day with as much Indulgence and Favour as he could without Offence or Scandal to the tender Consciences of his own Church which as he ought so he did chiefly regard § Neither were King James his Favours confined to the Papists of Great Britain only but were extended also to those never to be obliged Catholicks in Ireland For he resolved not to take any advantage of great Forfeitures and Confiscations which he was most justly Entitled unto by Tyrones Rebellion but out of his Royal Bounty restored all the Natives to the Intite possession of their own Lands in hope this would for ever have engaged their Obedience to him and his at least if not unto the Crown of England And yet he had not Reigned 6 Years e're the Earl of Tyrone not long before obliged by the Queen with Titles of Honour great store of Lands Commands of Horse and Foot in her pay was designing afresh the raising of another Rebellion into which he easily drew the whole Province of Vlster then entirely at his Devotion But his Design being prevented he with his chief Adherents fled into Spain from whence he never returned which impious and ungrateful Act of his and his Adherents rendred them justly suspected to be Irreconcilable to a Protestant Prince which forced the King to cause their persons to be attainted their Lands to be seized those Six Conntries within the Province of Vlster to be Surveyed c. And the same course to be taken likewise in Lemster where the Irish had made Incursions and violently repelled the Old English And though the King was by due course of Lavv justly Entituled to all their vvhole Estates there yet vvas he gratiously pleased to take but part of their Lands vvhich coming to Brittish undertakers made them to flourish vvith costly Buildings 21. b. and vvith all manner of Improvements so that the very Irish seemed to be very much satisfied with the flourishing and peaceable Condition of the whole Kingdom and yet could not Acquiesce therein but Rebel they must against King Charles the Son who besides many other Favours and Connivances had so far gratified the Natives Anno 1640. that he grants unto the Commissioners then sent unto him out of Ireland the Act of Limitations so vehemently desired by the Natives and the Act for the rilinquishment of His Majesties Right and Title to the Four Counties in Connaught Besides at this time the Papists privately enjoyed the exercise of their Religion throughout the whole Kingdom by the Indulgence and Connivance of the late Governours they having their Titular Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans Abbots c. who all lived freely though obscurely yet without controll and exercised a voluntary Jurisdiction Multitudes of Priests Jesuits and Friars returning out of Spain and Italy where the Irish Natives that way devoted were thither sent for Education and now returned lived in the chief Towns and Villages and in the Houses of the Nobility and Gentry exercising their Religious Rites and Ceremonies none of the severer Laws being put in Execution whereby great penalties were to be inflicted on Transgressors in that kind Were they ever the more faithful for these great Indulgencies nothing less For in August 1641. after about forty years peace the Popish party in both House of Parliament then sitting in Dublin grew so insolent as being scarce compatible with the present peaceable Government they were forc'd to adjourn for 3 Months before which time viz 23. Octob. 1641. they brake out into that detestable and desperate Rebellion as is not to be matcht in any Story wherein in less than Two Years they murdered in cold Blood above 200000. English Protestants destroyed some other ways and expelled out of their Habitations nay moreover they threatned to burn Dublin destroy all Records and Monuments of the English Government to make Laws against speaking English and that all names given by English to places should be abolished and the antient names restored And was not this also a great demonstration of their Faithfulness to the King and Crown of England Let every man judg as he sees cause how faithfully they requited King Charles the first for his favours towards them which were many and great which I will not here enumerate it being super-abundantly done already in print in divers Pamphlets though I fear with no good intention towards that glorious Martyr but rather to raise an Odium towards him from some of his weaker Subjects willing happily for other ends to be so seduced many whereof I hope have lived to see and consider that his pious life and death gave a just contradiction to those false Imputations and Jelousies And yet I must not forget one remarkable kindness of his who loved not to punish scrupulous peaceable Consciences sanguinarily towards Papists who being sent unto by both Houses of Parliament Anno 1640. for the Execution of John Goodman a Condemned Priest did in answer to them 3. Febr. 1640. own that he had reprieved him not without giving them great reasons for his so doing viz. For that neither his Father nor yet Queen Eliz. did ever avow that any Priest in their times was Executed meerly for Religion and therefore did remit this particular cause to both the Heresies cautionating them withall That happily his Execution might seem a severity in other States 22. b. and might draw inconveniences on his Subjects in other Countries and therefore held himself discharged from all inconveniences that might ensue upon his Execution And this did he notwithstanding the Popes Directions unto the then Superior of the Catholicks in England Anno 1638. were expresly to command them suddenly to desist from making such offers of Men towards the Northern Expedition then under consideration as we hear they have done little to the Advantage of their Discretion and that they be not more forward with Money than what Law and Duty enjoyns them to pay § Such was the kindness and faithfulness of those Irish Papists to the King and Crown of England that indeed they did rise I must needs say most Catholickly in Rebellion against both from all parts of the Kingdom designing thereby to monopolize the whole Government of that Kingdom into their own hands exclusive of the King if several Oaths are to be credited published by the Kings Warrant to enjoy the publick profession of their Idolatrous Religion and to Expell all the English by whose protection countenance favours and purses that Kingdom was so beautified and inriched as it then was and is at this day though now by them miserably pejorated by that Intestine War raissed by themselves in the midst of their happy enjoyments and that without any provocation ground or colour against the King as himself expressed under his Great Seal To this give Testimony those early instructions privately sent over into England by the Lord Dillon of Costeloe presently after the breaking out of the Rebellion by the Remonstrance of the county of Longford pretended about the same time
Eliz. both in person and by Her Embassies abroad did aver That Her Will and Intention was not to punish Her Subjects for their Religion and Conscience fo 13. It is also observable That after the Sanguinary Laws were Enacted that no Priest or Jesuit remaining here that had before these Acts taken Orders beyond Seas and lived quietly was ever called in question for his Religion In all the Laws though extorted from the Queen by so many Rebellions and Treasons there was nothing that did reflect upon an old quict Queen Maries Priest or any that were Ordained within the Land by the Romish Bishops then surviving so they were not over active and busie in Treasons and Conspiracies This also was such another Example of Royal favour as was not to be parallel'd in Queen Maries time And yet it s very remarkable That the chiefest of all these and the most of them had in the time of Hen. 8. Ed. 6. either by preaching writing or arguing taught all people to Condemn yea to Abhor the Authority of the Pope for which they had also yielded to both the said Kings the Title of Supreme Head c. and many of their Books and Sermons against the Popes Authority were printed both in English and in Latin to their great shame and reproach to change so often but especially in prosecuting such as themselves had taught and established to hold the contrary A sin near to the sin against the Holy Ghost Just Brit. f. 4 5. The Priests themselves confessed that such of them as upon examination were found moderate were not so hardly proceeded with in so much as 55. by the Laws liable to death were in 1585. when great mischiefs were in hand only banished A Regal Favour not to be parallel'd in Queen Maries days Import Considerations f. 29 30. Having seen how Faithful and Loyal Papists have been to Princes of their own Religion and also to Edw. 6. and Queen Eliz. Princes of a different profession let us now see how faithful they have been to King James and his posterity Such were the deep malicious and early Councels and designs of Papists against our protestant Princes and Reformation it self in the bud as they would have it that they were not content by all open and secret Councels Powers and Artifices imaginable that Rome France Spain Catholick Princes Priests and Jesuits could contrive or possibly suggest to Assassine and destroy that incomparable Princess Queen Eliz but in her days laid such a found ation and ground-work for future disturbances ruine and destruction even to all her Successors and to this Nation and to the Protestant Religion that hitherto it hath wrought and is still working by undermining powers and policies the effect whereof we feel even to this day and so like to continue to all successive Generations as long as the Seminaries and Jesuitism continue whose Trade and Business it is to encourage themselves and others in mischiefs and to Commune among themselves how they may privily lay snares In the Year 1568. The English fugitive Priests assembling themselves at Doway by the design of William Allen of Oxon the most learned amongst them did Collegiate together in a common Colledge-like Discipline Vide the Hope of Peace 20. to whom the Pope assigned a yearly pension Afterwards being banished the Netherlands by Don Lewis Requesens the King of Spains Deputy A like Seminary was erected at Rheims by the Guises the Queen of Scots Kinsmen Camb. 216.206 and another at Rome by Gregory XIII And afterwards another founded at Valledolid 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 traiterous principles In these Seminaries it was quickly defined That the Pope hath by the Law of God fullness of power over the whole World as well in Ecclesiastical as Temporal matters and that he out of his fulness of power may Excommunicate Kings and being Excommunicate depose them and absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance Then were divers Priests well instructed in such Principles and Doctrins sent into England This done divers traiterous Combinations and Conspiracies both Forrein and Domestick were plotted as here so elsewhere is related Then the Jesuits on one side Camb. 297. and the Fugitive Noble-men and others on the other side with different affections suggested unto Mary Queen of Scots such dangerous Councels that the Seculars afterwards charged the Jesuits as procurers and Instruments of her death And the Jesuits when they saw there was no hope of restoring the Romish Religion either by her or King James her Son began to forge a new and feigned Title in the succession of the Kingdom of England for the Spaniard so wonderful faithful were they to King James and they sent into England as Pasquire saith one Saimer a Man of their Society to draw a party to the Spaniards and to thrust the Queen of Scots forwards to divers dangerous practises by telling her that if she were refractory neither she nor her Son should Reign mjost faithful Men still and by exciting the Guises her Kismen to new stirs against the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condey that they might not be able to aid her This their faith fulness such as it was lasted not only before King James came to the Crown but afterwards as will e're long appear Did not Fa. Parsons in Spain contest bitterly with Fa. Creighton Parsons to settle the Crown on the Infanta and Creighton on the King of Scots Did not Fa. Parsons with Sir William Stanley thrust on Hesket to perswade Ferdinando Earl of Darby to Claim the Crown Did not he perswade York and Young to fire Her Majesties Store-houses Did not he perswade Fr. Dickenson and others to tempt Water-men to fly with Ships to the Spaniards as hath been intimated before Dialogue 93. Thus you see how many several Titles did they seign and set up to set by Q. Eliz. from the Crown and to set up M. Q. of Scots whom they prompted and annimated unto so many Concrivances of dangerous Consequences that brought that Princess unto that sad Catastrophe and consequently were the occasion thereof and so confess'd in print by themselves they left no stone unturned Paul and 4th would not acknowledg her and why Because forsooth this Kingdom was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she could not succeed being Illegitimate and that it was a great boldness to assume the Name and Government without him and therefore refused to hear Sir Edward Kerne her Ambassador All this and more was pretended to have been done in favour of that Admirable person M. Qucen of Scots But what think you would they have done if the Tables had been turned And Q. Eliz. had been an Illegitimate Papist and M. Q. of Scots a Legitimate protestant would you then have been so zealous and industrious for the Q.
of Scots Certainly not which is demonstrable by their Actings and Endeavours to hinder King James from the English Crown And it is plain that it was not Bastardy but Heresie i. e. for being Protestant that made their malice so implacable and this is apparent by the Bull of Pope Pius V. Dated 25. Febr. 1570. in which there is not the least mention of Bastardy No No Illegitimacy is not so monstrous a Gudgeon but that it will easily be swallowed at Rome Gregory XIII had a Bastard James Buon Compagna and to him he gave Ireland and impowred Stewkely with Men Arms and Money to Conquer it for him And England he gave to Don John the Emperors Bastard both admirable Catholicks without all peradventure and gave him leave to Conquer it for himself Christs brave Vicard give that which was none of his own or had any thing to do withall But that perverse Queen had no occasion to part with either on such ridiculous Nods And his Successor Sixtus Quintus took no Notice at all of King James proceeded against her with all his Italian Scarcrows curst her afresh and publisht a Croysade against her and gave all her Dominions to Philip II. King of Spain but forgot to give his Benedictions of Craft and Cunning to get them and so they still remain vested in the hands of the right owners and long may they so do even till time shall be no more Now if Romish zeal for Qu. M. of Scots had had its Rise and Original from her more rightful Title to the Crown of England then it would have continued unto King James also but their Actings being Diametrically opposite and contrary it was visible to all the World that it was Popery not the Title that they contended so furiously for And it was the common voice amongst the Jesuits of those days That if King James would turn Catholick they would follow him but if not they would all die against him Watson Quodlib p. 150. The mtual love and amity that was between Queen Elizabeth and King James his immovable constancy in Religion the strict Laws made against Jesuits and such kind of Men the Execution of Graham of Feutre the forwardest of all those that affected the Spanish party the granting of Supreme Authority in matters Ecclesiastical to the King by the States and the assotiations against the Papists did so quash all hope of restoring Popery in England and Scotland that some of them in England which most of all favoured his Mothers Title began to project how to substitute some English Papists in the Kingdom of England when they could not agree upon a fit man of their own Number they cast their Eyes upon the Earl of Essex who never approved the putting of Men to death in the cause of Religion seigniug a Title from Thomas of Woodstock King Edward the Third's Son from whom be derived his Pedigree Indeed rather for any Body then for King James who they foresaw would be Malleus Hereticorum such was their faithfulness to him as also witness the designs of Gordon Creighton Abercromy Jesuits and others plotting the ruine of King James of Scotland And also the Two Breues sent by Clement the 8th to exclude King James from the Inheritance of the Crown of England unless he would take an Oath to promote the Roman Catholick Interest But the Fugitives favoured the Infanta of Spain although they feared lest the Queen and the States would by Act of Parliament prevent it by offering an Oath to every one and they held it sufficient if they could set the King of Scots and the Earl of Essex at Enmity To which purpose a Book was Dedicated to Essex under the Counterfeit name of Doleman but wrote by Par2ons Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefeild as was believed In this Book despising the right of Birth they project that the Antient Laws of the Land concerning Hereditary Succession to the Crown of England are to be altered that new Laws are to be brought in concerning Election That no man but a Roman Catholick 14. b. of Blood soever they be is to be admitted King And was not this another piece of meritorious service to King James like the rest no doubt of those that went before and of those that will follow They traduced most of the Kings of England as wrong possessors and all in England of she Blond Royal as either Illegitimate or uncapable of the Crown The most certain right of King James to the Crown of England they most unjustly sought to overthrow and did by forged Devices most falsely Entitle thereunto the Infanta Isabella of Spain because she was a Roman Catholick Yea they proceeded with that violence herein that they compelled the English in the Spanish Seminaries it they themselves are to be credited to subscribe to the forged title of the Infanta therein set down and exacted an Oath of the Students in the Seminaries to maintain the same brave Blade They rested not in their Pens and Tongues but prosecuted the same by Actions For Thomas Winter as he himself confessed and Jesmund a Jesuit being come into Spain from Garnet and others of them privily plotted to cast off Queen Eliz. and exclude James King of Scots from his most just Title to the Crown of England Yet not long after when King James was proclaimed this Impudent Parsons excused by Letters to a Friend of his as proceeding not from a mind to do King James wrong but out of an earnest desire to draw him to the Romish Religion and he hoped he should be excused for that these Injuries did not prejudice the King because forsooth they failed of success As in the Year 1592. Patrick Cullens Treason who was incited by Sir William Stanley Hugh Owen Jaques Frances a base Laundress Son who said That unless Mrs. Elizabeth be suddenly taken away the State of England is and will be so settled that all the Devils in Hell will not be able to prevail with it or shake it Hitherto a true Prophet I hope will be so still And Holt the Jesuit vvho resolved to kill the Queen vvas accompanied vvith a Book called Philo-pater written for the abetting and warranting of such a Devilish Act in general by Creswel the legicr Jesuit in spain so was Tesmunds Treason accompanied with Two bulls or Breues from Pope Clement the 8th when the Queen was full of days and infirm one to the Clergy the other to the Laiety unto H. Garnet superior to the Jesuits in England which as they were sent privily so were they kept very closely and Communicated unto very few The tenor and purport of them was that they should admit no Man how near soever in Blood for King after the Queens death unless he would not only tollerate the Roman Catholick Religion but also promote the same with his whole might and undertake by Oath according to the manner of his Ancestors to perform the same which in true understanding was directly to exclude King
to the Lords Justices by the same Lord Dillon as also by their frame of their new Common-Wealth found in Sir John Dungans house not far from Dublin and sent up thither out of Connaught to be communicated to those of Leinster the sum of which and other such like is summ'd up and may be seen to have that purport in the Irish Rebellion written by Sir John Temple f. 80 81 82. § Indeed if the Irish Papists had been so Loyal and Faithful as they now boast themselves to have been Nay had they had the least spark of gratitude for that King who had disobliged so many by obliging them so much they would never in his distresses have capitulated so severely and on the Swords point with him nor have held him to such hard tearms as they did in all their Treatises which they used only as Stratagems to Trapan not to serve His Majesty For in the Year 1643. when a Cessation was concluded with them by the Kings Authority and both English and Irish Engaged by Articles to Transport their Armies to England for His Majesties Service the English did it the Irish only pretended they would do it when the English were gone and then according to one of their old Maxims Nulla fides servanda cum Haereticis they plotted and attempted the ruine of the small Remnant of English left behind in Munster where the Lord Inchiquin commanding by the Kings Commission and the English with him were necessitated to stand on their own defence against the Popish Army Orery 25. Though in the Year 1645. the Earl of Glamorgan gave as Adventageous tearms as they could ask and condescended to such hard and dishonourable propositions on the Kings part as the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond in Justice and Honour neither could nor would condescend unto and though the Commissions of the confederate Catholicks solemnly engaged the publick Faith for the performance of them one Article whereof was 23. b. That they should send 10000. to serve His Majesty c. yet did they not in due time perform their plighted Troath herein which was a great disservice to His Majesty In which slender performance of theirs they could have no other end than thereby to render the Rebells in England more irreconcilable to His Majesty that so that War might be kept up that they might the better gain by Fishing in those troubled Waters so that they well hoped to give Law to both It was the constant observation of the Protestant Army there that the lower and more unfortunate the King was in his successes in England the higher were the demands of the Irish for the Truth is how Loyal and dutiful soever their pretences were towards the King yet their design was to set up for the Pope and the establishing the Romish Religion and erecting its Spiritual Monarchy at least if not a Temporal with it The Arch-Bishop of Iuum was a principal Agent in the Irish Wars and of the Supreme Council of Kilkenny He attended the Army about this time to visit his Diocess and to put in Execution an Order for the Arrears of his Bishoprick granted to him from the Council at Kilkenny which Order together with the Popes Bull and several other Letters of Correspondence between him and his Agents from Rome Paris and several parts of Ireland were found about him whereby it did appear that the Pope would not at the first engage himself in sending of a Nuntio for Ireland till the Irish Agents had fully satisfied him that the Establishment of the Catholick Religion was a thing feaseable and attainable in that Kingdom in which being satisfied he was content to sollicite their cause with Florence and Venice c. and also to delegate Farmano his Nuntio to attend the Kingdom who after some delays in France was at last posted from thence by express Order from the Pope and he arrived at the River of Kilmore in a Friggot of 21 Guns in October with 26 Italians of his Retinue Secretary Belinges and divers Regular and Secular Priests and also with great Supplies for the service of the King no doubt as 2000 Muskets 4000 Bandaliers 2000 Swords 500 Petronells and 20000 l. of Powder all which arrived at Brooke-Haven the same Month together with 5 or 6 Deskes or Small Truncks of Spanish Gold how far all those Popish Auxiliaries conduced to the Kings service and the Protestant Interest I leave to all Contemporaries to judg As in the year 1645. so in that Year 1646. after a peace concluded with them they treacherously attempted to cut off the Lord Lievtenant and his Army with him who marched out of Dublin on security and confidence of that peace 24. b. The same year the Council and Congregation of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland obliged their General Preston by a solemn Oath to exercise all Arts of Hostility against the Lord Marquess of Ormond the Kings Vice-gerent and his Party and to help and advise with Council and assist in that service the Lord General and Vlster employed in the same Expedition In the Year 1647. from Kilkenny 18. January the General Assembly of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland employed Commissioners to Rome France and Spain to invite a Forrein power into Ireland To Rome they sent their Titular Bishop of Ferns and Nicholas Plunket Esq Knighted there by the Pope for his good service therein to declare that they raised Arms for the freedom of the Catholick Religion which are their own words in the Third Article of those their Instructions Orerey This is consonant to the Oath framed the same Year with some Addition to what had formerly been taken by the said General Assembly and pressed on all sorts of people under pain of high Treason which Oath enjoyns the maintenance of these ensuing Propositions 1. That the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laiety in their several Capacities have the free and publick exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendour as it was in the Reign of Hen. VII or any other Catholick King his Predecessors Kings of England and Lords of Ireland either in Ireland or in England 2. That the Secular Clergy of Ireland viz. Primates Arch-Bishops Bishops Ordinaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Prebendaries and other Dignitaries all other Pastours of the Secular Clergy their respective Successors shall have and enjoy all and all manner of Jurisdictions Priviledges and Immunities in full and ample manner as the Roman Catholick Secular Clergy had or enjoyed the same within this Realm at any time during the Reign of the late King Hen. VII sometimes King of England and Lord of Ireland any Law Declaration of Law Statute Power or Authority whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding 3. That all Laws and Statutes made since the 20th Year of Hen. VIII whereby any restraint penalty or other restriction whatsoever is or may be laid upon any of the Roman Catholicks either of the
all this and that they were so much concerned to quench the fire that had so far contributed to the kindling of it we shall find as little ground for their Wroks of Super-errogation in this matter as in point of Religion if the number of them that were slain or suffered for the King or his Father be compared with the Protestant profession Neither were they so Instrumental to the restitution of the King as those of the Protestant profession no not as very many of those that had formerly been of the contrary side and even where Interest might seem more to sway them another way and that in all probability might have promised themselves more favour under the powers that then prevaled for that is also considerable in that matter which was pleaded by many of the Papists to obtain favour from the powers that were from time to time uppermost when they were so that could they have lived quietly in their own Houses they had never repaired to the Kings Garrisons But the War being held forth to gain more credit to the party to be against Papists and their Adherents chiefly though all sorts of gther opinions found some Indulgence yet the Papists professing themselves Papists could not be admitted upon any tearms though happily they were admitted nay favoured under disguises of Quakers and the like and therefore no marvel if they were on the Kings side that they might play their Game the better on both sides when they could not be on the other side professedly § The Truth is prudence and necessity together with their Loyalty made them serve the King in his Wars they well knowing that the Parliament was professedly and desperately bent against them and therefore could have little hopes of comfort from them which Induced them to adhere to the Kiug who was Pater Patriae and from whom they might justly challenge protection as Subjects though not as Papists in which capacity His Majesty received them neither did he ever own their assistance but as Subjects and as justified by necessity And now that the differing parties being weary of endless Broyls were willing to come to a Closure those that had done so much to occasion the War and so little to make it successful and less to bring about His Majesties happy return and union between him and his people would make such a vertue of necessity as to deserve such Indulgences and Rewards which neither can be expected with modesty nor granted with a good Conscience towards God no nor yet with safety to the Crown if the Intrinsick Interest thereof be justly weighed and considered and without all Colour or Ground of Reason Conscience or prudence For indeed all things principles and practises considered I cannot Imagine what good and indefeasable security they can possibly give to any Protestant Prince or State that they will be and continue Loyal and Faithful Subjects Therefore until they reverse and nullifie their Oaths and Principles of Obedience to the See of Rome their claims and pretensions of Jurisdiction over Temporal Princes their Doctrins of Infallibility and of blind Obedience nay their Doctrins of probability also they must excuse me if I differ in opinion with them and make it an Article of my Creed and believe that no protestant Prince or State can ever be undoubtedly secure of the Loyalty and Fidelity of their Popish Subjects if the Pope command the contrary It being according to their Doctrin of probability a Maxim amongst them that that which 1 2. or some few Roman Catholick Doctors say is lawful may in the Judgment of Papists be done without mortal sin This is Mr. Knots Charity maintained c. 4. Sect. 25. as also Valentias Vasques Lessius Euriques Sa Cellot de Hier. l. 8. c. 16. p. 714. But not only one but many Popish Doctors nay Popes Cardinals and Councils say That it is lawful to murder or depose a Supreme Magistrate that is guilty of Heresie or suspected of it and such according to their Tenets are Protestant Princes Nay J. E. in his Book Entitled The Right and Jurisdiction of the Prelate and the Prince printed with the Licence of Superiors 1617. maintains the same not only by the opinions of very many doctors but also by the Popes and the Authority of General Councils as that of Lateran under Innocent the Third Anno 1215. c. 3. and that of Lyons c. 5. de homicidio in 6. and another General Council of Lyons Anno 1245. and affirms That many other Councils he could alledge for the same as Bellarmine and Schulkenius have done Ergo Cavete Principes Conclusionem Princes beware your Crowns beware your Heads and of giving any Indulgence Countenance and power to that Generation of Men who are Sworn Vassals to the Bishop of Rome and make it a part of your Letany viz from such ill kind of Men Libera nos Domine Having thus Summarily manifested to all the World that will read and understand the Doctrins and practises of Papists to be so desperately pernicious and destructive to our Protestant Kings and Kingdoms and withall will consider what most precious Golden Aples England Scotland and Ireland with all their Forrein plantations and Dominions are to gratifie Cardinalisme Nepotisme or any incestuous Brood of any Donna Olympia It is very reasonable to believe That what they have done that they will re-iterate again and again if not wisely and timely prevented were it not then admiral discretion in us to give this Generation of Men yet more power and liberty the only things they want to put the same practises in Execution again when they have given us from Age to Age successively such Demonstrations and Assurances that they will do as they have done when ever they have power a neat opportunity and are so commanded by their universal Monarch But I Conclude That if we have any love or regard for that Religion which is pure peaceable undefiled and which is truly Antient Catholick and Apostolick or any abhorrency to that Inchanting City full of all pollutions uncleaness Idolatry Superstition Blasphemy what not or any concern for the safety of His Majesties person for liberty of our Consciences property and freedom of our Estates and lastly any care to preserve King and Kingdom from Parisian Vespers Inquisitions Fire and Faggot and from a Six-knotted-whip of Articles it will wonderfully concern us by all wholsom Laws and means to prevent the growth of this Crudele Genus by paring their Nayls only that otherwise would crack our Crowns and seek our lives unless we will quantum in nobis sacrifice once more all that is near and dear unto us unto Romish Tyranny § I shall yet further Conclude That if Protestant Princes will but rightly consider that they like Gods own Sabbath were ordained for Kingdoms and not Kingdoms for them and that if they will follow but the very Dictates of right Reason and the very light of Nature they cannot without being felones de se
infatuated as ever to put power into their Hands who have so often given such palpable Demonstration and Testimony how they have used it already and such pregnant presumptions how they would use it again could they obtain it Even they that run may read what the Papists like Jehu drive so furionsly at even to make England once more Issachar like to couch and carry the Saddle Vah Papae shall it ever be again the style and reproach of England Glorious England that is scituate among the Rivers whose Rampart is the Sea and whose God is the Lord to carry the Saddle again God forbid But if so unhappy so unfortunate I 'le prophesie that not the Pope only but the Devil will ride her Pardon these Expressions I have encouragement from St. Jerome Neminem volo patientem esse in causalaesae fidei and from Moses the Mirror of meekness who knows no patience in Israels Idolatry Numb 12.3 Exod. 22.19 26 27. Idem manens idem semper facit idem THE REAL MERITS OF THE PAPISTS SUch hath the Confidence of the Papists of these latter times been as to claim a Right unto the Kings Majesties favour for a tolleration of their Religion upon the account of their great Merits as having best deserved of His Majesty because of all they were the most faithful to him and his Father The purport of this hath not only been averred by the generality of them in their ordinary discourses but also set out in print by several of them P. W. R. P. J. S. H. M. and others At which confident Assertion of theirs when I consider how boldly and feircly the contend for meritorious works nay for works of super-errogation even with God himself I do not so much wonder that such Merit-mongers broach it so confidently now as that they have not done it all this while § He that is first in his own Cause seemeth just but his Neighbours cometh and searcheth him Prov. 18.17 Which that we may the better do we will only a little look back into our own Chronicle without cloying the Reader with like Foreign Stories which would fill Volumes and first see how true and trusty Trojans the Papists have been to the Kings of England no Protestants but Papists and if they shall be found to have been neither true nor trusty but Traytors and Rebels to the Kings of their own Religion can it then ever be believed or hoped that they ever will be Loyal and Faithful to Protestant Princes when a neat opportunity offers the contrary and that Maugre all Roman Mandates to the contrary what Prince or other Sovereign foberly considers the new founded Society of Jesuits erected by Pope Paul the 3d. about 1540. who although at first but 10 in Number yet so wonderfully encreased since that they bragged not a few years ago that they were 1300010. they lived in Colledges and places of residence besides those that trotted up and down that they had 359. Colledges or Schools 18 Domus professae 40 Domus probationis 8 Seminaries 1010 Residentiaries Vide speculum Jesuiticum Runninge Register And what their Principles and Doctrins are and what their practices have been for the destroying of all Princes quacumque Arte that will not become Vassals to the See of Rome and and acknowledg a Spiritual Monarchy in that Roman Chair paramount all temporal Crowns and Scepters and how strict and of what extant their vow of Obedience is to the Roman Bishop and how it is decreed by several Popes that the Institutions and Doctrins of the Jesuits must not be contradicted or disputed by any Ordinary Delegate Judg or Magistrate and how vastly that society is enlarged both in their Clergy and Layety since these great brags of theirs will be sufficiently convinced that neither their persons or their Kingdoms can ever be secure where either one sort or other are suffered to flourish § Let us now see matter of Fact Did not Pope Alexander the 3d. by violence and tyranny force King H. the II. to surrender his Crown Imperial into the hand of his Legate and afterwards be content with a private Condition for a while to the great regret and Indignation of his Subjects Did not Innocent the 3d. stir up the Nobility and Commonalty of this Kingdom against King John and gave the Inheritance and Possession of all his Dominions unto Ludovicus the French King What were those 52 000. but Papists that rebelled against Richard the I. Anno 1196. And all those that rebelled against Edward the II. Anno 1316 1317 1321 1322 1326. Amongst whom was Robert Baldock Bishop of Norwich and Lord Chancellor of England And all those that consented to the Murder of Edward the Third's Father and fought to kill john of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Edward the Third's Son Anno 1330.1372 And those in Richard the Third's time Anno 1381. Annimated by John Ball a Priest who at his Execution refused to ask the King forgiveness and despised him so peremptory was he Jack Straw confessing that when he sent for the King to Black-Heath they purposed to have murdered all Knights Esquires and Gentlemen that should have come with him and when they had got sufficient force they would suddenly then have put to death in every County and Lords and Masters of the Common people in whom might appear to be either Council or Resistance one Argument used by some of the late Protectorians for the death of our Glorious King and Martyr that he was too knowing and too intelligent to be suffered to live and especially they would have killed the Knights of St. John and all Men of any Possessions only Begging Fryars should have lived that might have Administred the Sacraments throughout the Realm and lastly the would have killed the King himself and made Kings in every Shire Thomas Arrundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury traiterously practiced the deposing of the said Richard his lawful Sovereign § It were no very mild conjecture to Divine that our late Generation of Levellers Major Generals Quakers and Phanaticks were spawned from them and that they are still but Badgers plotting and digging Holes for Romish Foxes to lie couchant and covertly in for their more subtile contrivances § What were those but Papists that rebelled against H. the 4th designing to Murder him under the colour of Justinge and other pastimes pretended 1399. And also those who raised Arms against him among whom was John Madelyn a Priest who had been Chaplain to King Richard and impudently personated the King They were Priests and Friars that suborned a False Richard whereof 8 being Miners were hanged at Tyburne Oswald Bishop of Galloway was the chief Plotter against Richard the 2d in the Year 1403. A Priest of Warwick and also Walter Waldock a Prior of Laud in Leicester-Shire and one Richard Freseby a Dr. in Divinity was Executed in his Religious Habit and Weede and not long after 10 Grey Fryars were executed all for Treason In the year 1404. Tho. Percy
Treatises and Writings endeavoured to defame their Sovereign and their own Countrey labouring to have many of their Books translated into divers Languages whereby to shew their own disloyalty If Cardinal Allen and Parsons had not published the Renovation of the said Bull by Sixtus Quintus If thereunto they had not added their scurrilous and unmanly Admonition or rather most prophane Libel against Her Maj sty If they had not sought by false perswasions and unghostly Arguments to have allured the hearts of all Catholicks from their allegiance If the Pope had never been urged by them to have thrust the King of Spain into that barbarous Actions against the Realm If they themselves with all the rest of that Generation had not laboured greatly with the said King for the Conquest and Invasion of this Land by the Spaniards who are known to be the cruelest Tyrants that live upon the Earth If the Pope had not ordered Ridolphi to distribute 150000. Crowns to advance the attempt whereof some was sent to Scotland some to the Duke of Norfolk alias And King Philip to send the Duke of Alua and his Forces into England to assist the Duke of Norfolk If in all their whole proceedings they had not from time to time depraved irritated and provoked both Her Majesty and State with those and many other such like their most ungodly and unchristian practises there had been no Speeches amongst us of Racks and Torments nor any cause to have used them for none were ever vexed that way simply for that he was either Priest or Catholick but because they were suspected to have had their hands in some of the said most traiterous designs And most assuredly the State would have loved us or at least born with us and we had been in much better condition than now we are Important Considerations c. fo 39 40 41. printed 1601. Furthermore another in answer to a Letter of a Jesuited Gent. by A. C. fo 89. complains of the Jesuits averring That Her Majesty is an Heretick an Excommunicated Princess and consequently to be deposed What Jesabelling of her have I heard them used What questioning whether no Jehu have subdued her why yet she prospereth why yet she Reigns why yet she lives what defaming her what throwing Soil at her Picture what avowing her Rohal Lyons and Flower-de-luze no better worth than to serve for Signs to Baudy-houses Thus do the Jesuits and Jesuited use Her Majesty to my express knowledg and worse which for good manners I omit fo 90. nay they sent one to me in the nature of an Engineer from beyond the Seas to perswade my assisting his firing the Queens Navy throughout England against the next years coming of another Spanish Armado f. 90. Was it not Fa. Parsons and Fa. Creighton F. 9. That with much vehemency and bitterness contended for the disposing of the Crown of England the one for the Lady Infanta the other to his King of Scotland Were they not Jesuits which plotted with the Duke of Parma for surpriseing or stealing awayof the Lady Arabella and sending her into Flanders who imployed the Messenger into England about that affair but Fa-Holt Jesuit who but the same Jesuit was consenting with Sir William Stanley to the sending in of Richard Hesket for soliciting Ferdinando Earl of Darby to rise against Her Majesty and claim the Crown was it not the same Jesuit that entertained York and Young in the Plot of firing Her Majesties Store-houses that set on work Mr. Francis Dickinson and others to perswade Watermen to fly with Ships and all into the service of the Spaniard f. 93. their Conspiracies were not confined to England only but they were extended also to Scotland whereupon were the Three Catholick Earls Angus Arrol and Huntley convicted of High Treason by Act of Parliament about 1593. if not upon certain plots laid by Fa. Creighton Fa. Gourdon and upon hopes given them of succour from Spain Why was the Lord of Fentry Executed but for the same designs imparted to him by Fa. Ro. Abereronii a Jesuit Was it not the principal cause of Fa James Gordons travel to Rome about the same time to solicite the Pope and other Princes to assist the King of Scots if he enterprise any thing either against England or in his own Countrey 93 94. And yet these matters will not be believed at this day by the Papists though it be their own voluntary confession in several of their printed Books yet extant Priests and Jesuits each deservedly accusing other of Treasons and Conspiracies against the Queen Her Person Crown and Dignity with this difference only that the Priests mostly the Jesuits seldom acknowledged the Queens great favours and lenity towards them the Queen had great reason to believe them both not barely because they peached one the other but because thereof she really found the sad effects And indeed because she and her Council did very wisely consider that Papists some Centuries of Years before ever Jesuits were thought of did universally incline unto and side with the Pope against their temporal Princes usurping many great and exorbitant authorities and priviledges over them whereof Histories are full and therefore it was but high time that the Queen should by wholsom Laws inflicting moderate pains and mulcts provide against both one and the other This is no small Bedrall of Treasons Conspiricies provocations Vide Important consider f. 16 17 18. c. and yet as many more they might have urged nay to do the Secular-priests right they have done it particularly sparsim both in this and divers others their Books and also made large very large acknowledgments of the Queens Bounty Moderation and Clemency towards those Papists that were quiet and faithful a gratefulness that I have not found in any of the Jesuits and in so doing they did the Queen but right for from the year 1. Eliz. unto 11. Papists came to our Church and Service without scruple so that for 10 years they made no Conscience nor Doubt to Communicate with us in prayer But when once the Bull of Pius Quintus often called by the Queen Impius Intus was published wherein the Queen was accursed and deposed and Her Subjects discharged of their obedience and Oaths of Fealty yea cursed if they did obey Her Then and not till then they refrained our Churches and Service so that recusancy in them the name of Recusant being never heard of until the 11. Year of Eliz. as if evident by the very Acts of Parliament is not for for Religion but in an acknowledgment of the Popes power which was little regarded here our famous Kings being never afraid of Popes Bulls no not in the very midnight of Popery as Edward the Confessor Henry I. Edward I. Rich. II. Henry IV. Henry V. c. And in the time of Henry VII and in all their times the Popes Legate never passed Callais but staid there and came not to England until he had taken a
James and his Family from the Crown These Bulls came forth upon the aforesaid negotiation of Tho. Winter in Spain at what time an Army should shortly after have been sent to Invade the Land and this was to be put in execution Quandocumque contingeret miseram illam feminam exhac vita excedere 16. b. when ever it should happen that that wretched Woman so pleased the High-Priest of rome to call the Queen the greatest of Women cujus memoria semper erit in benedictione should depart this life Of these Bulls also within Two Years after was begot that dreadful roaring Monster the Powder Treason Their Force and Vertue was not confined with Tweed but extended it self also into Scotland For the Sword was prepared there also at the same time by the Rethuens Brethren to take away King James's life who boiling with revenge for their fathers death the Earl Gowry by Law in the Kings nonage by a Wile inticed the King to whom they were much engaged into their House most wickedly appointed him to the slaughter had not God the Protector of Kings prevented it by the help of John Ramsey and Thomas Areskin and turned it upon the heads of the Authors Having thus summarily declared the good intentions and faithful Service the Papists performed towards James 6th King of Scotland whilst he stood the next and undoubted Heir apparent to the Crown of England before he came to be king thereof I will now shew you one other great Plat-form and design of theirs for the ruine of this Nation and then proceed to shew you how faithful they were to King James after he came to be King of England and have been since unto his Son and Grandson The Seminaries being thus founded and established in divers places and at Vallodolid by the procurement of Parsons that Arch-Traytor who for his uncessant Romish Contrivances had by this time got great Interest in Rome and Spain that in them they might consult and act how to bring to pass their grand design of erecting their universal spiritual Monarchy for Rome Spain and Jesuitism and a seeming Title being made out by his Book of Titles or Succession of the Crown of England to the Infanta He then in another Book called A Memorial for Reformation or High-Courtor Council of Reformation of England written at Sevil 1596. of which he was so fond that he kept it like a precius Jewel An Answer to a Jesuited Gent. as close in his bosom as the Dukes of Florence are said to keep Tully de rebublica vvhich not all the World have but themselves and laboured all he could to have it read in the Refectaries at Rome he there lays a secret Snare for our ruine by a Plat-form to vvork insensibly the Alteration of our government by bringing it to a popularity and hovv near it vvas brought to effect in these late times by Papists as some Write under the Title of Levellers Agitators Independents Fifth Monarchy Men Quakers c. vvho are but Badgers Working Holes for the Foxes the Jesuits vvill be obvious to every intelligent Reader In this Book it is designed that no Religious Order should resort into England or be permitted to live vvithin its Dominions but Jesuits and Capuchins That all Abbey and Church Lands and those of Colledges Parsonages Bishops Vicarages 16 b. Monasteries Nunneries Frieries c. must be no longer in their Hands but must be brought into a publick Exchequer under the Government of four Jesuits and Two Secular Priests to be chosen by the General and Provincial Jesuits vvho vvere to allovv the Bishops Parsons Vicars c. Stipends and Pensions as Bishops Suffragans and Mont Seigniors had in other Catholick Countries all the rest must be imployed in Pious Uses pro ut c. vvithout rendring an Account They prescribed Rules of Living for the Lords Temporal and other the Nobility and Gentry vvhat Retinue they vvould keep hovv much should be allovved them to spend yearly and what diet they should keep at their Tables That Magna Charta should be burnt the manner of holding Lands in Fee 2imple Fee-tail Frank-Almanige c. by Kings Service Soccage or Villenage should all be brought into Villany Scoggery and Popularity the Common Laws to be wholly annihilated and destroyed and Caesars civil Imperials brought into this Vtopian Spiritual Monarchy Quodlibets 92 95. And the Reasons are given in these Quodlibats viz. For that the state of the Crown and Kingdom by the Common Laws is so strongly settled as whilst they continue the Jesuits see not how they can work their Wills he hath also set down a Course how all men may shake off Authority at their pleasures And this Stratagem is how the Common people may be inveigled and seduced to conceipt to themselves such a liberty and prerogative as that it may be lawful for them when they think meet to place and displace Kings and Princes as Men may do their Tenants at Will Hirelings or ordinary Servants 286. Princes had need be fond of such Subjects and account them their best Friends Having thus acquainted you with the Plat-form laid long since deep in Council for our Ruine I leave to all Contemporaries of these late Rebellious Anarchical times to judg how much of this Train hath taken Fire and how much of the substance of this Plot hath been put in Execution and how near the whole design was like to have taken Effect when the Assembly Elected only by the Army Officers on the 20th of August 1653. as the Diurnals printed they ordered there should be a Committee felected to confider a now Body of the Law for the Government of this Common Wealth who were to new mould the whole Body of the Law and is not this according to T. F. Parsons Plat-form He that would know more of it must read the Book it self which is still in great esteem amongst them or because that is rare he may read a Book of the same Parsons Entituled A manifestation of the folly and bad spirit of the secular Priests wherein this Memorial is owned by him and Analyfed and Excused from f. 55. to 64. or W. Clark a Roman Priest his Answer to the Manifestation Entituled A Reply unto a certain Libel lately set forth by Fa. Parsons p. 74 c. or Watsons Quodlibets p. 92 95 together with a Reply to a brief Apology and several other Books which above 60 Years ago the Priests wrote against the Jesuits and the Jesuits against the Priests whereby the Reader may in transitu besides all this perceive that there be as many and as great differences between them as among Protestants Smiths Preface to the Apology f. 12. See also Contzen the Mogentine Jesuit f. 2 c. 18. of his Politicks and Campanella in his Monarchia Hispan The Jesuits now seem to drive another design all the World over viz. as they have one Ecclesiastical or Universal Monarch so to set up a temporal universal Monarch which
Eul. Postellus attributes to Terra sancta cui Gallia ob primariam orbis nomen jus substituitur eo quod Ambae toti orbi legem sunt daturae I now proceed to shew you how faithful the Papists were to the Crown of England after King James came to it The first Meritorious Act towards King James was to calumniate him with a breach of promise as made to some of them before he came into England for a Tolleration of their Religion which now he did deny to perform which had this intended double mischief in it viz. That it should bring an Odium upon him from the Protestants for making such a promise and the like from the Papists for the breaking of it And unto whom should this promise be made but unto that Arch-traitor Percy and to that false Priest Watson both afterwards found in other Treasons for which being condemned Watson confessed to the Earl of Northampton purposely sent by the King to examine him who was the first first Author of that false report at Winchester a day or Two before he was Executed 17. b. at which time no man is presumed to lye that he never could receive any spark of Comfort touching ease of Counscience to Catholicks from His Majesty how unjustly soever the World had made him Author of that Scandal though withall he added how unwilling he had been to declare to his Fellows how averse the King shewed him in his own Words lest over great discouragement might render them desperate The like did Percy another desperate Traitor aver after his return out of Scotland both before and after the Queens death that in the point of Conscience he found the Kings intent and final purpose to be peremptory Proceedings against Traitors 182. A. 6. 45.6.46 The like slander and Scandal was raised upon the King by the Lord of Belmerinoth his Scotish Secretary by sending the Pope Word the King James would become his obedient Son who afterwards being Arraigned acknowledged his offence in devising Letters and sending them to Rome which himself got cunningly Signed in shuffling them in amongst others His Majesty being utterly ignorant of the Contents Speed 917. Another faithful service towards King James his Person Crown and Posterity was plotted by Watson and Clark Two Secular Italianated Priests who drew others of the Nobility and Gentry into their Hellish Confederacy as Lord Cobham Lord Gray of Wilton Sir Walter Raleigh Lord Warden of the Stanneries Sir Griffin Markeham Sir Edward Parham George Brooke and others their design was to have surprised the Kings person and his Son Prince H. to have kept them prisoners in the Tower or in Dover Castle and there by violence to obtain their Ends viz. A Tolleration of Religion and a removal of evil Councellors or to put some other projects in Execution and then to obtain their Pardons Watson to have been Lord Chancellor Lord Gray Earl-Marshal of England George Brooke Lord Treasurer Sir Griffin Markham Secretary c. Thus did they divide the Bears-skin which is not yet caught though the same Generation in all probability be still in hot pursuit of the same Quarry viz. A Tolleration and Change of Religion in the transferring of all Crowns from Protestant to Popish Princes and Government according to Parsons and Campanella's Plat-form Of those Confederates only Sir William Parham was acquitted and Three only Executed viz. George Brooke Clark and Watson who had taught equivocating and to avoid his other solemn protestations both by Word and Writing that the Act was lawful being done before his Coronation for that the King was no King before he was Anointed and the Crown solemnly set on his Head By this we may conclude that there is no trust to be reposed in Papists of any Order What Man in the World could profess and publish to all the World in Writing more obedience and faithfulness to a Prince than Watson did to Queen Eliz. most fiercely and bitterly blaming the Jesuits for their iterated and re-iterated Treasons and Rebellions against her and for creating disturbances in all the states of the World where they are As he lived to see so I hope he lived to repent of his 2in and error for he left this brand and suspicion on the Jesuitical Order at his death that they in revenge had cunningly and covertly drawn him into this Action which brought him into this shameful End § What shall I say more 18. b. 31. Vox faucibus haeret I am now come to that monstrum horrendum Informe Ingens cui Lumen Ademptum unto Guy Fawks and his dark Lanthorn that never to be parallel'd Gunpowder-Treason in which I will say with the Grave Senator repertum est hodierno die facinus quod nec Poeta fingere nec Historia sonare nec Minus Imitare poterit This plot of plots is yet so fresh in memory and so well known all the World over that I will not enter into the particulars of it though there are some so desperately Jesuited that either out of simplicity or Impudence will not confess the truth thereof others extenuate it by saying they were only a few discontented persons desperate in Estate or base or not setled in their Wits without religion Habitation Gredit Means or Hope and as our Apologizer for Catholicks f. 5. A few Desperadoes But most certain it is that they were Gentlemen of good Houses of excellent parts and of Competent Fortunes Besides that Percy was of the House of Northumberland Sir William Stanley who principally imployed Fawks into Spain and John Talbot of Graston both of great and Honourable Families others say That there was never a Religious Man in this Action which is no truer than the other Whoever yet knew a Treason without a Romish Priest In this there were many Three of them Legiers and States-men Henry Garnet alias Waller superior of the Jesuits Legier here in England T. F. Creswel Legier Jesuit in Spain Fa. Baldwin Legier in Flanders as Parsons at Rome besides their Itinerant or Cursory Men as Gerrard Oswald Tesmond alias Greenway Hamond Hall and other Jesuits Proceedings 27 18. Others of them condemn it now that happily would have commended it it had taken effect Prosperum Scetus virtus vocatur would have been a good Axiom then such Hellish Actions being of their Nature and Number quae non Laudantur nisi peracta Now against whom was this Hellish Plot contrived not to name Parliament Council Nobility Gentry c. but against King James that peaceable obliging Prince who had sought all Mild and Royal means possible to have reduced them unto a quiet peaceable and Loyal Temper and yet even 1 Jac. when His Majesty used so great lenity towards Recusants in that by the space of a whole Year and Four Months he took no penalty due by Statute of them For at the time of Watsons Treason when some of the greatest Recusants were convented at Hampton-Court and not found Participes Criminis were
presently dismissed with incouragement favour and promise that those mean profits which had accrued to His Majesty since His coming to the Crown for their Recusancy should be forgiven to those who had kept themselves free from all Conspiracies Nay so far was His Majesty from severity nay from discriminating that he indifferently Honoured all with Advancement and favours And were they at all Reclaimed by this Nothing less for at that very time they gave out That the King would deal rigorously with them designedly to keep up the Hearts of Catholicks against him for that end indeed they had more Treasons then hatching against him before they saw his Face in England and all grounded on those Two Papal Breves 19. b. For in March 1603. Garnet complained to Catesby That the King had broken his promise with the Catholicks And in September following Catesby making a grievous complaint to Thomas Percy That contrary to their Expectations His Majesty both did hold and was like continually to run the same course which before the Queen had held Percy presently breaks forth into this Devilish Speech That there was no way but to kill the King which he would undertake to do but Catesby cunningly replyed No Tom Thou shalt not adventure thy self to so small purpose If thou wilt be a Traytor there is a Plot to greater advantage and such a one as can never be discovered viz. thereby meaning the Powder-Treason How impudently soever this is now Extenuated nay denyed by some Papists yet Johannes Barclaius a French Catholick wrote the History of it under the Title of Conspiratio Anglicana the very same Month it was discovered viz. Novemb. 1605. where he thus brands it Ingens Atrox horridum facinus quale nec Antiquitas vidit aegre posteri credent Denique velut omnium flagitiorum compendium in hanc diem fortuna contulit So matchless and horrid a villany that our Fore-fathers never saw the like and wich future Ages will hardly believe it being the very Quintessence and Compendium of all the villanies that the Sun yet ever saw Christs passion excepted Which History he improves to this Axiome Saepe Divinitatis opera haec sunt ut Furias in ipso jam successu securas subito vitio excipiat Ne vel unquam improbis timor vel spes absit calamitosae virtuti When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as Travel upon a Woman with Child and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5.3 Neither doth God ever leave the wicked without fear nor distressed righteous without hope This pitiful politick device of theirs is so improbable and looks so Jewish that I can resemble it to no other Though Pilate by the Advice of the Chief Priests and Pharisees made the Sepulchre wherein Christs Body was laid sure by stealing the Stone and setting a Watch and Guard of Souldiers lest His Disciples should come by night and steal Him away and though His Resurrection was made unquestionable by an Earth-quake and by the rowling back of the Stone from the Door by an Angel descending from Heaven and sitting upon it whose Countenance was like Lightning and his Raiment White as Snow so that for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men yet when some of the Watch had shewed unto the Chief Priests all the things that were done yet so hard of belief were they that they assembled with the Elders and having taken Council they gave large Money unto the Souldiers to say His Disciples came by night and stole him away whilst we slept and if this come to the Governors Ears we 'l perswade him and secure you so they took the Money and did as they were taught Mat. 28. which saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day And if Brows of Brass and Brazen Faces can prevail the 5th of November shall no more be believed by them another Age than Pope Joane is now Had these kind of Men had any spark of Loyalty or Gratitude in their Hearts it had been impossible they should ever have plotted and conspired so desperately against so mild and gratious a Prince as King James was and who had sought their quiet and safety by many obliging means Did not he bestow many Honours on many Catholicks Did not he allow them free Access both to his Court and to his Person not only on just occasions but for their comfort and at their pleasure though he was not ignorant that the Jesuits had been tampering with the Catholicks as well to disswade them from the Acceptance of His Majesty at his first coming alledging that they ought rather to die than to admit of an Heretick for so they termed His Majesty to the Crown And that they might not under pain of Excommunication accept of any but of a Catholick for their Sovereign as also to disswade Catholicks from their Loyalty after he was King Did he not open the Gates of Justice indifferently to Protestants and Catholicks alike Was his predecessor so confident in the fidelity of any Catholicks as to imploy them to Forrein Princes in Embassie Would she have called the Chief Catholicks to her Councel Board that upon their laying open their just complaints they might have redress with favour Did not Recusants in his days that were in Arrear compound with a Commission directed only to that end almost for what term and at what rates they might best satisfie Did he not put them in possession of their whole Estates drawn out of the Farmers hands upon due proof made of spoil without further command of any other Contribution or Taxation than the Laws limited Did he not give order for the punishing of Informers and Messengers that preyed upon the prostrate Fortunes of Recusants with harder measure than the Justice of the State Warranted Was he not pleased in the General Pardon granted at the close of the Parliament that Priests and Jesuits should be comprised in the List and among them both Garuet and Greenwell who in recompence whereof were shortly after pleased that so Royal a Dispenser of Grace and Bounty towards them should be blown up by their Bontefeaux Had they not greater freedom than formerly in their own Countries and to serve what Prince or State abroad that they pleased to travel when and where they pleased without yielding an account at their return 20. b. 35. Did ever any Magistrate in cold Blood proceed against a Priest that for want of means to procure a pardon had been kept in prison since the time of the Queens decease By all which and much more that might be said it fully appears That King James was no hard Master reaping where he had not sowed and gathering where he had not strowed nor yet Revengeful who though he was to have been blown up after all these Favours and Liberties conferred on them still continued I might say increased them notwithstanding that horrid and matchless Conspiracie even to his dying
Clergy and Laiety for such their free Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion within this Kingdom and of their several Functions Jurisdictions and Priviledges may be repealed renewed and declared void in the next Parliament by one or more Acts of Parliament to be past therein 4. That the Primates Arch-Bishops c. of the Roman Catholick Secular Clergy and their respective Successors shall have hold and enjoy all the Churches and Church-Livings in as large and ample manner as the late Protestant Clergy respectively enjoyed the same on the first day of October 1641. together with all Profits Emoluments Perquisits Liberties 25 b. and other Rights to their respective Sees and Churches belonging as well in all places now in the possession of the confederate Catholicks also in all other places that shall be recovered by the said confederate Catholicks from the adverse party within this Kingdom saving to the Roman Catholick Laiety their respective rights to the Laws of the Land § But to return to the said Instructions it is Recorded in another part of the said Third Article that they intend to insist on such Concessions in matters of Religion and for the security thereof as his Holiness shall approve of and be satisfied with And in the Ninth Article they were instructed to make application to his Holiness for his being Protector of Ireland wherein they were before the Phanaticks in England and by special instance to endeavour his acceptance there c. Nay their Commissioners then sent to France and Spain were required in case of the Popes refusal of being their Protector to offer it to either of those Kings nay to any Popish Prince from whom to use their own words they might have most considerable aids Orerey Faithful and Meritorious Servants still if they may be their own Judges though they desired and designed the Pope nay any King or Prince rather than the King of England ratified to be their Liege Lord for so many successions of Princes together Neither was it in those Treaties only that they shewed themselves such Loyal and Faithful Subjects but in that other also Anno 1648. wherein they forced and compelled the King to yield unto such unreasonable condiscentions that nothing but pure necessity could ever have extorted from him or his Lieutenant And did they Acquiesce in those Articles or were they ata ll more Loyal and Faithful to the King than before not at all for they having got by the 18th Article a Papal-like preclusion of all offences to be committed or done after their date they then thnking themselves sufficiently authorised and pardoned for all or any new Crimes by a pardon of much more force than of one from their Holy Father the Pope they were not long e're they began to vilifie and disobey the Kings Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in pursuit wereof they sent to the Lord Lieutenant in April 1650. desiring him to leave the Kingdom and to commit the Government thereof to one that they should choose and might confide in and this without so much as acquainting his present Majesty with it And in very deed they had good reason so to do or else how was it possible for them to compass their main design viz. The Atchieving of the Government into their own hands and power that so they might have a Native King of their own and extirpate the English Root and Branch Though herein they were disappointed by the Piety Honour Courage and Integrity of the Lord Lieutenant yet did they not forbear to impeach and affront the Kings Authority in him for in August following by their publick Declaration they did therein manifest to the people that they were no longer obliged to obey the Orders or Commands of the Marquess of Ormond whereby they did evidently break these Articles and declare their power paramount to His Majesties Orerey 5 6 7. And this they pursued yet farther not without some scorn for in the next Month they caused their Clergy to Excommunicate not only the Lord Lieutenant but all that should feed or adhere to him a great Bug-bear I must confess but it being solemnised Glave Errante it scared not his Grace nor any of his Adherents from their duty and so it mist of their desired end however this shewed their good will to have preserved His Majesties Regal Authority by bereiving his Lieutenant of it All Meritorious and our best Friends still The Rump that Infamous Rump Infamous as for many other abominations so most superlatively for their High-Court of Injustice was much more beholding to them than the King was for they made Petitions and Supplications unto them 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 they are their own words And herein vaunted That several of them were able to make appear their constant good affection and adherence to the Rump their own words still and prayed a competent time to be allowed them for making out the same Vide the Petitions of Sir Ra. Talbot Baronet and Garret Moore Esq who were not herein private but publick persons and so owned in the Title of their Petitions being for the behalf of others for whom they were Sollicitors Agitators or Trustees or Trustees call them what you will and were so continued for the Irish Papists until of late days which is more than ever they would do to King Charles I. or King Charles II. for they treated with their Majesties upon the Swords point upon as great tearms of defiance as if they had treated with the Turk and not with their Liege Lord Vide Orerey fo 14 15. Of which sit liber Judex the Articles of the Treaties They went yet further congratulating with them by acknowledging That their withered hopes and former confidences were a fresh revived by the Rumps return to the management of the Government under which their propensions to peace and quietness were so great that they willingly acquiesced in their transplanation albeit it was not executed by any Legal power as not being derived from their Honours What could they submit more than they did Consciences Lives Fortunes Nay their Transplantation they accepted chearfully nay Petitioned for it would they yet but acquiesce in that their Transplantation only as they bragg'd unto the Rump that they did to them it would be some manner of Expiation for their Crimes past and encouragement to His Majesty more securely to confide in them for the time to come and be a means to remove many Fears and Jealousies and would make way for future Graces But they are yet so far from doing any thing of this Nature that they contend Tooth and Nayl both by Pen and Interest for the performance of those Extorted and Inglorious Articles made 1646. Articles that nothing but pure necessity could ever have compelled His Majesty to have yielded unto
Articles that themselves broke and set at naught as hath been proved besides did not Gallway after the Articles of 1648. Treat with the Duke of Lorraine to be Protector of Ireland Did not Waterford deny a passage to the Lord Lieutenant and his Army Nay sought they not his life afterwards or to deliver him to the Usurpers had be not suddenly and secretly withdrawn and secured himself Their General Assembly stiled themselves His Majesties Loyal and Faithful Subjects and to manifest it the Enacted That no Temperal Government or Jurisdiction should be assumed kept or executed in Ireland or in any Province or County thereof other than of what should be approved or instituted by their General Assembly If this be not professing like Saints and doing like Devils I do not know what is profess Loyalty that they might have the better opportunities to perpetrate their wicked designs Kiss and Betray with Judas Salute and Honourably present with Ehud and at the same time thrust a Dagger into the Kings Bowels Hosanna on the tips of their Tongues and Crucifige in the depths of their Hearts And yet so Impudent as to style themselves the Kings best and most saithful Subjects They Addressed their Petitions to the Supreme Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common-Wealth of England First Moderator f. 59. They affirmed that they had generally taken and punctually kept the Ingagement 2. Moderator f. 41. They promised that if they might enjoy their Religion they would be the most quiet and useful Subjects of England 1. Moderator f. 31. They proved it in these words viz. The Papists of England would be bound by their own Interest the strongest obligation amongst wise Men to live peaceably and thankfully in the private Exercises of their Consciences and becoming gainers by such Compassions they would not so reasonably be distrusted as the Prelatick party that were loosers 1. Moderator f. 36. I have dwelt the longer on the practises and designs of the Papists of Ireland for that there was clear demonstration in point of fact of their Affection and Adherency to the Pope before nay against their rightful King and Sovereign which hath been evidenced by their publick Acts and Monuments of which for a Teste take a part of one Translated viz. Vrban 8o. ad futuram rei memoriam Having taken into our serious consideration c. Orerey f. 59 60. by their often Treaties their Acts of their General Assembly and of their Council by their Instructions to their Engineers to their Forrein Princes c. All which are excellently and much more largely Anatomized and descanted on by the Earl of Orerey in his answer to P. W. Into whose hands many of the Originals having fallen cannot be gainsaid and if they had not yet their Catholick and open rising in Arms and fighting on every occasion against His Majesties Armies and Commands is a demonstration evident as the Sun at noon that they were Rebels to the height to all intents and purposes for it was begun continued and ended by Papists only not one Protestant among them both Secular and Regular the Pope himself the Head of their Church in the person of his Nuntio Rinuccini generalissimo of all their Forces both by Sea and Land with all his Tribe of his Ecclesiastical Orders contributing all assistance and encouragement imaginable thereunto Whereby it is most manifest that the horrid Rebellion was not only a Crime of some in their Church but even a Crime of their Church I now pass to the Papists of England concerning whose Actions and Affections it cannot reasonably be expected that I should so clearly discover their more secret Designs and Machinations for that our Civil Wars here were not Papists fighting under the Popes Banner Countenance and Encouragement against Protestants as they did in Ireland But Protestants Jesuitically in that point principled against a Protestant King and his Liege-men that were more loyally minded and principled and so were never Embodied together apart and by themselves and therefore could never Assemble and Confederate together either in Battle to fight or in full and open Council to design and plot but what they did covertly and in the dark by fomenting dissentions and Intestine Wars according to Cotzen the Moguntine Jesuit in the Second Book of his Politicks Ch. 18. and to Campanella's design de Monar Hisp Ch. 24. p. 204. c. I am vero ad enervandos Anglos nihil tam conducit quam dissentio discordia inter illos excitata perpetuoque nutrita quod cito meliores occasiones suppeditabit and that by putting the Parliament upon it ut Angliam in formam Reipublicae reducant ad Imitationem Holandorum and how near it was brought to this by our late Republicans is most notorious So confident were the Jesuits of their Plots and Designs taking effect that Campian in his Book printed 1583. at Trevers declares thus concerning the English in the name of his Holy Order viz. Our Will is That it come to the knowledg of every one so far as it concerns our Society that we all dispersed in great numbers through the World have made a League and Holy Solemn Oath That as long as there is any of us alive that all our Care and Industry all our Deliberations and Councils shall never cease to trouble their quiet and safety we shall procure and pursue for ever their Ruine the utter destruction of their Religion and of their Kingdom It is long since we have taken this Resolution with the hazard of our lives so that the business being already well begun and advanced 29. b. it is impossible that the English can do any thing to stop our design or surmount it Faithful Men still no doubt they are yet unto the Miter and Red-Caps of Rome only but nothing less unto the Crown and Diadem of England And shall we after all such demonstrations dis-believe their own Protestations and not take their own Words for it § Besides 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 the main design of them and especially of those of their Clergy to have been for the ruine of the King of happy memory and of the Protestant Religion Yet I would not be mis-understood herein as if I meant every Individual Papist for some of them and those of Noble Families and Fortunes as also others of them of meaner rank ventured both Lives and fortunes very gallantly for their Sovereign but it was still against a Protestant not against a Popish party however I wish they may continue heartily Loyal against all parties and that all of that Religion were so minded which though I may wish yet can never rationally hope to see whilst they continue true to Romish Principles which oblige them to set up another Supreme Head within those His Majesties Dominions in derogation of this
Imperial Crown and Scepter I shall not trouble you with the repetition of many store of the disguised and dark Actings of the Papists against the King and Crown of England they being already extant in several Treaties viz. In hidden works of darkness brought to light Jus Patronatus Mr. Prinne his Speech in Parliament his Memento his Epistle to a reasonable and legal vindication c. Quakers unmarked In which and other Books many particulars may be seen of their secret undermining Actings In the Year 1638. when the Kings had great need both of Men and Money and the Hearts of all his Subjects and their contributions whether Popish or Protestants his Holiness gave directions to his Catholicks in England whereof these following were part viz. You are to command the Catholicks of England in general that they suddenly desist from making such offers of Men towards his Northern Expedition as we hear they have done little to the advantage of their direction And likewise it is requisit considering the penalties already imposed they they be not forward with Money more than what Law and Duty enjoyns them to pay without any Innovation at all or view of making themselves rather weaker Pillars of the Kingdom than they were before Declare unto the best of the Peeres and Gentry by word of mouth or Letters that they ought not at this time to express any averseness in case the High Court of Parliament by called nor shew any discontents against the Acts which do not point blank aim at Religion being in general the most sundamental Law of this Kingdom Advise the Clergy to desist from the foolish nay rather illiterate and childish Custom of distinction in the Protestant and Puritan Doctrin and especially this Error is so much the greater when they undertake to prove that Protestanisme is a Degree nearer to the Faith-Catholick For since both lye without the verge of the Church it is a needless Hypocrisie yea it begets more malice than it is worth All busie Inquirers are defended but especially into Arcanes of State It is affirmed by in a printed Speech before a great Assembly 4. September 1654. p. 16 17. That he knew very well that Emissaries of the Jesuits never came over in those Swarms as they have done since these times That divers Gentlemen could bear witness with him that they had a Consistory and Council abroad that Rules all the Affairs of the things of England That they had fixed in England in the limits of most Cathedrals of which he was able to produce the particular Instruments an episcopal power with Arch-Deacons and other persons to perverâ—◠〈…〉 the midst of all our sad Distractions And I presume it will not be denied Inde quod nuper veteres comgravere Coloni that very many of them have been sent or come over from Forrein Seminaries into England under the disguises of Converted Jews Phisitians Chyrurgians Independants Quakers Fifth Monarchy Men Agitators Mechanicks Merchants Factors Travellers Souldiers that they might the more unsuspectedly have an Influence on the Committees Agitators and Officers of the Army It was confessed to one of the English Nobility at Rome by the English Provincial there that they had then above 1500. of their Society in England able to work in several professions and Trades which they had there taken upon them the better to support and secure themselves from being discovered Who ever considers the fore-mentioned Plat-form laid subtilly by F. F. Parsons and othes to work insensibly our Ruine Vide Smiths Preface fo 12. the Swarms of Papists here ready to joyn Heads and Hands and Hearts on all occasions and opportunities to bring it to pass the new printing about the time of that horrid matchless Murder of thier Dolman that Infamous and Traiterous Libel against our Kings under a new Title of several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the powers of Parliaments to proceed against their Kings for mis-government together with what is averred for truth and offered to be justified when ever called thereunto by that learned and worthy Divine Du Moulin in his Vindication Se. 58 59 60. c. will easily conclude that their Merits have not been of that Nature as to be used as Arguments for a Tolleration no nor yet for the least of kindness viz. When the business of the late bad times are once ripe for an History and time the bringer of Truth to light hath discovered the Mysteries of Iniquity and the depths of Satan which have wrought so much crime and mischief it will be found that the late Rebellion was raised and fostered by the Arts of the Court of Rome That Jesuits professed themselves Independent as not depending on the Church of England and Fifth Monarchy Men that they might pull down the English Monarchy and that in the Committees for the destruction of the King and the Church they had their Spies and their Agents § The Roman Priest and Confessor is known who when he saw the fatal stroke given to our Holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy we have in the World is gone When the News of that horrible Execution came to Roan a Protestant Gentleman of good credit was present in a great company of Jesuited persons When after great Expressions of Joy the gravest of the Company to whom all gave ear spake much after this sort The King of England at his Marriage had promised us the re-establlshing of the Catholick Religion in England and when he delayed to fulfil his promise we summoned him from time to time to perform it we came so far as to tell him That if he would not do it we should be forced to take those courses which would bring him to his destruction We have given him lawful warning and when no worning would serve we have kept our Word to him since he would not keep his Word to us That grave Rabbies Sentence agreeth with this certain Intelligence which shall be justified whensoever Authority will require it That the Year before the Kings death a select number of English Jesuits were sent from their whole party in England first to Paris to consult with the faculty at Sorbon then altogether Jesuited to whom they put this Question in writing That seeing the state of England was in a likely posture to change Government whether it was lawful for the Catholicks to work the change for the advancing and securing the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from his Heresie which was answered affirmatively After which the same persons went to Rome where the Question being propounded and debated it was concluded by the Pope and his Council That it was both lawful and expedient for the Catholicks to promote the alteration of State What followed that Confultation and Sentence all the World knoweth and time the bringer forth of Truth will let us know But when that Horrible Paricide committed on
the Kings Sacred person was so universally cryed down as the greatest Villany that had been committed in many Ages the Pope commanded all the papers about the Question to be gathered and burnt In obedience to which order a Roman Catholick in Paris was demanded a Copy which he had of those papers but the Gentleman who had refused to consider and detest the wickedness of that project refused to give it and shewed it to a Protesant Friend of his and related to him the whole carriage of this Negotiation with great abhorrency of the practises of the Jesuits In pursuance of that Order from Rome for the pulling down both of the Monarch and Monarchy of England many Jesuits came over who took several shapes to go about their work but most of them took party in the Army About Thirty of them were met by a Protestant Gentlemen between Roan and Deipe to whom they said taking him for one of them That they were going into England and would take Arms in the Independent Army and endeavour to be Agitators A Protestant Lady living in Paris in the time of our late Calamities was perswaded by a Jesuit going in Scarlet to turn Roman Catholick When the dismal News of the Kings Murder came to Paris this Lady as all other good English Subjects was most deeply afflicted with it and when this Scarlet Divine came to see her and found her melting in Tears about that heavy and common disaster he told her with a smiling Countenance That she had no reason to lament but rather to rejoice seeing that the Ca-Cholicks were rid of their greatest Enemy and that the Catholick Cause was much furthered by his death Upon which the Lady in great anger put the Man down the Stairs saying If that be your Religion I have done with you for ever Many Intelligent Travellers can tell of the great Joy among the English Convents and Seminaries about the Kings death as having overcome their Enemy and done their main Work for their settlement in England of which they made themselves so sure that the Benedictins were in great care that the Jesuits should not get their Land And the English Nunns were contending who should be Abbesses in England An understanding Gentleman visiting the Friars of Dunkirk put them on the discourse of the Kings death and to pump out their sence about it said That the Jesuits had laboured very much to compass that great Work To which they Answered That the Jesuits would engross to themselves the Glory of all great and good Works and of this amongst other Works whereas they had laboured as diligently and as effectually as they So there was striving for the glory of the Atchievment and the Friars shewed themselves as much Jesuited as the Jesuits In the height of Olivers Tyranny Tho. White a Priest and a right Jesuit in all his Principles about Obedience set out a Book Entitled The Grounds of Obedience and Government wherein he maintains That if the people by any Circumstance be devolved to the state of Anarchy their promise made to their expelled Governor binds no more That the people are remitted by the evil mannaging or insufficiency of their Governour to the force of Nature to provide for themselves and not bound by any promise made to their Governour that the Magistrate by his miscarriages abdicateth himself from being a Magistrate and proveth a Brigand or Robber instead of a Defender that word Defender he writes with a great D. that the Reader may take notice whom he means His Book is full fraught with Argumentations of this Nature All in barr and prejudice to His Majesties Restauration Of the same opinion was F. F. Bret when at St. Malo he was earnest with those Gentlemen that had so gallantly defended the Castle of Jarsey to take the Engagement from which they ought to be freed by the Articles of their Rendition maintaining that they were not to acknowledg any Supreme but the prevailing power Du Moulin Ibid. § Having dwelt thus long on this unpleasant Theme it is now time to wind up this Botton and therefore Admit the Papists had merited in these late troubles as much as they pretend they have from the King and his Father yet doth it not follow that they ought therefore to be rewarded with a Tolleration of their Religion or with any Mitigation of our Laws prohibiting the exercise thereof no more than it was fit Joseph for the good service done to his Master should be be gratified with the company of his Masters Wife Neither did his Master think this reasonable though he acknowledged the extraordinary good Service of his Servant much less did Joseph expect it In like manner the Papists must first satisfie us That the Tolleration of their Religion is not Tolleration of Idolatry which the Scripture calls Spiritual Adultery nor yet the exercise of a World of Impieties under the Mask of Religion before they can convince us whatever their Loyalty may otherways be that it is either lawful or reasonable for Magistrates whom the Scripture stileth Gods and who standing in Gods stead ought to be as jealous of his Honour in that case as a Husband would be of his Wife Nay as much as in them lies even as God himself who professeth himself to be a Jealous God to Authorize or connive at the Exercise of such a Religion or as to account very strict Laws too severe in that Case for which there is both Precept and Example in the Word of God It is a very great Truth That Kings neither can nor ought to give permission or allowance of any things which in their own Natures are evil and opposit to the Salvation of Mens Souls and which though they should permit them would nevertheless continue and remain sins and exclude them that do and practice them from obtaining Salvation And of such a Nature are many Popish Doctrins c. And certainly those Princes are most worthy of the praise of God and Men that endeavour to remove such Abuses and all things forbidden by God which remaining make it impossible for men to be saved or if saved yet so as by Fire very difficultly But in things not repugnant to the will of God all Princes have liberty to do that which the good and weal of their State requires I appeal to all the Caesars in the World nay to all mankind if it be reasonable that the requital of the good Services of particular persons should be gratified with the vacating or but suspending those Laws which are our strongest security or should be debarred from making yet stronger Laws against But chering and Idolatrous men and Principles This State seeks not your Blood it only desires to be secured and safe from those destructive dangers unto which Popish Doctrins practises and principles do most manifestly expose it against which no perfect security can possibly be given but by as publick condemnation and detestation of them as they are ratified by 1 by Popes
upon a false rumor being spread that His Majesty intended to grant a Tolleration to Papists he commanded all the Judges with divers of the greatest Nobility viz. Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer and to Assemble in the Star-Chamber to receive their opinions upon these and other points at which time the Lords severally declared how the King was discontented with the said false Rumor and had made but the day before a protestation unto them that he never intended it and that he would spend the last drop of Blood in his Body before he would do it And prayed that before any of his Issue should maintain any other Religion than what he truly professed and maintained that God would take them out of the World Vide Sir George Crokes Reports part 2. ter tr Anno 2 Jac. Reg. in Banco Regis § When a Match with Spain was propounded to King James for Prince Charles and there with an Article desired for a Tolleration of the Popish Religion which when King James had propounded to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury 1623. the Arch-Bishop did write his Sentiments to King James in which Letter He besought His Majesty to take into his consideration what your Act is and what the Consequence may be by your Act you labour to set up the most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babilon How hateful it will te to God and g rievous to the good Subjects the professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath often disputed and learnedly written against those should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrins which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tells your self are Superstitious Idolatrous and Detestable Besides this Tolleration which you endeavour to set up by your Proclamamation cannot be done without a Parliament unlessl your Majesty will let your Subjects see that you will take unto your self ability to throw down the Laws of the Land at your pleasure c. prout King James not long after viz 23. Ap. 1624. returns this Answer to a Petition of his Parliament touching Recusants viz. What my Religion is my Books declare my profession and my behaviour do shew and I hope in God I shall never live to be thought otherwise sure I am I shall never deserve it And for my part I wish that it might be written in Marble and remain to posterity as a mark upon me when I shall swerve from my Religion for he that doth dissemble with God is not to be trusted by Man My Lords Ip rotest before God my Heart hath bled when I have heard of the increase of Popery and God is my Judg it hath been so great a grief unto me that it hath been like Thorns in my Eyes and Pricks in my sides so far have I been and ever shall be from turning any other way And my Lords and Gentlemen you all shall be my Confessors if I knew any way better than other to hinder the growth of Popery I would take it and he cannot be an honest man who knowing as I do and being perswaded as I am would do otherwise The Romish Catholicks for want of this liberty and tollerance in the time of Queen Eliz. and since have made and written many bitter Complaints and Invectives against the Rigour of our Penal Laws c. Rex Talionis I could requite them by commemorating the flames they kindled in England to burn their Brethren to dust How Pius Quintus conferred England on Philip II. King of Spain and approved as an Act lawful by Azorius Instit Mor. part 2. lib. 11. c. 5. And how many Princes they have displaced poisoned and murdered The Holy House which the Friars have planted in Spain resembling the Torments of Nero his Garden the Massacres of Provence Piedmont of old and of late and of Paris where they murdered Men Women and Children by Thousands against the very Grounds of all Equity Piety Charity and Humanity without Convicting Accusing or so much as Calling them before any Judg to hear what was misliked in them And when was any of this put in Execution some of it even the 24 Aug. 1572. the very Year that Charles IX the French King pretending great kindness to the Protestants had in Testimony thereof desired a Confederacy at Blois with Queen Eliz. and the Princes of Germany in favour of them whom notwithstanding he had secretly and treacherously designed to the slaughter For no sooner were the Articles of Confederacy agreed on which was the 11th of April and confirmed by Oath by the Queen at Westminster 15. May in the presence of Montmorency stiled the first Christian Prince and accounted the most Noble Family of all France who also again earnestly sollicited the Marriage with the Duke of Anjou but f or that they could not agree about the Exercise of Religion he hasted into France to the Marriage of Henry of Navarre and Madam Margarite the French Kings Sister To this Marriage in pursuance of the said Bloody Design were invited the Queen of Navarre and all the choicest of the Protestants and also Burleigh and Leicester out of England pretending Honour to them and the Palatine Elector's Sons out of Germany that being brought into the snare both they and with them the Protestant Evangelical Religion might with one stroak if not have had their Throats cut yet at least receive a Mortal Wound For no sooner was the Marriage Solemnized but that barbarous Massacre of Paris and the Bloody Butchering of the Protestants throughout the Cities of France upon men of all Estates was cursedly put in Execution and that within Two days after Mota Fennelon the French Ambassador had propounded the Marriage between Queen Eliz. and the Duke of Anjou at Kenelworth Camb. Elisab 162. Which considered I cannot but wonder to hear you thus complaining at the Fatherly Chastisement wherewith this Realm seeketh your amendment and sucketh not your Blood Compare the penalties which you fret at with the Laws of former Emperours and you will see how easie they are in respect of their ancient Edicts which restrained such as did forbear to communicate with the Church of Christ from buying selling disposing bequeathing Goods or Lands by will or otherwise yea from receiving any Legacies or enjoying their Fathers Inheritance the place where Schismatical Service was said Chappel or House to be forfeited and the Bishop and Clergy-man to pay 16 l. weight in Gold or to be banished Cod. l. 1. Tit. 5. Mamcheos Ibid. 8. Cuncti St. Augustin Ep. 48. When it was expected by reason of the goodness of his Nature that he should mediate for some of these penalties to be released gave this quick and smart answer Nay marry let Princes in Gods Name serve Christ in making Laws for Christ § It was in the days of Queen Eliz. objected That for want of the Exercise of a Religion many sorts want things necessary to Salvation and many are forced to things which Bring
of the Protestant Religion Another prohibits the Exercise of Charity towards their Brethren who have no sufficiency of their own for their livelyhood 5. Oct. 1663. Another dischargeth payment of Debts by those of the Commonalty who shall turn Papists The very Heathens never pretended that those Christians who did but Apostatize to them should be discharged from payment of their Debts Another prohibits Ministers to preach without the place of their residence thereby depriving them of the benefit of Annexation i. e. the priviledge of one Ministers supplying Two Churches which singly are not able to afford a compleat maintenance 22. Feb. 1664. Another giveth liberty to Priests and Fryars to enter their Houses and come unto their Bed-sides when sick or dying to sollicite them to change their Religion 18. Sept. 1664. 12. May 1665. Another maketh it criminal in Ministers to style themselves Pastors or Ministers of the Word of God Nay they have regulated the very Garments of Ministers forbidding them to wear a long Garment that they may have no Character of distinction from the peasants 30. Jan. 1663. In the Declaration of pretended Relapses 1663. ratified in Parliament 7. Jan. 1663. It is ordained that those of the Religion who have once embraced the Popish Religion shall never again return unto it under pain of perpetual Banishment A thing plainly contrary to the Edict Yet they have given it a retrospective and retroactive power to execute it against persons who became of the Religion long before the Declaration was in being and accordingly have proceeded against some whom they have imprisoned compelled to do penance by going Bare-foot and Bare-headed through the streets with a burning Torch to the place of Justice or person offended and there to ask forgiveness and then Banished the Kingdom I could cloy the Readers with like severities usque ad nauseam but I forbear having no other design by this brief Narrative but only to give a tast of the difference of severities which we use here and which are used against us abroad in our Neighbour Nations without going farther into Germany Hungary Poland and other Popish Countries Vide the Memoirs of the King of Sweden to the Emperonr Let William Watson the Secular Priest conclude for our Justification viz. That all the sufferings brought upon the Papists here in England was the due reward for their own demerits Which Axiome is as compleatly true now as it was in his days Now what hope can we have to speed better than our Neighbours who only want power to do as much for us but I proceed As in the days of Queen Eliz. so now they begin to play their old tricks over again and would fain perswade us that there is a Generation of them that are faithful and dutiful Subjects to this Crown whatsoever others of the same Communion are and therefore plead hard for Indulgence and Tolleration above their Fellows F. 5. As that they disown the Paramount and Omnipotent Powers attributed to the Pope in many particulars and look upon it as a grievance rather than a right belonging to him and complain and wish for remedy that they will stand with the King his Crown and Regality in some Cases by them named F. 6. and in all others in all points to live and dye with them They farther conceive that it is the right of every National Church to provide for the particular concerns thereof and yet confesses that it is not for her safety to receive those who do not believe as she doth It is there owned F. 7. yet not without a Peradventure that the Church of England hath preserved the face of a continued Mission and un-interrupted Ordination that her moderation in Doctrin is great that her disciple preserves Episcopal Government that she abhors Phanaticisme and the wild Errors of a private Spirit that though she hold the Scripture to be the Rule of Controversie yet holds withall that it is not of private interpretation and that she is for Vincentius Lyrinensis Rule quod ab omnibus quod semper quod ubique that the Papists upon many occasions have been found as faithful to the State as any of their fellow Subjects At last this Diologist P. takes per F. 15.33 that the seasonable discourse accounts the Protestant Religion excellent and the Popish full of stupedity which though granted yet he argues may we not therefore be permitted to say our Prayers in private which is all the Indulgence allowed us and that sure it is no part of the Protestant Church to hinder others from being as good as they can and the worse our Religion is the more need we have of praying to make us better A great Courtier I must confess and hath complemented us highly to his own ends and advantage yet with little Injury to us which though I cannot so courtly return in its own kind without flattering yet I modestly wish that all the Papists were no worse minded And yet if they were I do not know that this State were the more secure This very Scene was acted in Queen Eliz. days as I have shewed before and their own Books which are very numerous and very full of such acknowledgments and disclamours and yet some of the same Leaven for their unfaithfulness to her and this Crown came with the first unto untimely ends and that deservedly I will hope better of these of this Generation presuming they will take warning by other mens harms However I presume this State will be as wise now as they were in her days and trust to neither for that the more secure we are of the one the less safe we are from the other The Seculars and Regulars in her days confessed much more viz. That though they disliked the severity of her Laws yet could not but acknowledg that the State hd great cause to make such except they should have shewed themselves careless and though the Laws were very extreme yet the occasions of them were very outragious and likewise that the Execution of them was not so Tragical as many did write and report Import Consider f. 11. A Letter from a Jesuited Gent. f. 65 66. Dialogue between a Secular Priest and a Lay Gent. sparing discovery and others sparsim In Queen Eliz. days such of the Papists who though they did not forbear to profess Loyalty and Obedience to Her Majesty and were ready to resist any Forrein force though Authorized from the Pope himself as this Dialogist pretends now to do None of this sort were for their Religion prosecuted or charged with any crimes or pains of Treason And this I shall demonstrate in point of fact by instancing of some few of very many of the better sort for of the more ordinary sort they were sans nombre not unfit to be taken notice of as by name Dr. Heth that was Arch-Bishop of York and Lord Chancellor of England in Queen Maries days who at the first coming of Queen Eliz.
and E. 6. either by preaching writing reading or arguing taught all people to condemn yea to abhor the Authority of the Pope for which purpose they had many times given their Oaths publickly against the Popes Authority and had also yielded to both the said Kings the Title of Supreme Head of the Church of England next under Christ and yet they refused to allow Queen Eliz. the Title of Supreme Governor though to gratifie them she omitted the very Title of Supreme Head at the begin of her Reign and this is demonstrable by many of their Books and Sermons against the Popes Authority printed both in English and Latin to their great shame and reproach to change so often but especially in persecuting such in Queen Maries days whom themselves had taught and established to hold the contrary in H. 8. days a sin bordering on the sin against the Holy Ghost scarce to be forgiven And shall we be gull'd again by such Sophisters Was Queen Eliz. ever the more safe in her person or her Dominions the more secure from Troubles Insurrections or Rebellions because some few protested Loyalty Let all Impartial Histories and their and our own Memories be Judg. Come out of their fellowship and you will not partake of their plagues else they that will ship themselves with the Devil must Sail with him But why trouble I my self or the Readers with this frivolous Argument when it cannot be the least dust in the Ballance to perswade That upon this Dialogist Warrant or only Intimation rather he and his Seculars and who those are we know not and not possible for us to distinguish shall use loyal and peaceable behaviours nay what if they should be as good as their Word deny the Popes Exorbitant powers and swear Allegiance maugre the Popes Mandates to the contrary Is this an Argument prevalent enough to perswade us to nurse and nuzzle up the Popes Imps whose Seeds-men and Legates are both Priests and Jesuits and suffer him that hath already cursed Her Majesties person and in her all her Successors removed her Crown discharged her Subjects invaded here Dominions * In the days of H. 8. the Earl of Desmond profered Ireland to the French King the Instrument whereof yet remains upon Record in the Court at Paris and the Pope afterwards transferred the Title of all our Kingdoms unto Charles the 5th which by new Grants was confirmed unto his Son Philip in the days of Queen Eliz. with a resolution to settle this Crown upon the Spanish In. fanta Bishop Ushe S Spech at Dublin f. 12. and given them away to others and now to suffer them to steal from our Kings and Queens their peoples Hearts and reconcile them to that Mother of Abominations that dares call light darkness and darkness light dock Communions and Decalogues and worship Idols whose Brow is Brass and whose Heart is harder than the neather Mill-stone that hearing will not hear and seeing will not see nor understand charm the Charmer never so wisely never so sweetly and all this under the vizard of Catholick Religion and feigned Devotion which in truth is nothing less but is superstitious Idolatrous and Abominable the Tolleration and Allowance of which cannot possibly be Indulged without manifest breach of Gods Law against which there is no plea or excuse to be allowed joyned with the subversion of the Crown and Royal State For how is it possible that light should agree with darkness God and Belial Christ and Antichrist the same Moment any persons is reconciled to Rome the same Mom ent he is become a sworn Votary and Vassal to Rome subject to another head Were this humble Petition and desire only for Earthly and not Heavenly things and did it not concern Christs Glory but the Indempnity of our Kings and people what a pittiful toy is it for a few Friars well versed in the Arts of Equivocation to think themselves meet Pledges and Hostages for the security of so great a Prince and people Submission to God and your Prince would be more preswasive and authentique and would better become you It is not enough to renounce the exorbitant powers claim'd by the Pope except withall you renounce the Idolatrous Worship of Rome and her Doctrins of Infallibility and of probability of Transubstantiation Demy-Communions praying in an unknown Tongue debarring the people the use of the Bible and a thrave of other false and Heretical Doctrins and practises having only lowd and bawling Impudence for their Justification without either Sense Reason or Scripture The most Honourable and Grave Sages of this Nation understand you so well that I believe you find they will not easily be cheated with kanting words or specious pretences made use of only to obumbrate and shadow the clearness of their long and grounded Experience purchased by clear demonstration and matter of Fact at the dearest rate and expence of Blood and Treasure I do heartily joyn Issue with this Dialogist and believe as he doth That it is not for the safety of our Church to receive those who do not believe as we do In this we are good Friends but I doubt he will be as angry with me as with the seasonable discourser for accounting the Popish Religion to be Superstitious Idolatrous and Absurd and the Protestant to be the True Antient and Apostolick Religion Neither shall I much differ with him in some other of his Concessions viz. That it is the right of every National Church to provide for the particular concerns thereof and and without his Peradventure that the Church of England hath preserved the face of a continued Mission and uninterrupted Ordination which is impossible for the Romanists t do their Doctrin of Intention being allowed for currant that here moderation in Doctrin is great that her Discipline preserves Episcopal Government He concludes may we not therefore because the Popish Religion is accounted stupid be permitted to say our prayers in private which is all the Indulgence allowed us and that sure it is no part of the goodness of the Protestant Church to hinder others from being as good as they can and the worse our Religion is the more need we have of praying to make us better § As it is no part of our Doctrin to hinder prayers and devotions that are in truth so according to Christs Constat or men to be as good as they can so it is no part of our practise and it looks too like a slander to intimate it and it is our belief that the worse the men and their Religion are the more need they have of their own and other mens prayers to make them better but then they must be made to God and his Son and not to Pictures and Images nor yet to Stocks and Stones and those in a Language to themselves Intelligible It is is indeed the desire and design of our Souls that being converted our selves to strengthen our Brethren and to hinder some scabbed Sheep from infecting the
and clamorous they will be Such is their Nature that it must devour or trample down all before it or else it will never rest satisfied Such is the unsatiableness of this Scarlet Lady so often drunk with the Blood of the Saints that no Blood could yet satisfie but that she still cries Give Give In all Histories from Generation to Generation they that run may read prodigious Examples of Exorbitant Papal Claims and pride over Kings Emperours Princes and Free States even against right reason and to the Indignation of all Mankind and these justified by their Popes Councils Decretals Canons and Divines of the first Magnitude ascribing to the Pope power of deposing Kings if Hereticks and they are all so when his Holiness pleaseth so to tearm them by as good Logick as the Foxes Ears are Horns if the Lyon please to call them so And if yet there be any Papists that in Word or Writings do disown such Doctrins as the Seculars did in Queen Eliz. days of whom notwithstanding it is observed That they never discovered any traiterous design until it was first discovered by others and that in several Treasons though many of the Seminary Priests were active and forward yet they are as little to be confided in as those that own and justifie them for that by so doing they contradict and disclaim the very Faith they own and profess and unto which they are sworn thereby forsaking their Popes Councils Canons Divines and Decretals nay their Doctrins of Supremacy of believing as the Church i. e. as the Pope believes of Infallibility and Probability of Equivocation of no Faith to be kept with Hereticks c. all Doctrins of the Church of Rome which alone are in their esteem of power sufficient to warrant and justifie their blind obedience and to null all the security that can possibly be given between Prince People whether Oaths or Laws Civil or Ecclesiastical nay Divine And if we may prognosticate of practises to come by practises past let the said Experience of former Ages and of all Countries and of ours in particular rise up in Judgment against them that they never have been never will be Loyal Subjects to our Protestant Princes the Reasons are strong for that they are ever incited to such evil Machinations and practises by the strong impulse and impetuous zeal of their own Doctrins and Superstitions and all proceeding from causes pecular unto Romish Religion and Principles which they have not in the least as yet changed nor disclaimed nor yet their Interest § Besides if the Papists of England have merited any thing from the King and his Father in these late troubles it is no thanks to their Religion and therefore no reason they should be gratified in their Religion for had it proceeded from the undoubted principles of their Religion it would have held as well in Ireland as in England nay it would have held as well in Queen Elizabeths and King James his time as in the time of King Charles Father and Son a Postscript to an Answer to a Jesuited Gent. and also in a sparing Discourse It being confessed by themselves that none of them have in all the times of persecution dyed expresly for Religion but all for Treason b Answer to a Letter to a Jesuited Gent. f. 45. And that Irish Papists would have been as little Loyal to Queen Mary as unto Queen Eliz. But the continual Plots against the Life and Crown of that Queen and that horrid Gun-powder Plot against King James and all his Race and Nobles and the late Rebellion in Ireland against King Charles do demonstrate the contrary and their Religion where that and the Pope are concerned teaching the contrary but they thought not their Religion in that case concerned if they had then it would have appeared whether their Loyalty would have born up against it or no more than it hath done in former times Therefore if any such Merits have been they have been only personal and so may be and no doubt so have been and will be requited with personal favours but in no case with such as may tend to the advantage of the Popish and consequently to the disadvantage of the Protestant Religion Power and Interest of our Princes But let us a little examin what in truth have been the Merits of the Papists in the late Wars To say the Papists were the Formal Causes of the late War upon what hath been before written were happily not quite besides the Cushion However the former matter and grounds administers good Reasons to believe and affirm that they were great occasions both of the rise growth and continuance of our late Wars Some and those not a few of the wisest and most sober Cavaliers thought that the Papists did look upon the War as their great Interest and Hahvest either by opening unto them occasions to pretend something in favour of their party in case the King prevailed or otherwise by fomenting of the War between Protestant and Protestant they should have gained an Interest through their divisioos when they had weakened one another and that by fishing in troubled Waters they should gain some advantage by the confusions which as the Law stood in a setled State of Affairs they could not expect § However if the Papists did not design those divisions and the breaking in pieces of the Antient Government of this Kingdom and that wherein they hoped to find their Interest it is certain they were great occasions thereof for what on the one hand with their Negotiations before the War by Seignior Con and other the Popes Agents and the State tampering with the Pope and King of Spain about the INfanta not yet out of the Minds and Memories of his Subjects and their boldness upon the favour they might happily expect from the Kings Mother and the Clemency which they found from his Father no way desirous to have the Sanguinary Laws Executed upon them and what by the Rebellion of those of that Religion in Ireland they created so great Jealousies in the minds of the Protestant party in England that it rather weakened the Royal party than fortified it and made the Adverse party so numerous and so successful as a long time it was And it may be truly said there was never a Papist in the Kings Army but it lost him the Hearts of many Protestants and as it cannot be supposed that they brought a Blessing on the Kings Armies so it is certain they brought a very ill reputation upon them and where one fought against the Kings party upon a serious Examination of the State of the Quarrel Hundreds took the other party because they saw so many Papists on his side and possibly things had never grown to that height as to have broken out into a War had it not been for the Jealousies which were partly given and partly taken from the Insolent Carriage of that party both in England and Ireland And yet for