might well expect that the Execution of this Sentence would have destroyed him as in all Probability it had if a very honest and able Chyrurgion Mr. James Wass had not with the Hazard of his own Life undertaken the Cure of him and under God preserved him I say he carried that Cure through with the Hazard of his Life and that gratis tho he was wholly a Stranger to the Doctor for there was another skilful Chyrurgion and very honest Man Mr. Charles Bateman who had promised to undertake it but at that very Instant was clapp'd into Newgate and soon after murdered He suffered some thousands of Stripes to his unspeakable Torture and was ten Weeks under Mr. Wass's Hands Their Malice and Cruelty did not cease here but because through the Mercy of God supporting him and the extraordinary Care and Skill of his judicious Chyrurgion he was like to outlive that barbarous Usage some of them whilst he was weak in Bed got into his Chamber and attempted to pull off the Plaisters from his Back threatning to destroy him And That nothing might be wanting to compleat his Misery and Ruine they procured him to be loaded with Irons of excessive Weight for a whole Year without Intermission and that when his Legs were swollen with the Gout and to be shut up in the Hole or Dungeon of the Prison whereby he became impaired in his Limbs and contracted Convulsion-Fits to the Hazard of his Life To conclude now see here the Sense of the House of Commons upon this wicked Prosecution and cursed Sentence as it appears by the following Vote Martis 11th Junii 1689. Resolved That the Prosecution of Titus Oates upon two Indictments for Perjury in the Court of King's-Bench was a Design to stifle the Popish Plot and that the Verdicts given thereupon were corrupt and that the Judgments given thereupon were cruel and illegal A Brief ABSTRACT of Dr. Oates's Narrative of the POPISH PLOT as it was made upon Oath on the 27th of September 1678 before Sir Edmund-Bury Godfrey one of the Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex and before the King and Council on the 28th and 29th of the same Month and after publish'd by Order of the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled in April 1679. With Remarks thereupon Kind Reader THO I accost you in this familiar Way and use a friendly Appellation here 's no Plot upon you no not so much as a Design to draw you in to read this Pamphlet Nay should I perceive you so much as start at the very Title I should esteem you yet more kind if you throw it away for if you read on and are then found to snarl at me we may have the ill Luck to sall together by the Ears and it ever was my Choice to live in a whole Skin That I may so do I give you not the advantage of saying I was the first Aggressor I do not I will not commend the Thing No I will not so much as recommend it to your Perusal I will not so much as tell you what is in it No I will not so far gratify you as to declare why I do emit it further than to say that 't is my Will and Pleasure so to do And Now if not invited not encouraged you will read on 't is at your Peril if upon those Terms you dare adventure further you must know that the following Narrative was ushered into the World under an Address to K. Charles the II. to the Effect following viz. Great Sir This Narrative of the present Horrid Plot against our Majesty and Government which was first heard and narrowly discussed before your sacred Majesty and Council and afterwards by both Houses of Parliament with universal Assent to the Power of Truth herein is at last to appear abroad for the Satisfaction of these Nations and Europe perhaps touching the Mystery and Consequence of such Designs How little the Criminals concerned in this Plot deserve from your Majesty the World will better judg if they will but consider how graciously your Majesty has dealt with them and connived at them while the Rigour of the Law was let loose upon your other dissenting Subjects who yet continued more quiet and loyal under their Pressures and Provocations than these under Favours and Caresses Hath not your Majesty hazarded the Hearts and Affections of your best Subjects and much of Royal Honour in appearing for the late Indulgence with Frustation to win and oblige if possible these Everlasting Holy Cut-throats How can your Majesty expect Truth and Sincerity where Treasons and Lies are Vertues and Merits I question not Great Sir but that he in whose hands are the Hearts of Princes will in time fully convince your Majesty of all their unworthy Principles and Practices and of my Integrity too how strange soever some open or secret Papists whom time also may discover have endeavoured to represent me Till that time I commit my Cause to the most Righteous and All-seeing Judg with a Resolution to persevere through his Assistance in my Truth and Testimony against all Discouragements or Terrors or Blandishments either to the last Gasp I cannot forbear to pray to God out of my Sincerity and Zeal for publick Peace and Concord between King and People That seeing your Majesty must highly trust some or other for your necessary Ease and Help that God would put it into your Majesty's Heart more to trust and rely upon your two Houses of Parliament who will be most true to your Laws and consequently both to you and your People than to any single Minister or Ministers whatsoever unaccountably who may pretend to more Loyalty or more comply with any Humour or humane Frailty of your Majesty's but are not true Friends to your Majesty or their Country or themselves therein but erect and prefer an Imperial Paramount Self-end or Lust before all which your Majesty by their Art must be brought unworthily to serve and promote to publick Disturbance always and the Confusion of themselves and their Posterity most an end by God's just Vengance It is a false Suggestion which some Tempters use that a King that rules by Will is more great or glorious or strong than a King that rules by Law The Quality of the Retinue best proves the State of the Lord the one being but a King of Slaves while the other like God is a King of Kings and Hearts No Prince was ever more absolute to have what he wished than Queen Elizabeth who wished for nothing more than her Subjects Rights and Welfare Nothing will make your Majesty so amiable and acceptable in the Eyes of God and Man and your Name and Memory blessed and glorious for ever as the Copying of the Laws of our Saviour in your Life by a decent Paternal Example before the Sons and Daughters of your People to increase the Fear of God and its Consequences amongst us It being the chief End and Work
Executed upon your Petitioner's Evidence together with the Evidence of Others the Attainders of which Conspirators remain as your Petitioner believes upon Record That four several Parliaments owned the said Discovery and passed several Votes wherein they did declare that there was a horrid Popish Plot for the Destruction of your Royal Person and your Government and for the Subversion of the Protestant Religion as by Law established That Roger L'estrange Esq whom your Petitioner hears is again a Justice of the Peace tho turned out for several Misdemeanours in the Year 1680 hath defamed and arraigned the Justice of the Nation in ridiculing the said Popish Plot the Discovery and Discoverers thereof in a certain Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlet of his called the Observator and in several other Pamphlets That he the said Roger L'estrange pretends in some of those Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlets that he is authorized so to do by one or both your Secretaries That the said Scandalous and Seditious Pamphlet appears to countenance Popery in your Protestant Government and the Popish Party hath been much encouraged by the same to revile and threaten your Petitioner That your Petitioner hath born those Scandalous Reflections and Aspersions upon the account of his Discovery of the said Plot from the said L'estrange these four Years with Patience and had the Scandals only touched your Petitioner he would not have complained to your Majesty and this Board but since the said L'estrange scandalously vilifies the said Discovery and calls in question the Justice of your Government your Petitioner thinks fit to apply himself to your Majesty and this Board for Relief The Premises considered Your Petitioner humbly prays your Majesty and this Honourable Board to relieve him and his Evidence against the Seditious Calumnies of the said Roger L'estrange and not suffer your Petitioner to be left to be daily Oppressed and Destroyed for those Services which your Majesty and Council and Parliaments and Courts of Justice have owned And Your Petitioner shall as in Duty bound pray for Your Majesty's Health and long Life and happy Reign c. Titus Oates A Copy of Dr. Oates's Letter to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury March 15. 1683. May it please your Grace I Having received several Kindnesses from you when I was at Lambeth-House do upon that Score think that this may not miss your Hand nor I lose my end in writing at this Time in which my Lord be pleased to understand that for my own Vindication I have written to Mr. Secretary Jenkins and in his Letter I have inclosed a Petition and Complaint to the King 's most Excellent Majesty and to the Lords and Others of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council against one Roger L'estrange who in several of his Pamphlets called the Observator and other Seditious Pamphlets hath vilified the Discovery of the Popish Plot and in that I humbly conceive he doth arraign and reflect on the Justice of the Government And God having called you to the Great Office of an Arch-bishop and Privy-Counsellor I thought my Application to your Grace would not at all be Improper and therefore I thought I might lay before your Grace the hard usage I have received from the said L'etrange and his Confederate Villains that neither fear God nor reverence Man Your Grace I suppose hath not forgot that Four Parliaments did enter upon the Examination both of Witnesses and Criminals concerned in the Popish Conspiracy I was the first that appeared to detect that Villany and received the Thanks of the Council and the Lords in Parliament and it was looked on as such a piece of Service that Your Grace was of the Opinion that some Mark of Favour should be conferred on me But I was not studious of my own Interest but was always careful for which I bless God to do my Countrey Justice and have reaped the Fruits thereof even the Testimony of a good Conscience And whereas I have been hardly used for the Service I did in the Discovery of that Plot I think the Government is bound in Honour and Conscience and Justice and Truth to maintain their own Proceedings and justify me from the scurrilous Reflections of so vile a Fellow as L'estrange appears to be in those his Pamphlets He pretends in one or two of them that he hath leave from one or both his Majesty's Secretaries for so doing that I think ought to be reason enough for his being stopt in his Career and Scribling and be for ever Silenced together with Argument of his Fallacy upon the whole Government in that particular Certainly my Lord the Church must be in a sad Condition that stands in need of L'estrange for a Supporter the Religion Established by Law will be very contemptible if Roger's Penny Observator must give it Life I am sure our Bishops have given such Testimonies of themselves and their Power that there is no need of his scurrilous and scandalous Pen to maintain their Authority and Reputation Our Clergy must be judged by the Popish Party to be Men of little Understanding if they stand in need of him to be their Guide Hath he not fallen upon the most considerable Clergy-men in the City Men that do not stand in need of his Trash to equip them for the work of the Ministry I dare by your Grace's leave be bold to say that your Grace upon Consideration will abhor and loath such a Fellow upon the account of these and other Aggravations and seeing I have been useful in my Day I beg your Grace would be instrumental in doing me the Justice that is due to a Man a Christian and a Minister of the Church If I have done any Man wrong let me suffer if I am innocent as I must be accounted till convicted of some Enormity or Irregularity then let me be protected and not left to be oppressed and destroyed by my Enemies for the Services that your Grace hath formerly owned in Council and in Parliament and likewise his Majesty in several Proclamations to his People and Speeches to his Parliament My Lord I shall say no more but beg your Grace's Pardon and Blessing and tho I have misrepresented to your Grace I shall study to appear My Lord Your Grace's most Affectionate Servant Titus Oates March 15. 1683. My Lord I would have waited upon your Grace but since the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford your Servants have put Affronts upon me of which I unwillingly take notice which have hindred my paying my Respects to your Grace And likewise I understand that some Evil Instruments by lies and Falshood have endeavoured to lessen me in your Grace's Affections which I have patiently born rather than put your Grace and my Self to the unnecessary trouble of a fruitless Vindication of my Innocency A Copy of Dr. Oates's Letter to the Bishop of London March 15. 1683. My Lord WHen the Popish Plot was first discovered your Lordship was very zealous in the prosecuting Popery and I
have heard you often express your hearty good will to root that Faction out of this Nation I hope your Zeal for the Protestant Religion is not a whit abated yet my Hopes are not without some Fears when I have it by some reported though I cannot give full Credit to it that your Lordship together with the Bishop of Canterbury do maintain R. L'estrange and encourage him in that vile Pamphlet called the Observator in which your Lordship may see the Justice of the Nation is arraigned and by Consequences of his own drawing the Blood of those that were executed upon the account of the Popish Conspiracy charged upon the Government and I do not find him lie under any Censure for that his vile Libel by your Lordship under whose Jurisdiction he is Is the Church in so low a Condition that she stands in need of Roger's Support Is the Government in such a state as none can cure it but he Is Episcopacy at such a point that it cannot be brought to its Pristine State without him Is the Ministry of the Church in such Contempt that none but he by his Penny-Observator can recover its Reputation and Credit How is all this done by Seditious Factious Scurrilous Lies by encouraging Popery by reviling the Protestant Interest by arraigning the Justice of the Nation by villifying the Discovery of the Popish Plot and endeavouring to expose the Discoverers by a heap of infamous Lies to the Nation as Impostors My Lord I am a Minister yea a Minister of the Church of England and have done her more Service than any Clergy-man in England and because I hate those Monsters that are amongst us who were bred in the Protestant Religion and have left this Religion and are reconciled to the Church of Rome and are by that means declared Traytors by our Law I am looked upon by our little Clergymen as a Dissenter from the Church of England But my Lord your Lordship hath I hope better Thoughts of me tho I am grieved to hear your Lordship should be concerned for a vile Observator that hath been so profuse as to call in Question the Truth of the Popish Plot of which your Lordship was convinced and satisfied and for the farther Discovery of which you were so diligent in Parliament and Council in your Examination both of Criminals and Witnesses I purpose to be heard in Council against this L'estrange in order thereunto I have written to Mr. Secretary Jenkins and in that Letter I have inclosed a Petition and Complaint against him and therefore I am an humble Suitor to your Lordship to do me Right and help me to my intended Hearing and if I cannot be heard I must print my Case which you know is an appealing to the People which some have not liked But what must I do I have born his scandalous Reflections so long that I can bear no longer and I conceive as I am a Minister I ought to have been protected by the Bishops and Prelates of the Church in whose Communion I am though I have been misrepresented by L'estrange and others of his Confederates therefore as your Lordship tenders the Justice and Honour of the Government I hope you will not only discountenance the vile Usage of me by L'estrange but also endeavour that he may be silenced for it s he and those of his Crew that have created such Animosities amongst the King's Leige People It hath been the Policy of the Synagogue of Rome to divide Protestants and he is the Tool they make use of to divide us There hath scarce been any one Sober Clergy-man of Note that hath escaped his Lash and what credit the Church can have by such an Elf I cannot conceive My Lord I will not detain you any longer but I shall only protest my Intergrity and Truth in what I have done in reference to the Popish Plot and I have had your Lordship's good word in that particular and question not but upon Consideration your Lordship will be a means of having Right done me in my Complaint 'T is true I lie under the King's Displeasure for what I know not to this Day I thank God I am not conscious to my self of any thing that I have said or done that might have done him any prejudice if I have I should be glad to understand my Error that I might make Reparation In a Word I shall study to appear My Lord Your Lordship 's Obedient Servant Titus Oates March 15. 1683. A Copy of Dr. Oates 's Letter to King Charles II. April 12. 1684. May it please Your most Excellent Majesty I Thought it my duty for the honour of Truth to whom all Men are Debtors and for my own Vindication to apply my self to your Majesty's Ministers and Counsellors for redress against the scurrilous Pamphlets of Roger L'estrange in which I find the Justice of your Majesty's Government arraigned for the Service I did in the Discovery of the Popish Plot. I am exposed by him and his Confederates to the Vengeance of those Men that carried on the Conspiracy against your Royal Person and Government but from them I could have no redress tho as I humbly conceive that the proper way for me to proceed considering the nature of my Complaint and the Circumstances under which I now am Your Majesty when this Popish Plot was first discovered was highly sensible of the danger your Person was in by reason of that Conspiracy so that you were pleased to press your Parliaments to examine it to the bottom and not only so but in all Humility your Majesty did address your self to the Majesty on High and commanded all your Loving Subjects to join with your Majesty in hearty and humble Supplication to Almighty God our Heavenly Father to give a Blessing to the then Discovery of the Popish Plot and to make a farther Discovery thereof and no Man but a Papist will judg any otherwise of your Majesty but that you were in earnest None Sir I say but such will so much as conceive you called Mock-Fasts hence it is that those Blasphemous Cut-throats did compare you to Ahab as I can produce in one of their Pamphlets And besides all this Sir Your Majesty hath been pleased to tell your Loving Subjects how fully you were satisfied in the reality of the Designs of the Popish Party and their Abettors against your Person and Government but by what means it is not yet known that Men have taken the boldness to arraign your Government and charge the Blood of those Jesuits and other Traitors that suffered in that Cause upon you and the Government especially Roger L'estrange who hath abused the Discoverers and Discovery of the Popish Plot And in his seditious Libel called the Observator he as I humbly conceive hath taken a great deal of pains to perswade the Nation that there was no Popish Plot but that it was a meer Fiction the Consequence of which I leave your Majesty to draw Certainly it