A.D. 1604.

Conferences held before the king at Hampton Court, between the archbishop of Canterbury (Whitgift), eight bishops, five deans, and two doctors, and Dr. Reynolds and three more of the Puritan party, Jan. 14, 15, 16. Some slight alterations in the Book of Common Prayer are agreed on, and a new version of the Holy Scriptures ordered.

Jesuits and seminary priests ordered, by proclamation dated Feb. 22, to quit the realm before March 19.

Archbishop Whitgift dies, Feb. 29. He is succeeded (Dec. 10) by Richard Bancroft, bishop of London.

The parliament meets March 19, and sits until July 7. The king addresses a speech to them, in which he recommends the union of England and Scotland; professes himself a member of the Church of England; and censures the doubtful loyalty of the Romanists, and "the sect rather than religion of the Puritans and Novellists."

The first act of the parliament was "a most joyful and just recognition of the immediate, lawful, and undoubted succession, descent, and right of the crown," [I Jac. I. c. 1]. Commissioners were appointed to treat with the Scots for the union of the two countries

He was a Lancashire man, born in 1544. He had been chaplain to Whitgift, having gained his notice by his active opposition to the Puritans at Cambridge, while he was college tutor. He preached a celebrated sermon at Paul's-cross, in 1589, which gave great offence to many of the courtiers, as he truly remarked that the main cause of the complaints daily made against the governors of the Church was the desire to possess their revenues; be was, however, favourably noticed by the queen, was in 1597 made bishop of London, and attended her at her death. Bishop Bancroft bore a leading part in the Hampton Court conferences, and, shortly after becoming primate, he held the Puritanical party in check; the well-known canons of 1604 were prepared under his direction, and he laboured to re-establish episcopacy in Scotland. He died Nov. 2, 1610, and was buried at Lambeth.

These, the original of our present customs duties, consisted, beside some less important matters, of a duty of 3s. on each tun of wine imported, and of is. in the pound on the value of other goods; aliens generally paid double. The preamble states that these duties had been enjoyed, time out of mind, by the king's predecessors, "by authority of parliament, for defence of the realm and keeping and safeguard of the seas." Tunnage had been granted to Edward III. in 1372, and poundage to Henry V. in 1415. Both had been granted, in similar terms to those now used, ever since the time of Edward IV., but only for the life of each monarch. Charles I., when they were refused by the Parliament, levied them as on his own authority, a step which had the most fatal consequences.

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[c. 2]; the statutes of Elizabeth against Jesuits, seminary priests, and recusants in general, were confirmed [c. 4]; and, to correct an abuse that had prevailed in her days, bishops were disabled to alienate any of the possessions of their sees [c. 3]; tunnage and poundage were granted to the king [c. 33]; and as the plague raged at the time, provision was made for a rate for the support of the infected [c. 31], who were not to leave their houses, "having any infectious sores uncured,” under the penalty of death. Another act [c. 12] declared witchcraft felony without benefit of clergy.

The convocation meets, under the presidency of Bancroft, bishop of London. A book of Canons, prepared by him, is accepted by the convocation, and assented to by the king".

A treaty of peace and commerce concluded with the king of Spain and the archdukes of Austria, Aug. 18. The king bound himself thereby to give no further aid to the "Hollanders, or other enemies of the king of Spain and the archdukes," and to endeavour to procure a peace between them and the restoration of the cautionary towns'. In return, commercial privileges were granted", and " moderation to be had in the proceedings of the Inquisition"

"These canons, 141 in number, are mainly a republication of older ones, but some new ones were introduced, which authoritatively condemn the dogmas of the Puritans; hence they have been represented, though unjustly, as merely designed to augment the power of the Church. They have never received parliamentary sanction, and therefore are considered by the courts of common law to be obligatory on the clergy only.

Albert, brother of the emperor Rudolph, and his wife Isabella, sister of the king of Spain. As in the instance of Philip and Mary, they were both styled archdukes.

y See A.D. 1585. The king was bound by treaty not to give up these towns to the Spaniards; but he declared that if the States refused to enter into a pacification, he should consider himself at liberty to act as he should judge just and honourable regarding them; meanwhile his garrisons were forbidden to take any further part in the war.

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Among these was the liberty of carrying goods from Germany to Spain; but as it was to be apprehended that the English merchants would allow the use of their names and ships to the Hollanders, this was strictly forbidden, as was any connivance of English magistrates, upon peril of the king's majesty's indignation, loss of their offices, and other more grievous punishments to be inflicted at the king's pleasure." The Hollanders regarded themselves as abandoned; and a dislike grew up between the two nations, which resulted in the massacre of Amboyna, and the naval wars of the time of the Commonwealth.

A.D. 1605.

Richard Haydock, a physician (of New College, Oxford), who professed

Several Scottish ministers hold a synod, without licence, at Aberdeen, July 2, and when questioned by the privy council of Scotland, deny the king's supremacy.

A PLOT to blow up the king and the parliament with gunpowder is disclosed about the end of October.

This atrocious scheme of a few fanatical Romanists d seems to have originated with Robert Catesby, a gentleman of Northamptonshire, who had suffered severely in the last reign for recusancy, and in revenge had been long engaged in endeavouring to bring about an invasion of England by the Spaniards. He appeared likely to succeed in this, an army, to land at Milford haven, and a large sum of money, being promised him, when the death of the queen caused an alteration in the policy of the Spaniards; they wished to detach King James from the cause of the Hollanders, and having succeeded in this, they refused to listen any longer to the solicitations of Catesby and his associates. There being now no prospect of succour from foreign princes, Catesby ventured to suggest to a few chosen associates, and under an oath of secrecy, that they should strike a blow them

Up to this period the title of " King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland" had been used.

Like other Puritans he inveighed against the pope, but his discourses were chiefly in condemnation of the use of the cross in baptism, and of the newly-enacted canons. The king had him brought to court, listened to his declamation, and detected the cheat.

• Six of them were tried and condemned as traitors, but they were only banished.

Such

4 Several of them were recent converts. was Catesby; he had been engaged in Essex's insurrection, as had Tresham and some of the others, who were all gentlemen of property. Fawkes, though quite as fanatical as the rest, was their paid servant, and had been fetched from the Netherlands by Winter for the purpose, about Easter, 1604. He was a Yorkshireman, born about 1569, and had once been a menial in the household of Lord Montague, but latterly he had served in the Spanish army. He is described by one of the witnesses against him as being a tall man, with black hair and an auburn beard, and was usually taken for a priest.

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Of the same family as the Catesby of the time of Richard III.

selves. This was agreed to, though they had much difference of opinion as to what it should be; some proposed to seize the king when hunting, and force a toleration from him; others urged his assassination; but Catesby was not satisfied with either, and he at length induced them to attempt the destruction of both king and parliament by gunpowder, madly expecting to receive such aid from the Low Countries as would enable them to seize the government and re-establish Romanism 8.

Catesby's confidants at first were only Thomas Percy, a relative of the earl of Northumberland, and one of the band of pensioners; Thomas Winter, a Worcestershire gentleman, who had managed the negotiations with Spain; John Wright and Robert Keys, gentlemen, of London; and Thomas Bates, a trusted servant of Catesby; to these was afterwards added Guy Fawkes, a soldier from the Netherlands. They proposed to effect their horrible purpose when the parliament

This plot is usually spoken of as unprecedented in its nature, but such is not the case; Swedish history furnishes two instances of gunpowder plots, real or pretended. Christiern II. made such a pl the pretext for his barbarous executions at Stock holm, in 1520; and in 1533 the regency of Lube: engaged some Germans to blow up Gustavus Vase, while holding the diet, but the plan was discovered on the very eve of its execution.

He reconciled to this horrible project those whose fanaticism was less fierce than his own by saying that it would appear like a heavenly juds, ment when even the very building was destroyed where laws had been passed against their faith. It seems probable that it was intended to warm, in ambiguous terms, members of their own creed not to attend the house at its opening, as was done to lord Monteagle, and perhaps to others. Whether this was done is unknown, but the earl of Northumber land absented himself from the parliament, as dil the lords Montague, Mordaunt, and Stourton, a circumstance considered so suspicious, that they were prosecuted in the Starchamber. They wer all heavily fined, and Northumberland was im prisoned in the Tower till July 18, 1621. See

A.D. 1611.

met in February, 1605; and, accordingly, Percy hired a house close adjoining, where, in December, 1604, they shut themselves in, with twenty days' store of provisions, and laboured until Christmas in digging through the wall, Fawkes, on whose vigilance, as the only military man among them, they greatly relied, keeping watch. They resumed their labours after Christmas, but, finding themselves unequal to the task, they soon associated Christopher Wright and Robert Winter with them, the whole taking an oath of secrecy, and an engagement not to desist from their purpose, at the hands of Henry Garnett, John Gerrard, and Oswald Tesmond, Jesuits, who, indeed, have been charged with being the originators of the design; but this has not been satisfactorily proved".

The conspirators found the foundation wall three yards thick; but when they had worked half through it they were enabled to hire the adjoining cellar, which ran under the Parliament-house, and in this they speedily placed twenty barrels of powder, which had been stored in Percy's house, and afterwards ten more, which they covered with billets and fagots, adding, from time to time, more powder, together with iron bars and stones. Meanwhile the meeting of the parliament was postponed, and Catesby, who had hitherto borne the chief part of the expense, found his funds exhausted. He therefore obtained permission from the rest to divulge their scheme to such as he thought willing to help them, and, in consequence, they were soon joined by John Grant, of Warwickshire, Ambrose Rookwood, of Suffolk, and Francis Tresham, of Northamptonshire, who gave money and their personal help in conveying the gunpowder into the vault, and promised to provide arms and horses for a rising as soon as the plot had taken effect;

It cannot be doubted, however, that they were cordial participators in it. Garnett long maintained that he knew nothing of the conspiracy; then he said he had knowledge of it only under the seal of confession; but he allowed that he held it lawful to equivocate rather than confess anything to his own injury. As a natural consequence his denials were disbelieved, and he was tried, condemned, and executed; Tesmond and Gerrard escaped to the continent.

He sold, among other property, a fine estate

some months later the scheme was divulged to Sir Everard Digby, of Gothirst, in Buckinghamshire. He also joined in it, and engaged to make an assembly near Dunchurch, in Warwickshire, under pretence of a hunting match, but, in reality, to carry off the princess Elizabeth, who resided at Combe, the house of lord Harrington, in that neighbourhood, and whom the conspirators intended to proclaim queen, if Percy should not succeed in seizing the duke of York (afterwards Charles I.) on the day of the explosion. As the time finally appointed for the meeting of the parliament drew near, Catesby and the rest prepared to leave London, entrusting the task of firing the train to Guy Fawkes, who had assumed the name of John Johnson, and professed to be Percy's servant left in charge of his master's house. Their plot had been carried on, as they imagined, with profound secrecy; but there can now be no reasonable doubt that the government had long had a sufficiently accurate idea of their design. Both the French and the Spanish governments had apprized Cecil, the secretary, that some desperate enterprise was in meditation among the Romish refugees in Flanders, and a visit which Fawkes had made to them in the preceding summer had not escaped his notice; still they were allowed to remain in fancied security.

On October 26, 1605, an anonymous letter was delivered to Lord Monteagle, (William Parker, brotherin-law of Tresham,) urging him to absent himself from the meeting of parliament, and was by him submitted to the council. The matter was suffered to stand over, until the king returned from a hunting excursion, when the letter was laid before him, (Nov. 1,) and he professed at once to discover the full meaning of its enigmatical warning'; still no open step was taken. At length, early in the morn

at Chastleton, in Oxfordshire, to Walter Jones, a lawyer, who built the present manor-house. His elder brother, Henry, it was expected would accompany the king and be destroyed with him.

k Fawkes confessed that when on this visit he made two pilgrimages to pray for the success of the plot.

The passage said to have suggested the idea of gunpowder was, "Though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible