What was the Gunpowder Plot? The Traditional Story Tested by Original Evidence. Gerard John

103

Answere to certaine Scandalous Papers, scattered abroad under colour of a Catholic Admonition. (Published in January, 1605-6.)

104

Traditional Memoirs, 36. Of this writer Lord Castlemaine says, "He was born before this plot, and was also an inquisitive man, a frequenter of company, of a noted wit, of an excellent family, and as Protestant a one as any in the whole nation."

105

Court of King James (1839), i. 102.

106

Stonyhurst MSS., Anglia, v. 67.

107

E.g., in the Advocate of Conscience Liberty (1673), p. 225.

108

History of Mary Queen of Scots and James I., p. 334. Bishop Kennet, in his Fifth of November Sermon, 1715, boldly declares that Sanderson speaks not of Cecil the statesman, but of Cecil "a busy Romish priest" (and, he might have added, a paid government spy). The assertion is utterly and obviously false.

109

Memoirs, p. 22.

110

History of England, Royal House of Stuart, p. 27.

111

General History of England, iii. 757.

112

History of His Own Times, i. 11.

113

Church History, Book X. § 39.

114

Antipathie of the English Lordly Prelacie, to the regall Monarchie and Civill Unity, p. 151.

115

A Short View of the English History, p. 296.

116

Note to Fuller's Church History, x. § 39, and to the Student's Hume.

117

Illustrations, iii. 172.

118

Parker and Co. This author says of Cecil and his rival Raleigh, "Both were unprincipled men, but Cecil was probably the worst. He is suspected not only of having contrived the strange plot in which Raleigh was involved, but of being privy to the proceedings of Catesby and his associates, though he suffered them to remain unmolested, in order to secure the forfeiture of their estates" (p. 338).

119

Criminal Trials, ii. 68.

120

History of England, i. 254, note.

121

Catholique Apology, p. 412.

122

Hist. Prov. Angl. S.J., p. 310.

123

Condition of Catholics under James I., p. 100.

124

R.O. Dom. James I., lxxxi. 70, August 29th, 1615.

125

A Plain and Rational Account of the Catholick Faith, Rouen, 1721, p. 197.

126

Certamen utriusque Ecclesiæ, James I.

127

The author of the English Protestants' Plea (1621) says: "Old stratagems and tragedies of Queene Elizabeth's time must needs be renewed and playde againe, to bring not only the Catholikes of England, but their holy religion into obloquy" (p. 56).

Peter Talbot, Bishop of Dublin, in the Polititian's Catechisme (1658) writes: "That Cecil was the contriver, or at least the fomenter of [the Plot,] was testified by one of his own domestick Gentlemen, who advertised a certain Catholike, by name Master Buck, two months before, of a wicked designe his Master had against Catholikes" (p. 94).

128

A writer, signing himself "Architect," in an article describing the old palace of Westminster (Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1800, p. 627), having occasion to mention the Gunpowder Plot, observes: "This Plot is now pretty well understood not to have been hatched by the Papists, but by an inveterate foe of the Catholicks of that day, the famous minister of James… All well-informed persons at present laugh at the whole of this business."

129

The name "old House of Lords" is somewhat ambiguous, being variously applicable to three different buildings:

(i.) That here described, which continued to be used till the Irish Union, a. d. 1800.

(ii.) The "Court of Requests," or "White Hall," used from 1800 till the fire of 1834.

(iii.) The "Painted Chamber," which, having been repaired after the said fire, became the place of assembly for the Lords, as did the Court of Requests for the Commons.

The original House of Lords was demolished in 1823 by Sir John Soane, who on its site erected his Royal Gallery. (See Brayley and Britton, History of the Palace of Westminster.)

130

The authority for this is the Earl of Northampton, who at Father Garnet's trial mentioned that it was so stated in ancient records. Remains of a buttery hatch in the south wall confirmed his assertion.

The foundations of the building were believed to date from the time of Edward the Confessor, and the style of architecture of the superstructure assigned it to the early part of the thirteenth century, as likewise the "Prince's Chamber."

131

Brayley and Britton, History of the Palace of Westminster, p. 421; J. T. Smith, Antiquities of Westminster, p. 39 (where illustrations will be found); Gentleman's Magazine, July, 1800, p. 626.

132

It was here that the death warrant of Charles I. was signed.

133

An old print (which states that it is taken from "a painted print in the Cottonian library,") representing the two Houses assembled in presence of Queen Elizabeth, has windows on both sides. The same plate, with the figure of the sovereign alone changed, was made to do duty likewise for a Parliament of James I. By Hollar's time (1640-77) the windows had been blocked up and the tapestry hung.

134

Cecil wrote to Cornwallis, Edmondes, and others, November 9th, 1605, "This Piercey had a bout a year and a half a goe hyred a parte of Vyniards house in the old Palace," which appears to be Mr. Hepworth Dixon's sole authority for styling the tenement "Vinegar House."

135

See Appendix E, Site of Percy's house.

136

Evidence of Mrs. Whynniard, November 7th, 1605. Epsley is evidently the same person as Hoppisley, who was examined on the 23rd of the same month.

137

Birch, Historical View, p. 227.

138

Historie, p. 1231.

139

Gunpowder Treason, Harleian Miscellany, iii. 121.

140

At his first examination, November 5th 1605, Faukes declared that he had not been sure the king would come to the Parliament House on that day, and that his purpose was to have blown it up whenever his Majesty was there.

141

The agreement between Percy and Ferrers is in the Record Office (Gunpowder Plot Book, 1.) and is endorsed by Cecil, "The bargaine … for the bloody sellar." Upon this there will be more to remark later.

142

Jardine, Gunpowder Plot, p. 42.

143

The 11th of December, O.S., was at that period the shortest day, which circumstance suggested to Sir E. Coke, on the trial of the conspirators, one of his characteristic facetiæ; he bade his hearers note "That it was in the entring of the Sun into the Tropick of Capricorn, when they began their Mine; noting that by Mining they should descend, and by Hanging, ascend."

144

"Gentlemen not accustomed to labour or to be pioneers." – Goodman, Court of King James,