THE INFORMATIONS OF JOHN SERGEANT, AND DAVID MAURICE, Gentlemen; RELATING TO THE POPISH-PLOT,( delivered by them upon their respective Oaths) REPORTED To the HOUSE of COMMONS, Upon Saturday the 26th Day of March, 1681.  
Then Ordered by the Commons IN PARLIAMENT, To be forthwith Printed.  
LONDON, Printed for Gabriel Kunholt, Book-Binder to His Highness Prince RUPERT; And are to be Sold at his Shop at the Kings-Head, over-against the Meuse. 1681.   

THE Informations OF John Sergeant, AND David Maurice, Gentlemen. Relating to the POPISH PLOT, &c.  

BEing in Company with an English Gentlewoman in Flanders, who is a Roman-Catholick, about the later end of August, 1679, and the name of Mr. Gaven, one of the Five Jesuits who suffered that Summer, coming into discourse, she began to express with some horror the scandal she had received from a wicked piece of Doctrine he maintained in her hearing, which was, That the Queen might Lawfully Kill the King for violating her Bed: And, that when she set her self to oppose it as most unchristian Doctrine, and tending to Destroy Soul and Body both, and alleged, that therefore it was better to suffer it patiently for God's sake, he with much vehemency and earnestness stood to it, That she might not onely lawfully do it, but was bound to it; and that, if she did not, she was guilty of his greater Damnation in letting him continue so long in sin. This is the substance of what she Related, and, as near as I can remember, the Words. This Gentlewomans surname is Skypwith, her Christen name( as I remember) Mary.  
It pleased His most sacred Majesty, to whom( as my Duty bound me) I had writ it before, when I appeared before His most Honourable Privy-Council, the last Day of October following, to ask me what were my present Thoughts of the truth of that Relation at the time that I heard it, all Circumstances weighed; to which being then upon my Oath, as truth and Conscience obliged me, I answered, That I did incline very much to believe it: For which Rashness and Uncharitableness of mine( as some interpret it) in entertaining that sentiment so easily upon the Testimony of one single person, great noise has been made against me, as if Passion had Byast me to that persuasion. Wherefore to clear my ingenuity and sincerity in this point to His Majesty and His Council( of whose good Opinions onely I am solicitous) I humbly offer here the reasons which moved me to think thus: they are these.  
I had particular reason to judge that this person was at this time that I knew her, and she related this, very scrupulously Conscientious and a good Woman; and I conceived that her present disposition was most( and indeed onely) to be considered in that present Relation; nor had I ever heard any harm of her former Life.  
She seemed particularly Conscientious in making this Relation, lifting up her Hands and Eyes to Heaven with these words: God knows my Heart, I would not say it to gain the whole World if it were not true.  
I had never heard nor could then discern that she had the least pique against Mr. Gaven's Order.  
She spoken it voluntarily, none inciting or moving her to it.  
The manner, in which she delivered it, seemed very candid and unaffected; and it came out naturally and occasionally, nor did it at all look like a premeditated or sought thing.  
She spoken it out of her sense of the Scandal she received by it, which seemed a Mo●ive well becoming a good Christian; and so, an argument of her sincerity.  
She  told the same story the second time to another person, myself present; at least the substance of it.  
She never recommended it as a secret either to him or me, whereas one who forges would be apt to desire the concealment of the false story they relate; lest by discovering it, it may come to be confuted and themselves shamed: which she had the more reason to fear, because the thing related was of so high a consequence.  
She name time, place and persons present; which exposed her to an easy confute if it were not true.  
The tenor also of the Discourse seemed to render it credible, her Objection being such as was likely to come from a good well-meaning person of her pitch; and his Reply abetting it very like a Man wilfully bent to maintain an absurd position( as is the manner of Passion and Heat) with advancing another more absurd.  
Now, as these considerations inclined me strongly to think her sincere, so it seemed to me she could not be mistaken in the sense of his Discourse, or misunderstand him; the Doctrine being about a matter of Fact of the highest concern in the world: and the Words which are apt to express it not being Artificial or Speculative, but natural and common Language. Besides, her Contest with him about it must needs have cleared his meaning.  
These are the Reasons why I apprehended that Relation to be true: which yet I produce not here to Charge Mr. Gaven, but to Discharge my own Credit and Conscience, and to give your Majesty and your Council the best light I am able to judge of that business.  
In Testimony of what's above, I subscribe my Name, Feb. 11. 1679/ 80. John Sergeant,   

THE INFORMATION OF David Morris.  
I Underwritten do hereby upon Oath attest, That being last August at Brussels, and going to see an old acquaintance, I found Mr. sergeant there( little thinking to see him so near the Internuncio) he  told me, there was a Gentlewoman who said that Mr. Gavan maintained it was lawful for the Queen to kill the King, for violating her Bed: which I hardly believing, he brought me up stairs where she was, where I heard it with my own ears. After some discourse concerning the wickedness of such doctrines, I asked her, Where this happened? She answered( as I remember) in Covent-Garden, at the Brother-in-laws of Mr. Gavan, and name the persons that were present, whom I knew not; nor did I think further o● it, more than to admire the indiscretion of his descending to such particulars, and her acting his heat to maintain his Paradox, when she opposed him: The rest, I knew to be agreeable to their Principles; having bought Escobar some years since on purpose to see whether the Provincial Letters misrepresented them or not: where I found it lawful to kill a man that calunniated a Religious Order: and I am sure that what makes lawful for a jesuit to kill a man that wrongs his Order, makes also lawful for a Wife to kill her Husband if he wrongs her Bed.  
My going to Brussels was to see what became of the Benevolence sent by the Pope to those Countreys for refug'd English catholics; and found, who vow immediate obedience to the Pope to be the distributers, and who swore no Allegiance but to their King, to be debarred such public favours: for the English jesuit Procurator there,  told a worthy Clergy Priest, there was nothing for him, meaning such as he: of which I know no Reason, unless it be that the Clergy would never admit of any extraordinary authority from Rome, unanimously agreed never to receive any Bulls or other Orders from Rome without the Kings Licence, and permission of the State, and ever opposed the Deposing Power: Duties which anciently belonged to the Imperial Crown of this Realm, and ought still to be observed by us. Which sufferings of theirs for so good a cause, is humbly submitted to your Majesties most gracious consideration.  
Feb. 11. 1679/ 80. David Morris.  
THis Paper was presented to his Majesty in Council the 18th of February, 1679. by Mr. John sergeant and Mr. David Morris; and being then red, they declared upon their Oaths that the Contents thereof was true. Whereupon it was Ordered by his Majesty, that this Paper should be kept safe in the Council Chest.  
John Nicholas.  
FINIS.    

I Appoint Gabriel Kunholt to Print these Informations, Perused and Signed by me according to the Order of the House of Commons; And that no other Person presume to Print them, March 26. 1681.  
Wi Williams, Speaker.