The Gunpowder Plot and Lord Mounteagle's Letter Part 46

[Footnote 151:--"_Somers' Tracts_," Edited by Sir Walter Scott, vol. ii., p. 106, says: "Tesimond severely censured Hall (alias Oldcorne) for his timidity on the occasion, calling him a phlegmatic fellow."

Dr. Abbott's "_Antilogia_" confirms Jardine's report of Tesimond's denunciation, _although Foley most improperly omits it_.]

[Footnote 152:--The diverse demeanour on this critical occasion of these two Jesuits (both natives of the same City, most probably, and fellow-scholars in the then recently re-founded Grammar School belonging to York Minster) is very striking, and reminds one of the following sagacious remark of that clear writer, Dr. James Martineau: "In human psychology, feeling when it transcends sensation is not without idea, but is a type of idea."--"_Essays and Addresses_," vol. iv., p. 202 (Longmans, 1891).--Such feeling then is _mens cordis_--the mind of the heart.]

[Footnote 153:--Hindlip Hall, about four miles from Worcester, was built on an eminence in 1572 and the following years of Elizabeth's reign. It had a large prospect of the surrounding country, and contained many conveyances, secret chambers, and priests' hiding-places, perhaps more than any house in England. The old Hall of the Abingtons was pulled down at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The present mansion was built by the Lord Hindlip's family, I believe. This demesne is one of the most historic spots in the kingdom, owing to its memorable a.s.sociations with Fathers Garnet and Oldcorne, Garnet having left Coughton at the request of Oldcorne, in December, 1605. The two Jesuits were nourished, after Salisbury inst.i.tuted his search, during seven days, seven nights, and some odd hours, mainly by broth and other warm drinks, conveyed to them through a quill or reed pa.s.sed "through a little hole in a chimney that backed another chimney into a gentlewoman's chamber." Doubtless Mrs. Abington and Miss Anne Vaux (the devoted friend of Father Garnet, who, along with Brother Nicholas Owen, accompanied him to Hindlip) had administered this food to the two famis.h.i.+ng Jesuits detained in durance.]

[Footnote 154:--Father Garnet's house in Thames Street, London, had been broken up, this place of Jesuit sojourning having become known to the Government. Consequently, Garnet, at the beginning of September, 1605, went down to Gothurst, in Buckinghams.h.i.+re, the seat of Sir Everard and Lady Digby.

Christopher Wright, it will be remembered, quitted his lodging near Temple Bar, on October the 5th, and, I opine, then went down to Lapworth, or Clopton, near Stratford-on-Avon. Catesby was born at Lapworth.

It will be remembered that the Ardens, the relatives of Shakespeare's mother, were allied to the Throckmortons, and therefore to Francis Throckmorton, the friend of Mary Queen of Scots. It is a remarkable coincidence that the great dramatist was, through both the Ardens and the Throckmortons, connected with those whose quartered remains he may have had in his mind's eye (in addition to those of the Gunpowder conspirators) when in 1606, in "Macbeth," he writ of "the hangman's b.l.o.o.d.y hands."

For an account of the Somerville-Arden and the Francis Throckmorton alleged conspiracies against the life of Queen Elizabeth, see Froude's "_History_." For an account of Shakespeare's family, including the Ardens, see Mrs. C. C. Stope's recent book (Elliot Stock, 1901).]

[Footnote 155:--In the "_Life of Sir Everard Digby_," by "One of his descendants" (Kegan Paul), is to be found a vivid and historically accurate account of the proceedings of November the 5th and afterwards.

The conspirators' line of flight would be nearly parallel with the London and North Western Railway from Euston Station to Rugby.]

[Footnote 156:--The country crossed by these unhappy fugitives is undoubtedly the very "heart of England," and in spring and summer is one of the gardens of England. As those then flying, on that gloomy November day, from the Avenger of blood, were probably almost all men of strong family affections, and certainly all ardent lovers of their country, how often must the feelings have welled up in their heart, as from some intermittent crystalline spring, so beautifully expressed by the old Latin poet:--

"Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens Uxor: neque harum, quas colis, arborum Te, praeter invisas cupressos, Ulla brevem dominum sequetur."--_Horace._[A]

Alas! Like many another wrong-doer, before and since, they thought of this too late.

Well-nigh the final glimpse we get of Christopher Wright is from a letter the conspirator, Thomas Bates, wrote to a priest, which is given in Gerard's "_Narrative_," p. 210. Christopher Wright, we are told by Bates, on the morning of the day when the powder exploded at Holbeach House, "flung to Bates, out of a window, 100, and desired him, as he was a Catholic, to give unto his wife, and his brother's wife, 80, and take 20 himself:"--Wright owing Bates some money.]

[Footnote A:

"Land must be left, and home, and charming wife, And of these trees which you cultivate, None will follow you, their short-lived owner and lord, Save the detested cypress."]

[Footnote 157:--Does Greenway's "_Narrative_" clearly state how many of these conspirators received from Tesimond the sacraments? If so, what sacraments were they?

The Government would have had a clear case of inciting to open rebellion against Tesimond if they had caught him, but he escaped to Flanders. He was "a very deep dog," was Master Tesimond, and no mistake. But he was wholly under the finger and thumb (_me judice_) of Catesby, which shows what a powerful man of genius Catesby must have been.

Father Henry Garnet, at his trial, allowed that Tesimond had acted "ill,"

in seeking to rouse the country to open rebellion.]

[Footnote 158:--This lady was Muriel, the widow of John Littleton, who had been involved in the rebellion of Robert Devereux Earl of Ess.e.x. She was the daughter of Elizabeth's Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas Bromley.--See Aiken's "_Memoirs of the Reign of James I._"

For a true estimate of the second Earl of Ess.e.x, see Dr. R. W. Church's "Bacon" (Macmillan).--See also Major Hume's "_Courts.h.i.+ps of Queen Elizabeth_ (Fisher Unwin) and his "_Treason and Plot_" (Nesbit).]

[Footnote 159:--How well-grounded Oldcorne's suspicions of Littleton were, and how soundly he had discerned the man's spirit, is proved from the fact that after Littleton had been condemned to death for harbouring his cousin, the Master of Holbeach, and Robert Winter, the Master of Huddington, Littleton sought to save his life by telling the Government that Oldcorne had "answered that the [Gunpowder] action was good, and that he seemed to approve of it." Littleton also said that "since this last rebellion he heard Hall [_i.e._, Oldcorne] once preach in the house of the said Mr. Abington, at which time he seemed to confirm his hearers in the Catholic cause."--See Foley's "_Records_," vol. iv., p. 219.]

[Footnote 160:--On the 5th of October, 1900, I saw this Declaration by the courtesy of the authorities at the Record Office, London, and compared it with the Letter to Lord Mounteagle. Miss Emma M. Walford was present the while.--See Appendix.]

[Footnote 161:--This luminous definition is by that great writer, Frederic Harrison.]

[Footnote 162:--It is not less dangerous to indulge in Irony. For an emphatic proof of this see the "_Life of Lord Bowen_," p. 115 (Murray), by Sir H. S. Cunningham, K.C.I.E.

_Cf._ the great Stagyrite's discountenancing the study by the inexperienced (the young in years or in character) of the fundamental grounds of those moral rules that each man must observe if he would faithfully do his duty from day to day, and "walk sure-footedly" in this life.--See "_The Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle_," book i. See also Professor Muirhead's "_Chapters from the Ethics_" (Murray).

Hector, in "Troilus and Cressida," act ii., scene 2, speaks of "Young men, whom Aristotle thought unfit to hear moral philosophy."]

[Footnote 163:--Jardine thinks that Oldcorne manifests a disposition "to hesitate and argue about the moral complexion" of the Gunpowder Treason; and this disposition Jardine regards as exhibiting in Oldcorne, "apparently a man of humane and quiet character," a "distorted perception of right and wrong."--See "_Criminal Trials_," pp. 232, 233.

But it is evident that, for the nonce, the London Magistrate's judicial temper of mind had deserted him, when he sniffed too closely the moral air breathed by a Jesuit. For manifest is it that, _e.g._, all acts of insubordination against an established government are not treasons and rebellions when that government is hopelessly tyrannical, inhuman, and corrupt. Nor are all acts of slaughter of human beings acts of wilful murder. They may be acts of justifiable tyrannicide, as, possibly, in the case of "the man Charles Stuart, King of England;" and acts of justifiable homicide, as in the case of every just war, or of every legitimate slaying upon the gallows.]

[Footnote 164:--In this connection the following words of the conspirator John Grant should be remembered. After the Jury had found a verdict of "guilty" against the prisoners, at Westminster Hall, on being asked what he could say wherefore judgment of death should not be p.r.o.nounced against him, Grant replied, "He was guilty of a conspiracy intended, but never effected."

_Cf._ Wordsworth's Sonnet on the Gunpowder Plot, which is very penetrating.]

[Footnote 165:--Let it be remembered by the gentle, though unreflecting, reader who is disposed to be unnerved at the sound of the word "Casuist,"

as at the sound of something "uncanny," that Casuistry is that great science, so indispensable to statesmen, warriors, and politicians, especially in these days of democratic self-government, whereby the electing, self-governing people are told by their own authorized expert representatives so much of public affairs as it is for the common good should be known by them, _but no more_. The late Right Hon. W. E.

Gladstone once styled Casuistry "a great and n.o.ble science." Now, the Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., the present Prime Minister of King Edward VII., denominated Mr. Gladstone in the House of Lords, when paying his tribute to the memory of that "king of men," "a great Christian statesman." And justly; for although Mr. Gladstone was himself a master in the science of Casuistry, the object that science has in view is to forge a palladium for Truth, and this at the cost of endless intellectual labour. Casuistry, properly understood, counts all mere intellectual toils as cheaply purchased, no matter at what cost, provided only that Truth herself--unsullied Truth--be saved. For, after its kind, in whatever sphere, Truth is infinitely more excellent than the diamond, neither is the ruby so lovely; while _partial Truth_, according to its degree, is not less true than the full orb of Truth.]

[Footnote 166:--This phrase, "sacrilegious murder," is used by Shakespeare in "Macbeth," and so precisely does it express the double crime of the Gunpowder plotters that I feel certain that from this allusion--as well as from the evident allusion to the well-known equivocations of Father Henry Garnet (alias Farmer) before the Privy Council--the great dramatist must have had the Gunpowder Plot in his mind the whole time he wrote this finest of his tragedies.

I suggest, too, that the words "The bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan?

for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to h.e.l.l" are an allusion to the mysterious warning bell that the plotters thought they heard whilst working in the mine.--See Jardine's "_Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot_,"

p. 54.

Compare also Mr. H. W. Mabie's description of the tragedy of "Macbeth" in his very recent and valuable "_Life of Shakespeare_" (Macmillan & Co.).

Mr. Mabie's account sounds in one's ears like a very echo of a recital of the facts and purposes of the Gunpowder Plot.]

[Footnote 167:--Now, as the conspirators were engaged in a joint-enterprise, it must be evident to every clear-minded thinker that the repentance of _any one of the joint-plotters_ must have shed an imputed beneficent influence over and upon all the band. For just as no man liveth only to himself, and no man dieth only to himself, so, by a parity of reasoning, no man is morally resurrected only to himself.

Therefore, the moment Christopher Wright was, in the pure eyes of Edward Oldcorne, freed from the leprosy of his sacrilegious-murderous crime--freed (1) by his owning to the same in word; (2) by his manifesting sorrow for the same in heart; and, above and beyond all, freed (3) by his making amends for the same in deed, through the earnest and part performance he had given and made of his unconquerable purpose of reversal, in a.s.senting to the proposal of his listener to pen the revealing Letter--from that moment Christopher Wright, I say, and, through him (though in a secondary, subordinate, derivative sense), all the remaining twelve plotters, would rise up, as an army from the dead; would rise up and stand once more with head erect and in marching order--that n.o.ble posture and manly att.i.tude which is ever the reward, sure and certain, of a recovered sense of justice, sincerity, truth.]

[Footnote 168:--The Government, it is said, appointed a special Commission to try Humphrey Littleton and some others at Worcester. The following quotation is taken from "the Relation of Humphrey Littleton, made January 26th, 1605-6," written by one Sir Richard Lewkner to the Lords of the Privy Council. Lewkner was one of the Commissioners.

This sentence is to be specially noted in this "Relation":--"The servant of the said Hall [_i.e._, Oldcorne] is now prisoner in Worcester Gaol, and can, as he thinks, go directly to the secret place where the said Hall lieth hid."

Now, what was the name of this servant? It certainly was not Ralph Ashley (alias George Chambers), Jesuit lay-brother, for he and Nicholas Owen, the servant of Garnet, who died in the Tower, "in their hands," whatever that may mean, were not captured at Hindlip until a few days before their masters. This treacherous servant of Oldcorne, whoever he was, was possibly the self-same person who told the Government that Ashley "had carried letters to and fro about this conspiracy."--See Gerard's "_Narrative_," p. 271.--The man may have shrewdly suspected it from something in Ashley's deportment or from his riding up and down the country in a way that portended that something unusual was afoot. He may have been a "weak or bad Catholic" servant of Mr. Abington, whom that gentleman placed at the special disposal of Oldcorne for a cla.s.s of work which could be done by one who was not a Jesuit lay-brother. The Government had evidently got a clue to something from somebody, because I find Father Oldcorne making answer in the course of one of his examinations:--"He sayth he bought a black horse of Mr. Wynter at May next shall be three yeares, and sould him againe." Examination, 5th March, 1606.--See Foley's "_Records_," vol. iv., p. 224.

According to Foley's "_Records_," Oldcorne was indicted at Worcester for--

(1) Inviting Garnet, a denounced traitor, to Hindlip.

(2) Writing to Father Robert Jones, S.J., in Herefords.h.i.+re, to aid in concealing Stephen Littleton and Robert Winter, thus making himself an accomplice.

(3) Of approving the Plot as a good action, though it failed of effect.

Father Jones had provided a place of concealment at Coombe, in the Parish of Welch Newton, on the borders of Herefords.h.i.+re, which then abounded in Catholics. Stephen Littleton and Robert Winter, being captured at Hagley, in Worcesters.h.i.+re, were executed as traitors according to law. Hagley House is now the residence of Charles George Baron Lyttelton and Viscount Cobham.]

[Footnote 169:--A learned Cretan Jesuit, Father L'Henreux, who was appointed by Pope Urban VIII. Rector of the Greek College at Rome, wrote a powerful "_Apologia_" in behalf of Father Henry Garnet, which was published in 1610. In 1613 Dr. Robert Abbott, a Master of Balliol College, Oxford, and Regius Professor of Divinity at that University, wrote his "_Antilogia_" as a reply to Eudaemon-Joannes' "_Apologia_." It would be a boon to historical students if both the "_Apologia_" and the "_Antilogia_"

were "Englished" by some competent hand. Abbott was made Bishop of Salisbury, partly on account of the learning he displayed in his "_Antilogia_." He was a Calvinist, and a vigorous writer, being styled "the hammer of Popery and Arminianism."

Dr. Lancelot Andrewes (in answer to Cardinal Bellarmine) and Isaac Casaubon also contributed to the literature of the controversies anent the Plot, and modern editions of their works with notes are desiderata.

Casaubon is best known, at the present day, through his "_Life_," by Mark Pattison; Andrewes, through the late Dr. R. W. Church's "Lecture," now in "_The Pascal_" volume (Macmillan) of that judicious and learned man.]