'The HIS T 0 RY of tbe PuRITANS. VoL. IY. InterHere the king fl:ayed twenty days, in which time his majeft y with the R~b~~~· earl of Brijtol and Sir H. Bmnet embraced the Roman catholic religion. ~ !he fecret of thi~ aff~ir ~as well known to lord Clarmdon, though he Eachard, IS pleafed to mentton tt with great tendernefs. " It is believed, fays his P· 75r. :• lordfhip, ?Y wife men, that i? that treaty fomewhat was agreed to Kennet, P• 238. ' the preJUdice of the protefl:ant mtereft; and that in a fbor t time there " would have been much done againft it, both in France and Ger- " many, if the meafures they bad then taken had not been fbortly " broken, chiefly by the furprizing revolution in England, which bap– " pened the next year, and alfo by the death of the two great favou– ., rites of the two crowns, Don L ewis de Haro, and cardinal Maza– " rine, who both died not long after it." But the fecret of the king's reconciliation to the church of Rome has been more fully acknowledged • of late years, by the eldefl: fon of lord C!arendon, and by the duke of Ormond, who declared to feveral perfons of honour, that '' he bi mfelf, " to his great furprize and concern, accidentally in a morning early, " faw the king in the great church on his knees befo re the high altar, " with feveral priefl:s and eccleiiaflics about him. T hat he was foon " after confirme~ in his fentiments by Sir Henry B ennet and the earl of " Brij!ol, who both owned the king to be a catholic as well as them– " [elves; but it was agreed, that this change {hould be kept as the " greatefl: fecret imaginable." There is another fl:ory (fays bifhop Ken– mt) which I have reafon to thi nk true: " Sir H. Benne! was foon after " feen to wait on the king from mafs, at which fight the lord Culpeper " had fo much indignation, that he wen t up to Benne!, and fpoke to " this effect; I feewhat )'OU are at; is this the ~vay to bring our rncljler " home to his three kingdoms ? Weil, Sir, if ever you and I live to fee Eng– " land together, I will hctve your head, or you jhall have mine; which " words ftruck fuch a terror upon S1r l-Iarry Bmnet, that he never du.rfl: " fet foot in England till after the death of lord Culpeper, who met wtth . " a very furprizing end, foon after the king's return." . Proofs of h_is But though the prime minillers of France and Spam were now firft heing a papijl witneffes of his majefl:y's abju ring the proteftant religion, there are firong ~~~;~. prefumptions that he was a papif!: long befor~, even before his brother Memoirs. ']ames, if we may credit the tefl:imony of h1s confeffor father Huddle– P• 126. )ion. To t he proofs of this fad already mentioned under the yea.r .1652, I would add the tefl:imony of the author of the myfl:ery of wJquny, K eh P rinted 1689, who writes thus; " the king's [Charles the fecond's] apoen. ron. Id · d ] b P• 59 s. " fl:afy, is not of fo late a date as the wor IS ma e common y to e- " lieve, for though it was ma ny years concealed, and the contrary pre- " tended and diffembled, yet it is certain he abjured the proteftant re– " ligion foon after the exilement of the royal .family, and was rec?n- - " Ciled
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=