Peace with King James upon which disappointment the 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 pleases And then they proceed to shew That the Bull in favour of the Rebells was not procured by surreption but proceeded from the Pope's own Inclination to them and that the permission given to the Roman Catholicks to obey her extended only to such Obedience as doth not oppugn the Catholick Religion which the assisting Her against Tyrone doth And this Declaration is dated the seventh of March 1602. And it could be nothing less than such an extraordinary encouragement that could render the Irish so audacious as they were upon the Queen's Death in Limrick they seized the Churches and set up Mass in them the same they did at Waterford in the Cathedral and at the Sessions House they pulled down the Seats of Justice in Cork they refused to proclaim the King and by Force opposed the Commissioners they went in a solemn Procession took the Sacrament to spend their Lives in defence of the Roman Catholick Religion wrote to several Cities to assist them seized upon the King's stores and assaulted his Forces alledging that he could not be lawfull King because he was not appointed by the Pope And for their farther satisfaction the University of Salamanca Anno 1603 subscribed the Declaration which the Jesuites made the year before and the Divines of Valedolid did the same About this time the Jesuites laboured to get the Sentence of their Banishment out of France reversed the Pope interposing his Mediation in their Favours upon which the Parliament of Paris attempted to dissuade the King from consenting to it by a long Oration alledging That it was their avowed Doctrine That the Pope hath a Power of Excommunicating Kings that a King so Excommunicated by his Holiness is no other than a Tyrant whom the People may oppose that Clergy-men are exempt from the Prince's Power are none of his Subjects and cannot be punish'd by him for any Crimes And having enumerated several of their Treasons they affirm That it is absolutely necessary for them to renounce these Doctrines or else France cannot with safety admit them to return But though they were very desirous of Admission they would not renounce those Positions for it however by importunity and the solicitation of the Pope and others they were at length received but upon Conditions Two of which were That they should build no Colleges without express Permission from the King and that one of their number should be always near the King to be accountable for the Actions of the Society Thus were they admitted but marks of Distrust set upon them though they have by their Address turn'd the latter of these Conditions which was at first design'd for their Disgrace into a mark of Honour the King's Confessour being ever since a Jesuite Though the Gun-powder Plot was not ripe for Execution till two years after yet they were consulting about it at this time when after a long complaint of their Grievances Mr. Percy told Mr. Catesby that there was no way but to kill the King and he was resolv'd to doe it But that Gentleman desired him not to be so rash for he had laid a surer Design which would certainly effect it without any danger to themselves and then imparted to him the Contrivance of blowing up the King and Parliament Which Design in May the following year Anno 1604 the Conspiratours obliged themselves by Oath upon the Holy Sacrament to keep secret Catesby justifying the Action by the Breves which the Pope had sent to exclude King James it being as lawfull to cast him out as to oppose his Entrance and Bates another of the Conspiratours was assured by the Jesuite Greenwell that the Cause and Action were good and therefore it was his Duty to conceal it Upon the approaching of the Parliament they began to work endeavouring to make a Mine under the Parliament-house but soon after Percy hired a Cellar in which they stowed the Gun-powder with Billets heap'd upon it to hide it in case of search The May before the Plot was to be executed there was an Insurrection of the Romanists in Wales but it was soon supprest Anno 1605 yet all things went on in order to the fatal blow when about a week before the Parliament was to sit the Design was discovered and so prevented upon which the Conspiratours flew into Rebellion but were all either killed or taken by the Sheriff of Worcestershire The King in his Speech to the Parliament soon after told them that Faux confessed that they had no other cause moving them to the Design but merely and only Religion which was acknowledged by Sir Everard Digby at his Tryall to be the chief Motive which enduced him to make one among them and which he resolved to hazard his Life his Estate and all to
full Pardon for it from the Pope That the first might not be wanting Cedretto a noted Jesuit and Provincial of Guyenne approv'd his Resolution and Ragazzani the Nuncio recommended him to the Pope promising that his Prayers should not be wanting for the success of the Attempt with which encouragement he came to London where he received a Letter from Cardinal Como wherein the Cardinal informs him That His Holiness did exhort him to persevere and bring that to effect which he had promised and that he might be the better assisted by that good Spirit which moved him thereto His Holiness granted him his Blessing a plenary Indulgence and Remission of all his sins assuring him that he should merit highly by the Action which he terms holy and honourable to which the Cardinal added his Prayers and Wishes for its success This he confessed confirmed his Resolution to kill his Sovereign and made it clear to his Conscience that it was lawfull and meritorious which redounding so highly to the Dishonour of that bloudy Church the whole Relation is by the Index Expurgatorius commanded to be left out of Thuanus's History And well they might for as it shewed the Pope's Inclination to Bloud and Treason so it was one of the greatest instances of Ingratitude imaginable Parry owing his life to the Mercy of this Princess who had four years before pardoned him when he was tried and condemned for Burglary But though the Divine Goodness was so conspicuous in the many wonderfull preservations of that great Queen yet it pleased the all-wise Providence to permit the devilish Designs of the Jesuites to be attended with success in Holland where the renowned Prince William of Nassaw was this year murthered by Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian who confessed that a Jesuite Regent of the College of Trers told him that he had conferred with three of his Brethren who took the Design to be from God assuring him that if he dyed in that quarrel he should be enrolled in the Kalendar of Martyrs 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 Kings as long as the King of Spain pleased To promote which Design Cardinal Pellevee sollicited the Pope for his approbation of it Anno 1585 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 Anno 1586 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
undertook the same Exploit to whom the Pope's Agent added Clement Odin another Son of St. Dominick but God defeated all their Designs and preserv'd that great King's Life some years longer In the mean while Tir Oen continued his Rebellion in Ireland Anno 1599 having received Assistance from the Spaniard and a Plume of Phoenix Feathers from the Pope and the new Earl of Desmond wrote two Letters to the King of Spain begging his Assistance to drive the English out of Ireland and to advance the Catholick Cause which he was resolved to maintain What effect these and other Addresses had we shall see presently But Tir Oen not resting wholly on the Spaniard Anno 1600 wrote a very earnest Letter to the Pope subscribed by himself Desmond and others Desiring his Holiness to issue out a Bull against the Queen as Pius the Fifth and Gregory the Thirteenth had done which they press him to doe because the Kingdom belonged to his Holiness and next under God depended solely on him In the mean while the Rebellion went on and daily conflicts happen'd but lest the tediousness or danger of the War should discourage them Pope Clement the Eighth sent a Letter directed to all the Prelates Noblemen and People of Ireland wherein he owns That they had taken up Arms by his advice for recovering their Liberty and opposing the Hereticks commends the Fitz-Geralds who headed former Insurrections highly extolls Tyrone and grants a full remission of all Sins to him and his Assistants Yet could not this Concurrence and Benediction of the Pope preserve their strength from being broken by the Lord Mountjoy who this year arrived Lord Deputy in Ireland insomuch that several of the chief Rebels submitted but at the same time sent to Rome to crave Pardon for their outward compliance but Tyrone continued obstinate which forced the Lord-Deputy to proclaim him Traitor setting a Reward of Two thousand Marks upon his Head however the Spaniard sent a Ship to his Relief laden with Arms and Monies as an earnest of more Supplies It is certain from the Confession of the Traitors themselves that the foundation of the Gun-power 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 Anno 1601 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 of Tuseany 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 Kings all 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 Anno 1602 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