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
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
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
upon his known virtues and great merits Whether the said Father Talbot now that he is in France will in plain express words glory there amongst his Privadoes That himself alone was the principal Author of the forementioned Libel I know not certainly But hereof I am very certain that could those good Fathers so much injured by that lying Libel attributed commonly by all men to him have any indifferent I mean Ecclesiastical Judges of their own Communion before whom they might be allow'd to prosecute him throughly according to the Canons they would produce such and so many strong at least presumptions of matter both of Fact and Right or Law as would compel him no less than his Complices to Canonical Purgation In order to which Purgation I believe he would hardly find even the very smallest number of Compurgatoâ—s which is prescribed by the Canons i. e. by Pope Innocent in cap. Quotiens de Purgat Canon And if not What then would become of his Titular Archbishoprick Deficientem in Purgatione omni officio beneficio Ecclesiastico privare procures sayes Pope Alexander III (a) Cap. Cum P. Manconella de Purgat Cano. Besides let him see what other even incapacities too he must lie under still for the special note of Infamy viz. that he cannot be either Advocate or Procurator (b) 3. q. 7. Infamis or an Accuser or a Witness (c) 3. q. 4. Nulli q. 5. Omnes 4. q. 1. Diffinimus 6. q. 1. Beatus c. sequeâ—t But I suppose that for his good service to the Court of Rome in Libelling against the Remonstrants and me above all and now that out of my Writings he knows the penalties of the Canons he may by way of prevention de plenitudine potestatis Apostolica be easily and perhaps thankfully too not only absolved from all both spiritual Censures and corporal Punishments but dispens'd with in all incapacities and restored in integrum even as to both Tribunals viz. the internal of Conscience as far as they can and external of the Church And yet I see not how after all he can clear his Accounts with God until he truly repent before Him and consequently before men repair the injuries done me and my Friends not only by his foresaid lying Libel but even by several lying Letters and other both malicious and disloyal endeavours of his Non dimittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum is a known and infallible Maxim even of the very Canon Law * 14. q. 6. Si ves it self as taken from St. Augustine Ep. 54. ad Macedonium Farewell Reader London Nov. 3. 1673. An Abridgment OF CONTENTS IN THE Four Treatises of this Book In the First Part of the First Treatise PRocuration to Father Peter Walsh Page 5. Irish Remonstrance 7 8 9. Names of the first Ecclesiastick Subscribers thereof at London 9. When where by whom and upon what occasion made 7. Signed by Ninety Seven of the Irish Nobility and Gentry at London 11. Approved by the Bishop of Kilfinuragh 12. by the Bishop of Cork 13. by the Bishop of Ferns how far 14. The Little Book called The More Ample Account by whom and upon what occasion made 11. The other called Loyalty Asserted why written 12. Remonstrance opposed and in what terms by the Apostolick Internancio Hierom de Vecchiis in his several Letters from Brussels whereof one dated 21 July 1662 you have 16. And by Cardinal Francis Barberin by his Letters of the eighth of July 1662 written to the Nobility and Gentry of Ireland ad Praestantes Viros Hiberniae 17. Confederacy amongst the Clergy both Secular and Regular in Ireland against the Remonstrance 19. The Procurator dealt with by fair offers to relinquish or at least decline the promoting of the Remonstrance 19. Father Peter Ailmer stickles against the Remonstrance 20. Of the Lords Aubigny and Montague as likewise of the rest of the English and Irish Chaplains to either Queen and the grand mistake i. e. omission at first in passing them by and the great use made of that omission 20 21. Sixteen several reasons causes or pretences thereof and all and each of them regarding onely temporal ends or worldly interest and this too mistaken 22. from thence to 27. As many several Answers which were given by the Procurator to those Reasons 27. and from thence to 41. Neither uncatholickness nor other unlawfulness in subscribing all the while so much as pretended by any in Ireland not even of those that alledged so many other excuses 42. The More Ample Account Translated at Rome in order to be Censur'd yet not Censured 43. The general Argument insisted on still by the Procurator but never answer'd by them 44. Father Macedo a Portuguez Divine pitched on at Rome to write against the Remonstrance and to answer Father Caron and Father Walsh but nothing published if he hath written Pag. 43. Father Bonaventure Bruodin an unconstant man and a great Intriguer against the Remonstrance even after he had on his knees asked pardon for his unconstancy of the Procurator 42. The Pope viz. Alexander VII refuses to meddle by Censures with the Remonstrance if the Primat 's Letters from Rome be true * But understand you that His Holiness would not by Himself or any Censure immediately from Himself meddle For certainly he did meddle by others or his Interâ—uncio De Vecciâ—â—is and Cardinal Bâ—riâ—â—ia belâ—ed him under their own proper hands 43. Names of those Ecclesiasticks who subscribed to the Remonstrance in Ireland 47. The Procurator attempts to break the Confederacy against the Remonstrance 46. Writes to the Provincial Assemblies of the Franciscans and Dominicans 48. What ensued upon these Letters 48 49. Dominicans debate the Remonstrance in a Provincial Assembly with what success 49. Treat ill the Subscribers of their Order 52. Franciscans refuse to treat of the Remonstrance in their Provincial Assembly 49. Letter of the Prior Provincial of the Dominicans in the name of his Body to the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant with an enclosed Form of Fidelity 50. His Letter to the Bishop of Dromore 52. Augustinians universally oppose the Remonstrance 54. Letter from the Dean of the Chapter of the Roman-Catholick Clergy of England as from himself and them approving the Remonstrance 55. William Burgat then Vicar-General of Imly but now Titular Archbishop of Cashel refuses to subscribe the Remonstrance and why 57. John Burk Archbishop of Tuam excuses himself at Dublin from Signing the Remonstrance upon what pretences 57 58. Jesuits treated with by the Procurator to subscribe the Remonstrance with what success 59. Queries and Reasons given to him by them against the Remonstrance 60 c. Answers to their said Papers and their first Allegation proved false 64. Their second Allegation concerning the Fourth Lateran Council under Innocent III and Council of Lyons under Innocent IV likewise proved false 65 c. Their third also concerning the Authority of General Councils to be undervalued by the
Holden's Letter from Paris in their defence 524. Fourth and last observation on the Letters of the foresaid de Vecchiis 527. The fate of the Loyal Formulary to be so strangely persecuted with some occasional and brief but sharp reflections on Father Peter Talbot the Titular Archbishop of Dublin 528. Internuncio de Vecchiis Letter to Father Caron 531. The Procurator's first Letter to the said de Vecchiis 533. His second long Letter to him 538. and from thence to 556. The Diffinitory of the Franciscan Order in Ireland meet at Killiby about the Remonstrance of the year 1661. 556. Another Letter from them one from their Provincial and a third from Valentine Brown thence to the Procurator at London 557 558 559. Besides a fourth from the said Diffinitory to the Commissary General in Flanders 559. The said Diffinitories new Remonstrance sent to the Procurator 561. The Procurator thinks not fit to send their Letters forward to Flanders And why Pag. 563. The Lord Lieutenant's Reasons for not admitting the Remonstrance of the Franciscan Diffinitory 564 565 566. The Paradox of the Irish Jesuitical Anti-remonstrants and several notable Canons of Popes to justifie the breach or not performance of any Oath of Fidelity sworn to a Temporal Prince especially one reputed an Heretick by the Court of Rome 567. In the Second Part of the First Treatise THe Reason which moved the Procurator to consent at last to the calling of a National Assembly Pag. 570. Indiction of that National Assembly 573. Scheme of the Roman-Catholick Irish Clergy then 575 c. Why so many of the said Irish Clergy appear'd in the year 1648 against the Nuncio's Censures and so few since the year 1661 declared for the Loyal Formulary Where you have instances enough of the persecutions under which the Loyal Ecclesiasticks lay in all Countries both at home and abroad from 1646 to 1660 for having opposed the Nuncio 579 and from thence to 601. Vse made of the old infirm Archbishop of Tuam And his first Letter against the intended meeting of the National Synod or Congregation 601 602. Petition to the Lord Lieutenant for Licensing the Assembly to convene 602. by mistake of the Printer printed 164. Second Letter of the foresaid Archbishop to the same purpose 606. Bishop of Kilmore's Letter in answer to the Indiction 607. An account of Edmund Reilly Archbishop of Armagh 608 c. His Letter of singular and extraordinary submission from France to His Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General c. of Ireland 611. His Letter inclosed from Paris to the Procurator for the National Synod 612. An Account of the Bishop of Ferns 613 c. His several Letters from St. Jago in Gallicia one to Doctor Cusack another to the Procurator and a third which was his Letter of submission but not full enough in that to the Lord Lieutenant 616 618 620. by mistake of the Printer printed 628. The Procurator's Letter to him the said Bishop of Ferns 622. The same Bishop of Fern's Letter from St. Sebastian to the Procurator 624. Another also of his from Paris to the Procurator 625. Reflections made on some passages in those Letters of the Bishop of Ferns 626. Some brief Remarks on the carriage of the Bishop of Kilfinuragh in relation as well to the former * The Author corrects himself after viz. pag. 748. numb 8. concerning somewhat said in the present pag. 627. of Kilfinuragh's carriage in the affair of the Declaration and Excommunication issued by the Roman Catholick Irish Archbishops Bishops and other Prelates at Jamestown and Galway in the year 1650 against the Lord Lieutenant the then Marquess now Duke of Ormond publick affairs of Ireland as to the latter of the Remonstrance and National Congregation or convening thereof 627. Somewhat of William Burgat then Vicar-General of Imly now Archbishop of Cashil and his Letter from Rome to Primate Reilly at Paris concerning the resolution taken at Rome to hinder the convening of the National Synod at Dublin and to prevent the Signing however of the Remonstrance 628. One Father Christopher O Ferral an Irish Dominician sent of purpose from Brussels and Ireland with new Letters from Cardinal Francis Barberin and James Rospigliosi then Internuncius of Burgundy and Low-Countries but soon after Cardinal Rospigliosi to hinder the meeting of the foresaid National Synod c. And the said Messenger Ferral apprehended examined and imprisoned 629 630. The Bishop of Ardagh Patrick Plunket being sent for delivers though fear Duplicat of the said original Letters to the Lord Lieutenant 631. Cardinal Barberin's Letter by command of His Holiness the Pope dated at Rome 24th of April 1666 and superscribed Praestantissimis Viris Clero Catholicis Regni Hiberniae Pag. 632. Rospigliosi's Letter dated at Brussels 13 May 1666 and superscribed Reverendissimis Venerabilibus Dominis Episcopis Vicariis Sedium vacantium reliquo Clero Hiberniae 634. Rospigliosi's Letter of the same date to the Bishop of Ardagh ib. Eleven Animadversions on the said Letters of Barberin and Rospigliosi 636 c. A new and very disingenuous contrivance of the Bishop of Ardagh on the 9th of June to hinder the sitting of the National Congregation which was according to the Indiction to meet within two dayes after And what frustrated that contrivance 640. The Reasons why the Procurator took particularly to heart the sudden change he found in Ardagh and Kilfinuragh 639. These two Bishops Ardagh and Kilfinuragh are before the Congregation met introduced at Night privately to the Lord Lieutenant in the Castle and what the Heads of my Lord Lieutenants admonition to them were together with somewhat of Ardagh's confused answer to one point onely c. 640. All opposition both Domestick and Forreign against the convening of the Fathers in a National Synod or Congregation at Dublin being overcome they are at last convened on the 11th of June 1666 the day appointed by the Indiction choose not only a Speaker Chairman or President but a Secretary and then adjourn to the next day 637. On the second day of their Congregation being the 14th of June there was an incidental Controversie about the priviledges of Regulars By the factious management of which as by a new and strong Argument the Procurator who declared for the Secular Clergy plainly saw how resolved both sides were to oppose the main ends pretended to be those of that Synod 642. The House being this second day adjourned again to the next which was the 13th of the Month and the Procurator retired home to his Chamber Primat Reilly comes in to him unexpectedly having just then Landed at Rings-end after passing from France to Flanders thence to and through England incognito and he delivers presently into the Procurators hands three original Letters from Rospigliosi one to himself viz. the said Primat another to Martin Bishop of Ipres third from the said Martin to himself also and besides these Originals a fourth being only a
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
six months were over and the Clergie had been ashamed of their own obstinacy and no less confounded at their own scarce credible inconsiderancy But it pleased God to dispose affaires so that His Grace the Lord Lieutenant albeit otherwise very desirous to see these letters take effect as he was timely acquainted with the drawing and signing of them yet as they were ready to be dispatch'd to the several Counties and most of them too by Noblemen considering the dangerous plot then in hand amongst those disloyal Fanaticks who were to seize the Castle of Dublin and thinking prudently that if any papers whatsoever were carried about at that time by the Catholicks for getting hands or subscriptions those wicked plotters and their party would misinterpret them and pretend thereby a plott or some dangerous conspiracy a preparing amongst the Papists whereby to excuse the better themselves for meeting frequently in armed troups by day or night and considering moreover what influence the Irish Clergie had in the late warrs on the Layety of their communion yea notwithstanding any former Oath and that the same might be again unless the Clergie themselves had subscribed His Grace was pleased for these reasons to countermand for that time and suspend ever since the sending about of those letters expecting it might be done more seasonably when the Clergie had signed first and questionless too expecting the Clergie would sign as soon as their pretence of not dareing to meet by Representatives in a general Congregation were layed aside though it happen'd otherwise as will appear in the second Part of this first Treatise XLVI However the Catholick Gentry or old proprietours of the County of Wexford and few survivours of the Cittizens of that Town expected no such invitation by letters from the Noblemen but without any other then that they had gathered out of The More Ample Account and their own reason having framed for themselves a suitable both Petition to the Lord Lieutenant and preamble to His Majesty subscribed the Remonstrance with about two hundred hands for they wanted only three of that number and sent it His Grace by Mr. William Stafford of Lambstown who took great pains in this business Which Instrument of theirs I would not omit to insert here at length as an eternal monument of their honest loyal hearts however they have been abused in the late warrs by some of their spiritual leaders though perhaps that too more out of ignorance and blind zeal then any malice and whatever or how sad soever their condition above most other Counties be ever since as it was then when they signed so freely of themselves yea notwithstanding the contrary endeavours used by some Clergiemen especially two Fathers of the Society to disswade them Whether those Fathers behaved themselves so undiscreetly out of any disaffection to the King or rather out of mistaken Religion and prepossession by such foolish arguments as they had learned in their own Schools or by reading Bellarmine Suamz or such other by ass'd writers or whether by special command or direction of their Superiours I knew not To His Grace the Duke of Ormond Lord Lieutenant General an General Governour of Ireland The Humble Petition of the Subscribers MOst humbly sheweth that they come with the same alacrity and cheerfulness to present to your Grace the ensueing Remonstrance and Protestation which some of their fellow Subjects of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom not long since humbly laid at His Majecties Feet Who was graciously pleased to accept thereof And they with the same zeal acknowledging themselves to be bound in the same duty and indispensable tyes of obedience to His Majesty His Heirs and Successors in all temporal matters do humbly beseech your Grace that this their most hearty concurrence to the same faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance may be made the more acceptable by your Graces conveyance thereof to His Majesty And they shall pray c. To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty The faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Gentry of the County of Ireland WHereas a considerable part of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland by the name of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland presented to your most Excellent Majesty a sincere Protestation and humble Remonstrance intituled the faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance of the Roman Catholick Nobility and Gentry of Ireland for divers substantial and solid reasons in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance ingenuously and conscientiously expressed and set forth Now we the said Roman Catholick Gentry of the said County of Wexford whose names are hereunto subscribed being members of the said Roman Catholick Gentry of Ireland being bound in Conscience and duty to own the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance as well as our Countreymen first subscribing thereunto for the motives in the said faithful Protestation and humble Remonstrance expressed and in imitation of our said Countreymen and to avoid all jealousies and misopinions which may be concieved of our selves and of our Religion and feareing least we may be thought to vary from the said first Subscribers in doctrine in Religion or Religious Tenets do sincerely and truly without Equivocation or mental reservation in the sight of God and in the presence of your Majesty Acknowledg and confess your Majesty to be our true and lawful King Supream Lord and rightful Soveraign of this Realm of Ireland and of all other your Majesties Dominions and therefore we acknowledg and confess our selves to be obliged under pain of sin to obey your Majesty in all civil and temporal affairs as much as any other of your Majesties Subjects and as the laws and Rules of Government in this Kingdom do require at our hands and that notwithstanding any power or pretention of the Pope or Sea of Rome or any sentence or Declaration of what kind or quality soever given or to be given by the Pope his Predecessours or Successours or by any authority spiritual or temporal proceeding or derived from him or his Sea against your Majesty or Royal Authority we will still acknowledge and perform to the utmost of our abilities our faithful loyalty and true Allegiance to your Majesty And we openly disclaim and renounce all forraign power be it either Papal or Princely spiritual or temporal or us much as is may seem able or shall pretend to free discharge or absolve us from this Obligation or shall any way give us leave or licence to raise tumults bear Arms or offer any violence to your Majesties Person Royal Authority or to the State or Government being all of us ready not only to discover and make known to your Majesty or to your Ministers all the Treasons made against your Majesty or them which shall come to our hearing but also to loose our lives in the defence of your Majesties Person and Royal Authority and to resist with our best endeavours all conspiracies and attempts against
is plain enough that if any pretend the Fathers of Agatha intended ought else it must consequently be granted this canon of theirs was not formed by them as of any matter in their opinion belonging to Catholick Faith or Laws of God or in their opinion also as much as enacted formerly in other parts by any civil or imperial or general institution or constitution made by the Christian Emperours of Rome or Constantinople but only formed by them that is by these Fathers of Agatha in pursuance and by virtue only of a local custom of Guien introduced by the command or connivence of the politick Magistrates of that little Kingdom or Countrey as regarding only the external politick administration direction or government of Churchmen which external politick government of the Church varies not seldom according to the variety of Times Kingdoms and Provinces And my reasons for saying so or for saying this to be plain enough are I. That at that very time it was otherwise by law and practice of the great Roman world or Empire in all other places generally being we know out of the imperial laws then in force and out of Ecclesiastical History that Clerks being summon'd to the civil Courts did generally in other Provinces both answer and appear without any reluctance or prohibition from Councils For this Council of Agatha was not held within the bounds at that time of the Roman Empire but under Alarick the Gothish King who at that time held Guien by hereditary and as formerly by concession too of Roman Emperours dismembred from the Empire and conferr'd on his Predecessors without any supremacy reserved to the Empire Which was the reason that in the beginning of the acts of this Council we find no mention at all of the Emperour but of the King Cum Dei nomine ex permissu Regis in Agathenscm civitatem sancta Synodus convenisset c. Ibique flexis genibus in terra pro regno ejus pro longaevitate populi Deum deprecaremur c. 2. That the above first part of this 32. canon of Agatha as likewise that whole one and twentieth canon of Tribur if construed to put a stop to Clergymen from following or acting in the forum of the lay Defendant is now at this time and hath been these many ages past abrogated by the common consent or custom of all people and nations Whereas the common law is now and hath been so long that a Clerk at difference with a Lay-man if he will be righted by law must commence his suit in the lay or civil Judicatory As we may see expresly declared to have been still the law cap. si Clericus 5. de Foro competenti where the Pope Alexander the Third hath thus decreed Si Clericus Laicum de rebus suis vel Ecclesiae impetierit Laicus res ipsas non Ecclesiae esse aut Clerici sed suas proprias asseverat debet de rigore juris ad forensem Iudicem trahi Cum Actor forum Rei sequi debeat licet in plerisque partibus aliter de consuetudine habeatur Therefore if these words or first part of the canon of Agatha Clericus nec quenquam praesumat apud secularem Iudicem episcopo non permittente pulsare are neither according to the common law ciuil or canonical of the christian world nor otherwise ever yet have been observed but out of custom only in so me or even many places as at that time of the Council of Agatha it was in Guien how can we esteem otherwise of the following words or second part of the same canon Sed si pulsatus fuerit non respondeat c. being there is no difference made in this canon it self Or who can affirm this second part was more firmly enacted by this Council or more generally observed by the Faithful Or otherwise then out of a civil custom and in pursuance and by virtue only of the supream civil power authority approbation permission or connivence in that Countrey And consequently who can rationally make it an argument of the exemption of Clergymen by the sole pure Episcopal Authority from as much as the subordinat civil Iudges Nay or an argument of their general exemption by the civil authority it self in other parts of the world at that time which was before Iustinians So little doth any part of this canon argue the exemption at any time of Clerks either in other parts of the world or in Guien it self from the supream civil Magistrate by any kind of authority imperial or Episcopal The fourth Council alledged for this exemption is that which they call Concilium primum Matisconense held in the year 576. as Barclay thinks or 581. as Spondanus or certainly 532. as the printed Acts. A Provincial Council it was of one and twenty Bishops Priscus Archbishop of Lyons presiding And as the Acts do shew called it was at the desire of King Guntheramnus who was one of the three brother Kings grand children to Clodoveus that devided France amongst themselves and left Orleance to him for his seat And all the Canons of it were in matter only of Discipline Amongst which the eight is in these words Ut nullus Clericus ad Judicem secularem quemcumque alium fratrem de clericis accusare aut ad causam dicendam trahere quocumqu loco praesumat sed omne negotium Clericorum aut in Episcopi sui aut in praesbyteri aut Archidiaconi praesentia finiatur And the fift and last Council alleadged in this matter by Cardinal Bellarmine l. 1. de cleric c. 28. ut supra is that which in order is the third of the Councils of Toledo and was held in Aera 627. being the year of our Lord Saviour Christ not 589. according to William Barclays computation but 593. according to Baronius and his continuator Spondanus Bishop of Apamia It is the 13. canon of those of Discipline or external reformation of the Clergie and people made in this Council which is pretended by the Cardinal as to his purpose And I confess this Council is of as great authority as an universal of all Spain and not of Spain alone but of the Bishops also of the Province of Narbon in France subject at that time to the Goths must be which therefore in Spain and as to Spain was stiled Concilium Vniversale having also had 70. Bishops that subscribed although not therefore a General Universal or Oecumenical Council simply such or at all such even for Discipline as to other Catholick Churches but in as much as received by them however several of its canons be inserted in Gratian this particularly whereof our present controversy is related 11. q. 1. cap. Inolita praesumptio And I confess too that Gratian hath truly related word by word this 13th canon as it is in the Council it self being this which I give here at length Inolita praesumptio usque adeo illicitis ausibus aditum patefecit ut Clerici Conclericos suos relicto
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
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
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
certainly whether any thing we give them works it nor whether some of them had not recovered as well though we had given them nothing at all Now these matters not being known to or at least not reflected on by vulgar understandings and the vulgar sort of people having never so much as once imagined them it happens by course that when a man is cryed up for a Holy Miraculous man if one of a Thousand nay if one of ten thousand poor diseased persons chance but to recover or amend after or at least immediately after his praying over him or her though all the rest be never the better yet that one persons recovery must be ascribed to the holy mans Miraculous gift and it must be withal want of Faith or other sanctifying dispositions in all others that were not cured and no want of power in the holy man was it that hindred their cure All which Father Finachty having by experience found to be true and the advantage to himself of so great a vulgar Errour to be considerable we must not wonder at his desire of rendezvousing still in large Fields and the vastest numbers he can of poor sickly people to environ him though we cannot but extreamly wonder at the confidence of his late offer to the Lord Lieutenant as we hear Thus he the said Sir William Petit. And so leaving me the foresaid book of Necromancy for a day or two to peruse it through at my leasure he and Mr. Southwel parted without so much as once saluting or bidding Good-morrow to or taking at all any further notice of Father Finachty though sitting still at the fire in the same room but in truth regarding them as little or at least seeming not to regard them nor be at all concern'd in them or their talk for he could not but hear every word This upon Sir William Petit was the last experiment I saw of that good Father's gift For as you shall now presently hear when matters came to an issue he would not stand to the grand Tryal however by himself proposed and mightily importun'd all along untill this very day And yet I declare in my Conscience That I would not of my own part not even that day nor even I mean after his aforesaid ineffectual attempt on Sir William entertain any fixed prejudice against him though I could not wholly banish or free my self of some unsetled imaginations But having fairly expected the last issue which I met with partly that very night and partly yea for what remained throughly and wholly next morning I had I must confess no further power to suspend my own inward even fixed and positive judgment Wherein nevertheless whether I had reason of my side may be judg'd by others considering what follows now to end this prolix account After these Gentlemen had departed I sent for the Guardian of the Franciscan Convent James Fitz-Symons to keep company at Dinner with Father Finachty in my own Chamber where I Treated him the most civilly I could till Evening Then I desired him to go with Father Fitz-Symons to Supper at the Franciscan Convent where he was both expected and much respected too Thither said I will I come to you about Supper-time and bring you my Lord Lieutenant's final resolution for His Grace promised me I should have it this very night without any further delay And in truth my Lord Lieutenant was as good as His promise For having at my relation of that mornings work smiled first then pleasantly said That sure Finachty was a mad man to go and practise on a Purblind man at last coming to be serious He told me those two Gentlemen both Physitians viz. Sir William Petit Knight and Dr. Abraham Yarner in whose place Mr. Southwel went had been sent of purpose by Him to give me notice of all things being ready for Father Finachty's publick Tryal of his miraculous gift even as himself desired to the end I might give him notice thereof and that he viz. Finachty should fix on the Chappel or place and give them notice of such place the next day or as soon as he pleased that they might bring their sick men with them and see the issue But when I answer'd That Finachty complained of his having been stayed too long even whole six Weeks and that now Winter being come and he too not perfectly well he was therefore desirous to be gone home to Connaught Nay then sayes my Lord he is certainly an Impostor if having put Vs to all this trouble he will now be gone without doing any thing or abiding that publick Test himself so earnestly desired I had nothing to reply but that His Grace should know further next morning And therefore having taken leave I went directly to the Convent Where finding Father Finachty at Supper with the Community who respected him very much I thought not fit to tell or mind him then of such matters which I feared might lessen his satisfaction in the Company or their Treat given him Yet I judg'd it not inconvenient to speak to him familiarly and by way only of divertisement something of the no less opposed than famed Remonstrance being the Company that entertain'd him then were all Remonstrants i. e. Subscribers of that controverted Formulary and being also that as I had been formerly told by some there was great use made amongst the common People of his vogue to cry down that Formulary and Ecclesiastical Subscribers thereof amongst whom the Franciscans lay under the greatest share of malicious detractions so I suspected this perhaps might prove to be the last opportunity I should have of speaking to him before Company of any such or other matter whatsoever For these Reasons I put him briefly the question Whether in all his either peregrinations or retirements he had heard of the Remonstrance And if so What himself thought thereof His answer was That he had often heard of it but had never seen it and therefore now desired a sight thereof After Supper when he and all the Fathers had withdrawn to another Room it was brought him and he read it leisurely and distinctly every Clause thereof in presence of all the Fathers approving each in particular and when he had done all to the end affirming that he wonder'd any man of understanding should condemn or oppose or deny the subscribing it Whereupon I only then and there told him I was very glad of his approbation thereof and satisfaction he found in it hoping he would thenceforth endeavour to disabuse others in a matter of that consequence But presently after taking leave there when I had him home to my own Lodgings for he had all day before design'd to lodge with me that night and accordingly did go and lodge with me and after some other little divertisement when we were together alone in my own Chamber he taking occasion to speak to me again of the Remonstrance and â—â—â—ther to please me or no I do not know both applauding it
with these Irish Bishops I never found any of them either to speak the truth or to perform their promise to me only the Bishop of Clogher excepted for during the little time he lived after his submission to the Peace and Commission received from me I cannot charge him No could I choose but be mightily troubled when I heard from His Graces own mouth and on that occasion and before another witness too such a character of so many Roman-Catholick Prelates even all the Archbishops and Bishops of the whole Nation being Five or six and twenty or thereabouts For I know there was no man alive had reason or the opportunities and occasions to know them better than he did no man that try'd them more to the quick even in the weightiest matters could be and I knew very much of their failings my self and was no less certain even by the experimental knowledge I my self likewise for so many years ever since 1648. had of His Graces veracity That he spoke his own inward Conscience in that testimony how general and pungent soever and therefore I concluded That surely he must have very much prejudice against a Religion or Church that was chiefly and generally throughout a whole Nation governed by such spiritual Guides And this Conclusion which I derived then presently was it that so much troubled me when I heard him speak that his testimony and withall observed not only his action or gesture viz. how at the same time he laid his hand on his breast but even his religious asseveration in these other words As I am a Christian premitted to the said either testimony or whatever else you please to call it whether Declaration Answer Observation or Complaint Of which action and asseveration I took indeed the more special notice then and now again do take here that I never observed him before or after on any occasion whatsoever to have averr'd or denied any thing in that manner i. e. either with any such laying of his hand on his breast or any such calling his Christianity to witness as neither in truth with any other kind of Oath As for the rest not only my trouble but my wonder for I did also wonder much those Irish Bishops generally could have been such men had been very much less even at that very time had I before seen his long and excellent Letter of all the Transactions 'twixt him and those Bishops but for two years only i. e. from the year 1648. to the 29th of October in 1650. written by Him as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from Kilcolgan the second of December 1650 to the last General Assembly of the Three Roman-Catholick Estates of that Nation which very Letter I do now for the reasons given in my Preface communicate to publick view in Print annexing it by way of Appendix to this present Work or First Tome in the end thereof But to leave this digression of my own thoughts or passions and return to the prosecution of what besides speaking of his remembrance of matters past the Lord Lieutenant gave me of His Commands upon the foresaid occasion of my relating how the Bishop of Ardagh had to the Fathers misreported His Grace's answer what I am now to tell is That His Grace even at that very time commanded me to go presently to the said Bishop of Ardagh and to the Bishop of Kilfinuragh the Chairman too and let them know from Him That He would speak to them both together before they left the Town For he took the said misreporting of His answer so much to heart That He was resolved not only to expostulate with them for that disingenuity but even to rebuke them for it in presence of half a dozen Noblemen and Gentlemen of their own communion to the end he might have Witnesses enough and such men too against whom those Bishops could take no exception and so dismiss them free to stay or go whithersoever they would And this and no other was the design of that Command given me as even himself declared then But Kilfinuragh it seems too conscious to himself all along for the design he drove and carried in the Congregation prevented this Message by shifting presently his Lodgings as soon as the House dissolved For so Father John Burk the Vicar-General Apostolick of Cashil another great Intriguer though in all things else dull enough told me just as I was in my way to find Kilfinuragh out as moreover he told me it was to no purpose for me to seek that Bishop because he was either by that time out of Town or would suddenly be and that in the mean time if he was not already gone he would not have the place of his retirement known Which being related to the Lord Lieutenant His Grace presently sends Mr. William Summers chief Clerk in Secretary Lane's Office to the Bishop of Ardaghs Lodgings at his brother Sir Nicholas Plunket's house and not to him only but to the Primate also where he lodged with an express Command to them both not to stir out of Town till further orders this Messenger being further directed That in case he found them not within he should leave that Command at their Lodging to be notified to them immediately on their return Which being accordingly received by them and their trouble thereat signified to me I went to see them both and quieted their trouble by letting them know what the occasion and end of it was that there was no further hurt intended them or either of them but that of a bare verbal expostulation that after such they should be as free to go where they pleased as before and that in the mean time there was no hardship in their restraint which allowed them the liberty of a great City and Suburbs and pleasant Fields on every side thereof Yet the Primate whether more conscious to himself for any late design than Ardagh I know not was so fearful to transgress That from that day he never once dared to walk abroad into the Fields lest it should be interpreted a breach of his duty or of that Command laid on him Within a few dayes the Lord Lieutenant parting for some weeks to Kilkenny before His departure sends for me and tells me He had somewhat more to say to the Primate than I knew yet And then commands Sir George Lane Knight His Grace's chief Secretary to lead me into His Closet and shew me that part of a certain Letter which concern'd the said Primate Reilly Sir George did so and therein shews and reads to me how the Earl of Sandwich Ambassador for the Crown of England in Spain had inform'd thence That as he passed through Gallicia to Madrid the Roman-Catholick Irish Bishop of Ferns inform'd him of Edmund Reilly the Roman-Catholick Archbishop and Primate of Ardmagh's being gone to Ireland from France and with a real purpose and out of meer design to raise the Irish again into Rebellion or at least to prepare for it by all
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
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
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