The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-11-20
THE TRUE STORY Of
THE GUNP0WDER PLOT
Men Of all Religions, were
Mixed up in the Conspiracy
to Destroy the King, Lords
and Parliament of England.
Secretary of State Cecil
was at the Bottom of 1.-THE
Plot was Projected by the
Cody Puritans. .....

OAAy ~ AAS0lASs ..
Last week, says the Standard and
Times of Philadelphia, some of our
popular instructors undertook to en-
tighten the public on the circumstances
of the affair called "the Gunpowder
Plot" 1t was case of "the blind
leading the blind" The truth about
that Plot was exposed long ago by
Father Gerard, S. j., and other modern
investigators. But the truth is not
what is wanted in such cases. All that
is really required is some such refer
ence as will recall popular attention to
the anniversary, and so keep alive the
smouldering embers Of i-Catholic
prejudice and hatred-for it is noted
with alarm by the Orange and Ken
sitite brand of religionists that that
element, so needful for their susten-
ance, is rapidly dying out in Great
Britain, and it's extinction means to
them annihilation. Hence the parrot
like repetition of the story that it was
the Catholics in England who contrivei
the Gunpowder Plot
DR.. Lngard, the great Catholic his
torian, it is true, left an account Of
the affair that seems to favor this
theory, but he was. in possession of
hot -,
light showing the connection of the
secretary Of state, Lord Cecil, with
the real conspirators, Of whom Guy, or
Guido. .Fawkes was only the daring and
desperate tool The Abbe Macgeoghe-
gan gives brief but true account of
the affair. He lived in period not far
removed from the date of the anti
Jacobite plots-for there was more
than one such-and was SO enabled to
speak almost from personal knowledge
of their true history as it was brought
out in the courts and in the torture
chambers where the conspirators were
put to the question" The first plot
against King James l., the son Of Queen
Mary of Scotland, was gotten up, ac-
cording to his review, by the Puritan
Presbyterians of Scotland in co-opera-
ton with the Protestants of England.
Its object was to remove" King James
and place his kinswoman, the Lady
Arebella Stuart, on the throne. It was
because it had leaked out that James
had been in communication with Pope
Clement VIII, relative to his intention
of embracing the Catholic faith and
establishing it again as the national
religion; and that he had sent sealed
letter containing the proposal to the
pope, no doubt with view of gaining
his support in reconciling the Catholics
to his assumption of the crown just
previous to his ascent of the throne.
This so thoroughly alarmed the peo-
pie who are so religious as to detest
Catholic conspirators like Guy Fawkes
and Catesby that they determined to
kill off their pedagogue monarch and
place his relative, Arabella, in his place,
There We're men Of all religions mixed
up in this plot-for such was the policy
of Cecil, who contrived it. There were
Catholics, Puritans, Episcopalians
Presbyterians, clergy and laity. Two
priests were among those who were
seized in connection with it, but it
transpired that their knowledge of it
came through the confessional, and this
they would not violate. They were put
to death, along with Catholic noble
man, brother of Lord Brooke, and an
other, Sir William Rawleigh, some time
afterward. This plot was gotten up in
1904; the Gunpowder Plot followed in
1905 and Macgeoghegan states un-
qualifiedly that it was projected by
the Puritans," and suited the policy of
the secretary, Lord Cecil He was a
deadly foe to the Catholics in both
England and Ireland, and had formed
the design of getting hold Of their re-
naming possessions, in lands and NOV
ables, "by hook or crook" There were
several other Machiavellian ministers
or ex-ministers at the same juncture
quite ready to take hand in any sort
of dark intrigue against the Catholics
Burleigh, Walsingham, Shaftesbury and
Thomas Cromwell-men whose whole
lives had been devoted as ardently te