Graces dispatch with the enclosed from His Majesty by my Secretary Oveart and shall give due account with all possible speed of the same according to His Majesties and your Graces Commands praying heartily that my endeavours which shall be most faithful may also prove effectual to His Majesties and your Grace's content with which I do most humbly take leave being always Hague Sept. 24. 1640 S. Angelo Your Graces most dutiful and humblest Servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement Received Sept. 30. 1640. Sir William Boswell his acknowledgement that he hath received the King's Directions in my Letters Sir William Boswell ' s third Letter to the Arch-Bishop sent with the larger Discovery of the PLOT May it please your Grace UPon receipt of His Majesties Commands with your Grace's Letters of 9 and 18 Sept. last I dealt with the party to make good his Offers formerly put in mine hand and transmitted to your Grace This he hopes to have done by the inclosed so far as will be needful for His Majesties satisfaction yet if any more particular explanation or discovery shall be required by His Majesty or your Grace He hath promised to add thereunto whatsoever he can remember and knows of truth And for better assurance and verification of his integrity he professeth himself ready if required to make Oath of what he hath already declared or shall hereafter declare in the business His name he conjures me still to conceale though he thinks His Majesty and your Grace by the Character he gives of himself will easily imagin who he is having been known so generally through Court and City as he was for three or four years in the quality and imployment he acknowlegeth by his Declaration inclosed himself to have held Hereupon he doth also redouble his most humble and earnest Suit unto His Majesty and your Grace to be most secret and circumspect in the business that he may not be suspected to have discovered or had a hand in the same I shall here humbly beseech your Grace to let me know what I may further do for His Majesties service or for your Graces particular behoof that I may accordingly endeavour to approve my self As I am Hague Octob. 15. 1640. Your Grace's most dutiful and obliged Servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsment Received Octob. 14. 1640. Sir William Boswell in prosecution of the great business If any thing come to him in Cyphers to send it to him The large particular Discovery of the PLOT and Treason against the King Kingdom and Protestant Religion and to raise the Scotish Wars written in Latin Most Illusirious and Revcrend Lord WE have willingly and cordially perceived that our offers have been acceptable both to his Royal Majesty and likewise to your Grace This is the only Index to us That the blessing of God is present with you whereby a spur is given that we should so much the more chearfully and freely utter and detest those things whereby the hazard of both your lives the subversion of the Realm and State both of England and Scotland the tumbling down of his Excellent Majesty from his Throne is intended Now lest the discourse should be enlarged with superfluous circumstances we will only premise some things which are meerly necessary to the business You may first of all know that this good man by whom the ensuing things are detected was born and bred in the Popish Religion who spent many years in Ecclesiastical dignities At length being found fit for the expedition of the present Design by the counsel and mandate of the Lord Cardinal Barbarini he was adjoyned to the assistance of Master Cuneus Con by whom he was found so diligent and sedulous in his Office that hope of great promotion was given to him Yet he led by the instinct of the good Spirit hath howsoever it be contemned sweet promises and having known the vanities of the Pontifician Religion of which he had sometime been a most severe defender having likewise noted the malice of those who fight under the Popish banner felt his Conscience to be burdened which burden that he might ease himself of he converted his mind to the Orthodox Religion Soon after that he might exonerate his Conscience he thought fit that a desperate Treason machinated against so many souls was to be revealed and that he should receive ease if he vented such things in the bosom of a friend which done he was seriously admonished by the said friend that he should shew an example of his conversion and charity and free so many innocent souls from imminent danger To whose monitions he willingly consented and delivered the following things to be put in writing out of which the Articles not long since tendered to your Grace may be clearly explicated and demonstrated 1. First of all that the hinge of the business may be rightly discerned it is to be known that all those factions with which Christendom is at this day shaken do arise from the Jesuitical Off-spring of Cham of which four Orders abound throughout the World Of the first Order are Ecclesiasticks whose Office it is to take care of things promoting Religion Of the second Order are Politicians whose Office it is by any means to shake trouble and reform the state of Kingdoms and Republicks Of the third Order are Seculars whose property it is to obtrude themselves into Offices with Kings and Princes to insinuate and immix themselves in Court businesses bargains and sales and to be busied in civil affairs Of the fourth Order are Intelligencers or Spies men of inseriour condition who submit themselves to the services of great men Princes Barons Noble-men Citizens to deceive or corrupt the minds of their masters 2. A Society of so many Orders the Kingdom of England nourisheth for scarce all Spain France and Italy can yield so great a multitude of Jesuits as London alone where are found more than 50 Scotish Jesuits There the said society hath elected to it self a Seat of iniquity and hath conspired against the King and the most faithful to the King especially the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and likewise against both Kingdoms 3. For it is more certain than certainty it self that the forenamed society hath determined to effect an universal reformation of the Kingdom of England and Scotland Therefore the determination of the end necessarily infers a determination of means to the end 4. Therefore to promote the undertaken Villany the said society dubbed it self with the Title of The Congregation of propagating the Faith which acknowlegeth the Pope of Rome the Head of the College and Cardinal Barbarini his substitute and Executor 5. The chief Patron of the society at London is the Popes Legat who takes care of the business into whose bosom these dregs of Traytors weekly deposite all their Intelligences Now the residence of this Legation was obtained at London in the name of the Roman Pontiff by whose mediation it might be lawful for Cardinal Barbarini to work
Prince of Orange spilt by the trayterous Hand of Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian and Disciple of their own The same Attempts did Peter de Tour and other Ruffians make upon the person of Maurice his Son a brave and Martial Prince and all at the Instigation of the Jesuits those Insatiable Sons of BLOOD and PERDITION A VINDICATION OF THE Dissenting Protestants From being Authors of the REBELLION against the late KING and Plotters of Treason against His MAJESTY now Reigning SEeing then no Corner of Europe has been free from the Plots and Conspiracies of these Jesuitical Fiends it would be a kind of Crime and sleepy Desertion of our own Safety to suffer our selves to be charm'd by the Delusions of insinuating Libels and Rumors of Presbyterian Plots to mistrust the Truth of the continu'd Jesuitical Contrivances against the Kingdom Neither can they be thought the best Subjects of England who are so willing to Gratifie the Popish Party by giving Credence to such idle Surmizes which they can have so little ground to believe The Jesuits have committed a great piece of Villany in this Nation they have attempted the Life of the King and have been Plotting to subvert the Established Religion of the Kingdom and now they would throw it upon the Presbyterians Which is a Fourbery so plain that common Sense and Policy may easily discover the full intent and meaning of it And therefore it is fairly to be hop'd that neither Presbyterians nor any other Protestant Dissenters will be so Unchristian-like Disloyal as to receive any Exasperation from these Calumnies but rather unite against the Common Enemy from whom they can expect no more Mercy than the severest Champion of Episcopacy can hope for But you will say the Presbyterians are not accus'd of any Design to bring in Popery but miraculously discover'd as the Authors of a Plot to set up the Classes of their own Ecclesiastical Government Well! if it were so they were the arrantest Bunglers of Plotters that ever plotted Mischief in this World For I do not find their Plot to be above a years standing And it was a Plot that was driven on out of pure Kindness to the Papists For the Presbyterians understanding that the Papists their Incarnate Enemies were under a Premunire as being accused of Treason and Conspiracy against the KING and Kingdom They therefore would needs enter into a Plot which they would so order as to be discover'd a Twelve-month after to ease the Papists of the Load they groan'd under So that as considering the time it fell out most confoundedly unluckily that the Presbyteriaus should conceal this Plot from the Papists till so many good honest pious and loyal Priests of Baal and Sons of Belial were hang'd which would never have been done had there been the least Inkling given of the Meal-Tub in season But when the Names of the Persons came to be seen that were to be Actors in this Presbyterian Tragedy then to the Laughter of the whole World there never appear'd such a Dow-bak'd Plot out of a Meal-Tub since the Creation to bring so many Great Men plotting against their own prosperity and enjoyments so many wise and politic States-men by whom the Nation has been so long steer'd to be Plotters and Conspirers against their own Preservation These are Plots of such a strange Nature that if they could be thought reall they would occasion the unhinging of the whole Frame of Order and Government while it were impossible for Honour Probity and Reputation to remain upon the Earth Obedience and Allegiance to Government are grounded either upon Religion or Moral Vertue or if these two fail there is a necessity which obliges the ordinary fore-sight of Prudence Against these Ambition or Revenge are the only Combatants but neither Ambition nor Revenge can bear so great a sway in persons that understand the Intrigues of Policy or the more mysterious management of Prudence as to delude them into Plots and Conspiracies where there is no prospect of a secure Change The Presbyterians are a sort of people wary and deliberate Neither are their Tenents which had their rise and beginnings from men whom the Papists themselves confess to have been men of great Learning Eloquence and Exemplary Lives of that Crimson Constitution as to prompt them to lay the Foundations of their Hierarchy in Blood and Massacre or so deeply to wound the Reputation of the Protestant Religion by the clandestine Treachery and secret Contrivances of Disloyalty For as for that Design of the Huguenots under Francis the Second King of France of which the Prince of Conde and the Admiral Coligni were said to be Chief that was no Design against the Life or Person of the King but against the exorbitant Pride of the Guises Duke and Cardinal who were at the same time P apists and were themselves contriving to take away the Life of the young King and translate the Royal Dignity into their own Family Neither could the Civil Wars of France be said to be the Rebellion of the Hugonets But a War of the Queen Regents and the two Guises own weaving while they all strove to preserve their own Authority And the Queen Regent her self was the first that caus'd the Prince of Conde to take Arms as fearing the Guises would wrest the Government out of her hands by recommending to his Protection the young King Charles the Ninth her Son her Self and the Kingdom Nay they were so far from being Rebels to their King that they joyn'd with the Catholiques for the Recovery of Haure out of the hands of Queen Elizabeth who had been their Friend And though the Admiral and Dandelot were not at the Siege for fear of being taxed by the Queen of Ingratitude yet they sent both their Forces and Friends Some indeed justly deserved to be blamed for the violence of their Conduct in the late Wars but it is a Question of which some make no doubt whether those Violences were not occasion'd by the Papists in Masquerade who well knew how to intermix themselves both in their Counsels and Actions whether they did not stand behind the Scene and prompt those Sons of Jehu Whether they did not pour Oyl upon those Flames For it appears that the Presbyterians if Names of distinction may be us'd among people of the same Religion were the first that relented as is evident by Votes of Addresses and their Treaty at the Isle of Wight not broke off by them but by One that was playing his own Game and meditating the destruction both of his Sovereign and them too Who having made his Exit they then considered what ill Phaetons they had been before and return'd the more skilful Phoebus the Reins of his Chariot again But that you may know that 't is an old Dog-trick of the Papists to play the Devils Incarnate and lay their most wicked Actions upon the Innocent I will repeat this short Story out of one of the choicest French Historians and a Catholique
to boot The Queen Regent of France having long design'd the Destruction of the Protestants in France and of all the chief Heads of the reformed Religion and among the rest of Admiral Coligni the Life and Soul of the whole Party projects the Execution with the Affistance of the Duke of Anjou the Counts of Tavanes and Raix and the Chancellor Birague and easily drew in the young King whom they made believe that there was no safety so long as those persons were alive and they young Guises were as ready as she to revenge their Fathers Death As for the King of Navar they had so order'd it that he was to be marry'd at Paris at that time and that brought the Prince of Conde to the City But the Admiral more wary kept aloof till the King had begun the War with Spain in the Low Countries which the Admiral had so passionately desir'd and of which the King and Queen Regent had assur'd him the Management Then he came an end seeing the War begun and two of his own Favourites Noue and Genlis at the Head of some thousands in Flanders And these three Great Personages the King of Navarr the Prince of Conde and the Admiral Coligni brought such Trains after them as throng'd all Paris with the Flower of all the Protestant Nobility and Gentry of France Who being all thus within the Net Orders were given to make a general Slaughter of all without distinction excepting the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde Hence proceeded that Horrible Massacre in the Year 1572. which lasted for seven Days together to the destruction of above 5000 persons of all Ages and Sexes and among these above 600 Persons of Quality After this Deluge of Blood and that the Queen had sent the Head of Coligny Embalm'd as a Present to the Pope the Queen Regent had contriv'd to lay the Load of all the committed Impiety upon the Guises who were Captains of the Massacre believing that the Monmor ancies would certainly seek to revenge the Admirals Death upon them So that while those two Factions ruin'd and destroy'd one another she might have all the Power in her own hands and rule according to her own Will But the Guises being aware of this Design and having the Catholique Nobility the Duke of Montpensier and the Parisians on their side caus'd the Queen to change her Note and thereupon she caus'd the King to write abroad That all was done to prevent the detestable Conspiracy of the Admiral and his Confederates againsh his Life and Royal Family Thereupon there was a Court of Justice erected wherein the Admiral was Condemn'd and after they had murder'd him Executed again in Effigies his Goods Confisctated and his Children degraded And the better to colour this two poor innocent Gentlemen that had escaped the Massacre were apprehended for saving their Lives Briquemaut and Arnand de Covagnes as his Accomplices condemn'd to the same punishment and executed accordingly Thus what these did our late Plotters would have done We may then say to all Protestants in general Felices Agricole sua si bona norint Happy would they be would they but know their own strength Would they but make the right use of these wicked Contrivances of their Enemies and laying aside all froward Puuctilio's of private Opinions joyn unanimously against the common Adversary For if it be a Maxim falsly argu'd against that Peace and Diversity of Religions cannot be preserved in the same Nation as the Ambassadors of the Germane Princes urg'd to Charles the Ninth of France much more truly may it be said that little matters of difference between persons of the same Religion can be no impediment to their Union and Conformity But further to clear the Dissenting Protestants I shall here add a perfect Narration of the Management and Contrivance of the Jesuits to render the greater part of the principal Men in this Kingdom as well those of the Church of England as the Dissenters obnoxious to the Government thereby utterly to ruin them and the Protestant Religion which Design God of his infinite Goodness has been pleased to bring to Confusion and the Instruments thereof through the same Divine Providence we hope shortly to see brought to Condign Punishment A Compleat HITSTORY OF THE LAST PLOT OF THE PAPISTS UPON THE Dissenting Protestants THe late PLOT of the Romish Priests and Jesuits for murdering His Majesty subverting the Government and Protestant Religion and introducing Popery being proved by undeniable Evidences and Circumstances the cunning Jesuits thought it their best way since peoples Eyes were too open to be made believe there was no PLOT to confess there was a Plot and to aggravate it too but withal to use their utmost skill to prove That this Plot was not a Popish-Plot as was generally believed but a pure Design of the Presbyterians and other Dissenters from the Protestant Church of England to ruin the Loyal Roman Chatholiques whilst indeed themselves were the Conspirators who whereas they gave out that the Papists intended by murdering the King c. to bring in Popery really intended by killing His Majesty to Introduce Presbytery and a Commonwealth and so at one Blow subvert the Government both in Church and State and then to set up a new one of their own under the Name of Conservators of the Liberties of England And for this purpose they had secretly given out Commissions for raising an Army the principal Officers whereof were such Persons who seemed to have the greatest share in the Peoples Affections This Design being agreed to by these Hellish Miscreants all possible Diligence was used to bring it to Execution and for this purpose they drew up the Scheme of a Government they intended to Impeach several of the truly Loyal Nobility and Gentry and the whole Body of Dissenting Protestants of conspiring This being done they began to form Letters of Intelligence concerning this Presbyterian Plot and also to provide themselves with Persons to Swear for the Truth of their Allegations To this end Mrs. Cellier a zealous Papist and Midwife to the Lady Powis and other Roman Catholic Ladies procures the Enlargement of one Willonghby aliàs Dangerfield aliàs Thomas aliàs Day who had been a Prisoner in Newgate about six Weeks and had been Convicted once at Salisbury Assizes where he was fined Five pounds and sentenced to stand Three several times in the Pillory which he did twice and then brake Prison and escaped and twice at the Old Bailey for uttering false Guineys where for the first Offence he was fined Fifty pounds and for the second he got His Majesties Pardon He was no sooner released from Newgate but he was Arrested and thrown into the Counter from whence by the means of Bannister and Scarlet she got him removed to the King's-Bench where after some fruitless attempts to get some Papers relating to Captain Bedlow from one Strode a Prisoner there he was furnished with Money by the five Lords in the Tower