The Gunpowder Plot

On Thursday 30th January and Friday 31st January 1606 a total of eight men were executed in London. They had been found guilty of high treason and, in 1606, that carried a very terrible penalty, the severity of which was designed to deter traitorous actions on the part of those so inclined.

The prisoners were first drawn to their place of execution behind a horse, tied on something like a sledge. Once on the scaffold the prisoners were hung by their neck until they had almost choked, but they were cut down while still alive. They were then castrated and their genitals were burnt before their faces, and then they would be cut open and their heart and entrails drawn out. Finally, their heads were cut from their bodies, which were then hacked into four parts. Severed heads were often impaled on a spike and the parts of the dismembered body were often displayed also.

On the first day Sir Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant, and Thomas Bates were executed at the west end of St Paul’s churchyard. They were followed on the second day by Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, and Guy Fawkes, who were executed in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster.

All these men had been part of a plot to wipe out the entire governing class of England by one massive explosion. Others who had been implicated in the plot were already dead by then. Known to succeeding generations as “The Gunpowder Plot” this coup had been planned by leading figures in England’s Roman Catholic minority, with the intention of wiping out the King, Lords, and Commons of the nation, and replacing them with a government that would favour Roman Catholicism and lead to its reinstatement as the established faith of the English nation.

Since the Synod of Whitby in 664 the Roman Catholic Church had enjoyed a monopoly as the sole variant of the Christian faith permitted in England. In the 1380’s the great scholar and reformer John Wycliff had argued that the church in England should be run on lines that were as close as possible to the early church, as described in Scripture. He commissioned the translation of the whole Bible into the common English tongue, and trained a group of poor preachers to travel the country preaching the pure word of God. This was eagerly taken up by the common people, though the authorities attempted to suppress it, even going so far as to pass an act of parliament which made public burning the punishment for these “heretics”.

Those who espoused Wycliff’s teachings were called “Lollards” and, despite persecution, they survived until the middle years of the sixteenth century. By that time the movement for religious reform had grown mightily. On the continent of europe the writings and preaching of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli had caused multitudes of people to renounce Roman Catholicism as a corrupted version of what the Christian church should be. These ideas spread to England, mostly through Cambridge University, and the political turmoil of Henry VIII’s reign allowed these ideas to take root.

The death of Henry VIII in 1547 did nothing to quieten things. First, his son Edward VI adopted Protestant policies with a zeal which was remarkable for one so young. His death in 1553 brought his sister Mary I to the throne, and she attempted to reverse the gains made by the Protestants. She restored Roman Catholicism to its established position, married the staunchly Catholic Philip King of Spain, and caused Protestants to be arrested in large numbers. Many died in prison due to ill treatment, and around 300 of all ages and both sexes were burnt at the stake.

Mary died in 1558 and was succeeded by her sister Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth was a Protestant who restored the Church of England to a Reformed position, but in the early years of her reign she sought to espouse a policy of toleration towards her Roman Catholic subjects, provided that they lived quietly, practised their religion with discretion, and did not seek to subvert her position.

Elizabeth’s hopes were disappointed, as religious war spread across Europe. Spain was the super-power of that time and the King of Spain placed himself at the head of the Roman Catholic counter-attack on Protestantism, seeking to extirpate it by whatever means necessary. In England this took the form of attempting to overthrow Elizabeth, assassination not excepted, and replacing her with her Roman Catholic cousin Mary Stuart. For many years Mary was held prisoner in England, but during this time she was constantly at the centre of plots to depose Elizabeth and make her the Catholic queen. Mary played an active role in these plots and finally, reluctantly, Elizabeth acceded to the wishes of her ministers to have Mary executed.

With Mary dead, Philip of Spain decided on a direct attack on England, sending his Armada against England in 1588. When the Armada was wrecked he decided to attack England through Ireland, sending a force to help the rebels there. This plan finally collapsed in 1603 when the Spanish and Irish rebels were defeated at Kinsale.

All through this time there were plots to murder Elizabeth. The Pope advised English Roman Catholics that they owed her no allegiance and that to kill her would not be murder. In such a climate Elizabeth was fortunate to have a superb intelligence system. Walsingham and the Cecil family ensured that they were always aware of plots being hatched on the continent and the activities of Roman Catholic agents in England. In particular they were fully alert to the threats posed by the Jesuit order, who were the experts at infiltrating their agents into England under false identities.

Elizabeth died in 1603, and James VI of Scotland travelled to London to become James I of England. Roman Catholics hoped that he would favour their cause because he was the son of Mary Stuart and his wife, Anne of Denmark, had converted from Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism.

James was a shifty character who encouraged the English Roman Catholics in this belief as he hoped it would make his accession to the English throne easier. Once in place, however, he adopted an anti-Roman policy in the hope of finding support among the more radical Protestants. The Roman Catholics were very bitter about this breach of faith.

English Roman Catholics did not form a monolithic body. Many of them wanted nothing more than to be allowed to practice their religion unhindered. They had seen the numerous plots against Elizabeth fail and the promises of assistance from Catholic foreign powers prove ineffective. They had arrived at the conclusion that they could achieve acceptance by proving that they were no threat.

Others thought differently. They were zealous to overturn the Protestant faith, and they were sure that this could be achieved by intervention from powerful Catholic nations overseas, particularly Spain. They felt it necessary to prove to the foreign powers that they were worth supporting by demonstrating their readiness to play an active part in their own deliverance.

The latter group of active dissidents caused great distress to the former group of Catholic quietists, who felt that continuing displays of disloyalty would only prolong the state’s antagonism towards them. The ambitions of inviting foreign troops to support a Roman Catholic uprising were, however, becoming ever more unreal. Although James I had no intention of softening his attitude towards English Catholics, his diplomacy towards the Catholic powers in Europe was entirely the opposite. James wanted to see a general peace in Europe and made peaceful overtures, to Spain in particular. This was acceptable to the Spanish, which meant that the prospects of English Catholic rebels getting help from abroad receded ever further.

The changing diplomatic climate went unnoticed by England’s militant Catholics. Part of the reason for this is that Roman Catholicism in England was led by a network of families drawn from the minor nobility and gentry, called “recusants”. In consequence, the disaffected Catholics were drawn from a very narrow circle who spoke mostly to each other, merely having their own prejudices repeated back to them. This was certainly the case with the Gunpowder Plotters.

Although Guy Fawkes is the plotter best remembered by later generations, historians are generally agreed that the Gunpowder Plot was chiefly the work of Robert Catesby. Catesby seems to have been the sort of person who possesses charisma and the powers of leadership, for good or ill. Many of the other plotters were eventually to testify that they had been drawn into the Plot under his influence. One of his first recruits was his cousin Francis Tresham. They were very close, being the sons of two sisters, and they had grown up together.

Catesby and Tresham were descended from their great-grandfather, Sir George Throckmorton, via their grandfather, Sir Robert Throckmorton. Sir Robert’s sister Catherine married William Wintour, and they had a son named George. George’s marriage to Jane Ingleby was fruitful. Their two sons, Robert and Thomas, joined the Plot and they were both among those executed in January 1606. Robert and Thomas had a sister, Dorothy, who married John Grant, also one of the Plotters executed in 1606.

Another of the Plotters executed in 1606 was Thomas Bates, who was a retainer of Catesby. Therefore, of the thirteen Plotters, six of them came from the family network of Sir George Throckmorton.

A further three of the Plotters were the brothers Jack and Christopher Wright, and Thomas Percy who was married to Jack and Christopher’s sister Martha. Two other Plotters were Robert Keyes and Ambrose Rookwood, cousins, and both grandsons of Sir Robert Tyrrwhitt.

A twelfth Plotter was Sir Everard Digby. Digby was a young and wealthy member of the gentry who seemed to have all the advantages life could give him. He was knighted by King James on Saint George’s Day 1603. Shortly afterwards he had fallen seriously ill and at this time he was attended by the secret Jesuit John Gerard, who used the opportunity to convert him to Roman Catholicism. Digby was brought into the Plot in October 1605.

This illustrates the network of family connections amongst Roman Catholic recusants on which the Gunpowder Plot was overlaid. The Plotters thought, wrongly, that this would guarantee the secrecy of their Plot, whereas it meant that their worldview was constricted and made unrealistic by the manner in which they could discuss their Plot only with those who thought exactly like them.

The odd one out was Guy Fawkes. Fawkes was not of the same social station as the other Plotters. He was born and brought up as a convinced Roman Catholic and he never deviated from that loyalty. On achieving manhood he went to the Netherlands, where he soldiered on the Catholic side for many years, during the interminable wars which afflicted that region.

It seems that the other Plotters were, to a very great degree, the sort of “student revolutionary” who became tiresomely familiar in the late twentieth century. They seem to have been infected by a sort of dilettante terrorism which was, at least in part, a mere posture. Fawkes was just the sort of resolute man of action who was coldly determined to push matters forward to a conclusion.

The Plot itself was to wipe out the King, Lords, and Commons, at a single blow. There was to be an uprising by Roman Catholics in the Midlands and, with some luck, troops and weapons from Spain or some other Roman Catholic power. The young Princess Elizabeth was to be kidnapped and used as a figurehead for a new government that would overturn Protestantism and restore the Church of Rome to all its old privileges.

The “blow” was to take the form of a massive explosion. At the official opening of Parliament in February 1605, the King, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons, would all be gathered together in the Palace of Westminster. The planned explosion would kill them all, along with Anglican bishops, civil servants, and members of the judiciary.

At that time it was possible to rent storerooms in the Palace of Westminster, and Thomas Percy rented a room under the House of Lords.  Eventually the plotters were able to amass thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in this room. These were to be guarded by Fawkes, who would light the fuse and make his escape by boat across the Thames before the explosion took place.

An obstacle to the Plot occurred when the opening of Parliament was postponed until October. This was because the London of those times was a very unhealthy place with recurrent outbreaks of disease. The Plotters used the time to refine the details of their plans, but it also provided a very great source of danger. The Plotters did not have total secrecy. Several of them were too talkative, and the Earl of Salisbury had provided James with a superb security service. During the summer of 1605 Salisbury became aware that something was afoot, but the details came in only in a very piecemeal manner.

The delay caused increasing friction among the Plotters. Some of them had scruples about the indiscriminate nature of the killing that the explosion would cause. In particular, there were doubts about the certainty that those killed would include some devout Roman Catholics and others who had been sympathetic to the recusants’ cause. Some of the Plotters wanted to warn these people to avoid the opening of the Parliament, but that would have given Salisbury a vital clue about the nature of the threat.

The matter was never resolved to everyone’s satisfaction and the dispute continued through the summer months. Nerves were being stretched to breaking point, and not all the Plotters had the temperament to deal with this. On the 28th July the Government announced that the opening of Parliament would be subject to a further delay, until Tuesday, 5th November.

On 14th October Francis Tresham was recruited to the Plot. Tresham proved to be the member who was most troubled about the morality of the scheme. Then, on Saturday 26th October, the Monteagle letter came to light. William Parker, the fourth Baron Monteagle, was a friend of Catesby, and the husband of Francis Tresham’s sister Elizabeth. Monteagle claimed that one of his servants had been given a letter in the street, by an unknown man, who asked him to show it to his master. Monteagle read the latter, which was composed as follows, -

“My Lord, out of the love I bear to some of your friends, I have a care of your preservation. Therefore I would advise you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift of your attendance at this Parliament; for God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time. And think not slightly of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your country where you may expect the event in safety. For though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament; and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This counsel is not to be condemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm; for the danger is passed as soon as you have burnt the letter. And I hope God will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy protection I commend you.”

Monteagle took the letter straight to Salisbury. At the same time, Monteagle’s servant, who had close family ties to the Wright brothers, made Catesby aware that the letter was now in Salisbury’s hands. Catesby immediately suspected Francis Tresham of being the author of the letter. Together with Thomas Wintour he confronted Tresham and questioned him very closely about it. At the end of the interview, Catesby seems to have been satisfied with Tresham’s protestations of innocence. Catesby decided that the letter was so vague that it need not lead to the precise details of the Plot being uncovered by Salisbury. On 30th October Fawkes inspected the room under the Lords, and the Gunpowder in it, and professed himself satisfied that the Plot was still viable.

King James returned to London from a hunting party and on 1st November Salisbury showed him the letter. Afterwards it was said to be the King himself who deduced that the letter was referring to an explosion. The next day it was decided that there should be a thorough search of the Houses of Parliament in the hours before the opening was due to take place.

Thomas Percy was a relative of the Earl of Northumberland. On Monday 4th November Percy went to Northumberland’s great house at Syon Park to speak to his kinsman, ostensibly with the intention of asking for a loan. In fact, Percy was trying to find out if Northumberland, due to attend the opening of Parliament, had been given any warning about possible dangers. He reasoned that, if the Plot had been uncovered, Northumberland and the other Privy Councillors would have had some notice. Percy satisfied himself that Northumberland knew nothing and that the Plot was still viable. Percy’s visit to Northumberland at this time was later to be the cause of suspicion falling on Northumberland that he was one of the Plotters.

On the Monday evening Lord Suffolk and a party of men, which included Lord Monteagle, carried out a search of the rooms around the Palace of Westminster. They found Fawkes in the room beneath the House of Lords, but Suffolk adopted a very casual attitude, as though he was conducting a mere routine inspection. The gunpowder was hidden behind firewood, but the amount of powder was so large that the firewood used to hide it was itself suspiciously large.

Fawkes does not seem to have been alarmed by this visit from Suffolk, but around midnight another party of men visited the storeroom, headed by Sir Thomas Knevett. Sir Thomas was a Justice of the Peace for Westminster, and had all necessary powers of arrest. This time, Fawkes was arrested and the gunpowder discovered.

Some of the Plotters had already left London to raise revolt in the midlands, but Thomas Percy, Christopher Wright, Thomas Wintour, Robert Keyes, and Ambrose Rookwood were still in London. It will never be known how much knowledge of the Plot Salisbury had already acquired. As already said, he had a superb intelligence service and he was in possession of the Monteagle letter. Up to the arrest of Fawkes he did not wish to show his hand so that he may be the more certain of taking all the Plotters in one swoop. Once Fawkes was arrested the Plot became public knowledge and so, therefore, were the counter-measures.

Throughout Tuesday 5th November the Government’s security forces were mobilised in full strength. The Plotters became aware of this at a very early stage and took horse to flee to the midlands. When arrested, Fawkes was using the pseudonym John Johnson. If Fawkes could resist the expected interrogation for any length of time, he might be able to buy time for his co-plotters to make their escape.

To some extent the wider Plot was already known. “John Johnson” was a servant of Thomas Percy, and the storeroom holding the gunpowder was rented in Percy’s name. Very soon there was a warrant out for Percy’s arrest. It was necessary to extract as much information as possible from Fawkes in the shortest time possible. In England, torture was against common law, but during the recurring crises of Elizabeth’s reign it had become possible to use it under certain restricted circumstances. In the case of Fawkes, the King sanctioned it himself. Fawkes was taken to the Tower and tortured, probably by use of the rack.

Fawkes was brave, motivated, and extremely tough. To protect his co-Plotters he held out as long as he could, but sometime on 7th November he reached the end of his endurance. He confessed his true identity and began to name names.

The second part of the Plot was the mooted uprising in the midlands. The Plotters encouraged gatherings of Roman Catholic recusants to provide a cover for the muster of rebels. On Friday 1st November there was a gathering at Coughton Court to mark the Feast of All Saints. On Monday 4th November, most of the party moved to Dunchurch near Rugby, ostensibly for a hunting party. This would provide good cover for the gathering of a large number of recusant gentry, their retainers, and large numbers of horses. The gathering was presided over by Sir Everard Digby, one of the Plotters.

John Wright was at Dunchurch. John Grant, another Plotter, went there with his friend Henry Morgan. Also there were Stephen Littleton and his uncle Humphrey Littleton. John Wintour, step-brother of the Plotters Robert and Thomas, was there also. We can not know, in the case of Morgan, the Littletons, and John Wintour, if they were consciously rallying to a call to arms, or if they thought they really would be attending nothing more harmful than a hunt. 

Dunchurch was Catesby’s intended destination when he left London on 4th November. He was delayed at Dunstable when his horse needed re-shoeing. On the morning of 5th November the news broke that Fawkes had been discovered and arrested. In succession, Christopher Wright and Thomas Percy, Robert Keyes, and Ambrose Rookwood fled London, heading for a rendezvous with Catesby in the midlands, where they hoped something may yet be saved from the wreckage of their plans. Thomas Wintour was the last to leave, but in his case he headed for his brother’s house at Huddington. Robert Keyes, having met up with the other Plotters briefly, went to the Drayton area, which he knew well and where he hoped to go to ground.

On 6th November Catesby, Bates, Percy, Rookwood, Christopher Wright and Robert Wintour arrived at Dunchurch. Here Catesby told the assembled “hunting party” of Fawkes’s capture. He attempted to convince them that there was still a possibility of escaping to the Welsh border where a force of Roman Catholics could still be raised. It is impossible to tell how persuasive Catesby was. From our time, he seems like Hitler trapped in his bunker driven mad by his failure and placing his trust in phantom “armies” of his own imagining. Some stayed with him. If they did not share his optimism they didn’t really have anywhere else to go. Others, however, were looking for a chance to slip quietly away.

The rebels raided Warwick Castle in an attempt to secure more arms and horses. This did little more than draw attention to their whereabouts. They then began a desperate ride round the main recusant houses of the area, searching for more men to join them. To catalogue their itinerary would be as pointless as the journey itself. They went to Norbrook, where they had some arms stored, and to Huddington, where Thomas Wintour joined them. Thomas Bates was ordered to leave the party to alert certain Jesuit priests hiding in the area of the danger they would be in. Stephen Littleton was sent to try to raise men and he never returned; Humphrey Littleton had already gone. Thomas Bates also slipped away, as had Digby, Robert Wintour, and John Wintour.

The remaining rebels reached Holbeach House, the home of Stephen Littleton. Some of the gunpowder had got wet and the Plotters tried to dry it out before a fire. A spark from the fire caused an explosion which seriously injured John Grant and Henry Morgan. Catesby and Rookwood sustained lesser injuries. It is a bizarre irony that the movers of the “Gunpowder Plot” failed to blow up their victims but fell, at least partially, victims to their own powder.

On the morning of Friday 8th November Sir Richard Walsh arrived at Holbeach House with a force of around two hundred men. Walsh took no chances, and surrounded the house with musketeers. The Plotters seemed to be uncertain how to react, though fight or flight were, by this time, equally futile. There was a short fire fight in which Catesby, the Wright brothers, and Percy were killed. Rookwood, Grant, Morgan, and Thomas Wintour were all taken prisoner, some of them wounded.

In the following days, in various parts of the midlands, Robert Keyes, Everard Digby, Thomas Bates, and John Wintour were found and taken prisoner. Meanwhile, in London, Fawkes was still under interrogation. On 9th November he named Francis Tresham as one of the Plotters. Tresham was arrested on 12th November and taken to the Tower of London. Tresham had not sought to join the other Plotters after the capture of Fawkes. He had joined the Plot at a late stage and had always expressed distaste for the scale of the carnage that would have been the inevitable result of the intended explosion. He seems to have thought that he could dip into and out of treason at will. He was in denial about the true extent of his complicity, and seems to have thought that the authorities would take a similar view.

Tresham’s detached attitude may have been, in part at least, due to his rapidly deteriorating health. He was already a very sick man. During his time in the Tower he made a rambling and self-justifying statement. He died in the small hours of 23rd December.

By New Year’s Day Robert Wintour and Stephen Littleton had both reached Hagley, the home of Humphrey Littleton in Worcestershire. On 9th January they were discovered and taken prisoner by the authorities. Humphrey Littleton attempted to obstruct this and, when he failed, he rode off. He was later taken prisoner in Staffordshire.

On 27th January the trial began at Westminster Hall of the Wintour brothers, Digby, Rookwood, Grant, Keyes, Bates, and Fawkes. Digby pleaded guilty, the others not guilty. There followed a recitation of the evidence against the accused, who were then permitted to speak. At the end of the proceedings there was a guilty verdict on all of them. The executions were carried out on 30th and 31st of January.  The lesser members of the conspiracy were executed later. Henry Morgan and Stephen Littleton were executed at Stafford; John Wintour and Humphrey Littleton were executed at Redhill on 7th April.

The security forces were not content that they had uncovered the full extent of the Plot at this stage. In particular, it was suspected that there would be a Jesuit interest at the bottom of it. Searches were carried out at the houses of recusants, where it was thought Jesuit priests would be hidden, and arrests were made. Also executed at Redhill on 7th April were Edward Oldcorne, a Jesuit priest, and Robert Ashley a “lay brother”. Henry Garnet, another Jesuit priest, was executed on 3rd May.

In January 1606 Sir Edward Montague introduced a bill into Parliament that henceforth a public thanksgiving be said every year on 5th November. The form of service went into the Anglican Prayer Book and stayed there until Victoria’s reign. 5th November also began to be observed in less solemn form by the common folk. Every year on that date bonfires were lit all over the country amid much celebration. This continues, in some form, down to the present day. The old style celebration persists in its most authentic form in the Sussex town of Lewes, thanks to the bonfire societies based there.

Contrary to expectations at the time, and to what some modern historians assert, Roman Catholics were not subjected to prolonged and fierce persecution in the wake of the Plot. James’s long-term strategy was still to lessen religious tension and seek accommodation with Roman Catholic powers.

James died in 1625. He had been predeceased by the brilliant young protestant Prince of Wales, so he was succeeded by his second son, Charles. Charles I’s stubborn persistence in going against the religious opinions of his subjects was a cause of the eventual Civil War, and his own execution in 1649. James’s grandson and namesake, James II, was such an ardent Roman Catholic that he was chased out of the country in 1688 and replaced on the throne by his protestant daughter Mary and her husband, William the Prince of Orange. William landed in England on 5th November 1688, making that date doubly blest in the eyes of England’s Protestants. In 1696 a plan was discovered to assassinate William, as a result of which Ambrose Rookwood, grandson of the Plotter, was executed.

William and Mary, and Mary’s younger sister Queen Anne, died without leaving an heir. Anne was, therefore, succeeded on the throne by George of Hanover, whose claim to the throne was derived from James I’s daughter Elizabeth, who the Plotters had wanted to kidnap and use as a figurehead. Elizabeth was of much sterner stuff than the Plotters could ever have imagined, and was a vigorous Protestant all her life.  

A FORM OF PRAYER WITH THANKSGIVING

TO BE USED YEARLY UPON THE FIFTH DAY OF NOVEMBER

For the happy Deliverance of King JAMES I and the Three Estates of ENGLAND, from the most traiterous and bloody-intended Massacre by Gunpowder: And also for the happy Arrival of his Majesty King WILLIAM on this Day, for the Deliverance of our Church and Nation.

The Minister of every Parish shall give warning to his Parishioners publickly in the Church at Morning Prayer, the Sunday before, for the due Observation of the said Day. And after Morning Prayer, or Preaching, upon the said Fifth Day of November, shall read publickly, distinctly, and plainly, the Act of Parliament, made in the Third Year of King James the First, for the Observation of it.

The Service shall be the same with the usual Office for Holy-days in all things; except where it is hereafter otherwise appointed.

If this Day shall happen to be Sunday, only the Collect proper for that Sunday shall be added to this Office in its place.   

Morning Prayer shall begin with these sentences.

The Lord is full of compassion, and mercy: longsuffering, and of great goodness.  Psalm ciii.8

He will not always be chiding: neither keepeth he his anger for ever.  Verse 9.

He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.  Verse 10.

Instead of Venite exultemus shall this Hymn following be used; one Verse by the Priest, and another by the Clerk and people.

O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious: and his mercy endureth for ever.  Psalm cvii. 1.

Let them give thanks, whom the Lord hath redeemed: and delivered from the hand of the enemy.                                                                                                                                                              Verse 2.

Many a time have they fought against me from my youth up: may Israel now say.  Psalm cxxix. 1.

Yea, many a time have they vexed me from my youth up: but they have not prevailed against me.                                                                                                                                                                             Verse 2.

They have privily laid their net to destroy me without a cause: yea, even without a cause have they made a pit for my soul.   Psalm xxxv. 7.

They have laid a net for my feet, and pressed down my soul: they have digged a pit before me, and are fallen into the midst of it themselves.  Psalm lvii. 7.

Great is our Lord, and great is his power: yea, and his wisdom is infinite.  Psalm cxlvii. 5.

The Lord setteth up the meek: and bringeth the ungodly down to the ground.  Verse 6.

Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand: and upon the son of man whom thou madest so strong for thine own self.     Psalm lxxx. 17.

And so will not we go back from thee: O let us live, and we shall call upon thy Name.  Verse 18.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

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Proper Psalms. Lxiv, cxxiv, cxxv.

Proper Lessons. The First, 2 Samuel xxii.

                           Te Deum.

                           The Second, Acts xxiii.

                           Jubilate.

In the Suffrages after the Creed these shall be inserted and used for the Queen.

Priest.    O Lord, save the Queen;

People.  Who putteth her trust in thee.

Priest.    Send her help from thy holy place.

People.  And evermore mightily defend her.

Priest.    Let her enemies have no advantage against her.

People.  Let not the wicked approach to hurt her.

Instead of the first Collect at Morning Prayer shall these two be used.

ALMIGHTY God, who hast in all ages shewed thy Power and Mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverances of thy Church, and in the protection of righteous and religious Kings and States professing thy holy and eternal truth, from the wicked conspiracies, and malicious practices of all the enemies thereof: We yield thee our unfeigned thanks and praise, for the wonderful and mighty Deliverance of our gracious Sovereign King James the First, the Queen, the Prince, and all the Royal Branches, with the Nobility, Clergy, and Commons of England, then assembled in Parliament, by Popish treachery appointed as sheep to the slaughter, in a most barbarous and savage manner, beyond the examples of former ages. From this unnatural Conspiracy, not our merit, but thy mercy; not our foresight, but thy providence delivered us: And therefore not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be ascribed all honour and glory, in all Churches of the saints, from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  

ACCEPT also, most gracious God, of our unfeigned thanks for filling our hearts again with joy and gladness, after the time that thou hadst afflicted us, and putting a new song into our mouths, by bringing His Majesty King William, upon this day, for the Deliverance of our Church and Nation from Popish tyranny and arbitrary power. We adore the wisdom and justice of thy Providence, which so timely interposed in our extreme danger, and disappointed all the designs of our enemies. We beseech thee, give us such a lively and lasting sense of what thou didst then, and hast since that time done for us, that we may not grow secure and careless in our obedience, by presuming upon thy great and undeserved goodness; but that it may lead us to repentance, and move us to be the more diligent and zealous in all the duties of our Religion, which thou hast in a marvellous manner preserved to us. Let truth and justice, brotherly kindness and charity, devotion and piety, concord and unity, with all other virtues, so flourish among us, that they may be the stability of our times, and make this Church a praise in the earth. All which we humbly beg for the sake of our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

In the end of the Litany (which shall always this Day be used) after the Collect “We humbly beseech thee, O Father, etc”) shall this be said which followeth.

ALMIGHTY God and heavenly Father, who of thy gracious Providence, and tender mercy towards us, didst prevent the malice and imaginations of our enemies, by discovering and confounding their horrible and wicked Enterprize, plotted and intended this day to have been executed against the King, and the whole State of England, for the subversion of the Government and Religion established among us; and didst likewise upon this day wonderfully conduct thy Servant King William, and bring him safely into England, to preserve us from the attempts of our enemies to bereave us of our Religion and Laws: We most humbly praise and magnify thy most glorious Name for thy unspeakable goodness towards us, expressed in both these acts of thy mercy. We confess it has been of thy mercy alone, that we are not consumed: for our sins have cried to heaven against us; and our iniquities justly called for vengeance upon us. But thou hast not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities;

iii.

nor given us over, as we deserved, to be a prey to our enemies; but hast in mercy delivered us from their malice, and preserved us from death and destruction. Let the consideration of this thy repeated goodness O Lord, work in us true repentance, that iniquity may not be our ruin. And increase in us more and more a lively faith and love, fruitful in all holy obedience; that thou mayest still continue thy favour, with the light of thy Gospel, to us and our posterity for evermore; and that for thy dear Son’s sake, Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.      

Instead of the Prayer “In time of War and Tumults” shall be used this Prayer following,

O Lord, who didst this day discover the snares of death that were laid for us, and didst wonderfully deliver us from the same; Be thou still our mighty Protector, and scatter our enemies that delight in blood: Infatuate and defeat their counsels, abate their pride, asswage their malice, and confound their devices. Strengthen the hands of our gracious Sovereign Queen VICTORIA, and all that are put in authority under her, with judgement and justice to cut off all such workers of iniquity, as turn Religion into Rebellion, and Faith into Faction; that they may never prevail against us, or triumph in the ruin of thy Church among us: but that our gracious Sovereign, and her Realms, being preserved in thy true Religion, and by thy merciful goodness protected in the same, we may all duly serve thee, and give thee thanks in thy holy congregation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In the Communion Service, instead of the Collect for the Day, shall this which followeth be used.

ETERNAL God, and our most mighty Protector, we thy unworthy servants do humbly present ourselves before thy Majesty, acknowledging thy power, wisdom, and goodness, in preserving the King, and the Three Estates of the Realm of England assembled in Parliament, from the destruction this day intended against them. Make us, we beseech thee, truly thankful for this, and for all other thy great mercies towards us; particularly for making this day again memorable, by a fresh instance of thy loving-kindness towards us. We bless thee for giving his late Majesty King William a safe arrival here, and for making all opposition fall before him, till he became our King and Governour. We beseech thee to protect and defend our Sovereign Queen VICTORIA, and all the Royal Family, from all treasons and conspiracies; Preserve her in thy faith, fear, and love; Prosper her Reign with long happiness here on earth; and crown her with everlasting glory hereafter; through Jesus Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer. Amen.

The Epistle. Romans xiii.1.

LET every soul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is no power, but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power ? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: for he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For this cause pay ye tribute also; for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour.

The Gospel. St Luke ix.51 

AND it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before his face; and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him: And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did ? But he turned and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of: For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

iv.

After the Creed, if there be no Sermon, shall be read one of the six Homilies against rebellion.

This Sentence is to be read at the Offertory.

Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.  St Matthew vii. 12.

After the Prayer for the Church militant this following Prayer is to be used.

O God, whose name is excellent in all the earth, and thy glory above the heavens; who on this day didst miraculously preserve our Church and State from the secret contrivance and hellish malice of Popish conspirators; and on this day also didst begin to give us a mighty deliverance from the open tyranny and oppression of the same cruel and blood-thirsty enemies: We bless and adore thy glorious Majesty, as for the former, so for this thy late marvellous loving-kindness to our Church and Nation, in the preservation of our Religion and Liberties. And we humbly pray, that the devout sense of this thy repeated mercy may renew and increase in us a spirit of love and thankfulness to thee its only Author; a spirit of peaceable submission and obedience to our gracious Sovereign Lady, Queen VICTORIA; and a spirit of fervent zeal for our holy Religion which thou hast so wonderfully rescued, and established, a blessing to us and our posterity. And this we beg for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

(Original spellings have been retained.)