Henry Garnet belonged to the Jesuits when he was prosecuted after the Gunpowder Plot.
Garnet was a member of the Society of Jesus, commonly called the Jesuits. He served as superior of the Jesuit mission in England, where Catholic priests operated under serious legal danger because the English state regarded the papacy as a political threat.
Garnet learned about the conspiracy through confession and became entangled in the government’s investigation after the plot failed. Prosecutors claimed that he had concealed treason, while Garnet maintained that he had not participated in the plan. The case raised difficult questions about the secrecy of confession and the limits of a priest’s duty to protect it.
He was executed at Tyburn in 1606. His Jesuit identity is important because the government associated the order with international Catholic politics, although belonging to the order did not itself prove that Garnet had planned the attack.