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had a prejudice for me, and especially my accusers, to whom I did endeavour to do good, I mean the clergymen, (as for the four laymen, who appeared against me, I was never acquainted with them.) But you see how I am rewarded, and how, by false oaths, they have brought me to this untimely death; which wicked act being a defect of persons, ought not to reflect upon the order of St. Francis, or upon the Roman catholic clergy, it being well known that there was a Judas amongst the twelve apostles, and a wicked man called Nicholas amongst the seven deacons : and even as one of the said deacons, viz. holy Stephen, did pray for those who stoned him to death, so do I for those who with perjuries spill my innocent blood, saying, as St. Stephen did, O Lord, lay not this sin to them. I do heartily forgive them, and also the judges, who (by denying me sufficient time to bring my records and witnesses from Ireland,) did expose my life to evident danger. I do also forgive all those who had a hand in bringing me from Ireland to be tried here, where it was morally impossible for me to have a fair trial. I do finally forgive all who did concur directly or indirectly to take away my life; and I ask forgiveness of all those whom I ever offended by thought, word, or deed. I beseech the all-powerful, that his Divine Majesty grant our king, queen, the duke of York, and all the royal family, health, long life, and all prosperity in this world, and in the next, everlasting felicity.

Now that I have showed sufficiently, (as I think,) how innocent I am of any plot or conspiracy; I would I were able, with the like truth, to clear myself of high crimes committed against the Divine Majesty's commandments, (often transgressed by me,) for which I am sorry with all my heart, and if I could or should live a thousand years, I have a firm resolution and a strong purpose, by your grace, O my God, to offend you; and I beseech your Divine Majesty, by the merits of Christ, and by the intercession of his blessed mother, and all the holy angels and saints, to forgive me my sins, and to grant my soul eternal

rest.

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After he had ended his speech, he recited the psalm, miserere mei Deus, and other devout aspirations; and his cap being drawn over his eyes, he continued recommending his happy soul into the hands of his Saviour, till the cart was drawn away. He was suffered to hang till he expired, and then was cut down, and bowelled; his heart and bowels were thrown into the fire, his body was begged of the king, and was interred, (all but the head, and arms to the elbows, which were disposed of elsewhere,) in the church-yard of St. Giles, in the Fields, with a copper-plate on his breast, with the following inscription:

In this tomb resteth the body of the right reverend Oliver Plunket, archbishop of Armagh, and primate of Ireland, who in hatred of religion was accused of high treason by false witnesses, and for the same condemned and executed at Tyburn, his heart and bowels being taken out, and cast into the fire. He suffered martyrdom with constancy, the 1st of July, 1681, in the reign of king Charles the second.

Four years after his body was taken up and found entire. It was sent abroad to Lambspring; where Abbot Corker, 1693, erected over it a handsome monument, with this Latin inscription.

Reliquiæ sanctæ memoriæ Oliveri Plunket, archiepiscopi Armachani, Hiberniæ primatis, qui in odium catholicæ fidei laqueo suspensus, extractis visceribus et in ignem projectis, celebris martyr occubuit Londini, primo die Julij, (stylo veteri,) anno salutis, 1681.

I find no more catholic blood spilt in England for religion, during the three remaining years of king Charles's reign. For now the pretended popish plot was clearly discovered to be a mere sham, and to have been imposed upon the nation, in order to usher in a real conspiracy of some that called themselves true protestants; concerning which, the reader may consult the history of the Rye-House Plot, written by a protestant prelate, Dr. Sprat, bishop of Rochester. However, the prisons still were crowded with catholics, as well priests as laity, till the latter end of this reign; even the lords that were kept prisoners in the tower, could not obtain to be bailed out, till 1683: in the mean time, the Lord Petre died prisoner in the tower, protesting to the last his innocency of all that had been laid to his charge.

As to the rest, we have not been able to give an account in these memoirs, of all the sufferings of catholics, either in this or the former persecutions: nor so much as to set down the names either of the priests, or laymen or women, that have endured imprisonment, banishment, loss of goods, and innumerable other vexations for their conscience: the number of such sufferers has been so great, that it would be an impossible task to record so much as their names: it may suffice to say, that few of that profession escaped feeling, (more or less,) the rage of the persecutors; and that their constancy and patience in their sufferings, was little inferior to that of the most heroic sufferers of the primitive ages.

Since the foregoing sheets were printed, we have been informed of one priest more, sentenced to death for his character, in this latter part of king Charles the second's reign: and this was the reverend father Atwood, of the holy order of St. Dominick. He was reprieved, and as some say, taken off.the hurdle, to his great grief. He died in peace, in 1704.

Since the accession of king James II. to the throne, though from time to time the catholics have been exposed to some passing storms, yet by God's mercy the persecution has never raged so far as to come to blood. The most remarkable sufferer, on account of his priestly character, was the reverend father Paul, of St. Francis, alias Matthew Atkinson, O. S. F. He was a native of Yorkshire, and entered into the order of St. Francis, in the English convent at Douay, the 27th of December, 1673, being then seventeen years of age: he was sent upon the English mission, in 1687, where he was noted for his zeal of souls, and diligence in his pastoral functions, and brought many strayed sheep back to the fold of Christ, till being accused by a false convert, of being a priest, he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and sent to Hurst castle, where he remained a constant and pious confessor of Christ for thirty years, till his dying day, which was the 15th of October, 1729. He departed this life aged 74, in the 56th year of his religious profession; and lies interred at St. James's, near Winchester.

APPENDIX.

OF TWO PRIESTS S. J., WHO SUFFERED, ANNO 1606, WRONG. FULLY ACCUSED OF THE GUNPOWDER TREASON.

HENRY GARNET, PRIEST, S. J.*

HENRY GARNET was born in the year 1554, as some say, in Derby. shire, or as others will have it, at Nottingham, where his father Mr. Brian Garnet was a schoolmaster. He had his first education in the college of William of Wickham, in Winchester, where he was looked upon as the most hopeful youth in the house; and was to have been sent from thence to New College, Oxon; but disliking the protestant religion, he chose rather to be reconciled to the catholic church, and travelled abroad, first into Spain, and from thence to Rome: he there entered into the society of Jesus, anno 1571. After he had finished his noviceship, he applied himself close to his studies, and having the advantage of the best masters, both in divine and human sciences, such as Bellarmine, Suarez, Pererius, Clavius, &c., he became a great proficient in all kind of learning, yet so as not to neglect the better part, by a serious attention to the science of the saints, the study of christian and religious perfection. He was for some time, professor of the Hebrew language, in the Roman college of the society, and then publicly taught metaphysics; he also supplied for a while the place of the celebrated Clavius, in the school of mathematics: till the year 1586, having long aspired after the English mission, he was sent with father Robert Southwel to labour in this vineyard.

Two years after his arrival in England, father William Weston, the superior of the English jesuits, falling into the hands of the persecutors, and being committed to prison, father Garnet was pitched upon as the most proper to succeed in that superiority. And from that time till the breaking out of the gunpowder plot, so behaved himself in that post, as to be very much esteemed and loved by all those whom he had to deal with.

In the year 1603, queen Elizabeth being called out of this world, king James the first succeeded in the kingdom. This prince had given great hopes, and even promises to the catholics before his coming to the crown, that he would put a stop to their sufferings, and grant them some toleration at least of their religion but they quickly found

* From father More's history of the English province, 1. iv. n. 15. and 1. vii. n. 20, &c. Father Bartoli's Inghilterra, 1. iv. c. 12, 1. vi. c. 5, &c. Father Joseph Jouvancy historia societatis, part V. 1. xiii., and a manuscript relation of his death by an eye-witness.

he was not disposed to make good these promises; and that instead of repealing or qualifying any of the penal statutes of queen Elizabeth, he gave way to new laws and additional severities, enacted against all professors of the ancient religion. The generality of the catholics of the nation, though much disappointed in their hopes, submitted their shoulders to this new cross after so many others they had endured, and disposed themselves to bear it with christian patience. But some few there were, (and indeed very few, for I can find but thirteen or fourteen in all, including such as were any ways conscious) men unworthy of the name of catholics, who being exasperated by their disappointment, were by degrees entangled by the artifices of satan, and a Machiavellian politician, his instrument, (designing thereby the ruin of the catholic religion in England) in a most detestable conspiracy to blow up the parliament house; which design was to have been executed at the first meeting of the parliament, on the 5th of November, 1605; but was discovered by a letter sent ten days before to lord Mounteagle, a catholic peer, and by him communicated to the king and council.

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As to the religion of the conspirators, if they had any, they are generally supposed to have been catholics: though the author of the Protestants' Plea, published in 1621, p. 56, says they were a few wicked and desperately minded men, whom many protestants termed papists; although the true priests and catholics of England knew them not to be such; nor can any protestant, says he, truly say that any one of them was such a one, as their laws and proceedings against us name papists, popish recusants, or the like:' and p. 58, he adds, all these were young, except Piercy and if any of them were catholics, or so died, they were known protestants not long before, and never frequenters of catholic sacraments with any priest, as I could learn.' So far this author.

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Catesby, the chief of the conspirators, whether of his own accord or at the instigation of a certain minister of state (supposed to have had a great hand in the whole contrivance of this plot, and to have been particularly solicitous to draw the jesuits into some share in the odium of it) laid open the design in confession to father Greenway, or Greenwell, alias Tesmond, a jesuit. The confessor represented to him the wickedness of the project, but could not prevail upon him to desist: however, Catesby consented that father Greenway should communicate the case under the seal of confession to father Garnet; and if the matter should otherwise come to light, he gave leave that both the one and the other might then make use of the knowledge which he thus imparted to them, and not else. Father Garnet was struck with horror at the proposal, and as he could not discover it, laboured at least to divert the design; and he so far prevailed, that Catesby promised he would attempt nothing without the knowledge and consent of the holy see, which father Garnet knew he would never obtain: but the wretch still went on in his design, till the plot was discovered; and then taking arms with Piercy and the two Wrights, attended with some servants and a few others, being pursued by the high sheriff of Warwickshire, he took shelter in the house of Mr. Humphrey Littleton near Stourbridge, and being there attacked by the sheriff of Worcestershire, he was there slain with the other three in the conflict; the rest of the conspirators were

taken, and were all executed, excepting Mr. Tresham, who died in the

tower.

Amongst those who were engaged in this plot was one Bates a servant of Catesby: this man in hopes of saving his own life, insinuated (probably at the instigation of a certain great man) that the jesuits, and in particular father Greenway and father Garnet, had some knowledge of the conspiracy; of which unjust insinuation he afterwards repented himself. Upon this a proclamation was issued out, (two months after the discovery of the plot) for the apprehending of those two fathers, together with father Gerard, of whom also they had conceived some suspicion. Greenway and Gerard fled beyond the seas: father Garnet who was then with father Oldcorne at Henlip, the seat of Mr. Abington in Worcestershire, was soon after betrayed by Mr. Littleton, who being then a prisoner for having harboured some of the conspirators, in hopes of saving his own life, discovered where the father was hid. Upon which, after many days search, both father Garnet and father Oldcorne were apprehended, with their servants, John Owen and Ralph Ashley, and were carried to Worcester, and from thence by an order of the council sent for up to London, and there committed first to the Gatehouse and then to the tower.

Father Garnet was examined no less than twenty-three different times, so intent some people were to bring him in, if possible, guilty of some share in the plot yet with all these examinations no sufficient matter could be discovered to condemn him, nor any witnesses could be found to appear against him. At length Cecil earl of Salisbury, who knew more of the whole affair perhaps than any man living, contrived to lodge father Oldcorne in a chamber adjoining to father Garnet, where they might through a chink converse together, and be overheard by two men, whom he had placed in ambuscade for that purpose. This stratagem succeeded according to his wish. Father Garnet was privately informed by his keeper (under pretence of kindness) that father Oldcorne might be spoke with, through that chink; and he gladly embraced that opportunity of making his confession, and conversing with his friend, little suspecting the snare that was laid for him; upon this occasion, being asked by father Oldcorne whether he was still examined about the plot? He answered, they have no proof that I ever had any knowledge at all of the matter; and there is but one man upon earth (meaning father Greenway) who can prove that I had. These words were heard by the two spies, and were immediately carried to the council. Upon this father Garnet was again examined and put upon the rack; where, when the whole story was related to him, and what he had been heard to say, he acknowledged he had been told of the plot by F. Greenway, but it was under the inviolable seal of confession; and that he had both recommended to father Greenway, and had used himself his best endeavours to divert the design. Upon this his confession, as they called it, Sir Edward Coke the attorney-general, was ordered to draw up an indictment of high treason against him; and he was brought to his trial at Guildhall, March the 28th, before the king's delegates; his majesty himself and many of the nobility being present. His enemies to disgrace him, had published many falsehoods of him; and amongst the

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