" There was, however,
another man engaged in a like design to the noble earl, who, if
not less scrupulous, was more daring.
This was one Ross, a Scotsman, who had been made governor of the
young duke on his first coming into England, and who had since
acted as his friend and confidant. Now Ross, who had not failed
to whisper ambitious thoughts into his pupil's head, at this time
sought Dr. Cosin, Bishop of Durham, and according to the "Stuart
Papers," told him "he might do a great piece of service to the
Church of England in keeping out popery, if he would but sign a
certificate of the king's marriage to the Duke of Monmouth's
mother, with whom that bishop was acquainted in Paris. Ross also
told the bishop, to make the thing more easy to him, that during
his life the certificate should not be produced or made use of."
The same papers state that, as a bishop's certificate is a legal
proof of marriage, Dr. Cosin's compliance would have been
invaluable to the duke and his friends. His lordship, however,
rejected the proposition, and laid the matter before the king,
who expelled Ross from court.
Horror of popery and fear of a papist sovereign increased with
time, care having been taken by my Lord Shaftesbury and his party
that the public mind, once inflamed, should be kept ignited. For
this purpose he spread reports abroad that the Irish were about
to rise in rebellion, backed by the French; and that the papists
in London had entered into a vile conspiracy to put their fellow
citizens to the sword on the first favourable opportunity.
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