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All fired up by Guy’s act of terror
Why are we still remembering the fifth of November, four centuries after the failed act of terrorism, asks Illtyd Harrington
Remember, Remember the Fifth of November by James Sharpe, Profile Books, £15.99 order this book
NOWADAYS God, it seems, can still be used as a justification for murder, dismember, cause panic or fear. He plays a major role in political affairs as he did on the November 5, 1605 and again on July 7 and July 21 in London.
The first and third instances were foiled by ineptitude or betrayal, or explained away as unwitting agents of counter intelligence when the state needed an external enemy: Roman Catholicism in the 17th century, communism from the 20th and Islam in the 21st century.
Palace of Westminster that a group of Catholic aristocrats put together 36 barrels of gunpowder, the equivalent of 5,000 pounds of TNT.
If exploded it would have caused structural damage within a 500-yard radius and blown up James I as he opened Parliament
Then the enemy within were the stormtroopers of the Roman Catholic Church, the Jesuit Order. The 13 conspirators led by the dazzling Robert Catesby were on a mission to destroy the establishment and restore the true faith.
Guy Fawkes a school friend of some of the others from St Peter’s School,York, was not a major player. He remained a trusted conspirator who had already fought against Protestants.
Another former pupil of the school, Jesuit priest Oswald Tesimond, wrote of him: “He was a man liked by everyone and loyal to his friends.”
A show trial of the main eight conspirators took place on January 27, 1606, and Sir Edmund Coke, a man of relentless words and severity, presented the case.
Tried before they appeared, they were of course found guilty. Only one pleaded not guilty. They were condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
This savage method of execution was carried out publicly in two batches on January 30 in St Paul’s Churchyard and the old Palace Yard, Westminster, the next day.
The trick was to keep them alive through the whole process.
Thereafter, until 1859 on the anniversary of the failed plot, services were held and sermons were delivered to thank God for the state’s deliverance.
On one occasion, a bucolic cleric thundered against “this desperate, dreadful and abominable affair”.abominable affair”. From then on festivals of fire became Guy Fawkes Night and rooted in our calendar. Even the Great Fire of London in 1666 was condemned as a Catholic plot.
During the Puritan Commonwealth (1649- 1660) enjoyment was frowned upon but the spectacular event in Lincoln’s Inn Fields on November 5, 1647, was ostensibly allowed to warn and confound the Catholic secret missionaries. It was “in commemoration of God’s great mercy in delivering this kingdom from the hellish plots of Papists”.
This was at a time when Easter, Whitsun and Christmas had been abolished so people took advantage of every public occasion for jollity and noise.
After the Puritan Commonwealth and the restoration of the monarchy, Guy Fawkes continued to be the focus of anti-Popery but increasingly an occasion for serious public disorder.
The Pope rather than Mr Fawkes was incinerated on huge bonfires. Gradually, as James Sharpe, professor of History at York University, clearly shows in this compact but graphic account, tolerance became the order of the day.
By the middle of the 19th century with Catholic emancipation, the acceptance of the Roman Catholic hierarchy calmed feelings but not everywhere.
Late into the 20th century they continued to burn an effigy of the Pope in Lewes in Sussex.
Now the municipal firework display is a far cry from the original tale. Even the present Pope’s rictus smile no longer scares.
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