guilty Consciences of those Gentlemen that the World hath not been long since more fully satisfied as to every particular for Dr. Du Moulin in the first Edition of his Book Ann. 1662. had challenged them to call him to an Account for affirming that the Rebellion was raised and promoted and the King murthered by the Arts of the Court of Rome the Book came to a fourth Edition in all which he renewed the Challenge and in the last in these words I have defied them now seventeen years to call me in question before our Judges and so I do still affirming that certain Evidence of what he asserted should be produced whenever Authority shall require it I remember once a Jesuite attempted to prove the truth of the Nag's-Head Ordination because that Charge had been laid to our Church some years before any offered to confute it or to produce the Lambeth Record which he affirmed was an evident sign that the thing was true or else having such means to confute it they would not have been so long silent what then may we think of those Gentlemen who had so heavy a crime charged on them and yet for near twenty years together never called the Accuser to account The Doctour always refused to produce his Evidences till required by Authority only he gives us this Account That the Papers of Resolution in favour of the Murther when it was found to be generally detested were by the Pope's Order gathered up and burnt but a Roman Catholick in Paris refused to deliver one in his possession but shewed it to a Protestant Friend and related to him the whole carriage of the Negotiation And I am sure if the Protestants had been under such an Imputation the Papists would make good use of their silence to prove their Guilt But farther to shew their aversion to the Royal party no sooner had the Rebels of Ireland in consideration of the straits they were in made a cessation for some time with the Lord Inchequin but the Nuncio excommunicated all who observed it and upon the conclusion of a second Peace with the Duke of Ormond His Majesty's Lieutenant the Assembly of the Bishops and Clergy at James-Town renounced it and as much as in them lay restored the former confederacy anew but of this we shall have a farther account in its due place In the mean while Reilly Vicar General to the A. B. of Dublin betrayed the Royal Camp of Rathmines to Coll. Jones Governour of Dublin for the Parliament which service he afterwards pleaded for himself to the safety of his Life which was in danger for his cruel Actions in the Rebellion and he well deserved more than bare safety from those men that defeat being the total ruine of His Majesty's Affairs in Ireland At the same time the Rebels in France encreased both in Insolence and Power daily the Coadjutour of Paris going to St. Germains in obedience to the Queens Commands was tumultuously stopt by the People who hindered the Nobility from following the King and broke their Coaches the Parliament forbad all places to receive any Garisons from the King listed men and resolved upon a War the Duke D'Elbease Duke of Lonqueirlle Prince Marsil liack afterwards D. of Rochfecault the Prince of Conty and many other persons of the greatest Quality joining with them Soon after Normandy and Poictou declared for the Parisians who sent Deputies to call in the Spaniards to assist them but these Troubles being in a little time appeased new ones began in Provence and Guienne the Parliaments of those Provinces prosecuting the War with great fury declared they would have no pardon from the King and one Gage a Priest endeavoured to persuade them to take the Sovereign Power on themselves which they declined but to maintain the War they treated with the Spaniards for Assistance both of Men and Moneys This Year the Prince of Conde joined himself to the Troudeurs which was the usual Nickname of the discontented Party but finding that they intended the advancement of Chasteau Neuf his mortal Enemy he left them in disgust however the Parisians made several Insurrections and upon the Imprisonment of that Prince an open Rebellion broke out in Berry whose Example was followed by Normandy and Burgundy to support which the Spaniards agreed to contribute 2000 Foot and 3000 Horse besides great Summes of Money and soon after the Parliament of Bourdeaux declared for the Rebells During these Transactions the Popish Bishops of Ireland met at James-Town published a Declaration against all that should adhere to the D. of Ormond His Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant in that Kingdom upon which my Authour makes this remark that if the Archbishops c. in Ireland will take upon them to declare against the King's Authority where His Majesty hath placed it they assume an Authority to themselves that no other Clergy ever pretended to and declare sufficiently to the King how far they are from being Subjects or intend to pay him any Obedience longer than they are governed in such manner and by such Persons as they think fit to be pleased with But not satisfied with refusing Obedience to the King's Commissioner the Confederates agreed that if compounding with the Parliament should be best for the People they should doe it And presently after the Marquess of Clauricard had at their request taken the Government upon him in his Majesty's Name it was proposed in their Assembly that they might send to the Enemy to treat with them upon surrendring all that was left into their hands Thus did they chuse rather to submit to the Parliament than obey the King for they were not forced to that Submission the army of the Enemy having made no progress at that time neither had it been flusht with any new Success As forward was Father Bret to persuade the Gentlemen who had defended the Castle of Jersey for the King to renounce the Royal Family and Kingly Government by taking the Engagement affirming that they were not to acknowledge any Supreme but the prevailing Power All this while the Rebellion in France increased the Parisians took Arms designing to seize the King and the Prince of Conde fortified several places and confederated with the Spaniards whom under the Conduct of the Duke of Nemours he called into France to his Assistance with which he maintained the War all this Year to whom the Duke of Orleance joined himself and with all his Interest increased the Party The next year Mr. Tho. White published his Book of the Grounds of Obedience and Government wherein he asserts That if a Prince governs ill he becomes a Robber and the People may expell him in which case they are not bound by any Promise made to him and that they have no Obligation to endeavour the Restauration of a Prince so dispossessed of his Dominions but rather to hinder it nay though he were wrongfully
which possess'd their Head in such a degree that upon the Resignation of the Emperour Charles the Fifth Ferdinand his Brother was rejected by the Pope who affirmed That none had power to Resign but into his hands and so it belong'd to him to nominate a Successor not to the Electors but he kept the Imperial Crown though the Pope would never acknowledge him for Emperour With the same Haughtiness did he demean himself towards Sir Edward Karn the English Agent at Rome who acquainting him by order from her Majesty of Queen Elizabeth's Accession to the Crown the Pope answer'd That the Kingdom of England was held in Fee of the Apostolick See that she being Illegitimate could not succeed and therefore it was great boldness in her to assume the Government without his leave yet if she would renounce her Title and refer all to him he would act as became his Honour But the Queen took no care to satisfie this blustering Gentleman who soon after dyed But the Pope who succeeded him Pius the Fourth issued out a strict Bull commanding all the Learned of that Church to find out Arguments to persuade Subjects to break their Oaths of Allegiance in favour of the Apostolick See in order to which he granted several Dispensations to preach among the Protestants of England and to marry if need were And the same year his good Sons in Ireland by their example shewed their Obedience to it for Shan O Neale Earl of Tyrone rebelled but finding himself too weak submitted and had his Pardon though not till two years after In the mean while viz. the next year the Pope's Nuncio in Ireland joyn'd himself to the Rebels publickly assisting them and by his Authority pronounced the Queen deprived of that Kingdom But the year following though the Irish submitted yet Arthur Pool and others contriv'd to joyn themselves with the Duke of Guise land an Army in Wales and Proclaim the Queen of Scots to which the following Pope afterwards added his endeavours to get our Queen Murthered as the Writer of his Life informs us But in the mean time that it might not be said of this that he neglected any thing for the advantage of his Supreme Power to keep his hand in ure he published a Monitory against the Queen of Navarre declaring That if she did not turn Romanist within six Months he would deprive her of her Dominions and give them to any that would conquer them but the King of France promising to stand by her his terrible Threat serv'd only to shew how ready he was to Depose all Princes that offended him if his Power had been equal to his Will. And in this year it was that the Council of Trent made that excellent Decree whereby they confirmed all the Canons of Popes and Councils which set the Pope above Princes gave him Power over them and exempted the Clergy from being subject to them thereby endeavouring to Depose all Princes who knew themselves and their Rights too well to truckle under the usurped Power of their Supreme Head. But though the Pope could not send any Sovereign Prince of his Errand to destroy the House of Navarre yet such obedient Sons were the Cardinal of Lorrain and the rest of the House of Guise that they resolv'd its Ruine To which End they sent Captain Dimanche into Spain to get Assistance there designing to fall upon Bearn seize the Queen of Navarre the young King and his Sister and send them to the Inquisition in Spain to be proceeded against as Hereticks but this Design was discovered and so came to nothing But in the same year we are informed by one of the English Spies at Rome That the Pope granted Indulgences and Pardons to any Person that should assault Queen Elizabeth either in private or publick or to any Cook Baker Vintner Physician Brewer Grocer Chirurgion or any other Calling that should make her away together with an absolute Remission of Sins to such Person 's Heirs and an Annuity for ever and to be one of the Privy Council successively whosoever Reigned To the Endeavours of the Pope O Neale likewise added his by rebelling again and murthering the English committing the most barbarous Cruelties imaginable but his Power was broken in a pitcht Battel the year following notwithstanding which he continued his Rebellion till two years after when he was Stabb'd by Alexander Oge whose Brother he had slain before But though the Rebels had such ill success yet the Pope will not be disheartened but the next year sends one Rodolpho a rich Florentine Gentleman into England to stir up the People against the Queen To him the King of Spain joins the Marquess of Cetona who under the pretence of an Embassy was sent over to countenance the Rebellion and command the Forces which the Duke of Alva should send from the Low Countries in order to which La Motte Governour of Dankirk had come privately iu the Habit of a Sailer to sound the Ports Rodolphâ— was furnished with plenty of Money from the Pope which he distributed to make a Party into which they drew the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland with others who perceiving their Plot discovered submitted and begged Pardon This Design the Pope was so zealous for that he assured the Spaniards he would go along with them himself if need were and engage all his Goods and Treasure in the Service Nor was this the only Design of the Pope at this time for in pursuit of his Predecessour's Bull against her he advised the Queen-Mother of France to seize on the Dominions of the Queen of Navarre because she was an Heretick offering if she approved of it by his Papal Authority to appoint one of the House of Valois to be King of those Territories which if she did not like he was resolved to give them to the King of Spain but that Prince knowing they must be won by the Sword declined accepting the Pope's Bounty Hitherto the Members of the Church of Rome made no scruple to resort to the Protestant Churches both for Prayer and Preaching but this Year Pope Pius Quintus published his Bull against the Queen upon which they all withdrew from any such Communion with us In this Bull the Pope calls the Queen the pretended Queen of England a Servant of Wickedness affirms that her Council consisted of obscure heretical Fellows declares her an Heretick and cut off from the Unity of Christ's Body that she is deprived of her Title to her Kingdoms and of all Dominion Dignity and Privilege whatsoever and her Subjects absolved from all manner of Duty and Obedience to her and that by the Authority of this Bull he doth absolve Them and depose Her and forbidding all her Subjects under pain of Anathema to obey her With this Bull he sends Morton a Priest into England to spread this
Rebellion against Henry the Third but the Roman Catholicks of his Army refused to obey him any longer unless he would become a Romanist nay there were many of that Party found who absolutely renounced him and joined with the Rebels some few only remaining loyal by which defection of the greatest part of his Army he was forced to raise the Siege for his own Security Things standing in this posture the Pope fearfull lest any Rebellion should be prosecuted without his assistance sent a Legate into France with great Summes of Money for the Leaguers who was accompanied with Bellarmine afterwards Cardinal and a famous Defender of the Deposing Power To encourage them farther the King of Spain by his Declaration exhorted all to join with him against the Hereticks of France protesting he designed nothing but the advancement of the Catholick Religion and Extirpation of Heresie And the Parisians were so poisoned in their Principles that the City being straitened by the King's Forces and Provisions failing they threw several into the River for murmuring at the hardships they endured About this time the Cardinal of Bourbon their pretended King dyed upon which the States were summoned to meet for the Election of another and for the encouragement of the People the Legate ordered a Procession of all the Religious Orders who to shew their Zeal marched in order armed like Soldiers the Bishop of Senlis leading them and their Relicks carried before them at which the Cardinal Legate was present in his Coach and the Parliament forbad any upon pain of Death to talk of any agreement with the King in which madness the Parliament of Roan had led the way who decreed That whoever joined with the King should be guilty of High Treason and put several Prisoners to death only because they were the King's Servants Nor could all the prodigious straits to which Paris was reduced incline that headstrong People to Obedience the Famine was so great as no Age can shew the like all eatable things were devoured and but one little Dog to be found in all the City which the Dutchess of Montpensier kept for her self and refused two thousand Crowns only for its Brains yet was the Rebels Obstinacy as great as ever accounting those who dyed of Famine Martyrs and continuing as intent upon the War as in their plenty but finding force not successfull they again employed Assassins of whom two Franciscan Friars and a Priest were seized by the King at St. Denis in a Secular Habit who confessed there were three and twenty more besides themselves who had sworn the King's Death at length the City was relieved by the Duke of Parma's Army and the King raising the Siege retired But as we have not hitherto found a Plot without a Priest in it so they contributed all they could to the vigorous resistance which the Leaguers made For the Doctours of the Sorbon finding some Propositions spread about the City importing that Henry of Bourbon ought to be King and that the Pope hath no Power of Dominion over Sovereign Princes presently condemned them which Decree was confirmed by the Legate and sworn to by the Bishops and Curates But not content with this the same Faculty on May 7. this year decreed by an unanimous Vote That all Catholicks by divine Law are forbid to admit any Prince that is an Heretick or a favourer of Hereticks That if he should procure an Absolution for his Heresie yet if there be evident danger of his Hypocrisie he is by divine Law to be rejected That whosoever endeavours that he should be King ought to be opposed And then they apply all to Henry of Bourbon affirming That there is evident danger of Hypocrisie and therefore though he should obtain Sentence of Absolution yet the French are obliged to keep him from the Crown and abhor the thoughts of making peace with him That those who favour him are deserters of Religion and remain in continual mortal Sin but such as oppose him every way they can invent do merit very much both of God and Man and they who are slain in the Cause are to be reputed Champions for the Faith and shall obtain an everlasting Crown of Martyrdom And soon after they renewed this and their former Decrees and when the City was so very much straitened they wrote a Letter to the Pope complaining that his Legate had not proceeded with severity enough against the King commending Bourgogn and other Rebels who were executed calling them Maintainers and Defenders of the Truth and earnestly supplicating for assistance from his Holiness who besides what Power he exerted by his Legate sent them fifty thousand Crowns for a Supply Thus they went on with an excessive Spleen against the King in France but the Jesuites attempting to doe the same things in Transilvania were expelled the Countrey yet in Scotland their Designs went on from whence William Creighton the Jesuite went into Spain into whose King he so insinuated himself that he resolved to be guided by his Advice both for the invading England and the alteration of Religion in Scotland which was the Account himself gave of his Negotiation by a Message to the Earl of Huntley desiring as many blanks and Procurations as could be had of the Scottish Noblemen for the greater Credit of his Agitations In the mean time the Duke of Mayenne solicited the Pope and Spaniard for aid and entred into an Obligation with the Duke of Lorrain and others not to admit any to the Crown except he were of their Family but if they failed in that to exclude all who were not of the Roman Catholick Religion But the Leaguers drew up a Letter and sent it to the King of Spain affirming that it was the desire of all the Catholicks to see his Catholick Majesty sway the Sceptre of that Kingdom and reign over them or that he would appoint some of his Posterity offering the Crown to the Infanta Isabella that King's Daughter in particular And to make all sure within themselves they contrived a new Oath whereby not onely the King but all the Bloud Royal were excluded from the Crown and set up a Court of Justice to proceed against the Royalists In which rebellious Actions they were encouraged by the Pope Greg. 14. who sent a Nuncio into France with two Bulls one interdicting the Clergy if within 15 days they forsook not the obedience and Part of the King and depriving them of all their Benefices if they left him not within thirty days the other threatening the Nobility and all others with the Papal Curse if they assisted that Heretick Persecutour Excommunicated Person who was justly deprived of his Dominions which were the mild Expressions with which this meek Servant of Servants treated that great Prince And farther to shew his Fatherly care of the Rebels he sent an Army to their relief under the Command of his Nephew and allowed
pleases And then they proceed to shew That the Bull in favour of the Rebells was not procured by surreption but proceeded from the Pope's own Inclination to them and that the permission given to the Roman Catholicks to obey her extended only to such Obedience as doth not oppugn the Catholick Religion which the assisting Her against Tyrone doth And this Declaration is dated the seventh of March. 1602. And it could be nothing less than such an extraordinary encouragement that could render the Irish so audacious as they were upon the Queen's Death in Limrick they seized the Churches and set up Mass in them the same they did at Waterford in the Cathedral and at the Sessions House they pulled down the Seats of Justice in Cork they refused to proclaim the King and by Force opposed the Commissioners they went in a solemn Procession took the Sacrament to spend their Lives in defence of the Roman Catholick Religion wrote to several Cities to assist them seized upon the King's stores and assaulted his Forces alledging that he could not be lawfull King because he was not appointed by the Pope And for their farther satisfaction the University of Salamanca subscribed the Declaration which the Jesuites made the year before and the Divines of Valedolid did the same About this time the Jesuites laboured to get the Sentence of their Banishment out of France reversed the Pope interposing his Mediation in their Favours upon which the Parliament of Paris attempted to dissuade the King from consenting to it by a long Oration alledging That it was their avowed Doctrine That the Pope hath a Power of Excommunicating Kings that a King so Excommunicated by his Holiness is no other than a Tyrant whom the People may oppose that Clergy-men are exempt from the Prince's Power are none of his Subjects and cannot be punish'd by him for any Crimes And having enumerated several of their Treasons they affirm That it is absolutely necessary for them to renounce these Doctrines or else France cannot with safety admit them to return But though they were very desirous of Admission they would not renounce those Positions for it however by importunity and the solicitation of the Pope and others they were at length received but upon Conditions Two of which were That they should build no Colleges without express Permission from the King and that one of their number should be always near the King to be accountable for the Actions of the Society Thus were they admitted but marks of Distrust set upon them though they have by their Address turn'd the latter of these Conditions which was at first design'd for their Disgrace into a mark of Honour the King's Confessour being ever since a Jesuite Though the Gun-powder Plot was not ripe for Execution till two years after yet they were consulting about it at this time when after a long complaint of their Grievances Mr. Percy told Mr. Catesby that there was no way but to kill the King and he was resolv'd to doe it But to that Gentleman desired him not to be so rash for he had laid a surer Design which would certainly effect it without any danger to themselves and then imparted to him the Contrivance of blowing up the King and Parliament Which Design in May the following year the Conspiratours obliged themselves by Oath upon the Holy Sacrament to keep secret Catesby justifying the Action by the Breves which the Pope had sent to exclude King James it being as lawfull to cast him out as to oppose his Entrance and Bates another of the Conspiratours was assured by the Jesuite Greenwell that the Cause and Action were good and therefore it was his Duty to conceal it Upon the approaching of the Parliament they began to work endeavouring to make a Mine under the Parliament-house but soon after Percy hired a Cellar in which they stowed the Gun-powder with Billets heap'd upon it to hide it in case of search The May before the Plot was to be executed there was an Insurrection of the Romanists in Wales but it was soon supprest yet all things went on in order to the fatal blow when about a week before the Parliament was to sit the Design was discovered and so prevented upon which the Conspiratours flew into Rebellion but were all either killed or taken by the Sheriff of Worcestershire The King in his Speech to the Parliament soon after told them that Faux confessed that they had no other cause moving them to the Design but merely and only Religion which was acknowledged by Sir Everard Digby at his Tryall to be the chief Motive which enduced him to make one among them and which he resolved to hazard his Life his Estate and all to introduce protesting that if he had thought there had been the least sin in the Plot he would not have been of it for all the World and the Reason why he kept it secret was because those who were best able to judge of the Lawfulness of it had been acquainted with it and given way unto it and therefore afterwards he calls it the best Cause The Persons upon whose Authority he so much relied were the Jesuites who asserted the holiness of the Action for Garnet their Superiour had affirmed that it was lawfull and Father Hammond absolved them all after the Discovery when they were in open Rebellion and Greenwell the Jesuite rode about the Countrey to excite as many as he could to joyn with them nay Garnet confessed that Catesby in his name did satisfie the rest of the Lawfulness of the Fact. Parsons had kept a Correspondency with that Jesuite to promote it and at the same time not willing to discover it to them and yet desirous of their Prayers ordered the Students of his College at Rome to pray for the Intention of their Father Rectour And after the Discovery Father Hall encouraged some of the Traitors who began to doubt that the Action was unlawfull seeing God had defeated it in so providential a manner telling them that we must not judge of the Cause by the Event that this was no more than what happened to the Eleven Tribes when they went up at first to fight against Benjamin and that the Christians were often defeated by the Turks nay so highly was it approv'd by that Order that not to mention here the Honours done to the Conspiratours since their Deaths several Jesuites gloried in and bragg'd of it for a little before the Discovery Father Flood caused the Jesuites at Lisbon to spend a great deal of Money in Powder on a Festival day to try the force of it and persuaded one John How a Merchant and other Catholicks to go over into England and expect their Redemption there And Father Thompson was wont afterwards to boast to his Scholars at Rome how oft his Shirt was wetted with digging under the
in this the Pope published a Jubilee granting Indulgence to all but those of Interdicted places this he expected would make the People murmur but he was deceived in that point too so that he declared in a full Consistory that he would have War with the State of Venice and called the Spaniards to his aid but finding the Senate resolute in Defence of their Rights he was glad to recall his Bull and make a Peace with them and though he earnestly pressed for the Restauration of the Jesuites yet he could not obtain it About this time the Oath of Allegiance being established by Law the Romanists sent to Rome to know what they should doe in this Case where it was consulted by seven or eight of their learnedest Divines who all agreed that the Pope's Power of chastizing Princes is a Point of Faith and consequently cannot be denied without denying of the Faith and the Pope told Father Parsons and Fitzherbert he could not hold those for Catholicks who took the Oath which he soon after declared by his Breve addressed to the Romanists of England Septemb 22. 1606. wherein he affirms That they cannot without most evident and grievous wronging of God's Honour bind themselves by the Oath seeing it contains many things contrary to Faith and Salvation But when some Romanists who had taken it began to question the Breve willing to think it was obtained from his Holiness by surreption he sent †another to undeceive them wherein he blames them for entertaining such thoughts and assures them That it was written upon mature deliberation and therefore they are bound fully to observe it rejecting all interpretation to the contrary upon which several who were willing before refused it some of whom were imprisoned It is an hard thing for men accustomed to doe evil to learn to doe well which Truth Tyr-Oen is a great Example of for notwithstanding after his frequent Rebellions he was pardoned by King James and received into favour yet returning into Ireland he began new Contrivances and fearing he was discovered fled this year into Flanders which caused the King to publish a severe Proclamation against him from thence he went to Rome where he was maintained at the Pope's charge till his death This same Year Parsons published his Treatise tending to Mitigation wherein he labours to take off the imputation of rebellious Principles from the Romanists and yet he tells us in the same Book That this is Catholick Doctrine that in publick Perils of the Church and Common-Wealth Christ our Saviour hath not left us wholly remediless but besides the natural Right which each Kingdom hath to defend themselves in certain cases he left also supreme Power in his High Priest and immediate Substitute to direct and moderate that Power and to add also of his own when extraordinary Need requireth though with great deliberation Where we have a plain justification of the Pope and People's Power to depose and resist their Princes a most excellent Argument to clear the Papists of Disloyalty Though we find no Plots discovered this year in England yet in Transilvania the Jesuites were employed in poisoning Stephen Potscay the Prince And in France Father Cotton recommended a Spaniard to the King who had not been in the Court many hours when the King had Intelligence of his coming from Barcellona purposely to poison him upon this he sent for Father Coton who desired his Majesty not to give any Credit to the advice and when the King ordered him to produce the Spaniard he pretended to seek him but at his return told his Majesty that he was escaped and he could not find him This year the Pope sent another Breve into England directed to the Arch-Priest forbidding him to take the Oath and commanding him to deprive all Priests of their Faculties who took it except they immediately renounc'd it prohibiting likewise the resort of any to the Protestant Churches At the same time Divines of Italy Germany and France wrote against it all grounding their Exceptions upon this that it takes away the Pope's Power of Deposing Kings So rebellious had the Writings and Practices of the Jesuites been that the Bohemians petition'd the Emperour against them and the Valesian Magistrates refused to admit them because wherever they came they distrurbed the publick Peace and were under such a tie of blind Obedience that if their Superiour enjoin'd them a treasonable Attempt they must obey They had made it their Business for some time to endeavour to get footing in Transilvania but when all their Importunity could not prevail they engaged several of the Nobility in a Design against the Prince's Life which proceeded so far that one of the Conspiratours attempted to run him through but was prevented and several of his Companions taken the rest escaped And now King Henry the Great of France having amassed a very considerable Treasure prepared for some great Design which the Romanists grew so jealous of that they secretly caused several to subscribe their Obedience to the Pope in a Book which was kept on purpose it was half written through and some names subscribed in bloud several Designs were formed against his Life four Piedmontiers a Lorrainer and three others conspired his Death advice was given of several other Plots from many other places and Reports were spread in foreign parts that he was killed Father Hardy in his Sermon at St. Severius in Paris reflecting upon the King's Treasure said That Kings heaped up Treasures to make themselves feared but there needed but a blow to kill a King. All these were but Fore-runners of that horrid Murther which was committed in a few Weeks after by Ravilliac once a Monk who stabbed him to the Heart with a poisoned Knife as he was going to the Arsenal in his Coach so that he expired in an instant upon his Examination he confesâ—ed that he resolved to murther the King who he supposed had a Design to make War upon the Pope because making War against his Holiness is the same as to make War against God seeing the Pope was God and God was the Pope and that he had revealed his Design to the Jesuite d' Aubigny in Confession and shewed him the Knife and that he had heard several of that Order maintain the Lawfulness of it in their Sermons No sooner was the King dead but the Jesuites desired leave to teach Schools in their Colleges which acquest the Parliament took into consideration and required that they should first declare That it is unlawfull for any Person to conspire the death of the King that no Ecclesiastick hath any Power over the Temporal Rights of Princes and that all are to render the same Obedience to their Governours which Christ gave to Caesar. These Positions were proposed to them to subscribe but they refused to doe it without
Kingdom declares all Leagues made with him by any Princes void exhorting them to endeavour his Ruine with their whole power bestowing all the Goods of his Adherents upon such as would seize them commanding all Bishops to declare the King and his Followers Excommunicate and denouncing the same Censures against whosoever should hinder the publication of this Bull. This piece of prodigious Impudence and Vanity would not satisfie the Pope but he immediately set his Instruments to work to prosecute the design of his thundering Bull so that the beginning of the next year this Letter was written from Paris to one Fryar Forrest Brother WE behold how the King is changed from a Christian to an Heretick and how he hath robb'd Christ's Vicar of his Rights and Privileges by placing himself in his Holiness's Seat there as Supreme over the Catholick Church within the Realm It was the late damn'd Assembly of Lords and Commons furthered his Pride otherwise he could not nor durst not assume it to himself We have thought of these passages and do agree That there is no way to break this Tyrant's Neck but one Puff him up in his Pride and let our Friends say unto him That it is beneath so mighty a Monarch as he to advise with Parliaments but to act all in Person and that it behooveth his Majesty to be chief Actor himself If he assumes this it will take off great Blemishes from the Nation which the Church holds them guilty of and doe our Business For then the People it being contrary to their Laws will fall from him also the Catholick Party of his Council will be too strong for the Hereticks and then the Common sort will be the abler to declare his Tyranny This is to be contriv'd with the Church's Members and cautiously because it is observed that the Parliaments of England have hindred the Church in most of the Kings Reigns otherwise She had held her Party better than She does now You have our Convent's hearty Prayers for your Guide From St. Francis at Paris Primo Id. Jan. 1536. Thomas Powell This Letter was found two years after among Father Forrest's Papers together with an account of vast Summes which he had expended for the Church of Rome and her Designs But this Design not being sufficient the Pope offered England to James the Fifth King of Scots and presented him with a Cap and consecrated Sword. When that Offer of what was none of his succeeded not according to his Desires the same Pope Paul the 3d. by his Bull of the year following absolv'd in general all Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance unto Heretical Kings Princes and States as they be Enemies unto the Holy See of St. Peter all Men from the tye of their Heretical Wives Wives from their Heretical Husbands c. which was accompanied with a Rebellion in Lincolnshire under the Conduct of one Mackarel a Monk to the number of Twenty thousand against whom the King prepar'd to march in Person but their first Fury being over they embraced the King's Pardon and returned home But this Commotion was succeeded by another more dangerous led by the Lord Lumley several Knights and Gentlemen with most of the Clergy this Army in the North consisted of 40000 Men well Armed who call'd themselves the Holy Pilgrimage and the Pilgrimage of Grace they had the Five Wounds of our Lord the Chalice and the Host painted in their Standard and the Name of Jesus upon their Sleeves their whole pretence was for Religion in their March they took Pontefract Castle but were at length appeas'd But soon after the same Persons raised another Insurrection in which several Monks came armed into the Field as Souldiers who were taken and with the Ring-leaders of the Rebellion Executed Two years after if not the next year to the last Rebellion for some place it in the year 1538. the Marquess of Exceter the Lord Montacute and his Brother Sir Edward Nevill and others enter'd into a Conspiracy to depose the King and advance Reynold Pool then Dean of Exceter and afterwards Cardinal to the Throne for which the Marquess Lord Montacute and Sir Edward Nevill were Beheaded upon Tower-Hill In the year 1546. Pope Paul the Third not content with his shewing his pretended Authority over Kings in the two Bulls mention'd before published another in favour of the Jesuits whereby he exempts them and their Goods from the Power of any but himself and commands all Princes to swear not to molest the Society or invade their Privileges and pronounces an Anathema against all who will not obey the Bull. Two years after this King Edward the Sixth being settled in the Throne one Body a Commissioner pulling down Images by the King's Order was stabbed by a Priest and a Rebellion was rais'd in Cornwall Humphrey Arundell Governour of the Mount with other Gentlemen gathering together Ten thousand Men besieged Exceter and reduc'd it to very great Extremity declaring they would have Popery and the Six Articles restor'd They fought four several Battels with the King's Forces but at last were entirely Routed and their Leaders Executed Yet the next year in Norfolk they Rebell'd again and when the King sent them his Pardon they refus'd it after which they took the City of Norwich and fir'd it beat the Marquess of Northampton and were very near Defeating the Earl of Warwick whose Cannon they took and refus'd the King's Pardon a second time but were at length Defeated and so were another Party who took Arms upon the same Account that year in Yorkshire There were other Insurrections in this King's time which I will not at present mention only observe what is confess'd by a late noted Authour of the Romish Church That these Risings of the Laity in such numbers for their former way of Religion would not have been had not their Clergy justified it unto them After this we find that Pope Paul the Fourth following the steps of his thundering Name-sake when the Dyet of the Germans at Ausburgh made an Edict for full Liberty of Conscience whereby the Protestants were maintain'd in the Possession of their Church Revenues fell into a furious rage publickly threatening the Emperour and King of the Romans That he would make them repent it protesting that if he did not recall the Edict he would proceed against them with as severe Censures as he intended to use against the Protestants telling all the Ambassadors in his Court That he was above all Princes that he expected not that they should treat with him as with their Equal that he could alter and take away Kingdoms as he thought good And one day at Dinner in the presence of many Persons of the highest Quality he affirmed That he would subject all Princes under his Foot. No wonder then that the same Spirit of Opposition to Princes actuate the Members of the Church
Christ and Holy Priest one that had taken deep root in the Foundations of the Faith and of sound Learning that the Loyalty of the Romanists depends upon the Will of man except they will affirm their Pope to be more than man which is a point they have been put in mind of from Rome itself since His Majesties Restauration as we shall observe anon This Qualification of the Bull was granted to Parsons and Campion two Jesuites upon their coming into England when among other things they desired of the Pope That the Bull should always oblige Elizabeth and the Hereticks but by no means the Romanists as Affairs now stand but hereafter when the publick Execution of the Bull may be had or made Furnished with this and other Faculties those two Gentlemen repared into England setting themselves to contrive a way how to set Her Majesties Crown upon another head at first they came in the Habits of Soldiers afterwards they went about in the Garb of Gentlemen and in the North they altered their Habits into the Vestments of our Ministers preaching there and being secretly entertained by the Popish Gentry and Nobility courageously executed their Commission in discharge of which Parsons exhorted the Roman Catholicks of those parts to deprive Her Majesty of the Crown and the way being thus broken many flocked after them for the same purpose At this time Mr. Sherwin being apprehended and asked whether the Queen were his lawfull Sovereign notwithstanding any Sentence of the Pope's he desired no such questions might be demanded of him and would give no other Answer But the Pope well knowing that this Generation of sturdy blades would in time be all gone for the breeding up of more to succeed them assisted Allen in setting up the Seminary at Doway for English Romanists allowing an annual Pension for their maintenance purposely for to plot and contrive ways to expulse the Queen and demolish the Church of England in obedience to the Pope's Bulls for which end every Scholar among them at his Education took this Oath I A. B. do acknowledg the Ecclesiastical and Political Power of His Holiness and the Mother Church of Rome as the chief Head and Matron above all pretended Churches throughout the whole Earth and that my Zeal shall be for Saint Peter and his Successors as the Founder of the True and Ancient Catholick Faith against all Heretical Kings Princes States or Powers repugnant unto the same And although I may pretend in case of Persecution or otherwise to be Heretically disposed yet in Soul and Conscience I shall help aid and succour the Mother Church of Rome as the True Ancient Apostolical Church I farther do declare not to act or contrive any manner of thing prejudicial unto her or her sacred Orders Doctrines Tenents or Commands without the leave of her supreme Power or the Authority under her appointed or to be appointed and when so permitted then to act or further her Interest more than my own earthly Gain and Pleasure as she and her Head His Holiness and his Successours have or ought to have the Supremacy over all Kings Princes Estates or Powers whatsoever either to deprive them of their Crowns Sceptres Powers Privileges Realms Countreys or Governments or to set up others in lieu thereof they dissenting from the Mother Church and her Commands c. Thus by all imaginable ways did this Pope provide for the Death or Deposition of that Virgin Queen in order to which he had so possess'd the Missionaries with his power to dethrone Princes that it was offer'd to be prov'd to the World That the Priests which were apprehended and executed for Treason always restrained their confession of Allegiance only to the permissive form of the Pope's Toleration as for Example if they were asked whether they did acknowledge themselves to be the Queen's Subjects and would obey her they would say Yes for so they had leave for a time to doe but being asked if they would so acknowledg and obey her any longer than the Pope would so permit them or notwithstanding such Commandment as the Pope would or might give to the contrary then they either refused to obey or denied to answer or said they could not answer to those Questions without danger And at their very Arraignment when they laboured to leave in the minds of the People and standers by an opinion that they were to dye not for Treason but for matter of Faith and Doctrine they cried out that they were true Subjects and did and would obey Her Majesty Immediately to prove whether that speech extended to a perpetuity of their Obedience or so long time as the Pope so permitted they were openly in the place of Judgment asked by the Q's learned Counsel whether they would so obey and be true Subjects if the Pope commanded the contrary they plainly disclosed themselves in Answer saying by the mouth of Campion This place meaning the Court of Her Majesties Bench hath no Power to enquire or judge of the Holy Fathers Authority and other Answer they would not make The very same Account with some other particulars is given us by the Secular Priests themselves of the Behaviour of Mr. Campion and the rest some of whom being asked which part they would take if the Pope or any other by his appointment should invade the Realm or which part ought a good Subject to take answered when that case happened they would then consider what they had best doe others that they were not yet resolved what to doe and others positively that if such a Deprivation or Invasion should be made for any Matter of Faith they were then bound to take part with the Pope Nay so zealous was Mr. Campion in defence of that rebellious Doctrine that being visited in Prison by some Gentlemen of Oxford one of them asked him whether he thought the Queen lawfull Heir or no to this he made no Answer but when the question was put whether if the Pope invaded the Land he would take part with him or the Queen he openly replied he would join with the Pope and very earnestly demanded Pen Ink and Paper with which he signed his Resolution which Principle he was so rooted in that he affirmed in the Tower to several Persons of Quality who demanded whether he did acknowledge the Queen to be a lawfull Queen or did believe her deprived of her Right that this Question depends much on the Fact of Pope Pius the Fifth whereof he is no Judge and therefore refused to answer farther The same loyal Doctrines were vented by several other Priests the ensuing year who affirmed under their Hands to the Commissioners who examined them That the Pope had power to depose Princes and that Her Majesty was not be obeyed against His Holiness's Bull who hath Authority to discharge Subjects of their Allegiance which all of them viz. Kerby Cottom Richardson Ford Shert Johnson Hart and
commending the Zeal of the Missionaries in Scotland tells him that they had converted the Earls of Arroll and Crawford who were very desirous to advance the Catholick Faith and Spanish Interest in this Island and resolved to follow entirely the Directions of the Fathers Jesuites whence it appears their main design is to enlarge their Empire for as the same Gentleman affirms no sooner any person of Quality is converted by them but they forthwith encline and dispose their affections to the Service of the King of Spain as a thing inseparably conjoined with the advancement of true Religion in this Countrey so that by the Confession of this great Man Popery and Treason were inseparable at that time the Romanists being so in love with it that they made their Address to the broken Fleet of the Spaniards the last year to land what Forces they had several great Persons being ready to receive them And the two new Noble Converts wrote to the Duke of Parma testifying their entire devotedness to the Spanish Interest Nor was Scotland alone thus infected for in England the Earl of Arundell was this year tried and dyed in the Tower who rejoiced at the Spaniards coming prayed for their Success and exceedingly grieved at their Overthrow And the Jesuite Parsons prevailed to have a Seminary wherein to instruct Youth in such treasonable Principles as his own founded at Valedolyd But though this Island was sufficiently pestered this year by the Papal Agents and Factours for Rebellion yet were we favourably dealt with in comparison of the Treasons and Insurrections in France against Henry the Third a Prince of their own Communion who after the Death of the Duke of Guise was opposed by an almost universal Rebellion the Priests calling on their Auditours to swear to revenge the Duke's Death and railing with all manner of virulency against the King insomuch that Father Lincestre affirmed that if he were at the Altar and the Eucharist in his hand he would not scruple in that very place to kill him The Rebels styl'd him Tyrant Heretick and to have his Picture or to call him King was crime enough to deserve death they threw down his Arms and Statues and practised all sort of Magick Incantations and Charms to hasten his death The Parisians wrote to the Pope desiring to be absolved from their Allegiance with several other requests of the same nature and in their Letters to the Cardinals styled their Sovereign The late King of France and sent Agents to Rome giving them among other Instructions Orders to desire the Pope not to entertain or hear the King's Ambassadours and Messages and to excommunicate all that join with him and having chosen the Duke of Mayenne for their General would have had him take the Title of King but he refused it yet they broke the King 's great Seal and made a new one To these the City of Lyons joined affirming that Kings ought to be resisted and they will resist the King in conjunction with the Holy Union to whom the Parisians sent a Letter exhorting them to defend their Religion c. against that prodigal perjured cruel and murthering Prince the Duke of Mayenne refusing to have any Peace or admit so much as of a Truce and prosecuting the War with the utmost vigour To these Attempts and Perseverance in them they were encouraged by the Sorbon Doctours who in a Decree made Jan. 7. 1589. resolved That the People were freed from their Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity and that they may legally and with a safe Conscience take Arms for the Defence of the Roman Religion against the wicked Counsels and Practices of the King. Which Decree they ordered to be sent to the Pope for his Confirmation and this they affirm was concluded on and resolved by an entire consent of the whole Faculty not one dissenting And with the same Zeal and no more Loyalty they licensed a Book which asserted that the King ought to be assassined affirming that there was nothing in it contrary to the Roman Church To promote which they concluded that the King ought to be no longer prayed for declaring all such of the Body as should not agree to this to be guilty of Excommunication and deprived of the Prayers and Privileges of the Faculty And that there might remain no badg of Royalty to put them in mind of their Duty the Cordeliers struck off the Head of the King's Picture which was in their Church and the Jacobins defaced those in their Cloisters But this was done after the Pope had once more publickly owned the Rebels and their Cause who by his Bull asserted his Power of Rule over all Kingdoms and Princes of the Earth proceeded to admonish the King to release the Cardinal of Bourbon and Archbishop of Lyons in thirty days and within sixty days to make his Submission to His Holiness for the death of the Cardinal of Guise or he would proceed to absolve his Subjects from their Allegiance which so pleased the Leaguers that they reported Stories of God's immediate Judgment against the opposers of this Thundering Bull. But the King's Army pressing the Parisians and having reduced them to the last Extremity they found an instrument for their purpose who was so wrought upon by the fiery Preachers that he resolved to kill the King He was a Jacobin Friar and confessing it to Father Bourgoin Prior of the Convent he encouraged him in it telling him he should be a Saint in Heaven and accounted an holy Martyr by the Church which so emboldened him that with a Knife given him by that Father he stabbed the King into the Belly and was himself slain upon the place This Jaques Clement was accordingly honoured by the Clergy of the League as they had promised his Picture was made and shewed publickly and they were about setting up his Statue in the Churches instead of the King 's and pared off the very ground where he was slain to preserve as Relicks and several Divines preached and wrote in his Praise compared him to Ehud and affirmed he had done a greater work than Judith The Cardinal de Montalto rejoiced at it and the Pope made a long Oration in its Praise and decreed that no Funerals should be celebrated for the King. Immediately upon this Murther the Leaguers at Paris would have made the Duke of Mayenne King but he declining it they proclaimed the Cardinal of Bourbon by the name of Charles the Tenth and the Parliament of Tholouse commanded all the Bishops within their Churches to give Thanks to God for this Deliverance and that the first day of August on which the King was slain should be kept for ever in remembrance of that Action and that their Rancour against the King of Novarre might the better appear they forbad any to accept him for their King. And not the Leaguers only who had been in open
him he would merit Heaven and Glory by the Act and recommended him to Varade Rectour of the Jesuites College who affirmed that the Enterprise was most holy exhorting him with good constancy and courage to confess himself and receive the B. Sacrament and then leading him to his Chamber gave him his Blessing He mentioned also another Preacher of Paris who counted it meritorious Thus encouraged he bought a knife seven Inches long and went to St. Denis where the King then was but being discovered was executed affirming at his death that there were two black Friars that went from Lyons upon the same Account It is probable the Preacher at Paris mentioned in his Confessions was Father Commolet the Jesuite who two days before this Barriere's Execution at St. Denis in a Sermon at Paris which yet continued obstinate against the King exhorted his Auditours to have Patience for they should see in a few days a wonderfull Miracle of God. But the next Year Paris was reduced to its obedience soon after which the University endeavoured the Expulsion of the Jesuites accusing them of all manner of Injustice of the ruine of Families and many other Crimes but insisting particularly on their Treasons charging them with being abettors to the Spaniard Fomenters of Civil Wars and always ready to assassinate the French King whom they omitted to pray for while they extolled the Spaniard that they taught and asserted the Pope's deposing Power that they refused to give Absolution to several Persons of Quality because they would not renounce the King that they had been the cause of the Death of Twenty-eight Barons Fifty Noble-men of France and above Five hundred Monks and Friars in the Tercera Islands and had refused to renounce the League Which Spirit of Rebellion was so strong amongst the Leaguers that a little before the Seduction of Paris the Pope's Legate published a Declaration exhorting all Catholicks to oppose the King assuring them that the Pope would never grant him Absolution and upon the Rendition of Aix to his Majesty the famous Genebrard was so vext at the Loyalty of the Place that he left it resolving not to live among the Royalists nay when the King entered Paris the Cardinal Pellivee lying upon his Death-bed very angrily told those about him That he hoped the Arms of the Spaniards and good Catholicks would yet drive the Huguonots out of Paris And Hay a Scotch Jesuite affirmed That if the King passed by their College he would leap from the top of it upon him and did not doubt to go directly to Heaven But to return to the Jesuites who finding their Banishment out of the Kingdom thus zealously endeavoured and fearing lest the King to whom they had been such bitter Enemies should consent to it resolved to dispatch him * Francis Jacob one of their Scholars at Bourges had boasted that he would doe it but John Chastel who was bred under them at Paris went farther and with a knife struck the King in the Mouth and beat out one of his Teeth he was immediately apprehended and on Examination confessed That he esteemed it an Act highly conducing to promote Religion and that Father Gueret his Master in the Jesuites School had taught him those Doctrines upon which Sentence of Death was pass'd upon him by which also so the Jesuites were banished as Corrupters of Youth Disturbers of the publick Peace Enemies to the King and Kingdom and enjoined to depart the Realm within fifteen days and all their Goods confiscated to be disposed of as the Court should see sit This Sentence was published after the search made in the Jesuites College wherein was found a Book of T. Guignard's which he confessed to be his own writing lamenting that the King was spared in the Parisian Massacre applauding the Murther of King Henry the Third affirming that if the King were shut up in a Monastery he would be treated more gently than he deserved and concluding that if he could not be deposed without force of Arms they ought to be taken up against him for which and his other Treasons he was executed but Gueret Chastell's Master of the same Order was only banished with the rest in memory of which Fact and to the perpetual Ignominy of that Order Chastell's House was demolished and a Pillar erected in the place on one side of which was engraven the Decree of the Court on another a Copy of Verses expressing the Crime and discovering to the World that it was attempted by the Persuasions of the Jesuites on the third another Inscription to the same purpose and on the fourth a summary Account of their banishment and the reasons of it wherein the Jesuites are termed A mischievous and novell sort of superstitious Men and Disturbers of the Nation by whom that young man was encouraged and persuaded to that horrid Fact. This Pillar as appears by the date of the Inscriptions was not erected till the following year however having such a relation to their banishment which was decreed the 29th of December 1594. I thought it most proper to give an account of it in this place One would think that if any Fact would render men ashamed this murtherous Attempt was so horrid as to make those concerned in it blush but so far were they from that that Francis Veron a Jesuite wrote an Apology for the Murtherer calling the Enterprise a most holy most humane most laudable and worthy Act that it is acceptable to God and conformable to all Laws and Decrees of the Church and in the same Book he extolls Clement that stabbed the former King. Thus Fruitfull were the French Romanists in their Contrivances of Rebellion and Murther and as willing were their Brethren in these Nations to promote Enterprises of the same nature for Tir-Oen in Ireland continued in the Rebellion which he began the year before but distrusting his own power submitted himself to the Lord Deputy yet the very same Month he rebelled again several Provinces revolting to him by which accession of Forces he grew very powerfull And in Scotland the Noblemen who were imprisoned and condemned for their Insurrection the last year having been pardoned by the King took Arms again being assisted with Money from the Spaniards and defeated the King's Forces under the Earl of Argyle though much superiour in number to them but were at length reduced so low that they begged leave to depart the Land which was granted them so promising to enterprise no more against the King they left the Kingdom Bothwell the chief of them went to Naples where he lived miserably the rest about three years after got their Pardons and returned home Yet were not these all the Popish Enterprises upon the Estates and Persons of Princes which were discovered this year for I find that about this time they employed Le Four and others to murther Prince Maurice of
seditious Designs in hand at the same time is evident from the Confession of Mac-Enerry a Dominican who for this very reason left the Church of Rome because of her rebellious Doctrines and the many Conspiracies he had taken an Oath of Secrefie to conceal which he observed inviolably and though he informed the Bishop of Limrick that there were many Plots then contriving against his Majesty's Government yet for his Oaths sake he would not name any Persons who were concerned in them The Duke of Orleance had retired in disgust from Court some years since and was received by the Duke of Lorrain but being forced this year to leave that retreat he went to Brussells from whence aided by the Spaniards he marched at the head of an Army into France but was defeated and several of his Adherents executed While France was thus almost continually pestered with Rebellions the Designs of the Papists ripened apace in Ireland they had erected Friaries in the Countrey instead of those which were dissolved in Dublin and even in that City they had a College of Students whereof Father Paul Harris was Dean and at a Synodical meeting of their Clergy they decreed that it was not lawfull to take the Oath of Allegiance If it were not that all the Designs of that Party from the Year 1630. to 1640. were summed up and perfected in the Rebellion in Ireland and the execrable Civil Wars of England I should wonder how they came to be so still and that no more Conspiracies were discovered besides that great one which Andreas ab Habernsfield was informed of in Holland and of which he sent the King an Account under the hand of the Discover who affirms that one Maxfield was sent into Scotland to stir up a Rebellion there and that the King was to be poisoned for which end they kept a strong Poison in an Indian Nut which he had often seen They had likewise another Design if they could prevail upon the Scots or discontented English to rebell that thereby the King should be straitened and forced to depend on the Papists for assistance and then they would make their own Terms and secure to themselves a publick Liberty which if he refused to consent to they would not only desert him but dispatch him with the Indian Nut which they reserved on purpose He gives also an Account of the Persons concerned in the Plot among whom were several Ladies of Quality for whose Encouragement the Pope sent a Breve to Sir Toby Mathews one of the principal Conspiratours wherein he exhorts him and the Women engaged with him to proceed with diligence in the Design assuring them That he did not despair to see the Authority of the Holy See which was subverted in England by a Woman again restored in a very little time by the Endeavours of those Heroick Ladies This Breve is an unanswerable Evidence that the succeeding Troubles derived their original from the insatiate Lust of Rule which possessed the Pope who herein approves of those very Methods which afterwards proved the Ruine of that excellent Prince and so miserably distracted these poor Nations But he appeared more publickly an Abbettor of the Irish Massacre and Rebellion wherein so many thousand Protestants were murthered in cold bloud sending his Nuncio to assist and affording them all the aid that he was able to give a Design laid with so much secrefie and executed with so much cruelty that nothing but the very Spirit of Popery could be barbarous enough to engage in it in prosecution of which they did all they could totally to beat the English out of the Kingdom The same year the Marquess de Villa Real the Duke de Camina and the Marquess d' Armamar who by the Instigation of the Archbishop of Braga had undertaken to kill the King of Portugal Father to Her Majesty the Queen Dowager of England and to fire the Ships and the City in several places that they might have the better opportunity to promote the Interest of the Spaniards were put to death Nor did France yet enjoy any more quiet where the Count de Soissons and the Duke of Guise and others raised a Rebellion and routed the King's Army but the Count being slain with his own Pistol the Confederacy was soon broken Yet the very next Year the Duke of Orleance combined with the Spaniards who were to assist him with Forces for a new Rebellion The Pope had involved Ireland in Bloud the former year and in this the Wars began in England where several Priests were found among the dead at â—dghill Battle but the Endeavours of his Holiness to encrease those miserable Confusions were managed with all imaginable Secrefie while the Irish were openly commended by him and assured of his Prayers for their success in his Breve to Owen O Neal dated Octob. 8. 1642. and so willing was he to lay hold on all occasions for the exercising his Deposing Power that because the Prince of Parma offended him he declared him to have incurred the greater Excommunication and deprived him of all his Dominions and Dignities But not content with sending the forementioned Breve to O Neal his Holiness granted a Bull of plenary Indulgence May 25. 1643. to all the Catholicks in Ireland who joined in the Rebellion which was prosecuted as fiercely as the Pope could desire and a defence of it set forth by an Irish Jesuite in Portugal though the Title-page mentions Franckfort who asserts That the English Kings have no Title or Right to Ireland that if they had yet it is the Duty of the Irish to deprive them of their Rights seeing they are declared Hereticks and Tyrants that this Power of deposing such Princes is inherent in every State but if the Authority of the Holy See be added to that Power none but a Fool or an Heretick will deny what the Doctours of Divinity and of the Civil and Canon Law do generally teach and which is confirmed by Reasons and Examples And so far did the Pope approve of the Contents of this Book that when soon after its publication the Irish had submitted to the King and promised to assist him in his Wars His Holiness by his Nuncio took upon him to be their General absolved them from their Oaths and imprisoned and threatened the Lives of those who had promoted the peace and desired to return to the King's Subjection which renewed the Rebellion again and brought infinite Miseries on that bigotted Nation At the same time above an hundred of the Romish Clergy were sent into England by Order from Rome who the better to promote the Divisions there were instructed in several Trades both handicraft and others these upon their arrival were ordered to disperse themselves and give Intelligence every month to their Superiours abroad accordingly they listed themselves in the
driven out and such a Prince is absolutely obliged to renounce all Right and Claim to the Government and if he doth not he is worse than an Infidel Thus after their Designs had effected the death of that good King and expulsion of his late and present Majesty they contributed their Endeavours to hinder their return and debauch those who might attempt it yet had some the confidence to commend this Gentleman to his late Majesty though the King knew him too well to take any notice of him That they designed to hinder the Restauration of the King by an absolute compliance with the usurping Power is affirmed by one of their Communion who tells them that they were refractory to the Queen's Desires at Rome for His Majesty's Assistance and that Collonel Hutchinson could discover strange Secrets about their treating with Cromwell And it is certain that in Ireland there were several Precepts granted by the Archbishop of Armagh and others to pray for the success of that Usurper's Forces while Dominick Decupsy a Dominican esteemed a Person of great Holiness and Long the Jesuite asserted that the King being out of the Roman Church it was not lawfull to pray for him particularly or publickly on any other day except Good Fryday as comprehended among the Infidels and Hereticks and then only for the spiritual Welfare of his Soul not for his temporal prosperity The Civil Wars continuing still in France our present Sovereign then Duke of York went into the King's Army and the Princes being straitened called in the Duke of Lorrain who with his Army marched to their Succour so that they kept the Field all this and the ensuing Year Anno 1654. there was a Discourse written by Benoist de Treglies Collateral of the Council or Regent of the Chancery of Naples in which this Proposition was maintained That when a Pope intends to exercise any Jurisdiction in a Countrey he ought to let his Writs be examined by the temporal Prince that so it may be known whether the Causes and Persons contained therein be of his Jurisdiction Which Proposition having been examined by the Inquisition at Rome at the express command of the Pope that Congregation declared it to be Heretical and Schismatical prohibiting the Book and threatening the severest censures against the Authour The following year affords us a farther evidence of the hopes the Romanists had conceived of the restauration of their Religion here for Dr. Baily at the end of the Life of Fisher Bishop of Rochester speaking of the Lord Cromwell and the great influence he had upon the proceedings in the beginning of the Reformation expresses their hopes of his Party from the Usurper and his Counsels in these words Who knows but that the Church may be healed of her Wounds by the same Name sit hence the Almighty hath communicated so great a Secret unto Mortals as that there should be such a Salve made known to them whereby the same Weapon that made the Wound should work the Cure. Oliva vera is not so hard to be construed Oliverus as that it may not be believed that a Prophet rather than a Herald gave the common Father of Christendom the now Pope of Rome Innocent X. such Ensigns of his Nobility viz. a Dove holding an Olive Branch in her mouth since it falls short in nothing of being a Prophesie and fulfilled but only his Highness running into her Arms whose Embleme of Innocence bears him already in her mouth Three years after this Popish Loyal Flattery Father Ferrall a Capuchin presented a Treatise to the Cardinals of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide proposing some Methods to revive the Rebellion in Ireland and drive out not only the English but also all the Irish who were descended from the old English Conquerours as not fit to be trusted in so holy a League and about the same time Father Reiley the Popish Primate coming through Brussels refused to kiss the King's Hand though some offered to introduce him And to obtain favour with Richard Cromwell he alledged that the Irish Natives had no affection to the King and his Family and therefore were fit to be trusted by the Protectour and upon his Arrival in Ireland he made it his business to gain a party there to hinder the King's Restauration promising them great assistance upon which the King gave notice of those Contrivances to Don Stephano de Gamarro the Spanish Ambassadour in Holland so that he was recalled to Rome to avoid the danger of the Law. And which is a farther Evidence of the Enmity of that party to the Royal Family when General Monk was at London in prosecution of that great and good Design which he afterwards completed and had by his prudent Conduct gained the Affections of the People Monsieur de Bourdeaux the French Ambassadour told Mr. Clergis That Cardinal Mazarine would be glad to have the Honour of his Friendship and would assist him faithfully in all his Enterprises and that the General might be more confident of the Cardinal he assured him that Oliver Cromwell kept so strict a League with him that he did not assume the Government without his Privity and was directed step by step by him in the progress of that Action and therefore if he resolved on that course he should not only have the Cardinal's Friendship and Counsel in the Attempt but a safe Retreat and honourable Support in France if he failed in it Soon after His Majesty's Restauration which all the Contrivances of these men could not hinder the Jesuites presented a Paper to several persons of Honour pleading to be included within a favourable Vote which had been made with reference to all other Romanists in which they acknowledge that no party in their Church think the Deposing Doctrine sinfull but themselves who are by Order of their General forbidden to meddle with it But as their Answerer observes this makes them but the more guilty seeing their Loyalty depends upon the Will of their General which is all they pretend to be influenced by in this matter But this is not all for they impose upon the World in that Assertion there being no such Decree which respects any other Countrey but France and whereas if we should grant them that they pretend to be bound by it under pain of Damnation this likewise is false for none of their Constitutions oblige them under so much as a Venial Sin. Therefore the same person advised them to join in a Subscription of Abhorrence of those Deposing Doctrines which had been too often maintained by them but this was a piece of Loyalty to which they could never arrive The former year some of the Irish Clergy and Gentry to make some amends for their Rebellion had subscribed that Declaration which Mr. Cressy published in the year 1647. which hath since been called the Irish Remonstrance and made a great noise in the World for some
years for no sooner was an Account of this Loyal Action transmitted to Rome but the Internuncio De Vecchiis then Resident at Brussels by the Pope's Order declared that his Holiness had condemned it and Cardinal Barberini in a Letter to the Noblemen of Ireland affirmed that such as subscribe it do to shew their Fidelity to the King destroy their Faith and therefore exhorted all to beware of those Seducers who promoted the Subscriptions to it and Father Macedo a Portugueze who had formerly made a Latine Panegyrick upon Cromwell was employed to write against it The Dominicans refused absolution to some of their Order because they would not retract their Approbations and the Provincial box'd another for the same cause The Augustinians absolutely refused to sign it so did the Franciscans and the Jesuites Anthony Mac Gheoghegan Popish Bishop of Meath and several others sent Father John Brady to Rome to get a direct Censure published against it And the Theological Faculty at Lovain declared that it contained many things contrary to the Catholick Faith and ought not to be signed by any But Father Shelton and several other Priests were more particular who told Father Walsh the Procurator for the Irish Clergy in this Affair that they would not subscribe that form nor any other denying a power in the Pope to depose the King or absolve Subjects from their Allegiance because this is a matter of right controverted between two great Princes Two years after de Riddere Commissary General of the Franciscans for the Belgick Provinces in a National Congregation of all the Provincials of that Order subject to him declared the Subscribers of the Remonstrance to be Schismaticks reserving a Power to their Superiours to proceed against them when it should be convenient And the Nuncio de Vecchiis in a Letter to Father Caron calls the Remonstrance a Rock of Offence but the Bishop of Ferns he declared himself more positively for the Deposing Power in his Letter to Dr. James Cusack Jun. 18. 1662. and therefore in his Letter to the D. of Ormond Sep. 22. this year he justifies all that was done at James-Town by the Romish Bishops who broke the Peace of 1648. and two years after they excommunicated the Duke then His Majesty's Lieutenant there refusing to obey him any longer And the same Bp. in two Letters to Father Walsh the next year seriously professed that he durst not renounce the Pope's Deposing Power which was maintained by 7 Saints St. Thomas one 7 Cardinals 1 Patriarch 3 A. Bps. 10 Bps. and 31 Classical Authors with other eminent Divines and chose rather to continue a banisht man than declare against them And when His Majesty had granted liberty to the R. Clergy of that Nation to hold a national Synod that year to try if they would give any assurance of their Loyalty Card. Barberini wrote to them not to subscribe that Protestation and the Internuncio Rospigliosi affirmed that to sign the Remonstrance rendered the Subscribers Instruments of the Damnation of others The Cardinal minded them that the Kingdom remained under Excommunication and therefore advised them to consider what they did At length the Assembly meâ— and the Card. fent Letters dissuading them to give any such assurance of their Loyalty as being prejudicial to the Cath. Faith which was seconded by another from the Internuncio and the Bp. of Ipres directed to some of the Synod who were very obedient to these Admonitions for when Father Walsh endeavoured to prove that several great Divines had opposed the Deposing Doctrine Father Nettervile interrupted him affirming that none had asserted the contrary but a Schismatical Historian and a Poet meaning Sigibertus Gemblacensis and Dante 's Aligherius soon after which they resolved not only not to sign the Remonstrance but not to suffer it to be read in the House And when the Procuratour desired them to beg his Majesty's Pardon for the late execrable Rebellion they not only refused to ask pardon but so much as to acknowledge there was any need of it affirming publickly that they knew none at all guilty of any Crime for any thing done in the War. And when the Lord Lieutenant desired them to give his Majesty some assurance of their future Obedience in case of any Deposition or Excommunication from the Pope they refused even this without so much as putting it to the Question They offered indeed several Forms instead of the Remonstrance but in none of them renounced the Deposing Power in that the Assembly signed at their breaking up they disowned the Doctrine but would not declare that Doctrine which abetts it unsound and sinfull wherein they have been imitated by some late Writers who though called upon to affirm it such never did it Once indeed they seemed to come something near what was expected when their Chairman told Father Walsh That it was not out of any prejudice against the Remonstrance they would not sign it but because they thought it more becoming their Dignity and Liberty to word their own sense for the rest they were far from condemning that Remonstrance or the Subscribers thereof Yet would they not own this when desired under their Hands but refused so that no good being expected they were dissolved leaving an undeniable Evidence of their aversion to Loyalty and approbation of the treasonable Doctrine of the Ch. of Rome Soon after the Dissolution of this Synod the E. of Sandwich Ambassadour in Spain informed His Majesty that Primate Reilly was emplyed to stir up his Countrey-men to rebell upon which a Gurd was set upon him and in a little time was sent into France The Bp. of Ferns still justified the Rebellion defending the Actions of the Clergy for laudable vertuous meritorious Deeds and becoming good Men and therefore needing no Repentance And this is the last Account I find of him for he soon after dyed And now the Controversie about the Regale growing hot between the King of France and the present Pope His Holiness had so much of the Spirit of his Predecessours who were for asserting their Power over all the Kingdoms of the World as to threaten the King with Excommunication and that speedily if he would not renounce his Claim and he was as good as his word for the King not being affraid of his Thunders and refusing to lose his Right and the Assembly of the Clergy joining with his Majesty the Pope sent a Bull of Excommunication to his Nuncio requiring him to publish it in the Assembly but by the diligence of the Cardinal d'Estree the Assembly was adjourned before the Arrival of the Bull. At the same time Szlepeche my Primate of Hungary with his Clergy maintained the Deposing Power by a Censure of the contrary Opinion and the next year the Spanish Inquisition at Toledo did
leave from their General upon which they were prohibited by a Decree of Parliament to teach and threatened with a farther Deprivation if they would not obey The Romanists had tried all manner of ways to deprive King James of his Life or Crown but finding none successfull they had the Impudence to publish a Book this year affirming that His Majejesty was a counterfeit and not the Son of Queen Mary of Scotland The Year following Cardinal Perron who had been one of the young Cardinal of Bourbon's Party against King Henry the Fourth in the Assembly of Estates in France asserted not only that Subjects may be absolved from their Allegiance and Princes deposed in case of Heresie but that they who hold the contrary are Schismaticks and Hereticks This Speech was made to divert the Estates from imposing an Oath like our Oath of Allegiance which Design so disturbed the Pope that he affirmed the Voters of it were Enemies to the common Good and mortal Adversaries to the Chair of Rome And about the same time Suarez printed his Book at Colen wherein he teaches that Kings may be put to Death by their own Subjects which Treatise came into the World with the Approbation of the Bishop of Conimbria of Silvis and Lamego and the University of Alcalum with several others In Scotland one Father Ogelby a Jesuite was taken who being asked whether the Pope be Judge in Spirituals over His Majesty refused to answer except the question were put to him by the Pope's Authority but affirmed that the Pope might excommunicate the King at his Trial he protested against the Judges that he could not own them for the K. had no Authority but what was derivative from his Predecessours who acknowledged the Pope's jurisdiction adding If the King will be to me as they were to mine he shall be my King otherwise I value him not And as for that Question Whether the K. deposed by the Pope may be lawfully killed Doctours of the Church hold the affirmative not improbably and I will not say it is unlawfull to save my Life In France several of the Princes raised Commotions which were appeased with conferring places of Trust and Honour upon the chief among them who were headed by the Prince of Conde Fruits as the Historian observes accustomed to be reaped in France from that which in other places is punished by the Executioner Not satisfied with their Honours they took arms again under the same Leader and passed the Loire but the Prince of Conde falling sick Matters were composed by the Endeavours of the English Ambassadour and some others In Savoy Conspiracies were formed against that Duke's Life and to deliver up the Prince his Son to the Spaniards but timely discovery prevented them and preserved the Duke from another Design of some who undertook to poison him The next Year the Jesuites were banished Bohemia and Moravia for coining Money and sowing Dissentions between the Magistrates and People and a Plot was discovered at Venice against the Senatours whom the Conspiratours designed to murther by a sudden Insurrection assisted by the Marquess of Bedmar Ambassadour from Spain and the Duke of Ossuna Viceroy of Naples and make an utter subversion of the State this was carried on in conjunction with the Spaniards by those Citizens and others who were the Pope's Partisans and a number of Factious Persons discontented with the Actions of the Senate who longed for a change and would stick at nothing to effect it And in France the Queen Mother being imprisoned the Duke D'Espernon with a strong Party rebelled in her Defence but before the King's Army was come up against him he procured his Pardon and the Liberty of the Queen Soon after this the Jesuites were driven out of Hungary and Silesia for their seditious Practices and another Rebellion broke out in France which the King marched in Person to suppress In the Valteline the Revolt was universal the Governours of Provinces and the Heads of Families were all murthered and under pretence of defending the Roman Catholick Religion all manner of outrages were committed and a new form of Government erected these Broils continued some time and the bitterness of the Papists was such that they would make no accommodation if the Protestants were tolerated there so that if a Protestant Bailiff be sent among them he cannot publickly exercise his Religion At this time the Match between Prince Charles and the Infanta was prosecuted at least with a seeming willingness on both sides and being to have some Romish Priests of her Houshold the Pope urged very earnestly that they might be exempt from His Majesty's jurisdiction so very diligent he was in catching at any shadow which might seem to favour the Exemption of the Clergy Three Years after this Sanctarellus his Book was printed at Rome wherein the Deposing Power was asserted in its utmost latitude and though Father Coto and two other Jesuites were required to answer it yet no reply appeared the former affirming before the Parliament that though he disapproved the Doctrine in France yet he would assent to it if he were at Rome The Oath of Allegiance being vigorously press'd in England the Pope sent a Bull to the Romanists exhorting them to continue firm and let their Tongue rather cleave to the Roof of their Mouth then permit the Authority of St. Peter to be diminished by that Oath and commanding them strictly to observe the Breves of Pope Paul the Fifth and Father Fisher justified Suarez and the Doctrine of his Book asking what could be found prejudicial in it to Princely Authority and affirming that if it contained any such thing it would not be permitted in Catholick Kingdoms We have mention'd that the exemption of the Clergy was desired by the Pope in the Treaty for the Spanish Match and now his Emissaries in this Nation affirmed that the King could have nothing to doe with her Majesties Chaplains because he was an Heretick and his Holiness threatned to declare those to be Apostates who should seek their Establishment in the Queens Family from the King. But though these were plain Indications of what they desired yet they kept their Designs so secret that they were not discovered till some time after but there was a Conspiracy detected at Genoa which if it had not been prevented would have ended in the Murther of the Nobility and Alteration of the Government And the next Year a Plot was detected in Mantua against the Life of the Prince and some Officers apprehended who would have betray'd Viadana to the Governour of Millan In Ireland the Papists assaulted the Archbishop of Dublin wounded several of his Followers and forced him to fly for his Life following him in a tumultuous manner along the streets and that they had several