FAWKES, GUIDO or GUY. During the latter years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Protestants, who, since the death of Mary, had so increased in numbers and in power as to have acquired the undisputed ascendancy in the government of the kingdom, endea voured, by the severity of laws enacted against Roman Catholics, to extirpate that religion from England. "Not only were the Catholics forbidden to uae the rites and ceremonies of their own faith, but were required to attend upon the services of a church which, if couscien tioua and consistent, they were bound to abhor. If they refused or forbore to come to a Protestaut church on the Sabbath, they were liable to a penalty of 20/. for every lunnr month during which they absented themselves." Every priest who said mass, and every person who heard it, was liable to a find of 100 marks, and imprisonment for a year. The injniaters of their religion, without whose presence they were precluded from the exercise of the sacraments and other rites, were in effect proscribed aud bauished; for by a statute passed in 1585 it wns enacted that all Jesuits, seminary and other priests, ordained since the beginning of the queen's reign, should depart out of the realm within forty days after the end of that session of parlia ment, and that all such priests or other religious persona ordained sinco the same time should not come into Euglaud or remain there under tho pain of sufferiug death as in case of treason. It was also enacted by the same statute that all persons receiving or assisting such priests should be guilty of a capital felouy. It mny be truly said that these and other rigorous ststntes were not at all time. enforced ; but they placed the whole body of the Roman Catholics at the mercy of the Protestaut. government ; for them therefore there was no liberty, personal or religious, but such as the privy council thought proper to allow ; and with reference to their religion, the law gave them 40 I rights, and afforded them no protection.
The facts that James I., although himself a Protestant, was born of Homan Catholic parents, had been baptised by a Roman Catholic archbishop, and approved of several of the ordinances of the Roman Church, gave to the Roman Catholics at his accession hopes of a revival of their liberties. At first, indeed, it appeared that their wishes would be realised, and the severity used towards them relaxed; for the fines paid by the recusants, which in the last year of Elizabeth had amounted to 10,333/., in the first year of James's reign scarcely exceeded 3001., and in the second they were little more than 200/. James however was no sooner firmly seated upon the throne, than he overthrew all their expectations. In February 1604 he assured his council that "he had never soy intention of granting toleration to the Catholics," that he would fortify the laws against them, and cause them to be put into execution to the utmost. This occasioned among the Roman Catholic party much discontent with the government, the king, and the Protestants in general. The design of blowing up the House of Lords with gunpowder at the opeuiug of parliament, end thus destroying at a single blow the Kiug, the Lords, and the Com mons, was formed about the summer of 1604. The conceiver of this desperate and bloody vengeance was Robert Cateaby, a Roman Catho lic, the son of Sir William Cateaby, who had been several times imprisoned for recusancy. Catesby disclosed his scheme to John Wright and Thomas Winter. the former descended from a respectable family in Yorkshire—the Wrights of Plowland in Ifoldernees; the latter from the Winters of Huddington in Worcestershire, where they bad been in possession of estates since the time of Henry VL At a conversation held between these conspirators it was agreed that Winter should go over to the Netherlands to meet Velasco, coostable of Castile, who had arrived at Flanders on his way to England to conclude a peace between James and the king of Spain, and request him to solicit his majesty to recal the penal laws against the Roman Catholics, and to admit them into the rank of his other subjects. Winter received no
encouragement from Velasco that he would stipulate in the treaty of peace for the liberties of the English Roman Catholics, and so returned to England, having iu company Guido Fawkes, who, it was thought, would be of assistance in the business. Fawkea was a gentlemau of good parentage and respectable family in Yorkshire ; his father, Edward Fawkes, was a notary at York, and held the office of registrar and advocate of the Consistory Court of the CathodraL Of his educa tion and early history nothing is known; but having spent the little property that be derived from his father, be enlisted in the Spanish army in Flanders, and was present at the taking of Calais by the Arch duke Albert in 1593. Soon after Winter's return to London, Thomas Percy, the relation and confidential steward of the Earl of Northum berland, joined the four conspirators already mentioned, and the following oath of secrecy was administered to each, kneeling, with his hands placed upon the Primer :—" You swear by the blessed Trinity, and by the sacrament you now propose to receive, never to disclose, directly or indirectly, by word or circumstance, the matter that shall be proposed to you to keep secret, nor desist from the execution thereof until the rest shall give you leave." They then heard mass, and received the sacrament from Father Gerard in confirmation of their vow. Percy took the next step. Ho was a gentleman-pensioner, and upon pretence that it would be convenient to him when in attend ance in that capacity, he purchased of one Penis the remainder of a short term which ho had in the lease of a house adjoining the parlia meut-house. Fawkes, who was unknown in London, and had assumed the name of Johnson, acted as Percy's servant, and took possession of the house. Parliament was soon afterwards adjourned till the 7th of February, and the conspirators having first hired a house iu Lambeth for the preparation of timber for the mine and a place of deposit for combustibles, agreed to meet in Loudon about the beginning of November. The custody of the house iu Lambeth was committed to Robert Keyes, the son of a Protestant clergyman in Derbyshire, but himself a Roman Catholic ; the oath of secrecy was administered to him also. The proceedings of the star-chamber during the interval of their meetings so exasperated the conspirators that they became more eager than ever about the plot. Catesby and his confederates, accord lug to a previous agreement, assembled in the house about the 11th of December, and a nano was Immediately commenced. The atomic wall however which separated them from the parliament-house being found three yards in thickness, Keyes and the younger brother of John Wright (who was enlisted as the others had been) were called in to awls:, and the seven men were thus occupied until Christmas-Eve without their ever appearing In the upper pert of the house. During their laborious employment they bad much consultation respeoting the scheme to be adopted. It was supposed that l'rince henry would accompany the king to the parliament-house, and perish there with his father. The Duke of York (afterwards Charles I.) would then be tho next heir, and l'erey undertook to secure bin person, and carry him off In safety as won as the fatal blow was struck. If this sehoms should fail, the Prim:teas Elisabeth was to be surprised and secured b1 party provided in the country. It was the intention to proclaim one 4 the royal family as king. It was also arranged that Warwickshire mhould be the general rendezvous, and that supplies of horses and Lnuour should be sent to the Ileums of scrotal of the conspirators in :bat county, to bo used as occasion might require.