the Sequel acknowledge that when he lost his Ears they might in Law and Iustice have taken away his life In the mean while what a Vexation must it be to a Good and Wise King that when he had call'd a Parliament to Assist him according to the National Constitution in a War undertaken by their inducement they diverted themselves in debating such School Points as belong'd properly to our Universities Exercise as afterwards they fell upon some Innocent Ceremonies which had been all along practis'd in the Catholick Church and enjoyn'd by ours ever since the Reformation Dangerous Innovations these Was ever so great a Cry made about so little Wooll CHAP. VII No Design of Introducing Popery THE Growth of Popery and Countenance shown to Papists was another pestilent Allegation and did never the less Mischief tho' false and groundless for First it is not true that the little Favour now shown them was solely upon account of the Matches in Treaty with Spain and France nor Secondly had it been Unusual with Q. Elizabeth to discharge Priests after some short time of Confinement For those violent Bigots were as numerous and busy in her Reign Compass'd Sea and Land to gain Proselytes and prevail'd upon too many weak and unstable Minds to become so However 't was a known Maxim of hers That no Man's Conscience should be forc'd or punished unless it did overflow into Overt and express Acts and become matter of Faction in which Causes the Sovereign Prince ought to punish the Practice though coloured with the pretence of Conscience and Religion A larger account whereof may be seen in that Eminent Letter of Secretary Walsingham to Monsieur Critoy and what distinction there was ever made between such as were Papists in Conscience and those in Faction and Singularity who set their Wits continually a-work to disturb the Publick Peace and undermine the Government Besides there was at this time and had been several years before most violent Oppositions and Quarrels between the Regulars and Seculars here in England more especially the Iesuits whom the foremention'd Secretary calls Seditious Priests of a New Erection whereas many of the former had taken the Oath of Allegiance and some written to Iustify it desiring only to live according to the Rites of the Roman Church without any regard to the Court that so magnify'd Idol of the Popes Universal Supremacy and All-disposing Usurpation Now by fomenting these Differences and shewing some kindness to the more Moderate Party Archbishop Bancroft more especially however branded by the Faction for a Papist and some other Ministers of State got so clear an insight into all their Iesuitical Intriegues as to out-do them at their own Weapon and render their many designs Abortive And his Successor Abbot herein was forc'd to take the same Measures 't is pity he did not so in every thing else for when in Charles's second Parliament some busy Overdoes gave Information to the House and upon search discovered that there were several Priests in the Prison call'd the Clink who liv'd with great Ease and Liberty had the Free Exercise of their Religion with Altars Pictures and other Trinkets the fore-mention'd Archbishop writ to the Attorney General on their behalf and told him Upon more curious enquiry that Information would be found to come Originally from the Iesuits for they do nothing but put Tricks upon those poor Men who do live more miserable lives than if they were in the Inquisition By taking the Oath of Allegiance and writing in defence of it they have so displeas'd the Pope that if by any cunning they could catch them they are sure to be burnt or strangled for it and once there was a Plot to have taken Preston as he passed the Thames and to have Ship'd him into a bigger Vessel and so have transported him to Flanders there to have made a Martyr of him In respect of these things K. James always gave his protection to Preston and Warrington as may be easily shew'd Canon is an old man well affected to the Cause but medleth not with any Factions or Seditions c. So vast a difference there is between taking things at a general View upon the first rebound of vulgar report and enquiring more narrowly into the secret Transactions the Reasons of State upon which the Wellfare of all Governments and consequently of every private Individual depends And since we are upon Reason of State that will come in here upon a more unhappy consideration as to this Affair the Protestant Interest especially in France was at a much lower Ebb than formerly they had engag'd we are not here to resolve how justly in those several pretences the Princes of the Blood set up and so upheld a mutual Interest whereas now the former being worn out or reconcil'd it was an Impar Congressus on the Hugonot's side to maintain by the Sword those Concessions it had formerly procur'd them or otherwise prevent those many Artifices both the Court of France and Rome were daily improving to their Ruin insomuch as the then K. Lewis XIII was known publickly to declare That as his two Predecessors Henry III. Fear'd them Henry IV. Lov'd them so he did neither And though the Spanist Match made the Cry yet upon this consideration more especially it was that in Iames's time upon mature deliberation in Council the Execution of some Penal Statutes which had already pass'd in Sentence upon several Popish Recusants was suspended for that the Protestants in France Germany and elsewhere lay under very bad Circumstances and had no other Intercessor for their Liberty c. but the King of England who was importun'd on the other side to show the like favour to those of the Romish Persuasion in his Dominions Nay some English Iesuits at Paris printed a Book representing how hardly their party were us'd here instigating that King to the utmost Severity by way of Retaliation so that had they and the Parliament been comply'd with what a havock would have been made all Europe over of Papists here and Protestants every where alse There is a Letter in the Cabala from Lord Keeper Williams to the Viscount Anan a Scotch Peer I presume upon this Subject which fully clears the King and justifies the proceedure by true Reason of State The Malice of the Faction gave out indeed that the Favour look'd forward and amounted even to a Tolleration which the Keeper styles a dull but withall a Devilish Misconstruction Yet the same prejudices were not only continu'd but improv'd against K. Charles by reason he Married a Daughter of France who was not wanting saith Ludlow on her part to press him upon all occasions to pursue the design of enlarging his Power not omitting to solicite him also to mould the Church of England to a nearer compliance with the See of Rome Pag. 2. For the former as he had no such design before so 't is as little probable she should press him now or
De Propaganda Fide would take care enough should be insisted upon but that any such thing was comply'd with or hearken'd to as there is nothing extant to make it appear which would have been highly acceptable and most pestilently advantageous to the Faction's Calumnies so matter of Fact speaks quite the contrary For as soon as they came to be capable of Instruction their Education was wholly at the King's Direction and perform'd with extraordinary Care Piety and Judgment And whatever Clamours or Conjectures may be made to the contrary I have been inform'd by very judicious Observers that the Queen was very Passive therein and carried her self with a great deal of Deference to what the King Ordered If any of them Warp'd afterwards it was upon our compelling them into Exile and for that as I said before our selves must bear the Blame to force Princes abroad can never turn to Account for this Nation That other Libel too King Charles no Saint c. makes a mighty Pudder about the Match and gives us the precise Sums allowed to the several Ecclesiasticks of her Train amounting so high in the Total as I fancy it is nigh as much as the King could allow for the Expence of her whole Court which indeed ought to be somewhat Splendid in respect to both her Qualities Daughter of France and Queen of England yet was it withall very Regular and confin'd to such a Proportion as the King 's great Exigencies and small Revenue would admit He owns likewise upon the insolent Deportment of her French Domesticks the King dismist them a sufficient Argument she had not that Ascendent over him these Foul-mouth'd Blockheads prate of But that they return'd again to their former Post is absolutely false her Retinue for the future were mostly English and of that Communion too Neither from that time forward for the French did some ill Offices of that kind was there ever known a more agreeable Understanding between King and Queen or indeed any other Man and Wife than them two all the Obligations of Conjugal Love Respect and Duty so inviolably observ'd on either side as they were an Example to many and a Reproach to others in the Court and ought to have been so to the whole Kingdom thorough The Exposing his intercepted Letters shall be hereafter consider'd as the Unworthiest Act the basest Men could be guilty of One thing farther I shall propound to these Negative Make-bates who so violently oppos'd his Matching either with Spain or France Where would they have had him Match'd 'T was high time as to his Age and more highly requisite in that he was the only Male of the Royal Line that he should be dispos'd of somewhere and to what purpose was it for People to cry a Protestant Princess had been better when they could find none such agreeable to his Quality nor that mutual intercourse which such Alliances generally produce For tho' 't is true Kingdoms never Marry and we find a War broke out soon after and partly hereupon yet it might be also the sooner Accommodated upon the same account To be sure if there be few private Families of any Degree but have some Consideration of this Nature when they dispose of their Children we must allow the same to Crown'd Heads both in respect to one another and their several Neighbour Potentates who are never without Caballing Interests and other Intriegues of State Neither could that liberty of the Romish Rites indulg'd her and those of that persuasion in her Family have been any ways prejudicial had they who made such a Noise so violently complain'd against it jointly concur'd in the Confinement thereof to its proper Bounds or Modestly Address'd his Majesty whenever exceeded but the Froppishness of that Crooked Generation was for perverting every thing that Good Man did to the utmost extremity as he complains in the Declaration when his third Parliament was Dissolv'd Seu bene seu male facta premunt with Mischievous Men once Ill-Affected whatsoever seem'd Amiss is ever Remembred but good Endeavours never Regarded So likewise for the Nobility and Gentry of that Persuasion if they had any favour more than usual it was not so much from the Queen's Sollicitation tho' that was commonly objected as for that they frankly proffer'd to Advance Money towards the King's Necessities and thereby exasperated the Parliament as well in crossing their Designs as upbraiding their Refractory Humour although 't was rather their Iealousy than any real Effects the Loyal Gentlemen found of Kindness 'T is true there was a Commission issued out and Commissioners appointed to Treat with them about Arrears of Forfeitures and an Advance upon the same account for some years to come but 't is false what Rushworth saith That in pursuance of this Commission the Recusants did make their Composition upon very easy Terms as was afterwards complain'd of in Parliament for this Project never took effect Sir Iohn Savile to whom the Management thereof was chiefly entrusted thought it more Advantageous and therefore Advisable to Collect the Arrears of Thirds due to the King by Law which they the more willingly paid in Consideration of the Exigencies he then lay under and being generally as well bred and Understanding Gentlemen as most in the Kingdom must not be blam'd if they had some prospect of Advantage as well as Duty Yet whatever respect the King shew'd their Persons we see it would not excuse their Purses nor procure any Countenance to their Perswasions for whenever the Management of any young Heirs in such Families came under his hands either as Wards or otherwise there was effectual care taken of their Education amongst which that every way most Eminent the late Duke of Ormond was one But Popery was the Main Spoak in that Wheel of Revolution these pretended Government Menders were so bent to bring about and therefore tho' they made many a Faint yet would never close effectually with the King in suppression thereof Thus when both Houses Petition'd the King against Recusants propounding a provisional Law that their Children might be brought up in our Religion his Majesty most readily comply'd therewith and earnestly recommended the preparation of a fitting Law to that effect which notwithstanding the Debate fell asleep and was never after reassum'd And after the first heat as little Notice was taken of that Letter found amongst the Clerkenwell Iesuits whereby nevertheless it appear'd they equally studied the King's Ruine with the Naetions Confusions as Secretary Cook inform'd them from him and withall how the French Ambassador told his Master at home what he had wrought here last Parliament namely Divisions between King and People and he was rewarded for it A full discovery whose Tools they were whose Game they play'd which nevertheless they continued on so that one would think there was a design to accept the Iesuits Challenge and venture all upon a Trial of Skill whether were the best Artists in Mischief the
no more consistency in that mighty Huff of the French King and Court upon the dismission of our Queen's Domesticks since he had been guilty of the like practice upon the Spanish Retinue of his own Queen not long before and for ought appears upon far less Provocation The Politico's I know then and since have censur'd the Duke for some Personal grudges against Richlieu and that he did not act the part of a true Statesman in countenancing such of his Enemies here as he had made France too hot for whereas if they will allow him to look further he could not but discover that as Richlieu was a Minister of the Deepest reach that Crown ever had so was he likewise the greatest Enemy to ours and his Station being at that time very ticklish to assist in getting him down had been one of the best Offices he could have perform'd for this Kingdom since 't is now no further doubted but that he was the Grand Promoter Underhand of all our Northern Commotions and consequently of all our Confusions hitherto and without end to come Yet amongst many other Provocations that doubtless which chiefly influenc'd the Duke was the Relief of Rochel the effecting whereof might as much have reinstated him in Popular favour as his breaking off the Spanish Match and for as long a time in all probability not much longer To be sure had his Measures been taken there were all the Moral Assurances imaginable of an accomplishment but coming before the Town with a Fleet the French were not able to look on the Face and such Additional Land-Forces as joyn'd with their own and the 4000 Foot 200 Horse the Duke of Rohan had engag'd to send besides a constant supply from England as occasion should require they within might not only have been secur'd but such a New life given to the Protestant Interest as to have gone into the Heart and thorough all France and this their whole Court and Council were so sensible of as to make very advantageous Overtures to the Duke of Rohan and all his Party provided they would joyn with them against the English I say when with all this Provision and Supply the Duke came before Rochel so great was their Infatuation there quos vult perdere c. that though they knew they could not depend upon what the French proffer'd yet were they afraid to offend them by admitting the English To gain the greater Credit with the Party this whole Transaction shall be related out of their Friend Mr. Rushworth who tell us When the Duke with his Fleet appear'd before Rochel they who once much long'd for his coming now shut their Gates against him Hereupon the Duke of Sobiez went ashore with Sir William Beecher from the Duke of Buckingham Sir Will. Beecher being also accompanied with a Letter of Credence from his Majesty of Great Britain they were at last admitted into the Town and the Magistrates call'd an Assembly and there Sir William Beecher declar'd unto them That the Duke of Buckingham was come with a great Fleet and Army to their Assistance which his Master had sent out of fellow-feeling of their Sufferings and to require from the King of France a performance of the Articles of Peace made by the King of England's Mediation on behalf of the Protestants in France And further declar'd unto them that if they do now refuse to give their Assistance by joyning Forces with the English he said he would and did protest before God and Man in the Name of the King his Master That his said Master was fully acquit of his Engagement of Honour and Conscience for their Relief But notwithstanding this Declaration and Sobiez his Earnest Sollicitation and Endeavour the Magistrates and Wealthier sort of People in the Town being possest with the fear of the King of France his Army then upon a March against them and there being a Court-Party also prevalent in the Town could be drawn to give no other Answer at that time but this That they did render all humble and hearty Thanks to his Majesty of Great Britain for the care he had of them and to the Duke for his forwardness and readiness to do his best Service for their good But said They were bound by Oath of Union to do nothing but by Common and Unanimous Consent of all the rest of the Protestant Party in France And therefore pray'd the King of Great Britain to excuse them in that they did suspend the Conjunction of Forces till they had sent to the rest of the Protestant Towns who were of the Union with them And in the mean time their Prayers and Vows should be for the happy progress of such Actions as the Fleet and Army should undertake Thus far Mr. Rushworth whose Authority the strongest prejudice must submit to for had it been possible to represent things to the disadvantage where the King and Duke were concern'd he would have exerted his utmost Talent that way And whatever others may be assign'd this false Step of the Rochellers in not permitting the Duke to fix upon the Terra Firma of France was the Chief if not the Sole Cause of their Ruin and never after to be retriev'd for the Duke Squandring away his time and Men upon the Isle of Rhee and no Supplies coming as design'd was forc'd home for want of Provisions which opportunity the French failing not to take hold of Invested Rochel both by Seae and Land with so much Force and Art as 't was easie for them to Calculate the length of their Days Hereupon Sobiez with some other Deputies were sent to implore his Majesty's Commiseration and Assistance in the most Melting Language they could express which theirs is very capable of and were as graciously answered That he would take them into his especial Care and utmost Endeavours for their Relief and set about it with all Sincerity and Application imaginable altho' indeed it was something retarded by that unhappy suprize upon the Duke's life neither were his Coffers or Credit able to make the Expedition so quick as desired which occasion'd that Remonstrance of the Sieur Vincent the Defence so rudely descants upon though I fancy the Original had not so rough a Title Nevertheless a Gallant Fleet was at length set out under the Earl of Lindsey who with much Bravery and Resolution set upon their Booms and Barracadoes and brake thorough many of them but sometimes the Tyde failing and at others the Wind coming cross the Defendants likewise repairing whatever Breaches were made and rendring every fresh Assault more difficult than the former the Rochellers beheld with their own Eyes the Impossibility of any Relief and thereupon made that Unwilling Submission their Fate Folly or both had brought them unto The French tho' considerable Gainers by suppressing these unquiet Spirits at home yet had so much work upon their hands from the House of Austria at Land as they did not in the least care to have England upon
much less exchange a Service which was perfect Freedom for the more than Egyption Bondage of Scotch Impositions by which means we continued nigh twenty years in a perfect state of Anarchy both Temporal and Spiritual every one doing what seem'd Right in his own Eyes and had some affinity with what that Judicious Historian observ'd of the Romans when under the like circumstances It was better to live where nothing than where all things were Lawful To be sure the sense and dismal sufferings which accrew'd thereby made us resolve upon our Old Establishments to have our Kings as at first and our Church as at the beginning which the Parliament likewise thought fit to confirm by another Act of Uniformity but what with that perverseness of spirit inseparable to such Children of Disobedience and the kind assistance of their good Friends the Papists all Ecclesiastical Discipline hath passed for a mighty Grievance ever since neither can there be a greater invasion upon the Subject's Librety than to perswade or compell men to Heaven against their Wills and thus by Tolerating all Religions we are in a very forward tendency to have none nay I cannot but further observe our Politicks seem to be at as low an Ebb as our Piety and it may be shortly look'd upon as an entrenchment upon the Liberty of a Free People to perswade or compell Commutative Iustice and Moral Honesty That the Form of Publick Prayer sent to Scotland more nearly approach'd the Roman Office than that of England is another instance of our Author's integrity whereas the most considerable difference between them was an alteration of such passages in ours as the Puritan Party had all along cavill'd at for Example the name of Priest so odious to that captious Brotherhood was changed to that of Presbyter no fewer than sixty Chapters or thereabouts taken out of the Apocrypha were reduced to two and those two to be read only on the Feast of All Staints the New Translation Authoriz'd by King Iames being us'd in the Psalms Epistles Gospels Hymns and Sentences instead of the Old Translation so much complained of in their Books and Conferences these were the most considerable Alterations besides somewhat in the Communion Office according to the first Liturgy of Edward VI's so far from Popery as it expresly declares against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation only retains one or two Rites which the Primitive Church did practise before that usurpation had got any footing in the World and therefore I admire to find in another Volume of Memoirs That the Alterations made from the English rendred it more invidious and less satisfactory but as the humour then went and ever will among that infatuated people had an Angel from Heaven brought one down and by express command of Iesus Christ enjoyn'd an Establishment the Covenant nevertheless would have had the preference Nay farther to corroborate the Violence of their prejudices they had got one Abernethy who from a Iesuit Priest turned a zealous Presbyterian to forge a Story that the Liturgy had been sent to Rome and revis'd by some Cardinals there which he had from Seignior Con who shew'd it to himself Upon this Report the Marquess Hamilton then Commissioner wrote to Con returned from Rome to London who protested he never so much as heard of a Liturgy till he came last to England and had never seen that Abernethy but once at Rome and finding him Light-headed never again took notice of him yet saith my Author who shall be nameless The story had a ready belief and welcome hearing tho' the Lightness and Weakness of the man became afterwards so visible that small account was made either of him or his story yet at this time it took wonderfully And this is the foundation of what the Defence or his fellow Pamphleteer relates of that worthy Dominican Convert Gage who might agree with the Iesuit when both about to turn Presbyterians and joyn together in some forgery which might merit their reception although their Orders are irreconcilable and will believe one another no more than an honest man of sense and understanding will believe either of them In the mean while that any Office in a Vulgar Tongue should be sent to Rome for Approbation is so inconsistent with the Policy and Cunning of that Church as none but Fanaticks and Fools could swallow and 't is said when told the Pope he laugh'd heartily at it To be sure they would not admit their Missall upon such terms especially we giving them so fair an opportunity of bringing it in upon their own To give one instance further how Artificially they Ape'd the Iesuit in all Tricks of Imposture they got a Covenanting Sister troubled either with Fits of the Mother or the Devil who in such disorderly Convulsions would foam out Raptures in defiance of the Bishop's service Book and Canons with the bitterest invectives against all such as opposed the Covenanting Iesus which their Juggling Preachers so dexterously improved as to make it a ratification from Heaven of whatever Villanies they had impos'd upon the People He goes on to tell us that the reading of the New service Book at Edenburgh was first interrupted by a poor Woman but withal so well seconded by the generallity as they who Officiated hardly escaped with their Lives This produced divers meetings of many of the Nobility Clergy and Gentry who entred into an agreement or covenant to root out Episcopacy Heresie and Superstition A very justifiable undertaking this I hope they made the Goodwife Chairwoman of the Assembly when they debated these weighty points she had as much right to do it as they besides that of Precedency and perhaps understood them as well to be sure never any Mob Convention whether of the Great Vulgar or the small presum'd to determine what is Heresie prescribe modes of Worship or rules of Discipline till Iohn Calvin's Popular Ordinences came abroad in the World which too hath been wretchedly improv'd by his admirers to the scandal of all true Religion and the Disturbance of whatever Civil Government it gets into 'T is a known Fable that when the Lyon prohibited all Horned Beasts the Fox would not come nigh the Den for fear his Ears should be brought under that Denomination if these Infallible Assertors of their own Wills shall think fit to term sound Doctrine Heresie Episcopacy a Rag of Satan and the most Innocent Decencies Superstition who dare withstand or contradict them as all Orthodox Divines the whole Kingdom thorough then found to their utter ruin and something of the like Inhumane treatment hath been lately on foot amongst them can the Pope be more Imposing or Inquisition more cruel At the same rate he continues The Clergy of England who had been the chief Advisers and Promoters of this violence prevailed with the King to cause all such as should persist in their Opposition after a certain time to be proclaimed Traytors p. 7. Still the Clergy do all which puts me
of the Irish Rebels arrived in England filling all places with the sad complaints of their Cruelties whereupon the Parliament earnestly press'd the King to proclaim them Rebels but could not obtain it to be done till many weeks and then but forty of those Proclamations were Printed and not above half of them Published which was the more observ'd and resented by reason of the different treatment the Scotch had met with who no sooner appear'd in a much better cause but they were forthwith declared Rebels in every Parish Church within the Kingdom p. 19. A very plausible story but for want of one thing and that is Truth whereof it hath not the least Syllable For first the Parliament never press'd the King for a Proclamation Secondly the Fourty Proclamations printed were not for this Kingdom but Ireland So that Thirdly there could be no ground of resentment upon the Scotch account but by such pick-thank fellows as Ludlow and his Party In short the matter of Fact stands exactly thus The Parliament as they were very inquisitive to catch at every thing which might give them an advantage against the Court having underhand information that a Warrant was sent to the Printer for the foremention'd Proclamations to be forthwith provided open'd very loud upon it Why so few Why no sooner c. The Printer was summon'd the Warrant produc'd and a mighty bustle made as generally the cry is greatest where the least Wool In the midst of which heats the Secretary of State gave this account of the matter that the Proclamations were printed at the Request of the Lords Iustices and Privy-Council in Ireland who desir'd to have twenty sign'd by his Majesty's own hand and no more who nevertheless order'd forty and sent them accordingly I do not remember the cause was given to the Parliament why so sign'd But 't is probable to invalidate that forg'd Commission whereto they had fix'd the Kings Broad-Seal granted to a private person upon a Title of Land Otherwise there had been Proclamations several from the first day the Rebellion broke out in Ireland the only place where requisite But why not in England as well as against the Scotch as our Author insinuates whereto I reply First the Scotch had seiz'd upon at leastwise assum'd the Administration of the whole Civil Power so that no Proclamation could come out against them there Secondly they had too many abettors in England who encourag'd them to begin and were resolv'd to follow the first opportunity So that thirdly the Proclamation must come from hence or not at all and was equally requisite against both What he adds farther of the Scotch being the much better Cause is only the private opinion of a fellow Rebel they were both so bad as upon an impartial scanning it would puzzle their Infernal Patron to tell which was worst Having had the confidence to averr two such impudent falshoods as aforementioned 't is strange how he comes to mince the matter so much as to the third and tell us the Rebels in Ireland pretended a Commission from the K. for what they did and his Abstract the Defence gives indeed a Copy therefore but withal goes no farther than that it was said to be given by the King to his Catholick Subjects in Ireland p. 14. Whereas there was no one Slander more confidently thrown abroad than that and continued longer nay I have met with several Fanaticks within these few years who still take it for an undoubted truth and what they have so long entertain'd nothing but the final Iudgment can make them renounce Once for all therefore to silence this Infamous Calumny we must know the Commonalty of the Native Irish having liv'd a long time in Peace and Amity with the English were not without some Reverence to that Government and so could not in plain and direct terms be easily led into an avowed Rebellion against their King whereupon their leaders Phelim Oneil c. were forced to perswade them that they took up Arms for the King and the Defence of his Lawful Prerogative against the Puritanical Parliament in England who had invaded it in many parts and that what they did was by his Majesty's Approbation and Authority And to gain the greater Credit to that Fiction they produc'd a Commission whereto the Broad-Seal taken from a private grant was affix'd as aforesaid which made it no difficult matter to perswade rude and unexperienced people to believe it real all which in a short time was clearly detected as well by several Irish Rebels taken Prisoners as English Protestants who escap'd their fury particularly Dr. Maxwell a Reverend Scotch Divine against which Nation they were not so Savagely cruel as the English in his Examination and Deposition upon Oath at Dublin which was sent too into England declar'd That he whilst their Prisoner expostulated with them for abusing the King in so gross a manner To whom they reply'd That in all Wars Rumors and Lyes serv'd many times to as good purpose as Arms and that they wou'd not disclaim any advantage But to silence for ever that horrid Scandal of his Majesty's Commission we have an unexceptionable Evidence and Proof which will not only clear him but render our Author Ludlow were there nothing else against him a much worse Man than the bloody'st Wretch in the whole Irish Rebellion In the Year 52 our English Regicides having very nigh compleated their Conquest Erected what they termed an High-Court of Iustice in Ireland to hear and determine all Murthers and Massacres of any Protestant English or other Person or Persons whatsoever within that Nation where amongst many others the Iustice and Mercy of Heaven had reserv'd Sir Phelim Oneil to receive his deserved Doom at whose Arraignment Sentence and Execution another Reverend Divine one Dr. Ker since Dean of Ardagh by God's great good Providence was present and makes a full Deposition thereof As where the Court was kept what Iudges sat what Witnesses sworn the many Murthers and Robberies prov'd c. After which he comes to this material Evidence as to the present matter That one of the Iudges whose name he had forgot Examined Sir Phelim about a Commission he should have had from Charles Stewart as the Iudge thought fit to term late King for levying the said War he was charg'd with Sir Phelim made Answer he never had any such Commission whereupon it was prov'd in Court by the Testimony of one Ioseph Traverse and others that Sir Phelim had such a Commission and did in the beginning of the Rebellion shew the same unto the said Ioseph and several others then in Court. Upon which Sir Phelim confess'd that when he surpriz'd the Castle of Charlemont and the Lord Caulfield that he ordered one Mr. Harrison a Witness there and another Gentleman to cut off the Kings Broad-Seal from a Patent of the said Lords they then found in Charlemont and affixt it to a Commission Sir Phelim had ordered to