Soon after his death the story of the miracle of “Garnet’s Straw” was circulated all over Europe, according to which a blood-stained straw from the scene of execution which came into the hands of one John Wilkinson, a young and fervent Roman Catholic, who was present, developed Garnet’s likeness. In consequence of the credence which the story obtained, Archbishop Bancroft was commissioned by the privy council to discover and punish the impostors. Garnet’s name was included in the list of the 353 Roman Catholic martyrs sent to Rome from England in 1880, and in the 2nd appendix of the Menology of England and Wales compiled by order of the cardinal archbishop and the bishops of the province of Westminster by R. Stanton in 1887, where he is styled “a martyr whose cause is deferred for future investigation.” The passage in Macbeth (Act II. Scene iii.) on equivocators no doubt refers especially to Garnet. His aliases were Farmer, Marchant, Whalley, Darcey Meaze, Phillips, Humphreys, Roberts, Fulgeham, Allen. Garnet was the author of a letter on the Martyrdom of Godfrey Maurice, alias John Jones, in Diego Yepres’s Historia particular de la persecucion de Inglaterra (1599); a Treatise of Schism, a MS. treatise in reply to A Protestant Dialogue between a Gentleman and a Physician; a translation of the Stemma Christi with supplements (1622); a treatise on the Rosary; a Treatise of Christian Renovation or Birth (1616).
Authorities.—Of the great number of works embodying the controversy on the question of Garnet’s guilt the following may be mentioned, in order of date: A True and Perfect Relation of the whole Proceedings against ... Garnet a Jesuit and his Confederates (1606, repr. 1679), the official account, but incomplete and inaccurate; Apologia pro Henrico Garneto (1610), by the Jesuit L’Heureux, under the pseudonym Eudaemon-Joannes, and Dr Robert Abbot’s reply, Antilogia versus Apologiam Eudaemon-Joannes, in which the whole subject is well treated; Henry More, Hist. Provinciae Anglicanae Societatis (1660); D. Jardine, Gunpowder Plot (1857); J. Morris, S.J., Condition of the Catholics under James I. (1872), containing Father Gerard’s narrative; J.H. Pollen, Father Henry Garnet and the Gunpowder Plot (1888); S.R. Gardiner, What Gunpowder Plot was (1897), in reply to John Gerard, S.J., What was the Gunpowder Plot? (1897); J. Gerard, Contributions towards a Life of Father Henry Garnet (1898). See also State Trials II., and Cal. of State Papers Dom., (1603-1610). The original documents are preserved in the Gunpowder Plot Book at the Record Office.
GARNET, a name applied to a group of closely-related minerals, many of which are used as gem-stones. The name probably comes from the Lat. granaticus, a stone so named from its resemblance to the pulp of the pomegranate in colour, or to its seeds in shape; or possibly from granum, “cochineal,” in allusion to the colour of the stone. The garnet was included, with other red stones, by Theophrastus, under the name of ἄνθραξ, while the common garnet seems to have been his ἀνθράκιον. Pliny groups several stones, including garnet, under the term carbunculus. The modern carbuncle is a deep red garnet (almandine) cut en cabochon, or with a smooth convex surface, frequently hollowed out at the back, in consequence of the depth of colour, and sometimes enlivened with a foil (see [Almandine]). The Hebrew word nophek, translated ἄνθραξ in the Septuagint, seems to have been the garnet or carbuncle, whilst bareketh (σμάραγδος of the Septuagint), though also rendered “carbuncle,” was probably either beryl or, in the opinion of Professor Flinders Petrie, rock-crystal. Garnets were used as beads in ancient Egypt. Though not extensively employed by the Greeks as a material for engraved gems, it was much used for this purpose by the Romans of the Empire. Flat polished slabs of garnet are found inlaid in mosaic work in Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian jewelry, the material used being almandine, or “precious garnet.”
Garnets vary considerably in chemical composition, but the variation is limited within a certain range. All are orthosilicates, conformable to the general formula R″3R″′2(SiO4)3, where R″ = Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, and R″′ = Al, Fe, Cr. Although there are many kinds of garnet they may be reduced to the following six types, which may occur intermixed isomorphously:—
1. Calcium-aluminium garnet (Grossularite), Ca3Al2Si3O12.
2. Calcium-ferric garnet (Andradite), Ca3Fe2Si3O12.
3. Calcium-chromium garnet (Uvarovite), Ca3Cr2Si3O12.
4. Magnesium-aluminium garnet (Pyrope), Mg3Al2Si3O12.
5. Ferrous-aluminium garnet (Almandine), Fe3Al2Si3O12.