20 more with Barrs of Iron and massie Stones and at the last made up the Number Thirty Six over which they laid a Thousand Billets and Five-hundred Faggots And at a Meeting at the Bath of Percy and Catesby it was agreed that Catesby should take in whom he thought fit who thereupon engaged Sir Everard Digby that promised to advance 1500 l. towards it and Mr. Francis Tresham that gave him assurance of 2000 l. All things thus being in a readiness the Parliament was again Prorogued till the Fift of November upon which they retired with a promise of meeting about Ten daies before At which time Catesby being informed by Winter at a House by Enfield Chase that the Prince was not likely to be present with the King there was another Plot laid to surprize him if it should so happen The time drew very near and they that had past so long without discovery seem'd now to be above the the fear of it All things had so happily concurred to further their design and they had all approved themselves to be so trusty in it that they were more concerned how to manage the success than to fear it But God that had a reserve of favour for us and that doth delight in catching the wise in their own craftiness suffered them to proceed thus far in it that the detection and overthrow of it might appear to be more from his than Man's Providence When Catesby first thought of this the great difficulty with him was about the lawfulness of destroying the innocent with the guilty For the blow would know no difference betwixt a Catholick and a Heretick betwixt a Friend or F. O. When the Nobles and the Commons those that were a part of that Assembly and those that came to be Auditors and Spectators only those that were within and those that were without the House when no less than Thirty thousand must perish at once by it as Barclay saith it was computed it must needs be that many whom they wished well to and that also if they knew it would wish well to their cause must be part of the Sacrifice What an havock would Thirty-six Barrels or Nine or Ten-thousand Pound of Powder make loaded thus with Bars of Iron massie Stones and great pieces of Timber how would it tear the Foundations of the strongest Buildings throw down all the Tops of the neighbouring Houses and bury all within the ruins of both What would become of their Friends and Allies those that they had received much kindness from and others who neither did nor knew how to do them an injury How many Families must they undo by the loss of Relations Estates and Records which were there deposited This and much more was what they well foresaw and what they could not foresee without some kind of horror if they had but one spark of humanity left untouched by their unnatural Religion What must therefore be done to whom should he resort for Counsel but to his fast Friend Father Garnet to him he opens the Case as far as it was fit and as far as the other was willing to know of it after this manner Whether for the good and Promotion of the Catholick cause the necessity of time and occasion so requiring it be lawfull or not amongst many Nocents to destroy and take away some Innocents also To which the Jesuit replies That if the advantage was greater on the side of the Catholicks by the destruction of the Innocent with the Nocent than by the preservation of both it was doubtless lawful further explaining himself by this comparison That if at the taking of a Town possessed by the Enemy there happen to be seen Friends they must undergo the Fortune of War and the General and Common destruction of the Enemy With this answer Catesby was satisfied and with this he satisfied others telling them that it was the resolution of the Case given by the Provincial But yet though this did thus compose their Minds and what they were generally satisfied with there wanted not one that having a kindness for the Lord Monteagle eldest Son to the Lord Morley sent this Note to him by the hands of one of his Foot-boyes that was abroad in the Evening of the Saturday was Sennight before the appointed time for the meeting of the Parliament My Lord Out of the love I hear to some of your Friends I have a care of your preservation Therefore I would advise you as you tender your life to devise some excuse to shift off your Attendance at this Parliament For God and Man have Concurred to punish the wickedness of this time And think not slightly of this Advertisment but retire your self into your Contrey where you may expect the Event in safety For though there be no appearance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurt them This Counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm For the danger is past as soon as you shall have burned this Letter And I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it To whose Holy protection I commend you The Letter was without Date or Subscription and the hand in which it was write was hardly legible and the contents of it so perplexed that the Lord knew as little what to make of it as whence it came But yet however since it respected more than himself he thought not fit to conceal it and presently repaired to White-hall and put it into the hands of the Earl of Salisbury Principal Secretary of State The Earl commended the Lord for his care and Fidelity and told him that though there seemed to be little in it yet because of the reports that he had received from abroad that the Papists this Session of Parliament would be very busie and insolent in their demands for Toleration upon some prospect they had of being in a condition to command it and also that because nothing that concerned the safety of his Majesty and Peace of his Government ought to be slighted he would advise with others of his Majesties Council about it Accordingly he shewed it to the Lord Chamberlain to whom it particularly belonged to visit all places where his Majesty either lived or to which he did resort to the Lord High-Admiral the Earls of Worcester and Northampton who all were of the same mind with the Secretary and concluded it fit to deliver it to the King at his return from Royston when he came from hunting and from whence he was expected the Thursday following On the next day after his Return the Earl presented him with it and told him how it came to his hands After the reading of it the King made a pause and then reading it again said that there seemed somewhat in it extraordinary and what was by no means to be neglected The Earl replied that
Imprimatur Guil. Jane Nov. 4. 1678. THE HISTORY OF THE Gunpowder-Treason Collected from Approved Authors AS WELL POPISH as PROTESTANT Saepè Divinitatis opera haec sunt furias in ipso jam successu securas subita ultio excipiat nè vel unquam improbis timor vel spes absit Calamitosae virtuti Jo. Barclaii Conspiratio Anglicana LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1678. THE HISTORY OF THE GUNPOWDER TREASON THere are no Conspiracies and Insurrections more dangerous to States and Governments than those that the name of Religion is made to patronize for when that doth head and manage the Party as it makes it look somewhat considerable in it self so it doth inspire those that are concerned with a certain furious and intemper ate zeal and an ungovernable violence they then rebel with authority and kill with a safe conscience and think they cannot do amis as long as it is to do God service The Brother will then deliver up the Brother to death and the Father the Child and the Children will rise up against their Parents and cause them to be put to death and the Laws of Nature which are of themselves sacred and inviolable shall in such a case be despised and lose their authority This this is it which in these latter Ages more especially hath disturbed Governments disposed of the Crowns of Princes and troubled the peace of the world From hence spring all those mischiefs that threatned and perpetually allarm'd this Nation during the long and fortunate Reign of Queen Elizabeth From hence proceeded that barbarous and bloody design of the Gunpowder Treason in the year 1605. Such a Design a the World before never heard of and which Posterity will hardly believe for the horror of it say the soberer of their own Authors such a design as even some of the Jesuits after it miscarried and they saw how ill it was resented by the rest of mankind professed their detestation of but how little to their own vindication and the satisfaction of the World will easily appear to any one that doth impartially inquire into the History and the process of it For this design was not taken up of a sudden and what a small company of rash and hot-headed persons did without consideration attempt but what proceeded from the same original and was carried on by the same Counsels and Endeavours that were in being in the time of Queen Elizabeth the principals in which for their time were Garnet the Provincial of the Jesuits in England Baldwin in Flanders and Creswel in Spain these were the great Projectors and Encouragers of that which was called the Spanish Treason in the last year of Queen Elizabeth and which when defeated in by her death and the Peace that issued upon it betwixt the Crowns of England and Spain they were put upon new Counsels and forced to take other Measures for the prosecution of it It was in Decemb. in the year 1601 that Tho. Winter was sent into Spain by the ioynt advice of Henry Garnet and Oswald Tesmond Jesuits and of Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham Gentlemen of good quality and reputation to try what could be done for Their assistance that were ready to sacrifice their lives and fortunes for the Catholick Cause and to assure the King of Spain that could they but prevail with him to send over an Army they would have in readiness 1500 or 2000 horses for the service With Winter was sent over Oswald Tesmond and by them a Letter to Creswel the Jesuit then residing there By whose Mediation the motion was readily hearkned to and Don Pedro Francesa second Secretary of State and the Duke of Lerma did assure them of the Kings furtherance and help and in the Conclusion the Count of Miranda particularly told them that his Master had resolved to bestow two hundred thousand Crowns to that use half to be paid that year and the rest the next following and that at Spring he would without fail set footing in England About the latter end of the year Thomas Winter returns with this joyful news and they were now busie in preparing for it and almost every day expecting the arrival of these Forces when of a sudden all was dashed by the Death of Queen Elizabeth which was March 24. 1602. Upon this one of the Wrights is immediately despatched into Spain to give the King notice of it and about the same time was Guy Fawks sent with Letters and Commission from Sir William Stanly Hugh Owen and Baldwin the Jesuit who were then in Flanders and ready to attend and to prosecute the same Design But That King told them that he was now otherwise resolved and it became him not to hearken to such proposals after he had sent Embassadors to the new King of England to treat of a Peace It was now therefore fit either to let their Design fall or to betake themselves to some other course to Effect it but the Former their Temper and their Principles would not permit And therefore since they could not promise themselves success therein by force they did contrive how without any noise or visible and open preparations it might be obtained That a King or Queen who is an Heretick may be deposed or killed was current Doctrine amongst them in the time of Queen Elizabeth and what they had been taught from Father Creswel or whoever was the Author of the Book called Philopater and by Tresham in his Book de officio hominis Christiani found with them about this time And though the King was not formally declared and proceeded against as such yet it was thought sufficient by them that the Pope on Maunday-Thursday did censure and Condemn all Hereticks in the general as Guy Fawkes and others of them did confess And therefore the Question was not so much about the lawfulness of it as about the order that was to be observed and the way that was fit to be taken in it Catesby who was no Novice in these affairs and that from his acquaintance with Parsons when in England and Garnet and the other Jesuits to whose order he and his Family from Campian down to this time were particularly devoted had learned great skill and Subtilty quickly contrived this for them and when Percy who was of the house of Northumberland and at that time one of the Kings Pensioners according to the bluntness of his temper did offer himself for the service and that he would without any more adoe undertake to assassinate the King This wary Gentleman replyed that would be too dear a purchase when his own life would be hazarded in it and it was unnecessary when it might as well be accomplished without it And so acquaints him in part with what was intended Before this was fit to be fully Communicated he thought it necessary that there should be some care taken to obliege all to Secrecy for which purpose an
Fact some Mercy would be shewed him Sir Everard said the same with respect to Catesby and added That he had undertaken it for the Zeal which he had to the Catholick Religion which he was ready to sacrifice all for and to prevent those Calamities which he understood that the Parliament was prepared to bring upon them of his Perswasion Keys said That his Fortunes were sunk and as good now as at another time and for this Cause rather than another They seem'd resolved to vindicate the Jesuits or at least to say nothing against them whether it were that they were not allowed to discourse of the Plot with any but such and such particular Persons or whether it were that they thought it to be highly meritorious and this last seems to be not unlikely When Tresham not above three hours before his Death in the Tower did declare upon his Salvation that he had not seen Garnet in sixteen years before whereas it appeared both by the Confession of Garnet and Mrs. Anne Vaux Garnet's Bosom-Friend that they had been frequently together the two last years past On the Thursday following Sir Everard Digby Robert Winter John Grant and Bates were according to Judgment drawn hanged and quartered at the West end of St. Paul's Church And on the Friday the other four viz. Thomas Winter Keyes Rockwood and Faux were executed in the Palace-Yard at Westminster Now were Garnet and Hall had in Examination and that several times from the first of February to March the 26th In all which Garnet shewed by the wiliness of his Answers and the Confidence he maintained them with that he deserved the place of Provincial of the Jesuits being so well versed in all the Practices of his Society that few could exceed him The King from the first was resolved to forbear the severity of the Rack much practised in other Countries in the examination of notorious and perverse Criminals We indeed are told by a late confident Author of their own That Garnet was kept waking six Days and Nights together to bring him by that new kind of Torment as he calls it to a Confession of his Crime and that Hall was put to extreme Torture for fifteen hours space together in the Tower for the same reason But a greater than he one of their own Perswasion doth assure us that the King to avoid Calumny did purposely forbear any thing of that kind of Rigour and Garnet himself did publickly own at his Trial that he had been used whilst in Prison with great lenity We know not what effect the Rack might have had upon him for that was a way of Trial he had not been exercised in but that Course which they took by frequent and cross Examinations by Expostulations and Arguments he was so much a Master of that in all the twenty three Days spent in it they would have gained but little Information had they not had some greater advantage Had he been alone and could not have been confronted by others he had been much more secure and they more at a loss And therefore to prevent any Mis-understanding betwixt him and others in custody that their Answers might not be inconsistent or repugnant he writes both to Hall and Mrs. Vaux to let them know after what manner he thought to excuse or defend himself and what Replies to make to some particular Enquiries As if he should be charged with his Prayer for the good Success of a great Action c. he would say It was for the prevention of those severe Laws which those of their Church expected would be made against them by that Parliament But it happened that these Letters that were writ by him came into other hands than those he intended them for and did him a worse Injury than any Account that his sworn Friends could have likely given of the same Actions though disagreeing with his And indeed herein his Adversaries did outwit him and worsted him at his own Weapons For when they perceived that he obstinately persisted in the defence of his Innocency they took another Course to find him out First a Person was employed as a Keeper that should profess himself to be a Roman Catholick and that should take a great Liberty to complain of the Kings Severity and of the Sufferings their Party were made to undergo By these and the like crafty Insinuations he grew to be a Familiar of Garnet's and at last was entrusted by him with a Letter to one and to another Which yet he did not so much venture upon but that he wrote sparingly to one and to the other nothing in appearance but what any one may see filling up the void places with other more secret Matters written indeed but written with the Juice of a Lemmon By this means they found out that it was not so much his Innocency as the want of Proof that made him so confident By this they came to understand that Greenwel and he had conferred together about the Plot. There was also another Calamity that befell him by the same Contrivance For now thinking himself sure of his keeper he let him know what a great desire he had of conferring with Hall The Decoy told him that he would endeavour to find out a way for it This was done and they had that freedom but at the same time there were placed within hearing two Persons of such known Credit that Garnet at his Trial had nothing to object against them who took notice of what was said and made it known to the Council The next day Commissioners came to examine them and in Discourse charged them severally with those things that passed betwixt them the day before This Hall did acknowledg being convinced by the Particulars that they produced but Garnet did deny it upon the word of a Priest and with reiterated Protestations And when they told him that Hall had confessed he said Let him accuse himself falsly if he will I will not be guilty of that folly But at the last when he perceived that the Evidence was not to be gainsaid begg'd their Pardon with no little Confusion and owned the Particulars they charged him with and a little to save his Reputation told them That as he denied all because he knew none but Greenwel could accuse him so he did deny what he knew to be true by the help of Equivocation Now they had gained good Evidence against him his Letters first then his Discourse with Hall and lastly his own Confession were a sufficient Ground for them to proceed and try him upon And that they began to do two days after viz. March 28. The great thing charged upon him was That he was privy to this Conspiracy that he held a Correspondence with Catesby and by him and Greenwel with the rest And the chief Part of his Defence was That what he did know of it was in Confession and what was told him in that way he was bound to conceal