to pump out their sense about it said that the Jesuits had laboured very much to compass that great work To which they answered that the Jesuites would engross to themselves the glory of all great and good Works and of this among other Works whereas they had laboured as diligently and effectually for it as they So there was striving for the glory of that Atchievement and the Friars shewed themselves as much Jesuited as the Jesuites In the height of Oliver's Tyranny Thomas White Gentleman a Priest and a right Jesuit in all his Principles about Obedience set out a Book Entituled the Grounds of Obedience and Government Wherein he maintains that If the People by any Circumstance be devolved to the State of Anarchy Dr. Moulin pag. 122. their promise made to their expelled Governour binds no more That the People are remitted by the evil managing and insufficiency of their Governour to the force of Nature to provide for themselves and not bound by any promise made to their Governour That the Magistrate by his miscarriages abdicateth himself from being a Magistrate and proveth a Brigand Pag. 123. 124. or Robber instead of a Defender The word Defender he writes with a greot D that the Reader may take notice whom he means If the Magistrate saith he have truly deserved to be dispossessed or if it be rationally doubted that he hath deserved it and he actually out of possession Pag. 133. In the former case it is certain the Subject hath no Obligation to hazard for his Restitution but rather to hinder it For since it is the Common Good that both the Magistrate and the Subject are to aim at and clearly out of what is exprest it is the common harm to admit again of such a Magistrate every one to his power is bound to resist him The next Case is if he be Innocent and wrongfully Deposed Pag. 135. nay let us add One who had Governed well and deserved much of the Commonwealth yet he is totally Dispossessed And so that it is plain in these Circumstances It were better for the Common Good to stay as