The Gunpowder Plot

In The Gunpowder Plot Herbert Thurston puts the case that the conspiracy was confined to a small group of people who acted without the support of the wider Catholic family and he seeks to exonerate the Jesuit priesthood from giving any succour whatsoever to the intrigue:
It is frequently asserted by certain writers that the Gunpowder Plot was the work of Catholics as a body, and was approved and countenanced by the heads of their Church, and by Catholic princes abroad … This is quite untrue …it appears to be certain that thirteen turbulent men alone were found to have been engaged in the conspiracy … it is a mere calumny to charge their guilt upon their fellow Catholics at home or abroad, who vehemently condemned and repudiated the crime … First published by The Catholic Truth Society in 1929, this new edition, with reset test, has had a number of appropriate illustrations added.