a number it were to be feared that some private persons, forgetting all Christian patience and longanimity, as experience of other countries besides our own hath taught us, might break out into fury, I wished a prohibition under censures of all violence towards His Majesty or his officers, reputing it as a great stay to all Catholics from such outrages, if such things (as might be hidden from us or other quiet persons, especially reverend priests, and therefore not possible to be hindered by any industry of our own) were avoided by terror of dying in the most horrible state of excommunication, to their utter perdition of body and soul, of whatever conspirators. And this, my motion, I doubt not but will take good effect hereafter by occasion of this late conspiracy. That it was not done before it is like the only cause hath been either want of time or hope of regard of all Catholics to the bare commandment of so eminent a person in all Christianity.

"And I will here, for the next testimony of my clearness and innocence, in the third place, allege so many witnesses as there are Catholics that I have conversed withal. They will, I am assured, all testify how carefully I have inculcated this commandment of His Holiness upon every occasion of speech; whereof I will infer that it is in no way probable, in never so prejudiced a judgment, that the author of this conspiracy durst acquaint me or any of mine with their purposes, knowing both this contrary commandment and the special account which above all other virtues we make of holy obedience; and I may very well say with St. Paul: Si enim quæ destruxi, iterum hæc ædifico, prævaricatorem me constituo.

"The fourth argument of my innocence shall not be so much a testimony as a challenge. Let the rack tortures, let the confessions of the conspirators, yea, let all our greatest adversaries utter what they can for my accusation, and yet I know my innocency in anything spoken or done ever since the first entrance of His Majesty's reign can never be blemished; and if at any point there may be the least doubt, I humbly beseech your honours to suspend your censures till I, knowing the exceptions against me, may with mine unfeigned integrity freely clear myself, to the satisfaction of all men of honour and wisdom.

"These former arguments being of that nature and power as may convince even the most wilful spirits either of too much malice or ignorance in their uncharitable surmises against us, yet let me, I beseech you, add some few more which are so probable that, in a moral matter as this is, they make a moral kind of certainty. It is not unknown what kind of affection and love we and all our Society have ever borne to His Majesty's royal person, parents and issue, and for mine own particular, how I behaved myself at his first entrance into this realm, and in the furtherance of peace with princes abroad, in which two points it may be better privately spoken than committed to paper, how well I have deserved in the conspiracy of Watson (my name and others being falsely used for to move move divers confederates). By my special diligence, divers were delivered out of the trap. In Wales, though the matter was not such as was feared, yet I suppose my admonitions were not unfruitful. In this most horrible furnace, prepared for the best of the realm, besides the King's own person, the Queen and the two princes, there would have been included divers lords and ladies and others of special account, so highly honoured and affected by me, that I would rather have for everyone severally lost my life a thousand times than to have permitted their hazard. And, finally, that I may say nothing of the disgrace of our whole Society with foreign princes, if we had been faulty, these bloody matters or any other matters of war or State are so repugnant to priestly or religious profession, that we ought all to remember upon what occasion our Saviour said to His disciples: Nescitis cujus spiritus estis, and if we neglect this there want not censures of Holy Church and of our Society to testify, bridle and restrain us from the transgression of our duties in such degree. And as for six of them receiving at my hands, etc., I think I never saw six of them together in my life; and in such conspiracies never anything was heard of to be done publicly with kissing of the sacraments, or vowing, or such like, as ridiculously some imagine; so that in case any of them used any help in sacraments, I notwithstanding do truly say, in a like case with Achimelech: Non scivi servus tuus quicquid super hoc negotium, nec modicum, nec grande.

"This, my very good lords, amongst many things which I could allege for my innocency, I have briefly, but with all sincerity of unfeigned love to His Majesty, set down these few; and with the same sincerity and purity of mind I humbly offer to him all fidelity and loyalty, both for myself and all others who are under my charge, assuring him and also your lordships that we will in prayers, examples, actions, exhortations, and whatsoever labours he will impose upon us, seek with all our endeavour to preserve and increase the temporal and everlasting felicity of him and his royal Queen and issue. And thus I humbly take my leave, desiring Almighty God to bring us once more together, when we may incessantly praise the King of kings and live together for everlasting ages."

Whether this very characteristic letter ever reached the Council we know not. But while the bulk of the letter was strictly true, there were certain equivocal statements the true meaning of which the reader can supply from our narrative. It is a matter of conjecture what would have become of Garnett's protestations of loyalty to James had the Pope1 pronounced the same sentence as in the case of Elizabeth. Perhaps he would have been considered as no longer a lawful sovereign, and rebellion therefore could not then be aught else but legitimate warfare.

Humphrey Littleton, a neighbouring Catholic gentleman, being then in trouble for having sheltered some of the conspirators, sent word to the Council that he had been recently at Hindlip (Mr. Abington's), where he heard Oldcorne preach. There he thought it most likely that Garnett would be found.

To take up Gerard's Narrative: "Upon this information

1 The French ambassador, De la Boderie, however, was charged to express to James the Pope's abhorrence of the Gunpowder Plot: "The Pope abhors and condemns more severely than others the authors and accomplices of the said conspiracy, and if any Jesuits are convicted thereof they merit to be chastised like the rest. His Holiness only desired that a difference should be made between the innocent and the guilty, and that the former should not suffer for the violent crimes of the latter" (Ambassades de M. de la Boderie, vol. i. p. 25). The papal representative in England, the Archpriest Blackwell, on 7th November and again on the 28th, issued a declaration of horror at the attempted crime; and protested: "For my own part (which is a duty common to us all) if any notice had been given to me, I should have been most forward, by all possible means, to have stayed and suppressed the same" (Tierney, vol. iv. p. cxii).