The Condition of Catholics Under James I. Part 17

"Your lordship's humble servant,

"THOMAS FITZHERBERT."

"Ex literis P. aegidii Schondonchii Seminarii Audomarensis Rectoris 1 Martii 1606:

" 'Dum has scribo accepi literas recentissime datas a viro claro quibus significavit Dominum Everardum Digbaeum, dum a Judicibus p.r.o.nuntiaretur in eum mortis sententia, coram eisdem protestatum esse nullum penitus in Anglia Jesuitam hujus rei fuisse conscium, Nam, inquit, familiaris Patri Gerardo si quis alius, neque unquam ausus fui indicare tantillum, veritus ne conaretur frangere nostros conatus. Itaque sancte a.s.seruit se id solo ex puro Catholicae ac Romanae Ecclesiae zelo neque ullo alio humano respectu suscep.i.s.se.'

"Out of the letter of Father Michael Walpole written to Father Persons, the 29th of January, 1606:

" 'Touching Gerard's letter which I have seen, I can only say this much, that it seemeth to me to be so effectual, as nothing can be more, so that I am fully persuaded that the King's Majestie himself and the whole Council remain satisfied of him [in] their own hearts, and his Majesty is reported for certain to have declared so much in words upon the sight of his letter.'

"In the end, after his name, he writeth as followeth:

" 'This letter is confirmed since by Sir Everard Digby's speech at his arraignment, in which he cleared all Jesuits and Priests (to his knowledge) upon his salvation. And in particular, that though he was particularly acquainted with Gerard, yet he never durst mention this matter, being fully a.s.sured that he would be wholly against it, to which my Lord of Salisbury replied, affirming the contrary, and that he knew him to be guilty.' "

The first extract of the letter enclosed from Father Gerard runs thus:

"It is known to all how those of any blood have loved and served King James. My father knew it to his cost, for he was twice imprisoned for attempting to set free the glorious Queen Mary, the King's mother, and to secure the succession to her children: which intent of his own was so clear to the Ministers of State, that besides imprisonment, to purchase his life of them cost him some thousands of crowns, especially the first time when there were but three accused and he one of them, and of the other two, one lost his life. Of all which King James was mindful when he came from Scotland to be crowned King of England, and my brother at York offered him his service and that of all his house. 'I am particularly bound,' said he, 'to love your blood, on account of the persecution that you have borne for me, and of that his love he there gave him the first pledge by making him a Knight.' "(222)

The remaining extract concludes our series of exculpatory letters:

"I send your lordship a copy of the three letters that I wrote to three Councillors of State, that you may see in them how I trusted to my innocence, when I offered to put it to the proof in the two ways which I there proposed to them. Further than this, though the conspirators had been put to death, and I saw that the course proposed by me to the Councillors was not accepted, while the matter was fresh, and I yet in London, I requested of our Fathers that I might present myself in person to the Council of State, which I would have done had they but given me leave; and if the Council would have proceeded against me, not on the score of religion, but for the conspiracy only, which alone was in question, and for which, if they had found me guilty of it, they might have done to me their very worst. This request I can swear that I made and renewed several times to our Fathers, and there are some yet alive who can bear witness to it; but it did not seem good to them to consent to it."

The matter does not seem to have rested here, unless there is some mistake in a date, for Dr. Lingard(223) quotes from a MS. copy, dated April 17, 1631, an affidavit made by Anthony Smith, a Secular Priest, before the Bishop of Chalcedon, "that in his hearing, Gerard had said in the Novitiate at Liege, that he worked in the mine with the lay conspirators till his clothes were as wet with perspiration as if they had been dipped in water; and that the general condemnation of the Plot was chiefly owing to its bad success, as had often happened to the attempts of unfortunate generals in war." It would seem as if this were a repet.i.tion of the original accusation, in answer to which the letters given above were written. Of the attack on Father Gerard, Dr. Lingard says, "For my own part, upon having read what he wrote in his own vindication, I cannot doubt his innocence, and suspect that Smith unintentionally attributed to him what he had heard him say of some other person."(224)

x.x.xIV.

It remains for us only to give an account of the ma.n.u.scripts that have been used as well in the Narrative of the Powder Plot as in the Autobiography of its author.

Father Christopher Grene, who was English Penitentiary at St. Peter's, died in Rome in 1697.(225) This Father was a most diligent collector of all the doc.u.ments that related to the history of the persecutions of Catholics in England.(226) He copied volumes of such doc.u.ments, several of which are still extant. In one which is preserved at Stonyhurst, ent.i.tled by him, _Miscellanea de Martyribus et Persecutione in Anglia signanda lit._ M. ... _incept. anno 1690_, he informs us that there were various books called _Collectanea_ in the Archives of the English College at Rome, distinguished by the letters of the alphabet, of the contents of which he gives us an account. At folio 51 we have: "Ex libro Collectaneorum in folio signato lita _C_ in Archo Colli Angl. hoc die 24 Jan. 1689. A relation of ye Gunpowder Treason and of Father Garnett's araignmt and martyrdome, &c., written by Father John Gerard: 'tis ye the original written soon after ye sayd martyrdome. It contains 85 sheetes of paper, and is an excellent work, and should be printed." After a short a.n.a.lysis of the book, the pages quoted agreeing with the Stonyhurst MS. of the Narrative, we have, "A p. 176 in eod. libro Collectan. _C_ una relatione del P. Filippo Bemondo(227) della sua Missione in Inghilta," &c. The last page of the Stonyhurst MS., bearing the endors.e.m.e.nt, "A Relation of ye Gunpowder Treason, ye execution, &c. Also of F. Garnett's arrayment," is numbered 176. The first page bears in Father Grene's handwriting the inscription, "Of the Gunpowder Treason, written by F. John Gerard, _alias_ Tomson, it is the originall." We are thus enabled to recognize our ma.n.u.script as the commencement of Father Grene's volume _C_. The subsequent history of the MS. is related in the two following letters, which Dr. Oliver appended to the copy that he made of the Narrative. It is only necessary to add that the Rev. Marmaduke Stone, to whom the second letter is addressed, transferred the Academy of Liege (as it was called after the suppression of the Society), of which he was made President in 1790, to Stonyhurst, in 1794. In 1803 he was appointed Provincial in England by the General of the Society in Russia. In all probability, therefore, the MS. was given by Father Thorpe to Father Stone, at Liege, and by him was brought to Stonyhurst, where it now is.

The following extract is taken from a letter addressed by the Rev. John Thorpe from Rome, August 12, 1789, to Henry, eighth Lord Arundell.

"The collection of ancient papers at the English College here consisted of two sorts. The first belonged to the Stuart family, and was deposited there only after the old Chevalier retired into Italy. Neither Rector nor any other person in the College knew anything of the contents, which were locked up in a strong chamber, of which the keys were kept in the Palace of SS.

Apostoli, and everything was carefully removed to that palace several months before the oppression of the Society. The other collection related to ecclesiastical matters, from the time of Henry VIII. to the beginning of the present century; it had been a repository of all papers and letters of many indefatigable men in preserving a faithful remembrance of whatever was interesting to religion during that period. But different removals of these papers, which were very many, had thrown them into disorder.

Father Booth can tell in what state he left them. I have before mentioned to your lordship a MS. relating to our British saints, written in the manner of a calendar, in which many curious pa.s.sages of history frequently occurred. I do not think it had been seen either by Father Alford (who wrote the annals of our British Church up to the year 1180) or by Mr. Wilson, who digested the English Martyrology that was daily read at St. Omer. Other MSS. of this kind were also in the same place, while I lived in the College. Afterwards, when the storm began to blacken over us, divers attempts were made to put these papers into a place of security; but every means miscarried. They never belonged to the College, and among what are the College archives many very interesting papers remain belonging to the Jesuits. The papers above mentioned were finally destroyed by one accident or another, to prevent further fears of molestation in those days of arbitrary persecution. If anciently there had been any valuable MSS. in the old hospital, they were supposed to have been removed when it was converted to the purpose of a College, because scarce anything more than accounts of pilgrims, house expenses, and like articles, remained under that date, and even these in no regular order. Thus I apprehend that no material intelligence of remote historical facts can be gathered from hence.

"I will now venture to tell your lordship of a curious MS. that a very unforeseen accident brought into my hands, at a considerable distance of time from the oppression of the Society, and from the total removal of the Jesuits from the College. It is a long account of the Gunpowder Plot, from beginning to the end in the original handwriting of Father John Gerard. It is a folio volume of about 300 pages, composed with an extensive knowledge of the persons concerned, and of whom several curious anecdotes are recounted. Father John Gerard suffered much on occasion of that Plot, wherein the prosecutors tried every means to involve him in one manner or another. During the plundering and ransacking of the Houses at the oppression, such an account was reported to have been found in the Novitiate by the notorious Alfani, and it immediately was sought for by our countrymen, and instructions were said to have come from our Court at London for obtaining it at any price. But on further examination that account contained no more than relations of the religious lives and edifying death of those Jesuits who suffered on that occasion. I have never heard what became of those papers, but suppose them to have been destroyed, with very many others of no less edification. I must find some good place wherein to deposit the relation above mentioned; it is very curious, though it contains no new intelligence of the fact described in it. It is written with a singular candour that distinguishes the good religious man, and with a politeness that marks the gentleman. Your lordship may signify all this with my best respects to Mr. More" [the last English Provincial before the suppression], "desiring his counsel on the manner of disposing of this valuable MS., every line of which may be esteemed a relic for the eminent sanct.i.ty of the writer."

Lastly, we have an extract from a letter written from Rome, March 26, 1791, by the Rev. John Thorpe to the Rev. Marmaduke Stone, President of the English Academy at Liege.

"Among other things with me is one very singular piece, which I look upon as a kind of property of your House, at least in the light wherein it stood twenty years ago. It is an original folio MS. all in the handwriting of venerable Father John Gerard, wherein he gives an ample relation of the Gunpowder Plot; and it is, I believe, the only relation extant that was written by a person accused of being in any manner acquainted of it. This article demands your secrecy, and it is earnestly recommended to it; but your counsel is also asked, where and how this rare _depositum_ should be placed. Religion has nothing to fear from it. A summary of its contents was sent some time ago to England, and was in the hands of Lord Arundell. At the time of the Society's suppression here, a commission came hither from England (supposed to be given by the Court) for purchasing at any rate, if any such relation should be found among the Jesuits' archives. A long Latin account of Father Garnett's sufferings was triumphantly seized among the papers of the Novitiate, and occasioned the vulgar mistake of what was sought being really found; but the contents, when understood, notoriously demonstrated the contrary.

This is written in English, in that easy devout style for which everything of the writer is remarkable. It is a valuable relic."

Though we cannot exactly determine the date of the MS., we can approximate to it pretty nearly. First of all, it is clear from the mention of Sir Thomas Gerard's knighthood at p. 27, that the book was written before the creation of baronets in 1611. At page 282, Father Southwell's martyrdom is said to have happened eleven years before. As he died in 1595, and Father Gerard escaped from England in May, 1606, the Narrative would seem to have been written in the latter part of that year. We have, besides, Father Grene's statement that it was "written soon after the martyrdom" of Father Garnett, and Father Gerard's own a.s.sertion in his Autobiography: "I myself, when I came from England to Rome, was ordered to put in writing an account of the whole affair, and did so as well as I could."

The original MS. of the Autobiography no longer exists. Father Grene had seen it; for an a.n.a.lysis of it, _transcript. ex autographo ipsius_, in his hand is in the second volume of the MSS. kept at Stonyhurst under the name of _Collectanea_, which we have quoted under the letter _P_. The MS. we have used,(228) which belongs to Stonyhurst, bears the t.i.tle, "Narratio Patris Joannis Gerardi de rebus a se in Anglia gestis." It purports to be a copy from an original at the Novitiate of St. Andrew, in the hands of Father Francis Sacchini, the historian. We have no means of knowing whether it is the same copy as that which existed, according to Father Grene,(229) in the volume of the _Collectanea_ called _D_, in the English College at Rome. He mentions it under the t.i.tle of "Narratio P. Joannis Gerardi de tota vita sua. Copia." The Autobiography was composed in 1609, as is plain from the mention of Robert Drury's martyrdom, which our author says happened two years before the time when he was writing. This good Priest suffered at Tyburn, Feb. 26, 1607.

We now leave Father John Gerard in the hands of the reader, parting from him with sincere respect, and sharing good old Father Grene's affection for him, who in some notes, written in preparation, apparently, for an English Menology, has set down as applicable to Father Gerard the phrases, "Non ipse martyrio, sed ipsi martyrium defuit," and, again, the Church's antiphon for St. Martin, "O beatum virum, qui totis visceribus diligebat Christum! O sanctissima anima, quam etsi gladius persecutoris non abstulit, palmam tamen martyrii non amisit."

Additional Notes.

P. x. and p. 26.-Elizabeth, the mother of John Gerard, was the eldest of the three daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John Port, and at her father's death, June 6, 1557, Etwall became the property of Sir Thomas Gerard. This is the "dwelling-house within two miles of" Tutbury "Castle where" Mary Queen of Scots "was kept," where Father Gerard lived when a child for three years. Sir John's second daughter, Dorothy, took Dale Abbey in Derbyshire to her husband, George Hastings fourth Earl of Huntingdon; and Margaret, the third daughter, by her marriage conveyed Cubley in the same county to Sir Thomas Stanhope, grandfather of the first Earl of Chesterfield.

Father Gerard had three sisters, Mary, wife of John Jenison; Dorothy, wife of Edmund Peckham; and Martha, wife of Michael Jenison. In the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 6998, f. 197) there is a report, dated June 16, 1595, from Edward c.o.kayne, evidently a Derbyshire magistrate, of a.s.sistance given by him to William Newall, "one of the messengers of Her Majesty's Chamber," in searches in that county. The following paragraph relates to one of Father Gerard's sisters: "The first house that we searched according to his direction was the house of one Mr. Jenison, that married one of my Lady Gerard's daughters, she being a great recusant, and not her husband: howsoever, it is reported that there is great resort of strangers, but what they be, we cannot learn, neither at this time did we find any there, but pictures in the chambers according to their profession. Only one West that was a messenger between the seminaries was fled six weeks before we came, and whither he is gone, as yet we cannot learn."

P. xii.-It is not easy to reconcile the dates at this period of Father Gerard's life. He could not have been nineteen when he went to France, for he lived at Rhemes three years, one at Clermont, and about a year in England before he was committed to the Marshalsea; he was a full year in that prison, and after his discharge his recognizances were renewed for perhaps another year before leaving England for Rome, and he was in the College about seventeen months before he was ordained Priest towards the close of 1587, when he yet wanted several months of the canonical age for the Priesthood, that is, twenty-five. From this we should gather that when he first went to Rhemes he was under seventeen, which would have been in 1580.

On the other hand, it is equally difficult to understand the date given in the Douay Diary, August or September, 1577, which would make him fourteen.

Perhaps this was a visit to the continent before going to Oxford, which he says was when he was fifteen, spending a year there and two years afterwards with Mr. Leutner as a tutor. The Douay Diary has the following entry. "1577. Aug. 29 die, advenerunt ex Anglia Mr. Paschallus vir n.o.bilis, et quidam Aldrigius mercator: eodem etiam tempore adventavit Mr.

Gerrardus D. Tho. Gerrardi Equitis Aurati filius."

P. xv.-The following is the entry respecting Father John Gerard in the _Liber Annalium_ of the English College at Rome: "Joannes Gerardus Anglus dioecesis Lichfeldiensis annum agens 23m, aptus ad theologiam positivam, receptus fuit in hoc Anglorum Collegium inter alumnos SSmi. D. N. Sixti V.

a P. Gulielmo Holto hujus Collegii Rectore de mandato Illmi. Hippoliti Cardis. Aldobrandini Viceprotectoris sub die 5o Aprilis Anno Dni. 1587, c.u.m fuisset antea Convictor per septem menses.

"Anno Dni. 1587 mense ... accepit ordines minores, et mense Augusto Subdiaconatum, et Diaconatum 9o mense die 16."

His name appears in the Pilgrims' Register of the English College, as having been there received Aug. 5, 1586 (Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's _Miscell. de Coll. Angl._, p. 19).

P. xvi.-The Douay Diary gives us the dates of Father Gerard's arrival at Rhemes and his departure thence, together with the names of his fellow-travellers. It is clear that if they left Rhemes on the 26th of September, and remained at Eu until they could receive an answer from Rome, they could not possibly have landed in England so soon as the end of October. "1588. Sept. 21 die, Roma ad nos venerunt D. Rodolphus Buckland, D. Joannes Gerard filius D. Thomae Gerard Equitis Aurati, D. Arthurus Stratford" [whom Gifford, the spy, called Shefford], "D. Edouardus Oldcorn presbyteri. Die 26 Angliam ituri discesserunt D. Jo. Gerard, D. Rodolphus Buckland, D. Arthurus Stratford et D. Edouardus Oldcorn."

P. x.x.x.-In the Public Record Office (_Domestic, Eliz._, vol. 244, n. 7) are two forms of indictment of Richard Jackson, Priest, for saying Ma.s.s, and of various members of the Wiseman family for being present at Ma.s.s, on the 25th August and the 8th September, 34 Eliz., 1592. The endors.e.m.e.nt is "Ma.s.se-mongers."

P. x.x.xviii.-Line 22, for "Worcestershire" read "Warwickshire." See p. 282.

Pp. xlv., lxx.-In his examination Brother Emerson frankly acknowledged himself to be a Jesuit Lay-brother, and "sometime Campion's boy." A copy of his examination is in the British Museum (Harleian MSS., 6998, f. 65).

It is dated April 17, 1593, and bears the marginal note "Ley Jesuite."

"Ralph Emerson of the bishopric of Durham, scholar, of the age of forty-two years or thereabouts, examined before Sir Owen Hopton, Knight, Mr. Doctor Goodman, Dean of Westminster, Mr. Dale, Mr. Fuller, and Mr.

Young, who refuseth to be sworn, but saith first that he hath [been] in prison these nine years-namely, three years and a quarter in the Counter in the Poultry, and the rest of that time hath been in the Clink-committed by Mr. Young for bringing over of books, called my Lord of Leicester's books as he saith, and hath been examined before Sir Francis Walsingham, and before Mr. Young, and before others divers times, and was never indicted to his knowledge.