Petition into the House of Lords wherein he set forth that he was then attending their Lordships according to Order and expected to have met the Council assign'd him by their Lordships but that he had receiv'd a Message from every one of them that they durst not appear to argue for him by reason of a Vote which the house pass'd yesterday Who thereupon order'd that the Petition should be communicated to the House at the next Conference to know of them whether any such Vote were by them made or no. But here arose a new debate concerning the Bishops which much entangled the interest of the Earl of Danby and the other five Lords in the Tower in reference to their Tryals for the Commons would not prosecute the latter before the first nor the first before such and such things were concluded So that it will be necessary to relate the proceedings of both Houses against the Lords which at length happen'd to be the occasion that neither the one nor the other came to their Tryals as was expected The House having pass'd five resolves for the Impeaching Henry Lord Arundell of Warder William Earl of Pomis John Lord Bellasis William Viscount Stafford and William Lord Peter of Treason and several other Misdemeanors the same day five several Impeachments were accordingly carried up to the Lords but they did not desire they should be sequester'd from Parliament and committed to custody because they were at the same time under restraint in the Tower The Impeachments were first in general That for many years last past there had been contriv'd carried on a trayterous execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England other places to alter change and subvert the ancient Government Laws of this Kingdom Nation to suppress the true religion therein establish'd to extirpate destroy the professors thereof which said Plot and Conspiracie was Contrived and carried on in divers places and by several ways and means and by a great number of Persons of several Qualities and Degrees who acted therein and intended to execute and accomplish the aforesaid wicked and traiterous designs and purposes That the said five Lords together with Philip Howard commonly called Cardinal of Norfolk and divers others Jesuits Priests and Friers and other Persons as false Traitors to his Majesty and this Kingdom within the time aforesaid had traiterously consulted contriv'd and acted to and for the accomplishing of the said wicked pernicious and traiterous Designs and for that end did most wickedly and traiterously agree conspire and resolve to imprison depose and murther his sacred Majesty to deprive him of his Royal State Crown and Dignity and by malicious and unadvised Speaking Writing and otherwise declared such their purposes and intentions To subject this Kingdom and Nation to the Pope and his Tyrannical Government To seize and share among themselves the Estates of his Majesties Protestant Subjects To erect and restore Abbeys Monasteries and other Convents and Societies which have been long since by the Laws of this Kingdom supprest for their Superstition and Idolatry to deliver up and restore to them the Lands and possessions now invested in his Majesty and his Subjects by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm That the said Conspirators their Accomplices and Confederates had and held several Meetings Assemblies and Consultations wherein it was contriv'd and design'd among them what means should be used and what Persons and Instruments imployed to murder his Majesty and did then and there resolve to effect it by Poysoning Shooting Stobbing or some such like ways and means offer'd rewards and promises of advantage to several Persons to execute the same and hir'd and employed several wicked Persons to Windsor and other places where his Majesty did reside to destroy and murther his Majesty which said Persons accepted such rewards and undertook the perpetrating thereof and did actually go to the said places for that end and purpose That the said Conspirators had procur'd accepted and deliver'd out several Instruments Commissions and Powers made and granted by or under the Pope or other unlawful and usurping Authority to raise Mony Men and Arms and other things necessary for their wicked and traiterous Designs namely to the said Henry Lord Arundel of Warder to be Lord High Chancellor of England to the said William Lord Powis to be Lord Treasurer of England to the Lord Bellasis to be General to the Lord Petre to be Lieutenant General to the Lord Stafford to be Paymaster of the Army That in order to encourage themselves in prosecuting their said wicked Plots Conspiracies and Treasons and to hide and hinder the discovery of the same and to secure themselves from Justice and Punishment the Conspirators and Confederates aforesaid did cause their Priests to administer an Oath of Secrecy together with the Sacrament and upon Confessions to give them Absolutions upon condition that they did conceal the Conspiracy That the better to compass their traiterous Designs they had consulted to raise and had procur'd and rais'd Men Money Horse Arms and Ammunitions and had made applications to and treated and corresponded with the Pope his Cardinals Nuncio's and Agents and with other forreign Ministers and Persons to raise tumults within the Kingdom and invade the same with forraign Forces to surprize seize and destroy his Majesties Navy Forts Magazines and Places of Strength to the ruine and destruction of the Nation That when Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey a Justice of Peace had according to the duty of his Oath and Office taken several Examinations and Informations concerning the said Conspiracy and Plot the said Conspirators or some of them by the advice councel and instigation of the rest did incite and procure divers persons to lye in wait and pursue the said Sir Edmund-Bury several days with intent to Murder him which at last was prepetrated and effected by them That after the said Murther and before the body was found or the Murther known to any but the Accomplices the said Persons falsly gave out that he was a-live and privately Married and after the Body was found dispersed a false and malicious report that he had Murthered himself Which said Murther was committed with a design to stifle and suppress the Evidence he had taken and had knowledge of and to discourage and deter Magistrates and others from acting in the farther discovery of the said Plot and Conspiracy That of their farther malice they had wickedly continued by many false suggestions to lay the guilt and imputation of the aforesaid Horrid and Detestable Crimes upon the Protestants that so they might escape the punishments they had justly merited and expose the Protestants to great scandal and subject them to Persecution and Oppression in all Kingdoms and Countries where the Roman Religion is receiv'd and professed All which Treasons Crimes and Offences were contriv'd committed perpetrated acted and done by the said Lords and every of them and others the Conspirators against our Soveraign
TITUS OATES D. D. Cap t. WILLIAM BEDLOE M r Stephen Dugdale M r Miles Prance A COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF THE MOST Remarkable Passages OF THE LAST FOURTEEN YEARS With an Account of the PLOT As it was carried on both before and after the FIRE OF LONDON to this present Time Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum LONDON Printed by A. Godbid and J. Playford and are sold by S. Neale at the Three Pidgeons in Bedford-Street over against the New-Exchange 1680. TO THE READER THese ensuing Sheets are chiefly the Relation of the wonderful passages of the 14 last Years Then the 2 last of which there are few that deserve to be more Celebrated in Historie next to those that were so renowned for the Active part of the KINGS Restoration though it may be questioned to which Historie will give the precedence whether to those of His Restoration or those of His preservation In reference to which several of the occurrences have almost equall'd Miracles and therefore merit to be recorded and to be read with consideration as the evincing Proofs of an over-ruling Providence The Relation begins at the great Conflagration of the CITY as being the first remarkable Effect of the Treason then hatching For to repeat the stories of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first would have bin only to have tir'd the Reader with what is already sufficiently made known both in English and Latin to all the Protestants in the World and only serves to swell a Volume to the unprofitable and needless expence of the Buyer If any thing has bin left out it has bin for fear of invading the properties of other Men whose Narratives though at that time seasonable yet can never hope to be inserted in a story where their Epitomes are only necessary Omissions may be but t is thought by those that have viewed these sheets there are very few or none of Moment Whatever they be the Reader t is hop'd will pardon them considering the multiplicitie of affairs and the present juncture of time ADVERTISEMENT THE Cabal of Several Notorious Priests and Jesuits Discovered as William Ireland Thomas White alias Whitebread Provincial of the Jesuits in England William Harcourt pretended Rector of London John Fenwick Procurator for the Jesuits in England John Gaven alias Gawen and Anthony Turner c. shewing their Endeavours to Subvert the Government and Protestant Religion viz. Their Treasonable Practices in England and France Articles of their Creed Their stirring people to Rebellion frequenting Quakers Meetings in all sorts of Apparel Their Usurpations Murthering of Infants and Incontinency in their own Classis Their unclean acts in their Visits Churches Houses Travels and Nunneries Coyning false money Bloody Revenges and strange Ingratitudes The number of their Orders with the divisions and strifes now in that Society By a Lover of his King and Countrey who formerly was an Eye-witness of these things THE high zeal of those that are of the Roman Catholic profession proceeds either from Policy or Devotion The Politic zeal is counterfeited by the Priests and Rulers of the Church but the zeal of Devotion is imposed by them upon the People The one is Active the other Passive and though the Passive are sometimes seduced by the Active to Action yet doth that Action seem to be a passion in regard they suffer themselves to be overpersuaded to do it Of these two sorts of zeal doth the Roman Catholic Religion consist Which because they are both made use of for the propagation of their pretended Faith or rather for the enlargement of their Tyrannical Dominion and the satisfaction of their insatiate Avarice they are therefore founded upon all the Maxims of Cruelty and Barbarism imaginable Nay their very mercies are inhumanities while their Absolutions and Dispensations do but encourage the perpetration of all manner of Impiety and by that means maintain a perpetual War against all mankind and destroy the necessary Converse of humane Society Thus while they seek to subjugate the World to themselves where they find themselves too weak they fall to contrivance Hence those Effusions of Blood and dismal Massacres licensed by the Pope and encouraged and applauded in their public harangues by the Jesuites and Priests his Godly Emissaries and holy Instruments Hence those Treasons against Queen Elizabeth those Horrid Machinations against King James hence this Villanous Plot that has been so long hatching against the Person of the best of Kings of which we are now to make a short but a Methodical History to remain as a public Record fil'd to Perpetuity of their inhuman Butcheries and foul Contrivances so bloodily and so prophanely intended The Design was laid home and smartly the Conspirators aimed at no small things no less than the Murther of a Great Monarch the subversion of his Laws and Government and the total Perdition of three Kingdoms under his Soveraign care The Chief Actors upon this bloody Stage were the whole Body of the Roman Catholic Clergy even from the Triple Crown to the poor self-denying Dominican and Innocence pretending Benedictine For his Holiness in a General Council for the propagation of the Faith held in December 1677. had adjudg'd the King of Great Britain to be certainly a Heretic and for that very reason had vainly deposed him and as impudently confiscated his Dominions as being St. Peter's Patrimony forfeited to him for the Heresie of the King and People To which purpose he also appointed Cardinal Howard to take possession of England as his Legate in his Name He had moreover in his fond imagination displaced all the Archbishops Bishops c. from their Ecclesiastical Employments and all others from their Secular Dignities and constituted his own Minions in their places What Jesuite or Priest upon so free and authentic Donation as the Pope thus made them of his new Forfeitures but would have ventur'd a Caper at Tyburn for an Archbishopric of York or a Bishopric of Winchester or the fat Glebes belonging to many a reassumed Abbey and Monastery Nor can we doubt but that they had been many Years brooding over such a Magnificent design which they had so nearly hatch'd and matur'd to perfection Especially considering how long ago it was that we felt the dreadful Effects of their Treason before the happy discovery of their impious Conjurations It was in the Year 1666. upon the 2d of September that the greatest fire brake forth hardly to be parallell'd in Story which sacrific'd to the fury and Ambition of the Jesuites and Popish Priests the fairest and largest part of one of the Richest and most populous Cities in the World As to this fatal and destructive Fire which destroy'd 373 Acres within and 63 Acres and three Roods without the Walls of the City it appears to have been under Consultation long before the fact was put in Execution For when they had once after several Debates and Communications of Letters unanimously resolv'd That it was absolutely necessary to ruin the
careful of himself Thus much for the Preliminaries which give a fair insight into the Age and Series of this detestable Contrivance It will now be requisite to embody the Design and to display the whole Mystery that thereby the Crimes of every Malefactor for I cannot in Conscience call them Martyrs that has hitherto been justly Executed may more clearly appear The grand and general Design then of the Pope the Pious and Zealous Society of Jesuits and their Accomplices and Associates in this as disingenious and raskally as unchristian Conspiracy was to have reduc'd the flourishing Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland to the Romish Religion and under the Papal Jurisdiction To accomplish this the Pope had Entitl'd himself by way of Confiscation and Forfeiture to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland He had sent the Bishop of Casal in Italy into Ireland to make out his Title to that Kingdom and to take Possession in his behalf and had constituted Cardinal Howard his True and Lawful Attorney for the same intent and purpose in England But these fair Vineyards could not be enjoy'd so long as the right owner liv'd and had pow'r to defend his own Inheritance Therefore was the King himself by his Holiness impiously condemn'd and by the Consults of the Jesuits and Priests at London applauded and encourag'd by the Birds of the same Feather abroad dispos'd and destin'd to a lewd Assassination And to make good the Attempt the Papal Force in both Nations was to be Armed and that under Officers and Commanders commissionated by St. Peter's Authority given to the General of the Jesuits at Rome and by him convey'd to the Provincial of the same Order in England In this somewhat mannerly that the King was not to fall alone but to be attended by some of his nearest Relations and choicest Peers of which number was his own Brother if he did not fully answer their Expectations the Prince of Orange the Duke of Ormond and the Earl of Shaftsbury Into Scotland twelve Scotch Jesuits were sent by Order from the General of the Society and had a Thousand Pound given them by Le Cheese the French King's Confessor to keep up the Commotions in Scotland and had Instructions given them to carry themselves like Nonconformists among the Presbyterians the better to drive on their Design The Conquest and Subduing of Ireland was contriv'd and design'd by a general Rebellion and Massacre of the Protestants in that Kingdom for which the Actors had a late Precedent to go by For the carrying on whereof the Pope had been so liberal as to disburse Eight Hundred Thousand Crowns out of his own Treasury And for fear their own Power might not be sufficient there was a French Plot cunningly and a-la-modely interwoven with their English Conspiracies to bring in Foreign Assistance and Correspondencies held for that purpose between them and the King of France's Confessor at Paris But Heaven that saw and with indignation beheld the dark and infernal Practices of them that by acting contrary to all Piety and Virtue were bringing a Reproach and Scandal upon Heaven and Christianity it self would no longer suffer them to proceed in such an Execrable Tragedy A Crime that had it come to Execution Hell would have blush'd and the Devils in union among themselves might have had a prospect of some probability of Mercy beholding men more wicked then they The Discovery then being fully resolv'd upon in the Breast of Dr. Oates he makes his first Applications to Dr. Tongue both for his Advice and Assistance Who upon Monday the 13th of August 1678 acquainted Mr. Christopher Kirkby with the detection of a Popish Conspiracy against the King's Sacred Person and the Protestant Religion shewing him withall the Three and Forty Articles as he had receiv'd them in Writing from Dr. Oates and requesting him not to make the business known at first to any other person then the King himself Many difficulties shew'd themselves in the Management of this Affair which requir'd the more wariness in proceeding So that Mr. Kirkby not finding an Opportunity to speak in private with the King that Afternoon prepar'd a certain Paper to put into his hands the next Morning as he went to walk in the Park His Majesty having receiv'd and read it call'd Mr. Kirkby to Him who then only gave him this short Account That his Enemies had a design against his Life and therefore besought him to have a care of his Person for that he knew not but that he might be in danger in that very Walk which he was about to take desiring withall a more private place for a more particular Account Thereupon his Majesty commanded him to wait his return out of the Park At what time calling Mr. Kirkby into his Bed-chamber he commanded him to declare what he knew Mr. Kirkby thereupon inform'd the King that there were two persons that were set to watch an opportunity to Pistol him That his Friend was at hand and ready with his Papers to be brought before him when his Majesty should command In answer to this his Majesty appointed between the hours of Eight and Nine in the Evening at which time Mr. Kirkby and Dr. Tongue attended and being commanded into the Red Room deliver'd the Forty Three Articles or rather Heads of the Discovery to his Majesty who being to go to Windsor the next Morning was pleas'd to promise that he would transmit the Papers into the hands of the Earl of Danby then Lord Treasurer upon whom they were likewise order'd to attend the next day after That day about four of the Clock in the Afternoon they were admitted into the Treasurer's Closet who read the Papers and found them to be of the greatest Concern imaginable The third of September Mr. Kirkby went to Dr. Oates and having receiv'd from him what he had to communicate appointed to meet him the next morning Accordingly the next morning being the fourth of September Mr. Kirkby and Dr. Oates met at what time the latter told the former that Whitebread Provintial of the Jesuites was come to Town and had strucken him and charg'd him with having been with the King and with the discovery of the Plot which he deny'd it being true that he had not seen the King Upon this it was concluded that seeing the discovery was smoak'd Dr. Oates's Information should be sworn before some Justice of the Peace which was accordingly the first time done before Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey the sixth of September who nevertheless was not permitted to read the particulars of the Information it being alledged that his Majesty had already had a true Copy thereof and that it was not convenient that the business should be communicated to any body else as yet So that Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey was satisfied without reading them and only underwrit Dr. Oates's Affidavit That the Matters therein contain'd were true Dr. Tong at the same time making Oath that they had been made known to the King In
the Popes Internuntio at Brussels Lastly that he kept a Correspondence with Sr. William Throckmorton to the destruction of the King and Kingdom Being arraign'd for these crimes he insisted to have had Council allowed him which was deny'd for this reason for that the proof lay all on the other side which if it were plain there would be no need of Council As to the proofs of these Crimes by the two Witnesses Dr. Oates and Mr. Bedlow it was first proved by Dr. Oates alone That there was a general Consult or meeting of the Jesuits in April Old Stile and May New Stile at the White Horse Tavern in the Strand and afterwards they divided into Companies and in those Consults they conspired the death of the King and contriv'd how to effect it That to that purpose Grove and Pickering were actually imployed to murder the King and to pistoll him in St. James's Park For which Grove was to have 1500 l. in money and Pickering being a Priest thirty thousand Masses which was computed to be equal to 1500 l. That to this Contrivance and Conspiracy Coleman was privy and did well approve of the same It was also farther prov'd by the same Witnesses that four Irish men were provided by Dr. Fogarthy and sent to Windsor there to make a farther attempt upon the Royal Person of the King and fourscore Guinneys were provided by Harcourt to maintain the Assassinates at Windsor and that while this Conspiracy was in Agitation Coleman went to visit Harcourt at his Lodging but not finding him there and being inform'd he was at Wild House that he went and found him out there at which time Coleman asking what provision Harcourt had made for the Gentlemen at Windsor Harcourt reply'd that the fourscore Guinneys which lay upon the Table were for them and added that the person in the Room was to carry the money Upon which it was farther proved that Coleman should reply That he lik'd it very well and that he gave a Guinney out of his pocket to the Messenger who was to carry the money to Windsor to encourage him to expedite the business It was further sworn by Dr. Oates That in July last one Ashby a Jesuit brought instructions from Flanders to London that in case Pickering and Grove could not kill the King at London nor the four Irish men assassinate him at Windsor that then the sum of ten thousand pounds should be propos'd to Sir George Wakeman to poyson the King In this conspiracy Mr. Coleman was prov'd to be so far concern'd that by the Letters which pass'd between Whitebread and Ashby it appear'd that he should say he thought ten thousand pound was too little and that he thought it necessary to offer five thousand pound more which upon his admonition and advice was assented to by the Jesuites It was also further sworn by Dr. Oates that he saw Letters from the Provincial at London to the Jesuites at St. Omers that Sir George had accepted the Proposition The second witness was Mr. Bedlow who swore that he was imployed by Harcourt the Jesuite to carry Pacquets of Letters to Monsieur Le Chaise the French Kings Confessor and that he was at a Consult in France where the Plot was discours'd on for killing the King and that he brought back an answer from Le Chaise to Harcourt in London and that particularly on the 24th or 25th of May 1677. he was at Colemans house with father Harcourt and some other persons where Mr. Coleman falling into discourse concerning the design in hand said these words That if he had a Sea of blood and a hundred lives he would lose them all to carry on the design and if to this end it were requisite to destroy a hundred Heretick Kings he would do it The other part of the evidence consisted of Papers and Letters generally relating to prove the latter part of the Enditement viz. the extirpation of the Protestant Religion introducing Popery and subverting the Government This was plainly proved by a long Letter written by Mr. Coleman dated Sept. 29. 1675. and sent to Monsieur Le Chaise before named wherein he gave him an accompt of the transactions of several years before and of his correspondence with Monsieur Ferrier predecessour to the said Le Chaise wherein he asserted that the true way to carry on the interest of France and to promote the Catholick Religion in England was to get the Parliament dissolv'd which he said had been long since effected if three hundred thousand pounds could have been obtained from the French King and that things were yet in such a posture that if he had but twenty thousand pound sent him from France he would be content to be a sacrifice to the utmost malice of his enemies if the Protestant Religion did not receive such a blow that it could not possibly subsist The receipt of which Letter was acknowledged by Monsieur Le Chaise in an answer which he wrote to Mr. Coleman dated from Paris Octob. 23. 75. wherein he gave him thanks for his good service in order to the promotion of the Catholick Religion Another Letter was produced dated August 21. 74. written by the prisoner Coleman to the Popes Internuncio at Brussels wherein he said that the design prospered well and that he doubted not but that in a little while the business would be managed to the utter ruine of the Protestant party Other Letters were brought in Evidence wherein he wrote to the King of France's Confessor that the assistance of his most Christian Majesty was necessary and desir'd money from the French King to carry on the design But there was another without a date more material than all the rest written to Monsieur Le Chaise in a short time after his long Letter dated Sept. 29. 1675. wherein among other things the Prisoner thus express'd himself We have a mighty work upon our hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdomes and the utter subduing of a pestilent Heresie which has for some time domineer'd over this Northern part of the World and we never had so great hopes of it since Queen Maries days In the close of which Letter he implor'd Monsieur Le Chaise to get all the aid and assistance he could from France and that next to God Almighty they did rely upon the mighty mind of his most Christian Majesty and therefore hop'd that he would procure both money and assistance from him And thus was the latter part of the Enditement fully prov'd upon him There was another Letter produced against him which he wrote to Monsieur Le Chaise in French in the Dukes name but without his privity or knowledge so that when he had the boldness to shew it to the Duke he was both angry and rejected it It contain'd several invectives against my Lord Arlington as being a great opposer of the Duke's designs and the chief promoter of the match between the Prince of Orange and the Dukes
concluding Conference having agreed to the Bill without further amendments and therefore desir'd the concurrence of the Commons Thus at length the Commons agreed to the amendments made by the Lords and sent a message to acquaint the Lords therewith This was done upon the fourteenth day of this month But upon the sixteenth a Message was sent by the Lords to acquaint the Commons that the night before the Earl of Danby had render'd himself to the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod and that being call'd to the Bar they had sent him to the Tower Thereupon a Committee was appointed to prepare and draw up further Evidence against him and such further Articles as they should see cause Soon after his Majesty was pleas'd to dissolve his Privy Council and to make another consisting of no more than thirty persons And for the management of the Treasury and Navy five Commissiones were appointed for the Treasury and seven for the Admiralty Then the Commons took into consideration the disbanding of the Army and having voted a supply of 264602 l. 17 s. 3 d. to that intent they then voted that Sr. Gilbert Gerrard Sr. Thomas Player Coll. Birch and Coll. Whitley should be Commissioners to pay the disbanded forces off But now to return to the Earl of Danby upon the 25th of this month a message was sent by the Lords to acquaint the Commons that the said Earl had that same day personally appear'd at the Bar of their House and had put in his plea to the Articles of Impeachment against him The Articles were these as they were deliver'd into the House of Lords in the name of the Commons of England by Sir Henry Capel December 23. 1678. I. That he had traiterously encroacht to himself Regal Power by treating in matters of Peace and War with Foreign Ministers and Embassadors and giving instructions to his Majesties Embassadors abroad without communicating the same to the Secretaries of State and the rest of his Majesties Council against the express Declaration of his Majesty in Parliament thereby intending to defeat and overthrow the provision that has been deliberately made by his Majesty and his Parliament for the safety and preservation of his Majesties Kingdoms and Dominions II. That he had traiterously endeavour'd to subvert the ancient and well-establish'd form of Government of this Kingdom and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical form of Government and the better to effect this his purpose he did design the raising of an Army upon pretence of a war against the French King and to continue the same as a standing Army within this Kingdom and an Army so rais'd and no war ensuing an Act of Parliament having past to disband the same and a great sum of money being granted for that end he did continue the same contrary to the said Act and mis-imploy'd the said money given for the disbanding to the continuance thereof and issued out of his Majesties Revenues great sums of money for the said purpose and wilfully neglected to take security of the Pay-master of the Army as the said Act required whereby the said Law is eluded and the Army yet continued to the great danger and unnecessary charge of his Majesty and the whole Kingdome III. That he trayterously intending and designing to alienate the hearts and affections of his Majesties good Subjects from his Royal Person and Government and to hinder the meeting of Parliaments and to deprive his Sacred Majesty of their safe and wholsom counsel and thereby to alter the constitution of the Government of this Kingdom did propose and negotiate a peace for the French King upon terms disadvantagious to the Interest of his Majesty and Kingdom For the doing whereof he did procure a great sum of money from the French King for enabling him to maintain and carry on his said traiterous designs and purposes to the hazard of his Majesties Person and Government IV. That he is Popishly affected and hath traiterously concealed after he had notice the late horrid and bloody Plot and Conspiracy contriv'd by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government and hath suppress'd the Evidence and reproachfully discountenanc'd the Kings Witnesses in the Discovery of it in favour of Popery immediately tending to the destruction of the Kings Sacred Person and the subversion of the Protestant Religion V. That he hath wasted the Kings Treasure by issuing out of his Majesties Exchequer several branches of his Revenue for unnecessary Pensions and secret services to the value of 〈…〉 within two years and that he hath wholly diverted out of the known method and Government of the Exchequer one whole branch of his Majesties Revenue to private Uses without any accompt to be made of it to his Majesty in his Exchequer contrary to an express Act of Parliament which granted the same And he hath removed two of his Majesties Commissioners of that part of the Revenue for refusing to consent to such his unwarrantable actings therein and to advance money upon that branch of the Revenue for private uses VI. That he hath by indirect means procured from his Majesty to himself divers considerable gifts and Grants of Inheritances of the ancient Revenues of the Crown contrary to Acts of Parliament For which matters and things the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons in Parliament do in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England impeach the said Thomas Earl of Danby Lord High Treasurer of England of High Treason and other high Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences in the said Articles contained And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other accusation or Impeachment against the said Earl and also of replying to the answers of which the said Thomas Earl of Danby shall make to the Premises or any of them or any Impeachment or Accusation which shall be by them exhibited as the cause according to proceedings of Parliament shall require Do pray that the said Thomas Earl of Danby may be put to answer all and every the Premises that such proceedings Tryals Examinations and Judgements may be upon them and every one of them had and used as shall be agreeable to Law and Justice and that he may be sequester'd from Parliament and forthwith committed to custody To these Articles the Earl of Danby soon after put in his Plea as follows The Plea of the Earl of Danby late Lord high Treasurer of England to the Articles of Impeachment and other High Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences Exhibited against him by the name of Thomas Earl of Danby Lord High Treasurer of England THE said Earl for Plea saith and humbly offers to your Lordships as to all and every the Treasons Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences contained or mention'd in the said Articles That after the said Articles exhibited namely the first of March now last past the Kings most excellent Majesty by his most gracious Letters of Pardon under his
Lord the King his Crown and Dignity and against the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom Of all which Treasons Crimes and Offences the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament Assembled did in the Name of themselves and of the Commons of England impeach the said William Earl of Powis William Viscount Stafford Henry Lord Arundel of Warder William Lord Petre and John Lord Bellasis and every of them And the said Commons saving to themselves the Liberty of Exhibiting at any time hereafter against other Accusations or Impeachments against the said Lords and every of them and also of Replying to the Answers which they and every of them should make to the premises or any of them or to any other Accusation or Impeachment which should be by them exhibited as the cause according to course and proceedings of Parliament should require did pray that the said Lords and every of them should be put to Answer all and every the Premises and that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals and Judgments might be upon them and every of them had and used as should be agreeable to Law and Justice and course of Parliament The Articles of Impeachment being drawn up and finish'd and carri'd up to the Lords House the Lieutenant of the Tower was ordered to bring up the Prisoners to the Bar where after they had kneeled awhile they were order'd to stand up and hear their Charge which when they had heard the Lord Chancellor ask'd them what they had to say for themselves letting them know withal that his Majesty would appoint a Lord High Steward for their Tryals Thereupon the Lords impeach'd made several requests in order to their several Defences upon their Tryals and then withdrew for a time After the House had taken their requests into consideration they were called in again and the Lord Chancellor gave them to understand that the several Endictments found against them by the Grand Jury should be brought into that Court by Writ of Certiorari and that they might have Copies of the Articles of Impeachment and should have convenient time given them to send in their respective Answers thereunto All this while the Lord Bellasis had not appeared at the Bar it being sworn that he was so ill that he could not stir out of his bed which reasonable excuse was allow'd for the time Not long after a Message was sent from the Lords to acquaint the Commons that the Lords impeach'd had all except the Lord Bellasis brought up their Answers to the Charge exhibited against them and that their Lordships had sent them the Originals desiring to have them return'd Soon after it was found that the Lord Bellasis had sent in his Answer without Appearance which occasion'd a great Debate Whether by his not appearance he had been Arraign'd or no and whether his Answer were legal The consideration of which business was referr'd to the Committee of Secrecy as also to look into the Answers of the five Lords to consider of the Methods of Proceedings upon Impeachments and to Report their Opinions Which were That the Lord Bellasis being Impeach'd of High Treason by the Commons could not make any Answer but in person And that the several Writings put in by the other Lords which they call'd their Pleas and Answers were not Pleas or Answers but Argumentative and Evasive to which the Commons neither could nor ought to reply That though the Answers of the other four Lords were sufficient yet that there ought not to be any Proceedings against them until the Lord Bellasis had put in a sufficient Answer in person That the Commons should demand of the Lords that their Lordships would forthwith order and require the said Lords to put in their perfect Answers or in default thereof that the Commons might have Justice against them Thereupon it was order'd by the Commons That a Conference should be desir'd with the Lords touching the Answers of the five Lords in the Tower and that the Managers thereof should acquaint their Lordships that they intended to make use of no other Evidence against the five Lords then for matter done within seven years last past desiring their Lordships withal to appoint a short day for the said five Lords to put in their effectual Pleas and Answers to the Articles of Impeachment But e're this Conference could be had a Message came from the Lords to acquaint the House That John Lord Bellasis had that day appear'd in person at the Bar of the House and had put in his Answer to the Articles of Impeachment which they had accordingly sent them The next day came another Message from the Lords to acquaint them That the Lords Powis Stafford and Arundel had appear'd likewise at the Bar and had retracted their former Pleas and had put in their Answers which they had also sent for them to view and consider All which Answers were by the Commons referr'd to the Secret Committee What these Answers were may be easily seen by that of the Lord Petre's here inserted For as their Crimes were the same so their Defences could not vary much either in sence or matter The Lord Petre's Answer to the Articles of Impeachment THE said Lord in the first place and before all other protesting his Innocency c. The said Lord doth with all humility submit himself desiring above all things the Tryal of his Cause by this most Honourable House so that he may be provided to make his just Defence for the clearing of his Innocency from the Great and Hainous Crimes charged against him by the said Impeachment This being prayed as also liberty to Correct Amend and Explain any thing in the said Plea contained which may any ways give this Honourable House any occasion of Offence which he hopes will be granted The said Lord as to that part of the Impeachment that concerns the matter following Namely That for divers years last past there had been contrived and carryed on by the Papists a most traiterous and execrable Conspiracy and Plot within this Kingdom of England and other places to alter and subvert the Antient Government and Laws of this Kingdom and Nation and to suppress the true Religion therein Establisht and to extirpate and destroy the Professors thereof and that the said Plot and Conspiracy was contrived and carryed on in divers places and by several ways and means and by a great number of several Persons of Qualities and Degrees who acted therein and intended thereby to execute and accomplish their aforesaid wicked and traiterous Designs and Purposes That the said William Lord Petre and other Lords therein named together with several other persons therein likewise named and mentioned as false Traitors to his Majesty and Kingdom within the time aforesaid have traiterously acted and consulted to and for the accomplishing of the said wicked pernicious and traiterous Designs and to that end did most wickedly and traiterously Agree Consult Conspire and Resolve to Imprison Depose and Murther His Sacred Majesty and deprive
that their Lordships did intend in all their proceedings upon Impeachments depending at that time before their Lordships to follow the usual course and methods of Parliament and therefore the Commons could not apprehend what should induce their Lordships to address to his Majesty for a Lord High Steward in order to the determining the validity of the Pardon which had been pleaded by the Earl of Danby to the Impeachment of the Commons as also for the Tryal of the other five Lords for that they conceiv'd the Constituting of a High Steward was not necessary in regard that judgment might be given in Parliament without a High Steward For which reasons and for that there were several other matters contain'd in their Lordships Message touching the Tryals of the Lords impeach'd which if not settled might occasion several Interruptions and Delays in the Proceedings Therefore the House of Commons did propose to their Lordships that a Committee of both Houses might be appointed to consider of the most proper ways and methods of proceedings upon Impeachments by the House of Commons according to the usage of Parliament that those Inconveniences might be avoided The Reasons of the Commons being thus deliver'd the Lords desir'd another upon the Conference before going wherein they declar'd that they could not agree to a Committee of both Houses because they did not think it conformable to the Rules and Orders of Proceedings of that Court which always was ever ought to be tender in matters relating to their Judicature Upon the report of this Answer the Commons voted that it tended to the Interruption of the good Correspondency between the two Houses and therefore desir'd another Conference with the Lords There the Commons declar'd their care to prevent all interruptions of a good Correspondence between the two Houses which as they were desirous at all times to preserve so was it more especially necessary at such a conjuncture when the most heinous Delinquents were to be brought to Justice that the Enemies of the King and Kingdom might have no hopes left them to see it obstructed by any difficulties arising in the way of proceeding And therefore in Answer to the last Conference it was urg'd That their Lordships did not offer any Answer or satisfaction to the Commons in their necessary Proposals amicably propounded by way of supposition that they might have been confirm'd therein by their Lordships That their Lordships did intend in all their Proceedings upon the Impeachments now depending before their Lordships to follow the usual course and methods of Parliament And further their Lordships had not given the least Answer or satisfaction to the Commons concerning their Lordships addressing to the King for a Lord High Steward though the Commons propos'd their design of satisfaction in as cautious terms as could be on purpose to avoid all disputes about Judicature Thereupon the sence of the Commons was thus summ'd up that They to avoid all Interruptions and Delays in the proceedings against the Lords impeach'd and the inconveniencies that should arise thereby having propos'd to their Lordships that a Committee of both Houses might be nominated to consider of the most proper means and methods of proceedings upon Impeachments and receiving no other Answer from the Lords save onely That they did not think it conformable to the Rules and Orders of the Proceeding of their Court without any Reason assign'd judg'd the said Answer to be a refusal of them to agree with the Commons in appointing such a Committee though heretofore not deny'd when ask'd upon the like occasion and at that time desir'd purposly to avoid disputes and delays So that in fine the sence of the House being thus deliver'd by Mr. Hambden at length he told the Lords that he had commands to acquaint them that things standing so upon their Answer the Commons could not proceed in the Tryal of the Lords before the Method of proceedings were adjusted between the two Houses However this difference was soon passed over had not a large debate interven'd For soon after the Lords sent down a Message to acquaint the Commons That they had appointed a Committee of twelve Lords to meet a Committee of the House of Commons in the inner Court of Wards to consider of propositions and circumstances relating to the Tryal of the Lords in the Tower In the midd'st of these Debates his Majesty was pleas'd to send a Message to the House by Mr. Powle to the following purport That His Majesty had already at the first meeting of Parliament and since by a word or two mention'd the Necessity of having a Fleet out at Sea that Summer yet the season for preparing being advanc'd and our neighbors before us in preparation He could not hold himself discharg'd towards His people if He did not then with more earnestness Commend the same to their present Care and Consideration and the rather from the dayly expectation of the return of the Fleet from the Streights to which a great Arrear was due and did hereby acquit Himself of all the evil Consequences which the want of a Fleet in such a juncture might produce Neither had He done this without considering that their Entring upon the work presently could be no hindrance to the great Affairs upon the House but rather a security in the dispatch thereof However it were the Consideration of this Message was Adjourned for a Week and their former Debates resum'd if they were at all interrupted For now the Committees of Lords and Commons having met two Propositions were made by the Commoners to see the Commission of Lord High Steward and other Commissions In the second place they desired to know what Resolutions had been taken touching the Lords Spiritual whither they should be absent or present As to the first the Lords acquainted them with an Order which they had made that the Office of a High Chamberlain upon the Tryal of Peers upon Impeachment was not necessary to the House of Peers but that the Lords might proceed upon such Tryals though a High Steward were not appointed The Lords also farther declar'd that a Lord High Steward was made hac vice onely that notwithstanding the making of a Lord High Steward the Court remain'd the same and was not thereby alter'd but still remain'd the Court of Peers in Parliament As to the second Proposition the Lords communicated the Resolution of the Peers which was this that the Lords Spiritual had a right to stay in Court in Capital Causes till such time as judgment of Death comes to be pronounced or rather as by a farther explanation of the said Resolution the Lords made it out till the Court proceeded to the Vote of Guilty or not Guilty In the first place the Commons took exception at the words in the Commission of the Lord High Steward for Tryal of the Earl of Danby which were these Ac pro eo quod Officium Seneschalli Angliae cujus praesentia in hac parte requiritur ut
to the same Punishments And not only so but that they had been forc'd also to stoop under the Yoak of Oppression in their Civil Interests their Bodies Liberties and Estates So that all manner of Outrages had been exercis'd upon them through a tract of several Years past particularly in the Year 1678. by sending among them an Armed host of Barbarous Savages contrary to all Law and Humanity and by laying upon them several Impositions and Taxes by a prelimited and over-awed Convention of Estates in July 1678. for keeping up an armed Force entrusted for the most part into the Hands of avow'd Papist or their Favourers by whom sundry invasions had been made upon them and incredible Insolencies committed against them their Ministers and People being by them frequently hunted after and apprehended while meeting in Houses for Divine Worship So that being necessitated to attend the Lord's Ordinances in fields and desert places there they had also been hunted out and Assaulted to the Effusion of their Blood whereby they were inevitably constrain'd either to defend themselves by Arms at these Meetings or to be altogether depriv'd of the Gospel preach'd by their faithful Ministers That upon the first day of June last being the Lord's Day Captain Graham of Clover-House being Warranted by Proclamation to kill whom soever he found in Arms at field-Conventicles and making Resistance furiously assaulted the People there assembled and further to provoke them bound a Minister with some others whom he had found in Houses that Morning so that they were forc'd to stand to their own-Defence whereby it happen'd that several were slain on both sides Being therefore thus inevitably forc'd to betake themselves to the last Remedy in regard the Magistrates had shut the door of the Law against their Applications They thought themselves bound to declare That these with many other horrid Grievances both in Church and State were the true Cause of this their Lawful and Innocent Self-defence And they did most solemnly in the presence of God declare that the true Reasons of their continuing in Arms were candidly and simply I. The defence and security of the true Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Government founded upon the Word and summarily comprehended in the Confessions of Faith and established by the Laws of the Land to which King Nobles and People were solemnly engag'd by the National Solemn League and Covenant More particularly the defending and maintaining the Kingly Authority of Christ over his Church against all sinful Supremacy derogatory thereto II. The defence and preservation of his Majesty his Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of that true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom That the World might bear witness of their Loyalty and that they had no thought or intention to diminish his just Power and Greatness III. To obtain a free and unlimited Parliament and a free general Assembly in order to the redressing of their Grievances to prevent Popery and to extirpate Prelacy from among them This therefore being the Cause they appear'd for and resolv'd to own They humbly requested the King's Majesty to restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Kingdom Or if that could not be obtain'd then they heartily invited intreated besought and obtested in the bowels of Jesus Christ all who were under the same Bonds with them to meet in the Defence of the Common Cause and Interest And they requested their Country-men the standing Forces of the Kingdom of whom many were their Friends and Relations not to Fight against them lest in so doing they should be found Fighting against the Lord whose Cause and Quarrel they were sure he would own seeing they fought under his Banner who was the Lord of Hosts Upon the publishing of this Declaration the Numbers of the Rebels increas'd and they began to embody themselves to maintain their zealous Madness Insomuch that at the latter end of this Month about four-score of their Number well mounted and arm'd went to a place call'd Rugland and there Proclaim'd the Covenant and burn'd several Acts of the Scotish Parliament as the Act concerning the King's Supremacy the Recissory Act and the Act appointing the Anniversary of the twenty ninth of May. And that being done they affix'd a certain Scandalous and Traiterous Paper or Declaration on the Market-Cross of the same Town different from what has been already repeated and in the following scurrilous Terms The Declaration of the Rebels in the very words as it was design'd to have been put up by them at Glasgow and actually set up at Rugland AS the Lord had been pleas'd still to preserve and keep his Interest in the Land by the Testimony of some faithful Witnesses from the beginning so in our days some have not been wanting who through the greatest of hazards had added their Testimonies to those who have gone before them by suffering Death Banishment Torturings Finings Forfeitures Imprisonments c. flowing from cruel and perfidious Adversaries to the Church and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Land Therefore We owning the Interest of Christ according to the Word of the Lord and the National and Solemn League and Covenant desire to add our Testimony to the Testimony of the Worthies that have gone before though unworthy yet hoping as true Members of the Church of Scotland and that against all things that have been done prejudicial to his Interest from the beginning of the Work of Reformation in Scotland especially from the Year 1648. to the Year 1660. against these following Acts. As 1. The Act of Supremacy 2. The Declaration whereby the Covenants are condemned 3. The Act for the Eversion of the Established Government of the Church and for Establishing of Prelacy and for outing of Christ's Ministers who could not conform thereto by an Act Recissory of all Acts of Parliament and Assemblies for the Establishment of the Government of the Church of Scotland according to the Word As likewise that Act of Council at Glasgow putting that Act Recissory in Execution whereby at one time were violently cast out above three hundred Ministers without Legal Procedures Likewise the Act appointing a holy Anniversary to be kept upon the twenty ninth day of May for the giving thanks for the upsetting of a Usurping Power destroying the Interest of the Church in the Land which is to set up the Creature to be worshipp'd in the Room of our great Redeemer and to consent to the assuming the Power that is proper to the Lord alone for the appointing of Ordinances in his Church As particularly the Government thereof and the keeping of a Holiday and all other sinful and unlawful Acts committed by them And for confirmation of this our Testimony we do hereby this day being the twenty ninth of May 1679. publicly burn them at the Cross of Glasgow most justly as they Perfidiously and Blasphemously had burnt our holy Covenant through several Cities of the Covenanted Kingdoms We judge none will
he challeng'd Dr. Owen and some others in a Letter written in several Languages and that so learnedly that it was deem'd worthy the Consideration of the Convocation by whom he was censur'd as a Jesuit or some other of the best sort of Popish Education and thereupon imprison'd in the Castle Prison in Oxford where he pretended distraction and acted the Madman so rarely to the life that in few days some Friends of his procur'd his liberty He was seen several times running up and down the Streets with his Hat under his Arm full of Stones throwing at every small Bird he saw But e're long he was met by a Minister of the Church of England at the House of a Roman Catholick who there heard him Discourse so gravely learnedly and discreetly that he got not onely into an acquaintance but familiarity with him insomuch that this Gentleman being of Maudlin Colledge he there gave him several Visits in several Disguises But at length being again suspected and in danger of being apprehended he stole away privately for London To which place business calling the same Gentleman about six Months after he was no sooner come to Town but he had notice of a famous Preacher among the Quakers near Charing-Cross and the same day he met Whitebread the great man of Fame going to speak in an old fashion pink'd Fustian Jerkin clouted Shoes his Breeches fac'd with Leather and a Carter's Whip in his hand in that Garb altogether disguiz'd from his knowledge however he knew the Gentleman and spake to him and so they renew'd their acquaintance For that time however they took leave and he went forward upon his intended work but the next day he came to the Gentleman's Quarters in the neat habit of a London Minister and carried him to his own Lodging within the Precincts of the Middle-Temple where he gave the Gentleman a handsom Entertainment and a sight of the several odd Habits in which he disguiz'd himself to the several sorts of people into whose good Opinion he had insinuated himself There the Gentleman saw his Orders from Rome and an Instrument wherein he was assur'd of and had Orders to receive of certain Merchants in Town a Hundred Pound per Annum besides a yearly Pension of Eighty Pound from his Father He pretended to this Gentleman that he was born at Wittenbergh and that his Father's Name was John White and in the Writing he himself was stil'd Johannes de Albis by the Court of Rome He was both Jesuit and Priest in Orders for that to the same Gentleman's knowledge he celebrated Mass in one House in Southwark to more then Forty after which upon the same day he visited several Presbyterians and others The same Gentleman continu'd in his Company for about a Month till he was apprehended and by special Order from the Protector imprison'd in the Tower of London where he lay above six Months No wonder then that he stook closest to the Romish Church for she it seems was his best friend and gave him the fairest Allowance what signifi'd a little Imprisonment for her sake who gave him a hundred pound a year to support him in his tribulation The next day Mr. Langhorn was brought to his Tryal at the same Bar. A Councellor at Law and one who got his bread by that very Law which he was plotting to subvert An imprudent piece of Ingratitude to forego the Law of his Country which afforded him a substantial Employment to catch at the shadow of a Judge Advocate Generals place in treasonable Hopes The general sum of his Charge was High Treason for conspiring the Death of the King and endeavouring an Alteration both in Church and State The particular Charge against him was That in order to the accomplishing as much as in him lay these designs of his he had wrote two Letters to be sent to Rome and St. Omers to procure aid from the Pope and the French King on purpose to introduce a change of the Religion by Law establish'd in the Kingdom and to set up the Romish Religion in the stead thereof That he had wrote two other Letters to one Anderton Rector of the English Colledge of Jesuites at Rome and two others to be sent to St. Omers wherein he undertook to advise the means and ways by which the success of those Treasons might be made to answer their expectations That he had received several Commissions in writing transmitted to him by an Authority that deriv'd it self from the See of Rome which Commissions were for constituting Military Officers to command in an Army which was to effect their Treasons by force That he was privy to all the Consultations of the rest of the Conspirators for carrying on the grand design and that he had sollicited the Benedictine Monks for 6000 l. for the same purpose and had notice from time to time of the Treasons and Conspiracy's of the Confederates To make Good this Charge Mr. Dugdall and Mr. Praunce were both sworn to give a short evidence of the reality of the Design in general Which being done Dr. Oates was sworn to particulars who thereupon depos'd That upon his return out of Spain in November 1677. he brought Letters from Mr. Langhorn's sons the one in the Jesuites Colledge at Madrid the other at Valladolid and that when the Witness told him that he believ'd his Sons would both enter into the Society Mr. Langhorn shew'd himself not a little pleas'd saying that by so doing they might quickly come to preferment in England for that matters would not hold long in England as they were That upon his return to St. Omers he carry'd two Letters written by Mr. Langhorn one to the Fathers another to Mr. Le Cheese the King of France's Confessor as Mr. Langhorn expressed himself in order to our Affairs in England and to the same effect as Mr. Coleman had wrote to him before That not long after he wrote another Letter to the Fathers expressing his wonderful zeal for the Catholic Design declaring moreover that the Parliament began to cool in the business of the Protestant Religion and that therefore speaking of the present Opportunity Now was the time to give the Blow That though he were not at the Consults yet that the Witness was order'd to give him an account from time to time and that upon a pleasing report made by the Witness Mr. Langhorn with Hands and Eyes lifted up to Heaven Pray'd God to prosper them That the Report of the Witness was That the Death of the King was resolv'd upon and that Grove and Pickering were chosen out for the Execution of the Result That at the same time several Parchments were lying upon Mr. Langhorn's Study-Table which he found to be Commissions for the Lords Arundel of Wardour Powis Bellasis and Petre to be Chancellor Treasurer General and Lieutenant General Another for Coleman to be Secretary of State and another for himself to be Judge Advocate of the Army all which had the
the Jesuit's Doctrine concerning Kings as believing it conformable to what the best Doctors of the Church have taught But why do I relate the testimony of one particular Prince when the whole Catholic World is the Jesuits Advocate For to them chiefly Germany France Italy Spain and Flanders trust the Education of their Youth and to them in a great proportion they trust their own Souls to be governed in the Sacraments And can you imagin so many great Kings and Princes and so many wise States should do or permit this to be done in their Kingdoms if the Jesuits were men of such damnable principles as they are now taken for in England In the third place dear Country-men I do attest that as I never in my life did machine or contrive either the Deposition or Death of the King so now I do heartily desire of God to grant him a quiet and happy Reign upon Earth and an Everlasting Crown in Heaven For the Judges also and the Jury and all those that were any ways concern'd either in my Tryal Accusation or Condemnation I do humbly ask of God both Temporal and Eternal happiness And as for Mr. Oates and Mr. Dugdale whom I call God to witness by false Oaths have brought me to this untimely end I heartily forgive them because God commands me so to do and I beg of God for his infinite Mercy to grant them true Sorrow and Repentance in this World that they be capable of Eternal happiness in the next And so having discharged my Duty towards my self and my own Innocence towards my Order and its Doctrine to my Neighbour and the World I have nothing else to do now my great God but to cast my self into the Arms of your Mercy as firmly as I judge that I my self am as certainly as I believe you are One Divine Essence and Three Divine Persons and in the Second Person of your Trinity you became Man to redeem me I also believe you are an Eternal Rewarder of Good and Chastiser of Bad. In fine I believe all you have reveal'd for your own infinite Veracity I hope in you above all things for your infinite Fidelity and I love you above all things for your infinite Beauty and Goodness and I am heartily sorry that ever I offended so great a God with my whole heart I am contented to undergo an ignominious Death for the love of you my dear Jesu seeing you have been pleased to undergo an ignominious Death for the love of me Gawen BEing now good People very near my End and summon'd by a violent Death to appear before God's Tribunal there to render an account of all my thoughts words and actions before a just Judge I am bound in Conscience to declare upon Oath my Innocence from the horrid Crime of Treason with which I am falsely accused And I esteem it a Duty I owe to Christian Charity to publish to the World before my death all that I know in this point concerning those Catholics I have conversed with since the first noise of the Plot desiring from the very bottom of my heart that the whole Truth may appear that Innocence may be clear'd to the great Glory of God and the Peace and Welfare of the King and Country As for myself I call God to witness that I was never in my whole life at any Consult or Meeting of the Jesuits where any Oath of Secrecy was taken or the Sacrament as a Bond of Secrecy either by me or any one of them to conceal any Plot against His Sacred Majesty nor was I ever present at any Meeting or Consult of theirs where any Proposal was made or Resolve taken or signed either by me or any of them for taking away the Life of our Dread Soveraign an Impiety of such a nature that had I been present at any such Meeting I should have been bound by the Laws of God and by the Principles of my Religion and by God's Grace would have acted accordingly to have discovered such a devillish Treason to the Civil Magistrate to the end they might have been brought to condign punishment I was so far good People from being in September last at a Consult of the Jesuits at Tixall in Mr. Ewer's Chamber that I vow to God as I hope for Salvation I never was so much as once that year at Tixall my Lord Aston's House 'T is true I was at the Congregation of the Jesuits held on the 24th of April was twelve-month but in that Meeting as I hope to be saved we meddled not with State-Affairs but only treated about the Governours of the Province which is usually done by us without offence to temporal Princes every third Year all the World over I am good People as free from the Treason I am accused of as the Child that is unborn and being innocent I never accused my self in Confession of any thing that I am charged with Which certainly if I had been conscious to my self of any Guilt in this kind I should not so frankly and freely as I did of my own accord presented my self before the King 's Most Honorable Privy Council As for those Catholics which I have conversed with since the noise of the Plot I protest before God in the words of a dying Man that I never heard any one of them neither Priest nor Layman express to me the least knowledge of any Plot that was then on foot amongst the Catholics against the King's Most Excellent Majesty for the advancing the Catholic Religion I dye a Roman Catholic and humbly beg the Prayers of such for my happy passage into a better Life I have been of that Religion above Thirty Years and now give God Almighty infinite thanks for calling me by his holy Grace to the knowledge of this Truth notwithstanding the prejudice of my former Education God of his infinite Goodness bless the King and all the Royal Family and grant His Majesty a prosperous Reign here and a Crown of Glory hereafter God in his mercy forgive all those which have falsly accused me or have had any hand in my Death I forgive them from the bottom of my heart as I hope my self for forgiveness at the Hands of God O GOD who hath created me to a supernatural end to serve thee in this life by grace and injoy thee in the next by glory be pleased to grant by the merits of thy bitter death and passion that after this wretched life shall be ended I may not fail of a full injoyment of thee my last end and soveraign good I humbly beg pardon for all the sins which I have committed against thy Divine Majesty since the first Instance I came to the use of reason to this very time I am heartily sorry from the very bottom of my heart for having offended thee so good so powerful so wise and so just a God and purpose by the help of thy grace never more to offend thee my good God whom I love
short in affirming That onely Mariana the Spaniard was the upholder of that Dreadful Opinion witness the Writings and Approbations of Stapleton and Garnet and the Apology of Jacob Clements in some part recited in the Oration to the King of France against the Readmission of the Jesuits into that Kingdom Commolet and Guignardus by whom that bloody Act of Jacob Clements who Murdered Henry the Third of France was called the Gift of the Holy Ghost as is averr'd in the forementioned Oration to Henry the Fourth were both Jesuits And who so wicked among us saith the same Oration as not to see that if Jacob Clements had not deeply drank of the Jesuites Poyson he would never have thought of killing his Lord and Master The Warlike Prowess and renown of Henry the Fourth could not defend him from the Treachery of Barriere countenanc'd and abetted by Verade the Jesuite and Aubry Curate of St. André des Arts nor of that other Bejesuited Enthusiast who confess'd that he had suckt all his King-killing malice from their Diabolical Oratory And Mezeray affirms that the same Prince found himself in danger of nothing more than of the Conspiracies of those in religious Orders And so far was Mariana from being the sole supporter of this Doctrine that Francis de Verone wrote in the defence of Chastell who had stabb'd Henry the Fourth and John Gueret and John Hay were both banish'd out of France for publickly teaching their Disciples the vicious Precepts of early Treason Nor is there any thing more horrid among all the Butcheries of the Heathen Sacrificers than the Ceremony which the Jesuites use at the Consecration of the Person and the Dagger which they design for a Royal Massacre For the intended Executioner is brought into a private Room where the Dagger carefully wrapt up in a fair Linnen Cloth and sheath'd in an Ivory sheath enamel'd with several strange Characters with an Agnus Dei appendant is set at liberty to dazle the Murderers eyes Then the Weapon being drawn is sprinkl'd with Holy Water adorn'd with a Rosary of Coral Beads and so deliver'd with these words Chosen Son of God receive the Sword of Jephta the Sword of Sampson the Sword of David with which he cut off Goliah ' s head c. go and be prudently couragious Which done falling upon their knees they mumble forth this dismal exorcism Cherubims and Seraphims ye Thrones and Powers ye Holy Angels all descend and fill this blessed Vessel with perpetual Glory daily offer to him the Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary the Holy Patriarchs and Martyrs For he is now your own and no longer belongs tous After that they bring him to the Altar and shewing him the Picture of Jacob Clements Strengthen O Lord they cry this thy Arm the Instrument of thy revenge Let all the Saints arise and give place to Him An invention of Men worse than Devils enough to amaze Heaven it self which shews that the words of dying men are not always Oracles when they go about to deny the palpable text of History to palliate embodyed Villany Nor was Mariana's Book exploded as Gawen averrs but it is true that care was taken by the Jesuites to suppress both Mariana and others for he was not alone meerly out of necessity and to divert the storm that threatened them from the Court of France And thus the world may see the folly of that vain Complement That a whole Order should suffer for the rashness of one man As little cause there is for Us to believe That the whole Catholick World should be the Jesuites Advocate At least the whole Catholick World has taken a very ill Cause in hand to defend an Order that has so ill behav'd it self as to be expell'd out of France for Murther out of England for High Treason from Venice almost in the sight of Rome it self for their insufferable Ambition and designs of Bloody revenge out of Bohemia for being common Disturbers of the Publick Peace out of Moravia and Hungaria for the same Cause out of Transilvania for being almost the ruine of that Countrey and out of the Low Countries for their continual Misdemeanors and Lastly this may be also added That Sigismund King of Sweden was expelled his Kingdom for endeavouring to obtain their readmission after they had been ejected by his Subjects As for Father Harcourt let it not seem strange for I find they were all alike in hast to reach Heaven before Sun-set that he should pretend so much ignorance of the Plot. For the reason is plain he was resolv'd to Visit S. Peter in the Jesuites Livery and to let them see he was True Blue while his own Letter under his own Hand written into the Countrey to give notice of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey's Death three Hours after his Murther and publickly to be seen puts a most cruel Slur upon his late protested Hatredof Mental Reservation and Equivocation Now as for their Prayers for their Judges and the Discoverers of their Treason in my judgement they might have spar'd ' em For why should they be so zealous to pray for them when they would not so much as beg one tear from those that were not of their own Profession They were no Prayers of Charity but rather the Curses of their Malice while they labour'd to scandal the Justice of such most Eminent Judges the Impartiality of so sound a Jury and the Fidelity of such Witnesses who having so highly merited of the whole Nation have render'd the Sufferers more remarkable in their Ends than in all the Progress of their Lives before Finally It is very observable how harmoniously they jump upon that tickling Expression of being as Innocent as the Child unborn as if they were certain to ride to Heaven upon the wings of that Lamb-like sentence or that the world were infallibly bound to believe that undenyable Asseveration But besides that it is the common language of every Pickpocket Strumpet at Newgate though the Evidence be never so manifest against her Scholars methinks should not have made use of such a piece of St. Martins ware that only dazles with a false Glittering but has nothing in it of the real brightness of truth For where no Guilt can be no Innocence can be imputed No Child unborn can be thought to be Guilty of an actual crime such as killing the King or subverting the Government of a Nation and consequently no Child unborn can be said to be Innocent of those actual crimes as not being the proper subject of actual Guilt or Innocence And therefore pardon only the seeming depth of the Expression they had as good have said nothing For a man may be Guilty of all the actual Crimes under Heaven and after that safely swear himself as Innocent as the child unborn in regard it is but a seeming asseveration and grounded upon nothing However it shows a good bold spirit in dying Christians to put their tricks upon God and Man just as they are putting