Irish Rebels or conclude any Peace or Cessation with them without the consent and express Command of the King and Parliament of England 4. He will engage himself to the true performance of all these things by Oath or any other means that can be propos'd to a Man of Honour and Conscience Septemb. 26 1646. Ormond Which he frequently insisted on in his Treaty with the Parliaments Commissioners who seem'd not before to be acquainted therewith or thought it expedient upon the Treaty to receive the same from him which however as most important He insisted upon as also to have Directions from His Majestie ere he would deliver up the Hoord or render up the Garrisons in his Power to their hands waving notwithstanding the first Proposition rather than that should be any leâ—t to the Treaty which in conclusion ended in delivering up all to the Parliament Fol. 169. l. 29. in the Irish concluding thereby that there would not be only a loss of the Kingdom but of thousands of Protestants and together with them the Protestant Religion also Fol. 177. l. 41. other Considerations As that the English Interest in Ireland must be preserv'd by the English and not by the Irish. Fol. 184. l. 21. and Eloquence as follows in these words To the Honourable Commissioners from the Parliament of ENGLAND The humble Answer and Petition of the Protestant Clergy of the City of Dublin Humbly shewing THAT whereas we having received from your Honours by Anthony Dopping Esquire a Message consisting of two branches one of Demand Whether the Ministers will officiate in their several Churches not using the Book of Common Prayer The other a Concession to this effect That such as will officiate may use the Directory or such Service as is agreeable to the Word of God but not use the Book of Common Prayer VVe hereto with all meekness and lowliness of minds return this our joint Answer 1. That forasmuch as we see and know that the Protestants of this City for the most part are much grieved in heart for the want of the daily accustomed Service of God in the two Cathedrals and the Parish Churches of this City and for their late being deprived of us and our Ministery which they have long enjoyed VVe are very much troubled and are very sorrowful in our selves for their grief We acknowledg our selves bound to preach the Gospel of Christ unto the People and are so far from a voluntary desertion of our Churches People Ministery and the exercise thereof as that we shall rejoyce in nothing more than that we may finish our course with joy and the Ministry which we have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the grace of God 2. That we have been and still are effectually debarred from our Churches and the exercise of our Ministry by your Honours Injunction and Command bearing date the 24. of June 1647. wherein you require the discontinuance of the Book of Common-Prayer and the receiving of the Directory c. which Injunction lies still upon us with the danger of non-protection in case we disobey the same 3. That we cannot consent with a good conscience to the discontinuance of the Book of Common-Prayer and receiving the Directory in lieu thereof or any other private form of publick Service for the reasons exhibited and alledged in our Answer the 22. of June last whereto we humbly annex these Reasons following amongst others which we debated upon in our mutual conference the 25. of June and on the same day touched some of the Heads of them before your Honours I. VVe all at our Ordination or being made Presbyters have among other things made this solemn Promise before God which we account the same with or little different from an Oath that we would so minister the Doctrine and Sacraments and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same II. VVe have often taken the Oath of Supremacy and sworn that the King's Highness is the only supreme Governour of this Realm as well in all spiritual and Ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal and that we shall assist and defend all Jurisdictions c. granted or belonging to the King's Highness his Heirs and Successors or united and annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Kingdom Now should we receive a Directory printed or any other form without Royal Authority we do not conceive how this can stand with this our Oath III. As the Act of Parliament 2 Eliz. still in force in this Kingdom expresly commands the use of this Book of Common-Prayer so it forbids Common-Prayer or Administration of the Sacraments otherwise or after any other manner or form with any private dispensation whereof we cannot comply we being bound to the obedience thereof not only for fear of penalty but for conscience sake Rom. 13. 5. IV. VVhereas the Book of Common-Prayer is one main part of the Reformation established in the Churches of England and Ireland the laying aside thereof and the receiving of the Directory or any other form would be we conceive considering the present state and circumstances of things a departing in this from the Communion of the Church of England and Ireland V. It is evident that as the Constitution of a Law in any matter Ecclesiastical the order ever observed in the Church since Kings became nursing Fathers thereto was is and ought to be this That it first pass the consultation and determination of a lawful Ecclesiastical Council and then that it receive the sanction and confirmation of the civil Supreme Magistrate for this gives it the formal strength and vigour of a Law outwardly obliging and that gives it materiality and substance and supplies ground sufficient to make it a Law inwardly obliging Christian People to receive it So in the promulgation and execution of that Law concerning a matter Ecclesiastical there was and is this order observed First the supreme civil Magistrate remands and recommends it to the Ecclesiastical Governours and they deliver it to the rest of the Pastors and they to the People So that the immediate actual reception of an Order Ecclesiastical by the Ministers is from the hand of the Bishop or Ordinary And upon this is founded that solemn Promise made before God by every Minister at his Ordination That he will reverently obey his Ordinary and other chief Ministers unto whom the Government and Charge over him is committed following with a glad mind their godly admonitions and submitting himself to their godly judgments Since then in this matter concerning the Book of Common-Prayer all the required premisses were fulfilled and that any other form that for the present we can use wants all of them we cannot without breach of our Promise forementioned and disordered anticipation or neglect of the judgment of our Ordinances receive any such or other form considering the King's Command concerning the only use of the Book of Common-Prayer expressed in the Act of Parliament is still in
Rebels attesting that the 100000 l. borrowed of the Subscription-Money for Ireland they soon re-paid with advantage being then forc'd to make use of it to prepare a competent Army for the defence of the King and Kingdom without any prejudice to the Affairs of Ireland whose subsistence depends on the welfare of this In Answer to which it was replied That that Kingdom were the Money restored in the mean time suffered by that Diversion and that had the Lord Wharton's Forces been approved of there was no further security that those should have been sent for Ireland than other Forces that were rais'd for that purpose and yet imployed against his Majesty at Edge-hill the other Exceptions of the Parliament in his Majesty's Papers being also answer'd which begot a Reply not altogether pertinent in this place to pursue However the Parliaments imploying the 100000 l. contrary to the Interest of the foremention'd Act in the 17th year of Car. 1. with his Majesties full consent before he left the Parliament was the cause that it produced so little good effect for Ireland many of the Subscribers taking that occasion as others before had done upon his Majesties motion to go for Ireland to withdraw their subscriptions and others not to pay in their Money which was with so much Caution provided for and guarded with so many advantagious Circumstances for all the Adventurers as if it had been carried on and seasonably applied with that Care and Sincerity it ought to have been it would in a little time have reduc'd that whole Kingdom and have eas'd that poor People of many of those Calamities they have since endur'd The want of which put the Lords Justices and State on many difficulties Yet that something might seem to be done there was an Order of the Commons House of Parliament the 3d. of August 1642. That the Ministers about the City of London should be desired to exhort the People to bestow old Garments and Apparel upon the distressed Protestants in Ireland in reference to which the 19th of September following the Lord Mayor of London ordered that those Cloaths should be brought to Yorkshire-hall in Blackwel-hall to be ready for shipping them for Ireland and a vast Supply was brought in Charity never so much manifested its compassion as in that Cause which afterwards was entrusted to a Reverend Person who discharged his trust with singular Prudence and Integrity though as to the Army these Cloaths never reach'd or intended And now the Rebels finding their Strength much augmented by the unhappy differences in England their chief Contrivers of the Conspiracy the Clergy met at Kilkenny and there Established in a General-Congregation several Considerations for their future Government Upon which Proceedings and the validity of the 6th Article of those Prelate-Dignities and learned men the first General-Assembly at Kilkenny sate the 10th of November 1642. according to what Scobel gives us an account of Though Peter Walsh one of the Assembly certainly to be credited in his second part of the first Treaties of his History and vindication of the Loyal Formulary writes that the first General or National-Assembly of the Confederates began at Kilkenny the 24th of October 1642. and continued to the 9th of January following upon which day they were dissolved having constituted to succeed them the Supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and that they might be the better tied together with the Holy bond of Union and Concord as is expressed in the thirty third Article of the General Assembly and the third of the Congregation They framed the ensuing Oath of Association to be taken by all in that Confederacy The Preamble to the Oath of Association WHereas the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom have been inforc'd to take Arms for the necessary defence and preservation as well of their Religion Plotted and by many foul Practises endeavour'd to be quite suppress'd by the Puritan Faction as likewise their Lives Estates and Liberties as also for the defence and safeguard of his Majesties Regal Power just Prerogatives Honour State and Rights invaded upon and for that it is requisite that there should be an unanimous Consent and real Union between all the Catholicks of this Realm to maintain the Premisses and strengthen them against their Adversaries It is thought fit by them that they and whosoever shall adhere unto their Party as a Confederate should for the better assurance of their adhering fidelity and constancy to the publick Cause take the ensuing Oath The Oath of Association I A. B. do profess swear and protest before God and his Saints and his Angels that I will during my life bear true Faith and Allegiance to my Soveraign Lord Charles by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland and to his Heirs and lawful Successors and that I will to my power during my life defend uphold maintain all his and their just Prerogatives Estates and Rights the Power and Priviledge of the Parliament of this Realm the Fundamental Laws of Ireland the free exercise of the Roman Catholick Faith and Religion throughout this Land and the Lives just Liberties Possessions Estates and Rights of all those that have taken or shall take this Oath and perform the Contents thereof and that I will obey and ratifie all the Orders and Decrees made and to be made by the supream Council of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom concerning the said publick Cause and that I will not seek directly or indirectly any Pardon or Protection for any Act done or to be done touching this general Cause without the consent of the major part of the said Council and that I will not directly or indirectly do any Act or Acts that shall prejudice the said Cause but will to the hazard of my Life and Estate assist prosecute and maintain the same Moreover I do further swear That I will not accept of or submit unto any Peace made or to be made with the said Confederate Catholicks without the consent and approbation of the general Assembly of the said Confederate Catholicks And for the preservation and strengthning of the Association and Union of the Kingdom that upon any Peace or Accommodation to be made or concluded with the said Confederate Catholicks as aforesaid I will to the utmost of my power insist upon and maintain the ensuing Propositions until a Peace as aforesaid be made and the Matters to be agreed upon in the Articles of Peace be establish'd and secured by Parliament So help me God and his holy Gospel The Propositions mention'd in the aforesaid Oath 1. THat the Roman Catholicks both Clergy and Laity to their several Capacities have free and publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion and Function throughout the Kingdom in as full lustre and splendor as it was in the Reign of King Henry the 7th or any other Catholick King 's his Predecessors Kings of England and Lords of Ireland either in
press for Supplies out of England without the least intention in them of inducing a Cessation which is granted But as the necessities were there laid open so they were considered by his Majesty and no other Expedient remaining for the Protestants safety save a Cessation thereupon it was concluded though to this day some will have it that his Majesties expectation to be supplied thence and the preservation of the Irish almost swallowed up by his Forces were the principal Motives to that Cessation And it must be acknowledged from the series of Affairs since that the Irish in concluding the Cessation had a respect to their greater security and designs those being thereby withdrawn to his Majesties service in England which otherwise would certainly have oppos'd them And here I cannot but observe that the Irish afterwards acquired much confidence by a Bull of Urban's the 8th dated at Rome the 25th of May 1643. commending their forwardness against the Protestant Hereticks which they publish'd even after the Cessation of Arms was agreed on to what intent may be easily conceiv'd considering their subsequent frequent violation of Compacts and Agreements with the State Though the bleeding Iphigenia who in pleading their Cause grosly betrays it would not have it thought that this charitable Bull cherish'd the Catholicks in Rebellion but was onely an Indulgence to so good and just a Quarrel not any dis-respect to the King to whom saith he his Holiness advised them by their Agents to be Loyal as if that and the breach of his Majesties Commands to lay down Arms could rationally agree Before which Bull an Indulgence had been sent Dilecto filio Eugenio Onello the 8th of October 1642 in the 20th year of his Papacy The Cessation now concluded Obedience was expected from all parts but instead of an absolute compliance from the Scots in Ulster their Officer in Chief return'd this Letter Right Honourable YOur Lordships of the 21. I received at Ardmagh the 29 together with the Printed Cessation which was very displeasing unto this Army who being sent Auxiliary for supply of the British Forces in distress were promis'd by his Majesty and the Parliament of England Pay and Entertainment from three months to three months nevertheless in eighteen months time they have endured both Officers and Soldiers unparallel'd miseries And now a great part of the Service being done they are rewarded with the conclusion of a Cessation without assurance of entertainment for the time or any certainty of the payment of their Arrears and they must conform to the Treaty This kind of usage and contempt would constrain good Servants though his Majesties Loyal Subjects to think upon some course which may be satisfactory to them being driven almost to despair and threaten'd to be persecuted by the Roman Catholick Subjects as they are now called Nevertheless of the foresaid Contempt for obedience to his Majesties Command I have mov'd the Army for the time to cease any hostile Act against our Enemies till such time as your Lordships will be pleased to consider better of our present condition and grant us time to acquaint the General who has onely Commission over the Army to advise us how to behave our selves in this Exigency since I as Governour of Carigfergus can give your Lordships no positive Answer to this Cessation in the name of our Army having not absolute Power over them And immediately after receiving the General 's resolution your Lordships shall be acquainted therewith which is the least favour your Lordships can vouchsafe upon us in recompence of our Bygan Service And so I remain Ardmagh 29 Sept. 1643. Receiv'd the 2d of Octob. Your Lordships humble and obedient Servitor Robert Monro To the Right Honourable the Lords Justices and Council Upon this Answer of Monro's the Supreme Council at Kilkenny maintaining their Umpire in the Empire visits the Lords Justices and Council with this Letter Our very good Lords WE whom his Majesties Catholick Subjects of this Kingdom did intrust in the management of their Affairs have by their publick Act ratified and confirmed the Articles of Cessation concluded upon by our Commissioners willingly and cheerfully hoping in the quiet of that time assign'd for it by the benefit of the access which his Majesty is graciously pleas'd to afford us to free our selves from those odious Calumnies wherewith we have been branded and to render our selves worthy of Favour by some acceptable service suiting the expression we have often made and the real affections and zeal we have to serve his Majesty and in as much as we are given to understand that the Scots who not long since in great numbers came over into this Kingdom and by the slaughter of many Innocents without distinction of Age or Sex have possessed themselves of very large Territories in the North and since the notice given them of the Cessation have not onely continued their former cruelties upon the Persons of weak and unarmed Multitudes but have added thereunto the burning of the Corn belonging to the Natives within that Province of Ulster Notwithstanding which outrages we hear that they have although but faintly and with relation unto the consent of their General after some days consultation whether it were convenient for their Affairs desired to partake in the Cessation intending as is evident by their proceedings so far onely to admit thereof as it may be beneficial for their Patrons the Malignant Party now in Arms against his Majesty in England by diverting us from assisting his Majesty or of advantage to their desire of eating further into the bowels of our Countrey We who can accuse our selves of no one hollow thought and detest all subtile Practices cannot think of serving two Masters or standing Neuters where our King is Party And we desirous none should reside in this Kingdom but his Majesties good Subjects we beseech your Lordships therefore that these who have other ends then his Majesties Service and Interest and are so far from permitting the Natives to enjoy three parts of what they have sown as they may with no security look upon their former habitations and do absolutely deny to restore their Prisoners contrary to the Articles of Cessation may by the joynt power of all his Majesties good Subjects within this Kingdom of what Nation soever be prosecuted and that while these Succours are in preparation our Proceedings against them may no way be imputed unto us a desire any way to violate this Cessation And we do further pray your Lordships that for our justification therein you will be pleas'd to transmit unto his Majesty these our Letters and to send unto us the Copy of those directed unto your Lordships from Serjeant Major Monro concerning this Matter Thus with the remembrance of our heartiest wishes unto your Lordships we rest Kilkenny 15. Octob. 1643. Received 25. Your Lordships loving Friends Mountgarret Castlehaven Audley H. Armach Jo. Clonfert Th. Fr. Dublin R. Beling N. Plunket Gerrard Fennell To
remainder of English but by a Peace We find his Majesty being deluded by the first and believing the last to be conducing to the preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects is concluding of a Peace which will again admit those Irish Rebels to be Members of Parliament so that that Court which should afford relief for our Grievances will by their over-swaying Votes be our greatest Grievance Moreover we are too truly informed by divers of their own Party whose names if we should publish would be as great an ingratitude as folly the first in betraying those that obliged us the last in depriving our selves of all future Intelligence by them that they have vowed never to submit to an English or Protestant Government except they have liberty to exercise their Religion in Churches That the Forces of the Kingdom may be Train'd-Bands of their Men and that likewise those of their own Religion may be admitted to Places of Trust in the Common-wealth which they call modest and moderate demands though we hope they cannot seem so to any but themselves and their Clergy who we find do not think them enough being they may not have all their Church-Livings For we have certain intelligence that they have made a strong Faction as well among my Lord of Castlehaven's Soldiers as in all other parts of the Kingdom so that they are five parts of six who will fly out into a new action when they see a convenient time to execute their design which as yet they determine to forbear until they see a Peace concluded supposing that then the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland will intermix Irish and English without distinction to oppose the Scots and that by that means there will be a sufficient number of their Party in our Garrisons to master them which when they find an opportunity for they will certainly seize into their own hands upon notice whereof the Faction abroad will with all expedition apprehend the English in all parts and having accomplished this part of their design they will manifest that they are weary of the King of England's Government and that they will trust none of his Protestant Subjects among them for we are certainly informed that they will invite a Forreign Prince to take them into his protection unto whom they will deliver possession of what he pleases and will become his Subjects And lest that Princes Treasure should be exhausted by Wars in other places the Clergy have with the Pope's assistance raised amongst those of their own Calling and divers of the Gentry in Italy one hundred thousand pounds in money and a quantity of Arms and Ammunition that are now ready to be sent hither and they have employed one Doctor Duyer to go forthwith thither for it as also to get his Holiness to settle a course for the raising of more Money to be employed for the advancement of that which they call the Catholick Cause Therefore out of a true sense of our injuries already suffered and un-redressed with a right apprehension of inevitable ruine not onely to our Lives and Estates but likewise to the English Nation and Protestant Religion we have re-assum'd our Arms according to our Duty to God our King and Countrey with inviolable resolution to die or frustrate this devillish design And since those that die acting for the Gospel are as perfect Martyrs as those that die suffering for it we cannot but with joy embrace any effect that proceeds from so glorious a Cause Neither can this act be esteemed a crime in us since his Majesty upon the Rebels first Insurrection his Treasure being exhausted gave his Royal assent for the passing of an Act of Parliament wherein he granted to all his Subjects that would adventure money towards reducing of the Rebels Lands proportionable to the sum adventured which would fall to the Crown when the Conquest should be finished And the better to secure the Adventurers his Majesty obliged himself to make no Peace with the Rebels but with the advice and approbation of the Parliament of England and by that Act communicated to the Parliament that Power which before was solely in himself So that they not condescending to this Peace our imploying of their Aids and re-assuming of those Arms put into our hands by King and Parliament joyntly cannot be esteemed contradictory to his Majesty in regard that their joynt Act is so absolutely binding that neither of them severally can annull it as is evident in the Laws of the Realm Therefore if this War were onely Offensive yet even slander it self must acknowledge us innocent having so just a Cause so pious an Intention and so lawful an Authority much more it being Defensive and the Law both of God and Nature allowing every one to defend himself from violence and wrong Moreover the King must never expect any obedience from the Irish but what proceeds either from their Interest or Fear Through the first of these neither his Majesty or we can hope for assurance for not granting them all their desires their Interest which is more powerful with them than their Loyalty will make them throw off their subjection and to become absolute not scruple to destroy us Then to expect any security by their fears were frivolous for though we have found their Hearts as ill as their Cause yet they cannot be apprehensive of 2 or 3000 ill armed and unprovided men having all things necessary and so numerous a People at their devotion And lest our Enemies should scandalize us with breach of Faith in violating the pretended Cessation or with Cruelty in expelling the Irish Papists from our Garrisons who hitherto seemed adhering to us Concerning the first we declare That although our necessities did induce us to submit supposing the Cessation would have produced other effects as is before mentioned yet we had no power without Authority from King and Parliament joyntly to treat or yield to it or if it had been in our powers yet by the Rebels daily breaches of it we are disengaged from it Concerning the second we declare That our Garrison cannot be secured whilst so powerful and perfidious Enemies are in our bosomes Powerful being four to one in number more than the English Perfidious in their constant designs to betray us some whereof we will instance to convince their own Consciences and satisfie the World of our just proceedings One Francis Matthews a Franciscan Frier being wonderfully discovered in an Enigmatical Letter and as justly executed before his death confessed that he had agreed to betray the City of Cork to the Lord of Muskery which must necessarily infer that the chiefest and greatest part of that City were engaged in this Conspiracy for otherwise he could not so much as hope the accomplishment And if this had taken effect it had consequently ruin'd all the Protestants in the Province of Munster that being our chief Magazine and greatest Garrison Besides upon this occasion other Friers being examin'd upon Oath confessed that in
Orders and Injunctions continued still their desire to observe the Peace The titular Bishop of Ossory publisht this extraordinary Writing WHereas we have in publick and private meetings at several times declared to the Supream Council and others whom it might concern That it was and is unlawful and against conscience the implying Perjury as it hath been defined by the special Act of the Convocation at Waterford to both Common-Wealths Spiritual and Temporal to do or concur to any Act tending to the approbation or countenancing the Publication of this unlawful and mischievous Peace so dangerous as it is now Articled to both Common-Wealths Spiritual and Temporal And whereas notwithstanding our Declaration yea the Declaration of the whole Clergy of the Kingdom to the contrary the Supream Council and the Commissioners have actually proceeded to the Publication yea and forcing it upon the City by terror and threats rather then by any free consent or desire of the People We having duly considered and taken it to heart as it becometh us how enormous this Fact is and appears in Catholicks even against God himself and what a Publick Contempt of the Holy Church it appeareth beside the evil it is like to draw upon this poor Kingdom after a mature Deliberation and Consent of our Clergy in Detestation of this hainous and scandalous Disobedience of the Supream Council and others who adhered to them in matter of conscience to the Holy Church and in hatred of so sinful and abominable an Act do by these Presents according to the Prescription of the Sacred Cannons pronounce and command henceforth a general Cessation of Divine Offices throughout all the City and Suburbs of Kilkenny in all Churches Monasteries and houses in them whatsoever Given at our Palace of Nova Curia the 18th of August 1646. Signed David Ossoriensis This extravagant Proceeding did not yet terrifie those of the Confederate Catholicks who understood as they pretended how necessary the observation of the Peace was for the preservation of the Nation But as they desired the Lord Lieutenant to forbear all acts of Hostility upon how unreasonable a Provocation soever So they sent two Persons of the Supream Council Sir Lucas Dillon and Dr. Fennel to the Congregation at Waterford to dispose them to a better temper and to find out some Expedient which might compose the minds of the People and prevent those Calamities that would unavoidably fall upon the Nation upon their declining and renouncing the Peace which you must understand in them to be very real But after they had attended several days and offered many Reasons and Considerations to them The Congregation put a Period to all the Hopes and Consultations of that nature by issuing out a Decree of Excommunication which they caused to be Printed in this Form and in these Words and with these Marginal Notes By John Baptist Rinuccini Archbishop and Prince of Firmo and by the Ecclesiastical Congregation of both Clergies of the Kingdom of Ireland A Decree of Excommunication against such as adhere to the late Peace and do bear Arms for the Hereticks of Ireland and do aid or assist them NOt without Cause saith the Oracles of Truth doth the Minister of God carry the Sword for he is to punish him that doth Evil and remunerate him that doth Good hence it is that we have by our former Decrees declared to the World our sence and just Indignation against the late Peace Concluded and Published at Dublin not onely in its nature bringing prejudice and destruction of Religion and Kingdom but also contrary to the Oath of Association and withall against the Contrivers of and Adherers to the said Peace In pursuance of which Decrees being forced to unsheath the Spiritual Sword We to whom God hath given power to bind and loose on Earth assembled together in the Holy Ghost tracing herein and imitating the Examples of many Venerable and holy Prelates who have gone before us and taking for our Authority the Sacred Canons of Holy Church grounded on Holy Writ Ut tollantur èmedio nostrum qui hoc opus faciunt Domini nostri Jesu deliver over such Persons to Satan that is to say We Excommunicate Execrate Anathematize all such as after the Publication of this our Decree and notice either Privately or Publickly given to them hereof shall defend adhere to or approve the Justice of the said Peace and chiefly those who bear Arms or make or joyn in War with for or in behalf of the Puritans or other Hereticks of Dublin cork Youghall of other places within this Kingdom or shall either by themselves or by their appointment bring send or give any Aid Succour or Relief Victuals Ammunition or other Provision to them or by advice or otherwise advance the said Peace or the War made against us Those and every of them by this present Decree We do declare and pronounce Excommunicated ipso facto ut non circumveniamini à Satana non enim ignoramus Cogitationes ejus Dated at Kilkenny in our Palace of Residence the 5th day of October 1646. Signed Johannes Baptista Archiepiscopus Firmanus Nuncius Apostolicus de Mandato Illustrissimi Domini Nuncij Congregationis Ecclesiasticae utriusque Cleri Regni Hiberniae Nicholas Firmence Congregationis Cancellarius The Nuncio having thus fortifi'd himself made great preparations to march with two Armies to Dublin which consisting of 16000 Foot and as many hundred Horse he believ'd or seem'd to believe would take the Town by Assault as soon as he should appear before it and in this confidence that we may not interrupt the series of this Discourse by any intervening action when the Armies were within a days march of the City the two Generals sent this Letter with the Propositions annexed to the Lord Lieutenant May it please your Excellency BY the Command of the Confederate Catholicks of this Kingdom who offer the inclosed Propositions we have under our Leading two Armies our thoughts are best to our Religion King and Countrey our ends to establish the first and make the two following secure and happy It is the great part of our care and desires to purchase your Excellency to the effecting of so blessed a work We do not desire the effusion of blood and to that purpose the inclosed Propositions are sent from us we pray to God your consideration of them may prove fruitful We are commanded to pray your Excellency to render an Answer to them by two of the Clock in the afternoon on Thursday next be it War or Peace We shall endeavour in our Ways to exercise Faith and Honour and upon this thought we rest From the Camp 2. March 1646. Your Excellencies most humble Servants J. Preston Owen O Neile 1. That the exercise of the Romish Religion be in Dublin Tredagh and in all the Kingdom of Ireland as free and as publick as it is now in Paris in France or Bruxels in the Low-Countreys 2. That the Council of State
Churches and Church-Livings they have in present possession and the Exercise of Jurisdiction therein 2. That a Parliament be had within 6 months or when after the Roman Catholicks shall desire 3. That all Laws made in the Parliament of England since 1641. in blemish of the Catholicks are at the next Parliament to be vacated 4. All Indictments against any Catholicks since 1641. be vacated 5. All Impediments to be taken away that Catholicks be elected in Parliament 6. All Debts to remain as they were Feb. 8. 1641. notwithstanding any Attainder 7. The Estates of the Knights Gentlemen and Freeholders of Connaght Clare Thomond Limerick and Tipperary be secured by an Act. 8. All Incapacities of the Natives in Ireland be taken away by Act. 9. All Honours Trusts Imployments or such like be conferred as well upon Catholicks as Protestants 10. That the King take 12000 l. per annum in lieu of the Court of Wards 11. No Noblemen to have more Proxies than two in Parliament and all Blanks to be null 12. That the depending of the Parliament of Ireland upon England shall be as both shall agree and stand with the Laws of Ireland 13. That the Council-Table meddle only with Matters of State 14. That all Acts forbidding the Transport of Wooll be null'd by the next Parliament 15. That if any have been wrong'd by Grants from King James or since they may Petition and have Relief in Parliament 16. That divers particular Lords Knights and Gentlemen who have been as they conceiv'd wrong'd shall now be righted 17. That all who had their Estates taken from them in Cork Toughall and Dungarvan have restoration or Rent 18. That in the next Parliament an Act of Oblivion pass to all in Ireland and that adhered to them 19. That no Officer of Eminency in Ireland farm the Customs 20. An Act to pass against Monopolists 21. That the Court of Castle-Chamber be regulated 22. That the Acts for prohibiting plowing with Horses by the Tayls and burning Oats in the Straw be null 23. An Act for taking off the Grievances of the Kingdom 24. That Maritime Causes be determin'd in Ireland 25. That no Rents be rais'd upon the Subjects under pretence of defective Titles 26. That Interest-Money be forgiven from 1641. 27. That all this be acted and be of force till a Parliament agree the same 28. The Commissioners for the Catholicks that treated agree upon such as shall be Commissioners of the Peace and hear all Causes under 10 l. 29. That all Governours of Towns Castles and Places made by the King be with the Approbation of the Catholick Commissioners 30. That none of his Majesty's Rents be paid until a full Settlement in Parliament 31. That the Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer do try Murthers Stealing and all inferiour Trespasses of that nature 32. That hereafter such Differencies as shall arise between Subjects be determin'd by a Court in Ireland not transfer'd to England 33. That the Roman Clergy that behave themselves according to the Agreement be not molested Lastly That his Majesty please to grant what-ever else is necessary for the Roman Catholicks Upon which Peace the Marquess of Ormond the Lord Taaff and that Party engag'd to raise for Munster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse the supream Council and Preston for Leimster 4000 Foot and 800 Horse Inchiquin 3000 Foot and 600 Horse the Lord of Clanrickard for Connaght proportionable to the first In all 15000 Foot and 3000 Horse besides what Owen Roe upon his uniting afterwards might bring in computed to be 5000 Foot and 500 Horse that in the whole a gallanter Army had they been unanimous could scarce have been marshall'd With what Consent and Unity soever this Peace was made by those who had any pretence to Trust or to whom there was the least Deputation of Authority and Power by the Nation yet Owen O Neal with whom the Earl of Antrim joyn'd had the greatest Influence upon the Humours and Inclinations of the old Irish who had given themselves up to the Nuncio and who indeed had a better disciplin'd and consequently a stronger Army at his Command than the Confederates thought he could have gain'd to his Devotion still refused to submit to it So that the Lord Lieutenant as soon as the Peace was concluded was as well to provide against him to remove some Garrisons he held which infested those who obeyed the Acts of the Assembly and to prevent his Incursion as to raise an Army against the Spring to march against the English who were possessed of Dublin and all the Countrey and important Places of that Circuit and who he was sure would be supplied with all assistance of Shipping Men Money Victuals and Ammunition which the Parliament of England who had now murthered their Sovereign and incorporated themselves under the Name and Title of a Common-wealth could send them And he was in a worse condition to prevail against both these by the unhappy Temper and Constitution of the Scots in Ulster who being very numerous and possessed of the strong Towns though in profession they abhorred the Regicides and were not reconcilable to Owen O Neal and his Party were as yet as un-inclined to the Peace made with the Confederates and far from paying an obedience and full submission to the Orders and Government of the Lord Lieutenant maintaining at the same time the Presbyterian Form in their Church and an utter Independency in the State and out of those contradictory Ingredients compounding such a peevish and wayward Affection and Duty to the King as could not be applied to the bearing any part in the great Work the Marquess was incumbent to As soon as he heard of the Murther of the King he proclaim'd our present Sovereign Charles the 2d King of England Scotland France and Ireland at Carrick the 16th of Feb. 1648. And being by a Clause in his late Commission from his Majesty qualified with special Power and Authority to make no distinction in difference of Judgement betwixt any who should subject their Assistance to his Majesty's Service he soon won the Scots to a compliance though under the shackles of their Covenant who immediately us'd the most favourable Arguments they could to win Sir Charles Coot to their Party And to that end from the Congregation of the Presbytery at Belfast the 15th of Feb. 1648. they tempt him by several Representations with their Sence To which the 7th of March ensuing Sir Charles Coot and the Council of War held at London-derry return'd these Reasons for their Dis-agreement First We find no part of God's Word authorizing us being but a Branch of a subordinate Kingdom to declare against the Parliament of England under whom we serve who are the visible Authority of both Kingdoms and against an Army acting by their Power before we receive from themselves a Declaration and Grounds of those Proceedings wherewith they are aspers'd Secondly For the Covenant we have taken on which your Representations seem to
Lieutenant-General of the Army with a strong Party of Horse to pursue Jones his Horse which were sent for Tredagh which he did so successfully that he surprized one whole Troop and afterwards encountred Colonel Chidley Coot in the head of 300 Horse whereof he slew many and routed the rest who in great disorder fled to Tredagh The Lord Inchequin presently sent advertisement of this success and that he had reason to believe that if he pursued this advantage and attempt the Town while this terror possessed that Party he should make himself Master of it whereupon in respect of the great importance of the Place the reduction whereof would produce a secure correspondence with and give encouragement to the Scots in Ulster who made great professions in which they were ever free of Duty to the King and had now under the conduct of the Lord Viscount Montgomery of Ards driven Sir Charles Coot into the City of London-derry and upon the matter beleagu'd him there the Lord Lieutenant by the advice of the Council of War approved the Lord Inchequin's Design and to that purpose sent him two Regiments of Foot and two Pieces of Artillery and such Ammunition and Materials as could be spared wherewith he proceeded so vigorously that within 7 days he compelled the besieged to yield to honourable Conditions so reduced Tredagh to the Kings Obedience after he had been twice beaten off the Town having not above 600 Men who had spent all their Ammunition left to defend so large a circuit some of which afterwards revolted to the Marquess and Colonel Coot with 150 Horse and near 400 Foot march'd to Dublin There was now very reasonable ground for hope that the Parliaments Party would quickly find themselves in notable streights and distresses when it was on a suddain discover'd how very active and dexterous the spirit of Rebellion is to reconcile and unite those who were possessed by it and how contrary soever their Principles and Ends seem to be and contribute jointly to the opposing and oppressing that Lawful Power they had both equally injured and provoked The Parliament Party who had heap'd so many Reproaches and Calumnies upon the King for his Clemency to the Irish who had founded their own Authority and Strength upon such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion and some write so bitter are their Pens even with Humanity to the Irish Nation and more especially to those of the old Native Extraction the whole Race whereof they had upon the matter sworn to an utter extirpation And Owen O Neal himself was of the most antient Sept and whose Army consisted onely of such who avowed no other cause for their first entrance into Rebellion but Matter of Religion and that the Power of the Parliament was like to be so great and prevalent that the King himself would not be able to extend his Favours and Mercy towards them which they seem'd to be confident he was in his gracious disposition inclined to express and therefore professed to take up Arms against the exorbitant Power onely of them and to retain hearts full of Devotion and Duty to his Majesty and who at present by the under-hand and secret Treaties with the Lord Lieutenant seem'd more irreconcilable to the Proceedings of the General Assembly and to the Persons of those whom he thought govern'd there then to make any scruple of submitting to the Kings Authority in the Person of the Marquess to which and to whom he protested all Duty and Reverence These two so contrary and dis-agreeing Elements had I say by the subtile and volatile spirit of Hypocrisy and Rebellion the Arts of the time found a way to incorporate together and Owen O Neal had promised and contracted with the other that he would compel the Lord Lieutenant to retire and draw off his Army from about Dublin by his invading those Parts of Leimster and Munster with his Army which yielded most yea all the Provisions and subsistance to the Marquess and which he presumed the Marquess would not suffer to be spoil'd and desolated by his Incursions for the better doing whereof and enabling him for this Expedition Colonel Monk Governor of Dundalk who was the second Person in Command amongst the Parliaments Forces had promised to deliver to him out of the stores of that Garrison a good quantity of Powder Bullet and Match proportionable for the fetching whereof Owen O Neal had sent Farral Lieutenant General of his Army with a Party of 500 Foot and 300 Horse At that time Tredagh was taken by the Lord Inchequin who being there advertised of that new contracted friendship resolved to give some interruption to it and made so good hast that within few hours after Farral had receiv'd the Ammunition at Dundalk he fell upon him routed all his Horse and of the 500 Foot there were not 40 escaped but were either slain or taken Prisoners and got all the Ammunition and with it so good an Account of the present state of Dundalk that he immediately engaged before it and assisted by the Lord of Ards who a little before had been chosen by the Presbyterian Ministers their Commander in Chief thereby possessing himself of Carrigfergus and Belfast in two days compelled Monk who would else have been delivered up by his own Souldiers to surrender the Place where was a good Magazeen of Ammunition Cloath and other Necessaries for War most of the Officers and Souldiers with all alacrity engaging themselves in his Majesties service though the Governor Shipt himself for England and landing shortly after at Chester he went immediately to Bristol where Cromwel the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant was then to come for Ireland who receiv'd him very courteously but after he had remain'd some days there advised him to go up to the Parliament to give them satisfaction in the Cessation he had made with Owen Roe O-Neal the 8th of May 1649. which he did And the business of that Cessation being brought into the House it was much resented and after some debate more then ordinarily had on other occasions several severe Votes passed against it onely Colonel Monk being conceived to have made it out of a good intent for preserving the Interest of the Parliament was held to be clear and not thought fit hereafter to be question'd But this was taken as a fair way of laying him aside whereupon Colonel Monk retir'd to his own Estate unhappy onely in being the Instrument of their preservation who were not sensible of his Merits And now that all Parties might be kept entire the Marquess of Ormond publishes a Declaration upon Instructions from the King design'd purposely for Ulster AFter my hearty Commendations upon some Representations that have been lately made unto us we have thought fit to send you down the ensuing Instructions First That so far as your Power extends you cause every Person without distinction who have submitted to his Majesties Authority
confess they had not power to confer any new Authority on their Faculty of destroying being more prevalent than that of preserving Their second Reason was They feared they should lose the few Churches remaining under his Government as they had lost under him all the Churches in the Cities of Waterford Kilkenny Wexford Ross Clonmel Cashel Featherd Kilmallock and the rest in which they said they agreed with the Maccabees Maximus vero primus pro sanctitate timor erat Templi By whose ill Government those Cities were lost appears by what hath been said before and how well the few that were then left were kept after they had forced the Marquis to depart the Kingdom is well known to the World The third Reason they thought fit was Because the Lord Lieutenant had declared at Cork that he would maintain during his life the Protestant Religion according to the example of the best Reformed Churches which might be the same with the Covenant for ought they knew They said They could not expect from him the defence of the Catholick Religion which was a strange objection against a Protestant Lieutenant of a Protestant King under whose Government they pretended to be desirous to live And whatsoever had been declared by the Lord Lieutenant at Cork in that particular before the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace and Published and Printed the 6th of October 1648. and well known to the Bishops who after the same and notwithstanding that Declaration with all demonstrations of cheerfulness gave their consents to that Peace which they now think fit to break because of that Declaration The fourth Reason was cast in the same mould The scandal over the World to make choice of one of a different Religion especially in Rome where his Holiness expected that a Catholick Governour should be placed over them according to his Agreement or Articles as it was reported with the Queen of England which the Marquis knew to be an aspersion and they said They did fear the scourges of the War and the Plague that had faln so heavy upon them were some evidence of Gods anger for putting Gods Cause and the Churches under such an hand whereas that trust might have been managed in a Catholicks hand under the Kings Authority Which Reason indeed had most ingenuity in it and whensoever they digested their malice and their prejudice in those Personal Reproaches and Calumnies which they knew to be most untrue if they had frankly declared and excepted against him for being a Protestant they had more complied with the dictates and integrities of their hearts And yet it might appear a very unskilful and imprudent suggestion to make the humour of the Court of Rome the Rule of obedience to their Sovereign and to discourse of choosing a Person of what Religion they thought fit to be his Vice-gerent as if they not he were to be consulted in it which would administer much cause of jealousie unto a Protestant King and to his Protestant Subjects if it were not well known to them that some of the Catholick Nobility and Gentry of the Nation were Enemies at least seemingly to those resolutions that unhappy part of the Catholick Bishops did broach and propagate which alone have reduced that Nation to the calamities it then and since underwent The fifth Reason that they should find no favour nor countenance but reproach and disgrace from any Catholick Prince Church or Laity while the Marquis Governed when in truth since that time and that their proceedings have been taken notice of the Catholick Princes have looked upon them as incapable of any succour or countenance and have accordingly left them to the rage of their Persecutors Their other Reasons were more Vulgar and too often before recited exceptions to his Person in respect of the ill success of his Conduct and the prejudice the People had to him in regard of the same And the too considerable Corporations remaining which were Limerick and Galway were at so great distance with the Lord Lieutenant that they were resolved to appear as in their intentions and actions they conceiv'd they were faithful to the Crown and obedient to the Kings Authority if placed in another Person To which suggestions nothing need to be added to what hath been said in this Discourse of the demeanor of those particular Places nor can the observation be avoided That it was the natural practice of this Congregation to use all their industry and artifice to infuse jealousie and sedition into the People and distrust and obstinacy into the Corporations and then to urge that jealousie prejudice and indisposition of the People and Corporations to countenance any thing they thought fit to do or oppose They concluded that the event of War being uncertain if the Nation should be reduced to a condition of agreeing with the Enemy the Lord Lieutenant would not be a fit man to agree for the exercise of their Religion for their Churches Altars or any thing concerning the same And therefore they said That the best way that occurred to them in this pressing exigency for the union of the Nation and keeping them from agreeing with the Enemy was That the Marquis of Clanrickard in whom according to the sense of the Congregation at James-town they desired the Kings Authority should be left that he might Govern the Nation with the consent of all Parties and the Kings Authority be taken away from the Lord Lieutenant until an Assembly And to that end that a free and lawful Assembly might be made to sit to judge upon the Peoples preservation and to decree and order what should be best and safest for the defence of the Nation Touching the Kings Authority to be kept over them and the Peace to be asserted and made good or to renew the Association or any thing else they should find best and most expedient and unto that they would willingly submit for they said they never intended to hinder an Assembly or to give Laws to the People all that they endeavour'd was to defend the Altars and Souls entrusted to them And as they were of opinion that the Soldiers would follow the Marquis of Clanrickard and the People obey him so they would contribute their best endeavours to that effect They further gave assurance that if any free and lawful Assembly upon due consideration of their own state and condition should find it the best way for their own safety and preservation to make an Agreement with the Enemy as they intended never by the grace of God to grant away from them by an Affirmative consent to the Churches and Altars if forced from them they were blameless so would they not hinder the People from compounding with the Enemy for the safety of their Lives and Estates when no way of offence was appearing though upon such an Agreement they saw that they alone should probably be losers of Lives States Churches Altars Immunities and Liberties But in such Contracts with the Enemy if any
Protestant Religion and all the Brittish Professors thereof out of this Your Majesties Kingdom And to the end it may the better in some measure appear Your Suppliants have made choice of Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Knight and Baronet Captain Michael Jones and Mr. Fenton Parsons whom they have employed and authorized as their Agents to manifest the truth thereof in such Particulars as for the present they are furnish'd withal referring the more ample manifestation thereof to the said Captain William Ridgeway Sir Francis Hamilton Captain Jones and Fenton Parsons or any three or more of them and such other Agents as shall with all convenient speed be sent as occasion shall require to attend Your Majesty from Your Protestant Subjects of the several Provinces of this Your Kingdom VVe therefore Your Majesties most humble loyal and obedient Protestant-Subjects casting down our selves at Your Royal feet and flying to You for succour and redress in these our great Calamities as our most gracious Soveraign Lord and King and next and immediately under Almighty God our Protector and Defence most humbly beseeching Your Sacred Majesty to admit into Your Royal Presence from time to time our said Agents and in Your great VVisdom to take into Your Princely Care and Consideration the distressed Estate and humble desires of Your said Subjects so that to the Glory of God Your Majesties Honour and the happiness of Your good Subjects the Protestant Religion may be restored throughout the whole Kingdom to its lustre that the losses of Your Protestant Subjects may be repaired in such manner and measure as Your Majesty in Your Princely VVisdom shall think fit and that this Your Kingdom may be setled as that Your said Protestant Subjects may hereafter live therein under the happy Government of Your Majesty and Your Royal Posterity with comfort and security whereby Your Majesty will render Your self through the whole VVorld a most just and Glorious Defender of the Protestant Religion and draw down a Blessing on all other Your Royal Undertakings for which Your Petitioners will ever pray c. Subscribed by the Earl of Kildare Lord Viscount Montgomery Lord Blany and many others To which they received this Answer by His Majesties Command At Our Court at Oxford the 25th of April 1644. His Majesty being very sensible of the Petitioners Losses and sufferings is ready to hear and relieve them as the Exigencie of his Affairs will permit and wisheth the Petitioners to propose what they think fit in particular for his Majesties Information and the Petitioners Remedy and future Security Edw. Nicholas Upon the reading of the Petition His Majesty was pleased to say That He knew the Contents of the Petition to be Truth APPENDIX XII Fol. 142. The Propositions of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland humbly presented to His Sacred Majesty in pursuance of their Remonstrance of Grievances and to be annexed to the said Remonstrance together with the humble Answer of the Agents for the Protestants of Ireland to the said Propositions made in pursuance of Your Majesties directions of the 9th of May 1644. requiring the same 1. Pro. THAT all Acts made against the Professors of the Roman Catholick faith whereby any restraint penalty Mulct or incapacity may be laid upon any Roman Catholicks within the Kingdom of Ireland may be repealed and the said Catholicks to be allowed the freedom of the Roman Catholick Religion Answ. To the first we say that this hath been the pretence of almost all those who have entred into Rebellion in the Kingdom of Ireland at any time since the Reformation of Religion there which was setled by Acts of Parliament above eighty years since and hath wrought good effects ever since for the peace and welfare both of the Church and Kingdom there and of the Church and Kingdom of England and Protestant party throughout all Christendom and so hath been found wholesom and necessary by long experience and the repealing of those Laws will set up Popery again both in Jurisdiction profession and practice as that was before the said Reformation and introduce among other inconveniencies the Supremacy of Rome and take away or much endanger Your Majesties Supream and just Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical Administration of honour and power not to be endured the said Acts extending as well to seditious Sectaries as to Popish Recusants so as by the repeal thereof any man may seem to be left to chuse his own Religion in that Kingdom which must needs beget great confusion and the abounding of the Roman Clergy hath been one of the greatest occasions of this late Rebellion besides it is humbly desired that Your Majesty will be pleased to take into Your gracious consideration a Clause in the Act of Parliament passed by Your Majesties Royal Assent in England in the 17th year of Your Raign touching punishments to be inflicted upon those that shall introduce the Authority of the See of Rome in any Cause whatsoever 2. Pro. That Your Majesty will be pleased to call a free Parliament in the said Kingdom to be held and continued as in the said Remonstrance is expressed and the Statute of the 10th year of King Hen. 7. called Poyning's Acts explaining or enlarging the same be suspended during that Parliament for the speedy settlement of the present Affairs and the repeal thereof be there further considered of Answ. VVhereas their desire to have a free Parliament called reflecteth by secret and cunning implication upon Your Majesties present Parliament in Ireland as if it were not a free Parliament we humbly beseech Your Majesty to present how dangerous it is to make such insinuation or intimation to your people of that Kingdom touching that Parliament wherein several Acts of Parliament have already past the validity whereof may be endangered if the Parliament should not be approved as a free Parliament and it is a point of high nature as we humbly conceive is not properly to be dismissed but in Parliament and Your Majesties said Parliament now sitting is a free Parliament in Law holden before a person of honour and fortune in the Kingdom composed of good loyal and well-affected Subjects to Your Majesty who doubtless will be ready to comply in all things that shall appear to be pious and just for the good of the True Protestant Religion and for Your Majesties service and the good of the Church and State that if this present Parliament should be dissolved it would be a great terrour and discontent to all Your Majesties Protestant Subjects of the Kingdom and may be also a means to force many of Your Majesties Subjects to quit that Kingdom or peradventure to adhere to some other party there in opposition of the Romish Irish Confederates rather than to be liable to their power which effects may prove of most dangerous consequence and we humbly offer to Your Majesties consideration Your own gracious Expression mentioned in the grounds and motives inducing Your Majesty to agree to a
restored to but by the love of his People without the chargeable and many times dangerous assistance of Strangers who are not over-tender nor much distinguishing betwixt the party they come to assist and that they come to subdue when they are made Umpires in such Quarrels for they rarely employ their Auxiliary Treasure and Blood purely out of Generosity and Justice which may in Romance be found the ultimate end of such Assistance but seldom in the truth of History Here it may be observed that if the revolt and deviation of our Nations from their KING and from Monarchy it self was the most unreasonable and prodigious that any Age hath known their voluntary uncompelled Return to both is as much without Example nor indeed could that Return have been so miraculous if the Revolt had not been so prodigious And it may also be worth the observing that as the first most bloody Eruption from Peace to Rebellion took birth in this Kingdom so from hence came the first Overtures to Peace and Submission By and with the Kings deliverance and Restitution our Church is delivered from Contempt Sacriledge and Desolation and restored to a due veneration a competent improving support and to fair beginnings of Decency and Order Our Laws are delivered from corrupt incompetent Interpreters from monstrous unnatural expositions and applications and Justice is restored to the distribution of upright learned lawfully sworn and authorized Judges The noblest Acts of Loyaltie shall now no more receive the judgment due to the foulest Treason due to the unrighteous Judges that pronounced it without Authority in the Persons or Justice in the Sentence High Courts of Justice shall no more usurp that name nor our Benches be crouded or oppressed with the throng and wicked weight of those that ought rather to have stood manacled at the Bar. A happy change to those for whose destruction those extravagant Tribunals were erected and a secure change to all for it hath been often an observed Method in God's never-failing Justice to catch Cruelty and Oppression in those very snares they had prepared for others All Men are delivered from the intanglements of two-edged Oaths from the conflicts raised by them in Mens Brests betwixt Conscience and conveniency betwixt the prostitution of Conscience and the ruine of their Fortunes than which a harder a more Tyrannical choice cannot be obtruded upon Christians For here the election was not Swear thus against your Conscience or you shall have no part in the Civil Government no Office in the Army no Benefice in the Church but Swear thus or you shall have no House to put your Headin no Bread to sustain your selves your Wives and Children To conclude these Observations who is not delivered from some Oppression and restored to some Advantage Even those that shall lose the wages of iniquitie their ill-got possessions shall be delivered from the oppression of a bad and if they have any shall be restored to a good Conscience if they have none they were not in the Kings and I hope will not be in Your care Those that shall be kept out of their ancient Estates the Inheritance of their Fathers through the defect of their Qualifications and by the All-disposing Providence of God who was not pleased to make them active Instruments in this Happy Change are delivered from Tyrannous Confinements causeless Imprisonments and a continual fear of their lives The good Land lies afore them their industry is at Liberty and they are restored to the freedom of Subjects and protection of the Laws If an irish Papist be opprest they shall relieve him if the blood of the meanest of them be shed it shall be strictly enquired after Let this state be compared with that they were in before the King's Restitution and it will be found the greatest loser has got something by it As it is our duty thus thankfully to commemorate these great things done for us so it is our duty to endeavour in our several Stations to improve and secure them to Our selves and Our Posterity And sure the most Natural way to that end is to call to mind and avoid those Errours that brought us into those miseries from which we are redeemed Many are the causes too boldly assigned for the Calamities these Nations so long laboured under But in such Inquisitions the verdict is seldom impartially brought in the Jury are too often the Criminals But I think I may safely say that one and that a fundamental cause was that the late King was maliciously represented to the People I am sure the Freedom Peace Plenty and Happinesses they were told they should enjoy without him proved miserable and fatal delusions Let us mistrust those that shall use the same Arts lest they involve us in the same misery and let us judge of the King's intentions to His People by His Publique Acts of grace and bounty by His mild and easy Government by His desire and endeavours to make His Subjects happy at home and renowned abroad and by the reluctancy of His Nature to just severity when the wickedness or frenzy of the worst Offendors extort it from him That something will be amiss in the Administration of the most perfect Government in this World must be expected but whoever shall think that these things are to be rectified by force upon the Government and that effected proposes to acquiesce and return to Obedience cannot know himself so well as to be sure that Opportunity and success may not suggest more inordinate Appetites to him And there are those alive that know how far further than their first intention the Reformers of our times were led on till the unwarrantable force they had raised grew too strong for their Management flew in their faces and in conclusion acted those villanies that I dare say their Souls abhorred but neither their Policy or Power could restrain VVe have had sad experience and let us be the wiser for it in how short a time in how few days the industry of many years nay of an Age may be destroyed and laid waste when Rage and Rapine are let loose If once Sedition grow too strong for the Law and Rebellion for the Magistrate so that the Law is silenced or the language of it corrupted or invented and the Magistrate removed as burthensom and unnecessary let us remember what variety of misery and mischief is brought upon the people how unsupportable their sufferings are and how Intolerable their fears of suffering they know not what more by whom or how long Let the people remember how many and how chargeable their Masters nay how many and chargeable the changes of their Masters were when once they foolishly affected the misery indeed the impossibility of having none VVhen Misrepresentations had taken place and root in the minds of the people their heart grew narrow and barren towards the King those that soon after rob'd them both perswading them to keep their purses full for them to empty This close
she my Brother the Earl of Antrim hath taken the Castle and City of Dublin having lately moved thither for the same purpose and not to please the Dutchess as was given out and my brother Alexander mac Donnell according to the general Appointment hath taken the Town and Castle of Carrickfergus He the Deponent then asked what they meant to do with those whom they had disarmed and pillaged She said as long as their preservation should be deemed consistent with the publick safety they should injoy their lives when otherwise better their enemy perish than themselves which was but a very cold comfort to a Freshman prisoner as my self was And also said That Sir Phelim O Neil told this Deponent in December last that his stock in money amounted to 80000 sterling wherewith he said he was able to maintain an Army for one year though all shifts else failed And that Captain Alexander Hovenden told him that as soon as his brother Sir Phelim was created Earl of Tyron and great O Neil he wrote Letters and sent them by Friars to the Pope and Kings of Spain and France but would not discover the Contents And further saith That about the first of March last the said Alexander told the Deponent that the Friars of Drogheda by Father Thomas brother to the Lord of Slane had the second time invited Sir Phelim thither and offered to betray the Town unto him by making or discovering the Deponent knoweth not whether a breach in the Wall through which he might march six men a breast The Deponent saw this Friar the same time in Armagh whom Sir Phelim took by the hand and brought to the Deponent saying This is the Friar that said Mass at Finglass upon Sunday morning and in the Afternoon did beat Sir Charles Coote at swords I hope said the Friar to say Mass in Christ-Church Dublin within eight weeks And further Deposed that he this Deponent asked many both of their Commanders and Friars what chiefly moved them to take up Arms They said Why may not we as well and better fight for Religion which is the Substance than the Scots did for Ceremonies which are but Shadows and that my Lord of Strafford's Government was intolerable The Deponent answered That that Government how insupportable soever was indifferent and lay no heavier upon them then on him and the rest of the Brittish Protestants They replied That the Deponent and the rest of the Brittish were no considerable part of the Kingdom and that over and above all this they were certainly informed that the Parliament of England had a plot to bring them all to Church or to cut off all the Papists in the Kings Dominions in England by the English Protestants or as they call them Puritans in Ireland by the Scots And further deposeth That he asked as seeming very careful of their saftety what hope of Aid they had and from whom as also what discreet and able men they had to imploy as Agents to their Friends beyond the Sea They said if they held out this next Winter they were sure and certain in the Spring to receive Aid from the Pope France and Spain and that the Clergy of Spain had already contributed five thousand Arms and Powder for a whole year then in readiness They said their best and only Agents were their Priests and Friars but especially the forenamed Paulo Neil upon whose coming with advice from Spain they presently opened the War and that since the War began in the very dead of Winter he both went with Letters and returned with Instructions from Spain in one Month professing the good Cause had suffered much prejudice if he had been hanged in Dublin And this Deponent further saith That he demanded why sometimes they pretended a Commission from the King at other times from the Queen since all Wisemen knew that the King would not grant a Commission against himself and the Queen could not They being Commanders and Friars said That it was lawful for them to pretend what they could in advancement of their Cause That many of the Garrison Souldiers now their Prisoners whom they determined to imploy in the War and to train others would not serve them in regard of their Oath unless they were made so to believe That in all Wars rumours and lies served many times to as good purpose as Arms and that they would not disclaim any advantage But they said for the Queen in regard as a Catholick she had enemies enough already they would command their Priests publickly at Mass to discharge the people from speaking of her as a Cause or Abetter of the present Troubles And the Deponent also asked Sir Phelim O Neil what his demands were without which his Lordship and the rest would not lay down Arms At first he told this Deponent That they required only Liberty of Conscience But afterwards as his Power so his Demands were multiplied They must have no Lord Deputy great Officers of State Privy Councellors Judges or Justices of Peace but of the Irish Nation no standing Army in the Kingdom all Tythes payable by Papists to be paid to Popish Priests Church Lands to be restóred to their Bishops All Plantations since primo Jacobi to be disannulled none made hereafter no payments of debts due to the Brittish or restitution of any thing taken in the Wars all Fortifications and Strengths to be in the hands of the Irish with power to erect and build more if they thought fit all Strangers meaning Brittish to be restrained from coming over all Acts of Parliament against Popery and Papists together with Poynings Act to be repealed and the Irish Parliament to be made Independent But saith that others told him this Deponent that although all these Demands were granted yet Sir Phelim for his own part was not resolv'd to lay down Arms unless his Majesty would confirm unto him the Earldom of Tyrone with all the ancient Patrimony and Priviledges belonging to the O Neils And further saith that in March 1641. Alexander Hovenden by Sir Phelim's direction sent from the Camp before Drogheda a Prophecy said to be found in the Abbey of Kells importing that Tyrone or Sir Phelim after the Conquest and Settlement of Ireland should fight five set Battels in England in the last whereof he should be killed upon Dunsmore-heath but not before he had driven King Charles with his whole Posterity out of England who should be afterwards profugi in terra aliena in aeternum The Paper it self with the Deponents whole Library to the value of seven or eight hundred pounds was lately burnt by the Scots under the Conduct of the Lord Viscount Montgomery since that Prophecy the Deponent saith he hath often seen Captain Tirlagh mac Brian O Neil a great man in the County of Armagh with many others no mean Commanders drinking Healths upon the knee to Sir Phelim O Neil Lord General of the Catholick Army in Ulster Earl
of Armagh to Drogheda whereof some were of good quality when it was thought he had secret directions to have murthered them twenty more he sent safe to the Newry and would trust no other Convoy then himself It is to be observ'd that all others perished under colour of Convoys except only those whom he undertook At the Deponents Request he saved Armagh twice from burning and would have saved it the third time but that he lay sick of a Fever When he beheld the Ruins thereof but especially of the Church 't is said he wept bitterly saying Who will ever trust the Irish again who have neither kept their promises to God nor protestations to men When he viz. Captain Alexander Hovenden saw Sir Phelim's Warrant for the last general Massacre after the taking of the Newry he solemnly swore he would never draw his Sword again in Sir Phelim's quarrel or cause cursing in his passion the Brittish if ever they spared Irish man woman or child He was desirous to submit himself to the King's mercy upon the Lord Montgomery his protection offering to root out that bloody Sept of the Huges with his own Followers and Arms out of Ireland But the motion was rejected perhaps worse will be admitted He never had his hand in blood out of Battel That this Deponent knoweth he is not yet which may plead some favour full two and twenty years of age and doth not pretend to one foot of Inheritance Dr. Dally preached so vehemently against murthering that in the end he was forced to fly himself for a safeguard of his life Patrick Kelly and Gilduffe mac Tynny would suffer nothing robbed from the Brittish to come within their doors And this Deponent further saith That very many of the Brittish Protestants the Rebels buried alive and took a great pleasure to hear them speak unto them as they digged down old Ditches upon them Except those whom they thus buried they the Rebels buried none of the Protestants neither would permit any who survived to perform the duty for them And further saith That the Rebels would send their Children abroad in great Troops and especially near unto Kynard armed with long wattles and whips who would therewith beat mens bodies about their privy Members until they beat or rather thrashed them off then would return in great joy to their Parents who received them for such service as it were in triumph And further saith If any women were found dead lying with their faces downward they would turn them upon their backs and in great flocks go unto them censuring all parts of their bodies but especially such as are not to be named which afterwards they abused so many ways so filthily as chast ears would not endure the very naming thereof And further saith That many of the Protestants the Rebels would not kill outright but being half dead would leave them intreating for no greater favour at their hands two or three days after but to kill them out-right which sometimes was granted sometimes denied A young youth having his backbone broken was found in a field having like a beast eaten all the grass round about him The Deponent could not learn that they killed him but that they removed him to a place of better pasture so that in these most bloody and execrable wretches that of the Holy Ghost is clearly verified The very mercy of the wicked is cruelty And further saith That the Rebels themselves told him this Deponent that they murthered nine hundred fifty and four in one morning in the County of Antrim land that besides them they supposed they had killed above eleven or twelve hundred more in that County They told him likewise that Colonel Bryan O Neil killed about one thousand in the County of Downe besides three hundred killed near Killeleagh and many hundreds both before and after in both those Counties At Sir Phelim's return from Lisnegarvy some of his Souldiers forced about four and twenty British into a House where they burned them alive whose terrible out-cries they delighted very much to imitate and express unto others and saith that he heard Sir Phelim likewise report that he killed six hundred English at Garvagh in the County of Derry and that he had neither left man woman nor child alive in the Barony of Muntulony in the County of Tyrone and that betwixt Armagh and the Newry in the several Lands and Plantations of Sir Arthur Atcheson John Hamilton Esq. the Lord Cawfield and the Lord Mountnorris And saith also that there were above two thousand of the British murther'd in their own Houses for the most part and that he was informed hereof by a Scotchman who was in these parts with Sir Phelim and saw their Houses filled with their dead bodies In the Glenwood towards Drummore there were slaughtered as the Rebels told the Deponent upwards of twelve hundred who were all killed in their flight to the County of Downe The number of people drowned at the Bridge of Portadowne are diversly reported according as men stayed among the Rebels The Deponent who stayed as long as any and had better intelligence then most of the English amongst them had better reason to know the truth and saith there were by their own report one hundred and ninety drowned with Mr. Fullerton At another time they threw one hundred and forty over the said Bridge at another time six or seven and thirty and so continued drowning every day more or fewer for seven or eight weeks so that the fewest which can be supposed there to have perished must needs be above one thousand besides as many more drowned betwixt that Bridge and the great Lough of Mountjoy besides those who perished by the Sword Fire and Famine in Clanbrazill and the English Plantation adjacent which in regard there escaped not three hundred out of all those quarters must needs amount to many thousands Near unto the Deponents own House six and thirty persons were thrown from the Currbridge at one time at another time eighteen or nineteen at another time six and fifty men women and children all of them being taken out of the Deponents own House and at several other times several other numbers besides these who were drowned in the Blackwater at Kynard In which Town and Parish of Tynon whereof the Deponent was Rector there were drowned slaughtered and died of Famine and for want of Clothes about six hundred And saith he might add to these ma-many thousands more but the Diary which he the Deponent wrote amongst the Rebels being burned with his House Books and all his Papers he referreth himself to the number in gross which the Rebels themselves have upon enquiry found out and acknowledged which notwithstanding will come short of all that have been murthered in Ireland there being above One hundred fifty and four thousand now wanting of the British within the very Precinct of Ulster And the Deponent further saith that it was common
yet the Massacres continued fol. 30 Sir Charles Coot Senior Governour of Dublin fol. 27 his success in Wickle fol. 38 vindicated from the Rebels aspersions fol. 41 beats the Enemy from Clantarf fol. 43 Swords fol. 52 with the Lord Lisle relieves the Lady Offalia fol. 78 takes Trim ibid. is killed ibid. After whose death much was not attempted till the Battle of Ross where the Gallantry of the English and the Life of their General wonderfully appeared fol. 80 Sir Charles Coot Junior prospers against Con ORourk c. in Connaght fol. 50 beats the Rebels in Connaght fol. 76 relieves Athlone ibid. his good Service in Connaght fol. 146 his Reply to the Presbytery at Belfast fol. 207 208 censured for complying with Owen O Neil fol. 217 takes Colrain fol. 218 besieges Carickfergus ibid. routs the Scots in Ulster fol. 229 beats the Marquiss of Clanrickard fol. 284 defeats a Party of Fitz. Patricks and Odwyrs forces fol. 300 streightens Gallway fol. 301 has it delivered to him ibid. impeaches several fol. 316 his and other Officers memorable Declaration ibid. Captain Richard Coot's Service in Connaught fol. 120 Lord Costiloe presents to the State the Longford Letter fol. 34 goes for England ibid. The Covenant or Solemn League disown'd fol. 141 The Supream Councels insolent Letter to the Lords Justices fol. 120 Letter touching the Scots fol. 137 to the Pope touching the Nuncio fol. 154 Col. Crafford beats the Enemy from Finglass fol. 43 his good Service at Kilrush fol. 75 his Service at Monaster even with 1300 foot not 13000 fol. 112 against those who alarm'd Dublin fol. 128 Cromwell appointed the Parliaments Lord Lieutenant in Ireland fol. 209 lands at Dublin fol. 222 storms Tredath fol. 223 takes Trim ibid. Carlingford ibid. Newry ibid. returns to Dublin fol. 225 takes Wexford c. ibid. his Assurance that Mass was not to be allow'd in the Parliaments Quarters fol. 226 takes Ross fol. 227 is beaten from Waterford fol. 229 goes to Dungarvan having taken Passage-Fort fol. 230 begins the Campaign fol. 239 takes Clonmel ibid. disturbs the-Rebels Councel in VVestmeath ibid. is summoned into England fol. 241 to be pray'd for not the King by Popish Injunction ibid. Henry Cromwell goes for Ireland fol. 316 indulges Learning fol. 316 is well accepted fol. 316 yields up all to Steel fol. 316 leaves Ireland fol. 316 The Rise of Custodiums fol. 98 D AN Abbreviate of the Parliaments Declaration of the miserable condition of Ireland fol. 124 The Lord Dillon one of the Lord Justices soon displaced fol. 6 Dowdall's Deposition touching the union of the Pale and the Northern Rebels fol. 39 Dundalk recovered by the English fol. 67 The Lady Dowdall's magnanimous defence of Kilfinny-Castle fol. 87 E UPon Edge-hill fight the Supplies for Ireland fail'd fol. 103 By what means the English proceeded in the Warr from 89 to 92 Ever mac Mahon discovers to the Lord Deputy VVentworth a Plot fol. 2 Exceptions taken against the Irish Commissioners Title and Cause fol. 126 The Excommunication against the Marquiss of Ormond why suspended fol. 268 The Clergy's Excommunication not forcible against the Commons resolve to deliver Limerick to Ireton fol. 295 F FAnning displaces the Maior of Waterford and by the Rebels is made Maior fol. 161 is countenanced by the Nuncio ibid. The Lord Forbes against Gallway fol. 82 Forces going to strengthen Tredath beaten at Gellingston-bridge fol. 37 Under Col. Venables Hnnks and Reynolds land at Dublin fol. 218 A Fast Proclaimed fol. 38 by the King's Order the 8th of Jan. fol. 54 to be observed Monthly fol. 77 Fitz-Gerald Edict stating his Cause App. 8 The Anniversary Form of Prayer for the 23 of Octob. App. 88 The Fate of those who had egregiously fail'd in their Duty to the King in Limerick fol. 300 Fleetwood goes for Ireland fol. 302 encourages the Sectarians fol. 315 Col. Flower 's Regiment reduced fol. 180 disbanded 225 sent Prisoner to Chester fol. 195 G GAlbreth gives security being found to have made fictitious Matters fol. 152 The Garrisons in Munster revolt to the Parliament fol. 228 Geoghehan's Insolency against the State fol. 293 Gibson takes Carickmam fol. 73 goes into VVickloe fol. 83 Glamorgan's Agency with the Rebels disown'd fol. 145 Gormanston General of the Pale fol. 42 Defects of Government happily correed though Carue in his Annals of Ireland p. 389. will have it that the King promoted One in Ireland Ex mero odio in hibernos ad tantam honoris amplitudinem an Expression like himself The Person having been entire to his Principles and Allegiance fol. 16 18 Several Graces vouchsafed to the Irish fol. 6 Sir Richard Greenvile's good Service in Kilrush Battle fol. 75 at Raconnel fol. 105 Ross fol. 109 H SIr Frederick Hamilton's Service at Mannor Hamilton fol. 88 Ensign Hammond first enters Carrickmain fol. 73 Sir Simon Harcourt arrives at Dublin fol. 52 his Expedition into VVickloe fol. 72 death at Carrickmain fol. 73 The Herauld at Arms barbarously used at Limerick fol. 160 King Henry the Eighth's Censure of the Popish Clergy fol. 301 A High Court of Justice erected in Ireland fol. 303 where first instituted fol. 304 cut not off above two hundred Persons fol. 315 I JEalousies arise in the Lord Lieutenants Army when the Munster Garrisons are delivered up to Cromwell fol. 228 The L. Inchequin appointed President of Munster fol. 89 his carriage at the Battle of Lisâ—arrel ibid. and the Munster Forces withstand the Gessation fol. 146 his Letter and Declaration to 150 revolt to the Parl. how taken fol. 151 articled against fol. 168 his good Service at Knocknones fol. 187 Letter to the Speaker fol. 188 joyns with the Marquiss of Ormond fol. 190 his Cessation with the Irish fol. 209 Attempts to bring over Jones fol. 209 beats a Party of Jones's Horse fol. 213 routs Col. Chidley Coot ibid. takes Tredagh fol. 214 beats Farrall fol. 215 takes Dundalk ibid. Trim fol. 217 suspecting Cromwell would land in Munster went there fol. 219 is address'd to by the Irish as One acceptable to his Country fol. 245 leaves Ireland fol. 278 his character fol. 278 Instruments of State not to be censured by every Capacity fol. 3 Intermission of Legal Proceedings against the Papists the cause of the Irish Insolencies fol. 1 Quo tempore Carolus VValliae Princeps in Hispania immorabatur omnes Religiosi Ordinis Pontificiae Religionis sibi domicilia pro divino Cultu celebrando Extruxêrunt quae tamen postmodum jussu Regis Vice-comes Faulkland tum Hiberniae Prorex in Coronae profanos usus convertit So belches Carue in his Annals of Ireland fol. 318 Col. Mich. Jones arrives at Dublin fol. 180 is made Governour thereof and Commander of the Lemster Forces ibid. beaten by Preston fol. 186 gains the Battle at Dungan-hill ibid. his good Service with Monk fol. 187 fortifies Dublin fol. 195 sends several suspected into England ibid. his Answer to the L. Lieutenants Letter fol. 209 L. Inchequin's Letter ibid.