Acting behind the scenes, Cecil cultivated some prominent Catholics, one of them Lord Thomas Percy from the famous Catholic Percy family, and used them as cut-outs to direct the operations of a group of naïve Catholic fanatics and adventurers, among them a certain gullible gentleman named Guy Fawkes. Thomas Percy was supposedly a Catholic fanatic, but in reality was a bigamist. This group of Catholic fanatics hatched the idea first of tunneling into the basement of the Houses of Parliament from a nearby house, and then simply of renting the basement of the Houses of Parliament, in order to pack that basement with explosives for the purpose of blowing up King, Lords, and Commons when James I came to open the Parliament early that November. But instead Guy Fawkes was caught going into the basement the night before the great crime was scheduled to occur. Fawkes and the rest of the plotters were tortured and hanged, and several Catholic clergy were also scapegoated. James I put aside his plans for toleration of Catholics, and England set out on a century of wars against the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, from which in turn the British Empire was born. Guy Fawkes Day became the yearly festival of "no popery" and hatred of Spain.
Concerning the Gunpowder Plot, the Jesuit Gerard concludes that
"for purposes of State, the government of the day [meaning Cecil]
either found means to instigate the conspirators to undertake their enterprise, or,
at least, being, from an early stage of the undertaking, fully aware of what was going on,
sedulously nursed the insane scheme till the time came to make capital out of it.
That the conspirators, or the greater number of them, really meant to strike
a great blow is not to be denied, though it may be less easy to assure ourselves
of its precise character; and their guilt will not be palliated should it appear that,
in projecting an atrocious crime, they were unwittingly playing the
game of plotters more astute than themselves." (Gerard 17)
Here we have an excellent definition of state-sponsored terrorism.
Gerard's method of proof is this: "It will be enough to show that,
whatever its origin, the conspiracy was, and must have been,
known to those in power, who, playing with their infatuated dupes,
allowed them to go on with their mad scheme, till the moment came
to strike with full effect." (Gerard 55) This can also be applied to 9/11.
It should be added that James I does not seem to have been aware of the operation in advance. The plot was not directed against him; it rather intended to push him in a specific policy direction. After the event, James I does appear to have realized what Cecil's role had been, at least to some extent. Father Gerard speaks of Thomas Percy, Cecil's agent in the Gunpowder Plot, as a "tame duck employed to catch the wild ones." (Gerard 152) But the fact that he was Cecil's agent did not prevent Percy from being killed as part of the cover-up after November 5. At the risk of mixing metaphors, we can cite the opinion of a contemporary observer that Cecil, once he had secured the game birds he was seeking, hanged the spaniel who had actually caught them for him, "that its master's art might not appear." (Gerard 153)