Garnet may have been questioned on as…
March 1606 CE
Garnet may have been questioned on as many as twenty-three occasions.
His response to the threat of the rack was "Minare ista pueris [Threats are only for boys]", and he has denied having encouraged Catholics to pray for the success of the "Catholic Cause".
His interrogators had resorted to the forgery of correspondence between Garnet and other Catholics, but to no avail.
His jailers had then allowed him to talk with another priest in a neighboring cell, with eavesdroppers listening to every word.
Eventually Garnet had let slip a crucial piece of information, that there is only one man who can testify that he had any knowledge of the plot.
Under torture, Garnet had admitted that he had heard of the plot from fellow Jesuit Oswald Tesimond, who had learned of it in confession from Catesby.
Garnet, charged with high treason, is tried in the Guildhall on March 28, in a trial lasting from eight AM until seven PM.
According to Coke, Garnet had instigated the plot: "[Garnet] hath many gifts and endowments of nature, by art learned, a good linguist and, by profession, a Jesuit and a Superior as indeed he is Superior to all his predecessors in devilish treason, a Doctor of Dissimulation, Deposing of Princes, Disposing of Kingdoms, Daunting and deterring of subjects, and Destruction."
Garnet had refuted all the charges against him, and explained the Catholic position on such matters, but he is nevertheless found guilty and sentenced to death.