The Terrible Torture of the Jailed Jesuit

Apprehension

n Fornthe first two days after his capture Father John Gerard was held by thenmagistrates, who questioned him about his links with the Jesuits. He wasninitially questioned by Sir Thomas Egerton, a former Catholic who “went overnto the other side, for he loved the things of this world,” but Gerardnrefused to name any others, so Egerton had him committed to the PoultrynCompter, “’But tell the gaolers,’ he added, ‘to treat him well on account ofnhis birth’.”

Entrance to the Poultry Compter

nThere were three Compters in London at the time, one atnSouthwark, a New Compter in Wood Street and the Poultry Compter at Cheapside,nso called because of the trade in poultry at the market there. Also knownnpopularly as Counters, the Compters were used to hold petty criminals –nvagrants, drunks, debtors, prostitutes, religious dissidents and so on – andnwere notoriously insalubrious; Ned Ward, in his London Spy, describednhow

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n“the mixture of scents that arose from mundungus, tobacco, foul feet,ndirty shirts, stinking breaths, and uncleanly carcases, poisoned our nostrilsnfar worse than a Southwark ditch, a tanner’s yard, or a tallow-chandler’snmelting-room.”

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The Road to Prison

nHere Gerard was questioned by a magistrate called Young andnthe notorious Richard Topcliffe, now in his sixties, grey-bearded and “a man ofncruelty, athirst for the blood of the Catholics”. The wily Topcliffe begannsoftly, trying to get Gerard to sign a prepared confession but he refused,noffering instead to write his own which countered everything on Topcliffe’snpaper. Gerard had written in a feigned hand, so that if any papers in his realnhandwriting were discovered in the homes of Catholics, they could not benmatched to this ‘confession’, and he signed it so close to the bottom thatnnothing else could be inserted later. Topcliffe was furious but Gerard refusednto implicate others and denied that the Jesuits were involved in politics,

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n“Asnfor matters of State we are forbidden to have anything to say to them, as theyndo not belong to our Institute. This prohibition, indeed, extends to all thenmembers of the Society; but on us Missioners it is particularly enjoined in anspecial instruction.”

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nHe was put in iron shackles and left in a cell fornthree months – “My fetters were rusty when I first put them on, but bynmoving about and wearing them every day I had rendered them quite bright andnshining,” after which, due to the interventions of friends, he was moved tonthe Clink at Southwark.

Winchester Palace (The Clink, lower right)

nThe Clink was the oldest prison in England – it hasnbecome a generic name for any prison, possibly from the onomatopoeic ‘clinking’nof either the gaolers’ keys or the prisoners’ chains – and belonged to thenBishop of Winchester, standing next to his palace, but Gerard described thenmove there as going from ‘Purgatory to Paradise’. Gaolers at the Clinknwere very poorly paid but supplemented their incomes by bribing the prisonersnfor ‘privileges’, and Gerard paid well. In a repeat of his imprisonment at thenMarshalsea, he began to say masses, hear confessions and make converts. Therenwere many other priests in the Clink and through bribery they established anfirm Catholic community in the prison. When word reached the higher powersnTopcliffe was sent into the prison and threatened Gerard with execution onngrounds of treason but his plans were sharply halted when he was brought beforenthe Council after his son had stabbed a man to death with his sword in the hallnof the Queen’s Bench. Topcliffe’s insolent manner and contempt for thenauthority of the Council so offended them that he was sentenced to thenMarshalsea himself. But suspicions had been aroused and the Justice and twonpursuivants searched Gerard’s cell, hoping to find incriminating documents, butneverything had already been hidden away in an assortment of hiding placesnthroughout the prison.

The Salt Tower

nOn the orders of Lord Lieutenant Berkeley, Gerard wasnmoved again, to the Salt Tower at the Tower of London. In a bare pentagonalncell fifteen feet across, he saw carved in the soft stone the name of HenrynWalpole, a Jesuit who had been martyred at York, and he took solace in this.nThe strength of his charisma won over the gaoler, who had him moved to a morencomfortable cell, with a bed and linen, although he was allowed to return tonthe smaller cell to pray. On the third day, he was brought before the LordsnCommissioner and the Queen’s Attorney, who again pressed him to reveal thenwhereabouts of Father Garnet and to admit to treason, and again he refused, sonhe was handed a warrant for putting him to torture, which he read calmly beforenreplying, “Do what God permits you, for you certainly cannot go beyond.”

Examination by Torment

nHe was led through a tunnel under the Lieutenant’s house to the White Tower,nwhere he was shown instruments of torture and asked to repent and reveal hisnassociates. Again he refused, so he was taken to a wooden pillar, at the top ofnwhich were strong iron bands. His wrists were placed in iron bracelets and henwas raised up two or three wicker steps, the bracelets passed onto the bracketsnon the pillar and secured with a rod, then the steps were withdrawn. Gerard wasntoo tall for the torture, so the gaolers had to dig away the earth beneath hisnfeet, until he hung suspended by his wrists. The bracelets cut into his wristsnand hands, and the weight of his body dragged him down, making breathing almostnimpossible, but he continued to pray as the kindly gaoler wiped the sweat fromnhis face. He begged Gerard to ‘tell the gentlemen what they wanted to know,’nbut he would not and the torture continued into the night.

Torture in the Tower

nAt about one, Gerardnfainted and the steps were replaced under his feet, but when he revived andnstarted to pray again, they were taken away and he hung again. This happenednseveral times during the night, until at about five the Commissioners returnednand again asked for the whereabouts of Garnet. Once more he refused and thenCommissioners departed in a rage, one snarling, “Hang then till you rot.” Afternthey had gone he was taken down and returned to his cell, although as he wasnled past the cells of other prisoners he had the presence left to ask, in anloud voice, if he had been asked for the whereabouts of Father Garnet, which hencould not have given as it was a sin to betray the innocent – a clever move,nwhich denied the authorities of claiming he had cracked under torture andnallowed the possibility of word reaching Garnet, both warning and reassuringnhim.

The Rack

nThe next morning, dressed in a loose cloak as his arms were too swollen tonpass through his sleeves, he was brought again before Commissioner Wade, whonrepeated the questions and received the same denials, and so passed again into thenhands of the superintendent of torture. His swollen wrists were forced into thenbracelets and he was hung up on the pillar again, until eventually he faintednonce more. He awoke to find Lieutenant pouring water into his mouth and whonbegged him to relent, but Gerard yet again refused and tried to walk back tonthe pillar himself, although he was too weak to stand. He was hung up for overnanother hour but his bravery had shaken the Lieutenant, who ordered that he bentaken down – this official soon resigned from his position, refusing ever to bena party in the torture of innocent men. Back in his cell, the gaoler tried tonfeed Gerard, whose throat was swelled almost as much as his wrists.

nHe expectednto torture to continue, but it didn’t – for some reason he was left to recover,nand after about two months was able again to use his hands. His friends outsidenhad some large oranges delivered to him, which he shared with his gaoler whonwas especially fond of the fruit, and carved from the skins crosses that he stitchedninto rosaries. He got the gaoler to deliver these to his friends in the Clink,nfor which he received a few welcome pennies, but Gerard had another plan innmind. He saved the orange juice in a cup and made a dip pen from a toothpick,nand using the juice as ink, he wrote secret letters to his friends. Orangenjuice will reveal itself when heated by candle flame but unlike lemon juice itndoes not disappear again when cold, thus proving that the message had notnpreviously been read.

nHe passed letters this way for over six months, using thenpaper to wrap seemingly innocent items, and received letters back in the samenfashion, until one day he discovered the friendly gaoler was unable to read –nthe man had stood by his shoulder as he wrote, and then asked the priest whatnhe had written, so one day Gerard wrote one thing but recited something elsenand thus discovered the gaoler’s illiteracy, who simply liked to hear Gerardnread aloud. He became more open, writing letters in pencil on one side of thenpaper and in invisible orange juice on the other side, and began to receiveninformation from the outside world. There were plans being made, he heard fromnGarnet, for his execution so he decided he must act quickly.

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