Henry Garnet

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Henry Garnet (sometimes Garnett; July 1555 – 3 May 1606) was an English Jesuit priest executed for high treason for having had advance knowledge of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot and refusing to violate the Seal of the Confessional by notifying the authorities. Born in Heanor, Derbyshire, he was educated in Nottingham and later at Winchester College before he moved to London in 1571 to work for a publisher. There he professed an interest in legal studies and in 1575, he travelled to the continent and joined the Society of Jesus. He was ordained in Rome some time around 1582. In 1586 Garnet returned to England as part of the Jesuit mission, soon succeeding Fr William Weston as Jesuit superior, following the latter's capture by the English authorities. Garnet established a secret press, which lasted until late 1588, and in 1594 he interceded in the Wisbech Stirs, a dispute between secular and regular clergy. Garnet preferred nonviolent resistance to the religious persecution Catholics faced in...

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