A true copy of a dispute lately held at Rome between Father Conyer, a Jesuit, and Alexander Thompson, a Church of England man and barrister at law, concerning the plot Coniers, George, 1646-1711. 1681 Approx. 9 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 2 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A34397 Wing C5993 ESTC R29330 11076717 ocm 11076717 46256 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A34397) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 46256) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1420:23) A true copy of a dispute lately held at Rome between Father Conyer, a Jesuit, and Alexander Thompson, a Church of England man and barrister at law, concerning the plot Coniers, George, 1646-1711. Thompson, Alexander. 1 sheet ([2 p.]) Printed for John Bringhurst, London : 1681. Caption title. Imprint from colophon. Reproduction of original in the Harvard University Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. Gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. 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Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements). Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng Popish Plot, 1678. Great Britain -- History -- Charles II, 1660-1685. 2006-08 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-08 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-09 Celeste Ng Sampled and proofread 2006-09 Celeste Ng Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion A True Copy of a DISPUTE Lately held at ROME , BETWEEN Father Conyer a Jesuit , and Alexander Thompson a Church of England Man , and Barrister at Law , concerning the PLOT . Jesuite , WELL , Sir , you are willing , I suppose , to vindicate the Execution of your Laws , in every particular , against those Roman Catholicks , that were sacrificed to your Countries Vengeance . Protestant , I shall give you my Apprehensions thereof ; but if my Vindication be not Satisfactory , I will rather believe it to be my own Weakness , than the Justice of your Cause . Jes . I appeal to any man of Sence , whether there was any Probability , there cou'd be a design of taking off the King ? That very Act wou'd have alarm'd the People , and consequently have dasht the Design ; for upon that Juncture , where had we any Forces in readiness to espouse our Cause , and to alter that Government , which cou'd not be subverted , but by Sword ? We cou'd not expect any Forreign Assistance to evade , before your Malitia were Embatteled ; and to believe that a Caball of some designing Heads cou'd execute it , is Groundless . Protest . As to the Fact it self , we know that 't is nothing but what the Principles of your Religion doth enjoyn you to ; 't is reckoned by your Church as Meritorious , and is very consistent with your Conscience . Now , as to the Probability , why this shou'd be executed , 't was very apparent ; your Party had Conspired to sham it upon the Presbyterians , and in order to that , you had given Commissions , and disposed on Preferment to such and such men , as the Discovery of the Meal-Tub-Plot doth very clearly confirm ; then where was the need of an Army in readiness , when you might expect that Justice wou'd be done upon the Presbyterians , whilst you free from Suspition , might unconcernedly look on the Vertigo of the State ? Besides , if in the end you had fail'd in this , yet at present such a general Consternation had seized the Kingdom , that you might easily expect some Forreign Auxiliaries , before the Discovery of your Practices , and the Nation in a Military Posture ; your Church doth authorize and justifie the Actions of that Nature ; and you have daring Clements , and zealous Ravilliats , that think it their Duty to attempt them . Jes . I confess that Mariana doth endeavour to maintain that King-killing Tenet , but it was damned as Pernicious and Vnchristian by the Church : 'T is also objected against Bellarmine ; but it was only inserted into his Volumns by an unknown hand , as is apparent in the Original Copy . But to revert your Assertion against your self , if Regicide be Authorized by our Church , and Heaven promised as a Reward to the Actor , we have Clements in store , that wou'd Assasinate Majesty upon the first Summons or Command ; we need not have contrived so many several sorts of Death , and have ventured the Abortion of our Plot upon the least Miscarriage . Do you think that Pickering would have had the Patience to have waited for an opportunity so long in the Park , when he might easily have had access to the King's Prescence , and might with a surer Fate , than an erring Gun , have dispatcht , and consequently m 〈…〉 d Heaven ? He was unworthy of it , if he durst not dye for 't : The very Lashes he had upon the account of his Negligence was worse than the Pains of Death ; besides the Forfeiture of those Masses that were promised him , upon the Performance . Protest . Though your Religion doth warrant Heaven to such as dare propagate its Interest by such sinister Means , yet I do not perceive , that any of you are so reserved from the Indulgence of the Flesh , as presently to quit your Interest upon Earth , and yield your selves a Victime to appearing Death , if your Contrivances cou'd but prevent its present Execution ; you cou'd be content to live a little here , rather than to purchase your Imaginary Happiness , by embracing a Temporal and Bug-bear Death . Johannes Acutus , one of your Order , and one that entertained as great a Zeal for the Interest of his Church , as the boldest Promoter of your all , and though he had a Warrant signed , for the immediate Possession of Heaven , if he should accidentally be seized after the Execution of his Design upon the Person of Count Ladowick of Nasshaw , yet his mean and dastard Soul durst not publickly play the Russian , but omitted his Opportunities , and was Lash't . Jes . Our Talent of time is now so small , we must not employ it in Canvassing this Point ; let us omit the Opinions of our Church in this King-Killing Tenet , and return to our particulars . Can you imagine , that a Design of this nature , wherein no less than the Death of the KING , and the Alteration of GOVERNMENT was endeavoured , shou'd be communicated to every Papist of any Note through the Realm ? ( as the Depositions of the Evidence would perswade you ) Or that Letters shou'd be sent , or Correspondence kept , in order to that , by the common Post ? Or , that Sir George Wakeman and Groves , &c. were to have so many Hundreds of Pounds for their good Service , and adventure when four Gentlemen that were privy to all the Proceedings , wou'd Assassinate him for Fourscore ? Or that any of the Conspirators , which you believe to be such Profligate Villians , wou'd dye and be damned , when they might be prefered upon Confession ? or being conscious to themselves of the Truth of the Information , that they wou'd not endeavour to make an escape , but wou'd skulk about to be ferreted out by Justices of the Peace , prosecuted and hanged ? Pray reconcile these . Protest . Your first Supposition I answer thus , That although you had confided in the generality of those of your Religion , yet you might believe the Oath of Secrecy , you had imposed upon them , to be so Obligatory , as not to be violated by either Fear or Interest . Secondly , You argue an Improbability that so great a Design shou'd be trusted to the duty of the common Post ; but 't was apparent , you had so far provided , that to prevent the ill consequence of a Miscarriage , you had contrived a Character , which none but your Correspondent cou'd apprehend . Thirdly , It is no Argument against the Probability of the intended Regicide , that the four Assassines were so reasonable in their agreement , it only argues their great Zeal to your general Interest . Fourthly , Although we shou'd be so candid , as not to insist upon the Merit your Church asignes to obstinacy of that Nature , yet some of you , for the very fear of an Injury from their incensed Party , durst not betray the Cause by Confession . Now , whereas they rather stood Tryal , than attempted an escape upon the first Discovery , it might be the Effects of their Impudence , rather than Innocence ; they might expect their Design wou'd be sham'd upon the Dissenters , and so prevent that inconvenience to their future Conduct , that wou'd have attended their flight . Finally , That you have endeavoured this before , if we look back to the fifth of November , we must believe ; and why there is now more Simplicity and Innocence in your Religion , is unaccountable : We had not only sufficient Evidence , but other demonstrating Circumstances to perswade us of the Legality of their Tryals and Execution . FINIS . LONDON , Printed for John Bringhurst , at the Sign of the Book in Grace-Church-street , near Cornhill , 1681.