Читать книгу The Condition of Catholics Under James I - Gerard John - Страница 5

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But Father Gerard's good works were now to be interfered with by the treachery of a servant. This man's name was John Frank, and his deposition taken before Justice Young, May 12, 1594,39 will illustrate Father Gerard's story. The Father introduces the traitor without naming him.

“There is a time for gathering stones together, and a time for scattering them. The time had now come for trying the servants of God, my hosts, and myself along with them. And that they might be more like in their sufferings to their Lord for Whom they suffered, God allowed them to be betrayed by their own servant, whom they loved. He was not a Catholic, nor a servant of the house, but had been once in the service of the second brother, who when he crossed the sea recommended him to his mother and brother. He lived in London, but often used to visit them, and knew nearly everything that happened in either of their houses. I had no reason for suspecting one whom all trusted. Still I never let him see me acting as a Priest, or dressed in such a way as to give him grounds to say that I was one. However, as [pg xli] he acknowledged afterwards, he guessed what I was from seeing his master treat me with such respect; for he nearly always set me two or three miles on my journeys. Often too my host would bear me company to London, where we used at that time to lodge in this servant's house. I had not yet found by experience, that the safest plan was to have a lodging of my own. Such were the facts which, as the traitor afterwards stated, gave rise to his suspicions. Feeling sure that he could get more than three hundred pieces of silver for the sale of his master, he went to the magistrates and bargained to betray him. They, it seems, sent him for a while to spy out who were Priests, and how many there were of them haunting the houses of the widow and her son.

“The widow's house was first searched. The Priest that usually dwelt there was then at home, but escaped for that time by taking refuge in a hiding-place. As for the pious widow, they forced her to go to London, there to appear before the Judges who tried cases concerning Catholics. At her appearance she answered with the greatest courage, more like a free woman than a grievously persecuted prisoner. She was thrown into gaol.” From Frank we learn that the search was made Dec. 26, 1593.

“He saith that one Brewster, a Priest, being a tall man with a white flaxen beard, was at old Mrs. Wiseman's house at Northend from Michaelmas till Christmas last, and was in the house when the pursuivants were there on Wednesday the 26th of December last, hid in a privy place in a chamber. And William Suffield, Mr. William Wiseman's man, came thither for him on Thursday in the Christmas week, at five o'clock in the night, and carried him to Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks (as this examinate heard). And afterwards Suffield came again and rode with old Mrs. Wiseman to the Lord Rich's.” The seat of Lord Rich was at Lee Priory, not far from Northend. The widow, therefore, was not arrested on this occasion.

Of the search, Justice Young made the following report to Lord Keeper Puckering.40 “Right honourable, my humble duty remembered, this is to advertize your honour that the bearers hereof, Mr. Worsley and Mr. Newall,” pursuivants who were Topcliffe's chief aiders in the searches made in the houses of [pg xlii] Catholics, “hath been in Essex at Mrs. Wiseman's house, being a widow, and there they found a Mass a preparing, but the Priest escaped, but they brought from thence Robert Wiseman her son,41 and William Clarke, a lawyer, and Henry Cranedge, a physician, and Robert Foxe, who doth acknowledge themselves all to be recusants, and do deny to take an oath to answer truly to such matters as shall touch the Queen's Majesty and the State, whereupon I have committed them close prisoners, one from another. Also they found in the said house one Nicholas Norffooke, Samuel Savage, and one Daniell, servants unto the said Mrs. Wiseman, and one Mrs. Ann Wiseman, a widow, and Mary Wiseman her daughter, and Elizabeth Cranedge, and Alice Jenings, wife of Richard Jenings, and Mary Wiseman, daughter to Mr. George Wiseman, of Upminster, and is in Commission of the Peace, and all these in the said house are recusants; wherefore it may stand with your lordship's good liking, I think it were well that they were all sent for hither to be examined, for that, the said Mrs. Jane Wiseman——” and then follows the remembrance of old Mrs. Wiseman's wish that her pilgrimage to the Priests at Wisbech had been barefooted, that we have already given.

“Item, he saith, to return to Frank's examination, “that Mr. Gerard, alias Tanfield, alias Staunton, the Priest Jesuit, was at Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks all the Christmas last, and Richard Fulwood was his man attending on him, and was two years coming and going thither, and was also with Mr. Wiseman in Lancashire a little before Michaelmas was twelve months, as Ralph Willis, who then attended on Master Gerard, told this examinate, and were at the Lady Gerard's house, she being at home.”

“Item, he saith that he hath seen Mr. Gerard dine and sup ordinarily with Mr. Wiseman at his own table in his house at Braddocks about twelve months past, and that at Michaelmas was twelve months they were both together in the examinate's house,—Father Gerard has just told us that they used to go there till he got a lodging of his own—“and Mr. Ormes, the tailor of Fleet-street, [pg xliii] was there with him, and did take measure of Mr. Gerard by the name of Mr. Tanfield, to make him garments.”

“Item, he saith that the said Gerard lay one night at the Lady Mary's in Blackfriars (as he thinketh) a little before Easter last,42 and Ralph Willis, his servant, lay that night at this examinate's house, and that Richard Fulwood, since his imprisonment in Bridewell at Easter last, wrote a letter and sent it from Bridewell to the Lady Mary's, and there this examinate received it and went down with it to Mr. Gerard, who was at Mr. William Wiseman's house at Braddocks all the Easter last, and hidden in the house while the pursuivants were there, which letters aforesaid this examinate did deliver to Ralph Willis, who carried them immediately to Mr. Gerard. And this examinate saw the letters in Mr. Gerard's hands, and heard him read them. Wherein Fulwood wrote that he expected torture every day, and Mr. Gerard wished that he might bear some of Fulwood's punishment.” …

“Item, he saith that the satin doublet and velvet hose which were found in Middleton's house at the apprehension of Mr. Gerard were Mr. Wiseman's, and the ruffs were Mrs. Wiseman's; and if they had not been taken, the apparel should have been carried by this examinate the next day to Mr. Wiseman in the Counter.

“Item, he saith that about three weeks before Michaelmas last or thereabouts, this examinate was sent by old Mrs. Wiseman to Mr. Gerard, from Northend to London, with Scudamore, alias John Wiseman, the Priest,43 and a boy named Richard Cranishe, of the age of 16 years, son of Robert Cranishe, and afterwards [pg xliv] Mrs. Jane Wiseman44 and Mrs. Bridget Wiseman, sisters to Mr. William Wiseman, came up also; and William Savage, tailor, servant to old Mrs. Wiseman, and Richard Fulwood, Mr. Gerard's man, attended on them, and John Jeppes came up at the same time; all of which persons (saving Jeppes) lay at this examinate's house a week. And then Scudamore, the two gentlewomen, Cranishe, Savage, and this examinate, embarked themselves at Gravesend in one Motte his bark, and went over to Middleborough, and there lay at one Charles his house about a fortnight, and then went to Antwerp, and this examinate returned back again, but whether Mr. William Wiseman did know of their going over or no he cannot tell.” …

“Item, he saith that Nicholas Owen, who was taken in bed with Mr. Gerard the Jesuit, was at Mr. Wiseman's house at Christmas was twelve months, and called by the name of Little John and Little Michael, and the cloak that he wore was Mr. Wiseman's cloak a year past, and was of sad green cloth with sleeves, caped with tawny velvet and little gold strips turning on the cape. And the said Owen was at Mr. Emerson's at Felsted while Mrs. Wiseman lay there.” …

Such is Frank's examination, taken in May, 1594, and it will throw much light on the subsequent narrative. On the 14th of April, Justice Young sent to Lord Keeper Puckering45 “the names of them that were found in Mr. Wiseman's house: John Fulwood, Richard Fulwood, Richard Wallis, William Wallis, William Suffield, Ralph Williamson, John Stratforde. These men are all recusants, and will not take an oath to the Queen's Majesty, nor to answer to anything. One Thomas was apprehended when his master was taken, and he fled away with his master's best gelding and a handful of gold that his master gave [pg xlv] him. All these were servants46 to Mr. William Wiseman, who is a continual receiver of all Seminary Priests, and went to Wisbech to visit the Priests and Jesuits there, and since his imprisonment there was a Seminary Priest in his house which escaped away from the Justices and pursuivants and left his apparel behind him.” This was, as we shall see, Father Gerard himself, and later on he was made to try on the clothes thus found, and “they were just a fit.” All this was to prove Mr. Wiseman guilty of harbouring a Priest, “which,” Father Gerard says, “they were never able to do.”

Father Garnett, in a letter47 to Father Persons at Rome, dated Sept. 6, 1594, thus describes the capture of the servants. “The Friday night before Passion Sunday” [March 15] “was such a hurly-burly in London as never was seen in man's memory; no, not when Wyatt was at the gates. A general search in all London, the Justices and chief citizens going in person; all unknown persons taken and put in churches till the next day. No Catholics found, but one poor tailor's house at Golding-lane end, which was esteemed such a booty as never was got since this Queen's days. The tailor and divers others there taken lie yet in prison, and some of them have been tortured. That mischance touched us near; they were our friends and chiefest instruments. That very night had been there Long John with the little beard, once your pupil” [in the margin is written John Gerard], “if I had not more importunately stayed him than ever before. But soon after he was apprehended, being betrayed we know not how; he will be stout I doubt not. He hath been very close, but now is removed from the Counter to the Clink, where he may in time do much good. He was glad of Mr. Homulus48 his company, but he had been taken from him and carried to Newgate, whence he hopeth to redeem him again.”

[pg xlvi]

Father Gerard tells the story thus. “The hidden traitor, wholly unknown to his master, was watching his chance of giving us up without betraying his own treachery. At first he settled to have me seized in a house” in Golding-lane “which had been lately hired in London to answer my own and my friends' purposes. From his master's employing him in many affairs, he could not help knowing the place which his master had hired for my use. Consequently he promised the magistrates to tell them when I was coming, so that they might surround the house during the night with their officers, and cut off my escape. The plan would have succeeded, had not God provided otherwise through an act of obedience.

“My Superior had lately come to live four or five miles from London.49 I had gone to see him, and had been with him a day or two, when, having business in London, I wrote to those who kept the house to expect me on such a night, and bring in certain friends whom I wanted to see. The traitor, who was now often seen in the house, which belonged ostensibly to his master, learnt the time, and got the Priest-hunters to come there at midnight with their band.

“Just before mounting my horse to depart, I went to take leave of my Superior. He would have me stay that night. I told him my business, and my wish to keep my appointment with my friends; but the blessed Father would not allow it, though, as he said afterwards, he knew no reason, nor was it his wont to act in this manner. Without doubt he was guided by the inspiration of God; for early next morning we heard that some Papists had been seized in that house, and the story ran that a Priest was among them. The fact was that my servant, Richard Fulwood, was caught trying to hide himself in a dark place, there being as yet no regular hiding-places, though I meant to make some. As he cut a good figure, and neither the traitor nor any one else that knew him was there, he was taken for a Priest. Three Catholics and one schismatic were seized and thrown into prison. The latter was a Catholic at heart, but did not refuse to go to the heretics' churches. As he was a trusty man, I employed him as [pg xlvii] keeper of the house, to manage any business in the neighbourhood. At their examination they all showed themselves steadfast and true, and answered nothing that could give the enemy any inkling that the house belonged to me instead of to my host. It was well that it was so; for things would have gone harder with the latter had it been otherwise. The magistrates sent him a special summons, in the hope that my arrest would enable them to make out a stronger case against him. As soon as he arrived in London he went straight to the house, never dreaming what had happened there, in order to treat with me as to the reason of his summons, and how he was to answer it. So he came and knocked at the door. It was opened to him at once; but, poor sheep of Christ, he fell into the clutches of wolves, instead of the arms of his shepherd and friend. For the house had been broken into the night before, and there were some ministers of Satan still lingering there, to watch for any Catholics that might come, before all got scent of the danger. Out came these men then; the good gentleman found himself ensnared, and was led prisoner to the magistrates. ‘How many Priests do you keep in your house?’ ‘Who are they?’ were the questions poured in upon him on all sides. He made answer, that harbouring Priests was a thing punishable with death, and so he had taken good care not to run such a risk. On their still pressing him, he said that he was ready to meet any accusation that could be brought against him on this head. However, they would not hint anything about me, because though disappointed this time, they still hoped to catch me later, as the traitor was as yet unsuspected.

“My host had on hand a translation of a work of Father Jerome Platus, On the Happiness of a Religious State. He had just finished the second part, and had brought it with him to see me about it. When he was seized, these papers were seized too. Being asked what they were, he said it was a book of devotion. Now the heretics are wont to pry into any writings that they find, because they are afraid of anything being published against themselves and their false doctrine. Not having time to go on with the whole case, they were very earnest about his being answerable for those papers. He said that there was nothing contained in them against the State or against sound teaching; and offered on [pg xlviii] the spot to prove the goodness and holiness of everything that was there set down. In so doing, as he told me afterwards, he felt great comfort at having to answer for so good a book. He was thrown into prison, and kept in such close confinement that only one of his servants was allowed to go near him, and that was the traitor. Knowing that his master had no inkling of his bad faith, they hoped by his means to find out my retreat, and seize my person much sooner than they could otherwise have done.”

The following is Mr. Wiseman's examination, taken before Sir Edward Coke and others, in which will be found the defence of Father Jerome Platus, which Father Gerard so accurately remembered, and embodied in his Narrative.

“The examination50 of William Wiseman, of Wymbyshe, in the county of Essex, gentleman, taken the 19th day of March, in the thirty-sixth year of Her Majesty's reign [1594].

“He saith that he hath the murrey” [mulberry-coloured] “beads (showed unto him upon his examination) of a gentlewoman and friend of his, and that he will not tell her name, for that she is a Catholic, as he termeth her, and saith that he hath had these beads about a year and a quarter, and received the same at Wymbyshe aforesaid, at his house there, called Broadoaks, and saith now, upon better advertisement, that his sister, Bridget Wiseman, now being beyond sea, did get the said beads and string the same for him, this examinate, but where she had them he cannot tell. Being demanded whether he knew a book (showed to him upon his examination) called Breviarium Romanum, he denieth that he knoweth the book or whose it is. He supposeth that a letter showed unto him upon his examination, beginning, ‘Dear son, this day,’ &c. &c., and ending with ‘Commendation to all my friends,’ is his mother's own handwriting, and sent unto him, this examinate, to his house aforesaid to-morrow shall be a seven-night.

“And saith that a friend of his hath hired the house in Golding-lane, where he was apprehended, but denieth to tell his name for charity sake, but saith that his friend hired it of [pg xlix] Mr. Tute, dwelling in the next house unto it, and saith that he hired it the last term. And saith that his friend did hire the said house for him, this examinate, and his mother, and saith that he never was at the house before, but came to the said house by such description as his friend made to him of it, and that this examinate came thither on Saturday at night to lie there, and his man (whose name he will not tell,51 is Richard Fulwood) provided him by his commandment and appointment a bed and furniture belonging to the same in the said house, and knoweth not whether the bedding was in the house before he, this examinate, hired the same house or no, but thinketh that some of the bedding that now is there was in the house before.

“He saith that the said Richard Fulwood hath served him about Shrovetide last was two years.

“And saith that since he, this examinate, was confined, he hath used John Fulwood, brother to the said Richard Fulwood, in travelling about his business.

“And saith that his servant, Thomas Barker, after he was apprehended and under arrest, was sent by this examinate to his inn, to return to him again as he saith, and further saith that before the said Thomas Barker went off out of the constable's custody, he, this examinate, laid two angels in the headborough's hand, and to take them to his own use if his servant did not return again. He thinketh he is gone to this examinate's house and denieth that he gave any message to the said Thomas Barker, save only that he should signify to his housekeeper where he this examinate was, and saith that Thomas Barker hath dwelt with him above a year past, and was commended to him by a friend of his being a Catholic, and refuseth to tell his name; and saith that both his said servants have been recusants ever since they dwelt with him.

“And confesseth that a book intituled Hieronymi Plati de Societate Jesu de bono statu religionis is his own, and that he caused the same to be bought at Cawood's shop in Paul's Churchyard, and saith that the book containeth nothing but true doctrine, and that he translated it through with his own hand—which [pg l] was found and yet remaineth—the book; and that his servant Richard Fulwood bought the same, and hath had it or the like by the space of these two years and more, and saith that certain of his friends52 coming to him this examinate, he the said examinate commended the same book to them to be a good book, and delivered the same book to them, to be seen and read of, and saith within the said two years he this examinate bought divers of the said book and hath sent of the same to some of the examinate's friends, as namely to the Priests at Wisbech, that is to say, Father Edmonds, and to no other by name but to him, but generally to the Priests, which is about a year past: and that the said Father Edmonds returned thanks [in] answer to the examinate that he liked the book very well, and this book he sent and received answer by his said servant Thomas Barker, who was born in Norwich, and saith that this examinate hath read over the first and half the second of the said book unto the 12th chapter, and that he dare to take upon him to defend so much to be sound and true: and saith that this examinate was with Father Edmonds at Wisbech about Michaelmas last was twelve months, and there saw and spake with him both privately and in company.

“W. Wiseman.

“Examined by

“Edw. Coke

“Will. Danyell.

“Edw. Vaughan.

“R. Watson.

“Ryc. Young.”