Gunpowder Plot. This plot was an attempt on the part of a small number of Roman Catholic gentlemen to destroy by gunpowder King James I. and the Houses of Lords and Commons on the day of the opening of parliament, November 5, 1605. The design originated in the busy brain of Robert Catesby (q.v.), who had already suffered for the part taken by him in Essex's plot. He and his fellow-conspirators were driven to desperation by the faithlessness of James, who before his accession had led the Catholics to expect some measure of toleration, but soon afterwards put in full force the penal laws against popery, and showed a disposition to increase rather than to mitigate their rigour. Early in 1604 Catesby communicated his plan to John Wright and Thomas Winter. Guy Fawkes (q.v.), a brave soldier serving in the Spanish army, was brought over from Flanders, and together with Percy was admitted to the plot after taking an oath of secrecy. All five then received communion from the hands of the Jesuit Gerard, who, however, was not informed of the conspiracy. On 24th May Percy hired a room adjoining the Parliament House which they intended to undermine. The adjournment of parliament from time to time caused sundry postponements of the work. In December the digging was begun. The difficulties were greater than was expected, and it became expedient to call in the assistance of fresh associates—John Grant, Robert Winter (brother of Thomas), and Bates, a servant of Catesby. In the following March the conspirators were able to hire a convenient cellar immediately below the House of Lords. The mine was now abandoned, and the cellar was stored with casks of powder, covered with faggots.
All was ready by May. Money was now wanted to provide men, horses, and arms for the insurrection, which it was intended should break out in the midland counties, where the chief conspirators had congregated. So about Michaelmas some rich Catholics, Sir Everard Digby, Ambrose Rookwood, and Francis Tresham were induced to join. Tresham lacked the courage and fanaticism of his fellows. Wishing to save his friend Lord Montegut, he wrote to him on Saturday, October 26, a mysterious letter, which was shown to Lord Salis- bury and led to the discovery of the plot, if it had not otherwise been already betrayed. The names of the conspirators were, however, not disclosed. The government, therefore, waited for the fuller development of the plot. The cellar was visited as if casually by the Lord Chamberlain and Lord Monteagle at three o'clock on the afternoon of the 4th. Fawkes, who was found there, explained that the fuel and faggots were the property of his master, Percy. He still hoped to carry his design into execution, and a little before midnight he returned to the cellar to take up his post for the night. He was met and arrested at the doorway. Catesby hastened to Warwickshire, hoping to raise his friends. A few days later they were attacked; several of the conspirators, including Catesby, were killed, and others were taken prisoners and committed for trial. From their confessions the whole plot was gradually revealed.
The government was now much concerned with a suspicion that the murderous design had been promoted or approved by the Jesuits. Bates had in his confession implicated certain fathers of the society, especially Garnet (q.v.) and Greenway. The latter made good his escape abroad. Garnet and a brother Jesuit, Oldcorne, who was convicted of nothing more than aiding in the concealment of his companion, were discovered in a priest's hiding-place at Hindlip, whither Garnet had fled from Coughton, in the neighbourhood of the appointed rendezvous of the conspirators. Their trial excited the greatest interest. It soon became evident that Garnet's knowledge, such as it was, of the plot had been forced upon him by the conspirators, who were anxious to obtain from him some token of his approval for the satisfaction of their own doubtful consciences. He admitted that he had derived a general knowledge of some treasonable design against the government, in the first instance from Catesby, and that subsequently he had learnt the particulars from Father Greenway in confession. On further examination Garnet expressed some doubt whether the communication made by Greenway was strictly sacramental or under the seal of confession, or at least whether Greenway himself so considered it. It was, moreover, elicited from Garnet that he had frequent conversations with Greenway on the plot, though always 'in relation to confession.' Finally, when Catesby wished to give him full information out of confession—information which would have released Garnet from all shadow of scruple in taking measures to reveal or prevent the crime—the Jesuit refused to listen to him. Some of Garnet's actions, both before and after the 5th November, gave probability to the belief that he knew more than he admitted, and was not unwilling that the plot should succeed. He blamed himself, indeed, for not having done more to prevent the mischief, and declared that he should suffer, not as a martyr, but as a penitent thief. It is, however, clear that the clergy in general, whether secular or regular, and the entire Catholic community, with the exception of a score of fanatics, were innocent of all participation in the plot.
See the Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot by David Jardine (1857), which treats the facts in a masterly and impartial spirit; Gardiner's History of England, vol. i. chap. vi.; and Tierney's edition of Dodd's Church History, vol. ii. In 1896 Father Gerard, S.J., tried in What was the Gunpowder Plot? to show that the evidence of a real plot was slight, and that the plot was itself partly manufactured by government agents; in 1897 Gardiner traversed this theory in What the Gunpowder Plot was.