Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/207

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Was Father Garnet Guilty?
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with the other conspirators), makes it difficult for a candid man to acquit him of a thorough participation in their guilt.'

Winwood[1] (letter from Mr. John Chamberlaine to Winwood, April 5, 1606):—'Garnet, the Jesuit, was arraigned at Guildhall, the 28th of the last. . . . The King was present, but unseen, as likewise divers Ladies. . . . The sum of all was, that Garnet 'coming into England in 1586, hath had his finger in every Treason since that time, and not long before the late Queen's death, had two Breves sent him by the Pope, the one to the nobility and gentry, the other to the Arch-priest and clergy of England, that quandocumque contigerit miseram illam feminam ex hac vita migrare they should take care, neglectâ propinquitate sanguinis, or any other respect, to make choice of such a Prince, as either should be Catholic, or else promise and swear not only to tolerate, but to further that religion to his utmost. But for these matters he was not now to be touched, having taken the benefit of the King's pardon the first year of his reign. But for the late hellish conspiracy he was proved to be privy to it, both from Catesby, and Tesmond or Greenway a Jesuit. To which he answered, that from Catesby he had it but in general terms, and from Tesmond sub sigillo confessionis. To which answer, though it were insufficient, yet it was replied, that Catesby having imparted to him the particulars of the very same plot to be performed in the Queen's time,[2] it was not likely he

  1. Memorials of State collected by Sir JR. Winwood in the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth and K. James I.
  2. There undoubtedly had been a wild scheme, formed during the