admitted in the King 's English Church and Congregations as whereby good Christian People ordering themselves accordingly do receive both Godly and goodly consolations and benefits and it is agreeable also to God's Law. 6. That Auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God. He that by word of Mouth Writing Printing Cyphering or in any otherwise doth Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or hold any Opinion contrary to the first Article is by that Act of 31 H. 8. ca. 14. Declared a Heretick to suffer Death by burning and to forfeit his Estate as in case of High Treason The publick Preaching and affirming in a Court of Justice any thing contrary to the other five Articles and Marrying after a vow of Chastity is declared Felony without Benefit of Clergy and to forfeit as in cases of Felony And if any Person by Words Writing Printing Cyphering or otherwise publish declare or hold Opinion contrary to the said five Articles he forfeits his Goods and Chattels for ever the Profits of his Lands Tenements and other his real Estate during his life his Spiritual Promotion shall be utterly void and his body imprisoned at the King's Pleasure for the first offence and for the second offence to be adjudg'd a Felon and suffer and forfeit as a Felon without Benefit of Clergy By which Act it plainly appears that the denying of Transubstantiation was by this Law made High Treason The publishing or holding the necessity of Receiving in both kinds the lawfulness of Priests Marrying the unlawfulness of vowing Chastity of private Masses and Auricular Confession was no less than Felony or at least a Premunire So that in a word to be a Protestant was to be a Traytor a Felon or subject to a Premunire And could they have found any punishment inflicted by our Laws that is worse they would no doubt have made the Protestants subject to it and that not as Offenders against the Polity of the Civil State but purely upon the Account of their Religion And therefore the next thing that is done by these destroyers of Souls as well as Bodies is to take away all means of Knowledge as well as to inhibit the Promulgation thereof upon such severe Penalties and for that purpose was the Act of 34 H. 8. ca. 1. made Whereby 34 H. 8. ca. 1. Rast Stat. p. 782. The means of Knowledge in Religion taken away by this Act from the Protestants All Books of the Old and New Testament in English being of Tindal's Translation or Comprising any matter of Christian Religion Articles of the Faith or holy Scripture contrary to the Doctrine aforesaid i. e. the Doctrine of Popery and set forth after the year 1540 or then to be set forth by the King were utterly abolished no Printer or Bookseller was to utter any of the aforesaid Books no person was to play in enterlude sing or rhyme contrary to the said Doctrine no person was to retain any English Books or Writings concerning matter against the Holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Altar i. e. the Mass or other Books abolished by the King's Proclamation there was to be no annotations or preambles in Bibles or New Testaments in English The Bible was not to be read in English in any Church no Women or Artificers Prentices Iourneymen Servingmen of the degrees of Yeomen or under Husbandmen nor Labourers should read the new Testament in English Nothing was to be taught or maintained contrary to the King's Instructions which were for the suppressing Heresie or Protestantism and if any Spiritual person should preach teach or maintain any thing contrary to the King's Instructions or Determinations made or to be made and should be thereof Convict he should for his first Offence recant for the second abjure and bear a Fagot and for his third should be adjudged an Heretick and be burnt and lose all his Goods and Chattels And whoever will take the pains to read over 1 Dr. Burnet the History of the Reformation together with 2 Fox the Book of Martyrs of which Book Dr. Burnet in his Preface to the first part of his History of the Reformation saith that he having compared his Acts and Monuments with the Records had never been able to discover any Errors or Prevarications in them but the utmost fidelity and exactness will find so many instances of putting all these bloody Laws before mentioned in Execution as I perswade my self that there are some Papists would e'en blush at and be throughly ashamed of and if they have any thing of Humanity in them must utterly abhor But before I can carry on the account of the rest of the Penal Laws made by the Papists against the Protestants the Reformation in King Edward the 6 th's time of Glorious Memory intervening I shall shew how the Reformers used the Papists in his Reign CHAP. V. Ed. VI. IT may be expected that I should say something of Henry the 8 th's Reformation But as to what was done in Henry the 8 th's time I shall not trouble the Reader with any thing because the Reverend and Learned Doctor Burnet is so far from giving him the Character of good that he concludes his first part of the History of the Reformation Hist of the Reformation vol. 1. p. 362. with this speaking of Henry the 8 th I do not deny that he is to be numbred among the ill Princes yet I can't rank him with the worst Which Character certainly the preceeding account of the Laws made in his time against the Protestants does evidence to be very favourable to him I shall therefore begin with the Laws made in the Reign of King Edward the 6 th and the manner of introducing them King Edward the 6 th coming to the Crown young and Cranmer and others designing throughly to reform the Church of England from the Errors and Corruptions that were crept into Her during the time she was under the Popish Tyranny The first step that was set in order to it was the visiting the Clergy quite over England and compiling some wholesome Homilies Mild Methods us'd by King Ed. the 6th before any Laws made to supply the defect of Sermons by reason of the ignorance of the then Clergy and to prevent unnecessary Disputes in the Pulpits Their Articles and Injunctions for the Visitation were to be observed under the pains of Excommunication Sequestration or Deprivation not upon the Penalty of being burnt as a Heretick or forfeiture either of Lands in fee simple or Goods or Chattels or either or any of them This was done before the Parliament was called November the 4 th 1547. The Parliament met and the first Act of Parliament that was made was an Act against such as should unreverently speak against the Sacrament of the Altar and of the receiving thereof under both kinds which Act of Parliament in the Preamble takes notice That the King
in one Week viz. in May 1606 who though he won his Wager yet was a Looser never getting his Winnings Piercy Wright c. who now lurked about London to expect the fatal Blow informed of the Discovery takes Horse making what haste they can to their Companions appointed to be at the Rendezvous on Dunsmore in brief according to their Abilities they run into open Rebellion but to their own Destruction The high Sheriffs with other Magistrates and Loyal Subjects so hunting them that they were either all dispersed slain or taken and the Chief of them afterwards condemned and executed Proceedings against Garnet and his Confederates printed by Robert Barker Printeâ— to the Kings most excellent Majesty 1606. to prevent untrue and incoherent Reports and Relations of their Tryals as the Epistle to the Book informs us And for the Confirmation of the Truth of these things I shall here insert the Heads of Sir Edward Coke's Speech at the Tryal of Robert Winter and divers others for their Treason in Westminster-Hall before the Earl of Nottingham the Earl of Suffolk the Earl of Worcester the Earl of Devonshire the Earl of Northampton the Earl of Salisbury the Lord Chief Justice of England the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Sir Peter Warburton Knight one of the Justices of the Court of Common-Pleas Lords Commissioners for that purpose On the 27 th of January 1605. were arraigned upon one Indictment Robert Winter Esq Thomas Winter Gent. Guy Fawks Gent. John Garnet Esq Ambrose Rookwood Esq Robert Keys Gent. and Thomas Bates upon another Indictment Sir Everard Digby At the Tryal of Winter and the rest upon the first Indictment * The Heads of the Speech of Sir Edward Coke at the Tryal of some of the Conspirators Sir Edward Coke than Attorney General made a very long and learned Speech wherein he first answered the Clamor that the Papists and their Adherents had then made because they were not sooner tryed Then he opened the Hainousness of the Crime in all the Aggravating Circumstances of it He said that as the Powder-Treason was of its self prodigious and unnatural so was it in its Conception and Birth most monstrous as arising out of the dead Ashes of former Treasons and then takes notice of very many if not all the Treasons before mentioned I think in this Speech and the Speech he made at Garnets Tryal all I am sure the most are taken in He then considered the Powder-Plot it self with regard to the Persons by whom the same was conspired And they were Clergy and Laity of the Roman Communion The Laity Gentlemen of good Houses of excellent Parts however most perniciously seduced abused corrupted and Jesuited of very competent Fortunes and Estates It being then said that there was never a Religious Man in the Action saith he in answer I never yet knew a Treason without a Romish Priest and names as ingaged in this Henry Garnet alias Wally the Superior of the Jesuits Legier here in England Father Creswel Legier Jesuit in Spain Father Baldwin Legier in Flanders as Parsons at Rome besides their Cursory Men as Gerrard Oswald Tesmond alias Greenway Hamond and Hall then he opened the Doctrines and Practices of the Jesuits and other Priests of the Romish Church which he proves from Simanca Creswels Philopater and other Books Then he considered the Persons against whom this Treason was conspired the King the Queen the Royal Issue Male the most honourable and prudent Councellors and all the true hearted and worthy Nobles all the Reverend and Learned Bishops all the Grave Judges and Sages of the Law all the principal Knights Citizens and Burgeesss of Parliament the Flower of the whole Realm Then he considered that this was designed notwithstanding the King had used so great Lenity toward the Papists that by the space of a whole Year and four Months he took no Penalties of them due upon the Statutes and besides this divers of the Papists were greatly preferred Then he considered the House of Parliament which they pretended they chose because there the Penal Laws were made against them which he answered by briefly showing what Laws were made against them and that their own Treasons were the true Grounds of making them Then he considered the End of this Conspiracy which was to bring a final and fatal Confusion upon the State and this is to be effected by damnable Means by mineing by thirty six Barrels of Powder having Crows of Iron Stone and Wood laid upon the Barrels to have made the Breach the greater Then he considered the Secresie of the Contrivance and Carriage of this Treason in three Respects the first that Catesby had Recommendation for a Regiment of Horse in the Low-Countries that under that Pretence he might furnish this Treason with Horse without Suspicion The Second was the Oath before mentioned The Third the Sacrament He then took notice of the admirable Discovery of this Treason and proceeded to make nine several Observations upon the whole which were these First The Mine had never been discovered had not the Cellar been hired 2. The Kings Directing the Search to be made there from those dark Words A Terrible Blow 3. Catesby Rookwood and Grants their narrow Escapes having a few Days before they were taken been in very great Danger of being blown up by Gun-powder 4. Gun-powder was the Invention of a Fryar 5. Binham was sent to the Pope to give notice of this Blow and to crave his Direction and Aid 6. Notwithstanding their rising in open Rebellion and giving out that the Catholics Throats would be cut not one Man came in to take their Parts but their own Company 7. The Sheriff immediately supprest them 8. The Discovery was made a few hours before it was to have been put in Execution 9. That there never was any Protestant Minister in any Treason and Murther that had been then attempted within the Realm Then he compared this Plot with that of Raleigh and Watson and Clark. 1. They had both one end 2. Both to be effected by Popish and discontented Persons Priests and Laymen 3. They all played at Hazzard the Priests were at the By Raleigh at the Main but these in at all purposing to destroy King Issue whole State. 4. All obliged by the same Oath and Sacrament 5. The same Proclamation after the Fact for Reformation of Abuses 6. The like Army provided for Invading 7. The same Pension of Crows promised 8. The Agreeing of the Times which was when the Constable of Spain was coming hither which was intended a Colour to the Invasion that it might not be suspected After Sir Edward Coke had ended his Speech The Evidence against the Traitors the Examinations of Winter and the rest subscribed by themselves were shown particularly to every one of them and acknowledged by them to be their own and true and in their Examinations every one had confest the Treason which Confessions were afterwards openly and distinctly read by
but confidently appealed to Time and Success to prove who took their Measures rightest When it happened what I foresaw came to pass the good Father was a little surprised to see all the great Men mistaken and a little one in the Right and was pleased by Sir William Throckmorton to desire the Continuance of my Correspondence which I was mighty willing to comply with knowing the Interest of our King and in a more particular manner of my more immediate Master the * * James the Second Duke and his most Christian Majesty to be so inseparably united that it was impossible to divide them without destroying them all Upon this I shewed that our Parliament in the Circumstances it was managed by the timerous Councels of our Ministers who then governed would never be useful either to England France or Catholic Religion but that we should as certainly be forced from our Neutrality at their next Meeting as we had been from our active Alliance with France the last Year That a Peace in the Circumstances we were in was much more to be desired than the Continuance of the War and that the Dissolution of our Parliament would certainly procure a Peace For that the Confederates did more depend upon the Power they had in our Parliament than upon any thing else in the World And were more encouraged from them to the continuing of the War So that if they were Dissolved their measures would be all broken and they consequently in a manner necessitated to a Peace The good Father minding this Discourse somewhat more then the Court of France thought fit to do my former urg'd it so home to the King that his Majesty was pleased to give him Orders to signifie to his R. H. my Master that his Majesty was fully satisfied of his R. H's good intention towards him that he esteemed both their Interests but as one and the same That my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were both to be lookt upon as very unuseful to their Interest That if his R. H. would endeavour to dissolve this Parliament his most Christian Majesty would assist him with his Power and Purse to have a new one as should be for their purpose This and a great many more Expressions of kindness and confidence Father Ferryer was pleased to Communicate to Sir William Throckmorton and commanded them to send them to His Royal Hhighness and withal to beg his Royal Highness to propose to his most Christian Majesty what he thought necessary for his own Concern and the advantage of Religon and his Majesty would certainly do all he could to advance both or either of them This Sir William Throckmorton sent to me by an Express who left Paris the Second of June 1674. Stilo novo I no sooner had it but I Communicated it to his R. H. To which his R. H. commanded me to Answer as I did on the twenty ninth of the same Month That his R. H. was very sensible of his most Christian Majesties Friendship and that he would Labour to cultivate it with all the good Offices he was capable of doing for His Majesty That he was fully convinced that their Interests were both one That my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not only unuseful but very dangerous both to England and France That therefore it was necessary that they should do all they could to dissolve it And that his R. H's opinion was that if his most Christian Majesty would write his thoughts freely to the King of England upon this Subject and make the same proffer to his Majesty of his Purse to dissolve this Parliament which he had made to his R. H. to Call another he did believe it very possible for him to succeed with the Assistance we should be able to give him here And that if this Parliament were dissolved there would be no great difficulty of getting a new one which would be more useful The Constitutions of our Parliaments being such that a new one can never hurt the Crown nor an old one do it good His R. H. being pleased to own these Propositions which were but only General I thought it reasonable to be more particular and come closer to the Point we might go the faster about the work and come to some issue before the time was too far spent I laid this for my Maxim The dissolving of our Parliament will certainly procure a Peace Which Proposition was granted by every Body I conversed withal even by Monsieur Rouvigny himself with whom I took Liberty of conversing so far but durst not say any thing of the Intelligence I had with Father Ferryer Next that a Sum of Money certain would certainly procure a Dissolution this some doubted but I am sure I never did For I knew perfectly well that the King had frequent Disputes with himself at that time whether he should dissolve or continue them And he several times declared that the Arguments were so strong on both sides that he could not tell to which to incline but was carried at last to the continuance of them by this one Argument if I try them once more they may possibly give me Money if they do I have gained my Point If they do not I can dissolve them then and be where I am now So that I have a possibility at least of getting Money for their continuance against nothing on the other side But if we could have turn'd this Argument and said Sir their Dissolution will certainly procure you Money when you have only a bare possibility of getting any by their continuance and have shewn how far that bare possibility was from being a Foundation to build any reasonable hope upon which I am sure His Majesty was sensible of And how much 300000 Pounds Sterling certain which was the Sum we propos'd was better than a bare possibility without any reason to hope that that could ever be Compassed of having half so much more which was the most he design'd to ask upon some vile dishonourable Terms and a thousand other hazards which he had great reason to be afraid of if I say we had had Power to have argued this I am most Confidently assured we could have Compassed it for Logick in our Court built upon Money has more powerful Charms than any other sort of reasoning But to secure his most Christian Majesty from any hazard as to that Point I propos'd His Majesty should offer that Sum upon that Condition and if the Condition were not perform'd the Money should never be due If it were and that a Peace would certainly follow thereupon which no Body doubted His Majesty would gain his Ends and save all the vast Expences of the next Campaign by which he could not hope to better his Condition or put himself into more advantagious Circumstances of Treaty then he was then in But might very probably be in a much worse considering the mighty opposition he was like to meet with and the uncertain Chances of
the effects of it to this very hour But nothing being done in it and seeing on the other hand that my Lord Arlington and several others endeavoured by a thousand deceits to break the good Intelligence which is between the King my Brother his most Christian Majesty and my self to the end they might deceive us all three I have thought fit to advertise you of all that is past and desire of you your assistance and friendship to prevent the Rogueries of those who have no other design then to betray the concerns of France and England and who by their pretended Service are the occasion they succeed not As to any thing more I refer you to Sir William Throgmorton and Coleman whom I have commanded to give an Account of the whole State of our affair and of the true condition of England with many others and principally my Lord Arlington's endeavours to represent to you quite otherwise then it is The two first I mentioned to you are firm to my interest so that you may Treat with them without any apprehension Coleman's Third Letter SIR I Sent your Reverence a tedious long Letter on our 29 th of September Coleman's Tryal p. 68. to inform you of the Progress of affairs for these two or three last years I having now again the opportunity of a very sure hand to conveigh this by I have sent you a Cipher because our Parliament now drawing on I may possibly have occasion to send you something which you may be willing enough to know and may be necessary for us that you should when we may want the conveniency of a Messenger When any thing occurs of more concern other than which may not be fit to be trusted even to a Cipher alone I will to make such a thing more secure write in Limon between the lines of a Letter which shall have nothing in it visible but what I care not who sees but dryed by a warm Fire shall discover what is written so that if the Letter comes to your hands and upon drying it any thing appears more then did before you may be sure no Body has seen it by the way I will not trouble you with that way of writing but upon special occasions and then I will give you a hint to direct you to look for it by concluding my visible Letter with something of Fire or Burning by which mark you may please to know that there is something underneath and how my Letter is to be used to find it out We have hear a mighty Work upon our Hands no less then the Conversion of three Kingdoms and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a Pestileat Heresie which has domineered over great part of this Nothern World a long time there were never such hopes of success since the Death of our Queen Mary as now in our days when God has given us a Prince who is become may I say a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work but the opposition we are sure to meet with is also alike to be great So that it imports us to get all the Aid and Assistance we can for the Harvest is great and the Labourers but few that which we rely upon most next to God Almighty's providence and the favour of my Master the Duke is the mighty mind of his most Christian Majesty whose generous Soul inclines him to great undertakings which being managed by your Reverence's exemplary Piety and Prudence will certainly make him look upon this as most suitable to himself and best becoming his Power and thoughts so that I hope you will pardon me if I be very troublesome to you upon this occasion from whom I expect the greatest help we can hope for I must confess I think his Christian Majesties Temporal Interest is so much attracted to that of his R. H. which can never be considerable but upon the growth and advancement of the Catholic Religion that his Ministers cannot give him better advice even in a Politic Sence abstracting from the considerations of the next World that of our Blessed Lord to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof that all other things may be added unto him That I know his most Christian Majesty has more powerful motives suggested to him by his own devotion and your Reverences zeal for Gods Glory to engage him to afford us the best help he can in our present circumstances but we are a little unhappy in this that we cannot press his Majesty by his present Minister here upon these latter Arguments which are most strong but only upon the first Mr. Rouvigny's sence and ours differing very much upon them though we agree perfectly upon the rest And indeed though he be a very able Man as to his Masters Service in things where Religion is not concerned yet I believe it were much more happy considering the posture he is now in and his temper were of such a sort that we might deal clearly with him throughout and not be forced to stop short in a discourse of Consequence and leave the most material part out because we know it will shock his particular Opinion and so perhaps meet with dislike and Opposition though never so necessary to the main concern I am afraid we shall find too much reason for this Complaint in this next Session of Parliament for had we had one here from his most Christian Majesty who had taken the whole business to Heart and who would have represented the State of our Case truly as it is to his Master I do not doubt but his most Christian Majesty would have engaged himself further in the affair then at present I fear he has done and by his approbation have given such Councels as have been offered to his R. H. by those few Catholics who have access to him and who are bent to serve him and advance the Catholic Religion with all their might and might have more Credit with his R. H. then I fear they have found and have assisted them also with his Purse as far as 10000. Crowns or some such Sum which to him is very inconsiderable but would have been to them of greater use than can be imagined towards gaining others to help them or at least not to oppose them If we had been so happy as to have had his most Christian Majesty with us to this Degree I would have answered with my Life for such success this Sessions as would have put the Interest of the Catholic Religion his R. H. and his most Christian Majesty out of all Danger for the time to come But wanting those helps of recommending those necessary Councels which have been given his Royal Highness in such manner as to make him think them worth his accepting and fit to Govern himself by and of those advantages which a little Mony well managed would have gained us I am afraid we shall not be much better at the end of this