at home and their Ministers The Principal Root hereof The Councel of Trent which agreed to extirpate Christian Religion which they term Heresie whereunto divers Princes assented and bound themselves in solemn Manner Pope Pius Quintus sent his Excommunication against Her Majesty Dr. Mourton and Mendoza a Spanish Ambassador bestirred them a Northren Rebellion was bred the Pope and the rest Practiced for the Scottish Queen and she being acquainted proceeds by her means Pope Paulus the thirteenth proceeds and sends Jesuites and Seminaries to England and Ireland and they proceed to inveagle the the Subjects and disswade them from obedience Viska beginneth a Rebellion in Ireland James Fitz Morris furthereth the Execution thereof Doctor Saunders and Desmond stir new Rebellion there and wrote into England c. Parry was moved to kill Her Majesty and perswaded it was Meritorious Pope Sixtus the fifth imitateth the other Popes to execute their former Devices and writeth to the Cardinal of Lorain and Guise that he will overthrow the Gospel which Mr. Vice Chamberlain honourably termed the glorious Gospel and therefore moved them to joyn with the Princes of the League and to practice to win the King of Scots and to set up the Scottish Queen in England and make his reckoning of the Cantons that were Popish the Switzers the Duke of Savoy they Duke of Ferara King of Spain and King of France A chief Instrument to work this was one Carew called also Father Henry He was sent into Germany and over Italy and France wrote to the Scottish Queen that the Powers will joyn to overthrow England and make known the effect of his Labour to the Pope Invasion should have been made into England and Ireland the last year and not like to be unattempted this year The Pope Excommunicateth the King of Navar the Pope accounteth not of Popish Preaching and perswasions that way But nevertheless moveth all to use the Word and for maintenance thereof spareth his Treasure otherwise and withdraweth maintenance from Jesuites Seminaries and divers other Letters were found with the Scottish Queen which prove all these to be true If we serve Almighty God in sincerity of Heart we need not to fear It is to be remembred that the King of Spain sought to recover some part of his Fathers Credit by using our Treasure and Force to get St. Quintines but he soon made his advantage of it and regarded not our Territories in France But suffered the loss of Calice and all our Territories and after the Death of Queen Mary what he could Her Majesty sought for his Good-will sending the Lord Mountague the Lord Cobham Sr. Thomas Chamberlain Knight Mr. Maun and others and they were but hardly used some of them were offered great indignity and Mr. Mauns Son forced by strength to do a kind of Pennance He comforted the Queens Enemies he giveth Colour of Wars he Chargeth the Queen that her Subjects have aided his Rebels in the Low Countries with the countenancing Mounsieur with many at Cambray with sending her Nobility with him into the Low Countries with the Actions of Sr. Francis Drake with assistance of the Low Countries Of the purpose of the Combined Princes Their shew is to deal with the King of Navar to extirpate him but their drift is to ruinate Religion not only there but to set upon and to work the ruin of it here also Wherein the King of Spain and Guise are now very busie Their Malice is the more for the executing the Scottish Queenâ— But their hope is the less The King of Spain his Designments are to invade England and Ireland His Preparations Three hundred sixty Sail of Spain Eighty Gallies from Venice and Genoua one Galliass with six hundred armed Men from the Duke of Florence Twelve thousand Men maintained by Italy and the Pope Six thousand by the Spanish Clergy twelve thousand by his Nobility and Gentlemen of Spain It is reported that ten thousand of these be Horsemen I think it not all true but something there is We must look to the Papists at home and abroad It hath touched us in the Blood of the Nobility and the Blood of many Subjects They practice to frame Subjects against all Duty and bring in Doctrine of Lawfulness and Merit to kill the Queen and have sent their Instruments abroad to that purpose Notwithstanding things stood thus yet the Parliament having made so many Laws thought convenient to make but one Law this Session against the Papists which was not made Provisory of any new Remedy against them but to enforce the Execution only of a former Law. It is entitled An Act for the more speedy and due Execution of certain Branches of the Stat. 23. Eliz. intitled An Act to retain the Queens Majesties Subjects in their due obedience 29. Eliz. cap. 6 Rast Stat. 2. Part. f. 338. An Act to enforce the Execution of 23. Eliz. By which Act For the avoiding all Frauds and Delays in hinderance of the Execution of the said Act it is provided that certain assurances made by Papists shall be void against the Queen That the Conviction shall be at the Kings Bench or at the Assizes or general Goal Delivery and certified into the Exchequer The twenty pounds a month for not going to Church is to be paid into the Exchequer every Easter and Michaelmas Term In default of Payment the Queen may take all the Goods and two parts of the Lands and Leases of the Offenders The indictment sufficient tho it mentions not the Parties being within the Realm Vpon Proclamation made if the party renders not his Body he stands Convicted no forfeiture if the party submits or dies Assurances made bona fide not to be impeached nor Lands for Life or in the Wives right after the Offendors Death Thus did the Plots and Conspiracies of the Papists from time to time force the State to make either New Laws against them or else Laws for the more effectual executing the old for the truth of the Plots and Conspiracies before mentioned I shall here insert the very words of the Secular Priests in their important Considerations as hereunto followeth The Secular Priests Confession of the Plots before-mentioned Collect. f. 45. Babingtons Plot. We might add the notable Treasons of Mr. Anthony Babington and his Complices in the Year 1586. Which were so apparent as we were greatly abashed at the shameless Boldness of a young Jesuit who to excuse the said Traitors and qualifie their offences presumed in a kind of supplication to Her Majesty to ascribe the Plotting of all that mischief to Mr. Secretary Walfingham the Treachery also of Sr. William Stanley the year following 1587. in falsifying his Faith to Her Majesty and in betraying the trust Committed unto him by the Earl of Leicester who had given him the honourable Title of Knighthood as it was greatly prejudicial to us that were Catholicks at home Stanley's Treason so was the defence of that Disloyalty made by a
Spaniards gives the overture of the Match Rushw Col. part 1. f. 4. The King having had thoughts of a Match for Prince Charles with France and the Duke of Savoy having been before him and prevailed for his Son the Prince of Piedmount The Spaniard giving the overture of a Match King James embraceth it and Articles of Religion between the King of England and Spain were agreed on which were these c. Articles of Religion agreed upon between the Kings of England and Spain That the Popes Dispensation be first obtained by meer Act of the King of Spain That the Children of this Marriage be not constrained in Matters of Religion nor their Title prejudiced in case they prove Catholics That the Infanta's Family being Strangers may be Catholics and shall have a decent place appointed for all Divine Service according to the use of the Church of Rome and the Ecclesiasticks and Religious Persons may wear their own proper Habits That the Marriage shall be Celebrated in Spain by a Procurator according to the instructions of the Councel of Trent and after the Infanta's Arival in England such a Solemnation shall be used as may make the Marriage valid according to the Laws of this Kingdom That she shall have a competent number of Chaplains and a Confesser being Strangers one whereof shall have Power to Govern the Family in Religious Matters But none of the People of England but were averse to this Match except the Papists whose interest indeed it was to carry it on After the Bohemians had chosen the Count Palatine King of Bohemia he craved advice of his Father in Law King James touching the acceptation of that Royal dignity But before he could receive his advice he was prevailed upon to accept it Count Palatine chose King of Bohemia Wilsons Hist f. 132. Rushw Col. 1. part f. 12. because the emergency of the Cause would admit of no delay and afterwards sent to King James to excuse it When this important business of the Count Palatines accepting the Crown of Bohemia was related in the Kings Councel to evince of what advantage it was to the Protestant Cause I shall here insert Arch-Bishop Abbots Letter to Sir Robert Nauton the Kings Secretary the Arch-Bishops infirmities not permitting him at that time to attend the Councel That God hath set up this Prince his Majesties Son in Law Arch-Bishop Abbot's Letter touching the Count Palatines accepting the Crown of Bohemia as a mark of Honour throughout all Christendom to propagate the Gospel to help the oppressed that for his own part he dares not but to give advice to follow where God Leads apprehending the Work of God in this and that of Hungary that by Peece and Peece the Kings of the Earth that gave their Power to the Beasts shall leave the Whore and make her desolate that he was satisfied in Conscience the Bohemians had just cause to reject that Bloody Man who had taken a course to make that Kingdom not Elective in taking it by the donation of another the slighting of the Viscount Doncaster in his embassage gave cause of just displeasure and indignation therefore let not a Noble Son be forsaken for their sakes who regard nothing but their own ends our striking in will comfort the Bohemians Honour the Palsgrave strengthen the Princes of the Vnion draw on the United Provinces stir up the King of Denmark and the Palatines two Vncles the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Bovillon together with Termoville a rich Prince in France to cast in their shares The Parliament is the Old and honourable way for raising of Money and all that may be spared is to be returned this way and perhaps God provided the Jewels that were laid up in the Tower by the Mother for the preservation of the Daughter who like a Noble Princess hath professed that she will not leave her self one Jewel rather then not maintain so Religious and Righteous a Cause certainly if countenance be given to this Action many brave Spirits will offer themselves therefore let all our Spirits be gathered up to animate this business that the World may take notice that we are awake when God calls By this Letter it plainly appears that it was the Arch-Bishops Opinion that it tended much to the promoting the Reformation that the Count Palatine should accept the Crown of Bohemia and the Crown of England should stand by him in it and whoever reads the most impartial writers of those times will find that the Spanish Match which was then a foot and Popish Councels at home was the true Cause of the loss of the Palatinate and the ruine of that Protestant Prince and how could things be expected otherwise so long as Gondamor had so far the ascendant of the King that when the Earl of Essex solicited the King after the War was begun to send more Forces Gondamor obstructed it whatever he desired was done and few or none were well respected at Court but Spanish * Wilsons 144. Rushw 1. part f. 18. vide the private instructions to the Spanish Ambassador sent into England Pentioners under whom the Papists flourished After the Palatinate was lost the King outwardly seemed willing to assist towards the Recovery of it and therefore proposes it first to the Privy Councel and afterwards called a Parliament which was to meet the thirteenth of January in the 18 th Year of his Reign proposing to himself that the People for regaining the Palatinate would open their Purses which he might make use of and that a good agreement Between him and his People would induce his Brother of Spain to be more Active and so he should have supply from the one and dispatch from the other i. e. Mony and the Spanish Match were the ends he aimed at let the Palatinate Sink or Swim 't was no matter This the Jesuits and Seminary Priests knew well enough and therefore they Wilsons Hist. f. 151. rangeing up and down like Spirits let loose did not now as formerly creep into Corners using close and cunning Artifices but practised them openly having admission to our Councellors of State. And when Secretaries and such as manage the intimate Councels of Kings are Jesuits and Clients to the Pope there can be no tendency of affection to a contrary Religion or Policy Yet these were the Men that carried all before them at Court And the Protestant interest must needs flourish under such Ministers of State especially if it be considered that England was not only Man'd with Jesuits all Power now failing to oppose them but the Women also began to practice the Trade Women Jesuitrices calling themselves Jesuitrices This Order was first set on foot in Flanders by Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Twitty two English Gentlewomen who Cloathed themselves in Ignatian Habit and were Countenanced and Supported by Father Gerrard Rector of the English Colledge at Leige with Father Flack and Father More Their design was to Preach the Popish
notwithstanding Ridolphus plausible reasoning as he did also a Proposition made to him from Ross by Barker of surprising the Queen at unawares and interrupting the Parliament which was then sitting The Commentary of the Queen of Scots before mentioned being afterwards discovered there the Design appearing I have inserted what Cambden saith she therein discoursed viz. That the French approved of the Conference begun with the Scots and yet propounded the Marriage of the Duke of Anjou with Queen Elizabeth and that to no other end but that they might have the better pretence to deny the aid promised for her Restitution That the same French privately opposed her Marriage with Don John of Austria and highly favoured that with Norfolk in hatred to the Spaniards That the Duke of Alva did so far condemn the Design for sending back the Queen of Scots into Scotland that he thought it to be attended with the utter undoing of the Queen and the overthrow of the Catholick Religion in Britain for the Queen being returned into Scotland must of necessity either undergo the danger of being besieged or else hazard a Battel with the Rebels who with the help of the English would soon get her into their power before any foreign Forces could come to her assistance Seeing then she could not be safe in Scotland and from France there was swall hope that being embroiled with Wars within it self he thought it her best Course to fly to the Spaniards help who had proffered her Marriage with Don John of Austria which notwithstanding she would refuse having given her Faith that the Popish Religion in Brittain should be restored by Norfolk as also that her Son should be forthwith conveyed out of Scotland and sent into Spain for so he would be kept in safety and instructed in the Romish Religion from his very Childhood and withal all pretences would be taken from the Scots who Cloaked their Rebellion under his Name That to solicit these matters and to procure foreign assistance Ridolph was to be sent away presently who was to have private directions in any Case to conceal these things from the French. When the Council had received this Commentary and the Letters before mentioned Camb. Annals p. 163 Baker's Chron. fol. 344. Camb. p. 166. Fewlis Hist li. 7. ca. 3. p. 326. 13 Eliz. ca. 1. as likewise other Letters sent from the Bishop of Rome and one Barker being apprehended had made a full Confession the Duke of Norfolk was committed to the Tower together with Bannister the Dukes Counsellor at Law the Earls of Arundel and South-hampton the Lord Lumley the Lord Cobham and Thomas his Brother Henry Piercy Lowder Powel Goodyear and others who every one of them even the Duke himself confessed the matter The Iniquity of these times and the Love of the Estates of England which were then assembled at Westminster towards their Prince and Country occasioned the making an Act of Parliament whereby certain Offences were made Treason Rast Stat. pt 2. fol. 136. To bold that the Laws and Statutes cannot liâ—â—â— the Crown and bind the Succession Treason during the â—uccâ—s Life and a Premunire ever after The Preamble of this Act takes notice that it was thought the Laws and Statutes of this Realm then in force were not sufficient for the preservation of the Queens person which ought to be provided for and by the Neglecting whereof the Government might be subverted And therefore it was Enacted and provided according to the Tenor of former Laws that if any should attempt the Destructeon or personal Hurt of the Queen or raise War or excite others to War against Her if any Man should affirm that she is not nor ought of right to be deemed Queen of this Realm but that the Kingdom is more justly due to another or should pronounce her to be an Heretick Schismatick or Infidel or should usurp the Right and Title of the Kingdom during her Life or affirm that any other hath right to the Crown or that the Laws and Statutes cannot limit and determine the Right of the Crown and the Succession thereof Every such person should be guilty of High Treason during the Queens Life and that after her Death if any person held the Doctrine that the Laws and Statutes cannot limit and determine the Right of the Crown and the Succession thereof he should incur a Premunire That if any Man during the Queens Life should by any Book written or printed expresly maintain that any person is or ought to be Heir or Successor to the Queen except the same be the Natural Issue of her Body or should wilfully publish print or utter any Books or Writings to that effect he and his Abettors should for the first Offence suffer Imprisonment for a Year and forfeit the one half of his Goods and for the second Offence incur the Penalty of a Premunire I confess that Keble saith in his Collection of Statutes that this Act of Parliament is expired but what ground he hath for it appears not any where that I can find Keble Stat. fol. 827. either in our History or Law Books so that I take it for so much as was to continue after her death it is in force still not being repealed by any subsequent Statute and therefore certainly who ever holds that Doctrine that the Right of the Crown and the succession thereof cannot be limited and determined by the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom incurs a Premunire There was also another Act of Parliament made in the same Session the which is intituled an Act against the bringing in and putting in execution of Bulls writings or Instruments and other Superstitions from the See of Rome The Preamble of which Statute recites the Stat. of 5 Eliz. ca. 1. 13 Eliz. ca. 2. Rast Stat. pt 2 fol. 138. Against bringing in Bulls c. from Rome and reconciling and being reconciled to the See of Rome Touching the Abolishing of the Authority of the Bishop and See of Rome and setts out That yet nevertheless divers Seditious and evil disposed People minding not only to bring this Realm and the Imperial Crown thereof being in very deed of it self most free into the Thraldom and subjection of that Foreign usurped and unlawful Iurisdiction Preheminence and Authority claimed by the said See of Rome but also to estrange the Minds and Hearts of sundry of her Majesties Subjects from their Dutiful Obedience and raise and stir Sedition and Rebellion within this Realm to the disturbance of the most happy peace thereof have lately procured and obtained to themselves from the said Bishop of Rome and his said See divers Bulls and Writings And sets forth the effect of the said Bull herein before particularly set forth and that by colour of the said Bulls and Writings the said wicked Persons very secretly and most seditiously in such parts of this Realm where the People for want of Instruction were most weak simple and ignorant and thereby furthest
be effected so long as the Jesuits Seminary Priests and other Priests were tollerated here for it hath been observed by some with a great deal of Truth that there was never yet a Plot against the Government but the Popish Priests had their share in it It was therefore thought necessary to follow the example of Swedeland the State of Venice and other Countries who have banisht the Jesuits and wisely to carry it a little further and banish Priests too they being such Disturbers of the State which was accordingly done by 27. Eliz. cap. 2. But least the Papists should again object against the Authorities I cite for the History of the Fact I shall here insert the very Words of their Secular Priests in their important Considerations whereby the truth of the Fact is Confest the Words are these About the time of the overthrow of the Popes Forces in Ireland The Secular Priests confess the truth of all the foregoing Account Collect. f. 44. The Popes Plot with King of Spain and Duke of Guise Mendoza his Holiness by the false instigation of the Jesuits plotted with the King of Spain for the assistance of the Duke of Guise to enterprize upon the sudden a very desperate design against Her Majesty and for the Delivery and advancement to the Crown of the Queen of Scotland For the better asserting whereof Mendoza the Jesuit and Ledger for the King of Spain in England set on work a worthy Gentleman otherwise one Mr. Francis Throckmorton and divers others And whilst the same was Contriving as afterwards Mr. Throckmorton himself Confessed 1584 the Jesuitical humour had so possessed the hearts of sundry Catholics as we do unfeignedly rue in our hearts the remembrance of it and are greatly ashamed that any Person so intitl'd should ever have been so extreamly bewitched Two Gentlemen about that time also viz. Anno 1583. Mr. Arden and Mr. Somervil were convicted by the Laws of the Realm Throgmortons Confession you have Printed Camb. Annal l. 3. f. 297. Arden and Somervil Dr. Parry Earl of Northumberland for having purposed and contrived how they might have laid violent hands upon Her Majesties sacred Person Mr. Somervils Confession therein was so notorious as it may not be either quallified or denied And Dr. Parry the same Year was plotting with Jesuits how he might have effected the like Villany How the worthy Earl of Northumberland was about this time brought into the said Plot by the Duke of Guise then still in hand we will pretermit Mr. Parsons that was Actor in it could tell the Story very roundly at Rome it wrought the Earls overthrow in 1585 which may justly be ascribed to the Jesuitical Practices of the Jesuite Mendoza and others of that Crew They mentioned several other Treasons which I shall not here take Notice of but reserve them till I come to give the further Account of their Treasons and only set down the Conclusion of this Paragraph These things say they we would not have touched had they not been known in effect to this part of the World and that we thought it our Duties to shew our own dislike of them and to clear Her Majesty so far as we may from such imputations of more then barbarous Cruelty towards us as the Jesuits in their Writings have cast by Heaps upon her They themselves as we still think in our Consciences and before God having been from time to time the very Causes of all the Calamities which any of us have endured in England since Her Majesties Reign which we do not write simply to excuse Her Highness altho we must Confess we can be contented to indure much rather then to seek her Dishonour but for that we think few Princes living being perswaded in Religion as Her Majesty is and so provoked as she hath been would have dealt more mildly with such their Subjects all Circumstances considered then she hath done with us Let us now see what reason can be given for making the rest of the Penal Laws that were made against the Papists in this Queens Reign The Earl of Arund tryed and fined only Camb. Annals f. 330. He was in 1589. tryed for high Treason and Condemned but the Queen spared him Camb. Annals f. 424.429 The first thing I meet with remarkable after the making these Laws forementioned is the fining the Earl of Arundel 5000 pounds in 586. for holding Correspondence with Allen and Parsons the Jesuit the Queens Enemies for that publickly in writing he had questioned the Justice of the Kingdom and that he had intentions of departing the Realm without License The Earl protesting his obedience to the Queen and his Love to his Countrey modestly excused himself by his Love to the Catholic Religion and his ignorance of the Law Confessed his fault and submitted In the * Gifford Savage Ballard and others Plot to kill the Q. Camb. Annals f. 336. Foulis Hist l. 7. cap. 5. sec 1. f. 343. Bakers Chron. f. 367. same year a very dangerous Conspiracy was discovered against Queen Elizabeth in the English Seminary at Rheimes there were some who were so bigotted to the Popish Religion that they thought the Pope could by his Authority do any thing and that the aforementioned Bull of Pius Quintus for deposing the Queen was dictated by the Holy Ghost and thought it a Meritorious Act to take away her Life and doubted not of a Canonisation as Martyrs if they fell in the Attempt William Gifford Doctor in Divinity Gilbert Gifford and one Hodgson Priests did so infuse this treasonable Doctrine into the mind of one John Savage a Bastard as was reported that he readily Vowed to kill the Queen One Ballard an English Priest at Rheimes bestirs himself in England and Scotland for carrying on the Design and for that purpose prepares Disciples then goeth into France and treats with Mendoza before named Charles Paget and others about invading of England judging they could never have a fairer opportunity then at that Juncture of time forasmuch as the Pope the Spaniard the Duke of Guise and the Prince of Parma were all resolved to set upon England thereby to divert the War from the Netherlands Having delivered the Message there he returns for England to promote the design here gets to London where in a Souldiers habit under the false Name of Captain Fescue he agitates the Plot. Babington and divers other Gentlemen engaged in this design of taking off the Queen At London he discovered this Affair to one Mr. Anthony Babington of Dethick in Derbyshire a young Gentleman greatly addicted to the Romish Religion and who had in France Commenced an Acquaintance with the Bishop of Glascow the Queen of Scots Ambassador and one Thomas Morgan an English Fugitive and a busie Agent for her Babington at first was of opinion that as long as the Queen lived an Invasion would signifie little or nothing but when he understood that Savage had undertaken to remove that
afterwards another Treaty was set on foot for Prince Henry with a Daughter of Spain What Religion the Spaniard was of is well known and what effect the Crown of England Matching into Popish Families abroad hath had is more to be lamented then remembred any other ways then to avoid the like mischiefs for the future In the 12 th Year of his Reign there were a generation about the Court Camb. f. 77. A Parliament called and dissolved because they complained of grievances and particularly of the increase of Papists that undertook for the calling such a Parliament as the King would have these were Men that presumed they had friends in every County and Borough who by their power among the People could make Election of such Men for Knights and Burgesses as should comply solely with the Kings desire and Somerset was the head and chief of these undertakers but these projects against the Fundamentals of the English Government proved an abortive for the Parliament meeting such Faces appeared there as was no ways pleasing to the Court who instead of contributing to the Kings wants lay open his wasts especially upon the Scots with whom they desire a share of Favour The Bread by our Saviour's Rule properly belongs to the Children of the Kingdom and they beseech his Majesty to stop the Current of future access of that Nation to make residence here having enough to eat up their own Crums they enquire into the Causes of the unexpected increase of Popish Recusants since the Gunpowder Plot the detestation whereof they thought should have utterly extinguished them and they attribute it to the admission of Popish Nobility into his Councels the silencing of many watchful and dilligent Ministers the divers Treaties his Majesty had entertained not only for the Marriage of Prince Henry but for Prince Charles with the Daughters of Popish Princes which disheartned the Protestant and encouraged the Papist they laid open with these many other miscarriages in Government the King desirous to conceal these Matters dissolves the Parliament and Committed to the Tower and other Prisons such as were most active for the common good and who can deny but that this must needs give encouragement to the Papists In the 15 th Year of his Reign he put out a Book to Tollerate Sports on the Lords Days this Book came out with a Command injoyning all Ministers to read it to their Parishoners and to approve of it A Book of Sports obtruded and those that did not were brought before the High Commission Imprisoned and Suspended This was a contrivance of the Papists and their adherents to trap the most Conscientious Men of the Church of England who were in all other matters exactly conformable and to lay them aside and good reason the Papists had for this because no Nation will ever receive their innovations in Matters of Religion where there is a Sound Orthodox Learned and Pious Clergy Wilsons Hist. f. 105. Wilson says that some of the Ministers that were Suspended said that they would Preach the Gospel in a Fools Coat rather then be silent for a Surplis and the Conjuring of them with the Cross in Baptism and the Circle of the Ring in Marriage could not make a well composed Reason and a sound Conscience then start at it But when so frighful an Aparition as the Dancing Book appeared some of the Ministers left all for fear others by force they were so terrified by it This I have set down in Willsons own words because it appears by this that the Men that were suspended were proceeded against not for Puritanism or Nonconformity to the discipline of the Church of England but for non-complying with things obtruded on them by right down Papists or those who whether they saw it or no I cannot tell were carrying on the Popish designs The King having all along had a design of Matching his Son Rushw Col. 1. part f. 11. either to Spain or France it is no wonder that the Priests and Jesuits swarm here and much less a wonder that they endeavour to promote their own Religion for if they will do it when the Edge of Justice is sharpned against them much more when he that should make use of the Sword is so merciful that let them do what they will he will not or so fearful he dares not strike As Prophanness by reason of the Book of Sports crept in by their means so did Idolotry and Superstition for their was now more enmity against Ministers of the Gospel then Popish Priests and no wonder for let a Peoples Morals be once throughly debauched and 't will not be very difficult to make them outwardly of what Religion you will. The Jesuits Jugling with the Boy of Bilson Wilsons Hist. f. 107. The Popish Priests and Jesuits having now more liberty then they had had for above fifty Years resolve to make much of their time and because they cannot much boast of real holiness pretended Miracles must recommend them to the People for this purpose the Boy of Bilson was set up by them as he himself afterwards confest to Act the part of one possest with a Divel and they were to come and disposes him that so it might appear how much Gods Power was exprest in their weakness and to difference the truth and holiness betwixt the Catholic Religion and the Heresie profest among Protestants such Godly cheats are they always making use of to deceive the Hearts of the simple This Boy Bishop Morton discovered to be an imposture and when he had made the discovery and the Boy found he was detected he confest the whole Matter to be thus That he was inticed to one Mr. Giffords House in Stafford-shire where there were four Romish Priests who gave him Mony and many fair words promising him great matters if he would be conformable to their instructions In three days time they had taught him to practice his tricks so well that they ventured him home to his Fathers to exercise them publickly He came home in a very distracted manner to his Parents amazement and in a short time the thing was noised and a great deal of Company coming to see him his Parents got Money by it which was an incouragement to him to persist so that when the Priests came to disposes him he would not be disposest but went on and as they had instructed him accused a poor Old Woman of Witchcraft for which she was Tryed and Condemned and had been Executed had it not been for Bishop Morton detecting this imposture The whole story you may read at large in Wilson from f. 106. to 111. Wilsons Hist. f. 130. Henry Earl of Northumberland who was Sentenced in the Star-Chamber Thirty Thousand Pounds and Imprisoned in the Tower for harbouring in his House the aforenamed Thomas Piercy his Kinsman who was one of the Plotters of the Gunpowder-Treason was in the Seaventeenth Year of this Kings Reign set at liberty The