And for which the king gave them his thanks, assuring them he would do what in him lay, to preserve the Protestant religion, and to do all such things as may tend to the good and benefit of the subject.

Secondly, as to the good laws made the twenty-seventh of Queen Elisabeth, to the preservation of the queen, Protestant religion, and government.

Query III. Whether we may not hopefully expect that the parliament, at their meeting (as the parliament then did) will make such good laws as may tend to preserve the king's person, the government, and Protestant religion, and may secure us against a Popish successor, and punish the Popish traytors and delinquents; as this parliament and other parliaments of this queen did, and as was in the hearts and endeavours of the last worthy parliament to effect, not only by the good acts they had prepared against the Papists, and resolutions to try the delinquents, but in that famous act to exclude the Duke of York from the succession, in pursuance of their vote, viz.

Ordered,

Sunday, May 11, 1679.

That a bill be brought in to disable the Duke of York to inherit the imperial crown of this realm.

Which bill was brought in accordingly, being read, and passed, and ordered to be engrossed, and was as followeth :

A COPY OF THE BILL CONCERNING THE DUKE OF

YORK.

Forasmuch as these kingdoms of England and Ireland, by the wonderful providence of almighty God, many years since, have been delivered from the slavery and superstition of Popery, which had despoiled the king of his sovereign power, for that it did and doth advance the Pope of Rome to a power over sovereign princes, and makes him monarch of the universe, and doth withdraw the subjects from their allegiance, by pretended absolutions from all former oaths and obligations to their lawful sovereign, and by many superstitions and immoralities hath quite subverted the ends of the Christian religion; but notwithstanding that Popery hath been long since condemned, by the laws and statutes of this realm, for the detestable doctrines and trayterous attempts of its adherents, against the lives of their lawful sovereigns, kings, and queens of these realms, yet the emissaries, priests, and agents for the Pope of Rome, resorting into this kingdom of England in great numbers, contrary to the known laws thereof, have, for several years last past, as well by their own devilish acts and policies, as by counsels and assistances of foreign princes and prelates, known enemies to these nations, contrived and carried on a most horrid and execrable conspiracy to destroy and murder the person of his sacred majesty, and to subvert the antient government of these realms, and to extirpate the Protestant religion, and massacre the true professors thereof; and for the better effecting their wicked designs and encouraging their villainous

accomplices, they have trayterously seduced James, Duke of York, presumptive heir to these crowns, to the communion of the Church of Rome, and have induced him to enter into several negotiations with the pope, his cardinals, and nuncio's, for promoting the Romish Church and interest, and by his means and procurement have advanced the power and greatness of the French king to the manifest hazard of these kingdoms, that, by the descent of these crowns upon a Papist, and by foreign alliances and assistance, they may be able to succeed in their wicked and villainous designs. And forasmuch as the parliament of England, according to the laws and statutes thereof, have heretofore, for great and weighty reasons of state, and for the publick good and common interest of this kingdom, directed and limited the succession of the crown in other manner than of course it would otherwise have gone; but never had such important and urgent reasons, as at this time press and require their using of their said extraordinary power in that behalf. Be it therefore enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by, and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons, in this parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same. And it is hereby enacted accordingly, that James, Duke of York, Albany, and Ulster (having departed openly from the Church of England, and having publickly professed and owned the Popish religion, which hath notoriously given birth and life to the most damnable and hellish plot, by the most gracious providence of God lately brought to light) shall be excluded and disabled, and is hereby excluded and disabled for ever, from possessing, having, holding, inheriting, or enjoying the imperial crowns and governments of this realm and these kingdoms, and of all territories, countries, and dominions now, or which shall hereafter be under his majesty's subjection, and of and from all titles, rights, prerogatives, and revenues, with the said crowns, now, or hereafter to be enjoyed; and that upon the demise or death of his majesty, without heirs of his body (whom God long preserve) the crowns and governments of these kingdoms, and all territories, countries, and dominions now, or which shall hereafter be under his majesty's subjection, with all the rights, prerogatives, and revenues therewith, of right enjoyed, and to be enjoyed, shall devolve and come upon such person who shall be next lawful heir of the same, and who shall have always been truly and professedly of the Protestant religion now established by law within this kingdom, as if the said Duke of York were actually dead; and that whatever acts of sovereign power the said Duke of York shall at any time exert or exercise, shall be taken, deemed, and adjudged, and are hereby declared and enacted high-treason and to be punished accordingly.

And forasmuch as the peace, safety, and well-being of these kingdoms do so intirely depend upon the due execution of, and obedience to this law, be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person shall in any wise, at any time, during the king's life (which God preserve) or after his demise or decease, aid, assist, counsel, or hold correspondence with the said Duke of York, who is and ought to be esteemed a perpetual enemy to these kingdoms and governments, either within these kingdoms or out of them; or shall endeavour or contrive

his return into either of them, or into any of the territories or domi. nions of the same; or shall, during the king's life, publish or declare him to be the lawful, or rightful successor apparent, presumptive, or other heir to the crown of England; or shall, after the demise or decease of the king that now is, proclaim, publish, or declare the said Duke of York to be king, or to have right or title to the crown or government of England or Ireland; or shall, by word, writing, or printing, maintain or assert that he hath any manner of right or title to the crown or government of these kingdoms, and shall be therefore convict upon the evidence of two or more lawful and credible witnesses, shall be adjudged guilty of high-treason, and shall suffer and forfeit as in cases of high-treason.

And forasmuch as the said duke's return, or coming into any of the aforesaid kingdoms, countries, territories, or dominions, will naturally conduce to bring vast mischiefs, and all the evil hereby provided against upon them, in war and slaughter, and unspeakable calamities, which therefore the said duke must be presumed to design by such his return, or coming into any of the aforesaid kingdoms, countries, territories, or dominions; be it therefore likewise enacted, and it is hereby enacted by the authority aforesaid, that, if the duke do at any time hereafter return or come into any of the aforesaid kingdoms, countries, territories, or dominions, he shall be and is hereby, thereupon and for so doing, attainted of high-treason; and all manner of persons whatsoever are hereby authorised and required, to apprehend, secure, and imprison his person; and, in case of resistance made by him, or any of his accomplices, to subdue, or imprison him, or them, by force of arms.

Query IV. Whether the Protestants of England have not cause, by sad experience, to be made sensible what a horrid detestable thing the Popish religion is, or rather, what a faction and confederacy it is against all mankind, that submit not their bodies and souls to that ty. rannous Romish yoke; who by principle (to accomplish their cursed ends and designs) can violate faith, say, swear, forswear any thing, yea at the very point of death, [witness their own books, and late tryals and executions] kill and murder kings, [as their own writings and practices in all ages, and particularly their designs and attempts upon Queen Elisabeth, King James, and his majesty that now is, so fully evidence] massacre their neighbours, friends, and nearest relations, [witness Paris, Piedmont, the 300,000 in Ireland, and the late never to be forgotten hellish butchery of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey] fry and burn our persons, [as Smithfield, &c. witnesseth] fire and lay waste our cities, [which London in chief can never forget, and who had their hands in chief therein] buy and sell (at the devotion of foreigners) the prorogations and dissolutions of our parliaments [as Coleman's and the treasurer's Letters can at large tell you]. How brutishly cruel and barbarous to their native country [by their late designing not only to raise an army within us to inslave us, but to bring upon us that army of foreigners, the Spanish crusado or pilgrims, under the pope's banner, those devils incarnate as they appeared to the Waldenses of old.] How restless and unwearied in their conspiracies and attempts, notwithstanding their many frustrations [just as it was in Queen Elisabeth's

time, when though sixty-seven priests and Jesuits were then executed, and fifty-three banished, discovered and defeated in every enterprise; yet no sooner was one design made abortive, but they presently hatched and attempted another, and so went on all her days; and how good they have been at it since, through the three succeeding kings reigns to this very day, the St. Omer's Records, Kalendar of Newgate, and Parliament Rolls can fully tell you.] And with what horrid impudence [as in the Powder Treason, Paris and Irish massacres] they can out-face the fullest and clearest discoveries (though brought as now so undeniably out of their own bowels and so multiplied upon them, [wit ness their atheistical, astonishing, lying deaths, and those swarms of insolent and audacious papers, daily, like their fire-balls, flung amongst us, and which, like wild-fire, take place with some persons, as in their houses formerly] sometimes as though a Protestant plot to destroy them. And again, so hellishly and jesuitically subtle in managing their de signs [that, when the bare-faced Papist cannot do it, the Protestant in masquerade shall] the stratagem of this very day and above all to be watched against.) As, Coleman's declaration for the church of England, at that very time when they so designed its extirpation; being, as you will also find, the very devilism of Savage and other priests in Queen Elisabeth's time; who, the better to lull in security, and to cover Babington's treasons in killing the queen, which they had engaged him and others at that time to perpetrate, do at the same time write a book, exhorting the Papists in England to attempt nothing against their prince, and to use only the Christian weapons of tears, prayers, watching, and fasting. And, at another time, the better to divert the stroke so unavoidably coming upon them, they fall upon their old method to divide the Protestants among themselves; and therefore, putting on a vizard of conformity, cry loudly out against the Presbyterians, as being only a plot of their devising, who, under pretence of suppressing of Popery, have no other design than to cast down the mitre and the crown (being poor hearts so tender of heretical kings and bishops); so villainous are these miscreants, who, with their father the devil, can transform themselves into any shape to accomplish their ends, and accommodate their mischievous purposes.

Therefore, whether all true-hearted English Protestants, though of different forms and persuasious, as they value their bodies, souls, estates, posterities, religion, peace and prosperity of king and country, are not thoroughly engaged by all ways and means to preserve and deliver themselves from such a hellish and intolerable yoke and bondage; and in order thereto to preserve peace and union amongst themselves, so eminently struck at in this very juncture; without which it is not to be attained, and which the common enemy knows right well.

Query V. Whether for any pretending protestantism (after such undeniable demonstrations of their hellish and damnable plottings and actings, as before) having seen our cities and boroughs so often fired and refired, Sir Edmondbury Godfrey butchered, Coleman's and the treasurer's letters (so signally brought to light), two parliaments repeated votes, the kings reiterated proclamations, the publick fasts, and bishops prayers; who can now at last be made so drunk with the

cup of their fornications, and bewitched with their lying inchantments and forgeries; (so as giving the lye to king and parliament, and their own senses) to defraud and invalidate the witnesses, mince or. deny the plot; and call it with them a Protestant or Presbyterian project, pleading for a Popish successor; ought to be esteemed others than betrayers of their king and country, runagadoes from their religion (if ever Protestants at all) and the worst of Papists; and that, whatever otherwise they might pretend, yet to be so marked and dealt with in city and country.

Query VI. Whether the Protestant interest in these nations, in the feeling sense of their most imminent danger, would, as one man, petition and beseech his majesty, as he tenders his own life and safety, the preservation of the Protestant religion, the lives and liberties of his people, security and peace of his kingdoms and governments; and to be secured not only from the restless attempts of such an inveterate, implacable enemy within us, but from the present threats, and great preparations, of a successful potent enemy without us: That he be not prevailed with by any, either to retard the parliament's sitting, or when sat, to hinder the passing of such good laws as may naturally tend to the common safety of these nations, and therein of his own person and Protestant religion.

Query VII. Whether it may not well become the wisdom of the parliament, at their next meeting (the better to secure the Protestant cause and interest, so eminently struck at in this juncture both at home and abroad) to petition his majesty not only for a right ordering of a Protestant league and association within ourselves in these three kingdoms, but to further and promote the same amongst all the Protestant princes and countries, as well within themselves, as one with another; as the most hopeful way to frustrate the usurping attempts not only of the old Pretender, but the new rampant designer to the universal monarchy, the better to inslave the bodies and souls of the nations,

THE

ANTIQUITY and DIGNITY of PARLIAMENTS.

WRITTEN BY SIR ROBERT COTTON.

Printed Anno Domini 1679. Folio. Containing thirteen pages.

That the Kings of England have been pleased, usually, to consult in the great Council of Marriage, Peace and War, with their Peers and Commons in Parliament.

To search so high as the Norman conquest, that is necessary to

lay down the form and government of those times, wherein state affairs were led in another form of publick councils: for the people wrought, under the sword of the first William and his followers, to a