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Pope, they, after excommunication and deprivation, being no more Kings, but private men ?"

The subject indeed had been before discussed in a very interesting discourse, of which the title is, "Herod and Pilate reconciled: Or, The Concord of Papist and Puritan (against Scripture, Fathers, Councels, and other Orthodoxall Writers) for the Coercion, Deposition, and Killing of Kings. Discovered by David Owen, Batchelour of Divinitie, &c. Cambridge, 1610," 4". To this point I may also apply an extract from "Foxes and Firebrands; or a Specimen of the danger and harmony of Popery and Separation;" attributed by some to Dr. Nelson, by others to Sir James Ware: "But that which makes the thing plain, is the discovery which was made to Sir William Boswell by Andreas ab Habnerfeld; which was communicated first by Sir William to my Lord of Canterbury, and by him transmitted to the King then at York, Novemb. 1640. The whole is printed by itself, and in Rushworth's Collections; and is too long here to insert; but the principal parts and matter of the plot was this: That there was a design on foot, by the Papists, against the King and the Archbishop. That, to effect this, the Scottish commotions were raised, and fomented by the Jesuits; that they exasperated the English Dissenters by the severity used against Pryn, Burton, and Bastwick; and the Scots, by the fears of

J Hist. Collect. p. 1314.

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Popery upon the imposition of the Common-Prayer book; that Cuneus or Con, the Pope's Legate, and Chamberlain a Scot, Chaplain and Almoner to Cardinal Richlieu, were the great negociators of this conspiracy; and that the design was to embroil these nations in a civil war. The troubles came on so fast, as may well be supposed, precipitated for fear of a further prosecution of this discovery, that the Archbishop lost his head for refusing a cardinal's hat, and opposing the Scottish Covenanters; and the King his, because he would not give away the crown, and put down the mitre, by granting toleration, 2d. edit. 1682, pp. 50, 51." It was one of the threats of the Covenanters, that "the Enemy should be forced either to give Liberty of Conscience to the Catholicks, or put themselves in danger of losing all, p. 48." Other proofs of the combination might be added. And the following narrative is too curious to be here omitted. It is from the pen of Dr. Bargrave, (whose manuscript I have already noticed,) who was particularly acquainted with Holstenius, one of Milton's friends. Being at Rome, he says, "Cardinel Rossetti was shewed to me to take more perticuler notice of him, because that he had binn almost 3 yeares in England the Popes Nuntio Incognito, as you may find in the Italian Historian mentioned in the margent'.

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e See more particularly Kennet's Register, 1728, pp. 539, 540. And Lord Strafforde's Letters, 1739, vol. ii. p. 74.

f Il Conte Bisaccione Delle Guerre Civili D'Inghilterra, Edit. 2a. 1653, p. 17.

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“An°. 1639 There arriued (sayth he) at London, to reside at the Court as a gentleman traueler, sent by Cardinal Barberino, but effectually he was the Pope's Nuntio, by name Charles Rosetti, an Earle by birth; whoe had taken vpon him the Church habite of a Prelate; whoe was of a greate spirit, actiue, and prudent; able to vndertake business of the greatest difficultie. He was valerous of heart, had a learned tongue, was quick in parts, in breif he was such an one, that his fellow could not be fownde in all the Court of Rome. His letters were dated at Rome the 16th of Aprill: (and then my Author telleth us a secret that we are not to know, viz.) And because that in England he woare a Secular habit, and tooke vpon him no other name but of Conte Rossetti, therefore I will allso hide, where I haue occasion to mention him, his ecclesiasticall title of Monsignore, and giue him onely the title of his noble famely. Vpon his comming to Court, and being courteously receiued, all things went well with the Ro: Catholicks; and those Preists, that by law were to be punished with Death, were onely banished. This was the Spring time of the Catholick Religion in that kingdome, which florished by the sweete favourable blasts of the Conte Rossetti ! Vpon this, libels went about that the King and Archbishop were Popish &c.; wherevpon the Archbishop aduised the King to rid his Court of the Roman Ministers, and to renew the rigour of the

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law. The Conte Rossetti, hearing of this, wold not hide the Interesse for which he was at London; but, vpon this occasion, being made more vigorouse of courrage in this time of dainger, thought that now an opportunety was giuen him to captiuate the Kings soul, and to conduct him to the Catholick Fayth! vpon which he broke his minde to a confident Courtier of theires, whoe yet doubted how to effect it. Rossetti, having bin persuaded by the Queene to write to the Pope for abowt an 100000 sterling to supplie the Kings necesseties, His Holiness his answer was, That the Pope was very ready to supply the King so soone as euer he should declare him selfe a Catholick, the onely auaylable meanes to loosen the chaines of the Treasurie of the Castle of St. Angelo at Rome. But, for a King that should turne to the bosom of the Church, he would lay hands upon that Sacred Treasorie, otherwise shut vp and impenetrable &c.-Where one may reade a greate many Intreegues abowt the lending of this mony, and how resolutely the King withstood theire attempts, and how Rossetti assalted the two Archbishops to returne to the Roman Fayth'. And then we haue mention of Rossetti's letter to the King to perswade him to turn Papist. But he finding his Matie vnmooveable and firme as a rock, that strongly resisteth the fury of stormes and tempests, hauing his Faith fixed and fastned to a more sure foundation; this latent m Nuntio gaue ouer his

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i P. 31. * P. 32, 33.

1 P. 34.

m P. 35.

fruitless designe. Finding (saith my Author) that he gaue light vnto the blinde, that he spake to one that was deaft, and, as the prouerb hath it, wold with water wash a blackmore white, the (latent) Nuntio forsooke him; and stole owt of England (for feare of the Parliament that scented him) by the help of Sig. Giustiniano the Venetian Imbassador, and at his comeing to Rome fu decorato della Porpora Vaticana.

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Though he was forced to be gone, yet the effects of his Nuntiature lasted all the Ciuill Warr, especially amongst the Irish Rebells". To disprooue the calomny that was raysed upon the King (probably both by Papist and Presbyterians) he vsed all the meanes he could to shew that he was a cordiall Protestant, as is seen by his mony then coyned. So in the seuerall Speeches that he made at the head of his Army, one of them, sayth my Author, hath this passage: If I tooke a wife of an other Religion being of the Roman faith, it was with a Universall Consent: If the Lord Rossetti came to my Court, I used him courteously, as a noble man and a strainger, as it is fitt for Princes to doe, and yet vpon onely suspition, and not guilt of any wrong to England, I sent him away.'-My Author in another place, speaking of the death of Archbishop Laud on the Scaffold, by way of scoffe sayth-It had bin better for him to haue turned Catholick,

" P. 44.

。 P. 80.

P P. 124.

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