53 Facts About Henry Garnet

Henry Garnet was ordained in Rome some time around 1582.

In 1586 Garnet returned to England as part of the Jesuit mission, soon succeeding Father William Weston as Jesuit superior, following the latter's capture by the English authorities.

Henry Garnet established a secret press, which lasted until late 1588, and in 1594 he interceded in the Wisbech Stirs, a dispute between secular and regular clergy.

Henry Garnet preferred nonviolent resistance to the religious persecution Catholics faced in England.

Henry Garnet accordingly approved of the disclosure by Catholic priests of the existence of the 1603 Bye Plot, and repeatedly exhorted English Catholics not to plot violent regime change.

In summer 1605 Garnet met with Robert Catesby, a member of the English nobility who, unknown to him, planned to assassinate the Protestant King James I The existence of Catesby's Gunpowder Plot was revealed to Fr.

Henry Garnet pleaded with Catesby to cancel what he was plotting.

Henry Garnet wrote to his superiors in Rome, urging them to order English Catholics not to use violence.

Henry Garnet was taken to London and interrogated by the Privy Council, whose members included John Popham, Edward Coke and Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury.

Henry Garnet had at least five siblings: two brothers, Richard and John, and three sisters, Margaret, Eleanor and Anne, all of whom became nuns at Louvain.

Henry Garnet did not enter New College; instead, late in 1571, he left Winchester for London.

Henry Garnet often dined with Sir John Popham, who as Lord Chief Justice was to preside over the trial of the Gunpowder Plotters, men whose association with Garnet would eventually prove so fateful.

Henry Garnet was ordained sometime around 1582 and stayed in Rome as a professor of Hebrew, lecturing on metaphysics and mathematics.

Acquaviva had instructed that should anything happen to Weston, Henry Garnet was to succeed him as superior in England, which he did when only days after leaving Harlesford, Weston was captured en route to London.

Spain's actions gave Henry Garnet much cause for concern, "For when we thought that there was an end to these disasters by which we are already nearly destroyed, our hope was suddenly turned to sorrow, and now with redoubled effort the overseers are pressing upon us".

The castle's inhabitants were supported by Catholic alms and lived a relatively comfortable existence; Henry Garnet was complimentary about Wisbech, calling it a "college of venerable confessors".

Henry Garnet spent much of 1604 on the move, although few details of his travels exist.

In London, Henry Garnet met the Spanish diplomats Juan de Tassis, 1st Count of Villamediana and Juan Fernandez de Velasco y Tovar, 5th Duke of Frias.

Henry Garnet visited Tassis two or three times, at Walsingham House and at Somerset House.

Henry Garnet met the French ambassador Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont.

Henry Garnet replied according to Catholic theology, that often, during war, innocents were killed alongside the enemy.

Henry Garnet was not at all like Catesby, described by Fraser as possessing the mentality "of the crusader who does not hesitate to employ the sword in the cause of values which he considers are spiritual".

Henry Garnet read to Catesby a letter he had received from Persons, urging him to speak to the Pope before attempting any scheme, but fearful of being discovered, Catesby declined.

On his return from Wales, Henry Garnet travelled with Anne Vaux to Rushton Hall, home of the recently deceased Thomas Tresham.

Henry Garnet asked him to speak with Catesby, but Garnet reassured her that Catesby was instead seeking a commission in Flanders.

Henry Garnet wrote a letter of recommendation for Catesby for that very purpose.

Henry Garnet was still weak from his ordeal, and Salisbury therefore ordered that he be given a good mount; his supplies were paid for by the king.

Henry Garnet was convinced that his captors were interested only in the failed scheme and believed he might be able to clear his name, but the councillors asked him about the doctrine of equivocation.

The next day, Henry Garnet was moved to the Tower of London, into what he described as "a very fine chamber".

Henry Garnet was afforded claret with his meals, though it took him some time to get bedding and coal for the fireplace.

Henry Garnet claimed that Lieutenant of the Tower William Waad treated him well, although on the subject of religion his speeches became "violent and impotent".

Henry Garnet was introduced with his various aliases, which included "Whalley, otherwise Darcy, otherwise Roberts, otherwise Farmer, otherwise Philips".

Henry Garnet was accused of having conspired with several others to blow up the House of Lords with gunpowder.

Henry Garnet's supposed inappropriate relationship with Anne Vaux was mentioned, but his adherence to the doctrine of equivocation proved extremely damaging.

Francis Tresham's deathbed letter, which claimed that Henry Garnet had played no part in the so-called Spanish Treason, was read aloud.

Henry Garnet had not seen the letter and did not know that it referred to events before 1602, not 1605.

Henry Garnet defended his use of equivocation with his own treatise on the doctrine.

Henry Garnet had denied his conversation with Oldcorne as it was a secret, but said that in matters of faith, equivocation could never be lawful.

Salisbury attacked the idea that it had ever been made under the seal of the confessional, and claimed anyway that Henry Garnet could have warned the authorities after his more ordinary conversation with Catesby about the death of innocents; the priest replied by saying that at the time, he did not understand the relevance of Catesby's questions.

The jury took fifteen minutes to decide that Henry Garnet was guilty of treason.

Henry Garnet was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

The day after his trial Henry Garnet made a new statement, which he hoped would clarify his dealings with Tresham.

Henry Garnet wrote to the king, reiterating his stance on violence against a rightful monarch.

Henry Garnet wore a black cloak over his clothes and hat, and spent much of the journey with his hands together and eyes closed.

Henry Garnet rejected any entreatments to abandon his faith for Protestantism, and said that he had committed no offence against the king.

The recorder announced that this was an admission of guilt, but Henry Garnet reiterated his not guilty plea and continued to argue the point.

Henry Garnet defended Anne Vaux against claims that their relationship had been inappropriate.

Henry Garnet then prayed at the base of the ladder, disrobed down to his long, sewn-up shirt, "that the wind might not blow it up", and mounted the ladder.

Henry Garnet ignored a Protestant minister who came forward, replying to an objectionable member of the audience that he "ever meant to die a true but perfect Catholic".

Bishop Overal protested that "we are all Catholics", although Henry Garnet disagreed with this.

Henry Garnet said his prayers, and was then thrown off the ladder.

Henry Garnet's head was set on a pole on London Bridge, but crowds of onlookers fascinated by its fresh and unblemished appearance eventually forced the government to turn the head upward, so its face was no longer visible.

Henry Garnet's writings include An Apology Against the Defence of Schisme, an attack against church papistry in which he scolded Thomas Bell for supporting the occasional taking of Communion in the Church of England.