Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/446

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388

GARNET


388


GARNIER


thus his martyrdom was held to be neither proved nor disproved. This of course led to his case being " put off" (dilatus) for further inquiry, which involves in Rome a delay of many years.

Gerard, Contributions to a life of Fr. H. Garnet (London, 189S — reprinted from The Month ot same year; see also June and July. 1901); Foley, flecords (London, 1878), IV. 1-192. The formal contemporary defence was by a Cretan Jesuit, Eudcemon- JoANNls, Apologia pro R. P. H. Garneto (1610), and much will be found in the Jesuit historians, Bartoli, More, etc. ; Morris, Life of Father John Gerard (London, 1881). See also Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath., II, 392; Stanton, Menology (London, 1892), See also literature under GnNPOWDER Plot.

J. H. Pollen.

Garnet, Thomas, Venerable, protomartyr of St. Omer and therefore of Stonyhurst College; b. at Southwark, c. 1575; executed at Tyburn, 23 June, 160S. Richard Garnet, Thomas's father, was at Bal- liol College, Oxford, at the time when greater severity began to be used against Catholics, in 1569, and by his constancy gave great edification to the generation of Ox- ford men which was to produce Campion, Persons and so many other champions of Catholicism. Thomas attended the Horsham grammar school and was after- wards a page to one of the half-brothers of the Ven. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, who were, however, conformists. At the opening of St. Omer's College in 1592, Thomas was sent there. By 1595 he was con- sidered fit for the new English theological seminary at Valladohd, and started in January, with five others, John Copley, William Worthington, John Ivreson, James Thomson, and Henry Mompesson, from Calais. They were lucky in finding, as a travelling companion, a Jesuit Father, William Baldwin, who was going to Spain in disguise under the alias Ottavio Fuscinelli, but misfortunes soon began. After severe weather in the Channel, they found themselves obliged to run for shelter to the Downs, where their vessel was searched by some of Queen Elizabeth's ships, and they were dis- covered hiding in the hold. They were immediately made prisoners and treated very roughly. They were sent round the Nore up to London, and were examined by Charles, second Lord Howard of Effingham, the lord admiral. After this Father Baldwin was sent to Bridewell prison, where he helped the confessor James Atkinson (q. v.) to obtain his crown. Meantime his young companions had been handed over to Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, having found that they encouraged one another, sent them one by one to different Protestant bishops or doctors. Only the youngest, Mompesson, conformed; the rest eventually escaped and returned to their colleges beyond seas after many adventures. We are not told specifically what befell young Garnet, but it seems likely that he was the youth confined to the house of Dr. Richard Edes (Diet. Nat. Biog., XVI, 364). He fell ill and was sent home under bond to return to custody at Oxford by a certain day. But his jailer not appearing in time, the boy escaped, and to avoid trouble had then to keep away even from his own father. At last he reached St-Omer again, and thence went to Valladolid, 7 March, 1596, having started on that journey no less than ten times.

After ordination in 1599, "returning to England I wandered", he says, "from place to place, to reduce souls which went astray and were in error as to the knowledge of the true Catholic Church". During the excitement caused by the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 he was arrested near Warwick, going under the name Thomas Rokewood, which he had no doubt assumed from Amljrose Rokewood of Coldham Hall, whose chaplain he then was, and who had unfortunately been implicated in the plot. Father Garnet was now im- prisoned first in the Gatehouse, then in the Tower, where he was very severely handled in order to make him give evidence against Henry Garnet, his uncle, superior of the Enghsh Jesuits, whohadlatelyadmitted him into the Society. Though no connexion with the


conspiracy could be proved, he was kept in the Tower for seven months, at the end of which time he was suddenly put on board ship with forty-six other priests, and a royal proclamation, dated 10 July, 1606, was read to them, threatening death if they returned. They were then carried across the Channel and set ashore in Flanders.

Father Garnet now went to his old school at St- Omer, thence to Brussels to see the superior of the Jesuits, Father Baldwin, his companion in the adven- tures of 1595, who sent him to the English Jesuit novi- tiate, St. John's, Louvain, in which he was the first novice received. In September, 1607, he was sent back to England, but was arrested six weeks later by an apostate priest called Rouse. This was the time of King James's controversy with Bellarmine about the Oath of Allegiance. Garnet was offered his life if he would take it, but steadfastly refused, and was exe- cuted at Tyburn, protesting that he was " the happi- est man this day alive". His relics, which were preserved at St-Omer, were lost during the French Revolution.

Pollen. Protomartyr of Stonyhurst College in Stonyhurst Mag- azine (1889), 334-82; Blackfan, Annates Coll. S. Albani, Val- lesolett, ed. Pollen (1899), 57, 84; Camm in The Month (Aug., 1898), 164-77; Yepez, Persecucion de Inglaterra (Madrid, 1599), 820-30; Foley, Records S.J., II, 47.5-505.

J. H. Pollen.

Garnier, Charles, a Jesuit Missionary, b. at Paris, 1606, of Jean G. and Anne de Garault; d. 7 December, 1649. He studied classics, philosophy, and theology at the Jesuit college of Clermont, joining the order in 1624. He begged to be sent to the Canadian mission, and sailed in 1636 on the same fleet as Governor Mont^ magny. He was sent forthwith to the Huron country, where he was to spend the fourteen j'ears of his heroic apostolate without once returning to Quebec. In six months he mastered the difficult language, and began a career of unceasing charity which was to be croi\'ned by martyrdom. His zeal for the conversion of infidels brooked no hindrance nor delay. Neither distance nor weather, nor danger of death could prevent him from hastening to the stake to baptize and exhort captives of war. Filth, vermin, fetid and loathsome disease could not deter him from tending and redeem- ing dying sinners. His frail frame miraculously re- sisted the intense strain. His angelic patience amidst endless trials won him the title of "lamb" of the mis- sion, whereof Brebeuf was styled the "lion". Sev- eral times — first in 1637, then in 1639 with Jogues, and later with Pijart: — he strove to convert the To- bacco nation. His constancy finally overcame their obstinacy. They asked for the black robes (1646), and Garnier went to dwell with them until death. After the martyrdom of Fathers Daniel (1648), Bre- beuf, and Lalemant (March 1649), he calmly awaited his turn. After decimating the Hurons, the Iroquois attacked the Tobacco nation. During the massacre of St. John's village, Garnier went about exhorting his neophytes to be faithful. Mortally wounded he dragged himself towards a dying Indian to absolve him, and received the final blow in the very act of charity (1649) on the eve of the Immaculate Concep- tion, a dogma he had vowed to defend. His letters to his brother, a Carmelite, reveal his sanctity. Rague- neau testifies to his heroic spirit of sacrifice. Park- man compares his life to that of St. Peter Claver among the blacks and styles it a voluntary martyr- dom.

RocHEMONTEix, Le.s Jcsuites et la Nouvelle France (Paris, 1896); Shea. The Catholic Church in colonial days (New York, 1886); Bressani, Les Jcsuites martyrs du Canada (Montrdal, 1877); Martin, Vic manuscrite et Lcttres du Pire Gamier.

Lionel Lindsay.

Garnier, Jean, church historian, patristic scholar, and moral theologian; b. at Paris, 11 Nov., 1612; d. at Bologna, 26 Nov., 1681. He entered the Society of