Page images
PDF
EPUB

better to fecure the obedience of the catho

lics, the oath of allegiance (a), by authority (a) Stat, anof parliament, was enacted, whereby the cobi regis, co

no tertio Jafect. 15.

4. power

c.

fon's fermon

before the houfe of

1678.

"this business, as to that point of involving those of "his own religion in the common ruin. I dare not, "fays he, take that courfe that I could, to make it ap❝pear lefs odious; for divers were to have been brought "out of danger, who now would rather hurt them "than otherwife. I do not think that there would "have been three worth the faving, that should have "been loft. And as to the reft that were to have been "fwallowed up in that deftruction, he seems not to "have the least relenting in his mind about them (c)." (c) TillotDr. Burnet tells us, he had the fame papers in his poffeffion, and gives the like account from them (d). But to put the matter beyond all difpute, I will give commons, part of a fpeech of lord Stafford, at the bar of the Nov. 5. house of lords, Dec. 1, 1680. which, as far as I know, (d) Burnet, has never been quoted by any writer. Every body al- Vol. I. most knows that this unfortunate nobleman was ftrong- P. 10. ly attached to the Romish religion; and that upon the evidence of those times he was convicted and executed for the popifh plot. It may well enough therefore be fuppofed, that he would not blacken his own fide on this occafion, or endeavour to render his profecutors more apprehenfive of the enterprizing spirit of the catholics, than the truth compelled him to do. His evidence therefore being unexceptionable, let us attend unto it. "My lords, faid he, I have heard very much "of a thing that was named by thefe gentlemen of the "houfe of commons, and that very properly too, to

wit, of the gunpowder treafon. My lords, I was "not born then, bút fome years after heard very much "discourse of it, and very various reports; and I "made a particular enquiry, perhaps more than any one "perfon did elfe, both of my father, who was alive "then, and my uncle, and others; and I am fatisfied, "and do clearly believe, by the evidence I have receiv

❝ed,

(e) Lord Stafford's

power of the
pope to depofe the king, or
difpofe of any of his majefty's dominions,
was to be difowned, and true faith and al-
legiance

❝ed, that that thing called the gunpowder treafon,
"was a wicked and horrid defign (among the reft) of
"fome of the Jefuits, and I think the malice of the
"Jefuits, or the wit of man, cannot offer an excuse
"for it, it was fo execrable a thing. Befides, my
"lords, I was acquainted with one of them that was
"concerned in it, who had his pardon, and lived many
"years after I difcourfed with him about it, and
"he confeffed it, and faid, he was forry for it then;

[ocr errors]

and I here declare to your lordships, that I never "heard any one of the church of Rome speak a good "word of it: it was fo horrid a thing it cannot be ex"preffed nor excufed. And God almighty fhewed his "judgments upon them for their wickedness; for "hardly any of the perfons or their pofterity are left "that were concerned in it; and even a very great fa"mily too [Peircy, earl of Northumberland, I suppose] "that had collaterally fomething to do in it, is in the "male line extinct totally; and I do think God almighty always fhews his judgments upon fuch vile "actions (e)." What will any one fay to this? needs there any further witneffes, when a popish lord declares trial, p. 53. the thing to be fact, and that he himself was acquainted with one concerned in it, who confeffed it? must not those be past conviction who will ftill difpute it, or obftinately deny it? I will add, that it appears from Dr. Birch's view of the negotiations between England, France, and Bruffels, that many catholics abroad were acquainted with it, and that the English regiment in the arch-duke's fervice, was defigned to be tranfported upon the execution of it (ƒ). Indeed, says Sir Thomas Edmonds, ambaffador with the arch-duke, in a letter to Sir Charles Cornwallis, dated Dec. 27, 1605, O. S. "It was long "ere I could perfuade them here to believe the truth "of the faid confpiracy, because the catholiques were

Lond.

1680-1.

Fol.

(f) See

Birch's ne gotiations,p.

235, 256.

"interested

legiance to him promised, notwithstanding any excommunication or deprivation made by the pope. This oath the catholics, for the most part, complied with, as thinking it lawful, and among the reft the arch-priest Black

"interested therein; but fometimes they would have it "to be an artifice of the puritans against those fancti"fied perfons, and then a defign of the Hollanders "(which are enemies to monarchy) to have reduced "our eftate to the same condition as theirs is of a com"monwealth. But now laftly, when they see they can "no longer difpute the doubtfulness and incertaintie "thereof, they report to this confideration, that it is a "work of the devil's, exprefsly to banish and extirpate "the catholique religion out of England. For my own "part, adds he, I will freely confefs, that I do effectually defire (whatfoever judgment they make thereof) "that we make that use of it, as we have just cause so "to do (g).” These things confidered, I believe the (g) Winreader will think with Dr. Birch, "that the papifts of wood, Vol. "later times afford an inftance of amazing fcepticism, ❝and, equal affurance, who affect, without the least "fhadow of probability, to reprefent fo complicated " and deep laid a confpiracy, as a meer minifterial and "political contrivance, formed by the earl of Salisbury, "for the difgrace and ruin of the Roman catholic re"ligion in England (h)." However though their scep- (b) Negotiticifm ations, p.

Calendarium Catholicum, for the year 1686. Among the memo

rable obfervations is the following,

Since the horrid powder-plot, fufpected to be politickly contrived by Cecil, but known to be acted by a few defperadoes of a religion that detefts fuch treafons, though ambition and difcontent made them fraytors.

years

0081

Confult bishop Barlow's genuine remains, p. 388. Lond. 1693. 8vo. where is a cenfure of a paffage of a like nature in the Calendarium Catholicum, or Univerfal Almanack for the year 1662, which the bishop fays, was writ by a man of fome parts and quality.

II. p. 183.

255.

Blackwell. At this the pope was alarmed, and on the 10th of the kalends of October 1606, iffued out a brief, forbidding the taking the oath; but the catholics apprehending it a forgery, payed little regard to it, whereupon the next year his holiness fent them another (q), in which he plainly told them,

that

ticifin and affurance are thus amazing, yet it is not to be wondered at, that they are unwilling to avow a fact, which admitted, muft caft the greatest odium on a church whose minifters not only counselled it, but were actors in it; and though by the judgment of their country pronounced confpirators and traytors, and as fuch treated; yet have been deemed by her infallible felf, faints and martyrs, and reckoned among their mi(i) See Of racle-workers (i). A proof this, that zeal for mother church will fanctify the greatest villanies, and raise men to the highest honours, though ever fo unworthy. May church hift. all men have in abhorrence this fpirit! may they guard against all attempts to revive it, and look upon it as their greatest happinefs, that they are not under the rule of Winwood, thofe who are actuated by it. Vol. II. p.

born, p.

485. Fuller's

cent. 17.

book 10. P.

40. and

300.

(e) His holiness fent them another brief, &c.] In his firft brief the pope [Paul V.] tells the English catholics, "that the oath of allegiance could not be taken "without hurting the catholic faith, and the falvation

"of

*Monfieur S. Amour tells us, that among the feveral portraits of Je fuits, publickly fold at Rome with permiffion of the fuperiour, he saw one of Garnet, with this infcription, Pater Henricus Garnettus Anglus, Londini pro fide catholicâ fufpenfus & fectus, 3 Maii 1606. Father Henry Garnet hanged and quartered at London, for the catholic faith; by which we fee that treafon and catholic faith are all one at Rome; for nothing can be more notorious, than that Garnet fuffered only on the account of the gunpowder treafon, of which, as M. S. Amour obferves, he acknowledged himself guilty before he died. Stillingfleet's idolatry of the church of Rome, p. 345. Svo. Lond. 1676.

that they were bound fully to observe the things contained in the former, and to reject all interpretations perfuading to the contrary. Bellar

"of their fouls, feeing it contains many things flat
66 contrary to faith and falvation; and therefore he ad-
"monishes them utterly to abftain from taking this and
"the like oaths (a)." Mr. Rapin therefore fhould have (4) King
James's
faid, that the pope in this firft brief, plainly told the works, p.
catholics, "if they took the oath they forfeited all hopes 251.
"of falvation (b):" I fay, he fhould have faid this of the (6) Rapin,
firft, and not the fecond brief, as he has done; though 174.
forfeiting all hopes of falvation, is very different, in my
opinion, from hurting the falvation of their fouls, which
are the words of the brief. But his holiness's com-
mands were not obeyed. The catholics pretended that

Vol. II. p.

his brief was iffued not of his own proper will, but "rather for the respect and inftigation of other men." This he affures them was falfe in his fecond brief, dated the 10th of the Calends of Sept. 1607. and lets them know" that his former letters concerning the prohibi"tion of the oath, were written not only upon his "own proper motion, and of his certain knowledge, "but alfo after long and weighty deliberation ufed con"cerning all thofe things which were contained in "them; and that for that cause they were bound fully "to obferve them, rejecting all interpretation per"fuading to the contrary (c)." Strange fort of mor- (c) King James's tals these popes! who pretending to be vicars of Jesus works, P. Chrift, who owned his kingdom was not of this world, 258. intrude into the affairs of foreign nations, and prescribe laws to the fubjects of them. This Paul V. was poffeffed of the true fpirit of Hildebrand. He laid the Venetians under an interdict, raised Ignatius Loyola to be a faint, and talked and acted in fuch a manner, as if he had indeed thought himself superior to all that " is cal"led God, or is worshipped." And had he happened to have lived in thofe ages, when the fpirit of croifading for the fake of what was called religion, prevailed, I

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »