He owned, however, that he was privy to the design; but believed it was known to few or none but the immediate undertakers.

These two criminals were in their last moments attended by Collier, Snatt, and Cook, three nonjuring clergymen, who absolved them in the view of the populace, with an imposition of hands; a public insult on the government which did not pass unnoticed.

Those three clergyman were presented by the grand jury for having countenanced the treason by absolving the traitors, and thereby encouraged other persons to disturb the peace of the kingdom.

An indictment being preferred against them, Cook and Snatt were committed to Newgate; but Collier absconded, and published a vindication of their conduct, in which he affirmed that the imposition of hands was the general practice of the primitive church.

On the other hand, the two metropolitans and twelve other bishops subscribed a declaration, condemning the administration of absolution without a previous confession made, and abhorrence expressed, by the prisoners of the heinous crimes for which they suffered.
In the course of the same month, Rookwood, Cranborne, and Lowick, were tried as conspirators by a special commission in the king's-bench, and convicted on the joint testimony of Porter, Harris, La Rue, Bertram, Fisher, and Pendergrass.