day of the Congregation the Fathers being assembled to hear from their Commissioners Kilfinuragh and Ardagh an account of their last Address on Saturday night to the Lord Lieutenant the Procurator gives them His Grace's positive Commands to dissolve that morning Ardagh on the other side endeavours to make them believe I know not what and misrepresents His Grace's words He is by the Procurator immediately and publickly to his face opposed in his relation 704. That matter being over the Primat seconded by Father Oliver Deesse Vicar-General of Meath and others stands up and in behalf of the House offers the second time to the Procurator Two thousand pounds sterl to bear his Charges for the next three years to come And when the Procurator had on such account refused to receive any money from them the Primat with the rest desires him to receive the said Sum at least for his re-imbursement of what he had already expended in their service the five years past He offers besides all kind of commendatory Letters from the Congregation to the Court of Rome in behalf of the said Procurator All which the Procurator thanking them first refuses and why 705. Three several matters of importance moved then by the Procurator to the Congregation 706. On the First viz. concerning not only Publick Prayers for both the Spiritual and Temporal prosperity of the King but moreover a due observance amongst them and their respective Flocks the Roman-Catholick People of the Publick dayes of Humiliation or Fasts and Prayers which the King or His subordinate chief Governours of Ireland should thenceforth command all His Subjects to observe the Procurator discourses at large 706 707 708 709. On the Second viz. concerning the famed wonder-working Priest Father James Fienachty he discourses far more largely in the Account given by him then of the said Father Fienachty to the Congregation 710. and from thence to 735. On the third viz. concerning two Books written by two Irish Churchmen the one a Jesuit the other a Cappuccin against the Rights of the Crown of England in or to Ireland he discourses 736. and from thence to 742. What the Fathers determined on the first of those three matters 709. What on the second 739. What on the third and last of them 741. The Secretary of the Congregation his Letter to the Procurator from Rosse of the 7th of July viz. a Fortnight after the Congregation had been dissolved 742. The Congregation dissolved ib. Lord Lieutenant's Declaration of the experience he had for twenty years of the Roman-Catholick Irish Prelates made to Ronan Magin Vicar-General of Dromore and to the Procurator the very same morning the Congregation dissolved 743. His Grace commands the Procurator to tell the Bishops of Ardagh and Kilfinuragh He would speak to them before they departed the Town and why 744. Kilfinuragh removes his Lodging flies out of Town and privily out of the whole Kingdom though he might have stayed without any hazard there having been no harm intended to him 744 747 748. The Lord Lieutenant understanding that Kilfinuragh could not be found sent William Sommers to leave an Order at the Lodgings both of the Primat and Ardagh in case he could meet neither at home enjoining them not to part out of Town without His Grace's leave 744. Within a few dayes more He sends the Procurator to tell the Primat of some dangerous Intelligence come against him from beyond Sea Soon after the said Primat is put under a Guard but within a very little time more according to his own election sent safely away through England from Dover to Callice in France 746. Ardagh freed from all Confinement ib. Both he and all the rest of the Members of the Congregation even after 't was ended and however they carried themselves in it were free to depart whithersoever they pleased and live where they would in Ireland onely the Primat excepted and he also excepted onely because of the positive information come against him out of Spain from the English Ambassador there Pag. 747 749. The Procurator's judgment of the said National Congregation leading Members thereof and of their several interests and ends 749 750 751. How presently after that National Congregation had dissolved the Doctrine of Allegiance in those Fifteen several Propositions or Paragraphs which you find in this Book immediately after the end of the Fourth Treatise pag. 80 81 82 83. was debated for a Month by a number of Divines convening daily at Dublin and in the same place where the foresaid National Congregation sate 752 753 754 755. The Names of the Divines that debated so the said Fourteen Propositions 755. Animadversions on and Answers to two passages of a late Letter viz. of the 6th of Octob. 1669. from the Bishop of Ferns at Gaunt to the Procurator at London The former passage this Father Peter Walsh is said to have used fraud and force in the Congregation of the Clergy at Dublin anno 1666 and that he kept an Anti-Congregation of his own Faction I saw a Relation sent over of that I saw also severe Lines of a great Cardinal to that purpose The latter this viz. It was ill taken by all That after Cardinal Franciscus Barberinus 's Letter in His Holinesse's Name to the Clergy he viz. Father Peter Walsh no way lowr'd his Sail but remained obstinate and insolent I likewise saw a great mans Letter I mean a Roman termed him and Caron Apostates 756 757 758 759 760 761. The Death-bed Declaration of the said Reverend Learned and Pious Father Redmund Caron ib. Another likewise but of the Right Reverend Father in God that excellent man Judicious Prelate and Loyal Subject Thomas Desse Lord Bishop of Meath who dyed at Galway in the year 1651. 670. A Paper of Animadversions on the insignificant Remonstrance of the foresaid National Congregation written by the Right Honourable the Earl of Anglesey now Lord Privy Seal and by himself given to the Lord Lieutenant 762. The Lord Lieutenant's commands on that occasion to the Procurator These and some remembrances also of other matters relating to the said Earl of Anglesey i. e. of some kind indulgent words upon a certain occasion spoken by his Lordship of the former and Loyal even Ecclesiastical Remonstrators and of his further intentions relating to them declared to His Grace the Duke of ORMOND then Lord Lieutenant were at least one moyety of the most immediate inducements the Author i. e. the said Procurator had to write this Book 763 764 c. In the Second Treatise Which contains Exceptions against the Remonstrance of the National Congregation c. THE National Irish Congregation varied in their Remonstrance of the year 1666 not only as to single words but as to entire clauses and their sense in the most material parts from the former Protestation subscribed by those others of the Irish Clergy and of the Nobility also and Gentry at London in the year 1661 S. V. And varied so of set purpose
Caesar we are tyed to clear if from imputation and professing it also a Rule that we will follow in our affections it seems altogether inexcusable if we startle at any engagement within the verge of Regality wherein our Allegiance is payable And therefore in the Circumstances you seemed to stand in to free the Holy Catholique Faith on one side from obloquies and redeem your selves from calumnies and on the other to relieve the Layety under your charge from heavy pressures and further to open a dore to your liberty of Religion we must needs judge you have performed the Office of good Pastours both in framing and subscribing your Allegiance to the Prince to hold forth to the whole whole world your Religion pure and spotless your Allegiance built on a basis immoveable and your selves well resolved Subjects For our parts we would be glad to runn into those occasions even with the hazard of our lives or the loss of our last drop of blood to worke out our freedom from the severity of our penal laws much more would we think it happy to gain it with the renounce of an Opinion which justly brings a jealousie upon us from our Prince and fellow Subjects and in the judgement of the chief Assertours of it of no greater note then to bring along with it the pains of Damnation to those of their party that speak preach or print it as appears by a written paper have published by themselves Wherefore that you may see how we stand affected were this Declaration of yours tendred us by Authority in lieù of what otherwise we lye under we should willingly embrace it considering it as well singles out the loyal Subject from those of the bad Principle as reduces the erroneous into the number of penitents My Lord The Apostolical advice to give none the least offence in our Ministry but to preserve our selves blameless to all sorts of people and the Church of God is the sole pardon I can plead for this entrench upon your patience well knowing your imployments speak you a follower of the Apostles by being a Servant to all persons in all things not seeking your own but the Countryes profit that they may be saved in which common concerne I shall be ever ready to runn your Lordships ways being subject to the laws of the same holy Church and Dread Soveraign whom God long preserve whose most loyal Subject I will ever remain and My Lord Your Lordships most humble servant in Christ Iesu Humphry Ellice Dean of the Chapter London October 18th 1662. XXII Much about this time also William Burgat Vicar General of Imly and Custos as they call him of the Diocess of Limerick came from the Province of Munster to Dublin of purpose to speak to the Procuratour about his own and the common affairs of all the Clergie both of that and the Province of Connaght For this Gentleman hearing in August before that the Procuratour was arrived from London writt him presently a very civil letter expressing much loyalty to the King and affection to the Lord Lieutenant And his letter was seconded with a good character given of him then to the Procuratour by persons of Interest and knowledg in that Province of Munster the Earl of Clancarty and Iohn Walsh Esq By that letter the said Father Burgat let the Procuratour know himself had been deputed some three or four years past in the Protectors tyranny and by the Clergie of that Province as entire Agent for themselves to Rome about their Ecclesiastical affairs and by those of the Province of Connaght also joyned in commission with an other one Doctor Cegan for themselves That money to bear his charges could not be had until about that time of His Majesties most fortunat Restauration That seeing the great and happy change he demurr'd on the matter until the Earl of Clancarty's first comming to Ireland That having communicated unto his Lordship what he intended he was advised by the said Earl not to stirr till he had seen and been advised by Father Walsh the Procuratour And that therefore he vehemently now desired to meet him about Kilkenny or where else he would appoint But the Procuratour having answer'd with desires of his comming to Dublin and meeting there Father Burgat came at last along to Dublin Where notwithstanding the Procuratour spent much time informing him for 6. dayes consequently of the causes and ends of the Remonstrance and that the said Father Burgat averred constantly that he neither found any thing in it could not be justly owned nor heard any in his own Province hitherto speaking otherwise or one word against it yet whether perverted by such obstinate persons of the Dublin Clergie as he conversed with daily then or whether byass'd by his own former intrigues and principles received at first and retayned still after from his Bishop when alive Terlagh O Brien a Prelate of too much violent zeal for the Nuncius's quarrel and further yet by his pretensions at Rome and his entended journey thither he would not sign at all then or there at Dublin pretending for excuse that being he came from the whole Province of Munster to be informed he would have the greater power to perswade them all generally if he returned back without preingagement and the less if otherwise Desiring nevertheless the Procuratour to write by him to the chief Vicar General or Apostolical as they call him Iohn Burk of Cashil to be communicated to the rest concerning that matter of the Remonstrance and their subscription Which the Procuratour did but never had answer from either For it seems Mr. Burgat who by all means declined nay expresly refused to be presented to my Lord Lieutenant though invited often to it by the Procuratour because my Lord so lately had seen his letter and heard that good character of him given by my Lord Clancarty and Mr. Iohn Walsh and was commission'd as above by two Provinces judg'd it better for his own private ends to have nothing to do in that business at least not to appear for it Which was the reason also he did not acquiesce to so many pregnant reasons given him by the Procuratour against his undertaking such a journey to Rome at least as an Agent or publick person representing both or either of those Provinces Albeit he was so farre convinced by such reasons as to promise the Procuratour he would only go as farre as Paris to leave there some youths at School and thence return immediately with purpose to alleadg new and probable difficulties met with and so excuse himself to the Clergie that had employed and given him money which otherwise he must have restored back and yet not so neither or by only restoring their money without going over Seas excused himself with any colour being they so long depended of him But in this promise also he failed For he went along to Rome and there sollicited ever since and lost both his money and time without
for other good reasons the Procurator returning to the Congregation is received with extraordinary great demonstrations of contentment But finding they had Sign'd onely the three first of the Six Sorbon Propositions he reasons and expostulates with them at large on that point On their new promise to Sign the other three if the Lord Lieutenant were not otherwise satisfied with them and at their special desire also he subscribes last of all to the Parchment Roll of their own new Remonstrance and subscribes I mean as their Procurator viz. thus Father Peter Walsh Reader of Divinity of St. Francis 's Order Procurator of the Catholick Clergy but having first openly declared unto them that as this Remonstrance of theirs did in it self signifie a meer nothing so it would prove accordingly to them in point of benefit from the State 682. Why special notice taken here by the Author of the Procurator's subscribing so his name at their desires to that Instrument viz. as Procurator of the Catholick Clergy ib. He waits on the Bishops of Kilfinuragh and Ardagh that Night to the Lord Lieutenant as the Deputies from the Congregation to present to His Grace their new Remonstrance their Three Propositions applied c. and their Petition ib. Tenour of their Petition And their Remonstrance also with all their hands to it 683 684. Their Three Propositions Sign'd onely this first time viz. in behalf of the rest by the Primat Kilfinuragh the Chairman and Redmond their Secretary 685. Lord Lieutenant by His third Message on the 18th of June and 8th of the Congregation answers to the foresaid Petition and Address of the 16th of June He takes notice that there are yet three material Propositions of those of Sorbon or Paris omitted by them and that the same number of Hands are not to their Second Instrument which is to the First 686. The Procurator shews at large by manifold and evident Arguments that the other three of the six Sorbon Declarations which they had omitted or delayed to Sign were both as material to the purpose and not only might but ought as well be appropriated or applied to His Majesty and Kingdom of Ireland as the former three were ib. The Chairman and Father Nicholas Nettervil of the Society even the very man that but two dayes before was the first who offered to the Procurator as from the Congregation that they would Sign all the Six of Sorbon oppose him vehemently declaring themselves above-board endeavour to shew a disparity especially on the Subject of the Fourth Sorbon Declaration and extol the French King with tacit Reflectâ—â—n which every one understood The Procurator replies and both strongly and orderly refutes all they had answer'd He 〈◊〉 seconded by Angel Golding Dâ—â—â—â—â— of Divinity and by John Talbot of the Society Pag. 687. As 〈◊〉 at the Procurator withdrew for everyday when the Debates were over or than he had find all he thought fit to speak his custom was to withdraw of purpose to have them as the greater liberty in their Resolves the factious multitude set on by the said Chairman and Father Nettervil to whom you may add the Bishop of Ardagh without hearkning to any reason bear down immediately the other side and vote no Subscription of the three remaining Sorbon Declarations applied c. 688. They order a Committee to draw another Petition to the Lord Lieutenant together with a Paper of Reasons why they would not Sign any of the Fourth Fifth or Sixth of those Declarations of Sorbon John Burk Vicar-Apostolick of Cashil and Cornelius Fogorty D. V. J. being deputed by as offering themselves to the Congregation to present this Petition and Paper without any hand to either do accordingly present them to His Grace on the 20th of June being the 10th day of the Congregation ib. The said Petition and Paper of Reasons in terminis 688 689. On the 21 of June and 11th day of the Congregation the said Burk and Fogorty render an account of their success i. e. of their reception by and answer from the Lord Lieutenant Which was such that at least the major part of that Assembly was not a little troubled but more especially the Primat who thereupon first sharply rebuking John Burk and then immediately converting himself to the Procurator entreat him in the name of all the Fathers that he would go to His Grace and obtain for them three dayes more to continue their Assembly in order to satisfie His Grace The Procurator goes and brings them presently what they desired They gave 〈◊〉 689 691. The Procurator moves for a Select Committee Ardagh cryes out No Commitâ—â—â— This being put to the vote by stroaking the Procurator staying within carries it Doctor Daly's publick exception against the Procurator's stay within the House on the time of voting viz. that he took away their liberty of speaking answer'd by the Procurator who nevertheless of his own free accord withdraw In his absence the contrary Faction render the former Vote insignificant by naming such a Committee and Chairman thereof as they were sure of The Procurator hearing this and thinking to remedy it by his own presence in the this Committee was denied entrance by the Bishop of Ardagh the Chairman of it 6â—0 Next day being the 22d of the Month and 12th of the Congregation that excellent Committee having brought in their report and the Speaker of the House Andrew Lynch Bishop of Kilfinuragh applauding them and taking then occasion to magnifie again the French King c. at last the major part of the House is by such means unfortunately persuaded to Vote the second time against any Subscription of the three 〈◊〉 of the Sorbon Propositions ib. The Procurator presently after this entring the House sharply reproves the Speaker calling him he was unworthy to sit in the Chair c. and whâ— followed on that This Coâ—â—â—st being over a clear Instrument of the three First of the Six Sorbon Propositions being produced they all Sign'd it onely Nine excepted amongst which Nine Father Nicholas Nettervil * Hereby correct what you find amiss or mistaken in the Third Treatise pag. 29. concerning Father Nettervil's Signing these three First Sorbon Declarations is our and his Provincial another ib. This Instrument verbatim with all the Subscribers 69â— â—95 On the Twenty third of June and Thirteenth of the Congregation Kilfinuragh and Ardagh present the Lord Lieutenant this Instrument as it was subscribed by all at the Procurator thought but not by all it was found after They excuse their not Signing of the other Three Sorbon Declarations c. 695 696. An expostuâ—â—ry Letter Sign'd by 18 of the Subscribers of the former Remonstrance delivered to the Chairman and read in the House and to what purpose 679 and from thence to 703. What the Procurator declared to all the Congregation after he had seen the said Letter read and heard their Answer to it Pag. 703 704. On Monday morning the 25th of June and 15th and last
the first example by subscription of their loyal principles And that they should not think of any other form but of that already subscribed or at least of none which came not home as fully as that in all respects as to the sense if they would needs alter the words The Bishop of Meath by Letters of the 6. of October 62. and the Vicar Apostolick of Dublin by his also of 27. of September 62. and some other Vicars General from several parts answered the Procurator with complements only and put offs to a General or National meeting of the Clergy which they pretended to desire as they further pretended a necessity that the Procurator should prevail with His Grace the Lord Lieutenant for his permission and this too under his Graces hand for such a meeting not giving any assurance or promise at all as much as of their own endeavours of a general or as much as of their own particular concurrence to that was demanded of them if such a licence could be obtained The Franciscan Chapter seemed to be to little concern'd in that business that they did not as much as treat once or debate in publick of it Only their Provincial Father Docharty after private communication with some of them writ back to the Procurator that he and others of the most leading men would meet him after Christmass in a place near Miâ—â—â—ferâ—an in Westâ—â—â—li some fourty miles from Dublin to conferre of that matter and other things XVII But the Dominicans though to no great purpose debated it publickly in their said Chapter Father Iohn Reynolds the bearer of Father Walshes Letter to them having first declared to his Provincial there That himself and some others of his Order had already subscribed The opposition was fierce and violent of most especially of some on pretence that the doctrine of the Remonstrance was point-blanck contrary to the position of St. Thomas of Aquin the Angelical Doctor and Director of al their Schools and whose doctrine their Masters had sworn to maintain And the said Father Reynolds found none to second himself but Father Clemens Birne Prior of Villanova or Newtowne an old Monastery in Ulster and County of Downe who there declared himself positively and one more besides the Prior of Slige Father Felix Conox who likewise but timorously declared that he saw no evil in that Remonstrance The result was to frame one of their own Albeit the Franciscans complained soon after of them grievously therefore or as attributing that form they pitched on there to their Dominicans Order or making use thereof as such which was none of theirs but framed by the Franciscans as intended for and in the behalf of themselves But however this be or be not I am sure the contest was ridiculous For this new form signified a meer nothing whoever was Author thereof And yet this Chapter of the Dominicans although told so publickly there by some of their own members would needs flatter themselves and hope to abuse my Lord Lieutenant with it as if His Grace did not understand English words or knew not how to distinguish twixt general unsignificant expressions and those special ones were proper to come to the purpose Wherein least they should be mistaken as they were told they were at last they came to this final issue That in case my Lord Lieutenant would not accept of this their new form and that His Grace would peremptorily expect their subscription to the Remonstrance sign'd at London their Provincial Prior Iohn O Hart should by common consent of all the Chapter be impowered to call together after their dissolution and when the Dukes answer were known four Priors of the next adjacent Convents Father Felix Connor Prior of Sligo Father Richard Madan Prior of Porâ—umna Father William Burke Magister Theologiae Prior of Rathbranum Father Iohn Birn Prior of Roscommon and together with these four to determine of their subscriptions to the first Remonstrance and finally to resolve pro or con whether they should subscribe that or no And that all the rest of the Religious of that Order in Ireland should effectually conform to such their determination whatever it should be Hereupon they framed signed and sent their Letter and Remonstrance inclosed therein by the said Father Reynolds to His Grace and their Provincial another from himself in all their behalf to the Procurator But out of too much wariness and because they foresaw their said letter or Remonstrance would not be acceptable as not comming at all to the purpose and dwelling only in generals and unsignificant expressions and having no real purpose as their carriage ever since proved sufficiently they had not to come at any time thereafter unless by compulsion and fear to any other truly material they would not annex to their several names their several titles of Priourships or of the places or Convents whence they had their denomination and where they resided fearing that if they had they might be looked after and found out the more easily their own conscience or knowledge of their own resolution making them so to apprehend fear where there was no fear at all as the Psalmist sayes The tenour to a word of both or of their said letter subscribed only by 〈◊〉 hands in the behalf of the rest and Remonstrance therein enclosed but subscribed by them all who were 24 besides the said Father Iohn Reynold who singled himself in that of such application or subscription from them because he had already for himself and those others of his way done much better I give here as I will hereafter all other the several though alike unsignificant Remonstrances offered by others that the Reader may throughly see the intrigue and satisfie himself by knowing so many particulars of it For his Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant general c. Gracious Sir LEast our silence in this desired and most happy time wherein his Sacred Majesties Subjects strive to manifest their loyaltie unto their natural King and Soveraign Charles the Second should draw upon us any suspicion prejudicial unto our Loyaltie to him or give waye to his sometimes and still our adversaries to brand us with the vile spott of any disloyaltie we the whole body of St. Dominicks Order in Ireland do present unto your Grace the inclosed Remonstrance ready to seal and sign the same with our dearest blood most humbly desiring it may be as favourably accepted by your Grace as cordially presented by those who will never cease to pray for your Grace his good preservation and prosperitie Gracious Sr. Your Graces humble Servants F. Iohn Hart Provincial F. Lawrence Kelly Diffinitor F. I. Burgate Diffinitor F. Eugenius Coigly Diffinitor F. Richardus Maddin Diffinitor October the 15. 1662. The humble Remonstrance of the Dominican Friers in Ireland WHereas the Divine natural and human law dictates that all Subjects should heartily congratulate the prosperity and felicity of their natural King it is most just that all the Irish
compassing as yet any of his designs XXIII Likewise about the same time the R. R. Father in God Iohn Burk the Catholick Archbishop of Tuam very aged infirm and sickly and looked upon as not able to live one year longer came unexpectedly from St. Maloes and in my Lord Lieutenants absence arrived at Dublin privatly accompanied with father Thomas Quin the Jesuit and another of that Society in whose power and under whose directions this aged venerable Prelate wholy was The Procurator having done his first respects of visit to his Lordship desired to know his cause of venturing so confidently without acqainting first and having by some way addressed himself to my Lord Lieutenant and understood of some connivence for his return Minded him of the carriage and proceedings all along of the Clergy and especially of the Bishops of Waterford and Iames-stown That although his Lordship carried himself fairly and loyally in opposing the Nuncio even to his face at Galway and forced open the Church there which the Nuncio would have to observe his Interdict other Censures that he had sided all along with the Cessation supream Council at Kilkenny in that business and further too in concluding the second Peace yet he could not forget how he sullied all his former glory by his after unfortunate sitting and concurring at Iames-stown with other Bishops to those disloyal Declarations made there That he had not since by any publick or private application to His Majesty or Lord Lieutenant or by submission and repentance declared to either washed of the stain of that scandalous horrid transgression nor given any assurance of his more loyal carriage hereafter That yet both were of absolute necessity from a Prelate of highest rank such too as for example and for the satisfaction of God and men should be publick That he should therefore petition for himself and by his example induce the rest of the Irish Clergy to do the like and most humbly beg pardon for the time past and for the future sign that Remonstrance whereof to that end he had in France from London a sufficient account All which and much more to this purpose the Procurator humbly and earnestly minded him of even sometime in the presence of the above Father William Burgat Vicar General of Imly The good Archbishop heard him all out both attentively and patiently enough without sign of displeasure but return'd no other answer then That he was now so broken with age and many diseases of body that his mind also or understanding was no more of any kind of strength or capable to discern what he was to do in that or other things That he was for the matter dead already That he ventured this journey from France by Sea all along for otherwise he could not of purpose only to die and lye down at rest in his grave native soil That he would not have been to bold as to land at Dublin but that he supposed my Lord Lieutenant away thence in the Countrey at that time as it happened and that he might be carried away privatly to his own Province of Connaght without any further noise of his arrival or knowledge thereof given to my Lord Lieutenant And that being his Grace the Lord Lieutenant was now returned to Town he desired the Procurator should most humbly present his most submissive respects and make that true Apology for him of the design of his coming and desire of being connived at for so short a time as he had to drag a miserable life and end it by a death more welcome which he daily expected But the Procurator saw well enough that how infirm soever this good Archbishop was in body yet he had still sufficient apprehension and this excuse proceeded from the Fathers by whom he was led of late in all things perswading themselves his behaving himself so would give both countenance and authority enough amongst Catholicks not to themselves alone but to all others of the Clergy in denying or opposing a subscription which he had so declined That his name or extraction and his known affection sometimes formerly to the King and English Interest we 〈…〉 himself sufficiently of entertaining other scruples in that matter then those of religion and reverence to the See Apostolick And his quality of Archbishop and the only then of that Nation and Religion at home and the only moreover known to have formerly declared against the Nuncio would be a strong confirmation thereof at least might be a very probable excuse for all others of inferior degree until he had declared himself on the point All which and the use thereof notwithstanding the Procurator did well enough perceive and foresee yet he could not help having done his own duty But however advised this good Archbishop to retire as he did immediatly in a litter to Connaght where he remains ever since guided still by the same Fathers as wholly in their power The sequel whereof shall be seen hereafter in its proper place or second Part of this Narrative XXIV The Procurator therefore and by several other arguments seeing now certainly where the first obstruction to a further progress lay which should be removed and seeing that albeit the Fathers of the Society were but a very few in Ireland and most of them in or near Dublin yet their correspondency both at home and abroad especially at Rome was look't upon by most of the Pretendents in or Dependents of that Court and their own confidence withall in themselves was great partly because they had so dexterously behaved themselves in the Nuncio's quarrel that as they were perswaded much could not be objected to them on that account and partly for other causes and for that in particular of their extraction generally as for that also of some powerful Relations of some of them and albeit he saw well enough at the same time what influence the example of the Dublin Clergy in general both Parish-priests and Religious Orders of which Orders there he had only yet won the Franciscans and two of the Dominicans but none at all of the Augustinians Carmelits Cappuccins or Jesuits no more then he had none of the Parish-priests who were four or five and together with the said Regulars made fifty Priests or there abouts in that City albeit I say the Procurator saw well enough what influence the example of the Dublin Clergy in general would have upon the rest abroad in other parts of the Kingdom and that it would be to no great purpose but altogether vain to expect a concurrence from these if those had refused even there where the Lord Lieutenant and Council and Parliament sate and where notwithstanding the Dissenters had as much favour or freedom tolleration or connivence or whatever else you call it as the Subscribers and that on the other side the Dissenters had the advantage of the Subscribers at Rome and with the Generals of Orders beyond Seas of whose special favour
Green and Preston and last of all the most laborious and learned Latin Work In fol. of Father â—edmond Caron entituled Remonstrantia â—â—bernorum which is to be had in Dublin at Mr. Dancer the Booksellers in Castlestreet and which alone may serve for all the rest And then a Gods name such of them as pretend scruple in point of conscience if any of them do yet for I am perswaded certainly it is no more but a bare pretence and I know there are scarce any that alledge even such pretence or any thing at all of conscientiousness in the matter but meer temporal considerations let them determine as conscience not as worldly and mistaken interests shall direct them XXXVI Now to return whence I have so long digressed Soon after â—â—e said papers received and the former answered in writing as you have seen and the latter by word of mouth as you find here upon several occasions the Procurator being somewhat earnest with Father Shelton the then Superiour of the Society for his final resolution because some others of that very Society desired him to be so earnest alledging their own delayes was that only of knowing his resolution pro or con and promising they would themselves even in case of his denyal subscribe nevertheless immediatly Father Shelton having first convoked to Dublin from several parts such as he thought fit to consult with came at last to the Procurators Chamber and without further debate about the merits of the cause told him briefly and positively they would not subscribe that Form nor any other determining the main Question that is any disowning a power in the Pope to depose the King or absolve his Subjects from their allegiance in temporal affairs because said he this was a matter of right controverted 'twixt two great Princes Yet they would frame one of their own and such as became them to subscribe Upon which he departed But the Gentleman that accompanied him one of his own Society Father Iohn Talbot who had often before treated of the same matter and promised his own concurrence with several others of his Order whatever the Superiour did told the Procurator in his ear as they were parting that Father Shelton had not rightly delivered the result of the rest But nevertheless being soon after demanded the performance of his own former and free promise excused himself also until he had seen or known it was expected by my Lord Lieutenant himself that they should subscribe of that their subscription was required or desired by his Grace and not by the Procurator only Wherein desiring further to be satisfied the said Superiour Father Shelton and with him two more of the Society Father Thomas Quin and Father Iohn Talbot being called upon waited on his Grace having first sent to the Procurator their own Form or that which they would subscribe even this you have here The Jesuits first Remonstrance Declaration or Protestation of Allegiance AS we do acknowledge King Charles the Second to be our true and lawful King and rightful Soveraign of Ireland and all His Majesties Dominions So we confess our selves to be in conscience obliged to obey His Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs and notwithstanding diversity of Religion in Him and us We protest we are and during life shall be as loyal to his Majesty as any of his Subjects whatsoever and as either in Spain or France the Catholick Subjects are to their respective Kings and will be ready to detect and discover to His Majesty and to his Ministers whatsoever Treasons or Conspiracies shall come to our knowledge yea and expose if need be our lives in defence of his Majesties Person and Royal Authority and that by no Power on Earth whether Spiritual or Temporal we shall be moved to recede from any point of this our Allegiance and we further from our hearts detest for impious Doctrine and against the Rules of all Christianity to averr That any Subject can murther his Anointed King or Prince though of a different Faith and Religion and much more we abhorr as damnable the practice of that wicked assertion But being told by the Procurator it signified a meer nothing not even as much as a bare absolute or positive acknowledgment of the King to be King much less any thing of the cases controverted as that of the Popes pretended power to depose the King or even of his actual procedure to a deposition excommunication dispensation with or absolution of Subjects from their Allegiance whether he have such power or not they changed that their first Form and prepared this other which themselves delivered my Lord on the 4th of December 62. The Procurator being present and Father Quin speaking first as one formerly known to his Grace and one to that sign'd with seven other Catholick Divines of Dublin the lawfulness and tye upon Catholicks to resist the Irish Forces headed by the Nuncio when the Confederats rejected the peace of 46. and were drawn to besiege Dublin The tenor of their second form was this The Jesuits second Remonstrance Declaration or Protestation of Allegiance WE acknowledge His Majesty King Charles the Second to be our true and lawful King supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and all other His Majesties Dominions We acknowledge our selves bound in Conscience to obey his Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs and notwithstanding the diversity of Religion in Him and us we engage that during life we shall be as loyal to his Majesty as any of his Subjects whatsoever and as either in Spain or France the Catholick Subjects are or ought to be to their respective Kings and shall be ready to expose if occasion shall require our lives in defence of His Majesties Person and Royal Authority and no power on earth shall move us to recede from any point of this our Allegiance We shall be ready to detect and discover to his Majesty and his Ministers whatsoever Treasons or Conspiracies against his said Majesty shall come to our knowledge We detest from our very hearts that impious doctrine which averreth that any Subject can murther his anointed King or Prince though of different judgment in religion and we abhorr the damnable practice of that wicked assertion Their answer was then from his Grace that he would consider of it next morning That if it came short of the printed one as to the substance or sense they could expect no benefit thereby That it was in vain to use any distinctions or reservations That when he thought fit to act in this matter as the Kings Lieutenant he should not repute any person worthy of his Majesties protection that would not acknowledge the Royal Power independant from any but God alone That notwithstanding Father Quin insisted so much on the loyalty of his own Order in the late controversies and wars of Ireland yet he could not forget how the chief person of them Father Robert Nugent was a great Mathematician at Killkea when
of purpose only that they might with the more colour of some religious and conscientious pretext both refuse it themselves and diswade others from it and being the men whose example had most influence of any others on all especially on the Nuntiatists throughout Ireland of what calling soever the Procuratour went so farre to meet them as themselves desired and met them with the more willingness so farre off from Dublin to the end they might not alleadge the place to be such as allowed them less freedom to speak plainly their mind grounds or reasons against that Form which they decryed so much For he hoped they would enter into some dispute with him of it in point of religion faith of conscience as to the lawfulness or unlawfulness of it in such respects being many of them and their party pretended amongst the illiterate or ignorant they were averse to it only on these accounts But he found them otherwise resolved then to examine it by the rules of Religion or conscience For although he stayed with them three dayes and nights and gave them provocations enough in publick to speak against it if any thing they had to say alleadging to them for it reasons both divine and humane both weighty and manifold nay and telling them at last That for his own part he was really perswaded in his conscience the contrary doctrine was not only erroneous but in it self heretical albeit he would not therefore decline communion with any yet all could not worke as much as one argument from them either from Scripture Tradition Fathers Canons or natural reason nothing at all but meer silence in answer to all and besides that nothing els but the objection of some two or three words as not being reverential enough as to the matter only of wording and the expectation of a Censure against it from Rome The Procuratour answered them to the first that the Catholicks of England who drew that Form as may be seen in Father Cressy's Exomâ—logesis were cautious without exception to word their sense so as they could not be quarreld against by any on that account That there was more danger in their excess of reverence and observance of the Pope and of his power then in their detect even by expression of words That it was not the words but the sense would be quarreld against at Rome That likewise it was not this or that individual or specifical word but the true and full sense in whatever words was expected from them by the King or State if they liked not those words which the best masters of the English tongue the Catholicks of England and after them those of their own Irish Clergie and the Nobility and Gentry also of their Nation at London had already made use of And therefore since they professed they bogled not at the sense they would do well to draw it fully in their own words but such as expressed that cleerly and without equivocation or other kind of reservation Which if they did he would undertake my Lord Lieutenant would receive it graciously and represent it to His Majesty as the same in effect with that others had given before them in other words Having nothing to reply to these answers the Provincial took pen in hand presently and desired the Procuratour himself to assist and help him with other words instead of the words Pope disclaim renounce c. Which the Procuratour doing Father Thomas Makiernan whose learning was that of the Papal Canons as having been bred in Spain a Canonist interceded and confess'd at last that for his own part he could not resolve yet to come home to the sense And the rest desired some respit until next Easter promiseing that if by that time no Censure came from Rome against the Form of 61. they would subscribe it This Father Peter Gennor said positively to the Procuratour and none opposed it but Father Makiernan somewhat doubtfully However they all entreated the Procuratour that he would in the best manner he could in the mean time excuse them to His Grace the Lord Lieutenant Now the reason why they desired this respit was that themselves as the chief contrivers had employed last Summer both from themselves and from the Bishop of Meath Antony Mageoghegan and some Vicars General Father Iohn Brady a Franciscan over Seas of purpose to sollicit a Censure both from the Vniversity of Lâ—vain and from Rome too by the intervention of those of their party there especially by the credit and authority of the Internuntio of Bruxels and they expected both infallibly before Faster Nor were they frustrated in their expectations in part I mean as to a Censure from Lovain though none to this day from His Holiness if they will not unjustly call the private letters of the two Bruxel's Internuntius's de Vechiis and Rospigliosi or those others of Cardinal Francis Barberin a Censure from Rome Which every man sees they cannot but very unjustly tearm a Roman Censure or a Censure of His Holiness or by his authority so done or notified that any one at all is bound to take notice thereof For they wanted all both the formalities and essentials of a Censure from His Holyness as from His Holiness in the quality of Pope determining any matter as they wanted likewise the essentials of a sufficient publication if nothing els were wanting Besides it is a maxime with Canonists that in praejudicium Tertii credit is not to be given to the letters of even Cardinals for what relates to the mind will or judgment of His Holiness if they produce not authentically their commission And lastly it is manifest out of those very words which Cardinal Francis Barberin relates in his Second letter which you shall have in the second Part of this Treatise as the command of His Holiness to Him that His Holiness never censured nor mean'd to censure any point or passadge of that Remonstrance of 61. but intended only the Cardinal should warn the Clergie of Ireland not to confound the civil obedience due to the King with that spiritual observance is due to the See Apostolick And who sees not that to distinguish both or the one from the other is the main drift of well observed in that Remonstrance XL. But for asmuch as these Franciscan Fathers used these delayes of purpose to have the more colour to excuse themselves from signing when they had the return they expected from their said Agent by Easter I thought fit to give here a copy of that Instrument which they or the chief of them and others with them gave him under their hands when they sent him away to worke all the intrigues he could against both that Remonstrance and subscribers of it but above all against the Procuratour It was as followeth translated out of the Latin The Instrument sent by Father John Brady and signed by Antony Ma Geoghegan Bishop of Meath and by some other few men of the Franciscans chieflly as Francis Ferral
to concurr unto and obey Hereupon presently without further debate for none at all scrâ—â—◠〈◊〉 the catholickness or lawfulness such scruples having been sufficiently 〈◊〉 before clear'd amongst all persons of reason and conscience as many as were at that meeting and had not subscribed at London put their hands to a clean copy of that which was before signed by the Nobility and Gentry at London and others that could not be present then subscribed in their Chambers Both these and those in all were eight Lords and twenty three Esquires Collonels and Gentlemen The Earl of Clanrickard The Earl of Castle haven The Lord of Gormanstown The Lord of Slane The Lord of Athenry The Lord of Brittas The Lord of Galmâ—y Henry Barnawel now Lord of Kingsland Sir Andrew Aylmer Sir Thomas Esmond Sir Richard Barnawel Philip fitz Gerrald Nicholas Darcy Francis Barnawal Sir Henry O Neale Nicholas White George Barnawal Richard Beling W. Talbot Iohn Walsh Michael Dormer Iohn Bellew of Wellistown Patrick Netervil Robert Netervil Charles White Coll. Walter Butler Coll. Thomas Bagnel Gerrald fitz Symons Robert Devoreux Coll. Iames Walsh Edmond Walsh Gerrald Fennel And being joyned to the London Subscribers of the Irish Nobility and Gentry they make in aâ— one hundred and twenty one whereof one and twenty Earls Viscounts and Barons XLIV But these Noblemen not thinking they had by their own only subscriptions done enough in this matter unles they had invited the rest of the Peers and Gentry of their communion where-ever in the Countrey abroad throughout Ireland to the like loyal concurrence framed the ensuing Letter and signed two and thirty copies of it one for every County in the Kingdom to get all the hands of the rest of the Catholick Noblemen and Gentlemen where-ever to the said Remonstrance Sirs THe desires we have to serve our King Countrey and Religion in all just ways gives you the trouble of this Letter Which is to let you know That after serious deliberation finding our selves and together with us all others of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom as well as the Clergy of it obliged by all the rules of Reason and tyes of Conscience in the present conjuncture especially to concurr even by subscription to the late Remonstrance and Protestation presented Last Summer to his Majesty by such of our Irish Roman Catholick Noblemen and Gentlemen as were then at London and subscribed it there and received so graciously by Him We have therefore this last week given a beginning here at Dublin to that concurrence by our own manual Subscriptions also to the same Remonstrance prefixing to it a Petition to His Grace the Duke of Ormonde Lord Lieutenant for â—iâ—veighâ—ng our said Concurrence and representing it to His Majesty That reflecting on the unsignificancy of a few hands or subscriptions for attaining those great and good ends â—e drive at by this loyal and Religious Declaration we thought it concerned as further to invite by special Letters all the rest of the Nobility and Gentry of our Communion in the several Provinces and Counties of this Kingdom to the like Subscriptions to be transmitted to us hither without delay Whereunto we have found our selves the rather bound that we certainly know it is expected from us all by his Majesty and by the Lord Lieutenant and that his Grace doth wonder why the example of the first Subscribers at London hath not been here at home more readily and frequently followed hitherto by the rest who are no less concerned And that we know moreover that by the neglect or delay this twelve months past of a more general Concurrence to a duty so expedient and necessary we have let pass already fair opportunities to reap very many advantages by it That we hope the same prudential Christian Catholick and obvious reasons which perswaded us and such others as before us did give the first example from London will prevail with you no less Being they import as much as the clearing of our holy Religion from the scandal of the most unholy tenets or positions that can be taught written or practised the assuring his Majesty evermore of our loyal thoughts hearts and hands for Him in all contingencies whatsoever and the opening a door to our own liberty and ease hereafter from the rigorous laws and penalties under which our selves and our Predecessors before us in this Kingdom of Ireland as other our fellow Subjects of the Roman Communion in England and Scotland have sadly groaned these last hundred years That as we believe you will not think we would for even these very same ends how great and good soever nor for any other imaginable swerve in the least title from the true pure unfeigned profession of the Roman Catholick Faith nor from the reverence or obedience due unto his Holiness the Bishop of Rome or the Catholick Church in general so we believe also you will rest satisfied with the plain evidence of the very words genuine sense total contexture and final scope of this Protestation and of every entire clause thereof that nothing therein no part nor the whole of it denies 〈◊〉 indeed at all reflects on the spiritual jurisdiction authority or power of either Pope or Church or any power whatsoever which we you or any other Catholicks in the world are bound by any law divine or humane or by the maximes of our known and common Faith or by the condition of our Communion to assert own or acknowledge the whole tenour of it asserting only the supream temporal power in the Prince to be independent from any but God alone and the subjection and allegiance or the fidelity and obedience either active or passive due to Him in temporal affairs to be indispensable by any power on earth either temporal or spiritual That finally we do upon consideration of all the premisses and what else your own reasons may deduce thence and give further as additional arguments very earnestly desire and pray your unanimous cheerfull and speedy subscriptions to the said Remonstrance and Protestation which we have sent along with this Letter and by the hands of whom we have likewise prayed to call such of you together as he may conveniently or go about to your several dwellings for that end And if any chance to refuse the signing of it which we hope none will to bring us a true list and exact account of such together with the signatures of the rest that the multitude may not lye under prejudices for the failing of some Which being all we have to trouble you with at present commending you to God we bid you heartily farewell Dublin this 4th of March 1662. Your very loving friends and humble Servants Castlehaven Audley Clancartie Carlingford Mountgaret Bryttas Clanrickarde Fingall Tirconnell Galmoye Slane XLV And questionless if these copies had been sent then as was design'd there had been all the hands of the Nobility and Gentry in the Kingdome to the Remonstrance before
Catholick Faith and holy Scripture and the said Authors also to be therefore not onely hereticks but Arch-hereticks and which was consequent condemning likewise not onely the book it self of Marsilius and Iandunus out of which those articles were extracted but all other writings whatsoever containing the same articles adding moreover yet and commanding for a perclose of all that whoever and of what dignity order condition or state soever should thenceforth presume to defend or approve the said doctrine he should by all others be accounted of as a heretick I say that these onely five assertions which you have now read in the latin text and in their own proper tearms being those articles against which and no other assertions at all this thundering sentence of Iohn the XXII was pronounced at Auenion an 1327. as Spondanus tels of the year though he gives us no part of the Bull X. Calend. Nou. and on the VII of the same Calends and year sent in an other Bull bearing this last date to the Bishop of Woster to be published in England therefore we may conclude it will be an easy matter to ruine the above third remaining objection For passing by at present all the general advantages I might take of the doctrine and firm grounds of the doctrine which teacheth the fallibility of all sorts of Papal definitions as such or as meer Papal definitions without the joynt approbation of a general Council or of the Church it self in general be the Pope that defines whoever you please so he be not or was not any of the immediat Apostolical or Evangelical Colledg of Christ our Lord and passing by too all the specifical and particular advantages I might otherwise justly take against all the definitions of this very individual Pope Iohn the XXII as such more then against any definitions of most other Popes as being he that was himself so notoriously tainted with the heresy which holds none of the Blessed see God nor shall see him before the day of general judgment that he had immediatly before his death prepared a Bull to declare so much and define it as an Article of Faith and in his death bed retracted his opinion in this particular no further then onely to submit it to the Church and as being he that so contrary to both former and later definitions of former and later Popes especially of Nicholaus Quartus in cap. exiit de verb. signif in 6. and Clemens V. in Clementina Exiti de Paradiso set out his three Extravagants 1. Ad conditorem canonum 2. Cum inter and 3. Quia Quorumdam whereof the first and last cannot be reconciled at all not even in Bellarmine's judgment l. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 14. to the said former definition of Nicholas the Fourth or sayd later of Clement the Fift however the said Iohn himself and in his said first and last Extravagant and Ioannes de Turrecremata l. 2. Sum. c. 112. labour mightily to reconcile them but all in vain and as being he moreover against whom Gulielmus Occâ—mus that great Franciscan Doctor and Prince of the Noâ—â—inals writ his special book or Tract entituled Contra triginta duos errores Ioannis Papae XXII and finally as being he or the Pope against whom and from whom that famous general Representative of the whole Franciscan Order throughout the world or their General Chapter at Perusium in Italy held under their Minister General Michael de Cesenas appealed in their own name and in the name of their said whole Order to a future General Council of the universal Church charging him with strang errors and other miscarriages if not crimes of the highest nature against all the State of Christendom passing by also the special exceptions which may be offered against this very Bull in particular whereof we treat now above other Bulls or more then against any other Bull Decree Declaration or Extravagant of this very Pope viz that being as Spondanus writes Marsilius de Padua alias Marsilius Menandrinus born in the City of Padua and Ioannes Iandunus of Perusia condemned in this Bull were the first learned Councils in point of law or divinity or both whereof the Emperour Ludovicus de Bavaria made use and the first learned Doctors who appeared for him in writing to justifie his quarrel and his imperial rights against so many thundering sentences of excommunication deposition c. pronounced by the same Pope Iohn XXII and prosecuted by him even all his life after inexorably against this Emperour and not onely by him but by his two next Successors Benedict the XII and Clement the VI. even for 33. years continually the whole extent of time wherein the said Lewis maugre all the opposition of the said three Popes one after an other vigorously defended the legality of his own election to and possession ever after of the Empire until his death and being it was in defence of such election and possession and consequently of both the Electoral and Imperial powers independence from the Pope as also in reproof of the usurpation of Popes upon the Empire and particularly of the said Iohn the XXII that Marsilius writ and publish'd his own book an 1324. directed to the said Lewis of Bavier the subject of which book was the Imperial and Papal jurisdiction as the title was Defensor Pacis and that Iandunus also writ and publish'd an other of his own de Potestate Ecclesiastica therefore the above given Bull of Iohn XXII and it in particular above any other Bull of his at least next to that other one or those moe whereby he both excommunicated and deposed the said Emperour Lewis and yet further declared his own plenitude of even supream temporal power to dispose of the Empire as he thought fit is at least for some parts of it most rationally subject to a well grounded censure of its being though indirectly a new devise and an other product of that vehement and obstinat passion of his against the same Lewis's person and even against all the Imperial power it self whatever person challeng'd or had it and of its being the most truly effectual and most speciously Papal means he could fix upon to take away all support from Lewis and to justifie his own procedure against Lewis passing by moreover that which concerns the legal or canonical both publication and reception of this Bull generally in Christendom or in any considerable parts of Christendom or whether indeed either was as he desired both should be as much as throughout France it self where he resided albeit the King of France then was sometimes an enemy to Lewis as at some other times he professed to be his friend or as much as in England notwithstanding his direction of it to the Bishop of Worster being we know that Edward the 3d then of England was mostly in league with Lewis of Bavier against the French King and was moreover by the same Lewis created Vicar of the Empire in the tract of Low countries
stile onely of the address changed for the Province of Ardmagh was to the foresaid Dr. Patrick Daly himself as exercising the exiled Archbishop and Primate Edmund Reilly's Jurisdiction over the whole Province of Ardmagh containing in all ten Diocesses to wit Ardmagh Clogher Dune Conâ—er Derry Raphoe Kilmore Ardagh Meath and Cluaâ—macnoise Fourth Letter to the foresaid James Dempsy as likewise during the vacancy exercising Metropolitical Jurisdiction in the whole Province of Leinster i.e. the five several Diocesses of Dublin Kildare Leighlin Ferns and Ossory all those Sees being then vacant except onely Ferns the Bishop whereof Nicholas French having retired in the War-time about the year 1650. and as yet in 1665. living in S. Jago of Galicia in Spain thought not fit to return home to his charge in Ireland without first having obtained His Majesties or the Lord Lieutenants Licence to that purpose Fifth Letter was to another John Burk then Vicar-Apostolick of the Archiepiscopal See of Cashil in Munster to be in the same manner as the other Letters were to be to those of other Provinces respectively communicated to the several Vicars-General of all the vacant Sees under the Jurisdiction of Cashil which are Imly Waterford and Lismore Cork Rosse Cluan Limmerick Acadensis in Kerry Killaloe and Finiborensis or Kilfinuran in Tomond For albeit the Bishop of this last See was then as he is still alive yet being in France and so in effect vacant his Vicar-General was to have particular intimation As for all and every of the other Sees of the Province they were absolutely vacant their Bishops being all dead before that time whereof the last was Robert Barry of Cork who also however in former times an earnest zealous Nuntiotist upon receipt of Letters and Books from London in the year 1662. giving an account of the Remonstrance approved it as you have seen before Sect. V. page 13. of the First Part of this Treatise Sixth Letter was to Antony Docharty Minister Provincial of the Franciscans the most numerous Order in Ireland as being even at that time so soon after the Tyranny of the late Usurping powers at least 400 at home besides those not only in their own Irish Collegiate Convents at Rome Prague and Louain but dispersed in other Convents amongst the Native Italians French Spaniards Germans c. in the several Kingdoms States and Nations of Europe Seventh Letter to John O Hairt Prior Provincial of the Dominicans the Order for number in that Kingdom next to the Franciscans even at that time being near 200. Eighth Letter to Stephen Lynch Prior Provincial of the Augustinians or those called Hermits of St. Augustine in all about an Hundred Ninth Letter to _____ Sall Superiour Provincial of the Jesuits some 25 or thereabouts in number Tenth Letter to Thomas Dillon Prior Provincial of the Discalceat Carmelites much about the number of the Jesuits or rather not so many Eleventh Letter to Gregory Mulchonry Commissary or Superiour of the Mission of Cappuccins making in all about some Twenty or near Twelfth Letter to _____ Abbot of _____ Superintendent of the Monks of St. Bernard's Order in all a few Titular Abbots Nine or Ten perhaps or thereabouts who served in some Parishes as Curates or Parish-Priests But who that Superiour of theirs was I do not remember now yet remember notwithstanding that one Father Bartholomew Fitz-Gerrald titular Abbot of Baltinglass appeared in the Congregation and none other of them As for the Calceat Carmelites there was but one onely of them in the Kingdom as of the Chanons Regular of St. Austin but peradventure three or four Titular Priors and then officiating as Parish-Priests tyed to the Cure of Souls in one Parish onely for those others then at home in Ireland called Titular Priors of some of the anciently great and rich Monasteries of the Order of Chanons Regular we know to have been onely such by Commendam as not otherwise professed Chanons but onely Priests of the Secular Clergy who had got Bulls from the Pope to be Priors of such or such of those rich Cloysters hoping one day or other to enjoy the Revenues of them Of this sort I knew one and but one yet withal such an one as truly was unworthy the name not only of Prior but even of either Chanon-Priest or Clerk Others said they knew two or three more such in other remote parts of the Kingdom I mean such as to the Title of Commendatory Priors though not as to the indignity of their persons or qualities however otherwise for parts obscure enough And in the last place for what concerns the Benedictin Monks who if I had ranked the Orders according to their Antiquity should be together with those Chanons-Regular Treated of before any of the Mendicant Orders they were not known to be above two or three in the whole Kingdom if so many Which paucity and withal obscurity there and then of these three Orders lastly Treated of viz. Calceat Carmelites Chanons Regular of St. Augustin and Monks of St. Benedict's Institute was the reason there was no particular Letter of intimation to them or any of them But for the Bishop of Ardagh himself who sign'd the Letters being he was to reside constantly in Dublin where the Congregation was to meet and that he pretended no Jurisdiction over any other Diocess but his own of Ardagh he would have none to himself but excused that needless trouble of having a Copy written and sign'd for himself promising nevertheless to acquaint his own Vicar-General and Clergy with the tenour and purpose of such Letter And for the other Bishops then surviving and remaining in forreign Parts viz. Edmund Reilly Archbishop of Ardmagh and Primat of all Ireland Nicholas French Bishop of Ferns and Andrew Lynch Bishop of Kilfinuran they were only by the Procurator's own Letters or perhaps moreover by some Duplicats of that to Tuam to be acquainted with the whole design and transaction of it and to be so invited home to that National meeting if themselves should think fit to venture coming and the Procurator promise them protection or a safe connivence from the Lord Lieutenant Those Twelve Letters and some Duplicats also of that to Tuam being at last sign'd by all four and by their own proper hands and consequently even by James Dempsy himself the most reluctant of all and so reluctant verily that after expressing his consent as being over-rul'd yet he declined signing all he could and therefore chang'd his Lodging and writ a Letter excusing himself as necessitated to depart suddenly out of Town but withal pretending that he would Cemmission some other to sign in his name although being found out and the originals sign'd by the other three brought to him he could not for shame but sign also with his own hand as he did then presently those original Letters and Duplicats I say being so sign'd and endorsed and by the said Bishop of Ardagh sealed with a flying Seal being also ordered by
doth not swerve from the square of Sacred Canons from the consent of great Divines and Canonists from the practice of most Catholick Nations and amongst the rest of England before the Schism without controulment of the Clergy nay we are undoubtedly possessed the Law of Nature which is above all Canons doth approve and command it so strictly as we cannot otherwise answer the Trust reposed in us when by our negligence herein the Lives and Fortunes of the Confederate Catholicks would be exposed to most inevitable and evident danger Given at Kilkenny Castle the Third day of June 1648. and in the Four and twentieth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Mountgarret Athunry Donboyne Lucas Dillon Rob Linch Rich Barnewall Rich Everard Rich Bellings Patr Gough John Walsh Gerrald Fennell Patrick Brian Robert Deuereax George Commin GOD SAVE THE KING 6. That next Winter following the General Assembly of all the Three Estates of the Confederates being conven'd from all parts of the Kingdom at Kilkenny in order to conclude the Second Peace or it called the Peace of 1648. with His Majesties Lord Lieutenant and great Commissioner the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond as they did indeed before that year ended conclude it they took into their special care to second the foresaid publick Declaration of the Supreme Council and that by another as publick of their own fix'd up publickly to the great Gate as the manner was of their Assembly-house and to several other places in Town under the hand of their Speaker Sir Richard Blake In which Assembly Declaration and Act the Estates amongst other things took notice first of the designs of the rebellious Clergymen especially Regulars who even contrary to the Oath of Association took part with the Nuncio Owen O Neill and others proscrib'd by publick and lawful Authority to hold meetings and celebrate even Provincial Chapters in the woody mountainous boggy or other unaccessible places possess'd by Owen O Neill and that too partly nay principally of purpose to proceed against those other good and loyal Churchmen who for His Majesties service obeyed the Supreme Authority of the Confederates yea to displace and deprive them of their respective local Superiourships Guardianships or other offices and to name Malignants in their stead And therefore in the next place they strictly commanded all such rebellious Out-lawed Ecclesiasticks of what dignity or title or office soever at their utmost peril not to hold any kind of Meeting or Chapter upon any account whatsoever And Thirdly also they no less strictly enjoin'd all and every the loyal Ecclesiasticks and on their Allegiance to the King and likewise at their utmost peril commanded them not to assemble with nor receive or obey any Summons Orders Precepts Sentences Institutions Destitutions Statutes c. of or from all or any of the adverse party but to continue their respective offices and other matters as formerly until His Holiness or other general Superiours beyond Seas should upon or after full information send persons duly qualified and empower'd to rectifie all abuses and punish in their way according to their demerits those fire-brands of rebellion and civil War 7. That accordingly all Ecclesiasticks adhering to and obeying the said Supreme Authority behaved themselves but more especially those of the Franciscan Order being they were above others concern'd forasmuch as Father Thomas Makiernan their Minister Provincial and his Diffinitory all and every of them declared Enemies to and by the said Supreme Authority had within Owen O Neill's Quarters presumed to hold a Chapter or Congregation intermedia as they call it and therein authoritatively as much as in them lay displaced all the loyal Guardians throughout the whole Province and order'd Malignants to succeed them 8. That by such means used and care taken that year 1648. the loyal Ecclesiasticks of Ireland then came to be and continue still so numerous until they got the upper hand in all parts even amongst the common people and quite run down their Adversaries and so for what belongâ—d to them enabled the very same foresaid Supreme Council and General Assembly to reduce that Irish Nation once more unto their due obedience to His Majesty by treating and concluding as they did within a few Months after the second Peace or that of 1648. with His Majesties foresaid great Commissioner 9. That after this Peace concluded and the Government thereby placed in and executed by the said Commissioner the Duke of Ormond as under the King Lord Lieutenant those same loyal Ecclesiasticks having in all respects the same countenance and protection from his Excellency which was before given them by the Confederate Council and Assembly witness in particular among an hundred other examples which I could alledge Father Redmund Caron come and sent from Flanders as upon the Letters and Complaints of the foresaid Council and Assembly delegated by the Highest power general then of the Franciscan Order the most Reverend Peter Marchant of purpose to reform the abuses of his Order in Ireland and either to reduce or depose the rebellious Provincial and Diffinitory they I mean the above loyal Ecclesiasticks encreased daily more and more both in number strength and credit until the two Sieges of Londonderry and Dublin had been raised and the fate of Rathmines happen'd and Cromwel with a great Army landed and the strong Sea-towns of Munster betrayed and Droghedagh and Wexford stormed and Rosse taken and the repulse at Carrig and the treachery at Waterford and Owen O Neill with his Forces being rejected by the Parliament of England condition'd but too late with and submitted to the Lord Lieutenant and Owen O Neil dying at the very time the Bishop of Clogher Ewer mâ—â— Mahoâ— made General of the same Northern Army Then it was that the Nuntio party of the Ecclesiasticks being on the late submission mix'd with the Royalists reassum'd new courage and gain'd ground by sowing new divisions and playing over again their former Game Then that after the Appeal to Innocent the Tenth sent to and prosecuted at Rome by Father John Roe Provincial of the Irish Carmelites the same Nuntio partty first began to speak big and Triumph also in that Court the said Father Roe without any satisfaction or positive answer being forced to leave off his prosecution and depart if not steal away privily viz. when the news of Rathmineâ— and the consequences thereof had been with so much gladness and excess of joy come to and proclaimed in Rome Then it was that all means and devices had been ordered there to make use of the present occasion of the Royals Powers declining in Ireland for either the reduction or destruction of the Anti-Nuntiotist Irish Ecclesiasticks as being the time expected when these could have but little or no support from a tottering Government a Government undermin'd hourly by its own seeming friends and therefore even professed Subjects and at the same
must run under the notion of unlawful and consequently besides other inconveniencies render our persons subject to the penalties of the Law I doubt not but that when ye undertake to convoke your Brethren to meet ye are very sure of my Lord Dukes connivence But what if Phanaticks Souldiers or some malignant person or persons taking no notice thereof should even to displease my Lord Lieutenant himself molest honest People Might not this happen very well when nothing appeareth openly to warrant our meeting That it may is very clear witness what has been done to the poor Franciscans in Dublin on or about Christmas anno 1663. notwithstanding their pretended connivence which to this day that I could ever learn availed not one F. Tully apprehended in that occasion And when people had not this president before their eyes such as having been Prisoners some time are now Bailed upon Bonds to appear at a certain day after they are summoned will be very shie to concur to a meeting wherein they may expose not only themselves to forfeiture of their Bonds but also such as are engaged for them to danger of great losses Further I am satisfied That if the distractions of this War newly declared betwixt us and France had occurr'd at the time of your meeting in November ye would not without my Lord Lieutenants special permission in scriptis offer to expose the chief of our poor Clergy to the mercy of many that have but little or no affection for our wayes For though our intentions were never so good the ill affected might as often they have done it with less ground misconstrue them and plead that our meeting was to brew mischief and to contrive a way to draw in the French to assert and support Popery in this Land And why should not they suspect some sinister dealings when they see People assemble without Authority and in this conjuncture of a Settlement wherein most of our Natives have but little of satisfaction whether right or wrong I offer these Reasons to your Lordships and my other worthy Friends considerations praying That ye be pleased to hammer upon them very seriously before ye persuade people to that which is conceived danger Things done without mask and above board are more acceptable and less subject to Calumny Let us have my Lord Lieutenants safe conduct and I am sure all will concur with hearts and hands to pleasure His Majesty and his Grace too or any other that may doubt of our Loyalty His Grace cannot deny this if he wisheth our meeting and less notice will be taken of his granting thereof now for a good end than may be of his interposing his Authority for us after in case of any trouble or disturbance such as we may not but fear My Lord I plead not for my own self herein I onely speak what I judge to be according to reason and discretion It is well known I may not hazard my self in that meeting as that am scarce able to peep out of my Chamber much less to undergo so long a Journey as hence to Dublin Moreover when more active and stronger my propension to Loyalty was so well known that I hope my Lord Duke will not suspect my integrity in my old Age. I ever loved to live in peace and so still contributed my best endeavours to forward it Now there is nothing under Heaven that in my judgment may stand with a safe Conscience but I shall be very apt to embrace to give my King and His Lieutenant all becoming satisfaction I will expect your answer to the premises and timely notice whether the above mentioned pass or safe conduct will be granted In the mean time wishing the Holy Ghost in your counsels and consultations I beg a share in your holy Prayers and Sacrifices for My Lord Your Lordships most humble Servant Jo Archiepiscopus Tuamon 1 March 1665. POSTSCRIPT Inasmuch as of all likelihood besides a Remonstrance of our Loyalty other matters will be debated in the above meeting of ours if it taketh effect I shall desire that your Lordship be pleased to let me have the Heads of all whereby people that have not means to stay long in Dublin may have time to digest leasurely their resolution against that occasion and so hasten I conceive this necessary and to be sent to each of those that are expected in that meeting This Letter should have been in your hand ere now but it chanced to have had a lett by the way that occasioned its return to my self again Now I send it by the Post 13 March 1665. As soon as this Answer came to Ardagh's hands his Lordship was pleased both to shew and leave it with me having taken with himself along and enclosed in his own Reply to the Archbishop a fair Copy of a Petition which to satisfie such pretended Scruples I drew to be Signed by the Archbishop himself and the four other Prelates who had subscribed the Indiction The tenour of that Petition was as followeth To his Grace the Duke of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant General and general Governour of IRELAND The humble Petition of John Burk Archbishop of Tuam Patrick Plunket Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Daly Vicar General of Ardmagh James Dempsie Vicar Apostolick of Dublin and Capitulary of Kildare and of Oliver Dese Vicar General of Meath in their own behalf and that also of all other Bishops Vicars General and Provincial Superiours of regular Orders of the Roman Communion in Ireland HVmbly sheweth That your Petitioners finding the Professors of their Religion in this Kingdom and especially the Clergy to lie always under many jealousies and suspitions of disloyal intentions towards His Majesty or State Government and Peace of this Kingdom by reason partly of their supposed or known actings either of all or some of them in the late unhappy War and partly of some Tenets of Religion relating to the Government or power of Government which they are supposed likewise by some to hold and by reason also of their so long demurring these three or four last years upon a Concurrence by subscription to a Remonstrance of Loyaltie subscribed and presented at London to the King and your Grace by the Catholick Bishop of Dromore and some other Divines and by the Nobility and Gentry of their Nation and Religion then at London as after by some others also of the said Irish Roman Catholick Clergy Nobility and Gentry at Dublin and finally by reason of divers though in your Petitioners judgment very groundless reports of several Plots contrived or designed by them since His Majestie 's happy Restauration but very particularly at present by occasion of the Forraign War declared by the French King against our Gracious Soveraign and his Dominions as withal by occasion of this last report though extreamly vain of a Plot amongst the said Irish Catholicks against the English as pretended to have been thought to be put in execution the last St. Patricks day in this very month And
confidently as if they had with them the most fully and clearly and satisfactorily Loyal Instruments could be framed even Instruments in every respect home to the point expected from them after a short Harrangus such as it was delivered by the Bishp of Kilfinuragh as the Congregations Chair-man presented to his Grace both the Original Parchment Roll opened and the other annexed Original Paper whereof before as they were signed by the proper hands of the Fathers But his Grace having received these Instruments and layed them by on his Table answered only in a very few words That after he had read and considered of their Petition and Instruments they should hear further from him And so his Grace dismissed those first Deputies of the Congregation It remains therefore now to end this Section that for the Readers fuller satisfaction I give here an exact Copy of both the foresaid Congregational Instruments with such Titles prefixed as the Originals have but first a Copy also of their Petition The Congregation's Petition delivered by the two aforesaid Bishops on June 16. 1666. To His Grace JAMES Duke of ORMOND LORD LIEVTENANT General and General Governour of Ireland The humble Petition of the Romish Catholick Clergy now met in the City of Dublin THE Petitioners do most humbly and thankfully acknowledge the favour your Grace hath done them in the allowance and permission of a Meeting in this City of Dublin at this time by which they have had the opportunity of a Free Conference together and the happiness to have concurred in a Remonstrance and Protestation of their Loyaltie to His Majesty wherein they resolve Inviolablie to continue which they beseech your Grace to accept from them and represent to His Majesty the rather that it was so unanimously agreed to as there was not one dissenting Voice in all their Number This is their prayer to your Grace for whom and whose Posterity they will as obliged always pray The Act of Recognition as I call it commonly to distinguish it from the former of others in 1661 or the Remonstrance and Protestation of Loyalty as they term it in their above Petition Signed by the National Congregation of the Irish Roman-Catholick Clergy in 1666 and delivered likewise June 16 by the same Bishops to His Grace as from and by direction of that Assembly To the King 's most Excellent Majesty CHARLES the Second King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. VVE Your Majesties Subjects the Roman-Catholick Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland together assembled do hereby declare and solemnly protest before God and His Holy Angels That we own and acknowledge Your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supreme Lord and undoubted Sovereign as well of this Realm of Ireland as of all other Your Majesties Dominions consequently we confess our selves bound in Conscience to be obedient to Your Majesty in all Civil and Temporal affairs as any Subject ought to be to his Prince and as the Laws of God and Nature require at our hands Therefore we promise That we will inviolably bear true Allegiance to Your Majesty Your lawful Heirs and Successors and that no power on earth shall be able to withdraw us from our duty herein And that we will even to the loss of our blood if occasion requires assert Your Majesties Rights against any that shall invade the same or attempt to deprive Your Self or Your lawful Heirs and Successors of any part thereof And to the end this our sincere Protestation may more clearly appear We further declare That it is not our Doctrine that Subjects may be discharged absolved or freed from the Obligation of performing their duty of true Obedience and Allegiance to their Prince much less may we allow of or pass as tolerable any Doctrine that perniciously and against the Word of God maintains That any private Subject may lawfully kill or murther the Anointed of God his Prince Wherefore pursuant to the deep apprehension we have of the abomination and sad consequences of its practice we do engage our selves to discover unto Your Majesty or some of Your Ministers any attempt of that kind Rebellion or Conspiracy against Your Majesties Person Crown or Royal Authority that comes to our knowledge whereby such horrid evils may be prevented Finally As we hold the Premises to be agreeable to good Conscience so we Religiously Swear the due observance thereof to our utmost and will Preach and Teach the same to our respective Flocks In witness whereof we do hereunto Subscribe the 15th day of June 1666. Edmund Archbishop of Ardmagh Primat of all Ireland Patrick Bishop of Ardagh Andrew Bishop of Kilfinuragh Procurator to the Lord Archbishop of Tuam and to the Reverend Fathers Richard Scis Vicar General of Killalla and Maurice Corghcar Vicar General of Aconry James Dempsy Vicar General Apostolick of Dubliâ— He might have added too and Vicar Capitulary of the Diocess of Kildare John Burk Vicar General Apostolick of Cashel Denis Harty Vicarius Apostolicus Laonensis Patricius Daly Vicarius Generalis Ardmachanus ac Procurator Rapotensis Oliver Desse Vic. Gen. Midensis Terence Fitz-Patrick Vicar General of Ossorie Robert Power Vicar General of Waterford and Lismore c. Dominick Roch Vicar General of Corck Connor Fogorty Proctor of Ardfert and Achdeo Nicolas Redmond Vicar General of Fernes Teig O Brien Dean of Lismore and Parson of Dungarvan John Deoran Proctor for Father Charles Nolan Vicar General of Laghlin Thomas Higgin Vicar General of Elphin Ronan Magin Vicar-General of Dromote James Phelan Doctor of Divinity Parson of Callan Dean of Ossory Protonotary Apostolical Thomas Lacy Substitute of Limmerick Father Francis Fitz Gerrald Proctor of the Vicar General of Cluon George Plunket Divine Daniel Kelly Vicar General of Cluonfert James Killine Vicar General Duacensis Edmund Teig Vicar General of Cloanmacnoise Owen O Coigly Procurator Derensis Patrick O Mulderig Vicarius Generalis Dun. Connor Thomas Fitz Symons Divine for the Province of Vlster Thady Brohy Divine for the Province of Leinster Doctor Angel Goulding Divine for the Province of Leinster John Nolan Master of Arts Divine for Leinster Dorby Doyle Batchelor of Divinity of the Province of Leinster Edmund O Deoran Magister Ordinis Melitensis Charles Horan Divine of the Diocess of Elphin in the Province of Connaught Constantine Duffy Vicar General of Clogher John Hannin Substitute and Official of Imly Fr Peter Walsh Reader of Divinity of St. Francis 's Order Procurator of the Catholick Clergy Andrew Bishop of Kilfinuragh Chairman Fr John Hart Provincial of the Order of Preachers and a Divine for the Province of Connaught Fr Stephen Lynch Provincial of the Order of St. Augustin and a Divine for Connaught Fr Antony Docharty Provincial of the Franciscans Andrew Sall Superiour of the Society of Jesus in Ireland Fr Thomas Dillon Vicar Provincial of the Discalceat Carmelits Fr Bernard Barry Lector Jubilate of the Order of S. Francis Fr John Brady Lector of Divinity Fr Dominick Martin of the Order of
to proffer so much in writing by a publcik Act of their Congregation i. e. by signing the paper to that purpose offered them to be signed unless besides other prejudices and evils which their proceedings hitherto must if not remedied by new Resolves bring of necessity on all the Roman-Catholick both Clergy and People represented or lead by them they intend also to sowe the seeds of a perpetual scandalous and fatal Schism amongst that very Clergy and People These being the heads of what we think necessary to be so debated and our desires and Petition of a Committee and Conference to such end being no other than we likewise think every indifferent Person will hold to be very reasonable in the present circumstances we have moreover thought fit to assure the Fathers That in case they convince us by reason or argument which may take with any judicious indifferent Person we shall most freely and resignedly submit to them in all and every of the controverted Points So little are we byassed against that Light which God hath imprinted on every rational Soul nay on the contrary so resolved are we to hold perpetually to the best of our knowledge to the Rule of Christian Belief which we conceive to be now or as to us and all other faithful men living the Holy Scriptures of God as they are interpreted by the constant unanimous universal Tradition of the Church and Doctrine of all the Holy Fathers even for Ten whole entire Ages of Christianity until the days and Vsurpation of Gregory the VII But if notwithstanding all and particularly so fair an offer the Congregation shall which God forbid suffer themselves to be either misguided or over-awed and over-ruled still by those persons amongst them who seek not the good of either Nation or Religion but their own peculiar worldly interest every one of them and this even knowingly to the prejudice of Evangelical truth and Propagation or Confirmation of both Schismatical and Heretical Errours or if to pleasure such persons the Congregation will not condescend to a desire so earnest and reasonable a Petition so equitable and humble for such a necessary Committee and Conference this Letter will at least bear us witness that of our part and to our power we have done what became us for preventing those evils which we mightily fear and are almost certainly perswaded the bad counsels and further designs of some leading persons amongst them will at last bring upon the Nation in general Whether in the mean time the Congregation it self can avoid the Censure of all understanding men whether even of those who otherwise might be the most fiery pretending Zealots for the Church and Pope may be worth the considering We mean when it shall be made publickly known That such a National Assembly of Ecclesiasticks would neither frame a Remonstrance of their own satisfactory to the King in point of professing their Allegiance to him for the future in meer Temporal things nor at all joyn or concur in that of others which was indeed in all respects satisfactory and as such already accepted by His Majesty and was also by not a small number of both Ecclesiasticks and Layicks of their own Countrey and Religion and amongst these and those many persons too not only considerable for other qualifications but for their Learning and judgment who even Principally to do them all the good lay in their power had freely and conscientiously signed the former Remonstrance nor yet no not even on the contradictory question would shew their Lawful exceptions or indeed any at all against the former nor even do so much as suffer it to be debated 'twixt a Committee of their own and another of the Subscribers of it no nor so much as to be debated in their own House or elsewhere by their own Divines alone whether it contain'd any Errour or any other cause of Lawful exception nor finally no not to prevent all those otherwise impending evils especially the very worst of them viz. a manifest scandalous and fatal Schism amongst the Catholick Clergy and consequently People too of this Nation the setting up or continuing of Altar against Altar would so much as testifie under their hands or by a publick Act of their House what they themselves professed there in word That they had in truth no exception against either that former Remonstrance or the Subscribers of it We say it may be worth the considering whether when all those matters and whatever else pertains unto them shall be made publick to the World this National Congregation of Roman-Catholick Irish Ecclesiasticks can avoid the heavy Censure of any understanding man Nay whether all understanding men who shall and when they shall read a perfect and full relation of all and particularly of this our present both hearty and humble Petition and withal of the Congregation's declining still nevertheless to come to such an issue will not judge That the same Fathers and together with them all other our Antagonists both at home and abroad Natives and Forreigners yield up the Cause justifie us and condemn themselves that refuse a Tryal so equitable in it self and so heartily and humbly desired of them by us This is all we have to say or pray at present save only That your Lordship may be pleased either by your self or some other Member of the House to read publickly in the House to all the rest of the Prelats and Fathers there Assembled this Letter of our Expostulation with and Petition to them all in general being it is only to this purpose directed to your Lordship as their Chairman Wherefore concluding we heartily wish your Lordship and them our Right Reverend good Lords and Venerable Fathers and wish them in their final Resolves before they dissolve the efficacious influence of the All-powerful Spirit of God which strongly and sweetly works all the good Resolves of men And so with much affection and all due respect we kiss your sacred hands Right Reverend and our very good Lord your Lordship 's most humble Servants Secular Priests Laurence Archbold Bartholomew Read Dominicans Fr. Clement Birn Fr. John Reynolds All Franciscans Fr. Valentine Brown Fr. Peter Walsh Fr. Anthony Gearnon Fr. Francis Coppinger Fr. Thomas Harold Fr. Christopher Plunket Fr. James Tuit Fr. Patrick Carr. Fr. Laurence Tankard Fr Thomas Talbot Fr. Mathew Duff F. James Fitz Gerrald Fr. Anthony Saul Fr. Valentine Cruiz What the qualifications or Titles were of these Subscribers you may see Treat 1. partly pag. 9. and partly pag. 47. In both which places they amongst others subscribe their names with their respective qualifications or Titles to the former Remonstrance some amongst the first Subscribers in England and others after amongst those who signed in Ireland Yet I confess there is one amongst them whose subscription was not valued nor desired by any of the rest but rather declined yea and had been absolutely refused by them if they had known how to refuse it prudently
I was my self present in the Congregation when this Letter was therein publickly read Sed canebatur surdis They had before obstinately resolved against all reason The Miracles and Revolutions they expected from the year 1666 their Forraign Intelligence and expectations and their lying Prophecies at home together with so many other vain perswasions of their own fixed them unalterable Whence it was That they neither did nor would give other answer to this Letter Subscribed by so many than what they had before given to my self alone viz. That none should speak any more against the former Remonstrance or those who subscribed and held to it still But how well they and their partizans have performed this verbal promise the Second Tome of this Work shall discover The truth is their Cabal never once intended to perform Whereof because I then also had been throughly perswaded by unanswerable and clear arguments in reply to their Answer I thought fit to say as I did accordingly before them all and both immediatly and publickly there in the place That both I my self and all the rest not only of those who subscribed the above Letter but all others of the former Remonstrants where ever dispersed throughout the Kingdom in whose behalf as well as their own such as were present in town had so subscribed that Expostulatory Letter would be at last necessitated to declare and would accordingly declare against them to the people even also at the Altars and from the Pulpits by laying the Sin of Schism besides the true causes too of all other evils threatning and impending over the Nation and Religion at their door if they on their side did not exactly perform their promise and perform it effectually by silencing all the malicious and ignorant traducers of the former Remonstrance and Subscribers of it Yet I must confess that although I did then really so intend as I spake and was not at all by any one of the Fathers either publickly in that Congregation expostulated with or privately there or elsewhere that I could hear even so much as murmured of for that my freedom in declaring what I had so resolved for all such future contingencies nevertheless upon after thoughts of taking more prudential ways i. e. ways of less noise and no scandal and yet I knew St. Bernard's Maxime Melius est ut scandalum oriatur quam veritas relinquatur I did while I remain'd in Ireland i. e. till May 1669 however provoked manifoldly in too too many instances both refrain my self and hinder all other Subscribers of the former Remonstrance from declaring so or speaking in Church or Chappel at the Altar or in the Pulpit any word or matter against them or any of them yea notwithstanding I had been many times and on several occasions mightily importuned to the contrary and that also by very good and vertuous men XX. BUT to return to the Bishop of Ardagh and Vicar General Apostolick of Cashel these two last Commissioners employed by the Congregation to His Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General c of Ireland I must now tell my Reader That on Monday morning the 25 of June and 15th and last of our National Congregation the Fathers being Assembled to hear what their said Commissioners could report of their success on the former Saturday night upon delivering their last signed Paper and pleading their excuse for other matters to His Grace the Procurator gives them His Grace's positive commands to Dissolve that morning and retire to their respective homes telling them withal That His Grace found no satisfaction in any of their Addresses The Bishop of Ardagh on the other side endeavours to make them believe That His Grace did seem fully satisfied with their Remonstrance or Act of Recognition and other Paper of the Three first Sorbon Propositions delivered at the same time nay and that His Grace even in express terms had promised to represent unto His Maiesty these two Instruments as satisfactory i. e. as containing fully all those Declarations of Allegiance or Fidelity and Obedience which could be expected from any Roman-Catholicks whatsoever subject to His Majesty But the Procurator considering this to be the last time the Congregation was to meet and seeing no remedy but that he must either suffer the Fathers to dissolve and depart with so false and noxious too a Perswasion or must oppose this Prelat even to his face chooseth what any honest man especially of his place and trust would in such case And therefore tells the Fathers how himself having been present all the while at both times when the Lord Lieutenant spoke either to the said Bishop of Ardagh and Father John Burk Vicar General of Cashel on the 23 of June at night or before to the same Ardagh and Kilfinuragh on the 16 of the same moneth could and must assure the Congregation That His Grace did neither at the one or other time give any kind of ground for this relation viz of His seeming to have been satisfied with their said Addresses or instruments and of promising to represent them as satisfactory c. That on the contrary he gave ground enough by his short and sharp answers and by his severe countenance shewed to the last Commissioners viz. the foresaid Bishop of Ardagh and Vicar General of Cashel on Saturday night the 23 that he was extreamly unsatisfied That all the ground the Bishop could pretend for his relation made clear against him being that when he desired His Grace would be pleased to represent their said Instruments to His Majesty the answer made him by His Grace had been in these words only I will represent them as they deserve And that men of reason or judgment who knew in what manner His Grace had spoken these words what he said to Burk immediately after and how without further Ceremony nay with all other manifest signs of displeasure He dismissed them might easily see the Bishop had either strangly forgotten what he saw and heard or more strangely mistaken contraries one for an other This matter of the Procurators opposing to that relation made by Ardagh being over the Primat stands up and after some few words to the Chairman turning himself to the Procurator tells him what the Congregation had resolved upon in his behalf Viz. That in regard of his pains already taken for and many obligations put upon the the Roman-Catholick People of the Nation and of his great expences too for so many years past since he was made Procurator in the year 1660 as likewise considering that neither his future pains nor future expences in serving and obliging much more yet the same people by continuing and worthily discharging his office of Procurator for them with the King and His Majesties great Ministers of State could be less than thitherto both had been The Lords and rest of the Fathers of the Congregation partly to provide for their own concerns and partly to shew the most effectual signs they could
Infidels and heretical Princes disturbing the publick peace tending to the ruine of Kingdoms and Republicks diverting Subjects from the obedience due to their Soveraigns and precipitating them into faction rebellion sedition and even to commit Parricides on the sacred persons of their Princes The Rectors Deans Proctors Batchelors and whole Vniversity have made this Decree That the sacred Faculty of Theology ought highly to be commended for having given a judgment so pious so religious so wholsome against so wicked and dangerous a Doctrine for having so opportunely held forth to the whole Church but especially to all France the clear light of ancient and orthodox Doctrine for having so gloriously followed the illustrious generosity of their Predecessors and performed a task not only becoming their particular profession to defend the truth but deserving the imitation even of the whole Vniversity it self And to obstruct altogether the very entrance of this new and pernicious doctrine and cause all those who now are or hereafter shall be members of this Vniversity or merit promotion to any degree therein to remember for ever to form and regulate their opinions according to the judgments pronounced by that sacred Faculty and keep at utmost distance from the doctrine so justly proscribed and that every one in particular may fly detest and abhor it and as well in publick as privat combat confute and convince its falsity They do decree that in the next solemn procession as also annually in the Assembly for the procession general immediatly after opening the Schools in the month of October this censure shall publickly be read by the Proctor of the University the first business nothing to intervene and recorded in the Registers of each Faculty and Nation and that two Copies hereof written and signed by the hand of the Clerk of the sacred F-culty of Theologie shall be kept in the common Records of the University and the like number be sent as soon as may be to all Superiours of Colledges and Houses to the end all possible care and diligence be used to secure all those who frequent or reside in the said Colledges from the corruption and poyson of this pernicious doctrine and that they never give way that any person whatsoever presume to say or do any thing contrary to what has so wisely been determined and ordained by that sacred Faculty If any Doctor Professor Master of Arts or Scholler resist and disobey or go about in any sort by word or writing on any cause or pretence whatsoever to offer at the least attempt or make the least opposition against this so laudable and legal a censure let him for a note of infamy and ignominy be expelled and deprived of his degree faculty and rank by a sentence that may for ever cut off all hope of admittance Quintaine Scribe of the University The like Decrees and censures have been made and past on the same occasion and against the same doctrine that the Pope can punish Kings with temporal punishments depose or deprive them of their Kingdoms or Estates c. and have been publickly enacted by these other several Universities following as appears too out of the foresaid Collection of Divers Acts c. By the Vniversity of Caen assembled in the Convent of St. Francis 7. May 1626. By the Vniversity of Rheims the four Faculties being assembled in the Chappel of St. Patrice 18th May 1626. By the Vniversity of Tholouze the Rector and professors of all the Faculties being assembled in St. Thomas's School at the Dominicans 23. May 1626. By the Vniversity of Poitiers assembled at the Dominicans 26. June 1626. By the Vniversity of Valence assembled in the great Hall 14. July 1626. By the Vniversity of Burdeaux assembled at the Carms 16. July 1626. By the Vniversity of Bourges all the Deans and Doctâ—rs-Regent of all the Faculties assembled by the Rector 25. November 1626. By all which the said doctrine was condemned as false erroneous contrary to the word of God pernicious seditious and detestable And so I conclude this my third Treatise or my considerations of the foresaid three Sorbon-propositions as applied by the Congregation to our own gracious King and themselves or Catholick Clergy and people of Ireland Or which is the same thing my considerations of what the said three single Propositions do signifie as from them and as to any further or clearer assurance of their fidelity hereafter to the King or Government in the cases controverted than that was they had before signified by the former paper of their Remonstrance alone without any such additional propositions Now to their third or last paper I mean that of their reasons given to my Lord Lieutenant why they would not subscribe the other three or the three last of those six of Sorbon applyed mutatis mutandis to our King and them selves THE FOURTH TREATISE CONTAINING Answers To the reasons presented in writing to His Grace the Twentieth of June 1666. by Father John Bourk Vicar General of Cashil and Father Cornelius Fogarty D. V. I. in behalf of and by Commission from the Congregation The title of the said writing or reasons being The reasons why we the Roman Catholick Clergie signed not the other three propositions But no hand or Subscription either of Secretary Speaker or any other not even of those very Commissioners that delivered it unto the Paper BEcause that writing is somewhat long and I have already given it intirely and consequently word by word in my first Treatise or Narrative where the Reader may turn to it I will onely take it here by pieces as I have in my second Treatise their Remonstrance And having little to say to the title nor else but what I hope will appear in the procedure and conclusion of these answers which is that I might as justly prefix to this Treatise of mine as a Gentleman in England since the Kings Restoration did to a piece of his own this other title The Jesuits reasons unreasonable and that Father N. N. of the Society can tell his Clients the misterie of such prefixion or application as who hath been as well the chief contriver of those reasons as he was next the Chairman the grand obstructer of the Subscriptions unto I mean the three last propositions I observed their said writing consists of five Paragraphs Whereof the first though short enough truly yet comprehends in general their reasons The following other four are only to prove by induction and by special instance of their rejected propositions and consideration of them what is said so in general is that first Paragraph Which Paragraph therefore they begin and conclude in those words Because we conceive them not any way appertaining to the points controverted And though we did we thought we had already Sufficiently cleared all scruples either by our former Remonstrance seperatly or jointly with the first three propositions we had already subscribed But to make us believe or conceive these reasons as reasonable they give first
their Votes in Parliament until such time as they shall afterwards acquire such Estates respectively and that none be admitted into the House of Commons but such as shall be estated and resident within this Kingdom XII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That as for and concerning the independency of the Parliament of Ireland of the Parliament of England His Majesty will leave both Houses of Parliament in this Kingdom to make such Declaration therein as shall be agreeable to the Law of the Kingdom of Ireland XIII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That the Council Table shall contain it self within its proper bounds in handled matters of State and weight fit for that place amongst which the Patents of Plantation and the Offices whereupon those Grants are founded are to be handled as matters of State and to be heard and determined by His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours for the time being and the Council publickly at the Council-Boord and not otherwise Titles between Party and Party grown after these Patents granted are to be left to the ordinary course of Law And that the Council Table do not hereafter intermeddle with common business that is within the cognizance of the ordinary Courts nor with the altering of possessions of Lands nor make nor use private Orders Hearings or References concerning any such matter nor grant any Injunctions or order for stay of any Suits in any Civil cause and that Parties grieved for or by reason of any proceedings formerly had there may commence their Suits and prosecute the same in any of His Majesties Courts of Justice or Equity for remedy of their pretended Rights without any restraint or interruption from His Majesty or otherwise by the chief Governour or Governours and Council of this Kingdom And that the proceedings in the respective Presidents Courts shall be pursuant and according to His Majesties printed Book of Instructions and that they shall contain themselves within the limits prescribed by that Book when the Kingdom shall be restored to such a degree of quietness as they be not necessarily inforced to exceed the same XIV Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further pleased That as for and concerning one Statute made in this Kingdom in the Eleventh year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth intituled An Act for staying of Wool Flocks Tallow and other necessaries within this Realm And one other Statute made in the said Kingdom in the Twelfth year of the Reign of the said Queen intituled An Act _____ And one other Statute made in the said Kingdom in the Thirteenth year of the Reign of the said late Queen intituled An Explanation of the Act made in a Session of this Parliament for the staying of Wool Flocks Tallow and other Wares and Commodities mentioned in the said Act and certain Articles added to the same Act all concerning Staple or Native Commodities of this Kingdom shall be repealed if it shall be so thought fit in the Parliament excepting for Wool and Wool-fells and that such indifferent persons as shall be agreed on by the said Lord Lieutenant and the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillen Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them shall be authorized by Commission under the great Seal to moderate and ascertain the rates of Merchandize to be exported or imported out of or into this Kingdom as they shall think fit XV. Item It is concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is graciously pleased That all and every person and persons within this Kingdom pretending to have suffered by offices found of several Countries Territories Lands and Hereditaments in the Province of Vlster and other Provinces of this Kingdom in or since the first year of King James's Reign or by attainders and forfeitures or by pretence or colour thereof since the said first year of King James or by other Acts depending on the said offices attainders and forfeitures may petition His Majesty in Parliament for relief and redress and if after examination it shall appear to His Majesty the said persons or any of them have been injured then His Majesty will prescribe a course to repair the person or persons so suffering according to justice and honour XVI Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That as to the particular cases of Maurice Lord Viscount de Rupe Fermoy Arthur Lord Viscount Jueagh Sir Edmond Fitz-Gerald of Cloungliffe Baronet Charles Mac Charthy Reagh Roger Moore Anthony Moore William Fitz-Gerard Anthony Lynch John Lacy Collo Mac Bryen Mac Mahon Donnel Costingen Edmond Fitz-Gerald of Ballimartyr Lucas Keatinge Theobald Roch Fitz-Myles Thomas Fitz-Gerald of the Vally John Bourke of Loghmaske Edmond Fitz-Gerald of Ballimullo James Fitz-William Gerald of Glysnan and Edward Sutton they may Petition His Majesty in the next Parliament whereupon His Majesty will take such consideration of them as shall be just and fit XVII Item It is likewise concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is graciously pleased That the Citizens Freemen Burgesses and former Inhabitants of the City of Cork and Towns of Youghal and Dongarvan shall be forthwith upon perfection of these Articles restored to their respective Possessions and Estates in the said City and Towns respectively where the same extends not to the indangering of the Garrisons in the said City and Towns in which case so many of the said Citizens and Inhabitants as shall not be admitted to the present possession of their houses within the said City and Towns shall be afforded a valuable annual Rent for the same until settlement in Parliament at which time they shall be restored to those their possessions And it is further agreed and His Majesty is graciously pleased That the said Citizens Freemen Burgesses and Inhabitants of the said City of Cork and Towns of Youghal and Dongarvan respectively shall be enabled in convenient time before the next Parliament to be held in this Kingdom to choose and return Burgesses into the same Parliament XVIII Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed upon by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That an Act of Oblivion be passed in the next Parliament to extend to all His Majesties Subjects of this Kingdom and their Adherents of all Treasons and offences Capital Criminal and Personal and other
Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them shall for the present agree upon such persons who are to be authorized bay Commission under the Great Seal to be Commissioners of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in and throughout the Kingdom to continue during pleasure with such power as Justices of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in former times of Peace have usually had which is not to extend unto any crime or offence committed before the first of May last past and to be qualified with power to hear and determine all Civil Causes coming before them not exceeding Ten pounds Provided that they shall not meddle with Titles of Lands Provided likewise the authority of such Commissioners shall not extend to question any person or persons for any Shipping Cattel or Goods heretofore taken by either Party from the other or other injuries done contrary to the Articles of Cessation concluded by and with the said Roman-Catholick Party in or since May last but that the same shall be determined by such indifferent persons as the Lord Lieutenant with the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them shall think fit to the end that speedy and equal justice may be done to all Parties grieved And the said Commissioners are to make their Estreats as accustomed in time of Peace and shall take the ensuing Oath viz. YOV shall Swear That as Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in the Counties of A. B. C. in all Articles of the Commission to you directed you shall do equal Right to the Poor and to the Rich after your cunning and wit and power and after the Laws and Customs of the Realm and in pursuance of these Articles And you shall not be of Council of any quarrel hanging before you And the Issues Fines and Anerciaments which shall happen to be made and all Forfeitures which shall happen before you you shall cause to be entred without any concealment or imbezling and truly send to the Court of Exchequer or to such other place as His Majesties Lord Lieutenant or other chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom shall appoint until there may be access unto the said Court of Exchequer You shall not let for gift or other cause but well and truly you shall do your office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery in that behalf And that you take nothing for your office of Justice of the Peace Oyer and Terminer Assizes and Gaol-delivery to be done but of the King and Fees accustomed And you shall not direct or cause to be directed any Warrant by you to be made to the Parties but you shall direct them to the Sheriffs and Bayliffs of the said Counties respectively or other the Kings Officers or Ministers or other indifferent persons to do execution thereof So help you God c. And that as well in the said Commission as in all other Commissions and Authorities to be issued in pursuance of these present Articles this Clause shall be inserted viz. That all Officers Civil and Martial shall be required to be aiding and assisting and obedient unto the said Commissioners and other persons to be authorized as abovesaid in the execution of their respective powers XXIX Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That His Majesties Roman Catholick Subjects do continue the possession of such of His Majesties Cities Garrisons Towns Forts and Castles which are within their now Quarters until settlement by Parliament and to be commanded ruled and governed in chief upon occasion of necessity as to the Martial and Military affairs by such as His Majesty or His chief Governour or Governours of this Kingdom for the time being shall appoint and the said appointment to be by and with the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them And His Majesties chief Governour or Governours is to issue Commissions accordingly to such persons as shall be so named and appointed as aforesaid for the executing of such Command Rule or Government to continue until all the particulars in these present Articles agreed on to pass in Parliament shall be accordingly passed only in case of death or misbehaviour such other person or persons to be appointed for the said Command Rule and Government to be named and appointed in the place or places of him or them who shall so dye or misbehave themselves as the chief Governour or Governours for the time being by the advice and consent of the said Thomas Lord Viscount Dillon of Costelloe Lord President of Connaught Donnogh Lord Viscount Muskery Francis Lord Baron of Athunry Alexander mac Donnel Esq Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Richard Barnewall Baronet Geoffery Browne Donnogh O Callaghane Tirlagh O Neil Miles Reilly and Gerald Fennel Esquires or any seven or more of them shall think fit and to be continued until settlement in Parliament as aforesaid XXX Item It is further concluded accorded and agreed by and between the said Parties and His Majesty is further graciously pleased That all Customs and Tenths of Prizes belonging to His Majesty which from the perfection of these Articles shall fall due within this Kingdom shall be paid in to His Majesties Receipt or until recourse may be had thereunto in the ordinary legal way unto such person or persons and in such place and places and under such Comptrollers as the Lord Lieutenant shall appoint to be disposed of in order to the defence and safety of the Kingdom and the defraying of other the necessary publick Charges thereof for the ease of the Subjects in other their Levies Charges and Applotments And that all and every person and persons who are at present entrusted and employed by the said Roman-Catholicks in the Entries Receipts Collections or otherwise concerning the said Customs and Tenths of Prizes do continue their respective employments in the same until full settlement in Parliament accomptable to His Majesties Receipts or
is humbly desired That Your Excellency will be pleased to apply Your immediate care to the forwarding of the service and setling of affairs in the other parts of the Kingdom answerable to the present danger and condition wherein it is that there may be some visible opposition to the growing power of the Enemy Thus humbly taking leave we remain Loghreogh May 2. 1650. Your EXCELLENCIES Most humble Servants Tho Gashell Jo Archiep. Tuamen Dillon Mountgarret Netervill Muskery Fr Hugo Duacensis Fr Anto. Clonmaâ—â—osensis Episcopus Athunry Ro Corcagensis Cluanen Upper Ossory Lucas Dillon Nich Plunâ—â—â— R Everard Ter O Neill Geffry Browne Gerald Fennel R Bellings For his Excellency the Lord Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General of Ireland These The substance of all which on their part as also the results of the consultations of that Assembly you see were deep professions of Loyalty to His Majesty Respect to Us and a resolution to endeavour Our satisfaction in what We desired To which effect the Archbishop of Tuam and Sir Lucas Dillon were employed to Lymerick with pressing Letters to persuade that Corporation to receive a Garrison and obey Our Orders By these reiterated professions We were induced to alter Our purpose of quitting the Kingdom and to dismiss a Frigat which to Our great charge We had bought and fitted for Our Transportation The Archbishop and Sir Lucas Dillon soon after returned from Lymerick with an imperfect kind of return to their Negotiation yet such as gave Us hopes that Lymerick would be brought to more reason upon further endeavours and our nearer residence Wherein We laboured with all Our industry but in vain till about the 12th of June last when We thought by a Letter and Message We received from the Mayor that we should be permitted to put a Garrison into that City as by the Copy of his Letter and Our Answer appears May it please your Excellency THE City-Council have given me in Command to signifie and humbly to offer unto Your Excellency That it was expected by them that You would being so near this City yesterday bestow a visit upon it the which is no way doubted had been done by Your Excellency if Your greater Affairs did not hinder You from the same and yet do expect when those are over Your Excellency will be pleased to step hither to settle the Garrison here the which without Your presence cannot be as is humbly conâ—eived so well done or with that expedition as our necessity requires the particulars whereof we refer to Alderman Peirs Creagh and Alderman John Bourke their relation to whom we desire Credence may be given by Your Excellency and humbly to believe that I will never fail to be Your EXCELLENCIES Most humble Servant Jo Creagh Mayor Lymerick Lymerick 12 Junii 1650. For His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant General and General Governour of Ireland AFter Our hearty Commendations We have received your Letters of this dayes date by the conveyance of Alderman Peirs Creagh and heard what Alderman John Bourke and he had to say as from that Corporation In Answer whereunto We imparted some particulars unto them wherein We expect satisfaction Which if you send Us to the Rendezvous to morrow where We intend to be We shall visit that City and employ Our uttermost endeavours in setling the Garrison necessarily desired thither both for the defence and satisfaction of that City And so We bid you heartily farewell from Clare the 12th of June 1650. Your very loving Friend ORMOND To Our very loving Friend the Mayor of the City of Limerick These THE PARTICULARS I. To be received in like manner and with such respect as LORD LIEUTENANTS heretofore alwayes have been II. To have the Command of the Guards the giving of the Word and Orders in the City III. That there be Quarter provided within the City for such Guards of Horse and Foot as I carry in who are to be part of the Garrison whereof a List shall be given at the Rendezvous When upon this invitation We came near to the Gates the Aldermen employed to invite Us thither were sent out to Us to let Us know of a Tumult raised in the City by a Fryer one Father Woolfe and some others against Our coming in and a dissuasion of Our coming till that Tumult should be quieted Hereupon in hope to have brought the Corporation to a sense and performance of their duty We writ the following Letter to the Mayor viz. AFter Our hearty Commendations According to Our promise in Our Letter of the 12th of this Month from Clare We came yesterday to the Rendezvous with intent to have gone into that City for the purpose desired by you in your Letter of the same dayes date But upon Our coming to the place We received a message from you by Alderman Peirs Creagh and Alderman John Bourke importing That you consented to all We had formerly proposed to you except the admittance of Our Guards Thereupon We returned the said Messengers with answer That We intended not the drawing in of Our Guards out of any mistrust We had of the Loyalty of the Magistrates of that City to His Majesty or of their Affection to Us but for the Dignity of the place We hold and to prevent any popular Tumult that might be raised by desperate uninterested persons against Us or the Civil Government of that City whereunto We had cause to fear some loose People might by false and frivolous suggestions be too easily instigated And to take away all possibility of suspition from the most jealous that We could have any other end to the prejudice of that City the Guards We proposed were but One hundred Foot and Fifty Horse and those to consist entirely of those of your own Religion and such as by having been constantly of your Confederacy are interested in all the benefits of the Articles of Peace To this We received no positive Reply but in an uncertain manner were told by the said Aldermen of some uproar raised by a Fryer in opposition to the desires and intentions of the Mayor and principal Citizens touching Our coming thither Whereupon We thought not fit to subject His Majesties authority placed in Us to a possibility of being affronted by a wild rabble of mean People but rather to expect the issue of more setled Councils Wherein We hope will be taken into consideration not only by what power you were first made a Corporation and by whose protection you have since flourished but also what solid foundation of safety other than by receiving the defence We offer is or can be discovered to you by the present disturbers of your quiet To conclude We expect your present answer That in case We be encouraged to proceed in the wayes VVe have laid down of serving the King and preserving that City from the Tyranny of the Rebels VVe may immediately apply Our Self thereunto or failing in Our desires therein We may apply Our Self and the Forces We have
of the Articles of Peace and had purposed to have made it good they should have set down the Article violated by it But they have been so used to have credit given to their words upon trust that whether what they say be true or false they are sure it will do their work and that and not Truth is the thing they aim at We confess to have given Commissions to many Protestant Officers and that they and their men were provided for as others of their respective conditions And VVe affirm That for their Fidelity Gallantry and Ability they deserved their Commissions and Pay full as well as any other of their respective conditions And it is not true That they or the most of them or any of them that VVe gave Commissions to did betray any place or person under their Command or ever deserted Us or the Cause VVe undertook True it is That We finding the desire and design of many of the People set on by the Declarers was to starve or otherwise destroy and break the remain of the Protestant Party that came to Us for these and other reasons hereafter to be expressed We permitted them in June or July last to make their conditions with the Enemy and so sent them away But that any one place was betrayed by any of those Protestants cannot be instanced nor that any more than about Three of them whereof one was a Major and the other two Lieutenants ever went away without Our Licence How many of them dyed valiantly doing their duty or that were cruelly put to death by the Enemy there are many amongst you that know Second Article of the Declaration That the Holts and Ports in Munster as Cork Kingsale and Youghal were put into the hands of faithless men of the Lord of Inchiquin's Party that betrayed those places to the Enemy to the utter undoing of the Kings interest in the whole Kingdom This good service they did His Majesty after soaking up the sweet and substance of the Catholick Subjects of Munster where it is remarkable upon making the Peace his Excellency would no way allow the Loyal Catholicks of Cork Youghal and Kingsale and other Garrisons to return to their own homes or houses ANSWER It is very well known That We put not the Holts or Ports in Munster into the hands of any but left them in the hands We found them as We had good reason to do those persons without capitulation having received Us as His Majesties Lieutenant And if any of them have betrayed those places as We conceive the Governours of Cork Kingsale and Youghal did not but were by others betrayed We are not reasonably chargeable with their Treachery and We believe they soaked as much of the sweet and substance of Munster and were as chargeable to that Province before as after the Peace Nor is it strange if they would not agree to a Peace that must have let in those that had been of a contrary Party to be Masters of the Holts they had before the Peace upon any occasion of their drawing forth till a full settlement of Parliament till when the Confederate Roman-Catholicks were to hold the Towns possessed by them But provision was made Articles of Peace in the 17th article See it before in the Appen of Instrum pag. 53. That such as were not admitted to re-inhabit the Towns for We understand divers were were to have the full benefit of their Houses and Estates in the said Towns or Garrisons So that what is remarkable in that in making the Peace We would not allow the return of those of Cork Youghal and Kingsale to their Houses We see not more than that as without they were debarred from it for a time neither the Army under the command of the Lord Inchiquin nor the then Inhabitants of the Towns would be drawn to submit to the Peace so as the Assembly being convinced thereof and of the great danger it might bring upon the Kingdom to have them oppose the Peace consented to the Article as it is expressed in the Book of the Articles of Peace But that which these Declarers would indeed have marked and collected out of their dark Note is That by this means these Towns were perhaps purposely given up by Us to the Rebels For as they have infected the People they know them so ready to make the worst construction of all events that they need not speak plainly to them Third Article of the Declaration Catholick Commanders instanced by the Commissioners of Trust according to the Pacification and thereupon by his Excellencies Commission receiving their Commands in the Army as Colonel Patrick Purcell Major General of the Army Colonel Piers fitz Gerald alias Mac Thomas Commissary of the Horse were removed without the consent of the said Commissioners and by no demerit of the Gentlemen and the said places that of Major General given to Daniel O Neale Esq a Protestant and that of Commissary of the Horse to Sir William Vaughan Knight and after the said Sir William to Sir Thomas Armstrong Knight both Protestants ANSWER To this VVe have fully answered in Our Answer to the second Article of the pretended Grievances except the particular of Mr. Daniel O Neale who was not named in the said Article For your clearer satisfaction VVe have caused the said Article and Our Answer to be Transcribed as followeth Article viz. The second of those called the Grievances They say That notwithstanding it was by the said Articles * Articles of Peace See the 9th of them before in the Apoendix of Instrum pag. 49. provided That places of Command Honour Profit and Trust in His Majesties Army in this Kingdom should upon perfection of the Articles actually and by particular instances be conferred on the Roman-Catholick Subjects of this Kingdom and that for the future no difference should be made between the said Roman-Catholicks and other His Majesties Subjects in distribution of such places but that it would be indifferently and that the command of Forts Castles Garrisons Towns and other places of importance in this Kingdom should be upon perfection of the Articles by instances conferred on His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects in this Kingdom and that 15000 Foot and 2500 Horse of the Roman-Catholicks of this Kingdom should be of the standing Army of this Kingdom yet contrary thereunto were persons by instances vested in places of command in the Army upon perfection of the Articles soon after removed and others placed in their stead (a) As in the cases of Major General Purcell and Commissary Peirs fitz Gerald. That Commanders of Forts instanced upon Catholicks upon perfection of the Peace were soon after transferred to Protestants (b) As in the case of Capt. Thomas Roch in the Fort of Duncannon That His Majesties whole Army in this Kingdom did not consist of so much as was promised to the said Catholicks for their security And that of the number whereof His Majesties Army did
how I conceived their signing those Declarations of Sorbon might be of good use And since they were absolutely upon a new unsignificant Formulary of their own without taking notice of his Graces two former messages how the said Sorbon Declarations signed by them freely and unanimously might in great part supply the defects of their Formulary How what remained after to be supplyed might be done in a distinct Schedule which I had prepared by me to be signed by them after they all had once concurred in signing those Declarations of Sorbon if indeed they would sign all six that distinct Schedule being such as interpreted the meaning of their new Formulary of Recognition to be That they intended therein to bind themselves to continue according to the Laws of the Land faithful and obedient to the King even in all contingencies whatsoever especially of Excommunication fulminated by the Pope against the King or themselves for being obediently faithful to His Majesty as likewise to protest not only against all and every equivocation and both Mental and Vocal reservation but all Doctrines also whatsoever contrary to the true honest plain and obvious meaning or sense of the words of their said Formulary or Act of Recognition Finally how I believed there would be less difficulty in getting them to sign these matters in a distinct Schedule than to insert them in their beloved Formulary and truly no difficulty at all if once they had sign'd the six Sorbon Declarations as they offered already to me by their Committee After all which at large reported and declared I told his Grace That I knew they intended to sign their said Formulary or Act of Recognition that very day and present it at night to his Grace That notwithstanding I absented my self from them of purpose to try whether by such my absence they might be any thing the more brought to reason or to do that which was for their own advantage yet being they had so earnestly and by so many messages and that offer also of signing those six Sorbon Declarations desired my return and being moreover they were now on the point of concluding what they intended wherein it was hard or somewhat unseemly for me to single my self from them to no purpose I prayed his Graces either commands or advice as to that of my return once more to and concurring with them wherein I saw they concluded any thing Lawful how unsatisfactory or unsufficient soever otherwise it might peradventure be as to the main point in controversie or that principally expected from them And that His Grace would be pleased to give the most favourable reception he could to such persons as were to come that night from the Fathers with their Act of Recognition c. and promise them his Answer thereupon after he had taken a day or two for considering the Contents of such Instruments as they presented to him And such indeed was the only end of my going that morning to the Lord Lieutenant being continually sollicitous even during my recess from and distance or difference with the Congregation how nevertheless to do them all the good offices I could with his Grace and in one way or other to prevail with them also to do themselves and poor Clergy and People too represented by them that right in some measure at least which became the Priests of God to do now at last for a Nation rendred hitherto the most miserable of any in Europe and rendred such by their endevours and misdemeanours only And I dare say His Grace also had as real desires of their doing themselves and rest of their Nation and Religion that very same right as I had or could have whereof I am sure they themselves had very many clear Arguments but I a hundred more In pursuance of which on this very occasion of my address or discourse this morning or of my prayer not only of his advice to my self as to the point of my returning or not returning to the Fathers but of a favourable reception of the Deputies at night His Grace both commanded me to return to the Congregation and promised that reception of the Deputies which I desired yea notwithstanding that he knew as fully and throughly as I did how they had so temerariously and unworthily yea almost incredibly slighted both his former messages to them Wherefore as well in obedience to his Graces commands as in compliance with the Fathers and not to single or estrange my self wholly from them in any thing at all wherein I might comply but give them all the satisfaction I could about evening I returned and entred unexpectedly to their House even just then when they were signing a great Parchment Roll containing their new unsignificant Formulary or Act of Recognition As soon as they saw me entred their chief Leaders both welcom'd me and exprest extraordinary much contentment at my return even their Chairman himself leaving his Chair and coming some steps forward to embrace me twixt his arms as he did then telling me what they were upon and shewing the publick Instrument of Recognition they were signing and withal how together with it they had for my satisfaction prepared an other distinct Paper containing the three first of those six Sorbon Declarations which three or Paper containing them as the only of those six which seem'd to them to concern their Allegiance to the King they would then likewise presently subscribe to be together with their said Parchment Roll of Recognition presented to the Lord Lieutenant finally praying that I would concur with them in each and now after all I had all along till the present so obligingly done for them not to desert them in any respect or thing but prepare a good favourable and gracious reception for those who intended as deputed by and from the Congregation to wait on the Lord Lieutenant's Grace that night with the foresaid publick Instruments viz. the Bishop of Ardagh and himself the Chairman and that I would not only prepare their such reception but accompany also and introduce them to His Grace at such hour as I thought fit or should be appointed by His Grace When I had heard out all I answered in short That I never intended really either to seperate from or be wanting to them in whatsoever I might be useful That my late and short recess was only for their good viz. thereby to occasion their further and better enquiry into the defects of the Formulary they intended to present and their supplying those defects That although I returned not at the desire or upon the proposals of any of their several Committees sent unto me yet I begun to hope well of them when the second Committee they sent offered to me their intended Subscription of those six Sorbon Declarations That thereupon I waited on my Lord Lieutenant and informing His Grace of all the differences and whatever else passed betwixt either the Congregation it self or their said Committees and me made special use
of that offer of theirs by the Reverend Fathers Nicholas Nettervil John Talbot and Angel Golding and their promise consequently to subscribe the whole six Propositions or Declarations of Sorbon and thereby had already prepared for their Deputies that reception they expected That nevertheless I saw now they intended no more but the three first of those Declarations That besides the note of inconstancy and uncertainty in their offers and promises they would lye under by declining the other three it would appear manifestly on debate That no kind of Instrument or Profession of theirs although backed with their signing those three first could signifie any thing at all because that on the contradictory question they declined signing the other three as they had already declined not only their signing the Remonstrance but even a simple Paper which only attested their not condemning that honest Formulary yea both declined and opposed so much as a debate or examination of it even by the Divines only That therefore I thought it concernâ—d mightily even their own credit and reputation to perform what they had so unexpectedly without any desire or thought on my side offered of their own free accord i e. to subscribe all the six That whatever they did herein or in any thing else I would nevertheless having first discharged my own duty to God and man by telling them what seem'd to me fitting and necessary according to all Religion Veracity and Justice do of my side what I returned for i. e. joyn with them by subscribing their Recognition c. being they so heartily desired I should and that I saw no evil therein but of bare omission which I was not to answer for That however at the same time I must declare to them They neither must nor ought in any reason flatter themselves with hopes of advantage or acceptableness of their said Act of Recognition or other Paper because I had returned to concur with them in signing whereas I only returned so and meaned to sign also as many papers as they pleased wherein I found no hurt though otherwise very little or no real good at all to the purpose not that I believed such Instruments by whomsoever sign'd would advantage them a jot but that I thought it unbecoming me to deny them utterly at last either my presence or concurrence even by hand and heart both where I might without sin or shame give both albeit I otherwise expected no advantage to them by either since I had plainly and sincerely told them so much and moreover done what else I thought or hoped might rectifie their judgments or alter their so fatal resolutions Lastly That if they of their sides had been but half way so indifferently if not so rationally and equitably disposed to concur with me and others by signing that only one Paper of the Remonstrance expected from them wherein they saw not only no evil no kind of culpable either Commission or Omission but even all that was honest loyal expedient necessary for the good of themselves their Church and People I might then by my return to a conjunction with them confidently assure them of the happiest issue any Irish Congregation had these hundred years whereas now as they have taken their own measures and finally resolved I could hope for no such matter but rather on the contrary fear their Resolve should prove unluckily ominous To this purpose when I had fully declared my mind the Speaker Primat and some others answered That nevertheless they hoped His Grace the Lord Lieutenant would be satisfied with the three first of the Sorbon Propositions That to this purpose they had those three fairly drawn in a different Paper but subscribed only at present by the two foresaid Prelats viz. the Primat of all Ireland and the Bishop of Kilfinuragh Chairman and by the Secretary Nicholas Redmond to the end this paper also together with their Act of Recognition might be presented to His Grace And that if His Grace must needs have the other three and could not be satisfied with their reasons to the contrary they would also subscribe these Whereupon without further dispute or reply but believing what herein they said I subscribed their Parchment Roll of Recognition where they desired me to subscribe it in the last place under the third Column of the other Subscribers and subscribed it there as they would likewise have me in this manner viz. Father Peter Walsh Reader of Divinity of St. Francis's Order Procurator of the Catholick Clergy the Chairman only at a lower distance subscribing after me much under the same Column and at a lower distance yet as under the third Column their Secretary Nicholas Redmond Which particular of my Title of their Procurator in my subscription I take notice of here to obstruct the calumnies even of some of the late titular Archbishops especially Peter Talbot of Dublin and William Burgat of Cashil who in some occasions even since they have been consecrated Bishops within these four last years have had the confidence either to deny that I have been or am or at least to call in question whether I be or have been at any time Procurator of the Clergy Regular and Secular of Ireland as I have subscribed my self in some of my Books Now I am sure if there were no other argument to convince them either of ignorance or malice herein that very Original Parchment Roll of this National Assembly's Act of Recognition doth which their Chairman Andrew Lynch Bishop of Kilfinuran and with him Patrick Plunket the Bishop of Ardagh took into their own custody as soon as the Subscriptions had been all put to it and for any thing I remember now mine was put to it after all the rest had done and finished all the three Columns of their names and so subscribed with my name and title of their Procurator under my hand both presented and delivered it with their own hands to the Lord Lieutenant that very night And so I am at last insensibly come where I would be in this Section viz. at my waiting on these two Bishops deputed by the Congregation to present his Grace with those two publick Instruments For as soon as the Subscription was over the House adjourned and night come I waited on them into the Castle having first acquainted my Lord Lieutenant with the whole Contents of both their Parchment Roll and other Paper as likewise how they fell back the one moyetie from their so late offer of signing all the six Declarations of Sorbon and how nevertheless they promised to sign the rest if His Grace would needs have it so though I could not for my part be sure of any promise of theirs but what I saw first in black and white under all their hands Notwithstanding all which His Grace both admitted these Deputies into his Closet and received them very courteously taking no notice at all of what he knew of any matters past in their House And they as