See of Rome confer any Ecclesiastical function whatsoever toward or upon your Majesties natural Subjects within your Dominions Answ This is fit to be ordered according as is provided and it shall be so published by Proclamation 8. That your Majesties learned Councel may receive Order and Commandment to consider of all former Grants of Recusants Lands that such of them may be avoided as are made to the Recusants use or interest out of which the Recusant receiveth any benefit which are either void or voidable by the Law. Answ The King will give Order to his learned Councel to consider of the Grants and will do according as is desired 9. That your Majesty will be likewise pleased strictly to command all your Judges and Ministers of Justice Ecclesiastical and Temporal to see the Laws of this Realm against Popish Recusants to be duly executed and namely that the censure of Excommunication be declared and certified against them and that they be not absolved upon publick satisfaction by yielding to Conformity Answ His Majestys leaves the Laws to their course and will order in the point of Excommunication as is desired 10. That your Majesty will be pleased to remove from Places of Authority and Government all such Persons as are either Popish Recusants or according to direction of former Acts of State to be justly suspected Answ ' This his Majesty thinks fit and will give order for it 11. That present order be taken for disarming all Popish Recusants legally convicted or justly suspected according to the Laws in that behalf and the Orders taken by his late Majesty's Privy Councel upon reason of State. Answ The Laws and Acts in this Case shall be followed and put in due Execution 12. That your Majesty be also pleased in respect of the great resort of Recusants to and about London to command forthwith upon pain of your indignation and severe Execution of the Laws that they retire themselves to their several Countrys there to remain confined within five Miles of their Places Answ ' For this the Laws in Force shall be forthwith Executed 13. And whereas your Majesty hath strictly commanded and taken Order that none of the natural born Subjects repair to the hearing of Masses or other Supersttious Services at the Chappels or Houses of foreign Ambassadors or in any other places whatsoever we give your Majesty most humble thanks and desire that your Order and Commandment therein may be continued and observed and that the offenders herein may be punished according to the Laws Answ The King gives consent thereto and will see that observed which herein hath been commanded by him 14. That all such insolencies as any that are Popishly affected have lately Committed or shall hereafter commit to the dishonour of our Religion or to the wrong of the true Professors thereof be exemplarily Punished Answ ' This shall be done as is desired 15. That the Statute of 1 Eliz. for the payment of twelve pence every Sunday by such as shall be absent from Divine Service in the Church without a lawful excuse may be put in due Execution the rather for that the penalty by Law is given to the Poor and therefore not to be dispensed withal Answ It is fit that this Statute be Executed and the Penalties shall not be dispensed withal 16. Lastly that your Majesty would be pleased to extend your princely care also over the Kingdom of Ireland that the like courses may be there taken for the restoring and establishing of true Religion there Answ His Majesties Cares are and shall be extended over the Kingdom of Ireland and he will do all that a Religious King should do for the restoring and establishing of true Religion there And thus Most Gracious Soveraign according to our duty and zeal to God and Religion to your Majesty and your safety to the Church and Common-wealth and their Peace and Prosperity we have made a Faithful Declaration of the present Estate the Causes and Remedies of this encreasing disease of Popery Humbly offering the same to your Princely care and wisdom The Answer of your Majesties Father our Late Soveraign of Famous Memory upon the like Petition did give us great comfort of Reformation but your Majesties most Gracious Promises made in that kind do give us confidence and assurance of the continual performance thereof in which comfort and confidence reposing our selves we most Humbly pray for your Majesties long continuance in all Princely felicity Rushw Coll. 1 pt 191. The 10 th of August the King sends to the Commons to have a present supply and promises to let them meet again in Winter and redress their greivances then they insist to have both go on together The Parliament dissolved but withal make a most submisive Declaration of their affection and duty to him Which notwithstanding he by Commission 12 August 1625. dissolved them Rushw Coll. 1. pt f. 191.192 The King soon after issued out a Proclamation to call home Papists Children and soon after Disarmed the Papists but as this was pleasing so his Letter soon after sent to the Leivetenants for the loan of Money upon Privy Seals and other things of the like kind were as distastful to the People A Parliament called Papists proceeded against But these Courses not having the wisht for success and the King being pressed with his own necessities summoned a Parliament to meet in February and enjoyned the Arch-Bishops and Bishops in both Provinces to proceed by Examination and other Church censures with the utmost severity against the Papists and those more especially who were Popishly affected and did encourage and advance the growth of Popery and issued out a Proclamation to confine Convicted Papists to their dwelling Houses or within five Miles thereof On Candlemas Day he was Crowned and at the time of his Coronation took the Coronation Oath in manner following Sir says the Arch-Bishop will you grant and keep K. Charles 1. Crowned The Coronation Oath Rushw Coll. 1. part f. 200. Arch-Bishop and by your Oath confirm to the People of England the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergy by the Glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient Customs of the Realm I Grant and Promise to keep them Sir Will you keep Peace and Godly Agreement according to your Power both to God The Kings Answer the Holy Church the Clergy and the People I Will keep it Sir Will you to your Power cause Law Justice and Discretion to Mercy and Truth to be executed to your Judgment I Will. Sir Will you grant to hold and keep the Laws and Rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this your Kingdom have and will you defend and uphold them to
Bail or Mainprize and for the second offence twenty pounds and for want of payment should suffer six months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprise and for the third offence should forfeit all his Goods and Chattels and suffer Imprisonment during his life time From which Act it is evident that all the mild Methods were taken that could be thought on to win over the Papists to the Reformed Religion for the Penalties incurred were not only suspended but the offender pardoned after they had been so long winkt at and the Penalties upon which Conformity was injoyned must be by all considering men adjudged reasonable to be inflicted upon those that remained obstinate after such kind usage and the rather for that it is apparent they made it their business to compel persons to go to Mass One thing I can't let pass without a remark That in this as well as the Statute of the 1 st of Edward the 6 th the tryal of the offence is to be according to the Antient Laws of the Land by a Jury and that till then they could incur none of the Penalties so careful were the Reformers for the Liberties even of Papists Hist Ref. pt 2. p. 115 116 117 118. Bâ—ker 's Ch on p. 303 304. But notwithstanding all this favour shewn to the Papists in one year they broke out into open Rebellion in four Counties in England viz. in Oxfordshire Devonshire Norfolk and Yorkshire So restless and unquiet are the Popish party and such implacable Enemies to the Protestants that if they be in power nothing but destroying them by Law will serve and if not then Plots Conspiracies and open Rebellions are their Methods Hist Ref. pt 2. p. 140. 3 4 E. 6. ca. 5. Rast Stat. f. 989. 34 E. 6. ca. 10. Images taken away Keeble's Stat. f. 676. Rast Stat. f. 994. these four Insurrections gave just occasion to make that severe Law against unlawful Assemblies and rising of the Subjects that if any to the number of twelve should meet together unlawfully for any matter of State and being required by any lawful Magistrate should not disperse themselves it should be Treason The next Act of Parliament that I shall take notice of and indeed but just touch it is the 3 d. and 4 th of Edward the 6 th ca. 10. Whereby divers Romish Books and Images were abolished and put away and that without any punishment of the Papists that used them but only a Penalty on the Officers and Ministers of Justice who did not put the said Law in Execution Thus things stood till the 6 th of Edward the 6 th and then an Act was made for the confirmation of the Liturgy which takes notice in the Preamble 5 6 E. 6. ca. 1. Keehâ—e 's Stat. f. 676. Rast Stat. f. 1009. The Liturgy confirmed That a great number of people in divers parts of the Realm following their own sensuality and living either without knowledge or due fear of God did wilfully and danmably before Almighty God abstain and refuse to come to their Parish Churches and other places where Common-Prayer Administration of the Sacraments and Preaching of the Word of God was used upon Sundaies and other daies ordained to be holy daies and doth thereby Enact that uniformity of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments shall be used in the Church requires Conformity thereunto and leaves them who come not to Church to be punished by the censures of the Church And Enacts March. Ref. 93. That all persons that are present at any other Common-Prayer or Sacraments for the first offence shall suffer six months Imprisonment without Bail or Mainprise for the second offence a years Imprisonment and for the third Imprisonment during life But none to have this inflicted but they who are legally convicted according to the Laws of the Land which cannot be esteemed severe seeing they were occasioned by the Treasons and Rebellions of them upon whom they were inflicted CHAP. VI. Q. Mary HAving shewn how kind and merciful King Edward the 6 th was to the Papists all his Reign notwithstanding their severe usage of the Protestants in his Predecessours Reigns Queen Mary her accession to the Crown and how she used the Protestants before she had a Parliament 35 H. 8. ca. 1. Rast Stat. f. 835. Hist Ref. 2. pt li. 2. p. 235. and their Treasons and Rebellions against himself and the then Established Government I shall now give an Account what usage the Protestants had in the Reign of his Successour Queen Mary Upon the Death of King Edward the Crown devolved upon Queen Mary according to the settlement of it by 35 H. 8. but she being a Papist and King Ed. the 6 th having by his Letters Patents limited the Crown to the Lady Jane Daughter of Frances Dutchess of Suffolk who was a Protestant the Council Proclaimed the Lady Jane Queen which Proclamation sets forth that the late King had settled the Crown as aforesaid and declared that it should not descend to his two Sisters since they were both Illegitimate in the Spiritual Courts and by Acts of Parliament and were only his Sisters by the half blood who tho' it were granted they had been Legitimate are not Inheritable by the Law of England it was added that there was also great cause to fear that the King's Sisters might marry Strangers and so change the Laws of the Kingdom and subject it to the Tyranny of the Bishops of Rome and other Foreign Laws for these Reasons they were excluded from the Succession and the said Lady Jane was Proclaimed Queen as aforesaid she promising to be most Benign and Gracious to all her people to maintain God's Holy Word and the Lavvs of the Land requiring all the Subjects to obey and acknowledge her And now all had been well and the Reformed Religion was in a likely way to flourish could the Protestants have been all of a mind and the common sort of People been as well satisfied as the Council great part of the Nobility and all the Judges but one were in what was done But oh the Calamities that divisions bring upon a Kingdom Suffolk and No folk 's mens kindness to Queen Mary Hist Reform part 2. p. 233.237 Baker 's Chro. p. 312. The Earl of Arundel having given Queen Mary notice of the Death of her Brother and the design of setting up the Lady Jane she retires to Framlingham Castle in the County of Suffolk whither many from Norfolk and a great body of Suffolk men gathered about her who were notwithstanding all for the Reformation they before they would assist her desired to know of her whether she would alter the Religion set up in King Edward's days to whom she gave full assurances that she would never make any Innovation or Change but be contented with the Private Exercise of her own Religion upon this they were all possest with such a belief of her sincerity that it made them resolve to hazard their Lives and
the Honour of God so much as in you lyeth I Grant and promise so to do Then one of the Bishops read this passage to the King. Our Lord and King we beseech you to Pardon and to Grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to your Charge all Canonical Privildges and do Law and Justice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King to his Kingdom ought to be a Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the Churches under their Government The King Answereth With a willing and devout Heart I Promise and Grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your Charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my Power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their Government Then the King arose and was led to the Communion Table where he takes a solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe all the Promises and laying his hand upon the Bible said The things which I have here Promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book The sixth Day of February the Parliament met The Parliament meets Papists are prohibited from going to Mass at Ambassadors Houses the Judges are ordered to put the Laws in Execution againsts Papists which notwithstanding the Committee of Grievances reported to the Commons House That one general evil was the encrease and countenancing of Papists The Marshal of Middlesex meeting with resistance in seizing of Romish Priests Goods and complaining of the matter the then Arch-Bishop writ to Mr. Attorney General on behalf of the Priests which Letter was as followeth Good Mr. Attorney I thank you for acquainting me what was done Yesterday at the Clinck But I am of opinion The Arch-Bishops Letter on behalf of the Priests Rushw Coll. 1. part f. 243. that if you had curiously enquired upon the Gentleman who gave the Information you should have found him to be a Disciple of the Jesuites for they do nothing but put Tricks on these poor Men who do live more miserable Lives then if they were in the Inquisition in many parts beyond the Seas By taking the Oath of Allegiance and writing in defence of it and opening some points of high consequence they have so displeased the Pope that if by any cunning they could catch them they are sure to be burnt or strangled for it and once there was a Plot to have taken Preston By this Letter it appears how unwilling the Government was to be in any sort cruel even the Priests and yet how ungrateful are the Papists to this Day as he passed the Thames and to have shipped him into a bigger Vessel and so to have transported him into Flanders there to have made a Martyr of him in respect of these things King James always gave his Protection to Preston and Warrington as may be easily shewed Cannon is an old Man well affected to the cause but medleth not with any Factions or Seditions as far as I can learn they complain their Books were taken from them and a Crucifix of Gold with some other things which I hope are not carried out of the House but may be restored again unto them for it is in vain to think that Priests will be without their Beads or Pictures Models of their Saints and it is not improbable that before a Crucifix they do often say their Prayers I leave the things to your best Consideration and hope that this deed of yours together with my word will restrain them for giving offence hereafter if so be that lately they did give any I heartily commend me unto you and so rest Your very Loving Friend G. Canterbury The Parliament Petition the King against Papists Rushw Coll. 1. part f. 391. In this Parliament the Commons Petitioned the King to remove the Papists or justly suspected out of Places of Government Authority and Trust and named them of the Nobility and Gentry to the number of sixty one who were got into such Offices and prayed they might be displaced The Petition and Names take as followeth To the Kings most Excellent Majesty The Parliaments Petition against Papists with the names of the Persons who were crept into Offices notwithstanding the severity of the Laws against them YOur Majesties most Obedient and Loyal Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament assembled do with great Comfort remember the many Testimonies which your Majesty hath given of your sincerity and Zeal of the true Religion established in this Kingdom and in your particular gracious Answer to both Houses of Parliament at Oxford upon their Petition concerning the Causes and Remedies of the increase of Popery that your Majesty thought fit and would give Order to remove from all places of Authority and Government all such Persons as are either Popish Recusants or according to direction of former Acts of State justly to be suspected which was then presented as a great and principal Cause of that Mischief But not having received so full Redress herein as may conduce to the peace of this Church and Safety of this regal State they hold it their Duty once more to resort to your Sacred Majesty humbly to inform you that upon Examination they find the Persons under written to be either Recusants Papists or justly suspected according to the former Acts of State who now do or since the sitting of the Parliament did remain in places of Government and Authority and trust in your several Counties of this your Realm of England and Dominion of Wales The Right honourable Francis Earl of Rutland Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln Rutland Northamton Nottingham and a Commissioner of the Peace and of Oyer and Terminer in the County of York and Justice of Oyer from Trent Northwards His Lordship is presented to be a Popish Recusant and to have affronted all the Commissioners of the Peace within the North Riding of Yorkshire by sending a License under his Hand and Seal unto his Tenant Thomas Fisher dwelling in his Lordships Mannor of Hemsley in the said North Riding of the said County of York to keep an Alehouse soon after he was by an Order made at the Quarter Sessions discharged from keeping an Alehouse because he was a Popish Convict Recusant and to have procured a Popish Schoolmaster namely Roger Conyers to teach Schollars within the said Mannor of Hemsley that formerly had his License to teach Scholars taken from him for teaching Scholars that were the Children of popish Recusants and because he suffered these Children to be absent themselves from the Church whilst they were his Schollars For which the said Conyers was formerly complained of in Parliament The Right Honourable Vicount Dunbar Deputy Justice in Oyer to the Earl of Rutland from Trent Northward and
Translated into English Hish Acount of the Jesuits Behaviour for the first 25 years of Queen Eliz. f. 35. This Letter refers to lib. 3. cap. 9. of the Life of Pius Quintus by Gabutius See also Caten p. 115. To our Beloved Sons Thomas Earl of Northumberland and Charles Earl of Westmerland in England Beloved Sons Noblemen Health to you and Apostolick Benediction BY your Letters dated to us the eighth day of November which being brought to us the eighth of February we have speedily returned Answer understanding more certainly and particularly the Miseries and Calamities of that most flourishing Kingdom not unknown to us before we were affected with that grief of mind wherewith both the Indignity of these Evils which we suffer in you and Our Paternal Affection towards both you and other Catholicks in that Kingdom ought to affect us for besides that Common Duty of Pastoral Charity wherewith we ought to rejoice at the Welfare or to be grieved at the Calamity of all the Faithful of Christ and of every Province in which the Christian Name is professed we are affected with an Episcopal prerogative of Love and Benevolence towards that Kingdom both because We remember it was heretofore by the Labour and Industry of our Predecessor the Blessed Gregory Bishop of Rome next after God Omnipotent Converted from the Worship of Wood and Stones to the Christian Faith and by fit Men sent thither from him instituted in Manners and in the Catholick Doctrine and also because it used to exhibit to the Apostolick See an excellent Faith and sincerity of Devotion therefore how much we grieve and are troubled at these your Evils and the Evils of that Kingdom which you in the same Letters no less Truely than Miserably Lament cannot easily be exprest in Words We grieve that so many and so great Poisonous Infections of wicked Heresies and so deadly Wounds of the Christian Common-Wealth should chiefly happen in the times of Our Pontificate We are troubled because We are Compelled to be Solicitous about the Danger of you and other Catholicks but yet when We remember the Power of his Prayers who entreated for St. Peter that his Faith might not fail and who enlarging his Church in Tribulation does by so much the more admirably govern it by the Providence of his secret Council 〈◊〉 much the more he sees it tossed by the Waves of Troubles We despaâ—â— not but what we have heard to have been done in former times may also by the Divine assistance be done in ours That the Church which often seems by the prevailing Persecution of Hereticks to be trodden down may return to its State of Antient Felicity the Lord Conspiring with her to a good Omen and may receive encrease from that wherein she seemed to have suffered Loss For Behold even now he that of old things makes new ones and of new things old ones Our Lord Jesus Christ hath by you Men Dear to Vs and Eminent as well by the Study of Catholick Piety as by Nobleness of Birth determined peradventure to renew and confirm the Antient Vnion of the Romish Church with that Kingdom and therefore hath infused into you that mind most worthy of the Zeal of your Catholick Faith that you should attempt to reduce back that Kingdom delivered from the most vile Servitude of a Womans Lust to the Antient Obedience of this Holy Roman See which Pious and Religious endeavour of your Minds We recommend as is fit with just Praises in the Lord and giving it that Our Blessing which you desire We do with the Benignity which becomes us receive your Honours flying to the Power and Protection of us and of this Holy See to whose Authority they Subject themselves exhorting you in the Lord and with all possible earnestness of Our Mind entreating you to Persevere constantly in this your so exceeding good will and lawdable Purpose Being assured that the Omnipotent God whose Works are Perfect and who hath excited you to deserve well of the Catholick Faith in that Kingdom will be assisting to you But if in asserting the Catholick Faith and Authority of this Holy See you should suffer Death and your Blood be spilt it would be much better for the Confession of God to flye by the Compendium of a Glorious Death to Life Eternal than living Basely and Ignominiously to serve the Lust of an Impotent Woman with the Loss of your Souls For think not Beloved Sons in Christ that those Catholick Bishops or Princes of that Kingdom whom you name are ill dealt with who because they would not forsake the Profession of the Catholick Faith are either Imprisoned or undeservedly affected with other Punishments for the Constancy of these Men which is even now confirmed by a new Example as we conceive of the Blessed Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury no man can sufficiently commend as it deserves This same Constancy you also imitating be of a Couragious and Constant mind and desist not from the Enterprize by any Threats or denunciation of Danger For God in whom you ought to repose your Trust who did cast the Chariot and Army of Pharaoh into the Sea is able to break the Strength and Power of his Adversaries so that by you the Primitive Religion and Ancient dignity of that Realm may be restored which that it may be Compassed we shall not only help you in performing with those Christian Princes whom you would those Offices which you desire but also in Contributing at present that Sum of Money which according to our Ability in answer to your Request We can supply you with as you shall more clearly and fully understand by our Beloved Son Robert Rodolphus We being also ready to endeavour hereafter to contribute a Greater Sum than the Imbecility of Our Power will bear and with a ready and chearful Mind to help your Pious Endeavour with all our Estate and Power which We can in the Lord. Given at Rome at St. Peters under the Fishers Ring the twentieth Day of February 1570. In the fifth year of our Pontificate The Character the Lord Treasurer Burleigh gives this Charles Earl of Westmerland is That he was a person utterly wasted by Looseness of Life Execution for Treason Collection p. 2. and by God's punishment even in the time of his Rebellion bereaved of his Children that should have succeeded him in the Earldom he saith his Body was eaten with Ulcers of Lewd Causes that no Enemy he had could wish him a Viler Punishment This was one of Pope Pius Quintus his Sons No sooner was this Rebellion thus happily supprest and so much mercy shewn The second Rebellion was in the same year and beâ—ded by Leonard Dacres Cambd Annals fol. 136 137. but another breaks out at Naworth in Cumberland headed by Leonard Dacres second Son to William Lord Dacres of Gillesland in order to deliver the Queen of Scots who was then in Custody but the Lord Hunsdon with the Old Garrison Soldiers of Berwick
from the good understanding of their Duty towards God the Queen had by their Lewd and subtle Practices and Perswasions so far wrought that sundry persons had been reconciled to the said usurpt Authority of the See of Rome and did take Absolution at the hands of the said naughty and subtle Practicers whereby there was grown great disobedience and boldness in many not only to withdraw and absent themselves from all Divine Service but also did think themselves discharged from all Obedience Duty and Allegiance to her Majesty that thereupon most wicked and unnatural Rebellion had ensued and to the further danger of this Realm was likely to be renewed if the ungodly attempts in that behalf were not by severity of Laws restrained and bridled This Law therefore provides that they who by Bulls or other Instruments of the Bishop of Rome should reconcile any person to the Church of Rome and those also who should be so reconciled should incur the Penalty of High Treason That those who should relieve such as did so reconcile Men or should bring into England any Agnus Dei's or any Crosses Pictures Beads or such like vain and superstitious Things Consecrated by the Bishop of Rome should undergo the Penalty of a Premunire That they who should not discover such as did so reconcile should be guilty of Misprision of Treason From the precedent History of Fact and the Preamble of these two Acts of Parliament and the Acts themselves I observe three things 1 st That the Kingdom of England is in it self a Free State exempt from all Foreign Jurisdiction whatever by the Common Law of this Kingdom 2 dly That there had been deep Designs on foot before the making of these Acts of Parliament for the inslaving this Kingdom to the Bishop and See of Rome subverting the Protestant Religion and introducing Popery and in order thereunto there were several Plots laid to destroy the person of the Queen 3 dly That these were all laid and carried on by the Pope and some Papists that were the Queens own Subjects and others their adherents and therefore certainly it must be granted that it was very necessary at that time to make these Laws against the Papists And that it was but reasonable to make them The Secular Priests own the Reasonableness of making these Laws Collection of several Treatises concerning the reasons and occasions of the Penal-Laws The 1st printed in 1583. the second in 1601. the third in 1662. and all reprinted in 1688. fol. 36. even the Secular Priests themselves have owned in their important Considerations They confess that Pius V. did practise her Majesties subversion that Ridolpho was sent hither by the Pope under Colour of Merchandize to sollicit a Rebellion That Pius V. moved the King of Spain to Joyn in this exploit That the Bull was devised purposely to further the intended Rebellion for depriving her Majesty from her Kingdom That the Pope and King of Spain assigned the Duke of Norfolk to be head of this Rebellion That the Pope gave order to Ridolpho to take 150000 Crowns to set forwards this Attempt That some of this money was sent to Scotland and some delivered to the Duke That King Philip at the Pope's Instance determined to send the Duke of Alva into England with all his forces out of the Low-Countries to assist the Duke of Norfolk which they confess in this manner That these things their Adversaries the Protestants Charged on them as true and that they were in hand whilst her Majesty dealt so mercifully with them and therefore ask'd them how they could excuse these designs so Unchristian so unpriestly so Treacherous and so unprince-like To which they answer that when they first heard the aforementioned particulars they did not believe them but would have laid their Lives they had been false but when they saw them printed in the Life of Pius V they appeal to God they were amazed Collection f. 37 and say they can say no more but that his Holiness was misinformed and indirectly drawn to these courses They confess that there being several persons in Prison when the Rebellion in the North before mentioned brake forth that it was known that the Pope had Excommunicated the Queen that there followed a great restraint of the Prisoners but none of them were put to death upon that occasion the Sword being then only drawn against such Catholicks as had risen up actually into open Rebellion wherein say they we cannot see what her Majesty did that any Prince in Christendom in such a case would not have done and confess these things to have been the occasion of making 13 Eliz. ca. 2. against bringing in Buls c. thus they express themselves Collection f. 38. we cannot but confess as reasonable men that the State had great Reasons to make some Laws against us except they should have shown themselves careless for the continuance of it but be the Law as any would have it never so extream yet surely it must be granted that the occasions of it were most outragious and likewise that the Execution of it was not so Tragical as many have since written and reported of it for whatsoever was done against us either upon the pretence of that Law or of any other would never we think have been attempted had not divers other preposterous occasions besides the Causes of that Law daily fallen out amongst us which procured matters to be urged more severely against us And afterwards they accuse Saunders the Jesuit for writing a Book in 1572 de visibili Monarchia and therein justifying the Excommunicating the Queen and the said Rebellion in the North and do themselves own that the persons that suffered upon that account were Arraigned Condemned and Executed by the Antient Laws of the Country for High Treason As to the Acts themselves It is not to be denyed but they are very severe yet not severe enough to deter the Papists from carrying on their designs against the Queen and the Protestant Religion as I shall by and by make appear but before I do that let us a little enquire Story 's Plot. Cambd. Hist li 2. fol 168. Dyer 13 Eliz. fol. 298. Baker 's Chron. fol. 343. The Duke of Norfolk executed what proceedings there were upon these Laws after they were thus made In the year 1571 't is true one John Story Doctor in Laws one of the Duke of Alva's Servants an Englishman and a Papist was Executed but it was for High Treason not Religion for having conspired the Queen's Death cursed her daily in his Grace at Meals and shewing the Duke of Alva's Secretary the way to Invade England to put Ireland into Rebellion and to excite the Scots to break into England all at once The Duke of Norfolk was also Tryed Convicted and Executed and after his Condemnation and before his Execution one Barney and Mather were Executed for conspiring with one Herle to make away some of the Council and
Gregory the 13 th which alwaies afforded new supplies of Priests for England when the old ones failed whose business it was privately to spread the Seeds of Popery here amongst us From whence the Colledges had the name of Seminaries and they called Seminary Priests who were bred up in them In these Seminaries amongst other disputations it was concluded that the Pope hath such fulness of Power by Divine Right over the whole Christian World both in Ecclesiastical and Secular Matters that by vertue thereof it is lawful for him to Excommunicate Kings absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance and to deprive them of their Kingdoms Out of these Seminaries were sent forth into divers parts of England and Ireland at first a few young men and afterwards more according as they grew up who were entered over-hastily into holy Orders and instructed in the above mentioned Principles They pretended only to administer the Sacraments of the Romish Religion and to preach to Papists but the Queen and her Council soon found that they were sent over underhand to seduce the Subjects from their Allegiance and Obedience due to their Prince to oblige them by reconciliation to perform the Pope's Command to stir up intestine Rebellions under the Seal of Confession and flatly to execute the Sentence of Pius V. against the Queen to the end that Way might be made for the Pope and the Spaniard who had designed the Conquest of England To these Seminaries were sent daily out of England by the Papists in contempt and dispight of the Laws great numbers of Boys and young Men of all sorts and admitted into the same making a Vow to return into England Others also crept secretly from thence into the Land and more were daily expected with the Jesuits who at that time came first into England This occasioned the Queen to issue out a Proclamation Camb. Annals f. 245. Collection f. 42. That whosovever had any Children Wards Kinsmen or other Relations in the parts beyond the Seas should after 10 days give in their Names to the Ordinary and within four Months call them home again and when they were returned should forthwith give notice of the same to the said Ordinary That they should not directly or indirectly supply such as refused to return with any Money That no man should entertain in his House or harbor any Priests sent forth from the aforesaid Seminaries or Jesuits or cherish and relieve them and that whoever did to the contrary should be accounted a favourer of Rebels and Seditious Persons and proceeded against according to the Laws of the Land. Camb. Annals f. 246. Before such time as this was proclaimed the Papists pretended that they were sensible too late of the Inconveniencies by the said Bull and that they were ill pleased that ever it came forth A defence of the same written by the said Nicholas Sanders they cunningly supprest and prohibited the Question concerning the power of the Bishop of Rome in Excommunicating and Deposing of Princes to be publickly disputed Which notwithstanding brake forth every day hotter and hotter amongst them Robert Parsons also and Edmund Campian English-Men and of the Society of Jesus being now ready to come over to advance the Romish affairs in England obtained Power from Gregory the Thirteenth Bishop of Rome for moderating that severe Bull Parsons and Campian sent into England by the Pope to promote the Popish interest here The Faculties themselves are Printed verbatim in English and Latin by the L. Burligh in his Examination for Treason Col. f. 12 13. And by Foulis in his History f. 337. The Character of Parsons and Campian Cambd. An. f. 246. Bakers Chron. f. 356. and that in these words Let there be humbly prayed of our most Holy Lord who is generally the most wicked of the whole Court of Cardinals an Explanation of the Bull Declaratory set forth by Pius the V. against Elizabeth and her adherents to give her the Title of Queen after she was excommunicated would have been to disown their own Doctrine of the Lawfulness to depose and kill Princes which Bull the Catholics i. e. the Romish Rebels and Traytors do desire may be understood in this manner that it may always bind Her and the Hereticks i. e. the Protestants and their Protestants Queen but in no way the Catholicks as matters now stand for they were wise enough to carry on their Cruel Designs and knew well enough that whatever Cruelties they used they should be commended for it whether they had any orders for it or not but only hereafter when publick Execution of the said Bull may be had they doubted not of effecting their enterprize for washing their hands in the Blood of the Protestants these Graces aforesaid the Bishop hath granted to Father Robert Parsons and Edmund Campian who are now to take their Journey into England the Fourteenth day of April 1580. in the Presence of Father Oliver Manarcus Assistant This Parsons was of Somerset-shire a violent fierce natur'd Man and of rough behaviour Campian was a Londoner of a sweet disposition and a well pollish'd Man both of them were by Education Oxford Men and known there to Cambden himself as he avers Campian being of St. John's Colledge bare the Office of Proctor of the University in the Year 1568. and being made Deacon made a shew of the Protestant Religion he withdrew himself out of England they can turn themselves into all shapes to carry on their Barbarous and Cruel Conspiracies against the Protestants and the true Religion which they profess Modern Instances of this we have not a few Parsons was of Balliol Colledge wherein he openly professed the Protestant Religion until he was for his loose carriage Expell'd with disgrace and went over to the Papists and it hath been observed by many and that very truly that they who go over from the Protestant to the Popish Religion are generally Men of very vitious and loose Lives These two coming privately into England Travelled up and down the Country and to Popish Gentlemens Houses Covertly and in the disguised Habits sometimes of Souldiers sometimes of Gentlemen sometimes of Ministers of the Word and sometimes of Apparitors diligently performing what they had in Charge both in word and writing Parsons who was Constituted Superior being a Man of a Seditious and Turbulent Spirit and Armed with a Confident Boldness tampered so far with the Papists about deposing the Queen that some of them Cambden saith he speaks upon their own Credit thought to have delivered them into the Magistrates hands Campian the more modest yet by a written Paper Challenged the Ministers of the English Church to a Disputation and published a Neat well-pen'd Book in Latine called Ten Reasons in Defence of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And Parsons put out another virulent Book in English against Clark who had soberly written against Campian's Challenge but to Campian's Reasons Whitaker gave a solid Answer Campian himself
* Allen before named worthy Man but by the perswasions as they think of Parsons greatly disliked of many both Wise and Learned And especially it was wondred at a while until the Drift thereof appeared more manifestly in the year 1588 that the said worthy Person laid down this for a ground in justifying the said Stanley viz. that in all Wars which may happen for Religion every Catholick Man is bound in Conscience to employ his Person and Force by the Popes Direction viz. how for when and where either at home or abroad he may and must break with his Temporal Soveraign Let us now see what was further doing by the Pope and the Papists against the Protestant Queen and the Protestant Religion in England in the Year 1588 and we shall doubtless see very good reason for making the Statute of 35 Eliz. Ca. 2. which was the last Law that was made against them in Queen Elizabeths time The Pope some Religious Persons in Spain and several English Fugitives The Pope plotting again Camb. Annal. f. 402. Baker's Chron. f. 374. had called back the Spaniard to his former Designs for the Conquest of England which had been interrupted by the Portugal Wars earnestly exhorting him that seeing God had given him Success in laying Portugal and the East-Indies to his Dominions he would do something which should be acceptable to God and becoming the Grandeur and Majesty of the Catholic King that nothing could be more then the propagating and enlarging the Church of God which could not be more gloriously nor more meritoriously done then by the Conquest of England re-planting the Roman Catholic Religion and abolishing Heresie there They suggested that this War would be just because it was necessary as also because it was for the Maintainance of Christs Religion in regard That the Queen of England being excommunicate persisted contumaciously against the Church of Rome supported his Rebels in the Netherlands annoyed the Spaniards by continual Depredations suppressed and sackt his Towns in Spain and America and had very lately put the Queen of Scots to Death violating thereby the Majesty of all Kings That it would be no less profitable than just for so he should add to his Empire those three Kingdoms quell the Rebellion in the Low Countries secure his Voyages to the Indies without the Expence of Convoys To prove this they suggested that the Spanish Navy did far exceed the English in Number Largeness of Ships and Strength especially considering the Addition of the Portugal Fleet that England had no Forts nor defences that it was unprovided of Commanders Souldiers Cavalry and Munition bare of Wealth and Friends that there were many Papists who would presently joyn with him that so great was the Strength of Spain and so unmatchable their Valour that none durst oppose them and confidently assured themselves of Victory That this Opportunity was offered by God himself a Peace being then concluded with the Turk and the French embroiled in a Civil War That the Conquest of England would be far easier than the Netherlands in respect the Cut from Spain to England was much more short and convenient than from Spain to the Netherlands That in order to the Conquest of the Netherlands it was necessary first to conquer England and that England being once conquered the Low-Countries must of necessity be subdued The Spanish King being perswaded to believe all this resolves on the Attempt The Contrivance of the Spanish Invasion Camb. Annal f. 403 404. and the next thing considered was in what Way and Means to effect it And the Method agreed on was to do it with a well-provided Army from Spain and the Low-Countries to be landed by a powerful Navy at the Thames Mouth in order to surprize the City of London by a sudden Assault this being resolved on the Preparation was made which was so great throughout all Spain Italy and Scicily that the Spaniards themselves were amazed at it and named it the Invincible Armada Their Cause the Armada and Army they recommended to the Pope and to the Prayers of the Catholics to God and the Saints and set forth a Book in Print for a Terror wherein the whole Preparation was set down The Prince of Parma also in the Netherlands by the Spanish Kings Command built Ships and many Flat-bottomed Boats and other great Preparations in the Sea Towns of Flanders he had an Army of an hundred and three Companies of Foot and four thousand Horse amongst which were one thousand English Fugitives who of all others were least esteemed neither was * Sir William Stanley before named Stanley who had the Command of them nor others who offered their Service and Council once heard but for their unnaturalness to their Country they were debarred from all access and as most inauspicious Persons worthily and with Detestation rejected The Spanish Navy in the whole consisted of one hundred and thirty Ships whereof Galliasses and Galleons seventy two in which were Souldiers nineteen thousand two hundred and ninety Camb. Annal. f. 410. Baker's Chron. f. 374. The Number of the Armada Marriners eight thousand three hundred and fifty Gally Slaves two thousand and eighty great Ordinance two thousand six hundred and thirty for the greater Holiness of their Action twelve of their Ships were called the twelve Apostles the chief Commanders were Don Alphonso Duke of Medina and John Recalde a great Sea-man Sixtus Quintus Curseth Queen Elizabeth Foulis Hist li. 7. ca. 6. f. 350. Camb. Annals f. 410. Sixtus Quintus the Pope that he might not seem to be wanting in so good a Cause did not only assist with his (a) Ant. Cicarella in vità Sexti V. Allen sent into the Netherlands to carry on the Design Treasure but his Papal Curse to boot whereby he excommunicated the Queen dethroned her absolved her Subjects from all Allegiance and published his Croisado in Print as it were against Turks and Infidels wherein out of the Treasure of the Church he granted plenary Indulgences to all that gave their Help and Assistance with this goodly Stuff William Allen a little before made a Cardinal an English-man and an old Traitor to the Queen was sent into the Netherlands the better to encourage the English Romanists to Rebellion Allen pulls out his Papal Tool which he forgeth into a Pamphlet in the English Language which he prints at Antwerp calling it The Declaration of the Sentence of Sixtus Quintus Their Methods And as a farther Interpretation of the Papal Intent and the better to ingage the English to Rebellion he joyns a second Part to it called An Admonition to the Nobility and People of England And that the Reader may better understand the Honesty of the Paper take the Sum of it thus Em. Meteram Hist Belg. lib. 15. p. 473 474. Sam. Purchas Pilgrims vol. 4. l. 10. c. 11. p. 1895 1896. It begins with Calling the Queens Government impious and unjust her self an
How cometh Philip to be lawful King of England against their Country and notwithstanding withstanding all they should do they should but defend her bootless to their own present Destruction and eternal Shame What Mr. Foulis relates out of Clark a Secular Priest is so remarkable with relation to this Invasion that I cannot omit it saith he and quotes his Author As for the Jesuits you shall hear what (c) C. W. A Reply to Father Parson's Libel f. 64 65. Clark the Priest saith who with Watson suffered afterward for Treason against King James First It is most certain that all the World had very admirable Expectance of that Army and the Jesuits more than any Secondly It is plain by the Cardinals Book if (d) They would hint to us as if Parsons were the Compiler of the Admonition but its certain that Allen was the Author of it and Parsons with the other Romanists confess Allen to be the Author it were his writen as a Preparative to that Account that he was made Cardinal on purpose for that Exploit and to have been sent hither presently upon the Spaniards Conquest But Father Parsons saith that he laboured to set forward at that time the Cardinals Preferment if you will believe him which maketh it evident à primo ad ultimum that Father Parsons was a Dealer in that Account Thirdly It is certain that the Jesuits in Rome were great with the Spanish Ambassador Leger there and had great recourse unto him when the Matter was on foot doth not this then urge them to be Concurrers thereunto Fourthly It is likewise most certain that the English Jesuits in Rome appropriated certain Pallaces in London to themselves to fall unto their Lots when the Matter was in handling to wit Burghley-House Bridewel and another which I have forgot makeing themselves cock sure of their already devoured Prey This all the Students that lived in the (e) Viz. The English Colledge at Rome Colledge at that time will witness with â—e now would I demand of you what reasons they might have to be their own Carve◠〈◊〉 if they had not some Interest in that Affair Fifthly We know that they were more forward in Rome concerning this Matter than the Cardinal or any other insomuch as at the first News of the Spaniards coming down into the narrow Seas they would have had Te Deum sung in the Colledge for joy of Victory if the Cardinal had not stayed it And to conclude Doth not the posting of Father Parsons into Spain presently after the Overthrow of this Army for further dealing with the Spaniard for the time to come and his better information in English Affairs and Father Holt posting into the Low-Countries for the like Purpose to keep the Spaniard still in hope of future times that this Mishap might not withdraw him from ever enterprizing the like afterwards shew that they were Dealers in the former Doubtless all these Circumstances cannot but sufficiently prove it that they were in the Judgment of wise Men. Foulis Hist l. 7. cap. 7. f. 354. This Grand Invasion of the Spaniards so contrived and carried on by the Pope Spaniard English Fugities Priests and Jesuits being ruined and brought to nought England might now afford it self some ease her Enemies not being able on a sudden to recruit their great Losses this Defeat in a manner breaking their Back and cracking the Credit of Philip. But as by degrees he recovered so by the Instigation of the English Fugitives was he perswaded to carry on the same ill Will towards the Queen of England Camb. Annals f. 457. Bakers Chron. f. 379. the first step that is set is to send over English Priests who crept every day privately into England in great Numbers from the Seminaries of Rome France and Spain for the Spaniard had lately founded a Seminary for the English at Validolid who laboured to draw the Subjects from their Obedience to the Queen and to unite them to the Spaniards Party which being discovered the Queen put out a Proclamation that none should harbour any man whatsoever but upon Enquiry first made who he was whether he came to Prayers in the Church upon what Means he lived where he dwelt the Year before and other like Circumstances that they who could not answer these Interrogatories should be sent to Commissioners appointed in every Shire least the Common-wealth should receive any Damage Notwithstanding this Proclamation and the severity of the Laws one Hesket who was set on by Sir William Stanley before named undertook to persuade Ferdinand Lord Strange who a little after by the Death of his Father Henry Heskets Plot to depose the Queen and set up the Lord Strange Fowlis Hist l. 7. c. 7. f. 354. Camb. Annals l. 4. f. 477. became Earl of Darby to depose the Queen and take upon him the Title of the Crown making pedegrees for him drawing his pretended right from Mary his great Grand-mother Daughter to Henry the 7 th And for a better encouragement they gave him large promises of assistance of Men and Mony from the Spaniard but withal threatning him with assured destruction unless he would undertake the design and conceal it but the Earl far contrary to their expectation discovers Hesket who confessing all is executed This failing we have another more dangerous Lopez his Treason against Queen Eliz. Camb. Annals l. 4. f. 484. Fowlis l. 7. c. 7. f. 354. Bakers Chron. f. 381. set on by persons of the highest Rank but it seems not unworthy the basest Action of whom any Religion might be justly ashamed As a Prologue to this we may understand that Don Sebastian the forward King of Portugal having ruined himself in the Affrican Expedition and his great Uncle Cardinal Henry succeeding him in the Kingdoms and Dying unmarried several made claim to the Portugal Crown Amongst the rest Don Antonio Prior of Crato natural Son to Lewis Brother to Henry To him being a Portuguese many of the People bare an affection so that at last the rest let their Titles sleep and the quarrel only remained between Philip the II. of Spain and this Antonio But Philip having the longest Sword under the Conduct of Alva wan the Kingdom so that Antonio was forced to flee for refuge to our Queen Elizabeth who afforded him some assistance and favour by which means and protection many Portuguese Ship't themselves for England where they were received as friends with all respect and honour Amongst the rest was Roderigo Lopez a Jewish Physician whom the Queen entertained in her own Service making him Physician to her Houshold and Stephano Ferreira de Gama with Emanuel Loisie These three were enticed by the Spaniard to undertake the Murther of the Queen for which they were promised great rewards but Lopez was to be the main instrument Lopez confessed that of late years he had been allured to do service secretly to the King of Spain which he did by means of one
Genserick and Henricus with their Arian Hereticks alluding to the State. Here we think both him and divers others that have written to the same effect very greatly to blame Sure we are that the general Cause of Religion for the which both we and they contend as oft we have said getteth no good but hurt by it and contrary to the Old saying be he never so bad yet let him have Justice tho some hard Courses have been taken by the State against us yet hath it not by many degrees been so extream as the Jesuits and that Crue have falsely written and reported of it nor indeed as they deserved Afterwards they inveigh against the Spanish Invasion against Parsons for a Book he writ and against him and Creswel for another they writ they go on thus Whilst the said Invasion was thus talked of and in preparation in Spain a shorter course was thought of Heskets Plot. it might have had success Mr. Hesket was set on by the Jesuits 1592. or thereabouts with Father Parsons consent or knowledge to have stirred up the Earl of Darby to Rebellion against Her Highness Cullen Not long after good Father Holt and others with him persuaded an Irish-man one Patrick Collen as he himself confessed to attempt the laying his violent and villanous hands upon Her Majesty Shortly after in the Year 1593. that Notable Stratagem was Plotted the whole State knoweth by whom for Dr. Lopez the Queens Physician to have Poysoned her Lopez for the which he was Executed the Year after This wicked designment being thus prevented by Gods providence the said Traiterous Jesuit York and Williams Holt and others did allure and animate one York and Williams to have accomplished that with their Bloody hands that the other purposed to have done with his Poyson we mean Her Majesties destruction Hereunto we might add the late Villanous attempt 1599. of Edward Squire animated and drawn thereto as he confessed by Wallpool that pernicious Jesuit Walpool But we must turn again to Father Parsons whose turnings and doublings are such as would trouble a right good Hound to Trace him For in the mean time that the said Traytors one after another were Plotting and Studying how best they might compass Her Majesties Death they cared not how nor by what means he the said Father Parsons so prevailed with the King as he attempted twice in two sundry Years his new Invasion meaning to have proceeded therein The Spaniard designed a Second Invasion not with such great preparation as he did at the first but only to have begun the same by taking some Port Westward Towards which he came so far onward as Silley with his Fleet. At both which times God who still hath fought for her Majesty and this Realm did notably prevent him by such Winds and Tempests as the most of his Ships and Men perished in the Sea as they were coming hitherward Furthermore the said good Father in the midst of all the said Trayterous enterprizes both at home and abroad devised and set forward by him and his Companions was ploding amongst his Papers and playing the herauld how if all his said wicked designments failed he might at the last Intitle the King of Spain and consequently the Infanta his Daughter to the Crown and Kingdom of England To which purpose he framed and after published a Book wherewith he acquainted the Students in those Seminaries in Spain and Laboured nothing more then to have their subscriptions to the said Infanta's Title therein promissing unto her their present Allegiance as unto their lawful Soveraign and that when they should be sent into their Country they should perswade the Catholics there to do the like without any further Expectation of the Queen of Englands Death As Mr. Charles Paget affirmeth in his Book against Parsons They confess in these words That the Jesuitical designments beyond the Seas Collect. 53 54. together with certain Rebellions and Traiterous attempts of some Catholics at home have been the cause of such Calamities and troubles as have happened to us far less we think then any Prince living in Her Majesties Case and so provoked would have inflicted upon us And after they tell us that divers of their Communion have owned so much I shall conclude this Reign with these words of theirs which fully justifie the making the Laws that were made in it We are fully persuaded in our Consciences and as Men besides our Learning Collect. 55 56 57. who have some experience that if the Catholics had never sought by indirect means to have vexed Her Majesty with their designments against her Crown if the Pope and King of Spain had never plotted with the Duke of Norfolk If the Rebels in the North had never been heard of if the Bull of Pius the V. had never been known if the said Rebellion had never been justified If neither Steukly nor the Pope had attempted any thing against Ireland if Gregory the Thirteenth had not renewed the said Excommunication if the Jesuits had never come into England if the Pope and the King of Spain had not practised with the Duke of Guise for his attempt against Her Majesty if Parsons and the rest of the Jesuits with other our Country-men beyond Seas had never been agents in these Traiterous and Bloody designments of Throckmorton Parry Collen York Willians Squire and such like if they had not by their Treatises and writings endeavoured to defame their Soveraign and their own Country labouring to have many of their Books Translated into divers Languages thereby to shew more 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 scurrillous and unmanly Admonition or rather most Prophane Libel against Her Majesty if they had not sought by false persuasions and ungodly Arguments to have allured the Hearts of Catholics from their Allegiance if the Pope had never been urged by them to have thrust the Kingdom of Spain into that Barbarous Action against the Realm if they themselves with 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 in all their Proceedings they had not from time to time depraved irritated and provoked both Her Majesty and the State with these and other such like their ungodly and unchristian practices But on the contrary if the Popes from time to time had sought her Majesty by kind Offices and gentle Persuasions never ceasing the prosecution of those and such-like courses of humanity and gentleness if the Catholics and Priests beyond the Seas had laboured continually the furtherance of those most Priest-like and Divine allurements and had framed their own proceedings in all their words and writings accordingly if we at home all of us both Priests and
taken by a general Councel free and Lawfully called to pluck up those Roots of Dangers and Jealousies which arise about Religion as well between Prince and Prince as between them and their Subjects and to make it manifest that no States or Potentates either hath or can Challenge power to dispose of Earthly Kingdoms or Monarchies or to dispense with Subjects obedience to their natural Soveraign In which charitable Account there will be no Prince living that will be readier then we shall be to concur even to the utmost of our Power not only out of particular Disposition to live peaceably with all States and Princes of Christendom but because such a settled Amity might by an union in Religion be established amongst Christian Princes as might enable us all to resist the common Enemy Given at our Pallace at Westminster the 22 d. Day of February in the first Year of our Reign c. This Proclamation I thought fit to insert because by it it appears that King James himself was of opinion that the before mentioned Conspiracy was conceived by the Popish Priests however they prevailed upon some of the Protestant Profession to joyn with them in Midwiving it into the World and therefore may truly be called Popish By the Kings issuing out this Proclamation the heat and hopes of the Jesuits and their Correspondents were somewhat allayed but it made way for more dark and secret Contrivances which they afterwards put into Practice and I shall give a full Account of But before I do that I shall give you King James the First his Opinion of the Papists both Laicks and Clericks as he himself delivered it in his first Speech to his first Parliament in 1603. Take it in his own Words as related by Wilson King James his Speech against Papists Wilson f. 19. For the Papists I must put a difference betwixt my own private Profession of my Salvation and my politick Government of the Realm for the weal and quietness thereof As for my own Profession you have me your Head now among You of the same Religion that the Body is of as I am no stranger to you in Blood no more am I a stranger to you in Faith or in Matters concerning the House of God. And altho' this my Profession be according to my Education wherein I thank God I suckt the Milk of Gods truth with the Milk of my Nurse yet I do here protest unto you that I would never for such a Conceit of Constancy or other prejudicate Opinion have so firmly kept my first Profession if I had not found it agreeable to all Reason and to the Rule of my Conscience But I was never violent nor unreasonable in my Profession I acknowledge the Roman Church to be our Mother Church altho defiled with some Infirmities and Corruptions as the Jews were before they Crucified Christ And as I am no Enemy to the Life of a sick Man because I would have his Body purged of ill Humours no more am I an Enemy to their Church because I would have them reform their Errors not wishing the down-throwing of the Temple but that it might be purged and cleaned from Corruption Otherwise how can they wish us to enter if their House be not first made clean But as I would be lother to dispense in the least point of mine own Conscience for any Worldly respect then the foolishest Precisian of them all So would I be as sorry to streighten the politick Government of the Bodies and Minds of all my Subjects to my private Opinions Nay my Mind was ever so free from Persecution or inthralling of my Subjects in Matters of Conscience King James his Mildness to Papists as I hope those of that Profession within this Kingdom have a proof since my Coming that I was so far from increasing their Burthens with Rhehoboam as I have so much as either time occasion or Law could permit lightned them And even now at this time have I been careful to revise and consider deeply upon the Laws made against them that some Overture might be made to the present Parliament for clearing these Laws by reason which is the Soul of the Law in Case they have been in times past further or more rigorously extended by Judges then the meaning of the Law was or might tend to the hurt as well of the innocent as of the guilty Persons And as to the Persons of my Subjects which are of that Profession I must divide them into two ranks Clericks and Laicks for the Laicks I ever thought them far more excuseable then the other sort because their Religion containeth such an ignorant doubtful and implicite kind of Faith grounded upon their Church that except they do generally believe whatsoever their Teachers please to affirm they cannot be thought guilty of these particular points of Heresies and Corruptions which their Teachers so wilfully profess And again I must subdivide the Laick into two Ranks which are either quiet and well minded Men peaceable Subjects who either being old retain their first Drunk in Liquor upon a certain Shamefacedness to be thought Curious or Changeable Or being young Men through evil Education have been Nursed and brought up upon such Venome instead of wholsome Nutriment and this sort of People I would be sorry to punish their Bodies for the Error of their Minds the Reformation whereof must only come of God and the true Spirit But the other Rank of Laicks who either through Curiosity Affectation of Novelty or Discontentment have changed their Coats only to be Factious stirers of Sedition and perturbers of the Common-wealth this giveth a ground to me the Magistrate to take better heed to their Proceedings and to correct their Obstinacy But for the Clericks I must directly say and affirm that as long as they maintain one special point of their Doctrine and another of their Practise they are no way sufferable to remain in this Kingdom the point of Doctrine is that Arrogant and Ambitious Supremacy of their Head the Pope whereby he not only Claims to be spiritual Head of all Christians but also to have an Emperial Civil power over all Kings and Emperors Dethroning and Crowning Princes with his Foot as pleaseth him and dispensing and disposing of all Kingdoms and Empires at his Appetite The other point which they observe in continual Practise is the Assassinates and Murthers of Kings Thinking it no sin but rather a Matter of Salvation to do all Acts of Rebellion and Hostility against their natural Sovereign Lord if he be once Cursed his Subjects discharged of their Fidelity and his Kingdom given a prey by that three Crowned Monarch or rather Monster their Head. And in this point I have no occasion to speak further here saving that I could wish from my Heart It would please God to make me one of the Members of such a general Christian Union in Religion as laying Wilfulness aside on both hands we might meet in the midst which
which it appeared that Bates was resolved for what he undertook in this Powder-Treason being therein warranted by the Jesuits Also that Hamond the Jesuite the 7 th of November after the Discovery confest and absolved them The Confessions of Watson and Clark Seminary Priests upon their Apprehension was also taken notice of who affirmed that there was some Treason intended by the Jesuits and then in hand After the reading their several Examinations Confessions Their Conviction Condemnation and Execution and voluntary Declarations as well of themselves as of some of their dead Confederates they were all found guilty and having nothing to say for themselves were comdemned and executed Sir Everad Digby having likewise confest the same was found guilty condemned and executed for the same Treason Garnets Arraignment Tryal and Confeson Proceedings printed in 1606. Foulis l. 10. c. 2. f. 514 517. Henry Garnet Superior of the Jesuits in England was arraigned and tryed for the same Treason on Friday the 28 th of March 1606. at Guild Hall in London before Sir Leonard Holiday Lord Mayor the Earl of Nottingham the Earl of Suffolk the Earl of Worcester the Earl of Northampton the Earl of Salisbury the Lord Chief Justice of England the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer Sir Christopher Yelverton Knight one of his Majesties Justices of the Kings-Bench Lords Commissioners for that purpose He was a grand Agitator in this Plot and did himself at last confess thus much That Catesby had told him of the Plot but not by way of Confession that Greenwel had told him of this not as a Fault for how could they do so that approved it as meritorious but as a thing that he had Intelligence of and told it him by way of Consultation that Catesby and Greenwel came together to him to be resolved that Tesmond and he had Conference of the Particulars of the Powder-Treason in Essex that Greenwel asked him who should be Protector Garnet said that was to be deferred till the Blow was past that he ought to have revealed it to the King that nothing deterred him from the Discovery so much as his Unwillingness to betray Catesby that he had greatly sinned against God the King and the Kingdom in not revealing it of whom he heartily begged Pardon and Forgiveness Garnet Condemned and Executed Foulis Hist lib. 10. cap. 2. f. 514. Proceedings And for this Treason he was condemned and after his Condemnation he himself said That the Sentence was justly passed on him The third of May following he was executed at the West End of St. Paul's Church-Yard where he appeared in a troubled and amazed Condition still prying and peeping about for a Pardon although Henry Montague Recorder of the City pitying his Perplexedness assured him there would be none granted And thus died this Garnet after he had confirmed the Matters contained in the Confessions of them that had been before executed by this Confession of his own And that none that are willing to receive Truth as it is which ingenuous Men always are may remain in doubt take the true reason of his Confession from himself at Foulis relates it The reason of Garnets Confession Foulis Hist lib. 10. cap. 2. f. 515. The Jesuits being not a little offended that he should any way confess himself guilty which with some might be a Blot both to himself and their Order Garnet to vindicate himself to them and to shew the Folly of denying any longer thus writes to them What should I do First of all the rest of the Confederates have accused me Secondly Catesby always made use of my Authority amongst them whereby most of them were perswaded to have a good Opinion of the Enterprize so that all knew I was in it Thirdly two set on purpose heard me discourse the whole business with Oldcorn and tell him how I thought to answer all Objections Fourthly My Letters writ with the Juice of Orange to Mrs. Anne Anne Vaux are I know not how fallen into their Hands whereby I plainly enough discovered my Knowledge of it Whence I gather that the Jesuits did sufficiently tamper with him to conceal his Guilt and that he would have concealed it if he could and all that have writ in Justification of him are sufficiently answered by his own Confession and the four Reasons above mentioned that induced him thereunto to which add his further Confession That he had often vowed both by Words and Writings to the Lay Conspirators that he would never discover or betray any of them and his acknowledging his Offence wishing it were in his Power to undo that which was done and that if the whole World were his he would willingly give it to quit himself from the Guilt of Treason which now troubled his Conscience Moreover he himself owned in a Letter to Mrs Anne Vaux That he was sorry he could not die for Religion but for Treasons These Instances are certainly sufficient to convince any unbyassed Reader but to put the Matter out of doubt and if it be possible to convince even the Papists Thuanus himself one of their own Communion Privy-Councellor to the French King and President of the Supream Senate of that Kingdom was so fully convinced of the Truth of this Conspiracy and that all the Conspirators before named were ingaged in it that he writ a most ingenuous Narrative of the whole in Latin which was in the year 1674. faithfully rendred into English and printed where the Papists that do not understand Latine may if they please receive ample Satisfaction So detestable it seems this Conspiracy was to some of the English Colledge at Rome that being informed of the Discovery of this Plot sixteen of them abhorring such jugling and bloody Designs forsook the Colledge slipt into France Translation of Thuanus f. 1. and thence some of them came into England and turned Protestants But nothing will convince some Papists for notwithstanding all the Confessions aforesaid and Convictions Foulis Hist l. 10. cap. 2. f. 510. and Executions upon those Confessions there are not a few who would perswade the World to believe that all this was but a mear Cheat a Trick of Salisbury the then Secretary And Foulis saith he once heard a Story very gravely told that one lurking under the Council-Table concealed by the long Carper heard much of the Contrivance a Tale so absurd and ridiculous that after what hath been already said to endeavour to confute it would argue more impertinence then they were guilty of who broached the Story This Conspiracy being discovered in so wonderful a manner and the Deliverance attended with so many amazing Circumstances the Parliament took the same into their Consideration and in the first place made a Law for keeping an Anniversary Day of Thanks-giving on the Fifth of November and enacted the same Law should be read in the Churches publickly upon the same Day and then made an Act for the Attainder of the Offenders Which Acts
of Parliament because they yet strengthen and confirm the Truth of the said Conspiracy and that they do so must be confest unless Men will fly in the Face of that Parliament I have here inserted as I find the same in Rastal's Statutes The First is Intituled An Act for publick Thanks-giving to Almighty God every Year on the Fifth Day of November FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath in all Ages shewed his Power and Mercy 3 Jac. 1. ca. 1. Rast Stat. 2. Part. f. 588. The Act for keeping the Fifth of November yearly as a Day of Thanks-giving in the Miraculous and Gracious Deliverance of his Church and in the Protection of Religious Kings and States and that no Nation of the Earth hath been blessed with greated Benefits than this Kingdom now enjoyeth having the true and free Profession of the Gospel under our most gracious Sovereign Lord King James the most Great Learned and Religious King that ever reigned therein enriched with a most hopeful and plentiful Progeny proceeding out of his Royal Loyns promising Continuance of this Happiness and Profession to all Posterity and the which many malignant and devilish Papists Iesuits and Seminary Priests much envying and fearing conspired most horribly when the Kings most excellent Majesty the Queen the Prince and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons should have been assembled in the upper House of Parliament upon the fifth Day of November in the Year of our Lord 1605. suddenly to have blown up the said whole House with Gun-powder an Invention so inhuman barbarous and cruel as the like was never before heard of and was as some of the principal Conspirators thereof confess purposely devised and concluded to be done in the said House that where sundry necessary and religious Laws for preservation of the Church and State were made which they falsly and slanderously term cruel Laws enacted against them and their Religion both Place and Persons should be all destroyed and blown up at once which would have turned to the utter Ruine of this whole Kingdom had it not pleased Almighty God by inspiring the Kings most excellent Majesty with a Divine Spirit to interpret some dark Phrases of a Letter shewed to His Majesty above and beyond all ordinary Construction thereby miraculously discovering this hidden Treason not many Hours before she appointed time for the Execution thereof therefore the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all His Majesties faithful and loving Subjects do justly acknowledge this great and infinite Blessing to have proceeded meerly from God his great Merry and to his most Holy Name do ascribe all the Honour Glory and Praise And to the end this unfeigned Thankfulness may never be forgotten but be in a perpetual Remembrance that all Ages to come may yield Praises to his Divine Majesty for the same and have in Memory This joyful Day of Deliverance Be it therefore enacted by the Kings most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same that all and Angular Ministers in every Cathedral and Parish Church or other usual Place for Common-prayer within this Realm of England and the Dominions of the same shall always upon the fifth Day of November say Morning-prayer and give unto Almighty God Thanks for this most happy Deliverance and that all and every Person and Persons inhabiting within this Realm of England and the Dominions of the same shall always upon that Day diligently and faithfully resort to the Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or to some usual Church or Chappel where the said Morning-prayer Preaching or other Service of God shall be used and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the the said Prayers Preaching or other Service of God there to be used and ministred And because all and every Person may be put in mind of this Duty and be the better prepared to the said Holy Service be it enacted by Authority aforesaid that every Minister shall give Warning to his Parishioners publickly in the Church at Morning-prayer the Sunday before every such fifth Day of November for the due Observation of the said Day And that after Morning-prayer or Preaching upon the said fifth Day of November they read publickly distinctly and plainly this present Act. The Second is intituled An Act for the Attainder of divers Offendors in the late most barbarous monstrous detestable and damnable Treasons The Preamble of which Act runs thus 3 Jac. 1. ca. 2. Rast Stat 2. part f. 589 An Act for the Attainder of the Conspirators IN most humble manner beseeching your most excellent Majesty your most Loyal Faithful and true Hearted Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled That whereas Arthur Creswel Jesuite who at the time of his Profession to be a Iesuite took upon him the Name of Joseph Creswel Oswald Tesmond Jesuite and Thomas VVinter late of Huddington in the County of VVorcester Gent. the last Day of June in the four and fortieth Year of the late Queen Elizabeth of famous Memory at Valedolide within the Kingdom of Spain and at divers other days within the same four and fortieth Year of the said late Queen at Valedolide aforesaid and elsewhere within the same Kingdom of Spain by the Means Procurement and Privity of Robert Catesby late of Ashby in the County of Northampton Esq Francis Tresham late of Rushton in the said County of Northampton Esq and Henry Garnet Iesuite assuming upon him to be Superior of the Iesuits within this Ream of England and others being all natural born Subjects of this Realm did Traiterously and against the Duty of their Allegiance move and incite Philip then and yet King of Spain then being at open Enmity and Hostility with the said late Queen with Force to invade this Kingdom of England and to joyn with the Papists and discontented Persons wiâ—â—in this Realm of England to depose and overthrow the same late Queen of and 〈◊〉 her Crown and of and from all Her Royal Estate Title and Dignity and to suppress and abolish the true Religion of Almighty God truly and sincerely professed within this Kingdom and to restore the Superstitious Romish Religion within the same and to bring this Antient Famous and most renowned Kingdom to utter Ruine and miserable Captivity under Forreign Power and for that the greatest Impediment unto the same Invasion would be the want of Help of good Horses the said Thomas VVinter the rather to incourage the said King thereunto was to offer unto the same King on the Behalf of the Papists of England to give him Assistance presently upon the Landing of his Forces with one thousand five hundred or two thousand Horses and that for their better accomplishing thereof he should move the said King to furnish the Papists of England with a good Sum of Money partly to be employed to
provide and furnish the Horses and partly in Pensions to be employed upon some such as were to be prepared for that Service all which the said Thomas VVinter did relate to the said King of Spain who the said Kingdoms of England and Spain then standing in Hostility took that Offer in very good part saying that he would respect and account of the Catholicks of England meaning the Papists as of his own Castilians and thereupon agreed that he would make Invasion and set foot in England about the Spring then next following and would by way of Exchange send over unto the Papists of England one hundred thousand Crowns to be paid at two several Days agreed upon all which particulars are extant in the Confession of some of the chief Offenders at which time sundry Papists of England did extraordinarily furnish themselves by the traiterous and wicked Perswasions and Means of sundry Iesuits both with Horse and Armour But before these things could be effected Almighty God called the said late Queen to his mercy Immediately after whose decease that is to say in the same Month of March wherein she departed out of this World Christopher Wright late of London Gentleman was imployed by the said Robert Catesby Francis Tresham Henry Garnet and others into Spain to Negotiate with the said King of Spain by the means of the said Creswel the Iesuit and others to proceed in that Invasion which the said Thomas Winter had before Negotiated with him And afterwards on the two and Twentyeth day of June in the first Year of your Majesties Reign over this Realm of England Sir William Stanley Kt. Hugh Owen Esq William Baldwin Iesuit and others did by and with the Traiterous procurement and consent of the Offendors aforesaid from and out of Handers in the parts beyond the Seas under the Government of the Arch-Duke Traiterously employ and send Guy Fauks sate of London Genelman unto the said King of Spain to Negotiate with him on the behalf of the said Papists of England for Invasion to be had against this Realm of England to the same effect as was committed to the said Christopher Wright as is aforesaid And the said Guy Fauks and Christopher Wright though they had all the furtherance of the said Creswel the Iesuit that he could give yet finding no such entertainment with the said King who as by the sequel appeareth grew into detestation with the said Propositions and Negotiations as they expected or desired But being wholly disappointed of all their hopes concerning that Matter the said Robert Catesby and divers other Persons within this Realm did send over the said Thomas Winter into the said Country of Flanders to procure the said Guy Fauks a Natural Born Subject of this Realm and yet a most Traiterous desperate and cloudy minded Person then serving as a Souldier in the Low-Countries to come over into this Realm and by and with the Traiterous conspiracy and consent of the said Henry Garnet Oswald Tesmond John Garrard and other Iesuits and Thomas Pearcy late of London Esq John Wright late of London Gent. the said Christopher Wright Francis Tresham Robert Winter late of Huddington aforesaid Esq John Grant late of Norbrook in the County of Warwick Esq Ambrose Rookwood late of Staningfeild in the County of Suffolk Esq Everard Digby late of Gorehurst in the County of Buckingham Kt. Robert Keys late of London Gentlman and Thomas Bates late of London Yeoman to undertake the Execution of the most wicked Barbarous execrable and abominable Treason that ever could enter into the Heart of the most wicked Man by blowing up with Gun-Powder the House of Parliament at such time as your most excellent Majesty and your dearest Consort the Queen and the most Noble Prince Henry together with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal the Iudges of the Realm and the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of Parliament should be in said Parliament-House Assembled for which most Traiterous and Barbarous purpose there were secretly laid in a Vault or Cellar under the Parliament-House Thirty six Barrels of Gun-Powder or thereabouts to the utter overthrow and subversion of the whole State of this flourishing and renouned Kingdom If God of his infinite Mercy had not most Miraculously by your Majesties blessed direction Discovered the same in finding out the said Barrels of Gun-Powder in the said Vault or Cellar but few hours before the time appointed for the Execution thereof All which most Heinous Horrid and Damnable Treasons are most manifest and apparent by the voluntary confession and acknowledgments of the Offenders themselves Of which most Barbarous Bloody and detestable Treason for Conspiring and preparing to blow up the Parliament-House with Gun-Powder The said Robert Winter Thomas Winter Guy Fauks Robert Keyes Ambrose Rookwood John Graunt and Thomas Bates have been lately indicted and during this present Sessions of Parliament Arraigned convicted by Verdict and thereupon attainted And the said Sir Everard Digby Kt. hath likewise been indicted and during this present Sessions of Parliament Convicted and Attainted by his own confession of Record upon his Arraignment according to the Laws of this your Majesties Realm as by the Records of their several Indictments and Attainders it doth and may more plainly appear and for the which Offences the said Sir Everard Digby Robert Winter Thomas Winter Guy Fauks Ambrose Rookwood John Graunt Robert Keyes and Thomas Bates have suffered pains of Death according to their demerits And the said Robert Catesby Thomas Piercy John Wright and Cristopher Wright were Slain in open Rebellion by them and others the said most wicked Traytors moved and stirred within divers Parts and Counties of this Realm shortly after the Discovery of their most detestable and Damnable Treason in Conspiring and preparing to blow up the said Parliament-House as aforesaid and the said Hugh Owen doth of purpose and for fear of condign punishment according to his demerit reside and kéep himself beyond the Seas by means whereof he cannot in respect of such his voluntary absence be Arraigned and publickly by due Tryal of Law upon apparent Testimony and proof against him be proceeded with for such his hainous and abominable Treasons and the said Francis Tresham being one of the said most detestable Traitors and being apprehended and imprisoned in the Tower of London having by sundry his Examinations confest himself a principal Traytor in all the said most abominable Treasons Dyed in the Tower during the time of his said imprisonment and before he could be Indicted of the said Treasons They therefore desired that the King of his blessed care and disposition to and for the continuance of Gods true Religion and Service and for that preservation and safety of his Person the Queen the Prince and the rest of the Royal Progeny and for the intire Love and Affection that his Majesty had always thentâ—fore born and did then bear to the Common-wealth and safety of this Realm of England to the end that all others might then
by her Authority from any other whatsoever c. Dated at Rome at St. Peters c. 1. Feb 1608. Birket upon the Receipt of this Breve draws up and sends abroad this admonishing Letter To all the Reverend Secular Priests of ENGLAND Most Dearly beloved Brethren WHereas I have always desired to live without molesting or offending others Birkets Letter to the Popish Clergy against taking the Oath and going to Church Foulis Hist l. 10. cap. 3. f. 530. it cannot be but a wonderful corosive Sorrow and Grief unto me that against mine own inclination I am forced as you have seen by the Breve it self to prescribe a certain time for such as do find themselves to have been contrary to the Points which are touched in the said Breve concerning the Oath and going to Church that they may thereby return and conform themselves to the Doctrine declared by his Holiness both in this and the other former Breves And therefore now by this Present do give notice unto you all that the time which I prefix and prescribe for that purpose is the space of two Months next ensuing after the knowledge of this Admonition Within which time such as shall forbear to take or allow any more the Oath or going to Church I shall most willingly accept their doing therein Yet signifying unto you withal that such as do not within the time prescribed give this Satisfaction I must tho much against my Will for fulfilling his Holinesses Commandments deprive them and denounce them to be deprived of all their Faculties and Priviledges granted by the See Apostolick or by any other Authority thereof unto them or to any of them and so by this Present do denounce hoping that there is no Man will be so wilful or disobedient to his Holinesses Order but will conform himself as becometh an obedient Child of the Catholick Church And so most heartily wishing this Conformity in us all and that we may Live and Labour together Unanimes in Domo Domini I pray God give us the Grace to effect that in our Actions whereunto we are by our Order and Profession obliged Your Servant in Christ George Birket Arch-Priest of England and Protonotary Apostolical This 2d of May 1608. There was by reason of these Bulls great Writing against the Lawfulness of Papists taking the Oath And it can't be but all of them who writ against it make this their Foundation That it takes away the Popes power of depriving Kings and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance So that certainly it was high time for the State to take care of the safety of their Religion and their Prince the Defender thereof The Parliament therefore in the Seventh Year of King James the First that they might know who were Friends to a Foreign power and consequently Enemies to the established Government made an Act of Parliament Intitled An Act for Administring the Oath of Allegiance and Reformation of married Women Recusants Which is the last Law I find made in this Kings Reign relating to the Papists The Preamble runs thus 7. Jac. 1. cap. 6. Rast Stat. 2. part f. 666. For taking the Oath of Allegiby Protestants as well as by Papists And Feme Courts Papists to Penalties VVHereas by a Statute made in the third Year of your Majesties Reign intituled An Act for the better discovering and repressing of Popish Recusants The form of an Oath to be ministred and given to certain Persons in the same Act mentioned is limited and prescribed tending only to the Declaration of such Duty as every true and well affected Subject not only by Bond of Allegiance but also by the Commandment of Almighty God ought to bear to your Majesty your Heirs and Successors which Oath such as are infected with Popish Superstition do oppugne with many false and unsound Arguments the just defence whereof your Majesty hath heretofore undertaken and worthily performed to the great Contentment of all your Loving Subjects notwithstanding the Gain-sayings of contentious Adversaries And to shew how greatly your Loyal Subjects do approve the said Oath they prostrate themselves at your Majesties feet beseeching your Majesty that the same Oath may be Administred to all your Subjects To which end we do with all humbleness beseech your Highness that it may be Enacted And then To shew how greatly they approved the said Oath they desired it might be Administred to all the Subjects of England and accordingly it was Enacted That it should be taken by all Persons above the Age of eighteen Years The penalty for the refusâ—ing upon tender is Imprisonment without Bayl or Main-prize and disability to execute any place of Iudicature to bear any other Office to use or Practice the Common or Civil Law Physick or Chirurgery the Art of an Apothecary or any Liberal Science for His or Her gain By this Act a married Woman that is a Papist convict if she doth not within three Months after Conviction conform shall be committed to Prison without Bayl or Main-prize unless her Husband will pay ten Pounds a Mouth for the Wives offence or the third part of all his Lands c. for so long time as she remaining a Papist convict shall continue out of Prison during which time and no longer she may be at Liberty The Penal Laws in this Reign justified And certainly Watson and Clarks Plot the Gun-Powder Treason and the restless endeavours of the Pope and the Jesuits by his sending and their bringing over Bulls to alienate the Kings Subjects from their Allegiance will highly justifie the State in making these Laws against the Papists that were made in this Kings Reign And the more reasonable will they appear to be if it be considered that we do not find that he ever Executed one Person Priest Jesuit or other for Religion but all Died for Treason even Garnet himself was sorry that he could not Dye for Religion his guilt of Treason being so notorious And therefore these Plots Conspiracies and Treasons carry in the Face of them the greatest ingratitude imaginable The King in the Tenth Year of his Reign being affrighted with Henry the Fourth of France his being Stabbed by Ravilliac ventures upon a Proclamation King James his last Proclamation against the Jesuits Wilsons Hist f. 51 52. strictly commanding all Jesuits and Priests out of the Kingdom and all Recusants to their own Houses not to come within ten Miles of the Court and secures all the rest of his Subjects to him by an universal taking of the Oath of Allegiance which the Parliament both Lords and Commons then sitting began and the rest of the People followed (a) Wilsons Hist f. 25. Soon after this Parliament was Dissolved and Prince Henry was created Prince of Wales after which the Kings first Treaty for disposal of any of his Children was by his Leiger Ambassador in Spain with that King for the Lady Elizabeth (b) Wilsons Hist f. 91. Rushw Col. 1 part f. 1. and
afterwards another Treaty was set on foot for Prince Henry with a Daughter of Spain What Religion the Spaniard was of is well known and what effect the Crown of England Matching into Popish Families abroad hath had is more to be lamented then remembred any other ways then to avoid the like mischiefs for the future In the 12 th Year of his Reign there were a generation about the Court Camb. f. 77. A Parliament called and dissolved because they complained of grievances and particularly of the increase of Papists that undertook for the calling such a Parliament as the King would have these were Men that presumed they had friends in every County and Borough who by their power among the People could make Election of such Men for Knights and Burgesses as should comply solely with the Kings desire and Somerset was the head and chief of these undertakers but these projects against the Fundamentals of the English Government proved an abortive for the Parliament meeting such Faces appeared there as was no ways pleasing to the Court who instead of contributing to the Kings wants lay open his wasts especially upon the Scots with whom they desire a share of Favour The Bread by our Saviour's Rule properly belongs to the Children of the Kingdom and they beseech his Majesty to stop the Current of future access of that Nation to make residence here having enough to eat up their own Crums they enquire into the Causes of the unexpected increase of Popish Recusants since the Gunpowder Plot the detestation whereof they thought should have utterly extinguished them and they attribute it to the admission of Popish Nobility into his Councels the silencing of many watchful and dilligent Ministers the divers Treaties his Majesty had entertained not only for the Marriage of Prince Henry but for Prince Charles with the Daughters of Popish Princes which disheartned the Protestant and encouraged the Papist they laid open with these many other miscarriages in Government the King desirous to conceal these Matters dissolves the Parliament and Committed to the Tower and other Prisons such as were most active for the common good and who can deny but that this must needs give encouragement to the Papists In the 15 th Year of his Reign he put out a Book to Tollerate Sports on the Lords Days this Book came out with a Command injoyning all Ministers to read it to their Parishoners and to approve of it A Book of Sports obtruded and those that did not were brought before the High Commission Imprisoned and Suspended This was a contrivance of the Papists and their adherents to trap the most Conscientious Men of the Church of England who were in all other matters exactly conformable and to lay them aside and good reason the Papists had for this because no Nation will ever receive their innovations in Matters of Religion where there is a Sound Orthodox Learned and Pious Clergy Wilsons Hist. f. 105. Wilson says that some of the Ministers that were Suspended said that they would Preach the Gospel in a Fools Coat rather then be silent for a Surplis and the Conjuring of them with the Cross in Baptism and the Circle of the Ring in Marriage could not make a well composed Reason and a sound Conscience then start at it But when so frighful an Aparition as the Dancing Book appeared some of the Ministers left all for fear others by force they were so terrified by it This I have set down in Willsons own words because it appears by this that the Men that were suspended were proceeded against not for Puritanism or Nonconformity to the discipline of the Church of England but for non-complying with things obtruded on them by right down Papists or those who whether they saw it or no I cannot tell were carrying on the Popish designs The King having all along had a design of Matching his Son Rushw Col. 1. part f. 11. either to Spain or France it is no wonder that the Priests and Jesuits swarm here and much less a wonder that they endeavour to promote their own Religion for if they will do it when the Edge of Justice is sharpned against them much more when he that should make use of the Sword is so merciful that let them do what they will he will not or so fearful he dares not strike As Prophanness by reason of the Book of Sports crept in by their means so did Idolotry and Superstition for their was now more enmity against Ministers of the Gospel then Popish Priests and no wonder for let a Peoples Morals be once throughly debauched and 't will not be very difficult to make them outwardly of what Religion you will. The Jesuits Jugling with the Boy of Bilson Wilsons Hist. f. 107. The Popish Priests and Jesuits having now more liberty then they had had for above fifty Years resolve to make much of their time and because they cannot much boast of real holiness pretended Miracles must recommend them to the People for this purpose the Boy of Bilson was set up by them as he himself afterwards confest to Act the part of one possest with a Divel and they were to come and disposes him that so it might appear how much Gods Power was exprest in their weakness and to difference the truth and holiness betwixt the Catholic Religion and the Heresie profest among Protestants such Godly cheats are they always making use of to deceive the Hearts of the simple This Boy Bishop Morton discovered to be an imposture and when he had made the discovery and the Boy found he was detected he confest the whole Matter to be thus That he was inticed to one Mr. Giffords House in Stafford-shire where there were four Romish Priests who gave him Mony and many fair words promising him great matters if he would be conformable to their instructions In three days time they had taught him to practice his tricks so well that they ventured him home to his Fathers to exercise them publickly He came home in a very distracted manner to his Parents amazement and in a short time the thing was noised and a great deal of Company coming to see him his Parents got Money by it which was an incouragement to him to persist so that when the Priests came to disposes him he would not be disposest but went on and as they had instructed him accused a poor Old Woman of Witchcraft for which she was Tryed and Condemned and had been Executed had it not been for Bishop Morton detecting this imposture The whole story you may read at large in Wilson from f. 106. to 111. Wilsons Hist. f. 130. Henry Earl of Northumberland who was Sentenced in the Star-Chamber Thirty Thousand Pounds and Imprisoned in the Tower for harbouring in his House the aforenamed Thomas Piercy his Kinsman who was one of the Plotters of the Gunpowder-Treason was in the Seaventeenth Year of this Kings Reign set at liberty The
Spaniards gives the overture of the Match Rushw Col. part 1. f. 4. The King having had thoughts of a Match for Prince Charles with France and the Duke of Savoy having been before him and prevailed for his Son the Prince of Piedmount The Spaniard giving the overture of a Match King James embraceth it and Articles of Religion between the King of England and Spain were agreed on which were these c. Articles of Religion agreed upon between the Kings of England and Spain That the Popes Dispensation be first obtained by meer Act of the King of Spain That the Children of this Marriage be not constrained in Matters of Religion nor their Title prejudiced in case they prove Catholics That the Infanta's Family being Strangers may be Catholics and shall have a decent place appointed for all Divine Service according to the use of the Church of Rome and the Ecclesiasticks and Religious Persons may wear their own proper Habits That the Marriage shall be Celebrated in Spain by a Procurator according to the instructions of the Councel of Trent and after the Infanta's Arival in England such a Solemnation shall be used as may make the Marriage valid according to the Laws of this Kingdom That she shall have a competent number of Chaplains and a Confesser being Strangers one whereof shall have Power to Govern the Family in Religious Matters But none of the People of England but were averse to this Match except the Papists whose interest indeed it was to carry it on After the Bohemians had chosen the Count Palatine King of Bohemia he craved advice of his Father in Law King James touching the acceptation of that Royal dignity But before he could receive his advice he was prevailed upon to accept it Count Palatine chose King of Bohemia Wilsons Hist f. 132. Rushw Col. 1. part f. 12. because the emergency of the Cause would admit of no delay and afterwards sent to King James to excuse it When this important business of the Count Palatines accepting the Crown of Bohemia was related in the Kings Councel to evince of what advantage it was to the Protestant Cause I shall here insert Arch-Bishop Abbots Letter to Sir Robert Nauton the Kings Secretary the Arch-Bishops infirmities not permitting him at that time to attend the Councel That God hath set up this Prince his Majesties Son in Law Arch-Bishop Abbot's Letter touching the Count Palatines accepting the Crown of Bohemia as a mark of Honour throughout all Christendom to propagate the Gospel to help the oppressed that for his own part he dares not but to give advice to follow where God Leads apprehending the Work of God in this and that of Hungary that by Peece and Peece the Kings of the Earth that gave their Power to the Beasts shall leave the Whore and make her desolate that he was satisfied in Conscience the Bohemians had just cause to reject that Bloody Man who had taken a course to make that Kingdom not Elective in taking it by the donation of another the slighting of the Viscount Doncaster in his embassage gave cause of just displeasure and indignation therefore let not a Noble Son be forsaken for their sakes who regard nothing but their own ends our striking in will comfort the Bohemians Honour the Palsgrave strengthen the Princes of the Vnion draw on the United Provinces stir up the King of Denmark and the Palatines two Vncles the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Bovillon together with Termoville a rich Prince in France to cast in their shares The Parliament is the Old and honourable way for raising of Money and all that may be spared is to be returned this way and perhaps God provided the Jewels that were laid up in the Tower by the Mother for the preservation of the Daughter who like a Noble Princess hath professed that she will not leave her self one Jewel rather then not maintain so Religious and Righteous a Cause certainly if countenance be given to this Action many brave Spirits will offer themselves therefore let all our Spirits be gathered up to animate this business that the World may take notice that we are awake when God calls By this Letter it plainly appears that it was the Arch-Bishops Opinion that it tended much to the promoting the Reformation that the Count Palatine should accept the Crown of Bohemia and the Crown of England should stand by him in it and whoever reads the most impartial writers of those times will find that the Spanish Match which was then a foot and Popish Councels at home was the true Cause of the loss of the Palatinate and the ruine of that Protestant Prince and how could things be expected otherwise so long as Gondamor had so far the ascendant of the King that when the Earl of Essex solicited the King after the War was begun to send more Forces Gondamor obstructed it whatever he desired was done and few or none were well respected at Court but Spanish * Wilsons 144. Rushw 1. part f. 18. vide the private instructions to the Spanish Ambassador sent into England Pentioners under whom the Papists flourished After the Palatinate was lost the King outwardly seemed willing to assist towards the Recovery of it and therefore proposes it first to the Privy Councel and afterwards called a Parliament which was to meet the thirteenth of January in the 18 th Year of his Reign proposing to himself that the People for regaining the Palatinate would open their Purses which he might make use of and that a good agreement Between him and his People would induce his Brother of Spain to be more Active and so he should have supply from the one and dispatch from the other i. e. Mony and the Spanish Match were the ends he aimed at let the Palatinate Sink or Swim 't was no matter This the Jesuits and Seminary Priests knew well enough and therefore they Wilsons Hist. f. 151. rangeing up and down like Spirits let loose did not now as formerly creep into Corners using close and cunning Artifices but practised them openly having admission to our Councellors of State. And when Secretaries and such as manage the intimate Councels of Kings are Jesuits and Clients to the Pope there can be no tendency of affection to a contrary Religion or Policy Yet these were the Men that carried all before them at Court And the Protestant interest must needs flourish under such Ministers of State especially if it be considered that England was not only Man'd with Jesuits all Power now failing to oppose them but the Women also began to practice the Trade Women Jesuitrices calling themselves Jesuitrices This Order was first set on foot in Flanders by Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Twitty two English Gentlewomen who Cloathed themselves in Ignatian Habit and were Countenanced and Supported by Father Gerrard Rector of the English Colledge at Leige with Father Flack and Father More Their design was to Preach the Popish
brought their Designs about and the Palatinate was irretrievably lost they broke off the Match and left the King and Prince in the Lurch Right Popish Jugling After this Treaty was dissolved the King thinks of a Match with France The French Match Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 114. A Parliament called and the Lord Kensington was sent Ambassadot into France to feel the Pulse of that Court touching it and gives an Account that it would be accepted soon after which a Parliament was called to meet the twelfth of February in the 21 st year of this King 1623. and now the King is of the Mind to take the Parliaments Advice about his Sons Match as he told them and is grieved for the Increase of Popery if after all the foregoing Passages it be to be believed and promises a great deal and porforms never a whit And here I cannot omit what Wilson saith speaking of this Parliaments Petition against Papists and the Kings Answer both which he hath printed at large f. 272.273 274 275. to which I refer the Reader If the King saith he had seriously and really considered the very last Clause of this Petition wherein the Glory of God and the Safety of his Kingdoms so much consisted as the Parliament wisely express and foresee and which the King saith is the best Advice in the World and which he promised so faithfully to observe in the next Treaty of Marriage for his Son it might perhaps have kept the Crown upon the head of his Posterity But when Princes break with the People A good Caution for all Christian Princes and States in those Promises that concern the Honour of God God will let their People break with them to their Ruine and Dishonour And this Maxim holds in all Powers whether Kingdoms or Common-wealths as they are established by Justice so the Justice of Religion which tends most to the Glory of God is principally to be observed The Parliament followed the Chase close The Parliament displaceth Papists and bolted out divers of the Nobility and Gentry of Eminency popishly affected that had earthed themselves in Places of high Trust and Power in the Kingdom as if they meant to undermine the Nation Their Names Wilson saith were these Francis Earl of Rutland the Duke of Buckinghams Wives Father Sir Thomas Compton Their Names VVilson's Hist f. 276. that was married to the Dukes Mother and the Countess her self who was the Cynosure they all steered by the Earl of Castle-haven the Lord Herbert after Earl of Worcester the Lord Viscount Colchester after Earl of Rivers the Lord Peter the Lord Morley the Lord Windsor the Lord Eure the Lord Wotton the Lord Teinham the Lord Scroop who was Lord President of the North and which they omitted the Earl of Northampton Lord President of Wales who married his Children to Papists and permitted them to be bred up in Popery Sir William Courtney Sir Thomas Brudnell Sir Thomas Somerset Sir Gilbert Ireland Sir Francis Stonners Sir Anthony Brown Sir Francis Howard Sir William Powel Sir Francis Lacon Sir Lewis Lewkner Sir William Awbury Sir John Gage Sir John Shelly Sir Henry Carvell Sir Thomas Wiseman Sir Thomas Geâ—rard Sir John Filpot Sir Thomas Russel Sir Henry Beddingfield Sir William Wrey Sir John Counwey Sir Charles Jones Sir Ralph Conyers Sir Thomas Lamplough Sir Thomas Savage Sir William Mosely Sir Hugh Beston Sir Thomas Riddall Sir Marmaduke Nivell Sir John Townesend Sir William Norris Sir Philip Knevet Sir John Tasborough Sir William Selbie Sir Richard Titehborn Sir John Hall Sir George Perkins Sir Thomas Penrodduck Sir Nicholas Saunders Knights besides several Esquires popishly addicted either in their own Persons or by means of their Wives too tedious to be expressed here and these were dispersed and seated in every County who were not only in Office and Commission but had Countenance from Court by which they grew up and flourished so that their Exuberancy hindred the Growth of any Goodness or Piety their Malice pleased to drop upon Soon after which the Parliament was adjourned after they had made thirty five publick Acts and seventy three private ones but nothing was done with relation to the Papists Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 154 155. VVilson f. 277. saith the King desired this Match above all Earthly Blessings The King admiring the Alliance of mighty Kings though of a contrary Religion desired the Match with France unmeasurably notwithstanding his Promise to the Parliament which the French perceived and though they were very forward before yet now abated of that Forwardness And whereas they were at first very modest in their Demands in favour of the Papists yet now inlarged those Demands and strained the King to the Concession of such Immunities as he had promised the Parliament he would never grant In August 1624. this Match was concluded and in November the Articles were sworn unto by King James Prince Charles and the French King the Articles concerning Religion were not much short of those for the Spanish Match Papists encouraged by the Treaty with France Rushw Coll. 1 pt f. 154. The Papists formerly daunted by the Breach of the Spanish Match were now again revived by the Marriage Treaty with France And at this time upon the Death of William titular Bishop of Calcedon most of the English Secular Priests did petition the Pope that another Bishop might be sent over into England there to ordain Priests give Confirmation and exercise Episcopal Jurisdiction Among others Matthew Killison and Richard Smith were presented And though the Regulars were opposite to the Seculars in this Matter yet those of the Order of St. Benedict joyned with the Seculars and Rudesin Barlo the President of the English Benedictines of Doway wrote a Letter in their Behalf at the Congregation at Rome named of the Propagation of the Faith. Dated the 12 th of December 1624. In which Letter was this Passage That there were above sixty Benedictine Monks in England and that it is not to be doubted said he for that it is already seen the good Success under the first Bishop that another Bishop being constituted there would be more joyful Fruits within two Years in the English Mission than hitherto hath been for sixty years now lapsed But not long after the Episcopal party of the Romish Church prevailing Pope Vrban the VIII created Richard Smith Bishop of Calcedon and sent him into England with Episcopal Authority over the Priests within the English Dominions The Close of this Kings Reign Rushw Coll. f. 155. And now I am come to the Close of this Kings Reign for after he had notwithstanding all his connivance at the Papists out of either Ambition or Cowardise recommended the Protection of the Church of England to the then Prince of Wales Charles the First advised him to love his Wife but not her Religion and exhorted him to take special care of his Grand-Children the Children of the Elector Palatine by his Daughter
Reputation with them and to become a perfect Favourite he sets himself all he could to Persecute the Catholick Religion and to oppose the French. To shew his Zeal against the first he revived some old dormant Orders for prohibiting Roman Catholicks to appear before the King and put them in Execution at his first coming into his Office of Lord Chamberlain And to make sure work with the Second as he thought prevailed with the King to give him and the Earl of Ossery who married two Sisters of Myne Heere Odyke's leave to go over into Holland with the said Heere to make a Visit as they pretended to their Relations But indeed and in truth to propose the Lady Mary eldest Daughter of his Royal H. as a Match for the Prince of Orange not only without the Consent but against the good liking of his R. H. Insomuch that the Lord Arlington's Creatures were forced to excuse him with a Distinction that the said Lady was not to be looked upon as the Dukes Daughter but as the Kings and a Child of the State was and so the Dukes Consent not much to be considered in the disposal of her but only the interest of State. By this he intended to render himself the Darling of Parliament and Protestants who look'd upon themselves as secured in their Religion by such an Alliance and design'd further to draw us into a close Conjunction with Holland and the Enemies of France The Lord Arlington set forth upon this Errand the 10 th of November 1674 and returned not till the 6 th of January following During his absence the Lord Treasurer Lord Keeper and the Duke of Lauderdale who were the only Ministers of any considerable Credit with the King and who all pretended to be entirely united to the Duke declaimed loudly and with great violence against the said Lord and his Actions in Holland And did hope in his absence to have totally supplanted him and to have routed him out of the Kings favour And after that thought they might easily enough have dealt with the Parliament But none of them had Courage enough to speak against the Parliament till they could get rid of him For fear they should not succeed and that the Parliament would Sit in spight of them and come to hear that they had used their endeavours against it Which would have been so unpardonable a Crime with our Omnipotent Parliament that no Power could have been able to have saved them from Punishment But they finding at his Return that they could not prevail against him by such Means and Arts as they had then tryed resolved upon new Councels Which were to out-run him in his own Course Which accordingly they undertook and became as fierce Apostles and as Zealous for Protestant Religion and against Popery as ever my Lord Arlington had been before them and in pursuance thereof persuaded the King to issue out those severe Orders and Proclamations against Catholicks which came out in February last By which they did as much as in them lay to extirpate all Catholicks and Catholick Religion out of the Kingdom Which Councels were in my poor Opinion so detestable being levelled as they must needs be so directly against the Duke by People which he had advanced and who had professed so much Duty and Service to him that we were put upon new thoughts how to save his R. H. now from the deceits and snares of those Men upon whom we formerly depended We saw well enough that their Design was to make themselves as grateful as they could to the Parliament if it must Sit they thinking nothing so acceptable to them as the Persecution of Popery And yet they were so obnoxious to the Parliaments displeasure in General that they would have been glad of any Expedient to have kept it off Though they durst not engage against it openly themselves but thought this Device of theirs might serve for their purposes hoping the Duke would be so alarm'd at their Proceedings and by his being left by every Body that he would be much more afraid of the Parliament than ever and would use his utmost power to prevent its Sitting Which they doubted not but he would endeavour And they were ready enough to work underhand too for him for their own sakes not his in order thereunto but durst not appear openly And to encourage the Duke the more to endeavour the Dissolution of the Parliament their Creatures used to say up and down That this Rigour against the Catholicks was in favour of the Duke and to make a Dissolution of the Parliament more easie which they knew he coveted by obviating one great Objection which was commonly made against it which was That if the Parliament should be Dissolved it would be said That it was done in favour of Popery Which Clamour they had prevented before hand by the Severity they had used against it Assoon as we saw these Tricks put upon us we plainly saw what Men we had to deal withal and what we had to trust to if we were wholly at their mercy But yet durst not seem so dissatisfyed as really we were but rather magnified the Contrivance as a Device of great Cunning and Skill All this we did purely to hold them in a belief that we would endeavour to dissolve the Parliament and that they might rely upon his R. H. for that which we knew they long'd for and were afraid they might do some other way if they discovered that we were resolved we would not At length when he saw the Sessions secured we declared that we were for the Parliaments meeting as indeed we were from the moment we saw our selves handled by all the Kings Ministers at such a Rate that we had reason to believe they would Sacrifice France Religion and his R. H. too to their own Interest if occasion served And that they were led to believe that that was the only way they had to save themselves at that time For we saw no Expedient fit to stop them in their Carreer of Persecution and those other destructive Councels but the Parliament Which had set it self a long time to dislike every thing the Ministers had done and had appeared violently against Popery whilst the Court seem'd to favour it And therefore we were Confident that the Ministers having turned their Faces the Parliament would do so too and still be against them And be as little for Persecution then as they had been for Popery before This I undertook to mannage for the Duke and the King of France's interest And assured Monsieur Rouvigny which I am sure he will testifie if occasion serves that that Sessions should do neither of them any hurt For that I was sure I had Power enough to prevent mischief though I durst not engage for any good they would do Because I had but very few Assistances to carry on the Work and wanted those Helps which others had of making Friends The Dutch and Spaniard spared no Pains or
expence of Money to animate as many as they could against France Our Lord Treasurer Lord Keeper all the Bishops and such as called themselves Old Cavaliers who were all then as one Man were not less industrious against Popery and had the Purse at their Girdle too Which is an excellent Instrument to gain Friends with and all united against the Duke as Patron both of France and Catholick Religion To deal with all this Force we had no Money but what came from a few private hands And those so mean ones too that I dare venture to say that I spent more my particular self out of my own Fortune and upon my single Credit then all the whole Body of Catholicks in England besides Which was so inconsiderable in Comparison of what our Adversaries commanded and we verily believe did bestow in making their Party that it is not worth mentioning Yet notwithstanding all this we saw that by the help of the Non-conformists as Presbyterians Independants and other Sects who were as much afraid of Persecution as our selves and of the Enemies of the Ministers and particularly of the Treasurer who by that time had supplanted the Earl of Arlington and was grown sole Manager of all Affairs himself we sheuld be very able to prevent what they design'd against us and so render the Sessions ineffectual to their Ends though we might not be able to Compass our own Which were to make some brisk step in favour of his R. H. to shew the King that his Majesties Affairs in Parliament were not obstructed by reason of any Aversion they had to his R. H. Person or Apprehensions they had of him or his Religion But from Faction and Ambition in some and from a real Dissatisfaction in others that we have not had such Fruits and good Effects of of those great Sums of Money which have been formerly given as was expected If we could then have made but one such step the King would certainly have restored his R. H. to all his Commissions Upon which he would have been much greater than ever yet he was in his whole Life or could probably ever have been by any other Course in the World than what he had taken of becoming Catholick c. And we were so very near gaining this Point that I did humbly beg his R. H to give me leave to put the Parliament upon making an Address to the King that His Majesty would be pleased to put the Fleet into the hands of his R H. as the only Person likely to give a good Account of so important a Charge as that was to the Kingdom and shewed his R. H. such Reasons to perswade him that we could carry it that he agreed with me in it that he believ'd we could Yet others telling him how great a damage it would be to him if he should miss in such an undertaking which for my part I could not then see nor do I yet he was prevail'd upon not to venture though he was perswaded he could carry it I did Communicate this Design of mine to Monsieur Rouvigny who agreed with me that it would be the greatest advantage imaginable to his Master to have the Dukes Power and Credit so far advanced as this would certainly do if we could Compass it I shew'd him all the Difficulty we were like to meet with and what Helps we should have But that we should want one very material one Money to carry on the Work as we ought And therefore I do Confess I did shamefully beg his Masters help and would willingly have been in everlasting Disgrace with all the World if I had not with that Assistance of twenty thousand Pounds sterling which perhaps is not the tenth part of what was spent on the other side made it evident to the Duke that he could not have missed it Monsieur Rouvigny used to tell me that if he could be sure of succeeding in that Design his Master would give a very much larger Sum But that he was not in a Condition to throw away Money upon uncertainties I answered That nothing of that Nature could be so infallibly sure as not to be subject to some Possibilities of failing but that I durst venture to undertake to make it evident that there was as great an assurance of succeeding in it as any Husbandman can have of a Crop in Harvest who sowes his Gound in its due Season and yet it would be counted a very imprudent piece of wariness in any body to scruple the ventring so much seed in its proper time because it is possible it may be totally lost and no benefit of it found in Harvest He that minds the Winds and the Rains at that rate shall neither Sow nor Reap I take our Case to be much the same as it was the last Sessions If we can advance the Dukes Interest one step forward we shall put him out of the step of Chance for ever For he makes such a Figure already that cautious Men do not care to Act against him not always without him because they do not see that he is much out-power'd by his Enemies Yet is he not at such a pitch as to be quite out of danger or free from Opposition But if he could gain any considerable new addition of Power all would come over to him as to the only stedy Centre of our Government and no body would contend with him further Then would Catholics be at rest and his most Christian Majesty's Interest secured with us in England beyond all Apprehensions whatsoever In Order to this we have two great designs to attempt this next Sessions First that which we were about before viz. To put the Parliament upon making it their humble request to the King that the Fleet may be put into his R. H ' s. care Secondly to get an Act for general Liberty of Conscience If we carry these two or either of them we shall in effect do what we list afterwards And truly we think we do not undertake these great points very unreasonably but that we have good Cards for our Game Not but that we expect great opposition and have great reason to beg all the Assistance we can possibly get and therefore if his most Christian Majesty would stand by us a little in this Conjuncture and help us with such a Sum as 20000 l. Sterling which is no very great Matter to Venture upon such an undertaking as this I would be content to be Sacrificed to the utmost Malice of my Enemies if I did not succeed I have proposed this several times to Monsieur Rouvigny who seemed always of my Opinion and has often told me that he has writ into France upon this Subject and has desired me to do the like But I know not whether he will be as Zealous in that point as a Catholic would be because our prevailing in these things would give the greatest blow to the Protestant Religion here that ever it received since its Birth