[181] See Endaemon Johannes, S.J., _Apologia pro Henrico Garneto_, p. 259. [182] The following is the description of Father Greenway given in the Proclamation for his apprehension. "Of a reasonable stature, black hair, a brown beard cut close on the cheeks and left broad on the chin, somewhat long-visaged, lean in the face but of a good red complexion, his nose somewhat long and sharp at the end, his hands slender and long fingers, his legs of a good proportion, his feet somewhat long and slender."--S. P. James I., Vol. xviii. n. 21. The position in which Catesby was placed with regard to the sacraments of confession and communion is delicate ground for a layman to approach; especially as nobody knows exactly what took place with regard to either. I am told, however, by those who ought to know, that this much may be said from my own point of view, without danger of theological error. Father Greenway, after telling Catesby in confession about the nature of the enormity he was meditating, must have refused him absolution and the sacraments if he persevered.[183] After so striking a sentence, what possible room is there for thinking that Catesby could have gone on without even a _serious practical doubt_ as to the lawfulness of his object? Yet to have persevered with such a doubt would have put him at once into a state of _mala fides_. And if he became in a state of _mala fides_, as he was in the habit of going to the sacraments every week, he must have done one or other of two things. He must either have made sacrilegious communions, or he must have given up going to Holy Communion in order to commit the crime of proceeding with the Gunpowder Plot. [183] Although it may seem an insult to most of my readers, there are some who are so ignorant of Catholic matters, that it may be safer to explain that in saying Father Greenway must have refused absolution, I mean absolution for _past_ sins. Absolution cannot be given for future sins, as some Protestants have supposed, and a "dispensation to commit a sin" is an impossibility. Certain Protestant writers have implied that both were given by the Jesuits to Catesby and his fellow-conspirators.