Skip to main content

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

 

WELCOME!

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

A contemporary engraving of eight of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators

1605: This year on the fifth of November was discovered that horrid plot, commonly called Gunpowder Treason; by which Catesby and some few others his accomplices designed to have blown up the parliament house; which, though it were indeed a most wicked and detestable enterprise (for which the conspirators were justly punished) is most unjustly urged against catholics in general. For why should the wickedness of a handful of men, whose doings were both then, and ever since, abhorred by the whole body of catholics, both at home and abroad, be laid to the charge of such as had no more hand in the guilt, than the apostles had in the treason of Judas?

'Tis more than probable that this was originally a ministerial plot, set on foot by Cecil, then secretary of state. "Some have been of opinion," says the author of the Political Grammar, lately published, p. 46. "that the gunpowder plot in the reign of James the First was of the same alloy (a ministerial plot), and the awkward manner in which the letter was sent to lord Mounteagle, the night before the execution, seems to confirm it, but much more the papers of the then minister, which have but lately appeared, by which the whole affair is brought to light. For it is evident by those papers that the minister was acquainted with the conspirators' journal from the beginning; so that he might have easily stifled the design in its infancy; but that would not quadrate with his principal design, which was to divert king James from making any approaches towards popery, (to which he seemed to be inclinable in the minister's opinion) by engaging some papists in a desperate and horrid plot to destroy beth king and parliament. This was the original of that affair, which has filled the kingdom with astonishment for above a whole century." So far this author, who is not the only one, nor the first by a great many, who has been of this opinion, since Mr Osborn has informed the world long ago, p. 34, that this plot was, as he terms it, a neat device of the secretary; and king James the First himself was so sensible of it, that he used to call the 5th of November, Cecil's holiday.

Source: Bishop Richard Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, Volume 2












%%%

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WELCOME

  Please pick your saints: January - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   February - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17 18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ST JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS - 13 AUGUST

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 13th of August WELCOME! SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS   (Patron Saint of Altar Servers.) The eldest boy of a poor cordwainer, in a small Belgian town, John was ever a dutiful, prayerful, and studious child. Our Lord called him when but young to leave his father and his father’s house, to serve Him in the Society of Jesus.  And because he was so good a son, it cost his father much to give him up to God; but he was too good a Christian to refuse outright.  HE WAS SENT TO ROME John had hardly taken his religious vows when he was sent to the centre of Christendom, the holy city of Rome. His modesty, his purity, shone out as great virtue always does; and the young laymen who attended the lectures would come to gaze upon his beautiful and holy face, and go away the better for the sight. GREAT VIRTUE Three short years, and his last sickness found him sighing for heaven, and three days before the great feast of Mar...
Post a Comment
Read more

ST LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR - 19 OCTOBER

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER Saints celebrated on the 19th of October WELCOME! SAINT LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR   Laura, a widow and martyr of  Cordoba  in Spain, is mentioned in the Spanish martyrology of Tamajode Salazar, who refers to Luitprand, where it says the following: St Laura is said to have been of a noble family, and  according to the wishes of her parents she married an equally noble man and gave birth to two daughters.  After the death of her husband and her daughters, she went to the monastery of St Aurea, named St-Maria de Cuteclara, and after her martyrdom led the same for nine years as her successor.  After she had made wonderful progress in all virtues, she was finally summoned to renounce the faith before a Saracen judge. But since she remained steadfast, she was first beaten very cruelly and then thrown into a bath of boiling pitch, where she remained in praise of God for three hours and then flew to heaven on October...
Post a Comment
Read more