lastly the Earl of Northampton made a long and elaborate discourse against him in which he largely handled the Authority which the Popes arrogate to themselves of deposing Princes and discussed that Chapter of Nos sanctorum the ground as he said of this and such like Conspiracies At length Sentence is passed by the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench that Garnet should be Drawn Hanged and Quartered His Plea for himself was only this that although he did a long time before know of the Conspiracy by common same and Rumours for Greenwell only informed him of all the particulars but under the Seal of Confession by the Laws of which he was forbidden to discover it to any man living yet that he did admonish Greenwell to desist from the Fact which he did very much disapprove of and to hinder others engaged in Conscience or privity in it Here Cecill severely reproved him For said he if he did disapprove of the Fact why did he afford Greenwell the benefit of Absolution before he had by his penitence given testimony that he did truly and from his heart detest the Fact Furthermore when as he understood the matter from Catesby where there was no Seal of Confession this was sufficient to have made a discovery of the Plot if he had so highly abhorred it as he did pretend But there were other things that lay heavy upon his charge and these chiefly which were amongst his Confessions written with his own hand and sent to the King viz. That Greenwell did acquaint him with this not as with a sin he had to confess but as an Act which he well enough understood and in which he required his advice and counsel That Catesby and Greenwell came to him to require his advice upon the matter and that the whole business might be resolved among them That Tesmund for so he was now called who e'rewhile was Greenwell and he did not long agone consult together in Essex of the Particulars of this Conspiracy Lastly when Greenwell asked who should be Protector of the Kingdom Garnet answered that that answer ought to be deferred till they saw how things should go When these things were brought to his remembrance and did make it appear that he knew of the Conspiracy otherwise then by the way of Confession all that he answered was that whatsoever he had signed with his own hand was true Being brought to Execution the Third of May being Inventio crucis Holy rood day he said he came thither that day to find an end at length of all the crosses that he had born in this life that none were ignorant of the cause of his punishment that he had sinned against the King in concealing it that he was sorry for it and humbly begged the Kings Pardon that the Plot against the King and Kingdom was bloody and which if it had taken effect he should have detested with all his heart and that so horrid and inhumane a Fact should be attempted by Catholicks was that that grieved him more then his death Then he added many things in defence of Anne Vaux who was held in Prison and lay under great suspition upon his account Being accused that he had while Q Eliz. was alive received certain Breves from Rome v. Proceedings Q 3. in which he and the Peers inclined to Popery were admonished that when that miserable Woman should happen to die they should admit of no Prince how nearly soever related in blood but such as should not only tolerate the Catholick Faith but by all means promote it he said he had burnt them the King being received for King And when the was again Examined upon the same things he referred Henry Montacute who asked him about it The Recorder of London to his Confessions subscribed by him Being taxed for sending Edmund Bainham to Rome not to return to the City before the Plot should take effect This he thus excused as if he had not sent him upon that account but that he might inform the Pope of the calamitous state of England and consult with him what course the Catholicks should take and therefore referred them again to his Confessions Then he kneeled down upon the Stage to his Prayers and looking about hither and thither did seem to be distressed for the loss of his life and to hope a Pardon would be brought him from the most merciful Prince Montacute admonished him that he should no longer think of life but if he knew of any Treachery against the King or Kingdom that he should as a dying man presently discover it for that it was now no time to Equivocate At which words Garnet being somewhat moved made answer that he knew the time did not admit of Equivocation that how far and when it is lawful to Equivocate he had otherwhere delivered his opinion that now he did not equivocate and that he knew nothing but what he had confessed Then he excused himself that he did at first dissemble before the Lords That he did so because he did not think they had had such testimony and proof against him till they did produce it which when they did produce he thought it as honourable for him to confess as it would have been at first to have accused himself He added many things to excuse Greenwell professing that unless he thought he were out of danger he would not have discovered the guilt of his dear Brother in this Conspiracy Then praying that the * He said also I exhort them all to take heed they enter not into any Treasons Rebellions or Insurrections against the King Catholicks in England might not fare the worse upon his account he crossed himself and after he had commended his Soul to God the Ladder being taken away he was hang'd to death In his behalf Andreas Eudaimon-Johannes a Cretian of the same Society wrote an †Against which Robert Abbot wrote his Antilogia edit Lond. 1613. 4. Apology in answer to Sir Edw. Cokes Book Intituled Actio in Proditores for so much the Title doth imply published four years after and approved by Claudius Aquaviva Provincial of the Society in which chiefly the Doctrine of Equivocation is defended and explained from Scripture Fathers Schoolmen and Thomists and the necessity and matter of the Seal of Secresie or Confession is debated and the chief heads of his Accusation are answered the Speech of the Earl of Northampton is refuted Moreover he doth endeavour to evince that Garnet never knew any thing of the Conspiracy but by the way of Confession and that he did always abhor the Treason Then some things are related of his Constancy at his Death which are not related in the History of it And as a conclusion of his Commentary there is the memorable Story of the Straw upon which the Essigies of the Dead was seen at which he saith his Adversaries were very much disturbed Whiles the Body was quartered by the Hangman some drops of blood fell upon the Straw that was there provided to light the fire John Wilkinson who was there present that he might gather some relique of the Body of Garnet carried home with him an Ear that was sprinkled with blood and deposited it with a Gentlewoman Hu. Griffith 's Wife who kept it with great veneration in a Christal-glass Afterward it was observed with great admiration that the Effigies of Garnet was plainly expressed in that blood Then with great Zeal was the same of the Miracle spread abroad which others did presently elude by a contrary construction saying It ought to seem no wonder if a man brought up among Exiles in Flanders improved at Rome in Italy authorized to a Conspiracy in his own Countrey and breathing nothing but revenge did as long as he lived thirst after the blood of his Countreymen should when dead deserve to be pictured in blood So dangerous a thing it is in these corrupt times to say any thing for the honour of any man in those things which do exceed belief and the common course of Nature which may not presently be retorted to his disparagement This end had this Conspiracy the strangest that either our or former ages do make mention of for contrivance daringness or cruelty For it is often heard of and fame doth deliver it down to posterity that many Princes are cut off by Treachery many Common-wealths are attempted by the snares and falshood of their Enemies But no Countrey no Age ever bred such a Monster of Conspiracy as this wherein the King with the Queen the Parents with their whole Issue all the States of the Kingdom the whole Kingdom it self and in it innumerable Innocents should all be destined to one Destruction in one moment for a Sacrifice to the lust of a few enraged Minds But it was very well that that Monster which they themselves that bear the blame of it do both by word and writing every where detest being so long before conceived at home should be strangled in the birth before ever it see the light A little while after Isaac Casaubon when he went into England thinking of nothing less than to be engaged in this business upon occasion of another Apology sent to him and by him delivered to the King of Great Britain wrote an Elegant Epistle to Fronto Ducaeus in which he sheweth that Garnet knew otherwise then under the Seal of Confession of the Powder Conspiracy by his own Confession and Testimony written with his own hand and doth at large discuss the Doctrine of Equivocation as ensnaring and pernicious against the Arguments of Eudaimon-Johannes Against which not Ducaeus but Eudaimon-Johannes doth rail sufficiently FINIS
A TRUE NARRATION Of that Horrible CONSPIRACY AGAINST King JAMES And the whole PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND Commonly called the Gun-Powder TREASON Written in Latine by Jacobus Augustus Thuanus Privy-Councillor to the King of France and President of the Supream Senate of that Kingdom Faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew Bell by Flying-Horse Court in Fleet-street 1674. The History of the Powder-Plot Translated out of Thuanus lib. 135. MDCV. NOw shall we in a contiued Relation declare that Horrid and by all Parties justly * So detestable it seems it was to some of the Students of the English Colledge at Rome that being informed of the discovery of the Plot Sixteen of them abhorring such jugling and bloody Designs forsook the Colledge slipt into France some of them turning to the Church of England whither they came Foulis Hist of Popish Treasons li. 10. c. 2. p. 692. detested Conspiracy entred into a-against the King of Great Britain which being discovered about the end of this year 1605 was in the next year suppressed by the Death of the Conspirators To the Petition for Liberty of Conscience made by the Papists in the former Session of Parliament and rejected by the King there was a rumour there would be another preferred at the next Sessions which had been now often deferred which should be in no danger of being denyed as the former but should carry with it a necessity of being granted by the King whither he would or not Therefore those that managed the Affairs of the Kingdom under a generous and no wayes suspicious King fearing nothing worse did make it their business to avoid such Petitions and that necessity that did attend them But among the Conspirators it was consulted not how they might obtain the Kings savour which they now despaired of but how they might revenge that repulse though with the ruine of the Kingdom which the other never thought of The beginning of these Counsels are to be derived from the latter end of Q. Elizabeth For then as appeared afterwards by proofs and confessions Robert Winter to whom Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell of the Society of the Jesuits joyned himself as his Companion was by the advice of Hen. Garnet Provincial or Superiour of the said Society in England Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham of the Gentry instigating privately sent into Spain in the name of the Catholicks with Letters Commendatory to Arthur Creswell of the same Society living in Spain Dec. 1601. Mandatis and with Commands to the King of which this was the summe That he should forthwith send an Army into England for which the Catholicks would be ready in Arms as soon as it came over In the mean while that he should assign yearly Pensions to some Catholick Gentlemen Furthermore that he should insinuate it to the King that there were some Gentlemen and Military persons that were aggrieved at the Present state of things whom he might easily draw to his Part by relieving their necessities And whereas the greatest difficulty after the Landing such an Army would be for supply of Horses they in England would take care to have Two thousand Horses ready provided upon all occasions This thing was secretly transacted by the Mediation of Creswell with Petrus Francesa Secretary to King Philip and Franciscus Sandovallius Duke of Lerma and he affirmed that the thing would be very acceptable to King Philip and that he had offered his utmost assistance that it was also agreed among them of the Place of Landing For if the forces were great then Kent and Essex would be most commodious for their Landing if less Milford in Wales and that King Philip had promised by Count Miranda toward that Expedition Ten hundred thousand Crowns Decies centena aureorum M. Stored with these promises Winter returns into England and acquaints Garnet Catesby and Tresham what he had done These things were transacted under Q Elizabeth who dying about this time Christopher Wright who was privy to these Matters is speedily sent into Spain Mar. 1603. who bringing the News of the Queens Death presseth the business of the Pensions and the Expedition Sir Will. Stanly With him was sent from Bruxells by William Stanly Hugh Owen and Balduinus one of the Society of the Jesuits Guido Fawkes 22 Jun. 1603. with Letters to Creswell that he should speed the business To him was given in Command that he should signifie to the King that the Condition of the Catholicks would be more hard under the new King then it had been under Q. Elizabeth and therefore that he should by no meant desist from so laudable an Enterprize That Milford lay open for an easie Landing to Spinola But the slate of things was changed by the death of the Queen and King Philip returned an Answer worthy of a King that he could no longer attend to their Petitions for that he had sent Ambassadors into England to treat of Peace with the new King Therefore despairing of their design as to King Philip the Conspirators fly to their last and desperate Counsels and in the first place they make it their business to satisfie their Consciences and that being done they confirm their resolutions to attempt some great Enterprize And thus their Divines discoursed To depose Kings to grant their Kingdome to others it in the power of the Supream Judge of the Church But all Hereticks being ipso jure separated from communion of the Faithful are every year on Holy Thursday Caena Domini excommunicated by the Pope And this holdeth not only in Professed Hereticks but in those that are covertly such because being reputed ipso Jure Excommunicate they do incur the same Penalties which are ipso facto deserved by professed Hereticks From thence it follows that Kings and other Christian Princes if they fall into Heresie may be deposed and their Subjects discharged of their Allegiance Nor can they recover their Right again no not though they should be reconciled to the Church When it is said that the Church the Common Mother of all doth shut her bosome against none that return to her this is to be understood with a distinction viz. provided it be not to the damage or danger of the Church For this is true as to the Soul but not as to the Kingdom Nor ought this punishment to be extended only to Princes that are thus infected but also to their Sons who for their Fathers Sin are excluded from Succession in the Kingdom For Heresie is a Leprosie and an Hereditary Disease and to speak more plainly he loseth his Kingdom that deserteth the Roman Religion he is to be accursed abdicated proscribed neither is he nor any of his Posterity to be restored to the Kingdom as to his Soul he may be absolved by the Pope only Thinking themselves abundantly secured within by these reasonings they begin to seek outward strengthenings to their Conspiracy and chiefly Secresie which
they sealed by Confession and the receiving of the Sacrament To this end there was an Oath drawn up amongst them May 1604. in which they did engage their Faith by the H. Trinity and the Sacrament which they were presently to receive that they would neither directly nor indirectly by word or circumstance discover the Plot now to be communicated to them nor would they desist from prosecuting it unless allowed by their Associates Thus being encouraged by the Authority of their Divines they betake themselves to the adventure as not only lawful laudable but meritorious This was done before John Gerard of that Society Unto this after Confession by the Sacrament of the Holy Altar were drawn in the next May at first five of the Conspirators Robert Catesby Tho. Winter Tho. Percy Kinsman to the E. of Northumberland John Wright and the aforementioned Fawkes called out of Flanders Catesby the Author of this Tragedy thought it not enough that this or that or any single person should be aimed at but that all together and at the same time should be comprehended in this Conspiracy For so he reasoned with himself The King himself might many wayes be taken away but this would be nothing as long as the Prince and the Duke of York were alive again if they were removed yet this would advantage nothing so long as there remained a Parliament so vigilant so circumspect to whatever might happen or if the Parliament could or the chief Members of it could be destroyed there would remain still the Peers of the Realm so many Prudent Persons so many powerful Earls addicted to that Party whom they could hardly resist and who by their Authority Wealth and Dependants would be able if occasion should be to restore things to their former state Therefore not by delayes but at one blow all were to be swallowed up and so laudable an Atchievement was to be brought to effect altogether and at once At Westminster there is an old Palace of very great Honor and Veneration for its Antiquity in which the great Councils of the Kingdom are used to be celebrated which by a word borrowed from us they call a Parliament In this the King with His Male issue the Bishops of His Privy Councel the Peers the English Nobility the Chief Magistrates and those that are delegated from particular Counties Cities Towns and Burroughs in short the Men of greatest Wisdom and Counsel do meet together Here Catesby thought a convenient place to execute his so long studied and digested Plot and having made a Vault and storing it with a great quantity of Gun-Powder to involve all those together who could not severally be taken together with the King and His Family in the Rubbish of the same Ruines Therefore when he had dealt with Piercy and he after many bitter complaints of the King through impatience broke forth into these words That there was only one way left to be delivered from so many Evils and that was to take the King out of the way and to that end as he was ready for any attempt did freely offer his own Service Catesby who was more cautious and cunning moderated the Gentlemans heat and God forbid said he that this Head of thine so dear to all good men should be so fruitlesly exposed to such danger The business may be undertaken and accomplished yet so as that you and such as you are may still be preserved for further consulting for Religion and the Publick weal. Then he opens his design in very plausible words and with like Artifice shews him the manner how it was to be effected Piercy agrees and presently hires an House nigh to the place and very opportune to work his Vault The Parliament that was called the year before was deferred till February following Nov. 1604. Mean while Tho. Bates Catesby's Servant a dextrous Fellow and one in whom his Master did much confide being least he should suspect any thing taken into the privity of the Fact when at first he seemed to be moved at the horridness of the thing he is sent to Tesmund alias Greenwell for those men that they might the better be undiscovered went under two Names sometimes under three by whom he was perswaded and strangely confirmed to the Execution of the design being made sensible of the Meritoriousness of the work Afterwards Robert Keyes and after him Ambrose Rockwood and John Grant were taken into the Plot. III Eid Xbr. the Vault was begun Dec. 11. Christopher Witchie and a little after Robert Winter being also taken into the Society The work being often intermitted and often repeated at length the Vault was brought to the Wall of the Court where a new difficulty ariseth from the hardness of the Wall and the thickness of three Ells so that under a long time the work could not be finished and there were now but a few dayes to the sitting of the Parliament And now the pertinacious industry of the Workman had almost beat its way through the middle of the Wall and they seemed not so much to want good minds to the work as time when as the Parliament was put off till the Month of October Then was Despair turned into Joy with certain confidence that they should effect their design and it was observed that whiles they briskly beat upon the Wall there was a noise heard upon the other side of the Wall Thither Fawks is sent to enquire out the cause He brings word back that there was a Cellar under Ground from whence they were removing Cole he beinst lately Dead who had hired that Cellar for his own use Therefore the Conspirators thinking that Cellar more commodious by the help of Piercy let out their other Houses and bring all their Materials hopes into this Such was the opportuneness of the place for it was almost directly under the Royal Throne that so seasonable an accident did make them perswade themselves that God did by a secret Conduct favour their Attempt These things happened about the Feast of Easter The Gun-powder is at their leisure carried into the Cellar from Catesby's House over against the Palace where it had been with great care and diligence brought together First Twenty Barrels are layed in and covered with Billets and Faggots Then the Conspirators being sure of the good event began to consult what was to be done after they had effected their Plot First they consider'd of taking the Prince who about that time they came to understand would not come to the Parliament with his Father contrary to what they concluded in the beginning and against him they plotted destruction as one that was no Friend of theirs and they had found out a way for it The next care was for Supplies of Money concerning which they thought they had sufficiently provided They had also provided that the Peers and Gentry addicted to Popery should as much as might be be exempt from danger Lastly they debated concerning calling in
and down the Woods at last fell into the hands of the Guards and were all committed to the Tower at London Being Examined without the rack for only Fawks was put under this way of Examination and that but moderately they severally discovered the whole series of the matter as we have before recounted and taxed none in Holy Orders which many looked upon as purposely avoided because they were bound by Oath not to do it When as Franois Tresham had before he dyed in Prison of his own accord nominated Henry Garnet being admonished thereof by his Wife he wrote a Letter to the Earl of Salisbury and excusing his too rash confession he so discharged Garnet as much as in him lay by a solemn adjuration interposed that he did entangle himself in a notorious lye affirming †He took it upon his Salvation even in articulo mortis a lamentable thing for within three hours after he dyed Proceedings against the late Traitors C c 2.3 that he had not seen Garnet of sixteen years when as it did appear afterward by the confession of Garnet * And of Mrs. Anne Vaux who confessed that she had seen Mr. Tresham with Garnet at her house three or four times since the Kings coming in and that they were at Erith together the last Summer and that Garnet and she were not long since with Mr. Tresham at his house in Northampton-shire and stayed there Proceedings ibid. that they had often and for a long time together conversed one with another before the six Moneths last past Digby confessing the matter as it was in truth endeavoured †He sought to clear all the Jesuits of those practises whith they themselves have now confessed ex ore proprio Proceedings ibid. Even at the time of Garnets Tryal was current throughout the Town a report of a Retractation under Bates his hand of his accusation of Greenwell Proceedings ibid. to excuse the horridness of the Fact MDCVI which he acknowledged and seemed to detect by the desperateness of their condition For being made to hope that the new King upon his coming to the Kingdom would indulge liberty of Conscience to those of the Popish Religion and would permit the exercise thereof with some restriction This being denyed it drove those miserable men unadvisedly to pernicious Counsels Here the Earl of Northampton and Cecil who together with the Earl of Nottingham Suffolk Worcester and Devonshire did sit as Judges in that Cause interposed affirming that the King never gave them any hope of liberty nor ever engaged his word for it but factious persons did maliciously throw such a report abroad that they might have a pretence wherewith to excuse both themselves and such as they were for the Seditions which they raised in the Kingdom At length being Convicted and found Guilty they are condemned to the punishment wont to be inflicted by the Laws of the Realm upon Rebels and Traytors Everard Digby Robert Winter John Grant and Thomas Bates were Executed at London nigh the Western Gate of St. Paul's Church in the later end of January The day following Tho. Winter Ambrose Rockwood Robert Keies and Guido Fawks who confessed that they had wrought in the Vault were Executed at Westmonaster in the Old Palace yard near the Parliament house Upon this many who for this cause were banished or of their own accord changed their Native Soil were most courteously received at Calice by Dominick Wikes Vicus the Governour there for so the King commanded Of whom one was of such a perverse mind that when Wikes did shew himself to bewail his and his Companions fortune and for their comfort added Though they had lost their Native Countrey yet by the Kings grace they had a Neighbouring one allowed them Nay saith the other It is the least part of our grief that we are banished our Native Countrey and that we are forced to change our Soil because every good man counts that his Countrey where he can be well this doth truly and heartily grieve us that we could not bring so generous and wholsom a design to perfection Which as soon as Vicus contrary to his expectation had heard he could hardly for anger abstain from throwing that man into the Sea who gloryed in such a Plot as was damned by all men For so I remember I have heard Vicus often say when together with Alexander Delbenius he came courteously upon the account of our Ancient friendship to visit me a little before he went from us The Plot being discovered the Parliament among publick rejoycings was held with great security To whom the King made a most weighty Oration and set forth the inexpressible Mercy of God over all his works towards Himself his Family and His whole Kingdom largely aggravating the thing from its several circumstances This temperament being * And this conclusion with no less truth That as upon the one part many honest men seduced with some errors of Popery may yet remaine good faithful Subjects So as on the other part none of those that truly know and believe the whole ground and School conclusions of their Doctrine can ever prove either good Christians or faithful Subjects He had said a little before That many honest men blinded peradventure with some opinions of Popery yet do they either not know or at least not believe all the true grounds of Popery which is indeed the mysterie of Iniquity with great Justice added That he did not say All that were addicted to the Romish Religion were to be included as guilty of this Crime for that there were many among them who although they are involved in Popish Errors so he called them yet had they not lost their true Loyalty to Princes but did observe the Duty both of a Christian man and of a good Subject and that he in return had good thoughts of them and that he thought the Severity of the Puritans was worthy of flames who deny that any Papist can be received into Heaven This likewise was worthy the Wisdom of a most just Prince that he did Judge that no Forreign Prince nor Common-wealth nor none that did manage affairs for them had any hand in this Conspiracy as who did judg of them according to his own mind and temper and would think of others what he would that they should think of him Therefore he did will and require that when any mention should be made of this Conspiracy in Parliament every one should speak and think honourably of them Which thing was done for the respect that he bore to the Spaniards with whom desiring to keep that peace which he of late made with them he would not leave any the least appearance of an alienated affection or a suspicious mind He added this most generously That he would that all men should understand that resting in Gods protection the tranquility and quiet of his mind was not at all disturbed by this accident and that he did wish that