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priests, the wonderful success of their efforts, and the increasing
boldness of the recusants, an outcry was raised by the Protestant
party, and a demand was made that the government should enforce the
law with firmness.[1]

Shortly before the meeting of Parliament in March (1604) James
determined to show the country that his attitude towards Catholicism
was in no wise different from that of his predecessor. In a
proclamation (Feb. 1604) he deplored the increasing number and
activity of priests and Jesuits, denounced their efforts to win
recruits for Rome, declared that he had never intended to grant
toleration, and ended up by commanding all Jesuits and seminary
priests to depart from the kingdom before the 19th March, unless they
wished to incur the penalties that had been levelled against them in
the previous reign.[2] In his speech at the opening of Parliament
(March 1604) after announcing his adhesion to the religion "by law
established" he outlined at length his attitude towards Rome. "I
acknowledge" he said "the Roman Church to be our mother church
although defiled with some infirmities and corruptions as the Jews
were when they crucified Christ;" for the "quiet and well-minded"
laymen who had been brought up in the Catholic faith he entertained
feelings of pity rather than of anger, but in case of those who had
"changed their coats" or were "factious stirrers of sedition" he was
determined if necessary to take measures whereby their obstinacy might
be corrected. The clergy, however, stood on a different footing. So
long as they maintained "that arrogant and impossible supremacy of
their head the Pope, whereby he not only claims to be the spiritual
head of all Christians, but also to have an imperial civil power over
all kings and emperors, dethroning and decrowning princes with his
foot as pleaseth him, and dispensing and disposing of all kingdoms and
empires at his appetite," and so long as the clergy showed by their
practices that they considered it meritorious rather than sinful to
rebel against or to assassinate their lawful sovereign if he be
excommunicated by the Pope, they need expect no toleration.[3]
Parliament soon showed that it was guided by the old Elizabethan
spirit. An Act was passed ordering that the laws framed during the
late reign against Jesuits, seminary priests, and recusants should be
rigidly enforced; all persons studying in foreign colleges who did not
return and conform within one year, as well as all students who should
go abroad for instruction in future should be declared incapable of
inheriting, purchasing, or enjoying any lands, chattels, or annuities
in England; all owners or masters of vessels who should convey such
passengers from the country were to be punished by confiscation of
their vessel and imprisonment, and if any person should dare to act as
tutor in a Catholic family without having got a licence from the
bishop of the diocese, both the teacher and his employer should be
fined £2 for every day he violated the law.[4] Lord Montague, having
ventured to speak his mind openly in the House of Lords against such a
measure, was arrested for his "scandalous and offensive speech," and
was committed to the Fleet. The old penal laws and the new ones were
enforced with unusual severity. Courts were everywhere at work drawing
up lists of recusants and assessing fines. Never before, even in the
worst days of Elizabeth, were the wealthy Catholics called upon to pay
so much. Numbers of priests were seized and conveyed to the coasts for
banishment abroad; one priest was put to death simply because he was a
priest, and two laymen underwent a like punishment because they had
harboured or assisted priests.

English Catholics were incensed at such pitiless persecution. Had it
been inflicted by Elizabeth from whom they expected no mercy, it would
have been cruel enough; but coming from a king, to whom they had good
reason to look for toleration, and who before he left Scotland and
after his arrival in London had promised an improvement of their
condition, it was calculated to stir up very bitter feeling. Forgetful
of the warnings of the Pope conveyed to the archpriest and the
superior of the Jesuits, some of the more extreme men undertook a new
plot against the king. The leading spirit in the enterprise was Robert
Catesby, a gentleman of Warwickshire, whose father had suffered for
his adhesion to the old faith. He planned to blow up the Parliament
House at the opening of the session of Parliament when king, lords,
and commons would be assembled. Hence his plot is known as the
Gunpowder Plot. His followers had to be ready to rise when the results
of this awful crime would have thrown the government into confusion.
They were to seize the children of the king and to assume control of