the King and inform'd him of the Business Whereupon conjecturing as well he might that they meant himself he privately got away with speed and absented himself from his Lodging in Drury-Lanâ— that night and returning thither next night for some necessaries was like to have been Assassinated by one Stratford On the 9th at Night he met Mr. Kirkby and Dr. Tonge at the Flying-Horse in Kings-Street Westminser whither for the present he had retired and then for his security went over with Mr. Kirkby to Fox-Hall where he and Dr. Tonge continued During this time Dr. Oates wrote fair Copies of his Informations and Dr. Tonge in vain sought to give in farther Informations to the Treasurer but were both and Mr. Kirkby also much perplexed with apprehensions of the danger they were in and discouragements they had met with Till on the 27th at Night one of the Treasurers Servants meeting Mr. Kirkby acquainted him he was come for Dr. Tonge to go to the Council who with Mr. Kirkby immediately went but the Council was risen before they came and order given them to attend next day Whereupon they resolved next Morning to get two more Copies Sworn unto that each man might have an Authentick Copy which accordingly they did being 28th of Sept. before Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey who would needs keep one of them having never before perused the said Informations Then first Dr. Tonge and Mr. Kirkby and afterwards Dr. Oates being sent for attended the Council who upon Examination of Dr. Oates were pleased to order both him and Dr. Tonge Lodgings in White-Hall for their Security and proceeded to examine and enquire further into the matter Post varios Casus post tot Discrimina Rerum Tendimus adversus Latium CHAP. VII The nature and scope of the Plot in general laid open SECT 1. THE design in general was by Fire and Sword when all other means fail'd to subvert the Establisht Government and Religion of these Kingdoms and to reduce the same to Popery so as no Toleration should be given to any Protestant but all to be Extirpated Root and Branch The chief Conspirators that design'd and were to carry on this were 1. The present Pope Innocent the Eleventh who in the Congregation de propaganda fide consisting of about 350 persons held about December 1677. Declared all his Majesties Dominions to be part of St. Peters Patrimony as forfeited to the Holy See for the Meresie of the Prince and People and so to be disposed of as he should think fit 2. Our English Cardinal Howard whom in pursuance of such Declaration his Holiness appointed as his Legate to take Possession of England in his Name he likewise made him Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with an augmentation of Forty-thousand Crowns a year for the maintenance of his Legantine Authority He had also Constituted Bishops and Dignitaries for all or most of the Sees and Ecclesiastical promotions in England As Perrot Superior of the Secular Priests to be Arch-Bishop of York Corker Bishop of London Whitebread of Winchester Strange of Durham Dr. Godden of Salisbury Napper a Franciscan Fryar of Norwich c. Removing all the Bishops in possession from their present Dignities 3. Johannes Paulus de Oliva Father-General of the Jesuits Society residing at Rome who was to give directions to the Provincial of the Jesuits in London how to proceed in this affair 4. Pedro Jeronymo de Corduba Provincial of the Jesuits in New Castile who was to assist with Counsel and Money and to mis-represent the Actions and Intentions of his Majesty of Great Britain in the Spanish Court to create Jealousies and Feuds between the two Crowns which likewise was to be done by a Jesuit that is Confessor to the Emperour in Relation to England and that Court 5. Le Chese a Jesuit Confessor to the French King with whom Coleman holding Correspondence discover'd to him all the Secrets of State he could and by his means endeavour'd to obtain a Pension from the French King for his good Services in betraying his Native Countrey 6. The Provincial of the Jesuits for the time being in England which of late was first Strange and then Whitebread 7. The Benedictine Monks at the Savoy ' where they had erected them a Colledge to such a degree of Confidence were they arriv'd 8. Jesuits and Seminary-Priests of whom there were about that time in England the number of Eighteen-hundred and were generally privy to the main design though perhaps not all acquainted with particulars 9. Several Lay-persons of Quality drawn in out of Zeal Ambition Covetousness Revenge c. to joyn with them to Command the Forces they were to raise and execute the great Offices of the Realm As the Lord Arundel of Warder to be Lord Chancellor of England The Lord Powis Lord Treasurer Sir William Godolphin Lord-Privy-Seal Edward Coleman Secretary of State Lord Bellasis General Lord Peters Lieutenant General Sir Francis Ratcliff Major General John Lambert Adjutant-General Langhorn Advocate-General c. who had Commissions sent them Sealed by Paulus d' Oliva from Rome The work was so great and in their apprehension so glorious that the most Eminent of the Popish Clergy in Europe were engaged in it so that it cannot be said to be an Act or Contrivance of any few particular persons but an Vnanimous undertaking of their whole Church and so it must be Recorded to Posterity to their everlasting shame SECT 2. The means whereby they resolv'd to accomplish it were 1. By Killing the King finding they could not work him to their purpose and therefore to remove him they laid several distinct Plots and all to be kept unknown to each other As 1. Grove and Pickering to Shoot him 2. Conyers and Anderton Benedictine Monks and four Irish Russians to Stab him 3. To Poison him for which purpose 5000 l. was entred in their Books as paid to Sir George Wakeman in part of 15000 l. Reward which he was to have for that Horrid work by vertue of a Contract made with him in the presence of Coleman and Dr. Fogarthy As for the Duke of York they concluded to make use of his Name and Interest if he would comply with them 1. To accept of the Three Kingdoms as a gift from the Pope and hold them in Fee of him 2ly If he would Confirm their Settlement of the Church and State 3dly If he would Exterminate all Protestants 4thly If he would Pardon the Murtherers of his Brother the Murtherers of the People and those who should Fire the remaining part of the City and Suburbs 2. For that was the second particular of their work to Fire London and Westminster and places adjoyning thereunto as also other the chief Cities and Towns of England immediately on the Killing of his Majesty and lay the whole load both of the Murther and Firing on the Presbyterians and Fanaticks thereby provoking the Episcopal men to joyn with them to cut them off that so Protestants being weakned by their own Feuds they might
greatest hopes of Success against our Religion in the Enemies thereof the Papists are founded in the execrable Designs which they have laid against the Sacred Person and Life of your Majesty which it is not onely our Duty but our Interest with the greatest hazards to preserve and defend We have applyed our selves to the making such provision by Law as may defeat these Popish Adversaries their Abettors and Adherents of their hopes of gaining an advantage by any violent attempts against your Majesty and may utterly frustrate their expectation of Subverting the Protestant Religion thereby in time to come And further to obviate by the best means we can all wicked practices against your Majesty whilest any such Lawes are in preparation and bringing to perfection It is our resolution and we do Declare That in defence of your Majesties Person and the Protestant Religion we will stand by your Majesty with our Lives and Fortunes and shall be ready to Revenge upon the Papists any violence offered by them to your Sacred Majesty in which we have your Majesty will gratiously please to be the more assured as We our Selves are the more encouraged in that the Hearts of all your Majesties Protestant Subjects with the most sincere affection and zeal joyn with us herein But this Zeal of the House of Commons running to so high a pitch touching the Succession together with some unhappy misunderstandings arising between them and the House of Lords concerning the Tryal of the Popish Lords and Earl of Danby as shall be related in the next Chapter His Majesty to allay the same was pleased first to Prorogue and then to put a period to them by a Dissolution of that Parliament by a Proclamation dated at Windsor the 12th of July 1679. But therein graciously declaring that a New one should be called to begin and be holden on Tuesday the 7th which was afwards altered to Friday the 17th of October CHAP. XVII The Proceedings against the Popish Lords in the Tower WE have before related the Commitment of these Lords to the Tower for High Treason after which followed this Vote in the House of Commons in the old Parliament Decemb. 5th 1678. Resolved That the House do proceed by way of Impeachment of High Treason and other High Crimes and Misdemeanours against the Lord Arundel of Warder Lord Powis Lord Petre Lord Bellasis and Viscount Stafford and a Committee appointed to draw up Articles of Impeachment against them Which Vote was Communicated to the House of Lords and the several Lords Charged by several Members in these words The Commons in Parliament having received Information of divers Traiterous Practices and Designs of a great Peer of this House Henry Lord Arundel of Warder have Commanded me to Impeach the said Henry Lord Arundel of Warder of High Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanours They have further Commanded me to acquaint your Lordships that they will within a convenient time exhibit to your Lordships particular Articles of the Charge against him Thus standing Impeached they continued in the Tower all the Interval of Parliament and as soon as the next Parliament was settled to Business they forgot not their Lordships For March 20th 1678. it was Ordered That a Committee of Secrecy be appointed to take further Evidence and prepare Articles against the Lords in the Tower who stand Impeached of High Treason and take such further Informations as they shall receive touching the Plot in general and the Death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey and that this Committee have power to send for Persons Papers and Records and that they sit de die in diem and the Quorum to be Three The Articles at last Exhibited were as follows Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and other high Crimes and Offences against William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis now Prisoners in the Tower THat for many Years now last past there hath been contrived and carried on a Traiterous and Execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England and other places to alter change or subvert the Antient Government and Laws of this Kingdom and Nation and to suppress the true Religion therein established and to Extirpate and destroy the Professors thereof which said Plot and Conspiracy was contrived and carried on in divers places and by several ways and means and by a great number of Persons of several Qualities and Degrees who acted therein and intended to execute and accomplish the aforesaid Wicked and Traiterous Designs and Purposes That the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis together with Philip Howard commonly called Cardinal of Norfolk Thomas White aliàs Whitebread commonly called Provincial of the Jesuits in England Richard Strange late Provincial of the Jesuits in England Vincent commonly called Provincial of the Dominicans in England James Corker commonly called President of the Benedictines Sir John Warner aliàs Clare Baronet William Harcourt John Keines Nicholas Blundel Pole Edward Mico Thomas Beddingfield Bazil Langworth Charles Peters Richard Peters John Conyers Sir George Wakeman John Fenwick Dominick Kelly Fitz Gerald Evers Sir Thomas Preston William Lovel Jesuits Lord Beltamore John Carrel John Townely Richard Langhorn William Foggarty Thomas Penny Matthew Medbourn Edward Coleman William Ireland John Grove Thomas Pickering John Smith and divers others Jesuits Priests and Fryars and other persons as false Traitors to his Majesty and this Kingdom within the time aforesaid have Traiterously consulted contrived and acted to and for the accomplishing of the said wicked pernicious and Traiterous Designs and for that end did most wickedly and Traiterously agree conspire and resolve to Imprison Depose and Murther his Sacred Majesty and to deprive him of his Royal State Crown and Dignity and by malicious and advised speaking writing and otherwise declared such their Purposes and Intentions and also to subject this Kingdom and Nation to the Pope and his Tyrannical Government And to seize and share amongst themselves the Estates and Inheritances of his Majesties Protestant Subjects and to Erect and Restore Abbies Monasteries and other Convents and Societies which have been long since by the Laws of this Kingdom supprest for their Superstition and Idolatry and to deliver up and restore to them the Lands and Possessions now Invested in his Majesty and his Subjects by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And also to Found and Erect new Monasteries and Convents and to remove and deprive all Protestant Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Persons from their Offices Benefices Preferments and by this means to destroy his Majesties Person extirpate the Protestant Religion overthrow the Rights Liberties and Properties of his Majesties good Subjects Subvert the Lawful Government of this Kingdom and subject the same to the Tyranny of the See of Rome That the said Conspirators and their Complices and Confederates Traiterously had and held several Meetings
friend of mine and his that he was freed from his durance within the space of six Months And within these four or five years as far as my friend and I could judge tampering much with Independents in and about London was seen several times by a friend of mine at Doctor Mantons private Lectures in or near the Lord Whartons House still known by the name of John White He spake as good English as any Native and knew all Cities Towns Villages Hamlets in a manner in all or most part of England Sir This is the sum of the Relation I made to your Friend I bless God I was never noosed in his snare but rather confirmed in our true Christian Principles in which I pray God continue stedfast both you and Your loving Friend CHAP. XIX The Procedings against Richard Langhorn Esq THis Gentleman was a Counsellor at Law of the Temple and Transacted much business for the Jesuits being well skill'd in Conveyancing He was oft imployed by divers of the Catholick Gentry and almost his whole practice lay between Papists and Quakers for of the latter many of the most eminent frequently resorted to him for Advice and Direction He was Committed to Newgate by the Lords of the Privy-Council by a Warrant dated the seventh of October 78. for High-Treason and on the first of Nov. he had a Son named likewise Richard Langhorn sent to the same Goal under the same Charge who there still remains having not yet been brought to his Tryal The Father came on at the Sessions in the Old-Bailey on Saturday the 14th of June 1679. being next day after the Conviction of Whitebread and his Associates The Jury consisted of able Citizens of London viz. Arthur Young Edward Beeker Robert Twyford Tho. Barnes Francis Neeve John Hall William Yapp John Kirkham Peter Pickering George Sitwell James Wood Richard Cauthorn As for the Proofs against this Prisoner they were as home and positive as against the rest 1. Dr. Oates declares how he came acquainted with him by bringing him See the Tryal P. 9. Letters from his Sons from a Seminary in Spain and then swears That Langhorn did hold Correspondence with Le Chese and others and that the Witnesses carried several Letters to persons beyond the Seas in one of which he saw under his own hand words to this purpose That now they had a fair opportunity to begin or give the blow with other expressions plain enough concerning the Plot and these he saw signed Richard Langhorn and that the Prisoner himself delivered them to him 2. That he had order from the Provincial to give Mr. Langhorn an Account P. 10. of the Resolve of the Jesuits Consult for Killing the King and that he did acquaint him therewith and that the said Langhorn thereupon lift up his Hands and Eyes and prayed to God to give it a good success 3. That he saw at his Chamber certain Commissions which they call Patents P. 11. and that on his desire he permitted the Witness to peruse several of them and that there as one Commission to the Lord Arundel of Wardour and another to the Lord Powis for the one to be Lord Chancellour and the other Lord Treasurer of England and one to Mr. Langhorn himself to be Advocate of the Army and that they were signed Johannes Paulus d'Oliva by Vertue of a Brief from the Pope and Mr. Langhorn also told him that he had sent one of these Commissions by his Son to be delivered to the Lord Arundel of Wardours Son 4. That Mr. Langhorn being employed as Solicitor for several of the Fathers of P. 13. the Society did prevail with the Benedictine Monks to raise six thousand pounds for carrying on the Cause and did say in the hearing of the witness That he would do his utmost for procuring the said Money 5. That Mr. Langhorn was disgusted that Sir G. Wakeman was not content with ten thousand pound to poison the King and call'd him narrow-spirited narrow-soul'd Physician for being a publick concern and to carry on the Cause it was no matter if he did it for nothing 6. An Instrument was produced in Court signed by Paulus d'Oliva found in Mr. Langhorns Chamber long after Mr. Oates had given in his Testimony Now Mr. Oates swore that the before-mentioned Commissions were signed by the same hand and had the same mark but they were all conveyed away and this being onely concerning an Ecclesiastick business wherein they thought there was no danger was left However this much confirmed Mr. Oates's Evidence by shewing that Mr. Langhorn did use to receive Patents from and had Commerce with the Superiour of the Jesuits at Rome In the next place comes Mr. Bedloe and he swears that he went with Mr. Coleman P. 19. to Mr. Langhorns Chamber and there Mr. Coleman gave him his Letters to le Chese and the Popes Nuncio and others open to read and Register in a Book by him kept for that purpose and that he saw him read these Letters which were concerning these designs in hand and that he Registred them in a Book in his Closet whilst he and Mr. Coleman walkt in the outer room and that afterwards Coleman sealed up these Letters and delivered them to the Witness who carried them to le Chese and that some of the expressions in those Letters were That all things were now in readiness and they onely wanted Money That the Catholicks were now in safety that Places and Offices had been disposed to them and that all the Garrisons either were or suddenly would be in their hands and that now they had a fair opportunity having a King so easie to believe what was dictated to him by their Party and that if they missed this advantage they might despair of ever introducing Popery into England These were the very Expressions of some of them 2. That he brought other Letters from Harcourt to Langhorn to be Registred and Langhorn writ back that he had received and would Register them of which Letters one was from the Rector of the Irish Colledge at Salamanca which specified That the Lord Bellasis and the rest concerned should be in readiness for that they had sent some Irish cashier'd Souldiers with many other Lay-Brothers under the notion of Pilgrims for St. Jago who were to take shipping at the Groin and to land at Milford-Haven in Wales and there to meet and joyn with the Lord Powis The onely defence Mr. Langhorn could maket was like that of the rest of his Party by stoudenyals and endeavouring to invalidate the credit of the Witnesses by intrapping or confronting them in point of time or place 1. He would make Doctor Oates an Approver as having been pardoned for the P. 27. same Crime and alleadged that the Witnesses had received Rewards and gratifications for swearing against them But to this the Court answered That it could not be supposed the King would Bribe his Witnesses and unless he could prove any reward
precipitate to Ruine as aforesaid consult and use all Arts to exclude him from the Succession To this purpose Father Parsons Cardinall Allen and others contrive a mischievous Book under the counterfeit Name of Doleman wherein divers Titles are started and 't is laid down as a Fundamental Maxime That none but a Roman Catholick how near soever in Blood ought to be admitted King and therefore therein by forged devices the Title of the Infanta Isabella of Spain is preferred before the indubitable Right of the said King James and all the English in the Spanish Seminaries were compell'd to Swear to maintain the same And Tho. Winter and Tesmond a Jesuit were sent over Anno 1601. into Spain to manage this Design in that Court by the Assistance of Father Croswel Legier-Jesuit there 2. In Farther pursuance of this Pope Clement the Eighth sent privately over to Father Garnet the then Proâ—incial of the Jesuits two Bulls one to the â—aiety directed to the Nobles and Gentlemen of England that were Catholicks the other to his Beloved Sons the Arch-Priest and the rest of the English Catholick Clergyâ— the effect of both was That whoever after the death of Queen Elizabeth whether by course of nature or otherwise should claim the Crown of England though never so directly and nearly interessed therein by Descent and Blood-Royal yet unless he were such an one as would not onely Tolerate the Catholick meaning Romish Religion but would likewise take an Oath to promote it with all 〈◊〉 might and endeavours they should not admit or receive him for their King but oppose his Entry and Claim with all their power Which in plain English was meerly designed and directly tended to obstruct King James though not particularly named and Exclude him and his Family from the Crown And was not this a sufficient tast of the Popes good-will a notable earnest of the Papists Loyalty to him 'T is true when the Conspirators saw him so unanimously Proclaimed the State setled and a Peace with Spain so far advanced that that generous Monarch began to refuse them the expected Assistances then and not till then Garnet as himself alleadged burnt the said Bulls and quitted the Project but why onely because they despaired of effecting it 3. The more to prepossess the minds of the English against the said King James that they might keep him out or at least that themselves might have some colour for their future intended Conspiracies if he should come in Watson a Priest having some time heretofore got access once or twice to His Majesty at Edenburgh did with the Arch-Traitor Piercy and others of the Popish Crew most falsely devise and divulge a scandalous Report as if His Majesty had promised that whenever he should come to the Crown of England He would Establish or at least Tolerate the Popish Religion Than which nothing was ever more remote from or contrary to his Royal Thoughts And Watson himself but two days before his death confessed it to be a Lie of their own forging spread abroad meerly that they might kill two Birds with one stone viz. bring an odium upon him from the Protestants for making such a promise and the like from the Papists on pretence of breaking it In which latter respect it took effect though not in the former for Sir Everard Digby at his death and other Gun-powder Traitors made use thereof alleadging that they were exasperated to that horrid Attempt because the King had not kept his promise with Catholicks SECT 2. These were the good Officer of the Pope these the dutiful respects of the Priests and Papists paid to King James before he was actually Estated in the English Throne Whence we may judge how little welcome they were like to afford him at his Entry and of this the worthy Authour of a Treatise published in the beginning of King James's Reign before the Gun-powder-Treason Intituled A Consideration of the Papists Supplication gives us a notable instance from his own Experience and Observation in these words p. 3. My self can testifie that here in Oxford at what time His Majesty was proclaimed King of England c. a man might easily have traced and culled out every Papist within this City by his extraordinary howling and sobbing for grief that their hopes were frustrated and their expectation all in vain some of the simpler sort crying out in express terms Alas alas How shall the poor Catholicks do now we are all undone we are undone whereas all the rest of His Majesties Liege and Loyal Subjects by manifold Tokens declared their extraordinary rejoycing Their demeanor afterwards was suitable to these beginnings for soon after his arrival at London the said Watson and Clark two Secular Italianated Priests wheadled in several of the Nobility and Gentry as the Lords Cobbam and Gray Sir Walter Rawleigh Sir Griffin Markham George Brooke and others into a dangerous Conspiracy to have surprized the Kings Person and his Son Prince Henry and to keep them Prisoners in the Tower or Dover Castle till by Duress they had obtained their ends viz. A Toleration of Religion and some other Projects and then having obtained their Pardons they were to share amongst them the grand Offices of the Realm just as their Successors Whitebread Coleman c. had lately designed viz. Watson was to be Lord Chancelour the Lord Gray Earl Marshal of England George Brooke Lord Treasurer Sir Griffin Markham Secretary of State c. But though several were found guilty onely Watson Clark and Brooke were then Executed and Sir Walter Rawleigh on the same Conviction many years after 'T is observable that Watson though a Secular Priest had yet learned the art of Equivocation as well as the Jesuits For he insisted that this Conspiracy was no Treason against the King and being at last put to explain himself gave this doughty reason That a King was no King before he was Anointed and the Crown solemnly set on his head and King James being not yet crowned therefore they might lawfully conspire against him without commitring any Treason Amongst other things which Watson Confessed one was that he had endeavoured to draw in several of the Society of Jesuits into this Plot but they declined it saying They had another of their own then on foot and that they would not mingle Designs with him for fear of hindring one the other Vide Watsons Confession What such their Design was though he could not yet time in few years after did discover for in the next place appears that horrid never-to-be-forgotten Popish Powder-plot a Treason that as it exceeded all that had ever been before in the World so it was believed it would have surpassed in its mischievous Design Extent and Cruelty all that teeming Hell and Rome could have bred at any time afterwards had not this last Internal Conspiracy of the same Bloâ—â—y Tribe against our present Gratious King Charles the Second and the Establisht Religion and Government of England vut-gone it in
Assemblies and Consultations wherein it was Contrived and Designed amongst them what means should be used and what Persons and Instruments should be employed to Murther his Majesty and did then and there resolve to effect it by Poisoning Shooting Stabing or some such like ways or means and offered Rewards and promises of Advantage to several Persons to Execute the same and hired and employed several Wicked Persons to go to Windsor and other places where his Majesty did reside to Murther and destroy his Majesty which said Persons or some of them accepted some Rewards and undertook the Perpetrating thereof and did actually go to the said places for that end and purpose That the said Conspirators the better to compass their Traiterous Designs have consulted to Raise and have procured and raised Men Money Horses Arms and Ammunition and also have made Application to and Treated and Corresponded with the Pope his Cardinals Nuncio's and Agents and with other Foraign Ministers and Persons to raise Tumults within this Kingdom and to Invade the same with Foraign Forces and to surprize seize and destroy his Majesties Navy Forts Magazines and places of Strength within this Kingdom Whereupon the Calamities of War Murthers of innocent Subjects Men Women and Children Burnings Rapines Devastations and other Dreadful Miseries and Mischiefs must inevitably have ensued to the Ruin and Destruction of this Nation That the said Conspirators have procured accepted and delivered out several Instruments Commissions and Powers made and granted by or under the Pope or other unlawful and usurping Authority to raise and dispose of Men Money Arms and other things necessary for their wicked and Traiterous Designs and namely a Commission to the said Henry Lord Arundel of Warder to be Lord High Chancellor of England and to the said William Earl of Powis to be Lord Treasurer of England another Commission to the said John Lord Bellasis to be General of the Army to be raised and the said William Lord Petre to be Lieutenant General of the said Army and a Power to the said William Viscount Stafford to be Paymaster of the Army That in order to encourage themselves in prosecuting their said wicked Plots Conspiracies and Treasons and to hide and hinder the discovery of the same and to secure themselves from Justice and Punishment the Conspirators aforesaid and Confederates have used many wicked and Diabolical Practices viz. They did cause their Priests to Administer to the said Conspirators an Oath of Secrecy together with their Sacrament and also did cause their said Priests upon Confession to give their Absolutions upon condition that they should conceal the said Conspiracy And when about the Month of September last Sir Edmundbury Godfrey a Justice of Peace had according to the Duty of his Oath and Office taken several Examinations and Informations concerning the said Conspiracy and Plot the said Conspirators or some of them by Advice Assistance Councel and Instigation of the rest did incite and procure divers Persons to lie in wait and persue the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey several days with intent to Murther him which at last was perpetrated and effected by them for which said horrid Crimes and Offences Robert Green Henry Berry and Lawrence Hill have since been Attainted and Dominick Kelly and Gerald are fled for the same After which Murther and before the Body was found or the Murther known to any but Complices therein the said Persons falsely gave out That he was alive and privately Married and after the Body was found dispersed a false and malicious Report that he had Murthered himself Which said Murther was Committed with design to stifle and suppress the Evidence he had taken and had knowledg of and to discourage and deter Magistrates and others from acting in the further discovery of the said Plot and Conspiracy for which end also the said Sir Edmundbury Godfrey while he was alive was by them their Complices and Favourites threatned and discouraged in his Proceedings about the same And of their further Malice they have wickedly contrived by many false Suggestions to lay the imputation and guilt of the aforesaid horrid and detestable Crimes upon the Protestants that so thereby they might escape the Punishments they have justly deserved and expose Protestants to great Scandal and subject them to Persecution and Oppression in all Kingdoms and Countries where the Roman Religion is received and professed All which Treasons Crimes and Offences above mentioned were Contrived Committed Perpetrated Acted and done by the said William Earl of Powis William Lord Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis every of them and others the Conspirators aforesaid against our Soveraign Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and against the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom Of all which Treasons Crimes and Offences the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled do in the name of themselves and of the Commons of England Impeach the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves that liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Accusations or Impeachments against the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them and also of replying to the Answers which they and every of them make to the Premises or any of them or to any other Accusation or Impeachment which shall be by them exhibited as the Cause according to course and proceedings of Parliament shall require do pray that the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them may be put to Answer all and every of the Premises and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon them and every of them had and used as shall be agreeable to Law and Justice and Course of Parliament To these Articles of Impeachment the said Lords soon after put in their several Answers as follows The several Answers of William Lord Petre now Prisoner in the Tower to the Articles of Impeachment of High Treason and other Crimes and Offences exhibited to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled Whereas the Lord above named stands Impeached by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled in the name of themselves and all the Commons in England THE said Lord in the first place and above all other protesting his Innocency The said Lord doth with all humility submit himself desiring above all things the Tryal of his Cause by this Honourable House so that he may be provided to make his just Defence for clearing of his Innocency from the great and hainous Crimes charged against him by the said Impeachment this being prayed as also liberty to correct amend and explain any thing in the
says The King the House of Lords and the House of Commons have each particular Privileges And among those which belong to the King he reckons Power of Pardoning After the enumerateing of which and other his Prerogatives His said Majesty adds thus Again That the Prince may not make use of this high and perpetual Power to the hurt of those for whose good he hath it and make use of the name of publick necessity for the gain of his private Favourites and Followers to the detriment of his People The House of Commons an excellent Conserver of Liberty c. is solely intrusted with the first Propositions concerning the Levies of Money and the Impeaching of those who for their own ends though countenanced by any surreptitiously-gotten Command of the King have violated that Law which he is bound when he knows it to protect and to the protection of which they were bound to advise him at least not to serve him in the contrary And the Lords being Trusted with a Judicatory Power are an excellent Screen and Bank between the Prince and People to assist each against any encroachments of the other and by just Judgments to preserve that Law which ought to be the Rule of every one of the three c. Therefore the Power legally placed in both Houses is more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of Tyranny c. IV. Until the Commons of England have Right done them against this Plea of Pardon they may justly apprehend that the whole Justice of the Kingdom in the Case of the Five Lords may be obstructed and defeated by Pardons of like nature V. An Impeachment is virtually the Voice of every particular Subject of this Kingdom crying out against an Oppression by which every Member of that Body is equally wounded And it will prove a Matter of ill Consequence that the universality of the People should have occasion ministred and continued to them to be apprehensive of utmost danger from the Crown from whence they of right expect Protection VI. The Commons Exhibited Articles of Impeachment against the said Earl before any against the Five other Lords and demanded Judgment upon those Articles Whereupon your Lordships having appointed the Tryal of the said Earl before that of the other Five Lords now your Lordships having since inverted that Order gives a great cause of doubt to the House of Commons and raises a Jealousie in the Hearts of all the Commons of England that if they should proceed to the Tryal of the said Five Lords in the first place not only Justice will be obstructed in the Case of those Lords but that they shall never have right done them in the matter of this Plea of Pardon which is of so fatal Consequence to the whole Kingdom and a new device to frustrate publick Justice in Parliament Which Reasons and Matters being duly weighed by your Lordships the Commons doubt not but your Lordships will receive satisfaction concerning their Propositions and Proceedings And will agree That the Commons ought not nor can without deserting their Trust depart from their former Vote communicated to your Lordships That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any Proceedings against the Lords in the Tower and when that Matter shall be settled and the Methods of Proceedings adjusted the Commons shall then be ready to proceed upon the Tryal of the Earl of Danby against whom they have already demanded Judgment and afterwards to the Tryal of the other Five Lords in the Tower May 27th 1679. The Narrative and Reasons delivered at the Conference Yesterday with the House of Commons were again read and after a long Debate the Vote of this House dated the 13th of May instant and the explanation thereupon dated the 14th instant were read and the Question was put Whether to insist upon these Votes concerning the Lords Spiritual and it was resolved in the Affirmative But there were present These Dissenters Buckingham Huntington Kent Shaftsbury PR Bedford Winchester Rochester North and Grey Suffolke J. Lovelace Townsend Herbert Gray Stamford Newport Say and Seal L. Wharton Leicester Scarsdale Stafford Derby Delamer Howard Paget Clare Salisbury Falconberg Windsor CHAP. XVIII The Proceedings against Whitebread and the other Four Jesuits ON Friday the 13th of June 1679 was the grand Tryal of Five notorious Jesuits viz. Thomas White aliàs Whitebread Provincial or cheif of the Jesuits in England a comely antient man of a very grave deportment both at his Tryal and Execution William Harcourt pretended Rector of London who 't is thought after the first discovery of the Plot had been beyond the Seas and had the confidence to return hither again where being apprehended in his Lodging near long Acre he was by the Lords and Commons Committed to Newgate on the 8th of May last John Fenwick Procurator of the Jesuits in England John Gavan aliàs Gawen and Anthony Turner Committed first to the Gate-house and thence brought to Newgate There was at the same time Arraigned one James Corker a Benedictine Monk but he pretending he had not his Witnesses ready was put off and happy it was for him who since was acquitted with Wakeman whereas if he had then been tryed 't is most probable it would have prov'd as Fatal to him as the rest Whitebread and Fenwick pleaded that they were tryed before for the same Fact but the Court answer'd That though they were indeed once Arraign'd yet the Jury was discharg'd of them and they not then in any Jeopardy of their Lives and therefore must plead to this Indictment Then the Prisoner made a general Challenge That none should be of their Jury that were of any of the former Juries concerning the Plot Those now sworn were Thomas Harriot William Gulston Allen Garraway Richard Cheney John Roberts Thomas Cash Rainsford Waterhouse Matthew Bateman John Kaine Richard White Richard Bull. Thomas Cox The Proofs were long and consisting in divers particulars As 1. Dr. Oats Swears That the Consult of the 24th of April was by the Order of Whitebread the Prisoner at the See the Tryal of Whitebread c. P. 12. Bar as Provincial and that then the said Whitebread and Fenwick and Harcourt and Turner did all in his presence Sign the Resolve for the King's death 2. That Whitebread after his return back again to St. Omers did say That he hoped to see the King's Head laid fast enough only he had not the manners to give him the Title of King but shew'd his spight by calling his Majesty opprobriously These are those that speak evil of Dignities 3. That in July Ashby alias Timbleby brought over Instructions from Whitebread P. 13. to offer Sir George Wakeman 10000 l. to poyson the King and also a Commission to Sir John Gage to be an Officer in the Army which they design'd to raise which the Witness himself delivered to him the said Sir John 4. That Turner was at the Consult and at Fenwick's Chamber he saw him
satisfied in than by what he heard that day and thereupon speaking to the Prisoners he said P. 93. This will stick I assure you Sirs upon all your Party We have therein a Testimony that for promoting your Cause you would not stick at the Protestants blood you began with Sir Edmundbury but who knows where you would have made an end It was this one man you killed in his person but in Effigie the whole Nation It was in one mans Blood your hands were embrewed but your Souls were dipt in the Blood of us all this was an hansel onely of what was to follow And so long as we are convine'd you killed him we cannot but believe you would also kill the King we cannot but believe you would make all of us away that stand in the way of your Religion a Religion which according to what it is you would bring in upon us by a Conversion of us with Blood and by a Baptism with Fire God keep our Land from the one and our City from the other The Jury after about a quarter of an hours consideration returned into Court and brought in all the Five Prisoners Guilty of High-Treason who the next day with Mr. Langhorn received Sentence and on the twentieth of June following were drawn to Tyburn Whitebread and Harcourt in one Sled Gavan and Turner in another and Fenwick by himself in a third At the Gallows they made every one a particular Speech which seemed to be not onely premeditated but the substance and matter thereof to have been prescribed or at least agreed on before amongst them the big protestations of Innocence and expressions being so near alike These Speeches as there were Copies of them spread up and down that very morning by their own Party which shews them to have been prepared out of design so they were afterwards printed and answered very solidly shewing the nature of their Principles and the impious fraud of such their solemn Appeals c. See An Impartial Consideration on the Five Jesuites Speeches as also Animadversions on their Speeches whereunto we refer the Reader for full satisfaction in this point Indeed what credit is there to be given to the words of those men dying whose whole Lives have been but continued Lies it being not unknown that the said Whitebread had for several years heretofore made it his business to Masquerade it in the various Fanatical Mock-Religions of the late times In confirmation of which general Report soon after his Execution there was the following Letter published said to be written by a very Reverend Minister and communicated to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London And though we are far from giving credit to every Pamphlet in an Age that swarms with printed Lyes and Fictions and detest that redoubled baseness to abuse the Living by scandalizing the Dead yet to the end that if it be true villany may not be conceal'd but the next Age warn'd to avoid their wyles by reflecting on what they have practised in this and for that upon inquiry we find very probable grounds to believe the sincerity of this account though for some Reasons the Author declin'd exposing his name to it in Print we shall here insert it in his own words that such as shall think fit may farther satisfie themselves concerning the Contents A Letter from a Minister of the Church of England communicated to the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor relating to Thomas White alias Whitebread who was lately Executed for High Treason Sir IN Answer to your request in two Letters of yours to your Brother these are to assure you that the Gentleman you mentioned viz. White alias Whitebread more than twenty years ago came to Oxford under pretence of a Jew converted by some eminent Divine of the Presbyterian way in London But in Oxford he pretended a farther light by joyning with and hearing at the several Churches and Sermons of Doctor Thomas Goodwin Doctor Owen and some others of the Independent or Congregational way But not stedfast there long pretending the Apostles rule to try all things he fell to the Anabaptists and then to the Quakers amongst whom he challenges Doctor Owen and several others for their Principles in a Letter written in several Languages so learnedly that it was thought worthy of consideration of the Learned Convocation there by whom he was censured as a Jesuite or some other Popish Seminarist and thereupon Imprisoned in the Castle-Prison there where he pretended a Distraction and personated the Mad-man so exactly that in few days some friends of his procured his liberty I saw him several times running up and down the streets with his Hat under his arm full of stones throwing at every small Bird he saw But e're long I met him at a Papist-house where I heard him discourse very gravely learnedly and discreetly where I got not only acquaintance with him but familiarity insomuch that several times in change of Habit he came to visit me and several other young Scholars in Magdalen Colledge But at length being again suspected and like to be apprehended he got privately away for London I brought him five miles of his way and so left him to his designs In six Months after business called me to London where after a day or two I heard a Report of a famous Preacher amongst the Quakers near Charing-cross and the same day met the same Gentleman then so much famed going to speak in an old-fashioned pinked Fustian Jerkin and clouted shooes and Breeches faced with Leather and a Carters Whip in his hand altogether disguised from my knowledge of him but he knew me and spake with me and renewed our acquaintance At present he went about his intended work and the next day came to my Quarters in the neat Habit of a London Minister and carried me to his Lodgings within the Precincts of the Middle-Temple where I had a good entertainment and a view of several strange Habits in which he disguised himself to the several sorts of people he insinuated himself into I saw also his Orders from the Roman Court and an Instrument wherein he was assured of and ordered to receive of certain Merchants an Hundred pounds per Annum besides an yearly Pension of Eighty pound per Annum from his Father I am sure he pretended he was born at Wittenberg his Fathers Name John White and in his Writing he himself was stiled Johannes de Albo by the Court of Rome He was both Jesuit and Priest in Orders I went with him by water and visited some Ships and in one House in Southwark he Celebrated the Mass in the Popish Mode to more than forty The same day we visited several Presbyterians and others and I continued in his company by the space of a Month when he was apprehended and by a special Order from the then Protector Imprisoned in the Tower of London where I endeavoured but was not admitted to visit him Two years after I understood by a
and particularly that whereas Mr. Bedloe carried a Letter from the English Monks to le Chese at Paris wherein they acquainted him that all things were in readiness within a year or two to put the design in practice and subvert the oppression and Tyranny which the Catholicks were under in England c. when he brought back an Answer thereunto Mr. Marshal carried a Copy of it to Sir Francis Ratcliffe 1. As for the Defence made by these two Marshal with a long starcht Oration would undertake to perswade the people there was no Plot and that Whitebread and the rest dyed Innocent and all because they did not confess it at their death 2. Corker denyed his being at Lamspring but that was nothing to the purpose for Mr. Oates swore onely that he said he would go thither and that it was usual with them to give out they go to one place and go clear another way and the Letter he mentioned was not dated from any place 3. He alleadged that he was not President of the Benedictines so that Mr. Oates was mistaken therein and consequently his consent not necessary to the Consult for raising the 6000 l. To prove this though p. 65. he saith he could bring no body yet at last a good while after he called three women that all said that not he but one Mr. Stapleton was President of the Benedictines But as to this it is to be noted That Doctor Oates being taken very ill was gone out of the Court and did not hear this Objection and though he was called for by Mr. Recorder yet when he came by I know not whose negligence he was not acquainted with it nor Examined about it who otherwise might probably have cleared the point But however 't is not at all impossible that the Prisoners might find three Women in this Town kind enough to tell so small a Lye for them which considering they were under such Circumstances might by their Votaries be counted not onely venial but exceeding meritorious 4. They both urged that when Pickering was taken at the Savoy they were there in Bed and yet Doctor Oates and his Company did not apprehend them but rather said they had nothing to do with them and to prove this they produce a woman that was the Monks House-keeper or Bed-maker Nell Rigby who you might be sure would speak a good word for her Masters But Doctor Oates at that time came purposely for Pickering and 't is possible in the night and hurry and such disguises as they might have might not know them but indeed we may conclude he did not see them for the Prisoners offer no proof of that no not Nelly Rigby her self who onely says she nam'd them all to them when they askt who else was in the house 5. This Nell Rigby starts another Objection against Dr. Oates and says That in the Summer 78 she saw him come a begging to Mr. Pickering for Charity and that Pickering bid her shut the door and never let that man come in again Whence Marshal observes how unlikely it was they should suffer him to be in such want and use him in that manner in the very heat of the Plot when they most employed him and when he could gain such advantages by discovering them if indeed there had been any such Conspiracy as he pretends But as to this we are not obliged to take all that Nell Rigby the Monks Bed-maker to say no worse tells us for an Oracle and prefer it to positive proof upon Oath for undoubtedly this begging story was a meer flam for if true why was it not offered before why was it not set up at Pickerings Tryal whom it as much concerned or more than these and who could never have been so careless as to omit so material an Evidence if he had known any such thing Besides 't is plain Mrs. Nelly is a common Voucher and says she knows nor cares what if she think it will make for her beloved Masters for she positively avers p. 73. That Mr. Bedloe was with Mr. Oates at the taking of Pickering which was on Michaelmass Eve upon the very first publick notice of the Plot whereas that must needs be a notorious Lie for all the world knows that Bedloe was then wholly amongst the Jesuits and did not come in till many weeks after And had this been well enough observed this scandalous Objection would have left no impressions Lastly Marshal made a great stir about Bedloe's not knowing him but was confuted though not at all ashamed in his Lies by Sir Wil. Waller upon Oath and afterwards with an impudence that none but a Monk could own said That he would be content to be hanged if Mr. Bedloe could prove That he viz. Mr. Bedloe himself was ever in the Savoy in his life And though it hapned Bedloe had none ready by him to prove that for who should dream of such a question being askt yet by a sufficient circumstance he proved not onely that he had been in the Savoy but also that he was well acquainted with their Convent and Affairs there in that he gave Sir Will. Waller directions where to search in the most material places describing them and in particular he desired him to look under such a Bench in P. 45. Irelands Apartment where he should find the Gun that was to kill the King which was there found accordingly all which was confirmed by the said Sir William Waller now present in Court These were all their Objections that seem'd to have any colour of weight or argument in them the rest of their tedious talk being nothing but either railing at the Witnesses certain flashes of Rhetorick and some long set-speeches ad faciendum Populum to amuse the People or else down-right Impertinence as Marshal's trifling that he had Witnesses here to prove that he had Witnesses in the Country but sixty miles off that could say something for him when he had had a months notice to get them ready for this time of tryal As for Rumley Dr. Oates testified that he was privy to the Consult of the Monks wherein the 6000 l. was agreed on and he judg'd did consent to it for he did pray God it might have good success and that the Catholick Cause might once again flourish in England But he being but a single Evidence and Mr. Bedloe not being able to speak any thing material as to that Prisoner he came off on course Thus after a tedious full and most favourable hearing of all that the Prisoners or their Witnesses had to offer the Lord Chief Justice Sir William Scroggs came to sum up the Evidence to the Jury which he performed in a long Speech See the Tryal p. 77. to which we refer the Reader some material heads whereof as his Lordship was then pleas'd to observe them were as follows 1. That as to Rumley there was but one Witness which not being sufficient Evidence according to Law to condemn him therefore
print in the year 1583. as is attested by Hospinian That all Jesuits in the world had entred into an holy Vow and Covenant any way to destroy all Heretical Kings nor did they despair of doing it effectually so long as any one Jesuit should remain in the World And Father Creswel a bird of the same feather in his Philopater lays down this sweet Lesson Ita informandos quoscunque Catholicos ut oblatâ caedis occasione nullo impedimento se dimoveri patiantur That all Catholicks are to be taught and instructed that when they have an opportunity to kill Hereticks Kings or others 't is no matter they should not spare them nor suffer any impediment to hinder them from the slaughter SECT 2. This is their Doctrine now let us see their Practices here in England ever since the Reformation The Raign of our good King Edward the Sixth was but short whether not shortned by Popish Arts is deservedly questioned and he himself a minor yet during his time there were Rebellions and Commotions in Somersetshire and Lincolnshire for which many were Executed then in Cornwal and Devonshire where above 4000 were slain and taken Prisoners by John Lord Russel Lord Privy-Seal then they Rebelled in Norfolk and Suffolk against whom the Earl of Warwick advanced with an Army and slew above 5000. About the same time there was a great Rising in the North and East-Ridings of Yorkshire but suppressed by the Lord President All these Insurrections were owned to be on the behalf of their Râ—â—â—gion and fomented and abetted by Popish Priests of whom divers were taken amongst the Rebels and deservedly punished SECT 3. To set forth all the Popish Plots Designs and Conspiracies against the Life and Crown of Queen Elizabeth of glorious memory it would be necessary to Transcribe a great part of the History of her Illustrious Reign and therefore we shall take notice 〈◊〉 of some of the most remarkable occurrences of that kind and the true Principles upon and by which they were promoted 1. As to the Original of Recusancy and occasions which rendred the Law against Papists absolutely necessary it must be remembred that from the First to the Eleventh year of the Reign of that Queen Papists generally repaired to our Churches see the proceedings against the Powder-Traitors p. 109. I my self saith Sir Edward Coke have seen Cornwallis Beddingfield and others notorious and zealous Papists at Church making no doubt of Conscience to joyn with us in Prayer But about the year 1569 Pope Pius the Fifth was no sooner seated in the Pontificial Chair but he began practice to justle her out of her Royal Throne to this purpose he employed one Bidolph a Florentine to raise a Faction here and afterwards sent over Doctor Nicholas Morton to promote it engaged the Spaniard to assist the Conspirators and Chapinus Vitellius came privately over on other pretences to observe the success and head the Spanish Troops when they should arrive Pursuant to these Counsels the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland with 4000 Foot and 600 Horse appear in open Rebellion and declare for the Restitution of the Roman Religion but were soon put to slight and Sanders de Schismate Angl. tells us the reason viz. For that the rest of the Catholicks because the Pope had not yet publickly denounced sentence of Excommunication against the Queen so as they did not seem fairly absolved from her Obedience declined to joyn with them by which means they were easily chased by the Queens Forces into Scotland where afterward Northumberland being taken was brought back to York and there faith he happily ended his days by a glorious Martyrdome So usual a thing it is with these Popish Doctors first to excite people to the blackest Treasons and then guild over the deserv'd punishments which they suffer for the same with that specious Title His crafty Holiness was not insensible of the reason of this miscarriage and therefore to prevent the like failure and the better to encourage all his Catholick Vassals to joyn in such pious Rebellion against the Queen he early the next Spring sends forth his Roaring Bull or Sentence of Anathema wherein he first magnifies his own Office and Authority in these Rhodomontado's He that Reigneth on high to whom is given all power in Heaven and Earth hath committed the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church out of which there is no Salvation to One alone on Earth viz. to the Prince of the Apostles Peter and to Peters Successour the Bishop of Rome to be governed in plenitude of power c. Sanders 3. de Schism Angl. p. 368. Then having railed a while most Apostolically and called that incomparable Princess Flagitiorum serva the slave of wickedness and villanies he proceeds to Curse her in these words Therefore supported with his Authority who was pleased to place us though unable for so great a burthen in this Supreme Throne of Justice out of the plenitude of Our Apostolick power We do declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and favourer of Hereticks and all her Adherents to have incurred the Sentence of Anathema and to be cut off from the unity of Christs Body and by the Authority of these Presents We do deprive the said Elizabeth of her pretended Right to the Kingdom and of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever And We do Absolve all the Nobles Subjects and People of the said Kingdoms and all others who have in any sort sworn unto her from such Oath or Oaths and all manner of Duty Fidelity and Obedience and do forbid and command them and every of them that they presume not to obey her 〈◊〉 her Commands and Laws those that shall do otherwise to be lyable to the some Curse Id. Ibid. This Bull towards the end of May 1570. was brought over and fixed on the Gates of the Bishop of Londons Palace by one John Felton and Copies of the same sent to the aforesaid Bidolph to be dispersed throughout England Then and not till then it was that those inclinable to the Romish Superstitions did presently refrain our Churches would no longer hear the established Divine Service nor have any more Society with us in Prayer so that Reeusancy so called from their refusing to come to Church which as the word was scarce known till this time so was it not specially or particularly punished by any Law till afterwards in the Twenty third year of the Queen was not in them at first nor can be now for Religion but for acknowledging of and stickling for the Popes usurping power They absent themselves from our Churches not because there is any thing there transacted in it self unlawful or prohibited by the Word of God for then they ought always to have kept away but because the Pope in opposition to the Law of God enjoyning both Obedience to our Governours and Charity and Brotherly Communion amongst each other has forbidden them so to do and this unrighteous siding with the Pope against
their lawful Sovereign hath been the main foundation of all their Treasonable and Rebellious practices that have ensued from thence to this very day 2. Soon after this Anathema Bidolph by the Popes Order having distributed amongst the Confederates one hundred and fifty thousand Crowns as we are informed by Catena who wrote that Popes Life and was Secretary to his Nephew Cardinaâ— Alexandrino returned to give his Holiness an account how far all things were ready and by him is sent away to engage the King of Spain offering if need should be to expose all the Treasures of the Apostolick See and even pawn the Chalices Crucifixes and Sacred Vestments to carry on so holy an Enterprize But whilst Spain was preparing for the Invasion it pleased God to discover the whole Plot by a Messengers being intercepted with Letters to the Queen of Scots the Spanish Ambassador the Duke of Norfolk who was drawn into the Conspiracy by some under-hand promises or hopes of Marrying the said Scotish Queen and others whereby all their Project was blasted Norfolk seized Tryed found guilty and some time after Beheaded Pope Pius Quintus whom Queen Elizabeth was wont to call Impius intus died about the year 1572. Gregory the Thirteenth succeeded him as in his Popedom so in his endeavours to disturb Englands Tranquillity which he was first for giving away to Don John of Austria base Brother to the King of Spain and by him substituted Governour of the Low Countries but he being snatcht away by Death another intrigue is carried on between the Pope and that King himself the one providing Men the other Money England and Ireland are both to be Invaded at once the latter by Forces under the Command of Tho. Stukeley an English Fugitive whom the Pope had made Marquiss Earl Viscount and Baron so prodigal he was of his Honours of several eminent places in that Kingdom But Stukely in his Voyage from Italy diverting to assist Sebastian King of Portugal in his Expedition in Africk against the Moors was with most of his men slain in that memorable Battle where Three Kings were cut off in one day Anno 1578. But notwithstanding this discouragement next year one James Fitz-Morice was sent into Ireland with some Troops from Spain and from the Pope our late-cited Author Saunders in the quality of his Legate and with a Consecrated Banner which were re-inforced in the year 1580. with 700 Italian and Spanish Souldiers under one San Joseph who likewise brought some Money and Arms for 5000 Irish on whom the better to encourage them in Rebellion his Holiness bestowed his Apostolical Benediction and sent them a Bull reciting That whereas he had of late years by his Letters exhorted them to the recovery of their Liberty and Defence of it against the Hereticks c. and that they might more cheerfully do it had granted to all such as should be any ways assisting therein a plenary Pardon and Forgiveness of all their sins He now furthermore grants to all such whom he exhorts requires and urges in the Lord to assist against the said Hereticks the same plenary Indulgence and Remission of their sins which those who fight against Turks and Infidels do obtain Vide Histor Cathol Hibern Though how much greater or more effectual that is or can be than a plenary Pardon of all sins which he had promised them before we do not readily apprehend but it seems his Infallibility-ship did imagine that expression would be more taking amongst the Irish nor did he onely egg them on with such fair words but promised a Crusado and to bestow rather then fail a Million of Crowns in the Expedition but still all was blasted for these Italians with their Irish Confederates and whole Party were happily routed by the Queens Troops at the very instant when divers Ships were at Sea to bring them more Forces and Assistance and Sanders the Popes Legate miserably perished for hunger in the Woods and as some say distracted and raving mad upon the ill success of this hopeful Rebellion SECT 4. Besides these open Secular Forces of Spain and Rome the Pope about this time employed another Spiritual sort of Militia to promote his designs viz. the Seminaries who now began to swarm in great numbers thereby laying then such a ground-work for future disturbances not onely to Queen Elizabeth but even to all her Successours and to this Nation and the Protestant Religion in general that hitherto it hath wrought and is still working by undermining restless Policies and Projects the dangerous effects whereof we feel at this day in this late discovered Plot and so are like to continue to all successive Generations as long as the Seminaries and Jesuitism remain in the World whose Trade and Business it is to encourage themselves and others in Mischiefs or in the phrase of the Psalmist To commune amongst themselves how they may privily lay snares The first of these Nests of Treason or Randesvouzes of Rebellion was erected at Doway in the year 1568. the English Fugitive Priests assembling themselves there by the design of William Allen the most learned amongst them and living together in a common Colledge-like Discipline the Pope allowing them an Annual Pension Soon after another like Seminary was establisht at Rheims by the bloody Guises the Queen of Scots Kinsmen a third at Rome by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth and afterwards a fourth at Valledolid in Spain That there might never want a successive Generation of men of corrupt minds heady high-minded despisers of Dominion Idolatrous and Traiterous Priests to poison England with their false Doctrines and pernicious Principles And because the before-mentioned Bull of Pius the Fifth had not yet sufficiently produced its intended effects even with many Papists themselves who seeing the Neighbour Popish Princes and States not to forbear their wonted Negotiations with the Queen continued still in their Obedience to her and were displeased at the said Bull as a mischievous Snare putting them upon this miserable Dilemma either to be Executed for Treason against the Queen if they did resist or be accursed by their Holy Father if they did obey her therefore for their satisfaction and to extricate them out of that Labyrinth wherein they were thus involved an Expedient was found out and afterwards re-inforced by Pope Gregory the Thirteenth viz. A Decree or Explanation That the Bull aforesaid should always oblige Elizabeth and the Hereticks but not the Catholicks Rebus sic stantibus whilst affairs remained in that posture but that they might render their outward obedience to her Ad redimendam vexationem ad ostendendam externam obedientiam donec publica Bullae Execretio fieri possit To prevent their being troubled for so long onely until they might get into strength sufficient to put the said Bull publickly into execution See Thuan. l. 74. and Camden An. 1580. And to the end that the same might in due time be effectually executed Missions are daily made of the
prime was because forsooth The Kingdom of England is a Fee of the Papacy and it was audaciously done of her to assume it without his leave See the History of the Council of Trent l. 5. And then in the next place he started her being Illegitimate which indeed onely he had reason to do for if her Fathers Marriage were good the Popes power of Dispensation one of the fairest flowers in the Triple Crown must be naught Fifthly yet again after all this his Successour Pope Pius the Fourth in his Letter by Parpaglia dated the fifth of May 1560 did own her and would have done any thing for her so she would but have owned him which she refusing the next Pope meerly for the same Anathematiz'd and Depos'd her as you have heard there not being the least mention in that Bull of Bastardy but onely for Heresie that is for being a Protestant and refusing to truckle to the Romish See Lastly the Roman-Catholicks of England in general in a large Petition to Queen Elizabeth in the Twenty seventh year of her Reign by them afterwards published in Print in a Book with this Jesuitical Title Protestants Plea and Petition for Priests and Papists p. 39. do say and swear the words following We do protest before the living God that all and every Priest or Priests who have at any time conversed with us have recognized your Majesty their undoubted and lawful Queen Tam de Jure quam de Facto as well in Right as Fact Wherefore 't is evident that their Conspiracies against her were not for any defect in her Title but on the score of her Religion And no less plain that their boasted services for the Queen of Scots were onely bottom'd on self-interest not affection to her Person and indeed so far from being of any advantage to her that they caused the untimely ruine of that gallant Princess Illegitimacy and the right of the Queen of Scots was so little regarded at Rome that his Holiness Pope Gregory the Thirteenth having a Bastard of his own James Buoncompagno to provide for and another of the Emperours viz. Don John to the first he gave the Kingdom of Ireland and equipp'd Stukely as aforefaid to win it for him to the last he gave the Kingdom of England and gave him leave to win it for himself and what then would have become of the Title of the Queen of Scots They indeed made the House of Scotland their Cloke and covered their Treasons for some time with pretences of gaining that Queens Liberty and advancing her Interest but being at last out of hopes of restoring their Religion by her or her Son whom they already perceived not to be for their turn began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and employed one of their Society into England as is discovered by Pasquier a French Author to draw off the Gentry from fiding with her and to close with the Spaniard and closely endeavoured to precipitate her into those fatal Counsels which hastned her end for she being discovered to be privy to most of the former Conspiracies and found guilty of that of Babington was thereupon Condemned And afterwards a fresh provocation being given by the said Attempt of Moody which was found to have been designed on the same pretence Queen Elizabeth by the repeated importunities of the Parliament who had Ratified the Judgment was over-perswaded to sign the Warrant for Execution whereupon she was Beheaded the eighth of February following The Jesuits that none of her Kindred might give her any assistance haing at the same time engaged the Gâ—ises in new Enterprises against the King of Navar and Prince of Condé And their jugling Treachery towards her is abundantly apparent from the manner of the Discovery of what she was Condemned for the same being done by one Gilbert Gifford a Priest sent into England to put Savage in mind of his Vow to Assassinate Queen Elizabeth and to be a Messenger between the Queen of Scots and the Conspirators who presently goes and offers his service to Walsingham Secretary of State to discover all their Transactions so that by his perfidious practice their Letters were opened transcribed neatly sealed up and returned to the said Gifford who then conveyed them to the Queen of Scots or who else they were directed unto And this Discovery by him made must be supposed to be done out of pure love forsooth to his Queen and Country although but a little before he was one of those very men who instigated Savage to his Vow to Murder her The whole conduct whereof shews it to be a prosecution of their late-hatcht Spanish Design by removing the true Heir apparent and excluding the Scotish Race to make way for the forg'd Title which they had started for some of the Austrian Family Which is farther demonstrated by their subsequent carriage for after her Death whatever zeal they before pretended to her Title and Family there were not the least effects thereof shewed to her Son King James to whom her Right devolv'd but rather they used all Arts to put him by the Succession as we shall shew in the next Chapter In the mean time we must observe that still their Plots against Queen Elizabeth went on abroad by the Pope and King of Spain in Warlick preparations both for Land and Sea-service and at home by the Jesuits and other Emissaries in providing for their reception To amuse the English Council they publish a Book wherein their Brethren are very gravely admonished not to attempt any thing against their Prince but onely to make use of the old Christian Weapons Prayers and Tears humble petitions and patient sufferings c. And a Treaty of Peace desired and kept on foot by the Duke of Parma by the King of Spains order till in the memorable year 88 all things being compleated for execution the Pope begins the Invasion with a Bull by which once again The Queen is Cursed and proscribed her Royalty and Right to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland taken away her Subjects not only absolved from their Oaths and Allegiance to her but threatned under danger of the wrath of God not to assist her in any wise but to use all their power to bring her to wort by punishment And therefore commands all Inhabitants of these Realms to joyn with the Spaniards and be obedient to the Duke of Parma their General And finally out of the Treasury of the Church committed to his trust draws out his liberality and grants a full Pardon of all their sins to all those that should engage in this Expedition Which was to be looke upon as an Apostolick Mission against the Incorrigible Hereticks to reduce them to the Obedience of the Church and execute his Holinesses Sentence of Excommunication against that cursed Anathematiz'd Woman After which it was privately agreed between them That King Philip should hold these Kingdoms of the Pope in Fee as of the Holy See with the
most considerable Aids Faithful and Meritorious Subjects still if they may be their own Judges though they desired and designed to submit to the Pope nay any King or Prince rather than to the King of England whose natural Subjects they were Nay more the Rump that infamous Rump the fag-end of the Parliament which Murthered the King was much more beholding to these Irish Rebels than His Majesty was for to them they made Petitions and Supplications as unto the Supreme Authority of the Nation Entitling them The Parliament of the Common-wealth of England wherein they did readily subject and put their Consciences Lives and Fortunes as in a secure Sanctuary under the protection thereof these are their own words and boasted That several of them were able to make appear their constant good affection and adherence to them See the Petitions of Sir Ra. Talbot Baronet and Garret Moor Esquire who were not herein private but publick persons and so owned in the Title of their Petitions being on the behalf of themselves and others as Sollicitors Agitators or Trustees for the Irish Papists which were Condescentions far greater than ever they would pay to King Charles the First or His present Majesty For with them they always Treated upon the Swords point upon as great terms of Defiance Caution and Reservedness as if they had to do with the great Turk and not with their lawful Soveraign Vide Orrerey fol. 14 15. and Articles of Treaty If therefore to rise in Arms without the Kings Command or Privity Murther so many thousands of his good Subjects seize on his Towns and Forts fight with and kill those that were Commissionated by him hold Correspondence with and receive Supplies from Forraign Princes cast off all Allegiance and petition a Forraign Prince to be their Protector and last of all if to court his avowed Enemies and Murtherers own their Uusurp'd Authority and submit Consciences Fortunes Lives and all to their pleasure be Arguments of Faithfulness and Obedience then may we allow the Irish Papists to have been His Majesties most Loyal Subjects but till then all the word shall justly detest them as the most barbarous and bloody Rebels SECT 4. But whatever they were in Ireland the Roman Catholicks in England will swear they were all most punctually true to King Charles the First and ventured their Lives and Estates in his Service To determine how far this is true and what merit we are to allow them on that account we must consider 1. That it cannot reasonably be expected that we should so clearly discover the affections and more secret designs of the Papists in this English Rebellion as in that of Ireland for that here were not Papists fighting under the Popes Countenance and Encouragement against Protestants but Protestants though in that point Jesuitically principled against a Protestant King and his true Subjects that were more Loyally minded So that as the Papists Loyalty was not then so far tryed as to see whether they would have taken part with the King a Protestant had the Pope forbidden them or employed them against him which is the great thing in question when we speak of their Loyalty as Papists so likewise were they never embodied apart by themselves and therefore could never assemble together in Battel to fight or in full and open Council to Design and Plot but what they did was covertly and in the dark by fomenting Dissentions and Intestine Wars which was long since their Campanella's Design De Monarch Hisp cap. 24. p. 204. Jam verò ad enervandos Anglos nibil tam conducit quam dissentio discordia inter illos excitata perpetuóque nutrita quod citò meliores occasiones suppeditabit si Angliam in formam Roipublice reducant in imitationem Hollandorum That nothing could more conduce to weaken the English than Dissention and Discord stirred up and perpetually nourisht amongst them which would soon administer better occasions to introduce the Roman Catholick Religion if England were reduced into a Republick in imitation of the Hollanders 2. It may well be said That it was not pure Loyalty but self-interest that attracted so many ominent Papists in unto his late Majesties Standard The violence of the people forced them to that side they did not go but were driven the Parlimentarians were to make use of the cry against Papists for one of their most taking pretences so that the open Roman Catholicks could expect no acceptance from them and though they did well and but according to their Duty in serving His Majesty yet accidentally they not a little prejudiced his cause for the other party thence took such occasions to raise lies and clamours that we may say for every Papist employed in His Majesties Arms 〈◊〉 the hearts of half a dozen seduced though otherwise Loyal Protestants However to discharge their duty in serving their King against a Protestant not a Popish Pâ—â—ty and at a time when their own safety and private Interest obliged them so to do was surely little matter of merit but rather if we may guess at the Body of Hercules by his Foot we may then by tracing some of the footsteps of our English Catholicks as have casually come to light discover their main design especially of their Clergy to have been wholly for the ruine of that King of happy memory and thereby of the Protestant Religion for 3. The disloyal Principles on which the Phanatick Rebels proceeded they wholly learnt from the Jesuits for example did they say the Soveraign Power was lodged in the people and that they may alter the Government of a State Bellarmine taught it them whose words in his Treatise De Laicis l. 3. cap. 6. are these Potestas immediatè est tanquam in subjecto in totâ multitudine c. The Supreme power is in the whole multitude as in its Subject and if there be cause for it they may alter a Monarchy into an Aristocracle or Democracie c. Did they affirm that the People made the King and may unmake him and retain still the habit of power they are the same Bellarmines own words In Regnis bominum potestas Regis est à populo quia populus facit Regem In the Kingdoms of men the Kings power is from the people for the people make the King Bell. de Concil l. 2. cap. 19. And again In Rebuspublicis temporalibus si Rex degeneret in Tyrannum licet caput sit Regni tamen à populo potest deponi eligi alius In Temporal States if a King degenerate into a Tyrant though he be the head of the Kingdom yet the people may Depose him and choose another Idem Ibid. cap. 10. Did our Rebels hold they might take up Defensive Arms against the King and expel him 't was your Jesuite Suarez taught them that Doctrine Si Rex legitimus tyrannicè gubernat Regno nullum aliud sit remedium nisi Regem expellere deponere poterit Respublica toto publico
the University as some report or whether drawn in upon his Marriage as others alleage or to gratifie a Rich Vncle of that Persuasion as a third sort relate it on which or whether on some other occasion different from all these he revolted is not much material but revolt he did to the Roman Church and became a mighty Bigot to advance the same and gain Proselytes He was a Person of rare natural and acquired parts and so well conceited of himself that he once undertook to be one that should manage a Conference concerning Religion against the Learned Doctor Stillingfleet and another Divine of the Church of England which discourse is extant in Print But his Talent lay more in News and Policy than Divinity being for some time Secretary to her Royal Highness the Dutchess of York he was a Leading-man in this Horrid Conspiracy and a prime Promoter thereof by his great Correspondency abroad both at Rome and in the French Court. Concerning the manner of his Commitment an Account is given before Chapt. the 8th On Saturday the 23 of November he was Arraigned at the Kings-Bench Bar the Indictment being very Expressive and Significant we shall for Example sake See Colemans Tryal p. 2. recite part of it viz. That as a false Traitor against our most Illustrious Serene and most excellent Prince Charles by the Grace of God c. his natural Lord having not the fear of God in his heart nor duely weighing his Allegiance but being moved and seduced by the Instigation of the Devil his cordial Love and true Duty and natural Obedience which true and lawful Subjects of our said Lord the King ought to bear towards him and by Law ought to have altogether with-drawing and devising and with all his strength intending the Peace and common Tranquillity of this Kingdom of England to disturb and the true Worship of God within the Kingdom of England practised and by Law Established to overthrow and Sedition and Rebellion within this Realm of England to move stir up and procure and the cordial Love and true Duty and Allegiance which true and lawful Subjects of our Soveraign Lord the King towards their Soveraign bear and by Law ought to have altogether to withdraw forsake and extinguish and our said Soveraign Lord the King to Death and final Destruction to bring and put The 29th of Septemb. in the 27th year of the Reign of our said Soveraign Lord Charles the Second c. at the Parish of St. Margarets Westminster Falsly Maliciously and Traiterously proposed compassed imagined and intended to stir up and raise Sedition and Rebellion within the Kingdom of England and to procure and cause a miserable Destruction amongst the Subjects of our said Lord the King and wholly to Deprive Depose Deject and Disinherit our said Soveraign of his Royal State Title Power and Rule of his Kingdom of England and to bring and put our said Soveraign Lord the King to final Death and Destruction and to overthrow and change the Government and alter the sincere and true Religion of God in this Kingdom by Law establish'd and wholly to subvert and destroy the State of the Kingdom and to Levy War against our said Soveraign Lord the King within his Realm of England And that to accomplish these his Traiterous designs and imaginations on the 29th of Septemb. in the 27th year of the King he Traiterously composed two Letters to one Monsieur Le Chese then Servant and Confessor of Lewis the French King to desire procure and obtain for the said Edw. Coleman and other false Traitors the Aid Assistance and Adherence of the said French King to alter the true Religion in this Kingdom Establish'd to the Superstition of the Church of Rome and Subvert the Government of this Kingdom of England c. Reciting his receiving an Answer from Le Chese his Correspondence with Monsieur Rovigni Envoy Extraordinary from the French King and Letters to Sir William Throckmorton in France Concluding in usual form That all this was done against his true Allegiance and against the Peace of the King his Crown and Dignity To this Indictment he pleaded Not Guilty and on Wednesday the 27th of Novemb. 1678. was brought to his Tryal To the Jury Empannel'd he made no Challenges Their Names were Sir Reginald Foster Baronet Sir Charles Lee. Edward Wilford Esq John Bathurst Esq Joshua Galliard Esq John Bifield Esq Simon Middleton Esq Henry Johnson Esq Charles Vmfrevile Esq Thomas Johnson Esq Thomas Eaglesfield Esq William Bohee Esq His Tryal as it held very long so it was managed with all Integrity and Moderation by the Court The Charge against him was made out two ways partly by Witnesses Vivâ voce and partly by Letters and Papers found at his House which he could not deny to be his own hand writing Dr. Oates was the first Witness produced to whom the Lord Chief Justice gave this grave Caution That he See Colemans Tryal p. 17. should speak nothing but the truth not to add the least tittle that was false for any advantage whatsoever mind him of the Sacredness of the Oath he had taken declaring that since the Prisoners Blood and Life was at stake he should stand or fall be justified or Condemned by truth The substance of Mr. Oates's Evidence was 1. That in Novemb. 1677. being brought acquainted with Mr. Coleman by one John Keins then Dr. Oates's Confessor who Lodged at Colemans House he carried some Letters for him to St. Omers in which were Treasonable Expressions of the King calling him Tyrant and a Letter in Latine enclosed to Monsieur Le Chese to whom Dr. Oates carried it from St. Omers to Paris in which there were thanks returned for the Ten thousand pounds by him remitted into England for the Propagation of the Catholick Religion and promising that it should be Imployed for no other purpose but that for which it was sent which was to cut off the King of England as appear'd by the Letter of Le Chese to which this was an Answer and which Dr. Oates saw and read 2. That Coleman was concern'd in the design of taking away the Sacred Life of the King for that when at the Jesuits Consult at the pag. 2. Whitehorse-Tavern in the Strand in April Old Stile and May New Stile and afterwards adjourned into several Companies It was resolv'd that Pickering and Grove should Assassinate his Majesty by Shooting or other means for which the latter should have 1500 l. and the former Thirty thousand Masses which at 12 d. a Mass amounted much what to the same sum This resolve was in his hearing Communicated to Mr. Coleman at Wild-House who did approve thereof and said it was well contriv'd 3. That in August 78. Mr. Coleman was present at a Consult with the Jesuits and Benedictine Monks in the Savoy for raising a pag. 23. Rebellion in Ireland and was very forward to have Dr. Fogarthy sent thither to dispatch the Duke of Ormond by
being swayed by such powerful Inducements That he might Lawfully say he Note ☞ was Innocent and so they were all which in Popish construction is not to deny that they Killed Sir Edmund-bury Godfrey for that according to their Divinity and what the said Priests had Solemnly declared was no Sin or Crime and consequently they might All in such their Catholick sense still be Innocent Yet this he must acknowledge he somewhat doubted because he had never been at Confession and received Absolution since the Fact Committed which all the rest as some of themselves had declared had done and so might more peremptorily persist as they did in averring themselves to be Innocent and he does ingeniously declare That had he received Absolution 't is his fear he he should never or not without extream difficulty have been brought to any acknowledgment These Circumstances together with a great distemper of Body contracted by the incommodities of Consinement want of Air c. occasioned that sudden revolt of his Reason and duty under that perplexity of Spirit but as soon as he had done it Conscience flew in his face and would no longer be laid asleep with any delusive Popish Charms When he began to recollect himself the power of truth dispersed all those Temptations of Interest Fear and Superstition If it were true that he might hazard his Life and lose his Trade if he did persist in the Confession of the Murther it was as true and he found it by experience that he should never have peace of Conscience if he denyed it And therefore he was no sooner returned from the King and Council to Newgate which comeing in a Coach 't is certain was not half an hour but he most earnestly requested Capt. Richardson who had been with him and heard what he had said that Morning for God's sake to go back and assure the King and that Honourable Board from him That the first Confession which he had made on Oath was true in all Circumstances and that whatsoever he had said before them that Morning to the contrary was occasioned only by the Consternation Fear and Perplexity of mind he was under which the Capt. immediately did and hath since declared the same upon Oath Thus far the words of Mr. Prances own Narrative well worthy the Readers perusal not only for his satisfaction in this behalf but also for the several notorious Villanies of a great number of Popish Priests therein by name exposed To which as a very confirming Circumstance we may add that falling very dangerously Ill. soon after he then when he had nothing but a certain prospect of approaching Death before his eyes he declared and asserted to divers his first Confession to be true in all points and also afterwards as soon as he recovered his Health he repeated the same with all stedfastness before the Kings most Excellent Majesty and the Lords of the Council Whereupon his Majesty was most gratiously pleased to grant him his Pardon From all which 't is most plain that all this Dust which the Priests and Jesuits have raised about this matter is fairly blown away and Truth is become perspicuous to any ingenious man that will but Impartially look into these Transactions and consider them as they are and not as they are represented by their false perspectives SECT II. On the 21th of December 1678. there was some Discovery relating to this Plot given into a Committee of the House of Lords by one Mr. Edmund Everard a Scottish Gentleman who had been kept four years Prisoner in the Tower the effect of which and the occasions and manner of such his Confinement was as followeth This Mr. Everard having been concern'd with the English Forces in France and there having the Honour to be acquainted with his Grace the Illustrious Duke of Monmouth was employ'd as Agent for the concerns of the English Militia at the French Court where he became acquainted with the Lady Ann Gourdon Sister to the Marquess of Huntly in Scotland living in a Popish Convent in Paris who being a Lady very Zealous for Popery of excellent Accomplishments and great Correspondence did in the moneth of Novemb. 1673. acquaint him That there was a grand design on foot in England for settling Popery there and a project either to dissolve the then Parliament or sow mis-understandings between his Majesty and it and that there was a considerable Party labouring to make the Duke of York King and that his Majesty would be made away and shortly would not be in a case to hurt any body After this he was entertain'd to Introduce Peter Talbot Popish Arch-Bishop of Dublin to the Marshal Bellefond and the French King into whose presence he was admitted and allow'd half an hours Conference presenting that King with a Letter and other Papers That the said Talbot then told Mr. Everard that the business he had to negotiate with that King mightily concern'd the welfare of all the Catholicks in England but those of Ireland more especially being to propose ways to the French King to relieve them of their present Persecutions and undertake their Protection some of which Expedients he declared were to Arm some of the Irish and secure a Sea-port Town in Ireland for the French for which Negotiation he said he had good Warrant and Commission from some of the greatest persons in England Mr. Everard immediately discovered all this to one Sir Robert Welsh hoping for his Assistance to Communicate it to his Majesty of Great Britain but it seems Sir Robert re-acquainted Colonel Talbot the said Bishops Brother both what Everard had said of his Brother and of the Lady Huntly and that he was designing for England to make known such their Correspondencies who thereupon threatned him That if he offered to do any such thing they would infallibly procure that he should forthwith be Committed to the Tower of London or the Gatehouse That notwithstanding Mr. Everard privately getting away not without great danger being desperately sought after and pursued in France came over into England but within three or four days and before he could get to speak with the Duke of Monmouth whom he intended to have Address'd himself unto he was suddenly sent for to one of the Secretaries of State and without any Examination or Crime proved Committed to the Tower where after some moneths he was Examined by the then Lieutenant to whom he declared all the said particulars of the Traiterous Conspiracy whereof he seem'd to take little knowledge but threatned to Rack him next day and afterwards Hang him if he would not Confess some design he had against the Duke of Monmouth and several other Examinations he had before other persons to that purpose but was continued Prisoner on this false and malicious suggestion occasioned by the Malice and Interest of the said Traitors beyond the Seas and thereby their Conspiracy lay Concealed for the space of four years till after the Plot was discovered by Dr. Oates and then
Majesties Physician was Committed as is before related first to the Gate-house on the thirteenth of June and on Friday the 18th of July he was Arraigned at the Sessions-house in the Old-Bailey together with Marshal a Benedictine Monk and Rumley a Lay-Brother of that Order upon an Indictment of High-Treason for Conspiring the Death of the King and the Subversion of the Government and Protestant Religion and at the same time Corker another Benedictine Arraigned last Sessions was Tryed for the like offences The Names of the Jury that passed upon them none of the Prisoners offering to make any Challenges were as followeth Ralph Hawtrey of Rislip Esq Henry Hawley of New-Brantford Esq Henry Hodges of Hanwell Esq Richard Downton of Isleworth Esq John Bathurst of Edmunton Esq Robert Hampton of Greenford Esq William Heydon of Greenford Esq John Baldwyn of Hillingdon Esq Richard Dobbins of Harvile Esq William Avery of Enfeild Esq Richard White of Cripple-gate Gent. William Wayte of St. Clement Danes Gent. The Tryal was long and tedious too large to be here repeated and being out in Print exactly taken we thereunto refer those that would be satisfied in all Circumstances but the substance of the Evidence was as follows 1. Mr. Dugdale Mr. Prance and Mr. Jennison were examined to prove the Plot in general which they did in such variety of instances and Circumstances as satisfied all unbiassed men and particularly Mr. Jenisnn Deposed That discoursing with Father Ireland lately Executed at his Chamber in Russel-street in the Month of June 1678. the said Ireland did say There was onely one in the way that stopped the gap and hindred the Catholick Religion from flourishing in England again and then said It was an easile matter to Poison the King 2. As to Wakeman in particular Doctor Oates swears 1. That Sir George Wakeman in the Month of July 78. sending a Letter to P. 25. Ashby the Jesuite of Instructions how he should order himself before he went to and at the Bath whither he was going did afterwards in the same Letter write That the Queen would assist him to poison the King And knows it to be his hand by this means because within a day or two after Sir George being at Ashby's Lodging he saw Sir George sit in a writing posture and then lay by his pen rise up and going away left behind him a written Paper purporting to be an Apothecaries Bill the Ink whereof was not dry and no body by but a Gentleman that was lame of both hands and so could not write it and the hand or Character of this paper so left then by Sir George was the same with that of the before-mentioned Letter to Ashby wherein were the Treasonable words aforesaid 2. That at the same time Mr. Ashby did give Sir George some Instructions concerning the Patent or Commission he had received of being Physician to the Army and that the Witness did see the said Commission in Sir George's hand 3. That a few days after Father Harcourt and four other Jesuits did go to attend P. 26. the Queen at Somerset-house being sent for and the Witness waited upon them and they went into a Chamber whilst he waited without and did hear a Womans voice which did say That she would not indure those violations of her Bed any longer and that she would assist Sir George Wakeman in poysoning the King and that he was afterwards admitted in and that he saw no other Woman there but c. and heard whilst he was within the same voice ask Father Harcourt if he had received the last 1000 l. 4. That in the same Month 10000 l. was proposed by Ashby at his Lodgings in Wild-house in the presence of Father Harcourt and Father Ireland and the Witness to Sir George Wakeman to poyson the King and that he at that time refused it saying it was too little for so great a work 5. That he hath heard that afterwards 5000 l. more was offered and accepted and swears positively that himself hath seen in the Jesuits Entry-book an Entry thereof in these words or to this purpose Memorand Such a day of August 15000 l. was proposed to Sir George Wakeman which he accepted And this was Harcourts hand And that then under it was a Receipt to this effect Received 5000 l. in part of this 15000 l. of Father Harcourt by order of Edw. Coleman George Wakeman Which last words were the same hand and Character with that Letter P. 29. to Ashby and Bill to the Apothecary which the Witness had seen before Then as to him Mr. Bedloe swears That about the beginning of Aug. P. 46. 78. being at Harcourts Chamber Sir George Wakeman came in discontented and askt why he was drilled on in a concern of that importance and sighted and said he knew not whether he should go on or no but Harcourt ask'd him what he would have they were ready for him and then â—â—tcht a Bill and gave him which he said he received that day by the Queens Order and that it was on such a Goldsmith for 2000 l. and then said Sir George 'T is well some body gives me encouragement I have more encouragement from my good Lady and Mistress than from any of you Nay replyed Harcourt to Sir George for encouragement that you shall not want for the rest shall be paid in due time but Sir George continued he this must be well followed and closely observed because so much depends upon it For if we should miss to kill him at Windsor or you miss in your way we will do it at New-market Which words Mr. Bedloe twice repeated and thereupon Sir George said privately to his fellow-Prisoners There is my business done The sum of Sir George's defence was thus 1. As to Doctor Oates's Evidence concerning the Letter to Ashby he brought an Apothecary that produced a piece of a Letter of directions to Ashby sent from Sir George and said he had read it all and that there was no mention in it of King or Queen But suppose this were true and not coyn'd to serve a turn Doctor Oates swore this was none of that Letter he spoke of for it was neither the same hand nor the name subscribed nor the same Contents with the other nor writ at or about the same time for that was writ to Ashby ten days before he went out of Town Mr. Oates saw it before he went and swears positively p. 26. that he saw Wakeman with Ashby two or three days after that whereas this Letter the Apothecary speaks of was as Sir George says writ by his man late in the night Ashby went away next morning And whereas Wakeman p. 51. desires the Jury to take notice how improbable it was he should write two Letters about the same thing it is false that it was about the same thing for besides the Treason which possibly might be the main business as to the Physical directions that Doctor Oates mentions was