738 21"e HISTORY eV' te PURITANS. Chap. X. %. ChartesI.' happy love to them, they had taken up arms ; and accordingly bound ' 6v " themfelves to one another by the following oath. Concern of the englith eeurt.in it. HAT they wouldmaintain the roman catholic religion ; that they would bear truefaith andallegiance to the king andhis heirs, and " defend him and them with their lives and Oates, again/I all perfons that " fhauld endeavour to fupprefi the prerogative, or do any ails contrary to regal government, to the power and privilege of parliaments, and to the rights andprivileges of the fubjebl." They called themfelves the Qt!EEN'S ARMY, and publifhed a procla- mation from their camp at Newry, declaring that they ailedby the king's commit lion, under the great teal of Scotland, dated at Edinburgh Oçta-- ber a. and by letters under his fign manual, of the fame date with the commiflion ; which I believe with lord Clarendon, was a forgery ; tho' 'ds a little unaccountable, that his majefty lhould never by any public ad or declaration of his own, clear himfelf of fo vile a calumny. How- ever, though the king gave out no commifon, there is too much reafon to believe, that the QUEEN and her popifh council, and even the kinghim- felf, was not unacquainted with the deign of an infurreition before it took place; and that her majefly gave it all the countenance (he could with fafety : but when thefe bloodybutchers over-aéted their part to fuch a degree, as to maffacre near two hundred thoufand proteflants in cold blood, to make way for their tyranny, it was time for all parties to dif own them. Bifhop Burnetobferves, " That in the firft defign of an infurreétion " there was no thought of a ma//acre ; this came into their heads as they were contriving methods of executing it ; and as thepeople were go- " verned by the priefts; thefe were the men that fet on the iri/h to all Nalfon,. "'the blood and > cruelty that followed." There was a confultation at. p. 633, the abbey of Multifernan in the countyof.We1lleath; where it was de- bated, what courfe fhould be taken with the proteftants;.. Tome were for expelling them, as the king of Spain did the floors; others preffed to . have them univerfallycut off; but not coming to a conclufion, they left . the army toad at difcretion. How far the pope's nuncioand thequeen's council might be confulted about the maffacre, is a fecret; if we diftin-- guifh between the infurrellion, in order to affume the government into the hands of the it/h papifts, and the ma//acre which attended it, we may conclude without any breach off charity, that the engli/h court admitted'.
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