great respect. From Sir
Edward Coke's speech we learn, that Garnet was examined for the first
time February 13th, and that from that day to the 26th of March, when
the last examination took place, he was examined before the council more
than twenty times.

In speaking of the treason, Sir Edward remarks, "I will call it the
jesuits' treason, as belonging to them, both _ex congruo et condigno_:
they were the proprietaries, plotters, and procurers of it." He then
enters on a description of some of the treasons, which were planned in
the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in which also Garnet was concerned, as I
have noticed in a preceding chapter. Garnet confessed several
particulars respecting those transactions in which he had been engaged;
and among other things he admitted that the Romanists in England, after
the bull of excommunication had been issued against the queen, were
permitted to render her obedience with certain cautions and limitations,
namely, _Rebus sic stantibus_, and _Donec publica bullae executio fieret
posset_. So that while things continued in their present state, and till
such time as the bull could be executed, the Romanists might obey the
queen. This was confessed by Garnet himself.

It appears that Garnet came over into England in the year 1586, two
years before the sailing of the _Spanish Armada_. As early as the reign
of Edward the First, the bringing in of a bull from Rome against any of
the king's subjects, without permission, was adjudged to be treason; so
that Garnet was a traitor by the ancient laws of the land, for the bulls
against King James were committed to the keeping of that individual. The
attorney-general had declared, when speaking of Elizabeth, that four
years had never passed without a treason: and he adds, when he speaks of
King James, "and now sithence the coming of great King James, there have
not passed, I will not say four years, but not four, nay not two months,
without some treason." In these treasons Garnet and other jesuits were
implicated. The bulls which had been sent to Garnet before the death of
Elizabeth, and which were intended to prevent the English Romanists from
receiving any but a popish sovereign, were burnt by him, as already
mentioned, when he perceived that King James's accession could not be
prevented. There would have been danger in preserving them, therefore
they were committed to the flames. The prisoner admitted that he had
destroyed them.

It was shown on