Mr. Smyth's Discovery OF THE Popish Sham-Plot IN IRELAND, Contrived to Correspond with their Sham-PLOT IN ENGLAND. By which it appears, that it has been the joint Design of the Papists in both Kingdoms, to make People believe their Real Plot to be a Sham-Plot, and their Sham-Plot a Real Plot.  
Necessary for the Information of all His Majesty's Protestant Subjects.  
The Discourse that past between one Father St. Laurence and William Smyth, Gent, at the said Smyth's Chamber, on or about the 7th Day of July, 1681. in the Kings-Arms Marshalsea, in Dublin, VIZ,  

AFTER many discourses between him and me, in which he seemed to be compassionately concerned for my having been a prisoner so long (which I told him was nigh Four years both in Waterford and here,) he adding; said, he much lamented my misfortunes, by reason that my face promised that I was no ordinary person, and that there could be no greater torment in the World than for a generous Soul to be debarred of liberty, and penned up in a close, stinking and loathsome confinement. He went on, saying, I would soon procure you as much Money as will set you at liberty and put you in a good equipage, if you will condescend to some things to be by me proposed; In answer whereunto, I said I should willingly embrace the offer, provided it was both legal and possible; and so bade him continue his discourse, who replied, you must First take an Oath of Secrecy, it being a matter of Weight and Consequence, and without which he durst not acquaint me with it. After a short pause, I imagined by his preceding discourse that it might be some grand Design he had to inform me of, whereupon seeing me at a stand, he then said, you seem to be scrupulous of what I endeavour for your enlargement; but be assured, if you will be ruled by me, you are and shall be a happy Man; and so he drew out of his pocket a small Bible or Testament, and administered to me this following Oath, viz.  I Conjure you by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by his bitter death and passion, by the Blessed Virgin Mary, and all the Blessed and Holy Saints and Angels, by the Holy Mother the Church, by this Sacred Scripture, and as you hope for Salvation, if you do not act what I shall by and by tell you, at least that you keep it concealed during life without any Equivocation, Dissimulation, or mental Reservation, so help you God and all his Holy Saints. Amen. 
After this he said you cannot but be sensible that the Church of Rome is the only Catholic, Apostolic, and unfeigned Church, and the Pope, being God's Vicegerent on earth, hath power to pardon and forgive all sinners that are members of the said Church, be their sins never so great and heinous; I question not but you believe all this, and that there is not, nay cannot be any Salvation for any one but such as die in the Roman-Catholick faith, therefore consequently whoever believes any other than what is allowed by the said Church are not only Heriticks but damned to the pit of Hell, as being the just reward of their demerits; for as there is but one God so there is but one Church of which the Pope is Christ on earth. Now to swear any thing against any of those Heretics for the Catholic good is to do God service, and that Oath being taken upon a Protestant Bible needs no scruple of conscience nor inward remorse, it being all one as to swear on an Aesop's Fables. Besides, what you swear in the behalf of the Catholics (especially in these times) though never so false, yet by a power from the Pope to every Priest in Orders is fully, clearly and absolutely pardoned and forgiven by their absolution, after Confession to any such Priest. Now what I would have you to do, and whereby you shall obtain your liberty, is as followeth. In primis, you must swear that several Heretical Ministers, viz. One Parson Jack and Dr. Harrison, since your being in Prison here in Dublin, came to you and offered to pay your debts, and support you with Money to carry on your designs, if you would make Affidavit as follows, and that they brought it to you in writing, and caused you to copy it out, and took the original along with them (The words) That there was a Popish Plot, and that they desired you to swear that some Priests and others (naming any one that you know) told you that the Duke of York was so far concerned in the Plot as that he sided with the Pope and French King, to introduce the French to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, and to put the King to Death, and to murder all Protestants in his Majesty's Dominions, and to bring in the Popish Religion; and that they, the said Heretics, should farther require you to say, that you have divers times heard Papists declare that they would bring it about to be a Presbyterian Plot, and so subborn Witnesses against the Earl of Shaftsbury First, and then against the Duke Monmouth and divers other Protestants, and bring their Heads to the Block. He farther said, that the King would easily believe this Information, by reason he would gladly have any occasion to destroy them, as being the People that murdered his Father. Also he said, you must swear that the said Ministers, viz. Jack and Dr. Harris, or Harrison, called his Majesty Papist, that he designed the Destruction of his Subjects, and to establish the Popish Religion in his Dominions, and that they plainly perceived his intention was to bring his said: Subjects under a Tyrannical Government, and that they and the rest of their Brethren intended ere this time to have had him (meaning the King) in their power, and to have disposed of him at their pleasure, nay to have made him shorter by the head, if he had not condescended to all their designs; but failing in their designs were resolved to spend their lives and fortunes to make it out a Popish Plot, by which (said the above Father) we will make the world believe there was no Popish Plot but a Presbyterian Plot, and they will be utterly confounded, and we cleared, and all Presbyterians and other like Dissenters, be accused not only of the said Plot, but be reputed guilty of all the Blood that hath been spilt. If you will undertake this, you need not doubt but that you shall have the Prayers of the Catholic Church to prosper you; and besides other Witnesses shall be procured to second this your Information without any show or colour of suspicion, if by Gold and Silver they may be obtained.  
Further, said he, the Catholic Lords in the Tower have already given large sums of Money, to subborn Witnesses against the Earl of Shaftsbury; forty will appear against him, and see how it is likely to go with him; and you will be assisted beyond expectation; for we are all resolved to make it a Presbyterian Plot; and it is as easy for you to carry on this business, as it is for you to say the Paternoster. So I told him I did not know the above Parson Jack or Dr. Harris, or Harrison. Then quoth he, you must write to them, and in your Letters say, that you have been a lewd and wicked Sinner, and that you have been a long time out of the way, and now, God touching you with an inward Remorse of Conscience, you desire them to come to you for Christ Jesus sake, to administer some Spiritual comfort to you, and you'll be sure to have them come to you, they being the notedst of their Function, where they are: And after they have been with you, and been seen with you by others in this House, it is enough for this business, and will turn to the ruin of themselves, and many thousands of them, whose Blood I hope to live to see spilt by the hands of the Catholics; and I am certain, in three years' time, things will be so effectually done, that there will not be a Protestant living in England or Ireland. After you have made this Affidavit to the King and Council, there shall be a large allowance, during your Life, given you; for the Pope, Jesuits, and our Clergy will contribute largely to any one that will prove so faithful, as to prosecute any thing in the like kind; and for your part, you will meet with no Opposition, but be credited, you being an Englishman, and none in England knowing you to be a Catholic, which you must always deny, and you will be dispensed with for your so doing. Moreover he would now take his leave, and leave me to consider of it, and that he expected I would give him an absolute answer the next morning, but I desired seven days time, which with much ado he consented to, putting me in mind, for my Soul's sake, not to reveal it, if I would not do it; but said he, if you will do it at the seven days end, after you have confessed and received the Holy Sacrament of Christ, to be true and just in this affair, you shall know from me more at large, and be at liberty, and have Money and clothes like a Gentleman: so he made a short extempore Prayer, exhorting me to a true performance, adding, how dangerous it would be for me to prove false, and so went away. But coming at the seven days end, I told him my Conscience could not do it: Well, said he, (after a deep sigh) you are damned to Eternity if you disclose it (which indeed I promised not to do) than he told me that they must get some other, for they had enough to do it at their command, and taking his leave, he bade me to send to him for any thing I wanted, and I should have it freely. I do acknowledge all this to be an unfeigned truth, and that I never saw or heard from the said Jack or Dr. Harris, alias Harrison, all my life long, but when I had spoken to one of my Fellow Prisoners, of this business, one Captain Page being told of it, came to me, desiring this Relation: But I never saw them; yet it is true, I cannot be positive in the day of the Month, but God knows it is exact, as near as I can call to mind: And I declare to the World, there is nothing causes me to do this but a good Conscience, and to make known the obscure and Villainous Crimes of the Papists.  
And for the Testimony of the Truth and satisfaction of the World, I hereunto set my hand and Seal; this 14th day of September, Anno Dom. 1681. William Smyth. 

Francis Cook,  
George Harrison,  
Daniel Blackmore,  
John Page,   Witnesses.   
Elizabeth, the Wife of John Welton, Cordwainer, brought the abovenamed Father St. Laurence to me.  
This Plot was contrived in the Kings-Arms Prison, in Dublin, by Father St. Laurence, an Irish Secular Priest, and one William Smyth, an Englishman, but a Roman Catholic, then Prisoner there, about the Month of July, 1681.  
The Lord Primate and Council have this Information before them, and have examined the Priest, and committed him to safe Custody, the 17th of September, 1681.  
FINIS.   

LONDON, Printed for R. Baldwin, 1681.