498 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



L2"d S. IX. June 30. '60. 



Immediately after the proclamation for banishing 

 them had been issued, " at the beginning of 

 Lent" * (Ash Wednesday falling in 1604 on the 

 21st Feb.), T. Winter was summoned to London 

 by Catesby, and was there informed of the plot 

 as being actually in existence. At that time the 

 Parliament which he proposed to destroy had not 

 even met. 



The history of the conspiracy itself is too ac- 

 curately given by Mr. Jardine to need repeti- 

 tion. The history of the gradual change of the 

 king's intentions is less fully known. 



On the 17th May f, he expressed his belief 

 that the Papists were increasing, and " wished 

 the Lords and Commons to think of laws to hem 

 them in." James had wished for a condition of 

 things in which there should be no persecution, 

 and no proselytism. He had forgotten that the 

 whole of that class of persons whose consciences 

 would draw them into recusancy as soon as the 

 fines ceased to drive them to church, would never 

 be seen at church again until the fines were re- 

 imposed. As might be expected, the number of 

 the recusants was on the increase.! The Roman 

 Catholics themselves, about this time, boasted 

 that their numbers had been augmented by ten 

 thousand converts. § This estimate had the effect 

 of inspiring confidence in the hearts of the mal- 

 contents. One priest is reported to have been 

 talking of another Catholic insurrection, and of 

 seizing the city of Chester. || The report of this 

 conversation was, no doubt, made a few days 

 subsequently to James's declaration, but the in- 

 crease of the numbers, which excited the Poman 

 Catholics, must have been equally well-known to 

 the government. 



On the 4th of June a bill for the due execution 

 of statutes against Jesuits, &c. [1 Jac. I. c. 4.] 

 was brought into the House of Lords. It re- 

 ceived several amendments in the Lower House, 

 so that it is impossible to say what was its 

 original form, in which it probably represented 

 the mind of the king at this period. 



In the beginning of July an opportunity was 

 offered to James of retracing his steps, and of 

 renewing his schemes of toleration under better 

 auspices than when he had sought to carry them 

 into effect by means of a negotiation with the Pope. 



A petition was presented to him in the name 

 of the Catholic laity, in which the following sen- 

 tences occurred ^f : — 



* Confession of T. Winter, Nov. 23rd, Gunpowder- 

 Plot Book, S. P. 0. 



t Commons' Journal, May 18, 1604. 



J From Jan. to August, 1604, the number in the dio- 

 cese of Chester increased from 2,400 to 3,433. " State of 

 the Diocese of Chester," S. P. O., Domestic, ix. 28. 



§ Account of a Conversation, &c, May 18, 1604. S. P. 

 O., Domestic, viii. 30. 



|| Examination of Hacking, May 20th, 1604. S. P. O., 

 Domestic, viii. 34. 



If Petition Apologetical, p. 34. 



"And that it may be more apparent to the world that 

 this our lowly Christian desire, and humble demand, shall 

 not in any wayes be prejudiciall to your Majesties Royall 

 person or estate, we offer to an s were person for person, and 

 life for life, for every such Priest as we shall make elec- 

 tion of, and be permitted to have in our severall houses ', 

 for their fidelity to your Majesty and to the State, by 

 which meanes your Majesty may be assured both of our 

 number, and carriage of all such Priests as shall remayne 

 within the Kealme, for whom (it is not credible) that we 

 would so deeply engage ourselves without full knowledge 

 of their dispositions; their being here by this meanes 

 shall be publike, the place of their abode certayne, their 

 conversation and carriage, subject to the eyes of the 

 Bishopps, Ministers, and Justices of peace in every pro- 

 vince and place where they shall live : by which occa- 

 sion there may probably arise akinde of vertuous, and not 

 altogether unprofitable emulation between our Priests 



and your Ministers and we shall be so much the 



more circumspect and carefull of the comportments of our 

 said Priests, as our estate and security doth more directly 

 depend upon their honesties and fidelities." 



Whether the temper of the people would have 

 allowed James to accept this solution is doubtful. 

 There can be no doubt that it would have been 

 worth trying. 



About the same time James told the French 

 ambassador that, although he meant to consent 

 to the bill, he had no intention of putting it into 

 execution ; he merely wished to have the power 

 of using it if any necessity should arise.* As a 

 proof of the sincerity of his intentions, he re- 

 mitted to Sir T. Tresham and fifteen others the 

 fines due since the queen's death, as an assurance 

 that he would never call upon them for arrears-t 



In spite of the king's assurance, the persecuting 

 act was actually carried into effect at the summer 

 assizes in some counties. At Salisbury one Sugar 

 was condemned and executed merely as being a 

 seminary priest, and a layman suffered a similar 

 fate on the charge of aiding Sugar. \ At Man- 

 chester several priests suffered death. § 



Mr. Jardine (p. 44.) asserts that the judges, 

 before proceeding on this circuit, received fresh 

 instructions to enforce the penal statutes. There 

 can be no doubt that he is again making a mistake 

 of a year. The language used by letter writers 

 when such instructions were really given in the 

 following year would be inapplicable to the case, 

 unless they were then given for the first time. 

 The following passage in a letter addressed to 

 James by the Constable of Castille as he was 

 leaving England after the conclusion of the Spa- 

 nish treaty probably points to the true explana- 

 tion of these executions. He desires : — 



" Ut pro suft humanitate ac dementia prsecipere dig- 

 naretur ne Catholici in Regnis suis ob causam religionis 

 ullam vitas vel fortuuarum subirent discrimen; abstine- 

 rentque ministri Regis a sanguine sacerdotum ; et de 

 transgressionibus Catholicorum nou inferiores judices, qui 



* Beaumont au Roi, July T |, 1604. 



t S. P. O., Docquet, July 23d, 1604. 



t Challoner. Missionary Priests, 1742, ii. 44. 



§ Jardine, p. 45., from the Rushton papers. 



