Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/42

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History of the Nonjurors.

France, he had made him believe, that the Emperor was to send a great army to the Rhine, that he was to join it with one equally great from Holland, and march at the head of both into France. For the advancement of this project great sums were remitted by the Pope to the Emperor: and those sums thus got from the head of the Roman Catholic world were employed in the dethronement of a Roman Catholic King."[1] This account, indeed, reflects no credit on the Prince, since it attributes his success with the Pope to a false representation. But the fact shews, that a combination of singular circumstances contributed to the Revolution. The Pope's "aversion to France threw him into the arms of the Emperor: and he supported in some degree the cause of the Allies with the money of the Church."[2] It seems clear, that the Pope actually knew of the Prince's design, though he could not have contemplated his accession to the throne of Great Britain. "Innocent was by no means a friend to King James. His aversion to Lewis XIV had joined him to the Allies, and even connected him with the Prince of Orange. Many Catholic princes followed the example of the Father of the Church. The Spanish ambassador at the Hague ordered masses to be said publicly in his chapel for the success of the Prince's expedition.


  1. Dalrymple, i. 222.
  2. Macpherson's Papers, I. 299. "It happened," says Ralph, "most favourably for the Protestant religion, that the quarrel between his Holiness and his eldest son now raged with more fury than ever." Ralph, i 976. The Pope, Innocent XI, died in 1689. He was called the Protestant Pope, "though," says Ralph, "for no better reasons that appear than his opposition to France, and the share he had in setting the Prince of Orange on the throne of England." Ibid. ii. 164.