Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/201

Rh Jesuits and the rest of the English priests. One of Weston's peculiarities was that he believed strongly in 'casting out devils' and used to perform the most extraordinary exorcisms upon credulous persons. He even claimed to know the names of the evil spirits whom he expelled from the bodies of the sufferers.

Garnet, therefore, as may be imagined, had no easy task in filling a post which had been previously vacated by persons of such marked unpopularity as the unscrupulous Parsons, the extravagant Hey wood, and the half-witted Weston. On the whole, his reign was more successful than, under the circumstances, might have been expected, and it lasted for as long a period as eighteen years. Amongst that small, but strong faction of the English Roman Catholics which favoured the Jesuits, Garnet was popular, whilst his erudition and pleasant manners made him many friends even in exterior circles hostile to his Society. But the fact that he was practically nothing more than a tool in the hands of Father Parsons served to render his chances of gaining the goodwill of the majority of his co-religionists in England practically hopeless, whilst strange stories about his intemperate habits were widely circulated. His connection, too, with Anne Vaux, however innocent, was not calculated to win