of all Supream Powers to suppress Vice and encourage Vertue which is best done abroad when first and effectually begun at home in your own House and Family by banishing all vicious Livers from your Presence and Converse and advancing the Vertuous in their stead By the neglect of which principal Part of their Royal Trust and Office Princes depose themselves as useless before God and their own Consciences whatever may be their State or Glory in Fact and by humane Laws and Power before Men. Our Royal Patron being thus dismiss'd we are now got to the Narrative it self of which you my kind Reader still may or may not as you choose run over the Heads They are these The general Design in this Plot was the Reformation that is in their Sense the Reduction of Great Britain and Ireland by the Sword to the Romish Religion and Obedience And Besides the Papal there was also a French Plot carried on by Sir Ellis Leighton Mr. COLEMAN and others The King's Person they more especially resolved to remove and that with all possible speed by Dagger Pistol or POISON The Prince of Orange is to be cut off He was designed against and condemned by Name and 12 Missioners sent into Holland had it in charge to put that People in Mutiny against him On the 4th of January stilo novo Letters were sent by Richard Ashby and others Jesuits of the English Seminary at St. Omers to the Father Confessor of the Emperor to advise him that his Majesty of Great Britain had treacherously plotted the Ruine of the Confederates and that his Design was not to keep any Alliance with his Imperial Majesty but only in shew that he might advance his Nephew THE PRINCE OF ORANGE and make him absolute and therefore prayed that the States of Holland might be acquainted with it Letters arrived at London bearing Date Aug. 5. 1678 from Whito alias Whitebread Provincional to John Fenvick from St. Omers in which he did inform the Fathers that he had ordered 12 Jesuits to go for Holland and to inform the Dutch that the Prince of Orange did intend to assume the Crown of a King and that he resolved to bring them under another Government which was designed to beget in the Dutch an evil Opinion of the P. of Orange and to procure a Commotion there against him On the 11th of Aug. John Keines a Jesuit declared that all means were now used to beget a difference between the Dutch and the P. of Orange and if that could be effected there was no question to be made but that the Protestant Interest would fail in Holland On the 12th of Aug. a Pacquet arrived in London from White alias Whitebread the Provincional and other Jesuits to John Fenwick intimating that the twelve Jesuits were got into Holland and would use all their Skill and Interest to make a Commotion there and that APPLE-TREE WILL. meaning the P. of Orange SHOVLD NOT BE GREAT And that they hoped the Fathers in London would follow their Business closely there In order to the Reduction of Ireland it was resolved that the D. of Ormond must be put out of the way and that then the Protestants should be cut off as in 41 and to that end Arms and Money were sent over and the Pope contributed 800 Thousand Crowns and to make all sure the French were to send Forces over to join 25 thousand Irish On the 11th of Aug. John Keines the Jesuit declared that the Provincional had taken great care of keeping alive the Difference between the disaffected Scots and D. Lauderdale and that the Affairs in Ireland went on with great Expedition and that fourty eight would not last long in England for it was high time to hinder fourty nine from being effected That Barly-broth should grow dead and Twelve would be cut off and that Mum and Chocolate should be put down and the Order of Magpyes should be turned into their Primitive Institution and Habit now the Deponent saith that the Words hinder 49 from being effected is an Expression that is used amongst them for cutting off the King that he may not live to be compleat forty nine Years of Age and by Barley-broth is meant the House of Commons which shall be turned out and sit no more and by Mum and Chocolate is meant the Protestant Peers who if not destroyed shall never have any Vote in the House of Peers more after the Death of this King and by Magpyes they understand the Bishops whose Habit in Parliament is Black and white which shall be changed into Purple and by Twelve is meant the Duke of Monmouth Keines on the 12th of August determined to go for Windsor in order to settle some Business there towards the dispatching 48 and told the Deponent that he might chance to fall short of his return again In July 1678. Richard Strange the last Provincial of the Jesuits did encourage the Deponent to go on in assisting the Society in carrying on the Design and told the Deponent that they got 14000 l. in the Fire of London in 1666. The Deponent ask'd Strange how they came to effect that great and famous Business He replyed that himself and Gray Pennington and Barton Jesuits with some others together with Keimash a Dominican Fryar join'd with one GREEN and met at one West's House the Green Dragon at Puddle Dock and there debated about the manner of firing the City and where they should begin and did attempt it in February 1664 5. In January 1665 6 they met with this Green again who closed in with them in the Design and that they might ingratiate themselves with Green they Man and fit for their Purpose And the more to engage him they pretended to bold many of the Fifth-Monarchy Principles which when Green perceived judging them to be real he brought them acquainted with eight others who were zealous in the Business The Jesuits were earnest to have it done in February but Green prayed them to suspend that Resolution because the King would not be much in Town if at all till the Plague was more abated who Green did say must be cut off too when the People were in a hurry by reason of the Fire and this Motion well pleased the Jesuits and Dominican and so it was put off That in a very little time after Green and the rest of those Fifth-Monarchy-Men together with the Jesuits and Dominican were suspected by West and forewarned his House And presently after Green and his eight Acquaintance were clapt up in Prison and upon their Imprisonment the Jesuits and Dominican got away to St. Omers and there remained till the May after the Execution of 8 of these Persons Green dying in Newgate That in the beginning of June being returned to London they began afresh to consult about this Fire which was still carried on by the Society in their absence and they determined to cut off the King in the time of the Fire that the Number of the
necessary to make use of both their joint and utmost Credits to prevent the Success of the Parliament's Evil Designs against them both which of his side he promised really to perform Nay which is more do not you remember the Duke tells the French King of a very dangerous Plot against them both My Lord Arlington was incessantly at work to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and to lessen that of the French King and that he and several others were endeavouring to break the good Intelligence between K. Charles the Second the French King and the Duke wherefore his Royal Highness earnestly sollicites the most Christian King to assist with the help of his Purse to prevent such ROGVERIES You see here is a Triple League against a Triple Confederacy The King of England French King and Duke of York against the Parliament of England the States of Holland and his Royal Highness the Pr. of Orange The French is to furnish the Sinews of War Money The Parliament are declared Enemies K. Charles indeed standing only as a Cypher the French King and the Duke put themselves under the most solemn Engagements to perform what was stipulated and strenuously to assist each other against the Designs of both their Enemies and seeing there was a desperate Design to advance the Prince and to lessen the French the Duke puts in his Memorial to that King demanding his Assistance to prevent such Rogueries But to return to our Narrative The House of Commons is no more to sit No nor was it advisable they should they were proclaimed Enemies to France and to the Duke The French King whose Interest was to be secured in England was fully convinced that they were not only unuseful but very dangerous to both their joint Interests may they ever continue so and it much satisfied the Duke to see his most Christian Majesty altogether of his Opinion in the Point Then with what reason could we expect the use of Parliaments would be continued The Protestant Peers as to be destroyed or excluded the House and the Magpy are to be changed for Purple Bishops And who at this day has the effronted Forehead to say that all this was Fiction Did not they embrew their Hands in the Blood of some of our Nobility And were not more threatned to that degree that 8. Years since no true Protestant Lord in England could at any rate have got his Head or his Seat in Parliament ensured to him for one Year Such was the Case of our Bishops We beheld some of their Diocesses visited by those of the Purple Dye and had not Heaven in a miraculous way delivered them we might not at this day have seen a Black and White One in the Nation In order to the Accomplishment of their sanctified Villanies the Jesuits with the Assistance of French and Irish Papists burnt London and Southwark and that they might the more securely carry on that Design without being detected they cunningly draw in a few silly Fifth-Monarchy-Men and fairly leave them in the lurch to be hang'd as they were about April 1666. When any Popish Plot is near the Point of Execution they ever will have the Dissenters at hand to account for their Villanies The burning this Nest of Hereticks had been concerted both at Rome and Paris and the time for putting it in execution approaching in April 1666 a Fanatick Plot is brought upon the Stage and seven or eight were condemned at the Old-Baily for plotting to kill the King and to burn the City on the 3d Day of September following the very Day the Papists afterwards did it For a more full Account of this I refer the Reader to the London-Gazette of April 30 1666. Numb 48. Thus when they were cock-sure of cutting off K. Charles the Second before Christmass 1678. Mr. Claypole Son-in-Law to Oliver was made close Prisoner in the Tower in July 1678. upon an Accusation of conspiring the Death of the King and it is very probable that had not Dr. Oates's Discovery happily interposed he might have died for it the next Term and the King been soon sent after him Then our Counsels are to be betrayed to France that Part is committed to Mr. Coleman the Duke or Dutchess of York 's Secretary and he is to manage it by a Correspondence with Le Chese Confessor to the French King I cannot with-hold my self from remarking here that this Information was given upon Oath on the 27th of September 1678. before Sir Edmond-Bury Godfrey and before the King and Council the 28th and 29th of that Month that hereupon Coleman was taken up on the 29th and his Papers seized which happily furnished the World with irrefragable Evidence had there been no other of that diabolical Intrigue In fine Trade is to be discouraged that so it was I know none will deny Our Coin was to be adulterated I shall not surely be called upon to prove that that was done to purpose and to crown the day King Charles was not to be reprieved beyond Christmas 1678. and then our Popish Successor was to play us such a Game as never was plaid since the Conquest They mistook the time indeed but the Feat was done and then the Gamester came upon the Stage to play his Game but having an unlucky Hand he quickly plaid himself out and therefore I shall not further pursue him I only say to him as the Welshman did to his Horse There 's a Trick for your Trick and a Stone in your Foot still Proceed we now to the further Narrative of this hellish Conspiracy of which it seems requisite to hint these things Dr. Oates after he had endured a long and most cruel Imprisonment upon a Judgment for 100000 l. Damages given against him to the Duke of York for saying the Duke was a Papist now saw that his irreconcilable Enemy upon the Throne and that he with his Jesuits and corrupt Judges were resolved to run upon him with all their Rage as they did in Easter-Term 1685. ordering him to be tried in the Court of King's-Bench upon two several Indictments for two pretended Perjuries in his Evidence concerning the Plot and that upon the Testimony of those very Popish Witnesses who had confronted him in three several Trials of the Conspirators The Case standing thus with him and remembring that his Life had been several times attempted was now under an Apprehension that they were bent upon his Destruction and therefore in the Month of April 1685. he drew up this ensuing Narrative in the Presence of Sir Robert Thomas Baronet John Arnold and John Dutton-Colt Esqs and having signed it with his own Hand deposited it with a Person of Worth and Quality with whom I am well assured it has ever since remained till upon the 21st of January 1695 6. it was put into my Hands Dr. Oates's further NARRATIVE of the Popish Plot 29 April 1685. THE Malice of my Popish Adversaries being so great that I
court his own Ruine the most of any Man I know and advised me not to meddle nor make with any thing of that nature for saith the Prince either he will cheat and expose you or if he be real there is an old Wife in the Case who will be set on you to draw you off from the good Work you have begun or perhaps which is worse I do farther declare That whereas I have accused the Lord Powis the Lord Bellasis the Lord Arundel of Warder the late Lord Petre the late Lord Stafford I did nothing but what became a good Christian to Almighty God and a good Subject to my Prince and a good English-man to my Countrey for what I have said or sworn of those Lords is the Truth and nothing but the Truth as I shall answer before God another day the same I declare of all my Evidence I gave in to the King and Council and to the two Houses of Parliament And I do declare to all the World That I have not in the least directly or indirectly for the hopes of Gain or any other Reason inducing me thereunto spoken any thing of any Man that I charged to be guilty of the Popish Plot but those who were guilty and those against whom I bore Testimony at the Old-Baily or at the King's-Bench Court I swore nothing but what was true This I declare as I shall answer it before God in the next World And whereas it hath been reported by the Popish Party and published by Roger L'Estrange in his Pamphlet called the Observator that I swore against the Jesuits because they would not admit me to be of their Society I do declare that that Order did receive and admit me a Jesuit and that they were always the most obliging Persons to me in the World till they found that I had discovered those vile Designs of Murdering the late King and Subverting the Protestant Religion and Government as by Law established both in Church and State and though maliciously they did and do still aver I was never admitted Doctor of Divinity at Salamanca I do declare solemnly to all the World I was admitted Doctor of Divinity at the said University of Salamanca and did all my Exercise for the said Degree that was required of me The Enemies of the Protestant Religion have endeavoured to blast me with many infamous Crimes to render me useless in my Testimony relating to the Popish Plot the Grand Adversary Roger L'Estrange being ready to print in his vile Pamphlet the Observator any thing that might tend to my Disadvantage But I bless God I was never sly in my Conversation so that the several Lies by him printed have been detected and Gainsayers silenced I thought it not inconvenient to let the World know that the late King was a mortal hater of Parliaments for in his Letter to the French King bearing date in June 1676 he wrote thus That if he could be assured of a Pension that might continue he should not continue that way of Governing viz. by frequent Parliaments which at the best was but a clamorous Rabble that took upon them to direct Kings but as he was resolved to be like his Neighbours in Riches and Grandieur so he was resolved to be like them in Religion too This was the Effect and Purport of that Letter a Copy of which was shewed me by John Keynes and Basiâ— Langworth but said Keynes the French King was too old to be cullied out of his Money by a Man that was so uncertain I do in the last place declare That I am ready to seal with my Blood the Truth of my Evidence that I have given in relation to the Substantial Part and Circumstantial Parts thereof I have done no Man wrong that I have charged and as I have done Right to the World in relation to the Popish Plot so I protest I did discharge a good Conscience in the Discovery of that Vile Sham called the Oxford Plot for which poor Colledg was basely murdered there in a form of Law and Justice and that I look on as the worst of Murders I renounce all Anarchical Levelling Principles and detest all the Practices of those who have held and maintain'd those Principles I judging them as dangerous to our English Monarchy as Popery is to the Protestant Religion All this I declare together with my Narrative that is printed to be true April 29 1685. I declare I have signed every Page of these Papers with the Day and Year above-written in the Presence of Sir Robert Thomas Baronet John Arnold Esq and John Dutton-Colt Esq and the same Day I delivered it to them Titus Oates April 29 1685. TO this foregoing Narrative I shall now subjoin Copies of several of Dr. Oates's Letters to King Charles and King James the Second and to divers of the Ministers of State in that time and of his Petition to King Charles and submit it to the Reader 's Judgment whether his undaunted and never to be shaken Stedfastness in adhering to and avowing the Truth of his Discovery his plain Dealing with those Princes his gallant Resistance of the highest Temptations and his just Regard to the Interest and Rights of his Countrey and to the brave Assetors thereof all which are before made evident did not equal the unparallel'd Tortures and heavy Oppression under which he so long groan'd and from which he had no prospect and very little hope of Deliverance Now let the Reader reflect upon the two first of these Letters and wonder if he can when he finds the Doctor thrown off by King Charles I do not say when he sees him out of his Favour for he never had it but as it appears by the foregoing Rerlation of his Troubles what he there gained so I shall here observe what he lost and both by his uncorruptible Integrity This cannot be done but by beginning where he began at his first Discovery That no way pleased the King nor could it for it spoil'd a well-laid Plot to which he was no Stranger save to that part which touch'd his Life therefore that he might stand as far as possible out of the reach of Suspicion he dissembles himself alarm'd presses the searching the Plot to the bottom appoints Mock-Fasts and what not and as to the Doctor assigns him an Apartment in Whitehall allows him daily a Table of six Dishes Wine and every thing proportionable and also 40 s. per Week This was continued till April 1679 then besides the 40 s. his Allowance was changed to 10 l. per Week which he received till Midsummer 1680 when a stop was put to the Paiment thereof But in November following upon the Address of the House of Lords the King gave him 200 Guinea's for his Arrears and ordered him the Allowance of 10 l. per Week which was constantly paid till the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament at which time the King taking a Resolution not to be further troubled with unuseful and
Conversation is so innocent that we are not afraid of ten Seely's or ten Butlers they might freely come and hear what passeth amongst us were they not Persons so infamously Scandalous that it would be enough to have a Man's Credit questioned upon the Exchange to be seen with them But I shall say no more of them they being Your Majesty's Diligent Spies upon several Honest Men in the City In a Word I freely own to your Majesty that I do oft meet with that Club of which Mr. Jenks is a Member at the Angel and Crown and also those that meet with Mr. Bethel at the Queen's-Arms in Newgate-street and also several Gentlemen at the King's-Head at Chancery-Lane-end and if it be their good will to give me the Honour of their Company I do not find any Arguments that Sir Philip hath used will either prevail with me to refrain those Companies or the Character Seely may have given to your Majesty of them or any of them shall perswade me to believe otherwise of them than that they are Honest Worthy Gentlemen that study to serve your Majesty and their Countrey I know Sir Philip to be a very Ill Man and therefore having your Majesty's leave I thought fit to communicate my Answer to your Majesty in writing which I humbly submit to your Majesty as it becomes your Majesty's Humble Subject and Servant Titus Oates Octob. 14. 1680. A Copy of Dr. Oates's Letter to Sir Leolin Jenkins Secretary of State Feb. 22. 1683. Honourable Sir I Have lain long under his Majesty's Displeasure but for what Cause to this Day I know not and am by reason of that forbidden the King's Presence and his Court which I have obeyed and have not been at Whitehall almost these three Years one Time excepted by Order from their Lordships the Commissioners of the Treasury in April or May last I have Business of Importance with the King and Council but am unwilling to come lest I should offend his Majesty or receive some Affronts which I cannot well bear My Request therefore to your Honour is that I may have leave to come and when I have done my Business I may depart without being unkindly dealt withal in the Court So praying your Honour's pardon for this Trouble I shall study to appear Sir Your Honour's Servant to my poor Power Titus Oates A Copy of a Second Letter from Dr. Titus Oates to Mr. Secretary Jenkins Feb. 28. 1683. Honourable Sir I Gave your Honour the last Friday the trouble of a few Lines in which I told you that I had Business of Importance with the King and Council your Answer was I must apply my self to a Justice of the Peace or to the Courts of Justice The Business that I had with the Council is a Complaint against Roger L'estrange Esq who in several Libels of his called the Observator and other Seditious Pamphlets hath as I humbly conceive vilify'd and ridicul'd the Discovery of the Popish Plot and arraigned the Proceedings of the Government upon the same and to give his Libel a Reputation in this his Illegal Course he pretends in one or more of those his Observators that he hath Authority or Leave from some of his Majesty's Ministers for so doing which I cannot believe Your Honour knows that his Majesty was so sensible of the Danger he was in by reason of that horrid Conspiracy That he did not only recommend the strict Examination thereof to his Houses of Parliament but also was pleased to acquaint them how unsafe he was till he searched it to the Bottom besides this three Fasts were proclaimed and kept which the King himself strictly kept and commanded all his Loving Subjects so to do Several have been Executed and several Parliaments have Voted that there was a horrid Hellish Popish Plot. Now all these Things considered I could never have imagined that any private Person would have been so bold with the Government as to use such Reflections upon their Proceedings and call in question the Veracity of that Evidence which was justified by his Majesty's Council and the Parliaments and Courts of Justice I though I should never have lived to have seen the Day that the Plot should be called in Question which the King had owned in his several Proclamations but since it is so I must pray your pardon that I cannot apply my self for Redress in that way and method your Honour was pleased to order for I humbly conceive that it is the Government that is abused and therefore in Conscience and Honour it 's bound to vindicate its Proceedings from such Aspersions as are cast upon them by the said L'estrange and his Confederates I would not use any method or way to injure the worst of my Enemies but hope that the Council will take my hard Usage from L'estrange into serious Consideration and cause him to be Silenced and Reparation to be made to me To that end in this I have sent a Petition to the King and Council which I would have presented my Self if I might have had Liberty to appear at Court in which I pray for Redress I hope God will put it into your Hearts to do me Right In the mean time SIR I am your Honour 's Humble Servant Titus Oates Feb. 28. 1683 4. My Humble Request is That this Petition inclosed may be presented to the King and Council so that I may be in some probable way of having Redress A Copy of Dr. Oates 's Petition To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty And to the Right Honourable the Lords and Others of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council The Humble Petition and Complaint of Titus Oates Sheweth THat your Petitioner according to his Duty and the Allegiance that he owes and is alway bound to pay to your Majesty and the Government established by Law did in the Month of September in the Year 1678 discover a most horrid Hellish Popish Plot against your Majesty's Person the Protestant Religion and Government to the Satisfaction of your Majesty and the then Privy Council as appears by the several Proclamations Issued out by your Majesty's Order with the Advice of your most Honourable Council Which your Petitioner is and will be ready to produce when thereunto Commanded by your Majesty That your Majesty was so highly sensible of the great Danger your Person and your Government were in by reason of that Conspiracy that you were Graciously pleased to proclaim several Solemn Fasts and Days of Humiliation and did will and require your Loving Subjects to join in hearty Prayer and Supplication with your Majesty to Almighty God for a Blessing upon the Discovery and for a farther Discovery thereof and in several of your Majesty's most Gracious Speeches to your Houses of Parliament your Majesty hath been pleased to express how unsafe your Majesty was till the said Plot was searched to the Bottom That several of the Conspirators in that Plot were Apprehended and Committed Indirected and Convicted and Attained and