But as Garnet’s moral character was almost certainly good on the whole, the conclusion that Justice suggests in reference to this letter of the 28th August especially is that, through intense grief and anguish of mind, Garnet had lost his head, and was not wholly responsible for either his words or actions.[B]
[B] After Father Tesimond had told Garnet (with Catesby’s leave) of the Plot, thereby bringing the matter as a natural secret indirectly under the seal of the Confessional, Garnet could not sleep at nights. Now, sleeplessness, combined with carking care and keen distress of heart, would inevitably tend to unbalance even the very strongest of human minds, at least, temporarily. Tesimond told Garnet generally of Catesby’s diabolical plan “a little before” St. James’-tide (i.e., the 25th of July, 1605), at Fremland, in Essex, but by way of confession. The Government, however, it seems to me, from the report of the trial in Jardine’s “Criminal Trials” and from Lingard, condemned Garnet not because he did not reveal particular knowledge he had received in the Confessional from Tesimond, but because he did not reveal general knowledge he had from Catesby outside the Confessional. This, in fairness to James I., Salisbury, and the King’s Council, should be faithfully borne in mind. Moreover, according to one school of Catholic moralists, in either case the Government ought to have been communicated with if Garnet could have done so without risk of divulging Tesimond’s name. Indeed, Garnet himself took this view — the view which most princes and statesmen will prefer, I should fancy. Garnet, however, had not the machinery ready to his hand to carry both views into practical effect. Therefore Garnet, to my mind, was eminently justified in not divulging the particular knowledge he had from Tesimond by way of confession. For according to the teaching of Thomas Aquinas, the Christian Aristotle, a natural secret may be indirectly protected by the seal of the Confessional if the priest promises so to protect it. I conclude, however, that (1) according to the dictates of right reason the promise may be either implied or expressed, and (2) that in the case of overwhelming necessity the promise may be broken, as in the case of High Treason, if the priest can avoid, with absolute certitude, exposing the name of the depositor of the wicked secret. It was because Garnet could not avoid exposing Tesimond’s name practically that he was justified in not acting upon his own abstract principles in relation to the knowledge he had from Tesimond by way of confession.
CHAPTER XLIX.
At the beginning of the month of September, 1605, Father Garnet was at Gothurst,[A] three miles from Newport Pagnell, in the County of Buckinghamshire,
and about the 5th of September from this still standing stately English home there proceeded the nucleus of a pilgrim-band bent for the famous well of St. Winifred, the British Saint, situated at Holywell, in North Wales.
[A] Gothurst (now Gayhurst) is twelve miles from Northampton and from ten to fifteen miles from Great Harrowden. Weston Underwood and Olney, immortalized by William Cowper, are not far from both places. The poet would be distantly related to young Lord Vaux of Harrowden, through the Donnes, who, like Lord Vaux, through the Ropers, were descended from Sir Thomas More. To Walter Carlile, Esquire, who now resides at Gayhurst, which was the ancient name of the Estate (Gothurst, however, being its name in Sir Everard Digby’s day), I am indebted for the information as to the distance of Gayhurst from Northampton. Cowper was, it will be recollected, the intimate friend of the Throckmortons of his day.
Sir Everard Digby, the Master of Gothurst, was not of the company, as he was engaged in negotiating a match between the young Lord Vaux of Harrowden, then a youth of about fourteen years of age, with one of the daughters of the Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Suffolk. But Lady Digby formed one of the band, as did the uncle of Lord Vaux, Edward Brookesby, Esquire, of Arundell House, Shouldby, Leicestershire, and his wife the Honourable Eleanor Brookesby, together with her sister the Honourable Anne Vaux.
At least two Jesuits formed part of the cavalcade, Father Henry Garnet and Father John Percy, the chaplain to Sir Everard Digby.