CHAPTER XV
THE FATE OF FATHER GARNET
I
ALTHOUGH Father Garnet reached the metropolis early in February (on, apparently, the 8th, or even the 7th of that month), he was not brought to trial until March 28. During this interval, he was frequently examined before the Privy Council, the results of which examinations, or rather the most important of them, may be set down briefly as below.
On February 13, he admitted that he had for a period of nearly twenty years been the Superior of the Jesuits in England. He denied, however, all knowledge of the Powder Plot, and that he had tried to help the conspirators when they were marching to Holbeach. He confessed that he had corrected the book on equivocation, found in Tresham's desk, but had refused to have it printed. As to its doctrines, he could see no harm in them, although they had never been formally approved by the Holy See, in spite of their having been countenanced by certain divines.
154
