being safe for a Jesuit priest to travel in England under his own name. various aliases of 'Brooke,' 'Lee,' and 'Staunton.' Father Edward Oldcorne was generally called 'Mr. Hall,' but he also answered to the names of 'Vincent,' and 'Parker,' when occasion served. Father Garnet was often known as 'Mr. Farmer,' under which name he is mentioned in the correspondence of Sir Everard Digby, but he also made use of 'Darcey,' 'Roberts,' 'Meaze,' 'Phillips,' and 'Walley.' His adoption of the name of 'Farmer' has become famous owing to Shakespeare's reference to him in Macbeth (act ii., scene 2).

He was known under the

Porter. 'Here's a knocking, indeed! If a man were porter of Hell-Gate, he should have old turning the key. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub?-Here's a "farmer," that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty. Come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for it. Knock, knock! Who's there, i' the other devil's name? Faith, here's an "equivocator," that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to Heaven.-O, come in, Equivocator. Knock, knock, knock! Who's there?-Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose.'

These references to the 'farmer,' and the 'equivocator,' are so pointed as to direct the reader's attention to Garnet, who in his notorious

use of the Jesuit doctrine of 'mental reservation'or, in plainer language, deliberate lying-reduced equivocation to a fine art. Moreover, Shakespeare seems to have been at work on Macbeth at about the time of Garnet's trial and execution. His colleague, Father Oswald Greenway, was principally known to his friends as 'Tesmond,' or Tesimond,' although we find him often called 'Greenwell,' and sometimes Beaumont.'

From a review, therefore, of the circumstances as to how the plot was laid, it will be seen that the chief conspirators1 engaged in the Powder Treason were gentlemen by birth and education, were bigoted and maltreated members of the Roman Catholic faith, were nearly all men of wealth, were on terms of close acquaintance with the English priests of the Society of Jesus, and had been (for the most part) engaged in the Essex rebellion. They do not seem to have consorted, so far as we know, with the secular priests, the Jesuit's rivals, but associated constantly with Father Garnet and his colleagues. In the confessions of both Faukes and Winter, no name of any secular priest is mentioned, but the statement is recorded that (after the associates had taken ‘a solemne oathe and vowe) they did receave the Sacrament of Gerrard the Jesuit . . . but he (Faukes) saith that Gerrard was not acquainted

1 With the exception of the unfortunate Bates, Catesby's devoted

servant.

2 Even Catesby, who had spent his own fortune, was heir to property reversionary on the death of his mother, Lady Catesby.

with their purpose.' But, although no secular priest is found to have been concerned in the Gunpowder Treason, only two years before (1603), an English secular priest, named William Watson, was one of the principal leaders in the conspiracy known as the 'Bye Plot.' This William Watson was greatly disliked by the Jesuits,' who hastened (on hearing of Watson's part in it) to give information to the Government, with the result that the plotter's plans were frustrated, and Watson, with others, executed. Information of Watson's proceedings was given to Cecil by both Garnet and Gerard, who sought thereby to gain for their own society a better reputation in the eyes of the Government, and, at the same time, to deal a deadly blow at a strong party of their coreligionists that supported those of the secular clergy, who resisted the assumption of ecclesiastical authority in England by the Society of Jesus.

The two

1 It is possible, but not probable, that Gerard was not the officiating priest, and that Faukes mistook another person for him.

2 Watson was a man of very unprepossessing appearance. He squinted, and (according to a Jesuit) to such an extent that 'he looked nine ways at once.'

3 There were two secular priests leaders in the 'Bye,' viz. : Watson and Clarke. Of these, Watson had been completely deceived by James's false promises to help the Romanists on his accession to the English throne. He was strongly opposed to the Jesuits' schemes for demanding the intervention of Spain

'Poor William Watson was betrayed by the man (Garnet) who, two years after, would not betray his friend Catesby; and the virulent opponent (Watson) of the Jesuits expiated his treason on the scaffold. To put this matter of Watson's fate in its true light, we must remember that almost at the very time Garnet informed against Watson, the Jesuits were participating in Wright's and

plots, the 'Bye' and the 'Gunpowder,' are worth comparing with regard to the positions of the Romanists involved in them, for in the first we find none of the pro-Jesuit faction implicated, whilst in the second we find none but pro-Jesuits represented.

Faukes's attempt to induce Philip to invade England' (Father Taunton's History of the Jesuits in England).

CHAPTER II

T

THE FOUNDER OF THE PLOT

HE name of Guy Faukes has, by reason of the all-important part assigned to him

in the conspiracy, become so closely identified with its formation and its direction, that we are apt nowadays to look upon him as the principal plotter, whereas he was really subordinate to another, whose name is not quite so familiar to the man in the street. This, the principal plotter, was Robert Catesby. It was,] ab initio, Catesby's Conspiracy. It was from his restless brain that the idea of blowing up the House of Peers with gunpowder first emanated.'

Having laid his plans, Catesby looked round for confederates, upon whom he could implicitly rely, to help him; and, on his solicitation, they one after another promised to assist and obey him. He was from beginning to end the captain of the band. He hesitated at nothing to gain his own ends. Promises that he could not fulfil, statements about others that could not be true,

1 I cannot agree with the theory that it was Thomas Winter who put the idea into Catesby's head. All the original evidence tends to prove that Catesby was the founder of the plot.