GARNET, HENRY. — Jesuit, missionary in England, born at Nottingham in 1555, died on the scaffold at Tyburn, London, on 3 May 1606. Of a Protestant family, he converted to Catholicism at the age of 20, entered the Society of Jesus in Rome (1575), and, after studying at the Collegio Romano and subsequently teaching Hebrew and mathematics there, went to England in 1586; the following year he was already appointed superior of the entire English mission.
He governed with vigour and effectiveness during those tense and difficult times; above all, however, he sought to thwart every attempt at violent reaction on the part of the Catholics, who were agitated and discontented with the king, the Protestant government, and the persecution regime. But the outbreak of the Gunpowder Plot brought all his efforts to naught; indeed, it led to his arrest on 30 January 1606 and, despite his innocence, to his condemnation to the gallows. While Protestants remember him as a conspirator, because they regard the “plot” as a crime committed by the Jesuits, Catholics, on the other hand, consider him a victim, like so many others, of hatred toward the Pope and the Church. His name had therefore been included on the list of English martyrs proposed for beatification in 1874; but the difficulty of clearly discerning whether the reason for his condemnation was political or solely religious led to the matter being deferred for further study.