Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A66123
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A brief history of several plots contrived, and rebellions raised by the papists against the lives and dignities of sovereign princes, since the reformation. Taken from faithfull historians.
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Wake, William, 1657-1737.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing W231A; ESTC R219505
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74,838
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106
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Walsh who was a kind of a Trimmer among them and to speak truth an honester sort of a man than most of them were and willing to introduce the King's Authority as well as that of the Popes to that End went over with the Duke of Ormond and being countenanced by him summoned an Assembly in Dublin to be held of the most principal of them where what a stir he had and how strangely bigotted those Irish Understandings were to the See of Rome is by himself at large set forth in his loyal Formulary But one thing which himself notes is not unworthy the recital The General among them were so strongly possest with some strange Catastrophe that was to arrive eminently no doubt to their Advantage in the year approaching of Sixty six that they generally expressed themselves so averse from complying with the King in those matters a violent presumption that the firing of London had been for some years in contriving and the mention that is made of a Plot in the April Gazette 63. was put into the Heads by some Rascally Priests of those poor little Rogues that were hangued one of the main things charged upon them being the Firing of the City of London and what influence their Councils had in that Prince's Reign is obnoxious to all considering Men by the breaking the triple League by that close Alliance between France and England for the Extirpation of Protestancy out of Heretical Holland and no doubt had it succeeded out of England also and the reason why it was not effected was the Parliament's and People's Aukwardness to the War but notwithstanding they were so not discouraged but they resolved to go on with their Designs still in England keeping by the means of Coleman and Father le Chaise a constant Correspondence with the Court of France and so strong was their Ascendent with Charles the Second that he publishes a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience by which as Coleman in his Letters says he doubted not the bringing in of their Religion but this so allarmed the Parliament that they were strangely uneasie and restless with him resolving to give him no more Money untill he had recalled it which at last with regret he did This strangely nettled our Roguish Catholicks who by this thought their Game cock sure but being frustrated used him in their Discourses as if he had been a Cobler as pitifull irresolute nothing of Honour his Word no ways to be relied on and not worthy of a Crown and from that day forward plotted his removal to make way as they supposed for a Man of Honour and Resolution and who would not be balked with any thing of a Parliament which at the last as a great many suppose they effectually did And now James the Second ascended the Throne and how the Sceptre by him was swayed needs no long characterising for Father Petre with his Ghostly Associates managed most things under him who with that Priestly Violence so hurried on things that on him at last the Tower of Siloam fell and so weak and ridiculous were their Politicks that they are not worth blurring Paper Now to sum up all it is plain by what precedes That the several Popes and Court of Rome in places where they power had have been most Imperious and domineering and nothing so bloudy base or cruel but by their Priests has acted been not in other Countries only but in this our Nation too for since the twelfth year or thereabouts Queen Elizabeth's Reign Popery we may compare to an Imposthume breeding in the very Trunk of this Political Body and broke in the year forty two into a Civil War discharging only part not all the corrupt matter and since regathering head and filling up about four years ago broke the second time casting forth Filth and Corruption in quantity abounding the Stench thereof offending almost all Men in the Nation but I do not doubt but our State Physicians will use such detersive or cleansing Medicines as well as sanative as shall not effect a Palliative but a real and thorough Cure and that the Countrey may be restored to its sound habit of Body Now therefore as to the ensuing Treatise it was occasioned by that Hero of English Jesuitism Mr. Pulton who being strangely nettled at those stinging Truths contained in the Missionaries Arts challenges the Authour to make good his Assertion in page 76. viz That the Romanists Treasons owned by their Popes and by their great Men approved of since the Reformation do far outnumber all the Plots and Insurrections that the Papists or Malice itself can lay to the charge of Protestants all which notwithstanding have been wholly condemned by the Body of our famous Divines To satisfie therefore this Savoy Champion and vindicate the Assertion aforesaid the Authour of this Account with no little pains has endeavoured to give entire satisfaction But such has the Misfortune been of Writers Protestant that in dealing in Controversies they have to doe with a sort of Men that when they have yet will seemingly take no Answer and their last refuge is generally Banter and Whiffle if downright Railing will not doe the feat The Subject of this Treatise is most matter of Fact and the Citations though from their own selves no way unfairly used for if otherwise they appear let them openly be exposed that all that are impartial may see and judge whether any thing of Passion Envy or Malice has Prepossed the Authour I know 't is natural for Men when they have a bad Cause to manage to be froward and testy and where they are galled to kick and wince and instead of arguing closely to the purpose to seek Evasions that may seem plausible at least to the less refined Understandings which has been the great Masterpiece of Romish Priests and Jesuites for many years together for by their little Witticisms and Jokes upon Names they keep up among their Party a kind of Reputation not unlike Jack Pudding's on a Stage they please though at the same time delude the foolish and gazing People and if it happens that one slip falls from a Protestant Pen or a Citation carelesly passed that has not proved true what a Clutter have they not made about it though the main of the Subject still remains good This as a demonstration plainly proves the Weakness of their Cause and had Mr. Pulton but candidly read the History of the last Hundred Years he must have acknowledged that this his great Challenge was a vain and frivolous Motion and never needed to have given the Authour this Trouble which being done it 's hoped will be to his firm conviction and not only his but any other who have been imposed on by false Notions The truth is this Treatise has been written above this year but such was the Iniquity of the Times that they would not bear much less permit its then Publication however it s hoped 't is not too late the World in this point to
had no power in those matters and therefore commanded them to raze the Edict out of their Records and he would publish one for the same purpose by his own Authority and when the State of Genoa prohibited some seditious Meetings of Ecclesiasticks he threatened them with Excommunication and forced them to recall their Order But the Venetians would not be frighted by his Thunders though he threatened them with the same Censure if they did not speedily revoke their Decrees concerning the building of Churches and giving Lands to the Church which they had prohibited any to doe without the Senate's Order and required them to deliver two Clergymen whom they had imprisoned for many horrid Crimes concluding his Breve with an Assertion of his Power to deprive Kings and that he had Legions of Angels for this Assistance But when the Senate would not gratifie him in thus yielding their Rights to an Usurper Anno 1606 the Pope told their Ambassadour that the Exemption of Clergy-men from the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate was Jure divino that his Cause was the Cause of God and he would be obeyed and therefore in a Consistory of one and forty Cardinals he published a Bull of Excommunication against that State wherein he declares That by the Authority of Almighty God and the Apostles Peter and Paul the Duke and Senate of Venice if within four and twenty days after the publication of the Bull they do not revoke their Decrees are excommunicated and if they continue obstinate three days more he lays an Interdict upon the whole State forbidding the Clergy to perform Divine Offices in any part of their Dominions and threatens farther Punishments according to the sacred Canons This Bull he expected would gain his point by causing the Ecclesiasticks to withdraw themselves and that the People seeing themselves deprived of Church-Offices would run into Sedition but the Event answered not his Expectation for the People joined unanimously with the Senate but the Jesuites and others refused to celebrate Mass upon which they were banished the Dominions of Venice after which they did all they could to stir up the Common People But not succeeding in this the Pope published a Jubilee granting Indulgence to all but those of Interdicted places this he expected would make the People murmur but he was deceived in that point too so that he declared in a full Consistory that he would have War with the State of Venice and called the Spaniards to his aid but finding the Senate resolute in Defence of their Rights he was glad to recall his Bull and make a Peace with them and though he earnestly pressed for the Restauration of the Jesuites yet he could not obtain it About this time the Oath of Allegiance being established by Law the Romanists sent to Rome to know what they should doe in this Case where it was consulted by seven or eight of their learnedest Divines who all agreed that the Pope's Power of chastizing Princes is a Point of Faith and consequently cannot be denied without denying of the Faith and the Pope told Father Parsons and Fitzherbert he could not hold those for Catholicks who took the Oath which he soon after declared by his Breve addressed to the Romanists of England Septemb 22. 1606. wherein he affirms That they cannot without most evident and grievous wronging of God's Honour bind themselves by the Oath seeing it contains many things contrary to Faith and Salvation But when some Romanists who had taken it began to question the Breve Anno 1607 willing to think it was obtained from his Holiness by surreption he sent another to undeceive them wherein he blames them for entertaining such thoughts and assures them That it was written upon mature deliberation and therefore they are bound fully to observe it rejecting all interpretation to the contrary upon which several who were willing before refused it some of whom were imprisoned It is an hard thing for men accustomed to doe evil to learn to doe well which Truth Tyr-Oen is a great Example of for notwithstanding after his frequent Rebellions he was pardoned by King James and received into favour yet returning into Ireland he began new Contrivances and fearing he was discovered fled this year into Flanders which caused the King to publish a severe Proclamation against him from thence he went to Rome where he was maintained at the Pope's charge this his death This same Year Parsons published his Treatise tending to Mitigation wherein he labours to take off the imputation of rebellious Principles from the Romanists and yet he tells us in the same Book That this is Catholick Doctrine that in publick Perils of the Church and Common-Wealth Christ our Saviour hath not left us wholly remediless but besides the natural Right which each Kingdom hath to defend themselves in certain cases he left also supreme Power in his High Priest and immediate Substitute to direct and moderate that Power and to add also of his own when extraordinary Need requireth though with great deliberation Where we have a plain justification of the Pope and People's Power to depose and resist their Princes a most excellent Argument to clear the Papists of Disloyalty Though we find no Plots discovered this year in England yet in Transilvania the Jesuites were employed in poisoning Stephen Potscay the Prince And in France Father Cotton recommended a Spaniard to the King who had not been in the Court many hours when the King had Intelligence of his coming from Barcellona purposely to poison him upon this he sent for Father Coton who desired his Majesty not to give any Credit to the advice and when the King ordered him to produce the Spaniard he pretended to seek him but at his return told his Majesty that he was escaped and he could not find him This year the Pope sent another Breve into England directed to the Arch-Priest Anno 1608 forbidding him to take the Oath and commanding him to deprive all Priests of their Faculties who took it except they immediately renounc'd it prohibiting likewise the resort of any to the Protestant Churches At the same time Divines of Italy Germany and France wrote against it all grounding their Exceptions upon this that it takes away the Pope's Power of Deposing Kings So rebellious had the Writings and Practices of the Jesuites been that the Bohemians petition'd the Emperour against them Anno 1609 and the Valesian Magistrates refused to admit them because wherever they came they disturbed the publick Peace and were under such a tie of blind Obedience that if their Superiour enjoin'd them a treasonable Attempt they must obey They had made it their Business Anno 1610 for some time to endeavour to get footing in Transilvania but when all their Importunity could not prevail they engaged several of the Nobility in a Design against the Prince's Life which proceeded so far that