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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67878	A true narrative of the Popish-plot against King Charles I and the Protestant religion as it was discovered by Andreas ab Habernfeld to Sir William Boswel Ambassador at the Hague, and by him transmitted to Archbishop Laud, who communicated it to the King : the whole discoovery being found amongst the Archbishops papers, when a prisoner in the Tower, by Mr. Prynn (who was ordered to search them by a committee of the then Parliament) on Wednesday, May 31, 1643 : with some historical remarks on the Jesuits, and A vindication of the Protestant dissenters from disloyalty : also, A compleat history of the Papists late Presbyterian plot discovered by Mr. Dangerfield, wherein an account is given of some late transactions of Sir Robert Peyton.	Habervešl z Habernfeldu, Ondřej.; Boswell, William, Sir, d. 1649.; Laud, William, 1573-1645.; Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1680 (1680)	Wing T2805; Wing H164; ESTC R21657	37,577	41

A TRUE NARRATIVE OF THE POPISH-PLOT AGAINST King CHARLES I. AND THE Protestant Religion As it was Discovered by Andreas ab Habernfeld to Sir William Boswel Ambassador at the Hague and by him Transmitted to Archbishop Laud who Communicated it to the King The whole Discovery being found amongst the Archbishops Papers when a Prisoner in the Tower by Mr. Prynn who was ordered to search them by a Committee of the then Parliament on Wednesday May 31. 1643. WITH Some HISTORICAL REMARKS on the JESUITS and a Vindication of the Protestant Dissenters from Disloyalty ALSO A Compleat HISTORY of the Papists late Presbyterian PLOT DISCOVERED BY Mr. DANGERFIELD Wherein an Account is given of some late Transactions of Sir ROBERT PEYTON LONDON Printed for Robert Harford at the Angel in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange M. DC LXXX THE PREFACE IT may appear strange to some that this Conspiracy against King Charles I. was never divulged till found by Mr. Prynn in 1643. seeing it was known both to the King and Archbishop in 1640. But if they do but reflect upon the Actions of those Times the Wonder will cease For these Romish Traytors having by their Devillish Cunning raised a Rebellion in Scotland and fomented the Divisions between His Majesty and Parliament to that heighth as soon after brake forth into a most bloody and unnatural War between Prince and People His Majesty as they design'd was sufficiently Diverted for the present and afterwards the Devil of Discontent raised by these wicked Incendiaries of Rome proving too Head-strong for them and threatning their ruin the Conspirators were so disperss'd that it would have been a difficult thing for His Majesty if he had been free from the Rebellious Clamours of Be-Jesuited Men to have brought them to Conviction The Person who had the greatest Opportunity of Advancing this Design was Sir F. W. a Man in all outward appearance a Protestant and verily believed to be so by the Archbishop whose Interest with the King made him Secretary of State as we find it set down by the Archbishop in the Journal of his Life in these words June 25. 1631. Mr. Fr. Windebank my old Friend was Sworn Secretary of State which Place I obtained for him of my Gracious Master KING CHARLES How Industrious this Secretary was in carrying on the PLOT may partly appear by the Charge against him in Parliament Novem. 12. and Decem 1. 1640. viz. Seventy four Letters of Grace to Recusants in Four Years Sixty four Priests discharged by his Warrants Twenty nine by his Verbal Order and Twenty three by his Authority under Read's Hand But he prevented the the necessity of Answering to this or any other Charge by his Flight into France where he was Generously Entertained by Cardinal Richelieu no doubt for the good Service he had done the Catholick Cause in England and lived and died a profest Papist His Son went to Rome where he was received with the like Kindness by Cardinal Barbarino the chief Contriver of this POPISH PLOT As for Read he was an Actor in this Plot much in the same nature as Coleman was in that lately discoved by Doctor Oates and others and because he was a profest Papist the Secretary above-mentioned to whom I think he appertain'd as Clerk procured for him the following Protection which for his greater Immunity was Recorded in the Crown-Office and in the Clerk of the Peace his Book for Middlesex in open Sessions BY THE KING WHEREAS We have received good Testimony of the Loyalty and Duty of our Trusty and Well-beloved Captain John Reade and because he may be subject to the Laws for Recusancy These are to signifie That We are Graciously pleased to extend our Special Grace towards him And do hereby Command That no Indictment Presentment Information or Suit in Our Name or in the Name of any other be henceforth Commenced Prosecuted or accepted against him by any of our Officers or Subjects whatsoever for or concerning Recusancy And if any such shall happen then Our Will and Pleasure is That upon sight hereof the same shall be discharged and made void or otherwise not prejudicial to him Given under Our Signet at Our Court at Theobalds the Thirteenth Day of July in the Tenth Year of Our Reign To all and singular Our Judges of Assize Justices of the Peace c. whom it doth or may concern and to every of them Thus was that good King so far abused by having a Traytor represented to him as a Loyal Subject as to grant a Protection to this Read who intended to make no other use of it than thereby to destroy with the more safety his ROYAL PROTECTOR This Plot against King Charles the First was buried in a Bloody Civil War but raised again against King Charles the Second in time of Peace by the Blood-thirsty Jesuits the Discovery whereof has been sufficiently made known by the Tryal and Execution of several of them as well as by the Printed Narratives thereof To get up their Reputation again they plotted to throw their Guilt upon the Dissenting Protestants but the All-seeing Eye of God prevented their Villanous Designs by a timely Discovery The Design and Discovery whereof you will find particularly related at the End of this BOOK A TRUE RELATION OF THE POPISH-PLOT AGAINST King CHARLES I. AND THE Protestant Religion IF there be any professing the Protestant Religion within His Majesties Dominions who are yet so wilfully blinded as not to believe the Reality of the late Conspiracies or that it has not been a long time carrying on to extirpate the Protestant Religion reestablish Popery and inthral the People in all the Three Kingdoms let them but advisedly fix their Eyes and Minds upon the Ensuing Letters and Discoveries and they will easily find Papistical Plots have been no new things in this Nation To omit their attempts upon King Edward Queen Elizabeth and King James these Papists make it evidently out that the same Design and the same Contrivances were on foot in the Reign of our late Sovereign Charles the First of Blessed Memory a True Narrative whereof these Sheets contain as they were found in the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's Study in the Tower May 31. 1643. The first who discover'd it was an Actor in it sent hither from Rome by Cardinal Barbarini to assist Con the Pope's Legat in the pursuit of it and privy to all the particulars who being touch'd with remorse of Conscience for being guilty of so detestable a Crime reveal'd the whole Mystery to Sir William Boswell the King's Leiger Embassador at the Hague who gave private notice of the same to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury by whom it was declar'd to the King himself Sir WILLIAM BOSWELL's first Letter to the Arch-Bishop touching this Plot. May it please your Grace THe Offers whereof your Grace will find a Copy here enclos'd toward a farther and more particular Discovery were first made to me at the second hand and by word of mouth by a

Received October 14. 1640. The Narration of the great Treason concerning which he promised to Sir William Boswell to discover against the King and State Historical Remarks ON THE JESUITS WHoever shall Compare the before-recited PLOT against King Charles the First of Glorious Memory with that against His most Sacred Majesty now Reigning shall find them so like in all the Parts and Circumstances that never were two Brothers more the Design the same the Contrivance the same the Working and Machination all moving upon the same Wheels of KING-killing and State-destruction and in reference to Condition Quality Religion and Motive the Conspirators the very same From whence it follows that there is no such Improbability of the Late discovered PLOT as the Papists would have us believe An ill Name is half a Conviction Quo semel est imbuta recens naturam expellas furcalicet are the Jesuits Morals Plot Contrivance and Cruelty are so much the Essential Attributes of Jesuitism as if like so many Romulusses and Remusses they had suckt the Milk of Wolves rather than of Christian Mothers that when you hear of Plots and Designs against Kings and Princes you may be assur'd what sort of Cyclops were the Forgers of such Conspiracies Neither is this bare Allegation but Matter of Fact there being nothing more frequently taught nor more frequently practis'd than the rebellious Principles of the Jesuits and their Adherents How abominably the Reigns of several of our Princes here in England has been pester'd with this Generation of Vipers and Blood-suckers the Penal Statutes of the Kingdom and the utter Expulsion of the Popish Priests and Jesuits out of the Nation are convincing Evidences And as to their Behaviour in other Countries take this following Account First then it is a Maxim most true and undoubted That a Vacuum in Nature may be as soon allow'd as that there is any Court of King of Prince where these Jesuits do not swarm and abound if they can but creep in at the least Creviss To come to particulars we will begin with Portugal a Kingdom altogether acknowledging the Papal Jurisdiction In the Year 1578. the Jesuits perswaded Sebastian King of that Kingdom to undertake that Fatal Expedition into Africa to the end that by his ruin they might transfer the Kingdom to the Dominion of the Spaniard The Success answer'd their Expectation for Sebastian being cut off together with his Son and the greatest part of the Portugal Nobility presently Philip King of Spain prepares to invade Portugal with two powerful Armies But well knowing how little Right he had on his side and how much he should be censur'd as well in Italy as in Portugal for such an Action he began to make it a Point of Conscience and referr'd his Scruples to be discuss'd by the Jesuits and Franciscans in the Colledge of Alcana de Henares and of them he desires to know Whether if it were apparent that he had a Right to the Crown of Portugal by the Death of Henry he were not oblig'd in Conscience to submit himself to some Tribunal that should adjudge the Kingdom to him Secondly Whether if the Portugals should refuse to admit him for their King before the difference were decided between the Competitors he might not by force of Arms Invest himself in the Kingdom by his own Authority To which the Jesuits and Pranciscans made answer That Philip was bound by no tye of Conscience to subject himself to the Will of another but might act as he saw fitting by his own Authority Which flattering Sentence of those irreligious Cusuists being approved by Philip he presently began the War In the heat of which War the Jesuits were they that would have betray'd the chiefest of the Azores Islands to the Spaniards which so incens'd the People that some would have had them try'd for their lives others would have had them and their Colledge burnt together In France Joane Albret Queen of Navarr was poysoned with a pair of Perfumed Gloves at the procurement of the Jesuits for being the Patroness of those of the Reformed Religion That Rebellious League of the Guizes against Henry the Third of France was carried on and promoted by the Jesuits both at Paris and other places Insomuch that when the League got strength and began to appear the Jesuits making a wrong use of their Power of Confessing and Absolving would Absolve none that professed themselves obedient Subjects to the King This unfortunate Prince was not only harrass'd and tormented by this Villanous and Jesuitical League not only driven out of his chief City but at length at the Instigation of the Jesuits stabb'd and murder'd by a Dominican Monk by them procur'd The Murder was also applauded by Pope Sixtus the Fifth in a long Oration spoke in a full Consistory of Cardinals in these words That a Monk saith he should kill the unfortunate King of France in the midst of his Army was a rare noble and memorable Act. And a little further This Act saith he was done by the Providence of God design'd by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost a far greater Act than that of Judith who slew Holofernes Expressions rather becoming the Mouth of a Devil than of a Vicar of Christ. After him Henry the Fourth was first attempted by Barrier exhorted and confirm'd in the lawfulness of the Fact by Varada the Jesuit and others of the same Gang. Secondly by John Castell at the Instigation of Gueret and Guignard both Jesuits And Francis Verona the Jesuit publisht an Apology in vindication and justification of the Fact And lastly murder'd out-right by Francis Ravaillac a great Disciple of the Jesuits And for no worse Pranks than these they were banished out of France by Decree of Parliament As Corrupters of Youth Disturbers of the public Peace and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Truly very honourable Characters for those that pretend to be of the Society of Jesus The Venetians expell'd them upon this occasion The Senate observing that the Ecclesiastics especially the Jesuits began to engross Lands and Houses of their Territories under the pretence of Legacies to the great damage of the Public Income thought it convenient to put a stop to this Jesuitical Engrossment and provide by Law that Ecclesiastical Persons should not possess all the Temporal Estates in their Territories to themselves but give leave for others to share with them it being positively against the Constitution of their Order and the Institution of Christ their Founder The Jesuits took this in great dudgeon and wrote to Pope Paul the Fifth about it The Venetians being summon'd to answer would not relinquish their Right Protesting withal that they had the Supreme Jurisdiction in their own Territories and consequently to make Laws and that the Pope had nothing to do with them in those Matters Upon which Answer the Pope thunders out his Excommunication The Duke and Senate by public Decree condemn the Excommunication as unjust and invalid which done they call the

whole Body of their Clergy and to them declare how Affairs stood The elder sort take part with the Commonwealth and maintain the Argument against the Pope in writing among whom Paulus Venetus was most eminently Signal The Jesuits not enduring the kneeness of his Reasons hire two Ruffians and upon the fifth of October 1607. set them to assassinate Paulus Venetus who thinking they had done his work left him for dead and fled away This was something near Sir Edmundbury Godfreys Case The Senate hearing this by a new Law banish the Jesuits for ever out of their Territories and cut them off from all hope of ever returning And this was their Fortune in Venice In the year 1609. the Bohemians made a Complaint to the Emperour against the Jesuits for the same Encroachments of which the Venetians had accused them before desiring of Caesar that they might no longer be permitted to transfer and translate into their own possession such ample Patrimonies under pretence of Donations and Legacies as they did continually Of which when the Emperour took little notice they were by the Bohemian States themselves in the year 1618. utterly expelled out of that Nation for ever with these Characters 1. That they were lavish Wasters of the Public Peace and Tranquility of the Nation 2. That they endeavour'd to subject all Kingdoms and Nations to the Power of the Pope 3. That they did nothing but set the Magistrates together by the Ears 4. That they made particular Advantage of Confessions to the destruction of the people with many other Crimes of the same nature The same year they were expell'd out of Moravia for the same Reasons and the next year out of Hungaria for the same Causes In Silesia also a Decree was made That the Jesuits should not enter that Province upon pain of Death as being the onely means to preserve peace in the Nation As to other Villanies in Poland a Polonian Knight himself a Papist in an Oration by him made in a full Assembly of the Polonian Nobility declares That Cracow the most Famous City of Poland and Ornament of the Kingdom was so plagu'd by the Jesuits that several good men though Catholicks affirmed That they would rather live in the Woods among wild Beasts than abide in the City One time among the rest these Jesuits having brought their Conspiracy to perfection brake into the most ancient Monument of Antiquity in the City and to the great danger of the whole City set it on Fire as being granted to the Evangelics by Consent of the King and States of the Kingdom In Posnania another great City of the same Kingdom they set Fire on the Church belonging to those of the Augustan Confession and committed so many Insolencies without Controul that the Nobility refus'd to meet at the Dyet shortly after to be held at Warsaw resolving to repair further off to Lublin for the redress of these Misdemeanours Neither indeed was there any thing more grievously burdensom to that Kingdom than the Pride and Avarice of those Miscreants In Muscovy upon the Death of the Great Duke Basilowich the Jesuits set up one Demetrius against the lawful Heir who had made them large Promises if he obtain'd the Dukedom Thereupon by the help of these Jesuits the said Demetrius gets Aid from the King of Poland which was not onely the Occasion of a great War in Muscovy but had like to have cost them the Alteration of their Laws and loss of their ancient Customs and Priviledges had they not prevented it by a desperate Attempt upon the Impostor and put him to Death surrounded with Impostors and Jesuits The Transilvanians publicly and with one Consent laid all the Cause of their Miseries and Calamities upon the Subtilties and Contrivances of the Jesuits for which reason by a Public Decree of the States of that Province they were Ejected out of the limits of their Territories Nevertheless they secretly fomented the Ruin of that Country and were the reason that Sigismund Bathor involv'd himself in War and Trouble and at length died an inglorious and miserable Death By their Contrivance also Stephen Potski Prince of Transilvania opposing their Bloody Sect was put out of the way as they call it by Poyson in the year 1607. In Styria and Carinthia Provinces of Germany they never left till they had voided those Provinces of all the Inhabitants of the Reformed Religion In Holland they never left till they saw the Blood of William Prince of Orange spilt by the trayterous Hand of Balthasar Gerard a Burgundian and Disciple of their own The same Attempts did Peter de Tour and other Ruffians make upon the person of Maurice his Son a brave and Martial Prince and all at the Instigation of the Jesuits those Insatiable Sons of BLOOD and PERDITION A VINDICATION OF THE Dissenting Protestants From being Authors of the REBELLION against the late KING and Plotters of Treason against His MAJESTY now Reigning SEeing then no Corner of Europe has been free from the Plots and Conspiracies of these Jesuitical Fiends it would be a kind of Crime and sleepy Desertion of our own Safety to suffer our selves to be charm'd by the Delusions of insinuating Libels and Rumors of Presbyterian Plots to mistrust the Truth of the continu'd Jesuitical Contrivances against the Kingdom Neither can they be thought the best Subjects of England who are so willing to Gratifie the Popish Party by giving Credence to such idle Surmizes which they can have so little ground to believe The Jesuits have committed a great piece of Villany in this Nation they have attempted the Life of the King and have been Plotting to subvert the Established Religion of the Kingdom and now they would throw it upon the Presbyterians Which is a Fourbery so plain that common Sense and Policy may easily discover the full intent and meaning of it And therefore it is fairly to be hop'd that neither Presbyterians nor any other Protestant Dissenters will be so Unchristian-like Disloyal as to receive any Exasperation from these Calumnies but rather unite against the Common Enemy from whom they can expect no more Mercy than the severest Champion of Episcopacy can hope for But you will say the Presbyterians are not accus'd of any Design to bring in Popery but miraculously discover'd as the Authors of a Plot to set up the Classes of their own Ecclesiastical Government Well! if it were so they were the arrantest Bunglers of Plotters that ever plotted Mischief in this World For I do not find their Plot to be above a years standing And it was a Plot that was driven on out of pure Kindness to the Papists For the Presbyterians understanding that the Papists their Incarnate Enemies were under a Premunire as being accused of Treason and Conspiracy against the KING and Kingdom They therefore would needs enter into a Plot which they would so order as to be discover'd a Twelve-month after to ease the Papists of the Load they groan'd under So

I beseech your Majesty read these Letters as they are Endorsed by Figures 1 2 3 c. May it please your Majesty AS great as the Secret is which comes herewith yet I choose rather to send it in this silent covert way and I hope safe than to come thither and bring it my self First because I am no way able to make hast enough with it Secondly because should I come at this time and antedate the meeting Sept. 24. there would be more jealousie of the business and more enquiry after it Especially if I being once there should return again before that day as I must if this be followed as is most fit The danger it seems is eminent and laid by God knows whom but to be executed by them which are very near about you For the great honour which I have to be in danger with you or for you I pass not so your Sacred Person and the State may be safe Now may it please your Majesty This information is either true or there is some mistake in it If it be true the Persons which make the Discovery will deserve thanks and reward if there should be any mistake in it your Majesty can lose nothing but a little silence The business if it be is extream foul The Discovery thus by God's Providence offered seems fair I do hereby humbly beg it upon my knees of your Majesty that you will conceal this business from every creature and his name that sends this to me And I send his Letters to me to your Majesty that you may see his sence both of the business and the Secrecy And such Instructions as you think fit to give him I beseech you let them be in your own hand for his Warrant without imparting them to any And if your Majesty leave it to his descretion to follow it there in the best way he can that in your own hand will be Instruction and Warrant enough for him And if you please to return it herewith presently to me I will send an express away with it presently In the mean time I have by this Express returned him this Answer That I think he shall do well to hold on the Treaty with these men with all care and secrecy and drive on to the Discovery so soon as the business is ripe for it that he may assure himself and them they shall not want reward if they do the Service That for my part he shall be sure of Secrecy and that I am most confident that your Majesty will not impart it to any That he have a special eye to the eighth and ninth Proposition Sir for God's sake and your own safety Secrecy in this Business And I beseech you send me back this Letter and all that comes with it speedily and secretly and trust not your own Pockets with them I shall not eat nor sleep in quiet till I receive them And so soon as I have them again and your Majesties Warrant to proceed no diligence shall be wanting in me to help on the Discovery This is the greatest business that ever was put to me And if I have herein proposed or done any thing amiss I most humbly crave your Majesties pardon But I am willing to hope I have not herein erred in judgment and in fidelity I never will These Letters came to me on Thursday Sept. 10. at night and I sent these away according to the date hereof being extreamly wearied with writing this Letter copying out those other which come with this and dispatching my Letters back to him that sent these all in my own hand Once again secrecy for God's sake and your own To his most blessed protection I commend your Majesty and all your Affairs And am Lambeth Sept. 11. 1640. Your Majesties most humble faithful Servant W. Cant. The Arch-Bishop's Postscript As I had ended these whether with the labour or indignation or both I fell into an extreme faint Sweat I pray God keep me from a Feaver of which three are down in my Family at Croyden These Letters came late to me the express being beaten back by the wind The Arch-Bishops Indorsement with his own hand Received from the King Sept. 16. 1640. The King's Answer to the Plot against him c. Superscrib'd by the Arch-Bishop For your Sacred Majesty By the King Yours Apostyled Sir William Boswel's second Letter to the Arch-Bishop May it please your Grace THis evening late I have received your Graces dispatch with the enclosed from His Majesty by my Secretary Oveart and shall give due account with all possible speed of the same according to His Majesties and your Graces Commands praying heartily that my endeavours which shall be most faithful may also prove effectual to His Majesties and your Grace's content with which I do most humbly take leave being always Hague Sept. 24. 1640. S. Angelo Your Graces most dutiful and humblest Servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsement Received Sept. 30. 1640. Sir William Boswell his acknowledgement that he hath received the King's Directions in my Letters Sir William Boswell's third Letter to the Arch-Bishop sent with the larger Discovery of the PLOT May it please your Grace UPon receipt of His Majesties Commands with your Grace's Letters of 9 and 18 Sept. last I dealt with the party to make good his Offers formerly put in mine hand and transmitted to your Grace This he hopes to have done by the inclosed so far as will be needful for His Majesties satisfaction yet if any more particular explanation or discovery shall be required by His Majesty or your Grace He hath promised to add thereunto whatsoever he can remember and knows of truth And for better assurance and verification of his integrity he professeth himself ready if required to make Oath of what he hath already declared or shall hereafter declare in the business His name he conjures me still to conceale though he thinks His Majesty and your Grace by the Character he gives of himself will easily imagin who he is having been known so generally through Court and City as he was for three or four years in the quality and imployment he acknowlegeth by his Declaration inclosed himself to have held Hereupon he doth also redouble his most humble and earnest Suit unto His Majesty and your Grace to be most secret and circumspect in the business that he may not be suspected to have discovered or had a hand in the same I shall here humbly beseech your Grace to let me know what I may further do for His Majesties service or for your Graces particular behoof that I may accordingly endeavour to approve my self As I am Hague Octob. 15. 1640. Your Grace's mest dutiful and obliged Servant William Boswell The Arch-Bishop's Indorsment Received Octob. 14. 1640. Sir William Boswell in prosecution of the great business If any thing come to him in Cyphers to send it to him The large particular Discovery of the PLOT and