Let us proceed to support these statements with Evidence and with
Argument.
(1) Now was Christopher Wright a subordinate conspirator, introduced late
into the conspiracy? It is plain that he was, from “_Thomas Winter’s
Confession_,” where he says: “About Candlemas we brought over in a boat
the powder which we had provided at Lambeth and layd it in Mr. Percy’s
house, because we were willing to have all our danger in one place. We
wrought also another fortnight in the mine against the stone wall which
was very hard to beat through, at which time we called in Kit Wright
(sometime in February, 1605), and near to Easter as we wrought the third
time, opportunity was given to hire the cellar in which we resolved to lay
the powder and leave the mine.”
Again, in the published “_Confession_” of Guy Fawkes (17th November,
1605), Fawkes says, that a practice “in general was first broken unto me
against his majestie, for releife of the Catholique cause, and not
invented or propounded by myself. And this was first propounded unto me
about Easter last was twelve-month,[36] beyond the seas, in the Low
Countries of the Archdukes’ obeyance by Thomas Wynter.”
Fawkes says, in his “_Confession_” further on: “Thomas Percy hired a howse
at Westminster ... neare adjoyning the Parlt. howse, and there wee beganne
to make a myne about the XI. of December, 1604. The Fyve that entered
into the woorck were Thomas Percye, Robert Catesby, Thomas Wynter, John
Wright, and myself, and soon after[37] we tooke another unto us,
Christopher Wright, having sworn him also, and taken the sacrament for
secrecie.”[38]
Therefore Christopher Wright must have become a confederate about ten
months after Fawkes himself and the other prime movers in the nefarious
scheme, and his services were requisitioned——as the modern phrase
goes——primarily for the purpose of adding to the amount of manual labour
available for the digging of the mine, which was afterwards abandoned for
the cellar as the receptacle for the gunpowder that was to effect the
explosion purposed.
(2) Now, was Christopher Wright a conspirator whose early training was
such as to lead him, on reflection, to regard as morally unlawful the
taking of a secret oath such as the Gunpowder conspirators had bound
themselves by, and one in whose heart emotions, not only of compassion but
also of compunction, were likely to be awakened by the remembrance of that
training as the day was about to dawn and the hour was about to strike
when the awful tragedy would be consummated?
If a man’s character may be presumptively known by his friends, still more
may it be presumptively known by his progenitors; and in the light of this
principle I therefore answer the foregoing question emphatically in the
affirmative.
But what was the form of the oath taken by all these conspirators save
one, namely, Sir Everard Digby, who was _specially_ “sworn in” on the hilt
of a poniard?
It was this:——“You shall swear by the Blessed Trinity and by the Sacrament
you now propose to receive, never to disclose, directly or indirectly, by
word or circumstance, the matter that shall be proposed to you, to keep
secret nor desist from the execution thereof until the rest shall give you
leave.”
This oath was administered to the conspirators by each other in the most
solemn manner——“kneeling down upon their knees with their hands laid upon
a primer.”[39]
Immediately after the oath had been taken,[40] we are told, Catesby
explained to Percy, and Winter and John Wright to Fawkes, that the project
intended was to blow up the Parliament House with gunpowder when the King
went to the House of Lords.[41] This would include the Queen, the Commons,
Ambassadors, and spectators who would be present during the King’s Speech.
From Fawkes’ “_Confession_,” already quoted, it would seem probable that
all five prime conspirators imparted their prodigious designment of
sacrilegious, cold-blooded murder to the conspirator Christopher Wright.