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
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
Scripture teacheth the truth of that maxime as I have taken it Lex Christi neminem privat jure dominioque suo For if there be a latitude or liberty once given to mince these temporal rights without an express or certain warrant in that law it self of Christ it must be consequent that according to the caprichiousness or wilfulness of any either ignorant or interessed person the beleevers may be deprived now of one and then of another and at last of all kinds of civil rights under pretext forsooth of their submitting all to the pleasure of the Church by their profession of Christianity being that without such express warrant caution or provision there can be no reason given why of one more then of another or even why of one more then of all Having thus laid and demonstrated my first proposition or major of this my first argument I assume this other proposition for my minor But there was a natural or meer civil temporal or politick jurisdiction power authority or dominion which amounted to a coercive power in all temporal causes in every supream temporal Prince for example in Constantine the Great over all Christians whatsoever Laicks or Clerks living within his or their dominions before he or they became Christian in re vel in voto or by a perfect entire submission to the laws of Christianity and there is no such formal or virtual caution or provision in the law of Christ for the exemption of Clerks and after his or their such entire submission neither he nor they did expresly or tacitly and equivalently of their own accord devest themselves of or quit that power not even I mean in order to any Clerks whatsoever so living still within his or their dominions Ergo The same natural and meer civil temporal or politick jurisdiction power authority and dominion which amounts to a coercive power in all temporal causes over the same Christians whatsoever Laicks and Clerks living within his or their dominions remained in them and him after he or they were so become Christians The conclusion follows evidently the premisses being once admitted And of the premisses the minor only remains to be proved Which yet although having three parts into the first of Clerks to have been subject in politick matters to the supream coercive power of heathen Princes appears already and sufficiently demonstrated in my former Sections where I solved all the arguments of Bellarmine to the contrary from the laws divine either positive or natural and from the laws of Nations too and shall yet more positively and abundantly appear out of my very next immediatly following LXIII and LXIV Sections where by authorities of Scriptures and expositions of those very Scripture places by holy Fathers and by examples or practice according to such expositions I treat this matter and prove this first part of this Minor at large Nay and shall appear too most positively and abundantly out of my second and third arguments of reason either Theological or Natural either ad hominem or not ad hominem but abstracting from all concessions ab homine which follow in this very present Section And therefore to save my self the trouble of too much repetition I remit the Reader to those other Sections and arguments the rather that Bellarmine himself never scrupled in his first editions of his controversies nor ever until he saw himself in his old age beaten from all his other retreats by the writings of other Catholick Divines Canonists against him and consequently the rather that this matter of this first part of my foresaid Minor is now so little controverted that scarce any can be found of such impudence as to deny it notwithstanding Bellarmine's illgrounded chang◠or opposition in his old age whereof more presently And as to the second part of no such formal or virtual caution or provision in the law of Christ for the exemption of Clerks the very self same Sections which demonstrate the first part do also this But for the third or last part of this Minor which was that after their conversion to Christianity Princes did not quit or devest themselves of this supream coercive power of or over Clerks c I need not say more here or elswhere then I have before in answering Bellarmine's arguments out of the civil laws of Emperours Section LX. And nothing els but alleadg the known general and continual challenge of all Christian supream civil Magistrats Emperours Kings Princes and States to this very day of that supream coercive power of Clerks in all politick matters and their actual practice accordingly at their pleasure and when occasion requireth Notwithstanding all this evidence Bellarmine strugles like a bird in a cage For though he had not this argument framed against him dilated upon at full as I have heer but onely pressed by that bare maxime Lex Christi neminem privat jure dominioque suo objected to him by William Barclay he answers thus contra Barclaium cap. XXXIIII It is true sayes he the law of Christ deprives no man of his right and dominion proprié perise quasi hoo ipsum intendat nisi aliquis culpa sua privari mereatur properly and intentionally or that of it self or of its own nature it deprives no man so as intending to deprive him so if not in case of demerit when a man through his own fault deserves to be deprived of his right or dominion Yet when it raises laymen to a higher order such as that is of Clerks we must not wonder that consequently it deprives Princes of the right or dominion they had over such men whiles in a condition much inferiour Nor are there examples wanting in other things as well prophane as sacred 1◠The King rayses a private man till then subject to an Earl and rayses him I say to a Principality It must be confess'd this Earl is consequently deprived of his Lordship or dominion which till then he had over this man nay perhaps further even subjected consequently to this very man whose Lord he was so late The Pope rayses an ordinary or simple Priest to a Metropolitane a Priest subject otherwise to a Suffragan Bishop and by such creation without any injury to this Bishop or Suffragan places consequently such a Priest in a Metropolitical power of command over even the very Ordinary under whom he was immediately before A unbelieving heathen or infidel husband had the right of a her band to and dominion over his infidel wife she is converted to the Christian Faith he remaining still an unbeliever And the law of Christ doth without injury deprive him of all right evermore too that woman if she please Even so by a marriage done or contracted by words of the present time a Christian husband acquires a right to such a Christian wife and yet if she before consummation please to ascend to or embrace a higher and holier state of life or that of a Votress in a Cloyster within the tearm of
such Authorities as are truly unanswerable nor to such Reasons as are truly demonstrative no not then when they had not a word to reply not even the most learned and most resolute of them I mean and I mean them also too when sate together in the most general Congregation of their Representatives Behold the cause wherefore several of the more leading and more intriguing of them and long before the said general Congregation was held finding upon one side an absolute necessity on themselves to offer at least some kind of Remonstrance of their Loyalty that they might not seem to disown their being Subjects and on the other intending not to come home to the Contents of that of 1661. so Censured by the Divines of Louain and by the several Letters of the Internuncio of Flanders and of Cardinal Francis Bellarmine most earnestly and manifoldly attempted and this too by the mediation of several persons of Quality and Honour both Lords and Ladies of their own Religion and some too of the Protestant to persuade his Grace my LORD LIEUTENANT to be content with and accept of such a Remonstrance as they would frame for themselves being as they pretended they desired this favour not to decline the substance of Father Walshe's Remonstrance as they call'd it but to give it in their own Language for the Reasons elsewhere already given in this Book And behold the cause also why though his GRACE did as often condescend to their desire in that behalf as they made it by others or even by themselves yet having to that purpose received several Papers from them besides those given before as from the Dominicans and Jesuites and no two of all agreeing fully either in words or substance much less any of all coming home in all parts to the substance of that of 1661. which by all means they declined his GRACE considering also they were but particular persons or particular Orders at most and such as could not undertake for other persons and Orders of the Irish Clergy to concur with them in these Forms offered by them how short soever of that know Formulary which was still a Bugbear to them all indifferently answered every of them They came short of their pretended offers That he clearly saw it was not against the words only but against both words and substance or sense of Father Walshe's Remonstrance they excepted And that being this substance or sense to the full and in all parts of it was necessary from them he could not but expect their Subscription to that very Remonstrance which His MAJESTY had already and so graciously accepted of as being sign'd so freely and affectionately presented by a considerable number both of the Irish Clergy and of the Irish Nobility and Gentry because although perhaps some of them intended in some measure to come near the substance or sense of that His MAJESTY so received yet there must be some mystery still in varying from it besides that there would be no end in giving way to such variety and that none of those who perhaps meant well in other words could or would engage the rest should approve of what they offered in such words much less subscribe to it The Papers so offered and presented to His GRACE besides those other you have seen already of the Dominicans pag. 56. and of the Jesuites pag. 84 85 and 86. are these following A Paper given or delivered to the DUKE by Colonel Gerrot Moore 27 March 1664. as said he the substance of that which the Romish Clergy were ready to Subscribe and Declare But I say it appear'd after in their general Congregation of 1666. at Dublin as you may see in the Second Part of this First Treatise and in the Second and Third Treatise of this Book they were far enough from being ready to Subscribe or Declare any such Thing or Paper how even short soever or not home enough to the point I Engage my self to expose my life if occasion shall require in Defence of His Majesties Person and Royal Authority against any Prince Person or Power Spiritual or Temporal Forreign or Domestick that shall invade or disturb even by Sedition or Rebellion His Majesties Rights Person Authority or Government and hereunto I engage my self to be truly faithful notwithstanding any sentence of Deposition Excommunication Censure Declaration Absolution or Dispensation whatsoever I likewise abhor and detest from my very Soul the Position fathered without any just grounds upon Roman Catholicks That Faith is not to be kept with a People of a different judgment in Religion from them Another Paper or form of a Latin Declaration or Protestation offered by Patrick Daly Doctor of the Civil and Canon Law Vicar General of Armagh and Judge Delegate of the Province of Armagh to be Subscribed by himself as given also by himself to the LORD LIEUTENANT on the 7th of April 1664. the Earl of Clancarty and Lord Birmingham being present GEntem illam nimis barbaram imo a lege naturae omnino alienam esse oportet quae non Reges a Deo sibi impositos amant vereantur revereantur qui Regium nomen Majestatem ut rem augustam plane divinam non secundum ipsum Deum in temporalibus amplectendum esse censeant colendum Hybernis igitur omnibus incumbit sed iis praecipue qui Altari inserviunt aliorum instructionem susceperint manifestare quo quantoque gaudio auspicantissimam Serenissimi nostri Monarchae maugurationem ejusque reditum ad capescendum Majorem Imperium concelebrent Hinc ego ut alios omnes decet faelicissimo nostro Principi qui has Gentes prae aliis suam Hyberniam ex faucibus crudelium Tyrannorum quorum sub immani jugo hactenus gemuere eripuit cur non fausta omnia prospeta voveam cum longe a Christiana pietate absit aliter vel facere vel sentire At cum audierim apud multos suspiciorem suboriri viros nonnullos nostri ordinis in hoc Regno esse qui intestinas Seditiones moliri imo vires externas ad Rebellandum contra Sacram Regis Majestatem afcistere conentur aspirent celare nec possum nec debeo qua observantia quo amore animi finceritate in inctissimi mei Regis obedientiam prosperitatem rerar quomodoque ad id fideliter praestandum vel Sacramento paratus sum me addicere Itaque sincere sine omni aequivocatione fuco aut mentis reservatione Sanctissime in me recipio in verbo Sacerdotis affirmo Serenissimum Regem nostrum Carolum secundum vero legitimo haereditario jure huic Regno Hiberniae aliis omnibus suis Regnis ditionibus dominari meque in omnibus temporalibus civilibus illi fidelissime merito obtemperaturum nullamque sub Coelo esse potestatem quae me ab hoc Sacramento fidelitatis plus quam Subditos meae functionis Principum Germaniae Hispaniae aut aliarum Nacionum per universum Christianum
moneo quatenus abstinere sibi complaceat a tali dispositione cum illa cederet in detrimentum Religionis Catholicae ipsiusmet Ordinis detrimentum Confido quod Paternitas Vestra devotas suas considerationes circa rem hanc habebit Quapropter illam nolo fortius premere expectans quidnam factum fuerit dum interea temporis Dominum Deum rogo ut ipsi assistat cum sua sancta gratia Romae xi Novembris 1664. Franciscus Cardinalis Barberinus In a Postscript the Cardinal added with his own proper hand thus Non possum credere quod Paternitas Vestra de tali subjecto cogitaverit Sed bene mihi persuadeo quod non deputabit illum quia sic requirit servitium Dei In English thus Very Reverend Father WHat great confusion would arise out of the Commissioning Father Redmund Caron or any other of that Faction is on the behalf of the Province of Ireland represented unto me as may be seen at large in the Memorial hereunto annex'd Wherefore I do vehemently admonish you to abstain from any such disposition because it would redound to the detriment not only of Catholick Religion but of your very Franciscan Order I do confide much that your Paternity will devote some of your considerations to this matter Which is the reason I will not urge more strongly at present but expect what your self will do herein while in the interim I beseech the Lord God to assist you with his holy grace Rome xi Novemb. 1664. Postscript also rendred in English thus I cannot believe that your Paternity hath thought of any such subject But I well enough persuade my self that you will not depute him viz. Father Caron because the service of God requires you should not The Memorial in Latin Eminentissime ac Reverendissime Domine EX parte Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Fratrum Minorum strictioris observantiae humiliter exponitur Dominationi Vestrae Eminentissimae Fratrem Petrum Valesium ejusdem Provinciae instituti Filium cum suis adhaerentibus conari obtinere a Patre Jacobo Riddere Commissario Nationali Belgico patentes pro Patre Raymundo Carono suo complice ut tamquam Commissarius Visitator visitare possit istam Provinciam non obstante quod per alium Visitatorem legitime institutum Provincia illa jam sit visitata sed ad instantiam praedicti Patris Valesii ipse legitimus Visitator Minister Provincialis cum multis aliis Religiosis sit carceri ab Haereticis mancipatus eo quod Protestationi iniquae a praenominato Valesio suis consociis contra authoritatem Pontificiam editae subscribere non voluerunt Unde omni qua par est submissione supplicatur Dominationi Vestrae Eminentissimae ut dignetur praecipere supradicto Commissario Nationali ut nullatenus similes patentes Patri Raymundo Caron aut ulli alteri ejusdem factionis concedere aut illis ulla ratione favere audeat quandoquidem id summopere vergit in Catholicae Fidei detrimentum quam Deus optimus c. The same Memorial or Petition rendred in English thus Most Eminent and Reverend Lord ON the behalf of the Province of Ireland of St. Francis's Order 't is humbly shewn to your most Eminent Lordship That Fr. Peter Walsh a Son of the same Province and Order does with his Adherents endeavour to obtain from Father James Riddere the Belgick Commissary National Patents for Father Redmund Caron his Companion that he the said Redmund as Commissary Visitator may visit the said Province notwithstanding that the same Province be already visited by another Visitor lawfully instituted and that at the instance of the said Father Walsh even this Visitor himself and Minister Provincial with many other Religious be clap't in Prison by the Hereticks because they would not subscribe the wicked Protestation published by the said Walsh and his Consorts against the Papal Authority Wherefore with all due submission it is supplicated to your most Eminent Lordship That you vouchsafe to command the said National Commissary that by no means he give such Patents either to Father Redmund Caron or to any other of the same Faction nor in any other manner dare to favour them whereas it would mightily harm the Catholick Faith which the Lord God c. De Riddere the Commissaries Answer in Latin to the Cardinal Eminentissime ac Reverendissime Domine Protector noster EXistenti mihi in anxietate magna ad bene resolvendum contra istos Protestantes Hibernos qui videntur omnino Provinciam suam velle perdere destruere mediis illicitis irreligiosis utendo in finem ut aliquis ex ista factione fiat istius Provinciae Visitator supervenit paterna Dominationis Vestrae Eminentissimae mihi multum consolatoria quae revera me non parum fortificavit ad concludendum resolutionem meam conceptam in Universitate Louaniensi ac in aliis partibus consultatam Ministroque Generali per litteras communicatam quae erat fixa manebit quod scilicet nullus istiusmodi Factionis umquam a me alicui rei applicetur multo minus Commissarius Visitator designaretur ob detrimentum quod exinde Religioni Catholicae quin Ordini nostro accidere posset sicuti ex nunc videmus quam temerarie Visitatorem Assistentem suum a me delegatos missos simul Patrem Provincialem aliosque timoratos Patres qui illos a me requisiverant incarcerarunt illosque coeperunt ad petendum admittendum Patrem Raymundum Caronum Commissarium Visitatorem Provinciae suae deputandumque aliquem ad me pro hujusmodi approbatione qui tamen necdum advenit aut comparuit Ego sane ex parte mea in hac materia me conformabo paterno judicio consilio Eminentissimae Dominationis Vestrae cujus benevolentiae benignitati debitas gratias humiliter refero pro honore quem ex mandatis suis recipio rogans omnipotentem Deum ut personam Eminentissimae Dominationis Vestrae ad multos annos conservet pro bono publico suae Ecclesiae Ordinis nostri sicuti omnes indigemus Mechliniae 18. Decembris 1664. Eminentissima ac Reverendissimae Dominationis Vestrae Humillimus ac devotissimus Servus Frater James de Riddere The same Answer in English Most Eminent and Reverend Lord our Protector AT my being in great anxiety how to resolve well against those Irish Protestants who seem to design the utter ruine and destruction of their Province by using unlawful and irreligious means to get one of their Faction to be made Visitor of that same Province your most Eminent Lordships Paternal Letter so comfortable to me came to my hands This Letter truly did not a little strengthen me for concluding my preconceived resolution even that resolution which was before consulted in the Vniversity of Louain and other places and withal by Letters communicated to the Minister General which also was and shall remain fixed viz. That none of that Faction shall ever at any time be applied by me to any Function
and strong Castle of Carrigfergus I found left but by whom I know not in my Chamber at Dublin a Packet of Letters endorsed to my self Opening them I found not a word to my self but fair Copies onely of some three Letters one from Cardinal Barberin and two more from Rospigliosi to others in Ireland or rather indeed to all the Clergy of Ireland exhorting them to stand manfully against Caron and me and my intended design of the National Congregation Each of those Papers had in the Frontispiece written Copia vera and as I knew after they had been written or copied out so by the hand or pen of Abbot Claudius Agretti then Secretary to the Bruxels-Internuncio Rospigliosi as he was before to de Vecchiis the former and continued after to Airoldi the present Internuncio Within a few dayes more a Friend tells me there was a young Dominican Father by name Christopher O Ferrail lately landed from Flanders Louain and Bruxels with some extraordinary message and letters of importance to the Clergy and that some Nights he lay in one Bed with his own Provincial John O Hairt a known zealous Anti-Remonstrant keeping very close consultation together After a day or two more Father Mark Brown a Franciscan then lately come from Spain and by the Minister General delegated as Commissary Visitator of all his Order in Ireland came of purpose also to my Chamber to let me know and see as a great secret some Copies of Letters lately sent from Bruxels and dispersed now both in Town and Countrey to prevent the Convention of the Fathers Having seen and heard so many particulars of this Forreign design of Rome I found it my duty to acquaint my Lord Lieutenant both with it and all the particulars of it as I did And in truth if at any time or in any conjuncture I should be mindful of the obligation incumbent on me not only as a Subject in general nor only besides as one that sign'd the Remonstrance and consequently obliged my self also by my own hand not to conceal such matters but as one moreover on whose sincerity in particular the said Lord Lieutenant depended nay on whom His Majesty had in July 1662. at Hampton Court when I had the honour on my departure then for Ireland to kiss His Majesties hand laid His express command That I should not deceive in any thing or frustrate the Duke of Ormonds His Lord Lieutenant's expectation if I say at any time or in any conjuncture of publick Affairs I should have been effectually mindful of my duty in acquainting his Grace with such pernicious designs it must have been then when His Majesty had open War with some Neighbours abroad was on ill terms with others had the Irish at home very ill satisfied and the Tories every day starting out grown numerous and under Colonel Costelogh even big with expectations from abroad and of a more general insurrection at home and when also the Duke himself expected that National meeting as at hand In all other matters or those I mean which related not to the safety of the Crown or peace of the People I have at all times been careful enough and even as wary and charitable and just also as cap. would have me Vid. Theodoret l. 1. cap. xi and all others at least Clergymen be in concealing the personal imperfections if any I had known of other Clergymen But if I had concealed any such ill designs undermining the safety of His Majesties Crown or peace of the Kingdom I had done like a bad Christian worse Priest false Remonstrant disloyal Subject and the very worst of Hypocrites Nay and done that which by consequence must in time have reflected on and highly prejudiced His Majesties Roman-Catholick Subjects especially the Irish in general For if I had been so treacherously perjured even also against my own very manual signature who is so dull as not to understand the use would be made thereof by all knowing Protestants upon any fit occasion to prejudice Catholicks who not this obvious inference viz. That if I who had writ and preach'd so much had suffered so much for and been tryed so much in the point of Loyalty and besides had been the leading man of all the Subscribers to that publick Instrument which particularly binds to discover all such dangerous designs or practices should nevertheless upon new considerations fail in that duty then certainly there could be no reason to repose thenceforth any more or believe at all not even any protestation whatsoever of any Priest continuing in the Roman-Catholick Religion And yet I must let my Reader know That all the while I did nothing in that or any such matter which I did not alwayes and in all due occasions both publickly and privately own as well to the National Congregation when they were sate as to other either less solemn meetings or particular persons of the Irish Clergy as themselves could not but see that not only I but all other Subscribers besides our being otherwise obliged had even bound our selves particularly by our own manual Subscription to do No sooner had my Lord Lieutenant those notices then he sends to apprehend the foresaid Express Christopher Ferrail in his Father Mr. Bryan Ferrail's house at Dublin and being apprehended commits him to Proudfort's Castle On the 7th of June a Committee of His Majesties Privy Council viz. the Earl of Roscommon Earl of Anglesey Sir Paul Davys Sir Robert Forte and Sir James Ware examin'd him and again the second time on the 9th of the same month The originals of both Examinations subscribed as well by Ferrail himself as by the said Lords of the Committee I have at present in my custody though I confess there is not much material in either save only that Ferral confess'd 1. That he received from the Apostolick Internuncio of Flanders Jacobus Rospigliosi Letters for the Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunket wherein there was enclosed another from Cardinal Francis Barberin to the Clergy of Ireland 2. That from the same Internuncio he received a third Letter written by himself as Barberin had been to the said Irish Clergy in general 3. That the Internuncio had read all to him before they had been seal'd up in a Packet 4. That the Contents of all were about warning that Clergy to take heed of swearing Allegiance to their King that it might not be to the prejudice of their own Faith 5. That the Internuncio told him he would send other Letters by the Post to a friend in Ireland least he should miscarry 6. That having parted Brussels May 13 or 14. Stylo Novo and landed at Dublin about a fortnight after he delivered all those Letters to the foresaid Bishop of Ardagh those of them to the Clergy in general having been with flying Seals open The first of the two Examinations being brought to the Lord Lieutenant his Grace was pleased to send for me on the eighth of June and shewing me the Paper bid
me go presently tell the Bishop all and that he must be sent for that very Evening but without any design or intention to harm him and therefore should not be frighted if he should see Sir William Flour Lieutenant Collonel of the Regiment of Guards come in a Coach to call for him at his Brothers Sir Nicholas Plunket's house When I had accordingly out of hand visited the Bishop delivered my message and told him the confession of Ferral under his own hand the good Prelat seem'd to be in a strange perplex'd and fearful confusion But desiring my advice and I telling him there was no way like truth and that dealing candidly there would be no further jealousie of or reflection upon him he goes into a corner of his Chamber brings thence all the Letters shews them me and withal prays me not to let others know that he delivered them understand after he had done so indeed to the Lord Lieutenant I was scarce parted when Sir William Flour came in the dusk of the Evening called for the Bishop and desiring his company in the Coach led him without notice taken by any to the Kings Castle and Lord Lieutenant there to whose Excellencies own hands the Bishop delivered immediatly all the said original Letters with their own proper Endorsements and Seals both of the Internuncio and Cardinal Behold Reader how or by what means I came to have in my custody now those very originals whereof you shall see presently the true copies For as soon as my Lord Lieutenant and Council had perused and seriously considered of them His Grace was pleased to commit them to my custody but withal telling me that they were the only first arguments which perswaded the Earl of Anglesey and some other Lords of the Council I was no cheat nor the controversie twixt the Remonstrants and Antiremonstrants a deceipt or trick but a real difference twixt the Loyally and Disloyally principled or affected Irish That Anglesey with many others until themselves had seized and examined Ferral and seen those Letters with the proper Hands and Seals to them delivered so by Ardagh had been of opinion that Peter Walsh pretended a difference where there was none but rather indeed all of both sides agreed to deceive the Protestants and he to be the chief Actor therein And that now even the Earl of Anglesey himself in particular was so convinced of the contrary that he declared he would himself be thenceforth for repealing all the penal Laws in order to those downright honest Remonstrants and all others who should thenceforward freely and heartily joyn with them by subscribing that very Instrument and like them standing to it constantly against all the censures and other Decrees Plots and Procedures of Rome Now to the tenour of these Letters I give it first according to the original in that Language wherein they were written i. e. in Latin next rendred in English Cardinal Francis Barberins Letter from Rome April 24. 1666. to the Clergy and Catholicks of Ireland superscribed thus Praestantissimis Viris Clero Catholicis Regni Hiberniae Praestantissimi Viri QUadrienium jam pene fluxit ex quo Sanctissimus Dominus noster pro sua erga Vos dilectione meis literis vos admonuit saluti velâ—rae imminere periculum a falsis fratribus Cumque maxime averet audire laqueum contritum esse vos liberatos nuntius tristis affertuâ— conventum inter vos esse tertio Idibus Junii Coetum Dublinii cogi ad deliberandum de subscribendo illi protestationi quae fidelitatis titulum praeferens fidei Catholicae astruit adversantia Jussit ergo Sanctitas sua vos per me serio commonefieri ne fidelitatem civilem cum obedientia sedi Apostolicae debita confundatis neve in vestrum induci animum patiamini Regi parere non posse illum qui Romano Pontifici morem gerit cum immo nihil ad Regum Auctoritatem firmandam magis conferat quam in subditis fidele erga Pontificiam Auctoritatem obsequium Et sane quae Lex Monarchico Regimini adeo favet quam Catholica Quae justam Regibus subjectionem praecipit adeo arcte quam illa quae obedire Praepositis suis aperte jubet In hac igitur constantes estote nec vestri animi robur tentet aut labefactet jactatus timor nec fallant decipulae hostis humani generis cui utpote quae sunt multiplices nocendi artes illa non defuit fidelitatis obtestationem blandioribus verbis attemperandi quae tamen apta nullatenus sunt ad perniciem avertendam Illis vero qui verecundiae limites transgressi post tot irritos conatus extremum tandem successum hunc designati Conuentus habuisse fortasse gloriantur Sanctitas sua divinam interminatur ultionem nisi se a pravis cogitationibus avocantes ab hujusmodi tentamentis abstineant Vos interim totius Congregationis vestris negotiis praepositae nomine hortor vestrae ut fortitudinis fidei existimatio vestraque salus vobis potissimum cordi sit gratam ut vicem Romanae Ecclesiae quae in Christo vos genuit rependatis Reliquum est ut pro certo omnes habeatis Vos unice diligi a Sanctissimo Domino Nostro qui ab infelicibus vepretis saltibus ad Domini pascua vos traduci a Deo optimo Maximo incensis officio charitate precibus exposcit Romae Aprilis 24. 1666. Vester Amantissimus in Domino Franciscus Cardinalis Barberinus Rendred into English the Superscription thus To the most Excellent men the Clergy and Catholicks of the Kingdom of Ireland And inner Tenour thus Most excellent Men FOur years now are almost past since our most Holy Lord out of his love to you hath by my Letters admonished you of dangers to your Salvation which are impending from fals Brethren And when he mightily desired to hear news of the snare broken and you delivered behold the sad tidings come of your having agreed amongst your selves that a Congregation shall be held at Dublin on the third of the Ides of June for deliberating on the point of subscribing that Protestation which making shew of the Title of fidelity asserts things contrary to the Catholick Faith Wherefore his Holiness hath commanded that by me you be seriously admonished not to confound civil fidelity with the obedience due to the See Apostolick nor suffer it to enter into your Souls that he cannot be truly obedient to the King who doth this duty to the Roman Pontiff whereas indeed nothing can more conduce to establish the Authority of Kings than in their Subjects a faithful obsequiousness to the Pontiffical Authority And indeed what Law doth so favour the Monarchical Government as the Catholick What doth so strictly command subjection as that which openly enjoyns all to obey their Superiours Be therefore constant in this Law nor let the traps of the enemy of human kind deceive you to which enemy as to whom the manifold Arts of harming are present that
of giving the foresaid protestation of fidelity in more pleasing words was not wanting which yet are no way able or fit to remove the mischief But to those who having past the bounds of modesty after so many vain endeavours peradventure glory to have had this last success of the designed Assembly His Holiness doth threaten sore divine revenge if they turning from wicked thoughts do not abstain from such enterprises In the mean while I in the name of the whole Congregation set over your affairs do exhort you that the opinion of your fortitude and faith and the concern of your Salvation be above all things taken by you to heart and that you pay a grateful return of good offices to the Roman Church which hath begot you in Christ The rest is that you all hold for certain you are singularly beloved by our most Holy Lord who by prayers all set on fire with duty and Charity most earnestly begs of the most High God that you may from those unhappy thickets of briars and wild Forrests of danger be brought to the pastures of the Lord. Rome April 24. 1666. Your most loving in the Lord Francis Cardinal Barberin The second Letter or that which was from Rospigliosi dated at Brussels May 13. same year 1666. to the Clergy alone superscribed thus Reverendissimis ac Venerabilibus Dominis Episcopis Vicariis Sedium Vacantium reliquo Clero Hiberniae And proceeding thus Reverendissimi ac Venerabiles Domini PUritas Fidei Catholicae quae inter tot pericula aerumnas illaesa permansit in Regno Hiberniae efficit ut omnes Apostolici Administri merito habeant fideles illos pro dilectissimis Sanctae Sedis filiis tenerrimo effusoque studio erga res eorum afficiantur Ego qui non ex merito sed ex mera Sanctissimi Domini Nostri beneficentia eumdem characterem sustineo meaeque curae commissam habeo directionem negotiorum Vestri Regni sentio mihi adeo acriter praecordia convelli ut lachrymas continere nequeam dum perpendo Nationem illam quae caeteris hactenus illustre constantiae exemplum fuit cuivis temporali commodo praetulit semper conservationem orthodoxae Religionis divini cultus augmentum majorem gloriam Dei nunc versari in periculo ob insidias quorumdam a Patre Iniquitatis humani generis hoste seductorum contaminandi illam eamdem Fidem cujus splendorem per totum Orbem tot tam praeclare gestis hactenus conata est conservare augere Eo quidem tendit Juramentum ad quod subscribendum Valesius Caronus per varias technas satagunt persuadere Ecclesiasticos sicque illos facere Instrumenta causam Damnationis caeterorum Iste est finis ob quem tanto nisu promovent congressum Dubliniensem Et quamvis fingant se moveri zelo fidelitatis debitae Regi satis patet esse merum fucum ad bonos decipiendos quoniam abunde notvm est compertum omnibus quam firmiter radicatum in animo affectum reverentiam obedientiam habeant erga Serenissimam Majestatem suam ac ne optari quidem posse documenta ampliora iis quae hactenus exhibuerunt Et si quid praeterea tentant Valesius Caronus spectat non ad augendam fidelitatem Populorum erga Principem sed ad exterminandam puritatem Catholicae Religionis cujus destructivum est praefatum Juramentum consequenter ad cunctos fideles Hibernos in lachrymosam ac perpetuo deflendam erniciem detrudendos Quanto gravius est periculum tanto amplius meritum acquiret penes Omnipotentem Deum quicumque animo zeloso constanti suavique ac prudenti moderamine remedium opportunum attulerit imminenti periculo Neque possunt oves alio quam vestro praesidio defendi a morsu laetali pravae suggestionis quoniam ob eruditionem dignitatem Sacerdotalem vos praecipue venerantur suspiciunt eademque ratione tenemini earum saluti enixe sedulo consulere Igitur vos in visceribus Christi rogo obtestorque ut tot praesentes tot posteros vestros Conterraneos ab interitu ac casu irreparabili revocetis ne Christus Dominus in durissimo judicio iis qui praesunt faciendo districtam a vobis rationem indiligenter peractae villicationis exigat Nec plura addere operae praetium duco cum causa ipsa quae Dei Cultum Salutem Patriae honorem Generis vestri inseparabiliter attinet zelum vestrum per se incendat excitet adhortetur Finio igitur Altissimum orans ut vos gratia sua praeveniat sequatur ac bonis consiliis jugiter praestet esse intentos Bruxellis 13 May 1666. Reverendissimi ac Venerabiles Domini Vester Devotissimus Servus ad omnia officia paratissimus Jacobus Rospigliosi Abbas S. Mariae Internuncius Apostolicus The Superscription was Reverendissimis ac Veneralibus Dominis D. Episcopis Vicariis Sedium Vacantium reliquo Clero Hiberniae Rendered into English the Superscription in these words To the most Reverend Lords Bishops and the Venerable the Vicars of the vacant Sees and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland And the inner Contents as here Most Reverend Lords and Venerable Sirs THE purity of Catholick Faith which amongst so many dangers and tribulations remain'd without stain or spot in the Kingdom of Ireland makes all Apostolick Ministers to esteem those faithful deservedly the most beloved sons of the Holy See and to have a most tender and affectionate regard of all their Concerns I who through no merit of my own but out of the meer beneficence of our most Holy Lord bear the character of such a Minister and have the direction of the affairs of your Kingdom committed to my charge feel my bowels so grievously pull'd and torn in pieces that I cannot forbear weeping when I consider that Nation which to all other Nations hath been hitherto an illustrious example of constancy and which before all temporal advantages hath alwayes preferr'd the conservation of Orthodox Religion increase of Divine Worship and greater glory of God to be now in danger through the wiles of some seduced by the Father of iniquity the Foe of humane kind of contaminating that very Faith the splendor of which throughout the whole earth by so many and such glorious deeds it hath hitherto endeavoured to preserve and increase To that indeed tends the Oath to the subscribing of which Walsh and Caron by so many subtle arts labour to persuade the Churchmen and so make them Instruments and causes of the damnation of others That is the end for which they use such great endeavours to promote the Dublin Assembly And albeit they feign themselves moved out of zeal of fidelity due to the King yet this appears sufficiently to be but meer false dye to deceive the good because it is abundantly known and manifest to all what affection reverence and obedience and how firmly rooted in their very Souls towards His most Serene Majesty
Instrument I was more concernâ—d than any one person whatsoever of them all to hinder such a temerarious Resolution of Dissolving a Resolution occasioned indeed by that unlucky accident of the Primats challenging the Speakers Chair but after driven on so furiously and obstinately out of a far other design These reasons and consent of others wrought at last even the more Factions to some calm within the House while others of the more sober Party went forth to perswade the Primat And he suffering himself at last to be perswaded by reason returns fairly of himself and is content to leave the Chair to Kilfinuran a Declaration being first made by all that that Chair was no place nor seat of Dignity but of Ministry or Office only and that it was confessed the praeeminence of place belong'd of right to the Primat of Ardmagh before all the Clergy and Prelats of Ireland This unexpected tumult being so at last over and all things quiet the Gentlemen viz. Sir Nicholas Plunket Knight Sir Robert Talbot Barronet and John Walsh Esq who all three came from my Lord Lieutenant were introduced Being seated and having congratulated the Fathers so wonderful and happy a change under his Majesties Reign after those late and long dismal days of all kind of evil under Usurpers and even therefore a change questionless wrought by the powerful Arme of the High God alone since it gave them so much both liberty and security to sit there together in the Capital Citty of the Kingdom They Declared that they were sent from His Grace upon a special Errand to them but Commanded also by His Grace to read it to them out of Paper least peradventure some mistake should happen to be either of his words or sense delivered otherwise Which being in a few words declared by one of the said three Gentlemen viz. by Sir Nicholas Plunket I remember very well that presently after the third of them I mean John Walsh Esq who had informer times been as Sir Nicholas also was one of the Supream Council of the Roman-Catholick Confederates of Ireland stood up and read intelligibly twice over to the Congregation being all silent and very intent a paper containing exactly these following matters and words as the whole and only errand or message sent from His Grace at that time by those Gentlemen to the Fathers The Lord Lieutenants first Message to the Congregation THat it is too well known to divers persons in the present meeting of the Romish Clergy in this City of Dublin what attempts have been upon the Royal Authority in this Kingdom under colour of the pretended Authority Power and Jurisdiction of the Pope and how far those attempts prevailed in keeping many of the People from returning to their due obedience to the Crown and in withdrawing divers of those from it who were returned to it hath sufficiently appeared not only by the violation of the Peace granted them by His Majesties gracious Indulgence and Clemency but also of the Faith of the then Confederate Roman Catholicks by the instigation procurement and pretended Authority of Rinuccini the Popes Nuncio in the year 1646 and by the proceedings of the Titular Bishops at Jamestown in the year 1650. Secondly That divers of the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland and of the said Claergy in January and February 1661. calling to mind those attempts and the deplorable consequences thereof to the Crown and to themselves presented His Majesty with a Remonstrance and Protestation of their Loyalty to His Majesty and of their renunciation and detestation of any Doctrine or Power from whence such practises might be deduced To which Remonstrance and Protestation divers others of the Nobility and Gentry and most of the said Clergy Resident in this Kingdom have not yet subscribed although more then four years are effluxed since the same was first presented to His Maiesty Thirdly That the said Clergy whose example and incouragement the Laiety of their Profession may possibly expect have delayed their Subscriptions on pretence that they wanted the liberty of adviseing and consulting which they conceived necessary in a matter of so great importance which being now admitted to them with freedom and scourity It is expected that they should make use thereof for asserting and owning His Majesties Royal Authority to the satisfaction of all His Majesties good Subjects and to the particular advantage of the said Clergy themselves and those of their Religion and imploy the time that for that purpose will be allowed them which neither can nor need belong both in respect of the present conjuncture of Affairs and for that it may reasonably be presumed that in four years time the said Remonstrance and Protestation is sufficiently understood and may be speedily resolved upon By the Copy of this Message which I have out of the Secretaries Office delivered to me next day after by His Graces command or I mean by the Endorsement of that Copy it appears the said message was sent by advice also of these Lords of the Privy Council of Ireland the Lord Primat Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Earl of Arran Earl of Anglesey and Mr. Secretary Davis However the foresaid three Gentlemen having so delivered their message but left no Copy at all of the Paper and having also in a few words more from themselves particularly recommended to the Fathers that resolution upon and answer to the Lord Lieutenant's Message which might be in all points answerable to his Graces just expectation of their ready unanimous and chearful concurrence to that Remonstrance by their Manual Subscription thereof as of a truly Loyal Instrument or clear profession of true indispensable Allegiance to the King and well indeed might these very three Gentlemen exhort thereunto as having themselves had long before amongst others subscribed that very individual Formulary moreover having in the last place heartily wished likewise all other good Counsels prudent Resolutions and happy success to the Synod they took leave of the Synod they took leave and departed being conducted forth by some of the Prelats and other chief Men of the Congregation Those being departed and these returned and all seated as before the Procurator stood up and addressing himself first to the Chair-man then to the other Prelats and after to all the rest of the Fathers he made his first Speech to them principally indeed pursuing the Lord Lieutenantâ—s Message on the Subject or end of their Assembly but withal giveing as large and as full an account both of all his own actings in the quality of their Procurator for them the 6 years past i. e. ever since he had received in the year 1661. their Procuratorium to do so and as full also of the Original and procedure expediency and necessity conscienciousness and Catholickness of the Remonstrance and of the contrivance and disputes after nevertheless against it and subscribers of it as the weight and multiplicity of such matters required and as an hour or an hour and half would
remit the Reader to such other Books and other places also in this same Book where he may find as much satisfaction as can be desired To clear in all respects whatsoever that very matter i. e. To evince as clear as the Sun shines in his brightest meridian glory That not even so much as that very species or kind of Apostasie which is or ought to be only grounded on the sin of disobedience or contumacy against some lawful Commands or Summons can be with any justice or truth objected to Me and Caron or to either of us No not even now in the year 1673 to me alone though I confess that I have my self alone since the 20th of September 1669 at several times opposed but Canonically opposed three several Citations or Summons and Commands at the instance and by the procurement of the late Bruxel-Internuncio Airoldi and other Roman Ministers abroad and their Irish Emissaries both abroad in other Countries and at home in Ireland but of purpose to suppress utterly the doctrine of the Remonstrance sent one after another from beyond Seas yea and from the lawful or acknowledged General Superiours of my own Order enjoining me under pain of Excommunication ipso facto latae to appear before them in Forreign Countries and within the term of time peremptorily prefix'd by them So much here by occasion of that second friendly Advertisement given me by my Lord of Ferns or of that great Romans having termed Me and Caron Apostates and whose Letter terming us so my Lord of Ferns did see although otherwise to treat here of that matter was I know Forreign enough to the main scope of my third Appendage which had been sufficiently treated before And therefore now There remains only the fourth and last of all the Appendages viz. A Paper of Animadversions given to the Lord Lieutenant and His Grace's Commands laid on the Procurator Upon or by occasion of which Paper I have no more to say but 1. That when the Commissioners of the National Congregation had presented His Grace the Lord Lieutenant their new Remonstrance or new Recognition and His Grace taking time to consider and examine throughly the import thereof had shewed it to such Lords of the Kings Privy Council in that Kingdom whom He thought fit to consult in that affair before He gave His Answer to the Congregation which long'd very much to know whether He would accept thereof as satisfactory one of the said Lords viz. the Earl of Anglesey then Vice-Treasurer of Ireland now at the writing hereof Lord Privy Seal in England drew briefly some material Animadversions upon it shewing its insignificancy and unsatisfactoriness in or as to the main points wherein the Fathers should have declared themselves 2. That soon after they i. e. that Congregation had dissolved His Grace was pleased to tell me of that Paper of Animadversions and together give me the very Original of which Original as I have it by me still so I give here a true exact Copy viz. Animadversions on the Remonstrance or Protestation of the Romish Clergy of Ireland subscribed the 15th day of June 1666. WE Your Majesties Subjects His Majesties satisfaction is the pretence of both these Remonstrances of this and of the former presented by Peter Walsh the Procurator of the Romish Clergy of Ireland 1661. If the former had not been in some degree satisfactory in England it had not been offered to their Subscriptions here Therefore in differing from that they must design either to offer more which is not pretended or less which will not be enough or only to alter the expression But as to that it is not probable that they would put themselves to any stress to find out better words to signifie their meaning than those which have already obtained some acceptance It may therefore be more than suspected that they decline that first Remonstrance because it is not lyable to so many reserves and uncertainties as they would have it and they will have another of their own which is more subject to what interpretations they shall please to put upon it The truth of which Conjecture is too evident by these following particulars differing from the former Remonstrance Undoubted Sovereign Seems to signifie only him who exercises Supreme Authority but the rightful Sovereign as it is expressed in the former is he who ought to exercise that Authority As any Subject ought to be to his Prince The Pope often pretending Authority directly or indirectly over Princes in Temporal affairs this expression secures not our King of their obedience against the pretensions of the Pope And as the Laws of God and Nature require I living in Ireland will obey the great Turk as far as the Laws of God and Nature require but the former Protesters will obey King Charles as far as the Laws and Government of this Kingdom require The Laws of God and Nature are general to all Mankind and every Rebel pretends to an observation of them They design not obedience to a particular King who will not regulate it by the particular constitution of his Kingdom We will inviolably bear true Allegiance That is in their own sense as far as the Laws of God and Nature require Some make the Pope Judge of the former but every man makes himself Judge of the latter The King must please both to be sure of these men No Power on Earth shall be able to withdraw us from our duty herein This is little significant seeing their duty is tryable only by the Laws of God and Nature of which the Pope and themselves are Judges But if they intend really to oppose any design of the Pope against the King why do they not say they will do it in that Paper which pretends to secure His Majesty in that particular Their obedience to the Pope is that which makes the jealousie of their disobedience to the King Therefore to clear themselves they should have renounc'd the Popes Authority as it may be opposite to the Kings If they dare not name opposition to him how can it be expected that they will oppose him And how careful they are not to give offence to the Pope we see by their clear leaving out almost the whole Paragraph in the former Remonstrance which secures particularly against his Vsurpations If they say they decline naming him in bare respect to him it seems they prefer their Complement beyond their duty but if that be it why then do they name him in their Subscriptions to the first Proposition of the faculty of Sorbon We will to the loss of our blood assert Your Majesties Rights But they are still no more than the Laws of God and Nature allows you The Laws of the Kingdom are insignificant It is not our Doctrine that Subjects may be discharged c. But doth their Doctrine condemn and anathematize such practises Or do they condemn and anathematize that Doctrine Do they condemn the Doctrine of Suarez Bellarmine Mariana Salmeron Becanus
Roman-Catholicks the 17th day of January 1648 and in the 24th year of the Reign of Our Sovereign Lord CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. ORMONDE The DECLARATION intituled thus A Declaration Of the Archbishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Secular and Regular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland AGAINST The continuance of His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the Marquess of ORMOND Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject the ill Conduct of His MAJESTIES Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace Dated at Jamestown in the Convent of the Fryers Minors August 12. 1650. THE Catholick People of Ireland in the year 1641. forced to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel intention made a Peace and published the same the 17th of January 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from His Majesty or from His Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now CHARLES II. hereby manifesting their Loyal thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when His Majesty was in restraint and neither He nor His Queen or Prince of Wales in condition to send any supply or relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were obtained by the above Pacification and thereby freed themselves from the danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the Power of England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and his Enemies in the Three Kingdoms Let the World judge if this be not an undeniable Argument of Loyalty This Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates ran sincerely and chearfully under His MAJESTIES Authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast sums of Monies well nigh half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other Materials for War After his Excellency the said Lord Lieutenant frustrating the expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Natives which he began by violating the Peace in many parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the World I. FIrst The foresaid Catholicks having furnished his Excellency with the aforesaid Sum of Money which was sufficient to make up the Army of Fifteen thousand Foot and Two thousand five hundred Horse agreed upon by the Peace for the preservation of the Catholick Religion our Sovereigns interest and the Nation his Excellency gave Patents of Colonels and other Commanders over and above the party under the Lord Baron of Inchiquin to Protestants and upon them consumed the substance of the Kingdom who most of them afterwards betrayed or deserted us II. That the Holds and Ports of Munster as Cork Youghal Kingsale c. were put in the hands of faithless men of the Lord of Inchiquin's Party that betrayed these places to the Enemy to the utter endangering of the KING's interest in the whole Kingdom This good service they did His MAJESTY after soaking up the sweet and substance of His Catholick Subjects of Munster where it is remarkable That upon making the Peace his Excellency would no way allow His Loyal Catholick Subjects of Cork Youghal Kingsale and other Garrisons to return to their own Homes or Houses III. Catholick Commanders instanced by the Commissioners of Trust according to the Pacification and hereupon by his Excellencies Commission receiving their Commands in the Army as Colonel Patrick Purcel Major General of the Army and Colonel Peirce Fitz-Gerald alias Mr. 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 Neil Esq a Protestant and that of Commissary of the Horse to Sir William Vaughan Knight and after the said Sir William â—s death to Sir Thomas Armstrong Knight both Protestants IV. A Judicature and legal way of administring Justice promised by the Articles of Peace was not performed but all process and proceedings done by Paper Petitions and thereby private Clerks and other corrupt Ministers inrich't the Subject ruined and no Justice done V. The Navigation the great support of Ireland quite beaten down his Excellency disheartning the Adventurers Undertakers and Owners as Captain Antonio and others favouring Hollanders and other Aliens by reversing of Judgments legally given and definitively concluded before his Commissioners Authority By which depressing of Maritime affairs and not providing for an orderly and good Tribunal of Admiralty we have hardly a Bottom left to transmit a Letter to His Majesty or any other Prince VI. The Church of Cloine in our possession at the time of making the Peace violently taken from us by the Lord of Inchiquin contrary to the Articles of Peace no Justice nor redress was made upon Application or Complaint VII That Oblations Book monies Interments and other Obventions in the Counties of Cork Waterford and Kerry were taken from the Catholick Priests and Pastors by the Ministers without any redress or restitution VIII That the Catholick Subjects of Munster lived in slavery under the Presidency of the Lord of Inchiquin these being their Judges that before were their Enemies and none of the Catholick Nobility or Gentry admitted to be of the Tribunal IX The Conduct of the Army was improvident and unfortunate Nothing hapned in Christianity more shameful than the disaster at Rathmines near Dublin where his Excellency as it seemed to ancient Travellers and men of experience who viewed all kept rather a Mart of Wares a Tribunal of Pleadings or a great Inne of Play Drinking and Pleasure than a well ordered Camp of Souldiers Droghedagh unrelieved was lost by storm with much bloodshed and the loss of the flower of Leinster Wexford lost much by the unskilfulness of a Governour a young man vain and unadvised Ross given up and that by his Excellencies order without any dispute by Colonel Luke Taffe having within near upon 2500 Souldiers desirous to fight After that the Enemy make a Bridge over the River of Ross a wonder to all men and understood by no man without any let or interruption our Forces being within Seven or eight Miles to the place where 200 Musqueteers at Rossberkine being timely ordered had interrupted this stupendious Bridge and made the Enemy weary of the Town Carrig being betrayed by the
considering also their promise in their said Letter recited that the Bishop and Dr. Charles Kelly should clearly deliver unto Us their thoughts and good intentions and the declaration of their sincere hearts By all VVe have written VVe desire to let you see how unhandsomly to say no more VVe have been dealt withal by those Bishops that when upon Our observation of the backwardness of the Towns to give Us obedience VVe applied Our Self with so much freedom to them who VVe and VVe believe by this time you are satisfied obstructed it instead of dealing plainly with Us as VVe so often desired them they would have held Us on with promises of great endeavours on their part to procure Us obedience and so continued seemingly well satisfied with Us till unprovoked by any thing from Us they break forth with their dreadful Excommunication when both in the County of Lymerick and Athlone the Rebels were endeavouring to force a passage VVhat an invasion these proceedings of theirs is upon the Regal power is not now to the purpose to declare But whether in them there be any usurpation upon the freedom of the Nobility and Commons is fit for you to consider The injustice of this kind of dealing VVe suppose is by this time plain enough to you It remains to shew you even by their own actions That supposing them to have proceeded by full warrant and upon just ground yet their rashness is not excusable as appears in that as they hastily denounced their Excommunication on the 15th of September so was it more wisely suspended by the same men on the 16th following in the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard's Camp VVhether so dreadful a weapon as they make that sentence be thus to be play'd with to make Rebels sport VVe leave to the examination of those that are in some respects more concerned than VVe are But that their allegation of the Peoples aversion to Our government is but a Cloak to cover their own fond Ambition to govern them or rather to bring them to confusion is manifest For as by their Excommunication they are forced to confess against all their Protestations That indeed they labour to bring them to such an aversion so by being forced immediately unsought by Us to suspend it they acknowledge they have not fully compleated their work As is more evident by these following Letters from the Bishop of Clonfert and Dr. Charles Kelly to the Officers of the Army under the command of the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard and from the Bishops of Raphoe Killala and Fearnes to the Earl of Westmeath and other Officers Sirs YEsterday We have received an Express from the rest of our Congregation at Galway bearing their sense to suspend the effects of the Excommunication proclaimed by their Orders till the service of Athlone be performed fearing on the one side the dispersion of the Army and on the other having received most certain intelligence of the Enemies approach unto that place with their full force and number of fighting men and thereupon would have us concur with them in suspending the said Excommunication As for our part we do judge that suspension unnecessary and full of inconveniencies which we apprehend may ensue because the Excommunication may be obeyed and the service not neglected if People were pleased to undertake the service in the Clergies name without relation to the Lord of Ormond or any that may take his part yet fearing the censure of singularity in matters of so high a strain against us or to be deemed more forward in excommunicating than others also fearing the weakness of some which we believe the Congregation feared we are pleased to follow the major vote and against our own opinion concur with them and do hereby suspend the said Censure as above Provided alwayes That after that service performed or the service be thought unnecessary by the Clergy or when the said Clergy will renew it it shall be presently incurred as if the said Suspension had never been interposed And so we remain Your affectionate loving Friends in Christ Jesus Walter B. Clonfert Charles Kelly Corbeg Sept. 16. 1650. Our very good Lords and Sirs THE Colonels Mr. Alexander Mac Donnel Bryen O Neill and Randal Mac Donnel like obedient Children of Holy Church have offered themselves to put up for the Clergy and that before Publication of the Declaration and Excommunication God will bless their good intentions They go now to join with you on this side of the Shannon and by making one Body to put forward our cause This is the best way we can think of to encourage the well-affected and curb the malignant and obstinate The Lord Bishop of Killaloe being taken Prisoner by the Lord Lieutenant the Cavaliers would have had him forthwith hanged if his Excellency had given way thereunto His Excellency is giving Patents to as many Catholicks as are Excommunication-proof Ireland is an accursed Countrey that hath so many rotten members Though things go hard with us God will bring the work to a good end When you meet with those Colonels confer of what service to take in hand Est periculum in mora Praying to God to protect you in your wayes we remain Your very loving Friends Joan Rapotensis Fran Alâ—â—â—usis Nich Fernensis Galway Sept. 21. 1650. To our very good Lords the Earl of Westmeath the Lords Bishops of Leghlin Cloanmacnoise and Dromore Sir James Preston Knight Colonel Bryen Mac Phelim Colonel Lewis Moore Colonel Arthur Fox and the rest of the Commanders of the Leinster Forces By which expressions it appears That however their practises found Subjects fit to be wrought upon in the Cities and Towns and some loose people in the Countrey addicted to Rebellion and Rapine for such are all those they have still esteemed obedient Children of Holy Church yet had they not power to draw together any considerable Party to set up their new Government only they were able to hinder the established Government from opposing the Enemy To conclude this Head Would any man that had never so little care of a Peoples welfare or foresight of what tended plainly to their destruction have set them loose from all Government Civil and Martial at such a time when a potent Enemy was in the Field and never tell them when they should follow or obey If it be said they made provision for it in their Declaration it will readily be answered That they are only thereby directed to return to their Association and until a General Assembly of the Nation can be conveniently called together unanimously to serve against the Common Enemy But under what conduct they are to seek from a Congregation In the mean time if those with Us in the County of Clare and under the Lord Marquess of Clanrickard had obeyed this wild direction or taken occasion to disperse the Rebels had passed the River of Shannon at both ends and spoiled both Assembly and Congregation The grounds of their proceeding to an Excommunicating of
all that should feed help or adhere to Us are set down in their Declaration * See before page 65. in the former Appendix of Instruments where you have this Declaration at length both Preamble and Fifteen Articles thereof entirely and consequently without interposition of any other matter After which also you have there pag. 70. the Excommunication before mentioned of the 12th of August intituled A Declaration of the Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates and Dignitaries of the Regular and Secular Clergy of the Kingdom of Ireland against the continuance of His Majesties authority in the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the misgovernment of the Subject and the ill conduct of His Majesties Army and the violation of the Articles of Peace at Jamestown in the Convent of the Friers Minors the 12th of August 1650. That in this Title they assume unto themselves a power to declare against the continuance of His Majesties authority where he hath placed it needs no further proof than the reading of it But whence they derive their pretence to this power We find not any where expressed nor by whom they are constituted Judges of the misgovernment of the People the ill conduct of His Majesties Army or of the violation of the Articles of Peace For the misgovernment of the People and ill conduct of His Majesties Army We acknowledge no earthly competent Judge of Us but His Majesty and the established Laws And for the violation of the Articles of Peace by the consent even of all those Bishops unless there be gotten amongst them some that opposed the Peace and joined with those that assisted the English Rebels as long as they could give them hire the trust of looking to the observance of the Articles of Peace was reposed by the General Assembly with whom the Peace was concluded in 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 Dr. Gerald Fennel Esquires as appears by the said Articles Whereby we suppose it is clear That as the Bishops have arrogated to themselves an unwarranted power to declare against the continuance of His Majesties authority where he hath placed it and to be Our Judges in the government of the People and conduct of the Army wherein VVe doubt whether their skill be answerable to their desire to try it so have they as unwarrantably taken upon them to judge what is or is not a violation of the Articles of Peace and in all they have endeavoured to invade and usurp both upon King and People bereaving the one of Royalty and the other of Freedom Now supposing they were the Monarchs they would be let the grounds of their Excommunication set forth in all that VVe have seen be duly examined and it will be found that their sentence is most unjust So that as their Tribunal is usurped their Judgment is erroneous VVe begin with the Preamble of the Declaration in these words Preamble of the Declaration THE Catholick People of Ireland in the year 1641. forced to take up Arms for the defence of Holy Religion their Lives and Liberties the Parliament of England having taken a resolution to extinguish the Catholick Faith and pluck up the Nation root and branch a powerful Army being prepared and designed to execute their black rage and cruel intention made a Peace and published the same 17th Jan. 1648 with James Lord Marquess of Ormond Commissioner to that effect from His Majesty or from His Royal Queen and Son Prince of Wales now Charles the Second thereby manifesting their Loyal thoughts to Royal Authority This Peace or Pacification being consented to by the Confederate Catholicks when His Majesty was in restraint and neither He or His Queen or the Prince of Wales in condition to send any supplies or relief to them when also the said Confederate Catholicks could have agreed with the Parliament of England upon as good or better conditions for Religion and the Lives Liberties and Estates of the People than were by the above Pacification obtained and thereby free themselves from the danger of any Invasion or War to be made upon them by the power of England where notwithstanding the Pacification with His Majesty they were to dispute and fight with their and His Enemies in the Three Kingdoms Let the world â—udge if this be not an undeniable argument of Loyalty The Peace being so concluded the Catholick Confederates came sincerely and chearfully under His Majesties authority in the person of the said Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland plentifully providing vast Sums of monies well nigh half a Million of English pounds besides several Magazines of Corn with a fair Train of Artillery great quantity of Powder Match Ammunition with other materials for War After His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant frustrating the expectation the Nation had of his Fidelity Gallantry and Ability became the Author of almost losing the whole Kingdom to God King and Nation Which he began by violating the Peace in many parts thereof as may be clearly evidenced and made good to the world ANSWER Concerning their motives of taking up Arms in the year 1641 We shall say nothing But since they begin so high with their Narrative as the year 1641 it will not be amiss to mind them That betwixt that and the year 1648 there was by Authority from His Majesty and Our Ministration several Cessations and at length a Peace concluded with the Confederate Roman-Catholicks in the year 1646 which Peace was shamefully and perfidiously violated by the instigation and contrivement of most part of these Archbishops Bishops Prelates and others of the Secular and Regular Clergy and that not in slight and strained particulars such as We are now charged with by them but by coming with Two powerful Armies before the City of Dublin upon no provocation from Us unless they esteemed the continuance of a Cessation for about Three years with them and the bringing them a Peace to their own doors such a provocation as deserved their bending their united power against Us leaving other parts that neither had nor would have Peace or Cessation with them unmolested and at liberty to waste their quarters whil'st they devoured Ours and sought Our ruine This as a particular blotting their name and memory with the everlasting infamy of Perfidy Ingratitude and undeniable Disloyalty they have reason to leap over in their Preamble least they should awaken the Curses of those multitudes of People who being seduced into so horrid a violation of Publick Faith by their impious allurements and hellish Excommunications are thereby become desolate Widows helpless Orphans and miserable Exiles from the place of their birth and sustenance True it is That His late Majesty and His now Majesty then Prince of Wales overcoming