Having dealt with the _preliminary_ Evidence, we now come to the
discussion of the _main_ Evidence which tends to show that _subsequent_ to
the penning of the Letter Father Edward Oldcorne, Priest and Jesuit,
performed acts or spoke words which clearly betoken _a consciousness_ on
his part of being the responsible person who penned the document.
That this may be done the more thoroughly, it will be necessary to ask my
readers to engage with me in a metaphysical discussion.
But, before attempting such a discussion, which indeed is the crux of this
historical and philosophical work, we will retrace our steps somewhat, in
the order of time, to the end that we may, amongst other things, haply
refresh and recreate the mind a little preparatory to entering upon our
severer labours.
Now, on Wednesday, November the 6th, Father Oswald Tesimond went from
Coughton, near Redditch, in Warwickshire, the house of Thomas
Throckmorton, Esquire, to Huddington, in Worcestershire, the seat of
Robert Winter, who had married Miss Gertrude Talbot, of Grafton. The
Talbots, like the Throckmortons, were a people who happily managed to
reconcile rigid adherence to the ancient Faith with stanch loyalty to
their lawful Sovereign.[A]
[Footnote A: I believe that the grand old Catholic family of Throckmorton
still own Coughton Hall, which is twelve miles from Hindlip.]
Tesimond, leaving behind him his Superior Garnet at Coughton, went, it is
said, to assist the unhappy traitors with the Sacraments of their Church.
But, I imagine, he found most of his hoped-for penitents, at least
externally, in anything except a penitential frame of mind.
This was the last occasion when Tesimond’s eyes gazed upon his old York
school-fellows of happier, bygone days——the brothers John and Christopher
Wright.[148]
Now, to Father Tesimond, as well as to Father Oldcorne, Hindlip Hall[A]
and Huddington[B] (in Worcestershire), Coughton,[C] Lapworth,[D]
Clopton,[E] and Norbrook[F] (in Warwickshire), must have been thoroughly
well known; for at Hindlip Hall for eight years Tesimond likewise had been
formerly domesticated.
Where resided either temporarily or permanently:——
[Footnote A: Thomas Abington.]
[Footnote B: Robert Winter and Thomas Winter.]
[Footnote C: Thomas Throckmorton.]
[Footnote D: John Wright and Christopher Wright.]
[Footnote E: Ambrose Rookwood.]
[Footnote F: John Grant.]
Dr. Gardiner’s “_History of James I._” (Longmans) contains a map showing
the relative positions of these places.
On Wednesday, the 6th November, Fathers Garnet and Tesimond were at
Coughton. Catesby, along with Percy, John Wright, Christopher Wright, Sir
Everard Digby, Ambrose Rookwood, and others, was at Huddington. Catesby
and Digby had sent a letter to Garnet.
Bates was the messenger, and was come from Norbrook, the house of John
Grant, where the plotters rested in their wild, north-westward flight from
Ashby St. Legers. For to Ashby the fugitives had posted headlong from
London town on Tuesday, the “fatal Fifth.”
Catesby and Digby urged Garnet to make for Wales.[A]
[Footnote A: Catesby had great influence over Tesimond, and it was
Tesimond whom Catesby first informed of the Gunpowder Plot, in the
Tribunal of Penance. Tesimond had a sharp and nimble, but probably not
very powerful, mind. Catesby gave Tesimond permission to consult Father
Henry Garnet as to the ethics of the Plot. Moreover, Catesby gave the
Jesuits permission to disclose the particular knowledge of the Plot they
had received, provided they thought it right to do so. This is how we come
to know what passed between Catesby and Tesimond, and then between
Tesimond and Garnet. Tesimond had received from Catesby about the 24th
July, 1605, in the Confessional, a particular knowledge of the Plot, in
the sense that he was told there was projected an explosion by gunpowder,
with the object of destroying the King and Parliament; but all particulars
respecting final plans he did not know till a fortnight before the 11th of
October, I think.]
After half-an-hour’s earnest discourse together, Father Garnet gave leave
to Tesimond to proceed to Huddington to administer to the wretched
fugitives the rites——the last rites——of the Church they had so disgraced
and wronged. Garnet remained at Coughton. Tesimond tarried at Huddington
about two hours.
Tesimond arrived at Hindlip from Huddington in a state of the greatest
excitement possible. He showed himself on reaching Hindlip to be a
choleric man, while Father Oldcorne——who seems to have kept perfectly calm
and cool throughout the whole of the momentous conference——Tesimond
himself denounced, if he did not reproach, as being phlegmatic.
Tesimond, evidently, had been commissioned by Catesby,[B] at Huddington,
to incite Mr. Abington, his household, and retainers, including (I take
it, if possible) Oldcorne himself, to join the insurgents at Huddington,
Holbeach, Wales, and wherever else they might unfurl the banner of “the
holy war,” or, in other words, the armed rebellion against King James, his
Privy Council, and Government.
[Footnote B: Tesimond, in my opinion, was completely over-mastered by the
more potent will of his penitent (?) Catesby. _Cf._, The case of Hugh
Latimer and Thomas Bilney; Bilney made a Protestant of Latimer, who was
Bilney’s confessor. These afford striking examples of the power of
psycho-electrical will force.]
Tesimond’s mission, however, to Hindlip, proving fruitless, he thereupon
rode towards Lancashire, in the hope of rousing Lancashire Catholics to
arms, as one man, in behalf of those altars and homes they loved more than
life.