Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/273

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History of the Nonjurors.
255

to the head of the imperial faction at Rome, who wrote it to the Emperor, and the Emperor wrote to the Prince of Orange." The writer remarks upon this, "what can justify the Prince, if King James's and the French King's design to ruin them and their religion cannot? Or what better authorities could they have for the truth of it, than the Pope and the Emperor to prevent it, by informing the Prince of Orange what danger the Protestant religion was in? Which will undoubtedly be secure for the future, since the Pope is against the growth of Popery, and the Emperor become guardian of the Protestant religion." He adds: "in short, some body told some body, that the King of France and King James were for introducing Popery: to prevent which, the Pope, the Emperor, the Prince of Orange, the Dutch and English, abdicate King James, and enter into an alliance to make the King of France submit to the Pope's authority." In the same strain, after quoting some passages from Burnet's early writings, in which the resolving of all power into the people is attributed to the assertors of the Pope's deposing power, he remarks: "and now with what face can any Papist be for the Pretender? Or how can the Pretender claim the crown, if a Papist? We see it was by a Popish principle and a Pope's advice that King James was deposed; and therefore the Pretender must either protest against his infallibility and supremacy, which is in effect to turn Protestant; or allow the justice of the Revolution, which is to destroy his own pretensions to the crown."

The writer then specifies some of the advantages, which the Pope gained by the Revolution. One was the abrogation of the Oath of Supremacy: secondly, an alliance formed against France. Pro-