nice idea, no cigar.
Blowing up Parliament would not have changed the government or religion; it would have simply been replaced with different people who had the same policies. Protestantism was by then firmly entrenched in the English mind. One must remember this is following the reign of QE-I, who was willing to leave Catholics alone, as long as they made no trouble. If they failed to at least have nominal connections with the Church of England, then they were pursued as recusants, and could be jailed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RecusancyIn the history of England, recusancy was a term used to describe the statutory offence of not complying with the established Church of England.
From the 16th to the 19th century recusants were subject to civil penalties and sometimes, especially in the earlier part of that period, to criminal penalties. Roman Catholics formed a large proportion of recusants, and were those to whom the term initially was applied, but other non-Catholic groups who dissented from the Church of England were, later, also labeled recusants. The recusancy laws were in force from the reign of Elizabeth I to that of George III, though not always enforced with equal intensity.
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