in danger by a Conspiracy against his Sacred Life malitiously contrived and industriously carried on by the Seminary Priests and Jesuits and their Adherents who think themselves under some obligation of Conscience to effect it and having vowed the Subversion of the True Religion amongst us find no way so likely to compass it as to wound us in the Head and kill the Defender of the Faith And besides what the last Parliament declared to that purpose did not the House of Commons of the Parliament which was then sitting when the Plot was first discovered with the Approbation of the House of Lords resolve That that House was of Opinion that there hath been and still is a Damnable and Hellish Plot contrived and carried on by Popish Recusants for Assassinating and Murdering the King and for Subverting the Government and rooting out and destroying the Protestant Religion So that now upon the whole matter He that dare assume the boldness to tell us that the King laughs at the Plot as a ridiculous and ill contrived Story doth Brand the King the Lord Chancellor and Two Parliaments for a company of Impostors And if this be not enough to stigmatise such Rascals for the worst of Slanderers and overthrow their credit with all Mankind surely nothing in this World can be alledged more effectual to do it Thirdly need we more to satisfie us that there is any thing to be expected from men of a Papal Complexion by lies and calumnies if we will but consider that after they had inhumanly murdered Sr. Edmund-bury Godfrey fastned divers slanders upon him before he was found and afterwards endeavoured to impose plain impossibilities upon our Faith namely that he had killed thimself when the place where he lay the manner of his laying and many other circumstances uncontroulably demonstrated the contrary so at last one of these scandalous and villainous Scriblers dare now solemnly avouch That he was an entire Friend to the Popish Party and that he had performed the utmost service in their behalf that friendship it self could suggest Can there be any thing said more effectual at once to convince this Fellow of being a Slanderer or to disabuse those men of little understanding that are inclined to believe him in any thing he says than that he should offer to obtrude upon the Faith of Englishmen that Sr. Edmund-bury Godfrey was a Papist or at least a very friend to the Papal Party It were to abase the patience of all who knew that worthy Gentleman and are masters of Sense or Honesty to offer to prove that Sr. Edmund-bury Godfrey was a Protestant or that he was far enough from supposing himself inrolled in the number of the friends of the Popish Faction Alas poor Gentleman as he little dreamed that a professed Member of the Church of England and a liberal Asserter of the Protestant Doctrine and constant Reliever of the necessities of those that were of the Reformed Religion but one as himself frequently related that expected to be the first Martyr under the Popish Rage should be consigned down to Posterity as the Cordial friend to those avow'd Enemies of his own Religion or a principal Confident of those Bontefeus of the Kingdom for whose peace and safety he was a watchfull Magistrate Nothing allyed to truth can be expected from such who after they had barbarously Murdered an innocent Gentleman do by robbing him afterwards of his honour credit and reputation assassinate him a second time It is a great effect of the Divine Wisdom to give up Impostors to the venting some palpable falshoods that the easie and credulous World may be the better fortified against those other reports which they cannot so easily disapprove For they who are found wilfull and evident Slanderers in some things ought not to be credited in any thing unless it be accompanied with better Credentials than the authority of their Testimony These few Remarks are sufficient to take off the credit of those Popish Scriblers that have attacked the Reputation of the Kings Witnesses and slandered the Justice of the Nation so a reply being preparing to all the particular instances in which they are slandered may discharge me from calling those Pamphletters to a further Account Yet forasmuch as I do not think it enough to have these Advocates section XII of the Plot proved meerly to be Slanderers I shall therefore moreover show that the Papists may not only be publick Defamers with a Consistancy to their Religion but that the Doctrines of their chief Casuists instruct and incourage them to be so And this I shall perform in a brief consideration of two Particulars First in that they teach the Members of their Church to be under no obligation to speak Truth either to or of Hereticks but that they may calumniate them without the fear of guilt or Divine wrath It is the common opinion of the Jesuits in all their Scholastick and Casuistical Writings that it is no sin to Calumniate those who speak ill of them or the Roman Church They are under no moral Obligation to Hereticks but may cheat them without dishonesty violate Oaths made unto them without perjury rob them without theft kill them without murder and lie to them or concerning them without the violation of the measures of Truth or Justice Nor is it any ways strange that while they may meritoriously destroy us they should with innocency defame us For by the same Principles that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks no Faith is due to them When we meet with such Maxims as that Servants owe no fidelity to Heretical Masters nor Children obedience to Heretical Parents nor Wives conjugal duty to Heretical Husbands nor Subjects loyalty to Heretical Princes ought we after this to be surprised upon finding it established as a received Doctrine at least of the Jesuits that they may innocently slander and defame Hereticks of whatsoever quality and degree And as by the knowledge of their Principles in this matter I can make a shift to understand Balsec Cocleus Sanders c. in their virulent and slanderous Books against Calvin Luther and other blessed Reformers without finding my self obliged to believe them in any one word they speak to the defamation of those whom they accuse so by the same means I judge my self conducted not to give credit to any Papist speaking to the prejudice of an Heretick unless I be otherwise assured of the Truth of what he declares But secondly if you will add to this that they are countenanced by the maxims of their Divines to defame any one of what Religion soever he be that doth them an injury we may then be fully armed against all Impressions of disbelieving the Plot that the late Scriblers are designed to raise or beget In all the Casuistical Divinity of the Jesuits there is hardly a case wherein they do so unanimously conspire and agree as in this That it is lawfull to invent crimes to ruine their credit who speak
they are bound to exterminate Hereticks as they would be esteemed Christians themselves saith the Decree of the Lateran Councel under Innocent the third Yea by the late Bull of Clement the tenth for any Papist to be Loyal to an Heretical Prince is publickly declared to be a crime and such are solemnly cursed in the view of all the world for that which the principles of Reason and Revelation and without which no Government is safe oblige them unto Bellarmine speaketh intelligibly when he saith That Hereticks are to be destroyed root and branch if it can possibly be done but if it appear that the Catholicks are so few that they cannot conveniently with their own safety attempt such a thing then it is best in such a case to be quiet least upon opposition made by Hereticks the Catholicks should be worsted Hereupon Bannes hath no other Apology to make for the English Papists that they do not forcibly rise against the King and his Protestant Subjects but that they are not powerful enough for such an undertaking and therefore the Attempt would be to their own prejudice and damage So that upon the whole Protestants do only hold their lives at the courtesie of the Papists till they be in a condition by number and strength to destroy and extirpate them Good natur'd people that forbear to kill us forasmuch as one of our lives may cost three of their own And yet though at sometimes they seem to judge it convenient either to conceal the foregoing principles or to suffer them for a season to lye dormant by them yet in reality such hath been their faithfulness to their Doctrines that they have never suffered us to be any considerable while without some testimony of the good will they maintain for Hereticks and how ready they are to do all those meritorious offices of killing and destroying us which their Religion obligeth them to do I shall not mention here the vast numbers of Christians that have been butchered by the sentence of the Roman Inquisition of which it is reported that Paul the 4 th should say that the Authority of the See of Rome depended upon that office and that it was setled in Spain by the inspiration of the holy Ghost But surely he meant not that which came down from Heaven but that which was sent from Rome in a Cloak-bag Nor shall I insist upon the infinite slaughters of such as professed Jesus Christ in sincerity by Crusado's and sanctified Wars though Authentick Authors tell us that in France alone there were slain ten hundred thousand persons in the persecution raised against the Waldenses upon no other account but their dissenting from the Church of Rome Neither shall I dwell upon the Parisian Massacre by which in a few days there were murdered above forty thousand persons and that for no other cause but because the Church of Rome had adjudged them Hereticks but I shall rather call over some of the attempts against these Nations commenced upon and justified by the foregoing principles of the Papal Church in reference to those who differ in Religion from them No sooner was Reformation established in England under Edward the sixth than divers Rebellions in several parts of the Land were by the influence of the aforesaid Doctrines and the instigation of Priests and Friars raised against the King and Government as every one may read in our vulgar Chronicles The number of those Rebels may be guessed at by the lists of the killed and taken at some of the defeats given unto them And if we will believe our Histories there were above five thousand slain and taken Prisoners of those that rebelled in Cornwall and Devon-shire and above five thousand slain of those that rose in Norfolk and Suffolk besides those which were taken Prisoners there and who were cut off and apprehended in suppression of the Rebellion in York-shire Now this excellent Prince being dead and Queen Mary Established on the Throne though she was not of a bloody or of an ill disposition in her self yet her Religion obliged her to those Cruelties which have at once left an indelible stain upon her memory and given us to fear what we may expect if the Government should at any time fall into the hand of one infected with the Papal Doctrine For though her Reign was but short yet there were in the compass of a few years two hundred seventy seven publickly burnt besides near as many more who perished by imprisonment torment and famine And all these meerly for Religion not so much as one of them being chargeable with any traiterous Machination against the Government Upon her removal by a natural death and Queen Elizabeth succeeding on the Throne the Reformed Religion was again re-established in the Kingdom And whereas notwithstanding the severity which had been expressed to her self and the cruelty which had been exercised upon those of the same Faith with her She not only buried all resentments but was willing to suffer the Papists to live quietly both in the injoyment of their Estates and the private exercise of their Religion yet it is not to be expressed by what ways of Assassination Conspiracy Rebellions at home and Invasions from abroad they endeavoured to destroy Her Person overthrow the Government and make the Kingdom a Field of blood In pursuance of what by their Religion they owe to Hereticks Pius the 5 th did not only solemnly Excommunicate and Damn her self and all her Protestant Subjects but likewise cursed all the Papists that should give any Obedience to her or her Laws That whole Bull proceeds upon her being a Heretick and for being so the holy Father deprives her of all Dominion and Dignity absolves all her Subjects from any Obligation of Allegiance and includes them under the same Curse though Papists that should yield any Subjection to her Here was a Paraphrase upon the Principles of the Romish Religion towards Hereticks which the Papists from time to time exemplified by practices sutable to the Doctrines of their Faith and the infallible Commentaries of the Roman Mufti For I may confidently say that the Treasons of one kind and another that were contrived against her and her Protestant Subjects were more for number than the years of her Government But all their Machinations and Attempts being by the infiâ—ite wisdom and goodness of God detected disappointed and defeated and She laid in her Grave accompanied with the Tears of her People The like Conspiracies continued against King James who succeeded her For as they had endeavoured by a Book published under the counterfeit name of Doleman but wrote by Parsons by communication with Cardinal Allen and Sir Francis Inglefield to disprove at least Sully his Title to the Crown so they obtained two Breve's from Clement the 8 th to exclude him unless he would swear to promote the Romish Religion Nor is it any matter of amazement or surprise that the Roman See should act in that manner to King
thereupon arrived at more respect as well as enjoy'd more peace in their Persons and Estates than they were in possession of at any time since the Reformation Nor do I believe that there is any Protestant that would have envied them the security they enjoyed or the favour they had attained to provided they had not abused them to the destruction of His Majesties Person the supplanting of His Government and the extirpating the Religion which was Legally established But alas good and peaceable Souls such an opportunity of promoting the Catholick interest was not to be lost They might now carry on their designs for the Triple-Crown none daring to suggest any thing to bring them under a jealousie who would not be immediately aspersed as maligners of the Kings best friends And it is not to be apprehended what improvement of that little stock of credit which some of the Popish Gentry had gotten by their being on the late Kings side in the last War the Jesuits Priests and Friars made to the furtherance of the subjugating these Nations again to Rome For now were all the principles of the Papal Religion by which those that espouse it are obliged to root out Heresie and Establish the Jurisdiction of the Pope inculcated from day to day upon persons of one quality and another of the Papal Profession A second thing which gave them no less advantage for the carrying on section 5 of their designs was the division among the Protestants themselves And here two things greatly ministred to the sub-serving the design of the Papal Agents 1 The parties divided were come to a more equal ballance as to numbers on each side respectively than at any season heretofore For during the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the first the Dissenters from the Established way of the Church of England were but few in comparison of those who were for Episcopacy and the Rites and Ceremonies required by Law in Divine Worship So that there being then little jealousie of any danger to the Church of England from the Protestant Dissenters how zealous soever they might even in those days be for their way the watchfulness of the Dignitaries of the Church and the labours of the inferiour Clergy were chiefly exercised and laid out in reference to the Papists But those who stile themselves Non-conformists being now multiplied to that degree as that they seem to bear a much nearer proportion to the other party than heretofore they did The main care of the Over seers of the Church hath thereupon much abated towards the Papists and been exerted towards them 2 The Animosities between the Protestants thus divided into two parties were become higher and their mutual exasperations grown fiercer than heretofore For partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the ill entertainment which the Bishops and the conformable Clergy met with in the late times and partly through the retaliation they have measured to Protestant Dissenters since they had the Authority of the Law and assistance of the Government to befriend them they are wonderfully inflamed in mutual heats towards and disgust of one another Of which it is easie to imagine what manifold uses the Factors for the Roman See have made to the furthering of their own designs which tend equally to the ruine of both For as the pretence of these Divisions hath served as a plea to proselyte such who know not that the Divisions of the Church of Rome are more numerous and their feuds more irreconcileable so the subtile Ministers of the Papacy have by winding themselves into all Companies if not the mustering themselves in all parties endeavoured both to heighten the differences and to make their Animosities against each other not only hotter but more immortal And while the one party of Protestants hath been crying out of Schism and the other party of persecution the Papists have to the reproach of both been undermining that common Faith which they equally centre in and carrying on a design of destroying the one as well as the other being in their account both equally Hereticks I would be loath to believe that through the grandure which the Clergy are exalted unto the possession of in the Church of Rome that therefore our Protestant Bishops and other Dignitaries of the English Church should think them the less dangerous but this I know that those vulgarly stiled Phanaticks have judged themselves highly justified in their clamours against the Conformable Clergy in that they are so severely treated while in the mean time no difference in any fundamental Doctrine from the Church of England can be objected unto them And as the Jealousies which the differences betwixt dissenting Protestants have caused have made every overture though for the preservation of Religion in general and the safety of the Nation wherein they are both alike interested if proposed by one party to be suspected by the other so the distrust which these Divisions have caused in one Protestant towards another hath in no small measure emboldned the Papists to hope that in whatsoever they should attempt there could be no confederation among Protestants either to resist or oppose them And though I cannot say it upon my own knowledge yet I have cause to believe it from the reason of the thing as well as upon the Testimony of Mr. Dugdale that they were the more confident in their design privately to Assassinate the King as hoping when they had so done to have Fathered it upon the Phanaticks And as they might very rationably believe that would the Nation have been so possest they would have avenged it upon that party even to the extirpating of them so they assuredly knew that thereby their own design of destroying the Episcopal Protestants would have been rendred much the more facile section 6 A third thing that equally contributed with the former to the introduction of Popery into these Kingdoms was the general prophaneness which hath greatly over-spread these Nations beyond what at any time heretofore hath been observed For besides that every prophane person is truly of no Religion and therefore indifferent to seem to be of any as interest and temptation sways him so no man can care much to be of that Religion which not only condemns all the ways he is resolved upon but the more because he is of such a Religion that doth not allow them And withall there is this further whereby such men are disposed for Popery more than others viz. That it can both allow them in all the sins which they have a mind to and secure them from the fears of Eternal punishments in the practice of them For partly by making many things which Christ hath forbid and men from the power of their Lusts and the influence of their interest have a desire to commit to be no sins and partly by making such things which the Gospel stiles enormous
thing as well as another And whereas then we find them evidently Tardy by their saying that there is not one Jesuit except Mariana that holds it lawfull for a private person to kill a King although an Heretick although a Pagan although a Tyrant we may very rationally suspect their sincerity and Truth in all the rest What! is there not one Jesuit but Mariana who maintains King-killing Doctrine Yes I do affirm that I have frequently heard Anderton Campion Southwell c. in their daily Discourses Lectures and Sermons at Rome teach the same And though all that know me will receive more upon the credit of my Word than this comes to yet to put it out of doubt that the Jesuits died Liars I shall convince the World of their Teaching the King-killing Doctrine from their publick Writers Was not Cardinal Tolet a Jesuit and doth he not declare That Subjects are not bound to maintain unviolate their Oath of Allegiance to an Excommunicate Person Was not Cardinal Bellarmine a Jesuit and doth he not affirm That the Pope hath the same right and power over Kings as Jehoiada had over Athalia Was not Gregory Valentia a Jesuit and doth he not teach that the Pope may deprive Heretical Kings of all Dominion and Superiority over their Subjects Was not Creswell a Jesuit and doth he not affirm that if a Prince be not of the Romish Religion he looseth all Right and Title to Govern and his Subjects are discharged from all obligation of Obedience and that he may be proceeded against as the Enemy of Mankind Was not Franciscus Varona Constantinus a Jesuit and doth he not in his Apology for John Chastel who wounded Hen. 4. of France tell us That it is lawfull for a private man to murder Kings and Princes condemned of Heresie Is not this a Point so evident that De Harlay the first President of the Parliament of Paris who both knew the Doctrine of the Jesuits and had seen the wofull Effects of it in the murder of Two Kings of France publickly avow it to be their common Opinion in all their Writings That the Pope hath a right to Excommunicate Kings and that thereupon their Subjects may with Innocency assault and destroy them Have Englishmen learned from the Jesuits the guilt of Forgetfulness so as not to remember that Cardinal Allen wrote a Book to prove that Princes Excommunicate for Heresie not only might but were to be deprived of their Kingdom and Life And was not William Parry provoked thereby to kill Queen Elizabeth which though before he had promised at Rome to do yet he was Hesitating in his mind about it till incouraged by that Book Or is it past into Oblivion with us that Father Gifford instigated one John Savage to kill the same Queen and that upon the Bull of Pius 5. And which is remarkable at the same time that they might be the less suspected and the Queen the more secure they wrote a Book wherein they admonished the Papists in England not to attempt any thing against their Princess but to fight against their Adversaries only with the Weapons of Christians viz. with Tears Spiritual reasonings Prayers Watchings and Fastings To all this I shall only add that going in the company of Capt. Richardson to visit Mr. Thomas Jenison the Jesuit then in Newgate but since deceased the said Mr. Jenison acknowledged in Discourse That the Jesuits both held for lawfull and taught in their Writings that an Excommunicate King might be lawfully either Deposed or Murthered but that he himself would not have accession to the practice of these Principles Thirdly I desire to recommend this further to the Reader viz. That though it be both the Doctrine of the Court of Rome and commonly maintained by the Jesuits in their Writings that it is lawfull to kill an Heretical Prince yet it is not usual to press it upon their Youth and inculcate it to their Scholers but upon the prospect of some great occasion They have it always ready in the Books of their Scholasticks and Casuists to teach their Votaries what may lawfully be done but it is not their custom to urge it in their Common discourse nor to recommend it to their Disciples in private or publick Conferences but with respect to something of that Nature to be speedily transacted Thus when they had a purpose to murder Hen. 4. of France Father Generet a Jesuit instructed John Chastell in this King-killing and Heretical Doctrine And Father Fayre did the same by Francis Veron to dispose him for the same Design Yea when they were ready to perpetrate that barbarous Villany upon that Generous Prince the very Sermons of the Jesuits were all fram'd to instigate men to so Bloody an attempt so that Ravilliack when examined about the Causes why he stabb'd the King answered that they might understand them by the Sermons of the Preachers I do further declare that during my residence at Rome I heard the Jesuits section XVII frequently affirm that the King of England was an Heretick and so in Form condemned And when I was leave to the College and return to England which was about June 1676. the said Fathers did both severally and together Teach and Instruct me that I was not to pay Obedience to an Heretical or Excommunicated Prince Now whereas there are divers other Protestant Kings and Princes in Europe beside the King of Great Brittain that which both then gave me amazement and hath also cost me some thoughts since is why only the King of England should be upon all occasions represented as an Heretiek and that no other Protestant Prince should be so much as once mentioned under that Character Nor am I able to resolve it into any thing but this that it was likely to be more for the advantage of the Church of Rome to have the King of England murthered than any other Prince besides For whatsoever ill-will they may bear to them all yet they are not so foolish as to undertake a thing that carries a hazard of scandal and danger in it if the success in the Attempt may not recompence the difficulties in the Atchievement Now there being no Prince of the Reformed Religion at this day in the World whose Death would turn so much to the profit of Rome as that of the King of England it is the less to be marvelled that they should be contented to allow others to live and are only sollicitous to get him removed And the gain which they promise themselves from the Death of his Majesty ariseth from a Consideration of these three things First That the Duke of York the pesumptive Heir to the Crown is a Papist And ought it then to be a matter of any surprize that to further and hasten his Succession they should conspire the destruction of His Majesty who is the only obstacle in the Duke's way to the Throne Are we so unacquainted with the History of our own Nation
as not to know how upon the like hopes from Mary Queen of Scots being next Lineal Successor to Queen Elizabeth the Romish Party did from time to time contrive and design the death of that Excellent Princess of ever Blessed Memory And was it not the sense which our Ancestors had of this that influenced them to enter into an Association through the whole Kingdom even in an Interval of Parliament wherein they mutually obliged themselves in case the Queen should be taken off by any undue means to avenge it upon the Papists And this Association was so far then from being apprehended a Seditious or Illegal Bandying of Persons together that the Parliament that assembled the Year after did not only Approve it but Ratifie it into a Law Well do the Papists know that should they loose this Advantage which they have from the Duke's being a Papist and of such legal hopes of the Crown for the Reestablishment of their Religion they may never enjoy so fair and probable an Opportunity again They perceive the King as likely to live as the Duke and therefore reckon it absolutely necessary to Anticipate the Course of Nature and not trust matters of so great Consequence as the seeing these Nations once more subjugated to Rome to such a contingency as the Kings Dying in a natural way before the Duke And that which Mr. Dugdale divulgeth every where to this purpose deserveth a serious Remark namely That the Jesuits having calculated the King's and the Duke's Nativities which by the way is Treason by Law and finding that the King would in a course of Nature outlive the Duke they thereupon agreed and resolved to have him cut off by violence The having a Popish King again in England would be of so great concernment to the See of Rome that we may easily conceive especially seeing the Principles of their Religion do befriend them that they will not boggle at the Murder of his Present Majesty to compass and effect it And whatsoever security the Protestants may flatter themselves with as to their Religion from the Promises which his Highness may make unto them yet this may serve to undeceive them that not only the Council of Constance hath determined that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks but that Martyn the 5. told Alexander Duke of Lithuania that if he kept his Oath with such he sinned mortally Secondly the advantage which they reckon upon the Kings Death ariseth not only from the consideration that the Presumptive Heir is a Papist but that he is more zealous for that Religion than Princes of the same Religion either are or use to be It is of great concernment to their Interest to see a Papist how lukewarm and indifferent so ever in that Profession exalted to the English Throne But to have a Prince of burning Zeal and Ardour for the dignity of the Triple Crown to be advanced to sway the English Sceptre is of far greater consequence to them than most Persons are willing to apprehend I know that there are some Monarchs of the Faith of the Church of Rome that are not of the Faith of the Court of Rome and therefore though they give all due protection and incouragement to the Romish Religion yet it is still without suffering it to undermine the State or to introduce the Papal Jurisdiction Though they countenance their Subjects in the Papal Worship yet they are not willing to see them inslaved to the Popes Usurpation But whether the Duke of York should he once arrive at the Crown would think it enough to allow the Pope only his power in Spirituals without granting him the right which he challengeth in Temporals I cannot tell but this I can say that the hopes which the Jesuits have of seeing the whole Papal Jurisdiction established by his means and as fruits of his Zeal to the Holy See over these Kingdoms is a great motive to precipitate his advancement to the Monarchy and for their conspiring the Destroying of His Majesty who is the only Remora in the way Thirdly the advantage which they count upon by the Kings Death ariseth not only from their Assurance of the Presumptive Heir's being a Papist and one of zeal and ardor for the Papal Chair but that he is moreover under the conduct of the Jesuits For I do remember that Father Campian and Father Anderton did not only frequently declare that the Duke of York was of the Romish Religion but that he was brought over by their Body and that they had the greatest influence over Him And as this was the common discourse in the Jesuits College at Rome so it was received with great joy and acclamation by the whole Society Now as there can be nothing more fatal to any State than to have the Prince under the Conduct of the Jesuits so the power they pretend to have obtained over the Duke of York hath its share in the animating them to hasten his Reign and in order thereunto to destroy His Majesty And to this purpose I shall here add what I heard some of the Fathers say For Father Campian having intimated that many set themselves against the Establishment of the Popish Religion in England he added that nevertheless it must flourish again in that Nation and we are do the great Work and restore it And Father Warner upon whom I had a Bill of Exchange from Rome he being Procurator for the Jesuits at Paris having paid me the Bill did thus declare himself unto me Religion must be set up in as high a manner as ever in England and we must be the Promoters of it though many set themselves in opposition to us Blessed Promoters and Restorers of Religion who conspire the Murder of Kings and Overturning of Kingdoms in order thereunto And are they not fit men to have the Guidance of the Consciences of Princes who besides all the other ill Principles which they are imbued with are more sworn Vassals to the Jurisdiction of the Pope than any other Order of the Roman Church I do moreover declare That when I was about to leave Rome and section XVIII return into England both Father Anderton Father Campian and Father Green assured me that there would suddenly be great Alterations in Church and State in this Kingdom And that there was but one Man in the way meaning the King who might be soon removed out of it Yea the same Fathers informed me That they were assured from the most Eminent persons of this Nation that their Religion should be Established again in these Dominions in as great Glory as at any time heretofore and whosoever opposed the Establishment of it should be removed And I do withall remember that waiting upon Abbot Montague at Paris as I was in my return homeward the said Abbot after he had congratulated the seeing me in a Religious Habit and told me that being of the Order of Secular Priests I was in the Apostolical way of Teaching he further subjoyn'd That
James forasmuch as Gregory the 14 th had a little before by two Monitory Bulls declared Henry the 4 th uncapable of the Crown of France and that upon no account but because he was a Heretick yea which may be a little more startling to those who are not acquainted with transactions of this nature notwithstanding that Henry the third was both a loyal Son of the Church of Rome and had been a bloody and severe prosecuter of the Hugonots and had more adored the Pope than ever any King of France did yet the Pope did both covenant and agree with the Duke of Guise to depose the said Prince and to transfer the Crown from those to whom by the Laws of France it was to descend and to settle it on the said Duke and his Posterity only with this proviso That he would cause the Estates of France to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Roman See and without modification or restriction to abolish the Liberties and Priviledges of the Gallican Church But to return King James being in defiance of all Papal contrivances Established in the Throne The first fruits of their Loyalty to an Heretical King and the first Evidence of their Principles to such as renounce the Communion of the Church of Rome was to welcome him with a Plot contrived by Watson and Clarke two secular Priests but wheedled into it by the Jesuits as I have heard themselves often declare and afterwardâ— discovered in revenge for their writing two Books the one stiled Quodlibets and the other Important Considerations I know the Jesuits and their Factors have of late the impudence to say that they were drawn into that Conspiracy by Gray Cobham and Rawleigh Protestants who having been Queen Elizabeths old Favorites disliked King James his succession to the Crown and that Watson acknowledged his infamous death to be a Just Judgment for his Factious Writings and designs against their Order and Society Things as wholly false in themselves so recorded by no authentick Historian of the times when they were transacted But to pass this That Plot miscarrying the Jesuits the great Crafts-masters in all Conspiracies designed another and that such a one as might every way correspond to the Principles of the Roman Religion and bear proportion to the good will which by vertue of those principles they bear to Hereticks And accordingly they contrived the blowing up the King Lords and Commons the whole Kingdom as well in Epitome as in its Representatives And this they did meerly in pursuance of what their Religion obliged them unto being withall quickned to the design by the two Briev's received some years before but hitherto kept dormant to operate upon a convenient occasion and good opportunity But being disappointed in that also through its having been discovered by means that I now enquire not into and the Prodigiousness of the Conspiracy having awakened England to a more signal watchfulness and effectual care for its own preservation as it had astonished the whole world Pagan as well as Christian where the report of it arrived the Kingdom had some reprieve for a few years from the publick workings of the Popish principles in the Catholick Service and office of destroying and murthering Hereticks But even in that interval wherein they seemed to lye most dormant they gave us instances enough how acceptable those Heretick murthering Doctrines are at Rome For while all the world stood amazed at the former attempt and many of the Papists abroad seemed to express their detestation of the Principles which produced it The Pope and Court of Rome took all imaginable care to have the Traytors magnified and honoured For Garnet the Provincial of the Jesuits though by his acknowledgment under his own hand he dyed for Treason yet had his name inserted into the English Martirology and his Bones were reserved for Reliques and his Image erected over Altars and two Jesuits who had been principal Conspirators in that Hellish Plot and had by misfortune escaped the Halter which was the reward due to them for their barbarous Conspiracy were upon their arrival at Rome both of them advanced to be the Popes Penitentiaries And moreover when the King and Parliament for the security of the Kings person and preservation of the Government and the lives of his Subjects were forced to enact and impose on the Papists the Oath of Allegiance Paul the 5 th published divers Bulls against it and both Becanus and Bellarmine besides many more wrote expresly in opposition to the taking of it But the next impression of their Faith in its sutable and proper works made amends for their laziness and barrenness during that interim for through the influence of the same principles and being animated by the Pope they murdered above two hundred and fifty thousand in Ireland without any other inducement to it save that they were Protestants and that in killing of them the Catholick cause was promoted For at no time did the Irish enjoy more liberty as to their Religion and more tranquility as to their Persons and Estates than immediately before they broke out into that horrid Rebellion Nor was that quiet and security they possessed the fruits only of a connivance but the effects of many Acts of Grace which had a little before past in favour of them And as there was no alarm given of this either by foregoing Citations to return into the bosom of the Mother-Church nor by any solemn publication of their being Excommunicated nor by any proclaimed Crusadoes or a holy War least the secure Hereticks being numerous and not willing to part with their lives tamely might have been roused to self-defence so this barbarous massacring of so many thousand persons who had laid innumerable obligations upon their Popish Irish Neighbours can be resolved into nothing but the principles of the Romish Religion and the Obligations that Papists are under by vertue of their very Faith to root out Hereticks when a conveniency offereth And take possession of their Estates which by the Decree of the Lateran Councel under Innocent the third are forfeited to the Roman Catholicks and which not only may but ought to be seized whensoever it comes within the Circle of their Power to accomplish it There are many other instances which might be re-collected of their readiness to be as kind and merciful to Hereticks as their Religion not only instructeth but obligeth them were it not that this damnable and hellish Plot which hath been for some years last past and still is carried on for murthering the King subverting the Government and rooting out the Protestant Religion supercedeth all further need of insisting upon those things To make then a nearer approach to the present Plot the Agents of section 4 the Church of Rome having with the utmost diligence as well as all imaginable craft and art especially since the Restoration of His Majesty projected and pursued the re-introduction of Popery into these Kingdoms and the Extirpation of Heresie
as they are pleased to stile the Protestant Religion they were at last as they apprehended come within view of infallibly compassing their design Now there were some things which afforded them advantages for the attaining these Ends which at no time since the Reformation were they before now possessed of the assistance of The first was That Interest at Court and universal esteem through the whole Kingdom which the pretented Loyalty of many Catholicks during the late unhappy War betwixt His late Majesty and many of His People who acted under the influence and supposed Authority of a Parliament reconciled and gave unto them This together with the Assistance which some of the Papists contributed to the escape of his present Majesty and the seeming readiness of many of them to co-operate with others in his Restauration gave them not only a share in the peace and quiet which these Kingdoms were restored unto but procured a further degree of respect to them than had been either usually or universally shown them since the Reformation And though I would not endeavour to lessen their Loyalty at any time when they might but seem to pretend to it yet to deal plainly I know very little reason for their pretences of Loyalty to King Charles the first more than to His Majesty who now happily Reigns yea I know very much why they ought at least to supercede all right of merit on that foot of account For not to insist upon what preceded the unhappy War though antecedently to that we are told of a Conspiracy to destroy the Kings Life whereof the discovery was found in Archbishop Land's Library being declared by Andreas ab Haberfeld to Sir William Boswell Embassador then at the Hague who revealed it to the Archbishop But I say not to dwell upon this nor upon that that I am now to say namely that it is affirmed and that with all the moral certainty imaginable that the Romish Emissaries were both the principal Authors of that Vniformity with England which was pressed upon Scotland and also prime sticklers to prevent its being entertained there and all to foment a War betwixt the two Kingdoms The Priests names have been oftner then once published to the world who were sent by Cardinal Richlieu into that Kingdom to raise and inflame differences betwixt the two Nations And the motives upon which that great Boutefeu of Europe was so earnest to kindle a War in His Majesties Dominions are sufficiently understood by all who are not wholly strangers to the affairs of that time But there are two things which overthrow all their pretences of Loyalty to his late Majesty of which they so confidently boast and have made so large advantages One is their commencing that bloody War in Ireland in the massacring so many of His Majesties Protestant Subjects which as it increased the Jealousies that the like might be designed against those of the same Religion in this Kingdom so the making all Assistances by the War which they had begun there from thence impossible gave confidence to the Parliament to be the more peremptory in those demands which His Majesty finding it necessary to refuse to comply with proved the causes of that unnatural War which fell out among our selves and of all the fatal consequences of it And as a further Testimony of their Loyalty to that Prince they not only renounced all Allegiance to Him and banished His Lieutenant but assumed the Royal Authority to themselves owing only a dependance upon the Pope and his Nuncio The second is that accession which they had to the murder of His late Majesty For as the principles upon which those seem to have acted who publickly destroyed the King are not only countenanced but most especially taught by the Doctors and Casuists of the Church of Rome so the effects of those principles are to be charged as well upon them that teach Doctrines of such pernicious consequence as upon them that practise them Hear then what the greatest Authors in the Romish Church declare to the purpose before us The Power of a Nation saith Bellarmine is setled in the whole multitude as its true and proper Subject and accordingly they may change a Kingdom into an Aristocratical or Democratical state whensoever they find cause for it If a Prince be a Tyrant saith Lessius he may be deposed or declared a publick enemy by the Common-wealth and thereupon it may be lawful to attempt any thing against his Person When the Common-wealth saith Mariana cannot other ways secure and preserve its own peace and safety it may by a right inherent in it self declare the King to be the common Enemy and then destroy him with the Sword Thus we plainly see that whatsoever others did the Jesuits had first taught them the principles upon which they might justifie the doing of it But this is not all for over and above this they have not only been openly charged to have had a hand in the contriving and actually compassing the late Kings death but the person that doth thus accuse them undertakes the Justification of it either before his present Majesty or before any one who can legally require it of him And which is an evident demonstration of their Guilt notwithstanding all the interest which they have had of late years from which they might at least promise themselves Justice if they could not expect Favour yet though challenged to bring this matter to a hearing they have not so much as once dared to attempt it Yea the late King himself was informed a little before his death that the Jesuits at a general meeting in France in revenge for his condescending in the Treaty at the Isle of Wight to pass some Bills in prejudice of them and the Romish Religion had unanimously resolved by the power interest and influence that they had in and upon the Army to bring him to Justice and get him Executed Accordingly when the stroke was given both one that was a Romish Priest and a Confessor namely Sarabras brandished his Sword and proclaimed That now their greatest Enemy was cut off and destroyed I suppose that the Judgment of Sir William Morrice late Secretary of State will bear some weight with all English men as well upon the account of his great Integrity as the many opportunities he enjoyed beyond others of satisfying himself in a matter of this importance hear then what he declares in a Letter to Dr. du Moulin August the 9 th 1673. This I may say safely and will do it confidently that many Arguments did create a violent suspition very near convincing Evidences that the irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the murder of that excellent Prince the Odium whereof they would file to the account of the Protestant Religion However the Papists having not only escaped Legal Arraignments upon this account but having since the Kings return been esteemed by some His late Majesties best friends they have