The Life Of Fr John Gerard S.J. (A Hunted Priest) Part 38.

Fr Garnet

FATHER GARNET'S STRAW.

I. A fuller account of Father Garnet's straw is given by Father Gerard in his history of the Powder Plot. 1 "The first sign," he there says, " by which it pleased God to show the merit and glory of this His martyr was concerning his relics, which were eagerly sought for by many Catholics at the very time of his martyrdom. Amongst which there was one young man [John Wilkinson] who stood by the block where the martyr's body was cut up, with great desire at least to get some drop of his holy blood. And whilst he had these thoughts, not daring to take where he desired for fear of being espied, it fortuned that the hangman having cut off the martyr's head and showed it to the people (as the custom is), he cast it into a basket standing there of purpose, full of straw, to hold the head and quarters when they were divided. Out of this basket did leap a straw or ear void of corn in strange manner into the hand of this young man, which he beholding and seeing some blood on it, kept it with great care, and no little joy that he had obtained his desire. He carried it away safely and delivered it unto a Catholic gentlewoman of his acquaintance [Mrs. Griffin], who kept it in a reliquary with great devotion; and after three or four days [two or three months interlined in orig. MS.], a devout Catholic gentleman coming thither, she showed him the bloody straw, which he was also glad to see and reverence; but beholding the same more curiously than the others had done, he saw a perfect face, as if it had been painted, upon one of the husks of the empty ear, and showed the same unto the company, which they did plainly behold, and with no small wonder, but. with much greater joy did acknowledge the mighty hand of God, Who can and doth often use the meanest creatures to set forth His glory, and is able both out of stones and straws to raise a sufficient defence for His faithful servants.

"They put up the straw again with great admiration, and kept it now with much more reverence and devotion than before. This was quickly published to many of the chiefest Catholics about London, who much desiring to see this wonder, it was carried unto divers, who are all witnesses of this truth. At length it came to the Council's ear, and some of them desiring much to see it, it was granted, being now in the keeping of a great person, 2 but with promise to have it safely restored; so that some of them did see it, and did much admire it, affirming that it must needs be more than natural. Others after desired to see it and to seize upon it, because now the fame did grow so great of this image of Father Garnet drawn by the hand of God, whose image and memory they sought to deface in all they could, that they feared the evidence of the miracle would plead against their proceedings and prove him innocent whom they had punished as guilty. Therefore the Bishop of Canterbury [Archbishop Richard Bancroft] sought to have the miraculous straw into his hands, but it was denied, and none would acknowledge where it was to be found. He learned out the party to whom the keeping of it was first committed, and sent for her husband, who was a known Catholic and a virtuous man. He examined him strictly how it came to pass, and where the straw was. The Catholic affirmed the truth of the thing and described it unto him in words; but said it was not now in his keeping, and he knew not where to find it. And when they could get no other answer of him, they committed him to prison; but afterwards, having sundry and great friends in the Court, he got out upon bonds to appear again at certain days' warning.

" In the meantime it happened that two were miraculously cured by application of the same straw. One was a gentlewoman in great peril of her life by danger of childbirth, who, when she had sustained long and painful travail and could not be delivered of her burthen, and now was out of hope of life, unless she might obtain some help from God, some of her friends made earnest means to get this holy straw to bring unto her; which being obtained, and the straw brought and applied with great reverence, presently she received help, and was delivered by the mighty hand of God and merits of the martyr, whom no midwife's skill or endeavour could help before.

"Another was the gentlewoman herself who first had this miraculous relic delivered her to keep. For she being very much subject to sickness, and sometimes in such extremity therewith that you would not think she could be able to live an hour, it happened that in one of her extremest fits, when she could find no medicine or means that could bring her any ease, she earnestly desired a special friend to make suit for the straw to be returned unto her for a small time, which was granted; and as soon as it came (she receiving it with great devotion and reverence) she presently found ease, and within half an hour was so perfectly well that she rose from her bed, and went to entertain some strangers that then were in the house, and erat una ex discumbentibus —['was one of them that were at table.' St. John xii. 2].

" This sudden and strange cure of hers being spoken of by divers Catholics, it came out to be known unto the Council, who sent again for the husband of the gentlewoman, and took this new occasion to commit him the second time to prison.

"The Council afterwards understanding that this miraculous picture in the straw had been shown to divers painters in London, they sent for the painters and willed them to make the like portrait to that which they had seen in a like empty ear of corn; but they all answered that it was not possible for them to do it, neither could the draught of that face, in so little a room and so loose a groundwork as that empty ear, be otherwise drawn than by supernatural power. And this testimony they gave of it that had both skill to judge and no will to favour the Catholic cause (being in opinion heretics), but only convinced in their understanding by the evidence of the miracle."

II. The Archbishop of Canterbury [Bancroft] to the Lord Chief Justice [Sir John Popham] on the apprehension of Barret [Barnes] and the miracle of Garnet's straw: from the original letter in the Archives of the See of Westminster, vol. viii. p. 41.

" My Lord, I gave a warrant to Mr. Skidmore for the apprehending of one Barret, who went up and down with a miracle of Garnet's head supposed to be upon a straw that was on the hurdle whereupon he was drawn to his execution. This warrant was signed with my Lord Chancellor's hand, my Lord Treasurer's, my Lord of London and mine. Upon the serving of the warrant, the said Barret drew his rapier and hath hurt Skidmore, and is likewise thrust through the thigh by*him. This Barret is at a barber's shop in Fleet street not far from the Temple gate. I heartily pray your lordship to send for the stay of him that he may be forthcoming. He is a notable villain. And so I commit your lordship to God. At Lambeth, this 25th day of November 1606.

Your lordship's most assured,

                                                    R. Cant. 

" To-morrow I will acquaint you with some other particulars." Addressed " To the Right Honourable the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, one of his Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council."

     Endorsed 3 "The dispersers, Griffin's wife, Mrs. Anne Vaux, sent to her by a gentleman, Mrs. Gage of Bentley."

III. Robert Barnes' examination, from a contemporary copy in the same authority, p. 43.

"The examination of Robert Barnes of Harleton in the County of Cambridge gent, taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the 27th of November 1606.

" He saith that about the 13th of November, being Thursday, he went to Hugh Griffin's, a tailor, to see if his, this examinate% gown were made: that until that very time he had never heard of the wheat ear whereupon a visage is supposed to be seen : that Griffin's wife was the first who then told him of it: that she said there was a straw besmeared with Garnet's blood at his execution which had upon it the form of a face : that it was a very strange thing, but was not then at home with her: that she promised him when he came again, to show it him : that accordingly, he going unto her two days after, viz. upon the Saturday, she showed it
him : that he, this examinate, looking upon it through the crystal, first saw a white thing: that she bade him look wistly upon it, and that then he imagined he saw two eyes closed, then a face pale, as he thought: after, a short chin: then a forehead somewhat high: then a perfect face: that he, being of the age of 56, and having endured 10 years' imprisonment, hath a dim sight: that he saw the said face through the crystal and his spectacles by candlelight: that he espied the face, as is before mentioned, within the time that a man would go 40 steps : that after he had discerned the face, he saw (as he thought) two locks of hair standing upright in the midst of the top of the forehead: that having so seen it, he only said to Mrs. Griffin that it was a strange and wonderful sight, and that he hath not told any of it but one or two in Poules [St. Paul's] whose names he remembereth not, and that he told them he made no great account of it: that he maketh no great account of it, because it may be drawn by the art of some painter: that the colour of the cheeks differed from the colour of the eyebrows, and that the parts of the face were distinguished from one another, as it were, with the draught of some hair or of some very small thing, and that the beard was somewhat reddish: that he saw not Garnet for the space of 20 years past, before he came through Cheapside upon the hurdle : that his beard was then whitish, but had been in colour betwixt yellow and red.

" Being demanded why he hath not since that time laboured to satisfy himself whether the said face were made by art or by some extraordinary means, he saith that his business hath been such, as he hath had no time to think of it.

" Being demanded why he did not ask Mrs. Griffin whether it were a face indeed made by art or otherwise, he saith that he made so small account of it, as he asked her no questions about it.

"Thirdly, being demanded how his words concerning the small account he made of it, can agree with his former speeches, where he said it was a very strange and wonderful thing, he answereth that though it were made with art, it is strange and wonderful in his opinion to have so perfect a face made in so little a room."

    Endorsed "The copy of the Examination of Robert Barnes taken before the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 27 0 Novem. 1606."

IV. Francis Bowen's examination. Ibid. p. 47.

" The examination of Francis Bowen of London gent, but useth limning, 4 taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury on the 27th of November 1606.

" He saith that betwixt three weeks and a fortnight since one Anser servant to Sir William Wiseman 5 of Essex told this examinate that he had seen an ear of corn with a face upon it, and said that if he, this examinate, would, he could bring him where he might see it: that accordingly he brought this examinate to a house in Clerkenwell where Mrs. Anne Vaux was, and one Mr. Dolman who hath a knight to his brother: 6 that when Anser and this examinate came into the house, the said Dolman and Mrs. Anne Vaux were looking upon the ear, being in a crystal: that upon the said Anser's motion they let him, this examinate, see it: that Mr. Dolman bade this examinate look whether he could espie the face : that he espied it in the while that the Ave Maria may be repeated : that upon his espying of it, he perceived it to be a perfect face : that the proportion of the face was in the blade that lay upon the husk of a corn, the corn being out, or rather, the blood made the proportion of the face: that upon the top of his forehead stood up certain hairs: that the forehead was something high, and had as it were two wrinkles overthwart it: that there was then a little stroke went down resembling a nose : the mouth was not well discerned because the hair of the upper lip did hang over it: the beard seemed to be somewhat long and bloody: that the compass of the face seemed to be, either the extremity of the husk, or else some little brown blackish small strokes which he conceived to be of blood congealed of that colour: that the hair above the forehead seemed to be likewise little streaks of blood, and so were the two wrinkles, the two little strokes for the eyebrows, the stroke that was made down for the nose, two small streaks resembling the eyes, and the hairs of the beard were like the hairs on the top of the forehead, saving that they were (as is aforesaid) somewhat more of the colour of blood : that there was no more to be seen but the head, as neither the arms, shoulders nor neck : that the face was much like to this in the margent, 7 saving that it was drawn in a better proportion: that all the rest of the face, saving the said streaks, was the husk itself: that he verily thinketh the face upon the ear which he saw in the glass, might have been made as skilfully or more skilfully by a cunning workman : that he verily believeth if the said straw came first into a dishonest man's hand, the face upon the ear might have been counterfeited : that he first heard of the said face about a week before he saw it, but remembereth not by whom : that before he saw it and since he hath heard many Catholics talk of it, and some of them to affirm that the face was like to Garnet's : that one Mr. Martin who taught the children upon the virginals that played in the Blackfriars did ask this examinate whether it were not like Garnet's face."

    Endorsed " The copy of the examination of Francis Bowen, taken before the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 27 0 Nov. 1606."

V. Hugh Griffin's first examination, from a contemporary copy in the Archives of the Old Chapter.

"The confession of Hugh Griffin, of St. Clement's without Temple Bar, tailor:—taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, November 27, 1606. 

He saith that the same day that Garnet was executed [May 3, 1606], one John Wilks [sic], a silkman, being come out of his prenticeship two years since, and living now amongst his friends in Yorkshire, brought to this examinate's house a straw with an ear upon it, which he said was one of the straws whereupon Garnet was laid when he was executed; that the straw and ear were bloody; that this examinate and his wife desired to have the straw; that he promised they should have it at his going into the country; that they advised with the said Wilks to have the straw put into a crystal for the better preserving of it; that within three or four days or a week (as he remembereth) the straw was set in crystal, according to the former resolution; that about nine weeks since [about the 25th of September] and not before, he, this examinate, looking earnestly through the crystal upon the said straw, with his wife, and one Thomas (who once served, as he thinketh, the Lady Beeston, wife to Sir Hugh Beeston) they all together at once discovered a thing like a face upon the ear of the said straw; that this examinate did first say to the other two (as he thinketh), ' Do you not discern a thing upon the ear like a face?' and they answered that they did; that thereupon he then (as he thinketh) opened the crystal, and then, upon their earnest looking upon it, they imagined they saw a face; that this examinate thereupon said to the rest, ' This may chance to proceed from our fancies,' and therefore desired them to make no words of it until it were better decided; that he kept it in his house about a fortnight, and in the meantime looked upon it forty times (as he thinketh) and sometimes half an hour or an hour together, until he saw the visage so perfectly as he is sure he could not be deceived; that the face is so perfectly apparent, being once found, viz. the forehead, the eyes, the cheek, the nose, the mouth, the beard, and the neck, as he supposeth no man living is able to draw the like thing upon the like subject; that the said Wilks, when he left the straw in the crystal with this examinate, did not (as he thinketh) ever imagine that there was any face upon it; that he doth not remember that any but himself and his wife did see the said face during the said fortnight, or that himself did acquaint any with it; that peradventure his wife might tell somebody of it, but whom he knoweth not, that after the said fortnight ended, when he was assured as aforesaid, he showed it to Lord William Howard; 8 that Dr. Taylor being present (as he remembereth) desired to have had it, to have been showed to the Ambassador of Spain; that the Lord William kept the said straw, and showed it to such as he thought fit; that about ten days after, this examinate received it again from the said Lord William; that he thereupon delivered it unto Dr. Taylor, in the hope of some good reward to be given unto him; that he delivered it as he did never expect to have it again, except it were to borrow it, with the Ambassador's liking, to show it to some of his friends that would desire to see it; that his lordship kept it some two or three days; that he, this examinate, received it again and showed it to some, but he doth not remember to whom; that he delivered it back again to Dr. Taylor within a day or two after he had received it from the Lord William; that Dr. Taylor told him how the Lord Ambassador made great account of it, had sent it to be seen by the Ambassador of Venice, and that he was very loth to part with it; that he delivered the said straw to Dr. Taylor, as aforesaid; that the Lord William first had it for about five days before he, this examinate, gave it to Dr. Taylor as aforesaid; that this examinate did show it to Mrs. Anne Vaux, when he had it from the Lord William and before he returned it back again to Dr. Taylor after he had borrowed it; that this examinate lent it at that time to the said Mrs. Anne Vaux; that she had it with her a day and a half or two days; that he supposeth she showed it unto divers; that this examinate was much troubled before he could get it again from Mrs. Anne Vaux; that if any affirm that there is any light or beams about the said face, he affirmeth that which is not true; that for aught this examinate knoweth, the said face is no more like Garnet's face than any other man's that hath a beard; that he imagineth, the face being so little, no man is able to say it is like Garnet; that this examinate never did see Mr. Garnet but when he was brought to the Tower; that he remembereth that Mr. Garnet was a well-set man, and had a big face, according to his proportion ; that though the face seem but little at the first view, yet upon diligent looking upon it, it seemeth still to increase in perfectness and to be bigger, but that when it is perfectly discerned with the eye, it continueth in one and the same bigness; that he verily thinketh, except one be told in which husk the face is, he will very hardly find it; that all the said perfect visage, to be seen as is aforesaid, is contained in the length and breadth of the husk of one corn. He also saith upon occasion of further speech that the crystal wherein the straw is set was his own before, and that he gave it to the said Wilks that the straw might be put into it, and took order with him that the crystal should be set in gold or silver and gilt; that it is about the breadth of a shilling, but made in the form of a heart; that it is about a quarter of an inch thick; that the straw is nipped off, and the whole ear lieth round in it."

VI. Hugh Griffin's second examination, from the Archives of Westminster, vol. viii. p. 51.

" The second examination of Hugh Griffin of St. Clement's without Temple Bar, tailor, taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 27 Novemb. 1606.

" He saith that within 8 or 10 days of Garnet's death the ear wherein the face is seen was put in crystal, which must fall out to be about the eleventh or twelfth of May : that about Midsummer John Wilks went into Yorkshire, returned a little before Michaelmas, and went back again into Yorkshire about a week after Michaelmas : that about 8 or 10 weeks since, he first discerned the face in the said ear: that from about the nth or 12th of May he had the said crystal and ear in his house, before he espied the said visage till about the 18th of September, which was 19 weeks : that all this time of 19 weeks he never looked upon the said crystal: that before the said 19 weeks ended, he had no time to look upon it: that when he first looked upon it about 10 weeks since, he saw a glimmering of a face.

" He saith that when the crystal with the ear was first brought unto him by Wilks, he looked upon it, but did not then espy any visage : that he looked a good while earnestly upon it about 10 weeks since, before he saw the glimmering of a face. And being demanded why he viewed the same longer and more earnestly at this time than he did when it was first brought unto him in the said crystal, he answereth, because he had not leisure when it first was brought unto him, so to view it.

" Being demanded how it came to pass that he never looked upon it for the space of the said 19 weeks, but when his wife and one Thomas were present, he answereth that then he was best at leisure.

" That he thinketh it was never seen, after it was brought unto him first in crystal, until about the 10 weeks before mentioned."

    Endorsed " Copy of the second examination of Hugh Griffin, 27  Nov. 1606."

VII. Hugh Griffin's third examination: ibid. p. 55.

" The examination of Hugh Griffith [sic] taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 3 December [sic] 1606.

" He saith that it was a month or 5 weeks after Michaelmas when he saw John Wilkinson [sic] last: that he so thinketh because he used the said John his advice in letting a house of Mr. Preston's to the Count Arundell about the first wee[k] as he thinketh after Michaelmas: that the said John h[as] a brother dwelling at the upper end of Cheapside: that [about] 8 days since the said John's mother sent a letter to this examinate] signifying unto him that she heard her son wa[s gone] beyond seas, and desiring of him, this examinate, that if he [were] not gone, he would stay him : that it was not John his said brother who brought the said letter but one out of the country: that he knew not of his going beyond seas, if he be gone, nor did ever advise him thereunto.

"Being demanded where the said Thomas is to be found, whom he mentioned in his first examination, he desireth to be foreborne therein, for that being a Catholic he would not bring him into trouble : that he did not see the said Thomas since about 10 days past, as he remembereth.

"Being demanded unto how many he had lent the crystal with the straw, besides the Lord William, and Mrs. Anne Vaux, he desireth to be foreborne, for that he had received blame for that he hath done already : that it might be that the said John did see the face in the crystal, having lain for the most part seven weeks at this examinate's house at his last being at London.

" Being demanded unto whom he imparted the effect of his confession before the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury at his first examination, he desireth to be foreborne the answering of it; only he saith that he thinketh he told the Lord Chief Justice's man somewhat of it.

"He further saith that he mistook something in his first examination which now he amendeth, saying that John Wilkinson bringing the straw from Garnet's execution, this examinate willed his wife that it might be put into something, for else it would moulde[r] away : that thereupon the same day the said John and this examinate's wife did put it into a little vase of crystal, which his wife had ready made, and that for aught he knoweth it was so laid up and not seen for 19 weeks after: that he knoweth not whether he lent the glass with the straw unto the said John Wilkinson or unto this said Thomas."

    Endorsed " Copy of . . . examination . . . December."

VIII. Thomas Laithwaite's examination : ibid. p. 59.

"The second 9 examination of Thomas Laithwaite, servant to the Lady Katharine Gray, taken by the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury 3 December 1606.

" He saith that Hugh Griffith. did not send for him upon the Friday morning after he had been first examined before the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, which was the Tuesday before, viz. on the 27th of November: that no person man or woman came unto him in Hugh Griffith's name for his, this examinate's, repair unto him : that nobody was present when the said Hugh Griffith told him what he had confessed : that what he told him was in Griffith's shop: that he received the crystal with the straw from Griffith about Sunday was a fortnight: that he received it upon one day and brought it back to Griffith the day following : that whilst he had it. he showed it to Sir Hugh Beeston 10 and one Mr. Fortescue : that he re-delivered the said crystal with the straw to Griffith in his chamber, nobody being present: that he never borrowed nor had the said straw from Griffith but once as aforesaid : that the Lady Katharine Gray had seen the said straw, but by whose means he knoweth not; but afterwards he said, he knoweth not whether ever she saw it or no, nor whether he hath ever hear[d] her acknowledge that she saw it: that he will not tell anything that may bring others in trouble, though it cost him his life.

" He further saith that he knoweth Dr. Taylor and was with him at the Embassador's house of Spain on Friday or Saturday last: that he had no business with him but only was there to see his wife : that he had been acquainted with Dr. Taylor since the beginning of summer : that he never saw the said crystal with the straw either in the Lord Embassador's or in Dr. Taylor's house."

Endorsed " Copy of Thomas Laithwaite's second examination 3 Decem. 1606."

IX. The account given by John Wilkinson, when dying at St. Omers, translated from Father More's Historia Provincial Anglicanӕ, lib. vii., n. 35.

" I, John Wilkinson, stricken by a grievous malady, and my life being despaired of by the physicians, that I may acquit myself of an obligation by which I am bounden to God and His saints, will now declare how I found the ear of corn on which the likeness of blessed Father Garnet is to be seen.

"The day previous to Father Garnet's execution, I was taken with a vehement desire of beholding his death, and of carrying away something of his relics. I was filled with an assurance of satisfying my desire so great that I did not doubt but that I should see something whereby God would testify to the innocence of His holy servant. When this thought kept continually recurring to me I endeavoured to drive it from my mind, lest by expecting a miracle where there was no need of one, I might tempt God and offend Him. On the following day very early I betook myself to the place of execution and took up a position as near the scaffold as possible, remaining in the same spot until Garnet came. So great, however, was the concourse of horsemen on the arrival of the Father, and such a crowd of people pressed round that I could not keep my position, nor hear distinctly what was said. I remarked nevertheless many things which caused me no slight consolation. In the first place, the careful arrangement of his shirt that it might not be raised by the wind, which gave me a great idea of his modesty and purity. Again when the ladder was removed, his hands placed over his breast in the form of a cross, although they dropped somewhat, yet retained the same form of the cross over his heart until he expired. This furnished me with greater reason for wonder, as if it had been a sign sent from Heaven, for whilst dying he had prayed that God would not allow the Cross of his Lord to be torn from his heart. I also perceived that when his head was cut off and held up for the view of the spectators, that his countenance was the same and retained the same colour as in life; and at the same time I remarked that I did not hear any one cry out ' Long live the King !' as is the custom on such an occasion. This was a proof to me that even then the people were convinced of his innocence. After his body had been cut up into four parts and together with the head thrown into a basket and placed in a cart, as the crowd by degrees retired I advanced into the space between the scaffold and the cart, still with the same eager desire of carrying off some of his relics. Whilst I was looking round, this ear of corn, concerning which there is now so much talk, somehow or other came into my hands. Straw was thrown from the scaffold into the basket containing the head and members, but whether this ear came from the scaffold or the basket I cannot say, I am certain however that it did not touch the ground. I handed over this ear the same day to Mrs. Griffin, and she placed it in a crystal case, which being rather small caused the ear to be bent round. A few days afterwards in my presence she showed it to one of our acquaintance a very good man. When he had looked at it with much attention he said, ' I do not see anything except a man's face.' Astonished at this remark, we ran to the case and both of us beheld the face which we had not remarked before. Others also being summoned perceived it at the same time. And this is the most true account of the ear which I found, as God knows, and I considered that for His glory I was bound to narrate it."

X. Father Richard Blount, in.a letter dated November 8, 1606, says, "A Catholic person in London having kept, since the execution of Mr. Garnet, a straw that was embued in his blood, now these days past being viewed again by the party and others, they espy in the ear of the straw a perfect face of a man dead, his eyes, nose, beard, and neck so lively representing Mr. Garnet as not only in my eyes but in the eyes of others which knew him, it doth lively represent him. This hath been seen by Catholics and Protestants of the best sort and divers others who much admire it &c. This you may boldly report, for besides ourselves a thousand others are witnesses of it."

And in another letter dated March, 1607, "It cannot be a thing natural or artificial. The sprinkling of blood hath made so plain a face, so well proportioned, so lively shadowed, as no art in such a manner is able to counterfeit the like." Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's Collectan. M.

XI. Father Henry More, whose history was published in 1660, says that the straw was kept in the English College of the Society at Liege. The last mention we have met of it is by the Abbe Feller, in the article "Garnett" in his Dictionnaire Historique, which was published at Liege in 1797, and therefore after the suppression of the Society. His words are, " L'epi est aujourdhui entre les mains d'un de mes amis, qui le conserve soigneusement." These words are omitted in the later editions of the Dictionary.

1 Condition of Catholics, p. 301.

2 Father More says that this was the Spanish Ambassador, which is in accordance with Griffin's deposition. He gives an attestation of the Baron de Hobocque, dated in 1625, attesting that he had seen the straw in 1606, when he was in London as Ambassador of the Archdukes of the Low Countries. Hist, Prov, AngL lib. vii. n. 35.

3 This letter has another endorsement, which is not easily decipherable.

4 That is to say that, " though a gentleman, he practises painting."

5 We thus learn that Father Gerard's friend was knighted early in James' reign. Sir William Wiseman published a book in 1619 called "The Christian Knight."

6 That is, "whose brother is a knight."

7 There is no face given in the margin of the copy.

8 Lord William Howard of Naworth, third son of Thomas fourth Duke of Norfolk, half-brother of Philip Earl of Arundel.

9 The copy of the first examination does not seem to have been preserved. Father Gerard has said, supra, p. 387, that they could not prove Thomas Laithwaite to be a priest, and in these examinations there is nothing to show that he was suspected of being one. It is noteworthy that Hugh Griffin is asked "where the said Thomas is to be found," at the very time when he was in Archbishop Bancroft's custody. Father Gerard adds that "his brother was allowed to buy his freedom." This would seem to be a confusion with a former imprisonment, for Thomas Laithwaite was one of the 47 priests who were banished in 1606. He had been arrested on his landing at Plymouth in 1604 and condemned to death for his priesthood at the Lammas Assizes at Exeter, and he was then the means of converting his brother Edward, who had come to see him in prison in the hope of reclaiming him to Protestantism. There were five of the family in the Society, three priests who were known by the name of Kensington, Father Thomas whose alias was Scott, and the eldest who was a lay-brother (More, Hist. Prov. lib. ix. n. 1).

10 Sir Hugh Beeston, son of Sir George Beeston, who distinguished himself against the Armada and died in September 1601, married Margaret, daughter of Laurence Downes of Worthe, and widow of Philip Worthe of Tydrington.

The Life Of Fr John Gerard S.J. (A Hunted Priest) Part 14.

Edward Oldcorne and Nicholas Owen, engraving by Gaspar Bouttats

FATHER OLDCORNE. 

" Since I have mentioned Father Oldcorne's residence, I will set forth in short how he came to take up his abode there. When he first arrived in England he stayed some time with the Superior, as he had no place of his own to go to. At a little distance from his Superior's residence in the country, there was a fine house belonging to a Catholic gentleman, a prisoner in the Tower of London for the Faith."

This was Thomas Abington, whose wife was Lord Mounteagle's sister, and he was in the Tower in 1588 on the pretext of the Babington Plot. "The house, ,, Father Gerard says in the "Narrative of the Powder Plot," 1 "was called Henlip, two miles distant from the city of Worcester, and so large and fair a house that it might be seen over great part of the country; and indeed it was so fair and commodious a house that it had often caused the owner of it much trouble, being an eyesore unto some Puritans of great wealth that were neighbours within some miles, and nothing so well seated ; who therefore procured often warrants to search that house in hope to find some priest there, for which the house and whole estate of the gentleman might be forfeited to the king, and so begged by them that were the causers and actors of such apprehension. But this being often essayed was never permitted by God until" the time when Fathers Garnet and Oldcorne were taken there, soon after the Gunpowder Plot. Dorothy was the name of Thomas Abington's sister, of whose conversion 2 by Father Oldcorne Father Gerard next speaks. " He had a sister, a heretic, who had been bought up at the Queen's court. There she had drank so deep of the poison of heresy, that no physician could be found to cure her, though many had tried. She readily spoke with them all about religion, but she did so all for the sake of argument, and not for the sake of learning. Thus no profit was made of an excellent Catholic's house, of which she had the charge while her brother was away. The house was one which surpassed all in the county for beauty, pleasant situation, and the many advantages it offered to Catholics.

Father Oldcorne

"After many attempts had been made on the lady without effect, Father Garnet wished Father Oldcorne to go and try his hand for once. He went, and found her very obstinate; he plied her with arguments from Scripture, reason, and authority, but all in vain. The woman's obstinacy however did not foil the man's perseverance. He turned to God, and strove to cast out the dumb devil by prayer and fasting. She, seeing the Father eating nothing for the first and second day, began to wonder at his way of going on. Led on notwithstanding by obstinacy or curiosity, she said to herself, 'Perhaps he is not a man but an angel; so I will see whether he subsists on angels' food ; and if he does not, he shall not convert me.'

"Accordingly the good Father kept up his fast for four days without tasting anything. By this steadfastness he discomfited the devil, and the woman was cured from that hour. He had truly obtained for her ears to hear, for from being very obstinate and headstrong, she became henceforth very obedient and humble. Indeed it seems likely that the reason why other priests could not win her to God. was because the Divine Providence had destined her for this Father, and designed not only her, but nearly the whole county to be brought over in consequence. He lived for sixteen years together in this residence and by his fruitful labours in this and the neighbouring counties, he won many to the faith, strengthened the wavering, and restored the fallen, besides stationing priests in divers places." Or, as Father Gerard expresses it elsewhere, " In which time of his abode in those parts it is not easy to be believed how many obstinate heretics he converted, how many weak Catholics he confirmed, how many scholars he sent over to the Seminaries and religious women to monasteries, how many houses he brought to that degree of devotion that he might and did settle priests in them"

"This it was that made several apply to him what St. Jerome writes of St. John, that 'he founded and governed all the domestic churches in those parts;' and in good sooth all looked up to him as their father. Such was his prudence, that he fully satisfied all; such his diligence and endurance of toil, that he never failed anyone in the hour of need ; and his alms supplied the wants of many poor Catholics. In fact his house might have been one of our residences in a Catholic country, such was the number of Catholics flocking there to the Sacraments, to hear his sermons, and to take advice in their doubts. His helpmate was Father Thomas Lister, 3 a man of distinguished learning.

"While thus serving others, Father Oldcorne treated his own body with great harshness. Not satisfied with the labours I have set forth, and his 'care for all the churches' in those parts, which really in great measure seemed to depend on him for everything, he had many ways of macerating his flesh. He applied hard to study while at home. Of his fasts I have already spoken. He made use of the hair-shirt, and still more of the discipline, with great fervour. By all this put together, while he thought only of chastising his enemy and bringing it under subjection, he nearly made himself an unprofitable servant. First he broke a blood-vessel, which caused him to vomit blood in quantities. He managed to get over this, but almost every year he fell into such a weakness that his strength could hardly be restored. From this infirmity there came a cancer in his mouth, which increased to such a degree as to be incurable. The doctors said, as he told me afterwards, that some bones which seemed decayed would have to be taken out. The good Father fearing thereby to be hindered from preaching, in which he was gifted with a marvellous talent, resolved first to go on a pilgrimage to St. Winifred's Well, a famous place and a sort of standing miracle.

" St. Winifred was a holy maiden in North Wales, comely of face, and comelier still for her faith and love of chastity. A son of one of the Welsh chieftains loved her and sought her hand. She rejected him, as well on account of his being a heathen, as because she had already vowed her virginity to God at the hands of the bishop of the place, and was unwilling to yield it to man. The enraged chieftain's love turned into fury, and he cut off the maiden's head with a stroke of his sword. As this happened on the slope of a hill, the head rolled down to the bottom, where instantly burst forth a powerful spring of water. Ever since, the glen, which before got its name from its dryness, 4 has had in it a copious stream of water, which takes its rise at that spring and flows on to the sea. Such a volume of water gushes out of the spring every minute, that it suffices to turn a mill at fifty paces distance. There are very large stones in the well, all red, as if covered with fresh blood. The people of the place are very loth to allow pieces to be cut off. Such pieces are also red, and the place of the cut changes from white to red in time. In the stream are also found many stones either covered or sprinkled with blood. The Catholics gather these, and treasure them up as objects of devotion, as they do the sweet-smelling moss that sticks to the stones. 5 The water in it is very cold ; but drinking it or bathing in it out of devotion has never done anyone any harm. I myself have taken several draughts together fasting without hurt. On the feast of St. Winifred (the 3rd of November), the water rises a foot higher than usual. It turns red on that day, and on the morrow is clearer than before. I visited it once on that day to witness the change, and found the water troubled and of a reddish hue, whereas it is generally so clear that you can see a pin at the bottom. It was winter, and freezing so hard at the time, that, though the ice had been broken the night before by the people crossing the stream, I had hard work to ford it on horseback the first thing next morning. Notwithstanding this severe frost, I went into the well, as all pilgrims do, and lay down and prayed there for a quarter of an hour. On coming out my shirt was of course dripping wet, but I did not change. I put on my clothes over it, and took no harm whatever.

"These are wonderful facts, but in addition to them very signal miracles are often wrought there. A heretic visitor seeing the Catholics bathe out of devotion, said scoffingly, ' What makes these fellows bathe in this water ? —I'll wash my boots in it' He jumped in as he was with his boots on, and sword in hand. No sooner had he done so than he felt the supernatural power of the water, which before he had refused to believe. He was at once palsied and lost the use of his limbs, and his sword could hardly be got out of his hand. For several years he was drawn about in a little cart, a cripple, to punish his own unbelief and to strengthen the belief of others. I myself have spoken to several persons who saw the lame man, and heard the story vouched for both by the man himself and by all who knew him. I learnt from them that the cripple afterwards repented, and recovered his soundness in the same well where he had lost it. There are many other stories of the same sort.

"Such was the place where the blessed Father Oldcorne determined to go, but St. Winifred was beforehand with him. He chanced on his way to reach the house of two maiden sisters, poor indeed in their way of life, but rich in the fear of God. They lived together in His service, keeping a priest in their house, whom they supported and honoured as a father. This good priest had a stone taken out of the stream that flows from the well, sprinkled with blood as I described before. He used to place it on the altar with the other relics. When Father Oldcorne saw it, he took it and kissed it with great reverence. Then going apart he fell on his knees and began to lick the stone, praying inwardly as he held part of it in his mouth. In half an hour all pain was gone, and the disease was cured. He travelled on to the well, however, rather to return thanks than to ask any further favour. There he recovered also from the weakness of body which was thought to have brought on the cancer, and returned home as strong and hale as he had been for many a year. These are the words in which Father Oldcorne himself told me the story. The priest also, in whose abode he found the stone, lately vouched for the facts when I met him at St. Omers. He gave me an account of other marvels that happened at the death of Father Oldcorne, of which hereafter. So much then for Father Oldcorne, I return now to my own poor self."

1 Condition of Catholics, p. 149.

2 Ibid - p. 283.

3 As this Father was imprisoned at Middleburg in Lent 1598, his work with Father Oldcorne must by that time have ended, and about the end of Elizabeth's reign he was stationed "with Mr. Cotton of Warblington in Hampshire." Troubles, First Series, pp. 166, 191.

4 " Beunonus igitur cum Teuyth patrocinio suum fixit tugurium in convalle quӕ Britonum lingua Sechnant appellabatur." From the Life of St. Winifred in Cott. MSS. Claud. A. 5, published in the Lives of the Cambro-British Saints, Llandovery, 1843, p. 199.

5 The red lichen and the moss are both odoriferous. Of the former Pennant says that "the stone to which it adheres easily betrays itself by the colour being as if smeared with blood, and, if rubbed, yields a smell like violets."

The Life Of Fr John Gerard S.J. (A Hunted Priest) Part 13.

A VISIT TO FATHER GARNET.

1591

" I USED to visit my Superior several times a year, when I wished to consult him on matters of importance. Not only I, but all of us used to resort to him twice a year to give our half-yearly account of conscience and renew the offerings of our vows to our Lord Jesus. I always remarked that the others drew great profit from this holy custom of our Society. As for myself, to speak my mind frankly, I never found anything do me more good, or stir up my courage more to fulfil all the duties which belong to our Institute, and are required of the workmen who till the Lord's vineyard in that country. Besides experiencing great spiritual joy from the renewal itself, I found my interior strength recruited, and a new zeal kindled within me afterwards in consequence ; so that if I have not done any good, it must have come from my carelessness and thanklessness, and not from any fault of the Society, which afforded me such means and helps to perfection—means peculiar to itself and not shared by any other religious order.

" On one occasion we were all met together in the Superior's house while he yet resided in the country, and were employed in the renovation of spirit. We had had several conferences, and the Superior had given each of us some advice in private, when the question was started what we should do if the priest-hunters suddenly came upon us, seeing that there were so many of us, and there were nothing like enough hiding-places for all. We numbered then, I think, nine or ten of ours, besides other priests our friends, and some Catholics who were forced to seek concealment. The blessed Father Garnet 1 answered, 'True, we ought not all to meet together now that our number is daily increasing: however, as we are here assembled for the greater glory of God, I will be answerable for all till the renovation is over, but beyond that I will not promise.' Accordingly, on the very day of the renovation, though he had been quite unconcerned before, he earnestly warned every one to look to himself, and not to tarry without necessity, adding, 'I do not guarantee your safety any longer.' Some, hearing this, mounted their horses after dinner and rode off. Five of ours and two secular priests stayed behind.

" Next morning, about five o'clock, when Father Southwell was beginning mass, and the others and myself were at meditation, I heard a bustle at the house door. Directly • after I heard cries and oaths poured forth against the servant for refusing admittance. The fact was that four priest-hunters, or pursuivants as they are called, with drawn swords, were trying to break down the door and force an entrance. The faithful servant withstood them, otherwise we should have been all made prisoners. But by this time Father Southwell had heard the uproar, and, guessing what it meant, had at once taken off his vestments and stripped the altar; while we strove to seek out everything belonging to us, so that there might be nothing found to betray the lurking of a priest. We did not even wish to leave boots and swords lying about, which would serve to show there had been many guests, though none of them appeared. Hence many of us were anxious about our beds, which were still -warm, and only covered according to custom previous to being made.

Some therefore went and turned their beds over, so that the colder part might deceive any body who put his hand in to feel. Thus while the enemy was shouting and bawling outside, and our servants were keeping the door, saying that the mistress of the house, a widow, had not yet got up, but that she was coming directly and would give them an answer, we profited by the delay to stow away ourselves and all our baggage in a cleverly-contrived hiding-place.

" At last these leopards were let in. They raged about the house, looking everywhere, and prying into the darkest corners with candles. They took four hours over the business, but failed in their search, 2 and only brought out the forbearance of the Catholics in suffering, and their own spite and obstinacy in seeking. At last they took themselves off, after getting paid, forsooth, for their trouble. So pitiful is the lot of the Catholics, that those who come with a warrant to annoy them in this or in other way, have to be paid for so doing by the suffering party instead of by the authorities who send them, as though it were not enough to endure wrong, but they must also pay for their endurance of it. When they were gone, and were now some way off, so that there was no fear of their returning, as they sometimes do, a lady came and summoned out of the den not one but many Daniels. The hiding-place was under ground, covered with water at the bottom, so that I was standing with my feet in w#ter all the time. We had there Fathers Garnet, Southwell, and Oldcorne (three future martyrs), Father Stanny and myself, two secular priests, and two or three lay gentlemen. Having thus escaped that day's danger, Father Southwell and I set off the next day together, as we had come: Father Oldcorne stayed, his dwelling or residence being not far off."

Father Oldcorne's residence was Henlip House near Worcester, the seat of the Abingtons, where he and Father Garnet were discovered and captured, at the time of the Gunpowder Plot, after a search of eight days. To Father Oldcorne we return in the next chapter: our present duty is to illustrate the account of the search in Father Garnets house that Father Gerard has just given us.

The house was that in which Mrs. Brooksby and Anne Vaux lived in Warwickshire, and the date was October the 15th to the 18th, 1591- As to the house > Father Gerard has already told us that Father Garnet did not come to live in London or its neighbourhood till Father Southwell was imprisoned in July 1592. The county in which he previously resided is indicated by Father Gerard in his "Narrative of the Powder Plot," 3 where he says that "Father Oldcorne and he [Father Gerard himself] met at London according to their appointment, and by good hap found the Superior [Father Garnet] then in London, though his ordinary abode were then [1588] in Warwickshire, almost a hundred miles from London."

This house was confusedly indicated to Government in "the confession of George Snape," which is signed by Justice Young. 4 - "Moreover I have heard for a truth, and I do verily persuade myself that it is so indeed, that in Warwickshire dwelleth one of the Lord Vaux his daughters, whose husband's name I marked not, and yet I think I have heard him named. She is not far distant from one Mrs. Brooks, a recusant, if I be not deceived. This Mrs. Vaux entertaineth commonly a priest or two in her house, and is resorted to by divers others, so that sometimes there are to be found in the house at one time five or six priests together. They have very safe and close places of convenience in the house for them to lurk in, as it should seem, for Mr. Hodgkins hath been there divers times and searched the house, when there hath been three or four together, and yet could find none of them. When I heard the report of this, if I had thought so much of the matter as I have done sithence, I would have informed myself more in particular of the situation and state of the house, but I took no great heed at that time to the reporter's words."

The ladies were Anne Vaux and Eleanor, widow of Edward Brooksby, daughters of William third Lord Vaux by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Beaumont of Gracedieu in Leicestershire, Esq. Their half-brother George Vaux left a widow with whom Father Gerard lived at a later period of his missionary life, and when he describes her position in life he says that it was in the house of her husband's sisters, " one unmarried, the other a widow," that Father Garnet lived so long.

The very meeting and search at Father Garnet's residence in Warwickshire described by Father Gerard he has himself given some account of in a letter to Father Claud Aquaviva the General of the Society, which has been already printed. 5 It would however be well to place the descriptive portion of it in juxtaposition with Father Gerard's Narrative. Father Christopher Grene, from whose transcript 6 it is translated, introduces this part of the letter with the words, " He then tells how they met on St. Luke's day, 1591, for the renewal of vows, and were freed from imminent peril."

" That solemn meeting of ours was fixed for the three days that precede the Feast of St. Luke [October 18] . The house we had chosen for the purpose of our assembly was that which we had almost always employed on former occasions. It was the house of two sisters, one a widow, and the other a virgin, both of them illustrious for goodness and holiness, whom in my own mind I often compare to the two women who received our Lord. . . .

" Of a sudden there arrives a Queen's messenger. . . . Rosaries, chalices, sacred vestments, all other signs of piety are, with the men, thrown into a cavern ; the mistress of the house is hidden away in another hiding-place. ... On this occasion, as often enough on others when the pursuivant came, the younger sister, the unmarried one, passed herself off for the mistress of the house. . . To all the other discomforts this is to be added, that in cases like this it is necessary to contend with men who are hard to satisfy. This the young lady always did with such skill and prudence as to be able to control their pertinacity and talkativeness. She was remarkable at all times for her virginal modesty and shamefacedness, but in the cause of God and the defence of His servants the virgo became virago. She is almost always ill, but we have seen her when so weakened as to be scarce able to utter three words without pain, on the arrival of the pursuivants become so strong as to spend three or four hours in contest with them. When she has no priest in the house she feels afraid ; but the simple presence of a priest so animates her that then she makes sure that no devil has any power over her house. This was proved to be true in this cruel search in particular. . . . For, quite miraculously, one pursuivant who took into his hand a silver pyx which was used for carrying the Blessed Sacrament from place to place, straightway put it down again, as if he had never seen it. Before the eyes of another lay a precious dalmatic folded up. He unfolded everything else, but that he did not touch. I should never stop if I were to write down all the edifying things that have happened in this or other searches."

Fr Robert Southwell

The martyr-poet Father Southwell refers in one of his letters to the pleasure these meetings gave him. The occasion related by him was some little time before that I on which this search was made, as his letter is dated March 8, 1589/90. The letter is translated by Bishop Challoner from the Spanish of Yepez ; in the following extract some alterations are made in accordance with the original Latin. 7 "We have all together with the greatest joy renewed our vows, according to our custom, spending some days in mutual exhortations and conferences. Aperuimus ora et attraximns spiritum 8 It seemed to me that I saw the cradle of the Catholic religion which is now being born in England, the seeds of which we now sow in tears that others may come and bear the sheaves in gladness. We have sung the canticles of the Lord in a strange land, and in this desert we have sucked honey from the rock and oil from the hardest stone. But extrema gandii hectics occupat, the end of these our joys was in sorrow. Sudden fears dispersed us, but in the end we escaped with much danger but little hurt. I and another of ours, seeking to avoid Scylla, had like to have fallen on Charybdis, but by the mercy of God we passed betwixt them both without being shipwrecked, and are now sailing in a safe harbour." 9

Another Father who is named by Father Gerard as present at this meeting in October 1591, and as shut up in the same hiding-place with himself, is Father Thomas Stanny. In November 1609, that is, about the time when Father Gerard wrote his autobiography, this Father wrote a " Relation about Martyrs" which is not now known to exist, but of which a few fragments are preserved for us by Father Christopher Grene. 10 He thus mentions Father Garnet, and the search at the renewal of vows in 1591. " He being sent into England, and shortly after Father Weston the Superior happening to be taken . . . blessed Father Henry Garnet succeeded him, and for the space of almost twenty years performed that office with great charity and edification ... and with great increase of the Catholic faith and benefit of our Society, for at his first coming into England he there found only one Father of our Society, but at his glorious martyrdom he left behind him above forty of our Society. . . .

" Amongst other virtues, he had special devotion unto the Blessed Sacrament, in so much that he very seldom omitted to say mass for any troubles or travels. It was his custom always during the whole Octave of Corpus Christi to reserve the most Blessed Sacrament upon the altar with great ornaments, reverence, devotion and processions. 11 And when some said unto him, ' Your Reverence should do very well to be more wary in these dangerous times/ ... he made them this most confident answer, ' God, without doubt, will both defend and protect Himself and us likewise, if we firmly trust and rely on Him.' . . .

" He had likewise a very great care that those that were not professed should, according to our rules, diligently twice a year renew their vows, which for some twelve or fourteen years he caused us to observe very exactly; although that, by reason of searching and such like troubles, divers were much against our meeting: yet his trust and confidence in God was so great that by no means he would omit it . . . but always said, ' By the grace of God I will take charge of you all until you have made your renovation, but afterwards provide for yourselves/ For which cause most of us did depart the same day, because that divers times it fell out that the very next day, when the greatest part were gone, the pursuivants came to search the house ; as twice I myself had trial thereof, when the next morning seven of us were driven  to hide ourselves in secret caves under ground. At our meeting were made divers sermons, one by our Superior himself, the rest by others of our Society."

Against such men a powerful Government was engaged in a war of extermination, and false brethren were found to betray them. In the following year James Young alias George Dingley, alias Thomas Christopher, the poor priest with whom we have already made acquaintance, made the following offer 12 to Lord Keeper Puckering. " This term time divers priests will be in London, and as I think Garnet the Jesuit will also be here, or some other of the chief of them, with whom I should haply meet abroad and covertly give your honour to understand of them, that therein also your lordship may have experience of my sincere meaning and desire to requite in some sort her Majesty's most princely favour and your honour s bounty towards me. Thus wearied with irksome imprisonment, yet content with your lordship's determination, I commend your lordship to the safe tuition of Almighty God. From my prison this 30th October, 1592 ."

1 When this was written, the strict laws of Urban VIII. had not yet been made, which forbid the introduction of any public religious veneration except by the authority of the Holy See.

2 Defecerunt scrutantes scrutinio.—MS. Psalm lxiii. 7.

3 Condition of Catholics, p. 282.

4 P.R.O., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. ccxxix. n. 78; dated in the Calendar 1589.

5 Troubles, First Series, p. 149.

6 Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's Collectan. P., f. 556.

7 P.R.O., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. cexxx. n. 104.

8 Psalm cxviii. 131.

9 Father Southwell has written this as an introduction to two different letters bearing the same date, one of which refers to the other, in which he has described the martyrdom of Bales and Horner.

10 Stonyhurst MSS., Father Grene's Collectan. P., f. 581.

11 See Troubles, Second Series, p. 144.

12 P.R.O., Domestic, Elizabeth, vol. ccxliii. n. 50.