Now, regard being had to the fact that this kneeling young Penitent was,
with his own lips, avowing the commission in _desire and thought_ of
“murder most foul as at the best it is”[A] (and “we know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in him”[B]), by confessing to a fellow-creature
a wilful and deliberate transgression against that “steadfast Moral Law
which is not of to-day nor yesterday, but which lives for ever”[C] (to say
nothing of his avowal of the commission _in act and deed_ of the crime of
sacrilege,[D] in taking a secret, unlawful oath contrary to the express
prohibitions of a visible and audible Institution which that Priest and
that Penitent alike believed was of divine origin), I firmly, though with
great and all-becoming deference, draw _these_ conclusions, namely, that
_one of the plotters_ had _already_ poured into the bending ear of his
breathless priestly hearer _glad tidings_ to the effect that he (the
revealing plotter, whoever he was) had given that one supreme external
proof which heaven and earth had then left to him for showing the
genuineness of his repentance in regard to his crimes, and the perfectness
of his contrition on account of his transgressions, by taking
premeditated, active, practical, vigorous steps for the utter frustrating
and the complete overthrowing of the prodigious, diabolical Plot.
[Footnote A: Shakespeare.]
[Footnote B: St. John the Divine.]
[Footnote C: Sophocles.]
[Footnote D: Of course the Gunpowder Treason Plot was a “sacrilegious
crime,” because it sought to compass the death of a king who was “one of
the Lord’s anointed,” _as well as_ because of the unlawful oath of
secrecy, solemnly ratified by the reception of the Sacrament at the hands
of some priest in a house behind St. Clement’s Inn, “near the principal
street in London called the Strand.”——See “_The Confessions of Thomas
Winter and Guy Fawkes_.” This house was probably the London lodging of
Father John Gerard, S.J. Winter and Fawkes said that the conspirators
received the Sacrament at the hands of Gerard. But “Gerard was not
acquainted with their purpose,” said Fawkes. Gerard denied having given
the conspirators the Sacrament.——See Gardiner’s “_What Gunpowder Plot
was_,” p. 44. One vested priest is very much like another, just as one
soldier in uniform is very much like another. So Fawkes and Winter may
have been mistaken. Besides, they would not be likely to be minutely
examining the features of a priest on such an occasion.]
Furthermore; that it was _because_ of the possession by Hammond of this
happy intelligence, early on that Thursday morning, before sunrise, that
_therefore_, in the Tribunal of Penance, “he absolved” poor, miserable
(yet contrite) Ambrose Rookwood “for all in general”——“without any other
circumstances.”
That is, I take it, without reproaching or even chiding him——in fact
“without remark.”[A]
[Footnote A: Father Nicholas Hart (alias Hammond) appears to have been
stationed with the Vauxes, of Great Harrowden, usually. Foley (iv., Index)
thinks it probable that the Father Singleton, S.J. (alias Clifton),
mentioned by Henry Hurlston, Esquire, or Huddlestone, of the Huddlestones,
of Suwston Hall, near Cambridge; Faringdon Hall, near Preston, in
Lancashire; and Millom, “North of the Sands,” was in reality Father
Nicholas Hart (alias Hammond). I do not think so. For, according to the
Evidence of Henry Hurlston (Foley’s “_Records_,” vol. iv., pp. 10, 11),
who was at Great Harrowden, on Tuesday, November 5th, at five o’clock in
the afternoon, Father Strange, S.J. (a cousin of Mr. Abington, of
Hindlip), and this said Father Singleton, “by Thursday morning took their
horses and intended to have ridden to Grote.” They were apprehended at
Kenilworth. This Father Singleton is a mysterious personage whose “future”
I should like to follow up. Was he the same as a certain “Dr. Singleton”
who figures in the “_Life of Mary Ward_” vol. i., p. 443? and was he of
the Catholic Singletons, of Singleton, near Blackpool?]