I Do Appoint Robert Boulter to Print this my Narrative Entituled A Further DISCOVERY of the late Horrid and POPISH-PLOT c. and that no others Print the same JOHN SMITH October 12. 1679. THE NARRATIVE OF Mr. John Smith OF Walworth in the County-Palatine of Durham Gent. Containing a further DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid and POPISH-PLOT With an Account of 1 st The inconsistency of the Popish-Principles with the Peace of all States 2 ly Their Destructiveness to all Protestant Kingdoms 3 ly The Incouragements upon which the Papists undertook so Hellish a Design against England 4 ly The Progress they had made in it 5 ly The Reasons of their endeavouring more especially the Death of His present Majesty 6 ly With a Vindication of the Justice of the Nation upon the Traitors already Executed LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Robert Boulter at the Turks-head in Corn-hill 1679. To the KING AS I owe my Allegiance and have Dedicated my Life to Your Majesty so I desire with all Humility in my self and Zeal for Your Happiness to offer up these Papers unto You. Many of Your Subjects are capable to present You with what is more sutable to the Greatness of Your Understanding but nothing can be laid at Your Feet which more nearly concerns the Preservation of Your Sacred Person the Safety of Your Crown and Security of Your Royal Dignity The danger of Conspiracies lies in their being concealed none ever perished by a detected Plot but such as have wilfully abandoned themselves to be destroyed And therefore while some of your Subjects to defeat the Hellish Machinations of the Papists against your Majesty and People are contented to expose themselves not only to secret Assassinations but to the vow'd Revenge of a disloyal and desperate Party It is hoped that you will not at once both desert your Self and de-relinquish the care of three Kingdoms as well as Sacrifice those Loyal Souls to gratifie implacable Enemies Sir 'T is past the Malice and Strength of your Adversaries either to destroy your Life or subvert your Government unless which God avert you joyn in the Conspiracy by some Personal accession And against dangers that you voluntarily expose your self unto there is no promise that the immense Wisdom or Almighty Power should interpose to save you The Conspirators find it convenient to alter the Methods of accomplishing their Treason but they remain unchangeable in their Traiterous Designs But Sir it is in your own Power not only to Reign in defiance of their violent Attempts but to render your People happy while you live and relinquish them safe when you dye For to all this there is no more required but your hearkning to the Advice of your Parliament who as they are best able to Counsel you so their own interest and the welfare of those they represent will always oblige them to it Might your Popish Adversaries but once divide betwixt you and your People and dispossess you out of the hearts of your Subjects the next thing will be having left you none to stand by you to wrest your Crown from you and deject you from your Throne As it is impossible you should miscarry while you and your People agree so no humane means can prevent the Destruction of these Kingdoms and the Unhappiness of your Royal Self and Family in their Ruines if through the Clamours of the Popish Party you should be divided from your People as represented in Parliament and to be withdrawn from hearkning to their Advice Your Majesties Most humble and most loyal Subject JOHN SMITH TO THE READER HAd the many Discoveries of the Plot already communicated to the World served either to dismay the Conspirators from their further proceeds or to awaken the Nation proportionably to its danger The Conveying of this to the knowledge of the Kingdom had been wholly forborn 'T is true that the offering this Information to His Majesty and the Council was an indispensible Duty which could not be superseded without Disloyalty to the Government but the divulging it to the Kingdom is to be resolved into that Lethargy as the motive of it which too many still lye under Shall it be said that our supine folly and unreasonable unbelief promote our ruine beyond what the malice of our Enemies was able to accomplish Shall their Address in impudent Pamphlets wheedle a company of easie and silly Souls to disbelieve what the King the Council and two Parliaments being first assured themselves have both recommended it to the Faith of these Kingdoms and consigned it over to Posterity as an unquestionable certainty It is not without astonishment that I observe how a generation of men whose interest makes it necessary and whose principles makes it lawful to Lye are able by meer impudence to out-face the fullest Evidence and most uncontrollable Convictions of their Guilt Reader Thou wilt therefore find in these following Sheets not only a further Attestation given to prove a Hellish Conspiracy against His Majesty the Protestant Religion and the Government by Law Established but thou wilt meet with some account both of the Advantages which did facilitate them in their designs and of the several steps which they had taken to accomplish them And if after all this the Protestant Inhabitants of these Nations will suffer themselves to be destroyed by continuing their Divisions notwithstanding such fair warning I will only say that they deserve to perish without Compassion and Pity A further DISCOVERY Of the late Horrid and Popish-PLOT WHat disturbances and fatal mischiefs the claim and exercise section 1 of Papal Authority and Jurisdiction have caused even in Kingdoms where both Princes and People were in all things else of the Romish Faith the Histories of foregoing Ages do sufficiently inform us The alone demurring to the Usurpations of the Roman Pontife hath derived from the pretended Infallible Chair the Excommunication of Princes the discharging Subjects from their Allegiance the Alienation of Crowns and Kingdoms the interdicting the performance of all Divine Services in Nations which according to their own stile were in all things else Catholick For besides the manifold instances which all parts of the Western World afford us to this purpose such as Gregory the seventh his Excommunicating Henry the fourth Sylvester the third his Anathematizing Henry the fifth Gregory the ninth his cursing Frederick the second Emperour of Germany And Innocent the third his Excommunicating Philip August and setting his Kingdom under an Interdict Benedict the thirteenth Charles the sixth and Boniface the eighth Philip the Faire Kings of France I say besides these and many other Forraign instances of this nature the Kingdom of England alone hath afforded us too many woful proofs of the Papal Vsurpation and falsly pretended Jurisdiction over Temporal Monarchs and their Dominions So that towards the recommending the Romish Religion and the Authority of the See of Rome to the love of my Country-men I need only put them in mind of the
thereupon arrived at more respect as well as enjoy'd more peace in their Persons and Estates than they were in possession of at any time since the Reformation Nor do I believe that there is any Protestant that would have envied them the security they enjoyed or the favour they had attained to provided they had not abused them to the destruction of His Majesties Person the supplanting of His Government and the extirpating the Religion which was Legally established But alas good and peaceable Souls such an opportunity of promoting the Catholick interest was not to be lost They might now carry on their designs for the Triple-Crown none daring to suggest any thing to bring them under a jealousie who would not be immediately aspersed as maligners of the Kings best friends And it is not to be apprehended what improvement of that little stock of credit which some of the Popish Gentry had gotten by their being on the late Kings side in the last War the Jesuits Priests and Friars made to the furtherance of the subjugating these Nations again to Rome For now were all the principles of the Papal Religion by which those that espouse it are obliged to root out Heresie and Establish the Jurisdiction of the Pope inculcated from day to day upon persons of one quality and another of the Papal Profession A second thing which gave them no less advantage for the carrying on section 5 of their designs was the division among the Protestants themselves And here two things greatly ministred to the sub-serving the design of the Papal Agents 1 The parties divided were come to a more equal ballance as to numbers on each side respectively than at any season heretofore For during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first the Dissenters from the Established way of the Church of England were but few in comparison of those who were for Episcopacy and the Rites and Ceremonies required by Law in Divine Worship So that there being then little jealousie of any danger to the Church of England from the Protestant Dissenters how zealous soever they might even in those days be for their way the watchfulness of the Dignitaries of the Church and the labours of the inferiour Clergy were chiefly exercised and laid out in reference to the Papists But those who stile themselves Non-conformists being now multiplied to that degree as that they seem to bear a much nearer proportion to the other party than heretofore they did The main care of the Over seers of the Church hath thereupon much abated towards the Papists and been exerted towards them 2 The Animosities between the Protestants thus divided into two parties were become higher and their mutual exasperations grown fiercer than heretofore For partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the retaliation they have measured to Protestant Dissenters since they had the Authority of the Law and assistance of the Government to befriend them they are wonderfully inflamed in mutual heats towards and disgust of one another Of which it is easie to imagine what manifold uses the Factors for the Roman See have made to the furthering of their own designs which tend equally to the ruine of both For as the pretence of these Divisions hath served as a plea to proselyte such who know not that the Divisions of the Church of Rome are more numerous and their feuds more irreconcileable so the subtile Ministers of the Papacy have by winding themselves into all Companies if not the mustering themselves in all parties endeavoured both to heighten the differences and to make their Animosities against each other not only hotter but more immortal And while the one party of Protestants hath been crying out of Schism and the other party of persecution the Papists have to the reproach of both been undermining that common Faith which they equally centre in and carrying on a design of destroying the one as well as the other being in their account both equally Hereticks I would be loath to believe that through the grandure which the Clergy are exalted unto the possession of in the Church of Rome that therefore our Protestant Bishops and other Dignitaries of the English Church should think them the less dangerous but this I know that those vulgarly stiled Phanaticks have judged themselves highly justified in their clamours against the Conformable Clergy in that they are so severely treated while in the mean time no difference in any fundamental Doctrine from the Church of England can be objected unto them And as the Jealousies which the differences betwixt dissenting Protestants have caused have made every overture though for the preservation of Religion in general and the safety of the Nation wherein they are both alike interested if proposed by one party to be suspected by the other so the distrust which these Divisions have caused in one Protestant towards another hath in no small measure emboldned the Papists to hope that in whatsoever they should attempt there could be no confederation among Protestants either to resist or oppose them And though I cannot say it upon my own knowledge yet I have cause to believe it from the reason of the thing as well as upon the Testimony of Mr. Dugdale that they were the more confident in their design privately to Assassinate the King as hoping when they had so done to have Fathered it upon the Phanaticks And as they might very rationably believe that would the Nation have been so possest they would have avenged it upon that party even to the extirpating of them so they assuredly knew that thereby their own design of destroying the Episcopal Protestants would have been rendred much the more facile section 6 A third thing that equally contributed with the former to the introduction of Popery into these Kingdoms was the general prophaneness which hath greatly over-spread these Nations beyond what at any time heretofore hath been observed For besides that every prophane person is truly of no Religion and therefore indifferent to seem to be of any as interest and temptation sways him so no man can care much to be of that Religion which not only condemns all the ways he is resolved upon but the more because he is of such a Religion that doth not allow them And withall there is this further whereby such men are disposed for Popery more than others viz. That it can both allow them in all the sins which they have a mind to and secure them from the fears of Eternal punishments in the practice of them For partly by making many things which Christ hath forbid and men from the power of their Lusts and the influence of their interest have a desire to commit to be no sins and partly by making such things which the Gospel stiles enormous
Entertainment that William Rufus Henry the second King John and Henry the eighth Princes of this Kingdom met with from the Universal Father For even that Prince whom I mentioned last not only lived and died himself in the Romish Faith but put to death all such as were Arraigned for being otherwise minded So that the only reason why he was Excommunicated by two Popes one after another his Kingdom interdicted his Subjects absolved from the Fealty they owed him and a disposal made of his Crown to others who were intrusted with the Exemption of the Papal Censure was nothing but his declining the Authority and Jurisdiction of the Pope and his vindicating those Rights which by our ancient Law appertained to the Imperial Crown of this Land Let Princes and People be never so zealous in all other points of the Roman Faith if they do but dispute the Universal-Jurisdiction of the Triple Crown they expose themselves to Depositions Interdicts and whatsoever else it pleases his Holiness to denounce against them It is but for a Monarch or State to thwart the Capricio and cross the humour of the Pope or disoblige the Court of Rome and they immediately run the hazard of being destroyed under the very Countenance and Allowance of those Doctrines which have the stamp of Articles of Faith The Interdict of the State of Venice by Paul the fifth the Murther of Henry the third of France and the Assassination of Henry the fourth likewise of France were some of the late Commentaries upon the foregoing Principles and Items to the world that though they did not think fit to act up to them at all times yet they reserved them in their Petto to be made use of upon occasion And it may not be altogether unworthy of our observation that the Murther of Henry the third by James Clement a Dominican was not only magnified in a solemn Oration by Sixtus the fifth which was afterwards Printed and Published at Rome but it hath been lately translated by some Romish Priest or other with the Latin in one Column and English in another and that in all likelihood to inflame some Papal Votary to the like attempt upon His Sacred Majesty section 2 So that were there no dishonour to arise to God danger to the Souls of men by the re-introduction of Popery amongst us the hazard of enslaving these Nations to a Forraign Power and of making the Crown truckle to the Papal Mitre may awaken every generous as well as Loyal Soul both to watch against and oppose all secret tendencies as well as open attempts towards a matter of so pernicious a Consequence Nor is it unworthy of our remark that besides those foregoing advantages which the Pope would have over this Nation in common with other Nations by virtue of his Monarchy over all persons and things in ordine ad spiritualia upon which alone he might as heretofore he hath done Anathematize our Kings Divest them of their Royal Power and not only Absolve their Subjects from Fidelity and Obedience but Commissionate and Impower them to make War upon their Soveraigns and both to Depose and Murder them under the encouragement of meriting Heaven by so doing I say it is not unworthy of our reflection what other latent claims besides these as he may be likely to revive of an absolute and uncontroulable Temporal Jurisdiction over these Kingdoms The King of England saith Bellarmine is subject to the Pope by a two-fold right first by reason of his Apostolick Power and secondly by right of proper Dominion For as to England he may be ready to plead if not King Henry the second his submitting his Crown to the Pope yet King John's resignation of it into the hands of the Popes Legat and receiving it again as a Feudatory to the See of Rome And for Scotland he may possibly revive that title which so long ago as Boniface the Eighth he pretended over that Kingdom namely That the Kingdom of Scotland belongs of right to the Church of Rome and that it is in the Popes power alone to give it to or take it from whom he pleases And lastly for Ireland who knoweth but that they may start as a pretence for a temporal Jurisdiction over that Nation Henry the thirds swearing homage to the Pope for it and obliging himself to pay a Tribute in recognition of the Papal right It s true these things are impertinent and ridiculous in themselves yet were Popery re-established in England and the people brought under the conduct of the Jesuites who as they labour most effectually in the perversion of the Nation so being the Janizaries of the Holy See its easie to apprehend how far they may mis-improve them towards the serving the interest of the Pope in case any difference should arise either between the King and him or any other Forraign Prince that his Holiness for secular ends shall think fit to befriend Surely it s with respect to these pretensions that Bellarmine so solemnly declareth That these Kingdoms are the Diminions of the Church and that the Pope is our natural and direct Lord and the King at best but his Vassal And it was in pursuance of this right that Gregory the thirteenth Commissioned Tho. Stukeley an English Rebel against Queen Elizabeth to conquer the Kingdom of Ireland for his Holiness's Bastard-Son James Boncompagnon And by virtue of the same pretension did Innocent the tenth during the late Wars usurp a Royal Power over that Nation and accordingly gave forth all kind of Commissions by the hands of his Nuncio And if divers principles of Popery are unfriendly to the safety of Monarchs section 3 and quiet of Kingdoms even where their Religion is Nationally received and submitted to we cannot imagine that the Peace and Security of these Nations who not only are of a different Religion but declare against them as Antichristians and Idolaters should be better provided for if occasion serve to do mischief For besides the liableness of all Protestant Princes and People to the fatal consequence of the foregoing Doctrines of the Papal Usurpation and Jurisdiction over all Nations they have others particularly and especially calculated to Authorise and Justifie their destruction and ruine Such as that we are all Hereticks and thereupon are not only de jure Excommunicated by the Lateran Councel under Innocent the third but de facto pronounced such for ever by Paul the fourth anno 1558. And as if that were not sufficient we are in de Bulla Coenae Domini read commonly on Maunday Thursday solemnly Cursed And thereupon the Papists in the several Dominions where the Protestant Religion obtains are not only discharged from all Allegiance to Princes but all Catholicks are obliged by the strictest bond of Conscience and under the penalty of the utmost hazard of their Souls to depose such Heretical Princes They are so far from being guilty of murder saith Vrban the third that kill any who are Excommunicate that