THE Damnable Principle OF THE JESUITES Touching the MURDERING OF KINGS Fully laid open in Two Eminent Instances de facto by their own Confession As troops of Robbers wait for a Man so the Company of Priests murder in the way by Consent Hosea 6.9 LONDON Printed for Will. Bowtel at the Sign of the Star near Mercers Chapel in Cheapside 1679. THE JESUITES Ghostly Wayes c. BEfore the Advent of Jesuites saies France of their Catholick Church we never understood what it was to destroy Kings and Princes That is a Merchandise indeed too horrid for any Christian people to deal in but yet it seems not so bad as to deter Jesuites from having to do with it And as it first of all came out of their shops by that wicked Vow of blind Obedience which they made to their Superiours so they dearly love still to keep up that traffick because of the no small gain it brings in to them here and they are the absolute lovers of this world and besides that like Paper and Packthread Heaven when they tramp out of this life is thrown in to the bargain and given them as the last Recompence of all their Meritorious Deeds and Services so that now Kings and Princes seem to hold the tenure of their lives at the will of two Landlords God and the Jesuites and either of them may turn them out of Possession whensoever they think fit I have made choice of these two ensuing Stories being I think as remarkable as almost any in History and there are not a few to show you how bloodily they are bent both in their Natures and by their Function against all that are not of the same damnable Faith with them not sparing even so much as sacred Majesty for whom they ought to have a continual Reverence and Dread as being the peculiar Seals of Gods more immediate impress of himself especially too when he has so strictly charged us all not so much as to touch his Anointed that is not to do them the least hurt or prejudice no not even in our thoughts and certainly then much less to come near them with blood-thirsty and violent hands He who made the Humble Remonstrance and Request to the then French King being extreamly desirous to make it appear that the Jesuites were most Calumniously accused of having attempted against thâ— life of the Queen of England saies thus As for the English those who have writ the truth have testified our fidelity and have not dared to accuse us of attempting any thing against the Queen in her estate and those who would fain calumniate us know not how to fix their lyes and forgeries upon any of our deportments by any probable Reason of truth But however I will make it out that that Jesuite is a Second Herodotus and I confer no flight and trivial honour on him when I compare him to that great person who 't is thought was the father or author of the lying and fabulous History William Parry Doctor of the Civil Law a man of smart parts but as it is said of him of profuse wastfulness ryot Speed's Chron. in Q. Eliz an Dom. 1584. f. 1157.94 and prodigality after he had eat and drank out his own estate and consumed the greatest part of his two widows fortunes and wounded his creditor Hugh Hare a Gentleman of the Temple by committing burglary for which fact he was condemned to dye but by the compassion and tenderness of the Queen upon his suing for it got his reprieve of life he was deliberating with himself what course to take and at last resolved to fly his Countrey and to sail for France And being got to the City of Paris and desirous to screw himself into a familiarity with some English Gentlemen fugitives likewise from their own Countrey for the sake of their Religion they were somewhat shie at first how they entertained him not knowing but that he might come expresly to them to spy out their actions which made them send him to Lyons and afterwards to Venice where being an English-man he was put to the Inquisition But he gave so good an Account of his Catholick Religion that his Judges thought it their duty to send him back being well beloved by all the Catholicks and by Father Benedicto Palmio a Jesuite of great reputation among them he took up a hellish resolution to fall from his natural allegiance and wholly to devote himself to the interests of the See of Rome and to confirm this absolutely to them he projected to kill the Queen and by the same means to set fire to the four corners of England grounding this his enterprize here both to deliver his Countrey from the tyranny under which it groaned and to advance to the Crown the Queen of Scots a Catholick Princess who had lately married Prince Dauphine and who laying her title from Margaret the eldest daughter of King Henry the seventh linked in marriage with James the fourth King of that name she being the daughter of King James the fifth his son was the nearest in blood and the lawful heir to the crown of England An opinion that came from his own instinct without ever having before his departure communicated it to the Queen of Scots as since he confessed in the prison But because this enterprize was somewhat arduous and difficult and his conscience was not so stiffed but that it gave him now and then bitter remorses he went to confer about it with Palmio who according to the common maxime of his sect not only did not dissuade him from it but greatly confirmed him in it and told him that in such a matter as that was only length of time could be prejudicial Whereupon he packs away again to Lyons and discovering his design to the Jesuites he is mightily commended and honoured by them Some little time after he returns to Paris where some English Gentlemen fugitives being acquainted with his intention began to imbrace and hug him in their arms among the rest one Thomas Morgan who assured him that within a short time after he should be in England and should have executed his business he would give order for a puissant army of Scots to come thither to secure the Kingdom to the Queen of Scots Now although Parry seemed to be resolved on all things yet he could not sometimes keep out the stings that gnawed and tore his conscience And therefore he communicated it to some persons of the English Church all of whom disswaded him from it especially a learned Priest named Watell who wisely remonstrated to him that all the rules of God and of the world were repugnant and contrary to that his deliberation In so great an irresolution he resolves to inquire and take advice of the Jesuites of Paris among whom he addresses himself to father Hannibal Coldretto to whom he discoursed in confession his first intention and the incertainty and disquiet into which Watel had reduced him But the Jesuite who never
wanted perswasive reasons to urge on such a wickedness affirmed to him that Watel and all others who went about to fill his soul with such kind of frivolous scruples were Hereticks And having set all things to rights again made him according to their usual manner receive the communion with some other Lords Parry being fully satisfied now in his mind takes his leave of them and comes back for England resolved to put his Treason into effect The better to accomplish which he sought out all the ways he could think of to get to kiss the Queens hand saying he had something to communicate to her Majesty of very great importance and which he could deliver to none but her self This was about February in the year 1583. And in short at the last he got himself introduced into her presence he discoursed to her in full length the particularities of his voyage and how counterfeiting himself to be a fugitive he had made a discovery of all the practices and conspiracies which the English Catholicks had contrived against her Majesty and also that he had promised them to be the first that should undertake her death which had gained him great credit among them But for all that he would sooner choose a thousand tortures than sully his soul with so damnable a thought He was a man of good Oratory and could deliver himself excellently well upon any thing of a fine graceful presence and who was prepared beforehand with all things which he should have to say to her The Queen who did not want spies knew very well that one part of his story was true enough which made her give the more credit to all the rest She gave him the honour to be near her person and commanded him not to go out of her Court but in the mean time try to feel the pulse of her enemies by his insinuating letters All this he promised to do with the greatest faithfulness in the world and upon those promises feeding that Princess with lyes he often had the priviledge of her ear One day she being a hunting with some Ladies he follow'd her close without ever suffering his eye to lose sight of her and as she was got a pretty way off from her company having light off her Horse a little to refresh herself at the foot of a Tree in a Wood Parry being near her was twice in the mind to have killed her but he was hindered at that time through the thoughts and prospect of the frequent privacy she permitted him to have with her Another time walking with her after supper in the garden of her Palace called White-hall which is next to the Thames where he had a Boat waiting on him to save himself after he had given the fatal blow as he sought his opportunity the Queen gave him the go-by after the manner you shall now hear He thought to have done his business within a little time after it beginning then to grow duskish and when he had got her down to the bottom of the Garden then to murder her but she was from that time making up towards her Palace telling him that it was high time for her to be in her Chamber being afraid of blasts and that she was the next morning early to be let blood by the advice of her Physicians and withal laughing said that they would not take so much blood away from her as many in the world desired they should at these words she withdraws leaving Parry in a great astonishment and confusion in having let slip so fair an opportunity and convenience for him to perform his bloody and damnable design Now as carried himself after this manner to the Queen imagining he stood in need of a confident to second him he addressed himself to one Edmund Nevill his friend a worthy Gentleman who suffered in the afflictions of England for his Religion whom he went often to visit and after he had made him solemnly swear upon the Holy Gospel not to reveal a word of what he should tell him he discovered to him by little and little his intention and the summ if he would be one with him of the confederacy and how that he had as much reason as most people to resent the injuries which had been done him in particular and that it was the true and only means of re-establishing the Catholick Religion in England as also to establish the Queen of Scots there too That in doing so good a deed they should both have a pretty large share in the spoyl Nevill not being able well to digest that new counsel Parry asked him if he had never read the book of Father Allen which animated his resolutions and every word of which was a warrant for his prepared mind and every line taught that Kings might be deprived excommunicated and violently deposed in case of the Religion of Rome and that civil wars upon that sacred account were honourable I have said he a very easie access to the Queen as also you may have as soon as you will make your self known at Court After we shall have given the fatal blow we will slip our selves into a boat which I have continually waiting on me at the stairs and from thence we will get into some Vessel that will then be putting out to sea This is a thing which we may both do upon my honour without the least disturbance Nevill still entertaining him with fair promises but yet without absolutely giving him an assurance that he would do it or a flat denyal that he would not In short he thought it was not safe for him any longer to delay the time without advertising the Queen of it to whom the eighth day of February 1584. he related all that had passed between him and Parry who was then at Supper with the Earl of Essex The Queen extreamly surprized commanded Walsingham her chief Secretary of State to apprehend them both but however to treat mildly with Parry to see if peradventure he could get out the truth from him which he did remonstrating to him how that the Queen had received some hew Intelligence of a Conspiracy against her And because the Malecontents had some confidence in him he desired him to tell him if he had heard nothing of it Two or three times being interrogated upon that matter he said he had never heard one syllable of it If he had confessed the Intrigue between him and Nevil and for an excuse had added that what he had done was purely through disguise and by way of dissimulation and he had only made use of that trick to sound the Opinions of those who concealed a discontent in their souls Walsingham said since to several persons that he would have been absolutely acquitted But having so peremptorily denyed it he then laid before him the deposition of Nevil which put him into great confusion and astonishment which obliged the Secretary to make him his guest for that night Then next morning early Parry
went to wait upon him in his Chamber and told him that he remembred he had held some discourse with Nevil touching a point of Doctrine contained in the Answer made to the Book Intituled The Execution of Justice in England in which it was proved that for the Advancement of the Catholick Religion it was lawful to take away the life of a Prince but that as to him he had never spoken a word of any design against the Queen But yet Parry and Nevil are sent to two several Prisons with interdiction to their Keepers not to let any whosoever to come near either of them but those the Queen shall appoint The former for having concealed six Months and above this Conspiracy the other for the Treason whereof he was charged and accused Both of them are interrogated and afterwards upon request made to them gave their Confessions in writing Nevil the tenth of February Parry the eleventh and the thirteenth That of Nevil containing the subornations and pursuits of Parry to the utmost of his power that of Parry how he had at first projected this Treason in Venice incouraged to it by the exhortations of the Jesuite Palmio afterwards confirmed by the Jesuites of Lyons and last of all positively concluded on by the instigations of Hannibal Coldretto and other Jesuites of Paris whereupon that devotion he had been first confessed and afterwards he received the Communion And it is a thing which methinks ought not to be buried in silence that being interrogated by his Judges he confessed that when he first of all discoursed with the Queen about the Conspiracies which the Fugitive Catholicks contrived against her to be re-instated in their houses she made him answer that her Opinion had never obliged hâ—r to treat any person ill for Religion unless under that colour and pretence they endeavoured to attempt against her and her Kingdom and that for the future none should be punished for holding the Supremacy of the Pope so long as they behaved themselves like good and faithful Subjects Nevil being re-examined and brought face to face to Parry persisted firmly in his deposition But it was a thing absolutely superfluous and needless for Parry had sufficiently confessed it also there were found in his house several Missives Instructions and Memorials that condemned him Likewise during his imprisonment he wrote Letters to the Queen by which he most humbly intreated her to be pleased to pardon the fault but not the penalty he deserved He had for his Judges Sir Christopher Wray Knight Lord Chief Justice of England Speeds Chron. f. 1158. n. 99. Parries Letter to the Lords of the Council and several other Lords appointed for that purpose who made him to come from the Prison to Westminster and there being again interrogated in the presence of all the people he confessed the Treason Also his precedent confessions were read before him his missives that were sent to him for that effect and other pieces which were any wayes serviceable for the clearer proving of the crime adding that there was not any Conspiracy since the first year of the Queens Reign as touching Religion in which he was not concerned excepting that of the Agnus Dei and that besides that he had set down his Opinion in writing concerning the Successor of the Crown to induce the people to Rebellion This criminal Cause was in hearing from the eighth of February 1584. unto the five and twentieth On which day Parry was condemned to be hanged by the Neck and that the rope should be presently cut and he should be Bowelled to have his Entrails flung into the fire and burnt before his eyes afterwards to have his Head cut off and his Body set at four quarters of the Town and that from the Prison he should be drawn on a Sledge through the City of London unto the place of Execution That Sentence was then pronounced but yet not immediately Executed The second of March Parry was put into the hands of the Executioner He being advertised of this by the Sheriffes of London and Middlesex as if he were going to his Nuptials and to meet at the place of his Execution the Mistris of his dearest Vows dressed himself up in a long morning Gown of black Damask and put about the neckband of his Shirt a great starched Ruff such as was then wore and in fashion And taking his leave of the other Prisoners with a smooth and pleasant countenance he made a Present to the Goaler of a Ring in which was set in Gold a rich Diamond with these words That he was very sorry he was not in a capacity of gratifying him better After that he was drawn upon a Sledge and having mounted the Ladder it is reported he prayed the Executioner putting the Rope about his neck himself not to rumple and disorder his Ruff. Thus dyed that great Martyr of the Jesuites to be sure not promising to himself any thing less than a Celestial Paradise for so detestable an enterprise in it self though set out to himself as Sacred and as Meritorious a piece of Service as almost was possible to be performed So worthy was it that Raggazzoni the Pope's Nuntio promised him so Catholick and pious an undertaking should not be forgot at their Altars and so Meritorious as that it did not only find his Holiness his appprobation but it stirred up the Pope to give him readily and as it were by divine commission the Absolution of all his sins upon the first solicitation of Cardinal Como And because the Letter does come in here so pat to the purpose methinks I cannot in Justice deny you the seeing of it as it is Translated from the Original Italian and inserted in Speeds Chron. In loc qu. sup Cardinal Como's Letter to Parry SIr His Holiness hath seen your Letter of the first with the Assurance included and cannot but commend the good disposition and Resolution which you write to hold towards the Service of the Church and publick benefit wherein his Holiness doth exhort you to persevere with causing to be brought to effect that which you promise And to the end you may be so much the more enabled by that good Spirit which hath moved you thereunto his Holiness doth grant you Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all your sins according to your request Assuring you that besides the merit that you shall receive therefore in Heaven his Holiness will further make himself debtor to acknowledge and requite your deservings by all the best means he may And that so much the more in that you use the more modesty in not pretending any thing Put therefore into effect your holy and honourable determinations and attend your health And to conclude I offer my self unto you heartily and with all good and happy success From Rome the xxx of January 1584. At your disposing N. Card. de Como BUt you shall now hear another worse Tragedy acted against the same Gracious Queen which was an Assassination
prayers dead or alive After he had again imbraced him about the neck Squire took his leave of Wallpoole and within a short time after set sail for England Now the instruction which the Jesuite had given him was of a poison put into a double bladder which also then he presented him with charging him not to touch it but with thick double Gloves upon his hands that so he may not poison and destroy himself for it is reported that the vigour of it was such as neither continuance of time nor subtilty of air was able to check or un-virtuate the strength And when the Queen was resolved to ride abroad he should prick the bladders full of holes and so then rub the poison as he pressed it out upon the pommel of the Queen's Saddle assuring himself that the Queen must of necessity lay her hand on that and then in all probability at one time or another bringing up her hand to her mouth or to some part of her face the poison would get such access to her as most certainly to be her death that he must also do the like to the Earl of Essex who was making ready to go to Cadiz and had raised several Troops when Squire arrived at England who presented himself to a Privy Counsellour and being pretty favourably received at his arrival he was consulting how to put in execution his hellish design against the Queen before the Earls embarking into whose retinue he was resolved to put himself if possibly he could thinking that if the poison would not do its work under some length of time and it should have its operation during his absence he might not be any ways suspected Upon this reflection he watches all opportunities to effect his design and one day hearing the Queen had a mind to ride abroad he ran presently to the stable yard where he found the Horse already Saddled that she was to ride on but he pretending to mend something he saw amiss about the Horse laid his hand upon the pummel of her Saddle and bruising the Poison out of the Bladders he rubs the pommel with it exactly following the direction which had been given him by his Father Confessour and as he was busie about his work he says aloud and chearfully God save the Queen reiterating those words several times over But it pleased the Almighty who had already delivered her from manifold dangers to continue still his wonted and wonderful protection to her keeping her in safety under the shadow of his wings for although the season was then very hot being in the month of July and so consequently the veins more open and ready to receive any malignant influences yet was she unhurt and as God shut up the mouths of the Lyons that they should not touch Daniel the servant of the most high so had he ordered that poison otherwise so strong and powerful not to have the least vertue which was proper to it She remained well as ever and it had no more power over her than Nebuchadnezzars fiery furnace had over the bodies of those three faithful and famous persons who had not so much as a hair of their head singed neither were their coats changed nor indeed had so much as the smell of the fire passed on them for God had sent his Angel to preserve them But for all this that wicked wretch did not leave off hoping but that it would have its designed effect in time Therefore without any mistrust Squire taking the remainder of the poison within six days after imbarques and as the Eâ—rl was at Sea betwixt Faiel and Saint Michaels a little before dinner time he rubs the Pommels of a wooden Chair wherein this Earl did usually sit at meals with the same confection This being done it happened that at Supper the Earl finding himself a little indisposed Squire was cock sure in his thoughts that he had effectually done his work But he was also deceived herein for it pleased God to preserve him safe in making the poison of no force at all In the mean time some months slipped away and Wallpool could hear no news of the death of the Queen wherefore then beginning to suspect that Squire had only abused him he was taking thought how to be revenged on him and he sent expresly an English-man over who pretending that he had stole away from the Spanish Inquisition by parcels and retail told them all the conspiracy and that he had made his escape on purpose to give the Queen information of it Although at the first they looked upon this as a trick invented by some of Squire 's enemies yet it being a business of so high an importance they judged it a thing not to be despised Squire was sent for and examined to know the truth of the matter he at first too denies all but close circumstances being put to him and his conscience withal working he confesses the whole business and how far he had gone in it which was impossible ever to have been found out but by himself he having none privy to his Treason and at the Bar he had his sentence of death passed upon him and was accordingly executed in the year 1598. a revenge truly worthy a Jesuite to take and yet very miraculous too that our gracious Queen should not have any intelligence of that Treason but by him who was the first designer of it And if Richeome would take my counsel he should put in this miracle too to help fill up his Book FINIS