A TRAGEDY, CALLED The Popish Plot, REVIVED:  
Detecting the SECRET LEAGUE Between the Late King James and the French King; The POPISH CONSPIRACY to Murder His present Majesty King WILLIAM; And the wicked Contrivance for Adulterating the COIN of this Kingdom:  
With many other HELLISH PRACTICES.  
Dedicated to Sir Roger L'Estrange, the Fellows of St. John's College in Cambridg, (Non Jurors) and the rest of the Jacobite Crew.  
By a sincere Lover of his Country.  
London, Printed for the Author, 1696.   

To Sir Roger L'Estrange, the Fellows of St. John's College, and the rest of the Jacobite Crew.  
Gentlemen,  
THAT your as industriously as maliciously embrace every Occasion of venting yourselves to the Disparagement of our Present happy Settlement, is undeniably evident to all Men, and hath in no particular been more manifest than in your cherishing and fomenting the loud Clamour under which the Government has of late laboured upon the account of the diminishing and adulterating our Coin.  
The Consideration hereof led me to reflect upon what I remember I had read in Dr. Oates' Narrative of the Popish Plot; and turning to it, I there find good Ground to charge to the Account of your Party, amongst other the manifold Evils under which the Nation groans, that which is now so sensibly felt, and highly complained of: He there told you what now to our Cost we find fulfilled, that one Branch of that Horrid Plot was to adulterate our Money and Plate; and that to that end the Conspirators had Bankers, Brokers, Merchants, Goldsmiths, and other Traders, whom they stocked and set up with Money of the Jesuits Society. The Jesuits than boasted that they were promised to have the Management of the Mint, and that thereby they should be made the Judges of good and bad Money, and manage the same to the best Advantage for their Cause.  
The Case standing thus, Gentlemen, why will you be so vile as to criminate the Government for the Mischief which you have brought upon your Country? Will you persist to outface the Sun, and term that a Sham-Plot which has ever since been cultivated and carried on? Consider, I beseech you, in how many Instances what was laid down in that Narrative has been verified. He there told you, that King Charles the Second was to be removed by Dagger, Pistol or Poison; and, that that was effected by the last, is as little to be doubted, as it may now be called into question, whether the Coin be adulterated.  
He told you, that your Adored Duke was a Papist; but your Stupidity or Impudence was such, that you denied it to the day that he stepped into the Throne: Nay, not only so, but some of you in a Packed Jury brought in that Prince Not Guilty; and gave him the modest Damages of 100000 l. in an Action against the Doctor for declaring that great Truth, than so highly necessary to be known.  
Nay further, he not only told, but foretold the Misery and inexpressible Calamity which like a Torrent was, with that unhappy King, breaking in upon these poor Nations, and ready to bear down our Religion, Laws and Liberties. But this also was turned into Ridicule by that eminent Guide of the inferior Clergy, you I mean Sir Roger, that Beautefeu of an Observator.  
Wherefore I shall upon this Occasion take the Liberty to aggravate the Gild of the unpardonable Infidelity of your Malignant Faction, in the Points before touched upon; and that not by urging against you, that what was then declared, has since come to pass, but by evincing that at that very day there was laid before you irrefragable Evidence of the Truth of that happy Discovery: And this I partly collect from Mr. Coleman's never to be forgotten Letters, which were never denied or so much as doubted; of which, to refresh your Memories, take here a few Heads.  
For my part (says he) I can scarce believe myself awake, or the thing real, when I think on a Prince, in such an 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— the Conversion of our Poor Kingdom, which hath been a long time oppressed and miserably harassed with Heresy and Schism, etc.  
Now as to the Duke's being then linked with that bloody Tyrant the French King, read Coleman again.— Knowing the Interest of our King, [Charleses the 2d.] and in a more particular manner of my more immediate Master the Duke, and his most Christian Majesty to be so INSEPARABLY UNITED, that it was IMPOSSIBLE TO DIVIDE THEM, without destroying them all.  
His Majesty [the French King] was pleased to give order, to signify to his R. H. MY MASTER, that his Majesty was fully satisfied of his R. H's good Intentions towards him; and that HE ESTEEMED BOTH THEIR INTERESTS BUT AS ONE and the same, [The Rooting out the Northern Heresy, and enslaving Mankind;] That my Lord Arlington and the PARLIAMENT were both to be looked upon as very unuseful to their Interests.  
— Father Ferrier— begged his R. H. to propose to his most Christian Majesty what he thought necessary for his own Concern, and THE ADVANTAGE OF RELIGION, and his Majesty would certainly do all he could to advance both, or either of them.  
— I communicated it to his R. H. [says Coleman] to which his R. H. commanded me to answer, as I did on the 29th of the same Month, that his R. H. was very sensible of his most Christian Majesty's Friendship, and that he would labour to cultivate it with all the good Offices he was capable of doing his Majesty, [the French King]; that he was fully convinced their Interests were both one; that my Lord Arlington and the Parliament were not only unuseful, but very dangerous both to England and France; that therefore it was necessary they should do all they could to dissolve it. I did communicate this Design of mine to Monsieur Ravigni, who agreed with me, that it would be the greatest Advantage imaginable to his Master, to have the D's Power and Credit so far advanced.— IF WE CAN ADVANCE THE DUKE'S INTEREST ONE STEP FORWARD, WE SHALL PUT HIM OUT OF THE REACH OF CHANCE FOR EVER:— Then would Catholics be at rest, and his most Christian Majesty's Interest secured with us in England, [mark that] beyond all Apprehensions whatsoever.— Our prevailing in these things would give the greatest Blow to the PROTESTANT RELIGION here, that ever it received from its Birth—.  
— If the Duke should once get above them, 
☞  (after the Tricks they have played with him) they are not sure he will totally forget the Usage he has had at their Hands—.  
— We have (proceeds Coleman) here a 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 hath domineered over great part of the Northern World a long time. There were never such Hopes of Success since the Death of our Queen Mary, as now in our Days, when God has given us a Prince who is become (may I say to a Miracle) zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work. 
☞ — That which we rely upon most, next to God Almighty's Providence, and the Favour of my Master the Duke, is THE MIGHTY MIND of his most Christian Majesty.— I must confess, I think his Christian Majesty's TEMPORAL INTEREST is so much attracted to that of his R. H. (which can never be considerable but upon the Growth and Advancement of the CATHOLIC RELIGION) that his Ministers cannot give him better Advice, etc.  
Now Gentlemen; might not a Man have concluded, that what you then read, and find here repeated, aught to have weaned your Party, at least such of you as pretended to be of the Church of England, (for I well remember you scoffed at the Name of Protestant) from your idolised Popish Successor? What I could no King please such Churchmen as you, but such AZEALOT as would not regard any thing in the World, in comparison of overturning our Religion? Can no one content you, but a Prince, whose Interest was avowed to be inseparably united to that of the Grand Tyrant of the Earth? Who declared himself fully convinced that PARLIAMENTS were not only UNUSEFUL, but very DANGEROUS to the JOINT INTEREST both of England and France? None but him by whom the French King's Interest was to be secured in England? None but him who undertook to give the greatest Blow to the Protestant Religion here, that it ever received from its Birth? None but him, who should he once get above us (after the Tricks we had then played him) [by the way he remembers we have played him a worse since] WOULD NOT TOTALLY FORGET the Usage he has had at our Hands? Finally, could nothing please you but a King, whose MIGHTY WORK (as you were forewarned) was to be no less than the Destruction of the Nations, under the Notion of converting them, and who was utterly to subdue our Religion, as a PESTILENT HERESY? One, of whom our inhuman Enemies promised themselves greater Hopes than ever they had since the Death of cruel Queen Mary? A Prince whom they boasted was become (to a Miracle) zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so glorious a Work, as that of razing the Foundations of the Church of England?  
Can I now believe that I discourse to rational Creatures, and not to Brutus' void of all Understanding, I should hope to make you blush at your past Frenzies, if not persuade you to cease doting on your old Bondage, and hankering after the fleshpots of Egypt, to give over your Murmuring, and no longer to foment Jealousies between the King and his People, no longer to be throwing in Sparks of Discontent, and endeavouring to blow them up into Flames of Mutinies and Rebellions. Allow me to remember you (in the Words of a loyal and learned Person) that God has given our King a People, who, though they may sometimes be practised upon to run into Uproars, yet Loyalty is so inlaid in their Tempers, and annealed to their Souls, that the secret Enemies of our King and Peace could never yet make their Earnings out of them; nay, that God has converted our Danger into our Security, that he has made the People, not the Terror of the Government, but of its Enemies: That some ill Men have an ill and envious Eye upon the Throne, but they fear the People. Mr. Alsop's Thanksgiving-Sermon at Westminster, 8 Sept. 1695.  
Run not then I caution you headlong to Destruction, but be advised to consider what you are doing; why will you be helping forward your Country's Ruin, by labouring to subject it to that mighty Nimrod, the securing whose Interest in England was the wicked Design so long since on foot? 'Tis evident to all the World, that you, under the Name of TORIES (in which you gloried) brought Church and State to the very Door of Destruction, gave us the dismal: Prospect of Slavery in our Persons, Consciences and Estates; and by your Procurement we beheld every thing that was dear and valuable to us upon the Brink of Subjection to a foreign Power: and all by pleading for and adhering to your darling Popish Successor. Nay 'tis beyond Contradiction clear, that you were blinded, deluded and beguiled, in that Point, by the subtle Jesuits, those Firebrands of all Europe.  
Now seeing it has pleased God to bless us with the grateful Surprise of a Deliverance from such great Evils, will you be persuaded to become a loyal quiet People, disposed to Obedience? To enforce this upon you, as 'tis your Interest as well as Duty, I shall recount to you, what was in vain laid before you when you first ran a madding after Popery and Slavery. A sincere Lover of his Country then argued with you to this Effect:  
You were then truly told, that those who were for the Duke of York 's Interest were most certainly for these three Interests, viz. 1. For the Popish Interest. 2. For the French Interest. 3. For Tyranny or Arbitrary Government, term it as you will; and by Consequence against these other three things. 1. Against the Interest of the Church of England, and the Protestant Religion. 2. Against the Interest of England, your native Country. 3. Against the Interest of Parliaments, and so against your own Freedoms as you were Englishmen.  
You were then exhorted seriously to consider these things, your Religion, your Lives, your Liberties, your Estates, your All being deeply concerned therein.  
1. You were rightly admonished, that if you stood for the Duke's Interest, you did undoubtedly so far stand for that of the Pope; and would thereby give the greatest Blow to the Church of England, it ever had since it was a Church.  
The Matter was thus expostulated with you; Can you once imagine that by bringing in a Popish Successor, you will not inevitably set up Popery? Will such a King, think you, have so great a Love for another Religion as his own, or for those of another Profession, (whom he esteems Heretics) as for those of his own? Nay then, will it not naturally follow, that he will advance the one, and discountenance and depress the other? Will it not be the only way to get into Office or Preferment to turn Papist? What will the Effect of this be, in a little time, think you? Will it not be a great weakening to the Church of England, to have her Members alured and seduced from her, and turned and kept out of Places of Trust, Profit and Honour, whilst her Enemies are placed in them? Consider further, whether in endeavouring to make a Papist Head of the Church of England, you do not labour to make her a Monster; for if our Head reckon us his Body rotten Heretics, where's our Body? Where will our Church be? What Agreement between the Head and the Body? Will it not inevitably run into Confusion? Shall we have a Father of our Church, who by his own Faith stands obliged to destroy her, and is bound by the Romish Principles to deal with her as a Harlot? Consider now, are you willing to send yourselves, Wives, Children, Fathers and Mothers, to be burnt at the Stake for Heretics? Will you yet persist to endeavour to put your Religion once more into the Hazard of a wicked Queen Mary 's Persecution?  
2. In being for the Succession of the D. of York, you are undoubtedly for the French Interest, and so consequently against the Interest of England, your native Country. That he did ever espouse that Tyrant's Interest, is evidently discovered, and by a Copy of a Letter which was taken amongst his Secretary Coleman's Papers, will be yet further evinced, though indeed it was not made out that it was drawn by the Duke's Direction, nor could it be expected that Coleman should accuse his Master, who flattered him to the last Moment of his Life with the vain Hope of a Pardon. That Letter was entitled; The Copy of the Letter to Monsieur Le Cheese, the French King's Confessor, which Mr. Coleman confessed he himself wrote, and counterfeited in the Duke's Name; it runs to this Effect:  
The 2d of June last passed, his most Christian Majesty offered me most generously his Friendship, and the Use of his Purse to the Assistance against the Designs of MY ENEMIES AND HIS; and protested unto me, that his Interest and mine were so clearly linked together, that those that opposed the one should be looked upon as Enemies to the other; and told me moreover HIS OPINION of my Lord Arlington and the PARLIAMENT; which is, that he is of opinion, that neither the one nor the other is in his Interest or mine.— I was much satisfied to see his most Christian Majesty altogether of my Opinion; so I made him answer the 29th of June, by the same Means he made use of to write to me, that is, by Coleman,— and entirely agreed to his most Christian Majesty, as well to what had respect to the Union of our Interests, as THE UNUSEFULNESS of my Lord Arlington and THE PARLIAMENT, in order to the Service of the King my Brother, and his most Christian Majesty, and that it was necessary to make use of our joint and utmost Credits, to prevent the Success of those evil Designs resolved on by the Lord Arlington and the Parliament, against his most Christian Majesty and myself; which of my side I promised really to perform: Of which since that time I have given reasonable good Proof.  
Moreover, I made some Proposals, which I thought necessary to bring to pass what we were obliged to undertake, assuring him that nothing could so firmly establish OUR INTEREST with the King my Brother, as that very same Offer of the Help of HIS PURSE, by which means I had much Reason to hope I should be enabled to persuade to the dissolving of the Parliament, and to make void the Designs of my Lord Arlington, who works incessantly to advance the Interest of the PRINCE OF ORANGE and the Hollanders, and to lessen that of the King your Master.— see that my Lord Arlington, and several others, endeavoured by a thousand Deceits to break the good Intelligence which is between the King my Brother, his most Christian Majesty, and myself, to the end they might deceive us all three, 
☞  I have thought fit to advertise you of all that is past, and desire of you your Assistance and Friendship, to prevent THE ROGUERIES of those who have no other Design than to betray the Concerns of France and England also—.  
Review this, I entreat you, and deny it if you can, that these Kings were early of one Piece. The French King wrote himself to the Duke, yet we are to believe it if we will, that Coleman counterfeited this Answer, and his Royal Highness had not the good Breeding to acknowledge the Receipt of the Letter of so generous a Confederate, who offered the Use of his Purse against the Designs of THEIR ENEMIES. We here find the Enemies of the one declared Enemies of the other, and the Parliament in the Interest of neither. Their joint and utmost Credits are to be made use of to prevent the Success of the WICKED DESIGNS of the Parliament, against the French King and the Duke [which was to exclude them both;] the one by the Help of the others Purse, is to be enabled to persuade to the dissolving the Parliament, and to make void the Designs to advance THE INTEREST OF THE PRINCE OF ORANGE and the HOLLANDERS, and to lessen that of the French King [which Designs were only an honest Purpose to set Bounds to that impetuous Torrent, which then highly threatened to overwhelm this Part of the World]. To remark no further, the French Aid is here craved to prevent THE ROGUISH DESIGNS of an English Parliament against the then LEAGUE WITH FRANCE. 
☞  To proceed now to the third Head, from which we have digressed.  
3. It was urged upon you, that if you were for a Popish King, then by Consequence you were for Arbitrary Government, and against Parliaments. Is it not notoriously known, that the Duke bears an implacable Hatred to Parliaments, and that none more than he ever set himself against them? If then he should succeed his Brother, [or as the Case at present stands, should ever return] adieu to Parliaments: You are then at best to expect French Slavery; and were you to enjoy it alone, I am almost provoked to wish you were now in the possession of it.  
You were thus told what would be the Manner of the King that you would have reign over you, and what reason you would find to cry out in that day because of your King. Now instead of following the Text, and saying, the Lord will not hear you in that day; I do here observe, that all the good People of these Nations are laid under the highest Obligations to praise the Almighty for having heard their Cry, in the day of their Distress because of your King; and to give us such a Prince as we groaned for, such a Prince as we wanted, such a Prince whose Interest leads him to espouse the Cause and Interest of the Land, which he saw to be visibly betrayed; and which our Enemies would at once have ravished from us, had not Providence overruled them.  
Finding now that I have insensibly launched out into this wide Ocean of the Popish Plot, I shall take leave to discourse a little further upon that Subject, purposing to present my Reader with a concise Abridgement of the History of that transcendent Villainy; and shall in this place very briefly touch some Points relating to it, and to the first Discoverer; because my old Friends the Tories did, and do impudently deny the Thing, or at least extenuate it, and falsely suggest that very few were concerned in it; that it was nothing so bad as the World took it to be, and that, notwithstanding the Votes of divers Parliaments that there was a Plot to murder the King, altar the Government, and subvert the Established Religion.  
I have met with Insinuations, which at first view seem plausible, they will have Dr. Oates' Information to be Fictitious; alleging that it is improbable he should come in so short a time to a distinct knowledge of so many Particulars; or if he had heard or seen them, that he should remember them; and that if he went among them, with an intent to discover them, why did he not do it sooner? These, when well weighed, will, I am satisfied, be found very frivolous.  
When he was first admitted among the Jesuits, they made him a Messenger for their Society; which exactly fell in with his Design to detect their Villainies: They sent him with Letters into Spain; those he opened, and thereby began to smell something of their Hellish Designs. After this he was taken into their Consult, and so had the liberty to see and hear what was then acting, and to inquire how past Intrigues had been carried on. Thus he came to understand that the City of London was fired by the Jesuits, how that Plot was laid, and who were the Actors in it.  
He kept short Notes of all things that occurred from the time he was admitted into their Society, with intent to produce them when they might be of use, which enabled him to give so exact an Account of all Occurrences: These were confirmed by other Circumstances, and collateral Evidence; so that in some hundreds of Particulars no one thing has interfered with another, nor with those Papers which have been found elsewhere, or with those Informations which have been given in by others. For instance; He informs that Coleman was a principal Agent in this Conspiracy, Letters found inform the same: He informs that he delivered Commissions received from Langhorne, Letters intercepted make mention of Commissions sent, which they hope were delivered. In short, it was impossible that a Man should contrive such a Thing, attended with so many hundreds of Circumstances, and comparing them with so many Papers, Informations, and Examinations of so many other Men, but they would interfere with one another if false; therefore, it may justly be concluded the whole is true, till something be found to the contrary: and then it follows, that here was a most bloody, devilish, and hellish Design, which hath been in some measure carrying on to this day.  
I must here take the liberty to digress a little, and lay before you what Observation the Lord-Chief-Justice Scroggs made upon Dr. Oates his Evidence of this Plot, as you may read in the Trial of Ireland, Pickering, and Grove, (pag. 72.) When the Matter (says he) is so accompanied with so many other Circumstances, 
☞  which are material Things, and cannot be evaded or denied, it is almost impossible for any Man to make such a Story, or not to believe it after it is told. I know not whether they can frame such a one, I am sure never a Protestant ever did, and I believe never would invent such a one to take away their Lives.  
Now as to the time of this Discovery; if on the first Intimation of the Design he had made a Discovery of it, it is more than probable he had been rejected, because he could not make out the Particulars as at length he did, and yet found no small difficulty to be received. Further; He was not at his own Command when he was engaged in their Society; had he moved any way without, or contrary to their Order, he had presently been suspected, and might easily have been detected. But being sent from St. Omers into England, he laid hold of that Opportunity, and shown his real Intention to preserve the King's Life, and his Native Country from this accursed Conspiracy.  
Will you please now to allow me to lay before you the Opinion of the said Lord-Chief-Justice Scoggs as to this Ridiculed Plot, as he delivered it in the  Trial of Ireland, Pickering and Grove:  
It is (said he) most plain the Plot is discovered, and that by these Men; and that it is a Plot, and a Villainous one, nothing is plainer: No Man of common Understanding but must see there was a Conspiracy to bring in Popery, and to destroy the Protestant Religion; and we know their Doctrines and Practices too well to believe they will stick at any thing that may effect these Ends: They must excuse me if I be plain with them; I would not asperse a Profession of Men as the Priests are, with hard words, if they were not very true, and if at this time it were not very necessary. If they had not murdered Kings, I would not say they would have murdered ours; but when it has been their Practice so to do, when they have debauched men's Understandings, overturned all Morals, and destroyed all Divinity, what shall I say of them? When their Humility is such that they tread upon the Necks of Emperors, their Charity such as for to kill Princes, and their Vow of Poverty such as to covet Kingdoms, what shall I judge of them? When they have Licence to Lie, and Indulgences for Falsehoods; nay, when they can make him a Saint that dies in one, and then pray to him, (as the Carpenter first makes an Image and afterwards worships it) and then can think to bring in that Wooden Religion of theirs amongst us in this Nation; What shall I think of them? What shall I say of them? What shall I do with them?—  
— I have said so much the more in this Matter, because their Action are so very plain and open, and yet so pernicious; and it's a very great Providence that we and out Religion are delivered from Blood and Oppression. I believe our Religion would have stood notwithstanding their Attempts; and I would have them to know we are not afraid of them; nay, I think we should have maintained it by destroying of them. We should have been all in Blood it's true; but the greatest Effusion would have been on their Side; and without it, how did they hope it should have been done?—  
I return now to the the Fact which is proved by two Witnesses, and by the concurrent Evidence of the Letter and the Maid; and the Matter is as plain and notorious as can be, that there was an Intention of bringing in Popery by a Cruel and Bloody Way:— I leave it therefore to you to consider, whether you have not as much Evidence from these two Men as can be expected in a Case of this Nature, 
☞  and whether Mr. Oates be not rather justified by the Testimony offered against him than discredited. Let Prudence and Conscience direct your Verdict, and you will be too hard for their Art and Cunning.  
Now I am to observe to you, that the Jury having brought in these Criminals guilty of the Treason for which they stood indicted, the same Lord-Chief-Justice, whom Blessed Memory promoted, did express himself in these words: You have done Gentlemen like very good Subjects and very good Christians; that is to say, like very good Protestants, and now much good may their thirty thousand Masses do them.  
Hear now the Opinion of your old and most endeared Friend Jeffries to this Point, at the time when he, as Recorder of London, passed Sentence of Death upon Langhorne and the five Jesuits; his words were these:  
— Nor is there the least room for the most scrupulous Man to doubt of the Credibility of the Witnesses, that have been examined against you: And sure I am, you have been fully heard, and stand fairly convicted of those Crimes you have been indicted for.  
Harken once more, and understand what the same Recorder Jefferies declared upon the Jury's giving their Verdict upon the five Jesuits; it was this:  
Upon a long Evidence, a full discussing the Objections made against it, and a patiented hearing of the Defence they made, they are found Guilty: And I do think that every Honest Man will say, that they are unexceptionably found so; and that 'tis a just Verdict you have given.  
Bear with me now before I conclude, that I am your Remembrancer, that in hope of stifling this Plot, the Bloody Conspirators barbarously murdered a Worthy Magistrate Sir Edmundbury Godfrey; who upon the 27th of Sept. 1678. took Dr. Oates' Information upon Oath, and these inhuman Villains allowed him not to survive it above 14 days; and I shall lay before you Scroggs' Declaration concerning it, as made in the Trial of the five Jesuits.  
While this Gentleman's Blood (said he) lies upon you, it must be yet further told you, that in what you did do, you have given a Specimen of what you would do: We have a Testimony that for promoting your Cause you would not stick at the Blood of Protestants; you began with Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, but who knows where you would have made an end? It was this one Man you killed in his Person, but in Effigy the whole Nation. It was in one Man's Blood your Hands are imbrued, but your Souls were dipped in the Blood of us all; this was a Handsel only of what was to follow: and so long as we are convinced you killed him, we cannot but believe you would also have killed the King: We cannot but believe you would make all of us away that stand in the way of your Religion. A Religion, which, according to what it is, you would bring in upon us by a Conversion of us with Blood, and by a Baptism with Fire: God keep our Land from the one, and our City from the other.  
To return; (says Scroggs) 
☞  The Letter that is found in Harcourt 's Papers does further confirm Mr. Oates in all the great and considerable Matters that he says; that there was a Plot, that that Plot was called by the name of a Design, which was to be kept close and secret; and this is an Evidence that cannot lie.  
But after all, I know you of the Jacobite Party will upbraid me, that notwithstanding such strong Confirmation of all that the Doctor had witnessed, and that by Evidence which could not lie, it is well known he was afterwards convicted of Perjury: So he was, and I care not if I digress a little to remind you of the manner of doing it.  
As an Introduction to it the virulent Pen of that Man of effronted Impudence, L'Estrange I mean, is employed to vilify nor only the Evidence, but Parliaments; nay, the Protestant Religion itself: Addresses of Thanks for the Violation of our Rights, in the Dissolution of Parliaments, were made and most graciously received, the Presenters of them being usually honoured with Knighthood, and rewarded with Preferment to Places of Trust and Profit. I have the Name of one of you at my Tongue's end, but at this time for his Brother's sake I'll spare him.  
By these and such like Arts, it became the common Cry of a profligate Party in every Corner of England, Popery is better than Presbytery; at least the Papists and Dissenters are equally dangerous, if not all one: 'Tis therefore more than time that a College be hanged against a Pickering. The Nation was almost put besides itself, by the doleful Cry of Blood, Blood, Associations, Conspiracies, Rebellion, Treason, and what not, that was frightful and terrible.  
Rome itself could not possibly have ordered Matters better for the Service of Holy Church: The Protestant Religion is now mocked, Parliaments derided, the Witnesses of the Plot vilified, and the Belief of any other than a Presbyterian Plot vanishes.  
This Proceeding gave new Life and Heart to the Popish Conspirators, and struck no small damp upon their Prosecutors. Of the Witnesses some were bought off, and others terrified from their Testimony: But Dr. Oates being no way shaken, but bearing with undaunted Courage and Constancy, innumerable Reproaches and Slanders from the Pulpit and Press, nay and from the Stage also; Hell itself seemed to be engaged to discredit, and batter down the Belief of his Evidence. Knox and Lane, to blast his Reputation, were employed to accuse him of an unusual but most heinous Wickedness; that Plot not obtaining, and Matters being prepared for placing unmasked Popery upon the Throne, he was condemned in 100000 l. for affirming the Duke of York to be a Papist, and thereupon secured against the desired Season for the Conspirators taking their full Revenge upon him.  
The Way being thus prepared for the execution of their Design upon him, on the 8th of May 1685. he was brought to Trial in the Court of King's Bench, upon an Indictment for evidencing that there was a treasonable Consult at the White-horse-Tavern in the Strand the 24th of April, 1678. at which Whitebread, Fenwick and Ireland were present; and that they there came to a Resolution to murder the King, and that the Defendant carried the Resolution from Chamber to Chamber, to be signed by the Jesuits; whereas in Truth he was not present, nor carried any such Resolution to be signed, and so committed wilful Perjury.  
I shall here lay down a summary Account of the Proceed in this Trial; and if the Reader be curious to have farther Information therein, I refer him to a more ample Relation thereof in the Tract called A Display of Tyranny, (the first Part) printed in 1689.  

The Names of the Judges then in Court were,  
Lord Chief Justice Jefferies,  
Mr. Justice Wythens,  
Mr. Justice Holloway, and  
Mr. Justice Walcot.   
The Fame of the first will be ever remembered. The second was advanced to a Seat upon the Bench for promoting and presenting an Address, expressing an Abhorrence to petition for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments.  
Holloway had been very instrumental in the Murder of brave Stephen College, which entitled him to this Promotion. And,  
Walcot was a mean Wretch, and by consequence a fit Tool to serve the Purposes of that Juncture.  


The Names of the Jury packed upon him were,  
Sir William Dodson,  
Sir Edmond Wiseman,  
Richard Aley,  
Thomas Fowle,  
Thomas Blackmore,  
Peter Pickering,  
Robert Bedingfield,  
Thomas Rawlinson,  
Roger Reeves,  
Ambrose Isted,  
Henry colyer, and  
Richard Howard.    
Every Man then of your own Gang, I assure you.  


The King's Counsel were,  
Attorney General Sawyer,  
Solicitor General Finch,  
Recorder of London,  
Mr. North,  
Mr. Jones, and  
Mr. Hanses.    
The last of whom was, Sir Roger, your Assistant in your malicious Scribble, and your Brother-Burgess in K. James' Parliament for Winchester.  
They produced for Witnesses about 20 Jesuits and Students of St. Omers, who all testified that the Defendant came to St. Omers in December, 1677. and went not from thence until June, 1678.  
I shall here observe how these Jesuited Sparks were caressed and cherished, both by the Court and Counsel. Their Evidence was received without the least Interruption, not one cross, thwarting, or doubting Question being put to any one of them: Nay, there was not found so much Temper as to permit the Defendant to propose his Questions to them; which made him with undaunted Courage cry out, That his Defence was under a very great Prejudice, and that there was a Turn to be served, and therefore he was not admitted to ask the Witnesses Questions; and said, I do verily believe, that at this rate, it is more safe for Papists to be Traitors, than for any Protestant to discover a Popish Plot.  
It seems also worth the noting, that to insinuate that Oates' Evidence was not always true and credited, the King's Counsel produced the Earl of Castlemain and Sir George Wakeman, who declared that what he swore against them at their Trials was false.  
Here Jeffries observing the Doctor's Undauntedness, said, I wonder to see any one that has the Face of a Man, carry it at this rate, when he hears such Evidence brought against him.  
To which the Doctor replied, I wonder Mr. Attorney will offer to bring this Evidence: Jeffries (whose Character with K. Charles the Second was, that he had the Impudence of ten Carted Whores) in a raving Fit retorted, Such Impudence was never seen in any Christian Nation, you are a Shame to Mankind! To which the Doctor's Reply was, No my Lord, I am neither a Shame to myself, nor to Mankind: What I have sworn is true, and I will seal it with my Blood, if occasion be: Ah, Ah, my Lord, I know why all this is, and so may the World; but THIS WILL NOT DO THE WORK, to make the Plot to be disbelieved; things are not to be done by great Noises, I will stand by the Truth.  
He observed in his Defence, that the Indictment against him was six Years after the pretended Perjury; That most of the Witnesses who now gave Evidence against him, were those who were brought to confront him at the Trial of the five Jesuits; and though there were some fresh Witnesses, the Evidence of all of them was the same as then, but their Testimony rejected, as it was at Langborne's Trial; and that the Jury upon convicting the Jesuits were told by the Court, that their Verdict was unexceptionable; and this by Jeffries himself. And,  
Then he produced four or five Witnesses who clearly proved his being in London as he had sworn, at the time of the White-horse-Consult, in April, 1678.  
After this he offered Objections to the Validity of the Evidence against him: As,  
1. That a Papist, in a Cause of Religion, is not to be received and believed as a good Witness.  
Here Wythens interposed, saying, Is not a Papist as good a Witness as a Dissenter?  
Which was answered by citing Bulstrode's Reports, Part 2. 155. A Popish Recusant is not to be admitted a Witness between Party and Party: which was also my Lord Coke's Opinion.  
Wythens replied, May a Presbyterian be a good Witness, Mr. Oates? And Holloway (who had assisted the Bloodhounds to murder College) said, Or would College have been a good Witness, Mr. Oates?  
Most certainly by the Rules of Law, the Testimonies of these Persons ought not to have been offered in this Case, to delude the People; and the Civil Law so fully concurs with our Common Law in rejecting Enemies to be Witnesses, in the Cause of their Enemy, that it denies Credit to what they may testify in the Cause of their Enemy, with their dying Breath, after they have received the Eucharist. This is the general Conclusion of the Doctors of the Civil Law: Inimicus, etiamsi in Articulo Mortis constitutus, & accipisset Eucharistiam, repellitur à Testimonio Causa sui Inimici.  
He then urged the Judgements of Papists in Case of Conscience, whereby they maintain the vilest Wickedness to be lawful for the Church's Service. And they acknowledge, they have Dispensations to swear Lies for promoting the Catholic Cause.  
Then he concluded to this effect: My Lord, this I say, The Evidence for which I am indicted is the same which I delivered six Years ago, where there were 16 Witnesses against me, but what Credit did they receive? I do avow the Truth of the Popish Plot, and will stand to it whilst I live: Was ever Man dealt with as I am, or had such Evidence offered against him? My Lord, this I am sure of, if I had been a Witness against those who suffered in the late Fanatic Plot (as 'twas called) I had never been called in question, if my Evidence had been false: but 'tis apparent the Papists have now a Turn to serve, and these St. Omers Youths are brought to falsify my Evidence, and to bring off the Lords who stand impeached of High Treason for the Popish Conspiracy. My Lord, 'tis not me they indict, but the whole Protestant Interest is aimed at in this Prosecution: For my own part I care not what becomes of me, the Truth will one time or another appear.  
Upon the Day following, (May 9 1685.) the Doctor was tried upon an Indictment for another supposed Perjury; but that Prosecution being of the Complexion with what is here presented, I trouble not the Reader with it farther than to lay before him the Names of the Jury.  

Sir Thomas Vernon,  
Nicholas Charleton,  
Thomas Langham,  
Thomas Hartop,  
Francis Griffith,  
John Kent,  
George Toriano,  
Henry Loads,  
John Midgley,  
John Pelling,  
Thomas Short, and  
George Perk.  
All Men of the same Kidney still.   
The Juries having, according as directed by that Man of Blood Jeffries, brought the Doctor in guilty of both the Perjuries, comes the Abhorrer of Parliaments, the tenderhearted, good natured Protestant Judge Wythens, to pronounce the Sentence; previous to it he tells the Defendant, that no Christian's Heart can think of the Innocent Blood which was shed by his Oath, without bleeding: That every knowing Man believed, and every honest Man grieved for it. He proceeds, God be thanked, our Eyes are now open.  
The Judgement, besides Imprisonment, Fine, etc. was, that on Wednesday next he be whipped from Aldgate to Newgate, and upon Friday from Newgate to Tyburn.  
This (says Wythens) I pronounce to be the Judgement of the Court upon you; and I must tell you plainly, If it had been in my Power to have carried it farther, I should not have been unwilling to have given Judgement of Death upon you.  
This cruel Sentence was executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity; so that though (which Wythens lamented) the Law did not allow them to condemn him directly to Death, they might well expect that the Execution of this Sentence would have destroyed him, as in all Probability it had, if a very honest and able Chirurgeon, Mr. James Wass, had not (with the Hazard of his own Life) undertaken the Cure of him, and under God preserved him; I say he carried that Cure through with the Hazard of his Life, and that gratis, though he was wholly a Stranger to the Doctor; for there was another skilful Chirurgeon, and very honest Man, Mr. Charles Bateman, who had promised to undertake it, but at that very Instant was clapped into Newgate, and soon after murdered.  
He suffered some thousands of Stripes, to his unspeakable Torture, and was ten Weeks under Mr. Wass' Hands. Their Malice and Cruelty did not cease here, but because (through the Mercy of God supporting him, and the extraordinary Care and Skill of his judicious Chirurgeon) he was like to outlive that barbarous Usage, some of them, whilst he was weak in Bed, got into his Chamber, and attempted to pull off the Plasters from his Back, threatening to destroy him. And,  
That nothing might be wanting to complete his Misery and Ruin, they procured him to be loaded with Irons of excessive Weight for a whole Year without Intermission, and that when his Legs were swollen with the Gout; and to be shut up in the Hole or Dungeon of the Prison, whereby he became impaired in his Limbs, and contracted Convulsion-Fits, to the Hazard of his Life.  
To conclude now, see here the Sense of the House of Commons upon this wicked Prosecution, and cursed Sentence, as it appears by the following Vote.  
Martis, 11th Junii, 1689.  
Resolved, That the Prosecution of Titus Oates, upon two Indictments for Perjury, in the Court of King's-Bench, was a Design to stifle the Popish Plot, and that the Verdicts given thereupon were corrupt, and that the Judgements given thereupon were cruel and illegal.   

A Brief ABSTRACT of Dr. Oates' Narrative of the POPISH PLOT, as it was made upon Oath on the 27th of September, 1678, before Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, one of the Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex; and before the King and Council on the 28th, and 29th of the same Month; and after published by Order of the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, in April 1679. With Remarks thereupon.  
Kind Reader,  
THOUGH I accost you in this familiar Way, and use a friendly Appellation, here's no Plot upon you; no not so much as a Design to draw you in to read this Pamphlet. Nay should I perceive you so much as start at the very Title, I should esteem you yet more kind if you throw it away; for if you read on, and are then found to snarl at me, we may have the ill Luck to shall together by the Ears, and it ever was my Choice to live in a whole Skin.  
That I may so do, I give you not the advantage of saying I was the first Aggressor. I do not, I will not commend the Thing: No, I will not so much as recommend it to your Perusal; I will not so much as tell you what is in it: No, I will not so far gratify you as to declare why I do emit it, further than to say that 'tis my Will and Pleasure so to do. And,  
Now, if not invited, not encouraged, you will read on, 'tis at your Peril; if upon those Terms you dare adventure further, you must know that the following Narrative was ushered into the World, under an Address to K. Charles the II. to the Effect following, viz.  
Great Sir!  
This Narrative of the present Horrid Plot against our Majesty and Government, which was first heard and narrowly discussed before your sacred Majesty and Council, and afterwards by both Houses of Parliament, with universal Assent to the Power of Truth herein, is at last to appear abroad for the Satisfaction of these Nations, and Europe perhaps, touching the Mystery and Consequence of such Designs.—  
— How little the Criminals concerned in this Plot deserve from your Majesty, the World will better judge, if they will but consider how graciously your Majesty has dealt with them and connived at them, while the Rigour of the Law was let lose upon your other dissenting Subjects, who yet continued more quiet and loyal under their Pressures and Provocations, than these under Favours and Caresses. Hath not your Majesty hazarded the Hearts and Affections of your best Subjects, and much of Royal Honour in appearing for the late Indulgence with Frustation, to win and oblige, if possible, these Everlasting Holy Cutthroats?— How can your Majesty expect Truth and Sincerity, where Treasons and Lies are Virtues and Merits?—  
— I question not, Great Sir, but that he in whose hands are the Hearts of Princes, will in time fully convince your Majesty of all their unworthy Principles and Practices, and of my Integrity too, how strange soever some open or secret Papists, whom time also may discover, have endeavoured to represent me. Till that time I commit my Cause to the most Righteous and Allseeing Judge, with a Resolution to persevere through his Assistance in my Truth and Testimony, against all Discouragements or Terrors, or Blandishments either, to the last Gasp.—  
— I cannot forbear to pray to God out of my Sincerity and Zeal for public Peace and Concord between King and People: That seeing your Majesty must highly trust some or other for your necessary Ease and Help, that God would put it into your Majesty's Heart more to trust and rely upon your two Houses of Parliament (who will be most true to your Laws, and consequently both to you and your People) than to any single Minister or Ministers whatsoever, unaccountably; who may pretend to more Loyalty, or more comply with any Humour, or humane Frailty of your Majesty's, but are not true Friends to your Majesty, or their Country, or themselves therein; but erect and prefer an Imperial, Paramount Self-end or Lust before all; which your Majesty by their Art must be brought unworthily to serve and promote, to public Disturbance always, and the Confusion of themselves and their Posterity, most an end by God's just Vengeance.  
It is a false Suggestion which some Tempter's use, that a King that rules by Will is more great, or glorious, or strong, than a King that rules by Law: The Quality of the Retinue best proves the State of the Lord; the one being but a King of Slaves, while the other, like God, is a King of Kings and Hearts. No Prince was ever more absolute to have what he wished, than Queen Elizabeth, who wished for nothing more than her Subjects Rights and Welfare.—  
— Nothing will make your Majesty so amiable and acceptable in the Eyes of God and Man, and your Name and Memory blessed and glorious for ever, as the Copying of the Laws of our Saviour in your Life, by a decent Paternal Example before the Sons and Daughters of your People; to increase the Fear of God and its Consequences amongst us: It being the chief End and Work of all Supreme Powers to suppress Vice and encourage Virtue; which is best done abroad, when first and effectually begun at home in your own House and Family; by banishing all vicious Livers from your Presence and Converse, and advancing the Virtuous in their stead: By the neglect of which principal Part of their Royal Trust and Office, Princes depose themselves as useless before God and their own Consciences, whatever may be their State or Glory in Fact; and by humane Laws and Power before Men.  
Our Royal Patron being thus dismissed, we are now got to the Narrative itself: of which you (my kind Reader still) may, or may not, as you choose, run over the Heads. They are these,  
The general Design in this Plot was the Reformation, that is in their Sense, the Reduction of Great Britain and Ireland by the Sword, to the Romish Religion and Obedience. And,  
— Besides the Papal, there was also a French Plot carried on by Sir Ellis Leighton, Mr. COLEMAN and others.  
— The King's Person they more especially resolved to remove, and that with all possible speed, by Dagger, Pistol or POISON.  
— The Prince of Orange is to be cut off;— He was designed against and condemned by Name; and 12 Missioners sent into Holland, had it in charge to put that People in Mutiny against him.  
— On the 4th of January, (stilo novo) Letters were sent by Richard Ashby and others, Jesuits of the English Seminary at St. Omers, to the Father Confessor of the Emperor, to advise him that his Majesty of Great Britain had treacherously plotted the Ruin of the Confederates,— and that his Design was not to keep any Alliance with his Imperial Majesty, but only in show, that he might advance his Nephew THE PRINCE OF ORANGE, and make him absolute; and therefore prayed that the States of Holland might be acquainted with it.  
Letters arrived at London, bearing Date Aug. 5. 1678, from Whito, alias Whitebread Provincional, to John Fenvick, from St. Omers; in which he did inform the Fathers that he had ordered 12 Jesuits to go for Holland, and to inform the Dutch that the Prince of Orange did intent to assume the Crown of a King, and that he resolved to bring them under another Government; which was designed to beget in the Dutch an evil Opinion of the P. of Orange, and to procure a Commotion there against him.  
On the 11th of Aug. John Keines, a Jesuit, declared that all means were now used to beget a difference between the Dutch and the P. of Orange; and if that could be effected, there was no question to be made, but that the Protestant Interest would fail in Holland.  
On the 12th of Aug. a Packet arrived in London, from White, alias Whitebread, the Provincional, and other Jesuits, to John Fenwick, intimating that the twelve Jesuits were got into Holland, and would use all their Skill and Interest to make a Commotion there; and that APPLETREE WILL. (meaning the P. of Orange) SHOULD NOT BE GREAT. And that they hoped the Fathers in London would follow their Business closely there.  
In order to the Reduction of Ireland it was resolved, that the D. of Ormond must be put out of the way, and that then the Protestants should be cut off, as in 41; and to that end Arms and Money were sent over, and the Pope contributed 800 Thousand Crowns: and to make all sure, the French were to send Forces over to join 25 thousand Irish.  
On the 11th of Aug. John Keines the Jesuit declared, that the Provincional had taken great care of keeping alive the Difference between the disaffected Scots and D. Lauderdale, and that the Affairs in Ireland went on with great Expedition, and that forty eight would not last long in England, for it was high time to hinder forty nine from being effected. That Barleybroth should grow dead, and Twelve would be cut off, and that: Mum and Chocolate should be put down, and the Order of Magpyes should be turned into their Primitive Institution and Habit; now the Deponent saith that the Words (hinder 49 from being effected) is an Expression that is used amongst them, for cutting off the King, that he may not live to be complete forty nine Years of Age: and by Barley-broth is meant the House of Commons, which shall be turned out and sit no more: and by Mum and Chocolate is meant the Protestant Peers, who, if not destroyed, shall never have any Vote in the House of Peers more after the Death of this King; and by Magpyes they understand the Bishops, whose Habit in Parliament is Black and white, which shall be changed into Purple; and by Twelve is meant the Duke of Monmouth.— Keines on the 12th of August determined to go for Windsor in order to settle some Business there, towards the dispatching 48— and told the Deponent that he might chance to fall short of his return again.  
In July 1678. Richard Strange (the last Provincial of the Jesuits) did encourage the Deponent to go on in assisting the Society in carrying on the Design; and told the Deponent that they got 14000 l. in the Fire of London in 1666. The Deponent asked Strange how they came to effect that great and famous Business? He replied, that himself and Grace, Pennington and Barton, Jesuits, with some others, together with Keimash, a Dominican Friar, joined with one GREEN, and met at one West's House, the Green Dragon at Puddle Dock, and there debated about the manner of firing the City, and where they should begin, and did attempt it in February, 1664/5.— In January 1665/6, they met with this Green again, who closed in with them in the Design; and that they might ingratiate themselves with Green, they Man, and fit for their Purpose. And the more to engage him, they pretended to bold many of the Fifth-Monarchy Principles; which when Green perceived, judging them to be real, he brought them acquainted with eight others, who were zealous in the Business. The Jesuits were earnest to have it done in February, but Green prayed them to suspend that Resolution, because the King would not be much in Town, if at all, till the Plague was more abated; who, Green did say must be cut off too, when the People were in a hurry by reason of the Fire; and this Motion well pleased the Jesuits and Dominican, and so it was put off. That in a very little time after, Green and the rest of those Fifth-Monarchy-Men, together with the Jesuits and Dominican, were suspected by West, and forewarned his House. And presently after Green and his eight Acquaintance were clapped up in Prison; and upon their Imprisonment the Jesuits and Dominican got away to St. Omers, and there remained till the May after the Execution of 8 of these Persons, Green dying in Newgate.— That in the beginning of June, being returned to London, they began afresh to consult about this Fire, (which was still carried on by the Society in their absence) and they determined to cut off the King in the time of the Fire, that the Number of the Beast might be accomplished. At the uttering of which words, Strange broke out into a great Laughter: But said Strange, to be short, we got 50 or 60 Irish to ply the Work.— We were also in fee with several Frenchmen, who were faithful in the Business.— Strange told the Deponent that they spent 700 Fire-Balls; and when the Fire-Merchants were at work, than others were employed to plunder what they could.—  
They have communicated what Secrets they can have revealed to them of the King, which they send over to Le Cheese, the French King's Confessor:— This they do by one Smith, who daily lurks about Whitehall, and in Parliament-time about Westminster-hall and the Lobby.— And One COLEMAN, formerly Secretary to her Royal Highness, doth assist this Smith with private Intelligence.  
On the 10th. of. August the Deponent did meet with Groves, who had promised to give him an Account of the Fire of Southwark in 1676: and then told him that he had certain Fireworks made for that purpose; and he, with three Irishmen his Assistants, went to St. Margaret's- Hill, where they found an Oil-Shop, which Groves bragged he fired.— He said that Dr. Fogarthy procured the Irishmen, for which the Society (Richard Strange then Provincial) gave them 1000 l. viz. 400. l. to Groves, and 200 l. apiece to the three Irishmen, and that the Society got at least 2000 l. by that Fire: which was also told the Deponent at another time by Richard Strange.  
On the 11th of August the Deponent saw Letters from St. Omers, written by Father IRELAND to John Fenwick;— and Fenwick told the Deponent that if 〈◊〉 lived till Christmas, he should see a good Change of Things; either that Forty eight [the King] should be taken from the World, or the World (especially the little he was concerned in) should be taken from him: And ONE THAT WAS A CATHOLIC SHOULD PLAY SUCH A GAME, AS NEVER WAS PLAYED SINCE THE CONQUEST; and Fenwick told the Deponent, that this Catholic was the DUKE OF YORK.—  
This Plot was to be effected by these Means (amongst others);— By disclosing the King's Counsels to France, by Coleman, Smith, and others:— By disaffecting his Majesty's Allies, Holland, Spain, the Germane Emperor and Princes; by false Intelligence, etc. By disturbing Trade.— By firing and plundering our best Cities and Towns:— By horrid, worse than Jewish Interest; Transportation of Trade, People, Stock, and Money; ADULTERATING MONEY AND PLATE. To which end they have Bankers, Brokers, Merchants, Goldsmiths and other Traders, whom they stock and set up with Money of their Society; of which they boast to have 100 thousand Pounds Cash, etc.  
I descend now to sum up the whole, and descant a little upon some few of the Heads before recounted.  
Great Britain and Ireland were to be reduced by the Sword to the Romish Religion and Obedience: In order hereunto, the King was to be removed by Dagger, Pistol, or Poison; and they declared 'twas high time it were effected.  
And good reason for it: He had broke his Word with Madam his Sister, in passing the Test-Bill; having promised her at the Interview at Dover, that nothing should be done to the prejudice of the R. Catholics: And contrary to his Promise to the Papists, they remembered his sending the Great E. of Essex into Ireland. They well knew also that he had refused to sign Coleman's Declaration for dissolving the Parliament, (which he had sworn to them to do) and that he had been guilty of that never-to-be-forgiven Sin against their Church, of receiving the Sacrament in the Church of England, and that the same day at Noon on which he had received it in the Morning from Ireland the Jesuit: To add no more, they knew that they had at hand a more daring Prince, who they were assured would stake his Crown for carrying on their Mighty Work. The Prince of Orange they had resolved should by no means become Great, therefore he must be cut off; and in order to effect that mighty, and so highly necessary Work, Missioners are sent into Holland to stir up that People to mutiny against him, upon the wicked Suggestion that he resolved to change their Government, and assume a Crown. The Emperor is instigated to create a Belief in the State's General that that Prince designed to make himself Absolute; and they promise themselves, that by a Breach between the Prince and States, the Protestant Interest would without question fail in Holland.  
Now to reflect a little upon this Matter; Why must this Prince be cut off? Was he not the Duke of York's Sister's Son? 'tis yielded: What then can we expect that that should avail him? No surely; for we see his Uncle was converted to such a degree of Zeal, as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of the Conversion of Heretical Kingdoms; so his Interests we find were so inseparably united to that of the French King, that it was impossible to divide them. We are told, that by all means the Most Christian King's Interest in England must be secured; and that for a weighty Reason, viz. Because his and the D. of York 's prevailing, would give the greatest Blow to the Protestant Religion here, that ever it received from its Birth. Then undoubtedly the Prince of Orange, who at that time stood within a step or two of the Throne, aught in all Policy to be removed.  
You cannot forget that they had a mighty Work upon their hands, the Conversion of three Kingdoms, and Subduing the Pestilent Northern Heresy. They never had such hopes of Success as at that time, since the Death of their Queen Mary. The Duke was to a Miracle zealous of being the Author and Instrument of so Glorious a Work; and they told us they relied upon him, and the mighty Mind of the most Christian King; and further, his Temporal Interest was acknowledged to be highly attracted to that of the Duke.  
'Tis evident they had mighty Work, mighty Hopes, and mighty Minds, employed about it. Is it to be admired then that they resolved to pass a Bill of Exclusion upon our Prince, who, as all the World knew, stood ready with all his Might to baffle these mighty Undertakers?  
Nay further, as the French King's Interest was attracted to that of the Duke's, so was the Prince's to that of England, Holland, and the Reformed Churches of Europe; or in their words, to the Support of that Northern Heresy which these mighty Nimrods' were to subdue. What signifies a Nephew in such a Case as this?  
But stop a little I pray, and take another Reason: His most Christian Majesty did most generously offer the Duke the use of his Purse to assist against the Designs of both their Enemies; nay, he protested that those that opposed the one, should be looked upon as Enemies to the other; and withal declared his Opinion, that the Parliament of England was not in either of their Interests, and the Duke did entirely agree to it, and that they were unuseful to both: so that (in his poor Opinion) it was necessary to make use of both their joint and utmost Credits, to prevent the Success of the Parliament's Evil Designs against them both, which of his side he promised really to perform.  
Nay, which is more, do not you remember the Duke tells the French King of a very dangerous Plot against them both? My Lord Arlington was incessantly at work to advance the Interest of the Prince of Orange and the Hollanders, and to lessen that of the French King; and that he and several others were endeavouring to break the good Intelligence between K. Charles the Second, the French King, and the Duke; wherefore his Royal Highness earnestly solicits the most Christian King to assist with the help of his Purse to prevent such ROGVERIES.  
You see here is a Triple League against a Triple Confederacy; The King of England, French King, and Duke of York, against the Parliament of England, the States of Holland, and his Royal Highness the Pr. of Orange: The French is to furnish the Sinews of War, Money: The Parliament are declared Enemies; K. Charles indeed standing only as a cipher, the French King and the Duke put themselves under the most solemn Engagements to perform what was stipulated, and strenuously to assist each other against the Designs of both their Enemies; and seeing there was a desperate Design to advance the Prince, and to lessen the French, the Duke puts in his Memorial to that King, demanding his Assistance to prevent such Rogueries.  
But to return to our Narrative; The House of Commons is no more to sit: No, nor was it advisable they should; they were proclaimed Enemies to France, and to the Duke. The French King (whose Interest was to be secured in England) was fully convinced that they were not only unuseful, but very dangerous to both their joint Interests, [may they ever continue so;] and it much satisfied the Duke, to see his most Christian Majesty altogether of his Opinion in the Point: Then with what reason could we expect the use of Parliaments would be continued? The Protestant Peers as to be destroyed, or excluded the House; and the Magpie are to be changed for Purple Bishops.  
And who at this day has the effronted Forehead to say, that all this was Fiction? Did not they imbrue their Hands in the Blood of some of our Nobility? And were not more threatened to that degree, that 8. Years since no true Protestant Lord in England could at any rate have got his Head or his Seat in Parliament insured to him for one Year? Such was the Case of our Bishops: We beheld some of their Dioceses visited by those of the Purple Dye; and had not Heaven in a miraculous way delivered them, we might not at this day have seen a Black and White One in the Nation.  
In order to the Accomplishment of their sanctified Villainies, the Jesuits, with the Assistance of French and Irish Papists, burnt London and Southwark; and that they might the more securely carry on that Design without being detected, they cunningly draw in a few silly Fifth-Monarchy-Men, and fairly leave them in the lurch, to be hanged, as they were about April 1666.  
When any Popish Plot is near the Point of Execution, they ever will have the Dissenters at hand to account for their Villainies. The burning this Nest of Heretics had been concerted both at Rome and Paris, and the time for putting it in execution approaching, in April 1666, a Fanatic Plot is brought upon the Stage, and seven or eight were condemned at the Old-Baily, for plotting to kill the King, and to burn the City on the 3d Day of September following, (the very Day the Papists afterwards did it.) For a more full Account of this, I refer the Reader to the London-Gazette of April 30, 1666. Numb. 48.  
Thus when they were cocksure of cutting off K. Charles the Second before Christmas, 1678. Mr. Claypole (Son-in-Law to Oliver) was made close Prisoner in the Tower, in July, 1678. upon an Accusation of conspiring the Death of the King; and it is very probable, that had not Dr. Oates' Discovery happily interposed, he might have died for it the next Term, and the King been soon sent after him.  
Then our Counsels are to be betrayed to France: that Part is committed to Mr. Coleman, the Duke or Duchess of York 's Secretary; and he is to manage it by a Correspondence with Le Cheese, Confessor to the French King. [I cannot withhold myself, from remarking here, that this Information was given upon Oath on the 27th of September, 1678. before Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, and before the King and Council the 28th and 29th of that Month; that hereupon Coleman was taken up on the 29th, and his Papers seized, which happily furnished the World with irrefragable Evidence (had there been no other) of that diabolical Intrigue].  
In fine, Trade is to be discouraged [that so it was, I know none will deny:] Our Coin was to be adulterated [I shall not surely be called upon to prove that that was done to purpose]: and to crown the day, King Charles was not to be reprieved beyond Christmas, 1678. and then our Popish Successor was to play us such a Game as never was played since the Conquest.  
[They mistook the time indeed, but the Feat was done, and then the Gamester came upon the Stage to play his Game; but having an unlucky Hand, he quickly played himself out, and therefore I shall not further pursue him; I only say to him, as the Welshman did to his Horse, There's a Trick for your Trick, and a Stone in your Foot still.]  
Proceed we now to the further Narrative of this hellish Conspiracy, of which it seems requisite to hint these things.  
Dr. Oats, after he had endured a long and most cruel Imprisonment, upon a Judgement for 100000 l. Damages given against him to the Duke of York, for saying the Duke was a Papist; now saw that his irreconcilable Enemy upon the Throne, and that he with his Jesuits and corrupt Judges were resolved to run upon him with all their Rage, as they did in Easter-Term, 1685. ordering him to be tried in the Court of King's-Bench upon two several Indictments, for two pretended Perjuries, in his Evidence concerning the Plot, and that upon the Testimony of those very Popish Witnesses who had confronted him in three several Trials of the Conspirators.  
The Case standing thus with him, and remembering that his Life had been several times attempted, was now under an Apprehension that they were bend upon his Destruction, and therefore in the Month of April, 1685. he drew up this ensuing Narrative in the Presence of Sir Robert Thomas Baronet, John Arnold, and John Duttoncolt Esqs and having signed it with his own Hand, deposited it with a Person of Worth and Quality, with whom I am well assured it has ever since remained, till upon the 21st of January 1695/6. it was put into my Hands.   

Dr. Oates' further NARRATIVE of the Popish Plot, 29 April, 1685.  
THE Malice of my Popish Adversaries being so great, that I cannot but judge that they design nothing less than my Ruin, in Revenge for that Service I did my Country, in discovering their more than abominable and hellish Conspiracy against the Life of the late King, the Protestant Religion, and the Government, as by Law established, both in Church and State; I thought it my Duty, in case of any harder Usage than I have yet met with, to put something in Writing, which my Friends I hope will publish for the Satisfaction of my dear Countrymen, for whose Cause I have been a living Martyr, exposed to the Rage and Reproach of a Generation of Men, who neither fear God, nor reverence Man; whose Religion is either the worst of Religions, or their Morals so debauched, that they are fit to be of any Religion except that of Christ.  
Therefore in the first place, I do declare myself to be a Protestant of the Church of England, as by Law established, both in Doctrine and Discipline; yet I must confess she stands in need of a further Reformation; and it would be happy if that by the Removal of some Ceremonies useless and dangerous, a way might be made for a more perfect Union amongst all English Protestants, that our Hands might be strengthened against the Common Enemy the Papists, in order to the rooting out of Superstition and Idolatry from amongst us, that we may avert those Judgements from this Nation, that do so highly threaten our total Destruction.  
It hath been the greatest Grief of my Heart, to see Protestants contending one with another about the meaner Parts of Religion and Worship, whilst the Enemy, the Popish Party, stands by and adds Fuel to our Flames, and nourishes the Quarrel, till we have exposed ourselves to be devoured by them, and have wounded those amongst us who are weak in the Faith. I could likewise wish, that our dissenting Brethren would lay aside their Scruples in some things, and comply with their Brethren in those Ceremonies that are innocent and harmless, and not inconsistent with the Word of God, and the Law of our great Lord Jesus Christ; and that they that can conform, for Christ's sake, do not persecute their Brethren, who through Tenderness of Conscience cannot partake with them in those Advantages that some of them have enjoyed to their Hearts Content.  
Truly I have been so far from being inclined to persecute any for Conscience sake, that I would not have had the least Thought of having or advising the Prosecution of Popery, or molesting of any that are in Communion with the Church of Rome, but that the Religion of Rome is a Conspiracy against God and Christ, and Mankind; for show me a Papist that is thoroughpaced, I will show you a Murderer of the People of God, a Firer of Cities, a declared Enemy to the Peace and Tranquillity of the Sons of Men. Now Men that are so united together against God and all Goodness, our Religion, Lives and Liberties, must be rooted out, and not suffered to continue amongst a well governed People: for they make it their Business to debauch our loser sort of Christians, and reproach and calumniate those whose Firmness to their God and the Gospel of Christ renders them Men above their Temptations, though by their Allurements some have been seduced to their Destruction.  
Therefore as for the Popish Religion, I do declare that I do detest and abhor it, as a Religion whose whole Foundation is Blood, Cruelty, Murder and Rapine; a Religion that stands in opposition to the Rule and Law of Jesus Christ. And the Bishop of Rome, whom they call Pope, I believe to be Antichrist that exalts himself in the Temple of God above God, and all that is called God, the Son of Perdition and everlasting Wrath.  
But that which is expected of me is, that I do declare myself fully concerning the damnable Plot carried on by the Popish Party for the Destruction of the late King and the Protestant Religion: I must confess the Acquaintance I had with some considerable Papists in the Year 1670. made me to suspect a Design carrying on by them to advance their own Religion, and to pull down ours; but I little thought that they had a Design of murdering the King, which in process of time I found out.  
There was one Cotton that was at Mr. Guilfourd's in Kent, that was often very pleasingly tempting me to come over to their Church; for, saith he it will not be long before you must either burn or turn, therefore come over in time, that your coming over may be looked upon as meritorious. This Cotton since I understood to be a Priest of the Society of Jesus, and one that was engaged in the Popish Plot; and with him I had a better and more intimate Acquaintance: From him at first I found that the Popish Party had a Design of promoting their Religion, and making what Proselytes they could in order to the enlarging their Interest and Power in this poor Nation; I from that time had a great Desire to get into them, to see whither their Designs tended, being very fearful that they designed no less than the Ruin of our Religion and Government. Nay, this Cotton had the Impudence to tell me, that the King was engaged with them to advance their Cause and Religion, and was resolved to bring in Popery, it being a Religion that was most consistent with Monarchy, and that his Majesty was resolved to be like his Neighbour-Princes: this was in the Year 1670, about Christmas.  
Which Discourse I did discover to Mr. Walter Drury, whom I did assist in the Service of his Cure at Sandburst in the County of Kent; and he told me, that that Mr. Cotton had talked as badly, or rather worse to him, but he had sufficiently told him his own, so that Cotton was shy of having any farther Discourse with h●● about those Matters; and withal Mr. Drury having threatened to complain of him, Mr. Cotton did withdraw from that Family, and another came in his room.  
In the Year 1672, I was acquainted with one Keimash, who was very persuasive in his Arguments to have brought me over to their Church; he then frequented Arundell-house in the Strand, and was a Fellow that had insinuated himself into the Acquaintance of several Divines of our Church, and bragged that he had reconciled above thirty Ministers of the Church of England: but I found him a debauched lewd Fellow, and so my Acquaintance ceased with him; for it was a hard Matter, unless in a Morning, to find him sober. I found him afterwards to have been Chaplain to the old Countess of Arundel, with whom he lived several Years, under the Notion of her Steward.  
In the Year 1672, I left Mr. Drury's Cure, and held a Living of my own, which I resided upon for some time, called Bobbing in Kent, and from thence I went and served his Majesty at Sea as a Chaplain, where I found many Difficulties by reason of Sickness of Body. I refreshed myself at Tangire: There was one Gerard an Irish Dominican, that upon the first sight of me, required of me, Whether the Catholic Religion was established in England? (this was in the Year 1674. in the Month of April) and I told him No: Why then, said he, the Dutch War is to no purpose: Why, said I, was our engaging in a War against the Dutch to bring in Popery? Well, well, saith the Friar, you will see in time. In some few Days we had notice of a Peace with the Dutch: What then, said he, our great King of France is not at Peace with them, and he must do the Work.  
In the Year 1675, I had obtained an Interest with Henry Duke of Norfolk, then Earl of Norwich, and Earl Marshal of England, who was very kind to me upon the Account of my contending earnestly for his Right of Presenting to a Living in the Diocese of Chichester, to which Living the then Bishop (a turbulent Man) pretended a Right of Collating: And in the Year 1676, I was made his Chaplain; and I call the whole Family of the Norfolk howard's to witness to my Fidelity to him and to his Children, though I am but churlishly used by some of them for my Truth and Fidelity to my Lord and Master; but God forgive them for their Ingratitude to me, especially Charles Howard, who owes me more than I shall mention here; but I always had a Thought that Popery rendered a Man incapable of being grateful to his Friend.  
I, in the Service of the Duke of Norfolk, came acquainted with several Priests; and being then resolved upon a strict Inquiry into their Designs against us and our Religion, and Laws and Liberties, I met with one Berry a Priest, that had been a Jesuit, but had left that Order through some Discontent and Madness that had seized the poor Wretch, as he hath told me. He was a Scholar in Cambridg, was a Minister in England, if he told me the Truth, than turned Jesuit, and then (as before) left that Order and became a secular Priest, and then came to the Church of England, and was a Curate at Berking, and since is gone to the Church of Rome again. This Berry I found a poor zealous Man, whose Zeal was far beyond his Knowledge, and he fell upon me to come over to their Church; and he brought me acquainted with Mr. Langworth a Jesuit, who since is dead, as he the said Berry hath told me, and with Mr. John Keins a great Jesuit, and one Mr. Morgan a Jesuit, that lived with the Lord Powis in the Year 1676, 1677, 1678. till the Plot was discovered; where he is now I know not.  
I was by Langworth reconciled to the Church of Rome, he was then Confessarius to the Ld Petre and his Family; and upon my being reconciled, I was brought to Mr. Strange the then Provincial of their Order, who admitted me into the Society of Jesus: when I was admitted, it was resolved by the Jesuits that I should pass the time of my Novitiate abroad in dispatching Business for the Society, which I cheerfully accepted, and therefore accordingly they provided for me. When I had paid Mr. Luke Roch, Commander of the Biscay Merchant, Earnest for my Passage to Bilboa, the said Strange, then Provincial of the Order, gave me 100 Pistols for my Supply, in order for my Passage into Spain, and for my necessary Expenses there, and ordered me what Money I should need, exhorting me to be as good a Husband as I could, for they had great Occasions for Money. What Letters they sent by me I have set forth in my Narrative, but when I had got a competent Knowledge of the Design, I found the great Reason why they would murder the late King was, because he had deceived them; and in Spain they assured me he had been reconciled to their Church, and that upon his Reconciliation, the Society in Spain had contributed 3000 Pistols to his Support, which was paid in by Father Courtney, sometime Provincial of the Jesuits in England. I say several Letters written to one Father Knot, in which the late King did testify his Zeal for the Catholic Religion, and promised to restore it whenever he should come to the Enjoiment of his Right in England; and that till he had an Opportunity to do it, they should have all the Connivance in the World; and if the Case should be so hard with him when he came to the Crown, that he could not bring about his Desires to make their Religion to be the Religion of the Government, yet they should have an Indulgence that should be equivalent, however they should not be excluded out of Offices and Employments under him, and that they had his Heart and Soul. When I found the late King not inclined to believe that he was to he murdered, I did in private tell him these things, and that the only reason why they did design to take away his Life, was, because that he had made such Promises to them, and assured them he was theirs, and that he was reconciled to the Church of Rome, when beyond Sea, as I had seen by his own Letters. The King commanded me to take no notice of his being reconciled to the Church of Rome, and declared to me upon the World of a King, that now he did believe they had a Design to murder him, acknowledging be had written those Letters I had intimated to his Majesty; and withal told me, if I had come to him privately and acquainted him with the Plot, he could of himself have dashed it, and though I designed well, yet the Discovery of it had created a Jealousy in the People of him.  
Then I acquainted him with his Letters to the Nuns of Ghent, when he borrowed Money of them, which they waited for several Years here in England: now he in that Letter did declare to them he would restore their Religion when he came to his Right, and that was another Reason that provoked the Party against him; and that St. German, a French Jesuit, had a hand in the Murder of Killigrew's Man, when he lay upon the Couch in his Majesty's Cloak.  
Here the King interrupted me, and commanded me to take no farther notice of that Business, declaring he knew more than I could tell him in that Affair of Killigrew's Man; but withal again repeated the great Jealousy the People had of him, and that it was much increased by ill Men, that did labour to possess People's Minds against him, and said, unless an extraordinary Care were taken, the Fanatic Party would rebel, and very much inveighed against the Dissenters, and thought himself in as much danger from them, as from the Popish Party.  
That upon the Discovery of several Papers found about January, 167 8/9, at one Jolliff a tailor's, I did observe that the late King Charles the First (unless his Hand was counterfeited) had commissioned several Irish to rise; and withal I saw Instructions given to them to give the English no Quarter: and I saw a Letter of his to a Titular Bishop, the Bishop of Cassal, as near as I can remember, wherein he promised his Catholic Subjects, that if he were driven through the Necessity of Affairs to cause a Cessation of Arms, it should not be for the Disadvantage of his Irish Catholic Subjects, but to let them have a little time to breathe, in that they might the better be able to serve him and themselves against the factious English there: all which were carried to White-Hall, and what became of those Papers then, I know not.  
I saw in those Papers several Passes given to those of the Rebels that fled out of Ireland, upon the reducing of that Country, wherein they shed much of Protestant Blood: these were recommended by King Charles the Second, to several Ministers of the Court of Spain, as Persons that had eminently served his Father in reducing their Country to the Obedience of the Catholic Church, and had contributed much to the destroying the English Heretics that had planted themselves in that Kingdom.  
These things I intimated to the King, and thought to have discovered them to the Parliament; but the King told me that it would savour of Malice, and that my Silence of these things would entitle me to his Favour, and that I should never want. Besides all this, his Highness' Prince Rupert did engage me whenever I met with any thing that might reflect upon the King, I would be sparing there, because the Publication of those things might tend to alienate the King's Heart from the frequent use of Parliaments, without which the Kingdom would never rid itself from the apparent Danger of Popery.  
I do further declare that the Jesuits did tell me that the coming over of the Princess Henrietta, was in order to the making way for the restoring the Catholic Religion here in England; and that the Breach of Peace with the Dutch was by them contrived, and by the late King consented to, in order to reduce those States to the Catholic Faith; and that it was thought fit to begin the public Exercise of the Romish Religion in Ireland, and to grant a General Toleration here; in order to which, 1600 Priests of all Orders, and of divers Nations were sent over, and most of them were kept here on a Maintenance for secret Service, and others by the then Duke of York in half-pay, as disbanded Officers: but this being all defeated by Parliament, they were much irritated against the King. And furthermore the Jesuits acquainted me that the late King had dispatched an Envoy to the King of Poland, to engage him in the Catholic League, for that now the Catholic Princes of Europe were fully resolved to extirpate the Protestant Religion, and that the French King, his Majesty of Great Britain, and his R. Highness the D. of York, were Heads of this League, which League his Majesty of Great Britain had not carefully observed, but gave way to his impertinent Parliaments; but that they might not hinder this good Design, the French King had agreed to the Request of his then Royal Highness the D. of York of remitting 300000 l. per annum for 3 Years, if by any means the late King might be dispatched out of the way, there being no trust to be put in him, that was not only unfaithful in all his Promises and Oaths made to them the said Jesuits and Catholics, but was an Apostate from the Catholic Religion, and therefore not to be endured any longer.  
This Negotiation was carried on by the Lord Powis, the late Earl of Berkshire, and Coleman, and St. German, all which I communicated to his Majesty in private in the Prince's Lodgings in Whitehall; who gave me Thanks for not communicating these things to the Parliament, and told me that he was fully convinced now of the Reasons and Grounds the Papists had of taking away his Life: and the Prince said, I pray God your Majesty continue in that Opinion, for now you may see that they are a sort of People not to be endured in a Civil Government. Good God, said the King, is this the Kindness that is to be showed me for all the Favours I have showed that People? At which his Majesty wept: This was in the Month of January 167 8/9, or February.  
The Prince then bade me withdraw; and sent for me the next day, and conjured me not to communicate one word of the Discourse I had with the King: for, faith he, it will neither be safe for the King, nor you, nor any of us, if this should be reported. Of which Injunction the Prince hearty repent, and so did I of my Promise; which I have now published, to undeceive my Country in their Notions they had of the late King.  
His late Majesty did ever favour the Popish Interest, as being the greatest Favourers of Monarchy, though I have said that Popery and a Commonwealth were reconcilable, and often would instance the Republics of Venice and Genoa: At which his Majesty said, that there were the Footsteps of Monarchy even in those Republics. But above all, I found his Majesty very zealous of reconciling me to the Popish Interest; and told me, that if I would engage to him upon the Word of a Minister not to bear any Testimony against those I had accused before the Council, but would be ruled by him, I should have 10000 l. to buy me an Annuity, or a Free-Estate; and if I would, I should retire to any College in either University, and live there quietly; urging to me that a Parliament would never gratify me, and it was in his Power only to show me Favour; and therefore advised me to be directed by him, and it would be impossible for me to miscarry. To this I thus replied; I humbly thank your Majesty for your Grace and Favour; and I should willingly accept of your Royal Offer were it not the highest Breach of Trust reposed in me by your Majesty's Commons in this Parliament: Besides, Sir, said I, your Nobles in the House of Peers will, and all Mankind, judge me the worst of Men if I should so basely desert my Cause: It's plainly proved that the Popish Party have a Design against your Majesty's Life, and all our Lives, Liberties and Religion; therefore by the Grace of God I will stand by the Cause to the utmost of my Power, to the last Minute of my Life.  
The late King did in the Month of November 1678, in Mr. Secretary Coventry's Lodgings, offer me the Bishopric of Chichester, and withal promised me his Favour of advancing me if I would desist the Enterprise, as he called the Discovery of the Popish Plot; assuring me then that it would not be for his Service, because of the Heat it would put the People into: and farther told me, that the Parliament would forsake me, and not do any thing for me; and if I had a thought of complying with him, I should meet him at the Prince's Lodgings. But I went to the Prince, and told him what his Majesty had said; who when he had heard of it, The poor Man (said the Prince) doth court his own Ruin the most of any Man I know; and advised me not to meddle nor make with any thing of that nature: for, saith the Prince, either he will cheat and expose you, or if he be real, there is an old Wife in the Case, who will be set on you to draw you off from the good Work you have begun, or perhaps which is worse.  
I do farther declare, That whereas I have accused the Lord Powis, the Lord Bellasis, the Lord Arundel of Warder, the late Lord Petre, the late Lord Stafford, I did nothing but what became a good Christian to Almighty God, and a good Subject to my Prince, and a good Englishman to my Country; for what I have said or sworn of those Lords is the Truth, and nothing but the Truth, as I shall answer before God another day: the same I declare of all my Evidence I gave in to the King and Council, and to the two Houses of Parliament.  
And I do declare to all the World, That I have not in the least directly or indirectly, for the hopes of Gain, or any other Reason inducing me thereunto, spoken any thing of any Man that I charged to be guilty of the Popish Plot, but those who were guilty; and those against whom I bore Testimony at the Old-Baily, or at the King's-Bench Court, I swore nothing but what was true. This I declare as I shall answer it before God in the next World.  
And whereas it hath been reported by the Popish Party, and published by Roger L'Estrange in his Pamphlet called the Observator, that I swore against the Jesuits because they would not admit me to be of their Society; I do declare that that Order did receive and admit me a Jesuit, and that they were always the most obliging Persons to me in the World till they found that I had discovered those vile Designs of Murdering the late King, and Subverting the Protestant Religion and Government as by Law established both in Church and State: and though maliciously they did and do still aver I was never admitted Doctor of Divinity at Salamanca, I do declare solemnly to all the World I was admitted Doctor of Divinity at the said University of Salamanca, and did all my Exercise for the said Degree that was required of me.  
The Enemies of the Protestant Religion have endeavoured to blast me with many infamous Crimes, to render me useless in my Testimony relating to the Popish Plot, the Grand Adversary Roger L'Estrange being ready to print in his vile Pamphlet the Observator any thing that might tend to my Disadvantage: But I bless God I was never sly in my Conversation, so that the several Lies by him printed have been detected, and Gainsayers silenced.  
I thought it not inconvenient to let the World know, that the late King was a mortal hater of Parliaments; for in his Letter to the French King, bearing date in June 1676, he wrote thus:  
That if he could be assured of a Pension that might continue, he should not continue that way of Governing, (viz.) by frequent Parliaments, which at the best was but a clamorous Rabble that took upon them to direct Kings; but as he was resolved to be like his Neighbours in Riches and Grandieur, so he was resolved to be like them in Religion too.  
This was the Effect and Purport of that Letter, a Copy of which was showed me by John Keynes and Basi● Langworth; but, said Keynes, the French King was too old to be cullied out of his Money by a Man that was so uncertain.  
I do in the last place declare, That I am ready to seal with my Blood the Truth of my Evidence that I have given in relation to the Substantial Part, and Circumstantial Parts thereof. I have done no Man wrong that I have charged; and as I have done Right to the World in relation to the Popish Plot, so I protest I did discharge a good Conscience in the Discovery of that Vile Shame, called the Oxford- Plot, for which poor College was basely murdered there in a form of Law and Justice, and that I look on as the worst of Murders. I renounce all Anarchical Levelling Principles, and detest all the Practices of those who have held and maintained those Principles, I judging them as dangerous to our English Monarchy as Popery is to the Protestant Religion.  
All this I declare, together with my Narrative that is printed, to be true.  

April 29, 1685.  
I declare I have signed every Page of these Papers, with the Day and Year above-written, in the Presence of Sir Robert Thomas Baronet, John Arnold Esq and John Duttoncolt Esq and the same Day I delivered it to them.  
Titus' Oats. April 29, 1685.    

TO this foregoing Narrative I shall now subjoin Copies of several of Dr. Oates' Letters to King Charles and King James the Second, and to divers of the Ministers of State in that time, and of his Petition to King Charles; and submit it to the Reader's Judgement, whether his undaunted, and never to be shaken Steadfastness in adhering to and avowing the Truth of his Discovery, his plain Dealing with those Princes, his gallant Resistance of the highest Temptations, and his just Regard to the Interest and Rights of his Country, and to the brave Assetors thereof, all which are before made evident, did not equal the unparallelled Tortures and heavy Oppression, under which he so long groaned, and from which he had no prospect, and very little hope of Deliverance.  
Now let the Reader reflect upon the two first of these Letters, and wonder if he can, when he finds the Doctor thrown off by King Charles; I do not say when he sees him out of his Favour, for he never had it: but, as it appears by the foregoing Rerlation of his Troubles, what he there gained; so, I shall here observe what he lost, and both by his uncorruptible Integrity. This cannot be done but by beginning (where he began) at his first Discovery: That no way pleased the King, nor could it; for it spoiled a well-laid Plot, to which he was no Stranger, (save to that part which touched his Life); therefore, that he might stand as far as possible out of the reach of Suspicion, he dissembles himself alarmed, presses the searching the Plot to the bottom, appoints Mock-Fasts, and what not; and as to the Doctor, assigns him an Apartment in Whitehall, allows him daily a Table of six Dishes, Wine, and every thing proportionable, and also 40 s. per Week. This was continued till April 1679, than (besides the 40 s.) his Allowance was changed to 10 l. per Week, which he received till Midsummer 1680, when a stop was put to the Payment thereof. But in November following, upon the Address of the House of Lords, the King gave him 200 Guinea's for his Arrears, and ordered him the Allowance of 10 l. per Week, which was constantly paid till the Dissolution of the Oxford-Parliament; at which time the King taking a Resolution not to be further troubled with unuseful and dangerous Parliaments, (whatever ever the fawning Addressers pretended to think) together with the Parliament, threw off the Doctor, and the Popish Plot, and (taking Sir Roger to his aid) made another much more grateful to him; in which, having served the Interest of the French King and his Brother, as long as they had occasion for him, he himself at length was removed as useless.  

A Copy of Dr. Oates' Letter to King Charles the Second, Nou. 10. 1678.  
May it please Your Majesty,  
I Understand by Mr. Rogers, that it hath been reported to Your Majesty, that I should in a certain Company, declare that your Majesty was a Papist, and that your Majesty was resolved to order Mr. Attorney-General to proceed against me for those Words that were reported to your Majesty to be spoken by me, viz. That Your Majesty had been reconciled to the Church of Rome ever since your escape from Worcester; which I hope your Majesty will not do for your own Honour's sake: For your Majesty knows that to be true, that you were reconciled to the Church of Rome, by Father Richard Huddliston, that was Uncle to John Huddliston, who is excepted in all your Majesty's Proclamations that are issued out against Papists and Priests. And also, it's not unknown to some, that Your Majesty received the Sacrament according to the Usage of the Church of Rome, in the Duchess of Portsmouth's Lodgings, by the Hands of Father Ireland, and I myself served then at Mass; which I have not made Public, because I would preserve your Majesty's Reputation. And what Care your Majesty took of the Jesuits when St. Omers became subject to the French King by Conquest (as Men on whom the Hopes of England did depend) in your Letter to the French King's Governor, hath not been made so public as I must make it, if your Majesty continue your Resolution to have me prosecuted: As also the Gracious Promise you made to your Royal Sister of restoring the Catholic Religion; and not only that, but the most Gracious Memorial your Majesty put in to the King of Poland, by your Envoy there. Your Majesty may judge that the Statute made in the Thirteenth Year of your Reign, was only made to bridle the Tongues of your People, that they should not dare to say you were a Papist; but Sir, give me leave to tell your Majesty, that there was something else designed in that Act than is there expressed; for the late Earl of Clarendon, than Lord High Chancellor, who was afraid of your declaring yourself to be of the Church of Rome, procured that Act to pass, and that not without Difficulty, on purpose to prevent you that you might not declare yourself to be of that Communion, well knowing that if you did, it would tend to the breaking all his Measures and Projects then on foot to serve the Duke of York, who had married his Daughter: So that if I am prosecuted, it's for speaking the Truth (supposing that I had spoke the Words.) But, to undeceive your Majesty, I did not speak them; but it was that Fellow Blood, who will confess to your Majesty that it was he that spoke the Words, on purpose for me to second him, and you know it was by your own Appointment that he was so bold with your Name and Honour in that particular. Sir, I must say further, hat when I communicated his Traitorous Letter he wrote to me, to Secretary Coventry, he was brought before that Secretary, and confessed he wrote the Letter by your Royal Command to lay a Snare for me; and that by your Command he did say the Words that you were reconciled to the Church of Rome: And when this came to be publicly talked of, Blood was children by your Majesty, and went off with the sorrowful Present of 500 Guineas, given him by your Majesty, as a mark of your Royal Displeasure, for such unhandsome Carriage to your Majesty, and for such a Knavish Trick he endeavoured to put upon me. I leave it to your Royal Consideration, and shall approve myself,  
Sir, Your Majesty's Faithful and Dutiful Subject, Titus Oates. Novemb. 10. 1678.   

A Copy of Dr. Oates 's Letter to King Charles II. Oct. 14. 1680.  
May it please Your Majesty,  
BY Your Majesty's Command, Sir Philip Floyd was with me, and tells me that your Majesty takes great Offence at my keeping Company with Republicans; at the first I did not understand who Sir Philip meant by Republicans, which he was pleased to explain to me, they were a sort of Discontented Men that were Enemies to Monarchy in general, and in particular, Enemies to Your Majesty's Royal Person and Government: I protested to him I did not keep Company with any such Persons, and urged it to him that it would be very ingrateful in me if I should keep Company with Men of those Principles: For, Sir, it's my Judgement, that the English Monarchy, as established by Law, is that which not only myself, but all those I converse withal are for, and not only so, but are ready to defend with their Lives and Fortunes. But this is my Misfortune, that because I converse and hearty join with those that are for Liberty and Property, and for the Old English Government, in opposition to Popery and Slavery, and assert the Protestant Religion with that Courage that becomes Englishmen, I and my Friends are judged and deemed, by your Majesty, to be Men aiming at a Commonwealth, in opposition to Monarchy and your Majesty's Government. But for my farther Information, I begged of Sir Philip to know who they were, and what they were that were thus represented to your Majesty, who was pleased to tell me it was Mr. Jenks his Club that I did frequent, who met at the Angel and Crown in Threadneedle-street, and Mr. Bethel's Club that met at the Queen's-Arms in Newgate-street. Your Majesty knows that Mr. Seely a Major of the late Protector's Army hath oft met there by your own Appointment, though for other ends than I met with that Club at the Angel and Crown, at which Club I have been several Times, for almost these two Years last passed; and as I expect to see the Face of God, I did neither directly nor indirectly hear any one Word spoken against your Majesty's Government, and that the Major can tell, if he hath the least Grain of Honesty and Truth left in him. Your Majesty knows the end of his coming, and we found him out at last to be put upon us to abuse us to your Majesty: But blessed be God, we never gave any just Occasion to merit that Pension your Majesty was pleased to order him for so great a piece of Service as to be a Spy upon a Dozen or Twenty Honest Men, that met together to spend one Hour, after they had been wearying themselves in their Callings all the Day, and their Discourse usually hath been nothing but about Common Things; that Major Seely doth indeed lose his Time, and spends your Majesty's Bounty to very little purpose: For our Conversation is so innocent that we are not afraid of ten Seely's or ten Butlers, they might freely come and hear what passeth amongst us, were they not Persons so infamously Scandalous, that it would be enough to have a Man's Credit questioned upon the Exchange, to be seen with them. But I shall say no more of them, they being Your Majesty's Diligent Spies upon several Honest Men in the City. In a Word, I freely own to your Majesty that I do oft meet with that Club, of which Mr. Jenks is a Member, at the Angel and Crown, and also those that meet with Mr. Bethel, at the Queen's-Arms in Newgate-street, and also several Gentlemen at the King's-Head at Chancery-Lane-end: and if it be their good will to give me the Honour of their Company, I do not find any Arguments that Sir Philip hath used, will either prevail with me to refrain those Companies, or the Character Seely may have given to your Majesty of them, or any of them, shall persuade me to believe otherwise of them than that they are Honest Worthy Gentlemen, that study to serve your Majesty and their Country. I know Sir Philip to be a very Ill Man, and therefore, having your Majesty's leave, I thought fit to communicate my Answer to your Majesty in writing; which I humbly submit to your Majesty, as it becomes your Majesty's  
Humble Subject and Servant, Titus Oats. Octob. 14. 1680.   

A Copy of Dr. Oates' Letter to Sir Leolin Jenkins, Secretary of State. Feb. 22. 1683.  
Honourable Sir,  
I Have lain long under his Majesty's Displeasure, but for what Cause to this Day I know not, and am by reason of that forbidden the King's Presence and his Court, which I have obeyed, and have not been at Whitehall almost these three Years (one Time excepted, by Order from their Lordships the Commissioners of the Treasury, in April or May last); I have Business of Importance with the King and Council, but am unwilling to come lest I should offend his Majesty, or receive some Affronts, which I cannot well bear: My Request therefore to your Honour is that I may have leave to come, and when I have done my Business I may departed without being unkindly dealt withal in the Court. So praying your Honour's pardon for this Trouble, I shall study to appear,  
Sir, Your Honour's Servant to my poor Power, Titus Oates.   

A Copy of a Second Letter from Dr. Titus' Oats, to Mr. Secretary Jenkins, Feb. 28. 1683.  
Honourable Sir,  
I Gave your Honour the last Friday the trouble of a few Lines, in which I told you that I had Business of Importance with the King and Council; your Answer was I must apply myself to a Justice of the Peace, or to the Courts of Justice. The Business that I had with the Council is a Complaint against Roger L'estrange, Esq who in several Libels of his, called the Observator, and other Seditious Pamphlets, hath as I humbly conceive, vilifyed and ridiculed the Discovery of the Popish Plot, and arraigned the Proceed of the Government upon the same: and to give his Libel a Reputation in this his Illegal Course, he pretends in one or more of those his Observators, that he hath Authority or Leave from some of his Majesty's Ministers for so doing; which I cannot believe. Your Honour knows that his Majesty was so sensible of the Danger he was in by reason of that horrid Conspiracy, That he did not only recommend the strict Examination thereof to his Houses of Parliament, but also was pleased to acquaint them how unsafe he was till he searched it to the Bottom; besides this, three Fasts were proclaimed, and kept, which the King himself strictly kept, and commanded all his Loving Subjects so to do. Several have been Executed, and several Parliaments have Voted that there was a horrid Hellish Popish Plot. Now, all these Things considered, I could never have imagined that any private Person would have been so bold with the Government, as to use such Reflections upon their Proceed, and call in question the Veracity of that Evidence, which was justified by his Majesty's Council, and the Parliaments, and Courts of Justice. I though I should never have lived to have seen the Day that the Plot should be called in Question, which the King had owned in his several Proclamations; but since it is so, I must pray your pardon that I cannot apply myself for Redress in that way and method your Honour was pleased to order; for I humbly conceive that it is the Government that is abused, and therefore in Conscience and Honour it's bound to vindicate its Proceed from such Aspersions as are cast upon them by the said L'estrange and his Confederates. I would not use any method or way to injure the worst of my Enemies, but hope that the Council will take my hard Usage from L'estrange, into serious Consideration, and cause him to be Silenced, and Reparation to be made to me. To that end, in this I have sent a Petition to the King and Council, which I would have presented myself, (if I might have had Liberty to appear at Court) in which I pray for Redress: I hope God will put it into your Hearts to do me Right. In the mean time,  
SIR, I am your Honour's Humble Servant, Titus Oats. Feb. 28. 1683/ 4.  
My Humble Request is, That this Petition enclosed may be presented to the King and Council, so that I may be in some probable way of having Redress.   

A Copy of Dr. Oates 's Petition. To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, And to the Right Honourable the Lords, and Others, of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.  
The Humble Petition and Complaint of Titus Oates,  
Shows,  
THat your Petitioner, according to his Duty and the Allegiance that he owes, and is always bound to pay to your Majesty and the Government, established by Law, did in the Month of September, in the Year 1678, discover a most horrid Hellish Popish Plot, against your Majesty's Person, the Protestant Religion and Government, to the Satisfaction of your Majesty and the then Privy Council; as appears by the several Proclamations Issued out by your Majesty's Order, with the Advice of your most Honourable Council: Which your Petitioner is and will be ready to produce, when thereunto Commanded by your Majesty.  
That your Majesty was so highly sensible of the great Danger your Person and your Government were in, by reason of that Conspiracy, that you were Graciously pleased to proclaim several Solemn Fasts, and Days of Humiliation; and did will and require your Loving Subjects to join in hearty Prayer and Supplication with your Majesty to Almighty God, for a Blessing upon the Discovery, and for a farther Discovery thereof; and in several of your Majesty's most Gracious Speeches to your Houses of Parliament, your Majesty hath been pleased to express, how unsafe your Majesty was till the said Plot was searched to the Bottom.  
That several of the Conspirators in that Plot were Apprehended and Committed, Indirected and Convicted, and Attained and Executed upon your Petitioner's Evidence, together with the Evidence of Others, the Attainders of which Conspirators remain (as your Petitioner believes) upon Record.  
That four several Parliaments owned the said Discovery, and passed several Votes, wherein they did declare that there was a horrid Popish Plot, for the Destruction of your Royal Person and your Government, and for the Subversion of the Protestant Religion as by Law established.  
That Roger L'estrange Esq whom your Petitioner hears is again a Justice of the Peace, (though turned out for several Misdemeanours in the Year 1680) hath defamed and arraigned the Justice of the Nation, in ridiculing the said Popish Plot, the Discovery and Discoverers thereof, in a certain Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlet of his, called the Observator, and in several other Pamphlets.  
That he, the said Roger L'estrange, pretends in some of those Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlets, that he is authorized so to do by one or both your Secretaries.  
That the said Scandalous and Seditious Pamphlet appears to countenance Popery in your Protestant Government; and the Popish Party hath been much encouraged by the same, to revile and threaten your Petitioner.  
That your Petitioner hath born those Scandalous Reflections and Aspersions, upon the account of his Discovery of the said Plot, from the said L'estrange, these four Years with Patience; and had the Scandals only touched your Petitioner, he would not have complained to your Majesty and this Board; but since the said L'estrange scandalously vilifies the said Discovery, and calls in question the Justice of your Government, your Petitioner thinks fit to apply himself to your Majesty and this Board, for Relief.  
The Premises considered, Your Petitioner humbly prays your Majesty and this Honourable Board, to relieve him and his Evidence, against the Seditious Calumnies of the said Roger L'estrange; and not suffer your Petitioner to be left to be daily Oppressed and Destroyed, for those Services which your Majesty and Council, and Parliaments and Courts of Justice have owned.  
And Your Petitioner shall as in Duty bound, pray for Your Majesty's Health, and long Life, and happy Reign, etc. Titus Oates.   

A Copy of Dr. Oates' Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. March 15. 1683.  
May it please your Grace,  
I Having received several Kindnesses from you when I was at Lambeth-House, do upon that Score think that this may not miss your Hand, nor I lose my end in writing at this Time; in which, my Lord, be pleased to understand, that for my own Vindication, I have written to Mr. Secretary Jenkins, and in his Letter I have enclosed a Petition and Complaint to the King's most Excellent Majesty, and to the Lords and Others of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, against one Roger L'estrange, who in several of his Pamphlets called the Observator, and other Seditious Pamphlets, hath vilified the Discovery of the Popish Plot; and in that, I humbly conceive, he doth arraign and reflect on the Justice of the Government: And God having called you to the Great Office of an Archbishop and Privy-Counsellor, I thought my Application to your Grace would not at all be Improper, and therefore I thought I might lay before your Grace the hard usage I have received from the said L'etrange and his Confederate Villains that neither fear God nor reverence Man. Your Grace, I suppose, hath not forgot that Four Parliaments did enter upon the Examination both of Witnesses and Criminals concerned in the Popish Conspiracy; I was the first that appeared to detect that Villainy, and received the Thanks of the Council, and the Lords in Parliament; and it was looked on as such a piece of Service, that Your Grace was of the Opinion that some Mark of Favour should be conferred on me: But I was not studious of my own Interest, but was always careful (for which I bless God) to do my Country Justice, and have reaped the Fruits thereof, even the Testimony of a good Conscience: And whereas I have been hardly used for the Service I did in the Discovery of that Plot, I think the Government is bound in Honour and Conscience, and Justice and Truth, to maintain their own Proceed, and justify me from the scurrilous Reflections of so vile a Fellow as L'estrange appears to be, in those his Pamphlets. He pretends, in one or two of them, that he hath leave from one or both his Majesty's Secretaries for so doing; that I think aught to be reason enough for his being stopped in his Career and Scribbling, and be for ever Silenced, together with Argument of his Fallacy upon the whole Government in that particular: Certainly my Lord, the Church must be in a sad Condition that stands in need of L'estrange for a Supporter; the Religion Established by Law will be very contemptible, if Roger's Penny Observator must give it Life. I am sure our Bishops have given such Testimonies of themselves and their Power, that there is no need of his scurrilous and scandalous Pen to maintain their Authority and Reputation. Our Clergy must be judged by the Popish Party to be Men of little Understanding, if they stand in need of him to be their Guide. Hath he not fallen upon the most considerable Clergymen in the City, Men that do not stand in need of his Trash to equip them for the work of the Ministry? I dare, by your Grace's leave, be bold to say that your Grace, upon Consideration, will abhor and loathe such a Fellow, upon the account of these and other Aggravations; and seeing I have been useful in my Day, I beg your Grace would be instrumental in doing me the Justice that is due to a Man, a Christian, and a Minister of the Church: If I have done any Man wrong let me suffer, if I am innocent (as I must be accounted till convicted of some Enormity or Irregularity) then let me be protected, and not left to be oppressed and destroyed by my Enemies, for the Services that your Grace hath formerly owned in Council and in Parliament, and likewise his Majesty, in several Proclamations to his People and Speeches to his Parliament. My Lord, I shall say no more but beg your Grace's Pardon and Blessing; and though I have misrepresented to your Grace, I shall study to appear,  
My Lord, Your Grace's most Affectionate Servant, Titus Oats. March 15. 1683.  
My Lord, I would have waited upon your Grace, but since the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford, your Servants have put Affronts upon me (of which I unwillingly take notice). which have hindered my paying my Respects to your Grace: And likewise I understand that some Evil Instruments, by lies and Falsehood, have endeavoured to lessen me in your Grace's Affections, which I have patiently born rather than put your Grace and myself to the unnecessary trouble of a fruitless Vindication of my Innocency.   

A Copy of Dr. Oates' Letter to the Bishop of London, March 15. 1683.  
My Lord,  
WHen the Popish Plot was first discovered, your Lordship was very zealous in the prosecuting Popery; and I have heard you often express your hearty good will to root that Faction out of this Nation: I hope your Zeal for the Protestant Religion is not a whit abated; yet my Hopes are not without some Fears, when I have it by some reported (though I cannot give full Credit to it) that your Lordship, together with the Bishop of Canterbury do maintain R. L'estrange, and encourage him in that vile Pamphlet called the Observator, in which your Lordship may see the Justice of the Nation is arraigned; and, by Consequences of his own drawing, the Blood of those that were executed upon the account of the Popish Conspiracy, charged upon the Government; and I do not find him lie under any Censure for that his vile Libel, by your Lordship, under whose Jurisdiction he is: Is the Church in so low a Condition that she stands in need of Roger's Support? Is the Government in such a state as none can cure it but he? Is Episcopacy at such a point that it cannot be brought to its Pristine State without him? Is the Ministry of the Church in such Contempt that none but he, by his Penny-Observator, can recover its Reputation and Credit? How is all this done? by Seditious, Factious, Scurrilous Lies; by encouraging Popery, by reviling the Protestant Interest, by arraigning the Justice of the Nation, by vilifying the Discovery of the Popish Plot, and endeavouring to expose the Discoverers (by a heap of infamous Lies) to the Nation, as Impostors.  
My Lord, I am a Minister, yea a Minister of the Church of England, and have done her more Service than any Clergyman in England; and because I hate those Monsters that are amongst us who were bred in the Protestant Religion, and have left this Religion and are reconciled to the Church of Rome, and are by that means declared Traitors by our Law, I am looked upon by our little Clergymen, as a Dissenter from the Church of England: But my Lord, your Lordship hath, I hope, better Thoughts of me; though I am grieved to hear your Lordship should be concerned for a vile Observator, that hath been so profuse as to call in Question the Truth of the Popish Plot, of which your Lordship was convinced and satisfied; and for the farther Discovery of which you were so diligent in Parliament and Council, in your Examination both of Criminals and Witnesses. I purpose to be heard in Council against this L'estrange; in order thereunto I have written to Mr. Secretary Jenkins, and in that Letter I have enclosed a Petition and Complaint against him, and therefore I am an humble Suitor to your Lordship to do me Right, and help me to my intended Hearing; and if I cannot be heard, I must print my Case, which you know is an appealing to the People, which some have not liked; But what must I do? I have born his scandalous Reflections so long that I can bear no longer; and I conceive, as I am a Minister, I ought to have been protected by the Bishops and Prelates of the Church, in whose Communion I am, though I have been misrepresented by L'estrange and others of his Confederates, therefore as your Lordship tenders the Justice and Honour of the Government, I hope you will not only discountenance the vile Usage of me by L'estrange, but also endeavour that he may be silenced; for it's he and those of his Crew that have created such Animosities amongst the King's Liege People. It hath been the Policy of the Synagogue of Rome to divide Protestants, and he is the Tool they make use of to divide us: There hath scarce been any one Sober Clergyman of Note that hath escaped his Lash; and what credit the Church can have by such an Elf I cannot conceive. My Lord, I will not detain you any longer, but I shall only protest my Intergrity and Truth in what I have done, in reference to the Popish Plot; and I have had your Lordship's good word in that particular, and question not but upon Consideration your Lordship will be a means of having Right done me in my Complaint. 'Tis true I lie under the King's Displeasure, for what I know not to this Day; I thank God I am not conscious to myself of any thing that I have said or done that might have done him any prejudice: if I have, I should be glad to understand my Error, that I might make Reparation. In a Word, I shall study to appear,  
My Lord, Your Lordship's Obedient Servant, Titus Oats. March 15. 1683.   

A Copy of Dr. Oates 's Letter to King Charles II. April 12. 1684.  
May it please Your most Excellent Majesty,  
I Thought it my duty, for the honour of Truth, to whom all Men are Debtors, and for my own Vindication, to apply myself to your Majesty's Ministers and Counsellors, for redress against the scurrilous Pamphlets of Roger L'estrange, in which I find the Justice of your Majesty's Government arraigned, for the Service I did in the Discovery of the Popish Plot. I am exposed by him and his Confederates to the Vengeance of those Men that carried on the Conspiracy against your Royal Person and Government, but from them I could have no redress, though as I humbly conceive, that the proper way for me to proceed, considering the nature of my Complaint, and the Circumstances under which I now am. Your Majesty, when this Popish Plot was first discovered, was highly sensible of the danger your Person was in by reason of that Conspiracy, so that you were pleased to press your Parliaments to examine it to the bottom, and not only so, but in all Humility your Majesty did address yourself to the Majesty on High, and commanded all your Loving Subjects to join with your Majesty in hearty and humble Supplication to Almighty God our Heavenly Father, to give a Blessing to the then Discovery of the Popish Plot, and to make a farther Discovery thereof, and no Man but a Papist will judge any otherwise of your Majesty, but that you were in earnest. None Sir, I say, but such will so much as conceive you called Mock-Fasts; hence it is that those Blasphemous Cutthroats did compare you to Ahab, as I can produce in one of their Pamphlets. And besides all this, Sir, Your Majesty hath been pleased to tell your Loving Subjects how fully you were satisfied in the reality of the Designs of the Popish Party, and their Abettors, against your Person and Government, but by what means it is not yet known that Men have taken the boldness to arraign your Government, and charge the Blood of those Jesuits and other Traitors that suffered in that Cause, upon you and the Government; especially Roger L'estrange, who hath abused the Discoverers and Discovery of the Popish Plot: And in his seditious Libel called the Observator, he, as I humbly conceive, hath taken a great deal of pains to persuade the Nation that there was no Popish Plot, but that it was a mere Fiction; the Consequence of which I leave your Majesty to draw: Certainly it will be so foul a Consequence that a Loyal Heart must tremble to consider it. I should not have trotbled your Majesty had your Ministers taken my Complaint into Consideration, and though I was not thought worthy of being heard by them, yet by their leaves, I humbly conceive, your Majesty's Proceed have been so just and good in the executing of those that were in that Hellish Conspiracy, that they deserve to be vindicated from these foul Aspersions cast upon them by Roger L'estrange and his Popish Crew; and although, by unjust Reports and Misrepresentations, I am out of your Majesty's Favour, yet I may say if Oats had not been Loyal, your Majesty had not been in the Land of the Living, whatever the Popish Crew have suggested in their scurrilous Pamphlets against me, for discovering their impious Designs against your Majesty's Person and the Protestant Religion. I sent a Petition to Mr. Secretary Jenkins but could not be heard, and I have written to several of your Council, but can have no Effects of my just Complaints, though I am left to starve; yet I may say I have deserved better of the Government than to live in danger of being knocked of the Head as I go along the Streets, and for no other Crime, but that of the 28th and 29th of September 1678; if I must perish for serving your Majesty and the Government, I humbly pray that I may perish quietly, and starve in Peace, and not be put into a Bear's Skin in order to be worried to Death by Popish Dogs, whose Religion is nothing else but a Cistern of Immorality, and their Immorality Treason in the highest Degree: Therefore let any Man show me a Papist, and I can show a Man that is, or must (when commanded by his Priest) be a Traitor; especially such a Papist who hath been bred and instructed in the Protestant Religion, and is reconciled to the Synagogue of Rome, such a Papist I hate, and I trust in God to see such ruined, unless that Vengeance be prevented by timely Repentance. None, Sir, hath been used like me, and this L'estrange hath as I am informed threatened to write against me till he hath writ me out of the World; what the meaning is of such an Expression I humbly leave to your Majesty to consider. I have in this enclosed a Petition to your Majesty, and question not but you will be graciously pleased to take my sad Case into serious Consideration. Sir, from my Heart and Soul I love your Majesty, and the Government established by Law; and have, I am sure, given your Majesty as great Demonstration of my Loyalty and Duty, as any one Subject you have in your three Kingdoms, and therefore be pleased to give me leave to put your Majesty in mind of the sad Fate of Alphonso, the late King of Portugal, and how his Ruin was brought about; your Majesty knows the Story better than I can express it, and a Word is enough to so wise a Prince as your Majesty hath appeared to be. I will not trouble your Majesty any farther, but that God the King of Kings may bless your Majesty with a long Life and a happy Reign over us, is and ever shall be the daily Prayer of,  
SIR, Your Majesty's most Dutiful, Loyal, and Obedient Subject and Servant, Titus Oats. London, April 12. 1684.   

A Copy of Dr. Oates' Letter to King James the Second, Aug. 12. 1688.  
May it please Your Majesty,  
I Have no Friend that can attend your Majesty with my Petition, or else I should not have made my Application to you in this Way, it not being usual for Subjects to address themselves in such a Manner to their Prince; Necessity drives me to it, for contrary to all Law and Humanity, I am miserably oppressed by Mr. Ellis the Marshal of your Prison of the King's-Bench, who hath within a few Years last passed declared himself to be of the Communion of the Church of Rome; upon which, together with his Authority, I humbly conceive he takes Liberty thus to oppress me, to revenge himself and those of that Communion upon me: He kept my Servant from me, though it's well known, that by reason of my long and miserable Imprisonment, I am lame and not able to help myself. He stops all People at the Gate from coming at me, by which means I must perish, because no Succour can come at me, unless Care be taken by your Majesty that a stop be speedily put to his Arbitrary Cruel Usage of me. I humbly conceive the Causes of my Imprisonment do not lie before him: His Business is to keep me in safe Custody, and not to oppress me. He demands Ten Guineas of me for Civility-Money, which is not his due to receive, nor in my power to pay, for which he threatens me with Irons; the Truth is the whole City cries out Shame of his manner of dealing with me, and the more because of his Religion. I am certain those of the Communion of the Church of Rome pretend to more Humanity than any other People, but his Usage of me shows him rather a Turk than a Christian; there will be loud Cries against him either at Term or in Parliament for his many Extravagancies in the Execution of his Office: What the Causes of his base Usage of me are, I humbly beseech your Majesty, may be heard Face to Face before Sir Richard Allebone, or in such a way as your Majesty shall think fit; for at the present I am under great Apprehensions of being murdered by him, which you may prevent if you please. All which is humbly submitted to your Majesty, by  
Your poor Prisoner, Titus Oates. Aug. 12. 1688.  
I am much impaired in my Health, and I have done that which a good Subject aught to do; so that if I am murdered my Blood will not lie at my Door, but at their Doors that should do me Justice; for Favour I expect none, nor would I be so Ill a Man as to desire any, but I cry aloud for Justice, that I may not be murdered, by a Man who imagines he may do good Service to those of the Romish Church, to ruin me while I am in his Custody: Therefore once more I pray for Justice.    

POSTSCRIPT.  
HAving affirmed in the foregoing Tract that both the Juries which found Dr. Oates guilty, were Men of the same Gang and Kidney; to explain my meaning therein, I say, that most, if not every of them, were Disciples of L'Estrange, and by consequence Tories; Children of Passive Obedience, Abhorrers of Parliaments, Addressers against them, Betrayers of Charters, and Anti-Exclusioners: Nor could it possibly be otherwise, for there was at that day a select List of about 200 such Men, and no others, packed to do the Court's Drudgery; as will evidently appear by reading over the Names of the Grand and Petty-Juries which passed upon the never-to-be-forgotten Lord Russel, Alderman Cornish, and Mrs. Gaunt, in the second Part of the Display of Tyranny: I observe there is not found amongst them one of the Jury which was returned by our Bethel and Cornish, and which brought in that honourable Ignoramus upon the Indictment against the Earl of Shaftsbury; and I may well say that was in every respect the greatest Jury that was ever returned in England. Out of this List were every of the Doctor's 24 Jurymen picked, and every Man of the first Jury were in the Panels which North and Richardo packed upon my Lord Russel, and nine of them were also returned upon Alderman Cornish and Mrs. Gaunt; of the second Jury, four were returned upon my Lord Russel, Alderman Cornish, and Mrs. Gaunt, three more upon my Lord Russel singly, and the other five upon Alderman Cornish and Mrs. Gaunt; divers of them actually served on those Juries, and most of those who did not, were challenged.  
That I may now set the bloody Tragedy of that day in its true light, and show whence this accursed Practice of packing Juries sprang, I shall transcribe a noted Prediction of one of the Guides of the hare-brained Tories: Heraclitus Ridens, who foretold, soon after the unhappy Election of Sir John Moor to be Lord-Mayor; that at or before 1683, they should have Juries for their turn: And then talking to the whigs about Hanging, told them; They must come to't, and they should come to't. I conclude with another very remarkable Prophecy of the Guide of the Inferior Clergy; he at the very Juncture when it was resolved that North and Richardo must be Sir John Moore's Sheriffs, foretold the direful Consequences thereof, in his Observator of May 20, 1682, Number 140, in these words: If it should please God to send us SEASONABLE SHERIFFS, and fair play for OUR MONEY, there are set a foot so many Titles in competition for the Gallows, that it would be a hard matter to settle their Claims, and say who should go first. And in his Observator of May 27, 1684. he told us whom he esteemed his Seasonable Sheriffs: He says, Prithee Whig, wilt thou set THEIR CORNISH and BETHEL, THEIR PILKINGTON and SHUTE, against our NORTH and RICH; our DANIEL and DASHWOOD, and say which of these Sheriffs are the likelier Men to juggle Protestants out of their Lives? Had the poor depressed Whig in that day answered the Trepaning Tory this ensnaring Question, it had been at the hazard of his Head.  
But now (being warranted by Parliament so to do) I say that my Lord Russel and Alderman Cornish were barbarously murdered, as was good Mrs. Gaunt, under pretence and colour of Law, which as my Lord Russel well observed is the worst sort of Murder; and this I think was juggling Protestant's out of their Lives with a witness: I also say, (by the same warrant) that the Prosecution of Dr. Oats for Perjury was a Design to stifle the Popish Plot, and that the Verdicts against him were corrupt, and the Judgements cruel and illegal; and all this was accomplished by the same Set of Jurymen.  
Thus (to gratify Sir Roger, to whom I pay no small deference) I have set our Bethel and Cornish, our Pilkington and Shute, against their North and Rich, their Daniel and Dashwood; and showed him not only who were the likeliest Men to juggle Protestants out of their Lives, but who they were that actually did it; and so I bid him adieu.   

Imprimatur,  
R. L'S.   
FINIS.