Philip Marlow Sidney

“ OF the vast importance of the Gunpowder Treason, considered as an historical event, there can be no doubt. The consequences of its conception and failure are felt by English Roman Catholics even to this day. It determined for ever the question whether they could possibly recover the ground they had lost since the death of Queen Mary. The complete exposure of the conspirators' schemes was the one thing needed by the Protestant Government [1] to serve as an excuse to crush, not a section only, but the whole of the Romanist party in England. ”

“ But the authorities at Rome, backed up by the Society of Jesus—the everlasting curse of English Roman Catholicism—were determined to prevent the King's offer of relief being accepted by Romanists willing to take the oath of allegiance to James as King. ”

“ As a result a number of completely innocent people were butchered on the scaffold for no other reason than they were members of the same religion as had been Thomas Percy, Robert Catesby, Guy Faukes, Oswald Greenway, and Henry Garnet. ”