CHAP. the wind. Fire-balls were familiarly called among LXVII. them Teuxbury mustard pills; and were said to contain a notable biting sauce. In the great fire, it 1678. had been determined to murder the King; but he had displayed such diligence and humanity in extinguishing the flames, that even the Jesuits relented, and spared his life. Besides these assassinations and fires; insurrections, rebellions, and massacres, were projected by that religious order in all the three kingdoms. There were twenty thousand catholics in London, who would rise in four-and-twenty hours or less, and Jennison, a Jesuit, said, that they might easily cut the throats of a hundred thousand protestants. Eight thousand catholics had agreed to take arms in Scotland. Ormond was to be murdered by four Jesuits; a general massacre of the Irish protestants was concerted; and forty thousand black bills were already provided for that purpose. Coleman had remitted two hundred thousand pounds to promote the rebellion in Ireland; and the French King was to land a great army in that island. Poole, who wrote the Synopsis, was particularly marked out for assassination; as was also Dr. Stillingfleet, a controversial writer against the papists. Burnet tells us, that Oates paid him the same compliment. After all this havoc, the crown was to be offered to the Duke, but on the following conditions; that he receive it as a gift from the Pope; that he confirm all the papal commissions for offices and employments; that he ratify all past transactions, by pardoning the incendiaries, and the murderers of his brother and of the people; and that he consent to the utter extirpation of the protestant religion. If he refuse these conditions, he himself was immediately to be poisoned or assassinated. To pot James must go; according to the expression ascribed by Oates to the Jesuits.

OATES, the informer of this dreadful plot, was himself the most infamous of mankind. He was

the son of an anabaptist preacher, chaplain to colonel CHAP. Pride; but having taken orders in the church, he LXVII. had been settled in a small living by the Duke of 1678. Norfolk. He had been indicted for perjury; and by some means had escaped. He was afterwards a chaplain on board the fleet; whence he had been dismissed on complaint of some unnatural practices, not fit to be named. He then became a convert to the catholics; but he afterwards boasted, that his conversion was a mere pretence, in order to get into their secrets and to betray them". He was sent over to the Jesuits' college at St. Omers, and though above thirty years of age, he there lived some time among the students. He was dispatched on an errand to Spain; and thence returned to St. Omers; where the Jesuits, heartily tired of their convert, at last dismissed him from their seminary. It is likely, that, from resentment of this usage, as well as from want and indigence, he was induced, in combination with Tongue, to contrive that plot of which he accused the catholics.

THIS abandoned man, when examined before the council, betrayed his impostures in such a manner, as would have utterly discredited the most consistent story, and the most reputable evidence. While in Spain, he had been carried, he said, to Don John, who promised great assistance to the execution of the catholic designs. The King asked him, what sort of a man Don John was: He answered, a tall lean man; directly contrary to truth, as the King well knew °. He totally mistook the situation of the Jesuits' college at Paris". Though he pretended great intimacies with Coleman, he knew him not, when placed very near him; and had no other excuse than that his sight was bad in candle-light. He fell into like mistakes with regard to Wakeman.

Burnet, Echard, North, L'Estrange, &c.

Burnet,

Burnet, North, Trials.

NOT

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CHAP.

1678.

NOTWITHSTANDING these objections, great attenLXVII. tion was paid to Oates's evidence, and the plot became very soon the subject of conversation, and even the object of terror to the people. The violent animosity, which had been excited against the catholics in general, made the public swallow the grossest absurdities when they accompanied an accusation of those religionists: And the more diabolical any contrivance appeared, the better it suited the tremendous idea entertained of a Jesuit. Danby likewise, who stood in opposition to the French and catholic interest at court, was willing to encourage every story, which might serve to discredit that party. By his suggestion, when a warrant was signed for arresting Coleman, there was inserted a clause for seizing his papers; a circumstance attended with the most important consequences.

Coleman's letters.

COLEMAN, partly on his own account, partly by orders from the Duke, had been engaged in a correspondence with father la Chaise, with the Pope's nuncio at Brussels, and with other catholics abroad; and being himself a fiery zealot, busy and sanguine, the expressions in his letters often betrayed great violence and indiscretion. His correspondence, during the years 1674, 1675, and part of 1676, was seized, and contained many extraordinary passages. particular he said to la Chaise, "We have here a

66

In

mighty work upon our hands, no less than the "conversion of three kingdoms, and by that perhaps "the utter subduing of a pestilent heresy, which "has a long time domineered over a great part of "this northern world. There were never such

hopes of success, since the days of Queen Mary,

as now in our days. God has given us a Prince,' meaning the Duke," who is become (may I say a "miracle) zealous of being the author and instru"ment of so glorious a work; but the opposition σε we are sure to meet with is also like to be great: So that it imports us to get all the aid

66

II

"and

and assistance we can." In another letter he CHAP. said, "I can scarce believe myself awake, or the LXVII. 66 thing real, when I think of a Prince in such an

66

age as we live in, converted to such a degree of "zeal and piety, as not to regard any thing in the "world in comparison of God Almighty's glory, "the salvation of his own soul, and the conversion "of our poor kingdom." In other passages the interests of the crown of England, those of the French King, and those of the catholic religion, are spoken of as inseparable. The Duke is also said to have connected his interests unalterably with those of Lewis. The King himself, he affirms, is always inclined to favour the catholics, when he may do it without hazard. "Money," Coleman adds, "cannot fail of persuading the King to any thing. "There is nothing it cannot make him do, were it

66

ever so much to his prejudice. It has such an "absolute power over him, that he cannot resist it.

66

Logic, built upon money, has in our court more "powerful charms than any other sort of argument.' For these reasons, he proposed to father la Chaise, that the French King should remit the sum of 300,000 pounds on condition that the parliament be dissolved; a measure to which, he affirmed, the King was, of himself, sufficiently inclined, were it not for his hopes of obtaining money from that assembly. The parliament, he said, had already constrained the King to make peace with Holland, contrary to the interests of the catholic religion, and of His most Christian Majesty: And if they should meet again, they would surely engage him farther, even to the making of war against France. It appears also from the same letters, that the ́assembling of the parliament so late as April in the year 1675, had been procured by the intrigues of the catholic and French party, who thereby intended to show the Dutch and their confede

1678.

CHAP. rates, that they could expect no assistance from LXVII. England.

1678.

WHEN the contents of these letters were pub licly known, they diffused the panic, with which the nation began already to be seized on account of the popish plot. Men reasoned more from their fears and their passions than from the evidence before them. It is certain, that the restless and enterprising spirit of the catholic church, particularly of the Jesuits, merits attention, and is, in some degree, dangerous to every other communion. Such zeal of proselytism actuates that sect, that its missionaries have penetrated into every nation of the globe; and, in one sense, there is a popish plot perpetually carrying on against all states, protestant, pagan, and mohometan. It is likewise very probable, that the conversion of the Duke, and the favour of the King, had inspired the catholic priests with new hopes of recovering in these islands their lost dominion, and gave fresh vigour to that intemperate zeal by which they are commonly actuated. Their first aim was to obtain a toleration; and such was the evidence, they believed, of their theological tenets, that, could they but procure entire liberty, they must infallibly in time open the eyes of the people. After they had converted considerable numbers they might be enabled, they hoped, to reinstate themselves in full authority, and entirely to suppress that heresy, with which the kingdom had so long been affected. Though these dangers to the protestant religion were distant, it was justly the object of great concern to find that the heir of the crown was so blinded with bigotry, and so deeply engaged in foreign interests; and that the King himself had been prevailed on, from low interests, to hearken to his dangerous insinuations. Very bad consequences might ensue from such perverse habits and attachments; nor could the nation

and