Who Is Guy Fawkes: From Catholic Dissident to Face of Hackers, Resistance, Anarchy

His face has become a symbol for resistance against oppression, a marker for those who demand accountability and in the minds of some – anarchy. In the modern day, the Guy Fawkes mask has been a way for people to anonymously stand against an entity.

Guy Fawkes Day is observed Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. Also known as Bonfire Night, the holiday has been given special attention with such cultural items as the famous "Remember, Remember the Fifth of November" poem and the film and graphic novel "V for Vendetta." The date marks the anniversary of when a group of Catholic Englishmen attempted to blow up Parliament in response to the Protestant-led body enacting anti-Catholic laws.

"But their assassination attempt was foiled the night before when Fawkes was discovered lurking in a cellar below the House of Lords next to 36 barrels of gunpowder."

Many British citizens lit bonfires to celebrate the plot being foiled, a custom that continues to the present day among those observing the holiday.

There are those who argue that the current fascination with Fawkes and the usage of the Fawkes mask represent a distorted remembrance of the gunpowder plot.

Newton Key, a professor at Eastern Illinois University, believes that the current Guy Fawkes mask imagery ignores the central purpose for the infamous Gun Powder Plot.

"The Gun Powder plot was about one issue, restoring Catholic supremacy," said Key to CNN in an interview in 2011. "I can see why they like it, but it is mainly referencing the movie and not the actual plot."

James Sharpe, author of Remember, Remember: A Cultural History of Guy Fawkes Day, also told CNN that the modern popular cultural understanding of Fawkes ignores the integral religious aspect.

"What they were looking for was either Catholic supremacy or at least a government set up where Catholics have full toleration," said Sharpe.

"The fifth of November had anti-Catholic tinge well into the 19 century … Once the anti-Catholic sentiment went away, Guy Fawkes became the central figure."

Concerns over the anti-Catholic nature of Guy Fawkes Day have troubled many over the centuries including the United States of America's first president.

During the American Revolution, General George Washington discouraged his men from celebrating the Fifth of November, as bonfires were known to include the burning of the Pope in effigy.

In general orders on November 5, 1775, Washington denounced the "ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope" and considered men who took part to be "void of common sense."

The modern, more secular understanding of the Fawkes legend and especially the mask popularly associated with the Fifth of November came in the 1980s.

It was then that the Alan Moore graphic novel "V for Vendetta" was first published, in which a man resisting a rightwing state in near future Great Britain donned the mask.

The "V for Vendetta" usage of the mask was revived with the release of the 2005 blockbuster film based off of the British graphic novel.

Soon after online hacker groups known as "hacktivist" organizations, began to use the mask as a symbol for their members, most notably the controversial entity Anonymous.

In an editorial for the British Broadcasting Corporation published in 2012, Moore noted the progression of usage for the mask central to the main character of his graphic novel.

"After that, it wasn't long before the character's enigmatic Time-Warner trademarked leer appeared masking the faces of Anonymous protesters barracking Scientologists halfway down Tottenham Court Road," observed Moore.

"Shortly thereafter it began manifesting at anti-globalisation demonstrations, anti-capitalist protests, concerted hacker-attacks upon those perceived as enabling state oppression, and finally on the front steps of St Paul's."

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605
In November 1605, the infamous Gunpowder Plot took place in which some Catholics, most famously Guy Fawkes, plotted to blow up James I, the first of the Stuart kings of England. The story is remembered each November 5th when ‘Guys’ are burned in a celebration known as “Bonfire Night”.

The story appears to be very simple.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/gunpowder_plot_of_1605.htm

Catholics in England had expected James to be more tolerant of them. In fact, he had proved to be the opposite and had ordered all Catholic priests to leave England. This so angered some Catholics that they decided to kill James and put his daughter Elizabeth on the throne ensuring that she was a Catholic. This led to a plot to kill not only the king of England, James, but also everyone sitting in the Houses of Parliament at the same time as James was there when he opened Parliament on November 5th, 1605.

Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators, having rented out a house right by the Houses of Parliament, managed to get 36 barrels of gunpowder into a cellar of the House of Lords.

The other conspirators were:

Robert and Thomas Wintour,
Thomas Percy,
Christopher and John Wright,
Francis Tresham,
Everard Digby,
Ambrose Rookwood,
Thomas Bates,
Robert Keyes,
Hugh Owen,
John Grant and the man who is said to have organised the whole plot
Robert Catesby.

The most famous picture of some the conspirators
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fileadmin/historyLearningSite/gunpow1.gif

The explosive expert, Guy Fawkes, had been left in the cellars to set off the fuse. He was only caught when a group of guards decided to check the cellars at the last moment.

Fawkes was arrested and sent to the Tower of London where he was tortured and eventually gave away the names of the fellow conspirators.

Sir William Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower, had orders to use whatever means of torture was required to get information from Fawkes. The order came from James.

Of those involved, some were shot as they were chased by the law such as Percy and Catesby. Others were captured, sent to the Tower and, after a brief trial, eventually hung, drawn and quartered, with Fawkes, in January 1606.

The signature of Guy Fawkes on his confession
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/fileadmin/historyLearningSite/gunpow2.gif

In celebration of his survival, James ordered that the people of England should have a great bonfire in the night on November 5th. This fire was traditionally topped off with an effigy of the pope rather than Guy Fawkes. His place at the top of the fire came in later as did fireworks. The East Sussex county town of Lewes still has the pope alongside Guy Fawkes when it comes to the effigies being burned.

But is there more to this plot than just a small number of angry Catholics wanting to make a statement against the king, James? Some believe that the whole plot was a government conspiracy to convince James that Catholics could not be trusted. At the very least, some curious things happened when the story is looked at in detail.

What is odd?

We do know that James’ chief minister, Robert Cecil, the Earl of Salisbury, hated Catholics and saw them as a constant source of trouble. Cecil also feared that there was a chance that James would be lenient with them during his reign and this he could not tolerate.

That James only expelled priests was not good enough for Cecil. He wanted to remove Catholicism from England as he saw it as a threat.

We know that James was terrified of a violent death; his childhood in Scotland had been fraught with danger including being kidnapped as a boy. What better way to get James to severely persecute the Catholics in England than to get him to believe that they had tried to kill him in this very violent manner?

The government had a monopoly on gunpowder in this country and it was stored in places like the Tower of London. How did the conspirators get hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder without drawing attention to themselves? Did they get help from the government?

How was the gunpowder moved across London from the Tower of London to Westminster (at least two miles distant) without anyone seeing it? The River Thames would not have been used as it could have lead to the gunpowder becoming damp and useless. Thirty six barrels would have been a sizeable quantity to move without causing suspicion.

Why were men who were known to be Catholics allowed to rent out a house so near to the Houses of Parliament? How did they move 36 barrels from that house to the cellar of the Houses of Parliament without anyone noticing along with hay, straw etc?

Why, for the first time in history, was there a search of Parliament’s cellars that conveniently found “John Johnson” (as Guy Fawkes called himself) before he lit the fuse?

Why was the soldier who killed Catesby and Percy at Holbeech House in the Midlands, given such a large pension for life (10p a day for life) when their arrest and torture was more desirable so that the names of any other conspirators might be found out?

Some historians have pointed out these issues and claimed that the plotters were pawns in the hands of Robert Cecil and that he orchestrated the whole affair in his bid to get James to ban Catholics altogether.

There are, however, counter-arguments to many of the above points.

Gunpowder may have been a government monopoly but just as today, there was a black market for it. The conspirators would have had the money to pay for this and it could have been smuggled in from Catholic France, for example. The south coast was riddled with smugglers havens. Fawkes could have used his contacts with Spain to acquire it. In many senses, this would not have been a difficult problem.

Moving the gunpowder from the Tower to Westminster could have been done over a number of days, barrel by barrel, journey by journey. This would have attracted less attention though it did increase the chance of being caught as more journeys were being made. One theory put forward is that it was stored at a house owned by Catesby in Lambeth and moved barrel by barrel up the Thames at night to Westminster. dangerous and risky but the conspirators were motivated men and it could have happened.

The conspirators used false names so hiring out property near to the Houses of Parliament would not have been that difficult. Thomas Percy had contacts in Parliament and these were almost certainly used to get the house there and later the cellar where the gunpowder was actually put.

The soldier who shot Percy and Catesby was in a firefight in which he may have been shot and killed himself. Why risk your own life against such desperate people? Was the 10p a day for life merely a generous reward for services to a grateful king?

Also, if Fawkes and company had been set-up by, why did he not say so at his execution when he could have said something? Possibly he was not in a fit enough state to say anything; also who would have believed him as he had been castigated as the evil conspirator to kill the king? It may be that the conspirators simply acted alone and then got caught.

The confession of Fawkes does not mention at all any claim that he was a dupe of the government. He himself stated that he was first approached by Thomas Wintour in Europe about the plot in 1604 and that he met the others when he returned to London.

The only full confession about the plot from start to finish came from Thomas Wintour. He, too, makes no mention about being set-up etc.

Two issues do cloud the story, however.

The first is the so-called Monteagle Letter.

One of the plotters was a man called Francis Tresham. Lord Monteagle was his cousin.

On the evening of October 26th, a mysterious man brought a letter to Monteagle’s home just outside of London. The letter was a clear warning for Monteagle not to turn up at the Houses of Parliament on the 5th November. In modern English the letter stated that Parliament would receive a terrible blow on that day and that those killed would not see who had done it to them. The letter was addressed to Monteagle but it was read out aloud by his servant. Why? Was Monteagle looking for a witness that he had received this letter?

Monteagle went straight to Robert Cecil and informed him of what had happened. Cecil ordered a search of the cellars of Parliament on the night of November 4th. Those guards found Guy Fawkes. A second search the next day, ordered by James I, also found the explosives and Guy who was found to be in possession of matches. he was arrested.

The other issue also involves Tresham.

Here was an important member of the gang who could know a great deal about other conspirators who were not actually yet caught. Once arrested, he was locked in the Tower of London – England’s most feared and secure prison. Tresham was locked in a cell by himself. He died on December 23rd 1605, and he was found to have been poisoned. How did he get the poison? Did he knowingly take it? Or did someone want to silence him before he talked? It is possible that Tresham had the poison on him and took it rather than suffer the butchery of being hung, drawn and quartered. If someone else had access to him, and fed him poisoned food or whatever, he would have been a very important person as only the most important would have had access to this valuable prisoner.

We may never know the answers to the questions. There are some who support the government conspiracy line – others think it may simply have been an ambitious plan by a small number of Catholics that went very badly wrong for them all.

MLA Citation/Reference

“The Gunpowder Plot of 1605”. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.

IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA AND HIS SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

September 17, 2008 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org) -

The following is excerpted from our new book CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM: A POWERFUL ECUMENICAL BOND. This book is available from Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, www.wayoflife.org (online catalog), fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail).
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Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was the founder of the Jesuits or the Society of Jesus. He was pronounced a saint in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV.

Ignatius was “converted” by reading the legendary lives of Catholic saints (in The Life of Christ by Ludolph of Saxony and The Golden Legend by Jacopo of Varazze) and by allegedly seeing a vision of the baby Jesus in Mary’s arms. Ignatius vowed to “serve only God and the Roman pontiff, His vicar on earth.”

He also dedicated himself to Mary. At the pilgrimage site of Our Lady of Arantzazu in Spain he made a vow of chastity to her and entrusted himself to her protection and patronage. He spent an entire night venerating the Black Virgin at the Abbey of Montserrat near Barcelona and surrendered his sword and dagger to her (http://www.ignatiushistory.info/conversion.html).

Loyola’s asceticism was very extreme. He lived for a year in a cave, wearing rags, never bathing, and begging for his food. All of this was an effort to do penance for his sins. He scourged and starved himself and slept very little. He taught that “penance” for sin requires “chastising the body by inflicting sensible pain on it” through “wearing hairshirts, cords, or iron chains on the body, or by scourging or wounding oneself, and by other kinds of austerities” (The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, First Week, Vintage Spiritual Classics, p. 31).

The Society of Jesus was approved in 1540 by Pope Paul III with the papal bull “Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae” (To the Government of the Church Militant) and was a major part of the brutal Counter Reformation. The Jesuits were called the pope’s “shock troops.” By 1650 there were 15,000 of them operating throughout the world. Pope Paul was a staunch proponent of the Inquisition and the founder of the Council of Trent, which issued curses against those who refused to accept Catholic doctrine.

Ignatius’ Jesuits took a vow of complete submission to the pope, the superiors of their order, and the Catholic Church. They were determined “to go without questioning wherever the pope might direct,” and were instructed as follows: “Let every one persuade himself that he who lives under obedience should be moved and directed, under Divine Providence, by his superior, JUST AS IF HE WERE A CORPSE, which allows itself to be moved and led in any direction.”

In his Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius taught absolute obedience to Rome:

“WE MUST PUT ASIDE ALL JUDGMENT OF OUR OWN, and keep the mind ever ready and prompt to obey in all things the true Spouse of Christ our Lord, our holy Mother, the hierarchical Church. We should praise sacramental confession ... the frequent hearing of Mass ... vows of religion ... relics of the saints by venerating them ... the regulations of the Church ... images and veneration of them. ... Finally, we must praise all the commandments of the Church, and be on the alert to find reasons to defend them, and by no means in order to criticize them. ... If we wish to proceed securely in all things, we must hold fast to the following principle: WHAT SEEMS TO ME WHITE, I WILL BELIEVE BLACK IF THE HIERARCHICAL CHURCH SO DEFINES” (The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, Vintage Books edition, Rules, 352-362, 365, pp. 124-124).

The members of Ignatius’ Society were willing to lie, steal, and kill for the pope and for their immediate superiors. The Jesuits plotted and often succeeded in the violent overthrow of governments and the assassination of non-Catholic leaders. They were instigated in the Gunpowder Plot, which was an attempt in November 1605 to kill King James I and the members of the British Parliament. Six months earlier Guy Fawkes had taken a solemn oath with his co-conspirators, which oath “was then sanctified by the performing of mass and the administering of the sacraments by the Jesuit priest John Gerard in an adjoining room” (David Herber, “Guy Fawkes,” http://www.britannia.com/history/g-fawkes.html).

Ignatius is very influential in the modern contemplative movement through his Spiritual Exercises. These emphasize purifying oneself through asceticism and using the imagination in prayer. The Spiritual Exercises is intended to be a handbook for retreat directors, and it takes about a month to go through the entire course.

The first three weeks correspond to the three-fold path of Catholic mysticism. Week One is a time of “purgation” and purifying through confession and asceticism. Week Two is a time of “illumination” by meditating on Christ. Week Three is “unitive,” characterized by intimate and habitual union with God.”

Visualization prayer is a central part of Ignatius’ exercises. The practitioner is to spend four or five hours each day in this practice. He is to walk into biblical and extra-biblical historical scenes through the imagination and bring the scene to life by applying all five senses, seeing the events, hearing what people are saying, smelling, tasting, and touching things—all within the realm of pure imagination. He is even to put himself into the scene, talking to the people and serving them. Ignatius encourages practitioners, for example, to imagine themselves present at Jesus’ birth and crucifixion.

Consider some excerpts:

“Imagine Christ our Lord present before you upon the cross, and begin to speak with him ...” (First Week, 53).

“Here it will be to see in imagination the length, breadth, and depth of hell. ... to see in imagination the vast fires, and the souls enclosed ... to hear the wailing ... with the sense of smell to perceive the smoke ... to taste the bitterness ... to touch the flames” (First Week, fifth exercise, 65-70).

“I will see and consider the Three Divine Persons, seated on the royal dais or throne of the Divine Majesty ... I will see our Lady and the angels saluting her. ... [I will see] our Lady, St. Joseph, the maid, and the Child Jesus after His birth. I will make myself a poor little unworthy slave, and as though present, look upon them, contemplate them, and serve them...” (Second Week, 106, 114).

“While one is eating, let him imagine he sees Christ our Lord and His disciples at the table, and consider how He eats and drinks, how He looks, how He speaks, and then strive to imitate Him” (Third Week, 214).

Visualization prayer has become very popular and widespread within the modern contemplative movement, but it is heretical.

First of all, visualization prayer is disobedience. The Bible contains everything we need for faith and practice. It is able to make the man of God “perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Bible contains everything we need to learn how to pray correctly, and it says nothing whatsoever about imagination prayer. This is not the type of prayer that Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:9-15).

Second, visualization prayer is vain and foolish because it is pure fantasy. We can’t imagine Jesus’ birth beyond the simple facts described in Scripture. We don’t know what Mary or Joseph or baby Jesus or the room or the manger or the angels or the shepherds or the wise men looked like. We don’t know what they said to one another. We don’t know the temperature or the exact smells and tastes. If I try to imagine such things I am entering into the realm of pure fantasy.

Third, visualization prayer is not faith. Faith is not based on imagination; it is based on Scripture. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). God has given us everything we need in Scripture and our part is to believe what God says. “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31).

Fourth, visualization prayer is presumptuous because it goes beyond divine Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” By going beyond what the Bible says and trying to delve into Bible history through the imagination, I am leaving the revealed things and entering the secret things.

Fifth, visualization prayer is dangerous. It is dangerous because it adds to Scripture. If I get in the habit of visualizing Bible scenes, I can easily think that my visualizations are authoritative. I can fall into Rome’s error of accepting extra-biblical revelations. It is also dangerous because demonic entities can involve themselves in my vain imaginings. Satan influenced Peter’s thinking (Mat. 16:22-23), and he can certainly influence mine if I venture into forbidden realms.

Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises are filled with Mary veneration. The practitioner is instructed to pray the Hail Mary many times and to ask Mary for grace.

“A colloquy should be addressed to our Lady, asking her to obtain for me from her Son and Lord the grace to be received under His standard...” (Second Week, 147).

Ignatius also recommended praying Hail Holy Queen (“Three Methods of Prayer,” p. 258). This blasphemous prayer addresses Mary as holy Queen, the Mother of Mercy, our life, our love, our hope, and most gracious advocate:

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve;
to thee do we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us;
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Ignatius taught a works gospel, which is cursed by God according to Galatians 1:6-8.

He says that some are in hell “because though they believed they did not keep the Commandments” (First Week, Fifth Exercise, 71).

He says it is “necessary for salvation” “that as far as possible I so subject and humble myself as to obey the law of God our Lord in all things” (Week Two, “Three Kinds of Humility,” 165).

Ignatius promoted the use of spiritual directors. One of his practices, called Revelation of Thoughts, involves examining one’s soul and exposing its contents to a director. It is based on the heresy of Catholic confession.

Ignatius promoted the repetitious Breath prayer, which he called “a measured rhythmical recitation.” He described this as follows:

“With each breath or respiration, one should pray mentally while saying a single word of the Our Father, or other prayer that is being recited, in such a way that from one breath to another a single word is said” (The Spiritual Exercises, “Three Methods of Prayer,” p. 258).

The Lord Jesus forbad vain repetitions in prayer (Matthew 6:6-7).

Next to Ignatius’ tomb in the Chiesa del Gesu, the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, is a 16th century statue depicting Mary violently casting Protestant Reformers Martin Luther and John Huss out of heaven because of their doctrines of “scripture alone” and “grace alone.” The statue’s title is “The Triumph of the Faith over Heresy” and it was created by Pietro Le Gros. It depicts official Catholic doctrine that was encapsulated in the proclamations of the Council of Trent, which issued a curse against any person who believes that the Bible alone is the standard for faith or that salvation is by the grace of Christ alone. In spite of the ecumenical ventures of the Catholic Church in recent decades, the Council of Trent has never been rescinded and was quoted authoritatively by the Vatican II Council of the 1960s. The same monument in the Jesuit Church features an angel gleefully tearing up a small book, depicting either “heretical” Protestant books or the vernacular Bible translations that were condemned by Rome.

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This report is excerpted from our new book CONTEMPLATIVE MYSTICISM: A POWERFUL ECUMENICAL BOND. This book is available from Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, www.wayoflife.org (online catalog), fbns@wayoflife.org (e-mail).

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