Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/274

 236 Readings in European History Objects of the present remonstrance. The Jesuits. had not only assaulted but even overwhelmed and extin- guished the liberty, peace, and prosperity of this kingdom, the comfort and hopes of all his Majesty's good subjects, and exceedingly weakened and undermined the foundation and strength of his own royal throne, do yet find an abound- ing malignity and opposition in those parties and factions who have been the cause of those evils and do still labor to cast aspersions upon that which hath been done, and to raise many difficulties for the hindrance of that which remains yet undone, and to foment jealousies between the king and Parliament, that so they may deprive him and his people of the fruit of his own gracious intentions, and their humble desires of procuring the public peace, safety, and happiness of this realm. For the preventing of those miserable effects, which such malicious endeavors may produce, we have thought good to declare the root and the growth of these mischievous designs ; the maturity and ripeness to which they have at- tained before the beginning of the Parliament ; the effec- tual means which have been used for the extirpation of those dangerous evils, and the progress which hath therein been made by his Majesty's goodness and the wisdom of the Parliament ; the ways of obstruction and opposition by which that progress hath been interrupted ; the courses to be taken for the removing those obstacles, and for the accomplishing of our most dutiful and faithful intentions and endeavors of restoring and establishing the ancient honor, greatness, and security of this crown and nation. The root of all this mischief we find to be a malignant and pernicious design of subverting the fundamental laws and principles of government, upon which the religion and justice of this kingdom are firmly established. The actors and promoters hereof have been : i. The Jesuited papists, who hate the laws as the obsta- cles of that change and subversion of religion which they so much long for. 2. The bishops and the corrupt part of the clergy, who cherish 'formality and superstition as the natural effects