Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/209

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Was Father Garnet Guilty?
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with the plot, deliberately suppressed the words in which both Winter and Faukes declared that Gerard, when he administered the Sacrament to the original conspirators, was ignorant of the oath which they had previously taken.'

Finally, in dismissing the case of Father Garnet, for the convenience of the reader it is worth while to name the principal charges brought against the Jesuit Provincial, of all of which he was shown to have been guilty,[1] and, therefore to have committed high treason; viz.:—

'1. He had been a party to sending Sir Edward Baynham to Rome. Baynham, a man of bad character, was (as Faukes explained) to inform the Pope of the result of the Plot, had it succeeded.

'2. He had heard of the Plot (outside the confessional) from Father Greenway.

'3. He knew, from two conversations with Catesby, that the plot was in active progress.

'4. He sent Father Greenway to visit the conspirators at Huddington.

'5. On All Saints Day, 1605 (Nov. 1st), he asked his congregation at Coughton, "to pray for some good success for the Catholic cause at the beginning of Parliament" (Nov. 5th).

'6. He made no (known) attempt to save the Parliament from its doom.'

In conclusion, although we may regret that King James and his Government did not temper justice with mercy and commute the death-sentence passed on Garnet to banishment, it must

  1. Irrespective entirely of all the treasonable acts he had committed, as regards his correspondence with Spain, prior to 1605.