Part 8 (1/2)
”If, however, this version were not genuine, but prepared for a purpose, it is clear that it could not have been produced while Bates was alive to contradict it, and there appears to be no doubt that it was not heard of till after his death.”
The meaning of this is, that the Government did not dare to produce the confession till after Bates's death, lest he should contradict it. If this were true it would no doubt furnish a strong argument against the genuineness of the confession, though not a conclusive one, because at the trial of that batch of the prisoners among whom Bates stood, the Government may have wished to reserve the evidence to be used against Greenway, whom it chiefly concerned, if they still hoped to catch him. I do not, however, wish to insist on this suggestion, as I hope to be able to show that the evidence was produced at Bates's trial, when he had the opportunity, if he pleased, of replying to it.
Father Gerard's first argument is, that in a certain 'ma.n.u.script account of the plot,[274] written between the trial of the conspirators and that of Garnet, that is, within two months of the former,' the author, though he argues that the priests must have been cognizant of the design, says nothing of the case of Bates's evidence against Greenway, 'but a.s.serts him to have been guilty only because his Majesty's proclamation so speaks it.'[275] To this it may be answered that, in the first place, the ma.n.u.script does not profess to be a history of the plot. It contains the story of the arrest of Garnet and other persons, and is followed by the story of the taking of Robert Winter and Stephen Littleton. In the second place, there is strong reason to suppose, not only from the subjects chosen by the writer, but also from his mode of treating them, that he was not only a Staffords.h.i.+re man, or an inhabitant of some county near Wolverhampton, but that his narrative was drawn up at no great distance from Wolverhampton. It does not follow that because his Majesty's proclamation had been heard of in Wolverhampton, a piece of evidence produced in court at Westminster would have reached so far.
Another argument used by Father Gerard in his own favour, appears to me to tell against him. In a copy of a minute of Salisbury's to a certain Favat, who had been employed by the King to write to him, we find the following statement, which undoubtedly refers to Bates's confession, it being written on December 4, the day on which it was taken:--
”You may tell his Majesty that if he please to read privately what this day we have drawn from a voluntary and penitent examination, the point I am persuaded (but I am no undertaker) shall be so well cleared, if he forebear to speak much of this but ten days, as he shall see all fall out to that end whereat his Majesty shooteth.”[276]
Father Gerard's comment on this, that the confession of Bates, here referred to, 'cannot be that afterwards given to the world; for it is spoken of as affording promise, but not yet satisfactory in its performance.'[277] Yes; but promise of what? The King, it may be presumed, had asked not merely to know what Greenway had done, but to know what had been the conduct of all the priests who had confessed the plotters. The early part of the minute is clear upon that. Salisbury writes that the King wanted
'to learn the names of those priests which have been confessors and ministers of the sacrament to those conspirators, because it followeth indeed in consequence that they could not be ignorant of their purposes, seeing all men that doubt resort to them for satisfaction, and all men use confession to obtain absolution.'
Bearing this in mind, and also that Salisbury goes on to say that 'most of the conspirators have carefully forsworn that the priests knew anything particular, and obstinately refused to be accusers of them, yea what torture soever they be put to,' I cannot see that anything short of the statement about Greenway ascribed to Bates would justify Salisbury's satisfaction with what he had learnt, though he qualifies his pleasure with the thought that there is much more still to be learnt about Greenway himself, as well as about other priests. An autograph postscript to a letter written to Edmondes on March 8, 1606, shows Salisbury in exactly the spirit which I have here ascribed to him:--
”You may now confidently affirm that Whalley[278] is guilty _ex ore proprio_. This day confessed of the Gunpowder Treason, but he saith he devised it not, only he concealed it when Father Greenway _alias_ Tesmond did impart to him all particulars, and Catesby only the general. Thus do you see that Greenway is now by the superintendent as guilty as we have accused him. He confesseth also that Greenway told him that Father Owen was privy to all. More will now come after this.”[279]
The tone of the letter to Favat is more subdued than this, as befitted writing that was to come under the King's eye; but the meaning is identical:--”I have got much, but I hope for more.”
We now come to Father Gerard's argument that the charge against Greenway of approving the plot was not produced even at Garnet's trial on March 28, 1606, Bates having been tried on January 27, and being executed on the 30th:--
”Still more explicit is the evidence furnished by another MS.
containing a report of Father Garnet's trial. In this the confession of Bates is cited, but precisely the significant pa.s.sage of which we have spoken, as follows: 'Catesby afterwards discovered the project unto him; shortly after which discovery, Bates went to ma.s.s to Tesimond [Greenway] and there was confessed and had absolution.'
”Here, again, it is impossible to suppose that the all-important point was the one omitted. It is clear, however, that the mention of a confession made to Greenway would _prima facie_ afford a presumption that this particular matter had been confessed, thus furnis.h.i.+ng a foundation whereon to build; and knowing, as we do, how evidence was manipulated, it is quite conceivable that the copy now extant incorporates the improved version thus suggested.”
Father Gerard has quoted the sentence about Bates and Greenway correctly,[280] but he has not observed that c.o.ke, in his opening speech, is stated on the same authority to have expressed himself as follows:--
”In November following comes Bates to Greenway the Jesuit, and tells him all his master's purpose; he hears his confession, absolves him, and encourageth him to go on, saying it is for the good of the Catholic cause, and therefore warrantable.”[281]
I acknowledge that c.o.ke's unsupported a.s.sertion is worth very little; but I submit that so practised an advocate would hardly have produced a confession which, if it contained no more than Father Gerard supposes, would have directly refuted his own statement. Father Gerard, I fancy, fails to take into account the difficulties of note-takers in days prior to the invention of shorthand. The report-taker had followed the early part of Bates's examination fairly well. Then come the words quoted by Father Gerard at the very bottom of the page. May not the desire to get all that he had to say into that page have been too strong for the reporter, especially as, after what c.o.ke had said earlier in the day, the statement that Bates 'confessed' might reasonably be supposed to cover the subject of confession? 'Catesby ... discovered the project unto him, shortly after which discovery' he confessed. What can he be supposed to have confessed except the project discovered? and, if so, Greenway's absolution implies approval.
Father Gerard, moreover, though he quotes from another ma.n.u.script Garnet's objection that 'Bates was a dead man,' thereby meaning that Bates's testimony was now worthless, entirely omits to notice that the preceding paragraph is destructive of his contention. A question had arisen as to whether Greenway had shown contrition.
”Nay,” replied Mr. Attorney, ”I am sure that he had not, for to Bates he approved the fact, and said he had no obligation to reveal it to any other ghostly father, to which effect Bates his confession was produced, which verified as much as Mr. Attorney said, and then Mr. Attorney added that he had heard by men more learned than he, that if for defect of contrition it was not a sacrament, then it might lawfully be revealed.
”Mr. Garnet rejoined that Bates was a dead man, and therefore although he would not discredit him, yet he was bound to keep that secret which was spoken in confession as well as Greenway.”[282]
Having thus shown that Father Gerard's argument, that the statement about Greenway was not produced at Garnet's trial, cannot be maintained; that his argument drawn from the account of the arrest of Garnet and others is irrelevant, and that Salisbury's letter to Favat, so far from contradicting the received story, goes a long way to confirm it, I proceed to ask why we are not to accept the report of _A true and perfect relation_, where c.o.ke is represented as giving the substance of the confession of Bates, beginning with Catesby's revelation of the plot to him, followed by his full confession to Greenway and Greenway's answer, somewhat amplified indeed, as c.o.ke's manner was, but obviously founded on Bates's confession of December 4, 1605.
”Then they,” _i.e._ Catesby and Winter, ”told him that he was to receive the sacrament for the more a.s.surance, and thereupon he went to confession to the said Tesmond the Jesuit, and in his confession told him that he was to conceal a very dangerous piece of work, that his master Catesby and Thomas Winter had imparted unto him, and said he much feared the matter to be utterly unlawful, and therefore thereon desired the counsel of the Jesuit, and revealed unto him the whole intent and purpose of blowing up the Parliament House upon the first day of the a.s.sembly, at what time the King, the Queen, the Prince, the Lords spiritual and temporal, the judges, knights, citizens, burgesses should all have been there convented and met together. But the Jesuit being a confederate therein before, resolved and encouraged him in the action, and said that he should be secret in that which his master had imparted unto him, for that it was for a good cause, adding, moreover, that it was not dangerous unto him nor any offence to conceal it; and thereupon the Jesuit gave him absolution, and Bates received the sacrament of him, in the company of his master, Robert Catesby, and Thomas Winter.”[283]
We have not, indeed, the evidence set forth, but we have a distinct intimation that amongst the confessions read was one from which 'it appeared that Bates was resolved from what he understood concerning the powder treason, and being therein warranted by the Jesuits.'[284]
2. Being now able to a.s.sume that the confession ascribed to Bates was genuine, the further question arises whether Bates told the truth or not. We have, in the first place, Greenway's strong protestation that he had not heard of the plot from Bates. In the second place, Father Gerard adduces a retractation by Bates of a statement that he thought Greenway 'knew of the business.' Now, whatever inference we choose to draw, it is a curious fact that this has nothing to do with Bates's confession of December 4--the letter of Bates printed in the narrative of the Gerard who lived in the seventeenth century running as follows:--
”At my last being before them I told them I thought Greenway knew of this business, but I did not charge the others with it, but that I saw them all together with my master at my Lord Vaux's, and that after I saw Mr. Whalley,” _i.e._ Garnet, ”and Mr. Greenway at Coughton, and it is true. For I was sent thither with a letter, and Mr. Greenway rode with me to Mr. Winter's to my master, and from thence he rode to Mr. Abington's. This I told them, and no more.
For which I am heartily sorry for, and I trust G.o.d will forgive me, for I did it not out of malice but in hope to gain my life by it, which I think now did me no good.”[285]
This clearly refers not to the confession of December 4, but to that of January 13,[286] in which these matters were spoken of, and it is to be noted that Bates does not acknowledge having spoken falsely, but of having told inconvenient truths.