The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 26

Therefore is the inevitable conclusion pressed upon us with resistless force, that, according to the changeless laws which govern man's intellectual and moral nature, Oldcorne must have had some _official or semi-official particular and private knowledge_ of the thirteen Gunpowder traitors' heinous project, as distinct from and in addition to that merely personal, general knowledge, which he necessarily cannot have failed to possess in his capacity of an ordinary English citizen: some professional or quasi-professional special, private knowledge, as distinct from that general, public, common knowledge, which every sane man then a subject of the British Crown could not help not being possessed of, at that very instant of time when Humphrey Littleton propounded to the great casuist Humphrey Littleton's aforetime unhappy question.[A]

[Footnote A: It is quite clear to my mind that Christopher Wright, the revealing plotter, must have himself expressly freed his confessor from the obligation to _absolute_ secrecy, which the seal of the Confessional would impose. It may have been that Oldcorne made this a condition precedent to his agreeing to pen the Letter. Or, it may have been that Wright's own strong Catholic instincts and natural sense of justice suggested the necessity of this course. As already remarked, a natural secret, that is, a something that is not a sin, which alone forms matter for Sacramental Confession, may _indirectly_ come under the seal, if the confessor promises expressly or impliedly to accept the natural secret under the obligations of the seal. But in Wright's case there could be no question of his communication being in the nature of a natural secret protected _indirectly_ by the seal by reason of Oldcorne's promise. And though _freed_ by the penitent from the duty of absolute secrecy, Oldcorne would be still under a positive duty _of discretion_.]

I say advisedly _aforetime unhappy question_.

For, I respectfully maintain that the ratiocinative faculty to-day, of a surety, demonstrates that in the majestic cause of impartial, severe, historical truth, the act of this frail, erring child of man, Humphrey Littleton, has proved itself now to be thrice happy.

"_O felix culpa!_" "O happy fault!" Out of bitterness is come forth sweetness.

Humphrey Littleton was not pardoned by King James, his Privy Council, and Government, notwithstanding the invaluable disclosures he had made.[168]

This high-born English gentleman was executed at Redhill, Worcester, on the 7th day of April, 1606, along with (among others) another open rebel, John Winter, the half-brother of Robert Winter and Thomas Winter, the Gunpowder traitors.

Humphrey Littleton, we are told by his contemporary, Father John Gerard, asked forgiveness of Father Oldcorne more than once, and said that he had wronged him much.

He also asked forgiveness of Mr. Abington, who, though condemned to death, was ultimately pardoned at his wife's and Lord Mounteagle's intercession.

Humphrey Littleton "died with show of great repentance, and so with sorrow and humility and patient acceptance of his death made amends for his former frailty and too unworthy desire of life."

Stephen Littleton, the Master of Holbeach--who had likewise joined in the rebellion in the Midlands, under Sir Everard Digby, which grew out of the Gunpowder Plot, although a distinct movement from it, albeit connected with the Plot--was made a public example of in his native County of Staffords.h.i.+re, _in terrorem_, as a terror to evil-doers: this unfortunate English gentleman suffering the extreme penalty of the law, according to his contemporary, the aforesaid Father John Gerard, in the ancient town of Stafford.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

We now come to the second and latter part of Father Oldcorne's Declaration to Humphrey Littleton, from the whole of which Declaration Littleton drew the conclusion that Oldcorne answered "the action was good, and seemed to approve of it."[A]

[Footnote A: By thus disclaiming knowledge of "_these_"--that is, the object the plotters had in view in their nefarious Plot, and the means they purposed having recourse to, to attain their object--Oldcorne deliberately throws a veil over the full orb of truth. But Littleton might have discerned, had he taken the trouble so to do, that Oldcorne was equivocating under a sense of prior obligation; and the clue was afforded by the person of the speaker and the tenour of the answer itself. In the former part of the Declaration, by leaving Littleton _in abstracto_, he had thrown a veil over a portion of the full orb of truth. Just as the silvery moon, on some tempestuous night, may be first partially obscured, by a thick, dark, driving cloud, and then afterwards wholly obscured, from the view of the gazer.]

"And thus I applied it to this fact of Mr. Catesbie's; it is not to be approved or condemned by the event, but by the proper object or end, and means which was to be used in it; _and because I know nothing of thes_, I will neither approve it or condeme it, but leave it to G.o.d and ther owne consciences, and in this wary sort I spoke to him bycause I doubted he came to entrap me; and that he should take noe advantage of the words whither he reported them to Catholics or Protestants."[B]

[Footnote B: Oldcorne's full answer to Littleton would be, "and because I know nothing of these [that I am at liberty to tell you, Humphrey Littleton"]: _these last words being interiorly expressed, perhaps_.]

Now, in the first place, let it be remembered that these words were spoken _not before but after_ Wednesday, the 6th of November, when, as Oldcorne himself has left on record, and which indeed we have seen already, Father Tesimond came from Coughton to Huddington, and from Huddington to Hindlip; and when "_he said that there were certain gentlemen that meant to have blown up the Parliament House, and that their plot was discovered a day or two before_."[A]

[Footnote A: Father Oldcorne says that Tesimond reached Hindlip at two o'clock. Now, as Tesimond came _from_ Huddington, where, already, he had had an interview with Catesby, the conspirators must have reached Huddington _before_ two o'clock; probably they reached the mansion-house at twelve o'clock mid-day. Bates says that Tesimond was at Huddington half-an-hour; but Jardine says two hours. Query, what does "_Greenway's MS._" say?]

Again; Fawkes, we are told by Eudaemon-Joannes,[169] explained at the Trial of the conspirators why the prisoners pleaded "'Not guilty,' which was that the Indictment contained 'many other matters, which we neither can, nor ought to countenance by our a.s.sent or silence,' though none of them meant to deny that which they had not only voluntarily confessed before, _but which was quite notorious throughout the realm_."[170] (The italics are mine.)

Now, seeing that Oldcorne told Littleton that "_he knew nothing_" as to the "_end or object_" the plotters had in their Plot, nor "_the means which was to be used in it_," when the whole of England, not to say Europe, had been ringing with a knowledge of _not only the end or object, but also the means_, for the last past few days, and perhaps weeks, at the very least, I draw this inevitable conclusion:--

That because Oldcorne was a man as morally good as he was intellectually clever, _he must have met his questioner's inquiry with this nescience, by reason of some antecedent, official, and professional duty; or, at least, semi-official and quasi-professional duty, which had been imposed upon him, ab extra, from the outside, prior in time to Humphrey Littleton's coming to him to be resolved of his doubts as to the moral rightness or wrongness of the Gunpowder Plot_.[171]

In other words, that Oldcorne felt instinctively that he could recognise in _a private individual, like Humphrey Littleton_, no valid right, t.i.tle, claim, or demand to call forth an answer, which might discover or disclose to Littleton the secret of the repentant Christopher Wright.

Yea, neither in Justice, nor in Equity, nor in Honour could the grand Yorks.h.i.+reman betray to Humphrey Littleton the secret of trust that in a semi-official, quasi-professional mode or fas.h.i.+on had come to be entrusted to him by another, as that other's private property and exclusive possession.

_That other was Christopher Wright, the penitent revealing plotter, and whomsoever he had, explicitly or implicitly, willed should share a knowledge of the mighty secret. But to none other or others beside. And certainly not to men probably prompted by sinister motives and crooked aims._

For a knowledge of truth in action, truth in the result, truth in the event, truth in the external, and every other kind of truth in relation to the Gunpowder[A] Plot, _integral or partial, was irrevocably held in trust_ by Edward Oldcorne, not for Humphrey Littleton, or the like of him, but for Christopher Wright and men that were true of heart.

[Footnote A: THE END DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE MEANS: NEITHER CAN A MAN OR A WOMAN DO EVIL THAT GOOD MAY COME. But Oldcorne would contend that, in perfect Reason, Truth may be concealed, subject to certain limitations and, regard being had to person, time, and circ.u.mstance, the clue-affording possibilities; and this whether partial truth or whole truth, _in pursuance of a prior and superior moral obligation_. And so would say all modern diplomatists and commanders in the field, however conscientious and upright they might be, unless they wished to court defeat, or to give away their Country, and (if justice be meted out to them) to be cas.h.i.+ered. Now, _unity at all times and in all places must prevail. For all men are subject to the one Moral Law of Right Reason, and nowhere will you find men without souls_, notwithstanding that certain members of the English middle cla.s.ses sometimes seem to labour under a delusion to the contrary.

Equivocation cannot be had recourse to in matters of Contract, nor for pecuniary gain, nor sordid profit. Remember _that_, O all ye wors.h.i.+ppers of Mammon! For, "a more glorious doctrine for knaves and a more disastrous doctrine for honest men," it would be difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of than equivocation, if it were not held strictly and severely in check and under control by the dictates of Intellectual Reason and Moral Justice. Now, this highly scientific liberty, "equivocation," is never morally lawful to the witnesses in a Court of Justice, where the judge has jurisdiction to try the parties and the cause, whether those witnesses be the parties themselves to the cause, or strangers "subpnaed" to give testimony therein. Such persons would be justly punishable for perjury who professed that, when bearing insufficient or inadequate witness in a Court of Justice by not telling "the whole" truth, they were merely "equivocating." Nor can equivocation be had recourse to for working hurt or injury to a fellow-creature, whether bond or free, white, black, or copper-coloured, contrary to the primary obligations of Justice, which bid man render unto _all men_ their due. Nor with reference to Divine Truth can equivocation be used. (Hence the piteous absurdity of the Royal Declaration against Popery.)

By the mild and merciful Law of England, a criminally-accused person may equivocate, on the same moral principles as justify strategy in warfare, until his guilt has been brought home to him by sufficient proofs. Such a person equivocates by pleading "_not guilty_."

_Because_ I believe the ethical doctrine which justifies equivocation, when properly taught, to be true and not false, _and because_ I furthermore believe that, in the interests of my Country and of Humanity at large, it is of practical consequence, as well as mentally salutary, that a knowledge of equivocation, its foundation principles, extents, and limitations, should be "understanded" by all those that have the guardians.h.i.+p of the People, whether in the senate, in the field, or at sea, _therefore_, I have requested one, who has a competent mastery of the subject, to explain the matter to my readers. This has been kindly done in a letter, which will be found in Supplementum VI. For "_Melius petere fontes_," the jurist as well as the poet has it. "_Better is it to have recourse to the fountain-head._"

The philosophical explanation of the fact that, under the pressure of necessity, certain combatants can and do exhibit in action at the theatre of war the highest strategetical skill, in spite of their knowing nothing of the scientific doctrine of equivocation, springs from the law of reason that, as a rule, _doing_ is the condition precedent _to knowing_; experience to cognition. See Ferrier's "_Inst.i.tutes of Metaphysic_"

(Blackwood), p.15.]

This was an obligation, that flowed from the truth expressed by the luminous maxim, "_Qui prior est tempore potior est jure_." "He who is first in time is the stronger in point of right."

The Jesuit could never that trust, that confidence betray. If needs be, he must be "true till death." For it was not necessary that he should live.

But it was necessary that he should live undishonoured.

CHAPTER LXIX.

Again; to all those that are "knowing" enough, the facts of this woeful tragedy "observingly" to "distil out," the form and substance of this doc.u.ment of the 12th March, 1605-6, under the hand of Edward Oldcorne, alike afford evidence--conclusive evidence--that Father Oldcorne regarded the Gunpowder conspirators as repentant conspirators, through the virtual _representative_ repentance of one of their own number.

And though it is true that, by the inexorable decree of the Universe, "The Guilty suffer," each man for himself and not another, temporal punishment, searching, terrible, and keen, yet this is not the whole of the truth governing the perfected ethics of the matter. For "Man learns by suffering." And guilt is pardoned on repentance, that is, on the observance and on the performance of certain equally decreed conditions.

These conditions are (1) confession, (2) contrition, which implies sorrow and regret, and (3) satisfaction or "damages," which involves amendment, withdrawal, or reversal. And when all three conditions have been observed and performed, then

"Whoso with repentance is not satisfied, Neither to earth nor heaven is allied."

Hence, could the great moralist, by a _complexus_ of intellectual acts, personal and vicarious, justly regard the whole band of plotters as transgressors released from the abstract guilt of their double crime. For it is a dictate of reason that the release of one joint debtor operates derivatively to the release, _ipso facto_, of all the rest.

Now, if Oldcorne possessed a conscious realization that, through the _repentance, personal and representative_, of the Gunpowder plotters, that Plot was no longer a plot, then, to speak after the manner of men, he must have had that realization as the resultant of two particular kinds, aspects, or sides of _knowledge: ab extra_, from without, that is, pa.s.sive knowledge, or communicated, in the _first_ step; and _ab intra_, from within, that is, knowledge active, or self-bestowed, in the _second_ step.

Now, both pa.s.sive knowledge and active knowledge here would imply, in the final a.n.a.lysis, a communication by some external mental agency, the agency of some living, intelligent being.

It would be implied in the first case, directly; in the second case, indirectly. But, directly or indirectly, the source would be the same.

Now, who can that aforesaid living, intelligent being, which reason demands, have been, if not _a repentant plotter himself_?

Therefore, by irresistible inference, the Letter is surely, with moral cert.i.tude, traced home at last.

CHAPTER LXX.