Coach and Horses in the same Street both Irish men were Engaged in the same Design that Father Gifford promised this Examinate One Hundred Pounds for to carry on the Work and told him He was to have the money from the Church That the said Gifford Clinton Flower and He did use to meet in St. Jame's Feilds in the dark of the Evening and there to discourse of these matters and that the several Informations that he had given to the said Elizabeth Oxley he had from the said Father Gifford He further said That the said Flower and Clinton told him the said Stubbs That they would carry on the said Fire and that they had Fireballs for that purpose and that they would fire other Houses in Holborn at the same time He confessed he was at the Fire in the Temple but was not Engaged to do any thing in it That Gifford told him that there were English French and Irish Roman Catholicks enow in London to make a very good Army and that the French King was coming with 60 Thousand men under a pretence of a Progress to shew the Dauphin his Dominions but it was to plant them along the Coasts at Diep Bulloign Calais and Dunkirk to be presently ready to be Landed in England when there was an opportunity which he doubted not but might be by the middle of June for by that time all the Roman Catholicks here would be ready who were all to rise and with the Assistance of the French Forces to cut off and utterly destroy the Hereticks that then the Papists were to be distinguish't by marks in their Hats and that the said Father Gifford doubted not but he should be an Abbot or a Bishop when the work was over for the good Service he had done who frequently told this Examinate and the said Flower and Clinton That it was no more Sin to Kill an Heretick than to knock a Dog o' th head and that they did God good Service in doing what mischeif they could by Firing their Houses That it was well Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was Murther'd for he was their devilish Enemy That Coleman was a Saint in Heaven for what he had done c. That the Examinate was fearful he should be Murther'd for this Confession the said Father Gifford having sworn him to Secrecy and told him he should be damn'd if he made any discovery and should be sure to be Kill'd but gave him leave to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance because he was an House-keeper and it was necessary that he should stay in Town to help to promote the work of Burning therefore the taking of such Oaths to him should be no sin April the 15th That worthy Patriot Sir Thomas Player giving the House of Commons information concerning this matter of Oxley and Stubbs the Examinations were transmitted to the Lords and the Lords sent them to the secret Committee to make a further inspection and progress therein but they had their hands so full of Business that it was thought fit to appoint a Special Committee for this very purpose before whom the Parties were again Examined and gave them such satisfaction that the House became Suitors to his Majesty that they might both have his gracious Pardon which was granted and a Proclamation but not till the 4th of May set forth Reciting That whereas due Information hath been given that Morrice Gifford a Popish Priest Roger Clinton Derby Molraine alias Flower and several other Persons of the Romish Religion have out of their detestable and barbarous Malice conspired and agreed together to set on Fire the City of London the Suburbs thereof and the places thereunto Adjacent and have in prosecution of such their devilish and wicked Design procured divers Mansion Houses within the said City Suburbs and parts adjacent at sundry times and in divers places to be set on Fire and Burnt The King 's most Excellent Majesty at the humble desire of the Commons in Parliament Assembled doth Command the said Gifford Clinton and Flower who are fled from Justice to render themselves by the 10th of May instant and is pleased to promise 50 l. Reward to any that should apprehend any of them or if any of themselves should come in and discover his Accomplices so as any of them may be taken and Convicted he shall not only have his Pardon but the 50 l. also for each Incendiary As this ingenious Confession of Oxley and Stubbs was a grand Confirmation and undeniable proof of the restless Malice of these bloody Priests so 't is a notable Corroboration of the Truth and sincerity of Mr. Bedloes Evidence for how was it possible if what he says were not certain Truth but only contrived Stories as Papists calumniat How is it probable I say That Stubbs should happen so exactly to accuse the very same man which Mr. Bedloe had done for the Instigator to these barbarous Attempts of Firing for at that time Mr. Bedloe though he had given in such his Informations to the Committee of Secrecy yet had not published the same abroad so that Stubbs could not then have any notice thereof On the 20th of April happen'd an extraordinary Change at Court no less unexpected than grateful to the people who by such alteration of Ministers did hope to find considerable improvements in the management of the publick Affairs for his Majesty having caused his Privy Council to be extraordinarily summon'd was pleas'd by the Lord Chancellor to dissolve them and to declare his Pleasure That for the future their constant Number should be limited to that of Thirty whereof Fifteen to be of his chief Officers who shall be Privy Councellors by their Places Ten others of the Nobility and Five Commons of the Realm whose known Abilities Interest and Esteem in the Nation shall render them without all suspicion of either mistaking or betraying the true Interest of the Kingdom These Fifteen Officers to which the Quality of a Privy Councellor was hereby annext are The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The Bishop of London The Lord Chancellor One of the Lord Cheif Justices The Admiral The Master of the Ordnance The Treasurer and Chancellor or First Comissioner of the Exchequer The Lord Privy-Seal The Master of the Horse The Lord Steward The Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold The Groom of the Stole Two Secretaries of State And that there shall be a President of the Council when necessary and room for the Secretary of Scotland when any such shall be here The Names of the New Privy Council then Establisht were as follows His Highness Prince Rupert William Lord Arch Bishop of Canterbury Heneage Lord Finch Lord Chancellor of England Anthony Earl of Shaftsbury Lord President of the Council Arthur Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy-Seal Christopher Duke of Albemarle James Duke of Monmouth Master of the Horse Henry Duke of New-Castle John Duke of Lauderdaile Secretary of State for Scotland James Duke of Ormond Lord Steward of the Houshold Charles Lord Marquess
most considerable Aids Faithful and Meritorious Subjects still if they may be their own Judges though they desired and designed to submit to the Pope nay any King or Prince rather than to the King of England whose natural Subjects they were Nay more the Rump that infamous Rump the fag-end of the Parliament which Murthered the King was much more beholding to these Irish Rebels than His Majesty was for to them they made Petitions and Supplications as unto the Supreme Authority of the Nation Entitling them The Parliament of the Common-wealth of England wherein they did readily subject and put their Consciences Lives and Fortunes as in a secure Sanctuary under the protection thereof these are their own words and boasted That several of them were able to make appear their constant good affection and adherence to them See the Petitions of Sir Ra. Talbot Baronet and Garret Moor Esquire who were not herein private but publick persons and so owned in the Title of their Petitions being on the behalf of themselves and others as Sollicitors Agitators or Trustees for the Irish Papists which were Condescentions far greater than ever they would pay to King Charles the First or His present Majesty For with them they always Treated upon the Swords point upon as great terms of Defiance Caution and Reservedness as if they had to do with the great Turk and not with their lawful Soveraign Vide Orrerey fol. 14 15. and Articles of Treaty If therefore to rise in Arms without the Kings Command or Privity Murther so many thousands of his good Subjects seize on his Towns and Forts fight with and kill those that were Commissionated by him hold Correspondence with and receive Supplies from Forraign Princes cast off all Allegiance and petition a Forraign Prince to be their Protector and last of all if to court his avowed Enemies and Murtherers own their Uusurp'd Authority and submit Consciences Fortunes Lives and all to their pleasure be Arguments of Faithfulness and Obedience then may we allow the Irish Papists to have been His Majesties most Loyal Subjects but till then all the word shall justly detest them as the most barbarous and bloody Rebels SECT 4. But whatever they were in Ireland the Roman Catholicks in England will swear they were all most punctually true to King Charles the First and ventured their Lives and Estates in his Service To determine how far this is true and what merit we are to allow them on that account we must consider 1. That it cannot reasonably be expected that we should so clearly discover the affections and more secret designs of the Papists in this English Rebellion as in that of Ireland for that here were not Papists fighting under the Popes Countenance and Encouragement against Protestants but Protestants though in that point Jesuitically principled against a Protestant King and his true Subjects that were more Loyally minded So that as the Papists Loyalty was not then so far tryed as to see whether they would have taken part with the King a Protestant had the Pope forbidden them or employed them against him which is the great thing in question when we speak of their Loyalty as Papists so likewise were they never embodied apart by themselves and therefore could never assemble together in Battel to fight or in full and open Council to Design and Plot but what they did was covertly and in the dark by fomenting Dissentions and Intestine Wars which was long since their Campanella's Design De Monarch Hisp cap. 24. p. 204. Jam verò ad enervandos Anglos nibil tam conducit quam dissentio discordia inter illos excitata perpetuóque nutrita quod citò meliores occasiones suppeditabit si Angliam in formam Roipublice reducant in imitationem Hollandorum That nothing could more conduce to weaken the English than Dissention and Discord stirred up and perpetually nourisht amongst them which would soon administer better occasions to introduce the Roman Catholick Religion if England were reduced into a Republick in imitation of the Hollanders 2. It may well be said That it was not pure Loyalty but self-interest that attracted so many ominent Papists in unto his late Majesties Standard The violence of the people forced them to that side they did not go but were driven the Parlimentarians were to make use of the cry against Papists for one of their most taking pretences so that the open Roman Catholicks could expect no acceptance from them and though they did well and but according to their Duty in serving His Majesty yet accidentally they not a little prejudiced his cause for the other party thence took such occasions to raise lies and clamours that we may say for every Papist employed in His Majesties Arms 〈◊〉 the hearts of half a dozen seduced though otherwise Loyal Protestants However to discharge their duty in serving their King against a Protestant not a Popish Pâ—â—ty and at a time when their own safety and private Interest obliged them so to do was surely little matter of merit but rather if we may guess at the Body of Hercules by his Foot we may then by tracing some of the footsteps of our English Catholicks as have casually come to light discover their main design especially of their Clergy to have been wholly for the ruine of that King of happy memory and thereby of the Protestant Religion for 3. The disloyal Principles on which the Phanatick Rebels proceeded they wholly learnt from the Jesuits for example did they say the Soveraign Power was lodged in the people and that they may alter the Government of a State Bellarmine taught it them whose words in his Treatise De Laicis l. 3. cap. 6. are these Potestas immediatè est tanquam in subjecto in totâ multitudine c. The Supreme power is in the whole multitude as in its Subject and if there be cause for it they may alter a Monarchy into an Aristocracle or Democracie c. Did they affirm that the People made the King and may unmake him and retain still the habit of power they are the same Bellarmines own words In Regnis bominum potestas Regis est à populo quia populus facit Regem In the Kingdoms of men the Kings power is from the people for the people make the King Bell. de Concil l. 2. cap. 19. And again In Rebuspublicis temporalibus si Rex degeneret in Tyrannum licet caput sit Regni tamen à populo potest deponi eligi alius In Temporal States if a King degenerate into a Tyrant though he be the head of the Kingdom yet the people may Depose him and choose another Idem Ibid. cap. 10. Did our Rebels hold they might take up Defensive Arms against the King and expel him 't was your Jesuite Suarez taught them that Doctrine Si Rex legitimus tyrannicè gubernat Regno nullum aliud sit remedium nisi Regem expellere deponere poterit Respublica toto publico
communi consensu Civitatum Procerum Regem deponere If a lawful King govern as a Tyrant and the Kingdom can be no other way relieved its grievances the whole Common-wealth by common consent of the Cities and Peers may Depose such a King Suarez Defens Fid. l. 6. cap. 19. Sect. 15. Did they Levy a formal War and were the first Aggressors against the King the Jesuit Mariana chalkt them out the way lib. 6. de Rege cap. 6. p. 59. 60. Expedita maximè tuta via est c. The readiest and safest way saith he is if the people can meet in a publick Assembly to deliberate by common consent what is to be done and then inviolably to observe what is agreed on by common consent the Prince must first be admonisht to amend which if he refuse it will be lawful for the Common-wealth to refuse to obey him and because a War must necessarily follow counsel must be taken how to carry it on Arms must be provided and Taxes laid upon the people to bear the Expences thereof and if it be requisite and the Publick cannot otherwise preserve it self it will be lawful both by the right of self-defence and the proper Authority inherent in the people to proclaim such a King to be a publick enemy and then to cut off his Head Nay their infamous Court of Injustice was but erected by the Jesuits Model for so the same Mariana there goes on Certè a Rep. unde ortum habet Regia potestas c. 'T is certain the Common-wealth from which the Royal power hath its Original may when the case requires which we know is whenever they have a mind to it and power to effect it bring the King to Iudgment and deprive him of his Soveraignity for the Common-wealth hath not so transferred the Right of power unto the Prince but it hath reserved a power paramount unto it self The very Parricide and Execrable Murther acted on the Kings Sacred Person is allow'd and the manner directed by another Jesuit Lessius l. 2. de Justitiâ Jure cap. 9. dubio 4. Principem qui Tyrannus est ratione Administrationis non posse à privatis interimi quamdin manet Princeps sed primùm a Republica vel Comitiis Regni vel alio habente Authoritatem esse deponendum hostem declarandum ut in ipsius personam liceat quicquam attentare A rightful Prince who becomes a Tyrant by Male-Administration ought not to be killed by a private person so far you see Gawen the Jesuit lately Executed in his dying Speech was right as long as he remains a Prince But what then is to be done with him why he must first saith this Popish Doctor be Deposed and declared an Enemy by the Common-wealth or the Parliament of the Kingdom or some other the Pope no doubt having Authority and then afterwards it will be lawful to attempt what you please upon his person Thus you see the Phanaticks drew all those Arrows which they shot at Royalty out of the Popes Quiver and if it be truely said that the Presbyterians brought that good Prince to the Block and the Independants cut off his Head it may as truely be added That the Papists lent them the Ax. And are these men after all this to boast their Loyalty are these to be relyed upon by any Prince to make himself an Absolute Monarch who not onely by their Religion are bound to esteem the Pope his Superiour in his own Dominions but likewise by so many of their chief Doctors avowed and uncondemned Judgments publisht in Print are taught to place the people above him and that he may lawfully by them be questioned Deposed Judged Condemned and Murthered 4. For a more clear and positive proof if it be true that many known and professed Roman Catholick Gentlemen sided with the King 't is no less true that not a few of the Jesuits and other disguised Romanists mingled themselves amongst the Rebellious Troops there they were Levellers Agitators c. and the prime Authors of those damnable Councils which took away his precious Life And that this may not seem to be spoken gratis we shall produce two or three witnesses for it 1. The first a Treatise Intituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or a brief Narration of the Mysteries of State carried on by the Spanish Faction in England c. Printed by Samuel Brown at the Hague 1651. who handles this matter gradatim throughout all our late Civil Wars and particularly p. 59. observes That about and after the Treaty in the Isle of Wight 1648. when the bringing the King to a Mock-Tryal was in agitation those of the Spanish Faction and notorious Papists who fled away at the very beginning of the troubles did now again appear to the admiration of all that knew them openly in London and at Westminster as Sir Kenelm Digby Sir John Winter Walter Montague Endymion Porter These very names we met with before in the Treason against the Kings Life discovered by Habernfeld in 1640. which much confirms the matter and Sir Edward F. who was Commissary-General Iretons Bed-fellow these who were Proclaimed Traitors by the Parliament and some of them of the blood of the old Gun-powder-Traitors these were now become the familiar Friends of the great men in the Army Again p. 73. and 74. He hath these words That the Jesuits and Spanish Faction did in Oxford immediately after the Kings going thence to the Scots conspire together to ruine and destroy the King I have it from a Jesuits own Confession in Print Bernard the onely Intelligencer at Court in those days is the man that affirms it in his Book called Polemo-mutatus Which assertion and many more circumstances made me credit that Relation which told me for certain that Walter Montague Endymion Porter and the rest of those Papists who came at that time over into England were they that were the designed men sent on purpose from Rome some of them to manage the business in the Kings Tryal and if the King had pleaded they were to have come as Witnesses against him This was laid particularly to Endymion Porters charge by some English Gentlemen as also to Sir John Winters It is thought that after Endymion Porter san his loving Master cut off calling to mind the favours he had received from him and his most unkind requital of them his Conscience so smote him that he went to his House in the Countrey and there poisoned himself falling down dead on a sudden as he sate in his Parlour And hereupon also after the death of the King Sir John Winter was so generally cryed out of as a Trayer and Conspirator in the business that for fear of his life left some of the Loyal English Gentry should kill him and to palliate the design he had the favour to take up Lodgings in the Tower which by all means went under the name of Imprisoning him On the same score Montague Digby and the rest of that
designed Party perceiving their Treason was openly known and fearing their just reward from some enraged hand desired a Pass to return since the work of killing the King was done beyond the Seas which that they might with less suspicion and more security pass they pretended to Banish them A Noble person of this Kingdom of Sir K. acquaintance told me That he observed him in publick to exclaim against the Hereditary Rights of Kings as a most pernicious thing to a Kingdom saying That oft-times thereby the Kingdom was Governed by Children Fools and Women And hereupon took occasion to traduce the then Prince of Wales now King saying c. The Expressions are so base and foul-mouthed that we dare not out of Reverence to Majesty go on to repeat them from our Author At the same time highly commending Cromwel as one of the ablest men in Europe and Bradshaw that sate as the Kings Judge for a gallant man Thus far that Treatise concerning the credit of which we shall onely say that the Author appears by the Work to have been a man of no vulgar Intelligence or Conversation in those times and all along expresses much Loyalty and Affection to his present Majesty 2. The Reverend and Learned Doctor Peter du Moulin hath long since declared in Print That the Roman Priest is known who when he saw the â—atal stroke given to our Holy King and Martyr flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy that we have in the World is gone And that the year before the Kings Murder a select number of Jesuits out of England had a Consult with their Confederates at Paris where this question in writing was by them put to the Faculty of Sorbon then altogether Jesuited That seeing the State of England was in a likelyhood to change Government whether it were lawful for the Catholicks to work that change for the advancing and securing of the Catholick Cause in England by making away the King whom there was no hope to turn from this Heresie Which was answered affirmatively And afterward the same question being transmitted to Rome the said Resolution was likewise approved and confirmed by the Pope and his Council That it was both lawful and expedient for Catholicks by such means to promote that alteration of State But afterwards when the Regicide was so universally cryed down and detested his Holiness consulting his credit commanded all Papers about that question to be burnt in obedience to which order a Roman Catholick in Parts was demanded a Copy which he had of those papers but having had time to consider and abhor the wickedness of that Project refused to deliver it up but shewed it to a Protestant friend of his relating the whole carriage of this Negotiation This passage theâ— Reverend du Moulin aforesaid now Canon 〈◊〉 Christ-Church Canterbury and one of His Majestieâ— Chaplains did seventeen years ago set forth 〈◊〉 print in his answer to a scurrilous Popish pamphleâ— Intituled Philanax Anglicus and there publickly offered to justifie the truth of it if any should 〈◊〉 him to an account for it before Authority but That in all this time they have been afraid or ashamed to do onely soon after the coming forth of his Book the Gentlemen of Somerset-house who were netled one eminent person of them it seems not a little concerned actually in the story instead of having the truth thereof examined privately by interest obtained a Command from the King to the said Doctor that he should write no more Books which Prohibition the Doctor goâ— taken off Anno 1668. See the last Edition of the Doctors Answer p. 60. where likewise p. 64 we have the Testimony of that worthy judicious Gentleman Sir William Morris late Secretary of State who in a Letter to the said Doctor du Moulin concerning this matter hath these words This I may say safely and will do it confidently That many arguments did create a violent suspicion 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 now file to the account of the Protestant Religion 5. 'T is notorious that no sort of men truckled more servilely to the late Rebellious Powers they adressed their Petitions to them with the Stile of the Supreme Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England First Moderator fol. 59. They affirmed That they had generally taken and punctually kept the Engagement Second Moderator fol. 41. They promised that 〈◊〉 they might enjoy their Religion They would 〈◊〉 the most quiet and useful Subjects of England First Moderator fol. 31. which they proved in these words viz. That the Roman-Catholicks of England would be bound by their own interest the strongâ—â—â— obligation amongst wise men to live peaceably and â—hankfully in private Exercise of their Consciences and becoming gainers by such compassions they could not 〈◊〉 reasonably be distrusted as the Prelatick Parâ—y that were loosers First Moderator fol. 36. 6. 'T is observable That Tho. White a Popish â—riest in the height of Olivers Tyranny set out 〈◊〉 Book Intituled The grounds of Obedience and Government purposely to confirm his usurpation another His Majesties just Tale and perswade people that they were not obliged to assist or reâ—â—ore him Who was it as Doctor Oates says in his Epistle to the King before his Narrative of the Plot printed by Order of the House of Lords â—hat broke off the Uxbridge Treaty but the Romish Interest and Policy with what zeal and Interest did they perswade the Scots in 1650. to impose that upon your Majesty which your Royal Law had forbidden others for the effecting whereof some Thousands of pounds were spent and given by them Where he likewise sets forth how they endeavoured to Betray and Sacrifice His Majesty after his miraculous escape as Worcester And that those who were to pay the 1000 l. promised for his Discovery were no other but Father Joseph Simmonds and Father Carleton Compton both Jesuits and 〈◊〉 whereas Mr. John Huddleston a Priest having 〈◊〉 instrumental in His Majesties Escape for whicâ— good Service he has been always excepted out 〈◊〉 His Majesties Proclamations against Priests and Jesuits several of the Jesuited Crew have often call'd him FOOL for his labour and said that the same was the worst days work that ever he did in his life That there is a Popish Lord not forgotten or unknown who brought a Petition to the late Regicide and Vsurpers signed by above 500 of the principal Popists in England wherein was promised upon condition of a Toleration here by a Law they would jointly resolve to Abjure and Exclude the Family of the Stuarts for ever from the Crown That a whole Convent of Benedictine Monks were Olivers Pensioners to betray His Majesties Secrets and Counsels That the Traitor Manning taken 〈◊〉 discovering such His Majesties Affairs was a Roman Catholick and had Masses sung for him after his 〈◊〉