I can now inform you that the MS. _Treatise of Equivocation_, about
which J.M. inquired (Vol. i., p. 263.), is preserved in the Bodleian
Library (Laud, _Miscellaneous MSS. 655_.). Dodd, in his _Church History_
(vol. ii. pp. 381. 428.), under the names Blackwell and Francis Tresham,
mentions the work by its second title, _A Treatise against Lying and
fraudulent Dissimulation_, and states that the MS. is in the Bodleian.
Through the kindness of Dr. Baudinel, I have seen the tract; and as
there is a certain historical interest attached to it, some information
on the subject may be acceptable to your readers. But it may be as well
first to give the account of its production at the trial of Guy Fawkes
and the conspirators, Jan. 27, 1606. (See _State Trials_, vol. ii. col.
180.) After Coke had introduced under the seventh head of his speech, as
the fourth means for carrying on the plot, "their perfidious and
perjurious equivocating," there follows:--
"And here was showed a Book, written not long before the Queen's
death, at what time Thomas Winter was employed into Spain,
entituled, 'A Treatise of Equivocation,' which book being seen
and allowed by Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits, and
Blackwell, the Archpriest of England, in the beginning thereof
Garnet with his own hand put out those words in the title of
'Equivocation,' and made it thus; 'A Treatise against Lying and
fraudulent Dissimulation.' ... And in the end thereof, Blackwell
besprinkles it with his blessing, saying, 'Tractatus iste valde
doctus, et vere pius et Catholicus est. Certe S. Scripturarum,
patrum, doctorum, scholasticorum, canonistarum, et optimarum
rationum præsidiis plenissime firmat æquitatem æquivocationis;
ideoque dignissimus est qui typis propagetur, ad consolationem
afflictorum Catholicorum, et omnium piorum instructionem.'"
Coke referred to it again at Garnet's trial, March 28, 1606 (_State
Trials_, vol. ii. p. 234.); and the importance attached to the discovery
of the work may be judged of by Morton's _Full Satisfaction_, 1606: a
very large part of which is occupied in discussing it.
The copy in the Bodleian is the one which was produced at the trial. It
is a small quarto in a vellum cover, on the outside of which is written,
on the front side, in a later hand, "Blackwell de Equivocatione, &c.;"
on the other side, in Sir E. Coke's hand, "Equivocations." It consists
of sixty-six pages in all; i.e. two leaves at the beginning originally
left blank, and not numbered; sixty-one pages numbered continuously, and
fifty-nine of them written on: p. 61., that is, the fly-leaf at the end,
contains Blackwell's imprimatur as described by Coke. On the first
fly-leaf, at the beginning, is the following memorandum:--
"This booke, contening 61 pages, I founde in a chamber in the
Inner Temple, wherein Sr Thomas Tresham used to lye, and whiche
he obteyned for his two younger sonnes. This 5 of December,
1605." EDW. COKE.
"Os quod mentitur occidit animam."
It may be enough to remind the reader, that after Nov. 5, 1605, Coke,
being Attorney-General, was engaged in prosecuting the discovery of the
plot and seeking for evidence. Francis Tresham, to whom the authorship
is attributed by Dodd (vol. ii. p. 427, 428.), was a son of Sir Thomas
Tresham; his connection with Garnet and the plot is well known. Sir T.
Tresham died Sept. 11, 1605. (Dodd, vol. ii. p. 58.) Francis had been
committed {169} to prison, and died Nov. 20, 1605; and Coke found this
in searching his chambers a fortnight after. The title originally stood
thus:--
"A TREATISE OF EQUIVOCATION, _wherein is largely discussed the
question_, whether a Catholicke or any other person before a
Magistrate being demaunded uppon his oath whether a Prieste were
in such a place, may (notwithstanding his perfect knowledge to
the contrary), without Perjury, and securely in conscience
answere, No: with this secreat meaning reserved in his minde,
That he was not there so that any man is bound to detect it."
The words in small capitals and Italics occupying the first two lines
are crossed out, and "whe-," the first syllable of whether, re-written
at the beginning of line 3. At the end of this title, interlined by
another hand, follow the words "_newly, overseer ... ignorants_;" but
these words are also struck through and re-written on the preceding
leaf, on which, written by the same hand by which the interlineation was
made (Garnet's, as it would seem), the title stands,--
"A Treatise _of_ against Lying and fraudulent Dissimulation.
Newly overseen by the Authour, and published for the defence of
Innocency and for the Instruction of Ignorants."
The "_of_", in Italics, is struck out. The MS. has other corrections
throughout in the same (Garnet's) hand; and was evidently prepared for
the press, as Blackwell's imprimatur implies.