GARNET, HENRY, superior of the Jesuits in England, was the son of a schoolmaster at Nottingham, and was born about the year 1554. He was educated in the Protestant religion at Winchester College, whence it was intended that be should go to New College, Oxford, and his not having done so has been assigned to different causes by Protestant and Roman Catholic writers. He removed from Winches ter to London, where he became corrector of the press to a celebrated law-printer; and, having turned Roman Catholic, travelled first to Spain and thence to Rome, where he entered the society of Jesuits in 1575. In the Jesuits' College, at Rome, he studied with great industry, became professor of Hebrew and teacher of the mathe matics, and obtained such credit that in 1586 he was appointed to the English mission. Two years afterwards he was named Superior of the English Jesuits, the duties of which office ho discharged with zeal and punctuality. For several years previously to the Powder Plot he remained in the neighbourhood of London, following various occupatioos in order to disguise his real calling. lie was well known to have been implicated in the treasonable intrigue with the King of Spain immediately before the death of Queen Elizabeth, and was suspected of other seditious practioes. In order to protect himself from penal consequences, he purchased a general pardon upon the accession of James I. Ills association with disaffected recusants exposed him to the continued suspicion of the government, who did not regard him more favourably for that he was intimate with many of the Roman Catholic) nobility, more especially with Lord Vaux, whose eldest daughter, Anne Vaux, after her father's death followed the fortunes of Garnet with singular attachment In September 1605 a pilgrimage to St. Winifred's Well, In Flintahire, was undertaken by Garnet, in company with persons who were actively concerned at that time in the promotion of the Gunpowder Plot ; and it is suspected that this unusual proceeding must have had'some referenoe to the great blow that in two months afterwards it was intended to strike for the Roman Catholic Church. When the Powder Plot was discovered Garnet was in the neighbourhood of Coughton, the general rendezvous of the conspirators; but he removed for greater safety to liendlip Hall, near Worcester, at the request of one Hall, otherwise called Oldcorne, a Jesuit, who was domestio priest to Mr. Abington, the brotherain-law of Lord Mounteagle, and proprietor of that house. In
Heedlip were many secret passages and biding-places which served for concealment, and to one of these Garnet and Oldeorne were soon forced to retreat ; for Sir Henry Bromley, commissioned by the lords of the conceit, invented the house, and vigorously searched every room. A bill of attainder was introduced into parliament, which recited that Garnet, Greenway, Gerard, Creswell, Baldwin, Hammond, Hall (Oldeoroe), and Westmorland, all Jesuits, had been guilty of treasonable correspondence with Spain, after and before the death of Queen Elizabeth. Father Gerard fled to the continent ; Father Greenway also, after very narrowly escaping an arrest, landed in Flanders; but Garnet and Oldeorne were not so fortunate. Being cramped for want of space within their hiding-place at Ilendlip, they were compelled to leave it after a confinement of seven days and as many nights, and were seized and conveyed to London, February 12, 1606.
The lords had now determined to proceed against them as conspira tors in the Powder Plot. Evidence sufficient for their conviction had not yet been obtained, but every method was used to procure it, and these methods soon proved to be effectual. Oldcorne was tortured; Garnet's letters were intercepted : conversations were promoted between the two prisoners, who, while they thought themselves In private, were in fact secretly listened to by spies, who wrote down their words, and other unfair practices were also used ; but for these, as for Garnet's view of equivocation (p. 315), we must refer to Mr. Jardine's curious account of Garnet's trial (' Criminal Trials,' vol. ii.) The guilt of both prisoners was proved : Garnet was hanged in May 1606, in the city of Loudon ; Oldeorne had been executed at Worcester in the preceding month. They were both considered martyr?) by the Roman Catholics.
It is certain that more English Jesuits than we have named were at least aware, if they did not take a part in the conspiracy of the Powder Plot It is also probable that there were persons upon the Continent who, through Fawkes, Baybain, or other conspirators, had become acquainted with the intended treason. But it does not appear that any body of Jesuits, either at home or abroad, were formally led to expect that an attempt was to be made to restore the Roman Catholics to power ; much less by what means the attempt would be made.