“The other and greater benefit is that three years later, on the same 3rd of May, I was admitted into the body of the Society, by the four solemn vows,[128] though most unworthy. This I look upon as the greatest and most signal favour I have ever received, and it seems to me that God wished to show me that I owed this also to the prayers of Father Garnett, from an exact similarity in the circumstance of time between my profession and his martyrdom. For the day originally fixed for both had been the 1st of May, the Feast of the Holy Apostles SS. Philip and James, and in both cases unforeseen delays postponed the event till the 3rd of May.
“God grant that I may truly love and worthily carry the Cross of Jesus, that I may walk worthy of the vocation whereunto I am called. This one thing I have asked of our Lord, and this will I continue to ask, that I may dwell in the House of God all my days, until I begin to prove myself grateful for so great a favour, and that though hitherto unfruitful, yet by the fertility of the olive-tree in which I have been grafted, I may at length begin to bear some fruit!”
XXVII.
Here the Autobiography of Father Gerard ends. Though he survived his escape from England thirty-one years,[129] we have not much more to relate of the events of his life. We have, however, first a few notes to record on the concluding portion of the narrative.
First, with regard to the brave Elizabeth Vaux. She was re-arrested, long after the liberation of which Father Gerard has told us, for in a letter from Louvain to Father Aquaviva, the General of the Society, dated August 17, 1612, he gives the following account of her conduct, and that of her son, Lord Vaux, in prison. We translate from the Latin original.[130]
“Lord Vaux remains in prison under condemnation, but by no means cast down. He seems with invincible courage to trample on rather than to be deprived of the world, and not so much to have lost as to have contemned its goods. His praise certainly is in the mouths of all men. And his cause is so honourable to him, and to the Catholic religion, and so disgraceful to his enemies, that the King seemed to be ready to let the Baron go, and to restore him all his goods, when, God so disposing it, and preserving His servant for great things, some men making a more careful search than usual, found out that the mother of the Baron, who was herself under condemnation and in prison, but who retained all her fervour and devotion, had received a Priest into her cell on the very Feast of St. John Baptist. When the officers entered, they found a good Father who had just completed the Holy Sacrifice, and was in the act of distributing the most holy Body of Christ to those who were assisting. Mrs. Vaux herself, and two others, had communicated. The Priest turned back to the altar, and quietly received the remaining Hosts, lest they should fall into sacrilegious hands. The first man who entered the room, seeing the altar well appointed, and all of them kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament, was astounded; and forgetting the fierceness with which, under similar circumstances, most people rush upon a Priest, only uttered these words: [pg clxxxvi] ‘Has not your ladyship suffered enough already for this sort of thing?’
“The wonder is of old standing on the part of those who do not understand how blessed is the life that God will give to those who never change their fidelity to Him, and who, fearing God more than the King, even though they have but just escaped death, still wish to bury the dead. So our good Father Cornforth was taken: a very holy man, whose life well deserves recording. He was carried off to the pseudo-Prelate of Canterbury, and as he could not conceal his Priesthood on account of those with whom he was taken, so neither would he for his own safety's sake, hide his Religious state. So he was sent off to that prison from which they usually take their victims when they want an offering for the god of heresy. Canterbury then went to the King in all haste and fury, and putting fire to the cotton to raise a flame, so inflamed the King's mind against the Baron, that he seems to have diverted him from his inclination to set him free to the very reverse. But notwithstanding all this, as the Baron has those counsellors for him who are most powerful with the King, we all hope that the King will soon be pacified, and that all will end well for our friend, especially if your Paternity and yours will help him with your holy prayers.”
In the Public Record Office we have various papers which add a little to what Father Gerard has here written. Letters[131] dated February 26 and October 22, 1612, say that Mrs. Vaux, Lord Vaux's mother, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and that Lord Vaux was transferred to the custody of the Dean of Westminster. The Privy Councillor, who was their friend, was Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton. There are three letters[132] extant from him to Viscount Rochester in behalf of the Vauxes. In the first he says that Lord Vaux's sister [Katherine, wife of Henry Nevill, Lord Abergavenny] has presented a petition that her brother and mother may, on account of the hot season, be removed from their [pg clxxxvii] keeper's house in town to that in the country; but they being imprisoned for life on a prœmunire, the matter rests with the King. And this, in the third letter, he says the Archbishop and Council consented to, if they can still be under charge of their keeper. The second letter thanks Lord Rochester for his intercession in behalf of Lord Vaux and his mother, and adds that they expect but little mercy where the Metropolitan [Archbishop Abbot] is mediator. Lastly, we have the grant[133] to Lord Vaux of Harrowden of his lands, &c., at Harrowden and elsewhere, in the counties of Essex, Bedford, Nottingham, Lincoln, and Cambridge, which were forfeited to the King on his conviction in a prœmunire for refusing the oath of allegiance. Later on, May 4, 1625, Charles I. granted him a special pardon[134] for “not repairing to the Protestant church and forbearing the same,” which is recited to be “a contempt of the King's crown and dignity.”
The proclamation for the apprehension of the three Fathers gives a description of Father Gerard.[135] “John Gerard, alias Brooke, of stature tall, and according thereunto well set; his complexion swart or blackish; his face large; his cheeks sticking out, and somewhat hollow underneath the cheeks; the hair of his head long if it be not cut off; his beard cut close, saving little mustachoes, and a little tuft under his lower lip; about forty years old.” To this we may add the description[136] of Father Gerard given by the ruffian Topcliffe, whose spelling is sufficiently “kewryoos” to be worth retaining. It is dated in the Calendar of the Record Office, 1583, but this is evidently erroneous, as Father Gerard escaped from the Tower in 1597.
“Jhon Gerrarde ye Jhezewt preest that escaip out of the Tower and Richard Blount a Seamry preest of estymacion, and a thirde preest intend to passe our rather after then wth the Lo Imbass at Dovr Rye or thirabowtts upon yt coast.