Whereupon I [_i.e._, Garnet] urged that the Pope himself had given other orders, &c.'" Yet Garnet told Sir Everard Digby that priests "would not hinder any" "stirs" "that should be undertaken for the Catholick good," "neither was it the Pope's mind that they should." [173] _Father Garnet and the G. P._, p. 4. [174] _Papers and Letters of Sir Everard Digby._ Paper 9. [175] Hist. Eng., Vol. viii Note H. H. H. 9. [176] Father Garnet and the G. P., p. 4. A friend of my own, who is a great admirer of Father Garnet, as well as a deeply read student of his times, disagrees with me in my view of Father Garnet's speech to Sir Everard about the "stirrs." He writes:--"It seems to me you make too much of _one word_, and not enough of the _known tenour_ of his instructions." Well, in the first place, this one word is the chief thing that I have to deal with, in respect to Father Garnet. I am not writing a life of Garnet, but of Sir Everard Digby; and as Sir Everard stated that on that one word, to a great extent, depended his belief that the plot was approved of by the Jesuits, and consequently his consent to join in that plot, it is scarcely possible for me to "make too much of it." Moreover, I expressly pointed out that it was contrary to "the known tenour of his instructions," and I emphasised the fact that it was a direct contradiction to those instructions, as well as to his wishes, and that it was given in a moment of good-natured weakness; but I venture to suggest that that weakness, instead of being contrary to what we know of his character, was in remarkable accordance with it. I will admit that I long hesitated to use the word "weakness" in connection with Father Garnet; but he himself practically owned that he was not always free from it. "I acknowledge," he wrote,[177] before his death, "that I was bound to reveal all knowledge that I had of this or any other treason out of the sacrament of confession. And whereas, partly upon hope of prevention, partly for that I would not betray my friend, I did not reveal the general knowledge of Mr Catesby's intention, which I had by him, I do acknowledge myself highly guilty to have offended God, the King's Majesty and Estate, and humbly ask of all forgiveness, exhorting all Catholics that they no way follow my example." To Father Greenway, again, he wrote:--[178] "Indeed, I might have revealed a general knowledge I had of Mr Catesby out of confession, but hoping of the Pope's prevention, and being loth to hurt my friend, I acknowledge to have so far forth offended God and the king." [177] S. P. Dom. James I., Vol. xx. n. 12. [178] Hatfield MS., 115 fol. 154. With all humility, I beg to submit that a feeble, unguarded, nervous and indulgent speech such as that about the "stirrs," attributed by Sir Everard Digby to Father Garnet, is not very inconsistent with that good Father's conduct, as described by himself in the above manuscripts.