yet in Scotland their Designs went on from whence William Creighton the Jesuite went into Spain into whose King he so insinuated himself that he resolved to be guided by his Advice both for the invading England and the alteration of Religion in Scotland which was the Account himself gave of his Negotiation by a Message to the Earl of Huntley desiring as many blanks and Procurations as could be had of the Scottish Noblemen for the greater Credit of his Agitations In the mean time the Duke of Mayenne solicited the Pope and Spaniard for aid Anno 1591 and entred into an Obligation with the Duke of Lorrain and others not to admit any to the Crown except he were of their Family but if they failed in that to exclude all who were not of the Roman Catholick Religion But the Leaguers drew up a Letter and sent it to the King of Spain affirming that it was the desire of all the Catholicks to see his Catholick Majesty sway the Sceptre of that Kingdom and reign over them or that he would appoint some of his Posterity offering the Crown to the Infanta Isabella that King's Daughter in particular And to make all sure within themselves they contrived a new Oath whereby not onely the King but all the Bloud Royal were excluded from the Crown and set up a Court of Justice to proceed against the Royalists In which rebellious Actions they were encouraged by the Pope Greg. 14. who sent a Nuncio into France with two Bulls one interdicting the Clergy if within 15 days they forsook not the obedience and Part of the King and depriving them of all their Benefices if they left him not within thirty days the other threatening the Nobility and all others with the Papal Curse if they assisted that Heretick Persecutour Excommunicated Person who was justly deprived of his Dominions which were the mild Expressions with which this meek Servant of Servants treated that great Prince And farther to shew his Fatherly care of the Rebels he sent an Army to their relief under the Command of his Nephew and allowed them fifteen thousand Crowns a month whose steps were followed by his Successour Innocent the 9th who remitted them fifteen thousand Ducats every month of his Popedom which was but short for he sate not much above eight weeks in that Chair Yet were not these Designs of the Leaguers and Mayenne sufficient to content the Pope but the young Cardinal of Bourbon hoped for the Crown and so formed another Party of seditious Persons called Thirdlings among whom was Perron afterwards Cardinal and this Faction also had the countenance of the last Pope who to advance this Cardinal exhorted the States to chuse a Roman Catholick for their King And his Example was so far approved of by Clement the Eighth Anno 1592 who was chosen in his room that he continued the same allowance to the Leaguers renewed the same Exhortations and declared any other but a Romanist incapable of the Crown The Parliament of Roan published a severe Edict against all who adhered to the King and Discourses were spread abroad maintaining That it was unlawfull to desire his Conversion and that such as proposed or endeavoured it were excommunicated and ought to be driven away lest they should infect the rest and the Parliament of Paris enjoined Obedience to the Pope and his Legate declaring that the Convention of Estates designed to chuse a Popish King And by this time those few Romanists who had continued with the King became rebellious too requiring him to change his Religion within a time which they prescribed otherwise protesting they would elect another of their own Persuasion Thus Rebellion and the Roman Catholick Cause went on prosperously in France but not having the same strength and opportunities in England the more secret Methods were made use of the Spaniard was importuned to make another Invasion which he prepared for but the Romanists unwilling to trust to that alone took a shorter course and by Mr Hesket's means attempted to persuade the Lord Strange afterwards Earl of Derby to take upon him the Crown which they pretended he had a Title to and soon after Father Holt and others employed Patrick Cullen an Irish Fencer to murther the Queen which he readily undertook and for a very small reward but his barbarous Intention was discovered and he upon apprehension confessing the Design and who set him on was executed Two years before this the Jesuite Creighton upon his going into Spain had desired blanks to be filled up with Credentials and Procurations from the Noblemen of the Popish Party in Scotland and this year he received them the Persons who sent them farther engaging that all the Romanists in Scotland should assist them upon the arrival of the Army which the King of Spain promised should be with them by the End of the Spring to the number of thirty thousand whereof some were to remain in Scotland and the rest march directly into England These Blanks were sent by a Servant of the King 's with Letters from several Jesuites but he was apprehended and some of the Conspiratours imprisoned and executed The Jesuites complained in their Letters that the Spaniards were too slow and therefore desired the Invasion with great earnestness Upon this Discovery the Earls of Angus Anno 1593 Huntley and Arrol rebell'd but the King's Army marching against them before they had formed any considerable Body they fled into the Mountains submitted and were imprison'd in Order to a Tryall At the same time Tir Oen in Ireland after having persuaded and underhand maintained several Insurrections openly declar'd himself for the Rebells taking on him the Title of O Neal which by an Act of Parliament was declared Treason for any to assume Nor was England long free from open Rebellion yet clear'd of a Treasonable Generation who were daily employ'd in new Conspiracies against the Queens Life for Lopez one of the Queens Physicians undertook to Poison her for which he was to have Fifty thousand Crowns but being discovered confessed all and with two of his Accomplices was Executed But being unwilling to depend wholly on this Doctour the Jesuite Holt Dr. Worthington and others employed Edmond York Nephew to him who six years before had betrayed Zutphen to the Spaniards and Richard William with others to Kill the Queen who upon their Apprehension confessed That after several Consultations among the Priests and Jesuites in Flanders Holt threatned That if this Plot failed they would take this honourable Work out of the Hands of the English and employ Strangers for the future that they had vowed to Murther the Queen and that one Young Tipping Garret with two others had undertaken the same Design While God was thus confounding the Designs of these bloudy Men in this Nation the Leaguers in France seemed to have forgotten that an all-seeing Eye beheld their Actions where the Duke of Mayenne put
introduce protesting that if he had thought there had been the least sin in the Plot he would not have been of it for all the World and the Reason why he kept it secret was because those who were best able to judge of the Lawfulness of it had been acquainted with it and given way unto it and therefore afterwards he calls it the best Cause The Persons upon whose Authority he so much relied were the Jesuites who asserted the holiness of the Action for Garnet their Superiour had affirmed that it was lawfull and Father Hammond absolved them all after the Discovery when they were in open Rebellion and Greenwell the Jesuite rode about the Countrey to excite as many as he could to joyn with them nay Garnet confessed that Catesby in his name did satisfie the rest of the Lawfulness of the Fact Parsons had kept a Correspondency with that Jesuite to promote it and at the same time not willing to discover it to them and yet desirous of their Prayers ordered the Students of his College at Rome to pray for the Intention of their Father Rectour And after the Discovery Father Hall encouraged some of the Traitors who began to doubt that the Action was unlawfull seeing God had defeated it in so providential a manner telling them that we must not judge of the Cause by the Event that this was no more than what happened to the Eleven Tribes when they went up at first to fight against Benjamin and that the Christians were often defeated by the Turks nay so highly was it approv'd by that Order that not to mention here the Honours done to the Conspiratours since their Deaths several Jesuites gloried in and bragg'd of it for a little before the Discovery Father Flood caused the Jesuites at Lisbon to spend a great deal of Money in Powder on a Festival day to try the force of it and persuaded one John How a Merchant and other Catholicks to go over into England and expect their Redemption there And Father Thompson was wont afterwards to boast to his Scholars at Rome how oft his Shirt was wetted with digging under the Parliament House And that the Pope himself was concerned in the Design is more than probable for it is confessed by a Jesuite that there were three Bulls granted by him which should have been published if the Conspiracy had succeeded and Sir Everard Digby hath left it under his hand that it was not the Pope's mind that any Stirs should be hindered which were undertaken for the Catholick Cause The Pope's carriage after the Discovery is another shrewd Argument that he was privy to the Plot for he not only made no Declaration either by Word or Writing in abhorrence of it but when Greenway one of the Conspirators escaped to Rome he advanced him to the Dignity of Penitentiary and †Gerard another was a Confessour at St. Peters in the same City This execrable Conspiracy appeared so horrid and unworthy not only of religious Men but contrary to humane Nature that sixteen of the Students under the Jesuites at Rome forsook the College and some of them renounced the Roman Church and Mr. Copley who had been a Priest some years as appears by his Reasons one of sound Learning and judgment assures us that it was one of the Causes of his Conversion Yet were there many found among the Romanists who justified the Design hardly any condemning it Thus the same Gentleman professes that though some termed it an inconsiderate Act yet he could never meet with any one Jesuite who blamed it The Conspiratours justified themselves and even at their deaths would acknowledge no fault And when Faux and Winter were admitted to discourse together in the Tower they affirmed they were sorry that no body set forth a Defence or Apology for the Action but yet they would maintain the Cause at their Deaths nay there was one who had the hardiness to attempt to justifie the Design from the imputation of Cruelty because both Seeds and Root of an evil Herb must be destroyed And when some of the Plotters escaped to Callis the Governour assured them of the King's Favour and that though they lost their Country they should be received there they replyed That the loss of their Country was the least part of their Grief but their sorrow was that they could not bring so brave a Design to perfection And notwithstanding Garnet was so deep in the Conspiracy yet Mr. Wilson placed him among the Martyrs in his English Martyrology and it is affirmed by one who liv'd among them that he and Campion are beatified by the Pope which is the next degree to Canonization and that every one of them is painted in the Jesuites Churches with the Title of Blessed Father and we are assured that Garnet's Picture was set up in their Church at Rome among their Martyrs several years after and St. Amour a Doctour of Sorbon found his Pictures commonly sold at Rome in the year 1651. with this Inscription Father Henry Garnet hang'd and quarter'd at London for the Catholick Faith by which they shew themselves either Approvers of the Design to that degree as to count it a point of their Faith or else they must appear Deceivers of the People and Slanderers of the English Nation in affirming that he dyed for his Religion when he justly suffered for the most hellish Conspiracy that was ever laid yet Delrio and Gordon two Jesuites went farther the first in Prosecution of his Determination in the point which we mentioned before compares him to Dionysius the Areopagite the latter placing him in Heaven desires him to intercede there for the conversion of England and it was once publickly prayed in Louvain O holy Henry Intercede for us But they had designs elsewhere at the same time that this their holy Martyr was promoting their Cause in England King Henry of France his Life was so burthensome to the Jesuites that they were impatient so that Father Coton the King's Confessour or rather Hostage for his Society to be satisfied in the point wrote down several questions which he had propounded to a Maid said to be possessed one of which was how long the King should live which is a capital Crime in itself For as Tertullian long since argued who hath any business to make such an Enquiry except he hath designs against his Prince or hath some hopes of advancement by his death And as busie was the Pope Paul the Fifth for the advancement of the Roman Cause he fell out with the Duke of Savoy this Year for presenting an Abbey to Cardinal Pio and to shew his Authority over Princes and States which is a kind of deposing them and clear Evidence of Popish Principles when the Commonwealth of Luca made an Edict against the Protestants though he liked the thing yet he pretended they
that they might be exempt from His Majesty's jurisdiction so very diligent he was in catching at any shadow which might seem to favour the Exemption of the Clergy Three Years after this Sanctarellus his Book was printed at Rome Anno 1625 wherein the Deposing Power was asserted in its utmost latitude and though Father Coto and two other Jesuites were required to answer it yet no reply appeared the former affirming before the Parliament that though he disapproved the Doctrine in France yet he would assent to it if he were at Rome The Oath of Allegiance being vigorously press'd in England Anno 1626 the Pope sent a Bull to the Romanists exhorting them to continue firm and let their Tongue rather cleave to the Roof of their Mouth then permit the Authority of St. Peter to be diminished by that Oath and commanding them strictly to observe the Breves of Pope Paul the Fifth and Father Fisher justified Suarez and the Doctrine of his Book asking what could be found prejudicial in it to Princely Authority and affirming that if it contained any such thing it would not be permitted in Catholick Kindoms We have mention'd that the exemption of the Clergy was desired by the Pope in the Treaty for Anno 1627 the Spanish Match and now his Emissaries in this Nation affirmed that the King could have nothing to doe with her Majesties Chaplains because he was an Heretick and his Holiness threatned to declare those to be Apostates who should seek their Establishment in the Queens Family from the King But though these were plain Indications of what they desired Anno 1628 yet they kept their Designs so secret that they were not discovered till some time after but there was a Conspiracy detected at Genoa which if it had not been prevented would have ended in the Murther of the Nobility and Alteration of the Government And the next Year a Plot was detected in Mantua against the Life of the Prince Anno 1629 and some Officers apprehended who would have betray'd Viadana to the Governour of Millan In Ireland the Papists assaulted the Archbishop of Dublin wounded several of his Followers and forced him to fly for his Life following him in a tumultuous manner along the streets and that they had several seditious Designs in hand at the same time Anno 1620 is evident from the Confession of Mac-Enerry a Dominican who for this very reason left the Church of Rome because of her rebellious Doctrines and the many Conspiracies he had taken an Oath of Secresie to conceal which he observed inviolably and though he informed the Bishop of Limrick that there were many Plots then contriving against his Majesty's Government yet for his Oaths sake he would not name any Persons who were concerned in them The Duke of Orleance had retired in disgust from Court some years since and was received by the Duke of Lorrain Anno 1632 but being forced this year to leave that retreat he went to Brussells from whence aided by the Spaniards he marched at the head of an Army into France but was defeated and several of his Adherents executed While France was thus almost continually pestered with Rebellions Anno 1633 the Designs of the Papists ripened apace in Ireland they had erected Friaries in the Countrey instead of those which were dissolved in the Dublin and even in that City they had a College of Students whereof Father Paul Harris was Dean and at a Synodical meeting of their Clergy they decreed that it was not lawfull to take the Oath of Allegiance If it were not that all the Designs of that Party from the Year 1630. to 1640. Anno 1640 were summed up and perfected in the Rebellion in Ireland and the execrable Civil Wars of England I should wonder how they came to be so still and that no more Conspiracies were discovered besides that great one which Andreas ab Habernsfield was informed of in Holland and of which he sent the King an Account under the hand of the Discoverer who affirms that one Maxfield was sent into Scotland to stir up a Rebellion there and that the King was to be poisoned for which end they kept a strong Poison in an Indian Nut which he had often seen They had likewise another Design if they could prevail upon the Scots or discontented English to rebell that thereby the King should be straitened and forced to depend on the Papists for assistance and then they would make their own Terms and secure to themselves a publick Liberty which if he refused to consent to they would not only desert him but dispatch him with the Indian Nut which they reserved on purpose He gives also an Account of the Persons concerned in the Plot among whom were several Ladies of Quality for whose Encouragement the Pope sent a Breve to Sir Toby Mathews one of the principal Conspiratours wherein he exhorts him and the Women engaged with him to proceed with diligence in the Design assuring them That he did not despair to see the Authority of the Holy See which was subverted in England by a Woman again restored in a very little time by the Endeavours of those Heroick Ladies This Breve is an unanswerable Evidence that the succeeding Troubles derived their original from the insatiate Lust of Rule which possessed the Pope Anno 1641 who herein approves of those very Methods which afterwards proved the Ruine of that excellent Prince and so miserably distracted these poor Nations But he appeared more publickly an Abbettor of the Irish Massacre and Rebellion wherein so many thousand Protestants were murthered in cold bloud sending his Nuncio to assist and affording them all the aid that he was able to give a Design laid with so much secresie and executed with so much cruelty that nothing but the very Spirit of Popery could be barbarous enough to engage in it in prosecution of which they did all they could totally to beat the English out of the Kingdom The same year the Marquess de Villa Real the Duke de Camina and the Marquess d' Armamar who by the Instigation of the Archbishop of Braga had undertaken to kill the King of Portugal Father to Her Majesty the Queen Dowager of England and to fire the Ships and the City in several places that they might have the better opportunity to promote the Interest of the Spaniards were put to death Nor did France yet enjoy any more quiet where the Count de Soissons and the Duke of Guise and others raised a Rebellion and routed the King's Army but the Count being slain with his own Pistol the Confederacy was soon broken Yet the very next Year the Duke of Orleance combined with the Spaniards Anno 1642 who were to assist him with Forces for a new Rebellion The Pope had involved Ireland in Bloud the former year and in this the Wars began in England where
where by a Congregation it was decreed unlawfull And now in prosecution of the Pope and Sorbon's Sentence the last year that excellent Prince King Charles the Martyr was by their contrivances brought to the Block which though they were willing to disown now yet at that time they were very sollicitous to let the World know that they were the promoters of it the Friars of Dunkirk expressed great resentment that the Jesuites would engross to themselves the Glory of that Work whereas they had laboured as diligently and succesfully as any and in several other places the Friars were very jealous lest that Order should rob them of their part of the Honour And the Benedictines were not a little carefull to secure their Land in England from the Jesuites for they thought their return sure upon the King's Death so that the Nuns contended vigorously among themselves who should be Abbesses in their own Countrey At the time of His Majesty's Execution Mr. Henry Spotswood riding casually that way saw a Priest on Horseback in the Habit of a Trouper with whom he was well acquainted flourishing his Sword over his Head in triumph as others did he told Mr. Spotswood that there were at least forty Priests and Jesuites present in the same equipage among whom was Preston who afterwards commanded a Troup of Horse under Cromwell Father Sibthorp in a Letter to Father Metcalfe owns that the Jesuites were contrivers of this murther and that Sarabras was present rejoycing at it one of the Priests flourishing his Sword cryed Now our greatest Enemy is cut off When the News of this Tragedy came to Roan they affirmed that they had often warned his Majesty that if he did not establish the Romish Religion in England they should be forced to take such courses as would tend to his Destruction and now they had kept their words with him And in Paris a Lady having been perverted from the Reformed Church by a Jesuite upon hearing her Ghostly Father affirm that now the Catholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy by whose Death their Cause was much advanced and therefore she had no reason to lament left that bloudy and rebellious Church and continues a Protestant ever since But though as Secretary Morris affirms there are almost convincing evidences that the Papists Irreligion was chiefly guilty of the murther of that excellent Prince yet we are beholden to the guilty Consciences of those Gentlemen that the World hath not been long since more fully satisfied as to every particular for Dr. Du Moulin in the first Edition of his Book Ann. 1662. had challenged them to call him to an Account for affirming that the Rebellion was raised and promoted and the King murthered by the Arts of the Court of Rome the Book came to a fourth Edition in all which he renewed the Challenge and in the last in these words I have defied them now seventeen years to call me in question before our Judges and so I do still affirming that certain Evidence of what he asserted should be produced whenever Authority shall require it I remember once a Jesuite attempted to prove the truth of the Nag's-Head Ordination because that Charge had been laid to our Church some years before any offered to confute it or to produce the Lambeth Record which he affirmed was an evident sign that the thing was true or else having such means to confute it they would not have been so long silent what then may we think of those Gentlemen who had so heavy a crime charged on them and yet for near twenty years together never called the Accuser to account The Doctour always refused to produce his Evidences till required by Authority only he gives us this Account That the Papers of Resolution in favour of the Murther when it was found to be generally detested were by the Pope's Order gathered up and burnt but a Roman Catholick in Paris refused to deliver one in his possession but shewed it to a Protestant Friend and related to him the whole carriage of the Negotiation And I am sure if the Protestants had been under such an Imputation the Papists would make good use of their silence to prove their Guilt But farther to shew their aversion to the Royal party no sooner had the Rebels of Ireland in consideration of the straits they were in made a cessation for some time with the Lord Inchequin but the Nuncio excommunicated all who observed it and upon the conclusion of a second Peace with the Duke of Ormond His Majesty's Lieutenant the Assembly of the Bishops and Clergy at James-Town renounced it and as much as in them lay restored the former confederacy anew but of this we shall have a farther account in its due place In the mean while Reilly Anno 1649 Vicar General to the A. B. of Dublin betrayed the Royal Camp of Rathmines to Coll. Jones Governour of Dublin for the Parliament which service he afterwards pleaded for himself to the safety of his Life which was in danger for his cruel Actions in the Rebellion and he well deserved more than bare safety from those men that defeat being the total ruine of His Majesty's Affairs in Ireland At the same time the Rebels in France encreased both in Insolence and Power daily the Coadjutour of Paris going to St. Germains in obedience to the Queens Commands was tumultuously stopt by the People who hindered the Nobility from following the King and broke their Coaches the Parliament forbad all places to receive any Garisons from the King listed men and resolved upon a War the Duke D'Elbease Duke of Lonqueirlle Prince Marsilliack afterwards D. of Rochfecault the Prince of Conty and many other persons of the greatest Quality joining with them Soon after Normandy and Poictou declared for the Parsians who sent Deputies to call in the Spaniards to assist them but these Troubles being in a little time appeased new ones began in Provence and Guienne the Parliaments of those Provinces prosecuting the War with great fury declared they would have no pardon from the King and one Gage a Priest endeavoured to persuade them to take the Sovereign Power on themselves which they declined but to maintain the War they treated with the Spaniards for Assistance both of Men and Moneys This Year the Prince of Conde joined himself to the Troudeurs Anno 1650 which was the usual Nickname of the discontented Party but finding that they intended the advancement of Chasteau Neuf his mortal Enemy he left them in disgust however the Parisians made several Insurrections and upon the Imprisonment of that Prince an open Rebellion broke out in Berry whose Example was followed by Normandy and Burgundy to support which the Spaniards agreed to contribute 2000 Foot and 3000 Horse besides great Summes of Money and soon after the Parliament of Bourdeaux declared for the Rebells During these Transactions the Popish Bishops of Ireland met at James-Town
Walsh who was a kind of a Trimmer among them and to speak truth an honester sort of a man than most of them were and willing to introduce the King's Authority as well as that of the Popes to that End went over with the Duke of Ormond and being countenanced by him summoned an Assembly in Dublin to be held of the most principal of them where what a stir he had and how strangely bigotted those Irish Understandings were to the See of Rome is by himself at large set forth in his loyal Formulary But one thing which himself notes is not unworthy the recital The General among them were so strongly possest with some strange Catastrophe that was to arrive eminently no doubt to their Advantage in the year approaching of Sixty six that they generally expressed themselves so averse from complying with the King in those matters a violent presumption that the firing of London had been for some years in contriving and the mention that is made of a Plot in the April Gazette 63. was put into the Heads by some Rascally Priests of those poor little Rogues that were hangued one of the main things charged upon them being the Firing of the City of London and what influence their Councils had in that Prince's Reign is obnoxious to all considering Men by the breaking the triple League by that close Alliance between France and England for the Extirpation of Protestancy out of Heretical Holland and no doubt had it succeeded out of England also and the reason why it was not effected was the Parliament's and People's Aukwardness to the War but notwithstanding they were so not discouraged but they resolved to go on with their Designs still in England keeping by the means of Coleman and Father le Chaise a constant Correspondence with the Court of France and so strong was their Ascendent with Charles the Second that he publishes a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience by which as Coleman in his Letters says he doubted not the bringing in of their Religion but this so allarmed the Parliament that they were strangely uneasie and restless with him resolving to give him no more Money untill he had recalled it which at last with regret he did This strangely nettled our Roguish Catholicks who by this thought their Game cock sure but being frustrated used him in their Discourses as if he had been a Cobler as pitifull irresolute nothing of Honour his Word no ways to be relied on and not worthy of a Crown and from that day forward plotted his removal to make way as they supposed for a Man of Honour and Resolution and who would not be balked with any thing of a Parliament which at the last as a great many suppose they effectually did And now James the Second ascended the Throne and how the Sceptre by him was swayed needs no long characterising for Father Petre with his Ghostly Associates managed most things under him who with that Priestly Violence so hurried on things that on him at last the Tower of Siloam fell and so weak and ridiculous were their Politicks that they are not worth blurring Paper Now to sum up all it is plain by what precedes That the several Popes and Court of Rome in places where they power had have been most Imperious and domineering and nothing so bloudy base or cruel but by their Priests has acted been not in other Countries only but in this our Nation too for since the twelfth year or thereabouts Queen Elizabeth's Reign Popery we may compare to an Imposthume breeding in the very Trunk of this Political Body and broke in the year forty two into a Civil War discharging only part not all the corrupt matter and since regathering head and filling up about four years ago broke the second time casting forth Filth and Corruption in quantity abounding the Stench thereof offending almost all Men in the Nation but I do not doubt but our State Physicians will use such detersive or cleansing Medicines as well as sanative as shall not effect a Palliative but a real and thorough Cure and that the Countrey may be restored to its sound habit of Body Now therefore as to the ensuing Treatise it was occasioned by that Hero of English Jesuitism Mr. Pulton who being strangely nettled at those stinging Truths contained in the Missionaries Arts challenges the Authour to make good his Assertion in page 76. viz That the Romanists Treasons owned by their Popes and by their great Men approved of since the Reformation do far outnumber all the Plots and Insurrections that the Papists or Malice itself can lay to the charge of Protestants all which notwithstanding have been wholly condemned by the Body of our famous Divines To satisfie therefore this Savoy Champion and vindicate the Assertion aforesaid the Authour of this Account with no little pains has endeavoured to give entire satisfaction But such has the Misfortune been of Writers Protestant that in dealing in Controversies they have to doe with a sort of Men that when they have yet will seemingly take no Answer and their last refuge is generally Banter and Whiffle if downright Railing will not doe the feat The Subject of this Treatise is most matter of Fact and the Citations though from their own selves no way unfairly used for if otherwise they appear let them openly be exposed that all that are impartial may see and judge whether any thing of Passion Envy or Malice has Prepossed the Authour I know 't is natural for Men when they have a bad Cause to manage to be froward and testy and where they are galled to kick and wince and instead of arguing closely to the purpose to seek Evasions that may seem plausible at least to the less refined Understandings which has been the great Masterpiece of Romish Priests and Jesuites for many years together for by their little Witticisms and Jokes upon Names they keep up among their Party a kind of Reputation not unlike Jack Pudding's on a Stage they please though at the same time delude the foolish and gazing People and if it happens that one slip falls from a Protestant Pen or a Citation carelesly passed that has not proved true what a Clutter have they not made about it though the main of the Subject still remains good This as a demonstration plainly proves the Weakness of their Cause and had Mr. Pulton but candidly read the History of the last Hundred Years he must have acknowledged that this his great Challenge was a vain and frivolous Motion and never needed to have given the Authour this Trouble which being done it 's hoped will be to his firm conviction and not only his but any other who have been imposed on by false Notions The truth is this Treatise has been written above this year but such was the Iniquity of the Times that they would not bear much less permit its then Publication however it s hoped 't is not too late the World in this point to
full Pardon for it from the Pope That the first might not be wanting Cedretto a noted Jesuit and Provincial of Guyenne approv'd his Resolution and Ragazzani the Nuncio recommended him to the Pope promising that his Prayers should not be wanting for the success of the Attempt with which encouragement he came to London where he received a Letter from Cardinal Como wherein the Cardinal informs him That His Holiness did exhort him to persevere and bring that to effect which he had promised and that he might be the better assisted by that good Spirit which moved him thereto His Holiness granted him his Blessing a plenary Indulgence and Remission of all his sins assuring him that he should merit highly by the Action which he terms holy and honourable to which the Cardinal added his Prayers and Wishes for its success This he confessed confirmed his Resolution to kill his Sovereign and made it clear to his Conscience that it was lawfull and meritorious which redounding so highly to the Dishonour of that bloudy Church the whole Relation is by the Index Expurgatorius commanded to be left out of Thuanus's History And well they might for as it shewed the Pope's Inclination to Bloud and Treason so it was one of the greatest instances of Ingratitude imaginable Parry owing his life to the Mercy of this Princess who had four years before pardoned him when he was tried and condemned for Burglary But though the Divine Goodness was so conspicuous in the many wonderfull preservations of that great Queen yet it pleased the all-wise Providence to permit the devilish Designs of the Jesuites to be attended with success in Holland where the renowned Prince William of Nassaw was this year murthered by Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian who confessed that a Jesuite Regent of the College of Trers told him that he had conferred with three of his Brethren who took the Design to be from God assuring him that if he dyed in that quarrel he should be enrolled in the Kalendar of Martyrs This Method of satisfying their Consciences with their Confessour's Authority was so generally taken by the zealous Assassins of those times that the Leaguers in France kept several Priests in pay who daily preached and asserted That Princes ought to be deposed who do not sufficiently perform their Duty and a Bachelour in Divinity of the Sorbonne maintained in a publick Disputation That it was lawfull for any private man to depose or kill any Prince who is a wicked man or an Heretick which opinion had so entirely possest the Cardinal of Bourbon that because the King of Navarre was an Heretick he had the Confidence to tell King Henry the Third that if his Majesty should dye the Crown would belong to him and he was resolved not to lose his Right But because these Doctrines without force to practise them would prove but empty speculations the Duke of Guise had the latter end of this year a Conference with the King of Spain's Commissioners whereby he associated himself with the Spaniards against his Sovereign obliging his party to maintain War against the Kings as long as the King of Spain pleased To promote which Design Cardinal Pellevee sollicited the Pope for his approbation of it Anno 1585 and when the Duke of Nevers declared his Resolutions to have nothing to doe with them unless he had the Opinion both of Eminent Divines and the Pope too in favour of the Undertaking his Confessour and Monsieur Faber told him that he ought to take up Arms with the Leaguers by which he would be so far from sinning that he would merit highly and perform an Action very acceptable to God and the aforesaid Cardinal with other Divines assured him that the Pope approved of it declaring it lawfull to fight against Hereticks and such as favour or adhere to them though it were the King himself he indeed advised them not to attempt his Life but to seize his Person and force him to promote their Ends In obedience to which the Cardinal of Bourbon published a Declaration dated March 31. 1585. justifying his Arms but professing great Respect to the Royal Person This Pope dying his Successour Sixtus the Fifth was more open in avowing the Leaguers Cause and therefore published his Bull against the King of Navarre declaring him an Heretick depriving him and his Posterity of all their Rights absolving his Subjects from their Allegiance and excommunicating all such as should obey him While this Pope was making Tryall of his Thunderbolts in France he had his Agents privily endeavouring to execute the Commands of his Predecessour in this Nation for which Henry Piercy Earl of Northumberland being apprehended shot himself through the heart during his Imprisonment he had been pardoned for a former Rebellion and being found a prosecutour of Throgmorton's Design became this year his own Executioner But a more formidable Anno 1586 because more threacherous and secret Design was managed by some English Seminaries at Rhemes who thought it meritorious to destroy the Queen where one Savage was so wrought upon by the Persuasions of Dr. Gifford the Rectour and two other Priests that he vowed to murther her to whom Ballard another Priest joining treated with Mendoza the Spanish Embassadour in France about an Invasion after which he drew in Mr. Babington a rich and well accomplish'd Gentleman who desired that five more might be joined to Savage to make sure work Babington affirmed that several Counties in England were ready and being assured of Assistance from Spain they resolved that the Usurper so they termed the Queen should be sent to the other World assoon as the Invaders landed but Ballard being taken Babington resolved to effect her death immediately though Divine Providence prevented it by his apprehension who with the rest of his Companions freely confessed the Fact for which sixteen of them suffered death Yet did not this deter Mr. William Stafford at the Sollicitation of the French Ambassadour from engaging in an Enterprise of the same horrid nature which though he refused to act himself yet he directed them to one Moody who willingly embraced the motion upon Promise of Preferment from the Duke of Guise but while he was contriving a way to effect it Stafford discovered all and justified it to the Ambassadour's Face who at first denied any knowledge of it With the same diligence were the Romanists in France driving on their treasonable Designs for at a Council held by the chief Conspiratours at the Jesuites College near St. Pauls in Paris they resolved to surprise Boloign there to receive the Spaniards who should land to their Assistance A Plot was laid to secure the King as he returned from hunting and another to seize the Bastile assault the Louvre and put the King into a Convent during which Action their word was to be Let the Mass flourish and the King of Navarre
had no power in those matters and therefore commanded them to raze the Edict out of their Records and he would publish one for the same purpose by his own Authority and when the State of Genoa prohibited some seditious Meetings of Ecclesiasticks he threatened them with Excommunication and forced them to recall their Order But the Venetians would not be frighted by his Thunders though he threatened them with the same Censure if they did not speedily revoke their Decrees concerning the building of Churches and giving Lands to the Church which they had prohibited any to doe without the Senate's Order and required them to deliver two Clergymen whom they had imprisoned for many horrid Crimes concluding his Breve with an Assertion of his Power to deprive Kings and that he had Legions of Angels for this Assistance But when the Senate would not gratifie him in thus yielding their Rights to an Usurper Anno 1606 the Pope told their Ambassadour that the Exemption of Clergy-men from the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate was Jure divino that his Cause was the Cause of God and he would be obeyed and therefore in a Consistory of one and forty Cardinals he published a Bull of Excommunication against that State wherein he declares That by the Authority of Almighty God and the Apostles Peter and Paul the Duke and Senate of Venice if within four and twenty days after the publication of the Bull they do not revoke their Decrees are excommunicated and if they continue obstinate three days more he lays an Interdict upon the whole State forbidding the Clergy to perform Divine Offices in any part of their Dominions and threatens farther Punishments according to the sacred Canons This Bull he expected would gain his point by causing the Ecclesiasticks to withdraw themselves and that the People seeing themselves deprived of Church-Offices would run into Sedition but the Event answered not his Expectation for the People joined unanimously with the Senate but the Jesuites and others refused to celebrate Mass upon which they were banished the Dominions of Venice after which they did all they could to stir up the Common People But not succeeding in this the Pope published a Jubilee granting Indulgence to all but those of Interdicted places this he expected would make the People murmur but he was deceived in that point too so that he declared in a full Consistory that he would have War with the State of Venice and called the Spaniards to his aid but finding the Senate resolute in Defence of their Rights he was glad to recall his Bull and make a Peace with them and though he earnestly pressed for the Restauration of the Jesuites yet he could not obtain it About this time the Oath of Allegiance being established by Law the Romanists sent to Rome to know what they should doe in this Case where it was consulted by seven or eight of their learnedest Divines who all agreed that the Pope's Power of chastizing Princes is a Point of Faith and consequently cannot be denied without denying of the Faith and the Pope told Father Parsons and Fitzherbert he could not hold those for Catholicks who took the Oath which he soon after declared by his Breve addressed to the Romanists of England Septemb 22. 1606. wherein he affirms That they cannot without most evident and grievous wronging of God's Honour bind themselves by the Oath seeing it contains many things contrary to Faith and Salvation But when some Romanists who had taken it began to question the Breve Anno 1607 willing to think it was obtained from his Holiness by surreption he sent another to undeceive them wherein he blames them for entertaining such thoughts and assures them That it was written upon mature deliberation and therefore they are bound fully to observe it rejecting all interpretation to the contrary upon which several who were willing before refused it some of whom were imprisoned It is an hard thing for men accustomed to doe evil to learn to doe well which Truth Tyr-Oen is a great Example of for notwithstanding after his frequent Rebellions he was pardoned by King James and received into favour yet returning into Ireland he began new Contrivances and fearing he was discovered fled this year into Flanders which caused the King to publish a severe Proclamation against him from thence he went to Rome where he was maintained at the Pope's charge this his death This same Year Parsons published his Treatise tending to Mitigation wherein he labours to take off the imputation of rebellious Principles from the Romanists and yet he tells us in the same Book That this is Catholick Doctrine that in publick Perils of the Church and Common-Wealth Christ our Saviour hath not left us wholly remediless but besides the natural Right which each Kingdom hath to defend themselves in certain cases he left also supreme Power in his High Priest and immediate Substitute to direct and moderate that Power and to add also of his own when extraordinary Need requireth though with great deliberation Where we have a plain justification of the Pope and People's Power to depose and resist their Princes a most excellent Argument to clear the Papists of Disloyalty Though we find no Plots discovered this year in England yet in Transilvania the Jesuites were employed in poisoning Stephen Potscay the Prince And in France Father Cotton recommended a Spaniard to the King who had not been in the Court many hours when the King had Intelligence of his coming from Barcellona purposely to poison him upon this he sent for Father Coton who desired his Majesty not to give any Credit to the advice and when the King ordered him to produce the Spaniard he pretended to seek him but at his return told his Majesty that he was escaped and he could not find him This year the Pope sent another Breve into England directed to the Arch-Priest Anno 1608 forbidding him to take the Oath and commanding him to deprive all Priests of their Faculties who took it except they immediately renounc'd it prohibiting likewise the resort of any to the Protestant Churches At the same time Divines of Italy Germany and France wrote against it all grounding their Exceptions upon this that it takes away the Pope's Power of Deposing Kings So rebellious had the Writings and Practices of the Jesuites been that the Bohemians petition'd the Emperour against them Anno 1609 and the Valesian Magistrates refused to admit them because wherever they came they disturbed the publick Peace and were under such a tie of blind Obedience that if their Superiour enjoin'd them a treasonable Attempt they must obey They had made it their Business Anno 1610 for some time to endeavour to get footing in Transilvania but when all their Importunity could not prevail they engaged several of the Nobility in a Design against the Prince's Life which proceeded so far that
several Priests were found among the dead at Edghill Battle but the Endeavours of his Holiness to encrease those miserable Confusions were managed with all imaginable Secresie while the Irish were openly commended by him and assured of his Prayers for their success in his Breve to Owen O Neal dated Octob. 8. 1642. and so willing was he to lay hold on all occasions for the exercising his Deposing Power that because the Prince of Parma offended him he declared him to have incurred the greater Excommunication and deprived him of all his Dominions and Dignities But not content with sending the forementioned Breve to O Neal Anno 1643 his Holiness granted a Bull of plenary Indulgence May 25. 1643. to all the Catholicks in Ireland Anno 1644 who joined in the Rebellion which was prosecuted as fiercely as the Pope could desire and a defence of it set forth by an Irish Jesuite in Portugal Anno 1645 though the Title-page mentions Franckfort who asserts That the English Kings have no Title or Right to Ireland that if they had yet it is the Duty of the Irish to deprive them of their Rights seeing they are declared Hereticks Anno 1607 and Tyrants that this Power of deposing such Princes is inherent in every State but if the Authority of the Holy See be added to that Power none but a Fool or an Heretick will deny what the Doctours of Divinity and of the Civil and Canon Law do generally teach and which is confirmed by Reasons and Examples And so far did the Pope approve of the Contents of this Book that when soon after its publication the Irish had submitted to the King and promised to assist him in his Wars His Holiness by his Nuncio took upon him to be their General absolved them from their Oaths and imprisoned and threatened the Lives of those who had promoted the peace and desired to return to the King's Subjection which renewed the Rebellion again and brought infinite Miseries on that bigotted Nation At the same time above an hundred of the Romish Clergy were sent into England by Order from Rome who the better to promote the Divisions there were instructed in several Trades both handicraft and others these upon their arrival were ordered to disperse themselves and give Intelligence every month to their Superiours abroad accordingly they listed themselves in the Parliament Army and kept a constant correspondence with their Brethren Anno 1609 who for the same end served under the King The next year many of these Missioners were in consultation with those in the King's Army to whom they shewed their Bulls and Licenses for taking part with the Parliament about the best methods to advance their Cause Anno 1647 and having concluded that there was no way so effectual as to dispatch the King some were sent to Paris to consult the Faculty of Sorbonne about it who return'd this Answer That it is lawfull for Roman Catholicks to work Changes in Governments for the Mother Church's advancement and chiefly in an Heretical Kingdom and so they might lawfully make away the King which Sentence was confirmed to the same Persons by the Pope and his Council upon their going to Rome to have his Holiness's Resolution in the Point And now those of them who had before followed the King after his flight from Oxford agreed to desert the Royal Cause and as one of them inform us to ingratiate themselves with the Enemy by acting some notorious piece of Treachery and Father Carr who went by the name of Quarter-Master Laurence declared that he could with a safer Conscience join with and fight for the Round-heads than the Cavaliers in prosecution of which Resolve they dispersed themselves into all the Garisons of the King's Party to endeavour the Revolt of the Soldiers to the Parliament in which they succeeded as they had projected my Authour being one of those who seduced the Wallingford Horse from their Obedience and in Scotland the Lord Sinclare a pretended Presbyterian but a real Papist commanded a Regiment of his own Religion and it being a Maxim receiv'd among them That the surest way to promote the Catholick Cause was to weaken the Royal Party and advance the other they bent all their Endeavours to expedite and accelerate the King's Death and His Majesty having in the Treaty of the Isle of Wight consented to pass five strict Bills against Popery the Jesuites in France at a general meeting there presently resolved to take off his Head and this His Majesty had notice of by an Express from thence but two days before his removal from the Isle of Wight This Year Mr. Cressey published the Reasons of his leaving the Church of England and turning Romanist wherein obviating the Objection so often made against the Romanists about their rebellious Principles and Practices he sets down a Declaration which he affirms that they were all ready to subscribe and which differs but little from our Oath of Allegiance But here we may see what Credit can be given to the representations of their Doctrines which their Writers study to make as favourable as possible For though Mr. Cressy thought himself a good Representer in this point yet his Superiours were of another mind and therefore that Edition was soon bought up and in the next the Profession of Obedience quite left out and that this was not an omission of the Printer but the action of his Superiours we are assured by an honourable Person from Mr. Cressy's own mouth and we shall find in a little time that the same form hath been condembed by the Pope himself But the ensuing year Anno 1648 as it was dolefull to the English Nation so it brought great disturbances to the most potent Princes of Europe in France the Parisians rose in Arms shot at the Lord Chancellour Sequier and wounded his Daughter barricadoed the Streets and forced the King to set the Counsellour Broussell and other factious Persons at Liberty And at the Treaty at Osnebrugh when by several Articles of the Peace the possession of Church Lands were assured to the Protestant Princes the Pope displeased with it took upon him to make void the Peace by a special Bull declaring all those Articles unjust and of no Force and commanding the Princes concerned to observe his Bull in which he renews his Claim to the superiority over Princes and particularly the Emperour not only by the Bull in general but by asserting that ‖ the Electours of the Empire were established by the Authority of the Bishop of Rome But to come to their Contrivances in England where when several Papists had subscribed to some Propositions importing the unlawfulness of murthering Princes and breaking Faith with Hereticks and that the Pope hath no power to absolve Subjects from their Allegiance the very same with the Declaration published the year before by Mr. Cressy this Action was condemned at Rome