This week in Christian history: Battle of Sudomer, mission school established, Gunpowder Plot priest trial begins

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, March 24, 2024

Henry Garnett's trial begins – March 28, 1606

Henry Garnett (1555-1606), an English Jesuit priest who was executed for his purported involvement in the Nov. 5, 1605 Gunpowder Plot to destroy British Parliament. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when the trial of Henry Garnett, a Jesuit priest implicated in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot to destroy Parliament over its anti-Catholic legislation, began.

Raised Anglican, Garnett had converted to Catholicism following a trip to Rome and later decided to join the Society of Jesus, eventually becoming a Jesuit superior.

On Nov. 5, 1605, Guy Fawkes famously tried and failed to blow up the English Parliament, doing it in response to the Protestant-led body’s passage of greater legal restrictions on Catholics.

“The extent of his role in the Gunpowder Plot is disputed. He was not an active conspirator but associated with the plotters on a number of occasions,” Britannica noted.

“When arrested and tried in 1606, he at first denied all knowledge of the plot but later admitted having learned of it under the seal of confession. He protested his innocence but was executed.”