Part 7 (1/2)
When one of the conspirators, who was received by the governor of Calais, was condoled with, on being banished his country, he replied, ”It is the least part of our grief that we are banished our native country; this doth truly and heartily grieve us, that we could not bring so generous and wholesome a design to perfection.”
Sir Everard Digby was a mild and amiable man, and, with the exception of his partic.i.p.ation in the plot, no stain rests upon his character; yet he seems to have considered that, by engaging in this treason, he was really doing G.o.d service. His letters, written during his imprisonment, and published by Bishop Barlow in 1679, ill.u.s.trate the influence of the principles of the church of Rome on the mind of an otherwise excellent individual. They were written with the juice of lemon, or something of the same kind: written, too, when he had time to reflect in his solitary cell, yet it is evident that he thought he was advancing the cause of true religion in the part which he took; and, further, that he was never convinced that the deed was sinful, so completely had the jesuitical principles of the prime actors in the conspiracy warped his judgment and influenced his views. The papers were discovered in the house of Charles Cornwallis, Esq., who was the executor of Sir Kenelm Digby, the son and heir of Sir Everard. They were once in the possession of Archbishop Tillotson, as he testifies in one of his sermons.
The letters were by some secret means conveyed to his lady, and were preserved in the family as sacred relics. ”Sir Everard Digby,” says Archbishop Tillotson in his sermon on the fifth of November, ”whose very original papers and letters are now in my hands, after he was in prison, and knew he must suffer, calls it the best cause, and was extremely troubled to hear it censured by Catholics and priests, contrary to his expectations, for a great sin.” The letters were also, once in the possession of Bishop Burnet, as he himself informs us. From him we learn how they were discovered. ”The family being ruined upon the death of Sir Kenelm's son, when the executors were looking out for writings to make out the t.i.tles of the estates they were to sell, they were directed by an old servant to a cupboard that was very artificially hid, in which some papers lay that she had observed _Sir Kenelm_ was oft reading.
They, looking into it, found a velvet bag, within which, there were two other silk bags, (so carefully were those relics kept) and there was within these a collection of all the letters that _Sir Everard_ writ during his imprisonment.”
A few extracts will show what his sentiments were concerning the plot.
”Now, for my intention let me tell you, that if I had thought there had been the least sin in the plot, I would not have been of it for all the world; and no other cause drew me to hazard my fortune and life, but zeal to G.o.d's religion. For my keeping it secret, it was caused by certain belief, that those which were best able to judge of the lawfulness of it, had been acquainted with it, and given way unto it.”
”Now, let me tell you, what a grief it hath been to me, to hear that so much condemned, which I did believe would have been otherwise thought on by Catholics.”
”Oh! how full of joy should I die, if I could do any thing for the cause which I love more than my life.”
On the proceedings which were to have been adopted in the event of the success of the plot, Sir Everard remarks:
”There was also a course taken to have given present notice to all princes, and to a.s.sociate them with an oath, answerable to the league in France.”
Respecting the pope's concurrence he has the following pa.s.sage:
”Before that I knew any thing of the plot, I did ask Mr. Farmer, what the meaning of the pope's brief was: he told me that they were not (meaning priests) to undertake or procure stirs; but yet they would not hinder any, neither was it the pope's mind they should, that should be undertaken for Catholic good. I did never utter thus much, nor would not but to you; and this answer, with Mr. Catesby's proceedings with him and me, gave me absolute belief that the matter in general was approved, though every particular was not known.”
Then alluding to the presence of some Romanist peers at the opening of parliament, he adds:
”I do not think there would have been three worth saving that should have been lost.”
In another letter he observes:
”I could give unanswerable reasons, both for the good that this would have done for the Catholic cause, and my being from home, but I think it now needless, and for some respects unfit.”
The last letter is a long one, and is addressed to his sons; but though he exhorts them to continue in the faith of the church of Rome, yet he does not express any sorrow for his crime; nor does he caution them against being engaged in similar conspiracies. It is, therefore, clear, that he viewed the deed as laudable and meritorious, even at the close of his career.
It appears certain that many of the Romanists, both at home and abroad, were aware that some extensive conspiracy was on foot. A particular prayer was used, it is said, by numbers in England, for the success of the conspiracy; it was couched in the following terms: ”Prosper, Lord, their pains, that labour in thy cause day and night; let heresy vanish like smoke; let the memory of it perish with a crack, like the ruin and fall of a broken house.” It would appear that this prayer was framed by one who was privy to the conspiracy; nor can it be doubted that it was intended to convey some intimation of the nature of the treason. I am, aware, that no Romanist would in the present day justify the deed; but the preceding facts prove, that the act was applauded and justified at the time by the whole church almost, and for a considerable period afterwards. To justify the treason now, would be to expose the parties who did so, to the execration of an indignant public. The principles of Rome, however, are exactly what they were when the bulls of the pope were sent to Garnet, and when the gunpowder treason was planned.
Tillotson forcibly observes, ”I would not be understood to charge every particular person, who is, or hath been in the Roman communion, with the guilt of those or the like practices; but I must charge their doctrines and principles with them. I must charge the heads of their church, and the prevalent teaching and governing part of it, who are usually the contrivers and abettors, the executioners and applauders of these cursed designs[32].”
[Footnote 32: TILLOTSON'S _Works_, 12mo., Vol. i., 349.]
It was decided by Pope Urban II. that it was neither treason nor murder to kill those, who were excommunicated by the church. So that any treason or murder could be justified on such principles. Nor has any change been effected in the principles of the church of Rome. ”Popery,”
says Burnet, ”cannot change its nature, and _cruelty and breach of faith to heretics_, are as necessary parts of that religion, as _transubstantiation_ and the _pope's supremacy_[33].” Andrew Marvel wittily remarks of the pope's claim, ”He has, indeed, of late, been somewhat more retentive than formerly as to his faculty of disposing of kingdoms, the thing not having succeeded well with him in some instances, but he lays the same claim still, continues the same inclinations, and though velvet-headed hath the more itch to be pus.h.i.+ng.
And, however, in order to any occasion he keeps himself in breath, always by cursing one prince or other upon every Maundy Thursday[34].”
[Footnote 33: BURNET'S _Eighteen Papers_, 84.]
[Footnote 34: _The Growth of Popery_, p. 9.]
CHAPTER IX.
THE ACT FOR THE OBSERVANCE OF THE DAY-A SERVICE PREPARED FOR THE OCCASION-ALTERATIONS IN THE SERVICE TO SUIT THE LANDING OF KING WILLIAM-REFLECTIONS.