This result supports the evidence received from other quarters. The opinion at court and of the king himself was that the attack on Arnold was a part of the Whig political machinery. Barillon, writing on April 26/May 6, 1680, says:—“Ce prince (Charles II) n’est sans inquiétude, il voit bien par ce qu’il s’est fait sur le prétendu assassinat de Arnold que ses ennemis ne se rebuttent pas et qu’ils veulent de temps à temps faire renaître quelque occasion d’animer le peuple contre les Catholiques.”
In his manuscript history of the Plot (118) Warner gives the following account of the affair: “Supra dictum nihil magis commovisse plebem quam Godefridae eirenarchae caedes. Tentandam alterius caedem visum, eundem ad finem et aptus visus Arnoldus personam in ista tragicomica fabula sustineret, et Londini ... qui tum versabatur. Omnibus ad eam exhibendam paratis, designata hora ix vespertina, nocte illumi. Cum ergo biberet cum sociis in taberna publica, monitus a famulo instare tempus, quod ad causidicum condixerat, se statim inde proripit et conjicit in obscurissimam [sic] angiportum, destinatam scenam. Illic magnis clamoribus civium opem implorat; a papistis sibi structas insidias, sicarios ibi expectasse, jugulum haurire voluisse, sed errante ictu mentum vulnerasse; eos fuga elapsos, ubi cives convenire vidissent; eorum neminem sibi notum sed unum in tibia laesum; hunc ex vulnere, reliquos ejus indicio comprehendi posse. Hoc xix Aprilis contigit. Hinc tragice debacchant in Catholicos factiosi, Oate praeeunte: legum beneficio juste privari qui leges susque deque haberent; gladio utendum in publicos sicarios, internecione delendos, ut ne catulus quidem reliquatur; averruncandam semel pestem omnium vitae imminentem. Inventae una nocte omnes Catholicorum domus cruce cretacea signatae, percussoribus indiciae, ubi hospitarentur. Nihil deesse visum quam qui signum daret: hoc saluti fuit Catholicis sub cruce militantibus, cruce signatis. Brevi motus ipsi subsiderunt, dum constitit leniter tantum perstrictam cutem; nec constare a se, an ab alio id factum; nemo vero Catholicus erat, in quem facinoris invidia derivaretur. Testati chirurgi neminem in tota civitate vulnus in tibia habere. Unus tandem inventus in familia Powisii qui attritam lapsu tibiam oleo lenibat. Hic tentatae caedis arcessitur coram consilio regio inde ad Arnoldum deducitur. Sed cum hic eum non accusaret, et ipse probaret se navem conscendisse Brillae xix Aprilis (id est, eodem die quo tentatum facinus) et tantum tertio post die Londinum appulisse, et ipse demissus est, et Arnoldi fictae querimoniae cum risu transmissae.”
Strangely enough, Warner seems to have known nothing about the arrest and trial of Giles. Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, judging from the report of the trial, regards the attempt to murder Arnold as an act of revenge for the magistrate’s energy against the Roman Catholics, and quotes it in support of Macaulay’s suggestion that Sir Edmund Godfrey was murdered by some Catholic zealot for a similar motive.[785] In the face of the probability that no real attack was made on Arnold, this support falls to the ground. It is far more likely that the rumours at court that Oates had murdered Godfrey to gain credit for the plot suggested to Arnold or his wire-pullers the method of continuing the credit of the Whig party by the shameful means of a bogus attempt on his own life.
APPENDIX E
Penal Laws in Force against Roman Catholics, 1678
1. 1 Eliz. cap. 1 (Act of Supremacy), 1559.
No foreign potentate shall exercise ecclesiastical power in the Queen’s dominions.
All the Queen’s servants, all temporal and eccles. officers, all with degrees in the universities shall take the oath of supremacy.
None shall maintain the jurisdiction of any foreign potentate in the Queen’s dominions under penalty of fine and imprisonment for the first offence, for the second of Præmunire (i.e. to be put out of the King’s protection and forfeit all goods and chattels to the crown), for the third of high treason.
2. 5 Eliz. cap. 1, 1562.