The same Witness in the Tryals of Green Berry and Hill gives in his Deposition the whole Story of the Murder of Godfrey He says That to agree the manner of that Murder they had several Meetings at an Ale-house at the sign of the Plow that they labour'd much to perswade him it was no Crime to kill a turbulent and over-busy man that the project being agreed they had dogg'd Godfrey several times that at last about nine a Clock at night the Conspirators having observed Godfrey returning from St. Clements Lawrence Hill went to the Gate toward the street and meeting Sir Edmund intreated him to come and part two men who were a fighting by the Water-side that Godfrey having follow'd Hill when they had him at the end of the Pales Hill flung a cord about his neck and strangled him that Green finding he was not quite dead wrung his neck about that having kept the Corps some days and carried it from place to place at last they laid it a cross a Horse-back carried it into the fields and threw it into a Ditch having first run his Sword through his body Robert Jennison another Witness in Wakeman's Tryal deposes he had heard Ireland one of the Conspirators say that the Roman Catholick Religion was to be shortly set up in England that there was but one person could hinder it and that they could easily poison the King that the same Ireland being told by the Deponent that the King went a Hunting and a Fishing with a very thin Guard said he should be very glad they were rid of the King In Stafford's Tryal the same Jennison deposes that in the Meetings of the Priests and Jesuits he had been at he heard them say It was necessary for the Good of the Catholick Religion to alter the Government and to reform it after the model of France that Ireland a Priest had solicited him to come along with him to help him to dispatch the King that the same Priest had ask'd him if he knew any brave and resolute Irish-men fit to give that great blow That being in Harcourt's Chamber with many other Jesuits he had heard them say that if C. R. would not be R. C. he should not be long C. R. the meaning whereof was that if Charles Rex would not be a Roman Catholick he should not long be Charles Rex that they made him take the Sacrament and an Oath of Secrecy and than discovered to him the whole Plot. In the same Tryal Smith declares that having been born a Protestant Abbot Monutague and Father Gascoyne had labour'd at Paris to make him a Roman Catholick telling him that in a short time the Catholick Religion should be the praedominant Religion in England that having design'd to go to Rome and passing through Provence in his way to Italy they had oblig'd him to many Conferences with Cardinal Grimaldi who at last perswaded him to turn Catholick and that he was made Priest That Cardinal Grimaldi told him he had Correspondence with many great English Lords that he was very well assur'd the Roman Catholick Religion should be prevalent in England but that there was one man they must be rid of and that was the King that in truth he was a good Man but however he must be made away because he was an Obstacle to their Designs The same Witness says that having left Provence he went into the English Colledge at Rome where he continued long and that he heard the Jesuits say in their Sermons and ordinary discourse That the King of England was not truly King because he was an Heretick and that whoever kill'd him should do a very meritorious act And when he and five or six more were ready to leave that house the Fathers earnestly exhorted them to maintain that Maxim That People are not oblig'd to obey the King of England And that they should take care to instruct accordingly in Confession all those they should find capable to enter into this great design There is another Witness Dennis by name a Roman Catholick and a Jacobine Monk and such at the time of his Deposition having neither quitted his Religion nor Order This Monk deposes that being in Spain at Madrid in the Chamber of James Lenck an Irish-man Arch-Bishop of Tuam this Arch-Bishop told him That Dr. Oliver Plunket was to be imploy'd very speedily to procure Succours from France to be sent into Ireland for maintaining the Catholick Religion in Ireland and England and that be the Arch-Bishop would in a short time go in person into that Countrey to advance so pious a work The same Witness deposes that the Earl of Carlingford s Brother caus'd great Sums of Money to be levy'd in the Covents and that they said openly this money was design'd for the bringing over an Army into Ireland when time should serve Edward Turbervil another Witness swears expresly That Stafford being lodg'd at Paris at the corner of Beaufortstreet the Deponent came to him and stay'd with him several days That Stafford having taken an Oath of Secrecy from him not to discover what he should trust him with he told him at last they were in search of one to kill the King of England who was an Heretick and consequently no King but rather a Rebel against Almighty God and that he solicited him to undertake this great Action Here Sir are a great many Witnesses besides Oates and Bedlow who swear as home as they Can any reasonable man imagine there can be found so many Infernal Spirits as here are Witnesses capable to invent so horrible a Calumny to destroy a Religion and all that profess it And if it were possible to suborn one Witness or two have you ever seen a president of such a Subornation that hath gain'd so great a number of Witnesses Besides what is there improbable in this History of the Plot Is it not the Spirit and Custom of your Bigots and blind Zealots to use such means as these to promote their Religion Read the Life of Queen Elizabeth and you will find she was no sooner delivered from one Conspiracy but another was fram'd against her The words of Stafford who passes for a Martyr among you are remarkable In his Speech to the Lord High-Steward Stafford's Tryal pag. 200. and the Peers his Judges he declares That he did believe those of the Roman Religion had since the Reformation of the Church of England entred into several most wicked and most dangerous Conspiracies particularly the Conspiracy of Babington and that of the Earl of Westmorland or the Northern Rebellion raised by the Papists in Queen Elizabeth 's time He declares further That he believ'd there was a wicked Conspiracy in the Reign of King James wherein some of the Conspirators were Roman-Catholicks and some Protestants And that after this followed that execrable Plot called The Gunpowder-Treason And when Sir could they have made choice of a more favourable time wherein to revive and reduce into practise those bloudy
Maxims than a time when they assur'd themselves and were fully perswaded they should find a King of their Religion in the Person of his Royal Highness 'T is true the King of England hath been favourable to them in tolerating them but they were notsatisfy'd with this and having lost all hopes of prevailing with him to turn Roman Catholick they look'd upon his Life as a great Obstacle to their Designs for it made them lose time and they had reason to fear the Protestants in the interim might discover the design so that it was their interest speedily to make away a King who possess'd the place of him from whom they promis'd themselves a full re-establishment of the Roman Catholick Religion in England Recollect the Evidence add to it the Letters and Memoirs that were seiz'd and the Murder of Godfrey and I will justify it a man must have the Forehead of a Jesuit to deny there was a Plot. The Memoirs and Letters are very numerous you may read them in the printed Tryals particularly you will find a great Collection of them printed with Stafford's Tryal But pray Sir remember Coleman's Letter I spoke to you of last year that alone is enough to stop the mouths of those who dare say this Plot is an invention of the Protestants To which Calumny we will constantly oppose as an impenetrable Buckler the words of that Letter acknowledg'd by Coleman to be his We have here a mighty work upon our hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a Pestilent Heresy which has domineer'd over great part of this Northern World a long time Coleman 's Tryal pag. 69. I said not a word t' you of another Letter as plain as this which you may see in Ireland's and Grove's Tryals where you will find words to this effect Every one had notice not to make too much hast to London nor to be there long before the day appointed nor to appear much in the Town before the Congregation was ended for fear of giving cause to suspect the Design This Letter doth not tell us what was the design of this famous Assembly but it lets us see they had some great design in hand and the Plot being discover'd at the same time 't is not hard to guess what it was It hath been prov'd before the House of Commons that upon the first discovery of the Plot one of the Lords accus'd to have had a hand in it writ to another of the same Lords then in Staffordshire that their designs were discover'd and that he should use his best endeavours to conceal all such their Catholick Friends as were concern'd in that affair This Letter was found by a Justice of the Peace in the house of that Lord to whom it was directed upon the search made for Arms in Roman Catholick houses and was produc'd to the Commons in Parliament with all the Witnesses to whom it was shew'd the moment it was found Hug. Law You have reason to wish Gentlemen that my Friend here had not been any better instructed than formerly in these matters but had still continued under his mistake that Oates and Bedlow had not chang'd their Religion but remain'd Roman Catholicks after the Plot discover'd for the pains he hath taken to inform himself have made him acquainted with many particulars which cannot please you since they make it clearly appear there was a Plot. Par. We might have easily known all this already being taken all out of those Tryals printed in several Languages but since you make use of them you will allow me to do so and give me leave to ask you whether the clearing of Wakeman the Queen of England's Physitian be not an evident proof that all your Witnesses are false Witnesses For they are in effect no other Oates and Bedlow charg'd Wakeman to have treated for fifteen thousand pounds for poysoning the King Here are two Witnesses enough to Condemn a Man Here is in question one of the principal Crimes laid to the charge of the pretended Conspirators their design to make away the King yet this man is acquitted by his Judges It necessarily follows your two famous Witnesses were taken for false Witnesses and if they were not to be credited against Wakeman why should they be credited against the rest Hug. Law Do not say Sir that the clearing of Sir George Wakeman is a proof of his innocence or of the falshood of the Evidence say rather that the Chief Justice who sate at that Tryal hath been since impeach'd before the Peers of England in Parliament and had the Parliament continued sitting perhaps that Judge had smarted for it The King was not very well satisfy'd of Wakeman's innocence after his Acquittal For that Poyson Merchant having had the confidence to appear at Court after his enlargement the King caus'd him to be turn'd out with shame Par. There is one thing sticks still very hard with me as to this Plot that of twelve or fifteen Persons who have been executed for the pretended Conspiracy not one confest himself guilty in the least When Men are ready to appear before God the Mask falls off it self the fear of Hell softens the hardness of their hearts You shall not see a Malefactor but discharges his Conscience at his death if some of them were hardned enough to deny to the death yet sure one or other of them would have confess'd something but there hath not been one of them who did not protest to the last he was innocent Consider after what manner dy'd Stafford and Plunket the Primate of Ireland who were Persons of Honour and Quality Hug. Law It surprizes me Sir to hear you make their obstinate Silence an Argument of their innocence every day we see Criminals who to save their Credit and have the pleasure of saying they dye innonocent resist the most violent Tortures Yet you cannot comprehend how Men who have long fortify'd their Courage and prepar'd for an Enterprize the most dangerous that may be have the power to keep till death a Secret on which depends not only their Honour but the preservation of all the Roman Catholicks in England Had they confess'd themselves Guilty they must have named their Complices and in so doing they would have destroy'd an infinite number of People and render'd their Religion abominable in the World by making it appear it inspires into its Votaries such horrible Sentiments and gives Birth to such furious designs These Considerations are of weight and strength sufficient to keep the weakest of Men from revealing a Secret of this importance When the Powder-Plot was discover'd in 1605. not one of the Conspirators confest and nothing had ever been prov'd upon them out of their own mouths had not the Judges had the ingenuity to cause Garnet and Hall to be imprison'd in two Dungeons where they could speak to one another and in the Wall between the Dungeons there was a place they plac'd
left in Thoüars and generally the Inhabitants of the Towns as well as the Countrey declare aloud nothing but an absolute impossibility of getting out shall stay them in the Kingdom But such is their Cruelty the Ports are guarded with all strictness imaginable If any one embark and they know it presently they romage the Vessel take him and imprison him I have with me an Original Writing of those poor Fugitives who were lately taken and imprison'd which I will read to you WE whose Names are under-written Prisoners as well in the Prisons Royal of the City of Rochell as in the Tower of the Lantern not only in our own Names but the Names of those of us who cannot write being in all three and thirty Persons professing the Reformed Religion do hereby certifie that having been forc'd some weeks since to leave the Province of Poitou the place of our Nativity our Houses and all our Goods by the unheard of Cruelties and Outrages exercis'd by Order of the Intendant Marillac against all those of the said Religion who will not abandon it and turn Roman-Catholicks we retir'd destitute of all conveniences and necessaries for subsistence into the said City of Rochell in hopes to find there some relief in our distress and an easie passage into England Being arriv'd at Rochell with great pains and toil several of us having Wives and sucking Children after some days stay in the said City we treated with one Mesnier a Merchant of the same City who hir'd a Vessel of purpose to transport us into England and actually took on Board the said Vessel ever since the 20th of the last month above one hundred and fifty Persons of us who remain'd in the said Vessel two days ready to set Sayl. Which coming to the knowledge of the Judge and Attorney-General of the Admiralty they sent Guards aboard the Vessel riding within Musket shot of the Harbor Which Guards forc'd us all ashore having first plunder'd some of us of our Cloaths and made some of us Prisoners whom after their Confession taken they enlarg'd without entring their names in the Goalers Book Since which we continued at Rochell aforesaid as well for recovering the Money we had paid Mesiner for our passage which he absenting himself we could not obtain as for finding out some sure means to transport our selves into England our intention being not to return home where neither our Persons nor our Consciences can be in safety all things being there in ruin and desolation But accompanyed every where by our misfortune we were so unhappy that the Civil Magistrates and Lieutenant Criminal of the said City who could not endure us made diligent search for us in all their Houses who had had the Charity to harbour us and having found us they put us into Prison where we continue since All-Saints day and had been starv'd to death but for the Charitable relief of several good People who sent us Victuals to save us from perishing with hunger having two days lain on the Boards some of us half naked having been taken out of Bed and not allow'd time to put on all our Cloaths The said search having been made between the hours of nine and ten in the Evening when some of us were in Bed whom they forc'd to get up and go to Prison where we continue as Criminals What they will do with us we know not nor are we conscious to our selves of any Crime unless it be that we make not profession of the Roman-Catholick Religion for which we think they intend to trouble us Because every day and almost every hour we are vex'd and tormented with the visits of the King'd Advocate of this City and several Monks who make us the fairest and richest promises imaginable if we will change our Religion And on the contrary threaten us terribly if we persist in our Profession And though we are hoarse with telling them we will by the grace of God persevere in our Religion and that we will dye rather than forsake it yet they leave us not but torment us incessantly Therefore we conjure all good Christians not to forsake us in the miserable Condition we are in but that they will endeavour our enlargement as well as continue their Charity for our subsistence We pray God that he will every day pour on them greater measures of his choicest Blessings and we intreat them not to forget us in their Prayers and that they will joyn their Complaints to ours and lay them at his Majesties feet that we may obtain from his Clemency such Order as is requisite for our Liberty Dated at the Tower of the Lantern in the City of Rochell where we are Prisoners Nov. 4th 1681. Tousot M. Moussault aged sixty years Daniel Pivet Jean Coussemean Francis Bourcean Lewis Bomilet John Mentauban Peter Guery James Piron Peter Moinault J. Michau James Haullice John Gouriault Reyneere I confess this proceeding appears horrible to me and that it puts me in mind of what Ozorius told us of the Condition of those miserable Jews who had the Ports of Portugal shut against them and were constrain'd to remain slaves in that Countrey In the Age of Massacres every one was at liberty to go out of the Kingdom If this Course of retaining these persecuted Wretches be continued there is cause to fear they will break out at length into some desperate Action that they will burn their Houses and set fire on the Towns The Resolution I confess is violent and furious but Wretches in Extremity bid adieu to their Reason What think you in your Conscience is not this an open Persecution and equal in Cruelty to that of past Ages What difference will you make between the Raign of Charles the 9th and Lewis the 14th the greatest of our Kings Par. If Matters be thus why do you not complain 'T is very well known the King loves not Violence He will certainly do you Justice Hug. Law How Sir are you ignorant that we complain but cannot be heard Do not you know well enough that the Province of Poitou had Deputies here who represented to the World the lamentable Condition of the poor Hugonots there In a word Have you not seen the Petition they presented to the King I have it here and will read it to you To the King SIR YOur Subjects of the Religion P.R. of Poitou most humbly shew to your Majesty that they are in extreme desolation by the unheard of Violences exercis'd against them for their Religion by Order of the Sieur Marillac Intendant of the Province They have formerly exhibited their Complaints to your Majesty who was graciously pleased to declare it was not your intention any force should be us'd to deprive them of the Liberty of Conscience granted them by your Edicts But their Grievances and great Sufferings having since been infinitely augmented they are constrain'd to come again to cast themselves at your Majesties feet to implore your justice having begg'd leave to inform
true is it that the Ambition of the great ones was the cause of these Wars on the one side and the other Hath not the Duke of Alanson Brother of Charles the ninth and Henry the third been seen at the head of Thirty Thousand of these Male-Contents Yet he was no Hugonot nor ever favour'd them of the Religion Were not Marshal Danville and several other firm and profest Roman Catholicks engag'd for the same Party By which it appears all those Wars were the Wars of the Discontented in general whether Catholicks or Hugonots To Conclude Sir for justifying our Hugonots in these Wars I can prove they had not any design but to preserve themselves the State and the Illustrious Princes of the Family of Bourbon now Regnant On the contrary the opposite Party was a Spanish Faction who covered their Designs with the Specious Vail of Religion but were Enemies to the State and would have put the Crown upon the Heads of Strangers Par. As to the last Article I pray Sir ingage not in the proof of it Repetitions are troublesom to the Speaker and no less tedious and unpleasant to the hearer This Gentleman hath acquainted us with what you have to say on that Subject for he hath endeavor'd to prove the faction of the Guises would have taken away from the Branch of Bourbon their Lives and the Crown to bring France under the Dominion of a Stranger 'T is possible there might be some such design but the faults of others do not justify us If the faction of the Guises had Criminal designs are you therefore more innocent Hug. Law Sir that which hath been said by us on this Subject is not the hundredth part of what may be said to prove the faction of the house of Guise which call'd it self the Holy Union and went under the name of the League from the year 1576. to the year 1600. was altogether Spanish and an Enemy to the State and that our Party which was wholly opposite to the other was altogether French But I will comply with your desires and say no more of it provided you will in requital answer a question I am going to ask you What reason you Gentlemen of the Roman Catholick Religion have to Condemn the Protestants for their pretended Rebellions against their Princes on the account of Religion Par. 'T is on this Ground That Subjects owe absolute obedience to their Soveraign's in all things That the Soveraign is Master of the Religion of his Countrey And that Subjects have no right to demand toleration of a Religion different from that of the State Hug. Law You have answered just as I expected And according to these Maxims you argue very right For if a Prince is absolute Master of the Religion of his People as of other their Concerns if Subjects are obliged to follow always the Religion of their Soveraign doubtless there is reason to charge them with Rebellion who with Arms in their hands desire to be tolerated in the Exercise of a Religion different from that of the State But Sir have you thought well of the Maxim you propos'd Do you remember 't is the Maxim of Hobbs in his Politicks You know how famous Spinosa was for Impiety He was for allowing every one Liberty to think and speak what he pleas'd concerning Religion yet attributes to the Soveraign an absolute Authority over the Religion of the State You know these two men are an Object of Execration to all Divines and that they are generally look'd upon as great Enemies of Religion And amongst all their Maxims this in particular hath been look'd upon as one of the most Pernicious Consider a little how far it may be carry'd If the Prince be Master of Religion you Catholicks must be Reformed in England and Holland and so must the Lutherans in Denmark and Swede and the Christians of the East must turn Mahometans in Persia and Turkey If therefore this may peradventure be a false Maxim as certainly it is is it so great a Crime to be of a Religion different from that of the State And if you are of a Religion different from that of your Prince is it a Crime to obtain from him a toleration to exercise it in private or publick Par. Either you misapprehend me or I have not well express'd my self I design not to assert the Empire of Kings extends to the Conscience or that they are Masters of the Religion of the heart I know very well we are to obey God rather than Men I coufess it allowable and frequently necessary to be of a Religion different from that of our Prince In a word 't is no Crime to desire permission of the Prince to make publick profession of a Religion different from his My meaning was that the Prince is Master of the External part of Religion That if he will not permit any Religion but his when we cannot obey we may die patiently without making other defence than our Sufferings Because true Religion ought not to make use of force and Arms for its establishment Princes are infinitely to blame when they violently oppose the Establishment of the true Religion but they are answerable only to God for it Hug. Law In this sence I confess your Maxim is pious and bears the Character of the Primitive Christian Morality And now Sir I have you where I wish'd you I ask you with confidence what ground you Roman Catholicks have to charge us with the violation of this Maxim If you think it good why d' you not observe it If you observe it not why make you such ado why clamour you so much against others who do not observe it You may very well be allow'd Gentlemen to make the like Objection against the Reformed You who are of a Religion whose History if written would be a continual Series of Rebellion against Soveraigns of Attempts against their Authority Conspiracies against their Lives and Assassinations committed upon their Persons for the sake of Religion and under pretence of maintaining it You know the History of past Ages and the present and cannot be ignorant that when a Prince meddles never so little with what you call the Estate the Immunities and Priviledges of the Church though these things concern not the grounds of Religion he is call'd impious an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and permission is given to rebel against him For an Abby for the Revenues of a Bishoprick taken into the hands of a Prince for the Rights of Regale for Nomination to some Benefices what a bustle is made what extravagant Insolences are not committed According to that pious Maxim upon which you ground your Charge against us and so cruelly prosecute it those who labour for the maintenance of Religion are to be meerly patient and ought not to make use of any means that may diminish or indanger the Authority of the Prince But will you cast your eye upon the Conduct of the League that Holy Vnion which in 1576.
since the Popes call'd themselves the Emperours most humble Servants and said they were but dust and ashes in their presence I see there the Works of Gregory the Great and could let you see in them the Style of the Popes in those days when they writ to the Emperours but I had rather let you see it in the Margin of Father Maimbourgh's History of Lutheranism You will allow me who am a Hugonot the pleasure which is not small to take out of the Margin of a Jesuits Book those words of St. Gregory which the Ministers have so often quoted Hist Luth. lib. 11. Ann. 1530. Ego verò haec Dominis loquens quid sum nisi pulvis vermis ego indignus famulus vester I that take the Liberty to speak thus to my Lords what am I but dust and a Worm your unworthy Servant You will do us a pleasure to read the Text of Fa. Maimbourgh This holy Bishop forbore not to execute what had been commanded him having remain'd satisfy'd with making a most humble Remonstrance to the Emperour his Master in a Letter extreamly submissive This vexes you Sir as it pleases us I confess our joy may be tax'd of some malice but 't is a matter so rare and so singular to hear a profest Jesuit and one under the fourth vow speak thus of a Pope you will pardon us for being pleas'd with it but the days are long since gone when they spoke thus at Rome The Popes have since those days assum'd and exercis'd a Power to Depose Emperours and Kings to declare them Tyrants to raise their Subjects against them when they do any thing the Popes pretend to be contrary to Religion This is a matter so publickly notorious it hath been prov'd a hundred times Now Sir I will dare your Roman Catholicks to charge us with our pretended Rebellions and having maintain'd our Religion by Arms and give me leave to tell you I wonder the prudence of your Churchman and the interest of his Party permitted him to renew the memory of our Wars for Religion for he might have easily foreseen we would not fail to expose to publick view so many horrible Conspiracies those of his Character and Religion every day plot and carry on in those Countreys where the Supremacy of the Pope is not acknowledg'd If we acted a part in the Civil Wars of France they cannot reproach us with having design'd the murder of our Princes and actually assassinated them We have never been charg'd with having design'd and endeavored to blow up with powder a whole State in a moment not only the head but all its principal Members We are now under great Sufferings in France but amidst all our Sufferings we glory that our very Enemies bear witness of our Fidelity and Innocence but the Martyrs of your Church-man those poor Catholicks he laments and bewails that they are cruelly put to death in England under pretence of a pretended Conspiracy are sufficiently convicted to have been tampering with as horrible an Enterprize as any hath been design'd this Age. Par. We have done with that Sir let 's hear no more of it I pray whether the English Catholicks be guilty or not let not us inquire further this Gentleman hath said as much on that Subject as you can do not attack us you will find work enough to defend your selves you think you have said enough but you have not spoken a word of the last Wars you rais'd in the Kingdom the Wars of Montauban of Rochel c. Hug. Law As to the Plot in England you shall not scape so you shall hear a great deal more of it if you please I know all this Gentleman said to you of it he told you what he knew but not all that may be known of it such order is taken to hinder the transportation of authentick Copies of the Tryals of those Criminals into Foreign parts we scarce know any thing of them so that you are not to admire this Gentleman seem'd not throughly instructed But because that formidable Pamphlet you took out of your pocket charges us to have occasion'd a Persecution against the Catholicks in England under pretence of a pretended Conspiracy you must allow us to justify our selves a little more fully and to add to what we have said what is since come to our knowledge but If you please I will first speak a word or two to the last Wars of Religion in France about the beginning of this Age I am for plain dealing I will never call evil good nor good evil I am of their number who cannot approve of these Wars nor make it their business to justify them The places of safety which had been given us were the seeds of this War the King was desirous to have them put into his hands the Hugonots were obstinately bent to retain them It was ill done without doubt they ought to have restor'd them and to have rely'd on the Providence of God and the King's Justice Yet this we have to say for our selves First 'T is not just to charge a whole body of men with that which was done but by a part Perhaps three fourths of all the Protestants of France were for a Submission These doubtless would have carry'd it both for Number and Prudence but they were the weakest of the Party The turbulent Spirits were Masters of all their Forces and Arms. Secondly We say the Religion of great men keeps them not from being ambitious They reign in Confusions and make themselves formidable by raising Troubles they abuse the simplicity of the People and make them pay for the Follies and Crimes of those who abuse them This was one cause of the last Wars we had great men of our perswasion who being in the head of a great Party made themselves formidable at Court for the strong places they were Masters of These men foresaw that by the change of Affairs design'd at Court their Credit and their Pensions would be lost they did all they could to bear up themselves and engag'd in their Quarrel the people whose Zeal is always sufficiently ignorant and ill enough guided Methinks some charity ought to be had for people who have no ill intention but only the misfortune to permit themselves to be seduc'd by mistaking interests of Religion It must be considered also that most of those who took Arms were frightned into it Our Enemies who desir'd nothing more than to see us rise that they might take that occasion to destroy us caus'd Rumors to be spread that there was a design to massacre all the Hugonots that it was agreed by a secret Article in the Treaty of Spain and of the Marriages lately made The pressing so earnestly to have again into the King's hands the places of strength given by his Father to the Protestants heightned our suspicion The horrible Image of the Massacres and Torments of the last Age was fresh in memory many had been Spectators and some had been
two Witnesses in who heard all the Prisoners said and gave so exact an Account of their Discourse that they confest all But would you know the cause they keep their Secrets so well 'T is the horrible Oath they impose on all those who enter into such Conspiracies Read Mezeray where I have left him open The last of January eight of the principal Conspirators were executed at London for High-Treason not one of them accus'd the Priests or the Monks for they were oblig'd to Secrecy by terrible Oaths To satisfy you fully in this particular I will let you see the form of the Oath administred to all those who entred into this last Plot. There is a Copy of it The Oath for the Plot in England I Whose Name is underwritten do in the presence of Almighty God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Blessed Arch-Angel Michael the Blessed St. John the Baptist the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and all other the Saints in Heaven and of you my Ghostly Father declare from the bottom of my heart that I believe the Pope the Vicar-General of Iesus Christ to be the sole and only Head of the Church upon Earth and that by vertue of the Keys and the power of binding and looseing given to his Holiness by our Lord Jesus Christ he hath power to Depose all Heretick Kings and Princes to put them out of their Office or kill them And therefore I will from the bottom of my heart defend this Doctrine and the Rights of his Holiness against all sorts of Vsurpers especially against him who pretends to be King of England because he hath falsified his Oath made to the Agents of his Holiness by not keeping his promise to Establish the Holy Roman Catholick Religion in England I Renounce and Disavow all manner of Promise and Submission to the said present King of England and all obedience to his Officers and inferiour Magistrates and I believe that the Protestant Doctrine is Heretical and Damnable and that all those who do not forsake it shall be damned I will assist with all my power the Agents of his Holiness here in England to extirpate and root out the said Protestant Doctrine and to destroy the said pretended King of England and all those his Subjects who will not adhere to the Holy See of Rome and the Religion there profest Moreover I promise and declare that I will keep Secret and not divulge directly or indirectly by word or by writing or other Circumstance whatsoever what you my Spiritual Father or any other engag'd in the advancement of this Holy and Pious Design shall propose and give me in charge and that I will diligently and constantly promote it and that neither hope of Reward nor fear of Punishment shall make me discover any thing relating thereto and that if I be discover'd I will never confess any Circumstance of it All these things I swear by the most Holy Trinity and by the Blessed Body of God which I intend to receive presently and that I will accomplish and inviolably perform them all and I call to Witness all the Angels and Saints of Heaven that such is my true intention In Witness whereof I receive the most holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist Hug. Law Well Sir and what say you of this This comes from good hands from a great house allyed to that of England But had it fallen from the Clouds we might have known it by the Character had it been a forg'd piece it must needs have been made by a Roman Catholick and one deeply vers'd in the Cabal of these blind Zealots for there is not a Protestant and but few Roman Catholicks who understand the style and conduct of this Cabal with so much perfection as he must have done who should invent this form of an Oath And now Sir you may if you can draw from the silence of the Conspirators an Argument against the truth of the Plot. Par. Since you are so much for answering I should be very glad Sir to hear what you have to say to the business of my Lord Howard and the Earl of Shaftsbury This last will be shortly convicted of having suborn'd Witnesses against the Queen of England and the Duke of York to make them Complices in the Plot. May not he who would have suborn'd Witnesses against the Queen and first Prince of the Bloud be rationally presum'd to have suborn'd Witnesses against five or six pitiful Priests Hug. Law We hope Sir the innocence of the Earl of Shaftsbury will save him Perhaps it will be objected he may be more for a Republican Government than may befit the Subject of a Monarchy but we cannot believe him capable of the base actions he is charg'd with If he miscarry he will not be the first innocent person hath perish'd by the malice of false Witnesses Can any thing be clearer than that this Charge against him is a Counter-battery raised by your Catholicks Nothing can be more proper to make men suspect that all hath been said of the Plot is meerly fictitious than to produce men to testify Endeavours have been us'd to suborn them For if Endeavours have been us'd to suborn them why not to suborn others I wonder only this act of the Tragedy began so late 'T is true we may see something of it in Wakeman's Tryal and in Dugdale's Depositions For this Witness tells us he had seen a Letter sent from Paris to St. Omers from St. Omers to London from London to Tixal wherein it was advis'd That the Presbyterians should be accus'd of a Design against the King's Life which would oblige those of the Church of England to joyn with the Catholicks to destroy the Presbyterians Observe now the Event of this Counsel The Earl of Shaftsbury is look'd upon as the head of the Presbyterians the Presbyterians are the great Enemies of the Conspirators and labour with most Zeal the Discovery of the Plot. We must destroy their Credit say you and charge them with the blackest of Crimes and who are the Witnesses made use of against the Earl of Shaftsbury They are all Roman Catholicks Can you think it a hard matter in a business where the safety of a whole Party and of the Roman Religion is at stake to find five or six persons who will Sacrifice themselves to save the honour of their Religion and the Life of their Patriarchs And how do they Sacrifice themselves Their Ghostly Fathers perswade them that to bear false Witness against Shaftsbury the great Enemy of the Roman Church is so far from being an offence to God that they do him very considerable Service in it So that instead of one or two I believe they may find a hundred false Witnesses in this affair and this is the cause honest men are so much in fear for the Life of that Lord. But let us suppose things to be as you would have them let us put the Case that Shaftsbury is the most
wicked of men doth it follow that because out of hatred to the Roman Religion and for Excluding the Duke of York from the Succession he would have suborn'd some Witnesses against the Queen and the Duke he must therefore have framed and invented this long train of Conspiracies and that multitude of particular matters of Fact Letters Meetings and Consultations that appear in the History of the Plot Doth it follow that because he would have suborn'd Witnesses he must therefore succeed in it Or if he hath had the fortune to find one Wretch or two capable to be Suborn'd is it probable he could have found out so great a number Hath he search'd England and Ireland all over to scum out for his purpose all the Rascals capable to give and maintain a false Testimony How many Witnesses have been produc'd about the Plot in Ireland Hath the Earl of Shaftsbury Suborn'd them too Is this probable Sir or will any man believe it Par. This probably is all you have to say to us about the Plot in England I think it high time to put an end to our Discourse it hath been somewhat long you may well be weary of speaking as we are of hearing Hug. Law We should have had much more to say to you if we were allow'd to speak and could produce all the proofs the Cabal hath found the means to bury Had we but seen Plunket's Tryal we could without doubt have added many things to what you have heard And if it were in our power to discover the Mysteries of the Irish Plot we should certainly stop their Mouths who say the reason of our ill usage in France is that the King may revenge the Outrages done to the Roman Catholicks in England Hug. Gen. Gentlemen if you please before we make an end because I am in the humour of making Retractations and Confessions I will confess t' you that speaking last year of the death of King Charles the 1st and how great a share the Jesuits had in his Death I gave you but a very imperfect account I have since search'd into the bottom of that affair and if you please will acquaint you what I have learnt Du Moulin's Answer to Philanax Anglicus pag. 58. I must tell you then that 't is known when the late King of England was Beheaded there was a Roman Priest a Confessour who having seen the King's Head cut off flourish'd his Sword and with Demonstrations of extraordinary joy cryed out Now we are rid of our greatest Enemy There is proof that the News of the King's Death being come to Roan and discours'd in a great Company of men very well instructed in the Mysteries of the Zealous Cabal one of them spoke thus Pag. 58 59. The King of England had promis'd us at his Marriage that the Catholick Religion should be re-establish'd in England and because he put it off from time to time we often call'd upon him to perform his promise we were so plain as to tell him That if he did it not we should be forc'd to make use of means to destroy him We gave him fair warning and because he would not follow our advice nor keep his Word with us we have kept ours with him A Gentleman of honour a Protestant who was in the Company gave me this Relation The Author who produces this Proof produces also a Letter from a Secretary of State who was actually in the Service of the Crown when the Accusation was brought against the Jesuits about the Death of the King this Secretary whose name was Morrice in answer to a Letter from the Author of the Accusation says to this purpose I am not allow'd nor does it become me to make Conjectures or draw Consequences from the Orders his Majesty gave me concerning you beyond what he hath precisely exprest You know in what trust and capacity I serv'd his Majesty Pag. 64. and what it was my duty to say and whereof to be silent But this I may safely say and will do it confidently that many Arguments did create a violent suspicion very near convincing Evidences that the Irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the Murder of that Excellent Prince the Odium whereof they would now file to the account of the Protestant Religion The same Author adds That a Protestant a little before the King's death met upon the Road from Roan to Diep a Company of Jesuits who taking him for a Catholick told him they were going into the Army of the Independants in England and that they would make work enough there An English Lady at Paris being seduc'd by a Jesuit turn'd Roman Catholick soon after came the news of the King of England's Death The Jesuit visiting the Lady found her all in Tears for this lamentable Accident Madam says the Jesuit smiling you have no reason to lament what hath happened the Catholicks are delivered of the greatest Enemy they had and his Death will be much to the advantage of the Catholick Religion The Lady angry at this discourse sent the Jesuit packing down Stairs and conceiv'd such horrour against the Roman Catholick Religion she would never after endure to hear speak of it A very understanding Man visiting the Monks at Dunkirk that he might sound them what they thought of the King's Death said That the Jesuits had labour'd much to bring about that great work A Monk answer'd That the Jesuits always assum'd to themselves the credit of every great Work but that their order had contributed to this as much if not more than they 'T is certain there was an universal Joy in all the English Seminaries on this side the Sea for the Death of the King They thought themselves so sure of their Designs that the Benedictines were taking care how to prevent the Jesuits from possessing themselves of the Lands belonging to their order and the Nuns quarrell'd among themselves who should be Lady Abbesses To conclude the same Author reports That he offer'd to prove in due course of Law Pag. 61 62. his Charge against the Jesuits for the Death of the King but that he was unwilling to publish his Proofs before hand lest those who were guilty of the Charge might have opportunity to get them out of the way or destroy them I do not understand English but I got a Friend of mine who does to Translate me this Book being an Answer to a Book entituled Philanax Anglicus I remember these Particulars in it which in my opinion sufficiently prove that the Charge of the King's Death on the Roman Catholicks is not altogether groundless but I begin to be sensible we abuse your patience Therefore Gentlemen we will break off here and take our Leaves Prov. I wish'd them gone a quarter of an hour ago The Lawyer as he took out of his Pocket the Oath he gave us to read dropt a Paper I took up and having half open'd it I spy'd written a top To the King I folded it up again