severities, and to withhold them from turbulence of any kind. Soon after the archpriest and the leading clergy had published their letter, the former received a brief from the pope to the same effect: on the receipt of it, he, with the leading clergy, published a second letter, in the same spirit as the preceding.

It is not within the plan of this work to enter into a discussion of the nature, or degree of the guilt of the individuals, who were engaged in the horrid plot.-Hume's History of England being in the hands of every one, the writer has transcribed from it, the greater part of his account of the conspiracy: but those, who wish to form accurate notions of it, should, after having read this part of Hume's history, peruse the trials of the accused persons; the Apology of father Eudæmon for father Garnet; Dodd's Church History, part 5, art. 3, and Doctor Milner's seventh Letter to a Prebendary.-It may be added, that even several intelligent protestant writers give a very different view of it, from that presented by Hume; some of them even suppose, that it originated with Cecil. Osborne has been frequently cited, as calling the plot, in his Historical Memoirs of James the first, "a neat "device of the secretary:" the author of the Political Grammar is cited for mentioning that "Cecil "engaged some papists in this desperate plot, in "order to divert the king from making any advances "towards popery; to which he seemed inclinable :" James is said to have called the 5th of November, "Cecil's Holiday;" And Bevil Higgons assures

his readers, that "the design was first hammered "in the forge of Cecil: who intended to have pro"duced it, in the time of Elizabeth; that, by his "secret emissaries he enticed some hot-headed men, who, ignorant, whence the design first came, heartily engaged in it."

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Whatever were the circumstances of the plot, the consequence of it was, that the penal laws against the catholics were immediately carried into execution, with great severity. Eighteen priests, and seven laymen, suffered death, for the mere exercise of their religion. One hundred and twenty-eight priests were banished; and the heavy fine of 20l. a month, was exacted from every catholic, who did not attend the service of the established church.

* Loose expressions of this nature, altogether unsupported by fact, deserve no attention; particularly as, on examining the citation from Osborne with the passage, in which the words attributed to him are found, it appears that these were used by him, not as applying to the plot, but as applying to the letter, which was sent to lord Monteagle;—which letter, he terms "a neat device of the secretary, to fetch him in, to whose "estate and person, if not to both, he had a quarrell. See Osborne's Secret Memoirs in Ballantyne's Collection, vol. I. p. 180. It should also be observed, that not one, who suffered, threw out the slightest intimation of Cecil's being privy to the conspiracy. It is, however, probable that he knew of it before the seizure of Fawkes. Father Juvençi, Hist. Societatis Jesu, L. xiii. s. 45, expressly says that "Tresham, "one of the conspirators, sent to lord Monteagle, his friend, "the letter, revealing the conspiracy."

CHAP. XXV.

THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE FRAMED BY JAMES I.

THE temperate terms, which James used, in his address to the two houses of parliament, upon the discovery of the gunpowder conspiracy, deserve the commendation bestowed upon them by Hume. With the same conciliating spirit, his majesty caused to be inserted, in a statute of the same year, an oath of allegiance, to be tendered, under the provisions contained in that act, to all roman-catholic recusants. By a proclamation, issued at the same time, he also invited all his English subjects to take and subscribe it.

The circumstances attending this oath form one of the most interesting events in the history of the English catholics, subsequent to the Reformation. We shall endeavour to present the reader, I. With a brief account of the motives, which induced James to frame the oath, and to direct it to be tendered to his catholic subjects; II. We shall, next, transcribe the oath itself; III. Then, a translation of the two briefs, by which pope Paul the fifth condemned it; IV. And copy some parts of James's reply to them; V. We shall give an account of the controversy, to which the oath gave rise; VI. And of the letters, written by Mr. Blackwell, the archpriest, respecting the oath, and of his examination

before his majesty's commissioners; VII. We shall mention the controversy, which took place, on the subject of the oath, during the reign of his majesty, and the reign of his immediate successor.

XXV. 1.

The motives of James the first in framing the Oath..

NOTHING, in the opinion of the writer, could be wiser, or more humane, than the motives of James, in framing the oath. We shall 1st state them, in his own words; 2d. Then examine an allegation, which assigns different motives, if not to the monarch himself, at least to his advisers.

1st. "What a monstrous, rare, and never heard of treacherous attempt," (with these words he

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* The observation of father Parsons, in his letter touching the new oath of allegiance, sect. i, v. (considerable extracts from which, we shall soon present to the reader),—on these epithets, deserve attention. "All those epithets for due de"testation of so rash and heynous an attempt, catholics no "lesse than protestants doe willingly admit; tho, for singularity from all exumple, (if we respect speciem, non indivi"duum, that cannot be alike to another in all points), there "be recounted in histories, many attempts of the same kynds, " and some also by protestants, in our daycs: as that of "them, who, at Antwerp, placed a whole barke of powder "in the great street of that city, where the prince of Parma, "with his nobility was to passe ;-and that of him in Hague, "that would have blown up the whole council of Hollande, "upon private revenge; and also that of Edinborrow in Scotland; where the like traine of powder was laid, for "the cruel murther of his majesty's father; which not suc"ceeding, his death was atchieved, by another, no lesse "bloodie and barbarous violence."

""

begins his apology for the oath of allegiance,)—was plotted, within these few years, in England, for "the destruction of me, my bedfellow, and our posterity-of the whole house of parliament, and a great number of good subjects of all sorts, and degrees, is so famous already through the world, by the infamy thereof, as is needless to be re'peated, or published, any more. The only rea"son the plotters gave, for so heinous an attempt, "was the zeal, they carried to the romish religion;

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yet, were never any of that profession worse used "for that cause, as by our gracious proclamation, "immediately after the discovery of the said fact, "doth appear. Only, at the setting down again "of the parliament, there were laws made, setting "down some such orders, as were thought fitt for "preventing the mischiefs, in time to come. Amongst "which, a form of oath was formed to be taken by my subjects, whereby they should make a clear "profession of their resolution, faithfully to persist "in their obedience unto me, according to their "natural allegiance. To the end, that I might "make a separation, not only between all my good subjects in general, and unfaithful traitors, that "intended to withdraw themselves from my obedience; but, especially, to make a separation be"tween so many of my subjects, who, though they

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were otherwise popishly affected, yet retained, in "their hearts, the print of their natural duty to "their sovereign. And those, who, being carried away with the like fanatical zeal, as the powder"traitors were, could not contain themselves within

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