and Mr. Hanses The last of whom was Sir Roger your Assistant in your malicious Scriblings and your Brother-Burgess in K. James's Parliament for Winchester They produced for Witnesses about 20 Jesuits and Students of St. Omers who all testified that the Defendant came to St. Omers in December 1677. and went not from thence until June 1678. I shall here observe how these Jesuited Sparks were caressed and cherished both by the Court and Counsel Their Evidence was received without the least Interruption not one cross thwarting or doubting Question being put to any one of them Nay there was not found so much Temper as to permit the Defendant to propose his Questions to them which made him with undaunted Courage cry out That his Defence was under a very great Prejudice and that there was a Turn to be served and therefore he was not admitted to ask the Witnesses Questions and said I do verily believe that at this rate it is more safe for Papists to be Traitors than for any Protestant to discover a Popish Plot. It seems also worth the noting that to insinuate that Oates's Evidence was not always true and credited the King's Counsel produced the Earl of Castlemain and Sir George Wakeman who declared that what he swore against them at their Trials was false Here Jeffries observing the Doctor 's Undauntedness said I wonder to see any one that has the Face of a Man carry it at this rate when he hears such Evidence brought against him To which the Doctor replied I wonder Mr. Attorney will offer to bring this Evidence Jeffries whose Character with K. Charles the Second was that he had the Impudence of ten Carted Whores in a raving Fit retorted Such Impudence was never seen in any Christian Nation you are a Shame to Mankind To which the Doctor 's Reply was No my Lord I am neither a Shame to my self nor to Mankind What I have sworn is true and I will seal it with my Blood if occasion be Ah Ah my Lord I know why all this is and so may the World but THIS WILL NOT DO THE WORK to make the Plot to be disbelieved things are not to be done by great Noises I will stand by the Truth He observed in his Defence that the Indictment against him was six Years after the pretended Perjury That most of the Witnesses who now gave Evidence against him were those who were brought to confront him at the Trial of the five Jesuits and tho there were some fresh Witnesses the Evidence of all of them was the same as then but their Testimony rejected as it was at Langborne's Trial and that the Jury upon convicting the Jesuits were told by the Court that their Verdict was unexceptionable and this by Jeffries himself And Then he produced four or five Witnesses who clearly proved his being in London as he had sworn at the time of the White-horse-Consult in April 1678. After this he offered Objections to the Validity of the Evidence against him As 1. That a Papist in a Cause of Religion is not to be received and believed as a good Witness Here Wythens interposed saying Is not a Papist as good a Witness as a Dissenter Which was answered by citing Bulstrode's Reports Part 2. 155. A Popish Recusant is not to be admitted a Witness between Party and Party which was also my Lord Coke's Opinion Wythens replied May a Presbyterian be a good Witness Mr. Oates And Holloway who had assisted the Blood-hounds to murder Colledge said Or would Colledge have been a good Witness Mr. Oates Most certainly by the Rules of Law the Testimonies of these Persons ought not to have been offered in this Case to delude the People and the Civil Law so fully concurs with our Common Law in rejecting Enemies to be Witnesses in the Cause of their Enemy that it denies Credit to what they may testify in the Cause of their Enemy with their dying Breath after they have received the Eucharist This is the general Conclusion of the Doctors of the Civil Law Inimicus etiamsi in Articulo Mortis constitutus accipisset Eucharistiam repellitur à Testimonio Causa sui Inimici He then urged the Judgments of Papists in Case of Conscience whereby they maintain the vilest Wickedness to be lawful for the Church's Service And they acknowledg they have Dispensations to swear Lies for promoting the Catholick Cause Then he concluded to this effect My Lord this I say The Evidence for which I am indicted is the same which I delivered six Years ago where there were 16 Witnesses against me but what Credit did they receive I do avow the Truth of the Popish Plot and will stand to it whilst I live Was ever Man dealt with as I am or had such Evidence offered against him My Lord this I am sure of if I had been a Witness against those who suffered in the late Fanatick Plot as 't was called I had never been called in question if my Evidence had been false but 't is apparent the Papists have now a Turn to serve and these St. Omers Youths are brought to falsify my Evidence and to bring off the Lords who stand impeached of High Treason for the Popish Conspiracy My Lord 't is not me they indict but the whole Protestant Interest is aimed at in this Prosecution For my own part I care not what becomes of me the Truth will one time or another appear Upon the Day following May 9. 1685. the Doctor was tried upon an Indictment for another supposed Perjury but that Prosecution being of the Complection with what is here presented I trouble not the Reader with it farther than to lay before him the Names of the Jury Sir Thomas Vernon Nicholas Charleton Thomas Langham Thomas Hartop Francis Griffith John Kent George Toriano Henry Loades John Midgley John Pelling Thomas Short and George Peck All Men of the same Kidney still The Juries having according as directed by that Man of Blood Jeffries brought the Doctor in guilty of both the Perjuries comes the Abhorrer of Parliaments the tender-hearted good natur'd Protestant Judg Wythens to pronounce the Sentence previous to it he tells the Defendant that no Christian 's Heart can think of the Innocent Blood which was shed by his Oath without bleeding That every knowing Man believed and every honest Man grieved for it He proceeds God be thanked our Eyes are now open The Judgment besides Imprisonment Fine c. was that on Wednesday next he be whipt from Aldgate to Newgate and upon Friday from Newgate to Tyburn This says Wythens I pronounce to be the Judgment of the Court upon you and I must tell you plainly If it had been in my Power to have carried it farther I should not have been unwilling to have given Judgment of Death upon you This cruel Sentence was executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity so that tho which Wythens lamented the Law did not allow them to condemn him directly to Death they
necessary to make use of both their joint and utmost Credits to prevent the Success of the Parliament's Evil Designs against them both which of his side he promised really to perform Nay which is more do not you remember the Duke tells the French King of a very dangerous Plot against them both My Lord Arlington was incessantly at work to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders and to lessen that of the French King and that he and several others were endeavouring to break the good Intelligence between K. Charles the Second the French King and the Duke wherefore his Royal Highness earnestly sollicites the most Christian King to assist with the help of his Purse to prevent such ROGVERIES You see here is a Triple League against a Triple Confederacy The King of England French King and Duke of York against the Parliament of England the States of Holland and his Royal Highness the Pr. of Orange The French is to furnish the Sinews of War Money The Parliament are declared Enemies K. Charles indeed standing only as a Cypher the French King and the Duke put themselves under the most solemn Engagements to perform what was stipulated and strenuously to assist each other against the Designs of both their Enemies and seeing there was a desperate Design to advance the Prince and to lessen the French the Duke puts in his Memorial to that King demanding his Assistance to prevent such Rogueries But to return to our Narrative The House of Commons is no more to sit No nor was it advisable they should they were proclaimed Enemies to France and to the Duke The French King whose Interest was to be secured in England was fully convinced that they were not only unuseful but very dangerous to both their joint Interests may they ever continue so and it much satisfied the Duke to see his most Christian Majesty altogether of his Opinion in the Point Then with what reason could we expect the use of Parliaments would be continued The Protestant Peers as to be destroyed or excluded the House and the Magpy are to be changed for Purple Bishops And who at this day has the effronted Forehead to say that all this was Fiction Did not they embrew their Hands in the Blood of some of our Nobility And were not more threatned to that degree that 8. Years since no true Protestant Lord in England could at any rate have got his Head or his Seat in Parliament ensured to him for one Year Such was the Case of our Bishops We beheld some of their Diocesses visited by those of the Purple Dye and had not Heaven in a miraculous way delivered them we might not at this day have seen a Black and White One in the Nation In order to the Accomplishment of their sanctified Villanies the Jesuits with the Assistance of French and Irish Papists burnt London and Southwark and that they might the more securely carry on that Design without being detected they cunningly draw in a few silly Fifth-Monarchy-Men and fairly leave them in the lurch to be hang'd as they were about April 1666. When any Popish Plot is near the Point of Execution they ever will have the Dissenters at hand to account for their Villanies The burning this Nest of Hereticks had been concerted both at Rome and Paris and the time for putting it in execution approaching in April 1666 a Fanatick Plot is brought upon the Stage and seven or eight were condemned at the Old-Baily for plotting to kill the King and to burn the City on the 3d Day of September following the very Day the Papists afterwards did it For a more full Account of this I refer the Reader to the London-Gazette of April 30 1666. Numb 48. Thus when they were cock-sure of cutting off K. Charles the Second before Christmass 1678. Mr. Claypole Son-in-Law to Oliver was made close Prisoner in the Tower in July 1678. upon an Accusation of conspiring the Death of the King and it is very probable that had not Dr. Oates's Discovery happily interposed he might have died for it the next Term and the King been soon sent after him Then our Counsels are to be betrayed to France that Part is committed to Mr. Coleman the Duke or Dutchess of York 's Secretary and he is to manage it by a Correspondence with Le Chese Confessor to the French King I cannot with-hold my self from remarking here that this Information was given upon Oath on the 27th of September 1678. before Sir Edmond-Bury Godfrey and before the King and Council the 28th and 29th of that Month that hereupon Coleman was taken up on the 29th and his Papers seized which happily furnished the World with irrefragable Evidence had there been no other of that diabolical Intrigue In fine Trade is to be discouraged that so it was I know none will deny Our Coin was to be adulterated I shall not surely be called upon to prove that that was done to purpose and to crown the day King Charles was not to be reprieved beyond Christmas 1678. and then our Popish Successor was to play us such a Game as never was plaid since the Conquest They mistook the time indeed but the Feat was done and then the Gamester came upon the Stage to play his Game but having an unlucky Hand he quickly plaid himself out and therefore I shall not further pursue him I only say to him as the Welshman did to his Horse There 's a Trick for your Trick and a Stone in your Foot still Proceed we now to the further Narrative of this hellish Conspiracy of which it seems requisite to hint these things Dr. Oates after he had endured a long and most cruel Imprisonment upon a Judgment for 100000 l. Damages given against him to the Duke of York for saying the Duke was a Papist now saw that his irreconcilable Enemy upon the Throne and that he with his Jesuits and corrupt Judges were resolved to run upon him with all their Rage as they did in Easter-Term 1685. ordering him to be tried in the Court of King's-Bench upon two several Indictments for two pretended Perjuries in his Evidence concerning the Plot and that upon the Testimony of those very Popish Witnesses who had confronted him in three several Trials of the Conspirators The Case standing thus with him and remembring that his Life had been several times attempted was now under an Apprehension that they were bent upon his Destruction and therefore in the Month of April 1685. he drew up this ensuing Narrative in the Presence of Sir Robert Thomas Baronet John Arnold and John Dutton-Colt Esqs and having signed it with his own Hand deposited it with a Person of Worth and Quality with whom I am well assured it has ever since remained till upon the 21st of January 1695 6. it was put into my Hands Dr. Oates's further NARRATIVE of the Popish Plot 29 April 1685. THE Malice of my Popish Adversaries being so great that I
upon the first sight of me required of me Whether the Catholick Religion was established in England this was in the Year 1674. in the Month of April and I told him No Why then said he the Dutch War is to no purpose Why said I was our engaging in a War against the Dutch to bring in Popery Well well saith the Friar you will see in time In some few Days we had notice of a Peace with the Dutch What then said he our great King of France is not at Peace with them and he must do the Work In the Year 1675 I had obtained an Interest with Henry Duke of Norfolk then Earl of Norwich and Earl Marshal of England who was very kind to me upon the Account of my contending earnestly for his Right of Presenting to a Living in the Diocess of Chichester to which Living the then Bishop a turbulent Man pretended a Right of Collating And in the Year 1676 I was made his Chaplain and I call the whole Family of the Norfolk Howards to witness to my Fidelity to him and to his Children tho I am but churlishly used by some of them for my Truth and Fidelity to my Lord and Master but God forgive them for their Ingratitude to me especially Charles Howard who owes me more than I shall mention here but I always had a Thought that Popery rendred a Man incapable of being grateful to his Friend I in the Service of the Duke of Norfolk came acquainted with several Priests and being then resolved upon a strict Inquiry into their Designs against us and our Religion and Laws and Liberties I met with one Berry a Priest that had been a Jesuit but had left that Order through some Discontent and Madness that had seized the poor Wretch as he hath told me He was a Scholar in Cambridg was a Minister in England if he told me the Truth then turned Jesuit and then as before left that Order and became a secular Priest and then came to the Church of England and was a Curate at Berking and since is gone to the Church of Rome again This Berry I found a poor zealous Man whose Zeal was far beyond his Knowledg and he fell upon me to come over to their Church and he brought me acquainted with Mr. Langworth a Jesuit who since is dead as he the said Berry hath told me and with Mr. John Keins a great Jesuit and one Mr. Morgan a Jesuit that lived with the Lord Powis in the Year 1676 1677 1678. till the Plot was discovered where he is now I know not I was by Langworth reconciled to the Church of Rome he was then Confessarius to the Ld Petre and his Family and upon my being reconciled I was brought to Mr. Strange the then Provincial of their Order who admitted me into the Society of Jesus when I was admitted it was resolved by the Jesuits that I should pass the time of my Novitiate abroad in dispatching Business for the Society which I chearfully accepted and therefore accordingly they provided for me When I had paid Mr. Luke Roch Commander of the Biscay Merchant Earnest for my Passage to Bilboa the said Strange then Provincial of the Order gave me 100 Pistols for my Supply in order for my Passage into Spain and for my necessary Expences there and ordered me what Money I should need exhorting me to be as good a Husband as I could for they had great Occasions for Money What Letters they sent by me I have set forth in my Narrative but when I had got a competent Knowledg of the Design I found the great Reason why they would murder the late King was because he had deceived them and in Spain they assured me he had been reconciled to their Church and that upon his Reconciliation the Society in Spain had contributed 3000 Pistols to his Support which was paid in by Father Courtney sometime Provincial of the Jesuits in England I say several Letters written to one Father Knot in which the late King did testify his Zeal for the Catholick Religion and promised to restore it whenever he should come to the Enjoiment of his Right in England and that till he had an Opportunity to do it they should have all the Connivance in the World and if the Case should be so hard with him when he came to the Crown that he could not bring about his Desires to make their Religion to be the Religion of the Government yet they should have an Indulgence that should be equivalent however they should not be excluded out of Offices and Employments under him and that they had his Heart and Soul When I found the late King not inclined to believe that he was to he murdered I did in private tell him these things and that the only reason why they did design to take away his Life was because that he had made such Promises to them and assured them he was theirs and that he was reconciled to the Church of Rome when beyond Sea as I had seen by his own Letters The King commanded me to take no notice of his being reconciled to the Church of Rome and declared to me upon the World of a King that now he did believe they had a Design to murder him acknowledging be had written those Letters I had intimated to his Majesty and withal told me if I had come to him privately and acquainted him with the Plot he could of himself have dashed it and though I designed well yet the Discovery of it had created a Jealousy in the People of him Then I acquainted him with his Letters to the Nuns of Ghent when he borrowed Money of them which they waited for several Years here in England now he in that Letter did declare to them he would restore their Religion when he came to his Right and that was another Reason that provoked the Party against him and that St. Germane a French Jesuit had a hand in the Murder of Killigrew's Man when he lay upon the Couch in his Majesty's Cloak Here the King interrupted me and commanded me to take no farther notice of that Business declaring he knew more than I could tell him in that Affair of Killigrew's Man but withal again repeated the great Jealousy the People had of him and that it was much encreased by ill Men that did labour to possess Peoples Minds against him and said unless an extraordinary Care were taken the Phanatick Party would rebel and very much inveighed against the Dissenters and thought himself in as much danger from them as from the Popish Party That upon the Discovery of several Papers found about January 167 8 9 at one Jolliff a Taylor 's I did observe that the late King Charles the First unless his Hand was counterfeited had commissioned several Irish to rise and withal I saw Instructions given to them to give the English no Quarter and I saw a Letter of his to a Titular Bishop the Bishop of Cassal as
court his own Ruine the most of any Man I know and advised me not to meddle nor make with any thing of that nature for saith the Prince either he will cheat and expose you or if he be real there is an old Wife in the Case who will be set on you to draw you off from the good Work you have begun or perhaps which is worse I do farther declare That whereas I have accused the Lord Powis the Lord Bellasis the Lord Arundel of Warder the late Lord Petre the late Lord Stafford I did nothing but what became a good Christian to Almighty God and a good Subject to my Prince and a good English-man to my Countrey for what I have said or sworn of those Lords is the Truth and nothing but the Truth as I shall answer before God another day the same I declare of all my Evidence I gave in to the King and Council and to the two Houses of Parliament And I do declare to all the World That I have not in the least directly or indirectly for the hopes of Gain or any other Reason inducing me thereunto spoken any thing of any Man that I charged to be guilty of the Popish Plot but those who were guilty and those against whom I bore Testimony at the Old-Baily or at the King's-Bench Court I swore nothing but what was true This I declare as I shall answer it before God in the next World And whereas it hath been reported by the Popish Party and published by Roger L'Estrange in his Pamphlet called the Observator that I swore against the Jesuits because they would not admit me to be of their Society I do declare that that Order did receive and admit me a Jesuit and that they were always the most obliging Persons to me in the World till they found that I had discovered those vile Designs of Murdering the late King and Subverting the Protestant Religion and Government as by Law established both in Church and State and though maliciously they did and do still aver I was never admitted Doctor of Divinity at Salamanca I do declare solemnly to all the World I was admitted Doctor of Divinity at the said University of Salamanca and did all my Exercise for the said Degree that was required of me The Enemies of the Protestant Religion have endeavoured to blast me with many infamous Crimes to render me useless in my Testimony relating to the Popish Plot the Grand Adversary Roger L'Estrange being ready to print in his vile Pamphlet the Observator any thing that might tend to my Disadvantage But I bless God I was never sly in my Conversation so that the several Lies by him printed have been detected and Gainsayers silenced I thought it not inconvenient to let the World know that the late King was a mortal hater of Parliaments for in his Letter to the French King bearing date in June 1676 he wrote thus That if he could be assured of a Pension that might continue he should not continue that way of Governing viz. by frequent Parliaments which at the best was but a clamorous Rabble that took upon them to direct Kings but as he was resolved to be like his Neighbours in Riches and Grandieur so he was resolved to be like them in Religion too This was the Effect and Purport of that Letter a Copy of which was shewed me by John Keynes and Basiâ— Langworth but said Keynes the French King was too old to be cullied out of his Money by a Man that was so uncertain I do in the last place declare That I am ready to seal with my Blood the Truth of my Evidence that I have given in relation to the Substantial Part and Circumstantial Parts thereof I have done no Man wrong that I have charged and as I have done Right to the World in relation to the Popish Plot so I protest I did discharge a good Conscience in the Discovery of that Vile Sham called the Oxford Plot for which poor Colledg was basely murdered there in a form of Law and Justice and that I look on as the worst of Murders I renounce all Anarchical Levelling Principles and detest all the Practices of those who have held and maintain'd those Principles I judging them as dangerous to our English Monarchy as Popery is to the Protestant Religion All this I declare together with my Narrative that is printed to be true April 29 1685. I declare I have signed every Page of these Papers with the Day and Year above-written in the Presence of Sir Robert Thomas Baronet John Arnold Esq and John Dutton-Colt Esq and the same Day I delivered it to them Titus Oates April 29 1685. TO this foregoing Narrative I shall now subjoin Copies of several of Dr. Oates's Letters to King Charles and King James the Second and to divers of the Ministers of State in that time and of his Petition to King Charles and submit it to the Reader 's Judgment whether his undaunted and never to be shaken Stedfastness in adhering to and avowing the Truth of his Discovery his plain Dealing with those Princes his gallant Resistance of the highest Temptations and his just Regard to the Interest and Rights of his Countrey and to the brave Assetors thereof all which are before made evident did not equal the unparallel'd Tortures and heavy Oppression under which he so long groan'd and from which he had no prospect and very little hope of Deliverance Now let the Reader reflect upon the two first of these Letters and wonder if he can when he finds the Doctor thrown off by King Charles I do not say when he sees him out of his Favour for he never had it but as it appears by the foregoing Rerlation of his Troubles what he there gained so I shall here observe what he lost and both by his uncorruptible Integrity This cannot be done but by beginning where he began at his first Discovery That no way pleased the King nor could it for it spoil'd a well-laid Plot to which he was no Stranger save to that part which touch'd his Life therefore that he might stand as far as possible out of the reach of Suspicion he dissembles himself alarm'd presses the searching the Plot to the bottom appoints Mock-Fasts and what not and as to the Doctor assigns him an Apartment in Whitehall allows him daily a Table of six Dishes Wine and every thing proportionable and also 40 s. per Week This was continued till April 1679 then besides the 40 s. his Allowance was changed to 10 l. per Week which he received till Midsummer 1680 when a stop was put to the Paiment thereof But in November following upon the Address of the House of Lords the King gave him 200 Guinea's for his Arrears and ordered him the Allowance of 10 l. per Week which was constantly paid till the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament at which time the King taking a Resolution not to be further troubled with unuseful and